she had plunged my innocence To which this worthy Churchman answered That it was the work of a good and true Christian not to render evil for evil but good for evil by the example of him that being cursed cursed not again but being unjustly persecuted presented his cheâ—k to blows his face to be spit on and his body to the murderers without making more noise then a tender lamb whose throat is cut And that he must be more spaâ—ing of the time that was left him to acknowledge his faults That it was question of a minute whereon eternity did depend That it would be less judiciously done to losâ— a Kingdom that hath no end for a moment of ransom that it was better to swallow this draught of bitterness as a man of courage and not with cowardly fear and that it was the greatest of all baseness of the heart not to pardon an injury that revenge was the mark of a faint heart and effeminate a dangerous ulcer which invenomed his soul and made him bring forth a mortal canker Having now won thus much on the great courage of Andronico to pardon her his death that was the unjust cause of it it was easie for him to purge this soul which free noble and open of his own nature gives free passage to penitence which made an operation of a marvellous conversion a true change unto the right of God He confesses his sins with great compunction discovering all his heart with an extreme freedom adoring the hand of God laid heavy on his head and humbly kist the rod that chastised him to the end it might serve him for a rod of direction to bring him to the kingdom of God This worthy man pressed him hard to award this fault before that tribunal where falshood is a sacriledge and not lose himself in the way of Câ—in that denied the murder of his brother For as S. Peter said to Ananias one may easily deceive men by falshood but not God Yet still he firmly denies to have given any advice or had any design on the life of Philippin This at first aboard astonish'd Cyrille who carried by the vulgar opinion and violence of the conjecture doubts that an attempt so dishonest had hardened his heart by a foolish shame He gives him many examples on this subject But seeing on the one side his extreme earnestness in the accusation of the rest of his faults and a strong perseverance in the denial of the same he began to be perswaded he had not committed it Having then purged sufficiently his thoughts of his offence by a good absolution and having made him perform divers acts of contrition humility resignation and of renouncement of the world and submission to the will of God of patience hope faith and confidence in the goodness and mercies of God he raises him thus by little and little into the air of divine love Even as the heat of the fire loosens the flesh from the bones even so death that heretofore appeared so terrible to him seems now a sure and pleasing port where he may enjoy the eternity of peace which passes all understanding When these two hear to thus dissposed came to meet in the Chappel of the Prison whither these poor Patients were brought attending the hour of their suffering we must not marvel if their antient loves were renewed being they were not only prepared for pardon but also to charity which is no other thing but the â—ame dilection all cordial and sincere The Confessors after they had reconciled them to God reconciled them one unto the other with great facility For as the iron flies unto the loadstone as soon as the garlick is removed the presence of the diamond is taken away that gives it liberty to carry it self to that straw that draws it to it Even so those souls being delivered of the stinking garlick of hatred and the hard diamond of obstination were easily drawn to these acts of humility that without the assistance of grace one might rather desire then have hoped this condescension and to see their tears mingled whose blood must shortly be mingled upon a shamefull scaffold Here Elise confessed aloud that she had no other proof against Andronico for the death of Philippin but the common report and conjecture that the promise she had given in writing had brought him to that attempt to enjoy her in marriage There Andronico professed openly that as he had never so much as thought of that murder nor had ever been incited to it by Elise but only his despair had forced him to avouch this crime seeing he could not shun his punishment so by the same despair he had accused Elise to be guilty to make her perish for his revenge Some of the beholders esteemed these excuses as fained as they were most true And the Judges those inflexible Radamanthes mocked at these denials out of season The irrevocable sentence is pronounced by their mouths they have given it according to their consciences and conformable to the law Their ears are so accustomed to hear these excuses of offenders that they are to them as unnecessary songs for it is the custom of men to say they are innocent considering only their witnesses not their own consciences They imagine that this miserable pair being resolved to lose their lives intended to preserve some vain shadow of honour in saying they were innocent of so odious a crime but that being on the scaffold at the last hour of their death which is the rack of racks they would then declare all to the discharge of those that had judged and condemned them I will not here present the griefs of these two spirits being I think they cannot be comprehended nor express their complaints seeing their innocence was made guilty more by their inconsideration then by their malice Nor can describe their displeasure finding they were cause of one anothers loss You may judge that their griefs their complaints and displeasures were as pittifull as their affections were now sincere for in these extremities there is no more dissimulation no faining nor art and less colour it is no more but a plain simplicity Elise desires many times to take her last farewell of her parents But having heard that the news of her condemnation had caused her father to retire into the Country not being able to support the sight of so tragick a fortune of which there was no remedy And that the grief of this had given such an assault to the heart of Sohpie her mother that she was in bed sick unto death she obtains permission to write to them to make known unto them in these last words the feeling she had of their sorrows which was more incomparably then what she had of her own SIR I Complain not to see my self abandoned by you in an instant where the only hope consists in not expecting any I not only approve your retreat but should have counselled it if my advice had been demanded
ELISE OR Innocencie Guilty A NEW ROMANCE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY JO JENNINGS Gent. DVM PRâ—MOR â—Tâ—Oâ—â—O LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO THE Right Honourable and truly Noble and most Vertuous Lady FRANCES COVNTESS of DORSET MADAM HAving by a strange fortune lighted on this Book which to me appeared so pleasing and fit for your entertainment in that your retired solitary life I think it cannot be displeasing to any being raised with the glory of your Name that is this History of Elise In which Madam you shall find Vertue suffering under the weight of afflictions that end it and an innocence made guilty more by the inadvertencie of the Parties then the malice of the Judges Yet it may be esteemed a Tragick history not so fit for your persent disposition to whom nothing ought to be presented but of pleasure and content But to judg so is to be ignorant of your worth which like the Dolphin is most pleased in the roughest waters And as nothing gives more content to those that have passed dangers then to speak of the perils they have been in both by sea and land who can better judge then you that have found by experience the truth of this saying of a grave Writer That it is very hard amongst so much malignity as hath infected the world to live under the support of innocence But when posterity shal read your history which deserves the writing of the most able and curious pen they will then hold for a vanity that of the Romans which is a truth in your history that hath shewed us a vertue without second in the first and most glorious from of our dayes One may see a patience without example a mildness unbelievable a fidelity inviolable a chastity invincible and lastly a constancie founded on eminent piety that can know nothing greater then it self All this Madam is exempt from flattery since as many places as the Sun shines on are as many Eccho's of your praises But what eccho's or what voice can worthily shew your merits being raised to that height that they can no way be presented but imperfectly none can undertake without express boldness were they never so eloquent in language to praise them but imperfectly But as our eys have a natural sympathie with the elements of fire and water which proceeds from their composition and make us willingly contemplate the bright liveliness of the one and the chrystal running of the other Even so I hope be it that your eys descend to the reading of this Peece or that your ears may but hear it recited your thoughts may meet with consolation seeing in the misfortunes of others a feeble Idea of these disasters whose blackness will raise the height of your glories as the obscurity of the Night sets off the brightness of the Moon whose roundness is accomplished It is for weak spirits to faint at sight of one let blood Generous hearts laugh at the attaints of fortune and how can they look pale at the reading of calamities that have so far surmounted the greatest And then Madam the honour you have gained in bringing to the world so many Males for the maintaining of the Honorable and Noble house of the Saâ—kviles will inspire you with a new strength to pass over without apprehension the sad and tragick events of this Deduction Which hath no other end but to bring you some divertisement and consolation and to let you see the lively affection I have ever had to honour and esteem according to my power so many Vertues as crown you and tie me Madam to be ever Your most humble and obedient Servant JO. JENNINGS To the Reader THe little time I lived in France and the small skill I attained in the language should have diverted me from the undertaking of a Transtation but the content I took in the reading of this Tragick History of Eliza made me rather venture the censure of Detractors then not to publish a Story of so much pitty and example In which thou shalt see that suffering is not always for the offenders as for the unfortunate and that want of Consideration is many times cause of as great accidents as Malice It will teach thee to fear God and to think of thy ways that is to govern thy actions with wisdom and circumspection Love and Death are the two principal Actors in this Scene and as in an Embleme they change their from Thou wilt see strange effects of both the one and the other For certainly it is very hard in this lamentable Age in which we live as in that of the Prophet and it may be said after him That Murder and Adultery make a prodigious inundation over the face of the earth and that blood craves blood Who hath ever heard that true Love was inconsistent with piety For truly the profane and the vertuous cannot be joyned with devotion as those that be governed by wisdom and discretion As the contrary I know by its opposite even so how can I make known the beauty of the one if I set not forth the deformity of the other and yet in so pleasing a manner as may not cause in the weakest Judgments any dangerous thoughts or strange elusions But as it is certain that they are the wicked that give scandals by raising false reports of others so they are but the weak that apprehend them I will not touch the particularities contained in this following History not to take from thee the pleasure of the reading desiring it may satisfie thy expectation And will rest thine in all love to serve thee JO. JENNINGS ELISE OR Innocencie guilty IN the beginning of the reign of that famous Henry whose merits brought from France and seated in the throne of Poland before a legitimate succession placed the royal Diadem of St. Lewis on his head it appeared the Golden age which is but a vanity boâ—â— in the brains of Poets yet seemed like a truth in France For Peace coming with golden wings after the furious torments it had suffered during the reign of generous Charls his predecessor brought the vessel of this Estate within two fingers of her utter loss and destruction but now returned in all abundance of joy and tranquillity contentment and all the pleasures which are to be imagined And truly this world can no way be pleasing but in variety nor harmonious according to the imaginations of the Platonicians As for example we must yield that the darkness of the night makes us think the day more fair and as sad colours set off the light with greater lustre and as the blacks and sullied colours contribute to the sweetness and whiteness of the lilly and as the thorns serve for an ornament to the roses as a calm appears never so pleasing as after a fearfull tempest as wines are never so sweet as when the taste hath
redouble their torment we must not approach a smoaking torch with fire if we will not have it lighted The greatest secret the Apostle knows to prevent fornication is to flie those which love peril will perish Elise why dost not thou by thy wisdom find some invention to prevent this disaster which thou goest to gather in this funeral-voyage But when a misfortune will follow one says a grave Antient it seems his wisdom is shadowed and his judgment blinded not being able to prevent his headlong ruine Being come to Bellerive all the Gentlemen thereabouts but especially those which held of Timoleon as his vassals came to render their last obedience to the sâ—pulchre of their Lord. O dead ashes is it possible that from the midst of this coldness should come forth so many coals as to burn the heart of thy miserable successor The fair Amazon now as free as a man by the death of Valentine which was gone to God during this residence at Gold-mount being become unseparable company to her brother Harman and Pyrrhe her father came with them to the funerals of Timoleon which was her honour and the happiness of Philippin for the appear'd clothed in a mourning habit so advantagious to her natural graces that one would have said what she had done simply to honour the funeral pomp and wearing the mourning for her mother made with such art seem'd exceedingly to grace her Mourning hath the property to make the fair appear more fair and the unpleasing more deformed then they are Under these black vailâ— Isabel lanched forth looks more shining then the forerunner of thunder lightning sent from a dark black cloud And for a pittifull encounter Elise which had no beauty but in her vertues shewed with an extreme disadvantage to her natural disposition under these mourning habits withall being much affected for the loss of her father-in-law whom she honoured infinitely and loved with an incomparable affection Nothing defaces so much the beauty of the face as a true and sincere grief For to appear fair and pleasing she must have been content too and happy So that just as the bargain is half made with the second merchant when we are displeased with the first the desires of Philippin revolted against reason by this enterview of which the one rubbed with the wings of sadness hath lost her ordinary effect to draw the iron of his heart the other armed with a thousand drawing spirits raised and transported him in a moment from his true being Their looks messengers of their intentions made their hearts speak which were reduced to ashes by these sparkles framed by this unhappy collection The furious Lion roaring and watching without cease to devour us that Dragon that seduces us by these artificious idea's filling our thoughts with malicious illusions that Spirit sworn against our salvation which loses no time to indammage us covering the eyes of Philippin with double deceit made this illegitimate object appear far more pleasing then she was and on the other side made her which he should and ought justly to have loved appear hideous to him that he conceived a secret horror against her not being able to comprehend with himself how he had continued so long And truly her grief and the estate she was in which we hold will make the most fair seem unpleasant with this habit so little favorable to the mediocrity of the form of Elise contributed to this dislike of Philippin The other strangely insolent by the knowledge of her preheminences like a Peacock with her tail covering and crowning herself with pride throws shame upon other birds glorying in her victory and loaden with trophies of her new conquest retires home triumphing leaving Philipin in the most strange unquietness that can be imagined When we throw a stone into a still water it multiplies the circles infinitely This sight forms a thousand impressions in the soul of this young man till now so peaceable and quiet O Philippin 't is here thou shouldst resist this evil which fights against thee 't is here thou oughtst to take antidotes against this poison which slides through thy veins and will trouble the rest of thy bones and the health of thy flesh If thou dissemblest thy intrails will become rotten and old and the spiritual gangrene giving death grace is unavailable But unfortunate thou flatterest thy misfortunes and angrest thy ulcers with scratching Prevent these shelves and flie that fatal shore Where nought hath less of life or of death more He will do nothing his sickness pleases him better then his health he prefers a tempest before a calm and death before life the prison before liberty This Syren hath sung him asleep in so deep a lethargie as it quite transformed him although a captived will yet voluntarily he yields to this servitude and holds it his greatest happiness He foresaw many ills which threatned this change but he shuts the eyes of his judgment not to take knowledge of them What doth comport with conscience or comply With honour he disdains whose thoughts grow high By contradiction while he will gainsay That which he ought not loathing what he may Thus the huntsman always altered with a new prey leaves that which he had already taken to follow â—iercely that he hath not Here is this young Lord respected like a new star rising in the horison of this Country his Vassals come to give him homage whilst he meditates how to make himself Companion to his Vassal He appears free and yet is more a slave then when he was under the jurisdiction of his father A horse broke loose without either bit or bridle a ship without a stern a cloud full of black water of blind passion blown by the wind of covetous ills Already he receives the innocent embraces of Elise against his heart and as sick men that loath the meats which they have been greedy of during their healths so that which was here to fore his contentment is now become insuppportable His eyes armed with scorn never looked on her but to disdain her her presence is odious her prudence suspect her care and good huswifery avaritiousness her modesty a beastly defect And as all we see through a coloured glass appears of the same colour as the middest that deceives our sight even so not considering her vertues but on the contrary judging by this secret change which will shortly change into a formal hatred she appears odious to him like vice it selfs Whose Beauty mockt his dreaming soul like Lies Pourtraying Truth forth in a false disguise Already this Leah although fruitfull is nothing to the imagination of possessing a fair Rachel all the hony that he had heretofore gathered in the company of Elise changed into bitter forgetfulness Elise easily perceives this coldness but as she was good and simply discreet she threw the cause upon the death of Timoleon which she thought affected Philippin although her grief were far greater then his for that loss whose boiling
since that the vail of absence is altogether necessary to a Father that knows his daughter is sacrificed innocently I say innocently Sir and in this word I beseech you to take part of the only consolation that accompanies me in the loss of my life It is now time to speak truth or never seeing I am going before the tribunal of him that will condemn all those that prefer falshood before truth and who will not acknowledge for legitimate children those that do not fix their eys upon the light of truth God under whose providence run all the moments of this mortal life permitting that at this present my innocence shall appear guilty yet will make known in another season this imaginary guilt to be apparently innocent And I conjure you by the agonies of any death to prolong your life untill that happy time by which the honor of your house that appears now to suffer some stain shall flourish more then ever I must confess that after the death of my husband from whence all my calamities have drawn their original nothing hath so much afflicted me as the pain I have seen you suffer for my occasion For since death had made me widow of the most noble Alliance I could have hoped for in the world I intended to have died to the world and to all the pomps thereof and to have confin'd my self to a Cloister there to have ended my dayes But since it hath pleased the divine wisdom to dispose otherwise be it that I live or die so I appertain to him for ever I pass not be it for ignominie or for reputation so I attain unto the celestial glory it is indifferent to me I believe now that Andronico is innocent of the crime which I accused him of more by suspition then any firm ground I had and it may be God permitted I should be wrapped in the same condemnation to punish my disloyalty thaâ— broke the right of a friendship as holy as it was vertuous for I desire not heaven to pardon me if even there passed between us other but that was worthy and honest or if in the writing that my facility drew from my hand I ever thought to prejudice Philippin in his honour or life The secret judgments of God are marvellous which sounds the depths of all secrets and by the greatness and majesty of him you will know in the end how the murder was done for God is too just to let this deed go unpunished For my self I repent me to have accused Andronico of whom I beseech you to love the memory as mine own and not to bear any hatred against his parents I am as much and more cause of his death then he of mine We have demanded pardon one of the other and pray all the world to pardon us We remit our honour as out lives into the hands of God sacrificing both to his greatest glory I beseech you Sir to implore his misericordia on our souls by your prayers and to â—ake care of little Dalimene since blood and nature require it of your fatherly goodness Farewel my dear Father Oh refuse not your holy benediction to this miserable creature that demands it at the last minute of her death being she is innocent of the cause of her condemnation which for the love of God she goes freely to suffer With the same hand and heart she drew these other lines for Sophie MADAM MUst my deplorable misfortunes bring death into the breast of her that gave me life Must I like a Viper open the bosom of her that gave me my being And must fortune insatiable of my miseries direct the stroke of my trespasses on the body of her that is as innocent of my faults as I am of that which causes my death by a secret judgment of God which I adore although ignorant of Madam the sharp cutting sword that is to sever my head from my body and my body from my soul will not be so sensible to me as the feeling of the grief that hath laid you in your bed for the sorrow of my loss and shame The compassion I have of your heart is more incomparably grievous then the pains I am to suffer If I might die often to deliver you from the torments and pains wherein your own goodness throws you if I should measure the grief you have to lose me by the dear affections you have alwais shewed me I see nothing so extreme as your unconsolable displeasures For knowing how tenderly you have brought up this wretched creature and how highly you esteem your honour I know not how to express nor conceive with what air you can support the loss of both Just Heaven which permittest crimes and hindrest them if thou sufferest that I die without being able to justifie my self of these two false infamies Adultery and cruel murder of my husband at least yet Thou that declarest things that are most dark make for the consolation of my dear mother that from the midst of my ashes may arise the light of my innocence without suffering that truth should not only be detained prisoner by injustice but also stifled with falshood Madam I desire not you should take pitty of my suffering but to cast your eys on my innocence I have no other justification then my protestations which I make in a point where falshood trains after it an eternal ruine You will not be so cruel and severe to me as my Judges And although an Adulteress and a Murderer cannot be purged by oaths yet I think you have had so long knowledge of my soul by my carriage to believe me in this truth which I profess with a dying voice I die innocent of the crime that is imposed on me as God shall love and save me Live Madam even till that day that he makes it appear in evidence from the midst of the clouds that hinder this clearness I have no more to add but to demand your motherly blessing which I ask with joyned hands for the last favour from you and ask it by your intrails that bore me and by the mercies of that good God in whom I put all my hopes Farewell my dearest Mother And remember in your prayers this poor Elise that will have no period to her trespass of more sweet imagination then the memory of Sophie as of the best mother in the world Time with an insensible course advanced with great paces the hour of execution of this Innocencie guilty Our Lovers are brought to the place with as much joy and gladness as if it had been to their wedding When they appeared on the bloody Theatre they were beheld with many eyes yet very different For many had compassion of their miseries by a natural feeling that touches the hardest hearts Others had them in horror not so much for their faults for to sin is a thing humane but because they published so loud their innocence this displeased them like Bats to whom light is unpleasing
then of blame Roboald flatters himself with these vain hopes and resolves to oblige this Maiden to love him by all kind of good offices and to deceive in that the intention of his Master that had put her into his keeping but to use her with all hardness and cruelty The End of the Fifth Book ELISE OR Innocencie guilty The Sixth Book ALready the cunning Isabel feels some sweet liberty that she hath gotten in ties of â—his new slave and that her beauty hath penetrated his eyes Upon this foundation she builds her hopes and not without reason of effecting her deliverance She is cunning in the art of this Passion that inchants men and makes them supple to the wiles of those they love She blots out the maâ—ks of despair setled in her face and her fâ—esh colour returns with joy she hides her strong griefs in the smoothness of her forehead Why do I defer to tell you that Roboald is taken by his prisoner that he is Captive to his Captive falsâ—â—ying the proverb He finds nothing so fair nor pleasing as his prison He that heretofore beheld her with an envious eye beholding her now with pitty begins to take part of her pains and approving the complaints she made of the cruelty of her father he repented to have been the executor If she intreat him to be a means to make her peace with her father or for some comfort in this her cruel usage he promises it but suddenly recants for says he if he perceive that I lend an ear to your prayers he will suspect me and think that I ploâ— your liberty and taking you from my keeping it may be will put you into their hands that will be more rigorous to you And this was because being pricked by the interest of his passion he feared that the deliverance of this Maid should take away the empire he had of her body although she had a far greater on his heart Nevertheless to give her some testimony of his good will he makes her hope her delivery on what price soever though with the loss of his life Already crafty Isabel knew by the sighs and eyes of this new Lover that he was in the toils she had pitched for him he hath no pleasure but in her conversation nor no contentment but when she speaks to him But he speaks not to her of love nor of any thing near it for he knew the high courage of this Dame that beheld him always as a servant and as subject as she was to his government used him nevertheless as an imperious Mistress besides to cast his eyes on the daughter of his Master he cannot but expect punishment for so insolent an attempt and a disgrace that will bring his fortune into a ruine irrepairable Isabel that knew by this change of his face and the variety of his discourse the troubles of his heart and confusions of his thoughts although she had in horror this presumption and hated the authority of this Jailer for it is natural to hate those that tyrannise over our liberty yet her cunning made her seem ignorant of that she was clearly certain of and although she lightens love in this heart she fains to see nothing but pitty And demanding of him if he grieved not to see her reduced to so pittifull an estate I would to God Madam quoth he that One had as much pitty of my passion as I have of compassion It was enough said to an understanding so quick as that of Isabels Who knowing the greatness of this flame and heat of this spark and as much inflamed with despight to see how high the insolence of this Fellow was mounted and being troubled that he had given too evident a testimony of his love she mocks at this discourse by a subtile quickness How now said she Roboald you are then taken with this furious passion that hath caused me so many misfortunes Truly I will from henceforth promise not only some comfort in my miseries but also some excuse for my errors if you are touched with this sickness that made me run so foolishly after the just promises of marriage which only the death of Philippin hath annulled For besides the natural inclination I had to love him his carriage being accompanied with so many graces augmented by so long conversation that made so pleasing his lawfull seeking me in marriage what Maid had not been conquered by so many charms of greatnes and good fashion accompanied with an intended wedding I am astonished that my Father allows not somthing to the weakness of my sex and the strength of my affection seeing that in the beginning of this young Lords seeking me he permitted me to love him and to receive his service it was himself that brought me into the folds from whence after it was not in my power to return my self Roboald approving these excuses accuses afterwards the unreasonable cruelty of his Master and finding himself taken by the beak without denial that he loved her he tries to hide at least the cause of his flame although he had unwisely discovered the effect This was to throw a little water on a great fire and in flying to make himself be followed and to stir the curiosity of this Maid by the protestation that he made to die rather then to discover the object that held him in a trance Crafty Isabel that had had leisure enough in her prison to consult with her glass to learn in this faithfull glass the force the fire of her eyes had being much pleased to torment this Jailer and to make his fire so much the more scorching as it was covered with the ashes of silence and modesty this proud Captive intended to melt the wings of this new Icarus hiding under a fained apparence of sweetness a despitefull disdain armed with indignation not to be matched against the insolence of this fellow that had dared to raise his eyes to her prepares in deceiving him to draw herself out of prison and slavery and to leave him covered with scorn and shame At one time her fierce and high heart was combated with two passions very different of love and liberty and of hatred to him that should be the author For it seems that the succour she thought to receive of this man to get out of this misery would be a kind of obligation to love him and on the other side she could not endure to let her thoughts fix on a servile object She loves almost as much to remain a slave of body and free of this obligation as to see herself at liberty and tyed by the bonds of duty to a man she hated in her very soul So that if she could have found any other means to draw her from misery she would certainly have passed it rather then to make herself beholding to Roboald But necessity that savage and cruel mistress made her resolve after having consulted some time in herself to take this occasion by the lock
somwhat of bitterness or as hunger and thirst makes one find those meats delicious of least savour so peace is never in its true lustre but after a long and hard war even such was before the return of this bright Star war had even rent this Monarchy in peeces with dissentions uncivilly civil that it appeared our Nation was become a manicle and took pleasure in opening her own entrails and to unrip herself more hungry then Saturn after the flesh of his own children Nought was but slaughter seen whole fields being spread With mangled trunks and bodies of the dead Then appeared this Henry which returning from one end of the world leaving a Country and Kingdom where he was adored to give himself to this where his birth and inclination called him was welcomed like another Saint Elme or if you will as a Neptune ferming the winds of seditions in their gale and calming with the Trident of his valour prudence and goodness the mutinous â—lotes which beat the flanks of this great Bark who quickly knew him for her Pilot and received him for her legitimate Prince the sword was now no more shaken over the heads of the Citizens experience now had taught that fire and sword were needless threatnings to strike off the heads of the Hydra which was cause of all these mischiefs the earth had drank the blood and wiped away all remembrance from men all tears dryed all displeasures forgot peace and quietness published this great Prince Raising from war the Olive which imparts Trophies to Sciences and the liberal Arts. And then as the bitterness of gall makes us prove the sweetness of honey so contentment and peace unexpected ravished so the enjoyers as it took away the means to express their happiness You would have said it was a Solomon peaceably succeeding a bloody David that greatness whereof France is the Mine hiding in her own breast all her treasures which now she set forth to shew to the face of the earth The Court shined like the heavens strewed with as many stars as there were Princes and Lords the King appeared like a Sun not only by his soveraignty which spread the beams of all his other greatness but also the merits of his person for in his counsels he was wisest at his exercises the readiest in arms the most valiant amongst the gallants of the best grace in company the quickest-witted amongst the braves the most agreeable amongst the well-spoken the most eloquent with the devout the most religious among the rich and pompous the most magnificent and wheresoever he was he could never be mistaken nor take Alexander for Ephestion for he held his Majesty with so grave a sweetness a face worthy of the Empire as if appeared shewed as if it had been written on his forehead and carriage Behold the King Yet all these truths are so far from flattery that one ought to have had but eyes to see and swear that all came short that could be said of his heroick parts True it is I may with more boldness proceed to set forth his praises by the permission of the wisest of Kings but in a time in the which one cannot imagine any pretension of acknowledgment being there remains none of his race for what recompence should one expect of a Prince that after the having possessed two great Scepters hath lain many years upon the earth deprived of his last honour his Sepulchre remaining as the Poet sung of his time his and his creature Whose thunder-shatter'd carkass lookt like just Confused attoms or an heap of dust And as to the sole image of his vertues it is that I give this due memory there was nevertheless this gracious difference between the Sun and this Prince that in the midst of his Court that is that in place of swallowing the brightness of the smaller Planets this great King on the contrary gave such a lustre to those that invironed him that without so sing any of his preheminence he gave them of his brightness that made him respected of many and envied of others for all birds beaâ— not equally the brightness of his favour Verily one may say of the magnificence of this Prince the same as the Queen of Midâ— said of Solomon That happy were his servants for besides his liberality to them he was very courteous in the begiâ—ning of his reign he practised many great things and there passed so many wonders at Court that as there is no face without some blemish so they were in greater pain to hinder the profuse expences of this great Monarch then to praise his liberality Living thus happy adored of his subjects beloved of his neighbours feared of strangers esteemed of all the world when the heavens jealous to see so much prosperity on earth sowed emulation and jealousies among the great ones that have risen to those rayes which we can no way express but with silence being it makes nothing to the History that I have now to write the which tragical misfortune happened during these great prosperities which I intend to paint forth Methinks it should be a presage without ills this publike happiness but as it happens at sea ordinarily that certain white birds coming to sup at the water or sit on the ship is a certain sign of the storm so Innocencie made guilty and punished as a delinquent as it shall appear in this following story was an augure being born and fed as a canker in the fairest roses ought by miserable arts to cover this great Prince from 〈◊〉 many black calumnies that his religion should be taken for impiety and his piety for irreligion by those which ought to have been the trumpets of his glory and to be persecuted by those that should have been arches and tables of his authority and of his Empire But not to draw any harder this knot too delicate for my rude hand I will only content my self with this saying to come to my end That the heart of this good King was very open to all worthiness many favourites he had Let us repeat again this little word of liberty as I said Favourites and in great numbers and as it is impossible in a multitude there will not multiply diversity of humours and passions according to the diversity of judgments and as they are interessed It happened that a Lord of great birth and quality that had place in the Kings house fell not altogether in disgrace but in disesteem with the Prince by the artificious industries of a Favourite that loved him not and because it doth concern me to conceal the names and qualities of the persons in this history by reason of the tragical events that shews in the line of this deduction we will hide them with so much art imitating the thunder that bruises the bones without hurting the skin melts swords and silver without hurting the seabâ—ard or the purses being very needfull to gain profit by an example to know the particular circumstances of the
divine hath joyned Elise this innocent unfortunate creature which is the principal person in this tragick Scene which we present was a Gentlewoman well born endowed with more chastity and vertues then beauty of face for it appears in this our lamentable age wherein we live that beauty and vertue are enemies Her mother wife of Scevole her father shall be by us for her wisdom called Sophie her birth was not so illustrious as she was full of vertues for Who in rare manners hath her sexe outgone Next comes her daughter and gives place to none She had brought up these two Daughters which were all the children she had with much modesty and great fear of God and as Elise had been longer under her discipline then her sister Elinor so she surpassed her in humility and obedience She was of more years then Philippin but very few being very discreet and judicious that nothing was wanting in her to make her an accomplished mother of a family Her vertue sweetness modesty and the extreme affection she had to her husband was so great that in the end he was constrained by so many obligations of strong chains to love You would have said that she brought into the house of Timoleon the same qualities that Raguel ordained in his daughter Sara in the house of Tobias She was quiet and pleasing to her husband respectfull and serviceable to her Father-in-law who became almost her idolater he was so much ravished with the good offices she rendred him Philippin who is not altogether insensible is constrained to yield to so much goodness for there is no heart so hard says an Antient which will not give love not being constrained for the only price of love is love the charm without witchcraft to make one beloved is to love And what appearance is there not to love her which loved but him who loved not day but to see him nor breathed but to please him He must be a rock that should not yield himself to so just so holy and legitimate a flame For although his thoughts refused and his imagination filled with the consideration of another idea not leaving any void to imprint this new impression yet his reason vanquished by so much love is constrained to acknowledge it by a mutual return of love You would say that as Isaac tempred the grief he had for the death of his mother by the coming of his wife so our new Bridegroom forgetting altogether his first furies to range himself within the bounds of duty and obedience wrapping up these flying fires in the sacred and solid marriage is a wise march which we ought to conduct with much temperance and good government That husband which expects so much seeking from his wife is as an Antient says no other but an adulterer those who mingle so much niceness and curiosity in this venerable alliance strengthening their valour and esteeming their dignity This Sacrament ought rather to be practised by ripe and staid judgments then by heat and desire Happy had Philippin been had these considerations been weighed in the other scale of his carriage but his years too tender did not as yet make him capable of these solid governments but only necessity the fear of his father and the strong ascendant power the vertues of his new wife had gained in his judgment held him within the bounds of duty with much admiration of all those which saw it who would never have thought so happy a beginning in marriage to have had so unfortunate an end as this which I have almost with Honor writ Thrice happy Elise as the Poet says of his Did◠if on the borders of Carthage Aeneas had never arrived than under a fain shew of being free and noble hid falshood and disloyalty Elise was but too happy we may say of her if her parents had not been blinded with the brightness of immoderate ambition bringing her to so great and illustrious an alliance for this height serves her but like that of the Tortoise which is raised by the Eagle to be thrown upon the rocks and broken 〈◊〉 thousand peeces If resemblance of dispositions is the cause of the firmness of friendship equality is also the surest pillar of a good marriage For disproportions in birth or in faculties early or late brings always distastes and riots these are the seeds of divisions for the latter season All this nevertheless appears no more in the beginning of the marriage then seeds freely sowed in the earth but such as you sow such shall you reap Timoleon bring his son and daughter to Bellerive so full of joy and contentment to see himself freed of his debts the business of his house in the hands of one both wise and of authority his son delivered as he thought of his antient passions that there was not any of all those which visited him to which he did not shew in his face and in his discourse the excess of his joy He was so carefully served so religiously honoured by his daughter-in-law that he esteemed by this fashion his life crowned with the happiest age imagineable he thanks of nothing but making good chea◠and running smoothly the rest of his days The care of his domestick businesses troubled him not for Elise instructed in the knowledge of these things by her mother Sophie in her tendrest years takes all this charge and with such care and good order as nothing was wanting all in abundance every one content and all the world blessed them What doth not a vertuous and well given person accompanied with piety perform she inspires all the house with devotion it is a salt which seasons all things she is Mary in her orisons Martha in her solitude you would say by her vigilance and affairs that she had no time for prayer and seeing her spiritual exercisc◠that she spent no time but in prayer all sweetness in her exterior all fervor in her interior the perpetual visits of companies did no way divert her from the service of Godo It is wisdom in a woman to be watchfull in great things without neglecting the least Humble gracious temperate wise advised modest pleasing metry the honour and glory of her her race and of all that country How is not Philippin's heart charmed with so much merits he wanted nothing but a little more judgment to esteem so many obliging qualities Among those which came to visit Timoleon and Philippin to congratulate this haypy alliance Pyrrhe and Harman failed not to which their neighbourhood obliged as also their vassalage There is no speech of what 's past Timoleon keeps an open table Philippin strives to oblige them a thousand ways Our young son is married he hath no more need of a Governour having so good a Governess The exercises of hunting are renewed which the Citizen understands not so well as the Country wench Elise understands nothing but what a woman ought to know Isabel is a souldier of the long robe She hears by
of Isabel not only to his nose but also with the pen He Writ certain verses against her and long ones but because they were too biting I would not black this paper with then Often in defending Elise he publishes her worth and patience saying that Philippin abused her goodnes was not worthy of such a wife for in following the dissolution of his marriage he sought his own ruine and shame His ruine for without the wealth of Scevole his house remains engaged without hope of recovery his shame in having married one he covers with infamie and dishonour And for the insupportable disdain that pride drew from the spirit of Philippin against the family of Scevole he said that the inequality in condition made him not less noble Justice being during peace that which Military art is during wars That if Nobility were drawn from its first and most just measure which is Vertue it would be found greater of the fathers side then of the son-in-law's That according to the course of the world a new Nobility accompanied with great riches ought to be in as great esteem as an antient boasting under miserable poverty As the wind carries often a small sparkle here and there which at length is cause of great flames so there want not in the world reporters which like Smiths bellows serve to light and kindle cholers and to put fire into mens courages The speeches of Andronico come by these means to the proud ears of Philippin who at first began to carry himself with threats appearing as a cowardly dog that barks more then bites It was true that for antiquity and greatness of descent Andronico was much the inferior yet was he a Gentleman and of a descent too good to endure any thing unworthy When Philippin spake of a cudgel he replied he would answer him with a blade of steel and being born a Gentleman might measure his sword with any man that wore iron at his side By an ill encounter they met in a company where at the first sight after the lightning of looks succeeds the thunder of words and had come to the hail of blows if they had not been by the multitude of their friends parted Andronico not having lost any thing in this encounter retains himself within modesty but furious Philippin foaming with rage challenges him with as much noise as small effect For it was never in their powers to meet the Justice having set guards on them and the Governour desirous to agree them had straitly forbid them fighting The whilst Philippin besides the spight to see himself braved by a man he thought not worthy to be his servant redoubling his injuries not only against Scevole and Elise but also against Andronico obliges his patience to return sharp replies Philippin enquires from whence this humour of Andronico's should proceed to sustain so ardently the cause of Elise And having learned his ordinary frequenting the house of Scevole with some addition by the calumnious reporter as it is ordinary adding something to flatter his passion we need not ask if he added to the letter As those which are ill think all are like themselves he accuses her of dishonour who was as innocent as he guilty calling ordinarily Andronico in mockery the Squire of Elise a word in apparence simple but furred with black malice and to be understood as sharp as it appeared subtile The courteous Andronico turning to laughter these mockeries said his madness made him spit at heaven and his own filth returned on his head Which was true for if Elise had been such as Philippin had described her and his marriage with her not yet declared null who sees not that that which he said to dishonour her returned infamy on himself But in that he shot his arrow at a rock which returns to hurt him that shot it And Andronico to shew he wanted not wit nor spirit to defend himself with a tongue more then the other that assailed him would say that if he had lived in the time of the antient Palatines which made profession to revenge the wrongs done by the strongest to the weakest as also to defend the afflicted innocent and principally to vindicate the honour of Ladies he would easily have been drawn to the field as Elise's Knight to make known by a victory the justice of this Lady so unjustly accused and unworthily used by her barbarous husband But since they were so strictly watched that they could not join and the use of those antient Combats abolished accommodating themselves according to the time bear patiently the yoke the laws had imposed and observing the customs of the place they live in all these contestations of words seemed like storms and thunder which after much lightening in dark mists of rain and noise leave no sign of their passage but only darkness For after these reports and bitings all these bravado's end in air which filled with filth the authors themselves as snails which soil themselves in their own scum But at last as lightning is ordinarily followed with thunder-claps even so choler passes ordinarily from the tongue to the hand A Gentleman of Philippin's whom we will call Valfran mad to see his Master could not be revenged of a meaner then himself resolves on a base and unworthy act which was to shoot a pistol at the head of Andronico He takes his time and as day was shut in for these shamefull actions require darkness having learnt he was in a company where he passed his time in hearing a pleasing Consort of musick he sent to him by one of his Lacquays saying he was to speak with him from the Lord Philippin and would attend him at the chamber door The Lacquay tells his Master secretly who full of the furious courage of our French Nation that esteems most valor in single Combats although it be nothing but brutality and dead with envy to see this Rodomonts sword in his hand hoping to abate his pride and make his day by his death to the promise of Elise steals subtilly from his company as if he would but go into another chamber and stepping to the door he no sooner appeared but the traiterous murderer which attended him with his foot firm without saying any word presents his pistol to his head Andronico slips quickly aside and so happily that the blow given with a noise such as you may judge against the door burst it like thunder Hereat all the house and neighbourhood is in alarms the Consort ceases and yields to this hellish musick The murderer would have drawn his sword but Andronico throwing himself resolutely upon him rolls him down the stairs Above and below were many blows given the Lacquays cry murder all run to the rescue of Andronico but the place was so strait that the sword of Valfran was of no use Andronico is altogether unarmed who perceiving the murderer sought his poniard to offend him having more strength gets it and holding it to his throat says
the mouth is most sharp to wounds and as there is nothing more scalding then oil when it is hot so these outrages coming from your mouth are so much more grievous by how much I have received consolation and gratification Must I be so unhappy to see the fire of my wounds come from the place from whence I expected my healing Is it possible after such a metamorphosis that you retain the name of that Elise that professed so much love to me then when it was less lawfull to love me of that Elise which I so devoutly honoured and against all these contradictions I cherish yet more then my proper life I cannot tell more how to name you nor know not what term to find expressing enough in any idiom that can set forth as it ought such an inconstancie At least Madam let me know the reason that hath caused so long time your pitty to be deaf at my prayers and after this knowledge let heaâ—en cut my life by the knife of your cruelty when it pleases him This is the smallest favour I may hope of you seeing I can draw so much from cruelty it self there is nothing more just then to make known to an offender the cause of his suffering nor any thing more unjust then to conceal it from him If a small cloud can take from our eyes the sight of the sun that is so great replied Elise it is easie with a small fault to shadow out one of a greater importance But that God that sees all and which knows the secrets of hearts and dives into the dark corners of our reins that is served with things of smaller appearance to make known the most covered and which can draw the light of the truth from midst of the thickest obscurities of falshoods will also be served with my goodness and the consideration of that love which I have heretofore born thee for to give thee means to shun a shamefull punishment and to withdraw thee quickly from this place where 't is wonder that thou causâ— have so much assurance having committed so great a fact my silence and thy retreat will be more safe then my discourse and thy stay I would to God you had not done that which I dare not tell you because I have not forehead enough to blush for the loss of thine Content your self that my honour being tiâ—d to your life not to lose the one I will conserve the other although the one is as precious to me as the other is detestable In all this there was much said yet nothing of what should have been said And what is he that would not wonder at these delays and at the length of these circumlocutions For since Passion is a labyrinth it is no marvel if it have many turnings Andronico having had some feeling of the reports which ran to his disadvantage upon the death of Philippin doubts it might be about this accusation comforts himself in the hope to see an end of this Mine that threatned a great descent after it had taken wing being founded on the truth of his innocence So that for fear to anger this woman knowing there is nothing more fierce then a Bee when it is moved which puts her life in the wound she makes and never stings that she rests not wounded to death he fains to be ignorant of the end of this her fury in saying to her That when one endures a pain deserved it is made so much the more tolerable that one believes to extinguish a sin is to suffer without desert it would be hard but more insupportable to suffer innocently and again in being ignorant of the cause of his sufferance And then kneeling down at the feet of Elise with a voice somthing higher then before or then the place where he was and the presence of Sophie although not neer seemed to permit him Madam says he I will die here or learn from your mouth what can be the cause that puts me into so fierce a disgrace nor will I ever leave you till you give me this satisfaction to let me know of what death I shall die for I take heaven to witness I find not my self guilty of any thing that may be prejudicial to you I beseech you not to give way to calumnies and reports to the prejudice of my sincerity Elise surprised to see him in this estate and before her mother did not know on what side to turn her wherefore intreating him to rise which he refused to do she says to him softly Content yourself that I cannot speak without offending mine honour and your life And that in the midst of the hatred with which I detest your vileness I reserve this spark of my antient affection for the conservation of them both to which I found my self bound not so much for any good I wish you but for the respect I owe my modesty Madam replied the unfortunate Andronico this is not to give me light but to plunge me into a new obscurity I beseech you discover these riddles and not to tell me again in other terms the same thing you have already told me for what can he fear that doubts not death but on the contrary if I lose your favour I desire it to free me of a life which will be more troublesom then it being deprived of your love All that astonishes me is your honour which you say is engaged to my conservation and in that it may be you have said better then you think For when the purity of my intentions shall be known the greatness of my affections the sincerity of my soul and how many dangers I have run to give you proof of my service and that you have recompenced me with despair that will take my life it will be hard for you to remove this stain of ingratitude which like an eternal infamy will remain on the pureness of your understanding If ever it happen not that I attempt but only think any thing that might never so little prejudice your honour for the conservation whereof I 'll spend a thousand lives I desire that the heavens never pardon me any fault May I be rais'd by fortune or cast down By fate being object of thy smile or frown Though the disastrous destinies should combine To annihilate and ruine me and mine Nought can divorce my affection or divert Th'unfain'd devotion of a faithsull heart It will be easie for me to resolve to die after being deprived of that I held dearer then life What do I say Truly it will be harder to me to resolve to live or rather to outlive such a loss yet to lose my life without knowing the cause for which I die this is that I cannot resolve on if I do not bury my self with the quality of the maddest of all humane creatures Wherefore I intreat you to permit me to press you with all sort of importunity to declare to me the ground of my condemnation otherwise I shall believe that the
kept the more he would gather the more it disperses it self All know the combat of the Wind and the Sun who should despoil man at last the sweet rays of the Sun did that the blustring blasts of the other could not The more Isabel importunes Roboald to discover his affection with confidence the more he hides it and the more he enters into distrusts yet when she presses him least he burns with impatience to manifest it to her not being able to die of a silent grief being so neer his remedy Love whose attempts are not so hard but as quick as those of necessity subtilsied his spirit and gave divers means to make known to this Damosel that which she knew but too well already but fains to be ignorant of by an artificious countermine It is reason that Verses symbols of this passion that touches the heart and Poesie daughter of this affection come to the relief of Roboald He is acquainted with â—imer that would furnish him with Madrigals which he lets often fall as by negligence but with design in the chamber of this prisoner She reads them and laughs and to let him burn in a little fire and take her vengeance in this love by a new industry she makes no shew to understand these Enigâ—a's nor did they say any thing in particular Such is the folly of this childish passion which is not fed but with follies nor imployed but in thoughts as frivolous as the hunting of Butterflies And to let you see the impertinencies of Roboald behold his folly in these three scrolls of which this is the first 'T is harder not to love then be denied By such a look who being deified Doth with the wound it gives my panting heart Both joy and pleasure to my thoughts impart When silent grief of sweetness is so full I thousand deaths had rather on 〈◊〉 pull Thou not to yield to an attempt so fair Where hope 's to be preferr'd before despair Happy is he can love and hide his flame Suppress affection and conceal Her name Who can in midst of anguish pleasure find And hug his passions though she prove unkind Here is the second that seems to cherish the folly of the first Nor do I here present it in this place for any thing of worth but to make known clearly how hard it is yea impossible to be wise and love at once and as shadows serve to pictures even so the follies of some to raise the wisdom of others From thence it comes that Cato said that the wise learnt more of fools then fools did of the wise But let us hearken to our Rimer What rigor is it for to be a Lover And not to dare his passion to discover So pale and dropping is my physnomie That every one I am in love may see Now if my soul be in such agonies Who can obstruct or blame my plaints or cryes To be severely punish'd is a grace When one attempts an Angel to imbrace At last to throw the third scroll was the accomplishment of his impertinence for it is the end of presumption always to rise He says Dear origen of all my fears and fires Not knowing the extent of my desires Must I thus perish and yet dare not say 'T is you who doth my soul and passions sway But why do I stay in reciting his idle thoughts which would be better buried under silence then raised upon this paper But to imitate the fashion of Painters that set off the features of a fair face by an extreme deformity as also to throw confusion in the face of those that in their follies commit these extravagances I follow expresly in this the imitation of Nathan that threatned David to manifest to the light of the sun what he had committed in darkness and to cast his shame on his face if by a confession unfained and healthfull penitence he had not prevented the publication Even so the Saviour of the world threatned to make be preached in the publike places the evils committed in the most private chambers when the secrets of the dark should be manifested and the counsel of hearts given to iniquity And who knows not that shame and disgrace is the certain recompence of vile Love Thus Roboald seeing that all these small lights gave none to Isabel to make her know that herself was the idol to which he offers his thoughts languishing with a silent grief so neer his remedy and such a remedy as seemed should yield to his mercy with much facility yet durst not promise it himself however resolves to attempt by an art after which he thought that necessity would break for him as to the son of Craesus the obstacle that hindred his speech One day as Isabel pressed him on this subject which was their ordinary entertainment for from the mouth proceeds the abundance of the heart you will not believe said he to what extremity hath brought me shall I say my affection or my folly to an evil so extraordinary having sought all the strangest remedies that humane thoughts can devise The curious Maid conjures him not to hide his means being they gave no knowledge of the cause Roboald that strove always to oblige her and to make this obligation more precious made himself to be prayed earnestly for a thing of which he had more desire then his suppliant herself And to cherish this in her You press me quoth he to discover a means that you lead as by the hand in the sight of the subject of my passion and then my secret will be no more a secret nor my own being disclosed not only to another but to a woman as capable to contain it under silence as a sieve is to hold water At which Isabel makes a thousand protestations of fidelity and silence but they were oaths as light as if they had been written on the sands or drawn on the waves At which Roboald fained to yield and to remit his life with his love into the hands of this gracious prisoner If your oaths quoth he should not bind you with chains as strong as they seem holy the interest you have your self will bind you to conceal that I shall manifest unto you for the part you have in heir whose face I will let you see is such that you will be constrained to confess to me when you have seen it that you have not a better friend in the world You must know then that having been just to that point to consult with a Magitian of this Country who as yet hath promised nothing good of the issue of my design but on the contrary threatens me that the hope of a Nuptial bed will be the grave of my desires yet I have taken his prophesie as coming from the father of lyes so that as the antient Oracles I have believed one may better judge of his truth by the contrary And indeed I have already known by some hopes that if I persevere to love with fidelity
heat of passion in love was far from thought of sorrowing for the death of his father The more she thinks to comfort him the more he is displeased the more she courts him the more he seems to be importuned and although she strives as much as may be to cover with a false joy a true sadness yet could he not hinder but his face his actions and words betrayed him making it appear to those which had least of apprehension that there was I know not what in his thoughts which tormented him Elise sees this and is in an agony inconceivable She thought it was a wrong to her husband to esteem he had any ill opinion of her she is too innocent to find in herself any subject of discontentment that she had ever given him and there is nothing she thinks less on then the true cause of this alteration Jealousie of Isabel she had none for she believes that time hath healed Philippin of this old impression But in the end the many matches made for hunting made her plainly see they were not without design and the other visits to Vaupre made her to know the fire by the smoak the beast by the foot but so late that the evil was almost without remedy On the other side Philippin was in extreme agonies for the way of the perverse is sowed with a thousand thorns All seemed contrary to his desires The cunning Isabel which saw she had returned him into her net and that she held him in her goal by means as full of subtilty as Elise was full of simple innocence who made as if she saw not that which she did but too well perceive Isabel seems not to take notice of that which doth clearly appear and by her flying and fained retiredness adds desire in Philippin to see her Industrious Galatee that drawest in flying and hidest in shewing thy self For coming to Bellerive to visit Elise and then he seeing her at Vaupre it was always in the presence of his wife or of her father or brother that he spake to her which was an extreme torment to this passionate This damosel full of vanity took pride tormenting him without giving him any hope to quench the least spark of this great fire in his breast Judge but the craft of this creature Here is a Tantalus dead with drougth in midst of waters and like the Page of Alexander he is constrained in silence to burn It serves him not to speak with Eyes language which she hath heretofore well understood now fains not to understand by a deafness as great and greater then that by which she is beloved The good of Philippin is his hurt For this liberty to see that which he desired redoubled his passion and makes him perish with a death and languishing grief by the object which is the cause All his study is to make known to this malitious creature the renewing of his antient flames but that in such a fashion that neither Elise Pyrrhe nor Harman understood any thing yet all see clearly like Eagles The jealousie of a wife is not to be feared The valour of Pyrrhe and Harman are not unknown to him although his Vassals they are noble and Gentlemen full of honour and that rather then abate the least point would lose a thousand lives Oh how true it is that evil men travel by ways stubled and full of stops and difficulties and attain much weariness in the end of their iniquities If once his courtings be but perceived by so many eyes as watch him all is lost there will be nothing but tempests within and shipwrack without If he but consider the end of his unjust pretension it is but an assured loss of his reputation and may be of his life For if Elise perceive it once farewell friendship and peace but that is the least he thinks of If either her father or brother should suspect any thing there 's no more frequenting nor visits no more duty nor acknowledgment A quarrel that would set all the Gentlemen upon him thereabouts and make him odious to Scevole and to all that knew the rare vertues of his wife And to revenge himself there is no hope He is too far in the business his passion holds his foot at his throat he is fallen and lost he is altogether undone To dissemble his ill he cannot any longer he cannot without death and to dye without daring to complain or make known who is the cause he cannot resolve Here is our Ixion on the wheel It is most true that a disordered spirit is his own hangman he gets much by ruling his actions and motions He loses his countenance at the aspect of the Basilisco whose sight kills him This moving he cannot hinder betrays He speaks to her enough but not enough as much as becomes him but not enough for 't is not that he would or cannot or dares not manifest to her She seeâ— him nevertheless and seems ignorant Learn the cunning of women by this same So that our passionate Philippin dies of a sickness obscure and hidden in midst of all these commodities and remedies that opportunity seems to present him In the end the imposthume grows That which he cannot intreat for with his tongue he borrows with his pen being an interpreter of his thoughts which cannot blush That makes known to the artificious Amazon what she knew already but as she loved her honour and was jealous of her reputation she struck against the rock of a chaste resolution these first points making all these considerations recoil before the impenitrable buckler of a holy cruelty The glory of having captived so great a courage left not to flatter her seconded with pride of a secret joy that she had in her hands the means to be revenged of Philippin for the wrong she thought he had done her in leaving her for one of meaner beauty And as there needs to infernal Archimedes but one point out of the earth for to raise all the earth it was by this large gate of vengeance that he convey'd into the soul of this maiden the Trojan horse the funeral-torch that put all her reputation in ashes What dost thou Isabel in stead of sending back his Pacquets thou receivest and concealest them without giving any notice to thy father or brother Ha! this is not the course of a wise Maiden which like the Mother of Pearl ought not to open but to receive the dew of heaven nor to receive other courtings but those of a legitimate marriage with the permission of her parents You will hide serpents in your breast and then complain you are stung very ill you let in the thieves and then complain of being robbed you put in fire and then are astonished if it burn you Where is your wisdom Isabella I well perceive you are of that unfortunate band that are not wise but in doing ill whilst you are parlied with you intend to yield you betray your self in capitulating with a Traitor