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
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
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
this bondage which wereto her no lesse then three ages perpetually thinking of some meanes to redeeme her At last having resolved upon it think you not Sir said she that the assembly of so many wrongs and injuries as you doe daily heape on me will not one day breake upon and strike you too for me I should rather chuse to dye then once to give you cause to use me thus But I confesse unto you truely that indeed I had much rather dye then longer to indure them Tatins not being used to be braved by a woman much lesse by his wife answered sternely to her that there was no meane between them but that she must resolve to endure the one or of the other Minerva replyed not to him but bethought her presently what she would doe upon this The mishap or imprudence rather of Tatius would that he must to Paris which ministred to Minerva an opportunity to order her affaires and to dispose them in such manner that upon the returne of Tatius she caused him to be told that she had reserved two chambers to her selfe which she intreated him to afford her and content him with the rest of the house which she left wholly to him Tatius that lookt not for this would needs to her to answer her in proper person but she would not suffer him speake to her or by any meanes once see her and in stead of now playing the Master at home he found that she was at home in truth and that he was become the weaker So as neither prayers nor threats being able to shake the resolutions taken by a determinate woman he was constrained to returne backe to Paris whether she followed him soone after with purpose to sequester her estate from his very sorry that two children that she had had by him were the cause she could not be separated from him in body as well as in goods The Argument Minerva commeth back to Paris The second loves of Adraste with her are ruined by the practices and confederacie of Brasidas and of Gracchus her Kinsmen and Lovers CHAP. III. MInerva being disburthened of a charge shee thought her self very unfit to beare turned her whole Meditations to the meanes by which shee need never return under his charge and to this effect having established some order in the managing the affairs of her house according to the necessity of her new Common-weal shee took her way presently to Paris whither shee was called not onely for the execution of her designe but likewise for the accomplishing of her desires For her usuall residing in this incomparable City where shee had tasted so many delights was become more deer and farre more pleasing to her then that of the Country where shee had reaped no other then a bitter harvest Tatius not lesse feeble in adversitie then insolent in his better fortunes understood not so soon that shee was there arrived but hee sent unto her to intreat so much favour as to be admitted to seeher It was too soon to descend so low as to beg leave of his wife to see her in stead of the possession which hee wont and ought yet to have had of her and a wife which but three dayes before he not suffered to see any man Hee should have done like Alcibiades that bore away his wife by force through the publike hall and from amidst the assembly of all the people where she had summoned him to appear But he passed from one extreme to another and fell from a most insupportable tyranny into a dejected and most insufferable servitude Minerva admitted him to come seeher and this weak man thinking to mollifie by prayers her whom he had not had power to overcome by threats and recover by humility what he had lost by arrogāce not onely made her al the offers due from a husband to a wife but rather all the submissions that a slave oweth his Master Minerva for her part did render him all the honour of the world but without the least being moved by his prayers or any way slacking her pursuit most humbly intreating him to pardon her if shee sought the assurance of her life in that of herestate of which shee had not so much as thought had not hee himself inforced her to it So were their estates parted and by consequence their bodies for Minerva said she had children enough for the fortunes she possessed not being able to maintain any more she would by no means make any more Poor Tatius didst thou for this remove the earth Eye heaven it self almost to sequester this woman from her first husband to the end to see her now again sequestred even from thee Must thou make merchandise of thy whole fortunes and thy honours both of whatsoever thou didst possesse in all the World to have a wife which thou indeed hast not Minerva having rid her of this thorn out of her foot learned the news of Adraste and having bin informed of his lodging gave him presently to understand where hers was and Adraste went thither to see her soon after at their first greeting they staid some while to view one another both equally astonished Minerva with a little shame and Adraste with some wonder Well Madam said Adraste having saluted you have found at last that I am no lesse veritable then unhappy since my predictions have not onely proved true but unavoydable likewise Would I had never spoke them since they have proved so inprofitable and were received as ill presages which for the most part but foregoe mishaps Indeed Adraste said Minerva I avow it that you have shewn more judgement by foretelling my misfortunes then I have in myaddresses to avoid them but you are not ignorant it is more easie to foresee then to prevent such things by much The cause why we sometimes wisely undertake the things that doe not alwaies well succeed being cleere that it rests but in our powers to undertake as wholy it belongs longs to God to give the event You onely said Adraste have the art to make those things shew well that in themselves are nothing so which here I come not to subvert much lesse yet to complaine of you whose fortunes I lament more then my owne So have you indeed more cause to plaine my miseries then to complaine of my actions answered Minerva no one of them ere tending to your displeasure But tell me now how rest I in your memory and how may I hope to be therein reserved henceforward Assure you Madame answered Adraste you abide there better then ever where I preserve you with much more ease and farre lesle trouble then I was wont to doe And as for what depends on time to come you know we positively can say nought And I have been so much deceived in the event of things are past that I dare promise nought in future else had I sworne to you ere this that all the waters fleeting in oblivions streame are not of force to wash
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
yet seem good to me But I complain of heaven that hath bestowed on me so little merit and so boundlesse love according unto which proportions the one beares me to adore and honour you the other doth invite you to disdain and scorn me Nor can I deny also but that it seems extreamely cruell unto me to see you harke to any other speech then that of my complaint Nor that I conceive not an ill opinion of my selfe by the slight esteem that you have of my sufferance Yet Madame since that you are so pleased I shall conform me to your humours and make you see that I have no content at all but in what pleaseth you But if my frequent visits rēder you my passions importune I shall most humbly beg you will accuse your own perfections of the fault that in the image of such beauties have caused me to adore even cruelty it selfe and seeke the vaine shadow of contentment in a most sure and reall martyrdome The Answer Epistle 5. Sir I Expected the least of any thing such a Letter from you whom I beleeved better then ever satisfied in my deportments and intentions You judge both of the one and other rather by opinion then by reason and falsely accuse me to have done you ill since I have neither had the power or will and that you never can reape the good I wish you You have cause to say that I will accuse you of raving and to call to minde that I have promised to love you more then others This truth me thinks should hold sufficient place in your beliefe to hinder that any other contrary impression should ever usurpe the roome But if you take the pains to remember you of what you do complaine and chiefly of the complyance wherewith you say I gratifie all the world without remembring you You will finde they are but complements to which civility inviteth and obligeth me and that they have been more liberally imparted to your selfe then any man I am never importuned by your visits but on the contrary they have been so valued by me that I desire the continuance on condition that you give no more faith to any thing averse to the esteem I have of your demerits The Reply Epistle 6. Madame I Iudg'd what you would answer me before I wrote unto you and well I knew that you would not want words whatsoever reason you might see deficient in But I know not nor can I as yet learne on what deportment of yours I ought take up my satisfaction for either I am very blinde or else I have not seen any so favourable as might render me more satisfied then I have been Notwithstanding you have cause to say that I rather judge thereofby opinion then by reason for that I have pronounced them just against my selfe which reasonably I never could To say I accuse you wrongfully of the ill you do me and that you have nor power nor will therto were not onely against my knowledge but also against yours and cannot be said without gaine-saying the most certaine experience that I have proved therein against which it is impossible to beleeve that you have ever wished mee well As to my raving I my selfe give sentence against my selfe upon condition you confesse that it proceeds not but of too much love And for the verity of your promise I know not what place it may hold in my beliefe to hinder a contrary impression not having ever seen the proofe that was not to the contrary To remember me of things whereof I doe complaine were but to afflict me more It were better seek some meanes to forget them as her hath been their causer since that I neither can or ought hope other thing The Argument He amorously seemes angry with his Mistris Epistle 7. Madam I Should indeed never write more no nor speak calling to minde how much both the one and the other have beene bootlesse to me and how much that faithfull stedfast and most perfect affection which I beare you continued of so long time and with so wonderfull a perseverance might speak for me were not you on my behalfe the most imperswasible woman under heaven But the violence of my torments and that rigorous usage wherwithall you entertaine me when I ought be rather cloyed then starved with your favours constraine me to lament my selfe and to accuse you both of ingratitude and cruelty What is the matter Madam have you lost the name and memory of him that hath not any but to love you to serve you And is it not enough that you are lovelesse but you will be too without memory without knowledge How long have I sighed for you and you withstood not onely my felicity but more your owne Remember you that he that begs love on you now is he that of so long hath beene your suppliant and that it is not a vaine humor that invites him to it but the truest passion love did ever yet inforce Content your selfe in that so violent resistance you have made till now against your own good happe and suffer you your selfe to be orecome at last by an invincible spirit All things invite you to it and nothing lets you your honour is protected in my warinesse and my discretion and this same innocent feare you have to doe amisse in my favour is altogether causlesse God is no enemy of Natures but its Author and the offence committed without scandalls is no offence for this'tis said that they are blessed whose sinnes are covered But Madam the men of the first times having composed their civill Lawes did after give them out unto the people as divine to the intent to render them the more venerable and themselves the better obeyed in their Authority So Numa made the Romans beleeve hee had the Lawes hee gave them from the Goddesse Egeria And Lycurgus perswaded the Greekes that Apollo had given him his Stand you not then on so vaine a scruple which indeed is no other then a bare pretence to hide your cruelty And if you still doubt of that so faithfull constancie of which you have had so long experience Alas with what manner of proofe have I not testified the same which notwithstanding if so bee there yet remaines one I have not renderd may it include my life and all that ever I have command me heere that I present you with it that so living and dying in obedience as in affection I may cause you find me more worthy of the good you refuse me then of the il you do me The Argument He comforteth his Mistris on the death of his Rivall and manifesteth the excellence of his Love above all other affections Epistle 8. Madam YOu commanded mee to ease you of a passion gave you offence and at the same time promised to cure mee of another gave me death And howsoever I hope nothing lesse then the effects of such a promise your repose is so deare to me and your Empire so
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
you know sufficiently by former experience that my will is no way moved but by the spring that orders yours of which the least demonstration you may please to make mee shall be my fate You may absolutly command and forbid me what you please in all assurance of being obeyed I were I most certaine of death in the performance Yet have I taken an ill course since that which is refused to my submission and obedience is borne away by a strong hand or at least cōstrained to render it selfe to importunity But if you do not deceive me but are really besieged against your will whence comes it that you have such power in me as to command me go or stay just as you please and that you have no libertie to take a moment from another to gratifie me Is it not that it is onely I that feare you and that you feare all others Is it not that you love their importunities better then my discretion and that you will be troubled and not served So had it beene better for mee to have done as others for by the meanes of tormenting you like them I had possessed your entertainment as they have done or they had beene dispossessed thereof as I have beene and the disgrace had not exceeded the demerit of the action Notwithstanding Madam I shall never repent mee to have serv'd well I had rather been punished for well doing then noted for ill But I most humbly intreate your pardon if so I cannot brooke this passion sans complaint nor loose my time my understanding and my selfe for you without ere sorrowing for it I have tould you oft that you might render mee the happiest or most miserable amongst men But you can never render me what you may make me loose The Argument He complaines of the languishing he suffers in her absence and entreates her presence of her as the onely thing sufficiently able to chase her image from his thoughts Epistle 29. Madam I Thought by the request I made unto you yesterday to have given some bound and order to the confusion of my thoughts but I have done nothing but multiply my owne impatiencies I am mortally wounded in the imaginative nor is my griefe lesse certaine for being imaginary you cannot conceive nor I expresse the havock your image hath made in mee since yesternight It hath not failed to persecute and follow me unto but past the Altar respecting nought the sanctity and freedome of the Church as if it would withstand and hinder mee from worshipping of other deitie then yours Beauteous Minerva have pirtie on so many languishings which I doe cherish and doe amorously embrace for love of you that are the cause of them Afford mee your presence that onely hath the power to chase your image from my thoughts And if in opening a vaine this morne you have lost bloud If so you please command that I replace therein of mine The Argument Hee begs of God hee will inspire him with words of force to make her more favourable And he complains that hee had beene made to attend all the day for an Answere Epistle 30. I Begge of God he will inspire mee with words that may be pleasing unto you and that I may foresee the meanes to encline your heart to mee and to perswade you to become more favourable I lately wrote a word or two unto you and I have attended your answer all this day Have I done you the offence that hinders you to write No you pay not back with silence those offences you beleeve that you receive from me And if I have done none why hold you me in the uncertaintie of this expectance I shall trouble you yet more to complaine of this I were better bid you good day and be silent The Argument She answers to his precedent Letter that she knowes not what to say or send word of and complaines much of the importunity of those that visit her Epistle 31. I Cannot tell what to say or send you word of not knowing at what houre I may see you Never was woman in the world so importuned as I am or rather Assassinde I have not leisure so much as to write be it never so little Neverthelesse I shall afford you some houre after dinner or else it shall not be in my power Lament I beseech you and beleeve me your servant The Argument He replies that if she knowes not what to say or send him word of hee knowes lesse what to doe Epistle 32. IF so you know not what to say or send me word of I yet know lesse what to doe being much more grievously assassined by my dolours then you can be by your importunities Notwithstanding if what you say be true I lament you if not I am the man the most to be lamented under heaven You might disabuse me in one word and as I shall beleeve what you say to mee I shall likewise doe whatsoever you command me I am affraid you will cause me spend this day as others Patience is a vertue I cannot chuse but obey you and attend my life as your favour and grace The Argument Hee praies her not to loose her peace of minde in the affaires wherein she is busied And so fals in discourse of his passions and sufferings for her love Epistle 33. BEauteous Minerva Accept if so you please the good morrowes wherwith I present you together with this advise not to loose the traquilitie of minde you owe your selfe in such affaires as you are now agitated with Alas I trouble and torment me on your behalfe and for your occasions and have no care or thought that I can possibly withdraw from yours to apply them to my owne Madam I say not this to witnesse my affections you see them better in my silence then in any discourse of the world they can be manifest For all my words and all my actions too being bootlesse still to mee finding my selfe reduced to all extreamitie you pittilesse and resolved to see mee die most carelesse of my ill or of my remedie what should I hope from any thing I possibly can say Besides I know well this that I say now is from the matter quite and that you finding your selfe ingaged in thinges that more concerne you will now or not regard them them ought or else but slightly stay on them as you were wont to doe And how can I beleeve that this same Letter here should neerer touch ye yet then all the passions you have seene me vent and all the assertain'd dolours you have knowne me undergoe even with as little sence and lesse compassion of my ill then if you had seene mee suffer for another one So as if for a rare and singular proofe of my affection you wished to see the mad discourse of one distract and reasonlesse this same is it Yet Madam is there found a kind of ease in the complaint of things remedilesse and some manner of consolation in the relating of mishaps
your love and yet have you the heart to sigh for another before my face and the power to interdict my passions to make me wed yours I see a dead body preferr'd to me which living I in affection yet preceded and find you as insensible and whollie inanimate on my behalfe as he is on yours My whole labours all my affections and best qualities are altogether bootlesse you know without acknowledging my faith you looke upon my afflictions without once being moved and whatsoever might commend a perfect affection you behold in me not daigning ought to regard it Thou too too much beloved dead man whose condition is most happy in comparison of mine thou wert living beloved of the most lovely beauty under heaven and thou art onely he that art beloved of her as yet even after death Thou wert not onely beloved of thy Mistresse but thou wert likewise of thine enemie In stead of persecuting thee even to thy grave as thiefe and robber of my good which thy remembrance hinders me as yet to have I have honoured thy memory with my writings which have so imprinted it in the heart of thy Mistresse as now there is no other impression can take place for that Is there any complyance Is there any passion or perfection indeed in love that can come neere to this Madame I implore here the beauty of your wit and the integrity of your owne soule in default of mine that with this thought passeth away in transe and leaves me not with other hope or desire then here to see my life faile me with my speech The Argument He complaines of his Mistresse that she had failed him in a meeting appointed by her to walke Epistle 9. YOu sent yesterday to let me know that you could not come and that I should not attend you any longer I was told that you supped very late and you chased me away upon pretence that you would sup in good time A man should be extreamely purblinde not to see that there was something more in this then matter of Mastership and that you having threatned to deprive me of a particular entertainment would let me see that you were a woman of your word Hug your selfe for it Madame you shall never more be troubled though I continue ever in torment I shall not onely leave you your liberty but mine own which I pretend not to withdraw from so worthy a servitude where I chuse rather to suffer extreame tyranny then elsewhere to live beneath the perfects Empire No Madame what I pretend to is to make you see in an unparalleld respect an affection incomparable and in a blind obedience mute and inconsiderate how much inferiour to me I leave such as aspire to the glory of your love and how much I hope to exceed them by those actions which my courage and the violent ambition I have to merit you do promise meto atchieve in this war The Answere YOu conceive things otherwise then they be and according to your fancies whereupon you write to me as you please I shall better answer you by word of mouth then by Letter and making you finde your errour it will belong to you to make me satisfaction The Argument He justifieth his fancies Epistle 10. THe party you left with me yesterday can tell you how I knew not what to doe with my selfe after I had then lost you When howsoever it were neer night it seemd to me a tedious day There is a faire Lady neere you who lately told me she would gladly see me I light on him had procured me this honour who endeavoured what he could to get me thither but prevailed nothing howsoever I knew not how to busie me but in thinking of you turning and returning in my memory such things as you have said to me and those humours and conjectures whereof you accuse me after having your selfe caused them I humbly intreat you Madame take notice there may be fancies and humour without love but not love without humour and fancy and if you upbraid me with them as an error it is yet a generall one and common to all lovers above whom I have this advantage yet that I order them so as they never trouble her I love Most beauteous Minerva glory of my thoughts the soveraigne good of my life and extreame felicity of my soule who can render a more faithfull testimony of this truth then your selfe that can so casily moderate the furies of my violence How many times have you staied the most impetuous motions of my passions with one word yea with a looke No more then blame my humours that doe rather merit commendations since they make mee honour the cause that brought them forth and are not onely proofes of my love but also of my obedience The Argument Why his Mistresse should not be moved at his Martyrdome upon his departure Epistle 11. THere is nothing so strange nor any thing so wonderfull the accustomed vse whereof weares not out the astonishment Observe that death is most horrible notwithstanding which the habit theeves have in murther causeth that they kill men not onely without horror but with some kinde of pleasure and voluptuousnesse The comparison is bad but it is proper I would say that albeit my martyrdome be without example and that the novelty thereof amazeth me and renders me my selfe thereat affrighted you are so accustomed to plaints and to the teares of such whom you make sigh as that you suffer not your selfe to be the least touched at mine No Madame I beleeve your intellect extreamely generous and consequently pittifull but it is beaten so with such discourse as it but laughs thereat and lookes on me dying not only with dry eyes but with some sort of pleasure too Oh Madame were I capable of comforting the afflicted I should and not without good cause begin with my selfe rather then with those whose jealousies are more worthy of derision then of pitty You Madame with whom I am to part this day in no lesse sorrow then if I were to be separated from my proper life expect not words at my depart my sorrowes will not suffer them it will be much if I be able but to bid adue since that is the last word a man should use in leaving life The Argument He intreats his Mistris so torment him to the end such pleasure as she takes therein be increased proportionably to the increase of his torments Epistle 12. Madam I give you good night letting you know besids for newes that my dolours are become more pleasing then they were since I tooke notice of the contentment they bring you Wherefore I intreat you not to lessen them but to provide me new vexations to the end your delights bee increased proportionable to the aboundance of my punishments For I am not content to undergoe onely the ills you do me but I would yet too suffer those are done to you and become the most miserable soule that ever lived to render