Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A52005
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Cupid's courtship, or, The celebration of a marriage between the god of love and Psiche
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Marmion, Shackerley, 1603-1639.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing M704; ESTC R27550
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38,546
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89
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weariness Psiche excus'd it that she could no stay And if she had her errand would away But Proserpine reply'd you do not know Fair Maid the joys and pleasures are below Stay and possess whatever I call mine For other Lights and other Stars do shine Within our territories the day 's not lost As you imagine in the Elysian coast The Golden Age and Progeny is here And that Fam'd Tree that does in Autumn bear Clusters of Gold whose Apples thou shalt hoard Or each meal if thou please set on the board The Matrons of Elysium at thy beck Shall come and go and buried Queens shall deck Thy body in more stately ornaments Then all Earths feigned Majesty presents The pale and squalid region shall rejoyce Silence shall break forth a pleasant voice Stern Pluto shall himself to mirth betake And crowned Ghests shall banquet for thy sake New Lamps shall burn if thou wilt here abide And nights thick darkness shall be rarifi'd What ere the winds upon the earth do sweep Rivers or Fens embrace or the vast deep Shall be thy tribute and I will deliver Up for thy servant the Lethean River Besides the Parcae shall thy hand-maids be And what thou speak'st stand for a destiny Psiche gave thanks but did her plainly tell She would not be a Courtier unto hell When wondring that such honours did not please She offer'd gifts far richer then all these For as a Dowry at her feet she laid The mighty engines which the world upweigh'd And vow'd to give her immortality And all the pleasures and the royalty Of the Elysian fields which wisely she Resus'd for hell with all their power and skill Though they allure they cannot force the will This vex'd fair Proserpine any should know Their horrid secrets and have power to show Unto the upper world what she had seen Of hell and Styx of Pluto and his Queen Yet since she might not her own Laws withstand She gave the box of beauty in her hand And Psiche with those precepts us'd before The Sun 's bright beams did once again adore Then as she thought being out of all controul A curious rashness did possess her soul That slighting of her charge and promis'd duty She greatly itch'd to adde to her own beauty Saying Ah fool to bear so rich a prize And yet through fear dost envy thine own eyes The happy object whose reflexion might Gain thee some favour in young Cupid's sight The voice forbad me but I now am free From Venus vision and Hell's custody And so without all scruple she unlocks And le ts forth the whole treasure of the box Which was not any thing to make one fair But a meer Stygian and infernal air Whose subtle breathings through her pores did creep And stuft her body with a cloud of sleep But Cupid now not able to endure Her longer absence having gain'd his cure And prun'd his rufled wings flew through the gare Of his close prison to seek out his Mate Where finding her in this dull Lethargy He drew the foggy vapour from her eye And that her stupid spirits might awake Did all the drousie exhalation shake From off her sense she shut it up and seal'd The Box so fast it ne'r might be reveal'd Next with his harmless Dirt small as a pin He prick'd the superficies of her skin Saying what wondrous frailty does possess This female kind or rather wilfulness For loe thy foolish curiosity Has tempted thee again to perjury What proud exploit was this what horrid fact Besure my mother Venus will exact A strict account of all that has been done Both of thy self and thy Commission But yet for all this trespass be of cheer And in a humble duty persevere Detain from Venus nought that is her own And for what else remains let me alone Thus Psiche by her Lover being sent And waxing strong through his encouragement The Box of beauty unto Venus brings Whilst Cupid did betake him to his wings For when he saw his mother so austeer Forc'd by the violence of love and fear He pierc'd the Marble concave of the sky To heaven appeal'd and did for justice cry Pleading his cause and in the sacred presence Of Jove himself did his Love-suit commence Jove at his sight threw by his rays so pure That no eyes but his own might them endure Whom Cupid thus bespake Great Jove if I Am born your true and lawful progeny If I have plaid between your arms and sate Next to your self but since grown to a state Of riper years have been thought fit to bear An equal sway and move in the same sphere Of honour with you by whose means both men And gods have trembled at my bow as when Your self have darted Thunder-bolts and slain The earth-bred Gyants in the Phlegrian plain And when in several scales my shafts were laid VVith your own Trident neither has out-weigh'd I come not now that you should either give Confirm or adde to my prerogative But setting all command and power aside Desire by Law and Justice to be tri'd For whither else should I appeal or bring My cause but to your self that are a King And father to us all and can dispence What right you please in Court and Conscience I have been wrong'd and must with grief indite My mother of much cruelty and spight To me and my poor Psiche there 's but one In the whole world that my affection And fancy likes where others do enjoy So many the diversity does cloy Their very appetite yet who but owes All his delight to me and Venus knows By her own thoughts the uncontroled fire That reigns in youth when Love does him inspire Yet she without all pity or remorse Me and my Mistress labours to divorce I covet no one's Spouse nor have I taken Another's Love there 's not a man forsaken Or god for my sake that bewails his dear Or bathes his spoiled bosome with a tear Then why should any me and my Love sever That joyn all other hearts and loves together Jove heard him out and did applaud his speech And both his hand and scepter to him reach Then calling Cupid his smooth fingers laid On his Ambrosiack cheek and kissing said My little youngster and my son 't is true That I have never yet receiv'd from you Any due reverence or respective meed Which all the other gods to me decreed For this my heart whose high preheminence Gives Edicts to the Stars and does dispence The like to nature your fine hand the while With earthly lusts still labours to defile And contrary to publick discipline And ' gainst all Laws both Moral and Divine Chiefly the Julian thou dost fill mine eyes With many foul and close adulteries For how oft-times have I through van desire Been chang'd to beasts birds serpents and to fire Which has procur'd ill censures and much blame And hurt my estimation and my same Yet being pleas'd with this thy foolish sport I 'm loath to
kisses equal make Into his hairs that with her breath did play â—teept with rich Nectar and Ambrosia â—hus being ravisht with excess of joy With kissing and embracing the sweet Boy â—oe in the height of all her jollity Whether from envy or from treachery Or that it had a burning appetite â—o touch that silken skin that lookt so white The wicked Lamb in an unlucky hour 〈◊〉 drop of scalding oil did let down poure On his right shoulder whence in horrid wise A blister like a bubble did arise And boil'd up in his flesh with a worse fume Than blood of Vipers or the Lernean spume Neer die the Dog-star rage with so great heat In dry Apuliae nor Alcides sweat Under his shirt so Cruell oil that thou Who of all others hast the smoothest brow Shouldst play the traitor who had any thing Worse than my self as fire or venom'd sting Or Sulphur blasted him shouldst first have came And with thy powerful breath suckt out the flame For though he be Loves god it were but vain To think he should be priviledge from pain For we in Homer have like wounded read Of Mars and Venus both by Diomed. But for this hainous and audacious fact Cupid among his statutes did enact Henceforth all lights be banisht and exempt From bearing office in Loves government And in the day each should his passage mark Or learn to find his Mistress in the dark Sure all the crew of lovers shall thee hate Nor blest Minerva hold thee consecrate When Cupid saw his counsells open laid Psiches dear faith and his own plots betray'd He buckled on his wings away to fly And had she not caught hold upon his thigh And hung as an appendix of his flight He questionless had vanisht from her sight But as when men are in deep rivers drown'd And tane up dead have their close fingers found Clasping the weeds so though her armes were rack With her more bodies weight and sinews crackt To follow him through the forc'd Element Yet held she fast untill he did relent And his ambitious wings gan downward steer And stoop to earth with a mild Cancileer The fourth Section THus lighted on the earth he took her wrist And wrung it hard and did her hands untwil And having freed himself he flew on high Unto a Cypress-tree that grew thereby And on the utmost branches being sate He did the matter thus capitulate Was it for this indeed for this reward Thou silly girl that I should disregard My mothers vows her tears her flatteries When she with all the power she might cevise Provok't me to thy hurt and thee assign'd â—n Marriage to a groom of some base kind And lowest rank had not my too much hast Redeem'd thy shame and my own worth disgrac'd Was it for this I did thy plagues remove To pain my self strike mine own heart in love With mine own shaft that after all this gear should no better than a beast appear â—or this wouldst thou cut off my head which bore Those eyes that did thy beauty so adore â—nd yet thou knowst ungrateful wretch how I â—id with my fears thy mischiefs still imply And every day my cautions did renew The breath of which thou must for ever rue And each of these thy sisters that were guide To thy ill act shall dearly it abide Yet will I punish thee no other way But only this I will forever stray Far from thy sight and having said so fled Whilst she to hear this news lay almost dead Ye prostrate on the ground her eyes up cast Ty'cto his winged speed until at last She could no more discern as Dido then Or Arudne by some Poets pen Are faind to grieve whose artful passions flow In such sveet numbers as they make their woe Appear delightful telling how unkind Their loves stole away and the same wind That blew abroad their faith and oaths before Then fill'd their sails and how the troubled shore Answer'd the Ladies groans so Psiche faints And bears her breast with pittiful complaints There ran a River near whose purling streams Hyperion oft did with his golden beams Delight to gild and as it fled along The pleasant murmurs mixt with the sweet song Of aged Swans detain'd the frequent ear Of many a Nymph which did inhabit there Poor Psiche thither went and from the brim In sad despair threw her self headlong in The Rivers God whither 't were out of fear Duty or love or honour he did bear Her husband or least her spilt blood should stain His christal current threw her up again But it is thought he would not let her sink Cause Cupid oft times would descend to drink Or wash him in the Brook and when he came To cool his own heat would the floud inflame Pan at that time sat playing on a reed Whilst his rough Goats did on the medows feed And with intentive eyes observed all That to the fairest Psiche did befall Who seeing her thus pitiously distrest He ran to take her up and did the best He could to comfort her fair maid says he Though a rustick and a shepheard be Scorn not for that my counsel and advice Nor let my trade become my prejudice For by the benefit of time well spent I am indued with long experiment And if I do conjecture it aright The cause of all this Phrensie and dispight Which your sad looks and paleness do imply With other signs in Physiognomy By which wise men the truth of Art do prove And know the state of minds you are in love Now list to me and do not with fond hast The sacred oil of your lifes taper wast Use no sinister means to hasten on But labour to adjourn destruction Cast not away your self by too much grief But courage take for care is beauties thief Cupid I know whose humour is to strive Then yield then stay then play the fugitive Be not dismay'd for that but shew your duty And above all things do not spoil your beauty He 's delicate and wanton prayers may win And fair demeanour may demerit him These are the medicines I would have you chuse To cure your minds health and redress abuse She gave him thanks then rose from where she lay And having done obeysance went her way Thence did she wander on with weary feet And neither track nor passenger could meet Untill at length she found a Kingly road Which led unto a Palace where aboad Her eldest sister Psiche enter'd in Thent sent up news how one of her near kin Was come to visit her return being made Psiche was brought before her each invade The other with embraces and fulfill A tedious scene of counterfeit good will But when they had discours'd a while together She askt Psiche the cause that brought her thither Who did recount the passages and tell In order all the story that befell Which by degrees had ruin'd her and laid The blame on their lewd counsell that betray'd Her innocent soul and her