kept the more he would gather the more it disperses it self All know the combat of the Wind and the Sun who should despoil man at last the sweet rays of the Sun did that the blustring blasts of the other could not The more Isabel importunes Roboald to discover his affection with confidence the more he hides it and the more he enters into distrusts yet when she presses him least he burns with impatience to manifest it to her not being able to die of a silent grief being so neer his remedy Love whose attempts are not so hard but as quick as those of necessity subtilsied his spirit and gave divers means to make known to this Damosel that which she knew but too well already but fains to be ignorant of by an artificious countermine It is reason that Verses symbols of this passion that touches the heart and Poesie daughter of this affection come to the relief of Roboald He is acquainted with â—imer that would furnish him with Madrigals which he lets often fall as by negligence but with design in the chamber of this prisoner She reads them and laughs and to let him burn in a little fire and take her vengeance in this love by a new industry she makes no shew to understand these Enigâ—a's nor did they say any thing in particular Such is the folly of this childish passion which is not fed but with follies nor imployed but in thoughts as frivolous as the hunting of Butterflies And to let you see the impertinencies of Roboald behold his folly in these three scrolls of which this is the first 'T is harder not to love then be denied By such a look who being deified Doth with the wound it gives my panting heart Both joy and pleasure to my thoughts impart When silent grief of sweetness is so full I thousand deaths had rather on 〈◊〉 pull Thou not to yield to an attempt so fair Where hope 's to be preferr'd before despair Happy is he can love and hide his flame Suppress affection and conceal Her name Who can in midst of anguish pleasure find And hug his passions though she prove unkind Here is the second that seems to cherish the folly of the first Nor do I here present it in this place for any thing of worth but to make known clearly how hard it is yea impossible to be wise and love at once and as shadows serve to pictures even so the follies of some to raise the wisdom of others From thence it comes that Cato said that the wise learnt more of fools then fools did of the wise But let us hearken to our Rimer What rigor is it for to be a Lover And not to dare his passion to discover So pale and dropping is my physnomie That every one I am in love may see Now if my soul be in such agonies Who can obstruct or blame my plaints or cryes To be severely punish'd is a grace When one attempts an Angel to imbrace At last to throw the third scroll was the accomplishment of his impertinence for it is the end of presumption always to rise He says Dear origen of all my fears and fires Not knowing the extent of my desires Must I thus perish and yet dare not say 'T is you who doth my soul and passions sway But why do I stay in reciting his idle thoughts which would be better buried under silence then raised upon this paper But to imitate the fashion of Painters that set off the features of a fair face by an extreme deformity as also to throw confusion in the face of those that in their follies commit these extravagances I follow expresly in this the imitation of Nathan that threatned David to manifest to the light of the sun what he had committed in darkness and to cast his shame on his face if by a confession unfained and healthfull penitence he had not prevented the publication Even so the Saviour of the world threatned to make be preached in the publike places the evils committed in the most private chambers when the secrets of the dark should be manifested and the counsel of hearts given to iniquity And who knows not that shame and disgrace is the certain recompence of vile Love Thus Roboald seeing that all these small lights gave none to Isabel to make her know that herself was the idol to which he offers his thoughts languishing with a silent grief so neer his remedy and such a remedy as seemed should yield to his mercy with much facility yet durst not promise it himself however resolves to attempt by an art after which he thought that necessity would break for him as to the son of Craesus the obstacle that hindred his speech One day as Isabel pressed him on this subject which was their ordinary entertainment for from the mouth proceeds the abundance of the heart you will not believe said he to what extremity hath brought me shall I say my affection or my folly to an evil so extraordinary having sought all the strangest remedies that humane thoughts can devise The curious Maid conjures him not to hide his means being they gave no knowledge of the cause Roboald that strove always to oblige her and to make this obligation more precious made himself to be prayed earnestly for a thing of which he had more desire then his suppliant herself And to cherish this in her You press me quoth he to discover a means that you lead as by the hand in the sight of the subject of my passion and then my secret will be no more a secret nor my own being disclosed not only to another but to a woman as capable to contain it under silence as a sieve is to hold water At which Isabel makes a thousand protestations of fidelity and silence but they were oaths as light as if they had been written on the sands or drawn on the waves At which Roboald fained to yield and to remit his life with his love into the hands of this gracious prisoner If your oaths quoth he should not bind you with chains as strong as they seem holy the interest you have your self will bind you to conceal that I shall manifest unto you for the part you have in heir whose face I will let you see is such that you will be constrained to confess to me when you have seen it that you have not a better friend in the world You must know then that having been just to that point to consult with a Magitian of this Country who as yet hath promised nothing good of the issue of my design but on the contrary threatens me that the hope of a Nuptial bed will be the grave of my desires yet I have taken his prophesie as coming from the father of lyes so that as the antient Oracles I have believed one may better judge of his truth by the contrary And indeed I have already known by some hopes that if I persevere to love with fidelity
the mouth is most sharp to wounds and as there is nothing more scalding then oil when it is hot so these outrages coming from your mouth are so much more grievous by how much I have received consolation and gratification Must I be so unhappy to see the fire of my wounds come from the place from whence I expected my healing Is it possible after such a metamorphosis that you retain the name of that Elise that professed so much love to me then when it was less lawfull to love me of that Elise which I so devoutly honoured and against all these contradictions I cherish yet more then my proper life I cannot tell more how to name you nor know not what term to find expressing enough in any idiom that can set forth as it ought such an inconstancie At least Madam let me know the reason that hath caused so long time your pitty to be deaf at my prayers and after this knowledge let heaâ—en cut my life by the knife of your cruelty when it pleases him This is the smallest favour I may hope of you seeing I can draw so much from cruelty it self there is nothing more just then to make known to an offender the cause of his suffering nor any thing more unjust then to conceal it from him If a small cloud can take from our eyes the sight of the sun that is so great replied Elise it is easie with a small fault to shadow out one of a greater importance But that God that sees all and which knows the secrets of hearts and dives into the dark corners of our reins that is served with things of smaller appearance to make known the most covered and which can draw the light of the truth from midst of the thickest obscurities of falshoods will also be served with my goodness and the consideration of that love which I have heretofore born thee for to give thee means to shun a shamefull punishment and to withdraw thee quickly from this place where 't is wonder that thou causâ— have so much assurance having committed so great a fact my silence and thy retreat will be more safe then my discourse and thy stay I would to God you had not done that which I dare not tell you because I have not forehead enough to blush for the loss of thine Content your self that my honour being tiâ—d to your life not to lose the one I will conserve the other although the one is as precious to me as the other is detestable In all this there was much said yet nothing of what should have been said And what is he that would not wonder at these delays and at the length of these circumlocutions For since Passion is a labyrinth it is no marvel if it have many turnings Andronico having had some feeling of the reports which ran to his disadvantage upon the death of Philippin doubts it might be about this accusation comforts himself in the hope to see an end of this Mine that threatned a great descent after it had taken wing being founded on the truth of his innocence So that for fear to anger this woman knowing there is nothing more fierce then a Bee when it is moved which puts her life in the wound she makes and never stings that she rests not wounded to death he fains to be ignorant of the end of this her fury in saying to her That when one endures a pain deserved it is made so much the more tolerable that one believes to extinguish a sin is to suffer without desert it would be hard but more insupportable to suffer innocently and again in being ignorant of the cause of his sufferance And then kneeling down at the feet of Elise with a voice somthing higher then before or then the place where he was and the presence of Sophie although not neer seemed to permit him Madam says he I will die here or learn from your mouth what can be the cause that puts me into so fierce a disgrace nor will I ever leave you till you give me this satisfaction to let me know of what death I shall die for I take heaven to witness I find not my self guilty of any thing that may be prejudicial to you I beseech you not to give way to calumnies and reports to the prejudice of my sincerity Elise surprised to see him in this estate and before her mother did not know on what side to turn her wherefore intreating him to rise which he refused to do she says to him softly Content yourself that I cannot speak without offending mine honour and your life And that in the midst of the hatred with which I detest your vileness I reserve this spark of my antient affection for the conservation of them both to which I found my self bound not so much for any good I wish you but for the respect I owe my modesty Madam replied the unfortunate Andronico this is not to give me light but to plunge me into a new obscurity I beseech you discover these riddles and not to tell me again in other terms the same thing you have already told me for what can he fear that doubts not death but on the contrary if I lose your favour I desire it to free me of a life which will be more troublesom then it being deprived of your love All that astonishes me is your honour which you say is engaged to my conservation and in that it may be you have said better then you think For when the purity of my intentions shall be known the greatness of my affections the sincerity of my soul and how many dangers I have run to give you proof of my service and that you have recompenced me with despair that will take my life it will be hard for you to remove this stain of ingratitude which like an eternal infamy will remain on the pureness of your understanding If ever it happen not that I attempt but only think any thing that might never so little prejudice your honour for the conservation whereof I 'll spend a thousand lives I desire that the heavens never pardon me any fault May I be rais'd by fortune or cast down By fate being object of thy smile or frown Though the disastrous destinies should combine To annihilate and ruine me and mine Nought can divorce my affection or divert Th'unfain'd devotion of a faithsull heart It will be easie for me to resolve to die after being deprived of that I held dearer then life What do I say Truly it will be harder to me to resolve to live or rather to outlive such a loss yet to lose my life without knowing the cause for which I die this is that I cannot resolve on if I do not bury my self with the quality of the maddest of all humane creatures Wherefore I intreat you to permit me to press you with all sort of importunity to declare to me the ground of my condemnation otherwise I shall believe that the
words you have given me and those promises you have made me even by writing as I can easily testifie proceeded not but from a changeable humour incident to your fâ—x and of which I ought to expect nothing but pure inconstancie At this Elise was touched to the quick and as they say in the ball of the eye Who cutting off suddenly this long discourse all inflamed with spight and red with choler answers him VVhat do you upbraid me with my words and taxe me with promises to draw me into your crime and to match with the murderer of my husband God will not punish my disloyalty although thy falshood Go traitor and the most soiled with infidelity that earth ever bore Doest thou in this sort wrong my easie belief and simplicity to make me guilty although innocent of the bloody falshood that you wrought in your thoughts Go crocodile that weeps before me to devoure me and to ravish mine honour with my life It was not on the miseries that I suffered then that thou contributedst thy tears but on the ill fortunes thou preparest for me Oh I will never trust on the faith and words of any man or let heaven punish me with all griefs that are to be imagined if it happen to me again to let my self be cozened At these words uttered in a fashion that testified that the excess of indignation had made her beside herself Andronico knew cleerly the truth of her distaste Of which much joyfull in himself because the testimony of his conscience made him unblameable in stead of excusing this invective with sharp words being wronged smiling as it were and sweetly blotting out this error which seemed pleasing well Madam replied he if I should have committed this crime of which you accuse me what had I done but rendred Philippin that he would have given me by the attempt of Valfran But I have not so base a courage to give such commission to others nor so traiterous to execute them my self I often desired to see him with his sword in his hand without other advantage but my courage and the justice of your cause but we were hindred in this design by our friends But when I should have thrown him where his misfortune has cast him what had I done in it but the office of the divine justice which vanquished by his unworthiness was forced to extermine him off the face of the earth where he led so infamous and shamefull a life And to you Madam what service should I have done you in breaking the bands of your slavery and of the hardest tyrannie that was ever proved But as I do quit the thanks you should owe me if I had done you that good office so you ought not to accuse me of a fact I have not committed but to confess to you ingeniously many times thought For why should I not desire the death of him that had conspired against my life and of him that in possessing of you ravished me barbarously of the dearest pretension I had in the world By these words Elise believes assuredly Andronico had at least caused this murder to be committed which made her thunder in these words full of fury and indignation Ah disloyalâ— thou art not contented to confess thy fault but to glory in it too esteeming it not only worthy of thanks but of praise not willing to sin with imputation but with reason and for to imbarque me in the vessel of thy shame and to carry me with thee into the certain shipwrack of thy honor thou wouldst cover me with thy infamy But know cruel that although Philippin was severe to me he never had a soul so base and traiterous as thou But this shall not rest so for in the place where thou wouldst offer mine honour to thy passion thy own life shall be offered She uttered this discourse so loud as she made Sophie run to her for with it she cried out as if Andronico had pressed her with some unjust matter To whom she said Look you dear mother to what you have reduced me by your commandment to entertain the murderer of my husband Should you have tormented me so much to make me hearken to this Brutal who not satisfied with the blood of Philippin will also by a certain art as abominable as malicious ravish the honour of his poor wife And judge if I had not reason to shun with all care this rock so dangerous Not only he confesses his crime but boasts of it and what is the end of his vileness but only to intangle innocence in guilt with him He thinks by the help of a certain Paper which his artificial importunities have torn from my simplicity to make me consenting to this homicide Of which if ever I thought I desire the justice of heaven nor of men may ever favour me If Sophie were not amazed heading this language I leave it to you to judge And during the astonishment that seised her Andronico had time to say to Elise Madam you have many other ways to be rid of my life if you had but imployed that of your cruelty without casting also mine honour into the depth of shame which is unsupportable to me that is also to break violently the laws of friendship as barbarously as those of courtesie But I would have you know that as I have loved you honourably and vertuously these two props failing my love goes to ruine I honour love when it hath vertue for its principle but I love honour by a singular preferance it hath before life and all things Those that touch mine honour touch the sight of mine eyes for that was the only thing I could prefer to your love But since that love will become ruinous to mine honour I must protest I hold it for enmity and mortal enmity for never any of what quality or condition soever shall attempt on mine honour whose life I will not take Pardon me in losing the duty I owe to love being you are grown bankrupt of fidelity And truly if I say that it 's false I confessed to be guilty of the murder of Philippin of which I detest the author and the action as much as you can do with all the cunning of your ceremonious mourning 't is certainly not for the loss of that man that hated me but that I have in abomination a murder so detestable You might have contented you with your falshood and to have broken your oaths and the writings of your promises without seeking this odious pretext by which you conspire the loss of him that hath offered his blood for the sustent of your honour But as God lives in heaven that reveals the secrets of all hearts and the seals most dark I will turn these evils on your own head And to the end you may know it was love and not interest which made me seek you as long as I esteemed you vertuous from henceforth renouncing the words you gave me and writings I have of yours
then of blame Roboald flatters himself with these vain hopes and resolves to oblige this Maiden to love him by all kind of good offices and to deceive in that the intention of his Master that had put her into his keeping but to use her with all hardness and cruelty The End of the Fifth Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Sixth Book ALready the cunning Isabel feels some sweet liberty that she hath gotten in ties of â—his new slave and that her beauty hath penetrated his eyes Upon this foundation she builds her hopes and not without reason of effecting her deliverance She is cunning in the art of this Passion that inchants men and makes them supple to the wiles of those they love She blots out the maâ—ks of despair setled in her face and her fâ—esh colour returns with joy she hides her strong griefs in the smoothness of her forehead Why do I defer to tell you that Roboald is taken by his prisoner that he is Captive to his Captive falsâ—â—ying the proverb He finds nothing so fair nor pleasing as his prison He that heretofore beheld her with an envious eye beholding her now with pitty begins to take part of her pains and approving the complaints she made of the cruelty of her father he repented to have been the executor If she intreat him to be a means to make her peace with her father or for some comfort in this her cruel usage he promises it but suddenly recants for says he if he perceive that I lend an ear to your prayers he will suspect me and think that I ploâ— your liberty and taking you from my keeping it may be will put you into their hands that will be more rigorous to you And this was because being pricked by the interest of his passion he feared that the deliverance of this Maid should take away the empire he had of her body although she had a far greater on his heart Nevertheless to give her some testimony of his good will he makes her hope her delivery on what price soever though with the loss of his life Already crafty Isabel knew by the sighs and eyes of this new Lover that he was in the toils she had pitched for him he hath no pleasure but in her conversation nor no contentment but when she speaks to him But he speaks not to her of love nor of any thing near it for he knew the high courage of this Dame that beheld him always as a servant and as subject as she was to his government used him nevertheless as an imperious Mistress besides to cast his eyes on the daughter of his Master he cannot but expect punishment for so insolent an attempt and a disgrace that will bring his fortune into a ruine irrepairable Isabel that knew by this change of his face and the variety of his discourse the troubles of his heart and confusions of his thoughts although she had in horror this presumption and hated the authority of this Jailer for it is natural to hate those that tyrannise over our liberty yet her cunning made her seem ignorant of that she was clearly certain of and although she lightens love in this heart she fains to see nothing but pitty And demanding of him if he grieved not to see her reduced to so pittifull an estate I would to God Madam quoth he that One had as much pitty of my passion as I have of compassion It was enough said to an understanding so quick as that of Isabels Who knowing the greatness of this flame and heat of this spark and as much inflamed with despight to see how high the insolence of this Fellow was mounted and being troubled that he had given too evident a testimony of his love she mocks at this discourse by a subtile quickness How now said she Roboald you are then taken with this furious passion that hath caused me so many misfortunes Truly I will from henceforth promise not only some comfort in my miseries but also some excuse for my errors if you are touched with this sickness that made me run so foolishly after the just promises of marriage which only the death of Philippin hath annulled For besides the natural inclination I had to love him his carriage being accompanied with so many graces augmented by so long conversation that made so pleasing his lawfull seeking me in marriage what Maid had not been conquered by so many charms of greatnes and good fashion accompanied with an intended wedding I am astonished that my Father allows not somthing to the weakness of my sex and the strength of my affection seeing that in the beginning of this young Lords seeking me he permitted me to love him and to receive his service it was himself that brought me into the folds from whence after it was not in my power to return my self Roboald approving these excuses accuses afterwards the unreasonable cruelty of his Master and finding himself taken by the beak without denial that he loved her he tries to hide at least the cause of his flame although he had unwisely discovered the effect This was to throw a little water on a great fire and in flying to make himself be followed and to stir the curiosity of this Maid by the protestation that he made to die rather then to discover the object that held him in a trance Crafty Isabel that had had leisure enough in her prison to consult with her glass to learn in this faithfull glass the force the fire of her eyes had being much pleased to torment this Jailer and to make his fire so much the more scorching as it was covered with the ashes of silence and modesty this proud Captive intended to melt the wings of this new Icarus hiding under a fained apparence of sweetness a despitefull disdain armed with indignation not to be matched against the insolence of this fellow that had dared to raise his eyes to her prepares in deceiving him to draw herself out of prison and slavery and to leave him covered with scorn and shame At one time her fierce and high heart was combated with two passions very different of love and liberty and of hatred to him that should be the author For it seems that the succour she thought to receive of this man to get out of this misery would be a kind of obligation to love him and on the other side she could not endure to let her thoughts fix on a servile object She loves almost as much to remain a slave of body and free of this obligation as to see herself at liberty and tyed by the bonds of duty to a man she hated in her very soul So that if she could have found any other means to draw her from misery she would certainly have passed it rather then to make herself beholding to Roboald But necessity that savage and cruel mistress made her resolve after having consulted some time in herself to take this occasion by the lock
reserving after the recovering of her liberty the punishment of this madness even with the sword if there were occasion and to purge him by this means of his error and folly And as she was practised in the arts of love knowing well how to counterfeit the person of a Maid that is easie to be won Roboald imagines he may win her heart and make himself as well as Philippin possessor of her body He flatters her and speaks of love but in such generall terms that he left always place to some exception and made as if he sighed for an object absent but she sees well that it was her presence that drew these sighs from his breast Here are two cunning Gamesters that play who shall be cozened Roboald protests he would not entertain her with so ill discourse as that of his affections if they were not sincere and legitimate But it being the greatest comfort one can have in their sorrows to communicate them to a faithfull friend and he thinking she had felt for Philippin all the stings that this passion is accustomed to incite in their hearts that receive it Thy counsel can asswage my swelling grief And to my sufferings give me some relief It is true replied Isabel that I might give some sort of remedy to your wound if I knew the particularities but there is nothing more needfull to a singular evil then general remedy for according to the circumstances it changes ordinarily the face of the business Roboald besought her to excuse him that he could not declare to her the cause of his unquietness for fear to be held too presumptuous that would would plunge him rather into despair then any way bring him consolation esteeming it less worthy of healing then of blame Isabel whose eyes were so piercing as they saw into his darkest thoughts and into this breast covered with the cloud of dissimulation excused herself also to give remedy to an evil she was ignorant of and complains on the other side of the small confidence Roboald had in her draws him insensibly to discover his design just as when the birds are in love it is then they are taken with more ease for by the different notes they warble to one another they make themselves fall into the nets and pits finding the end of their lives where they thought to meet and enjoy their pleasures it will take Roboald even so who by an undiscreet love goes to twist a cord to strangle himself It is not without reason that the Antients heve painted Love naked by reason it can conceal not secret from the thing beloved Who knows not how the perfidie of Dalilah by the sweet violence of love drew out the secret of the strength of generous Sampson whom she brought afterwards to his fall and ruine You will understand in this history somthing like that for Roboald in imitation of Sampson after having given some fained excuses to Isabel desiring to make her believe that he loved the daughter of a Gentleman a neighbour there by without daâ—ing by any demonstration to make shew of his thoughts resolves rather to die an obscure death then to make known a design so presumptuous Isabel that saw well that her fained neighbour was meant by herself hiding a profound fury in the depth of her soul comforted Roboald the best she could as thus that being all-inflamed for and object of merit he should not be astonished if it rise high that it was a mark of the goodness of his courage in which he was more commendable for generosity then blameable for presumption and that although he were not born a Gentleman it was a title that rather depended on fortune then desert and that he was not the first of mean birth that had derâ—d to set his affections on a Gentlewoman that true nobility was in valour and in that he would not yield to whatsoever Gentleman and that she knew well that there was not any business in which he would not be led by Pyrrhe with as much affection as Herman himself would be for the antient servants in a house held the quality of children That the inequality of conditions should not disparage him that since she had dared to lift her thoughts even to Philippin that was her Lord to whom she ought homage he might well raise his to Gentlewoman and that a faithful Lover ought to promise himself all things happy since hope was the wings of love and that love equalized Lovers that Kings loving their subjects have submitted their scepters to their affections that according to her judgment there was not a more eminent greatness in love then love it self and the greatest amongst Lovers he that loves most Imagine if this discourse cast not oil into the fire of Roboald in a Country where Coblers make themselves Gentleman and the Gentleman Princes by an humour that Nation hath But when she added that if she knew that Gentlewoman and had but liberty to speak to her there was no sort of good offices she would not do for Roboald to favour his design honoring his passion in another subject whereby she would esteem herself honored It was now that this saucy Jailer touched the stars with his forehead promising to his presumption all that he had heretofore desired rather hoped Methinks I see the picture of the feeling of this soul swelled with vanity of his own desires well represented in the the rich Verses of one of the Mistresses of the Muses of our France Knowing my flame is aiery and divine I can love nothing but what Gods incline With courage I 'll pursue my enterprise And if I fall from heaven shall be my rise No more on Earth shall flourish my desires I higher will enhance my love and fires I 'll Eagle-like rather by thunder die Then from some â—ur receive my destinie While I do soar so high no rocks I fear Nothing shall make me cowardly retire That for a bridle which doth serve to some Shall unto me a golden spur become I love my aim although by Fortune crost The harder is the task the more I 'll boast Things easie to obtain have small desert Honours on hard designs use to revert Although this man had presumption enough to dare to love a person more high then his duty could permit him yet the same love that gave him courage to fix his affections so eminently for his condition took from him the daring to discover it retained by that respectful fear that ordinarily accompanies this passion fear that proceeds of the apprehension of despairing of the object beloved He seeks in the corners of his fancie some artificial invention to tell her that he durst not utter and to make her understand that he durst not speak But the more he troubles himself to meet with it the less he finds it the confusion of his thoughts being a Labyrinth from whence he cannot get out His desire is like quick silver the more he presses the less it is
hopes let herself be carried away with a reciprocal liking in the which neither the one nor the other could have any blame for almost their affections had one end by that great Sacrament which our Lord Jesus Christ instituted in his Church It is neither my humour nor my design to set down here what past in their woing for besides that I must either fain or divine and although I should know the truth I esteem it not fit with such small entertainments to stay my pen any longer pretending rather to write of tragick actions then of affected speeches Well our Philippin is very welcome well received according to his merit and the quality of his person obliged his vassals of which he desired alliance all were content as they say without their Host For Timoleon perceiving clearly at length that this affection took too great root in the heart of his son having once shewed and admonished him that he should do better to keep company with his equals and not to be continually with his inferiors and that his too much frequenting of Vaupre going and coming were not pleasing to him This was rather to augment his passion then any way to disswade him from it For in place of facility the difficulty made him more desirous and eager in this pursuit Even as the fire in the forge is made more violent rather then quenched by the often sprinkling of water so this Father of his being terrible severe the least word of his being like a flash of lightning which made his son tremble he is become now more reserved in his visits But as fire shut up in a furnace is much more hot then when it is free and in the air so it is in the heart of this young Philippin Letters which make absence present are not spared Isabella having permission of her friends to entertain this match is no nigard of her answers And even as in those Nations bordering upon France where the women are kept in a continual prison and in so slavish a servitude as is impossible to be conceived the least action serves for a grant to those that seek them it was so here for at these stollen visits by a thousand arts which affection teaches the protestations of fidelity were so strong and vehement which Philippin made vowing and protesting that he could never be any others but Isabella's This maid assured for her part to this Lord that she would never receive other affection but his Yet those enterviews being kept close from Timoleon were nevertheless always in presence of her mother or father or at least her brother as those stampers in the golden mines so that her honour could not receive the least blemish no not so much as a thought Timoleon which had his watchfull spies upon the actions of his son hath some notice of these secret meetings which makes him raise his voice and check his son more bitterly for his disobedience and with such threats which much astonished the heart of this young youth yet no way removed his love but on the contrary like those rubies of Ethiopia which being put in vinegar redouble their lustre became more stubborn for these reproofs full of sharp bitterness And that which gave the most lively touch of his cruelty was the forbidding of Herman the conversation of his son which was brother to Isabel for in the absence of the sister Philippin took such delight in the presence of her brother that he could not be without him and had as it were taken him to be about him This was a kind of an affront to Herman and which offended Pyrrhe who although the meanest Gentleman yet had a courage such as could not suffer of his Landlord nor of a Prince the least word or action which should not only hurt but touch his honour So that being touched with a kind of revenge after having made known his complaints to his neighbours of this usage of Timoleon he thought with himself to forbid Philippin his house which was to use as his equal his superior Here is Herman Philippin and Isabella in all the troubles of the world Timoleon puts a man to his son which should have charge to look to all his actions with an express command never to leave him or to be so much as a foot from him leaving anything else to his pleasure and free liberty what he could desire On the other side Isabel is kept up very strictly by her mother nor ever gets leave to stir out of the house which is an impenetrable goale Philippin gets no more access Timoleon laughs at Pyrrhe for having forbid him being the greatest favour he could have done him There rests nothing but only their Pens the which we give the name of certain Birds because they flie and enter every where By this means they make known their griefs and this Danae complains of the cruelty of Acrise which augments the desire in him that seeks her to find the invention of Jupin But notwithstanding all this his active heat which like thunder pierces and enters all sorts of obstacles in spight of all the watches of one side and the other shewes them means to see and speak together The extream love and affection that was between Herman and Philippin the which had some resemblance of that of David and Jonathan brought forth this commodity They meet at the hunting And as Philippin made his complaint to him whom already he esteemed as his brother of the extream cruelty of Timoleon and of Pyrrhe which in despight of their worst nothing should alter him from the design he had to marry his sister Herman who much pittied this young Youth whom he saw in so sensible grief gave him counsel to have patience and to remit it to time which might change and give some ease to his griefs and excusing his father who had forbid him his house that it was not for any malice to him whom he extremly loved and honoured for the worthy seeking his alliance but to let Timoleon know that he ought not to use a Gentleman in that fashion or to slight him so All this did not heal Philippin who could no way admit of this long absence and in the impatience of his displeasure protested to dye a languishing death if there were no means for him to shew to her which possessed him the assured testimonies of his faith either by verbal promises or by writing that might tye him so to her as it should be impossible to disengage them in despight of the cruel usage of their paâ—â—nâ—ts and rather submitting themselves to all sorts of misfortunes then to fail in the least point of their resolution even where passion should go to the greatest excess of cruelty against their youth Herman who passionately desired this alliance for his proper a advancement was easily perswaded to find commodity for this enterview which was very easie for him to find his sister not being otherwise kept but within the closure
removed from his heart But as youth is like soft wax that receives all forts of impressions and keeps not one so Philippin promises what one would have him being resolv'd not to maintain any thing that the apprehension of fear makes him say his love being far stronger then his fear When retired from his fathers sight like a Criminal from the Tribunal of his Judge it was then he blamed himself of weakness and want of courage and giving himself a thousand injurious names accusing his fearfulness and protesting a new loyalty and service to this Idol which swam in his fancy he rubbed his sore and invenomed his wound by this constraint disanuling all he had said in prejudice of his promise he renews his meetings and secret practises with Herman But being sold by his Lacquays in whom he trusted most who for hansel of their treachery put many of his letters and those of Isabels into the hands of Timoleon by which he understood that reciprocal promises had been given on both sides which made him enter into such an extream choler as he had never had the like sometime threatning to ruine Pyrrhe and all his house and then to be revenged on his son for this disobedience as also to publish the shame of Isabella Being transported to these extremities by his choler he calls his son the second time and after having reviled him with all the outragious speeches that could be imagined esteemed this relapse worse then his first fault This young Lyon having taken courage for the shame of his last flight like him which said of himself If I fled at the first encounter it was to return the second time to fight with more resolution setting aside those invective speeches of his father which his duty bound him to endure after some holy protestations of the honour and reverence which he would always give him he told him plainly and in a fashion of that height more then the spirit of Timoleon could endure that he would lose a thousand lives rather then to fail in the least point of his love that his honour was engaged by word and by writing and that his soul should never receive other impression but that of Isabella's the which was a Gentlewoman and of that birth as she could receive no reproach for her Nobility having no other wants but the goods of fortune esteeming rather to chuse a wife which had vertues and perfections in abundance then one with great wealth which should have nothing more unpleasing then herself and that this affection of his was led rather by reason then passion honour and marriage having been the end of his pretensions and if there Were any thing worthy reprehension it was his carriage not any thing in Isabella or Herman and for himself he was resolved never to leave their friendships for all the violence could be used on him chusing rather to suffer the extremity of cruelty and the worst of indignities which should be like flames to purifie his fidelity to the proof And as God lives answered Timoleon we will see whose head is best yours or mine How now Gallant what scarce born and are you at your defiance with me I 'll make thee as supple as glove and to bend to my will and break that stubborn will of yours though it cost me my life and goods and yours too I will teach you the duty of a son and the authority of a father said he And so turning from him he commanded to put Philippin in a chamber which served for a prison to the end to teach this young bird to sing another tune Philippin goes very joyfully contented to give a testimony of his firmness and constancie of his flames But that which put him in an extream agony was to hear that his father having searched his chamber and his secret Cabinet wherein were his sweetest tyes amongst a thousand Letters seised of the Promise of Isabella at which he made a trophie of mockery and laughter and would have made a sacrifice of it and of his choler to the fire For now as being transported what says he not against his father and his ill fortune and against heaven Truly those things which ought not to be repeated but throughly blamed Yet nevertheless comforting himself upon the word of his Mistress which he esteemed beyond all the writings in the world he resolves upon the common remedy of all the ills of the world Patience Not but that the wearisomness of a prison was extreamly sensible to this stirring spirit active and full of heat yet in this extream youth which is nothing but fire and life the tediousness is redoubled by being deprived of news which served at least in this his constraint of liberty to diminish his flame Before he hoped all and feared nothing now fears all and hath no hope But in the faith of the brother and sister He fears that those Letters should come to the hand of Pyrrhe and Valentine they would not take occasion to ease their childrens ill His thoughts are so troubled as when he rests in this prison he thinks he is invironed with a thousand thorns he suspects all which come near him as he had reason being made so many spies by Timoleon's means He wants wherewith to corrupt them this metal which changes courages fails him and his servants whom his father had made his dare not yield to pitty this young Lord. He thinks to entertain them with discourse yet seeing pitty dead in some and affection in others refused all to entertain himself with his own private thoughts the onely recreation that accompanied him which in stead of diverting him nourished his displeasures 'T is Musick which hath that property to make them merry which are content and those which are sad more melancholy He plays reasonable well on the Lute and sings well enough for a young Cavalier who was more given to violent exercises then to these sweet and peaceable One day for to expell the grief he felt in these words expressing Hopeless and helpless in my sad distress I sink my griefs admitting no redress Thus the imprisoned Philippin comforted himself the best it was possible But at last being not able to bear this weak and melancholy life nor having any with whom he might freely converse his thoughts giving way to the vehemencie of his desires he was constrained to yield himself to the mercy of a sickness which brought him so low as within a foot of his grave had it not been for his youth good temper and strong disposition with the help of the Physitians and good means applied he was even at the last point to lose his life and that most affected the sad father to see at point of death his onely son Knowing the cause which brought him to this pittifull estate he repented a thousand times the cruelties he had used an hundred times he promised him but with words far from the thoughts of heart to give him Isabel to wife
this great alliance and promises to set all his rest and to make Elise his absolute heir universal so it may be accomplished To ask obtain is all one thing She is something elder then the Youth but that is no matter that 's the least Timoleon cares not for that he shall have crowns in abundance and which is more an Officer which will maintain and govern all the businesses of his house He concludes it absolutely with Scevole who doubts nothing of the obedience of his daughter though Timoleon cannot assure himself of his sons Yet resolved to imploy his force where love could get no place one day having called him makes a speech to him with all the sweetness he could borrow of his pride and greatness of his spirit He shewed him the debts and necessities of his house of which the fall and ruine was at hand if it were not restored by some rich Match and therefore counselled him to think seriously on it forgetting his unworthy thoughts of that Isabel which had almost lost him his life and wits too and to bestow his love upon some Lady of the City without thinking longer of this Country-wench Doth not he play the father of Sampson seeking to turn his son from the marriage of Dalilah His son finding himself used with all sort of sweetness having heretofore found nothing but rough carriage found himself touched in the tendrest of his affections But as it is impossible that a new Vessel should lose the smell and colour of the liquor with which it hath been first fill'd he was in great pain how to answer his father according to his desire And yet not willing to set him abroad to no purpose he esteemed it better to direct his speech with that government as might not seem altogether to oppose him He began to consider the necessities of his house yet not esteeming them other but that his father might repair them with good husbandry But when he was urged by his father to seek a Match in the Town after having excused himself of his tenderness of years unapt for that Timoleon having taken him at that word told him he ought not then to do it with Isabel Sir I believe it replied he that marriages are made in heaven and practised on earth and it is hard to resist the influence of this cause being concluded above to that point And therefore he besought him to pardon him having received of God free-will and not of him Although the respect he ought him might hinder him from marrying yet his authority should not be so tyrannous as to make him take a wife against his will For hot being possible to have both he could never be others then hers whom the heavens and his consent had first given him Scarce had Timoleon patience to hear his last word with a dying liberty when putting himself into his accustomed threats and revilings yet withholding himself in the midst of this torrent as impetuous as impious for fear to put this young Lord into those extremities which his violent cruelty had heretofore reduced him to So constraining his nature he cast himself on rebellion and disobedience and ingratitude of children saying they were accompanied with the pride of liberty that without any wisdom or experience they will make laws to their fathers and by their sottish love and particular fancies bring desolation to their house With this his choler made him utter many frivolous threats as That if he did not marry he would disinherit him and give him his curse if he should ever marry with his Vassal reproaching him of baseness and poorness of spirit withall speaking many invective words against this Gentlewoman by reason of her skill in so many exercises the rock and wheel being fitter for her To all which Philippin answered with silence excusing himself that having given his word and promise in writing given and received he could not before God nor men take other wife but Isabel without deceiving her Hereupon Timoleon consulted with Scevole yet hiding most part of his displeasure and these denials of Philippin This foolish Boy says he being abroad one day falls in love with a Tenants daughter of mine a Gentleman here by and so far as he hath promised marriage Can this promise bind him To which Scevole answered no but that all these private contracts secret practises and flying oaths promises by word or by writing were as air or running water Timoleon joyed as if Scevole had given him life goes and consults with the Theologians which teach him the same doctrine the last Councel of Oecumenie declaring null all marriages clandestine He returns to his son of whom he promised himself an assured victory For having demanded of him if he would submit himself to his obedience if he did shew him that all his oaths and signings were worth nothing now this youth esteeming them in full strength yielded to give him all honour and respect He brings a company of Lawyers and Divines to decide this difficulty before him but he esteeming it a trick would not believe them He gives him liberty to go to any of the Town to enquire himself where having found conformity in all he was much astonished finding himself taken by the nose to the prejudice of his affection He must doubt no more Whilst he strives to hinder these baits and to kick against the pricks the more he fills his way and puts himself into blame and ill opinion of all and encourages his father to use his authority who hath no watch but on his goods He is reprehended of rebellion and disobedience here is heaven and earth against him stoned with the reasons of all those which have no feeling or sense of his love One day seeing himself vanquished by his fathers propositions which like a cunning Fencer pressed him still further after having put the shame in his face and turned all the fault on him Sir answered he they which will ask a reason for Love may as well seek fresh water in the sea or birds in the floods and fishes in the air For the reason of Love is Love it felf whose empire is so strong as it maintains it self good against our selves forcing us to do that we would not and making us do that we ought not 'T is true these promises by words or writing are nothing in right but yet in deed for the one and the other are in being That which I received of Isabel is in your power but that which I writ and sealed is in her hands I know not how to resolve my self of this shamefull denial as long as these are in being firm for they will serve for an eternal reproach of my infidelity which will be to my perpetual shame Is this the cause quoth Timoleon that withholds you from shewing your duty in obeying my commands Why whether Pyrrhe will or no it shall be very easie for me to break and make it of no effect He suddenly
first and before her father she strongly dissembled the grief which pinched her very heart shewing so constant in apparence that you would have said this action of Philippin's was in different to her But when she was retired into her private Cabinet and this retreat without testimonies gave her liberty to recall her passion saying those words and using those actions which she ought neither to have done nor said if she had had but any reason left there wanted not much that her soul had not stollen from her in her abundance of tears and that the sobs and sighs had not stopped her breath I will not with a lazie pen fill the pages of this book with reciting the inutility of her complaints we must leave them to the divining of those souls outraged by feeling the like disgrace How many different projects rolled in her thoughts Sometime she would in a sute of her brothers go find out this perfidious Lord to grapple with him like a Fury revengetrix and to cover him with reproaches of his weakness and inconstancie But as she was of a great spirit the consideration of her honour held her within the bounds of modesty knowing well that such a habit would wrap her in an everlasting infamy But then shall she dye an obscure death not only deprived of enjoying her legitimate pretensions but also of revenge I assure you that between these two extremities her understanding was thrown into strange convulsions In this outrage she became invironed with so strong a melancholy that she would neither see any nor be seen of any if she could have separated herself from herself she would willingly have done it So she fell into a profound slumber forced by a thousand griefs nor thinking of ought but of displeasures which continually pelled her patience Sad specters did her soul affright With the black horrors of the night Which through the casements of her eyes Diffus'd a thousand jealousies So that the light being gone her sense did fail Hope did expire and her fear prevail A thousand thoughts of things transacted Of promises broke and kept distracted Her spirits so perplex'd with grief Th'admitted not the least relief Which like the 'larum of a Watch did keep Her mind in motion and debarr'd her sleep These crimes which from the horror of a black And clouded conscience all the senses rack Transcend those tortures which poor miscreants feel In setters chain'd or broken on the wheel Since crimes increase and make affliction higher Like heaped fewel on a flaming fire Frighted with dismal dreams she passeth ore The solitary night and doth deplore Her pitteous state so that her poor heart lyes Floting half-drown'd i' th' deluge of her eyes The sum of all her joyes being but to think Those joyes are shipwrack't and her soul must sink Thus the unfortunate Amazon tormenting herself without comfort nothing pleases her being so displeased with herself Nights are tedious to her having lost her accustomed repose and Day as unwelcome because it makes her see too cleerly her disaster This is not that Atalanta that destroyed by her valour the number of Bores in this our Thessaly The horror of the woods which heretofore were so pleasing while the eye of day looked favourably on her is now become most fearfull She troubles no more the dark solitary Forrests the assemblies of hunting are no more lightned with this star and that which most of all displeases is that every one spends their judgments and makes discourses according to their fancies of this her change of life and humour She hates the publike light but silence loves And lonely shades of solitary groves Her parents which knew the cause of grief yet having no remedy were much affected Valentine principally which saw the flowers fade in the face of this Virgin whom she loved so dearly was excessively tormented cursing the hour that ever she knew Philippin But Pyrrhe and Harman who knew that this strange manner of life gave occasion of talk to many men are touched with a more lively feeling Poor men if the thorns prick you being scarce shot forth how will you endure them when they become more hard and less corrigible she will be cause of your loss of life and honour But let us leave her desolate in her melancholy to see what is done in the City touching the marriage of Philippin There he is imbarqued by the commandment of his father in the research of Elise But how can we call it a research which is already agreed on by their friends Timoleon is agreed with Scevole who offers him a blank promising such a dowry as should quite disengage his house making his daughter his universal heir and putting her in possession of more then he could imagine Oraculons I dol who doth not adore Thy shrine and reverence the refulgent Oar He that said Liberty is a blessing he would not sell for all the good in the world is deceived in more then the half of the just price because in the world there are as many and more chains of gold then of iron For is it not gold which makes the servitude of idols against which the Apostle cries so loud Philippin goes to make experience who marries more to satisfie the covetous eyes of his father then for his own desires marries rather coffers and wealth then the person of a woman nor doth he go to this alliance but with one wing being there is nothing more displeasing then an affection ordained for interest and good of others Will being of a quality so free that commanded it is to put it in a swound Harsh law of that Authority which restrains And binds our dearest Liberty in chains What can we not defend our selves but must Submit to Tyrant-Duty though unjust 'T is sad yet teaches that we should obay Where Rigor and Severity bear sway So Timoleon judged it would very hard to draw such lively flames as the first by the beauty of this second makes Philippin take Elise as a sick man doth a medicine and as Laban gave Leah to Jacob without almost seeing her Not that she was unworthy to be considered not being so unpleasing but she might deserve the love of any but truly how she could be loved with the love of friendship I will not say but very hardly by that of love by a heart already enjoyed as was this of our young Courtiers He nevertheless sees her more satisfied with her vertue then amorous of her person and entertains her like a man whose affection is rather in his looks then in his heart It is a simple thing to make love by commandment in the end he enters like a fish into a net even as forced not having any will that the beginning should tie a knot of necessity which could not be broken but with the sharpness of death and with all the repentings in the world could not be dissolved during life for it is not in humane power to disjoyn those which the
divine hath joyned Elise this innocent unfortunate creature which is the principal person in this tragick Scene which we present was a Gentlewoman well born endowed with more chastity and vertues then beauty of face for it appears in this our lamentable age wherein we live that beauty and vertue are enemies Her mother wife of Scevole her father shall be by us for her wisdom called Sophie her birth was not so illustrious as she was full of vertues for Who in rare manners hath her sexe outgone Next comes her daughter and gives place to none She had brought up these two Daughters which were all the children she had with much modesty and great fear of God and as Elise had been longer under her discipline then her sister Elinor so she surpassed her in humility and obedience She was of more years then Philippin but very few being very discreet and judicious that nothing was wanting in her to make her an accomplished mother of a family Her vertue sweetness modesty and the extreme affection she had to her husband was so great that in the end he was constrained by so many obligations of strong chains to love You would have said that she brought into the house of Timoleon the same qualities that Raguel ordained in his daughter Sara in the house of Tobias She was quiet and pleasing to her husband respectfull and serviceable to her Father-in-law who became almost her idolater he was so much ravished with the good offices she rendred him Philippin who is not altogether insensible is constrained to yield to so much goodness for there is no heart so hard says an Antient which will not give love not being constrained for the only price of love is love the charm without witchcraft to make one beloved is to love And what appearance is there not to love her which loved but him who loved not day but to see him nor breathed but to please him He must be a rock that should not yield himself to so just so holy and legitimate a flame For although his thoughts refused and his imagination filled with the consideration of another idea not leaving any void to imprint this new impression yet his reason vanquished by so much love is constrained to acknowledge it by a mutual return of love You would say that as Isaac tempred the grief he had for the death of his mother by the coming of his wife so our new Bridegroom forgetting altogether his first furies to range himself within the bounds of duty and obedience wrapping up these flying fires in the sacred and solid marriage is a wise march which we ought to conduct with much temperance and good government That husband which expects so much seeking from his wife is as an Antient says no other but an adulterer those who mingle so much niceness and curiosity in this venerable alliance strengthening their valour and esteeming their dignity This Sacrament ought rather to be practised by ripe and staid judgments then by heat and desire Happy had Philippin been had these considerations been weighed in the other scale of his carriage but his years too tender did not as yet make him capable of these solid governments but only necessity the fear of his father and the strong ascendant power the vertues of his new wife had gained in his judgment held him within the bounds of duty with much admiration of all those which saw it who would never have thought so happy a beginning in marriage to have had so unfortunate an end as this which I have almost with Honor writ Thrice happy Elise as the Poet says of his Did◠if on the borders of Carthage Aeneas had never arrived than under a fain shew of being free and noble hid falshood and disloyalty Elise was but too happy we may say of her if her parents had not been blinded with the brightness of immoderate ambition bringing her to so great and illustrious an alliance for this height serves her but like that of the Tortoise which is raised by the Eagle to be thrown upon the rocks and broken 〈◊〉 thousand peeces If resemblance of dispositions is the cause of the firmness of friendship equality is also the surest pillar of a good marriage For disproportions in birth or in faculties early or late brings always distastes and riots these are the seeds of divisions for the latter season All this nevertheless appears no more in the beginning of the marriage then seeds freely sowed in the earth but such as you sow such shall you reap Timoleon bring his son and daughter to Bellerive so full of joy and contentment to see himself freed of his debts the business of his house in the hands of one both wise and of authority his son delivered as he thought of his antient passions that there was not any of all those which visited him to which he did not shew in his face and in his discourse the excess of his joy He was so carefully served so religiously honoured by his daughter-in-law that he esteemed by this fashion his life crowned with the happiest age imagineable he thanks of nothing but making good chea◠and running smoothly the rest of his days The care of his domestick businesses troubled him not for Elise instructed in the knowledge of these things by her mother Sophie in her tendrest years takes all this charge and with such care and good order as nothing was wanting all in abundance every one content and all the world blessed them What doth not a vertuous and well given person accompanied with piety perform she inspires all the house with devotion it is a salt which seasons all things she is Mary in her orisons Martha in her solitude you would say by her vigilance and affairs that she had no time for prayer and seeing her spiritual exercisc◠that she spent no time but in prayer all sweetness in her exterior all fervor in her interior the perpetual visits of companies did no way divert her from the service of Godo It is wisdom in a woman to be watchfull in great things without neglecting the least Humble gracious temperate wise advised modest pleasing metry the honour and glory of her her race and of all that country How is not Philippin's heart charmed with so much merits he wanted nothing but a little more judgment to esteem so many obliging qualities Among those which came to visit Timoleon and Philippin to congratulate this haypy alliance Pyrrhe and Harman failed not to which their neighbourhood obliged as also their vassalage There is no speech of what 's past Timoleon keeps an open table Philippin strives to oblige them a thousand ways Our young son is married he hath no more need of a Governour having so good a Governess The exercises of hunting are renewed which the Citizen understands not so well as the Country wench Elise understands nothing but what a woman ought to know Isabel is a souldier of the long robe She hears by
the mouth of fame not without jealousie the income parable vertues of Elise but when she knew the preheminence of beauty she herself had of her this temperated this passion in her heart she is resolved of a perpetual spining and to spend her days in the violent exercises of hunting so fit for the preservation of chastity Was it despight or a despair to reconquer Philippin which had healed her it is so as she hath â—ained her first air and fashion The Gentlemen thereabouts to honour this new marriage of Elise make meeting at Bellerive where many courses and tornies are practised and where Isabel is in company of her father and brothers and did perform wonders She comes in company of her mother Valentine to see Elise and her mother Sophie which came to help her in her houshold-government This visit filled all the neighbourhood with joy and content seeing this quarrel alogether extinguished There Elise sees Isabel with the eyes of a Dove full of meekness like Simplicity it self using her with those courtesies so extremely obliging that shewed plainly the goodness of her heart But the other more malitious beheld her as one which did robbed her of her treasure dissembling nevertheless with much art the thoughts of her heart although she felt much grief within distilling from her lips a beam of enamelled words O how contrary were the thoughts of these two Rivals the one full of vertue admired and loved the graces which God had endued her with the other with a jealous envy consulted often with her glass to see what advantage her complexion had of that of her supplanter Timoleon who fears from the eyes of this Basilisk to his son a new wound worse the first hath always an eye on the actions of Philippin who trembling under the eyes of his father like a scholar under the rod of his master to hinder all suspition governs his looks and discourse in such a fashion that he speaks but of ordinary things in the ears of all nor beholds this object but as a thing indifferent nor seems too much reserved nor to appear artificious or constrained but with a mediocrity of freedom makes them think him without a design thus he deceives the eyes of this Argus that watcheth him All this is but artificial within although without he makes no shew of any thing but simplicity But even as the fire of thunder the more it is inclosed in the clouds the greater is the lightning it shoots forth so the more there was constraint the more dangerously he lanched his looks on this Amazon heretofore so passionately desired yet nevertheless he felt great contention in himself betwixt reason and his desire For when Reason was mistress favoured by the absence of Isabel and the sight of so many vertues which shined in all the parts of his Elise he tryed with a sponge to forget and deface the form of this Face the idea of which tormented him Sometime being alone to strengthen him in this just war of Reason against Desire animating himself to follow the part of vertue by these fair words ensuing Most vain and fruitless are my long desires Fed and fomented by a world of fires Which burn my soul the air in which I breath Rendring me like a sacrifice of death Desires in troops assail poor me opprest And Viper-like feed on my tender breast Inhumane thoughts possess my soul the high And active flame of my great thoughts doth fâ—ie Beyond all fear and through disdains wide gate Transport my sense above the reach of fate Confirm that Object which you did first grace Help to conduct and guide him to his place And those disdains which with such joy abound May happily be returned safe and sound That with you that bright Shrine of her may go To whom such homage I did lately shew Or let her stay and be esteem'd so foul And loathsom that the faculties of my soul May abhor her best perfections and contemn The quite forgotten thoughts of her or them Poor Philippin thou speakest well now that thy reasons are strengthened by the services of thy Elise which kept thee master of thy desires but when the law of sense rebels against that of thy understanding sowing revolts seditions and contradictions in the city of thy exterior 't is then that losing courage thou returnest into thy first frensies yet fight thy self and thou mayst become a reasonable vanquisher vanquish thy passion The whilst these active visits passed under colour of civility being made more frequent then Timoleon could have desired the hunting served often for a pretext but another cause is the subject The cunning old man intends to get before this misfortune and not to fall from a fever to a hotter ill cut off all new beginnings of loves Although his son be not much advanced in years yet marriage having given him more liberty it would be unfit to exercise upon him the same commandments and rigorous cruelty which he used to him being a youth Remedy there is none better then that Physitians practise in the cure of cathars and rheums diverting them when they cannot dry them We have said that Monte-gold is a very fair Castle and of strength and importance which was within three days journy of Bellerive at the foot of the Pyrene mountains Under pretext to shew it to his daughter-in-law he brings all his train and that of his sons 'T was Philippin who was disoriented but more Isabella who at this last sight had so increased her flames whether it were by temptation or otherwise that thus being deprived it had almost cast her into her grave she judged this remove was caused against her she knew no remedy but to flie to patience Philippin was somwhat astonished at first for this absence and remains sad and pensive some time But this light fire which began to burn about his heart kindled by the sight of this object this absence made his relenting less For as one wins by the losing of others so there is no doubt but absence revives as presence kills The holy and sincere love of Elise won him so strongly that his reason was quite renewed for if Vertue as an Antient saith would ravish altogether the heart if it were but visible why should it not ravish his shewing so visibly in the person of the chaste Elise Oh if he had made in this time a happy provision of wisdom or if he had tasted seriously and solidly this butter and honey of discretion which makes one distinguish good from evil he might well have known the extreme difference which is between a vertuous affection just and holy and a bruitish passion unlawfull and dishonest For in stead of the precious balm of this as the sweet smell of a flowry field pleasing both heaven and earth God and men giving to those which savoured as they ought a taste of the pleasures of Paradise the infamous exhalation of the other defames the proper authors scandalizes their neighbours
as if you were agreed with him to your own ruine You help him to make to your parents invisible that which he will not have visible but to you Poor Rahab thou hidest the Spies that will be cause of thy destruction and infamy O daughters that have understanding learn by the fault of this miserable one since ill examples ingender good manners and refuse these little Letters which are as so many chains to bring your hearts into servitude and hunt these foxes which break down those inclosures that make you honoured and esteemed The abuser Isabel becomes abused and disadvisedly seduced A just punishment of her craft and cunning She lends her ears and consents to the writings and discourse of this deceiver Philippin and helps herself by her folly to weave the cord which draws her to shame She hears this charmer which flatters so well as he awakes in her that which disdain had made but sleepy not killed covered not quite put out He colours his courting with a mask of honour to make her by this golden outside better to swallow the pill of dishonour Protests he esteems her his legitimate wife says he will declare that marriage with Elise null as having but too many proofs of the constraint of Timoleon as to her that of Pyrrhe that the declarations contrary to their first promises were forced from their pens not from their hearts and that violence was notorious To these rays of apparent reason Isabel lights her first heats putting as in the time of Nehemiah fire in the oven Those Philter-charms of Love did re-inspire Her breast inflamed with a vigorous fire Greatness flatters her courage which is high Honour which she conceives by a just alliance moves her strangely and in the end Love wins her absolutely For although she dissembled a property common enough to all her sex the impression of Philippin had never been quite defaced in her soul neither for despight her affection having still been stronger then the outrage nor for another object for after having failed of so high a design as the first all other Matches were displeasant to her and her universal disdain had lost her many fortunes nor for absence for amongst the divertings of her many exercises always this Idea swam in her imaginations So that it was easie for him to perswade her her own inclination importing her belief Painting cannot last long the first sweating it falls off a face that hath been daubed with it The fained despight the apparent cruelty the artificious disdain the affected scorn of this Damosel cannot be maintained long for that which is counterfeited hath no solid substance 't is as snow before the sun After having kindled the fire of Philippin by a thousand reproaches there flew up a sparkle from so many coals that lighted in her own heart and burned herself It happens ordinarily that those which shoot artificious fire are burnt first and desiring to endammage other lose themselves The Bee never stings but leaves the sting in the wound and in losing her sting remains wounded to death The fire of love is of that nature that those which will give love are taken it is a game in which who will take are taken This place so full of danger Lovers flie Vnder fair flow'rs the foulest serpents lie It is hard to give love without receiving 't is so fine gold as it remains always between the fingers of those which distribute it Mens hearts are as dry as kixes to take fire and the greatest courages are soonest cast down under this violence which hath his greatest strength in his sweetness and makes us find nothing so sweet as this strength It was very easie for Philippin to deceive the eyes of his wife Pyrrhe and Herman having this intelligence with Isabel he thought himself above the clouds being plunged into a foul quagmire This proud Maid loved honour and would never yield but with the hope of a future marriage He importunes her forced by the vehemencie of his infamous desires But on the other side she earnestly pressed him to break with Elise otherwise he should not hope any thing of her but cruelty and disdain Here is Philippin in strange convulsions How shall he break this sacred knot to satisfie his unbridled appetite and the tyrannie of this imperious Mistress This Mine must play by a prodigious clap He yields extraordinary submission to her and seems an Idolater for all that she comes no forwarder He swears protests and promises but the second oaths are refused by the example of the first He passes to promises in writing Isabel receives them but for all that he gets no forwarder in the ground of her honour What shall he do to this inflexible creature He resolves to come to the worst of extremities and to repudiate Elise sending her shamefully from his house breaking violently the laws of friendship and brutally lets himself be carried by the torrent of a passion that will precipitate him blindly in a misfortune irremediable He sees Isabel every day and with so much cunning of this false female that her parents see their discourses and meeting without perceiving their practises confounding by their artificious carriages this word of the Oracle of truth That he which doth ill hates light for in the face of the sun and sight of men they dissembled their ill doings But blind and cruel Philippin began to use with much inhumanity the innocent Elise that his insolencies and indignities are no more supportable by a woman of her worth and quality She desires to know the subject of a usage so rude as this was but the more she enquires the more he hides it from her All she can do to give him content displeases him her presence is so odious that he can no longer suffer her They say the Tygres at the hearing of musick become more cruel Philippin is of that humour the sweet harmony of the vertues of his wife makes him more savage and cruel He now makes her to understand that he acknowledges her for no wife of his having been constrained by the violence of Timoleon to marry her that he had nothing to do with her riches she might take them and be gone for his house was great enough without her help He reproaches her with her birth unequal to his the baseness of her parents her ill fashion he calls her Courtesies cosenings To be short he nourishes her with gall and gives her vinegar to drink Upon these subjects of nothing he puts himself into excessive choler and threatens to kill her if she consent not to the divorce Imagine you if Elise as wise and discreet as she was had patience to suffer so many affronts She is his companion and he uses her as his slave she hath raised his house with her wealth and is told she is the ruine of it Her estate of being great with child doth it not make you pitty her She endures nevertheless these taunts these injuries these
sweetening their bitterness I will not represent the pains I now endure being they sever the miseries of my soul and body but I assure you they seem far lighter to me then those I felt when by your command I was separated from you and then I had more understanding to feel it then now to express it It Would be to offend their extremities to think to speak them And if they might be resisted I would not for that being of a nature communicable their contagion might pass into your soul by conpassion and I desire that my death may be a subject of rejoycing to you Permit me only to qualifie all the injuries the world esteems you have done me with the title of good renouncing the reward due to all the services I have rendred you so that satisfying my passion in serving you I have contented my self it lies not in me that you lose not the remembrance if it troubles never so little your joy if my humilities are of any consideration before you methinks they will deserve the credit to be forgot So much I fear as nothing more that the image of my imperfections should again trouble your fancy For I believe if there rests any feeling in bones laid in the tomb the tranquility of mine will be troubled if I thought that pitty might find place in your heart which I have experimented so void of love what a pain would it be to me if I believed only that you would grieve for having killed me For although I ought not to desire a fairer monument then the thoughts of your soul yet acknowledging my unworthiness I dare not apprehend so stately an inclosure because I know I should not rest without causing your unquietness I 'll content my self with the glory that I die for you if I dare say for you for since that I lived but for you is it not giving you that which I owe that I render you my life Nor is this death presented to taxe you or to change into wrong to you that which to me is a high degree of honour only I shew you with all kind of humility that if in honouring you I have been so unhappy to displease you I have not been so miserable to offend you Your opinion shall be such as you please but it shall be permitted me to believe that as I could not address my avows to a more accomplished subject perhaps hereafter you may more acknowledge And although this effect hath not seconded my intention my intention hath had nevertheless its effect which had no other design but to testifie my fidelity I know well that in all I have done but what I ought but as I think not to have failed so it must be confessed that giving all I ought to whom I ought all is no little proof of zeal Happy if I had shewed by the loss of my life that of the holy affections which you have sworn before God and his Angels Be happy at least in my disaster to have endured without desert that you would have me suffer Live from henceforth free by my death leaving me this contentment in my misery to believe that it brings you comfort I will endure it in honouring you All that comes from your hands cannot but be received by me I adore the hand of God which corrects me by yours which mingles gall with that too much honey I tasted in possessing of you and severs me from all delights of the world to make me aspire to the eternal At least dear Philippin acknowledg my fidelity in this sincere testimony that I render you To honour even your cruelty to the last period of my life and to cherish your disdain in the midst of the pangs of death I ought to do it since I confess I did not deserve so great an alliance as you I was not worthy but of your refuse I had consented to my repudiation if the Christian laws in this case were not inviolable espousing a Monastery to leave you at liberty in your desires but honour and justice have withstood it nor could I obtain of my father to give you this contentment to the prejudice of me and my fame If I did presume in taking that great honour to be your Companion not deserving the title of the meanest of your servants think but with your self what command my friends might have of me a Maiden since your father the memory of whom is a blessing to me had so absolute a power on your will This is to the end you may excuse not so much my presumption as my obedience and amongst the illustrious dignities which honour you and of which I participated you know I never did forget my self nor have thought to be but what I was From henceforth I quit this place too great for me to that happy Creature which possesses you I am not to acknowledge her merits yet esteem your judgment in your election not only excusing your change but approving it For although I yield to her all the preheminencies of grace and beauty as long as I live I will never yield either to her or to any person in the world that of affection that if she be better beloved of you then I was you shall never be by her as you have been and are still by me now that death breaks our first bonds rendring the second as I desire them more pleasing the splendor of this fair day will shine brighter after the obscurity of my night My will would have procured you this marriage during my life to have pleased you and have been a purchaser of my own ruine by solliciting it against my self But it is in vain for us to wrastle against the laws of God All that tears sighs from me and troubles the clearness of my constancie in these extremes is the loss of this poor Infant which as fruit disgraced is fallen by the wind of your anger from the arch which bore it seeing it could not ripen under the rays of your favour it hath seen the night of death before the day of life being deprived of the light of the star which only could have illustrated his darkness But that most afflicts me is this little innocent Dalimene which I leave on the earth the subject of your disdains For Gods love dear Philippin let not the indignity of the Mother prejudice the fortune of this poor creature since heaven would to shew you how strongly your idea was graven in my heart that she bears in her forehead the lively image of those graces that nature hath stamped on yours not having any sign of those defects which have deprived me of the happiness of your love Let her childish voice move you to pitty and since she is blood of your blood in her have compassion not of her nor me but of your self And lastly I conjure you by all that is most holy in heaven and earth to have at least as a Christian some feeling of chariâ—y for my
soul praying that the mercy of God may open heaven to it and that earth may be light on my ashes Cruel and yet welbeloved Philippin at least love me being dead since that sacrificing to you my life I give you the most pleasing service that I have ever given you I am weaâ—ier of life then of writing O my dear Lord and husband my soul is going content if thou permit it to draw with its last ascent this free sigh ' Since my vow'd Faith here cannot make the least ' Impression on thy unrelenting breast ' Lo I my Soul do cheerfully resigne 'To Death who hath more charity then thine She thought to have leâ—t her life ending her long Letter For grief and love two strong passions with the extreme pain which affected her body made such an impression as she thought verily to have lost her senses with her blood But by her youth and good constitution the care of her parents help of physitians and perfections of remedies the great Conductor of the world which reserved her for a more sad spectacle preserved her for this time The End of the Third Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Fourth Book WHen this writing subscribed with the blood of this languishing creature came to the hands of Philippin he felt in his soul strange convulsions as what Tygre had not been moved at so much sweetness and humility For comparing in his memory the paradise of tranquillity passed with the hâ—ll of unquietness present he grieves for her being dead whom he had afflicted living But these touches were like the weak pushes of those which wake out of a sound sleep but being drowsie fall incontinently down upon their pillow from which they cannot raise themselves but with great pain His heart was so glued to his present voluptuousness that he had almost forgot the remembrance of his past happiness the clouds hindred him from knowledge of the brightness of this vertue that like a torch casts greater flames by how much the more it draws neer the end Even as an Antient said We slight a present good so Vertue most in sight is hated but ador'd when lost If she court us we flie and grown more coy Disdain those pleasures which we most enjoy These characters imprinted some kind of pitty in this courage before deaf to all that could be said and drew some tears from his eyes but those small drops falling on his hard heart did no more penetrate then rain falling on rocks on the contrary this water like the flood of the Sycionians that dries the wood seemed to redouble his obstinacie and to produce the same effects as the small showers that the vehement heat of the sun draws from the clouds in the hottest of summer which rather burns the leafs of plants then any way refreshes them For fearing his compassion should give jealousie to Isabel or shadow her with some doubt of his affection he is angry with his pitty holding cruelty for a great vertue Proud Isabel at the report of the pitteous news of Elise's death which the messenger assured her thought she should have swouned with extreme joy and contentment esteeming that this obstacle being removed nothing could hinder Philippin from healing the shame of her love by marriage She gives thanks to heaven as if it had been guilty of her fault and bound to repair it by so bloody a means by which you may note the humours of these creatures that are many times so impudent to mingle divinity with their misdeeds Pyrrhe is presently advertised at Vaupre who much rejoices for the ensuing wedding of his daughter and the house of Philippin in stead of wearing blacks for the decease of their Mistress are imployed in feasting and joy of a nuptial pomp to honour a marriage with small honour consummated Philippin receives a double joy by this death seeing himself delivered of her which he could not have been but by it and in possession of her which he could not make his legitimate wife as long as Elise had lived He saw himself possessed with great wealth by Scevole by the means of Dalimene which if he should have restituted or been deprived of would have been his utter ruine He imagines to be gotten above all his pretensions And as the loadstone hath no force to draw to it that iron that is rubbed with garlick even so his heart invironed with the stinking garlick of dishonest voluptuousness cannot be moved to any pitty towards poor Elise whose love trains her to death Accursed be the flames and plots of those Projectors who so fruitlesly expose Themselves to plots so abortive and forlorn They die before they are begot or born For as they were preparing for these nuptial feasts with great diligence news came to them of the recovery of Elise which turned all their joy into smoke and buried all their designs Oh how vain and light is humane understanding Philippin hates the life of her whom he lamented being dead Isabel is in despair Pyrrhe in fury and Herman afflicted all deceived because prevented of their hopes and pretensions Certainly God would have it so and reserve Elise for misfortunes more cruel to make his glory shine on the depth of an apparent ignominie But the rage of Philippin rests not there For being pressed by Pyrrhe to keep his word with him having removed his Appeal to Rome to make that sentence void which had confirmed his marriage with Elise he imploies his uttermost means to remove all lets and hindrances to prove it of no effect not forgetting any diligence or earnestness in the pursuit thereof But if he were a violent undertaker he hath to do with a better defendant For Scevole being upheld by the most equitable right in the world knew better how to handle these Process-weapons then himself This hinders not nevertheless but this labyrinth of contestations ingenders a marvellous long proceeding during which years slide away Philippin is always in possession of Isabel by whom he had some children which were brought up as legitimate The whilst he is lost in his debauches and by these ill proceedings offends again with new outrages the goodness of the chaste Elise which cruel persecution carries him to an action more inconsiderate then malicious and which will cost him his life You must understand that Elise being a Maid had been sought in marriage by a Gentleman well qualified and of a reasonable good estate whom we will call Andronico for some reasons which make this name proper to him of which this is the principal that among his qualities he had one which drew his title from the Apostle who was brother to S. Peter with this being very valiant having had many encounters in which he was still victorious this name methinks agrees well to make all these things darkly understood This young Andronico after a long pursuit because of a secret dislike Scevole had of men of the sword not willing to give his daughter but to a
son of his own gown as he had done before his eldest being now at the point to obtain his desire the dispositions of the parents of Elise gave him hope of a happy success his vertue and perseverance having won them Now Timoleon coming on these terms and offering to Scevole Philippin his son an alliance so great and high this of Andronico vanished like a star before the sun Andronico digested this bitterness with a patience which may be better praised then exprest He makes great complaints which the wind blows away Challenge Philippin he cannot for why the greatness and authority of Timoleon threw too much dust and powder before his eyes and it would have been to set a Wren against an Eagle An honorable retreat seems more advantagious then a needless contestation Well he retires to his house not without leaving Elise in some kind of sorrow which under the permission of a just research was far advanced in her favour and could not be left without grief Yet Andronico having at first sought her for the respect of wealth had now by long frequentation observed in her many vertues and lodged them deeply in his heart letting her gain much in his best affection I will not spread my self too far in the patticularities of their mutual loves not to take from this History its brevity So it is Andronico yields where he could not dispute with the greatness of his Competitor and Elise instructed by her mother to have no other will but that of her parents yields to the marriage of Philippin rather for obedience then any inclination and Scevole imitating the dog in the fable leaves a small body for a great shadow losing both the one and the other so weak and feeble is our humane wisdom Elise being Philippins giving him her body and with it her heart absolutely to love him as an honest wife ought to do a husband blotting from her thoughts all the impressions she had of Andronico and he having lost all hope to enjoy her lost also the design of pursuing any further But as a man sleeping is not dead nor a fire out that is covered with ashes even so this love rejoiced to awake and lighten in these young hearts which a holy amitie had heretofore tied in a mutual bond Elise being thus separated from Philippin as you have seen and returned to her parents Andronico who was ordinarily in the town expecting some good match sees her at her fathers where his own worth gave him free access at which sight he feels some sparks of his first flame At first it was without design and rather for a kind of civility then otherwise yet he after continues his visits by inclination and pleasure that he takes in the conversation of this creature of whose pittiful misfortunes he conceives as much compassion as he had heretofore been passionate for her And because love enters not into the soul by any gate so wide as that of condolence the extreme misfortunes of poor Elise made and ample breach in the heart of this young Gentleman who doubtless loved her truly yet with all the honour and respect that might be desired of a man which made profession of vertue But this entertainment went so far that Elise lets herself be carried to yield to the entertainments of Andronico being also much pleased in his conversation which was full of discretion and modesty example of his ends and pretensions that renders rather marcenarie then true these worldy friendships They lived like brother and sister enjoying a pure and perfect union And as there is nothing so precious in a great affliction as to find a confident friend in whose breast one may impose their griefs and which partakes of our ills by an unfained charitie Elise esteems it her happiness to have met with Andronico to whom she communicates her griefs with a holy and innocent confidence and he on the other side took such part that Elise receives a marvellous consolation for by his words and reasons he tempred the sharp points which augmented the smart of this disaster withal having a certain grace in his speech that made his counsels and consolations very commendable If Elise complain of the rigorous usage of Philippin his fierceness and cruelty Andronico blames this fierce cruelty and judges him unworthy to enjoy so great a goodness as hers saying that the love of Elise was too sincere for a subject so full of ingratitude and that if she had not yielded to him so much he would have more respected her and not given her this ill usage I shall never have done if I should undertake to represent their discourse and entertainments which made them esteem the hours as short as minutes in which they were present one with the other and a moment of absence seemed infinite ages Thus by little and little the sympathie of their dispositions made them find themselves tied in knot indissoluble without ever passing in this their frequentation which was always in the presence of either Sophie or Scevole any action word or thought directly or indirectly contrary to purity and honesty Their eyes were of doves washed in the milk of innocence and whiteness their lips bound with a scarlet ribbon so full of puritie was their discourse with hands full of myrrhe preservative against corruption were exempt of impurity their hearts and bodies breathed nothing but modest How often both Scevole and Sophie seeing this commendable amity grieved they had not joined them in marriage according to their first intent But repentance came too late the dice are thrown We must with patience more or less Sustain those wrongs we can't redress Impatience is afflictions sonne And breeds a thousand plagues alone The whilst these unadvised parents considered not they threw oil on the fire that their youths kindled though she covers it with a vail of chaste modestie this gave liberty to Elise to desire Andronico if she had been free from the slavish tyrannie of Philippin she reproves often the ambition of her parents who had been cause of her fall by an ascent too high how much more sweet appears a mediocrit fortune then those so eminent which like the fate of huge rocks are sooner struck thunder then the humble vallies considering What trouble and distraction 's there where Power With Love's Corrival and Competitor Andronico gathers these plants as pearls from roses for he was not without tears making ruddie the plants of his desires and cursing his ill fortune which made them acceptable now out of season and were refused when receivable Till when says he O confounder of vertue and my sworn enemy wilt thou persecute me Remorseless Fate then merciless will move In opposition to impede my Love But then coming to himself and seeing that under these fantastical names of fortune and destinie he taxed the divine providence under whom slides the thread of out days and which holds our being in his hands resolves to adore rather then
a man of great understanding accompanies his daughter as Dowager to the house of Philippin to these funeral rights with his Grandchild Dalimene as she that was now universal heir by the declaration of the validity of the marriage of Elise and Philippin whose rightfull succession none could withstand But this is not all in question to dislodge the Amazon out of Goldmount For not to speak of the complaints of this desperate Lover and the furies that seised her at the receit of the news of his death then when she hoped to have come to Town to have married him who being the corrupter of her integrity ought to be the repairer of her renown There wanted not much being filled with a rage full of blindness that she had not killed two miserable children which she had by Philippin the time they had been together and for to have kept them company have pierced herself with the same blade that had murdered them But the inspiration of her good Angel was stronger in this assault then the suggestion of the ill who raises for a time the impious above the cedars of Libanus for to throw them in the end into the deep pit of despair At length she resolves on an enterprise as foolish as hardy but on what doth one not think in extremities which was To make herself Mistress of the Castle of Gold-mount and to keep it by force of arms to which her courage and ordinary exercises had incited her For to return to her father was a thing she could not hear of doubting the ill usage and indignation of Pyrrhe and after so much greatness and magnificences that she had tasted in the house of Philippin could not reduce herself to the poverty of the paternal that she knew for the subject of her ill life was become altogether incommodate But Scevole having had the wind of this design goes strait to Gold-mount and authorised by the Justice of the Country assembles by the Provost all the Commons and begirts this Warrior in her Castle who having made more provision of men then victuals was delivered by those that ought to have defended her into the hands of Scevole who was pleased to remit her into those of her fathers that fains to be ignorant of the death of Philippin he receives her alone refusing to meddle with her children which Scevole takes charge of as descended of his son-in-law though illegitimate When Isabel saw herself in Vaupre shut up in a dark prison it was then she had occasion to curse her faults passed and to acknowledg that these tribulations were the least that she deserved VVe will leave her to suffer under the hardness of her irons and such barbarous usage that I abhor to write of to come to Scevole who returns to the City triumphing in the execution of this justice mingled with so much mercy for he might have used a more exemplary punishment on this criminal rebellion He again confirms the marriage of Elise with Philippin and anew declares Dalimene heir and her Mother dowager and governess Elise shews in her face the signs a widowhood full of grief and bitterness her voice is like the turtles nothing but solitude is pleasing to her Andronico which could not think the ill usage of Philippin could have begot so strange a mourning believes some art where there is nothing but simplicity He intends to visit this desolate Lady to contribute at least for complement some image of consolation to this grief that he esteems â—ained But finding her so much changed in her self and for him that she was to be misknown in face and more in her understanding At first aboard he esteems that the goodness of her nature had renewed her antient love by the pitty of so mournfull an accident which was cause of all this wildness And desirous pressed by his own affections to give her some comfort as he thought to have drawn her aside she prevents his design by her sudden retiring which gave him no means of speech but before Sophie his discourse being no other but that is accustomed in the like occasions But at last Sophie being called into another place left Elise as formerly in conversation of Andronico But she turning her back to him as if she had seen a serpent or fearfull dragon follows her mother and leaves him not only as an indifferent person but as a detested which was greater in the heart of Andronico then either spittle or shame for such an outrage in the lightning of her eyes threatned a horrible tempest The troublesom confusion to see himself left now when he thought to be most favourably received of this woman having given her so many testimonies of his love and honoured her so respectfully puts more colours in her face then we see in the Rainbow that proclaims a storm And truly being this man is innocent let it be permitted us to say this word in his defence O Elise you will have time to repent you to have condemned one before hearing him and to have so soon given belief to a light conjecture There is nothing ordinarily more false then the reports of the Town for fame increases not but for the most part with lyes the divers reports and conjectures are but dreams of men waking You will ruine your own happiness and for a slight disdain you make this generous heart feel it will cost you your life you wrong your self more then him and lay a foundation of dislike which will be your common loss Who is not astonished at your inconstancie to see her which in her greatest adversities shewed more strength then a man for a vain shadow shew weaker then a woman like a Rose-tree that bends with the smallest wind who can justifie your ingratitude or uphold your forgetfulness in but thinking of the good offices this young Gentleman did you when exposing himself to so many quarrels and hazards to maintain your honour and the validity of your marriage against himself and his own contentment You permitted him to love you when there was no hope to see the fruits of the flowers of his affections and now that the day of hope begins to appear you cover him with a night of despair not only forbidding him to love or seek you the lawfull gate being open but also to see or speak to you As great a heart as a woman shews in the most fearfull accidents she returns always to her own nature and many times in the smallest encounters makes known her great weakness like the captive King that wept not seeing his son slain and yet shed tears at the death of his slave I have much ado Elise that I accuse you not of lightness and esteem you worthy of the pains you go to suffer forgetting the grief I felt in reciting what you have suffered For is it not like the Prince of Israel to hate so unworthily those that love you and love unjustly those that hate you I see you are like
came with an inflamation of despight and shame to see herself beloved by a subject unworthy of her was taken by this abused to promise him that he hopes by an inclination of good will Thus he flatters his hopes by this cozening appearance And although she were as full as a Bee that hath lost her sting yet this Maid hides the tempest that invaded her soul under the calm of her eyes which she had cleared on purpose to deceive this presumptuous fellow making appear by this faining some sort of joy in the midst of despair and shame that began to seise on the heart of Roboald who made bold by this easie acceptance that hid disdain under a sweet countenance begins to perswade himself that since the water carries the stone his perseverance and fidelity might soften this courage and make her condescend where his quality and birth hindred him to hope This conjecture became a certainty in his thoughts when dissembling Isabel made shew she held for an honour that which in her soul she held for an affront and disgrace to be so religiously and respectfully adored by a subject whose merits she esteemed faining to be angry to have been the cause of all his pains passed excusing herself on the innocence of her ignorance not being able to divine that which was unknown to her yet what she had but too cunningly perceived almost from the beginning Will you then trust the apparent simplicity of women that under a seeming childishness deceives the subtilty of the most cunning In following this point to bring this Jailer yet more forward into the snares where he was already altogether ingaged and to draw the liberty of her body from the slavery of this heart not only the testimonies to have his service agreeable but also to hold for an advantage this Match although she had it in horror Raising his vertues above the defects of his birth esteeming herself more happy to marry one ignoble that loved and honoured her then one noble that after the life she had led with Philippin could not have her but in disdain and outrage Imagine you what Lover had not been easie to be deceived with these words so dissembled and if the courage of Roboald were not disposed to belief of that that was so advantagious to him and let himself transported by his passion since his interior inclination had intelligence with the treason without to lessen his ruine All he can do is to praise the bounty of Isabel in raising her even to the heavens where his forehead touched already by the hope to see his pretensions succeed plunging into the centre of the earth by the words of submission and humility of a shadow with which he vailed the arrogance of his design But Isabel faining to find so many difficulties in this enterprise that it almost appeared impossible it was now that he makes her to understand that there was nothing impossible to a Lover that huge mountains became plains to a courage lightned with this passion that made valiant the most fearfull and that all that opposed his desire would easily be surmounted by his valour or industry Alas said this cunning Amazon I neither doubt of your understanding nor strength but how will the inheriting pride of my friends suffer you to match with me if they could not suffer to see me live with Philippin who never possessed me but as his wife At which Roboald proposes to her to flie on the other side the Alps and into the Countries so far off that neither Pyrrhe nor Herman should have either wind or mark of their retreat Love replied Isabel ought not to have his eye so hard tyed as not to take heed to his course otherwise he will be subject in this blindness to fall into great and horrible precipices Do you not see that it were to â—ast our selves in trust into calamities and miseries the most extreme that can enter into humane thoughts and be lost in thinking to be safe I appeal to your passion and judgment The prison in which I am of which your courtesie tempers now the rigorous cruelty is more supportable then a calamitous liberty full of infamy To which Roboald answered But Madam if I disclose the means that you may live the only Mistress of your goods and house will you promise to honour me with the quality of your Husband and not to pay with base ingratitude the service I shall do you At these words a secret horror seised the heart of this Maid esteeming that this barbarous Roboald would propose to her some parricide either by sword or poison Oh said she what do you tell me here I will rather rot and die in prison then go forth with so abominable enlargement I will not like a Viper draw my life by the death of those that have put me into the world Madam replied Roboald you take on the left that which I intend on the right I am not so unfortunate as you think nor do I believe you so unnatural It is a means that I know by which not only your father and brother will give you liberty but will have nothing in more horror then this house nor any thing so dear as to seek their safety by their flight and to leave it free to your enjoying It is then by some trick answered Isabel but if it be as vain as that of your Glass I perceive nothing of all this but laughter and misery for if my father but perceives that you use me not with all the cruelty he commanded I fear he should put me into their hands that are worse then yours and put yourself in prison or discharge you from his service and so your assistance in the one and other fashion become inutile Madam quoth Roboald there is no more inchantment in the secret I have to discover to you then in my Glass and yet the effect is as assured as that where without sorcery you have seen that you desired to see I have only to manifest a truth to you by which you will remain Mistress of your house and without chasing or violating your Father he shall depend on your mercy I cannot comprehend these riddles said Isabel But then vile Roboald to put her out of pain puts himself up to the throat as you shall see by the tragick history that follows It was in manifesting the murder of Philippin committed by Herman by the perswasion and following the commandment of Pyrrhe denying expresly that he assisted Herman and was Complice of this attempt saying he was only testimony of this treason of which he fained not to have been any way advertised What became this woman when she heard this news what hatred was not formed in her heart against her Brother and against her own Father measuring it by the extreme love she bore to Philippin Suddenly like a Fury she threatens their trespass resolves to disclose it to the Justice and to satisfie at once to her
At which name this poor dying man seem'd to enjoy new life of such strength is the empire of Love in the most violent pangs of death His soul took strength at this feeble hope to encourage his body and by little and little the hopes of life came again but yet so leisurely he recovered as rather languishing then living they knew not what to do to restore him Timoleon having many houses had him conveyed from one to another to try if the change of air would give him health but it comes as heavy as lead although his sickness came post certainly it is easie to descend says the Poet but very hard to get up The farther he went from Bellerive the worse he was because he was further off Vaupre where was the only remedy of his longings and the only air that could recover him The end of the first Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Second Book NOt far from the Pyrene Mountains amongst many very pleasant habitations there is a little Hill that for the beauty and fertility of it the inhabitants call Gold-Mount Here Timoleon hath a Castle that hath two properties which lightly are not found together being both strong and fair invironed with a pleasant country and accommodated with all the delights one can desire in a Country-house He commands Philippin to be removed thither and accompanies him himself But by reason they separated him from the Center of his affections all these sweet delights of this pleasant Country were to him bitter and unpleasing they are constrained to bring him back again to Bellarive where when as he began by little and little to get strength helped by the hope he had not to be any more crossed in his love Timoleon having made Scipion tell him that now he thought no more of those promises which he had made him that he did it but to cozen his disease he fell suddenly into such a terrible frensie that whereas in his first sickness they thought only of the loss of his life this second they thought to take away his wits for this troubled him so strangely and produced such unformed actions and fearfull words as none had ever heard tell of the like raving Here is Timoleon more afflicted then ever and the Physitians much troubled to find the cause of this new disease of body not any way considering the troubles of his mind but only by conjectures drawn from the sympathie of the two principal parts which compose our being they imagine that having been bred at Paris and at Court the air of the Country is not so natural as that of the Town for him and that his sadness causes these strange humours in his spirit Timoleon is perswaded the same and resolves to bring him to a place where the frequenting of company might divert him from these melancholy fits Billerive is but a dayes journey from one of the principal Cities in France where he may go without passing the bounds of his exile which was not limited but within his own Province There are more store of Physitians and remedies at hand and spiritual Comforters in greater number His rank and quality noted in the Country made him at first coming visited by many of the chiefest persons of remark Time which is the great Physitian of the affliction of the spirit having drawn away the clouds which suffocated the reason of Philippin renders him now more fit for consolation then he had been before and this house in Town seeming more like the life and air of the Court his first element gives him some ease of his many sufferings Here of a sudden he is returned to his senses and perfect health yet nevertheless always his heart returns towards Vaupre as loving that side of the North. Many visits he hath every day as much for the respect of his father as for the sweetness of his own conversation Though not quite healed of his wound nothing is so pleasing to him as to steal by himself sometimes to contemplate his thoughts in the object he could not see but with the eyes of his understanding As many men as attend him are as so many Watches so that he might say as the holy Scripture saith So many domesticks as many enemies Timoleon which saw this fire was covered with ashes not quite out pressed in part with desire to divert his son from this affection prejudicial to the greatness of his house and partly with desire to see him married which of necessity must be done sometimes consulting if he should send him into Italy or to travel into Spain or to imploy him in the Town in those exercises which young Noblemen ordinarily use His friends counselled him not to send him into those strange Countries so suddenly after his sickness it is his only son the light of his eyes the staff of his age this changing of Country will not change his affection as marriage would All conclude that marriage was a tye that would settle him in peace and bring him comfort and assure his house withdrawing him from all these youthfull passions Timoleon makes choise of this forced to it by his domestick necessities for his so long having been a Courtier living at a great height of expence had brought him much behind-hand and in great debts having been constrained to mortgage a good part of his estate A good portion would clear all this This deliberation made known there would not need much time to find a fit Match for him as being of so noble a house the best in that Town would be very proud of his alliance to match their daughter so honorably A Magistrate of a soveraign Company wonderfull rich having but two Daughters the eldest being married to one of the Officers of this Estate the second we will call Elise for two reasons for truly she bore the name of the famous Cousin visited by the Mother of our blessed Saviour when she was with child of the Forerunner of Messias and because methinks she hath somthing in her innocencie found fit to be compared to the Queen of Carthage whom the Prince of the Roman Poets that pleasing lyre hath taxed with having committed a fault with Aeneas of which she is revenged by those which have written the true history of her chaste carriage This younger was a Maid although but indifferently endowed with the gifts of nature in what concerns the face in so much as she was judged better for a Wife then for a Mistress but on the other side she was so endowed with vertue and with that which most esteem riches that this abundance of gold was able to make any one to think deformity it self fair Timoleon sees this Maid for his Son and like him which more considered her wealth then her form finds that this great portion would quite clear all his affairs and disengage all his house He speaks with Scevole thus we will name this Magistrate father of this Gentlewoman who is not slow in opening his eyes on