Pro. Chilax,
You are a stranger yet in these designs,
At least in Rome; tell me, and tell me truth,
Did you ere know in all your course of practice,
In all the wayes of Women you have run through
(For I presume you have been brought up Chilax,
As we to fetch and carry.)
Chi. True I have so.
Pro. Did you I say again in all this progress,
Ever discover such a piece of beauty,
Ever so rare a Creature, and no doubt
One that must know her worth too, and affect it,
I and be flatter'd, else 'tis none: and honest?
Honest against the tide of all temptations,
Honest to one man, to her Husband only,
And yet not eighteen, not of age to know
Why she is honest?
Chi. I confess it freely,
I never saw her fellow, nor e're shall,
For all our Grecian Dames, all I have tri'd,
(And sure I have tri'd a hundred, if I say two
I speak within my compass) all these beauties,
And all the constancy of all these faces,
Maids, Widows, Wives, of what degree or calling,
So they be Greeks, and fat, for there's my cunning,
I would undertake and not sweat for't, Proculus,
Were they to try again, say twice as many,
Under a thousand pound, to lay 'em bedrid;
But this Wench staggers me.
Lyc. Do you see these Jewels?
You would think these pretty baits; now I'le assure ye
Here's half the wealth of Asia.
Bal. These are nothing
To the full honours I propounded to her;
I bid her think, and be, and presently
What ever her ambition, what the Counsel
Of others would add to her, what her dreams
Could more enlarge, what any President
Of any Woman rising up to glory,
And standing certain there, and in the highest,
Could give her more, nay to be Empress.
Pro. And cold at all these offers?
Bal. Cold as Crystal,
Never to be thaw'd again.
Chi. I tri'd her further,
And so far, that I think she is no Woman,
At least as Women go now.
Lyc. Why what did you?