since their fortunes do re-resemble much in the miscarrying of their loves Mar. So he hath reason Madam for the Prince's case would warrant any private â—ans dismission of such thoughts whose entertainement did so much defame loves power by his Tyranny and they ill subjects are whose constant sufferings do better the world from his subjection which can be taken only by their will Bel. I do confesse the Prince for many reasons might not only be allowed but wished a second and succesfull love that he may know our Sex have joyes that may outprise his sufferings be may else grow vaine in this his sorrow and beleeve love owes his more then it can pay in all our Sex Mora. What Madam then is my condition whose sufferings I should think injured compared with his did I not find the Prince exalted by you to so high a pitty as I am glad mine were now likened to them might not I preâ—end to have my second choyce wisdome not inconstancy â—el I beleeve you might and I should pitty you the more were you not here in this delighâ—â—ull â—â—â—ce and he abroad in search of that you have attained Forgetfullnâ—sse Mora. You speake Madam as though you wished him here where would he were even in my place and I any where but with your pity Bel. You wish Moramente much against him and more against your selfe for you had my pitty in your admittance you had it at first sight and since you have my interest in all yoâ—r joyes as part of the Society Mora. If I wish him Madam in my place t' is that I dare wish more in his brave name then in my own in whom so insolent a wish as your esteem could finde but such a pitty as distraction doth Bel. I do esteeme you so much Moramente as I dare never resolve to pitty you so much I trust the vertuous peace of your composed and setled thoughts Mâ—r. Mâ—â—amente is so civil Madam he would make the virtue of this place defective to endear your power by the applying of his wishes unto you And your civility to us Madam is such you borrow now this time from your devotions Beâ— T is true Maâ—tiro time is not so civill as to stay for any body Mora. I have yet devotion enough Madam to forgive Mâ—rtiro his excesse I 'le stay behind a little to dispose my selfe to that Exeunt Bellesa Mâ—rtiro I see there is no vizarding of love to make it passe abroad unknown the eye or mouth are even enough to shew what t is Nay did young Love himselfe wish a disguise he could not ever be fitted For who can take a measure of a growing love where every instant adds as much as even your thought can comprehend And now Love seemes to promise more advantage by this selfe discovery It prompts me to Martiro's friendship whose trust will both afford my love more room for recreation of it selfe and helpe to carry it neerer Bellesa by an insensible approach which it may make by him I will professe â—y passion freely to Martiro I am sure to be beleeved that 's a joy which I defy my own misfortune to oppose me in But I must not provoke it with unthankfullnesse I must acknowledg to my misfortune the debt of this experience All love 's a light which as it doth eject Shaddowes by them it doth it selfe detect So he that thinks love can be shaddowed quite Knowes not there is no shadow without light I will contribute now to Bâ—llesa's knowledge and will leave these verses here which she must find at her returne Exit Enter Gemella Gem. Is this strange discovery part of my curse my finding out of the Prince only that I might misse Agenor The peace this place affords had been too much for me without this disquiet of Agenors parting with the Prince I can guesse no reason unlesse he should finding him setled here have asked leave to go back again unto the King with the designe of seeing me Which I am aptest to suspect Iâ— doth so well agree with my misfortunes such a disappointment And yet I findsome bold devining-thoughts that thank my fears that brought me hiâ—her And promise me I shall redeeme the Prince his favour by so strange a service He may thinke I ow the virtue of my faith unto his fate that did compell me to inconstancy Which was ordained that his despaire might wellcome this destined blessing so much more and I shall have a double merit by my contribution of dispaire and hope I do confesse his passions and already have professed his prayses and he is himselfe our Prince And now I must apply my selfe to the successe of his disguise I shall so studiously persue his end as his consent unto Agenor's choyse and mine shall be a joy of his and no reward Here lies a paper This is his hand I cannot mistake mine eyes are not disguised These are verses full of passion I 'le keep them so as she he ment them to shall see them more recommended then this chance can do Enter Pantamora Pan. I thank my thoughts for this reproach they send me Now the wish of my contribution to the successes of my love which now againe hath mastred my ambition and all the quarrell I have now unto Bellesa is the having envied her that so low a passion should be in me for which I will accept no lesse satisfaction from my selfe then the dis-lustering of her in Moramenâ—'s eyes I am confident she is already settled there with all the advantage love can chuse And sure she cannot choose but see her selfe there by the reflex of his addresses which are so clear as her conivance implyes she findes her selfe no way disfigured there Yet all this is no more advantage then I may allow her I would not meet with lesser difficultyes to expiate my envy which my heart hath let it selfe descend to And now my thoughts shall take their rise no lower then the admiration of her beauty and her virtues and from thence carry my loves successe above them all I will not strike on the flat of envy or destraction but in faire conspicuous flights will make above her Exit Enter Moramente Mora. To what a rashnesse hath my Love transported me as if I might expect my passion had given me an equall power over others to that it had assumed over me I did deliver up my wishes to Martiro with such a confidence as if I had granted his contribution to them as a sute He answered me with such cold civility as did imply surprise He sayd he wondred that so noble a passion could be so defective in so essentiall a point as secresie But that he would impute this opening of my selfe to him a desire of making him a freind by this advance of such a trust as must expresse my confidence in him by the exposure of my happinesse to his discretion In returne of which he said he would promise me so strict a secresie
is made lighter still and is made currant by â—llayâ— So woemen like gold lose of their valew for the good they doe I cannot yet resolve to abate soe much from what I love so well my selfe as to submit to a propriety Meli. Nuptiall bonds Camena do not convey you over to the propriety of him they are delivered to they rather do enlarge the owning of your selfe For they make the same as your selfe what you vouchsafe to joyne unto it So you are still owned but by your selfe inlarged Dâ— not fright me then Camena with that word submission when all I wish is but this Identity To become moâ—â— subject to you because we do dispose of nothing so freely as our selves Cam. That which in our freedome Melidoro is an aâ—surance against these bonds after our engagement doâ— expose us most to the penalty of them This Identity 〈◊〉 man and wife this aggravates our faults as it implyâ— the husbands sufferings for them This interesteth that whose tendernesse hardens our lives unto us a husbandâ— honor which is so delicate as breath nay imagination wounds it and our afflictions are presently ministred foâ— remedies and all our suffering made legall by this Identity Therefore Melidoro I will not hazard the blessing oâ— my love to you by making you My-selfe who have a title dearer to me farr Meli. T is an affected cruelty Camena to punish me for possibility of sinning and not to leave me so much as your love to joy in by this ascription of my punishment to that No Camena this is a deceit full of apparition of your love which like the Sun now it is setting seems to draw neere us when it is remotest therefore now I must expect a following darkenesse Cam. Marke Melidoro how you that would decline mens easines to jealousy are allready insensibly crept into it Enter Votorio Voto Melidoro and Camena I come to warn you both to the Convocation The Queen hath appoynted to day for the hearing of a new Pretender the hour is neere at hand Cam. We will both go along Exeunt Enter Fidamira called Gemella Gem. My innocence hath strengthened even the weakest part of me so as to defeate the kings persute And now secured from those feares lest I should once enjoy a thoughtlesse ease I find a care rise up before me how I should disguise my story Fortune hath provided such an excesse for me as I might spare the halfe lest my distresse may seem so irremediable as to exclude me from this ease The strangenesse of my curse is such as it excludes all beleefe otherwise then that my complaint is vaine And t is no discretion to alledge the love of Princes for a misfortune I must therefore degrade them of that quality and relate them but as father and son this will interest both sexes in my pity who am fled hither choosing so to make peace for others to come and begg my own Enter Queen and the Society Queen The pretender is allready here le ts take our places and give her audience Gem. The very introduction to my story Ladies may be a pretence enough unto your pitties that I am reduced to begg beleefe of you in that which above all things derogates from your selves That your contrariety could be beloved And that which will avert you Gentlemen from the credit of it is that it may seem a scandall to have this love imputed unto men unto whose colours this of mine may seeme a staine and not an ornament Thus I am so miserable as before I plead my cause to make my judges justly parties against me but this wonder past and pardoned then the consequence may easily be beleeved because it is successively naturall A Father and a Son being the subjects of this wonder The passion of the son was first The father followed it unknown to the son of which the father meant to apply the first discovery only to benum and dead what was left of life This was that only pretence which the fury â—ealousy did allow the son which had perswaded as it seemes the father that the blacknesse of his thoughts would match the colour Nature had ment to sute with mine And the gods know I was so equally averse to both as they had made our colours The fathers purpose seemed to him past defeat and finding me one day so constantly unmoved with all those stormes lover's complaints do raise at last this swelling sadnesse broke into a rage and vâ—wed revâ—nge The which the strangnâ—sse of might be discrâ—ditâ—d in my beleefe had not the wonder of his love presaged unnaturall events He said he would reduce himselfe to a condition should defeat even my pitty and in revenge of my crosse-will would frustrate even my power of helping him And there he seemed to prove this purpose was designed above since nature had curst him unto the making of his cursâ— his son Whose making was not thought enough but his end too was destined to him and even for such a cause as was a greater torment then the act Therefore he said his thoughts condemned his son of more then parricide his intercepting of my love to him and he should be sacrificed to this suspition So little did the love of twice himselfe prevaile set by his love to me And this he said he did acquaint me with that my virtue which had been his tormentor might have the paine of being the cause and knowing this detestable effect without the meanes of a prevention which his instant execution should make impossible And thus he seemed to fly from me as if the pleasure of this act already had displaced that of his being with me Then I counselled by virtue in this strange surprise which seeing as her self she had not power to divert this rage did prompt me to disguise her into a shape might please his fancy for a while and so delude this fury by its own resemblance Then I persuing him with haste stayd him seeming to embrace his rage not wrestle with it Then I told him that I did allow this brave resolve as a temptation high enough to justifie my yeelding to And I could never have thought to have mett a humor worthy the matching mine unto I told him mine was none of those warme tender hearts that sighes could blow into a flame It had an adamantine temper which only blood can soften and that he had done like to that Painter that had the figure of a lyon running mad and wanting â—othing but the foame to represent grew so distracted with despaire of hitting it as in a rage he threw his pencil at it and by this chance did rarely perfect his abandoned worke and so his fury had throwing it selfe into so high despaire made up that figure which only could have taken me I told him that his feares were true and that his son was guilty of interposing between him and me But his offence was only naturall not active against him whose having of a son
as my love should be lock't up with the profoundest secretâ— of this world his hidden thoughts which should never have more ayre then would afford them breath only to live but not to speak How dull was I not to beleeve before that all that had seen her were in love with her I 'le give security now for my beleeving it a generall distrust of all the world All women needs must envy her and all men me for the out-loving them I will punish this my looseness so I will endure the guilt of breach of friendship for it and lock it up even from Genorio at his return Enter Genorio led by two Souldiers Soul We may discharge ourselves of this charge now having met you Sir who are of the society He demands Votorio to whom you can direct him better then we Mora. This stranger freinds is addrest to me where you may leave him and take your discharge Soul We obey Sir and leave you Exeunt Souldiers Mora. Dost thou bring newes Genorio that thou hadst rather thy clothes should tell than thou What black traverâ—e hast thou brought to draw between me and my joyes were flying to embrace thee Geno I am happy Sir to come to be imbraced by you in this infectious Colour which must fully and black you too Mora. Throw then Genorio those blacks over me for nothing can appeare so ugly unto me as this party-colored doubt Gen. If the blacks be not so polished Sir as you may see your selfe in them then let your thoughts sink down as low as possibility can fall and they must needs find your misfortune there You have not many to confound your choyce Mora. It must be that Genorio that which sinkes beyond the centre of misfortune so as it ascends upward unto heaven in a rebellion for Saphira's elevation thither My distraction tells me it must be that and justifiys this seisure on me I am so mad allready I do not wish it should be lesse And I am not so happy as to be naturally mad for I have so much sense left yet Genorio as to thank thee for the exempting of thy selfe from so soule a thing as telling it me Gen. Give me leave to tell you Sir you have not guessed so much misfortune as your distraction is going now to make Suppose heavenly Saphira at her home Will not the part of lamentation that you ow her ask an entire soule to pay it her why then do you teare that apeices which even whole will be too little to offer up unto her memory do you think that lesse then a man can be enough to mourn for her Then Sir collect your senses and by this union strengthen them for the imposure of this weight that they may be the bearers of this sacred hearse This leight-distraction shows they would fly from it as a burthen Therefore Sir consider what shame it will be for you to mourn for the divine Saphira as you are not your selfe Mora. As I am my selfe Genorio I must needs be the unfittest to mourne for her for so I owe her most and am unworthy even of an ability to acquitt my selfe Should I speake to save those senses that were guilty of her death No Genorio no lesse then running mad and biting even the virtue of the place so as by my infâ—ction it may distracted dye and turne this Paradise into a mourning wildernesse where nothing but wild sorrow shall abide There is nothing but the virtue of this place so inverted can be a monument of greife fitt for the divine Saphira He offers to go out But stay before I go Genorâ—o tell me the manner of her leaving of this world that I may be higher swollen with this black raging poyson I must spread that I may overcome all Antidotes this place is strengthened with Gen. The knowledge of this circumstance will be so usefull to you Sir as you must give me leave now to condition for the imparting of it Since not your selfe I need â—ot owne my duty therefore promise Sir to reassume so much sense as to comply with your owne duty and your deare fathers wishes Whose sorrowes for your absence joyning with his age will quickly rob you of some part of those distracted griefs requiring a gâ—eat share for him Therefore your duty to Saphira should advise you to avoyde so sad a mixture as his death must be which must part griefes with her And were it but to raise your mourning as a private man up to the height of a great Prince you were obliged for that to re-inthrone your selfe that by this low dejection of yourselfe it might so become the greater fall and so you advanced in your designe of honoring Saphira Mora. Doth my father summon me Genoâ—io to the performance of my word in my return I will begin at this great height of strayning nature in my disobedience to him I must benight the lustre of this place Courts of themselves are sad enough Genorio each one hath there his own particular affliction that benum's him of the sense of others No Genorio it must be here among these joyes where greife's a miracle that I must celebrate the funeralls of the divine Saphira and so give blacks to all this society If you will leave to me to guesse the manner of her death I 'le shew I am so stark mad as I 'le beleeve she dyed for love of me Gen. I 'le contribute so much to the madnesse of the beleef Sir as to let you know she dyed married to the King of Albion whom her beauty which was only undisguised in her retreat into his countrey which she chose for solitude raysed her to the publick eminence of Queen without the help of any other quality all which untill her death she kept conceal'd unwilling to owe any thing but to her beauty Mora. This may allay my griefe into a sober melancholy which I must now impose upon my selfe the only meanes of expiation left This methinks hath brought me to my selfe againe her having been another's And now Genorio I will promise thee to stay but to use the virtue of this place for the recovery of this sad disease was growing on me Therefore do you pretend to be admitted hâ—re and I will promise within few dayes to declare my selfe and so returne I 'le go and send Votorio to you Exit Moramente Gen. I will obey you Sir and with no lesse merit by the pain of staying now than in the leaving you before Sure fortune is not blind it could not lead us up and downe thus as it were in such intricate and many changes at it doth She hath brought me back hither perswades me now she will conveigh me to my end by staying here Sure this pretence of staying here to mourn was but found out as the best disguise Love can put on because the blackest sorrow And nothing will conceale love longer then an approved pretence to sadnesse I must apply my observation and my curiosity
so I now must call you this place already hath furnished you with such an antidote as you might venture to seek out Fidamira and defie the power of her love You may much lesse then apprehend the danger of the place from which she hath now removed all virtue your father's Court. Moramente Why is she gone from thence Genorio didst thou call her Saphira mistrusting my obligation of a sorrow great enough for her or hast thou plagues in store for me and dost produce them thus successively left over-charged I should break all in pieces Genorio No Moramente Fidamira is not dead She is only frighted from your fathers Court by the feares of too conspicuous a life to avoid the guilt of others sinns rumor and calumny and guided by her virtue that was shie even to a degree of wildnesse is fled and whither known only to the gods your fathers search hath proved that she is hid from all mortality his care hath been so exquisite Moramente No I am confident she is not dead by this Genorio I could not have beene so long suspended from the sense of such a curse She 's not so much as strayed for the gods must needs guide her in a journey they have sent her Genorio Me thinks you should not name the gods without remembrance of the bonds of nature and of piety you stand ingaged to them in to relieve your father whose tendernesse of all your prayers sinks under the pressure of a fresher griefe than your unhappy absence the flight of Fidamira His goodnesse is such he feares more your imputation of it to the forfeit of his promise then he fears all his present sorrows Moramente I will presently Genorio ease him of all those fears by writing to him as from France to thanke him for such honours meant to Fidamira as did make good his promise Her feares better than her assurance proves it I will acqâ—aint him too with the remove of all those sad occasions drew me from him And I will promise him a speedy and a joyfull meeting which I will perform too for at the next election which approacheth now I will declare my self and so return Genorio This is the least you owe your father Sir but all I thinke you can yet spare him ingaged as you are here Moramente Well Genorio this I resolve and beleeve you had rather stay here too then be the messenger I must now go waite upon the Queen for my acknowledgements for the honour of her visit Genorio I believe Moramente that Visit may begin your Letter to your father but hardly end it with the promise of your Resolve Exit Moramente Genorio O that I could shut up those false lights that dazel thus my faith to Fidamira Enter Gemella unperceived Gemella I have found Aâ—enor but with a look so heavy as it weighs down his eyes so as he hath not seene me yet it is my darknesse that hath so benighted him I will stay yet unseen and in the deadest time of his complaints this cloud shall break and give him all the light whose want obscures him so Genoâ—io Have not my eyes attracted poyson strong enough to stop my breath before I do break out into tâ—is foule profession of my tainted faith or may I thus recover if I can breathe it out through these opening pores before it seiseth on the nobler parts I will take Fâ—damiras name and try if that can yet expell it before it fix there 's force enough in this Receit For this great Cordiall Love unlike to others doth improve its virtue by the habit not remit it and to enforce what I have taken inward her name and memory he pulls out a picture I will send this after the infection the same way it did get in to try if this can overtake it and so bring it back I will not go without this shield before me T is no indearment blessed Image unto thee to say Thou wantâ— but speech for I confesse I hear thee and thou speakest as loud as thunder to me in so just reproaches as they welcome the amazement that they bring Thus armed I will go on and challenge even Bellesa to satisfie my injured Love and to repair his honour In this strife between these two I 'le give the odds of life Exit Genorio Gemella I did not think to have found Agenor thus o're cast he hath out done me in a disguise he hath blackt o're his soul. Have I lived to be obliged to a concealment of my self unto Agenor upon my discovery of him O that I had inlightned him before I had been thus inlightned by him Thoughts that flye by us like instant lightnings never so little ill are not emptied sinns I might have found him dazelled and might have freed him from the danger of this darknesse he is now contesting with and this my blind beliefe might well move me to that but my misfortune 's so exact as it hath overturned the intention of the heightning of his joy down to the lowest curse between us both I will yet find him out before he meets Bellesa with that odds which he hath offered her I am so far from that vanity as I would not contest with her unlesse advantage given me more then even Agenor for the Judge Exit Gemella Enter Martiro Mar. The Queen told me she visited Moramente and had a great discourse with him of Love and that she is well satisfied with Moraments reasons Thus much is more in her then a declared fondnesse in another It is not feare struck to such a degree of cold as makes it poysonous jealousie that makes me thus tender of Bellesa's loving nor my despair that 's sunck so low as malice but the supreamest admiration that ever soul attained to â—hat sets her so neer the celestial bodyes as it can allow her for low mortality but such a love as there is which is but titular and propitiatory far above all propriety which undeifies all we adore I would not have her bow neerer the world then all the worth of it can set it self to her which is so far from rising to equality as it can scarce get height enough for comprehension of her Therefore I cannot consent that any thing but souls should e're approach her and they so purified as when they rise to heaven I do not doubt but her high thoughts are even as undeclineable as my wishes are And in the beliefe of her being the impossibility she hath commanded me to justifie in Love I will go write my obedience to her Exit Martiro Enter the Queen Bâ—llesa What gentle fear is this that murmurs so within my thoughts like breath of ayre that seems to hold discourse between the leaves I ne're knew any thing yet so neer Love as the fear of it But I must still these noyses in my thoughts For innocence so gentle is we need not take the pains to blow it off we may even think 't away therefore I
must not give my thoughts the liberty to play with Love as 't is an infant in beliefe that they can rule it Enter Moramente Moramente Your Majesty will be pleased to pardon this breach of your privacies 't was to perfect the cure you began by this acknowledgement of my health to your Majesty Bel. I receive gladly these acknowledgements as they declare your health not as they bring me any beliefe of contribution to it Mor. To assure you Madam of the virtue of your favour I must acquaint you with newes by which I have been set up since I saw you that might have pulled me down as low as did Saphiras death as I beleeve it will afflict the Prince as much Fiâ—amiras flight whiâ—â—er â—nknown to all the search the King can make But now I am so changed into your â—reature that I have sense for nothing but what comes to me through yours Bel. Why Do you think the Prince will be so much moved at this Is there any Love can give neglect the help of a long absence to joyn against it and yet master both Moâ— I do believe Madâ—m they are strong enemies joyned but against either of them single Love will have the better Bâ—lâ—esâ— You see Moramente I persevere your pupill still Therefore tell me whether you would choose against you To be neglected in continual fight or loved enjoyned to a perpetual absence Moramente You have almost posed your tutor Madam I must confesse that I would chuse the object not the speculation neglect doth but exclude from that which we never had but banishment doth interdict us that which is our own and so becomes the greater curse Bellesa You preferre then Moramente the limited pleasure of one sense before the large extent of all Imaginations It seemes that you have changed that worthy passion brought you to this place for some you have found here Mora. You were once pleased to tell me my cause resembled much the Prince in whose name I dare dispute it not my own Do you think Madam the Prince is bound never to Love but Fidimira Bellesa I yeeld the Prince is free by her neglect Mâ—r. Why did you couple us Madam and now let us loâ—se both together Bellesa I should not tax you neither if you loved ne're so many Moâ—amente I doe beleeve Madam I am so unhappy as to be thus indifferent to you And yet I think if you knew who I loved youl 'd punish me though you could not blame me for 't Bellesa Pray tell me not then I do not love to be unjust Moramente I am so unhappy Madam aâ— it were insolence in me not to believe you would be so And yet it were a freedome that all but you must be beholding to me for Bellesa Then I should be beholding to you not to tell me if it will set me aâ— difference with all the World Mor. The difference I make between you and all the world will make you disagree most with me and therefore I 'le forbear to let you know it Bellesa I would fall out with nobody for so little as to satisfie a light curiosity therefore I enquire no farther of it Mor. Give me leave Madam to beg this satisfaction from you that you would be pleased to guesse at it for I have such a divine beliefe of you as I conclude you cannot so much as be mistaken in any thing Bel. To guesse by your opinion it should be with Gemella She makes you such a full return at least her commendations promise it Moramente 'T is a strange fate that crosseth to be despised where e're I love and to be wished well but to my prejudice But you Madam have guessed as neer as if you had named any other in the whole society And now Madam I dare say that your knowledge is but thus wrapt up in darknesse to disguise it I know it by my curse your being thus insensible Bellesa I must give o're then the being your Pupill since you would teach me more then I would Learn Moramente If I remain but with the merit of teaching you your power Madam though my sufferings be the demonstration of it I shall endure all with joy Bellesa In these high poynts Moramente I understand you not I 'le bring Martiro to dispute with you he may be your Master and teach you how to rise up to the loving impossibilityes he hath promised me to prove the reason of it I 'le shew it you Moramente that will reconcile you to despair Moramente You have already Madam shewed me the impossibilityes and I already find reason enough for loving them your wil. Bellesa You are mistaken Moramente in the finding of my will more then I was in the finding of your Love even my ill will is not easily found and much lesse that which you seem to seek Exit Bellesa Mor. No certainty hath been a torment great enough for me must I now suffer doubt which hath not so much ease as a despair was curse enough to fit me with I could have resolved on any thing that could have fallen on me but this suspension is a Rack whose wavering flackness is the heighth of torture which excludeth a patience towards the ease of the indurance I cannot impute these words to chance I am enlightned even thus far for a curse to see she understands my passions I shall declare my self and joyne the name of Prince to that of Lover to assist me No I will try once more the single strength of Moramente which if it prove too weak I 'le call that of Prince for my Auxiliary which must needs help me to be wondered at if not beloved Sure Martiro hath not broke his faith for so little as Bellesa's information it must be for his own indearment and my distance from her Enter Martiro Mâ—r. Is the Queen this way Moramente Mor. She 's newly parted hence Martiro Mar I am seeking her with a command of hers and so have only time to tell you that freedom to a noble hart doth not let loose a secret but allowes it more room as 't were a recreation and that impression trust makes on vertue seals in that instant what it opens And beleeve me Mâ—ramente you shall allwayes finde the marks unbroken up Exit Martiro Mor. This must be true too for the exactness of my curse that there may not be so much reason as an ill office for her scornes but all Antipathy I will dispatch to my father as I have promised Genorio The circle now of Bellesas reigne is allmost closed and the last point that perfects that shall open me away unto that end I owe my fate Exâ—t Moramente Enter Mellidoro and Camena Mel. If my own joyes were not sufficient to proclaim the debt I owe you Camena the terror of those sufferings of which I am judge and not a party might well indeare this even security that you have setled me in Came. Methinks indeed we two are
all the worlds beauty to contest with Bellesa but I should preferre the least faith before all her beauty my face with such advantage might dispute with hers Gâ—n I am glad Gemella you have told me how pretious and excellent a thing faith is sure it is the fitter for a sacrifice to the divine Bellesa Gem. 'T is of a strange nature Genorio 't is onely pretious kept not given away as soon as we would lose it to transferre it annihilates and becomes nothing to show us that as soon as we intend its prophanation it can punish us by leaving us onely an impotency of having any instead of the power we would take to dispoâ—â— of it Gen. I do confesse Gemella all passions but love break faith as they carry it from one unto another but that may convey it as intire as spirits may be powred from one glasse into another without losse of virtue Gem. 'T is true Genorio when love begins to work upon it to transferre it it ceaseth then to be in us and therefore love would disguise the losse of it by the pretence of our disposing of it when indeed there is no faith left but the believing love by which we seem to justifie our infidelity Gen. Would you censure one of infidelity that should but change his invocation to raise his devotion up to a more dignified and glorious Saint why Bellesa is the supremacy itselfe of love and all appeales are due to her from all love's lower seats Gem. Me-thinks Genorio it were an injury to such a Judge to appeale upon confession of a perjury Think Gâ—norio what a sentence you can expect when you are so bold to bring guilt to plead for you I perceive you did love Fidamira and now you would bring your broken faith unto Bellesa as a scarre you have received in her service by which you would pretend reward Suppose she should receive you into love's Hospitall faine charitable pitty this were all the preferment you could hope to be entertained to praise her goodnesse if she forgive the crime Gen. My crime to Fidamira must needs be meritorious to Bellesa and Me-thinks I cannot feare any thing so low in love with her as all that I could hope with Fidamira Gem. Mark Genorio how you are already punished for your inconstancy in your own choice of an assured torment for 't were a derogation from her not to believe it and consider what an affliction it will be to you to be the first that must make her a curse to any thing And I confesse I cannot pitty you Gen. O say not so Gemella I was resolved to beg more of you Do you think I would have cast away such a secret without the hope of a returne I have lessened that to you which you call sin the breach of faith by having so intire a one of your virtue and honour as to trust you so Gem. Faith Genorio is all the beauty nature hath bestowed on me and I am interressed as much in her disfiguring as handsome women would believe themselves obliged not to protect a man that had by violence defaced one of that company Therefore all you can expect from me is not to conspire a revenge which I will promise you Gen I do believe you so generous Gemella as even an injury done you would not discourage me from a pretence to courtesie This is one I may believe you take upon you to endear the charity you may vouchsafe me You may defeat even my ill destiny which cannot have malignity enough to resist the vertue of your intending my feliciâ—y Gem. I will already be so charitable as to prevent your saying that which must oblige me to a contribution to your misery You may know by this I understand what you would ask of me I will forget it and leave you and onely tell you my fears and not my wishes in your fortune You shall live to see your wishes so enjoyed you shall not dare to own them And you shall so repent this your sin your sad contrition shall be such it shall not hope forgiveness when you see your Judge whose sight shall notwithstanding make your wishing it a well proportioned torment Gen. There cannot be Gemella such a sin in loving of Bellesa as repentance You have forespoke a curse is not in my misfortune's power Gem. I will assure you I am not so unhappy as to wish it Exit Gemella Gen. I broke my heart to pieces Fidamira first before I broke my faith to try if I could loosen this chain Bellesa's eyes Love's surest Engines had fastned it And as it was falling a pieces it fell upon Bellesa's eyes that have so joyned it now I find it a chain of flame that cannot be unlinked Those links of faith and honoâ—â— that should pull me back to Fidamira I find are now so soft as they melt away set by this chain of Love Sure Love hath strange joy in store for me for it already hath turned all the blessings that I had into frights the memory of Fidamira and the Prince's trust I must no more appear to Basilino the figure that I was I must become a perspective looked on at distance whose hollowness is a delight though a deceit I must have Arches and Vaults to hide my love when I do show my self Me-thinks Love prompts me this to answer all my fears Why should we fear bold Love when though it brings Us to a Precipice we know hath wings Enter Moramente Gen. Look where he comes I must now try whether his love be above his trust to me What melancholly is this Moramente that is so dark as seemes to draw a traverse between your trust and me Moramente Can you be in doubt Genorio of the causes of my sadnesse when you brought them me do you thinke the world can furnish any more after Saphira's death and Fidamira's flight Genorio Yes Moramente I doe believe a present passion may over-cast more then the darkest memory of misfortunes past which both those are which you have named Moramente It seemes Genorio you relye so much upon your prophesies as you believe I have exchanged my sorrows here Genorio No Moramente I beleeve that all the virtue of this place is vented upon your happinesse and that you are possessed of joyes which your modesty makes you even scrupulous to shew me lest it might resemble vanity Moramente I could not have so much as ease Genorio which would not be lessened by the fault of the concealement of it from thy trust If I had a new affliction the tendernesse of thee might justifie the keeping that unto my self Genorio This needs not Moramente I am already prepared with as high a sense of your joyes as this descent to the extreamity of feare can raise me to and let your blessings be never so sacred you ought not to keep them vailed from me Moramente You suppose then Genorio I love and with successe I did not think I had
be hope might not prove a punishnishment Bellesa Why Moramente had I that desire could you satisfie it Moramente Easier Madam then deserve to be beloved by you Even when I had done it the conquest of a kingdome would be easie you being but proposed to it for Queen Bellesa I could afflict you then Moramente by telling you I had a mind to be a Queen but I will not because I have forgiven you Therefore now Moramente after this pardon hope no more Exit Bellesa Moramente Did not the virtue of her hand hold me up I should fall back into a fearfull doubt Sure this is but to show that her will masters love it self I am confident she is moved so much with my sufferings that the profession of my selfe may indear my humilitie The election is to morrow and it shall be in her choice whether she will continue Queen or no. Exit Moramente Enter Pantamora Pantamora The reason why Moramente sees not Bellesas love that 's fixt upon him must needs be that he looks too high for 't He thinks it must fall down aâ— from heaven upon him If he had but looked in a naturall and easie level towards her he must needs have found her very neer him Sure his eyes were thus stretched up into the ayre when I shewed him my love so fair before him and he saw it not I will not think he did look from it of purpose But I can envy Bellesa in nothing that is so neer such a declination as the descending from a throne the expectation of which hath raised me now above all other thoughts Bellesa sure will leave the paradise with Moramente the advantage is so sure among the rest as it lessens the glory of it Exit Pantamora Enter Melidoro Camena Mel. What think you Camena how much doth Bellesa love Camena What thinke you MELIDORO I know how much Mel. Have you gotten the modell of it I would not at all adventures build my hope by such a one therefore pray do not proportion yours to it Cam. They that have taken the true dimensions of Love and Honour may modell hers by that She is so exactly what she should be as they that know that may know directly what she is Mel. What doe you thinke then she answers Moromente's Love Camena If women at first be but so civill as an Eccho 't is enough if she but shew that she did hear Melidoro I believe that Morament's complaints have not been so unhappy as never to end with love and so I think by this time he hath had an answer ecchoed to him Camena Women may answer Love so and disavow it too as repetition of an others oath is not accounted swearing The most I thinke BELLESA hath done yet hath but obliged Moramente and not engaged her self Mel. Do you think Bellesa was so carelesse as not to provide against her falling from her throne the lighting in Morament's armes Camena 'T is but a year since they first knew one another and that is scarce time enough for a woman to make all her objections against loving of a man much lesse to be so satisfied as to resolve to give her self away Will you be content to have my promise Melidoro to your wish on those conditions if Bellesa yeelds to Moramente Mel. If I must still depend upon the uncertainty of a condition I doe not dislike this you have proposed And sure Camena this beliefe of mine doth not imply lesse value of Bellesa then those scruples you allow her Camena I love freedome so well I would not venture an engagement but upon tearmes I thought even improbable But when your wishes hang upon my will you ought not to thinke them desperate Look where Genorio comes me-thinks he looks as if he would Enter Genorio out-act all that hath been writ of sorrow this sight me-thinks Melidoro should make no hope seem little Melidoro Pray Camena le ts leave him he looks as if he would taint the ayre and make misfortune infectious Exeunt Melidoro Camena Gen. How well hath fortune shewed I am her own in having thus imployed my self to betray that strength of happinesse which was impregnable and must have been delivered thus by me since her self could not take it Sure fortune grew Jealous least the world should thinke she was in love with me and there 's nothing so detracting from fortunes reputation as the opinion that she can fasten her selfe to any one She is the whole world's Mistresse and her loose variations entertain all her servants in variety of hopes and so drawes on those generall addresses which busie and divert her so Me-thinks she might have counted me her child and so have justified unto herself her tendernesse of me For when my Infant-bloud seemed destined to the thirst of multitudes even there she took me in her armes and set me at the breasts of Princes to be nursed and not content with that endeared me so unto them as if I had sucked their hearts into me and they lived by me This hath been confirmed unto me by such a disposition of their powers as if they had no power but this of giving me so much and because all this might be thought subject still to fortune she provided me a blessing above her power of resuming Fidamira's Love And sure 't is that which hath incensed my mother Fortune thus against me that repulse that she received in her attempting Fidamira for never was fortune more affronted than in her refusal of the Prince It must be so that she grew jealous of my being set above her reach and finding her self so weake hath got Love to joyn with her to take me by my selfe that I might give away what could not be resumed And now I am so compleately miserable I cannot call my affliction misfortune I have this circumstance to perfect it the attribution of it wholly to my self I have told Bellesa my passion so directly she seemes not to understand it Sure it had so wild a boldnesse it looked liker Madnesse then Love It is but just that I that have so much neglected truth should be discredited by it Whither but to my self should I repair for satisfaction since I am my owne offender Therefore from thence I derive a happinesse that shall defie even fortune the adoration of the not epitheted Bellesa it shall be so little subject to chance or change it shall make despair a reason for it to be sure to defie both those Nay I will not exact lesse of my self then the doing what was never done before the allowing Bellesa to love another and even proportion my joy in this to what she shall receive in that Thus I am so resolved as I could even already tell it Fidamira Fidamira like a Ghost Gen. Though fortune hath taken me at this disadvantage before my resolution had time to fall from my mouth into my heart Yet thus halfe armed I will defend my selfe though Beauty and Death even those
troubled tumult And for you Eccho I will with my reproaches force you to answer so much as it shall hoarse that little voyce is left you Nay I will search all the earths concavities and fill them up so to choake you quick there shall be left you nothing to reside in but Moraments heart That I will leave you even for a greater punishment then death upon these tearmes if you will stand to your counsell I am content Ec. Content Enter Moramente Mor. Hearing Madam you were gone this way I made haste after you lest you might light by chance into this place Do you know where you are Madam Bel. 'T is you Moramente that are you know not where if you had known where you were you would not have hastned to divert me from this place this is Loves cabinet is it not Moramente It was Madam before you came hither but all that was Loves is yours where you are Bel. Doe you think Love loseth any thing in what I take from it Mor. Yes Madam it loseth more by what you keep from it then it gives or receives from all the world besides this place is beleeved to have a tacit influence and works all hearts into a â—endernesse that it doth receive as if the aire contracted with the heart it should take Love and breath together This I tell you Madam only that you may glory in mastering virtue that seems to have power over nature Bel. My heart Moramente is harder to be known then it is when it is known Doe not you think it can allow Love as much virtue as any other Mâ—â— Yes Madam as I beleeve all virtue improves in its â—â—ssaâ—ion more then in its exercise meeting with yours as it is a greater virtue to yeeld to that then trust unto its own So your heart may allow love more virtue then any other by a resignation of its power to your neglect Bel. This opinion Moramente makes me apprehend so little your guessing why I came hither as I may now in return of a request you made me once to guesse at your love desire you to do so at the reason of my comming hither Mor. It may be Madam that Love himselfe in love with you hath givâ—n you this curiositie of rifling his Cabinet to try who he holds intelligence with So to discover Love's secrets you came hither Bâ—l. Haâ—h this Eccho run under ground and carried him my voyce 'T is true Moramante I am come to discover Love's secrets but more to trust then to suspect and I have found here so uninterested a Counsellor as he asks nothing but words to gratifie him and he hath answered me so fitly as if he had studyed my cause before If you have any suite Moramente speak to him he is in his closet here amongst the trees he is old and a little deafe you must speake aloud and it is likely he will answer you Mor. This is cleare enough I understand it You know I have a sute Madam And I will try if you have entertain'd him against me Tell me thou faithfull speaker doth Bellesa love Ec. Love Mor. It is too much a miracle to be beleeved from any voyce but yours Bel. Why Moramete would you have me so strange a creature as to make an Eccho speak false Mor. You were but dallying with love and he had not strength enough to get above your other words and so the ayre sent Eccho back with it along to you Had love any power over you it would not lose so much of its sweetnesse as the being deluded by any voyce but yours Bel. It is my voyce Moramente and I have let it loose from me that it might not have so much as modesty to hold it back Beleeve it For if you put me to take it in againe I have virgin cold that would not let it speak so cleare Moramente kneels Mor. I will beleeve it so as I will worship it All my soules faculties shall be converted into this one beliefe and give me leave to begg for this kinde voyce that for my sake is so unhappy as to goe out of you that you would take it in againe and let me hâ—are it in that temple where it should be inshrined your mouth though it speake lower My beliefe hath eares to save you the paines of straining it too high Bel. Rise Moramente unlesse you wish an answer from a Queen and not Bellesa I have had long a sense well fitted to your sufferings and I have beleeved so well of you as I did not feare the seemingnesse of my indifferency would divert you from a meritorious persistency And I have been so just to you as you have lost nothing by my differing your admittance to the knowledg of my thoughts For they have been studying you all this while wiâ—h this advantage to of your not knowing it So they have informed themselves of your nature streghtly in it self without the ply it takes bent by designe And I have so satisfied my selfe as I beleeve my time well spent Mor. You might well tell me Madam I was I knew not where if I have been in your blessed thoughts and thus you only could have done so new a thing as to re-call time and in an instant blesse all that was past as well as what 's to come I have now no way of humility left but valuation of my selfe ascribing so the more to the virtue of your thoughts which have made me what they have been so modest as to say they have found me For you have such a singularity as you cannot think on any thing unworthy of you Therefore give me leave to ask you what you have thought of my love to you For this was the only thing in me worthy of your thoughts before you thought of me I mâ—st therefore beleeve you have thought most of that Bel. For the first thought I did allow your love Moramente it was so civill it brought me many in returne of it And by this exchange stored me with thoughts which wereso cleare as they seemed glasses for vertue to dresse her selfe by â—ot shadowes to draw over her Therefore I have continued the entertainment of your love Mor. Judg Madâ—m how absolutely you are Mistresse of love It hath had intelligence with you And given and received presents from you without my knowledg I will not call this trechery for I will allow all that is mine to be yours more But hath not my love been so true to you Madam as to propose to you its perfection in the admittance of my heart into yours to lie under it that it may rest it selfe upon it Bellesa It hath proposed that which I cannot answer yet because it knowes not who it speakes to The heavens conspire a parity in all Oh Morâ—mâ—nâ— himselfe Bellesa give meleave to wish you any thing rather then an Angell For so only your promise may defeat it self If you be mortall you can have no scruple but the
joy of finding a son You must have all my soul a while till I have discharged my selfe of what I owe your father In whose name I am to beg of you and conjure all this society whom I esteem so justly blessed as I doubt not of their wishes to my successe to joyne with me in a pretence I am to deliver to you in the name of the King and of a Nation which by me now begs reliefe of you This Society understands you so well as I may better aske of them then tell them what a blessing your company is And if it be such an one to strangers let them judge what a joy it will be to a father to whom you have been so long a stranger And though it seemed misfortune cannot afford you lesse then a Crown yet you ought not to make that Crown which nature hath made yours unfortunate Therefore heare the distresses of the King your father that cry so lowd in the complaints of the losse of you as they hear not the cries of all his kingdom for their exposure to the first strong power that will seize it His age must quickly leave the first invader for his heir You know your brother and your sister the Prince Palant and the Princesse Miranda perished both infants at the seige of the cursed Pamlona Since the King your father having destin'd you to the Prince of Castile a Prince thought a match for your vertue as well as your condition In the time of this treaty you fled attended only by my son I upon whose trust this misfortune lay like Treason have been ever since in the search of you and now the gods have been pleased to blesse my dispaire with what they have so long denied my hope the finding you Madam I must now addresse my selfe not only to you but all this society for judgment of this pretence of a King and a Nation which in a new way demands reliefe not by admittance but dismission Bel. I must confesse Romero all you have alledg'd against me But in my defence desire this faire Society whose judgments would be injured in my unnaturallnesse to beleeve that even these and the honor of this place did not divert me from the sense of my fathers afflictions whose reliefe I did deferr to bring thee more intire after the Prince his marriage should have removed all subject of dispute between us Here I resolve to stay till then confident that my fathers consent to the estimation of my selfe in the expression of my equall unwillingnesse â—o that his passion to Fidamira did avow would justify my presumption on his patience Rom. This was a sense Madam you ought your vertue while the Prince's unsensiblenesse seem'd to provoke it to a valuation of its selfe But now the same vertue that did convict him will plead for his acquittance Now as your goodnesse ought not to avert it selfe from his repentance which his leaving Fidamira and his journey devoted to your pardon do assure therefore Madam in my mind you owe the King your father this satisfaction for all his sufferings A returne of a full obedience â—or all the hazard he hath runn with you I have heard 〈◊〉 late that he hath pittied so the Prince as your admission of him into yours would bâ— a joy that would indâ—are your presence I remitt my selfe to this Society And bâ—g of them that if their judgments agree with 〈◊〉 thâ—ir prayers may do so too Gem. We have our own interests me-thinkâ— that ask our sollicitations that we that know thâ— blessing of such a Queen may still enjoy it both exalâ—â—d for hersâ—lâ—â— and us Cam. Even this our derived light of Soveraignty must grow brighter so drawn from a more glorious body then it was ere before All. We all joyne in this â—uppâ—ication for the Pâ—ince Kâ—ng I think my 〈…〉 the good fâ—rtune I owe this place to contribute what my power affâ—rds to all the wishâ—s of this Society And my admiratioâ— to you Madam engageth me to what I owe my countrey and my Prince to lett you know that I wâ—s lately a witnâ—ssâ— of the Kings wishâ—s to the hâ—ppy conjuâ—ction of the Prince and Princessâ— of Navarr And I am so assâ—red of his consent as I dare answer for it with my life Bâ—l. I wish the King and Prince so much happinesse as it were presumption in me to think I could afford it them Let me aske you some questions of my father Romero Gem. Mâ—thinks Moramente you are too cold an interceder for the Prince that are so much concerned in all his wishes Mor. Therefore Gemella I may be thought too partiall to hâ—m Your uninterested prayers may challenge more successâ— Now Genorio you that can report Princes lives away so easily can you speake me dead too and be beleeved For only so thou canst get trust of me againe when I perceive thou canst deceive all the world Did not some such Angell tell you of Bellesa's love as of Saphira's death Gen. Consider Sir how meritorious this report proveâ— to your life and you may think that an Angell prompted iâ— for your justification to the Princesse and the rest of the world to whom your vow was known Doth not this your beliefe approve to her the cessation of your designe which else might have been objected to you even by her And must not the sense that you expressâ—d then of her death indeare you to her now And when you know the reason of this my report even the falshood of it will justify my trust to you Bâ—â— Sure â—oramente knows the Prince best of any body I will inforâ—e my selfe of him And take his counsell bâ—fore I do resâ—lve Gem. You cannot resolve better Bâ—llesa goes a part with Moramente Bel. What say you Moramente Have I not chosen a 〈◊〉 counsâ—llâ—â— in â—his cause Now you know me fully and 〈…〉 givâ— mâ— your advice For I am resolved to be 〈◊〉 bâ— you in the disposing of my selfe 〈◊〉 Coâ—fident of what you say Madam I shall beg of 〈…〉 â—he Prince 〈◊〉 Iâ— your charity Moramente so much above your lovâ— Mor. No Madam It is my love that is so humble as to expect nothing but by charity And if my intercession for the Prince obtaine pardon for him I shall esteeme it as a favour done to me Bel. I thought you would desire nothing but pardon for him and for your sake Moramente it will be easy for me to yeeld to as much as you shall desire for him Mor. I will no longer seeme to owe you lesse Madam then I do I do accept this pardon which is so strange an one as it makes me a Prince and the same that you have pardoned And to deserve this grace I do resigne it back to you and so expose my â—elfe to all your wills without claiming any thing that your not knowing me might seeme to engage you to You already are acquainted with my story which I must thus farr inlarge That taking
security as rigor condemned me to more then I had freed her from And told me that this mistake of her intended executioner did not so much aâ—at her passion to him and could much lesse dispence with the engagement of her faith Therefore commanded me ne're to see her more and so rest contented all my life with this joy of having made her happy After this hard command to soften it she steept it in such teares as I grew rather ashamed then resolved Then she began to prayse and magnify the bravery of this my action So as I was afraid to heare her long lest vanity should seem to share with love in the perswasion to this obedience I gave her instantly my promise of complying with her will and to adde somwhat even to her own wish I said I would conduct her to her servant and never more but once againe accuse her of cruelty And joy that my accusation of her might now prove meritorious to her And this settled in peace and confidence with him I should make him witnesse of my vow so to secure her future joyes This I did the same day and so left her there where she began to be sensible of my company And resolved to repaire to this Sanctuary with so much devotion to forgetfullnesse as nothing but the hope of my admission here could have perswaded to the repetition of this story Which if it do procure me I may triumph over fortune Whose depression of me hath but sunke me to the center of rest and peace Bellesa Collect the voyces upon the hearing of the pretention â—otorio goes along and receives all thâ—ir votes softly and sayes All the voâ—es agree for this reception Bel. And mine Votorio shall confirm all Methinks both sâ—xes are interested in gratitude in his pretention Women for the demonstration of their power and Men for the exaltation of their love Mâ—ra My admission here is such a blessing as it shames all my former wishes and removes me from the probability of e're remembring the frustration of them but as a benefit which frees me now from wishing any thing Bel. Let the oath be given him and the habit and this convocation dismist He kisses the Queen's hand and is resaluted by the rest of the Ladies and so goes out The third Act Enter Genorio Ge. SInce the exclusion of that light that lightned me out of my selfe I find my selfe setling again into my owne temper and the dispute reducâ—d now only to my memory Fidamira doth prevaile having the deeper seat my eyes had drawn a superficiall darknesse over it which had but shaddowed not displaced my Fidamira And I finde those shadowes vanished now removed out of those beames that made them Therefore I will now first goe and take out the staines of these new colours which my eyes had received in such haste and guild my thoughts over anew with Fidamira's rayes on which no other beames shall ever shine but to make them glitter more Oh that the Prince his stay might settle his passion as much as my departure hâ—th unsettlâ—d mine So that this journey may doubly secure my Fâ—damâ—â—a I will first visit her and from thence dispatch trusty enquiries into severall parts to discover the abode of this wilde Princesse of Navarr Upon my discovery I will repaire unto the Prince who I doubt not but before his returne from thence may well be at his journeys end Entâ—r â—iâ—amira disguâ—sed like a Moor. Fidâ— The King 's impatient search hath followed me so fast as it hath been my habit not my leggs hath saved me from reprisall Here is one but his Easie pace doth not imply he followâ—s any body The gods guide you Sir towards your desires Geâ— As much good fortune waite on all your wishes Lady Fidâ— It may be Sir you may much contribute to mine in the direction of my way which my haste would be much advantaged by a certaine knowledge The way to the Sepheards Paradise Gen. You are in your right way Lady my own immediate comming from thence may assure you of it And one day's journey if your person furnish strength for your haste will render you there Fida Your comming from thence Sir may inform somewhat may more advance me then the presenâ— prosecution of my journey if your own haste permit you Gen. Though I move not upon my own occasions yet they are so addrest to the service of your sex as I dare allow you any time you shall demand Fida Sure Sir you are much indebted to our sex that think you owe so much civility to me that seem to be one of those that nature hath appointed for a punishment thus to mourn for beautie's martyrs My curiosity shall not presume too much since it is seconded with such a face I would only know whether you were there at the last election of the Queen And how the form is of receiving those into the Society that desire admission Gâ—â— I owe the sex so mâ—ch Lady I am confident I shall not add one to the number of those you call mourners buâ— mâ—thinks your blâ—ck becomes you so well as if beauty it selfe weary of white and râ—dd had retired a while to black for a variâ—ty I can resolve you Lady of the election of the Queen who 's called Belâ—esa And having heard the lawes readd at the coronation can instruct you in the forme of recâ—iving pretenders into the Society which is the manifâ—station of some cause wherein virtue prest by fâ—rtune to an extremity flyes thither for a sanctuary and brings her sâ—lfe intire Fida I doubt not then of my being received unlesse my birth prove such a misfortune as may make me unfit for that beauteous society which I heare are all such they need not so much as a foile to set them out Otherwise my misfortâ—nâ—s are such as it may seeme a shame to virtue to be the subject of so many Gen. Virtue Lady is allwayes in hostility with diverse enemies and even her scarrs do not impaire her but make her still intire Therefore she suffers nothing by her liablenesse to distresse and she is so beautifull as she gives your colour a lovelinesse that perswads me it is the brightnesse of your soul shines through the darknesse of your face and brings me a pleasednesse that seemes rather inspired then attracted from your lookes Fida You have professed your selfe so happy Sir you must needs have store of pitty to throw away upon misfortune So I may please you in the exercise of your own virtue as necessity is delightfull to an ingenuous liberality Is the Queen Sir that is to be chosen most by her beauty unquestionably the handsomest of all the society Gen. She is such a one Lady as will so much oblige you as to make you equall to the rest of the society compared with her there is in my mind so much disparity as all comparisons reach her alike She put me that was arm'd with love I thought of proofe
against all the world to flight to save my selfe Fida You have forgot nothing Sir there that may serve you in recompence of this civility Gen. Yes Lady I have forgot that there which I never hope to remember more but as a danger from which I owe the gods thanks for my delivery You will find Lady a Shepheard called Moramente lately received he was a friend of mine to him you may be pleased to present the wishes of his friend that left him lately Fida I think Sir our haste may now part us upon equall termes they both seeme to require the prosecution of our way Gen. The gentlnesse of your conversation Lady and the harshnesses of your condition both deserve and seeme to need a wish I will leave with you May all your joyes have leisure sorrowes haste Your wishes only by successe displac't Enter Pantamora Pan. How unsure are the calmest harbors mortality can ancor in Fortune hath raysed a storm for me that drives me out even of this security and makes the exposure of my selfe to the wide Ocean of the world again a wished-for safety My sinking here now is inevitable and this safe descent is more unsufferable to me then striking on a rock and so to perish with preheminence The sad misfortune which admitted me into this sanctuary is so out-weighed by this that falls on me now as even this place that did releeve me then becomes my persecution Here I found ease for all the paines that spitefull death by his cursed seisure on my love inflicted on me but here is none for the â—xtinction of my power whose seperation from a noble heart if it be consolable becomes the greater curse In the remission of its selfe it must consent in yeelding unto comfort Love is not such an irremediable passion as ambition Love when it goes least annihilates it selfe and so becomes its own remedy ambition yeelds not to repulse but scales up again as often as it is thrown down and so is lesse relievable All the comfort I can admit of is that my vexation doth so new a thing as to defeate the peacefull virtue of this place though that will be much abated by the necessity of dissembling my discontents Here comes Melidoro and Camena They are so pleased they will easily be deceived Enter Melidoro and Camena Cam. We may give you Pantamora as much joy in the resignation of your power as Bellesa in the possession since she can enjoy but what you have done and she can not till she resignt tha joy as you have done Pant. I dot no repine Camena at my resignation but 't is to avoyd a sin not as I am voyd of sense of soverainity so as to preferr a private condition before so publick an eminence and I believe the possession of ones selfe enlarged much by the extent of power Active thoughts are not to be weariâ—d out by ease They that preferr retreates and privacies for the enjoying of themselves cosen themselves of what they might improve in company and so it may be lose more in that they might acquire than that they make use of in the easinesse of their contentednesse Sure for the prospect of my thoughts I would chuse an eminence to set them in Meli. Sure Pantamora if our thoughts take their horizon at a convenient distance the emission of them so far iâ— a recreation to them But if they look so farr as to meeâ— no termination but the aire they lose themselves iâ— their extents Privacy may send out thoughts so farr as a conspicuous exaltation therefore sure they that in calmâ— solitude can keep their wishes within their reach and their thoughts not much farther then their wishes enjoy a much happinesse as they can think of and none desire more Cam. But it seemes Paâ—â—â—morâ— t is not the peace buâ— the priority that you affect amongst us And that thiâ— place had only the virtue to ease you as it was capable 〈◊〉 soverainity not devoted unto solitude Pan. Mistake me not Camâ—nâ— I doe not think it cheâ—pens private joyes to raise the value thus of hers that eveâ— the gods intend advantage to But I forgive you that bâ— the estimation of your own happinesse cannot consâ—â—â— to allow soverainity precâ—dâ—ncy You will betteâ— undeâ—stand one another therefore I 'le leave you where you wilâ— not be so easily mistaken Cam. T is a hard thing Pâ—ntamâ—ra not to be so in yoâ— that change so often Exit Pantamora Mel. How much do I owe you Camena that have setled me above Pantamoras wishes I would desire soverainity for nothing but to lessen the disparity which is between my passion and power of serving you And give me leave Camena with an humble patience to shew some sense of your disagreement to our demanding a dismission at this late Election Câ—mena If Love Meâ—idoro raise it selfe to such a soveraignty as to possesse all power and fortune in it selfe and to neglect all other then my differring our remove from hence continues you in this your throne for they say Possession and much more propriety retrenches Love's prerogative Melidâ—ro As love Camena seiseth all our senses it keepes all their faculties so busied as they have not leisure to tast much lesse to enjoy any thing and when our senses have prefer'd it up into our thoughts there it is inthroned higher than any mortall joy can reach up to depose it Love may rise to this transcendent height that it may seem to look down on all things and despise even enjoying but likely our thoughts in this elevation stay not long but growing dizy fall Therefore when our imaginations settle at such a pitch as our senses are within distance of them then possession is a foundation to maintain Love at that height and such love Camena remaines unmoved and seeth the ruine of many aspiring passions that fall down by it Therefore possession what it takes off from loves summer-prospect in the height doth recompence it with strength and security against the change of seasons Cam. Then Melidoro the impropriations of our selves proves us both more habitable and lesse delightfull and the security of your loves cools to a tepid warmth which is not only voyd of brightnesse but of light Love is darkened Melidoro whâ—n the flame 's pâ—tt out Meli. Hymens torches do imply Camena loves flame is nourished not put out and may not love blaze aswell in them as Cupid's wilde fires Cam. They say indeed Melidoro they are the emblems of the nuptiall flames which go out with them Mel. All flames Camenâ— as they be lightsome so are they wavering too we see their light and their uncertain motions both at once Therefore suppose this flame of love put out by nuptiall rites it settles then into a temperate heate whose equall ardor purifies it more For love like gold Camena must be brought into a fluentnesse and by receiving of impression so becomes most usefull Cam. In this usefullnesse you speake of Melidoro the gold
a pitty to This is a lending of your senses to others torments whose joyes only they cannot tast Your own wishes in my minde could not releeve you since they tend only to others ends I do allow you so much advantage Sir as I confesse your present misery is above my feares But give me leave to aske as a stranger to your country and your story Whether this Fidamira that you named be yet a live Methinks her death might ease you much King Kind pilgrime In the absence of my son jealous of so much comfort as my care my cursed fate guided her the only way unto my guilt her flight I do not think her dead no more then a disguise may be a preparation to it As death may have a better pretence to seise her then as not her selfe than in the lively illustration of her selfe to whom all lives are due And to let thee see kind Pilgrime how due to me this thy ingenuous yeelding was I will direct thee to an ease of all thy miseries while mine are unreleevable I 'le terminate thy aimelesse course and point thee out to such an end whose saâ—e attainder shall center thy sorrowes up in rest You have heard sure of the Shepherds Paradise whose peaceable bounds have that strange virtue from the gods as to include all those within a peacefull acquiescence that are admitted there Thither repaire for though you have not griefe enough to weigh with mine yet your misfortune 's full enough for a pretence to be received even there And when you finde the smiles of that smooth place laugh at your wrinkled sorrowes past then for my sake dispute your joyes with those contented soules For you may sooner there outvie all their delights than my distresses should you run on in this sad maze till you did measure all the world and end your dayes Gen. I will submit my selfe to your directions Sir but to an end differing so farr from what you do prescribe as mine shall be in a defiance unto peace I will even there raise up new sorrowes which my distâ—acted soul shall there erect for trophies got from the contâ—sting virtue of that place which my sad life shall so defeate as all those joyes that shall incompasse me shall by the deadnesse of my sense serve but to prove my miseries the more compleat King Follow my counsell freind it may be the virtue of this place may be so strong it shall incline your own willingnesse towards your releefe I must leave you and I am sure not far out of your way towards my advice Gen. The gods be with you Sir and may you live to be a wonder in the contrary extreame of what you now are Alas good King how patient have I been to allow your sorrowes victory striving with mine which these were too that you brought forth For Fidamira's flight belongs simply to me and hath no comfort but the admiration of her virtues which this happy meeting with the King hath so exalted as the wonder mingles with the sense of my disappointment and so tempers it into a hopefull patience The kings counsell is so good it will serve for more then he intends it and I hope for as much joy to him as he meant ease to me I will goe back directly to the Prince and now assure him that the Princesse of Navarr is dead to stop his fathers course And as I finde his thoughts are fixt or moved from Fidamira so contrive his returne the which will quickly unconceal my Fidamira who must needs be hid in some neighbouring privacy secure from her virtuous feares This penance of not seeing her I take as due unto these faulty eyes that have been pleased with another object Which now redeemed shall make me watch their straying motions with a stricter care Beauty shall slide from them as it falls Like smooth things lighting upon crystall balls Whose touch doth part and not together fix Their own agreeing makes them cannot mix So beauty in mine eye shall meet with such I cannot fix but passe as it doth touch Exit Enter Bellesa Moramente Martiro Bel. That which you reported of the Prince Moramente is now fully confirmed by this Moor that we admitted last She past that way she said and so describes his person and his parts it seemes a miracle that faith or honor could have virtue to râ—sist his will Mora. I know the Prince Madam so well I wonder more at the unfitnesse of his wishes than at the gods refusall Which was a gentle punishment of his forgetting selfe And I beleeve wherever he is gone heaven will direct him to a choyce between which and his owne there shall be as much odds as between his choosing and the gods Bel You beleeve then Moramente he will love again by a high successe shall know he was reserved by heaven for more then he could wish at first you think heaven doth allow of love 's twice Mora. As it doth intend Madam all good should rise to its perfection our minds are but love's pupills at the first Which fit themselves but to proceed and take degrees and so our second love is a degree wherein our soules attaine to experience that imploys it selfe in loves refinement So not by the first step but by this gradation Love ascends unto its highest Bel. I will allow you Moramente Love is no irradiation of a light into our soules whose first instant brightness is in its perfection But may not the first spark be kept alive and raised unto as high a light as can the second which is kindled still by putting out the first Mora. T is not an extinction of the flame 't is but a change of the materiall that fomented it so second loves have this advantage they being the first instant in that height the first was long agrowing to and have the first comparison to rayse themselves by which must prove it higher by having got above it Bel. These degrees of elevation Mâ—ramente you require in Love inferr this consequence that love should be a continuall motion by change aspiring to transcendency For it comparison doth raise it so he is to blame that takes but one For by your inference the number must exalt noâ—last unto the greatest height Your inconstancy doth not concerne us so as you should strive to prove it a virtue to us Mora. In this degree Madam which I have named Love comes to touch a point after which all motion is a declination I do not allow loves leightnesse or variety contributors unto its heighth I do agree the glory of it is in a consistency in this elevation the second love attaines to because the first cannot know how high it is Had I thought inconstancy a virtue Madam I ne're had been blest with this so great a joy as seeing you Bel. What Moramente sayes Martiro seemes to justify the Prince his second love and so to make his cause a president to plead his own by
conversion Exeunt Melidoro Camena Melidoro What speculation are you in Martiro Were you not thinking what starrs were in love with one another and how by their tacite influence they entertain themselves You never think so low as the moon because she hath been said to have been enjoyed Cam. They say Martiro there is a Sagittary above that answers to our Cupid here and that the starrs which we see shoot are shot by him to inflame which of them he wilâ— will aime at Pray Martiro do not the melancholy loving starrs delight much in the musick of the Spheares Mar. No I was thinking lower how the globe of the earth might be made flat and so the Antipodes laid levell with us Inmy minde I have seene as strange a thing as this come to passe Melidoro There is hope Martiro you may fall â—o thinke of possibilityes this is somewhat towards it to meditate so low as earth Mar. I do begin already to think all things so possible on earth as I thinke you two may be happy in enjoying one another Mel. This is an exposition of flatting of the Globe Wee that were your Antipodes are now level with you Cam. Rest your thoughts then here Martiro on the Centre of the earth and you will finde more ease in that stability then you have don in the swift motion of the orbes above where they have been till now Mar. I am but yet like one that is fallen high whose sense at first doth but assure him he feeles a foundation so by degrees his senses begin to com againe I do begin to heare already I may come to taft at last Mel. You will finde Martiro that fancy on the ground of sense may runne division enough and make much better musick then in ayre Here comes Genoriâ— wee 'le tell him the newes Enter Genorio Gen. Happy Martiro I must acknowledg you shewed me first the way to this supream beatitude in love above the orbes of wishing And give me leave to bragge that I am risen a degree above you to the joying in her loving another proportionably as it affects her Mar. My recantation must confesse my opinion And you Genorio have now brought me a reason to confirme the change of it your having got a point above it You have not left me so much as a singularity to glory in I was never higher then the allowing her I loved impossibility For all that you are many degrees further And my new opinion assureth your happinesse that all women must love For whom soever your Mistressâ— loves your security keeps time with that Cam. Here is the expired Phoenix and there the issue of his ashes And there can be but one at once Mel Come Camena let 's leave them both together there 's no danger of Genorio's making a sect Cam. We will leave you together If the stâ—anger bring so good a pretence to misfortune to day as this your opinion Genorio he shall have my voyce Gen. We will follow to the audience If all happinesse be but opinion as some say it is then mine is a High one How Martiro comes this declination of your thoughts from that high beliefe can hardly reach to this which sense can touch Mar. It may be Genorio your thoughts and mine are a counter-ballance And the fall of mine hath raysed yours Gen. Sure Martiro you have reached the impâ—ssibility you soared at And having wrought your selfe above it have stooped with it and come down 〈◊〉 of it Mar. No Genorio but I have seen it fallen down by me seised by another And now I conclude there 's nothing impossible in love And this my discovery doth advance your joyes that are câ—ried on with hâ—rs you love though an other be the bearer of them Gen. Why Martiro Is not this an ingenious revenge on scorne to reduce the woman to make you happy by the same degreeâ— she can think her selfe so For so is he that derives his joyes from hers Mar. Do you know Genorio do you know that they that love after the knowledg of the delivery â—f their wishes to another are inconstant in the act for they I 〈◊〉 another For in that instant she is no more her selfe And he that will begin againe must love two at once For of lovers none knowes which is which Gen. I am so far destin'd to this singularity as this your intended diversion is my direction for my passion is fixt so as he that shall enjoy my wishes is such a one as my reason may dispute with my passion which I should love best If you knew my story Maâ—tiro you would think heaven had blessed me with my love for a miraculous gratitude I must speak with Moramente before the audience Mar. Go Genorio we 'le goe several wayes to Bellesa with my recantation This is Bellesa he 's in love with his friendship to Moramente is that he frames the wonder to himself upon This were to stoop to let my passion fall To lesse than what 's impossible to all Exit Martiro Enter Moramente and Gemella Mor. All that I can say Gemella neer a return iâ— that even in this my happinesse my debt to thee finds sense enough to be a paine by the difficulty of an acquittance But if ever Bellesa and I joyn then nothing can be difficult even a compensation for thy merits will be easie Gem. I am so far from seeking a recompence as I dare bragge you owe me more then I doe know the concealement of which I will onely call merit And I will leave thus much more the helping you to ease your selfe of what you will owe me by asking you somewhat which will seeme easie to you though it must take up all your life the giving it Mor. There can be nothing so hard to me as a cessation in my gratitude to you therefore the time it doth require will not onely welcome but satisfie the act Lose no time Gemella that I may begin Gemella To be constant all your life unto Bellesa Mor. Thou hast ask't the only thing which I can do but cannot doe for you this is a pretention even above thy merit to wish to have Bellesa thought upon one instant for thy sake I should forget Bellesa in that promise to you This I will assure Gemella for her sake to be so constant unto you as you shall be her shadow in my thoughts Gemella Did I not trust more to Bellesa's vertue of making a miracle for her then to your being made one of your self I should not have asked you so impossible a thing as constancy Mor. Why do you think constancy in a man a miracle Gemella Such a one as it is in no mans power to be assured of for constancy Moramente is to be judged of as other miracles after death and so may be allowed deification Moramente I should choose Gemella that time for the Judgment of mine for every instant of my life shall adde more to my love then all the
rest of the world doth love in all and my last instant's breath shal only summe it up Gem. Make not so unlimitted ingagements Moramente 't is ominous 't is a defie to fortune and time that both subsist by change to resolve so bold a constancie Enter Genorio Gem. Here comes Genorio we will be judged by him whether large professions be not temptations unto fortune to glory in the frustration of them Gen. I doe beleeve sometimes that destiny is provoked by our undertakings to be so much our selves and useth such violence as justifies our honours not by a surrender but by a defeature of our faith Gem. Sure Genorio thus to accuse sate of such a depravation is to provoke it more than to conclude it will not be offended with a virtuous confidence Genorio I beleeve too there may be such a subject for a miraculous passion as inconstancy may be the greater miracle Gem. Pray Genorio do you think a Salamander can be sensible of the change of flames passions may be in some so naturall as they cannot distinguish their own alterations Gen. If this Siâ—ile hold for a reproach it reacheth to both sexes Will you be pleased Gemella to let me change this discourse for some privacy with Moramente Gem. You I beleeve have not the same businesse with him as I had to recommend constancy Gen. The impatience I have sought you with Moramente all this morning will be proved to you by the occasion of my seeking you Mor. No impatience can be welcomer to me Genorio then this of shewing me this cleer chearfulnesse risen in thy looks that have morning in them now again they have been so long be-nighted Gen. 'T is all reflex't from you Moramente to whom such beames shine as must needs by repercussion cleare one so neer to you as I am It is Bellesa's love to you that sends these sparkling joyes to me from that great flame of glorious happinesse that doth blaze on you Mor. Thou hast match't two impossibilityes so well Genorio as I knew not which to beleeve least Bellesa's loving me or thy knowing it Gen. You do well to wonder at it Moramente for heaven thought it news worthy of an Angel's sending to the earth to be the bearer of 't and the gods knowing my gratitude to you could aske no lesse then a miracle for an expression of it and chose me first to impart it to you left you might have been indebted too much to any body but one whose life was yours by the delivery of such a blessing An Angel that took 〈…〉 assure me of her speaking true appeared to me lâ—â—t night in the Temple and told it me Mora. The gods know Genorio that Bellâ—sâ—â— loving was a blessing too pure 〈◊〉 mortality â—n thâ—refore did â—llay it with â—idamira's death Gen. Nay Moâ—amente I have the same authority for Fâ—damira's life as for Bâ—llesa'â— love the angel told me both at once Mor. Then Genorio the blessing that thou bringâ—st is so divine it leaves me noâ— a wish 〈◊〉 â—ouch't too with an equal reflex of those joyes â—hinâ— on thee in Fidamira's love The wonder of thy gratitude to me in preferring me before thy self did require no lesse then such a miracle for thy reward Gen. Beleeve me Moramente my heart is so set upon your joyes as I have scarce any sense left for Fidamira's love Mor. Thou dost affect out-meriting thy selfe Here comes the Queen Genorio Enter Bellesa Gemella Bellesa This freedome is a double obligation as it gives me some meanes of return Till when it shall not be perceived that I am trusted with it Doth it not grow late Gem. Look on your watch Madam I beleeve the hour of the audience draws neer Bel. It is within halfe an hour of the time How goes your watch Moramente Moramante Will you be pleased to tell your selfe Madam Bel. As just with mine as if the same wheeles moved them both Have you seen the Sun to day Mor. I have been in heaven this morning Madam and set it there and 't is as great a proofe to me of the truth of it the keeping time with yours Gem. Moramente is so happy he beleeves he governs time Bel. Sure the pretender is impatient of his audience which I have promised him and the hour I have prefixt draws neer Mor. Sure you your self Madam should be impatient in the interim between your promise and performance for that is the only time you can owe any thing We will waite on you now to hasten your discharge â—ellesa We will go Moramente I should be glad to see Genorio's looks tuned to bear a part in this generall harmony Gen. Mine Madam are the discords which must be in this composition Exeunt Enter Pantamora Pan. The Queen is gone before to the audience her inclination now to Moramente is so declared as even his looks avow it The election is to be presently after the audience in which I can think on nothing to fear unlesse confidence be ominous Exit Pantamora Bel. Let the pretender be called in Enter Romero Rom. Pardon this amazement Madam All my Soul's faculties are drawn into my eyes to decide a doubt In which if I durst so soon beleeve my eyes they had already looked away my pretence but they are too partial to me to beleeve so soon Therefore give me leave Madam to bring them neerer the object they are now disputing on that they may aske some Questions of my memory so to decide this doubt It must be she nature could not make two such Blessed Saphira I conjure you by the remove of what only can be objected against your innocence The affliction of your father and the hazard of a nation to answer to this name and in a word to speake me happier â—hen even the youngest here can live to You know who asketh this pitty of you now One whose misery is a reproach to you Therefore answer to this name Saphira and with one word over-pay him to whom you owe the first you ever had Gen. The virtue of this place reacheth not to cure distraction You would have Bellesa revive the dead He may be dismist Madam Bel. Stay Genorio sure I owe him more pitty that would revive me than one would antedate my death Worthy Romero I will answer to that name and in this instant make thee so happy as to indebt all the Society to thee for the knowledg of me And to inlarge this present of my selfe unto thee I will bring a witnesse thou wilt willingly beleeve thy son whose flight with me if it do need forgivenesse cannot be denied now Mar. I will not weaken so much the Queens desire as to add my prayers to it She that hath blessed you so cannot be denied yours for me Mor. What say you to this Genorio Gen. Since my fault is an exaltation of your happinesse that I will ask pardon for it Romero Pardon me Madam if I refuse a thought yet so low as the