Which amorous hearts soon do insnare All pearls transcending The Down that 's under Angels Wings Is not so soft Titans bright fair Rich dazling tresses can't compare With that curl'd up in curious rings All Pearls transcending You heav'ns come shew your power and art Transform into a Gem my heart All Pearls transcending That having lustre from her eyes and there Fixed may make rings for the Gods to wear Ah is there none the way can find My captiv'd fetter'd â—eart t' unbind Bound in her hair The more this bow-knot I unloose Ah me the faster it doth knit And striving more I tangle it And wind it in an endless noose In her fair hair A bow knot well I may it call Since from Loves bow is all my thrall Strung with her hair Soon would my heart be eas'd of all my trouble Would she but tye this single Love-knot double Her lips are beauties nests that swell Pregnant with sweets where graces dwell Wrapt in Vermilion Th' Arabian Aromatick gales When they the blushing Roses kiss Breath not such sweet perfumes as is Her breath which her pure lips exhales Wrapt in Vermilion Each word an Eagle soaring high With wit that from those lips doth flye Wrapt in Vermilion When she speaks Angels listen and the Spheres Stand still neglect their Musick wish th' had ears No wonder all means prove so vain To make her heart love entertain For Love is slain And plunder'd too of every sweet In her hard marble heart he lies Intomb'd his shafts are in her eyes Her purest white 's his winding sheet Poor Love is slain Her lips with his blood sprinkled are His wings are now become her hair Ah! Love is slain His bow is turned into her arched brow And thus poor Love is slain but none knows how My Lute let 's sing his obsequies You Clouds with tears supply my eyes For Love is dead No marveil then that all things war Love tunes the whole worlds harmony Whose diapazon still doth lye In sweet consent where is no jar Ah! Love is dead Oh no the wanton sawcy Boy Would with his mother sport and toy Love is not dead For which she hath exil'd him and he 's fled Into my heart and feigns that he is dead Amphigenia that had attended to this Song with delight and astonishment admiring whence the Musick came for by reason of the thickness of the hangings and largeness of the room the Lutes sweet Airs were not so cleerly conveyed to her ear But directing her steps by the sobbing voice she came to the hangings behind which Danpion sat where calling for Florinda demanded of her if she knew whence those strains should come Who replyed that it must be some Angel that was turned inamorate and fled to her Chamber mistaking it for Loves Paradise for sure no mortal dares or can attempt said she so neer an approach when restrained by your Fathers special prohibition Danpion hearing Amphigenia make such strict inquiry hasted thence lest he should be discovered but now the flames of Love burned with more vehemency than before so that the torment had been insupportable had it not been fanned and cooled with hope which began to breath upon him with some gentle gusts For having such a passage where undiscovered to any he might have resort to her Chamber he resolved to personate some Intelligence till he might have free admittance to her presence which in time he thought he might be able to effect by reason of Florinda's intimacy with her who by her insinuations would confirm in Amphigenia's apprehensions what he should do not to be delusions but realities Accordingly the next night after when he thought the time of night might invite fair Amphigenia to refresh her self with sweet slumber he took his Lute as before and softly stole to her Chamber But as he went his mind was filled with distracting thoughts How well did he say doth this blind passage ressemble those blinder paths I thus tread to my happiness These dark windings and craggy turnings that this Vault abounds in methinks lightsomly represents the inexsucerable difficulties and inextricable intricacies I am forced to pass thorough and must be involved in ere I can arrive at any glimmerings of hope But my comfort is that as this conducts to an Elyzium such a one as the Gods would exchange theirs for such a one as the Antick Poets inspired with a prophetick as well as Poetick fury did but typifie in their fictions so the various windings of my unhappy love when my Cloudy fortune shall unmask her dusky face will at length be unwound and come to a bottom where they 'l centre in an Elyzium of happiness Being come to the end of the Cave he perceived Amphigenia fast asleep her Wax Taper burning by her As she lay his eyes carved such ravishing sweets as transported with the violence of so many Darts he thought he had attained the Zenith of his felicity The Pillow blest with a kiss from her Cheeks as pregnant with delight swelled on either side Her eyes Canopyed in sleeps dark veil shewed lifes triumph in the Map of death Her hand contended with the Lawn for whiteness and being partly covered with it looked like a Lilly through purest Crystall A lock that had stollen from its sweet prison folded in cloudy curls lay dallying with her breath sometimes striving to get a kiss and then repulsed flew back sometimes obtaining its desired bliss and then as rapt with joy retreats in wanton caperings Her body that lay arayed or rather disarayed in a thin Smock wrought with blew silk and silver obscured not her skin but rather made it appear the lovelier if lovelier it could be Her breasts at liberty displayed were of so pure a whiteness as if ones eye through the transparent skin had viewed the milky treasures they inclosed Her Violet veins that streamed in branched Rivers seemed like Azure paths in a milky heaven This confluence of delights put Danpion besides himself for a while but recollecting his thoughts he took his Lute and tuning it in Consort with his Soul in a Love rapture sang this Song Were I immur'd in flesh and blood And might enjoy so sweet a good I 'de not exchange my blissful state With any earthly Potentate Ah now I see that beauties Darts Can penetrate the Angels hearts I see those lucid Stars that shine In Heav'ns bright Orb neer the divine Empyreal throne though they transcend Earths beauties all yet love can rend The heav'ns and peirce the Azure sky And rapt them with loves extasie who 'd think the winged Boy could climb Through all the starry Spheres sublime His quiver fill'd with beauties rays And though so blind yet see such ways In heaven to steal and durst enthrall The very powers Angelical Sweet Amphigen ' thy beauty rings Through Heavens Court each Angel sings Thy praise and poor I to behold What same had eccho'd there and told Came thence but now flames from thine eye Hath sindg'd
souls who are acquainted with rapturous contemplations and know what it is to be snatcht into an extasie But oh the vehemence of Amphigenia's passion at this sudden surprizal At first she stood wondring rather whether she saw at all than what she saw so that she stood a while even entranced with astonishment but at length awakned out of her dream of amazement she betakes her self for refuge to her leggs and runs and shrieks with such a peircing shrilness as the Air seemed to hand her voice to the heavens to implore revenge for such hideous presumption but as it fled the Air seemed delighted with so sweet a traveller as it bandyed it to and fro as if each part was ambitious to entertain it The Ladies that were walking up and down in the Gardens some beheading flowers to purifie their brains with fragrant exhalations that steam from those nests of sweets others summing up the riches of the ears in Musicks charming numbers others passing away the time with pleasant pastime these I say hearing thus on a suddain their Lady shriek presently run for her succour and at length they might see the Princess nimbly tripping along upon the verdant Grass which as proud to be depressed with so sweet a foot would erect it self with a pretty kind of stateliness after her departure whilst she ran with so much swiftness as even robbed their eyes of a plenary view of her excellencies and Danpion as they supposed pursuing of her who no sooner saw this beautiful train but he fled with as much celerity from them as before he did towards them and hardly escaped ere the King hearing a whole Consort of shrieks and crys among the Ladies in the Garden came with speed to know the cause and found his daughter surrounded with her Ladies like Diana amongst her Nymphs so that she seemed like Sol among the Planets where all beauty center'd theirs being onely reflections of hers The King seeing that called some of them to him to inform him of the reason of their outcries who told him that Danpion as was conjectured by his Garb had endeavoured to force the Lady Amphigenia Danpion said the King Danpion a ravisher Danpion a ravisher of my daughter oh monstrous impiety horrid enterprise hellish ingratitude what Danpion I say it can never be He who hath received such transcendâ—nt favours from me as would even impoverish a Monarchs gratitude that could command all the riches of the Orient or make the Sea vomit up her treasures such as though he would surrender up his soul it would be too poor a restitution and can it be that he should attempt mine or my daughters dishonor heaven and earth would conspire their forces in avengement of such astonishing ingratitude But if I find it true by all the Celestial powers he had better have mounted on the wings of his ambition to heaven and deâ—lowred Venus This said the King in a fury returns to the Palace and banishes Danpion the Court and confined him to a house some miles from the Palace upon pain of death at the least attempt of liberty Bascanius seeing such a happy result of his plot inwardly so swelled with content that he could not contain his venemous rancor from bursting forth to the poisoning of Danpions honor but privately gives forth scandalous libells and publikely teaches Fame the language of Danpions disgrace which hitherto she had been wholly unacquainted with and makes her declame on nothing but the Theme of his lust and ruine and not contended onely with this but he relates at large to the King Danpions affection to Amphigenia his former attempts to satiate as he termed it his libidinous desires to which this late event stood as a test for confirmation And now all Danpions opposits in the Court that had born him inveterate malice spurn at this muzled Lion and vent their malicious fumes to obscure his lustre Every one can lend a hand to thrust down a tottering Wall Thus this innocent Prince was on the sudden made the subject of Fortunes hate and his enemies malice and his new hatcht glory choaked by the black Acherontick vapours that steamed from his enemies hellish malignity But now to tell you how this gallant and Princely prisoner behaved himself under this sad fate At first indeed the suddeness not the greatness of the woâ— astonished him as whom would it not transport with amazement with a thunderbolt of Fortune in an instant to be hurid out of the Chariot of such dazling glory as would have exhausted a Kings Exchequer but to have made soâ—e representations of it and thrown into a lake of miâ—ery and such was Danpions case he who before was 〈◊〉 hing like Fortunes Admiral in the Sea of her inconstâ—nt glory one little moment and linke of time chains him as a slave to the Galley of misery and disgrace He who before shone with such a lustre as every beam of State seemd to fasten to him numerous pairs of servil eyes that did attend his beck is now plundered of all state of all respect unpittyed unregarded But though misery like Circes cup can thus metamorphose our externals yet it can have no influence on the rational part None but caduque beings are subject to the tyranny of Time and Change and therefore abstracted beings that come not under the predicament of corporeity as their essence so their happiness is of an immutable permanency and though some abject souls that steep their Intellectuals in sence and can relish nothing but Epicurean pleasures may have their delights as transient as time yet a composed soul truly fortified with Vertue is its own destiny and depends not for its felicity on any other than its own arbitrement and that of an eternal Fate which guiding all things according to their natures consequently rules free Agents their Actions and Fortunes happy or unhappy as the former are attended with Vertue or Vice according to the principles it hath placed within them as its Vicegerents and representatives to govern them Now such a one miseries may try cannot discompose or disorder such a one no revolution of time can drive from resolution in the midst of extremities and such a one was Danpion For he seemed a man to whom whatever can merit the epithete of Excellent might be attributed to him having a sublime spirit in a matchless body the former seemed a ray of Prometheuâ— fire something ratifyed and invested with a more pure and active quality not having the least mixture of those pondeâ—â—â—s elements that clogg the mind but all of rare ascending fire that clarified his blood from those feculent â—umors that flow from the grossier elements and composed such a harmony in his soul as no misfortune could make a jarr and the latter was so sweet a composition of all those masculine graces that at once feed both delight and wonder as it seemed that Nature with Lilied beauty had chalked out his soul a lodging proportionable to its own greatness
PANDION and AMPHIGENIA Or The Historie of the Coy Lady Adorned with Sculpture London Printed for Richard Milles. PANDION AND AMPHIGENIA OR THE HISTORY OF THE Coy Lady OF THESSALIA Adorned with Sculptures By J. CROWNE LONDON Printed by I. G. for R. Mills at the sign of the Pestel and Mortar without Temple-Barr Anno 1665. To the Right Honorable ARTHUR Lord Viscount CHICHESTER Earl of DONEGAL And one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Council for the Kingdom of Ireland My Lord THis poor Off-spring of my vacant hours having slept awhile in the shades of obscurity and silence I knew not when it might better walk abroad and take the Air of popular censure than in the Sun-shine of your Lordship Patronage I am very sensible of the meanness of the Subject being wholly fictitious and the poverty of its dress and none can think more contemptibly of it than my self I was scarce twenty years of Age when I fancyed it and therefore it must needs want those masculine conceits as do violence to mens understandings I am not ignorant that things of this nature are onely to ease and supple a Brain that hath long bin in the Rack of severer Studies and I am afraid this will hardly be preferred to so noble a use since a lofty Intellect that hath been Airing its Wings in clear and sublime Meditations will hardly stoop to Bath in the puddle of these low and sordid Fancies If throughout the whole Utopia there be an expression or a person whose Character or Passion may deserve a transient glance from your eye it hath commenced a degree of Honor above my expectations And I shall esteem my self highly and generously rewarded if I may hereby in any degree merit the title of My Lord Your Lordships most humble and most obedient servant John Crowne To the Reader IT was on a day that as Time rode by in the Chariot of the Sun I resolved to go in Pilgrimage to Parnassus and borrowing some few idle hours of that old bald-pated Usurer to bear my expences I weaved me a Hermits Gown of Opportunities for clock and took for a Staff a Sun-beam and so accoutred I went to do my devoire to the nine Patronesses of Poesie Where after a long and tedious peregrination I arrived but no sooner arrived than I beheld to my astonishment the Widowed chanel that once had embraced the Castalian Springs sweet off spring destitute of its murmuring society and of the delight it once took in its moist kisses and prostitute to a new black complexion'd Lover the bubling womb whence that progeny was extracted being turned to a Grave where Oblivion lay entombed that treasury of liquid Pearls that used of yore to enrich old Poets Brains wherewith they so oft bespangled their Poems being quite exhausted Some said it was thence conveyed into little Cisterns and so conducted thorough slender pipes into a vast Conduit Others said the thirsty throats of Lovers parch't with Beauties Raies had swill'd it up I as an impartial Judge imputed it to both Next I looked round to see if I could espy the Muses but Time it seemed had long ago ravished those sweet Virgins from that solitary place Some said they were dead and Coffin'd up in Poets Souls Others said they served as Handmaids to fond Lovers Paramors I as an uninteressed Umpire imputed it to neither but judged they were fled to heaven to renew their Bankrupted stores Thus grieved to see my journey frustrate I resolved however to Banquet my eyes with the sight of that forked mountain that once had been the pleasant Throne where the nine Virgin Queens were wont to sit Crowned with Lawrel on a green Carpet wrought with Fore's embroidery tuning their enchanting Laies to Ecchâ—es resounding Accâ—nts but turning to behold it I saw nothing but the Plain whose shoulders had once born that huge pile of earth when struck into a transport with admiration at this monstrous product of Time I was told by the standers by that some Modern Gyants of wâ—t had born it thence intending to scal Heaven and plunder it of its choicest rarities wherewith to fill the heavenly Coffers of their minds These words were as an alarum to my murmuring thoughts which now began to mutiny against my repose whom whilst I strove to appease I heard from a confused Mass of Rocks and Stones the most soul-entrancing-melody that ever was begotten of the Airs fluid womb such as would have compelled a Stoick to sleep his mind in those soft pleasures whose every tone sounded like a Diapason and all its accents like the very relishes and closes of that heavenly Musick Angels and beatified souls compose when in their Silver Bowers they joyn in Consort and make the Arches of that Empyreal Orb resound the Eulogies they sing in praise of their immortal solace No sooner were these Airs convey'd into the Labyrinth of my ear but I felt my self confounded with sudden ravishment when demanding of the Auditory whether Melody it self lay interred under that Chaos Reply was made that they were onely some few Reliques of those ravishing strains Apollo used to charm souls withall when playing on his Viol he made the Air dance her rarest measures in thousands of sweet forms after his nimbly quavering fingers whose melody made the very senseless stones become Epicures who loath to part with their delight hoorded up its Silver sound in their obdurate treasuries Scarce had my mind lent attendance to the cadence of their speech ere I was snatcht I knew not how I knew not whither Whilst I lay extasied with this harmony I saw in a Vision a young Muse in tattered habit holding in her hand the pourtraiture of a man drawn by the Pencil of Nature so exquisitely that it seemed the perfect Character of a Divine Idea for no humane fancy could devise such an excellent draught His looks were the Ensigns of some eminence in him more than humane so that he seemed the Epitome of the whole worlds excellencies The Princely Air of his countenance seeming as a refracting medium of the beams of an illustrious Soul that he almost confirmed in me that before doubted Platonism That Angels are united to bodies As I was feeding my admiration with this admirable sight I heard a voice proclame in my ears Copy out this representation Fain would I have made my own inability the excuse of my neglect and made answer that such superlative excellencies did transcend my comprehension much more my expressions and that it sufficed that they were their own blazons since none could sufficiently emblazon them and as for me I would imitate the adorers of the Sun not being able to encircle his head in a Lawrel Crown I 'de sacrifize some few Poetick Flowers to his praise These thoughts restored my revolted senses to their Offices when no sooner awaked and that I had taken acquaintance with my self but I saw the Muse that appeared to me in my Vision who came running to me and
faithful constancy for Woman she could not be and Man she was not Oh what a thing were Woman should her visage alter with her mind and her external form should receive constant figurations from that inconstant mould she would be twenty several women in a moment Never was any Chamelion or Proteus more subject to various mutabilities But why do I blame the whole Sex for the unfaithfulness of one and why do I blame her for my own unworthiness ah it was not her inconstancy to me but my inconstancy to any thing of worth that made her hate me I that was the reason I am not worthy of her of her no not to live Then once more I bid farewell to all my hopes farewell all false deluding pleasures painted woes sugred lyes and farewell Helena the sum of all thou hast already peirced my heart with a wound more deep though not so deadly as this with that I ran in but ere my trembling feet could convey me to him his bloudy knife had made passage for his soul to fly from her claiy prison My daughter who had by this time so far come to her senses as sensibly to understand the sequel of the story no sooner heard it but overwhelmed with the raging agony of a furious passion ran up stairs whom still we carefully pursued but ah my tongue falters and my heart fails to speak the rest and then the tears began to glide down his Cheeks in such a liberal manner that Periander could not forbear to incorporate his with them but intreating him to proceed he thus went on Ah said he the rest is so tragical that it cannot be heard or related without a fractured heart for we could not follow her so fast as she followed death neither did we overtake her ere she had overtaken it for seeing her self pursued and no other way to bereave her self of life she leapt out of the window which Trebonius seeing as one already carried out of himself with horror despair and amazement knowing himself to be the cause of all these bloudy Tragedies to appease their Ghosts which otherwise he thought might continually attend him with affrighting representations in this world he would attend them in the other and thereupon leapt after her so that as if Fortune had studied how to exercise her uttermost power in making me miserable in one moment I was deprived of Son and Daughter Joy and Comforts all at once so that hopeless of ever superviving such extremity of miseries I resolved to spend the reâ—idue of my few days in preparing for death which my age now begins to summon to Scarce had he concluded his lamentable relation of a more lamentable story but a panting messenger came running with such haste as if his ambitious legs unsensible of their burthen had contended which should be esteemed the swiftest or attain the period of their journy the soonest His message was to require Geryon from the King with speed to haste to Court who accordingly arose and accompanied with Periander presently walked thither where the first species that did greet his eyes was the King and his Daughter Helena with their hands intermixed coming to meet him no sooner had his eyes beheld her but as if they had retained their visive power only for such a sight and now satiated with that resolved for ever to exclude all other objects that might exclude it determined never to see more His aged Heart rent with the violent extremities of over flowing excess of misery and now a too prodigal access of comfort not able to contain his vital spirits he in a moment just as he was going to salute and embrace her malicious Death as envying him so much happiness tript up his heels and rob'd him of life and kiss and all which Helena seeing shewing no less dutiful affection to him dead than living after many vain endeavours to recall his revolted spirits caused his funerals to be solemnized with as much state as his quality required and her ability could perform Fortune who had hitherto filled the eyes and ears of all men with nothing but dismal Tragedies was now minded to play a wanton reak and as sated with so much bloud for its better digestion brought in this Comical adventure amongst them It happened that one evening as they newly concluded their Supper a messenger came and privately whispered in Helena's ear telling her that an ancient Gentleman without desired the favour of some converse with her She granted it bade the messenger to invite him in He drawing neer after humble obeysance made to the King and the rest there present directed his speech to the Lady Helena in this sort Madam said he it was my fortune to be present at the death of unhappy Pentheus but who can be unhappy that ever was beloved by such a Lady as your â—â—lf who bequeathed his last gasp into my mouth which as well as I could understand breathed out these words Go tell dear Helena said he and dear may I well call her since she hath cost me my life that here I dye a mirror of Love and Faithfulness and a true pattern of a faithful Lover And moreover commanded me to beg of you that if any sparks of love or mercy to him yet remained and conjure you by the former testimonys of affection and the sweet remembrance of your more sweet embracings you would for your own sake if not for his for otherwise his unquiet Ghost would never rest appeased entertain my Son as your servant whilst Trebonius remains alive and after as your husband that so the resemblance that he bears of him may be a continual Memento to you And now Madam said he I have performed the Will of the dead on my part the residue of obedience only remains on yours of which I cannot but promise my self performance for sure so much cruelty and unfaithfulness as to deny cannot be disguised under so sweet a visard as Nature hath adorned your face withall And then he stopt earnestly waiting Helena's answer who first making many sighs and tears a prologue to her discourse made this Reply Sir said she I call heaven to witness to my faithfulness and constancy whose All-surveying Eye sees into the most abstruse retirements of the Soul and knoweth all its most secret productions to whom I dare appear Surely had I been faithless to such a one had the whole worlds contracted powers endeavoured to Barricado me against heavens vengeance all their united force had been but as paper bulwarks My spotless innocency is the only Brazen Wall that can protect me from its Cannon shot which I humbly importune heaven and then she kneeled that the very Clouds might discharge against this breast if there be any other than truth and faithfulness in me toward my Pentheus Madam answered the other such imprecations are unnecessary he whose distrustful breast dares lodge an unbelieving thought of what comes from so sweet a mouth may Cassandra's curse in its
beautious Face wherein shined the Perfection of all Perfections was a visible heart-melting Musick which as if composed of Charmes entranc't Spectators and struck Harmonious Raptures into adoring mindes Thus were the Eyes and Hearts and Tongues of all led Captive by her Beauty and forced to pay the Tribute of looking loving and commending to the soveraignty of her Excellencies At length Superstition wedded to Admiration begat a conceit in their mindes that sure she was more than what her external form spake her to be for there seemed a greater mixture of Divine Exellencies in her Beauty than ever frail Mortality could boast of and her transcendent Glories seemed to run Parallel with those that have bribed Superstitious souls to asâ—ribe Divinity to Venus so that in the end they thought it the highest degree of Sacrilege for any Mortal whatsoever to monopolize those Treasured in the pure vivid Temple of her Beauty which are only consecrated to the Gods but much more for such a deformed Adonis as Lacon to enjoy so fair a Venus Amongst the many Captives that were enthralled by Glyceras Beauty whose hearts were drawn by its magnetick force it seems this Knight was one who as I told you is the relater of of these sad tydings whose fortune it was to espie her as she passed along to the Temple But no sooner were his eyes fixed on her but she as a burning Mirour wherein all the rayes of Beauty centred inflamed his heart with the pure fire of chast Affection and perceiving her Eyes with an inundation of Tears ready to overflow their own Beauties and with silent lamentation to bewail her persecuted innocency for though she endeavoured to suppress any insurrections of Passion what she could yet Nature would exact some tears that wonted Tribute that grief extorts in such like Accidents but I say observing that internal sorrow she disclosed in her Countenance which as he rightly interpreted it could be for nothing but that she such a miracle of Beauty should be linked in Hymeneal Conjunction with such a Monster of deformity he said was so moved with compassion that he thought he felt the quintessence of each tear distil down into his Soul and disdaining that such a wonder of Ugliness should be his Corrival in affection who might more aptly have contended in Rivalry with some of Pluto's fiends for deformity he drew his Sword and compelled him to resign her up to himself unless he prized a moments sight of her above his life No sooner Lacon saw the naked steel but he flies like an Arrow out of a Bow not for his swiftness but for the resemblance his shrimpish-slimgut body had to an Arrow as each legg had to a Bow and all the way as he goes he howls and yells as if he had been beset with armed Theeves so that in a short space such a concourse of People surrounds the Knight and his Lady as if some wonder had dropped down from Heaven some coming to behold the beauty of the Lady whose perfections fame in so high a style had proclamed in their ears but could not obtrude upon their belief others to see what was the reason of that Tumult So that though at first Glycera was the wonder that drew the concourse yet at length the concourse it self became the wonder And as is the manner of such Plebeian disorders they seldom end without some slaughter and so it happened here For seeing the Knight with his Sword drawn many thought he would have offered violence to the Lady others hearing Lacon's roaring thought he had murdered him others that were no less wounded with her Beauty than the Knight that had ravished her from Lacon and thought their Swords might purchase them as good a Title to her as he resolved either to have her or his life or both so that in an instant there was nothing to be heard but clashings of Swords cryes of dead men and all the symptomes of reigning confusion The Knight that for a great space had gallantly defended himself and his Lady making many of the bodies of his Opposers fall and do homage to his rage and their souls which to what their bodies had done would not consent he sent to Tartarus there to endure an eternal Vassalage under Pluto But yet having no other Bulwark than his Buckler to fortifie himself against the incursions of his Enemies he at last received a Wound out of which such plenty of Blood effused that he was forced to surrender up himself and his Lady to the mercy of his Opponents and by that means he escaped from amongst them But now the quarrel grew as hot amongst themselves which should bear away the Prize every man accounting the loss of his blood a cheap price to purchase so rich a Treasure thus there grew no end of their disorders till at length some Officers from the King came and with the Point of the Sword of Justice put a full point and Period to the rude scufflings of this Rabble But when enquiry was made after Glycera no newes could be heard of her for taking her opportunity when her bloody Suters were all pleading their Interests with the Swords sharp-peircing Rhetorick she escaped away in the Crowd and fled to a Wood not farr distant where she spent all that night in bewailing her sorrowful estate where her Soul would quaff in huge draughts of woe which as not able to concoct she would pour out again in Tears Tears that fell like melted Stars from the Heaven of her Beauty Thus did she give up her self to the dominion of an unreasonable Passion which yet her Passion perswaded her was reasonable Sometimes grief would permit her thus to lament her Woes Oh Me of all women distrest Must I be she in whom miseries combine together to make miserable Must all things have their stint but my griefs alone be boundless The Sea hath its shore the Winds their limits the Earth its centre and this spacious Globe of Heaven and Earth its circumference but Ah! No shore no limits no centre no circumference to my sorrows No shore to the Seas of my Tears no limits to the Wind of my sighs no centre to my deep-rooted griefs nor no circumference to the infinity of my miseries But I am become Fortunes Ware-house where she hoords up her store of sorrowes Hells Butt where my Innocency is the White at which they shoot their invenomed Arrowes Winged with Malice and Piled with Destruction and Heavens Tennis ball when if with the vehemency of the blow my Soul chance to bound upwards towards a Heaven of hope for grief is ever at the lowest when it is at the highest and extremity of misery is ever the dawning of mercy I say if it chance to bound some dismal Accident takes me at the re-bound and tosses me into a Hell of calamities Come then Death come quickly bend thy Bow and send thy sharp-piled Arrowes into this Pile of Dust that entombs my Soul But then her Breasts
Legacy unto me as her self the Jewel of the world the pattern of perfection in whose presence all beauties lose their lustre as the Suns refulgent beams drown the splendor of the Stars and in comparison of whom Venus was but a blowze and might justly be accused of the highest arrogance should she account her excellencies worth estimation when compared with hers In fine I left nothing unsaid that Love could dictate and Love did dictate as much as can be within the compass of invention so that at length with these assaults I battered down all those reasons that fortified her heart against me and forced her to blush forth a dumb consent when methoughts I saw her former thoughts marching out of her mind with the colours flying in the lovely Air of her countenance with such a delicate bravery as she seemed at once to yield and tryumph so that I became oâ— a captive a victor but yet such a victor as my conquest did but augment my captivity And before she would surrender up her heart to my possession she compelled me by many Vows to swear not to deface her spotless Vertue but that chastity should retain its governance and withall to pay a large sum of merits towards the building a Temple of honor where her Vertue should lye enshrined and since that no deserts purchase greater renown than those that are founded on Valour and Deeds of Arms therefore she engaged me to travel with her thorough Greece to hunt for fame with heroick exploits And remembring that there was no better way to eternize my name than to serve so excellent a Prince as your self in so just and honorable a cause I raised what forces I could in Parrhasia and am now come to obey Matilda and serve your Lordship Athalus having thus finished his story Danpion and he began to consult about their designs Great affairs being surrounded with difficulties for their better accomplishment require as well Argus's eyes as Briarcus hands And therefore as a Prince would proclame himself guilty of no great prudence whose confidence on anothers judgement should create in him a diffidence of his own and by that means make another the Atlas of his Crown so neither would it argue height of policy should an over-valuing opinion of himself beget in him a contempt of his counsel For by that means viewing his reasons thorough the spectacles of self-conceipt be sure they will appear however empty in themselves more full of wisdom more forcible and more demonstrative than others That Prince had need have a brain pregnant with Minerva that needs no coâ—nsel as he shews himself a Prince scarce a man I should say with a head empty of brains that refuses all counsel But to digress from this digression Pandion and Athalus as I said fell into consultation about the managing this cause in which they were embarqued and how to steer it safely to the Port of Soveraignty Now in all determinable cases controverted by a Councel these three points are chiefly to be insisted on First The Justness of the cause for who can expect to return crowned with a Lawrel that at once fightt against the powers of heaven and earth Secondly The facility of accomplishing and therein is to be considered the instrumental causes for never was any so in league with Heaven as to challenge supernatural assistance None could free him from the imputation of madness that would endeavor to effect an enterprize without endeavors that were to create not to get victories Thirdly The honor and profit since man acting as a rational creature by voluntary election not by instinct of Nature or compulsive impulse of Sense always propounds some thing to himself which appearing under the notion of good is called the final cause which though last in executionâ— is first in intention therefore much more in the management of the highest affairs man is entrusted with on earth they ought to use the greatest reason and Reason never excites the will to proceed to election of any thing for its object that contains not real worth to render it eligible or is at least gilded over with an amability Now these three things were chiefly considered in their deliberation And as to the first namely The justness of the Cause that was affirmed to be as apparent as the Sun by whom all things are apparent it being the prosecution of a persecuted right and such a right that had been founded upon an indubitate succession for many generations proclamed by the voyce of heaven the people and confirmed by the Law of Nature and Nations And to that Objection that Hiarbas his right both by Conquest and by Agis his resignation had swallowed up Danpion's Reply was made To the first Part of the Objection That Nature was an impartial Legislator and Universals were equally shared among Specials and Individuals Now if it was an Universal Rule That Might could purchase Right then it was as just for Danpion to regain the Kingdom by force as Hiarbas by force to possess it If the longest sword is a fit tool to carve Crowns for one it is for another If the Trophies of Conquest can afford materials for a Throne for one they can for another But the Sword using no other Arguments than those of Victory and Success cannot be a fit way to constitute nor a fit Umpire to determine Right And though it may plead Custom and Example yet such Pleas are only valid with those whose ignorance of the Original and true constitution of Right Equity and Justice disposeth them to adhere to a Precedent and though they follow the example of one whose actions were probably entituled just because they escaped that vengeance that pursues injustice We are not to square our actions by anothers unless he squares his by the rules of justice And though it is true in the state of War that all men are in before the institution of Common-wealths every man by nature being as a little World so a little Republick a Right procured by the Sword is not unjust because unjustice is the wrongful detaining of anothers Propriety now one man having as much right to all things as another there can be no Propriety until a coercive Power is established that must divide this vast Common into Inclosures yet after Common-wealths are instituted to invade anothers right is not to procure a Propriety but a Possession for Propriety is a Right to enjoy and improve any thing transferred by mutual voluntary compact under a coercive Power that can render the Contract valid by compelling the mutual performance Now a Covenant being an act of the Will and the Will having only some good for its Object and no greater evil than to abandon means of self-preservation which is the end and use of all things we seek to enjoy therefore none can be supposed voluntarily to renounce his right of enjoyment of that the loss whereof tends to his destruction because he therein cannot be thought to aim
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
and ready to yield himself a prisoner unto death less cruel then his enemies as appeared by his pale looks which had no other redness than what they received from his own and enemies bloud Which sight did so animate Perianders courage as that with a Lyon-like fury he flew upon the first and sheathed his sword in his bowels but ere he could recover his weapon he was wounded in the shoulder by another which Periander feeling it so increased the flames of his fury within him as that it flew in sparks from his Eys enraged he fell upon him never ceasing till he had separated his murderous Soul from his body made both him and the other the Trophies of his Valour Periander leaving them weltering in their gore turned to Athalus for so was the young Knight named thinking to revive his dying Spirits and to acquaint him with the death of his enemies But Athalus that before was fainting and sowning and even at the confines of death with the presence of this strange Knight began to revive as if he had received life from him as well as owed his life to him after millions of thanks returned desired him to accompany him to his Castle which was not far distant from them so that Periander accerting of the invitation they in a short time there arrived which for its magnificence might more properly be termed a Palace being invironed with a Wall of Stone whose height enviously seemed to hinder them from beholding the Fabrick it did encompass The Pillars on which the Gate was hung were made of purest Marble on the top of which were ingraven Gilded Griffons whose Wings spread with the shutting and closed with its opening by the means of a secret Engine as if they had been indued with life When they were entred in they came into a stately Court paved with checquered Marble through which they passed into a second far surpassing the former in which there stood a Tâ—wâ—â— imbraced with wanton Ivy spread with fragrant â—â—â—lantine entrailed with Roses and suppâ—â—â—ed with Pillars resembling Atlas The Arched Roof was decked with Flowers Arbors and Groves underneath there were engraven the Nine Muses each holding a melodious Instrument in her hand wherein the Artificer seemed to excell himself for underneath the Pavement there was a secret bubling Spring whose Streams were through Pipes conveyed to each Statue so that at the turning of a Silver Cock as if they had been inspired with life from Heaven like Prometheus Image all the Instruments would sound with such melodious consent and harmony as charmed Periander into an extasie of admiration so that with what he saw and heard he imagined himself in a Paradise where the more he admired the more he desired to stay to satisfie his Curiosity and yet the longer he stayed the more his admiration was augmented But Athalus faintness would not permit any long delay so that into the Castle they went where the spacious Rooms were hung with Arras Tapestry and Cloth of Tissue adorned with lively Pictures After Athalus had taken some repose and repaired the bloudy breaches the late battery had made Periander entreated him to relate the occasion of the quarrel at whose request Athalus thus began Sir said he the obligements I have received from you are of so high a nature that I cannot but acknowledge them above requital there being nothing of an equal worth with Life which I must acknowledge I have received from your Valour and therefore I cannot but account your desires as Commands and my disobedience to them as Rebellion against the Laws of Nature therefore to satisfie them know that in the Lordship of Parrhasia where I dwell there lives a young Nobleman Son to the Lord of the place called Plivio in whose friendship I was once as happy as now unhappy in his hatred Bred up we were together and as our stature so our affection encreased Youth is tender and readily receives the impressions of education but though it easily receives them yet it difficultly pâ—rts with them so it was with us that affection which was ingraffed when we were young grew and increased untill our mature Age insomuch that once we thought the Stars should sooner have fell from Heaven and sunk into the Ocean there to have extinct their light Stones ascend and supply their places the Sun rise in the West and the order wherein Nature hath placed all things be perverted than our love dissolved but as love conjoyned us so love parted us for hapning once to espy Aâ—ritesia and Matilda the two beautiful daughters of Pirotes walking dallying and discoursing in the Fields our affections were captivated with their Beauty he with Arritesia the elder I with Matilda fain we would have concealed our passions but Love will not be hid its nature is such that it is most revealed when most concealed for sometimes we must be commending one and then the other one while Arritesia was judged most beautiful and then Maltida would seem to carry it with the greater grace one while we compared them both together and then singling out a Feature as if that had surpassed the rest in excellence but then a second seemed to excel that a third exceeding them both In fine Plivio was so deeply entangled with Arritesia as not being able to conquer it he discovered it in frequent sighs and heart-betraying looks often would he extoll Matilda but then when he spake of Arritesia he would accent every sentence with a sigh which I perceiving thinking to please him would answer all his commendations with complyance and when he sighed I could not but sigh too he out of affection to her and I out of cordial love to him but still he misconstrued all and there wherein I thought I most pleased him I most offended him he interpreting all I did to him was done to her so that though his love to me was not presently converted to raging jealousie yet it soon begot suspition which is jealousie in its infancy which I assoon perceived by the constant watch his eyes kept Home we returned to try what success Fortune would crown our loves withall but as if the Staâ—s had conspired at once to cross our affections and our happiness together Matilda had placed her delight in Plivio and Arritesia the object of Plivios delight was pleased to esteem of me far above my deserts and above Plivio so that this was the spring and source of all our future unhappiness for Plivio's jealousie by this was daily augmented and begot hatred and hatred made him put the worst construction upon each thing I said or did He took my visits to Matilda to be only pretences thereby the more securely to rob him of Arritesia and the cold entertainment and slights he received of her to proceed from thence which latter was truth though I was both innocent and ignorant All my vows and protestations wherewith I laboured to clear my self did but the more confirm him
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
pale liâ—s of mine once dare to own a smile nor this trembling heart to entertain a joy since the Heavens have dispossest me of such a joy whose presence made all my joys I and sorrows too to be joyful and at whose absence all my joys like shadows vanish but my sorrows increase Nothing but grief and care now he is gone shall And then being no longer able to speak she wept a floud of tears making her language to ebb Heavens forbid said Periander that the earth should contain such a one who durst imbrue his cursed hands in the bloud of so fair a Lady and rob the world of such an unparalleld beauty Accursed thaâ— hand that should act yea that tongue that should speak yea that breath that should whisper yea that heart that should think of spilling such innâ—cent bloud Rather Madam be pleased said he to lay your commands upon us and assure your self we will extend our utmost power to serve you And if we have not valour enough yet doubt not but the heavens will succeed the cause of one in all excellencies so resembling themselves Nay said Roxana it is not your valour I doubt of but contrarywise it is the heavens mercy that I despair of for can I think that they who have so frown'd upon me frown'd do I say rather conspired to make me miserable have any love or mercy reserved for me for whence can such extremity of cruelty proceed but from extremity of hatred do I not see how contrary to my hopes and desires they force me to live and deny so poor a request as death If a â—â—â—ilitude and consentaneity in properties will beget a sympathy in affections it is rather from the infernal powers then that I must hope for succor whom in all miseries I do so resemble But alas what need I thus speak it is neither your fortitude were it a composition of the very extracted spirits of all the ancient Heroes valour nor the Stars themselves nor all Pluto's black Legions should you all combine and unite your powers together were able to reduce a Soul once fled from its Terrestrial habitation And 〈◊〉 my Theon is dead And then she sighed and wept the tears trickling down in such swift streams as if they strove who should first leave the fair possession of her eyes or rather who should first kiss her Rosie cheeks Ah Theon said she and then she rent her hair and tarr her beautiful face as though they could serve for nothing now Theon was gone Periander and Pandion were so moved to compassion at this passionate sight that they could not refrain from holding her fair Arms and by force compell her to be merciful to her self Can you accuse the Heavens of cruelty said Periander and you thus cruel to your self How can you expect that they should gratifie your desires and you thus contradict its will be not thus displeased with what Heaven is pleased nor lavish of these Pearly drops Surely if no sublunary powers whatsoever can fetch your Theon from the shades below much less can your tears Perplex not then your pensive heart but appease this stormy discontent who knows what Heaven hath laid in store for you It was not for nothing that our steps were directed to this place therefore acquaint us with the story of your Fortune and we do protest that we will dedicate our selves wholly to your service Ah said Roxana â—latter me not with false deluding groundless hopes do you think said she with a bitter smile that the clashing of your Armor should you descend to Pluto's Court would tickle his ear with as much delight as Orpheus Harp and would have the like perswasive faculty as his melodious Charmes But however I cannot but with all thankfulness acknowledge your Civility in the tender of your service which I can no otherwise repay than in granting your will by relating my condition which truly is a poor requital but the refusall would be worse Periander and Pandion perswade Roxana page 52. This Theon is Son to Harpalus King of Thrace his Father being desirous to make him compleat in all things that were desirable sent him when he was a youth to travel both to inure him to hardships and difficulties thereby to instill into him those Vertues both Moral and Political which commonly thrive better then than in the Serenity of times amidst the delights wherewith all Princes Courts abound and also that he might learn the Manners Customs Poliâ—ies and State-Interests of Forein Kingdoms whereby he would be better instructed in the interest of his own and be inabled when the power came into his own hands to manage the affairs of State with greater advantage Vain it would be for me to enumerate the great adventures he atchieved in his travels since they were so great as that all the world not onely heard of but admired and envyed and therefore they may seem strange to you but I cannot think you are strangers to them Amongst other places it was his hap to come to my Fathers Court where he had not been long ere his incomparable Beauty unconquerable Valour and inimitable Excellencies so enravish't my affections that Theon was the Saint at whose shrine I offered up my daily Oblations Theon was my sole delight and the delight of my Soul when ever I was blest with his presence methought I felt my heart chained to his eyes and when he spake his lips seemed to dance to the sweet accents that came from his mouth with such pleasing grace as methought each motion seemed a Charm and each word a Spirit that inâ—hâ—alled my Soul and led me Captive at the triumphing Chariot of his conquering Beauty such Grace such Majesty such Perfection were united in him as the most curious quick-sighed Symmetrians were not able to discern the least disproportion in him much less mine which was wholly dedicated to his Perfections Neither was he wanting to repay me with mutual affections but as my contentment and happiness was placed in him so he ever thought himself unhappy without me and so had affection blinded his judgement as he was pleased to bestow large Encomiums on my Beauty commending me rather like a fond Lover than a Judicious Artist in Beauties Heraldry which had it as far transcended his expressions as his expressions did me I should not have merited his affections And that that was no small addition to my Felicity my Father Melampus was exceedingly delighted in his sweet Society and Witty pleasantness and brave deportment but most of all pleased with the affections we bare each other insomuch that in a short time by agreement of our Parents the day of our happy conjunction in marriage was appointed Oh that sweet disuniting union that makes one Heart of two and two Souls of one that Golden Key that unlocks the treasures of Chast inclosed delights 〈◊〉 great 〈◊〉 the Heavens only Tantaliz'd me withall envying its full enjoyment For thus it happened Theon and I walking together
in my habit and Abra in the Queens and so they might discover and prevent our libidinous machinations Abra the next morning according to my request carries some of my vestments to the Queen and as I had counselled her informs the Queen and persuades her to dress her self in those garments of mine which to that end she pretended she had secretly conveyed out of my chamber and brings the Queens robes along with her as I had requested The Queen stung with this report greedy of revenge impatient of delay thus disguised hasts to the walks which I being acquainted withall by the means of Abra put on the Queens Robes and in as majestick a posture as I could frame seated my self in the Queenâ— bedchamber But long it was not ere my ignorant deliverers came and supposing me to be the Queen submissively delivered this message Madam said they the Kings Majesty attends your presence below intending to bless himself with your company abroad this morning to alienate those griefs from his breast which your absence hath revived Many perswasions you may conceive were superfluous to me who desired nothing more than this happy means of releasment Therefore thus attended I rode abroad in the Kings coach some miles from the Palace untill I perceived a place where I thought an opportunity to escape presented it self Then I desired the coachman to set me down for I told him the time and place seemed to invite to contemplation and so commanding him to wait untill I came I walked out but when I thought my self out of his fight I ran to a Town adjacent whence the next day I went to range the wide universe in search of my dear Periander and hearing of his abode in Thessalia hither I fled on the wings of Love and by the means of some Ladies in the court who have shewed extraordinary favour to me I got to be an attendant to the Princess Amphigenia who is so male affected to the Male sex that she will not admit any to have a view of her not retain any of her Ladies of Honour whom she finds in the least degree amorously affected so that now I am chained with as great a bondage as before though not so dangerous and dishonourable And as for my happy meeting with the Crown of my joyes Periander it was this evening that walking out to take the fresh air I heard a Lute so admirably played on that methought I felt my very soul tuned in consort with the strings so that nothing would satisfie me till I had resolved my self who was the Author of those melodious strains but ere I had taken many steps I plainly perceived it to be Periander the sweet Saint to whom I had gone so far in Pilgrimage Florinda having finisht her relation Danpion and Periander informed each other of the state of affairs in both Factions how they much debilitated the strength of both parties the one by perswading the King and the other the counterfeit Pandion to turn out many and frown on most of those Lords and commanders who were most faithful to their trust and placing such of mercenary spirits who must be cudgel'd to loyalty with a silver wand and others that had revolted through disaffection and the secret insinuations of private persons set on work by them for that purpose and farther how that mâ—ny great persons on either side that might prove potent and irremoveable obstructions to their germinating design that through disesteem they had caused to turn from the one side they had also disobliged them on the other by reposing little or no confidence at all in them that so they might remain as Neuters and finding Incivility from both parties they might be affected to neither and in fine when their contrivements were come to maturity Pardion discovering himself as he intended these might be the persons that might defend his interest And for men of service and action that still adhered to their ingagements and that by their magnanimous exploits had fixed themselves in favor past all remove they endeavoured that as little countenance might be shewed and reward conferr'd as possible thereby to suffocate these Martial sparks in those brave loyal spiriâ—s which every blast of infamy blown at their Masters honour was ready to increase to a flame of revenge to consume the detractors to Ashes Then they agreed on the time and place where they would meet to acquaint each other with their Plots and Counsells that so what the one had advised to or disswaded from by the others assistance might take effect and both be confirmed and fixed in their Masters favour And lastly they concluded that Florinda should yet continue to wait on the Princess who having so great an influence on her Father by the mediation of Florinda many things might be done which Danpion would be unwilling to appear in After mutual teâ—â—imonies of great affection they parted to their particular habitations Danpion that had consumed many days in fruitless endeavours to get but a minutes conference with Amphigenia could not during all that time that he remained in Hiarbas Court by all the subtilties his Wit could invent once bless his eyes with the sight of her but he daily pined in the midst of excess so that his custom was to withdraw himself frequently from all society to converse with his thoughts accounting himself never more accompanied than when secluded from all company entertaining himself with soliloquies and passionate discourses one while lamenting his hopeless condition then extolling the beauties of Amghigenia sometimes charging himself with extreme folly and baseness of spirit that he was not able to bridle his passion Hath propitious heavens would he say profusely showred down their choisest favours on me and shall my ingrateful soul repine because it is their pleasure to detain Amphigenia from me It may be the Powers Divine sent her hither to triumph over the rest of Natures works and to shew in her Snowy skin how pure a grain they were able to 〈◊〉 and fearce ouâ— out of the course Elements and in her heart-captivating eyes what Jewels they yet retain farr exceeding any that ever yet adorned our Mother Earth 〈◊〉 may be they esteem her as she justly merits too fair a transcript of divine excellencies to be bluâ—â—ed by humane embraces and intend to six another Virgo in the heavens having stellified her on earth with so many heavenly beauties and graces as she is already grown a Consâ—ellation Shall I then oppose the powers sublime that are able to diffect me to invisible to indivisible Atomes when with their bounty they have so liberally bribed me Am I not above expectation securely riveted in the Kings bosom Am I not placed next the Throne in power Do not all the inferior Orbs receive motion from me as their second moveable and all powers dye or vegetate according as they receive warmth from the Sun-shine of my favour What can be more satisfactory to a lofty spirit than
air doth dance And then as charm'd into a trance Listens to hear thy warbling airs Base The wanton wind from thy sweet lips A kiss doth steal and then it skips For Sanctuary into thy hairs 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 leaves now fann'd with Zephyt's wings Marry their gentle mutterings To th' murm'rings of the streams beneath Still purling as the air doth breath The silver streams that gently creep And seem in Crystal tears to weep Marry the senses to their sleep Why should not we then court and toy And Lovers happiness enjoy Treble Look how the days bright Harbinger Stands still thy charming voice to hear The Orbs melodious tones despising Base Look how Hyperion sends a ray To see if thou wilt rule the day And seeing thee blushes at his rising Chorus Thus we consume the Crystal day And hours and minunes fly away Whilst here we sit and court and toy And Lovers rapting bliss enjoy Chorus Fair Phil'mele on her thorny seat As she doth quav'ring notâ—s repeat And sing away the winged hours Doth strive to espouse her airs to ours Sometimes in plain then by and by She descants sweet whilst we reply And thus we procreate harmony Why should not we then court and toy And Lovers rapting bliss enjoy Treble Prethee no more hyperbolize Loves sweetest speech comes from thine eyes Whose powerful language charmes my soul Base Oh charming word curst be that hour When thy commands shall have no power My soul to guide rule and controul 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 Danpion that for a while lay as it were Iulld into a Trance with the Musicks sweet modulations as if his Captived Soul had been fettered with the trembling strings and imprisoned in the Lutes charming Womb now began to be arowsed with a new swarm of stinging desires whose inordinate Curiosity would not be satisfied until he had repaired unto the place whence those Harmonious Accents came that so with the sight of their Author he might mitigate the Martyrdom he suffered under his tyrannizing-thoughts But he soon redeemed his enslaved mind with a full surplusage of Content when at his arrival at that blest Elizium he beheld the two great Sharers in his Soul Periander and Florinda sitting together on a green Bank under the protection of a spreading-Oak and with their agreeing Voices sweetly expressing the internal Harmony of their concording Souls who no sooner had fixt their eyes upon him and knew him to be Danpion but they arose and with pleasing looks and humble deportments the Orators of true Respect and Affection thus accosted him Our good Angel My Lord said Florinda is exceeding Prodigal of his favours to day to bless us with the felicity of your company too this sweet Morning Vouchsafe me your Pardon Madam said Danpion for presuming thus to interrupt your sweet confederation how much the harmonious Accents these sweet Off-springs of your Angel-voyce transported me is not within the power of my ravished thoughts to impart unto you Your Hyperbolical expressions My Lord almost perswade me to a belief that my mean Voyce had charmed you out of your self but that I am too much acquainted with my own inability to effect things less miraculous My self must witness against my self for my own imperfections which would soon appear were they put to the test of an impartial judgement But my Lord I am not a â—tranger to your Rhetorical vein Madam said Daâ—pion I must acknowledge you have conquered me yet were not I so rapt with the wonder of your Vertues and Excellencies that my Brains incapable to 〈◊〉 a Reply I could also say that benign Heavens have so 〈…〉 with your society that neither and wholly unacquainted with your wonted modeâ—â—y under which it was alwaies yoâ—r endeavour to mask your Excellencies and with which as a diâ—inishing Glaâ—s you ever so 〈◊〉 to lessen your Perfections But Madam said he they are too â—â—spicuous ever to be concealed with such a transparent Veil Modesty rather sets a Crimson gloss upon the rest and is but a lively Frontispiece containing a short Enchiridion of your Perfections Well My Lord said she Women are the weaker Sex and therefore however we seem to veil those things you are pleased to interpret Perfections I 'm sure we must veil to you but this I must take the liberty to say That the knowledge of my own little worth is too much fixed in my thoughts ever to be unriveted by any Artifice whatsoever Nor shall any Rhetorick Madam said he ever â—avish from me the belief of your Excellencies After these and many other the like speeches that passed betwixt them Danpion related the story of his unhappy love what means he had used to accomplish his desires but how ineffectual how he had rackt his Wit and set all possibilities on the Tenters of his Invention but how froward Fortune the sworn Enemy to Vertue and Vertuous Lovers had opposed his Endeavours and how more than all Amphigenia had loaden his misfortune with her heavy displeasure so that all his Hopes were now Metamorphosed into Despair Gylcera surprizâ—d by a Pirate page 195. Glycera the Nunn said he that hath so surprized Pandion's affections as if the Heavens had frowned upon her because she frowned upon him hath of late undergone such calamities in Cyprus as we are informed by a Knight that not long since was a sad Spectator of her more sad misery such I say as would Challenge the Tribute of a River of Tears from an Ocean of Grief such as would compel the dryest Eye to bleed or weep and by as it were an Elemental transmutation make the most flinty heart evaporate in aiery fumes of sighs or dissolve into a Lake of Tears For no sooner had she escaped out of the Nunnery but a cursed Pirate snatcht her up and conveyed her to his Ship where he daily solicited her to part with her Chastity more precious to her than her life but she abhorring the motion continually rejected him so that in the end that Rebel to Vertue hells first-born and heir inheriting its damnable practices perceiving himself to be slighted and no means to accomplish his hell-bred desires resolved to crop the sweet bud of her Virginity by force and rob her of that rich Cargazoon of Vertue which her sweet soul bound for heaven contained and to that end having on a day most importunately urged her with all the intreaties and inticements a hell-inspired mind could invent seeing all in vain locks his Cabin door and seizeth upon her like a Hawk upon the innocent Dove whilst she poor Lady trembled under his tallons like a Lamb new yeaued on a sheet of Snow and falls down upon her knees and begged for heavens sake for Vertues sake and for his own
that runs through the whole machine of the universe seldom connives at the wrongs of distrest Vertue The bloody wretch had no sooner sent his Ponyard as a messenger of death to her but heaven stabbed his soul with horrors that in a frenzy he leaps from a Rock and dashes his body into as many pieces as his soul was torn with Fuâ—ies So apt a death did heaven prepare for one whose rocky heart had broke the neck of a Ladies chastity Polienus who as I said had been divinely informed of this Ladies misery awakens out of his dream and seemes to have a bloody mist before his eyes that represents all things to his surprized fancy horrid and tragical so that in amazement he arises slips on his morning Gown takes his sword in his hand and hasts he knows not whither to assist he knows not what But the heavenly powers who make use of earthly instruments to execute their reasonable decrees whilst men only act their own unreasonable passions and range humane disorders into a divine kind of order so ordered his disorderly steps as that in a short moment he came to a place where he heard a mournful groan which ushered in these words Heavens separate my spotless soul from this defiled body and as my life doth so oh let the extravagant follies of my youth pass out together Oh! Receive me where vertue shall ever be defended from all Villous invasions Polienus hearing this runs in a deep amazement some paces farther till he finds this poor Lady in a condition to have confirmed an Atheist but conâ—uted a Stoick by converting him into a weeping Heraclitus For she lay imbalmed in her own blood her hands entangled in her hair and in her shoulder there stuck a Ponyard that made a passage for such streams of bloud as deluged those beauties that inhabited her skin Polienus seeing this woful spectacle stood as if a profound sense of her misery had struck him into an insensibility At length recovering himself he runs to her snatches out the Steel that lay bathed in a fountain of blood and stops up the wound and feels her pulse to see if life had yet forsaken its fortress the heart where it last retires and perceiving the living bloud to move in her veins and sent as an Envoy from the heart to acquaint him that though life was streightly besieged in its Cittadel with squadrons of pangs yet it had not quite surrendered to the government of death he repairs the bloody breach as well as he could and runs home and fetched men from his Castle that conveyed her thither with all speed upon a downy Couch where her sent for Chirurgions with speed to her who with their extraordinary care and skill in a few days restored her to her primitive health and beauty When Polienus saw that she was recovered and no pretence of weakness could hinder his enquiry what should be the cause of her misery he using something more freedom of discourse than ordinary requested her to acquaint him whether some direful chance arm'd with merciless and inevitable fate or some accursed hand had endeavoured to put that untimely date to her life and happiness Glycera considering what great engagements he had laid upon her and that she might be justly thought ungrateful if she should deny so poor a request and therefore related to him the whole story of her misfortunes how she fled from the Nunnery in Thessalia to avoid the tedious Love of Pandion and how snatcht up by a Pirate who at Sea endeavoured to ravish her and then how in his rage being disappointed of his desires he threw her over-board but then how she was most miraculously preserved by a Dolphin that faithful friend to mankind in adversities upon whom she had rid up and down for the space of several hours without any hope of succour how she was relieved by a Fisherman and by him brought to Cyprus but when he had conveyed her hither how in all particulars he misused her not permitting her to go ashore and then to make amends for all his abuses how at last he sold her to a deformed Swain that carried her to his cottage and how the next day as she was going to be joyned with him by Hymens bands in Venus Temple a Knight came and rescued her from him but then what a tumult there was raised with the rusticks roaring and how that occasioned a combate between the Knight and others that thought to have forc't her from him as he had from Lacon how at length he was forc't to resign her up to them by that means to save himself but then how when they had obtained their prize they could not agree among themselves but fell upon one another with as much fury as before they did upon the Knight and how she perceiving an opportunity for escape fled into that Forest where she had wandered succourless and hopeless of succour for several days and nights But when she came to relate the dismall story of her dishonor poor Lady the tears fell from a cloud of sorrows that over-spread the heaven of her beauty just as if that transparent cloud that encircles heavens hollow arches had been condensed into â— Crystal shower and her faltring tongue left it to her countenance in sorrowful and yet bashful signs to declare her misery and there you might have plainly seen the pourtraicture of her bleeding honor adumbrated to the life in her blushing Cheeks Polienus observing her passionate grief grew more inquisitive about the cause so that with vehement importuning he scrued thus much from her in a broken manner that a villain would have forced her and would have killed her As soon as Polienus heard this he felt his heart even divided between the two passions of pity and revenge at length pity augmenting revenge gave that the soveraignty over his will so that in a fury he kneels down and implores heaven that the vengeance due to such an accursed act might light on him if he permitted that to the unrevenged and with that Glycera having given him a Character of him as well as she could he takes his sword and mounts his Steed and so rides out into the Forest in pursute of this wretch but ere he had gone a quarter of a mile he found him dead upon the ground having broke his neck with the fall from the Rock When Polienus saw this he was glad that heavens vengeance had found him out but sorry that any one had been the executioner besides himself but however he goes home to his Castle and commands his men to fetch the body and give it to his dogs Justice thus being done upon him Glycera began a little to allay the pangs of sorrow that daily had wont to stir up some great commotions in her brest and to entertain some small familiarity with miâ—th which had so long been exiled from her so that in a short time she was restored to her health and priâ—â—ine beauty
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
where as was reported luxury and excess seemed to ride in triumph in every dish as though the storehouses of the elements had been ransacked to furnish his Table as if he had been rather to have courted his Mistrisses appetite than her affection so that his Table seemed the Scene of Prodigality whereon was acted the Tragedy of Temperance and true Liberalty the most poinant meats being poisons to the former as excessive profuseness is destructive to the latter But the Feast being concluded Plivio had another play to act to which this served but for a Prologue and that was to seize upon Arritesia that since as the Philosopher saith every one is the framer of his own fate he resolved that none should accuse his negligence for his infelicity but he would purchase that by compulsion to which milder means he saw would prove ineffectual For my Lord you must know Arritesia was a Lady in whom appeared all the delicate attractives of beauty and external demonstrations of internal Vertue so that as the former would sufficiently excuse a Stoick should he become an amorist excuse nay accuse him of a base ignorance of worth should he not admire her perfections so the influence of the latter might have created goodness in the worst of men and rendered him inexcusable in whose breast was the least spark of an impure fire Now no wonder if a vertuous soul enshrined in so sweet a body by a reflex act viewing its own internal beauty be like Narcissus gazing on his picture limned by the Sun-beams in a Fountain enamoured with its own excellencies and so was Arritesia yet not so as to obscure her worth with being void of humility but rather made Humility a means to discover the worthiness of her worth and so her Vertues as they became more perspicuous so more delectable so that if her humility was apt to entice hope her dazling worth would again stupisie and confound it But as none can cast up their eyes at the Sun with more confidence and less dazling than the blind so none are less ravished with true worth than those whose ignorance of it makes them least admire it So Plivio though none had less grounds for hope yet none had greater confidence than he not because he so far excelled others as that his transcending deserts should excite her to pitch upon him but because his worth being short of many made him less able to discern of anothers and begat conceits of himself above what his deserts could challenge and such thoughts in any will soon augment hope to a presumption but this did but create the more disesteemes of him in Arritesia's thoughts who by the light of her own worth was able to see his worthlesness and where disesteem once gets entrance its hard to crowd out disaffection they being inseparably linked together as love and contempt are irreconcileably separated so that Arritesia thus slighting his person would much more contemn his importunings that she let all his words dye in their own sounds his most pathetick expressions taking no more impression on her than puffs of Air upon an Adamant Her mind was a Paradise where swarmed Angels of high thoughts such thoughts as each deserved a Crown and could he think such thoughts would admit of society with so mean and abject meditations as his imaginary Vertues But whither doth my passion transport me Plivio finding her thus as he tearmed her an obstinate piece bent his wit more to devise some stratagem how to procure her by the favour of policy than before he did to compose his smooth courting speeches to storm her by the force of eloquence And having by that subtilty enticed her to his Castle as I told you after the Feast was concluded and the riâ—hes of the time spent in dalliance and delights the two Siâ—â—ers with great acknowledgements of his câ—vility took leave of him Plivio being now if ever to accomplâ—sh his desâ—râ—s waits upon them to the Castle Gaâ—e performs many ceremonies to them both to delay their sudden departure but especially to Arritesia to whom he applies himself in all the dilatory postures of a parling Lover so that Matilda by this time was entered into her Coach and all their attendants stood without waiting when Plivio would dismiss their Lady whose ear was surfeited with his tedious complements But Plivio having now brought about what he desired thought it not prudence to dally with opportunity but on the suddain gives the watch-word to his servants who being able to interpret the meaning make fast the Gate and by force drew in Arritesia into the Castle not regarding her pittiful shrieks and crys and tears able to wound the flintyest heart and peirce the most impenetrable ears Oh! that heaven should ever permit any to fix the superscription of love upon actions so plainly visible to the dimmest eye to be nothing but the off-springs of a luxurious passion Matilda with the company that were without hearing Arritesia's crys and seeing the sad effects of his plot and that his former delays were but the courtings of occasion they in a confused manner run home to Pirotes's house to inform him of his Daughters surprizal but as they went amazing fear had so distracted some and fearless amazement transported others that when Pirotes at their arrival having his heart no less filled with terror than his ears were with the noise of that rout inquired of them the cause of their confusion as the one at first could not tell what to relate so neither could the other tell how to deliver their doleful message but made their countenances supply the defects of their speech till at length they declared the villany of Plivio and the misery of his Daughter Pirotes whose ears with such greedy haste hunted for words had now over-taken the prey that preyed upon him and pulling his hat over his face as I was told tears fell in such abundance as if his heart dissolved into drops had distilled thorough his eyes such a source of sorrow did over-â—low him as even drowned his senses and with too much sense of grief made grief become senseless Sorrow when it swells above the dam of moderation confounds it self In this confused conflict of mind he fixes this resolution in his thoughts if an unsteadfast mind floating on the inconstant waves of grief can ever be said to resolve that a few womanish complaints should not satisfie his revenge but he would give the coyn that Mars uses to purchase Kingdoms with for her Dowry The next day according to his resolution he summons all his Tenants together and as many as thorow either envy or hatred to Plivio or love to Arritesia for she had many suters and he many rivals whose merits far over-ballanced his though his fortunes exceeded theirs would appear in arms against him and besieges him in his Castle before his spies could give any information so that all his preparations were to fight Cupids battels for instead of that
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
for his trayterous adhering to his Enemy but the reason of it he said was partly through fear being terrified with the loss of all that nature and affection could entitle Precious upon the least intimation of discovery and partly for gain being bribed with liberal gifts and great honors above what he knew how to manage being made Commander of the Castle where Pandion chiefly had his residence all which he the more freely accepted because he then dispaired of ever blessing his eyes with the sight of his Highness supposing he had been torn in peices with some of that brutish Nation whom he used for his sport to persecute This said they fell into discourse about Danpions condition whether there was any hopes or means for escape the Forester having first informed him how that Hiarbas was come with an Army to redeem his Daughter then whether it was possible to procure admission to Amphigenia and whether Pandion intended any injury or dishonor to her and whether by force or stratagem she might be releaâ—ed but as they were thus discoursing some souldiers with a haste too slow for their minds though too fast for their leggs came stumbling into the room and called away the Forester their Captain Long had they not been separated ere Danpion heard a noise that sounded like a rude consort of many ill-agreeing voices which seemed to keep time to the Martial Musick of clashing of swords and justling of Armor amongst which he heard from a neighboring Chamber such shrieks as seemed to teach the Air in an unperfect manner the prefect language of misery which by reason of its disordered convoy the Air being variously divided with a strange confusion of noises came not to his ears so distinctly as to give him information of the Authoâ— yet by a strange symyathy it seemed to wound his soul His mind in travail with multitudes of conceptions would fain have been eased of its tortures with the knowledge of Amphigenia's condition which he endeavored by a near access to the Chamber where all those doleful births were generated but ah not to a freedom fâ—om but an augmentation of his sorrow for he plainly too plainly knew it be the voice of Amphigenia With that as if every shriek had been a Dart not from sorrow but from death not from an ordinary death but from a soul-torturing death from a death made deadly with torments having his senses stupified and his reason confounded not with a sorrow rather a desperate madness he ran about exclaiming against Heaven Hell Earth Men Devils Heaven for permitting her to be abused Earth for being the Theatre of such an accursed Tragedy Men for the Actors the Devils for the Inspiâ—ers Then he would cry out Oh! Celadon why didst thou reserve me for this these are torments would make an Atlas grown should a thousand Lyons Den within my breast they would not tear me like one groan of Amphigenia's Oh! cursed walls that hinder all my attempts And cruel Heaven that denyes me the common cure of misery a way to dye which every slave can command one dying groan would summ up all my miseries T is true as a Prince I ought to reserve my self for better fortunes and not to abandon my self though all the world forsake me yet as a Lover of Amphigenia I ought not to hope for joy whilst she remains a Captive to her enemies and the contrary passion These and the like words did Danpion utter and thus did he sacrifize himself to an unexpressible passion who in all things else shewed himself commander of an undaunted mind But now to leave him and return to Pandion who perceiving that Hiarbas was resolute in his purposes and wise in his resolutions and strong to execute what his wisdom had resolved upon thought it more wisdom to Treat with him peaceably than to referr his cause to the Arbitration of War whose partial decision he feared especially considering the unjustness of his cause had made him an Out-law to Heaven from whom he could challenge no protection and therefore he again sends an Envoy with certain Proposals to the King The sum of which was this That if the King regarded either his own or his Daughters safety or honor he should retreat with his men otherwise he must not hope for any other entertainment for himself or her than what a mortal enemy would bestow on the most hateful person And to let them see that his performance should be of an equal extent with his threatnings before the messenger could deliver his errant receive an answer and return Pandion had caused a Scaffold to be erected whereon presently appeared a most excellent Lady lead between two executioners whom both by her Garments and the Majesty that apparrelled her deportments Hiarbas knew to be his Daughter for there seemed in her as well as he could perceive at such a distance the same delicate loveliness lovely excellency Majestick sweetness as were the ingredients of so divine a composition as Amphigenia's Beauty and if the same perfections then sure the same person since none could boast of an equality with her in whom appeared all the excellencies not wherewith Nature had but wherewith she could beautifie a body A lamentable sight it was to see the Diamond of the World set in an endless Ring of miseries to see her act her own Tragedy whose countenance seemed the Theatre of Love and Beauty to see her to whom all hearts do homage to bow to an injurious fortune And that that did extort pity from the cruellest heart was the manner of her gestures wherewith she seemed to Antedate her misery and make misery it self more miserable at least more lamentable for her eyes were fixt on Heaven as if she meant to dart her Soul thither and prevent her enemies cruelty her tongue not profuse of words her sorrow seeming to feed it self with inward contemplation yet those few wherein she embodied her thoughts were guarded with such a captivating force as would have compelled a Tyrants heart to pitty her sorrow but they were no sooner Midwived by her tongue than swadled up in Air and so bequeathed to Heaven that few ears could boast themselves to be the Nurseries of such Divine off-springs of a Heavenly Soul Her hands were clasped and folded each in other and seemed to take their last embracements her arms not extended at their length but something bowing seemed to embrace sorrow not as an unjust effect of humane malice but as a just result of a Divine decree In fine in all her gestures there was such a Majestick humility conquering submission unconquered Piety solid devotion as made a lively and beautiful representation of what a great mind could do depressed under the lowest fortune But though the beholders yea the actors were so acted by pity as to pour forth their sense of her condition in tears and as it were by a repentance to wash way the crime before Commission yet at length as if the necessity of