I knew this Magician had thwarted the course of nature whereas in other places the water falls down from heaven to earth here it issues out of the earth as if it would threaten heaven Or is it that this peece of earth will weep in its turn for the pains which I suffer There was with Hircan a Cousin of his called Fontenay who was come to see him He wondred much at what Lysis said as never having heard any thing equally extravagant He took aside one of the servants and ask'd whether he knew him He answered that he knew no more of him then that he was one become a Fool through an excessive love he bore to Catherine Leonora's Chamber-maid He was yet more to seek for he knew the Wench and thought it impossible she should cause so much love He knew she was of a fair complexion and that she was somewhat flaxen-hair'd but she had in requital some features in the face which were so far from handsom as were sufficient to raise her the esteem of deformed He therefore not being satisfied spake to Hircan of it who in few words acquainted him with the disease of Lysis When he understood it he goes and confidently sets upon the Shepherd saying to him I hope you 'll pardon my curiosity if I ask you who you are For seeing you have an extraordinary manner of speaking I am very desirous to learn it All those of whom I have enquired concerning it can give me no satisfaction at all I never refused any man living what thou askest me says the Shepherd know then that I am Lysis and let that suffice thee That 's not enough replies Fontenay know then replies the Shepherd that I am a Lover of the fair Charite All this is nothing says the other to him what Profession are you of What an importunate fellow art thou says Lysis seest thou not I am a Shepherd doth not my habit discover so much But that you may not quarrel with words nor take things literally I tell thee that I am not of the number of those rusticks whose residence are the fields I am of those whose histories are committed to Romances which are every day made and whose actions are represented by the Players on their stages In good faith Master saies Fontenay who could conceal nothing he knew I think you are the successor of Don-Quixote of Manca and that you have inherited his folly After he had been Knight-Errant he would be a Shepherd but he dyed in the design and I believe you would be Shepherd in his stead and continue his extravagancies You lye says Lysis I do nothing but of my own invention I never imitated him you speak of and if I have read his history it hath been by the way He was a fool who imagin'd himself a Lover of Dulcinea when he had never seen her whereas I have the advantage to converse with Charite every day He understood nothing of the soveraign felicity 'T is not in Arms it will be found there is nothing but trouble and the minde thereby becomes brutish 'T is in keeping of Flocks that there is profit and pleasure Fontenay seeing the Shepherd beginning to be hot to vex him the more said to him Thou givest me the lye infamous wretch assure thy self thou shalt give me satisfaction What dost thou think thy self to be thou art the contempt of all the world That Charite for whom thou sighest so much cares not for thee and 't is of me that she is passionate every day she courts me and yet I will not be catch'd by her enticements for I have a many other Mistresses handsomer then she Here it was that Lysis was all afire he was making towards Fontenay to strike him but Hircan held him by the arm and carried him a walking another way while Clarimond entertain'd his enemy Lysis ask'd Hircan whether he had not some Magical glass wherein he might see whether it were true that Fontenay was beloved by his Shepherdess Hircan told him that he had broken his out of indignation that he had once seen a Mistress of his in the arms of one of his Rivals and that he had not yet had the leasure to make another but that he could tell him what he desired to know by some otherwayes and that if Fontenay had offended him any way he would see him reveng'd of him Thereupon he shew'd him a little grove of his and told him that all those trees he saw had sometimes been men that he had metamorphos'd because they had done some injury to him or his friends and that to inrich himself in a moment he found nothing so easie as to make a forrest of his Enemies which should be full grown timber and ready for the ax Lysis who had a while before read Ovids Metamorphoses where there are things far more incredible easily believ'd this He resolv'd to be ever a friend of Hircans both that he might not hurt him and might assist him to punish those that should injure him A while after Hircan having carried the company into the house to a Collation Lysis said not a word to Fontenay contenting himself not to look on him Synopa was there who as she was as impudent as need be wish'd she went and said to the Shepherd before all that were present Ah! inhumane heart wilt thou never believe the torments I suffer for thee Behold the thing observ'd in all Pastorals sayes Lysis a Maid ever loves him that affects her not In Montemajor Seluage pursues Alanio Alanio courts Ismenia Ismenia Montan and Montan Seluage So Synopa follows me I Charite Charite desires Fontenay and Fontenay desires another Shepherdess who haply loves another Shepherd that can affect none then Synopa Is not that a fine wheel and as good as that of Pythagoras We 'll run one after another in the fields holding by one another behinde as children do at a certain play whereof I have forgat the name Charite shall say Go not so fast my Fontenay and Lysis shall say Stay my Charite at least let me dye in your presence and then Synopa shall come after and say Forsake that ingrateful one Lysis and stay with with her that lives not but for thy sake I do not wonder at the diversity of all our affections for it must necessarily be so and there were never any Pastorals seen wherein that hath not been observed But it is withal to be noted that one day all shall be reconciled and by the power of some God it shall come to pass that every one shall love what he should love as it happens in the end of every good history which ever concludes with marriage Every one seem'd to admire these excellent reasons so that Lsis thinking he had spoken mightily to the purpose was very well satisfied Yet when he had left Hircans house there came somewhat into his memory that animated him against Fontenay Had it not been for that he would have return'd back to the
them all the world for a miracle This wretch being stark naked cross'd the River and when he was come to the other side he kept himself close in a Wood where for some time he lived like a savage and at length he betook himself to some Faggot-men that us'd there and pass'd over the rest of his dayes unknown being very glad whenever he heard any one say that he was not reckoned amongst mankind The metamorphosis which was imagin'd to have happen'd to him was to say truth very excellent and without any relation to the others for there was no need of his cloaths to bring it about and the Greeks believ'd that he put them off for his more easie transformation On the contrary Lysis Ovid and the rest of the Poets will not have the cloaths exempted from the metamorphosis If they change a man into any creature whether his Breeches be of cloth or of satten it must be design'd for hair or feathers and if they transform an Italian woman into a Bird the great sleeves of her Loose-gown would serve to make her wings and as for a Southern woman with her little Furr'd-cloak she should become a Winter-Crow Were I so minded I could thus find the original of many Metamorphoses but 't is not to be conceiv'd there is any necessity of it Lysis is more then half converted He must now shake hands with the error he hath been so long in otherwise it is a great hazard he may some time or other die of hunger or thirst for he imagining that whatsoever he saw on the earth had sometimes been men he would not presume so much as to drink water left it might be blood nor dare eat of any birds or beasts or fruit out of a fear he might be at the buttocks of some of his kinred Here Clarimond ended his discourse but that it was not shorter was not Lysis's fault for not being able to hear him talk after that manner he was ready to interrupt him at every word and had done it had not the Shepherd Philiris imposed silence on him as soon as he would have open'd his mouth However in the end he answer'd as followeth Stupid Clarimond I am now at a loss what esteem I should have of thee since thou still continuest thy abusing of sacred mysteries and canst not credit things that are most true Thou wilt not believe there can be any Metamorphoses and yet 't is not long since thou sawest me chang'd into a Tree and besides thou hast heard the Histories of the Hamadryads and Fountain-Nymphs of this Country who came to see me Wilt thou deny this whereof I have so good witnesses I tell you once more that you were no more chang'd into a Tree then I was since you put me to it so far replies Clarimond Cannot Carmelin give thee the lye answers Lysis I beseech you bring not me into your contestations says Carmelin I am too peaceable a man Fontenay do you maintain to Clarimond says Lysis that I was chang'd into a Tree and bear witness of it also to Philiris and the rest lately come hither that they may not take me for an Impostor I know nothing of that business but by the relation I had of it replies Fontenay I was not in this Country when this adventure happened I was gone to a little Town whence I returned but yesterday But I must tell you by the way that there are many that hold the Metamorphoses for fictions and do not believe there are any Divinities in the woods or waters For my part I have sometime believed that there were and now I know not whether I ought to continue in the same opinion But more particularly I was not perswaded of any thing so much as that there were Nayads And if you please I 'll tell you for what reason I was possess'd with that imagination I shall hearken to you very willingly replies Lysis Possibly there may be somwhat in this story may touch the minds of these infidels Nay then says Fontenay I will double your satisfaction for together with it you shall have the rest of my life That 's it I desire sayes Lysis and I see every one prepares himself to hear The History of Fontenay YOU are then to know dear Company says Fontenay That the Sun had not fourteen times measur'd the compass of the Zodiack after I was born when in the most intense heat of the Summer there seiz'd on me a desire to wash my self in the River Marne which was within a league of my house I would needs one evening make experience of that pleasure I had before never tasted but in stead of being refresh'd and cool'd I was the more enflam'd I was no sooner gotten up to the reins in the water but I perceiv'd a Maid who was also washing herself and being desirous to embrace her she got away suddenly into an isle where she hid herself so that I could find her no more I had so much fear to be drowned that I durst not advance so far so that this loss was a great affliction to me I look'd all about to see for some Boat where the fair one might haply have got in but there was none or if there were it must be the other side of the isle That made me believe that she I had seen was no mortal creature and calling to mind the different Divinities whereof I heard my Preceptors talk I imagin'd it was a Nayad since she seem'd to me to swim as well as any Fish Now though I had not obseved the features of her countenance yet was I easily induc'd to conceive that she was extreamly fair and that kindled in my heart a passion which I thought should never be extinguish'd When I had put on my cloaths again all my comfort was to lie down on the Rivers side and to shed abundance of tears to encrease the waters of my Nymph The Stars were now ready to fall on the other Hemisphere and Night by little and little drew her curtains wherewith she had hidden the face of heaven when it came into my mind that there liv'd neer this place a Magician of whom I might hope some assistance if it were possible I could receive any All the Shepherds in our quarters or neer us were charg'd to look to their sheep when they should cast their lambs for to fley them and bring their skins to him to make virgin-parchment the Midwives also were in like manner very careful to preserve those thin Cawls wherewith there are some children born The Falconers who made in other Countries all Birds their game durst meddle with nothing but Dormice and some other unlucky birds and all this for to provide materials for the enchantments of Zenocritus that was the name of this Magician I heard say that he would pull the Gods out of their thrones and that he broke open hell-gates and that he sent back Rivers to the sources to the great astonishement of their banks
the Judicial beseeching his beloved to think him worthy of a reciprocal love The Lover having gone through Rhetorick Love brings him into Logick attended with her ten Predicaments that is to say the substance of his heart really converted into that of his beloved the quantity of his sighings the quality of his affection which onght to be pure and innocent the relation between his soul and his Beloveds the action of his minde the passion of his heart the time of his sufferings the place of his repose which is the heart of his beloved the scituation of his desires upon the firm rock of Constancy and lastly he shews of what colours his habit should be that is to say grey and white to intimate unto him that he must suffer all things to approve his integrity and his faith Having gone so far he teaches him to crack an Argument but his Syllogisms must for the most part be in Barbara Ferio and Frisesomorum enduring all barbarous torments all furious assaults and all frowning and frosty returns though it were in the heart of his summer But at length he must conclude all his Arguments in Celantes for he must conceal all things Logick being attained he brings him into the eight books of Physicks shewing him first the three natural Principles which are the matter of the Lovers faith the form of the Beloveds vertues and the privation of the satisfactions of Love This done he advances to the second Book which treats of the four causes of his passion the material which is no other then his own natural inclination the formal an enflam'd desire of the thing loved the efficient the attractions favours and goodness of the Beloved I and the final her vertue and her honor Out of this he passes into the third which treats of the perpetual motion of the Lovers heart by which it moves sometimes suddenly to the service of his Beloved sometimes slowly as it were from enjoyment to privation from joy to sadness and from rest to labour This done he steps into the fourth where he shews him the infinitum of his sufferings the concentrick place where his heart ought to be that is the Beloved the vacuum of his sonl exhausted of all pleasures and the time of his affection which is perpetual This being dispatch'd this excellent Doctor leads him into the fifth book which treats of the generation of his noble and generous thoughts his chaste intentions and his honest designs and the corruption of all his impure desires and irregular affections Thence does he bring him to understand the nature of mixt bodies which are the matter of the sixth book where he learns what causes the piercing thunder of his complaints the interlaced clouds of the vapours of his sadness the blustering winds and tempests of his sighs and the plentiful showers and dews of his Tears Thence he advances to the seventh book where he findes that the earth is nothing else but his constancy The water his tears the ayr his sighs and the fire his desires the Moon his want of Resolution Mercury his enchanting Remonstrances and Addresses Venus his milde Disposition the Sun his Vertue Mars his Courage Jupiter his Discretion Saturn his Judgement the Firmament his Constancy the Empyraean Heaven the Purity of his affection and the primum mobile his vertuous love And lastly he finishes his course of Physicks with the eight Book where he contemplates the excellency of a soul that 's perfectly loved with a noble and consummate affection When the Lover is become a good Philosopher Love instructs him in the Mathematicks first he shews him Arithmetick and the four principal parts of it that is to say the Addition of present to past sufferings the Substraction of dishonest entertainments the Division of his complyant minde from it self and the Multiplication of the pains he takes night and day Thence he Screws him 〈◊〉 Musick teaching what an harmonious compliance is expected from him by the Diapason which is compos'd of three Notes whereof the lowest is Cosistancy the next Patience and the highest Fidelity In this musical Love the rests are very frequent and very sweet sharpes there are none at all When he is Master of Musick Love shews him the Dimensions of Geometry that is to say the profundity of his services and submissions the height of his imaginations the breadth of his hopes and the length of his perseverance To make him an Astrologer requires but little time shewing him the course of the Sun in the sphere of his heart and his Eclipse upon the Horrison of his eyes whose effects are sad and rusul and that so much the more as other malignant constelations contrary influences and cross aspects of the stars shall contribute thereto The Mathematicks well understood he brings the Lover into the study of Physick teaching him to let blood and open the veyns of the heart and thence to draw the blood through the eyes and to make a Diet of the ptesence of his beloved if need be From hence he ascends to the Civil Law and her three general Precepts and that teaches him to live honestly with his beloved not to offend her any way and to bear her all the respect and render all the services he can Being arriv'd to this perfection he must needs learn Navagation and embarqu◠himself into the sea of his Tears being at the mercy of the winds of his sighs under the conduct of the North-star of his Loyalty Lastly he instructs him in the Art Military shewing him how he must by main force carry the fort of the heart of his Beloved sometimes with the assistance of the fire of a pricking passion sometimes by the water of his tears sometimes by the mines of his sighs sometimes by the assault of a vehement grief or at least annoying the besieged place by a patient perseverance and when it is once Delivered up he teaches the Lover how to keep it with Modesty Discretion Honour and Vertue Now do I think I have oblig'd two sorts of people the judicious by furnishing them with matter of sport and the weak with matter of entertainment Besides that I am put in hopes that if some young Schollers chance to read this they will take it for an Encuclopaedia for it will mightily rub up their memories But I pray what is there in all this which a man would not decisively attribute to a Grammarian or a Pedant yet the Author is very serious in it There is another book call'd Loves Philosophy much pestered with the like stuff But I wonder this man doth not make Love teach his disciples all Trades and Professions since he is equally Master of them as the other But to return to Lysis who would bring in a new Astrologie directing all to his Mistress yet not so pernicious as what the Poets say of theirs For they say they are come down from heaven to conquer all the world and raise themselves Altars nay those conceptions which bring
done here below and though they could not make the channel of thy current neither broad nor long yet would they so dispose of thee that thy waters about fifty paces from the source should be receiv'd under ground and by some secret conduits should return to the place whence they came that so thou mightst never dry up That were nothing extraordinary there are in the world great Rivers which finde themselves channells under ground nay it is to be believ'd that the sea it self is swallow'd in Abysses that it may restore the water it receiv'd that so the earth might not be dryed up Further to take things at the worst though the Gods should not do thee the favour which they have done to many others and allowing thee only so much water as thou art big and should leave thee in some ditch where thou mightst be drunk up by beasts or haply chang'd to Vapour by the attraction of the Sun beams yet would I take a course thou shouldst not lose any thing For I would cause thee to be taken up with pails and thou shouldst be put into a basin in some rich cabinet There would I have made an admirable engine whereof I will discover the invention for thy sake Thy water being in a cystem rais'd up on high should fall by a small channel upon a little mill which it should turn and thence should fall into a Basin that were under Now the mill should at one end have a wheel which should turn another and that another and that a beam about which there should be a pipe made wave-like or rather like a chevron whereof one end being plac'd in the water should be still supply'd and cause it by little and little to ascend the upper part becoming the lowest and then immediately ascending Thus the water should be pour'd as it were into a trough whence it should return into its first receptacle and be continually supplyed so that it should never fail Now I would take order that no body should drink of it no not so much as the flyes and thy water never diminishing but going and returning thou shouldst be an artificial fountain portative and eternal a thing was yet never seen and there were no speaking of thee without admiration all believing thee to be an enchantment Besides I am to tell thee that there were no great quantity of water requir'd for this for though thou shouldst afford but a pailful I should make it serve the turn by making my engine the less but I doubt not but thou wilt yield a great deal of water for before thou shouldst be metamorphos'd thou shouldst put on half a dozen cloaks and so many night gowns and all that will become liquid as well as thee The cloathes are ever metamorphos'd with the body in Ovid as I think I have told thee before and as the tail of Ocyrioes gown became a horse tail so the skirts and shreds of thy cloathes will melt into streams This then is the recompence you promis'd me for my services says Carmelin if I ever stand to it I will here swear once for all that you shall seek another servant and I will finde another Master You will load me with more cloaks then if I were some boy belonging to the guard You will have me sweat in Frying-pans you will enclose me in Alimbecks and at last you will dispose me into Basins and make me pass through Conduit-pipes Mills and Troughs Where to the Devil runs your wit shall I not be burn'd up and beaten to pieces after all this Let me know at least what I have done to deserve to be put thus to the Rack Gibbet and Pillory Have I massacred my Father Have I betray'd a City Have I coyn'd bad money Am I an unconscionable Seller or an Usurer Thou art nothing of all this I confess Carmelin saies Lysis nor are there any such punishments prepar'd for thee as thou conceivest When thy body shall be all reduc'd to water thou art no more sensible of any hurt poor fool There will be much gotten by pressing thee thy members cannot be crush'd for thou canst slide away through the least hole That then in good earnest is your meaning replies Carmelin and 't is worse then before Your will is I should not be any thing but water when I am to eat where will be my mouth If any body come near me where will be my eyes for to see him And if he speak where will be my ears to hear him In fine where will be all my members to execute the ordinary offices for which God hath ordain'd them Carmelin having so said Lysis was ready to give him some extravagant reason for his complaints and I believe he would have perswaded him that after he were chang'd into a fountain the Gods might easily form him a body of subtile vapors according to the doctrine which had been infus'd into him for he remembred him he had seen Lucida and Synopa who yet had bodies though they were chang'd into water But upon this Philiris comes and says Dispute not any more Shepherds your difference is easily reconciled 'T is true Carmelin hath reason to be metamorphos'd into a Fountain but he must stay till the Gods out of their full power ordain it so That we must expect from them and not cause him to be melted into water by natural inventions that were to tempt the Divinities and draw their indignation on us Lysis acknowledg'd this consideration to be very excellent and was angry with himself that he had not been the Author of it So that he promis'd Carmelin not to importune him any further as to his Metamorphosis His thoughts now returned to the Temple he had a design to build so that truning towards Fontenay and Clarimond who stood amaz'd at his subtil argumentations he ask'd them if they would assist him to begin his edifice We are no Masons saies Fontenay besides a sumptuous Temple cannot be built in a moment without materials or tools But after what manner would you have it Alas that I am not an Amphion that I might with the sound of my harp bring together all the stones in this Countrey saies Lysis I would build an incomparable Temple But since that 's wanting I must this day seek out divers workmen for to be employ'd in it To spare all that cost saies Clarimond 't were better you would content your self to dedicate your heart as a Temple to your Divinity There you may be the victim and the Priest together The fire of your love will there shine ever your sighs will serve for incense and your tears shall be the holy-water That 's well imagined replies Lysis but it hinders not but I may be much taken with my design To answer therefore the Shepherd Fontenay who desires the particulars of it I declare That my Temple being built of the fairest marble can be found I will place upon the Altar the picture of Charite which was drawn
him for him to tie himself withal and having put it about him with a single knot a Lacquay who was gotten upon one of the trees took the other end of it After this Venus looking on him spoke to him in this manner in her Hyperbolical Language Dear Son who art another my self wilt thou not that one dart of thine pierce the heaven and the earth and be afterwards an axletree for this great fabrick that it may be believ'd it is only thou that dost sustain it Thy fires have lighted the sun and the stars have they not already burnt up Neptune and all his waters That thou mayest consummate thy victories must they not devour the fires of hell Come and repose thy self on this mountain which is a pillar that supports the heaven may advances its crown above that fair vault for to make a throne for our Divinity come hither my delight thou hast already shredded the ayr with thy wings more times then there are grains of sand on the sea shore Come my childe and I will wipe of the sweat off thy forehead which makes an ocean big enough for a fleet Do not stay any longer my Minion I will shew thee thy uncle whom thou must so grievously wound that all his body shall be but one wound Venus here held her peace and the presence expected some fine answer from Cupid when he began to cry out as loud as he could Oh my friends help help I am choak'd Some were amaz'd others laught at it but all look'd towards Carmelin The Lacquay that was on the tree drew the cord so hard that it tickl'd his throat more then it should so that they bid him hold his hand and the poor Cupid calling to minde the simplicities which they had put into his head spake thus with a voyce as clear as the sound of a glass What is your pleasure Mamma if you will have me come and see you you must promise to buy me a hobby-horse at the fair that when I am weary of flying I may go gallantly by Land You must also give me and 't please you a new whistle for I have sold mine to Mercury for to make use of in his pimpages What would you with me will you have me tell you what I have lost at Cockcal to my Brother Anteros and your Graces I plaid too t'other daie at pushpin with Ganimed but he is a cheating companion He would ever win and under pretence that Jupiter loves him he thinks he may do any thing and not fear the rod nay that he may one daie have my quality and dispossess me of my torch but when I shall finde him by himself I 'll order him as he deserves and I 'll tell his master of his seeking birds-nests instead of going to school you know he gees to learn Latine of Mercury There is yet a great deal more news I 'll tell you all but Oh God I dye I dye if I am not let down But quickly then my friend take me hence I shall make sawce in my shirt else let me down let me down in good faith I shall spoil all the ceremony else Carmelin having so said they knew not whether he spoke this as his part but at length he cryed out so loud to be let down that they saw he spoke in good earnest and not as an actor They took him down out of his swing and he assoon got him behinde the Mountain Erix where he discharg'd himself of a burthen which somwhat troubled him 'T was suppos'd that that accident of not being able to command his belly proceeded from that agitation Being therefore excused he came chearfully into play again having crept up to the place where Venus was he went to receive her embraces and caresses In the mean time there issued out a great flame from between the trees and there was heard the noise of some crackers and after that arriv'd Pluto in a chariot drawn by two black horses which he whipt as fast as he could lay on I who aâ— the natural brother of the Father Altitonant says he in his pedantick language which he had chosen I on whom Destiny hath bestow'd the Acherontical Diadem and the Superiority of the Avern must I suffer the Latonian Torch to send the beams of its golden periwig even to the midst of my most opake shades through the hiatus of the earth I must with all festination take a most ample course with this atrocious tumultuosity Pluto having so said drove his Chariot up and down and Cupid in the mean time spoke to his Mother I 'll shoot at him Are you willing shall I do it is it now time Mother She made a sign to him that she was willing and he presently shot him in at the third button whereat Pluto being strangely surpris'd spoke thus What new jaculation is this hath struck me Ah! Celestial Fate where shall I finde my Dittany In saying so he perceived Proserpina making of Posies at the entrance of the wood Alas cry'd he out this is she hath incarcerated my liberty within the prison of her ineffable pulchritude I will as soon be a ravisher as a lover of her With that word he leap'd down and took up Proserpina whom he carried to his proud Chariot casting her into it like a Sack of Wheat O cruel one cry'd she out let me take along with me my flowers I do conjure thee by my showers of tears If thou wilt but a little stay I will cast myself into those snares which thou shalt for me lay What wilt thou take me never to forsake me 'T is not thy surest way to ravish me away Art thou not mov'd by my prayers nor by my tears O thief who hurt'st me with they jeers It seems thy ears mind not my complaints which witness I do suffer so great pains or rather so many deaths again Notwithstanding this fine complaint and a many allusions Pluto drove his horses on and made them go as quick as tempest the sooner to bring his Mistress into his infernal Kingdom He pass'd by a ditch whence issued Cyana half naked and with long dischevel'd hair as if she were come out of the water But the Chariot went on so fast that she could not give Pluto the check she had thought on yet would she not omit her part so that she ran up and down as it were to overtake the God of Hell Instead of going into the Wood whither he was enter'd behind the mountain Eryx she went into the high-way there she found a Waggon covered with cloth there was in it a man and a woman whom she took for Pluto and Proserpina She drove the horses into the Scene while the Waggoner was making water a little behind Thou shalt go no further thou robber Pluto cry'd out the Shepherd Lysis who acted the part of the Nymph Cyana Love delights more in mildness then violence Thou shouldst have won Proserpina by thy submissions and the testimonies of
miracle you must conceive is to be attributed to certain Magical Characters that were graven on the Stone a very probable Foolery For Lysis's discourse to Charite let us do the Poets no wrong he hath it from them Medusa turn'd all before her into stones and Anaxarete was the Mistress of that Iphis that hang'd himself at her door These are hard names and Charite might take them for abuses Some have not thought there was so much grace in Carmelins speeches but they are to know that by Common-places Lysis meant a sort of Pedantick books where a man may Alphabetically finde somewhat on every thing And the French Margarites is a book much like the Academy of Complements only it hath this excellency withal that it is good to learn bad French by The statue of Memnon out of which proceeded an harmonious sound when smitten by the rays of the Sun goes near to give me a vomit I can shew a dozen books of good account that in the Epistles Dedicatory bring in this into comparison but never was it better apply'd then by Lysis when looking up towards the Sun it made him sneeze For the stone Panthura I shall note this That it is a trivial learning to bring comparisons from stones fishes herbs birds and other as intertain things which we must take upon Mr. Pliny's credit The Jesuits in their harangs to the people entertain them much with these similitudes whereas a man would think that it were more convincing to draw them from somewhat familiar to them The Author of the Abridgement of Long-studities was a cheat and fit to be Carmelins Master Fontenay is a true French name and there have been Lacqueys called Gringalet and Champagn and why may they not according to their quality affront the Callidorus's and the Aristander's of our Romances The Greeks were not asham'd of their own names as we are but qnoted them in their Fables Charite is here called a Chambermaid a word for the City dames and meaner sort of Gentry those of any quality have their Woman or Waiting-Gentlewoman But the word now a late hath been extended to the former Lysis takes it not well to be compar'd to Don-Quixot for extravagant as he is he thinks himself wiser then that Knight For his Love-letter which in French is called Poulet that is a Pullet he is the first that ever gave the reason of it and made the best application of it Ronsard says that Love is a Bird that he hath laid Eggs in his bosom and that when they are hatch'd they 'll prey on his heart and when they have done flie away if he do not lay Bird-lime or nets to catch them c. But to satisfie those that know not the reason of the Pullet that expression rise from the folding of the Love-Letter much like a bird The Fable of Hero and Leander is one of the ancientest we have 't was a sad thing this poor Lover was forc'd to swim an arm of the sea almost two mile over to enjoy his Mistress I believe it took of some of his courage if he had had Clarimonds advice 't is likely he had not been drown'd As for the wayes which Lovers have found out to get their Letters delivered to their Mistresses though the Romances might have furnish'd Lysis with choice yet such a pregnant invention hath he that he addes to all things Where he saies the fruits of the earth ought to be common it seems he is almost perswaded that he hath already reduc'd the Golden-Age wherein the Poets say there were no inclosures and men understood not those two words Mine and Thine If in his swound he would not have Carmelin trouble himself for any water but make use of his tears he remembred our unfortunate Prince Edward who when his Murtherers had after much hard usage gotten him to a River side and were going to fetch some water to shave him so to disguise him the more Let alone that cold water sayes he here 's warm comes out of my eyes This indeed was a little Romantick but Lysis's affliction is so much the further from restoring him to his wits that it heightens his folly as we shall see in the Fifth BOOK WHere we finde him metamorphos'd 'T is the sad fate of things that are not understood to lose much of their grace and that hath happened to this Book from those who being unacquainted with Fables and Metamorphoses do not finde that Satyre in this as in other parts But I cannot omit what I receive from the Poets touching Aurora who is the forerunner of the Sun What necessity had the Ancients to imagine that the Sun must be usher'd in by such a Goddess But then why must she have a Chariot she had not so far to go but assoon as she had done her work in heaven in the morning she might have taken her pleasure with Cephalus on earth Why do not the Poets clear up these things to us Virgil sayes in one place that the Chariot of this Goddess is drawn by four horses and in another by two sometimes they are white sometimes red but this I 'll reconcile 't is to be thought she hath horses of all colours in her Stable But how learned are all Lysis's considerations of the Metamorphoses and for his being chang'd into somwhat that might be usefull to his Mistress I think he hath learn'd it of Bellean whom I shall make speak so much English O that I were a Looking glass that I Might all her Beauties in my self descry Or that I were a Smock which she might wear Or yet a Wash-ball her white hands to clear Or the Sweet-powder which perfumes the air Or th' envious Vail which makes her seem more fair Or th' Neck-lace which her skin cannot outvy Or but the Pattin of my Deity He that considers his farewels to his friends upon his Metamorphosis and hath read Ovid may judge whether were the madder of the two But that which he says of his hat and cloaths is such an abuse to all hath been said of these matters that nothing can be added For either what he says must be true or else when the Gods were minded to metamorphose any they must bid them put off their cloaths first or should do it for them which what an absurdity it is I leave any man to judge Nay such was the blindness of the Ancients that they believ'd the Trees of Dodona spake but we are to believe there never spake any Tree in this world unless it were such a one as Lysis who tels us why Astrologers and Wizards cannot foresee what shall befall themselves As for Clarimond's subtilty to make him take some sustenance 't is admirable But for the exercises and recreations of the Nymphs and rural Divinities I might produce whole Odes out of Des Portes and Ronsard to acquaint you what they were but take upon my credit they are such as our Shepherd meets with For their names it may be 't will
not be ungratefull to rip up so much ancient sottishness They had Dryads whom I take to be Nymphs of Forrests Hamadryads were such men as were chang'd into Trees the Nayads were the Nymphs that presided over the Waters and were such as had been chang'd into Fountains the Napaeae are the Nymphs of the Flowers the Oreades of the Mountains and the Nereides of the Sea I do not tell you what part of Brie Lysis was in nor where the River Morin begins 't is an humour of Ronsard's to make a long comment on every proper name which I will not imitate As for the Fable of Morin I maintain it to be much more ingenious then any thing of Ovid's or any other Poet. Those things which we bring in under the name of Histories are Fables Among the Greeks the word Fable was restrain'd to those relations that concerned the Gods History to the affairs of men But because a Fable signifies only a narration and that what they said of their Gods was false it is come to pass that a Fable signifies that which is false As for the Stories of Synopa and Lucida and their Metamorphoses they are ingenious and probable whereas the Poets can only tells us that to be metamorphos'd into Water there was no other invention then to weep away as Ovid says of Biblis But where Lysis takes away that contrariety of being chang'd into water and yet retaining the form of a humane body which must be compos'd of watery vapours he shews nothing escapes him He had read somewhere what the Magicians say of the apparition of Spirits viz. that the Terrestrial spirits assume bodies of the vapours of the earth and the Aquatick of those of the water What follows concerning the Violin and the Nymphs who deny'd Diana the Sweet-meats all is natural and their punishment too For the latter certainly 't is as easie for the Gods to make Trees bear fruit preserv'd as to change men into Trees And if my Author had said that the Cypress into which the Violin was chang'd bore Fiddles and Violins ready made it had been as probable These stories we are beholding to Clarimond for who seeing the Greek Poets had invented Metamorphoses for the Fountains and Rivers of their Country would do the like to the honour of Brie but the truth is he is gone far beyond them Carmelin's Questions to his Master give him occasion to clear up the ancient Fables wherein 't is wonderfull to see how well he is read I know not whether the Gum of the Tree Lysis be well taken yet 't was a particularity could not be omitted His mind ran then upon Myrrha and the Sisters of Phaeton who weep Amber However it be the story of the Excrement in Bâ—â—clay's Argenis is as bad upon which too there is an Ode At the second rencontre with the Rural Divinities I note Lysis's abuse of the Gods and Nymphs for offering to run away for fear of mortals The Ancients might have made that question to those that talk'd of so many Gods which no man could ever perceive Carmelin's speech to the Nymphs is nothing but a sort of contradictions Ronsard and other Poets have thought them mighty ornaments for Carmelin is one that in this case is no Author I assure you I do not observe Lysis's reading fail him till I come to the bathing of Carmelin And I wonder at it for Ronsard could have taught him what ceremonies were required to make a Mortal fit for a celestial conversation He had forgot that the Ancients wash'd themselves before they consulted the Oracle as also the Victims when they sacrificed and that Magicians bathe themselves in running-water before they fall to their conjurations Certainly Lysis must needs be troubled not to find his Tree yet must he needs play the Tree till Hircan with the help of Agrippa conjur'd him into a Man again The apparition of the Winds hath nothing in it fantastick compar'd with what the Poets say of them That Lysis believ'd Hircan more powerfull then the Gods it shews him to be of the Creed of the Ancients who believed the Gods were subject to the charms of Magicians and that when the Moon was ecclips'd it was some Sorceress had forc'd her from heaven Thus have we seen Lysis chang'd into a Tree and the Tree into Lysis again We are now to see how he behaves himself in the Sixth BOOK WHich begins with Lysis's moral learning The pains he takes to find out Carmelin speaks his good nature But to arrest the Nymphs that stole this poor fellows hat Lysis tels him he must have a celestial Serjeant such as Mercury and he is in the right for he is the Apparitor of heaven 't is he that carries the souls to the prisons of hell 't is he that summons the inferior Deities to appear before Jupiter and when Venus had once lost her son 't was he that cry'd him all over the world You see Lysis understands the offices of the very Gods Carmelin's being out of his lesson argues he is no great Clark but Anselme reconciling him and his master saying that Love who is Master of all Arts will teach him to do better another time and to that end quoted a discourse out of a certain Book The discourse is somwhat long yet since I conceive it may be pleasant to some I shall take the pains to put it down here 'T is in the travels of Aristeus and Amaryllis Among all that have spoken of the â—nature Love there is none hath better described it then the divine Plato who calls it Pandidascala that is to say Master of all Arts for there is no Art nor Science which he teaches not his Schollars In the first place he teaches them Grammer and the eight parts of speech beginning with the nown or name of the beloved and then the pronown of their good Qualities which he makes them repeat often Thence he passes to the Adverbs of the infinite time of their perseverance and those of the swearing of their fidelity Then he makes them understand the active and passive verbs acting and suffering all things for the Beloveds sake Then he teaches them the Participle by which they must divide and part between them the good and the bad the thorns and the roses the pleasures and the torments of this life From thence he proceeds to the Conjunction and conformity of their honest desires to the vertuous affections of the beloved which brings in the Preposition teaching thereby to prefer the pleasure and satisfaction of the beloved before their own and lastly he teaches them the sad and sorrowing Interjections full of pittiful Alas's and interrupted by sighs When the Lover is become a perfect Grammarian his Tutor Love ' prefers him to Rhetorick which helps him to a many eloquent speeches sometimes in the Demonstrative kinde remonstrating to his beloved how much he suffers for her sake sometimes in the Deliberative resolving rather to dy then change his affection sometimes in
Sonnet Roundelay or a Madrigal handsomly sung But it may be thou art of the number of those insensible ones who despise Love and the Moses Can I say thou art happy if thou art of that humour Yes I may for thou art not therefore exposed as I am to the charms of a cruel Deity Alas tell me dost not thou know the fair Charite No indeed answers the Shepherd I do not know those people you name to me What thou hast not seen her then replies Lysis Not that Charite that can no more hide her self then the Sun No no it is apparent For if thou hadst once met her thou wouldst not have been any longer insensible Avoid her still that thou mayst continue happy She is at the present at St. Cloud where with her looks she commits murthers she takes men and chains them up puts them on the rack and plucks their hearts out of their breasts without ever opening them she doth not feed on any thing but Hearts and carrouses in nothing but Tears Alas said the Shepherd making the sign of the Cross it seems you speak to me of a Witch She may well be a Witch answers Lysis seeing one gesture or one word of hers charms all that is near her All those that have seen her languish for her she bewitches the Flocks the Dogs the Wolves nay even the Rocks which she makes follow her the Plants doe not escape her and it is only she that causes the buds of the Roses to shoot forth and afterwards causes them to wither away through the same heat that produced them Ah! how shall I have a care not to appear before her said the Shepherd for I am not such a one as the most part of the Citizens of Paris take me to be They think I am a Wizard as all those Shepherds are that live far hence for I should not have the power to defend my self from the wicked woman you talk of I doe not know how they make Characters I cannot save my self any way but by flight Stupid fellow replies Lysis dost thou think to avoid what all the world must suffer This great Universe which thou seest will not be ruin'd but by Charite Thou knowest how that in the time of Deucalion all the Earth was overwhelmed with water there must shortly happen another end that shall be quite contrary all must be destroyed by fire and this Charite is born to turn all to ashes What! thou wonderest at what I say How knowest thou not that I who am but her slave have so much fire within my breast that with one sigh I could burn up all this grass and that besides that I could drown all this Country by a deluge that should issue out of my eyes were it not that the heat is more predominant in me The Shepherd who saw that Lysis animated his discourse with a serious manner of speaking gave credit to all these miracles and though he was as much confounded as if he had already seen the end of the world yet had he the courage to ask him who he was I am a body without a soul answers Lysis I doe not live since I have seen Charite and shall not rise again untill her favours shall oblige me thereto Thou to whom I have the first of any communicated my secrets go and acquaint the Shepherds of thy village to make their vows and offerings to my Enchantress to the end that if she will doe them no good she may doe them no hurt Farewell friend and make thy profit of my admonitions Having said so he quitted the Shepherd who was so much astonished both at the fashion of the man and his discourse that he certainly believed that it was a spirit had appeared to him and he thought it very long that the time of departing was not come that he might go and communicate this strange news to all of his acquaintance Lysis pursuing his way came somewhat near the side of a Mountain where caling to mind that in the Books he had read the Shepherds did interrogate the Eccho in such places as that his resolution was to imitate them and to consult that Oracle which he thought as infallible as that of Delphos Languishing Nymph sayes he with a shrill voice I have erewhiles discovered my torment to all these desarts hast thou heard it There was presently an Eccho that answered heard it He was so ravished to hear that voice that he continued in this manner What shall I doe for to asswage my misery tell me seeing I have already related my chance The Eccho answered dance Sing then or whistle or play on the Tabor if thou wilt have me dance replies the Shepherd but let us not fall out friendly Nymph How is it that I must take my Mistress that my flames may be slaked Eccho naked What shall I doe if I see one of her breasts uncovered shall I touch it seeing haply she will be angry if I undertake it Eccho take it That I take it that 's very well spoken I will go and see her immediately that my pain may find some allay Eccho away Farewell then my Faithfull one till the next time I 'll go seek Charite where she doth stay Eccho stay Why so thou bidst me be gone and that I should find comfort readily Eccho I ly I think thou art a fool thou assuredst me but now I happiness should ken Eccho when Just now sycophant hast thou forgotten and dost not think Charite's heart and mine the same chain must undergo Eccho No. Thou prophesiest false my Mistress shall give thee the lye and make a fool of thee Eccho of thee Of me I believe not what she will disdain me for such mishaps tell me some remedy Eccho dy What kind of death shall I choose there being no succour if her goodness doth not accord Eccho A cord Ah cruel one thou art deceived or haply thou wouldst speak of the cord of Cupids bow that will send me an arrow will make me dye an easie death Is not that thy meaning Eccho No no I mean a halter to hang thee This answer which was very lively extreamly surprised Lysis Ha! what pleasant Eccho is this says he she repeats not my last syllables but says others As he had spoken these words Anselme came from behind a long wall where he had lurk'd and presented himself to him 'T was he that had all the time playd the Eccho but he did not discover any thing at all to him though the other did somewhat suspect him and question'd him divers times So that Lysis who was perswasible to any thing told him that if it were not he that had answered him he had found a place where the Eccho shewed her self very merry and that in all the Books of Pastorals he had never read of her ever being in such a good humour I do not know says he whence it comes she nothing but jeers now Is there not some impatience troubles her Is she
that being fortified with coldness his sighs could not enflame me But to remedy this he goes into a certain Temple of Love that was near his own abode The Priests of the place had in their custody a certain fire that was so powerful that nothing could stand against it This devout Pilgrim made so many prayers to the Divinity of the place that at length he merited so far as that he obtained a little beam of that flame which he made fast in a box of Diamond He came to see me with this treasure and finding me in a Wood tired out with hunting and sitting on a pile of faggots he cast his fire on me believing he should warm me in spight of my teeth And indeed the truth is the heat was but too violent for I presently began to melt and as I was nothing but ice before I was turn'd into water and water'd all the fields about The Gods touch'd with my disaster ordain'd I should thenceforth be a Fountain as I am still But now that I am an immortal Nymph I am dispenc'd of that vow I had made when I was a mortal maid and I am not oblig'd to chastity any further then I will my self So that the Magician Hircan being in love with me I have suffered my self to be overcome by his charms and have liv'd with him a certain time fully and honorably But having left him to day and taken my own liberty I may henceforward be married to Lysis if so be he will consent thereto And though my waters are far from this Countrey yet I will bring them into this place for to water the root of his fair tree Here Synopa broke off as if modesty and love had hindred the passage of her voice All admired the discourses she had entertain'd them withall but there needed not that admiration for she had suited them to certain Fables which she had read Lysis was ravish'd to hear her and thought all very well but the Marriage she had mentioned for having kist Lucida last the kiss remained still on his lips and had made him forget hers Somwhat there was I know not what that he could not affect Synopa as much as this Lucida towards whom he ever directed his eyes Nor did he stick a little after to speak to her quitting the other and earnestly entreated her to relate her story which however must only pass for a fable The Fable of the Fountain Lucida SEing you are desirous to have the relation of my fortune says Lucida know that I am daughter to a Lord of this Country and that since I was fifteen years of age I fell in love with one of his Gentlemen He was so beautifull that he had never seen his like but in a glass His hair was curled like a Holland Water-Spaniel and his countenance had as much vermilion as a Rose of Provence All he did was with such a grace that if he playd on the Lute I took him for Apollo the younger and if he shot with a bow I took him for Cupid the elder for his beard was already sprouted out His attractions were so powerfull over me that being one day neer a Table which was very dusty with my finger I writ thereon that Lucida was dying for him But the Gallant regarded it not and having sworn to me that he could not love me it was such an affliction to me that I sickned on 't and kept my bed The Love-feaver took me so violently that I did nothing but drink night and day so that my disease turn'd to a Dropsie and I became as big as a Ton. All the Physitians in the Country that visited me were at a loss of their Latine but when they had all given me over there was a knowing Chymist made me take an excellent powder That made me piss so much that there issued out of my body great brooks and then it was that the Gods bethought them to change me into a Fountain I do still piss at certain times into the Cistern of my source that it may not dry up and so I shall piss to the end of the world and yet shall never be empty I find no difficulty in this Metamorphosis says Lysis for your body continues in the same being as to its form but not as to its nature which is become immortal and as concerning your Urine it hath only been chang'd to Fountain-water But when I consider the adventure of Synopa I cannot so easily understand it For she says that being all Ice the fire dissolved her If it be so how is it that she hath a body still Yet we see it is so and the Gods not having discover'd the secret to her no more then they let children know what way they have been formed in their mothers belly the poor Nymph hath given us no account of it But I 'll explain it to her The reason is because the Gods when they have metamorphos'd a humane body into a Fountain dispose the soul into another body which is composed of aquatick vapours There was never any Poet nor other that hath commented on any of them ever imagin'd this though they attribute bodies to the Deities of the waters and this is the reason they have left us in so much ambiguity Nor may I be afraid to boast that I am guilty of as learned considerations that if a God came now down on earth I should not court him for excellent imaginations I am very much oblig'd to you for so excellent an instruction says Sinopa in recompence whereof seeing you cannot see my abode be pleased to see Lucida's That shall be when ever you are disposed replies Lysis Let 's go presently says Lucida it 's very good being there I 'll shew you the way Having said so they all rise up and having cross'd certain meadows and thickets this noble Company came to a Brook which ran between two vallies The God of the River and the Nymphs having taken up their coats went into the water which came up to half the leg and Lysis was obliged to do as much He sometimes complain'd that he was forced to go in that manner but Lucida who led him excus'd his want of courage saying that he who was not a God of a Fountain was not accustomed to walk in the water as they were and to comfort him she ever assur'd him that it was not far to her grot At length they came to a high stony eminencie where was the source of the fountain The earth was very hollow in divers places so that Lucida easily perswaded Lysis that there was her abode Then she takes up her coats a little higher then they were before and piss'd so loud that he heard it O fair aquatick Nymph cries he out stay your self I beseech you I see proofs enough of what you have told me it is certain this Brook hath no other recruit but what you piss but if you shut not your cock I shall be afraid of a
had helmets on but that proves nothing they wore them not but in fights There had been advanc'd more such considerations had not Synopa come and said that they had discours'd sufficiently and that it was time to collation Carmelin commended her a thousand times within himself for her profitable advice while the Hamadryads discharg'd their baskets of a many good things they had brought and dispos'd them on the green grass which was all the Table-cloath they had The God Morin came near Synopa and told her somewhat in her ear which Lysis perceiv'd not In the mean time Carmelin was help'd by his Master with the wing of a cold Turkey which he fell presently on with his fingers knowing that hands were made before knives but as he was putting a piece into his mouth Synopa withheld his arm Be not too hasty Shepherd saies she to him you are not yet permitted to eat with us We must first wash you in one of our fountains What did Lysis dream on that he hath given you your portion he was like to serve us a fine trick We must have gone to the God Pan for to entreat him to purifie us all I was ignorant of this Ceremony saies Lysis I beg your pardon if I have done any thing amiss I never read what you speak of in any Poet. However it must be believed so and good bathing will do Carmelin no hurt it may conduce to his health Carmelin was thinking what a pleasure it were to be wash'd by such fine Ladies but he wish'd it might be just then that so he might collation with the rest and he saw they did not make any haste to do it They had taken away the meat from him and withal fed so earnestly and with such stomacks that there needed no long time to dispatch all that was which consideration made him sick at the heart The Divinities having ended their collation Synopa thought it time to go and bathe him and to set all the rest in a forwardness but he angrily answered that it was to no purpose seeing there was nothing to be eaten Synopa reply'd that it were so much spar'd another night that he should come and see them Then comes Lysis and whispers to him bidding him go where ere they should carry him and that it would be a means for him to see the Grots of the Nayads whither he had so earnestly desired to go Carmelin crediting him went quietly with the fair Deities but when they were come to the brook of Lucida's fountain Synopa saies to Lysis for your part you need not be present at our Mysteries Morin you see and two of the Gods of the River have left us go your ways with them Lysis who earnestly desired to see their ceremonies that he might be initated in the divine Science was much troubled that he was forc'd to leave them But he was fain to go with Morin and the two other Gods who were Anselme and Clarimond In the mean time Synopa Lucida Montenor the Humadryads and the Cypress took Carmelin by the head and feet and threw him into the water in his cloaths in a certain place that was deep enough He found not so much pleasure in his handling as he had imagin'd but it was much worse with him when the Cypress said that he must be stripp'd stark naked When he had put off his breeches and doublet they tyed him by the arms to a willow that was on the bank as if it had been a piece of the ceremony which done they turn'd up his shirt and whipp'd him so long with Ozier twigs that from crying mercy and begging he fell a railing heartily at all the company but Lucida told him that the water could not cleanse him and that there was within him a corrupt blood that must be whipt out ere he could be made so pure as to be admitted to converse with the Deities All having done him what mischief they could they return'd to their Randezvouz and left him fast tyed Lysis being by this time come near the place where his tree was took leave of the Aquatick Deities who bid him farewell by signs with the hands and conges Being left all alone he was much astonish'd that he could not finde his abode though the appearance of Auroroa made it somewhat light Hircan desirous to try all means to bring him out of his imagination had given order that while he was absent his willow should be cut down at the root and carry quite away Besides all which the place was so well made up with fresh â—urfs that he could not perceive there ever had been any Lysis seeks all about and his hollow brain wanted no matter of imaginations upon this accident Yet though he could not finde his willow he did still imagine himself a tree and hearing some body coming he planted himself near the place where the willow had stood and because he would do nothing before men that were contrary to his nature he lifted up his arms and widened his fingers as though they had been brances In this posture doth Hircan appear to him in the same black suit which he had when he delivered him out of the danger he was in at Orontes's O Tree saies the Magician to him my will is that from henceforth thou become a man 'T is not in thy power to do it replies Lysis they are the great Gods that have Metamorphos'd me The greatest Gods have but the power of Dwarfs if compar'd to me replies Hircan and I will now shew thee the power of my charms While he said so he made a circle about him with a rod he had in his hand which done he read certain barbarous words out of a great book I see I must double my Enchantments says he to Lysis for thou art so self-will'd that thou resistest them What wouldst thou do replies he wouldst thou deprive me of all happiness Let me alone thou know'st not what is fit for thee replies Hircan thou shalt immediately be a man in spight of heaven earth and hell and seeing thou wilt not get out of thy bark to come to me I will cause the winds to blow thee down Thou shalt be put out of thy abiding place and shalt see that I can command all the powers of the world O you Kings of the air and beesoms of the earth goes he on with a louder voyce you winds which blow the one from the one quarter and the other from the othtr that is to say from the North and from the South And you Boreas and Auster I do conjure you by the pantofles of Fate the old Gallogaskins of Saturn and the Close-stool of Proserpina and by whatever else is venerable and august in the world that you blow against this tree and bring it down in such manner as that it lose its vigor and that I may change its form Assoon as the Magician had pronounc'd these words behold there appear'd a brace of knaves all clad with
it was their invention and that the predictions came out their brains I do not deny that I have liv'd with that Stationer not knowing what to do says Carmelin but you are to take notice that he hath rais'd him a good fortune by his Almanacks and therefore he is not to be derided When he married he was so poor that the Priest being come to bestow a benediction on his bed found none in the chamber Father says the woman cast some Holy-water in this corner we shall have anon a bundle of straw But since that time they have done very well and had it not been my desire to see the Country that made me leave them I might haply have advanc'd my self as well as they 'T is true I have heard say that now they are fallen into the same posture again yet I am assured they make a shift to keep house together but that they sell away by peeces what 's left It seems we shall find it at last the high-way to the Hospital to live with such people says Florida laughing at these pleasant passages You have now met with a better Master and I believe since he knows you to be expert in making Almanacks he will employ you to calculate his Nativity Believe it not fair Lady replies Lysis I am not born either under the Signs of Cancer or Capricorn I am born under that of Charite's Eyes whose influences I know better then any Astrologer Those two bright Stars which are posited in the Heaven of her Countenance are a new Gemini better then that in the Zodiake and was never yet observed by the Speculators of the Second causes How can you be born under the Sign of Charite's Eyes replies Florida since she is younger then you That 's your mistake replies Lysis As Charite is immortal and shall never know end so never had she beginning and thought it be but nineteen or twenty years that she hath been on earth yet she was before in the heavens I am very sorry such a fair Lady as you are should be ignorant of any thing she should know While he was taken up in this discourse Hircan had done relating to the rest what had happened between the Shepherd and the rural Deities repeating the very stories they had told him word for word So that Lysis turning towards him says And who prethee hath told thee all these particulars But 't is true thou art a Magician and there is nothing in the world hidden from thee But 't is to no purpose replies Angelica we believe nothing of all he says Who could believe there were any Nymphs of the woods waters I have often been in the fields and have sometimes been in the water but could never meet with either of them What will you also declare your want of learning says Lysis Know then that the Gods appear not to mortals because of their sins and that it is not now as it was in the first Age wherein Innocencie reign'd and that they appeared openly and in a manner liv'd and conversed with us But for the good of mankind I have an incomparable design for to recover the lost felicity Hearken therefore all you that are present and I would to god I might be heard to the four quarters of the earth what I am going to tell you And that is that I have undertaken to reduce the Golden Age. There are a many who would advise the King in some things that might be for the peace of the people but there is no advice neer mine Seeing Charite is come to live in Brie there by my means shall the celestial benediction be first poured out All shall live after my example and the Gods observing the purity of our souls shall banish hence all those evils that Pandora hath sown here it shall be always fair weather we shall have the fruits of the Earth without manuring it all Rocks shall be full of Pearls and precious stones there shall be no place so desart where there shall not be sets of Thyme and Marjerom Brooks of wine and milk shall run through the meadows our Rams shall have horns of Diamant and our Sheep have fleeces of fine Silk of all colours This discourse of Lysis was heard with great silence only Clarimond at the end broke out into a laughter What do you laugh at says the Shepherd to him What should I laugh at but your self replies Clarimond You and the rest of your profession the Poets are all Fools with your Golden Age Granting it were not a Fable you speak such things of it as if they were true would not make it so delightfull as that wherein we live Is not the year more pleasant having four seasons then if it had but one as the Spring or Autumn And if there were none but precious stones would not that be a great inconvenience As for your brooks of milk and wine they are sufficiently ridiculous for whence should they take their Springs must we milk all the kine in the Country and let out all the tuns of wine in one place that so we might have rivers and would you have no water at all Are there not many things wherein it is useful I see no reason but you may as well promise us Mountains of fresh butter and green cheese Rocks of Sugar-candy that we might catch Larks ready roasted that there should be places where it should rain Sweet-meats and Confects and Trees whereon should grow cloathes ready made These accommodations are fit for a Country whose inhabitants love to have things done to their hands Clarimond had lost Lysis's favor by this discourse had he not in the beginning call'd him a Poet whereat he was so satisfied that he thought not on the rest He was so well pleas'd to be ranked among those honorable persons that he bit his lips again and his skin grew almost too narrow to contain him Anselme spake to Clarimond for him and shew'd him his error in blaming the delicacies of an age that all men regretted Thereupon turning to the Shepherd he askes him by what means he thought to accomplish his noble designs What have I else to do but to perswade all my friends to become Shepherds as I am replies Lysis 'T is true you and Montenor have already denied me and as for Clarimond he seems not to be much enclined to it However I shall not want companions there are at present a many good wits in France I 'll furnish you with an excellent invention saies Clarimond you must address your self to the Poets and makers of Romances who are now in Paris They are those that speak of Shepherds and are oblig'd to be such thereby to effectuate the rare things wherewith they have filled their books or else we must take them for fools and madmen That I was thinking on says Lysis I cannot finde any people fitter for my purpose And the more easiely to draw them in I promise them all their first Shepherds
the bitterness which the absence of my dear wife causes me Now that I am with you I believe I have found the soveraign good which so many others are a seeking and I hope I shall carry into my Country a solid knowledge which I shall be fill'd with when I shall have heard your Lectures Philiris having thus clos'd his story Lysis began to speak and said to him Gentle Shepherd the Gods grant thou maist finde with me the satisfaction thou hopest There 's only one thing troubles me that being married as thou art and it being in thy power to bring thy wife whither thou pleasest thou hast been so much to blame as not to have brought her hither I have the same complaint to make against Fontenay this second story makes me think on 't You should both of you have brought your dear Halves with you so you should not have wept for their absence your contentments had been never the shorter you should have been in solitude and viduity as you are you should have had Shepherdesses to entertain and court as well as others whereas now you may not presume to make any addresses with civility to any of this Country Besides you would have done us a great obligation to let us see Theodora and Basilia whose perfections would have rendred our company more illustrious As for my dear Theodora replies Fontenay you may assure your self I would have brought her along had she not been somewhat indispos'd when I came away And for my Basilia sayes Philiris I have left her at home to bear her Father company who is an ancient man besides that I thought that having for a while suffered the rigors of absence I should at my return receive more infinite pleasure However I am not void of comfort here for the image of my fair Shepherdess is ever before my eyes I never see Lillies nor Carnations but I am put in minde of her complexion I never see the stars but I think on her eyes which are my two Planets and if I see the Moon shine I am extreamly chear'd up because at our parling Basilia and I mutually promiss'd to behold that Planet at the same hour so that when I contemplate it it joys me to know that my Shepherdess doth the same and that we do both the same action Nay I believe that sometimes the fair Diana wishes me so well that she carries news to Basilia in what condition I am and that she can also give me an account how Basilia does as if her visage were a Looking-glass wherein by some secret science things might be seen at distance These are indeed most excellent entertainments for a Lover says Lysis I protest to you that the history of Philiris hath given me so much content as possibly could be receiv'd from it there 's nothing in 't but what is sweet and natural Nay I do not think the Critick Clarimond hath found any thing in it to carp at In my opinion Philiris is no more in the right then Fontenay replies Clarimond there are also a world of absurdities in his story These shittle-headed Lovers are pure extravagances and when I think on the many desires he had about her picture I believe his fidelity hath not yet restor'd him to his wits Above all I could not but laugh at his conclusion when he speaks of the abundance of Basilia's tears for after the sweetness of her studied discourses he makes her fall into the lowest degree of folly And though he hath made over his interest to that conceipt of the tears and the river to fantastick Poets yet I doubt not but he will be glad to keep it for himself and will own it whenever it shall be father'd on him Besides both he and Fontenay are both as jealous as ever was Basilia That they have not brought their wives hither was for fear they might not be only for them having heard say that there are those who marry for them and their friends too Thou art deceiv'd saies Lysis they know well enough that every one here hath his Shepherdess and that it is in this Country that Fidelity hath establish'd her Kingdom we are all scandaliz'd at the rashness of thy language If there be any point of their discourse that can offend us 't is more then I have yet observ'd but the fault is not theirs but Fates You all know that in Romances the Love-stories you meet with never come to any end they are never fully accomplish'd till the end of the book see in the mean time Fontenay and Philiris are married already and consequently have no famous adventures to run through whereas their marriage should have been at the same time as mine according to the ordinary method There must be diversity in the world else it were not delightful says Philiris if you have heard the stories of two married men you will happly hear anon those of two Batchelours That 's my comfort saies Lysis there 's enough spoken to that subject There is now nothing troubles me but that I consider that Fontenay hath not quitted his name which is the name of a Lordship more proper to a Souldier then a Shepherd Yet since the word is derived from Fountain which is a thing rustical and Pastoral it shall not be chang'd As concerning Philiris I have only one doubt as to his condition He mentions his father his Father in Law and himself as Shepherds 't was a thing I knew not before that there were any famous Shepherds in Burgundy You may be assur'd there are a many replies Philiris and they are not rustical persons but persons of quality that have renounc'd the pomp of the Court I am very glad of it saies Lysis I hope one day to see a wonderful advancement of the Pastoral life Should I not accommodate my self here I would go into your Country which I had not yet so much as thought on While Lysis spoke thus to Philiris there came one of Hircans Lacqueys who said his Master expected the company to dine with him Upon which they all rise up and took their way towards his Castle Clarimond who had some secret talk with Fontenay learned of him who the new Shepherds were whom he had seen the day before When they were come to Hircans Polidor Meliantes and Lucida who was now called Amaryllis came and receiv'd the company and the Magician ask'd them what they had been doing all the while We fel from one discourse into another concerning a Temple which Lysis would build to the honor of Charite replies Clarimond I now acquaint the Shepherd Lysis faies Hircan that besides the Temple which he hath erected to his Mistris in his own soul if there be need of a material one she hath one already and that the most magnificent that can be imagin'd All the earth is her altar the water is to wash her victims the ayr is fill'd with nothing but the prayers and sighs of her adorers the elementary fire serves
hold of a knife that hung at his girdle with the hand that was loose and to cut off that which was fast at the wrist I saw him afterwards run away but I look'd not after him as being content that his hand and Ring was in my chest I therefore pack'd up my baggage and went to present Rhadogina with the Ring she desired She told me I had not yet sufficiently demonstrated my services and that I must find her whereever she hid herself Having therefore put the Ring to her mouth she became invisible and I began to cry out to her How now perfidious one will you now frustrate me of the recompence you promis'd me I have brought you what you desired and you give me not what I desire I have therefore gotten nothing but my own ruine I shall fall into despair if you shew not your self I will break to pieces all your housholdstuff I will slay all creatures both man and beast nay I will not spare the very infects While I said this I heard Rhodigina laugh sometimes here sometimes there and I went about in vain with my arms stretch'd out to be ready to embrace her if I met with her if I saw a little smoak any where I ran thither thinking to have her because I imagin'd it was her breath but my arms would close again at my own breast without grasping any thing This put me into such a fury that I rudely took hold of a little Girl whom Rhodogina call'd her Neece though she was thought to be the mother of it and made as if I would cast it into a Well This made Rhodogina come presently to me and her affection telling her that both hands were not too much to recover the Child she took out of her mouth the hand that had the Ring and took from me the poor little one that cry'd most pittifully I then embrac'd my Mistress and forc'd her to confess she was overcome But besides that this trick confirm'd me that the Girl was her own daughter which she had had by a more fortunate Lover then I For the pains she took to save the Child so suddenly spoke a motherly tenderness Yet I took no notice of it only was content to entreat her not to be any longer cruel towards me But all I could obtain was that in consideration I had brought her Osthanes his Ring she would not make use of it against me and would never be invisible to me But she provided me another torment in amends of this and having brought me to the entrance of a Desart told me I must pass through it to fetch her of a water which caus'd such a good memory to those that had but once drunk of it that they remembred all they ever saw in their lives even to the least particulars My mistress gave me a vessel to bring that liquor in and some arms for to defend my self if any one assaulted me and besides nine loaves for my viaticum You will find sayes she a many little Fountains in your way before you come to the Fountain of Memory which by its beauty is easily distinguish'd and that 's the reason I give you no water But as for bread you must take some along with you for you are to pass through places where you will not meet with any If you are couragious your journey will be over in nine dayes and one loaf a day will be enough but if you are a coward it will require a great deal more time and you will dye for hunger ere you return For my part I will get nine torches and will light one every night and if you be not return'd by that time they are all burnt I shall think no more of you but think you lost Rhodogina having said this I took leave of her and after I had suffered many inconveniences by the way I came in four dayes to a certaine River which I had heard say was to be passed to goe to the Fountain of Memory I found very opportunely on the Rivers side a Tree cut down on which I got and by the motion of my hands and feet I crossd to the other side I was no sooner there but I perceived the Fountain which fell into a Bason of white marble but with the same sight there appears a furious Dragon which opening a throat like an abyss made towards me for to devour me I had a club which I sent down so far into his throat that it was not possible for him to bring his jaws together to do me any hurt So that I confidently went to the Fountain where I fill'd my vessel and expected the Monster with sword in hand He rush'd upon me so violently that had I not given way he had cast me to the ground But that he might not do me any hurt I cast my self on his back where I sate as if I had been on horseback He to rid himself of me cast himself into the water but I gave him so many blows on the tail that he thinking to escape from him that struck him behind swam over the river and set me ashore very fortunately for the current had carried away my Tree I then got off him and took my way leaving him half dead I was so afraid I should not be return'd to Rhodogina time enough that I travell'd day and night and one evening was so dry meeting with no fountain that I was forc'd to drink half the water I was to bring her and thence it came that I now have an incomparable memory The next day I bethought me to fill up my vessel with ordinary water but I was afraid Rhodogina might discover the imposture so I brought it her but half full Yet she was content and commended my diligence for I was back in a little more then eight dayes and I had one of my loayes left and she one of her torches I then thought I could not hope any thing from her which I should not obtain But when she saw I was so confident she laugh'd at me and told me I should not hope ever to enjoy her if I brought her not a piece of some member of a Shepherd that had sometime been a Tree Having not met with any such Shepherds in Persia I took shipping and landed in this Country where I met with Hircan who hath related to me the History of the Shepherd Lysis I have put on the habit I now wear that I might the more freely converse with this noble company and having yesterday met with Lysis I was extreamly glad hoping he would give me what I sought for You are come too late to do any thing in that design says Lysis you may see that I am no Tree and that if your Mistress hath any occasion for wood she should furnish herself out of the Forrests of her own Country If you owne any thing of courtesie replies Polidor you will not deny me some piece of your body such as it is it may
This Poet was still in the place so that he confess'd that it was not to be question'd but that himself and all those that wrote books spoke of those ancient Divinities as a thing fained only for the ornament of their Poesies though it had sometime been a main truth and believ'd and that very passionately by a many nations You see what they think of it whom you have ever followed says Clarimond since you will needs embrace their doctrine you must believe what they say and you are not more learned then your masters in the lectures they read to you You are moreover to consider that since there is but one Almighty God all your little Gods cannot subsist Since you will have me follow the dictate of reason with you says Lysis I will declare one thing to you which I would not communicate to any other person whatsoever and that is that I know very well that they are not really Divinities which are conceived to be in the fields but they are so called in a certain manner of speaking They are only Spirits under divers forms And to make it appear to you that it is so I have not only read in the Poets whom you tax with lying but also in Authors that pretend to be Philosophers and such as I dare say would be Divines Witness Agrippa in his Occult Philosophy 'T is well known he speaks every where as a good Christian and quotes passages of the holy Scripture but yet having disposed his Spirits through all the Elements when he comes to those he appoints for the Earth and the Water he calls them by all those divers names we find in the Poets He grants there are Fawns Dryads and Hamadryads in the Forrests and Nayads in the Fountains nay he denies not but Saturn Jupiter and the other Gods are each of them in his several heaven exercising that power which the Ancients attributed to them He also tels you at large what names to call them by and in what manner they are to be invocated in his operations Now we never use invocation towards things that have no power As for his part he calls them the Governours of the World but it is my business only to tell you that his meaning was that they are Spirits Agrippa then it seems is one of your Authors sayes Clarimond you have been extremely reserv'd that we never knew you studied his doctrine before Know then that it is as impertinent a Fellow as ever you met with he mingles Divinity with fables And though he hath a mind to dress up a Christian and lawfull Magick yet he makes use of that of Hermes and other prophane Authors Because that in the magick of the Ancients the Planets were invocated as also the rest of the inferior Divinities he hath spoken in the same manner as if it could be done still But the absurdity was so great that he hath entreated all the world to pardon him excusing it as an error of his youth This I find in his book of the Vanity of the Sciences there he retracts all Clarimond is in the right sayes Philiris there 's no answer to be made to what he hath said But though Agrippa should not believe there were Dryads and Nayads says Lysis it follows not I should be of his opinion Do I not remember that I have seen so many rural Divinities when I was chang'd into a Tree There was never any such thing sayes Clarimond and I tell you once more that there was never in this world any body so changed Do you not remember the reasons I alleadg'd once against Metamorphoses I told you there was none among the heathens but the simple people that believed any such thing could be besides that it was by accident that these opinions got any credit among them I gave you an account of divers persons who were thought to have chang'd forms and more particularly that of the Robber who was thought to be chang'd into a Raven I told you the Poets had brought those things into reputation by their Verses and if I am not deceiv'd Philiris Fontenay and Carmelin himself approved my reasons I know not whether they have been since poisoned by your errors I remember all this says Lysis but I value it not We remember it very well says Fontenay but we found a great deal of truth in it You then believe impostures replies the Shepherd all in a heat This is not the only point you will be contradicted in says Clarimond be not angry yet stay a while and you shall have much more reason I must tell you that since all these Divinities you have talk'd of are but fictions you had no reason to make all these Gentlemen put on Shepherds habit making them believe that you would make them happy by that means and bring them into conversation with the immortals As for your golden age you know what I said to you of it I told you plainly that to make that return we must put on as much savageness as those of the new found world There was never any imagin'd that that kinde of life could be as delightful as ours What hath Lysis then deceiv'd us cries out Philiris I had little reason to come so far to finde him If he knows no more then I have yet seen the Shepherds of our Country know as much I will return to them And shall I saies Fontenay stay here with an Impostor who hath promis'd me such wonders if I would continue Shepherd O! Cousin Hircan give me my red suit again Polidor and Meliantes said also they would be no longer Shepherds so that Hircan desired them to be quiet and told them they should all have what cloathes they had brought to his house Lysis extreamly troubled at this revolt told them they would at leisure repent their forsaking him but Clarimond bid him not to be so perswaded and told him he would make it appear to him that he had never known the least happiness of condition since he turned Shepherd and that of all he had believed there had nothing happened to him and to that purpose he thus continued the discourse You are then to imagine that I am better acquainted with your adventures then your self for I have not only learn'd what you thought of them but also what others conceiv'd who have abus'd you In the first place being come to St. Clou where you put on your Pastoral habit Anselme having found you as you admir'd your precious reliques was so far from blaming you for it that he hearkned attentively to your extravagant history but what amazement must he have been in to see you esteem so highly the foulest things in the world and having promis'd you great assistance such as was that of drawing Charite's picture you took him for the God Pan. The Poets never told you that the Sylvane God pretended to any skill in painting but you thought there could be nothing impossible to a god I will not mention
his heart he would needs kiss it Charite draws it back presently so that he was forc'd to say to her If you will not give me leave to kiss naked this thief of my heart I 'll draw your smock-sleeve over it and kiss it so will you not permit me People are fain to kiss Reliques through a glass Having said so he strived so much that he kiss'd the bare hand And believing he ought in consequence endeavour some greater victory over his sweet enemy Ha Charite says he to her with dying eyes and an amorous gesture Now that we are alone whose fault is it that we imitate not Daphnis and Cloe and that we strip not our selves naked as they did to go and wash together in some fountain hereabouts There is one I know hath so much umbrage that the Sun who sees all things cannot discover us there I must lie on thy breast seeing thou art my Altar and that I am the Victim that is to be laid on it Wilt thou not suffer that my half be glued to thine Is there no means that both of us together make an Androgyne He was no sooner delivered of these words but his Mistress understood well enough what he meant for it is a maxim That a maid cannot be so simple but she will apprehend this in what terms soever it be spoken So that Charite rise up and going her ways said to him Fear not Impudence but assure thy self that I 'll tell my Lady of this thou comest to disturb my devotions with thy follies If ever thou comest to our house again thou shalt find the door shut Lysis rising up cries out O Virgin more tender then the vine-bud thou runst away from me faster then the young Fawn doth from the merciless tooth of a Bear I do not run after thee like a Wolf for to devour thee I am no Myrmidon nor savage Dolopus Alas stay till thou hear me or hear me till I come to thee Thou fliest like an Asp whose tail hath been trod on Notwithstanding this complaint she kept on her way still which so amaz'd him that he durst not run after her but remained as immoveable as a statue Oh how often did he curse the advice of Clarimond which had procured him nothing but the disfavour of Charite Oh how did he now wish he had said nothing at all to her and that he had been as mute that day as the fish in the river Mosin which must no more be called Lignon Oh how he wish'd he had had no more use of his members then a Paralytick before his Mistress that so he might have done her no violence But what was past could not be recalled all his recourse now was to sighs and tears Dinner-time was slipt away in these imaginations So that Clarimond wondring he returned not went out to look after him Having found him weeping at the foot of a tree Ah Clarimond says the Shepherd to him wonder not that I weep it is for to water this Elm and to make it grow in requital for the shadow it hath given Charite when she fate under it But alas if thou wouldst know another cause of my weeping it is that I have offended that fair one by thinking to put thy doctrine in practice It may be you have not carried your self discreetly in the business replies Clarimond and you have betray'd the mysterie How is it possible I should do amiss says Lysis seeing I said not one word to her which I cannot shew in very good Authors 'T is therefore because she is not so well read says Clarimond and before you should have entertained her in that manner you should have brought her to read There 's the secret replies Lysis But seeing you are the cause of my misfortune you are obliged to find out some remedy and to make my peace with her I beseech you remonstrate to her that if I have spoken of making the Androgyne I meant no hurt thereby Is it not well known that heretofore men were double but that to punish their iniquities they were divided in two That 's the reason that every one is so desirous to find his other half and by joyning it to himself to make up a perfect creature Now there may be a juncture without fin as that of wills and desires And I may well say that was the manner I meant And if Charite abhor these copulations let her beware the judgment of Jupiter He hath given men notice that if they return to their offending him he will further divide every half in two Seeing she will not hear of joyning herself the Gods might justly divide her in that manner And do you think it would be a fine sight to see her in two parts each of them having but half a nose half a mouth one eye one ear one buttock one thigh and one foot with which she should go leaping like a Flea and straighten herself up again like a Bob. 'T were great pitty to see her in that posture says Clarimond she must know so much If you were to satisfie your love in the enjoyment of her you must bring those two parts together which would be an excessive trouble And then if you should be jealous consider what means there were to look to such a woman while you had one half with you in your own bed the other would be in your neighbours After these learned considerations Clarimond perswaded the Shepherd so far of the possibility of qualifying Charites cruelty that he got him home to eat somewhat Thence they took their way to Hircan's Castle for diversion sake and went all by ease discoursing of the miracles the Magician did When they were come thither Hircan carried them into the Garden where Lysis had never been before When he saw it was so fair it seem'd to him to be the residence of the Spring Summer and Autumn because there was all sorts of Flowers and all sorts of Fruits He thought that Hircan had for ever banish'd the Winter thence by the force of his charms Being in a Walk which was broad and very close at the top he was so much taken with it that stretching out his arms he cryes out Ha fair Walk thou shalt have of my Verses I swear it to thee thou deservest I should make a Description of thee some time or other Out of that he goes into a Bowre built for to elude the heat of the day There he sees a Spring so well painted that he says to the rest Come not so neer we shall be wet And perceiving a Horse excellently well drawn in a field he brake forth into this fustian See you how that horse runs you will lose him Hircan why do you not tie him to some tree He runs away from himself he leaves himself behind While he was thus busie Hircan turning a little Cock made the water issue out in good earnest out of a Plank below by a many holes O wonder cries out Lysis running away