Imagine then the trouble that this thought excited in my heart it was so great that if the fear of Ulysses death in so dangerous a voyage had not moderated its violence I believe I should have accused him in my thoughts as if he had been already guilty I should have made him some reproaches and perhaps for some instants should have hated him But the consideration of the perils he was going to expose himself unto did no sooner come into my mind but that tumult was appeased but I was not the less unhappy for all this since there is no danger which I did not apprehend for him and which by consequence I did not undergo I imagined that I beheld him ready to make ship-wrack I beheld him in the combats I beheld him wounded I saw him a prisoner I beheld him ready to expire and I think truly that the onely fear of his death had made me die if hope more to make me suffer than to ease me had not preserved my life I hoped then my Lord but to say truly 't was so feebly and with so much uncertainty that that hope was rather a trouble than an help unto me That ill founded hope had no sooner inspired my heart with some pleasing thought but presently my fear quenched it again if the one made me imagine Ulisses returned victorious the other persctaded me he might be then perishing in the waves if one made me behold the harbour the other shewed me nothing but tempests and wracks in fine I alwayes thought him either inconstant or dead and the successive raign of two such contrary sentiments tyrannized so fiercely in my soul that to be in a condition not to fear any more nor to be flattered again with hope I wished more than an hundred times for death You may know from thence if I do not deceive my self that absence is more to be feared than that since t is desired as a remedy for those evils which this last makes us suffer Truly my Lord they are so great and so sensible that if it were possible to comprehend that there could be a sharper pain or a greater misfortune than the death of the beloved person we might yet say that such a losse caused lesse affliction than the torment of an absence whose duration is incertain Yes my Lord those which do not love their husbands so well as to follow them into their graves and who have courage enough or to say better insensibility enough to suffer that separation without despairing have more rest than I have they have this advantage to know that they are unhappy alone and that those whom they mourn are at quiet they fear neither their inconstancy nor their death which is already happened nor can they any more apprehend ought either from that pitiless monster nor from inconstant fortune since there remains no more for them to lose but their own life which is no longer pleasing to them But what do I say insensible as I am No no my Lord do not give ear to what my sorrow makes me speak nor believe that I could ever prefer the death of my dearest Ulysses before his absence how rigorous so'ere it is unto me May he live and may he also live happy though distant from his Penelope rather than I should hear that he lives no more I had rather never behold him than to behold him die and I had rather hear he were inconstant than to hear of the end of his life O heaven to what a strange necessity do you reduce me to make wishes against my self Now my Lord is not absence worse than death and have I not reason to say that I am the most unhappy person of all my sex those that die have this sad consolation in losing their lives that they may consider that from the beginning of ages all men have undergone what they do and as long as the world shall last all those that are born must undergo the very same but of all the Grecian Princesses whose husbands have followed Menelaus I am the only she that have heard no news of mine I am the onely she that yet doth sigh I am the only she that have no share in the publick joy and the onely she alone that dares not prepare Crowns not knowing whether those Crowns should be made of Lawrel or of Cypress branches The victory has been woful only to me alone and Polixena yea Hecuba her self though the unhappiest amongst the Trojans are not yet so unhappy as poor Penelope The first died with constancy and by consequence with glory and the last had at least this advantage that she could weep over the bodies of her children and revenge the death of her son whereas I weep and do not know what object my tears should have Perhaps alas thinking onely to weep for the absence of my dear Ulysses I am obliged to weep for his inconstancy or it may be for his death For my Lord how can I think him living and not criminal since he does not come he knowes he is King of this Island and that his subjects have need of him he knowes you are his Father and that you wish for his return he knows Telemachus is his son and that he desires to know him he being so young when he departed that time has effaced the memory of him he knowes in fine that Penelope is his wife and that upon that happy return depends all her felicity nevertheless it is now almost twenty years since he went it is neer ten years since the Grecians conquered and yet we do not know whether we should bemoan him as unhappy or guilty However it be 't is certain that I have cause to complain and to despair on what side so'ere I turn I still finde new subjects of sorrow your old age afflicts me my sons green years disquiets me those that would comfort me increase my troubles those which bear no part with me in my woes anger me and both the discourses of the one and the silence of the others are equally insupportable to me But that which nevertheless is the most cruel to me is that neither time nor affliction hath sullied that little beauty on my face which hereaofore charmed Ulysses 't is not but that if I must see him again I shall be joyful to have preserved it but in the condition I am I finde that t is shameful to me to be yet able to make any conquests Nevertheless you are not ignorant what a number of importunate persons do persecute me though I despise them for my part I am in doubt whether I ought to hide from them my person or my tears for to say truth I think verily I have now no other amability nor any thing worthy of esteem but only my excessive regrets and sorrow for the absence of my dearest Husband and yet Helena hardly ever had more slaves than I have captives though Helena and Penelope are persons very different and although
doubt 't is if not a generous yet at least an ordinary and natural sentiment not to be sorry for the death of an enemy but to desire it to those whom we love that 's a thing against both reason and nature and a thing which no age nor people ever saw and indeed I am strongly perswaded that 't is more thorow hatred than love that I am sent to my grave So long as Achilles lived he hath desired that I should be his slave and now he ceases to live he will have me for his victime Le ts satisfie this last desire since we may do it without shame and le ts rejoyce that we have neither been his wife nor his Mistris hor his slave Whoever goes out of this life with glory ought ever to esteem themselves happy principally if we leave a chain in leaving this world what matter is it whether they unlose the chains that binds us or whether they break them however it is t is still to set us at liberty Be then my deliverer and fear not for your particular that I shall wish you any hurt The hand that frees me cannot but be grateful to me and he that hinders me from being a captive cannot be hated by me But what do I and what is' t I say unhappy that I am I do not think to whom I speak He whom I behold is not onely a Grecian not only my enemy not onely my sacrifier but he was likewise the executioner of my father No Pyrrhus 't is neither as Grecian nor as my enemy nor as Achilles son nor as my sacrifier that I look on you even when I change my thoughts and that I make imprecations against you but t is because you were my fathers murtherer What Pyrrhus could you so hatefully pursue that venerable old man to the very feet of the altar where his sought his refuge to thrust a dagger even into his heart Did your hand not tremble at the aspect of that great Prince Father of so many Heroes truly it should have done so but those that do not revere the gods have no reason to respect men Ha! truly that act hath acquired you a great deal of glory and t is a difficult thing to kill a Prince worn out with age feeblenesse and misery and who seeks his defence onely by the protection of those sacred places which ought to be inviolable Methinks there was no need of staining your arm and name by so barbarous an action the flames which have consumed our City would have sufficed to take away the life of that deplorable King and the least you could do was to let his Palace be his Funeral-pile to be consumed in But you are too nice an observer of Achilles his cruelties not to observe them exactly 'T was not enough to have usurped an Empire and to set Illium all in one flame the altars must be prophan'd they must be sprinkled with humane blood and that not onely with the blood of vulgar ones It must be the noblest blood in all the earth that must be spilt it must be a royall person that must be trampled under foot despising in him and with him all that was holy or sacred in our Palaces and in our Temples after such an unnatural action I was in the wrong to fear lest any pity should enter your soul and defer my death that 's a sentiment which the Grecians in general are unacquainted with and of which the son of Achilles cannot be capable possibly That dagger which I behold in your hand and with which you are a going to pierce my heart is perhaps the same which hath gone through the King my Fathers heart O sad spectacle O too cruel torment why is it that I did not perish in the flames which have devoured so many illustrious persons and that I have been reserved to behold such horrid things am I guilty of Helena's crimes or of Paris his failings No Polixena is innocent and if she have outlived so many misfortunes t is to die with more constancy and with more glory also t is to let the Grecians which did not come to this siege know what the sons of Priam might be since even his daughter dare encounter and confront death without any the least fear If those flames which consum'd Troy had put a period to my destiny I should have had no witnesses of these last sentiments of my soul Posterity might have doubted of Polixena's vertue and might have believed that since Achilles had had the temerity after he had made her Countrey desolate and slain her brothers to demand her for his wife and to say that he was in love with her that she had not done as she should in so strange a business But as things are now I die in publishing that I am an utter enemy to Achilles that I have ever been so and that I shall be so eternally let the ghost of that cruel one come once more forth of his sepulchre let it appear to all the Grecians and let it declare whether Polixena does erre from the truth To justifie what she sayes you need but consider the animosity which he retains for her even after his death and one may easily know that which she had for him so long as he lived For although what ever comes from the Grecians ought to be suspected by the Trojans this apparition of Achilles is not one of Ulisses deceits as that was whereby our City was betrayed No t is a perfect hatred which makes him come forth of his grave to make me enter into mine and this sanguinary ghost did re-behold the day onely to make me lose the light for ever Why do you stay then O Prince unworthy of that title and why do not you end this woful sacrifice Do you respect the daughter more than you have done the Father and does your hand rather tremble to stab Polixena than when you massacred the deplorable Priam hearken to that subterranean voice which issues from the hollownesse of that grand sepulchre with an horrid sound and which with threats commands you to immolate me to his fury Behold that earth which opens it self behold the ghost of Achilles which appears to me or rather Achilles himself who is leaving his grave He is pale and disfigured a terrour inflames his eyes even dead as they are and I behold him just such as he appeared to me on the sad day when he fought with Hector unlesse death or perhaps the remorse for his crimes have changed his skinne and colour Behold Phyrrus behold that hideous spirit which arises little by little and who to his threatening actions joyning his horrid voice does for the last time ordain you to sacrifice Polixena to him Make this Ghost to vanish by obeying it the Victime is ready prepared the poyniard is in your hand and you are accustomed to shed the Blood Royall Strike then as your Slave I conjure you and as the Daughter of a King I
SEVERALL WITTY DISCOVRSES Pro Con. viz. 1. That Beauty is no Real Good 2. That Love proceeds from the Inclination 3. That the Countrey Life is preferr'd before living in Cities 4. That the Affection ought not to die with the beloved 5. That the Affection ought not to go beyond the Grave 6. That those who never suffer'd Troubles cannot truly tell what Pleasure is 7 That Death is better than Slavery 8. That Absence is worse than Death 9. That one may be both Slave and Mistresse By MOUNSIEUR SCUDERY And put into English by a Person of quality LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor on the Lower walk in the New Exchange 1661. To the LADIES Illustrious Ladies THese following Harangues are so many pillars of that Triumphant Arch erected by the skilful hands of the renowned Monsieur de Scudery to the glory of your excellent Sex which I not only out of those common principles of Civility which obliges all men to render you service and in obedience to the commands of two most noble Ladies which were sufficient to prompt the dullest spirit but out of that earnest desire I have to proclaim my infinite respect and veneration to your Illustrious Sex have adventured to translate and do now prostrate them before you with the most profound respect that can be And though my dis-joynted and unpolish'd version does so abate their native lustre compared to the Original as might deserve your censure yet when you shall be pleas'd to consider of what importance it is to your fame and honour and that none abler have yet remembred to undertake it I do not believe only that your natural sweetness will be perswaded to grant a pardon but am induced to think it were a sin to doubt of your fair acceptance Look but on it Illustrious Ladies as it truly is a glorious Trophy composed of the Arms Scepters and Crowns of so many Monarchs which your beauties have subdued and no doubt but it will become as grateful as it is magnificent and be received with as much delight and satisfaction as it is tendered with desire and passion THE SUBJECTS Of the following HARANGUES The first Harangue HElena to Paris That beauty is no reall good The second Angelica to Medoro That Love proceeds from the inclination The third Amarillis to Tityrus That the Countrey life is to be preferr'd before living in Cities The fourth Clorinda to Tancred That the affection ought not to die with the beloved The fifth Erminia to Arsetes That the affection ought not to goe beyond the grave The sixth Cariclia to Theagenes That those who never suffered troubles cannot truly tell what pleasure is The seventh Polixena to Pyrrhus That death is better than slavery The eighth Penelope to Laertes That absence is worse than death The ninth Briseis to Achilles That one may be both Slave and Mistris HELENA TO PARIS I Know full well ô too lovely and if I may say it too much beloved Paris that you will not easily condiscend to the discourse I shall now shape that you will hardly suffer I should condemne that which you approve that I blame that which you have so much praised and that I slight that which you doe even yet adore You beleeve without doubt that I cannot offend my beauty without offending your judgement and that since I owe all my glory to it in owing it your conquest I have no reason to make an assault against that And truely he that looks on the thing but on this side would ever be a stranger to my opinion but as they have all double faces if you will your self consider both the one and the other without interest and preoccupation I assure my self that your sence of it wil not be at distance from mine that you will break down the Altar where you have committed Idolatry that you will acknowledge that you have taken an Idol for a God that you will subscribe to my opinion and that in fine you will say as well as I that beauty is not a real God But to prevent you from making me any objections I will propound them my self yes my dearly beloved Paris I my self will range all your troops in battalia that so I may defeat them afterwards and to remove all subject of complaint I will not speake till after I have made you speak I am not then ignorant that the partisans for beauty say that it is the cheifest work of nature and its last effect that the planets and the sun it self have somewhat a lesser brightnesse that from that admirable mixture of colours and for that exact proportiof features which compose a beauty there results something that is divine that there are none but the blind can deny this truth and those statues which feele not its power that that marvellous and proud object continually triumphs that Kings take a glory in following its chariot that they preferre its chaines to their crownes and that the most brave take a vanity to sigh at its feet and to cast down their trophies there They say likewise that the Empire of this beauty is far more noble and more glorious than that of the great Monarchs since they reign over the bodies only and this reigns over the spirits They say that they are her eyes only that may be called King of Kings since they alone subject them and that only they make those dye slaves who were not born but to command In fine they establish this beauty Queen of all the Earth they make her reign soveraignly over all the rational world and maintain with as much ardour as they resent that she is alone the soveraign good Neverthelesse O my dear Paris how deceitfull are the appearances how true it is at least that if beauty be a real good for those that see it it is an evil to those in whom 't is seen To make this passe for a solid advantage were to make blossomes passe for flowers flatterers forme it of lilies and roses and do not dream that the lilies and the roses are of no durance and that the fairest flowers are of no price but amongst the curious that 's to say amongst those that are not wise And then who does not know that we accustome our selves to behold beauty as we do all other things that after that it moves our eyes no more than the most vulgar And that as soon as it hath lost the grace of being new it hath almost lost all Can one behold a light more resplendent than that of the Sun it selfe Is there any object in Nature so marvellous as that and whose pompe and magnificence can come near it Neverthelesse because his lustre is ordinary and that 't is seen every day few people mind to consider it how worthy soever it be of it Whereas if in a sad night a Comet make his threatning beams blaze in the ayre all the world runs forth to see it all the world beholds with admiration so
power over you as your tears seem to perswade me do not abandon me I conjure you to the insolence of your souldiers at this time when the miserable Clorinda hath no other arms to defend her self than her complaints and sighs Also the wounds I have received are such that there is no share in life more for me Ha! would the heavens yet once more prolong it in me a little for some instants that I might testifie my acknowledgment It seems to me my prayer is heard for although I feel that the hour of my death is neer it seems to me I say if I deceive not my self that I have cause to believe I shall not expire till I have related to you a part of those thoughts that are in me Do not fear that I shall complain of you or of fate I have too great a soul too firm and too reasonable to have a ressentment so vulgar so weak and so unjust I know that in Battels one finds as often death as victory that one must equally prepare for the one and the other and that if so be we be overcome without shame or basenesse we should lose such a victorie without despair die without murmuring I do not then regret the portion of life which I might yet have had mine hath been long enough since it hath been unspotted I have lived little I confess but I have lived with glory and I die with honour If Clorinda must be vanquished it must needs have been by him who uses to overcome all others 't is no small thing for her to have disputed with him for that illustrious prize as she hath done and not to have yielded but onlie because nothing can resist him Do not mourn for me then more than I mourn for my self rule your ressentments by mine comfort your self as I am comforted and be not more sensible of my misfortune than your own interest If you behold me as your enemy you will rejoice at my loss all Godfreys armie will give you thanks for this action for though I be of that sex from which ordinarily men can draw no advantage to fight and overcome us I think nevertheless without vanitie that Clorinda's name is famous enough to dare believe as I do that all your Knights would think themselves fortunate not onlie to be her conquerers but even to be cōquered by her Do not therefore cast that crown upon my Tomb which you have acquired by my defeat as if unworthy of your temples do not disdain the victory if you will not disgrace me On the contrary proclaim it to all the world let all the world know what it hath cost you do not hide the blood which you have lost onlie hide your tears from Clorinda that her death may be more quiet since it cannot be more honourable And to testifie that she pardons it with a willing heart to you she conjures you if it be true that you have any affection for her to conserve it even after she is dead let not her ashes extinguish that noble ardour which her Heroick actions have kindled in your soul you have loved her an enemy love her in the grave you have loved her when she was armed against you love her when she shall be dead by your hands you have loved her even when she hated you love her also when she shal have ended her days in assuring you that she hath esteemed your valour and your vertue even so far as to suffer her death without murmuring and to think it a glory to lose her life by the same hand that had preserved it for her I die nevertheless with the sorrow of not having implied it for the service of my deliverer but as that ingratitude is not voluntary so let it not hinder you to look upon my death as if I suffered it to save you though I suffer it because I would have lost yours Imagine that all the blowes I made at you were directed against your enemies and not against your person let the blood which I lose serve for a price for the tears which you shed and in fine believe that seeing the generosity I have found in your soul if Clorinda had lived she would have testified to you by her actions that she could no longer reckon you amongst her enemies But since things past cannot be revoked and that shortly there will no more remain of Clorinda but her name her ashes and her Monuments if you have the goodness to afford her one have a care of all those heighten her reputation if you can that so yours may increase and that you may also justifie at the same time your affection and your sufferings Be not so weak as those persons unworthy the light of the day which cease from loving their friends as soon as ere they are uncapable or not in a condition to acknowledge their amity Be not I say of those in whom the grave strikes an horrour who dare not follow the persons they love into the shades of death Those that are so weakly interested they seek onlie but for the recompence of their affections and who loves onelie pleasing things are not worthy the light of the Sun the great and generous souls are not wont to do thus and to tell things as they are t is onely within the grave and 'twixt the very armes of death that we can assure our selves certainty of the good will any hath for us all the services which are rendred to the living may be suspected of self-interest the honours done to the dead cannot be ill interpreted but merit to live eternally in the memory of all men This is the true mark of Heroick love and of true vertue t is as I have said the infallible Character of a soul great noble and generous t is loving for love and not for the reward and 't is in fine the right means as I have also said to become worthy of all imaginable honours to honour the memory of those who during their lives have merited to be esteemed by us in a particular manner Is it not enough that we lose a person so dear to us unlesse we blot her Image from our memory Ha! no no too generous Prince you will not do thus you will visit her Tomb with respect and her name becomming inseparable from yours by her deplorable adventures shall fly 'ore all the world with luster and glory you will conserve this love which was so pure that hope it self hath had no share for truly it would not be just that Clorinda ceasing to hate when she descends into the grave you should begin to wish her ill when she ceases to live and when she begins to know you and by consequence to esteem you very much After you have been my enemy be my Champion I conjure you defend against all the world the beauty of those advantageous Pourtraits which fame hath made of me over all the earth maintain that she hath not flattered Clorinda speak
as his slave which I have been he should let me wear his fetters as a Queen which I ought to be he should give me the Empire of his heart instead of the Crowne which he hath made me lose and as his lover he ought to leave Clorinda's grave to follow me even till my death That is the term that I prescribe to the love which I will have him have for Erminia I do not desire that he should forsake Clorinda's tomb to come and walk about mine if I happen to die before him No my pretentions are not so unjust if he die not for the sorrow of my death I will have him live and be comforted For in fine whether I hearken to reason or nature I finde that the love ought not to indure beyond the grave or after death The effect of this HARANGUE AS Tasso hath not told us whether Tancred were comforted and whether he had pity of Erminia so neither can I tell it you and because Arsetes was an ancient Domestick of Clorinda I dare not neither assure you whether he did agree to this Discourse You have the reasons of the one and the other Consider them at leasure and judge soveraignly if you are so bold as to judge of Queens and so dis-interested as to undertake it CARICLIA TO THEAGENES The Sixth HARANGUE The Argument WHen after the suffering of all those illustrious misfortunes which compose the Ethiopian History CARICLIA and THEAGENES beheld themselves on the Throne that lovely and famous Heroine in a particular conversation which she had with her lover recalled to her memory all her past troubles and comparing them to her present felicities it seemed to her that that pleasing remembrance did in some manner increase them So that in her transportation of joy she spake in this sort to THEAGENES to prove to him That those that never had evil do not know true pleasure CARICLIA TO THEAGENES IN fine my dear and beloved Theagenes we have run a glorious Race at the end of which we finde a Crown which is no less glorious 't is good to remember the storm when we are in a safe harbour and amidst the rest and tranquility of the earth with what pleasure we revolve in our minds the fury and agitation of the Sea Those images though troubled and tumultuous do nevertheless please the mind they are disordered and confused but t is delightful and as diversity is the greatest charm of nature those marvellous events which compose so intricate and cross a life as ours hath been never fails to excite joy in that soul that remembers its former sadnesse and misfortunes T is certain every thing appears best by their contraries and t is only by the opposition that their differences are noted and their advantages sensibly discovered The light owes its lustre to the shade and 't is from the night that day does draw its brightnesse the Sun makes known the splendour of its rayes by the tenebreous darkness t is the rigorous sharpness of the Winter that heightens the amiable sweetnes of the Spring the prickles makes the rose more esteemed and briefly t is from misfortunes without doubt that felicities do arise it being very true that those who have not undergone some evils can never truly know what pleasure is In effect those who have never had but fortunate adventures who never have proved the inconstancy of fate and whose most sensible contentments have never cost them a sigh nor made them shed a tear do possess them without being possessed enjoy them without enjoyments and make that an object of their froideur and disdain which might be the object of all the worlds desires They are rich and know it not they have treasures and cannot tell their value they have good things and do not tast them and their abundance makes them poor Such a long series of felicities does benum a soul rather than rouze it and the frequency does no lesse take away the delicacy of the pleasure than it does take away the sharpnesse of pain One is accustomed to a Scepter as well as to an iron chain the Throne is no better to those people than an ordinary chair and there are those that wear a Crown upon their heads who yet hardly know whether they have it on or are adorned with it or no. Those Princesses who being born in the purple and have alwayes worn a Royal Mantle who even from their cradles to their graves have alwayes stood under the Canopy of state within the Ballisters and amidst the Pomp and Majesty cannot compare their satisfaction to Cariclia's she who was expos'd at her birth she who was not known to any she who did not know her self she who was not adornd but with her natural graces and she in fine who from extream misery has past in a moment to the supreamest grandeur For my part I acknowledge to you Theagenes it seems to me that I have conquered the Kingdome which Fortune restores to me it seems to me that I hold it by my vertue and not by my birth and it seems to me that my merit has given to me all that which my love will make me give your merit Now as that which we gain by our industry or generosity is infinitely more precious than that which we hold from nature you must not wonder if I prefer a glory which hath cost me an hundred labours to that glory which others have without trouble and if I finde that t is only through difficulties that we attain to soveraign happiness No my dear Theagenes it has been by my disgraces that I have obtained my welfare 't was only by my banishment that I got your acquaintance and onely my leaving Ethiopia which saw my birth hath made the birth of my affection to be seen in the temple of Apollo at Delphus Thus cannot any deny but that my good hath proceeded from my evil and that my repose is sprung from my traverses Who would not have said when we left the Grecian rivage and that the Pirat Trachinus had made himself Master of our Vessel that there was no more any felicity for us Who would not have said when that Pirat became enamoured of me that we must have lost our reason if we had had the least hope left who would not have said when there rose so great a tempest that the waves lifted us even to heaven and afterwards let us sink again to the very center of the earth that the Sea was going to swallow us and that its fury was going to dash our ship against the points of the Rocks who would not have said when those infamous Pirats were arrived at the mouth of a great River and that they began a combat amongst themselves of which I should have been the prize that Fortune was going to decide their difference and give to one of the parties both the victory and Cariclia who would not have said seeing me upon that desert shore amidst so many
command you The effect of this HARANGUE THis fair and unhappy Princesse drew the tears of all the Grecians Pyrrhus himself was moved nor could his eyes behold the crime which his hand committed He struck her nevertheless barbarous man that he was and that young and deplorable creature had so much modesty that even in falling struck with the deadly blow she was careful to lay her hands upon her lower garments for fear lest after her death some indecent action should offend her modesty PENELOPE TO LAERTES The Eighth HARANGUE The Argument PENELOPE that vertuous wife to ULISSES whose reputation yet lives after so many ages past and who from the borders of that seldome frequented Island where she lived has made her renown spread over the whole world finding her self one day extreamly afflicted for the absence of her Husband who after the siege of Troy had strayed almost ten years at the mercy of the windes and waves without possibility of seeing his Countrey would ease her sorrowes by her plaints and make her dear Husbands Father acknowledge by the discourse you are now going to see That absence is worse than death PENELOPE TO LAERTES HE that undertakes to maintain that death is the most sensible and greatest of all evils is surely such a one as either never loved at all or at least hath never undergone the unhappinesse of being absent from the person beloved No my Lord that monster which desolates all the earth who by the succession of time changes the face of the whole Universe who treats alike both vice and vertue who strikes with the same fatal dart the Kings and Shepherds and whose very portraiture alone fills the stoutest soul with horrour and amazement is not yet that thing which I believe we ought the most to apprehend Absence which we may truly say is the commencement of all sorrowes and the end of all joyes hath in it somewhat that is more harsh and insupportable for if the first be that which destroyes our prosperity the second is that which makes us unhappy even in the midst of abundance yea on the Throne it self There is neverthelesse a great deal of difference betwixt them for death ravishes equally from us both our felicities and misfortunes if it rob us of any flowers it does not leave us the prickles behind them it crushes with the same hand both our Crowns and fetters and in a word when it deprives us of life it likewise utterly extinguishes in our hearts all the flames of love and anger all the resentments of hatred vengeance and in fine all other passions It causes I say both our joy and trouble to expire together at the same moment whereas absence not onely robs us of all the good that ever death deprives us of but likewise causes all those evils to fall on us to which the other puts a sudden period Our life it self in this occasion is left us but onely to make us the more sensible of the most piercing pain that can be felt and if there be sometimes such people who prefer the absence of the beloved person rather than death 't is because they suffer themselves to be deluded by false appearances t is because that mournful dress in which it is represented affrights them t is because they contemplate it more with their bodily sight than the eyes of the soul t is because they only consider it in what is most terrible and t is in fine because they love themselves better than they doe their Mistresses and prefer the rayes of the Sun above the lustre of her eyes and had rather not see her at all than be deprived of their sight Ha! how ignorant those people are of the true sentiments which love inspires But you will say to me my Lord perhaps you do not seriously consider how great that violence must needs be which separates so close an union as that of soul and body But I shall answer you you do not truly consider your self what a greater violence that must be which for a long season separates that which love reason and inclination seem to have joyned with an eternal and immortal chain Death sage Laertes as you know better than my self is as natural to us as life if it be an evil 't is at least an evil that should not surprize us as soon as we begin to live we ought to begin to learn to die at the first opening of our eyes we should already look on the opening of our graves and every Monarch in the world that hath not renounced common sence cannot be ignorant that as he mounts up to his Throne so he shall once descend into his sepulchre T is not thus in the things of love that passion being altogether divine seizes so imperiously on those whom she possesses and the sight of the beloved person does so absolutely fill all the soul of her adorer that this absence is an evil which still surprizes him and comes so unawares that by consequence it renders him more unhappy than death can which we ought alwayes to expect That amazing instant which parts two persons perfectly loving one another is a sadnesse beyond my expression though I have proved it more cruelly than any other but to make you in some manner comprehend it Imagine to your self my Lord that you were ambitious and that your Crown were torn from you imagine your self were extreamly covetous and that your treasures were all stoln from you imagine you were victorious and that your victory were ravished out of your hands imagine you were shakled with chains whose very weight were insupportable imagine you lost all that is dear to you in the world imagine you were deprived of the light of the day and that you remained in horrid darknesse imagine your heart were torn forth of your bosome and you not yet dead and imagine in fine that I not onely suffered all these pains but that even death how terrible so ' ere it be was the utmost of all my wishes at that sad moment of Ulisses departure Ha! my Lord yet once more how grievous that funest minute was to me death is rather the lulling asleep of all our troubles than any sensible evil and it has nothing trouble some but the way that leads to it But absence is a chain of misfortunes which finds no end but at the end of our lives or the return of the beloved person The first sigh which death does make us breath hath alwayes the advantage of being the last but the first which absence obliges us unto is followed with so many others and accompanied with so many tears so many disturbances so many torments or to speak better so many deaths that its evill suffers no comparison and then to speak rationally death and absence may be taken for one another since both the one and the other equally deprives us of all that we can love but as t is impossible that the loss of all the riches in the