ACT FIRST.

SCENE FIRST.

Daphne. Silvia.

Daph. WILL you then, Silvia,
Keep your youth away
From the pleasures of Venus?
Will you never hear the sweet name of mother,
Nor see around you playfully
Gamboling little children? Ah, change,
Change your counsel, I pray,
You foolish little thing.
Sil. Let others pursue the delights of love,
If indeed there is any delight in love:
This life pleases me, and my pastime
Is the care of the bow and the arrows,
To follow the fleeing wild beasts, and the strong
To fell in combat: and, if there are no arrows
Missing from the Quiver, or beasts in the woods,
I do not fear that I shall lack pastimes.
Daph. Truly insipid pastimes,
And an insipid life: and, if it pleases you,
It is only because you have not tried the other.
Thus the first people, who once lived
In the world while it was still simple and infant,
Deemed sweet the drink, and sweet the food