world in our house for my father thought not that he might safely stay in his own house for fear least he should be watched for and by the King of Ca stiles command be slain by the enemy But he had put away all his servants and taken me with him insomuch that we were in a certain shepheards house something far from the village which was burned where no man durst dwell The Captain therefore and my mother entring the house and finding no man marvelled greatly and by my mothers intreaty departed thence towards the City Targonna where she made great enquiry for my father and mee but they could not hear of us But you must note by the way that the Captain had changed his apparel and put on a shepheards garment and my mother likewise put off her mans wéed and attired self according to her sex And within two or three days after they had been in city they chanced to light on a certain shepheard whom my mother knew well and who knew my parents as well as any of all our village Of this shepheard did my mother understand that the King of Castile returning to the castle where he had left her and finding her absent and the general Governour whom he would have trusted with a greater charge was so enraged that he hanged the captain of the watch for letting him forth and marching with his whole Army towards our village he destroyed all that he met with and put all the countrey men that he could find to the edge of the sword sparing neither man woman nor child This shepheard told my mother that forasmuch as he had séen my father and me in a little cottage adjoyning to our village he thought certainly that we had not escaped the Kings fury but that wee were both slain which bad tidings so grieved my mother that unlesse the good Knight had persevered in his comfortable consolations she had either died for sorrow or ended her grief by finishing her life with her own hands On the other side my father who by good fortune was forewarned of the Kings furious comming to the village escaped the danger which he was like to incur but when he heard of the proclamation which was made throughout all the country by the Kings command c. That whosoever could bring him the head of the same strumpet which refusing to be his concubine had by her dishonest enticements enchanted the heart of Don Alvares de Bazora one of his chiefest captains in his wars for so was the good captain called and bewitched him to love her carry her from her husband should have all the livings that belonged or appertained to the foresaid Don Alvares I say when my Father had heard this Proclamation thinking that my mother was guilty of the crime she was accused of and supposing that she had changed her praised chastity into wantonnesse he thought that she had allured the Knight to lewdnesse which so grieved him that after he had largely and lamentably complained of her disloyalty he took me by the hand and departed out of Aragon presently travelling toward Italy where in the Kingdome of Naples in a certain village called Cinqueni he purposed to live the remnant of his life In the mean time it chanced that the Kings of Aragon and Castile séeing they could not by war become Lord the one over the other they concluded a wished and durable peace among their countries making a perpetuall league of friendship between the said Kingdomes of Aragon and Castile Insomuch that the King of Castile returned to his Country with his whole army and in short space were the villages and towns that had been sacked and burned newly built up again and all the inhabitants of the country returned home to their houses My mother therefore desirous to know whether my father was slain nr no returned to our village with the Knight to inquire for my father and me but no man could tell her any news of us Insomuch that she verily thought that he was dead and I likewise she lived in that state yet three or four moneths which time being expired the Captain made earnest sute unto her in reward of his service and faithfulnesse seeing her husband was dead to take him to her husband swearing and protesting that he would be as loyall unto her as any man in the world might be unto his wise She acknowledging that he deserved more then he requested yet loth so soon to marry again did drive him of as long as she could till at length not able to gainsay his lawfull request she married her self unto him and to the end she might forget her former deceased husband the better thinking it but meer trouble to be cumbred with the remembrance of her dead husband being remarried she and her new husband went to some bordering town of Castile where they remained four years having a child the first year named Philorenus at my mothers request she being desirous to have a new Philorenus séeing she had lost the other You must in like manner note that the Captain sith the first hour that he departed out of the Castle with my mother named himself as my father was called to wit Coreandro to the end that he might be unknown which name he retained as long as he lived Thus they having long lived as I said four years in the borders of Castile certain mutinies rising in the town of their abode about the strangers that lived in the same place they left that town and went into Italy thinking the further they went from Castile the more they should frée themselves from the danger that might ensue if they should be known In this voyage my mother either by the necessity of her destinies or the labour of her troublesome journey fell sick and passed her fatal day in a certain village of Italy Her husband the Captain though he so impatiently took the death of his dear wife for whom he had brought himself into all these troubles that he cursed the Fates and blasphemed the Gods for ending her life and not rather his own yet after she was buried he took his son and travelled on his journey intending to passe over his life in solitary manner admitting no occasion of joy or recreation but onely such as he might enjoy by the company of his young sonne whom nature had left him as a pledge of remembrance of her whom hee so dearly love and it was his lucke to sojourne in the same village which my father and I dwelled in being called Cinqueni as I have before mentioned where this Captain with his young Philorenus and my father with his also remained a fortnight the one not knowing of the other This space of fourteen days being fullfilled the King of Naples sent two thousand men to burn the same village and slay all the inhabitants thereof for what reason I cannot now so well remember and seeing it maketh not for my purpose I will not
Therefore least if his father the King of Albion should upon my flight send new Embassadors to the King of Spain to have his son put to death for he divers times swore unto me that Periander should die if he any way hindered his marriage with me or brought Albion to be dealt withall not according to fatherly affection but his mercilesse rage we thought best not to expect the worst but to play safe as long as time and occasion was offered us To make few words Periander the next morning by break of day got out of the prison telling the Iaylor that he went to a place where Florina had appointed him to méet her and coming to the hous where I waited for him she presently departed from Sivil intending to trabel towards some solitary place where we might live untill we heard of the death of the King of Albion And because we should not be known if search were made after us we cloathed our selves both alike in the habite of country maids as if we had been two sisters CHAP. XVII How the Prince Periander and Brisilla became shepheards and how by the means of Malorena and Bergama the Prince departed from Brisill AT length travelling thus together we arrived to a certain village which is called Ezla where we purposed to keep our residence And although we had sufficient wherewithto maintain our selves yet the better to avoid suspition and to have wherein to imploy our leisure and to take our delight and pastimes we bought a flock of sheep and learned to play the shepheards as wel as we could none of al the inhabitants knowing but that we were two sisters For Periander was yet but young and had no beard and besides he was so fair of complexion that it had been impossible for one to suspect that he was no woman After we had passed over one moneth in that haven of content and passing pleasant kind of life I enjoying the presence of my Periander and he of his Brisil in spight of the world fortunâ— began to envy at our felicity and to evert the happy estate wherein we lived For it chanced that we being both at the feast which was celebrated in honour of the Goddesse Ceres there was a young shepheard being son unto one of the richest farmers in our village who casting his eys on Sybilla for so I named Periander who was thought to be my sister was fetttered in the snare of his beauty that we were so troubled with importunate requests and sutes of this youth that we wist not how to dehort him from folly or how to quench the burning flames which consumed the poor shepheards hearâ— For the crueller Sybilla my supposed sister seemed to be the more he was provoked to hope for mercy the colder she shewed her self to be the hotter he was the more she disdained the more earnest he sued the more she crossed him for his fondnes the more he hoped for kindnesse Insomuch that poor Petulca for so was that wretched shepheard called so miserably loved that all the Countrey knew by his colour what Captain he honoured and served His joy and welfare which was wont to recreate the whole company of the Inhabitants was changed into Melancholy His young face which was a fashion of Modesty Grace Mirth Beauty and Comliness waxed wrinkled his limbes weakened and all his body decayed So that as he was generally pittied of all men so were we most wofully grieved at his hard Fortune though wée could not help or remedy the same Nevertheless séeing that Petulca ceased not from his suit but so hotly followed his cause pleading for mercy to save his life I counselled Periander to fain as if he loved him hoping that we might by that devise and meane escape the ill will and anger which we were like to gain of all our Neighbours if the youth had died For his passion was such that nothing but death only could move him to leave his love Thus Petulca loving a young Prince in the habit of a lovely shepheard and perceiving that he had won the Fort which he had so fiercly assaulted revived again and in short time became as pert as trim as ever he had been He came twice or thrice in the week unto us and so pleasantly discoursed of divers matters as occasion offered that we could not have changed the recreation which he had by his honest company and merry conversation for the richest jewell of India As he had lived in this contented and pleasant manner one month it happened that the daughter of a shepheard called Petrueco dwelling in the next Farm to our cotage was fo intricated in the net of affection and so intangled in the beauty of Petulca that she allured him by continuall favours loving glaunces curteous gréetings pleasant spéeches and all means she could invent to gain his good will and to move him to love her but all the world was not able to alter his minde though we wished that he might have béen inticed by her deserts to repent of his first bargain At length when Malorena so was this unhappy shepheard named espied that Petulca was so ungratefull that he would not any way requite her curtesies with favour she began most deadly to hate my sister I mean Periander supposing her to be the cause of all her wo For as she knew Petulca was in love of my said sister so she thought that he was as well liked of her which induced her to be perswaded that we of purpose entertaind him the more kindly to hinder her matter whereas contrarily when we knew that she so dearly affectioned him we made less account of him hoping that he wearied with our coynesse might have lent his eare to his new Mistresse that honoured him so highly Yet howsoever we wisht her well and longed that she might enjoy her hearts desire she nevertheless being of contrary opinion became our mortall foe If she chanced to passe by us she did cast such a lowring look upon us as if she would have eaten us if she had lighted at unawares in the company where we were she thought her self the worse if she spake of us to others she belyed us and invented tales to defame and discredit us Yet all this served not but intending fully to revenge her self of the injury which she dreamed that we offered her she excogitated this stratagem There was in the same Village a beautiful young Mâ—id Neece to this Malorena who by reason that she kept her sheep in the next pasture to ours kept great company with us and became very familiar and friendly unto us Which her Neece Malorena espying thought to use her as the instrument of her supposed practises Therefore on a certain morning she sent for her made such a sugred spéech unto her declaring the occasion why she sent for her the estate of her love towards Petulca the love of Petulca towards Sybilla alias Periander and briefly all that concerned this matter
was so and that he would lead him into Albion with him to the end that if his newes were true he might reward him accordingly as he deserved But Pharelus spéedily appointing them what way each should take willed them to make diligent search for her assuring them that she was in those parts and that the same young man that was by him had seen her not long before being apparelled like a shepheard and countrey maid Besides he charged them to tell her if they met her what was passed in the Court of Albion before their departure and that sithence she saw Periander last that he hath béen at the village where he left her and there béen informed of the deceitfulnesse of Bergama of her own faithfulnesse and loyalty and of all other matters concerning the traitresse Malorena and that he is either in Albion or shortly shall be where he will expect her comming Herewith Pharelus dispatched them all and leaving them each one to look to his charge presently repaired to his lodging with Periander where they refreshed themselves being both hungry and weary Their repast being taken they took directions for their readiest way towards the Haven of Lisbone intending there to take ship And so departing from Leon they travelled along the river Ezla leaving the village where Periander had sojourned with Brisil on the left hand Where we will leave them going on their journey and return to Brisil whom we left rehearsing the history of her life to the shepheard Petulca and Philorenus with the rest of their company CHAP. XXIIII How the Aragonians were discomfited by the Castillians and the King of Castile carried away Philorenus his mother WHen Brisil had ended her tragedy she said Thus shepheards have you heard the whole estate of my life who I am of whence and of what fortune And forasmuch as it is not yet near supper time séeing we are so well met I pray you Philotenus for so I hear you named dein to make us pertakers of your fortune that as I have willingly made you acquainted with mine so you will let us know what hap you have had and what event hath made you resort to the Lady Felicia For by reason that I heard something concerning your self of the nymph Arethee who before I entered into the Pallace being by me and the rest of my company asked what shepheards of account were in the Lady Feliciaes Court named you among the rest I am touched with an earnest desire to know the course of your life Philorenus answered Most gratious Lady if I should do lesse then you demand séeing you may command I might worthily be accounted both unmindfull and ungratefull If therefore it will please you to give attention to my speech I will as briefly as I may not to be tedious unto you unfold the occasion of my travel and acquaint you with the strange effects of my fortune even from my childhood Brisil séeing Philorenus addresse himself to tell histale winked unto Marcelio and Ismenia who walked hee with his Alcida and she with her Lexander and they being come unto her she told them of Philorenus his intent which they knowing saie down by Brisil and Petulca with the other shepheards making silence lest they should interrupt Philorenus his purpose who began in this manner to satisfie their expectation I was born in a little village called Yervedra in the Kingdome of Aragon my parents were poor and of base linage and lead their lives altogether in the Country their name or kindred being of no honour or fame for nobility of discent though they were known and spoken of in places farre from them through the whole Kingdome of Aragon for their vertue and honesty As fortune had enriched them with many fair possessions so nature had beautified their persons with comelinesse and the Gods indued their minds with the heavenly influence of wisdome liberallity modesty gentlenesse chastity and many other vertuous qualities which made them samous above all their neighbours But Fortune who continually envieth the hap of those that be most addicted to pitty either willing to try the perfection of their vertuous constitution or rather intending to overthrow their honest disposition began to lowre and frown on the good and luckie estatin which my father and mother lived having store of wealth anâ— no other charge but me I being about two or three years of â—ge For it happened that occasion of Wars and Discord growing betwéene the Kings of Aragon and Castile both their Armies were encamped by our village insomuch that my father and most of his Neighbours to avoid the losse they were like to sustain by the incursion of their enemies thought best to leave their country habitation til the times changed and to sojourn in some of the next Cities until the wars were ended To bring which thing to passe my father spéedily travelled towards the City Targonna there to provide some house for his wife and him there to expect the end of the present troubles intending if he could find any convenient place for his purpose to return home and fetch my mother and me with the rest of the family But within one day after his departure it happened that the two armies buckled together and the enemie becomming victorious pursued our King that fled with all his Nobility through our Village to save himself in the aforesaid City of Targonna séeing his Campe was discomfited his chiefest Captains slain and all his Souldiers chased by the enemy and put to their shifts having more hope in their héels then in their hands Insomuch that the whole Army of the K of Castile swarming about our Village as a company of Bées pillaged and spoyled all the houses and farms taking the chiefest farmers and husbandmen for their prisoners setting them each one at such a rate or sum of money for their ransome as they thought them able to pay according to the substance and wealth which they judged them to have Amongst the rest one of their Captains entering into our hâ—use and asking for my father the maids answered that hee was in the City but he not beleeving them ran into all corners of the house to sée whether he were not hidden in some secret place and as he ranged up down through all the chambers at length he found my mother lying under one of the shepheards beds and pulling her out by the hand when he saw the decent proportion of her body the comlinesse of her face and gravity of her countenance he was on the suddain so snared in the net of fansie that he felt himself not a conquerour but conquered and spake unto her in this order Beautifull Matron for I perceive you are the Mistresse of this houshold the pleasant weapons wherewith you fight hath given me such a soothing wound that although it hath penetrated the very depth of my heart and yéelded me thy captive whereas I was in the number of those that this day boast of
For they marking his singular beauty and perfection of body his excellent grace in speaking his sharp wit and his comely behaviour thought him worthy of all the curtesie they could imagine to shew him Supper being done old Camillo took his leave of the strange shepheard and went to his rest But Perierio and his sisters keeping the shepheard company led him into the Orchard to take the evening air after that Phoebus had shut up his light in the Western parts And Euphilia desirous to know what sinister chance had brought the shepheard into such a Chaos of cares and world of sorrows began thus to be inquisitive of his fortune Gentle shepheard séeing that the night is no time to travell and you are so tired that you are like to fall in great danger of some sore disease unlesse you look to your self and rest your weary limbs I heartily pray thou to stay with us this night and you shall have no worse bed then where my brother lieth on nor worse bed-fellow then himself And for as much as the pleasantnesse of this cool air is such that it inticeth and provoketh us to recreate our selves therein if that you will whilest we expect the coming of the dark night unfold the cause of this your wandring journey unto us and make us pertakers of your evill and adverse fortune we shall think us to be greatly beholding unto you The shepheard would not be long intreated by such excellent persons but walking with them in a pleasant arbour of Eglentine began to discourse after this manner Gentle shepheards the manifold benefits which it hath pleased you to heap on me being a meer stranger unworthy by my deserts of the least courtesie in the world bind me to yéeld to whatsoever you can demand of me as far as my simple power stretcheth And therefore although my evill be of such nature that it cannot be communicated unto all kinds of persons yet the opinion which I conceive of your deserts and the valor which your beauty bewrayeth constraineth me to make an open rehearsall of all my forepast life if I may term that life which I would willingly counterpoise and change with death Know therefore gentle shepheards that I am called Marcelio and that my vocation and estate is far contrary to that which my coâ—t â—heweth I was born at Soldine the principall and chief Citâ— of the Province of Vandalia and my parents were of great authority abounding in wealth riches I have béen brought up even from my childhood in the Court of the Lusitan King where I was much made of and dearly beloved not of the principal Peers onely but also of the King himself Insomuch that he would not suffer me to part from his Court until that time that he had comitted his Garisons in the borders of Affrick unto my charge Where I remained a long time chief and general Governour of all the Cities and For tresses which the King there hath keeping my residence in the City of Cente where my misfortune and adversity took beginning There was in the same City a certain Knight named Eugerio who was by the King honoured with the charge and government of the City This Knight had a son called Polydor most valiant and couragious in all extremities and two daughters called Alcida and Clenarde exceeding all the Gentlewomen of their Country in beauty Clenarde was indued with singular dexterity in handling her bow but Alcida who was the eldest surpassed her in beauty Who hath so enamoured my heart that she hath been the cause of this hopelesse and desperate life which you see me lead and of the cruel death which I call and wiâ—h for every hour Her father was so carefull and dainty of her that he would scarce allow her at any time to absent her self from his presence which hindred me that I could not let her know the affection which I bore her But neverthelesse as often as I saw her I signified and bewraied my pain unto her by means of my passionate looks and the sighs which proceeded from my heart without the consent of my will At length I found occasion to write unto her and therefore unwilling to neglect such wished opportunity I sent her a letter the contents whereof were such Maâ—celio unto Alcida MAdam your honesty and grave countenance your modesty and wisedome your wit and great judgement and thousand other virtues with which you are most happily indued besides the incomparable beauty which increaseth your renown in all parts of the world have so intangled my thoughts in the considerâ—ion thereof that I have been forced to collocate and place the sum of my felicity in meditating the rare gifts both of body and mind by which it hath pleased the Gods to make your Ladyship famous But when I consider mine own unworthinesse and perpend the great difference which is between such excellency and my self such is the dispair which possesseth my heart that I suffer incredible torment Yet the force of your beauty constraineth me to judge my self happy in that I suffer pain for so worthy a Lady as your self So that I feel singular joy and gladnesse in my evil and receive an extream glory in enduring grief Pain unto me is a pastime to weep a pleasure to sigh a solace grief health which doth raise the fury of torment in me though therein I enjoy a blessed content All this do I suffer for you Madam it is your beauty and virtue which causeth me to be tormented with such contrary passions And therefore pity an unfortunate lover who offereth you his own â—â—fe and who desireth not that his evill may be redressed but onely wisheth that it may be known This was the Letter which I wrote unto my Lady which if it had been so well â—eaned as it was fortunate I would be loth to change my â—bility with the eloquent stile of Tully The Letter being secretly conveyed into the hands of Alcida at the first caused her to be offended with my boldnesse but at last marking the sincerity of my love and the constancy wherewith I not onely remained stedfast but also patiently indured heâ— sâ—â—rnfull answers and disdainfull looks her heart was altered and she moved to reward my love with a pleasant countenance So that when my luck was to see her I easily eâ—pted the â—lteration of her former frowardnesse For her very eys did warn me to be of good chear and I might plainly see grace â—eâ—ted in her forehead After which time I bâ—gan openly to shew my self to be her superior oftentime justing turneying and writing verses poems and many such other things for her service remaining in this pain the space of certain years Which being expired Eugerio thought me worthy to be his son in law and by means of some of the chiefest personages of the City he offered me his daughter Alcida in marriage And it was amongst us agreed that our wedding should be kept in the City of Lisbone to
knew not whether I did but dream or whether it was so indeed At last knitting my wits together I perceived that I was not deceived or inchanted but that with my naturall eys I beheld my wife and my son being a pretty tall wag about four years old But to see the churlish nature of fortune who though she seem to favour men yet she doth in such manner with wrinkled frowns intermingle her favours that they have no cause fully to rejoice of her benefits And so it fared with us for what greater chance in the world might have glutted our hearts more with joy then this that I seeking Eleonora found her and Eleonora seeking Maffeo found him likewise each of them saluting the other and speaking the one to the other And yet contrarily what greater grief then this that we had found each other saw each other and spake one to another and yet could not come one to the other being separated by that being somthing large and very deep I could not swim Eleonora lesse and so we were in the pittyfullest taking that might be in the world Eleonora told me that she had travelled one day and a half along the bank-side of the river and had seen no bridge from the place where she was unto the side where I was Insomuch that we could not imagine how we might do to travell both together for we were â—oath seeing we had so happily met with each other to part again fearing least we should hazard our selves into danger of our former mischance What remedy I wanted my sword to cut down trees to serve me for a bridge and loose wood there was none Nothing rested but this that we should travell along the river by the banks side she of the one side of it and I on the other side of it untill such time as we had found means to get together After we had marched in that sort four or five hours in which space she had declared me how she was saved from the present danger of drowning by the means of a Spanish galley how that the chief ruler of the staves that rowed in the galley kept her in a close prison because she would not consent to his wicked and filthy desires and how that by means of one of the galley slaves after she had been in that miserable and loathsome captivity two years and a half set on shore and brought to a country village not passing forty miles from the place where I found her we met with a shepheard his wife who told us that we should within a small mile find a bridge to passe over the river whereof we were passing glad And in short space reaching to the bridge I passed over to the other side and embraced my beloved Eleonora my young Olphonsus who began prettily well to prattle in the Spanish language for his mother used continually to speak Spanish unto him But mark gentle shepheards how fortune still sought to bar us from perfect felicity For as we were thus imbracing one the other and rejoycing of our good successe after so much ill suck and so many dangerous chances came thrée tall lubberly Moors each having a good cudgell in his fist who approaching near us and being enamoured with the beauty of Eleonora presently fell upon me and hinding me hand and foot rowled me to the bank-side where they left me But Eleonora and the boy they carried with them whither I knew not untill the next morning that she having escaped from the Villains who were so busie in robbing a Farmers house that they took but little regard of her told me her self being returned to the same place where they left me bâ—und You must note that the thée vs had set Eleonora with her child upon this horse which they had stolen with all the furniture belonging unto it from some Farmer by the way and had loaden it with swords and other weapons with all which she ran away and rested not till she approached the bridge néer which I lay bound I very glad to sée her and my son incontinently cast of all the weapons and other trash saving this sword which I kept for my defence And thinking it scarce safe to stay long in that place we rode on a good pace till we reached to a small village where we lighted Assoon as we perceived the darknesse of the night to fly from the beautifull glimps of Lady Aurora to horse we hied and rode on still towards the next haven But Phoebus darting his beams on the plains so enflamed the air with the heat thereof that we were compelled about mid-day to alight and to shroud our selves from the Sun under a Trée that stood in the middest of the high-way The passing heat made me slumber and from that slumbring I fel so fast asleep that awaking I missed Eleonora and what was become of her I knew not but that the child which was by me cried and told me as well as it could that the naughty man had run away with his mother Whereby I suspected that some villain or other was by Fortune suborned again to crosse me with her currish envy In what grief and perplexity I was at that present time you may think gentle shepheards by your selves how perplexed you would be if you were in the like case yet séeing it was not the first time I had been in like taking I stuck to patience and cleaved to hope For my heart was so hardened in unfortunate events unhappy chances that contemning Fortune and all her power I could better behave my self in adversity then I was accustomed And therefore spéedily leaping on horseback I took up my Alonso with me rode till I came to the next village where leaving the child with an honest shepheard unto whom I declared the case wherein I was promising to reward him throughly for the boys maintenance til I fetched him theÌ„ce which I hoped would not have been long desiring him to use it well I posted theÌ„ce to séek swéet Eleonora that poor Eleonora whose life was so miserable because so dear to me As I coursed with my steed up down the wildest and solitariest places of the country at length this morning being the sixt day after I lost Eleonora I fel into the hands of the same villains that took away Eleonora the first time when they tyed me by the unfortunate Bridge These on every side assailed me some behind some before and some of them on each side of me for they had increased their company by four men so that there were seven of them Yet by the help of the Gods and my sword I so acquitted my self that with no worse wounds then these I got from them and recovered this Scarff which Eleonora for hast had forgotten and left behind her when she ran away with this horse Thus gentle shepheards have you heard the whole history of my life and I hope you are satisfied as concerning your
thereof began to be wonderfully discomforted and thought his pain vainly bestowed séeing that Fortune was blinde and made no discretion of persons but ever wrought by chance bestowing her favours not where she would but where they fell Perierio thus discomforted climing on the top of a hil heard a most swéet and melodious voyce sounding to a harp within a little wood where the high Oâ—kes made a pleasant shadow And drawing néer to the wood he marked that it was the voice of a shepheard who after she had ended her song began thus to complaine of her misfortune No doubt but all the starrs that from the skies send light on the earth have agréed and consented to my mishap and ill fortune neither is there any thing on earth that may yield me any comfort or consolation but love which is subject to fear turneth and converteth my sorrowfull soule into pure ice Ah Fortune how canst thou be so cruel How canst thou forbear to succour a heart so distressed as mine séeing that I am falsly suspected of disloyalty And therefore I must accuse thée Lexander thou art the man whom I must burthen with the cause of all my grief unto thée do I discover and unfold my plaints hard-hearted and cruell Lexander in whom no pitty taketh place For if thou wer'st of my side I would not care though Heaven Earth Love and Fortune were against me and enemies unto me After that she had ended her complaint she fetched a heavy sigh from her heart and therewith wept so bitterly that Perierio might easily perceive that she was in that pittiful and lamentable taking by reason that her husband falsly suspected her to be disloyal and unfaithful so that he entred into the wood and found her sitting upon the grasse in the shade néere to a delectable Fountain which issuing from the top of the hill ran along a great part of the wood in divers places But when she saw Perierio comming neer her though she was something discontented that she was interpelled amidst her passions yet beholding that he seemed by his behaviour to be some Shepheard of great account being most courteously by him greeted saluted him likewise with such modesty that he began to misdoubt whether she were Alcida the promised spouse of Marcelio For he called to mind how that Marcelio had told him and his sisters that Alcida had cloathed her self in the habit of a Shepheard because she might be the harder to be found by him and therefore spake thus unto her Beautiful Shepheard for so your coat bewrayeth though your singular grace make me suspect that your calling is contrary to your colours I shall desire you not to be discomforted though I have troubled you at this time intruding my self into your company for as I have discourteously offended so shall you find me most ready to make amends for my boldnes Gentle shepheard answered she I am so forsaken of al comfort and solace that good company cannot offend me therefore where no fault is committed there is nothing to be misconstred of And to put you out of suspition know that I am a shepheard as wel in vocation as in habit called Iâ—menia and born néer to the Temple of Minerva in the kingdom of Portugal But I pray you what chance hath brought you hither into these Countries or do you by hap dwell hereabout In truth Ismenia quoth Periorio my ill fortune hath brought me hither for I neither dwell here nor ever was in this place before I was born in Italy but with my father and sisters transported to the fields annexed to the river Epla about four or five dayes journey hence I know the place very well quoth Ismenia it is not far from the pasture where fair Euphilia so renowned in all that quarter doth féed her shéep I hear you name my sister quoth Perierio and am glad to have met with one that is not wholly unacquainted with our Family What say you quoth Ismenia In truth unto a woman so distressed as I am being desolate and forsaken of my loving husband nothing could have hapned more wished for then to have met with such honest and vertuous company as it hath pleased the Gods to comfort me withall in directing your self towards these woods And forasmuch as I am in mind to go to the Temple of Diana if your journey ly that way I shall think my self among so many mishaps to have received no small favour of Fortune As for me quoth Perierio where I am I know not nor whether I may go and therefore am induced to think that Fortune beginneth to repent her self of her shrewdnesse in that she hath favoured me with so worthy a guide as your self to lead me forth of my straying errours to some place where I may enquire for directions in my journey And I am most passing glad that you go towards the Temple of Diana of the sumptuousnesse whereof I have heard such famous relation among the Shepheards in the Village néer my fathers Farme that I have a long time been moved with great desire to see the same And therefore fair Shepheard take which way you will and Perierio will follow you Ismenia glad that this Shepheard was in her company began to march hoping before Phoebus should attain to his Western home that they should reach to a Farme where she thought that they might be lodged that night But to shun tediousnesse in their wearisome journey Perierio desired her to recount and declare the cause of her griefe unto him Ismenia answered that although the memory thereof could not but pierce her heart with the prick of exceeding sorrow yet notwithstanding because he desired whom she could not say nay she was content to make a pastime of her misery And thus in this ensuing Chapter began the History of her Tragedy CHAP. XI How Lexander was enamoured on Ismenia and how he was crost in his love by his father Filene IN our Village dwelled a certain Farmer that had a comely youth to his son in beauty passing all the Shepheards thereabout being called Alanio who féeding his shéep in a pasture ground not far from ours used sometimes to come to me and keep me company sitting in the shadow by me and telling of tales or passing over the time with some other kind of honest recreation whereby at last grew such a familiar acquaintance betwixt us that love joyning our hearts together we were not well while we were separated the one from the others company To be short he loved me and was loved of me There was in the same Village a fair beautiful Shepheardesse called Selvagia who for her beauty might be compared with Venus in the valley before Parys when she won the golden Apple Of which Shepheard my Alanio became enamoured wherupon I to be revenged on him fained to favour Lexander his deadly enemy Which fained love of mine at length by reason of the acquaintance that grew between us changed into such pure
I have nourished him carefully and maintained him as a father ought to do brought him up painfuly taught him and instructed him and what trouble paines and labour I have had with him what counsel I continually have given him and how mildly I have rebuked and chastised him in his youth Now is he sorely against my will married to the Shepheardess Ismenia and because I have rebuked him therefore instead of revenging himielf on the shepheard Alanio who shamefully entertaineth as all the Village knoweth the said Ismenia his wife he hath turned his rage against me intending to murder me He found meanes the last night to enter into my house yea into my bed-chamber where I lay and slept with my wife Felisarde and there with this ponyard would have slain me and verily had dispatched me if God of his grace had not taken his force from him in such sort that he could not hold the dagger in his hand but was constrained to let it fall and so confounded and bereft of his sences departed without executing his damnable enterprise And this is it that I had to say thus is the matter verily passed as my beloved spouse can better inform you But for as much as I certainly know that my son Lexander had not taken upon him to commit such an horrible treason against me his father unlesse he had been counselled and provoked thereto by the inticements and allurements of his wife Ismenia I beseech you to perpend and weigh what ought herein to be done to the end that my son may be punished for his offence and false Ismenia also as well for the counsel which she hath given unto her husband as for her lightnesse and dishonest love towards Alanio Filene had scarce ended his tale but the people began to murmure and make such a noyse that it séemed that the whole Village should have presently sunck in the ground in so much that the hearts of all the Shepheards were troubled and all conceived generally mortal hatred against Lexander Some said that it was pitty he should live till Phoebus had reached to his Meridian seat others said that he ought to be cast into the River others that it was pitty if he were not burned quick and others that he ought to be committed to the mercy of the cruel and savage beasts finally there was no one person that was not stirred up against him Besides they did likewise all marvel of that which Filene falsly alleaged concerning my life but they were neverthelesse all of them so amazed at the fact Lexander that they did not greatly hearken to the accusation and impeachment which Filene most falsly by reason of Felisarde his wives deceitful spéech had made against me When Lexander had heard what his father had deposed against him in the Court of criminal cause in the presence of the Iustices and audience of all the people he was wonderfully grieved besides when he understood what his father had said against me he conceived such excéeding sorrow that it passeth my ability to express the same And thence commeth all my grief thence took my evil it offspring that was the cause and beginning of all my labours travel pain and sorrowes For my dear husband Lexander remembring that in times past I did love was loved of Alanio and that love forgotten and dead oftentimes may be renewed and revived again because he saw that the Shepheard Alanio whom I could not abide to sée whom I abhorred for Lexanders sake was yet amourous of me daily shewing me such curtesies and importunate cherishments he thought verily and perswaded himself that all was most certain and true which his father had spoken of me in the face of the world In such maner that he dispairing as well for the treason committed unto him by Traitress Sylveria as for the suspition which he conceived of me departed incontinently from the village since which time he was never séen there nor any news brought what is become of him And as I knew that he was departed and the cause wherefore by report of certain shepheards his friends unto whom he had rehearsed the whole matter I likewise left the village to séek him and intend not to rest any where untill I find my sweat spouse to the end that I may excuse and clear my self unto him of that fault which is falsly imputed to me and which he suspecteth to be most true It is long since I have wandred up and down through the world to seek my husband and although I have sought him and inquired for him in most places and especially all the chiefest and principall farmes houses villages and boroughs of the country yet can I not hear any thing of him The best adventure that I have had in this my endlesse voyage was that two days after I departed from our village in a certain valley I met the traitresse Sylveria who having heard of the voluntary exile and banishment of my husband Lexander went after him to discover her treason unto him repenting that she had so highly offended him But she had not as yet found him and as soon as she saw me she approached near me and falling fiâ—t on her face cried me mercy and at my will rising she opened the whole matter vnto me Whereof I was not a little glad thereby understanding how that abhominable treason was practised against us And although I was but a weak woman yet I could have unlaced the traitresse members and teared her to piece-meal with mine own hands yet I withheld my self because she onely could remedy my harm by reporting her own mischief I willed her diligently to seek my beloved Lexander and to give him notice how all the matter was passed and therewith on the sudden I left her going one way and I came anut her to the end that either of us might find him Thus gentle shepheard have you heard the plain and true rehearsall of all my miseries and calamities And for as much as Phoebus is not yet drowsie or sleepy nor like to reach to his Western bed so soon if in like manner you as I have done will take pleasure in reporting the cause and off-spring of your wandring errors I doubt not but we shall reach to the place where I hope we shall rest this night by that time that you have added the canclusion to your narration Alas quoth Perierio the conclusion must néeds follow quickly where the narration is sooner ended then begun For all the speciallity that I can use in declaring the cause of my misery is this generall rule that I know that I am most miserable For I love but whom I know not and that is all I can say concerning my self Perierio hod scarce ended his words but Ismenia made sign that he should hearken to a certain voice which she thought to Have heard in the woods for there was a Gentlewoman in the habit of a shepheard not far from the place where they
that we conceive by your comming is such that we think our selves honoured with your presence and therefore acknowledge our selves beholding unto you in that you disdain not of the unworthy company of such simple shepheards as we be As for the acquaintance which you say you have had with our friend Petulca as we are altogether ignorant of so doe we not envy at his luck in that so gracious a Princesse as your self beareth a remembrance of him As Petulca thought to ask pardon for his unmindfulnes and to excuse the weakness of his memory in that he could not remember that he had in all his life time séen any Lady comparable to her for her beauty or estate much less to have seene her the Duches staied him saying Well Petulca thy company thinketh thée happy that I beare memory of thée but I pray you unhappy may I be thought to be séeing that thou disdainest to know her whom I thought you would not have forgotten so soone Is this the memory you have of me and my sister Sybil whom you so dearly loved Is this the remembrance you beare of cursed Malorena and dissembling Bergama who for thy sake sought our ruine Petulca amazed to hear her say this and knowing her by her voyce to be the same Brisil that sojourned among the shepheards of his Countrey at length burst out into these words Ah gracious Princesse the Gods know that I have not forgotten neither you nor Periander who under the name of Sybil in the habit of a shepheard bearing title to be your sister hath caused my grief and forced me to undertake this troublesome journey intending never to return home till I have found him and letting him know the Treason and malicious dealing of Malorena and Bergama to exhort him to race out the false surmise and suspition which he hath grounded in the bottome of his heart of your disloyalty For séeing that for my sake he hath been so horribly abused and brought into that errour I will hazard my life to restore him unto his former estate againe to the end that he may enjoy you and your self to him And marvel nor Lady that I knew not your person though I will remember you◠acquaintance for as the Sun is in respect of the least star of the sky the rose in respect of the nettle the juniper trée in respect of the thorn bush and the Lordly Chrystal in respect of the base glasse so is your Ladiship now in respect of the time that we were feasted by the dissembling Traitress Bergama in her Arbor And therefore séeing that I had not as yet understood having enquired of the Lady Felicias Nymphs of your calling any other thing of you but that you were a certain Princesse of Albion and that we should shortly hear of the cause of your comming and more largely know the course of your fortune I hope your Grace will not think the worse of me who have vowed my body and life to do service unto your loving Periander what state or calling soever he be of Thanks kind Petulca quoth the Duches and perswade thy self that I think no otherwise of thée then I did at any time And to the end that thou mayst understand the truth and verity of all my troubles and know what Periander is and also what caused him to fain himself to be my sister being attired in shepheards attire I will briefly and truly rehearse unto thee in this good company of shepheards so I be not troublesome unto them the whole state of my fortune But first I must intreat you to tell me how long you have béen here when you departed from the village and what successe you have had in your journey Then may it please you to understand quoth Petulca that after the malicious traitresse Malorena had cast her self into the river to take penance for her heinous offence by her own appointment the whole Village was made acquainted with her villany detesting her for her malice and marvelling at Periander and your self for your perfect love in marvellous manner mourning for his departure and your mishap Insomuch that the chiefest of the village sent for me to understand the truth of the whole matter which when I had declared they took order with me that I should speak with you and comfort you letting you know what they had appointed to do in your behalf for they intended to make enquiry through all the country after Periander to the end that he might be enformed of all that had hapned in the Village concerning malicious Malorena and so be induced to return again unto you knowing the sayings of Malorena to be false and invented by her pestiferous brain Whereupon I most ready to do any thing that might redownd to your content betimes the next morning went to your lodging but there I found you not nor could learn of any one of your Neighbours what was become of you whereof how sorry I was I leave to the Gods to witness and not I onely but the whole Village most grievously lamented your sodain departure At length I resolved not to rest in any place till I had found Periander and let him know how he had been abused by Malorena and how you were injured by him in that he giving credit to such a malicious maid lest you to passe your life in such discontent and grief for his cause To the end that if Fortune had been so froward as to deprive him of your company for ever by some sinister hap yet he should know how faithfully you loved him séeing that your loyalty was knowne unto the whole Countrey Whereupon I having first caused dissembling Bergama as an instrument and helping cause of this mischief to be banished until such time as Periander and you were together and consented to have her released from exile I betook my self to my journey and having travelled two dayes and two nights at last I arrived in a Country house where I was very courteously used by a certain shepheard who took pleasure to talk with me concerning the cause of my comming for that he had himself not passing eight year since almost coursed over the world to seek his wife which was carried away upon a certain time by a Duke that riding that way caused his men to take her with them he being abroad in the field And that after he had taken so much paines it was his luck at length to come to the Temple of Diana where the Lady Felicia dwelleth who helped him to his wife again Therefore the shepheard having entertained and feasted me very courteously and bountifully set me into a way which directly brought me to this place assuring me that I should of this Lady be enformed of all matters concerning those that I sought for as in truth I have found his words not disagréeing unto verity For being arrived here two dayes since the Lady welcomed me not as a simple Shepheard but rather like some worthy person of
body whereas you say that the Gods strive against fortune to free us from her frowardnesse I am constrained to say no lesse seeing that it hath pleased their Deity by him to lose me from this danger of death by reason of whom though not by his procurement all my troubles and miseries took beginning Wherefore seeing that our luck is such that as the evil successe of your fortune was cause of my misery so the recovery of your hap hath bred my blisse and delivered me frem the extream perill wherein my life was placed What may I say lesse but that the Gods knowing how we have by fortune been wronged have rescued us from her fury But because it would be too long for me to rehearse and tedious for you to hear the end of his speech and the other talk which we had between us concerning such matters as had happened by reason of our great likenesse I will onely tel you that after we had had some conference touching our parents and other matters we caused those Egyptian villains to be tied to the horse tails and so trailed along the ground till we came to Naples where the hangman saved his labour seeing that no person thought he had done his duty unlesse he had helped to pull and tear the flesh of some part of those Egyptian wretches that had caused such confusion and wrought so much harm had not the foresight of the mercifull Gods hindered their intent Insomuch that within two hours after these Egyptian slaves had entered the gates of the City they were by the people halled and pulled into a thousand pieces I will not here make long rehearsall how honourably my brother was used by the King but it shall be sufficient if I declare how that the King after he had welcommed my brother in all courteous manner with a pleasant countenance as wel bewraying grace and mildnesse as Majesty and glory remembring his promise made unto me in word did perform no lesse indeed and Knighted us both together the same day Now most excellent Princes and worthy shepheards did we think that we had so troden fortune under foot that she was not able ever to rise again or impair us any more Now lived we as two brothers in all kind of prosperity and so high hoised to the top of blisse that we little thought that any power had béen able to cast us down and deprive us of our present felicity But alack we found the contrary by triall and were compelled to acknowledge our error by experience Better had it béen for us with the carefull and waxy Mariner to consider that an extraordinary calm is token of some future tempest to come on the sudden for then as he at such times striketh his sails and shunning the dangerous seas commendeth his bark to the secure haven so we foreséeing the danger unto which we were subject in our great prosperity might have escaped the events which brought our adversity But séeing things past may be deplored not recalled and repented not amended I must needs say that we bought had I wist at a dear price as you shall understand by the sequell of this history But seeing I have not yet mentioned any thing concerning my father and the Captain my brothers father since that they fled from Câ—nqueni at the time that we were brought from thence to Naples I mean first to let you know what luck they had in their flight before I go any further in declaring the success we had so securely triumphing in the Court after we were delivered from so much misfortune and evill hap as for a time we suffered onely by the malice of those Egyptian villains which were suborned by fortune to shake the foundation of our felicity When Cinqueni the place whence we were brought to Naples was by the souldiers sent by the King to execute his wrath on the inhabitants thereof pilled and spoiled Coreandro my father thinking that I was dead for he had heard that none in all the village were left alive neither men womeÌ„ nor children and he did not know that I was saved by a Captain and led unto Naples thought to return home again to his countrey and there live among his friends seeing hee had no other comfort in the world being by fortunes pestilent hatred bereft not of goods onely but of wife and child also Insomuch that he having resolved to return home to the place of his birth took his way from the said village along the coasts of Italy towards Aragon where after he had marched one day the next morning rising betimes to take the advantage of cool Aurora before Phoebhs rayes compelled the travellers to seek for shadow amidst their journey he passed through a little short wood where he heard the other Coreandro the good captain my brothers father lament and bewail his hard fortune in this manner Ah Fortune men paint thée standing upon a Globe as thereby decyphering thy inconstancy which their opinion made me always deceive my self with vain hope trusting that thou wouldest once turn thy frowardnesse into lovingness and thy frowns into favors But I perceive thou hast made choice of me by experience of mine own miseries and adversity to oppose my self against al men in thy defence séeing that where as they all generally hold opinion that thou art the very essence of inconstancy and mutability each one particularly exclaiming upon thee and blaming thee for thy fléeting unstablenesse I in contrary manner am forced and compelled to affirm against them all that thou art not inconstant or unstable but rather too much constant persisting and stiff in thy purpose hard to be moved stiffe-necked continuing to the end tough and hard to be overcome All which may be manifestly proved by the course of my life by the adventures that by thy appointment have chanced and happened unto me which all of them have béen so unhappy so infortunate and so unluckie that it were a hard matter to judge which of them deserveth the superiority in name and title of infelicity In all which my abversities thou hast so constantly remained in thy envious and malicious frowardnesse that in this my latter mishap thou hast not any whit deflected or turned aside from that cruelty which thou didest use against me in all my other misfortunes What shall I then say shall I call thee constant because I am forced to say that thou art inconstant or mutable No no constancy is too laudable a vertue to be attributed to such a spightfull and hard-necked Goddesse Thou art not constant because not inconstant for the extremity which corrupteth the vertue is as contrary to vertue as vertue to vice Insomuch that I cannot attribute unto thée the name of constant unlesse it be in envy spight and cruelty for so thou art ever in hatred rancor malice doest thou coÌ„tinue alwaies Thy delight is to see others grieved thy sport to sée others spurnod with the kick of adversity
which he did not sing but thwacked them out looking in his paper as if he would have dared Radamanthus that appointeth the shadows their pennance in hell from his infernal chair Palemon EVen beauty it self is Palla not beautifull or fair If beauty any have of her that all they do borrow Not white but whitenesse sweetnesse and comliness it self Not sweet not comely as yeelding that to all othess Of which they boast 'T is Pallaes list she to claim it Next Polemon came an old shepheard though never married who thinking that he had offended Cupid to let his young and strong years slide and slip away without doing him service purposed to make amends by pining for love in his old days for such a face had the follow and a body well befitting such a face that he might well love but never be loved unless Cupid would be revenged of some Vesta minded maid for neglecting and dispising his Deity and so make her dance in the net of folly with this old lovelesse face both of them crying Peccavi penas domus His name was Schalco and as Aureola was informed by the shepheardesses of the country he most importunately made love to the fair shepheardesse Ura daughter to one of the King of Naples farmers Which maid so did hate him that although he was most wealthy having store and abundance of all manner of country riches yet she thought her self discredited in that she was loved of him These were his verses Schalco AS I my sheep by Phoebus fall went homeward for to drive He promised a gift full gay ere long he would me give One of his golden beams shot from his chariot of fire Which I to Vra will present to be her winter fire Oh Phoebus crosse thy beams with silver lines even latherwise That I with Vra might mount up and dwell with her in skies Next to old Schalco young Dorus a pretty stripling to be chamberlain to Cupid made haste to tell his tale For as he was rival to Schalco so he would not omit to say something that might please Ura. And therefore hoping by deriding of Schalco whom he knew Ura could not abide he thought to gain her favour These were his verses Dorus. IN skies old Schalco would with Vra dwell And ride with her in Phoebus golden coach Where when on him she thinks death doth incroach And rather then with him would dwell in hell Give her a winter sire thou shalt do well But see thou burn thy bones by that same fire So will she love thee which sith you desire Seeing not in skies procure the same in hell One more beside this did Aureola mark whom she therefore marked because she judged him worthy to be marked He was called Otto and as she had heard sonne to a Duke in France and passing through Italy to sée the country saw the fair shepheardesse called Laurea of whose beauty and graces fame had béen very prodigall and he having séen her with liking liked her with love and loved her with constancy In somuch that to become hers he ceased to be his own and leaving parents land honour and living became a shepheard to win the love of Laurea who once had told him that she might fancy no higher then a shepheard But oh heavenly Laurea quoth Aureola thy modesty was too great to be of base birth thy humblenesse too gratious to be of low parents No no nature hath not wronged thy vertuous beauty and beauty made more beautifull by virtue but fortune hath envied at thy perfection Thou wert found in the wood by old Panteo who possesseth thée as his daughter and whom thou for thy bringing up doest reverence as thy father why might not as well hard-hearted Kings as poor beggars have left thée there swadled in base and poor cloaths Insomuch that Aureola was fully perswaded that Laurea was some noble born maid though by fortunes hard intreatment she was not known what she was Neither did Aureola guesse amisse for afterwards it was well known that this Laurea was sister to the Dukes son that loved her It fell out after this manner There was great war betwéen the King of Gaul and the Emperour of Greece The King sent a mighty army into Italy to be revenged of the Italians that had assisted the Emperour with men and money Among many other Noblemen that were in the Kings army was Duke Otto this new become shepheards father with the Dutchess his wife and young Otto his onely son being of two years old having no more children then him It chanced that the Kings army was overthrown and the Duke and all his retinue taken prisoners saving the Dutchesse who was fled unto a certain wood being all alone where after she had béen one moneth nourished by a poor old woman that lived a solitary life in that wood she was delivered of Laurea whom she named Sylva after the place where she was born Within a wéek after the Dutchesse had beene brought a bed died their good old hostess to her great discomfort But then she takes her child and thinking to march toward some village she went from the cave about sixe miles where she espied the village where Laurea was brought up And pondering with her self how she might passe unknown for that all the inhabitants of thoâ—e countries were enemies to the King of Gaul she layed her child down by a broom bush because she might go the lighter meaning to go back to the cave and put on the dead womans cloaths and so to return again presently But before she could reach to the Cave she was met withall by a certain Italian Knight who liked her so that he secretly conveyed her to his house notwithstanding that she most earnestly intreated her to let her first go fetch her young babe which she had left but three or four miles off For he mistrusted that she had but invented that excuse to delay the time and fearing lest some other company might pass that way before she found the child among his men carried her to his house The same evening Phebus having inclosed his heat within his western tower the old shepheard Panteo according to custome hied to the wood to fetch wood to warm his old limbs the next winter with the fire he hoped to make of it and so he found young Sylva by him called Laurea The Knight being importuned by the Dutches sent his men to the wood to séek fyr her child but they could not find it therefore could hardly believe but either she lyed or some body else had taken it up The Dutchess was daily solicited by this Knight to yéeld her body to his pleasure but she would not he kept her close prisoner 8 yéers which being expired the Knight being beheaded by the command of the Nobility of Italy by reason of some trespass by him committed and some kind of treason by him put in practise against the state of the countrey she got away and
there and on she went although she knew not whither yet whither her féet led with no certainer guide then Love and Fortune did carry her And having coursed through Italy without hearing any thing of me she visited the coasts of Spain for she knew that I was born in those quarters and so began to think that I might be taken with a desire to take a view of my Country which she resolved to go to because it was my Country deploring nothing so much as that she had not the luck to sée it but with séeking but in it and yet would she have counted that séeking but a pleasure if she might have found me the end of her dessrous But no she sought and so sought that she left no place in the Kingdome of Aragon which she had not seen or rather which had not seen her and she could not hear so much of me as whether ever I had been séen or heard of in that countrey before being the place of my birth the reason was that I lived in exile with my father as soon as my féet had learned that they had no néed of a bearer But to be short at length after many a troublesome journey she came to the village where I was born called Yervedra where lodging one night in an old Farmers house after she had made some enquity after me she learned that I was born in the same village for that old Farmer remembred my name very well though I think few others could have kept it in memory but if she had known my fathers name she had by inquiring for him sooner have come to Yervedra Yet what was she the better for when she knew that that was the place of my birth and that she could not hear any thing of me there then began her hope to fail and to yéeld to dispair insomuch that weary not so much of going any lenger as living any longer she wished either that she might find me or death Yet thanking the old man as heartily and courteously as a civil guest may an old and friendly host away she got from Yervedra thinking to go into Castile and so to sée the beautifulness of that Kingdome which she had so much heard spoken of But having paced about a mile from Yervedra she entered into a little Wood which was nothing either long or large or thick but so pleasant a place as that it seemed to be made by nature onely to delight the neighbours that dwelled thereabout Yet could not this place of pleasure any thing at all mitigate Aureola's grief now even bringing her to the gates of despair but rather increased her sorrow And whereas it was went to be a place where many men came to delight and recreate their minds in unto her it yéelded a memorandum of all her misfortunes and adversities for no sooner had she entered into that place but marking the pleasantness of it she began to remember the unpleasantness of her own conceits then began she to be sorry that she was so grieved with sorrow afterwards she became angry with her self in finding such humours next to that she found fault with Nature for making her so unperfect as not able to resist such accidents But at last paufing at that chancing word accidents she fell a railing at Fortune calling her the sole and onely mistress of all mischiefs that happen unto men And leaving her there busie with her bitter invectives against Fortune which she did as well as she could do and could do as well as she would or list to do being provoked thereto with such affections as anger and despight armed her withal I will in brief manner let you know that after he had béen in divers places and countries having made more spéed and hast in his search then Aureola at length in the borders of France it was his luck to meet with Laurea first called Sylva whose history I have shortly rehearsed untill she was brought home to her fathers house by her brother Otto who had among the shepheards so long courted her but the rest of her adventures she her self may declare unto this noble company opportunity being offered she being now in this house with the Lady Felicia Yet thus much I must say of her séeing it concerneth our history that my brother having found her in the frontiers of France in a defart all alone very nigh in the same plight that Aureola was at first when he saw her before he spake to her doubted whether it was Aureola for she was so drowned in fears that indeed the judgement of the eye could little prevail at first sight to discern what or who she was Nevertheless gréeting bréeding parley and parley knowledge he found that she was some other Gentlewoman that was pinched with the same puâ—ishment that tortured Aureola's soul But after long talk they came to like one of anothers company so well that they purposed to travel together into the Castilian region over the bordering mountains betwixt France and Spain Insomuch that they came into Castile before that Aureola had been in Aragon where in the famous City of Civil my brother was constrained to leave Laurea she having béen dangerously sick yet before he departed from her she was so amended that danger of death was past yet by reason of her weaknesse she was not like to be able to go on her journey in six or seven wéeks after So that he took his leave of her promising her that if he might make the course of his journey serve so that he might within a moneth or twain return that way he would come to her again and so to her no small discomfort parted from her travelling towards Aragon where he happened to passe through the wood where Aureola was lamenting her hard luck and rayling at fortune for so hardly using her Insomuch that my brother before he was by her eyed had espied her a far of and thinking certainly it had been some other kind of woman for that she had but base apparel having put on the Countesse her sisters maids cloaths which he knew not he went softly and used the bushes for a curtain to hide his body from her sight that he might come so near that he might learn by her words what she was for at the first sight he streight perceived that whosoever she was she bâ—re the impression of a distressed mind in her face And therefore listening to her cries he heard her utter these or such like speeches with her knife unsheathed in her hands IS this the world in which men strive to live Is this the life which men as pleasant love Is this the pleasure world and love doth give Is this the gift that age to wish doth move Age life world pleasure seek not to please me For I such gifts most poor account to be Life is a pain shall I with thanks buy pain Life breeds my wo shall I for sorrow wish Life is my losse shall I
will not be subject unto any part of the mind and I hold opinion thâ—â— reason is governed of love and not love guided by reason For when love hath once taken hold of the heart when it thinketh good it calleth for the counsell and assistance of reason but otherwise it will not wait or attend upon reason to be directed by it Neither do I judge them to be reasonable lovers that in love take counsel of reason or go about to love with reason For they that love indéed unlesse they do many ways surpasse that which reason teacheth them or do more then by reason they are moved to do I think their love to be but of a small account and scarce to be called love And not to fetch any instance a far of but even from your self if you had not left your father and your sisters as I have heard you say to séek the Lady in whose beauty your soul danced and forsaken your country for so I call the place where your dwelling was planted to travel through desart places and unknown regions to find out her who was cause that you lost your self no doubt you would not have thought that you had loved nor any man else would have said that you had done so And yet if you had hearkened to reason undoubtedly you had not left your aged father and comfortlesse sisters deprived of your company to seek the company of the Lady who fled your company for reason would have conducted an whole army of arguments to disswade you from that enterprise which would have been nothing else but to force you to cease from love For certainly had you stayed at home you had either not loved at all or at least but very little béen troubled with passion Insomuch that you sée how that reason and love cannot agrée together for they are opposite enemies one to the other And therefore I cannot see what love it is that thou say thou would have guided by reason That love Madam quoth Perierio which I onely account love and not I onely but all such as will not disgrace the excellency of so worthy a thing as love is For to let you know how I would have love guided with reason I understand the matter so that I would have them that love therein to shuâ— such inconveniences as bréed shame infamy and reproach unto them that love if they be not avoided As to love that which ought not to be loved as Pasiphae loved the Bul by whom she bore Minotaurus many other things which might be considered which onely can be judged by the rule of reason Besides I remember many that describe love whose descriptions I like not for my part say that love is full of dissembling hypocrisie strife debate brawling vice offence quarrelling envy hate jealousie murther prodigality gréedinesse covetousness anger and many other mischievous inconveniences which I think one that loves may very well avoid all I mean by the help and counsel of reason which tells us that they ought to be shunned Why but good sir quoth the Dutchess that love whereof you talk is not love but lust the gulph of all mischief for lust is subject to all such vices and more but not love Why then inferred Perierio must you grant that love not limited by reason is lust Nothing so quoth the Dutchess for love in the very nature and essence therof considered otherwise it is diversly taken is a knot or bond which tieth knitteth and uniteth two hearts inseparably and maketh them one insomuch that love it self so considered to attain to the very purity and singularity thereof is to endeavour and labor by al means whatsoever to the making of them Two hearts One and to that one thing must all actions be directed Insomuch I say that such persons as will claim the right title of lovers must neither be feared with dangers nor driven back by force nor chased with terrour nor removed with reason from endevouring and working to make themselves deserve to be inseparably joyned with that which they love and to become as the same thing it self and one thing with it Wherein I pray you cannot this be the onely and very force of love and not of lust Very well Madam quoth Perierio So sir quoth she I pray you have you forgotten that you even now said that you accounted all love not guided by reason lust which how grossely it was spoken I will thus with one small example make you confess your self Put case the Duke of Florence loveth some Lady either for her beauty grace comliness vertue or other gifts by God and nature bestowed on her which Lady he cannot enjoy as his own I mean have her heart united to his as his is tied to hers and be loved of her as he loveth her for there must be reciprocation in love unless he spend all his Revenues his Dukedome and afterward having obtained his hearts desire of her and hath of her heart and his made but one yet cannot enjâ—y her by reason of her parents that for one reason or other would have her either married to some other or rather not married at all then to him and so lives still in body separated from her though in heart and soul never but by her his Dukedome gone and all his wealth consumed thinking the jewel which he hath thereby gotten of a higher price then all his substance I mean the love of his Lady being onely content with this that she loves him Now let me ask you this question would not reason if the Duke had guided his love by the rational measure of his understanding have counselled him not to lose his credit his wealth his renown and not to have undone himself for that which he might not fully enjoy though he enjoyed as he desired It may be so Madam quoth Perierio but what then Marry this quoth she Then his love was not guided by reason yet there is no man that will nay can say but that it was pure love not spotted with the blot of any lust and therefore against your former principle are you forced to confess that all love not guided by reason is not lust Perierio marking the subtilty of the Dutchess in taking hold of his words and going about to canvas him that way séeing she could not go through with her matter which was to prove that no love could be too extream great and that upright love was not to be guided or governed by reason he unwilling to let her yet so carry it away made answer thus Many things may be spoken which divers ways are to be understood For sometimes things properly taken are improperly applied to sundry purposes And so when I said that love not not guided by reâ—son was lust I understood not lust as it is properly taken for the carnal desire and libidinous cipidity of the flesh â—ut rather for the vice which is committed by desiring that which ones affections urge him to covet and