The longest tyranny that ever sway'd
Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd
Their free-born reason to the Stagirite,
And made his torch their universal light.
...
Enter JANUS
JANUS
Chronos, Chronos, mend thy pace,
An hundred times the rolling sun
...
I.
A quire of bright beauties in spring did appear,
To choose a May-lady to govern the year;
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Air Iris I love, and hourly I die,
But not for a lip, nor a languishing eye:
She's fickle and false, and there we agree,
For I am as false and as fickle as she.
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In days of old, when Arthur filled the throne,
Whose acts and fame to foreign lands were blown,
The king of elves, and little fairy queen,
...
Our vows are heard betimes, and heaven takes care
To grant, before we can conclude the prayer;
Preventing angels met it half the way,
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He, who could view the book of destiny,
And read whatever there was writ of thee,
O charming youth, in the first opening page,
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Why should a foolish marriage vow,
Which long ago was made,
Oblige us to each other now,
When passion is decayed?
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In pious times, e'er Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a sin;
When man, on many, multiply'd his kind,
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When lawless men their neighbours dispossess,
The tenants they extirpate or oppress,
And make rude havoc in the fruitful soil,
...