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
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
A TRIUMPHANT ARCH ERECTED and CONSECRATED to the Glory of the FEMININE SEXE BY MONSIEUR de SCUDERY Englished by I. B. Gent. Dum Spiro Spero LONDON Printed for William Hope and Henry Herringman at the blew Anchor behind the Old Exchange and at the blew Anchor in the lower Walk in the New Exchange 1656. To the LADIES Illustrious Ladies THese following Harangues are so many pillars of that Triumphant Arch erected by the skilful hands of the renowned Monsieur de Scudery to the glory of your excellent Sex which I not only out of those common principles of Civility which obliges all men to render you service and in obedience to the commands of two most noble Ladies which were sufficient to prompt the dullest spirit but out of that earnest desire I have to proclaim my infinite respect and veneration to your Illustrious Sex have adventured to translate and do now prostrate them before you with the most profound respect that can be And though my dis-joynted and unpolish'd version does so abate their native lustre compared to the Original as might deserve your censure yet when you shall be pleas'd to consider of what importance it is to your fame and honour and that none abler have yet remembred to undertake it I do not believe only that your natural sweetness will be perswaded to grant a pardon but am induced to think it were a sin to doubt of your fair acceptance Look but on it Illustrious Ladies as it truly is a glorious Trophy composed of the Arms Scepters and Crowns of so many Monarchs which your beauties have subdued and no doubt but it will become as grateful as it is magnificent and be received with as much delight and satisfaction as it is tendered with desire and passion THE SUBJECTS Of the following HARANGUES The first Harangue HElena to Paris That beauty is no reall good The second Angelica to Medoro That Love proceeds from the inclination The third Amarillis to Tityrus That the Countrey life is to be preferr'd before living in Cities The fourth Clorinda to Tancred That the affection ought not to die with the beloved The fifth Erminia to Arsetes That the affection ought not to goe beyond the grave The sixth Cariclia to Theagenes That those who never suffered troubles cannot truly tell what pleasure is The seventh Polixena to Pyrrhus That death is better than slavery The eighth Penelope to Laertes That absence is worse than death The ninth Briseis to Achilles That one may be both Slave and Mistris HELENA TO PARIS I Know full well ô too lovely and if I may say it too much beloved Paris that you will not easily condiscend to the discourse I shall now shape that you will hardly suffer I should condemne that which you approve that I blame that which you have so much praised and that I slight that which you doe even yet adore You beleeve without doubt that I cannot offend my beauty without offending your judgement and that since I owe all my glory to it in owing it your conquest I have no reason to make an assault against that And truely he that looks on the thing but on this side would ever be a stranger to my opinion but as they have all double faces if you will your self consider both the one and the other without interest and preoccupation I assure my self that your sence of it wil not be at distance from mine that you will break down the Altar where you have committed Idolatry that you will acknowledge that you have taken an Idol for a God that you will subscribe to my opinion and that in fine you will say as well as I that beauty is not a real God But to prevent you from making me any objections I will propound them my self yes my dearly beloved Paris I my self will range all your troops in battalia that so I may defeat them afterwards and to remove all subject of complaint I will not speake till after I have made you speak I am not then ignorant that the partisans for beauty say that it is the cheifest work of nature and its last effect that the planets and the sun it self have somewhat a lesser brightnesse that from that admirable mixture of colours and for that exact proportiof features which compose a beauty there results something that is divine that there are none but the blind can deny this truth and those statues which feele not its power that that marvellous and proud object continually triumphs that Kings take a glory in following its chariot that they preferre its chaines to their crownes and that the most brave take a vanity to sigh at its feet and to cast down their trophies there They say likewise that the Empire of this beauty is far more noble and more glorious than that of the great Monarchs since they reign over the bodies only and this reigns over the spirits They say that they are her eyes only that may be called King of Kings since they alone subject them and that only they make those dye slaves who were not born but to command In fine they establish this beauty Queen of all the Earth they make her reign soveraignly over all the rational world and maintain with as much ardour as they resent that she is alone the soveraign good Neverthelesse O my dear Paris how deceitfull are the appearances how true it is at least that if beauty be a real good for those that see it it is an evil to those in whom 't is seen To make this passe for a solid advantage were to make blossomes passe for flowers flatterers forme it of lilies and roses and do not dream that the lilies and the roses are of no durance and that the fairest flowers are of no price but amongst the curious that 's to say amongst those that are not wise And then who does not know that we accustome our selves to behold beauty as we do all other things that after that it moves our eyes no more than the most vulgar And that as soon as it hath lost the grace of being new it hath almost lost all Can one behold a light more resplendent than that of the Sun it selfe Is there any object in Nature so marvellous as that and whose pompe and magnificence can come near it Neverthelesse because his lustre is ordinary and that 't is seen every day few people mind to consider it how worthy soever it be of it Whereas if in a sad night a Comet make his threatning beams blaze in the ayre all the world runs forth to see it all the world beholds with admiration so true it is that things which are common moves but little and that extraordinary ones do powerfully attract our minds It is thus Paris with those admirable flowers of which we spake already of that fair ornament of the spring which nature paints with so much art and which she enamels with so rare a diversity they seeme alwaies beautifull to us
now to you whether Rome ought to be preferred to the Countrey life we inhabit natures fairest seats we possess all the true riches we enjoy the fruition of all innocent pleasures we are not too distant from the most solid vertue our customes are not unjust we are free from ambition and behold nothing above us what can we wish for more or what more can you desire yield then Shepherd yield to reason to my prayers to my perswasion and to your own knowledge who without doubt would not indure that I should give you the quality of Shepherd if you did not esteem it glorious So many Verses and Eclogues which you have made do justifie better than I can the advantages of the Countrey life it will suffice to remember one day that Tityrus after he hath sung the great acts of Aeneis as he hath designed hath not disdained to accord his Reeds and Bag-pipe with our skilfullest Shepherds do not then remember any more to be perswaded of what I desire you neither the Sun which I have described so luminous nor our Rivers whose waves are all silvered nor our Fountains of Crystal nor the Emeralds of our fields nor those lofty Mountains whose prospect is so pleasing nor those Torrents whose falls although they seem fearful do yet afford divertisement do not so much as think any more I say of our gloomy Forests nor of those ponds cover'd with Swans nor of our Hillocks nor of our Valleys nor of the lovely diversity of our Flowers nor our Woods or the Musick of our Nightingales nor of the advantage we have above the Cities in all the Seasons of the Year Forget I say if you can the beauty of our Shepherdesses cancel the memory of our holydayes of our sacrifices of our Chaces of our Fishing of the innocency of our Manners and of Amaryllis her self But remember at least that you may never speak any thing against the Countrey life that at your departure from Rome you become a Shepherd as you were before That you have born the Scrip and Sheep-hook and that with the same hand with which you are going to write Dido's complaints and the Trojan Princes praises you have written Tityrus his moans to the Shepherdesse Galatea and the praises of the Countrey life The effect of this HARANGUE THe Reader may believe that this Discourse was perswasive since Virgil who is the same with Tityrus regrets Rome but only that one time in all his Bucolicks though he were 3 years composing them He imployed again afterwards seven more in composing his Georgics a Work of the same nature and the which contains all the Countrey Occupations Thus may one as I have said without putting our Imaginations on the rack believe that Amarillis did in some sort perswade Tityrus and that the diversity of this great Land-scept artificially painted and boldly traced displeased not his sight CLORINDA TO TANCRED The Fourth HARANGUE The Argument EVery one knows that in Tasso's Jerusasalem Tancred kills his Mistres Clorinda without knowing her But every one knowes likewise that she knowes him not neither and dies without hardly speaking I do not doubt therefore but that I shall be accused of falsifying the History if at least a fable may have that name and that I shall be found strangely bold to dare to make a Heroine to speak which so famous an Authour hath silenc'd Besides that t is to say that which he never said they will finde him yet more judicious then I for not having put so long a Discourse in the mouth of a dying person But I confess that maugre all those objections on the which it is apparent that I have thought since I make them my self before any other offers them I was not able to resist so pleasing a temptation It alwayes seem'd to me in reading this passage of that marvellous Poem that Tasso had not entirely drawn all that might be drawn and that since he was the Master of Clorinda's destiny he might have allowed her some moments of life to render the adventure more tender and the unhappiness of Tancred more pitiful by the things that she might say to him May the Reader then suffer that as Bayardo and Ariosto often said that 't is Turpin which hath said what they invented I may say also that another Historian than Tasso assures that the wound with the sword was less great that Clorinda lived some hours and that she spake very neer in these terms to the Generous Tancred to perswade him That the Love ought not to die with the Beloved CLORINDA TO TANCRED YOu have overcome illustrious and valiant Knight I resign my sword to you with my life and you have moreover this advantage to hear from the mouth of that person whom you have vanquished that you are worthy to be her vanquisher But whence comes the sadnesse which appears on your face and in your actions Is it possible there should be found a man so generous to weep for his own Victories and to mourn the death of his enemies Cease couragious Knight cease to regret my loss and remember that I wanted but little of being the cause of yours But once again that which I behold and that which I hear can it be true Ha! I do not doubt it I now remember my deliverer I hear that same voice which in the midst of battels hath often appeared to me so terrible and so charming nor do I wonder now to see him weep at my death who had saved my life Yes generous Prince I do remember that great day which gain'd you so much honour where prompted by that noble ambition to overcome in you the valiantest most couragious of all men I pursued you so obstinately that my boldnesse or rather my rashnesse gave you an esteem for me you did not onely forbear to assault me and neglect to defend your self when I assaulted you but you defended me from all those that came against me you became contrary to that party of which you were before onely in consideration of me you pursued your own as your enemies because they were mine and all your actions did confirm to me better than your speeches that either by the power of your fate or by your inclination Clorinda had touched your illustrious heart Ha! may the heavens grant me some moments of life to return you thanks for so much generosity and to comfort you for the sadness I have caused in you I perceive well Tancred I perceive that you think of going to seek some remedies for the wounds which I have received from your hand But if it be true that I have any power over you as your tears seem to perswade me do not abandon me I conjure you to the insolence of your souldiers at this time when the miserable Clorinda hath no other arms to defend her self than her complaints and sighs Also the wounds I have received are such that there is no share in life more for me Ha! would
your self be perswaded that my defeat is honourable to you I perceive that this discourse redoubles your anguish and that you had rather not have vanquish'd than buy the victory by my loss Do not however regret so much an unhappy person neither accuse your self to have cōmitted so great a crime The Clorinda whom you fought is not she whō you behold The other was an infidel an enemy of all Christians by consequence yours and this on the contrary is at present better instructed more enlightened and more rational since she dies with a great esteem and acknowledgment for Tancred But however you will tell me she dies by the hand of that Tanered it is true I shall answer but she dies for her glory None amongst mortals ought to have been her conqueror but him that was so generous as to weep for his victory The blood she should have lost in any other encounter would have sullied her reputation it must needs be then for the honour of her arms that she lose her life by your hand that so she might live eternally and then illustrious Prince if the hazard of the war had not made us meet and chance your valour had not brought me to these conditions I am in never had Clorinda given you any marks of her acknowledgments she had an austere vertue which would alwayes have obliged her to treat you like an enemy you have sweetned the haughtiness of her soul by overcoming her her pride hath been weaker than your civility and the death which she receives from your hands causes her to entertain your love without anger and hatred which she would never have done at any other time Do not then complain of the rigour of the adventure since to it you owe a part of my esteem I had admired your courage in battels but I confesse that I had not so perfectly known your generosity after the victory There be more valiant souldiers than merciful and debonair Conquerours and more men that are able to spill the blood of their enemies than to shed tear upon their graves Cease then cease from afflicting your self and complaining for me death not being harsh to me methinks you should comfort your self like me and in fine you ought to resolve to that which you cannot possible shun If I had lived longer what happiness more could you have expected you should never have seen Clorinda but with her weapons in hand is not it better since heaven will have it so that you never see her more her Idea will be more pleasing to you than she her self would have been in such a posture and in the humour she is of she is content you should love her memory but perhaps she would not have had you love her person otherwise Acknowledge with me therefore the advantages that this victory gives you and do not murmur inconsiderately for that which you cannot hinder Moderate your sorrow that it may last the longer I receive my death with tranquility suffer my losse with patience but never lose the memory of what I was You will restore my life in preserving my image in your heart but a life more noble and more glorious and for the which I have so often hazarded the other All that Clorinda hath done hath been but to immortalize her name hinder then by your cares that it be not buried in oblivion and if it be true as I cannot doubt it that your soul is altogether generous do not change your minde since I am going to be in an estate which suffers no more change I die with much admiration for your vertue live with a great esteem of my courage bear even from my grave to your owne the affection which you say you have for me and when misfortune will have you quit this life let it be ordained that an Image of Clorinda be inclosed in your Tomb let her be yet found imprinted in your heart and that nothing be so puissant as to deface and blot it out 'T is in vulgar souls that time and absence destroyes the fair opinions which vertue alone had impressed but amongst Heroick persons time absence nor death it self are not able to change their inclinations They love in the grave that which they loved in the world the remembrance of that pleasing object serves in lieu of their persons and as they have loved without hope and interest they preserve without infidelity and without trouble the amity which they had promised Certainly there would be somewhat of cruel and unjust to lose together the life the light and the affection of our friends we do revive again if we live in their memory raise up therefore your Clorinda in this manner and do not make her die yet once more in so cruel a manner far worse than the former The first is an effect of your skill of your courage and of her fate and the second would be one of your forgetfulness of your indifferency and if I may speak so of your ingratitude Yes generous Prince I may make use of those terms and I dare believe that you will not think it ill if Clorinda believes she obliges you sensibly when even she imploys the last moments of her life to testifie to you the true esteem she hath conceived of your extream vertue Do not then be wanting of acknowledgment since you see I am not wanting in it receive the regret I have for not having served you as an undubitable proof that I should have done it had I lived longer But render also to my ashes and to my name the honours and the cares which you would have rendered to Clorinda had she survived longer Do not fear that her ghost shall affright you when you shall visit her grave nor that with a querulous and moaning voice she will reproach you for her death No Tancred you shall behold no more neither Clorinda nor her shadow you shall hear no more neither her voice nor her plaints But alas I know I increase your sorrow in thinking to cure it that the testimonies of amity which I render you do cause more affliction than they bring joy that I am so far unhappy as to trouble you even when I would serve you that I pierce your heart when my own is readie to expire and that I am more dreadful to you dying and dis-armed than I was to you in the midst of Combats I shall therefore tell you nothing more that may augment your tears I will hide a part of my mind from you for fear of stirring yours and for fear likewise lest your imbecility should take hold of me Ha! no no I repent me of that thought and since I have no more than a few minutes to live I must wholly give them to him who otherwhile did save my life to him who at this time does weep my death although it hath hindred his and to him whose cares should immortalize me As well I do not think that my silence would stop
that reason did authorize such a strange proceeding by this means such a thrid of sorrows would run through all the world as would render the lives of all men unhappy and destroy the Universe Or else we must not to be exposed to such troublesome adventures refuse the amity of all honest men never have any love for any nor be obliged to any but take all care to make our selves become hated and rather look to the health of those for whom we have any good wil than to their deserts or worth for fear lest their constitutions being weak the end of their dayes happening it may be before old age should oblige those which love them to spend the rest of their dayes in mourning about their graves Seriously Arsetes it is not to be easily imagined that there are rational souls which believe that death does not destroy love time and absence which have nor so much power as that do every day make too many become constant to leave a belief that after death hath ravished the object away which gave birth to that passion we should yet preserve a love for it We cannot continue to love that object since it is destroyed nor ought we to do it since we should equally resist both Reason and Nature which will not have it so Those who are said to have been in love with a fair Statua or a Picture are more excusable than those that love a grave or the ashes which it incloses the eyes which are wont to seduce the imagination and will by the advantage of all fair objects betray them and gives them some kind of delight in sweetly deceiving them but to preserve a love for an object that is so horrid for that which can never behold without tears and affright nay for that which we shall never behold again t is that which cannot which ought not to be and t is that which makes me with boldness maintain That the love ought not to last but to the grave All men that have not lost their judgements neither do nor ought to do any thing without a design T is so general a rule that there are hardly any which misse it the covetous know wherefore they guard their treasures all the ambitious know whither they would climb all that are of vindicative spirits know for what end they molest their enemies nor are the lovers ignorant what they intend when they weep and sigh at the feet of their Mistresses They know I say that love is the price of love and that in fine we love to be beloved again But should we ask the Prince Tancred what he pretends by continuing to love the ghost of Clorinda as much as he love her person I believe he would be somewhat troubled for an answer To say that his tears and sighes have for their principall design to touch and move her heart would not be believed since t is impossible it should be so Or else to think that he preserves his first flames to animate the ashes of his Mistris he is too wise to have such a thought or again to imagine that he has no other end in what he does but to make himself unhappy needlesly is a thing without all appearance Neverthelesse it is certain that the love which you so much praise in this Prince can produce no more advantage to him nor to me but either my own death or his Ha! if it were possible that the illustrious Clorinda could hear his moanes and my reasons and that from the midst of her grave she could make him hear her commands how she would blame his proceedings and mourn my unhappinesse she was other-while too generous to think it now just that Tancred being no longer obliged to be faithful to her should be still ingrateful towards me You may tell me perhaps that her last desires were not as I perswade But Arsetes she then lived yet when she declared them to Tancred That imbecillity which is common to all those that are dying is not to be found in them after they are dead all their passions become tranquil in the grave the deceased desire neither the love nor the constancy of any they have no share in our fortunes they do not care whether others meddle with their destiny and as they are separated from all things they do not trouble themselves whether we separate also from them or yet still follow them Believe me Arsetes t is enough to be constant during our lives without being so after death t is I say enough to do what we ought without doing what we ought not and then to say things as they are so long as we are alive we are obliged to serve to the publick society it is not permitted us to be ingratefull it is not permitted us to be unjust and this being so it is not permitted to Tancred to love Erminia no more and to love Clorinda still though Clorinda be no more and that Erminia be in a condition to love him to his grave Besides if we do likewise but rightly expound the last desires and will of your illustrious Mistris one shall finde that they were ill understood by this Prince for whatso'ere commands she gave him to reverence her memory she made him none more pressing than those by which she injoyn'd him to be comforted Now what means is there for this Prince to be ever comforted if he retain the love he had for her What Arsetes can a true lover live happily and know that he can never be seen nor be beloved by his Lady Ha! no no let 's not abuse our selves in expounding Clorinda's last speeches for without doubt she is agreed to what I say she will willingly remain in Tancreds memory but she will not be angry if I reign in his heart she will be willing to have him respect her name but she will not be displeased if he love my person she was willing that he should shed some tears upon her grave but she will not murmur if reason time and Erminia dries them up againe she has consented that her death should make him unhappy for some few dayes but she will consent likewise that he should make me happy for all my life Do not therefore Arsetes resist Clorinda's will perswade the Prince her lover that which I would perswade you tell him he disobeys his Mistris and yours in not comforting himself and that if it be permitted for any one to pretend a part in his affection it can be onely to me As a friend to Clorinda I have some right to the amity he had for her as his slave which I have been he should let me wear his fetters as a Queen which I ought to be he should give me the Empire of his heart instead of the Crowne which he hath made me lose and as his lover he ought to leave Clorinda's grave to follow me even till my death That is the term that I prescribe to the love which I will have him
have for Erminia I do not desire that he should forsake Clorinda's tomb to come and walk about mine if I happen to die before him No my pretentions are not so unjust if he die not for the sorrow of my death I will have him live and be comforted For in fine whether I hearken to reason or nature I finde that the love ought not to indure beyond the grave or after death The effect of this HARANGUE AS Tasso hath not told us whether Tancred were comforted and whether he had pity of Erminia so neither can I tell it you and because Arsetes was an ancient Domestick of Clorinda I dare not neither assure you whether he did agree to this Discourse You have the reasons of the one and the other Consider them at leasure and judge soveraignly if you are so bold as to judge of Queens and so dis-interested as to undertake it CARICLIA TO THE AGENES The Sixth HARANGUE The Argument WHen after the suffering of all those illustrious misfortunes which compose the Ethiopian History CARICLIA and THEAGENES beheld themselves on the Throne that lovely and famous Heroine in a particular conversation which she had with her lover recalled to her memory all her past troubles and comparing them to her present felicities it seemed to her that that pleasing remembrance did in some manner increase them So that in her transportation of joy she spake in this sort to THEAGENES to prove to him That those that never had evil do not know true pleasure CARICLIA TO THEAGENES IN fine my dear and beloved Theagenes we have run a glorious Race at the end of which we finde a Crown which is no less glorious 't is good to remember the storm when we are in a safe harbour and amidst the rest and tranquility of the earth with what pleasure we revolve in our minds the fury and agitation of the Sea Those images though troubled and tumultuous do nevertheless please the mind they are disordered and confused but t is delightful and as diversity is the greatest charm of nature those marvellous events which compose so intricate and cross a life as ours hath been never fails to excite joy in that soul that remembers its former sadnesse and misfortunes T is certain every thing appears best by their contraries and t is only by the opposition that their differences are noted and their advantages sensibly discovered The light owes its lustre to the shade and 't is from the night that day does draw its brightnesse the Sun makes known the splendour of its rayes by the tenebreous darkness t is the rigorous sharpness of the Winter that heightens the amiable sweetnes of the Spring the prickles makes the rose more esteemed and briefly t is from misfortunes without doubt that felicities do arise it being very true that those who have not undergone some evils can never truly know what pleasure is In effect those who have never had but fortunate adventures who never have proved the inconstancy of fate and whose most sensible contentments have never cost them a sigh nor made them shed a tear do possess them without being possessed enjoy them without enjoyments and make that an object of their froideur and disdain which might be the object of all the worlds desires They are rich and know it not they have treasures and cannot tell their value they have good things and do not tast them and their abundance makes them poor Such a long series of felicities does benum a soul rather than rouze it and the frequency does no lesse take away the delicacy of the pleasure than it does take away the sharpnesse of pain One is accustomed to a Scepter as well as to an iron chain the Throne is no better to those people than an ordinary chair and there are those that wear a Crown upon their heads who yet hardly know whether they have it on or are adorned with it or no. Those Princesses who being born in the purple and have alwayes worn a Royal Mantle who even from their cradles to their graves have alwayes stood under the Canopy of state within the Ballisters and amidst the Pomp and Majesty cannot compare their satisfaction to Cariclia's she who was expos'd at her birth she who was not known to any she who did not know her self she who was not adornd but with her natural graces and she in fine who from extream misery has past in a moment to the supreamest grandeur For my part I acknowledge to you Theagenes it seems to me that I have conquered the Kingdome which Fortune restores to me it seems to me that I hold it by my vertue and not by my birth and it seems to me that my merit has given to me all that which my love will make me give your merit Now as that which we gain by our industry or generosity is infinitely more precious than that which we hold from nature you must not wonder if I prefer a glory which hath cost me an hundred labours to that glory which others have without trouble and if I finde that t is only through difficulties that we attain to soveraign happiness No my dear Theagenes it has been by my disgraces that I have obtained my welfare 't was only by my banishment that I got your acquaintance and onely my leaving Ethiopia which saw my birth hath made the birth of my affection to be seen in the temple of Apollo at Delphus Thus cannot any deny but that my good hath proceeded from my evil and that my repose is sprung from my traverses Who would not have said when we left the Grecian rivage and that the Pirat Trachinus had made himself Master of our Vessel that there was no more any felicity for us Who would not have said when that Pirat became enamoured of me that we must have lost our reason if we had had the least hope left who would not have said when there rose so great a tempest that the waves lifted us even to heaven and afterwards let us sink again to the very center of the earth that the Sea was going to swallow us and that its fury was going to dash our ship against the points of the Rocks who would not have said when those infamous Pirats were arrived at the mouth of a great River and that they began a combat amongst themselves of which I should have been the prize that Fortune was going to decide their difference and give to one of the parties both the victory and Cariclia who would not have said seeing me upon that desert shore amidst so many slaine and clasping your wounded self in my armes almost as dead as they and you were that we were going to finde our graves on that part of an arm of the River Nylus called Her acleetick and that the illustrious race of Perseus from whom I am descended and the noble blood of Achilles from whence you sprung were at the point to perish inevitably in a savage
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
my own part at least I had rather be his Victime than to have been his Mistris Polixena's eyes would be guilty if they could have infused love into her brothers murtherer and she would esteem her self very unhappy if any could suspect her to have contributed any thing to such a kind of conquest I have wish'd to pierce his heart I confess but never to subdue it to me I have desired his death but not his love and I in fine have had all the hatred that one can have for the enemy of ones blood the destroyer of ones Countrey and for Hectors murderer That if nevertheless you will publish to all the world that the great Hectors vanquisher has been vanquished not by the beauty of Polixena bu◠by her sorrow only proclaim also that Polixena has not been orecome by the submissions of Achilles that the tears he has shed hath not washed off the blood her brother lost by his hand and that when Priam and all the Trojan Princes would for the publick good have immolated her to Achilles passion thereby to obtain a peace proclaim I say that she did oppose it with all her strength that she never consented and that the death she prepares her self to receive this day is the only complacence she hath ever had for Achilles passion O gods who ever beheld such a token of love as that I shall presently receive Achilles as t is said was Polixena's lover but let us see a little what testimonies he has given her of that passion and respect he hath had for her So long as he lived he has imployed his valour onely against all whom she did love and against all those whom she ought to love I have seen him that cruel Achilles pursue all my friends with such spleen that it had more of fury than of true courage I have seen him an hundred times from the top of our Rampiers bathe his hands in my blood But ô pitiful spectacle I have seen him fight the valiant Hector or to say better I have beheld all the gods incens'd against us making use of his arm to surmount him who surmounted all others Yes I have seen the invincible Hector fall to the dust by the will of heaven only and by the only cruelty of Achilles I have seen that Achilles not only sight my brother not only make him lose his life but I have seen him by an inhumanity which never could be parallel'd use many outrages on that body of his enemy quite dead as it was I have seen him load himself with his spoils I have seen him give him several wounds when he had no more sence of feeling I have seen him tie him to his Chariot he who should never have gone but in a Chariot of triumph I have seen him compass our wals about three times dragging that illustrious Hero bound by the feet his head hanging in the dust blood But what do I say could Polixena behold all these things without dying or that which is most strange could Polixena cause any love in the cruellest of her enemies Yes Polixena has lived and her tears as t is said have softned the heart of the pitilesse Achilles he wept with her at Hectors funeral he desired a peace with Priam and demanded his daughter of him But at the same time ô prodigie of extravagance as well as cruelty he did yet once more wash his hands in that unfortunate womans own brothers blood whom he intended to make his wife he hath slain Troilus with the same hand with which he slew Hector and with that same hand he would afterwards have taken Polixena for his spouse if she had been so unworthy as to consent to it Are those the marks of love or of hatred Is it a lover or an enemy that acts in this manner Or to speak more truly are not those the actions of a man furious and distracted For my part I confess to you all these things are incomprehensible to me for if Achilles were but my enemy why should he weep at Hectors funeral and if he were become my lover why did he yet tear in pieces one of my brothers with a Tygers cruelty But that which astonishes me and wrongs me most is that he could imagine that I was capable to hearken to his complaints and sighs to forget the deaths of my brothers to be their enemies Mistris and their murderers wife This thought is so injurious to Polixena that she cannot possibly comprehend it should ever enter into the heart of Achilles how inhumane so'ere he was She cannot imagine I say that he could have believed that Hectors sister were so unworthy to do it for had he been but her adversary as all other Greeks are she would not easily have believed that he had any love for her nor would ever have consented to his unjust passion Judge then if after that which I have told you she could have been perswaded that Achilles was her lover and far lesse consent to his affection But let 's see a little the sentiments he preserves for her in his grave t is there that the Grecians and the Trojans should end their differences t is in the grave that all the world becomes of one party that love and hatred ought to cease Notwithstanding it seems that Achilles is not satisfied with the utter ruine of Priams whole Empire The burning of Troy is not a sufficient pile for his funeral nor is his ghost contented with all the blood the Trojans have lost His ashes must be sprinkled with Polixena's and for a token of the love he had for her his son must needs become her executioner and since he could not have her for his wife she must now become his victime Truly to love in this manner one must be both a Grecian and Achilles together Do not think how'ere that I complain of this cruel proceeding on the contrary I render thanks to the gods for their bounty in shortning my thrid by this means in the condition of my present fortune death cannot but be advantageous to me and to make it welcome they could not choose better than to make me lose my life on the tomb of Achilles To die in this manner is to die triumphant 't is to behold ones enemy at ones feet 't is to be revenged for all the outrages and affronts one hath received and t is to climb the Throne when we descend thus into the Grave and if against my will you perceive some marks of sorrow in my countenance do not believe it is any effect of my fear or of the trouble I have in losing my life on the contrary I feel joy in it But if it be permitted me to express all that I feel the onely thought of the affliction which the unhappy Hecuba will receive is that which causes all my grief She brought me forth on the Throne and I leave her to die in chains I goe to regain my liberty and I leave
her in slavery and even now whilst I am to her in lieu of Husband Children and Empire I deprive her of all things in depriving her of the consolation he found alone in me and which she can find no where else Ah! would the Heavens measure out her constancy to her sufferings or shorten her dayes to shorten her misfortunes Alas is it possible that I can wish no better advantage for her that brought me into the world but to see her in her grave No there is no power on earth that can make her less unhappy and the Gods themselves since they cannot recall things past cannot afford her a more favourable destiny than to give her her death before she hears of mine For I do not doubt though I were assured to passe my life in slavery but that unfortunate Princess will regret me with as much affliction as if in losing the light I lost all the diadems of the world The sentiments of nature will be more prevalent in her than the power of reason and the desire to increase her sorrow will make her that she will find nothing which may comfort her for my loss but the hope of her own At least Prince to whom I speak be not so inhumane to refuse her the body of her daughter or not to let her have it without paying a ransome For what can a Queen give you whose Empire is destroyed whose City is consumed and to whom there is onely left in possession the ashes of her children So long as she had treasures she has bestowed them prodigally to redeem the bodies of her sons from the hands of the cruel Achilles but now that she hath nothing remaining of all what she hath had but onely the remembrance of her pass'd happiness thereby to encrease her present misery be satisfied with her tears 'T is the only ransome you should exact from her and that onely which she can give you So that if all compassion be not intirely extinguish'd in your soul you will esteem the tears of an unhappy Princess to be inestimable you will think the prayers they make when they are even loaden with fetters ought not to be refus'd when they are not injust and those slaves who have worn Crowns ought not to be treated with inhumanity Suffer then the unhappy Hecuba to put all those in their graves whom she hath brought forth into the world return Polixena's corps to her when Polixena shall be no more and do not refuse this sad courtesie and grace to her whose Kingdome you have invaded slain her children and stabb'd her husband Have a care lest abusing of your Victories you one day merit to find as harsh Conquerours as your selves have been The gods who oppress us at this time will be perhaps awearied of protecting you and punishing us and it may be also that the blood which I am going to lose may be more favourable to the Trojans than to the Grecians Do not therefore despise the counsels which I give you although I be your enemy and respect in the persons of those whom you have vanquished those who assuredly had been your Conquerours if the Heavens had seconded their courage For my self who have no longer portion in this life but onely to die with constancy and in a manner not unworthy of so many illustrious Hero's from whom I am descended I ask you wherefore you do not suddenly finish that which you intend to execute Do you wait till the Ghost of cruell Achilles come once more forth from Hell to redemand Polixena or do you think to make my death the more cruell in making me expect it a long time whatever it be hasten you to satisfie both Achilles and Polixena together If you stay longer perhaps pity may surprize you perhaps all the Trojan slaves may break their chains to deliver me perhaps also that the Grecians will love rather to see me captive than to see me die lift up your arm therefore and plunge your ponyard into my heart I present my brest to you and without fear as without regret I am resolved for my loss Do not prepare therefore neither irons nor cords to hold me I shall not surely fly that which I would goe to seek for nor is it difficult to sacrifice a Victime which willingly offers it self and which would sacrifice her self if she had the power 'T is the least favour which you can grant to a Princess to die freely As daughter to Priam and as Hectors sister I ought to obtain this which I demand for what avails it Achilles Ghost whether I have any bonds or whether I have none if so be I lose all my blood if so be I expire on his ashes and that in fine I remain in the power of death But let not that cruel ghost imagine that mine shall be his companion in the dark regions of the grave No I shall alwayes be his most mortal enemy I le goe if the Gods will permit it from grave to grave about the ruines of Troy to seek the sepulchres of my parents and uniting my self inseparably to Hectors ghost Achilles shall then know whether Polixena's heart were generous or not whether it were capable to listen to his complaints and to answer to his passion or if rather she were not a worthy sister to Hector and a worthy daughter to Priam. Alas why must Illium's ashes cover the ashes of so many illustrious persons O would the immortals that the blood which Polixena is going to shed could withdraw them from underneath those famous ruines and that her death could give them life again But 't is no time now to make these fruitless wishes the Gods change not their resolutions nor can the fate of Troy be revoked It belongs to us onely to submit to what our destiny ordains and whether we be conquered or conquerours we are equally obliged to obey without murmuring and with an equal visage to receive either happinesse or misfortune T is by these sentiments ô Prince and Priest together that I remain so tranquil at the approaches of death and if I do not deceive my selfe I discover more trouble in your looks than you can behold in mâ—ne For there is this difference betwixt what you are going to do and what I do now that I obey Heaven and you obey the Ghost of the cruel Achilles who will have her sacrificed to him whom he pretended he loved during his life But O Gods what could his hatred be since even his love produces the death of her whom he loved Was ever such a thing heard of before without doubt 't is if not a generous yet at least an ordinary and natural sentiment not to be sorry for the death of an enemy but to desire it to those whom we love that 's a thing against both reason and nature and a thing which no age nor people ever saw and indeed I am strongly perswaded that 't is more thorow hatred than love that I am sent
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
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
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