Poppea royally attended, and passe over the Stage in State.
Anto. Great Queene[2], whom Nature made to be her glory,
Fortune got eies and came to be thy servant,
Honour is proud to be thy tytle; though
Thy beauties doe draw up my soule, yet still
So bright, so glorious is thy Maiestie
That it beates downe againe my clyming thoughts.
Petron. Why, true;
And other of thy blindnesses thou seest[?]
Such one to love thou dar'st not speake unto.
Give me a wench that will be easily had
Not woed with cost, and being sent for comes:
And when I have her foulded in mine armes
Then Cleopatra she, or Lucres is;
Ile give her any title.
Anto. Yet not so much her greatnesse and estate My hopes disharten as her chastitie.
Petron. Chastitie! foole! a word not knowne in Courts.
Well may it lodge in meane and countrey homes
Where povertie and labour keepes them downe,
Short sleepes and hands made hard with Thuscan Woll,
But never comes to great mens Pallaces
Where ease and riches stirring thoughts beget,
Provoking meates and surfet wines inflame;
Where all there setting forth's but to be wooed,
And wooed they would not be but to be wonne.
Will one man serve Poppea? nay, thou shalt
Make her as soone contented with an [one?] eye.
Nimphidius to them.
Nimph. Whil'st Nero in the streetes his Pageants shewes
I to his fair wives chambers sent for am.
You gracious Starres that smiled on my birth,
And thou bright Starre more powerful then them all,
Whose favouring smiles have made me what I am,
Thou shalt my God, my Fate and fortune be.
[Ex. Nimph.
Anto. How sausely yon fellow Enters the Empresse Chamber.
Petron. I, and her too, Antonius, knowest thou him?
Anto. What? knowe the only favorite of the Court? Indeed, not many dayes ago thou mightest Have not unlawfully askt that question.