in colour they excell the Emeralds euerie one striuing to passe his fellow and yet they are all kept of an equall height And see you not the rest of these beautifull flowers each of which would require a mans wit to know and his life to expresse Do not these stately trees seeme to maintaine their florishing olde age with the onely happines of their seat being clothed with a continuall spring because no beautie here should euer fade Doth not the aire breath health which the Birds delightfull both to eare and eye do dayly solemnize with the sweete consent of their voyces Is not euery Eccho thereof a perfect Musicke these fresh and delightfull brookes how slowly they slide away as loth to leaue the company of so many thinges vnited in perfection and with how sweete a murmur they lament their forced departure Certainely certainely cosin it must needs be that som Goddesse enhabiteth this Region who is the soule of this soyle for neither is any lesse then a Goddesse worthie to bee shrined in such a heape of pleasures nor any lesse then a Goddesse coulde haue made it so perfect a plotte of the celestiall dwellings And so ended with a deep sigh rufully casting his eye vpon Musidorus as more desirous of pittie then pleading But Musidorus had all this while helde his looke fixed vpon Pyrocles countenance and with no lesse louing attention marked howe his wordes proceeded from him but in both these he perceiued such strange diuersities that they rather increased new doubtes then gaue him ground to settle anie iudgement for besides his eyes sometimes euen great with teares the oft changing of his colour with a kinde of shaking vnstayednes ouer all his bodie he might see in his countenance some great determination mixed with feare and might perceiue in him store of thoughts rather stirred then digested his wordes interrupted continually with sighes which serued as a burthen to each sentence and the tenor of his speech though of his wonted phrase not knit together to one constant end but rather dissolued in it selfe as the vehemencie of the inwarde passion preuayled which made Musidorus frame his aunswere neerest to that humor which should soonest put out the secret For hauing in the beginning of Pyrocles speech which defended his solitarines framed in his minde a replie against it in the praise of honourable action in shewing that such a kind of contemplatiō is but a glorious title to idlenes that in action a man did not onely better himselfe but benefit others that the gods would not haue deliuered a soule into the bodie which hath armes and legges onely instrumentes of doeing but that it were intended the minde shoulde imploy them and that the minde should best knowe his owne good or euill by practise◠which knowledge was the onely way to increase the one and correct the other besides many other argumentes which the plentifulnesse of the matter yeelded to the sharpnes of his wit When hee found Pyrocles leaue that and fall into such an affected praising of the place he left it likewise and ioyned with him therein because hee found him in that humor vtter more store of passion and euen thus kindely embrasing him he said Your words are such noble cousin so sweetly and strongly handled in the praise of solitarinesse as they would make mee likewise yeeld my selfe vp into it but that the same words make me know it is more pleasant to enioy the companie of him that can speake such wordes then by such wordes to bee perswaded to follow solitarines And euen so doo I geue you leaue sweete Pyrocles euer to defende solitarines so long as to defende it you euer keep companie But I maruell at the excessiue praises you giue to this countrie in truth it is not vnplesant but yet if you would returne into Macedon you should either se many heauens or find this no more then earthlie And euen Tempe in my Thessalia where you and I to my great happynesse were brought vp together is nothing inferiour vnto it But I thinke you will make me see that the vigor of your witte can shew it selfe in any subiect or els you feede sometimes your solitarines with the conceites of the Poets whose liberall pennes can as easilie trauaile ouer mountaines as molehils and so like well disposed men set vp euery thing to the highest note especially when they put such wordes in the mouths of one of these fantasticall mind-infected people that children Musitiās cal Louers This word Louer did no lesse pearce poore Pyrocles then the right tune of musicke toucheth him that is sicke of the Tarantula There was not one parte of his body that did not feele a sodaine motion while his hart with panting seemed to daunce to the sounde of that word yet after some pause lifting vp his eyes a litle from the ground and yet not daring to place them in the eyes of Musidorus armed with the verie conntenance of the poore prisoner at the barr whose aunswere is nothing but guiltie with much a do he brought forth this question And alas saide he deare cosin what if I bee not so much the Poet the freedome of whose penne canne exercise it selfe in any thing as euen that miserable subiect of his conning whereof you speake Now the eternall Gods forbid mainely cryed out Musidorus that euer my care should be poysoned with so euil news of you O let me neuer know that any base affectiō should get any Lordship in your thoughts But as he was speaking more Kalander came and brake of their discourse with inuiting them to the hunting of a goodly stagge which being harbored in a wood thereby he hoped vvould make them good sporte and driue avvay some parte of Daiphantus melancholy They condiscended and so going to their lodgings furnished them selues as liked them Daiphantus writing a fewe words which he left sealed in a letter against their returne Then wēt they together abroad the good Kalāder entertaining thē with pleasaunt discoursing howe well he loued the sporte of hunting when hee was a young man how much in the comparison thereof hee disdained all chamber delights that the Sunne how great a iornie soeuer he had to make could neuer preuent him with earlines nor the Moone with her sober couutenance disswade him from watching till midnight for the deeres feeding O saide he you will neuer liue to my age without you keepe your selues in breath vvith exercise and in hart vvith ioifullnes too much thinking doth consume the spirits and oft it falles out that vvhile one thinkes too much of his doing he leaues to doe the effect of his thinking Then spared he not to remember how much Arcadia was chaunged since his youth actiuitie and good fellowship being nothing in the price it was then held in but according to the nature of the old growing world stil worse and worse Then would he tell them stories of such gallaunts as he had knowē and so with pleasant company
that mankind is not growen monstrous being vndoubtedly lesse euill a guiltie man shoulde escape then a guiltlesse perish so if in the rest they be spotlesse then is no farther to be remembred But if they haue aggrauated these suspitions with newe euills then are those suspitions so farre to showe themselues as to cause the other pointes to be thorowly examined and with lesse fauour wayed since this no man can deny they haue beene accidentall if not principall causes of the Kinges death Now then we are to determine of the other matters which are laide to them wherein they doe not deny the facte but deny or at leaste diminish the faulte but first I may remember though it were not first alleaged by them the seruices they had before done truely honourable and worthy of greate rewarde but not worthy to counteruaile with a following wickednes Rewarde is proper to well doing punishment to euill doing which must bee confounded no more then good and euill are to be mingled Therefore hath bene determined in all wisedomes that no man because he hath done well before should haue his present euils spared but rather so much the more punished as hauing shewed he knew how to be good woulde against his knowledge bee naught The facte then is nakedly without passion or partialitie to bee viewed wherein without all question they are equallie culpable For though he that termes himselfe Daiphantus were sooner disapointed of his purpose of conueying away the Lady Philoclea then he that perswaded the Princesse Pamela to flie her countrie and accompanied her in it yet seing in causes of this nature the wil by the rules of iustice standeth for the deed they are both alike to bee founde guiltie and guiltie of hainous rauishment For though they rauished them not from themselues yet they rauished them from him that owed them which was their father An acte punished by all the Graecian lawes by the losse of the head as a most execrable thefte For if they must dye who steale from vs our goodes how much more they who steale from vs that for which we gather our goodes and if our lawes haue it so in the priuate persons much more forcible are they to bee in Princes children where one steales as it were the whole state and well being of that people being tyed by the secret of a long vse to be gouerned by none but the next of that bloud Neither let any man maruaile our ancestours haue bene so seuere in these cases since the example of the Phenician Europa but especially of the Grecian Helene hath taught them what destroying fires haue growen of such sparckles And although Helene was a wife and this but a child that booteth not since the principall cause of marrying wiues is that we may haue children of our owne But now let vs see how these yong men truely for their persons worthy of pittie if they haue rightly pittied themselues do goe about to mittigate the vehemencie of their errors Some of their excuses are common to both some peculiar onely to him that was the sheepeheard Both remember the force of loue and as it were the mending vp of the matter by their marriage if that vnbrideled desire which is intituled loue might purge such a sickenes as this surely wee shoulde haue many louing excuses of hatefull mischiefe Nay rather no mischiefe shoulde be committed that should not be vailed vnder the name of loue For as well he that steales might alleage the loue of mony he that murders the loue of reuenge he that rebells the loue of greatnesse as the adulterer the loue of a woman Since they do in all speeches affirme they loue that which an ill gouerned passion maketh them to follow But loue may haue no such priuiledge That sweete and heauenly vniting of the mindes which properly is called loue hath no other knot but vertue and therefore if it be a right loue it can neuer slide into any action that is not vertuous The other and indeed more effectuall reason is that they may be married vnto them and so honourably redresse the dishonour of them whom this matter seemeth most to touch Surely if the question were what were conuenient for the parties and not what is iuste in the neuer changing iustice there might much bee saide in it But herein we must consider that the lawes look how to preuent by due examples that such thinges be not done and not how to salue such things when they are doone For if the gouernors of iustice shall take such a scope as to measure the foote of the lawe by a show of conueniencie and measure that conueniencie not by the publike societie but by that which is fittest for them which offende young men stronge men and rich men shall euer finde priuate conueniences howe to palliate such committed disorders as to the publike shall not onely bee inconuenient but pestilent The marriage perchaunce might be fit for them but verie vnfit were it to the state to allowe a patterne of such procurations of marriage And thus much doe they both alleage Further goes he that went with the Princesse Pamela requireth the benefit of a councellor who hath place of free perswasion and the reasonable excuse of a seruant that did but waite of his mistres Without all question as councellors haue great cause to take heede how they aduise any thing directly opposite to the forme of that present gouernement especially when they doe it singly without publike alowaunce so yet is the case much more apparant since neither she was an effectuall Princesse her father being then aliue though he had bene deade she not come to the yeares of aucthoritie nor hee her seruant in such manner to obey her but by his owne preferment first belonging to Dametas and then to the Kinge and therefore if not by Arcadia lawes yet by housholde orders bounde to haue done nothing without his agreement Thus therefore since the deedes accomplished by these two are both abhominable and inexcuseable I doe in the behalfe of iustice by the force of Arcadia lawes pronounce that Daiphantus shal be throwne out of a hie tower to receaue his death by his fall Palladius shall bee behedded the time before the sunne set the place in Mantinea the executioner Dametas which office he shall execute all the dayes of his life for his beastly forgetting the carefull dutie he owed to his charge This saide he turned himselfe to Philanax and two of the other noble men commaunding them to see the iudgement presently performed Philâ—nax more greedie then any hunter of his praye went straite to laye holde of the excellent prisoners who casting a farewell looke one vpon the other represented in their faces asmuch vnappalled constancie as the most excellent courage can deliuer in outward graces Yet if at all there were any shewe of change in them it was that Pyrocles was somthing neerer to bashfulnes and Musidorus to anger both ouer ruled by
haue a speciall feeling of the present losse wiping his eyes and long white bearde bedeawed with greate dropps of teares began in this sorte to complayne Alas poore sheepe sayde hee which hitherto haue enioyed your fruitefull pasture in such quietnes as your wooll amongst other things hath made this Countrie famous your best dayes are now past now you must become the vittaile of an armye and perchaunce an armye of foraine enemyes you are now not onely to feare home Wolues but alien Lions now I say now that our right Basilius is deceased Alas sweete pastures Shall souldiours that knowe not how to vse you possesse you Shall they that can not speake Arcadian language be Lordes ouer your Shepheards For alas with good cause may we looke for any euill since Basilius our only strength is taken from vs. To that all the other Shepheards present vttered pittifull voyces especially the very borne Arcadians For as for the other though humanitie moued them to pittie humane cases especially in a Prince vnder whome they had founde a refuge of their miseries and iustice equally administred yet could they not so naturally feele the liuely touch of sorrowe Neuerthelesse of that number one Agelastus notably noted among them aswell for his skill in Poetry as for an austerely mayntayned sorrowfulnes wherewith hee seemed to despise the workes of nature framing an vniuersall complaint in that vniuersall mischiefe vttered it in this sestine SInce wayling is a bud of causefull sorowe Since sorow is the follower of euill fortune Since no euill fortune equalls publique damage Now Princes losse hath made our damage publique Sorow pay we to thee the rights of Nature And inward griefe seale vp with outward wailing Why should we spare our voice from endlesse wailing Who iustly make our hearts the seate of sorow In such a case where it appeares that nature Doth add her force vnto the sting of fortune Choosing alas this our theatre publique Where they woâ—ld leaue trophees of cruell damage Then since such pow'rs conspir'd vnto our damage Which may be know'n but neuer help't with wailing Yet let vs leaue a monument in publique Of willing teares torne haires cries of sorrow For lost lost is by blowe of cruell fortune Arcadias gemme the noblest childe of nature O nature doting olde ô blinded nature How hast thou torne thy selfe sought thine owne damage In graunting such a scope to filthy fortune By thy impes losse to fill the world with wai'ling Cast thy stepmother eyes vpon our sorowe Publique our losse so see thy shame is publique O that we had to make our woes more publique Seas in our eyes brasen tongues by nature A yelling voice heartes compos'd of sorow Breath made of flames wits knowing nought but damage Our sports murdering our selues our musiques wailing Our studies fixt vpon the falâ—es of fortune No no our mischiefe growes in this vile fortune That priuate paines can not breath out in publique The furious inward griefes with hellish wailing But forced are to burthen feeble nature With secret sense of our eternall damage And sorow feede feeding our soules with sorow Since sorow then concludeth all our fortune With all our deathes shew we this damage publique His nature feares to die who liues still wailing It seemed that this complaint of Agelastus had awaked the spirits of the Arcadians astonished before with exceedingnes of sorow For hee had scarcely ended when diuerse of them offred to follow his example in be wayling the generall losse of that countrie which had bene aswell a nurse to straungers as a mother to Arcadians Among the rest one accounted good in that kinde and made the better by the true feeling of sorowe roared out a song of lamentation which as well as might bee was gathered vp in this forme SInce that to death is gone the shepheard hie Who most the silly shepheards pipe did pryse Your dolefull tunes sweete Muses now applie And you ô trees if any life there lies In trees now through your porous barkes receaue The straunge resounde of these my causefull cries And let my breath vpon your braunches cleaue My breath distinguish'd into wordes of woe That so I may signes of my sorrowe leaue But if among your selues some one tree growe That aptest is to figure miserie Let it embassage beare your grieues to showe The weeping Mirrhe I thinke will not denie Her helpe to this this iustest cause of plaint Your dolefull tunes sweet Muses now applie And thou poore Earth whom fortune doth attaint In Natures name to suffer such a harme As for to loose thy gemme and such a Sainct Vpon thy face let coaly Rauens swarme Let all the Sea thy teares accounted be Thy bowels with all killing mettals arme Let golde now râ—st let Diamonds waste in thee Let pearls be wan with woe their damme doth beare Thy selfe henceforth the light doo neuer see And you ô flowers which sometimes Princes were Till these straunge altrings you did hap to trie Of Princes losse your selues for tokens reare Lilly in mourning blacke thy whitenes die O Hyacinthe let Ai be on thee still Your dolefull tunes sweet Muses now applie O Echo all these woods with roaring fill And doo not onely marke the accents last But all for all reach out my wailefull will One Echo to another Echo cast Sounde of my griefes and let it neuer ende Till that it hath all woods and waters past Nay to the heau'ns your iust complaining sende And stay the starrs inconstant constant race Till that they doo vnto our dolours bende And aske the reason of that speciall grace That they which haue no liues should liue so long And vertuous soules so soone should loose their plaâ—e Aske if in great men good men doo so thronge That he for want of elbowe roome must die Or if that they be skante if this be wronge Dâ—â— Wisedome this our wretched time espie In one true chest to rob all Vertues treasure Your dolefull tunes sweete Muses now applie And if that any counsell you to measure Your dolefull tunes to them still playning say To well felte griefe plainte is the onely pleasure O light of Sunne which is entit'led day O well thou doost that thou no longer bidest For mourning light her blackeweedes may display O Phoebus with good cause thy face thou hidest Rather then haue thy all-beholding eye Fould with this sight while thou thy chariot guidest And well me thinks becomes this vaultie skie And stately tombe to couer him deceased Your dolefull tunes sweet Muses now applie O Philomela with thy brest oppressed By shame and griefe helpe helpe me to lament Such cursed harmes as cannot be redressed Or if thy mourning notes be fully spent Then giue a quiet eare vnto my playning For I to teach the world complainte am bent You dimmy clowdes which well employ your stayning This cheerefull aire with your obscured cheere Witnesse your wofull teares with dayly rayning And if ô Sinne thou euer didst appeare In
sport I got a time as I thinke vnmarked by any to steale away I cared not whether so I might scape you so came I to Ithonia in the prouince of Messenia wher lying secret I put this in practise which before I had deuised For remēbring by Philanax his letter Kalāders speech how obstinately Basilius was determined not to mary his daughters therefore fearing lest any publike dealing should rather increase her captiuitie then further my loue Loue the refiner of inuentiō had put in my head thus to disguise my selfe that vnder that maske I might if it were possible get accesse and what accesse could bring foorth commit to fortune industry determining to beare the countenance of an Amazon Therefore in the closest maner I could naming my selfe Zelmane for that deere Ladies sake to whose memorie I am so much bound I caused this apparell to be made and bringing it neere the lodges which are heard at hand by night thus dressed my selfe resting till occasion might make me to be found by them whom I sought which the next morning hapned as well as my owne plot could haue laide it For after I had runne ouer the whole petigree of my thoughts I gaue my selfe to sing a little which as you knowe I euer delighted in so now especially whether it be the nature of this clime to stir vp Poeticall fancies or rather as I thinke of loue whose cope being plesure wil not so much as vtter his griefes but in some form of pleasure But I had song very little when as I thinke displeased with my bad musicke comes master Dametas with a hedging bill in his hand chasing and swearing by the pantable of Pallas such other othes as his rusticall brauery could imagine when he saw me I assure you my beauty was no more beholding to him then my harmony for leaning his hands vpon his bil and his chin vpon his hands with the voice of one that plaieth Hercules in a play but neuer had his fancie in his head the first word he spake to me was am not I Dametas why am not I Dametas hee needed not name himselfe for Kalanders description had set such a note vpon him as made him very notable vpon me and therefore the height of my thoughts would not discend so much as to make him any answer but continued on my inward discourses which he perchaunce witnes of his owne vnworthines and therefore the apter to thinke himselfe contemned tooke in so hainous manner that standing vpon his tip-toes and staring as if he would haue had a mote pulled out of his eie Why said he thou woman or boy or both whatsoeuer thou bee I tell thee here is no place for thee get thee gone I tell thee it is the Princes pleasure I tell thee it is Dametas pleasure I could not choose but smile at him seeing him looke so like an Ape that had newly taken a purgation yet taking my selfe with the manner spake these wordes to my selfe O spirite saide I of mine how canst thou receaue anie mirth in the midst of thine agonies and thou mirth howe darest thou enter into a minde so growne of late thy professed enemie Thy spirite saide Dametas doost thou thinke me a spirite I tell thee I am Basilius officer and haue charge of him and his daughters O onely pearle saide I sobbing that so vile an oyster should keepe thee By the combe-case of Diana sware Dametas this woman is mad oysters and pearles doost thou thinke I will buie oysters I tell thee once againe get thee packing and with that lifted vp his bill to hit me with the blunt ende of it but indeede that put me quite out of my lesson so that I forgat Zelmanes-ship and drawing out my sworde the basenesse of the villaine yet made me stay my hande and he who as Kalander tolde mee from his childehood euer feared the blade of a sworde ran backe backward with his handes aboue his head at lest twentie paces gaping and staring with the verie grace I thinke of the clownes that by Latonas prayers were turned into Frogs At length staying findinge himselfe without the compasse of blowes hee fell to a fresh scolding in such mannerlie manner as might well shewe hee had passed through the discipline of a Tauerne But seeing mee walke vp and downe without marking what he saide he went his way as I perceiued after to Basilius for within a while he came vnto mee bearing in deede shewes in his countenaunce of an honest and well-minded gentleman and with as much courtesie as Dametas with rudenesse saluting mee Faire Lady saide hee it is nothing strange that such a solitary place as this should receiue solitary persons but much doe I maruaile howe such a beauty as yours is should be suffered to be thus alone I that now knew it was my part to play looking with a graue maiestie vpon him as if I found in my selfe cause to be reuerenced They are neuer alone saide I that are accompanied with noble thoughts But those thoughts replied Basilius cannot in this your lonelines neither warrant you from suspition in others nor defende you from melancholy in your selfe I then shewing a mislike that he pressed me so farre I seeke no better warrant saide I then my owne conscience nor no greater pleasure then mine owne contentation Yet vertue seekes to satisfie others saide Basilius Those that bee good saide I and they will bee satisfied as long as they see no euill Yet will the best in this country saide Basilius suspect so excellent beauty being so weakely garded Then are the best but starke nought aunswered I for open suspecting others comes of secrete condemning themselues But in my countrie whose manners I am in all places to maintaine and reuerence the generall goodnes which is nourished in our harts makes euerye one thinke the strength of vertue in an other whereof they finde the assured foundation in themselues Excellent Ladie said he you praise so greatly and yet so wisely your country that I must needes desire to knowe what the nest is out of which such Byrds doo flye You must first deserue it said I before you may obtaine it And by what meanes saide Basilius shall I deserue to know your estate By letting me first knowe yours aunswered I. To obey you said he I will doe it although it were so much more reason yours should be knowen first as you doo deserue in all points to be preferd Know you faire Lady that my name is Basilius vnworthily Lord of this country the rest either fame hath alreadie brought to your eares or if it please you to make this place happie by your presence at more leasure you shall vnderstand of me I that from the beginning assured my selfe it was he but would not seeme I did so to keepe my grauitie the better making a peece of reuerence vnto him Mightye Prince said I let my not knowing you serue for the excuse of my
Tir'de as a iade in ouerloden carte Yet thoughts do flie though I can scarcely creep All visions seeme at euery bush I start Drowsy am I and yet can rarely slepe Sure I bewitched am it is euen that Late neere a crosse I met an ougly Cat. For but by charms how fall these things on me That from those eies where heau'nly apples bene Those eies which nothing like themselues can see Of faire Vrania fairer then a greene Proudly bedeckt in Aprills liuory A shot vnheard gaue me a wound vnseene He was inuisible that hurt me so And none vnuisible but Spirites can goe When I see her my sinewes shake for feare And yet deare soule I know she hurteth none Amid my flock with woe my voice I teare And but bewitch'd who to his flock would mone Her chery lipps milke hands and golden haire I still do see though I be still alone Now make me thinke that there is not a fende Who hid in Angels shape my lîfe would ende The sportes wherin I wonted to do well Come she and sweet the aire with open brest Then so I faile when most I would do well That at me so amaz'd my fellowes iest Sometimes to her newes of my selfe to tell I go about but then is all my best Wry words and stam'ring or els doltish dombe Say then can this but of enchantment come Nay each thing is bewitcht to know my case The Nightingales for woe their songs refraine In riuer as I look'd my pining face As pin'd a face as mine I saw againe The courteous mountaines grieu'd at my disgrace Their snowy haire teare of in melting paine And now the dropping trees do wepe for me And now faire euenings blush my shame to see But you my pipe whilome my chief delight Till straunge delight delight to nothing ware And you my flock care of my carefull sight While I was I so had cause to care And thou my dogg whose truth valiant might Made wolues not inward wolues my ewes to spare Go you not from your master in his woe Let it suffise that he himselfe forgoe For though like waxe this magique makes me waste Or like a lambe whose dam away is fet Stolne from her yoong by theeues vnchoosing hast He treble beas for helpe but none can get Though thus and worse though now I am at last Of all the games that here ere now I met Do you remember still you once were mine Till my eies had their curse from blessed â—ine Be you with me while I vnheard do cry While I do score my losses on the winde While I in heart my will write ere I die In which by will my will and wits I binde Still to be hers about her aye to flie As this same sprite about my fancies blinde Doth daily haâ—nt but so that mine become As much more louing as lesse combersome Alas a cloud hath ouercast mine eies And yet I see her shine amid the cloud Alas of ghostes I heare the gastly cries Yet there me seemes I heare her singing loud This song she singes in most commaunding wise Come shepheards boy let now thy heart be bowd To make it selfe to my least looke a slaue Leaue sheepe leaue all I will no piecing haue I will I will alas alas I will Wilt thou haue more more haue if more I be Away ragg'd rams care I what murraine kill Out shreaking pipe made of â—ome witched tree Go bawling curre thy hungry maw go fill On yond foule flocke belonging not to me With that his dogge he henst his flocke he curst With that yet kissed first his pipe he burst This said this done he rase euen tir'd with rest With heart as carefull as with carelesse grace With shrinking legges but with a swelling brest With eyes which threatned they would drowne his face Fearing the worst not knowing what were best And giuing to his sight a wandring race He saw behind a bush where Klaius sate His well know'ne friend but yet his vnknowne mate Klaius the wretch who lately yelden was To beare the bondes which Time nor wit could breake With blushing soule at sight of iudgements glasse While guilty thoughts accus'd his Reason weake This morne alone to lonely walke did passe With in himselfe of hir deare selfâ— to speake Till Strephons planing voice him nearer drew Where by his words his self-like cause he knew For hearing him so oft with wordes of woe Vrania name whose force he knew so well He quickly knew what witchcraft gaue the blow Which made his Strephon think himselfe in hell Which when he did in perfect image show To his owne witt thought vpon thought did swell Breeding huge stormes with in his inward parte Which thus breath'd out with earthquake of his hart As Lamon would haue proceded Basilius knowing by the wasting of the torches that the night also was farre wasted and withall remembring Zelmanes hurt asked hir whither she thought it not better to reserue the complaint of Klaius till an other day Which she perceiuing the song had alreadie worne out much time and not knowing when Lamon would ende being euen now stepping ouer to a new matter though much deligâ—ted with what was spoken willingly agreed vnto And so of all sides they went to recommend themselues to the elder brother of death The end of the first Booke THE SECOND BOOKE OF THE COVNTESSE OF PEMBROKES ARCADIA IN these pastorall pastimes a great number of daies were sent to follow their flying predecessours while the cup of poison which was deepely tasted of this noble companie had left no sinewe of theirs without mortally searching into it yet neuer manifesting his venomous work til once that the night parting away angry that she could distill no more sleepe into the eies of louers had no sooner giuen place to the breaking out of the morning light and the Sunne bestowed his beames vpon the tops of the mountaines but that the woefull Gynecia to whom rest was no ease had left her loathed lodging and gotten her selfe into the solitary places those deserts were full of going vp and downe with such vnquiet motions as a grieued and hopeles minde is wont to bring forth There appeered vnto the eies of her iudgement the euils she was like to run into with ougly infamie waiting vpon them shee felt the terrors of her owne conscience shee was guilty of a long exercised vertue which made this vice the fuller of deformitie The vttermost of the good she could aspire vnto was a mortal wouÌ„d to her vexed spirits and lastly no small part of her euils was that she was wise to see her euils In so much that hauing a great while throwne her countenaunce ghastly about her as if shee had called all the powers of the world to be witnesse of her wretched estate at length casting vp her watrie eyes to heaueÌ„ O Sunne said she whose vnspotted light directs the steps of mortall mankind art thou not ashamed to impart the clearnesse of
they had often made their liues triumph ouer most terrible daungers neuer dismaied and euer fortunate and truely no more setled in valure then disposed to goodnes and iustice if either they had lighted on a better friend or could haue learned to make friendship a childe and not the father of Vertue But bringing vp rather then choise hauing first knit their mindes vnto him indeede crafty inough either to hide his faultes or neuer to shewe them but when they might pay home they willingly helde out the course rather to satisfie him then all the worlde and rather to be good friendes then good men so as though they did not like the euill hee did yet they liked him that did the euill and though not councellors of the offence yet protectors of the offender Now they hauing heard of this sodaine going out with so small a company in a countrey full of euill-wishing mindes toward him though they knew not the cause followed him till they founde him in such case as they were to venture their liues or else he to loose his which they did with such force of minde and bodie that truely I may iustly say Pyrocles and Musidorus had neuer till then found any that could make them so well repeate their hardest lesson in the feates of armes And briefly so they did that if they ouercame not yet were they not ouercome but caried away that vngratefull maister of theirs to a place of security howsoeuer the Princes laboured to the contrary But this matter being thus farre begun it became not the constancy of the Princes so to leaue it but in all hast making forces both in Pontus and Phrigia they had in fewe daies lefte him but onely that one strong place where he was For feare hauing beene the onely knot that had fastned his people vnto him that once vntied by a greater force they all scattered from him like so many birdes whose cage had beene broken In which season the blinde King hauing in the chiefe cittie of his Realme set the crown vppon his son Leonatus head with many teares both of ioy and sorrow setting forth to the whole people his owne fault and his sonnes vertue after he had kist him and forst his sonne to accept honour of him as of his new-become subiect euen in a moment died as it should seeme his heart broken with vnkindenes and affliction stretched so farre beyond his limits with this excesse of comfort as it was able no longer to keepe safe his vitall spirites But the new King hauing no lesse louingly performed all dueties to him dead then aliue pursued on the siege of his vnnaturall brother asmuch for the reuenge of his father as for the establishing of his owne quiet In which siege truely I cannot but acknowledge the prowesse of those two brothers then whome the Princes neuer found in all their trauaile two of greater hability to performe nor of habler skil for conduct But Plexirtus finding that if nothing else famine would at last bring him to destruction thought better by humblenes to creepe where by pride he coulde not marche For certainely so had nature formed him and the exercise of craft conâ—ormed him to all turningnes of of sleights that though no man had lesse goodnes in his soule then he no man could better find the places whence arguments might grow of goodnesse to another though no man felt lesse pitie no man could tel better how to stir pitie no man more impudent to deny where proofes were not manifest no man more ready to confesse with a repenting manner of aggrauating his owne euill where denial would but make the fault fowler Now he tooke this way that hauing gotten a pasport for one that pretended he woulde put Plexirtus aliue into his hands to speake with the King his brother he him selfe though much against the minds of the valiant brothers who rather wished to die in braue defence with a rope about his necke barefooted came to offer himselfe to the discretion of Leonatus Where what submission hee vsed how cunningly in making greater the faulte he made the faultines the lesse how artificially he could set out the torments of his owne conscience with the burdensome comber he had found of his ambitious desires how finely seeming to desire nothing but death as ashamed to liue he begd life in the refusing it I am not cunning inough to be able to expresse but so fell out of it that though at first sight Leonatus saw him with no other eie then as the murderer of his father and anger already began to paint reuenge in many colours ere long he had not onely gotten pitie but pardon and if not an excuse of the faulte past yet an opinion of a future amendment while the poore villaines chiefe ministers of his wickednes now betraied by the author thereof were deliuered to many cruell sorts of death he so handling it that it rather seemed hee had more come into the defence of an vnremediable mischiefe already committed then that they had done it at first by his consent In such sort the Princes left these reconciled brothers Plexirtus in all his behauiour carying him in far lower degree of seruice then the euer-noble nature of Leonatus would suffer him and taking likewise their leaues of their good friend the King of Pontus who returned to enioy their benefite both of his wife and kingdome they priuately went thence hauing onely with them the two valiant brothers who would needs accompanie them through diuers places they foure dooing actes more daungerous though lesse famous because they were but priuat chiualries till hearing of the faire and vertuous Queene Erona of Lycia besieged by the puissant King of Armenia they bent themselues to her succour both because the weaker and weaker as being a Ladie and partly because they heard the King of Armenia had in his company three of the most famous men liuing for matters of armes that were knowne to be in the worlde Whereof one was the Prince Plangus whose name was sweetned by your breath peerlesse Ladie when the last daie it pleased you to mention him vnto me the other two were two great Princes though holding of him Barzanes and Euardes men of Giant-like bothe hugenes and force in which two especially the trust the King had of victorie was reposed And of them those brothers Tydeus and Telenor sufficient iudges in warlike matters spake so high commendations that the two Princes had euen a youthfull longing to haue some triall of their vertue And therefore as soone as they were entred into Lycia they ioyned themselues with theÌ„ that faithfully serued the poore Queene at that time besieged ere long animated in such sort their almost ouerthrowne harts that they went by force to relieue the towne though they were depriued of a great part of their streÌ„gth by the parting of the two brothers who were sent for in all hast to returne to their old friend and maister Plexirtus who
heauens do sende The heauens conspir'd to make my vitall sparke A wreched wracke a glasse of Ruines ende Seeing Alas so mightie powers bende Their ireful shotte against so weake a marke Come caue become my graue come death and lende Receipte to me within thy bosome darke For what is life to dayly dieng minde Where drawing breath I sucke the aire of woe Where too much sight makes all the bodie blinde And highest thoughts downeward most headlong throw Thus then my forme and thus my state I finde Death wrapt in flesh to liuing graue assign'd And pawsing but a little with monefull melodie it continued this octaue Like those sicke folkes in whome strange humors flowe Can taste no sweetes the sower onely please So to my minde while passions daylie growe Whose fyrie chaines vppon his freedome feaze Ioies strangers seeme I cannot bide their showe Nor brooke oughte els but well acquainted woe Bitter griefe tastes me best paine is my ease Sicke to the death still louing my disease O Venus saide Zelmane who is this so well acquainted with mee that can make so liuely a portracture of my miseries It is surely the spirit appointed to haue care of me which doth now in this darke place beare parte with the complaints of his vnhappie charge For if it be so that the heauens haue at all times a measure of their wrathefull harmes surely so many haue come to my blistlesse lot that the rest of the world hath too small a portion to make with cause so wailefull a lamentation But saide she whatsoeuer thou be I will seeke thee out for thy musique well assures me wee are at least-hand fellowe prentises to one vngracious master So raise shee and went guiding her selfe by the still playning voice till she sawe vppon a stone a little waxe light set and vnder it a piece of paper with these verses verie lately as it should seeme written in it HOwe is my Sunn whose beames are shining bright Become the cause of my darke ouglie night Or howe do I captiu'd in this darke plight Bewaile the case and in the cause delight My mangled mind huge horrors still doe fright With sense possest and claim'd by reasons right Betwixt which two in me I haue this fight Wher who so wynns I put my selfe to flight Come clowdie feares close vp my daseled sight Sorrowes suck vp the marowe of my might Due sighes blowe out all sparkes of ioyfull light Tyre on despaier vppon my tyred sprite An ende an ende my dulde penn cannot write Nor mas'de head thinke nor faltring tongerecite And hard vnderneath the sonnet were these wordes written This caue is darke but it had neuer light This waxe doth waste it selfe yet painelesse dyes These wordes are full of woes yet feele they none I darkned am who once had clearest sight I waste my harte which still newe torment tryes I plaine with cause my woes are all myne owne No caue no wasting waxe no wordes of griefe Can holde shew tell my paines without reliefe She did not long stay to reade the wordes for not farre off from the stone shee might discerne in a darke corner a Ladie lieng with her face so prostrate vpon the ground as she could neither know nor be knowen But as the generall nature of man is desirous of knowledge and sorrow especially glad to find fellowes she went as softely as she could conuey her foot neere vnto her where she heard these words come with vehement sobbings from her O darkenes saide shee which doest light somly me thinks make me see the picture of my inward darknes since I haue chosen thee to be the secret witnesse of my sorows let me receiue a safe receipte in thee and esteeme them not tedious but if it be possible let the vttering them be some discharge to my ouerloaden breast Alas sorrowe nowe thou hast the full sack of my conquered spirits rest thy selfe a while and set not stil new fire to thy owne spoiles O accursed reason how many eyes thou hast to see thy euills and thou dimme nay blinde thou arte in preuenting them Forlorne creature that I am I would I might be freely wicked since wickednesse doth preuaile but the foote steppes of my ouer-troden vertue lie still as bitter accusations vnto me I am deuided in my selfe howe can I stande I am ouerthrowne in my selfe who shall raise mee Vice is but a nurse of new agonies and the vertue I am diuorsed from makes the hatefull comparison the more manyfest No no vertue either I neuer had but a shadow of thee or thou thy selfe art but a shadow For how is my soule abandoned How are all my powers laide waste My desire is payned because it cannot hope and if hope came his best shoulde bee but mischiefe O strange mixture of humaine mindes onely so much good lefte as to make vs languish in our owne euills Yee infernall furies for it is too late for mee to awake my dead vertue or to place my comforte in the angrie Gods yee infernall furies I say aide one that dedicates her selfe vnto you let my rage bee satisfied since the effecte of it is fit for your seruice Neither bee afraide to make me too happie since nothing can come to appease the smart of my guiltie cōscience I desire but to asswage the sweltring of my hellish longing deiected Gynecia Zelmane no sooner heard the name of Gynecia but that with a colde sweate all ouer her as if she had ben ready to treade vpon a deadly stinging Adder she would haue withdrawne her selfe but her owne passion made her yeelde more vnquiet motions then she had done in comming So that she was perceaued Gynecia sodainely risne vp for in deed it was Ginecia gotten into this Caue the same Caue wherein Dametas had safelie kept Pamela in the late vprore to passe her pangs with change of places And as her minde ranne still vpon Zelmane her piercing louers eye had soone found it was she And seeing in her a countenance to flye away she fell downe at her feete and catching fast hold of her Alas sayd she whether or from whome doost thou flye awaye the sauagest beastes are wonne with seruice and there is no flint but may be mollifyed How is Gynecia so vnworthie in thine eyes or whome cannot aboundance of loue make worthie O thinke not that crueltie or vngratefulnes can flowe from a good minde O weigh Alas weigh with thy selfe the newe effectes of this mightie passion that I vnfit for my state vncomely for my sexe must become a suppliant at thy feete By the happie woman that bare thee by all the ioyes of thy hart and successe of thy desire I beseech thee turne thy selfe to some consideration of me and rather shew pittie in now helping me then into late repenting my death which hourely threatens me Zelmane imputing it to one of her continuall mishaps thus to haue met with this Lady with a full weary countenance Without doubt Madame said
ground he had met with a great stone which by the hollow sound it yeelded seemed to be the couer of some greater vaut and vpon it a boxe of Cypres with the name of the valiant Aristomenes grauen vpon it and that within the box he found certaine verses which signified that some depth againe vnder that all his treasures lay hidden what time for the discord fell out in Arcadia he liued banished Therwith he gaue Damaetas certaine Medailles of gold he had long kept about him and asked him because it was a thing much to be kept secret and a matter one man in twenty houres might easily performe whether he would haue him go and seeke the bottome of it which he had refrained to do till he knew his mind promising he would faithfully bring him what he found or else that he himselfe would do it and be the first beholder of that comfortable spectacle No man need doubt which part Damaetas would choose whose fancie had alredy deuoured all this great riches and euen now began to grudge at a partenor before he saw his owne share Therefore taking a strong Iade loaden with spades and mattocks which he ment to bring back otherwise laden he went in all speed thetherward taking leaue of no body only desiring Dorus he would looke wel to the Princes Pamela Promising him mountaines of his owne labor which neuerthelesse he little ment to performe like a foole not considering that no man is to be moued with part that neglects the whole Thus away went Damaetas hauing alreadie made an image in his fancie what Pallaces he would build how sumptuously he would fare and among all other things imagined what money to employ in making coffers to keepe his money his tenne mile seemed twise so many leagues and yet contrarie to the nature of it though it seemed long it was not wearysome Many times he curssed his horses want of consideration that in so important a matter would make no greater speede many times he wished himself the back of an Asse to help to carrie away the new sought riches an vnfortunate wisher for if he had aswell wished the head it had bene graunted him At length being come to the tree which he hoped should beare so golden Akornes downe went all his instruments and forthwith to the renting vp of the hurtlesse earth where by and by he was caught with the lime of a fewe promised Medailles which was so perfect a pawne vnto him of his further expectation that he deemed a great number of howers well employed in groping further into it which with loggs and great stones was made as cumbersome as might be till at length with sweatie browes he came to the great stone A stone God knowes full vnlike to the couer of a Monument but yet there was the Cipres box with Aristomenes grauen vpon it and these verses written in it A Banisht man long bard from his desire By inward letts of them his state possest Hid heere his hopes by which he might aspire To haue his harmes with wisdomes helpe redrest Seeke then and see what man esteemeth best All is but this this is our labours hire Of this we liue in this wee finde our rest Who hold this fast no greater wealth require Looke further then so shalt thou finde at least A baite most fit for hungrâ—e minded guest He opened the box and to his great comfort read them and with fresh courage went about to lift vp that stone But in the meane time ere Damaetas was halfe a mile gone to the treasure warde Dorus came to Miso whom he found sitting in the chimneys ende babling to her selfe and shewing me all her gestures that she was loathsomly weary of the worlde not for any hope of a better life but finding no one good neyther in minde nor body where-out she might nourish a quiet thought hauing long since hated each thing else began now to hate her selâ—e Before this sweete humour'd Dame Dorus set himselfe and framed towardes her such a smiling countenance as might seeme to be mixt betwene a tickled mirth and a forced pittie Miso to whome cheerefulnes in others was euer a sauce of enuie in her selfe tooke quicklie marke of his behauiour and with a looke full of foreworne spite Now the Deuill sayd she take these villaynes that can neuer leaue grenning because I am not so fayre as mistresse Mopsa to see how this skip-iacke lookes at me Dorus that had the occasion he desired Truly mistresse aunswered he my smiling is not at you but at them that are from you and in deede I must needes alittle accord my countenance with other sport And therewithall tooke her in his armes and rocking her too and fro In faith mistresse sayd he it is high time for you to bid vs good night for euer since others can possesse your place in your owne time Miso that was neuer voide of mallice enough to suspect the vttermost euill to satisfye a further shrewdnes tooke on a present mildnes and gentlie desired him to tell her what he meant for said she I am like enough to be knauishly dealt with by that churle my husband Dorus fell off from the matter againe as if he had meant no such thing till by much refusing her intreatie and vehemently stirring vp her desire to knowe he had strengthned a credit in her to that he should saye And then with a formall countenance as if the conscience of the case had touched himselfe Mistresse sayd he I am much perplexed in my owne determination for my thoughts do euer will me to do honestlie but my iudgement fayles me what is honest betwixt the generall rule that entrusted secreacies are holilie to be obserued and the particuler exception that the dishonest secreacies are to be reuealed especially there whereby reuealing they may eyther be preuented or at least amended Yet in this ballance your iudgement wayes me downe because I haue confidence in it that you will vse what you know moderately and rather take such faults as an aduantage to your owne good desert then by your bitter vsing it be contented to be reuenged on others with your own harmes So it is mistresse said he that yesterday driuing my sheepe vp to the stately hill which lifts his head ouer the faire Citie of Mantinea I hapned vpon the side of it in a little falling of the ground which was a rampieâ— against the Sunnes rage to perceaue a yong maid truly of the finest stamp of beawtie that which made her bewtie the more admirable there was at all no arte added to the helping of it For her apparell was but such as Shepheards daughters are wont to weare and as for her haire it hoong downe at the free libertie of his goodly length but that sometimes falling before the cleare starres of her sight she was forced to put it behinde her eares and so open againe the treasure of her perfections which that for a while had in part hidden
good reason saye that the constant man abides the painefull surgery for feare of a further euill but he is content to waite for death it selfe but neither is true for neither hath the one any feare but a well choosing iudgement nor the other hath any contentment but onely feare and not hauing a harte actiuely to performe a matter of paine is forced passiuely to abide a greater damage For to doe requires a whole harte to suffer falleth easeliest in the broken minds And if in bodely torment thus much more in shame wherein since vallure is a vertue and vertue is euer limited we must not runne so infinitely as to thinke the valiant man is willinglie to suffer any thing since the very suffering of some things is a certaine proofe of want of courage And if any thing vnwillinglie among the chiefest may shame goe for if honour be to be held deere his contrarye is to be abhorred and that not for feare but of a true election For which is the lesse inconuenient either the losse of some yeares more or lesse for once we knowe our liues be not immortall or the submitting our selues to each vnworthy misery which the foolish world may lay vpon vs As for their reason that feare is contrary to hope neither do I defend feare nor much yeeld to the aucthoritye of hope to eyther of which great enclining shewes but a feeble reason which must be guided by his seruaunts and who builds not vppon hope shall feare no earthquake of despaire Their last alleadging of the heauenly powers as it beares the greatest name so it is the only thing that at all bred any combate in my minde And yet I do not see but that if God hath made vs maisters of any thing it is of our owne liues out of which without doing wrong to any body we are to issue at our owne pleasure And the same Argument would asmuch preuayle to say we should for no necessitie lay away from vs any of our ioyntes since they being made of him without his warrant we should not depart from them or if that may be for a greater cause we may passe to a greater degree And if we be Lieutenants of God in this little Castle do you not thinke we must take warning of him to geue ouer our charge when he leaues vs vnprouided of good meanes to tarrye in it No certainelie do I not answered the sorrowfull Philoclea since it is not for vs to appoint that mightie Maiestie what time he will helpe vs the vttermost instant is scope enough for him to reuoke euery thing to ones owne desire And therefore to preiudicate his determinacion is but a doubt of goodnes in him who is nothing but goodnes But when in deede he doth either by sicknes or outward force lay death vpon vs then are we to take knowledge that such is his pleasure and to knowe that all is well that he doth That we should be maisters of our selues we can shewe at all no title nor clayme since neyther we made our selues nor bought our selues we can stand vpon no other right but his guift which he must limit as it pleaseth him Neyther is there any proporcion betwixt the losse of any other limme and that since the one bends to the preseruing all the other to the destruction of all the one takes not away the minde from the actions for which it is placed in the world the other cuts off all possibilitie of his working And truly my most deere Pyrocles I must needes protest vnto you that I can not thinke your defence euen in rules of vertue sufficient Sufficient and excellent it were if the question were of two outward things wherein a man might by natures freedome determine whether he would preferre shame to payne present smaller torment to greater following or no. But to this besides the comparison of the matters vallewes there is added of the one part a direct euill doing which maketh the ballance of that side too much vnequall Since a vertuous man without any respect whether the griefe be lesse or more is neuer to do that which he can not assure himselfe is allowable before the euerliuing rightfulnes But rather is to thinke honoures or shames which stande in other mens true or false iudgements paynes or not paynes which yet neuer approach our soules to be nothing in regarde of an vnspotted conscience And these reasons do I remember I haue heard good men bring in that since it hath not his ground in an assured vertue it proceedes rather of some other disguised passion Pyrocles was not so much perswaded as delighted by her well conceaued and sweetely pronounced speaches but when she had cloased her pittiful discourse and as it were sealed vp her delightfull lippes with the moistnes of her teares which followed still one another like a precious rope of pearle now thinking it hye time Be it as you saye sayde hee most vertuous beawtye in all the rest but neuer can God himselfe perswade me that Pyrocles life is not well lost for to preserue the most admirable Philoclea Let that be if it be possible written on my Tombe and I will not enuye Codrus honour With that he would agayne haue vsed the barre meaning if that failde to leaue his braynes vppon the wall When Philoclea now brought to that she most feared kneeled downe vnto him and embracing so his legges that without hurting her which for nothing he would haue done he could not ridde himselfe from her she did with all the coniuring wordes which the authoritye of loue may laye beseeche him he would not nowe so cruelly abandon her he woulde not leaue her comfortlesse in that miserye to which he had brought her That then in deede she woulde euen in her soule accuse him to haue most fouly betrayed her that then she should haue cause to curse the time that euer the name of Pyrocles came to her eares which otherwise no death could make her do Will you leaue me sayde she not onely dishonoured as supposed vnchaste with you but as a murderer of you Will you geue mine eyes such a picture of hell before my neere approaching death as to see the murdred bodie of him I loue more then all the liues that nature can geue With that she sware by the hyest cause of all deuocions that if he did perseuer in that cruell resolucion she would though vntruly not onely confesse to her father that with her cōsent this acte had bene committed but if that would not serue after she had puld out her owne eyes made accursed by such a sight she would geue her selfe so terrible a death as she might think the paine of it would counteruaile the neuer dying paine of her minde Now therefore kill your selfe to crowne this vertuous action with infamy kill your selfe to make me whome you say you loue as long as I after liue change my louing admiracion of you to a detestable abhorring your name And so
a constant but reuerent behauiour desired them they would not exercise priuate grudges in so common a necessitye Hee acknowledged himselfe a man and a faultye man to the cleering or satisfyeng of which he would at all times submit himselfe since his ende was to bring all things to an vpright iudgement it should euill fitt him to flye the iudgement But sayde he my Lordes let not Timantus rayling speech who whatsoeuer he findes euill in his owne soule can with ease lay it vppon another make me loose your good fauour Consider that all well doing stands so in the middle betwixt his two contrarye euils that it is a readye matter to cast a slaunderous shade vpon the most approued vertues Who hath an euill toong can call seueritie crueltie and faithfull dilligence dilligent ambition But my ende is not to excuse my selfe nor to accuse him for both those hereafter will be time enough There is neyther of vs whose purging or punishing may so much import to Arcadia Now I request you for your owne honours sake and require you by the duety you owe to this estate that you doo presently according to the lawes take in hande the chastizement of our maisters murderers and laying order for the gouernment by whom soeuer it be done so it be done and iustly done I am satisfyed My labour hath bene to frame things so as you might determine now it is in you to determine For my part I call the heauens to witnesse the care of my heart stands to repaye that wherein both I and most of you were tyed to that Prince with whome all my loue of worldly action is dead As Philanax was speaking his last wordes there came one running to him with open mouth and fearefull eyes telling him that there were a great number of the people which were bent to take the young men out of Sympathus hands and as it should seeme by their acclamacions were like inough to proclayme them Princes Nay sayde Philanax speaking alowde and looking with a iust anger vppon the other noble men it is nowe season to heare Timantus idle slanders while strangers become our Lordes and Basilius murderers sit in his throne But who soeuer is a true Arcadian let him followe me With that he went towarde the place he heard of followed by those that had euer loued him and some of the noble men Some other remayning with Timantus who in the meane time was conspiring by strong hand to deliuer Gynaecia of whome the weakest guard was had But Philanax where he went found them all in an vprore which thus was fallne out The greatest multitude of people that were come to the death of Basilius were the Mantineans as being the nearest Citie to the lodges Among these the chiefe man both in authoritye and loue was Kalander he that not long before had bene hoste to the two Princes whome though he knewe not so much as by name yet besides the obligacion he stood bound to them in for preseruing the liues of his sonne or nephewe theyr noble behauiour had bred such loue in his heart towardes them as both with teares he parted from them when they left him vnder promise to returne and did keepe their iewells and apparrell as the relicks of two demy gods Among others he had entred the prison and seene them which forthwith so inuested his soule both with sorrowe and desire to helpe them whome he tendred as his children that calling his neighbours the Mantineans vnto him he tould them all the prayses of those two young men swearing he thought the gods had prouided for them better then they themselues could haue imagined He willed them to consider that when all was done Basilius children must enioy the state who since they had chosen and chosen so as all the world could not mende their choise why should they resist Gods doing and theyr Princesses pleasure This was the only way to purchase quietnes without blood where otherwise they should at one instant crowne Pamela with a Crowne of golde and a dishonoured title Which whether euer she would forget he thought it fit for them to way such said he heroicall greatnes shines in their eyes such an extraordinary maiestie in all their actions as surely either fortune by parentage or nature in creation hath made them Princes And yet a state already we haue we neede but a man who since he is presented vnto you by the heauenly prouidence embraced by your vndoubted Princesse worthy for their youth of compassion for their beawtie of admiracion for their excellent vertue to be monarkes of the world shall we not be content with our owne blisse Shall we put out our eyes because another man cannot see or rather like some men when too much good happens vnto them they thinke themselues in a dreame and haue not spirits to taste their owne goods No no my friends beleeue me I am so vnpartiall that I knowe not their names but so ouercome with their vertue that I shall then thinke the destenyes haue ordayned a perpetuall florishing to Arcadia when they shall allot such a gouernor vnto it This spoken by a man graue in yeares great in authoritie neere allyed to the Prince and knowen honest preuayled so with all the Mantineans that with one voyce they ranne to deliuer the two Princes But Philanax came in time to withstand them both sides yet standing in armes and rather wanting a beginning then mindes to enter into a bloudy conflict Which Philanax foreseeing thought best to remoue the prisoners secretly and if neede were rather without forme of iustice to kill them then against iustice as hee thought to haue them vsurpe the state But there agayne arose a new trouble For Sympathus the noble man that kept them was so stricken in compassion with their excellent presence that as he would not falsifye his promise to Philanax to geue them libertye so yet would he not yeeld them to himselfe fearing he would do them violence Thus tumult vppon tumult arising the Sunne I thinke aweary to see theyr discords had alreadye gone downe to his Westerne lodging But yet to knowe what the poore Shepherds did who were the fyrst descryers of these matters will not to some eares perchance be a tedious digression Heere endes the fourth booke or acte The fourth Eglogues THE Shepheards finding no place for them in these garboyles to which their quiet hearts whose highest ambition was in keeping themselues vp in goodnes had at all no aptnes retired themselues from among the clamorous multitude and as sorowe desires company went vp together to the Westerne side of a hill whose prospect extended it so farre as they might well discerne many of Arcadias beawtyes And there looking vpon the Sunnes as then declining race the poore men sate pensiue of their present miseries as if they founde a wearines of theyr wofull wordes till at last good olde Geron who as he had longest tasted the benefites of Basilius gouernment so seemed to
any of you if I haue refused no body to do what good I could if I haue often mitigated my fathers anger euer sought to maintayne his fauour towards you nay if I haue held you all as fathers and brothers vnto me rob me not of more then my life commes vnto Teare not that which is inseparably ioyned to my soule but if he rest misliked of you which ô God how can it be yet geue him to me let me haue him you knowe I pretend no right to your state Therefore is it but a priuate petition I make vnto you Or if you be hard hartedly bent to appoint otherwise which oh sooner let me dye then knowe then to ende as I began let me by you be ordered to the same ende without for more crueltie you meane to force Philoclea to vse her owne hands to kill one of your Kings children Pamelas Letter which she meant to send to the generall assemblie of the Arcadian Nobilitie for so closely they were kept as they were vtterly ignorant of the newe taken orders was thus framed IN such a state my Lords you haue placed me as I can neither write nor be silent for how can I be silent since you haue left me nothing but my solitary words to testifie my miserie and how should I write for as for speech I haue none but my Iaylor that can heare me who neither can resolue what to write nor to whom to write What to write is as hard for me to saye as what I may not write so little hope haue I of any successe and so much hath no iniury bene left vndone to me-wards To whom to write where may I learne since yet I wot not how to entitle you Shall I call you my Souereignes set downe your lawes that I may do you homage Shall I fall lower and name you my fellowes shew me I beseech you the Lord and mayster ouer vs. But shall Basilius heyre name her selfe your Princesse Alas I am your prisoner But whatsoeuer I be or whatsoeuer you be ô all you beholders of these dolefull lines this do I signifye vnto you and signifye it with a hart that shall euer remayne in that opinion The good or euill you do to the excellent Prince was taken with me and after by force from me I will euer impute it as eyther way done to mine owne person He is a Prince and worthie to be my husband and so is he my husband by me worthely chosen Beleeue it beleeue it eyther you shall be traytors for murdering of me or if you let me liue the murderers of him shall smart as traytors For what do you thinke I can thinke Am I so childish as not to see wherein you touch him you condemne me Can his shame be without my reproach no nor shall be since nothing he hath done that I will not auowe Is this the comfort you bring me in my fathers death to make me fuller of shame then sorrowe would you do this if it were not with full intention to preuent my power with slaughter And so do I pray you it is hye time for me to be weary of my life too long ledd since you are weery of me before you haue me I say againe I say it infinitely vnto you I will not liue without him if it be not to reuenge him eyther do iustly in sauing both or wisely in killing both If I be your Princesse I commaund his preseruation if but a priuate person then are we both to suffer I take all truth to witnes he hath done no faulte but in going with me Therefore to conclude in iudging him you iudge me neither conceaue with your selues the matter you treate is the life of a stranger though euen in that name he deserued pittie nor of a shepheard to which estate loue of me made such a Prince descend but determined most assuredly the life that is in question is of Pamela Basilius daughter Many blots had the teares of the sweet Ladyes made in their letters which many times they had altred many times torne and written anewe euer thinking some thing eyther wanted or were too much or would offende or which was worst would breede denyall but at last the day warned them to dispatch which they accordingly did and calling one of their guard for no body else was suffred to come neere them with great entreaty they requested him that hee woulde present them to the principall Noblemen and Gentlemen together For they had more confidence in the numbers fauour then in any one vppon whome they would not laye the liues they helde so precious But the fellowe trustie to Philanax who had placed him there deliuered them both to him what time Pyrocles began to speake which he sodaynly opened and seeing to what they tended by the first wordes was so farre from publishing them whereby he feared in Euarchus iust minde eyther the Princesses might be endaungered or the prisoners preserued of which choyse he knewe not which to thinke the worst that hee would not himselfe reede them ouer doubting his owne hart might be mollified so bent vpon reuenge Therefore vtterly suppressing them he lent a spitefull eare to Pirocles and assoone as he had ended with a very willing hart desired Euarchus he might accept the combat although it woulde haue framed but euill with him Pyrocles hauing neuer founde any match neere him besides Musidorus But Euarchus made aunswere since bodyly strength is but a seruant to the minde it were very barbarous and preposterous that force shoulde bee made iudge ouer reason Then woulde hee also haue replied in wordes vnto him but Euarchus who knewe what they coulde saye was already saide taking their arguments into his minde cammaunded him to proceede against the other prisoner and that then he woulde sentence them both together Philanax nothing the milder for Pyrocles purging himselfe but rather according to the nature of arguing especially when it is bitter so much the more vehement entred thus into his speech against Musidorus being so ouergone with rage that hee forgate in this oration his precise methode of oratory Behold most noble protector to what a state Arcadia is come since such manner of men may challenge in combat the faithfullest of the nobilitie and hauing merited the shamefullest of all deathes dare name in marriage the Princesses of this cuntrie Certainely my masters I must saye you were much out of taste if you had not rather enioy such Ladies then be hangd But the one you haue as much deserued as you haue dishonoured the other But now my speech must be directed to you good master Dorus who with Pallas helpe pardie are lately growne Palladius Too much this sacred seate of iustice grauntes vnto such a fugitiue bondslaue who in steede of these examinations shoulde be made confesse with a whippe that which a halter shoulde punish Are not you he Sir whose sheepehooke was prepared to be our Scepter In whom lay the knot of all this