She received advice That Faustus her Father was dead and that she as his sole Daughter was left Heir of a large Country that therefore it concerned her in the company of her Cosen Periander who was come to convey her from the Court to resolve to depart She retired into her Chamber at that news being invaded in a moment with a Million of thoughts tormenting her Minde Her serene Brow was un-calmed the colour of her Face turned Pale her Eyes wept abundantly her Breast sighed aloud and she in an instant was made an unfortunate Winter of Affliction She felt her Fathers death by the absence of her Lover she felt her Lovers absence by the death of her Father One grief encreased with the memory of another and in the Ashes of that the Fire of this kindled apace It is no little Happiness to one that is unhappy to vent without scandal his Torments when his Torments are derived from a Cause which may occasion Scandal The Minde of Sophonisba over-flown with the torrent of such Sorrows could not choose but transport her to a firm Resolution of discovering her self to Antiochus The state of that Lover seems to her too unfortunate who is silent and far off She therefore sought occasion to be with him alone but when she is beginning to speak affrighted with the Majesty of the Face she adores little more then half alive she congeals and grows mute The Prince took no notice of her Passions because she was still to be unhappy She seeing she had lost so fit an opportunity knew not how with any thing to punish more her self then by going away presently 'T was now night when she began to take her leave of all 'T was fit a black Licence should forerun so dark a Voyage Seleucus having given her a very rich Jewel kissed her on the fore-head All happiness go with thee Sophonisba The Gods know he said to her what a loss my Court hath of thy Presence Stratonica wept and embraced her oftentimes onely Antiochus wished her a good journey and took his leave of her without much alteration That was very good luck for Sophonisba one pale look of his would have made her dye of wanness Having ended her Ceremonies with all she locked her self in her Chamber She went not to bed to take rest but after much uncertainty of minde wrote a Letter to Antiochus and delivered it to one she loved well in the Court called Eleuteria entreating her to give it into his hands when she guessed she might be a little way off from Damascus The morning being come Aurora scarce blushed when she with her Company took Coach and set forwards on their journey The disconsolate Lady was glad that then all the Court was asleep that she might meet no more of those Objects which would cause her to weep She concealed her self in her funeral Coach lest the Objects she might see should seem to reprove her of her distance from Antiochus Eleuteria about noon supposing Sophonisba was far enough off found Antiochus and presented him with the Letter He blushed a little at it yet thanked Eleuteria and locking himself in his Chamber opened it and read as here followeth I Am too bold O Antiochus To write then to you when I may speak is not always a sign of Modesty If these Characters in which my mourning thoughts like a Serpent move hither and thither had the force to make you penetrate what I fain would have you know how your vertues have had the Power to make me feel what I would conceal from all but your self I should live more contented you remain better satisfied But what do you expect that I should tell you In what an ocean of thoughts waves your Minde while you read Where think you will these rows of Words or rather these Lines finde an End which are drawn from the Centre of my Breast Alas I want Power to express it My Antiochus who truly art not mine but as I represent you to my self Since it was my fortune to contemplate your Vertues and receive your Favors Love so invaded me that I could not resist him by forbearing to be yours Many Moneths are now past since my heart hath encreased the number of your Vassals You have commanded one Soul more then you knew of and still are Lord of it My Actions my Looks and my Words would have well informed you of it if you had made reflection on them But I have been either too fearful or you too negligent Being content howsoever with my Fortune which was careless in acquainting you with it I rejoyced as much in loving you as another would perhaps have rejoyced in being loved again I was to my self as I may say both the Idol and Idolater too The Sphaer of my Fire had no greater Circumference then what was turned about by the Circuit of a Heart To see you to speak to you and to be in your Company were the greatest rewards I could desire for my Love That Lady seemed too happy to me who had leave to lay her heart in the bosom of a King But since the death of Faustus my Father hath made unhappy the happiness of my life by forcing me to go from your Court I wounded past all Cure knew not what other remedy to have recourse to to preserve me alive but this of informing you That I love you more then my self To love you at a distance and without your knowledge were too cruel Conditions to the Fortune of one so unhappy as I am I must either have died or informed you of it To have done it with my tongue would have been more pleasing to me with my Pen it hath been safer If you should have refused me I should have died of grief if accepted of me of delight Either this way or that I must have died if she be said to dye who is Crowned with a triumph or Martyrdom Be not scandalized my King A woman that so long hath known how to be silent would have known ne'er to Love if it had been in her Power I am sure that you will not condemn in your Servant the Flames which your own Rayes have kindled Pity my sorrows which onely are mine because I am excessively yours And remember that I turning sometimes to the Heaven under which you take your breath will invoke that name often which would onely make me happy if I had not occasion to invoke it I desire you not to Love me for it would be temerity to desire so great a thing I onely beseech you to pardon me if those offences be worthy of pardon which in nothing else have Wronged you but in Loving you Amazement seized Antiochus as soon as he had read over the Places which had Power to make him wonder and as if his Soul from that Letter had drunk some liquid Poyson he began to perceive a sudden fire in his Bowels An amorous Letter to a youthful Heart is a learned Enchantment The
their flanks plaid up and down More below in a circle sate twelve beautiful Maids of Honor among which Sophonisba appeared no less eminent in Beauty then in Dignity Stratonica was habited like a Nymph the Gold and Jewels she wore exceeded much the value of a Kingdom But Fila seated with a Crown on her head was Majestick and Grave Those amorous Archers had a custom when any went in to the Queens to shoot at them for Ornament with their Bows Were it by Chance or by Art one of the Arrows gilded and blunt as Seleucus entered in hit him on the heart which we spake of before He was so transported in that his first appearance that by his disorder his good grace was in danger of miscarrying All his life was reduced into a look and the Queens onely knew he was a live by his looks The admiration in seeing one another was reciprocal in all The Queens had heard often of Seleucus his Fame and desired as much to see him as he to see them The good King kneeled as they rose up and with a stammering tongue desired to kiss their hands They forcing him to rise would by no means permit him to do them that service At last being gently reproved by Demetrius he rose up and said to them I should rejoyce with you my Ladies if in having acquired a Son in Law and a Husband so unequal to your merits you could say you had gained by the Purchase My Crown though esteemed by the world deserves not to be valued by you but for this that 't is rich in incomparable Devotion and Affection to your Majesties It belongs then to you O my Queens to rejoyce with me I onely among all that are this day alive in the World have more obligation to the Stars then any man besides To live when Stratonica lives to be the Companion of her Fortune and the end of her Thoughts are such Graces as Heaven never gives but when it intends perfect Happiness To make me very fortunate be pleased O Stratonica my Mistress to accept of me readily for your Servant and give me some assurance of it that my Happiness being known to the World every one may swear I no longer am Mortal Having said so he embraced her with much reverence and kissed her Thou diedst not Seleucus of pleasure because it was impossible for thee to die in the mouth of thy life Thy Soul in that kiss had contracted all the pleasures which Love hath to give If thou hadst not loved Stratonica in that maner that thy passionate Affection made thee chaste that sweet Povson would not doubtless have found an Antidote against it The Queens were well satisfied with Seleucus his Behavior and Expressions and answered him with that courtesie which is due in like cases In the mean time all the Courtiers there present hung at the mouth of the Princes observing their Majesties and admiring their carriage Having ended their Ceremonies they discoursed of other matters in the progress of which Seleucus stealing often his Soul from his words gave it to his looks His eyes were so eager in beholding Stratonica that they were like the eyes of the Bird that hatches her Eggs with her looks O what immensity of Beauty restrained in the narrow confines of a Face presents it self Seleucus to thy view Why seest thou it and diest not since Seeing and Dying deprive alike of life an enamored Heart It perhaps preserves thy life to think that those animated Alabasters live not and soften not for any but thy self The possession of a Happiness so great is certainly able to give life but if the possession of Beauty be not otherwise enjoyed then by looking upon it That possession is unprofitable which hath no longer pleasure then the lasting of a look By that time the Navy slowly sailing on towards the Haven arrived They dis-imbarked with that greatness and pomp which became well the Majesty of a King and a Lovers first desire But among the stateliest things which were seen in Seleucus his Delights was a very great Pallace made all of Wood in that maner that Two thousand men hired for that purpose could instantly set it together It was rarely well built all gilded and curiously Painted When it was taken asunder they carried it conveniently on Carts in the journey In this Pallace every night while they travelled from Tripolis to Damascus the Princes were so gallantly lodged that Lucullus his Apolline and the Delights of Heliogabalus which followed after in comparison of them might be justly called Shadows Stratonica rode in a Chariot drawn by four Birds of that bigness that it is liker a fable then the truth to relate it They breed in the Inhospitable Mountains of Giava the greater and it is written of them that they carried with such ease through the Air a Calf fastned to their Talons as a Falcon would a Sparrow By the Winged Coursers we may judge of the rest of the Chariot The Armies of both Crowns went before and Fifty other Chariots followed after in which were the Princes the Ladies and chief Officers of the Court. It was Majestick to see with what Military Rule and good Order they travelled The Pioneers joyned in two Legions levelled the Hills removed the Woods and dryed up the Rivers if need so required The power of Kings can do these wonders and it is not a wonder that it can do so much If man be the King of Animals to be King of many Men is to be King of many Kings and who wonders that the Actions of a King should be great since in them the Assistance of so many Kings concurs All Ages envyed the Plains which Stratonica passed over being the Scene of so beautiful a sight Let the Reader imagine That the Soul of Seleucus was distributed among all his Soldiers Every one of them co-operated with that diligence to his end that the new Lover had nothing else to do but to desire The slowness of their march onely vexed him He desired that Stratonica's Chariot would have flown and perhaps to that end he put the Birds in it but who knows that those Birds were not Seleucus his winged Desires They doubtless would have flown in my Opinion if the Bridle of Respect due to his Queen had not checkt them But being near Damascus they were met and received by the City with the greatest signs of Loyalty that faithful Subjects could demonstrate to their Prince The Arch-Triumphals and Altars were erected the streets hung with Tapistry and the Playes and Balls which that day were seen would weary any Tongue and any Pen. The concourse of people was so great that besides the Inhabitants of Damascus torrents of persons came tumbling from the neighboring Cities The Galleries the Balcones and Windows were all filled and the rest of the people not knowing which way else to come to see hung on the ridges of the houses and kept themselves from falling by leaning on the Walls The
mouth on her hand But thou wouldst have been certainly very happy if thou couldst with that kiss have buried thy life in one of those fair little Graves While they were so discoursing Seleucus came to them and informed with emulation now by Stratonica now by Antiochus of Demetrius his good fortune he seemed externally to be very glad of it but really within himself he was very sorry for it Men applaud but fear his Greatness who is able to suppress them Princes like Plants cannot endure the height of those Trees which can shade them Every one hates in his Companion that happiness which he fain would have himself and continually seeking to ballance anothers power comes many times to lose his own Seleucus howsoever to conceal his own resentments gave order the same morning for the making of a very Solemn Feast where by the number of the Lords which were to be present the quality of his Love which he fained to his Father in law might appear the more Glorious Tables like Tragical Scenes use oftentimes to kill noysom Thoughts with the death of Meats And those cares which sayling on the Ocean of the Minde are affraid to lose themselves being plunged in the little Lake of a foaming Christal suffer often Shipwrack Man hath no Theater more delightful to entertain all his Senses then a Table and nothing more hurtful to his health or more scandalous to his behavior The Fame of Demetrius his good Fortune and the order for the Banquet being spread through the Court the joy was universal in all Hearts especially in theirs who professed themselves the Subjects and Dependants of that King Among them Licofronia a Lady well in years and Stratonica's nurse made shew of great contentment She was at that time the greatest among those near the Queen Stratonica who had sucked her Milk had likewise sucked the Custom of respecting her as a Mother The Authority in her Face equalled that of her State No Lady spake more eloquently and none led a more unblemished Life In those joyes which were the cause of Confusions and Whisperings the two enamored Princes could very well mingle their pleasures without running the hazard of being observed for the Ladies the Pages and other Domesticks of the Court being busie about one thing or other had no time to stand still and take notice of the Actions of their Patrons But Seleucus when he had conferred some time with the Queen about the news of his Father-in-law and the preparations for the Feast retired into his usual Lodgings the better to attend the Affairs of his Kingdom Antiochus to give no suspition of himself with his being continually with his Mother-in-law did the same The Gods know with what Minde Being come to the Threshold of the Door which locked his Heart from him he turned himself to see his Life which remained there within and he saw her stand looking on him Farewel they said in that encounter of their Looks Heaven knows how I depart Love knows how I stay here Antiochus went away full of Joy but what caused his Affliction to depart from his Happiness He goes through those Rooms he wanders through the Galleries of the Pallace so transported that saluted he returns not the Civility that met with he is ignorant of the Person He answers when he is not spoken to and asks Questions when alone Love is the Wine of the Soul He muses on the world of the Looks he had received He repeats the words that followed and his destiny lastly whether to make him turn Physitian or to distemper him I know not makes him a careful Anatomist of the Body of every little Favor When he had mused enough and concluded with himself that he was very much in Stratonica's Favor he was pleased to speak to some of his Favorites to pass with the Discourse of divers things that short morning which before dinner came seemed to him an Age. Stratonica in the mean time who raved in her Thoughts no less then he resolved to appear to Antiochus more glorious that morning and to honor the Feast with the stateliest show which she could represent of her self to be regally adorned To that end being gone into her Cabinet with two diligent Chamber-Maids she sate down by a Table the Pedistal of a Looking-glass which within the Frame of enamelled Silver seemed as if it came to beatifie that Face in which there is not a Heart that feels not a thousand Beatitudes But here I confess I would fain know how to describe her The dalliances of a Pen which are delightful would not be ingrateful to me in this occasion It was too strange to the World to see a Looking-glass look in a face and a Woman run no less the danger of Idolizing then Deifying her self Stratonica could in nothing shew more her Affection to Antiochus then in looking on her self at that time Being ready to be enamored of her self she omitted to do it because she would not be a rival of her self to her Dear The Queen though she had no need to instruct in any Action her Countenance to set out her Graces more lively yet studied how her laughter might be pleasinger her looks more compassionate and her face more attractive It is the disease of all handsom Women though Nature hath enriched them with her gifts to be begging still of Art those Affectations which infect their Beauties often Looking-glasses are Magick Books to Women They learn in them those Spells which to charm a man become sweetly cruel A Looking-glass hath the Quality of a Counsellor and a Priviledge granted to no Counsellor and a Priviledge granted to no Counsellor it speaks always the truth and is always beloved While therefore Stratonica was either the Glass or looked in it the Chamber Maids began to unpin her Head and untangle the Knots of Ribbands which rowled up together in the folds of her Hair served either to bridle their Boldness or bury their Errors their Boldness or Errors committed in ensnaring Lovers Souls The Queens Hair like a deluge over-flowed her Neck and her Face to hinder peradventure with their inundation the Looking-glass from silvering its Chrystal in the whiteness of that flesh As soon as she was combed she washed her Face with a Water which distilled from many Herbs was in opinion with those Chamber-Maids of having the Vertue to make fairer the skin I say in Opinion because in reality though its Vertue had been such yet it could not do any thing in her Beauty which an infinity having filled all places had rendered incapable of any Augmentation Howsoever they began with this Water and they ended with this Water all their Painting in Stratonica's face She to so many Prerogatives had from Heaven added that of not being an Alchymist Whosoever went to spy in the secretest Repository of her Cabinet found not there a world of little Boxes not to say Crucibles in which most Women think to finde the Stone of Beauty
strength from his generous Minde which accompanies still royal Blood he looked cheerfully and composed so his Countenance that no body perceived his alteration Stratonica no less subtile then he in concealing her Passions at the coming of the Nurse to cause no admiration in her disarrayed her self of that rigor with which she was apparrel'd while she was with Antiochus alone and began to discourse now with him now with her with her usual Sweetness and Courtesie The Prince perceived those Arts and was very glad of them hoping that the cruelty which his Queen had expressed to him either proceeded from meer Capriciousness or was bred of a Desire to make tryal of his Constancy Being afterwards departed with her usual License he employed himself in thinking if by chance he had any ways deserved the disdain which his Queen shewed to him His Sighs were many his Compunctions great and his Discourses to himself not concise But afterwards finding for many days together that when Stratonica was alone she still kept her self on her guard but when they were in company she used the forementioned dexterity the unfortunate Prince began to lose all hope His sorrows become Gyants so tyrannized over his minde that he sometimes was almost distracted Knowing therefore the imminent danger not onely of his Life but his Honor he resolved to provide for himself all the remedies which seemed to him the best to remove Stratonica from his Heart He first of all therefore fell to reading certain Books of Calisthenes of the Contempt of the World that by them as by so many Counsellors because he was diffident to discover his passions to any he might receive advertisements and means to despise all terrestrial affections and use contemplation by help of which onely a man may make himself very happy on earth His Minde being plunged in this kinde of reading he considered oftentimes the Nature of a Woman and how subject to frailty why the intellect of man that is of so noble and so sublime a Nature should abandon it self in that maner as to lose the best operations of its faculty in tracing a Woman Being encouraged many times with such like thoughts he fell in Stratonica's absence to neglecting of her Qualities and Beauty so fortifying himself in those Speculations that he thought he then had courage enough to oppose the power of her Presence But afterwards having occasion of seeing her in order to the accidents of the Day the unfortunate Prince ravisht with beholding the Majesty of that Face and the lightning of those Eyes changing himself wholly in a moment said aloud to himself Alas who would not understand it for a happiness to lose his life for one of thy looks Who onely to see thee dearest soul would not adventure all Fortune and hazard all danger O Antiochus and hast thou the heart to neglect her hast thou a minde that can form a thought that is not hers ignorant man that thou art and what torment deserves not an ingratitude like thine His Soul which within him dictated those thoughts made the Queen very fully understand his resentments by the force of his looks But she though she pitied him was more sensible of her own Honor. To that end neglecting all those actions which might seem to mollifie her towards her Antiochus she sought too to make her self inexorable by Custom where she had begun by Choice The Prince by this maner disconsolately living studied how to cure the disasters of his minde besides by the reading of Books with much Playing and Hunting It is hard to relate how pleasing he was to the company of the Courtiers how lovely and how much desired He played to lose because all gain but that of the favor of the Queen would have been ingrateful to him The greatest pleasure he had in those pastimes was to sigh His friends supposed that he sighed for his ill Fortune and he onely fighed for Love the effects of his cruel condition which while he was a Lover made him thought avaricious Sometimes in the middle of the thickest Woods which Libanus backs straying from the company that followed him and lighting at the foot of a Tree to which he ty'd his horse he sate on the grass and leaning his sad head on the Trunk which doubtless was softer then Stratonica's Heart washing his Cheeks with Tears soon after he eccho'd forth Accents which would have mov'd to pity the most pityless Tygers One time then among the rest after he had wept a good while in those uncouth solitudes he was invaded by a thought which said thus unto him To what purpose bewailst so thy Fortune and Stratonica's Favor if thou knowst not by how many ways Love compasses his ends Who assures thee that Stratonica shews not her self so rigid to thee that by forcing thee to tell her what kindness she hath ever received from thee thou mayst have the occasion to engrave thy Love in her and why losest so unprofitably thy time and seekest the most solitary Woods to dissolve thy self with Weeping O foolish O careless man Rise comfort thy self take Courage encounter the Opportunity O ye Gods which inhabit hereabouts if there be any among you that hear my complaints and pity my disasters now shew your gentleness in prospering my Desires Deny me not your help O Sacred Napeae ye happy Oreades infuse boldness into this Heart which onely is too Timerous because too Amorous I go to end my Woes or to begin them for ever He had scarce said that but leaping on his Horse he impatiently rode through those leavy obscurities to finde out his attendance and return with all speed to the City and discover himself to his Queen And behold turning by the corner of a High and Precipitious heap of Stones which made as it were the Frontispiece of a Landskip-work at the foot of a great Mountain he saw in the midst of some bushes a Bear fly slowly away Antiochus follows him and when he came near him saw by his hair that was bloody that he 's hurt He straightways throws at him a Dart which he had in his hand with great force and wounds him beneath the neck The Bear groans and roars in that maner that the eccho's thereabouts of those silent Deserts repeat them His roaring was a kinde of wilde Trumpet which called from a Grot a She-bear of that infinite greatness that she seemed a hairy mountain Antiochus had an occasion to shew there that his sword could wound as well as his heart was wounded He employed all the valor he had for the two enemies before him omitted no means with their Tusks and their Paws to rob him of his life but Sweating and Panting often hard for the victory he at last overcame them The two Beasts lying prostrate on the Earth were a horrible Spectacle to the Eyes of all the Court which presently came together in defence of their Lord. The She-bear was there known by many Country people for the terror
his Conscience represented to him the foulness of his corrupt and rotten marriage He knew he had given for a dishonest woman his own Wife to his own Son He perceived that the People derided in secret this his cowardly dulness though they openly applauded it and Stratonica likewise was much troubled to see her self pointed at as the Son-in-laws Mistress but the flesh was unruly whereupon with the danger of Antiochus his health they hastened the Pleasures of the lascivious Queen She was dressed more extravagantly and wantonly then ever Her sleeked hair hung displayed but was parted on the Forehead on her Temples she had placed two great Locks of Hair finely Curled and very rarely Plaited which hung down to the tip of her Ear. The Tresses were reduced into a Rose the hinder part of her head was bound with a single Ribband woven of many Colours Her Neck the delicious excess of Softness and Whiteness seemed Alabaster and not Flesh but that by its Motion in breathing it appeared to have Life Her Throat Beauties Pillar laid a foundation to the first desires which going on farther to her Bosom did precipitate themselves from two little Hills into the Gulph of amorous Impatience little Hills with cunning Artifice exposed to the sight of all Eyes having the Vail drawn maliciously and jetting out with laborious advantage in appearance of Severity but yet very pliable She was dressed in a Green Gown the displayed Standard to her amorous Hopes Two Bracelets of Pomandre of Ambre covered with Gold adorned her Wrists and her Elbows were shrouded in a Muff of Silk-caulwork among whose Knots the Needle toyed fastning on each of them a Jewel On her Neck with an obstinate bragging of Emulation the choicest Neck-lace of Pearl that was ever worn by Queen proudly humbled it self with a Row of the smallest Granate Stones which with their dusky colour befriended the pretences of the Pearl against her Bosom Two Serpents of Gold were her Pendants which seemed with open mouth to have fastned their Teeth on the Stalk and at their wreathed Tails hung two shining Emeralds On the left Lock of Hair was a little Rose of Gold with Six Diamonds and another somewhat bigger sported up and down between her Breasts But every thing offended their sight who gazed on her Eyes in whose brightness they saw Epitomized the Miracles of Light These were the Calamity where not onely Antiochus was involved but to which by a fatal Disposition all mens Mindes were inclined The Nuptials were to be celebrated to which with great shame Hymenaeus approached marked with the foul Character of Adultery and Incest Luxury going hand in hand with the most obscene Wantonness had resolved to conquer it self and consulted the most riotous Pleasures that ever the Roman or the Grecian to wit the learnedst Lust had invented But in the mean time Antiochus and Stratonica were not wanting to meet together secretly by means of the Faithful and timerous Silence of the subtile Waiting-Women All the Reins were abandoned to wickedness but they desired to cover the filthiness of Incest with the Snow of a Contract which was nothing else but a Lye before the Gods before the People and the Conscience too of the Contractors They would have endangered the Health of the newly recovered and longing Lover if she who was very voluptuous had not out of Love to her self procured his preservation for a longer use Scarcity redoubled their Appetites but delay was a very pleasing punishment the Blinde-lovers believing like Cupid that they should be immortal like him and that sensual Pleasures could not but be maintained by Life which often miscarries in the infancy of Fruition Looks in the mean time and Sighs and in the view of the World the lawful touch of the Hand supplied what fell short of the Pleasure which in Secret they enjoyed Two Hearts that prescribe to themselves a non-plus ultra at their own little Pillars deceive those Thoughts which are never contented unless they obtain something more then they possess The Soul which thinks all the World a narrow compass cannot endure to be forced by Sense to the miserable servitude of adoring a Face in which though it never so much counterfeit a Deity yet sees in the end that it lies and that a fair Cheek is but a flitting shadow and that the Sighs of a fond Heart melt in the end into the bitter Juyces of Tears and the Waters of Repentance A thousand Nets were pitcht to allure to these Nuptials whole Provinces or at least the best of them But amongst other things they prepared three wonderful Spectacles which had as good success as any thing that graced the Feasts The first was a rare Pastoral the second a Royal Tilting the third a most sumptuous Feast There had continued in the dear and honored Memories of a free Prince of a most happy State a very fine Pastoral whose Title was ARCADIA SET AT LIBERTY the Fruit of a rare Youths Invention who vouchsafing to imitate the famousest men was angry with himself that he had not surpassed them All the great and Noble things which Aristotles School boasted of were found in that Comedy Though the Work was extreamly delightful yet it did not fully answer the Royal Expectation which aiming still higher had resolved to amaze the Spectators giving them together with Arcadia great Enterludes of Galatea Fame already had Canonized the Poem with the applauses of all the World which had much surpassed the known Lyrick vein of the Latine and Greek Poets The happy Composition represented all the Graces of Love and expressed in the fortunate Leaves whatsoever Art feigns to be Beautiful or Nature its Model They were busie about the Theatre It suited not with every capacity for those Heroical Delights are unfit for common people A moderate Hall was therefore made choice of and immediately filled with innumerable Workmen and abundance of Materials under the conduct of a famous Engineer without limiting the Expences They distributed Billets to a limited number which were a Wedding Garment to him who was for the space of four hours to be in an extasie of Pleasure The Spectators were brought in with great Majesty but though there were multiplied Guards yet the torrent of the Persons was so strong that they could not interdict the effects of Desire without hazarding many lives whilest a longing Expectation offered Violence to the Curious whereupon in a very short time the Theatre seemed replenished with one single Body The Ladies crowded together resembled the Stars in the Milky way Every Pillar every Base and every Chapter were taken up The Evening-star appeared and the Night was now as bright as the Day When the Spectators were assembled all Eyes beginning to poize their own sweetness a warlike melody of Drums and Trumpets resounded in their Ears whose short noise was seconded by an harmonious Consort of several Instruments With a swiftness like Lightning they drew the finely coloured Curtain which the Eye