hands upon her lower garments for fear lest after her death some indecent action should offend her modesty PENELOPE TO LAERTES The Eighth HARANGUE The Argument PENELOPE that vertuous wife to ULISSES whose reputation yet lives after so many ages past and who from the borders of that seldome frequented Island where she lived has made her renown spread over the whole world finding her self one day extreamly afflicted for the absence of her Husband who after the siege of Troy had strayed almost ten years at the mercy of the windes and waves without possibility of seeing his Countrey would ease her sorrowes by her plaints and make her dear Husbands Father acknowledge by the discourse you are now going to see That absence is worse than death PENELOPE TO LAERTES HE that undertakes to maintain that death is the most sensible and greatest of all evils is surely such a one as either never loved at all or at least hath never under one the unhappinesse of being absent from the person beloved No my Lord that monster which desolates all the earth who by the succession of time changes the face of the whole Universe who treats alike both vice and vertue who strikes with the same fatal dart the Kings and Shepherds and whose very portraiture alone fills the stoutest soul with horrour and amazement is not yet that thing which I believe we ought the most to apprehend Absence which we may truly say is the commencement of all sorrowes and the end of all joyes hath in it somewhat that is more harsh and insupportable for if the first be that which destroyes our prosperity the second is that which makes us unhappy even in the midst of abundance yea on the Throne it self There is neverthelesse a great deal of difference betwixt them for death ravishes equally from us both our felicities and misfortunes if it rob us of any flowers it does not leave us the prickles behind them it crushes with the same hand both our Crowns and fetters and in a word when it deprives us of life it likewise utterly extinguishes in our hearts all the flames of love and anger all the resentments of hatred vengeance and in fine all other passions It causes I say both our joy and trouble to expire together at the same moment whereas absence not onely robs us of all the good that ever death deprives us of but likewise causes all those evils to fall on â—s to which the other puts a sudden period Our life it self in this occasion is left us but onely to make us the more sensible of the most piercing pain that can be felt and if there be sometimes such people who prefer the absence of the beloved person rather than death 't is because they suffer themselves to be deluded by false appearances t is because that mournful dress in which it is represented affrights them t is because they contemplate it more with their bodily sight than the eyes of the soul t is because they only consider it in what is most terrible and t is in fine because they love themselves better than they doe their Mistresses and prefer the rayes of the Sun above the lustre of her eyes and had rather not see her at all than be deprived of their sight Ha! how ignorant those people are of the true sentiments which love inspires But you will say to me my Lord perhaps you do not seriously consider how great that violence must needs be which separates so close an union as that of soul and body But I shall answer you you do not truly consider your self what a greater violence that must be which for a long season separates that which love reason and inclination seem to have joyned with an eternal and immortal chain Death sage Laertes as you know better than my self is as natural to us as life if it be an evil 't is at least an evil that should not surprize us as soon as we begin to live we ought to begin to learn to die at the first opening of our eyes we should already look on the opening of our graves and every Monarch in the world that hath not renounced common sence cannot be ignorant that as he mounts up to his Throne so he shall once descend into his sepulchre 'T is not thus in the things of love that passion being altogether divine seizes so imperiously on those whom she possesses and the sight of the beloved person does so absolutely fill all the soul of her adorer that this absence is an evil which still surprizes him and comes so unawares that by consequence it renders him more unhappy than death can which we ought alwayes to expect That amazing instant which parts two persons perfectly loving one another is a sadnesse beyond my expression though I have proved it more cruelly than any other but to make you in some manner comprehend it Imagine to your self my Lord that you were ambitious and that your Crown were torn from you imagine your self were extreamly coverous and that your treasures were all stolâ— from you imagine you were victorious and that your victory were ravished out of your hands imagine you were shakled with chains whose very weight were insupportable imagine you lost all that is dear to you in the world imagine you were deprived of the light of the day and that you remained in horrid darknesse imagine your heart were torn forth of your bosome and you not yet dead and imagine in fine that I not onely suffered all these pains but that even death how terrible so'ere it be was the utmost of all my wishes at that sad moment of Ulisses departure Ha! my Lord yet once more how grievous that funest minute was to me death is rather the lulling asleep of all our troubles than any sensible evil and it has nothing troublesome but the way that leads to it But absence is a chain of misfortunes which finds no end but at the end of our lives or the return of the beloved person The first sigh which death does make us breath hath alwayes the advantage of being the last but the first which absence obliges us unto is followed with so many others and accompanied with so many tears so many disturbances so many torments or to speak better so many deaths that its evill suffers no comparison and then to speak rationally death and absence may be taken for one another since both the one and the other equally deprives us of all that we can love but as t is impossible that the loss of all the riches in the world can be so sensible to us as the absence of the person whom we dearly love since she is in the stead of all unto us so also it is impossible but that that which deprives us of it must be more harsh than death it self which can only take away that good from us which we esteem farre lesse than she But you will say again that death which snatches
the heavens yet once more prolong it in me a little for some instants that I might testifie my acknowledgment It seems to me my prayer is heard for although I feel that the hour of my death is neer it seems to me I say if I deceive not my self that I have cause to believe I shall not expire till I have related to you a part of those thoughts that are in me Do not fear that I shall complain of you or of fate I have too great a soul too firm and too reasonable to have a ressentment so vulgar so weak and so unjust I know that in Battels one finds as often death as victory that one must equally prepare for the one and the other and that if so be we be overcome without shame or basenesse we should lose such a victorie without despair die without murmuring I do not then regret the portion of life which I might yet have had mine hath been long enough since it hath been unspotted I have lived little I confess but I have lived with glory and I die with honour If Clorinda must be vanquished it must needs have been by him who uses to overcome all others 't is no small thing for her to have disputed with him for that illustrious prize as she hath done and not to have yielded but onlie because nothing can resist him Do not mourn for me then more than I mourn for my self rule your ressentments by mine comfort your self as I am comforted and be not more sensible of my misfortune than your own interest If you behold me as your enemy you will rejoice at my loss all Godfreys armie will give you thanks for this action for though I be of that sex from which ordinarily men can draw no advantage to fight and overcome us I think nevertheless without vanitie that Clorinda's name is famous enough to dare believe as I do that all your Knights would think themselves fortunate not onlie to be her conquerers but even to be cōquered by her Do not therefore cast that crown upon my Tomb which you have acquired by my defeat as if unworthy of your temples do not disdain the victory if you will not disgrace me On the contrary proclaim it to all the world let all the world know what it hath cost you do not hide the blood which you have lost onlie hide your tears from Clorinda that her death may be more quiet since it cannot be more honourable And to testifie that she pardons it with a willing heart to you she conjures you if it be true that you have any affection for her to conserve it even after she is dead let not her ashes extinguish that noble ardour which her Heroick actions have kindled in your soul you have loved her an enemy love her in the grave you have loved her when she was armed against you love her when she shall be dead by your hands you have loved her even when she hated you love her also when she shal have ended her days in assuring you that she hath esteemed your valour and your vertue even so far as to suffer her death without murmuring and to think it a glory to lose her life by the same hand that had preserved it for her I die nevertheless with the sorrow of not having implied it for the service of my deliverer but as that ingratitude is not voluntary so let it not hinder you to look upon my death as if I suffered it to save you though I suffer it because I would have lost yours Imagine that all the blowes I made at you were directed against your enemies and not against your person let the blood which I lose serve for a price for the tears which you shed and in fine believe that seeing the generosity I have found in your soul if Clorinda had lived she would have testified to you by her actions that she could no longer reckon you amongst her enemies But since things past cannot be revoked and that shortly there will no more remain of Clorinda but her name her ashes and her Monuments if you have the goodness to afford her one have a care of all those heighten her reputation if you can that so yours may increase and that you may also justifie at the same time your affection and your sufferings Be not so weak as those persons unworthy the light of the day which cease from loving their friends as soon as ere they are uncapable or not in a condition to acknowledge their amity Be not I say of those in whom the grave strikes an horrour who dare not follow the persons they love into the shades of death Those that are so weakly interested they seek onlie but for the recompence of their affections and who loves onelie pleasing things are not worthy the light of the Sun the great and generous souls are not wont to do thus and to tell things as they are t is onely within the grave and 'twixt the very armes of death that we can assure our selves certainty of the good will any hath for us all the services which are rendred to the living may be suspected of self-interest the honours done to the dead cannot be ill interpreted but merit to live eternally in the memory of all men This is the true mark of Heroick love and of true vertue t is as I have said the infallible Character of a soul great noble and generous t is loving for love and not for the reward and 't is in fine the right means as I have also said to become worthy of all imaginable honours to honour the memory of those who during their lives have merited to be esteemed by us in a particular manner Is it not enough that we lose a person so dear to us unlesse we blot her Image from our memory Ha! no no too generous Prince you will not do thus you will visit her Tomb with respect and her name becomming inseparable from yours by her deplorable adventures shall fly 'ore all the world with luster and glory you will conserve this love which was so pure that hope it self hath had no share for truly it would not be just that Clorinda ceasing to hate when she descends into the grave you should begin to wish her ill when she ceases to live and when she begins to know you and by consequence to esteem you very much After you have been my enemy be my Champion I conjure you defend against all the world the beauty of those advantageous Pourtraits which fame hath made of me over all the earth maintain that she hath not flattered Clorinda speak of the grandeur of her courage of her experience in her youth of her success in combats of the purity of her soul of the innocency of her life and of the glory of her death It concerns me little that you should publish how I was born upon the throne it suffices that you perswade them I was worthy and that
those which have not had any evil cannot know what pleasure is found themselves almost happy I say almost generous Prince because our apprehensions did not yet cease and that my fathers scrupulous devotion believ'd that nature was too weak to hinder him to acquit himself of what he owed to the gods But if that too nice zeal did give us trouble the publick cry which made it end did no less rejoyce us You will tell me perhaps that this unhop'd for good concern'd me only that that which saved me did not save you that the hand which spared me would yet sacrifice you that you combated a Bull whose rage was terrible that you fought a Gyant whose strength was no lesse that they would constrain me to marry Meroebe that at the same time in which they put the royal Bandeau about my temples they would have put the mortal Scarf over your eyes and that I was fain once more to walk on burning coals wiehout any other assistance than my own purity having before left my Pantarbe But in fine Theagenes this happiness became equal to us you were spared as I was saved the hand which shielded me did not strike you the Bull neither frighted nor hurt you the Gyant did but encrease your glory Meroebe was the captive that adorned your triumph the flame by its lustre imparted some both to your vertue and mine Cariclia and Sisimithres finished our prosperities and from the feet of those altars of the gods where we then were we presently were raised up gloriously to the Kings Throne where we now are Acknowledge then my dear Theagenes as well as I that it belongs not but to those that have been unfortunate to say they are happy that 't is but only after our disgraces that our felicties are sweet that by troubles onely we can come to judg of quiet and rest and that those who never have undergone any evil cannot truly know what pleasure is For my part I find so much satisfaction in remembring my troubles and the memory is so grateful and so precious to me that far from banishing it from my soul I wish not onely that it may be always there but that this glorious Image may alwayes be in the memory of all men Let there be found a Painter both faithful and skilful and happy enough to trace a picture of it that Posterity may behold it that our adventures may be known wherever the Sun gives light that our amours be talked of in all the languages of the world that the Ethiopian History be not hid from any that we may have an hundred Imitators of our pleasures and sufferings that we may be the rule model of all other lovers and that from age to age the whole Universe may alwayes admire Theagenes and Cariclia The effect of this HARANGUE TRuly one may say that these last wishes have obtained the effect of this Harangue since the reputation of this brave Romance will never have an end and that there are few others which do not owe something to it It s Authour who preferr'd the preservation of this pleasing Book before his Bishoprick did no bad office to those who since himself have medled to compose the like and they and I are obliged to acknowledge that though we have not servily imitated him it is never thelesse certain that we owe much to this great example POLIXENA TO PYRRHUS The Seventh HARANGUE The Argument As the Grecians were returning to their Countrey after the taking of Troy the ghost of Achilles appeared to them which with a fearful and threatening voice reproached their ingratitude and forgetfulnesse and in fine demanded of them for recompence of his grand exploits and the life which he had lost in that long famous siege of Illium that Polixena the daughter of Priam of whom he had been enamour'd should be sacrificed upon his Tomb. Though this demand were infinitely cruel the fear of a dead man whom the Grecians had so much dreaded living made him obtain what he demanded so that Pyrrhus his son went and took her to immolate her to his fathers pittiless ghost and 't was at that sad instant that we do suppose that this beauteous and generous Princess made this discourse to him as you are going to see by the which she pretended to prove to him That death is better than servitude POLIXENA TO PYRRHUS FEar not that the desire of life will make me have recourse to tears thereby to excite compassion in your soul Polixena's heart is too great to fear death and her spirit is too reasonable and too generous not to prefer it before slavery Those who are forced to descend from the Throne withviolence ought not to apprehend their descent into the grave it is better they should cease to live than that they should begin to become slaves and it is better to become nothing at all than to survive their glory and their happiness Do not fear therefore that the Victime will escape from the foot of the altar she desires her death which you are going to give her she beholds without horrour the knife which must pierce her brest nor does Achilles ghost demand the end of her life with more are dency than she her self does crave it What do you stay for then to perform this funest ceremony there is no need you should busie your selves with all the preparations of an ordinary sacrifice for I do not think there is any one of the gods that can favourably receive that which you are going to offer this day The Victime is pure and innocent I confess but if I am not deceived it will stain that hand that shall shed its blood the Sacrifier will become criminal and the sacrifice will be of no advantage but only to the oblation it self But what shall I do in this occasion it seems hearing me speak in this manner that I would with-hold the arm that should strike me No Pyrrhus 't is not my design on the contrary I seek to irritate you thereby to hasten my death 'T is with impatience and disquiet that I perceive that my birth my youth and my present condition inspires you with some sence of tenderness nay I fear also that my constancy does make you take some compassion and apprehend in fine all that one lesse generous than my self would desire But remember not to let you bow to any pity that you are a Grecian and I a Trohan that you are Achilles son that I am daughter to Priam and Paris sister who to revenge the death of generous Hector kill'd that cruel Achilles your father and my enemy For let them not tell me that he was become my lover ever since the sad day wherein he saw me at my brothers funeral or that 't is yet through a sentiment of affection that his ghost will have me sacrificed upon his Tomb No Pyrrhus no Achilles was but my enemy and never was my lover however I shall say that for
to my grave So long as Achilles lived he hath desired that I should be his slave and now he ceases to live he will have me for his victime Le ts satisfie this last desire since we may do it without shame and le ts rejoyce that we have neither been his wife nor his Mistris hor his slave Whoever goes out of this life with glory ought ever to esteem themselves happy principally if we leave a chain in leaving this world what matter is it whether they unlose the chains that binds us or whether they break them however it is t is still to set us at liberty Be then my deliverer and fear not for your particular that I shall wish you any hurt The hand that frees me cannot but be grateful to me and he that hinders me from being a captive cannot be hated by me But what do I and what is' t I say unhappy that I am I do not think to whom I speak He whom I behold is not onely a Grecian not only my enemy not onely my sacrifier but he was likewise the executioner of my father No Pyrrhus 't is neither as Grecian nor as my enemy nor as Achilles son nor as my sacrifier that I look on you even when I change my thoughts and that I make imprecations against you but t is because you were my fathers murtherer What Pyrrhus could you so hatefully pursue that venerable old man to the very feet of the altar where his sought his refuge to thrust a dagger even into his heart Did your hand not tremble at the aspect of that great Prince Father of so many Heroes truly it should have done so but those that do not revere the gods have no reason to respect men Ha! truly that act hath acquired you a great deal of glory and t is a difficult thing to kill a Prince worn out with age feeblenesse and misery and who seeks his defence onely by the protection of those sacred places which ought to be inviolable Methinks there was no need of staining your arm and name by so barbarous an action the flames which have consumed our City would have sufficed to take away the life of that deplorable King and the least you could do was to let his Palace be his Funeral-pile to be consumed in But you are too nice an observer of Achilles his cruelties not to observe them exactly 'T was not enough to have usurped an Empire and to set Illium all in one flame the altars must be prophan'd they must be sprinkled with humane blood and that not onely with the blood of vulgar ones It must be the noblest blood in all the earth that must be spilt it must be a royall person that must be trampled under foot despising in him and with him all that was holy or sacred in our Palaces and in our Temples after such an unnatural action I was in the wrong to fear lest any pity should enter your soul and defer my death that 's a sentiment which the Grecians in general are unacquainted with and of which the son of Achilles cannot be capable possibly That dagger which I behold in your hand and with which you are a going to pierce my heart is perhaps the same which hath gone through the King my Fathers heart O sad spectacle O too cruel torment why is it that I did not perish in the flames which have devoured so many illustrious persons and that I have been reserved to behold such horrid things am I guilty of Helena's crimes or of Paris his failings No Polixena is innocent and if she have outlived so many misfortunes t is to die with more constancy and with more glory also t is to let the Grecians which did not come to this siege know what the sons of Priam might be since even his daughter dare encounter and confront death without any the least fear If those flames which consum'd Troy had put a period to my destiny I should have had no witnesses of these last sentiments of my soul Posterity might have doubted of Polixena's vertue and might have believed that since Achilles had had the temerity after he had made her Countrey desolate and slain her brothers to demand her for his wife and to say that he was in love with her that she had not done as she should in so strange a business But as things are now I die in publishing that I am an utter enemy to Achilles that I have ever been so and that I shall be so eternally let the ghost of that cruel one come once more forth of his sepulchre let it appear to all the Grecians and let it declare whether Polixena does erre from the truth To justifie what she sayes you need but consider the animosity which he retains for her even after his death and one may easily know that which she had for him so long as he lived For although what ever comes from the Grecians ought to be suspected by the Trojans this apparition of Achilles is not one of Ulisses deceits as that was whereby our City was betrayed No t is a perfect hatred which makes him come forth of his grave to make me enter into mine and this sanguinary ghost did re-behold the day onely to make me lose the light for ever Why do you stay then O Prince unworthy of that title and why do not you end this woful sacrifice Do you respect the daughter more than you have done the Father and does your hand rather tremble to stab Polixena than when you massacred the deplorable Priam hearken to that subterranean voice which issues from the hollownesse of that grand sepulchre with an horrid sound and which with threats commands you to immolate me to his fury Behold that earth which opens it self behold the ghost of Achilles which appears to me or rather Achilles himself who is leaving his grave He is pale and disfigured a terrour inflames his eyes even dead as they are and I behold him just such as he appeared to me on the sad day when he fought with Hector unlesse death or perhaps the remorse for his crimes have changed his skinne and colour Behold Phyrrus behold that hideous spirit which arises little by little and who to his threatening actions joyning his horrid voice does for the last time ordain you to sacrifice Polixena to him Make this Ghost to vanish by obeying it the Victime is ready prepared the poyniard is in your hand and you are accustomed to shed the Blood Royall Strike then as your Slave I conjure you and as the Daughter of a King I command you The effect of this HARANGUE This fair and unhappy Princesse drew the tears of all the Grecians Pyrrhus himself was moved nor could his eyes behold the crime which his hand committed He struck her nevertheless barbarous man that he was and that young and deplorable creature had so much modesty that even in falling struck with the deadly blow she was careful to lay her
the perils he was going to expose himself unto did no sooner come into my mind but that tumult was appeased but I was not the less unhappy for all this since there is no danger which I did not apprehend for him and which by consequence I did not undergo I imagined that I beheld him ready to make ship-wrack I beheld him in the combats I beheld him wounded I saw him a prisoner I beheld him ready to expire and I think truly that the onely fear of his death had made me die if hope more to make me suffer than to ease me had not preserved my life I hoped then my Lord but to say truly 't was so feebly and with so much uncertainty that that hope was rather a trouble than an help unto me That ill founded hope had no sooner inspired my heart with some pleasing thought but presently my fear quenched it again if the one made me imagine Ulisses returned victorious the other persctaded me he might be then perishing in the waves if one made me behold the harbour the other shewed me nothing but tempests and wracks in fine I alwayes thought him either inconstant or dead and the successive raign of two such contrary sentiments tyrannized so fiercely in my soul that to be in a condition not to fear any more nor to be flattered again with hope I wished more than an hundred times for death You may know from thence if I do not deceive my self that absence is more to be feared than that since t is desired as a remedy for those evils which this last makes us suffer Truly my Lord they are so great and so sensible that if it were possible to comprehend that there could be a sharper pain or a greater misfortune than the death of the beloved person we might yet say that such a losse caused lesse affliction than the torment of an absence whose duration is incertain Yes my Lord those which do not love their husbands so well as to follow them into their graves and who have courage enough or to say better insensibility enough to suffer that separation without despairing have more rest than I have they have this advantage to know that they are unhappy alone and that those whom they mourn are at quiet they fear neither their inconstancy nor their death which is already happened nor can they any more apprehend ought either from that pitiless monster nor from inconstant fortune since there remains no more for them to lose but their own life which is no longer pleasing to them But what do I say insensible as I am No no my Lord do not give ear to what my sorrow makes me speak nor believe that I could ever prefer the death of my dearest Ulisses before his absence how rigorous so'ere it is unto me May he live and may he also live happy though distant from his Penelope rather than I should hear that he lives no more I had rather never behold him than to behold him die and I had rather hear he were inconstant than to hear of the end of his life O heaven to what a strange necessity do you reduce me to make wishes against my self Now my Lord is not absence worse than death and have I not reason to say that I am the most unhappy person of all my sex those that die have this sad consolation in losing their lives that they may consider that from the beginning of ages all men have undergone what they do and as long as the world shall last all those that are born must undergo the very same but of all the Grecian Princesses whose husbands have followed Menelaus I am the only she that have heard no news of mine I am the onely she that yet doth sigh I am the only she that have no share in the publick joy and the onely he alone that dares not prepare Crowns not knowing whether those Crowns should be made of Lawrel or of Cypress branches The victory has been woful only to me alone and Polixena yea Hecuba her self though the unhappiest amongst the Trojans are not yet so unhappy as poor Penelope The first died with constancy and by consequence with glory and last had at least this advantage that she could weep over the bodies of her children and revenge the death of her son whereas I weep and do not know what object my tears should have Perhaps alas thinking onely to weep for the absence of my dear Ulisses I am obliged to weep for his inconstancy or it may be for his death For my Lord how can I think him living and not criminal since he does not come he knowes he is King of this Island and that his subjects have need of him he knowes you are his Father and that you wish for his return he knows Telemachus is his son and that he desires to know him he being so young when he departed that time has effaced the memory of him he knowes in fine that Penelope is his wife and that upon that happy return depends all her felicity nevertheless it is now almost twenty years since he went it is neer ten years since the Grecians conquered and yet we do not know whether we should bemoan him as unhappy or guilty However it be 't is certain that I have cause to complain and to despair on what side so'ere I turn I still finde new subjects of sorrow your old age afflicts me my sons green years disquiets me those that would comfort me increase my troubles those which bear no part with me in my woes anger me and both the discourses of the one and the silence of the others are equally insupportable to me But that which nevertheless is the most cruel to me is that neither time nor affliction hath sullied that little beauty on my face which hereaofore charmed Ulysses 't is not but that if I must see him again I shall be joyful to have preserved it but in the condition I am I finde that t is shameful to me to be yet able to make any conquests Nevertheless you are not ignorant what a number of importunate persons do persecute me though I despise them for my part I am in doubt whether I ought to hide from them my person or my tears for to say truth I think verily I have now no other amability nor any thing worthy of esteem but only my excessive regrets and sorrow for the absence of my dearest Husband and yet Helena hardly ever had more slaves than I have captâ—ves though Helena and Penelope are persons very different and although I take as great care to break their chains as she did to manacle them O heavens who ever heard such amorous discourses as these indiscreet people make to court me to an approbation of their fond passions and to gain my belief that their intentions are legitimate Ulysses is dead say these impatient men and by consequence our love does not offend you ha if Ulysses be dead do
that one may be both slave and Mistris But let us suppose though falsly and without reason that her birth must needs be illustrius that wil pretēd to the glorie of retaining him still an illustrious prisoner who is already become so to his slave that the chains of that happy captive must have been forged of the same gold the scepter was of which otherwhile her father ruled what do you finde in this that can make Briseis unworthy of Achilles love or worthy of his hatred You are the son of a King I confess but was not my father a King likewise there are Crowns in your family I acknowledge it but hath there not been some in mine also you ought to ascend the Throne I cannot deny it but have you not made me descend from one your self you have overcome us 't is true but might not we have vanquished you I am become your slave that 's certain but was it not possible you might have been ours I wear your fetters all the world sees it but so might you have worne our chains you may treat me cruelly I do not doubt it but will it not be barbarous if you do you may abandon me indeed but are you not unfaithful if you do you may love Polixena I know it but too well but would it not be unreasonable that you should love your enemies you may goe into Troy I grant it but will it not be a madness to trust the Trojans you may likewise betray the Grecians who does not know it but will it not be a baseness to betray them Ha! I perceive cruel Achilles that this last reproach is more insupportable to you than all the rest that you can hardly suffer it and that t is not without some difficulty that you in some manner retain that fury which is so natural to you T is no matter however t is no matter for though you should let the cloud of your anger break upon my head yet the care I have for all that concerns you obliges me not to conceal from you that which others dare not reveal unto you Know then if you be so blind as not to perceive it that the whole Camp murmurs against you that Agamemnon whom you have offended makes use of this opportunity to revenge himself and to cry you down amongst the Grecians that Ulysses imployes his eloquence upon no other subject and his facility of speaking and speaking well is a dangerous enemy to you that the sage Nestor loudly blames you though in all other occasions he hath ever testified much reservednesse that Ajax himself who is no small friend is reduced to the sorry necessity either of not saying any thing to defend you or to quarrel for want of better reasons with those that condemn your proceedings that Thersites by biting jests strikes at your reputation making all the world merrie at your cost and Idomeneus Diomedes and all the other Grecian Princes are resolved not to indure so unreasonable a thing Everie one observes you watchfully each one remarks all your words everie one considers all your actions and you are now esteemed in our Camp rathar a spie for the Trojans than as one of the chief commanders of the Grecians I perceive that you will answer me by the fury which inflames your eies that you know the art to make them hold their peace that your hand is more to be feared than their tongues and that if they can affront you you can yet better punish them and revenge your self But Achilles you must then hew in pieces all our Troops combate all our Captains and slaie all our souldiers that is to say you must do that which the Trojans cannot nay dare not undertake you must goe and take Hectors place you must goe and dishonour your self Perhaps you have no such guiltie thoughts perhaps you will onelie retire your self into your tents as you did heretofore that so by the disadvantage which the Grecians shall have when they must fight without you they may know and feel the wrong they do themselves by vexing you and not approving all that pleases you O Achilles are these fit actions for an Hero who hath no other object but his glorie who by a thousand brave performances aspires to immortalitie Should anie one prefer his particular interest before the common good or his unjust passion above equity it self or the enemies good beyond his own countreys should anie one believe himself wiser than all others when indeed he has no wisdome at all should any one be Judge in his own cause should anie one listen to his own desires not give ear to reason it self and if it be so that one had trulie loved which I cannot believe should he proudly maintain afterwards that one cannot be both slave mistris certainly Achilles there is somewhat that is so strange in your proceedings that one cannot wel cōprehend it the more one considers it the less t is understood I think you hardly understand it your self For my part I acknowledg that t is incōceivable to me nor can I imagin by what fantastical motives you can be drawn to do so for wherefore should you quarrel so outragiously with Agamemnon when he plucked me out of your hands if you do not find me wherefore retreat within your Pavilions and sigh bitterly there since you do not love the cause of your retreat wherefore did you behold our Battslia's defeated and not assist them if they onely took away from you what you have a minde to lose wherefore did you suffer Hector to break down our barracadoes and not oppose him if this cause of your difference be so indifferent to you wherefore did you suffer him to fire our Navy without hastening to quench it if that flame of affection which you had for me be extinguished in your heart wherfore did you expose Patroclus the dearest of your friends and be the cause of his death if my life be not dear to you and wherefore in fine did you take me out of Agamemnons hands if I am no longer welcome to you answer Achilles answer to what I desire you I intreat you with humility if I be yet your slave onely and if I am yet both your Slave and Mistris I command you Have you taken me to your own self again but only to imploy me about mean and servile offices Have you many captives that wears chains whose fathers have worne crowns do you believe that an hand ordained for a Scepter can help its self with a needle or that she that was accustomed to command can accustome her self to obey Do you believe when you treat me thus that I can see it and live Do you believe I am destitute of courage as you are of reason and pitie Do you believe your fetters can enchain the soul as they do the bodie or that a generous stab cannot free me from this slaverie and your Tyrannie Ha! if you believe thus how little do
you know your own cruelties and how ill are you acquainted with Briseis how little do you conceive what death is or how little do you confider what I suffer Though it should present it self to my sight in all that funest bloudie equipage which the most barbarous Tyrant can dress it withall though I should meet it accompanied with executioners with scourges and with flames though there were new tortures invented to please you and to afflict me withall I should yet prefer all these before the miserable condition I am now in and should sooner resolve to suffer them all than to suffer your outrages and disdain for in fine one may be both Captive and Mistris bur one cannot remain a captive without being Mistris after the once having had the glorie of being so I could have lived without that glorie but I cannot live and lose it I could have resolved to have lived in your chains but I cannot resolve now to return to them again I could have indured the anger of my Conquerour but I cannot indure the disdain of my lover I could then have remembred that I was your slave but now I cannot forget that you have mine in a word you may be barbarous and inconstant but I cannot be insensible and have no resentment O cruel and unreasonable Achilles are you not also cruel enough to believe that I should be yet too much honoured in serving the new and fairer object of your flames have you not so much blindness as to hope that I shall become her captive as you say I am yours do you not expect from my complacence and willingnesse that I should take the care to chuse her an habit that may adorn her and the pains to curl her hair to imbroider her head-attire with jewels and to indeavour besides to adde new graces to those she received at her birth that thereby art may finish in her that which nature has so gloriously begun will you not have me extol her perfections tell you of her charmes make you remark the lustre of her eies the pureness of her skin and beauteous face thereby to increase your affection and your delight together will you not afterwards make me goe and entertain that faire Phrigian of the rare qualities that are in you must I not vaunt of your courage and speak to her of your skill and above all value your constancy which I know so well that so I may inkindle her soule with the bright flame which consumes yours But will you not have me tell her to prove your valour that you have besieged Troy that you have vanquisht the Trojans a thousand times and that you took away her brothers life Will you not have me declare aloud your liberality when you took money for Hectors corps and your civility when you threatened Priam who came to your Tents to demand it of you O barbarous man that you are are those your intents but ô faint-hearted as I am my selfe am I not ashamed of what I do and should I not blush since contrary to my designe and first dicourse my verie anger it selfe is become a token of my passion or rather of my errour No no do not listen to me any more neither listen to love who speaks to you even as I do nor to reason which sayes the same that love does Be gone since you will goe and passe from this Camp to the other where glorie waits for you as well as Polixena Leave your ancient friends and runne to the imbraces of those whom you have fought withall and whom you ought to fight withall again forget the interest of your own Nation and lose all even to your very honour to behold your Mistris againe look upon Briseis tears with smiles and scoffe at her troubles if at least her troubles doe not provoke your anger Joyn her chains to Hectors armes and carry both the one and the others to that Trojans feet and in fine goe and marrie an unworthie sister upon the tombe of her most generous brother You will have it so and Fate will have it so likewise and although I would not if I could help it yet I must needs consent to it for who can withstand Fate and Achilles his obstinacy But remember cruel and blinde as you are that a God hath told you by my mouth yes I swear that I feel a God inspiring what I now tell you that you shall finde hatred where you hope to meet with love that you shall have nothing but regret where you expected nothing but pleasure that you shall be betrayed by the Trojans as you now betray the Grecians that they shall have as much craft as you have simplicity that if Polixena do wait for you death does wait for you also neer her that if you approach neer Troy your fatal houre does approach likewise that the first day of that fatall Marriage shall be the last of your dayes and that your death must quickly make me die Behold what Heaven has inspir'd me with and this is that which you ought to believe this is that which you will not believe and this is that insensible and mad man which will be the cause both of your ruine and mine Just Gods he hears me no more he is going the power of his destiny drags him away I shall behold him no more nor shall he ' ere see me again he leaves me he is going to die and I my self am going to die likewise The effect of this HARANGUE THe unfortunate Briseis obtained nothing of the patilesse Achilles but her prediction was not untrue He went to see Polixena that he might see the day no longer and every one knows that one of Paris's arrows sent him to his grave for not having believed this lovely slave who without doubt deserved to be together both Slave and Mistris FINIS