likewise Swains that shew your selves no lesse Devout then they your voyces all unite And once again invoke the Queen of Night Ch. Sh. Sol's Sister Daughter of great Iupiter That shin'st a second Sun in the first Sphere To the blind world Mont. Now shepherds and my servants all Withdraw your selves and come not till I call Valiant young man who to bestow upon Another life abandonest thine owne Die with this comfort For a puffe of breath Which by the abject spirit is call'd death Thou buy'st Eternity and when the tooth Of envious Time consuming the world's youth Millions of lesser names devoured hath Then thou shalt live the pattern of true faith But for the Law commands that thou shouldst die A silent Sacrifice before thou ply Thy knee to earth if thou wouldst ought deliver Speak and hereafter hold thy peace for ever Mir. Father for though thou kill me yet I must Give thee that name My body to the dust Whereof'twas made and kneaded up I give My Soule to her in whom alone I live But if she die as she hath vow'd of me What part alas will then surviving be How sweet will death be unto me if I In mine owne person not in hers may die And if he merit pity at his death Who for meer pity now resignes his breath Take care deer Father of her life that I Wing'd with that hope t' a better life may fly Let my Fate rest at my destruction Stop at my ruine but when I am gone Let my divorced soul in her survive Although from her I was divorc'd alive Mont. Scarcely can I refrain from weeping now O our mortality how frail art thou Son be of comfort for I promise thee I will perform all thou desir'st of me Here 's my hand on 't and solemnly I swear Ev'n by this Miter'd head Mir. Then vanish fear And now for the most faithfull soul make room For Amarillis unto thee I come With the sweet name of Amarillis I Close up my mouth and silent kneel to die Mont. Now sacred Ministers the Rites begin With liquid odoriferous Gumms keep in The flame and strowing frank incense and mirrhe Whole clouds of perfume to the Gods preferre Cho. Sh. Sol's Sister Daughter of great Iupiter That shin'st a second Sun in the first Sphere To the blind world Scena quarta CARINO MONTANO NICANDRO MIRTILLO Chorus of Shepherds Car. DId ever man so many houses view And the inhabitants thereof so few But see the cause If I mistake me not They 're gotten all together here O what A troop how rich how solemn It is sure Some Sacrifice Mont. Give me the golden Ewre With the red wine Nicandro Nic. There Mont. So may Soft pity in thy brest revive to day By this unguilty blood Goddesse divine As by the sprinkling of these drops of wine This pale and dying flame revives Set up The golden Ewre Reach mee the silver cup. So may the burning wrath he quencht which in Thy brest was kindled by a false Maid's sinne As with this water powr'd out like our tears I quench this flame Car. 'T's a Sacrifice but where 's The offering Mont. Now all 's prepar'd there lacks Onely the fatall stroak Lend me the Axe Car. I see a thing unlesse my eyes mistake Like a man kneeling this way with his back Is he the offering 'T is so Ah wretch And o're his head the Priest his hand doth stretch O my poor Country after all these years Is not Heav'ns wrath yet quencht with blood and tears Ch. Sh. Sol's Sister Daughter of great Iupiter That shin'st a second Sun in the first Sphere To the blind world Mont. Revengefull Goddesse who a private fault With publick rod dost punish Thou hast thought Fit so to doe and so in the Abysse Of Providence eternall fixt it is Since faithlesse Lucrin's tainted blood was thought For thy nice Iustice too impure a draught Carouse the guiltlesse blood then of this Swain By me now at thy Altar to be slain A willing Sacrifice and to his Lasse As true a Lover as Aminta was Ch. Sh. Sol's Sister Daughter of great Iupiter That shin'st a second Sun in the first Sphere To the blind world Mont. Ah how my brest with pity now relents What sudden numnesse fetters every sense I ne're was so before To lift this Axe My hands lack strength and my heart courage lacks Car. I 'le see the wretches face and so be gone For such dire sights I cannot look upon Mont. Perhaps the Sun though setting will not look On humane Sacrifice and I am strook Therefore with horrour Shepherd change thy place And to the Mountain turn thy dying face So now 't is well Car. Alas what gaze I at Is 't not my Son Is 't not Mirtillo that Mon. Now I can do 't Car. 'T is he Mon. And aim my blow Car. Hold sacred Minister what dost thou do Mont. Nay thou profane rash man how dar'st thou thus Impose a sacrilegious hand on us Car. O all my joy Mirtillo I ne're thought Mon. Avant old man that dot'st or art distraught Car. T' imbrace thee in this sort Mont. Avant I say It is not lawfull impure hands to lay Upon things sacred to the gods Car. 'T was they That sent me to this place Mont. Nicandro stay We 'l hear him and then let him go his way Car. Ah courteous Minister before thy hand Upon the life of this young man descend Tell me but why he dyes This I implore By that Divinitie thou dost adore Mon. By such a Goddesse thou conjur'st me that I should be impious to deny But what Concerns it thee Car. More then thou dost suppose Mon. Because to die he for another chose Car. Then I will die for him O take in stead Of his this old already tott'ring head Mon. Thou rav'st friend Car. Why am I deni'd that now Which unto him was granted Mon. Because thou A stranger art Car. And if I should prove none What then Mon. Although thou shouldst it were all one Because he cannot be exchang'd again Who for another in exchange was ta'ne But who art thou if thou no stranger be Thy habit speaks thee not of Arcadie Car. Yet am I an Arcadian Mont. I did ne're See thee before to my remembrance here Car. My name 's Carino I was born hard by This wretche's Father who is now to die Mont. Hence hence lest through thy fond paternal love Our Sacrifice should vain and fruitlesse prove Car. O if thou wert a Father Mont. I am one I and the Father of an onely Son A tender Father too yet if this were My Silvio's head by Silvio's head I swear I would as forward be to do to his What I must do to this For no man is Worthy this sacred Robe but he that can For publick good put off the private man Car. Yet let me kisse him ' ere he die Mon. Nor touch Car. O mine own flesh and blood art thou so much A tyrant to me
eyes Scena sexta MIRTILLO CORISCA. Mir. HEar ye damn'd spirits that in hell lament Hear a new sort of pain and punishment See in a Turtles look a Tigers minde She crueller then death 'cause she did find One death would not suffice her bloody will And that to live was to be dying still Enjoyns me not to make my self away That I might die a thousand times a day Cor. I 'le make as though I saw him not I hear A dolefull voice pierce my relenting ear Who should it be Mirtillo is it thou Mir. I would it were my ghost Cor. Well well but how And tell me true thy self now dost thou find Since to thy dearest Nymph thou brak'st thy mind Mir. As one who in a feaver cast Forbidden liquor long'd to taste If gotten sets it to his mouth And quenches life but cannot drouth So I with amorous feaver long Consumed from her eyes and tongue Sweet poyson suck'd which leaves me more Enflamed then I was before Cor. Love upon us no power can have But what our selves Mirtillo gave As a Bear doth with her tongue Polish her mishapen young Which had else in vain been born So an Am'rist giving form To a rude and faint desire That would otherwise expire Hatches Love which is at first Weak and raw but when 't is nurst Fierce and cruell Take 't upon My word an old affection Tyrannizes in a brest And grows a Master from a guest For when the soul shall once be brought To be fettered to one thought And that not have the pow'r to move A minute from its object Love Made for delight will turn to sadness And which is worse to death or madness Therefore my advice shall be To part thy love to two or three Mir. Let death or madness me betide Rather then my Flame divide Amarillis though she be Cruell and unkind to me Is my Life and Reason too And to her I will be true Cor. Foolish Swain that canst not tell How to make a bargain well What change love for hatred I Rather now then do 't would dye Mir. Cruelty doth faith refine As the fire the golden mine Where were the loyaltie of Love If women should not tyrants prove In my many suffrings this All my joy and comfort is Sorrows tortures exile gall Here 's a cause will sweeten all Let me languish let me burn Let me any thing but turn Cor. O brave Lover valiant brest More impetuous then a beast And yet tamer then a rock Which endures the Ocean's shock In Lovers hearts there cannot be A worse disease then Constancie O most unhappy those in whom This foolish I do I finds a room Which shackles us when we might prove The sweet variety of Love With this dull vertue Constancie Tell me simple Lover why Amarillis For her face Whom another must embrace Or do'st thou affect her mind Which to thee is not inclin'd All then thou canst doat upon Is thine own destruction And wilt thou be still so mad To covet that cannot be had Up Mirtillo know thy parts Canst thou want a thousand hearts Others I dare swear there be That would sue as much to thee Mir. To be Amarillis thrall Is more then to command them all And if she my suit deny All that 's pleasure I defie I to make another choice In another I rejoyce Neither could I if I would Neither would I if I could But if possible to me Such a will or power be Heav'n and Love before that hour Strip me of all will and pow'r Cor. Thou art enchanted otherwise Couldst thou too thy self despise Mir. I must when I 'm despis'd by her Corisca Cor. Come Mirtillo ne're Deceive thy self perhaps thou dost suppose Shee loves thee in her heart although shee showes An outward scorn If thou but knewst what shee Talks oftentimes to me concerning thee Mir. All these are trophies of my constant love With which I 'le triumph o're the Pow'rs above And men below my torments and her hate O're Fortune and the world o're Death and Fate Cor. Wonder of Constancy if this man knew How much hee 's lov'd by her what would hee do Mirtillo how it pities me to hear These frantick speeches Tell me wert thou ' ere In love before Mir. Fair Amarillis was My first and shall be my last Love Cor. Alas It should seem then that thou didst never prove Any but cruell but disdainfull Love O that 't had been thy chance but once to be In love with one that 's gentle courteous free Try that a little try it and thou 'lt finde How sweet it is to meet with one that 's kinde That loves and honours thee as much as thou Thy sowre and cruell Amarillis how Delightfull 't is to have a joy as great As is thy love a happinesse compleat As thy own wish to have thy Mistresse twine About thy neck and her sighs eccho thine And after say My Joy all that I have All that I am and thy desires can crave At thy devotion is If I am fair For thee I 'm fair for thee I deck this hair This face this bosome from this brest of mine I turn'd out my own heart to harbour thine But this is a small river to that vast Sweet sea of pleasure which love makes us taste And they alone that taste can well relate Mir. A thousand thousand times most fortunate Is he that 's born under so blest a star Cor. Hear me Mirtillo ' ere I was aware I 'd almost call'd him mine a Nymph as fair As the proud'st she that curls or spreads to th' air Her golden tresses worthy of thy love As thou of hers the honour of this Grove Love of all hearts by every worthier swain In vain sollicited ador'd in vain Doth love thee onely and thee onely prize More then her life and more then her own eyes Mirtillo scorn her not if wise thou be For as the shadow doth the body she Will follow thee through all the world she will At thy least word and beck be ready still As thy obedient hand-maid night and day With thee shee 'll passe the tedious hours away Ah! do not wave Mirtillo do not wave So rare a blisse the perfect'st joyes we have Are those which neither sighs nor tears do cost Nor danger and on which least time is lost Here thou hast passe-time at thy door a feast Upon the table alwayes ready drest To please thy taste Ay me canst thou receive A greater gift then this Mirtillo Leave Leave this cold hunting after flying feet And her that runs to thy embraces meet Nor do I feed thee with vain hopes command Her come and she that loves thee is at hand Now if thou say the word Mir. I prethee rest Content my pallat is not for a feast Cor. Try but what joy is made of once and then Return unto thy wonted grief agen That thou maist say thou hadst a taste of both Mir. Distemper'd palats all sweet things do
her Scena quinta AMARILLIS CORISCA. Am. DEar happy Groves and you ye sollitary And silent horrors where true peace doth tarry With how much joy do I review you And Had my stars pleas'd to give me the command Over my self that I might chuse my lot And my own way of life then would I not For the Elisians groves about which range The happy shades your happy shades exchange For what we foolish mortals Goods do call If rightly understood are Evils all He that hath most of them in truth hath least Nor is so much possessor as possest Not riches no but of our freedome snares What boots it in the spring-time of one's yeers To have the Attributes of Fair and Good In mortall veins to lock celestiall blood Graces of body and of mind here fair And laughing fields of corn rich meadows there In fruitfull pasture-grounds more fruitfull flocks If with all these the heart contentment lacks Happy that shepherdesse whom some course stuffe Obscurely cloaths yet clean and just enough Rich onely in her self and bravely drest With Nature's ornaments which are the best Who in sweet poverty no want doth know Nor the distractions which from riches grow Yet whatsoever may suffice the mind In that estate abundantly doth finde Poor but content with Nature's gifts retrives The gifts of Nature Milk with milk revives And with the sweet which from the Bee she gets Seasons the honey of her native sweets One fountain is her looking glasse her drink Her bath and if she 's pleas'd what others think It matters not she heeds not blazing starres That threaten mighty ones warres or no warres It is all one to her her battlement And shield is that she 's poor Poor but content One onely care 't is a sweet care doth keep Her heart awake she feeds her Masters sheep With pearled grasse and with her lovely eyes Some honest swain that for her beauty dies Not such as men or Gods chuse to her hand But such as Love did to her choice commend And in some favour'd shady Mirtle grove Desires and is desir'd Nor feels of Love One spark which unto him she doth not show Nor shows one spark with which he doth not glow Poor but content True life which till the breath Forsakes the body knowst not what is death Would Heaven had made me such a one But see Corisca Sweet Corisca. Cor. Who calls me My Amarillis dearer then mine owne Eyes or life to me whither so alone Am. No farther then thou seest nor anywhere Could I be better since I weet thee here Cor. Thou hast met her that never parts from thee Sweet Amarillis and now credit me Was thinking of thee saying in my heart If I'm her soul how can she live apart From me When straight I saw thee here but go Thou car'st not for Corisca now Am. Why so Cor. Why Dost thou ask the question thou dost wed To day Am. I wed Cor. Yes and thou keepst it hid From me Am. How can I tell thee that which I Am ignorant my self of Cor. Do deny And wear a mask to me Am. Still jest with me Corisca. Cor. I am jested with by thee Am. But speakst thou this for truth Cor. I 'le swear 't is so And knowst thou nothing of 't indeed Am. I know I 'm promis'd but that I should be a wife So soon is news to me upon my life But from whom knowst it thou Cor. From my own Brother Ormino and he sayes there is no other Discourse abroad Thou seem'st perplext is this News to perplex one Am. O Corisca 'T is A hideous gulfe I 've heard my mother say W' are then new born Cor. Most true 't is our birth day T' a better life therefore rejoyce Dost fetch A sigh leave sighing to that wretch Am. What wretch Cor. Mirtillo who was present casually At what my brother told mee and was nigh Strook dead with grief and doubtlesse he had dy'd If a good cordiall I had not apply'd By promising to break this Match Which though I said onely to comfort him I know If need were how to do 't Am. Canst thou tell How to break this Match Cor. Yes very well Am. I prethee how Cor. With ease if thou wert but Consenting likewise and assisting to 't Am. Could I suppose this possible and thou Wouldst not reveal it I would tell thee now A secret that hath long burnt in my heart Cor. Who I reveal it Let the earth first part And swallow me alive miraculously Am. Know then Corisca when I think that I Must all my life be subject to a Boy That hates and flyes me and doth take no joy But in the woods preferring hunting farre Before the love of all the Nymphs that are It makes me male content and desperate Indeed almost although I dare not say 't Because my faith I have already given Unto my Father and what 's worse to Heav'n And break with them I neither will nor may But if thy industry can finde a way Alwayes provided that my Honestie My Faith my Life and my Religion be Preserv'd t' untie this knot that galls me so To thee my life and safety I shall owe. Cor. If this were it that caus'd thy sighing thou Hadst great cause for it Amarillis How Oft have I said What pity 't is to throw So rich a thing to one that scorns it so A pearl t' a swine why speak'st not to thy Father Am. Shame stops my mouth Cor. There 's a disease I 'd rather For my part have a Fistula or Feaver But 't will be cur'd Orecome it once 't will never Return again Am. That cannot be orecome That 's naturall For if I drive it from My heart it flies into my face Cor. Alas My Amarillis oft it comes to passe She that through too much wisdom holds her tongue Roars out at last like mad being throughly stung Hadst thou before been willing to discover Thy mind to me this trouble had been over And now thou hast Corisca's power this day In all its colours shall it self display Into more skilfull hands more faithfull then Mine are thou never couldst have faln But when From an ill Husband thou art freed by mee Shall not an honest Suitor welcom be Am. Wee 'l think of that at leasure Cor. That good youth Mirtillo must not be forgot in sooth For parts for spotlesse faith for shape thou knowst Of all men living hee deserves thee most And canst thou let him dye O cruelty Nor wilt so much as hear him say I dye Hear him but once Am. 'T were better he would rest In peace and root a love out of his brest That 's vain Cor. That comfort give him ere he dye Am. 'T would rather double his perplexity Cor. If it do so the seeking is his own Am. And what must I expect should it be known Cor. How cowardly thou art Am. And let me still Be cowardly in any thing that 's ill Cor. If thou mayst fail
tore And murther'd Orpheus so on Hebrus shore As they had thee unlesse her clemencie Whom thou call'st cruell now had rescu'd thee But she is not so cruell as she ought To be for if when she is cruell thought Thy boldnesse is so great what would it be If she were judged pitifull by thee That honest pitie which I could I gave Other it is in vain for thee to crave Or hope for amorous pitie she can ill Bestow who gave it all to one that will Give her none back If thou my Lover be Love my good name my life my honestie Thou seek'st impossibles I am a ward To Heav'n Earth watches me and my reward If I transgresse is death but most of all Vertue defends me with a brasen wall For she that is protected by her honour Scorns there should be a safer guard upon her Look to thy safety then and do not give Battell to me Mirtillo fly and live If thou be wise For out of sense of smart T' abandon life argues but a faint heart And 't is the part of vertue to abstain From what we love if it will prove our bane Mir. He that no longer can resist must yeeld Am. Where vertue is all passions quit the field Mir. Love triumphs over vertue Am. Let that man That cannot what he will will what he can Mir. Necessitie of loving hath no law Am. Love 's wounds will heal which salves of absence draw Mir. We fly in vain what we about us carry Am. Love drives out love like following billows Marry Mir. Strange levitie in me thou dost presume Am. If all wayes fail time will thy love consume Mir. But first my love will have consumed me Am. Is there no cure then for thy malady Mir. No cure at all but that which death affords Am. Death let me speak then and be sure these words Be as a charm unto thee though I know When Lovers talk of dying it doth show An amorous custome rather of the tongue Then a resolve of minde continuing long To do 't indeed yet if thou ere shouldst take So strange a frenzie know when thou dost make Away thy self thou murtherst my fame too Live then if thou dost love me and adieu I shall esteem thee henceforth most discreet If thou take care we two may never meet Mir. Sad doom without my life how can I live Or without death end to my torments give Am. Mirtillo 'T is high time thou wentst away Thou hast already made too long a stay Be gone and take this cordiall along Of hopelesse Lovers there 's a numerous throng There is no wound but carries with it pain And there are others may of love complain Mir. I know I 'm not the only man hath lost His Love but onely wretched I am tost 'Twixt life and death of whom it may be sed That I am neither living nor yet dead Am. Be gone be gone Mir. O wofull parting O End of my dayes from thee how can I go And yet not dye The pangs of death I 'm sure I feel and all that parting souls endure For mine 't is past into my griefs Hence I Have ceas'd to live those live immortally Scena quarta AMARILLIS MIrtillo O Mirtillo couldst thou see That heart which thou condemn'st of cruelty Soul of my soul thou unto it wouldst show That pity which thou begg'st from it I know O ill starr'd Lovers what avails it me To have thy love T' have mine what boots it thee Whom Love hath joyn'd why dost thou separate Malitious Fate And two divorc'd by Fate Why joyn'st thou perverse Love How blest are you Wild beasts that are in loving ty'd unto No lawes but those of Love whilst humane lawes Inhumanely condemn us for that cause O why if this be such a naturall And powerfull passion was it capitall Nature too frail that do'st with Law contend Law too severe that Nature do'st offend But what they love but little who death fear Ah my Mirtillo would to heav'n that were The onely penaltie Vertue which art The bindingst Law to an ingenuous heart This inclination which in me I feel Lanc'd with the sharp point of thy holy steel To thee I sacrifice and pardon deer Mirtillo her that 's onely cruell where She must not pitie Pardon thy fierce foe In looks and words but in her heart not so Or if addicted to revenge thou be What greater vengeance canst thou take on me Then thine own grief for if thou be my heart As in despight of Heaven and Earth thou art Thy sighs my vitall spirits are the flood Of tears which follows is my vitall blood And all these pangs and all these groans of thine Are not thy pangs are not thy groans but mine Scena quinta CORISCA AMARILLIS Cor. SIster no more dissembling Am. Woe is me I am discovered Cor. I heard all now see Was I a Witch I did believe my Heart Thou wert in love now I am sure thou art And would'st thou keep 't from me thy closet tush This is a common evill never blush Am. Corisca I am conquer'd I confess 't Cor. No now I know 't deny it thou wert best Am. Alas I knew a womans heart would prove Too small a vessell for o're-flowing love Cor. Cruell to thy Mirtillo but unto Thy self much more Am. 'T is cruelty that grew From pitie Cor. Poyson ne're was known to grow From wholsom root What diff'rence canst thou show 'Twixt such a crueltie as doth offend And such a pitie as no help will lend Am. Ay mee Corisca Cor. 'T is a vanitie Sister to sigh an imbecillitie Of mind and tastes too much of woman Am. Wer 't Not crueller to nourish in his heart A hopelesse love To fly him is a signe I have compassion of his case and mine Cor. But why a hopelesse love Am. Do'st thou not know I am contracted unto Silvio Do'st thou not know besides what the Law saith 'T is death in any woman that breaks faith Cor. O fool and is this all stands in thy way Whether is ancienter with us I pray The Law of Dian or of Love this last Is born with us and it growes up as fast As we do Amarillis 't is not writ Nor taught by Masters Nature printed it In humane hearts with her own powerfull hand Both Gods and men are under Loves command Am. But if that Law my life away should take Can this of Love a restitution make Cor. Thou art too nice if women all were such And on these scruples should insist so much Good dayes adieu I hold them simple souls Will live obnoxious to such poor comptrolls Lawes are not for the wise if to be kind Should merit death Iove help the cruell mind But if fools fall into those snares 't is fit They be forbid to steal who have not wit To hide their theft For honestie is but An art an honest glosse on vice to put Think others as they list thus I conceive Am. These rotten grounds