+Phil.+ And think how weary I should be Of thee, Mirida, when once we were Chain'd together: the very name of Wife would be a vomit to me: then Nothing but, _where's my wife? call My wife to dinner, call my wife to supper_; And then at night, _come, wife, will you Go to bed_?
+Mir.+ Ay, and that would be so troublesome To be call'd by one's husband every night To go to bed. O, that dull, dull Name of husband!
+Duke.+ Indeed you two are well met, The world has not two more such, I am confident.
+Phil.+ No, sir, if you please, never propose Marrying to us, till both of us have Committed such faults as are death By the law; then instead of Hanging us, marry us.
+Mir.+ And then you shall hear how Earnestly we shall petition your Highness to be hang'd rather than Married.
+Duke.+ No man can judge which is the Wildest of these two. Now, brave Arbatus, in all my dukedom There is but one gift worthy thy Receiving, and that's my sister; Here, sir, take her as freely as heaven Gave her me.
+Duke.+ Or not myself, Arbatus. This day Hymen shall light his torch for all.
+Phil.+ With your pardon, sir, not for me And my female?
+Mir.+ No, faith, I'll blow it out, If he does.
+Art.+ Sir, though in my own desires I should have chose the man that you have given me, Yet I beg we may not marry yet; we have Call'd brother and sister so long, that yet We needs must think we are so still.
+Arb.+ Pray, madam, Let's think so as little a while as we can, That fancy may not keep my joy in prison.
+Duke.+ Let's to the temple now, and there thank Heaven for these unexpected joys. Each day the gods shall lend me in this life, I'll thank them for a sister and a wife. [_Exeunt._
[76] [See Thoms' "Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839, p. 95.]
_Historia Histrionica. An Historical Account of the English-Stage; showing the Ancient Uses, Improvement, and Perfection of Dramatic Representations, in this Nation. In a Dialogue, of Plays and Players._--Olim meminisse juvabit. _London. Printed by G. Croom, for William Haws, at the Rose in Ludgate-Street._ 1699. 8º.
This tract is said to have been the production of James Wright of New Inn, afterwards of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, who was the son of Abraham Wright, a well-known miscellaneous writer (1645-70). The former was the author of "The Antiquities of Rutlandshire," and some poems; particularly (1) "An Essay on the Present Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral." To which is annexed, "The Misfortunes of St Paul's Cathedral," in heroic verse, 4º. 1668; reprinted with two other poems under the title of (2) "Three poems of St Paul's Cathedral; viz., The Ruins, The Rebuilding, The Choire,[77] Fo. 1697," and (3) "Phœnix Paulina, a Poem on St Paul's Cathedral, 4º. 1709."[78] He was alive in 1710, being mentioned by Mr Hearne in his preface to Leland's "Itinerary," in this manner; "I could have supply'd more Lacunæ, and in all likelyhood have render'd this performance more perfect, if I had had the use of a very good transcript of Mr Leland's 'Itinerary,' taken about the time of Queen Elizabeth (before the originals took wet, as is suppos'd) and was formerly in possession of James Wright, of the Middle Temple, Esq., the worthy author of the 'Antiquities of Rutlandshire;' but this, with a multitude of other valuable curiosities, was unhappily burned in the fire at the Middle Temple, in the year 1698, as Mr Wright has been pleased to inform me." Anthony Wood says, he wrote an elegy on the death of Mr John Goad, Master of Merchant Taylor's School, who died 1689. (See Wood's "Athenæ," vol. i. p. 839.)