whom almost his heade otherwise occupied had lâ—ft the wonted remembrance was sodainly striken into a deuout kind of admiration remembring the oracle which according to the fauning humour of false hope hee interpreted now his owne to his owne best and with the willing blindnesse of affection because his minde ran wholly vpon Zelmane he thought the Gods in their oracles did principally minde her But as he was deepely thinking of the matter one of the shepheardes tolde him that Philanax was already come with a hundred horse in his company For hauing by chaunce rid not farre of the little desert he had heard of this vprore and so was come vpon the spurre gathering a company of Gentlemen as fast as he coulde to the succour of his Master Basilius was glad of it but not willing to haue him nor any other of the Noble men see his Mistresse hee himselfe went out of the Lodge and so giuing order vnto him of placing garrisons and examining these matters and Philanax with humble earnestnesse beginning to entreate him to leaue of this solitarie course which already had bene so daungerous vnto him Well saide Basilius it may be ere long I will condiscend vnto your desire In the meane time take you the best order you can to keepe me safe in my solitatinesse But said he doâ— you remember how earnestly you wrote vnto me that I should not bee moued by that Oracles authoritie which brought me to this resolution Full well Sir answered Philanax for though it pleased you not as then to let me knowe what the Oracles words were yet all Oracles holding in my conceipt one degree of reputation it suffised me to knowe it was but an Oracle which led you from your owne course Well said Basilius I will now tell you the wordes which before I thought not good to doo because when all the euents fall out as some already haue done I may charge you with your incredulitie So he repeated them in this sorte THy elder care shall from thy carefull face By princely meane be stolne and yet not lost Thy yonger shall with Natures blisse embrace And vncouth loue which Nature hateth most Both they themselues vnto such two shall wed Who at thy beer as at a barre shall plead Why thee a liuing man they had made dead In thy owne seate a forraine state shall fit And ere that all these blowes thy head doo hit Thou with thy wife adultry shall commit For you forsoth said he whn I told you that some supernaturall cause sent mee strange visions which being confirmed with presagious chaunces I had gon to Delphos there receiued this answere you replied to me that the onely supernaturall causes were the humors of my body which bred such melancholy dreames and that both they framed a mind ful of conceipts apt to make presages of things which in themselues were meerly chaunceable and with all as I say you remember what you wrote vnto me touching authoritie of the Oracle but now I haue some notable triall of the truth thereof which hereafter I will more largly communicate vnto you Only now know that the thing I most feared is alredy performed I mean that a forraine state should possesse my throne For that hath been done by Zelmane but not as I feared to my ruine but to my preseruation But when he had once named Zelmane that name was as good as a pully to make the clocke of his praises run on in such sort that Philanax found was more exquisite then the onely admiration of vertue breedeth which his faithfull hart inwardly repining at made him shrinke away as soone as he could to go about the other matters of importance which Basilius had enioyned vnto him Basilius returned into the Lodge thus by him selfe construing the oracle that in that hee saide his elder care should by Princely meane bee stolne away from him and yet not lost it was now perfourmed since Zelmane had as it were robd from him the care of his first begotten childe yet was it not lost since in his harte the ground of it remained That his younger should with Natures blisse embrace the loue of Zelmane because he had so commaunded her for his sake to doo yet shoulde it be with as much hate of Nature for being so hatefull an opposite to the iealousie hee thought her mother had of him The sitting in his seate hee deemed by her already perfourmed but that which most comforted him was his interpretation of the adulterie which hee thought hee shoulde commit with Zelmane whom afterwards he should haue to his wife The point of his daughters marriage because it threatned his death withall he determined to preuent with keeping them while he liued vnmaried But hauing as hee thought gotten thus much vnderstanding of the Oracle hee determined for three daies after to perfourme certaine rites to Apollo and euen then began with his wife and daughters to singe this Hymne by them yearely vsed APollo great whose beames the greater world do light And in our little world do cleare our inward sight Which euer shine though hid from earth by earthly shade Whose lights do euer liue but in our darkenesse fade Thou God whose youth was deckt with spoile of Phythons skin So humble knowledge can throw downe the snakish sinne Latonas sonne whose birth in paine and trauaile long Doth teach to learne the good what trauailes do belong In trauaile of our life a short but tedious space While brickle houreglas runnes guide thou our panting pace Giue vs foresightfull mindes giue vs minds to obaye What fore sight tels our thoughts vpon thy knowledge staye Let so our fruites grow vp that nature be maintainde But so our hartes keepe downe with vice they be not stainde Let this assured holde our iudgemeuts ouertake That nothing winnes the heauen but what doth earth forsake Assone as he had ended his deuotion all the priuiledged shepheards being now come knowing well inough he might lay all his care vpon Philanax he was willing to sweeten the tast of this passed tumult with some rural pastimes For which while the shepheards prepared themselues in their best manner Basilius tooke his daughter Philoclea aside and with such hast as if his eares hunted for wordes desired to know how she had found Zelmane She humbly answered him according to the agreement betwixt them that thus much for her sake Zelmane was content to descend from her former resolution as to heare him whensoeuer he would speake and further then that she said as Zelmane had not graunted so she nether did nor euer woulde desire Basilius kist her with more then fatherly thankes and straight like a hard-kept warde new come to his lands would faine haue vsed the benefite of that graunt in laying his sicknes before his onely physition But Zelmane that had not yet fully determined with her selfe how to beare her selfe toward him made him in a few words vnderstand that the time in respect of the
haue it in my praier booke I pray you said Philoclea let vs see it read it No hast but good said Miso you shal first know how I came by it I was a young girle of a seuen and twenty yeare old I could not go thorow the streate of our village but I might heare the young men talke O the pretie little eies of Miso O the fine thin lips of Miso O the goodly fat hands of Miso besides how well a certaine wrying I had of my necke became me Then the one would wincke with one eye and the other cast daiseys at me I must confesse seing so many amorous it made me set vp my peacocks tayle with the hiest Which when this good old woman perceiued O the good wold woman well may the bones rest of the good wold woman she cald me to her into her house I remember full well it stood in the lane as you go to the Barbers shop all the towne knew her there was a great losse of her she called me to her and taking first a soppe of wine to comfort her hart it was of the same wine that comes out of Candia which we pay so deere for now adaies and in that good world was very good cheape she cald me to her Minion said she indeed I was a pretie one in those daies though I say it I see a number of lads that loue you Well said she I say no more doo you know what Loue is With that she brought me into a corner where there was painted a foule fiend I trow for he had a paire of hornes like a Bull his feete clouen as many eyes vpon his bodie as my gray-mare hath dappels for all the world so placed This monster sat like a hangman vpon a paire of gallowes in his right hand he was painted holding a crowne of Laurel in his left hand a purse of mony out of his mouth hong a lace of two faire pictures of a man and a woman and such a countenance he shewed as if he would perswade folks by those aluremēts to come thither be hanged I like a tender harted wench skriked out for feare of the diuell Well said she this same is euen Loue therefore do what thou list with all those fellows one after another and it recks not much what they do to thee so it be in secret but vpō my charge neuer loue none of them Why mother said I could such a thing come frō the belly of the faire Venus for a few dayes before our priest betweene him me had told me the whole storie of Venus Tush said she they are all deceaued and therwith gaue me this Booke which she said a great maker of ballets had giuen to an old painter who for a litle pleasure had bestowed both booke and picture of her Reade there said she thou shalt see that his mother was a cowe and the false Argus his father And so she gaue me this Booke and there now you may reade it With that the remembrance of the good old woman made her make such a face to weepe as if it were not sorrow it was the carkasse of sorrow that appeared there But while her teares came out like raine falling vpon durtie furrowes the latter end of her praier booke was read among these Ladies which contained this POore Painters oft with silly Poets ioyne To fill the world with strange but vaine conceits One brings the stuffe the other stamps the coine Which breedes nought else but gloses of deceits Thus Painters Cupid paint thus Poets do A naked God blinde young with arrowes two Is he a God that euer flies the light Or naked he disguis'd in all vntruth If he be blind how hitteth he so right How is he young that tam'd old Phoebus youth But arrowes two and tipt with gold or leade Some hurt accuse a third with horny head No nothing so an old false knaue he is By Argus got on Io then a cow What time for her Iuno her Ioue did misse And charge of her to Argus did allow Mercury kill'd his false sire for this act His damme a beast was pardon'd beastly fact With fathers death and mothers guiltie shame With Ioues disdaine at such a riuals seed The wretch compell'd a runnagate became And learn'd what ill a miser state doth breed To lye to steale to pry and to accuse Naught in himselfe ech other to abuse Yet beares he still his parents stately gifts A horned head clouen feete and thousand eyes Some gazing still some winking wilye shiftes With long large eares where neuer rumour dyes His horned head doth seeme the heauen to spight His clouen foote doth neuer treade aright Thus halfe a man with man he dayly haunts Cloth'd in the shape which soonest may deceaue Thus halfe a beast ech beastly vice he plants In those weake harts that his aduice receaue He proules ech place stil in new colours deckt Sucking ones ill another to infect To narrow brests he comes all wrapt in gaine To swelling harts he shines in honours fire To open eyes all beauties he doth raine Creeping to ech with flattering of desire But for that Loue is worst which rules the eyes Thereon his name there his chiefe triumph lyes Millions of yeares this old driuell Cupid liues While still more wretch more wicked he doth proue Till now at length that Ioue him office giues At Iunos suite who much did Argus loue In this our world a hang-man for to be Of all those fooles that will haue all they see The Ladies made sport at the description and storie of Cupid But Zelmane could scarce suffer those blasphemies as she tooke them to be read but humbly besought Pamela she would perfourme her sisters request of the other part of the storie Noble Lady answered she beautifying her face with a sweete smiling and the sweetnes of her smiling with the beautie of her face since I am borne a Princes daughter let me not giue example of disobedience My gouernesse will haue vs draw cuts and therefore I pray you let vs do so and so perhaps it will light vpon you to entertaine this company with some storie of your owne and it is reason our eares should be willinger to heare as your tongue is abler to deliuer I will thinke answered Zelmane excellent Princesse my tongue of some value if it can procure your tongue thus much to fauour me But Pamela pleasantly persisting to haue fortune their iudge they set hands and Mopsa though at the first for squeamishnes going vp and downe with her head like a boate in a storme put to her golden gols among them and blind Fortune that saw not the coulor of them gaue her the preheminence and so being her time to speake wiping her mouth as there was good cause she thus tumbled into her matter In time past sayd she there was a King the mightiest man in all his country that had by his wife the fairest
confirmed his opinion satisfied with that and not thinking it good to awake the sleeping Lyon he went downe againe taking with him Pyrocles sworde wherewith vpon his sleight vndersute Pyrocles came onely apparelled thether being sure to leaue no weapon in the chamber and so making the doore as fast as hee coulde on the outside hopinge with the reuealing of this as hee thought greater fault to make his owne the lesse or at least that this iniurie would so fill the Kinges head that he should not haue leysure to chastice his necligence like a fool not considering that the more rage breeds the crueller punishment he went first into the Kings chamber and not finding him there he ranne downe crying with open mouth the Kinge was betrayde and that Zelmane did abuse his daughter The noise he made being a man of no few wordes ioyned to the yelping sound of Miso and his vnpleasant enheritrix brought together some number of the shepheards to whom he without any regard of reseruing it for the Kinges knowledge â—pattered out the bottom of his stomacke swearing by him he neuer knew that Zelmane whom they had taken all that while to be a woman was as arrant a man as himselfe was whereof hee had seene sufficient signes and tokens and that hee was as close as a butterflie with the Ladie Philoclea the poore men iealous of their Princes honour were readie with weapons to haue entred the lodge standing yet in some pause whether it were not best first to heare some newes from the King himselfe when by the sodaine comming of other shepheards which with astonished lookes ranne from one crie to the other their griefes were surcharged with the euil tydings of the Kings death Turning therefore all their minds and eyes that way they ranne to the Caue where they said he lay dead the Sunne beginning now to send some promise of comming light making hast I thinke to bee spectator of the folowing tragedies For Basilius hauing past ouer the night more happie in contemplation then action hauing had his spirits sublymed with the sweete imagination of embrasing the most desired Zelmane doubting least me Caues darknes might deceaue him in the dayes approch thought it nowe season to returne to his wedlocke bed remembring the promise he had made Zelmane to obserue due orders towards Gynecia Therefore departing but not departing without bequeathing by a will of wordes sealed with many kisses a full guifte of all his loue and life to his misconceaued bedfellowe he went to the mouth of the Caue there to apparel himselfe in which doing the motion of his ioye coulde not bee bridled from vttering such like wordes Blessed be thou O night said he that hast with thy sweete winges shrowded mee in the vale of blisse it is thou that art the gotten childe of time the day hath bene but an vsurper vpon thy delightfull inheritaunce thou inuitest all liuing thinges to comfortable rest thou arte the stop of strife and the necessarie truce of aproching battels And therewith hee sange these verses to confirme his former prayses O Night the ease of care the pledge of pleasure Desires best meane harnest of hartes affected The seate of peace the throne which is erected Of humane life to be the quiet measure Be victor still of Phoebus golden treasure Who hath our sight with too much sight infected Whose light is cause we haue our liues neglected Turning all natures course to selfe displeasure These stately starrs in their now shining faces With sinlesse sleepe and silence wisdomes mother Witnesse his wrong which by thy helpe is eased Thou arte therefore of these our desart places The sure refuge by thee and by no other My soule is bliste sence ioyde and fortune raysed And yet farther would his ioyes needes breake foorth O Basilius sayde he the rest of thy time hath bene but a dreame vnto thee it is now onely thou beginnest to liue now onely thou hast entred into the way of blisfulnes Should fancie of marriage keepe me from this paradise Or opinion of I know not what promise binde me from paying the right duties to nature and affection O who woulde haue thought there could haue bene such difference betwixt women Bee iealous no more O Gynecia but yeelde to the preheminence of more excellent guiftes supporte thy selfe with such marble pillers as she doth decke thy brest with those alablaster boules that Zelmane doth then accompanied with such a tittle perhapes thou maist recouer the possession of my otherwise enclined loue But alas Gynecia thou canst not shew such euidence therefore thy plea is vaine Gynecia hearde all this hee saide who had cast about her Zelmanes garment wherein she came thether and had followed Basilius to the Caues entrie full of inward vexation betwixt the deadly accusation of her own guiltines and the spitefull doubt shee had Zelmane had abused her But because of the one side finding the King did thinke her to be Zelmane she had libertie to imagine it might rather be the Kings owne vnbridled enterprise which had barred Zelmane then Zelmanes cunning deceiuing of her and that of the other if shee shoulde heddilie seeke a violent reuenge her owne honour might bee as much interessed as Zelmane endaungered she fell to this determination First with fine handling of the King to settle in him a perfect good opinion of her and then as shee shoulde learne how things had passed to take into her selfe new deuised counsaile but this beinge her first action hauing geuen vnlooked for attendaunce to the King she heard with what partiality he did prefer her to her self she saw in him how much fancy doth not onely darken reasoÌ„ but beguile sence shee fouÌ„d opinion Mistres of the louers iudgement which seruing as a good lesson to her good conceite she went out to Basilius setting her selfe in a graue behauiour and stately silence before him vntill he who at the first thinking her by so much shadow as he could see to bee Zelmane was beginning his louing ceremonies did now being helped by the peeping light wherewith the morning did ouercome the nights darkenes knowe her face and his error which acknowledging in himself with starting back from her she thus with a modest bitternes spake vnto him Alas my Lorde well did your wordes discipher your minde and well be those wordes confyrmed with this gesture Verie loathsome must that woman be from whome a man hath cause to goe backe and little better liked is that wife before whome the husband preferrs them hee neuer knewe Alas hath my faithfull obseruing my parte of duety made you thinke your selfe euer a whit the more exempted Hath that which should claime gratefulnes bene a cause of contempt Is the being the mother of Pamela become an odious name vnto you If my life hetherto ledde haue not auoyded suspicion If my violated truth to you be deseruing of any punishment I refuse not to be chastised with the most cruell torment of your displeasure I
that mankind is not growen monstrous being vndoubtedly lesse euill a guiltie man shoulde escape then a guiltlesse perish so if in the rest they be spotlesse then is no farther to be remembred But if they haue aggrauated these suspitions with newe euills then are those suspitions so farre to showe themselues as to cause the other pointes to be thorowly examined and with lesse fauour wayed since this no man can deny they haue beene accidentall if not principall causes of the Kinges death Now then we are to determine of the other matters which are laide to them wherein they doe not deny the facte but deny or at leaste diminish the faulte but first I may remember though it were not first alleaged by them the seruices they had before done truely honourable and worthy of greate rewarde but not worthy to counteruaile with a following wickednes Rewarde is proper to well doing punishment to euill doing which must bee confounded no more then good and euill are to be mingled Therefore hath bene determined in all wisedomes that no man because he hath done well before should haue his present euils spared but rather so much the more punished as hauing shewed he knew how to be good woulde against his knowledge bee naught The facte then is nakedly without passion or partialitie to bee viewed wherein without all question they are equallie culpable For though he that termes himselfe Daiphantus were sooner disapointed of his purpose of conueying away the Lady Philoclea then he that perswaded the Princesse Pamela to flie her countrie and accompanied her in it yet seing in causes of this nature the wil by the rules of iustice standeth for the deed they are both alike to bee founde guiltie and guiltie of hainous rauishment For though they rauished them not from themselues yet they rauished them from him that owed them which was their father An acte punished by all the Graecian lawes by the losse of the head as a most execrable thefte For if they must dye who steale from vs our goodes how much more they who steale from vs that for which we gather our goodes and if our lawes haue it so in the priuate persons much more forcible are they to bee in Princes children where one steales as it were the whole state and well being of that people being tyed by the secret of a long vse to be gouerned by none but the next of that bloud Neither let any man maruaile our ancestours haue bene so seuere in these cases since the example of the Phenician Europa but especially of the Grecian Helene hath taught them what destroying fires haue growen of such sparckles And although Helene was a wife and this but a child that booteth not since the principall cause of marrying wiues is that we may haue children of our owne But now let vs see how these yong men truely for their persons worthy of pittie if they haue rightly pittied themselues do goe about to mittigate the vehemencie of their errors Some of their excuses are common to both some peculiar onely to him that was the sheepeheard Both remember the force of loue and as it were the mending vp of the matter by their marriage if that vnbrideled desire which is intituled loue might purge such a sickenes as this surely wee shoulde haue many louing excuses of hatefull mischiefe Nay rather no mischiefe shoulde be committed that should not be vailed vnder the name of loue For as well he that steales might alleage the loue of mony he that murders the loue of reuenge he that rebells the loue of greatnesse as the adulterer the loue of a woman Since they do in all speeches affirme they loue that which an ill gouerned passion maketh them to follow But loue may haue no such priuiledge That sweete and heauenly vniting of the mindes which properly is called loue hath no other knot but vertue and therefore if it be a right loue it can neuer slide into any action that is not vertuous The other and indeed more effectuall reason is that they may be married vnto them and so honourably redresse the dishonour of them whom this matter seemeth most to touch Surely if the question were what were conuenient for the parties and not what is iuste in the neuer changing iustice there might much bee saide in it But herein we must consider that the lawes look how to preuent by due examples that such thinges be not done and not how to salue such things when they are doone For if the gouernors of iustice shall take such a scope as to measure the foote of the lawe by a show of conueniencie and measure that conueniencie not by the publike societie but by that which is fittest for them which offende young men stronge men and rich men shall euer finde priuate conueniences howe to palliate such committed disorders as to the publike shall not onely bee inconuenient but pestilent The marriage perchaunce might be fit for them but verie vnfit were it to the state to allowe a patterne of such procurations of marriage And thus much doe they both alleage Further goes he that went with the Princesse Pamela requireth the benefit of a councellor who hath place of free perswasion and the reasonable excuse of a seruant that did but waite of his mistres Without all question as councellors haue great cause to take heede how they aduise any thing directly opposite to the forme of that present gouernement especially when they doe it singly without publike alowaunce so yet is the case much more apparant since neither she was an effectuall Princesse her father being then aliue though he had bene deade she not come to the yeares of aucthoritie nor hee her seruant in such manner to obey her but by his owne preferment first belonging to Dametas and then to the Kinge and therefore if not by Arcadia lawes yet by housholde orders bounde to haue done nothing without his agreement Thus therefore since the deedes accomplished by these two are both abhominable and inexcuseable I doe in the behalfe of iustice by the force of Arcadia lawes pronounce that Daiphantus shal be throwne out of a hie tower to receaue his death by his fall Palladius shall bee behedded the time before the sunne set the place in Mantinea the executioner Dametas which office he shall execute all the dayes of his life for his beastly forgetting the carefull dutie he owed to his charge This saide he turned himselfe to Philanax and two of the other noble men commaunding them to see the iudgement presently performed Philâ—nax more greedie then any hunter of his praye went straite to laye holde of the excellent prisoners who casting a farewell looke one vpon the other represented in their faces asmuch vnappalled constancie as the most excellent courage can deliuer in outward graces Yet if at all there were any shewe of change in them it was that Pyrocles was somthing neerer to bashfulnes and Musidorus to anger both ouer ruled by