Pala. Yet, hitherto, methinks, you are no very unhappy man.

Rho. With all this, she’s the greatest gossip in nature; for, besides the court, she’s the most eternal visitor of the town; and yet manages her time so well, that she seems ubiquitary.  For my part, I can compare her to nothing but the sun; for, like him, she takes no rest, nor ever sets in one place, but to rise in another.

Pala. I confess, she had need be handsome, with these qualities.

Rho. No lady can be so curious of a new fashion, as she is of a new French word:  she’s the very mint of the nation; and as fast as any bullion comes out of France, coins it immediately into our language.

Pala. And her name is—­

Rho. No naming; that’s not like a cavalier:  Find her, if you can, by my description; and I am not so ill a painter that I need write the name beneath the picture.

Pala. Well, then, how far have you proceeded in your love?

Rho. ’Tis yet in the bud, and what fruit it may bear I cannot tell; for this insufferable humour, of haunting the court, is so predominant, that she has hitherto broken all her assignations with me, for fear of missing her visits there.

Pala. That’s the hardest part of your adventure.  But, for aught I see, fortune has used us both alike:  I have a strange kind of mistress too in court, besides her I am to marry.

Rho. You have made haste to be in love, then; for, if I am not mistaken, you are but this day arrived.

Pala. That’s all one:  I have seen the lady already, who has charmed me; seen her in these walks, courted her, and received, for the first time, an answer that does not put me into despair.

  To them ARGALEON, AMALTHEA, and ARTEMIS.

I’ll tell you more at leisure my adventures.  The walks fill apace, I see.  Stay, is not that the young lord Argaleon, the king’s favourite?

Rho. Yes, and as proud as ever, as ambitious, and as revengeful.

Pala. How keeps he the king’s favour with these qualities?

Rho. Argaleon’s father helped him to the crown:  besides, he gilds over all his vices to the king, and, standing in the dark to him, sees all his inclinations, interests, and humours, which he so times and soothes, that, in effect, he reigns.

Pala. His sister Amalthea, who, I guess, stands by him, seems not to be of his temper.

Rho. O, she’s all goodness and generosity.

Arga. Rhodophil, the king expects you earnestly.

Rho. ’Tis done, my lord, what he commanded:  I only waited his return from hunting.  Shall I attend your lordship to him?

Arga. No; I go first another way. [Exit hastily.

Pala. He seems in haste, and discomposed.