The Magnetick Lady. Act 1. Scene 4.

Polish, Lady, Palate, Rut.

Pal. Your Ladiship is still like Lady Loadstone,
That draws, and draws unto you, Guests of all sorts;
The Courtiers, and the Soldiers, and the Scholars,
The Travellers, Pysicians, and Divines,
As Doctor Ridleyu writ, and Doctor Barlow.
They both have wrote of you, and Mr. Compass.

Lad. We mean, they shall write more, ere it be long.

Pol. Alas, they are both dead, and't please you; but
Your Ladiship means well, and shall mean well,
So long as I live. How does your fine Niece?
My charge, Mistris Placentia Steel?

Lad. She is not well.

Pol. Not well?

Lad. Her Doctor says so.

Rut. Not very well; she cannot shoot at Buts,
Or manage a great Horse, but she can cranch
A sack of Small-coal! eat your Lime, and Hair,
Soap-ashes, Loam, and has a dainty spice
O' the Green-sickness!

Pol. 'Od shield!

Rut. Or the Dropsie!
A toy, a thing of nothing. But my Lady, here,
Her noble Aunt.

Pol. She is a noble Aunt!
And a right worshipful Lady, and a vertuous;
I know it well!

Rut. Well, if you know it, peace.

Pal. Good Sister Polish, hear your betters speak.

Pol. Sir I will speak, with my good ladies leave,
And speak, and speak again; I did bring up
My ladies Niece, Mrs. Placentia Steel,
With my own Daughter (who's Placentia too)
And waits upon my Lady, is her Woman:
Her Ladiship well knows Mrs.Placentia
Steel (as I said) her curious Niece, was left
A Legacy to me, by Father and Mother,
With the Nurse, Keep, that tended her: her Mother
She died in Child-bed of her, and her Father
Liv'd not long after: for he lov'd her Mother!
They were a godly couple! yet both di'd,
(As we must all.) No Creature is immortal,
I have heard our Pastor say: no, not the faithful!
And they did die(as I said) both in one month,

Rut. Sure she is not long liv'd, if she spends Breath thus.

Pol. And did bequeath her, to my care, and hand,
To polish, and bring up. I moulded her,
And fashion'd her, and form'd her; she had the sweat
Both of my Brows and Brains. My Lady knows it
Since she could write a quarter old.

Lad. I know not
That she could write so early, my good Gossip.
But I do know she was so long your care,
Till she was twelve year old; that I call'd for her,
And took her home, for which I thank you Polish,
And am beholden to you.

Rut. I sure thought
She had a Lease of talking, for nine lives --

Pal. It may be she has.

Pol. Sir, sixteen thousand Pound
Was then her Portion! for she was, indeed,
Their only Child! and this was to be paid
Upon her Marriage, so she married still
With my good Ladies liking here, her Aunt:
(I heard the Will read) Mr. Steel, her Father,
The World condemn'd him to be very rich,
And very hard; and he did stand condemn'd
With that vain World, till, As 'twas prov'd, after
He left almost as much more to good uses
In Sir Moath Interest's hands, my Ladies Brother,
Whose Sister he had married: he holds all
In his close gripe. But Mr. Steel was liberal,
And a fine Man; and she a dainty Dame,
And a religious, and a bountiful --