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
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
THE SHEPHEARD'S PARADISE A COMEDY Privately Acted before the Late King Charls by the Queen's Majesty and Ladies of Honour Written by W. Mountague Esq LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the George in Fleetstreet nere St. Dunstans Church 1629. Gentlemen AFter I had seriously considered how to prepare the Reader to receive this piece with apprehensions becomming It's merit I discern'd my selfe uncapable to contrive an Ornament beyond the noble name of the admir'd Author When I have once intituled it to M r Walter Mountague assur'd it genuine I conceive the Expression imports an Elogie above the designe and reach of the most alluring Commendation 'T is known these Papers have long slept and are now rais'd to put on that immortality which nothing has â—itherto depriâ—'d them of but their concealement They addresse themselves to the inspir'd and more refin'd part of men Such as are capable to be ravish'd when they find a fancy bright and high as the Phoebus that gave it Such as have experienced those extasies and Raptures which are the very Genius of Poetry Pâ—etry its selfe being nothing else but a brave and measur'd Enthusiasm Such as know what it is to have the Soul upon the wing suspending its commerce with clay reaching a room almost as losty as the proper Scene of Spirits till warm'd with divine flames it melts it selfe into numbers as charming as the Harmony of those Spheres it left beneath it Such as are thus qualified may here read upon the square Others will finde themselves unconcern'd Happy Pen that hast blest us with such conceptions as render it equally impossible to celebrate and to imitate Happy Pen that hast given the little-God a garment as soft as the down of his Mothers doves This is all my thoughts commission'd me to say Except it be that I am Your humble Servant T.D. To his Friend the Stationer Upon the SHEPHEARD'S PARADISE IF names can credit Books or make them sell Believe Friend Stationer your cause goes well The greatest part of Readers will engage Upon perusall of your Title Page And those that come not in toth ' Authour's name Will from the beauteous Actors sure take flame I am inspir'd your gaine to Prophesie Me-thinks from utmost Inns of Court I see Young Amorists smitten with Bellesa's look Caught by the Gills and fastned to your Book But still there does remaine a stiff-neckâ—d Tribe Whom no Repute nor Author's name can bribe Through specious Titles who as easily see As through a Common-wealths man's Liberty Doubt such the least the learned and the wise Must needs he took with deep Philosophies And darke discourse at least good manners sayes They first should understand it e'râ— dispraise The Shepheard's Paradise A PASTORALL Saphira The Queen Bellesa The Queen Basilino My Lady Marquess Moramente My Lady Marquess Agenor Mrs. Cecilia Crofts Genorio Mrs. Cecilia Crofts Palante Mrs. Cecilia Crofts Fidamira Mrs. Sophia Carew Gemella Mrs. Sophia Carew Miranda Mrs. Sophia Carew The King Mrs. Arden Pantamora Mrs. Villers Camena Mrs. Kirke Melidoro Mrs. Howard Martyro Mrs. Victoria Carew Bonorio Mrs. Beaumont Osorio Mrs. Seamer Timante My Lady Ann Feilding Votorio The Mother of the Maydes Romero Mrs. Seamer THE SHEPHEARDS PARADISE The First Act. Osorio Timante Osorio WHat whisper's this Timante that wakes our Prince out of his amorous slumber and blows him thus abroad to seek for rest in agitation Timante This noyse Osorio hath past-by my eares but judge you how unfit to be let into our beleefs When it must be a woman's vertue that 's of proof against such power youth and honour as our matchlesse Prince attempts with whose repulse must counsell this retreat and that cannot be Osorio Constancy would too much cheapen herselfe should she impart such a proportion of virtue unto a woman when the rarity of it in that sex is that which hath raised Constancy to such a Vertue Osorio There 's a degree in vertue women may attaine to in their defence that they retain even after they are taken against Prince's assaults there 's nought to be required but a neglect of speedy composition for taken as it were by assault they remaine with as much honour as women were born to Fâ—dâ—mira hath already made such a resistance that it almost brings the possibility of Womens defending themselves against Princes in question therefore now even her surrender is a Trophie to her and the gods owe the virtuous Princesse of Navarr that satisfaction the dishonour of Fidamira who they say quit her father's Court in a just disdaine to marry one who loved another I am sorry the Prince is guilty of an injury to so excellent a creature Timante They say Osorio 't is Agenor that intercepts Fidamira's love to the Prince 't is surely fixt on him Osorio If it be so he is but justly punished for having set him so as all things must passe through him to Himself if his own joyes be intercepted by the way 't is a strange fortune of a man Timante redeem'd from death by such a chance as none can know who gave him life one whom but-forgetting must have kil'd â— preserv'd amongst the fury of a commanded extirpation of mortality trusted to the rage of common Soldiers who had pay'd so much of their own blood for this commission as it was doubted whether they had enough left to execute it In this deluge to see one â—ingle infant sav'd was such a miracle to me as I have not wondered at his succeeding fortune Timante It may be the Prince being a child then did beg his life beleeve it he was more to him then hiâ— father as reviving is above begetting and so loves him with such a supernaturall tendernesse above the fondnesse of a father Osorâ—o But look Timante where the Prince and Fimadira come their looks me-thinks imply so little peace that even their sorrows seem to câ—ntend for Mastery Timante Come Osorio let 's retire we shall know what kind of storme these clouds containe The Prince and Fidamira Basilino Gentle Fidamira forgive these looks and words that come in a morning to demand Albricias of you for the news the use I meane to make of this my heavinesse is but to sink me down unto a levell eeven with you that from thence you may receive your Equall not your Prince I owe your virtue my conversion for in persute of that which fled before me up to heaven for safety my thoughts were raised thither and detain'd and were thus blest for following you and their intent forgiven So now I may justlier resume â—he name of Prince thus given by you and yet preserve disparity between us for my becoming thus a Prince proves you an Angell and that prompts me to a demand which I dare aske because it is the greatest blessing mortality can tast and consequently you only can impart and sure I was not destin'd to owe you lesse then all the good that you can give Fidamira If I were sad
her I can now serve the Prince with such a rare uninterested faith it shall not wish for recompence having allready more reward then he can give the will of Fidamira Which the Gods keep for a reward of all his glorious deeds at his returne in giving him but even as much to give to Fidamira as his consent unto her will Which as the consummation of his glories and our joyes I must expect And now by loosing of your hands let fall this partition which they yet hold up And in this darknesse pray our harts may not lye long under the whole weight of love they now must beare but that our joyes may be restored to ease them Fidamira Mine shall turn inward all their light upon my thoughts which shall be polished as they shall still answer one another with the reflex of my Agenor's Image Agenor Move Fidamira now and let 's with equall steps fall thus from one another while this earth we tread by interposing of it's selfe between thy light and me shall shâ—ddow out this dark Eclipse Enter Basilino in his â—isguise Basilino It is no injury to Fidamira to leave her where I have put off my selfe I find a yeelding in my genius to the curiosity of passing by the Shepheard's Paradise to which peacefull harbor I have heard of such a strange repair o wrack't and hop-lesse forâ—unes as the distresse hath proved a blessing Enter Agenor Basilino Here comes Agenor not yet fitted for our journey Have you taken your leave of my Sister Agenor did she not cry she is fond of you Agenor She is pleased with me Sir as the object of your goodnesse Basilino I 'le advise with him You eome Agenor opportunly to vote in a cause concerns you too Whether we may take fitly this opportunity to see the Shepheard's Paradise as we passe forwards to Navarr I can have admission by a blank of my fathers with a warrant for it and the time of the election of the Queen which is every yeare the first of May is now within three dayes What sayes Agenor Agenor I do beleeve it Sir a curiosity worthy of an entire purpose Therefore not to be omitted lying in the way of our designe which cannot be better begun than by the information of your selfe in such a variety as all forraign nations do admire as it were a heavenly Institution that extends it selfe to all strangers whose births are such as may be worthy fortunes prosecution and the distresse seeme so desperate as it may bring honor to the remedy And this may prove Sir your neerest way unto your journeyes end the forgetting Fidamira For sure Sir beauty is soonest worn out of our memories by the imposition of new weight upon it and so the last presseth away the former And fame tellssuch wonders of this place as sure it is rather a religious fear than your fathers guard secures their solitude from the invasion of nations on the pretence of adoration And it may be Sir the gods will not indebt you for so much as the composition of your broken mind to any nation but your own Basilino It must be Atheism in love not change of my Religion it must be that beleefe which I resolve that Beauty is but an Idea not to be enjoyed but by imagination and by this Atheism must I be saved Agenor Agenor Ther 's nothing sure Sir so impossible to be enjoyed as your enjoying this opinion long unlesse you could refine your selfe into an Idea abstracted from your flesh You must not only lose yoâ—r memory but all your senses to retain this new opinion Can you think Sir beauty was never enjoy'd Basilino Never Agenor There is no Lover's soveraign-fancy that will not confesse that Beauty is so set up as 't is even above his highest thoughts and to endeare his thoughts alleadgeth an impossibility of thinking height enough Can our sense then Agenor get up such a pitch where even our fancy flatts into an excuse Agenor These are but Love's raptures that somtimes carry beauty above sense In any kind it were injustice to require of our senses the carrying of us above ground when they were not ordained to flie Their motion is towards fixt-materiall-objects which they can reach and are not bound to comprehend Lover's descriptions that enlarge beauty into a spaciousnesse where it loseth it selfe because it cannot be compassed Take this rule Sir Sense is not bound to follow any thing out of sight and within those bounds it can injoy all it meets Basilino Well Agenor we shall have leisure to discourse of this as we go let 's set forward then towards the Shepheards Paradise We must change our names I le call my selfe Moramante Agenor And I 'le change my name into Geâ—orio we must make haste Sir the journeys equall the days we have left for them King Osorio Timante King Are the lodgings prepared as I commanded Timante They are Sir you are obeyed in all things King When Fidamiâ—a comes bring her in forbeare till then I must do her some honor may be so suddain so strange as may o're take Basilâ—no before he can get out of our kingdome Fâ—damira all in black led by Osorio and Timante the King looks amâ—zâ—dly on her at the fiâ—st King I thought I might be tempted to owne some power to oblige such a creatâ—re on whom nature seems to glory to have bestowed all herâ— Yet I will not be so unjust to the departed Basâ—lâ—nâ— as to appropriate any thing I am to deliver to you For in his Will he hath left you all that I can give you Neither could I have beleeved it could have been so difficult the being Executor to a Prince For I finde more due to you than he could bequâ—ath or I dispose unto you Therefore be pleâ—sed fair Mâ—ide to ease me so much as to name your wishes since you have reduced a King to the beleefe of having nothing worthy of you and therefore dares not chuse for you Fidamira If the departed Prince Sir have in his Will bequeathed any thing to pious uses to purchase prayers for his successe and faire return your Majesty will prove an improvident dispâ—nâ—er of them in the choice of me whose devotion is allready kindled in so pure a flame as interest would dimm it and not nourish And even my wishes Sir are all so cleare from any stain of selfe advantage as they are such as your Majesty cannot possesse me of King â—ll 〈◊〉 Fidamira my impotency as a King in the disposing any thing so worthy and yet beg the knowledg of thy will in a more powerfull name a servant unto Fidamira Andâ— by the vertue of that name beleeve my selfe inforced to a captivity of any thing that â—he â—â—all wish Fidamira You have allready Sir furnisht me with an unlook't for wish the expiation of the guilt your proclamation of your selfe hath cast upon me I had another Sir so innocent as it was fit for you to joyne though you could
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
You shall be obeyed Madam The fourth Act. Enter Moramente reading of a paper Mor. MY whole life Saphira should have been thy Epitaph had not thy end dispenced with my beginning This is an obligation which my fancy brings unto thy memory which I will offer to it now Enter Gemella Gem. The Queen Moramente hearing of your indisposition is come to visit you Mor. The Queen Gemella Let her not be so cruell as so soon to interupt my senses in a sorrow that they are paying But the seeing her will set me so behind by such an interposing joy as will so lighten all I can pay after as there will nothing passe for weight Enter Bellesa Mora. Madam you have set all my sorrows that I ought my freind upon my own account for my unworthinesse of so soveraigne a remedy as your presence Bell. What distemper is it Moramente that detained you thus long from the Society Mora. If e're your sight did cure any Madam call it that for that 's the only marke that I shall e're remember it by Bell. They say you have a freindship so ieneere to you and so refined as you are wounded through it What paper 's that you seem to be suprised with in your hand Mora. The tendernesse of friendship Madam is the best constitution of it and misfortunes that fall first on friends have not their weight broken by the way but fall heavier as they bring them down upon us This paper Madam is a part that I have acted personating the unhappy Prince whose sorrowes I took so cruelly on me as they do excuse the insolence of taking his person too in this meditation on Saphira's death Bell. Pray let me see it Moramente Gâ—mella shewed me verses of yours the other day which I liked well they were discreetly passionate Mora. These Madam I dare commend more as they concern me not so much I 'le read them to you Madam in the person of the Prince upon the death of the Princesse of Navarr Having allow'd my sorrowes choyse of paine They have chose this the searching still in vain The cause of this strange death and though on earth I find more reason for 't then for her birth As curses are much more then blessings due Yet that doth not seem strange enough for new Methinks heaven's wisdom needed not disburse Such treasure to resume it for a curse But as the benefactor's use or want Doth justify resuming of his grant So the recalling her doth but imply Her want brought heaven unto necessity So heav'n did re-impropriate this wealth Not to impoverish us but store it selfe This then me thought did me some reason show Because it did transcend all reason so Then carried by this rapture up above I found that all the gods had been in love With her so as their immortality Would have been tedious to them if to dye Had been the way to her so to be even With all their loves she dy'd and went to heaven Bellesa The cause of your pain Moramente ought to cease if it depend on the finding of a cause strange enough for this lamented death Did you ever see the Princesse of Navarr Mor. I must confesse I am eased of all the pain that I have ever heard of and that which doth remaine doth not detract from your virtue Madam since I ought to think your knowledge of it would but improve it In not having seen the Princesse I attribute rightly unto the Prince who as I conceive could not possibly arrive in Albion before her death Bellesa Sure Moramente her Marriage was her death unto the Prince that breath which did bequeath her to another was her expiration to him Mâ—r. I believe Madam the having made her self away must needs lessen much his devotion to her â—â—rtues nor do I believe that e're he meant to love her but moved with a religious sense of those hazards of hers he was accountable for did vow this search for expiation not expectance of her love Bel. Sure love is very injorious or it is injured much by mens complaints for since my comming hither I have heard no pretence to a misfortune but Love hath had the imputation of it Sure you know what Love truely is therefore instruct me what in it selfe it is that never heard of it but câ—iminated with sad effects Moramente I shall retract all my complaints if I be so happy as to be the first that informs you Madam what love is and shall doe so great a service unto Love it selfe as it hath but one recompence great enough for my reward True Love Madam is a Spirit extracted out of the whole masse of virtue and two hearts so equall in it as they are measured by one another are the vessels where it is refined heated naturally by each others eyes and joyned by pipes as subtill as our thoughts by which it runs so fast from one into another as the exchange and the returne are but one instant And to confirme this doctrine you Madam by this receit may make it when you please Bellesa The reason then that I have heard Love called a poyson is when this Spirit is intended to too high a degree of heat Mor. If it be drawn from good ingredients it cannot rise to an excesse Pure Love is a virtue Madam that hath no extream and wild desires take but Love's name as rash blasphemers do repeat the gods by an habitual sinne by which they only do prophane themselves It is desire Madam you have so oft heard called poyson 'T is true that 's a mineral which if it be not well tempered and prepared is very dangerous but so disposed it quickens the virtue of all it mixeth with Bâ—l. Me thinks Moramente you conclude There must be a conformity of two hearts for Love's composure so a single one that gets not another to joyn with it cannot attain to Love's perfections Moâ— Loves perfection Madam is such a blessing as the gods have not left in the power of any one to consummate but to indear it by the difficulty have ordained it should depend on the consent of two This rarity in nature else would prove too cheap if every single heart could be possest of it Therefore I conclude that loves perfection must be such a compacted union of two hearts so close as there 's not so much as even a wish left out between them Bel. But how can this be done For I have heard most women say that when our hearts are softned so as they are imprâ—ssive then men thinke themselves their soveraigns having set their Image on them and so our hearts are rather wrought into subjection then that equal union you describe Mor. I confesse Madam there may be men as vain as womens fears but vanity though it take many marks upon it selfe yet leaves but seldome any It is so light Love never feels it as it passeth over it therefore Madam Vanity doth but polish Love in its own
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
may yet owe you more Mar. Divinest Lovers 'bove the praise of breath So much you scorn'd to joyne by lesse than Death By which emission you so much enjoy As one another would but seem a toy Accept this tribute and our souls inspire So farre tow'rds your example as desire Gem. Illustrious Lights of honour and of Love We but your shaddowes are that shine above Vouchsafe t' obtaine that we as shaddowes do May be admitted too to follow you Gen. Blessed souls that coppied Heaven here so Together as each other not to know I find these marks which Paradise imply As gain of sight and losse of memory This scruple onely now doth here remaine That I cannot from wishing yet refraine If it were ment this Heavenly residence Should but refine and not extinguish sence Let it my grosser spirits so refine As my undarken'd soul may through them shine The Fifth Act. After the Ceremony of the Toomb Genorio stayes alone Gen. ME-thinks I find my mind on wing loose from my senses which like limed twigs held it till now It is so light and so ascensive now it meanes to work it selfe above Martiroes I am already so farre towards it as the beliefe that I did never love till now O how I was deceived while I conceived that Love was so Materiall it could be touched and grasp't I find it an undepending ayrinesse that both supports and fills it selfe and is to be felt by what it nourisheth no more then aire whose virtue onely we discerne I knew before all I could have I am so farre above that now I cannot suppose what I can hope and yet am better pleased with this this inoffensive purity of my love emboldens me to shew it to Bellesa and in humility to her it shall ask somewhat of her as begging is the onely Present impotency hath to make to power and it shall be so far from being sensuall it shall be nothing but beliefe Enter Bellesa Bel. Your sadnesse seemes so welcome to you as I may excuse the interruption of it Gen. You are so farre from interruption of it Madam as you bring the cause along with you Bel. Have you not yet forgiven my curiousity to see the Picture are you of Martiroes mind Gen. Why she 's an Angell even in the knowledge of mens thoughts I what Madam do you think I am of Martiâ—oes mind Bel. In keeping your love invisible and therefore are displeased that we saw so much as the shaddow of it Gen. I am not of his mind in that I would shew mine because 't is such a wonder 't will not else be believed and as wonders Madam hardlyobtaine that so mine shall pretend to no more Bel. Do you pretend Genorio to be a friend unto the Prince and will make the Loving Fidamira a wonder in any body Gen. Yes Madam that were a greater after having seen you then that which I shall tell you Bel. I have onely leisure now to tell you Genorio that in revenge of this flattery I will accuse you of it to your friend Moramente who loves the Prince so much aâ— he will chide you for it I am now going into a privacy I must desire to leave you Gen. I am so cursed Madam as truth seemes dis-lustred by my bringing it I never committed sinne enough against another to be equall to this punishment As He goes out He sayes of leaving you To what am I transform'd when the name Fidamira is a torture to me Bellesa alone Bel. Sure Mâ—ramente hath imploy'd his friend Genorio to save him the shame of speaking for himselfe Genorio speaks so boldly it must needs be for another I need not be so shie of this my thoughâ—fullnesse since all the virtues they should fix upon are here objected to them in Moramants carriage Love and honour bent by humility into a lovely Arch on which my thoughts may safely passe on towards his person which when I consider I find it such as scarce needs humility to recommend it His Fate hath so directed him to me as he hath had a reall sence of my misfortune and his destiny hath been so kind to him in that as to indebt me some pitty to him as my selfe and the reviving of Saphira though it be by Bellâ—sa's death t' will not be welcome to him Me-thinks my thoâ—ghts would take aire a little to refresh themselves That Infant love that 's come to visit them would carry them abroad with him they shall go with him and be so civill as to entertaine him with musick Presse me no more kind love I will confesse And tell you all nay rather more than lesse So you will promise me when I have told you then Not to bring mâ— to witnesse it to men Though thusy ' are strong enough to make me speak Help't out by virgin-shame you 'le be too weak If I find thus I may be safely free Best by this freedom I engag'd may be I find a glowing heat that turnes red hot My heart but yet it doth not flame a jot It doth but yet to such a colour turne It seemes to me rather to blush than burne You would perswade me that that flaming light Rising will change this colour into white I would fain know if this whites inference Pretend pale guilt or candid innocence If you you will tell me which without deceit I will allow you light as well as heat Then take you care of me a meanâ— so rare Bâ—twixt mens vanity and their dispaire I finde so gentle drowsinesse flow o're my senses as if my thoughts had wearied them in carrying them thus farr and my thoughts are so innocent they do not oppose the rest my senses ask She falls a sleep And Moramente enters to her Mor. Was it the rapture my soule was allwayes in when she contemplates the divine Bellesa that did present her voyce unto me here in heaven Sure it was her soul uselesse now unto her body is gon to He sees her here lie sleeping and stands wondering visit heaven and did salute the Angels with a song Let sleep no more be called death's Image here is an animation of it Sure all the life that sleep takes from the rest of the world he hath brought hither and lives here Methinks I should be innocent too now Sure had I but even an ill coloured thought her soul that is in heaven would know it and come back to awake her with the alarum I will stay at this distance still and only take this advantage now to wonder Neerer her thus parted from her soule then I can do united he goes to step toward her Doth the ground move to carry me neerer then my soul durst goe T is true I find it is the earthlynesse about me moves me neerer then my reverence should keep me Methinks I am so neere her now as I all soul my body by whose carriage it was brought is now recoyl'd and my spirit is now shot out upon Bellesa And thus all