not be ungratefull to rip up so much ancient sottishness They had Dryads whom I take to be Nymphs of Forrests Hamadryads were such men as were chang'd into Trees the Nayads were the Nymphs that presided over the Waters and were such as had been chang'd into Fountains the Napaeae are the Nymphs of the Flowers the Oreades of the Mountains and the Nereides of the Sea I do not tell you what part of Brie Lysis was in nor where the River Morin begins 't is an humour of Ronsard's to make a long comment on every proper name which I will not imitate As for the Fable of Morin I maintain it to be much more ingenious then any thing of Ovid's or any other Poet. Those things which we bring in under the name of Histories are Fables Among the Greeks the word Fable was restrain'd to those relations that concerned the Gods History to the affairs of men But because a Fable signifies only a narration and that what they said of their Gods was false it is come to pass that a Fable signifies that which is false As for the Stories of Synopa and Lucida and their Metamorphoses they are ingenious and probable whereas the Poets can only tells us that to be metamorphos'd into Water there was no other invention then to weep away as Ovid says of Biblis But where Lysis takes away that contrariety of being chang'd into water and yet retaining the form of a humane body which must be compos'd of watery vapours he shews nothing escapes him He had read somewhere what the Magicians say of the apparition of Spirits viz. that the Terrestrial spirits assume bodies of the vapours of the earth and the Aquatick of those of the water What follows concerning the Violin and the Nymphs who deny'd Diana the Sweet-meats all is natural and their punishment too For the latter certainly 't is as easie for the Gods to make Trees bear fruit preserv'd as to change men into Trees And if my Author had said that the Cypress into which the Violin was chang'd bore Fiddles and Violins ready made it had been as probable These stories we are beholding to Clarimond for who seeing the Greek Poets had invented Metamorphoses for the Fountains and Rivers of their Country would do the like to the honour of Brie but the truth is he is gone far beyond them Carmelin's Questions to his Master give him occasion to clear up the ancient Fables wherein 't is wonderfull to see how well he is read I know not whether the Gum of the Tree Lysis be well taken yet 't was a particularity could not be omitted His mind ran then upon Myrrha and the Sisters of Phaeton who weep Amber However it be the story of the Excrement in Bâ—â—clay's Argenis is as bad upon which too there is an Ode At the second rencontre with the Rural Divinities I note Lysis's abuse of the Gods and Nymphs for offering to run away for fear of mortals The Ancients might have made that question to those that talk'd of so many Gods which no man could ever perceive Carmelin's speech to the Nymphs is nothing but a sort of contradictions Ronsard and other Poets have thought them mighty ornaments for Carmelin is one that in this case is no Author I assure you I do not observe Lysis's reading fail him till I come to the bathing of Carmelin And I wonder at it for Ronsard could have taught him what ceremonies were required to make a Mortal fit for a celestial conversation He had forgot that the Ancients wash'd themselves before they consulted the Oracle as also the Victims when they sacrificed and that Magicians bathe themselves in running-water before they fall to their conjurations Certainly Lysis must needs be troubled not to find his Tree yet must he needs play the Tree till Hircan with the help of Agrippa conjur'd him into a Man again The apparition of the Winds hath nothing in it fantastick compar'd with what the Poets say of them That Lysis believ'd Hircan more powerfull then the Gods it shews him to be of the Creed of the Ancients who believed the Gods were subject to the charms of Magicians and that when the Moon was ecclips'd it was some Sorceress had forc'd her from heaven Thus have we seen Lysis chang'd into a Tree and the Tree into Lysis again We are now to see how he behaves himself in the Sixth BOOK WHich begins with Lysis's moral learning The pains he takes to find out Carmelin speaks his good nature But to arrest the Nymphs that stole this poor fellows hat Lysis tels him he must have a celestial Serjeant such as Mercury and he is in the right for he is the Apparitor of heaven 't is he that carries the souls to the prisons of hell 't is he that summons the inferior Deities to appear before Jupiter and when Venus had once lost her son 't was he that cry'd him all over the world You see Lysis understands the offices of the very Gods Carmelin's being out of his lesson argues he is no great Clark but Anselme reconciling him and his master saying that Love who is Master of all Arts will teach him to do better another time and to that end quoted a discourse out of a certain Book The discourse is somwhat long yet since I conceive it may be pleasant to some I shall take the pains to put it down here 'T is in the travels of Aristeus and Amaryllis Among all that have spoken of the â—nature Love there is none hath better described it then the divine Plato who calls it Pandidascala that is to say Master of all Arts for there is no Art nor Science which he teaches not his Schollars In the first place he teaches them Grammer and the eight parts of speech beginning with the nown or name of the beloved and then the pronown of their good Qualities which he makes them repeat often Thence he passes to the Adverbs of the infinite time of their perseverance and those of the swearing of their fidelity Then he makes them understand the active and passive verbs acting and suffering all things for the Beloveds sake Then he teaches them the Participle by which they must divide and part between them the good and the bad the thorns and the roses the pleasures and the torments of this life From thence he proceeds to the Conjunction and conformity of their honest desires to the vertuous affections of the beloved which brings in the Preposition teaching thereby to prefer the pleasure and satisfaction of the beloved before their own and lastly he teaches them the sad and sorrowing Interjections full of pittiful Alas's and interrupted by sighs When the Lover is become a perfect Grammarian his Tutor Love ' prefers him to Rhetorick which helps him to a many eloquent speeches sometimes in the Demonstrative kinde remonstrating to his beloved how much he suffers for her sake sometimes in the Deliberative resolving rather to dy then change his affection sometimes in
his Letter to his Mistress Anselme told him he would willingly do it but withall that he should be glad to know the contents of that Missive I have forgotten it says Lysis If it were burnt or lost and that I were to write another I should not put one word of the same Shew me the foul Copy seeing you will not unseal it says Anselme I have tore it in a thousand peeces answers Lysis And not to dissemble with you any longer I tell you that if I had it you should not see it for it is not reason you should see the true draught of my affections before her that hath caus'd them Are you thereabout replies Anselme how prettily capricious you are I shall pay you in the same coyn and I assure you you may go seek one to carry your Letter for that shall not I. Possibly seeing you will not shew it me there is somwhat in 't to my prejudice I have read of divers who have carried their own deaths in a Letter and receiv'd their punishment as soon as it was in his hands to whom it was directed That 's not the reason as I am a Shepherd replies Lysis And I tell you that I care not much whether you carry my Letter or no nay I would not admit of Love himself to be the Messenger were it not that he is blind and cannot read my secrets Know then that I could willingly give him this Pacquet and that he would carry it safely though he have neither pocket nor budget for he would hide it in the locks of his hair yet cannot I trust him for put the case he should not know the way to Charite's chamber he not seeing any thing at all must have some other little Boy to be his guide as your Bag-pipers have and he perhaps would mistake Angelica for Charite and so some other then my Mistress should have the glory of my writings You offend Cupid to think so says Anselme For though he have no eyes yet he presently knows whom he hath any thing to do with he hath a better nose then any Dog in France he 'll go scenting so long till he find out your Mistress he hath as good an ear as a Cat that watches a Mouse so that he 'll presently know her by her speech then he hath the feeling so good that he will not mistake another for her But if all that were not so should he have so little wit as not to know his ordinary lodging having no nobler retreat then the eyes of Charite If he should not seek her would he not still go to her by custom I grant your reasons says Lysis But lest this little God who is very quarrelsom should be angry with me I will not speak to him of carrying my Letter He would answer me that I was uncivil to take him for my Lacquay He is not like you who proffer me that favour For among us men who can make returns of courtesies 't is the office of a friend and not of a servant All this considered I have bethought me of an invention to spare both you and him but let us talk no more on 't for 't is not yet time to execute the design So Anselme could not see the Shepherds Letter and two houres being spent in this contestation and other things Lysis desired leave to go out and desired him he would let one of his Lacquays go with him Anselme granted it though he seem'd to be angry with him And the Shepherd having taken the Lad aside promised him a great reward if he would assist him in his affairs He shew'd himself ready to obey him in all things and according as he had bidden took the Hay-loft-ladder and carried it after him Anselme seeing them go out so accoutred ask'd them if they were going to scale the Heavens and take the Moon by assault But Lysis bid him only retire and be silent and that he should ere long have an account of his enterprise Anselme letting him go his wayes without any further discourse expected a good while for his return but seeing he staid out long and that it was very late he went to bed In the mean time Lysis being come before Charite's house look'd about to see if there were any light in the chamber where Anselme had told him she lay There was contrary to his desire but it was presently put out so that he then thought all were abed in the house and that opportunity favoured his design He caus'd the Ladder to be placed against the wall and bidding Gringalet Anselme's Lacquay hold it fast below he went up from rowel to rowel with the Letter in his hand for to put it on the window of his Mistress but being come to the upper end of the ladder all he could do was to reach the lower brink of the window so that he began to stand a tip-toe and to stretch out his arm that it had been as good for his joynts to have been on the rack While he thus lengthned himself there was a Car within kept a pawing at the clappers of the window which so alarm'd him that he made such haste back that he very narrowly miss'd falling to the ground Having been a little while in expectation of what might ensue he bethought himself'twere better to give the Lacquay the Letter to put on the window whereupon he came down and spoke to him of it but having measur'd which were the taller he was two fingers shorter then himself and besides he perceiv'd his arms were very short which rendred him the less fit for his enterprise That caus'd him to get up again not looking for any assistance but from himself and taking heart he went as high as he had been at first Hearing the same noise as before he thought there might be somebody that would surprise him so that he descended three staves then hearing nothing he ascends again the noise beginning again he descends again Sometimes he lengthned his arm with all his might sometimes he drew it back He would ofttimes lift himself up altogether and presently again be shrunk down And methought he was like those Capons legs whereof children do leagthen or contract the claws as they please by pulling the sinews O how many pounds might have been bestow'd on the curiosity of seeing such pleasant postures But alas they had no other spectators then the Stars and a miserable Lacquay that knew not his own happiness Lysis having retir'd and as often approach'd the window did at last put the Letter upon it and being presently come down he bid Gringalet take away the Ladder and return a long with him to Anselme's house He said no more to him he was so taken up to entertain the divers imaginations which seiz'd him when he consider'd the Amazement his Mistress should be in finding his Letter the next morning on her window He said within himself That she would believe it were some Bird had brought it thither in
did take some The Author assur'd it and told me at the same time that there was not any but Prometheus who would taste of this new dish And that he hath not mention'd it was because he conceiv'd that did nothing against the Poets no more hath he said that Mars durst drink neither wine nor nectar and that he had by him some Diet-drink in a bottle which Aesculapius had presented him whereof he drank now and then because Venus had given him the Running of the Reins In like manner divers other undescent things have been past by lest it should have prov'd of ill example to the Readers and particularly there hath been nothing said of Priapus who besides what hath been mentioned of him play'd some other pranks of his profession The Author reserves all that for the Commentaries he intends upon his Banquet of the Gods and in the mean time these good things are only spoken under the Rose and to Good-fellows But we are yet to know the opinion of our noble Shepherd of this Piece In good faith the Author is a crafty knave says Lysis yet he hath a good wit 't is his own fault if he make not good use of it but I should have wisht he had spoken of the Gods more reverently then he hath You do not apprehend the business replyes Montenor do you not see it is his design to abuse them The Ancients have left us many monstrous volumas wherein there is neither reason nor conduct Every one feigns and imagines a world of Divinities as they please themselves and if one hath assign'd them such a father and mother he that writ after him hath found them others As for the places of their birth and their several actions they agree as ill as the Clocks of the Suburbs do with those of the City Besides they relate Metamorphoses and other miracles that have not any probability at all Our Author would laugh at all this and note that all the Poets are much oblig'd to him for in this discourse he hath clear'd up abundance of obscure things which they themselves understood not and whereof they could not give any shadow of reason Consider all he hath said of the the Thread of the Destinies of the Signs of heaven of Aurora and the Sun they are things which though they render the Fables ridiculous yet give withal a greater discovery of their absurdities As for instance The Poets assure us that the Sun is a God fill'd with heat and light who walking through the heavens enlightens us here and yet they say withal that having lent his Chariot to Phaeton he gave the world the day instead of the other but that approaching too near the earth he was like to burn it up what an absurdity is this for seeing the Sun himself was not there what light and what heat could there be In what manner have those egregious Cockscombs ever explain'd this No they never troubled themselves to do it for they speak confusedly of the power of their Divinities without laying any foundation for things They have never given us any certain information whether that body which we see be the head of the God Apollo as it is likely because there is an appearance of a face or whether it be a Torch he carries in his hand or haply his Chariot all a fire Some call him Phoebus with the golden hair others the Torch of the day and others the burning Chariot How then shall we understand the Fable of Phaeton without question we must say that there is in the heaven a great Globe of fire which Apollo fastens behinde his Head or behinde his Chariot when he is to go his course and that it was possible he might have given it to his Son But wher 's he among the Poets that hath thus particulariz'd these things It is my Author hath found out this sleight and hath taught it me doth he not say that the Sun fastens his beams about his head I should never have done if I would specifie all the places where he hath clear'd up the Fables Remember it that you may observe them and believe what I tell you and that is that the discourse I have now read to you excels all the Poets have ever writ All will not grant you that says Anselme consider that the Fables of the Poets are Mystical things wherein all the ancient wisdom lies hid They have done well to make you believe that replyes Montenor There is Notalis Comes and some other Gentlemen of Leasure who have employ'd themselves to make Mythologies and have found out those expositions of the Fables which never came into the imaginations of the Poets But assure your self that if I had a minde to moralize on the Romance of Mellusin and Robin the Devil I could finde out as handsome things as upon that of the Syrens and Hercules What do you think my Author hath said any thing without reason If the Night-cap and Spectacles of Fate fall down in dancing he shall tell you what it signifies and he is able enough to make a Methologie on his Banquet of the Gods Be not angry we easily believe it says Lysis and I assure you withal that I have a great esteem of the ingenuity of this Author but I would not advise him to print this piece by it self because it is too short My Genius tells me he is design'd to compose my History 't is there he may dispose of it What know you whether it will be convenient says Anselme Men laugh at those who have foisted into their Romances things which were not to the purpose I 'll furnish you with another invention he must in its proper place mention that the Banquet of the Gods hath been read to you and then it shall be put in the end of the Book by it self If divers Anthors I could name had known this cunning slight their works would have been better by much and they could not have been tax'd to have interlarded them with Histories and Verses repeated to so little purpose that the Readers pass them over when they meet them Thus in the Argemi there are such long discourses as might make a Book apart besides that fine Story of the Excrement with the Verses on that subject which Barclay would needs thrust into his Romance for to give it a better sent in the world Thou art Satyrical friend says Lysis keep thy advise to thy self make thy own History after thy own fashion and let me alone to take order for mine This Banquet of the Gods is not improper for me as those pieces thou quotest It treats of those things which have most relation to what I have in design and it is so much to my purpose that I shall remember it as long as I live and he that should not put it in would commit an error and should not be a faithful Historian for seeing it is true it hath been read to me it is necessary it should be put
had helmets on but that proves nothing they wore them not but in fights There had been advanc'd more such considerations had not Synopa come and said that they had discours'd sufficiently and that it was time to collation Carmelin commended her a thousand times within himself for her profitable advice while the Hamadryads discharg'd their baskets of a many good things they had brought and dispos'd them on the green grass which was all the Table-cloath they had The God Morin came near Synopa and told her somewhat in her ear which Lysis perceiv'd not In the mean time Carmelin was help'd by his Master with the wing of a cold Turkey which he fell presently on with his fingers knowing that hands were made before knives but as he was putting a piece into his mouth Synopa withheld his arm Be not too hasty Shepherd saies she to him you are not yet permitted to eat with us We must first wash you in one of our fountains What did Lysis dream on that he hath given you your portion he was like to serve us a fine trick We must have gone to the God Pan for to entreat him to purifie us all I was ignorant of this Ceremony saies Lysis I beg your pardon if I have done any thing amiss I never read what you speak of in any Poet. However it must be believed so and good bathing will do Carmelin no hurt it may conduce to his health Carmelin was thinking what a pleasure it were to be wash'd by such fine Ladies but he wish'd it might be just then that so he might collation with the rest and he saw they did not make any haste to do it They had taken away the meat from him and withal fed so earnestly and with such stomacks that there needed no long time to dispatch all that was which consideration made him sick at the heart The Divinities having ended their collation Synopa thought it time to go and bathe him and to set all the rest in a forwardness but he angrily answered that it was to no purpose seeing there was nothing to be eaten Synopa reply'd that it were so much spar'd another night that he should come and see them Then comes Lysis and whispers to him bidding him go where ere they should carry him and that it would be a means for him to see the Grots of the Nayads whither he had so earnestly desired to go Carmelin crediting him went quietly with the fair Deities but when they were come to the brook of Lucida's fountain Synopa saies to Lysis for your part you need not be present at our Mysteries Morin you see and two of the Gods of the River have left us go your ways with them Lysis who earnestly desired to see their ceremonies that he might be initated in the divine Science was much troubled that he was forc'd to leave them But he was fain to go with Morin and the two other Gods who were Anselme and Clarimond In the mean time Synopa Lucida Montenor the Humadryads and the Cypress took Carmelin by the head and feet and threw him into the water in his cloaths in a certain place that was deep enough He found not so much pleasure in his handling as he had imagin'd but it was much worse with him when the Cypress said that he must be stripp'd stark naked When he had put off his breeches and doublet they tyed him by the arms to a willow that was on the bank as if it had been a piece of the ceremony which done they turn'd up his shirt and whipp'd him so long with Ozier twigs that from crying mercy and begging he fell a railing heartily at all the company but Lucida told him that the water could not cleanse him and that there was within him a corrupt blood that must be whipt out ere he could be made so pure as to be admitted to converse with the Deities All having done him what mischief they could they return'd to their Randezvouz and left him fast tyed Lysis being by this time come near the place where his tree was took leave of the Aquatick Deities who bid him farewell by signs with the hands and conges Being left all alone he was much astonish'd that he could not finde his abode though the appearance of Auroroa made it somewhat light Hircan desirous to try all means to bring him out of his imagination had given order that while he was absent his willow should be cut down at the root and carry quite away Besides all which the place was so well made up with fresh â—urfs that he could not perceive there ever had been any Lysis seeks all about and his hollow brain wanted no matter of imaginations upon this accident Yet though he could not finde his willow he did still imagine himself a tree and hearing some body coming he planted himself near the place where the willow had stood and because he would do nothing before men that were contrary to his nature he lifted up his arms and widened his fingers as though they had been brances In this posture doth Hircan appear to him in the same black suit which he had when he delivered him out of the danger he was in at Orontes's O Tree saies the Magician to him my will is that from henceforth thou become a man 'T is not in thy power to do it replies Lysis they are the great Gods that have Metamorphos'd me The greatest Gods have but the power of Dwarfs if compar'd to me replies Hircan and I will now shew thee the power of my charms While he said so he made a circle about him with a rod he had in his hand which done he read certain barbarous words out of a great book I see I must double my Enchantments says he to Lysis for thou art so self-will'd that thou resistest them What wouldst thou do replies he wouldst thou deprive me of all happiness Let me alone thou know'st not what is fit for thee replies Hircan thou shalt immediately be a man in spight of heaven earth and hell and seeing thou wilt not get out of thy bark to come to me I will cause the winds to blow thee down Thou shalt be put out of thy abiding place and shalt see that I can command all the powers of the world O you Kings of the air and beesoms of the earth goes he on with a louder voyce you winds which blow the one from the one quarter and the other from the othtr that is to say from the North and from the South And you Boreas and Auster I do conjure you by the pantofles of Fate the old Gallogaskins of Saturn and the Close-stool of Proserpina and by whatever else is venerable and august in the world that you blow against this tree and bring it down in such manner as that it lose its vigor and that I may change its form Assoon as the Magician had pronounc'd these words behold there appear'd a brace of knaves all clad with
by Anselme with this written above it To THE METAPHORICALL GODDESSE This Proposition is so much the more noble because it is not common and that it may be judg'd whether my Mistresses picture do not well deserve a Temple let the world see and judge In saying so he took out a Box out of his pocket wherein was that picture enclosed which he ever carried about him though it were of a pretty bigness Philiris and Fontenay who had never seen it before admir'd the invention and Clarimond who had seen it the first time he met Lysis viewing it also found in it somewhat he had not observ'd before Methinks saies he to Lysis that where before the breast was represented by two balls of snow there are now two Globes where may be seen the Aequator with the Tropicks and other circles You are in the right replyes Lysis Anselme hath reform'd it since you saw it having sent for colours to Colommiers but this last thing is of my own invention and as time makes us wiser I have left the snow for Charite's neck and some places adjacent and as for her breasts I thought fit they should be represented as two worlds for to render the picture more delightful by the variety It is certain your Masters the Poets do ordinarily compare the breasts of their Mistresses to worlds saies Clarimond but very impertinently You are mistaken replies Lysis and I assure you that if I possess'd Charite's breast I should think my self happier then any Emperor for I should be master of two worlds whereas the greatest Emperor that ever was could never enjoy one An excellent fancy indeed says Clarimond because the breasts are round therefore they are worlds Apples and plums and all things that are round are wordls too 'T is a very slender resemblance of a thing to have nothing of it but the simple figure but yet in this case you cannot make good all you say The breast of a woman hath but two half bowls they must be put together to make one whole one so that you are still short of your reckâ—ning for you can finde but one world which is divided into two as the Cosmographers represent it in their universal Maps And I must tell you that it was a far neater invention of those who say That Venus having obtained of Paris the Apple which was to be given the fairest of the Goddesses she was so taken with it that having cut it in two she plac'd it on her breast and wore it for an eternal sign of her victory and will'd all those of her sex should do the like However if you desire that Charite's breast have two Globes I grant it you and I will in that sense too teach you an imagination which you never knew and that is to say that half of each Globe is sunk into the body and that there is only what remains apparent and as for the nibbles it must be believ'd they are the Poles Moreover to render the picture more judicious and rational it should be my advice to feign that one is a Terrestrial Globe and the other the Celestial but though we should grant all that yet will there be still somewhat to be reprehended for if they be worlds they must necessarily have Suns to enlighten them and it cannot be perceiv'd they have any if we do not suppose the eyes but they are at too great a distance But if you would take them for two Suns how can you imagine it since you call Charite a Sun that carries them about One great star therefore carries two little ones and that also contains two worlds Thus are all things confused among the Poets and to hope any satisfaction from their impertinent imaginations were the vainest thing in the world Lysis having heard all this discourse with an extream impatience very angerly answered thus I should never have believed Clarimond that thou hadst so little judgement as thou makest appear Thou canst carp at the excellent descriptions of Beauty us'd by Poets and canst not believe that one Planet may carry others and worlds besides It shews thou knowest little in Astrologie and hast no great acquaintance with the opinions of those Philosophers who hold there are worlds in the Moon and Stars Besides dost thou think it improper that the eyes be the suns of the breast dost thou think they are too remote seeing they are fastned in the face as in their heaven and that the two Globes which are under represent the earth Thou wilt haply tell me there is no need of two Suns so near one the other But though there were but one world yet were there no inconvenience for I will prove it to thee that this great world wherein we all live is not content with one and that this is true look into all the Poets both Greek and Latine thou wilt finde that when they speak of a man that hath travelled about the earth they say that he hath seen the one and the other sun And this is it hath made me conceive there are two suns in the world But the greatest testimony in this case is that it is held for certain that there are Antipodes and if there be they must have their Sun as well as we ours I remember that being at St. Cloud Anselme laught at me because I said the Sun was going to sleep in the waters if I had then known what I have imagined since upon reading the verses of a certain Poet I had answer'd him to the purpose He asked me how it wos possible that the Sun should pass away the night in the sea in banquetting and taking his rest and yet be seen the next morning in another end of the world as if he had travell'd all the time But now I am assur'd that there are two Suns which enlighten us one after another and while one sleeps the other perfects his carreer I will not trouble my self here to make you any demonstrations I must then have had the compass and rule Finde your self out the reason of what I tell you when you are best at leisure Then for the several faces of the Moon whereof I might be demanded an account I profess to you that I understand nothing of these divers aspects of the Moon wherewith I have been so often entertained I therefore believe there are three or four Moons in the world for otherwise how were it possible we should see it sometimes round and sometimes cut in two It is to be conceiv'd that the full Moon and half Moon are two several Stars Such excellent conceptions as yours are worthy to be admir'd saies Clarimond I confess my self overcome and yet I cannot but say that let things be taken which way you will the little worlds of Charit's breasts have no need of Suns since they can have no other inhabitants then fleas Thou speakest injuriously replies Lysis those worlds are peopl'd with Cupids and Graces I would gladly know what sort of creatures those
is easie to prove for his Fables they are low enough his Buckler of Aeneas his golden branch to go to hell with to finde explications for them were to no purpose But Philiris deservedly commends the harmony weight and fluency of his verse For Ovid and his Metamorphoses it hath been in divers places shew'd they are not natural and some modern have been more fortunate as for example A Player being to represent all conditions and persons having offended Mercury in not representing him well was by that God Metamorphos'd into a Looking-glass that so he might represent things better then he did in his life time And that other of a cruel disdainful Mistress who could not be charm'd by any complaints of her Lover the Gods to punish the one and reward the other chang'd this desperate Lover into a Loadstone and that ungrateful Mistress into Iron that so in spight of her teeth she might be drawn by him whom before she did avoid To which if we adde the Metamorphoses of Marne Morin Synopa c. we need say no more Orlando Furioso is a book hath less order yet then Ovid from whom and the other Poets the invention is borrow'd You must not think Clarimond can quote all the impertinences of any book especially of this as where Astolphus rides to heaven upon his Hypogriph and there meets with St. John the Evangelist who shews him all the curiosities of the place having put up his horse in a certain place where he gave him celestial oats Yet is the Author among his Countrymen call'd the Divine Ariosto and so is Aretin notwithstanding all his filthiness and impiety Tasso is not so confus'd but his mingling together sacred and prophane things shews him of that Country where they love vice and allow impiety Du Bartus is not much behinde but it must be thought his design was only to reduce the Scripture into neater terms then it was in but methinks being to speak as a Christian he might have omitted the Suns coach and horses and such other Pagan absurdities Next comes up Ronsard with his Poems Sonnets Elegies c. For his Sonnets they are allusions to the old Greek and Latine Fooleries or else some traductions out of Italians But because he is often quoted with his absurdities in the text it self we shall not say much here only shake a little his hymn wherein hee compares Hercules to Jesus Christ both as to his birth and labours The three nights that Jupiter made one when he was to enjoy Alcmena represent the number of years which past before the Son of God was born of his mother That Juno who sent two great Serpents into Alcides 's cradle is King Herod who to destroy the childe Jesus sent his souldiers to kill the children in Bethlehem That it was thought that those two children were purely humane the one being thought the son of Joseph the other of Amphitruo though Jesus was the son of God and Hercules the son of Jupiter That Prometheus unchain'd is humane nature set at liberty That Hercules who ever obeys Euristheus is the Saviour of the world who is ever obedient to his Father That the envious Juno is Satan for she represents both Herod and the Devil whereas Amphitruo and Euristheus doe both represent God the Father That Hercules puting on the Garment of Iole is Jesus Christ cloath'd with the humanity of his Church That Hercules and Atlas who sustain the Heavens are the Father and the Son who sustain the Vniverse That Charibdis which swallowed one of Alcides 's Bulls is Satan that makes a prey on one of the disciplies of Jesus Christ And lastly that Hercules who is burnt on a mountain is our Redeemer who offers himself up a sacrifice unto God the Father O lewd Poet The Adulteries of Jupiter and the Incarnation of the Word are they not fit comparisons why is not Alcmena the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel Mercury But that Alcides who to satisfie his lust disguis'd himself and spun with Iola should be Jesus Christ is equally as Impious I am to note further that he is such a sworn imitator of Homer and the Poets his Predecessors that he omits not their greatest absurdities for this is but a patern of what might be quoted for his descriptions and similitudes they are as tedious as Homers If a man be to get a little water boild he tells how he clove the wood to make the fire with then how he kindled it and blew it then comes in the flame that encircles about the Kettle then the white scummings then the noise it makes in boiling and this is your constant entertainment This Poet would finde a man perpetual Satyre yet was the most renowned of his time But if we catch Poets and Fabulists we must not let the Mythologists escape who by their impertinences seek to continue the credit of the former and would have us swallow down obscure and ambiguous fooleries for Divinity 'T is hard but some allusion or other may be found to save the reputation of advancers Apollo and Neptune build the walls of Troy saies the Fable there must be water says the Mythologist to make the morter and when the wall is built the Sun must dry it If they had put in Minerva too it had been said that it was to give them instructions for the Architecture she being the Goddess of the Liberal Arts But for Venus's accompanying Aeneas in his battels in Italy as also being at those before Troy and her being hurt there if you would put all Pedantry to the rack it cannot finde any good explication Those also that shift off the absurdity of Fables by Synonima's are we not any thing more oblig'd to as that Helen Castor and Pollux are engendred of an egg you must conceive the feat was done in some great Oval palace Nay so critical are they that they find explications for the adulteries and absurdities of these pittifull Divinities and so impudent as to present us with them as pieces of solid learning Nay further some in the defence of fables tell us that the Poets had read some parts of the Bible and grounded them on some stories thereof as that the Chariot of the Sun was that of Elijah but they cannot choose but be impertinent that excuse impertinence As for Romances there is as much said in the beginning of this Preface concerning their impertinences and that little entertainment that is in them that we shall not have much to adde For Diana of Montemajor the Pastorals of Julietta Daphâ—is and Cloe and some others my Author shall make good what is said against them Nor does our Arcadia escape the quick-sighted Clarimond Astraea is a book hath gotten great reputation as coming out with the first fruits of more polished language and that which hath continued it is that it contains a many stories fitted to the humours of all sorts Nor is what this great Antagonist of Romances sayes touching the beginning of the Argenis
else told us that upon every marriage there ought to sit a Grand-Jury of Physitians And thus have I given you an account of this History of the Shepherd Lysis and tell you that if you desire to know what is become of the Persons you find in the text what became of the principal For the less considerable we shall follow the custom of the Romances so much as not to trouble you with any thing further about them All which when you have considered together I doubt not but you will soon resolve where to fasten the folly and extravagance which this Shepherd hath entertained the world with for he doth but conveigh it from those great fountains the Poets and Romanceers that had lived in the several Ages before him For my part in the mean time I must acknowledge my own deficiencies which yet I hope are such as have not rendred my Author unlike himself And whereas notwithstanding what is here said this Book may be lookt on by some of a nature ridiculous and trivial I am so bold as to tell them that it is the most serious Satyre and gravest Work that ever came into the world and of no small importance For if in Religion we value so much Books that combat and overcome Errour I see not why it should be a less acceptable action in Morality to endeavour the eradication of Folly J. D. THE Author to the Reader THose that take so much delight in Love-stories let them come and see what entertainment this will afford them which they canot but account as pleasant as those they so much esteem since it contains alone whatever is remarkable or admirable in all the rest The Incomparable Shepherd here represented hath endeavored alone to do all that the most passionate Lovers which Books have brought into our acquaintance have not without difficulty accomplish'd To tell us that it is an Extravagant Shepherd and that he hath been ever known by that name is no argument to cause any to esteem him the less for it is not to be learn'd that an extraordinary excess of Affection is not confin'd within the limits of Devoïr nor observes the Laws of Prudence Besides that the most Extravagant actions of our Shepherd-Lover have for their Presidents those of so many brave Hero's whom he hath endeavor'd to imitate So that as to the design he had propos'd to himself of furnishing materials to make as noble and as fam'd a Romance as any this age hath brought forth you see he hath been very fortunate in 't And though they have given the name of Romance to those charming and delightful Histories and that his pretends more right to the title as being nothing but charms and delight it self Yet we have call'd him the Anti-Romance and that because Romances contain nothing but Fictions whereas this must be thought a true History And of this there is yet another Reason that is if we consider it is accompanied with most excellent and important Remarks wherein are discovered the impertinences of the fault which pester Romances and all Poetick and Fabulous works so that this Book may be said to be a quite contrary thing to them 'T is here that you will be fix'd into amazement O you that are so taken with the reading of feign'd Histories you knew not till now what Artifice could be us'd to imitate those rare adventures in such a manner as you might not be offended with and yet that all should tend to an intention far different from the ordinary You now suspect you are gull'd be not mistaken assure your selves you shall finde nothing but what shall be for your advantage and convincing you of your errors shall remove your prejudice You must therefore resolve your selves to attention and silence for the Scene opens the Shepherd enters and speaks THE Anti-Romance OR THE HISTORY Of the SHEPHERD LYSIS The First Book FEed on feed on dear Sheep my dear Companions The Deity which I adore hath undertaken to reduce into these places the felicity of the first Ages And Love himself who acknowledges a respect to her stands with his Bow in hand at the entrance of the Woods and Caves to destroy the Wolves that should assault you All nature adores Charite The Sun seeing she gives us more light then himself hath now no more to doe in our horizon and 't is only to see her that he appears there But return bright Star if thou wilt not be ecclips'd by her and so become ridiculous to mortals Doe not pursue thy own shame and misfortune but rather cast thy self into the bed which Amphitrite hath prepared for thee and sleep by the noise of her waves These were the words that were overheard one morning by some that could understand them in a Meadow upon the River of Sein near St. Cloud He that spake them drove before him half a dozen mangy Sheep which were but the refuse of the Butchers of Poissy But if his Flock was in so ill a posture his Habit was so fantastick â—n amends thereof that it was easily discovered he was some Shepherd of quality He had a strawn Hat with the edges turn'd up a Cassock and Breeches of white Taby a pair of gray Pearly silk-Stockings on and white Shoos with green Taffata Knots He wore a Scarf had a Scrip or a Foyne-skin and a Sheep-hook as well painted as the Staff of a Master of Ceremonies So that considering all this equipage he was almost like Bellerosa going to represent Myrtil in the Pastoral of the Faithfull Shepherd His hair was rather flaxen then red but naturally curled into so many rings as sufficed to demonstrate the dryness of his head His Countenance had some features which rendred it gracefull enough if his sharp Nose and his gray Eyes half asquint and almost buried in his head had not made him appear somewhat gastly shewing those that understood any thing of Physiognomy that his brain was not of the soundest A young Gentleman of Paris having perceived him afar off was somwhat astonish'd at his extraordinary garb and discontinuing his walk came and hid himself somwhat near him behind a haycock where he was so far from making any noise that he hardly durst dismiss his breath He saw him walk with paces so grave and measured as a Swiss-Captain and heard him pronounce words with such animation as if he had been on a Stage which made him believe that he conn'd the part of some Stage-play wherein he was to be an Actor as indeed they had a little before acted one at St. Cloud While he was in doubt whether he should discover himself or let his curiosity be satisfied by other accidents the Shepherd put himself into more different postures then a Painter puts his boys into when he would represent some great history Sometimes he leaned on his Sheep-hook resting his right leg thereon and sometimes he crossed his arms lifting up his head towards heaven as if he begged something with his eyes In
Sheep-hook The Wooll which we have from time to time at the shearing of our sheep is like the Revenue that a Prince receives from his Subjects The Gods themselves have sometimes deigned to come down on earth for to be Shepherds And if that were not so they cease not to be such always in heaven for what are the Stars but a sort of living creatures which they drive to feed here and there in those vast Plains But as for us terrestrial Shepherds what is it that can be compar'd to our glory Could the world with any shift be without us The Wooll of our Flocks doth it not furnish cloathing to all the world The Tapistry of Temples and Kings Palaces is it not made of it Some may tell me that men may make use of Silk Is that any noble thing in comparison of the other It is but the excrement of a vile creature What if I have made me clothes of it It is only for every day I will have others made of Cloth for Holy-dayes The flesh of our Sheep is it not the principal nourishment of men If we had none how should we sacrifice to the Gods Are not these creatures think you acceptable to them when Jupiter would be adored in one of his Temples under the form of a Ram and was it not for a Fleece that Jason and the Argonauts went to Colchos This is to shew you Cousin Adrian that as our Flocks are very profitable so is it a great honour to keep them and that no man indeed should meddle with any other imployment To what end serve all the Trades in the City Read the Pastorals of Julietta and you will find that there was in Arcadia neither Councellors nor Attornies nor Sollicitors nor Merchants there was nothing but Shepherds We must be so too here in France if we desire to be happy Buy you a Flock take Shepherds habit change your Ell for a Sheep-hook and come your wayes hither to be a Lover And doe not counsel me to return to Paris there to execute some Office You may bring hither my Cousin your wife and all your Prentises who will all be glad to become Shepherds You will find it a greater pleasure here to laugh and dance to the Bagpipe then to take the pains you doe at Paris in shewing of Silks and Stuffs O heaven cry'd out Adrian What hath our race committed that must be thus expiated Now I plainly see that the poor Youth hath lost his senses quite and clean Sir sayes he to Anselme I beseech you seeing he places so much confidence in you bestow your perswasions to bring him to himself Whereupon Anselme taking Adrian aside tells him that he had fully discovered his sickness that it was requisite to comply a little with him leaving him there some while longer to entertain himself with his own thoughts and that in the mean time he desired to know who he was if so be he had the leisure to tell him Adrian answered him that he would willingly doe it believing that when he had acquainted him with the whole life of his Ward he might be the more able to remove those imaginations which troubled his mind Having said so they retired some distance from Lysis who being alone set himself to ruminate on his Loves not dreaming any thing of what they went about And Adrian who was an honest man but withall very simple as most of your Citizens are and one that knew very little besides his Trade continued thus his discourse with much natural simlicity That Young man whom you have now seen is the Son of a Silk-man who lived in St. Dennis street He had no more children and hath left him so rich that we all hoped that he would restore our Nobility and that we should see in our race a Regal Officer who might be a protection to us You know there are many Merchants Sons that are so And though the Nobility contemn us yet we are as good men as themselves They are not able as we are to bestow great Offices for their children and if they are so brave it only demonstrates their borrowing from us In the mean time they call us Sires and they are not mistaken for indeed we are a sort of petty Kings But to come to my Tale Lewis's Father and Mother being dead I was chosen his Guardian as being the next of Kindred He had already gone through his Studies at the Colledge of Navar and cost his friends more mony then his weight He was eighteen years of age or thereabouts I told him it was time for him to bethink himself what course of life he would follow That he was not brought up to Learning to the end he might idle away his time and that he was old enough to make his own choise how to dispose of himself For to try him further I asked him whether he had any inclination to be a Draper as I am myself but he answering me that he aspired to somewhat more noble I was not any thing displeas'd at him He tabled at my house and I sent him to certain Masters in Paris who teach the Trade of Councellors They are a sort of people that are so expert that when a young man is to be received a Disciple they undertake to teach him in one moneth all that he hath to answer as if it were but to teach him to whistle as one would doe a Starling so that of an ignorant School-boy they ever make a learned Lawyer My Cousin studied a year under them and was sent thither to no other purpose yet could he never be perswaded to put on the Long-robe Instead of Law-books he bought none but a sort of trashy books called Romances Cursed be those that have made them They are worse then Hereticks The books of Calvin are not so damnable at least those speak not of any more Gods then one and the others talk of a great many as if we still lived in those heathen times which worshipped blocks hewn into the shape of men It doth not a little disturb the minds of young people who as in those Books they find nothing so much mentioned as playing dancing and merry-making with young Gentlewomen so would they doe the like and thereby incur the displeasure of their friends Those Books are good for your medley-Gentlemen of the Country who have nothing to doe all day but to walk up and down and pick their nails in an out-chamber But as for the son of a Citizen he should not read anything unless it were the Royal Ordinances the Civility of Children or Patient Grissel to make himself merry on Flesh-dayes This was my advice to Lewis but he would not believe me And then you would say I had a fine task to command him to learn by heart the Quadrains of Pybrac or the Tablettes of Matthieu that he might sometimes rehearse them at the Tables-end when there were Company alas he could not endure the speech of it That
all Heroes in Romances who never go to any place but they are entertain'd with some History So that being all seated Montenor read the following Discourse THE BANQUET OF THE GODS AVrora had already given the Watchword to the night to draw her Curtains and truss up her Baggage to be gone when the earth receiv'd a Mornings Draught of pleasant Dew which gave occasion to those that saw it to imagine that the Gods were rinsing their Bowls or that it was the remainders of some Nectar after a great Feast or that haply the Beautiful fore-runner of the Sun wash'd her hands at her uprising or that she emptied her Chamber-pot But though it might have hapned to be any of all these according to the seasons as men know well by the different Dews which fall from heaven yet was it not either of all those things fell out then for indeed it was nought else but that the horses which draw the Chariot of that Goddess who began to shew her self shook their mains at their starting out of the sea The Sun being oblig'd to follow her had by this time put off his Night-cap and having put on his Cassock of fine gold had incircled his head with beams The minutes who are his pages help'd to make him ready while the hours having dress'd his horses and given them their Oates were putting them into the Chariot It was easie for men hence to judge it would not be long ere he would appear in the Celestial Vault but they slighted his brightness and having just broke off a Debauch that had lasted four and twenty hours they turn'd day to night and went for the most part to bed Nay just then when the Gods besetting themselves to their ordinary employments seem'd to upbraid their Supinity their greatest business was to banish all care nor could they now prostrate themselves at any Altars but those of bacchus and Sleep Jupiter who was wont to receive the early addresses of such as ador'd him in his Temples was very much surpris'd with this alteration and not thinking fit it should be said that while Mortals entertained themselves in all sorts of pleasures the Gods should be subject to infinite toil as for example the Sun who perfected his course with that diligence that he had not the leasure to wipe his nose by the way he resolved to treat them all at a solemn Banquet He communicated his design to Juno who was then a-bed with him but she being somewhat of a niggardly humour was not well pleas'd that he should put himself to so great expence and to take away the desire he might have to effectuate his resolution she told him she had not Napkins enough to entertain such a number and that it was along time since Pallas had made her any cloath Now you are to note by the way that this Linnen of the Gods is made of the thred of the lives of Mortals which is still wound up in heaven when the Destinies have finish'd it That which hath belong'd to vertuous and illustrious persons is employ'd in Shirts Smocks Handkerchiefs and Tablecloaths but for what comes from Rusticks and other people of grosser Education there is only made of it Kitchin-Linnen and Dishâ—loâ—ts So that there is nothing in this world lost and commonly when it rains 't is Juno that is driving a buck But notwithstanding all she could remonstrate to her husband as to the trouble she should have to get her Linnen wash'd afte this great Banquet he calls Mercury with a loud voyce and commanded him to go and invite all the Gods and Goddesses of the Universe to Sup with him in his Palace which Vulcan had built upon the top of Mount Olympus Mercury the Childe of Obedience presently put on his Flying-shoes and his Wing'd-hat and got his Caduceur and having perus'd the Catalogue of the Gods whom he was to go and invite to the General Assemblie he took his first flight to the Seventh Sphere where finding Fate Nature Fortune Prometheus Janus Terminus and certain other Gods with Saturn in his own Palace he discharg'd himself of his Duty and Message to them Thence he pass'd through the fourth Heaven where finding the Sun newly entered his Carreer he spoke to him at the side of his Chariot without giving him any occasion of stay This God promis'd him he would drive his Steeds somewhat faster then ordinary and that he would make as much haste as if he took fresh horses at every Sign for to be at the place appointed soon enough Mercury having left him comes down on earth because neither Mars nor Venus nor the Moon were yet posssess'd of their several Heavens He went in the first place to the Isle of Lemnos to Vulcan whom he found very busie making of Thunderbolts for to munition Jupiters Arsenal because the iniquities of men were become so great that there was need of an infinite number to punish them all He desired him to leave his work for a while telling him that Jupiter was to make a Banquet to which he was come to invite him and that he had the same Message to his wife and Son Vulcan who was nothing Complemental answered him with a frowning countenance That he understood not what civility oblig'd him to let him go into his Wives Chamber while she was yet a-bed but that as for his Son he might freely go to him Whereupon Mercury went out of the Forge into a little Chamber where he found Cupid playing with his little Trinkets as Children use to do Having ask'd him what he did Cupid answered he was going to wash his headband which had â—ain foul ever since he had worn it and that if he had consumed the hearts of so many Lowers and made them shed so many tears it was for no other end then to get water and ashes enough to drive a Buck. The Ambassadour of the King of the Gods laughing in himself at his excellent invention told him the occasion of his visit and desired him to acquaint his mother with it This pass'd he took leave of him as also of Vulcan cursing such a jealous Cockscomb that having a wife so handsome rose so betimes from her because he would do as other Forge-men that is get up in the morning to work Vulcan who knew he never went abroad without his hands had an eye to all his tools when he went a-away but seeing he had not medled with any thing he dismissed him peaceably Mercury having occasion to cross the sea gave notice to Neptune and all his Maritime Court so that he soon acquitted himself of his Ambassage to them And from thence he went to Aeolus and did the like That done in one continued flight he got into Thrace and having found Mars surbishing his Armor under a Tent he invited him to the banquet with the same Ceremony as the rest Having by this time traversed the whole earth he forgot not still in his way Ceres Bacchus PRIAPUS Pan the
earth for their nourishment why will not you do the like by those you have in Heaven Jupiter overcome by the reasons of his Son bid him send his Cyclopes to take down all the Signs that were good Provision The business was as soon done as spoken so Brontus Pyragmon and some others of the Scullions brought away the Hare the Swan the Dolphin the Whale the Ram the Bull the Crab and the Fishes all which they made ready in divers manners Nay they did not spare the Dragon the Bear the Hydra nor the Wolf and some other Beasts whose flesh was thought somewhat hard and indigestible For Vulcan affirm'd they were already half bak'd because they had been so long fastned to stars In the mean time the meat was thus in making ready Juno and Iris made it their work to accommodate all within the Palace It was built of Petrifi'd Clou'ds and the walls were enamell'd with such a diversity of colours that they defi'd all Tapistry There wanted nothing but the sweeping of the floor wherein those Goddesses were somewhat at a loss for a broom In this trouble comes in Aeolus with a great bunch of Keys at his Girdle He had lock'd up all the winds within their Caves except the Zephir which as his Minion went always with him and carried up his train He perceiving the trouble of the Queen of the Goddesses swell'd up his Cheeks and blew so about the Hall that he easily drove out all the dust before him His Mistress Flora who could not forsake him came presently after with divers other Nymphs who strew'd Flowers all about Hercules Mercury Castor Pollux and other of the houshold set the Tables right laid the Cloathes and plac'd the chairs These moveables were made of the Trees into which men had been of old Metamorphos'd Jupiter and Juno having put on their best cloathes came in to entertain the Company and presently after entered Ceres who caus'd to be brought in as good bread as ever was bak'd and after that Bacchus with Pan and the Satyres who were loaden with bottles which they discharg'd themselves of near the side Table Silenus who follow'd them was the Butler and was already so drunk that it was not thought he could have drunk any more he stumbled so oft as if his legs had been made of Tough so that they gave him a chair which came in good time for him to repose his panch in which was swollen like the Sail of a ship in a good wind While Ceres Bacchus and all the Gods of the Fields were in their Complements Pluto came in with his wife who since her going to Hell was become so fottish that she had forgotten all manner of Civility and Complement She made a Courtezy to the Company and with a rustick simplicity came and said to Jupiter We must confess indeed Father you do us a great favour to invite 〈◊〉 to Supper here we were sad enough at home when we were gotten into our Chariot for to come out of hell our Dog came and leapt upon me and did so lick and kiss my cheeks with all his three tongues that I could hardly part with him I thought once to have brought him with me he had at least done you some service in turning the spit and then you will not believe what a pretty Cur it is he dances on his hind feet and fetches any thing you cast to him You have done better to have left him behind you Daughter says Jupiter for besides that it is not a Dog to be carried in ones sleeve we have others here whom he might have bitten with his six ranks of Jaws Do you not know-well that we have here a Dog among the Stars T is he that picks the bones of the Celestial Fowl which is sometimes eaten at our Table and as for yours he should only pick the bones of dead men But how comes it you have not brought my son Minos along If we should have brought him replyes Pluto assuming the Discourse the two other Judges and the Destinies the Furies and Charon would have come too and in the mean time you know they cannot quit their employments for one moment without a design of destroying all mankinde As Pluto ended his Remonstrance the arrival of Mars dazzl'd the Assembly with the glittering of his Armour His Mustachoes were turn'd like the Gard of a Poignard that so it might seem his very face was armed and his eyes were fiery as those of a Lyon in a fury Yet was there nothing but what was honorable in his Salutations to Jupiter and the rest and Venus entring thereupon into the Hall he who spoke nothing but of vanquishing others confessed himself overcome She was attended by her Son and the three Graces who had spent the whole day in dressing her After her came in Pallas who in the midst of her gravity had some features that rendred her Amiable And then came the Moon and her Brother the Sun who having retain'd some of his beams about his head sufficiently enlightned the place He was so Complemental that he would salute the Ladies one after another but as his mouth was near that of Juno's to kiss her first she starts back presently feeling the heat of his mustacho's which began to burn her cheek Jupiter perceiving it told him he was to blame that he had not bath'd his chin in cold water when he laid aside his fires You do not consider that I was in such haste to come hither replyes Phoebus that I had not the leasure to cast my self into the sea where my fair Hostess Amphitrite ever prepares me a bathe She entertains me there at mine Host's Table I am afraid she 'll make me pay for to day though I sup not with her While he said this Neptune Amphitrite Palemon and many other Sea-Divinities arriv'd who told him that he was not so rigorously dealt with as he would make believe and that he had his lodging very cheap Their dispute was not heard because Saturn Janus and the other ancient Gods came in at the same time whom they were on all sides busie to receive There was only Juno who was not well pleas'd with their coming When she saw Janus with his two faces she cryed out to her husband did I not tell you that you would ruine your self You counted but one person in attendance to your Father and behold there 's two This glutton Janus hath two great faces and two huge mouthes which can each of them devour as much meat as four I am resolved he shall not be entertained here he shall not be at our Table for he will starve all the rest Let him go to the gate 't is his ordinary charge to keep it Alas what do you trouble your self Sweet-heart says Jupiter What will my Father say when he hears you will not have him bring along with him one he makes so much of Consider that though Janus hath two mouthes yet he hath but one
belly and two hands so that he can eat no more then any of the rest and his body can contain no more then what is reasonable The mouth which he hath behinde serves him to no purpose but to draw in the wind which comes that away And I must tell you besides that he may be of good use at the Table seeing that out of respect to Saturn he must be admitted for now I think on 't he must be placed towards the side Table that with his hind-eyes he may look to the wine which this doting Silenus will not husband so well and so hinder that these drunken Satyrs who are to wait drink it not all As for the Office of Porter do not you trouble your self for I have given it the Sagittary of the Zodiack While Jupiter gave his wife these consolations the Gods made sport with Janus who to make appear to them that there was nothing to be found fault with as to his person went and kist Venus with the mouth behinde and with his hands drawing to him one of the Graces kiss'd her with the mouth before There 's a Wag says Phoebus he should have two wives he hath this advantage over us that he can kiss two at once But you may say as well says the subtil Prometheus that he may at the same time receive four boxes in the ear In the midst of this jesting Aurora the Muses and some others arrived so that there was a great noise of Chariots and neighing of Horses at the Palace gate Jupiter seeing all the Guests were come commanded the Banquet should be served up The Sun and his Sister had light enough about them to chase away the obscurity of the Hall however to observe order and decency they fastned to the walls certain plates of gold which instead of Torches had Armes of silver and at the hands thereof there were so many stars nailed Hereupon Mercury who was the Clark of the Kitchin enters with the Fawns and Satyrs who brought up Messes which he dispos'd upon the Table Jupiter Saturn Pluto Neptune Juno Venus and the rest of the Company having wash'd their hands in the water of Eridan sate them down without any dispute every one according to their quality The King of the Gods according to the custom of all great Princes had his Physician on the one side and his Jester on the other And that was Aesculapius and Momus the one whereof was there to oversee what meats were to be eaten and the other to carp at the actions and words of the presence The first bout Momus had was with his Master telling him that he knew not the reason why he had not invited Discord to his Banquet no more then he had not done at the Marriage of Thetis and therefore he must expect she should come to sow some dissention to trouble the Feast and that there is not on Mount Ida any Shepherd able to decide the differences of the Divinities If there be no more illustrious Shepherds on the Mountain of Ida says Lysis interrupting the Narration of Montenor be it known there is at this present one at the foot of the Mount of St. Geneuieusue and let not the Gods be any thing troubled I am as able a Iudge as Paris All this is long since past says Montenor do not think it a thing present There 's no question but that if you had been in the world when this Banquet was made Momus had remembred you I pray do not any further disturb the Gods at their meat A Masons Boy will have his hour Montenor having so said obtain'd silence and having look'd into his Paper went on in this manner Iupiter answered Momus that he had well considered what he said and that he had already taken order that their enjoyments should not be interrupted And if he had not invited Discord nor the Furies Famine Envy Sadness and Poverty whose company is ever unpleasant he would send them each their Mess that so they might not grumble While this past the most part of the Gods took bread Saturn cut it with his sithe Bacchus with his pruning-hook Mars with his cymiter and divers of the rest with Ceres's sickle which she lent them And as for meat Neptune took him some with his trident Pluto with his scepter which is made in the fashion of a fork Venus with the point of her Sons dart and the daughter of Latona would needs be doing with the point of her javelin and Pallas with the top of her lance For the Gods are never without their Arms no not when they are at table because if they had them not about them they could not be distinguished one from another As for example if you see a picture or statue of Mercury how will you know it is he if he have not his Caduceur It stood them upon at least to have about them the marks of their Divinity as Jupiter who had his thunderbolt which his Eagle held in his beak close by him Yet he thought it not handsom to permit the Gods to cut bread with their Arms for Saturn in using his great Sithe had already saluted his Gossip Janus in the jaw-bones with the handle of it and had drawn blood at his teeth Mercury was much blamed that he had not taken order for knives and forks at the table so that he was fain to go immediately to ask for some of Vulcan who had enough So he came immediately back and furnish'd all the company Momus whose chiefest desire was to see the the Gods quarrel reassum'd his discourse and said to Prometheus Thou art now very proud to eat at the table of the Gods whereas time was when thy own Liver was the food of birds Do not renew my antient miseries replies Prometheus it suffices that Jupiter hath pardoned me knowing my offence was not so great as he had thought He thought that having formed the body of a man I impudently came even to heaven to steal fire to animate it But I made appear to him my more modest carriage I only had the invention of the Burning-glass which when I expos'd to the Sun I drew his fire to me without stirring from earth I am glad of the occasion to tell thee thus much before so many other Gods who knew it not before It is a very commendable thing sayes Saturn interposing in the discourse to forget old quarrels Should I suffer any thing to be said of what hath happened to Prometheus I see it would be my turn at length to be made Table-talk In the mean time let there no stories be made of my fortune I am no other then what I would be It is true time hath been I sate on the same throne whereon Iupiter now sits but it was no longer then Innocencie dwelt among men and now that they are become mischievous I would not be oblig'd to govern them While I reign'd they cared not for riches and if that Age was call'd the
shall be one of the first so that thou shalt take infinite pleasure to see so many Beauties all naked and in feeling them all over as thou must I shall then be jealous of thee and shall think thy condition better then my own But if thou art so high-minded that thou wilt have none but humane creatures to drink of thy waters there shall be notice given to all Shepherds Cowherds and Goatherds not to bring any of their Cattel thither to water These are indeed very excellent propositions says Carmelin but I have told you already that I care not for the company of those people of the other world I 'll never come among them again Thou canst not receive any more hurt replies Lysis for thou shalt be of the same condition with them and being an aquatick Demy-god thou wilt be far otherwise respected then when thou wert a poor mortal Possibly thou mayst have some authority over the rest and as to what concerns Men they shall address their vows and sacrifices to thee and I and all those whom thou hast seen in this country will adore thee These promises are great says Carmelin And for to taste them though I know not what you speak to me of and that it cannot enter into my imagination that a man of flesh and bone as I am can become water I assure you that I would gladly be one if you can make me become so For I swear to you that I am extreamly curious and I shall not much stand upon the changing of my condition often so that in the end I attain happiness But I pray tell me how I must carry my self for to be what you desire I should that I may know whether the pains exceed not the pleasure Thy obedience is commendable says Lysis since I see thou art so modest I tell thee there are divers wayes to become a Fountain 'T is true I find not in Antiquity any other way then that of weeping abundantly but it is to be conceiv'd that both the Gods men are become more subtile and ingenious since that time for among the modern Metamorphoses we find that Synopa who was all ice was melted into water by the fire of Love and that Lucida who had the Dropsie hath piss'd so much that it became a Source But all this is nothing proper for thee Carmelin For first thy disposition suffers thee not to weep and besides thou art not ice nor yet hast thou the dropsie We must therefore find out some other way I have known some men who by violent exercise sweated so that the water dropp'd down as if they had been Statues of snow exposed to the sun Go thy ways somewhither and play at Tennis or at Football a whole day together that may be a good means to accomplish thy intention You come not neer the mark says Clarimond why do you not rather bid Carmelin go and get him the disease which the French call the disease of Naples and the Neapolitans the French disease He might then go to Paris and sweat at his pleasure with some of those that force their Empirick bills upon all that pass by and then you shall see him better metamorphos'd into a Fountain then the fair Acis Let 's not busie our thoughts with mischief I pray thee Carmelin may be metamorphos'd without making himself infamous by any such filthiness If there be no more requisite then to sweat extreamly he need not make use of any sordid receit but go to some honest Hot-houses but I will furnish him with so many inventions that he shall have to choose The Alchimists extract water out of herbs flowers roots and divers other things which are more dry by putting them into the Alimbeck it will not be amiss so to dispose of our miserably amorous Shepherd that he may be distill'd No such matter I thank you says Carmelin I do not intend to be set afire behind nor do I conceive any goodness can proceed from all your subtilties What is more my mind is wholly perplex'd in this business methinks though all my body were melted into water as you would desire it there would not be as much as would fill an hogshead For measure me by a Geometrical proportion you will find that I am but three foot about and five foot high all which would not suffice to fill a Fountain-head and continually supply a brook that should measure the diameter of this ground or by crooked windings should find a passage into Morin and thence into Marne and thence into the Seine and so into the Ocean There thou hast spoken very learnedly says Lysis and besides that thy terms are excellent thy reason is miraculous I know thou doubtest of somwhat it is a sign of ingenuity for I have often heard it said that Doubt is the mother of Philosophy and that because when one is doubtfull of any thing he desires to be more assured of it and never leaves searching for it till he have found out what was most hidden and secret therein I believe that with a serious meditation thou wouldst thy own self comprehend how those things I told thee may be effected but I will shorten to thee the path of truth so that thou shalt touch it with thy finger Take notice then that according to the Metamorphoses which the Gods bring about the bodies are either dilated or contracted it is no more difficult to the supreme Powers to make a thing greater then to make it less and if it be certain that Arachne was chang'd into a Spider and the Inhabitants of Licia into Frogs it is as well possible that Pismires have been chang'd into men Atlas into a Mountain and some others into Rivers Ovid never omits to speak of this contraction and dilation nor should he but I know one secret which neither he nor any other ever thought on which yet if it be not known a man cannot explain the Metamorphoses and this is it when there is a necessity a man should be chang'd into something greater then himself then the Gods cause certain winds to enter into him which swell him up to the proportion required and when another is to be chang'd into some little creature they infuse a certain drought into him that consumes whatever is superfluous so though they do some miracles which appertain only to themselves and whereof there cannot likely any natural reason be given yet do they not hinder but the second causes may operate somewhat therein I have been fain to search the Cabinet of Jupiter for to be assur'd of this miracle and who ever understands it may take away the vail of his ignorance By this thou art to understand Carmelin that it is easie for the Gods to change thee into a fountain and that thou mayest supply water enough for that end since some men who were of no greater corpulence then thou have been chang'd into Rivers and Mountains The Inhabitants of heaven provide for whatever is
proposed much like those I sometime saw at Paris Some Schollers shall maintain them others shall dispute against them both for the exercise of their parts and that truth may issue out of these altercations as a spark of fire from the collision of two flints As for example there shall be those that shall in the first place maintain that Absence bring more satisfaction to Lovers then presence Secondly That it is better to see a Wench that one loves dead if one be reciprocally loved by her then to see her married to another and not be loved by her Thirdly That the affection is greater after enjoyment then before it In the fourth place That it is better for one to enjoy his Shepherdess twice a week with all the torments and disquiets in the world then to enjoy her fifteen days together in one year with all freedom and not under go any hardship to have her In the fifth place That the remembrance of any thing that is good is a greater pleasure then the good self In the sixth place That it were better for one never to enjoy his Mistress then to do it on an infallible condition that another should have the enjoyment of her also though he were your dearest friend And in the seventh place That the jealousie of a Lover who never knew any enjoyment is stronger and more violent then that of a husband who enjoys every day A man may advance a many other as subtil propositions and by such disputations shall every one be fully instructed On the days when this diversion is not to be had the time shall be spent in singing making of verses dancing and divers other Pastoral sports This indeed is a very pleasant and much desirable way of life saies Menelas but since we shall have no offices or professions among us it is most certain we shall get nothing and if so I know not how the family shall be maintain'd and the taxes paid Our condition is noble and free and consequently exempted from all impositions replies Lysis trouble not your self as to that As for matter of livelihood we shall want nothing There is no bird so inconsiderable but findes his dinner though he have neither store-house nor fee-farm rent heaven provides for all the creatures in the world 'T is very certain you cannot want your entertainment since you can restore the golden age says Clarimond In that first age of the world all the rivers were not milk and all the trees bore not fruit of Lotos as many fools have imagin'd Nature brought forth nothing but what it does now and that not so abundantly then because nothing was advanc'd by cultivation but men were content with what they could finde and to make a true relation of the felicity of that time it must be confess'd that men fed on Acorns as well as the swine and drank out of the river as all other creatures did They had no coverture but their skin or haply some garment of leaves The earth was their Table and their Bed the grass their Carpet the bushes their Curtains and the caves their retreats And thus it is most certain the first men lived so unreasonable a thing it is to conceive they liv'd in a golden Age since gold was not yet discover'd Let it be considered whether their life was not rather brutish then humane and if they are not mad men which grieve for it and that despise ours whereof the ornament and civility cannot be over commended You have much reason to believe you will easily finde your livelihood if you regulate your self to that ancient manner of life for indeed Lysis you shall not be deny'd such a nourishment as we allow beasts but what you do is as if the Law-makers were not yet come into the world to make men leave the forrests and rocks and to perswade them to live in community in Cities I believe there will be very few shall envy you for my part I shall only bemoan you to see you become savage for if you will needs restore your golden age you must go naked as an American and at the best be no better hous'd then with a few turfs as your beggars on the high-way who sell wands to Travellers I do not believe the ancients entertain'd themselves as thou sayest reply'd Lysis but though it were so know that I will imitate onely what is good in their life I intend also to joyn to it the happiness of this last age wherein all the curiosities in the world have been invented It shall suffice me to live in the innocency and freedom of the first age and it may be thou wilt be of my opinion when thou shalt have tasted the pleasures which I have imagin'd we shall not envy any nor be envied by any Of all the passions there is only Love shall possess us And if sometimes we shall be guilty of any hatred we shall exercise it only against the wolves which are in hostility against our Shepherdry What pleasure will it be to love Shepherdesses whose affection will be mutual and will freely discover it self when respect shall not cause reservedness and breed in their mindes what shall torment them We shall finde that those fair ones will be neither Cockneys nor Courtizans and that the unfaithfulness of Lovers will not teach them to carry two hearts in one breast As concerning divine worship and the sciences which we shall study I have spoken to that point already but as for our ordinary recreations I have fancied to my self most excellent ones Those of better quality among us shall act a Comedy every day The subject shall be taken out of some piece of ancient Poetry and the parts being assign'd to those who already know the story by heart they shall only be told the cast of the Scenes and then they must compose as it were on a sudden what they have to say Besides I have found out an incomparable kinde of stage I have seen your Players at Burgundy-house I have seen some plays in the Colleges but all was but fiction There was a sky of Canvas a rock of Parport and in all things the painting cheated our eyes but I will have it far otherwise our plays shall be acted in the open field and our stage shall be the great Theatre of nature we 'll have no heaven but the true heaven if a Shepherd be to issue out of a Thicket he shall do it out of a true thicket if he must drink at a spring he shall drink at one indeed and so all things being naturally represented men will believe they see the true history so that the actors being thereby animated themselves will put on the passions of those parts which are assig'd them and the spectators be as much pleas'd as astonish'd at it And all this I do not any thing doubt of when I consider that when ever I was at any play at Paris though they were not so natural and lively as ours
fair that for to commend it I must not imitate their imagination that Love made his residence there for 't is so smooth that that fickle Child could not fix on it 't is on wrinckled foreheads that he hath the opportunity to erect his throne and it must be thought that the several wrinckles are the steps whereby we ascend to his chair of state But when he set his foot there he slid into your Eyes where he found his most certain retreat but so it is that whether with his will or against it he must stay there for he burnt his wings as soon as ever he enter'd in This is the reason that the wounds I receive when you look on me are so dangerous and it may be cleerly seen that a powerful Divinity is become the intelligence of those two bright stars which govern the course of my life But what miracles do I find on your Cheeks the complexion is white but never pale and the redness is never obscure There is the same brightness on the corral upon your fair lips which are the portals of the Temple of Eloquence What shall I say of that neck and breast but that it is a most extravagant imagination to compare them to Ivory and milk since they have a quite different lustre The Poets celebrate their Mount Parnassus whereon there are twins of hills and the tradition is that he that hath slept thereon becomes a consummate Poet but it s to be conceiv'd that he that should enjoy those two little mounts which are on that fair breast would be far more divinely inspir'd either for Poesie or Eloquence As for the rest of the body where though the beauties must be eternally conceal'd yet do I not doubt their perfection And it must needs be great since it is honoured with the burthen of that fair head wherein I finde so many miracles It hath more glory to support that then Atlas to sustain heaven for here are far more divinities then in Jupiters Pallace O how happy then must I esteem thee amiable body to have so fair a face and thou fair face to be so happy in such bright eyes and you bright eyes to be so full of Charms and Attraction But what 's above all how happy art thou fair body in the general to be the lodging of the fairest soul in the world Methinks I have still somewhat to say in thy praise and that I have forgotten one part which I often see I have not mention'd the ears though near neighbors to the cheeks and are umbrag'd by the hair with so much beauty But why should I speak of those unmerciful things 't is from them proceeds the chiefest cause of my torment They wil not hear what I suffer that so they might give an account to that divine spirit which governs all the other senses As long as they shall continue in this severity I cannot but take them for my enemies but if it happen they abate their rigour I promise them to recompence and redeem the time I have not honor'd them I know not whether Philiris had something further to say but there he stuck as it had been to call to minde some other fine imagination to entertain Angelica They were all very attentive to his discourse which he delivered with a sweet accent and a delightful gesture Angelica her self was nothing troubled to hear her self so prais'd though she blushed a little and as for the Shepherd Lysis he was so ravish'd that he went and embrac'd the courteous Orator speaking to him in these words Dear Friend what charms are there in thy discourses how sweet and amorous is thy style I promise thee quite to disengage Clarimond and have no more to do with him thou art far the fitter to compose my history Philiris thank'd the Shepherd for the honor he did him and promis'd him his utmost services As for Clarimond he seeing himself disengag'd made a vow ever to contradict Lysis and that in open Hostility The talk which rise about this broke off the sport and thence they insensibly fell upon the strange exploits of Lysis and Carmelin I have heard saies Leonora the Story of Meliantes whereby that Shepherd had shewn how his Mistress was secur'd in a Fortress and that besides she remembred all the particulars of her deliverance as it had been related to her but she had not been told the true cause of her captivity nor who was the author of it Lysis and Meliantes answered that if she would be satisfied in that she must address her self to Hircan who knows the most secret things The company having entreated him to tell what he knew of that business He began thus without any want of fabulous invention The History of the Magician Anaximander YOu are to know dear Company that in the Isle where Pamphilia was a captive there is a Magician call'd Anaximander who hath liv'd there these thirty years It s no longer since he was born as most believe and yet he boasts himself to be the true Son of the Sorceress Circe As for his father he knew not his name because his mother was somewhat common This is not to make us believe that she liv'd to this age that he expounds otherwise He says that when she was alive two thousand years since he having learned of this good mother all magical secrets desired to live eternally on earth and not go with her to heaven nor yet to the Elizian fields because he took greater pleasure to be here below When he had examin'd all the receipts for renewing of age he found none easier then that of exchanging of Bodies He thought it not fit to desire one of his friends to kill him and to take his body all to pieces to form another stronger out of it he was afraid somewhat should interrupt the operation and that he might be left half made A little Nephew of his being knock'd in the head with a quoit as he look'd on his Comrades at play he found a way to discharge his former body and assume that of the childe which he afterwards animated to the great amazement of all the world who thought him dead Fourscore years after another little childe playing among others who carried him prisoner and made as if they would put him to death it hapned his companions throtl'd him in good earnest Anaximander made use again of that body and so hath he done with divers others to this day having the power to disengage his soul from this terrestrial mass and fasten again as firmly that it is equally fitted for the execution of all its functions as any other He drinks he eats he sleeps he gets children and yet is never sick His soul takes up bodies as travellers do Inns where they are as well accommodated as at home But one great advantage of his immortality is that he hath been of all conditions which he hath freely pass'd through as they had been only parts of a Play and so
possession when I please replies Lysis I shall soon make my self known and besides though I had nothing of all my father and mother left me must I be cast down and fare ever the worse since that in all Romances you will find divers in strange Countries having nothing in the world who yet were Princes or Knights of better houses then I am of They lived only by what they borrowed of good friends whom they found every where does that seem strange to thee Do the Romances speak any thing incredible as to that point Sometimes Montenor hath entertained us sometimes Orontes sometimes Hircan nay sometimes Clarimond though he seem now to be my greatest enemy and this is a thing not to be passed by without admiration As plainly shewing that all true lovers are favoured by heaven Thou seest also that Polidor and Meliantes who are of a Country further distant hence then ours and have nothing of their own do yet live plentifully enough by the courtesie of those friends they meet who are their benefactors There are in some books Lovers mentioned who have lived only upon Roots in the deserts like Hermits and divers have been hirelings to Shepherds to get a livelyhood What should hinder but we may do the like if we be brought to that extremity since 't is no more then we have done for our recreation You are wiser then I replies Carmelin and therefore all the answer I make you is that I will not contradict you in any thing but will be alwaies of your opinion Hear then what my designe is saies Lysis I will feign my self dead both to get away this Adrian and withall to find out whether my Mistress will have any compassion on me and that 's it I aim at principally Now there 's a great difference between death and a Metamorphosis for I suffered my self to be metamorphosed into a Tree without any resistance because there was some hope I might one day be restored to my former shape but as concerning death when we go that journey we shall never return That makes me resolve to die only in jest for if I should dispatch my self as many have done that I could name 't were a strange folly since 't is not beyond hope I may one day be happy There are a many in your Romances that have killed themselves because of the cruelty of their Mistresses and they again some of them having notice of their death have murdered themselves after them or at least have all their lives repented their cruelty and disdain It may be seen by this that if those desperate people had had the wit to feigne death they might have been extreamly happy My intention thereof is so much the more excellent and there is now no more to do then to bethink us of the means to put it in execution There are some that hide a piggs bladder full of bloud between their skins and their shirts and give themselves a stab there they fall and seem to be quite gone till every one runs to help them but I do not like that way a man might hurt himself if the Ponyard went a little further then it should but there are other accidents stranger yet besides that when they came to search your wound the cheat would be discovered which would be scandalous and laught at I will therefore play my game better if I can I will take a glass of Wine with somewhat in it which every one will conceive to be poison and when I have drunk it off I will be as stiffe as an iron barre and will keep in my breath as if I were dead a while after thou shalt make as if thou hast buried me and the business is done Now I will lurk somewhere till Adrian be gone and Charite being acquainted with my death shall have time enough to bewayle my loss When thou shalt perceive her grief excessive and that she wishes from her heart I were alive again that she might honour me with her affection which she had denied me before let me know it immediately that I may go and take her at her word and receive the recompence of my afflictions Now when we are come thus farre there are inventions enough to make the world believe I have bin rais'd again and thus I shall so much the more ingratiate my self with Charite who will look on me as a man highly in favour with the Gods Thus will I compass my desire and what will most comfort me is That I have run through all the adventures of the best Histories and that my own will be the most accomplish'd in all the world As for the stealing away of Charite I think no more on 't 't is enough I once had such a designe My thoughts are now all taken up with my feigned death perhaps 't will be generally believed that I was dead in deed and was raised again so that Philiris shall not mention it as a fiction in his book or if he do he shall speak of it as an opinion of some few but which he shall condemn as erroneous affirming my death to have been real When Lysis said this he thought little of Polidors being behind him and hearing all his discourse This Shepherd having heard Lisis his designe retired as if he had heard nothing and resolved to give notice to his Companions that they might act their parts well when the business came upon the Stage As for Carmelin his Masters enterprise to him was very indifferent for he thought better to do so then lose him quite which haply he had done if Adrian had taken him away to Paris He therefore promised him his utmost assistance and so they went both to Hircan Adrian and Pernella came thither at the same time to know whether they might be gone with their Cousin the next day Hircan told them that after three daies they should have him away desiring in that time to satisfie himself with his conversation Pernella told him they could not stay so long that it was a good while since they had been from home and that they had left in the Shop but one Prentice of whose fidelity they were not over-confident Hircan regarded not much these remonstrances and while Pernella was thus taken up Fontenay who had bethought himself of a new invention to make sport sate down in a chair whence he pronounced these words with a languishing voice What my bright Sun saies he will you leave us already Would you shine in another hemisphere whence you will never return Alass 't is fit the world be all served by degrees Why will you forsake me fair Pernella the ornament of this age life of my soul what will you return to Paris there to be the Pearl of your Quarter Continue rather in this Country where you shall receive greater honours I will make Verses of you shall make you famous over all the world and you will be more talked of then Petrarch's Laura If the fair Cytherea
consider what we have lost unless it be the reflection of our memory on the content and satisfaction we had to possess the incomparable Lysis for we are rather to continue our thanks to the Gods that we enjoy'd him some time then censure them that they have now taken him from us They are possibly our crimes have caus'd it in that we deserve not to have among us so rare a Masterpiece to whose excellence heaven and nature had contributed equally Whether we consider the features of his countenance and the proportion of his body or represent to our selves the delicacy of his disposition and the excellency of his mind there was nothing the earth could be worthy of Nevertheless this common mother of men being desirous to enjoy him eternally had obtained of Jupiter that he might be received into the quality of Trees which she nourishes by their roots but the sage Hircan opposed the decree and delivered the illustrious Shepherd out of captivity which though it was honourable yet could not but be inconvenient But heaven not being long able to be without its own work hath prevailed so far as that it hath taken him hence and it might be easily judg'd it was resolv'd to have him since it was the decree of fate he should expose himself to all manner of dangers to deliver a Lady out of the Prison of an Enchanter though his principal profession was far from that of a Souldier Notwithstanding all this 't was no violent death snatcht him from us but methinks the first fruits of those delights he now enjoyes should not have been so burdensome to him a natural death came and gently closed up his eyes and hath not broken nor cut the knots which fastned his soul and body together but hath most dexterously and without any violence untyed them These words moved Lysis so far that he almost forgot he was departed He was ready to speak and to tell the Shepherds they were to blame to say his death was natural since it was violent He thought that if it was not said he had poisoned himself his hopes would have been frustrated and he should deserve nothing of Charite He never imagined it would have been ignominious to him if it should be said he had dispatched himself The agitation of his mind was so great that his body moved a little which Meliantes perceiving acquainted the Oratour with it but they perswaded him it was an illusion so that Philiris proceeded in his Oration I should then have told you Pastoral Assembly that it was necessary Lysis should die since it was the pleasure of heaven but yet there was no consideration should oblige us to receive his death otherwise then with the greatest afflictions that men are capable of There 's none among us ought for ten years be guilty of the least smile and if any such thing happen it shall be a forfeit How can we disclaim sadness since love himself though a God is not exempted and I believe he will no more go naked as he was wont to do because he must now put on mourning Nor indeed could he not but be extreamly obliged to this Shepherd as who made it his daily employment the dilatation of his Empire while he lived and at his death commended and consign'd his soul into his hands to be conducted into that place where all faithfull Lovers are eternally rewarded I should not tell you all these things did I not herein obey custom who will have it so for I conceive you are all ready to do Lysis all that is due to him without any excitation from my words However I shall presume to desire you against to morrow to prepare your selves for the solemnity of his Funerals then I shall have more to say then I have now and then I shall make a particular relation of all his perfections and the noblest adventures of his Loves not for your sakes who are acquainted with them but to satisfie such as are strangers to them that may happen to be then present and would be glad to understand the life of the Heroick Shepherd whose designe was to introduce among us the felicity of the first age Philiris here ended his discourse whereof Lysis missed not a word being extreamly elevated with the honour they did him Hircan caused all the Shepherds to leave the Chamber and left Carmelin alone to watch the dead body They dined a while after and they brought him what he wanted but though there was not too much for himself yet was he so charitable as having lockt the dore to present his Master with half who confessed he never had a better stomack then since he was dead Anselme returned to Orontes's there to give an account of Lysis's pleasant adventure and to satisfie all as to the report they might have received of his death In the mean time Adrian and Pernella would needs eat apart and not go any more among the Shepherds whom they took for excommunicated and abominable people Their resolution was not to return till they had seen their Cousins body put into the ground in spight of all Hircans oppositions though they had business that much required their hastening to Paris The day being spent in divers entertainments as every one was pleased to pass it away it was thought fit Carmelin should lie in the Chamber where the dead body lay though he seem'd to be somewhat unwilling and the rest were disposed into their ordinary Chambers Lysis seeing himself alone with his faithfull Carmelin talked with him a good while and would needs know what was generally said of his death Having understood that every one bewailed it he believed it might be some affliction to Charite and as for the consulation was had about the burning of his body it troubled him more then all At last he desired Carmelin to bind a faggot about with cloathes and to put it upon the heap in his stead Carmelin promised to do whatever lay in his power The morning was not far spent but Orontes and all his house came to Hircans being extreamly desirous to see the issue of this feigned departure of Lysis Montenor and Clarimond were also present the report it seems having spread so far All the Shepherds were already entred Lysis's Chamber when Adrian comes thither once more to relate his afflictions telling them they were to blame not to have bestowed Christian burial on the poor deceased party Clarimond comes in just as he was speaking so that having known him to be the man he had spoken with in the fields and finding him more staid and discreet then any of the rest he entreated him to stand his friend Clarimond who was of a very good disposition went and spoke softly to Hircan telling him that he knew not what pleasure they took by persecuting the poor Citizen in that manner and that he was sufficiently abus'd You may perceive well enough saies Hircan that it is his cousin Lysis hath begun we have only