not grant the Prince his soon returne so crown'd with his desires as he may think he brings more joy with him then even your crown can promise him And this is Sir my only wish And it is so propitious to me as it makes your Majesty all the returne I can e're hope for those your offered benefits the wishing of you all increase of joyes and glories King Do not wonder Fidamira at the title I took on me I spake to you in Basilino's name and it was not unproper in the performance of his will to use his name And I am afraid I shall too truely take upon me The wish which you have chosen hath so indebted me unto you as I must speak something now in my own name and retract the promise I had made to Basilino to possesse my self of all my power which I think yet too little to tempt thy modesty to the choice of any thing it doth containe But do not Fidamira in duty to your King reduce him to repine at his condition in having nothing to present you with but wishes back again Fidamira In all humility and reverence to your power Sir I thus fall down to beg of you and that which only as a King you can bestow Libâ—rty Which I have chosen as the greatest blessing Kings are trusted with to satisfie your Majâ—sty in the obligation you desire to marke me with And I trust so much to your goodnesse as I think I need not bring the gods to plead for my dismission whose cause hath furnished me with this â—ute unto your Majesty the perâ—ormance of some vowes which will require privacy to perfect and thus your Majesty shall set me at Liberty that am yet in bonds unto my vowes Kiâ—g You have made so stâ—ange a choice â—â—damira as the unwilling giving it endeares the guift and that which doth perswade me most unto this grant is that you shall take from me that which is dearer to me than all you leave me your company and while you do avoid the merit of my actions you cannot disappoint my sufferings of some desert unto you Therefore you shall chuse what place agreeâ— best with your intent If you will accept this Pallace I 'le leave it to you and your privacy shall be secured to you by a guard that shall not come so nâ—â—re you as to let you know you have a house Chuse what Temple you like best and the entrance shall be denied to any other that no impure breath may mixe with yours But Fidamira these your devotions perfected I shall expect you do accept our Court for Sanctuary to that Saint-like innocence shines about you It were impiety to let you live in the crowd of common persons and your owne piety will enjoyne you to allow my daughter your companion as a pattern for virtuoâ—s youth Fidamira It would be to me Sir a retreat out of my selfe to be any where but in my father's house Whither I beseech you Sir I may have leave to return and remaine some few dayes after which I shall obey your Majesty with that devotion which is due to those whose Image you are believing Sir you will command nothing but what shall be meritorious to obey you in King You shall be Fidamira reconducted to your fathers house and there remain undisturbed till your own pleasure gives me admission to you Who waites without Enter Osorio Timante Carry back again Fidimira to her father's house Timante How hath this face displeas'd the King thaâ— was resolv'd before he saw her to lodge her in the Pallace with such prepared honour as raised all the Court in to a wonder of the cause Me-thinks I find now more then eâ—re I â—ould have guess't Exeunt Exeunt all but the King King O what a mock was this to aske me liberty while she was captivating me I had not so much power left as to keep her here when she would go She is so much already Mistresse of my will as she disposeth of it even against it selfe Whither shall I repaire for Liberty that am besieged by my owne guard these traiâ—erous eyes I must condemne them to perpetuall darknesse or they 'l betray me to such a light as will darken all my other senses even by the inflammation of them Will Love be content with no lesse Trophy than the inversion even of Nature â—â—â—ning the branches down into the ground and â—ake the rootes to bud and blossome in the aire Must Love needs have a garland of such prodigious flowers Now Basilino I find thou hast left me somewhat to do fâ—r thee worthy of a King to brag of the wrestling with these passions for thy sake which else I shall imâ—â—â—ce and let into my heart as an inlargement of it and my life But I will so allay this heat By taking Thee into its seate As it still shall be withstood As if I liv'd but by thy blood Act the Second Pantamora Camena Melidoâ—o Martiro Voâ—orio Genorio Belâ—eza and all the Shepheardesses Belleza chosen Queen Pantamora delivering the Crown to Votorio Panta ANd I into your hands resigne The Sphere wherein our Majesty doth sâ—ine Which mov'd and govern'd by a heavenly force Thus every yeare doth terminate its course Votor The gods Bellese by the voyces of your sisters have chose you Queen and you must now takâ— your Throne with this Oath I am to give you for the faire observance of all those conditions you are trusted with this Crown upon Which are the faithfull executions of the Lawes we live under and reigne over Read the Oath Bel. Give me leave fair Sisters while I am yet my selfe before I do become your Creature and so more obliged to wonder at your goodnesse to renounce all merit to this honour unlesse the being surprised by it may passe for any which if my person do not prove enough my forreigne birth will certifie much more Which as it will advance me towards your particular civilites must needs remove me from the pretension of this eminence amongst you Therefore your former favours can onely give a râ—ason for this excuse that to recover the desperate debt I owe you all you have resolv'd to lend me more so to 〈◊〉 me to make a retribution may comprise them all and for this end I may avow a joy in this your choice which I shall study so to justifie your judgements in by the complying both with the obligations of your debtor and your Queen as when I shall resigne that I shall have purchas 't one I shall esteem as much a creditour to you all Cam. We too Bellesa are deputed in the name of all to assist the ceremony of your Oath and the publication of the Lawes Vot Proceed Bellesa to the reading of the Oath Bel. By beauty Innocence and all that 's faire I Bellesa as a Queen do sweare To keep the honour and the regall due Without exacting any thing that 's new And to assume no more to me than
is made lighter still and is made currant by â—llayâ— So woemen like gold lose of their valew for the good they doe I cannot yet resolve to abate soe much from what I love so well my selfe as to submit to a propriety Meli. Nuptiall bonds Camena do not convey you over to the propriety of him they are delivered to they rather do enlarge the owning of your selfe For they make the same as your selfe what you vouchsafe to joyne unto it So you are still owned but by your selfe inlarged Dâ— not fright me then Camena with that word submission when all I wish is but this Identity To become moâ—â— subject to you because we do dispose of nothing so freely as our selves Cam. That which in our freedome Melidoro is an aâ—surance against these bonds after our engagement doâ— expose us most to the penalty of them This Identity 〈◊〉 man and wife this aggravates our faults as it implyâ— the husbands sufferings for them This interesteth that whose tendernesse hardens our lives unto us a husbandâ— honor which is so delicate as breath nay imagination wounds it and our afflictions are presently ministred foâ— remedies and all our suffering made legall by this Identity Therefore Melidoro I will not hazard the blessing oâ— my love to you by making you My-selfe who have a title dearer to me farr Meli. T is an affected cruelty Camena to punish me for possibility of sinning and not to leave me so much as your love to joy in by this ascription of my punishment to that No Camena this is a deceit full of apparition of your love which like the Sun now it is setting seems to draw neere us when it is remotest therefore now I must expect a following darkenesse Cam. Marke Melidoro how you that would decline mens easines to jealousy are allready insensibly crept into it Enter Votorio Voto Melidoro and Camena I come to warn you both to the Convocation The Queen hath appoynted to day for the hearing of a new Pretender the hour is neere at hand Cam. We will both go along Exeunt Enter Fidamira called Gemella Gem. My innocence hath strengthened even the weakest part of me so as to defeate the kings persute And now secured from those feares lest I should once enjoy a thoughtlesse ease I find a care rise up before me how I should disguise my story Fortune hath provided such an excesse for me as I might spare the halfe lest my distresse may seem so irremediable as to exclude me from this ease The strangenesse of my curse is such as it excludes all beleefe otherwise then that my complaint is vaine And t is no discretion to alledge the love of Princes for a misfortune I must therefore degrade them of that quality and relate them but as father and son this will interest both sexes in my pity who am fled hither choosing so to make peace for others to come and begg my own Enter Queen and the Society Queen The pretender is allready here le ts take our places and give her audience Gem. The very introduction to my story Ladies may be a pretence enough unto your pitties that I am reduced to begg beleefe of you in that which above all things derogates from your selves That your contrariety could be beloved And that which will avert you Gentlemen from the credit of it is that it may seem a scandall to have this love imputed unto men unto whose colours this of mine may seeme a staine and not an ornament Thus I am so miserable as before I plead my cause to make my judges justly parties against me but this wonder past and pardoned then the consequence may easily be beleeved because it is successively naturall A Father and a Son being the subjects of this wonder The passion of the son was first The father followed it unknown to the son of which the father meant to apply the first discovery only to benum and dead what was left of life This was that only pretence which the fury â—ealousy did allow the son which had perswaded as it seemes the father that the blacknesse of his thoughts would match the colour Nature had ment to sute with mine And the gods know I was so equally averse to both as they had made our colours The fathers purpose seemed to him past defeat and finding me one day so constantly unmoved with all those stormes lover's complaints do raise at last this swelling sadnesse broke into a rage and vâ—wed revâ—nge The which the strangnâ—sse of might be discrâ—ditâ—d in my beleefe had not the wonder of his love presaged unnaturall events He said he would reduce himselfe to a condition should defeat even my pitty and in revenge of my crosse-will would frustrate even my power of helping him And there he seemed to prove this purpose was designed above since nature had curst him unto the making of his cursâ— his son Whose making was not thought enough but his end too was destined to him and even for such a cause as was a greater torment then the act Therefore he said his thoughts condemned his son of more then parricide his intercepting of my love to him and he should be sacrificed to this suspition So little did the love of twice himselfe prevaile set by his love to me And this he said he did acquaint me with that my virtue which had been his tormentor might have the paine of being the cause and knowing this detestable effect without the meanes of a prevention which his instant execution should make impossible And thus he seemed to fly from me as if the pleasure of this act already had displaced that of his being with me Then I counselled by virtue in this strange surprise which seeing as her self she had not power to divert this rage did prompt me to disguise her into a shape might please his fancy for a while and so delude this fury by its own resemblance Then I persuing him with haste stayd him seeming to embrace his rage not wrestle with it Then I told him that I did allow this brave resolve as a temptation high enough to justifie my yeelding to And I could never have thought to have mett a humor worthy the matching mine unto I told him mine was none of those warme tender hearts that sighes could blow into a flame It had an adamantine temper which only blood can soften and that he had done like to that Painter that had the figure of a lyon running mad and wanting â—othing but the foame to represent grew so distracted with despaire of hitting it as in a rage he threw his pencil at it and by this chance did rarely perfect his abandoned worke and so his fury had throwing it selfe into so high despaire made up that figure which only could have taken me I told him that his feares were true and that his son was guilty of interposing between him and me But his offence was only naturall not active against him whose having of a son
a pitty to This is a lending of your senses to others torments whose joyes only they cannot tast Your own wishes in my minde could not releeve you since they tend only to others ends I do allow you so much advantage Sir as I confesse your present misery is above my feares But give me leave to aske as a stranger to your country and your story Whether this Fidamira that you named be yet a live Methinks her death might ease you much King Kind pilgrime In the absence of my son jealous of so much comfort as my care my cursed fate guided her the only way unto my guilt her flight I do not think her dead no more then a disguise may be a preparation to it As death may have a better pretence to seise her then as not her selfe than in the lively illustration of her selfe to whom all lives are due And to let thee see kind Pilgrime how due to me this thy ingenuous yeelding was I will direct thee to an ease of all thy miseries while mine are unreleevable I 'le terminate thy aimelesse course and point thee out to such an end whose saâ—e attainder shall center thy sorrowes up in rest You have heard sure of the Shepherds Paradise whose peaceable bounds have that strange virtue from the gods as to include all those within a peacefull acquiescence that are admitted there Thither repaire for though you have not griefe enough to weigh with mine yet your misfortune 's full enough for a pretence to be received even there And when you finde the smiles of that smooth place laugh at your wrinkled sorrowes past then for my sake dispute your joyes with those contented soules For you may sooner there outvie all their delights than my distresses should you run on in this sad maze till you did measure all the world and end your dayes Gen. I will submit my selfe to your directions Sir but to an end differing so farr from what you do prescribe as mine shall be in a defiance unto peace I will even there raise up new sorrowes which my distâ—acted soul shall there erect for trophies got from the contâ—sting virtue of that place which my sad life shall so defeate as all those joyes that shall incompasse me shall by the deadnesse of my sense serve but to prove my miseries the more compleat King Follow my counsell freind it may be the virtue of this place may be so strong it shall incline your own willingnesse towards your releefe I must leave you and I am sure not far out of your way towards my advice Gen. The gods be with you Sir and may you live to be a wonder in the contrary extreame of what you now are Alas good King how patient have I been to allow your sorrowes victory striving with mine which these were too that you brought forth For Fidamira's flight belongs simply to me and hath no comfort but the admiration of her virtues which this happy meeting with the King hath so exalted as the wonder mingles with the sense of my disappointment and so tempers it into a hopefull patience The kings counsell is so good it will serve for more then he intends it and I hope for as much joy to him as he meant ease to me I will goe back directly to the Prince and now assure him that the Princesse of Navarr is dead to stop his fathers course And as I finde his thoughts are fixt or moved from Fidamira so contrive his returne the which will quickly unconceal my Fidamira who must needs be hid in some neighbouring privacy secure from her virtuous feares This penance of not seeing her I take as due unto these faulty eyes that have been pleased with another object Which now redeemed shall make me watch their straying motions with a stricter care Beauty shall slide from them as it falls Like smooth things lighting upon crystall balls Whose touch doth part and not together fix Their own agreeing makes them cannot mix So beauty in mine eye shall meet with such I cannot fix but passe as it doth touch Exit Enter Bellesa Moramente Martiro Bel. That which you reported of the Prince Moramente is now fully confirmed by this Moor that we admitted last She past that way she said and so describes his person and his parts it seemes a miracle that faith or honor could have virtue to râ—sist his will Mora. I know the Prince Madam so well I wonder more at the unfitnesse of his wishes than at the gods refusall Which was a gentle punishment of his forgetting selfe And I beleeve wherever he is gone heaven will direct him to a choyce between which and his owne there shall be as much odds as between his choosing and the gods Bel You beleeve then Moramente he will love again by a high successe shall know he was reserved by heaven for more then he could wish at first you think heaven doth allow of love 's twice Mora. As it doth intend Madam all good should rise to its perfection our minds are but love's pupills at the first Which fit themselves but to proceed and take degrees and so our second love is a degree wherein our soules attaine to experience that imploys it selfe in loves refinement So not by the first step but by this gradation Love ascends unto its highest Bel. I will allow you Moramente Love is no irradiation of a light into our soules whose first instant brightness is in its perfection But may not the first spark be kept alive and raised unto as high a light as can the second which is kindled still by putting out the first Mora. T is not an extinction of the flame 't is but a change of the materiall that fomented it so second loves have this advantage they being the first instant in that height the first was long agrowing to and have the first comparison to rayse themselves by which must prove it higher by having got above it Bel. These degrees of elevation Mâ—ramente you require in Love inferr this consequence that love should be a continuall motion by change aspiring to transcendency For it comparison doth raise it so he is to blame that takes but one For by your inference the number must exalt noâ—last unto the greatest height Your inconstancy doth not concerne us so as you should strive to prove it a virtue to us Mora. In this degree Madam which I have named Love comes to touch a point after which all motion is a declination I do not allow loves leightnesse or variety contributors unto its heighth I do agree the glory of it is in a consistency in this elevation the second love attaines to because the first cannot know how high it is Had I thought inconstancy a virtue Madam I ne're had been blest with this so great a joy as seeing you Bel. What Moramente sayes Martiro seemes to justify the Prince his second love and so to make his cause a president to plead his own by
must not give my thoughts the liberty to play with Love as 't is an infant in beliefe that they can rule it Enter Moramente Moramente Your Majesty will be pleased to pardon this breach of your privacies 't was to perfect the cure you began by this acknowledgement of my health to your Majesty Bel. I receive gladly these acknowledgements as they declare your health not as they bring me any beliefe of contribution to it Mor. To assure you Madam of the virtue of your favour I must acquaint you with newes by which I have been set up since I saw you that might have pulled me down as low as did Saphiras death as I beleeve it will afflict the Prince as much Fiâ—amiras flight whiâ—â—er â—nknown to all the search the King can make But now I am so changed into your â—reature that I have sense for nothing but what comes to me through yours Bel. Why Do you think the Prince will be so much moved at this Is there any Love can give neglect the help of a long absence to joyn against it and yet master both Moâ— I do believe Madâ—m they are strong enemies joyned but against either of them single Love will have the better Bâ—lâ—esâ— You see Moramente I persevere your pupill still Therefore tell me whether you would choose against you To be neglected in continual fight or loved enjoyned to a perpetual absence Moramente You have almost posed your tutor Madam I must confesse that I would chuse the object not the speculation neglect doth but exclude from that which we never had but banishment doth interdict us that which is our own and so becomes the greater curse Bellesa You preferre then Moramente the limited pleasure of one sense before the large extent of all Imaginations It seemes that you have changed that worthy passion brought you to this place for some you have found here Mora. You were once pleased to tell me my cause resembled much the Prince in whose name I dare dispute it not my own Do you think Madam the Prince is bound never to Love but Fidimira Bellesa I yeeld the Prince is free by her neglect Mâ—r. Why did you couple us Madam and now let us loâ—se both together Bellesa I should not tax you neither if you loved ne're so many Moâ—amente I doe beleeve Madam I am so unhappy as to be thus indifferent to you And yet I think if you knew who I loved youl 'd punish me though you could not blame me for 't Bellesa Pray tell me not then I do not love to be unjust Moramente I am so unhappy Madam aâ— it were insolence in me not to believe you would be so And yet it were a freedome that all but you must be beholding to me for Bellesa Then I should be beholding to you not to tell me if it will set me aâ— difference with all the World Mor. The difference I make between you and all the world will make you disagree most with me and therefore I 'le forbear to let you know it Bellesa I would fall out with nobody for so little as to satisfie a light curiosity therefore I enquire no farther of it Mor. Give me leave Madam to beg this satisfaction from you that you would be pleased to guesse at it for I have such a divine beliefe of you as I conclude you cannot so much as be mistaken in any thing Bel. To guesse by your opinion it should be with Gemella She makes you such a full return at least her commendations promise it Moramente 'T is a strange fate that crosseth to be despised where e're I love and to be wished well but to my prejudice But you Madam have guessed as neer as if you had named any other in the whole society And now Madam I dare say that your knowledge is but thus wrapt up in darknesse to disguise it I know it by my curse your being thus insensible Bellesa I must give o're then the being your Pupill since you would teach me more then I would Learn Moramente If I remain but with the merit of teaching you your power Madam though my sufferings be the demonstration of it I shall endure all with joy Bellesa In these high poynts Moramente I understand you not I 'le bring Martiro to dispute with you he may be your Master and teach you how to rise up to the loving impossibilityes he hath promised me to prove the reason of it I 'le shew it you Moramente that will reconcile you to despair Moramente You have already Madam shewed me the impossibilityes and I already find reason enough for loving them your wil. Bellesa You are mistaken Moramente in the finding of my will more then I was in the finding of your Love even my ill will is not easily found and much lesse that which you seem to seek Exit Bellesa Mor. No certainty hath been a torment great enough for me must I now suffer doubt which hath not so much ease as a despair was curse enough to fit me with I could have resolved on any thing that could have fallen on me but this suspension is a Rack whose wavering flackness is the heighth of torture which excludeth a patience towards the ease of the indurance I cannot impute these words to chance I am enlightned even thus far for a curse to see she understands my passions I shall declare my self and joyne the name of Prince to that of Lover to assist me No I will try once more the single strength of Moramente which if it prove too weak I 'le call that of Prince for my Auxiliary which must needs help me to be wondered at if not beloved Sure Martiro hath not broke his faith for so little as Bellesa's information it must be for his own indearment and my distance from her Enter Martiro Mâ—r. Is the Queen this way Moramente Mor. She 's newly parted hence Martiro Mar I am seeking her with a command of hers and so have only time to tell you that freedom to a noble hart doth not let loose a secret but allowes it more room as 't were a recreation and that impression trust makes on vertue seals in that instant what it opens And beleeve me Mâ—ramente you shall allwayes finde the marks unbroken up Exit Martiro Mor. This must be true too for the exactness of my curse that there may not be so much reason as an ill office for her scornes but all Antipathy I will dispatch to my father as I have promised Genorio The circle now of Bellesas reigne is allmost closed and the last point that perfects that shall open me away unto that end I owe my fate Exâ—t Moramente Enter Mellidoro and Camena Mel. If my own joyes were not sufficient to proclaim the debt I owe you Camena the terror of those sufferings of which I am judge and not a party might well indeare this even security that you have setled me in Came. Methinks indeed we two are