source from whence proceeds my impatient passion Vincia answered The hope of acquiting so happy and so nigh a possession might mitigate the impatiences of your Soul but the amorous are excusable who relinquish reason as an ignominious charge giving the reigns to their desires to pursue more lightly their passions to which by force they give themselves rather then by discretion seeing themselves exempted from knowledg loving better to have a blind guide then to remain alone in the middle of such savage deserts as our senses alienated from admiration Lozia interrupting Vincia said to her servant Clerio I love being so amorous And obliging him by this honor she gave him her fair hands within the curled hairs of those of love it is idolatrous for him to bend this knot before so many graces and formosities of which he shall soon be Possessor having with desires dying a thousand times by her for many ardent flames As a Cork sometimes elevateth it self and then submergeth under the water so this humane full of vanity forgetting his first estate left himself to be ambitiously transported above so many courtesies and amorous submissions of so great a Princess and to testifie to her his violent passion commended his elocutions by a profound suspiration Fair Mistress whom I reverence as the most holy and sacredst of all terrene Deities and to whom alone quotidianly I offer a thousand secret sacrifices from my heart I conjure you by your fair eyes the most capable puissances to move you to accord to me the request which I will make you in the behalf of your Clerio which might furnish me with so many amorous dispences as these eyes graces and beauties make by their so long sojourn at my heart It behoveth that I now pay by my death a thousand amorous Creditors if those agreeable hosts of my Soul take not pity of him who for the more honorable reception hath engaged his liberty and his life this would be to pick a Rose before the time with rigorous hands without their being vulnerated by the thorns of compassion Clerio my friend what wouldst thou that I do Thy loves and thy merits have so much power upon me that I cannot denegate any thing unto thee which is agreeable when thou wilt I will give thee the beauties and sweet delectations which this yong bodypossesses with so entire possession as that which thou hadst of my heart of my loves and my Soul since the first day that I had the honor to see thee Clerio go on in this credence and I entreat thee not to handle me so rigorously unless you intend to make me dye cruelly but cause thou that Vincia accord our contentments with our amorous cupidities and then thou mayst know that my speeches are as veritable as my passions Vincia extreamly satisfied said to her It shall be then after to morrow I consent to it said Lozia from the voyce of these two hearts which have but one will and one soul and that one passion which was equally in two is equally both in the one and the other I am of opinion Mistress that when it doth advesperate you send one of your Gentlemen to pray Mounsieur de Blanfort to come to morrow to dine with you and your Cousin to come with him when he rises entreat him to assist at our nuptials after dinner if he is astonished at this inopinate novelty you may tell him that you never could obtain this favor of me before this time but seeing it is now my humor you will not give me the leasure to repent and because it is already late go retire your self that you may rise betime in the morning Clerio following her counsel gave the Goodnight to his Mistress and received from her a thousand new loves in exchange of the which he entertained her all that night hindering her from sleeping the day being come he went to find Mounsieur de Blanfort who booted himself to go see his Hawk fly two or three hours where being come the Duke made him good entertainment and after some speeches of meriment said to him Sir Clerio I pray you be of the party if you are not nigh your nuptials Madam my Niece yesternight sent to me to pray me to dine with her I pray you kiss her hands on my part and tell her that I shall be there at my return and seeing it is for your honor my son shall be there also and if you will because you are not of this Country I wil bring thither some Lords my friends Clerio said to him Sir you very much oblige me I cannot refuse the honor of these fair offers After some other speeches he took his leave and the Duke of Blanfort mounted a horseback Clerio went soon to find his Mistress who was a bed where he went to render her his common service this fair Princess had as yet her hair carelesly dispersed where love that night took his release as a Bow far bent might go with more impetuosity and violence to wound the fairest Souls with some as a But to so gallant an Archer whom he putteth from one to another with his mortal jaculations whereby he arrested the eyes of those who saw him under the form of a fair vizage or would harken unto him under the charming dulcitude of a fair reputation This colour these eyes these smilings these hands these graces this neck this throat were a Scylla and Charybdis where the gallant'st hearts after their naufrage were amorously caught In the mean time these two Lovers entertained themselves Vincia sent to search for the Violins to pray the Ladies to put them in tune then she went to see whether the fair Lozia was yet drest which this day put on her richest Vestments as she who had the most interest in the feast she had not curled her hair and powdered her locks before Mounsieur de Blanfort arrived and with him the Prince of Doudonne and some other Lords that he had entreated to come with him who being hungry by reason of the venation went into the Kitchin which was so good that he stayed there so long till Lozia was habilled to the end they might put the Partridges in a dish of which they had only seen the feathers in the air Clerio descended also to entertain the company attending this fair Princess who festinated rather to see her servant then those I have so many times said that she was as agreeably fair as you might imagine that the Artifice which is the husband of this fair woman that is Nature had made her attain the perfection of Pulchritude They passed all this day in feasting dancing musicks a thousand different sorts of pleasure and consummated the nuptials of Clerio and Vincia who was very well accountred falt young and of good grace who had had the quality of Lady of Honor which was given ordinarily but to ancient women rather for merit then age The night being come all retired themselves being
dispute with you who have already desprived me insensibly of the use of my Reason and with a dolorous sigh and a doleful voyce which were evident symptomes of an afflicted spirit she breathed out this subsequent discourse O delightfull liberty which hitherto I have stedfastly preserved from inthraldome to so many puissant Princes who have used their utmost power to captivate it to their love and merits A liberty no more a liberty but a shamfull slave unto a thousand foolish passions to thee I profess I am exceedingly obliged for keeping me so long a commander over the most noble Spirits of this age whom I have tirannically wounded And thou ô divine Reason now I come to take my farewell of thee permit me to give thee thy last embraces and that having been so familiarly conjoyned I should now shed some tears of sorrow for so long and irksome a separation Farewell But Reason interrupted her farther Soliloquies saying Fair Princess what is it that thus you perplex your self about intend you to ruinate that honour and renown which hath so long a time run in the veines of your predecessors consider that if you wholly devote your self being yet but a child to the government of your unbridled passions you will become one of the meanest shrubs that hath grown in so great a garden you will take the crown of glory off your head and lay it in the dust and then no doubt if it be quickly buried by the tomb-stone of reproach you will spoyle the glorious garland of your honour by giving the choysest flower away to so mean a person and darken your glorious Sun by conjunction with so small a star what if the wound in your reputation should not be utterly incureable yet at least your credit wil be accounted little in the worlds valuation by reason of the remainder of the scar Cannot you who are a peerless Princess both in goods and goodness elect some mighty Monarch and in stead of a base degeneration by your foolish love into a lower stock ascend by a lawful and honorable marriage into a more noble family Shall not you have more contentment in the being a mother unto a Noble Prince who will carry upon his front the lively image both of your mighty husband and your self which will give cause of hope and expectation to your servants who will be much loved of his friends and more feared of his Foes then to be matched unto a low not to say vile person who will be equally slighted by your friends and scorned by your enemies The charm must needs be very great which hath thrown all your senses into such a swoon that they are insensible of their pains and foresee not their inevitable perdition 't is neither the slight account that you make of me nor the fear of my unhappiness which doth provoke me to such complaints but rather a charitable sympathizing with you in your unavoideable misery for whilst I see you such an exile from your self tormented with such stinging griefs I can do no less but do this my last Office as the safest remedie to recall your Spirit from out of that mortall dream of deceitfull conceits upon which you ruminate and raife you from the thoughts of foolish fancies to settle your affections upon more honourable objects Lozia knew her fault but knew not where to finde a remedie to amend it full both with love and with grief she vented out these sayings My loving friend these worthy and weightie councels would be sufficient to turn me from fome light and little love but not from so passionate affection which hath already gained so absolute a conquest over me that I account all imployments whatsoever as unprofitable except those which give me occasions and oppertunities to meditate upon so defireable a subject Thou proposest nothing to me but vanitie glorie ambition and oftentation which are lent out but for use and taken away in an instant leaving nothing behind but a sting of sorrow because they cannot be regained This life is so short yet so fil'd with thorns that they are miserable indeed who to fill their chests with gold and their persons with praise empty their eyes of rest and their spirits of sweet contentment fill their heads with stinging cares to get and their hearts with fears to lose what may be obtained It is a great default in fathers duty to seek for such marriages for their children where there is a great stock of money but none of love wedding them rather to the portion then the person and not give them liberty to chose where they like and settle their loves upon worthy though not wealthy persons satisfaction riseth not out of superfluitie neither discontent from want I can be well contented with an empty purse together with the full enjoyment of my beloved Clerio and had rather be a servant unto him then the Queen of the most flourishing Kingdome in the world rather had I be a subject to him then have the world subject unto me What are Dukedomes and such things to me which can neither satiate my desires nor content my spirit my Clerio his deserts will be a sufficient dowry to which I will add some chains of precious Margarites and peeces of pure gold which will maintain my love and I in any part of the world in which we will live as Princes though not Princes over it It is an act of a weak judgment not to content it self with less then the surplusage of what it hath which should be willingly spared in the time of adversitie but used at pleasure for contentations only in the calm of prosperity Had not I better voluntarily deprive my self of the possession of a Principality more absolutely to command the Virtues of Clerio then keeping the possession of mine estate should by a bloody War be shamefully driven out of all as Craesus was by Cyrus This poor Princess was so enamored with Clerio that doubting of her succesfull issue she resolved rather to lose her estate then her servant more would she have said to Vincia had not one come to call her to Supper The Princess hearing the voyce of her Lady of Honour framed her countenance as well as she could to its wonted colour lest she should perceive it change supposing that Clerio was in love with Vintia which might be a remora to her prosperous proceedings But she did it not so cunningly but Vincia read in her face what grieved her heart as dissembling goes not long undiscovered before a discerning eye and frequent familiarity advantaged likewise her knowledg of the change of her Soul by that alteration that appeared in her face Vincia very joyful that her affairs did go forward without any impediment did not as yet make any shew of her design to her Mistress for fear of displeasing her but seeing her disquietness was likely to continue not being as a Land-flood for the present swelling over the banks but a constant spring which
in honor of their love that it is hard to say whether there were more pleasure to the ears in the hearing of their voyce or to the eyes in the beholding of so compleat and perfect beauty that they were adorned with Vincia I should never have been weary of these delicious delights if the Hermit had not taken me away to shew me a fair River covered with Swans and the sides adorned with rows of precious Stones which served for Walks to these two Lovers and for a subject to help them to discourse of their passionate distempers Delighting my self with the pleasure which I could not but have in so delightful a place I saw before me a Peacock who went from us as fast as we advanced towards him and made a famous shew with his fair Feathers which did resemble so many Suns I never saw so beautious an one in all my life and just then you awakened me Vincia I desire you to declare to me your opinion concerning this Dream Madam I am not quicksighted enough to see the bottom of this Dream nor a capable Interpreter of so obscure a Riddle which promiseth you according to my apprehension a world of contentment and good Fortune But there is in this Town a most eminent Magician to whom if you please to do this honour as to send to know he will be very glad to tell you his utmost knowledg Vincia judged according to her capacity that this was a true Hierogliphick of the love of Lozia which should succeed to the advantage of her Cousin and therefore to give more weight and credit to the Interpretation had rather another should unfold it who was altogether unconcerned in the business and less related to Clerio then she was whose affinity and affection might have been weighty causes of the questioning of the truth of her words With this honest excuse she satisfied Lozia whose curiosity yet unsatisfied sent to fetch him As soon as he had spoken with the Page and desired him to stay a little for him he went into his chamber and falls to his Invocation Spells Charms and all other sorts of Tricks that he might be instructed of his Devils of what Lozia would ask him unwilling to present himself before so great a Princess like an Ignoramus without ability to resolve her demands or else to terrifie her with the appearance of his Circles Spirits c. With this wise foresight he went to Lozia who did with Vincia stay for him in a Closet As soon as he came they shut the door and Lozia declared her Dream to him with desires to be resolved of the truth of it as near as he could telling him she sent for him not to flatter her but befriend her with the true declaration of the consequents of her Dream and though she was never so great yet she was as subject to the sinister accidents as gracious aspects of Fortune and that if Nature and Heaven had in her minority made her partaker of the goods and glory of the world and set her upon the pinacle of preferment yet was it likewise powerful and puissant enough to throw her down into the ditch of disgrace and make her as wretched as she hath been happy The Magician seeing the liberty he had allowed him said Madam The commandment by which you do oblige me to speak freely doth so well agree with my desires and my profession that I am very glad to see my self out of the fears I had you would not delight therein my words shall not constrain you to any thing in the world but leave you to your free consent and only explicate and unfold the words and meaning of your Dream The Heaven which suiteth with your inclination to lead you insensibly to your destiny may as the author of the cause change also the effect and event of your fortune which I judg to be very uneven now elevated then dejected This Forrest and Gave presage to you a pleasurable and solitary life This Hermit foresheweth one which will serve you as a Guide and great Agitator in your affairs The Dogs and Hunters which chase this Hart is your good which your kinsfolk and enemies will pursue to the end The chirping Birds the Characters the Songs and the Nymphs are but so many sweet delights and contentments which you shall enjoy Those pleasant Walks for the Lovers alone who almost only live free from glory ambition and jealousie among the flowers and the full enjoyment not of goods but sweet contentment and an hundred amorous ravishments which this green place doth promise accommodating it self not only to the eyes but to the delights of the very Souls of the Lovers each moment new occasions will occasion fresh joy and delights This Peacock is the person you affect who although he be a Gentleman yet notwithstanding shall be as far from your Greatness as the feet of the Peacock disagree with his feathers but those fair Suns that he seemed to carry are his excellent endowments merits and perfections which shall inflame your soul with an amorous heat that prefering him before a thousand others you shall become after your clandestine love so famous by his courage that you shall judg your self happy in his marriage But this River covered with Swans denoteth a change of Fortune which shall carry you a great way and as the Swans dye when the sweetness of their singing is most delectable so after an infinite number of happy days you will dye with that in your arms which you love most in the world when you shall be best contented and swimming in the midst of the River of peace prosperity and delights Although Lozta was but young yet she was Mistress in the art of dissimulation making as if she regarded not these so desirable news fearing lest the Magician should discover any thing of her intentions which might be an impediment to her love which were represented to the life by the unfolding of this Dream the true Prophecy of her Destiny and with a countenance as pale as her heart was hot with the flames of love she said Mounsier I cannot without wronging both mine own judgment and your deserts doubt of your sufficiency which all the world admireth not as a man but rather as the Oracle of this Age yet cannot I believe that love can make me so far forget my duty as to love a Gentleman seeing I cannot sufficiently esteem such who equalling my birth and means honour me so far as to love me But I doubt not but my cruel Fortune may take some other way to ruine me then by running away with such a person and so this way your Prophetick words will agree with my adverse condition But though it should be so yet I pray you say nothing thereof because the people reposing such confidence in your words will hold them for true divinations of my future misfortune and further the publique fame thereof will be as disadvantageous as displeasing to to me
him to accept his service with so much assurance of affection that he esteemed himself the most happy Gentleman in the world Vincia had not spoke three or four words before she was interrupted by Lozia who was rose from the sport to go to bed who also thereby put a period to all the delights of that night Clerio like an officious Cousin and affectionate servant led Vincia by the hand to Lozia's chamber to whom he gave the Bon soir of the day that he had received from her fair eyes in the midst of his obscure darkness and so contented he withdrew with a living hope and she contented stayd in the midst of a thousand desperate passions The Souls of these amorous Lovers floated all this night among an hundred different irresolutions which hope and despair did equally agitate going from the Port to shipwrack from dangers into assurance from assurance into an amorous confusion which those only that have been in the like labyrinth can either comprehend or complain of Knights for whom alone Love seems to have been lawfully instituted which others make use of rather by borrowing and a destinated necessity then any voluntary consent of Nature which with an ambitious jealousie of it self aspireth always towards perfection Knights say I the eldest sons of Honor who by your honour and gallantry draw delight from the sweet frequentation of Ladies from whom you learn what you are with a thousand delicious dalliances which are far from popular conversations who bear from your birth the defence of Ladies graven upon the ends of your swords with the hands of honour and vertue make proof of your merits with a just acknowledgment of the obligations which you owe to this Sex Now when you see a numberless number of indiscreet people blame this beautiful and noble Princess which love not delight hath so far engaged who knowing that her kindreds obstinacy was incompatible with her innocent affections forgetteth her foolish ambitions to marry her love with her contentment and Clerio with Lozia not in a lascivious but in a loving and legitimate Wedlock Brave Lovers whilest I have discoursed with these Knights the night is past away but I come with the Sun to you to know after I have given you a good morn what you will do all the day This fair Princess was no sooner awaked but a Gentleman from the Duke of Blanfort came to her to desire her to lend him her Musick that he would have played of after the Dance to a very fair Lady with whom he was to baptize one of his friends sons that if she pleased to take the pains to go thither the Duke of Blanfort would accompany her Lozia seeing that this was an opportune occasion to entertain her servant at leasure said to him Sir I entreat you to tell mine Uncle that I humbly kiss his hands and that I sat up so long yesterday that I have been ill all night and shall keep my bed to day but my Musick and all I have is at his service if he command it As soon as the Gentleman was gone she said to Vincia Have not I done well Very well Mistress quoth she Then said Lozia smilingly I must see my servant after dinner I pray you make me very spruce and attire me as neatly as it is possible for I shall never see any one whom I so much honour or to whom I desire to make my self so acceptable as to him I will Mistress answered Vincia And presently gave her her morning Gown that she might go attire her head by the fire side Her Coif very handsom with flexures in it for her hair to pass out most compleatly curled full of powder and hair-jewels she had two Pendants on her ears worth fifteen thousand Crowns a Chain of Pearls three times about her neck worth as much Vincia gave her a Cassock of white Sattin lined with a mallow colour with precious Stones sewed therein the Buttons of which were fair Beazils upon the Sleeves she put two admirable Chains of Gold on the side a Box of Ammel covered with Jewels wherein was her Pourtraiture of an invaluable worth up and down the Chambers they set Candles and such things on fire fill'd with Musk and Ambar to perfume the room Her Bed was so richly hung as likewise was her Chamber that one would have thought Love should have entered in there or else that Love in love with the fair Lozia did make his continual abode among those sweet delights Clerio who likewise desirest to render thy self acceptable to thy Mistress provide for thy ornament her exquisite delineaments her beauty her graces her fair eyes to defend thy liberty rather then splendid habits to ravish her of hers which she hath amorously sacrificed to thy merits and gallantry after her heart had insensibly deprived thee of thine thine of hers Idle Migniards you are so long attiring your selves that dinner hath waited for you till it is as cold as you are hot and full of fire Go take your refection of those delicates prepared for you as needful for the nourishment of your bodies as that of love to your divinely inflamed Souls Lozia went to dinner presently but none was suffered to come in but Vincia and Charlotta to serve her that the belief of her disease might exempt her from importunity and give her opportunity to entertain Clerio who came in presently after she had dined and after he had saluted her he spake thus Fair Princess my passion is so violent that rendering to me the sight of the fairest Ladies in the world as foul the more ardently to honour yours I fear that mine in fine may be as displeasant to you as that of yours is now impatiently desired of mine impatient desires But methinks in disanimating my self of my Soul through mine eyes you enliven me again with the sweet flames of yours which cause me to feel as many amorous burnings in mine heart as there are beauties and graces in your face most fair accompanied with a thousand and a thousand dolorous or amorous sighs After I had diligently sought for my liberty and my heart in an hundred places I came at last to find it guided by my love in the middle of your graces and beauties and if you are not content with so honorable Trophies I must look if I have not yet something free from that conquest which you have made in my Soul that I may conjure it by your holy name to yield homage and adoration to you that having nothing but love in me I may more honorably and humbly serve you Clerio answered Lozia you are too noble and gallant to enter into such distrust of your self and I too much affected with your love and merits to keep you very long in the quicksands of doubtings I beseech you to beleeve that although many Princes do me this favour as to affect me yet that I honour your love so much more as it is more desirable then all
theirs Clerio live in the belief of this that as you are the first so the most faithfully loved by Lozia in all the world Fortune yesterday gave you this ring on your finger and Lozia gives you to day her heart and her pourtraiture which is in this Box as an earnest of her true affection wear it for my sake I desire you And giving it him gave him likewise a kiss which did so amorously conjoyn their lips and loves that from thence their souls and hearts were knit in an insolvable knot This is not all quoth Vincia Mistress to give such happy beginnings to so firm amity if withall you do seek out some ways to continue it you know that all the rest in the house depend upon your Uncle and I only solely upon you who will rather dye then expend my life upon any other service and so necessary is our diligence in the pursuing of our affairs for to preserve my life and safety with my Cousins that our neglect to regard them will ruine us I know if you will both be advised by me how to actuate this present business as to finish it to our contentment Those which are passionate if they are prudent must be governed by the directions and dictates of those which are exempted from it Clerio you must as I have formerly hinted to you continue your simulation of loving me I am neither so old nor ill-favour'd yet that none will credit it that every time you are discoursing with my Mistress they may think it is to employ her in our loves You must first collogue with the Duke of Blanfort and the Prince of Doudonne because it is needful that they should be first gulled who are most interested in the business And my Mistress you must not make any shew of sorrow and if you cannot altogether impede its entrance into your heart yet let wisdom so curb your natural inclination that you discover it not unto your familiars which that you may the better perform from henceforth make as if you loved reading which will be an excuse for that little alteration any one shall perceive and still have a little book in your pocket which take out and read when you cannot rid your self of those troublesom thoughts which break in upon you and for my part leave me to act that without the advantage of instructions Lozia and Clerio concluded of this as their securest course and intended to pursue it and so received reciprocal assurances of each others affections with abundance of joy and contentment That as those Lands which are nearest to the Sun have their fruits soonest ripe and ready to gather so these two faithful Lovers equally passionate did in the midst of their ardent flames approach so near to love that by the vertue of its vicinity like the Orange trees they put forth in few days the leaves flowers and fruit Hence-forward did this superstitious Lover so dote upon his Mistress that he kissed her hands now a thousand times which before he durst scarce look on Consider noble Knights that Ladies sometimes cause you to pass beyond the narrow limits of your first condition honorably to enlarge them Knights I beseech you once again as a testimony of your birth and breeding to respect Ladies and think not you have less honour for the honorable performance of this duty then you should have if it were freely tendered by the greatest of the world They are capable of making you more glorious and renowned then all your own perfections and deservings There is nothing in the world so perswasive as them who with their words and actions do inchant our wills and deprive our senses of their proper function and with their eyes give life and motion to our spirits and desires We are the true Chameleons of their humors who receive in our hearts all the various and vive impressions of so fair and divine objects These are those glorious Suns whose splendid light our eyes cannot any more remove then can our hearts the heat thereof which they receive according to the disposition of our minds and not the strength of these divine and amorous beams If there is any spirit so agitated that it never could see the dawning of a glorious day nor a sparkle of light as a pledg of future Sun-shine such must rather weep for and complain of then any ways desire and expect a favorable aspect from these frowning malign Planets Briefly he who knoweth not this gallantry is accounted more fit for a Clown then a Courtier and a simple Sot rather then a Noble man Thus far are we indebted to them they give grace to our actions eloquence to our words a day to the obscure shadows of our spirits a Soul to the hearts and spirits of those which have none Fair Ladies little but little indeed gods upon Earth who are the absolutest Commanders of men tyrannize not over Nobility who alone knoweth and esteemeth your merits Live so discreetly with them that none may ever go discontented from your company It is no graceful thing to make your selves pensive on purpose to excuse that sottish humor wherewith you are troubled in the company of those whose society you do not affect All those whom you see are neither your Husbands nor your Cousins that you should impatiently bear their imperfections Cannot you courteously entertain a Gentleman which will be gone within an hour without a discovery of rancor or malice or at least contempt Do not make signs to your consorts nor brabble and tattle with them without sufficient reason whilest any Gentleman is in discourse with you which will make him think you do deride him rather if he be a Sot then if a sweet-behavior'd and ingenuous Gentleman for foolish persons will expound all texts to their own disadvantage and thence proceed stinging words and netling speeches which well-bred women should avoyd as a dangerous Precipice which always bringeth fears or hurts Frequentation with foolish company is a contagious air that will infect the most perfect reputation and taint the most unstained honour this gives the first motion of life to the calumnies and opprobrious speeches which active men fruitful mothers and well-fed nurses do bring forth and hatch up Thus fair Ladies to invite these unhappy accidents I set your souls and hearts at liberty from inthraldom to any but honor all and above all the Nobility who draw their swords in your service who is of the same quality as you your Sex only making the difference and those whose spirit and parts you do sometime misprise do often enter into your service advantaged by their means only If fire hath neither the quality nor the name of fire so long as it is contained in the stone which conceives it your vertue likewise is not truly vertue because of the secret possession thereof but because of the publique cognizance that there is had of it Men have not the nature of gods they know not the cause
but by the effects in view Flatter not your selves your honour is not your own if it is not in the mouths and hearts of those that frequent you It is an excellent Pourtraiture hung up for future memory and painted with the immortal hands of Vertue in discretion like to that of the most affectionate of your servants which you amorously carry in a Box as a Trophy of your beauty and a pleasant object for your eyes But this divine Painter is so jealous of this most exquisite piece of Manufacture that he puts out theirs who go about never so little to dispraise it Therefore Ladies I desire you to be others when you are in company and ever your own when you are alone Adieu my Ladies for I hear Lozia calls me and reprehendeth me as well as you for staying so long to write the faults and defects of the most part of women I have stole this time from her to give it you and shall not be sorry for it willingly taking all the reproach to my self that all the profit of the robbery may be yours Fair Princess I went into the other chamber to discourse with the Knights and Ladies which durst not come in to you for fear of displeasing you they have imbarked me so far in talking that the night hath come before the end of our discourse began therefore I intreat you to excuse me if their pleasurable society hath stayed me longer then I intended and ought to have been there I did imagine that the sight of Clerio was so contentful to you that you were indifferent as to other objects But fair goddess recite a little of the joys and sweet transportations and ravishing extasies that your spirits have received after the asswagement of the tempestuous Sea wherein you have been tossed When I think that at the appearance of Clerio Lord Paramount of thy graces and beauties thy eyes have poured out as many tears for joy as they had formerly done for trouble and despair methinks I see the inhabitants of a City take up their arms as well to honour the arrival of their Prince as to frustrate the assaults of their adversaries Lozia dry up this pearly dew with a sparkling beam from thy beauteous eyes re-assume thy former serene vizage which was enamel'd with so many beauties and graces make calm the passions of thy Soul which were raised by the wind of the afflictions and sorrows of thy Clerio Wilt thou be willing it should be objected to him that he prepareth in lieu of delights and contentments dolours sorrows sighs and tears for that person whom he honours and esteems more then any person in the world Let this be enough that he alone mingleth his life with his love make for him with thy delicate hands a Crown as the chiefest of the most faithful and perfect Lovers that ever was Whilest she was in these sad tears and sorrowful sighs yet sweet imaginations Vincia came to tell her of the arrival of the Prince of Doudonne This unwelcom news did cause as great an alteration in her heart as in her face This antipathy of fire and ice did couple so perfectly well her beauties and graces her Lillies and Roses her love and discretion her smiles and her frowns that her Cousin could not discern any alteration in her countenance but she seemed so much more beauteous to him as she was more then usually richly attired which did incite him to a more fervent desire to obtain her This poor Princess in this intestine conflict between hatred and affection contempt and respect overcame triumph a thousand times in a moment enjoying as much satisfaction from the contemplation of the gallantry and ingenuity of Clerio as she did trouble from the unwelcom view of her Cousin who did so vehemently importune her to speak of love that she was forced to make as if she was sick that she might be rid of him Vincia who knew her Mistresses design said presently Mistress you having been sick all day this talking maketh you worse The Prince of Doudonne thinking that was the reason returned home presently My good Vincia how tedious is it to an honest and modest woman to hear a Sot talk of love who will then most wilfully wait on them when they are most shamefully repulsed and neglected by them I had rather a thousand times dye then that my Cousin who is as ignorant and as impudent as others should importune me so long with his irksom loves which are as displeasant to me as himself What likelyhood is there that without grace they should hope to obtain gracious and graceful Ladies without a noble and heroick spirit they should oblige their divine Souls to be obedient unto their desires without beauty and love and those charms allurements and delicacies in their eyes wherewith the Heavens and Nature do graciously endow some they should win the love of those Ladies in whom these and many other invaluable gifts of Nature are in a superlative measure Vincia I intreat thee to make our souls and loves as free as they are fair and divine It is from thee onely that I expect so great a good who art able to go forward with so high and perilous an enterprise Mistress said Vincia seeing you do me the honour as to command it me I will declare what I think most necessary and I hope my counsel will be so profitable that our undertaking shall succeed according to our desires I should like it well if you would tell every body especially your Uncle that you will shortly compleat our marriage that the report of our nuptials may give some repose to your loves until some few days shall be gone and when they think least of it you shall know how much I watch for your service He cannot long continue his constant repair hither but either your own folks or the Duke of Blanfort will be suspicious But in lieu of my nuptials we will solemnize yours in this manner as I will declare to you You have an hundred Villages where you have never been the Priests whereof know you as little as the great Turk one of these days making as if we went to walk for our recreation with a Coach we will take a time so fit for the purpose that it shall be almost night when we come into one of them the Curate of which is as blind as he is old and by that means will not know you and before we come to the place you shall go a foot to the Church door the people presently will assemble to see what is the matter and therefore will I pray you to command your Gentlemen and Damsels to stay without to stop this press of people under colour of divers ill accidents which fall out at marriages by this means and so being all alone the Priest shall espouse you during this time I will be hard by vailed making as if I were Lozia and so for this time you and Clerio must give
THE LOVES AND ADVENTVRES OF CLERIO LOZIA A ROMANCE Written Originally in French and Translated into English By Fra. Kirkman Gent. LONDON Printed by J. M. and are to be sold by William Ley at his shop at Pauls Chain 1652. TO His much honored Friend WIL. BEESTON Esq Worthy Sir DIvers times in my hearing to the admiration of the whol Company you have most judiciously discoursed of Poësie which is the cause J presume to chuse you for my Patron and Protector who are the happiest interpretor and judg of our English Stage-Playes this Nation ever produced which the Poets and Actors of these times cannot without ingratitude deny for J have heard the chief and most ingenious of them acknowledg their Fames Profits essentially sprung from your instructions judgment and fancy J am vers'd in Forraign tongues and subscribe to your opinion that no Nation ever could glory in such Playes as the most learned and incomperable Johnson the copious Shakespear or the ingenuous Fletcher compos'd but J beleeve the French for amorous language admirable invention high atchievements honorable Loves inimitable constancy are not to be equalled and that no Nation yeilds better Arguments for Romance Playes the onely Poëms now desired then the French Therefore and for you have I translated the Adventures and Loves of Clerio and Lozia and I doubt not though they fail to receive incouragement from you your son Mr George Beeston whom knowing men conclude a hopeful inheritor of his Fathers rare ingenuity may receive them with a gracious allowance And sir though the work be not entirely happy in your construction for my years are not arrived to knowledg to add where the Author wants matter or to lessen where he abounds yet you will find much newness in the Story worthy an excellent Poët to insoul it for the Stage where it wil receive ful perfection equal to the ambition of The constant admirer of your Excellent Parts Fra. Kirkman jun. THE Loves and Adventures OF CLERIO and LOZIA THe Fortune of Man is an obscure riddle which Time only the most Orthodox Interpretor of the Heavens of the Gods and Nature can truely explicate My Ladies The Fortune of the Famous Clerio and the fair Lozia whose lives and loves are both delineated in this insuing History I present to you with this perswasion That as a pleasant Land-skip it will yeild some small contentment to your mindes and recreation unto your Spirits In the Description of whose variable conditions I will first begin with Clerio whom with my pen I will portrait before your eyes as our chiefest and choisest Judges This young Gentleman from his youth being indued with courage and induced by curiositie went abroad into Forraign parts to see the customs of those places to add by industry some higher degree of perfection to that which Nature amorous of him had so freely bestowed upon him After he had seen Germany and the Eastern Countries he stayed three whole years in Italy where he was accounted so perfect and exact in all sorts of exercises becoming a Gentleman that it was impossible to finde any man more perfectly accomplished then himself This Merchant for honour having made a successfull adventure returned home to the Court full fraught both with glory and renown which durst I say so was empty during his absence of the greatest part of its splendor who was not like a star of the first Magnitude shining brightly in the firmament thereof but as a glorious Sun whose presence brought a day and whose absence a night upon the Horizon of the Court which did not only inlighten it but sliding from the eyes it crept into the hearts of the fairest Ladies the Court afforded who at the first sight of so lovely a wonder were wonderfully enamored of him Clerio not setling the circumference of his desires in the center of any of their hearts which were so desirous of his but as a triumphant Conqueror carried al theirs captives into Spain leaving them behind to bemoan their misery in so happy yet unhappy affections where also he murthered a Million of innocent lovers by an over-rigid disdain of their beauties but they were soon avenged on him for this rigorous dealing for not long after he became exceedingly in love with the Princess Lozia who was young rich and very beautiful equally adorned with pulchritude in her face and perfection of parts in her mind And although Clerio was a gentleman but worth fifteen thousand Francs of revenue yet did he undertake to serve so noble a Princess who since the decease of her Father and Mother was under the Gardianship of the Duke of Blanfort her Uncle who intended to match her to the Duke of Doudonne his Son and for fear any other should espouse her he watched her so narrowly above the common custome of the Country both with Argo's and with Lynk's eyes and kept her within so straitned limits that if Clerio could by chance see her yet could by no means come to speak to her Fill'd with love and despair he did so diligently inquire and carefully pursue his desired wishes that at last he came to know her Lady of honour which was named Vincia and was a French Gentlewoman the death of whose husband did so exceedingly afflict her that she was constrained to banish her self by a voluntary exile into Spain Clerio being very joyfull of this news procured the sight of her whom at the first view he knew not although she was his neer Kinswoman because he had not lately seen her and which was the strangest she was acoutred after the Spanish fashion but in fine after a thousand hearty congratulations and welcome imbracements they promised to owe each the other so much service and affection that under this pretext Clerio visited Vincia every day not so much because his respects unto his Cousin did oblige him thereto as he was drawn thither by the attractive loadstone of lovely Lozia The Moon had six severall times received its borrowed light before Clerio durst discover unto his Cousin that affection which he bore to her Mistress but at last not being able to resist those fervent flames that the eyes those two glorious Suns of that famous Princess had kindled in his heart meeting one day with Vincia in the Garden thus aboarded her Vincia do not you know seeing my countenance altered and my face so wan that there is also a change in my heart which appeareth thus upon my brows and that if you were very quick sighted and had but a window to open into my heart you would see the Characters of love so deeply ingraven thereon that the very perusall of them would sufficiently acquaint you with my dolefull condition Vincia being overtaken with sorrow and impatience interrupted his discourse saying Clerio I never had so sensible an apprehension of any afflictions as of that which your dolorous speeches have caused in my heart alas whence hath so sudden a change as since yesterday happened
to you I intreat you to case my drooping Spirit of that weight of sorrow which your silence hath laid upon it by the continuation of your discourse and conceal not any thing from so sure a friend as I am whose love will make any enterprise be it never so difficult or dangerous both facile and delightfull to gratifie so noble a Spirit as yours My dear Cousin I do not esteem any thing so much of all that I have brought with me into this Country but it shall be subordinate to pleasure or to profit your good grace there is none of all my kindred whom I affect or honour more then your self believe that if the loss of all my means with my life it self might but redeem the least part of your lost delights I shal esteem my self to live in dying if my death can procure that contentment to you which hath been denyed to my miserable life Oh Vincia said Clerio six moneths at least are passed since I was first amorous of the most pure and perfect beauty that ever the sun beheld and do you account of this but as a day My Cosin pardon me I beseech you for I did suppose some sudden accident had hapned to you since I saw your honour for you have ever covered your amorous dolour under colour of a certain disease wherewith you were tormented this you know but pray honour me so far as to tell me what Lady you bear so great affection to 'T is with Lozia my dear Cousin which name is forced by mine extream passion to bee pronounced with my mouth as her glorious beauty hath stamped it with an indelible character upon my heart Lozia my Cousin I should rather have beleeved the most impossible things in the world to be feasible then this to be true shame and death could not have given you so insensible a sense of your mishap as in the love of so fair an object know you not that the beauty of Princesses are as the beams of the Sun which we must look on in an oblique line with admiration not in a direct line with desire of possession for when we are drawing nearer to so dazeling a light and farther from our own we must stiffe those venomous desires in the first motions of their conceptions for fear they prove Vipers to our souls and in their birth break through the bellies of their mothers and so draw the first begining of their lives from the miserable end of ours I knew well enough replyed he that you would think it strange that I who have the reputation of an understanding man have been so weak as to let so strong a passion get so powerful an head If on the other side you consider not that Nature hath so perfectly accomplished her that she subjugates the reason and the soul of all who see her to serve her I had thought after I had been a year in Spain to return again into mine own Country but her beauty gifts and graces are such strong Anchors that after twenty years they will still hold me fast at her feet notwithstanding all the storms and tempests which discontentments and despairs can stir up in the sea of my Soul I will wait for a quiet calm from the honour of her good grace and the cessation of my sorrows by the interposition of your favorable endeavors Clerio quoth Vincia I am in a strait and know not what to do if I forsake you I foresee your destruction if I assist you I do but mingle my ruine with yours But as the saying is Good blood cannot lye but must in the afflictions of friends needs discover it self so do I already perceive it running to my heart to change those icy fears that are there congealed of any peril into so many flames of love and assurance of success for the obtaining of which I will employ my utmost abilities even to the loss of my life in obedience to your Commandments I know that the beauties of Ladies move indifferently the passions of men and that being stirred up they drown the greatest part of the gallantest persons by their merciless surges Therefore my Cousin should we rather seek to save you from this Shipwrack then to remain in the bemoaning of your misery which in tract of time will bring forth a greater You are not the first which hath been in love with Queens and Princesses There have been an infinite number of them which had neither the half of your spirit nor your merit who in the end by patience and discretion have attained to the heighth of their desires Histories are full of such passages as you know who are not ignorant of any thing which concerneth the perfection of a Gentleman But if it seem good to you I give you this as mine advice That you feign that you are in love with me that you employ every one as you shal see opportunity to perform any friendly office in that behalf and often write letters to me that removing all suspicion you may see your Lady every day under colour of visiting me and I will stamp so good an impression of your merits upon her that with the good opinion which she already hath of your honour I hope it will be an easie matter to make her love you she is yet a child and nothing more easie then to bend her heart to our desires No body understands our language I lie in the chamber with her and sometimes she honours me so much as to let me lie in the bed with her and that you know is the place where Souls have the most free association therefore there will I discourse of your great love toward me and will bestow so many encomiums of praise upon your honour that by force she shall willingly affect you and when I see her never so little inclined towards you I will endeavor to engage her so deeply in the enterprize that she shall be able to do nothing which I shall not first approve of for of necessity she must come to me to be her Counsellor and then what issue your affairs will come to judg you Vincia said Clerio the assurance of your affection is that wherein I place the sureness of my ambitious love which giveth me as much hope and confidence of success as I can have distrust from the thoughts of her greatness and the apprehension of the smallest of my deserts My Cousin quoth Vincia time doth now call me to depart and waite upon my Mistress to Church and she without question will question me concerning what we have discoursed all this while which wil be a very opportune occasion for me to speak to her concerning you but be sure you fail not to come to me on a visit of respect after dinner After Vincia had given her Mistress the good morrow with a pleasant smile she gave her her Fan Lozia being of a courteous disposition doubting this was for some unhappy accident asked her the occasion of
it but the other being at this time to play the cuning woman refused to tell her to make the relation go the better and after an infinite number of excuses and evasions being as it were unable to deny her intreaties or rather disobey her desirous commands said Mistress I cannot but laugh to think of the discourses I and my Cousin have had together this two houres in the Garden concerning the great love he bears to me He offered me his service with the elegantest words that I ever heard but I am sorry either that he is so much in love with me or that I am so neerly akin to him for he is a most gallant gentleman and I beleeve a gentlewoman will be served as worthily thily by him as by any man in the world He is so perfectly accomplished that there is no sort of exercise in which he is not very expert He is a brave Dancer a good Horseman and speaks most learnedly hath been a great traveller is discreet courteous beautiful and as perfect as Nature could possibly make him Would to God that he were but as passionately affected for some other whose parts and graces did in some sort bear proportion to his But wherefore will not you love him quoth Lozia I will procure a license for you from Mr Cardinal mine Uncle to marry him If I could but meet with one of my quality which is like to him I would make more account of him then so You see that they intend to marry me to my cousin which at the best is but a sot therein is the condition of you other gentlewomen more happy then ours seeing you have the choyce of those persons which you like best of But we which are above the ordinary sort of people either become come fools in following our own phantasies and inclinations in our young days or else we must wait till we are old for some party whose means is suitable to ours and if there can be such a one found in ten Kingdoms though not a man but a little better then a beast we must be espoused to him and spend the residue of our days without any pleasure with them Vincia I find him so amiable that I counsel thee to entertain him courteously Whilest Vincia was in discourse with the beautiful Lozia Clerio spoke to himself advantaged by his vain imaginations concerning his love whereby had it not been that he had had some confidence in his Cousin he would have almost kill'd himself with his own fears which were his greatest enemies Now imagining that Lozia would never stoop so low as to love him then doubting his design might be discovered and so both of them endangered arguing thus against himself to his utmost ability he had almost disarmed himself of all his hope and given his love up at least for lost But whilest he was floating upon the waves of these distracted irresolutions the time of the assignation approached wherein he was to visit his Love for which end he dressed himself after the French fashion his Hose fastened with black the Doublet with white Satten cut doubled with fillets of Gold and coller of Amber with a Chain of Musk hanging by a Ribbon five double upon the which was fastened a fair picture his head comely and bestrued with Cyprus powder his Beard and Hair shining like the radiant Phebus the eyes and features of his vizage fair his hand and favour extreamly beauteous he had Gloves perfum'd his Colloshoo's of Velvet his Hat was ombraged with a plume of black Herons Feathers together with an ensign of Diamonds which gave as great a luster to his fair vizage as the Sun in the Meridian a Mantle of Velvet cut upon black and half covered with little bands of Satten compleatly fashioned his Girdle embroidered with Gold his Sword with the gards of Milan Being attired after this fashion the most common and counted the most comely in that time accompanied with two Gentlemen two Pages and four Lacquies very neatly dressed he went towards the Palace of his beautiful Lozia at whose gate he sacrificed a sigh to his Love and his Love unto the eyes of his beautious Mistress incontinently he met within the Hall his Mistresses waiting Gentlewomen with a Viol who intreated him to dance with them and one took his Cloak and the other his Sword These Ladies living rather after the Custom of the French then the Spaniards did oblige him to gratifie them in their requests In the mean while Lozia asked where her Gentlewomen were and one of her Pages told her that they were dancing with Clerio The Princess being provoked with a desire to see him dance and perswaded by the counsels of Vincia ran immediatly to the Hall and looked upon him through an hole that was in the Wall so long till his legs were wearier with leaping then hers with standing or her eyes with beholding so pleasant a prospect At last she returned to her Chamber and began to talk with Vincia concerning the gallantness and gracefulness of her Cousin and bid her go down and intreat him to come up Vincia having given her Cousin the common salutation took him by the hand and led him up the stairs to the Chamber door of the Princess at the which he put his Cloak upon his right shoulder and with his left hand held the hilt of his Sword and took his Hat in his other hand and entered thus into the Chamber with an awful observance of the Princess who rising a little out of her Chair commanded that they should bring one for him and set it by her To whom Clerio with a reverend humility said Fair Princess I esteem it a superabundant honour done to me to stand so near so bright a Sun The Princess seeing him of so curteous and noble demeanor desired him to be pleased to sit down I doubt fair Lady quoth he you do but deride me but seeing you will have it so I cannot so far fail in mine obedience to your Commands as to refuse it Then to make it appear how welcom the sight of him was she detained him a long time with her in such discourse Sir is this the fashion to dress your self as you learned it in the Court of France methinks it is very comely and befits you very well I perceive the liberty that you Gentlemen have to apparel your selves according to your own mind and those which have most ingenuity invent the most handsom and comely habiliments You entertain your Ladies with the most honest liberty and courteous civility that can be desired and nothing you have is not at liberty except sometimes your captivated hearts but yet you are oftentimes so false and unfaithful that you may be always justly suspected rather to flatter then favour to be loved then to love your Mistresses Is it possible that you are so deeply in love with your Cousin as I am told Madam replyed Clerio I do exceedingly honour and affect her but my
merit is so little that it is insufficient to oblige her so much as to render me the like love again Yes quoth she but it is even enough for the most noble spirits that Spain can shew where there are such whom I do highly honor But speak the truth I know well enough that you are not so amorous of Vincia as I have been made beleeve you are Vincia what think you of it I beleeve Mistress as you do he is willing to pass away his time but that he should do it with me is too much honour I am sorry for nothing but that I am too unworthy to be wedded to so worshipful a Gentleman but all the offices of love that I can perform to pleasure him in the pursuit of his desires I shall be ready to adjuvate him with my best assistance because of that good-will he doth profess he owes me Lozia taking the words out of Vincia's mouth said thus Most Noble Clerio although your own merits are able Orators to plead your Nobility to any Lady and discover your excellency to any discerning eye yet if that little I have may be any ways profitable for you in the obtaining either of your Cousin or any other of this Country make account of my utmost endeavors therein in which I conceive the courtesie will be not so much done to you as to her And for my own part I take so much pleasure in your company that I wish you some honorable Match in this place I have my self a French heart although I am a Spanish woman by Nation Vincia knows how much I honour any French man especially such who do resemble you Your countenance is a sure sign to all that see you of those excellent qualities which your spirit is endowed withall Clerio was very glad of such an opportunity whereon he might take hold to praise Lozia to her self and with her true commendations to mingle a little of his earnest and ardent affection Maddam quoth he these expressions of yours filled with honour and courtesie give me an assurance of your excellent ingenuity and courteous dispositions together with an evidence to me of mine unhappiness by mine estrangement from those perfections which you attribute to me rather to stir up in me a longing after them then any hope of the possession of them Nature to whom you are exceedingly obliged hath expressed its most exquisite Art in the making of so fair a face the splendor of whose beauty doth both astonish and affect the hearts of those which are so Eagle eyed as to be able to look upon so bright a Sun And Love it self as if it were in love with you hath bestowed on you the choicest flowers of its Garland to adorn you withall Your perfect beauty your alluring gestures that Rose and Lilly-like colour mingled together to beautifie you Your sweet behavior and your courteous carriage are as so many insensible Spells to charm or sweet singing Sirens to entice the noblest spirits of this Age to an inevitable amorous Shipwrack He had proceeded in his discourse but was forced abruptly to break of being interrupted by the coming in of some Ladies who casting their eyes upon him and seeing him so commendable began all to load him with Encomiums of Praise before Lozia which added Oyl to the flame of her affections which had been before kindled by the sight of so lovely an object During which time Clerio was with his Cousin in a corner of the Chamber who gave him an Antidote of Hope against his despair of success But because distrust is an inseparable Concomitant with true love in a Lovers mind he could not work this perswasion into his heart that he should ever be so happy as to participate of so great a good The poor Princess during the presence of her company sat upon thorns which made her that she could not sit still but must needs rise with one excuse or other that she might look upon her beloved Clerio now and then put a period to their discourse that she might the better think upon the person and the deserts of him the thought of whom so much delighted her In the mean while Love which loves not to lose any time did so inflame their hearts at one time that they were no more two but one Noble Clerio what woulst thou bestow upon the Messenger of so welcom news as sure as thou think'st it uncertain and thy self nearer to the possession of a dreadful Tomb then to have occasion to triumph in thy victory over thy dear Lozia Clerio recall thy spirit out of that sad and dangerous Paroxism of affliction wherewith it is tormented and whilest thy Mistress poureth love-tears upon the fire of thy fervent desires devote thy self unto her love which will make thee so happy by thy love unto her While Vincia was promising her Cousin to speak to her Mistress at night in his behalf one of his Gentlemen came in to advertise him that an Embassador from France was arrived newly and now at his house and although it was not usual for Embassadors to lodg in such houses yet the quality and merits of Clerio made him worthy of so extraordinary a favour He upon this riseth presently and lest he should have been troublesom to the company he would have privately departed But Lozia whose eyes were Gardians for her heart which Clerio had without his knowledg in possession presently acquainted her with his departure Whereupon filled with love yet with wary discretion she rose up and said to him in a courteous manner Noble Sir what is the cause you will so soon forsake our company To whom he related the reason of his departing and then after a complemental farewel did go home to his house which was directly opposite to his Mistresses and welcomed the Embassador with kind entertainment After they had discoursed a little while of serious affairs he took his Lute and set himself down at the window playing most melodiously thereupon Lozia hearing this excellent Harmony went to hear it at the window and desired the Gentlewomen to come and participate of her pleasure whose ears he contented no less by the melody of his Musick then their eyes by the beauty of his countenance These Ladies a little after took their leaves of the Princess who returned them thanks for their kindness and then retired into her Closet to give audiēce to those importunate love-thoughts that pressed so hard upon her heart which new guests spoke after this sort It is our common custom to go visit all those Ladies which have submitted themselves to our Empire that giving our selves into their possession we may get their Souls by way of retaliation into our power My friends quoth Lozia I know not how I can with love refuse you and much less how with safety I can receive you a thousand things prohibit me the first and my passion onely councels me to the second but in vain do I enter the lists of
whose misery will come soon enough without the addition of wings And then putting her hand into her pocket she drew out a purse with two hundred Crowns which she prepared for him and when she had put it into his hands to whom he said the residue of his help was at her service when opportunity should afford him means to effect it and whatsoever happened to Lozia to make her unhappy yet her whole life should be exceeding contentful though Fortune took away the first as his yet Vertue did preserve the other In this instant Vincin heard some one tread in the Gallery which made them all silent to hear who it was Vincia told her it was the Duke of Blanfort and the Prince of Doudonne Lozia run presently to meet them and Vincia conveyed the Magician out another way and came instantly to her Mistress to accompany her The Duke of Blanfort meeting her saluted her who was yet undressed almost at dinner time Mounsier quoth Lozia you will account me very lazy to be yet undressed but the reason is because I have been busied all the morning in looking upon the thing in my Cabinet but if it please you to dine here I will be ready by that time you have walked two or three turns in the Garden I am willing my Niece And after he had took his leave of her he went down Lozia gave him Vincia to discourse with till she was ready and took one of her Gentlewomen to help her attire her self The Prince of Doudonne her Cousin and servant stayed with her who would one while hold the Looking-glass then would give her a Ribbon thinking by such amorous services to render himself more acceptable to Lozia hoping that she in conclusion would affect him not as a loving Cousin but a passionate Mistress But poor Lovers how do I bemoan you who forced either by destiny or inclination do desperately affect your Mistress who do publiquely honour you when in their Souls they disesteem and contemn you as sordid servants they sweetly shew the Roses and Lillies in their hands and and faces though far from their hearts to those that do respect them and secretly give the Thorns to those that serve them that after a thousand griefs and wounds and sorrows they may make your patiences condign with such passions and that your blood may serve for a sacrifice to their parts and graces which conquer the greatest Conquerors and captivate them to their pleasure who have undergone the greatest perils They have eyes full of sweet alluring glances and charms to subjugate the most famous spirits whose hope dependeth not upon your deserts but on their sickle humors This is that in which the condition of Lovers is miserable For he is more happy which meeteth with his Mistresses inclination then he which is filled both with grace and goodness Poor blind people you accept of the discretion not the love that forceth them to tender you this duty You are possessed with a folly next to madness to imagine that this Sex which is the weaker hath more Reason and Judgment then you which ordinarily honour ill-favored and foolish persons and pass by both amiable and honorable Objects Do not you think that they are often troubled with fantastical humors which carry them beyond the bounds of Reason and even the knowledg of the condition and deserts of those who desire to serve them to follow their own fancies in the loving and esteeming those who are unworthy and slighting of those which are deserving If they are indifferent fair and rich a thousand folks as well as you will endeavor to acquire their good grace and this cannot be without a thousand unquiet and vexing thoughts If they are already engaged you may as soon subdue a Kingdom as conquer them and well leave your designs to Courtiers who knowing not where to imploy their time better then in familiar frequentation of Ladies companies which is the last and the best file to polish the noblest spirits may at their leasure and pleasure stretch out these amorous strings to their own contentment and sustain all defeats and denyals with incredible patience I speak to those which serve Ladies as the Prince of Doudonne and many others did the Princess Lozia to gain her love and were all repulsed to augment the honour of a Gentleman who was raised upon their rejections and served himself with their disdain as a Trophy to honour his triumph for his conquest over the beauty and graces of his Mistress who as soon as she was accoutred not according to her custom but her haste with a white Damask Gown lined with Sattin and a Peticoat of Silver Cloth and so went down to her Uncle who was discoursing to Vincia concerning the design he had to wed his daughter to her Mistress and intreated her to assist him therein knowing how prevalent she was with her he promised her money means love affections profit pleasure and what not and would have persued his discourse but that the sweet voyce of his Neice did interrupt him This unparallel'd Princess in beauty and grace did with a smiling face desire the Duke of Blanfort to go to dinner and excused her self for making him stay so long Her Uncle did find her so courteous that he said Nature hath made you so amiable and perfectly beauteous that I find you more gracefully arrayed with your graces and beauties then any other can be with the most rich Stuffs and Orient Pearls of the East I wonder not if your merits and beauty do acquire so many gallant servants and if the knowledg you have thereof maketh you so disdainfully handle them and I protest you have reason for it for I conceive that the most meritorious Prince in Europe cannot deserve your honorable grace unless that doth more voluntarily resign it self then any ways merit it Sir quoth the lovely Lozia you begin dinner with deriding me and spare me no more then strangers I do possess these deserts and beauties rather from your gallant application then from the gift of Nature for which I have more cause to complain then I am beholding to your complement which hath attributed that unto me which Nature hath denyed me I do beleeve my portion rather then my person and my means then my merits do oblige so many to honour me with their love who sometime praising and commending me for the defects in my Soul and my parts which rather provoke me to bewail my misery then foolishly affect their hiperbolical expressions And if I should be so beautiful as they would make me beleeve the apprehension of the loss of that little I have moveth me with as much displeasure as the possession can give me content Seeing the Table covered they altered their discourse and receiving from a Gentleman her servant a Towel offered the end thereof to her Uncle who refused to wash first and therefore both did together and after they had a little disputed about the
honorablest place of the Table he with intreaties and the command he had over her forced her to take it as it did belong to her for Lozia was an hundred times more honorable then he who but a yonger brother his mother was but mean but his greatness proceeded from his fathers side who was a Prince of the Noble Blood of Spain who took his wife for her pulchritude and perfections and though she was a Princess yet not of half so Noble Blood therefore the Duke of Blanfort knew well enough what he denyed to his Niece During dinner Lozia that she might fall in talk of her Clerio began to speak to Vincia of her Suitor who fitted for her humor answered her according to hearts desire which she did on purpose to remove all jealousies and suspicion of the frequent visitations of Clerio The Duke of Blanfort not knowing him was very curious to know who it was Lozia told him he should see him after dinner he will have a care not to fail he requires more courtesies of me then I can bestow upon him in order to his love I wish he would wed her for he is an honest Gentleman but what should I do if I lose Vincia I had rather he were dead And then addressing her self to Vincia asked Do you indeed love him very heartily I do affect him as my Cousin answered Vincia and honour him as a Gentleman of so much merit as you see in him Upon this there came in two Ladies to desire the Princess to come to the nuptials of one of the fairest Virgins in all the Town where there was a Dance and divers young folk to run the Ring The Princess who knew her and was willing to pass away the afternoon in such recreation promised them to go thither as soon as she could after dinner The Ladies went away very well contented as assured of the presence of the Princess All the Lords and Gentlemen of Quality being advertised thereof either prepared themselves to dance or to run at the Ring Vincia a little after the fruit was served rose from the table and making as if she would go into another chamber ran straightway down to the door and beckened to one of Clerio's Gentlemen to come speak with her who came presently to her and then she desired him to tell his Master she would speak with him presently he came down hoping for some wholesom counsel so she took him by the hand saying My Cousin there is a Wedding to to day where they are to run at the Ring and to have a Dance thither is your Mistress to go fail not be sure to be there attired with white and mallow-flower Colours for she liketh them very well you have time enough to do it for she is not yet ready because it will be late before they run I should attire you my self but for fear it should be known but you know well enough how to invest your self with your accoutrements be sure to be secret in the design Adieu My Cousin quoth Clerio I humbly kiss your hands and beleeve not that I shall be any more sick Vincia after she had made him a coursie ran up again and commanded the Chamber-maids to prepare and bring to her Mistress one of the richest Gowns that she might be most neat and glorious and adorned with the most precious Jewels that could be desired that she might as well surpass in glory as beauty the most honorable Lady of the Assembly After Clerio had given to a many Taylors an infinite number of pieces of Stuffs with directions after his own invention for the making of his Sute which was after the Turkish fashion of white Silver Cloth imbossed with precious Stones with Studs of Silver his Buskins silvered to the middle leg his Hat a pure Beaver with a Hatband of great Pearls with his Hair curled full of Cyprus Powder two ear Jewels so fair and great that they were worth six thousand crowns in a word as fine as fingers could make him his horse was a Spanish Gennet white the mane and tail fairly painted with a great plume of Herons Feathers in his forehead his caparison of silver Cloth lined with Sattin and all other accoutrements exceeding rich and graceful his Mask had a Diamond at the mouth worth four thousand Crowns that it was impossible to find his Paragon so gallant and compleat was he in every punctilio Just as he went out of the gate he put himself under a Silver Cloth of State born by six Nymphs every one having their horse caparison'd after the same manner as his with a Page at their sides to hold the horses bridles in their hands In the mean time his Mistress after she was gloriously arrayed went to the Dance to enjoy some contentment by the sight of so many fair Ladies which sight was neglected to behold so gracious a Prince in so graceful attire This Sun of Love and Beauty by taking away from them their vain glory caused them to contemn themselves After they had danced a long time with Venus Viols Mars his warlike Trumpers sounded a different tune which made these Ladies betake themselves to the windows to see those Cavaliers which were attired for to excel in sumptuousness and to assay to get their graces with the Ring After a number of them were passed by behold Clerio came in his pomp with six Trumpeters before him in the same Livery who going from under the Cloth of State appeared to be the King of those Lords and the Lord of the hearts of those beauteous Queens who seeing him so gorgeously accoutred did assist his courses and his loves with the desires of success from love and fortune Then when he came near Lozia who as well as the rest earnestly desired to know him he bowed his Lance to the ground then he lifted it up again and made his horse shew a thousand pretty tricks being as gloriously amorous of his new Harness as was Clerio of his Mistress who gave the ring In his turn he set himself on a career with an incredible desire to bear it away the which gave to the Ladies as much hopes as desires of his good success As soon as ever he had got it their shouting joys clapping of hands did accompany the honour and homage a thousand Trumpets rendered to his glory of thirty which ran there were but two others which ran it in who did expect they also should have some part in the Ring for which end they disputed with him and all three set forward on a second course Clerio doubted he should lose it and resolved to accuse him who should get of somewhat or other as they have but barren brains which cannot pick a quarrel when they intend to fall out but Fortune which fought for him quickly put the question out of Controversie and at the third course he gained the Ring and the honour from his Rivals This happy Victors triumph happened to his hearts contentment
will lose it disuniting the good affection to your blood which obliges all those that have understanding and honour to retain some sweet heat which rather animates their hearts to this lawful devoir then to so unnatural a hatred I have always been hindred to speak to you by the respect which I bore you lest I should anger you and if I had not feared you would have carelesly esteemed of my discretion I would have attended until your own judgment and humor had given you the same desire to oblige me and to bestow on my son the inestimable good of your favor whereby we might serve you through the whole course of our lives and if this is not your own pleasure do not in any wise think that it will be mine but that to the contrary I will employ all that could be to my own particular good to render you more free to the end that the loss of the hope of my fortune and contentment may give you the possession of yours which I hold a thousand times more dear then whatsoever may happen to me in the world Lozia after all these fair speeches smiling answered him Sir my birth and education teach me to honour all those whose merits and quality render them worthy to do this favour to love me If Don Allio came to see me his sight no more then others is not so full of charms that it hath power insensibly to violate my Reason and Soul to any thing that is contrary to my will My condition doth sufficiently enough exempt me from so religious a constraint and my honour keepeth me religiously enough within the free bonds of vertue without your entring into this opinion that the first view causeth love in me The same youth that makes me desire the agreeable conversation of honest people endues me with a mortal hatred of these foolish passions as the honorablest tortures of fairest Souls and when this humor shall come on me I have vanity and glory enough to over-reach the ambition and greatness of my Predecessors But Sir in stead of mine let us commune of the nuptials of Vincia which I shortly intend this will be a means to stay her in my service provided that Clerio will come for otherwise I shall do nothing Vincia is my second self without whose company I cannot live I pray Sir use your utmost endeavor to cause him to live with me not so much to serve me as that I may thereby enjoy the company of Vincia My Niece quoth he you have good reason for you shall hardly find such another I will earnestly entreat him and I am perswaded that for your own sake or mine I shall perswade him to do it but he hath too many servants which he will rather encrease then diminish and this is the worst No no Sir answered Lozia to him if he had as many more I would defray all charges and I shall think it an honor to have such a Gentleman so near me I am more afraid that he will not come then of the charge Vincia saith He is very rich and it very well appears so for he keeps as great a Port as any Lord of this Country At these words Clerio entered whereupon they all laughed that he should come so opportunely After the Duke of Blanfort had embraced Clerio who came to salute him to oblige his Niece prayed him to do him the favour to promise him one boon Clerio feigning his ignorance promised him to perform what ever it should be his pleasure to command him Then said the Duke That which I entreat of you is on the behalf of my Niece to oblige her and my self not to take Vincia from her and because it will be inconvenient for you being married to live apart we pray you and all your train to come live here and my Niece will defray their charges you shall be no more constrained then if you were by your self you and Vincia shall sit at her own table and your Servitors shall be equal unto hers I pray you do this for my sake and if I can for the future do you any service I will do it with as much affection as if it were for my own children Sir answered Clerio to him the greatest honour which I ever hoped for was to be in the service of so great a Princess and commanded thereunto by that Prince who above all others in the world I most honour to receive this favour but I find my self so unprofitable for her service and whatsoever people I have rather serve for charge then profit nevertheless Sir seeing that Madam and you command me I will effect for you all that you request The Duke of Blanfort infinitely satisfied took Clerio by the hand and brought him to sup with him where he entertained him with all the delicates that might be and swore to him an eternal amity After supper he shewed him his stable which was very magnificent and gave him one of his fairest horses to oblige him to his part Clerio after he had submissively gratulated him for the honour which he had afforded him took leave of him and went to visit his Mistress who passed away the time with Vincia at the dispence of the Duke of Blanfort Come come my Knight said Lozia to him now may I call you mine seeing you are given to serve me by my Uncle the Duke of Blanfort Madam said Clerio he is extreamly liberal for he hath so much honoured me as to give me one of his best horses It is very well said she in laughing he gives to take but his liberalities are unprofitable for he shall lose both his present and hope if I do not deceive my self I beleeve Madam said he that he hath given it me rather for a design then induced by his natural inclination not having done so much service as to oblige him thus to gratifie me Doubt not said Lozia for he is fuller of inventions then any mortal creature and for all the good entertainment he seems to make to you Vincia he wisheth your deaths but I hope he shall be as far from his account as I nigh to mine but Vincia what 's thy opinion of it Mistress when it pleaseth you all things are ready and nothing is wanting but your Commandment I leave all to your discretion answered the fair Lozia to her Clerio being instigated by an amorous impatience said to his Cousin Festinate I pray you Vincia to consolate a Lover who dyeth quotidianly a thousand times by the refulgency of those sweet flames which proceed from the fair eyes of her whom I satisfactorily adore it is to imitate the Deities to assist those who pray us the moments in this furious passion are ages to me of dolorous acclamations yet are they as agreeable to me as this fair Princess who animates you My Cousin there are six or seven days fully compleated since I was first molested by these inquietudes for your fair Mistress whose beauty is the
in general very well satisfied to have so well passed their time and leaving these two Lovers in their desired solitude who seeing themselves thus bereft of all society entertained themselves in a joint entertainment Fair eyes which speake in your sweet regards wherefor do you deprive the Readers my pen of its function so many fair Ladies from the agreeable pleasure of your amorous discourses which I cannot recount amorously enough I not having had the honor to be an auricular or ocular testator of their cōmunications you are cause that a world of honest men make uncivil quarrels to my spirit which might not very diliciously be delivered of the divine conceptions of your amorous souls that you have hidden from it under your silence but one thing consolates me which writing not but for your fair ones who have a million of Cavaleers slaves to your beauty you discover in an instant these amorous characters that the learned passion hath often explicated if the sots and the deformed raile against the misprizal that I make of it fair ones remember you defend me or make retreat to your gracious beauties and my spirit which should be of the rose and lillies and my pen of thorns for the conservation of both I cannot accompany my book every where to assist it but I hope this good office from your grace and beauties which sill all the world with respect and honor and which from their amorous beams discipated the insupportable indiscretions as from the nocturnal obscurity which troubled the furtherance of their society These Lovers were not at all troubled to give to their eyes the self same pleasure they had a thousand times received if Vincia had not in a manner seperated them by force and caused this fair Princess to go to bed that she might not be sick on the next day The night was soon passed And Lozia according to the designs of Vincia espoused her Clerio as I have already told you most happily It was somewhat late when they returned which was the cause that these damsels being surprised with so suddain nuphials did rather think of preparations to bed then to supper for Vincia who demeaned her self like a married woman and Clerio did use the like fallacie to deceive these poor Damsels So as the Chamber was made ready Lozia commanded Vincia to go to bed who seemed unwilling and in the end she answered her Madam I will not go to my bed until I have had the honor to see you in yours Lozia who well understood her design soon accorded therunto to the end that the Damsels might no more return into her chamber unless it were one whose name was Charlotta who came out of Fance with Vincia and was well acquainted with their actions Vincia gave the good night to her Mistris and accompained with Damsels went to bed the Damsels after they had seen her in bed did all depart to give place to Clerio who in stead of going to bed to his dear Cousin to whom he was so much engaged kissed her and went to his Spouse who extreamly desired his company These two passionate Lovers ravished with their ravishments being in bed together remained dumb to give audience to their loves in the middle of a thousand sweet kisses which perfectly united their hearts their eys and their mouths Thus these two amorous souls remained captivated in one anothers arms all this night until the morning When as the radient beams of Phoebus golden light provoked them both to arise from their beds Ladies I shall not here relate at large the several pastimes and exercises that were diurnally practised during the continuance of this wedding which lasted for the space of eight days with great magnificence for the honor of Clerio but I shall return to Don Allio who continuing his amorous suit and the Duke of Blantfort perceiving that Lozia regarded him with a pleasing aspect thereupon began to doubt that his purposes would have no good end and therefore he resolved to carry her away violently and marry her to the Prince of Doudonne his son that he might be exempted from those continual alarums which he dreaded Wherefore he came one day in the company of thirty men to visite Lozia but principally to put his horrid design in execution Lozia was astonished to see so many men and did not know what to imagine and the Duke of Blantfort approaching uttered this discousre to her My Neice I have been advertised that Don Allio should espouse you on this day and therefore I shall be much blamed if it shall so happen having the honor to be entrusted with the care of your person If this evil had happened to you I should have died for grief and therefore so soon as ever I was made acquainted herewith I came to you to offer my Castle unto you as a place of safety and if you will honor me so much as to let me have your company therein I will desire no greater office during your abode there then to be your keeper These honest Gentle men have done me the honor to accompany me that you may retire your self in greater State Lozia dissembling her design returned an answer to him in these terms Sir amongst all the Obligations wherin I am bound to you I account of this as the chiefest and because I will make appear unto you that I greatly desire any thing that thou shalt think convenient I will instantly go dress my self to go with you and therefore I would intreat you if so be you shal think it good to take a turn or two in the garden until I am ready which shall be very suddenly The Duke of Blantfort did accordingly and she presently sent for Clerio to whom she said Clerio now is the time wherein there is need for you to shew your courage and affection towards me can you suffer this Villain to snatch me out of your arms Go now if you love to Don Allio and both of you gather together the most of your friends that you can and kill this Cuckold and his followers who will not be sufficiently assured to defend themselves and let it suffice you that you have Lozia and her love for your fortune and guide There were six of her Gentlemen at that time present wherefore she caused them to be called to her to whom she used these speeches Sirs the assurance of your fidelity and the desire I have to do you good is the cause you are Gentlemen of my houshold which place many do importunately desire will you not then dispute my liberty and your fortunes against this Traitor the Duke of Blantfort who is below to carry me away prisoner They all answered yes Go then my friends said she and do what Clerio shall desire you at your return every one that doth well shall have 2000 crowns They all presently departed with this resolution that they would fight couragiously Lozia then called Clerio and said to him my Dear
business that it being ended he might easily tryumph over his enemy Clerio went soon after to see his fair Lozia being accompanied with an honourable Train who kindly welcomed him Whilst he was in this Company he resolved to make his publique wedding And for that cause he sent a Gentleman to the King to intreat him to do him the honour to be present And although he was much angred thereat yet he seemed to be glad and because he would obliege him further he went vvith all his Court Great was the resort thither of Ladies Knights and at the Kings entrance there was a fair Tragedy whose subject I will be tacent of When he was arived Lozia after many humble salutations and respectful embracements said to him Sir Although the valor and merits of Clerio render him worthy not only to espouse me but the greatest Princes in the World nevertheless by reason that he is a stranger and hath not the quality of a Prince which is rather left to us then acquired by us I know that you will think it strange that I have contracted secret matrimony with him and that reported hath gone to have been with Vincia But Sir you know that being under the tyrannical subjection of the Duke of Blantfort and honoured with the honour I had to appertain to you I could not at that time do otherwise I am glad that his fortune and courage have rendred him so great that he deserveth one of my quality and that my election be worthy of my love The King interrupting her said to her Cousin it is better to be Son of fortune then of a Prince and embrasing Clerio he said to him Cousin I will be at your nuptials and beleeve me that I make as of you that I esteem your alliance more then of the greatest Monarch in the World Clerio after he had most humbly thanked him for the honour which he did him said to him Sir Your Majesty obliges me so much to render you service that there shall not be a day in all my life wherein I shall not have the same desire I very well know that I am unworthy of the honour of your alliance and that not I alone but the greatest of this Kingdom therefore I rather hold this good fortune of fortune and your favour rather then of any thing in the World But seeing that the Heavens and you render me worthy of this good I will endeavour to render my self so agreeable and profitable to your Majesty that you shall never have cause to repent you self of doing me this Honour After these speeches the Company assembled and were assistant at the espousals of Clerio and Lozia and Clerio left nothing undon that might conduce to the contentation and pleasure of these fair Ladies Clerio was so pleased with the honour of so agreeable Hostesses these fair Ladies and the King of Spain in these delicious pastimes that the one would not have been wearied with these magnificient expences nor the other with receiving so good entertainment if the Estates had not called the King away to practise an ill office to him who had made them so welcom His departure gave such a trouble to this amorous Assembly that I cannot represent unto you the sighs and sad tears which this harsh and mortal seperation gave to the hearts and eyes of those who possessed the favours of their Mistresses nor the sighs of hope which others had of this good This is a Tragedy of Love which love himself represented whilst that they were a drying up of tears for so sad a departure let us return to Lozia who now dares call Clerio her Husband whom she before called her Knight her Servant and General of her Army This young Cavalier was now exalted to the top of fortune who but lately was but an ordinary Gentleman now he dared to claim one of the richest and fairest Ladies and Princesses in all the World to be his Lady and espoused Wife Soon after this the King prepared his Army for the field and Clerio was no whit idle in the mean time but having made fit preparations for war met the King his enemy in the field many bloody fights and encounters were daily which I shall omit but only thus much I shall inform you of that in one fight our brave victorious Champion not only subdued his enemies but hand to hand encountred the King and led him away prisoner in despight of all his enemies won the field day Clerio having the King at his pleasure and mercy scorned by that means to mak a base peace or to get treasure for his Ransom but shewing his heroick mind and disposition he freely and in safety sent him away into his own Camp But this perfidious trayterous King conceived such hatred against Clerio that he resolved to be revenged not openly but with a Revolt and secret Treason he having secretly given monies into the hands of that perfideous Spanish Nation in such a manner that one day all the places Holds and Forts that Clerio had in his profession revolted and declared against him except that which he had taken from the Duke of Blantfort the Souldiers that were garrisoned there being Gascoigns who rather looked to their honour then wealth Thus poor Clerio was taken with so unlooked for treason that he had no sooner the possession then the knowledg of his ill hap neither had he time to remedy it but only he resolved rather to die in defending himself and his Lady honourably then to yield to the mercy of his merciless enemy Lozia having had the cognisance of this ill hap was amazed at the novelty and astonished with fear not for the loss of her estate and life but for that of Clerio who she was sure was of so undanted a spirit and courage that he would rather die then let his honour die or diminish one jot in yielding himself to his enemy wherefore she made all haste possible to the place where he was she found him in a sharp dispute with his enemies maintaining with the point of his Sword and all conquering and invinsible Arm a breach which his enemies had made in the wall resolving rather to leave his life in the place then suffer any of those perfideous Currs to enter therein But Lozia's coming hindred him of his design for she so far prevailed with him that she drew him although unwillingly from the place and afterwards made such lamentable and pitiful speeches to him that he whose courage was not to be overmastered with the sword of the bravest enemies was now wholly subdued vanquished and conquered by her teares in such manner that for grief he swooned in the place she taking this oppertunity soon conveyed him a Ship-board and having provided her self sufficiently with Jewels and treasure embarqued likewise with Vincia and some others and having a fair wind presently set sail leaving the Town to the mercy of this merciless and cruel enemy The Ship had