Obscurity.
Servants of Love, for so it fits you be,
Since he alone hath wrought your liberty,
His ceremonies now and courtly rites
Perform with care, and free resolved sprites.
To sullen darkness my dull steps reflect;
All covet that which Nature doth affect.
The Second Measure; which danc’d,
SONG TO TAKE OUT THE LADIES.
On, on, brave Knights, you have well showed
Each his due part in nimble dances:
These Beauties to whose hands are owed
Yours, wonder why
You spare to try.
Mark how inviting are their glances.
Such, such a charm, such faces, such a call,
Would make old Æson skip about the Hall.
See, see fair choice, a starry sphere
Might dim bright day: choose here at pleasure.
Please your own eye: approve you here,
Right gentle Knights:
To these soft wights
View, talk and touch, but all in measure.
Far far from hence be roughness, far a frown;
Your fair deportment this fair night shall crown.
After they have danced with the Ladies, and set them in their places, fall to their last Dance.
Enter Paradox, and to him his Disciples.
Silence, Lordings, Ladies, and fiddles! Let my tongue twang awhile. I have seen what hath been showed; and now give me leave to show what hath not been seen, for the honour of Athens. By virtue of this musical Whistle I will summon my disciples. See obedience: here they are all ready. Put forward, my paradoxical Pupils, methodically and arithmetically, one by one.
1. Behold this principal Artist that swift encounters me, whose head is honoured by his heels for dancing in a Chorus of a Tragedy presented at Athens, where he