of my Cave and with all speed came running to me I was no less astonished at the beauty of the youth than amazed to see him in such an unfrequented place for during thirty years that I spent in this solitary place I never beheld the face of any here before him whom after my mean manner I have entertained for some years not being able to direct him to the Foresters habitation This story told with so much gravity and deliberation so moved Periander to compassion as that he resolved to accompany young Pandion into Thessalia and there by all means endeavor his restauration which however if he could not effect yet he would render himself renowned for his high Attempt and therefore blessed his Fortune which though hitherto had been adverse to him yet now had presented him with such an happy occasion and so fit a place for a Theatre whereon to Act the Heroick Exploits which were already transacted within his thoughts Neither was Athalus less desirous of acting a part in that honorable enterprise so much of his spirits had not steamed forth from those streams of bloud as to enfeeble both his body and mind but still he was as propense to embrace any action that required valour for its performance as ever but the weakness of his body would not permit him to undertake any thing proportionable to the greatness of his mind For though the care and diligence of the Hermit had brought him from a despair of life yet not out of danger of death should he be too negligent of himself so that with a seeming unwilling willingness he yielded to Perianders and the Hermits perswasions rather to return to his Castle and when necessity should require assist them with Forces from thence And though it was the wound uncured in his body that was the pretence it was chiefly the wound incurable in his heart that made him withdraw which nothing could heal but a Sympathetick Plaister applyed to the Dart that gave the wound and that was Matilda's Beauty and therefore to her must he return if he will ever find ease which accordingly he determined to do Having made these conclusions among themselves they walked abroad to refresh themselves and Athalus who for several days had not tasted the fresh Air the Hermit entertaining them with discourses one while of the vanity of Sublunary delights how that their greatest perfection is but imperfection and in their best injoyment attended with annoy and how â—â—itting transitory and fading and how unreasonable for a reasonable Soul of such a depurate immaterial and supercelestial Nature and therefore a fit soil for the most sublime thoughts and enravishing affections to spring up in to delight it self in such course embracements Then he would be lavish in the praises of a contemplative life the happiness and sweet repose of solitude how that freed from the worlds tumultuary distractions and Corroding cares the Soul doth mount aloft upon the Wings of Contemplation above the Star-glistring Heavens and satiate her self with Angelical delights that reside in a higher Sphere than Nature and thence descending taste what excellency Heaven and Earth will present which as a solemne repast after such transporting and rapturous delights fills and dilates the Soul with excess of joy and contentation Can any humane Artifice said he please and delight the eye as it doth the intellectual eye of the Soul to see with what unwearied swiftness the rowling Heavens whirl the sparkling Globes of light and with such violence as if it meant to sling them out of the Universe had not Nature there unmoveably riveted them to see how the envious Moon as it were repining at her brothers glories strives maliciously to obscure and hide them from the view of the admiring world by interposing her opake body between it and the Suns refulgent Beams and then how the Earth to requiâ—e that maligne interposition wrappeth her in a misty shade and makes darkness triumph over her and plunder her of all her resplendent lightsomness and render her invisible that gives visibility in the mids of darkness to all sublunary beings To read the events of all things written in Golden Characters by the hand of the All-seeing Deity To see how the revolutions and alterations of persons and actions depend upon their circumvolutions what earthly Palace can compare with that where the worlds great Monarch keeps his Court invironed with an Aethereal Wall whose ten arched stories borders upon the Empyreal Palace moated with a Crystalline Ocean guarded with hoasts of twinkling partizans whose gilded shields and glistering Spears reflect back the Suns radiant glances to see the flaming Courtiers clad in golden Treasses dance to the Musick of the Spheres roving and traversing the transparent floor with such confused order as if they measured each pace by the sweet Charmes of the Musicks modulations whose harmonious accents consist of disagreeing concords so they are most constant and regular when most irregularly inconstant Neither are there wanting Tiltings and Turnaments and feats of Chivalry for how often doth the Sun himself mounted in his glory-beaming Chariot sâ—od with burning bosses run the Celestial Ring with all his flaming attendants pursuing after in their full career through Heavens arched Galleries The Air is his Kitchin where his Cates are prepared the Clouds the steam that ascends from his boyling Caldron Thus they went the Hermit beguiling the time with his grave discourses till they came to the top of the Hill which proudly elevating it self above the humble valleys and levelling plains blest their Eyes with the most delightsom prospects the Country could afford there might you have seen Art and Nature joyn in Consort and strive to present a most beautiful Harmony to the eyes There were the natural Theatres of lofty Hills where the most refined gusts of air would dance to the warbles of the winged Choristers chirping under the green Canopies of shady Groves Vales treasuring up silver Rivers which gently gliding would steal away beholders senses by which the Shepherds would sit feeding their Flocks whilst the wanton Lambs would dance to the Musick of their Oaten Pipes Not far distant stood a pleasant Town on the side of a Hill compassed with green Meadows water'd with the â—ilver streams of little bubling Rivers that strayed to and fro in wanton Meanders the streets so intermixed with shady Trees seemed as if the Woods had left their melancholy retiredness and grown sociable meant to inhabit the Town or as if the Town had left its chearful sociablenesse and grown to a kind of civil wildness meant to inhabit the Woods or rather as a marriage between both Hither did Periâ—nder Pandion and Athalus repair to furnish themselves and Pandion especially with Armour and all acouttements fit for their intended undertakings having first taken leave of the good old Hermit and returned millions of thanks for his charitable kindness telling him that they counted their present unhappiness chiefly to consist in this that thereby
passions but recovering her self she thus began to complain What fatall Star is this whose Pestilential influence doth afflict me with succedaneous sorrows and makes me daily fill the air with Complaints as if my soul were griefs Exchequer Misery and despair hath arrested all my powers that all my words and thoughts are steeped in brine sorrows and not a part of me but is forced to bear a part in this Consort to make a horrid harmony in woe My tongue the Organ of my soul blown by the sighing Bellows of my heart never ceaseth its mournful tones whilst the tears flow in such unmeasurable measure from the floud-gates of my Eyes as if my very Soul would be disfused out of those perpetual streaming sluces Not a thought but is sacrificed to him on the Altar of a constant mind And that that confounds me with endless woe and makes my woes endlesly profound is not only an utter despair of ever being blest with the fruition of him which alone were able to kill a lip-sick Lover who with quaint Rhetorications can paint his Mistress face and curl her hair with better art than she her self and think her tears love philters each sentence a heart-charming Exorcism and every frown to dart a death but that my affections should be insnated by one for fading skin-thick beauty whose worth and valour and all that might render him excellent I am wholly ignorant of But Ah! my Soul how darest thou entertain a dishonorable thought of one by externals Natures Minion and thy darling would Nature have Compiled so beautiful a fabrick to be a receptacle for a deformed soul Certainly she would not have made such a Cabinet but to place a Jewel in it and that of no mean value neither do we not see how she hath framed the heavenly Orbes of a more pure quintessential nature than these course-grained Elementary bodies set with glistring spangles garnished with millions of golden Scutchions and all to be a fit Pavilion for the Sun the worlds great General And what is this dull blockish earth but for blind Moles Dens of wild Beasts graves of dead putrisying Corps and at best for man to tread on and as for Trees Plants and Flowers do we not see how they not induring to be imprisoned within its bowels break forth striving to ascend and leave it but that the Earth as loth to part with them fetters them by the roots And wherefore hath she made this Microsm Man the Epitome and total summ of all the worlds Excellencies but that it may befit to contain such an Angelical Soul And will she now be so preposterous as to make Pausanias excell all in beauty but that he excels all in vertue But what 's all this to me I do but Tantalize my self with these fond thoughts since cruel Fortune separates me from him Thus she walked regardless whither she went until she was surprized with a glimmering light appearing through the leaves and boughes the suddenness whereof silenced her incomposed thoughts so that now she be took her self to see what should cause these twinkling sparks of light and having gone some few paces forward she came to a little Plain at the foot of a Hill where lay the Relicks of a stately Edifice as might plainly appear by the ruins of it upon which there stood a Chapel defaced by Antiquity so that it was rather venerable than beautiful only the situation of it made it seem one of the sweetest places in the earth neer the Chapel there was a Crystall Rivulet whose curled streams ran softly along murmuring that their Envious pursuers would crowd them thence so soon And passing through a Grove she came to the Chapel and entering into it she espyed a Lamp and an Inkhorn and Paper lying upon a Table of Stone she took the Paper and looked into it in which were written these Verses Then must I live and will none pitty lend By ending me at once to put an end To these my pains and tears which ne're will cease Untill by death my Soul obtains release Then when O Soul wilt flye and leave these Chains Wherewith this Body cloggs thee and these pains These never ceasing pains tormenting fires Which daily burn to feed some fond desires But Ah! poor Soul long since th' art fled and gone To her 'twixt whom ther 's such an union Made by affection that although by death I should this body to the grave bequeath Yet sooner can thy self dissolved be And loose that knot of immortality Which makes thy woes eternal than be able To loose that Union which Love makes so stable Passions are like the flame which once being felt Within the breast the Soul like Wax both melt Th' Idea is th' Impression which receiv'd Of it the spirit ne'er can be bereav'd What then if thou above the Clouds wert fled And left this clayie body pale as Lead What wilt avail if when thon dost divest Thy self of it thou canst not be at rest Though left this Prison if these passions fly And still bereave thee of thy liberty If when this body 's burnt and in an Urn Yet then with greater endless fires dost burn Only this hope remains that though they may Ascend great Natures dictates to obey When thou their flaming Center dost attain They with that fiery Element will remain Mean while to all vain pleasures bid farewell Since th' art exil'd from her that doth excell What Earths vast Wombe or Heavens influence Did e're produce all other excellence Is but an Empty name if not in her She is the substance others shadows are They 'r wise fair vertuous if like her for she Is Wit and Beauty patience chastity Then since by cruel fates we parted are Henceforth I will be wedded to despair She read the Verses and her own Experience made her to pity the Author so that more out of Compassion than desert she commended them considering also they were the lines of one submerst in sorrows and therefore unable to soar aloft on the wings of an airy fancy And having paused a while she heard a sigh accompanied with a silent but a deep-fetcht groan which was eccho'd back by another from her being moved thereto by the thoughts of her own hard fortune which thoughts made her the more to pity him whose condition so neerly resembled hers insomuch that a Pearl-like tear was ready to distill from her Eyes but her curiosity putting her upon a farther inquiry she took the Lamp and went to the place whence the air convey'd those sad accents to her ears The first Species that presented it self to her view was one in black upon a bed and seeing him possess'd with Sleep Deaths image together with his pale looks sorrows continual concomitant she almost thought he was a Carcase not a man but that she remembred she heard him sigh About his wrist was a Bracelet of Hair in which were wrought in Letters of Gold these verses Though cruel fortune makes us part
altered which many observed as also how he affected solitariness to walk and talk alone sometimes breathing forth his complaints in the Groves and Gardens sometimes inwardly sighing and groaning as if his heart held a dialogue with sorrow And when he was in company his thoughts ran so much of Amphigenia as all the jollity and recreation the Court did abound in seemed to him but unnecessary Parentheses and tedious digressions to that sweet subject that his soul silently discoursed of And when he was in Hiarbas presence though his policy would compell him to throw off those mourning weeds wherein grief had attired his countenance lest he should lay a foundation for suspicion in Hiarbas thoughts yet the countenance holds such a sympathy with the mind that it is very difficult so to counterfeit a contrary affection that a judicious eye in every lineament of the face may not read the dissimulation so that Hiarbas could not but by every action discern the passion wherewith he was affected his dull dejected looks his impertinent discourse his frequent sobbing abrupt sighing and the very tone of his voice that did plainly proclame his heart held a correspondence with sorrow This suddain alteration in Danpions countenance and behaviour bred admiration in many Noblemen of the Court but especially one Bascanius a great emulator and corrival of Danpions observing his deportments that he might discover the cause of his grief which he conjectured could not be ordinary since the effect was so superlative and extraordinary he on a day in a private place meeting with Kalapistus Danpions Page examined him very strictly concerning his Lord what the cause was of his extremity of grief whether he was in love and had received some repulse or whether he had committed any traiterous fact and feared discovery the latter of which he chiefly hoped might be the distemper and if so he in his thoughts had soon found a remedy to wit remediless disgrace and ruine Kalapistus of late having unjustly as he thought received a box on the ear from his Master as he was walking with him in the Cypress-grove the occasion of which being onely this Danpion as was said delighting much in solitudes and soliloquies one morning walked forth with his Page into the Grove where through intensness of mind forgetting that he was attended he fell into a lamentation of his hopeless condition and despairing affection and through vehemence of passion at length giving liberty to his voice to declare his sorrows something louder than ordinary his words were retorted back to his ears by Eccho which Danpion hearing minding not whence the voice came on a sudden turned round and espying his Page presently entertained a conceit it was he that repeated his words and so for his misconceived sawâ—iness gave him that correction which being more than his due he with an ingrateful kind of gratitude resolved to requite it when opportunity presented And now fortune endeavouring like Penelope in a night of black adversity to unweave that golden web of happiness wherewith she had hitherto invested Danpion incited this faithless Boys evil Genius to inspire his mind with so much hellish rancor as to betray his Lord which he did to Bascanius's great satisfaction telling him how his Lord was in Love with Amphigenia and what means he used to gain her affection and how he once sent him in the night into her Chamber attired like an Angel with a pretended letter from Venus and what a secret passage he had through a crankling vault to her Chamber and many things so to Bascanius's content as that he gave him fifty Sestercies telling him my sweet Boy said he thou art my Paris and I accept this news from thee with higher resentments than the Cytherean Queen on Ida's top received the golden Apple from the fair Trojan shepherd and I doubt not but by thy means to procure that Helena of glory so courted by us but yet by him ravished from us With these words they parted Bascanius being a man of an implacable malice repining at every beam of honor that shone from his Peers never allaying the surges of rage and envy till he had swallowed up his Competitors a great suter to fortune and had obtained her for his Paramour till of late she wedded her self to Danpion bringing with her her whole dowry of honor and riches and every thing else that makes her so desirable having thus discovered a passage to the haven of contentment resolved since the wind blew so prosperously from such a corner of the heavens not to lose the benefit of success proffered him in the access of so fit a means to procure Danpions declension but though he was rejected by fortune yet since he was thus courted by opportunity he would not slight its importunities And being Danpion was so great a Favourite it was not therefore safe for him to obey the violent impulse of his inordinate Passion which prompted him to nothing but present satisfying of his Malice that thirsted for Danpion's immediate ruine but rather to wake slowly and securely For having no other to testifie Danpion's affection to Amphigenia but his Page he feared lest if he should inconsiderately inform the King without some more pregnant confirmations of it than his own and the Boyes bare affirmations the King should discern his envy and so the ruine he intended Danpion might attend himself And therefore to bring about his purposes he intices Kalapistus with promise of a most liberal reward to bring him those clothes in which his Master was arrayed whâ—n Amphigenia saw him in the Grove The Boy having gratified his desires 〈◊〉 on a day attires himself in them and watching his opportunity when Amphigenia was bathing her self he rudely rushes into the Garden and comes upon her just as she was come out of the silver streams which seemed to murmur for her departure having onely a rich thin mantle cast over her naked body Bascanius who had never before beheld so much excellency contracted and united could not but gaze himself into admiration and astonishment that he thought her to be the very refined Elixar of all perfections and every part of her a small volume of all created excellencies in heaven or earth epitomiz'd and writ in golden Characters he thought her to be some incarnate Angel clad with a body composed of the same quintessential matter with the heavens but refined to such a purity and even transparency that every part seemed a burning mirror wherein the Angelical beams it inclosed were united to the inflaming of all beholders in fine she seemed in a definite circumference to set forth an infinite beauty so that Bascanius stood a while even ravished with a stupefying contentation as if he had lost his soul in that world of beauty or as if all the faculties of his mind thronging together to behold that wonder had overwhelmed each other What shall I say to describe his unexpressible admiration were a task fitter for those sublime
Yet you remain within my Heart FLORINDA With her looking upon the Bracelet by the dazeling Lamp she waked him which she perceiving Pity a quality inseparable from the best Natures made her thus address her speech to him Sir whoever you are that thus separate your self from the World by being Cloystered within these doleful walls let not a too passionate sorrow prevail over all the faculties of your Soul and Reason it self which ought to be the helm whereby we steer our course through the fluctuating billows of sorrow Take advice of one who though a stranger to you yet not to these passions wherewith I perceive you burn do not lavish out your self in a spontaneous grief lest your tears prove Omens and presage a greater evil Tears are too brackish to quench and Sighs are but wind and more apt to excite than extinguish these flames therefore leave this retiredness and who knows but Florinda may be yours although hitherto some Sinister frowns of Fortune hath blasted your proceedings which continually attend those who by Vertue aspire to Honour and Happiness Periander's spirits for such was his name receiving so sweet an alarm uttered in such a compassionate manner as made it plainly evident her own passions bred that sympathy made him think she was some tutelary Angel sent from Heaven out of pity to direct him and as if the very name of Florinda had as it were by a prophetick Enthusiasm thus derived to him breathed new life into him he rouzed up his senses and with a trembling and as it were dying voice uttered this reply Who is it that thus by endeavours cruelly merciful rips up my wounds fondly thinking thereby to cure them Is that the way to ease a grief-burthened soul to deny all ease sure the most Flagitious Villain the Earth bears whom the World abhorrs for his improbous actions may not be denyed a leave to mourn The most inhumane Tyrants that ever plagued the world with their horrid immanity when they strove to make a dying soul survive with cruciating pain would suffer them to bewail their State souls laden with Woe though ballasted with Hope will sink under Fortunes stormy frowns unless they pump out those griefs that threaten destruction But ah my heart is toss'd with the surges of despair and charged with overwhelming sorrows which unless I seek to disburthen will augment to my unrecoverable ruine And what though I should abandon all Corroding Passions would that repair my irreparable State would that regain Florinda Oh what more vain than such deluding thoughts Heaven justly thinks me unworthy of so much Bliss and therefore interdicts me its enjoyment Oh if there be any sparks of pity yet remaining either put a period to my miseries by ending my life that I may no longer contemplate in my self a spectacle of woe or else remove this light that so no Object may be presented to my eyes that may divert my mind from the thoughts of despair and leave this pensive place to me alone being fit for none but those devoted to misery that so I may take my fill of sorrow since nothing without Florinda will give me contentment but that wherein there is no content And with that he fetcht a deep sigh from the Heart which intimated where the distemper lay which Cleodora hearing she was at first perplext in her mind not knowing what course to steer one while she despair'd of ever framing consolation able to appease such vehement sorrow and therefore according to his desire thought to leave him a prey to his passions but then compassion would utterly forbid that at length the natural desire that is iucident to all humane spirits of knowing others afflictions with the hope of giving some ease by her advise added caused her thus to break silence Sir said she though the black clouds of Despair have so over-spread your Soul as that there is not the least ray or glympse of hope whose bright aspect might revive you yet let it not cause you to degenerate from Vertue which makes the possessor inflexible under all adversity like the rock that remains unmoved though assaulted with the impetuous rage of the hoisterous Winds and roaring surges of the troubled Sea He in whose rich Soul Vertue hath once taken up her residence hath always a Halcion serenity within whatever the tempestuous changes and chances of Fortune may be without such a one is placed in the mids of the variety of Vicissitudes as the Centre in a Globe which remains fixt notwithstanding all the Gyrations and successive Changes of posture in its adjacent parts Hence Vertue to a wise man is not only as a lofty mountain on which he may overtop the misty region where Fortune minteth and Contrives her various accidents but as wings that transport his Spirit above the Stars by which means he over-rules controules and bridles them at his pleasure and hath a greater influence on his own felicity than all the Constellations in the Heavens And though there are none have a Charter of Exemption from the enmities of cross mischances yet can they not infringe a wise mans happiness since it depends not either on Fortunes inconstant smiles or the uncertain dispositions of men but on the constant and certain exercise of Vertue which sad misfortunes can no more impede than the air can oppose the lights penetration Vertue will shine through the thickest clouds of adversity nay its lustre will then most appear that rust which with too much ease is apt to contract is scoured off by the filing of adverse fortune like the fire that lies hid in the bosom of a slint content with its own warmth and never ventures forth out of its rocky dwelling nor appeareth to the view of others unless roused by the Steels rude knocks Hence Calamities should be the exercise not the overthrow of Vertue and therefore to be overcome with every infelicity argues rather too much of a Feminine Spirit whom Nature hath not indulged with that Heroical power of self-Conquest which is indeed the greatest victory Therefore forsake any other retiredness than that into your own vertue where you may Sanctuary your self against Fortunes assaults and impart a relation of your condition and who knows but these black lines of adversity may tend to a centre of happiness which if my Fortunes can in any measure avail to produce assure your self you shall not be more ready to desire or command than I shall be to obey in what I may have the happiness to serve you These words were as water cast upon those flames of Love but as wind to those sparks of Honour that lay buried in the ashes of sorrow which it kindled to such a dame that Honour got the victory over Love and rendred his reason triumphant which Cleodora conjectured by a Crimson blush that over-spread Perianders face and dispossest sorrows pale symptomes At length Periander returned her this reply Madam said he your Expressions speak you no less rich in
thus matched by a Youth inraged and ashamed that he should be so long in conquering one over whom though his valour should render him victorious yet he should not merit the title of a Victor summon'd together all his active powers and with united force gave such a blow on Pandion that all the protection he could receive from his well-managed Sword was to moderate the violence of the stroak which yet nevertheless lighted on the side of his Head with such a force that it dispossessed his memory of its bruised habitation and drove him some few paces from the place where he stood which Clausus perceiving resolved not to neglect such an opportunity but pursued him with redoubled blows and reunited power But Pandion as if his veins had been filled with Spirits as fast as they were emptied of Bloud mustring all his strength skill and courage together being to give a gallant Farewell like the last blaze of a dying light ran with such a vehement courage upon Clausus that he not aware but rashly prosecuting victorious Fortune the Sword run thorough his Heart or rather he ran his Heart upon it conqueâ—ing himself just when he was triumphing on the conquest of his enemy which when the Knights of the Castle pâ—rceived not regarding the Laws of Arms â—lew in â—o defend their Captain or rather themselves knowing that on the thrid of his Life hung all their Privileges which â—ut in two must needs fall to the ground which consideration made them fall inconsiderately on Pandion which Periandâ—r seeing enraged with contempt of their Dastardly baseness to set upon a wounded man gasping for Life and more to think that such cowards should be allotted him to be the Subjects of his valour and most of all to think that his friend and he should receive their Deaths from the hands of such miscreants Being near over-pressed with the multitude he rushed upon them with such a torrent of violence as drowned whomsoever he encountred withall in a lake of their own bloud though surrounded with them he could not avoid receiving some blows yet they served but to encrease his rage to the extremity so that with a mad violence or furious madness all the powers of his Soul and the Strength Dexterity and Activity of his Body transfer'd to the one arm he dislived some and disarmed others his valour being crushed between the two extremes necessity of preserving his Friends and his own Life and the difficulty of accomplishing it made it so swell within his breast with the madness of a terrible fury that to the destruction and admiration of his enemies he went beyond himself in his atchievements killing where he hit and hitting where he pleased separating some not only their Souls from their Bodies but their upper parts from their nether others that were aiming where to lodge their blow with the greatest advantage he deprived of blow and sight and all Whilst Pandion not able to assist his friend was forced to refresh his fainting body by resting himself upon the ground But they were soon assisted by the Knights imprisoned within the Castle who knowing that their Jaylors were imprisoned by Death and seeing Pandion bestrid by Periander and he beset with their enemies they unanimously assaulted them all agreeing in the means of their preservation their enemies destruction though all disagreeing in the end some fighting to preserve their own honour disdaining to be enslaved by such unworthy Villains others for their Ladies some out of Love to the Commonwealth to quit it from such a nest of Pestilent Fellows others out of hatred to their enemies so that in fine there grew a desperate combat as it must needs the Combatants growing desperate the Clausian Knights resolving rather to lose their lives by whole-sale on the point of the Sword than retail them out by the hand of Justice which they knew would befall them should they surrender grew fearless through fear so that Courage in the Valiant grew desperate and despair made the Coward couragious that at length the conflict grew so cruel that the very ground was overflown with a deluge of bloud and the earth that was wont to bury mens bodies mens bodies now buried the earth so that it seemed like Mars's sowing time the seeds of cruelty being implanted in each Breast and watered with Bloud but like Deaths reaping time such an Harvest of Bodies there lay in heaps serving as Bridges to transport over Rivers of Bloud that streamed in the pavement Hard it was to determine which way the ballance of victory would poize Fortune for a while carrying her self a Neuter till at length Periander being a too partial Umpire by the mediation of his valour decided the controversy sending such throngs of Souls of the Clausian Knights that were loth to answer for their unanswerable crimes before Melampus his Tribunal to receive their eternal doom that the small remainder yielded craving mercy which they found Then Periander receiving the Keys of the Gate gave the Captives that were the Keepers to the Keepers that were the Captives till Pandion whose right it was to command should otherwise order who appointed Sentinels on the wall and a watch for that night intending the next morning to march in triumph to King Melampus's Court. But no sooner had each man took his Station but their Ears were arrested with the crys of a Female voice which as well as they could understand demanded entrance the Gates being opened they all straight knew her to be Roxana their Kings Daughter who seeing the event of the Combat came with speed to the Castle to perform her last obsequies to Theon and to return thanks to Pandion and Periander for their hazardous adventure And being admitted into the Castle she was received with all respect and joy by all the Knights and Ladies there but especially by Pandion who blest her ears with the happy tidings that Theon was yet alive pointing where his Chamber was who would have said more but the transporting joy not only divorced all sorrow from her Heart but her Body from the place so that both his words and thoughts were prevented with her sudden â—light calling as she went Theon Theon her Tongue not being able any more to express her unexpressible passion but as soon as the eyes of Theon nay his Heart nay his Soul was ravished with the sight of Roxana as if her beauty had been some divine quintessential extract or some ray of that celestial fire that inspired life into Prometheus Image he felt a vigour infused into all his fainting limbs and the Darts of Beauty to triumph over the Darts of Death and her words to blow up the dying sparks of Life into a flame so that assembling all his powers together he cast himself into her Arms his Legs being unfaithful and feeble supporters of his Body But alas as their arms were linked each in other and their very Souls intwin'd by a sweet sympathy Theons Spirits that like the dying
the ready way to have bred endless dissentions in thy Kingdom in creating thee a Peer and corrival which our Sex and State cannot admit of Item My Venereous appetite I have given to the Nunneries it being the only means to set on fire Diana's Kingdom with libidinous â—lames thereby to compensate the injuries mine hath received from her deluded Votaâ—ies Item The Net wherein my jealous husband insnared Mars and me when we were fighting a Love Duel and satiating each others unsatiable desires I leave unto the Stews to fish for those that swim down the same voluptuous stream Item The Sun-beam which with such sawcy impudence durst not only pry into but disclose a Lovers secrets at the immodest relation of which in a full assembly of the Gods Aurora ever since hath blushed I give unto new espoused Lovers to light them to their Bridal Beds and as for Phaebus himself who sent this bold spye to reveal my shame I charge you revenge it by out-shining him in his greatest lustre with your Beauty Item The Golden Ball of Discord which the fair Phrygian Shepherd on happy Ida's top adjudged unto me as the prize of my transcending Beauty I have left unto the rich Misers to be a continual cause of unappeasable jarrs between the thâ—ee powers of their Souls the Understanding Will and Affections Lastly my Husband Vulcans horns I have bequeathed unto the Citizens of Trachys though they themselves through frigid sterility have been inclining to Diana's faction yet for their Wives faithful loyal and ardent zealous affection to and promotion of our much despised cause they are rewarded with them which will prove as Cornucopiaes filled with off-springs riches and all terrestrial blessings Having thus given thee an Enchiâ—idion or Breviary of those Legacies more at large penned down in my Will I have now nothing to do but to bid heaven and earth and thee and all farewell Farewell do I say Can my evaporating Soul assist my feeble Lungs in breathing forth that word and not expire 〈…〉 languor runs through all my defatigated limbs at the fatal sounding of that deadly world methinks it rings in my ears just like deaths Orator the tolling bell and comes to summon me to the Grave at the very thought of it my affrighted bloud congeals within my trembling veins and a faint qualm surrounds my heart as if a freezing blast from the glaciated Snow on the bleak Alps tops insinuating it self into all my Pores besieged my Vitals Ah! cannot heavens doom be reversed must I descend to the shades below must I change my glistering Pall of immortality for deaths winding sheet Ah! methinks I feel my self already Coffined in his Sable Arms methinks I hear grim Charon plead for an issue methinks a dark gloomy Cloud interposes between me and the half-obscured light and enwraps me in a black mourning veil Then sweet Amphigenia once more farewell love thy subjects remember me be kind to Danpion and therein thou wilt be kind to VENVS Amphigenia that with a pleasant countenance had read part of the Letter often smiling at Danpions subtilty ere she had perused half converts her smiles into frowns and with any angry blushing look flings the Letter at the Boy and bids him carry it back to Danpion from whom he received it and tell him that he was very profuse in his own praise and that she very much doubted whether any of those Hyperbolical commendations were due to any of his Sex living much less to him and that if his thoughts were so self advancing as to repute himself a person so highly accomplished the way to have others concurr with him in their judgements concerning his rich endowments which was the thing she presumed he aspired at was not she said to reveal so much of his folly But if he was so ambitious of praise it had been more wisdom to have had another tongue and not his own to be lavish in his praises or that if he must needs commend himself it were more honorable to extoll himself by his actions than by his words for she was sure the wisest sort of people would esteem him whose name was renowned for brave exploits was sounded forth by the Trumpet of fame to merit higher applause than he whose own tongue babled forth his own commendations in such an exuberant manner but truly said she for his actions those that I have had experience of they give the lye to his expressions Therefore she bad him advise him to sorbear any further troubling of her with his cheating follies for she said he did but delude himself in imagining he should delude her The Boy hearing this nimbly snatched up the Letter and with his wings fanning out the light that he might not be perceived how he vanished he swifâ—ly cuts through the fluid Air and ascends to the top of the room where the passage through which he entred was ready open for his return so that after he had delivered himself out of that delightful prison he neatly closes again the breach and flyes to Danpion to acquaint him with the success of the plot who having all this while sate in the dark Vault was not ignorant of most of these passages But when he was more fully informed how she suspected the plot and with what disdain and fury she tossed the letter to his Page he presently hasts to his Chamber commands his Boy to be absent and slings himself on his bed permits not his senses to take the least repose but sometimes walks up and down the room lamenting his condition and then tossing himself on his Couch exclames against all women and upbraids himself of folly to be insnared and captived with such an inconstant vanity But then he would condemn himself for calumniating that Sex when Amphigenia's vertues are sufficient testimonies of the incomparable excellencies that generous Nature confers upon them In this restless manner he consumed most part of the night having his thoughts distracted between despair and grief which like two potent factions in a kingdom bâ—ed a civil war in his breast the event of which tended not to the predominancy of either but only to a total exclusion of Morpheus from usurping dominion over his turmoiled senses grown almost senseless with those rude broyls But then summoning his wonted fortitude and invincible patience under all the adverse storms of fortune he now begins to banish sorrow and despair from him and to rebuke himself for his effeminate submission to his passion What said he shall I who never yet was daunted with the terrours of an enemies murtherous sword and who durst assault an army of Gorgons Harpyes Furies and all the infernal Apes and Monsters listed in Plutos Militia shall I now be forced to retreat from my resolutions with a Females â—rowns and be now compelled to subjugate my self to every domineering passion though I love Amphigenia and for her sake would freely uncase my soul and were it in my power transform it into a
Jewel which if I â—hought she would vouchsafe to honour with acceptance I 'de present her as a testimony of pure affection yet Amphigenia shall never make me unman my self and degenerate from my masculine aequanimity into a leaden feminine spirit whose embased flexibleness will bend and yield to every cross mischance that thwarts their desires And what though I love Amphigenia must I therefore do that that will make me hate my self No henceforth I am resolved to abandon all abject discontent and grief and leave whining despair to those dejected souls who conscious of their own small worth become Loves footballs and suffer themselves to be kicked and spurned by tyrannizing Beauty And though the imperious Mistress of my captived heart doth yet retain her austere reservedness yet she is a woman and if a woman light and unconstant as the fleeting Air or floating wave and therefore as the Air is now stormy and anon serene the wave now rough and anon calm so who knows how soon she may calm and smooth her stormy brow and be of a milder aspect it is but waiting till her gamesome vein surprize her and expell her rigid thoughts and then she will be as toyish as now she is coy But stay who is it that my thoughts thus malapeâ—tly presume to accuse of levity coyness retyredness and what not is it not Amphigenia Amphigenia the model of heaven the Paragon of Beauty the glory of Nature the worlds ornament the pride of Thessalia and the Mistress of my heart Amphigenia whose peerless perfections so far transcend the Criticism of Owl-ey'd judgement as that their dazling lustre renders them even unapprehensible much more incomprehensible and most of all uncontrovertible Can my dim-sighted soul then think to discern a spot in that resplendent Beauty whose refulgent rays though seen but by reflection in my thoughts obscure its purblind sight with a dusky mist what if she be coy and inexorable to the Petitions of her poor Love-sick suppliants it may be she is an Angel clad in flesh and if so her purity debats all thoughts of humane conjunction but if not she is a woman clothed with Angelical Beauty and that thought subverts all hopes of fruition Her body though framed by Nature of a marvellous Architecture yet is but a temporary Cell where her immaculate Soul for the freer and more uninterrupted commerce with heaven separated from all converse may reside exchanging sacred and sublime meditations the most pure offerings and sweet exhalations of a Chast uncontaminated mind for divine enthusiasms and inspirations Shall I then to purchase this transitory Cell sell my joys my life my rest my heart and all no my immaterial Soul will not admit of commixture with the most refined earth and therefore it is not her corporal part alone though moulded into an Angelical form that doth rapt my heart with a transporting affection but her Soul her vertuous Soul whose beams shining through her eyes as through a Crystal medium reflect round her face and exhale my affections but alas that 's too much wedded to Virginity and taken up with the ravishing delicacies of Chastity ever to be adulterated and ravished with passion so as to parturiate amorous desires the off-springs of love-enthralled souls Despair then henceforth shall be the sable hearse of my disturbing thoughts I 'le now compose my interior disordered by the jarrings of rebellious passions and make my irrational part resign and surrender up all her faculties to the governance and direction of my intellectuals And if my discourteous Stars have not destined me to that happiness to be linked in matrimonial union with such a superexcellent Beauty and to have our hearts dissolved into one with the ardent flames of pure affection I must frame a content and make my Soul acquiesce in heavens determination But if the kind fates have decreed the contrary I shall with unwearied patience await till the happy hour of Amphigenia's miraculous conversion Elixar-like shall turn all my tormenting thoughts and corroding anxieties into true bliss and contentation Thus did Danpion sacrifize the night to the vigils of a restless mind till about the dawning of the day when night grown gray with age began to flye with his train of Stars before Titansâ— flaming horses which were now climing up the gilded Horizon when leaping out of his bed he went down into the shady walks to solace himself in that Paradise of delights but he had not walked many paces ere his ear was arrested with a voice which according it self to a Lutes mollitious Aires was so harmoniously rapturous as none but would have thought it to have been some Seraphim who blest with a treble portion of Celestial joys in an extasie warbled forth his own happiness so far did it surpass the Pythagorean accents These heart-rapting strains could not but extort attention from Danpions ravished ear so that stealing neerer the more to satiate his avaritious ears with that vocal melody which was but parsimoniously conveyed unto him at that distance as if the niggardly Grove had treasured up those Soul-inchanting notes to inrich its winged inhabitants he heard this Song The Antiphone Chorus Sweet day so calm so cool so bright Thou hast expell'd the dusky night And Sol begins to mount on high And marry Tellus to the skie Each thing attir'd in 's best array Its purest sweets now doth display As if this was its bridal day Why should not we then court and toy And lovers purest bliss enjoy Treble In pearly drops the morning weeps And in this dew her sorrow steeps To see her self excell'd so far Base She blushes in thy Cheek to see So sweet a Crimson dy to be With which her tincture can't compare Chorus Thus we consume the Crystal day And hours and minutes fly away Whilst here we sit and court and toy And Lovers rapting bliss enjoy Chorus The Turtles chast with billings sweet Unite their souls whilst bills do meet The Rose unfolds its spicy sweets With them the purple morning greets And marrys her perfumes to th' Air The earth and skie now clad most rare Pride it like a new married pair Why should not we then Court and toy And Lovers purest bliss enjoy Treble The Rosie morn these drops doth shed As tears that Sol her spicy bed So soon will leave and from her go Base Oh no they fall to kiss the Roses Which thy pure Snowy Cheeks incloses And in that bed of Lilies grow Chorus Thus we consume the Crystal day And hours and minutes fly away Whilst here we sit and court and toy And Lovers rapting bliss enjoy Chorus The winged Angels of the Groves In shady boughs do chant their loves The early Larks to sing agree This sweet days Epit halamie Eccho transform'd by heavenly powers To ' a voice that haunts the Groves and Bowers Doth seek t' espouse her strains to ours Why should not we then court and toy And Lovers purest bliss enjoy Treble Look how the wanton
the Chamber above was hung with cloth of Tissue in the midst of it was a round Tribunal made of Porphyry on the top of which was a chair of State wherein was placed the Statue of Diana richly apparelled a golden scepter in her hand and the three Graces attending on her playing on wind Instruments which were carved so lively that as their figure deceived the sight so did the Musick the hearing which the water conveyed by silver pipes thorough the pillars made them compose But all these glories seemed to Celania onely to adorn the tryumph of Amphigena's beauty which lead captive more hearts than they did eyes or the Musick ears so that she viewed them onely with a careless eye accounting nothing worth the seeing in Amphigenia's presence but her nor scarce ever casting a glance on any thing unless it were on that whose extraordinary excellence might justly challenge a look from a Criticks eye and then she would compare it with her to render her Beauty incomparable But if Amphigenia chanced to crop a slower or treasure up the perfumes of a Rose or disperse the rays of her fâ—ir eyes on any object then she would look and look again envy the flower grow jealous of the Rose and grieve that she her self was not the object Ah! would she say thou pretty Martyre how happy art thou to lose thy life by so sweet an executioner And when she saw it wither in her hands Poor senseless flower said she cannot a glance from that eye revive thee nor a touch of that hand whose soft delicacy would warm a heart bennumed with Age and in despight of years recall Youth fled with Time cannot such a hand I say stop the career of thy beauties Poor foolish flower what meanest thou to let death ravish thy sweets deface that portraiture of beauty pencil'd by Nature in thy leaves demolish thy lovely Cittadel of loveliness thinkest thou to resume more sweetness more beauty more loveliness from her most sweet most beautiful and most lovely hand no fond thing her chastness hates a prostitute What then what is the matter dost thou bequeath thy sweets to her and do they by a secret transition pass away from thee and by transmigration dwell in her no sure her Ocean of beauty needs not thy drop her infinite treasures conferr'd on her by too prodigal heaven sure needs not the addition of thy poor mite no no thou pinest away with grief and so do I. Again when she saw her extract the fragrancy of a Rose Oh! too happy flower would she say and in this onely unhappy that thou art ignorant of thy hapness Little thinkest thou where thy fading sweets do lye entomb'd thou wouldst not grutch to part with all thy wealth knewest thou but where it s treasured nor to be rob'd of thy little cargo of perfumes didst thou but know thy Pirate Rob'd if a Merchant that chaâ—â—eâ—s trash for Gold or Glass for Pearls is rob'd then so art thou Her pure hand that divides thee from thy root doth but transport thee from thy native dwelling to the Vermilion Orient of her lips where she changes the Aromaticks of her breath for thy poor odours Oh! Oh! might my soul be refined by the heat of Loves passions into such a steam as now expires out of thy blushing leaves and be exhaled like thine and dwell among the Carnation clouds of her beauty I 'de not envy the inhabitants of Elizium These and the like speeches would she wisper to her self upon every occasion extracting out of that Garden of delights onely what might feed the appetite of love And when Supper was served in though there was all tâ—e rarities that could be expected at a refection invented by an Epicure to feast his Sense without sense of satiety yet Celania took no contentment in all only let her eyes riot in the most luxuriant banquet of Amphigenia's beauty which she did with the more confidence presuming her disguize might make her looks unregarded or at most unsuspected Such strange effects did Love work in Celania's heart If Amphigenia spake the sweet harmony of her voice and eloquence in her speech would strike Celania mute If Amphigenia afforded her a glance the lustre of her eyes like the Sun whose own brightness is his shade and sends a drop to veil a gazers eye would strike Celania blind If Amphigenia graced a Lute with hâ—r playing the curious swiftness of her fingers nimbly touching the quavering strings in deep amazes would strike Celania motionless And thus did Amphigenia's presence absent Celania from her self But supper being ended after a great deal of mirth that usually abounds in Princes Courts in times of sâ—renity but especially upon such occasions the night being far spent the Sun having distributed much of his light to those of the other hemisphere Amphigenia brought the Ladies to their several lodgings where my Muse will bid them good night and leave them to take their repose that consort of darkness that soveraign of balme for care-wounded-minds Thus had Danpion now Celania finished the second part of his Tragicomedy and is now stepping into the third which as it was acted under various diâ—guizes so with various fortunes as we thus declare The two happy Lovers Athalus and Matilda having continued some space in the Court not willing to stay any longer in the Suburbs of desires nor to be confined within the portal of felicity resolved to imparadise their hearts in Hymenâ— Elizium and by marâ—iage that pick-lock of chast sweets to drench their love-united â—ouls in a deluge of contentments which accordingly was celebrated by Hiarbas's special command with all the riches pomp and magnificence that the highest gratitude could throw upon the greatest and most unmatched desert and with all the pleasures that might bribe a contemplative mind to stoop to the lure of sense Among the variety of representations whereby the wits of the Court strove to form delight in the fancy the Princess Amphigenia with the chief Ladies of the Court presented a Mask before the King and some of the chiefest Noblâ—â— where the Musick was so rapturous as would even confound an earth bred ear that at first hearing few could bear so strong a transportation The well agreeing notes seeming to combine together to astonish souls with sudden ravishment in their exâ—â—â—es to perswâ—de them they heard the Spheres rowsing harmony for it seemed to the strongest ear as if the Musicians had contracted that heavenly melody in the narrow circumference of their instruments or had made an Epitome of its sweetest strains to which the Maskers footing kept such even time as none but would have thought the air moved by the inchanting sinews of the Instruments danced her finest measures after the motions of their feet So that they seemed as it were the Intelligences that moved the Orbes of Musick But these delights served but to awaken Celania's evil Genius who by the light of Hymens Torch discovered a way to