Jasp. ’Tis very well.

Ped. Not too well neither.

Jasp. You may laugh; you stand on the top of Favour, Have a care of falling down, I may catch you One day.

Ped. No, never with an Old Woman; it’s worse then Committing Incest; to Cuckold, for ought I know, a dozen Generations.

Jasp. Rest you merry, I can leave you.

Ped. But I’le not quit you so.

    [Exeunt.

  Enter Antonio_ and Gerardo Discoursing._

Ger. In this dear Friend, consists my happiness; Therefore deny me not—­Why pause you, Sir?  My fears are come about—­

Anto. What, hath Eugenia given her consent?

Ger. I say not so, my Lord, but her denyals Were spoke so faintly, I Interpret well.

Anto. Dear Friend, I am afraid you do mistake
The Object of your Joyes, let me perswade
You to believe, there’s not that happiness
In Marriage-Beds, as single People guess,
No, no, so far from that, that thousands be
Flatter’d by hopes to endless misery. 
And where there’s two obtain their hearts desire,
Ten thousand miss it, and in grief expire.

Ger. Were these Positions true, there’s no man, sure,
If Widdowed once, could other Wives endure. 
And yet we see the first depriv’d of Life,
There’s few that seek not for a second Wife.

Anto. ’Tis true, though strange, but yet our minds are such,
As alwayes find too little, or too much;
Desire’s a Monster, whose extended Maw
Is never fill’d, tho’ it doth all things draw: 
For we with envious Eyes do others see,
Who want our ills, and think they happy be,
Till we possessing what we wish’d before,
Find our ills doubl’d, and so wish for more.

Ger. Suppose all true which you wou’d have me fear,
Ills in possession still the greatest are: 
And my desires to such a height do rise,
T’ attain their ends, I shou’d all else despise.

Anto. Since y’are resolv’d, I’le not your ends deny,
But pray my words prove false when e’re you try;
Though well they speak, who say the damned State,
Chiefly consists in wishing things too late: 
Eugenia’s Father left her to my care,
Which trust to end so well I did despair: 
Then name the day of Marriage—­

Ger. No delay My thoughts admit; I wish it were to day.

Anto. That cannot be, to Morrow I approve.

Ger. Time will flye slow, though Impt with wings of Love.

  Enter Caelia_ and Eugenia._

Cael. My Lord, I beg your pardon for a short interruption.

Ger. Madam, ’tis I have cause to beg your pardon, Thus to detain your Lord, on’s Wedding-day, A Day in Justice should be wholly yours.

Cael. My Lord is happy so to be detain’d And I am alwayes happy when he’s so.  But good, my Lord, your Ear—­