There
should not a nymph, or a widow, be got with child in the verge, but
I would guess, within one or two, who was the right father, and in
what month it was gotten; with what words, and which way. I would
tell you which madam loved a monsieur, which a player, which a
page; who slept with her husband, who with her friend, who with her
gentleman-usher, who with her horse-keeper, who with her monkey,
and who with all; yes, and who jigg'd the cock too.
PHA. Fie, you'd tell all, Moria! If I should wish now, it should
be to have your tongue out. But what says Philautia? Who should
she be?
PHI. Troth, the very same I am. Only I would wish myself a little
more command and sovereignty; that all the court were subject to my
absolute beck, and all things in it depending on my look; as if
there were no other heaven but in my smile, nor other hell but in
my frown; that I might send for any man I list, and have his head
cut off when I have done with him, or made an eunuch if he denied
me; and if I saw a better face than mine own, I might have my
doctor to poison it. What would you wish, Phantaste?
PHA. Faith, I cannot readily tell you what: but methinks I should
wish myself all manner of creatures. Now I would be an empress,
and by and by a duchess; then a great lady of state, then one of
your miscellany madams, then a waiting-woman, then your citizen's
wife, then a coarse country gentlewoman, then a dairy-maid, then a
shepherd's lass, then an empress again, or the queen of fairies:
and thus I would prove the vicissitudes and whirl of pleasures
about and again.
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