VIR. Then will I take a cheerful mind,
Unpleasant thoughts expel,
And cares for man commit to them,
That in the heavens do dwell.
EQ. Do so, dear madam, I beseech you most heartily,
And recreate yourself, before you go hence, with some sweet melody.
_The Song.
If pleasure be the only thing,
That man doth seek so much:
Chief pleasures rest, where virtue rules:
No pleasure[s] can be such.
Though Virtue's ways be very strait,
Her rocks be hard to climb:
Yet such as do aspire thereto,
Enjoy all joys in time.
Plain is the passage unto vice,
The gaps lie wide to ill:
To them that wade through lewdness' lake
The ice is broken still.
This therefore is the difference,
The passage first seems hard
To Virtue's train; but then most sweet
At length is their reward.
To those again, that follow vice,
The way is fair and plain;
But fading pleasures in the end
Are bought with lasting[414] pain.
If pleasure be the only thing, &c_.
SCENE IV.
_Enter_ VIRTUE, EQUITY, LIBERALITY, MONEY, _and the_ SHERIFF.
VIR. Now, my lords, I see no cause but that depart we may.
EQ.
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