all the night These circumstances being lively and properly declared by this Woman caused Melicerte to judge that this unknown was no other than Zelie however as all was to her suspect she had the curiosity to see her The old one therefore led her as soft as possible into the Chamber where she reposed and Melicerte had no sooner set in her feet but was well assured she was her Daughter for she discerned near the Bed Attire which had no similitude to those of Zelie She observed even what Papers were scatter'd upon the Table there to be dryed and in approaching knew that they were recommendations for this Maiden whose name she saw was that of Hipolite She therefore retired without any further enquiry and returned mixing her moans and regrets to those of the disconsolate Tarsis In the interim this tragical accident having bin divulged of all sides a company of Shepherds came to offer themselves to Lencippe because he was one of the most considerable of the Country and a multitude of Shepherds also came to make their Complements to the wise Milicerte and to the vertuous Philiste wife of Telamon who promptly came to render himself to his Mother since she had advertized the accident of her Sister Tarsis whose anxiety rendred the company so much the more insupportable that every one on this accident cast his Eyes up in regard there was not any Person to whom his love was unknown insensibly stole himself from the press went and thrust himself into a small Grove which was hard by there to bemoan himself with more liberty He there sate upon the Grass his back leaning against a Tree his Hat fallen over his Eyes with his Arms across and in this state having burst forth a thousand Sobs he betook him again to perplex his Spirits with a thousand reflections wherein he neither became more knowing nor yet consolate But contrarily the torment and toyl which he gave to his Spirits through so many melancholy thoughts a hundred times reverberated served for no other use than to overwhelm him with dispair Now he doubted that Zelie had not bin conveyed away by force then that she had not caused her self to be carried off and sometimes he fell into conceit that she might be drowned and in that thought he was ready to precipitate himself in the same Waves where he believed her buryed After many confused reasonings and revolvings on all these Imaginations he meditated or contemplated this roll of Papers which he had set upon his knees and opened them to see whether he should not there meet some writing or other of Zelies which might enlighten him in the Design he had resolved upon He therefore unknit the string which bound them together and unfolding them before him the first Paper which fell into his hands contained these lines Of a Charm so sensible and so delicious And of so many Pleasures the Soul finds it self ravished from the first moment that they saw you adorable Zelie That she tastes here below all the Pleasures of Heaven But amongst all the transports of an infinite joy A poyson so subtil and pernicious Even from the bottom of the heart Trickled down from the Eyes That must soon or late cost loss of Life So that by two effects in equal Prodigies You make so many benefits And cause so many Evils That remaining confused in the doubt wherein we are We cannot judg if the Gods in displeasure For our Chastisement gave you amongst Men Or if they had pitty upon Vs Ha Tarsis thereupon cryed this poor Shepherd that this doubt is now explained and 't is this day easy to judge that the Gods cause thee not to see Zelie but to make thee suffer the most exquisit Torments that the most culpable are chastized with After these Words he remain'd a small space of time without speech his Eyes fixed before him however unfastned on any Object and in such a manner that it might be well seen that all his apprehensions were contracted in him and that he was solely taken up with his anguish He returned in conclusion with a profound sigh and took the second Paper which he found under his hands which he did but run over slightly where there were these Words Since thou wilt know why thou seest me pale and wan Melancholy and languishing Learn Telamon that I Love And so much the more because that I am absent But alas it is but too little to tell what or who I Love The Object that I love hath so many attractives That there was never one of the same Nor will they ever see any Her Stature her Visage and her Eyes full of flame Displayeth us a thousand treasures And I know not whether her Soul Can be more fair than her Body A thousand and a thousand Shepherds adore this fair one But they are all fair that adore her thousands do sigh after her Not one can cause her to sigh Nere her alone I have found some favour She hath some kindness for me Or rather 't is too much audacity She hath taken some pitty They would say what suffers she her self in her own heart The Evil or Sorrow with which mine is overtaken And if the Shepherdess love me not I believe that she at least condoles me Demand not therefore why thou seest me languishing Melancholy and grown wan Since thou Shepherd knowest that I love thee And that that which I Love is absent Poor Tarsis continued he for he remembred since he cast his Eyes on those Lines of the occasion whereof they were made what Complaints oughtest thou not now to make if thou so bemoanest thy Self in a time wherein thou wert happy Thou wert absent but it was to see Zelie again very speedily and thou perhaps shalt never see her again In thus speaking he took a third Paper wherein was traced what followeth Tarsis and Zelie My amiable Shepherd it may be I have in effect some wrong to afflict my self so much and that I should comfort my self in all my Evils only to think that you lov'd me Therefore then conceive that this second Voyage of Athens wherewith they menace me is at least a Months absence Certainly when I thereof think I doubt almost whether I am not to much solaced because there are already two days that they discourst me concerning that Voyage and yet am still living If I must yet abandon Zelie in that deplorable condition wherein you see me I must relinquish Life for of that Malady they never escape twice TARSIS Ha Fortune cry'd Tarsis in putting up this Paper in some heat wilt thou present me with no other than these things or who speaks of the beauty of Zelie to repeat the displeasure I have at her loss or by the memory of a light absence makes me contemplate the difference that there is betwixt my present Evil with that which is past and how more unfortunate I am this day than I have bin in all the disgraces I have
own self to fasten himself entirely to his Wife and her Conduct where all their sweet Pleasures and Complaisance converts its self into Acrimony Exasperation and Aggravations and wilful obstinacy Now Tarsis I know very well that they still seem better to be than they usually are and I my self thought it the first and thought it even so as you have bin able to see with enough of appearance In the interim I have bin deceived as others have also and I can say that very many others are and shall be as I. I would not therefore go far reply'd Tarsis to seek you out an example of these happy Marriages whereof I speak I would not that of Telamon whom you see with Philiste and this Marriage Agamée gives me occasion and ground to pretend a semblable Happiness for Zelie is Sister to Philiste they are of the same Blood they have had the very self same Education their inclinations mode manner had a Sympathy yet more than fraternal It is true continued Ergaste that I never have had a desire to be married but when I have seen Telamon and Philiste in their Conduct and menagery of Matters This pleasant Sweetness this respectful Familiarity and this mutual Complaisance which they have one for another hath made me to take them a hundred times for a Model of two happy Persons and I believe if there be any felicity in the World it is in a Marriage such as is theirs Ergaste reply'd Telamon laughing you remember your self no more of that which Agamée hath lately told you that it is not necessary to confide in appearances Think you that Philiste and my self go to shew our ill Humors before you seriously added Celemante I would believe Telamon and Philiste happy if they could be so still in the Marriage State But I am of Agamée's side But yet howsoever not for the same Reasons as he for I believe not that it is so very difficult as he makes it to find wise Women and good Marriages But that which I uphold that even the Pleasures and sweetest Delights of the best Marriages are pains incompatible and disagreeing with Rest and Pleasure I speak not that it must be so that a Man who will live in this State renounceth as he hath said his Friends his Liberty and himself to give himself up wholly and entirely to a Woman although these be the ordinary Reasons for I very well conceive that when one loves a Woman very well one willingly quits all others for her by reason that with her he passeth easily by from all the rest But that which I believe is that this self same Love and this same Amity and Friendship which you call the happiness of Marriages are even themselves the greatest Misery of the World See I pray you two Persons who mutually love one another as Telamon and Philiste One of the two are either of them Sick it must be that both suffer the one through his Malady the other of that of his Companion for love and Amity have that of Evil that they make you Sick enough of the Malady or Disease of those whom you love But if you are sick your self they never make you whole by their Health much worse both the one and the other are they in Health You see them always in he apprehension that one of both falls again or Relapseth The one is he more ruddy than ordinary The other seemeth unto him to be Paler Doth he sleep Or Yawneth or Gapeth he at an unseasonable time or out of time Behold the Inquietude that he is in who perceives it and behold both of them sick of their folly when they are not of another evil Tarsis it were better for him to do as I do To live of himself alone not only exempted from Love but even exempted from all Friendship if it be not that simple Friendship which ordinarily they call good Will which must be had for Decency Comliness Congruity and Correspondency nay even tor civil Society I speak by experience and as Jupiter and Juno had recourse to Tiresias to know which was most pleasant to be a Man or a Woman because he had been both It must also be so that they come to me to know which it is to be best Amorous a Friend or Indifferent for favours to Ergaste and to one of your Fair Ladies of Athens I have been all three one after the other and am return'd from Love and Friendship Agamée Telamon and Ergaste could not refrain from Laughing all the discourse of Celemante and Ergaste replyed thereunto in these terms Were it even so Celemante That thou never hast had neither Love nor Friendship but quite on the contrary all that thou says there made us see that thou never hadst had neither the one nor the other if it were not a false and counterfeit Friendship For seest thou my Friend It is of Vertue as t is of Coyn there is of that which is True there is of that which is False Both the one and the other have a Similitude but there is much difference within for as the true and real Coyn is of Gold or of Silver within and the false is not but of Iron or of some other ill mottle or matter so true Love is no other than joy and pleasure within I say within even the very Inquietudes which thou blamest so much There where in that which is false it s no other than pains and tiresome Lassitudes Weariness Tediousness Vexation Toyl For a man who intermedleth in giving me Lessons upon the subject of Love reply'd Celemante it seems to me thou know'st little what it imports or meaneth since thou callest Love a Vertue that which is but only a passion And that is truly that in which thou deceivest thy self reply'd Ergaste for Love which is but a passion is that very thing which is false and counterfeit but know thou my poor Celemante that there is another Love that is a Vertue which is between a Husband and a Wife and which also may possibly be between a Lover and his Mistress when t is founded upon true merit Now it s even this which not only is full of Tranquillity but which knows how even to change pains and vexatious troubles into rest Without lying or dissembling I find thee admirable reply'd Celemante to be willing to speak of the Tranquillity of Love Thou who art always seen at every moment to be at discord with thy Mistress and to whom thou pretendest Love as others do to make quarrels In very deed thy Love and Friendship are therefore very false and counterfeit since that be it with Arelise be it with me they have always caused thee so much trouble I avow it thee reply'd Ergaste but I have this consolation that it hath not been my fault that they were not true for thou knowest that which Love and Friendship saith it is that there is correspondency between Hearts Now I have not found this
though short beginning to annoy and trouble him he began to compose and utter forth these lines Stances Take thou good heed my Heart to tell me that I love without hoping to arrive to the point Or level my Love extream I shall become Sad and Wan it may be I should even dye and that is that which I will not do It were better to think that my Chorys is fair that I have a hundred Pleasures to see her that I am very well received of her that she is not cruel to me if alwayes she will be such Time will demonstrate it to me let 's rejoyce in the mean time for present without the fear of any thing that an Evil comes not to pass that a sottish Fear goes to fain to us comes not here to compel us it will be too much time to bewail our selves when this ill shall come to pass Let 's remember our selves in fine that a Man who knows to live takes alwayes time as it comes of the present Pleasure he inebriates himself if Evil comes to pursue him when he can he delivers himself and if he cannot he sustains and bears up under it He sang yet when he came into a Field near enough to the Hamlet of Chorys and when he saw this Shepherdess sitting under the Shadow of an Hedge and singing near to one of her Companions who also was sate whilst their Flocks fed upon the Grass round about From the time that Choris saw Celemante and that he was near enough to hear her she said unto him you are very welcome Celemante but it is upon Condition that you will draw us from pain and that you teach us the names of these two Shepherds In saying this she shewed him with her Crook two Shepherds who passed by fifty Paces from them and whose Air as well as Discourse appeared very Melancholly It was not that she heard them but she might easily judge it by their slow Pace their mournful Countenance by their Arms the one lifted up to the Heavens and the other held cross ways before him in a word by all their port and demeanour Celemante knew them not but at the same time they all discerned a third who drave towards them a Flock and whom they knew for Philemon I say Philemon Philemon was a Shepherd aged about thirty years his Stature was indifferent his Visage shaped like an Egg Oval his Hue more white than ordinary amongst Men his Hair of a cleer Chesnut colour and his eyes inclining to Black but full of great Vivacity His temperature appeared a little Melancholly his Humour Cold his Feature and Physiognomy subtle and Politick spake little but alwayes to purpose with much reservation without Heat without Obstinacy never assuring himself any thing still listning to the sentiments of others before he would give his own Advice and never proposing his own without doubt by reason he believed there was nothing assured in this World and that all our knowledge was nothing but uncertainty and error Also he had trouble to suffer those People who never doubt of any thing and who make of all their Opinions so many Maxims When he contradicted them therefore it was without fixing himself to the contrary Party it was not but to attempt to loosen and disintangle them from their own that he might replace them in that doubt which he held for the first Principle of Wisdom and Prudence and that made it to pass for dissimulation amongst those who knew him not well for as much as seeing him so retentive in his Sentiments or rather so indifferent to all Opinions they thought that he would never discover his own Although that his Temperature appeared not susceptible nor capable of great Passions and that doubt whereof he made profession was a great Disposition to an indifferency he was very strongly Amorous of Celiane that is the name of the Shepherdess who was with Coris Also that Maiden was also her self infinitely fair and amiable not only for her Beauty but for her sweet Temper and Discretion She had even some Conformity with Philemon in that her Humor appeared a little Cold and spake little as he did Celemante doubted not but that Philemon knew these two melancholly Ones because he saw him stop some Moments to speak with them But Philemon soon left them when he saw Celiane He came immediately towards her and that was Celiane her self which demanded of him the name of these two unknown Fair Shepherdess answered Philemon I will not only tell you their Names but if you please even their Adventures and Occurrences and if I make you not a very long discourse of that for you will I believe know all that there is considerable when I shall have first told you that the first is called Delias and the second Pleon and that they are both of them of Delphos and that both one and the other are both vexed and molested and excessively afflicted for two Reasons very opposite For Delias married a Woman whom he loved yea and loved Passionately and found that she loved him not and Pleon contrarily espoused another whom he loved not and who by a Destiny loved him a thousand times more then he would she should So Delias is come here and hath led his Wife there believing that when she shall be far from Delphos and from her acquaintances possibly she will better affect and fix her self to her Husband and the other hath followed his Friend to deliver himself from the Importunities of her own But the one and the other have bin very much deceived in their hopes for the first hath here made new Friendship and the second hath followed her Husband here in despight of his Will They put themselves all a laughing for the fantastical and odd Disposition of these four Persons and particularly Coris and Celemante who for to make their Course failed not both to take this occasion to speak yet against Love and Marriage I think said Celemante laughing that this day here is fatal to make me see ill conduct And when is that one can see good added Coris Thereupon Celemante counted them in three words that disgrace of Agamée I believe not said Coris that there is any more deplorable than these two here whereof Philemon speaks unto us For yet there is some Consolation when the Husband and the Wife love not one another because they can abandon one another and they may be at least at rest when they mutually see not one another But when there is always one which loveth and the other which hateth it is never to have Patience and to be eternally miserable But after your advice Celemante added she which of the two think you to be most miserable Delias or Pleon behold a rare Comparison said Celemante is there any thing here equal to the mischief of this poor Delias who so well loves his Wife and who knows not how to make himself beloved Celiane seeing that Philemon replyed nothing
came to rejoyce with him as if it had been some Great Happiness he Vaunted himself to him that this Breach was the Production of their Friendship and would have made it pass for an Obligation so sensibly that Celemante was therefore Indebted to him See said he see Celemante to what point I desire we be Eternally Friends I never had a passion for Cillesie and in the mean time I have been able to constrain my self even to pretend Love for her and yet to subject my self to all those small trifling things by which one gains the heart of these sorts of Maidens for to make thee sensible of thy Error I would have thee see the wrong thou doest thy self to Abandon a Faithful Friend for an Unconstant Mistress and the difference that there is between a Sollid and Vertuous Friendship and a Foolish and Unruly Passion Go Ergaste Go Rejoyned him Celemante Animated with to much Just Anger you your self are the most unfaithful of all men you are not only contented to betray the pleasant and merry heart of your Friend but you have done it to betray him yet for or by Cillesie and not content with your own proper Perfidy you have Inspired it into his Mistress You should yet be more excusable if you had been in Love as you said it and one could pardon all the Imprudence that I have seen to be willing to engage you therein and at the Violence of a Passion which primarily Tyrannizeth over us then when it constrains us to do evil to others but to be there carryed there well tempered setled with sober and sollid Reason by a Premeditated Disign by pure Malicious Envy to betray me 't is a Detestable piece of Perfidy 't is an Ambush prepared with a set purpose to intrap ensnare and deceive wittingly and willingly it is that which cannot find pardon among the Gods nor excuse amongst men I have two things to reply unto thee thereon and to subdivide rejoyned him Ergaste smiling First Celemante I avouch unto thee that there are certain sorts of Love whic hought to be Inviolable and as we so say Sacred between Friends but thou must not believe that of all On the contrary there are others where not only it is permitted us but wherein it is our duty to deceive them We owe them Fidelity in all just and honest Love but in debauched Love know that the Complaisance of a Friend is Criminal and his Infidelity is Officious Dutiful Serviceable Diligent Courteous and Friendly In the second place I ask thee if thou didst not pray me and engage thy self in despight of me to try and prove the Fidelity of Cillesie and if thou didst not even as good as compel and force me thereunto in fine if thou hast not an Obligation to me to disabuse thee in an error that would have made thee Sacrifice all to an unconstant Mistress He added a thousand ill reasons more in similitude like to those there but Celemante had too much power to be overcome thereby and his Liberty Captivated so long a time reclaimed too highly against the Tyranny of Love and Friendship He protested therefore both to Renounce the one and the other to have no more Love then is necessary for the pleasure of life nor of friendship but what is requisite for Civil Society He denounced and declared a Mortal War against the other Love and the other Friendship whereof are made so many Passions and Tyranies and above all against the Perfidious Ergaste who had given him so much Torment from the one and the other So finished the writing of Celemante and when they had ended the Lecture they testifyed to have found it altogether Delightful Another then cryes who had as much right as he to pretend kindness to this Shepherd had not possibly bin able to refrain having a little Jealousy of this first and principal affection or a few Alarms from the Resolution that she there had made him take to have no more but what disposition soever she had to receive his friendship she had none to have any Jealousy and yet less cause to be angry if Celemante had not loved her contrary in that to Arelise because Arelise would not that Argaste should have any Love for her and yet she was Jealous she had it for others and would possibly been angry if he had less Loved thereon Chorys would willingly in her heart that Celemante might Love her but she had seen him indifferent for her without despight and Amourous of others without Jealousy After they had all testifyed the pleasure they had received in the reading of this Lecture Ergaste amongst others reassumed Speech thus well said Agamée must not there patience be had to listen so peaceably as I have done a great Volumne that Celemante hath compiled against me and more must be to shew you that I am not so prompt and ready as he hath rendred me it is true replyed Agamée that I would very much commend your Moderation without being hindred by any thing What then replied Ergaste Divine said Agamée unto him I know not how to Divine replied Ergaste if it be not so that this writing hath perswaded you against me and that you could not resolve your self to praise a man of whom one hath told you so much evil So much it must be replied Agamée it is that I find that Celemante hath written for you and I would Condemn him upon his own proper Plea not to have known to Correspond with a Friendship so tender and so perfect as yours And I said Arelise I condemn them both Celemante to be engaged so forward in so foolish a Passion and Ergaste to be served of a remedy so dishonest to withdraw him The one not to have avowed his weakness to his Friend the other to have dissembled and feigned to be of his side to deceive and cheat his own the one of having been so Liberal in his Love the other to have been too Imperious in his Friendship and to have been willing to have exercised a kind of small Tyranny Ergaste saw well that Arelise said not this without design by reason she had frequently enough made the same Complaint of him This Shepherd being deeply in Love with Arelise and willing with too great Imperiousness it seemed him would prevaile upon the Friendship which she had for him to oblige her to correspond with his Passion A little even before having met Agamée they came yet to have another management on this subject and Ergaste Prompt and Ready as he was went not out without some sort of anger So that when he heard Arelise who Condemned him he replyed her in Smiling at the truth but however with some kind of Despight Sheepherdess you are not of my Judges wherefore find it good that I tell you that I neither will be Absolved nor Condemned by your Mouth How what Said afterwards Coris shall no Person speak here for this Poor Celemante truly if I were of
yielded her Place and Precedency by Civility so that the Shepherdess replyed thus That which you speak Ergaste is Gallant and Comely but however I do not well understand how you compare Love with War since that contrarily Love in my apprehension tends not but to Peace and Union of hearts And War Amiable Celiane replyed Ergaste tends it to any other thing than Peace Celiane not answering any thing Celemante took up the Cudgels for her and said no Ergaste not so Wars arise from the Disunion of Heart and thou wilt avow me that Love Ariseth and Springeth from Union and Correspondency That is that in which thou deceivest and cheatest thy self replyed Ergaste Love as well as War Springs yet from Disunion of Minds and Spirits and Tempers At this Discourse Celemante betook himself to laugh and turning himself to look after Philemon said Philemon behold here is news for you for what shall we be assured of in the world hereafter if Ergaste goes to make proof unto us as he saith that Love Springs from Divsunion of Hearts and Minds that is not very difficult replyed Ergaste Is it not true that Love is no other then a desire now all Desire comes from the absence of a good we wish and as we may say from its Disunion with us for if we were United in the thing we Desire we should surcease wishing for it being impossible to Desire that which we are in possession of already and with which we are United therefore thou must necessarily Avow me that Love being a Desire and Desire Springing from Disunion Love Springs likewise from the same Celemante would have replyed but Agamée Interrupted him thus I believe Ergaste that you would say as our Poets that the Man and the Woman were not formerly but one and the same person which were Disunited and Separated in two halves and to hold upon this Foundation that since that time one half dreams of nothing else nor seeks to Unite themselves as do the Parts of a Serpent cut in two prices so that when a Man loves a Woman or that a Woman loves a Man it is that they have both refound the half whereof from they had been Disunited Celemante having commended the thoughts of Agamée replyed him if that which you say should be true Agamée it would still be true that Love did Spring from Union and not from Disunion as Ergaste said For this Inclination of two halves to resemble themselves would not come to pass but from that which other whiles they would have been United But also it is certain that Ergaste Dreams not nor Conceives nor Apprehends what he says and that if the Spirits should not Unite before they Loved one another they should never be capable of Affection Hast thou sometimes taken Notice Ergaste of this Fatal Moment which giveth Birth to Love hast thou observed that which passeth in this first Interview of a Shepherd well shaped who meets with a Fair and Amiable Shepherdess I know well that they frequently long will look upon one another before they will joyn in Love and that other times they will never Love and that even many times they will conceive an Aversion one for another but also you will sometimes see that their Eyes are no sooner met then they feel themselves Inseparately tied one to another and so Love one another That is certain said Ergâ—ste but what conclusion doest thou draw or infer from thence that Love replyed Celemante never Springs but from Union of hearts My Poor Friend replyed Ergaste I see not but that returns too much to that which thou wilt shew us more then thou believest said Celemante For these different effects from the first interview come from this that Certain Spirits which commonly go out of us as the Beams go out of the Sun mingle themselves in a Moment one with another almost after the same manner as thou seest the Atomes and Motes fly from the Air. And as thou seest yet these same Motes to meet one another to knock one another to recoil sometimes one upon another sometimes to pass beyond and not to touch one another and sometimes to grasp one another together it arrives in the self same manner in the Medly and Mixture of Spirits sometimes they are long before they fix together and Unite together Whence it comes that it is a long time before they love one another other times in meeting they knock and justle one another and thence comes the Aversion sometimes they pass further without touching one another and from thence Springs the Indifferency But also sometimes they do no sooner touch they graple one another as one may say and they Unite together and 't is thence that this suddain Love ariseth which takes Birth at the very first Interview So thou seest that Union is always the Sole and True Cause of Love O Celemante cryed Coris all that is unknown to us think you that we know what is of the Spirits and what they are and that we can Imagine how it is possible that the Spirits Unite and as you say graple one another Dear Coris replyed he concieve you how that happens in the Body undoubtedly replyed Coris and I think that there needs not much skill to apprehend how a thing which is grapled and clasped is fixed to another thing in the like manner how a clasp or hasp holds to a Buckle how a Stone remains in the Iron Head of my Crook which is hollow nor how in fine how a Body which hath a Figure is fixed to another which likewise hath a Figure and Frame which is proper to it But how will you that I comprehend that of Spirits who have neither Body Frame nor Figure Amiable Coris said Celemante unto her behold you are therefore more Skilful and Expert then I am since you conceive that in the Body for in fine the Bodys and the Spirits are but one and the same thing the sole difference is but only in the Name They call those Bodyes that are Gross Ponderous Visible and Composed of many others They call Spirits Small Subtile Bodys that are Simple Light Imperceptible and whereof others are Composed But in Truth they are equally of the Body and the smallest of all have their Frames and Figures even as others Truly Celemante replyed Ergaste it Admirably becomes thee to speak here of these Small Bodys and so to Act the Doctor amongst Women Friend replyed Celmante that here is but a Doctrine of Love and I believe that he is not a Gentle-man but would very readily Learn or Teach how it is to Love such Fair and Amiable Shepherdesses Agamée who was ravished with joy to hear him said unto him They would pardon you Celemante if you did not also leave us in the same doubt where we were concerning that which hath given place to your Contest For we have told you enough how two Persons Love how they are indifferent and even how they hate but you teach us not how
hath placed it in Health as thou hast done in Riches Telamon in Wisdom and others in Diversity of things various all from each other in the Interim Happiness is not in effect in any one of all these things as for example if it it were effectually in Riches it would follow that all that were Rich were happy and every one knows that that is not In like manner there are many people in good Health there are some that are Wise and if you ask any of them none of them will say that he finds himself happy But as for that which relates to Wisdom it is Happiness that 's for him who being Wise placeth his Happiness in his Wisdom for him whose Health is his Happiness for him who being Healthy placeth his Happiness in that Health in what then consisteth the Happiness It is not to be in Health to be Rich nor to be Wise but in placing the Happiness in that of these Things which they possess so that that Happiness precedes not the imagination nor the imagination which precedes the Happiness but the Happiness springing rising first appearing or coming into the World from the assembling closing or joyning together and from the concurrs of the imagination with the thing which they possess thou seest imagination agitateth when the Happiness riseth and springs up all at the same moment Euriloque feeling and finding himself vanquished and overcome conceived such a despight and vexation that not knowing how better to answer Tarsis he had an inclination and desire to quarrel with him All that thou hast said is rediculous said he unto him blushing and an Happiness where there needs so much imagination can be no otherwise than folly Tarsis began to laugh when he saw him grow angry and he only answered him all the difference that there is Euriloque it is that in folly is when the imagination disorders and irregularly governs the judgment and that in the happiness whereof I tell thee it is the judgment which regulates and governs the imagination That was not ill said as you see but Euriloque who began to burst and cleave assunder through despight and anger and jealousy and principally because all the World applauded Tarsis could not suffer that which my Brother said Go said he they well see that thy imagination disorders thee when thou speakest so and since that every one should place his happiness in that which he hath I approve the putting thine in the place of thy folly You may very well believe that Tarsis was not to remain without a forcible reply but considering that he was in the Chamber of Leucippe in the presence of Melicerte and Zelie and that he had bin to them very displeasing to see a sport terminate in a quarrel he resolved to convert the thing the best he could into a merriment Wise Shepherdess said he turning himself to Melicerte let 's learn for My honor to Euriloque our song yesterday in the Evening and at the same time he began to sing the Verse which he had made at table the day preceeding and the burden whereof was To rejoyce in being a fool is to be wise but I will not read it unto you because I believe it hath run through all Greece and I see not a Person that knows it not Agamée having also signified that he knew them Telamon continued in searching for new Papers This jeasting caus'd Euriloque to be inraged in such sort that step by step he came to the last or highest point of chollar and spleen Tarsis never replying a word but laughing but yet in a pleasing and bold hardy manner both together wherein he demonstrated at the same time his dispising and contempt of Euriloque and respect for them that were present and wherein Melicerte and others who knew his courage admired a thousand and a thousand times his discretion And indeed Euriloque having himself acknowledged his fault came to demand his excuse the succeeding day Now as I have told you these two occasions advancing well the affairs of my Brother with the hearts and minds of Melicerte and Zelie for that which he had done in her fall extreamly touched both the one and the other in their sencible acknowledgments towards this Shepherd and such as merited the service which he had rendred and his moderation in this last incounter caused them in an infinite esteem of his prudence and discretion Also he was so well received at the house that then when he came from Calioure Leucippe himself retain'd him often to lye with him and as my Brother had there that advantage which you see he was almost more often there than at my Fathers He always saw Zelie as if she had bin his Sister and Leucippe and Melicerte did not scarce make any difference between him and their own Children However he found himself netled wrackt and tortured because he durst not entertain her with his love openly and as since the scruple which I had put in his Mind he very well knew that 't was my counsel that procured him the advantage of living with Zelie without suspicion and to be received as the Son of the house of Leucippe he rendred himself very exact not to give him any cause of diffidence or mistrust He contented himself in conformity to my advice to essay and attempt to bestow his love without open demonstration and to cause their wish that he loved before he speak it however he was not able to live without speaking in some sort to Zelie of his passion and in that constraint he had found a sufficiently pleasing means to entertain her Zelie had a voice sweet enough and Melicerte who very much delighted to hear her sing testified her willingness that she should there learn But there were no Masters at Calioure so that my Brother although he knew not very much of the Art of Musick said smiling he would serve for one He betook himself then pleasantly to give her some Lessons and even to call her his Schollar that he might always by the more familiarity introduce her by names Now all that he instructed her in was songs it was as many Verses as he had made on the subject of his love and these two great leaves of Paper that you see are full of nothing else Agamée seeing that Telamon passed them What said he to him Is it that you believe that I know not to make my self read skilled and acquainted with songs that you do not read them unto me In saying so he took one of the leaves out of the hands of the Shepherd and read that which followeth In Prose Go you Sighs you light Spirits that in a moment can carry my heart to Zelie since 't is my Love which gives you life Of this same Love be you the Messengers they serve to make you be born serve to let them know it thou who counsellest me to love my heart how canst thou suffer and yet hold thy peace since thou inspirest me
for him and commanded him to go to Athens to solicite a litigious process and great suit of law and we came Philiste and my self upon the point of coming to establish our Affairs and settle them at Cenome and to abandon the House of Leucippe where we had still lodged ever since we were Married Although the distance was not great from the place whence we intended to remove as you see yet it was a double affliction to Tarsis whose love considered the smallest things as very important first because it seemed to him that there was no cause of fear whilest we were present and saw all that past at the house of Leucippe and Melicerte in the second place because we should always serve him for a pretext to be almost always at Calioure But that which disquieted him the most was the long Voyage wherein he saw himself obliged to go to Athens The consolation wherewith he prepared himself was that he should not depart at least until he had clearly and manifestly demonstrated to Zelie the assurance and reality of his Love nor without sounding her heart to know if she would correspond with his desires and hopes For although the services he had done her were considerable enough to give him large hopes however his affection and his modesty caused him to make very light of these things that he trembled almost all times when he dreamed of declaring himself That which rendred also the execution of the design difficult was that he seldom or almost never saw Zelie but in the presence of her Mother before whom he durst not presume to discover it and when he found her alone and thought to speak to her of his love she had always some means or found out some way to defeat his design her vertue not permitting her to receive this declaration out of the presence of her Mother In fine he hazarded himself one day when Leucippe was gone into the fields and it casually hapned to be the same that two Shepherds came to visit Melicerte to propose unto her another marriage for Zelie For whilest they spake very softly our Lovers ignorant of their subject Tarsis who believed Melicerte very attentive to what they said finished some Airs which he sang before with Zelie and said unto her with a very low and soft voice My fair Scholar tell us also we pray you our secrets in particular since that others conceal theirs from us for to tell theirs also I know one that I am very impatient to let you learn Zelie mistrusted in some sort that which it was and as she would not enter into this discourse with him Tarsis answered she very loudly as I my self imagine that it was some good news since you apply your self to declare it to me I pray you attend a little that my Mother may have a share thereof Tarsis was angry in that he having spoken to her in secret she had answered him so loudly but that it was impossible they should not be understood What reply'd he softlier than before it seems you conceive not that behold other Persons besides Melicerte will be able also to hear you Pardon me answered Zelie yet aloud but it 's no secret nor have I any that I will conceal from any one Tarsis well believed that what she did was to no other end than to scoff or dally but as he would not remain there You will make these Shepherds believe answered he still very softly that I mistrust them In speaking softly reply'd she in the same tone she had began you would make them yet more believe it your self They may continued he still softly impute it to my discretion and of the fear I should have to interrupt them You had that fear so soon said Zelie laughing when we sang louder than I speak He was sometime without answering her and in a sweat afterwards he reply'd thus still continuing to speak softly as he began and had done It is not a piece of news that I would have you learn but it is for counsel that I demand of you Ah Tarsis interrupted she what I have need of for my self I ask it of Melicerte But added he answer you me that I may be able to discover it to Melicerte with security As I know not your affair continued Zelie I cannot answer you to any thing but if there were no security in telling it to Melicerte there would have bin no more in telling it to my self You see well Agamèe continued Telamon that it is not through aversion that she keeps her self so at a distance but altogether on the contrary she seemeth by all this discourse to incourage him to discover himself to Melicerte and in effect it was her design for as she knew the esteem that this Shepherdess had for him she doubted not but that he should be favourably received but her scrupulous vertue hindred her to declare it to him more openly If Tarsis had therefore thereunto taken good heed he had seen that she had given him the best counsel that she could possibly in making a pretence of refusing him but he who took and apprehended it quite otherwise he had an extream despight to see and find that she would not only not understand him and more than that when he discours'd to her so softly the more she affected to answer him very loudly He accused her in his heart for some kind of ingratitude believing that she ill corresponded with his love but he had yet more displeasure then when these two Strangers were both gone forth Melicerte had made known unto him all she had understood for she hath the Ear marvellous subtle and a Spirit and Wit so quick and lively that she can when she lifteth be attentive to three or four things all at one time What controversy had then Tarsis therefore so soon with Zelie said she unto him laughing indeed it is an ungrateful Schollar thus to refuse the counsel of her Master Tarsis blusht at this discourse and found himself so surprized that in lieu and stead of being prevailed upon the fair occasion he had to discover himself he estranged himself by some defeat which I know not was what in his imagination which suggested or prompted him to in this ill time Melicerte who had he Wit too penetrating not to be already mistrustful and diffident of the truth would not dig deep nor dive into its profundity and though she was better intentionally to him than he durst to hope however as she took notice how he blushed she made a scruple to press him But she designedly administred him another occasion yet more favourable than the former for altering her discourse all at once Know you well Tarsis said she that we are going to marry your Schollar and that these Shepherds come to speak to Leucippe but not having him they have addressed themselves to me You may judg continued she laughing if I went to iâ—gage the Schollar without demanding advice of her Master Admire
correspondence in either of the Persons whom I have Loved because I have had an unfaithful Friend and an ungrateful Mistriss And therefore I have bin able to make neither a true Love nor yet a true Friendship Listen Ergaste said Celemante I say in this 't is an ill sign to thee that 't is thou art he alone who calls us unfaithful and ungrateful and therefore both of us are met and assembled here to call thee thy very names Celemante replyed Ergaste The greatest number are not frequently those who are the wisest In saying this they came to the height of a little Hillock whence they perceived Philiste who returned from another way in the company of two other Shepherdesses from that distance that Tarsis had perceived them he readily ran towards them to ask them if they had not had any news of Zelie because he knew that they returned from Callioure where they were gone to see Melicerte very early and where they had dined Agamée and the three Shepherds followed Tarsis and in walking the Areopagite besought Telamon to tell him who were those three Shepherdesses She whom thou sawest on the right hand answered Telamon who hath black Hair and is Hawk-Nosed of a very lively Hue and Dye yet the Air a little melancholly is named Telagie and hath bin some years a Widow of my eldest Brother When you have had a little tast of her Conversation you will find that there are not many more pleasant and desirable for with her melancholly Air you will notwithstanding find her Wit lively pleasant on all occasions that may be offered and yet at the same time the most solid She on the other hand is my Wife and the third whom you see the greatest and the most beautiful and in whom you observe the Port and that Air accompanied with a Majesty which might possibly rather become a Princess than a simple Shepherdess is named Aresile and that is the Sister of Celemante and the Mistress of Ergaste whereof they now spake She hath Spirit and Wit infinitely sparkling and glittering and her clear shining Lights are more natural than acquired There is not a better more frank and free more generous nor more pleasant than she amongst persons who are correspondent and who please her But it is not but only among her Friends that she lets her self be seen in her natural Parts and Accomplishments for with others she is Cold Serious Insolent or disdainful and one may almost say excellently Glorious yet Contemning and Negligent uncapable to use Civility to Persons whom she esteems not to be of some Quality or that they may be so But she hath also the same incapacity of being Treacherous and Deceitful to any Person of what sort soever he or she be She is brisk lively quick and testy and sometimes transported when she is offended or made angry and is not always of the same Humor There passeth her some certain inequalities in her Wits of which she her self will be the first to make pleasant Jests of and her enemies would have trouble to find in her more Faults and Defects than she makes observable her self to her Friends This dejected amated mellancholly Air which you see on her Countenance and which discoulereth even this great Beauty is not natural to her it s not caused but by some extraordinary Afflictions wherewith her Life hath always bin oppressed and over-whelmed That which were to be wished would be that she might be able to cure her self of the extraordinary bent she hath at the Defiance and the Jealousie which her Detects alone cause and make as well as her greatest Misfortunes for she will appear more angry than she is or can be made It is also true that in her Intervals she pays them with Usury the Pains which they have caused in her for give her leave to return she is the first that will ask for Pardon and also will doe them a thousand kindnesses and friendships and in fine there is not a Person whose Affection hath more of reality tenderness and jolidity than hers upon all occasions As for the rest she even her self very well knows her own Defects and therein deceives no Person for when she makes Friendship with any one the first thing she doth it is to inform them of her Humor that they may not thereby be surprized That which astonisheth us is how Ergaste who is naturally prompt and ready to be exreamly impatient should be able to fasten himself into so great and high a degree of Friendship with her and one may say that Love is as well able to unite things Incompatible and disagreeing together if ever these two should consort agree together Also as you have seen Celemante and him contest one against another although that in the bottom and foundation they were the best Friends in the World you shall see Aresile and Ergaste almost always in dispute although they love each other infinitely and it would be needful to have a Person to do almost nothing else than to put them at one and to accord and unite them As Telamon finished they were come near to the Shepherdesses to whom he presented Agamée He here was surprized in observing the admirable Beauty of this Shepherdess Aresile for all Greece had not yet shewn him any that equalled her But he was little less ravished in seeing Philiste the honesty the modesty and the marvellous pleasant Sweetness which appeared in her as well as in her Countenance and in all the air of her Person and he well observed that she was the Wife of Telamon and yet that Shepherd had told him nothing of her Beauty Although there might be more Beautiful and sairer Persons than she it had notwithstanding bin difficult to find any more acceptable graceful and exceedingly delectable After the first Civilities Philiste informed them that they had bin unable to learn any thing of her Sister although Leucippe and Melicerte had carefully sent to all Parts and she told it them with many significations and marks of an extream Trouble in sequel whereof Telamon having declared the Shepherdesses the design of their Voyage they willingly engaged themselves to be of their Party They continued therefore to walk together towards the Mount Olimpie Ergaste and Celemante went before with Aresile Agamée was near to or fast by Telamon and Philiste Tarsis followed in a more leisurely Pace with Telagie who attempted to consolate him If Telamon and Philiste had followed their Passions they had not spoken but only of the loss of Zelie and of the Dolour of Tarsis because they had no other thing in their Minds and were extreamly afflicted But as they believed that would have been but an ill entertainment for Agamée they did all that might be possible to pass into other Discourse Ergaste Arelise and Celemante very much encouraged them in that Design After that Ergaste had spoken a few words to Arelise what he knew of the merit and of the
thereupon said unto him laughing Hah would you suffer that Philemon and that Celemante should have the boldness to assure a thing so affirmatively before you Fair Shepherdess reply'd Philemon you have forced me a long time since to rank my self to that Party that Celemante hath taken For although there is that whereof I complain'd to you those that love and yet not beloved be the most miserable People in the World Oh how am I pleased cryed Coris to have seen Philemon once in his Life consent to a Truth At least he will avow us for time to come that he hath no reason to uphold that there is nothing of certainty in the World Philemon replyed to her Dear Choris say not so that there is nothing of that of certainty for I know not if in that which I say I deceive not my self for as I have never proved by Celiane that the mischief of loving without being loved I speak not but of that until it pleaseth Love or my Shepherdess to make me prove the other Ah! Truly Philemon said Celemante unto him who was well pleased to give the Shepherdesses the diversion of a Dispute for he well observed that they wished it must it not be so that we shamefully fall into the same advice and if you will take mine I will quit it And what or whose part will you then take Philemon asked him That which you would not answered the chuffy Celemante I had said that Delias was more unfortunate than Pleon But if you accord thereto I will uphold that Pleon is more unfortunate than Delias Philemon replyed nothing to Celemante but turning himself towards Coris and Celiane Well said fair Shepherdesses said he unto them See you not how there is nothing certain in the World since that in the first party where I have believed a little of Certitude I see my self contradicted by him himself which upheld it before me The Shepherdesses betook themselves to laugh at his answer and Celiane said unto him You well see Philemon that there is none but Celemante changeth party and that which he doth is but to divert himself Nor Celiane reply'd Celemante smiling I say over again I begin to find Pleon a thousand times more unfortunate than Delias and if I were married I would incomparably rather have a Woman that I did strong affect and from whom I could have no Love nor was beloved than to have one who loved me too much and who I loved not Thy reason Philemon asked him I have so many that I will over-whelm thee answered Celemante for behold at least thirty which comes to me all at once First is that Love is always of it self a Passion much more desirable than hatred for Love is a desire which hath not in it any thing but that which is fair and pleasant for an Object whereas that of hatred is still something of displeasure and sadness if then Love is more desirable than Hatred without doubt it is still much better to Love than to hate for it is more amiable to have a pleasant Passion than to have a vexatious One I arrest thee with thy first Reason interrupted Philemon for we doubt not but that it is much better to love than hate But the mischief of Delias is not to love it is to be hated of her whom he loved Now seemeth it unto you that there is something or any thing in the World so vexatious and irksome as to be hated by one whom he hath so well loved Well said I yield you that there reply'd Celemante But what will you answer to this here The ill of a Husband who loves without being loved passeth from himself for in fine there is no Love so strong that disdain and time cannot cure There where the Aversion which a Man hath from his Wife makes increase but for a time and by the Importunities which she makes him And as for me I arrest you at your second Reason interrupted Corys for I have heard say that there is no Countenance so deformed and loathsom nor person so imperfect whom one accustometh not with time but one can never accustom himself not to be loved Celemante yet seeing himself interrupted there turned himself towards her and Philemon and taking a Countenance more searious Hah when think you then that I have finished my thirty Reasons asked he them if you so interrupt me at every one My poor Celemante said she unto him I counsel you to respit the Remainders for another time also Celiane and my self are both of us weary already and moreover as we will not be married neither you nor I we have no interest in this Contestation You have reason fair Coris replyed Celemante But howsoever what know we to what Fortune will reserve us and what if we should become Fools as others What should I have of Pleasure said Celiane if I should ever see Celemante or Coris amorous or rather if I should be able to see them both such at a time I answer for Celemante that shall never be nimbly repyed Coris to see that which he would say You ingage your self to be so when he becomes so said Celemante to her stretching forth his hand to her yea with all my Heart replyed Coris setting hers into Celemantes for I am assured that will never be At least fair Coris answered he I ought to use my utmost Ability that it be not with you for I know too well that that would make me be but hated and to become one of the most unfortunate Ones of whom we at present deplore and bemoan A little blush sprung up into the Face of Coris at these words and Celemante who was perswaded that she would not that one should love her imputing it to a Cause altogether contrary to that which produced this effect added believing he should do her a Pleasure Aye I warrant you it amiable Coris I will do my utmost to impede my loving of you and if I love you against my Will which shall never be if I can but in a sort not to become a Fool as I see poor Tarsis of the fair Zelie Thereupon they began to speak of the Love of that Shepherd and bewayled all his Disgrace in such a manner which made clearly appear the Friendship and Esteem they had for him Now in the Delight that Celemante took in Coris he forgot the Shepherds that he had left at the entrance into the Temple and the Party that he had made for their Return and the day passed insensibly away without his regard or heed He remembred not himself of that which he had promised but when he was not occupied in his Diversion Then his Memory being refreshed and returned unto him in the close he foresaw that Ergaste would not pardon him and that the others waged War against him which is the reason he refused to sup with Coris and Celiane and going away he betook himself to dream of some Evasion or Shift As he had
of his good Fortune after which he had sighed after so many years I will not stay here to mark you out his Joy nor his Transports to the change of so desirable a Fortune for as you your self have very much loved you should better be able to conceive these things I will only read you these Lines he made in that time of his Patience to press Leucippe to conclude this Marriage He made them in form of a Request and very much after the method of those that he had seen when they served the Senate at Athens whilst he was there solliciting the litigious Suit of my Father A poor and unfortunate Lover humbly remonstrates and makes request saying that the same days Journey that his eldest Son by Hymeneé entred your House the younger was clapt in Prison The unfortunate one without Defiance and under the fidelity of an Alliance came to the Solemnity of a Marriage contracted and for this Ceremony he led the Company made the Sports the laughter the chearfulness the youth the liberty the pleasures and the indifferency and amongst the joy and delight the Imprudent took no heed to the Snares and Ginns that they prepared for him When Love learnt the mystery and Hymen that had done it without having bin contracted in this Divinity the whole Destiny having conducted wholly this sacred Himenée Then he became furious Fire sprang up in his eyes through despight he poured forth Tears and arming himself with all his Weapons he ran nimbly and lightly and protested to avenge himself and in his irredoubtable Fury without discerning the Guilty for a Sacrifice offered up himself The first he met withal Alas I was that miserable One. Immediately with a thousand or rather a hundred Darts he over-whelmed me He emptyed his Quiver but I therefore resisted him when I perceived my self that Zelie was of that Party also and perfidiously sent him the last Dart that he cast at me This Arrow done to satisfie him that which his own were not able to do for immediately I was felled down and even at the same Instant wholly overcome and soon without Compassion he loosned the string from his Bow and with a thousand inhumane Knots binding my hands and Feet delivered me as a Reward into those of the Shepherdess who a hundred other blows gave me and wickedly imprisoned me but in a Prison so strong that it 's not possible for me to get out and that her self could not thence draw me though she would for this Tragical Adventure was wholly done by Magick Art and you only have a Right to undo the Enchantment This therefore considered my Judge my Redeemer Refuge attended that being innocent and for a long time languishing it is not for your Justice to prolong my Torment By your gracious Favour let it be appointed that rest may forthwith even immediately be given me and that for to make recompence and reparation for my Pain within three days at most the inhumane One for a punishment may be committed to my Discretion to order a Correction in effecting which you will execute Justice Telamon having finished the reading of this Paper the Areopagite took it out of his Hand and as it was in some respect one certain piece of his Occupation he took Pleasure to read it over again Leucippe also found it very much to his satisfaction Telamon continued the Sequel and he was pleased to sign it with his own Name So you see that this Marriage was wholly resolved on But admire the misfortune of poor Tarsis for the succeeding day Leucippe fell Sick I know not whether it was through a purely natural Indisposition or by the Vexation that his litigious Suit had given him or by the Efforts and Endeavours that he had made upon his Spirits to overcome himself on this Marriage But so it was that a high Feaver seized him with such Malignity that in less than eight days he raved and talked idly There Desolation came and took place instead of the Joy that prepared it self Behold the prudent Melicerte who passionately loved him grieved excessively and Zelie in an Affliction inconsolable For besides the Love she had for her Father as Melicerte loved her Husband that is to say infinitely Besides the Obstacle that she saw in the success of her Affection that is that Leucippe perpetuallly named them she her self and Tarsis in his raving Fits That was not strange by reason that being fallen Sick at the time that he had the Marriage in his mind the fresh Impression and Smack thereof might make him naturally speak more of that than of any other thing even as those who rave rage ordinarily dream of the Thoughts wherein they were when they fell asleep In the interim Zelie by a scruple of Friendship and Tenderness for her Father went and put it into her Mind that she undoubtedly was the cause of his Disease and that possibly she should be the cause of his Death Behold her therefore in so great grief and trouble of Mind that she also fell Sick her self with Affliction and almost even to Extremity I will not however declare the Complaints and Moans and Alarms of poor Tarsis nor yet speak of the care and good Offices that he rendred her during her Illness She was fortunately restored and revived before Leucippe But however I know not if I ought to say Fortunately for it was not but with a Resolution undoubtedly worthy of a high Vertue but which cost poor Tarsis exceeding dear Leucippe yet continued Sick but however a little better when Melicerte whose Cares Toyls Troubles and Afflictions that she had had through the indisposition of her Husband was reduced to the necessity to think of her self she came to walk on the bank of the River to take the benefit of the Air and exercise her self a little I gave her my Hand on one side she with the other hold Philiste by the Arm and my Brother aided the fair Zelie in walking holding her by one Arm and she held in the other Hand her Crook leaning on it her weakness by her late Indisposition constraining her to follow softly after us not being able to go faster During the time of the Walk Tarsis told me that he found her speak Idly and Fantastically so that he understood not what she meant or said and through the disquietude he had by reason thereof he frequently asked her if her Disease reseized her At length after much pressing he saw her betake her self to Weeping Tarsis yet more alarmed impatiently asked her what she ailed and seeing the first Instances served to no purpose he conjured her by her Love and by all he knew might have most influence on her to declare to him the cause of her Trouble At length Zelie having discharged her Stomach of the Hickhocks or Yexing which hindred her Voice and seeing us so far as not to to be able to hear her resolved to speak to her thus Alas Tarsis you press me to tell
more astonished now at the strange Disquietudes of Tarsis to know what possibly may become of her for I see not in all that you have taught me any thing that can assist me in never so small a manner to divine what could have bin the Subject or Ground which should cause her to disappear for so long a time I cannot find any reason nor do I imagine why she should flee from her Fathers House nor be disposed to fear she should be carried a way by any Rivals since that by good Fortune particular enough in a Man who loves so fair a Person I apprehend not therein Tarsis hath bin crossed and thwarted I see well that it is the great stayedness wherein she hath bin brought up and educated the Prudence of Melicerte and the small hope that they also found to walk upon the Track of Tarsis which hath warranted her from so universal an Evil in Love But whatsoever it be the less I see the cause of the loss of this Shepherdess and the more I apprehend some mournful Accident whereof there is not yet any discovery made or distrusted They afterwards had some discourse on this Subject and as it grew exceeding late Agamée took leave of Telamon who promised to go and see him the next day The End of the Second Book of the Second Part. Tarsis and Zelie The Second Part. The Third BOOK THe amorous Tarsis continued in the mean time searching her out with all the diligence of a Man who saw his Salvation and Health fixed in the discovery of that whereof he was in pursuit He had soon crossed over a great part of the Forest and judging well that Women could not walk so many Steps in so short a time he returned upon his first Track and repassed twenty times by the same places without meeting that which he hoped and was in quest of In fine weary of so unprofitable a search and seeing the night began to increase and thicken it's obscurity and to take from him the means of discerning the Objects that presented themselves to his sight and view he had recourse to the Voice and made all the Forrest resound and eccho of the Name of Zelie But nothing made him an answer but the eccho of the Mount which he nearly approached unto so that after having unprofitably run on all sides he was in the end constrained as well through his Grief as Pain and by the want of Strength to betake himself to the foot of a Tree where he lay also smitten with displeasure whereas he was before animated with Joy there a thousand mournful Thoughts came crowding to dissipate those Beams of hope which had some Moments before bin re-given him in the day and fear succeeding this same hope it made in his Heart a new Combat between these two Passions in which his reason was a hundred times ready to leave him So that he addressed himself to things insensible unto whom he spake as if they had bin able to understand him and 't was only occasioned through the small effect of his Fear Sometimes he complained to the Trees accusing them by their thickness to have taken away the means of following the sight of his Shepherdess then he would address himself to the Sun to have too soon precipitated and hastned it's going down and reproached it to have formerly stopped it's Course for a less important Occasion and soon in returning to the Vail or Scarse of Zelie that he had gathered up and approached it to his Mouth with Transport he seemed to conjure it to tell him if it was not true that his Shepherdess was yet living and to demand of it the cause of her absence and the places of her retreat A profound Silence had succeeded these Complaints and his Grief shut up again in his Heart was no otherwise expressed than by Sighs which he was forced to burst forth time after time when he heard the Noise of some Persons speaking and having thereunto lent an ear he judged they advanced towards him Their Voices appeared to him to be those of Women and with the attention which he thereunto gave he understood that one said I am not come yet out of my right but it is time that we retire our selves to morrow we will come to seek your Vail These words made Tarsis to judge that these were the Women he was in quest of and indeed he soon understood the Person to continue after this sort Without lying or dissimulation yours is a sad Destiny to be reduced to take flight from your Parents to hide your self in the Forrests and know not which to fear either savage and bruit Beasts or Men. But is it possible that the Son of Alcidias hath not bin advertized that he hath not bin touched and that you have no News from him These words seeming to be marvellously relating to those of Tarsis and Zelie strangly alarmed the Heart of the Shepherd He knew not whether it were better for him to speak and make himself known or whether he should content himself and softly follow these Persons and attempt to learn the place whereunto they retired His Love growing Impatient pressed him to name himself and go to cast himself at the feet of her whom he took to be Zelie and to go and make her see the injustice of a doubt which seemed to him to be outragious but the fear that he saw them in to be known gave him apprehension that it would make them flye in his approaching them and as one of the precedent nights when he named himself to Zelie upon the River the design of making himself known had so ill succeeded he had a thousand Fears to be no more happy in a second Attempt and Probation In this perplexity he knew not what to determin yet notwithstanding he still rose up without making any noise when he understood her who had not yet spoken answer the other thus after sighing once or twice or thrice Ah! Cousen the Son of Alcidias shall always be the same that he hath bin as my Brother shall never be other than cruel and without Pity It 's therefore my Resolution having well thought thereupon I believe it is better for me to embrace the Condition which I refused and to give my self solely to the Gods since there is nothing but Inconstancy and cruelty in Men. These Terms all obscure as they were to Tarsis did not but too much enlighten him the entire doubt which held his mind in suspence He very perfectly knew by that Voice that the Person who so spake was not Zelâ—e and that Fortune had taken Pleasure to abuse him by some resemblance or similitude of Height and Habit and by an equivocation of words It is not possible to express or conceive how much Pain and Grief seized him at the same Instant he had before lifted up himself half he had then but one Knee upon the ground and his hand leaning against a Tree at the foot whereof he
succeeding Lines Her Name is graven on the Trees And her Portrait is graven in the Heart It was not difficult for him to divine who was the Author the Love of Tarsis being known unto him and that what Subject soever he had himself to bewail this Passion he had his Heart very sensible and naturally feeling he took Pleasure to see himself in a place where a Lover was filled with the marks of his own In entring into the Wood he met another small Stream which followed the declension and descending towards the lower part of the Meadow The Water was fairer and the bank or brink garnished and adorned with a most pleasant green Turfe able enough even to tempt a melancholly One. He could not refrain from sitting down in that place if he had not perceived a little Closet composed of many young Trees planted round about whose Branches intermixed above framed a kind of Vault so thick that the Sun could hardly be able to penetrate it The entrance of this Closet or Arbour served as an Issue to the Stream or Current which went out by the midst leaving only on every side the passage for one person Agamée being entred into that place met there the pleasant Source and Spring of that Water That certain place was elevated and raised up higher than the rest So that descending a little from on high it made a little noise which in despite of Fate invited one to talk idly and fantastically Above the Spring was one Tree bigger than the others which seemed to embrace the Vein of it's roots and whose foot apparelled with green Moss offered a commodious Seat to all those who came to the place Although that Agamée carefully enough shunned being alone because there was little but his Memory that revived and recovered him from the Ideas that he fled and which gave him not a thousand disgustful Thoughts howsoever he could not refrain himself for this once to take pleasure there in a place which seemed to be made expresly to talk Idly and the little time that he had bin at Tempé had also already caused him sufficiently to see diversity of things to give him wherewithal to entertain the Adventures and Accidents of others without afflicting himself by the remembrance of his own He therefore sate at the Foot of this great Tree with a design to meditate there some moments But he had not any thing to do to trouble himself he should find wherewithal to entertain himself Fortune there provided him a sufficiency enough For first in sitting down he saw that the Stock of this Tree which was extraordinary big was all covered over with an Inscription fresh recent and new enough It was very small by reason there was very much thereof But as it was also fresh and new enough and the Character very clear he with facility could there read these Lines The other day in this Solitude one over-whelmed with Love and Care bemoaning himself of his disquietudes by these Lines the desolate Tarsis which made him go loose his Life I dye and I cannot be cured but I dye for fair Zelie am I not too happy to dye O my eyes pour down no more tears to the rigour of Destinies which attend me Death hath always too many charms when the Object that causeth it hath so many there was no more than that upon the first Tree but there were other two some what less near unto that there upon every of which was Engraven One of these two other fair Streams which my fair Shepherdess so often warms with her eyes the Sun sees it when it enlightens thee with so much Heat and so much Light as they What hast thou done with the portrait of the fair one which in thy Bosom was so often graved Ah! fair Water I am much more faithful and my Heart hath much better conserved it Agamée which loved the Fancy and who was himself sometime entangled having read this drew his writing Tables out with design to copy them out wherein there was something appeared to him to be tender enough of and in part also signified to Tarsis he hoped to see very soon and whom he had not charged to divine the Accident the esteem he had made of his Composition But as he had finished to set them down he felt something to pluck the Tables from his Hand That which surprized him most was that he saw no body about him but the noise that he had heard having obliged him to look athwart the Arbour or Closet he discerned among the Willows a Man who had a Sword by his side and who in flying made great burstings forth of Laughter This Man lifted up even from time to time his two hands in the Air in one whereof he yet held the Table-Book that he had pluckt from Agamée afterwards bending all his Body he leaned upon his two Knees betaking himself to laugh more and more Agameé was extreamly astonished at this Eruption He went forth of the Arbour to follow him and because this Man returned from time to time he had by this means the opportunity to look him in the Face However he found not himself better enlightned for he knew him not and believed he had never seen him before He therefore doubted that this unknown one had taken him for another then when he saw him stop to read that which was in the Table-Book and in the Sequel the same Man approaching himself to him with a swift pace drew out of his Pocket a Paper which he presented him Read that said he in a strange and incompatible manner and remark it's Stile Agamée having by this means the liberty to consider him came a little nearer and found I know not what wandring in his eyes which was suitable to the extravagancy that he had before demonstrated and therefore caused him to doubt if the Man was very wise And indeed he had great reason to doubt it For behold who he was as he learnt immediately after It was a Roman Knight named Marcel whom the desire of Travelling had brought from Italy into Greece In passing by Callioure he became amorous of Zelie by having only once seen her in the Temple and this Love having made in his Heart an Impression worthy of the excess of so great a Beauty had caused him to remain one or two years at Tempé During that time he had not only found means to introduce himself into Leucippe's House but he had also demanded Zelie in Marriage and the refusal that they had made him had born him away to so great an excess of Trouble that he was fallen very dangerously sick and recovered not his bodily Indisposition but with a Malady in the Mind much more dangerous in his Folly his Vision was that the Gods had destinated him to marry Zelie so that he called himself The predestinated Knight He had even publickly sworn to carry away that Shepherdess he had suborned People expresly and extravagantly said every where that if
impose upon us a new Oath of Allegiance He appointed him also his principal Troops to place them in Garrisons within our Cities But by this means he became so Potent that this Governor being a little afterwards in League with Lysimachus King of Thrace and a little after with Ptolomee Ceraune eldest Son to the King of Egypt to drive away his Master from Macedonia he advanced himself as a kind of Soveraign But Ceraune having in conclusion bin defeated and Antigonus son of Demetrius being by that remounted upon the Throne of his Father Alcime who knew that this young Prince prepared himself to come and punish his Treason immediately used indeavors to conclude a Peace at least to put himself under the protection of some King who might support him and possibly it might be that to transact something on this Subject that the Prince of Crete should come to Pidne where Alcime made his residence But however it be my Lord if it be permitted me to offer the House of a Shepherd to so great a Prince I dare tell you that my Father and one of my Brothers have each of them one in this Valley where you may continue as long time as you please unknown and where you may at your leisure liberally take such measures as you shall judge expedient for the success of your Designs Amalecinte thanked him very courteously and having testified him what he judged convenient for their security they imbarqued the self same night and together took the way from the Marriners house arming themselves for all hazards each one with a Sword They already found all this Family alarmed with the Accident whereof we have spoken and it was immediately that they were transported with such joy when they saw the young Prince to return that he absolutely lost all suspicion which he had had that the people had betray'd him However he was amazed when he would have pressed the Marriner to depart observing the old Dotard to recoil always with new excuses so that the young Prince being by little and little warmed in conclusion grew impatient and so taking his Sword in one hand and with the other seizing the good Man compell'd him by force to the bark and made him enter it with such precipitancy that he had even forgotten to change Apparel which before he resolv'd upon Tarsis having seen him depart betook himself to run here and there upon the Rivers bank his mind still preoccupied with the transportation of Zelie and so allarmed that he could not express himself It was then a Season when the Nights are shortest so that the day appeared immediately after and with the Day light appeared also three Shepherds whom he had known to be Telamon Ergaste and Celemante Telamon was that Brother whose House he had offered to the Prince of Chypre He was the most sagacious and judicious Shepherd of all the Country and was bound to Tarsis in such a perfect bond of friendship that it exceeded even their affinity He had espoused Philiste eldest Sister of Zelie and was marvellously prevalent by means of this alliance to savour the love of his Brother Inquietude had caused him to go forth very early in the quest of Tarsis Telamon very well knew that at least by some extraordinary accident he would not have fail'd his word Ergaste and Telamon were both neighbours to Telamon who came from the next Village or Hamlet driving together their Flocks to feed by the Rivers side and that Telamon had a little before joyn'd them to inquire of them news of his Brother Telamon and Ergaste entertain'd themselves yet together when Tarsis discerned them Celemante plai'd upon a Flute a few Paces behind them after they had seen Tarsis Telamon ran to him very joyfully and although he had imbraced him he ceased not afterwards to reproach him for the perplexity wherein he had put him Ergaste and Celemante approached him immediately afterwards and Celemante who had checkt him betook himself even to jest with him as if he had believed that Tarsis had bin retain'd by night by deputation of some Shepherd But they were all much amazed when he made them all sad by recital of his adventure They could not doubt of the truth of some part of that which he declared them because he had led them into the Wood where were yet found the bodies of two of the Guards whom he had slain but they could not yield to that which he had related them of Zelie For said Telamon they must either have conveyed her away or must have caused her to be conveyed away by force That she was carried by force there was no manner of appearance because that besides the Words that we have recited you she would not have failed to answer you nor yet to have demanded your aid and cry'd out then when you were mentioned to her To believe also that she caused her self to be carried away that supposition is absolutly repugnant to the vertue and incomparable Wisdom of Zelie Dear Tarsis reply'd Ergaste shall I tell you my thoughts That part of your adventure hath the very face of a Vision your imagination is forestall'd by your Love so that all that you see personates Zelie all that you hear seemeth to be her voice and this is not the first illusion by which an amorous Person hath bin deceived after this rate Ha! through favour do not jest Ergaste reply'd Tarsis for I am throughly disquieted by a thousand thoughts I also jest not reply'd Ergaste do you not call to mind that which you have formerly learnt in the Schools of Divine Plato that our Memories do bring to our thoughts the Ideas of all the things we have seen and causeth so great an amass or heap of thâ—se that we have very often seen and which to him are so delectable that in the abundance of that whereof he is glutted for so I express it she represents her self sometimes contrary to our imaginations it s that which abuseth and makes us believe we have seen the things that we have not therefore done Ergaste added still laughing Celemante that which I have often learnt in the Gardens of the great Epicure that the Air is full of certain Images which every moment comes forth of the body and representing themselves to our view form those Visions which the Vulgar call Ghosts and Scarcrows He still persisted in jesting if it comes out of all Bodies it must also come out of that of Zelie and as Tarsis hath told us that at the moment that he believed he had seen him he was turn'd to the Rivers side towards the hamlet of Calioure where she dwelt 't is no wonder that he saw some kind of Image come forth which resembled her You may jest with me as much as you please said Tarsis but would to God that what I have told you were not a very great truth But my Brother added he sadly beholding Telamon is it possible that Lencippe
unparallell'd Resolution which her anxious and perplexed state had made her to undertake She was tempted a thousand times to go her self personally to ponyard the Tyrant but after she had seen the impossibility of this Interprize by a young Maiden after consideration had of an Attempt of this nature without any effect would serve but as an advertisement to Clearque and thereby oblige him to hold himself well guarded and precaution him against all hazards and events She sent for her Lover and having shew'd him the Body of her Mother stretcht out all bloudy upon the floor of her Chamber Kion said she melting into tears you see the consequences of the Cruelties of Clearque and to what Extremities he reduc'd my Mother after he had bin the barbarous Executioner of my Father That 's to say Kion that I must dye for you would not see me recompensed as a Slave but also I must tell you that it behoves you to revenge me and thereby give me some illustrious Tokens of that Love you have so often times sworn unto me and if my supplication is not yet so effectually forcible thereon to resolve you behold Kion behold how I command you At these Words having drawn a Ponyard which she had hid under her Attire and therewith twice pierced her heart which he could not in any wise hinder and immediately fell down dead upon the Body of her Mother adding only these few Words It 's Clearque who hath slain me O Kion revenge me of Clearque These Words pronounced from the Mouth of a dying Mistriss wrought a strange effect on this poor Lover and the consequence made appear that he had too much love to survive her if he had not courage enough to revenge her This Stranger aged only twenty five or twenty six years had a younger Brother than himself named Leonides with whom he was bound in such a strict degree of friendship the like whereof was rarely exemplify'd amongst men I have never bin able to learn their Countrey nor yet their Birth only I learnt since that they had both studied in the Schools of Plato and that there was two years that curiosity of Travels had caus'd them to roam the World and that they were return'd from Gaul whence they declared their Original was Their design had bin immediately to pass farther and after they had seen as they had done the major part of Europe to run over all Asia but the love of Kion and the delectable fellowship of Leonides for his dear Brother had stay'd them both at Heraclea Kion being then come as well as he could from the view and sight of that dismal and bloudy Spectacle ran towards his Brother his heart pierc'd with Love and Grief declared to him with a thousand regrets and sighs the deplorable piece-meales and passages of this tragical Accident and in the transport of his Desperation imbraced him and demanded his Succour to revenge the death of Olympie Neither the friendship nor the great courage of Leonides could not permit him to refuse any of the Supplications or Desires of Kion And behold a resolution truly worthy of the Love of the one and friendship of the other and the courage of both The Tyrant never walked but in the middle of two hundred of his Guards He had the insolence to call himself the Son of Jupiter and as a badge or mark of his Extraction he caused to be carried before him an Eagle of Gold and his Busquins or Boots all embroidered with precious Stones and Jewels So that this Slave being apparrelled with the Pomp State and Authority of a King made all Heraclea tremble by the sole port and equipage of his Person and of his Train and Attendants All that which there remain'd amongst the Citizens were Groans under the weight of his Tiranny There pass'd not a day that he perpeted and imbrued himself in some sanguinary Murder there was neither Wealth nor Liberty but only for Slaves and in the mean time these poor Citizens had their Souls so amated and dismayed and their Hearts so violently quelled and born down that they served themselves only with wishing the death of the Tyrant without the courage to undertake it and saw themselves so Massacred one after another not one daring to revenge it But this part seemed not possible to come forth from any other than from the hand of some God and there appeared not a possibility in Men to give a Deaths wound to another who never would leave himself to be approached but across through two hundred Halberdtiers However Kion and Leonides undertook it and the honor of the deliverance of Heraclea from the most abominable of all Tyrants joyn'd to the Transports and to the excellent Movements Agility and Disposition of love and friendship wherewith they were animated they resolved without difficulty or hesitation to expose their own lives to render themselves Masters of his They therefore armed themselves immediately each one with a Ponyard and went to the Pallace demanding speech with Clearque under pretence of having some difference betwixt them of some great Importance which they would refer to the King and being by this artifice introduced and way made to the Tyrant they took their time so oportunely that in the very instant that Clearque list'ned to him who first spake the other drew his Ponyard and with the very first stab wherewith he was pierced this infamous Captain of Slaves fell stark dead at his feet Immediately the Guards ran upon them but their number dismayed them not and resolving to dye yet to sell very dearly their lives they set upon the Souldiers athwart their Pikes and Swords and ceased not killing until they were in conclusion borne down with blows they deferred putting them to present death reserving them for a barbarous and cruel Execution and in that resolution they shut them up in the very Chamber where were the Corps of the Tyrant and they placed Guards upon them In the mean time the rumor and â—ame of this Action was spread immediately throughout all the City of Heraclea It awakned the courage of the Inhabitants who running to their Arms and impatient to have at least the Bodies of their Deliverers in the hands of those by whom 't was said they were slain came in Troops crowding to the Pallace And beleaguering it they at last forced the rest of these unfortunate Slaves who kept it to redeem their Lives in the surrendry of Kion and Leonides into their hands It 's in no wise possible to express the joy they conceived when they found them living nor yet to describe what Marks and Tokens all the Popullacy sparkled and glittered forth in testimony of their grateful resentments Some immediately seized the Corps of the Tyrant dragging it through the Streets and i' th' end tearing it in a thousand pieces Others sounded and echo'd out Elegies and magnificent Triumphs setting forth Trophies in memory of their generous and unparrallell'd Deliverer you had said they
had bin taken for Gods They fell before them in Troops upon their knees lifting them upon their Shouldiers and so pompously carried them to the publick Guild-Hall or town-house and through an extreme zeal which they suppos'd to be more fatal to the lives of these two illlustrious Brothers than the very hands of their Enemies they for some time minded not but utterly forgot the dressing and healing of their own Wounds by a kind of an indiscreet ardour they had to render them the Honor worthy their acknowledgments In an instant the face of the whole City was changed the joy and allacrity pierced the hearts and was visibly demonstrated in the Visage of the Citizens when it had for a long time bin banished and exiled there was then seen no more heaviness but in those of the Slaves and Kion This generous and faithful Lover could not survive his Mistriss and after he had executed his Commission it seemed he would go and render her an account of it neither reason nor prayers could act any thing towards the mitigation of his Dolour there remained nothing but Friendship and Amity could oppose the mournful effects of his Love His brother and himself would willingly have bin set in one Chamber so that Leonides seeing the resistance that Kion made to all remedies Brother said he I believe I have sufficiently testify'd to you that I fear'd not to dye with you but I must also let you know that I cannot yet live without you Wherefore if you have resolv'd to dye tell me frankly and freely that I may not give my self the trouble unprofitably to labor the conservation of a Life which to me is of no value without yours Upon these Words he commanded the Chyrurgeons to cease and discharged them from further attendance in expectation of his reply Kion tenderly and gingerly look't upon him and would have obliged him to let them persist indeavouring to perswade him that he had neither cause nor reasonable subject to hate his life but Leonides having protested to him that he would not permit any further care to be taken of himself then should be seen that his Brother should take care of his own Kion was in fine constrained to live only to preserve the Life of his dear Leonides It 's true their care and recovery was very tedious and leisurely because their Wounds were great and grievous and for a considerable time almost desperate so that it occasioned the world to believe that they were dead but you will soon see they were reserved for more strange Adventures After the example of Heraclea the major part of the Cities of Pont were also held by small Tyrants who from being simple and petty Governors under old Antigonus had erected themselves to be so many Soveraigns shaking off the yoke of Tyranny and declared for Liberty but in regard these petty Kings chased from usurped Thrones were in League together to re-enter there with Satyre brother of Clearque the Cities likewise united amongst themselves and having levyed Troops for their universal and common Defence they elected for their Chieftain one valiantly unknown named Ariamene upon whom they conferr'd all the Authority of their Arms under the Title of Defender of the Liberties of the People My Lord I will not tell you any thing of this Ariamene a whole volum would be necessary separately to recount to you the History of his high Feats For over and above that the Renown of them is manifestly famous throughout the earth you will without any doubt have known that he had defeated Satyre and his Comrades in five different Battels that in the latter and that he himself with his own proper hands had slain three of these petty Tyrants and in sum had acquired so considerable a Reputation of Valor Liberality and Justice among the People of Pont and Cappadocia that after having fought during the term of four years for their sole Liberty they had voluntarily renounced him to submit it to Ariamene and that they had crowned him their King after they had had him four years for their Captain But let 's return to the History of our two brave Brothers The People of Heraclea being united and in league with other Cities of Pont levyed Troops which they sent to joyn with those of Ariamene and for a badge of Cognisance towards Kion and Leonides they remitted them to their sole Conduct These valiant Brothers so acquitted themselves of this trust and charge that it exceeded the possibility of all Expectations they declared to me that the grand Ariamene had divers times confess 't himself that he ow'd a considerable part of his Victories to their Valor Satyre and his Allies having bin defeated the two first Battels craved assistance of the King of Thrace and ingaged him in their Succour through hopes that they would even make him King of Asia This was my Lord at the self same time when the King your Father did me the honor to send me his Ambassador in Ordinary to Lysimachus and I learnt by the way that the King of Thrace had already pass'd into Asia with an Army composed of threescore thousand Men against the valiant Ariamene I was then obliged to find him in Asia and I arrived at his Camp only three days before this great Battel which was the commencement of his Losses the Success whereof I writ the King your Father It 's certain that when I arrived among the Thracians the Reputation of Ariamene how considerable soever it was did in no wise obliterate that of Kion and Leonides They were not only signalized by a hundred valorous Actions their amity and friendship did no less contribute to render them Illustrious They made it shine and glitter even against Envy and Emulation by a thousand remarkable passages nay in their Habiliaments and Array In effect they were seen always attyred after the same Mode and Method and armed in such sort as was sufficiently significant Their Heads were covered with Caskets or Helmets adorn'd with the figure of two Men aiding each other to sustain and uphold one heart in the midst whereof were plumes of Feathers of the colour of fire sorting or issuing it in guise of Flames to express the ardour of their friendly Amity This Motto was engraven under their Hearts One alone animates both For on the Scymeter were seen the trunk of a Man with two heads compassed and bound with a Crown of Laurel with these Words on the bust Amity makes but one On their Bucklers was depainted each of them peeping into a Looking-Glass which instead of his Visage represented to him that of his Friend Although these Portraits were small yet that did not leave them otherwise then to be marvelously resembling each other and the famous Protogene their friend had there so counterfeited the natural that having even demonstrated their Amity upon their Faces he seemed to have found the secret to paint their hearts That was the Body of the Devise or Embleme
withdrew and past away into a Cabinet or Chamber shutting the door after her and left me in such confusion that I am uncapable to depaint it Eleandre remained a little time in that same room to take breath afterwards continued in this sort I retired my self also a little after but yet a thousand times more in Love than I was ever before and with a greater desire to see her again although she had told me that I should not only lose my Design but my hope I took so much care to converse amongst Persons whose company she frequented upon whom I had some considerable influence I would not be discouraged This was not therefore a thing very facile nor easy for naturally she did not love Company and especially since the death of her Husband she made no Visits unless it were to those of her near Relations I insinuated my self therefore amongst others into the friendship of a Widow who was of her Cousins and one of her most intimate Friends named Olonie who signified to me the day and hour she was to come to her Habitation I arrived there a little after Erigone was there entred at the first sight of her in the Chamber I pretended I was surprized and seem'd willing to retire But Olonie who knew my Design recall'd me Where go you then Elandre said she Is there any one here of whom you are afraid Erigone who saw me enter rose up and as she sought a pretext to shun me she reply'd with an insolent and disdainful tone It must undoubtedly be my self my Cousin and therefore I go to leave you together At the very instant she went forth although her Relation did what possible might be imaginable to diswade her neither the offers I made to withdraw my self nor any thing else could prevail with her to remain there I did not retire my self nor would be repulsed for that and being inform'd another time that she was to come after dinner to the same Relation I first came there my design succeeded not a whit better but rather less by reason the Domesticks of Olonie knowing I was there she past away saying she came only to excuse her self I attempted three or four other times to accost her but she precautioned her self still with so much dexterity that she deprived me of all means or rather shut me up all the wayes but one which she her self did not defie and which was procured me in conclusion by the same Relation Olonie had a fair Countrey-house the other side of Larisse about fourty furlongs from the City and she engaged Erigone to spend there some certain days with her We conceived it expedient Olonie and my self that I should go there to find them but to avoid all imaginable suspicion I pretended my self ready to go forth from Larisse to return to my own home and as the house was in the way I feign'd to have bin fled and dismounted in passing by and that I would demand a retreat there until I might be able to return to make up my equipage at Larisse That which we had accorded and conserted to was put in execution and two or three days before the Voyage of Erigone having demanded a little audience of her to take my leave the refusal she made me prompted me to write her this Letter ELEANDRE to ERIGONE I Should be very angry that any other than my self should give you the good news I have to tell you I depart at last for Thebes Madam and thereby free you from the sight of that unfortunate one whom you so much hate who persecuted you every where and gave you so much and so many troubles to shun him A Novelty so pleasing to you doubtless merits your permission of my delivering it you vocalls but you have refus'd me that happy consolation by reason you had little or rather no regard to conserve the life and therefore wish no other than the death of ELEANDRE This Letter was given her but I thereto received no reply In fine Erigone and her Cousin departed and two dayes afterwards I mounted on horseback and arrived by night near the House of Olonie by reason I conceived that certain time most proper for my design I sent back my Servants and Horses to Larisse with directions to wait upon me there and as for my self I went on foot only with one Slave to the House of Olonie and counterfeited the best I could my Personage and even pretended that I had bin Wounded and put my Arm in a Scarf so that in effect Erigone was perswaded that I had bin fled and that I had only withdrawn my self to the house of Olonie through hazard and necessity and there to demand a place of retreat So that I had the time desired to remain there for as I had pretended the loss of my Equipage and that Olonie had sent back through design her Chariot to Larisse under some pretext I might continue there unsuspected until I had recovered the Horses To this feign'd design Olonie who was extremely jocund and merry betook her self to with jest me the self same Evening upon the account of my allighting and as she had an excellent Wit she pronounced a thousand pleasant Passages thereon and I rejoyn'd as pertinently as I could but what ever we could do that and the following Night it was impossible for us to ingage Erigone in our floricks I would say frolick and pleasant conversation but on the contrary she appeared to us still to be unconceivably melancholy So that the third day she became sick and from the commencement of her Malady or Disease the Physicians conceived that not only her self would be in great danger but even also those that approached her That caused Olonie to be surprized with fear because that at that certain time there was much discourse of the Plague she abandon'd her own house to go into that of one of her friends and left poor Erigone desolate to the discretion of her Domesticks And as I foresaw and observed the small Succor that she could have from those sort of People I resolved to remain with her even though my own life were indangered I would not therefore that she should know any thing least it might give her some disturbance I contented my self to have an eye to all that was conducing or might be convenient for her and gave order that nothing imaginable should be wanting My cares were crown'd with such happy success that she recovered and testifyed to me her grateful acceptance when she had understood it Then I found my Fortune a little changed as in relation to her but not according to my wishes for all the change that there was that she daign'd or vouchsafed sometimes to listen to unto me and in the end she came even to suffer me to practise and use my indeavours to divert her sometimes by sport and merriment We continued there fifteen days after her recovery and after the return of Clonie Erigone being not yet
fortified with strength sufficient to travel on the Road I and still feigning some pretext under which to dispence my departure I would not slip that opportunity without declaring more clearly and manifestly the passionate I had for her Love and now behold the manner how One day as Olonie was imploy'd in giving some necessary Orders I found my self all alone with Erigone walking upon a plat-form or great hillock where hence one might behold the fairest sight and prospect in the World and whence one might view all the beauty of the House Erigone understanding that I praised them after at a very high rate and above all that I could not cease to hold my peace with respect to the excellency of the fruit that we had there eaten and less yet of the good reception from our Hostess in common Indeed reply'd she to me smiling you have a very great deal of confidence to cause your self to fly here and come to help us to eat our fruits and a flight which hath led you to such a pleasant place amongst such good Company and who hath made you such good chear it 's to me extremely suspicious I conceal not from you reply'd I but that I have cause to complain if I have bin worse treated here then I expected for I believed my self abandoned for my furniture and array and I see well that 't will cost me my Heart and my Liberty She feign'd to believe that this sweetness and pleasance was for Olonie It 's to therefore reply'd she if you believe them be lost I would counsel you to take your flight for I would find that you should pay your shot very dear and that your Hostess would have worse treated you than she would have done thieves But Madam shall I reassume then what they have already lost to what purpose then would serve the flight unless it be yet in the loss of the hope of their recovery in withdrawing at a greater distance from her who hath taken them from us In this case reply'd she I have nothing to say to you you know in what plight your Affairs stand and it concerns you to consult your self It 's very much rather to you Madam reply'd I it 's much rather to you fâ—om whom I ought to demand counsel since that upon you alone depends the state of this poor heart and this poor liberty that I have lost Erigone appear'd astonish't turning her Eyes towards me and recoyling one or two Faces What Eleandre saith she Is it to me that you direct these words and remember you well who I am I remember it so well Madam reply'd I that I have your Image before my Eyes without intermission so that it 's engraven in my heart and tells me every hour and in every place that you are the fairest the most spiritual the most wise in a word the most accomplisht Persâ—n throughout the World You believe it not without doubt Eleandre reply'd she coldly and faintingly in betaking her self to walk for if you believed me wise you would not thus discourse me Madam reply'd I to her the love I have for you is so respective and pure that it cannot wound the vertue of the most scrupulous nor yet the most austere Wisdom of the World She paused yet a little at these Words and spake What you continue Eleandre I should fear lest some one should hear you for they would never imagine that you should have the boldness to treat of Love to the Widow of a Man whom you have slain at least that she would not have any conference with you Ah Madam reply'd I this presumption also costs me very dear for in fine I must not flatter you it There is six Months that I have lov'd you there is six Months that I seek occasion to declare it you there is six Months that I languish between hope and fear and 't is not but at the last extremity and upon the point of loss of life that I hazard my self to declare it you Yea Madam I lov'd you almost from the moment that I had seen you I had not sooner made that innocent which renders me so guilty in respect of essay towards you but that I was punisht by the same Eyes which were the Evidences of my Crime in causing me to be arrested detain'd and made Prisoner you bound me in other bonds much more strong and ponderous than those of the Justice and when you demanded my Sentence of Death from the Judges you your self prepared me one whence they were in no capacity to deliver me Eleandre reply'd me Erigone I conceive that you have without doubt lost your Wits There is no doubt thereof Madam reply'd I doubt not thereof I have too strong a passion for you to be able to preserve me my Senses and I pride my self that I have lost them since it depaints and marks out the violence of my Love Well said Eleandre reply'd she it 's convenient to pity you and the sole pity that I can altogether consent to discharge my obligation to you and to that of my Husband I will have you reassume your Wits and thereby let you see by good reason how rediculous and extravigant your Enterprize is and hath bin and accordingly to capacitate your self in making reflections in order to your cure Madam interrupted I foreseeing where at she drove I have considered of all that you would have told me and possibly something more but of all that which is represented me I can find nothing that can hinder me from loving you because nothing can render you otherwise than infinitely amiable to me I very well know that I love a Person who hates me who regards me as her most mortal Enemy and that I am an object of her Aversion and Horror and who possibly would be glad to see my death which she hath already wished and prosecuted I know well that besides her aversion she will oppose me with a thousand reasons and those very pertinent and becoming In a word I very well know that I swim against a strong Torrent of Difficulties and Obstacles and that I cannot almost expect any reasonable hopes but I have very fairly had represented me all these things I love and it concerns you may Madam to tell me a stronger reason which excuse me from having bin able to tast any It 's not that I imagine that I act with reason I cannot then hope to convince you For give me leave Madam to tell you this wherefore this hatred and this capital Aversion against a Man who never had other than a tender respect for you If you have lost your Husband was not he even himself the primarily original Cause What is there that I have contributed but an innocent Will and what but a design to save you It was a furious Malady that possest him to precipitate himself in despight of me upon his own ruin If you hate all that was any way contributary towards his death hate him
essayed all the different and various ways imaginable Telamon who was tender and complaisant entred into the sentiments of his dear Brother and that was no other but in dissembling his grief that he indeavoured to mitigate and sweeten it Ergaste who had his Wits more prompt and witty opposed it openly and would have convinced him by reason Celemante having an humour more frolick was desirous to make a diversion of his displeasure and indeavoured by little and little to change their serious discourses and considerations to more pleasant and jocund Entertainments Agamée who was preoccupied and forestalled with his own proper displeasure retired always to himself and consolated him by his own example Amongst other things Telamon said unto him My dear Brother without doubt you have cause to be afflicted but you must not therefore figure and frame things to the utmost extremity after the Idea of your own troubled imagination you know very well that Zelie is wise and you also do not in any wise doubt but that she loves you and the very last words that you your self repeated are a very authentick and an assured testimony thereof You ought not therefore to think that Zelie being prudent would not do any thing of concernment and importance without due and mature consideration nor that she loving you could take any resolution which might wound the amity and friendship she bears you That which I imagine is that this Shepherdess not being willing to see you against the Will of her Father and moreover not being able to live so near you without your sight she is possibly withdrawn to the house of some one of her Friends and there to attend the change of Lucippe However it be said Ergaste I find Tarsis you have no new subject to afflict your self How long hath it bin that you told us that you had lost hopes to espouse this Shepherdess and that you are reduced even to that necessity to deprive your self of her sight In very deed you ought to esteem your self happy in an occasion which should finish the dissolution of your Ingagements and thereby rendred you free and at liberty without which you had it may be bin in some more than ordinary pains and trouble to have had a recovery Have you not been not long since in the most dismal and deplorable state imaginable For I avow to you for my part that of all the tortures and racking torments of Love I find none so unsupportable as to be near one beloved and to be obliged to live and to live as if they were separated a hundred thousand â—urlongs and to be present and absent all at once that is to say to feel the movements of ardour and impatience which represâ—nts the presence of the Mistress and at the self same time all the regrets imaginable all the inquietudes and in a word all the troubles and pains of absence It must be avow'd reply'd frolick Celemante if we were all very wise we should never dream of having to do either with love or friendship and I say it all before thee Ergaste than me the very first I was very much a fool when I went to ingage my self to be thy friend For tell me a little if there be any thing more rediculous than to see a Man who hath still naturally more pains and trouble than he can sustain should he yet go and contrive and associate himself and bring upon his own self the troubles of others and that by example that I should go and constrain my self to condole all thy displeasures and regrets to be a Co-partner and Comrade in all thy weaknessess and to suffer for all thy follyes But that which is worst of all must it not be the loss of ones Wits and Senses to be figured as I have formerly bin as if I could not live without thee as if I had already lived there in times past and as if there were not one hundred thousand others with whom I might live without doubt much better Ergaste answered him not by reason he sufficiently divined what was his intention and that he would leave him at leisure with Tarsis to make himself applications upon these reflections So Agamée began to speak O Shepherd said he addressing himself to Telamon that you have reason to say if we were very wise we should never dream of Love for can there be put into the Spirit of a Man any thing more dangerous than a desire to overpress and overwhelm our selves with longer pinings and impatient Consumptions and which makes our destiny depend upon a feeble Sex unconstant capricious petulant and in as great an incapacity to command as to obey I can better speak than any other Person because I know it by experience and that I envy Tarsis all the subject that he believeth he hath to be afflicted Telamon who sought no other than an occasion to take from Tarsis the application which had unfortunately seized his Spirits had bin very joyful to have taken these pretexts and ingage Agamée to make them a recital or repetition of his Adventure imagining that he would not have made any scruple to tell it since he made no complaints before them and he demanded this repetition so much the more willingly in regard he remembred that he had heard him spake before that if Tarsis knew it he might thereby be able to meet with reasons to consolate himself But in regard they found themselves so near that Hamblet and that it was likewise very late and that Agamée had Affairs which obliged him to retire to his Hosts house he besought Telamon to remit the party or match to another day and quitted them with impatience to rejoyn them which is not comparable but to the extraordinary esteem which he had conceived for these illustrious Shepherds The End of the Third Book Tarsis and Zelie The Fourth BOOK TARSIS reposed not all night he wholly spent it in such regrets and alarms which are not conceiveable framing in his conceit a thousand dismal resolutions the execution whereof was not suspended but though I know not some remaining hopes that he supposed or felt even ready to finish He repast and went over again yet a thousand times more all the circumstances of his disgrace but the more reflections he made thereon the more he found subjects and grounds of desperation For though he had bin willing to perswade his Brother that assurance that he had to have heard and seen Zelie in the same boat which he had over-taken by swimming the preceding Night and where he also had not however found her moment afterwards that meeting that he had made the Morrow of the same Boat by the brink of the River according as he conjectured by the roll of Papers which he there had found this unprofitable search that not only himself but so many other persons whom he had still known had made all the day by the orders of Leucippe and Melicerte and above all that resolution
of truth in some part of what you have told me But there is yet therefore no long time that I am here that they should reproach me for abandoning the Design for which I left Egypt What if it be permitted to relinquish it after a Victory ought there not therefore a time of repose to be allowed after a Shipwrack Go go Stilpon when I shall pass more yet eight dayes at Corcyre I shall not have bin a longer time than there would have bin necessity to repair our Ship when we were saved from the Storme judge and consider if having bin wholly lost my retardment was not an excuse lawful enough my Lord my Son asked him What do you think to do in those eight dayes that you are willing to spend here I think reply'd he I may in some respect gain the favour of Arsinoe And when you have got her favour reply'd my Son do you make account to abandon her Ah Stilpon cryâ—d he that as Treachery whereof thou oughtest not to believe me capable of My Lord answered presently my Son avow therefore that you deceive your self when you think of being here but eight days more But would they not also say that you think not to go out of your Way and Life and that you set a bound here to all your Designes and Hopes Think you only neither of making up your Equipage and Furniture nor of providing you a Ship or Vessel as for the rest what hopes is there for you to succeed near to Arsinoe you avow me your self that she flyes from you that she will not listen to you alone out of the presence of her Parents and if you have been many days waiting to speak with and discourse her once when she did defye you you will be some years without effecting it now when she hath Ground and Cause to precaution her self In one word my Lord you are so hopeless on this point and subject that you are reduced even to come to me to ask Counsel and Advice I avow to thee that that gives me trouble reply'd the Prince But wherefore should I not discover it to Argené nor to Stâ—sicrate What my Lord continued my Son you think to make a Father and Mother Confidents of a Gallantry for their Daughters Why not Stilpon added Philadelphe I have so pure and respectful a Passion for Arsinoé that I am assured that neither Stesicrate nor Argené can never find a reason wherewithal to oppose or gainsay it But my Lord continued my Son you pretend therefore to espouse Arsinoé for in fine I believe not that neither Father nor Mother as Wise as they can find Honesty in a Passion which should have another reach Thou pressest me too much Stilpon cry'd here the Prince ask me not that which I do not yet apprehend my self All that I can say unto thee that is thou can'st if thou wilt prepare all things for our departure But whatever may or can arrive or come to pass I will yet once again speak with Arsinoe My Son would not lose the occasion from the ensuing day and forward he went into the Neighboring City to make Sale of some Diamonds of those which he had saved and from thence to the next Port where he hired a Bark to transport them to Sicily and having made an agreement he came to render an account to his Master Philadelphe had spent that day in strange disquietments For on one side the sensibility he had for all the things of Honour caused in him some shame to lose time for a Maiden when for Reputation and Glory sake it behoved him to have a care of rendring an account to the King his Father and on the other side his Love dethroning and destroying all the efforts and endeavours of his reason caused him to reject and pass by all that Glory and Repute only for one fair Chimera and left him not the Solidity to consider but only the pleasures and delights that he could hope for in the Society of Arsinoe the fair But that which Tyranized the most that he himself did not very well conceive his Designs For he well enough saw on one side that he should not expect any thing from Arsinoe that might invalidate her Vertue and he loved her with so pure true and sincere a Tenderness that he himself durst not infringe it nor yet desire it He judged very well also on the other side that he was neither of Age nor in Place nor yet in a state to dream of Marriage and which is yet more in despight of all the preventions of his Love his reason still reproach'd him with I know not what Treachery or rather absurdity to be left so absolutely overcome and vanquisht at the first shock or meeting of a simple Maiden and who had obliterated and forgotten all even to the honour and dignity of his Birth In this Combat of Honour and of Love he observed all the reasons on one side but all his own proper Inclinations carried him to the other and there arrived him in this encounter that which occurrs to all those who not daring to take the part between two puissant adversaries and willing to please and manage them both render the one and the others Enemies In sum he resolved to finish his Voyage in Sicily to go there and spend some years in seats of Arms and signalize himself there by some Exploits worthy his Name But before hand to assure himself if it were possible of the Heart of Arsinoé to discover himself to her and promise to return to her when he had rendred his Birth that which he ought it and even to do in time all things that might be conducible to the happy and laudable success of his Love So he gave a shock to his Passion in quitting Arsinoe he shockt his Honour by the thoughts of an alliance so unequal he exposed himself to the reproaches of Honour and of Love he rendred them both Enemies and instead of placing his Mind in rest and quiet from one side or the other he Cumbred and intricately intangled himself with both He made these Resolutions walking about the dwelling of Arsinoe when he met a Slave who approached him with a design to have gained him and to ingage him to carry some Ticket but he was much amazed when this Slave told him that Stesicrate and Argené were departed the self same Morning very early to make a Voyage some Months in a place that this Slave knew not of and where they had conducted Arsinoe with them Philadelphe presently believed as it was true and so much he understood afterwads that he had bin the cause of that departure his Presence having given them some cause to suspect him after he had made a discovery of his Love to Arsinoé and its impossible to me to delineate or depaint what the affliction of this Prince was at the report and certainty of this piece of News He fayled not immediately to take a resolution to go
in quest of her for he verily conceived that she could not be gone out of the Island and doubtless he would have gone if my Sâ—n had not imploy'd all that might be thought imaginable in his Endeavours to divert and disswade him In short Stilpon acted so well that he obliged him to imbark and having made him quit all his amorous designs and no more to dream of them till his return they fortunately passed over into Sicily Agatocle as I have told you was then waging War with Dinocrate and my Prince went to find him in his Army He offered himself as a Voluntier without naming himself and would not then make himself known but by his laudable and honourable Feats and Actions I will here pass by the retayling of them for in so doing his Merits would give us subject and matter sufficient for a long History But all that being no part of but quite besides my design I will content my self to declare to you that my Prince did there so signalize himself by such very extraordinary Exploits that Agatocle immediately considered him above any amongst all his Troops It cannot be expressed with what Honours he received him when Philadelphe made himself understand by that which was nor by how many Marks he signified to him his esteem and his acknowledgment After the War was finisht he would have made him make a solemn and publick entry into Syracuse and determin'd a kind of Triumph but my Prince was unsensible of all these Honours and although he had made the War as if he had had but that in his mind he had no other thing there than only Love Arsinoé return'd without surcease or any intermission into his imaginations and that which is unceivable as if he had had some Joy in those occasions wherein he signalized himself it was not but that he dreamed that he should be more worthy of Arsinoé Will you not admire this effect of Love Philadelphe as great a Prince as he was yet notwithstanding conceived himself unworthy of a simple Maiden whom he saw in a condition so disproportionable to that of his and his Passion made him appear to her a subject of emulation to make him to research with pleasure the most difficult and perilous occasions in exposing himself But this is yet much more strange the War continued two years and at the end of those two years his Love that so many important and diverse occupations should dissipate appear'd no other than much more forcible and violent My Son was extraordinarily surprized for he believed that that fantasy had bin absolutely past because he had seen him so fixed to functions and feats of Arms that one would have believed that he had forgotten all other things but he soon made it appear that it was a fire which lay hid under the ashes and that it was not shut up but to gather together all its forces and to shine glitter and beam forth in its time with much more ardour and violent heat Stilpon then was much astonisht when that some days after the return of Agatocles unto Syracuse my Prince said unto him Well Stilpon do you now find that I remember my self of the Design which made me quit Egypt and that I have in some measure filled and satisfied the expectation that thou did'st conceive of a Son of the great Ptolomée My Son who knew not to what this Discourse tended answer'd him with testimonies of esteem and admiration that all the Island of Sicily had by his great courage and by his gallant Exploits observ'd his worth And then the Prince reassumed thus 'T is too much Stilpon it sufficeth me that I have done no more shame to the Name of the great Ptolomée that thou reproachest me no more but that I seek to relinquish my self before the labour and that thou believest I have at least desevred some moments of rest which I will go to take at Corcyre My Son who immediately understood him and who still apprehended for him that amusement would answer him but Philadelphe interrupted him saying Listen Stilpon I have had enough of time to consult of that design to tell me even to my self all the things that thou canst represent unto me and if they were to vanish it would have done it after the indeavors through which I have fought these two years but I could never yet be able to take my self from the thoughts of my imagination and I can only dream of joy not of rest but in thoughts of making another voyage to Corcyre After all this discourse he commanded my Son to prepare all things in readiness for their departure and some days afterwards he departed from Sicily and made for Corcyre leaving after him an universal regret not only in the King but all the Court I cannot describe you the joy nor yet the ravishments that he had when he approached Corcyre for they exceed not only Expression but Imagination also He made us to land at the Port the nearest could be to the house of Stesicrate and without delay he walked there alone with my Son leaving all the rest of his Retinue in the Ship He past first by the house where they formerly had both lodged there to speak and to inform them of the news of Arsinoe and was much surprized to learn that neither she nor Stesicrate nor Argene had dwelt in the Island that astonisht him so much more because he expected there to find them upon the report of a Man whom he had sent there express from Sicily some days before his departure Alas what is become of them demanded the Prince all abasht My Lord answered they There are about fifteen days since they imbarked themselves in a strange Vessel and knew not well whence she was But there ran a secret or heedless report that it was a great King had sent to fetch Arsinoe At these words the love of the Prince fail'd not to put into his Mind a thought whereof all others than a Lover had never bin capable of For he believed that this King had undoubtedly sent for her to espouse her and his jealousy immediately possessed him therewith mixing it with his imagination Ah Stilpon cry'd he it 's doubtless a Rival hath carried her away but however it be he is more worthy of Arsinoe than Philadelphe because he hath not treacherously hesitated as he upon an imaginary inequality in point of Birth Not so my Lord reply'd he who had spoken to him for they said she was his daughter The Spirit of the Prince was somewhat revived by this discourse but I deceive my self for he passed and went only from one Passion to another of Jealousy and incredible transportations and astonishments of joy Arsinoe daughter of a King reply'd he much moved I know not precisely nor exactly if it were a King answer'd the other but they said at least that it was some great Prinâ—e Philadelphe was sometimes in a sweat then presently turning to my Son Hah
to make her a declaration of his Love and for whom she had also already conceived movements strong enough of high esteem and good liking But this surprize caused in her heart an effect far different from that which was produced in that of Philadelphe For instead of the grief wherewith he was perplexed she was ravished with joy in contemplating the fortune that was made her now in having such a Brother to resent these first and obscure movements of friendship and amity that she had already conceived for Philadelphe unknown justified by the duties of those of Nature and consanguinity and in one Word she appeared a Sister that rebovered a Brother and he a Lover which had lost a Mistress All the Court observed their Emotion they presently knew the cause of that of Arsinoe but they knew nothing then of that of Philadelphe and after the Prince who never had heard say that Berenice had had any other Daughter than Antigone except one who died very young had learnt from the Queen that she who was thought to have bin dead was she who had only bin lost till then by these passages she told him this Prince too much confirmed in his own Misfortune found himself obliged to pretend some indisposition to have thereby cause given him to go and hide his displeasure and so all at once to let his regret have its free course From the time he retired to his Chamber he dismiss'd all others except my Son and being at liberty to bemoan himself he cast him desolately upon his Bed and with tears in his Eyes he abandon'd himself to a thousand regrets and so many marks of afflictions which could never have bin expected from Love of which was not yet quite declared O Arsinoe cry'd he O Arsinoe I lose you and when I thought to have found you for perpetuity I see that I have lost you for ever I had a dread upon me that you were in an unknown Countrey that you had bin under the power of some Prince and an Adversary where I was not prevented by any or some Rival I rejoyced to see you in Egypt in the power of my Father which is as much as to say as in my own in the mean time I fear'd nothing that I apprehended I had no cause of trembling but of that which over-joy'd me I had nothing to doubt of but my Countrey but my Family but my self Alas must it be thus that when I think I am delivered from all that which could bear away Arsinoe from me must it be alas that I take her from my own self must I be my own Rival and must I make my own State more dismal and deplorable than all the Men in the World could have made it be my love was not but too forcible to make me tryumph over all the rest There is neither force nor powers of Princes and Kings whereof I had not hoped to have succeeded But what shall I do against this improvident Obstacle which I cannot make to cease unless I cease to be Philadelphe O Nature that thou didst not content thy self to give me an amity and friendship for Arsinoe since that thou hast made her to be born my Sister or wherefore didst thou cause her to be born my Sister since thou wouldst give me a Love so opposite to that of a Brother Why didst thou betray me Nature inspiring me a passion which thou wouldst oppose and wherefore betrayest thou thy self in making me sin against thee If thou wert blind why hast thou not bin so unto to the end He stopt there to give passage to a thousand sighs and thrust them forward with such violence that he seemed they were so many indeavors to make his Soul go forth That obliged my Son to approach him to see if he should be necessary to him and after the Prince had discern'd him Ah my friend said he unto him Thou art happy and I emulate thy Condition and thy Birth Thou art happy Stilpon that thou art not as I am Brother of Arsinoe Some Obstacle that the Gods had put to my Love at least there would have bin none invincible and this inequality of Birth and Fortune that thou hadst formerly so much represented and not kept me from the distance of that good Fortune of possessing Arsinoe in comparison of this too great equality which is betwixt us He stopt there yet a while afterwards reassuming a little his discourse But Stilpon continued he thinkest thou that Nature opposeth my Love she who seems in duty bound to fortify yet by this new tye whereto she fastens me to Arsinoe why should it be against Nature that two Persons formed from the same bloud should have so much simpathy among themselves as two strange Persons Would not this be to second his intention and inseparably to bind together what she hath already commenced to unite Something my Son said unto him all he was able to frame or figure wherein to consolate him but he could never come to an end and the Prince spent the Night in so many violent agitations of Spirit that it 's scarce possible to be imagined I went to see him the next day and found him in his Bed with a resolution there to spend the day for fear of being obliged to receive Visits or making of any and above all for fear of going to see the same Arsinoe whose presence in times past he longed afterand sighed for for he found himself in no capacity to approach her nor to consider her as his Sister and he mortally apprehended a conversation which had not made but renewed a mortal affliction He conceal'd not his disgrace from me nor yet his perplexity and I avow to you I was sensibly touched but I would not signify so much to him for his own sake and as I knew how much his Soul was naturally capable to suffer himself to be govern'd by reason I began to represent him the necessity of over-coming and vanquishing himself with the most forcible arguments and tearms that my affections could suggest and attacking him in that part through which I knew he would be most sensible I represented him these remainders of Love which he could not stifle nor suffocate not only as a weakness but as a great Crime He immediately made me a reply very coldly but on that which I prest him with most ardour and fervency he answered me That great Crime that you blame so much Straton hath notwithstanding found a probation amongst the Caldeans to whom there is great appearance that the verity of things present is known since they penetrate even for and in things for future Chrisippe that young Philosopher for whom I have seen and hear'd you testify so much admiration hath he not even pleaded and supported to you your self that love among Relations was more conformable than contrary to nature His Master the great Zenon hath he not bin of the same sentiment So that if you must find Authorities in entire
same Beauty that this unknown Arsinoe also had The Princess did apprehend this discourse with much facility Wherefore beholding the Prince with some Sentiments of that Compassion be required from her My Brother reply'd she unto him Philadelphe ought not to be here what he was at Corcyre since that Arsinoé is no more what she there thought her self to be and he ought also to remember himself that these petty Passions of an unknown One straying out of his Countrey are unworthy to be those of a Son of the great Ptolomée in Egypt Alas reply'd he would you that the Prince of Egypt and that unknown one had not the same Passions since that I told you that they both have but one and the same Heart O Arsinoé that it s easy to you to speak of this change to you who have not had but a change of Apparel and Condition But that it is there to see my self reduced me who must for so I may speak change Hearts and to despoyle my self of a Passion rooted within my Soul and which henceforth would make my Life full of all Hopes and Pleasures In uttering these words the Tears trickled down from his Eyes and though Arsinoé could not almost but apprehend a thing which could not be conceived but by those who had proved it she omitted not however to give him also some Marks that she was plyant soft and gentle That was some little Consolation to Philadelphe to see that she took part and share with him in his Grief and resented it and after some moments he said unto her At least my dear Sister it is true that you now have some little friendship and kindness for me and if I am so unfortunate that I must raze here and blot out a part of that affection that I had for you then you will have an affection for me which you formerly had not at Corcyre My Brother reply'd the Princess never doubt of my Kindness and Friendship and be assured that of all the new Duties and Devoirs to which the change of my Condition obliges me its him to whom I will tye my self the fastest and from that I will never depart These words gave some movements of Joy to Philadelphe who kissed the Hand of Arsinoe to testify to her his Obligation and Acknowledgment and having also on his part assured her of an inviolable Affection and which should never terminate but with that of his Life he betook himself to entertain her after the same Rate in which he had past all the time which had bin slâ—pt since their first interview and after his endeavours used to make her conceive to what a high Pitch the Passion of Love he had had for her was mounted unto he insensibly ingaged himself to her in an apologetical Discourse and after such a manner as will make me observe how he was yet preoccupied But is it possible said he to her that nature obligeth me to quit so strong a Passion as if by reason I have a double Subject to love you it must therefore be that you were more indifferent Ah my Sister avow with me that we are very unhappy to live in a Countrey where men are mingled to correct Nature and where as if they did not yet commit Crimes enough they have by new Laws made us new occasions of Sinning That the Gods did not cause us to be born amongst People less blinded That love wherewith they have made us guilty of a Crime in Egypt would be unto us a vertue amongst the Brittains amongst the Indians and in a thousand other Countreys But let 's go there my Sister and le ts make it our Countrey We cannot have a better than that wherein we shall be permitted to love one another Philadelphe had no sooner pronounced these words but that he well saw his Passion had transported him to say something which had not pleased Arsinoé He knew it by her Countenance and as he dreaded nothing more than her displeasure he was ready to retract when she answered him Brother what is it you demand and wherefore think you already â—o put my affection to such strange Proofs Let 's live here my dear Brother the Gods will have it so because they appointed us to be born here and content your self that I am your Sister for all your displeasures can never make me to be more unto you The Princess imbraced him in finishing without doubt 't was to repair the ill he had done by his words and afterwards taking him by the Hand she would have had him pass into another Chamber where there was People to interrupt afterwards that discourse and entertainment which she would not continue But Philadelphe which felt himself in a condition not very well able to begin another took leave of her and retired into his apartment altogether as sad as he came forth of it He past all the rest of the day in a Mood so mute and melancholy as is unconceivable and that which infinitely Rackt and Tortured him that he could not dispence with the Visits that were made him and which augmented his Pain by the constraint and trouble they rendred him in this his affliction Yea he found that the sight of Arsinoé did no other than reinvenom his Wound and that there was no means of Cure in presence of her who had given it All that which he imagined might prove a Remedy was the hopes he had in the change of his Brothers qualifications for whom he still conserved that wonderful Tenderness he had had from his Infancy He had not seen him since his return by reason there had already bin eight days that Ceraune was gone a Hunting fifteen or sixteen Miles from Alâ—xandria Wherefore he went to find him there with design to have spent some time with him in the Countrey But he found little ground or subject of Consolation scarcely had Ceraune seen him only arriving he treated him with such Insolence Arrogancy Disdain Fierceness Cruelty and Inhumanity not like an elder Brother but an Enemy so that poor Philadâ—lphe was constrained to return the same day that he was gon there Make you I pray some reflections upon his misfortune and observe how much he was persecuted by two opposite Passions The hatred of his Brother constrained him to shun and flye him and he was forced to shun and keep at distance from his Sister in regard of his Love In this necessity he well saw that there was no consolation for him in Egypt and he dream't of nothing more than to seek some occasion to quit it a second time He had the most honourable that he could desire For in that time chanced the famous troubles which confederated and combined all the Successors of Alâ—xander the great against the Kings Antigonus and Demetrius Ptolomée levyed a considerable Army to send into Sicily where were to be joyned all the Troops of his Party and he gave their conduct to Philadelphe It 's here where I shall have
publick Place where all the Souldiers were in Arms and all the People attentive and in expectation of what would follow such great preparatives he there made a long Oration upon the affections which he had alwayes had for his People and the cares he had taken to educate and bring up his Children in an inclination and disposition of Peace necessary for the better Government of his Subjects from thence he fell to discourse of the different Manners and Qualifications of his two Sons and putting again into the Mind and Memory of the Egyptians of the magnificent and famous Feates and honourable Actions of Philadelphe wherewith all his Subjects were very exceedingly satisfyed and well pleased he there afterwards those of miscontent and displeasure which he and they had received from Ceraune After he had aggravated the three fratercides wherewith this cruel Prince would have caused his Brother to perish and to be destroyed the violent ravishment and carrying away the two Princesses his Confederacy and Treaty even with the known Enemies of the State for they knew he made one with Lysimachus to assure himself a retreat into his Kingdom after he had amplified and laid open at large all the circumstances of his Crimes he at last publickly declared his Dissheirison and thereby declared his Son Philadelphe his sole and only Successor And that there might be no shadow nor ground nor cause of contest against his Title I say to impede or hinder what possibly might be questioned after his death and to take and deprive Ceraune from all means of imbarking the People in Civil-War and intestine jars and commotions he added that it was his Will and Declaration his Resolution of putting Philadelphe in present possession of the Crown and that he appointed and published him King of Egypt resigning into his hands all his Power Privileges and Prerogatives Royal reserving only unto himself the Degree of his Prime and Principal Subject and Captain of his Guards At the same Even the self same moment having caused Philadelphe to approach who had not followed him there but against his Will because he dreamt of nothing else but his departure in quest of Arsinoe and was importunate against all things that might delay or any wise frustrate his design the King repeated to him the precedent declaration and having constrained and obliged him to sit down upon a Royal Throne which he had purposely and expresly commanded to be prepared he with his own hands placed the Crown Royal upon his head the Scepter in his hand and then and there swore himself his faithful Subject and declared and owned him to be his Master his Leige Lord and Soveraign King If this Oration and memorable Action which immediately followed it caused an astonishment amongst the Egyptians it gave them ground cause and subject of much more incomparable joy and admiration for as much hatred and aversion as they had and conceived against Ceraune even so much love and respect had they for Philadelphe But Philadelphe for his own self in particular was so surprized and so confused in receiving such marks and signs of deference and submission from a Father for whom he had such obsequious and venerable respect that he could not possibly resolve to accept these rare and illustrious Testimonies of a Love so Royal and Paternal What wonderful Miracle was that not that the Land of Egypt beheld not on that day Certainly future Ages will scarcely have faith to believe it It saw a great King which was the delight of his People and the terror of his Enemies voluntarily descend from the Throne and there to cause his Son to ascend it and I there saw the Son refusing to mount into the Throne and use all his utmost indeavours there to retain and hold his Father In sum so it must be that Philadelphe yielded and gave place unto the absolute Will of Ptolomée but it was not by a deference and it may be said that he consented not to be King but to give a pregnant demonstration of obedience both as a Son and as a Subject In the interim do not in any wise believe that this great change and transmutation of the condition and state of my Prince made any kind of alteration in his love nor yet grief and dolour believe not that he judged the gift of a Kingdom was capable to consolate him to ballance the loss of Arsinoe Ambition had not power to suspend remove or discharge him one moment from the thoughts nor perplexing inquietudes of his Love and all that which Prince Philadelphe had resolved for the recovery of this Princess Philadelphe the King would also execute He had already sent to all Parts and Coasts to learn news of the two Princesses but that was a thing that appeared to him but little worthy of his Love to seek after them by the means of others only his passion defyed him the cares and diligence of all others He would therein imploy himself and in that very resolution and design he would depart the following Night without speaking any thing to Ptolomée knowing he would have opposed it Only he resolved to leave a Letter with some of his People to give unto the King after his departure and began one in these terms Philadelphe to King Ptolomée Health SIR I a thousand times beg pardon of your Majesty if I dare without his leave depart from being near her and if it appears that I acted the part of an ill Son it will soon make an Apology for me to so good a Father But Sir one so good as your Majesty is merits him the conservation of all his Children so that if I remove one from him for some few dayes I protest to your Majesty it 's not but to essay to return them to you very suddainly altogether I entred into his Chamber when he was there with his Letter and although he presently resolved not to discover his design unless it were to those that to him were necessary so it came to pass that my presence and the kindness he had for me tempted or prompted him to make me a participant I was not surprized with that resolution for I know the fervour and greatness of his Love But as it seemed to me on this occasion to be altogether blind I took the liberty to tell him my Sentiments I then represented to him that Philadelphe King of Egypt ought not hence forward to imagine himself yet to be Prince Philadelphe that in receiving the Crown he had well changed conditions and obligations Think you my Lord said I that you are now to your self as you then were to dispose of according to your passions and willing inclinations and to run about the World as a single and simple Adventurer and to expose your self to all the fantastical conceits humors and capricio's of Fortune Know my Lord that you now at present are united by very streight tyes and strong ligaments and by indispensable obligations to your Estate that
Edges were covered with a Tissue of Flowers which seemed an admirable piece of Embroydery Her Vestment or upper Garment was trust and tuckt up of the left side a little below the Knee which left appearing visible the Buskins of the same trimming and Livery Her right Hand was armed with three Arrows or Shafts and in her left she carried a Bow of Ebony the string whereof was Tissued with Silk of the same Colour of her Attire Her Head was adorned and deckt with a Hat of Flowers whereof the diversity and variety of Colours mixed made them infinitely delightful But that was but a faint and feeble Ornament in comparison of that which is Imbued and dyed white the most delicate and admirable of the World with many black Locks which hung negligently upon her Shoulders and which formed into many Rings seem to inforce themselves to ascend again to their first and fair Original and Ofspring Be not astonished Agameé to see that I stay rather to describe you this than her Pitch Stature and Countenance I leave to your imagina to make out the Portrait of these Miracles which cannot be depainted nor delineated As soon as they had let go one of the Birds she shot the Arrow so directly that she smote his Head the very first flight and made it fall down dead in the very middest of the Assembly A thousand out-cries of Joy burst out at the same Instant and they saw this fair Shepherdess with a Gayety and chearful Alacrity which is sufficiently remarkable how much satisfaction she received to have had better Success than any of her Companions yet had done Tarsis followed her with his eyes the longest he could and had much regret when he had lost her in the middle of a thousand other Shepherdesses amongst whom she betook her self The State wherein I then saw him made me immediately presage something of his misfortune Although he was naturally cheerful and full of alacrity yet he was always sad until he had seen fair Zelie return again and that by another Shot having deprived another Bird of its Life by a second Flight made after it after she had let it go she finished the taking away of the Shepherds Liberty She appeared the third time with the like success as she had done the two first but her Consorts could not perform the same The major part failed in their Shots and if I should stop at the Presages I would tell you that those of that day which was that of the Birth of her Love were so unfortunate that one Bird having bin struck and pierced by a shot of an Arrow ceased not to flye away to the great amazement of all the Assembly After the Ceremony we went to see the Shepherdesses and Tarsis having saluted them all he approached to Zelie in particular with whom he had some discourse which renewed his Wounds and rendred his Malady incurable In very truth fair Shepherdess said he you have born off much Honour but however complaints are made that you could not kill Birds without wounding of Men. I did not belive I had bin so out of Decorum or unseemly reply'd she with an amiable blush and I so exactly observed the fall and descent of all the Arrows I shot that I am very well assured I gave not any person whatsoever Ground Cause or Subject to complain of me You have not heeded reply'd Tarsis nor known the ill that 's done by the Flights and Shots whereof I speak since possibly you know not whom you have pierced They ought therefore to pardon me replyed she since it 's without any design that I have done the evil whereof I am accused Also they never will reproach you fair Shepherdess reply'd Tarsis and they who do it do it less to signifie their displeasure than by boasting themselves to have had the honour of being wounded by you She reply'd him not and to dispence with her self she took an occasion by the arrival of some other Shepherdesses The rest of the day was spent without any of his further declaring otherwise than only the ill she had done him But see the great Transmutation and change that his love produced in him at the same Instant and so forward since it carried him away not only to undertake to make Verses or Rimes of the praise of Zelie but even to make in publick an Essay of a Trade or Calling wherein he never was concerned nor had intermedled Behold therefore Agamée what was the Subject of the first Elogy that you now go to see I do not remember my self that they were those of other Shepherds I know some compared the direct Shots out of a Bow made by Zelie to that of Diana Others said she had stollen the secret from Apollo as well as the glittering and shining cast of her Eyes Others in fine said that 't was hard to judge to which she would serve best either the Arrows of Diana or those of Love but however it be behold the Sizain or Dictates of my Brother Madrigal It 's not possible to be weary of admiring your direct Aim nor yet your incomparable even due Measure and just proportion of levelling Shots and Flights with which you infalliby Slay even my self the first I covet and desire it and therefore praise you But Zelie in secret my heart disavows me and saith you either smite or you see not I well see that you desire to know what was the effect of the preceding lines you see well he had not the perfection of a Poet or that should be given to a good Poet and however it is or be it how t' will be by the favour of the Judges be it by the grace in which he sings them they carry the Prize and Tarsis had the satisfaction not only to have most worthily praised Zelie but which is more that of receiving a recompence with his own Hands The Prize was a Dart or Javeling whereof the Head or Shaft was guilt which he went to receive upon his Knees from the fair Hands of Zelie and in its receit he said unto her Ah! Divine Zelie you gave me Weapons too late since it was not done but after I was vanquished and overcome The Morrow was the day of the bloody Sacrifice and as it is the first of the year which begins amongst us it s the ancient Custom there to make small Presents one to the other which we call New Years Gifts Present or Handsel That was the Subject of the succeeding Lines which behold have no great need of a greater explication A New Years Gift Shepherdess Custome will have it that every Shepherd is disposed this day to give if he can something to his Shepherdess it 's a Law and standing Ordinance established amongst us and accordingly observed which puts me in extream Pain for what have I which is not yours you know even your self that I am yours even I my self but now to determin and put me out of Pain permit me to
give you a little Love for your New Years Gift Shepherdess it s all my Wealth suffer me to bestow it upon you you have none neither and as for me I have more than any Person After that Telamon had yet read those Lines Agamée would have spoken to testify him that they were to his good liking and was astonished they were the lines of a learner as Telamon said But the Shepherd who foresaw that if the Athenian would also speak and declare his Sentiment of every Piece he would advance but very little in much time moreover he well thought that possibly he would not often praise them but because they believed that that might do him a Pleasure he said unto him I know well Agamée that your Complaisance and delight would oblige you to praise themselves even those whom you possibly might find worthy but as that would not make us some interruption in our design I will tell you that your Attention and your Silence would serve me instead of the greatest Approbation that you can give them Agamée having promised him the one and the other Telamon persisted thus in taking a third Paper You would not understand these here if you did not unfold and explicate the subject a little more and longer than I have done those of the last I have told you that Tarsis did passionately love Zelie ever since he had seen her as young and as I may say as much a Child as she was But Zelie did not in the like manner love Tarsis but contrarily these lines had for a foundation a sufficiently pleasant kind of inquietude that she had for that after my wedding and all my Relations being returned to their own homes she saw that Leucippe and Melicerte had retained Tarsis with me to continue some days at Calioure For Tarsis in his new born passion sought always to be near her and to talk to her of some kind of worthy Feats and gallant pranks Zelie who had not yet scarcely seen the World found her self uncapable or unable to answer him not that she had not already wit enough as you may very well judg by her former answers but she had not that boldness to express her self which is not acquired but by the frequenting of company and that diffidence which she had of her self was accompanyed with a little pride and loftiness and even an esteem for the credit honor and reputation of Tarsis which made her yet fear to be faulty before him so that as much as Tarsis loved to be near her so much did she apprehend it even her self She was even ravished to see the Marriage finished quite contrary to the ordinary custom of young Maidens of her age who love nothing more than these bridal Feasts and the reason that gave her this content was that she hoped that all the Company going away she should be delivered and rid of Tarsis Therefore when she knew that he continued she went all mournfully to bemoan her self to Philiste and said unto her O my God my Sister what are we going to do I know not behold Tarsis continues still here Alas my Sister answered Philiste ought you not to be very well pleased seeing he is of so amiable and pleasant a dispotion and humor amiable reply'd Zelie I never saw one more displeasing grievous troublesome offensive loathsome wearisome and tedious irksome distastful and importunate and I avow unto you were I my own Mistriss I would quit and abandon the house all the time that he is here or should continue here In truth my Sister reply'd Philiste you alone are of your own and that thought Tarsis did no other than laugh sing dance make verses and a thousand other pleasant things is there any thing that can be more contrary to that which can give vexation and inquietude Zelie had some repugnance of declaring the cause for which she was apprehensive so that Philiste having asked her she knew not to render her any other unless it was that he talked too much But reply'd Philiste when he speaks is it not to the purpose pleasantly and wittily My Sister my Sister replyed Zelie you speak well at your ease and pleasure you who have no ground nor find nothing of suffering if he did not address himself to you as he doth to me But Philiste interrupting said is it not a mark of the esteem he hath for you and would you take it better if he left you alone as a Child no answered she but I would therefore also that he would not oblige me to answer him for in fine I so strongly apprehend him that I tremble when he approaches me and I am in such pain when I shall answer to what he askes me that I understand not the moyety of that which he speaks of We arrived in the Chamber Tarsis and my self then when Philiste laughed yet at this reply of hers Zelie betook her self to blushing when she discerned him and she would immediately have gone forth after she had softly besought her Sister to tell us nothing of the subject of their discourse But Philiste purposely staying her in truth my Sister said she unto her you shall assist me if you please in entertaining Tarsis for I know well that he would not continue here but for your sake These words redoubled the blushing of the countenance and visage of Zelie and she afterward avowed to us that she was never passionately inraged against any person or thing as then against her Sister But principally and especially when Tarsis addressed himself even to her in these terms In effect fair Zelie said he I protest unto you I would not contineu here but for your self alone and I am not over joyed with the departure of the company that have quitted us but because I hope to be at more freedom and liberty with you Judg you and assure your self that it was only for that consideration that I have taken this course Judg that it was pertinent there to make him a reply also the apprehension that Zeile had of ingaging her self in a new conversation with him obliging her to seek some shift excuse or evasion answerd him Tarsis you have too much wit and discretion to delight your self in the company of a Child but I go to seek Leucippe or Melicerte and inform them that you are alone At the same time she attempted to go forth but Tarsis staying her said unto her fair Zelie if you desire not that I be alone if you please there 's no need for you to abandon me for saw you not that I went away when you departed hence and these two marryed couple are not good but each for other very well reply'd she you will not be alone along time I have told you that I went to advertise Melicerte or Leucippe and I for my part do assure you reply'd Tarsis that with Leucippe and Melicerte I should be much more alone than with you and that it 's not but to be
near unto you that I believe my self to be in company Tarsis reply'd she excellently I never better saw that they would chase me away than when they sport themselves with me as you do and then she yet made another attempt to withdraw her self and go forth But Tarsis opposing himself thereto a second time and taking her by the hand how say you that I will drive you hence reply'd he since that I act even to incivilities to retain you Whilst they discourst thus Philiste having repeated unto me the inquietude of her Sister we laughed together to see her fallen unawares into the gin and snare even at the self same time when she thought to shun it Zelie doubted and did that but in her Sisters despight and quick enough withdrew her hand from Tarsis who had layen hold of it to stay her when she would have gone although her Sister could say unto her what she did as before We immediately recited her apprehension to Tarsis who upon that subject gave her these lines or stances I bemoan my self that you thus scorn me Seeing you so fair and fiery and yet cold And in the mean time fair Shepherdess They tell me that you fear me But tell me whence comes this fear Is it from my esteme of you is that the cause of your fright fair Zelie is it for me a subject of Joy and Complaint Always the fear of what they depaint to us accompanies a heart when it loves alas friendship it self is in the heart which fears But who knowes not that the timorous Sheep trembles at the Wolf which follow it that the Lark fears and flyes from the flight hasty course and speedy passage of the ravenous and violently impetuous Sparrow-hawk That a Shepherdess advizing upon the pace of the Serpent whose skin is speckled and spotted is surprized with a speedy and suddain fear and yet loves it not But should it be so with fair Zelie whose heart feareth even as it doth feareth it as it fears one whom it hates feareth it as it feareth one whom it loves I will add unto you here said Telamon that Tarsis shewed me these lines before she gave them to Telamon and I signified unto him that I found them passable but I did not counsel him him to give them unto her He very discontentedly asked me the reason and I answered I deemed it expedient for the success of his Love immediately to conceal it from Leucippe and Melicerte with all the care imaginable because that whil'st they believed him not in love with their Daughter they would freely give him the liberty of their house as my Brother but from the first moment they should perceive his design they would undoubtedly without fail cause him to withdraw as rendring him suspicious because I very well knew their thoughts were upon a design of making a new Alliance But my dear Brother reply'd me what will it serve me then to love if they do not know nor discern that I am amorous of their Daughter My dear Brother reply'd I be you prevalent by the success you have in their house and with the reputation that you have acquired make it there more discernably apparent by the sweetness of your Spirit and Wisdom and your other good Qualities to make your self to be beloved there Gain the heart without seeming to have a desire that 's the most effectual meanes to succeed well there and better than to cause a defiance You know they never surprize a place when once they discover their design of attacking it you have to do with Persons who know how to observe and compare the nature of things indeavour only to make your self valued and prized by those on whom you set a value and put your self in a state and condition where they may wish that you might be beloved before its discovery Ah dear my Brother reply'd he behold here are excellent counsels given but by what meanes shall they be followed think you that others have that opinion of me that your friendship gives and advizeth and what have I that can wake me deserve Zelie but the pure and perfect love whereof I make a Profession My dear Tarsis reply'd I imbracing of him thou knowest not thy own worth I say unto thee take courage and afterwards leave it to our cares both in point of time as well as with a due respect to thy good fortune I left him therefore resolved to be a little more reserved in the demonstration of his love and in the sequel made him sufficiently sensible that I had given him good counsel for you shall see that of Leucippe only had any doubt of his design he would immediately have used all his indeavours to frustrate his design and hindred him from seeing or entertaining his Daughter The first thing to which Tarsis applyed himself it was to gain the heart of Melicerte he did it for two reasons The first because that this Shepherdess as she was one of the first Persons of the World who had both wit and vertue she was also one of those which made the greatest observation in that of others and penetrated into the sublimest of all and that he had effectively an esteem and veneration for her who would have caused a research by all meanes imaginable to have gained her good Will though there he had had no other kind of interest The second reason was because that although that Leucippe did not permit her self to be governed by any person she knew notwithstanding so compleatly and dexterously to manage it that she still insensibly practised and contrived it to the end she designed These Papers that you see are therefore divers tickets that Tarsis writ to Melicerte then when he was returned to Cenâ—me and which without doubt she gave in charge to Zelie but I pass by what above to return to our Lines or Verses Behold they were made in an unpleasant and irksome occasion but were by the event sufficiently advantageous to my Brother and which contributed not a little towards the obtaining the savours of Melicerte and even those of Zelie One Evening they walked in a Plain which you may have seen below Callioure towards the Sea side In the middest there is a small River which glides along and disgorgeth it self into the Gulph it is deeply profound and sometimes large enough and she passed sometimes upon two Planks or Bridge In that walk Zelie marched before singing and gathering of flowers and Tarsis led Melicerte who went more slowly and leisurely behind Be it that these two Planks or Bridg was rotten be it that they were ill placed so it was that as Zelice was upon them she fell down into the water and into the River where the great Raines had swelled it to a most prodigious and horribly monstrous dreadful and terrible Torrent ghastly alone to behold I leave you to judg of the horrid fright and amazement wherewith Melicerte was surprized for she tenderly respected and loved
with presumption to do it give me the courage at least to express it and if I dare not speak it let me at least have the liberty to sigh Another cease you diverting singers and part not my Sences any more by the consenting and concording charms of your Melody The object which occupies them hath many more repasts I think of fair Zelie you birds cease troubling me That pleasing remembrance which I am entertain'd with makes the sweetest moments that I ever passed in my life All other pleasures are to me superfluous I think of fair Zelie birds give no trouble Another Shepherds I love in two certain Places and dye for both the one and the other at one and the self same time but those two adorable places are your Mouth and Eyes They therefore seem enemies one destroys what the other hath promised demonstrate less of sweetness by your Eyes or with your little Mouth give us a more favourable treatment It 's true I have vaunted my self when I knew not the art of pleasing you and that in despight of your fury your heart and my Vows shall not be more contrary I will not dedicate my self in opposition to your anger I have said else where and again it again before you call me proud haughty timerarious prepare a hundred torments with which to punish me I know the art of pleasing you you cruel one for whom I go to dye You who see desarts as absent from Zelie I mournfully spend my life be you witnesses of my faithfulness and fidelity Ah without ceasing I think of her and possibly the cruel one never thinks of me Is it not true Desarts what of my sad moans you even the Rocks have attainted and convicted it and do bewail my torment so many Ecchoes do they hear which demonstrates that their hearts are more soft and tender than archers to the sighs of her lover Agamée would have continued but Telamon interrupted him I counsel you said he that we cease these lines to pass forward to the rest What reply'd Agamée is it that you less esteem Verses to carry the name of Songs It must be so possible reply'd Telamon and as there is nothing more difficult in well doing there is nothing also more to be esteemed For there must be very much sence and passion in a very few words and you know the most sublime efforts and indeavours of Spirits as well as of nature is to shut up much in a little space and room But it is as in beholding a so great Number I had rather lend them to you to read them in your particular because that you easily and sufficiently understand them alone I will only add to you touching these same Songs that Zelie mistrusted much that they were made for her and yet she counterfeited to seem to believe that he made them not but that there she should set her name instead of some other because that otherwise she should believe her self obliged for good behaviour and courtesy sake to learn them as she did Tarsis was not angry himself that Leucippe and Melicerte had that thought and for that end often singing them in their presence he there placed the name of Delie instead of that of Zelie that he might still avoid the suspicion of his love Sometimes therefore he made them so convenient for the subject and looked upon her with so much passion in singing them that they saw well that it was her own proper person that was expressed as for example this here which he composed on that which he shewed to this Shepherdess to sing I have no otherwise said than loved with a dying voice and languishing sound with an all resembling Air and a like Accent my Shepherdess said the same but I alas see well that we understand it not In the same words that I sigh I see her sigh just so as I did I see her repeating all my proper wishes that which I have said to her she saith to me must it be alas that we understand not our selves admire my extreme audacity I will teach you to sing though I know not how to do it my self but alas wherefore should I be astonished you apprehend not how they love and if you knew it not All that which you sing is very just to the very last point I am charmed at your understanding that which I would have you apprehend therefore you do not comprehend Gods the fair port of voices the sweet flection and bending one shall never sing the same but then when you say I love better to enter into passion The amorous Tarsis flattered a little therefore his evil by this address and so much the more sweetly that she served him the same time for a pretext to be every day near Zelie But he wearied himself therefore in not expressing him otherwise than in Misteries and enigmatical riddles and I call to mind when he would take an occasion to declare himself to her One day he stood to behold this Shepherdess who was attiring her self and coysing her self and dressing her head in the Chamber of Melicerte and was putting her self in the best posture that possibly she could to go to a Feastival that was made in these Hamlets she asked him if he found her well Tarsis answered that he found her vâ—ry ill for him But as she saw that he said that smiling she also smiling asked him what that was which he had to contradict and he observing Melicerte attentive about other matters replyed very softly Quartian prepare as many flights darts arrows to reinforce and redouble your strooks This Shepherdess is too cruel alas make you not so fair and amiable have some pitty upon us What Tarsis replyed she ought you not rather to know me grateful and essay and attempt to have me fair that I might not be evil in your Eyes Think you reply'd Tarsis that there is more danger in wounding the Eyes than the Heart I protest unto you fair Zelie that you have already so wounded mine a long time since that I know not what will become of me in the end if you have not some compassion on me She had no sooner understood this discourse that as if she believed not that a Maiden should ingage in that discourse she brake off pretending that she had lost something in the chamber where she would hasten seeming to go and fetch it Since that in reading you these lines I am insensibly ingaged to make you an historical narrative or recital of the affections of Tarsis and Zelie and that you as well have signified me your desire and how much inclination you have to learn it I will declare to you here in passing some particularities pleasant enough which I call to mind which will cause you to observe to what a point and pitch of love this poor Shepherd was reduced and how far his strong passion carried him both as to respect fear timidity and trouble At this time my Father sent
this Agamée Not only had Tarsis very much vivacity but he was even naturally bold and hardy and in the interim he remained in this incounter inhibited injoyned to the contrary and as one stupid so much is a great and prodigiously respectful love accompanied with timidity and bashfulness He grew pale he blushed and apprehended not well himself he disintricated disintangled unpestered himself of this passage as if he would have done from a trap and snare that is to say he attempted and essayed to delude and dally and content himself to know without seeming to make or take thereout a more particular interest that Melicerte had answered that Leucippe was not yet resolved nor designed to marry his Daughter He was even so blind that after his being gone forth he knew not whether he were willing to be discovered undoubtedly he said to his own self Melicerte her self being mistrustful of my Love by the discourse which I had held with Zelie hath not intention but to sound me and if I had left my self to have bin taken or surprized by appearance I should fall into the inconvenience that Telamon had foretold me of But after having had some time these Sentiments he passed into others quite contrary For making reflections upon the discourse of Zelie and afterwards upon these of Melicerte and above all upon the goodness that this Sage and generous Mother had testified to him day by day he there found wherewith to perswade himself very strongly that it was impossible but the Mother and Daughter had some favourable intentions for him and that they desired but that he should or had discovered it to Melicerte In that Thought he returned to find her fully resolved to cast himself at her Feet and whatsoever could or might arrive to make her confident of the passionate Love he had for Zelie He found Melicerte all alone who wrote a Letter and as the Designs which seem to us to be accompanied with some Perils and Dangers are always full of so much Timidity that there needs but one nothing to divert them and principally in matters of Love by reason that Love being but a desire is naturally mixed with Fear Tarsis was no sooner in the Chamber of this Shepherdess but behold all his Resolution vanished away That was not a Truth without a Pretext for our debility and weakness still makes one or other But see if that which should be capable to stay him since that it was no other thing unless that finding her occupied and taken up in writing a Letter he believed there would have bin some incivility in her Interruption He did no other then pass through her Chamber but scarcely was he gone forth but he stopt and making some reflection upon his little Resolution he made a confusion within himself He feared most that this Letter had some Relation to the Marriage of Zelie and that it was an Advertizement that she gave to Leucippe and that it was that which should encourage him the more to make his Declaration and thereby prevent some other engagement As he re-entred by one Gate I entred there by another so that Tarsis who was not prepared to see me there nor yet to speak before me made yet a pretence to his little Hardiness and Resolution He repassed therefore only through the Chamber so little knowing that which he did that although in passing by him I asked him where he went he made me no answer But he was no sooner in his own then behold the Remorse which again surprized him What said he I have not been willing to declare my self before Telamon Alas is it not all contrary is it not his presence that should encourage me since he was there to confirm my Request He returned a third time being resolved to make his Declaration before me but as I had observed Melicerte taken up and employed in Writing I did no other than pass into the Garden so that Tarsis found me no more there and he met no Body there but Malicerte which came from sending her Letter This will not seem strange unto you the reason why Tarsis had bin so soon interrupted in his Design was because Melicerte was writing the second Time that he found me present At this third he found me not there at all and Melicerte wrote not any more and in the mean time he durst not yet discover himself But that which is most pleasant is that his Timidity was pretended upon Reasons all opposite to the formers He whom my Presence had astonished began to find himself Weak through my absence and the Letter of Melicerte being sent he thought that since that was done nothing did press him more than to discover himself That which was yet admirable is that Melicerte seeing him pass and repass so many times could not refrain to ask him in conclusion what he sought for Tarsis who found himself not in a condition to Imbark himself with her in Conversation answered her to defeat himself that he sought Philiste Philiste who was then in a Closet very near approaching came forth at the same Instant and asked him what he would have whereupon Tarsis who sought her not effectually was so surprized that he knew not what to say to her I have recounted this to you Agamée to cause you to understand how much he loved since he feared so much for it is certain that we form not unto you the great Peril that the Proportion of the esteem had that we made of the benefit of the privation wherewith it menaced us in conclusion the day of departure and ours also came and behold what was his only Consolation Zelie and Philiste loved one another tenderly and that day they were almost all in Tears as if we were to go very far and as if they were not to see one another for a long time A little before we departed Tarsis having perceived them alone in this mournful Estate in a Closet or Arbor of the Garden went unto them and whilest Philiste who also saw me arrive after him came forwards towards me to declare something unto me my Brother entered into the Closet where seeing Zelie wiping her eyes he said unto her I should be happy my fair Shepherdess if I could pretend some Share Part or Portion in these fair Tears and that I should find consolation in a departure where death only is able to give it unto me If I had more Tears than I have reply'd Zelie I should owe all to the departure of my dear Sister But if I had more remaining and that that could serve you I believe I have Obligations enough to you not to refuse you so small a thing Ah fair Zelie reply'd Tarsis if I have bin happy enough in rendering you some Service it hath not bin but over-payed by the Honour and by the contentment that I have my self received and you know not the price and value of your Tears when you believe them owing to Obligations of this
by its bright and radiant light when it commenceth its Career Course and Race Tell me wherefore your Hand by the shot of an inhumane Pen deprives me of you of my view thereof Why set you down and concealing your self hide under this dark and cloudy Epilogue O Shepherdess do nothing are you afraid of being known then when you do me good Why therefore this great and black vail which hinders me here to see you there Wherefore in this Assembly the front open why have you not appeared is it not that you have believed that a Virgin in publick ought to be hooded and vailed But what am I going to imagin it's easy to divine what 's that here which is the effect of this Prophecy wherewith the World hath bin menaced I see it in fine accomplished and the Sun is eclipsed But wherewith do you menace us With a new and fatal Eclipse the influence is it Mortal shall I dye alone shall we all dye Is it towards me alone that it looks forth Is it upon me alone that she lanceth her Darts The Influences of an evil lot Should it be to me so considerable Or otherwise should I be so culpably guilty That an Eclipse was necessary to foretel my Death I was so much hindred that I could interrupt you said Agamée But I would not but I pray you now to lend me these lines to read them in particular for that which I have heard prompts me to a desire to read the rest I have found them sufficiently excellent and polite replyed Telamon and therefore I will carry them with me in returning my Sister to Calioure to cause them to be seen there by Melicerte And to take an occasion to discover to her the love of Tarsis of whom I believed she had reason in all this time to place some confidence and of whose real passionate love to her Daughter Zelie I hoped she would well be assured after so many signal testimonies I took an hour wherein we were alone and after I had read them to her Well Wise and Sage Melicerte said I to her poor Tarsis shall he dye for I very well know that 't is you alone that I should consult withal alone for his Destiny Melicerte at these Words betook her self to laugh and answered me you know the Eclipse hath not done so much evil as they think and I believe not that Tarsis should only be more sick than others I answer you generous Melicerte replyed I that this poor Shepherd is in a pitiful state and he doth no other than languish and bemoan himself ever since he departed from your house But I suppose you are not now to know his disease and that there was no need of those lines to make you know how amorous he was of my Sister Melicerte made not use of any kind of dissimulation with me she declared to me she was mistrustful and to make it to you short she testified to me with all the goodness and generosity imaginable that she had as much amity and friendship for me and as much esteem for Tarsis that she would serve him as a Mother and would contribute all that might be possibly imaginable in her towards Leucippe for the good success of our Interprize I was not wanting immediately to make my Brother a participant of our entertainment and discourse and behold the Letter which he writ upon this subject to Melicerte In saying this Telamon took another Paper to continue his reading to Agamèe then when Tarsis being come out of his Chamber came to find them in the Closset where they were He was in some confusion when he understood from them in what they were taken up and imployed in expecting him and reproached his Brother for entertaining Agamèe so ill Almost at the same time also arrived Argaste and Celemante who were astonisht and amazed to see the change that the displeasure had already made upon the countenance of Tarsis since the little time that there had bin past that they had seen him O! Shepherd said Celemante unto him seeing him I believe also that you are in love with Zelie for in sum 't is not Tarsis that we see there and 't is to do you a favour that we take you for his shaddow or his Ghost Tarsis answered him not but with a profound Sigh that he made as he joyned his hands lifting up his shoulders and casting his Eyes upwards towards Heaven as if he would have said that his disgrace was such that there were none but the Gods that could give him some remedy or consolation After some other discourse Telamon who had in his thoughts no other care than to divert him or at least to mitigate and asswage the grief of his dear Brother proposed them variety of Walks and ingaged them in conclusion to go to the Temple of Jupiter Olympia under pretence of shewing that marvellous piece to Agamée but it was in effect because he called to mind that he had heard Tarsis say the preceding Evening that he should be very well pleased to consult the famous Oracle on the subject of his doubts The Athenian and the Shepherds being of accord in that proposition and concurring which they could easily enough execute by reason of the proximity of the Temple Telamon gave them a Dinner with him lest they should lose too much time in assembling together and having taken their repast early to have more leisure in this pleasant Journey he made them yet call to mind at rising from Table the shortness of the time so that they walked altogether The End of the Fifth and last Book of the first Part. Tarsis and Zelie The Second Part. The First BOOK IN the beginning of the way the loss of Zelie was all the Subject and Argument of their discourse and entertainment For the desolate Tarsis returned without intermission to that discourse although all others used all their efforts and endeavours to divert it However their Conversation by little and little returned to be more pleasant because Ergaste and Celemante were of the Party that they could never be a quarter of an hour together without contesting one against the other and all their disputes always furnished fitted and made ready some kind of Diversion to those who were present Witnesses Ergaste for that time affected even to Jest and Flout Celemante to change the Discourse and to divert Tarsis from the Application he made to his displeasure and seeing that his Friend attempted by very serious Reasons but very unprofitable to bring some Consolation to Tarsis he interrupting said unto him Seest thou Celemante I permit all others to undertake the consolating of one afflicted but thou interposest to speak of affliction and I declare unto thee that I cannot suffer nor brook it Celemante who neither sought nor endeavoured any thing rather than to dispute against Ergaste to divert himself the first omitted not so fair an occasion He turned himself about towards that Shepherd and
soever that Man had with her he would never thereunto consent nor accord with her and he told her he was well assured that Cleonime was not gon to Bed as yet As she saw that she proposed to him to shut me up at least in some certain place whilst he should go and inform his Master remonstrating to him that he was not strong enough to hale or draw me there forcibly in despight or against my Will and that I might escape him That advice seemed very pertinent and rational and very seasonable and good she caused me her self to place me in a little Cabinet or Closet which was under her Chamber where the Windows were withered or grated and which she fastned with a Bolt before him but while he went to inform Cleonime she opened the Gate of my Prison where I was with enough of inquietude to know by what manner I might be able to get forth because that Slave had lockt the door of the Garden even with the Key and without giving me time to speak any thing to her she led me to a low Window of the Stairs which she opened unto me and by which she appointed me to retire I easily lept from that Window into the Garden whence I went to the House of the good Man Marcias with Subject enough of laughing at my Adventure if the Regret that I had for Telesile had not taken away all my Pleasure The succeeding day I returned to Athens where I understood the alarm that had bin all the Night in the House of Cleonime and that Telesile had directly cast all the fault of my escaping forth upon the Slave as if he had forgotten well to fasten the Bolt of the Closet where she had caused me to be Imprisoned so that they had not the least suspicion of the Truth In the interim I attended with impatience the return of my Mistress to Athens and there had already eight days expired that I was come there more and better assured of her Fidelity and Constancy when an Unkle of Aristoxene dying left him Heir of the Inheritance whom all the World reputed so opulent that they believed that he was become one of the wealthiest and richest of all the Men of Athens All that alarmed me not by reason I had known so much generosity in the Soul of Telesile that I believed her uncapable of being tempted by the Riches even of the King of Persia Also she had assuredly rejected for my sake Persons very considerable in her Youth and undoubtedly much more considerable than Aristoxene formerly was But it was as I have have told you in the time of her Youth that she had done it and her Soul had not as then the leasure to be left to be corrupted by the passions of Ambition and Avaricious Covetousness Would you doubt you Illustrious Generous Shepherds of this perfide This generous and constant Mayden from whom I had so lately received Testimonies and Assurances so perfect of an Amity and Friendship so tender that I would rather have doubted of my own propper fidelity than of hers No sooner therefore knew she that Aristoxene was elevated to so high a degree of Fortune but she all at once changed her Sentiments and Heart She no more remembered neither my Love nor her own Asseverations and Solemn Oaths she left her self to be charmed by the hopes of an Imaginary Grandeur or Greatness In fine she quitted and abandon'd me altogether and sold her self for so we may say to Aristoxene It must be avowed that never a change did so much surprise me as did that and that the Marriage being made with much Precipitancy and without the giving me leisure to prepare my self thereto I knew it for two days without believing it nor could I give credit thereunto However I had more despight than regreâ—t as I may so say for I would not have had Telesile with all the wealth of Aristoxene when once I knew her capable of such a high piece of Perfidy So that I soon consolated my self and I even rejoyced in the end to have been disabused of my error before I had been engaged farther with a Woman so Treacherously Disloyal And in very deed it is true that I had yet the pleasure to be soon Revenged for it was found that the Unkle of Aristoxene having intermedled himself and being crowded and pestered with so great a bulk and quantity of business and affairs during his Life All his great wealth consisted in effect that he was only capable to Disintricate and Unpester and Disintangle himself even in such sort that one great Merchant who had been owing him great Immense and vast Sums being come to be made a Bankrupt all the high fortune of Aristoxene was but a dream of some Months at the end whereof he was not a whit better accommodated than he had been before But I made an Irreparable fault by not becoming wise by experience and to believe yet after that repose or rest may be fastened to the possession of a Woman after the having suffered so many pains and evils by a Woman whom I had I apprehended so well tryed and proved and whom I believed to be the perfectest of all In fine Shepherds I resembled those Travellers whom the rest of some few days makes them lose the memory of a painful and dangerous Shipwrack and that without remembring themselves of the peril that they have gone through they reimbarque inconsideratly upon the same Sea whereon they were so ill treated by a Tempestuous Storm It is true I resolved never any more to fasten my self neither to the Beauty of the Body nor yet to that of the mind wherewith I was charmed by Telesile I call to mind what I have heard say was spoken by our wise Men commonly called Sages That which is most desirable and pleasant in a Mistress is not that which is most to be wisht in a Woman That the rarest Beauties become ordinary by custome and that Helena for to be the Fairest and most Galant of the Greeks omitted not to render Menelaus the most unfortunate of Husbands I therefore fixed my self by the advice of my Friends to a Widow named Esinie the credit and reputation of whose wisdom piety and Occonomie passed for an example of Vertue amongst Women They told me she had lived well with her Husband though he was neither well Condition'd Witty nor Wise nor whose humour rendred him any way pleasant nor considerable unto her And in very deed a good part of those things wherewith they vauntingly boasted was very true for 't is certain that out of her Menagery and the Temple she had had no other tye than for her Husband All the time I saw her before our Marriage there never appeared unto me an humour more sweet more Complaisant nor more Commodiously apt and pertinently fit and convenient than that of Esinie As for the rest although she was not Fair she had nothing Disamiable nor Unpleasant and she had
condition and misfortune of the Athenian Celemante immediately began to relate to his Sister the dispute which he had had with Ergaste and the reproach the ingratitude and infidelity wherewith they had upbraided one another so that they omitted not to set themselves against Ergaste They spake so loud that all the others could with facility understand them and 't was pleasant to see the wit and the wantonness with which they waged War Ergaste pesisted to accuse Clemante of Infidelity Clemante contrarily undertook to make out that he had yet much more reason wherewith to convince and vanquish Ergaste and he here reproaching yet the Ingratitude of Arelise she also called him ungrateful her self But that pleasure had bin much better for Telamon and Philiste if they could then have bin capable to take it than for Agamee although that they all three appeared attentive to the Discourse But as this last was a Stranger he knew not the ground or subject of their Affairs or Intricacies or Intreagues and all that he could there apprehend was that Celemante bandied or disputed against Love and Amity that Ergaste spake both against the one and the other and that Arelise forming a third Party praised Friendship but that she declamed against Love Agamee very much wish't to engage them to teach him the cause of this acceptable Difference I conceive said he unto them that its requisite and necessary that you should have a Judge deputed to set you to rights or to reconcile you and if I were not suspected by any person I would thereunto offer my self provided I were instructed of the Subject of your contest Aye Agamée answered Ergaste turning himself towards him and stretching him out his Hand I accept of you with all my Heart for our Judge and I also added incontinently Celemante But with a proviso that you will judge us to the utmost and extreamest rigor and will not reconcile us for I will have no Peace with Ergaste and I denounce War against him during my Life As for me said Aresile smiling I would have a little time to think thereon for as I apprehend you have bin all three this day together how know I Agamée if it be not here some Party made or consederated against me or at least if they would not have pre ingaged you in their Favour Fair Shepherdess reply'd Agamée I warrant you that your Brother and Ergaste are not so well concerted nor have so great an Understanding together to be in confederacy against you and moreover Ergaste will tell you that there is nothing capable to blind those lovely and lively eyes of yours Not so pleasantly replyed Arelise remembring her self of that little that Ergaste had related her of the History of Agamée but I divine that you are not at present in too good an Intelligence with Love and that 's the reason why I hope that you will be of my Party and I will also whatever I have said take you for my Judge They then were very near the Temple therefore Telamon interrupted them to tell them that 't were therefore requisite to refer that famous Judgment till their return and that also as 't was needful that each of them should declare his Reasons and plead their cause it were also requisite to prepare themselves therefore The End of the First Book of the Second Part. Tarsis and Zelie The Second Part. The Second Book THE Temple of Jupiter Olimpie is so named because it is Built at the foot of Mount Olimpie there is even a part cut in the Rock its form and Figure is round and little enough its Vault is not made but out of a piece of the Rock which naturally is advanced above it and is wonderfully wrought but that which therein is most rare is that above that Vault glides a small River which takes its Spring from the Mountain and which in its descent surrounds the Temple with Water You would say with a Wall of Christal which Invironeth it There is but a very small space of room that they have left free for entrance and yet there are certain Sluces or Flood-gates by means whereof when one pleaseth they cover it entirely The inner part of the Temple is very rich there are amongst others round about a rack of Marble Pillars all white in which there are hollow Seats where are Statues and Images of Porphiry of Jasper and even some of Massy Silver and Gold Upon the rest of these Pillars are Engraven the Loves and Revenges of Jupiter by the most Excellent Sculptures of Greece They see in the middle of the Temple a Blossom of Chrstial Garnished and Adorned with Gold of the height of a Buttress and in the middle of the Circuit or Girdle of this Blossom is a small but admirable Form and Image of Jupiter arm'd with his Thunderbolt and such as was represented him when he thundred the Titans It is made of a precious Stone placed in Workmanship by the hands of the Renowned and Famous Phidias At the foot of the Base whereon this small Statue is placed is the sacred Hole where the High Priest draws up the Prophetick Vapours which form the Oracles To excite and encourage them it is requisit but to cast into this hole a Bowl of Marble whereon he Carveth or Graveth the name of him who consults him and at the same instant these Vapours agitated and wrought form under ground Thunders And they see themselves to be exhaled by the same Overture or opening Smokes which the High Priest receiveth in opening his Mouth and so holding it above Immediately they see him fall into a Trance and in one moment afterwards lifting himself up his Vizage all inflamed his Eyes staring and roving about his Arms and Legs trembling and as if transported with rage and fury he pronounceth the Oracle He had no sooner pronounced it than he fell again even as if in a Lethargy out of which he came not but the succeeding day The many Labours which he suffered within these occasions made him apprehend Danger and fly away with much care and undoubtedly though it was the Brother of Telamon and Tarsis he had not received him with so much Grace and Favour as when he gave the visit to Agamée and to his Troop if he had not Immediately learnt the reason But this was not but at the end that they entertained him by reason that after he had Pronounced the Oracle he was not capable of any more Conference or Parly all the day afterwards as we have said Over against the Gate of the Temple there is another which enters into the Mount that is the same which is the most Surprizing For as they enter into the Rock they think to find there a Cave or Den or hollow place very obscure In the mean time they enter into a Court very large spacious and lightsome which Nature it self hath formed in the Mountain leaving yet an opening more broad by the height so that the Light
the Omnipotency of the Gods of the Gods not so reply'd Ergaste since they have created Man and by an alone Breathing they have animated a little Clay they can make the same thing of a Marble But I set a very great difference between that which the Gods do and that which the Gods can The Gods Telagie can do all manner of Miracles But they do it not for that by reason they judge it not to purpose And in fine to tell you my thoughts I esteem that as it would be to do wrong to a Prince and accuse him of imprudence to believe that he were at all times obliged to change his Laws at the Supplication of the meanest of his Subjects and to transgress himself the Laws and Statutes which he hath enacted and established in his own Kingdom so it is to do wrong to the Gods who have established and appointed a fixed dormant unrepealable certain Law in the World and to think that they are at all Moments obliged to change it in doiog Miracles according to the capriciousness of Men who demand it For to do a Miracle is no other than to stray and swarve and wander out of the way if it be permitted so to speak of the course of the Water In truth Ergaste reply'd Agamée it is not necessary to listen to you too long time to discredit our Oracles But I would willingly also that Celemante would tell us his Sentiment In saying this Agamée turned his eyes about to seek him out and not observing him truly continued he smiling I am afraid that Celemante hath suffered himself to be drawn by Timothy and that he be gone to render himself the Victime or Sacrifice Thereupon Ergaste and Arelise began also to perceive that he was not with them and even to remember themselves that they had not seen him since he entred into the Temple for until then they had bin so occupied by means of all that they had seen that they had made no reflection upon his absence so that they were troubled for him without considering the humour of which they knew him they judged well that if he had quitted them it would have bin but better to spend his time elsewhere In effect behold that which was become of him From the moment that Celemante had seen the Shepherds enter into the Temple he stole himself from them without saying a word to go and see a Shepherdess whom he loved although he would not avouch it It is true that he quitted them not but with an intention to return before they went forth of the Temple and that he had no design to miss to act his part as he had done to evacuate and determine before Agamée the contest that he his Sister had had against Ergaste which he had taken the Areopagite to be Judge of But in that hepromised himself a thing whereof one may say that his Humour left him not to be Master of The Shepherdess whom he went to see was named Corys and she was a very fair Person that is not that the Lineaments and Features of her Countenance were the most regular But she was wonderfully fair and white and clear animated with the most amiable Carnation of the World her eyes quick lively and sparkling of little Stature but very upright a marvellous complaisance cheerful Spirit full of Alacrity of a certain kind and manner of living free and disingaged from many Scruples ordinary with Women and Maidens wherein howsoever she lived with much Prudence Wisdom Retention and very staid Her Humour above all returned upon Celemante and also that of hers pleased Celemante exceedingly And therefore if he saw her more frequently than any other she would also more willingly permit him than others Moreover there was great Pleasure to see them together for both the one and the other had publickly declared against Marriage and Love and however there were certain times and seasons that Celemante would very willingly had his liberty for Corys and where Corys had quitted all things for Celemante but neither the one nor the other durst declare themselves by reason that Corys had often said before Celemante that she loved her Liberty even to hate the best of her Friends if he only had but had the thoughts of espousing her as Celemante had also frequently said in her Presence that to make him hate the most amiable and fairest Person in the World it was needful to do no more than to look upon her as his Wife And in effect it was the very thought both of the one and the other then when they so said But Love against which they were so strongly bent and had both an Aversion unto made them very soon repent for in the sentiments wherein they were ingaged they durst not make themselves further known those which they had commenced to have as well for the shame that they had to retract themselves as for that there was not either of both who believed not but that it had bin to be hated by his or her Companion than to testifie that he had a love for her so that in this extremity and exigency where they were reciprocally reduced neither the one nor the other daring to declare their Passion they made out their love by a Stratagem extraordinary enough in pretending and seeming to have none at all and affecting to speak against those that had it This Shepherdess dwelt not in the Hamlet of Telamon But at another which was between that and the Temple Celemante went this way with much diligence and yet notwithstanding found it too long so much he began involuntarily to be disquieted by the motions of an amorous Passion This Molestation was not therefore in him but a certain tickling and flattering delectable Motion of heart which re-animated and revived his Joy without ever giving him the least Sadness and when he entertained himself alone it was not to afflict himself as do the major Part of other Lovers by the consideration of all that which may be vexatious in their Fortune he dream't but of that which might be delightful in that of his Also they never did see alone but that he sang if it was not but that he had some pleasant Thought the entertainment whereof diverted him and as if they take not good heed thereto the desires which are not satisfied have always some thing which stings them he never dream't of those which gave his Love Birth and beginning who in composing some Verses or some Songs on this Subject to make a diversion of the same thing whereof others create themselves a pain and trouble In going therefore to the dwelling of Chorys he entertain'd himself no otherwise but with the Pleasure which he should have by being with this fair Shepherdess instead of bemoaning himself as others possibly had done of the Misfortune he had to Love a Maiden who would not suffer Love and in which he could not hope to have correspondency and the way
the Shepherdesses they went to seek Agamée and him in a certain Place out of the way to finish altogether their Lecture The Sequel of the History of Tarsis and Zelie IT seemeth to me Agamée said Telamon unto him in unfolding of his Role of Papers that we were staid upon these Verses that my Brother wrote me from Athens for answer to those I had sent him from Hippique I declare unto you that they served me as an occasion to manifest his Love to Melicerte and to obtain from that generous Shepherdess the contract I wished for so long time Now Behold diverse Letters that he writ to Melicerte by way of Gratitude when I had signified to him with how much Candour she had listned to me and the favourable hopes she had given me But I stayed not there by reason that all those transports of Love of acknowledgment and Joy have not ordinarily any thing desirable but to those who resent them or who cause them I pass also by the same reason all the other Letters that he writ to Melicerte and to Zelie in a second Voyage which he yet since made to Athens Agamée observing that he so passed by all the Letters without reading them interrupted him to say unto him Permit me Telamon here to condole my self of a Robbery that you would have me make If it be not that in these Letters there be some Secret that all the World must not know For in that case I shall say not any thing more and 't is for that sole reason that I have not presumed to insist this Morning when you past over so many others It is not for that which I have done it reply'd Telamon for there is nothing wherein I would willingly confide in your Discretion But it is that I am perswaded that all the Letters when they are good are not but for those to whom they are addressed if there be not some moral Letters which contain Instructions for manners or those for Persons who have bin in publick Negotiations which teacheth us some important Point of the History Yet the first are no other than the form and name of Letters and they are to take them in the right sence rather short Treatises and Treaties As for all the others one may almost generally say that they are nothing worth when they are good for Strangers For you know that Letters ought not to be but a Picture of a familiar Entertainment accommodated only to the Humor of the Person to whom they are written to the manner that they have to live with and sometimes of little Intreagues and a thousand light Circumstances which are passed amongst those which write and make Letters and those for whom they are framed Now all these things being peculiarly and particularly between them and unknown to Strangers how can they Judge if they are good is it not as if one pretendeth that a Person judgeth well of the goodness and likeness of a Picture without seeing the Original It is not but as in the same Picture and Portrait a Man versed in Painting will not omit to know or acknowledge the delicacy of the Hand of the Limner and sometimes his Genius and Imagination in like manner one cannot judge of the Stile and Wit of him who writes by seeing his Letters but assuredly a Stranger cannot see all the great Beauties That which you say is in such wise true replyed Agamée that I have seen Persons at Athens after having acquired great Reputation by others Works have wrackt themselves by Volumns of Letters which they have given to the Publick although that they were elsewhere People knowing and of great Merit And that is why I cannot sufficiently admire the inimitable Genius of this Callias whose Letters they have given us after his Death and of whose Reputation you are not ignorant but well know You there clearly see that he hath not written but for the Persons to whom they are addressed and in the Interim there is not any who ever he be who takes not an infinite delight in reading them But that hinders not I pray you but let me see those of Tarsis Well done chuse them therefore your self reply'd Telamon I should also be very much hindred to shew them unto you in that order wherein they have bin written It seemeth to me therefore added he Behold the first that ever he writ to Zelie It was afterwards that by my instant requests I had in the end obtain'd the permission for him from Melicerte TARSIS to ZELIE VVOuld you believe my fair Shepherdess that after having had so much pressing to demand the Permission to write to you I found my self perplexed by that wherein hey consented to me It is therefore true that I know not almost how to serve my self I think I have a thousand things to send to you and yet I have found no more in my heart but one alone Yet I know not if you will permit me to entertain you nor if you will read that which you never would understand You ought therefore desire to know it and a thing so rare and perfect that my Love undoubtedly deserves to touch you with some Curiosity From elsewhere my fair Schollar you who are so generous apprehend you not that you are ungrateful towards your Master And are you not afraid to love him less than you ought by reason you know not how much he loves you In reality were it only for Gratitude alone you ought to study to Love well and not neglect a Science which is so necessary to you for the exercising of one of the principal Vertues Also it seemeth to me that in quitting you that all things that could render a Person accomplish't you are most Ignorant of that and it would be a great blemish unto you not to be able to learn under a Master so skilled and knowing in that matter that which all other Companies do learn without a Master I can if you permit me give you hence Lessons I will do no more than propose you the Love I have for you by example Without Vanity I defye the greatest Masters in giving you a more perfect Model than that there and judge of that which ought to succeed well for a little Pains that you should take to imitate it since I propose it to the most perfect and the most spiritual of Schollars Zelie did not make him any answer persisted Telamon but Melicerte had the goodness to write to him frequently and behold that which this wise Shepherdess gave me to inclose in my Packet I saw that Tarsis gave it likewise to Zelie afterwards and that she kept it with her Letters Agamée read there that which followeth A Reply from Melicerte to Tarsis IT is permitted to the Master to write to the Schollar but not to give her Lessons of Love That 's a Science they wish not she should learn so soon she must learn others well before that and I have heard say that they never
impatience that you see he hath to come out from thence Let 's reconduct him I pray you to Tempé and see only before a few Lines that his Impatience constrained him to make out You know undoubtedly Erasistrate the famous and so much renowned Physitian not only by the excellent Experiences which he hath manifested by his Art but by the profound and eloquent Meditations which he hath written above all that there is most concealed in the Nature of Man Yea assuredly interrupted Agamée and I have admired a Hundred times amongst his Works his Tract his rare Draft of the Passions where teaching us to know them he teacheth us also to combat with them and to cure our selves of those Diseases of the Mind whilst he prohibits us those of the Body That is the very same replyed Telamon you know the Friendship that the great President of the Areopagites hath for him My Brother who had need to hasten the Judgment of his process and litigious Suit which was the only Obstacle of his return to Zelie prayed Erasistrate to speak to him in his Favour and because he deferr'd it twice or thrice he thus pressed him I languish for some days of a Disease which according to appearance if I receive not some assistance must necessarily take a course bad enough This Disease is called Impatience which naturally still grows and increaseth and I see without speedy Succour my Cure apparently hopeless Famous Physitian of Souls and Bodies I ask not for those noble Efforts and Endeavours which render you famous from Gange even to the Gades Only vouchsafe to succour me with two words that I be not the first sick one whom you will have left to dye These words Telamon pursued produced two advantageous Effects to Tarsis The first that Erasistrate effectually made him have a very speedy Expedition The second that this illustrious Personage having tasted and sounded his Wit would contract Friendship with him Now behold another piece which makes me call to mind an occasion where this acquaintance was yet of more Utility to the Love of Tarsis But although they are both in the same Leaf by reason they are for the same Person behold the cause why others were made between them both it will be good therefore that we read them before-hand these here were made at another House in the Countrey that Alcidias hath a little off the other side of Gonnes Melicerte and Zelie were come there to spend some time and Tarsis was there with them After they were departed and returned to Calioure he sent them these Lines I was seiz'd near to you O divine Zelie with a thousand Transports of ravishing Joy but for these pleasant Moments I have sad and mournful days and so pass my Life did I think to recal your amiable Presence by the deceitful Charms of a sweet Memory all speak to me of your absence when I would think of you go I to walk in the Wood where Zelie came to take the fresh Air and the Shadow unfortunate one that I am all that I see there is that the fair one is departed Thou seekest her every where my Eye with Care and Fidelity following that of my Love the error which deceives thee thou â—eest a hundred places where the fair one was but there she is not Thou hast but the Pleasure there yet to see the green Turfe where Zelie leaned after her Paces thou knowest it by the bait of a hundred Flowers that she made there to disclose and open All the Grass hath taken a new Life in those certain places where the fair One walked thou seest Drought and Yellow with desire that which her Foot hath not touched In some places said they that she came to appear they see that of a fair Green the Earth is painted they saw the Trees through desire grow the Cherry to ripen was much more prompt and her Hands chusing the ripest of its Fruits made the others to blush with shame because they had not bin gathered they yet saw there things metamorphosed a thousand prodigious and surprizing Effects and of the Miracles which she hath done they yet see a thousand things but what serves that to the happiness of my Life all that 's of my Dolour I conceal and conclude that there I saw Zelie but in fine see her no more let 's now return to our Work But before it be read unto you it 's requisite to you to observe that a little after Tarsis was returned from Athens Erasistrate being fallen sick caused himself to be carried to Tempé there to take the benefit of our Waters whose Reputation you know is famous all over Greece There were then a considerable number of Persons of Quality that by the self same design had there bin conducted and there was not one but would have bin very willing to see and entertain Erasistrate As he was indisposed and not in a condition to pester and intangle his Spirits with the Maladies of others he had provided for that trouble in declaring at first that he would not only not make but would also receive nor accept of any Visits Leucippe who was also then sick a Bed had an unexpressible Passion to see him But he could not have that Priviledge Tarsis alone had Erasistrate who even in his Indisposition could not dwell Idle wrote at Tempé a Treatise upon the Nature of the Light and a little before he had finished it he shewed it to Tarsis with whom he took pleasure to communicate his Works Tarsis was so charmed that two hours after he had quitted him he sent him these Lines Finish the principal of the Work to which none is comparable make appear the day in it's Supreme degree give light even to light it self and from new Beams enlighten the Sun God drew out of the Chaos the bright shining Light Do with thy Pen what he did with his Voice and by the Divinity of thy learned Quill draw Light out of the confused Chaos a second time Until now it 's splendor scarce visible The day to us is dimmed and dazled the more are we sensible thereof and from it's proper and from its bright Glimps comes it's Obscurity But pursue thy Race and persist in thine Exercise and three of thy days Journeys goes throughout the whole universe to give more Light which the Sun hath not done since three thousand years Although these Lines speak of the Creation of the Light more according to the Opinion of Moses whose Books my Brother had read which followeth that of the Greeks who determin not that it was done with or by a Voice nor since what time the World hath bin made Howsoever Erasistrate unto whom this strange Doctrine was known so approved of this Piece found it so to his good liking and so much obliging that although he was at the even of his Departure he could not yet leave Tempé without sight of my Brother and went to seek him even to Callioure in
Tarsis replyed she unto him I will hope that the Aversion of Leucippe will change and I could wish that we would hope it together What replyed Tarsis you replace me therefore yet in the change of Leucippe and I shall always be unhappy if he changeth not Tarsis continued she if 't is requisite for us as you said before to be happy there needs but Fidelity and Constancy you shall so find me as long as I live But it concerns me not more to answer you to any thing if you demand of me that which depends not but upon Leucippe As she finished Leucippe entred into the Chamber and surprizing them both there one near to the other though in the presence of Melicerte he could not refrain to signifie Displeasure and passed into the Garden not uttering nor speaking one word to Melicerte This Wise and Vertuous Woman as I have said dreading nothing more in the whole World than to anger him went there all disquieted after him with her Daughter and I admired a thousand times the address the sweetness the complaisance wherewith she essayed to repair restore and revive his Spirits In the mean time Tarsis had in his Soul many more regrets and anxieties than I can depaint and principally when he dreamed that his love having sparkled forth he would always be rendred suspect to Leucippe and deprived of that sweet liberty he had before to live near to Zelie in the familiarity of a Brother and that consequently he should loose his very principal Consolation 'T is not that Leucippe did not continue to see him with a very good eye in the House for as he knew by means of Melicerte and acknowledged a great Friendship for Tarsis he had always for her that Complaisance to receive him civilly into his House But he would no more permit him to have any Conversation with Zelie imagining it was that which entertained their Affection and thinking to repulse them by little and little by this Constraint A great errour not to know that Love is a Fire whose Heat is the more redoubled by it's being held shut up and 't is a Torrent which doth no other than swell greater by the Obstacles that one opposeth it It is true Leucippe knew not that their Love was yet formed or well knit and he believed it to be but only Friendship as yet In such sort that to hinder them to pass further he observed them with so much exactness that Tarsis suffered infinitely for to please him he abstained not only to speak to Zelie but it must be so that he hindered him to look upon her unless it were with a kind of indifferency and was constrained that for keeping his Court with Leucippe he must also almost testifie an Aversion against his Daughter In such wise that before Leucippe the two Persons of the World which loved most one another to be in a Chamber without speaking without approaching yea even without looking one upon another if their Amity did not sometimes steal a look unprevented by the Father but I more bewail Zelie than Tarsis by reason that in this vexatious Constraint it was necessary that she should pretend Liberty and Joy when Tarsis went and passed a long time without sight of her That was the time that she must manifest more of Merriment for that was the time when she was most observed and the least sadness she had missed not but to be imputed to her Affection It is true she had a marvellous command over her Spirit and Wit and she did so well counterfeit sometimes her Indifferency that Tarsis himself was sometimes thereby deceived and she would make him reproaches Now I have told you a part of all this to give you some sight and understanding of this Elegie that Tarsis made on the Subject of this Constraint Bewail a little my Lot adorable Zelie give some Sighs to the misfortune of my Life and refuse not the dolorous Complaints of a Lover that which the least Evils easily obtain you know the rigours of my sad Fortune I demand not but that they may be to you common can you be happy and I alone unfortunate I will only have all the Ills but let 's both bewail them The Heavens which made you to be born in such an adorable State made you not so to be miserable you would have had much less Grace which gives not so much of it to those whom it loves not but if it have not made you to be miserable it was not also to be unpitiful if it mixeth Tears in your eyes it hath so many inticements Ah! it was to weep over the Evils that they have done they have done all mine beloved Zelie I should not have had without them such bitterness of Life they would see me in Tranquility and Free even to the last Point and I should be happy for I should not love But what do I say Ah! Zelie excuse this Blasphemy if there be any one happy it 's he whom you Love and since your eyes have deigned to charm me I should be too happy if I durst love you it 's not my Love whereof I have cause or place to complain I complain much rather because they would extinguish it and that an obstinate Father will not permit me your heavenly Presence liberally to adore in all places he spies me and without Intermission he takes notice of me or if I accoast you or look upon you one cast alone towards you is scarcely permitted me if it be not one of those given to an Enemy or Enemies What Torments great Gods what difficult Constraints to be seen reduced to these cruel Pretences and that uneasily great Passions can subject themselves to so many Afflictions Alas must a legitimate fervour lie conceal'd in the same Method that one would conceal a Crime must a Man see himself so reduced to betray himself and to love so much and yet pretend to hate I am not more able to do it Zelie and my Soul is constrain'd this day to finish this mortal Dissimulation my Love goes to appear and I go to discover it Zelie they go to see and I go to dye Tarsis had taken a time when Leucippe was gone to fetch a Walk to present the foregoing Lines to Melicerte and Zelie and the Mother gave them her Daughter to read when the Rain unawares drove in Leucippe and he found them in the Hands of the young Shepherdess She was presently much surprized and would rashly have hid them but even that put an edge to the desire of Leucippe to see what it was and I cannot tell you what complaints he made not to Melicerte when he knew it Tarsis and Zelie for a very long time in this mournful manner led their Life but in fine the Friendship of Leucippe for Melicerte carried him away by her Policy so that by the generosity of this incomparable Mother whom we seconded Philiste and my self by all our cares Tarsis saw himself at the Even
you a thing that I am much more desirous to let you know But I avow you I know not how to undertake it when I conceive that from the Moment that you shall learn it you will be angry with me and possibly will hate me Tarsis was much surprized at these words and could not divine what they meant For me to hate you replyed he O Zelie you must then tell me that you love me no more and although you should tell me so much I should rather dye in the Field but should never be able to hate you I am yet less capable not to love you more replyed Zelie There she stopped and Tarsis seeing that she did not unfold him the rest asked her what she had to say unto him And as she saw her Mouth opened twice or thrice ready to speak unto him and as often to shut it again and to utter nothing but Sighs behold him in the greatest trouble of the World What is it therefore fair Zelie said he unto her Make me not to languish any longer For in fine whilst I know not what it is I fear a hundred thousand Evils which I imagine and yet others which I imagine not It is true replyed she wiping her eyes that I am a Fool thus to alarm you and to believe you and to believe you could be angry for a thing that you undoubtedly would find just and even for the weal of our Friendship At the uttering these words she said unto him with the fairest Colour that she could there find that whatever Effort or Endeavour Leucippe had made upon her his Aversation against their Marriage still continued undoubtedly that it was assuredly that which had made him Sick and which held him and entertained him in such perplexity that his Life was in danger and that if he should dye she should never be exempted from that Conception but that she had bin the cause thereof that all the World would have the same thoughts after they should hear any mention made of his Disease and what he had therein saâ—d and of all that which had passed she therefore besought him to abstain a while from seeing her for some space of time to observe what would thereby be produced in relation to his cure and recovery Whatever proportion she had made to this discourse Tarsis was so Surprized that he remained all in confusion and amated His dart fell out of his hand and left goal so that of Zelie and judging by the cross of all the counterfeiting and dissembling which she had used that her resolution was to infringe the course of their friendship and amity and to sacrifice it to an imagination that to him appeared Fantastical and Frivolous he crossed his arms athwart his stomack and held himself a long time in that posture not being able to speak only casting his eyes on her where grief said a thousand things that his Tongue could not express In the mean time Zelie who divined the state of his Soul and mind not only by his countenance but yet much more by the affliction that she felt in her own heart was very willing to say something to him to consâ—late him for the evil she had done him and a hundred times she he sitated and stammered to retract the word she had spoken and let go But on the other side the Image of sick Leucippe and sick as she believed by the displeasure that she had caused him re-animated her vertue to combate against the tenderness of her affection So that after having held for some time her eyes down upon the ground remaining silent she thus re-assumed her discourse and said I very well see Tarsis that that which I have said hath much afflicted you and I am not much astonished at the effect it hath had on my self For in fine its requisit you should know that 't is through the rude and churlish combat between my duty and my friendship that I am reduced to those extremities you have found and seen me in But it s withal requisit Tarsis that you make this reflection with me You see the condition wherein my father is Will you that I be I tremble to speak it and only to think of it but in fine it 's that which possibly may arrive will you that I be the cause of his death and that I render my self the shame and horrour of my family Ah! Tarsis you would hate me your self if I were capable to suffer it and if you punish me not by your hatred the Gods would punish us both I very well know that you will make my thought pass for a vision and a Chimera but I have but one world to answer you Either it is true that Leucippe will have us married or it is true that he will not if he will he will suddainly recall you if he will not I ought not to think thereof any more my self Have you said enough cruel Zelie quoth Tarsis at that very passage where or what more remains for you yet to say to thrust on my dispair any farther Is it not yet enough that you have testified to me that you would defeat your self of me without giving so many reasons which serves no other than to shew me the premeditation with which you make me dispair and the care you have taken to heap up wherewith to combat my resistance and wherewith to ruin me Are these then the fair meditations of your Malady and is this the fruit of the vows that I made for your health you come to tell me and oppose me with the sickness of a father But is it by his own order at least that you make me this fair and Eloquent Oration No Tarsis replyed she but it is by the order of my duty which is yet more to me than my father Therefore cryed he out all Transported You oppose me with an Imaginary duty though you have nothing more of a father to oppose me withal and you come to make a pretext to betray my love when Leucippe hath approved and confirmed it You are born and carryed away Tarsis replyed the shepherdess with a thousand tears But I am taken only in my own Mischief and in a common disgrace wherein already I am undoubtedly the most unfortunate I will yet see my self overwhelmed with all reproaches O! Cruel one said she unto her these reproaches touch you but little and you very well prepare your self thereunto and are prepared to make me this discourse But believe not that I make you do it long I will put my self very suddainly in a state where I shall never be able to make you do it He became silent there and continued his eyes a long time fixed upon the ground sometime lifting them up towards heaven notwithstanding where he stretched out his arms also sometimes as demanding vengeance for the cruelty of Zelie On the other side these last words had also penetrated the heart of Zelie the shepherdess with so vigorous a pain
and gave her such an apprehension that carryed and bare her away to such a point of extremity that she knew not where she was At length she tare their silence asunder and tenderly said unto him with a voyce feeble enough Well Tarsis is this what you have promised me not to hate me for that which I was going to tell you At these words Tarsis looking upon her with eyes capable to cleave any heart with pitty and whence Trickled a Thousand Tears Ah! Zelie said he unto her I do keep you my word too well and if I could hate you you should not see me in the Transporture nor the despair wherein I am Then he beheld the shepherdess grew pale and in effect the fatigation and faintness with the grief and pain joyning themselves together to the great weakness wherein her disease left her caused her to fall to the ground and possibly it had not been without dangerously hurting her so did all her strength abandon her all at once if the shepherd had not upheld her in her fall and caused his feet to lean at the foot of a tree very near them grief and pain had toyled him in such a nature that he neither dreamed of calling us nor yet to fetch water from the River to cast in her face cause her to revive so that poor Zelie remained there a long time without speech without strength sence or motion unless some affectionate amorous aspect which she piningly and pittifully cast upon Tarsis who with one knee on ground held one of her fair hands between his and endeared them with an infinite number of tears Never was Spectacle more touching and Melicerte my self and Philiste were the mournful Witnesses thereof For as we took notice that there was some time past that we had not heard them behind us I returned to see what was become of them and we discerned them afar off in this lamentable condition I advanced forward toward their Succour and having made Zelie revive we caused her to be carried to Callioure by some Shepherds where we followed them all very sad and mournful The Morrow we returned my Brother and my self from this Hamlet to Callioure to learn some News of the State of Leucippes Health and of hers when a little Shepherd gave this Ticket to Tarsis which is doubtless the Original which she kept For see how many Lines she hath begun and blotted out afterwards before she would determin with her self in what manner to write to him see how many razings out and words changed and replaced and all that marked out well the trouble with which she was agitated But behold what she writ in Conclusion ZELIE to TARSIS THis is to reiterate you the Request I made you Yesterday which I write you this day You may judge of the violence I suffered by the State wherein you saw me and the excess of my Dolour ought in my Apprension purge me from your Reproaches I hope that Leucippe will be touched and that when his Life is out of danger he will have a care of ours But in waiting I demand and desire of you but three things Not to see me till the State of our Affairs are changed to preserve your self and not to hate me ZELIE The same reason which hath made me already pass by many other things yet impedes me to stop me here by the Testimonies that Tarsis gave of the grief that Letter had caused to fall upon him and to declare unto you how many times he re-perused it to see if he were not deceived and if he could not find there some favourable word to disabuse himself for if I should dwell upon these Particularities 't would be to have no end When he was well confirmed in the Truth of what he saw he was born away by a thousand Transports which cannot possibly be imagined But in conclusion he was forced to resolve and having his Soul full of anguish but yet at the self same time full of Love and Respect for Zelie he entred into the very next House where having taken Paper he wrote the answer that you see and besought me even my self to give it to that Shepherdess TARSIS to ZELIE THere is so long a time past that I have bin unfortunate that I should thereunto be accustomed and possibly also constant in some Disgrace or other but that of this kind is to me a Novelty the same Hand who was wont to solace me in times past makes me despair this day I have not nor do find wherewith to contradict it since it depends upon the Health of Leucippe My Life is in such a Nature at your beck that you have a right to redeem his and not being capable to loose it at your Service in particular I shall verily Sacrifice it for the Health of some of yours TARSIS You see Agamée that this Letter is in the end of all our Papers and the last that Tarsis writ unto her And there was the State of his Affection and of his Disgrace there was not any thing left of change unless it were that Leucippe was perfectly recovered afterwards there remained but a little trouble his Indisposition seemed to have added to his natural melancholly when the conclusion of the Marriage between Tarsis and Zelie had bin obstructed by the strange Accidents that you have known and understood There remains no more to me to add you but a Circumstance which will undoubtedly make you bewail him more than any other thing Besides the accident which hath happened Leucippe overcome by the vertue and complaisance of Zelie declared to me even yesterday that although he had not any way signified to his Daughter nor yet to Melicerte any kind of thing he was however resolved immediately upon his recovery to accomplish the desire of these two unfortunate Lovers with the Felicity that my Brother had so much desired Telamon having thus finished Agamée resumed the Discourse and signified to this Shepherd the extream satisfaction he had received in their reading and his recital It 's requisite that I avow to you wise Shepherd said he to him that what admiration soever I had had for Tarsis combating and performing so many rare Exploits and noble Feats with his dear Telamon at Chalcedony and at Panticapée I have had no less an esteem for Tarsis loving at Tempe and if I have infinitely bewailed him in the Prisons of Lysimachus and of the King of the Bosphorus he hath not made me less compassionate in the Shackles and Fetters of the Vertuous but too delicate and too scrupulous Zelie For in fine if at present she were not possibly rather in a State to be bewailed than blamed I could not refrain to have her tast the ill of this superstitious Imagination which had caused her to banish Tarsis so unseanably without doubt as you have said as she hath done and hath bin the cause of all the misfortunes which have hapned them afterwards But I am no
themselves from Marcel they assured him that Agamée was not Tarsis and having appeased him and well informing him of the Truth they sent him away with his Sword The first thing that he did was to seek that Tree where Agamée had told him he had taken a duplicate of the Verses and having found it he there gave it a hundred stroaks with the edge of his Sword to break away the Bark and the Writing afterwards he treated in the same manner all those where he perceived the name of Tarsis On the other side Arelise Ergaste and Celemante having separated themselves from other Shepherds discovered the Riddle to Agamée they told him who Marcel was and the History of his Love which was known all over Tempé It was Ergaste who made the Relation and Celemante resuming the discourse afterwards added Well said Agamée see if one can too much hate Love which makes Fools so importunate and foolishly furious and if I had not yesterday much more reason to condemn it than had Ergaste to uphold it Ergaste say I whom we shall undoubtedly one day see even as Marcel Speak no more Celemante answered Agamée you have lost your cause since you durst not appear yesterday at the Assignation Sincere and upright Agamée replyed Celemante you are too just and equitable to condemn a Man without hearing him and I am assured that you are not accustomed nor used so to do at or in Areopage But replyed Agamée How can one understand a Man that flyes It 's true that I absented my self yesterday replyed Celemante But you go to see that it was not but to think upon my defence If I had not written this turbulent Ergaste would never have given me the Patience to explicate it unto you But hold Agamée see now if my cause be not the best I had taken with me the Paper with a design to carry it to you this day At these words he gave him the same writing which he had done the preceeding day Agamée saw that there was this Title A Manifesto of Celemante against Ergaste Ho! Ho! cryed Ergaste after he had also read it I well see that it 's a great War that thou wagest and denouncest against me because thou must have Manifesto's and notorious Evidences Doubt it not replyed Celemante I pretend to arm all Greece against thee and Agamée shall judge if I have not as much ground and subject as Menelaus formerly had to lead him to the Siege of Troy since thou hast robbed me of a Mistress Ergaste who mistrusted what he would say betook himself to smile and replyed to him In truth Celemante I take thee even thy self to be also as very a Fool as Marcel and I put no difference thereunto unless that thou art a pleasant Fool and he is a melancholly One. They will not believe you Ergaste replyed Agamée smiling also let us see his Reasons But it seemeth to me that it would be proper and to purpose that we were sate for the Manifesto is a little long and the Affair well merits to be examined leisurely I would only that Telamon and Tarsis were here to declare also their Advice because they were present at the breaking out of the difference Arelise who yet knew not any thing no more than the others of the tragical Adventures of Tarsis said it would be worth the while and she should be glad to have them called because the Lodging of Telamon was near and that the Wood and the Meadow which they saw on the other side appertained to him and Agamée condemned Celemante to take the Pains because that to justifie him they assembled In the Interim for reposing himself they went to sit with Arelise on the other side of the Wood on the edge of the plain where their Flocks were and they shewed him the certain place where they would expect him Although that Celemante had promised to return immediately However after he was departed impatience took them to see the Writing that he had given to Agamée and they were well pleased to read it in his absence to speak their Sentiments with the more Liberty They had no sooner sate down but they saw Choris pass by who sang and who sporting with her Crook went to see Arelise Arelise who mistrusted it called her and Agamée was ravished to know her having understood that she was the good Friend of Celemante they easily engaged to sit down with them and to hear the reading of the Paper Celemante had left them Agamée having opened it read there that which follows The Manifesto of Celemante THe bloody War which Celemante declareth and denounceth against the unfaithful Ergaste desire that all Posterity which shall understand it may also know the causes of their Rupture and that they remit not to the Judgment of one single Age the Decision of a thing so Important Celemante studied at Athens in the Gardens of the great Epicurus and from the very first year he was rendred more skilful than his Master For he extreamly loved Pleasure exceedingly hated Grief and Dolour sought but to give himself over to past time and would consider of things no farther than they could contribute to his Joy He lived exempt from all inquietudes and passions not establishing soveraign Felicity but in the Health of the Body and Mind and he was possessed of both the one and the other when perfidious Ergaste made a Conspiracy against his Rest and Repose that 's to say that he undertook to make him his Friend It is difficult to imagine for what Reasons for there was little Sympathy betwixt them Celemante was more peaceable and more sweet and gentle than a sucking Lamb A great Lyon is not more furious nor full of rage and Choller than Ergaste However this Ergaste proposed to the other to band Friendship and Amity together and Celemante replyed to him in this manner Ergaste I esteem thee I love thee and I will serve thee with Pleasure sooner than any whomsoever on all occasions wherein I am capable to do it If it be that thou callest Friendship unprofitably thou proposest to me to make any for that is already all on my side made and thou hast no other than to use even the self same on thine but if it be something more I counsel thee not to demand or ask it from me for I would not answer thee Hast thou no shame replyed Ergaste already almost in a rage to be ignorant what belongs to Amity and Friendship and not to know the first and the most amiable Vertue of Civil Society I would through Charity draw thee out of thy Ignorance Know Celemante that Friendship first and principally requires that we prefer our Friend to our selves Continue and remain there Ergaste immediately interrupted Celemante for I tell thee that if I would make a Friend I would make him by reason of my own self and not doing it but because of my self I shall always love my self more than he I have
I will not be convinced also should we be of one Mind thereon we should never be at rest Thou wilt that one take no Pleasure but with his Friend and I hold that a reasonable Man ought to take it for all in general and every where thou wilt that one should disquiet ones self in his absence and as for me I make a profession never to disquiet my self if I can In one word thou wilt render me a Fool and I will be wise Ergaste mocked Celemante and after having only smiled at his Replication he said unto him I avow Celemante in effect I do ill to be willing to teach thee Friendship and sincere Amity by reason it comes not by Wit it must have it's Original and Birth in the Heart and I will not instruct thee but by my own example They quitted one another a little afterwards and in the Sequel Ergaste spake cruelly of Celemante for there was no more need to dream of quitting him to do any thing that Ergaste knew not nor which is worse to do never so little to admit of Contradiction without being terribly grumbled at So that in the end poor Celemante a little naturally a libertin saw himself reduced to a strange Captivity But much worse yet for Celemante would always do his best and had done it the other was never content Celemante should undoubtedly have taken all that for his leave But Ergaste had in such a nature perverted the Sence that he was no more capable to serve himself At that time there came to Athens a young Maiden of a competent Beauty but had much Wit and was very Pleasant she was even skilful so that her Actions were clearly demonstrated in open View and Light The proximity of the Neighbourhood and the Reputation of her excellent Wit caused Celemante to enter her Lodgings and they so pleased one another at the first encounter when they mutually saw one another that the morrow after the first Visit Celemante wrote her this Ticket CELEMANTE to CELESIE YOu appeared to me yesterday so amiable that I know not what I shall do if you permit me not to revisit you this day I have not bin able to spend away the night and I had only the Consolation of dreaming In the interim I should shun the sight of you were I Wise for I very well resent and feel that there is no assurance for me and that I shall be constrained to Love you more than I would CELEMANTE Behold the Reply that she made him CELESIE to CELEMANTE IF you feel your self constrained to will my Wealth it 's a violence that you do to your self I have nothing that forceth Will and if you find any thing amiable in me it is a pure effect of your Imagination It abuseth you it paints me or rather repairs me entirely it 's not my self that makes you love 't is a Ghost or Apparition I am not astonisht that 't was represented to you in your Sleep for that 's the time to make Dreams nor to give it more of Credulity it having chosen a time when the Senses are asleep by reason they would not have failed to contradict it But come at what hour it shall please you to disabuse your self For what advantage soever I can draw from your Error I will resolve never to deceive my Friends CELESIE Celemante was charmed with this Letter and he was scarce able to refrain himself from shewing it to Ergaste with whom he was reconciled however he did it not then for as much as he mistrusted always the little Complaisance of that Friend In the self same thought he conceal'd from him during a certain space of time his Passion born for Cilesie and the Tickets that he received But in conclusion they gave him one on a certain day in the presence of Ergaste who discovered him their Commerce and engaged Celemante confidently to shew him all the others Ergaste who was immediately well pleased to see his Friend in Love because he was perswaded that this Passion serveth always to bring to Perfection and compleatly accomplish a young Heart when he â—â— capable well to regulate and govern it he had no sooner seen all these Letters but he was netled and stung with the long dissimulation which Celemante had used with him and although he had naturally more respect for Women than any other Person notwithstanding on that occasion as if his Resentment and sensible Apprehension extended it self even against Cilesile he pardoned not one of her Tickets that 's to say there was not one single one which he censured not as well the stile as the thoughts After he had blamed them all by Retail and Peice-Meal he betook him to speak generally against the Women that would pass for skilful and expertly knowing and particularly against Cillesie although he yet knew no other than her name It is not saith he but that it be very commendable that a Maiden or a Woman cultivate their Wits and that they should know something more than their common and ordinary Sex But it is requisite that it be for their particular Satisfaction and not to make an open profession and a kind of Commerce with the Publick It 's requisite that they learn to render themselves capable only to understand and not to distribute and retail they should affect almost to conceal that which they know which is far distant from vaunting and boasting themselves and as it is very commendable in a Man to be handsom but immodest to sting and nettle himself to be so it is well becoming and seemly in a Woman to know but infamous ignominious and dishonorable to Nettle and Spur on her self to be known so Vertues added he are divided among the Sexes There are those that are common both to one and the other and there are which are but for one alone These here are Vices in that for whom they have not bin made And as they are almost opposite who diligently seek after Vertues of or in a Stranger ordinarily neglect those of his own The Gods never bequeath it all to one alone it must be either Man or Woman and 't is a Monster to be both It appertaineth not belongeth nor is it becoming to enterprise or undertake to practise in the Mysteries Occupations or Functions of Men but to extraordinary Persons whom the excellency of their Genius elevates above both Sexes as the incomparable Sapho and to some others which are more rare than the ages But that your Cillesie should intermeddle her self pardon me if I believe her not of that Temper Composition Disposition Mood or Humour Celemante would not stay to contest against him and contented himself only to conserve for Cillesie the same which he had conceived In sum he continued to entertain discourse with her in maintaining the same Commerce both in Letters and Affection But with so firm a Tye that Ergaste feared that this Love would in the end steal away his whole Friendship In
Jealousie cannot torment a Soul with more alarms and violence than his was agitated with Ergaste knowing him could not with all his cruelty hinder himself to be touched I know not therefore if it was through Compassion or Bravery but so it was that he said unto him How now go to Celemante I have not yet but kindness for Cillesie but to tell thee the Truth I know not what can become of that Wilt thou avow unto me freely if that be capable to give thee some disturbance or jealousie and I will yet break the course whilst I am yet the Master I promise thee if thou wilt I will never revisit nor see Cillesie again Never was a proposal so pleasing and acceptable to Celemante as was that and he opened his Mouth a hundred times to avow his debility and weakness to Ergaste He was quite ready to leap upon his neck and to Imbrace him a hundred times to testifie him his acknowledgment but he was with-held and I could not tell wherefore For be it that he was hindred through timerousness that this Great Empire that Ergaste had Tyrannically Usurped over him had laid an Impression on him be it that it was by a false complaint for him be it that it was through shame that he had to testifie some doubt of Cillesie after having so frequently Vaunted and Boasted of her fidelity be it that it was by a litle Jealousy he would try her himself so it hapned that instead of confessing his Debility and Weakness to his friend he would contrarily counterfeit the Confident and Dreadless one and besought him to act in such sort that they should have but one and the same Mistress But what effect or endeavor soever Celemante made and dissembled I am well assured that he acquitted himself so ill that it was easy for Ergaste to know that he spake against the Sentiments of his heart However Ergaste was so Inhumane as to take him at his word and made a new Progress in the heart of Cillesie This Barbarous Man not so contented but willing to conduct his Vengeance by the same Degrees and Steps by which he believed himself offended he became so Assiduous near to this Maiden that Celemante saw him not almost more then at her Dwelling and could not see her but in his presence he went yet much farther and that Cruelty would not fall into the heart of a Scythian He came one day to find Celemante and said unto him My dear Celemante I will not longer conceal from thee a piece of news that is that I am desperately in Love with Cillesie At this discourse a Blushing covered the face of Celemante and he was all confused but Ergaste not making any semblance or shew of observing him added I do not demand thy pardon for thou hast not only Testified to me that thou wouldst not be angry but thou hast besought me that we might have even one and the same Mistress both of us After all what part soever I have in the good favour of Cillesie thou well knowest that thou shalt also have the first and I will have there but that thou wouldst not also I pretend not to be happy but by thy means and as thou art the most Generous Friend in the World I come to thee to pray thee to manage for me thy Self some place in the Grace and Favour of that Fair one for if Cillesie had not more kindness for me then she hath had until now I believe not but that I had dyed During this discourse Celemante was agitated with divers motions which combated one with the other that left him not Liberty nor Opportunity to unfold them Now despight and rage Animated him against Ergaste then he reproached himself with the Imprudence he had Ingaged in the Love of Cillesie and then he believed that Ergaste came to discourse unto him his Feigned Passion that by reducing him to avouch his weakness to demand his pardon to try his mercy and to request him not any farther to push forward in his Conquest Celemante had too much for that but to the quite contrary he counterfeited the Confident and exhorted Ergaste not to Rejoyce nor be Foiled nor Rejected in one word he promised him all that he believed himself able to obtain for him that 's to say not to Endamage his Love But the Subtilty of Ergaste knew well enough that it was not any more in the Power of his Friend to do it and that he was not come there but that he was certain of her Favour The same Evening in returning from the dwelling of Cillesie he met Celemante and although he very well knew that this same had not seen her since they both saw her and spake with her and that Celemante had even promised to serve him However he came to him as soon as he perceived him with a Countenance full of Joy and Satisfaction and Accosting him my dear Celemante said he unto him I should be the most Ingrateful of all Men if I did not publish every where that you are the most generous for in fine you have saved my Life and I am come from Resenting so well the effect of your Recommendation to Cillesie that having nothing more to desire there remains nothing to me but to pay you for so Sensible a Favor as the preserving the same Life which is owing to your Conservation The Thunder-Bolt that fell at the feet of Celemante would not so have astonished him as did these words he thereunto replyed with so much Disorder and Confusion that being Ignorant of what he said he sought an occasion to quit with the greatest speed he could the Cruel Ergaste and having left him he remained an hour in the street without doing any other thing but going to the Gate of Cillesie and returning to his own without any possibility of resolving if he should enter into her House or should never revisit her Now he had a Design to go and reproach her a thousand times then would resolve to signifie her his Disdain in Despising her and leave her without daigning so much as to speak any more to her now he doubted whether what Ergaste had told him were the real truth and thought it Behoved him to be Enlightned by her before he were Transported and as this last part had mixed some Hope that flattered him yet in his Passion it was this that he Embraced for there was not place to doubt a long Time the Infidelity of Cillesie For first he observed that he grew red and blushed and appeared abashed and out of countenance as soon as he entred and he was in fine by a Thousand Signs and Tokens so well assured of the Perfidy of his Friend and of his Mistress that he was resolved to deliver himself for Ever from the Tyranny of both Ergaste was yet so Cruel that he would Insult over this Unfortunate one and that some dayes after seeing Celemante had altogether a Rupture with Cillesie he
his Judges I know what would be for him not that I find he hath reason but it makes me pitty him that he is so Abandoned of all the World Arelise who well saw that Ergaste was angry and to whom that would cause trouble and pain through the kindness she had for him the time was not long but she sought to be reconciled to him and to that effect Resuming Speech and Addressing her self to Agamée our Judge said she unto him you shall not be quitted of so good a proceeding you have Judged but of half the Difference and if Ergaste hath gained his Process against Celemante I pretend that he will loose it against me I give it you gained already replyed Ergaste afterwards turning towards Coris I dream no more to gain mine but near by this Amiable Shepherdess He spake this very far fom his thought but as he was angry with Arelise because she would not Correspond with his Love and that he knew how much even in her Friendship she was Naturally Susceptable Capable and prone to Jealousie he was well pleased to yeild to her in making shew of being Amorous of Coris and to punish her there for the Evil she had done him or rather he was glad to excite and kindle some spark in her Heart well knowing that there is nothing more proper to kindle Fire than is Jealousie It was therefore for that reason that he would pretend to Love Coris This Shepherdess who knew well the Humor of the one and the other immediately apprehended the design of Ergaste and as she was naturally merry and given to jesting and would not therefore give occasion of offence in the Company she took a delight to endeavour to entangle the Shepherd but he had a Vivacity wherein he disintricated himself pleasantly amongst all This Shepherd having therefore said unto her that he dreamed of nothing more against her he replyed him what Ergaste you would gain a process against me Ah! I pretend not that we have it together You will therefore accord with me in that which I demand of you said Ergaste if it be otherwise I am firmly resolved to make you one Ha! what can you demand of me answered she him Your Heart replyed Ergaste for mine wherewith I will make you a present for yours replyed Coris I would therefore demand of you my self that which you formerly demanded Celemante if you have many Hearts for you have given him one another to Arelise I must therefore have the third It is true added Ergaste that I had given it to Celemante but you have seen that he hath rendered himself Unworthy Arelise to whom I had made a Present afterwards hath deserved as her Brother to loose it behold therefore that I can now dispose thereof But before it be accepted of replyed Coris if it be they that have rendred it to you For I do not see that Arelise accords and I would not have the Wealth of another Whatever design Arelise had to reconcile her self to Ergaste this discourse changed in a moment the entire situation of his Mind and this natural propensity that she had to Jealousie having produced it 's ordinary effect they saw in an instant that pleasant and merry Air with which she recommenced the dispute turned into a serious Tone whereupon she reply'd to Coris I declare you I pretend nothing at all to the Heart of Ergaste Well done Coris added readily the Shepherd glad to see the success of his feigning to second his Intentions you see that the one and the other are agreed and of one accord for as Arelise declares that she pretends nothing thereunto you have seen also that Celemante hath rendred it me too It 's true replyed Coris But will you that I tell you Ergaste a heart that they so willingly render you begins to make me become suspect And since to tell you the Truth I am a little vain-glorious and I will not have what others have rejected Hah say not so Coris cryed Ergaste for I go to demonstrate you that if I give you it at the present it 's a Sign and Token that I esteem of you more than I do them I apprehend not how Coris It is replyed Ergaste that having bin deceived twice by them it 's requisite I esteem you infinitely for having confided in you for a third But added Agamée laughing the question is if Arelise hath deceived you But continued he afterwards more seriously I think that before it be decided it would be good to see if nothing be hapned to Celemante for it seems to me that he is long in returning since you said the House of Telamon is so near It is true he might have bin gone and returned twice persisted Ergaste who also began to be in trouble for his Friend and I know not what could have detained him if it be not that he hath yet again sported us with a turn as he yesterday did after dinner In saying this they perceived this Shepherd who returned with a Countenance so far from that Jocundity and Pleasantness wherewith his had always bin accustomed to be animated that they could scarcely believe he was Celemante However Ergaste not imputing this seriousness but to some fantastical Humor which occupied him cryed out unto him at that distance whence he perceived him Ho! ho Celemante darest thou appear before me after the outrage thou hast committed against me by thy Writing Truly I believed that the fear of approaching me had after that detained thee But I imagined myself also continued he that Repentance hath surprised thee and 't is for that reason so serious and almost afflicted Ah my poor Ergaste replyed Celemante in approaching still towards them I avow you I would have bin willing to dispence my return rather than to bring you such ill Tidings Poor Tarsis is much wounded and I know not whether there may be any reasonable Hopes of Life These words caused an incredible surprise and displeasure not only of Ergaste but also of Agamée and the two Shepherdesses who understood them and as they all had a kindness and an extraordinary esteem of Tarsis it cannot be expressed how they appeared allarmed they approached to Celemante asking him mournfully how this distaster hapned Celemante related it them with the manner how he had learnt it from the Mouth of Telamon and declared to them that was the cause that detained him After bewailing this Accident as a Calamity which was common to them all in general and the most sensible they all resolved to go to the dwelling of Telamon Ergaste and Agamée to testifie him their resentment and the two Shepherdesses to consolate Philiste Tarsis and Zelie The Second Part. The Fourth BOOK IN The Interim the news of this sad Accident being spread over all the Valley of Tempe every one came from all Coasts to know it by Retail Leucippe and Melicerte omitted not to send there They permitted not any Person to speak to him lest that any
the self same day when they said that a Shepherdess of the Country was lost Behold all that I have learnt and I would not have said any thing unto you because I much doubted my self would not any way assist nor add to your Consolation After that Coris had thus spoken there was not one of the Company that remained not perswaded that the Grief of Tarsis was not so blind as they had believed it and that he had bin more clear sighted than they to forsee even immediately all the truth of his Misfortune Telamon re-heaping together all the Circumstances of that which had passed in all this Adventure the Boat that fatal night wherein the Shepherdess had disappeared Tarsis having found none but one person after he had there seen two This roll of Papers met the next day in the bottom of the same Boat according as they could judge this vain and unprofitable search after so many Persons during so many days and after all that this last which he learnt from Choris Telamon said I making a reflection on all these things could not disavow that if it was not certain that Zelie were drowned there was at least great cause ground and subject to apprehend it After that he abandon'd the design that he had had to cause to be sought out these two unknown Women for what could he desire after that Coris had made him her report her discourse sufficiently enough unfolded him the same who was the Son of Alcidias whom Tarsis had heard them name because that Telamon had a Brother who had a long time resided at Thessalonica whence he learnt who was one of these unknown ones and that he could not doubt but that they would speak with him as for Philiste she was so troubled by the sole thought of the evil that she apprehended that she was no more able to shed Tears nor capable to give reasons Agamée Arelise nor Ergaste could avoid the same fears as had Telamon Celemante alone resisted the reasons they gave to create troubles to themselves and finding little to comfort them he represented them to that for the little that there was The least reason to conserve a good ought still prevail above all those which would force them away Agamée judging well that a long Visit would serve in such an Encounter or the like but to pester and molest Philiste and Telamon took leave of them soon afterwards and gave his hand to Arelise who also would retire and was followed by Coris Ergaste and Celemante As it was very late Ergaste whose House was the nearest invited the Areopagite to dinner and would also retain there Celemante and the two Shepherdesses Agamée and Celemante thereto consented but Arelise was too much animated against Ergaste to do him that Favour and it must be very likely that she had some prejudice against Coris to have served though innocently the occasion of her Jealousie She found that she did her Injustice in that by reason that Coris had bin very far from contributing willingly thereunto but her reason could not resist the natural propensity of her Humour and she must be constrained necessarily to use some indeavour to pray that Shepherdess to go and dine with her Ergaste who as we have said was willing to give her cause of Jealousie by Design and Project forgot not any thing which was necessary to augment it and as if he had not bin willing to fix the faction of the Dinner but because of Coris he used all his Efforts and Endeavours to retain her But Coris who had as much kindness for her Friends as she had Wit and Merriment knowing well the trouble that that would give to Arelise if she staid to dinner with Ergaste would never consent thereunto She therefore replyed to Ergaste after her ordinary pleasant merry manner Ergaste I have already lately told you that I would not have the leavings and offalls and remains of Arelise and as I would not have a Heart that she rendred and left to you so I will therefore not have nor accept of a Dinner which she hath refused My Mistress replyed Ergaste I well observe that you will try and prove me and I avow that it is not just that I receive Favours from you from the first day which I could not deserve nor merit but by years of Services Although that Celemante was not present nor had bin at the birth of the Jealousie of Arelise and that the Accident of Tarsis had occupied them in such sort that they had scarcely spoken of any other thing after they had learnt it however he soon knew the Anger and Vexation of his Sister and the design of his Friend by the discourse of the one and the Countenance of the other However he did not immediately seem or make any shew of perceiving it and staying himself only on Ergaste his calling Coris his Mistress he said unto him It is therefore by design Ergaste that thou wilt also carry away from me all my Mistresses Mine enemy replyed Ergaste expectest thou quarter from me after the War thou hast so openly declared against me Celemante would have replyed but Agamée resuming speech added And moreover Shepherd is it not you that would never remember Love more that would renounce all Mistresses and all Love I have truly renounced Love answered Celemante but remember your self Agamée that is passionate Love but not that which they call Gallantry and frankness of Humor without which one never saw a decent and honest Man Well said Celemante replyed Ergaste it is easie to accommodate us you shall be the Gallant and I the Lover of Coris Shepherds said the pleasant merry Coris unto them make out always your course and I will tell you afterwards if I will resolve to enter there at these words she quitted them to go to dine with Arelise whom Agamée would bring back to her dwelling Ergaste and Celemante ran also after Coris and presenting the Hand with desire to conduct and lead her told her they could not make out their course progress nor Treaty without her She placed her self between them both and giving each of them one hand Well said said she let us see whether we can agree First Celemante tell me a little the difference that you pretend there is between a Gallant and a Lover it is so great replyed he as the day is different from the night for a Lover is one that sleeps not that eats not laughs not who seems nothing but Tears and Sighs and the sight of a Mistress which will enrage him even from morning to night and a Gallant is a Man who sleeps eats laughs as others that sees nothing but Joy and Pleasure and who seeks not but to divert his Mistress in diverting himself They could not refrain laughing at the Picture that Celemante had drawn for them and Arelise who smiled as did the others and who essayed to dissemble her anger as much as she could replyed to him
Dear Arelise I request you be not angry with me if I have failed this Morning am not I punished enough to have lost ever since that time the pleasure of speaking to you of my Love Ergaste replyed she very coldly those faults put you in very little Pain but I am very glad to let you know thai I also very much scorn and despise your Repentance and I replyed Ergaste with an Air much more passionate than before I protest to you that there is not any thing in the World that I apprehend or dread so much as your Displeasure and if I were so wise as I would be I would never give you any Ground Subject or Gause but what will you Arelise think you to find Lovers Wise and would you reform the World no replyed she fiercely and it is for that also that I will have none Well Arelise continued he receive me not as your Lover but pardon me as your Friend At the time that he said this they were very near to Celiane and her Company to whom also were joined Agamée and the other two Shepherds The Athenian who had not yet seen Celiane saluted her and afterwards rendered the same civility to Alce Alce was a Shepherdess who was not very fair but had wit and whom a certain Air of Freeness and Frankness made her beloved of those who knew her and above all to Celiane The Sun was then upon its Setting it seem'd to have no more Beams but what was requisite to enlighten Delectably the Company and areigning Zaphir or Planet throughout all the Plain rendred this hour the Pleasantest and most Commodious for walking after some other discourse they continued the walk in taking the way of Ceris and Celiane to reconduct them and every one without choice having offered his hand to the Shepherdess nearest to whom he found himself mett Ergaste amongst others met with Arelise and Celemante with Celiane Ergaste soon recommended his first converse with Arelise who could not so soon return from her Displeasure continued still to refuse him her hand and even to endeavor to withdraw farther at a distance from him not willing to listen to his Excuse The Shepherd who could no longer support himself nor bear her fury and rage seeing all his Words and Speeches too feeble to Mollifie and Sweeten her at last casting himself at her knees and tenderly embracing them Fair Arelise said he to her must you also yet be more Inexorable than the Gods who in spight of the Offences that we commit against them every day are always ready to pardon us from the Moment that we crave Mercy at their hands you see that I make you all the submissions that I could be able to render to themselves I confess my Fault I demand your Pardon I put my self upon my knees before you I embrace yours and that there may be nothing wanting to the Satisfaction I ow you Impose upon me what pain you please for my Default and I promise you and protest you I willingly will submit thereunto provided it be not that of seeing you a longer time angry with me Arelise not any way heeding this discourse but disintangling her self out of the hands of the Shepherd she returned to join Coris to whom Agamée gave his hand Celiane who knew nothing of their affairs and intricacies and on the contrary understood the great kindness that was betwixt them was astonished to see the coldness of Arelise and demanded the cause of Celemante Amiable Celiane answered he her when you shall see Ergaste and Arelise without being angry together demand of me then the Subject and Cause for then there must be something very extraordinary but what can I say unto you when they do but what is usually done every day and what reason to render you of a thing which is not but Natural to them Celemante made her this Reply so loud that Ergaste heard it and for as much that he saw well that the hour of his Reconciling himself with Arelise was not yet come that the Humor which he knew her to be of he should lose his Labor and thereby make her more obstinate then at that time and therefore must leave her to come to her self he used his Endeavours to conceal his Vexation and dreamed only of fencing himself from the Jests of Celemante he therefore to that effect came up from the place where he had been on his knees However at the time when he thought to speak he was interrupted by Celiane who answered Telamon Shepherd you are Malicious for I know that there were never two Persons that loved one another better then did Ergaste and Arelise I say not the contrary replyed Celemante but you must know Fair Celiane that it is their particular manner of Loving Some do believe that to live together in Unity and Peace one by another is Love and they hold that it cannot be done but only in War and Contention See you Shepherdess that Love is an Ape which always counterfeits the Natural Qualification of all those he meets It is peaceable in a Sweet Temper a Quarelour with one Naturally Prompt and Hasty Merry and Pleasant with those Persons who are given to Sports and Rejoycing Ergaste who still Intended to speak when Celemante had finished seeing that he prepared himself to continue longer yet in discourse Interrupted him at last and addressing himself to Celiane said Amiable Celiane if Celemante knew the Nature of Love he would give you a better then that to what you have required of him Love Fair Celiane is a kind of War where every one seeks nothing else but to Conquer his Adversary That is who shall surprise him shall wound him shall surmount one another and it being so should you be astonished always to see both Parties in Strife and Division Ah! I accord with thee cryed Celemante undoubtedly Ergaste Love as thou managest it is a War and I should so be perswaded if I were Arelise I would not approach thee without putting on my Head-Peice and array me with my Armour Helmet c. Cap-a-Pe from head to foot at all hazards Ergaste who apprehended what he would say rejoyn'd him smiling Celemante it is a War where no blows are dealt but what are received and felt with pleasure and provided the Adversary pleaseth there is nothing but pleasure in being wounded that 's the reason why thou seest that they will give to truth the offensive Arms to the God of Love as well as to that of War and that they paint him with a Bow and Arrows as they do Mars with a Sword but thou seest also that they give him not therefore any Defensive Arms as to the other and that on the contrary they paint him all naked as if he were afraid not to receive all the Shots that they had Aimed and Levelled and made against him and least he should lose one in his Attire Celemante had replyed but seeing that Celiane would speak he
and the Shepherds put themselves betwixt them and so hindred a disorder which the Women were already all alarmed at Agamée having a little remitted them demanded of them if there were no means to know their difference and the first having told him by way of answer that he had already unfolded it to him the other replyed that if they would have the Patience he would relate them the Justice of his Complaints adding that he would that his enemy would refer it to their Judgments This after he had considered and mused some time said he would willingly do it provided they would listen to them the one after the other so there being a content on all hands they descended to the foot of the Hill where there was a kind of Bank and there they sate down The two Adversaries chose a certain place opposite to speak in the hearing of their Judges Orally And for as much as he who first spake had already alledged his Pretence the other replyed in these Terms The History of Alceste and Eliante I Should be happy generous Shepherds and wise Shepherdesses if the Gods had always made my Destiny to depend upon the Justice of Laws and that they had given me Judges such as you are from my Infancy to punish the first outrages which have bin done me as they seem this day to have miraculously sent you here to do me reason for the last that I have suffered before your eyes You will be astonished with the variety of events and diversity of the Circumstances which I have to relate you but if you have Astonishment I am assured that you will yet have more Compassion for us and yet more Indignation against our enemy when you shall know our misfortunes and how they are hapned to us and above all when you shall see that the sole right wherewith my Rival pretends to serve himself against me is not sounded but on the Crimes of his Family We are all time originally descended from this Valley I will tell you the young Eliante that you see Perinte that is our Enemy and I my self but there is so long a time past that our fore-Fathers are gone out and expired that it is difficult their Memory should be traced down to you It was from the time that Alexander the great passed into Asia They enrolled themselves all three in his Army and being in all the Battails that he fought against Darius they there acquired such Reputation and so enriched themselves with the Spoils of the Persians that the Fortune that they made in a strange Countrey made them despise their own where they had one more competent After the death of Alexander the great they married themselves in Babylon but after some years my Mother and that of Eliante being dead almost at one and the same time our Fathers who loved them with an unparalelled Tenderness conceived so much Grief that they could not longer dwell in Babylon nor suffer the sight of those places which at all times would renew the memory of their Loss as they wee trained up in arms they resolved there to finish their days and for as much more they sought not but honourable Occasions to loose a Life that their regret had rendred unsupportable but because each of them had a Child of their Marriage and that my self who was eldest of the two had not attained above twelve years of age and Eliante but six They made a Will and Testament before their departure by which they named and appointed the Father of Perinte our Guardian and Tutor and besought him to bring up Eliante and my self in a Friendship and amity one for another which represented that of our Father and to marry us together when we came of age and for as much as the Father of Perinte had also a Son and a Daughter and that these Friends over credulous would leave them marks and tokens of their Friendship they added in their Will and Testament that if it hapned I should dye they desired that all my Wealth should appertain to Eliante on condition and always provided that she would marry the Son of our Guardian and Tutor If I should survive Eliante that I should have all her Wealth provided I would marry his Daughter and if we refused these Conditions he would give him the Liberty to dispose of all their Inheritance The Father of Perinte therefore received the Will and Testament and Pledge of these two Friends But I pray you to see in what manner he executed their Wills and Testaments He no sooner saw their Children and Wealth in his hands but he designed both the one and the other for his own Family Instead of educating Eliante and my self in a kindness which might dispose us for Marriage for which our Fathers had both a willingness to unite us or rather by which they were willing to unite themselves in the Persons of their Children he imployed all his care and thoughts on one side to divide our minds endeavouring to animate us one against the other by small Jealousies to nourish amongst us by these questions which one sucks often as one may say Enmity even as milk and on the other side to insinuate into me for his Daughter all the affection I owed to Eliante and to imprint in the Heart of Eliante for his Son all the good will which I had right to hope for by the last Will of her Father But be it that Love irritates it self against all the designs which opposeth it self to her Liberty be it that the Gods take pleasure to overthrow enterprises so treacherous and so full of Perfidy so it is that they found it always that all that this perfidious one practised to endeavour to make me have a kindness for his Daughter that it always made me have an Aversion that Eliante had the same Sentiments for Perinte and to the contrary there sprang up among us both I know not what desire of loving one another by the constraint that they would have imposed upon us to hate one another The Father of Perinte caused his Son to learn all that could be Imagined to perfect him in all exercises which might Capacitate him to be rendred Amiable and Delightful to Eliante He caused his Daughter to be Educated and brought up with a Care all alike that I might the rather leave my self to be Dazled and a Mist cast over my Eyes and as for Eliante and my self they abandoned us both the one and the other her to her good Nature and my self to all the Defaults of mine But all the art in the World could not put in the Sister of Perinte the least part of those Natural Graces wherewith Eliante Shone and Sparkled in mine eyes and my good Fortune would have it that she had an Higher Esteem of me than of Perinte with all that he had acquired A Success so contrary to the Designs of this Wicked Tutor and Guardian Sâ—angely Irritated against us We perceived even Eliante
with me and he can acquit himself much better than I shall be able to do In saying this she modestly and gracefully cast her eyes upon Alceste to signifie him that she yielded him precedency and place of Speech but Alceste having replyed her that she must necessarily know more then he did and knowing the recital that she made to him was very acceptable and pleasant from her mouth and all the company having also signyfied her the pleasure wherewith they heard her she was obliged to continue which she did in these words Whilst Alceste and my self were in the Transports of our Joy they informed us that Oxiarte who remained in the Skiff refused to ascend into the Ship and that by a Despair the reason whereof was unknown he would have them row him to the Island again and that they left him there whence Alceste came this news strangely surprised us both As for me I was not long in Divineing the reason and I thought Wise Shepherdesses that I have sufficiently testyfied you the Love he had for me to let you conceive this design was in effect of the Grief and Despair in observing that the return of Alceste ruined all the pretensions of his Love But Alceste to whom this passion was unknown could not Imagine the cause of this strange resolution he inquir'd me thereof all amazed and having apprehended it by three or tour words I had let fall I saw in an instant a fire breaking out in his face and a paleness succeeding that ruddiness soon after even in an instant and I observed in his eyes all the signs and tokens of the last pain and grief O Gods Cryed he so many pains and crosses deserve they not very well at least a moment of consolation without bitterness at these words he desired my permission to quit me for an instant and running to his Friend he forced him by his Imbraces and request to abandon his wild and blind design and to return with him to our Ship the Pilot presently steered again our former Course and Alceste and my self with the Mournful Oxiarte retired our selves into a certain part of the Ship whilst all the others interrogated the two others whom they had delivered with Alceste on the subject of their Adventure and of the burning that still continued upon the Island they in like manner declared us the cause thereof and after having told us how he had been put ashore and left in that Island after the same manner as he hath already declared you the sad and deplorable life that they had led therewith his Comrades the Persecution that they had suffered by Serpents and by hunger the Miserable Kind of Death who of thirty persons that were there had reduced them to the only number of three he added that in fine having devoured all the roots and green things capable to nourish them not seeing any to pass by Vessels either great or small and not knowing how to have any farther succor they advised amongst themselve to set the Forrest on fire hoping the flame thereof by being seen at a Distance might draw and allure the Curiosity of some Sailing on the Sea to come to and succor them He told us that to that end they gathered all the leaves they could find amongst the Rocks that were exposed to the heat of the Sun and having made them very dry they brought them into the Forrest and taking some Flint Stones they had beaten and knocked them against one another out of whom came sparks of fire which kindled these leaves whereon they cast branches of Trees which they had made exceeding dry on purpose and by this means set them on fire in the thickest part Of the Forrest which they had so burnt After he had declared us this he would for the satisfaction of his curiosity have us tell him wherefore and how we were gone out of Babylon and I cannot possibly declare you how he was concerned and sensible of the generosity of Oxiarte when I had declared him how he had abandoned his Country quitted his familiar intimate Friends sold all his Inheritance to succour me and follow me wheresoever I would go Although he very well and sufficiently saw that he ought not impute this generous Resolution but to a passion Enemy of his own yet he a thousand times embraced him not as his Rival but always as a generous Friend with an ardent and sincere Affection and with all the Expressions that he deemed capable to administer him any little Consolation Oxiarte on his part did what in him was possible to answer the Caresses and Love of his Friend and one might very well see that his Soul did within it use all it's Endeavours to overcome a certain heaviness and burden wherewith he felt himself oppressed and to conceal at least his Sadness But one might also see that his Sorrow was still more and more and that the Combat that was in his Heart between his Passion and his Friendship Oxiarte alone remained overcome If there appeared any Joy in his Countenance it was but an imperfect Joy and in Similitude like to the weak Beams that the Sun casts forth sometimes out through the dark Clouds who no sooner appear than they are dissipated If he thought to open his Mouth to speak a word he would immediately shut it again and utter forth nothing but Sighs and we knew not what he would say but by the Pains and Repugnancy which he felt in declaring it us In fine he brake this long Silence and after he had a little disburdened and discharg'd his Heart of the Vexing and Hickhocks which suffocated it he took the hand of Alceste which he tenderly crushed in his own and looking upon me the same time with some sort of confusion he said unto me What will you think of me Madam to see me in the Grief and Despair where I am at the time I recover the best Friend I have in the World and what will you say of a Man who sees not his Friends revive but with the Affliction which others have in seeing them dye That I would apprehend that you would not believe me guilty towards you if you knew less the value and the worth of that you return to carry away from me I love you my dear Alceste and I take and call Eliante to witness that the Sentiments that I have conserved for her have never violated the Duty of my Affection and if ever I declared my self her Lover as much as I could believe my self to be so without becoming your Rival I will tell you very much more for in fine I affirm and attest to the Gods that at the same hour that I speak to you I have yet for you all the kindness and friendship that I owe you and that I have so many times sworn to you But Alceste The greatest Kindness and Friendship finds it self feeble when it comes to oppose it self in a Love founded upon such legitimate Hopes when
ones heart Why wilt thou that I commit such a peice of Treachery to make a man believe that I am ravished to listen unto him when I would with all my heart that he were at a further distance Ergaste there is nothing so faithful as not to Dissemble Thou findest wherewith to contradict that one signifies that he is vexed and I would that one should even speak it Ingeniously one to another when one disdains or despiseth when one is angry and furious and when one hates I would desire the truth that one constrains himself to endeavour not to hate nor to dispise any person but if one cannot refrain I would that one should freely and frankly discover it After thy Sentiment demanded Ergaste canst thou bear good Will to a man that should come and tell thee he hates and despiseth thee A thousand times more replyed Celemante than to hate me and say nothing For in fine when a man hath those and the like Sentiments for me if he conceals them from me it is not but for his proper Interest for fear I should bear him ill will or possibly the better to surprize me but if he declares it me ingeniously I should at least hold my self or keep me upon my guard at least even in his hatred would he do towards me a Friendly Action to declare me my Enemies And how many thinkest thou after all are there of hatreds and enmities which continue not in our hearts but least we should dare to discover them and which they would discharge themselves of in expressing them as they do for the most part of all other Passions Ergaste replyed behold very fair imaginations Celemante but they are such as are not customary nor used in this age of ours To whom should they then be held interrupted the other Friend let 's begin to practice them and we should introduce them into a mode It is true that that is justly thy action continued Ergaste smiling for I have always heard say that they are Fools that invent them Ay ay replyed Celemante but as they say that the Wise follow them I hope I shall be a Fool followed by the Wise and if thou doest not as do I then thou shalt be a Wise one who shall not be followed but by Fools And to demonstrate thee that from the present time I will Live with this Freedom it is I declare thee that I begin to be very weary of thee and go to seek to divert my self elsewhere At this saying he took leave of Ergaste and went forward singing towards the midle of the Plain where he saw a considerable number of Shepherds and Shepherdesses assembled together Ergaste lookt upon him sometimes walking smiling and admiring in himself the humor of this Shepherd afterwards as the Extream Love which he had for Arelise conjoined to his temper which was as Melancholy as that of the others was airy and merry made him rather to seek Solitude to meditate then Company where he might divert himself and instead of following Celemante and going to the Assembly which he saw he turned on the other side to go out of the way of that Company In the mean time Celemante went still forward observed that that Assembly were intent in looking upon Shepherds which exercised themselves in a Race and he saw two who disputed Emulously from whom the first carryed a Dart which was fixed in the Earth neer three hundred paces from the place whence they began to run The Shepherdesses were sate upon the Grass eight or ten paces aside from the Dart and one of them with a smiling Countenance held in her hands a branch of a wild Olive Tree which she plaited in form of a Crown to place it upon the head of the Victor Celemante immediately knew that Shepherdess to be Coris and that was enough to make him double his pace although he walked already with speed enough He arrived by or near her just at the same time when the two Shepherds had finished their Race and that the Victor who was named Olcite demanded the Prize Celemante opposed himself thereunto and told him after his ordinary frolicksome joaking I yeild thee all that there is of Olive Trees in Tempe but take it for good that for the Honour of Coris I only Dispute thee that little branch which she hath in her hand Olcite would answer when Coris also still frolick and jocund replyed wherefore say you Shepherd that it is for my Honour that you would Dispute the Prize with Olcite ought you not to do it only for your self since it is indifferent to me as in relation to my self to whom I give it Fair Shepherdess replyed Celemante I said it because that it being for time to come more for you than for me you have more interest in my Honour than my self and since when are you mine then replyed pleasantly Coris It is requisite that I be very Rich to have one in similitude to him there and yet am not perceived But rather Fair Shepherdess replyed he it seems you make a very small account not to remember your self as yet that I gave all these past days to you to be your Gallant Coris being soon put in mind of the Discourse which they had had on that Subject the day that Ergaste feigned to be her Lover rejoin'd him thus Ah I remember once Celemante It is true that you offered your self to be my Gallant but Shepherd I also remember me that I would not receive you Amiable Shepherdess replyed he it is true that I was not altogether received but yet I was not wholly rejected and a Gallant who is not rejected hath right to believe that he is received Let us not dessemble Celemante replyed Coris I think that you will never give your self to any person and each of us find our selves so well to be each one for him or her self that there never will be any more seeking for another Master I find my self so in very deed continued Celemante and that is that wherein you have a greater obligation unto me that I do not as do the Slaves who will change a Master because they have a bad one but that I quit one who to me was one of the best in the World wholly and purposely because I would give my self unto you I have great fear replyed Coris that it was rather through unconstancy and as those servants who change when they are too well because they cannot continue at their ease Will you that I freely declare unto you the truth replyed Celemante I quit a good Master because I believe you will not be yet a better Mistress And I replyed Coris I declare unto you I will not have a Servant so Licentious and such a Libertine for he would without doubt even quit me if he should think of finding or having a better But replyed Celemante be so good unto me that it be altogether impossible to find a better Coris would reply when Olcite who
them all consented that they had not well apprehended those of Olearque and it was of him they would demand the Signification or declare it I will never tell it but to the King alone replyed he and yet that shall not be but in case his Majesty Commands me to do it upon Pain of his Disfavour That which he said gave me yet more Curiosity to know the Explication for I was so Estranged and so far at a Distance as I have told you to think of the Folly that he had put in his Mind that I should never have been diffident of it I passed then laughing into my Closet and there I asked him the Explication in particular and in way of Merriment and Sport only But I was much surprized when in explicating it he gave me to understand that in the first device those Clouds which hide the Sun from other Birds was my disguise which stole the knowledg of that which I was from all my Subjects and that it was he that would willingly Figure himself to be that Eagle who alone had the cleer View that by a part of these same things he would mark in the second that he would only believe me worthy to stay his Eyes and that in the third by that Eagle which carryed the Thunder-Bolt he would have me understand that being as he Vaunted Descended from the Ancient Kings of Lesbos the Scepter was not above his Legitimate Pretensions It is impossible for me to express you the Amazement and the Indignation I was in and principally when I saw the Audacity and the Insolence wherewith he durst so to discover himself unto me as if he had esteemed and accounted that I should not or ought not to have found it strange If I had believed my Fury I think I should have sent him Prisoner from the same place but in the State and Condition wherein I was a Maiden in my Minority and in my Kingdom where I had not mine Authority founded but on a Fable I depended in some respect on him and on his Father it was then requisite for me to serve my self of all that Power that I had over me to use Dissimulation and I contented my self to answer him with a Sound where-he might however mark and take notice of my intention and vexatious despight You have done well Oliarque to say nothing of all this before the World for you would have made your self Laughed at Mocked and Scorn'd and there is none but my self can or could excuse such an Extravagance Immediately I passed into my Chamber but with so much Confusion that he could not possibly avoid the observing it In the mean time he recoil'd not nor would be repulsed for that and although he saw that after that time I spake to him less then ordinary and that I never did it but with even a Serious and severe Countenance he gave not over hoping but that he should succeed in his Designs He redoubled his Cares and Assiduities and his respects and I would have had too much Subject of being Contented if I had not known the cause All that not giving me again Incouragement to be with him nor that Familiarity which I hod done he counterfeited to be Sad Penitent and even to be Sick in fine I thought he had in his heart that which he testified without and I believed he would become or had been more Wise but I was very soon disabused One day he ingaged me to go to Supper to one of his Houses in the Country where he caused to be prepared a Sumptuous Feast under an Arbour of Trees in the Branches of which hung an infinite number of Lamps of Chrystal which seemed to brave the number of the Clear Shining and Glittering and Sparkling of the Stars Under the space or distance of the Trees he had caused to be Enchased great Tables or Pictures which served as Walls ramed after the manner of a great Hall or put us under and Vailed from the Winds After the Supper he made us take three different Divertisements The first was of a Dance where they represented the Loves of the Moon and of Endymion The second a Comedy of Loves of Venus and of Adonis and the third the explication of those Pictures which three or four Actors came to interpret the Subject in Verses in Form of a Dialogue and it was found they were the Amours or Loves of Cephale and Aurore That Affectation in all these three Subjects which represented the unequal Alliance of three Goddesses with men made me well Judg that that was not but with some Design and principally because in the Verses be they of Balls or Dances be they of Comedies be they of the Explication of the Pictures there had been the greatest part in Praises and Commendations of the Generous Passion and Disinterest of the Goddesses and the Fidelity that they had found in Men more then the Gods But possibly he believed that I yet apprehended not the end sufficiently since that the next day all the World having very much commended the Order and Oeconomy of the Feast or Banquet and all that which had followed and seeing I said nothing he asked me if it could be possible that he could be so Unfortunate that I should find nothing there that pleased me I answered him coldly enough that his Feast was not too orderly and that I was angry he had been at that great expence My Lord said he unto me I have not hoped for your approbation of the Feast and it sufficeth me if your Majesty refused it not at the Action of the three Great Goddesses who have had the Honour to direct you He said that unto me aloud but with the Equivocation that you see that those before whom he spake unto me might believe that he understood the speaking of the representation of their Loves and he well Judged that never any one of those who were present did not comprehend him after another manner But as for me I had already the knowledge of his intention I well saw that he otherwise understood it and I knew it better by the manner of his expectation of an answer looking stedfastly upon me with a suspended Action as I may say betwixt Joy and Fear and with eyes who sufficiently enough declared his thoughts I did not at all seem to comprehend him because I should have bin obliged to testifie him in the Countrey my resentment and my Anger I answered him only that the Dancers and the Actors had very well done He who would not leave me in doubt replyed unto me Your Majesty at least approves of the Goddesses as well as the Actors I could not hinder my self from blushing at his Impudence although I very well knew that no Person but my self could understand his true meaning and unless I had explicated it to others I had then testified him all my Indignation But I contented my self to reply him with a cold and severe Countenance Olearque it becomes not men
to Judge of the Actions of the Gods but I believe Women of Heart would never do that which they impute them At the Instant lest he should continue that discourse I reassumed another The occasion which he had to be all the day near me and speak to me made me well believe that to take one away from him I was not precautioned against another for time to come That was because I would break the Course of all the designs he could have to seek any I was resolved to advertize his Father I took him then one day particularly and after I had made him remember the Protestations with which he had answered me in relation to his Son complained to him of his Audacity and conjured him to employ himself in making him more wise with all the reasons that I could possibly call to mind The Father was astonished at the folly of his Son he protested me he knew nothing of it until then and after he had asked my Pardon a thousand times he returned to his own house where he read a Lecture to this young Man both as a Father and as a Master that is to say with a Lenity mixed notwithstanding with very severe Threats if he profited not himself by this first remonstrance But that which should have rendered him wise cast him into the last excess For in fine he conceived so strange a despight and of the complaints that I had made him that by a kind of Desparation he went to find the Prince Demotime in Phrygia and after he had prepared his Mind for the Design he would inspire into him he discovered him what I was and declared him that acknowledging him to be his only and Legitimate King he could not resolve with himself to contribute a longer time in this kind of Treason Demotime who conserved always in his Heart all the Sentiments of that Ambition which had formerly obliged him to take up Arms against the deceased King My Father received this News with the same Joy as if they had already set the Crown upon his Head He embraced a thousand times the young Olearque and excited him by the hopes of the most high and vast Recompences if he could in any kind convince him by reason or demonstration or action make him believe that that was really true that he had declared There was no need to use Arguments or make so much difficulties to carry Olearque from any or all undertaking and would make good his Declaration The despight in his Heart was so joyned with Love and Ambition that in that condition there was not any thing whereof he felt not himself capable What shall I say unto you more He ingaged Demotime to make a Voyage to Mitilene under pretext of coming to give me an accompt of his Employment and there to make his Court he promised him that he would give him an opportunity of seeing me in the Bath and in effect having corrupted with much Money those which were necessary to his design he caused Demotime to conceal himself in a Corner of my Chamber where I bathed my self and I am in confusion only in calling to mind his Insolence this Perfidy betrayed my Secret and my Chastity and acquitted himself of his word to Demotime This same here cleared from his Doubts dreamed a long time in what manner he should make known to the Publick what I was He well believed that it would be a difficult thing if he did not comport himself therein handsomly because there was so little appearance of the Truth thereof that the very small Semblance thereof would only render the Proposition ridiculous and might take away all credulity from his words Behold his first thought was to put it in the Peoples minds that it was requisite to press me to marry to assure Successors to the State dreaming of the refusal that I would make would be the beginning of a Conviction against me My Father had thereunto in some Respect made Provision by the noise that I have told you that he had dumbly and deafly caused to be spread abroad and which might serve me for some kind of excuse But howsoever that noise had bin so uncertain that they knew not certainly whether it were a Fable or a Truth Demotime himself well judged that if this excuse should be ill received of any to whom the sole Doubt that they had had might have given an occasion of making Insolent Jests enough so that he thought that that would be to him but a small advantage if he obliged me to have publick recourse to an apparition or dumb shew which would cause my Person to be despised and would alienate in some sort the minds of my Subjects from the respect affection and allegiance which they ought me So although I was yet very young it might be insinuated into their minds that it was therefore requisite to press me to chuse a Wife to produce an Heir to the Kingdom and as his Interest therein would appear contrary in the pretention that he could be to succeed therein that would make it be thought that he spake not but for the good of the Kingdom and that which he said would make much more Impression And in truth he in fine perswaded the necessity of this Marriage to so many Persons that I understood not of any other thing spoken than of these Propositions He himself was always urging me thereunto yea he so persisted in it until my Subjects expresly deputed some to invite me thereunto poposing me a Princess named Aremise who being fair of my Blood and of my Age seemed not to leave me any pretext to refuse her I have told you that the two Princes who opposed themselves against the establishment of the Decree who declared the Daughters uncapable to succeed to the Crown had each of them a Daughter I was the Issue of the eldest Artemise of the second The People very much affected this Princess because her Father during his Life had been extream Popular and she was very much her self She had moreover a thousand very amiable Qualities a penetrating Wit agitating to the very utmost point But even all these advantages which rendered her so commendable and praise-worthy made an unfortunate effect against me by reason the more amiable she was the more they would astonish themselves if I made any difficulty to espouse her I notwithstanding dallied some time with the artifice of Demotime in temporising and excusing my self with the youth fulness of my Age without my belief that his urgency was an Artifice For as I knew not that he had any knowledge of my Sex I thought not also that all this was done by an evil intention Only I astonisht my self that Demotime who was married and who had Children was so affectionate for my Successors that he would forget his own In fine the success of his Stratagem seeming to him too slow he believed it would be necessary to advance it by stronger and more violent
it not be too fully satisfied he accompanied these words with a thousand Hick-hoxes and as since about twelve or fifseen days that he hath been in his affliction his Visage is so changed that he could not be known I am still in pain lest he should fall into some furious Malady or Disease and I would that some one had the goodness to give him a little Consolation He departed yesterday in the evening with one of his Friends who led him to Gonnes to divert him as I believe from his Grief and I know not when he will Return Whilst that that Shepherd so spake Telamon applying all the Circumstances of what he had recited him to those which he already knew of the Accident or Adventure of Zelie received as one may so say so many Mortal Wounds in his Heart as he heard words there not being one which confirmed not in him more and more the death of a Person who to him was so dear for her own self and for the interest of his Dear Tarsis What Obscurity soever could remain in the manner wherein this dismal accident happened he found but too great a Demonstration of the certainty of this Loss He knew not if it was the effect of the Crime of Alpide or that of a simple accident casually He saw well by the discourse of the Shepherd that his Master was not Innocent since that he had accused himself But the means of thinking that Alpide who was a near Relation to Zelie would have attempted at the Life of that Illustrious Shepherdess by what Interest by what Passion would he have suspected to have undertaken that Dreadful and Hainous Murder sometimes thinking of the extream Beauty of Zelie and of the great and extroardinay Passions that she was capable to inspire he doubted whether Alpide were not become in Love and if he should not be carryed away to those cruel extremities by some Transport of Jealousy Notwithstanding besides the Proximity of the Relation that was between him and this Shepherdess Defaced Rased and Abolished all the appearances of that Love whence Alpide could be able to take any Foundation of Jealousy possibly that some days before Tarsis had been able to give him some but then Tarsis was Banisht she had not seen him since the Return of Alpide Telamon therefore saw from thence that it was impossible that this Shepherd was the cause of the Death of Zelie if it were not by some casual accident and he Judged in gathering together all the Circumstances of this Adventure that this accident could be no other unless that this Shepherdess being with Alpide in the Boat where Tarsis had heard it the Night that she had disappeared she was unfortunatly fallen into the River whilst he attempted by Swimming to approach and to come to her Three things clearly demonstrated that she was fallen into the River viz. The certainty that Tarsis had to have seen two Persons presently in the Boat where he had heard her and there to have found but one alone although that Boat had not approached nor arrived at any Place this Role of Paper that they had met there the next Day and her Vail found taken hold of by some Reeds of the River and taken up by one of these unknown ones And it appeared yet rather that it was Alpide who was then with her by that which Amalecinte had repeated to him of the old Mariner who attended at that time there Alpide and Zelie by the neglect with which that same Mariner taking Tarsis for Alpide had asked him why she then did come alone In a Word by all that the Shepherd had recited him of the Preparatives that Alpide had made the preceding day for a Voyage his unexpected return that self same Night his sadness the Regrets that he had made for the Death of Zelie and the blaming himself for her loss It was not but that he had yet something that he could not spread a broad and explain and which left him some Ray or Beam of Hope He asked amongst others of himself how it was possible that she was drowned that they had not found her Body upon the Bank or in the River or in the Gulph wherein so many People had been Employed in her search during so many days and where the Water never faileth to cast forth and expel all and every Person that there is Lost then that a second Shepherd chanced to come in drew Alpide a little aside and asked him Knowest thou not how that Maiden is called which about twelve days past thy Master found her dead Body upon the Bank of the Gulph and whom I assisted to bring hither Although that that Man appear'd to have an intention to say this to the other in particular notwithstanding he spake not so low but that Telamon heard these words very distinctly They smote him all at once both in Ear and Heart and as he gave attention to what followed he heard that the Shepherd of Alpide having demanded of the other of what Body and of what Maiden he would speak the same here replyed him What then is it that thy Master hath told thee nothing at these words drawing him a little more out of the way or aside he continued to speak unto him but so low that Telamon could not hear nor understand One could not depaint nor express the trouble of Mind wherein this poor Shepherd was nor the impatience which he had in his Grief to hear the Sequel of the discourse the beginning whereof had so strangely alarmed him He was ready two or three times to interrupt them for his own enlightning nevertheless he dreamed that since they did it in secret they would make some difficulty to explain it unto him one before another and that he should be better pleased to draw out what he would in particular And for as much as he thought that the Shepherd of Alpide would possibly be more reserved by reason of the interest of his Master he retired himself in a place whence he could see when they departed themselves to go to rejoyn the other at his Passage He waited not long before he saw the second Slave reassume the way by which he was come Telamon accosted him so directly that joyning some Liberality to the Pertinency of his words he obliged him to discover himself openly My Lord said that Man I do belong to the Shepherd Nephelocrate and I ordinarily dwell at a certain place or peice of Land which he hath out of this Vally and which I make of value to him There may have been fifteen Days that I came to render him an Accompt of some disorder which hapned there I parted hence at Midnight to return because that in the time wherein we in the Nights as you know find more conveniency to walk in than the day time In passing towards the Mouth of the River I heard a Man who wept and despaired upon the Bank and being approached I saw that he