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A68450
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A morall poem, intituled the Legend of Cupid and Psyche. Or Cupid and his mistris As it was lately presented to the Prince Elector. Written by Shackerley Marmion, Gent.; Legend of Cupid and Psiche
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Marmion, Shackerley, 1603-1639.
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1638
(1638)
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STC 17444A; ESTC S112188
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40,406
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100
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please She offerd gifts farre richer then all these For as a Dowry at her feet she laid The mighty engines which the world upwaigh'd And vow'd to give her immortality And all the pleasures and the royalty Of the Elysian Fields which wisely she Refus'd for Hell with all their power and skill Though they allure they cannot force the will This vext faire Proserpine any should know Their horrid secrets and have power to show Vnto the upper world what she had seene Of Hell and Styx of Pluto and his Queene Yet since she might not her owne lawes withstand She gave the boxe of beauty in her hand And Psyche with those precepts us'd before The Sunnes bright beames did once againe adore Then as she thought being out of all controule A curious rashnesse did possesse her soule That slighting of her charge and pormis'd duty She greatly itcht to adde to her owne beauty Saying ah foole to bear so rich a prize And yet through feare dost envy thine owne eyes The happy object whose reflexion might Gaine thee some favour in young Cupids sight The voyce forbad me but I now am free From Venus vision and Hells custody And so without all scruple she unlocks And le ts forth the whole treasure of the boxe VVhich was not any thing to make one faire But a meere Stygian and infernall ayre Whose subtle breathings through her pores did creepe And stuft her body with a cloud of sleepe But Cupid now not able to endure Her longer absence having gain'd his cure And prun'd his ruffled wings flew through the gate Of his close prison to seeke 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 drow sie exhalation shake From off her sence she shut it up and seal'd The Boxe so fast it ne're might be reveal'd Next with his harmelesse Dart small as a pin He prick't the superficies of her skin Saying what wondrous frailty does possesse This female kind or rather wilfulnesse For loe thy foolish curiosity Has tempted thee againe to perjury VVhat proud exploit was this what horrid fact Be sure my mother Venus will exact A strict accompt of all that has beene done Both of thy selfe and thy commission But yet for all this trespasse be of cheere And in a humble duty persevere Detaine from Venus nought that is her owne And for what else remaines let me alone Thus Psyche by her Lover being sent And waxing strong through his encouragement The Boxe of beauty unto Venus brings Whilst Cupid did betake him wings For when he saw his Mother so austere Forc'd by the violence of love and feare He pierced the Marble concave of the sky To Heaven appeal'd and did for Justice cry Pleading his cause and in the sacred presence Of Iove himselfe did his Love-suit commence Iove at his sight threw by his rayes so pure That no eyes but his owne might them endure Whom Cupid thus bespake Great Iove if I Am borne your true and lawfull progeny If I have playd bet weene your armes and sate Next to your selfe but since growne to a state Of riper yeeres have beene thought fit to beare An equall sway and move in the same speare Of honour with you by whose meanes both men And gods have trembled at my Bow as when Your selfe have darted thunder-bolts and slaine The earth bred Gyants in the Phlegrian Plaine And when in severall scales my shafts were layd With your owne Trident neither has out-waigh'd I come not now that you should either give Confirme or adde to my prerogative But setting all command and power aside Desire by law and justice to be try'd For whither else should I appeale or bring My cause but to your selfe that are a King And father to us all and can dispence What right you please in Court and Conscience I have beene wrong'd and must with griefe indite My Mother of much cruelty and spight To me and my poore Psyche there 's but one In the whole world that my affection And fancy likes where others doe eujoy So many the diversity does cloy Their very appetite yet who but owes All his delight to me and Venus knows By her owne thoughts the uncontrouled fire That reignes in youth when love does him inspire Yet she without all pitty or remorse Me and my Mistresse labours to divorce I covet no ones spouse nor have I taken Anothers Love there 's not a man forsaken Or god for my sake that bewayles his deare Or bathes his spoyled bosome with a teare Then why should any me and my Love sever That joyne all other hearts and loves together Iove heard him out and did applaud his speach And both his hand and Scepter to him reach Then calling Cupid his smooth fingers layd On his Ambrosiack cheeke and kissing sayd My little youngster and my sonne '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 Starres 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 lawes both Morall and Divine Chiefly the Iulian thou dost fill mine eyes With many foule and close adulteries For how ofttimes have I through vaine desire Beene chang'd to beasts birds serpents and to fire Which has procur'd ill censures and much blame And hurt my estimation and my fame Yet being pleas'd with this thy foolish sport I 'me loath to leave it though I 'me sorry for 't And on condition thou wilt use thy wit In my behalfe and minde the benefit I will performe all thy demands if when Thou seest faire Damfells on the earth agen Remembring thou wast brought up on my knee That every such Mayd thou wilt bring to mee Cupid assents then Iove bids Maya's sonne Publish a royall Proclamation Through the Precincts of Heaven and call at once A generall councell and a Sessions That the whole bench and race of Deities Should in their severall rankes and pedegrees Repaire straight to his Court this to be done In paine of Ioves displeasure and a summe Of money to be laid upon his head And from his lands and goods belevied If any god should dare himselfe absent For any cause from this great Parliament And that whoever had his name i' th' booke His fyne but his excuse should not be tooke This being nois'd abroad from every where The lesser gods came thronging out of feare And the Celestiall Theater did thwack That Atlas seem'd to groane under his pack The Iove out of his Ivory throne did rise And thus bespake them Conscript Deities For so the Muses with their whitest stone Have writ your Names and Titles every one You know my Nephew Cupid for the most Of us I 'me sure have felt him to our cost Whose youthfull heat I have still sought in vaine And his licentious ryot to restraine But that his lewd life be no farther spread His lusts nor his corruptions published I hold it fit that we the cause remove And bind him in the fetters of chast love And since that he has made so good a choice Of his owne wife let each god give his voice That he enjoy her and for ever tye Vnto himselfe in bands of Matrimony Then unto Venus turning his bright face Daughter he sayes conceive it no disgrace That Psyche marries with your sonne for I That where I please give immortality Will alter her condition and her state And make all equall and legitimate With that command to Mercury was given That he should fetch faire Psyche unto Heaven And when that she into their presence came Her wondrous beauty did each god inflame Then Jove reacht forth a cup with Nectar fraught And bad her be immortall with the draught So joyn'd them hand in hand and vow'd beside That she with her deare Cupid should abide Ne're to be separate and more t' enlarge His bounty made a Feast at his owne charge Where he plac'd Cupid at the upper end And amorous Psyche on his bosome lean'd Next sate himselfe and Iuno then each guest And this great Dinner was by Vulcan drest The Graces strewd the roome and made it smile With blushing Roses and sweet flowers the while The spheares danc'd harmony Apollo ran Division on his Harpe Satyr and Pan Play'd on their Pipes the Quire of Muses sang And the vast concave of Olimpus rang VVith pious acclamations to the Bride An joy'd that Psyche was thus deify'd Hermes and Venus mov'd their gracefull Feet And did in artificiall measures sures meet The Phrygian boy fill'd wine at this great feast Only to Iove and Bacchus to the rest Thus Cupid had his love and not long after Her wombe by Iuno's helpe brought forth a daughter A child by nature different from all That laught when she was borne and men did call Her Pleasure one that does exhilarate Both Gods and men and does her selfe dilate Through all societies chiefly the best VVhere there is any tryumph or a feast Shee was the Authour that did first invent All kinds of sport conceits and meriment And since to all mens humours does incline Whether that they be sensuall or Divine Is of a modest and a loose behaviour And of a setled and a wanton favour Most dangerous when she appeares most kind For then shee 'll part and leave a sting behind But happy they that can her still detaine For where she is most fixt she is least vaine FINIS
saw his counsells open laid Psyches deare faith and his owne plots betrayd 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 questionlesse had vanisht from her sight But as when men are in deepe rivers drown'd And tane up dead have their close fingers found Clasping the weeds so though her armes were rackt 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 steere And stoope to earth with a mild Cancileere The fourth Section THus lighted on the earth he tooke her wrist And wrung it hard and did her hands untwist And having freed himselfe he flew on high Vnto a Cypresse 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 girle that I should disregard My mothers vowes her teares her flatteries When she with all the power she might devise Provok't me to thy hurt and thee assign'd In Marriage to a groome of some base kind And lowest ranke had not my too much hast Redeem'd thy shame and my owne worth disgrac'd Was it for this I did thy plagues remove To paine my selfe strike mine owne heart in love With mine owne shaft that after all this geare I should no better then a beast appeare For this wouldst thou cut off my head which bore Those eyes that did thy beauty so adore And yet thou knowst ungratefull wretch how I Did with my feares thy mischeifes still imply And every day my cautions did renew The breach of which thou must for ever rue And each of these thy sisters that were guide To thy ill act shall dearely it abide Yet will I punish thee no other way But onely this I will for ever stray Farre from thy fight and having said so fled Whilst she to heare this newes lay almost dead Yet prostrate on the ground her eyes up cast Ty'd to his winged speed untill at last She could no more discerne as Dido then Or Ariadne by some Poets pen Are fayn'd to grieve whose artfull passions flow In such sweet numbers as they make their woe Appeare delightfull telling how unkind Their lovers stole away and the same wind That blew abroad their faith and oathes before Then fill'd their sayles and how the troubled shore Answer'd the Ladies groanes so Psyche faints And beates her breast with pittifull complaints There ran a River neere whose purling streames Hyperion oft did with his golden beames Delight to gild and as it fled along The pleasant murmurs mixt with the sweet song Of aged Swannes detayn'd the frequent eare Of many a Nymph which did inhabit there Poore Psyche thither went and from the brim In sad despaire threw her selfe headlong in The Rivers God whither 't were out of feare Duty or love or honour he did beare Her husband or least her spilt blood should staine His christall current threw her up againe But it is thought he would not let her sinke Cause Cupid oft times would descend to drinke Or wash him in the Brooke and when he came To coole his owne heat would the floud inflame Pan at that time sate playing on a reed Whilst his rough Goates did on the meddowes feed And with intentive eyes observed all That to the fayrest Psyche did befall Who seeing her thus pittiously distrest He ran to take her up and did the best He could to comfort her faire maid sayes he Though I a rustick and a shepheard be Scorne not for that my counsell 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 doe conjecture it aright The cause of all this Phrensie and dispight Which your sad lookes and palenesse doe imply With other signes in Physiognomy By which wise men the truth of Art doe prove And know the state of minds you are in love Now list to me and doe not with fond hast The sacred oyle of your lifes taper wast Vse no sinister meanes to hasten on But labour to adjourne destruction Cast not away your selfe by too much griefe But courage take for care is beauties thiefe Cupid I know whose humour is to strive Then yeeld then stay then play the fugitive Be not dismayd for that but shew your duty And above all things doe not spoyle your beauty Hee 's delicate and wanton prayers may win And faire demeanure may demerit him These are the medicines I would have you chuse To cure your minds health and redresse abuse She gave him thankes 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 Vntill at length she found a Kingly roade Which led unto a Palace where aboade Her eldest sister Psyche enter'd in Then sent up newes how one of her neere kin Was come to visite her returne being made Psyche was brought before her each invade The other with embraces and fulfill A tedious scene of countefeit good will But when they had discours'd a while together She askt Psyche the cause that brought her thither Who did recount the passages and tell In order all the story that befell Which by degrees had ruind her and laid The blame on their lewd counsell that betray'd Her innocent soule and her firme faith misled To murder her deare husband in his bed She told how she his certaine death decreed And how she rose to execute the deed She told how like a Lyonesse she far'd And like an armed fury how she star'd Or like a blazing comet in the ayre With fire and sword and with disshevell'd haire She told the trouble and Epitasis When she beheld his Metamorphosis A spectacle that ravisht her with joy A Serpent turn'd into a lovely boy Whose young smoth face might speake him boy or maid Cupid himselfe in a soft slumber lay'd She told too of the drop of scalding oyle That burnt his shoulder and the heavy coyle He kept when he awakt caus'd by the smart And how he chid and how at last did part And for revenge had threatned in her stead To make her sisters partners of his bed And twixt each word she let a teare downe fall Which stopt her voyce and made it musicall Thus Psyche at the last finisht her story Season'd with sharpe griefe and sweet oratory Which was as long by her relation made As might have serv'd to stuffe an Iliade Such as Aeneas unto Dido told Full of adventures strange and manifold Her sister by her lookes great joy did show Resolv'd in that she did her husband know And therefore heard her out with much applause And gave great heed but chiefly to that clause VVhere 't was declar'd that he her pompe and state To one of her owne sisters would translate