absolute master of our actions those that hate roses acknowledge that their colour is faire and that the smell it selfe is sweet and yet for all the knowledge they have of their beauty they turne away their sight with care fly from them as another would from some fearfull object This imbecillity of their temperature is the same thing with that which is found in our soul when the inclination constrains it to do what she will and not that which its selfe pleases When I ceased to love Renaldo I did cease knowing that he was yet worthy of my esteeme and when 't was his turne to cease from loving me yet I believe he did acknowledge that Angelica had some beauty Notwithstanding because it is not the judgment that begets affection we know one another to bee lovely and yet love not and perhaps wee did love without knowing whether we had any lovely qualities or not So true it is that reason acts but weakly and so certain is it that inclination is altogether powerful The first makes us obey only by the same means legitimate Monarchs imploy against their subjects but the other makes her self to feared and followed as victorious Tyrants use to do She imployes nought but force against us but as that force and violence is almost inevitable and that she hath no lesse sweetnesse than power there is hardly any thing which resists but she overcomes it Honour glory private interest and vertue it selfe are many times too weak an obstacle to hinder her designes she makes Kings love shepherdesses and that shepherds raise their looks even up to their Sovereigns Thrones and without distinction either of qualities or of merit She makes a mixture of Scepters and sheephooks of Crowns and chains of free persons and slaves and by these extraordinary effects sufficiently testifies that we are not masters of our own will of affections or that our reason is not alwayes so strong as to overcome her In effect should we act but by her counsells should our love follow only our knowledge and were it by her consent only that we should weare our fetters it is certain that we should weare but one in all our lives That which we had once found faire would alwayes be so to us we should love till death what we once thought lovely and inconstancy in fine would never be found amongst lovers Since the beginning of the World the Sun hath given admiration to all men gold pearls and diamonds have never found any that questioned their beauty briefly all things universally known remain constant why then if love took birth from perfect knowledge and by the operations of the judgement should it not alwaies re-remain in the hearts that possesse it Ha no no Medoro that cannot be so and therefore 't is that all those that are unfaithfull are not so worthy of blame as is beleeved nor those that are constant merit so much praise as is bestowed upon them The one and the other do what they are forced to do some break their bands and others preserve theirs because they are constrained to it You see some who after they have broken their chains do rivet them together again with care and binde themselves again more closely than they were before There are some others even weighed downe by their burden who sigh under the load that presses them and who might neverthelesse disengage themselves but will not preferring their servitude above liberty Do you beleeve Medoro that these bizare effects can proceed from a clear-sighted reason and a free will Or do you not believe on the contrary that the sole inclination is that which unchains us or unties us which makes us inconstant or faithfull and that which makes us either love or hate Letnone wonder than any more if we behold queens descending from their Thrones to place their Lovers there though they be not of a royall birth Let none wonder then any more to see Princes despised Crowns rejected and Hero's unfortunate in their amours since 't is not neither from reason nor from interest nor from ambition nor from glory that this noble ardour derives its birth But youwill aske what obligation has a lover to his Mistres if it be true that sheloves him only because she is constrained cannot chuse but love him None my dear Medoro none 't is for that in my opinion that love passes for the most noble of all passions because it is not mercinary In common friendship and amity it is permitted to count the services we render or receive and to name a thing that we do willingly an obligation but in the actions of lovers there should be no such thing The persons which love owing all things there are no thanks owing in returne again so that though I had given you my Crowne as I have already given you my heart I do not pretend you should be the more obliged to me since amongst those that know how to love who ever bestowes their affections do at the same instant bestow both their Scepters and Kingdomes and to be short all that they possess And if by misfortune it had hapned that your inclination had been contrary to mine that you had hated me as much as I have and do love you do you thinke my dear Medoro that I should have blamed you No I would have bemoaned my self without accusing you and as by my own experience I know one cannot love through reason I would not have murmured against you though you had refused Angelica's love with as much rigour as she has refused the services of all the Kings in the world to accept those of the amiable and generous Medoro Some might perhaps say to me that I am not very ingenious but rather very ill advised to entertaine you with these discourses that I take off your fetters by perswading you that you may leave them without a crime and that I instruct you in ingratitude when I avouch my selfe that you owe me no obligation although for the love of you I have done all what I was capable to do in giving you my kingdome and which is more my affection which I preferre before the Scepter that I mean to give into your hands But to answer that objection I must tell you that seeing the condition wherein I found you and the difference of your birth from mine if I could have hindred my love to you I should be guilty if I had not done it and being so rational as I know you to be you would your selfe secretly have condemned my affection though it were advantageous to you You would have more esteemed in me the quality of Queen than that of Lover and have rejoyced more for conquering my kingdome than my person So that to perswade you all at once both of the greatnesse of this affection and that I am not unworthy of your esteeme no more than of your love I shall never be weary with telling you that 't is a superiour
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 your moans and I also believe that you will never be more afflicted than when this silence shall become eternal Prepare your self however for it for I feel my fatal hour approaches my strength diminishes my voice fails and I shall hardly have the time to tell you that Clorinda dies without any other sorrow than that which yours does cause in her That she esteems the end of her dayes for the most glorious of all her adventures that being born upon the Throne she does not care though she dies on the dust since 't is with honour that having lived with innocency and reputation without stain she regrets nothing in the world but onely that she cannot retaliate that which she owes to you and that in fine she esteems her self happy to have found in the same person an enemy so courteous as even to save her life a Knight so valiant as to make her death illustrious a Conquerour so compassionate as to weep at his own Victories and a lover so passionate and so heroick as to make her hope that he will conserve that affection very pure even to his last breath Adiew then Prince too unfortunate to be so generous My voice fails me I lose my sight and breath But if it be possible forget not this remembrance That the Love ought not to die with the Beloved The effect of this HARANGUE THe ressentments that a like Discourse might have inspir'd did not miss of finding place in the afflicted spirit of Tancred he wept and wept a long time for so extraordinary a misfortune and for so fearful an adventure and we may believe that he wept ever Since Erminia how lovely how much a lover so'ere she was could never comfort him for the death of Clorinda Nevertheless be not you perswaded that he was so That the affection ought not to die with the beloved but suspend at least your judgment since this other Princesse hath somewhat to say thereon Hearken better to her than Tancred did hearken for in truth she is too worthy of compassion to be suffered to die for a dead one or at least for not hearing of her ERMINIA TO ARSETES The Fifth HARANGUE The Argument AFter that Tancred had killed Clorinda as you have seene before the Prince appeared inconsolable and hardly could that famous Hermit which followes Godfreys army separate him from that fair body whose soul himself had separated so that Erminia daughter to the King of Antioch who had a long time loved that generous but affllicted Prince despaired of ever seeing her affection recompenced I was in that unhappy condition that meeting one of Clorinda's Domesticks who maintained that Tancred had reason to do so she ende avoured to make him confesse to ease her sorrow That the affection ought not to go beyond the grave ERMINIA TO ARSETES THose which say as you say that the power of death ought not to destroy love that one must love in the dark regions of the air those whom we lov'd whilst they enjoy'd the light of the Sun that not to conserve our affections very pure towards them is to be unfaithful that 't is inconstancy to be capable of any other flames after they are separated from the living and that in fine whoever is so unhappy as to see his Mistris enter into the Monument never ought to have any thoughts of making any other conquest Those people I say are equally ignorant both how far the power of death and the power of love do extend They know not what that is which we call love they know neither fidelity nor constancy and judge of things either by their own capritious fancies or for their own interest As for you sage and faithful Arsetes I have no reason to find it ill that you bestow your tears to the memory of the valiant Clorinda I consent likewise that the generous Tancred mingle his with yours and I shall further testifie to you by my sighes that the destiny of that illustrious person hath caus'd grief in me and that I was her Rival but not her enemy But I will also perswade you that without being either inconstant or unfaithful that Prince who loved her during her life might now recompence my affection by his own since she does cease to live Death that fearful monster that destroys all that breaths upon earth wil not that love should enterprize any thing against his power those which he once bears away are no longer obliged to any thing he separates those amities that are the closest united and unties the strongest alliances In making Kings to tumble from the Throne into the Sepulchre he dispences their subjects from all obedience their power ends with their life and there remains no more of those Monarchs but the memory of their vices or of their vertues If they have been evil they are blamed with boldnesse and if they have been good they are praised without suspition of flattery their Tombs are carefully looked to their names are immortaliz'd by the Histories which are made of their Reigns and their Heroick actions but the services which they were wont to require of their subjects are not rendered to them So true it is that death brings a change in all things That which I say of Kings may be said of those whom love had made Queens over their Lovers and whom death hath subjected also to its Empire as they are not in a condition to command any more we are dispensed from obeying them the lawes of Reason and Nature will have us weep their loss and cherish their memory that we never forget them that we raise stately Tombs for them and that we forget not any thing which may adde to their glory but Reason and Nature will likewise tell us that time cures the sharpest sorrowes that the deepest spring of tears must be dried up at length and that all afflictions must diminish In effect there is no means to be found in these occasions we must enter into the grave with the beloved person or we must keep within the limits which wisdome prescribes to the most violent griefs All the ornaments of the proudest Mausoleums are but extinguish'd torches and sad marks and tokens that those that rest in them have now no share in the light and that by consequence the living should have no share in their ashes and urnes That eternall sleep which reigns in the graves and which the tears and the sighes of the most passionare lovers cannot dispell evidences enough that 't is not to the deceased we owe our love and constancy The change which happens in them justifies that which happens to others and then
of the living and pass the remainer of his dayes in shedding of fruitless tears and vainly walking about the margent of the grave for truly to speak with sincerity there are scarce any people that die which should not expect those last devoirs either from their friends or from those for whom they had any affection if it were true 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 inconstant 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 be pleasing for that which we could 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 loved 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
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 she 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 chams to deliver me perhaps also that the Grecians will love rather to see me captive than to see me die life 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 mine 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
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 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 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 Tancred 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
to speak truly the most despairing do abuse themselves when they think yet to love the ghosts of their Mistresses as if they were still alive That which can cause no longer neither desire nor hope nor disquiet nor jealousie cannot be called love They cease to love therefore and yet do not apprehend it and mistake an effect of their grief and sometimes of their temperature for a mark of passion Notwithstanding it is absolutely impossible that love and death can ever reign together they think to love their Mistresses and indeed they love only their memory they say they are faithful and constant and yet all their sentiments are changed for of all the tendernesses which true affection inspires there remains nothing in portion to them but grief besides that with time does ordinarily become onely a melancholy habit rather than an effect of their losse or the ressentment they have of it they accustome themselves to sadnesse as to joy their sighes do ease them their tears fall without bitternesse and the recital of their ill fortunes instead of increasing their torments and renewing their displeasures serves them for a pastime and a pleasing divertisement Believe me Arsetes those are not the signs of a violent passion Neverthelesse it is certain that the wisdome of nature works in us whether we will or not this advantageous change Death is an evil too inevitable and too common amongst men to be left without a consolation for the losses it brings and indeed we finde it to be so and reason hath not left us without giving the just limits to the greatest sorrow Ever since the beginning of ages death hath made men shed tears which time hath wiped off again all the children have been comforted for the death of their fathers all the fathers have not despaired at the death of their children the most faithful husbands have attended their wives to their graves without descending therein themselves and the most constant women have buried their husbands and yet did not lie down with them in the same bed of earth In fine Arsetes as there is no joy permanent in this life there ought to be no eternal affection You will tell me that the bands of blood and those of love are things very different and that for the most part the interest of the person beloved has more power in our hearts than any other consideration You will adde to this that we would forsake our Countrey and all our Parents to serve her and that likewise when it happens that we lose her she causes as much affliction she alone as if we lost all together both our Parents that gave us birth and our fortunes and in short all that is left us to lose in the world Though I should agree touching that yet we must still come to my argument which is that either we must comfort our selves after the death of the person whom we love or we must die with her For to think that love is a thing compatible with the darknesse of the grave is a belief of small appearance 't is a thing without reason and without example and which can never happen unless they lose their sence and understanding with their Mistresses As we do not affect what we never see neither ought we to love what we shall never behold more one may preserve the remembrance but we cannot love the beauties since they are no longer in being one may still love the chains and shakels which they wore but as these chains and bands are broken for ever we may without inconstancy or infidelity retake some others provided they be not unworthy of the first We must not break down a golden Statua to put a brass one in the place But amongst some Christians it is usual to adorn the place with more than one Image I do not therefore desire that Tancred should raze out that of his Clorinda intirely from his heart I have more respect to her and more complacence for him I would only have him since he has not renounced all humane society for we know he does both give and receive Orders go to the wars defend his life and imploy the same hand with which he cut the bands that tied him to the service of Clorinda against those whom Clorinda has alwayes served I would I say that having never ceased to be faithfull to his party having never ceased to be valiant in battels and having never forgotten to be generous he may not now omit to be an acknowledger of my affections In the state as things now are he owes nothing but compassion to Clorinda but he owes love to Erminia Clorinda can now no more either love or hate him and Erminia has not only lov'd him before he knew Clorinda but she loves him still even whilst he prefers Clorinda's ashes before Erminia's chaste flames Heavens be my witnesse if I nourish the least thought of hatred against that illustrious person as long as she lived I held as great an esteem of her vertue as I had affection for the Prince whom I loved no Arsetes her death did not rejoyce me on the contrary it did grieve me I honour'd her enough to weep her loss and I loved Tancred enough to desire almost that he might not have such a sad misfortune although according to appearance it might be advantageous to me and if after their interest I may have leave to think of my own I dare avouch again that I believe that I should be less unhappy if Clorinda were not dead than I am now though she be equally incapable to give either love or jealousie Did she yet live I should not take it ill if Tancred would give me but his esteem and friendship and preserved his intire love and passion for her I would say in his defence he loves that which cannot be beloved too much Clorinda is young fair vertuous and valiant and his inclination does prompt him to adore her let us bemoan our fortune then without accusing her that causes it since we can finde nothing to object against his choice But now that Clorinda is no more but a little dust that her youth does subsist no more that her beauty is destroyed that her vertue cannot appear but only by the relations of those that know her that her valour can be no more either useful or hurtful to her friends or enemies and that in fine she is as far distant from us as if she had never been It is not just that Tancred should have more fidelity for the ashes of his enemy than acknowledgment and regard for her who began to love him from the first instant she ever beheld him although that first instant cast her from the Throne to slavery and that the hands which enchained her had torne a Crown from off her Fathers head yea a Crown which should have been placed upon her own temples But perhaps generous Arsetes you do not know all the rights which I have in Tancreds affection
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 undergone 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 us 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 covetous and that your treasures were all stoln 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 trouble some 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
Imagine then the trouble that this thought excited in my heart it was so great that if the fear of Ulysses death in so dangerous a voyage had not moderated its violence I believe I should have accused him in my thoughts as if he had been already guilty I should have made him some reproaches and perhaps for some instants should have hated him But the consideration of 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 Ulysses 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 she 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 the 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 Ulysses 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 captives though Helena and Penelope are persons very different and although
SEVERALL WITTY DISCOVRSES Pro Con. viz. 1. That Beauty is no Real Good 2. That Love proceeds from the Inclination 3. That the Countrey Life is preferr'd before living in Cities 4. That the Affection ought not to die with the beloved 5. That the Affection ought not to go beyond the Grave 6. That those who never suffer'd Troubles cannot truly tell what Pleasure is 7 That Death is better than Slavery 8. That Absence is worse than Death 9. That one may be both Slave and Mistresse By MOUNSIEUR SCUDERY And put into English by a Person of quality LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor on the Lower walk in the New Exchange 1661. 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
the wind does hardly breath there the hayle does not destroy the vines the greene is eternal and I truly believe that if one should not manure them the Sun alone would produce and ripen all what ever Agriculture brings forth elsewhere not without much trouble and care Now that we may not yet forget that which makes the liberality of our Shepherds and that which is the innocent love of our shepherdesses can you compare the Perfumes of Rome with the sweeet odour of our Violets of our Roses and our Gilliflowers At least there is this difference that the one does but satisfie the smell and that the other besides its gratefull perfume pleases the eye infinitely In effect was ever any thing more faire to behold than this prodigious quantity of flowers which fills our Gardens either for their forme for the briske and lively colours or the variety there is amongst them Believe me shepherd the magnificent Tapestry which is at Rome does not shew any thing that is so wonderfull The purple is not so faire as the Incarnat of our Roses the Pearls of our Crowns Imperial are more worth than Orient pearls and the least of our flowers deserves more admiration than all that human art can invent Now after I have made you behold that which I call the suns master-piece follow me into this neighbour grove 't is there that you shall find that which is not to be found at Rome 't is there that you shall hear that which is not heard in any City and 't is there you will be forced to confesse that you must be insensible of pleasures if you preferre not the Country life before that of the Court. Behold then I conjure you that great number of shepherds and shepherdesses who daring the heat of the day have led their flocks into the shade under the closeness of this grove and without admiring the handsomenesse of some or the beauty of others since 't is not in this place that I intend to speak of that hearken onely to what they listen too I mean that great quantity of birds who by their different tones make so pleasant a consort Hearing them sing so early one would say they did strive together who should obtain reward of the victory But amongst others admire that learned master of musick who surpasses them all by the least of his notes And indeed they are all ashamed of their unskilfulnesse they leave off through impuissance and respect and only the Nightingales his fellowes try with equal armes to vanquish him to overcome each the other Hearken how admirably this does pass his cadences how he lets fall his voice how he maintains it how he renews it and with what regularity he animates his song That other which answers him hath a particular charme he is more languishing and more amorous but as he is more feeble so I believe he will be vanquished Listen how they redouble their strengths and you may even discerne a kind of joy in him that finds he hath the advantage and sorrow and anger in that which finds his strength diminisheth Look ye shepherd he can sing no more his strains are not so equal though they be more frequent the sweetnesse of his voice does change he sings now onely out of despaire I can discover through those leaves that he staggers his clawes can no longer graspe the branch which upholds him I see him tumble with vexation and he in falling murmers yet some languishing notes and does almost loose his life before his voice Those Shepherd are the onely ambitious ones of our Country compare those with them of Rome I conjure you and although the destiny of this poore Bird bee worthy of pity acknowledge that 't is better ambition cause only the death of Nightingales than that it should ranverse Thrones and Empires Yet more Shepherd 't is not in the spring time onely in summer and in autumne that we have the advantage above Cities winter it selfe how fearfull and sharp soever 't is discribed hath somewhat amidst its rigour which is fine and magnificent in our fields The snow which in the Cities looses all its whitenesse as soone as ere 't is fallen ot at least conserves its purity only on the house tops does here make rich and curious plumes of the branches of our Cypresse Cedars and Firres Those trees I say whose leaves do not shed mingling their verdure with its whitenesse makes without doubt as pleasing an object as the summer can bestow and then when the frost and sharpenesse of the cold hath converted all our rivulets into Cristal we behold likewise all our trees laden with diamonds You will tell me it may be that those diamonds do not make us the richer and that the Sun deprives us of what the cold bestows But shepherd if those diamonds do not enrich us however they doe not make us become guilty We cannot corrupt the fidelity of any one with them nor imploy them in so many unlawfull uses as you know they do at Rome There is one thing more yet in the Cities which seems to me not to be indured which is that one would say there is but one kind of season all the year long to those that inhabit them They alwayes behold the same things they have the same imployments their houses are alwayes alike their pleasures do not vary and except only that they have cold and heat according to the divers temperatures of the ayre there happens no change in their life contrary to us to whom nature every year renues four times all the beauties of our dwellings Each season gives us a different occupation The spring with its flowry chaplet calls us to take care of our medowes and flocks The summer with its Coronet of wheat-ears obliges us to the reaping of our harvest Autume with its garland of vine invites us not to leave our grapes any longer exposed to the pillage of passengers and the winter all covered with ice will have us neverthelesse render to the earth the tribute which each one owes it that so another time she may returne with interest those graines which we have sowed in her bosome O Shepherd how innocent is this usury and how little it resembles that which they practise in Cities this beggars no body by thus enriching ones selfe in this manner one cannot either envie you for it nor reproach you nor accuse you of any crime but farre otherwise the more you are carefull the more you are praised whereas the others care is alwayes blame-worthy if they are not alwayes blamed They have more paine and lesse pleasure that which is acquired by unjust ways cannot be without doubt possessed without disquiet They fear their enviers their enemies and theeves but for us we have neither enviers nor enemies Nor do we fear any other robbers of our riches than the birds which steale some of our fruits and which for all this we would not banish from our Campaniaes so
I beheld it fall as if dead twice I beheld her face pale and disfigured twice I beheld her eyes quite extinguish'd and turn'd inwards though they appeared open twice her mouth opened it self dead as she was and twice she spake but with fewer words than sighs and with an accent capable to appal with horrour the stoutest soul Nevertheless my dear Theagenes all this affliction and all this fright served afterwards but to augment our joy when by the bounty of the gods we met one another before the walls of Memphis 'T was there that I once more experimented that they which never had no evil do not know pleasure 't was there that I knew sensibly that the absence makes us afterwards find the sight of the beloved object the more pleasing and it was there my dear Theagenes that I learn'd by experience that those which are alwayes happy are not half happy In effect those who never lost a treasure are ignorant of the joy there is in finding it again and hardly know that which its possession gives It belongs only to unfortunate ones to speak of a good fortune and as we must be in the profound and deep vallies to judge well of the heights of mountains so we must have been in miseries and afflictions to know perfectly what is felicity and abundance In such a happy moment of an unlookt for accident there passes certain invisible beams from one lovers eyes to the others which carry with them into the hearts a certain I know not what not to be express'd The words of content of joy of satisfaction and of glory are too poor to express so tender and delicate a sentiment and the eloquent silence of those two happy persons does tell it far better than can any words or than it can be represented by all the figures of that imperious art which vaunts it self to be the Master of all free spirits and the Tyrant of the will But Theagenes as I have said that the eyes of a lover are eloquent and that they can make themselves be understood so yours do confirm me in my opinion and I understand though I do not speak a word what they would have me comprehend and what they would remember me of No no I have not forgotten the unworthy love of that object worthy of my hatred and your disdain in a word of Arsace that cruel sister of the Persian King who caus'd so much trouble to us and thought to make us perish I know that in her I had a Rival to be feared I know that she made you wear iron chains you who deserved to hold a Scepter I know that having discover'd our innocent passion her guilty artifices would constrain me to espouse Achemenes one of her slaves I know her fury caus'd you to be buried alive in the obscurity of a deep dungeon I know you received such outrages as struck me with horrour and which highly signaliz'd your love and constancy I know that the despair of that inraged woman exposed my life to poyson and that if the Justice of the Gods had not made Cibele to take it her selfe who would have given it to me your Cariclia had been lost I know that the fearful malice of that Persian accus'd me of that death of which she was the cause and of which I was innocent I know that I found my self a prisoner as well as you and that I did partake of your chains I know that men who were at once both Judges and Slaves did condemn me to the fire to content that furious woman I know that I beheld my self upon the pile of wood ready to be consumed I know that the flames encompass'd me round about and that love and innocency were never exposed to so hard a trial but I likewise know that by the assistance of the gods and the vertue of that stone I wore about me which you Grecians call Pantarbe I marched upon the brands as on a bed of flowers and that that infamous pile of wood became the Throne of my glory O my dear Theagenes tell me I conjure you by our amours whether my triumph were not caused by my condemnation and whether after your mourning for me as dead any thing ever equall'd your contentment when you beheld me alive or to say better risen again from death for my part I confess to you that after that Miracle which the gods and love and nature wrought together in our favour I was so transported with joy that I cannot expresse it and I was liberally recompenced by them for all the pains which I had undergone yea even for all troubles that I was yet to suffer You know moreover that as felicities are ordinarily linked together as well as misfortunes so this same although very great did not happen alone to us for we came from Arsaces prison by the order of Oroondates to whom by a spirit of jealousie of despight and vengeance Achemenes was gone to to advertize him of his wives impudicity You know also that we had the satisfaction to learn that heavens justice had made use of Arsaces own hand to punish her crimes in the fear she had that her husband would punish her and that thus all our traverses increased our contentments and served onely to make us know their grandeur the better and if you tell me that presently after we found a new affliction being surprized by unknown people who took us away from Bagoas and would have conducted us to his Master Oroondates I shall reply that immediately afterwards we also found a new joy since those souldiers who took us were of Ethiopia where we desired to go In effect they presented us to Hydaspes who at first seemed as if he would favour us since by his order our chains of iron were changed for chains of gold and we were entertained with much respect Neverthelesse my dear dear Theagenes t is here I must confess that our hopes were deceitful and that we beheld our selves anew in such displeasures which had nothing equal to it but the danger which we underwent For in fine if they adorn'd us it was but like victims which they meant to sacrifice and if they had any respect for us 't was but because we were the offerings which they had alotted for their Deities Truly I cannot deny but that in this occasion my trouble was incomparable and I could not but murmur a long time against the Oracle which had sent me from Ethiopia and which absolutely seemed to be false since we found a grave there where it had made us hope that we should finde a Throne But Theagenes how marvellous and concealed is the providence of the gods and how weak is humane reason in discovering it at the moment that we were at the foot of the altars where we were ready to be immolated at the point when Hydaspes had his arm lifted up to stab his own daughter thinking to do a pious act briefly at the very point
that we were both going to die and to die in so pitiful a manner fate changed the face of things I was discovered and known to be what I was before the City of Meroe my Sacrifier was found to be my Father the victime was found to be his daughter Hydaspes and Persina found an heiress the Ethiopians found a new Queen and Theagenes and Cariclia who know that those which have not had any evil cannot know what pleasure is found themselves almost happy I say almost generous Prince because our apprehensions did not yet cease and that my fathers scrupulous devotion believ'd that nature was too weak to hinder him to acquit himself of what he owed to the gods But if that too nice zeal did give us trouble the publick cry which made it end did no less rejoyce us You will tell me perhaps that this unhop'd for good concern'd me only that that which saved me did not save you that the hand which spared me would yet sacrifice you that you combated a Bull whose rage was terrible that you fought a Gyant whose strength was no lesse that they would constrain me to marry Meroebe that at the same time in which they put the royal Bandeau about my temples they would have put the mortal Scarf over your eyes and that I was fain once more to walk on burning coals wiehout any other assistance than my own purity having before left my Pantarbe But in fine Theagenes this happiness became equal to us you were spared as I was saved the hand which shielded me did not strike you the Bull neither frighted nor hurt you the Gyant did but encrease your glory Meroebe was the captive that adorned your triumph the flame by its lustre imparted some both to your vertue and mine Cariclia and Sisimithres finished our prosperities and from the feet of those altars of the gods where we then were we presently were raised up gloriously to the Kings Throne where we now are Acknowledge then my dear Theagenes as well as I that it belongs not but to those that have been unfortunate to say they are happy that 't is but only after our disgraces that our felicities 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 neverthelesse 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 Trojan 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
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 away a Crown which puls down your Throne which deprives you of the light does also rob you from the person whom you love she does not forsake you t is true but you leave her and in this manner you do as well lose the sight of her as in absence and likewise lose her for ever I acknowledge sage Laertes that this objection is strong nevertheless it is not impossible to clear it To die before the eyes of those we love is somewhat more comfortable than to remain alive separated from ones lover and husband together to mingle our last tears together with his is less insupportable than to be left alone to weep continually and to leave ones soul betwixt those armes is rather a stricter union with him than a separation In fine to say all in a word after the having given him the last adiew after the having had the satisfaction of knowing the greatnesse of his amour by the greatnesse of his sorrowes after the having if it be permitted to speak so resigned our soul into his hands we have alwayes this advantage to cease to live in ceasing to see him losing the light for ever with his presence and to become insensible of grief as well as of joy The repose and obscurity of the grave are better in this occasion than life the light of day that funest and mortal Lethargy which for ever rocks all our sences into a deep sleep in the cradle of the Tomb is the only remedy which could charm all the evils I now suffer for the absence of my dear Ulisses and as sleep does every night make the happy and miserable to become equall and alike as it does the greatest-Princes and the meanest Subjects So death likewise places in the same rank those lovers which injoy the presence of their Mistresses with those which are deprived of it The thicknesse of those shades we meet withal in the grave hinders us for evermore from distinguishing any of the things of this world and death how pitiless so'ere t is described to us is not so cruel but that it promptly heals us of all the evils it causes If it make an ambitious man lose his Crown it deprives him at the same instant both of the diadem and the ambition which rendered it so pleasing to him if it rob the treasures from the possession of the covetous it likewise steals away that avarice from his heart which made him cherish wealth so much and if it dis-unite two persons dearly loving the least unhappy is he without doubt who loses his life since in losing that he loses both his sence knowledge and memory at the same moment It is not thus in absence we die thereby indeed unto all pleasures but it is only to live unto all pains As soon as ere we lose the sight of the person that reigns in our souls all other passions throng in to tear and torture it Love Hatred Anger Vengeance Jealousie Fear and Hope it self does persecute and war against us We never love more than when we lose the sight of the object of our affection we never hate any thing with so much violence as that which robs us of our beloved we are never more irritated than when our felicity is destroyed we never wish more ardently to revenge our selves than when we are reduced to the terms of despair we are never more jealous than when we cannot be the witnesses of their actions who owe all their fidelity to us we never deserve so much to be pitied as when we fear the death of our lovers and one may likewise say that we are never more unhappy than when we are reduced to that point of having no other consolation than an uncertain and doleful hope which ordinarily serves rather to increase our miseries than to asswage them so true it is that absence is a terrible and fearful evil and so true it is that it converts all the remedies which are presented to it into poyson Do not you imagine my Lord that I have learn'd what I now say either from the example of others or from reason which oft-times teaches us many things which we have never experienced No my Lord I tell you nothing but what my own trial hath verified and would to heaven I were yet ignorant of such sad truths and that death were the only evil which I might apprehend When my dear dear Ulisses was resolved to part and that overswayed by the power of his destiny he separated himself from me love to render this separation the more cruel to me represented him more lovely to me than ever I had beheld him his sorrow augmenting his charmes his silence caused by the affliction he indured in leaving me rendered him more grateful to me than his sweetest eloquence had ever done although that eloquence have inchanted all the earth in fine sage Laertes I then know better than ever I had known till then the price and value of what I had possessed and of what I was then ready to be dispossessed of My love increased I acknowledge it and though I had believed all my life that I could not possibly love my husband more ardently and tenderly than I did love yet neverthelesse I cannot deny but that I found my affection redoubled in that sad instant But when after I had lost his fight the Image of Menelaus presented it self to my mind who had caused his departure hatred seized so powerfully on me that there are no unjust wishes which I made not for him Anger followed hatred and the desire of revenge immediatly stept in after hatred I desired he might not regain Helena I wished he might suffer all his life-time that which I now suffered by his means and I think likewise that in the heat of my resentment I should have made prayers to obtain from heaven that he might have been beaten and his army defeated by the Trojans had I not remembred that he could not be vanquished but that my dear Ulysses must be so to since he was ingaged in the quarrel But my Lord will you think it well that I should shew you all my troubles and discover all my imbecilitâ—es Yes since it is onely by that means that I can prove to you that absence is worse than death After then that I had resented all the most violent effects of love anger hatred I found my self again assaulted by Jealousie Ulysses went to a place where they might take such prisoners as were capable to enchain their vanquishers and masters as the examples of Agamemnon and Achilles has since taught us
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 I reply then with tears nothing but a grave is fit for Penelope and if he be not you are cruel and not judicious to come and sigh at her feet who sighs for his absence who can never behold you but as her enemies rather than her lovers Judge after this my Lord if any thing can be added to the troubles I suffer leave me then the liberty to preferre death before absence the one makes the body suffer more than the spirit and the other torments the spirit more than the body the one puts a period to all misfortunes the other gives birth to all miseries the one is an evil which indures but an instant the other is a despair which may last all the life the one does but extinguish all our passions the other is a Tyrant which makes them rule successively in our souls in fine death is but onely death and absence is a series or chain of murders torments disquiets fears jealousies angers despairs and continual deaths In absence we make vowes which contradict one another ve make wishes for which we repent again we expect alwayes to behold that which we fear we shall never see again we hope and apprehend at the same time we fancy dangers which never were we accuse with unjustice those whom we bemoan and cherish with reason we sometimes hate our selves we blame our own sorrow and yet will not be comforted we hide our tears and yet desire not that time should wipe them from our cheeks we envy anothers happiness we fly from society and solitude is insupportable we behold all what we would not see and cannot be so blessed as to see that which we would ever behold we seek after that which we are assured not to find and in a word we finde our selves in a condition to wish for death and prefer it before absence yea to make supplications to obtaine that which all the world fears and from which all the world does flie The effect of this HARANGUE ONe may believe that Ulysses return was the effect of this Harangue and that the Heavens did grant it to such tender and passionate sentiments since after he had strayed so many years on the Sea and Land he returned to the imbraces of his wife Penelope his father Laertes and Telemachus his son and this wise and illustrious person beheld him again in that Island where she so much longed for him BRISEIS TO ACHILLES The Ninth HARANGUE The Argument AChilles becomming inamoured with Polixena at Hectors funeral would to facilitate the happy success of his love make a peace betwixt the Trojans and Greeks and that he might behold his new Mistris upon so fair a pretext he came even into Troy whilst the truce lasted So extraordinary a thing caused all the people to murmur in the Camp and rendered him suspitious to the whole Army but amongst others Briseis a captive Princess whom Achilles had much loved before this infidelity received thereby an affliction beyond compare So that for her own interest and likewise the Princes whose glory she was obliged to preserve she took in fine the confidence to represent unto him the wrong he would do her and that which would likewise accrue unto himself Now as he was of a violent humour and a spirit apt to be moved this remonstrance did but stir his anger insomuch that he treated Briseis as a slave and spake to her with a Magisterial accent that 's to say very imperiously This unjust proceeding brought this Lady to despair and as despair makes weapons of all things and that from exeream timidity one runs sometimes even to audacity she undertook to maintain in his presence That one may be both Slave and Mistris BRISEIS TO ACHILLES YEs yes cruel Achilles I see my chains and feel a slave though I had never beheld the one and had alwayes been ignorant of the other the usage I have received this day would teach me but too much what my condition is and also both what the misfortune is that accompanies it and the shame that waits upon it You are without doubt my master your actions and your words do testifie it enough and passing very far beyond the limits of the legitimate power of my Master you become my Tyrant and make me suffer a punishment unworthy both of your self and me But what ever Pride you have and what ever humility you would have me to have I cannot forget in wearing your fetters that I should wear a Crown that I was not born such as you would have me die that my hand was destined for a Scepter not for a chain and that in taking away my Throne you have not taken down my heart as we receive Kingdomes and Empires from the hands of fortune so she being avaritious and capritious can take away again what she had bestowed but as we have our generosity onely by nature who is too wise to change her counsels and too liberal to take away her gifts again so we preserve that even to our graves we can shew that at liberty in the midst of slavery make it in fine triumph over tyrants as well as tyrāny Do not expect therefore that I should continue to complain poorly of your infidelity that I should let fall any shameful tears or that I should shed them needlesly that I should give such satisfaction to my Rival as to behold my shame in the day of her glory and my sorrow amidst her pleasures Or briefly that I my self should add to my disgraces that of not being able to undergoe them No Achilles no I will complain no more of your inconstancy I will call you ingrateful no more I will not say you are wavering nor will I any more reproach you that either you heard not or that you heard but in fury Continue to betray me if you think good passe from the Grecians to the Trojans Camp from our Trenches over their Ramparts and if this be not yet enough adore your enemies Kiss I say Polixena's hand if she be so unworthy as to indure that his who murthered her brother Hector dare to approach so neer hers neither forget any thing that can satisfie her of whatso'ere may cause affliction to me or dishonour to your self I consent Achilles I consent whether perforce or voluntarily no matter if so be you are pleased if so be you appear my mastet if so be I appear your slave and that I voluntarily indure your inconstancy without murmuring But do not expect that I will suffer you to goe on from inconstancy to pride and from pride