Cand. Those who, like you, have once in courts been great,
May think they wish, but wish not, to retreat.
They seldom go, but when they cannot stay;
As losing gamesters throw the dice away.
Even in that cell, where you repose would find,
Visions of court will haunt your restless mind;
And glorious dreams stand ready to restore
The pleasing shapes of all you had before.
Phil. He, who with your possession once is blest,
On easy terms will part with all the rest.
All my ambition will in you be crowned;
And those white arms shall all my wishes bound.
Our life shall be but one long nuptial day,
And, like chafed odours, melt in sweets away;
Soft as the night our minutes shall be worn,
And chearful as the birds, that wake the morn.
Cand. Thus hope misleads itself in pleasant way,
And takes more joys on trust, than love can pay:
But, love with long possession once decayed,
That face, which now you court, you will upbraid.
Phil. False lovers broach these tenets, to remove The fault from them, by placing it on love.
Cand. Yet grant, in youth you keep alive your fire,
Old age will come, and then it must expire:
Youth but a while does at love's temple stay,
As some fair inn, to lodge it on the way.
Phil. Your doubts are kind; but, to be satisfied I can be true, I beg I may be tried.
Cand. Trials of love too dear the making cost; For if successless, the whole venture's lost. What you propose, brings wants and care along.
Phil. Love can bear both.
Cand. But is your love so strong?
Phil. They do not want, who wish not to have more; Who ever said an anchoret was poor?