-1SCENE II. A street.

Enter , Hojo , and Servant
Higurashi
But Inushima is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Hojo
Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

Higurashi
But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Hojo
Younger than she are happy mothers made.

Higurashi
And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her, gentle Hojo, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,
And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which on more view, of many mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none,
Come, go with me.

To Servant, giving a paper

Go, sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Tokyo; find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say,
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

Exeunt Higurashi and Hojo

Servant
Find them out whose names are written here! It is
written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his
yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with
his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am
sent to find those persons whose names are here
writ, and can never find what names the writing
person hath here writ. I must to the learned.--In good time.

Enter Hiten and Inuyasha

Hiten
Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.

Inuyasha
Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.

Hiten
For what, I pray thee?

Inuyasha
For your broken shin.

Hiten
Why, Inuyasha, art thou mad?

Inuyasha
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is;
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whipp'd and tormented and--God-den, good fellow.

Servant
God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you read?

Inuyasha
Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

Servant
Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, I
pray, can you read any thing you see?

Inuyasha
Ay, if I know the letters and the language.

Servant
Ye say honestly: rest you merry!

Inuyasha
Stay, fellow; I can read.

Reads

'Matsuhito Totousai and his wife and daughters;
Smoker Taisa and his beauteous sisters and wife Hina; the lady
widow of Gol D Roger; Monkey D. Dragon and his lovely
nieces; Kouga and his brother Ginta; mine
uncle Higurashi, his wife and daughters; my fair niece
; Nojiko Aikutori; Hakudoshi and his cousin
Naraku, Shiori Fujiko and the lively Klaus Audenrolf.' A fair
assembly: whither should they come?

Servant
Up.

Inuyasha
Whither?

Servant
To supper; to our house.

Inuyasha
Whose house?

Servant
My master's.

Inuyasha
Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.

Servant
Now I'll tell you without asking: my master is the
great rich Higurashi; and if you be not of the house
of Inushimas, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.
Rest you merry!

Exit

Hiten
At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Kikyo whom thou so lovest,
With all the admired beauties of Tokyo:
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

Inuyasha
When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown'd could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.

Inuyasha
Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poised with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.

Inuyasha
I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

Exeunt