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
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
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
of the grandeur of her courage of her experience in her youth of her success in combats of the purity of her soul of the innocency of her life and of the glory of her death It concerns me little that you should publish how I was born upon the throne it suffices that you perswade them I was worthy and that your self be perswaded that my defeat is honourable to you I perceive that this discourse redoubles your anguish and that you had rather not have vanquish'd than buy the victory by my loss Do not however regret so much an unhappy person neither accuse your self to have cōmitted so great a crime The Clorinda whom you fought is not she whō you behold The other was an infidel an enemy of all Christians by consequence yours and this on the contrary is at present better instructed more enlightened and more rational since she dies with a great esteem and acknowledgment for Tancred But however you will tell me she dies by the hand of that Tancred it is true I shall answer but she dies for her glory None amongst mortals ought to have been her conqueror but him that was so generous as to weep for his victory The blood she should have lost in any other encounter would have sullied her reputation it must needs be then for the honour of her arms that she lose her life by your hand that so she might live eternally and then illustrious Prince if the hazard of the war had not made us meet and chance your valour had not brought me to these conditions I am in never had Clorinda given you any marks of her acknowledgments she had an austere vertue which would alwayes have obliged her to treat you like an enemy you have sweetned the haughtiness of her soul by overcoming her her pride hath been weaker than your civility and the death which she receives from your hands causes her to entertain your love without anger and hatred which she would never have done at any other time Do not then complain of the rigour of the adventure since to it you owe a part of my esteem I had admired your courage in battels but I confesse that I had not so perfectly known your generosity after the victory There be more valiant souldiers than merciful and debonair Conquerours and more men that are able to spill the blood of their enemies than to shed tear upon their graves Cease then cease from afflicting your self and complaining for me death not being harsh to me methinks you should comfort your self like me and in fine you ought to resolve to that which you cannot possible shun If I had lived longer what happiness more could you have expected you should never have seen Clorinda but with her weapons in hand is not it better since heaven will have it so that you never see her more her Idea will be more pleasing to you than she her self would have been in such a posture and in the humour she is of she is content you should love her memory but perhaps she would not have had you love her person otherwise Acknowledge with me therefore the advantages that this victory gives you and do not murmur inconsiderately for that which you cannot hinder Moderate your sorrow that it may last the longer I receive my death with tranquility suffer my losse with patience but never lose the memory of what I was You will restore my life in preserving my image in your heart but a life more noble and more glorious and for the which I have so often hazarded the other All that Clorinda hath done hath been but to immortalize her name hinder then by your cares that it be not buried in oblivion and if it be true as I cannot doubt it that your soul is altogether generous do not change your minde since I am going to be in an estate which suffers no more change I die with much admiration for your vertue live with a great esteem of my courage bear even from my grave to your owne the affection which you say you have for me and when misfortune will have you quit this life let it be ordained that an Image of Clorinda be inclosed in your Tomb let her be yet found imprinted in your heart and that nothing be so puissant as to deface and blot it out 'T is in vulgar souls that time and absence destroyes the fair opinions which vertue alone had impressed but amongst Heroick persons time absence nor death it self are not able to change their inclinations They love in the grave that which they loved in the world the remembrance of that pleasing object serves in lieu of their persons and as they have loved without hope and interest they preserve without infidelity and without trouble the amity which they had promised Certainly there would be somewhat of cruel and unjust to lose together the life the light and the affection of our friends we do revive again if we live in their memory raise up therefore your Clorinda in this manner and do not make her die yet once more in so cruel a manner far worse than the former The first is an effect of your skill of your courage and of her fate and the second would be one of your forgetfulness of your indifferency and if I may speak so of your ingratitude Yes generous Prince I may make use of those terms and I dare believe that you will not think it ill if Clorinda believes she obliges you sensibly when even she imploys the last moments of her life to testifie to you the true esteem she hath conceived of your extream vertue Do not then be wanting of acknowledgment since you see I am not wanting in it receive the regret I have for not having served you as an undubitable proof that I should have done it had I lived longer But render also to my ashes and to my name the honours and the cares which you would have rendered to Clorinda had she survived longer Do not fear that her ghost shall affright you when you shall visit her grave nor that with a querulous and moaning voice she will reproach you for her death No Tancred you shall behold no more neither Clorinda nor her shadow you shall hear no more neither her voice nor her plaints But alas I know I increase your sorrow in thinking to cure it that the testimonies of amity which I render you do cause more affliction than they bring joy that I am so far unhappy as to trouble you even when I would serve you that I pierce your heart when my own is readie to expire and that I am more dreadful to you dying and dis-armed than I was to you in the midst of Combats I shall therefore tell you nothing more that may augment your tears I will hide a part of my mind from you for fear of stirring yours and for fear likewise lest your imbecility should take hold of me Ha! no no I repent
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
Achilles your father and my enemy For let them not tell me that he was become my lover ever since the sad day wherein he saw me at my brothers funeral or that 't is yet through a sentiment of affection that his ghost will have me sacrificed upon his Tomb No Pyrrhus no Achilles was but my enemy and never was my lover however I shall say that for my own part at least I had rather be his Victime than to have been his Mistris Polixena's eyes would be guilty if they could have infused love into her brothers murtherer and she would esteem her self very unhappy if any could suspect her to have contributed any thing to such a kind of conquest I have wish'd to pierce his heart I confess but never to subdue it to me I have desired his death but not his love and I in fine have had all the hatred that one can have for the enemy of ones blood the destroyer of ones Countrey and for Hectors murderer That if nevertheless you will publish to all the world that the great Hectors vanquisher has been vanquished not by the beauty of Polixena but by her sorrow only proclaim also that Polixena has not been orecome by the submissions of Achilles that the tears he has shed hath not washed off the blood her brother lost by his hand and that when Priam and all the Trojan Princes would for the publick good have immolated her to Achilles passion thereby to obtain a peace proclaim I say that she did oppose it with all her strength that she never consented and that the death she prepares her self to receive this day is the only complacence she hath ever had for Achilles passion O gods who ever beheld such a token of love as that I shall presently receive Achilles as t is said was Polixena's lover but let us see a little what testimonies he has given her of that passion and respect he hath had for her So long as he lived he has imployed his valour onely against all whom she did love and against all those whom she ought to love I have seen him that cruel Achilles pursue all my friends with such spleen that it had more of fury than of true courage I have seen him an hundred times from the top of our Rampiers bathe his hands in my blood But ô pitiful spectacle I have seen him fight the valiant Hector or to say better I have beheld all the gods incens'd against us making use of his arm to surmount him who surmounted all others Yes I have seen the invincible Hector fall to the dust by the will of heaven only and by the only cruelty of Achilles I have seen that Achilles not only fight my brother not only make him lose his life but I have seen him by an inhumanity which never could be parallel'd use many outrages on that body of his enemy quite dead as it was I have seen him load himself with his spoils I have seen him give him several wounds when he had no more sence of feeling I have seen him tie him to his Chariot he who should never have gone but in a Chariot of triumph I have seen him compass our wals about three times dragging that illustrious Hero bound by the feet his head hanging in the dust blood But what do I say could Polixena behold all these things without dying or that which is most strange could Polixena cause any love in the cruellest of her enemies Yes Polixena has lived and her tears as t is said have softned the heart of the pitilesse Achilles he wept with her at Hectors funeral he desired a peace with Priam and demanded his daughter of him But at the same time ô prodigie of extravagance as well as cruelty he did yet once more wash his hands in that unfortunate womans own brothers blood whom he intended to make his wife he hath slain Troilus with the same hand with which he slew Hector and with that same hand he would afterwards have taken Polixena for his spouse if she had been so unworthy as to consent to it Are those the marks of love or of hatred Is it a lover or an enemy that acts in this manner Or to speak more truly are not those the actions of a man furious and distracted For my part I confess to you all these things are incomprehensible to me for if Achilles were but my enemy why should he weep at Hectors funeral and if he were become my lover why did he yet tear in pieces one of my brothers with a Tygers cruelty But that which astonishes me and wrongs me most is that he could imagine that I was capable to hearken to his complaints and sighs to forget the deaths of my brothers to be their enemies Mistris and their murderers wife This thought is so injurious to Polixena that she cannot possibly comprehend it should ever enter into the heart of Achilles how inhumane so'ere he was She cannot imagine I say that he could have believed that Hectors sister were so unworthy to do it for had he been but her adversary as all other Greeks are she would not easily have believed that he had any love for her nor would ever have consented to his unjust passion Judge then if after that which I have told you she could have been perswaded that Achilles was her lover and far lesse consent to his affection But let 's see a little the sentiments he preserves for her in his grave t is there that the Grecians and the Trojans should end their differences t is in the grave that all the world becomes of one party that love and hatred ought to cease Notwithstanding it seems that Achilles is not satisfied with the utter ruine of Priams whole Empire The burning of Troy is not a sufficient pile for his funeral nor is his ghost contented with all the blood the Trojans have lost His ashes must be sprinkled with Polixena's and for a token of the love he had for her his son must needs become her executioner and since he could not have her for his wife she must now become his victime Truly to love in this manner one must be both a Grecian and Achilles together Do not think how'ere that I complain of this cruel proceeding on the contrary I render thanks to the gods for their bounty in shortning my thrid by this means in the condition of my present fortune death cannot but be advantageous to me and to make it welcome they could not choose better than to make me lose my life on the tomb of Achilles To die in this manner is to die triumphant 't is to behold ones enemy at ones feet 't is to be revenged for all the outrages and affronts one hath received and t is to climb the Throne when we descend thus into the Grave and if against my will you perceive some marks of sorrow in my countenance do not believe it is any effect of my fear or
I take as great care to break their chains as she did to manacle them O heavens who ever heard such amorous discourses as these indiscreet people make to court me to an approbation of their fond passions and to gain my belief that their intentions are legitimate Ulysses is dead say these impatient men and by consequence our love does not offend you ha if Ulysses be dead do I reply then with tears nothing but a grave is fit for Penelope and if he be not you are cruel and not judicious to come and sigh at her feet who sighs for his absence who can never behold you but as her enemies rather than her lovers Judge after this my Lord if any thing can be added to the troubles I suffer leave me then the liberty to preferre death before absence the one makes the body suffer more than the spirit and the other torments the spirit more than the body the one puts a period to all misfortunes the other gives birth to all miseries the one is an evil which indures but an instant the other is a despair which may last all the life the one does but extinguish all our passions the other is a Tyrant which makes them rule successively in our souls in fine death is but onely death and absence is a series or chain of murders torments disquiets fears jealousies angers despairs and continual deaths In absence we make vowes which contradict one another ve make wishes for which we repent again we expect alwayes to behold that which we fear we shall never see again we hope and apprehend at the same time we fancy dangers which never were we accuse with unjustice those whom we bemoan and cherish with reason we sometimes hate our selves we blame our own sorrow and yet will not be comforted we hide our tears and yet desire not that time should wipe them from our cheeks we envy anothers happiness we fly from society and solitude is insupportable we behold all what we would not see and cannot be so blessed as to see that which we would ever behold we seek after that which we are assured not to find and in a word we finde our selves in a condition to wish for death and prefer it before absence yea to make supplications to obtaine that which all the world fears and from which all the world does flie The effect of this HARANGUE ONe may believe that Ulysses return was the effect of this Harangue and that the Heavens did grant it to such tender and passionate sentiments since after he had strayed so many years on the Sea and Land he returned to the imbraces of his wife Penelope his father Laertes and Telemachus his son and this wise and illustrious person beheld him again in that Island where she so much longed for him BRISEIS TO ACHILLES The Ninth HARANGUE The Argument AChilles becomming inamoured with Polixena at Hectors funeral would to facilitate the happy success of his love make a peace betwixt the Trojans and Greeks and that he might behold his new Mistris upon so fair a pretext he came even into Troy whilst the truce lasted So extraordinary a thing caused all the people to murmur in the Camp and rendered him suspitious to the whole Army but amongst others Briseis a captive Princess whom Achilles had much loved before this infidelity received thereby an affliction beyond compare So that for her own interest and likewise the Princes whose glory she was obliged to preserve she took in fine the confidence to represent unto him the wrong he would do her and that which would likewise accrue unto himself Now as he was of a violent humour and a spirit apt to be moved this remonstrance did but stir his anger insomuch that he treated Briseis as a slave and spake to her with a Magisterial accent that 's to say very imperiously This unjust proceeding brought this Lady to despair and as despair makes weapons of all things and that from exeream timidity one runs sometimes even to audacity she undertook to maintain in his presence That one may be both Slave and Mistris BRISEIS TO ACHILLES YEs yes cruel Achilles I see my chains and feel a slave though I had never beheld the one and had alwayes been ignorant of the other the usage I have received this day would teach me but too much what my condition is and also both what the misfortune is that accompanies it and the shame that waits upon it You are without doubt my master your actions and your words do testifie it enough and passing very far beyond the limits of the legitimate power of my Master you become my Tyrant and make me suffer a punishment unworthy both of your self and me But what ever Pride you have and what ever humility you would have me to have I cannot forget in wearing your fetters that I should wear a Crown that I was not born such as you would have me die that my hand was destined for a Scepter not for a chain and that in taking away my Throne you have not taken down my heart as we receive Kingdomes and Empires from the hands of fortune so she being avaritious and capritious can take away again what she had bestowed but as we have our generosity onely by nature who is too wise to change her counsels and too liberal to take away her gifts again so we preserve that even to our graves we can shew that at liberty in the midst of slavery make it in fine triumph over tyrants as well as tyrāny Do not expect therefore that I should continue to complain poorly of your infidelity that I should let fall any shameful tears or that I should shed them needlesly that I should give such satisfaction to my Rival as to behold my shame in the day of her glory and my sorrow amidst her pleasures Or briefly that I my self should add to my disgraces that of not being able to undergoe them No Achilles no I will complain no more of your inconstancy I will call you ingrateful no more I will not say you are wavering nor will I any more reproach you that either you heard not or that you heard but in fury Continue to betray me if you think good passe from the Grecians to the Trojans Camp from our Trenches over their Ramparts and if this be not yet enough adore your enemies Kiss I say Polixena's hand if she be so unworthy as to indure that his who murthered her brother Hector dare to approach so neer hers neither forget any thing that can satisfie her of whatso'ere may cause affliction to me or dishonour to your self I consent Achilles I consent whether perforce or voluntarily no matter if so be you are pleased if so be you appear my mastet if so be I appear your slave and that I voluntarily indure your inconstancy without murmuring But do not expect that I will suffer you to goe on from inconstancy to pride and from pride
that we were both going to die and to die in so pitiful a manner fate changed the face of things I was discovered and known to be what I was before the City of Meroe my Sacrifier was found to be my Father the victime was found to be his daughter Hydaspes and Persina found an heiress the Ethiopians found a new Queen and Theagenes and Cariclia who know that those which have not had any evil cannot know what pleasure is found themselves almost happy I say almost generous Prince because our apprehensions did not yet cease and that my fathers scrupulous devotion believ'd that nature was too weak to hinder him to acquit himself of what he owed to the gods But if that too nice zeal did give us trouble the publick cry which made it end did no less rejoyce us You will tell me perhaps that this unhop'd for good concern'd me only that that which saved me did not save you that the hand which spared me would yet sacrifice you that you combated a Bull whose rage was terrible that you fought a Gyant whose strength was no lesse that they would constrain me to marry Meroebe that at the same time in which they put the royal Bandeau about my temples they would have put the mortal Scarf over your eyes and that I was fain once more to walk on burning coals wiehout any other assistance than my own purity having before left my Pantarbe But in fine Theagenes this happiness became equal to us you were spared as I was saved the hand which shielded me did not strike you the Bull neither frighted nor hurt you the Gyant did but encrease your glory Meroebe was the captive that adorned your triumph the flame by its lustre imparted some both to your vertue and mine Cariclia and Sisimithres finished our prosperities and from the feet of those altars of the gods where we then were we presently were raised up gloriously to the Kings Throne where we now are Acknowledge then my dear Theagenes as well as I that it belongs not but to those that have been unfortunate to say they are happy that 't is but only after our disgraces that our felicities are sweet that by troubles onely we can come to judg of quiet and rest and that those who never have undergone any evil cannot truly know what pleasure is For my part I find so much satisfaction in remembring my troubles and the memory is so grateful and so precious to me that far from banishing it from my soul I wish not onely that it may be always there but that this glorious Image may alwayes be in the memory of all men Let there be found a Painter both faithful and skilful and happy enough to trace a picture of it that Posterity may behold it that our adventures may be known wherever the Sun gives light that our amours be talked of in all the languages of the world that the Ethiopian History be not hid from any that we may have an hundred Imitators of our pleasures and sufferings that we may be the rule model of all other lovers and that from age to age the whole Universe may alwayes admire Theagenes and Cariclia The effect of this HARANGUE TRuly one may say that these last wishes have obtained the effect of this Harangue since the reputation of this brave Romance will never have an end and that there are few others which do not owe something to it It s Authour who preferr'd the preservation of this pleasing Book before his Bishoprick did no bad office to those who since himself have medled to compose the like and they and I are obliged to acknowledge that though we have not servily imitated him it is neverthelesse certain that we owe much to this great example POLIXENA TO PYRRHUS The Seventh HARANGUE The Argument AS the Grecians were returning to their Countrey after the taking of Troy the ghost of Achilles appeared to them which with a fearful and threatening voice reproached their ingratitude and forgetfulnesse and in fine demanded of them for recompence of his grand exploits and the life which he had lost in that long famous siege of Illium that Polixena the daughter of Priam of whom he had been enamour'd should be sacrificed upon his Tomb. Though this demand were infinitely cruel the fear of a dead man whom the Grecians had so much dreaded living made him obtain what he demanded so that Pyrrhus his son went and took her to immolate her to his fathers pittiless ghost and 't was at that sad instant that we do suppose that this beauteous and generous Princess made this discourse to him as you are going to see by the which she pretended to prove to him That death is better than servitude POLIXENA TO PYRRHUS FEar not that the desire of life will make me have recourse to tears thereby to excite compassion in your soul Polixena's heart is too great to fear death and her spirit is too reasonable and too generous not to prefer it before slavery Those who are forced to descend from the Throne withviolence ought not to apprehend their descent into the grave it is better they should cease to live than that they should begin to become slaves and it is better to become nothing at all than to survive their glory and their happiness Do not fear therefore that the Victime will escape from the foot of the altar she desires her death which you are going to give her she beholds without horrour the knife which must pierce her brest nor does Achilles ghost demand the end of her life with more are dency than she her self does crave it What do you stay for then to perform this funest ceremony there is no need you should busie your selves with all the preparations of an ordinary sacrifice for I do not think there is any one of the gods that can favourably receive that which you are going to offer this day The Victime is pure and innocent I confess but if I am not deceived it will stain that hand that shall shed its blood the Sacrifier will become criminal and the sacrifice will be of no advantage but only to the oblation it self But what shall I do in this occasion it seems hearing me speak in this manner that I would with-hold the arm that should strike me No Pyrrhus 't is not my design on the contrary I seek to irritate you thereby to hasten my death 'T is with impatience and disquiet that I perceive that my birth my youth and my present condition inspires you with some sence of tenderness nay I fear also that my constancy does make you take some compassion and apprehend in fine all that one lesse generous than my self would desire But remember not to let you bow to any pity that you are a Grecian and I a Trojan that you are Achilles son that I am daughter to Priam and Paris sister who to revenge the death of generous Hector kill'd that cruel