[Aside.
Plan. To be a whore is more unknown to her,
Than what is done in the Antipodes;
She is so pure she cannot think a sin,
Nor ever heard the name to understand it.
King. No doubt, these private meetings were to read
Her moral lectures, and teach her chastity!
Plan. Nay, give me leave, sir. I do not say
My addresses have been all so virtuous;
For whatsoever base desires a flaming
Beauty could kindle in a heart, were all alive
In me, and prompted me to seek some ease
By quenching burnings hotter than Ætna.
Imagine but a man that had drunk mercury,
And had a fire within his bones,
Whose blood was hotter than the melted ore!
If he should wish for drink, nay, steal it too,
Could you condemn him?
Eph. Marri'd, do they say?
[Aside.
Plan. I did endure a heat seas could not cool;
It would have kill'd a salamander.
Then, taught both impudence and wit,
I singled out my foe, us'd all the arts
That love could think upon, and in the end
Found a most absolute repulse.
King. Well, Plangus, youth excuses the first fault;
But a relapse exceeds all pardon.
[Exeunt King and Plangus.