had helmets on but that proves nothing they wore them not but in fights There had been advanc'd more such considerations had not Synopa come and said that they had discours'd sufficiently and that it was time to collation Carmelin commended her a thousand times within himself for her profitable advice while the Hamadryads discharg'd their baskets of a many good things they had brought and dispos'd them on the green grass which was all the Table-cloath they had The God Morin came near Synopa and told her somewhat in her ear which Lysis perceiv'd not In the mean time Carmelin was help'd by his Master with the wing of a cold Turkey which he fell presently on with his fingers knowing that hands were made before knives but as he was putting a piece into his mouth Synopa withheld his arm Be not too hasty Shepherd saies she to him you are not yet permitted to eat with us We must first wash you in one of our fountains What did Lysis dream on that he hath given you your portion he was like to serve us a fine trick We must have gone to the God Pan for to entreat him to purifie us all I was ignorant of this Ceremony saies Lysis I beg your pardon if I have done any thing amiss I never read what you speak of in any Poet. However it must be believed so and good bathing will do Carmelin no hurt it may conduce to his health Carmelin was thinking what a pleasure it were to be wash'd by such fine Ladies but he wish'd it might be just then that so he might collation with the rest and he saw they did not make any haste to do it They had taken away the meat from him and withal fed so earnestly and with such stomacks that there needed no long time to dispatch all that was which consideration made him sick at the heart The Divinities having ended their collation Synopa thought it time to go and bathe him and to set all the rest in a forwardness but he angrily answered that it was to no purpose seeing there was nothing to be eaten Synopa reply'd that it were so much spar'd another night that he should come and see them Then comes Lysis and whispers to him bidding him go where ere they should carry him and that it would be a means for him to see the Grots of the Nayads whither he had so earnestly desired to go Carmelin crediting him went quietly with the fair Deities but when they were come to the brook of Lucida's fountain Synopa saies to Lysis for your part you need not be present at our Mysteries Morin you see and two of the Gods of the River have left us go your ways with them Lysis who earnestly desired to see their ceremonies that he might be initated in the divine Science was much troubled that he was forc'd to leave them But he was fain to go with Morin and the two other Gods who were Anselme and Clarimond In the mean time Synopa Lucida Montenor the Humadryads and the Cypress took Carmelin by the head and feet and threw him into the water in his cloaths in a certain place that was deep enough He found not so much pleasure in his handling as he had imagin'd but it was much worse with him when the Cypress said that he must be stripp'd stark naked When he had put off his breeches and doublet they tyed him by the arms to a willow that was on the bank as if it had been a piece of the ceremony which done they turn'd up his shirt and whipp'd him so long with Ozier twigs that from crying mercy and begging he fell a railing heartily at all the company but Lucida told him that the water could not cleanse him and that there was within him a corrupt blood that must be whipt out ere he could be made so pure as to be admitted to converse with the Deities All having done him what mischief they could they return'd to their Randezvouz and left him fast tyed Lysis being by this time come near the place where his tree was took leave of the Aquatick Deities who bid him farewell by signs with the hands and conges Being left all alone he was much astonish'd that he could not finde his abode though the appearance of Auroroa made it somewhat light Hircan desirous to try all means to bring him out of his imagination had given order that while he was absent his willow should be cut down at the root and carry quite away Besides all which the place was so well made up with fresh â—urfs that he could not perceive there ever had been any Lysis seeks all about and his hollow brain wanted no matter of imaginations upon this accident Yet though he could not finde his willow he did still imagine himself a tree and hearing some body coming he planted himself near the place where the willow had stood and because he would do nothing before men that were contrary to his nature he lifted up his arms and widened his fingers as though they had been brances In this posture doth Hircan appear to him in the same black suit which he had when he delivered him out of the danger he was in at Orontes's O Tree saies the Magician to him my will is that from henceforth thou become a man 'T is not in thy power to do it replies Lysis they are the great Gods that have Metamorphos'd me The greatest Gods have but the power of Dwarfs if compar'd to me replies Hircan and I will now shew thee the power of my charms While he said so he made a circle about him with a rod he had in his hand which done he read certain barbarous words out of a great book I see I must double my Enchantments says he to Lysis for thou art so self-will'd that thou resistest them What wouldst thou do replies he wouldst thou deprive me of all happiness Let me alone thou know'st not what is fit for thee replies Hircan thou shalt immediately be a man in spight of heaven earth and hell and seeing thou wilt not get out of thy bark to come to me I will cause the winds to blow thee down Thou shalt be put out of thy abiding place and shalt see that I can command all the powers of the world O you Kings of the air and beesoms of the earth goes he on with a louder voyce you winds which blow the one from the one quarter and the other from the othtr that is to say from the North and from the South And you Boreas and Auster I do conjure you by the pantofles of Fate the old Gallogaskins of Saturn and the Close-stool of Proserpina and by whatever else is venerable and august in the world that you blow against this tree and bring it down in such manner as that it lose its vigor and that I may change its form Assoon as the Magician had pronounc'd these words behold there appear'd a brace of knaves all clad with
Sheep-hook The Wooll which we have from time to time at the shearing of our sheep is like the Revenue that a Prince receives from his Subjects The Gods themselves have sometimes deigned to come down on earth for to be Shepherds And if that were not so they cease not to be such always in heaven for what are the Stars but a sort of living creatures which they drive to feed here and there in those vast Plains But as for us terrestrial Shepherds what is it that can be compar'd to our glory Could the world with any shift be without us The Wooll of our Flocks doth it not furnish cloathing to all the world The Tapistry of Temples and Kings Palaces is it not made of it Some may tell me that men may make use of Silk Is that any noble thing in comparison of the other It is but the excrement of a vile creature What if I have made me clothes of it It is only for every day I will have others made of Cloth for Holy-dayes The flesh of our Sheep is it not the principal nourishment of men If we had none how should we sacrifice to the Gods Are not these creatures think you acceptable to them when Jupiter would be adored in one of his Temples under the form of a Ram and was it not for a Fleece that Jason and the Argonauts went to Colchos This is to shew you Cousin Adrian that as our Flocks are very profitable so is it a great honour to keep them and that no man indeed should meddle with any other imployment To what end serve all the Trades in the City Read the Pastorals of Julietta and you will find that there was in Arcadia neither Councellors nor Attornies nor Sollicitors nor Merchants there was nothing but Shepherds We must be so too here in France if we desire to be happy Buy you a Flock take Shepherds habit change your Ell for a Sheep-hook and come your wayes hither to be a Lover And doe not counsel me to return to Paris there to execute some Office You may bring hither my Cousin your wife and all your Prentises who will all be glad to become Shepherds You will find it a greater pleasure here to laugh and dance to the Bagpipe then to take the pains you doe at Paris in shewing of Silks and Stuffs O heaven cry'd out Adrian What hath our race committed that must be thus expiated Now I plainly see that the poor Youth hath lost his senses quite and clean Sir sayes he to Anselme I beseech you seeing he places so much confidence in you bestow your perswasions to bring him to himself Whereupon Anselme taking Adrian aside tells him that he had fully discovered his sickness that it was requisite to comply a little with him leaving him there some while longer to entertain himself with his own thoughts and that in the mean time he desired to know who he was if so be he had the leisure to tell him Adrian answered him that he would willingly doe it believing that when he had acquainted him with the whole life of his Ward he might be the more able to remove those imaginations which troubled his mind Having said so they retired some distance from Lysis who being alone set himself to ruminate on his Loves not dreaming any thing of what they went about And Adrian who was an honest man but withall very simple as most of your Citizens are and one that knew very little besides his Trade continued thus his discourse with much natural simlicity That Young man whom you have now seen is the Son of a Silk-man who lived in St. Dennis street He had no more children and hath left him so rich that we all hoped that he would restore our Nobility and that we should see in our race a Regal Officer who might be a protection to us You know there are many Merchants Sons that are so And though the Nobility contemn us yet we are as good men as themselves They are not able as we are to bestow great Offices for their children and if they are so brave it only demonstrates their borrowing from us In the mean time they call us Sires and they are not mistaken for indeed we are a sort of petty Kings But to come to my Tale Lewis's Father and Mother being dead I was chosen his Guardian as being the next of Kindred He had already gone through his Studies at the Colledge of Navar and cost his friends more mony then his weight He was eighteen years of age or thereabouts I told him it was time for him to bethink himself what course of life he would follow That he was not brought up to Learning to the end he might idle away his time and that he was old enough to make his own choise how to dispose of himself For to try him further I asked him whether he had any inclination to be a Draper as I am myself but he answering me that he aspired to somewhat more noble I was not any thing displeas'd at him He tabled at my house and I sent him to certain Masters in Paris who teach the Trade of Councellors They are a sort of people that are so expert that when a young man is to be received a Disciple they undertake to teach him in one moneth all that he hath to answer as if it were but to teach him to whistle as one would doe a Starling so that of an ignorant School-boy they ever make a learned Lawyer My Cousin studied a year under them and was sent thither to no other purpose yet could he never be perswaded to put on the Long-robe Instead of Law-books he bought none but a sort of trashy books called Romances Cursed be those that have made them They are worse then Hereticks The books of Calvin are not so damnable at least those speak not of any more Gods then one and the others talk of a great many as if we still lived in those heathen times which worshipped blocks hewn into the shape of men It doth not a little disturb the minds of young people who as in those Books they find nothing so much mentioned as playing dancing and merry-making with young Gentlewomen so would they doe the like and thereby incur the displeasure of their friends Those Books are good for your medley-Gentlemen of the Country who have nothing to doe all day but to walk up and down and pick their nails in an out-chamber But as for the son of a Citizen he should not read anything unless it were the Royal Ordinances the Civility of Children or Patient Grissel to make himself merry on Flesh-dayes This was my advice to Lewis but he would not believe me And then you would say I had a fine task to command him to learn by heart the Quadrains of Pybrac or the Tablettes of Matthieu that he might sometimes rehearse them at the Tables-end when there were Company alas he could not endure the speech of it That
besides belong'd not to him and that he should rather have kill'd his own Eagle or his Wife's Peacock and not entertain his guests at their own charges You are angry at a small matter says Jupiter Is there any reason there should remain any Beasts in Heaven when we send so many generous Captains and learned Philosophers to Hell What service had we from so many creatures unless it were to find pastime for the petty Gods as Ganimed and Cupid who made it their employment to lead them up and down in a string Moreover if we had had he and she of every one you might stand upon 't that some profit might be made of them and that they might bring forth young But they were all disproportionable and if they had once but been any thing hot I leave you to consider what kind of monsters they had produced as if the Bull and the Hydra had gone together or the Ram and the Bear What 's more then all there would not have been any should have had any milk fit to make cheese of and I suppose there 's none will avow it had been any great revenue to go and milk them every day for nothing But if haply it be said they had some feathers or furs which would have served us to some purpose I have done well to kill them that we might have them And to the end there should be no partiality used as to all the other Signs of heaven both animate and inanimate I have caus'd them all to be taken away leaving nothing but the Stars to give their ordinary light As for the Demy-Gods Demy-Godesses as the Centaure and Andromedes I have also caus'd them to be removed to wait on me in my palace And as for whatever was insensible I have dispos'd all to those uses whereto they are most fit as the Crown to put on Iuno's head and the Bowl for my self to drink in As for the River Eridan I have not conceiv'd we have any need of it for it runs so slowly that it is but as dead water which is not good either to drink or wash any thing withall and we had much ado to get so much clean water as to wash our hands before meat which we have been fain to strain through a cloth to make it look a little clearer Therefore I have caused certain holes to be made in that part of heaven where that River is so that it still glides down upon the earth and I believe men are somwhat amaz'd to see it rain so plentifully Now it is partly for their sakes that I have taken all these Signs out of heaven 't is for to punish them for the contempt which a while since they were guilty of towards me They shall not henceforward have the pleasure to see the heavens diversified with so many figures whence they easily foresaw things to come And this is the Remonstrance which Jupiter made to the rest of the Gods and to say truth he had entertained such a jealousie against Bacchus Love Sleep and some others who many times were ador'd in his stead that he was big with a design to bring some mischief on Gods and men together Yet was there not one in the Company durst discover his resentment bethinking themselves that if he was truly angry he was powerful enough to ruine them The fair Phoebus well remembred the day when he had banish'd him out of heaven and reduc'd him to a posture of begging in the earth till at last he was commended to some petty King to be his Cowherd There was not one who could not call to minde some such token of his indignation but as they were ruminating on this sad subject Comus enters the Hall with a Torch in his hand Momus follow'd him cloath'd like a King and Vulcan dress'd like a Queen but he would have been so much the more disguis'd if he could have forborn limping The other Maskers were clad some like Souldiers others like Philosophers and many like Tradesmen Pythagoras drest like a a Fool was going to express the moral of the Mask while there enters of a sudden into the place a sort of people which no body knew Iupiter thought they had had relation to the former Maskers but Vulcan and his fellow Actors had not brought them in The first of the troop who had a Flaxen curl'd head of hair and a Crown of Lawrel on his head advanc'd as far as the midst of the Hall and playing on a Harp he had in his hand snng these words O great Iupiter who art oblig'd to render justice to all the world how long wilt thou suffer there should be Gods Gods and Goddesses that intermeddle with the charges of others and are not content with their own Behold here we are a company of Divinities depriv'd of all wealth and honors who come and demand thy assistance I will tell thee one thing that never came into the consideration of the Gods There are in this place a sort of Affronters who besides the charge which hath been given them have encroached upon ours and have made believe we were not in the world whence it hath hapned that we were not invited to thy Banquet That yong Gallant that stands by thee who pretends to so much beauty with his golden Mustachoes should he not be content with the conduct of that Chariot which brings the day with it but that he must withal be the Conductor of the Muses 'T is I That am he I am the true Apollo the son of Iupiter and Latona and the God of Prophesie Poetry and Musick and he is but the Son of Tytan and some obscure Divinity Here is also my sister Diana comes after me who also complains of the Moon there who entrenches on her quality This Apollo would have sung more but his sister coming forwards as soon as he had spoken of her came and said to Luna What Imposture is this Thou mak'st the world believe that thou and I are but one There are many such testimonies of thy lewdness for thou wouldst sometimes fain perswade men that thou governest in Heaven in the Forrests and Hell How canst thou satisfie so many Professions 'T is well known that when thou shinest in heaven I am seen hunting in the woods I believe thou art so impudent as to say thou mayest be in several places and that when there appears but one half of thee in heaven thy other half is on earth But all this granted canst thou be Proserpina too who is the daughter of Ceres whereas 't is known thou art the daughter of Latona Thou sayst thou art chaste yet Proserpina is married to Pluto But wouldst thou not be called Lucina too interposing thy self in Iuno's affairs dost thou not betray thy want of discretion in desiring that women in childe-bed should invoke thee for Midwife Canst thou who art a Maid know any thing in that business This Diana had no sooner began this Harangue but she was
I knew this Magician had thwarted the course of nature whereas in other places the water falls down from heaven to earth here it issues out of the earth as if it would threaten heaven Or is it that this peece of earth will weep in its turn for the pains which I suffer There was with Hircan a Cousin of his called Fontenay who was come to see him He wondred much at what Lysis said as never having heard any thing equally extravagant He took aside one of the servants and ask'd whether he knew him He answered that he knew no more of him then that he was one become a Fool through an excessive love he bore to Catherine Leonora's Chamber-maid He was yet more to seek for he knew the Wench and thought it impossible she should cause so much love He knew she was of a fair complexion and that she was somewhat flaxen-hair'd but she had in requital some features in the face which were so far from handsom as were sufficient to raise her the esteem of deformed He therefore not being satisfied spake to Hircan of it who in few words acquainted him with the disease of Lysis When he understood it he goes and confidently sets upon the Shepherd saying to him I hope you 'll pardon my curiosity if I ask you who you are For seeing you have an extraordinary manner of speaking I am very desirous to learn it All those of whom I have enquired concerning it can give me no satisfaction at all I never refused any man living what thou askest me says the Shepherd know then that I am Lysis and let that suffice thee That 's not enough replies Fontenay know then replies the Shepherd that I am a Lover of the fair Charite All this is nothing says the other to him what Profession are you of What an importunate fellow art thou says Lysis seest thou not I am a Shepherd doth not my habit discover so much But that you may not quarrel with words nor take things literally I tell thee that I am not of the number of those rusticks whose residence are the fields I am of those whose histories are committed to Romances which are every day made and whose actions are represented by the Players on their stages In good faith Master saies Fontenay who could conceal nothing he knew I think you are the successor of Don-Quixote of Manca and that you have inherited his folly After he had been Knight-Errant he would be a Shepherd but he dyed in the design and I believe you would be Shepherd in his stead and continue his extravagancies You lye says Lysis I do nothing but of my own invention I never imitated him you speak of and if I have read his history it hath been by the way He was a fool who imagin'd himself a Lover of Dulcinea when he had never seen her whereas I have the advantage to converse with Charite every day He understood nothing of the soveraign felicity 'T is not in Arms it will be found there is nothing but trouble and the minde thereby becomes brutish 'T is in keeping of Flocks that there is profit and pleasure Fontenay seeing the Shepherd beginning to be hot to vex him the more said to him Thou givest me the lye infamous wretch assure thy self thou shalt give me satisfaction What dost thou think thy self to be thou art the contempt of all the world That Charite for whom thou sighest so much cares not for thee and 't is of me that she is passionate every day she courts me and yet I will not be catch'd by her enticements for I have a many other Mistresses handsomer then she Here it was that Lysis was all afire he was making towards Fontenay to strike him but Hircan held him by the arm and carried him a walking another way while Clarimond entertain'd his enemy Lysis ask'd Hircan whether he had not some Magical glass wherein he might see whether it were true that Fontenay was beloved by his Shepherdess Hircan told him that he had broken his out of indignation that he had once seen a Mistress of his in the arms of one of his Rivals and that he had not yet had the leasure to make another but that he could tell him what he desired to know by some otherwayes and that if Fontenay had offended him any way he would see him reveng'd of him Thereupon he shew'd him a little grove of his and told him that all those trees he saw had sometimes been men that he had metamorphos'd because they had done some injury to him or his friends and that to inrich himself in a moment he found nothing so easie as to make a forrest of his Enemies which should be full grown timber and ready for the ax Lysis who had a while before read Ovids Metamorphoses where there are things far more incredible easily believ'd this He resolv'd to be ever a friend of Hircans both that he might not hurt him and might assist him to punish those that should injure him A while after Hircan having carried the company into the house to a Collation Lysis said not a word to Fontenay contenting himself not to look on him Synopa was there who as she was as impudent as need be wish'd she went and said to the Shepherd before all that were present Ah! inhumane heart wilt thou never believe the torments I suffer for thee Behold the thing observ'd in all Pastorals sayes Lysis a Maid ever loves him that affects her not In Montemajor Seluage pursues Alanio Alanio courts Ismenia Ismenia Montan and Montan Seluage So Synopa follows me I Charite Charite desires Fontenay and Fontenay desires another Shepherdess who haply loves another Shepherd that can affect none then Synopa Is not that a fine wheel and as good as that of Pythagoras We 'll run one after another in the fields holding by one another behinde as children do at a certain play whereof I have forgat the name Charite shall say Go not so fast my Fontenay and Lysis shall say Stay my Charite at least let me dye in your presence and then Synopa shall come after and say Forsake that ingrateful one Lysis and stay with with her that lives not but for thy sake I do not wonder at the diversity of all our affections for it must necessarily be so and there were never any Pastorals seen wherein that hath not been observed But it is withal to be noted that one day all shall be reconciled and by the power of some God it shall come to pass that every one shall love what he should love as it happens in the end of every good history which ever concludes with marriage Every one seem'd to admire these excellent reasons so that Lsis thinking he had spoken mightily to the purpose was very well satisfied Yet when he had left Hircans house there came somewhat into his memory that animated him against Fontenay Had it not been for that he would have return'd back to the
them But Lysis interrupting his story came and said to him Be not troubled the mischief is past and in recompence thereof I 'll tell thee what thou shalt be very glad of Know then what came not yet into my minde to tell thee I am no tree I am the Shepherd Lysis My vexation hath also hindered me to inform my self of it replies Carmelin yet I somewhat suspected you had chang'd nature Fair weather after it let 's forget what is past seeing you will have it so But above all things let me not be entreated to come any more among those fine Dames I saw last night it may be they are evil spirits I desire not to have any thing to do with people of the other world Carmelin having so said was ready to go with the rest but that he wanted his hat The Nymphs had not left it with his cloathes after they had plaid with it a good while they had cast it into the bryars far from that place where they were sure he would not look for it Let 's go however saies Clarimond I 'll give you another Nay it shall not be so saies Carmelin I cannot endure to be affronted out of any thing should you give me as many hats as would reach from earth to heaven I would not lose my own You need no more but summon the Lady-Nymphs before the Magistrate of the place saies Anselme Do so and fear not saies Clarimond see there 's a sergeant goes on the road let 's speak to him That said they put forward and Carmelin having overtaken the man who indeed was a Catchpole My good friend saies he to him there are certain indiscreet Ladies have taken my hat from me without any reason Have I not a good action against them That you have without question friend replies the Catchpole give me their names and dwellings I 'll summon them I must first acquaint my Master with it saies Carmelin She that must have committed the Felony is called Lucida saies Lysis as for her dwelling it is in the source of a Fountain hard by but she is hidden within it so that thou wilt never finde her poor mortal Serjeant For this Arrest there is requisite a celestial Serjeant such as Mercury As for her companions who have been Accessaries in the Felony they are fast in the barks of trees where wouldst thou finde all these For thy part Carmelin let fall thy suit thou'lt get nothing by quarrelling with stronger then thy self The Nymphs acknowledge not Terrestrial Judges or if they submit to them they corrupt them as they did the Son of Priamus The Catchpole went his way with this discourse thinking they either had been some that would abuse him or that somewhat was amiss in their mindes In both which cases there was nothing to be gotten of them since he understood not what they said Carmelin being much troubled that he could have no satisfaction of those felons began to cry out Alack poor hat must I needs lose thee in the flower of thine age and beauty 'T is very true thou didst my Grandfather service and credit at his first wedding but thou mightst have a long time serv'd my posterity Ah! how I grieve for thee when I remember thou hast been for so long a time the faithful covering of those cares and thoughts that were forg'd in my head and the noble tabernacle of my Doctrine Do not weep for 't saies Anselme its hour was come 'T were to no purpose to erect a Monument for it as we should have done for you when we gave you for lost Besides why will you not be comforted since you are promis'd a better Carmelin having recollected himself a little resumes the discourse thus But that hat what shall it be made of Master Fine Wool He had not the seasure to finish what he intended to have said nor had Anselme the time to answer him for they all broke out into laughter especially Montenor who knew that Anselme by the Fathers side came of a race of Merchants and that Cloath and Wool had been the foundation of his Nobility Lysis desirous to end the laughter The error was saies he for want of a Comma or Parenthesis in the Period Hear'st thou Carmelin observe it that thy transposition be not deficient The discourse of the Master was thought as pleasant as that of his man because his words came out with a certain accent that gave them great weight Carmelin himself was pleas'd with it but when Clarimond was come home he made him a much more joyful man by giving him the hat he had promis'd him which was better then his own though not much They told him that if he esteemed pieces of Antiquity that was a thing worthy as fair a Cabinet as any medal in the world He was almost out of himself for joy for if he grieved for the other hat 't was only because he had no great hope of this Notwithstanding all this he goes to his Master to desire him to describe unto him by name and cloathes all the Rural Deities that so he might know who had done him the most mischief It was concluded that it was the Hamadryads and Lucida but as for Synopa she had not given him one stroke nay stood at a distance all the while he suffered the lash O! what a great mystery is there hidden under that says Lysis to him thou hast ground to believe that Synopa is of a very amorous disposition she hath discover'd her passion for me but perceiving that I always disdain'd her she will henceforward adore no merit but thine I did much inspect it and it is my opinion she never look'd on thee as an indifferent person so that now I will shew thee how I intend to bring thee quite out of this trouble Put the case it was she committed the Felony on thy hat thou must imagine it was for no other reason but to keep it instead of a favour I remember Charite took away one of my shoes upon the same account I know not what love you mean replies Carmelin why did she not assist me then speak no more of her I do not like her humour If I must have a Mistress be it that Shepherdess whom you spoke to me of heretofore Charite hath a companion called Jacquelina saies Lysis I meant her Thou shouldst love her were there no other reason but because she hath a fine name and because thou canst make a very quaint allusion thereon saying she is called Jacquelina because she is as 't were a Javelin wherewith love strikes hearts through Besides when thy History shall be written it will be a handsom title for it The Loves of Carmelin and Jaquelina There is a sympathie between the two names as there is a conjunction between your two hearts and when I have any leisure I promise thee to find out some fortunate Anagram upon it While he said this he heard Anselme proposing to Clarimond a visit in the
humane life The first thing I shall note is the transportation of our Shepherd while he contemplates those excellent Reliques he had gather'd of his Mistresses This it may be may seem ridiculous and such a stupidity as could not fall into the minde of man however transported by his own imaginations If I produce as ridiculous in the more serious and admired Authors shall it be taken for good payment Lopa de Vega in his Pilgrim brings Pamphilius and Nisa into Bedlam their extravagancies having been such that they were taken for mad where Nisa findes no presents for her Pamphilius but that which the floor afforded dust dirt straws and the like wherewith yet he embroidered his clothes as if they had been precious stones or feathers Were they not worthily disposed where they were if this be not as extravagant as our Lysis I know not what is The Author of the History of Lysander and Calista hath as good stories alas Lovers put another value on things then other men and that Knight in Astraea who falling in love with a Lady whom he had detain'd in chains being disguis'd in Mans cloaths pass'd his time afterward in kissing and courting the chains and wearing them about his neck never putting them off but when he went abroad I think is one may well shake hands with Lysis That he thinks the Stars living creatures is not so strange a Philosophy as that of those who maintain they feed on the vapours of the earth and the sea If you will not believe him believe Ronsard in his hymns who says they feed in the Plains of Heaven all night and in the morning the Day-star who is the Keeper brings them together tels them over and drives them for all day into the shade As for Adrians Relation 't is natural and such as becomes a man of his quality who is a dull soft-headed Citizen not much acquainted with Romances and the Books he quotes are such as he understands that is such as children go to school withall And for his name it becomes him better then to call him Lucidorus or Pâ—lemarchus names very fit are they not for a Tradesman As for Lysis's demanding of Verses of the Country-Shepherd he that knows any thing of Romances knows how familiar it is there to have Shepherds answer one another in Verses and the Authors make whom they please excellent extemporary Poets As for his description of his Mistresses beauty he is not the only man hath given such extravagant power to the eyes of a Beauty Ask La Roque Since 't is decreed that fire shall surprise This world it must be that of your fair Eyes a prophaner expression by much then that of Lysis And now he comes to the Dialogue with the Eccho Which because it hath been a generall Ornament in all Love-stories and Books of Shepherdry and is withall such a gross impertinence our Remark on it shall be so much the larger The Pastorals of Julietta are pester'd with them though far-fetch'd Nay the witty Erasmus hath not in this been very fortunate otherwise why should the Eccho answer in Greek when she was spoken to in Latine 'T is as if a man should ask her somwhat in English and she should answer in Welsh or Irish But to forgive that when a man hath spoken ten or twelve lines how can she answer all in one word But of all the Composers of Eccho's that ever were a Gentleman of our own Country and an Author hath been so fortunate that he hath brought two or three hundred into the compass of one sheet of paper and his Conceits are withall incomprehensible I have heard some say of them that had they been to find out so many they might have worn out ten Dictionaries to find out the rimes But what our Author says in defence of himself is that all the wonder in his was that it was Lysis's good fortune to light on things that Anselme could either answer or rime to with some sense But for the discourses of Anselme concerning the Eccho I may say they are no ordinary invention I could make long Remarks on the Pantomimes which were a sort of people of old that counterfeited the cry birds and beasts Parmeno counterfeited the grunting of a Pig so excellently well that it became a Proverb so that when another Actor brought a real Pig under his cloak upon the stage and made it grunt yet the people cry'd out that was not Parmeno's Pig whereupon he shew'd them the Pig to convince them Parmeno could do no better This story as it well discovers the foolishness and obstinacie of prepossessed minds so was it a sit example for Anselme speaking of the Eccho which they say imitates all voices The Eccho which is made of Conduits of congeal'd aire is an Invention in the Steganography of Beroaldus but much advanc'd and clear'd up by Anselme Nor is his discourse of the Destinies less admirable There is an Italian Dialogue between Life and Death speaking as if they were the two Destinies and that when one hath perfected the web of a mans life the other cuts it off This hath more wit then that of the Ancients Nor are Lysis's descriptions of his Mistresses beauty so extravagant but I can easily match them A certain poor man had a daughter yet if her Beauty were truly considered he might be said to be a very rich man for in her face he possess'd Diamonds Rubies Coral and Pearl This is an Imagination in one of the Nouuelles But is it not enough to say Lips are of Coral and so of the rest but it must be said they can enrich a body If this poor man wanted any thing he must pull out one of his daughters Eyes or cut off her Lip and carry it to the Goldsmiths This observation of his Mistresses colour is in Lysis extraordinary and argues his invention 'T is true the Turks bear a great respect to Green Mahomet's Turbant was of it and it is now a prerogative of those only of that race and if any be to be punished for some crime the Turbant is first taken off as sacred But the reason why Lysis hates the Turks is because they know nothing of Romances and a Shepherds life That he calls the Kitchin-maid Goddess of the Pottage-pot it rubs the ancient stupidity especially that of the Romans who put their Gods to all the offices and services they had to do They had a Cloacina which we may call Scavangera or the Goddess of the Common-shores There were no less then three Gods about one Cradle one kept the Child from crying another rock'd the Cradle a third look'd to the Womans breasts Now we come to the day of Judgment at S. Cloud The examples of this kind are infinite When London-Bridge was afire the Country-people that saw it afar off thought the world was at an end and that it began to burn at this great City where more iniquity had been committed then elswhere The day of Judgment
not be ungratefull to rip up so much ancient sottishness They had Dryads whom I take to be Nymphs of Forrests Hamadryads were such men as were chang'd into Trees the Nayads were the Nymphs that presided over the Waters and were such as had been chang'd into Fountains the Napaeae are the Nymphs of the Flowers the Oreades of the Mountains and the Nereides of the Sea I do not tell you what part of Brie Lysis was in nor where the River Morin begins 't is an humour of Ronsard's to make a long comment on every proper name which I will not imitate As for the Fable of Morin I maintain it to be much more ingenious then any thing of Ovid's or any other Poet. Those things which we bring in under the name of Histories are Fables Among the Greeks the word Fable was restrain'd to those relations that concerned the Gods History to the affairs of men But because a Fable signifies only a narration and that what they said of their Gods was false it is come to pass that a Fable signifies that which is false As for the Stories of Synopa and Lucida and their Metamorphoses they are ingenious and probable whereas the Poets can only tells us that to be metamorphos'd into Water there was no other invention then to weep away as Ovid says of Biblis But where Lysis takes away that contrariety of being chang'd into water and yet retaining the form of a humane body which must be compos'd of watery vapours he shews nothing escapes him He had read somewhere what the Magicians say of the apparition of Spirits viz. that the Terrestrial spirits assume bodies of the vapours of the earth and the Aquatick of those of the water What follows concerning the Violin and the Nymphs who deny'd Diana the Sweet-meats all is natural and their punishment too For the latter certainly 't is as easie for the Gods to make Trees bear fruit preserv'd as to change men into Trees And if my Author had said that the Cypress into which the Violin was chang'd bore Fiddles and Violins ready made it had been as probable These stories we are beholding to Clarimond for who seeing the Greek Poets had invented Metamorphoses for the Fountains and Rivers of their Country would do the like to the honour of Brie but the truth is he is gone far beyond them Carmelin's Questions to his Master give him occasion to clear up the ancient Fables wherein 't is wonderfull to see how well he is read I know not whether the Gum of the Tree Lysis be well taken yet 't was a particularity could not be omitted His mind ran then upon Myrrha and the Sisters of Phaeton who weep Amber However it be the story of the Excrement in Bâ—â—clay's Argenis is as bad upon which too there is an Ode At the second rencontre with the Rural Divinities I note Lysis's abuse of the Gods and Nymphs for offering to run away for fear of mortals The Ancients might have made that question to those that talk'd of so many Gods which no man could ever perceive Carmelin's speech to the Nymphs is nothing but a sort of contradictions Ronsard and other Poets have thought them mighty ornaments for Carmelin is one that in this case is no Author I assure you I do not observe Lysis's reading fail him till I come to the bathing of Carmelin And I wonder at it for Ronsard could have taught him what ceremonies were required to make a Mortal fit for a celestial conversation He had forgot that the Ancients wash'd themselves before they consulted the Oracle as also the Victims when they sacrificed and that Magicians bathe themselves in running-water before they fall to their conjurations Certainly Lysis must needs be troubled not to find his Tree yet must he needs play the Tree till Hircan with the help of Agrippa conjur'd him into a Man again The apparition of the Winds hath nothing in it fantastick compar'd with what the Poets say of them That Lysis believ'd Hircan more powerfull then the Gods it shews him to be of the Creed of the Ancients who believed the Gods were subject to the charms of Magicians and that when the Moon was ecclips'd it was some Sorceress had forc'd her from heaven Thus have we seen Lysis chang'd into a Tree and the Tree into Lysis again We are now to see how he behaves himself in the Sixth BOOK WHich begins with Lysis's moral learning The pains he takes to find out Carmelin speaks his good nature But to arrest the Nymphs that stole this poor fellows hat Lysis tels him he must have a celestial Serjeant such as Mercury and he is in the right for he is the Apparitor of heaven 't is he that carries the souls to the prisons of hell 't is he that summons the inferior Deities to appear before Jupiter and when Venus had once lost her son 't was he that cry'd him all over the world You see Lysis understands the offices of the very Gods Carmelin's being out of his lesson argues he is no great Clark but Anselme reconciling him and his master saying that Love who is Master of all Arts will teach him to do better another time and to that end quoted a discourse out of a certain Book The discourse is somwhat long yet since I conceive it may be pleasant to some I shall take the pains to put it down here 'T is in the travels of Aristeus and Amaryllis Among all that have spoken of the â—nature Love there is none hath better described it then the divine Plato who calls it Pandidascala that is to say Master of all Arts for there is no Art nor Science which he teaches not his Schollars In the first place he teaches them Grammer and the eight parts of speech beginning with the nown or name of the beloved and then the pronown of their good Qualities which he makes them repeat often Thence he passes to the Adverbs of the infinite time of their perseverance and those of the swearing of their fidelity Then he makes them understand the active and passive verbs acting and suffering all things for the Beloveds sake Then he teaches them the Participle by which they must divide and part between them the good and the bad the thorns and the roses the pleasures and the torments of this life From thence he proceeds to the Conjunction and conformity of their honest desires to the vertuous affections of the beloved which brings in the Preposition teaching thereby to prefer the pleasure and satisfaction of the beloved before their own and lastly he teaches them the sad and sorrowing Interjections full of pittiful Alas's and interrupted by sighs When the Lover is become a perfect Grammarian his Tutor Love ' prefers him to Rhetorick which helps him to a many eloquent speeches sometimes in the Demonstrative kinde remonstrating to his beloved how much he suffers for her sake sometimes in the Deliberative resolving rather to dy then change his affection sometimes in
to our Comedy Jason desirous to obtain the Golden-Fleece which was a Book of Chymistry as some say though the Fable bears other expositions But the Poets know not where the Colchos was for some will have it to be an Island others a Continent nay some say they knew not by what river the Argo got into the sea But that trouble you will say Orpheus sav'd them for he could as well draw after him their ship as other things with his Harp But I wonder that being at sea the Rocks follow'd them not but it is to be thought they heard him not When this Musician descended into hell the Acheron followed him even to the palace of Pluto so that the Shades were like to be drown'd in the midst of the fires 'T was a brave fellow for with one touch on the Harp he could draw the fairest Trees from his neighbours garden into his own and if he chang'd Country he could make his house follow him And yet this was the most beggerly Poet that ever was But I wonder how the Sun and the Stars being more excellent bodies then the Stones Trees were not charm'd by his musick But to pursue the narration When the Argonauts were arrived in the Country of King Phineas Zethes and Calais relieve him against the Harpies These young men were the sons of Boreas and the fair Orithia and had the gift of flying But why the Harpies should hinder King Phineas to eat I see not nor yet how this poor King could live so long without meat But having done their business the Argonauts pursue their voyage and Medea so favour'd Jason that she gave him a charm toset the Dragon asleep What a simple Conquerour is this Jason that does all things by magick The Dragon being asleep 't was easie to take the Fleece And his Companions never drew sword till they came to Thessaly Are not these excellent examples of valour As for the language of some Actors in this Comedy it is enough to say it is fantastick as the rest These two pieces could not be better represented Carmelin and the Harpies did excellently well nor did Hircan who playd Orpheus do less I believe if any of the Country chanc'd to see them they must needs think them mad but they had such a lechery to make sport with Lysis that they cared not and therefore being satisfied with this diversion they find him other adventures in the Tenth BOOK I Cannot but admire Lysis's reading and his judgment in the old Authors His attaque of the Fable of Thetis is excellent but his heroick accoutrements betray him again But that was because he saw some Poets even of his own time so dress'd before their Books That subtilty of Hircan to make Lysis believe that the Coach was drawn by horses as long as it was on firm ground and did not flie till it came to the sea was not ordinary but Lysis helps it by his Philosophie But what he intends to do in heaven is beyond all Astrologie and discovers the Tenets of divers Philosophers and especially those of the Platonicks concerning Reminiscence and that was it made Lysis believe there must be an University in heaven for the souls After he hath spoken of Homer's Tuns of Good and Evil he falls afresh on the Ideas of the Platonicks as if they had been things to be seen in heaven Nor is his holding of solution of continuity in spirits less Philosophical The adventure of the Dragon shews how easie it is to deceive him that deceives himself But for the things that come out of the Dragons belly they are not so strange as what comes from a Gentleman in the History of Lysander that vomited images of wax pieces of Looking-glasses Pen-knives and Ink-horns The Deliverance of Pamphilia must needs be a great honour to Lysis and such as must make him heroick But his relation of his adventure is excellent Because he had seen Birds that could speak at Paris he thought there might be a Country whence they came and where they spoke and did all things as we do But this and what he says of the Diaphonous people is but a dream of Lysis yet not so impertinent as that of Poliphilus who in one night dreamt a book as big as ours As for Lysis's imagination that being invulnerable the Gyants could not force out his soul but through the nose 't is an abuse of Mahomet who in his Alcoran says that Moses having long wandered the desart found a Tomb whereof as he was confidering the length and breadth the Angel of death came to kill him Moses knowing him How wilt thou get my soul out says he to him Not through my mouth for that hath spoke to God not through my ears for those have heard him not through my eyes for those have seen him not by my hands for those have received presents from him not through my feet for those carried me into the Mount The Angel went his way thus baffled but another time he presented Moses with an Apple of Paradice which he smelling at the Angel took him by the nose and drew out his soul so dispos'd him into that Sepulchre which could never since be found That Lysis will be accoutred according to his Authors he still discovers his old humour that makes him believe there 's as much truth in Picture as in Poetry Clarimond's abusing of those Shepherds that grave their amorous speeches and expostulations on Trees is not without reason 't is such an impertinent and an improbable foolery For they must send notice to their Mistresses to go to that tree or all 's lost which if they do they might as well have sent what they writ on the tree some other way The history of Anaximander may well go for canonical with Lysis He had seen in the fables that Medea had taken Aeson by the throat and let out all his old blood and fill'd his body with other by which means he became young again Nor want our present Romances these renewings of age Panurgus had his body mine'd as if it had been to be put into paste which done it was molded anew and made handsome then before and they got life into him by blowing into his fundament Then does he relate stories of the other world But if there be any wit in things of this nature 't is Anaximander claims it As for the God of Sleep whom Clarimond quotes 't is to keep even with the fables Some grant this God a palace some a grot But to what purpose either since all that are about him must be asleep and cannot do this Child of the night any service And since Ovid says he is ever asleep how can he go about the earth to sow poppies That 's a task for the God of Vigilance rather then the God of Sleep Thus shall we never be rid of absurdities The instructions which Lysis gives to his Historiographer are certainly very excellent but the new description of his
disposing dead bodies is that of burying them and the most honorable that of burning them that the earth is the dregs and ordure of the Elements the sink of the world and mother of Corruption I cannot conceive the reason why Charron should thus abuse the poor Earth nor why he should say we have no parts we ought to be ashamed of unless to shew the inclination he had to assert that Paradox That women ought to go naked The Poets tell us their Mistresses make them dye and that they raise them again and therefore that Lysis should think so is not so extravagant Besides he remembred Aesculapius rais'd up Hippolitus Why should not Charite who is a Sun her self do as much as that son of Apollo Lysis says That Love led his soul into Hell wherein he differs from some of his ancient Masters who affirm'd that death divided a man into three parts the Body return'd to earth the soul went to Heaven or else was united to that of the Universe and there went to Hell but the Shade which what it could consist of I cannot conceive Yet those others that say the fouls go to Hell tell us stories of Shades enough to discover the contradictions of Poetry but why a soul should be call'd a Shade I see not for being a thing of more worth then the body and that in its separation it loses nothing it ought to have a nobler name Nor doth the fiction of the Waterman Charon and his fare hold any more water What need had this fellow of any money in hell where there is nothing to buy Pluto needed not this Poll-money for the earth and all the mines were his Ceres and the other rural Divinities having no more then they necessarily took up Of equal absurdity is that of Cerberus the three-tongu'd Dog Hath Pluto no other guard then that of a Dog but it must be thought there needs none in hell for the Devils need neither Dog nor Cat since they keep no house but live like Philosophers Then is Lysis brought before the three Judges and by their order sent to the Elizian fields where he rips up old Poetry and Fables so exquisitely that if all Books were lost we might have all of this nature from him He saies that the pastimes of the Devils are Cards and Dice 'T is true quarrels oathes and blasphemy are the effects of them and Avarice the Inventor But the impatience is remarkable But at what is a Gamester most impatient Is it for the loss of time in eating or sleeping is 't want of money is 't a years sickness No 't is when the candle is put out in the midst of a game or when the Die falls down and cannot be found Now comes the famous Musardan on the Stage that excellent advancer of Love-stories and Courtier of the Muses who is wellcomest of all to Lysis one that for sport-sake was admitted to some great mens tables But Fontenay continuing his follies give Clarimond occasion really to endeavour Lysis's conviction for that he had said before that Lysis ought to be entertain'd in his extravagance in regard of the Felicity of Fools 't was only for a time and by Paradox But if we will see the impertinences and absurdities of Fabulous Books and Romances more fully discovered we must advance to the Thirteenth BOOK THough there need not much be said on these two Orations the Objections and Answers being so clear yet to draw things to some conclusion I shall where my Authour hath been very liberal contribute somewhat The War of Troy is by most acknowledg'd a fiction and Homer grounded his Poem on some old wives Tales yet Clarimond says nothing of that because truth and Poetry travel not far together But he quarrels at the subject of his Books which is ill and that grand fault of not mentioning the causes of that war for that he had written any thing before is but a conjecture which yet Philiris makes the best of when he says that his subject was well enough known in Greece and that consequently he might begin where he pleas'd But as to Homer's Country which Philiris saies is heaven and that Poetry is the Language of the Gods 't is a little extraordinary though all Oracles were in verse For Homers sentences besides that they are such as it may be were in every mouth in those days all sects of Philosophy have gotten somewhat out of him as if he commend Vertue he is presently a Stoick c. Nor have they been more fortunate that make him Master of all Arts or to say better a Jack of all Trades For to make him a Ship-Carpenter 't is enough that he makes his Vlisses one To shew he was a good Cook he made his Hero's turn the spit and boil the pot and in Vulcan he is an Armourer This was an easie way to be of all Trades but it is to be thought that Ignorance and Pedantry were the Godfathers that gave him that name That any Captains and the like should esteem him as if his works could infuse courage is as improbable and yet this is no great commendation for Amadis hath sharpen'd the courage of some whose unacquaintance with affairs kept them in ignorance of what was truly military And for Alexander and Alcibiades who going into a school and asking the Master for Homer's Iliads gave him a box on the ear when he told him he had none 't is no great credit Alcibiadas was a rash yong fellow that affronted all where he came not sparing the very Images of the Gods the noses whereof he cut off besides that it shews that it was in those days a Book fitter for School-boys then Souldiers and indeed it was fit a Schoolmaster should have it it being their daily-bread as Hieron said to Xenophanes complaining of Poverty That Homer though while he liv'd begg'd his bread yet dead he maintained ten thousand men And hence it came that the Schoolmasters have ever been his greatest celebrators As for Hector's leaving the Army in a fight to go and deliver a message that was unnecessary 't was such an absurdity as Philiris mentions it not As for the fable of Circe 't is justly tax'd for dawb as you will with Mythologies Ulysses's lying with a Sorceress will be a thing of ill example As for the Beauty of Helen and Penelope Clarimond says what he ought and Philiris answers as well but for the chastity of the latter and that evasion of the web 't is such a poor one that so many yong Lovers could not but in so many years discover it But there are that say that those yong men all enjoy'd her and that thence sprang the God Pan you have the credit of the Poets for the one as well as the other Clarimond having spoken of Homer spends not time on the other Greek Poets since it was but repetition and so falls on Virgil the Prince of the Latine Poets That Dido liv'd not in Aeneas's time
are there How many Laurels have I deserved for this rare invention seeing that name is clearly the name of a Shepherdess and that lately there hath been a Book of Pastorals made which is so called Nevertheless I have been content to cut off one letter more and to call her Charite because the name seems to me more gentile and more easie to come into verse Wherefore henceforward there shall not be rock nor tree in the Country where shall not be engraved the names of Lysis and Charite nay I wish I could grave them in the heavens or make the clouds receive the form of our Characters But to satisfie thee more particularly as to the Jewels thou seest me have courteous Shepherd know they are things which I look on as most exquisite favours For the little that I have seen Charite I doe not think she knows me she hath not given me any bracelets of her hair nor cast amorous looks on me For want of this I shall not forget my self so far as not to keep something that comes from her Yesterday as I came to St. Cloud I saw her walking with one of her Companions In jesting she took a Pink that was in her breast and cast it at the other whom she met I was carefull to gather it up that the rest of my dayes I might have the pleasure to kiss that fair Flower which had touched those fair Apples that are more precious then those of the Hesperides After that she took out of her pocket a peece of Paper which she tore all to peeces and threw away as a thing nothing worth yet highly estimable to me who took it up desiring to preserve whatever comes from her Presently after she stooped down somewhat ailing her foot and hindring her to go and tore off a little peece of the soal of her shoe which dragg'd along What grief would have seiz'd me if I had not obtained that fair peece of Leather whose service had once been to carry so worthy a body Fate was favourable to me Charite and her Companion betook them into a house so that I being left alone in the street presumed to take up that rich treasure and what is more that my felicity might not be imperfect I gathered of the Grass which had received the impression of her divine paces Behold gentle Shepherd I have all these things in my custody Satisfie thy eyes with them and observe quickly if they have not some extraordinary lustre for I am going to put them up 'T is a prophanation of them to expose them so long in the aire Anselme wondering at the extravagances wherewith Lysis entertained him could not withhold himself from saying to him But what perfect Lover if Charite had spat somewhere or done somewhat less decent would you be so curious as to keep whatever should come from her Who doubts it replies he ought any thing that is so precious be lost when it may be recovered I make a vow from henceforward to find me out a Cave somewhere hereabouts where I will preserve all whatever shall come from her and thither will I go every day and there spend whole hours in contemplation You will never have done sayes Anselme if you will keep so many things How is it possible to get all the grass that she shall tread upon Let me tell you you shall do well to content your self with some part but your satisfaction would be far greater if you could get her Picture and that would make you remember her better Ha! that 's excellently imagined replies Lysis It is true I have seen in all Books that Lovers doe always endeavour to have the Pictures of their Mistresses But how shall I have mine Where is the Painter so skilfull that can draw it A mortal man cannot fixtly look on her There is none but Love that is able to accomplish this work as he hath already painted her well in my heart yet I should be well pleased to have her if it be possible in another draught that I might place it upon an Altar and make it my Idol Whereupon Anselme told him that if he knew Charite he might assure himself that he would draw her Picture so as he should therewith be satisfied And indeed he spake truth for from his very childhood he delighted in Painting An accomplishment that doth a man no hurt though he doe not make it his profession Lysis seeing that he proffered him so great a favour could not imagine that any mortal had so much power and will to succour him and hereupon embracing his knees spake to him in these words Pardon me O great Divinity of our groves if ere-while I could not discover who you were Now doe I perceive well enough that you are the God Pan that hath disguised himself for to come and assist me in my Loves and I easily observe somwhat in you more then a Shepherd seeing your Clothes are not altogether like mine Henceforth there shall not pass a day that I shall forget to pour out wine and milk before your Altars and every moneth will I offer you sacrifice of the fattest of my Lambs Consider well what you say replies Anselme I am not he whom you conceive me to be I have no cloven feet nor any tail behind nor horns on my head And thereupon pushing him from him he was somewhat amazed to see a man make towards them crying as loud as he could I have thee Lewis I have thee henceforward I will shut thee up so as thou shalt not any further amuse the world with thy follies Their discourse was interrupted by the arrival of the man who being near the Shepherd took him by one arm and said to Anselme Sir â— I pray afford me your assistance to convey this young man as far as St. Cloud You may have discovered that he is not sound in mind I who am his Guardian cannot but be more conscientious then to suffer him to wander thus from one place to another if I were not I should be accountable to Justice I intend to bring him back to Paris Silence sayes Lysis Let us stay a little here Good Cousin Adrian give me but an houre or two to shew you my reasons This courteous Shepherd shall be our Judge He is so perfect that I took him but now for the God Pan and yet I cannot otherwise perswade my self but that he is either Cupid or Mercury or some other God in the habit of Man At these words the Guardian stayes as having a desire to hear what he would say Whereupon the Shepherd resuming the discourse with a tone somwhat elevated spake to him thus Is it not a strange blindness to blame the happy condition that I would follow The name of Shepherd is as ancient as the World and Pan is the first God to whom men have sacrificed Heretofore Kings children kept Sheep as I doe and for to learn how to hold a Scepter they were before fain to hold a
doe if we cannot find what you now ask for I will rather starve then eat any thing else answers Lysis the Dy is already cast for 't I am resolv'd And so going into the Kitchin Dear Comus God of banquetting says he to the Cook Let me have what I have called for Adrian being gone in with him gave order for the providing of Beet-roots and Crabs for to please him and so led him into a Chamber where the cloth was laid When he was there he considered it all over and finding all painted with red he thought in himself it was very well but that he would not lie there unless they brought in another Bed because that which was there was green He went into another chamber where finding a red one he said he would have it removed into his own chamber Adrian who would not they should be at the pains to take it down began to contradict him and would have him to supper without any further troubling himself about that But he told him he would by no means hear of it and so made unto him this fair complaint How Cousin are you so barbarously minded that you will not grant a Lover a small satisfaction that he desires Ha! I see now you have a heart of stone and that a fair Eye never touched you Would you have me commit this crime to make use of any other colour then that of my Mistress I will dye rather then offend that fair one if I have a thought guilty of it it is a Traitor But what do I dream on stupid man that I am I wear the same colour as the bed in my chamber which I will presently be rid of shall it be said that I preserve it No no my fortitude shew thy self While he said this he took his Shoâ—-strings which were green and cast them out at the window As for Garters he had not any for his Breeches came down below the calf of his leg Alas what folly is this says Adrian why doe you cast away those Strings which might well have served one of my little children Now you talk of Love we shall have somwhat to doe with you if you will have all red you must always have Dyers at your breech or else you must have your train after you like some great man Cannot one sleep as well in a green bed as another O Cousin says Lysis how extreamly are you mistaken and all because you have not read good Authors I am confident you never medled with my Astraea and that you never read any thing but your Shop-books Cannot you judge by what charms I am forced to have an aversion to this green bed Besides that it is not of my Mistresses colour doe not you see that green is despised for many reasons As long as Fruits are green they are not fit to be eaten while the Wheat is green it is not ready for the sickle Those which are defeated in a business wear the green Bonnet and out of a certain contempt all your Close-stool cushions are of green Serge. But that which is most considerable Green is the colour which the Turks honour and we must hate what those people love as being bruit beasts who know nothing of Love or a Shepherds life As for red the amiable colour the flesh and blood which sustain our life are of it the lips and cheeks of Charite wear it That is the reason I desire that even my Sheets my Table-cloaths my Napkias my Shirts and my Handkerchiffs might be red if possible As he said so there stood behind him a little Bar-boy that had a Napkin on his arm and a little light Cap on who asked him Sir would not you have a red Nose too We have good wine in the house to paint it withall At which Lysis smiling answered Thou wouldst laugh little Foot-boy of Ganymedes Observe what I say and bring me somebody to change the Bed This is handsom For Gods sake says Adrian let him have his will There came presently two Servant-maids who took down the Cuatains and Vallands of both Beds and put the red into the Shepherds chamber In the mean while he fat down at the Table with his Cousin and Supper was brought in There were some Beet-roots fryed and some cold in a Sallad whereof Lysis fill'd his belly but as for the Crabs seeing that within they were all white and were only red without he left them for Adrian There waited at the Table a good big Servant-maid who took the pot and the glass for to give him to drink but he perceiving it was white-wine that she fill'd Take it away says he Nymph of the Kitchin it is not of Charite's colour Give me some Claret fair Goddess of the Pottage-pot or else we shall not be good friends Nay for this time he is somwhat in the right sayes Adrian Evening red and morning gray denotes the Pilgrim a fair day Men say that in relation to the weather but for my part I apply it also to wine Yet doe not cast away that wine I pray as you did your Shoo-strings we must not abuse Gods creatures When Adrian had spoken thus they took order that Claret-wine should be brought him whereof Lysis drank with much satisfaction Supper ended he began to walk up and down without saying ought to any body and at length his Cousin prevail'd so far with him that he put off his cloaths and went to bed A while after Adrian went out of that chamber making all fast and went to bed in another His Ward had found him so much trouble that he fell asleep as soon as his head was laid on the pillow but it was not so with the amorous Shepherd who imagined that his eyes were little stars upon earth and that they ought to twinkle all night like those in heaven But he was not the only man that was awake that night in St. Cloud there were a many more to whom his company had been very serviceable That Shepherd whom he had spoken to in the fields had acquainted his Master who was a stupid Country-Clown with all the strange discourses which had passed between them This fellow went and related all again to nine or ten of his own quality and the report thereof seiz'd a many zealous devout women All the superstitious multitude address'd themselves to the Shepherd who repeated the same things divers times from point to point He not being wanting as to the relation nor they as to audience He told them that he who had come to him was so beautifull and so brave that he took him at first for an Angel but that having foretold him so much mischief he took him for some Devil who had gotten some sheep and had a sheep-hook in his hand so to appear less terrible and make him believe he was of his condition In fine all that we can judge of what he hath said to me goes he on is That that cursed Woman which is here for
his Letter to his Mistress Anselme told him he would willingly do it but withall that he should be glad to know the contents of that Missive I have forgotten it says Lysis If it were burnt or lost and that I were to write another I should not put one word of the same Shew me the foul Copy seeing you will not unseal it says Anselme I have tore it in a thousand peeces answers Lysis And not to dissemble with you any longer I tell you that if I had it you should not see it for it is not reason you should see the true draught of my affections before her that hath caus'd them Are you thereabout replies Anselme how prettily capricious you are I shall pay you in the same coyn and I assure you you may go seek one to carry your Letter for that shall not I. Possibly seeing you will not shew it me there is somwhat in 't to my prejudice I have read of divers who have carried their own deaths in a Letter and receiv'd their punishment as soon as it was in his hands to whom it was directed That 's not the reason as I am a Shepherd replies Lysis And I tell you that I care not much whether you carry my Letter or no nay I would not admit of Love himself to be the Messenger were it not that he is blind and cannot read my secrets Know then that I could willingly give him this Pacquet and that he would carry it safely though he have neither pocket nor budget for he would hide it in the locks of his hair yet cannot I trust him for put the case he should not know the way to Charite's chamber he not seeing any thing at all must have some other little Boy to be his guide as your Bag-pipers have and he perhaps would mistake Angelica for Charite and so some other then my Mistress should have the glory of my writings You offend Cupid to think so says Anselme For though he have no eyes yet he presently knows whom he hath any thing to do with he hath a better nose then any Dog in France he 'll go scenting so long till he find out your Mistress he hath as good an ear as a Cat that watches a Mouse so that he 'll presently know her by her speech then he hath the feeling so good that he will not mistake another for her But if all that were not so should he have so little wit as not to know his ordinary lodging having no nobler retreat then the eyes of Charite If he should not seek her would he not still go to her by custom I grant your reasons says Lysis But lest this little God who is very quarrelsom should be angry with me I will not speak to him of carrying my Letter He would answer me that I was uncivil to take him for my Lacquay He is not like you who proffer me that favour For among us men who can make returns of courtesies 't is the office of a friend and not of a servant All this considered I have bethought me of an invention to spare both you and him but let us talk no more on 't for 't is not yet time to execute the design So Anselme could not see the Shepherds Letter and two houres being spent in this contestation and other things Lysis desired leave to go out and desired him he would let one of his Lacquays go with him Anselme granted it though he seem'd to be angry with him And the Shepherd having taken the Lad aside promised him a great reward if he would assist him in his affairs He shew'd himself ready to obey him in all things and according as he had bidden took the Hay-loft-ladder and carried it after him Anselme seeing them go out so accoutred ask'd them if they were going to scale the Heavens and take the Moon by assault But Lysis bid him only retire and be silent and that he should ere long have an account of his enterprise Anselme letting him go his wayes without any further discourse expected a good while for his return but seeing he staid out long and that it was very late he went to bed In the mean time Lysis being come before Charite's house look'd about to see if there were any light in the chamber where Anselme had told him she lay There was contrary to his desire but it was presently put out so that he then thought all were abed in the house and that opportunity favoured his design He caus'd the Ladder to be placed against the wall and bidding Gringalet Anselme's Lacquay hold it fast below he went up from rowel to rowel with the Letter in his hand for to put it on the window of his Mistress but being come to the upper end of the ladder all he could do was to reach the lower brink of the window so that he began to stand a tip-toe and to stretch out his arm that it had been as good for his joynts to have been on the rack While he thus lengthned himself there was a Car within kept a pawing at the clappers of the window which so alarm'd him that he made such haste back that he very narrowly miss'd falling to the ground Having been a little while in expectation of what might ensue he bethought himself'twere better to give the Lacquay the Letter to put on the window whereupon he came down and spoke to him of it but having measur'd which were the taller he was two fingers shorter then himself and besides he perceiv'd his arms were very short which rendred him the less fit for his enterprise That caus'd him to get up again not looking for any assistance but from himself and taking heart he went as high as he had been at first Hearing the same noise as before he thought there might be somebody that would surprise him so that he descended three staves then hearing nothing he ascends again the noise beginning again he descends again Sometimes he lengthned his arm with all his might sometimes he drew it back He would ofttimes lift himself up altogether and presently again be shrunk down And methought he was like those Capons legs whereof children do leagthen or contract the claws as they please by pulling the sinews O how many pounds might have been bestow'd on the curiosity of seeing such pleasant postures But alas they had no other spectators then the Stars and a miserable Lacquay that knew not his own happiness Lysis having retir'd and as often approach'd the window did at last put the Letter upon it and being presently come down he bid Gringalet take away the Ladder and return a long with him to Anselme's house He said no more to him he was so taken up to entertain the divers imaginations which seiz'd him when he consider'd the Amazement his Mistress should be in finding his Letter the next morning on her window He said within himself That she would believe it were some Bird had brought it thither in
all Heroes in Romances who never go to any place but they are entertain'd with some History So that being all seated Montenor read the following Discourse THE BANQUET OF THE GODS AVrora had already given the Watchword to the night to draw her Curtains and truss up her Baggage to be gone when the earth receiv'd a Mornings Draught of pleasant Dew which gave occasion to those that saw it to imagine that the Gods were rinsing their Bowls or that it was the remainders of some Nectar after a great Feast or that haply the Beautiful fore-runner of the Sun wash'd her hands at her uprising or that she emptied her Chamber-pot But though it might have hapned to be any of all these according to the seasons as men know well by the different Dews which fall from heaven yet was it not either of all those things fell out then for indeed it was nought else but that the horses which draw the Chariot of that Goddess who began to shew her self shook their mains at their starting out of the sea The Sun being oblig'd to follow her had by this time put off his Night-cap and having put on his Cassock of fine gold had incircled his head with beams The minutes who are his pages help'd to make him ready while the hours having dress'd his horses and given them their Oates were putting them into the Chariot It was easie for men hence to judge it would not be long ere he would appear in the Celestial Vault but they slighted his brightness and having just broke off a Debauch that had lasted four and twenty hours they turn'd day to night and went for the most part to bed Nay just then when the Gods besetting themselves to their ordinary employments seem'd to upbraid their Supinity their greatest business was to banish all care nor could they now prostrate themselves at any Altars but those of bacchus and Sleep Jupiter who was wont to receive the early addresses of such as ador'd him in his Temples was very much surpris'd with this alteration and not thinking fit it should be said that while Mortals entertained themselves in all sorts of pleasures the Gods should be subject to infinite toil as for example the Sun who perfected his course with that diligence that he had not the leasure to wipe his nose by the way he resolved to treat them all at a solemn Banquet He communicated his design to Juno who was then a-bed with him but she being somewhat of a niggardly humour was not well pleas'd that he should put himself to so great expence and to take away the desire he might have to effectuate his resolution she told him she had not Napkins enough to entertain such a number and that it was along time since Pallas had made her any cloath Now you are to note by the way that this Linnen of the Gods is made of the thred of the lives of Mortals which is still wound up in heaven when the Destinies have finish'd it That which hath belong'd to vertuous and illustrious persons is employ'd in Shirts Smocks Handkerchiefs and Tablecloaths but for what comes from Rusticks and other people of grosser Education there is only made of it Kitchin-Linnen and Dishâ—loâ—ts So that there is nothing in this world lost and commonly when it rains 't is Juno that is driving a buck But notwithstanding all she could remonstrate to her husband as to the trouble she should have to get her Linnen wash'd afte this great Banquet he calls Mercury with a loud voyce and commanded him to go and invite all the Gods and Goddesses of the Universe to Sup with him in his Palace which Vulcan had built upon the top of Mount Olympus Mercury the Childe of Obedience presently put on his Flying-shoes and his Wing'd-hat and got his Caduceur and having perus'd the Catalogue of the Gods whom he was to go and invite to the General Assemblie he took his first flight to the Seventh Sphere where finding Fate Nature Fortune Prometheus Janus Terminus and certain other Gods with Saturn in his own Palace he discharg'd himself of his Duty and Message to them Thence he pass'd through the fourth Heaven where finding the Sun newly entered his Carreer he spoke to him at the side of his Chariot without giving him any occasion of stay This God promis'd him he would drive his Steeds somewhat faster then ordinary and that he would make as much haste as if he took fresh horses at every Sign for to be at the place appointed soon enough Mercury having left him comes down on earth because neither Mars nor Venus nor the Moon were yet posssess'd of their several Heavens He went in the first place to the Isle of Lemnos to Vulcan whom he found very busie making of Thunderbolts for to munition Jupiters Arsenal because the iniquities of men were become so great that there was need of an infinite number to punish them all He desired him to leave his work for a while telling him that Jupiter was to make a Banquet to which he was come to invite him and that he had the same Message to his wife and Son Vulcan who was nothing Complemental answered him with a frowning countenance That he understood not what civility oblig'd him to let him go into his Wives Chamber while she was yet a-bed but that as for his Son he might freely go to him Whereupon Mercury went out of the Forge into a little Chamber where he found Cupid playing with his little Trinkets as Children use to do Having ask'd him what he did Cupid answered he was going to wash his headband which had â—ain foul ever since he had worn it and that if he had consumed the hearts of so many Lowers and made them shed so many tears it was for no other end then to get water and ashes enough to drive a Buck. The Ambassadour of the King of the Gods laughing in himself at his excellent invention told him the occasion of his visit and desired him to acquaint his mother with it This pass'd he took leave of him as also of Vulcan cursing such a jealous Cockscomb that having a wife so handsome rose so betimes from her because he would do as other Forge-men that is get up in the morning to work Vulcan who knew he never went abroad without his hands had an eye to all his tools when he went a-away but seeing he had not medled with any thing he dismissed him peaceably Mercury having occasion to cross the sea gave notice to Neptune and all his Maritime Court so that he soon acquitted himself of his Ambassage to them And from thence he went to Aeolus and did the like That done in one continued flight he got into Thrace and having found Mars surbishing his Armor under a Tent he invited him to the banquet with the same Ceremony as the rest Having by this time traversed the whole earth he forgot not still in his way Ceres Bacchus PRIAPUS Pan the
earth for their nourishment why will not you do the like by those you have in Heaven Jupiter overcome by the reasons of his Son bid him send his Cyclopes to take down all the Signs that were good Provision The business was as soon done as spoken so Brontus Pyragmon and some others of the Scullions brought away the Hare the Swan the Dolphin the Whale the Ram the Bull the Crab and the Fishes all which they made ready in divers manners Nay they did not spare the Dragon the Bear the Hydra nor the Wolf and some other Beasts whose flesh was thought somewhat hard and indigestible For Vulcan affirm'd they were already half bak'd because they had been so long fastned to stars In the mean time the meat was thus in making ready Juno and Iris made it their work to accommodate all within the Palace It was built of Petrifi'd Clou'ds and the walls were enamell'd with such a diversity of colours that they defi'd all Tapistry There wanted nothing but the sweeping of the floor wherein those Goddesses were somewhat at a loss for a broom In this trouble comes in Aeolus with a great bunch of Keys at his Girdle He had lock'd up all the winds within their Caves except the Zephir which as his Minion went always with him and carried up his train He perceiving the trouble of the Queen of the Goddesses swell'd up his Cheeks and blew so about the Hall that he easily drove out all the dust before him His Mistress Flora who could not forsake him came presently after with divers other Nymphs who strew'd Flowers all about Hercules Mercury Castor Pollux and other of the houshold set the Tables right laid the Cloathes and plac'd the chairs These moveables were made of the Trees into which men had been of old Metamorphos'd Jupiter and Juno having put on their best cloathes came in to entertain the Company and presently after entered Ceres who caus'd to be brought in as good bread as ever was bak'd and after that Bacchus with Pan and the Satyres who were loaden with bottles which they discharg'd themselves of near the side Table Silenus who follow'd them was the Butler and was already so drunk that it was not thought he could have drunk any more he stumbled so oft as if his legs had been made of Tough so that they gave him a chair which came in good time for him to repose his panch in which was swollen like the Sail of a ship in a good wind While Ceres Bacchus and all the Gods of the Fields were in their Complements Pluto came in with his wife who since her going to Hell was become so fottish that she had forgotten all manner of Civility and Complement She made a Courtezy to the Company and with a rustick simplicity came and said to Jupiter We must confess indeed Father you do us a great favour to invite 〈◊〉 to Supper here we were sad enough at home when we were gotten into our Chariot for to come out of hell our Dog came and leapt upon me and did so lick and kiss my cheeks with all his three tongues that I could hardly part with him I thought once to have brought him with me he had at least done you some service in turning the spit and then you will not believe what a pretty Cur it is he dances on his hind feet and fetches any thing you cast to him You have done better to have left him behind you Daughter says Jupiter for besides that it is not a Dog to be carried in ones sleeve we have others here whom he might have bitten with his six ranks of Jaws Do you not know-well that we have here a Dog among the Stars T is he that picks the bones of the Celestial Fowl which is sometimes eaten at our Table and as for yours he should only pick the bones of dead men But how comes it you have not brought my son Minos along If we should have brought him replyes Pluto assuming the Discourse the two other Judges and the Destinies the Furies and Charon would have come too and in the mean time you know they cannot quit their employments for one moment without a design of destroying all mankinde As Pluto ended his Remonstrance the arrival of Mars dazzl'd the Assembly with the glittering of his Armour His Mustachoes were turn'd like the Gard of a Poignard that so it might seem his very face was armed and his eyes were fiery as those of a Lyon in a fury Yet was there nothing but what was honorable in his Salutations to Jupiter and the rest and Venus entring thereupon into the Hall he who spoke nothing but of vanquishing others confessed himself overcome She was attended by her Son and the three Graces who had spent the whole day in dressing her After her came in Pallas who in the midst of her gravity had some features that rendred her Amiable And then came the Moon and her Brother the Sun who having retain'd some of his beams about his head sufficiently enlightned the place He was so Complemental that he would salute the Ladies one after another but as his mouth was near that of Juno's to kiss her first she starts back presently feeling the heat of his mustacho's which began to burn her cheek Jupiter perceiving it told him he was to blame that he had not bath'd his chin in cold water when he laid aside his fires You do not consider that I was in such haste to come hither replyes Phoebus that I had not the leasure to cast my self into the sea where my fair Hostess Amphitrite ever prepares me a bathe She entertains me there at mine Host's Table I am afraid she 'll make me pay for to day though I sup not with her While he said this Neptune Amphitrite Palemon and many other Sea-Divinities arriv'd who told him that he was not so rigorously dealt with as he would make believe and that he had his lodging very cheap Their dispute was not heard because Saturn Janus and the other ancient Gods came in at the same time whom they were on all sides busie to receive There was only Juno who was not well pleas'd with their coming When she saw Janus with his two faces she cryed out to her husband did I not tell you that you would ruine your self You counted but one person in attendance to your Father and behold there 's two This glutton Janus hath two great faces and two huge mouthes which can each of them devour as much meat as four I am resolved he shall not be entertained here he shall not be at our Table for he will starve all the rest Let him go to the gate 't is his ordinary charge to keep it Alas what do you trouble your self Sweet-heart says Jupiter What will my Father say when he hears you will not have him bring along with him one he makes so much of Consider that though Janus hath two mouthes yet he hath but one
did take some The Author assur'd it and told me at the same time that there was not any but Prometheus who would taste of this new dish And that he hath not mention'd it was because he conceiv'd that did nothing against the Poets no more hath he said that Mars durst drink neither wine nor nectar and that he had by him some Diet-drink in a bottle which Aesculapius had presented him whereof he drank now and then because Venus had given him the Running of the Reins In like manner divers other undescent things have been past by lest it should have prov'd of ill example to the Readers and particularly there hath been nothing said of Priapus who besides what hath been mentioned of him play'd some other pranks of his profession The Author reserves all that for the Commentaries he intends upon his Banquet of the Gods and in the mean time these good things are only spoken under the Rose and to Good-fellows But we are yet to know the opinion of our noble Shepherd of this Piece In good faith the Author is a crafty knave says Lysis yet he hath a good wit 't is his own fault if he make not good use of it but I should have wisht he had spoken of the Gods more reverently then he hath You do not apprehend the business replyes Montenor do you not see it is his design to abuse them The Ancients have left us many monstrous volumas wherein there is neither reason nor conduct Every one feigns and imagines a world of Divinities as they please themselves and if one hath assign'd them such a father and mother he that writ after him hath found them others As for the places of their birth and their several actions they agree as ill as the Clocks of the Suburbs do with those of the City Besides they relate Metamorphoses and other miracles that have not any probability at all Our Author would laugh at all this and note that all the Poets are much oblig'd to him for in this discourse he hath clear'd up abundance of obscure things which they themselves understood not and whereof they could not give any shadow of reason Consider all he hath said of the the Thread of the Destinies of the Signs of heaven of Aurora and the Sun they are things which though they render the Fables ridiculous yet give withal a greater discovery of their absurdities As for instance The Poets assure us that the Sun is a God fill'd with heat and light who walking through the heavens enlightens us here and yet they say withal that having lent his Chariot to Phaeton he gave the world the day instead of the other but that approaching too near the earth he was like to burn it up what an absurdity is this for seeing the Sun himself was not there what light and what heat could there be In what manner have those egregious Cockscombs ever explain'd this No they never troubled themselves to do it for they speak confusedly of the power of their Divinities without laying any foundation for things They have never given us any certain information whether that body which we see be the head of the God Apollo as it is likely because there is an appearance of a face or whether it be a Torch he carries in his hand or haply his Chariot all a fire Some call him Phoebus with the golden hair others the Torch of the day and others the burning Chariot How then shall we understand the Fable of Phaeton without question we must say that there is in the heaven a great Globe of fire which Apollo fastens behinde his Head or behinde his Chariot when he is to go his course and that it was possible he might have given it to his Son But wher 's he among the Poets that hath thus particulariz'd these things It is my Author hath found out this sleight and hath taught it me doth he not say that the Sun fastens his beams about his head I should never have done if I would specifie all the places where he hath clear'd up the Fables Remember it that you may observe them and believe what I tell you and that is that the discourse I have now read to you excels all the Poets have ever writ All will not grant you that says Anselme consider that the Fables of the Poets are Mystical things wherein all the ancient wisdom lies hid They have done well to make you believe that replyes Montenor There is Notalis Comes and some other Gentlemen of Leasure who have employ'd themselves to make Mythologies and have found out those expositions of the Fables which never came into the imaginations of the Poets But assure your self that if I had a minde to moralize on the Romance of Mellusin and Robin the Devil I could finde out as handsome things as upon that of the Syrens and Hercules What do you think my Author hath said any thing without reason If the Night-cap and Spectacles of Fate fall down in dancing he shall tell you what it signifies and he is able enough to make a Methologie on his Banquet of the Gods Be not angry we easily believe it says Lysis and I assure you withal that I have a great esteem of the ingenuity of this Author but I would not advise him to print this piece by it self because it is too short My Genius tells me he is design'd to compose my History 't is there he may dispose of it What know you whether it will be convenient says Anselme Men laugh at those who have foisted into their Romances things which were not to the purpose I 'll furnish you with another invention he must in its proper place mention that the Banquet of the Gods hath been read to you and then it shall be put in the end of the Book by it self If divers Anthors I could name had known this cunning slight their works would have been better by much and they could not have been tax'd to have interlarded them with Histories and Verses repeated to so little purpose that the Readers pass them over when they meet them Thus in the Argemi there are such long discourses as might make a Book apart besides that fine Story of the Excrement with the Verses on that subject which Barclay would needs thrust into his Romance for to give it a better sent in the world Thou art Satyrical friend says Lysis keep thy advise to thy self make thy own History after thy own fashion and let me alone to take order for mine This Banquet of the Gods is not improper for me as those pieces thou quotest It treats of those things which have most relation to what I have in design and it is so much to my purpose that I shall remember it as long as I live and he that should not put it in would commit an error and should not be a faithful Historian for seeing it is true it hath been read to me it is necessary it should be put
said in himself No no there is no shame to put on this garb when Love commands it The great Alcides chang'd his club into a distaff and put on Joles gown instead of his Lyons skin Was not Poliarchus cloath'd like a maid and was called Theocrine and did not Celadon do the like and was called Alexis This is the principal subject of Romances and an amorous history is never good if there be not a young man puts on maids cloathes or a maid a mans I appeal to all those who pass away their days in that delightful reading I would to God Charite would imitate me and put on the habit of my sex as I have put on that of hers Then must she pretend to love me and if we were married the change of cloaths would not deceive any body all would be very well In the midst of these noble thoughts the disguis'd Shepherd came to Orontes's house and having ask'd to speak with Leonora he was carried into the hall where she was together with the rest of the Company Hircan stood up presently and said to her Madam here is a maid wants a service she is a kinswoman of my farmers wife if you will take her I will be accountable for her true service Leonora bid her draw near and striving as much as she could to refrain laughing ask'd her what she could do Amarillis promis'd to do any thing was commanded her with a little shewing I see well saies Leonora how the case stands this maid is not good for the Chamber nor for the Kitchin but may serve to do somewhat every where What say you as to wages you need not think of that replies Hircan you shall reward her according as she shall have served you So Leonora resolved to take this fine servant who presently told her name whereat those that were present could not any longer forbear laughing As for Amaryllis she look'd like a scar-crow in a Hemp-yard Her back was long and flat as if she had carried a flat basket on it and for her breast it was no more plump then a Trencher the rest was streight as if it had been a distaff swadled about Hircan being gone away they gave Amarillis divers things to do which she did as well as any other should have done She laid the cloath rinsed the glasses and made clean the chambers and all with such modesty that all wonder'd at it The fair one durst not as much as lift up her eyes and when she was at dinner with the men she would have been very much out of countenance had it not been that there were other maids as well as she and especially Charite whom she perpetually considered and view'd The men and maids knew all that it was Lysis but they were expresly forbidden to discover that they knew any thing nor to call her by any other name then Amarillis so that lest she might betray any thing there was but little spoken to her In the afternoon came thither Anselme and Montenor who had sent their people all about to look for Lysis of whom not having receiv'd any tidings they were come to Leonora to have some news of him She told them that she had not seen him and thereupon call'd Amarillis to bid her do somewhat As soon as they saw her they were so surpris'd that they said not a word but when she was gone Anselme cryes out well Madam if that be not Lysis it is a Maid extreamly like him Leonora told him he was not mistaken and acquainted him what adventures the Shepherd had run through at Hircans the Magician Anselme was infinitely pleas'd at the narration and went into a Chamber where Amarillis was She made as if she knew him not nor did she discover her self so that he left her and beset himself to talk with Angelica About an hour after came Hircan and Clarimond whom he had sent for then was the time come that they resolved to make good sport with the new maid Clarimond made it his business to play tricks with her and would have kist her She thrust him back still as hard as she could but that which most discover'd her was that she could not sufficiently counterfeit her speech and instead of speaking like a simple Country wench she spoke a quaint Court phrase Let me alone says she at every word I would be touch'd no more then if I were a vestal Be quiet you would ravish me have you any attempt on the Candor of my Chastity and would see the wack of the Vessel of my Continency Sometimes she spoke of her self in the masculine gender instead of the feminine yet no body seem'd to take any notice Clarimond set on her still with fine complements in which he call'd her his Goddess and his Nymph They could not refrain laughing to see that he gave such qualities to a Wench so ill drest and Angelica ask'd whether the Nymphs wore coifs You need not doubt but there are some that do says Anselme for they are ever drest according to the fashion of the Countrey where they reside That 's the reason that those of the river of Marâ— wear coifes such as are made at Meaux and those of the River Seine wear french-hoods after the Paris fashion There past divers other pleasant discourses on the like occasions but all this was not much for they conceiv'd they might have made much more sport with Amarillis yet they made as nothing were and those who were not of the house returned every one to his own home leaving Leonora and her new maid Amarillis pass'd over four days with all the satisfaction in the world They had assign'd her a little chamber where she lay alone and never went out before she was fully dress'd by a glass she had Though she spoke not to Charite but as to another ordinary servant yet she thought the heavens very favorable to her that she had the opportunity to see her when she pleas'd Leonora was not weary of keeping her for she took a pleasure to see with what diligence she served her and on the other side she fear'd not any ill report might come to her house by her means She was of those that are in love by way of contemplation whose pleasure are rather those of the minde then those of the body and she always set before her eyes the chastity of Alexis who when he had his Mistress naked in his arms had not the presumption to do any thing to her if she thought it a happiness to love Charite she thought it no less to be her self loved by Marcel Orontes's Gentleman This young Lad made excellent sport with her when he spoke to her of love but she thought his discourses nothing but vanity When she look'd into the glass she thought her self very handsome and she was not far from a misfortune dangerous as that of Narcissus for the soul of Lysis lov'd that countenance of Amarillis which she saw that made her often kiss
he toss'd it into the branches of a Willow that was over against him where it stuck fast Lysis being turn'd about towards Hircan gave him but a slight salute because he had no desire to laugh He would needs have his Hat again though he imagin'd himself on the point not to have any further occasion for it As ill luck would have it neither Clarimond nor Hircan had any stick to beat it down and Carmelin had carried away the sheep-hook with him to bring the Flock abroad The Willow-tree was somwhat high yet he made a shift to get up by putting his foot into some holes that age and rottenness had made in it But as his stretch'd out his arm to reach his hat he slides down suddenly and falls into the hollow of the tree which time had so gnawn that there was place enough for a man There was nothing in sight of him but his head and his arms which he stretch'd on both sides to take hold of two great branches and being in this posture he began to cry out thus There needs no more considerations Clarimond the business is effected 't is to no purpose now to deliberate in what manner I shall be metamorphos'd it is the pleasure of my Destiny I should be chang'd into a Tree O god I feel my legs grow longer and begin to change into roots and spread themselves into the earth my arms are now boughs and my fingers branches I already see the leaves sprouting out my flesh and bones are chang'd into wood and my skin hardens and is chang'd into bark O ye ancient Lovers that have been Metamorphos'd I shall henceforward be of your quality and I shall be eternally celebrated as well as you in the works of the Poets O my dear friends who are present receive my last farewell I am not any more to be reckon'd among men Hircan and Clarimond were so amaz'd to hear him break out in that manner that they knew not what to say of such an Extravagancy At last Clarimond approaches the tree and saies to the Shepherd Come out thence shall I help you out when you are once out you 'll finde you are what you were always The heavens hinder me to come hence replies Lysis and you may perceive the bark that ascends by little and little and will immediately cover my mouth so that I shall not be able to speak any more Clarimond seeing this folly thought Hircan the cause of it and that Lysis believing him a Magican believed withal that he had bound him up in that tree He therefore softly entreated him to retire and when he was at some distance off he did his utmost endeavour to perswade the Shepherd to come out of the place where he was but he prevailed nothing with him for he answered him only with sighs and busied not his minde but in certain imaginations which must needs have been the most remarkable in the world Clarimond having bestow'd an hour in endeavoring to deliver him out his Extravagancy return'd home where he found Hircan who kept his mother company Having broke fast together they took horse and went to visit Montenor and Anselme and to acquaint them with the strange adventure of the Shepherd Carmelin in the mean time who had been gone to bring the flock abroad began his Shepherd-apprentiship and desirous to see his Master drew towards the place where he had left him He was not a little amaz'd to finde him in a Willow-tree and having ask'd him what he did there the Shepherd replies that notwithstanding all the propositions of Metamorphoses that had been made before the Gods had chang'd him into a tree O Master saies Carmelin you mistake your self your face is as fair as ever it was Do but come out and you will finde you are still a man Behold there 's your hat among the bows I 'll bring it down with my sheephook will you not have it on your head you 'll catch cold else Alas that which thou takest for a mans head is the great end of my Boal It is not the custom to cover it neither with hat nor night-cap for it would hinder it to grow I must henceforth be always in the ayr Why do you believe you have no head replies Carmelin do I not see your hair which is frizzled like the wool of one of our sheep Thou art deceiv'd friend replies Lysis 't is not hair but moss Notwithstanding this resuerie which Carmelin could not comprehend he beat down the hat and made a shift to put it on his Masters head But Lysis shrug'd himself so that it fell down You are very obstinate says Carmelin why will you not put on your hat though you are become a Tree you have your doublet and breeches on I suppose Alas friend answers Lysis if I had had my hat on when I was Metamorphos'd I should have had it still nor would I desire it should be taken from me but I had it not so that now it is not fit I should wear any My meaning is you should put it on now because you are still a man as well proportioned as any between this place and Paris replies Carmelin and I give it you not as you are tree for if you were really one neither should you have any need of cloathes and to prove that you are still the same Lysis I shall bring you no other reason then that you are still clad like a Shepherd and that if you were a tree you ought to to be stript of all your cloathes Wo is me how absurd thy reasons are says Lysis I see well thou speakest for thy own advantage Thou wouldst fain take away my Shepherds habit that thou mightst go and sel it in the Brokery at Paris and advance thy self by what thou spoilest me of but assure thy self thou shalt never have it It 's become part of my self and it is now nothing but a thick bark which is upon my skin which being a more tender one is covered with this as thou mayest ordinarily observe in trees Upon such skins the ancients wrote before the invention of paper Yet I do not tell thee this to the end thou shouldst come and disbark me for to write Letters to thy Mistress I am a sacred Tree which may not be touch'd but by the Gods and Charite and it is principally to the service of that fair one that I am devoted She may come and grave her characters upon my trunk I will suffer it without groaning I understand not all this replies Carmelin though you your self should be changed I shall never believe that your cloathes are so too for what have they to do with your Loves have they receiv'd ill entertainment from some Shepherdess Thou understandest not the Divine secrets saies Lysis if thou hadst read Ovid who is the most famous Divine among the Poets thou mightst have learn'd that the cloathes are ever Metamorphos'd as well as the body and when he speaks of a
been changed into Trees why may it not happen now as well Are there none but the Authors of old that have seen and mention'd such things Let men read th' Endymion a book of no great standing and they shall find Hermodan who had the honour to be a Shepherd as my self metamorphosed into a wild Olive-tree and his Shepherdess Diophaniâ— chang'd into a Myrtle-tree I have read their history and it is commended and approved by all the world When any shall speak of me confute them with that authority While the Willow was in this discourse the heavens began to be dark of all sides both because the Sun was pass'd into the other hemisphere and by reason a many clouds gathered together from all parts Carmelin seeing that bid his master good night that he might lodge the Flock Musidore follow'd him wittingly for he was such a friendly Cur that he was for him that gave him most and since Lysis had not given him any bread he stuck to his servant who provided for him The Shepherd Carmelin was no sooner come to his lodging but it rain'd very heavily so that he was sore troubled for his master Yet could he not pitty him when he considered that no hurt happen'd to him whereof he was not himself the cause The Tree wherein Lysis was had the boughs so scattered that it gave him not the least shelter The water that quickly got through his thin cloaths was soon felt though he imagin'd himself within a Bark No mad imagination could divert him now but he must quit the boughs whereto he had been fastened all the time and shrunk himself down as low as he could possibly In the midst of his hypocondriack imaginations he said in himself That indeed a watering like that in the afternoon was not to be refus'd but that as for this he had receiv'd then he was not pleas'd with it excess being ever hurtfull He was afraid his wood might rot away if it rain'd long in that manner and he thought it but reason that such fair Trees as he should not be left desolate in the fields and that if they could not be transplanted into houses during foul weather 't were fit there were certain Cales made them This brought him into a little indignation that he was not a Tree in the Garden of some great Prince who cover'd his Grove with slate with glass-windows in it That seem'd a very good way to him for the convenience of such Trees as himself But the ill luck was he was bare-headed and though his mind was much perplex'd yet he could not but think of his Hat which Carmelin had carried away with him seeing he would not put it on It had done him a courtesie then At length the heavens having pitty on this poor Fool left off pouring water on his head The clouds were dispers'd and he had leisure enough to dry his cloaths by his own natural hear In the mean time Montenor Anselme and Clarimond having sent for Carmelin learn'd of him how he had left his Master and where he was and resolved not to trouble him to see what would come of it and whether he might have the patience to be there all night They lay that night in the Castle where they were but as for Carmelin he would needs go home to his Host The good man wondring to see him return without Lysis as he had done the night before ask'd him where he was He told him he was chang'd into a Tree or that he imagin'd he was so whereat he was wonderfully astonished He enquired of him further out of what design they kept sheep Carmelin answered There was no hurt in that but that if the question were asked his master he would give a better account of it then he could Bertrand receiving no better satisfaction he and his family went quietly to bed and the Shepherd apprentise did the like About three hours after it being very fair weather the Moon began to shine very bright and Lysis looking on her saluted her in these words Thou art welcome fair Diana with the silver-forehead whither runn'st thou so fast Art thou prick'd forward by some new Love Methinks in this silence I hear from this place the smack of the whip wherewith thou dost so sprightfully drive thy horses thou wouldst in a manner make them go post Stay a little for to behold the fortune which is befallen to a poor Shepherd As the Shepherd ended these words he saw three Nymphs come out from between the trees of a Thicket hard by and if they were not such he at least thought them such The first was cloathed in a mantle of Canvas silver'd over and the two other with white Fustian While they came still neerer and neerer him Fair Hamadryads says the most visible amongst them do me one favour tell me one thing I desire much to be assured of Is it true that the Shepherd Lysis was yesterday metamorphosed into a Tree There 's nothing more certain replies one of them and we are infinitely happy to have him our brother He was the Phenix of all Lovers the glory of his age and the object of the vows of all Shepherdesses The solitude of the place the words of the Nymphs and the glistering of their cloaths in the moon-shine ravish'd the Shepherd into admiration his eyes were as much charm'd as his ears What addition to his extasie was it to hear the shining Nymph continue thus Can I by no means know in what place remains this happy Tree which encreases the number of those of this Country We are just at it answers the other Do you not perceive that Willow which I do not remember I ever saw before in that place shall we go thither Synopa we will speak to our Brother and know how he does And he 'll tell us how he findes himself since he hath chang'd his nature 'T is a noble curiosity replies the first Nymph let us go it may be he will be displeas'd to see me Lysis having heard Synopa nam'd was much amaz'd and by her speech he knew she was the Nayad of the Magician Hircan The Nymphs by this time being come near him one of the Hamadryads said to him Alas dear Brother what do you there all alone will you not enjoy the pleasure of the season Come out thence and recreate your self with us What ever you are fair Nymphs answers the Shepherd Willow pardon me if I cannot go with you for my Destiny hath so dispos'd of me that I cannot come hence You are mistaken replyes the Hamadryad I have been a Shepherdess as well as you have been a Shepherd and I am now metamorphos'd into a Tree as you are but I keep within my bark but only the day We must recreate out selves in the night I 'll never believe that if you bring me not an authority for it That you shall have enough saies Synopa have you not observ'd in the Ode that Philip Desportes hath made
first place put off thy hat then make a conge a-la-mode carry thy eyes languishingly and moving thy right hand as it were in measure put the fore-finger to the thumb as the Orators do in their declamations In so saying Lysis shewed him all those gestures and Carmelin imitated them the best he could But his master told him he must speak at the same time so that he began anew thus Fair Shepherdess since an unfortunate Sot hath brought me hither and that your eyes give me no wounds but such as are detestable to me I must vow to you that I am so surprised with your detractions that in spight of all assistance I shall suffer under them I know not how Lysis had the patience to hear out his discourse without beating him At last he cries out Great ass what an impertinence hast thou spoken thou hast made more faults then thou hast pronounced words 'T would make good sport to hear thee say so to thy Mistress What will you have me do Master replies Carmelin The fear of missing causes me to make so many faults and I so much study the grace of the gesture that I forget the discourse the likeness of the words makes me take one for another Lysis bid him study it longer and he afterwards repeated it again He was not much out as to the words but for countenance he observ'd none at all and was all the time in such an unhandsom posture that his Master chid him still There 's the misfortune says Carmelin when I think on the words I forget the grace But let 's begin again I 'll repeat it so often that I will not miss any thing So he began again but he was much out in the discourse and there was still somwhat amiss in him For when he studied the action he forgot the words and when he studied the words he forgot the action So that Lysis seeing his labour lost bid him bethink him of a Complement to his Mistress according to his own fancie seeing it was but time lost to shew him any thing Anselme who was in the hall had overheard part of the Dialogue at the chamber-door which he thought very pleasant at length he enters the room as Lysis was saying to Carmelin that he wonder'd how he could remember the discourses he knew on several subjects seeing it was such a task to him to overcome seven or eight common words What I have hath cost me much pains replies Carmelin and not to dissemble with you I tell you it hath been beaten into my head as 't were with mallets I must have a moneth to learn a line but in recompence when it is once in my head 't is as sure as the scurf that 's inseparable from it No no thou art an ignorant Fellow says Lysis I have been much deceiv'd in thee Pardon him for this time says Anselme he 'll learn better another There are some dayes that our memories are asleep and that our mind executes not its functions freely I shall take it so for your sake replies Lysis perhaps the vexations he hath gone through have offuscated his understanding We must henceforward conceive he will be another man then what he hath been for to be in love is an advantagious means to become learned I have read in a certain book that Love is Master of all Arts and I know by experience that it purifies the mind extreamly 'T is very true says Lysis but if you desire the reputation of learned never bring an authority without quoting it I am content says Anselme who as he had a very good memory recited a discourse to that purpose which he had taken out of a late book wherein there was so much naturalness that all were infinitely pleas'd with it This discourse ended Clarimond comes in and tels them that they must make haste to dine There was brought from Montenor's abundance of Poultry and Fowl so that Carmelin whom they dispos'd at the Masters table thought he saw the beginings of those delights which Lysis had promis'd him After dinner he was taken into the coach with the rest whereat he was also infinitely pleased for he had never been so honourably wasted in his life Being come to Orontes's the Gentlemen kiss'd the Ladies and Lysis did the same but he durst not kiss Charite because the rest had not kiss'd her and that in this case he would not go beyond their example It was not their custom to kiss Chambermrids and the Shepherd much wonder'd at it But if they had done it and that he had done the like the favour he should have obtained would have been accompanied with a regret to see others receive the like While he was thus taken up Hircan related his metamorphosis and how he had restor'd him to his former shape That gave Angelica occasion to put a many questions to Lysis and among others she ask'd him whether the Trees led a pleasant life or no. For my part answers he I assure you I was not weary of it nor fear'd I any thing but lest Carmelin should cut down some of my boughs to make Chairs of for he hath sometimes been a Joyner And accordingly I should have given him notice that if there were an extreme necessity to take away some bough from me it might not be employed otherwise then to make my Mistress a Cupboard After that Lysis had related in what manner he had entertained this Carmelin into his service and how that he hoped to make him as honest a Shepherd as any in France he bid him draw neer and Orontes having view'd him well swore he knew that face that he had seen it somwhere and that he thought it might be at Troyes It may be you take him for Paris who was the Judge of the three Goddesses and think he is a Trojan says Lysis but he is not he told me he was of Lyons which was some reason that I made him my companion believing that Lyons being neer Forrests there might come good Shepherds thence I do not mean great Troy replies Orontes I speak of Troy in Champaigne And seeing we are so far engag'd in the discourse I 'll tell you what I know of him Being about a year since in that City I went to a Stationers to enquire for a certain book I wanted While I was speaking with him in the shop I heard a voyce from an upper-chamber that said Master I am come to the moneth of August what shall I put down Warm rains answers the Stationer I thereupon look'd up and through a little trap-door perceiv'd somwhat of a man I thought I should have seen the Gods talking from their several heavens as if Mars ask'd the Sun what weather it should be and how he should direct his course I went up to see who it was that had spoken and it was this brave Carmelin who help'd the Stationer to make an Almanack I leave it to be considered if it must not be well done since
it was their invention and that the predictions came out their brains I do not deny that I have liv'd with that Stationer not knowing what to do says Carmelin but you are to take notice that he hath rais'd him a good fortune by his Almanacks and therefore he is not to be derided When he married he was so poor that the Priest being come to bestow a benediction on his bed found none in the chamber Father says the woman cast some Holy-water in this corner we shall have anon a bundle of straw But since that time they have done very well and had it not been my desire to see the Country that made me leave them I might haply have advanc'd my self as well as they 'T is true I have heard say that now they are fallen into the same posture again yet I am assured they make a shift to keep house together but that they sell away by peeces what 's left It seems we shall find it at last the high-way to the Hospital to live with such people says Florida laughing at these pleasant passages You have now met with a better Master and I believe since he knows you to be expert in making Almanacks he will employ you to calculate his Nativity Believe it not fair Lady replies Lysis I am not born either under the Signs of Cancer or Capricorn I am born under that of Charite's Eyes whose influences I know better then any Astrologer Those two bright Stars which are posited in the Heaven of her Countenance are a new Gemini better then that in the Zodiake and was never yet observed by the Speculators of the Second causes How can you be born under the Sign of Charite's Eyes replies Florida since she is younger then you That 's your mistake replies Lysis As Charite is immortal and shall never know end so never had she beginning and thought it be but nineteen or twenty years that she hath been on earth yet she was before in the heavens I am very sorry such a fair Lady as you are should be ignorant of any thing she should know While he was taken up in this discourse Hircan had done relating to the rest what had happened between the Shepherd and the rural Deities repeating the very stories they had told him word for word So that Lysis turning towards him says And who prethee hath told thee all these particulars But 't is true thou art a Magician and there is nothing in the world hidden from thee But 't is to no purpose replies Angelica we believe nothing of all he says Who could believe there were any Nymphs of the woods waters I have often been in the fields and have sometimes been in the water but could never meet with either of them What will you also declare your want of learning says Lysis Know then that the Gods appear not to mortals because of their sins and that it is not now as it was in the first Age wherein Innocencie reign'd and that they appeared openly and in a manner liv'd and conversed with us But for the good of mankind I have an incomparable design for to recover the lost felicity Hearken therefore all you that are present and I would to god I might be heard to the four quarters of the earth what I am going to tell you And that is that I have undertaken to reduce the Golden Age. There are a many who would advise the King in some things that might be for the peace of the people but there is no advice neer mine Seeing Charite is come to live in Brie there by my means shall the celestial benediction be first poured out All shall live after my example and the Gods observing the purity of our souls shall banish hence all those evils that Pandora hath sown here it shall be always fair weather we shall have the fruits of the Earth without manuring it all Rocks shall be full of Pearls and precious stones there shall be no place so desart where there shall not be sets of Thyme and Marjerom Brooks of wine and milk shall run through the meadows our Rams shall have horns of Diamant and our Sheep have fleeces of fine Silk of all colours This discourse of Lysis was heard with great silence only Clarimond at the end broke out into a laughter What do you laugh at says the Shepherd to him What should I laugh at but your self replies Clarimond You and the rest of your profession the Poets are all Fools with your Golden Age Granting it were not a Fable you speak such things of it as if they were true would not make it so delightfull as that wherein we live Is not the year more pleasant having four seasons then if it had but one as the Spring or Autumn And if there were none but precious stones would not that be a great inconvenience As for your brooks of milk and wine they are sufficiently ridiculous for whence should they take their Springs must we milk all the kine in the Country and let out all the tuns of wine in one place that so we might have rivers and would you have no water at all Are there not many things wherein it is useful I see no reason but you may as well promise us Mountains of fresh butter and green cheese Rocks of Sugar-candy that we might catch Larks ready roasted that there should be places where it should rain Sweet-meats and Confects and Trees whereon should grow cloathes ready made These accommodations are fit for a Country whose inhabitants love to have things done to their hands Clarimond had lost Lysis's favor by this discourse had he not in the beginning call'd him a Poet whereat he was so satisfied that he thought not on the rest He was so well pleas'd to be ranked among those honorable persons that he bit his lips again and his skin grew almost too narrow to contain him Anselme spake to Clarimond for him and shew'd him his error in blaming the delicacies of an age that all men regretted Thereupon turning to the Shepherd he askes him by what means he thought to accomplish his noble designs What have I else to do but to perswade all my friends to become Shepherds as I am replies Lysis 'T is true you and Montenor have already denied me and as for Clarimond he seems not to be much enclined to it However I shall not want companions there are at present a many good wits in France I 'll furnish you with an excellent invention saies Clarimond you must address your self to the Poets and makers of Romances who are now in Paris They are those that speak of Shepherds and are oblig'd to be such thereby to effectuate the rare things wherewith they have filled their books or else we must take them for fools and madmen That I was thinking on says Lysis I cannot finde any people fitter for my purpose And the more easiely to draw them in I promise them all their first Shepherds
Besides it was reported that all the riches he had in the world was an Angel in gold but that it was so enchanted that when he had given it a Tradesman for some commodity it ever came back again into his purse a place it seems it affected better then any where else 'T was also believ'd for certain that if he took a gimlet and pierc'd one of the Posts of a Table he would make wine come forth and if they went afterwards into the Merchants Cellar they found the Pipe which had lost it for he by his magick would cause the wine to be transported to his house For what concerns the curing of diseases in that point he defied all Physitians and whenever he cured any of his friends he transplanted the diseases into his enemies that so he might not entrench upon Fate whose ordinance it was there should ever be somebody sick 'T is true I was not desirous to be fully cured of my disease I took such delight in it that I was content only to be a little eas'd I went therefore and knock'd at this Magicians door before day and he who was already at his study came presently to the door It was an old man whose beard was of such a length that besides that part he had left in the middle he had twisted what was on both sides and it served him for a girdle That was a thing strange enough to see but I was much more amaz'd when I observ'd that he had so many wrinkles on his face whereof some were in direct lines and others in oblique that they seem'd as so many magical characters that time had drawn there to make him master of life and death Assoon as he had bidden me good morrow I shook as a reed on the brink of a lake at the sound of his whizzing voice which seem'd to issue out of hell through some abyss But at length he spoke more mildly to me and restor'd me bidding me not fear at all because I was so much in favour with heaven that I should find the assistance I look'd for and that he well saw that what I ailed was nothing more then ordinary to Youth that is to say the disease of Love forwhich he was stor'd with all sorts of remedies How well have you already ghess'd answer'd I 'T is true I am in Love but 't is not with a mortal creature but a Nayad I saw yesterday in the River but cannot since recover the sight of though I waited till now Do me but the favour that I may see her once more before I die and I shall so recompence you that you will rest as well satisfied as I. Zenocritus promis'd me to do what I desired and having brought me into a dark chamber he put off my cloaths and put them on again mumbling over certain barbarous words Thence he led me into his Court where when he had made a circle and lighted three candles about it he cast a vail over my head and read a while in his Conjuring-book This done he took me by the hand and made me go a great way vail'd as I was then having made me kneel he took the vail off my head and told me I was where I desired to be and that it was in my power to remain two hours before my Mistress Upon that he left me as being unwilling to be a witness of my amorous thefts But the enchantments pass'd had made me so stupid that it was a good while ere I remembred me that I was on the Marne side As I cast my sight on the waters which were very clear thereabouts I saw in them a Nymph the fairest could be imagin'd she had on her head a dressing of cloth of silver with small purl-work and a blew gown I presently conceiv'd it was my Nayad and that I should make use of the opportunity to gain her favours since the charms of Zenocritus had come to so good effect Fair Nayad said I to her in an extreme transportation I confess modesty obliges you to appear so clad to the eys of men yet I must tell you I would rather have seen you naked as I did last night for it being now broad day I should have been incredibly satisfied in considering you all over Since the honour of beauty consists in nothing so much as to be seen why are you so carefull to hide your self Thus did I entertain her thinking she would speak to me but she answer'd me not at all and was only content to look on me with languishing eyes I perceiv'd her lips move but her voice reach'd not my ears so that I thought it might be the water hinder'd it That made me say to her Come out of the water my fair Sun behold the great Sun of the world comes out too Come and enlighten our earth where all men shall adore you Come give me your hand that I may help you to get out In so saying I kiss'd my right hand and presented it to her At the same time she kiss'd her left hand and presented it to me as if she had been desirous to come to me but though my fingers seem'd to be very neer hers yet could I not touch them which making me half desperate I fell to beating my breast The Nymph did the like for to sympathize with my grief whereat I was so troubled that it set me a weeping and methought she wept too You suffer too much said I then 't is necessary I come to you my fair one since you cannot come to me And in saying so I cast my self into the water which being shallow I was not so high as my middle but there being nothing but sand and gravel whereever I laid my hands I came out again presently looking afterward into the water which was all muddy I could see my Nayad no more whose loss I so much regretted that I laid me along on the ground as if I had been ready to die At length my grief being somewhat abated and my mind not being taken up with viewing the waters I look'd ore my self O Gods shall I tell all I perceiv'd that I had womans cloaths on and having put my hand on my head found I had a dressing on like that of the Nayads By that I discover'd the cheat of Zenocritus's enchantments and I had reason to doubt that the face I had so much admir'd was my own which being disguis'd I had mistaken Thereupon I return'd to the river less sad then before and there perceiving the same figure I spoke thus There 's none but will confess that this face is handsome and for my own part I should think my self happy could I finde a Wench that had one so fair I would to God it were so But why do I desire it is there any thing more pleasant then to be Mistress and Servant together I shall when I please see the beauty which hath surprised me If I sigh it will sigh too if I laugh it
I vow to you 't were one of my greatest pleasures to have Basilia pictur'd in all ages for her beauty at six years old is not the same at twelve and that at twelve not the fame at sixteen When she was little her hair was flaxen now 't is brown yet hath she always been look'd on as the wonder of the age and though her perfections have been gradually different yet her attractions and allurements have been ever the same I very well remember the first time I saw her her breasts appear'd not in their full beauty and that those vermilion buds which grow there have been since rais'd to their pomp as being to be rais'd on two mountains which they should command But however it be I cannot but still be of opinion that she could not appear fairer then on that fortunate day she made me her captive Yet can I not be rid of a fanstatical curiosity to have her painted in all the dresses and fashions that ever she wore and I think it would much please me had I but her countenance drawn when she minded to be serious or else when she laught the time I first knew her But though I might obtain all this I doubt not but I should finde the occasions of other wishes so hard is it to satisfie the humors of an amorous person But for want of all this I was content and glad to have a picture of Basilia such as could be had and out of confidence on my own imagination I went to a Painter that knew her not I bid him draw me the picture of a maid that had the face somewhat long her eyes and hair brown her cheeks not over-colour'd so I gave him instructions for all the parts and yet he made above twenty draughts and hit not right in any one The next day therefore I went into a place whence I might see Basilia at ease and after I had well considered all the Lineaments of her face I took a large note thereof for to give it the Painter who yet satisfied me not though he went according to my directions At length he began to be angry and told me he knew not why I should put him to so much trouble and it were better I would carry him into some place whence he might see my Mistress and that it was in vain for me to keep him from knowing her since that if he once drew her well he might easily call to minde the face should be like that which he had taken Besides he represented to me how that I ought not doubt of his fidelity and if I freely nam'd her to him he would keep it more secret then if I conceal'd it and he come to know it afterwards because those that are too distrustful seem to grant others liberty to deceive them These reasons I thought very pertinent and banishing all fear I ingenuously told my Painter that I could not bring him to my Mistresses house because to speak truth I had no entrance thither my self but that there was one expedient which was to go to the Church where she sometimes staid very long So I brought him presently thither to shew him her place He saw Basilia that very day and brought me a rough draught of her which indeed had somewhat of her air I met him the next day coming from Church running but he made a sign to me with his hand that I should not advance not so much as looking on me because he had just then seen my Mistress and was afraid to lose her perfect Idea before he had taken a draught of it I had lent him some Love stories to put him into a good humour and to make him go through his work more chearfully I also went often to discourse with him but I put him to a deal of trouble for I never thought the picture fair enough At last he came so near it that I was forc'd to cry out There 's Basilia should I deny it methinks this picture should speak to convince me After that time I comforted my self with that picture and when I was weary of viewing it I must needs go to see Basilia in the Church When I went in I directed my sight to that part where she was and when I came out I could not refrain turning my head for to see her Basilia fear'd not the assault of an amorous look as do some maids who cast down their eyes when they perceive they are look'd on She directed her sight the more fix'dly towards me and most commonly being surpris'd I seem'd to be the more bashful and drew aside my eyes from her till she look'd off me Ah fair eyes what know I whether you did this through confidence or innocency but what I pray could my soul think to find you so confident to commit murthers in such tender age yet was there a necessity to take all patiently and it was a far greater cruelty when Basilia turn'd her back to me or kneel'd down to read I often said to her within my self that her prayers were too long that she should allow some of her time to hear those I made to her and that the Gods would not hear her if she did not hear others My going so often to the same Church and placing my self ever in the same part caus'd my friends when they wanted me to come and look for me there Those that pass'd by whether of my acquaintance or theirs made a stay there so that there was no want of good discourse because they were all very knowing persons Basilia was the cause of all our pleasant conferences and yet there was none but my self that knew it At length heaven willing to be more favorable to me ordain'd it so that Valerius made acquaintance with Basilia at a Cousins of hers whither she was wont to go called Amelita I prayed him to question Amelita about many things and see now the fancies of Lovers I was so afraid he might forget somewhat that I gave him a note of all he was to do and to say I wish'd him among other things to enquire whether Basilia ever took notice of me and whether she had found any verses which I had a while before cast on her window I had a very good account of that and of divers other particulars so that I was more and more inflam'd in my pursuit and I conjur'd Valerius to acquaint me what day Basilia went to see her Cousin that so we might go thither together and that I might there speak to her At least said I if I may not be suffered to speak to her let me have the liberty to salute her as often as I shall meet her For it is insupportable to me to see my self oblig'd to pass before her I most honor in the world and not give her any testimony of my submissions which I must only do her in my thoughts Let all those Lovers that cannot have access to those they love consider this and they
proposed much like those I sometime saw at Paris Some Schollers shall maintain them others shall dispute against them both for the exercise of their parts and that truth may issue out of these altercations as a spark of fire from the collision of two flints As for example there shall be those that shall in the first place maintain that Absence bring more satisfaction to Lovers then presence Secondly That it is better to see a Wench that one loves dead if one be reciprocally loved by her then to see her married to another and not be loved by her Thirdly That the affection is greater after enjoyment then before it In the fourth place That it is better for one to enjoy his Shepherdess twice a week with all the torments and disquiets in the world then to enjoy her fifteen days together in one year with all freedom and not under go any hardship to have her In the fifth place That the remembrance of any thing that is good is a greater pleasure then the good self In the sixth place That it were better for one never to enjoy his Mistress then to do it on an infallible condition that another should have the enjoyment of her also though he were your dearest friend And in the seventh place That the jealousie of a Lover who never knew any enjoyment is stronger and more violent then that of a husband who enjoys every day A man may advance a many other as subtil propositions and by such disputations shall every one be fully instructed On the days when this diversion is not to be had the time shall be spent in singing making of verses dancing and divers other Pastoral sports This indeed is a very pleasant and much desirable way of life saies Menelas but since we shall have no offices or professions among us it is most certain we shall get nothing and if so I know not how the family shall be maintain'd and the taxes paid Our condition is noble and free and consequently exempted from all impositions replies Lysis trouble not your self as to that As for matter of livelihood we shall want nothing There is no bird so inconsiderable but findes his dinner though he have neither store-house nor fee-farm rent heaven provides for all the creatures in the world 'T is very certain you cannot want your entertainment since you can restore the golden age says Clarimond In that first age of the world all the rivers were not milk and all the trees bore not fruit of Lotos as many fools have imagin'd Nature brought forth nothing but what it does now and that not so abundantly then because nothing was advanc'd by cultivation but men were content with what they could finde and to make a true relation of the felicity of that time it must be confess'd that men fed on Acorns as well as the swine and drank out of the river as all other creatures did They had no coverture but their skin or haply some garment of leaves The earth was their Table and their Bed the grass their Carpet the bushes their Curtains and the caves their retreats And thus it is most certain the first men lived so unreasonable a thing it is to conceive they liv'd in a golden Age since gold was not yet discover'd Let it be considered whether their life was not rather brutish then humane and if they are not mad men which grieve for it and that despise ours whereof the ornament and civility cannot be over commended You have much reason to believe you will easily finde your livelihood if you regulate your self to that ancient manner of life for indeed Lysis you shall not be deny'd such a nourishment as we allow beasts but what you do is as if the Law-makers were not yet come into the world to make men leave the forrests and rocks and to perswade them to live in community in Cities I believe there will be very few shall envy you for my part I shall only bemoan you to see you become savage for if you will needs restore your golden age you must go naked as an American and at the best be no better hous'd then with a few turfs as your beggars on the high-way who sell wands to Travellers I do not believe the ancients entertain'd themselves as thou sayest reply'd Lysis but though it were so know that I will imitate onely what is good in their life I intend also to joyn to it the happiness of this last age wherein all the curiosities in the world have been invented It shall suffice me to live in the innocency and freedom of the first age and it may be thou wilt be of my opinion when thou shalt have tasted the pleasures which I have imagin'd we shall not envy any nor be envied by any Of all the passions there is only Love shall possess us And if sometimes we shall be guilty of any hatred we shall exercise it only against the wolves which are in hostility against our Shepherdry What pleasure will it be to love Shepherdesses whose affection will be mutual and will freely discover it self when respect shall not cause reservedness and breed in their mindes what shall torment them We shall finde that those fair ones will be neither Cockneys nor Courtizans and that the unfaithfulness of Lovers will not teach them to carry two hearts in one breast As concerning divine worship and the sciences which we shall study I have spoken to that point already but as for our ordinary recreations I have fancied to my self most excellent ones Those of better quality among us shall act a Comedy every day The subject shall be taken out of some piece of ancient Poetry and the parts being assign'd to those who already know the story by heart they shall only be told the cast of the Scenes and then they must compose as it were on a sudden what they have to say Besides I have found out an incomparable kinde of stage I have seen your Players at Burgundy-house I have seen some plays in the Colleges but all was but fiction There was a sky of Canvas a rock of Parport and in all things the painting cheated our eyes but I will have it far otherwise our plays shall be acted in the open field and our stage shall be the great Theatre of nature we 'll have no heaven but the true heaven if a Shepherd be to issue out of a Thicket he shall do it out of a true thicket if he must drink at a spring he shall drink at one indeed and so all things being naturally represented men will believe they see the true history so that the actors being thereby animated themselves will put on the passions of those parts which are assig'd them and the spectators be as much pleas'd as astonish'd at it And all this I do not any thing doubt of when I consider that when ever I was at any play at Paris though they were not so natural and lively as ours
It must be believed that whatever they have done hath been for the best Were you Clarimond who carps at all things you could say no more Yet I excuse you for the present since 't is only the fear you are in lest I should not do my duty makes you speak thus and you would advise me if I were to thrust you over head and ears in some water to wash your members one after another But know there 's no need of all this My charms are so powerfull as to make you invulnerable with less ceremony then was used by the Divinities How do you properly explain that word of Invulnerable says Carmelin That is to say a thing that cannot be hurt or wounded replies Hircan I beseech you then let my Breeches have its part of your charms replies Carmelin that it may never be hurt by use nor accident If there are wounds in thy cloaths replies Hircan make plaisters for them of the same stuffe I do not employ my Art in things so low But let 's have no more prating be silent I must charm you two with as much efficacie as if you were in the Palace of Circe the Suns daughter Hircan having said this did some extraordinary ceremonies and repeated some barbarous words Then said he to Lysis and Carmelin Assure your selves that nothing can henceforth hurt you You have no more to do then to get into my Coach which shall infallibly carry you to the enchanted Castle where the fair Pamphilia is The two Shepherds went along with him out of the chamber into the hall where the company expected them Hircan giving each of them a stick in his hand bid them strike at an old earthen pot which they presently broke in pieces See you says he to them it will be as easie for you to break the head of a monster as to break this vessel As for your parts nothing can hurt you and that it is so you shall now try In saying so Hircan took a Fire-pan and making as if he would give Lysis a good blow he moderated the violence of his arm when he was neer his shoulders 'T is true says Lysis thou hast but tickled me a little Let me also know what it is says Carmelin Hircan thereupon turn'd the Fire-pan from the place where he seem'd to strike and discharg'd it on Carmelins buttocks but so roughtly that he made him scratch himself a good while after This is no jesting says he methinks I should have been arm'd there All this is well replies Hircan Thou shalt never suffer more hurt then thou hast now felt for those whom thou art to deal with are not so strong as I am and this is to assure thee thou shalt never receive wound after what I have given thee Carmelin being a little comforted by this wish'd for more pots and glasses for to try his forces on and Lysis had the same desire if Hircan had kept them any longer at their exercise He therefore would dismiss them presently but Lysis spoke to him in this manner Learned Magician what dost thou think on Seest thou not we have yet our garments of peace on We shall be nothing terrible if we have not warlike habits on For my part I will be like a Heros otherwise I will not hence Hast thou not observed that representation of Theseus descent into hell which thou hast in thy study Since I am to fight with Monsters and Robbers as that brave Warriour did I will be accoutred as he was This put Hircan in mind of an old blew Guard-coat he had in the bottom of a chest which had sometimes serv'd him in a mask His man went and fetch'd it and Lysis having viewed it found it for his purpose He took off his doublet for to put it on but because it was half-sleev'd and was plated and had little silver-nails he turn'd up his shirt above his elbow and fastened it there with pins for to have his arms bare as your ancient Warriours are painted He would also needs have his thights bare so that he went into the Wardrobe where he put off his breeches and his drawers and ty'd up the fore and hind-part of his shirt When he had done there were buskins brought him which he had before ask'd for he would put them on his bare legs and in this equipage he came back to the rest Somebody told him that he was very well accommodated according to the ancient mode but nothing to the present and that there was no Captain in the Kings Army that was so Let them follow their fancie says Lysis and let me alone to follow mine They shall not make me believe that a sort of raw younger brothers understand the Militia as well as so many invincible Heroes that are placed in heaven I should not make known my desire to be of their number if I did not imitate them as well in their modes as in their manners Besides 't is not to be thought I am the only man of this age that is clad as you see me I can shew you how that the most able men that we have are cloathed as I am 'T is true they are Writers but it it must be confess'd they are Warriours too since they have the confidence to be in the same garb as Theseus Achilles and Ajax If it be replied again They are not men of arms I will tell them that I have so much the more reason to be clad like a Hero since persons of so mean quality presume to do it Upon that he call'd for the Works of seven or eight French Poets which Hircan had in his Study and he shewed them all how at the beginning of every book the Authors had caused themselves to be drawn with Corslets according to the Grecian mode He concluded they went so clad since they were so drawn and that they must needs grant him that or freely confess that those people were very fantastick and very extravagant to be drawn in that posture That which was most ridiculous was the picture of a Poet that was a Counsellor who instead of his long robe had as the rest a Casaque after the ancient mode like a Heros in a Medal though his countenance was the most pedantick thing in the world Besides to avoid the word Counsellor which he thought not Court-like enough for a Love-book as his was he had put for his quality All having sufficiently laughted at these excellent imaginations they told Lysis that he yet wanted somwhat for to be absolutely accommodated to their imitation and that was that he had no Crown of Laurel on his head Nor have I yet gotten any Victory replies the new Warriour I must wear only a Casquet till that time But there is another thing wanting which you think not on Do you not see that these Heroes have I know not what about their necks I cannot tell you what it is and yet I must have such an ornament Certainly 't is a Napkin
my self As for my Cousin Adrian who returns by this way I shall be glad to miss him and that he get him to Paris without me You may tell him what high enterprises have taken me up And as concerning my Mistress whom I reserve to the last because I cannot speak of her without dying a thousand times of grief Alas I need send her no excuses for my absence for I have well observ'd she was never much pleas'd at my presence As Lysis ended these words they made fast the boots of the coach with chains and the Coachman drave on taking his way towards a house of Hircans which was about a league off This Gentleman bethought him of this extravagant invention to make more sport with the humors of Lysis Amarillis was return'd to her own house before night so that having no Mistress to entertain he went from his Castle with the rest and follow'd the coach of the two Warriors They follow'd a good way off on horse-back and when they came to the Countrey-house they found the horses taken out the coach and that left under an arch of the house near the gate They alighted with as little noise as they could and went to hearken what the brave Champions said Seest thou Carmelin sayes Lysis how true is every thing that Hircan saies This Magician assur'd us that when we came to the sea his horses should take their flight and would go so fast that we should think we stirr'd not from the place That it is so dost not observe how that the coach stirs not all nay we do not so much as hear the wheels though it s to be thought they turn round as they pass through the clouds The reason of that is because extreamity of motion seems to be immobility and to this purpose I will teach thee an excellent piece of learning A while ago I read Ovids Metamorphoses where I found that the dog Laelaps which had been presented to Cephalus pursued a beast so lively that one went no faster then the other The beast run as fast as the dog so that they were still at the same distance and Laelaps gave many snatches in the air in vain At last the Hunter Cephalus having recourse to his dart was quite out of himself when thinking to cast it at the beast he found that the dog and it were nothing but marble statues which were fastned in the midst of the field Having studied very much to finde a handsome explication of this it came into my minde that the Poets saying that these two creatures were chang'd into statues was to represent the extream swiftness of their course and to teach men what I now would that extream motion comes nearest to rest This is a delicate exposition it must be confest and I would not have it perish though my ordinary Tenent is that Metamorphoses are rather truths then fictions for I see not how this can anyway prejudice my opinion Let it be taken for an Allegory rather then a Mythology 'T is well known the learnedst Doctors do allegorize on the greatest verities in the world But to return to my discourse Carmelin thou art to believe that the extream swiftness of our Chariot hinders us to perceive its motion Thou art not a man so fresh but thou hast often seen experience of what I would perswade thee too If thou turn a stick or a string very fast about thou canst not observe the divers turns of it And by this means would our senses deceive us in every thing if the understanding which governs and directs them did not assure us things were otherwise then they are represented As much Philosophy as you will replies Carmelin but tell me not that our horses flie When you tell me we are now in the air there 's not a vein about me that trembles not and believe me were it not that I am with you and that I think I cannot come to any ill fortune in your company I should cry out murther Thou wouldst frighten the horses which haply would precipitate thee into thee sea replies Lysis 't is better be silent it may be they 'll flie so high that they 'll carry us into heaven where we shall see those things whereof Astrologers speak only by conjecture then shall we be able to make Almanacks better then any they sell at Paris and those thou didst sometimes make I will also calculate Nativities and that I may not fail in my speculations I will hold the stars in my hands and finde by looking on them what fortunes they promise my friends whether they be animate or whether they can speak or whether they have every one an intelligence that conducts them and speaks for them I shall endeavor to consult with them about their several influences and question them upon other particulars We will thence go to the Colledge where the Souls learn before they are born what they must one day know In that place there are good Spirits which are Professors among them who put them to mighty discipline if they profit not under their instructions Plato never thought of this though he hath spoken sufficiently of Reminiscence We shall also meet with the two Tuns wherein Jupiter according to Homer's saying puts in all the Good and Evil which he sends among men I would have thee bring away with thee a Wallet-full of the Good thou shalt find that thou mayst never more complain of being unhappy I hope we shall also be shewn the Ideas of all things in the world and that we may come thither so happily as that we may be present at the ceremony of some Apotheosis that is to say we shall be there when some illustrious man is made a God How shall we see any thing says Carmelin since we are now as deep in the dark as if we were in our mothers bellies Hope better and better replies Lysis some good Angel will come and deliver us out of this case wherein we are now lock'd up Ah wretch that I am replies Carmelin I may well say I am double-cas'd besides the case of our Coach I am lock'd up into my Arms as an Oyster in the shell or a knife in a sheath The Gentlemen having heard these discourses whereat they were ravish'd retired every one into the lodging assign'd him there they laugh'd it out and resolved to leave the valorous Champions in the coach till the morning They had word brought them that they had given over discoursing so that they inferr'd they were asleep and because it was somewhat late they all laid them down to rest Hircan awoke at three in the morning so passionate was he for the humours of Lysis and soon after he made the rest get up and make themselves ready to circumvent this valiant Shepherd All things being ready he went to the coach and having opened the boots he with a counterfeit voyce call'd Lysis He who was not asleep ask'd him presently what he would with him Know that I
fair that for to commend it I must not imitate their imagination that Love made his residence there for 't is so smooth that that fickle Child could not fix on it 't is on wrinckled foreheads that he hath the opportunity to erect his throne and it must be thought that the several wrinckles are the steps whereby we ascend to his chair of state But when he set his foot there he slid into your Eyes where he found his most certain retreat but so it is that whether with his will or against it he must stay there for he burnt his wings as soon as ever he enter'd in This is the reason that the wounds I receive when you look on me are so dangerous and it may be cleerly seen that a powerful Divinity is become the intelligence of those two bright stars which govern the course of my life But what miracles do I find on your Cheeks the complexion is white but never pale and the redness is never obscure There is the same brightness on the corral upon your fair lips which are the portals of the Temple of Eloquence What shall I say of that neck and breast but that it is a most extravagant imagination to compare them to Ivory and milk since they have a quite different lustre The Poets celebrate their Mount Parnassus whereon there are twins of hills and the tradition is that he that hath slept thereon becomes a consummate Poet but it s to be conceiv'd that he that should enjoy those two little mounts which are on that fair breast would be far more divinely inspir'd either for Poesie or Eloquence As for the rest of the body where though the beauties must be eternally conceal'd yet do I not doubt their perfection And it must needs be great since it is honoured with the burthen of that fair head wherein I finde so many miracles It hath more glory to support that then Atlas to sustain heaven for here are far more divinities then in Jupiters Pallace O how happy then must I esteem thee amiable body to have so fair a face and thou fair face to be so happy in such bright eyes and you bright eyes to be so full of Charms and Attraction But what 's above all how happy art thou fair body in the general to be the lodging of the fairest soul in the world Methinks I have still somewhat to say in thy praise and that I have forgotten one part which I often see I have not mention'd the ears though near neighbors to the cheeks and are umbrag'd by the hair with so much beauty But why should I speak of those unmerciful things 't is from them proceeds the chiefest cause of my torment They wil not hear what I suffer that so they might give an account to that divine spirit which governs all the other senses As long as they shall continue in this severity I cannot but take them for my enemies but if it happen they abate their rigour I promise them to recompence and redeem the time I have not honor'd them I know not whether Philiris had something further to say but there he stuck as it had been to call to minde some other fine imagination to entertain Angelica They were all very attentive to his discourse which he delivered with a sweet accent and a delightful gesture Angelica her self was nothing troubled to hear her self so prais'd though she blushed a little and as for the Shepherd Lysis he was so ravish'd that he went and embrac'd the courteous Orator speaking to him in these words Dear Friend what charms are there in thy discourses how sweet and amorous is thy style I promise thee quite to disengage Clarimond and have no more to do with him thou art far the fitter to compose my history Philiris thank'd the Shepherd for the honor he did him and promis'd him his utmost services As for Clarimond he seeing himself disengag'd made a vow ever to contradict Lysis and that in open Hostility The talk which rise about this broke off the sport and thence they insensibly fell upon the strange exploits of Lysis and Carmelin I have heard saies Leonora the Story of Meliantes whereby that Shepherd had shewn how his Mistress was secur'd in a Fortress and that besides she remembred all the particulars of her deliverance as it had been related to her but she had not been told the true cause of her captivity nor who was the author of it Lysis and Meliantes answered that if she would be satisfied in that she must address her self to Hircan who knows the most secret things The company having entreated him to tell what he knew of that business He began thus without any want of fabulous invention The History of the Magician Anaximander YOu are to know dear Company that in the Isle where Pamphilia was a captive there is a Magician call'd Anaximander who hath liv'd there these thirty years It s no longer since he was born as most believe and yet he boasts himself to be the true Son of the Sorceress Circe As for his father he knew not his name because his mother was somewhat common This is not to make us believe that she liv'd to this age that he expounds otherwise He says that when she was alive two thousand years since he having learned of this good mother all magical secrets desired to live eternally on earth and not go with her to heaven nor yet to the Elizian fields because he took greater pleasure to be here below When he had examin'd all the receipts for renewing of age he found none easier then that of exchanging of Bodies He thought it not fit to desire one of his friends to kill him and to take his body all to pieces to form another stronger out of it he was afraid somewhat should interrupt the operation and that he might be left half made A little Nephew of his being knock'd in the head with a quoit as he look'd on his Comrades at play he found a way to discharge his former body and assume that of the childe which he afterwards animated to the great amazement of all the world who thought him dead Fourscore years after another little childe playing among others who carried him prisoner and made as if they would put him to death it hapned his companions throtl'd him in good earnest Anaximander made use again of that body and so hath he done with divers others to this day having the power to disengage his soul from this terrestrial mass and fasten again as firmly that it is equally fitted for the execution of all its functions as any other He drinks he eats he sleeps he gets children and yet is never sick His soul takes up bodies as travellers do Inns where they are as well accommodated as at home But one great advantage of his immortality is that he hath been of all conditions which he hath freely pass'd through as they had been only parts of a Play and so
Marriage It shall not be my fault if it be not so saies Hircan I wish the things I have spoken to your fair Niece here were already effected and if you please you shall know what they are He thereupon told him his suit to Aamaryllis and the advantages of her marriage with him so that the old Blade liked all very well and having understood that his Neece who was the most concern'd in it consented he went and proposed the business to Orontes and the other Gentlemen The matter was so advanced that they sent for a Notary to pass the Contract and a Priest to make them sure 'T was said that a divine permission had brought this Assembly together since that if they had been to be betroathed upon previous assignation they could have invited none other but what were present for the chiefest friends of Hircan and Amaryllis were there Lysis was almost out of himself to see the business so soon effected and because he was for its going forward he signed the minutes of the Contract as well as the rest While all this was in agitation Anselme had the oportunity to speak to Angelica and their passions were so violent that though they had sufficiently declared one to another their minds yet they resolved on a visit at night as they had designed the day before Angelica told him that the interview might be about ten of the clock in a Bower of the Garden where she would be sure to be and that she would order the back-gate to be left open for Anselme to come in at The complot being made they separated to avoid suspicion when in the mean time Lysis whose mind was burthened with excellent designes went out of the Hall and set upon Jacquelina the Kitchenmaid Fair Companion of my Mistress saies he to her shall I never obtain of you that favour which you may grant me without any hurt to your self Tell me what hour I may entertain Charite freely 'T is so long since I have spoken with her that it even grieves me to death Come at night between nine and ten into the Garden replies the maid there you will find her she commonly rests her self on a green Plat in one of the Alleys so much is she taken with the coole of the evening when she is to go to bed we must ever go and fetch her thence Lysis thank'd the maid for this notice and promised her not to fail at the time assigned The Sun being already somewhat low Anselme and Montenor retired so did the Gentlemen of Amaryllis's quarter and as for her part she took Coach with the Gentlewomen her Gatherers Hircan being unwilling to leave his Mistress went along with them in the Coach As for the Countrey-people whom Bacchus had brought with him they had before taken their leave Fontenay and the other Shepherds seeing their Host had left them returned nevertheless to his Castle and carried Lysis and Carmelin along with them Now that there is a fresh gale of wind stirring would you not gladly be a little warmer about the head saies Philiris this single Lawrel cannot keep off the inconvenience of the weather I feel nothing I swear to thee replies Lysis and I would not by any means have been Crowned otherwise in so honourable an Assembly as we have been in besides that Charite hath seen me in this posture which comforts me above all Not will I be otherwise cloathed then I am now at Hircans Wedding 'T is true that when it is once night I should not think my hat any inconvenience With such discourse the Pastoral Company came to their ordinary abode and while Supper was making ready Lysis addressed himself thus to Carmelin Thou hast known the best part of my noblest adventures courteous Carmelin and I believe there is not any one which thou dost not admire and celebrate to the heavens as the eloquent Philiris does who hath promised me to dispose them into a Romance that shall go beyond all have been yet seen in the world But I am not to dissemble or disguise my self to thee I am not yet satisfied though it may be said I do but dream when I think to effect any great matters to make my History the more remarkable I never spoke to my Mistress in any secret place and I never had any designe to steal her away yet it may be found in Books that a many Lovers that were not comparable to me have done all this 'T is true they are not the more to be esteemed for any of all these things for these were all the adventures they were ever guilty of whereas I have run through ten thousand yet must I not omit this I am resolved this night to speak to Charite and endeavour to deliver her out of Orontes's for indeed she is not in a condition worthy her perfections She hath sometimes told me that she was abused and that she was kept in great subjection If thou wilt but assist me in this occasion I will do as much for thee in another I cannot deny you saies Carmelin but if I love the great Stone you would have me would you undertake to bring away such a heavy piece We shall try replies Lysis Love will furnish us with force and artifice Let 's for the present think on what I propose Know then that I have had notice from Jacquelina to come into Orontes's Garden there to see my My Mistress But I pray tell me saies Carmelin what shall we do with her when we have her We will carry her into some strange Country till our friends shall agree to the match repy'd Lysis But in the mean time saies Carmelin will you take nothing of her by way of advance What a proposition dost thou make saies Lysis that 's a thing Pamphilus would never do to Nisa Persiles to Sigismonda Lisander to Calista Polexander to Ericlea and to go a little higher in the Chronology what Clitophon never did to Leucippa nor Theagenes to Chariclea All these Lovers had about them a modesty which kept them from asking any other favours of their Mistresses then kisses They lived together like brother and sister I do not mean as Jupiter with his sister Juno besides thou art to know Carmelin that Charite's thighs are two Pillars of white Marble which I compare to those which the great Alcides erected at the end of his Travels There will be found written that there is no going beyond and that to do it is a thing forbiden our hands nay our very desires it is not yet time that the spring of that Beauty should be rob'd of its rose You are so honest a man saies Carmelin that you shall not need swear that you desire the preservation of Charite's chastity but that which troubles me is to know how we shall be transported into those far Countries where you desire to go It will cost us much to carry all necessaries with us I know not at present whether your purse be so
wherein the Meteors are formed I have bin in places blacker then the abode of Pluto I have fought with Gyants so high as that they might have scal'd heaven without Ladders and with crump-back'd and breasted fellows who seemed to be made to disgrace nature I overcame also a Dragon which rose up out of the foam of the Serpent Python which was killed by Phoebus And these are my principal adventures which I am very glad I have had the occasion to relate both that you may believe aud to rub Philiris's memory who hath undertaken to dispose them into a Book When it is perfected you will find these things better described and more adorn'd for being to speak to you in haste I have not had the leasure to scrue my self up to any imbellishments of discourse Lysis having spoken thus Adrian was quite beside himself to find that what he said answered to what the other Shepherds had told him He knew not what to think of it and yet he told his Cousin that he did not half understand his language because his terms were extreamly Poetical He thereupon takes Carmelin aside and there being no other of whom to enquire the truth of what he desired said to him I see thou hast the countenance of an honest fellow and therefore am I glad my Cousin hath entertained thee for he must have one to help him in a place which is not his native Countrey I will do any thing lies in my power for thy preferment thou shalt in requital only tell me whether all thy Master hath related be true or no I shall tell you no more then I know replies Carmelin as concerning his transformation into a Tree 't was not so much as he thought it for his face could be seen but for the Divinities which visited him to pass away the time I have known by experience but too much of the certainty thereof as a punishment of my incredulity As for our Combats with Monsters they are as true as that I am Carmelin though we got the victory yet did we receive good blowes but I cannot shew you any marks to verifie what I say for Hircan had made us both as he cals it invulnerable that is to say that we could not be wounded Carmelin having said thus Adrian turned to the rest and said to them this honest man doth also confirm what his Master told me but though I should believe all more firmly then I do yet it but obliges me the more to take him with me to the good City of Paris for there 's not so much danger there nor any Monsters to fight with If any one have done you wrong there 's justice to do you right and if a Witch should change one thing into another she may be burnt in the Greve What simplicities do you speak good man replies Meliantes if your Cousin hath run any danger for me he hath done the greatest work of charity in the world and besides that the Gods will reward him he hath gotten eternal renown thereby such a reputation as his cannot be too dear bought That he hath undergone a Metamorphosis in this Country and suffered much affliction it hath been on occasion so noble that there 's not any but could have wished the same fortune 'T is for love that he sighs 't is for love that he weeps and which is yet more remarkable 't is for the love of the fair Charite would you forbid him so noble a passion would you put off humanity to commit such a signal act of brutality Since you have married the Gentlewoman your wife is it to be questioned whether you love her If it be so would you forbid another man that you could not be without your self But is it in your power or any mans in the world to hinder Lysis to love since Nature hath furnished us with the precepts thereof from our infancy All this is well and good saies Adrian I know well that as one hand washes the other and both the face so the husband and the wife help one another mutually and may afterward do good to their whole race and this is the reason why I married and I should not be sorry if my cousin were so too nor consequently can I find fault with him for being in love but there are many things to be wished in his person before we entertain any thoughts of that business We have it from Plutarch that Lycurgus put a note of Infamy on those that did not marry saies Carmelin They durst not appear at the publick Festivities and in mid-winter they were forced to dance naked singing a certain Song made in abuse of themselves Besides all this when they were old the younger sort of people went before them and did them no respect Thus you see how the ancients detested Coelibate and desired nothing so much as to propagate man who is the King of all the other creatures Moreover happy marriages make us enjoy on earth the felicity of heaven T is all the comfort we have against the miseries of this life There is no affliction so grievous which the hearts of a husband and a wife joyn'd together cannot support Thus the wife of Mithridates having caused her hair to be cut off bore arms as well as he which comforted him infinitely Carmelin having ended his discourse scratch'd his head a little as if he would have made somewhat more come out by the stirring it received from his nails This start of Carmelin is not to be wondred at saies Philiris we know he hath his common places as a Sergeant of a Company his Halbards If all his ancient Lectures came but into his mind there 's no Subject on which he is not able to entertain us Truly saies Carmelin when I heard Marriage spoken of I could not but out with what was at my tongues end There 's somewhat else in the wind saies Meliantes questionless thou hast a great mind to be married and wouldst fain have us find out a wife for thee But not to quit the discourse we were in before let 's speak to Adrian We desire him to tell us what fault he finds in his Cousin He wants many things replies Adrian especially that he knows neither Trade nor Traffick to get his living by How shall he maintain a wife and children what quality shall he be of in the world He will be slighted every where and taken for an idle person 'T is true saies Carmelin that since man sinned God hath condemned him to get his bread in the sweat of his brows 't is said that he that doth not labor shal not eat and that to do nothing is to do ill so Solomon sends the idle person to school to the Ant. Hold thou thy peace Carmelin saies Lysis to him no body asks thee any thing Thou wilt anon speak more against me then thou canst for me for thou powrest out thy sentences as they come without any consideration Be not thou among those that
possession when I please replies Lysis I shall soon make my self known and besides though I had nothing of all my father and mother left me must I be cast down and fare ever the worse since that in all Romances you will find divers in strange Countries having nothing in the world who yet were Princes or Knights of better houses then I am of They lived only by what they borrowed of good friends whom they found every where does that seem strange to thee Do the Romances speak any thing incredible as to that point Sometimes Montenor hath entertained us sometimes Orontes sometimes Hircan nay sometimes Clarimond though he seem now to be my greatest enemy and this is a thing not to be passed by without admiration As plainly shewing that all true lovers are favoured by heaven Thou seest also that Polidor and Meliantes who are of a Country further distant hence then ours and have nothing of their own do yet live plentifully enough by the courtesie of those friends they meet who are their benefactors There are in some books Lovers mentioned who have lived only upon Roots in the deserts like Hermits and divers have been hirelings to Shepherds to get a livelyhood What should hinder but we may do the like if we be brought to that extremity since 't is no more then we have done for our recreation You are wiser then I replies Carmelin and therefore all the answer I make you is that I will not contradict you in any thing but will be alwaies of your opinion Hear then what my designe is saies Lysis I will feign my self dead both to get away this Adrian and withall to find out whether my Mistress will have any compassion on me and that 's it I aim at principally Now there 's a great difference between death and a Metamorphosis for I suffered my self to be metamorphosed into a Tree without any resistance because there was some hope I might one day be restored to my former shape but as concerning death when we go that journey we shall never return That makes me resolve to die only in jest for if I should dispatch my self as many have done that I could name 't were a strange folly since 't is not beyond hope I may one day be happy There are a many in your Romances that have killed themselves because of the cruelty of their Mistresses and they again some of them having notice of their death have murdered themselves after them or at least have all their lives repented their cruelty and disdain It may be seen by this that if those desperate people had had the wit to feigne death they might have been extreamly happy My intention thereof is so much the more excellent and there is now no more to do then to bethink us of the means to put it in execution There are some that hide a piggs bladder full of bloud between their skins and their shirts and give themselves a stab there they fall and seem to be quite gone till every one runs to help them but I do not like that way a man might hurt himself if the Ponyard went a little further then it should but there are other accidents stranger yet besides that when they came to search your wound the cheat would be discovered which would be scandalous and laught at I will therefore play my game better if I can I will take a glass of Wine with somewhat in it which every one will conceive to be poison and when I have drunk it off I will be as stiffe as an iron barre and will keep in my breath as if I were dead a while after thou shalt make as if thou hast buried me and the business is done Now I will lurk somewhere till Adrian be gone and Charite being acquainted with my death shall have time enough to bewayle my loss When thou shalt perceive her grief excessive and that she wishes from her heart I were alive again that she might honour me with her affection which she had denied me before let me know it immediately that I may go and take her at her word and receive the recompence of my afflictions Now when we are come thus farre there are inventions enough to make the world believe I have bin rais'd again and thus I shall so much the more ingratiate my self with Charite who will look on me as a man highly in favour with the Gods Thus will I compass my desire and what will most comfort me is That I have run through all the adventures of the best Histories and that my own will be the most accomplish'd in all the world As for the stealing away of Charite I think no more on 't 't is enough I once had such a designe My thoughts are now all taken up with my feigned death perhaps 't will be generally believed that I was dead in deed and was raised again so that Philiris shall not mention it as a fiction in his book or if he do he shall speak of it as an opinion of some few but which he shall condemn as erroneous affirming my death to have been real When Lysis said this he thought little of Polidors being behind him and hearing all his discourse This Shepherd having heard Lisis his designe retired as if he had heard nothing and resolved to give notice to his Companions that they might act their parts well when the business came upon the Stage As for Carmelin his Masters enterprise to him was very indifferent for he thought better to do so then lose him quite which haply he had done if Adrian had taken him away to Paris He therefore promised him his utmost assistance and so they went both to Hircan Adrian and Pernella came thither at the same time to know whether they might be gone with their Cousin the next day Hircan told them that after three daies they should have him away desiring in that time to satisfie himself with his conversation Pernella told him they could not stay so long that it was a good while since they had been from home and that they had left in the Shop but one Prentice of whose fidelity they were not over-confident Hircan regarded not much these remonstrances and while Pernella was thus taken up Fontenay who had bethought himself of a new invention to make sport sate down in a chair whence he pronounced these words with a languishing voice What my bright Sun saies he will you leave us already Would you shine in another hemisphere whence you will never return Alass 't is fit the world be all served by degrees Why will you forsake me fair Pernella the ornament of this age life of my soul what will you return to Paris there to be the Pearl of your Quarter Continue rather in this Country where you shall receive greater honours I will make Verses of you shall make you famous over all the world and you will be more talked of then Petrarch's Laura If the fair Cytherea
fool might have as easily return'd to Ithacia as traverse a snacious Sea that brought him into the Countrey of the Cimmerians a horrid and folitary passage through which he was to go into hell Thus are there an infinity of superfluous things in the Odysses as well as in the Iliadâ— where Achillâ—s is forewarned of his death by his horse which might have been brought about some other way without making a beast speak As for the adventure of the Syren's was it necessary that this Vlysses who was so wise a man should be bound to keep him from going to them As for the principal occasion of the History that mentions the young Lovers of Penelope who wooed her with so much beat I find that too extreamly impertinent for she having a son of age to beat arms and twenty years being passed over since must needs be at least forty years of age so that she could not raise such passion as Homer would make us believe The same thing may be in a manner said of Helen when she had continued ten years in a City full of desolation her beauty must needs be decayed and that might take away much of the eagerness of having her in possession Now I have told you all that lies open to censure in this Poet its time I speak of Virgil who without dispute is more polite as having conversed with great one yet is he no more censure-proof then the other I meddle not with his Aeglogues nor yet with his Georgicks for 't is not there he hath most shew'd himself a Poet and fallen into fabulous narrations We must pass immediately to the Aeneids and to shew you it deserves not the reputation it hath obtained besides that the chaste Dido is there innocently calumniated and that there is a huge error in the Chronologie in regard Aeneas could not go to Carthage which was not built in two hundred years after the taking of Troy I declare to you that there is not in that piece any thing of invention that may surprize an ordinary mind Aeneas being tossed up and down at sea Juno promises Aeolus a wife on condicion he perform her will as she promises one to Somnus in the Iliad Aeneas relates to Dido the taking of Troy with the stratagem of the woodden horse which was an invention absurd enough but we must excuse this Author since it is borrowed of Homer who mentions it in his Odysses He afterward gives an account of his Voyage and how he escaped the Gulfs of Scylla and Charybdis as Vlysses had done If that Grecian took a journey to hell this Trojan must do the like all that I wonder at is how they met not there The exercises which were at the Anniversary of Anchises were the same which were at Patroclus's death Juturna helps Turnus in the fight and Venus assists Aeneas for the Gods are no less concerned in all these affairs then in those of the Trojan War To quote yet a more studied imitation as Thetis gave her son a buckler made by Vulcan Venus gives her son one I forgot erewhile to speak of this buckler though it be one of Homers most egregious impertinences because I would mention it with that of Aeneas that so I might compare them together In the Buckler of Thetis's son the heavens were represented with all the signes of the Zodiack Vulcan had graved therein two different Cities in the one there was nothing seen but feasting dancing and marriages and in the midst of the Assembly might there be seen two Councellers pleading before the Judges one said he had satisfied the debt the other protested he had received nothing and at length they agreed the business should be referred to arbitration and the people ery'd out that they desired it should be so The other City was all in arms by reason of the many factions among the Inhabitants some lay in ambush near a River where the herds came to be watered saies Homer and as two Shepherds came near playing on their pipes they rushed on them and having killed them carryed away their oxen and their sheep This tumult being heard there came others on horseback to fight the enemy Vulcan had besides made on this Buckler a Harvest and a Vintage with some other conceits which I mention not But was not this an excellent piece of sculpture This comes nearer a true History then a Picture and as Homer describes it it is to be believed that all the persons he speaks of marched in the buckler and fought one with another and talked so loud that you might have heard them There was no less want of judgement in that of Aeneas Virgil would perswade us that Vulcan had inclosed in it the whole fate of the Roman Empire and thus he represents it to us He saies there was seen in it the shee-Wolfe that suckled the twins and Rome at a little distance where the Sabine Virgins were ravished There was also represented the Warre between the two peoples and then their agreement before the Altar of Jupiter Pâ—rsenna there besieged the City Cocles causes a bridg to be broken under him Cloelia crossed the Tyber on horseback Manlius stoutly defended the Capitoll the Geese awoke the sleeping Sentinels The Poet describes all these things as if they had hapned all of a day I would fain know how all this could be represented in the same place For old Rome who Romulus founded was nothing like what it was in the time of the Gaules Besides that it must needs be very hard to represent a City sometimes full of mirth sometimes of war sometimes besieged by the Etrusei sometimes by the Gaules All these divers faces of affairs cannot be at once described and Virgil speaks of so many particulars that to make them be understood clearly as he relates them there must of necessity have been above fifty divisions in the buckler like so many several pictures to represent the different conditions of the City of Rome and some other affair which passed at some distance but Virgil never troubled his thoughts with any such order It may be now seen how well he hath thrived in imitating his predecessor and if there were an exact inquisition made it will be found that other places lie as open to censure He saies Vulcan forged a Thunderbolt which consisted of three parts of rain three of a moist cloud three of fire and three of a south-wind Is it not a huge absurdity to make a Smith work in moist things This cannot be pardoned him unless it be answered that he is conformable to the other Poets who speak diversly of Vulcan that the Gods have nothing which comes not through his hands He makes their Arms he makes them Jewels inriched with divers precious stones he furnishes them with Chariots and he builds them houses so that at this rate it can never be discovered whether he be an Armorer a Goldsmith a Carpenter or a Mason And thus is Virgil wanting also as to the
Musardan agrees with me and here 's none opposes what I have said Philiris who professed Letters as well as Clarimond was resolved to contradict him out of emulation He knew Musardan could say nothing to the purpose and his intention was to take his part Taking therefore oportunity to speak he rose up and desired Anselm to grant him audience that he might answer the calumnies of Clarimond The Judge granted his request and all being attentive to this new diversion he spoke to this purpose The Oration of PHILIRIS in vindication of Fables and Romances I Know not what consideratons most learned and most just Judge I know not what strange humour hath engaged Clarimond into such an Oration as he hath now made nor can I tell whether he pretend to gain reputation by opposing the common opinion but whether he have spoken in good earnest or hath only shewn how farr he could go against his own judgement there is a necessity he should be answered lest what he hath spoken may be taken for truth by those that have heard it And since you have been chosen to judge who should bring better reasons concerning the matter in hand I thought my self obliged to speak that the noblest and best cause in the world might not suffer any prejudice for want of defence Clarimond hath endeavoured to make appear that in all Poetry and in all Romances there 's nothing to be found but may be censured but O ye Gods does he not fear that so many excellent men as he hath injur'd may not be forced to quit the happiness of the Elysian fields to come hither and seem cruel to punish his calumnies or at least to encourage me in their protection The latter I am more then confident of and I doubt not but I shall say whatever makes for my purpose since I shall not want the suggestionâ— of those excellent Genius's Ah! Divine Homer who would ever have thought it would have been necessary to seek reasons for thy defence in so great an Assembly as this Yet it must be done and since thy Iliad is abused as containing only the fights which passed in the solitude of Achilles with the death of Patroclus and Hector it satisfies to answer that it was not thy designe to do any more and as thou saist in the beginning thou intendedst only to write of the anger of the son of Peleus The rest of the History was sufficiently well known among the Greeks so that thy pains were well spared and as for the name Iliad which is also condemn'd it is proper enough since the fights it treats of happened during the siege of Ilium As for the Gods whom the Poet makes so valiant in this war as if the Greeks and Trojans were the only men in the world there 's nothing to be wondred at for at that time they were more considerable then all the world besides and it was necessary to engage the force of Europe against that of Asia Besides though the Iliad mentions only the care of the Gods over those people it infers not they had forgotten the rest nor yet that Homer had forgot them but they could not be spoken of without digressing from the matter in hand And that those whom these different divinities affect most are not alwayes delivered from misfortunes is not to be wondred at since they are so divided that one power opposes another As for their troublesome quarrels they are things pardonable in Fables I come to the comparisons which Clarimond finds so much fault with because they are taken from hunting To what can fighting be better compared then to that exercise which is as it were a noviceship to the War That Homer makes his Warriors sometimes like furious beasts is it not the greater miracle in so much as it so divercifies the accidents by comparisons that they seem to be quite different though they are drawn from the same beast As for example he often draws his comparison from a Lyon and if a great Heros be to fight with some miserable souldier he saies 't is as if a Lyon should fall upon a sheep if there comes some brave Captain to relieve that Soldier he compares him to a good Shepherd that will defend his flock and if one Heros fight with another 't is as if one Lyon fought with another And thus he goes on and for my part I find it an incomparable grace For when he speaks of the same men he ever uses the same comparisons which is much more rational then to make them sometimes Suns sometimes Trees and sometimes Rivers The several natures of so many things cannot be found together As for the other comparisons they are not so obscene and low as is imagined Clarimond finds fault also with the Language and sayes Homer spoke not good Greek because so many Countries disputed about him whose child he should be but he is to know that it is also said he is not any Countryman on earth but that he came down from heaven If he use divers dialects and some words which are strange to other common authors 't is because Poetry being the language of the Gods hath a peculiar stile which is not familiar to men I will go no further for a testimony of the excellence of his discourse then the comon opinion that he is full of precepts which generally serve all mankind His sentences are not so low as you have been told but they cannot be otherwise conceived and if you find not in them that majesty that is expected we are to blame Clarimond who by his translation of them into French hath rob'd them of those beauties which they have in their own language The most learned Philosophers have sought them out to ground their tenents on and the Painters and Armorers and the subtilest mechanicks have acknowledged so much from this Poet that they confess they have learned their professions of him He is accordingly called the Master of all Arts and he is painted vomiting and all the other Poets licking what he had cast up As for Military persons they are the most beholding to him for his instructions and out of his Works may be learned with what courage a man should assault his enemies how souldiers should obey and the Generals command and with what masculine eloquence a Captain should encourage his troops As for the discourses of the Heroes in the midst of a fight they are not so irrational They might have been come out of the charge as being weary of fighting and in the time of that repose they might discover themselves one to another As for the combat of Ajax and Hector that they made use of stones is not so strange since fury thinks no weapons amiss That esteem which Alexander and others had of Homer is no fiction all Historians agree in it and there was never any imagined that that great Poet did ever doe any thing indecent In his time and in that of Achilles's Luxury and Pride
This Poet was still in the place so that he confess'd that it was not to be question'd but that himself and all those that wrote books spoke of those ancient Divinities as a thing fained only for the ornament of their Poesies though it had sometime been a main truth and believ'd and that very passionately by a many nations You see what they think of it whom you have ever followed says Clarimond since you will needs embrace their doctrine you must believe what they say and you are not more learned then your masters in the lectures they read to you You are moreover to consider that since there is but one Almighty God all your little Gods cannot subsist Since you will have me follow the dictate of reason with you says Lysis I will declare one thing to you which I would not communicate to any other person whatsoever and that is that I know very well that they are not really Divinities which are conceived to be in the fields but they are so called in a certain manner of speaking They are only Spirits under divers forms And to make it appear to you that it is so I have not only read in the Poets whom you tax with lying but also in Authors that pretend to be Philosophers and such as I dare say would be Divines Witness Agrippa in his Occult Philosophy 'T is well known he speaks every where as a good Christian and quotes passages of the holy Scripture but yet having disposed his Spirits through all the Elements when he comes to those he appoints for the Earth and the Water he calls them by all those divers names we find in the Poets He grants there are Fawns Dryads and Hamadryads in the Forrests and Nayads in the Fountains nay he denies not but Saturn Jupiter and the other Gods are each of them in his several heaven exercising that power which the Ancients attributed to them He also tels you at large what names to call them by and in what manner they are to be invocated in his operations Now we never use invocation towards things that have no power As for his part he calls them the Governours of the World but it is my business only to tell you that his meaning was that they are Spirits Agrippa then it seems is one of your Authors sayes Clarimond you have been extremely reserv'd that we never knew you studied his doctrine before Know then that it is as impertinent a Fellow as ever you met with he mingles Divinity with fables And though he hath a mind to dress up a Christian and lawfull Magick yet he makes use of that of Hermes and other prophane Authors Because that in the magick of the Ancients the Planets were invocated as also the rest of the inferior Divinities he hath spoken in the same manner as if it could be done still But the absurdity was so great that he hath entreated all the world to pardon him excusing it as an error of his youth This I find in his book of the Vanity of the Sciences there he retracts all Clarimond is in the right sayes Philiris there 's no answer to be made to what he hath said But though Agrippa should not believe there were Dryads and Nayads says Lysis it follows not I should be of his opinion Do I not remember that I have seen so many rural Divinities when I was chang'd into a Tree There was never any such thing sayes Clarimond and I tell you once more that there was never in this world any body so changed Do you not remember the reasons I alleadg'd once against Metamorphoses I told you there was none among the heathens but the simple people that believed any such thing could be besides that it was by accident that these opinions got any credit among them I gave you an account of divers persons who were thought to have chang'd forms and more particularly that of the Robber who was thought to be chang'd into a Raven I told you the Poets had brought those things into reputation by their Verses and if I am not deceiv'd Philiris Fontenay and Carmelin himself approved my reasons I know not whether they have been since poisoned by your errors I remember all this says Lysis but I value it not We remember it very well says Fontenay but we found a great deal of truth in it You then believe impostures replies the Shepherd all in a heat This is not the only point you will be contradicted in says Clarimond be not angry yet stay a while and you shall have much more reason I must tell you that since all these Divinities you have talk'd of are but fictions you had no reason to make all these Gentlemen put on Shepherds habit making them believe that you would make them happy by that means and bring them into conversation with the immortals As for your golden age you know what I said to you of it I told you plainly that to make that return we must put on as much savageness as those of the new found world There was never any imagin'd that that kinde of life could be as delightful as ours What hath Lysis then deceiv'd us cries out Philiris I had little reason to come so far to finde him If he knows no more then I have yet seen the Shepherds of our Country know as much I will return to them And shall I saies Fontenay stay here with an Impostor who hath promis'd me such wonders if I would continue Shepherd O! Cousin Hircan give me my red suit again Polidor and Meliantes said also they would be no longer Shepherds so that Hircan desired them to be quiet and told them they should all have what cloathes they had brought to his house Lysis extreamly troubled at this revolt told them they would at leisure repent their forsaking him but Clarimond bid him not to be so perswaded and told him he would make it appear to him that he had never known the least happiness of condition since he turned Shepherd and that of all he had believed there had nothing happened to him and to that purpose he thus continued the discourse You are then to imagine that I am better acquainted with your adventures then your self for I have not only learn'd what you thought of them but also what others conceiv'd who have abus'd you In the first place being come to St. Clou where you put on your Pastoral habit Anselme having found you as you admir'd your precious reliques was so far from blaming you for it that he hearkned attentively to your extravagant history but what amazement must he have been in to see you esteem so highly the foulest things in the world and having promis'd you great assistance such as was that of drawing Charite's picture you took him for the God Pan. The Poets never told you that the Sylvane God pretended to any skill in painting but you thought there could be nothing impossible to a god I will not mention
the bitterness which the absence of my dear wife causes me Now that I am with you I believe I have found the soveraign good which so many others are a seeking and I hope I shall carry into my Country a solid knowledge which I shall be fill'd with when I shall have heard your Lectures Philiris having thus clos'd his story Lysis began to speak and said to him Gentle Shepherd the Gods grant thou maist finde with me the satisfaction thou hopest There 's only one thing troubles me that being married as thou art and it being in thy power to bring thy wife whither thou pleasest thou hast been so much to blame as not to have brought her hither I have the same complaint to make against Fontenay this second story makes me think on 't You should both of you have brought your dear Halves with you so you should not have wept for their absence your contentments had been never the shorter you should have been in solitude and viduity as you are you should have had Shepherdesses to entertain and court as well as others whereas now you may not presume to make any addresses with civility to any of this Country Besides you would have done us a great obligation to let us see Theodora and Basilia whose perfections would have rendred our company more illustrious As for my dear Theodora replies Fontenay you may assure your self I would have brought her along had she not been somewhat indispos'd when I came away And for my Basilia sayes Philiris I have left her at home to bear her Father company who is an ancient man besides that I thought that having for a while suffered the rigors of absence I should at my return receive more infinite pleasure However I am not void of comfort here for the image of my fair Shepherdess is ever before my eyes I never see Lillies nor Carnations but I am put in minde of her complexion I never see the stars but I think on her eyes which are my two Planets and if I see the Moon shine I am extreamly chear'd up because at our parling Basilia and I mutually promiss'd to behold that Planet at the same hour so that when I contemplate it it joys me to know that my Shepherdess doth the same and that we do both the same action Nay I believe that sometimes the fair Diana wishes me so well that she carries news to Basilia in what condition I am and that she can also give me an account how Basilia does as if her visage were a Looking-glass wherein by some secret science things might be seen at distance These are indeed most excellent entertainments for a Lover says Lysis I protest to you that the history of Philiris hath given me so much content as possibly could be receiv'd from it there 's nothing in 't but what is sweet and natural Nay I do not think the Critick Clarimond hath found any thing in it to carp at In my opinion Philiris is no more in the right then Fontenay replies Clarimond there are also a world of absurdities in his story These shittle-headed Lovers are pure extravagances and when I think on the many desires he had about her picture I believe his fidelity hath not yet restor'd him to his wits Above all I could not but laugh at his conclusion when he speaks of the abundance of Basilia's tears for after the sweetness of her studied discourses he makes her fall into the lowest degree of folly And though he hath made over his interest to that conceipt of the tears and the river to fantastick Poets yet I doubt not but he will be glad to keep it for himself and will own it whenever it shall be father'd on him Besides both he and Fontenay are both as jealous as ever was Basilia That they have not brought their wives hither was for fear they might not be only for them having heard say that there are those who marry for them and their friends too Thou art deceiv'd saies Lysis they know well enough that every one here hath his Shepherdess and that it is in this Country that Fidelity hath establish'd her Kingdom we are all scandaliz'd at the rashness of thy language If there be any point of their discourse that can offend us 't is more then I have yet observ'd but the fault is not theirs but Fates You all know that in Romances the Love-stories you meet with never come to any end they are never fully accomplish'd till the end of the book see in the mean time Fontenay and Philiris are married already and consequently have no famous adventures to run through whereas their marriage should have been at the same time as mine according to the ordinary method There must be diversity in the world else it were not delightful says Philiris if you have heard the stories of two married men you will happly hear anon those of two Batchelours That 's my comfort saies Lysis there 's enough spoken to that subject There is now nothing troubles me but that I consider that Fontenay hath not quitted his name which is the name of a Lordship more proper to a Souldier then a Shepherd Yet since the word is derived from Fountain which is a thing rustical and Pastoral it shall not be chang'd As concerning Philiris I have only one doubt as to his condition He mentions his father his Father in Law and himself as Shepherds 't was a thing I knew not before that there were any famous Shepherds in Burgundy You may be assur'd there are a many replies Philiris and they are not rustical persons but persons of quality that have renounc'd the pomp of the Court I am very glad of it saies Lysis I hope one day to see a wonderful advancement of the Pastoral life Should I not accommodate my self here I would go into your Country which I had not yet so much as thought on While Lysis spoke thus to Philiris there came one of Hircans Lacqueys who said his Master expected the company to dine with him Upon which they all rise up and took their way towards his Castle Clarimond who had some secret talk with Fontenay learned of him who the new Shepherds were whom he had seen the day before When they were come to Hircans Polidor Meliantes and Lucida who was now called Amaryllis came and receiv'd the company and the Magician ask'd them what they had been doing all the while We fel from one discourse into another concerning a Temple which Lysis would build to the honor of Charite replies Clarimond I now acquaint the Shepherd Lysis faies Hircan that besides the Temple which he hath erected to his Mistris in his own soul if there be need of a material one she hath one already and that the most magnificent that can be imagin'd All the earth is her altar the water is to wash her victims the ayr is fill'd with nothing but the prayers and sighs of her adorers the elementary fire serves
for her sacrifices the heaven is the roof of the building and the Planets are the lamps that hang in it I will not contradict thee in so noble an imagination replies Lysis I will think no further of building little Temples to Charite But thou art withal to know that we have had other discourse erewhile we have had a great contestation about Metamorphos'd persons and rural Divinities which there are divers that cannot believe are at all I will cure them of that error says Hircan put me in minde of it This discourse ended Fontenry made a brief relation to his Cousin of the Metamorphosis of Pathenice and after that they were all sate at table not forgetting the Shepherd Carmelin whom they made speak in spight of his teeth that he might pay his reckoning in good discourse but Lysis who could s of nothing but Charite engag'd the company on that subject and ask'd Philiris if he had ever seen that Shepherdess The question was impertinent enough because Philiris was but newly arrived into Brie and yet to see what Lysis would say he answered That he had seen that fair one as he past by standing at Orontes's door I am glad of that says Lysis for that is a sign she is not sick If she had continued sick still I should not so easily have been gotten abroad I should have kept my chamber as well as she out of conformy That I have come abroad while she was sick I have committed a fault of which I repent me But without jesting Shepherd Philiris is it then possible that thou hast seen her and dost not relate the strange astonishment thou wert then in did she not make thy eyes twinkle lest her great lustre might dazzle thee did she not make thee forget at least for one quarter of an hour the beauty of thy Basilia But without dissembling tell me hadst thou wash'd thy eyes that morning for to purifie them and take away the pollution which they had contracted from prophane objects so to make them worthy to contemplate that incomparable countenance Though Clarimond quarrel with my tears saies Philiris yet shall I not forbear speaking of them and assure you that it is with them that I ever purifie my eyes when I am absent from Basilia Doubt not but I have seen your Charite and that she hath put me into that admiration which is forc'd on us by all things incomparable Let me see thy eyes saies Lysis looking on him thou lyest not beloved Shepherd thou hast indeed seen that Shepherdess I observe in the apples of thy eyes certain little fires which proceed from hers and she hath also left there certain touches of her image There would have been much more had not her face been bound up which must have hindred thee to have a full sight of her Philiris said nothing to that for he knew not what to answer to that particular Lysis thought by that he granted Charite to be still bound up so that he was well content to be so too for he had not yet taken of his handkercher from off his left eye and he was of opinion it was rather an ornament to him then an inconvenience The End of the Seveneth Book THE Anti-Romance OR THE HISTORY Of the SHEPHERD LYSIS The Eighth Book WHen the Magitian and his guests had din'd they went their way into a little Thicket hard by the Castle where they found Orontes Florida Leonora Angelica Anselme and Montenor who had had notice that the assembly of the Shepherds was to be there Angelica presently acquainted Lysis that his Mistress was well whereat he was so joyfull that he knew not how well to give her thanks to his mind for bringing him so good news But to oblige him the more she sent for Charite who by her presence put him almost out of himself When he perceiv'd her face was not bound up he immediately pluck'd the handkerchief off his which was ty'd over one eye and cry'd out I am no longer sick since Charite is in health I must ever be conformable to her I knew well my eye ailed nothing as soon as ever she appear'd Now you are to know dear company that there is such a sympathy between her and me that I am not well but when she is so I would to God the resemblance were yet greater and that I could be chang'd into her 'T is a thing I passionately wish and endeavour to attain to 'T is the supreme degree of Love to be changed into the thing lov'd according to the opinion of the Philiosophers Now that this thought is come into my mind I value not my former metamorphosis Oh how much better is it to be chang'd into Charite then into a Tree But alas I cannot be changed into my Shepherdess if she also be not changed into me I must first soften her rigor and suffer incredible afflictions Do but imagine says Anselme that your wish is already effected and that though you seem to be a Shepherd that you are indeed the Shepherdess Charite chang'd into Lysis and that this Shepherdess here is the Shepherd Lysis chang'd into Charite But I know well enough I am not Charite replies the Shepherd for I reason in my self as Lysis was wont to do and I find in my self my former mind There 's your mistake fair Charite says Anselme to Lysis you are indeed fully and perfectly chang'd into that Shepherd so that you want nothing which he had Lysis hath undergone a reciprocal change now he seems to us to be Charite This subtilty pleases me though I suspect it to be false replies the Shepherd for though this change were real yet is it certain I ought to be nothing else then what I am Had this discourse been any while continued it would have gravell'd the Shepherds wit But these starts being over Hircan had a mind to some other diversion and when he had made them all sit down on the grass he spoke thus Knights and Ladies and you Shepherds and Shepherdesses Since we are so fortunately met here let us make good use of our time I think it convenient that those who have run through any remarkable adventures in their life relate the story of them to the rest there will be as much profit as pleasure in it Every one thought his advice very seasonable And though Fontenay and Philiris had in the morning related their stories yet they stood not to begin the relation again to those who had not heard them They said nothing which was not pleasant whether it were truth or falshood Fontenay set out his discourse with a many fresh thoughts as when he came to speak of the visit of Theodora he very naturally represented the transportation he was in He said he plac'd himself between his Looking-glass and her and that he endeavour'd to see Theodora with one eye and his own Figure with the other not knowing which of them he ought to love At the end of his story Lysis propos'd