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
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 felicties 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 never thelesse 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 Trohan 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 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
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 under one 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 â—s 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 coverous and that your treasures were all stolâ— 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 troublesome 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 world can be so sensible to us as the absence of the person whom we dearly love since she is in the stead of all unto us so also it is impossible but that that which deprives us of it must be more harsh than death it self which can only take away that good from us which we esteem farre lesse than she But you will say again that death which snatches
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 Ulisses 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 he 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 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 Ulisses 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 captâ—ves though Helena and Penelope are persons very different and although 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
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 Tanered 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 me of that thought and since I have no more than a few minutes to live I must wholly give them to him who otherwhile did save my life to him who at this time does weep my death although it hath hindred his and to him whose cares should immortalize me As well I do not think that my silence would stop
their grief and sometimes of their temperature for a mark of passion Notwithstanding it is absolutely impossible that love and death can ever reign together they think to love their Mistresses and indeed they love only their memory they say they are faithful and constant and yet all their sentiments are changed for of all the tendernesses which true affection inspires there remains nothing in portion to them but grief besides that with time does ordinarily become onely a melancholy habit rather than an effect of their losse or the ressentment they have of it they accustome themselves to sadnesse as to joy their fighes do ease them their tears fall without bitternesse and the recital of their ill fortunes instead of increasing their torments and renewing their displeasures serves them for a pastime and a pleasing divertisement Believe me Arsetes those are not the signs of a violent passion Neverthelesse it is certain that the wisdome of nature works in us whether we will or not this advantageous change Death is an evil too inevitable and too common amongst men to be left without a consolation for the losses it brings and indeed we finde it to be so and reason hath not left us without giving the just limits to the greatest sorrow Ever since the beginning of ages death hath made men shed tears which time hath wiped off again all the children have been comforted for the death of their fathers all the fathers have not despaired at the death of their children the most faithful husbands have attended their wives to their graves without descending therein themselves and the most constant women have buried their husbands and yet did not lie down with them in the same bed of earth In fine Arsetes as there is no joy permanent in this life there ought to be no eternal affection You will tell me that the bands of blood and those of love are things very different and that for the most part the interest of the person beloved has more power in our hearts than any other consideration You will adde to this that we would forsake our Countrey and all our Parents to serve her and that likewise when it happens that we lose her she causes as much affliction she alone as if we lost all together both our Parents that gave us birth and our fortunes and in short all that is left us to lose in the world Though I should agree touching that yet we must still come to my argument which is that either we must comfort our selves after the death of the person whom we love or we must die with her For to think that love is a thing compatible with the darknesse of the grave is a belief of small appearance 't is a thing without reason and without example and which can never happen unless they lose their sence and understanding with their Mistresses As we do not affect what we never see neither ought we to love what we shall never behold more one may preserve the remembrance but we cannot love the beauties since they are no longer in being one may still love the chains and shakels which they wore but as these chains and bands are broken for ever we may without inconstancy or infidelity retake some others provided they be not unworthy of the first We must not break down a golden Statua to put a brass one in the place But amongst some Christians it is usual to adorn the place with more than one Image I do not therefore desire that Tancred should raze out that of his Clorinda intirely from his heart I have more respect to her and more complacence for him I would only have him since he has not renounced all humane society for we know he does both give and receive Orders go to the wars defend his life and imploy the same hand with which he cut the bands that tied him to the service of Clorinda against those whom Clorinda has alwayes served I would I say that having never ceased to be faithfull to his party having never ceased to be valiant in battels and having never forgotten to be generous he may not now omit to be an acknowledger of my affections In the state as things now are he owes nothing but compassion to Clorinda but he owes love to Erminia Clorinda can now no more either love or hate him and Erminia has not only lov'd him before he knew Clorinda but she loves him still even whilst he prefers Clorinda's ashes before Erminia's chaste flames Heavens be my witnesse if I nourish the least thought of hatred against that illustrious person as long as she lived I held as great an esteem of her vertue as I had affection for the Prince whom I loved no Arsetes her death did not rejoyce me on the contrary it did grieve me I honour'd her enough to weep her loss and I loved Tanered enough to desire almost that he might not have such a sad misfortune although according to appearance it might be advantageous to me and if after their interest I may have leave to think of my own I dare avouch again that I believe that I should be less unhappy if Clorinda were not dead than I am now though she be equally incapable to give either love or jealousie Did she yet live I should not take it ill if Tancred would give me but his esteem and friendship and preserved his intire love and passion for her I would say in his defence he loves that which cannot be beloved too much Clorinda is young fair vertuous and valiant and his inclination does prompt him to adore her let us bemoan our fortune then without accusing her that causes it since we can finde nothing to object against his choice But now that Clorinda is no more but a little dust that her youth does subsist no more that her beauty is destroyed that her vertue cannot appear but only by the relations of those that know her that her valour can be no more either useful or hurtful to her friends or enemies and that in fine she is as far distant from us as if she had never been It is not just that Tancred should have more fidelity for the ashes of his enemy than acknowledgment and regard for her who began to love him from the first instant she ever beheld him although that first instant cast her from the Throne to slavery and that the hands which enchained her had torne a Crown from off her Fathers head yea a Crown which should have been placed upon her own temples But perhaps generous Arsetes you do not know all the rights which I have in Tancreds affection by the birth of that love which I have for him it will not then be out of our discourse and way if I tell it you in a few words that so if it happens one day that he hear my reasons with more sweetness than you believe you may not accuse him of infidelity and injustice if he do prefer Erminia
before the ghost or shadow of Clorinda It is likewise necessary for my own glory that you should know that without ceasing to be vertuous reasonable I could begin to love Tancred though he were my Fathers conquerour that I might continue to wish him well though he have not answered my amity and that I am in the right at present to wish from him that he would be content onely to honour the memory of Clorinda and begin to love Erminia You must know then sage and wise Arsetes that when the Christians had pull'd down Antiochus his throne and that they had taken away both his scepter and life who gave me life you may know I say that by the fortune of war I fell into the hands of the Conquerour who as you cannot but know was the same Tancred of whom we now speak But alas why was it that the Conquerour was not more rigorous to me at that time since he will not be merciful now wherefore was it that he did not treat me like a slave then if it be true that he will not treat me like a Mistris now Wherefore was it that he rendred me all the treasures of the King my father then if he will not now render me my own heart again or give me his in exchange and why did he give me my liberty so freely and graciously since he now refuses so cruelly to accept these chains which are less â—ude and heavy Yes faithful Arsetes I acknowledge with some confusion I began to love Tancred then when in appearance I should have begun to hate him His vertue his moderation and his clemency touched my heart sensibly I was his Captain and he respected me as a Queen by the right that Conquerors have over the conquered all our treasures were his and he restored them to me or rather gave them I was his prisoner and he restored me to liberty 't is true that loosening those chains which I wore he put me on some others more strong than those which I was freed from I beheld my liberty as an evil and regreted my servitude as a great good and though I did not know my self in those times wherefore I had such thoughts which seemed so void of reason I know now that the extraordinary generosity of Tancred had already usher'd love into my heart although I were then of an age in which love is unknown Since that what have I not done sometimes to love him no more somtimes to love him dearlier I have beheld him somtimes as an usurper I have considered him as an enemy who had taken away Antiochus's Crown and which is more who had taken away all the quiet of my life by a passion which his generosity had bred in my soul and which I could not overcome But shall I tell it faithful Arsetes after I had beheld him as an usurper and an enemy I always loved him because he was both vertuous and my deliverer and my beloved I have seen him from the walls of Jerusalem shedding the blood of our souldiers without shedding a tear my self I desired the victory but however would not have Tancred be conquered I had found him too mercifull a Conquerour not to desire to have him still in a condition to make known his vertue by doing good rather then in suffering evil Nor could I hear of the peril he was in by reason of his hurts without having a design to save his life who had saved my honour and had given me my liberty You know as well as my selfe that I made use of the valiant Clorinda's armes to get out from Jerusalem and to execute my enterprize But in taking her armes and weapons I did not put on her courage so that I was quickly forced to quit my sword and betake me to the sheep-hook to secure my selfe I have then been Cavalier and Shepherdesse for the insensible Tancred I was also Armida's prisoner in his consideration and that which I finde to be more happy for me is that by that marvellous art which all the Kings my Predecessors have left me in possession I have had the satissaction to render and save the life of my deliverer to dresse his wounds and to heal him in such a time when none but ERMINIA could relieve him You see then Arsetes that the birth of my affection is not criminal since Tancreds sole vertue did breed it You may judge likewise that its continuation is excusable and the design of saving him did contribute much to it and you should also know that Clorinda not living any longer he is obliged to recompence my amity with his owne Clorinda who at this present causes all his grief and possesses all his thoughts had never imployed her armes but to assault him and to pursue him and I stole the armour of Clorinda but onely to save his life Clorinda from whom he had taken neither Crown nor Scepter has alwayes beheld him as an enemy and I from whom he had ravished all even to my very liberty I have alwayes beheld him as a Prince which could and should be my lover I have already told you Arsetes that if your illustrious Mistris did live yet I would not so much as have a thought to dispute her conquest but her misfortune having laid her in her grave you may judge after all that I have said whether it be reasonable to prefer the sepulchre of Clorinda before Erminia for in fine t is not unfaithfulness to abandon those which do abandon us for ever What Arsetes can you apprehend that one may keep a love for that which cannot receive it any more That pleasing interchange of will and desires which is made betwixt lovers can that be made between Clorinda's Tomb and the Prince Tancred No Arsetes that cannot be so all things in the world have their limits so long as the beloved person is living we must follow her over all the earth we must partake of her fortune how unhappy so'ere it be nay we must even die for her if there be occasioÌ„ but if it happens that she dies we must as I have already said either cease to live or cease to love her 't is so absolute a necessity that nothing can oppose it all the ages have shewed us examples of what I say all that despaired have kill'd themselves with their own hands and those that were wise have comforted themselves with their own reason In effect there would be great injustice in the order and course of nature if every time that death does cast one person into the Grave there should be another that must renounce intirely all the society of the living and pass the remainer of his dayes in shedding of fruitless tears and vainly walking about the margent of the grave for truly to speak with sincerity there are scarce any people that die which should not expect those last devoirs either from their friends or from those for whom they had any affection if it were true
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 THE AGENES 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 slaine and clasping your wounded self in my armes almost as dead as they and you were that we were going to finde our graves on that part of an arm of the River Nylus called Her acleetick and that the illustrious race of Perseus from whom I am descended and the noble blood of Achilles from whence you sprung were at the point to perish inevitably in a savage
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 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
away a Crown which puls down your Throne which deprives you of the light does also rob you from the person whom you love she does not forsake you t is true but you leave her and in this manner you do as well lose the sight of her as in absence and likewise lose her for ever I acknowledge sage Laertes that this objection is strong nevertheless it is not impossible to clear it To die before the eyes of those we love is somewhat more comfortable than to remain alive separated from ones lover and husband together to mingle our last tears together with his is less insupportable than to be left alone to weep continually and to leave ones soul betwixt those armes is rather a stricter union with him than a separation In fine to say all in a word after the having given him the last adiew after the having had the satisfaction of knowing the greatnesse of his amour by the greatnesse of his sorrowes after the having if it be permitted to speak so resigned our soul into his hands we have alwayes this advantage to cease to live in ceasing to see him losing the light for ever with his presence and to become insensible of grief as well as of joy The repose and obscurity of the grave are better in this occasion than life the light of day that funest and mortal Lethargy which for ever rocks all our sences into a deep sleep in the cradle of the Tomb is the only remedy which could charm all the evils I now suffer for the absence of my dear Ulisses and as sleep does every night make the happy and miserable to become equall and alike as it does the greatest Princes and the meanest Subjects So death likewise places in the same rank those lovers which injoy the presence of their Mistresses with those which are deprived of it The thicknesse of those shades we meet withal in the grave hinders us for evermore from distinguishing any of the things of this world and death how pitiless so'ere t is described to us is not so cruel but that it promptly heals us of all the evils it causes If it make an ambitious man lose his Crown it deprives him at the same instant both of the diadem and the ambition which rendered it so pleasing to him if it rob the treasures from the possession of the covetous it likewise steals away that avarice from his heart which made him cherish wealth so much and if it disunite two persons dearly loving the least unhappy is he without doubt who loses his life since in losing that he loses both his sence knowledge and memory at the same moment It is not thus in absence we die thereby indeed unto all pleasures but it is only to live unto all pains As soon as ere we lose the sight of the person that reigns in our souls all other passions throng in to tear and torture it Love Hatred Anger Vengeance Jealousie Fear and Hope it self does persecute and war against us We never love more than when we lose the sight of the object of our affection we never hate any thing with so much violence as that which robs us of our beloved we are never more irritated than when our felicity is destroyed we never wish more ardently to revenge our selves than when we are reduced to the terms of despair we are never more jealous than when we cannot be the witnesses of their actions who owe all their fidelity to us we never deserve so much to be pitied as when we fear the death of our lovers and one may likewise say that we are never more unhappy than when we are reduced to that point of having no other consolation than an uncertain and doleful hope which ordinarily serves rather to increase our miseries than to asswage them so true it is that absence is a terrible and fearful evil and so true it is that it converts all the remedies which are presented to it into poyson Do not you imagine my Lord that I have learn'd what I now say either from the example of others or from reason which oft-times teaches us many things which we have never experienced No my Lord I tell you nothing but what my own trial hath verified and would to heaven I were yet ignorant of such sad truths and that death were the only evil which I might apprehend When my dear dear Ulisses was resolved to part and that overswayed by the power of his destiny he separated himself from me love to render this separation the more cruel to me represented him more lovely to me than ever I had beheld him his sorrow augmenting his charmes his silence caused by the affliction he indured in leaving me rendered him more grateful to me than his sweetest eloquence had ever done although that eloquence have inchanted all the earth in fine sage Laertes I then know better than ever I had known till then the price and value of what I had possessed and of what I was then ready to be dispossessed of My love increased I acknowledge it and though I had believed all my life that I could not possibly love my husband more ardently and tenderly than I did love yet neverthelesse I cannot deny but that I found my affection redoubled in that sad instant But when after I had lost his sight the Image of Menelaus presented it self to my mind who had caused his departure hatred seized so powerfully on me that there are no unjust wishes which I made not for him Anger followed hatred and the desire of revenge immediatly stept in after hatred I desired he might not regain Helena I wished he might suffer all his life-time that which I now suffered by his means and I think likewise that in the heat of my resentment I should have made prayers to obtain from heaven that he might have been beaten and his army defeated by the Trojans had I not remembred that he could not be vanquished but that my dear Ulisses must be so to since he was ingaged in the quarrel But my Lord will you think is well that I should shew you all my troubles and discover all my imbecilities Yes since it is onely by that means that I can prove to you that absence is worse than death After then that I had resented all the most violent effects of love anger hatred I found my self again assaulted by Jealousie Ulisses went to a place where they might take such prisoners as were capable to enchain their vanquishers and masters as the examples of Agamemnon and Achilles has since taught us Imagine then the trouble that this thought excited in my heart it was so great that if the fear of Ulisses 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