the World ordain'd by Heaven Your plaint is most unjust or that is so These Verses mortified not so many flames in the brest of Minerva as they produced teares in her fair eys this cure was one of those that stir up much more grief then they appease Yet marvelled shee at the strength of Adrastes affection which had born him to a complyance so contrary to his passion and how soever shee was extremly ingrate shee could not help it but she found her self extremly obliged to him in it But her departure some few days after did quickly efface this small good will Yet she saw Adraste once before shee went thanked him of his pains in her comforts and left him more affection then shee carried away with her For shee was then most stedfastly allied to the first object of her love And Adraste hung so even between the affections of Minerva and Cariclea that they called him the Knight of the cloven hart A little time after some Princes of France took armes pretending reformation of the State and comfort of the people whom the Souldiers much solaced by the discharging them of whatsoever they were able to carry away for them Tatius that had so well managed the affairs of his house would now needs meddle with the government of the Kingdome and seeking so to readvance his private fortunes upon the publique took part with them The small number of men that were of his condition caused that they not onely imbraced him but renewed the luster of his ancient titles by the glitter of a new dignity making him chief of the Councell of that faction and not putting him in lesser hopes then of the Seals of France He took this occasion to follow some means of reconciliation with his wife whom he disposed therto very easily for the part shee pretended to in the hopes of her husbands fortunes And Tatius sought her the rather for the need he had of her assistance for although he were not setled in his new office he needed mony for his use in it which he knew not how to raise but on the caution of Minerva who freely became bound for him deceived in the hopes of this false prosperity Fortune was not so favourable to him as shee promised for that such as had armed for the State and Republique comming to a Treaty used not a word but of their owne particular interests and left not the people onely more miserable more ruined then ever but also Tatius discharged of his Office and his wife burthened with part of his debts This last affection of Minerva being founded on the hope of advantage could endure no longer then the foundation so as that was no sooner ruin'd but this fell to the ground and Tatius and Minerva to as ill intelligence and accord as heretofore which brought her backe very sodainly to Paris Adraste failed not to go see her so soone as he knew she was come But in her absence the affections of Cariclea had so occupied his heart as it seemed there was small roome left for the reestablishing those of Minerva And besides dissention being as it were inseparable and ever fatal to the Realme of France where calmes doe but presage the following stormes and where those stormes are never calmed but in the occasion of greater and more furious ones and chiefly in the youth and first yeares of their kings This last emotion was not so soon appeased but there arose an other by so much the more to be feared as the pretext and cause was more honorable in shew plausible to most Which obliging the king to make an excursion into Normandy to assure him that Province consequently obliged Adraste to follow him who a more faithfull subject then a Lover preferred his sense of honour and courage to his apprehension of his amorous delights Hee let him proceed as far as Roane yet and then to Deepe But hearing hee intended to put himselfe into Cain where the Castle declared it selfe against the City and the City for his Majesty against the Castle he should have been exceeding sorry not to have beene at the first place which the King had ever yet in his owne person beleaguered He left then Minerva and Caricha at Paris where his desires ease would still have detained him and made all diligent haste to travailes to paines and perills where his devoire did call him The history of this siege not being our subject it shall suffice to let you know that the good fortunes providence counsell and diligence of the King conquered him this place in lesse then three dayes And three daies after al that great Province which gave him meanes and leisure to prevent his enemies as we hope to make it appeare elsewhere more seriously But Adraste seeing the warre ended on this side before any man had once meanes to give notice of his abilities in the least measure and the King to take the way to Manns tooke that to Paris without other cause then to see his two Mistresses by whom he was variably agitated He lov'd them both not onely through his inclination meerly but also with designe to the end the one should hinder him to give himselfe wholy to the other that his sufferance should be by so much the lesse as it should be divided and by so much the better moderated as it should bee the lesse An excellent remedy in affaires of love had not his too perfect fidelity hindred him to put it in practise for that he served himself as then most happily with it And after having sometimes seene one and sometimes the other he quit them both againe to look out the king that was as then at Manns with his armie The departure of Adraste the absence of Brassidas and Gracchus the disgrace of Tatius and death of Arnolphe gave Crassus opportunity who was then at Paris somewhat to renew his affection with Minerva but so far onely as the tearmes of a common wel-wisher Adraste having found a gentleman of his acquaintance called Chabrias a man of great abilities and no small execution who being married some three or foure dayes before had left those lawful pleasures of a bridegroom to embrace the travailes of warre met neere Manns an other Cavalier who tould them hee had found some Thirty Commanders about two or three leagues from thence which it was sayd were of the enemies party Adraste and Chabrias had over taken left behinde them a company of souldiers belonging to the Queen that were to joyne with the kings army They then intreated this Cavalier to advise them of their intentions and pray their Captaines to follow them a gallope whilest they went on before The gentleman failed not to give them the same advise and the company having overtaken them at a small Village where they stayed for guides they put themselves in front and went forwards altogether to a great Towne where these people lay intrenched But they found they belongd to the King and
the death of Adraste and Polinice For having seen them laid hands on and invironed by so many he bleeved not that they could escape and for him it was easie to flee for that they had nothing to do but with his light which being at first put out they gave him very good leisure to retire So soon as Minerva saw Adraste she seemed to rejoyce extreamly And I assuredly beleeve it was no way fained whatsoever hath beene sayd that this ambush was layd and Minerva had not sent for the booke by her Laquay so much for that as to bring him in compasse of the snares of these Rascals which could never enter in the thought or beliefe of Adraste You have prevented me of an ill nights rest sayd she which this companion went about to prepare for mee I beleeve you could not have bestowed a visit on me this good while or so pleasing or necessary as this was But tell mee how happened this misfortune to you Madam answered Adraste your Laquay is not so blame worthy as you may thinke for he saw me in such case as there was more liklihood that he left me dead then alive But it pleaseth God that I live yet for your service and to bestow on you more necessary visits and more pleasing nights then this And then he recounted at large to her what had befallen him since Supper whilst the uncloaked gentleman Polinice entertained her women with the same discourse Very well sayd Minerva then I bid you good night and desire you come no more at such houres to see mee That is to take good nights from me answered Adraste and not to give mee good night this same command not to see you any more by night It shall be what you please replied Minerva for I shall indeed rather chuse to take from you good nights then suffer upon my occasion that you perchance have your life taken from you as you have now very narrowly escaped with it Adraste accepting her will for reason retir'd with his good or ill night after having tould her that God did reserve him to some better end and that on no occasion his life could be so well imployed as in the losse of it for so worthy a Subject Adraste being retired without any further mischance passed the night as accustomed in the thought and contemplation of an enchanted Lover by the charmes of a fair Mistris The next morning rising very early he went to take a turn at the Louvre where he was informed of the departure of the King It was at the time of the great assembly at Rochell which being made against his Majesties permission and continued contrary to his cōmand gave cause to the Court of Parliament to declare them that held it rebels and to the King to arme himself for the defence of his authority Adraste went from thence to the uprising of Minerva carried her these sad news not so much lamenting the publique misfortune that threatned the State with a civill war as his own particular condition that forced him leave his Mistris to use his life in a quarrell wherin he had so little interest For howsoever he were not constrained by any place or benevolence of the Kings he was nerethelesse born and enforced therto by the laws of his own worth and honour But since that nothing induceth you said Minerva to follow the King but your honour you are not obliged to follow him other where then in service Let other men then go along and wait on him whose offices and pensions doe oblige them to attendance every where besides and do you stay untill he does sit down before some place or that hee hath made some overture of war wherin you may be seen to do the service you desire and think not then that I will make it difficult to give you leave for that your life being of smaller esteem to me by much then is your honour I shall rather chuse to command then to forbid it you Adraste was easily perswaded to stay with a Lady whom indeed hee could not indure to part from but seeing he had not liberty to entertain her as hee wished in her house where she was watched by her own people gained and corrupted by Crassus the prime of the Spring inviting every one to see the beauty of the Country hee intreated her to bear him company to Ruel to the end that no other but the Nymphs of those fountains should be by at the last farwels hee would take of her Minerva that desired but to passe time away rendred Adraste his desires in that by contenting likewise her own But what she might easily and absolutely of herself have done was accompained with so many limitations and circumstances as the pleasure of it was ever lesse then the sufferance were it that by the difficulty she would render her favours the more estimable or were it a quality inseparable in love that often promiseth much sweetnesse where naught is reaped but much bitternesse Reason and what was decent not suffering that she should go alone with Adraste caused her to take with her an old Gentlewoman that was rather her Governesse then Servant with two little children that she had had by Tatius and would yet have Plancus and Melite besides of the company Melite was one of her friends and Plancus a new Captive of Minerva's whom shee had insnared without Adraste once perceiving it whom she made believe how shee could tender him amorous of Melite Adraste agreed very willingly to that thinking that whilst Plancus entertained Melite and that the Governesse should be busied with Minerva's children he should have no ill opportunity to govern her But the difficulty was to get from her house and people unsuspected for she would not by any means that they should know of this journy for fear it might come to Crassus eare And this Lady otherwise exceeding able had already given him such Empire over her as not so much as ever remembring Tatius that was her husband she let her self be troubled with the jealousie of a man that she said was nothing to her and that she seemed not onely to be unable to love but also one of whom shee could not endure to be beloved It is most certain that such as be in love are blinde for if Adraste absolutely had not bin so he might by this have seen that Crassus had more interest in his Mistris then himself But he believed more in her words then in his own eyes To the end then that Minerva's people should take no notice of the designe she willed that Adraste should wait very early in the morning at Church with a coach and four horses that Plancus and Melite should come thither another way without either of them comming neer her and that she would meet there at the same time with her little companions The Coach and horses they were ready almost before day scarce was the Church doore opened but Adraste was got in hee
LOVE and VALOR OR The diuers Affections of Minerva Will Marshall sculpsit London Printed by Th Harper are sold by Tho Stater at his shop in Duck lane 1638. LOVE AND VALOVR Celebrated in the person of the Author by the name of ADRASTE OR The divers affections of MINERVA One part of the unfained story of the true Lisander and Caliste Translated out of the French by W. B. LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper for Thomas Slater and are to be sold at his shop at the Swan in Duck Lane 1638. TO THE RIGHT WORTHY AND MY Truely honoured Favourer Sir PETER TEMPLE Knight and Baronet Honoured Sir HOwsoever I have received more encouragement from your selfe alone then all men living besides had not my Author deemed his labour worthy the survey of so great a Prince I should not have entitled you to my worthlesse labours in the conversion since the difference between his originall drawn by a free and art commanding hand and my rough Copy being the first essay of my abilities in this nature may be more then the distance between your condition and a Princes In supplyance of which defect being unable to adde any thing but the bare figure of my devotion to serve you it were but ill rhetoricke and worse arithmeticke in me through many words multiplying ciphers by ciphers to blot my paper with infinite nothings Yet gracious Sir I perswade me that I see though I have not delivered in the booke many lines and draughts resembling the patheticke facility and gentlenesse of our best writers which draughts being but bare dissections and curious anatomies of humane nature it is impossible to be over-tedious if pertinent therein But I flourish as if I would say something where I am in truth a sceptique ignorant and doubting all things but my own weaknesse and the strength of those affections borne your service Worthy Sir by your vertues honourer W. B. To my Lord the MONSIEVR Sole Brother to the King of FRANCE MY Lord so much is to be said in your commendations as to forbeare in so ample a subject of elocution were rather an ingratitude then silence and I never sparing of my praises in all mens merits seeming to have refused them untill now to yours shall doe much better here to confesse then to defend my thanklesnesse It is not my good Lord but I have as much inclination to honour you as I have cause which is to have it in the greatest perfection that can be imagined but the same instigation I have had to speake hath made me still silent and the greatnesse of the subject which had animated most hath yet discouraged me There is so farre a distance from your highnesse to my lownesse and twixt my own power and my will as I deemed it a sinne against my knowledge rashly to have undertaken a thing not possible to be performed but in great imperfection and that my enterprise would much rather have discovered my weakenesse then my intentions Notwithstanding which my Lord are they not the most rare affections which men testifie to their owne prejudice how can I then more perfectly manifest mine then at the dispense and disrepute of my knowledge How can I better make seen to you the passions that I undergoe for your service and for your glory then by the exposing them amid my own weakenesses and my defaults This consideration my Lord hath changed my former feares into rashnesse and hath made me so bold to undertake that which I have not had the daring to thinke of beleeving that if the execution were impossible yet the enterprise was at least honourable and by so much the fitter to manifest my devotions bent to you wards as it beares me hood-winked beyond my knowledge and my power But I am erred my good Lord even at the entry of my discourse which beginning with your commendations as the greatest and richest argument that could be chose I know not how I have so suffered my selfe to be carried away with my passions as I have said without thinking that which I would not and have not yet spoke one word of what I would say The cause of my erring is the boundlesse extent of my subject Hardly could it be but I should lose me in a labyrinth from out of which it is so difficult to get but the wonder is I have not entred it and that in stead of loosing my selfe in search of the issue I have erred at the entry without once having found the beginning But indeed great Prince where is there any beginning in things infinite If I should begin at the greatnesse of your birth and weigh you as Prince of the chiefest kingdome in the world and Son and Brother to the two greatest Kings the earth hath ever bore were I not diverted by the excellence of your admirable nature by the exquisite education wherewith it is so happily propagate and by the ample hopes you give both of the one and the other what multitudes of other things might here be added in your commendations did I not feare to doe them wrong and loved I not more to honour them in silence then to injure them by going about to speake their greatnesse but reducing me to these three onely and speaking but one word of each what more excellent nature was there ever found in Prince or more generous then yours What Achilles fed with the marrow and pith of Lyons one day to subdue the force of Hector does not give way to you as well in noriture as couragious heart And what hopes may we not well conceive from such and so magnanimous a Prince as surpasseth the greatnesse of his birth by the excellence of his nature and the excellence of his nature by the goodnesse of his noriture But rising up to the fount head and scorse of your great Ancestors and so descending by the succession of so many Kings as have been since S. Lewis to Henry the great I not observe you onely as a green and flourishing branch of thestock of Bourbon or as a Sience of that of Anjou but as Sonne and Prince of France that is to say of the best house and most illustrious Empire of the world What can I hope lesse or the enemy feare more then some still and unexpected enterprise mannaged with no lesse silence and privacie even to the entire and generall conquest of all such authority as strangers do usurpe from us victories seeming as incident unto the house of Bourbon as crowns seem destinated unto that of Anjou Charles the brother of Lewis was the first of this family crowned King of Naples Sicile and Ierusalem Lewis brother to Charles the wise and first Duke of Anjou went to take possession of those kingdomes with 30000 horse And in our times the last Henry of the house of Valois being then Duke of Anjou and brother to Charles the ninth was crowned almost against his will King of Poland But the most honourable titles of all these
three dayes without writing backe one word to him whatsoever may be sayd in her answere for missing this morning shee seemes astonisht at his silence and commandeth him to aske her pardon for it 202 After so many complaints and delayes thereon upon which hee had resolved to speake no more then in one Letter he intended to send her on his departure he yet gives her answer and bids her farewell ibid. Meeting him yet by chance and being made friends she failes againe of her promise to him which obligeth him to breake with her once for all and send her this his last farewell 206 The Answer 210 His Mistris being informed hee was in blacks tooke occasion to write word unto him by which she condoled with him the new affliction she beleeved had beene befallen him ibid. After having a long while dispated with himselfe whether hee should answere her Letters or not he tels her that besides the afflictions hee under goes for her he slighted all such as could happen to him That he could not beleeve that she condoled theills she dayly augmented And wherefore he beleev'd so 211 She replyes that she is more amarvailed then offended at his Letter and wisheth that all his vanities were in that paper to the end they obliged no other one to answere them 213 He answers her threats and to the vanities she accuseth him of in a stile altogether estranged from the respect he had wont to render her though not from his discretion 214 He answers to certaine complaints that Minerva had made some while after as well to his friends as himselfe of his indifference and sheweth that it was founded on the necessity of obeying her and upon good reason 222 Faults escaped in some Copies PAge 10. line 30. for that reade it p. 11. l. 19. for others r. ours p. 21. l. 7. for revenger r. revenge l. 14. for who shall then r. who shall then l. 17. for such as r. those that l. 19. for inconstant r. constant l. 20. for misery r. mischiefe p. 39 l. 29. for these r. those p. 42. l. 7. for or what r. what p. 46. l. 15. for esteemed r. seemed p. 50. l. 15. for to obey r. to obey you p. 55. l. 2. for most provoked him r. most troubled him she was it that most provoked him p. 60. l. 15. for on yours Adraste r. on yours Adraste l. 27. for book r. broake p. 74. l. 7 for penthouse or a long r. penthouse a long p. 81. l. 3. for passion r. possession l. 22. for agreed r. angred l. 31. for forgot to r. forgot not to p. 82. l. 15. for after in death r. after death p. 83. l. 6. for to quite me of r. to quit me of p. 85. l. 10. for discourse that it r. discourse for that it line 18. for or least r. or at least l. 30. for Adraste hath purged r. Adraste having purged p. 95. l. 16. for could tender r. would render p. 100. l. 8. for and to went set r. and so went and set p. 106. l. 26. for compassionate r. compatiate p. 110. l. 11. for that would r. that she would p. 113. l. 31. for desire r. designe p. 116. l. 11. for nor to be to r. nor be to l. 17. for render me r. render it me p. 117. l. ult for satisfaction to r. satisfaction then to p. 118. l. 23. for light doth rejoyce r. light thou that dost rejoyce p. 119. l. 7. for state r. fate l. 13. for lesse r. left l. 27. for once as yet r. once more as yet and some others which in courtesie may be borne withall Love and Valour OR The divers affections of MINERVA The Argument Minerva commeth to solicite her suits in Paris is beloved of Balamyr Crassus Arnolphus and Adraste but loveth onely Arnolphus The dissavour of Adraste causeth that of Crassus Adraste desirous to give a Serenade to Minerva accompanied with Periste and Oristene runneth a dangerous misfortune CHAP. I. DId I desire to frame the foundations of a true story upon a tale I might say the earth never produced the equall of Minerva and deriving her originall from heaven it were not onely a lye but blasphemy to bring her backe againe to earth So then let us not speake untruths for feare of lying nor let us blaspheme for feare of blasphemy fable hath no part in this discourse the Star by which I meane to steere my course being truth it selfe This here is not that Minerva the Goddesse but a woman whose cleere minde and brave spirit hath acquired her the name of that Pallas president of Art and Armes her birth was not of the head of Iupiter but of an illustrious family the worth whereof hath beene ere whiles graced with the most honourable charges of this Realm her father having left her very young she was married at 9 yeeres old to a husband but of eleven and as the one nor the other were then capable of love they produced no other but hate Her desire to be divorced from one she loved not caused her come to solicite her affaires at Paris where her beauty did acquire her rather servants then Iudges and where her youth more proper to the exercises of love then businesse of law rendred her apter to hearken to the suits of her servants then to give eare to or prosecute her necessary suits I know not whether she were cruell or favourable on their behalfe but certaine am I that the Sejan horse was never more unhappy to his Masters then she to some of her servants Whilest she followed her affaires Balamyr was the first of whose service she admitted I have heard him say she esteemed more of his valour then she loved his person and that her vanity to captivate so great a courage caused her suffer the importunity of his pursuit their love became hatred Balamyr were it through judgement or inconstancy with or without cause quit her for another Mistresse and was unlamented of Minerva sometime after slaine But she continued not without a servant for she wonne on all she would and she would win on all she could and for all that she complained here sometimes of the miserable conquests she made against her will She made no acquisition but to her profit and wherewith she served not her selfe in some designe or other See here the cause why she contemned not the affection of Crassus howsoever his ill shape and worse favour rendred him sufficiently contemptible But Arnolph was he that most feelingly touched her to heart all the rest were amorous of her and she only of him It was not that his services or quality obliged her to love him more then ordinary it was a certain inclination proceeded of the sympathy in their wils and I know not what feminine humour more taken with a soothing observance or handsome legge making then with all the faire qualities or good parts can be in a man or the faithfullest services that can be rendred
within the course of which theyby a time return to their first heads his destiny constrained him now return into that honorable servitude in which shee captivated the most beautious souls Minerva not lesse wondring at the love of Adraste then satisfied with her own beauties of which she had heer an illustrious proof in this second conquest of this lover answered him in these terms If any other then your self should talk to me thus Adraste either I should not believe him at all or at least should fain not to believe him But the knowledge I have of your goodnesse makes me that as I esteeme you veritable so will I answer you from my own heart believing you speak to me from the bottom of yours And to observe the same method you hold with me in confessing your thoughts I shall discover mine to you and acknowledge that if I were in such condition as I could give me to any one it should be you But I will not forbear to tell you many things that hinder me therin though you do know them neer as well as I to the end that if you do not receive the satisfaction you have promised you you may lay the fault on your own errours and not upon my will that never shall be wanting in good wishes to you nor to perform like deeds on your behalf Minerva discoursing afterwards the causes hindred her from loving of Adraste missed not to put that of god in the first place whom wee ought to love and fear above all things and you said shee that love and feare him above other men would cause me render him my enemy for your love This divine reason is of such force as there is no humane passion can or convince it or withstand the being overcome by it But if you dis esteeme of god which were so enormous an offence wher of the monstrous impiety could never be sufficiently chastised or what could perswade you to make mee believe that I could ever live after being robbed of my honour in this World And you that hazard oft so generously your life to save your honour how dare you heere propose to mee the losse of mine Is not the honour of us Ladies pray all out as choice and delicate as that of men And if you love me as you say and as I do believe why do you desire to lose mee so can you love my person and neglect my honour Madam answered Adraste my discretion may be shield unto your honour and this same innocent feare you have of doing ill by favouring me is void of likelihood God is not the enemy but the author of nature and the offence without scandall is no offence Believe you that the naturall affection the author of nature imprinteth in our souls is averse to the will of him that gives it us and that the first thing he ever commanded he should now forbid us God wisheth us no il but for the ils we do to our selvs nor takes amisse the offeces done to him but those we do to our selvs for being maker of the universe his care is most to perserve his workmanship his offence at that would hinder it and not at that which meerly tendeth to the conservation of it Then is he the enemy of violence injustice cruelty and the ingratitude that tend to the subversion of love and not of love it self and he is angred that we turn his sweets to bitternesse and doe convert to our dammage that which he hath given us for our benefits For as love is the cause of our greatest goods so may it become of our greatest ils but then it must be by our own improvidence and not by his See then who offends most the divinity Madame or I that follow the lawes of love according to the end for which they first were made or you that do endeavour what you may to change and to pervert his institutions and chuse rather to apply you to the counsell of a thanklesse and unnaturall rigour then the true apprehension of a naturall inclination that is not only permitted but commanded It is true that God hath commanded love said Minerva but that which is legitimate all other affections being forbid not only by divine but humane lawes In which I 'le speake no more to him that teacheth others A good cause defends it selfe and one word is sufficient in a truth whereas a lye needs the support of a large discourse Both of them spake against their conscience and contrary to their own beliefe for this discourse of Adraste was quite averse to what he thought and Minerva's answer was no lesse farre from her meaning Adraste desiring to perswade a woman that would be perswaded and whom he perceived to seeke some honest meanes that she might love him without blushing endeavoured by this talk to take from her such shame as naturally retaines all women In which nerethelesse he knew well that he did ill but one so common amongst men whose reasons are overcome by appetite as it seems custome not onely renders them permitted but authorised Minerva speaking truely according to her beliefe stretched yet her thoughts unto such things as she might do accompanying the coldnesse of her words with the quickning flames of her faire looks drew by the gentlenesse of her fweet charms him that she yet repulsed by the force of her strong reasons to let him see the beauty of her minde in the refusing him that of her body so as in yeelding both one and the other to him he should owe the favour rather to her love then to her ignorance And permitting him some small privacies which did not much forbid the greater as they seemed to promise unto him caused him hope that she would doe like the good wives that often resuming what men aske of them yet forbeare not to doe some part of their demands but saying still they will doe nought Whilest Adraste so eagerly solicited Minerva Brassidas and Gracchus both came athwart his designes Brasidas was a little of kinne to Minerva but not so much but he could have wished to have been more neer A man discreet wise subtile and a boon companion chiefly amongst women Gracchus was a little more earthy and retained more of the Souldier then of the Courtier but nerethelesse both of them brave Gentlemen and both Lovers of Minerva who seeing Adraste first in time and consequently in right however such a consequence is not alwaies necessary in affairs of love where the last commers are many times first received agreed both together to ruine him The occasion was offered them by the means of Asteria one that Adraste saw some times and Gracchus likewise however for divertisement onely and each single without the other notwithstanding which they often met there Gracchus being then one day with Asteria she would needs know the newes of Minerva and he knowing that she knew not her but through the report of Adraste asked her again what he said
come to see Arlande as his Kinswoman and Gracchus accompanying him as his friend she could not hinder the Visitations nor the Walks Arlande admitted of it being very uncomly for the daughter to play the Mistris before her mother not thinking also that it would have becomm'd a woman of her quality to testifie the least animosity against them at all to shew she affected him In the end she knew so well to plead her cause as she gained her suite Adraste asked pardon and the wronged party made the amends This day consumed in complaints and such like satisfactions took yet away all hate that the last falling out seemed to have ingendred in their hearts how ever it placed not there the wōted love not in that of Minerva's for that she yet mourned for the dead on whose behalf she seemed even to despise her life Nor in that of Adraste for that seeking in these disgraces to save him from the ambushes of Minerva hee was already faln in those of Cariclea which hee would have dissembled but Minerva intreating him to helpe her loose the remembrance of a man whom shee had loved hee againe begged of her advise how to acquire the affection of a woman that he adored You have already so acquired her answered Minerva thinking he had spake of her self as you need not care further but of means to preserve her Would to God that he you love were alive said Adraste and that I were in possession of her I desire I believe I should have lesse trouble to preserve then I shall have to acquire her How can that be said Minerva that you should be in possession of her you desire during the life of him I lament if you desire not some other then me And how think you also that it can be believed answered Adraste that I have acquired the affections of one that lives not but in the death of an other I have the wrong indeed on my side said Minerva and you the reason on yours Adraste to engage your thoughts upon such an object as hath not ingaged theirs But since I discover thus my malady to you if so you cannot give me help as there is none in death I pray at least refuse me not your comfort and be it so that in losing you for a Lover I may enjoy you as a friend Madam answered Adraste it hath bin the greatest unhappinesse that hath done me outrage to see how unapt you have bin to think the one or the other of me But I shall never cease to be both to you so long as God shall give me life and you no cause to die by the ill use you daily do me The night book of their discourse which else they had not known how to leave Minerva having prepared to retire to her house in the Country and apprehending in the solitude that place offered the sorrows that Arnolphes death did now make her so lively feel in the divertisements of this so excellent City again conjured Adraste that did sometimes apply him to such things to write somewhat in way of consolation and in verse on the death of Arnolphe an importune request to pray a Lover to busie himself in the commendations of a Rival and the more for that Adraste medled but unwillingly in making Verses seeing so many as he did come off with little credit in that subject But Arnolphe was dead and hee hoped in pray sing him hee should at least flatteringly sooth his Mistris and insensibly insinuate in her favours yet the more unwilling to give the repulse to a Lady to whom he had given himself without whom he could not rest and with whom he could not live he endevoured to render him pleasing and agreeable so far as to celebrate for her the affections of him that living had orethrown his own So after having brought Minerva home to her house and being retired to his own lodging hee made the same Evening the following Stanzaes as you see which the next morning he sent to her at her uprising to let her see with how much care and readinesse hee did imbrace all manner of occasion did at all pertain unto her service The Verses were these Stanzaes On the death of Arnolphe to Minerva CEase fair one cease your mournfull plaints lay by Arnolphe is not dead though absent hence More then the Sun remov'd from off our Skie In shady dark hath any residence No he 's immortall and amongst the Saints And vainly you importune Heaven too late That hath no eare to lend to such complaints But must in all things too give way to fate Great Iove himself that with one thunder might Dissolve the earth all things annihilate Saw maugre him brave Hector fall in fight And Troy in dust lament her ransackt state How often mov'd eye pressed by ' his Favorite And his fair daughter did he think to hide But destiny withstood and did deny it That goodly Empire from the Grecian pride For in the Eternity of vengefull fate Before was Priam doom'd his sentence past Else Pallas power nor Iuno obstinate Could have his land orerun or laid so wast But your Arnolphe here a blessed man Though beaven should chance refuse him deny you Is happy yet that he did serve you when He liv'd and more to be lamented by you And is not one death then enough but you Will with your tears bring back his soul to breath And he must so die twice and you would now Double your griefs and twice mourn for his death In vain then fall those tears along your face Nor can they move the destinies decree And if they could obtain you any grace That grace were yet more ill then death can be Minerva that the Heavens caus'd to come down Heer to be seen perfections object still Ought she to afflict her for the love of one That to acknowledge it hath power nor will You moan his body or his soul lament If 't befor's body you complain t' is gone And if for 's soul your grief hath worse extent For you a good in place of ill bemoane Leave to low mindes these bootlesse tears these moods Can so much heart so sooth the sence of crosse We should not drown our reasons in those floods Nor lose our selves in weeping others losse The room 's too fair to be th'retirement still Of a guest so foul as is perpetuall moan And they without cause use themselves but ill That pitying others cruell are t' their own Do you then celebrate's immortall fame And with proud marble heer his corps inshrine Then let some happy pen divulge his name Throughout the earth where ere the Sun do's shine This doth accord with great Augustus minde And your brave heart that wont not be so griev'd But t' feed your soul with sorrows so unkinde And griev'e he 's dead is to lament he liv'd Quit then your sorrows yet your grief make even And know when you lament that naturall throw Common to all
ours Nor have we spoke of it but to avoid a more tedious discourse which must have beene made to continue the adventures of Adraste whose particular return comprehending in the generall we have not now to say but that having still followed the Court hee came therewith to Paris where from the morrow of his arrivall he was taken with a quoridian Fever which brought him so low as it was not hoped he could ever get up again He had the help of an excellent Physician in his art a worthy man his intimate and perfect friend to whose care and goodnesse next under God hee stands obliged for his life Amongst his visitants Minerva was one that came to see him not onely contrary to his expectation but his hope also for the continuance of his absence the travail of the journey and most of all the violence of his sicknesse had so efaced all impressions of his love as there remayned not so much as any line or draught therof in his memory He was not in the height of his disease but in the greatest weaknes of his person so as when his Fever somewhat ceased on the one side it seems that this visit prepared for him a new cause to re-alight his affection on the other But yet being visited more by Chariclea then by Minerva the assaults and batteries of the one ruined and oreturned even to the ground whatsoever the other erected Reason and Civility willed that hee being well should see such as had visited him sick Of which he acquit him very religiously to all but Minerva whom he saw not in doubt that freeing him of one malady he might fall into an other by so much the more to be feared as those of the minde are generally more dangerous than they of the body Contempt is the greatest vexation to a high minde especially when it comes from such of whom they have made esteeme or from whom they have been accustomed to receive honour and respect Minerva having been so perfectly honoured of Adraste could not indure without despight that he that had not liv'd but in her and for her and of the life and health of whom she had testified so great a care should visit all such as had seen him but her self And her indignation was by so much the greater for that she knew he faild not in this duty for want of civility nor of knowledge He offends not said she of ignorance but contempt and believed that it was of purpose In the end Adraste must needs go see her for shee had sent so often to his lodging as it had bin discourtesie and ingratitude to have done otherwise She congratulated his recovery she civilly complained of his incivility and pray'd him not onely to see her but also to write unto her Adraste well saw that these were so many snares set by Minerva for his liberty but hee had scarce power to refuse a thing which he had first demanded of her had he not bin prevented And as love is an Enemy not to be vanquished but by the absence of the thing beloved very hardly could hee avoid being overcome by such approaches as these were Two strong conceits wrought in his thoughts like two contrary winds at Sea with a perishing vessell the most violent which was yet most pleasing counselled and almost constrained him against his will to love this woman the other more gentle and yet more troublesome did utterly forbid it And as his imaginations figured to him the matchlesse delights he might gather from the passion of such beauties his memory again presented to him the most affrightfull torments he was sure to suffer but pretending therunto and the divers shipwracks he had undergone in the same Port did counsell him in any wise not now to re-imbarke him there But the means likewise for him to avoid it he that lov'd not his own eys without it were for seeing her in whom he had already harboured the chiefe felicities of his life was away In this conflict of difficulties hee addressed him unto her self as sole and sovereigne Arbiter of his thoughts beg'd of her to restore them back the rest she had bereft them off and to render to her self the same contentment which her cruelty had ravished from him in outraging the constance of a Lover and betraying her own proper desires through the ingratefull misacknowledgement wherby she did receive his pure affections As Minerva had bin provoked and agreed at the indifference of Adraste she was now well pleased to see him stirred again with love of her But being a discreetand subtile woman chiefly in the art of faining in which she out-went the most exquisite of her sex shee so farre as possibly she could hid him from her intents that were to re-ensnare him And as the ordinary custome of women is to oppose their honour to such as speak to them of love Minerva forgot to hold up this buckler against such armes as Adraste could advance talking to him yet nerethelesse in such a manner of the sence shee had of the one as shee put him not in despair of such as he had of the other But they so long had known and were so well acquainted with one another that they could not possibly so well dissemble it but that they espied each other behinde the best curtain could be drawn Minerva proposed extreme difficulties in the love of Adraste and Adraste as many resolutions upon those difficulties of Minerva shee alleaged first her marriage which absolutely hindred her to be any way lawfully sought Adraste put her in minde of Arnolphe whom shee had lov'd before and since and whom yet shee lov'd after in death however shee was straightly obliged to love him that lived and was in affection before the other By which hee let her see that the marriage she alleaged was but a pretext by which she covered her ingratitude being assured that if it had been the true cause that hindred her from loving him it had bin so as well for another as him I lov'd Arnolphe before I married said shee and that love which indeed I bore unto his vertues nor that which as yet I bear his memory did ever wrong my honour where yours tendeth meerly to the subversion of it Your honor is easily protected in my discertation answered Adraste and though mine be one thousand times more deer to me then my life I should chuse rather a thousand times to lose it then ever so little to have tainted yours But you are too wise a woman to be ignorent that honour chiefly doth insist upon the managing and is not incompatible with love You are too wise a man likewise answered Minerva to think what you say But if so be I should grant you any thing so unfit to be granted what reason have I yet to quite me of Arnolphes affection to reinvest me in those of Adraste it were but to passe from one extream to another and not onely from a love permitted to a
pleasing as I have imposed silence on my owne passions to give care to yours and forgotten all the ills you doe me to haste to your helpe even in those which you your selfe procure you I cannot deny Madam but your sorrowes are naturall since they proceed from love and from the death of a man you lov'd you have not loved him sans merit and you have lost him without possessing him so as you lament him justly This is a truth and cannot be denied without offending the resentment you have for him But Madam against whom complaine you of his death Is it against God who did permit him live or against your selfe most innocent of his death If it be against you are you not still the more afflicted and the more sorrowfull And if it bee against God knowes hee not better what is fit for us then we our selves Could not hee have suffer'd him whom you love dead to have beene living yet possessed by another Mistris within whose arms you had lesse loved him then in his grave Could not hee as well have taken you againe as him thereby reducing you to that first nothing which he made you of Consider what you complaine of Madam and you will finde that it is nought and that to be moane your selfe and vexe your soule for nothing is an inexcusable weaknesse We well may pardon the first complaints that griefe inforceth us to utter for that there is no courage so assured whom the violence of these first motions does not overturn But this storme ceased there is no more excuse if Reason reassumes not place at her turn does not obtrude those passions that had turn'd her out It is for this Men say that the superior part of the Soule should be like the supreame Region of the Aire that never is agitated with or storm or tempest See here Madam the difference twixt what you doe and what you ought to do for doubtlesse discourse time the necessity of death and a thousand other considerations I omit should before now have setled your resolution to have borne a remedilesse mishap Where see the quite contrary instead of making your constancy appeare and shine in such an accident shewing by how many waies you exceed in the beauties and perfections of your Sex you give your selfe over a prey to griefe like to some simple and ignorant woman you shut your spirits up which God ordained for heaven within a grave together with a dead Carkasse which he it may be hath deprived of life even for the immesurable love you bore him you sacrifice your Soule to a most singular griefe and vainly runne after a shadow you are sure you never can oretake Your Soule is the Temple of God and you adore there the image of a dead man whom hee permitted not that you should love not whilest he liv'd You make scruple of small thinges and make no conscience of Idolatry which you your self do know to be the grieuousest sinne that can be perpetrate The Lawes allow a widdow but one yeare to testifie her lawfull sorrowes which for the most part be but in apparance neither and you resolve to carry yours eternally within your soule You will nourish a Woolfe that devoures you embrace what betraies you ruine your repose outrage your beautie and your health and cause your selfe to die alive To conclude Madam you will openly resist the will of God according to which you make profession of ordering yours Who being our Father loves us his children better knowing what we want then we our selves rules all things by his Providence and not according to our fancies For if the world were governed by the various humors and divers passions of men Alas Madam to what new Chaos were wee then brought backe And if that sometimes hee afflict us here t is alwais yet to profit us never to our hurt and even that ill hee does us is either still to make us merit some greater good or else to cause us shun some greater ill Complaine not you unjustly then of what he justly doth Think not that he hath suffered now this losse for other cause then to acquit you of a greater griefe which howsoever you are unable to perceive yet see you that his power is infinite and that his judgements are unknown and which 't is better farre to apprehend then prove But you will tell me the same you told me yesterday that your passions are not so easily shifted as your petticotes It is true Madame and I finde it but too certaine in what I undergoe for you But where are now those so sufficient reasons by which you have erewhiles endeavoured to perswade me that I might easily put off mine Why serve you not your selfe against your selfe with those weapons you so well handle against others Why doe you thinke it impossible to free you of the passions you have for a shadow having before beleeved that it was nothing for me to divest me of these I have for you Is it that you are more capable of love then I am or that the subject of your love is more excellent then mine Madame I will not lessen the merit of your affections which you had never conceived had they not been most perfect of which it is no little proofe to see them live yet in you after the death of him that caused them Yet are they naturall and nothing is more common then to mourne for a lost friend But that I had power to humble me so to the pleasure of a woman as for her love I have lov'd even the rivall that hindred me to be beloved is a proofe of an affection Madame that in some sort exceeds the rule of nature And in the which you cannot deny but I surpasse you as much as you in all other things exceed me As to the subject of your love Madame he was most certainly lovely otherwise you had not made choice of him But without wroning your election or his merits I dare say that there was more correspondence in your humours then in your qualities and that more then the compliance and discretion wherewith he entertained you and whereby chiefly he was praise-worthy he was not possessed of so great perfections as could make him merit yours By which you may see that the subject of my love being more excellent then yours it followes that your passions must be lesse then mine and that you may easlier divest you of them then I of mine yea if so the cause remained which being now no more it is a marvell that the effect should yet continue But Madame I have given sufficient audience to your plaints it is now high time that you hearken unto mine if not for my ease yet for your own at least since the most miserable may finde in them some cause of comfort You bemoane the dead Madame and think not of those that die by your meanes I doe daily perish and am evenat the last gaspe and that for
you the most happie No Madam I love not for my pleasure I love for yours and love not to torment you but to vex my selfe for the love of you by whom I desire still to be tormented I say not this or to flatter you or to decline your anger I know that the one is bootlesse and the other impossible I speake it as a truth by which I am thereto inforced and to make it appeare to you how much my affections are elevate above all others the vassailes and the subjects of your boundlesse Empire The Argument He excuseth himselfe for putting his Mistris in coller by preferring a just complaint unto her and protesteth that hee will never more complaine since hee seeth he cannot complaine without giving her offence Epistle 13. Madam I Were not a man if I had not passions nor a Gascoine were I not violent nor could I be amorous were I not furious But that these conditions are so eminent in me that they have ever appeared to the prejudice of that respect that subjection or that obedience which I owe you I most humbly intreat you Madam be you your selfe the judge and do not as yesternight ye did when desiring with all the humility and submission a slave owes to his Lord but to lament a just resentment you caused me feele the effect of such wrath as I nere merited after the depriving me of an entertainment promised For you alone both pleaded and adjudged the cause with such precipitation not at all hearkning to me that I had more haste to obey you without reply then by reasons to defend my selfe though it were most evident on my side and that your award was not onely unjust but likewise injurious But Madam I begge yet of you though it were yesterday forbidden mee to speake it may be permitted this day to write and that you will receive this complaint as the last I hope ever to preferre For since I cannot complaine without offending you I shall rather chuse to undergoe all the rigours in the world then once to complaine of any one You are Madam so just as you never give cause of complaint to man and if any one do of himselfe offer it you returne him such satisfaction as a man much injured could not but be well contented There is none but mee onely destinate to suffer not alone hopelesse of satisfaction but more most ascertained to bee checked and curbed for all sorts of occasions and for all sorts of people which I should embrace yet as a fauour if no other but your selfe might take advantages thereby But you haue entitled mee unto the place that does give way to all the world and forceth me give you away to others for whom I should most gladly give my life If instead of those whole daies you say you will afford mee you would vouchsafe mee onely but one houre to accept the adue you have commanded me to come and render you it would be easie for me to justifie this truth If not then must I beare it away within my breast together with an eternal sorrow to have most innocently offended you The Answere Sir HAd I words so sufficient as I had yesterday cause to be in coller I should inforce you to confesse that you are in an error to take it ill at my hands And if you please to be at the paine to to come hither I shall not forbeare to tell you what I thinke therein and assure you that I am your Servant The Argument Hee endeavours to maintaine a wager hee had propounded to have lay'd that he would write no more to her and begs pardon that hee doth not aske her pardon for it Epistle 14. Madam YEsterday upon the assault of my first motions I offer'd to have laid a wager with you of which having better considered I find that I had reason to have done it and that you were in an error to take offence at it for what can I more in writing present you with which I have not alreadie sent and said unto you And if all that I have said and all that ever I can say will not yet encline you at all to pitty to what purpose should I trouble my selfe in a labour that is not onely bootlesse unto me but likewise hurtfull For is it not true that they are so many firebrands to incense those flames wherewith I am alreadie most miserably burned And if I must not hope for any ease therin why would you that I should againe enkindle them If the most perfect love of the world the most extreame fidelity the discreetest modesty and most stedfast constancie that ever was if all these together so often tried and so many times approved by your selfe have not power to leave the least impression in your breast but that on the contrary my complaints have served meerely for your sport and pastime why should I obstinately continue to lament me of an ill which you have told me and my perseverance lets me see is altogether helplesse In a word Madam why are you pleased that I should ever aske you that which you will never grant me Would you not thinke a man extreamly cruell that should put his enemie to death that had beg'd life at his hands Yet am not I your enemy and yet you use me in this manner I and worse for you do take offence both when I aske and when I do not aske But Madam I have so perfectly conceived the greatnesse of your demerits and finde my words so meane in comparison of this conceit as the despaire to attaine it onely is a sufficient cause to make me hold my peace and religiously adore in silence what I cannot in my discourses honour but imperfectly Here is the great offence I did you yesterday Madam I most humbly intreate you pardon me that I aske you not your pardon for it The Argument After his Mistris departure he comforteth her in her afflictions by the example of his own adversities Epistle 15. Madam AFter having bid adue and followed you with both my eyes so farre as the way you held would give me leave I returned to go visit those pledges you left here behind you in the Citty where the sorrow not to see you with them renew'd those griefes I had for your departure And sending my man thither to day Mistris N. let mee know that shee would write unto you which hath invited mee to doe the like I can assure you Madam if it be a consolation to the afflicted to have companions in misery you have great cause to comfort you in your sorrowes by the example of mine which really are the most sensible I ever yet have felt You have not wept alone you have taught me the mysterie and a mysterie that hath been altogether unknowne to me ere since I knew my selfe I most humbly intreat you that my sorrowes may mitigate yours that now at need you make use of your constancie and fit your heart to beare