me there is a fatal ground In Greece beyond Achaja's farthest bound Near Lacedemon famous for the rape Paris on Hellen made and their escape 'T is quickly found for with its steemy breath It blasts the fields and is the port of death The path like Ariadnes clue does guide To the dark Court where Pluto does abide And if you must those dismall regions see Then carry in your hand a double fee. For Charon will do nothing without money And you must have sops made of meal and honey It is a doubtful passage for there are Many Degrees and Laws peculiar Must strictly be observ'd and if once broke No ransome nor entreaty can revoke Nor is there prosecution of more strife But all are penal Statutes on your life The first as you shall meet with as you passe â—s an old man come driving of an Asse Decrepid as himself they both shall sweat With their hard labour and he shall intreat That you would help his burthen to unty â—ut give no ear nor stay when you go by And next you shall arrive without delay To slow Avernu's Lake where you must pay â—haron his waftage as before I said â—or avarice does live among the dead â—nd a poor man though tyde serve and the wind â—he no stipend bring must stay behind â—ere as you sail along you shall see one Of squalid hue they call Oblivion â—eave up his hands and on the waters float â—raying you would receive him in your Boat â—ut know all those that will in safety be Must learn to disaffect such piety When you are landed and a little past The Stygian Ferry you your eyes shall cast And spy some busie at their wheel and these Are three old women call'd the Destinies They will desire you to sit down and spin And shew your own lifes thread upon the pin Yet are they all but snares and do proceed From Venus malice to corrupt your creed For should you lend your help to spin or card Or meddle with their distaff your reward Might perhaps slip out of your hand and then You must hope never to come back again Next a huge Mastiff shall you see before The Palace-gare and Adamantine door That leads to Dis who when he opens wide His treple throat the ghosts are terrifi'd With his loud barkins which so far rebound They make all Hell to Eccho with their sound Him with a morsel you must first asswage And then deliver Venus Embassage For Proserpine shall kindly you intreat And will provide a banquet and a seat But if you sit sit on the ground and taste None of her dainties but declare in haste VVhat you desire which she will straight deliver Then with those former rules pass back the river Give the three-headed dog his other share And to the greedy Marriner his fare Keep fast these precepts whatsoever they be And think on Orpheus and Euridice But above all things this observe to do Take heed you open not nor pry into The beauties Box else shall you there remain Nor see this Heaven nor these Stars again The stone inclosed voice did friendly thus Psiche forewarn with signs propitious The last Section SO soon as Psiche got all things together That might be useful for her going thither And her return to Taenarus she went And the Infernal passage did attempt VVhere all those strange and fatal prophesies Accomplisht were in their occurrences For first she passes by with careless speed The old man and his Asse and gave no heed Either unto his person or desire And next she pays the Ferry-man his hire And though oblivion and the Fates did wo her VVith many strong temptations to undo her â—lisses like she did their prayers decline And came now to the house of Proserpine Before the Palace was a stately Court Where forty Marble-pillars did support The roof and frontis-piece that bore on high Pluto's own statue grav'd in Ebony His face though full of majesty was dim'd VVith a sad cloud and his rude throne unâ—rim'd His golden Scepter was eat in with rust And that again quite overlaid with dust Ceres was wrought him by with weeping eyne Lamenting for the loss of Proserpine Her daughters rape was there set down at full Who while that she too studiously did pull The purple Violet and sanguine Rose Lillies and low grown Pansies to compose VVreaths for the Nymphs regardles of her health 'T was soon surpriz'd and snatcht away by stealth Forc'd by the King of the infernal powers And seem'd to cry and look after her flowers Enceladus was strecht upon his back VVhile Plutoes Horse-hoofs and Coach did wrack His bruised body Pallas did extend The Gorgons head Delia her bow did bend And Virgins both their Uncle did defy Like Champions to defend virginity The Sun and Stars were wrapt in sable weeds Dampt with the breath of his Tanarian Steeds All these and more were portray'd round about VVhich filth defac'd or time had eaten out Three headed Cerberus the gate did keep VVhom Psiche with a sop first laid to sleep And then went safely by where first she saw Hells Judges sit and urging of the law The place was parted in two several ways The right hand to Elysium convays But on the left were malefactors sent The seat of tortures and strange punishment There Tantalus stands thirsty to the chin In water but can take no l'quor in Ixion too and Sisiphus the one A wheel the other turns a restless stone A Vulture there on Titius does wreak The God's just wrath and pounding with his beak On his immortal liver still does feed For what the day does wast the night does breed And other souls are forced to reveal VVhat unjust pleasures they on Earth did steal VVhom fiery Phlegeton does round inclose And Stix his waves does nine times interpose The noise of whips and Furies did so fright Poor Psiche ears she hasted to the right That path way straight for on each side there grew A Grove of mournful Cypress and of Yew It is the place of such as happy dy There as she walked on did Infants cry VVhom cruel death snacht from their teats away And rob'd of sweet life in an evil day There Lovers live who living here were wise And had their Ladies to close up their eyes There Mighty Heroes walk that spent their blood In a just cause and for their Countries good All these beholding through the glimering air A moral and so exquisitely fair Thick as the motes in the Sun beams came running To gaze and know the cause too of her coming Which she dissembled only askt to know Where Plato dwelt for thither she must go A guide was straight assign'd who did attend And Psiche brought safe to her journies end Who being entred prostrate on her knee She humbly tenders Venus Embasly Great Plutoes Queen presented to her guest A Princely Throne to sit on and a feast Wishing her taste and her tyr'd limbs refresh After her journey and her
All three together by this means combin'd Embrace each other with a mutual mind Until their spirits and the day was spent In long and ceremonious complement Sometimes fair Psiche proud her friends were by To witness her Majestick bravery Ushering her sisters with affected gate Would shew them all her glory and her state And round about her golden house display The massie wealth that unregarded lay Sometimes she would demonstrate to their ears Her easie power on those familiars That like a numerous family did stand To execure the charge of her command Nor was there wanting any thing that might Procure their admiration or delight That whereas erst they pitied her distress Now swell with envy of her happiness There is a goddess flies through the earth's globe Girt with a cloud and in a squalid robe Daughter to Pluto and the silent Night Whose direful presence does the Sun afright Her name is Ate venom is her food The very Furies and Tartarian brood Do hate her for her ugliness she blacks Her horrid visage with so many Snakes And as her tresses 'bout her neck she hurls The Serpents hiss within her knotty curls Sorrow and shame death and a thousand woes And discord waits her wheresoe'r she goes VVho riding on a whirl-wind through the sky She saw fair Psiche in her jollity And grudg'd to see it for she does profess Her self a foe to every good success Then cast to ruine her but found no way Less she could make her sisters her betray Then drop'd four Snakes out of her hairy nest And as they slept cast two on eithers breast Who piercing through their bosoms in a trice Poison'd their souls but made no Orifice And all this while the powerful bane did lurk Within their hearts and now began to work For one of them too far inquisitive With crafty malice did begin to dive Into her counsel studious for to learn Whom so divine possession might concern But all in vain no lineal respect No Syren charms might move her to reject His precepts nothing they could do or say Might tempt her his sweet counsels to betray Yet lest too much suspence of what he is Should trouble their loose thoughts she told them this He was a fair young man whose downy chin VVas newly deck'd with natures coverin And he that us'd with hunting still to rome About the woods and seldome was at home But fearing their discourse might her entrap She pours forth gold and jewels in their lap And turning all their travel to their gain Commands the winds to bear them back again This done her sisters after their return With envies fuel both begin to burn Unable to contain their discontent And to their swell'd up malice give a vent Says one unto the other what 's the cause That we both priviledg'd by nature's laws And of the self-same parents both begot Should yet sustain such an indifferent lot You know that we are like to Hand-maids wed To strangers and like strangers banished When she the off-spring of a later birth Sprung from a womb that like the tired earth Grew old with bearing nor yet very wise Enjoys that wealth whose use whose worth whose price She knows not what rich furniture there shone What gems what gold what silks we tread upon And if her husband be so brave a man As she affirms and boasts what woman can In the whole world compare with her at length Perhaps by customs progress and the strength Of love he may her like himself translate And make her with the gods participate She has already for to come and go Voices her hand-maids and the winds 't is so She bore her self with no less Majesty And breath'd out nothing but divinity But I poor wretch the more to aggravate My cares and the iniquity of fate Have got a husband elder then my sire And then a boy far weaker in desire Who though he have nor will nor power to use VVhat he enjoys does miser-like refuse To his own wife this benefit to grant That others should supply his and my want Her sister answers Do not I embrace A man far worse and is' t not my own case I have a husband too not worth a point And one that has the Gout in every joint His nose is dropping and his eyes are gumm'd His body crooked and his fingers numm'd His head which should of wisdom be the place Is grown more bald then any Looking-glass That I am fain the part toundergo Not of a wife but a physician too Still plying him howe'r my sense it loaths With oyls and balms and cataplasms and cloaths Yet you see with what patience I endure This servile office and this fruitless cure The whilst the minks our sister you beheld VVith how great pride and arrogance she swell'd And though much wealth lay scatter'd all along Yet out of it how small a portion She gave to us and how unwillingly Then blew or hist us from her company Let me not breath nor me a woman call Unless I straight her ruine or enthral In everlasting misery and first In this one point I 'll render her accurst We will not any into wonder draw Nor comfort by relating what we saw For they cannot be said true joy to own Whose neither wealth nor happiness is known It is enough that we have seen and grieve That we have seen it let none else believe The truth from our report So let 's repair To our own home and our own homely sare And then return to vindicate her pride With fraud and malice strongly fortifi'd Which to confirm ungrateful as they were For wicked counsel ever is most dear To wicked people home again they drew And their feign'd grief most impiously renue The third Section BY this fair Psiche's womb began to breed And was made pregnant by immortal seed Yet this condition was on her impos'd That it should mortal prove if she disclos'd Her husbands counsels who can now relate The joy that she conceiv'd to propagate A divine birth she reckons every day And week and month and does her womb surve And wonders since so little was instill'd So small a vessel should so much be fill'd Her husband smelling of her sisters drift Began to call fair Psiche unto shrift And warn her thus The utmost day says he And latest chance is now befalln to thee A sex pernicious to thine own dear bloud Has taken arms up to withstand thy good Again thy sisters with regardless care Of love or piety come to ensnare And tempt thy faith which I forbad before That thou my shape and visage shouldst explore In lieu of which take up a like defence Protecting with religious continence Our house from ruine and thy self prevent And our small pledge from dangers imminent Psiche with sighs and tears together blent Breaks off his speech Since you a document Have of my silence and my love quoth she VVhy should you fear to trust my constancie Which to confirm bid
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