ACT I.
SCENE I. A Chamber.
Enter Elaria and Mopsophil.
I.
A Curse upon that faithless Maid,
Who first her Sex’s Liberty betray’d;
Born free as Man to Love and Range,
Till nobler Nature did to Custom change,
Custom, that dull excuse for Fools,
Who think all Virtue to consist in Rules.
II.
From Love our Fetters never sprung;
That smiling God, all wanton, gay and young,
Shows by his Wings he cannot be
Confined to a restless Slavery;
But here and there at random roves,
Not fix’d to glittering Courts, or shady Groves.
III.
Then she that Constancy profess’d
Was but a well Dissembler at the best;
And that imaginary Sway
She feign’d to give, in seeming to obey,
Was but the height of prudent Art,
To deal with greater liberty her Heart.
[After the Song Elaria gives her Lute to Mopsophil.