huge throng of people would have doubtless stifled thousands of the Curious if a Masque recreating their spirits had not kept them alive Stratonica used always to go masked were it that the World was unworthy to see her Face or were it that she feared lest her Face might occasion some ruine to the World Howsoever it was a little piece of Velvet or Black-Taffaty hid from the eyes of Damascus that Beauty which neither high Mountains nor vast Seas could conceal from the eyes of Seleucus Being arrived at the Pallace which stood at the head of a very large Piazza and weary of their journey they reposed four days and the Sacrifices in the mean time and nuptial Magnificence were prepared In the end the day being come that was appointed Seleucus after he had solemnly Sacrificed espoused his dear Stratonica by the hands of the high Priest Having afterwards caused her to sit down on the right hand of his Throne he made all his Lords swear Loyalty to her and acknowledge her for their Queen The Feasts that then followed and the Banquets which were made are far beyond all imagination No Pleasure was omitted nor Show laid aside But that which had power above every thing else to transport the hearts of all with a wonder was a very vast Theater which the Engineer of the portable Pallace that we spake of before had built on that spacious Piazza It was like a Geryon composed of those three Bodies which make Architecture admired The great Pillars the beautiful Statues the majestick vast Beams the curious Pictures the various Devices and quaint Motto's made a heap of Wonders able to amuse the clearest understanding It contained Twenty thousand Spectators and had Six moving Machines in its vast hollow bulk every one of which made a Scene In them Orpheus was represented in Hell playing on his Harp for Euridices recovery Theseus in the labyrinth when he killed the Minotaure The same when he deserted Ariana in the Island Circes transforming her Lovers into Beasts Ulysses retreating from the Musick of the Syrens and Arion saving himself on the back of the Dolphin Those Acts were seconded with most excellent enterludes of Musick The Spectators were amazed in that maner that many learned men thought it necessary to deliver them to posterity in Books The patern of those Representations being afterwards by those ancient times delivered from one another to our days was lastly seen to flourish in the Feasts of the Princes of Italy and particularly in his Highnesses of Parma the Machines of whose Nuptials if they wholly exceeded not those of Seleucus exceeded them at least in having there present one Claudio Achillini whose admirable invention not onely with the harmony of Order but likewise the design of the Carpenters work perpetually made them famous Other pleasant Shows succeeded the former and Damascus for the space of a moneth appeared the Worlds delight When that time was expired Demetrius to ease Seleucus his Country of the inconveniencies caused by his Army and to carry back his Navy to the Havens of his Kingdom took his leave of his dear Daughter and his new Son-in-law and returned with Fila to Tripolis where he embarked himself Stratonica felt their departure with that grief which was taught her by the Law of filial affection And while she was alone in her Chamber to accompany their voyage with her sorrow Antiochus came to see her He saw her ah sight he saw her in that posture which would have mollified a Flint Her Face was so sweetly full of pity that even sorrow it self looked well in those Cheeks The fire of her looks though bathed in sadness was not lessened at all but albeit it burned in the water yet it could not be said to be artificial fire It was too natural to Stratonica to burn him with her looks It is hard to describe with what affection those eyes big with grief brought forth tears The fair Queen in that act resembled Aurora in travel of the day Her tears much exceeded the morning dew in Beauty To hear her name pitifully her Father so wounded the heart of the Prince that the hurt was incurable He beholding so pleasing a sight was wholly transported with her Face and began to consider more seriously Stratonica's great Beauty That his pity which he felt pierce his heart was the Embryo of which by little and little Love afterwards came to be formed It was but Reason that what began of Pity should make an end in Love And it was a lucky sign to Antiochus his love that it began of grief Joy and Sorrow are the two Centers of all humane Actions He that begins with the one ends necessarily in the other Antiochus undertook to comfort the Queen and so affectionately comforted her that he even kept her company in weeping His Compassion assured her of his Love and her Sympathy and Affection to him from thence increased infinitely The remembrance of that afflicted Beauty was a Key which opened to Antiochus the door of acquaintance From that time ever after when he looked on Stratonica her Beauty seemed greater to him and her Behavior more pleasing He delighted in nothing but her Conversation To be the mark of her Looks and the eccho of her words represented to him the felicities of Paradise Now Antiochus was grown almost a Lover but perceived not that he loved On the other side Stratonica who saw that in all Feasts and particularly in the Balls and in Tilting Antiochus alone was reputed the most valiant and esteemed the most handsom considering too no less the most pleasing and amorous dispositions of his nature was by little and little so enamored of him that she acted more the part of a Lover then a Friend Reputation in Arms is a very great motive to Love Women as deprived of that excellency in this unlike themselves envy not Valor but admire it in Men. They hate so much Feminine weakness that they cannot love the man that is Effeminate or being to be subject to man they cannot without blushing endure to be commanded by him who cannot shew himself to be more then a woman So by little and little the Fire fortified it self in the two Princes hearts But the flames were so great in Sophonisba's beyond measure that there was no hope of remedy unless she would discover them If either Love shewed her Antiochus in Armor in the Field to shew his Valor or if he presented him to her unarmed in the middle of a Ball to make a new Conquest with his Graces his presence had still the same power either this way or that to unbowel her The Unfortunate Lady sang frequently with him and perhaps composed the Songs in order to her Passion but Art could do nothing where Nature would not help She was now so far gone in her Love that it either would have shortly caused her death or forced her to speak but Love very strangely delivered her from the danger she was in
strength from his generous Minde which accompanies still royal Blood he looked cheerfully and composed so his Countenance that no body perceived his alteration Stratonica no less subtile then he in concealing her Passions at the coming of the Nurse to cause no admiration in her disarrayed her self of that rigor with which she was apparrel'd while she was with Antiochus alone and began to discourse now with him now with her with her usual Sweetness and Courtesie The Prince perceived those Arts and was very glad of them hoping that the cruelty which his Queen had expressed to him either proceeded from meer Capriciousness or was bred of a Desire to make tryal of his Constancy Being afterwards departed with her usual License he employed himself in thinking if by chance he had any ways deserved the disdain which his Queen shewed to him His Sighs were many his Compunctions great and his Discourses to himself not concise But afterwards finding for many days together that when Stratonica was alone she still kept her self on her guard but when they were in company she used the forementioned dexterity the unfortunate Prince began to lose all hope His sorrows become Gyants so tyrannized over his minde that he sometimes was almost distracted Knowing therefore the imminent danger not onely of his Life but his Honor he resolved to provide for himself all the remedies which seemed to him the best to remove Stratonica from his Heart He first of all therefore fell to reading certain Books of Calisthenes of the Contempt of the World that by them as by so many Counsellors because he was diffident to discover his passions to any he might receive advertisements and means to despise all terrestrial affections and use contemplation by help of which onely a man may make himself very happy on earth His Minde being plunged in this kinde of reading he considered oftentimes the Nature of a Woman and how subject to frailty why the intellect of man that is of so noble and so sublime a Nature should abandon it self in that maner as to lose the best operations of its faculty in tracing a Woman Being encouraged many times with such like thoughts he fell in Stratonica's absence to neglecting of her Qualities and Beauty so fortifying himself in those Speculations that he thought he then had courage enough to oppose the power of her Presence But afterwards having occasion of seeing her in order to the accidents of the Day the unfortunate Prince ravisht with beholding the Majesty of that Face and the lightning of those Eyes changing himself wholly in a moment said aloud to himself Alas who would not understand it for a happiness to lose his life for one of thy looks Who onely to see thee dearest soul would not adventure all Fortune and hazard all danger O Antiochus and hast thou the heart to neglect her hast thou a minde that can form a thought that is not hers ignorant man that thou art and what torment deserves not an ingratitude like thine His Soul which within him dictated those thoughts made the Queen very fully understand his resentments by the force of his looks But she though she pitied him was more sensible of her own Honor. To that end neglecting all those actions which might seem to mollifie her towards her Antiochus she sought too to make her self inexorable by Custom where she had begun by Choice The Prince by this maner disconsolately living studied how to cure the disasters of his minde besides by the reading of Books with much Playing and Hunting It is hard to relate how pleasing he was to the company of the Courtiers how lovely and how much desired He played to lose because all gain but that of the favor of the Queen would have been ingrateful to him The greatest pleasure he had in those pastimes was to sigh His friends supposed that he sighed for his ill Fortune and he onely fighed for Love the effects of his cruel condition which while he was a Lover made him thought avaricious Sometimes in the middle of the thickest Woods which Libanus backs straying from the company that followed him and lighting at the foot of a Tree to which he ty'd his horse he sate on the grass and leaning his sad head on the Trunk which doubtless was softer then Stratonica's Heart washing his Cheeks with Tears soon after he eccho'd forth Accents which would have mov'd to pity the most pityless Tygers One time then among the rest after he had wept a good while in those uncouth solitudes he was invaded by a thought which said thus unto him To what purpose bewailst so thy Fortune and Stratonica's Favor if thou knowst not by how many ways Love compasses his ends Who assures thee that Stratonica shews not her self so rigid to thee that by forcing thee to tell her what kindness she hath ever received from thee thou mayst have the occasion to engrave thy Love in her and why losest so unprofitably thy time and seekest the most solitary Woods to dissolve thy self with Weeping O foolish O careless man Rise comfort thy self take Courage encounter the Opportunity O ye Gods which inhabit hereabouts if there be any among you that hear my complaints and pity my disasters now shew your gentleness in prospering my Desires Deny me not your help O Sacred Napeae ye happy Oreades infuse boldness into this Heart which onely is too Timerous because too Amorous I go to end my Woes or to begin them for ever He had scarce said that but leaping on his Horse he impatiently rode through those leavy obscurities to finde out his attendance and return with all speed to the City and discover himself to his Queen And behold turning by the corner of a High and Precipitious heap of Stones which made as it were the Frontispiece of a Landskip-work at the foot of a great Mountain he saw in the midst of some bushes a Bear fly slowly away Antiochus follows him and when he came near him saw by his hair that was bloody that he 's hurt He straightways throws at him a Dart which he had in his hand with great force and wounds him beneath the neck The Bear groans and roars in that maner that the eccho's thereabouts of those silent Deserts repeat them His roaring was a kinde of wilde Trumpet which called from a Grot a She-bear of that infinite greatness that she seemed a hairy mountain Antiochus had an occasion to shew there that his sword could wound as well as his heart was wounded He employed all the valor he had for the two enemies before him omitted no means with their Tusks and their Paws to rob him of his life but Sweating and Panting often hard for the victory he at last overcame them The two Beasts lying prostrate on the Earth were a horrible Spectacle to the Eyes of all the Court which presently came together in defence of their Lord. The She-bear was there known by many Country people for the terror
felt by little and little a Thought rising in my Minde which continually represented to my memory the resemblance of this Lady who was not very handsom and joyned to the Thought I found grown a Desire which forced me to spend the greatest part of my time in her fruitless Conversation which I could not else endure This Lady was a Widow who besides her Riches and noble Birth had an excellent Wit which had dedicated her to the Science of Physick and Magick from her Childhood She therefore accustomed to phantastical Humors surmounting her Sex and well pleased with my Shape was very much enamored of me And encountering an occasion by that my disease to introduce into my Bowels with some specious pretext the tyranny of her Desires she raised in the Calm of that Potion a boisterous Tempest to my life I had not long been well but a Son of hers died called Sylvio to the Tears of whose Funeral the eyes of her Sister named Gloricia came running I who had often heard commended this Maid for a very great Beauty in whom Nature had assembled her utmost Ability desired much to see her But because it is a custom among the Gentlewomen of Cyprus to appear in no Company but their Friends my Curiosity was unsatisfied till she came to behold the dead Body of dear Sylvio Who is able to relate what a wound that weeping Beauty then made in my Heart Perhaps it was the pity of Love to bring it so about that the first time I contemplated those Eyes I should contemplate them weeping What would not that fire have caused in me if as it was diminished by the moisture of her Tears it had been augmented by the rayes of her Smiling Her Hair being spread on the bewailed Body shewed either that she had set at liberty the Souls she had tyed there to the end they should run to revive him or had offered up a treasure to Death to the end it should not be any hinderance to his Resurrection But what need is there of this relation Even the mourning attire which she had on her fair suitable Limbs concurred in declaring Gloricia Beauties Queen I on the one side finding my self naturally inclined to love Gloricia on the other knowing I was forced by a supernatural Power to wait on Mirtenia was the most afflicted and most troubled man in the World Having therefore one day chosen a fit opportunity I said to Mirtenia That I knew very well how she had by her Charms made me a Servant to her to whom my Obligations and the Favors she had first of all done me disposed me that it therefore seemed needless to me for her to make use of Compulsion where my Will so many ways concurred without Artifice And that if Loves true Happiness consisted in nothing but a natural Sympathy how could she ever be sure to enjoy my Affection if she could not come to know whether I freely complied with her or by force These Reasons together with those Prayers which every one knows how powerful they are in his Mouth who pretends to be a Lover so wrought in the Minde of Mirtenia that she was content to disengage me from her Charms and entreated me to promise her to be wholly hers willingly I answered her That I used not by way of an Oath to binde my Will howsoever that she might be assured that I would not be ingrateful for the Love which she bare me Being freed in this maner from her Bonds many days had not passed but I consecrated wholly my self to the love of Gloricia and presently after had the means to discover my self to be a Lover She who had a very good Opinion of me expected not that I should be lavish in beseeching her Favor but granted it me at my first entreaty and swore unto me a reciprocal good Will Mirtenia was aware of our Love insomuch that being desperately jealous of what I had done she endeavored by all possible means to allure me to her Love and divert me from her Sisters This Gentlewoman was Lady of a Countrey called Feacide in which there is a Mountain of Wonders This dreadful for its Nature and Form ascends all Spungy with Rocks so high towards Heaven that the Eye being weary of so steepy an Ascent abandons it often before it arrives at the top There the horrors of Winter as it were in their own Nest perpetually hatching Snow Arm with sharp Ice gasping Rocks and cloathing to speak so their backs with white Weapons with their stony points defie the Airs sharpness Nothing else is to be seen on all the Mountain but crusty rugged Stones clear Stones and precipices of Rocks among which grow thin and scattered solitary Fir-trees Rivelets of Water run tumbling down from the snowy Summit which foaming among the Stones by their Fraction seem afar off to be so many Silver Selvages which with barbarous Pomp are desirous to beautifie the rugged Mountain at the foot of which a troubled River running enters into a narrow passage which runs afterwards emptying it self into a woody Plain The noise of the Wind that lies in this Straight together with the roaring of the Water which breaks among the Caverns of the Channel so fill every Heart with astonishment that they make this place thought the habitation of Hell Thither I was brought by Mirtenia under pretence to go visit her Lands When we were come to the Mountain and had left the Servants we had there at the mouth of a craggy Grot onely she and I went passing through the Straights of the Cave into the Court of an enchanted Pallace where I saw incredible things When she there had refreshed me with Dainties and most excellent Musick she shewed me in a Room adorned all with Pictures the resemblance of my Progeny who being to be transplanted as she did assure me from Cyprus into the City of Giano the Metropolis of Liguria she desired that I should entertain my self a while in beholding the Heroes of that Nation among whom I remember she commended one much who was to be the famousest Warrier that ever should be seen and he had these Letters engraven at his feet The Marquess AMBROSE SPINOLA More below among men of a different Condition though known well by Fame she caused me to write in a little Book the names of three Poets and three Painters some of which she said would be very great Lovers of one of my Lineage The Poets were called Ceba Chiabreta and Cavallo The Painters Paggi Borzone and Sarzana All these things which I thought the greatest Wonders that ever could be seen in the World so obliged me to the love of Mirtenia that albeit naturally I found not my self inclined to affect her yet forgetting now Gloricia I was willing to dispose my self openly to love her She who by mine Eyes and my Countenance began to perceive my good liking of her continuing her kindnesses to me conducted me into another Room where the Pictures
their flanks plaid up and down More below in a circle sate twelve beautiful Maids of Honor among which Sophonisba appeared no less eminent in Beauty then in Dignity Stratonica was habited like a Nymph the Gold and Jewels she wore exceeded much the value of a Kingdom But Fila seated with a Crown on her head was Majestick and Grave Those amorous Archers had a custom when any went in to the Queens to shoot at them for Ornament with their Bows Were it by Chance or by Art one of the Arrows gilded and blunt as Seleucus entered in hit him on the heart which we spake of before He was so transported in that his first appearance that by his disorder his good grace was in danger of miscarrying All his life was reduced into a look and the Queens onely knew he was a live by his looks The admiration in seeing one another was reciprocal in all The Queens had heard often of Seleucus his Fame and desired as much to see him as he to see them The good King kneeled as they rose up and with a stammering tongue desired to kiss their hands They forcing him to rise would by no means permit him to do them that service At last being gently reproved by Demetrius he rose up and said to them I should rejoyce with you my Ladies if in having acquired a Son in Law and a Husband so unequal to your merits you could say you had gained by the Purchase My Crown though esteemed by the world deserves not to be valued by you but for this that 't is rich in incomparable Devotion and Affection to your Majesties It belongs then to you O my Queens to rejoyce with me I onely among all that are this day alive in the World have more obligation to the Stars then any man besides To live when Stratonica lives to be the Companion of her Fortune and the end of her Thoughts are such Graces as Heaven never gives but when it intends perfect Happiness To make me very fortunate be pleased O Stratonica my Mistress to accept of me readily for your Servant and give me some assurance of it that my Happiness being known to the World every one may swear I no longer am Mortal Having said so he embraced her with much reverence and kissed her Thou diedst not Seleucus of pleasure because it was impossible for thee to die in the mouth of thy life Thy Soul in that kiss had contracted all the pleasures which Love hath to give If thou hadst not loved Stratonica in that maner that thy passionate Affection made thee chaste that sweet Povson would not doubtless have found an Antidote against it The Queens were well satisfied with Seleucus his Behavior and Expressions and answered him with that courtesie which is due in like cases In the mean time all the Courtiers there present hung at the mouth of the Princes observing their Majesties and admiring their carriage Having ended their Ceremonies they discoursed of other matters in the progress of which Seleucus stealing often his Soul from his words gave it to his looks His eyes were so eager in beholding Stratonica that they were like the eyes of the Bird that hatches her Eggs with her looks O what immensity of Beauty restrained in the narrow confines of a Face presents it self Seleucus to thy view Why seest thou it and diest not since Seeing and Dying deprive alike of life an enamored Heart It perhaps preserves thy life to think that those animated Alabasters live not and soften not for any but thy self The possession of a Happiness so great is certainly able to give life but if the possession of Beauty be not otherwise enjoyed then by looking upon it That possession is unprofitable which hath no longer pleasure then the lasting of a look By that time the Navy slowly sailing on towards the Haven arrived They dis-imbarked with that greatness and pomp which became well the Majesty of a King and a Lovers first desire But among the stateliest things which were seen in Seleucus his Delights was a very great Pallace made all of Wood in that maner that Two thousand men hired for that purpose could instantly set it together It was rarely well built all gilded and curiously Painted When it was taken asunder they carried it conveniently on Carts in the journey In this Pallace every night while they travelled from Tripolis to Damascus the Princes were so gallantly lodged that Lucullus his Apolline and the Delights of Heliogabalus which followed after in comparison of them might be justly called Shadows Stratonica rode in a Chariot drawn by four Birds of that bigness that it is liker a fable then the truth to relate it They breed in the Inhospitable Mountains of Giava the greater and it is written of them that they carried with such ease through the Air a Calf fastned to their Talons as a Falcon would a Sparrow By the Winged Coursers we may judge of the rest of the Chariot The Armies of both Crowns went before and Fifty other Chariots followed after in which were the Princes the Ladies and chief Officers of the Court. It was Majestick to see with what Military Rule and good Order they travelled The Pioneers joyned in two Legions levelled the Hills removed the Woods and dryed up the Rivers if need so required The power of Kings can do these wonders and it is not a wonder that it can do so much If man be the King of Animals to be King of many Men is to be King of many Kings and who wonders that the Actions of a King should be great since in them the Assistance of so many Kings concurs All Ages envyed the Plains which Stratonica passed over being the Scene of so beautiful a sight Let the Reader imagine That the Soul of Seleucus was distributed among all his Soldiers Every one of them co-operated with that diligence to his end that the new Lover had nothing else to do but to desire The slowness of their march onely vexed him He desired that Stratonica's Chariot would have flown and perhaps to that end he put the Birds in it but who knows that those Birds were not Seleucus his winged Desires They doubtless would have flown in my Opinion if the Bridle of Respect due to his Queen had not checkt them But being near Damascus they were met and received by the City with the greatest signs of Loyalty that faithful Subjects could demonstrate to their Prince The Arch-Triumphals and Altars were erected the streets hung with Tapistry and the Playes and Balls which that day were seen would weary any Tongue and any Pen. The concourse of people was so great that besides the Inhabitants of Damascus torrents of persons came tumbling from the neighboring Cities The Galleries the Balcones and Windows were all filled and the rest of the people not knowing which way else to come to see hung on the ridges of the houses and kept themselves from falling by leaning on the Walls The
Hooks of those Characters are artificial pick-lock-tools to open the secret Bolt of a Heart To see a Leaf written is like seeing an Army in the Field Every Line is a File of Men. Words give Battel to the Minde and overcome it for there is no force more powerful then that of Words to batter a Minde Antiochus read over the Letter once or twice which was a Composition too pleasing to uncalm the tranquillity of his Thoughts and causing Eleuteria to come to him questioned her earnestly to see what she knew else of Sophonisba Thinking then again on the accident and Love making in the Field of his Memory a Muster of the Vertues of that Lady he lamented much her absence and so violently fell in Love with her as he would have repaired all his past negligence if what is once past could ever become present He omitted not to answer her Letter and mingled in his answer many amorous Conceits to assure Sophonisba that he loved her again But his answer come to Bursia was returned with this answer That the miserable Lady was dead The sorrow she had for leaving her Antiochus was the cause of her death And who wonders that she died leaving him if Antiochus was her life The Fame of her Death being spread through Damascus all that had known her wept for her Every one bewayled the too untimely death of Sophonisba the Sun of whose Vertue had given so much Lustre to that Court. Antiochus above all cloathing in Black his dearest Thoughts erected in the Temple of his Heart a Monument of Tears to his deceased Mistris His sorrows were the greater in order to the strife within himself to conceal them But all he could do could not hinder the Marks of his grief from appearing with state on his Countenance Those Remembrances are sorrowful which called to the Heart make the Eccho of a Tomb. They have something of poyson which fuming to the face makes it pale Sepulchers contain onely ashes and can give no other colour to him that thinks on them but what is of ashes But the Mark being removed towards which the desires of Antiochus began to run he remained as deprived of sense because he could no longer be sensual The man that applies not himself to some Love is like a Body without Life The good Prince is unsatisfied till he fill afresh his heart with some other Affection Humane Condition is of such a constitution that if once it lose its modesty in desiring it presently becomes dishonest in its Desires He waving up and down in these irresolutions Love presents before him Stratonica He before having carelesly designed the first Draughts of a Love more then filial towards her thinks it easie to pursue it until it degenerate into lust He therefore begins to wish to see her and is pleased with her favors But return'd to himself it is probable that he said oftentimes to himself What ways are these Whither runnest so Antiochus Dost thou invent Treasons Treason 's the more hainous since they are against Honor Can thy Heart have a corner where a Thought may hide it self a Thought that is so foul to be an Adulterer to thy Father And livest thou and breathest And hast the impudence wicked wretch to endure the others looks And on what are founded all thy Hopes though they are just Hopes Perhaps on Stratonica's allurements And thinkest thou that she flatters thee lasciviously Mad-man that thou art canst not be faithless enough thy self unless thou likewise thinkest Fidelity it self faithless With these or the like internal Motions Antiochus mortifying his Senses stopt the course of his Affection to the Queen and was afterwards more cautious and less careful to preserve it She seeing him grown tepid and sad was not wanting to make use of all occasions to rekindle his Affection And he after some little resistance returned to the Happiness of her Favors and began to desire them afresh very passionately So the course of his Affections altered by turn till after some days Antiochus arrived at that point of his Life in which a Change of Fortune was decreed him by his Fate On the side of the Pallace Seleucus had a Garden no less spacious then beautiful In it as in a leavy Lycaeum or an Academy of Plants well looked to the vegetative Creatures taught men the Sciences of the most learned Beauties There in the Summer the King used to walk in the Evening and to Sup oftentimes One Evening therefore among the rest being there at Table with the Queen and the Prince they were infinitely merry It was in that part of the year when the World become yong again uses with flowry Hair to array his naked Face To see Stratonica in a Garden was to see the Sun in his Sphaer That Garden seemed the Epitome of all the Worlds Beauty and Stratonica's face the Epitome of that Garden Antiochus grown drunk with the pleasure of a thousand little flatteries of the Queen was no sooner a Bed but disordered his minde with a Chaos of Thoughts now unquiet now calm and penetrating into the Contemplation of what had passed that day sighed to himself through abundance of Compassion and cryed out oftentimes Sweetest Stratonica And who would be happier then I am if what thou dost to me as a Mother-in-law thou wouldst do as a Lover In these or such like words he continued and his Senses being fettered with the soft snares of sleep he dreamed in the night That passing through the Garden he had found Stratonica all alone in a labyrinth of Mirtles which grew there in the middle The afflicted Queen being seated as he thought in those shady retreats immoderately wept What ails you Madam Why weep you so disconsolately She then looking on Antiochus with a countenance between angry and pleased seemed thus to answer him Cruel man Art still so inhumane to ask me why I weep I so long have been dying for thy love and thou returnest not my kindness nor makest account of it and yet thou askest me why I weep The Prince congealing at those words was inmoveable and sensless Having afterwards by little and little recovered his spirits he endeavored to mitigate her Sorrow by assuring her That he suffered as much for her sake The Dream wrought so powerfully that Antiochus awaked Being come to himself O Gods said he who can tell if Stratonica loves thee not unfeignedly who can tell But Fool what say I Is Stratonica false to my Father Ah! these are distempers of a youthful Brain they are distempers So he reasoned with himself and leaping out of his Bed when the Sun had now gilded the Windows came into the Room where he used every morning to do his duty to the Queen Poor Antiochus how near is thy Liberty to an end Round that Presence-Chamber from the top hung rich imbroidered Cloth the height of which being adorned with a circle of Pictures done by rare Masters entertained the Eyes of all the Beholders
with a very stately Sight On one of the four sides on a Table of Silver was erected to the middle of the Wall a very great and clear four-square Looking-glass which resembling a calm Sea bounded with the Ethiopian shore of a transparent Ebony invited all the Faces and Species of near Objects to fail on its Bosom Now while Stratonica the King and many other domesticks which coming from their Chambers had assembled there themselves stood discoursing on the rest they had taken the night past the Queen who was afraid to be observed by her Husband if too often as she otherwise would have done she had fixed her Eyes on her beloved learned to look kindly upon him by stealth in the Image which the Glass reflected of him so while she was secretly delighted with his sight Antiochus by chance casting his eyes up and down found the Queens fixed on him But who can now repeat the great force of that encounter of their looks And how significant was that sudden correspondence of their eyes It was the Work of an Angel that she in an instant assured reproved and encouraged the enamored Prince If thou doubtest that I love thee he thought that those Eyes said to him if thou doubtest that I love thee O Antiochus behold this my Soul which wholly contracted in the little circle of a covetous Apple of the Eye hopes onely to be helped by a dying Aspect To assure thee of my Love me-thinks the many signs thou hast had of my Affection should suffice thee But since thou wouldst never credit them nor beleeve the last Nights Vision wilt thou credit this Glass Ah see Antiochus see that I love thee The Eyes are the Wonders of the Face and dark Figures of Divinity We may call them too the Dyals of Love which fastned on the Wall of a Countenance shew with the Style of their Looks the minutes of hours either happy or unhappy to Lovers They shewed Love-sick Antiochus that infallibly from that Moment by assuring himself of Stratonica's Affection he burnt in that maner that his Flame was almost after past extinguishing The second Book NOw the Heart of Antiochus was combustible Matter The form of that Look so kindled the Fire in his Bowels that he being unable to contain it intirely in his Bosom it likewise fell to flaming in his Face Philosophy hath no Secret that is able to repress the first Passions of the Minde They invade with that violence that they tyrannize Poor Lovers amongst their Miseries count not for the least that of Blushing and frequently growing Pale because in the colours displayed on their Cheeks by their Minde they cannot help declaring those Affections which they would most conceal But Nature that hath contracted the universe in man hath placed in his Face the eccho of his Heart Antiochus his blushing made Stratonica blush too for she could have no sign that he was aware of her Affection without being ashamed The Prince therefore taking notice that his stay there was dangerous to that Secresie which he too much had professed in all his Actions he took his leave of her and running like a wounded Stag took covert again in those Chambers which considering the green Pictures and Tapistries differed in nothing from Forests but in that they were Painted There transported in an amorous Extasie he frequently lay in the trance of a thousand Delights Between him alone and his heart was the Conference which in cases like this is easier phansied then described He was so well pleased with himself that he seemed a Courtier complementing with a Friend All that while his fair Mother-in-law was no less pleased then he onely she could not have the liberty to perfect her Joy by reason of her Ladies attendance who were always waiting on her But they limited the Violence of their Joy with a reciprocal Desire of reseeing one another that Morning before they went to Dinner to return to the Cement of those Looks with which their Souls had begun to be acquainted So when the inundation of Blushing had ceased in Antiochus his Face he went out well composed and being come thither where he had left Stratonica before he found her standing there and reading certain Letters from her Father which she newly had received Days which begin luckily seldom end unhappily Disasters and Joyes use commonly to come single The beginning it seems infuses certain Qualities into things with which it does either vivificate or infect them It was a day of Felicity to the two enamored Princes It began with the Private and was to conclude with the publike Joy The said Letters brought advice That Demetrius having caused Alexander the Brother of Antipater to be slain who lay in wait for his life was by the Macedonians the deceaseds Subjects saluted for their King and conducted into Macedonia Stratonica very glad of the news gave order that Seleucus should be called in all haste and in the mean time communicated it to Antiochus with so pleasing a Countenance that in it he had more things to read then in the Paper The yong Prince transported with the joy of that pleasant gesture if once he looked down on the Letter often lifted up his eyes to look the Queen in the Face In the end having heard what the Letters contained he cryed out and expressing great contentment said to her I wonder not Madam that Kingdoms owe their Being to the valor of your Father I wonder that the Subjects of slain Alexander knew not how to revenge their Kings death but by giving the Crown of his Kingdom to his Murtherer Indeed I confess dearest Prince answered Stratonica That if this news had not been written to me by my Fathers own hand I should not have beleeved it howsoever the stranger it is the more it hath replenished me with Joy From whence replyed Antiochus we onely may argue That King Demetrius his Merits are so eminent that Fortune afraid of their greatness hath turned into peaceable Scepters their vindicative Swords and changed Blood-thirsty Wars into Vassallages full of Devotion If therefore his Friends and his Servants are bound to rejoyce for his Victories I amongst them all who am the most obliged to him as well for his Valor as the Interests Madam which I have in your person cannot do less then kiss your Hand to shew you my Gladness And bowing himself he desired to kiss it But Stratonica making a pleasing resistance very cheerful and smiling returned him this Answer Prince I will never permit you to be so obsequious to me I am very sure that your Joy for my Fathers prosperity equals mine wherefore it is unnecessary for you to assure me of it otherwise then you do by your Countenance But Antiochus persisting in his desire to kiss her Hand at last overcoming her kissed it I beleeve O Antiochus the Repulses of thy beautiful Queen were the usual tricks of witty women Peradventure for the sweetness of thy kiss she wished then her
more then the Holocausts and with the Tongues of Smoke thanking Heavens Protections they the same time offered Incense with acts of Adulation to Seleucus his Ambition It is hard to relate how many Embassies of Princes arrived in few days at the Court to congratulate with him his recovered Health and how many publike and private Feasts were made through all Soria for that occasion Onely Antiochus and Clitarcus Princes truly worthy of another Condition then what they then enjoyed the one extended on a Bed and the other buried in a Prison made a dolorous Descant to the Harmony of those Joys A Prison is a Hell epitomized in Ten spans of Scituation Humane cruelty which in tracing of Torments hath imitated always diabolical Operations hath in no other Machine more expressed the Marrow of Barbarism then in the Invention of a Prison It is the sum of Evils because it is an enemy to Liberty the sum of all Happiness The Indispositions of the Body and Disasters of the Minde be they never so great come never to martyrize all our Senses at once as a Prison does Even Hope that is the comfort of every Evil becomes in a Prison the disquieting of the Heart Clitarcus was environed with Chains in a Room so full of Sadness that the Darkness in it did the office of Pity It s Horror which shewed not the Inhabitant there all his Miseries at once might call in a maner a Loss a Benefactor Loaden more with Thoughts then with Irons the wretch lay on a Bed which with too great a poverty was fain both to serve him for a Table and Repose Solitude which was the greatest Company he had could give him no ease with other Conferences but those of a Melancholly silence Onely the Sighs which too violently issued out of his Breast more pitiful then any thing else strove to break those Walls which too unworthily constituted a miserable Pallace to a Prince disgraced by Fortune Seleucus whom it greatly concerned to finde out the Fact not so much to punish the guilty as to know in what maner the offence was devised seeing that by vertue of the Laws he could not condemn whom he had not proofs against to convince was extreamly disquieted concerning this Matter And he was the more disquieted by how much that desiring by a certain occult alienation of Minde to condemn Climenes he saw that if Clitarcus confessed not something he should be compelled to free him Seleucus tossed up and down between these Doubts was not wanting oftentimes to communicate his Thoughts to Antiochus who relaxing a little the rigor of his despair by reason of these Affairs desired very earnestly to know how the business was managed He counselled therefore his Father since there was no other remedy to cause Clitarcus to be beheaded by his absolute Power For since they were discussing so enormous an Offence it was not blame-worthy at all to come thither by way of Equity where they could not arrive by way of Justice Antiochus forgat not though he meant not to live that Clitarcus could onely oppose him in the Crown Whereupon not onely for this Reason which is always very powerful in the Mindes of Princes but likewise for the love which he bare unto his Father he strove by all means to procure their Destruction who had studied to offend him Moreover these Deliberations of the Prince were fomented by the Complaints and Rage which against Clitarcus but more against Climenes Licofronia made daily For she loving the King very dearly but withal more affectionately Antiochus was not able to endure that they should go unpunished by any means whatsoever who were suspected guilty of Treason against the King She was changed in that maner on the sudden as Women use to be against the unfortunate Climenes And if at the first because he had been her Sons Friend she had brought him by her Favors to the height of the greatest acquaintance at Court now because he might be thought to be guilty she labored by all means to bring him into hatred with all the World and persecuting him with all her might she swore That if he even had been her own Son she would have had the courage to behold without weeping his Head severed from the Body Seleucus then adhering to the Counsel of the Prince without making more ado caused death to be intimated to Clitarcus It was greatly disputed in the Councel of State since the King had no other Successor besides Antiochus but his Nephew if it was not expedient for the Crown to reserve him alive against all Mischances But Seleucus speaking gravely said to them That he desired not to leave him the Crown who deserved the Ax that his Succession could not have better fortune then to end with Vertue never to begin with Vice and that he could not possibly be so impious to recommend his peoples Life and Protection to one who not knowing how to spare his own Blood had attempted to leap into the Throne with the foot of Homicide Behold Clitarcus what an end to thy life that Star hath determined which beholding thy Nativity with too unlucky a ray hath imprinted inclinations in thy Minde which must make thee do infamous Things Punishment is not always remote from Noble Persons Princes even dye in that maner as the basest men expire For the Sword of Justice exempts onely Innocence from its Edge The Conspirator was at this pass and yet his sorrows fell very much short of the sorrows which the Queen did feel for the disaster of her Love She seeing in the Court so many disgusts of Wars of Conspiracies and Diseases and perceiving that they treated of nothing but Revenges Prisons and Axes and that which is worse finding her self vilified by her Husband contemned by her Lover and far from her Father fell into so cruel a Melancholly that she wanted but a little of Raving The fresh Comeliness in her face being therefore decay'd and the Colours of Beauty turned Pale the unfortunate Queen resembled nothing else in her Countenance but a nocturnal Heaven in which the Sun of Joy was put out She was glad to be alone and glad to weep to wash perhaps with Tears those Spots of Immodesty which her wanton Looks might have Printed in the Chrystal of her Minde Being now to say so habituated to mortification and displeasure she was at that pass to be able to look Antiochus in the face without any alteration and to be unmolested though she saw him not at all All the restaurative she allowed the afflictions of her Minde was the sound of a Cymbal which with its Strings of Steel rendring warlike the Harmony by force overcame though it were in a short space of time the Army of Passions by which she found her self to be besieged In love what 's Beauty worth though rare But to cause torment to a Heart No matter for fine Golden Hair Or Cheeks by Nature Red or Art Ah! Beauty can us onely move
'T is Fate that causes Death for Love So she made an end of singing one day when a sealed Paper came to her hands which was brought her very cautiously by one of her faithfullest Women The Letter came from Clitarcus He seeing himself near to death and being not unwilling to dye but because he could no longer beatifie himself with serving his dearest Stratonica resolved to write her this Letter and in it to excuse his own Actions that he might in some sort make them seem to the Queen the less faulty Stratonica perpetually accustomed to finde some black disaster in white Paper did not open it without fear nor reade it without alteration The Contents said as followeth MADAM Since my life is so near to an end that I may no longer reckon Days but Hours I must not go out of this world without taking leave of you who have always been my Patroness nor leave imprinted in your Minde an Opinion cruel to my self without making you that excuse for it which the Duty I profess you requires If therefore peradventure with little satisfaction to your Pleasure I have induced you to reade this Letter excuse my necessity and be not displeased with my boldness For albeit I know that to say nothing of it or confess it neither makes me lyable to death or delivers me from it yet I should be very glad that what you shall reade here within may perpetually be buried in the bottom of your Heart I shall never be censured for confiding in you for besides that in you all those qualities concur which can assure me of your secrecy I may always say to have trusted in my life You already know Madam and you know it too well unfortunate that I am That I was born to adore you My Age encreasing by the Rayes of your Beauty was no otherwise life to me then I had hope to obtain your good Grace Arsinda the Princess observing my qualities was taken with them and designed them to the Fortune of her Daughter I likewise reflecting on her parts esteemed her very fit to implore for me your Love She met with me as a friend on the Trace of her Ends I followed her on the Footsteps of my Wishes as one whom she trusted The relation of my Passions succeeded the beginning of our friendship Whereupon she discovering an occasion to gain me on the one side undertook my assistance very willingly on the other caused me to despair of the effect being secure by these Arts to loose me from your Love and tye me to that of her Daughter You know O Queen the offices the tryals and perswasions which she used to you in my name Your cruelty was my ruine and her anger When she saw that neither by your rigid behavior towards me I sould be diverted from you nor by her allurements be induced to love Euripia she resolved to persecute me It occurs not to survey again Distastes It is to no body more known then to your self to what tryals she hath often exposed my Reputation and Life But now since I must dye I forgive her all offences and love her as formerly Finding then my self deprived of her assistance and despairing to have you as a Mistress I did cast about how to gain you for my Wife The dissentions between your Father and Husband were the foundation on which I erected my Engines Suppose me a Lover and you 'll grant all exorbitances You would offend your wisdom if you wondered and examined my Actions It is sufficient The business went on well if the breaking of a Vase of Purslain had not ruined in a moment my Fortunes Heaven that knew me unworthy of your Love would not let me have the experience of the worth of your favor Your Beauty which hath made all men happy hath rendered me onely unfortunate A just punishment of the Gods who knowing that by adoring you I preferred you before them would not let me brag that I had couzened them of their Honors without losing my life So go the things of the world O Stratonica Clitarcus born a Prince grown up to the Hopes of a Kingdom endowed with good Qualities beloved of Vassals and reverenced by Strangers is brought to be be headed in the Flower of his Age. I dye O dearest dispence with me if at the end of my life I make use of this word I dye full of all those discontents and abandoned by all those Consolations which in Cases like this have at any time been of force to encourage every other wretched man My death would be happy if I might be assured that these my disasters were but pityed by one single drop of your Eyes But it is temerity to aspire so high I know your Eyes in that they are Stars are mine Enemies and I must not hope for pity from mine Enemies Be you happy O Madam It is hard to relate how many impressions the Letter made in the Minde of Stratonica in order to Affection and Pity The sad Queen upbraided her misfortunes to Heaven since in the first ending to finde one that loves her she began to lose him In fine she could not choose but communicate the Letter to Arsinda who then was her Beloved her Favorite And so much the more willingly she communicated it to her by how much that heretofore she had seen that Arsinda following the Fashion of womanish inconstancy having changed all the Hatred she bare to Clitarcus into an Affection and an unspeakable Pity had made her self famous among others of the Court by bewailing his disastrous Condition When they had then consulted long together Arsinda without speaking any more had recourse to Seleucus and informed him with most powerful Reasons That now since Clitarcus was contented to dye without confessing any thing it was expedient to the Crown to discover the Wiles and Treacheries of his Enemies by offering him his life in case he would manifest their design The King was most unwilling to Consent to this Resolution But lastly when he knew of what use it was to him he Condescended to all Arsinda desired When she had obtained this Grace she was doubtful of Clitarcus his kindness though in the Queens Letter she had had some earnest of it before Whereupon it seemed necessary to her before she would Treat with him of any thing to penetrate his Minde with a Note She therefore wrote to him very kindly and assured him how much from her heart she repented her self that she ever had displeased him and how bitterly she grieved to see he was brought to such an end When Clitarcus had read the Note he thought without doubt That Arsinda would even in the end of his life afflict him with some specious deceit Yet dissembling his doubt he answered her thus in a Letter PRINCESS TO purchase your good Grace in that Moment when I am to lose my life is a necessitating of me to bewail one thing more that I leave in this world You would O
Queen Things being composed in this maner Erasistratus went in to make his first visit to the Prince and with him Seleucus and Antipater the Princes Overseer The Room half dark was the first sign which they all three had of the little Life of the sick Prince Their Looks hastned to the Bed which now beginning to transform it self into a Coffin contained nothing else but a miserable Conjunction of Bones animated by a fugitive Soul Antiochus was defaced in that maner that having by his sickness acquired a Figure wholly different from himself he retained nothing else of his former Similitude but a lively Look in which alone as in a secure Counter-sign his unfortunate Father was reduced to acknowledge the Stamp of his own Resemblance Nature peradventure then robbing him of his native Form had with a compassionate cruelty delivered him from the residue of those Tears which Seleucus would have shed by reseeing in him his own Image But what greater misery could arrive to poor Antiochus then to be brought to that pass that it seemed but reasonable to defraud him of that weeping to which his Fathers Tears were indebted by the law of Compassion Yet the unfortunate King was not wanting to water his Cheeks in that maner That if the Overseer and Physician there present had not signified to him that he should forbear weeping he would without doubt forerunning the death of his Son have provided his dear Body of a Bath They considered him possessed by Melancholly oppressed with Silence and abstracted from Humanity Every thing about him seemed to infuse Horror and to savor of Misfortune Even the Air infected with his Fate moved up and down in the Circuit of his Chamber something that was Noysom and Deadly When the King had made much of him and frequently asked him how he did being unable to get from him any answer at all but a turning of his shoulders he weeping consulted the Physician in order to what they should do to revive this dying health Erasistratus then taking into his hand the arm of Antiochus observed musing much by the drum of his Pulse if his Soul yet began to beat the march Then he said very gravely That there wanted not causes of sadness That nevertheless in that his first visit he durst not yet prognosticate any thing of certainty That he should have thought it a most excellent remedy to cheer up Antiochus his sorrows with much merry Company and sweet Musick for he saw very well that chiefly two things were the infirmities which caused his Death to wit Melancholly and Weakness The Physician going on in his discourse so satisfied the Kings expectation that he hanging at his Mouth preserved his Words as answers from an Oracle Antipater had the Charge to give order for the Feasts and to assign the time for the Ladies Assemblies There the Queen being often to intervene not onely as chief in Authority but as principal in Beauty was the cause that the others so much inferior to her because they would not stay in the place went out with their Attires and Embellishments devised without doubt by Emulation and embroydered by Envy Antiochus his Chamber being therefore become an Epitome in which Ostentation had contracted all its Bravery and a Scene where all the Torches of Beauty were lighted the poor Prince felt himself mount miserably towards Paradise Next to Stratonica there was not a Lady though the Court did abound with extraordinary Beauties more handsome then Polibia the Wife of the Physician She whose years resembled a Nosegay of Flowers tyed by Youth surpassing the others as much as she was surpassed her self by Stratonica seemed a middle limit placed in that Company to prove that infinity which the Beauty of the Queen arrived at If I knew which way to describe a Deity perhaps I should dare to shadow those Sweets which all Eyes felt by fixing themselves on the Countenance of the Queen while she sate near the Bed of Antiochus to solace her self with the rest of the Ladies But t is madness to attempt an impossible thing Erasistratus who well understood the language of the Eyes perceiving that looks passed between the Queen and the Prince which carried and recarried arrows was not long a comprehending in what tempest the Health of Antiochus was lost Being cautious therefore in observing in less then two days he perceived that every time Stratonica appeared the poor Prince grown pale was in a sweat his Tongue trembled in his Mouth and his Heart did beat in his Breast and the Motions of his Pulse varying in that maner it seemed by the frequent beatings that he panted in calling for help Pensive Erasistratus what remedy wilt thou finde for this Princes disease now thou hast had the furtune to discover it He turns to Ashes for a fire which nothing suits better with then Silence How wilt thou be able to put thy self in order to make use of any Medicaments if thou mayst not define the disease nor speak of it O my very cruel Condition And what avails it me that thou hast brought me to the greatest cure in the world to make me get honor if thou hast put a rub in my way which may make me lose my life so spake sighingly the Physician in that affliction of Minde who could have no greater Consolation then Despair But after much uncertainty of Thought he ran to Seleucus and informing him that at length he had discovered the disease of Antiochus he tells him it is incurable Alas then answered the King darest thou tell me such unfortunate News And from what so mortal Cause is derived a disease which my Crown is not able to Cure Sir replyed Erasistratus Love is the cause of his Sickness The Prince by Excessively loving is near the last moment of his Life The King lost between Wonder and Incredulity on the one side Laughed on the other was Sad. But the Physician swearing that all he said to him was most true and offering to make it appear to his own Eyes Seleucus grew pale And who may be probably this Lady which hath had the power to Charm my poor Son in this maner that he must dye for her Love When the Prince was in health replyed the Physician Fortune one day brought him to see Polibia who was not then my Wife and he seeing her very handsom and consequently worthy of any Noble mans Love was enamored so of her that in brief he attempted all means to obtain her But it being repugnant to his Nature to make use there of force where Prayers were not prevalent he was grieved so to the heart that he resolved to go dye in Laodicea Your Majesty knows better then I if that journey was intended Melancholly afterwards augmented in him hourly with Silence hath extending him on a Bed consumed him as you see Yet his sickness peradventure would not have been incurable if by the occasion of my fatal coming to his cure he had not both reseen