and that I was onely heire to the Dukedome to the end that I might be carefully brought up and well looked unto he caused me to be brought to the Court where I waighted on the Quéen who made as great account of me as if I had been her daughter And to the end that I might perceive the love and affection she and her husband the King did bear me I was honoured with the title of a Duchesse and disposer of all my fathers signiores and Lordships yea of the Dukedom also at mine own pleasure neither did the King withhold from me any part of the revenues thereof so that I lived in as great joy as any mortal maid might for I wanted nothing that I was able to think of I was loved and favoured both of the King and Quâ—en and therefore honoured of all the country But alack this my felicity was too great to be perpetuall and I was seated too high to escape the stormy blasts of adversity The tall Oaks are shaken with the winds and the climing stéeples rent with the thunder clap where the low brambles féel not the fury of the wind nor the base cottage the force of the storm The tops of high mountains are chopped through Apollos heat where the low plains and green medows are beautified with flowers and being cherished with Phoebus rays produce swâ—et hearbs and yeeld food to the shepheards flocks And so poor Brisilla lifted up to high estate triumphing in Court and glorying in her happinesse is brought in this most miserable torment whereas many simple maids and countrey wenches injoy sweet content and passe their lives in supream pleasure You shall therefore understand loving shepheards that I being 15 years of age or thereabout the young prince was sent for by the King from the Vniversity for the Qeen had purposed to marry me unto him Who being about eight or ten moneths younger then my self was thought too young to be married so soon but the Queen fearing least some one or other for there was many noble mens sons of great houses and high descent in the Court should win my heart and love used the matter so that few or none could have my company but her son whom she wished to be matched with none but my self And in truth by reason of our daily conversation at length grew such familiarity and acquaintance between Periander and me that love creeping into our hearts united us together and of two bodies made but one heart one will one desire one pleasure and one mind Insomuch that the Queen yea and all the Court began to perceive the affection that we did bear one to another Suppose shepheards what a pleasure it was both to the King his wife and most of all the noblemen of the realm yea generally to all men in the country to see such likelihood of a marriage which they so earnestly wished and greedily desired And dy that time that Periander had reached to the age of eighteen years the King fearing least delay might breed danger and my affection to chaÌ„ge or his sons mind alter called us both into his chamber and in presence of the Queen his wife spake unto us after this manner intending to try our constancy Marvell not my son Periander nor you young Duches that I have sent for you hither for I will not keep close the cause thereof Know therefore that my pleasure is that you Periander love not Lady Brisil any longer have I sent for you from the Vniversity to court your mothers maids Did I cal you to the Court to learn how to play Mars in the field and do you take upon you so young to serve Venus in the chamber you are but a boy yet Periander and therefore unfit for love And you Lady Brisill have we shewed you such friendly entertainment in the Court and honored you with such an high estate to allure our son to fancy you where I purposed to marry him to the King of Portugals eldest daughter heir apparent to the crown of Portugal thy father the deceased Duke was a man of great desert but his daughter not so worthy as to become a Queen Be contented with the title of a Duchess Lady Brisil and reach not so high a bough as a crown for thou mayest both misse of thy purpose and incur danger to lose their favour in whom consisteth your welfare Therefore I exhort you both to leave these familiar meetings these lovely Salves which you give one to another in the morning curteous good nights you bid one another in the evening also those pleasant smiles passionate looks and continual winks wherewith you favour one an other will I have you not to use any longer And to be short I forbid you to use company one with the other any more Periander hearing his father concluded so peremptory against his bliss answered Then father my Lord and Soveraign if it please your Majesty to seperate me from the conversation of Duches Brisil I beseech you to give me leave to separate my self from the company of all men and with that he drew his dagger and would have wounded his loving heart with the sharp point thereof had not his Mother the Quéen hindred his intent holding his arme As for me I was so perplexed both at the Kings words and his rashness that I fell on the ground in such manner that the king himself thinking that I had been dead ran from his chair of estate and lifted me from the ground calling Lady Brisil speak speak Lady Brisil young Queen of Albion speak but one word But I lay in that extasie a good hour All which time the King the Queen and all that were present but especially Periander were so grieved that none of them could abstain from wéeping The King called the Quéen hallowed in mine eares with a lamentable voyce and Periander almost breathless being choaked with excéeding sorrow which he conceived could neither call nor cry At length with much ado I came to my self and stood upright to the joy of all those that had heard of my mischance Whereupon the King told us that he had used his formor words but to learne whether our love was firm intending if I liked of Periander and Periander of me as of man and wife to marry us together To be short before we departed from the King he sent for some of the chiefest Noblemen and in their presence Periander made promise never to marry other woman then my self and in like manner affirmed that I was content to have him to my husband and would die rather then be married to any other So that our marriage was presently concluded and the wedding to be a month after CHAP. XIV How Massicourt betrayed the Prince Periander and sold him to the Moores for a Gally-slave and the sorrow that was made for his absence IMagine loving Shepheards what joy there was through the country when it was reported that the young Prince and
no traitor known till clad in clay This Gibbet here was set it to bewray For the King was terribly enraged when he had heard this strange kind of treason which was the cause that now he loved her whom he had wedded to his son and hated him whom he was by Nature bound to love For lest Periander should return into Albion and marry with me whom he would have to be his wife the King forgetting both the law of Nature and Honesty wrote unto the King of Spain that his Son Periander was guilty of treason against his own person being his Father and therefore desired him upon all friendship and the alliance that had a long time béen between the Kingdomes of Spain and Albion to keep his son close prisoner and to let him be used as hardly as any of all the other Captives which were in his Kingdome or Domions When I had heard what answer the King had returned by the Embassadors of Spain my heart was ready to burst And I was minded divers times to dispatch my self with one of my garters thinking that by my death I should deliver Periander from imprisonment and move the Kings mind to use his son as he ought to do But I know not how I was always so falsly allured with hope that I continually abstained from shortening my life and thereby prolonged my misery You shall therefore understand that I got one of the Embassadors Pages to carry a Letter from me unto Periander and to deliver it secretly into his own hands which the youth promised that he would accomplish though it should cost him his life and to reward his readinesse and to make him the willinger and carefuller to discharge his duty I gave him twentie crowns to drink The Letter was written to this effect Brisilla to the Prince Periander SWeet Periander the joy which poor Brisil conceived when she heard of her Periander was too great to be of long continuance and even as the herb that groweth and fadeth in one hour so the mirth that possessed my soul was in a moment expelled and banished You accused the Pylot Barsalis but you might rather have cursed the traytor Massicourt as the chief cause and first beginning of all our sorrows for the furious love hypocriticaf friendship and malitious policie of that unhappie Knight hath wrought first his own ruine and therewith our adversitie How miserable and unhappy art thou Periander that thy own natural father hateth thee How unfortunate that thy parent conspireth against thee And how unluckie that he who ought to be thy chief friend is become thy enemy Nay rather how wretched is distressed Brisil that unhappie Periander must be thus miserable unfortunate and unluckie for her sake Ah Periander could my captivity set thee at liberty how pleasantly and how willingly should the world see me run to the Prison and yeeld my leg to the Stocks or Iron Gyves Nay might the dearest bloud that succoureth my faithful heart purchase thy ransome from imprisonment and obtain thee thy souls desire how soon should my breast offer it self to my knife to be set a broach and to have a passage made into the inmost part thereof But no the Gods and fortune envy at me too greatly to suffer me to injoy so great happinesse If no man can or dare tel you the cause of your fathers suddain wrath against you know that I have found means to rid you of that doubt and to let you understand that accursed Brisil is the occasion thereof though she had rather die then live to see thee wronged The King thy father will be married to Brisil and therefore must Periander be banished which is more imprisoned among strangers far from home But assure thy self Periander that I will rather die then undo that which is knitted with my faith and bound with my honor If you can patiently endure your imprisonment perswade your self that I will couragiously abide my martyrdome Which for that as it cannot but be the crown of mine honour so also is like to be the cause of my releasement I wish that it may happen with all speed That Brisil being lifeless and forgotten Periander may be reconciled to his father return to his country and injoy his pleasure untill the decease of the King then to be crowned with the glorious title of King of Albion And thus faithfull Brisil biddeth thee farewell lamenting nothing so much as that she was not in the galley by you to row for you and bear all the travel that you by reason of her were constrained to suffer among them unnaturall Moors and galley slaves Adieu Thine and therefore thy self miserable Brisilla This Letter I had no sooner delivered to the Page but Embassadours departed from the Court having taken their leave of the King and embarked themselves the next day after to return into Spain When they were gone the King sent for me and asked me whether I was not yet resolved to love him séeing he hated his own son for love of me Whereunto I answered that if his Majesty loved me indéed he would likewise love his son séeing that I loved none but his son nor could not love any other as long as I lived But to be short and as little tedious loving shepheards as I possibly may after we had reasoned and argued together the space of a full hour he in protesting how intirely he loved me and that he could not live unless he enjoyed Brisil as his Quéen and I in defending that I might not love him nor live if I break my promise made to his son in his presence and by his consent at length he burst out into these raging words Proud Brisil and ungrateful Duches thou despisest the high offers of a King and contemnest the love of a Monarch that governeth a whole Kingdome And thinkest thou not that I cannot command thée séeing an huge people is ruled by me I promise thee that I will teach thee not to say nay when I demand and to be ready to grant when I request Therefore know that thou shalt be married unto me wilt thou or wilt thou not and the Marriage day shall be the ninth day after to morrow See then that thou prepare thy self against that day to condescend to my pleasure lest thou wilt rue thy stubborn hardneckedness And with that he turned from me into the next chamber and left me poor distressed wight ready to yield up the ghost at the sound of his conclusion But snatching hope by the subject I thought either the Kings minde might before the appointed day be altered or fit opportunity offered me to escape his tyranny by flight But neither I could in time get away nor the King had forgotten his intent But the day which he had appointed for the Wedding being come and all things in a readinesse sent for me I although I did not well know what to do yet râ—sting upon this point rather to die then to forsake Periander and
high estate which I perceive she did in respect of your excellency and not of my desert and willing me to stay in her Palace till such time as she might learn news concerning the cause of my comming promised me that I should not stay in vaine which I have tried to be so séeing that you are so happily arrived to this place as I hope also by the favour of the Gods and the help of sage Felicia to sée Periander if not here yet in some other place Thus Madame have you heard what is passed sithence the time that I saw you last now it remaineth that it may please you to accomplish your promise And so I wil quoth the Duches wherewith she began to declare the whole estate of her life to Petulca and the rest of the company Where we will leave her discoursing of all such matters as before have been declared and return to Periander CHAP. XXII How Periander met with Pharelus and how Pharelus declared to Periander what hapned in the Court of Albion since the departure of Duches Brisil PEriander after he was departed from the Village where he left Brisil within one dayes travel reached into a Wood wherein after he had strayed up and down for the space of six or seven houres in the night could not finde any path to lead him out of the same desart place Insomuch that being weary of travel he was forced to lie on the ground among the wild furzen bushes and thornes to rest himself where he slept till morning at which time awaking out of his sléep he saw a certain Albion Knight stand before him whom he knew very well for he was his fathers Taster and was called Sir Pharelus whereat Periander was so amazed that he could not tell what had befallen him but the Knight spake presently in this manner Fair Shepheard or Nymph for Periander had his womans attire yet whatsoever thou be be not displeased that I have emboldned my self to presse so néer the place where you slept for seeing that I was loth to wake you out of your sound sleep and wished to speak with you I thought best to stay till you awaked of your owne accord therefore seeing you have given over your sleep I beseech you to shew me what way I may take to get out of this huge wood in which I have sore against my will remained three dayes not finding any way that leadeth out of the same Periander glad that Sir Pharelus knew him not gave him this answer Sir Knight I have no reason to be displeased at you seeing that I my self would in the like case have used as much boldnesse I am no Nymph yet if I could pleasure you and satisfie your demand I would the willinger do it considering that I would think my self beholding to him that would shew us the way out of this Wood For yesterday about the decline of the Sun did I first enter into it having travelled this way never before and seeing I could not finde the way out again having lost my path the wearisomnesse of my journey forced me to take my rest But pray you Sir if I may be so bold what luck hath brought you hither for I perceive by the strangeness of your apparel that you are of some countrey afar off seeing that no Genclemen hereabout are cloathed after such a fashion In truth quoth Pharelus it was ill luck brought me hither fair shepheardesse for you shall know that I am a Brittain born in the Isle of Albion and left my Countrey by the command of our King who being informed by Letters from the King of Spain that his son the young Prince of Albion was broken out of prison and fled for he was imprisoned in Sivil by his fathers command sent me into Spain to enquire after him and not to return till I had heard of him But when I was arrived in Spain I heard that the King of Spaines daughter Florena went with him or after him but no man could tell me whether she were by him or had not yet found him or what way he was gone Thus I have travelled up and down Spain and have not as yet discovered any more news of him In truth quoth Periander I heard great talk in our village of the Kings daughter Florena how she was conveyed out of the Court by another Kings son I know not of what Countrey that was imprisoned as you say by his own fathers command because he would be married to a young Duchesse whom the King himself would have to his wife True quoth Pharelus but the Duchesse about three or four days before the appointed Wedding day secretly fled out of the country no man knoweth whither which the King took so grievously that partly for danger partly for grief he kept his chamber six weeks at the end of which time he received letters from the K. of Spain in which he understood of his sons flight which news almost set him besides his wits for he had purposed to send Embassadors to Spain for his son and to proclaim the Duchesse that was fled Queen of England and wife to his son Periander unto whom he intended to resign the title of the Crown and to marry him to the aforesaid Duches with whom he was promised many years before Therefore seeing that Fortune so crossed him fell into a grievous and dangerous disease insomuch that we doubted of his recovery But after he had kept his bed one fortnight by the singular skill and industry of the Physitians he began to mend and calling me one morning to his beds side uttered these words unto me Ah Pharelus thou seest how pittifully your King hath been used both by Fortune and Heaven for the Gods intending to revenge my unnatural crueltie and barbarous tyranny against mine own son though I repented yet would both bar me from my desire and punish my offence But now as I féel by the alteration of my weaknesse that they have slaked their vengeance and pitie my case so I hope Fortune will in like manner become more favourable than hitherto she hath been You know how the Duchesse Brisil is fled and no news can be heard what is become of the poor Lady In like manner now is Periander also broken out of prison and as a banished man runneth astray perhaps suffering a thousand miseries and all for fear lest he should fall into my hands where alas I would rather ask him forgivenesse then any way prejudice him seeing he hath no way offended me but I greatly injured him And now for as much as the hold of my life consisteth in the hope which I have to see both Periander and Brisil here in my Court I have caused thee to come hither to declare my mind unto thee concerning this matter wherein I will imploy thy service seeing I have found thee faithful and loyall in all matters which I ever committed to thy trust not doubting but that I shall finde thee as
stand upon it any longer but let you know how that my father having had some fore-intelligence of the Kings intent as many more of our neighbours did among whom I place the Captain my mothers second husband and therefore thought best to flie unto some other place yet the Kings command being something hastily put in execution it hapned that my father with all the rest were so suddenly assaulted in the night time the they were compelled to leap out of their beds in their shirts and take their flight leaving all they had behind them so that neither my father had leasure to take me with him nor the Captain to save his Philorenus yet was our luck such that though no child escaped untimely death yet we the one not knowing the other found mercy at the souldiers hands that were sent to execute the Kings pleasure For they taking pity on us thought it was then a sacriledge to kill us that were so young and by the disposition of our bodies séemed likely to prove comely men In so much that we were both of us priviledged from death and carried to the City of Naples I by a certain Captain whose hap it was to light on me the other Philorenus by a Sergeant who séeing his father fled ran towards him to bath his sword in the poor innocent child his bloud for spight that his father had by flight escaped his fury coming near him hearing him cry his choller turned into affection and he so loved the child being about thrée years and a half old the he having neither wife nor child intended to carry him to Naples bring him up as his own son Thus we lived in Naples seven years yet had no knowledg one of the other CHAP. XXVI How Philorenus the elder was brought to the Court by the King of Naples who sent him Ambassador to the King of Persia I Shall intreat you most excellent Princesse and ye worthy Gentlemen and shepheards to mark by the way that as we were both alike in name so wee were in like manner so like one the other in favour in plight of the body in colour of hair and in voice that it was impossible for any one by the judgement of the eye to discern the one of us from the other when I had attained the eighteenth year of my age and the other Philorenus to the fifteenth year of his age at which time hee was fully as tall as I and in growth reached to the full proyortion of length and thicknesse that I was of The reason where of was that we both attained to our full bignesse at fourteene yeares of our age in so much that when he reached to fourteen years he was fully in bignesse equal to me This therefore being committed to memory you shall know that after I had dwelled three years in Naples with the Captain who had brought me thither it happened that the same Captain marrying the daughter of a certain Knight of great account celebrated the feast of his Wedding in very solemn manner For not onely the chiefest Noble men of the country were invited thereto but the King himself also who disdained not in proper person to honour my Masters Wedding day The ceremonies of the marriage being finished according to custome in memory of Hymenaeus there was a most sumptuous banquet made ready for the King and those Nobles that were ministred And it came to passe that the King casting his eye upon me who among other my fellows served my masters guests at that feast liked me so well that he asked the Captain whether I was of his affinity or kindred The Captain said that I was no kin unto him but that he esteemed of me as of his son in that a father can but give life to his son as hee had done to me shewing to the King where he had me and how he brought me from the village Cinqueni The King glad that he had saved such a proper lad from so unhappy and peremptory death prayed my master to resign over the title he had to me unto him promising that it should be both for his profit and my welfare To make few words of a Captains boy I became a Kings Page and that day taking leave of my old master I went to the Court where I so served the King that I could not but please him insomuch that his Majesty loved me as dearly as if I had béen some Noble personage suffering me to want nothing allotting me no worse company then his own son being about the same age that I was of who affected me as if I had béen his natural brother Thus I lived in this happie estate about two years till Fortune remembring that she had brought me to the top of her wheel began to threatem my haplesse dawnfall from all felicity into the depth and profundity of adversity wishing me no better luck then my parents had had in their time though she had at the first gladded me with such good hap thereby to make me the more impatient to suffer her crosse and malicious entreatments in time to come For it is a thing most certain that among all men that are oppressed with adversity none can so ill away with their mishap as they that before lived in great prosperity But lest I digresse from the matter know that the King having had intelligence by certaine Merchants out of Persia that the King of Persia mustered his men through all his dominions intending to make a voyage into Spain and to bring a mighty Army to invade the country of Spain because the Kings of Castile Aragon and Portugal had refused to give their daughters in marriage to his son fearing lest if Spain were invaded Italy should become subject and considering that he had entered into league with the King of Persia and divers times joyned with him against other Kingdomes but loth in this expedition so likely to turn to his wrack to become a helper or confederate purposed to send me into Persia unto the King to procure a peace between him and the aforesaid Kings of Castile Aragon and Portugal I though I thought my self altogether unfit to be imployed in such honorable kind of service and matters of such importance yet seeing it was his Majesties pleasure as I thought it no manners to seem unwilling so I prepared wy self to put his Majesties pleasure in practise and to provide all things necessary for such a journey Therefore knowing the Kings pleasure and the effect and sum of my message I took my leave of his Majesty and the Queen and in like manner of his son Hyppolito who was so sorry for my departure that he could scarce bid me farewel so dispatched my selfe from the Court being accompanied with nine men What successe I had since my departure from Naples you shall hear afterwards CHAP. XXVII How the younger Philorenus being taken for the elder was imprisoned by the King of Naples
that we conceive by your comming is such that we think our selves honoured with your presence and therefore acknowledge our selves beholding unto you in that you disdain not of the unworthy company of such simple shepheards as we be As for the acquaintance which you say you have had with our friend Petulca as we are altogether ignorant of so doe we not envy at his luck in that so gracious a Princesse as your self beareth a remembrance of him As Petulca thought to ask pardon for his unmindfulnes and to excuse the weakness of his memory in that he could not remember that he had in all his life time séen any Lady comparable to her for her beauty or estate much less to have seene her the Duches staied him saying Well Petulca thy company thinketh thée happy that I beare memory of thée but I pray you unhappy may I be thought to be séeing that thou disdainest to know her whom I thought you would not have forgotten so soone Is this the memory you have of me and my sister Sybil whom you so dearly loved Is this the remembrance you beare of cursed Malorena and dissembling Bergama who for thy sake sought our ruine Petulca amazed to hear her say this and knowing her by her voyce to be the same Brisil that sojourned among the shepheards of his Countrey at length burst out into these words Ah gracious Princesse the Gods know that I have not forgotten neither you nor Periander who under the name of Sybil in the habit of a shepheard bearing title to be your sister hath caused my grief and forced me to undertake this troublesome journey intending never to return home till I have found him and letting him know the Treason and malicious dealing of Malorena and Bergama to exhort him to race out the false surmise and suspition which he hath grounded in the bottome of his heart of your disloyalty For séeing that for my sake he hath been so horribly abused and brought into that errour I will hazard my life to restore him unto his former estate againe to the end that he may enjoy you and your self to him And marvel nor Lady that I knew not your person though I will remember you◠acquaintance for as the Sun is in respect of the least star of the sky the rose in respect of the nettle the juniper trée in respect of the thorn bush and the Lordly Chrystal in respect of the base glasse so is your Ladiship now in respect of the time that we were feasted by the dissembling Traitress Bergama in her Arbor And therefore séeing that I had not as yet understood having enquired of the Lady Felicias Nymphs of your calling any other thing of you but that you were a certain Princesse of Albion and that we should shortly hear of the cause of your comming and more largely know the course of your fortune I hope your Grace will not think the worse of me who have vowed my body and life to do service unto your loving Periander what state or calling soever he be of Thanks kind Petulca quoth the Duches and perswade thy self that I think no otherwise of thée then I did at any time And to the end that thou mayst understand the truth and verity of all my troubles and know what Periander is and also what caused him to fain himself to be my sister being attired in shepheards attire I will briefly and truly rehearse unto thee in this good company of shepheards so I be not troublesome unto them the whole state of my fortune But first I must intreat you to tell me how long you have béen here when you departed from the village and what successe you have had in your journey Then may it please you to understand quoth Petulca that after the malicious traitresse Malorena had cast her self into the river to take penance for her heinous offence by her own appointment the whole Village was made acquainted with her villany detesting her for her malice and marvelling at Periander and your self for your perfect love in marvellous manner mourning for his departure and your mishap Insomuch that the chiefest of the village sent for me to understand the truth of the whole matter which when I had declared they took order with me that I should speak with you and comfort you letting you know what they had appointed to do in your behalf for they intended to make enquiry through all the country after Periander to the end that he might be enformed of all that had hapned in the Village concerning malicious Malorena and so be induced to return again unto you knowing the sayings of Malorena to be false and invented by her pestiferous brain Whereupon I most ready to do any thing that might redownd to your content betimes the next morning went to your lodging but there I found you not nor could learn of any one of your Neighbours what was become of you whereof how sorry I was I leave to the Gods to witness and not I onely but the whole Village most grievously lamented your sodain departure At length I resolved not to rest in any place till I had found Periander and let him know how he had been abused by Malorena and how you were injured by him in that he giving credit to such a malicious maid lest you to passe your life in such discontent and grief for his cause To the end that if Fortune had been so froward as to deprive him of your company for ever by some sinister hap yet he should know how faithfully you loved him séeing that your loyalty was knowne unto the whole Countrey Whereupon I having first caused dissembling Bergama as an instrument and helping cause of this mischief to be banished until such time as Periander and you were together and consented to have her released from exile I betook my self to my journey and having travelled two dayes and two nights at last I arrived in a Country house where I was very courteously used by a certain shepheard who took pleasure to talk with me concerning the cause of my comming for that he had himself not passing eight year since almost coursed over the world to seek his wife which was carried away upon a certain time by a Duke that riding that way caused his men to take her with them he being abroad in the field And that after he had taken so much paines it was his luck at length to come to the Temple of Diana where the Lady Felicia dwelleth who helped him to his wife again Therefore the shepheard having entertained and feasted me very courteously and bountifully set me into a way which directly brought me to this place assuring me that I should of this Lady be enformed of all matters concerning those that I sought for as in truth I have found his words not disagréeing unto verity For being arrived here two dayes since the Lady welcomed me not as a simple Shepheard but rather like some worthy person of
world in our house for my father thought not that he might safely stay in his own house for fear least he should be watched for and by the King of Ca stiles command be slain by the enemy But he had put away all his servants and taken me with him insomuch that we were in a certain shepheards house something far from the village which was burned where no man durst dwell The Captain therefore and my mother entring the house and finding no man marvelled greatly and by my mothers intreaty departed thence towards the City Targonna where she made great enquiry for my father and mee but they could not hear of us But you must note by the way that the Captain had changed his apparel and put on a shepheards garment and my mother likewise put off her mans wéed and attired self according to her sex And within two or three days after they had been in city they chanced to light on a certain shepheard whom my mother knew well and who knew my parents as well as any of all our village Of this shepheard did my mother understand that the King of Castile returning to the castle where he had left her and finding her absent and the general Governour whom he would have trusted with a greater charge was so enraged that he hanged the captain of the watch for letting him forth and marching with his whole Army towards our village he destroyed all that he met with and put all the countrey men that he could find to the edge of the sword sparing neither man woman nor child This shepheard told my mother that forasmuch as he had séen my father and me in a little cottage adjoyning to our village he thought certainly that we had not escaped the Kings fury but that wee were both slain which bad tidings so grieved my mother that unlesse the good Knight had persevered in his comfortable consolations she had either died for sorrow or ended her grief by finishing her life with her own hands On the other side my father who by good fortune was forewarned of the Kings furious comming to the village escaped the danger which he was like to incur but when he heard of the proclamation which was made throughout all the country by the Kings command c. That whosoever could bring him the head of the same strumpet which refusing to be his concubine had by her dishonest enticements enchanted the heart of Don Alvares de Bazora one of his chiefest captains in his wars for so was the good captain called and bewitched him to love her carry her from her husband should have all the livings that belonged or appertained to the foresaid Don Alvares I say when my Father had heard this Proclamation thinking that my mother was guilty of the crime she was accused of and supposing that she had changed her praised chastity into wantonnesse he thought that she had allured the Knight to lewdnesse which so grieved him that after he had largely and lamentably complained of her disloyalty he took me by the hand and departed out of Aragon presently travelling toward Italy where in the Kingdome of Naples in a certain village called Cinqueni he purposed to live the remnant of his life In the mean time it chanced that the Kings of Aragon and Castile séeing they could not by war become Lord the one over the other they concluded a wished and durable peace among their countries making a perpetuall league of friendship between the said Kingdomes of Aragon and Castile Insomuch that the King of Castile returned to his Country with his whole army and in short space were the villages and towns that had been sacked and burned newly built up again and all the inhabitants of the country returned home to their houses My mother therefore desirous to know whether my father was slain nr no returned to our village with the Knight to inquire for my father and me but no man could tell her any news of us Insomuch that she verily thought that he was dead and I likewise she lived in that state yet three or four moneths which time being expired the Captain made earnest sute unto her in reward of his service and faithfulnesse seeing her husband was dead to take him to her husband swearing and protesting that he would be as loyall unto her as any man in the world might be unto his wise She acknowledging that he deserved more then he requested yet loth so soon to marry again did drive him of as long as she could till at length not able to gainsay his lawfull request she married her self unto him and to the end she might forget her former deceased husband the better thinking it but meer trouble to be cumbred with the remembrance of her dead husband being remarried she and her new husband went to some bordering town of Castile where they remained four years having a child the first year named Philorenus at my mothers request she being desirous to have a new Philorenus séeing she had lost the other You must in like manner note that the Captain sith the first hour that he departed out of the Castle with my mother named himself as my father was called to wit Coreandro to the end that he might be unknown which name he retained as long as he lived Thus they having long lived as I said four years in the borders of Castile certain mutinies rising in the town of their abode about the strangers that lived in the same place they left that town and went into Italy thinking the further they went from Castile the more they should frée themselves from the danger that might ensue if they should be known In this voyage my mother either by the necessity of her destinies or the labour of her troublesome journey fell sick and passed her fatal day in a certain village of Italy Her husband the Captain though he so impatiently took the death of his dear wife for whom he had brought himself into all these troubles that he cursed the Fates and blasphemed the Gods for ending her life and not rather his own yet after she was buried he took his son and travelled on his journey intending to passe over his life in solitary manner admitting no occasion of joy or recreation but onely such as he might enjoy by the company of his young sonne whom nature had left him as a pledge of remembrance of her whom hee so dearly love and it was his lucke to sojourne in the same village which my father and I dwelled in being called Cinqueni as I have before mentioned where this Captain with his young Philorenus and my father with his also remained a fortnight the one not knowing of the other This space of fourteen days being fullfilled the King of Naples sent two thousand men to burn the same village and slay all the inhabitants thereof for what reason I cannot now so well remember and seeing it maketh not for my purpose I will not
which he did not sing but thwacked them out looking in his paper as if he would have dared Radamanthus that appointeth the shadows their pennance in hell from his infernal chair Palemon EVen beauty it self is Palla not beautifull or fair If beauty any have of her that all they do borrow Not white but whitenesse sweetnesse and comliness it self Not sweet not comely as yeelding that to all othess Of which they boast 'T is Pallaes list she to claim it Next Polemon came an old shepheard though never married who thinking that he had offended Cupid to let his young and strong years slide and slip away without doing him service purposed to make amends by pining for love in his old days for such a face had the follow and a body well befitting such a face that he might well love but never be loved unless Cupid would be revenged of some Vesta minded maid for neglecting and dispising his Deity and so make her dance in the net of folly with this old lovelesse face both of them crying Peccavi penas domus His name was Schalco and as Aureola was informed by the shepheardesses of the country he most importunately made love to the fair shepheardesse Ura daughter to one of the King of Naples farmers Which maid so did hate him that although he was most wealthy having store and abundance of all manner of country riches yet she thought her self discredited in that she was loved of him These were his verses Schalco AS I my sheep by Phoebus fall went homeward for to drive He promised a gift full gay ere long he would me give One of his golden beams shot from his chariot of fire Which I to Vra will present to be her winter fire Oh Phoebus crosse thy beams with silver lines even latherwise That I with Vra might mount up and dwell with her in skies Next to old Schalco young Dorus a pretty stripling to be chamberlain to Cupid made haste to tell his tale For as he was rival to Schalco so he would not omit to say something that might please Ura. And therefore hoping by deriding of Schalco whom he knew Ura could not abide he thought to gain her favour These were his verses Dorus. IN skies old Schalco would with Vra dwell And ride with her in Phoebus golden coach Where when on him she thinks death doth incroach And rather then with him would dwell in hell Give her a winter sire thou shalt do well But see thou burn thy bones by that same fire So will she love thee which sith you desire Seeing not in skies procure the same in hell One more beside this did Aureola mark whom she therefore marked because she judged him worthy to be marked He was called Otto and as she had heard sonne to a Duke in France and passing through Italy to sée the country saw the fair shepheardesse called Laurea of whose beauty and graces fame had béen very prodigall and he having séen her with liking liked her with love and loved her with constancy In somuch that to become hers he ceased to be his own and leaving parents land honour and living became a shepheard to win the love of Laurea who once had told him that she might fancy no higher then a shepheard But oh heavenly Laurea quoth Aureola thy modesty was too great to be of base birth thy humblenesse too gratious to be of low parents No no nature hath not wronged thy vertuous beauty and beauty made more beautifull by virtue but fortune hath envied at thy perfection Thou wert found in the wood by old Panteo who possesseth thée as his daughter and whom thou for thy bringing up doest reverence as thy father why might not as well hard-hearted Kings as poor beggars have left thée there swadled in base and poor cloaths Insomuch that Aureola was fully perswaded that Laurea was some noble born maid though by fortunes hard intreatment she was not known what she was Neither did Aureola guesse amisse for afterwards it was well known that this Laurea was sister to the Dukes son that loved her It fell out after this manner There was great war betwéen the King of Gaul and the Emperour of Greece The King sent a mighty army into Italy to be revenged of the Italians that had assisted the Emperour with men and money Among many other Noblemen that were in the Kings army was Duke Otto this new become shepheards father with the Dutchess his wife and young Otto his onely son being of two years old having no more children then him It chanced that the Kings army was overthrown and the Duke and all his retinue taken prisoners saving the Dutchesse who was fled unto a certain wood being all alone where after she had béen one moneth nourished by a poor old woman that lived a solitary life in that wood she was delivered of Laurea whom she named Sylva after the place where she was born Within a wéek after the Dutchesse had beene brought a bed died their good old hostess to her great discomfort But then she takes her child and thinking to march toward some village she went from the cave about sixe miles where she espied the village where Laurea was brought up And pondering with her self how she might passe unknown for that all the inhabitants of thoâ—e countries were enemies to the King of Gaul she layed her child down by a broom bush because she might go the lighter meaning to go back to the cave and put on the dead womans cloaths and so to return again presently But before she could reach to the Cave she was met withall by a certain Italian Knight who liked her so that he secretly conveyed her to his house notwithstanding that she most earnestly intreated her to let her first go fetch her young babe which she had left but three or four miles off For he mistrusted that she had but invented that excuse to delay the time and fearing lest some other company might pass that way before she found the child among his men carried her to his house The same evening Phebus having inclosed his heat within his western tower the old shepheard Panteo according to custome hied to the wood to fetch wood to warm his old limbs the next winter with the fire he hoped to make of it and so he found young Sylva by him called Laurea The Knight being importuned by the Dutches sent his men to the wood to séek fyr her child but they could not find it therefore could hardly believe but either she lyed or some body else had taken it up The Dutchess was daily solicited by this Knight to yéeld her body to his pleasure but she would not he kept her close prisoner 8 yéers which being expired the Knight being beheaded by the command of the Nobility of Italy by reason of some trespass by him committed and some kind of treason by him put in practise against the state of the countrey she got away and