so deerely againe it seemed that fortune would make an end of all my ioy with the most haplesse euent that was euer seene before For thus it was that Arsileus and I appointing to meete together on a certaine night too darke and dismall for me bicause I neuer since knew perfectly what day meant we concluded that he should come into my fathers orchard and I to my chamber windowe which opened right vpon a Mulberie tree whereon he might easily get vp to be necre vnto me there to talke togither of our matters Accursed Belisa that shalt neuer conceiue to what purpose I brought him to such danger when as euery day sometimes in the fielde sometimes at the riuer side and sometimes at the wood when I carried my kine to pasture and sometimes when I driue my sheepe to the folde he might at pleasure haue talked with me as he did many daies before But my hard hap was the cause that fortune would be paied for the content which she had lent me till then with making me liue all my life time without it For now the appointed hower which was the ende of his daies and the beginning of my woes being come Arsileus came iust at the time and to the very place where both of vs talking together of those things which they may imagine that haue sometimes loued well his wretched father Arsenius that accustomed many nights to walke vp and downe about our house to see if he could see me which if I had so well remembred for it was so far out of my thoughtes as if I had neuer knowen any such matter I would neuer haue consented to put him in such danger in the ende happened to come thither that night and iust at that hower when his sonne was in the tree and so priuily that though he had quickly espied vs we could neither heare nor see him And knowing it was I that was speaking out at the window but not his sonne that was in the Mulberie tree not imagining who he might be it was the principall cause of our ill successe For thereupon he conceiued such great wroth and iealousie that without any noise at all he bied him home where bending a Crossebowe and putting a poisoned arrow in it came againe to the place where we were and aimed so right at his sonne that the arrow pearcing his tender hart he fell immediately downe dead from the tree saying How little time my deere Belisa doth fortune lend me to serue thee according to my great good will desire Which wordes he could scarce vtter when the accursed father who by his speech knew that he was the homicide of his owne sonne with a desperate outcrie saide Thrise wretched and accursed may I euer be if thou art my sonne Arsileus who seemest to be no other by thy voice Whereupon comming vnto him and by the light of the moone that shone vpon his face knowing him well and that he had giuen vp the ghost he saide Since cruell Belisa my vnfortunate sonne by thy means hath bene slaine it is not meete that the murdering father suruiue to lament his vntimely death At which wordes taking out his Woodknife he thrust it into his hart and fell downe presently dead O vnhappie chaunce O strange case neuer heard of nor seene before O greeuous scandale to their eares that shall he are the lamentable discourse of my balefull tragedie O miserable Belisa may thy guiltie hart thinke of these things and not take that way which both father and sonne haue taken for thy sake Alas it shall be great impietie not to mingle thy blood with theirs who desired so much to serue thee But when wretched soule I sawe this vnluckie accident without any more adoe I left my fathers house and went vp and downe wearying the heauens with importunate complaints and burning the aire with smokie sighes vntill I came to this place where accusing cruell fortune and hatefull death that had in so short time taught me to feele the woundes of their cruell dartes I haue liued sixe monethes without seeing or speaking to any person and not desirous of any companie or consolation whatsoeuer Faire Belisa hauing made an end of her pitifull tale began to weepe so bitterly that euery one there was forced with their teares to helpe to bewaile her dire misfortune And adding further she saide This is faire Nymphes the sorrowfull historie or rather dolefull tragedie of my haplesse loues and of their bloodie successe Behold then if this be such an ill that fortune or time may cure and remedie O Arsileus how often did I feare it without thinking of that which I iustly feared But she that will not beleeue her feare and preuent it let her not maruell when she sees that come to passe which she feared for well I knew thou couldst not be any long time without meeting me and that my ioy could endure no longer then when Arsenius thy father perceiued any thing of our loues I woulde to God it had so fallen out that the greatest hurt that he could haue done me had bene but to banish thee his sight and our towne For an ill which is cured with time may with lesse harme be suffered O Arsenius the death of thy sonne is no impediment to the greefe that I also conceiue for thine for the loue which thou didst continually beare me thy vertuous and pure zeale wherewith thou didst euer loue me thy bountie and cost bestowed on me the tempestuous and ill nightes that thou hast passed for my sake will let me doe no lesse then lament and bewaile thy disastrous end for by this time I had bene married vnto thee if thy sweete sonne Arsileus had not come to our towne If I should say that I did not loue thee well I should deceiue the world for in the end there is no woman if she knowes she is truly beloued but will loue little or much againe although otherwise she manifest the same But now my toong holde thy peace since thou hast told more then thou wert asked And pardon me faire Nymphes if I haue bene tedious in my sorrowfull narration bicause so great mishaps cannot be comprised in fewe wordes Whilest the Shepherdesse was telling that which you haue heard Syrenus Syluanus Seluagia and faire Felismena and the three Nymphes coulde not giue eare without some secrete teares although the Nymphes as women neuer touched with loue felt her paine and greefe but not the circumstances of it But faire Doria seeing the comfortlesse Shepherdesse did not leaue of her bitter complaint began to comfort her in this sort Let thy teares cease Belisa since thou seest what small remedie thou hast of them and waigh that two eies are not able to bewaile so great a greefe But what sorrow can there be which is not ended or endes not her that suffers it and yet I could shew thee the way whereby I could a little lighten thy paine Wherefore I pray thee goe with vs
begin to sing Not long after we sawe old Turia come out of a deepe caue with a great pot very curiously wrought vnder his arme his head crowned with a garland of Oke and Laurell his armes all hairie his white beard long and slimie And sitting downe on the grounde leaning vpon his pot and powring out of it abundance of christalline waters he cleered vp his hoarse and hollow voice and sung as followeth The Song of Turia WAter faire Springs and purest running streames This fortunate and most abundant soile Comfort the meades and trees and pleasant aire Defend the flowers from Titans burning spoile So with the fauour of the highest beames I will maintaine my bankes so fresh and faire That these shall haue great enuie of my crowne The Father of flouds Rosne Myncius and Garoune Whiles that you goe thus hastening of your course Winding your streames by many a crooked way And ioy Valencia fieldes that sweetely smell With sauourie liquours in the hottest day My weake and feeble breath I will enforce With my diuining spirit to foretell And sing of those good haps that shall befall By fauour of the heauens vnto you all Shepherds and Nymphes within these louely dales Whose names resound vnto th' Arcadian fieldes Giue eare to me But of the painted flowers Nor pleasure that the springs and medowes yeeldes Nor woods nor shades nor warbling nightingales I will not sing nor of the countrie powers But of those famous men and worthy peeres That shall be heere not after many yeeres And now I see two Shepherds first in place Calixtus and Alexander whose fames Surmounting the great Cesars chiefe renowne From Atlas vnto Maurus sounds their names Whose liues the heauens adorning with their grace Shall make them both to weare a reuerend crowne And saue from losse with their industrious heede As many flockes as in the world doe feede Of whose illustrous stocke I see arise That man whose hart base feare cannot rebuke Well knowne for armes and many martiall feates The Roman Cesar and Valencian Duke A minde that mounts aboue the hautie skies Whom yet a cruell fate with murder threates That that rare strength braue hart and noble breath Must haue an end by rawe and bloodie death The same likewise must in a moment end The glory of Don Hugo de Moncades With valour good successe and happy praise Leauing the Moores subdued by Spanish blades For Charles his blood most willing he shall spend After the winning of a thousand daies And fight he shall with strong and conquering hand Against the French and barbarous Affrican But ill it doth be fit to talke of those Whom furious Mars doth kindle with his heate When learned lampes doe grauely come in place For heere they shall arise and shine in great And glorious blaze as far as Europe goes The darkest corners shall their lights imbrace Viues shall liue as long as Daphnes louer Aboue the world with golden wings doth houer Whose highest skill and learning shall inherit Iohn Honorate and clime to honours hill Teaching the mightie Emp'rour of our land The Muses with great woonder he shall fill Whom now me thinkes I see with greatest merit Bearing a Bishops Crosier in his hand O that such famous Shepherds all my sheepe And lambes might feede and plaines and pastures keepe About that time Nunnez with praise shall flourish Who for deepe learning in his tender yeeres Shall be compar'd vnto the Stagarite Demosthenes giues place where he appeeres And doth declame whose eloquence doth nourish His owne and strangers But O vile despite And most ingratefull place whom thou shalt make For Ebrus banks thy countrie to forsake But who shall tell you of that musicall Which many a Poet straining foorth his voice Along my bankes so sweetely shall resound Heere doe I see how all of them reioice With fauours that Apollo giues them all For singing with a spirit most profound They shall enlarge this happy countries name From Pole to Pole with endlesse golden fame And now I see that man whose name shall bee Bruted with liuing praise in euery part Whom I may well for golden verse compare To Phebe to Mars in armes and martiall art Ansias March who flowring meade of thee Loue vertue and death shall sing with verse most rare Taking for honorable and his iust emprese To celebrate the vertues of Terese Well shall he shew himselfe to be the sonne Of Peter March who both in peace and war Learned in verse in armes most mighty heere Shall make his countrie famous very far Whose noble linage when that they are done Where in renowned valour doth appeere Shall giue a Iayme and Arnau in those daies Poets whom heauen shall fauour many waies Giorgio del Rey with verse most high and stately My banks shall honour and with garlands crown'd By all my fairest Nymphes that shall imbrace him His name with double ecchoes shall resound The gentle Planets fauouring but lately His fellow Poets in such sort shall grace him That Italie shall woonder at his verse And die for spite his sweete songs to reherse Now Fraunces Oliuer that with thy voice Lifting thee vp vnto the Azur'd heauen Dost wound the same And thee renown'd Figueres Whose verse shall be most pleasant fine and euen And thee Martin Garcy that maist reioice That mauger death thy fame time neuer weares And Innocent of Cubels I doe see Who well deserues a crowne of Laurell tree Shepherdes you shall haue heere a man of woorth That with the vertue of his secret skill And herbes shall helpe your languors and your smartes And mend your liues with verses at his will Then Nymphes strow flowers and sweetest herbes powre foorth Vnto great layme Royg with thankfull hartes Crowne him with Bay with Parsley and with Tyme For famous skill in phisicke and in ryme And great Narcis Vinnols that to the skie With loftie verse did blaze his woorthy praise Make him a crowne of Laurell faire and greene Whose fame shall not though all the world decaies Another for a personage most high Whose verse shall reach as high as may be seene He shall be matcht with him that loued Laura His name the famous Crespi Valladaura Me thinkes I see an Earle most excellent The noble Lord surnamed of his Oliue Which while the world shall last amongst his owne And strangers it shall flourish and suruiue His comely verse shall shine most orient With perfect light which he deriues alone From heate that from his Centelles doe arise Shining as bright as stars in cleerest skies And Nymphes when that the heauens shall ioy you all With Iohn Fernandz as now but with supposes There shall no place be voide in all this land Where sowe ye may not Lillies and fine Roses And thou light fame stretch out thy flight and call Thy mighty powers and vse them heere at hand And giue him that surname most souerayn Thou gauest vnto the famous Mantuan And now I doe behold that Poet rare Iayme
a delightfull and coole shadow defending them from the heat of the radiant sunne which was with some heate mounted vp the Hemispheare Whilest Marcelius Don Felix Felismena Syluanus and the Shepherds were talking togither of these matters at the other end of the garden neere vnto the fountaine as it is saide before were Eugerius Polydorus Alcida and Clenarda Alcida had that day left of her pastorall weedes as Felicia had commanded and was now apparelled and adorned very richly with costly garments and iewels that she willed shoulde be giuen her But as Syrenus was also there Montanus Arsileus and Belisa singing and sporting togither they maruell ouslie delighted Eugerius and his sonne and daughters that were harkening to them And that which did most of all please them was a song which Syrenus and Arsileus did sing one against another in dispraise and fauour of Cupid For they sung with an earnest will and desire in hope of a braue christall cup which Eugerius had promised for a reward and prize to him that did sing best And so Syrenus to the sound of his Rebecke and Arsileus to the tune of his rurall Baggepipe began to sing in maner following Syrenus OEies that are not now as once tormented When first my star enueagled and disguis'd you O ioyfull thoughts and quiet minde absented O carelesse hart now will I once aduise you That since you made Diana discontented To see loue thinke on you let this suffice you That I doe hold your counsell best of many In vaine to see nor loue nor thinke of any Arsileus O eies that haue to greater light attained Looking vpon that sunne your onely treasure O toyfull thoughts in thousand ioies distrained O happy hart the seate of secret pleasure Although Belisa would haue once disdained To see to loue or thinke on me at leisure Yet hold I this a heauen as like was neuer To see to loue and thinke on her for euer Syrenus would haue replyed to Arsileus answer if he had not beene interrupted by Eugerius who said Since you must iolly Shepherds receiue your reward at my hands it is good reason that you sing in such sort as may best content me Sing thou Syrenus first those verses which thy muse shall dictate vnto thee and then thou Arsileus shalt sing as many againe or those which thou shalt best thinke good of It pleaseth vs well said they and then Syrenus began thus Syrenus LEt now the goodly spring tide make vs merie And fieldes which pleasant flowers do adorne And vales meades woods with liuely colours flourish Let plentious flockes the Shepherds riches nourish Let hungrie woolues by dogs to death be torne And lambes reioice with passed winter wearie Let euery riuers ferrie In waters flowe and siluer streames abounding And fortune ceaslesse wounding Turne now thy face so cruell and vnstable Be firme and fauourable And thou that kill'st our soules with thy pretenses Molest not wicked loue my inward senses Let countrie plainnes liue in ioies not ended In quiet of the desart meades and mountaines And in the pleasure of a countrie dwelling Let Shepherds rest that haue distilled fountaines Of teares prooue not thy wrath all paines excelling Vpon poore soules that neuer haue offended Let thy flames be incended In hautie courtes in those that swim in treasure And liue in ease and pleasure And that a sweetest scorne my woonted sadnes A perfect rest and gladnes And hils and dales may giue me with offences Molest not wicked loue my inward senses In what law find'st thou that the freest reason And wit vnto thy chaines should be subiected And harmelesse soules vnto thy cruell murder O wicked loue the wretch that flieth furder From thy extremes thou plagu'st O false suspected And carelesse boy that thus thy sweetes dost season O vile and wicked treason Might not thy might suffice thee but thy fuell Of force must be so cruell To be a Lord yet like a Tyrant minded Vaine boy with errour blinded Why dost thou hurt his life with thy offences That yeelds to thee his soule and inward senses He erres alas and fowly is deceiued That cals thee God being a burning fire A furious flame a playning greefe and clamorous And Venus sonne that in the earth was amorous Gentle and milde and full of sweete desire Who calleth him is of his wits bereaued And yet that she conceaued By proofe so vile a sonne and so vnruly I say and yet say truly That in the cause of harmes that they haue framed Both iustly may be blamed She that did breede him with such vile pretenses He that doth hurt so much our inward senses The gentle sheepe and lambes are euer flying The rauening woolues and beastes that are pretending To glut their mawes with flesh they teare asunder The milke white doues at noise of fearefull thunder Flie home amaine themselues from harme defending The little chicke when puttocks are a crying The woods and meadowes dying For raine of heauen if that they cannot haue it Doe neuer cease to craue it So euery thing his contrarie resisteth Onely thy thrall persisteth In suffring of thy wrongs without defences And lets thee spoile his hart and inward senses A publike passion natures lawes restraining And which with wordes can neuer be declared A soule twixt loue and feare and desperation And endlesse plaint that shuns all consolation A spendlesse flame that neuer is impaired A friendlesse death yet life in death maintaining A passion that is gaining On him that loueth well and is absented Whereby it is augmented Aiealousie a burning greefe and sorrow These fauours louers borrow Of thee fell Loue these be thy recompences Consuming still their soule and inward-senses Arsileus after that Syrenus had ended his song began to tune his Bagpipe and after he had played a little while vpon it answering euerie staffe of his Competitor in order he sung as followeth Arsileus O Let that time a thousand monthes endure Which brings from heauen the sweete and siluer showres And ioies the earth of comforts late depriued With grasse and leaues fine buds and painted flowres Eccho returne vnto the woods obscure Ring foorth the Shepherds songs in loue contriued Let olde loues be reuiued Which angrie winter buried hath of late And that in such a state My soule may haue the full accomplishment Of ioy and sweete content And since fierce paines and greefes thou dost controule Good loue doe not forsake my inward soule Presume not Shepherds once to make you mery With springs and flowres or any pleasant song Vnlesse milde loue possesse your amorous brestes If you sing not to him your songs doe werie Crowne him with flowres or else ye doe him wrong And consecrate your springs to his behestes I to my Shepherdesse My happie loues with great content doe sing And flowres to her doe bring And sitting neere her by the riuer side Enioy the braue springtide Since then thy ioies such sweetnesse doe enroule Good loue doe not forsake my inward
DIANA OF GEORGE OF MONTEMAYOR Translated out of Spanish into English by BARTHOLOMEW YONG of the Middle Temple Gentleman At London Printed by Edm. Bollifant Impensis G. B. 1598 TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE and my very good Lady the Lady RICH. RIGHT HONORABLE such are the apparant defects of arte and iudgement in this new pourtraied DIANA that their discouerie must needes make me blush and abase the worke vnlesse with vndeserued fauour erected vpon the high and shining pillar of your Honorable protection they may seeme to the beholder lesse or none at all The glorie wherof as with reason it can no waies be thought woorthie but by boldly aduenturing vpon the apparant demonstration of your magnificent minde wherein all noble vertues haue their proper seate and on that singular desire knowledge and delight wherewith your Ladiship entertaineth embraceth and affecteth honest endeuours learned languages and this particular subiect of DIANA warranted by all vertue and modestie as COLLIN in his French dedicatorie to the Illustrous Prince LEWIS of LORRAINE at large setteth downe and commendeth so now presenting it to so soueraigne a light and relying on a gracious acceptance what can be added more to the full content desire and perfection of DIANA and of her vnwoorthie Interpreter that hath in English attire exposed her to the view of strangers then for their comfort and defence to be armed with the Honorable titles and countenance of so high and excellent a Patronesse But as certaine yeares past my Honorable good Lady in a publike shewe at the Middle Temple where your Honorable presence with many noble Lordes and faire Ladies graced and beautified those sportes it befell to my lot in that woorthie assemblie vnwoorthily to performe the part of a French Oratour by a deducted speech in the same toong and that amongst so many good conceits and such generall skill in toongs all the while I was rehearsing it there was not any whose mature iudgement and censure in that language I feared and suspected more then your Ladiships whose attentiue eare and eie daunted my imagination with the apprehension of my disabilitie and your Ladiships perfect knowledge in the same Now once againe in this translation out of Spanish which language also with the present matter being so well knowen to your Ladiship whose reprehension and seuere sentence of all others may I more iustly feare then that which Honorable Madame at election you may herein duely giue or with fauour take away But as then by your gracious aspect and milde countenance I flattered my selfe with your fauourable applause of the first So now to preuent the second I haue no other meanes then the humble insinuation of it to your most Honorable name clemencie most humbly beseeching the same to pardon all those faultes which to your learned and iudicious view shall occurre Since then for pledge of the dutifull and zealous desire I haue to serue your Ladiship the great disproportion of your most noble estate to the qualitie of my poore condition can affoorde nothing else but this small present my praier shall alwaies importune the heauens for the happie increase of your high and woorthie degree and for the full accomplishment of your most Honorable and vertuous desires From High Onger in Essex the 28. of Nouemb. 1598. Your Honors most humbly deuoted BARTHOL YONG The Preface to diuers learned Gentlemen and other my louing friendes ABout nineteene yeeres past curteous Gentlemen comming out of Spaine into my natiue countrey and hauing spent welny three yeeres in some serious studies and certaine affaires with no meanes or occasion to exercise the Spanish toong by discontinuance whereof it had almost shaken hands with me it was my good hap to fall into the companie and acquaintance of my especiall good friend Edward Banister of Idesworth in the Countie of Southampton Esquier who perceiuing my remissenes in the saide language perswaded encouraged me earnestly by some good translation to recal it to her former place And to that intent he gaue me the first and second Part of Diana of Montemayor in Spanish which Booke although I had beene two yeeres in Spaine till then I neuer saw nor heard of whose friendly care and desire to preuent so great a losse and to preserue such an ornament in me I confesse was the chiefe and principall cause and therefore the onely credit of this translation whereby I recouered that toong againe that lay as it were smothered in the cinders of obliuion The second cause of this my labour was the delight I passed in discurring most of those townes and places in it with a pleasant recordation of my pen which mine eies so often with ioy and sorrow had beheld The third the resolued then intent I had neuer howsoeuer now it hath escaped my hands to put it in Print in proofe whereof it hath lyen by me finished Horaces ten and sixe yeeres more For till then I neuer tried my vnproper vaine in making an English verse how well or ill then the hard and strange kinde of Spanish is turned I leaue to your fauourable censure and pardon The low and pastorall stile hereof Montemayor in his Epistle to the L. of Villanoua excuseth entreating of Shepherds though indeed they were but shadowes of great and honorable personages and of their marriages that not many yeeres agoe liued in the Court of Spaine whose posteritie to this day liue in noble estate But touching the Bookes following you must vnderstand that George of Montemayor a Gentleman sprung out of the noble house of Montemayor in Portugal after he had ended his first Part of Diana which he distributed into seuen Bookes intending to set forth the second Part and before his departure into Italie where I heard he died imparted his purpose and the subiect of his intended second Part to Alonso Perez who answering his intent wrote the second Part of Diana contayning eight Bookes promising in the end thereof to continue it with a third Part which yet he hath not done although I heare he hath a purpose to do it But Gaspar Gil Polo a Valentian Gentleman who in my opinion excelleth for fine conceit whether before or after that Alonso Perez second Part came forth made another Part of Diana naming it the first Part of Enamoured Diana the which being diuided into fiue Bookes he intituleth to follow in due sequence the first seuen Bookes of Diana of George of Montemayor And in the ende of that first Part of Enamoured Diana he likewise maketh a reference to another Part which he promised to set foorth the which and that of Alonso Perez if euer they come to light I leaue to some finer wit and better iudgement to English my selfe hauing done too much by launching so far into the maine vnlesse happily in your fauourable iudgements it may finde a friendly and temperate construction Hauing compared the French copies with the Spanish originall I iudge the first Part to be exquisite the other
intreatest me But if that fall out to thy cost God graunt the same may neuer bee And first I wish my life were lost Rather then such a thing to see For this poore hart which in my brest Is burning in so strange a fire Feares more thy harme and thy vnrest Then it respects her owne desire With the greatest signes of dolour and of a most afflicted hart indeede the Shepherdesse Belisa rehearsed Arsenius his letter or to say more truely the letter of his sonne Arsileus staying betweene many verses and repeating some of them twise and at other some lifting vp her eies to heauen with such anguish and greefe of minde that one woulde haue thought her hart would haue burst in peeces But prosecuting the sorrowfull historie of her loue she said vnto them This letter faire Nymphes was the beginning of all the harme of the woefull man that made it and the end of all the rest and content of the haplesse woman to whom he wrote it For when I had read it by some curious inuestigation that my surmise found out I perceiued that it sauoured more of his sonne his quicke wit then of the father his blunt affection And bicause the time was now at hand wherin loue came to take an account of the small care I had till then of his inuincible power or bicause in the end I should haue some feeling of his poysoned sweete I perceiued my selfe a little more mollified then before and not so little but that I gaue loue place to take possession of my libertie And that which this tyrant did by me was the strangest thing that euer hapned in matters of loue for he made me not onely loue Arsileus but also his father Arsenius Truth it is that I loued the father to requite the loue he bare me and the sonne to yeeld vp my entyre libertie into his hands as from that hower I did indeed giue it him So that I loued the one not to seeme vngratefull and the other because it was not in my power to do any lesse But when Arsenius perceiued me to be more gentle then before which thing he desired so long since there was not any thing in the world which he woulde not haue done for my content and pleasure For so many were the presents the iewels and manie other gifts he sent me that it greeued me a little to see my selfe so greatly indebted to him With euery thing he sent me came so many amorous verses and letters that I was forced to answer them againe whereby I shewed him no signes of loue to put him in any hope nor my selfe so coie as I was woont to be But the loue I bare to Arsileus tooke euery day deeper roote in my hart and molested my sences in such sort that it left no quiet place in all my soule It fell out afterwards that Arsenius and Arsileus being in companie on a sommers night with certain of their neighbours and sitting vnder a faire great Oke that stoode in a broade place before our house Arsenius began to commend the skill which his sonne Arsileus had in musick and musicall instruments to giue them occasion that were present to praie him to go fetch a harpe from home and to plaie and sing there among them who sat so neere to our house that I could not choose but heare the musicke And as he imagined it so it fell out answerable to his desire For Arsileus being earnestly requested by the companie sent for a harpe and sweetely thereon began to plaie and singe When I heard Arsileus and with what daintie melodie he plaied and enticing grace he sung I was gone almost as farre as might be in Cupids affects seeing his father would needes bestowe the musicke on me and vnwittingly enamour me of the excellent graces of his woorthie sonne Wherefore I saide to my selfe Thou dost no lesse deceiue thy selfe Arsenius by procuring thy sonne to sing that I might heare him then by sending me a letter of his owne hande If thou didst but knowe what will ensue thereof thou mightest well from this day admonish all louers not to procure their Mistresses loue by other mens gifts graces bicause it commonly fals out that women do sooner fall in loue with those that are the instruments and meanes then with those that thinke to benefite themselues by them But nowe by this time did my Arsileus with a singular sweete grace and voice begin to sing this Sonnet to the tune of his siluer sounding Harpe A Sonnet IN this cleere Sunne with golden beames that shineth In thu most high diuine and rare perfection In this sweete soule and figure that refineth Our age with ioyes with treasures and affection O blinding light and face each harts subiection Where beauties store to pities want inclineth Sweete words but hard condition of reiection Sweete lookes yet sight that many sorrowes shrineth For these sweete Mistresse I am thus enwrapped For these I feare to see mine owne desire And passe the time in thinking of thy treasures A case most strange effects that neuer happed That seeing thee I see my greatest pleasures And harmes when that to see thee I require After he had made an end of this Sonnet he began to sing this song with so maruellous sweete grace and delectable voice that he helde all his hearers in a great suspence and me poore sorrowfull soule that loued him more then euer any coulde be TO see thee I lift vp my happie eies And hauing seene thee cast them downe againe For further to proceede the same denies Nor other ioy but thy loue to containe What greater glory is there then to view thee If that he knew the sight that he did see For neuer was there any one that knew thee That could be wearie of beholding thee And though he could not knowe thee any wise As well as I haue knowen thee to my paine Yet should he be besides himselfe if dies Not at the least to see thee once againe If that my erring pen did others praise It was but trid I see vpon the lest For they were all but papers of essaies Of that wherewith thou truly wert possest And if before I lou'd thee with surmise My pen hath for some other writ in vaine It was not for bicause I sawe her eies But hop't it should see such a Soueraine Nature in framing thee did so excell And shew'd so braue a skill and suttle art That one of thy perfections serued well Beautie to thousand others to impart She that to thee is like in any wise In least of all I sawe in thee so plaine To passe no further she may well suffice Nor he that sees thee but must loue containe Who sees thee as God made thee and hath seene An other thing that 's faire and of delight He thinkes he sees a thing that would haue beene Thy selfe in any thing if that it might But if he sees thee with such perfect eies And Mistresse as
I sawe thee then againe There 's no compare compare for it denies Nor glorie but thy sweete loue to containe It was not onely this which Arsileus sung that night to the sounde of his Harpe but as Orpheus when he demaunded his Nymph Euridice made the hellish furies gentle with his sweete song suspending for a while the paines of the damned ghostes so did vnfortunate Arsileus not onely amaze and mollifie their harts that were present but wretched Belisaes also who with great boldnes from a high garret windowe was harkening vnto him whose sweete musicke delighted moreouer the heauen the starres and the cleere moone which was then in her force and vigour that in what part soeuer I did then cast mine eies it admonished me me thought and tolde me that I loued him more then mine owne life whereof it was needlesse for any to put me in minde for if I had then beene Lady of all the worlde I had thought my selfe too meane to be woorthie of him And from thence I purposed to hide this affection as little from him as I could All that night I laie imagining by what meanes I might best discouer vnto him my griefe but in such sort that my vertuous name and modestie might not suffer any blemish though death when this was wanting with her appalled feare and danger should not haue hindred mine intent And yet when that should come and when we haue the greatest care to auoid the occasions that might hinder it euen then most of all they present themselues The next day after needs I must go with other countrey maides my kineswomen neighbours to a thicke wood in the mids whereof was a cleere fountaine whither euery other holy day we caried our kine as well for that there was good pasture for them as also for that the fresh hungry euening being come we might take the milke of the next day whereof we made sweete butter fresh cheefe and creame But I and my companie being set round about the fountaine and our kine liyng in the coole shades of the thick and branchie trees of that hedge licking their yong and tender caluelings that lay by them one of my friendes amongst the rest vnacquainted it seemed with that loue that warred within my soule with many requests importuned me vpon paine neuer to receiue any pleasure at her handes to entertaine the time and that companie with some song or other My many excuses with telling her besides that times and occasions were not alwaies one nor alike auailed me very little from performing that which with so great instance she requested of me And therefore to the sound of a Bagpipe whereon one of them most sweetely plaied I began to sing these verses LOue passed by me with his bowe vnarm'd His eies cast downe milde gentle modest gay And carelesse left me then behinde vnharm'd How small a time did I this ioye essaie For presently enuious Fortune saide Staie loue why passest thou so soone awaie Foorthwith the blinde boye turn'd to me and staide Angry to see himselfe so checkt with blame For ther 's no blame where his hot fire is laide Cupid was blinde but well he spide his game So blinded b◠he that he may see none That did so blinde my wit and sence enflame O that I might reuenge my selfe of one That wisheth harme to all and will not free With his consent not one poore hart alone Straight did the traytour arme his bowe and he with poysoned shaft did pierce my carelesse hart Which in his bowe he put and aym'd at me Fortune vnarm'd did take me for his parte Loue neuer plaies nor workes not any feate But on free soules exempted from his darte A hardned hart his arrow brake 〈◊〉 with heate And brake a neuer subiect freedome so That I did yeeld and his content was great O sole free quiet life that I forgo O meadowe seene so oft with freest eies Cursed be Loue his arrowes and his bowe Nowe follow loue and what he doth deuise Come from securitie to greatest care And passe from rest to thousand miseries See now how that a carefull hart doth fare Which lately was without suspect or thought Subiect to be to such a tyrants snare O soule with teares vndone and brought to nought Now learne to suffer since you learn'd to see But what auailes if this my Fortune wrought O wretched eies if with this terme he be Not angry whom you savve vvith free consent Where haue you put and plac'd my libertie O meadovves groues and vvoods of svveete content Which bred so free a hart as I had heere So great an ill vvhy did you not preuent Svvift running brooke and riuer pure and cleere Where once my flocke vvere wont to drinke their fill O euery season of the passing yeere Why haue you put me in a state so ill Since onely I did loue you and these plaines And this most pleasant vale and greenest hill Heere did I mocke a thousand Shepherd swaines Who now will laugh at me when they shall knovv That novv I doe begin to feele their paines They are not ils of Loue that vvound me soe For if they vvere then should I passe them all As thousands vvho haue died in Cupids vvoe Fortune it is that turnes and makes me fall From euery meane occasion path and way Wherby I might but shew my painfull thrall How can the causer of my passion say Helpe them if that their paine he neuer knowes But there 's no loue where reason beareth sway To how much ill is fortune drawing those Whom she makes loue since nothing can restore sea earth nor Sunne moone stars nor any showes Or giue delight vnlesse one loue before And all is thus and wretched thus am I Whom time perswades and hinders more and more Cease now my verse since loue with angrie eie Beholds how soone of him I doe complaine And for my harmes doe craue his remedie Complaine not oft for feare of his disdaine Now hold your peace since I seale vp my wordes And when you see Loues fell and angrie vaine Cease for Loues wroth no remedie affoordes These verses of the Shepherdesse Belisa pleased the Nymphes and Shepherdes no lesse then the sweete and sorrowfull note wherewith she sung them who prosecuting the historie of her mishap said But Arsileus was not farre frō thence when I sung these verses for hauing gone foorth that day a hunting being in the thickest of the woode to passe away the heate of the day it seemed he heard vs and as one that loued musicke well came softly pacing amongst the thickest trees that were neere vnto the fountaine bicause he might from thence the better heare vs. But our musicke being ended he came straight to the fountaine whose sudden sight engendred a forcible passion of ioy and feare in my amazed soule Which was no great maruell bicause an enamoured hart may be as well sursaulted with a sudden ioy as with an vnexpected sorrow
of Spaine The end of perfect beautie and of grace A royall hart that euer doth maintaine Valour and bountie in a vertuous race That looke so modest and so sweete againe Adorned with so faire and milde a face Giuès Lady Anne of Aragon such fame That Loue himselfe is captiue to her name Her sister Lady Bettrice that you see Is next if that you can behold such light Whom none can praise for this is onely shee Whom none can praise according to her right That Painter that did make her so must bee Her praiser and her giftes he must reeite For where all humane wit cannot attaine My poore conceite doth labour there in vaine The Lady Frances of great Aragon Shew you I vvould but she is alvvaies hid Her svveetest beauties leaues not any one With life for so her starlike eies forbid Our mortall sight to vievv the same alone In life and death her vertues euer did Subiect each hart to loue and admiration As fame can tell in euery forrain nation Now Lady Magdalene you may reueale Sister vnto those three which I haue showne Behold her well and see how she doth steale Her gazers harts and subiect liues to none Her peerelesse beautie threats and in a chaine Leades little Cupid turn'd into a stone None see her but they die and none there ar But she doth conquer without armes or war Those two bright stars that heere and there doe vaunt Their shining beames that dim the starrie skie And making that illustrous house of Gaunt In all the world with high renowne to flie This day their wisedome and their beauties daunt Each humane thought and euery mortall eie For who sees Magdeline and Marguerite That doth not die for loue at such a sight But will you see the thing that hath vndone All wits and made them all to wonder so Behold a Nymph more faire then orient sunne Or louely rose or lilly hard by Po This Phoenix name that through the world doth runne Is Lady Caterine Milane for so Valencia cals her and the world doth say She is as faire and wise as liues this day Lift vp your eies faire Nymphes and now behold The Lady Mary Pexon çannoguere How by the riuer banks her locks of gold She kembes adorning of her shining heare Whose beautie wisedome and braue giftes are told For rarest in our Europe euery wheare Behold her eies her faire and Cristalline face Her sweete demeanour and her heauenly grace Those two behold the rest that doe excell Inperfect wisedome and in quicke conceate And for braue beautie beare away the bell A paire sans peere whose starlike eies doe threate Despaire and death to those that view them well For there sits Cupid in his proper seate Their blessed names doe with their nature fit Faire Bettrice Vigue and Bettrice Fenollir What time Diana went to sport and play With her most soueraine face and more diuine Amorning star arose in moneth of May Like to that Star that neere the Moone doth shine Which when she sawe so glorious euery way A famous place to her she did a ssigne Her beauties tell you if her name you seeke That she 's the peerelesse Lady Anna Vigue Faire Nymphes behold the Lady Theodore Carroz that is great Lady and the Queene Of such braue beautie neuer seene before Wisedome and grace as like was neuer seene Each thing of hers enamours more and more The brauest mens deserts haue neuer beene Such as they durst attempt or euer sought By them to place in her an amorous thought See Shepherdes Lady Angelas braue grace Of Borja looking on Diana bright And how to her the Goddesse turnes her face To view those eies that all eies doe inuite And mightie Loue himselfe weeping apace And how the Nymph derides his conquer'd might And laughes to see the cruell Tyrant lying Wrapped in chaines to her for mercy crying Of that most famous stocke of çannoguere A flowre sprung out so perfect and so pure That liuing yet but yong she neede not feare Any that may her beauties blaze obscure Her mothers heire she is for she doth beare The praise which she did with her giftes procure So hath Lady Hieronyma you see In grace and wit obtain'd the high'st degree Now in a wonder Nimphes will you remaine And see what fortune gaue to her alone How wisedome beautie and the goodly traine Of vertues make in her the chiefest throne Lady Veronica Marrades see againe For onely by her figure it is knowne That she hath all and nothing wants to serue her Vnlesse it be that none can well deserue her The Lady Luise Penaroje we see In more then humane beautie and in grace In euery thing most excellent is shee All beauties els she staines and gaineâ—…pace Loue dies for her and he will not agree That any should behold so sweete a face Who sees it dies vnlesse he see it againe And seene it then his sight augments his paint Now see I Nymphes that you are seeing her On whom my thoughts continually deuise And yours perforce from her can never stirre Cupid for robs and in her loue he dies See how her beauties make the world to erre See but beware such light blinde not your eies The Lady Iane Cardona that faire star It is to whom loues powres subiected 〈◊〉 That beautie which exceedeth humane thought Which you doe see if that you can behold it She whose estate was blest esteeming nought Of fortune time or chaunce that could enfold it She to the world that such rare giftes hath brought She that 's my Muse and Parnasus vntold yet Lady Ione Anne of Catalane The end She is of all that e're I did commend Neere vnto her there is a great extreme In purest vertue high and sublimate In comely grace the fairest in this Realme Her golden haire her necke most delicate Each gracious eie a firie pointed beame A noble wit and name of heauens estate The Lady Angela Fernando named Whom nature to her name like gifts hath framed Next to her sits the Lady Marian Who hath not in the world her paragon Neere to her sister fairer then the swan In cristall streames or fine Vermillion Proud is our age of both of them that can In tender yeeres haue no comparison For wisedome for so much they may presume As thousand toongs can tell or golden plume The two fine sisters Borjas which you see Hyppolita and Isabell so faire With grace and giftes that so adorned lee That Phebus brightest beames they doe empaire And see how many liues that once were free Their beauties conquers Cupids onely snare Behold their haire their countenance and eies This gold that sweete and those like stars in skies Behold the Lady Mary Cannoguere Who wow is Lady of sure Catarasse Whose beautie and sweete grace doth euery where Conqueâ—… 〈◊〉 with vnrepaired losse Fame on her wings â—…row out the world doth beare Her vertues rare that shine like gold to drosse Since each one them that
sees her must commend her Who them can praise her well and not offend her The Lady Isabell Borâ—… here doth stand Perfect and absolute in euery thing Behold her face her fine and dainty hand Ouer whose head the nightingales doe sing Our age she honours and th' Hiberian land Of grace and vertuâ— she 's the onely spring And those to whom nature did beautie giue She staines as fairest that did euer liue She that her haire hath hanging downe and speed Abroad and tide with golden third behinde And that faire face that hath so often led So many harts to bondage of the minde Her Iuorie necke her ties in beautie bred Faire modest gray not looking out of kinde Her famous name is Lady Iuliana That honours â—…ere the Temple of Diana She whom you there doe see whom nature made So curiously at neuer like before Since that her beautie neuer seem'd to fade Nor that a faire one can desire more Whose great deserts and wit doth still perswade Fame to the world her praises to restore Is called Lady Moncia Fenollit To whom Loue yeelds himselfe and doth submit The song of renowned Orpheus was so pleasant in Felismenas eares and in all theirs that heard it that it held them in such a suspence as if they had passed by no other thing but that which they had before their eies Who now hauing particularly viewed the rich chamber of estate with euery thing in it that was woorth the seeing as all was the Nymphes went foorth by a certaine dore into the great hall and by an other out of the hall into a faire garden the beautie whereof stroke no lesse admiration into their mindes then the strange things which they had seene before for amongst the fruitfull trees and sweete flowers were many sepulchers and tombes erected of diuers Nymphes and Ladies which with great puritie had kept their chastitie due to the Goddesse thereof inniolate and vnstained Some of the tombes were adorned with coronets of knottie Iuie others with chapplets of sweete Myrtles and some with garlands of greene Laurell There were also manie Allabluster fountaines in the garden some of Iaspar marble some of other mettall seated under vines which with artificiall arches and wreathes aloft did spred foorth their branches depressed with clusters of coloured grapes The Mytrhe trees grew in manner of fower walles with embattlements and pinnacles on the tops of them and on the sides aboue them were certaine Terrasses and walkes reared vp whereon as ouer all the garden besides did growe many sweete flowers of sundry colours as white Iesmins Woodbyne and many more delightfull to the insatiable eie In the hiddes of the garden stoode a Ieat-stone vpon fower brazen pillers and in the thids of it a tombe framed out of Iaspar which fower Nymphes that were wrought out of white Allablaster did hold vp with their handes and about it stoode manie Tapers of Virgine waxe burning in massie candlestickes of bright siluer that were made in artificiall manner About this tombe stoode certaine Lordes and Knights some fashioned out of stone and mettall other som out of Iaspar marble and other matter Which figures shewed such great sorrow by their countenances that they filled Felismenas hart and all theirs that were looking on the tombe with no lesse greefe then admiration But viewing it narrowly they sawe in a table of shining golde which at the foote of the sepulchre a dead and pale mattone held betweene her hands this Epitaphe subscribed HEere Lady Katherine entombed lies Of Aragon and Sarmient whose fame Doth mount with praise vnto the loftie skies And sounds from North to South her woorthy name Death kil'd her to reuenge the sacrifice Of those she killed when she was a dame Her body 's heere her soule in heauen with pleasure The world vnwoorthy to possesse such treasure After they had read this Epitaphe they sawe an Eagle of blacke marble with displaied wings on the top of the tombe with a golden table betweene her tallons with those verses in it EVen as O death the Planets should remaine Without Apollo and Diana bright The ground without mankinde and beasts againe The Marriner without the North-starre light The fielde without faire flowers grasse or graine The mornings showe without the dewe of night Vertue and beautie so remaine and die Without the dame that in this tombe doth lie When they had read both these Epitaphs and Belisa had vnderstoode by them what the Nymph was that was buried therein and how much Spaine lost by leesing her calling therewithall to minde the vntimely death of her deere Arsileus she could not but with teares breath out these sorrowfull wordes O death how far am I from thinking that thou maiest comfort me with other womens harmes The small time that the world enioyed the great beautie and wisedome wherewith they tell me this Nymph was endowed doth not a little greeue me bicause as she was not her-selfe in loue so did not any deserue she should be so For had she beene I would then account her for so happie a woman by dying as my selfe vnfortunate by seeing how small reckoning thou makest of me cruell death since taking from me all my good and the onely ioy of my life thou dost not leaue me heere but onely to feele the neuer-ceasing paine of this heauie want O my Arsileus O rare wisedome in such yoong yeeres O the most faithfull louer that euer was and the finest wit that the heauens could euer infuse into so braue an ornament of nature What eies may without inundations of reares behold thy sorrowfull absence And what hard hart suffer thy vntimely and difastrous end O Arsenius Arsenius how smal a time wert thou vnable to endure the violent death of thy vnfortunate sonne hauing more occasion to suffer it then my selfe Why didst thou make me cruell Arsenius participate of two deathes Of both which to preuent the least that did greeue me I would haue giuen a thousand liues Farewell happie Nymphe the light and honour of the royall house of Aragon God giue thy soule eternall glory and deliuer mine from so many woes and afflictions wherinto it is so deepely sunke After that Belisa had spoken these wordes and after they had seene many tombes more very richly erected they went out by a backe dore in the garden into a greene meadowe where they found the sage Ladie Felicia recreating her-selfe alone and walking vp and downe who seeing them comming towards her receiued them all with a ioyfull countenance And whilest it was time to go to supper they went to a pleasant walke in a groue of Sicamours harde by where the Nymphes of the sumptuous temple were woont many times to go and disport themselues where sitting downe in a little plat of greene grasse that was encompassed round about with leauie Sicamours they began to discourse one with another of that which did best please their fancies The Lady Felicia called the Shepheard Syrenus and Felismena to
vnto pittie the want whereof can prescribe no ende to my greefe nor meanes of reconciliation in thy hard condition and crueltie And with this the Shepherd made an ende of his words and began to poure forth so many teares that they were sufficient with the requests and sentence that Felismena gaue in his behalfe to mollifie Amarillis hard hart and to make the enamoured Shepherd come againe into her good grace and liking for which he was so glad a man as neuer more and Amarillis not a little ioyfull by shewing how much Filemon was deceiued in his false suspicions of her And after this they passed away that day with great content of the two reconciled louers and with greater sorrow of faire Felismena who next day early in the morning departed from them after many embracings and promises to sende to each other newes of their affaires But Syrenus being now free from loue and Syluanus and Seluagia more enamored then euer before and faire Diana not a little discontent for the sorrowfull successe of her affaires passed away her melancholike life feeding her flocke along the bankes of the great riuer Ezla where many times meeting with one another they talked of that which pleased their fancies best And discreete Seluagia being on a day at the fountaine of the Sicamours the Shepherdesse Diana came thither by chance to seeke a lambe that had runne out of the foulde which Syluanus had tyed to a myrtle tree for when they came thither they founde it drinking at the cleere spring and by the marke knewe it to be faire Dianas But being come as I say and curteously welcommed of the newe louers they sat them downe vpon the greene grasse leaning to one of the Sicamours that stoode about the fountaine and after they had talked of many matters Syluanus saide vnto her Why dost thou not aske vs faire Diana for Syrenus Bicause I woulde not talke of matters past said Diana for the great greefe which present things do giue me The time was when I tooke more delight to aske for him and hee for mee and to speake and conuerse with one another then now which giues neither of vs the like contentment but time doth cure infinite cares that seeme remedilesse to many men which if I vnderstood not so there could not be now a Diana in these faire meades plaines in regard of the sorrowes and care that are daily offred me God neuer graunt so much harme to our pleasant fieldes saide Seluagia by depriuing them of such great beautie as hers is That shall not be wanting as long as thou liuest saide Diana and wheresoeuer thy grace and perfections are little may be lost by my want in truth whereof behold thy Syluanus who I thought would neuer haue forgotten me for any other Shepherdesse and yet in the end hath shaken hands with me for thy loue which deserued a great deale more This did Diana speake with a gracious smile although she laughed not so much in minde at these things nor with so good a hart as they thought For though she once loued Syrenus more then her owne life and despised Syluanus as nothing so much yet it greeued her more that Syluanus had forgotten her for the loue of another whose sight he now enioyed euery day with great contentment of his newe loue then that Syrenus had freed himselfe out of her loue whom nowe no new affection mooued When Syluanus heard what Diana said he answered her thus Time and the reuolutions of the heauens shall first cease faire Diana before I will forget thee for thy beautie and wisedome is not such that may be euer put in obliuion Truth it is that I am now bound to my Seluagia bicause besides many other good parts in her obliging me to her loue she neuer esteemed her Fortune to bee woorse by this that she is nowe beloued of him whom thou did'st alway so reiect and make so small account of No more of this saide Diana for thou art well bestowed and I was not well aduised by not louing thee as thy loue deserued it at my hands But if at anytime thou didst desire to giue me some content I beseech thee al I may and thy faire Seluagia to sing some song to entertaine the time and to passe the heate of the day aâ—way which now beginnes so fast that we must be faine to passe it vnder these Sicamours and there enioy the bubling of this cleere spring which shall not a little helpe the sweetenes of your song The new louers were not daintie to be praied though faire Seluagia was not very well content with this kinde of talke that Diana had with Syluanus But bicause in her song she thought to be reuenged on her to the tune that Diana plaied on her Bagpipe both of them began to sing as followeth I See thee iolly Shepherd merry And firme thy faith and sound as a berry Loue gaue me ioy and fortune gaue it As my desire could wish to haue it What didst thou wish tell me sweete louer Whereby thou might'st such ioy recouer To loue where loue should be inspired Since there 's no more to be desired In this great glory and great gladnes Think'st thou to haue no touch of sadnes Good for tune gaue me not such glory To mocke my loue or make me sorie If my firme loue I were denying Tell me with sighes would'st thou be dying Those wordes in iest to heare thee speaking For very greefe my hart is breaking Yet would'st thou change I pray thee tell me In seeing one that did excell me O noe for how can I aspire To more then to mine owne desire Such great affection dost thou beare me As by thy wordes thou seem'st to sweare me Of thy deserts to which a detter I am thou maist demaund this better Sometimes me thinkes that I should sweare it Sometimes me thinkes thou should'st not beare it Onely in this my pap doth greeue me And my desire not to beleeue me Imagine that thou dost not loue mine But some braue beautie that 's aboue mine To such a thing sweete doe not will me Where faining of the same doth kill me I see thy firmnes gentle louer More then my beautie can discouer And my good fortune to be higher Then my desert but not desier About this time came Syrenus downe from the village towards the fountaine of the Sicamours with great desire to meete Seluagia or Syluanus for hee nowe tooke no greater delight in any thing then in the company of these two louers And if he had perhaps a touch of Dianas loue in his memorie the time that he had spent in louing her did not leaue him altogither without some pensiue thoughts not for that her loue now gaue him any paine but because the remembrance of a good estate doth breed some small kind of griefe and discontent in him that hath lost it Before he came to the fountaine in the mids of the greene meadow which was beset
so duly And aftervvardes if that the same deceased Body and soule may be in loue increased In life and death and after death so hainous Seluagia shall for euer loue Syluanus Syrenus being very glad for the contentment of their companie and to see them both loue one another with such mutuall and great affection and knowing that it belonged to the dutie of friendship and though he had refused that they woulde entreate him in the end to sing without more ado tooke his Rebecke and sung thus THe Gods graunt you to frolicke in your hall His yeeres that so long time vvith nature striue And that in happie fortune you may liue Free from all kinde of sorrovves great or small And in your loue one haire may neuer fall Of iealousie a plague eid like a sieue Let heauens to temporall 〈◊〉 their fauours giue Fire aire sea earth and nature at your call The rot may neuer touch your soundest stockes Feare of the vvoolfe your shades may not molest And vvily foxe not feare your pretie lambes In plenty may encrease your goodly stockes Tvvo kids may yeerely yeane your fruitfull dams And your faire Evves vvith double tvvinlings blest The Shepherds hauing made an end of their sweete songs rose vp and casting their hairy scrippes on their shoulders staying themselues vpon their knotty sheephooks began to go on their way Who being comen out of that pleasant place into a faire meade to passe the time away and lighten their trauell and length of their way went inuenting and exercising diuers pastorall sports of which they made Seluagia iudge betweene them both sometimes throwing with their slings at some white or marke that they could espie within their reach vpon the side of some hill or tree sometimes trying with great dexteritie the goodnes of their slings to see who coulde giue the greatest cracke with them sometimes striuing who coulde throwe his Sheepehooke farthest sometimes contending to pitch them neerest to some white or Daisie in the way before them and whether of them with the strength of his arme could come nighest to some other marke as farre as they could reach and sometimes striuing who could smite a stone fardest with them In this sort they passed the time and wearines of their way vntill the broade mantell of the darke night beginning to ouerspred those plaines and fieldes made an ende of their sports and warned them to take their rest where they lodged that night The next day in the morning betimes when the prety birdes with their warbling notes filling the aire not yet fully cleere with harmonie foretold the comming of the Vermillion morning they began to make an end of their former iourney And now did the sunne cast downe his beames hotter vpon their heads and with greater heate shewing his forces when the three Shepherds came in sight of their knowne fieldes and plaines so often troden of them before Whereupon they now began to know their wandring flockes and amongst those Dianas sheepe although they were mingled with the flockes of her vnwoorthy husband Delius And so as Syluanus was saying These are the flockes of the vngratefull and disdainfull Shepherdesse Diana and of the Shepherd Delius happie without desert Seluagia saide It is not good to go by and not salute Diana if we finde her there And so they went that way to seeke her out where they had not gone farre but they sawe her standing very sadde and leaning against a great Oke with her elbow vpon her sheepehooke and her cheeke vpon the palme of her hande whereby one might haue iudged the care and sorrow that so much troubled her pensiue minde After a little while as though she was angrie with herselfe for casting her-selfe into so great a greefe she put her hand into her bosome and tooke out a fine little Baggepipe the which putting to her mouth to play on it in that very instant she threwe it to the ground and without more adoe sliding downe along the bodie of the tree sat her downe as if for great feeblenes she had not beene able to staie herselfe on her feete and casting out a sorrowfull sigh and looking vpon her harmlesse Baggepipe she spake these words Accursed Baggepipe consuming fire burne thee for the greefe and anguish that thou hast giuen me I brought thee with me to lighten and asswage my cruell sorrow in which dutie thou hast not onely failed but redoubled it the more Thou shalt not then accompanie me any more for the ill requitall of that loue wherewith I did euer cherish thee Now I am not any more for thee nor thou to serue my turne There shalt thou lie for the parching sunne to open thee making thee as drie as I am comfortlesse and for the raine to rotte thee making thee as moist as my cheekes spunged with continuall teares Ah woe is me how am I deceiued in thinking that the silly and sencelesse Baggepipe is in fault of that which enuious Fortune hath made me feele and in forgetting being so skilfull in other things how more abundantly my fortune surchargeth my soule with paine and troubles then this poore Baggepipe with any fault or iniurie How do I afflict and molest my selfe for a smal cause hauing so many to wearie me withall O God how comes it to passe that the cause of my passed ioy and gladnes is now the occasion of my present sorrow and that those things which before were light and easie are now most greeuous torments and burdens to me Howe soone is pleasure exiled from my poore soule wherein it was woont to make so sweete a soiourne In how short a time haue I lost my deere content whylom my only trustie companion And how easily am I depriued of all ioy and happines which I once so much at will possessed To what end doth it auaile me to be endowed with beauty and wit which with modestie I may chalenge since all do affirme the same in me vnlesse they were sufficient to remooue some part of my greefe But I beseech the soueraigne Gods that I were so farre from beautie and wit as I am at this present from ioy and comfort so that either the first had not brought me to this painfull condition of life or want of the second passed it away without feeling it so sensiblie O Syrenus and Syluanus how are yee now reuenged of me although it be vnknowne to you thou Syluanus of the contempt I did vniustly beare thee thou Syrenus of the ill requitall I gaue thee for thy sincere and earnest loue How neere alas doth the sorrowfull memorie of that ioyfull time come to my minde that did so soone slide out of my hands I would the Gods had beene so pitifull to me at one and selfe-same time to haue ended my daies and those delightfull howers When she had spoken these words she gaue so great a sobbe and such vehement sighes that it seemed she had no more life left to animate her afflicted
remaining full Wherewith the heate of Titans beames conioyn'd Strange creatures did engender of the same Diuers in shape proportion and in kinde Amongst the which a Serpent did arise Cruell vntam'd and greater then a hill In Thessalie a Prouince of great fame That first put bridle to the horse his mouth This monstrous Serpent did deuoure and waste His natiue soile and all the people there He spared not the corne a sweete rewarde And hope of him that did with labour sowe it He spared not the strong and painfull Oxe The faithfull seruant of the countrey toyle As little spared he the harmelesse Calues Nor goates nor kids that skipt about the heathes He spared not the flockes of simple sheepe Nor gentle lambes nor heards of grazing neate He spar'd no house nor of the little Bee The sweetest worke the Mistresse of her art This cruell beast had no regarde of men For whose auaile each thing created was But as the supreme Gods would not consent With angrie hand to spoile the world anew They did prouide forthwith a speedie helpe Since humane skill and wit could not preuaile For God Apollo going foorth to hunt With bowe and quiuer full of wounding shaftes Onely on Buckes his cunning aime to trie On mountaine goates wilde boares and sauage beastes He did by chaunce encounter with this Serpent Which cruell monster when he did behold He by and by contemn'd his wonted chace To make his name eternall by his death For straight he bent his hardned bowe of steele And from his backe his golden quiuer tooke And drew thereout his shaftes with wounding heads Which dipt in poyson he did shoote with force And nailed them betweene the Serpents skailes And there lay Python stretched on the ground For this the cruell Serpent had to name Apollo haughty in his ioyfull minde For glory of so great an enterprise Remaining there to view his noble spoiles Proude with himselfe he did triumph so much For this great victory that he did thinke That heauen had not a God like to himselfe Which by his speeches he did manifest Speaking sometimes vnto the monstrous beast Sometimes vnto his quiuer and his bowe With ioy and pride did vtter foorth these wordes Glorie of glories O most excellent Triumph of triumphes O the most esteemed Of victories O worthy victorie O deede aboue all deedes in honour deemed O chance then any chance more eminent O fame of fames the sole supremacie O happy war whereby My arme so fortunate With power did abate The fiercest Serpent that was euer bred O crowne most worthy for my conquering head O bowe that from complaining didst deliuer The people well nie dead O happy shaftes O braue and blessed quiuer Python for thee the ground was barren still Denying her increase and wonted fruite For thee the learned Bee did aie lament That she could not her sweetest worke salute For thee the gentle Ewe her selfe did kill For griefe to see her lambe in peeces rent For thee out of his tent The Shepherd durst not goe For cleerely he did knowe How much thy poysoned tooth and breath did harme For thee the husbandman within his Farme And Citizens within their wals for feare Did in their Cities swarme Of euerie shadow thinking thou wert there What God deserues all the heauenly Quire Incense in sacrifice as doth Apollo And what God by his skill and cunning art As many as the firmament so hollow Containes to such great titles doth aspire With honours type renown'd in euerie part For nature doth impart Her gifts and euerie grace To me their proper place I did inuent the art of medicine If any one like prophet doth diuine I am the God that answers and inspires My musicke passing fine Doth answer that the heauens make in their gires A famous Sirname I shall now obtaine O Serpent Python by thy mortall death And I will cause that they shall celebrate This libertie in neuer dying breath With solemne sports and feasting to maintaine This glorie in eternall time and state And that this golden date In historie by fame That streight doth blaze the same And sparing such as alwaies we do see Neuer in this may such a niggard be And though of others she doth prate too much And speaketh partially Not any lye herein her toong shall touch He therefore being in this sort content By chaunce and yet it may be to requite The gen'rall scorne he made of all the Gods The childe God Cupid passed by that way A puissant and mightie Lord of loue A golden quiuer hung behinde his backe In his left hand he bare a bended bowe And in his right two fine and prety shaftes His eies were both bound with a silken string Whom now as soone as God Apollo sawe Thinking that none but he deseru'd to beare A bowe and shaftes and quiuer at his backe In brauing sort these proud iniurious wordes And full of scorne he thus to him affordes What 's he so proude and stoute that doth impute him Worthy of those braue weapons in his hand What knowes he not that they are due to me And none but I this honor may demand T' is Venus sonne God Cupid it is he So call'd but heere he comes I will salute him Infamous villaine theefe and voide of shame And wicked robber of anothers fame Be these thy tooles Tell me why dost weare them That art a wanton far for thee vnfit Deliuer them for these my hands diuine Doe beautifie and on my shoulders sit With better grace and honour then on thine That art not able halfe ynough to beare them Then little boy leaue of with these to boast thee If not in faith full deerely they shall cost thee This furniture is proper to my might These shaftes this quiuer and this bended bowe With them I slew fell Python that of sheepe Whole flockes within his belly did bestowe And them to kill wilde beastes and birdes I keepe For onely these belong to me of right With them moreouer if it be my will With mortall woundes mine enemies I kill Thy fires and flames should well content thy minde With which fond Loue with loue thou giuest paine Ioine not thy sportes nor thy dishonest brandes With these braue weapons of my glorious gaine Leaue then this bowe dishonoured by thy handes And see if that thou canst that art so blinde Thine eies are blinded with a silken string How canst thou then ayme right at any thing Cupid at this waxt angrie and asham'd But yet with threats to his vnworthie scornes Nor with proude words in no wise would reply For mightie Loue as he is verie wise And resolute of that he takes in hand Cares not to bragge it out with threatning words But doth performe it with most valiant deedes But yet bicause his follies he should know And how he was deceiued in his might Which all the Gods besides himselfe had knowen For yet Apollo neuer felt the paines Nor cruell torments that braue Cupid giues
With those same weapons that were threatned him So with his headed shaft of beaten gold He smot his brest and pass'd his carelesse hart Omitting not to wound faire Daphnes to With that of hate headed with heauie lead And so with this the Boy remayned glad And well did see though blind what he had done And thus content in minde he did depart Vpon some others to imploy his might O blinded Boy of strong and mightie force Where none is found but onely in thy hands That more the one with feruent loue doth burne The more the other freezeth with disdaine And proud Apollo now thou shalt perceiue That think'st no equall God to thee in heauen Nor celebrated in the earth beaneth With such like honours which thou claym'st alone That there is one that raignes in heauen and earth In hell and euerie corner of the world More puissant then any other God Bicause thou art inuentor of the skill Of phisicke and of musickes sweetest art Bicause besides thou tell'st with secret power Things that are past and present and to come Thou think'st thou raign'st alone as Soueraigne Now art thou subiect to a sillie maide Too base if she be paragon'd to thee And yet this greeues him not but that the more He loues this Nymph the more doth she contemne His mightie loue and all his vainest suites Faire Daphnes hart is hardened and congealed In loue of this great God of heauen aboue Apollos hart consumes with burning heat In loue of this poore maide in earth beneath The God desireth to inioy her loue And after this desire commeth hope But here his Oracles deceiue him much For in these things diuining is but vaine So with this hope which is but vaine and false He doth maintaine and feede his barren loue And feeling with great paine his burning fire To Cupid in this sort he mildly spake What fire is it that thus my breast doth tame And yet no flame I see that 's manifest Is this thy best reuenge O Cupid tell Fierce God and fell which on me thou dost take Hovv dost thou make the mightie Gods to bend And dost offend the rich the proud and vvise And dost despise and tame the great and small So easie shall not flixe nor tovv be burn'd Nor reeds be turned to fire laid thereby Alas as I vvith thy reuenging games Do burne in flames for thou hast made my hart To feele the smart of loue and vvith thy might And golden flight hast cruell vvounded it Which thou hast smit and smitten stolne avvay And made decaye of it vvithin my brest Where novv no rest nor vvonted ioyes do dvvell Then cruell tell the same vvhere hast thouput Where hast thou shut my hart of sorrovv vvhat And is that perhaps O that it is And novv in this faire forrest do they vse Thus to abuse Gods harts and steale and kill From hence I vvill Cupid make thee my mate And friend though late for euer thou shalt be Since linked me thou hast in such a chaine Her haire doth staine the golden Colchos fleece Which out of Greece Iason shall saile to seeke Her face and cheeke enameled vvith red With vvhite be spread passing the Roses gay In moneth of May that dare not come in place To see her face nor yet the Lillie vvhite Approch in sight vvhere her braue beautie shines Aurora pines in seeing her and dyes Her tvvinkling eies more then the heauenly lights In frostie nights doe shine where Gupid skips Her rubie lips with praise shall not be vouch't But onely touch't and kist of mine againe Her necke so plaine and smooth nothing doth owe Vnto the snowe for pure vnspotted white What els O spite her wrongfull garments grudge To shew I iudge that nature made each part With such braue art as neuer humane eies Did see the like or heauenly thought deuise Whilste God Apollo wandreth in her praise Daphne with hastie foote doth flie away Which when he did perceiue these wordes in vaine Continuing still his speech to her did say O thou the skies that dost excell stay stay Fly not away so fast thy friend I am So flies the lambe from rauening woolfe away The Hart againe of cruell death afraid With hart dismaid doth from the Lion flie The doues doe hie them from their praying king With trembling wing so each thing here belowe Flies from his foe But Loue that burnes Apollo Doth make him follow thee with friendly pace O see each place whereon thy feete doe tread With thornes bespread vnworthily to beare them The stones doe weare them like the shauing file Then stay a while and haste not so I pray Sharpe is the way and I for nothing would My following should make thee faire Nymph to fall I pray thee all I may to moderate Thy hastie gate and I with milder pace To saue thy face from hurt will follow thee Oh didst thou see and know but who it is That mooueth his great l ue vnto thee so Thou wouldst I knowe not flie but tarie still To knowe my will and thinke that thou wert blest To be possest of such a Lord so high I dwell not I in this poore harren hill Though heere I kill wilde beastes for my delight I hold by right as much as Tanais streames And Titans beames doe see where they arise This I despise but onely for thy sake Where thou didst take thy beauties first of all Which countrie shall be reard vnto the skies In all mens eies vvith fame and dignitie And lou'd of me more then th' Imperiall seate Of heauen so great from vvhence faire Nymph I came Neither I am a Shepherd nor doe keepe Cattell or sheepe but vvhat loue doth commend To me to tend In Delphos for mine honour Of vvhich the ovvnour I am incense burnes Claros by turnes and Tenedos likevvise Burne sacrifice to me The lands vvhich great Xanthus doth vveat vvherevvith such sudden voice I doe reioice the harts of them that craue Ansvvers to haue by Oracle diuine Delphos is mine and famous there I am Of birth I came more noble then the rest For at the lest the Gods are kinne to mee First in degree great Ioue my father is And she ywish that raignes in heauenly seate A Goddesse great Latona fairer then Faire Titan when in all his chiefest pride Vnto his bride Aurora he doth hast By me things past and those that present be I know and see and things to come can tell I do excell in verse and sweetest song With arme most strong I draw my bow and flight Where it doth light it hits with sure wound Yet haue I found that Cupids certaine arrow Doth hit more narrow in my wounded breast Where all my rest and pleasures it hath spent I did inuent the art of medicine My wit diuine found out the secret power Of euerie flower and herbs whose vertues still Vnto my skill and practise subiect bee But woe is me that neither herbe nor pill Nor phisickes skill
Commaund him therefore I beseech you righteous Iudges to offer no violence to me for carrying away what is mine owne The Iudges not knowing what to determine in so doubtfull a case Carpostus said I know not graue Iudges why in a matter so manifest as this you should suspend your iust iudgment but that without delay you should proceed to definitiue sentence vnles you seem to make any more doubt herein which if you doe I will cleere it if it please you to send the child backe againe to my lodging by this boy who shall incontinently returne with him againe for whom I will in the meane time remaine heere a pledge bicause it shall not be saide that I tooke possession of him before sentence giuen That being graunted him he willed the boy that brought me but secretly in his eare to carrie me backe and to bring the other childe not forgetting to put on his owne coats who did it incontinently and hauing brought Parthenius there before them all without any more adoe he ranne to his Father Sarcordus and to his knowen nurse Sarcordus wife The Iudges seeing so strange an alteration and thinking he did what he listed with the child for they tooke me and Parthenius to be both one commaunded to lay hands on him for a notable Sorcerer To whom Carpostus seeing whereabout they went said Though here I am worthie Iudges at your disposition and commaund yet do me this fauour I beseech you to suspend your doome vntill you see the end of this matter it may be you will delight your selues with the conueiance rare sequele of it And then he bad the boy carrie back the child commaunding him softly in his eare to bring me and the other childe backe againe but both naked And this he deuised because Parthenius might not be knowen by his coats But before we cam he requested the Iudges to command Sarcordus his wife to go aside or to put themselues amongst the prease of the people so that the child when he was commight not see them They did so behold we were both broght naked thither and playing togither at the sight whereof the standers by maruelled verie much and they that came to behold the fame of that which was past wondring yet a great deale more and others that came after vs in the streetes looking vpon one another in signe of admiration spake not a word but opened their hands and sometimes lifted vp their eies to heauen in token of great wonder admiration Then with a loud voice Carpostus before we came spake thus One of these children is mine the other is Sarcordus his Let him therefore take his owne But bicause the child by seeing him may not know him let him come to claime him behinde the people and I will also hide me heere Sarcordus being therefore come in manner aforesaide and not able to discerne which was his my nurse saide Now do you see graue Iudges and good people assembled to behold the ende of this debate howe I haue this day to delight you with a rare noueltie presented before your eies the strangest wonder in the world bicause you might not woonder at me nor repute me for such a foole as you haue taken me for that which these fewe daies past I haue done with Parthenius beleeuing he was my sonne and bicause you might see whether I had iust cause to claime him with assurednes for mine owne or not They were all passing glad to see this strange conclusion and tooke him for a very wise man in that he had so well contriued the matter to saue his credit And with great reason saide Lord Felix though all was done in my opinion by Calastas counsell albeit I cannot also otherwise thinke but that Carpostus was very wise by knowing how to gouerne himselfe so well against the whole towne When he had saide thus Delicius proceeded in his discourse saying They put on our garments againe and to giue either their owne was no lesse variance and as great difficultie as before for if we of our selues had not made our selues knowne to our nurses either of vs going to his owne we might haue both gone naked home againe But from that time we entred both into such a mutuall league of amitie that by no meanes they coulde part vs asunder for much force had one God I knowe not that reigned in vs ouer each others soule diuining the great and inuiolable friendship that should be betweene him and me I feare me noble Sir and the rest that you would a good while since haue asked me what was become of my deere brother Parthenius for so we euer called one another and other questions that you haue left of not to interrupt mee in my tale Delicius would haue passed on farther but his falling teares would not permit him Wherefore Cynthia came to him saying Drie vp thy teares Shepherd and tell on thy tale for by doing this thou shewest the small confidence and hope thou hast in my Lady Felicias helpe whereas I my selfe haue also diuers times tolde thee before that thy sorrowes shall be remedied Delicius then wiping his eies saide Thou tellest me O Nymph by that which I shew the small trust I haue in Felicia but I tell thee that by thy speech thou dost manifest how little thou art acquainted with my greefe and how lesse thou knowest of like passions to which knowledge I wish thou maiest neuer attaine since ignorance in such matters is much more expedient I could tell thee much about these effects if I thought not to offende this woorthie companie but onely one word I will tell thee That hope doth not pardon the punishment although it doth lighten it a little But thou seemest Shepherde saide Polydora to know the very secrets of our harts bicause as thou hast tolde true touching the desire we had to know what was become of thy deere brother thou didst chaunce to say that we would not giue thee leaue for answers and replies wherefore dissembling thy greefe for a while tell out the rest as thou hast begun With a good will saide Delicius But let it not greeue you woorthie personages if you heare not now of my beloued brother considering that the great greefe which I suffer for him must nowe suffice and that the processe of my historie shall in conuenient place declare it amplie vnto you and if not so at some other time you shall know it when you shall see what great reason I haue to solemnize such a memory with these and many more teares The fame of this strange accident I told you of and of our great likenes within a fewe daies after came to the eares of old Synistius gouernour of the kingdome where we were borne who was placed there by Rotindus king of Eolia for the which cause Synistius commanding that wee should be brought vnto him as well for our great likenes as for the great beautie which we were reported to haue
vnto them Now Fortune beginnes to smile vpon you Parisiles and my daughters and will nowe lift you vp to her triumphant chariot and desist not to carrie you in it vntill she hath placed you higher then you may imagine Happie was the hower wherin you saw the yong Shepherds Parthemus and Delicius and happy that time when first they sawe you for that you by them and they by you shall on ioy a supreme and ioyfull estate And bicause you may know who these yoong fortunate Shepherds are presupposed they are the sonnes of Corineus and Dinia of whom Partheus began to tell you so many strange things The right name of this Shepherd Shepherdesse is Disteus Dardanea Who these be you shal by by know of this Pilgrim their seruant who hath sought for them many yeres togither besides many others that haue made the same iourney amongst the which the yong Prince of Aeolia wandreth vp down seeking out Delicius and Parthenius for the which no meane ioy shall befall to all So that whatsoeuer you shall heare of Disteus and Dardanea you must know that they are these Shepherds whose counterfeit names are these aforesaid and parents to Delicius and Parthenius And I assure you that if you three thinke that you haue deserued the crowne of vnformnate and haplesse weights Disteus and Dardanea their company may presume that the palme of disastrous men should not be denyed them But bicause you may know who they are and for what cause wandring from their countrey they passe away their life in so poore an estate tarie for me heere and I will bring you one hither who shall tell you all the whole matter which I promise you though it touch you will not make you a little glad to heare the strange discourse thereof Parisiles therefore Stela and Crimine remayning there all alone you may now imagine if desirous to see him that should tell that which so faine they would haue knowen especially Stela and Crimine that without comparison cared not to know any other matter then this Felicia sent a Nymph to call Placindus to her who was now gone to view the sumptuous Palace who being come before her she saide thus vnto him O worthie example of a loyall seruant doubt not but that thy good deeds though lately shall be rewarded by the highest assuring thy selfe that the deferring thereof shall more augment the requitall For otherwise if good deeds were not requited by some waies we might haue iust occasion to complaine of his diuine power I say by some meanes as touching that he hath promised vs bicause otherwise he oweth vs nothing but we are rather perpetually obliged to his diuine essence not onely that he hath made vs rationall creatures the highest estate in nature when it lies in his celestiall power to fashion vs to that which is accounted the lowest most seruile in the world vnto the likenes whereof though he might haue made vs who was besides no lesse able to leaue vs without being which is the greatest infelicitie next after eternall damnation But leauing this aside as well bicause larger time then that we haue were necessarie for it as also bicause the place doth not require it I will according to this tell thee in briefe that heere in this house thou hast made an end of thy great iourney finding in the same that which thou couldst not find in so manie countries Here shall thy trauels end and all the troubles of these Gentlemen and with greater prosperitie you shall returne to your desired heauen Here you shall shortly see how many of you wander vp and downe like banished men and more then you thinke of In conclusion in a few daies thou shalt see in this Temple of chaste Diana thy louing Lord and Ladie and thy deer Aunt Placindus at so ioyfull newes breaking off so sweete a speech and not knowing how to requte her prostrate vpon the ground kissed her hands Felicia tooke him vp againe saying It is therefore needfull for thee as a thing that concernes thy Lord and Ladie to tell the beginning of their banishment and the cause of thy long trauell to two faire Nymphes and a reuerend old man whom thou shalt finde attending thy comming in a great broad court before the Palace hall Placindus to obey the sage Felicias commaund without any answer went to the place where she appointed him She that now had caused Lord Felix Felismena Syluanus and Seluagia Danteus and Duarda and the Nymphes to be all togither whiles she was speaking to Placindus being gone to them said Follow you me all None then refusing went after her and came where Placindus Stela and Crimine were iust at that time that Placindus began to tell his discourse To whom Felicia said Because thou maist not want an auditorie for so noble a tale behold my selfe that comes with my companie to take part of it Wherefore let vs all sit downe and thou Placindus without any more courtesies do that which I did of late request thee The end of the sixth booke The seuenth Booke of the second Part of Diana of George of Montemayor THey were all now silent and set downe in order when Placindus being place in the middes began thus to say Of the descent and famous pedegree of Eolus king of Aeolia whom afterwards they called the God of the windes and of whom that countrey tooke the name sprung out two illustrous houses Of the one a most mightie man called Sagastes was cheefe The other a vertuous yoong Gentleman called Disteus made most famous who though in possessions and reuenewes he was not equall to the other yet in vertue wherewith his minde was bountifully enriched farre surpassed him Betweene these two houses was an ancient quarrell and emulation by reason that neither of them would allow any equalitie both still contending for superioritie which to him that desires to beare rule and command is a great and heauie burden Truth it is that in the time of these two principall men Disteus his partialitie went somewhat by the woorse bicause king Rotindus that then reigned fauoured not a little the contrarie part onely for that Sagastes resembled him so much in his bad conditions and disorder of life For both of them were proude cruell libidinous enimies to vertue and imbracers of all kinde of vice whereunto Disteus was a mortall enimie So that the king with continuall fauours enriched Sagastes and fauoured his followers and with perpetuall hatred procured to impouerish Disteus and persecute his friends There were but fewe in the whole kingdome that for feare did not whatsoeuer Sagastes commanded though they hated him in their mindes and none that by their good wils would haue denied to fulfill Disteus pleasure in all things who loued him deerely in their secret harts So that they obeied Sagastes openly for respect of the king and loued Disteus secretly for his owne deserts Who yet with vertuous and sincere
these effects should arise And so they inuented the name of Loue calling him a God bicause he was of many nations and people feared and reuerenced and painted him in such sort that whosoeuer sawe his figure had great reason to abhorre his fashions They painted him like a Boy bicause men might not put their trust in him Blinde bicause they might not followe him Armed bicause they might feare him with flames of fire bicause they might not come neere him and with wings because they might knowe him vaine and inconstant Thou must not vnderstande faire Shepherdesse that the power which men attribute to Loue is or may be any waies his But thou must rather beleeue that the more they magnifie his might and valour the more they manifest their weaknes and simplicitie For in saying that Loue is strong is to affirme that their will is weake by suffering it so easily to be ouercommed by him To saie that Loue with mightie violence doth shoote mortall and venemous arrowes is to include that their harts are too secure carelesse when that so willingly they offer themselues to receiue them To say that Loue doth streightly captiuate their soules is to inferre that there is want of iudgement and courage in them when at the first bruntes they yeelde nay when sometimes without any combate they surrender their libertie into their enimies hands and finally all the enterprises which they tell of Loue are nothing else but matter of their miseries and arguments of their weakenes All which force and prowesse admit to be his yet are they not of such qualitie that they deserue any praise or honour at all For what courage is it to take them prisoners that are not able to defend themselues What hardines to assaile weake and impotent creatures What valour to wounde those that take no heede and thinke least on him What fortitude to kill those that haue alreadie yeelded themselues What honour with cares to disturbe those that are mery and ioyfull What woorthie deede to persecute vnfortunate men Truely faire Shepherdesse they that would so much extoll and glorifie this Cupid and that so greatly to their cost serue him should for his honour giue him better praises For the best name that amongst them all he gets is to be but a cowarde in his quarrels vaine in his pretences liberal of troubles and couetous in rewards Al which names though of base infamie they sauour yet are those woorse which his affectionate seruants giue him calling him fire furie and death terming Louing no better then to burne to destroy to consume and to make themselues fooles and naming themselues blinde miserable captiues madde inflamed and consumed From hence it comes that generally all complaine of Loue calling him a Tyrant a Traytour vnflexible fierce and vnpitifull All Louers verses are full of dolour compounded with sighes blotted with teares and sung with agonies There shalt thou see suspicions there feares there mistrustes there iealousies there cares and there all kindes of paines There is no other speech amongst them but of deathes chaines darts poysons flames and other things which serue not but to giue torments to those that emploie their fancies in it and feare when they call vpon it Herbanius the Shepherde famous in Andolozia was troubled too much with these termes when in the barke of a Poplar with a sharp bodkin insteed of his pen in presence of me wrote these verses following HE that in freedome iets it proude and braue Let him not liue too carelesse of himselfe For in an instant he may be a slaue To mighty Loue and serue that wanton elfe And let that hart that yet was neuer tamed Feare at the last by him to be inflamed For on that soule that proudly doth disdaine His heauie lawes and liues with loftie will Fierce Loue is woont t' inflict a cruell paine And with most sharpe and dire reuenge to kill That who presumes to liue without his power In death he liues tormented euery hower O Loue that dost condemne me to thy iaile Loue that dost set such mortall coles on fire O Loue that thus my life thou dost assaile Intreated ill tormented by thine ire Hencefoorth I curse thy chaines thy flames thy dart Wherewith thou bind'st consum'st and kill'st my hart And now let vs come to Syrenus Sonnet whereby he seemes to make men beleeue that the imagination of Loues enterprises sufficeth to ouercome the furie of the torment For if his operations be to kill to wound to make blind to burne to consume to captiuate and to torment he shall neuer make me beleeue that to imagine things of paine doth lighten the griefe which must rather as I thinke giue greater force and feeling to the passion For when it is more in imagination it remaineth longer in his heart and with greater paine torments it And if that be true which Syrenus did sing I much maruell that he receiuing so deepe a taste in this thought hath now so easily changed it by meanes of so cruell obliuion not onely of loues operations but also of thy beautie which ought not for any thing in the world to be forgotten Alcida had scarce finished these last words when Diana lifting vp her eies for she suspected somewhat perceiued her husband Delius comming downe from the side of a little hill bending his steps towards the fountaine of the Sicamours where they were togither whereupon cutting off Alcidas discourse she said vnto her No more gentle Shepherdesse no more for we will finde fitter time hereafter to heare out the rest and to answer thy weake and common arguments For behold my husband is comming downe yonder hill towards vs and therefore I thinke it best to turne our talke to some other matter and with the tune of our instruments to dissemble it and so let vs begin to sing bicause when he is come neere vnto vs he may not be displeased at the manner of our conuersation whereupon Alcida taking her Cytern and Diana her Bagpipe began to sing as followeth Prouencall Rythmes Alcida WHile Titan in his Coach with burning beames Ouer the world with such great force doth ride That Nymphes and their chaste companies abide In woods and springs and shallowe shadowed streames And while the prating grashopper replies Her song in mourning wise Shepherdesse sing So sweete a thing That th' heauens may bee By hearing thee Made gentle on their owne accord to power Vpon this meade a fresh and siluer shower Diana Whiles that the greatest of the Planets staies Iust in the mids betweene the East and west And in the field vpon the mowers brest With greater heate doth spread his scorching raies The silent noise this pleasant fountaine yeeldes That runs amids these fieldes Such musicke mooues As woonder prooues And makes so kinde The furious winde That by delight thereof their force they stay And come to blowe as gently as they may Alcida You running riuers pure and christalline That all the yeere doe make