than from a consciousness of their own guilt A servant of Monanthropus admiring the inconstancy of Court favour presented his Master with these lines How can those stand who on the slippery ice Of Court are plac'd when by the storms of vice Or malice they 'r attaqu'd O happy he Who from his cottage doth these disasters see Court is a firmament whence stars oft fall And Courtiers are tossed like a ball In Fortunes tennis-court and by Prides racket are Toss'd over all the walls of Court most far Their greatness an hydropsie is and they Not with good blood but humours swell each day They grow so big that vertues narrow gate Forbids them entry then by witty fate He who exalted was is tumbled down Fates narrow stairs stript of preferments gown Luxuriant pride shakes often their hour-glasse And their debordings seals to them a passe To go to endless torments and each man Adds to the yard of their disgrace a span Who would be fixt must grip to vertues hand For on the legs of vice no man can stand The Court was upon this occasion remodelled and all those who had been Sophanders confidents were either imprisoned or disgraced as persons in whom the King could not confide and now Monanthropus was the only Minion by whose advice and through whose hands all things passed The War being ended the King to secure himself at Court resolved to call back the Army and ordained the two Knights to be received in triumph and withall posted away a Commission to Megistus to command in chief The Commission being received Megistus begins his march to Alexandria and stopped by a Warrant from the King four miles from the City till all things should be in readinesse for his reception The next morning they entered all the streets being tapistred as they passed alongst and Guards standing upon both sides After the Infantry marched Megistus with Philariâ—es on his right hand and Stirias upon his left In the Market-place stood a Scaffold whereon was represented the Parliament of the gods before whom Themis as goddess of Justice and Mars as god of Courage did plead which of them should be preferred to welcome these worthy Gentlemen at last Mars was preferred for the Armies better satisfaction who at their arrival delivered them this speech My darlings cadets of my house whose hands Were made to execute the just commands Of divine powers it 's my sons to you That Victory her lofty top doth bow That ye your heads may with her glorious bayes Encircle like unto a Sun with rayes Ye who hold fortunes wheel by the strong hand Of Courage making her swift course to stand Iustice and Courage shrewdly did contend Which of them as ambassadors the gods should send But seing Courage Iustice doth include No Courage being but where the cause is good Therefore the gods have Courage sent to greet Your safe return to this most joyfull street And were it not to leave on earth a seed Of Heroes they would surely with all speed Transplant you to the heavens there to shine Amongst those other deitiâ—s divine Live then brave Heroes and more praise possess Than Mars rude tongue is able to expresse After that scene was ended there appeared an Egyptian loaded with fetters and making his approaches to the Knights entreated them to untye his fetters which they did accordingly and thereafter he made them this gratulatory Invincible Gentlemen this that ye have now done is but an emblem of that ye have done formerly It is not so mysterious that I nâ—ed to explain it Our liberty is a debt which we owe you and our thanks are the only coyn we can pay it in all the by-standers participates with me in the common freedom and would return with me the common thanks if order would permit it our thanks and your merits are no wayes proportionable the one being empty and the other excellent but our admiration and your deserts hold a better proportion both being inexprimable they are twins both springing from the womb of your Courage Live then happily worthy Princes and inherite these praises which ye have purchast by your blood and pains The reception at Court exceeded in splendor that of the Market-place and the rather because Agapeta and ARETINA were there in whose affections the Knights desired more to triumph than in any thing else caring only for those honours they had received as means to make their peerless Mistrisses honour them the more all the inventions at Court was imployed in honouring the Knights and they were esteemed wittiest who pleased them best Tiltings were continually used for courage being once wakened behoved to have some exercise till it were fully re-setled neither could it change its pace so extreamly as to fall from a gallop to a still standing but behoved to retire by piece-meal this joy was in it self great but was thought the greater that it was the successor of a pannick fear and at last the King resolved to sacrifice Sophander to the honour of their solemnities for many thought it not fit that such a plodding head should have leave to rest upon its old shoulders and that there could not but ensue great alterations amongst the Nobles upon this late innovation and those who were postponed might probably study his releasment desiring rather he should bear sway than their own competitors and expecting by his releasment to return affairs to their old confusion that a living man might alwayes finde friends but dead dogs would bite none that to keep him in perpetual firmance was in it self illegal prisons being appointed rather to reserve men for punishment than to be a punishment it self and that it differed as far from punishment as the means did from the end for which they were appointed or if perpetual imprisonment was at all convenient it was only either where the person incarcerated was furious and so there was fear that in executing the body they should kill both soul and body or else where the criminal was a person loved by the people whose death would irritat them or else of great following so that their expectation of his life or fear of his death would justly poise all his friends undertakings and over-awe all their insolencies But that neither of these was to be expected by Sophanders execution whom all hated and none loved and possibly if it were continued he might convey away out of the Nation most of his Estate which he had ever keeped in movables as being most transportable and so it was best to wring the spunge so long as it was full The King resolved to execute him presently and therefore sentenced him to be hanged in the Market-place but the Church-men petitioned his Majesty that he might be first examined by them being one of their number and as being the ambassador of the immortal gods he should not be sentenced by any mortal Prince and that they behoved to examine first whether what he had done were done for the glory
in the other two caves commanded by Philarites and the Martial Knight did so terrifie by shouts the surprized Persians that they wished they had never seen Egypt since they saw nothing in it but unavoidable dangers That which affrighted them most was some Fire-works which Megistus well skilled in the Pyromanticks had caused dress whose noise and lightnings perswaded the Persians that Iupiter had lent their adversaries his thunder-bolts to punish the unjustness of their quarrel they saw nothing because of the darknes and the smoak but what the light of these flames discovered to them which was nothing else but Death in all her pontificals and arrayed so variously as that she seemed not the same every-where in one corner of the field valour was punishing resistance and in another courage was trampling under feet cowardishness here the soul was flying out of the body at a wounded head and there at a wounded heart and in both the afflicted body was volleying the great ordnance of groans at the beloved souls departure some sought to seek their graves in the waves and others fleeing death did meet it at their boats which Megistus did at the first encounter fire as if by these bonefires he would have testified his gracious acceptance of their visit Philarites did by his sword subscribe two hundred's pasports for eternity and the Martial Knight evidenced that it was easier to overthrow Troups of Persians than to combat Megistus alone Thus these three conquering Gentlemen wounded as fast as they could strike and killed as fast as they could wound the Persian souls not daring to lodge any longer in their bodies than they were by their swords summoned to remove one stroak summing up all the minutes of their process and the souls themselves most willing to remove seeing their appartements falling about their ears Philarites making breaches in the ranks and in the bodies also of those who stood in them had his sword bound as Fencers speak by the cryes of a young Gentleman who seeing Philarites ready to strike an aged man whose courage was in its spring albeit his body was in its autumn called Noble Knight pity the father of Arethusa as ye shall be answerable to your fair Mistris this was the young mans Mistris whose beauty he imagined all men knew aswell as he Philarites moved with his passion did condonat him his life desiring him to be debitor for it to ARETINA and so secured them both as his prisoners The fields were become a perfect landskip of terrour and the greenest pile of grasse was scarleted by the Persian bloud but the Persians fearing both what they saw and what they saw not expecting no relief from the boatlesse ships were at last compelled to sanctuary themselves in their enemies mercy and to become their prisoners because they could not be their conquerours and albeit the Egyptians would have glutted their revenge with the Persian bloud yet the noble Knights barred them from that piece of inhumanity alleaging that seing War was only instituted to secure Nations from danger and all just Wars were meerly defensive for to recuperate our own is but to defend our own and so invasion if it be to repeat what unjust enemies have robbed us of is but a species of defence and if it be to rob others it is no War that necessarily all who were killed by the hand of revenge were rather murdered than killed and that to kill those whom they might save imported that the killers feared that they durst not coap with them except they were disarmed and so their cruelty was not only injustice but verged likewise upon cowardishnesse and that in killing them they wounded their own interest for thereafter all enemies would by despair heighten their courage this barbarous custom compelling them either to fight or dye and would oblige their enemies in requital to deny them their lives upon the like quarter and as all men should love to save their own life rather than to cut off their enemies so all men should be prone to grant quarters when but once demanded and if War should by that means become a meer butchery few would frequent it and the number of cowards would become very bulkish for scarce the stoutest of Warriors would go where he behoved either to gain the field or lose his life This discourse perswaded the Egyptians to save alive nine hundred captives two thousand lying dead upon the place amongst whom Sotorus had rendred himself to the valiant Philarites and they now remained rather masters of the field than of much spoil and had bootied little besides the ransom of their numerous prisoners Whilst they were thus combating a capricious Mathematician who waited upon the Marshal de Camp fearing lest death should have surprised him before he minded to die fled at the first shock and retired to a little Mount where he observed the Battel as he used formerly to observe the Stars by the help of a Telescope which he carried in his hand in lieu of a Musquet this Gentleman perceiving Megistus conquerour posted to Court being mounted upon a horse which because he was fleet he had bought to carry him away from any danger valuing his fleetnesse for no other reason hoping in requital of his news to have some donatives bestowed upon him riding in this equipage faster to Court than he would have pursued his enemies he arrived at last at it where he threw himself at his Majesties feet describing the Combat to him after this fashion Sir we marched from this City as from the point A. demonstrating all upon a Paper by a direct line to the Citadel of Iris as the point B. whence by a spiral line we marched to the Caves of C. where we eclipsed our selves all night the next morning before the Sun came from the Antipodes to our Horizon we marched keeping the figure of a Paralellogramum conducted by Megistus Philarites and the Martial Knight who as three lines made a glorious Triangle whereof Megistus as General was the Hypotenusa in this figure we marched to the shoar where we encountred the Persians upon whose bodies we carved hundreds of wounds in form of Isoscoles Scalenunis and Trapezias This discourse was interrupted by an Envoy from the three Knights who acquainted his Majesty of their unexpected and compleat Victory Whereupon his Majesties Pleasant perceiving the Kings humour fitted for mirth and intending to twit the Mathematician for his pedantry told his Majesty desired to imprison that Persian alluding to his not understood discourse which the Courtiers whom complacence with his Majesty had gladned extreamly speedily executed dragging him away from the Royal Hall in spight of his many tears and protestations that he was an Egyptian The Victory being compleated Megistus sent to the neighbouring Towns and Villages desiring all both women and children to come to the shoar that so by a false muster he might deter the Persians from landing any more Forces So that they who were aboard
Philarites be so happy as to find an occasion of evidencing to Aretina how that his happiness depends solely upon her Whereto Aretina smiling replyed Can passion conquer unconquerable Philarites or is it Philarites pleasure to act the personage of an enamorato to testifie how exquisit he is not only in real vertue but even in apparent passion Philarites would have proceeded further but was interrupted by the cryes of one who came running to him and who look'd like one who had propined his wit to love for his Mistris sake thinking all donatives besides unworthy presents for so divine a passion his flaming zeal which had stayed within so long as there was any thing unconsumed for it to feed upon did now flash abroad at his nostrils and by its smoak had obfuscated his native colour his eyes by their rolling and continual motion witnessed that they missed the object whereon they desired to fix their rayes and the variety of his motions shew the lightness of the body which was moved his words were cut to pieces by his inconsiderate irresolution and the torrent of his discourse resembled a river which the broader it grows grows always the shallower such was the heat of his passion that it made him tear off all his cloaths and his looks and thoughts strove which should change oftest This was the miserable Moragapus who was enamoured of a young Lady called Calista who gave him a very kindly requittal of his love which an Alexandrian Gallant who was his rival perceiving perswaded him that Calista had deserted him and had bestowed her affection upon another whereupon Moragapus who lived then in the Country desires to return to the City but was impeded by his father who conjectured his errand and who protested withall that as he had fettered himself by love so he should be fettered by chains if he turned not proselyte to a fathers entreaties This made Moragapus melancholy and his melancholy did dictate to him some expressions which enraged his father so that he hermitaged him in a chamber denying him company which was the sole cure of his sick fancy and diversion which was the only probable mean to recover him out of his frantick love this restraint did fully fling him over the rock of distraction upon whose edge he stood formerly passion resembling those spiritfull horses who stir most and are maddest when the bridle is most straitly held by the rider and men resembling oft fine cloathes which corrupt most when they are kept closest and the will is of the nature of these things which spill by being packed up in too narrow bounds and thereafter he became so demented that whereas they kept him formerly under restraint for prevention they were obliged to do it now through necessity at last the mercilesse fire having one night seized upon his fathers house he was brought out and amidst the confusions wherein all were involved at that time he escapes their hands and comes streight to Alexandria and finding the Garden door open he enters and apprehends Aretina to have been Calista whereupon he runs to her and flings himself at her feet quivering out the irregular notes of his ill tune'd passion leaping from sentence to sentence and sometimes running over one sentence twice till Aretina sorry to see this tyranny of madnesse assured him that Calista was in another corner of the Garden which information posts him away his light body being easily blown away by the least puft of perswasion and accidentally he spieth Calista walking upon the brink of a deep pond which was hemmed in with marble he no sooner spies her but he runns to her and she no sooner spies him but that terrified with the unexpectednesse of the sight for it had been concealed from her and fearing some outrage she offered to step back but her gown feltring her feet trips up her heels so that she falls in the pond her weight and haste carrying her to the bottom but the water which seemed to glory that so rich a pearl was to be found there did throw her body presently up again as if it intended to shew that she was in its possession yet albeit the water shew her she could shew no appearance of life for death that rather tyrant than conquerour who like a rigid creditor exacts of us that last debt oftimes before the ordinary term of payment had possest it self of all the chief forts of her soul and had displayed his ordinary standard paleness in her face to shew that the place was conquered at her fall the water did flee circular-wise from her body fearing to be accessory to the murder of so choice a person and look'd drumely at so tragick a misfortune yet she might have escaped if the thrice infortunate Moragapus had not leapt in after her and there by strugling to save her had not drowned both himself and her The Knights and Ladies who knew nothing of this sad occurrant were sitting all this while in the Arbor and Megistus was remarking from Moragapus looks wherein all might have read his distraction how much they were to blame who blamed Phisiognomy as an Art both artless and uncertain for said he seing the dullest amongst men may perceive by that fellows looks his madness certainly others of more prying spirits and a more frequent observation may come to discern the nature of less observable looks for there is not so great a disproportion betwixt those evidently known looks and others that are less discernable than there is betwixt an artlesse observation and a serious and experimental remark for as an unexperienced clown can see nothing in the face of heaven albeit a skilfull Astrologue can prognostick from it what weather is to be expected So a skilfull Phisiognomist may perceive what is undiscernable by the eye of a skillesse guesser And we see that different tempers have different faces the Melancholians looks differing for from those of a Flegmatician and so since these temperaments are natural we may conclude that the difference of those looks which are proper to them must be likewise natural and if natural why not discoverable by Art seing it is natural to man to know all Natures operations for albeit there be many Provinces in the Globe of Learning which are yet unknown mans laziness restraining him from such new adventures yet the Needle of Reason being observed we may come to coast Natures greatest difficulties We see likewise that a mans looks changes as his thoughts which argues clearly that there is some connexion and dependance betwixt the thoughts and looks for our bodies do resemble a lanthorn wherein that divine light the soul is placed and our faces are the horn through which may be easily perceived whether the within shining light be in it self clear or not and it would appear very suitable to divine Providence that ingenuity should wear some badge whereby it may be known and being known may be respected whereas roguery wearing its own colours may be found
their way The season wep't in rain and sigh'd in winde Our mother earth did great distempers finde At her great loss and with a pale wet face Did her dear Son in her cold armes embrace The rivers swell'd with rage and every hill Was with a vail of black mist covered still The leaves likewise fell trembling from their trees When first they heard news of his obsequies If Plato like the musick of the Sphaers We understood then might our nimble ears Perceive how they quiv'rd grief in mournfull tones Paused with sighs and bass'd with hollow grones Men thought Dame nature now being old and weak Durst nothing that was curious undertake Wherefore to shew men that they were mistaken That master piece was by her undertaken Which though it was presented as her last Shew she a printise was in making what was past And though in Eden commenc'd was the Creation Yet its accomplishment was from our British Nation His body shew'd to what perfection rare Dust might refined be by divine care And yet God thought it neither fit nor just That such a noble soul should lodge in dust Untill that dust by Death were more refin'd And fired to re-lodge so great a minde The Gods Apollo have deprived that he As the more learned should have his dietie But why should air lend mortals furder breath It s sure that they may still condole his death And may it coyne in termes of Highest praise And stamp that coyne with some heart brusting phrase But since he 's gone we may conclude that sure There is another world yet more pure Then ours or that Heavens quire did want a voice Which only could supplyed be by this choice And that God hath this Peer from earth's lower house transplanted To the high upper house of heaven for ever to be sainted To his ingenious Friend the Author of Aretina Thy beardless chin high voicedly doth declare That wisdoms strength lyes not in silvered hair And as few Ciphers rich sums does express So thy rich wit shines in a few years dress For as men did the Suns first light admire So art thou lov'd when thou dost first appear Yet shall thy Crocodil like fame still grow And on its shoar praises shall ever flow Reader Correct these Errors with thy Pen before thou read the Book Page Line Read 80 13 Agapeta 275 ult ominat 292 4 then 292 12 for to themselves 303 6 because 339 18 cannot 348 26 crown 364 1 longer able 419 9 Boute-feus ARETINA OR The Serious Romance MELANCHOLY having lodged it self in the generous breast of Monanthropus lately Chancellour of Egypt did by the chain of its Charms so fetter the feet of his Reason that nothing pleased him now but that whereby he might please that passion thinking all time mispent which was not spent in its service frequenting more Woods than Men deeming them the only fit grove to sacrifice in the choicest of his thoughts to the worst of passions Wherefore having one day wandred abroad in a neighbouring Desert he came at last to a deep Valley fruitfull of nothing but Trees and Trees fruitfull of nothing but Melancholy overlookt by Rocks in whose wrinkâ—ed faces aged Time had plowed thousands of deep furrows whose gloomy brows threatned perpetually to smother the subjacent Valleys a place fit only to be as it was presently the hermitage of Melancholy and stage of Cruelty He had not long stayed when his admiration was arrested by a noise blown in his ears as he thought by the bellows of Death yet seconded by a sight yet more horrid for he saw at some distance two Ladies loaded with Iron sheckles which chained them together stript of their cloaths above the middle and strypt by two cruel Rascals who albeit torture made the Ladies run yet equalled the number of their lashes to that of their paces and not far from them were ten Gentlemen as they seemed by their habits fighting against two Knights followed only by one Esquire where courage seemed to combat against number valour making the ten seem but three and fear making the three seem ten yet courage shew at last that it might be resisted by number but could not be overcome by it for the death of six forewarned the other four that it was not time to stay fear having left them only so much reason as to conclude that seing they could not resist them being ten how could they resist when they were but four wherefore leaving flouds of bloud to witnesse the gallantry of their conquering adversaries they posted away The Knights willing to pursue these run-awayes who had now added cowardisnesse to their former crimes yet more willing to rescue the miserable Ladies left these Rascals to be punished by a torturing conscience and the just gods and spurred after the Ladies who were presently abandoned by these Hangmen but Providence which had borrowed their swiftnesse to lend it to their adversarâ—es delivered these Villains into the hands of the pursuing Knights who brought them back where the Ladies were bathing themselves in their own innocent bloud who having fallen on their feeble knees the eldest of them weeping spoke thus O noble Gentlemen surely Providence had never created such silly creatures as weak women if they had not likewise provided such noble Champions as ye are to be guardians to their weak innocencie and innocent weaknesse We acknowledge we are yours if bloud be a price able to buy things of small value neither can those to whom we belonged formerly pretend right any longer to us no more than the first owners can pretend right to their goods which being robbed from them by unjust Pirats are after some time and danger regained by other true Conquerours or Land taken by Vsurpers is to be restored by a third Conquerour to its first masters Happie we who cannot by any postliminius right return to our former liberty seing to be slaves to such masters is to be no slaves at all But seing our tears are no fit recompence for those tears of bloud which your bodies both have shed and yet do shed for us we shall cease to trouble you whom we cannot requite But whilest they were admiring what was already spoken wherein she shewed much Learning from whom no Learning could be expected and whilst she was about to add more Monanthropus by his coming interrupted both the admiration of the one and the discourse of the other who puzled whether to congratulate the good fortune of the Knights to regrate the misery of the Ladies or to accuse the cruelty of those Rascals with whom the Knights had made them to exchange fetters who were now standing accused by their own roguish looks yet at last he accosted the Knights thus Gentlemen albeit I might accuse you as strangers for exercing any jurisdiction much more the highest jurisdiction in a stranger Nation yet your valour your successe and your cause obligeth me to believe that ye are commissionated by the immortal gods to
and a stranger uncertain of any assistance behoved to rely upon him besides wanting both friends and foes in the Nation he would impartially without either connivance or revenge execute all his commands This fellow became his creature and he might well be called so because he made him of nothing a potent prince others alledged that because the people did belch out so many injuries against Malchus for his avarice making his private chests the publick treasure saying that he was in the politick body like the spleen in the natural whose growth did proportionally occasion the leannesse of the other members therefore he choosed this Sophander whose avarice was his greatest if not his only vice that they might after his death by collationing their lives extoll his ambition by comparing it with his successours avarice Now all the Court began to adore Malchus in Sophanders person each one foreseeing that any imp ingrafted on such a root would one day flourish extreamly and that its shadow should one day be able to shelter those who retired under it from either the cold chilnesse of poverty or the scorching flames of envie yea the King himself caressed exceedingly this Infant Minion but so cautiously as that he seemed rather to love him in obedience to Malchus his desire than out of any secret inclination to Sophander or aversion from Malchus albeit these two passions were really the legs whereon his passion did walk Thus Malchus did by the hand of his pleasure sway the Sceptor of Soveraignity his fancy being the sole and supream Judge even in matters of the greatest importance from whose sentence the Royal Throne it self durst receive no appeal and whose smiles were the greatest reward that the proudest Egyptian durst pretend to the office of Chancellour became too narrow an orb for this great Planet to move in wherefore as an extraordinary person he must have an extraordinary imployment and must be advanced to be first Minister of State a title not understood by us and never heard of by our Ancestors but which suited well with his ambition both being boundless None durst now dispute his power seing none could pretend to know it and seing the King himself was who could repine against the condition of a subject Nothing was presented to him now but what was confected with the sugar of flattery not a word dropped from his mouth but was instantly received in Fames most sacred vessels and the most erroneous of his actions were canonized as example for posterity Yet fear the ordinary Lacquey of greatness began to tell his conscience in the ear that he was rather adored than loved by those who even loved him best which made him resolve by the news of his death to try whether it was love or fear that made the humours of his Compatriots so plyable in order to this design feigning himself first sick and then blazing abroad his death by the mouth of his Physicians did by the dissembled closure of his eyes open the fond mouthes of the unwary Courtiers who were glad to find an occasion to vomit up that poysonous malice which had even by its venom almost destroyed the vessels wherein it was keeped but the next morning the Physicians told that his soul had but lurked in and not fled from his apoplectick body and he himself being recovered did deal death most liberally amongst those who were so liberall of their characters of him whilest they supposed that he was dead Yet at last death did show that the armour of greatness was not proof against its darts and did hurry him away cursed by all and lamented by none the people supposing they had buried him and their miseries in one tomb did now coin thousands of hopes in the mint-house of their expectation but their miseries which had begun to ebb by Malchus death did now begin to flow afresh by the Succession of Sophander whom the Queen fearing that the Nobles who did not obey him who was both their Countryman and their Prince would far lesse obey her whose reign was but temporary and whose sex was but fragile did after the death of her husband who survived not long Malchus choose him for her Confident The young Kings name served them for a rampart against all opposition and his infancy made the uproars of her enemies be looked upon as a sin greater than Treason being committed both against the Majesty of a King and the Infancy of a Childe and rendred them criminal both as men and subjects Yet this same innocency which made the opposers so guilty did likewise give time and life to the far more heinous crimes of the defendants Sophander having got the Tutory of the young King acquainted him with all the pleasures which might alienate his mind from affairs of greater importance but keeped him alwayes a stranger to the Mysteries of State as things which would certainly disquiet and might possibly break his spirit telling him that it was too soon for him to have his Crown lined with the black Sables of Care and that he might in his youth commit some Solicismes of State which might for ever stain his Royall repute he likewise retarded his Marriage fearing lest anothers worthiness should fill the room which he unworthily had gotten in his Princes heart till at last overpowered by necessity he matched him with a neighbouring Princess whose pliable humour might rather be subservient than destructive to his greatness I who had been promoted to be Chancellour immediatly after Malchus death became now the eye-sore of Sophanders avarice for he thought my charge void because it was not filled with one of his Partisans who might at last like small rivers discharge themselves in the ocean of his Treasures whereupon I who scorned like those other Asses to carry Gold to his bottomless Coffers did resolve rather to shelter my self in the Sanctuary of a private life than to bow the top-sail of my integrity to the flag of his ambition wherefore I retired to this place and condition which I have alwayes since found a harbour able to shelter me from the most violent storms of pride and avarice wherewith those are shattered who sail in the ocean of Court-luxury This discourse did extreamly satisfie Megistus judgment and kindle his courage and Monanthropus perceiving the coals of his courage once kindled did by the bellows of wit and occasion endeavour to adde heat to excite the flames which he found already kindled and it was resolved at last that Eudoxa the elder of these two Ladies should go to Alexandria where she should stay till by Bonaria's intercession so was Monanthropus Lady called she might be admitted to be one of Agapeta the Kings daughters Ladies of honour where she might be serviceable to their designs and a stirrup wherby Megistus might the more easily mount the saddle of preferment Let us now return to visit Philarites whose love had plunged him in the ditch of Melancholly irrecoverably who loved nothing in himself except
is nothing worthy of your choice which is not worthy of our observation Seeing their eagerness and coveting an opportunity to confer with him he conducted them to a Rock elevate somewhat above the circumjacent Valley where Nature had been the only Architecture yet so handsomly arched and pended that it might have passed for one of Arts Master-pieces within there stood a Table whereon were some old Volumns and some of his own Manuscripts over it hung some Walnut and Fig-trees which were his only granaries and which reached him his food in at his window two steps below the entry without was a spring of christal water where the Rock seemed to gush out tears because it could not afford him better liquor the neighbouring trees seemed to lay their heads together to skreen his open windows from the scorching heat and the weary Wildernesse seemed by his dwelling there to be an house of pleasure When they were entered and had seated themselves to recreate their wearinesse and admire his garb and gravity he began to usher his discourse by some tears by whose continual streams it appeared he had formerly whitened his snow-white beard he seconded his tears with this ensuing discourse in obedience to the Ladies who desired to be satisfied anent the occasion of his solitude Madam The omnipotent and omniscient God for I acknowledge but one for if there be any God he must be infinite and if infinite he must be one for there cannot be moe infinites than one for else the one is not infinite seing he wanteth the perfections of his fellows and so something may be added to his perfection And the diversity of your gods shewes not the plurality of the gods but denoteth only the diversity of the true God his Attributes for he is wife and his wisdom is represented by your Apollo He is most irresistible which is figured to you by your god Mars c. I say the omnipotent God hath created innumerable creatures whose greatest use is meerly to shew the power of their Creator and in every creature there is a masse of mysteries and each of them is a Volumn too large to be read during a mans whole life wherefore seing the Court and Conversation sealeth that Book and trifles away the time I should and might bestow upon it I resolved to divorce my self from these adulterating imployments and retire my self to solitude which is a hall wherein through the prospect of meditation a man may see a compleat muster of all God's creatures and seing it affordeth a man opportunities to converse with the eternal God I think it much preferable to the world wherein ye converse most if not only with poor mortals from whom nothing is to be learned and with whom much may be lost as also the loud cryes of worldly pleasures will not suffer a man to hear the language of an offended conscience and the world being sins element sins seem not heavy whilest one is there no more than the above-running waters burthens the swimming fishes There men are affrighted by poverty and distracted by ambition which albeit it be alwayes mounting yet shall never climb to Heaven every Age seems a season wherein grows a distinct crop of Vices in infancy ignorance in youth love and vanity in middle-age ambition revenge and prodigality in old age jealousie dotage and avarice yea the vertues themselves which are to be found there cannot stand upon their own legs except they be underpropped by some vice or other If one love his friend he will think nothing sin which may gratifie him and another must maintain his liberality by the oppression of his subjects and servants But these vices will not lodge with those who lodge in Wildernesses because they find themselves starved by the indigency of their Landlords and barrennesse of the soil But Madam these two Skulls which lye upon my Table the one whereof is that of Alexanders and the other Plato's albeit they be dumb to others yet they preach to me the vanity of all things under the Sun and as skilfull Anatomists discover to me the sillinesse of crawling man their Skuls shewn so appositly did wring tears from the eyes of the beholders neither did the Hermite now weep alone and his tears seemed to be like a little water imployed by the Mariners to pump up a far greater quantity Only Philarites whose breast was so repleat with other meditations that there was no room left for such celestiall contemplations did shed only some few meerly to accompany those which came in rivers from ARETINA'S eyes Whilest they were thus drowning the Hermites Cave with their plentifull tears the rude Coachman told them that albeit they were staying there yet the Sun would not stay for them and therefore intreated their hast At which the Ladies starting up they were by the Hermite conducted to their Coach whence shewing them the way to Alexandria he returned promising to sacrifice hundreds of prayers for their erring souls When he was gone Philarites beholding ARETINA said he thought her fair face mantled with such incomparable colours and charms did speak as loudly mans excellencie as the ugliest of those skuls spoke his infirmity Alas said Bonaria fourty years hence the disproportion will not be great when all these colours shall be hidden in the wrinkles of an old face and when the frost of age shall have nipped all these flourishes and the cold wind of time shall have blown away these blossoms which now appear Certainly said Philarites the soul must be an excellent creature which as the Sun produceth imaginary colours in optick prismes and doves necks so it in a more noble way doth produce really those admirable colours which appeareth in that and other excellent faces neither can it be thought a disparagement to the soul that it suffereth these to fade in age seing in exchange of these it bestoweth upon the body then the real advantages of prudence and experience which cannot be said to be the least worth because they are the least beautifull no more than the Autumn can be called the worst season because in lieu of the Springs flourishes it bestows upon us the real fruits which have been knotted in it and no doubt the soul must be a noble Artist which makes all these veins muscles nerves and noble parts of mans body move so regularly whose number and varity albeit they shew the excellency of our fabrick yet do infallibly occasion our weaknesse for any one of these many parts can lodge death with all its train and the finger or toe albeit they are most of all others remote from the heart yet can they deliver up that citadel of life the heart into the hands of death its mortal enemy Sure said ARETINA seing the body is in it self so frail they are much to blame who are so enamoured with these colours which are so fading I am confident replyed Philarites that none is so mad as to become enamoured of the body in any other
they put themselves in a posture and seemed to be but the earnest-peny of that great bargain they were now making At last the Martial Knight considering that the bloud which he spent in opposing Megistus would be better imployed if spent in his quarrel recoyling three steps called to the Judges that for any thing he knew it was the god Mars against whom he was fighting and so to atone his guilt he was willing to break his sacrilegious Sword This merry conceit shewed a quaint wit in him in whom they had spied a strong courage formerly and now both of them throwing away their Swords did imbrace each other wrestling as it were who should be kindest The Judge asked how the Crown should be bestowed Give me it said the Martial Knight and I will place it on the head of this deserving Gentleman Megistus refused it and said that his friendship was too great a prize to remunerate so small a victory Thus the King and Court returned home expecting with a long desire the afternoons tilting After Dinner the King Court and Judges being placed in their respective places as formerly The first who entered these Lists of death was a Knight who seemed dead already his armour was all black and made him appear to be deaths armour-bearer his horse whose counter was suitable to his masters armour seemed by his prancing to cut up a grave for his dead master he was discerned at last to be the valiant Terez who fought in honour of the deceased Lady Tina once his dear Mistris He told the Judges he came there to beg a pasport from some noble hand to post to heaven after her where seing he resolved to go he intended to go in the Chariot of Honour The Judges at first intended to deny him preference telling him That as life according to the course of nature preceded death so in the course of justice lifes Champions were to be preferred At which Answer the black Knight showed some dissatisfaction Yet the Judges considering that the Bloud Royal whereof Terez was one were exempted by their birth from such trifling ceremonies and judging it an inhumane act to adde affliction to the afflicted resolved to authorize his appearance He carried in his shield a Turtle Dove sitting upon a leafless Oak his Motto was ONLY ONE Against him appeared two or three Knights successively who being vanquished served as steps whereby Terez might the more easily mount Fames theater At last appeared one Knight whom the Sun had withered and seemed to resemble one of those dead bodies whom the Egyptian Mummie had preserved hundreds of years his shield was beautified with a Dying-man all withered except one hand wherein he carried a Scarlet Ribbon the Motto was LOVE WORKETH CONTRARIES meaning that it could make a fresh body become withered and a withered hand become fresh This was Philarites and that was ARETINA'S Ribbon the bosses of his bridle were two Lilly Roots whose leafless stalks served for the reigns These two seemed rather to court than shun death and the desire they had to kâ—ll one another seemed not to proceed from any desires they had to live for providence could inflict no greater punishment as life upon them but rather because they desired to have one anothers company in the other world thus they spent many blows and shed more bloud than the by-standers imagined their bodies were masters of ARETINA was told by Philarites heart which he had depositated in her custody that the Combatant who wore the Scarlet Ribbon was Philarites and that she was the Sun by whose beams his lovely body had become so parched whereat she blushed or rather her bloud desiring to be judge and witnesse of Philarites courage came to her cheeks to try if thence they might descry that noble courage which it heard all the spectators so much extoll But Philarites beholding ARETINA as if her face had been an Arsenal from which he was to expect new armour did by an irresistible stroak kill that heart which grief had formerly so sore wounded being thrown thus to the ground he threw up his eyes to heaven as if his soul intended from thence to take its flight to paradise Philarites running to him did by his tears wash those bleeding wounds which his sword had formerly opened to whom the black Knight gave a Diamond Ring as a memorial of his true respect which he had after that same manner received from Pilades ARETINA'S dear cousin and friend whom he had killed the year preceding in combat Many regrated his losse and a witty Gentleman at Court dressed him this Epitaph It seems the gods to flit from earth intend Seing their best furniture away they send From this our globe here in a coffine Fame Interred lyes embalm'd by Terez name Let mortals then rear him a Tomb of Tears Whilst their sad hearts a double mourning wears After Supper whilest Terez ghosts were troubling all their quiet there entred a fellow who told his Majesty that he was to shew him a Monster The King desired he might present it upon a stage whereon the Commedians used to act that it might be easily discerned and the whole Court the better satisfied Whereupon the fellow mounting the stage and removing the sheet that covered his promised Monster there appeared an old fellow with a pair of large Harts Horns at which a merry Gentlewoman snuffing said A strange Monster forsooth whereof I have such another lying in my bed at home The fellow having viewed him on all quarters did thus begin his description This Acteon is by his kind wife called her Hart and he is so for she hath made him so He came to the world when Capricornus presided amongst the celestial signs at which time he received the name of Cornelius the Man in the Moon was Gossip who as a Donative bestowed upon him the fair Cap which he now wears which his wife fearing he should lose hath borrowed needls from her kind neighbours to sow it on faster and where-ever he enters such is her pride that she will have five or six to follow him at last she did not fancy the name of Cornelius Tacitus saying that it was not famous but she would needs have him called Cornelius Publicus he being the Publican and she the Sinner She having one day offended him as young women do oft old men he called her Whore and she fearing that neighbours might thereafter upbraid him with the name of a Lyar hired some pretty Gentlemen who were her acquaintances to vindicat his name from that aspersion whereat the good old man finding that he was mistaken did like the Snails when they are angry shoot out his Horns This description ended they went all to bed and with that day they ended the solemnity of these Nuptials The Second Book FOrgetfulnesse did now begin to claim soveraignity over what past and the pleasures of that famous Solemnity which had not long since been in its flourish was now in the fall
as out of respect to the beholders and to oblige their modesty did by their uneven brows which were to them in place of tongues cartel us to a combat their arms were two long poles to which were fixed two shables neither did they offer us choice of arms we judging gallantry but a nicety where necessity was the quarrel and considering that they who were outlaws to Nature might be punished by any of her subjects all men being commissionated against such common enemies and that they who would not kill such rascals were guilty of the bloud that was shed by them resolved to make use of all arms and arm our selves with all advantages against them Whereupon Philarites pulling out a pistol sent from its barrel two balls cloathed in deaths livery and by them opened a salley-port to his soul to fly out of that nasty prison wherein it had been too long captivated his comrads courage fell with him and deaths horrid face represented in the mirrour of his dying friend agasted him so as that he was willing to ransome his life upon his knees with tears which fear had commissionat to intercede for him We who thought that to kill a man before he was prepared to die was to murder the soul aswell as the body desired him to throw away his weapon and he should have quarter but he not accustomed to hear such a dialect understood us not so that we were forced to make a demonstration our interpreter he no sooner understood our mind than he disarmed himself of his weapon throwing his body open to our mercy we advanced but scarce could perceive in him the reliques of humanity which was all mudded over with the rubbish of desuetude and cruelty and his tongue exprest it self as if it had but freshly come to the school of the world whereupon Philarites concluded that seing he and his companion could understand one another that the bruits did use possibly an ideom peculiar to themselves aswell as these whose expression claimed affinity to that used by them or if they had no language they behoved to read each others sentiments in the characters of thoughts like the intuitive knowledge of Angels We untyed the naked couple who took their life as a donative from our hands upon whom fear had made such an impressa as they could not believe but death had them stil in its claws We desiring to pull up that poysonous herb by the root fearing lest it might thereafter spread and pullulate afresh resolved to know where he nested he would willingly have quit us yet in obedience rather to fear than to us he led us to a cantone of the Wilderness and shewed us there a hole whereat he entred it seemed to be hells porch and its very stink occasioned by the boyling of mans flesh did fortifie it sufficiently against all humane approaches he called forth at last his wife and I must say he was fitly matched for her face was a rendevouze of all those deformities that a petulant fancy could have excogitated and except in the case of an Incubus he might have defied all the world to make him a Cuckold We learned at last by a discourse composed of semibrievs and crotchets that she and her husband had lived there fifty years death having forgot that there lived any mortals in such a corner and that their son was killed We lookt in and perceived that the hole was all pent up with wood and that their best chear was mans flesh So we brought them alongst with us to the next Town where those two lived whom we had released and committed them to the publick prison Thence our inclination which was the compass by which we steered led us to Lacedemon which was then the stage whereon Fortune acted all her Tragedies This Nation had pilgrimaged through all Governments and seing it could not unload it self of Rules heavy burden it did like the Asse fetch it from shoulder to shoulder and so contrarie to its expectation past from evil to worse and from worse to worst of all We had not marched but two dayes journey in this Lunatick Country when we encountred a fellow whose eyes sparkled some of that folly which was breasted within him and by the inorderly Index of his face we might easily know that the volumn of his thoughts could not but be confused his equipage was so mean that he resembled an old Oak whose starved leaves had fallen away from the stock which was not able to alâ—ment them to which the obdured earth denied the pension of its ordinary aliment his motions shewed that they received no commission from a rational soul and were like the reelings of a ship whose rudder the careless Skipper had abandoned thus did he by his inconsiderableness render himself considerable and made us notice him meerly because he was not worth the noticing he past by us without giving us a hat or paying a reverence and glancing over his shoulder he said Friends think ye who shine so upon earth because of your diamonds to shine in heaven circled with the rays of divine splendor or dream ye that heaven will suffer your pride to passe unpunished Ye are mistaken replyed Philarites for gorgiousnesse in apparrel betokeneth much humility for we think that we need such weights as these to be put with us in the ballance of such capricious fancies as yours else we might fear to be judged but light whereas ye imagine that your innate worth is able to create respect enough for you and I pray you seing the gods have not created these diamonds for our aliment surely they have created them for our ornament and we see how they have variegated the fields with flowers and have enammeled these flowers with diverse colours whereby our pleasure might be baited aswell as our necessities supplyed neither certainly would they have left man who is the most excellent amongst all the creatures naked of these ornaments if they had not given him reason and fancy to be his provisors and the whole earth to be his magazine Neither must we confine ornaments to the narrow bounds of necessity else why tax ye not the gods likewise of superfluity for having spangled the heavens with so many and so various stars and constellations seing they might have supplyed their rooms by two or three Suns or Moons And Sir had not these eye-dazling creatures the Diamonds concealed by their absence some portion of their makers glory if they had still been intombed in the earths dark bowels Well friend replied he since I cannot convince you who lies swadled in the cradle of your follie and understands not these true mysteries go read Grandours Epitaph in the person of Ephemerus who was not long since Prince of this Country and is now hunting near-by followed only by two servants Whereupon he paced away leaving us puzled in what rank of creatures he was to be placed He being gone Philarites marked that of all mad-men those were most
long a time been inseparable companions that it was very hard to separate them and rust had so glued them together that his old arms could not pull it out The other taking advantage of his misfortune cried aloud Oh he hath kill'd me he hath kill'd me which cry rendevouzed us all in the chamber where we found the old Gentleman dashing his sword against the walls because of its disloyalty to its master This affront did not wean him from the breasts of his amorous folly and seing age was the occasion of his folly the older he grew he behoved necessarily to be the more foolish so thinking himself too far advanced in this river of passion he resolved to swim though with hazard rather than to retire though with ease The next morning equipaged like one whom we see presented in Taliduce by some Antiquary he presented himself at his Mistâ—isses chamber door where being licentiate to enter he thanked the gods who had arrested his sword yesterday in its sheath lest he should have contaminated her chamber with the bloud of so base a fellow and continued to perswade her that it was neither his weaknesse nor the rustinesse of his sword which had occasioned the difficulty to unsheath it only he acknowledged that after a combate which he had fought not long since he had forgot to wipe it clean of that bloud wherewith his adversaries wounds had besmeared it The Gentlewoman applauded to all telling him that his sword looked like a blade which had been Actor of many Tragedies and that she remembred only to have seen one of that fashion which her grandfather keeped as an old monument of his family I heard Sir continued the Gentlewoman that in a combat ye had all these teeth shaken out by a blow which we perceive ye now want and that another blow whilst ye were rescuing the Royal Standard left in legacy with you that infirmity which is perceived in your march The old man who dreamed that all these discourses were the relations of these whose friendship he had bought accorded to all confirming her fictions by some circumstances which busk rendred these fictions yet more ridiculous Weary at last of his impertinency she entreated him to hear her read a part of a Romance which had come to her hands lately but she had scarce spent half an hour in that imployment when sleep closed those eyes which saw but dimly when they were open old men being like Watches which the older they are run alwayes the faster and must be often winded-up by sleep for their infirm bodies and weak vitals must have more time allowed them to forge spirits than young bodies require and Nature which hates all transitions from one extream to another will inure old men to endure death by dying often Her other Suiter perceiving he was asleep came from behind the hangings where he stood and by a sharp knife cut the ribon wherby his breeches were tied up and thereafter retired softly the old Gentleman awaked would willingly have perswaded his young Mistris that it was not sleep but an extasie wherein he had been and that it was occasioned by the sweetness of her voice and vivacity of her deportment in reading The other hearing that he was awake came bolting in as if he would have challenged the old man for his yesterdayes bruskness whereupon he rising in haste his breeches fell about his feet leaving his thighs like two leafless and withered branches in whose top an Owl nested or like an Egyptian Mummy embalmed by Art which had once been coetanious with the first founders of the Lacedemonian Walls Megistus's relation was here interrupted by a confused noise which tumbled-in at the windows and Monanthropus looking out perceived a multitude whose allarmed-like gestures portended some eminent danger here one running did ask his fellow what the uproar meaned and yet posted by for his curiosity would not wait for an answer there another returned laughing but not telling why some through fear others through curiosity hunted for news Thus they floated up and down the streets raging and murmuring like waters fallen from some high cataract At last Kalodulus entring the chamber told them that the basis of that commotion was a combat betwixt two Persian Captains who being Rivals in love resolved to terminate their debate by the dye of a combat but though they wanted not courage yet they wanted armour as being prisoners neither durst they adventure to seek any from their acquaintances in the City lest they should have brought themselves within the compass of State-jealousie at last revenge and love fornisht them this overture That they should walk to a Sword-sellers shop and should look each upon a sword meerly as if they intended to try them and that there which was a remote corner of the City and early in the morning they should make courage Arbiter betwixt them which project framed well for before any could mediate betwixt them the one had lost as much bloud as might have cooled him out of that feaver of love wherein he raged formerly and there were sufficiently many issues opened in their bodies at which that unnatural heat might have evaporated Let us now return to the Court which is the Chequer wherein the dyce of favour alters still the game and where the Courtiers like so many Moons wax or wane accordingly as the Sun of Royal Pleasure darts its rays upon them all being paved with ice whereon none can stand because of its slipperiness unless they be frosted with fortune and Court-respect here all things seemed to be moulded a new and Monanthropus was now the house of the Zodiack wherein the King's fancy dwelt For Sophander was looked upon as a person whose ambition towred too high and who intended to enthronize himself in the affections of the subjects the King eyed him as his Rival and the best of his actions were construed to be treasonable Neither was his Majesty mistaken for Sophander levelled at nothing lower than the Supremacy of Egypt and he had now devoted himself to be a Partisan of the Persian Monarchy and had as best things when corrupted become alwayes the worst evil being the privation of good and consequently the more numerous the good qualities were in the good the more numerous their privations are in the evil So Sophander was from the best of friends degenerated in the worst of enemies and tasked himself now with the destruction of the Egyptian Nation In order to this design he endeavoured to have Misarites preferred to the conduct of the Egyptian Army who had combined rather to mislead than to lead them and had undertaken to ruine them without a Persian sword Prastus encouraged by their undertakings and by the numbers of his Army resolved to prosecute the Egyptian War and the rather because the body of his own State did begin to amasse noxious humours through want of martial exercise and was become so plethorick that it behoved to be let bloud of
another Letter to the divine Agapeta wherein he discoursed thus MADAM MY reason befooled with credulity perswaded me whilst I lived at Court that lapse of time and distance of place might have effaced some of those impressions which the diamond of passion had engraven upon she long resisting cristal of my love-fearing spirit but I find now that I have been abused in this by my credulity for I perceive that the wound is not cured by distancing it from the sword which made it and that love resembles an impetuous river which swelleth the more the farther it runneth from its source and that albeit the weakest wit might wade through it near its fountain yet the strongest reason is not able to ford it when it hath run farther off Madam every beautiful face which I see hath some trait in it which proves a remembrancer to me of those incomparable lines which the Pencil of Nature hath drawn in yours but they are but dull copies of such an original and can represent it in nothing else besides in making me infortunate in beholding that which I can only behold and not enjoy I lye here tortured by the sharp ague of passion sometimes scorched with the flames of love and at other times frozen by the cold chilnesse of despair and as in all poysonings so in this I must seek the antidote from the same body whence came the poyson Fair Lady live happy and dart forth one ray of your happinesse to enlighten the darkned soul of melancholie MEGISTUS Philarites vented his passion to his dear ARâ—TINA in another Letter thus Incomparable Lady IF this paper had not been dampt in the floods of my tears the flames of my zeal had burnt it to ashes neither can I but envie its happinesse in kissing your fair hands a happinesse sufficient to border and limit the most unsatiable of mortals and so being its rival I would certainly destroy it if it did not promise to acquaint you with the ardour of my respects to you Oh that there should be greater distance betwixt this and Alexandria in ground than there is in the Mappe that so I might see that Sun with whose shadow I must now rest satisfied and that I might adore that Deity by which I intend to be saved Madam I have sacrificed all the flesh of my parched body upon the altar of love and were it not that my soul thought that it could be serviceable to you in its present dwelling it would leave that ruinous fabrick wherein it now remains Madam be not so unmindfull of him whose both happinesse and torture it is that he is too mindfull of you and bestow one thought upon him who bestowes so many upon you and who cannot nor will not be happie except in being esteemed fair Lady Your humble Servant PHILARITES Whilst Philarites was dispatching this Envoy a young Gentleman desired access to Megistus which being granted him he did with a chearfull countenance deliver his mind thus Noble Sir ALbeit the desperatnes of my design might make you eye me as either distracted or malecontent and like one who being in fear to drown in the gulf of despair is content to hang by the smallest twig of comfort that he is able to grasp to yet the publick advancement of my Nations interest makes me over-look all such difficulties and willing to exchange my own losse with their gain for I think it most reasonable that one member should rather be cut off than that the whole body should be endangered and especially such a member as is already in apparent danger of being lost wherfore Sir seing the Enemy is to passe this night alongst a wooden Bridge over the Nile hoping to attaque unexpectedly your Camp I entreat ye may suffer me to inclose my self in an Arch of it with some barrels of Powder that when such a number of them as your Army is able to encounter hath past alongst it I may blow up the Bridge and so stop both the passage of those who are not already past and the return of those who are gone over Sir lest my intruding my self in this danger and the horrour of the danger it self should make you think it is rather treachery than affection which hounds me out to this enterprize ye shall be pleased to know that these ravenous Physicians who have these two years preyed upon my fat purse and practised all their cheats upon my wasted body have at last told me that my cancer shall at last irrecoverably period my dayes Wherefore Sir finding that I could not by Art prolong my dayes I resolved to do it by fame and to sweeten the harshness of death by the generous manner of it that so my parents might have the breath of my praises to dry up the tears of their compassion and that by destroying one subject to my Prince I might preserve him two thousand having thus satisfied my reason I resolved to satisfie my Conscience which is that great Controller of all our actions whereupon I addressed me to a Priest my intimate acquaintance who perswaded me that it was as lawfull for the Civil Magistrate whose command he desired me to ask to dispose of me for the publick utility as it was lawfull for a private person to ransom his life by the losse of a member and that such a generous resolution was a key able to open the gates of Paradise and if it was lawful for a man to hazard his life in battel where he could kill but two or three how much more lawful was it to buy the safety of many friends and the destruction of so many enemies with so worthlesse a farthing as my single life was Megistus having deliberated with Philarites the expediency of this Overture resolved to accept the offer whereupon having both thanked and encouraged the young man having heard that the Enemy was to passe alongst the Bridge the next day he went under silence of night to the Bridge and opening an Arch thereof he inclosed in it the Gentleman together with some barrels of Powder and some Match and guarded the Bridge with some Souldiers lest any should carry intelligence to the Enemy of their intention The next morning the Enemy according to expectation appeared in view which made the two Knights make a shew as if they would fight for they were now four thousand strong and having after some resistance abandoned the Bridge they suffered the Persians to passe alongst it three thousand of them being on this side already Megistus caused shoot some Peeces of great Ordnance which was the signal condescended upon betwixt the Gentleman and him and which was instantly obeyed for he having fired the Powder did to the terrour of the spectators and ruine of the passers blow up both himself them and the Bridge and sent them all to heaven in a fiery chariot their bodies convoying their souls half way and would have entered the upper spheares with them if heaven had not shewed its
we had ridden half a mile together he asked if I had ever heard of a Physician called Nisus who lived in that Country whose skill had kept so many alive that the inhabitants complained that the place was become too populous I who perceived or at least conjectured by his habit that he was of that faculty himself told him that I had oft heard of him and that it was reported that he could defend the weakest body against the strongest assaults of death and that he could chase out deaths ordinary avantcurriers melancholy and sickness albeit they were once entred and that the great-grand-children of ancient families had conspired against him for starving so their wearied expectations for none dyed as I heard except some few Sextons whom want of imployment had quite famished Truly continued I I would ride forty miles to see him Good Sir replied my companion ye extoled him too much but such as he is Sir he is your servant for I am the man At which I seemed so overjoyed that grasping him kindly though rudely in my arms I pulled him quite from his horse and thereafter craving him pardon I helpt him up again After a miles march his horse did begin to weary and at last became so uncivil as to refuse to bear his master company whereupon the Doctor lights down and taking up his foot he endeavours to find his pulse which he swore was a caprezant and that he behoved to cause give him a clyster but ah misfortune whilst he is musing upon the disease the horse weary of standing upon three feet kicks his Lordship into a ditch which stood near by whence we could hardly pull out when we had pulled him out Kalodulus sayes to him Truly Sir it appears ye dive deep in any thing wherein ye once enter but I admire why ye carry with you such a horse except it be that because ye are a Physician ye cannot want a skelleton for your anatomy After he was re-mounted he entertained me with a description of a Lady in Nisbena whom he loved dearly describing all the parts of her body as if he had been anatomizing and to conclude all he took a Letter out of his pocket which he had directed to her and whereof he bestowed upon me this copie afterwards Fairest of all created creatures yea fairer than Diana and all her Nymphs albeit they were chopt in one the harmony of your well-agreeing colours makes my pulses dance to their musick and your beauty like a great gale hath so filled the sails of my desires that it hath driven me out of the harbour of ease into the ocean of Love A surfet of your disdain hath as all cold things do easten me in a feaver of rage your Answer to this Letter must be the crisis by which I am to prognostick my death or recovery But I hope Lady that ye will not murder him who hath saved so many and who hath been born to sâ—ve mankind Ye may perceive the strength of my love which makes me so eloquent that I 〈…〉 Mercury if he were a woman And albeit ye undervalue my plethorick eloquence yet all our Ladies here are struck by it in a leâ—haâ—gie of admiration O my pretâ—y lovely thing love him who loves thee best of all things and send a receipt for this disease to your sick Nilus We arrived that night at Lacedemon where at supper I did meet a young Gentleman whose grave aspâ—ct did concâ—lâ—at respect to what he was to speak after supper I invited him to my chamber and there I did enquiâ—e how affairs byassed in that Nation and who was the Axletrâ—e upon whom that large orb of Court did roul after this we digressed from Courtiers to Court-imployments whereupon he thus charactered to me the emptiness of that so much desired trade Sir my experience hath pilgrimaged through most and my meditation through all those follies wherwith our reason is ensnared and whereby our happiness is betrayed yet amongst them all I perceive that none hath gained so many proselytes as Court-vanity There it is that men run to ruine in Coach and flee with feathers to folly and I am confident that if men took as much pains to gain favour in Heaven as they do â—o ingratiat themselves at Court that they could noâ— miss to be canonized as the most eminent in the Kalender of Saints That is the Butt at which all men level the arrows of their affections and that is the Idol which all men worship Wherefore Sir at my first arrival at Court I endeavoured to find out the reason why in the circle of humane happinesse Court was made the only center to which all the other pleasures like so many lines tended and in which they were all terminated but I must acknowledge Sir that without borrowing the eyes of those who so much admire it I shall never be able to see in it that satisfaction and amiableness which they so much dote upon But to make your judgment judge I shall relate to you the trade which I conceive most of them drives All night they wrestle with their giant fears and cares til at last necessary with much difficulâ—y draws the curtain of rather slumber than sleep before their wearied eyes but yet their judgment no sooner leaves off than their fancy begins to work and as they thought whilst awake so now whilst asleep they dream of competitors and enemies of mis-informations and challenges and after some time their eye lids start up in spight of sleep and then their minds are presented afresh with a large inventory of by-pastaffronts and future fears all written with the black ink of disquietness And thus they toss and tumble where a poor Country-man would find much refreshment sometimes upon one side sometimes upon another their souls which only in this are masters of and command their bodies drawing the bodies after them and making them toss and turn as they are tossed themselves After that the Sun hath sent its rayes to salute them in its name then they must sleep because sleep is then unnatural the morning being thus spent they spend or rather mispend the forenoon betwixt a comb and a mirrour consulting now and then their pages whether they be well drest or not And now they ask whether the King be gone a hunting or not his motion being the only science which they study and if not they post to Court putting that complement upon his Majestie that for haste to wait upon him they dispense with their matines And there like Democritus atomes they wander up and down in the sphere of chance and possibly stand in some antichamber like those pictures which the cunning needle hath depenciled in the curious hangings meditating upon nothing but how to make some Grandee take notice of them or how to pay an earth-deep reverence to any whom they know to be a Court-darling At dinner they surfet one day and are starved another their purses being like the damme
it represented at the one end was placed an Altar all in black Velvet with which all the room was Tapistred all spangled with wormes tears and bleeding hearts wrought in golden Embroidery It was then the hour wherein he used to celebrate the obsequies of his dead Lady wherefore he entreated Aretina and the other Knights to share with him in his devotions which when they had yeelded to there entered two Gentlewomen in deep mourning with two Lutes who were consorted in their singing by two Priests all choise voices the Organ likewise helped them to tremble out these lugubrious Lines Since she is gone why stay I here Seing we were one and she my dear My halfless Soul must sure be lame This bell doth tole that it may blame My leaden motion to that sacred place Where with devotion I her raying face May still admire with eyes voided of sorrow From whom the Sun so clear yet further light might borrow But sure the Gods will not admit that I Should so near sit to such a dietie Let her then live whilst sadned I Must ever grive and never dye He had all this time kneeled before her Statue and prosused so his tears as that he seemed to wash the place whereon her Statue stood Devotions ended they dined and after dinner he conducted them to a Park where under stately Oaks and tale Firres did run a great many Dear whose heads were so well branched that they seemed to glory in being natures Cuckolds the Lyon Leopard and Tygre likewise tamed as it were by the dejectedly magestick looks of their Master grazed contendedly From this they entered a Garden where all the Figures were cut out in Deaths-heads and hemmed in with Dead-mens bones in one corner of this Garden was a walk guarded upon both sides by Cipress-trees each whereof was topped by a skull at the one end stood a Tombe and at the other a Grave here Aretina begged of him the Story of that Peerless Lady whose death he so devoutely bemoaned to which he returned this answer Madam that question renewes to me these Convulsion-fits of dispare by which my tortured Soul is so much distempered and rackles that sore which is incurable though the Gods themselves were my Physitians for I mourn for what is past and since it is impossible that the preterit should be recalled it is impossible that my wound should be cured Yet Madam lest I should seem not to prefer to my private repose the satisfaction of one who is so farr in affinity with her as to be of her sex and qualitie I shall relate to you that tragick History which embiters to me the legend of my Life Whilst Lacedemon grovelled under the feet of fate burriured by the hand of its own Patriots a Knight called Lacetus married a Lady who shortly dying left one Daughter whose beauty and parts made her fully equivalle numbers of other Children and who because of her features as well as of her oneness was every way singular it appears that the Excelcellency of this one encouraged him to marry that he might beget moe so that before his widowes bed had left the impression of his first Lady he gives it that of a second who after his young Daughter had creeped up to the years of marriage seing that she extenuated her beauty and fearing that she might extenuate her Sons fortune she treated her with all these rigours that a step-humour could suggerate to her blunting her confidence and narrowing her expence so that her fathers house did appear a prison to her A young Gentleman who lived in the same Countie and was there much admired both for the greatness of his parts and goodness of his humour regrating this downweighed condition frequents much Lacetus house and goes oft a hunting with him hoping to gain Pisetas affection for so was the Daughter called neither failed he in his project for importunity and opportunity did in end engage Piseta to him Which Ipsetus this was the Gentlemans name managed so discretly as that none could bottome the mistery at last press'd by Piseta that he would relive her from that servitude under which he truckled and desirous to enjoy so peerless a Mistress he suits for her at her fathers hands who deferred his answer till he should constâ—â—t his oraculous wife who disswaded him from the match and endeavoured to affront the Gentlemâ—n and after many delayes which â—he 〈◊〉 continually her rage at last lanced 〈◊〉 self â—o far 〈◊〉 to cause threaten him Whereupon 〈…〉 conflicts resolves to 〈…〉 â—â—â—tained Piseta's consent and 〈◊〉 never either to love or marry and person else which he desired she might seâ—â— with a Sacred Oath not that he jealoused the stabilitie of her Faith but to secure himself against these doubts and future jealousies which is too anxious Love might suggest to him Ipsetus is no sooner gone then that pernicious Step-mother whom the custom of doing mischief had made bold to execute and the intense desire to 〈◊〉 this poor Lady had made cunning to contrive all that her hellish-heart could invent did now with more cruelty and less fear then formerly continue to afflict poor Piseta But amongst her other projects this ensuing prank was the blow which was hardest to be warded because it disarmed her of her Fathers protection which she sconced her self alwayes with formerly She writes a Letter as directed from one Noretus a pedling Merchant of Lacedemon wherein he thanked her for the encouragement she gave him to continue in his affection and regrated with her her Fathers and Step-mothers rigour This Letter she sewed in a Pin-cushion which a dying Lady had bestowed upon her and which because of that she had alwayes kept very diligently This being done she addresses her self to her husband and there with tear-bedabled eyes she condoles his Daughters folly which did so prostitute her affection and might possibly prostrate her body to such mean persons as Noretus was and acquainted him how she had received Letters from him and as she was informed by one of her Maids was coverted up in her Pin-cushion Wherefore she resolved to seek presently the Pin-cushion before himself Piseta is sent for from whom her Step-mother seeks it whereat Piseta sorry that her Step-mother should seek that which she behoved to refuse denies modestly with a blush to give it her Father perceiving that she both blushed and denyed it flings away immediately to her Chamber and taking it away with him rips it up and finds the Letter which soothed all that was told him When he had collationed this with Noretus giving his daughter some Gloves and Ribbons which the honest Gentleman had given out of his affection to the family which had alwayes imployed him all is concluded infallibly This so inflamed him that those flames of rage brunt his fatherly affection to ashes and armed him with the cruellest of resolutions against her wherupon calling for her he first chid and then beat her so that