where he falls in love with the Nymph OEnone but at last being known and own'd he sails into Greece and carries Helen to Troy which OEnone understanding writes him this Epistle TO thee dear Paris Lord of my Desires Once tender Partner of my softest Fires To thee I write mine while a Shepherd's Swain But now a Prince that Title you disdain Oh fatal Pomp that cou'd so soon divide What Love and all our sacred Vows had ty'd What God our Love industrious to prevent Curst thee with power and ruin'd my Content Greatness which does at best but ill agree With Love such Distance sets 'twixt Thee and Me. Whilst thou a Prince and I a Shepherdess My raging Passion can have no redress Wou'd God when first I saw thee thou hadst been This Great this Cruel Celebrated thing That without hope I might have gaz'd and bow'd And mixt my Adorations with the Crowd Unwounded then I had escap'd those Eyes Those lovely Authors of my Miseries Not that less Charms their fatal pow'r had drest But Fear and Awe my Love had then supprest My unambitious Heart no Flame had known But what Devotion pays to Gods alone I might have wondr'd and have wisht that He Whom Heaven shou'd make me love might look like Thee More in a silly Nymph had been a sin This had the height of my Presumption been But thou a Flock didst feed on Ida's Plain And hadst no Title but The lovely Swain A Title which more Virgin Hearts has won Than that of being own'd King Priam's Son Whilst me a harmless Neighbouring Cotager You saw and did above the rest prefer You saw and at first sight you lov'd me too Nor cou'd I hide the wounds receiv'd from you Me all the Village Herdsmen strove to gain For me the Shepherds sigh'd and su'd in vain Thou hadst my heart and they my cold disdain Not all their Offerings Garlands and first born Of their lov'd Ewes cou'd bribe my Native scorn My Love like hidden Treasure long conceal'd Cou'd onely where 't was destin'd be reveal'd And yet how long my Maiden blushes strove Not to betray my easie new-born Love But at thy sight the kindling Fire wou'd rise And I unskill'd declare it at my Eyes But oh the Joy the mighty Ecstasie Possest thy Soul at this Discovery Speechless and panting at my feet you lay And short breath'd Sighs told what you cou'd not say A thousand times my hand with Kisses prest And look'd such Darts as none cou'd e'er resist Silent we gaz'd and as my Eyes met thine New Joy fill'd theirs new Love and shame fill'd mine You saw the Fears my kind disorder show'd And breaking Silence Faith anew you vow'd Heavens how you swore by every Pow'r Divine You wou'd be ever true be ever mine Each God a sacred witness you invoke And wish'd their Curse when e'er these Vows you broke Quick to my Heart each perjur'd Accent ran Which I took in believ'd and was undone Vows are Love's poyson'd Arrows and the heart So wounded rarely finds a Cure from Art At least this heart which Fate has destin'd yours This heart unpractis'd in Love's mystick pow'rs For I am soft and young as April Flowers Now uncontroll'd we meet uncheck'd improve Each happier Minute in new Joys of Love Soft were our hours and lavishly the Day We gave intirely up to Love and Play Oft to the cooling Groves our Flocks we led And seated on some shaded flowery Bed Watch'd the united Wantons as they fed And all the Day my list'ning Soul I hung Upon the charming Musick of thy Tongue And never thought the blessed hours too long No Swain no God like thee cou'd ever move Or had so soft an Art in whisp'ring Love No wonder for thou art Ally'd to Jove And when you pip'd or sung or danc'd or spoke The God appear'd in every Grace and Look Pride of the Swains and Glory of the Shades The Grief and Joy of all the Love-sick Maids Thus whilst all hearts you rul'd without Controul I reign'd the absolute Monarch of your Soul Each Beach my Name yet bears carv'd out by thee Paris and his OEnone fill each Tree And as they grow the Letters larger spread Grow still a witness of my Wrongs when dead Close by a silent silver Brook there grows A Poplar under whose dear gloomy Boughs A thousand times we have exchang'd our Vows Oh may'st thou grow t' an endless date of Years Who on thy Bark this fatal Record bears When Paris to OEnone proves untrue Back Xanthus Streams shall to their Fountains flow Turn turn your Tides back to your Fountains run The perjur'd Swain from all his Faith is gone Curst be that day may Fate appoint the hour As Ominous in his black Kalendar When Venus Pallas and the Wife of Jove Descended to thee in the Mirtle Grove In shining Chariots drawn by winged Clouds Naked they came no Veil their Beauty shrouds But every Charm and Grace expos'd to view Left Heav'n to be survey'd and judg'd by you To bribe thy voice Juno wou'd Crowns bestow Pallas more gratefully wou'd dress thy Brow With Wreaths of Wit Venus propos'd the choice Of all the fairest Greeks and had thy Voice Crowns and more glorious Wreaths thou didst despise And promis'd Beauty more than Empire prize This when you told Gods what a killing fear Did over all my shivering Limbs appear And I presag'd some ominous Change was near The Blushes left my Cheeks from every part The Bloud ran swift to guard my fainting heart You in my Eyes the glimmering Light perceiv'd Of parting Life and on my pale Lips breath'd Such Vows as all my Terrors undeceiv'd But soon the envying Gods disturb'd our Joy Declar'd thee Great and all my Bliss destroy And now the Fleet is Anchor'd in the Bay That must to Troy the glorious Youth convey Heavens how you look'd and what a Godlike Grace At their first Homage beautify'd your Face Yet this no Wonder or Amazement brought You still a Monarch were in Soul and thought Nor cou'd I tell which most the News augments Your Joys of Pow'r or parting Discontents You kist the Tears which down my Cheeks did glide And mingled yours with the soft falling Tide And 'twixt your Sighs a thousand times you said Cease my OEnone Cease my charming Maid If Paris lives his Native Troy to see My lovely Nymph thou shalt a Princess be But my Prophetick Fears no Faith allow'd My breaking Heart resisted all you vow'd Ah must me part I cry'd that killing word No farther Language cou'd to Grief afford Trembling I fell upon thy panting Breast Which was with equal Love and Grief opprest Whilst sighs and looks all dying spoke the rest About thy Neck my feeble Arms I cast Not Vines nor Ivy circle Elms so fast To stay what dear Excuses didst thou frame And fansiedst Tempests when the Seas were calm How oft the Winds contrary feign'd to be When they alas were onely so to me How oft new Vows of lasting
whole days in an hundred places she would find such probable Excuse and lye with such a Grace no mortal cou'd have accused her so that all the whole Island took notice that I was a baffled Cuckold before I could believe she would deceive me so heartily she damn'd herself Through all the Groves I was the pointed Coxcomb laught at aloud and knew not where the jest lay but thought myself as secure in the Innocence of my deceiving fair One as the first hour I Charmed her and like a keeping Cully lavish'd out my Fortune my plenteous Fortune to make her fine to Cuckold me ' Sdeath how I scorn the Follies of my Dotage and am resolv'd to persue Love for the future in such a manner as it shall never cost me a Sigh This shall be my method A Constancy in Love I 'll prise And be to Beauty true And doat on all the lovely Eyes That are but fair and new On Cloris Charms to day I 'll feed To morrow Daphne move For bright Lucinda next I 'll bleed And still be true to Love But Glory only and Renown My serious hours shall charm My Nobler Minutes those shall Crown My looser hours my Flame All the Fatigues of Love I 'll hate And Phillis's new Charms That hopeless Fire shall dissipate My Heart for Cloe warms The easie Nymph I once enjoy'd Neglected now shall pass Possession that has Love destroy'd Shall make me pitiless In vain she now attracts and mourns Her moving Power is gone Too late when once enjoy'd she burns And yeilding is undone My Friend the little charming Boy Conforms to my desires And 't is but to augment my Joy He pains me with his Fires All that 's in happy Love I 'll tast And rifle all his store And for one Joy that will not last He brings a thousand more Perhaps my Friend at this Account of my Humor you may smile but with a reasonable consideration you will commend it at least though you are not so wise as to persue my Dictates Yet I know you will be diverted with my Adventures though there be no love in 'em that can resemble 'em to yours Take then the History of my Heart which I assure you boasts itself of the Conquests it has made A thousand Martyrs I have made All sacrific'd to my desire A thousand Beauties have betray'd That languish in resistless Fire The untam'd Heart to hand I brought And fixt the wild and wandring Thought I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain But both thô false were well receiv'd The Fair are pleas'd to give us pain And what they wish is soon believ'd And thô I talk'd of Wounds and Smart Loves Pleasures only toucht my Heart Alone the Glory and the Spoil I always Laughing bore away The Triumphs without Pain or Toil Without the Hell the Heav'n of Joy And while I thus at random rove Despise the Fools that whine for Love I was a great while like you before I forgot the remembrance of my first Languishments and I almost thought by an excess of Melancholy that the end of my Misfortunes were with my Life at hand Yet still like a fond Slave willing to drag my Fetterson I hop'd she would find Arguments to convince me she was not false and in that Humor fear'd only I should not be handsomly and neatly jilted Could she but have dissembled well I had been still her Cully Could she have play'd her Game with discretion but vain of her Conquest she boasted it to all the World and I alone was the kind keeping Blockhead to whom 't was unperceived so well she swore me into belief of her Truth to me Till one day lying under a solitary Shade with my sad Thoughts fixt on my declining Happiness and almost drown'd in Tears I saw a Woman drest in glorious Garments all loose and flowing with the wind scouring the Fields and Groves with such a pace as Venus when she heard her lov'd Youth was slain hasted to behold her ruin She past me as I lay with an unexpressable swiftness and spoke as she run with a loud Voice At her first approach I felt a strange trembling at my Heart without knowing the reason and found at last this Woman was Fame Yet I was not able to tell from whence proceeded my Inquietude When her Words made me but too well understand the Cause The fatal Subject of what she cry'd in passing by me were these Poor Lycidus for shame arise And wipe Loves Errors from thy Eyes Shake off the God that holds thy Heart Since Silvia for another burns And all thy past Indurement scorns While thou the Cully art I believed as she spoke that I had ill understood her but she repeated it so often that I no longer doubted my wretchedness I leave you who so well can guess to imagin what Complaints I made filling the Grove where I was laid with my pitious Cries somtimes I rose and raved and rail'd on Love and reproached the fair Fugitive But the tender God was still pleading in my Heart and made me ever end my noisy Griefs in Sighs and silent Tears A thousand Thoughts of revenge I entertained against this happy Rival and the charming ingrate But those Thoughts like my Rage would also end in soft reproaching murmurs and regret only And I would somtimes argue with Love in this manner Ah cruel Love when will thy Torments cease And when shall I have leave to dye in Peace And why too charming and too cruel Maid Cou'd'st thou not yet thy fleeting Heart have stay'd And by degrees thy fickle Humor shewn By turns the Enemy and Friend put on Have us'd my Heart a little to thy scorn The loss at least might have been easier born With feigned Vows that poor Expence of Breath Alas thou might'st have sooth'd me to my death Thy Coldness and thy visible decays In time had put a period to my days And lay'd me quietly into my Tomb Before thy proof of Perjuries had come You might have waited yet a little space And sav'd mine and thy Honour this disgrace Alas I languish'd and declin'd apace I lov'd my Life too eagerly away To have disturb'd thee with too long a stay Ah! cou'd you not my dying Heart have fed With some small Cordial Food till I was dead Then uncontroul'd and unreproach'd your Charms Might have been render'd to my Rival's Arms. Then all my right to him you might impart And Triumph'd o're a true and broken Heart Though I complained thus for a good while was not without some secret hope that what I had heard was not true nor would I be persuaded to undeceive myself of that hope which was so dear and precious to me I was not willing to be convinced I was intirely miserable out of too great a fear to find it true and there were some Moments in which I believed Fame might falsly accuse Silvia and it did not seem reasonable to me that after all the Vows and Oaths she had
Willow by the lonely Spring that grows And o're the Stream bends his forsaken Boughs I call Lisander they like him I find Murmur and ruffl'd are with every Wind. On the young springing Beech that 's straight and tall I Carve her name and that Aminta call But where I see an Oak that Climbs abové The rest and grows the Monster of the Grove Whose pow'rful Arms when aiding Winds do blow Dash all the tender twining Shades below And even in Calms maliciously do spread That naught beneath can thrive imbrace or breed Whose mischiefs far exceed his fancy'd good Honour I call him Tyrant of the Wood. Thus rove from Thought to Thought without relief A change 't is true but 't is from Grief to Grief Which when above my silence they prevail With Love I 'm froward on my Fortune rail And to the Winds breathe my neglected Tale. To LOVE I. FOnd Love thy pretty Flatteries cease That feeble Hope you give Unless ' twoud make my happiness In vain dear Boy in vain you strive It cannot keep my tortur'd Heart alive II. Tho' thou shou'dst give me all the Joys Luxurious Monarch's do possess Without Aminta 't is but empty noise Dull and insipid happiness And you in vain invite me to a Feast Where my Aminta cannot be a Guest III. Ye glorious Trifles I renounce ye all Since she no part of all your splendour makes Let the Dull unconcern'd obey your call Let the gay Fop who his Pert Courtship takes For Love whilst he Profanes your Deity Be Charm'd and Pleas'd with all your necessary vanity IV. But give me leave whose Soul 's inspir'd With sacred but despairing Love To dye from all your noise retir'd And Buried lie within this silent Grove For whilst I Live my Soul 's a prey To insignificant desires Whilst thou fond God of Love and Play With all thy Darts with all thy useless Fires VVith all thy wanton flatteries cannot charm Nor yet the frozen-hearted Virgin warm V. Others by absence Cure their fire Me it inrages more with pain Each thought of my Aminta blows it higher And distance strengthens my desire I Faint with wishing since I wish in vain Either be gone fond Love or let me dye Hopeless desire admits no other remedy Here 't was the height of Cruelty I prov'd By absence from the sacred Maid I lov'd And here had dy'd but that Love found a way Some Letters from Aminta to convey Which all the tender marks of pity gave And hope enough to make me wish to Live From Duty now the lovely Maid is freed And calls me from my lonely solitude Whose cruel Memory in a Moments space The thoughts of coming Pleasures quite deface With an impatient Lovers hast I flew To the vast Blessing Love had set in view But oh I found Aminta in a place Where never any Lover happy was RIVALS RIvals 't is call'd a Village where The Inhabitants in Fury still appear Mali cious paleness or a generous red O'r every angry face is spread Their Eyes are either smiling with disdain Or fiercely glow with raging Fire Gloomy and sullen with dissembl'd pain Love in the Heart Revenge in the desire Combates Duels Challenges Is the discourse and all the business there Respect of Blood nor sacred friendship tyes Can reconcile the Civil War Rage Horror Death and wild despair Are still Rencounter'd and still practis'd there 'T was here the lovely cruel Maid I found Incompass'd with a thousand Lovers round At my approach I saw their Blushes rise And they regarded me with angry Eyes Aminta too or else my Fancy 't was Receiv'd me with a shy and cold Address I cou'd not speak but Sigh'd retir'd and Bow'd With pain I heard her Talk and Laugh aloud And deal her Freedoms to the greedy Crowd I Curst her Smiles and envy'd every look And Swore it was too kind what e're she spoke Condemn'd her Air rail'd on her soft Address And vow'd her Eyes did her false Heart confess And vainly wisht their Charming Beauties less A Secret hatred in my Soul I bear Against these objects of my new despair I waited all the day and all in vain Not one lone minute snatcht to ease my pain Her Lovers went and came in such a sort It rather seem'd Loves-Office than his Court Made for eternal Bus'ness not his Sport Love saw my pain and found my rage grew high And led me off to lodge at Jealousie JEALOUSIE I. A Palace that is more un-easy far Then those of cruelty and absence are There constant show'rs of Hail and Rains do flow Continual Murmuring VVinds a-round do blow Eternal Thunder rowling in the Air And thick dark hanging Clouds the day obscure Whose sullen dawn all Objects multiplies And render things that are not to the Eyes Fantoms appear by the dull gloomy light That with such subtil Art delude the sight That one can see no Object true or right I here transported and impatient grow And all things out of order do Hasty and peevish every thing I say Suspicion and distrust's my Passions sway And bend all Nature that un-easy way II. A thousand Serpents gnaw the Heart A thousand Visions fill the Eyes And Deaf to all that can relief impart We hate the Counsel of the Wise And Sense like Tales of Lunaticks despise Faithless as Couzen'd Maids by Men undone And obstinate as new Religion As full of Error and false Notion too As Dangerous and as Politick As Humerous as a Beauty without Wit As Vain and Fancyful in all we do Thus Wreck the Soul as if it did conceal Love Secrets which by torturing ' t wo'd reveal Restless and wild ranging each Field and Grove I meet the Author of my painful Love But still surrounded with a numerous Train Of Lovers whom Love taught to Sigh and Fawn At my approach my Soul all Trembling flies And tells its soft Resentment at my Eyes My Face all pale my steps unsteady fall And faint Confusion spreads it self o're all I listen to each low breath'd Word she says And the returns the happy Answerer pays When catching half the Sense the rest Invent And turn it still to what will most Torment If any thing by Whispers she impart 'T is Mortal 't is a Dagger at my Heart And every Smile each Motion Gesture Sign In favour of some Lover I explain When I am absent in some Rivals Arms I Fancy she distributes all her Charms And if alone I find her sighing cry Some happier Lover she expects than I. So that I did not only Jealous grow Of all I saw but all I fancy'd too The COMPLAINT I. OFT in my Jealous Transports I wou'd cry Ye happy shades ye happy Bow'rs Why speaks she tenderer things to you than me Why does she Smile carress and praise your Flowers Why Sighs she opening Buds her Secrets all Into your fragrant Leaves Why does she to her Aid your sweetness call Yet take less from you than she gives Why on your Beds