Clar. The house and Master of it really
Are ever at your service.
Lisa. I return it:
Now if you please go forward in your storie
Of your dear friend and Mistris.
Clar. I will tell it,
And tell it short, because 'tis breakfast time,
(And love is a tedious thing to a quick stomach)
You eat not yester-night.
Lisa. I shall endure Sir.
Clara. My self (and as I then deliver'd to you)
A Gentleman of noble hope, one Lidian,
Both brought up from our infancy together,
One company, one friendship, and one exercise
Ever affecting, one bed holding us,
One grief, and one joy parted still between us,
More than companions, twins in all our actions,
We grew up till we were men, held one heart still:
Time call'd us on to Arms, we were one Souldier,
Alike we sought our dangers and our honours,
Gloried alike one in anothers nobleness:
When Arms had made us fit, we were one lover,
We lov'd one woman, lov'd without division,
And woo'd a long time with one fair affection;
And she, as it appears, loves us alike too.
At length considering what our love must grow to,
And covet in the end, this one was parted,
Rivals and honours make men stand at distance.
We then woo'd with advantage, but were friends still,
Saluted fairly, kept the peace of love,
We could not both enjoy the Ladies favour,
Without some scandal to her reputation,
We put it to her choice, this was her sentence,
To part both from her, and the last returning
Should be her Lord; we obey'd, and now you know it;
And for my part, (so truely I am touch'd with't)
I will go far enough, and be the last too,
Or ne're return.
Lisa. A sentence of much cruelty;
But mild, compar'd with what's pronounc'd on me.
Our loving youth is born to many miseries.
What is that Lidian pray ye?
Clar. Calista's Brother, if ever you have heard of that fair Lady.
Lisa. I have seen her Sir.
Clar. Then you have seen a wonder.
Lisa. I do confess: of what years is this Lidian?