[Exeunt.
Prologue.
Pleasure attend
ye, and about ye sit
The springs of
mirth, fancy, delight and wit
To stir you up,
do not your looks let fall,
Nor to remembrance
our late errors call,
Because this day
w’ are Spaniards all again,
The story of our
Play, and our Scene Spain:
The errors too,
do not for this cause hate,
Now we present
their wit and not their state.
Nor Ladies be
not angry if you see,
A young fresh
beauty, wanton and too free,
Seek to abuse
her Husband, still ’tis Spain,
No such gross
errors in your Kingdom raign,
W’ are Vesrals
all, and though we blow the fire,
We seldom make
it flame up to desire,
Take no example
neither to begin,
For some by precedent
delight to sin:
Nor blame the
Poet if he slip aside
Sometimes lasciviously
if not too wide.
But hold your
Fanns close, and then smile at ease,
A cruel Scene
did never Lady please.
Nor Gentlemen,
pray be not you displeased,
235] Though we present some men fool’d, some
diseased,
Some drunk, some
mad: we mean not you, you’re free,
We taxe no farther
than our Comedie,
You are our friends,
sit noble then and see.
Epilogue.
Good night our
worthy friends, and may you part
Each with as merry
and as free a heart
As you came hither;
to those noble eyes
That deign to
smile on our poor faculties,
And give a blessing
to our labouring ends,
As we hope many,
to such fortune sends
Their own desires,
wives fair as light as chast;
To those that
live by spight Wives made in hast.
459] APPENDIX
RULE A WIFE, AND HAVE A WIFE.
The Dramatis Personae are not given in the quarto of 1640 nor in the 2nd folio. They are as follows:—Duke of Medina. Juan de Castro, Sanchio, Alonzo, Michael Perez, Officers. Leon, Altea’s brother. Cacafogo, a usurer. Lorenzo. Coachman, etc. Margarita. Altea. Estifania. Clara. Three old ladies. Old woman. Maids, etc.
Unless where otherwise stated the following variations are from the quarto of 1640, the title-page of which runs thus:—
Rule a Wife And have a Wife. A Comoedy. Acted by his Majesties Servants. Written by John Fletcher Gent. Oxford, Printed by Leonard Lichfield Printer to the University. Anno 1640.
p. 170,
l.
30. mouth.
p. 171,
l.
14. most subtlest.
l. 18. With yee.
l. 19. them.
l. 38. and often elsewhere] um for ’em.
p. 172,
l.
2. the picke.
p. 173,
l.
22. thank ye.