of your nature that you make choice of gold and pretious stones to defile with your venom Permit me then although you pretend to exempt your selfe from the power that God hath given men over beasts to command you to spew upon something more foul then my name and to remember for I believe beasts of your nature have some kind of remembrance that the Creator gave a tongue to those of your species onely to swallow and not to speak Remember it then 't is the best counsell that you can take for although your weaknesse excites compassion yet the same in Fleas and Lice that disturb us doth not oblige us to pardon them In fine Simulacre of envy leave your biting for although I am not over sensible of an Injury yet I am very severe to punish it nothing could hinder the vertue of a Hellebore which in French is called Tricot which I would chastise you with nay and to shew you that I am a Philosopher a thing which you believe not I would do it with so little animosity that with my Hat in one hand and a good Cudgell in the other breaking your bones I would tell you that I am SIR Your humble servant 18. To Madam***** MADAM IF all men were obliged to send mony as I am faine to do to facilitate the reading of my letters The Balzacks had never writ and the blind would be able to read But what unlesse mine be made cleare by the reflection of some golden Lewises I am sure they appeare Hebrew to you to open the mouth and move the lips in all forms necessary to expresse our language seemes all Arabick to speak French to you one must open ones hand thus my purse is become my onely Organ by which I can explaine to you the hard places of the Bible and render the Centuries of Nostredamus as easie to you as the Pater In fine Madam 't is of you alone that it may with truth be said No mony no Suisser However notwithstanding your humour I easily comfort my self knowing that as long as you change not I shall be sure still to drive out of your Body the divell of avarice more easily with the Crosse of some Pistolls then with holy water or Exorcisms But I am to blame to charge you with this basenesse Contrarywise they are virtuous motives that makes you proceed thus for if you fal oftner under the Cross then the malefactors of Judea 't is because you believe that the Just-ones can ask nothing unjustly of you and that Gold the symbol of purity cannot be given you but with pure intentions besides I think that as you are a good Christian so you are a better subject for that you humble your selfe before those that brings you the Image of our Kings and that you being of an exemplary probity who will wrong no body you are so scupulous in the distributing your favours that you rely more upon the embracement of ten pistolls then of nine this Oeconomie doth not at all displease me for holding my Purse in one hand I am sure to hold your heart in the other That which troubles me is that that Image which you often swore had made so deepe impressions in your heart cannot stay with you three dayes without paying for his lodging but he is turn'd out by head and shoulders for my part I believe you have forgot the definition of a man for all your actions prove that you take me for an Animal donant whereas by the opinion of Aristotle I thought my selfe an Animall rationall but I plainly see that I must resolve to cease to be what I am at that very moment that I cease to feele in my pocket Rectify I pray you this Error that very ill becomes your youth and this Generositie you whereby you become pale for 't is a shame for to take wages of me that am Madam Your servant 19. Of a Dwarf SIR BY the affection I bore you notwithstanding your undesert I have made you worthy of being my Enemy if the Philistines heretofore had not died by the hands of Samson we should not have known now that there had been any Philistines they were beholding to their death for their life and if they had lived ten yeares later they would have died thirty ages sooner thus you in spight of me reape the same glory by your basenesse having compelled me to punish you I know I shall be told that by killing of a Pigmy I shall not add to my fate the substance of a glorious Epitaph But to look uninteressed upon the reverse of the Paradoxe That Marius that in three Combats made a grave for three Nations was not esteemed a Coward for killing the frogs in that marsh wherein he cast himselfe and Socrates by killing the lice that bit him in Prison did not lose the honour of being the prime man in the universe No no little dwarfe do not think your selfe any other endeavour to humble this nothing of yours and believe as an article of faith if you be still as little as you was on your birth day that the heavens permits it to hinder small Evill from becoming great In fine you are no man what a divel are you then you are perhaps a Mommy that some spirit has stolen from the Physitian 's Colledge to fright the world withall nor is this very improbable since the Eyes are the Mirrors of the soul yours is something very deform'd neverthelesse you boast of my friendship O heavens chastiser of heresies punish this with thunder I have loved you then and given up my heart an offering to you it seems then you thought me so foolish as in charity to have given my soul to the devill But 't is not of me alone that you have thus ill spoken the most flattering Elogies that come from you are Satyrs and God himself had not scap'd you if you had known him All things that breathe concern'd in the destruction of Monsters would before this have tempted me to kill you but they have forborn it as being assured that in me alone you had Your Party Your Judge Your Executioner 20. Against Soucidas UDs death master rascall I find that you have the impudence to live notwithstanding you injured me you that signifie nothing in this world and that are at best but a byle in Natures buttocks you that will fall so low if I give over supporting you that a Flea licking the ground will hardly distinguish you from the pavement you in fine so foul and stinking that makes men doubt when they see you whether your mother was not delivered of you backward If you had sent at least and beg'd leave of me for time for a peccavi But without satisfying your selfe whether 't was my pleasure you should see to morrow or die to day You have the impudence to eat and drink as if you were not dead Ha! I vow I will so annihilate you that it shall not be true to say
this step-Mother hath choakt it with contagion See you not how she carries the plague a long with her this disease without a taile at whose taile death hangs in most of the Cityes of the kingdome how she over throwes the Oeconomy of the Universe the Society of men covering with Purples miserable wretches on a dunghill judge you if the fire she hath kindled against us be vehement when one cole of it is sufficient to consume a man These Sir are the Treasures and Benefits of this adorable season by which you thought to have found the secret of the Cornucopia To say truth doth shee not rather deserve Satyrs than Elogies and ought we not almost to hate the other seasons because they are in her Company and do follow and go before her For my part I do not doubt but one day this wicked one wil corrupt all her Companions And indeed we already see that after his example they have their particular waies of maiming us and for the miseries they bring upon us Winter makes us implore St. John the spring St. Mathurin the Summer St. Hubert and Autumne St. Poch for my part I know not what hinders me from procuring my own death for vexation that I cannot live but under their government but chiefly for that this accursed Autumne goes over my head every year to make me mad She indeavours I think to engage her Sisters in her crimes For to conclude Sir big with thunders as we see him would she not perswade us to believe that they altogether compose a monster that barks with the feet she for her part is a ravenous Harpuy that carries Ice in her mouth and fire in her taile who saves her self from an embracement by a deluge and at fourscore dayes old is so passionately in love with Winter for killing us that she dies in his imbraces but that which seemes to me most of all strange is that I have not all this while taxt him with his greatest crime I mean the bloud that for many yeares he hath covered the face of Europe withall I ought to have done it to punish him for that having been prodigall of his fruits to every body else he has not as yet given me one that can say to you after my death I am Sir Your Servant The second Description of the Aquaeduct or Fountaine of Arcueil 5. To my friends the Water-drinkers THis Letter having been lost the Author long after writ another but having almost forgot the former he lighted not on the same fancies Since he found the lost-one and being as he is no small enemy to labour and paines-taking he thought not the subject worthy enough to purge each other Letters from the conceptions that might be found in the other Sirs Stand stand My head is the point of a River I am under at the very fadome without swimming and yet I fetch my breath at ease you may well judge that 't is of Arcueil that I write you The water here led in triumph marches in files by a regiment of stones they have rear'd a hundred Portalls to receive her and the King thinking that she was weary with comming on foot so farre caused her to be usher'd lest she should fall These extreame honours hath made her so proud that she would not goe to Paris if they did not carry her thither Having got cold with lying so long upon the ground she hath raised her self a higher bed and 't is held by tradition that this Aquaeduct seemed so fair and stately to her that she came thither of her selfe to walke for recreation in the mean time she 's shut in with foure walls Is it perhaps that she hath been convicted of having formerly been in the Sea's company in some shipwrack It must be so for here Justice is so severe that the very Fountains are made to walke up right and strait and the aire of the Citty is so contagious that she cannot come neer it without getting the Stone Notwithstanding these obstacles she hath such an itch to see it that she rubbs her selfe for halfe a mile together against the Rocks she thinks long till she counterfeits Hippocrene among the Muses of the University She cannot hold her water for longing to see how from the mountaines of Rongy in the aire she pisses to the suburbs of St. Germain she receives order from his Highnesse Royall of what visits she is to make And for all the private threats that she murmurs out by the way how formidable soever she appeares Luxembourgh hath no sooner spied her but with one look only she disperses her on every side Could Love indeed joyn Arcueil and Paris by a stronger bond then that of life This Reptile is a bit for the Kings mouth 'T is a great sword that makes the water-bearers put on their belt 't is an immortall Snake that shrinkes into her skin still as she comes out on 't 't is an Artificiall impostume that cannot be broake without indangering Paris's life 't is a Pye whose sauce has life 't is a Bone whose marrow walks 't is a liquid Serpent whose tail goes before his head In fine I think she is resolved to do nothing here but things that are impossible to be believed She goes strait because shee 's arched and bent She corrupts not although she be in the grave shee 's alive under ground She goes on the top of those valleys whose doores are open she hits her way in the darke and runs withall her force without falling Wel Sirs after all these miracles deserves she not to be Canonized at Paris under the names of St. Cosme St. Benoist St. Michell and St. Severin Who would think in the mean time that a foot 's bredth measures the destiny of a whole people By this you may know what honour 't is to you that I who can when I please stop that liquor which quenches the thirst of so many honest men at Paris and that can every day be served before the King should yet descend so low as to stile my self Sirs your Servant De Bergerac 6. Another on the same subject Sirs A Miracle a Miracle I am at the bottom of the water and yet cannot find drink I have a whole River upon my head and yet I have not lost my footing In fine I find my self in a Country where fountaines flye and where Rivers are so dainty that they go over bridges for fear of wetting themselves 'T is no Hyperbole for if you consider the great Arches upon which she marches in triumph you would think that shee 's got upon Scaffolds to see the further and take notice in what places in Paris she 's most needfull they are like so many Bowes from which she lets flye a thousand silver liquid shafts against thirst But Now she was bare briched upon the ground And at present there she walkes upon stately Galleries she carries her head even as high as the Mountains And do not believe that her
for although it troubles me to be called fool yet 't would much more vex me if a scandall should be raised that I was dead if I were shut up in my grave he might at his pleasure and in safety speak ill of my Courage had I not better then stay in the world that I may be alwaies ready to chastize him when his temerity shall provoke me Infalliably those that advise me to the Tragedy do not consider that if I am the Catastrophe hee 'l laugh at my valour if I kill him people will be apt to think that I sent him out of the world because I durst not stay here whilst he was alive if I take away his sword thay'le say I apprehended his being arm'd if we come off with equall honour to what purpose should we expose our selves to the worst of all dangers which is death and decide nothing Besides although I had Mars his power and could end the Combat to my honour he might neverthelesse brag that he had force't me to commit a great folly No no I 'le not unsheafe to drive your enemy by death far from you or to remove your self from him by it is to fear him For my part I fear not to be or to let him be He thinks it an honour to him that he never stood in fear of the Parques if he 'l have me believe it let him kill himself I 'le consult all the wise men for this threescore or fourscore years and if I and he hath done well I 'le then endeavour to live as many more and repent to expiate my cowardlinesse You 'le think perhaps this proceeding in a man of courage as I am very strange but to speak my mind freely to you Sir I finde that life is so fine a thing that I had rather content my self with this that I enjoy then hazard for a better and get a worse This same Monsieur le Mat amore would it may be dye that he might be quickly out of his pain But I that am more stout endeavour to live a great while that I may run the hazard of being a long time in a capacity to die Doth he think to advance his credit by declaring that he is weary and desires to return to darknesse his first lodging What is he afraid of the Sun poor fool if he knew what a scurvy thing it is to be deceased he would not make so much haste 'T is not bravely done in a man to hazard his life before he is thirty years old because he exposes that that he knowes not but if after that age he ventures it I 'le maintain he 's mad having known it to venture it For my part I like day-light well and love not to sleep under ground because one cannot see there Let him not be puft up though at this refusall for I 'de have him know that I have two or three killingthrusts besides other sleights and I will not fight for fear of discovering them There are a hundred other reasons that make me abhor Duells Yeas I should go into the field and the Sythe would perhaps dispatch me for t'other world among the grasse alasse my creditors wish no better that they may accuse me of banquerout But doth he think if he had taken away my life that he had done with me To the contrary I should by it become more terrible and I am confident in a fortnight after he could not look upon me without being frighted Neverthelesse if he aspires to the honour of destroying me provided I am in good health I permit him to brag in all places that he was my hang-man for if he had killed me the honour would not be great a few Spanish figgs would do as much He fancies perhaps that Nature hath us'd me very ill in denying me courage but let him learn that Nature cannot do us a greater shreud turn then to employ it against Fate and that the least Flea alive is better then the great Alexander dead And in fine that I find my self unworthy to oblige the blessed Torches to weep upon my Scutchons The truth is I love to be told that I have all the qualities of a good wit except that of a happy memory which I cannot away with for some reasons Another thing forbids me fighting too I have writ my Epitaph which hath much wit sharpnesse in it provided I live a hundred years but if I should hazard my selfe and die sooner the jeast would be lost Add to all this that above all things I abhor sicknesse and there is nothing more contrary to health then death Is 't not better then to encourage ones self to become a coward then to be the occasion of so many dysasters so strong in our weaknesse none can see us tremble or look pale but for fear of having too much courage And to thee comfortable Cowardice I vow to rear an Altar and promise to serve thee with so devout a worship that to begin from this very day I dedicate this Epistle to the faint-hearted the stoutest of all your children for fear if I had sent it to some brave fellow he might have thought that I was a man that would serve him because of the four scurvy words that one is obliged to put at the bottom of every Letter I am Your Servant 17. Against a Detractor SIR I Know that so ignoble a Soul as yours cannot naturally abstain from detracting nor is it an abstinence that I would condemn you to The onely courtesie that I ask of you is that you would tear me so softly that I may seem not to feel you By this you may know that I have good intelligence I thank God that he hath given me a soul so reasonable that I do not believe the world in every thing because the world can say all things otherwise I should have applyed to your disease of the splene a more powerfull and solid Antidote than this of discourse Not that I ever expected any very civill actions from those that have lost their humanity but I could not believe that your brains had so generally been shipwrackt upon the Rhetoricall shelfs that you had born in Philosophy a man without a head One would have wondred in truth that in so vast a body your little wit did not lose it self Nor was it very long lived for I have heard some years since that you cannot leave this life but that your miraculous death will make you be canonized Yeas take leave of the Sun when you please you are sure of a line in our Letanies when the Consistory shall hear that you are dead without losing your senses However comfort yourself you 'l not hold out the lesse for that the Deer and the Ravens whose wits are proportionable to yours live four hundred years And if the want of brains be the occasion of long life without doubt you are he that must write Mankinds Epitaph Certainly 't is by reason of the brutish instinct
with the braine of all men but they are farre enough from granting that you imagine They maintaine that 't is not possible that you can so much as speake or if you do 't is as did heretofore the Sibill's grot that spoke without knowing it but although the fumes that come from your Mouth your bung I would say are as capable to intoxicate as were those that were exhaled from that grot I see nothing in it that is Propheticall that makes me think that you are at most but the seaven sleepers den that snore through your mouth But good gods what i' st that I see you seeme more swel'd now then ordinary Is it anger then that doth it Already your legs and your head is so united by their extention to the Circumference of your Globe that you are now but a bundle you fancy perhaps that I jeast in truth you guesse right and the miracle is not great that a bowle should hit the Mark. I can besides assure you that if a basting could be sent in writing you would read my letter with your shoulders and do not wonder at my proceeding for your vast Extent makes me so really believe you the earth that I would willingly plant some timber upon you to see how it could beare Do you think then because a man can fully beate you in 24 houres and that he cannot in a day Chine but one of your Omoplates I will trust to the Hangman for your death No no I my self will be your Parque and there had already been an end of you if I were well delivered from the splene to cure which the Physitians have ordered me four or five takings of your Impertinencies But as soon as I am become banquerout of pleasure and that I am weary of laughing rest assured that I will make you no longer count your self amongst those things that live Adieu 't is done I would have ended my Letter as I use to do but you would not for all that have believed that I was your thrice humble obedient and affectionate therefore great bursten-gut Servant to the Bedstraw 24. Against Scarron SIR YOu demand of me my judgment of this Fox to whom those grapes seem too green that he cannot reach I am of opinion that as one arives to the knowledge of a cause by its effects so to know the strength of this mans wit or his weaknesses we need onely cast an eye on his productions But I am out to say productions for he never could do otherwise then destroy witnesse the god of the Roman Poets whom at this time he makes rave I 'le confesse to you then concerning that in which you demand my opinion that I never saw a ridiculous thing more serious nor a serious more ridiculous then his The people approve of him by that you may conclude 'T is not but that I esteem his judgment however in having chose to write a mock-style for to write as he doth is to mock the world his companions may if they please to heighten his glory say That he treads in a path wherein none hath gone before him that he hath had no guide I grant it But let them lay their hands upon their consciences say true is it not easier to make Virgiis Aeneids like Scarron then to make Scarrots Aeneids like Virgil For my part when I see him to prophane Apollo's holy art me-thinks I hear an angry frog croak at the foot of Parnassus You 'l say perhaps that I use this Author something ill to reduce him to the Insects but since you oblige me to draw his picture to do it I cannot proceed otherwise having never seen him then to follow that Idea which I have received of him from all his friends There is not one but confesses that he hath left off being man without dying and is nothing else but form But by what shall we know him he goes contrary to the common opinion and he is arrived to this point of bestiality to banish points of wit and fancy from compositions when reading he unfortunately lights upon one to see the horrour he is surprised with one would think that his eyes are lighted upon a Basilisk or that he hath trode upon an Aspe If the earth had never known other points then the pricks of Thistles Nature hath so form'd him that he would not have dislik'd them for between you and I when he seems to be sensible that a point pricks him I cannot but believe that he doth it to perswade us that he is not insensible But whether he be so or no I 'de let him alone if he did not erect Trophies to stupidity support them by his example How this good Gentleman would have one write nothing but what one hath made as if we now spoke French onely because heretofore they spoke Latine or were not reasonable till we are moulded We are then much obliged to Nature for not making him the first man for without doubt he would never have spoke if he had heard braying first 'T is true to make his conceits understood he makes use of a kind of Idiotisme that makes the world wonder how the twenty four Letters of the Alphabet can meet in so many fashions and say nothing After this you 'l ask me what judgment I make of this man that saying nothing speaks continually Alas Sir none at all unlesse it be that his disease must needs be well rooted in him that 't is not yet cured although he hath fluxed at the mouth above fifteen years But concerning his infirmity 't is believed as a miracle of this holy man that he had no wit till he was brain-sick that had she not troubled the oeconomy of his temperature he was cut out for a great fool and that nothing can blot out his name which he hath plaister'd on the front of memory since Mercury and Larchet could not do it Those that jeer him add that he lives by dying because that the Neapolitan drogme which hath cost him dear and raised him to preferment in the number of Authors he sells every day to the Stationers But let them say what they will he 'l never dye with hunger for provided his chair be not defective I am very confident he 'l rub out well enough till death if he had as well secured his Poems against the fury of oblivion they would not be in danger as they are to be inhumed in blew paper nor is there any likelyhood that that paltry-style and those tales of Robin Hocd will eternize Scarron so many daies as the history of Aeneas hath done Virgil Me-thinks he 'd do a great deal better to get an Order from the Court commanding all fish-wives to speak the same Gibberish lest introducing new â—rebus's instead of the old ones before four months be at an end one be doubtfull in what language he hath write But alas in this earthly habitation who can promise himself eternity in mens good opinions when it
long before his coming he gave David to be king over the people of Israel and that since our Redemption he hath sent from heaven the holy Viall with which he would have our kings sacred By a supernaturall Character to distinguish them from all those that were to be born to obey them The Church militant that is the Image of the Triumphant is govern'd Monarchically by the Popes and we see that the very particular houses must be govern'd by a kind of king too that is the father of the family 'T is as the first spring in society that moves our actions to order and 't is the secret instinct that compells the whole world to submit themselves to kings In vaine the people endeavour to extinguish that light in their souls that guide them to submission it is at last carried in spight of them by this first mover and they are inforced to render their due obedience But neverthelesse those of Paris have had the boldnesse to lift up their hands against the Lord 's Anointed alleaging for a pretence that 't is not the King they aime at but his Favorite as if as a king is the image of God a Favorite was not the image of the Prince But 't is not enough to say an image he is his sonne When he ingenders according to the flesh he begets a Prince when he ingenders according to his dignity he begets a Favorite As man a successor as a king a Creature and if it be true that to Create is more noble then to Generate because Creation is Miraculous we ought to adore a favorite as he is the Miracle of a king were it only then against his Eminence that they take up armes do they think they are Christians when they attempt against the life of a Prince of the Church no Sir they are Apostates they offend the holy Ghost that presides at the promotion of all Cardinals and you need not doubt but that hee I punish their sacriledge with as much rigour as he punish't the murther of the Cardinal of Lorraine whose death however just bled twenty yeares through the throats of foure hundred thousand French But what can they promise themselves by a rebellion that can never succeed and if it should so prosper as to overthrow Monarchy what advantage would they have by it he that now possesses onely a Cloake would not then be master of it They would be authors of a Lamentable desolation which their nephew's sonnes would never see the end of besides t' were very strange if they should think or perswade themselves that Christendome could see the destruction of the Eldest sonne of the Church without interessing her selfe for him All the Monarches of Christendome are they not concern'd for their conservation of that king that can settle them againe in their Thrones if their rebellious subjects should one day throw them down And suppose that this revolution could be brought about without a greater destruction then that which Holland yet bleeds for I 'le maintaine that a popular Government is the worst scourge that God afflicts a State withall when he would punish it Is it not contrary to the order of Nature that a Boatman or a Porter should have power to condemne the generall of an Army and that the life of the greatest person should be at the disposall of the meanest fool that in all haste will put him to death But God be thanked we are farre enough off from such a Confusion Those that name the Cardinall without adding his Title my Lord already hide themselves and every one begins to believe that'tis a hard matter to speak like a rascall and not to be one And if the whole Kingdome were in league against him I should be confident of his victory for 't is the fate of the Julies to overcome the Gaules I hope then that we shall suddenly see a generall reconcilement in the minds of men a perfect harmony amongst the divers members of the body of this State Monsieur de Beaufort being animated but with French blood 't is not credible but that blood will stay him from dying his sword in the breast of his mother like little Rivers after having straied some time reunite themselves to the Ocean whence they first came I doe not doubt but that this illustruous Blood will incorporate again suddainly with his spring-head that is the King for the other Commanders I cannot have so ill a thought of them as to believe that they 'l refuse to follow the steps of so heroick an example me-thinks I see them already bow with respect before the Image of the Prince Reflecting what favour the chief of their Families have received from precedent Kings they are too just to be against it That the fortune of another Family should likewise in his turn have a favourable aspect Monsieur the Coadjutor knowes well that the Duke of Rets his grand-father was Favourit to Henry the third Monsieur de Brissac may have read that his grandfather was raised to great offices and dignities by Henry the fourth Monsieur de Luynes hath seen his father have the greatest power over the heart and fortune of King Lewis the thirteenth And Monsieur de la Houdancourt yet remembers the time perhaps that he was in favour under the same favourit of the King deceased They have no cause then to complain that my Lord the Cardinall should now sway 't is no more then their Ancestors or themselves at another time have done But if all these considerations should prove too weak to bring them to their dutyes they are noble and the apprehension of appearing ungratefull for the benefits they have received from his Majesty will make them desire to forget these discontents rather then to appear unthankfull And the example of a thousand traitors that have returned injuries to the Court for her favours will have no power over them that know too well that ingratitude is the vice of a rascall of which the Nobles are uncapable It onely belongs to the Poets of the Pont-neuf such as Scarron to vomit foam upon the purple of Kings and Cardinalls and to lay out the liberalities that he continually receives from the Court in paper that he fills with Libels against him After having brag'd that he had received a thousand Francs of his Pension from the Queen he had the impudence to say that if a thousand more were not sent him 't was not in his power to forbear another Satyre that strove with him to come to light and conjured his friends to give speedy notice of it because he could not possibly keep it any longer Well was ever such an example of impudent ingratitude fees in any age Ah! Sir this was without doubt the reason that God who foresaw the number and the greatnesse of his sins to punish him sufficiently was fain to be twenty years before-hand with him and by a continuall death chastize those crimes that were not yet committed but
be accused of having in humanely killed without a cause of all your servants the most passionate the most humble and the most obedient servant De. Bergerac 3. Letter Madam YOu have a kindnesse for me Ah? in the very first I ne I am your most passionate obedient servant for I feel already my soul by excesse of joy spread so farre from me that shee 'l have gone past my lips before I can have time so to end my Letter neverthelesse 't is now concluded and I can if I please seale it for since you have given me assurances of your affection so many lines is needlesse against a place that 's already taken and were it not that 't is the Custome for a Hero to dye standing and a Lover complaining I had taken leave both of you and the Sun without acquainting you with it but I am obliged to employ the last sighs of my life to publish in bidding you farewell that I dye for love you know of whom you believe it may be that the dying of Lovers is onely a manner of speaking that they have got and because of the conformity of the wordes Passion and suffering desire and death that they often taken one for t'other But I am very confident that you 'l not doubt of the Possibility of mine when you have considered the violence and the continuance of my disease and the lesse when after having read this discourse you find at the Extreamity Madam Your servant 4. Letter Madam I Was so farre from loosing my heart when I did you homage with my liberty that since that time I find it a great deale bigger I believe he is multiplyed and that being not enough of one for all your wounds he hath used his endeavours to bring forth others in all my arteries where I feel him beate that he may be present in divers places and that he only may become the only object of all your Darts in the mean time Madam freedom that pretious treasure for which Rome heretofore ventured the empire of the world That deare liberty you have taken from me and nothing that passes from my vitall spirits to my senses hath made this conquest your wit onely deserv'd this glory his vivacity his sweetnesse his extent and his strength merited enough to make me deliver it up to so noble fetters that faire and great Soul raised into a heaven so farre above that which is the reasonable one and so neere to the Intelligible that she eminently possesses all the faire one Nay I 'de say too much of the Almighty Creator that made her if of all the attributes that are essentiall to its perfection there was not wanting that of Mercifull yeas if we can imagine any defect in a divinity I accuse you of that Do you not remember my last visit when complaining of your cruelty you promised me at my departure that I should find you more favourable if you found me more discreet and that taking your leave of me you bid me come againe the next day because you were resolved to make the tryall But Alas take a dayes time to apply remedies to wounds that are in the heart is it not to suspend your assistance till the languishing party is dead And that which makes me wonder the more is that you mistrusting that this Miracle might come to passe you fly from home to shun my fatall re-encontre Well Madam well fly me hide your selfe from my very remembrance one ought indeed to fly and hide ones selfe when one hath committed a Murder good gods what do I say Ah Madam pardon the fury of one that is desperate No noâ— Appear that 's a law for Mankind which doth not concerne you for t' was never heard that Soveraignes ever gave an account of the death of their slaves yeas I ought to esteeme my fortune very great that I deserved you should take the paines to ruine me for since you have been pleased to hate me that will at least witnesse to posterity that I was not indifferent to you Besides the death that you thought you had punish'd me withall makes me rejoyce and if you are troubled to apprehend what this joy might be 't is the secret satisfaction that I have to have dyed for you in making you ungratefull Yeas Madam I am dead and I find you 'l have much ado to conceive if my death be reall how it can be that I should send you the newes of it nevertheless there 's nothing more true but learn that man must endure two deaths in this world one violent which is love and the other naturall that reunites us to the insensible substance And this death that is called Love is the more cruell because when we beginne to love we begin to dye 't is the reciprocall passage of two souls that seeks one another to animate in common that which they love and of which the one halfe cannot be parted from the other halfe without dying as 't is hapned to Madam Your faithfull servant 5. Letter Madam AM I condemned to weep much longer I beseech you my deare Mistresse in the name of your good Angel be so much to a friend me as to let me know your intentions that I may betimes provide me a place amongst the Quinze vingts for I perceive that I am by your courtesie predestinated to die blind yeas blind for your ambition would not be satisfied to have me onely a Monoculus Have you not made two Alimbecks of my two eyes through which you have found out the art to distill my life and to convert it into clear water In truth I should suspect if my death were any advantage to you and if it were not the onely thing that I cannot obtain that you exhausted those springs of water that are within me onely that you might the more easily burn me and I begin to believe some such thing since I perceived that the more humidity my eyes draw from my heart the more he burns I cannot think that my father did make my body of the same clay that the first mans was composed of but without doubt he form'd it of a lime-stone since the humidity of those tears I shed hath almost consumed me But can you believe it Madam in what manner it hath consumed me I dare no longer walk in the streets thus all on fire for fear the boyes should come about me with squibs for they 'l certainly take me for a past-bord figure that was got loose from some artificiall fireworks neither dare I show my self in the Country lest I should be thought to be one of the walking Hermes's that lead people to drowning In fine you may easily understand what all this means 't is Madam that if you do not come back and that quickly if you enquire after me at your return you 'l find that I am shut up in the Thuiberies and that my name is the Fire-beast which is showed to the people for mony you 'l then be