thee Because thou thus affl•ctst thy self whom fate Makes wr•tched we may wel comiserate But who court danger and themselves abuse With needless tortures they deserve to loose Those blessings which they knew not how to use Rather in pitty of thy yeers thy mind Release and in a festive measure joyn'd Advance thy torch in wine thy sorrows drown Enjoy thy youth which will be gone too soon Now apt for all Impressions is thy brest Venus to yong men is a welcome guest Now glad thy soul Why shouldst thou lye alone Solace thy youth but too unpleasant grown Sl•cken the reins wholly to riot bent Nor let thy better dayes be thus mispent The Gods draw out our lives by their degrees All 〈◊〉 them p•culiar properties Cheerfull when yong in age reserv'd Why doth A hard restraint thus kill thy toward youth A large encrease sh•ll crown the husbands toil Whose seed is tightly fitted to his soil And all the trees are over-grown by those Which still uncropt preserve their maiden boughs Good dispositions greatest praise doe merit When nat'rall freedom guides a nobl• spirit Salvage and ignorant thou to a wife Preferr'st a melancholy single life Dost thou thinke to•l a priviledge to ride The fierie cour•er till he lose his pride Or try the bloudy issue of a field When the eternall providence beheld So many enemies to life he made Fresh off-springs to replenish the decay'd Go too Let Venus of humane affaires Dispose who our diminish'd stock repairs Should but our youth be barren all thou sees After an ages standing vanishes Coverd ' with rubbish the uncultur'd land Would lye the sea unnavigated stand The empty forrest beasts air birds would want The wind being the sole inhabitant How many casuall deaths on mankind wait Extinguish'd by the sea the sword dece•t But say that these were wanting yet to all For to pursue their end is naturall Nature the guide of life obey'd frequent The Citty then and publike meetings haunt Hip. There is no life more free void of offence Or nearer to the pristine Innocence Than what is to the woods confind who lives With a clear Conscience on the mountains cliffs Is not enslam'd with avarice nor draws The aire of seldome merited applause Is not with envy swell'd nor kindnes blown Nor favorite nor vassall to a crown He covets not vain honours nor th' uncertain tide Of wealth not hope and fear doe him divide Him scarce the poisonous tooth of malice wounds Nor doth he know the usuall crimes of towns And great concourses feares not every noise Like guilty persons nor inventeth lies A thousand Columes don't his roof uphold Nor are his rafters fastened with gold His Altars doe not flow with streams of blood Nor with the sacred 1 meal their foreheads strew'd A Hecatombe of white oxen expects The stroak of death and bow their hundred necks But he the countrey doth enjoy endu'd With a most sweet and pleasing solitude Harmless he wanders through the open air Nor can he any thing but beasts ensnare And when with labour faint his weary limbs Refreshes with Ilissos Chrystall streams Now he on bankes of swift Alpheus lyes Now thickest coverts of the wood descries Where cool Lerna through her transparent spring Shews her clear bottome ever wandering Here birds complain there th' ancient Beech receive Some gentle wind and shakes her tremblng leaves Strech•d on a winding shore he loves to take A nap and the bare turfe his bed doth make Whither a fountain falls in scatter'd showers Or flying streams salute the new-born flowers With murm'ring courtship Wildings are his food And strawb'ries gather'd from the underwood Meats quickly cooked he delights to fly Far from the Courts excessive luxurie Let the ambitious drinke in golden cups With what a gust he the pure fountain sups From his convexed palm and sleep more sound Securely laid on the obdurate ground He lewdly seeks not a retired bed Nor in close corners hides his fearfull head But he doth the fresh air and light enjoy And that he liveth Heaven can testifie I verily beleeve those Heroes did Live thus whom after ages Deifi'd They had no thirst of gold no sacred stones Did limit their unknown possessions Bold ships plough'd not the deep to forreign shores But kept to their own seas no lofty towres And ample bulwarks did the city fence In armes an universall ignorance No engines forc'd the gates no oxen plough'd The earth she wore no badge of servitude Flelds fruitfull of themselves suffic'd to feed A sparing people that did little need Woods native riches and some shadie cave To them unartificiall lodgings gave First headstrong wrath a furious love of gain And lust which in enflamed minds doth reign Broke this integrity then did there come A bloody thirst of Empire in the room Great men did prey upon the less and might Was chosen arbitrator unto right Then with bare hands they fought untrimed boughs And stones were the first weapons they did use The cornell was not shod with ir'n nor ty'd The souldier a long sword unto his side Nor horses manes crested their helmes but vext With smart they took the weapons that were next Dire Mars invented war-like stratagems And thousand forms of death hence purple streams Defil'd each land bloud dy'd the blushing mane Then endles crimes in ev'ry ho•se did reign No sin but grew a President the child His Father Brothers have their Brothers kill d Women their Husbands wicked Mothers slew Their infant births What then did Step-dames doe Nothing indeed 's more mild than beasts but this Woman sins ringleader and Artifice Besets our souls how many Cities are Fir'd by her Incests lands ingag'd in war And peoples by the ruin'd weight opprest Of their own Countries not to name the rest 3 Medea speaketh the sexe cruell Nu. Why. Condemn'st thou all for ones Impiety Hip. I slie abhor curse all Whether it from Reason or nature or meer frenzy come I love to hate them Water shall abide Sooner with fire V•ssels securely ride In the devouring 4 Syrtes the bright day Sooner shall rise from the Hesperian Sea And wolves be mild to kids than this my mind Admit a courteous thought of woman-kind Nu. Love the perverse oft tameth and removes All hatred 5 this thy Mother Country proves Ev'n that fierce Nation did obey the will Of Love or thou hadst been ungotten still Hip. In this respect I 'm glad my Mothers dead Because my hate is now unlimited As a fix'd rock on every side in vain Assail'd by waves doth beat them back again So he despises what I say but see Where the impatient lover comes ah me What Fate attends her whither falleth shee Upon the earth her body breathless lyes And death-like paleness doth benight her eyes Madam look up unloose your tongue behold Hippolitusses arms do you enfold Scena Tertia Phaedra Hippolitus Nurse VVHo calls me back to grief my bosome fir'd A new how sweetly had I here expir'd But why
example to obtrude an infamy upon her sex for she betrayed her father Aeta tore in pecc•s her brother Absyrtus juggled the daughters of Pelias into Parricide upon their own parent destroyed Crcon and his daughter Creusa by caustick poisons to testifie her revenging hatred 〈◊〉 husband Iason killed her two sons Mormorus before the eyes of the deprecating father And lastly which Hippoli•us seem• to 〈◊〉 upon being married to Aegeus the graddfa•r to this yong man to preferre her own son laid plots for the 〈◊〉 o•Theseus 4. The Syrtes are two dangerous Bayes in the Lybian Seas full of flats sholes and quick sands 5. Meaning the Amazons who by expulsion of their Husbands testifie their hate to Males yet could this Love which s•ee perswades him to submit unto prevaile upon his Mother notwithstanding the disadvantages of being an Amazon and a Scythian Scene the third 1. Theseus had committed the Regency of Attica to her during his absence 2. This speech of Phaedras appeares dronick from the improbability that Pluto should dismiss One who had a designe of rape upon his wife and might if returned disclose those not to be made publick secrets of his darke Province yet reflecting upon the power of Love she concludes that that may bow even Pluto himself into Compassion 3. Of the Minotaure already we have spoken 4. Ariadne ingratefully deserted by Theseus was after entertained by Bacchus who in consideration of her Love to him translated her into a Constellation whom Phaedra invokes from the similitude of their affections she having doted on the father Theseus as Phaedra on the son Hippolitus 5. Diana which Hippolitus ado•'d or Phoebus Grandfather to Phaedra Chorus of the second Act 1. Chorus 2. Hesperus ascending the Brow of Atlas that from that height he might more conspicuously contemplate the course of the Stars by some accident of either of chance or malice did there concealedly depart this life which gave occasion to conjecture that he was translated into that illustrious Star which in the Evening we cal Hesperus in the Morn Lucifer or Phosphorus 3. Of Bacchus his triumph over India his attributes of everyoung naked crownd with Ivy Horns unshorn and the rest see Natalis Comes Mytholog lib. 5. cap. 13. 4. Ariaduc was at first enjoyed by Theseus afterward by Barchus which the Poet is pleased to ascribe Bacchenalion as finding a greater and more attracting excellency in Hippolitus father then Liber Pater 5. The Naides so called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were Nimphs which the Ancients ascribed to Fountains their imprisoning of beauteous young men in their streams is taken from the Disstaters of drowned Hylas and Narcissus 6. The Arcadians being Greclans of a more untracted antiquity then the rest boasted their beginnings to be before the Sun and Moon 7. How the Driades or Sylvan Nymphs may be joyned with Pan as being solacious I know not since Plutarch relates that Drias the daughter of Faunus had such a particular abhorrence at the sight of men that to avoid it she declin'd all society and at her Sacrifices Males were prohibited to appear unless this is spoken generally and that story received as a particular exception 8. The Ancients imagining the Moon subject to Incantations used by beating of brass Basons sounding of Trumpets and all other clamorous means to assist and recover as they thought the Moon labouring under an Eclipse 9. Paros is an Iland amongst the Cyclades ennobled for her excellent Marble Act the third Scene the first 1. TRiptolemus was an Attick Prince who preinstructed by Ceres taught the Athenians Agriculture 2. The Sun entring into the Aequinoctiall sign of Lihra makes a just aequality betwixt the day and night 3. Cerberus is understood to be this Dog a deformed Monster with three heads and supposed by the Ancients to be the Porter of Hell Which Hercules in pursuance of Euristheus his commands brought away from Hell bound at the same time he •eemed this our Theseus Scene the second 1. Grecce being subject to Piracies and Invasions in its more fertile part the Territory of Athens being unfruitfull was not so obnoxious to displanters hence the Athenians boasted themselves to be aboriginall to that Country and wore as an Emblem of it golden Grashoppers upon their Bromes Scene the third 1. See the Chorus of the first Act number 5. 2. Phasis the greatest River of the Colchi so much the more subject to an Epithete of Barbarisme because it washeh the Country whence Medea had originall 3. Aegeus the father of Theseus had commanded him if he returned successfull from the Minotaure that the black sails of the returning Ship should be removed and white advanced This Theseus forgetting the mistaking father judging the event suitable to the colour precipitated himself from a Rock into the Sea called from him Aegean The Athenians out of Gratitude to the father and flattery to the son reputed him translated into the God of the Sea 4. Theseus had already enjoyed the benefit of two desires the option of three being granted to him the first was to be victorious over some barbarous Theeves then troubling Attica the second to evade the Labyrinth and this third that some Monster might destroy Hippolitus 5. Stix an Arcadian River of a venomously cold quality was by the Ancients supposed for a River in Hell ofsuch a hor•id reverence with the Gods that whoever assumed the name of that to assure a vow durst not infringe it He who violated the sanctity of this Oath was to be devested of all divinity and deprived of Nectar for one hundred years Chorus of the third Act 1. For notwithstanding the opinion of Mathematicians the Poles doe move with the universe 2. The Sun in Leo causes more then usuall colours Act the fourth Scene the first 1. COrus is a Wind usuall to the Sicilian Seas which drives the Waves upon the Italian coasts 2. Leucate is a Promontory in Acarnania 3. The Ciclades are Ilands in the Aegenian Sea 4. This prodigious floud arising interposed betwixt us and the sight of Aesculapius his Temple and those memorable Rocks called Sciro•ian from Sciron an infamous Robber who there died there by the hand of Theseus 5. In allusion to Theseus who destroyed the Minotaure of a mixt shape half man and the rest like a Bull 6. The history of Phaeton is common Phaeton that the Sun would by some act of indulgence own him to be his issue begs of Phoebus the guiding of his Chariot for one day which being granted he by his ignorance put all things in such a fear of conflagration that Iupiter to ebriate the disorder struck him out of the Chariot with a Thunder-bolt Chorus of the fourth Act 1. Caucasus is a ledge of extream high Mountains in Asia dividing Scithia from India 2. Ida is a Mountain of Phrigia 3. At the invasion of the Giants 4. Pluto was Uncle to Pallas as brother to her father Iupiter 〈◊〉 if he lost an inhabitant of Theseus
Too late denyes to undergo the yoke Himself put on Neither am I mistooke In Princely tumors how the stubborn mind Scorns truth and will not be to right inclind The Fates decrees are welcome who are old To see their end approaching grew more bold First wilt t' oppose nor faulter in that will 'T is next to modesty to know in ill A measure Wretch what wilt thou do Ah why Dost thou increase thy houses infamy And overact thy Mother this exceeds Her sin and more than monstrous be thy deeds For to compulsive Fate we attribute Monsters but sins to manners we impute Think'st thou thy crime more safe and void of fear 'Cause 11 Theseus sees not what is acted here Thou art mistaken for suppose he dwell For ever there doom'd t' a perpetuall Hell What will thy 12 Father doe thy Father aws The Sea and gives a hundred Cities Laws And Parents are quick-sighted What will he Winke at so horrid an Impiety But grant our craft or circumspection might Conceal it from him What will that great Light Of all things Father to thy Mother doe What the Gods fruitfull Seminator who As he his Thunder brandishes doth shake The trembling world are these like to mistake Canst thou yet hope unseen to keep thy crime From these All-seeing Grandfathers of thine But say the fav'ring Deities should hide The fact and as it does great sins betide None credited thy incest yet thou 'lt finde A present pain a self accusing mind With horror big and of is self afraid Some unreavel'd none sin unpunished Bridle thy impious love a crime which yet No barb'rous Nation ever did commit To Goths and Scythians and those who on Inhospitable Taurus dwell unknown From thy chaste brest expell these strange desires Thy Mother warnes thee from such uncouth sires Shall Son and Father have one common bed Thy impious womb fill'd with a mixed seed 13 Well doe with thy illicite flames make war 'Gainst Nature and impose new Laws on her We are at want of Monsters and of late Thy Brothers Court alas is desolate Shall unaccustom'd births the world appall And Nature be as oft unnaturall As a Cretense shall love Ph. I know dear Nurse Your counsel 's good but I must follow worse Fury compelleth Wittingly I stray Striving in vain my judgement to obey So when an over-burdened ship receives The unwelcome Buffets of encountring waves Vain is the Seamans toil in spite of them The Vessel goes with the prevailing stream Love reason vanquishes and countermands Nor will admit a Rivall where he reigns His Kingdome is the World he hath great Iove Scorched with the unruly flames of Love Fired the brest of the stern God of war And the dread-thunder-forging Mulciber He who in Aetna doth for ever turn The glowing Embers with a spark doth burne Phoebus himself who aims his shafts so true By the more skillful Boy is wounded too Gri•vous his power in Heaven in Earth the same Nu. Lust fav'ring Vice did first this Godhead frame And that it might the greater freedome have The name of Deity to fury gave Condemn'd forsooth by Venus for to live Thoroug• the World a restless fugitive He as he through the yeelding air doth fly Fashions his troublesome Artillery And now this Little one so great is grown The Gods submit to his dominion These Vanities were feignd Some guilty mind To her a Godhead him a bow assign'd Swell'd with prosperity who flows in Vice Not daining to admit one pleasure twice Lust the companion of great Fortunes waits On him he is not pleas'd with wonted cates Firm-builded houses nor your grosser meat Why doth this Pallace-haunting plague retreat From humble roofs a pious Love dwells there The Vulgar have affections void of fear Princes and rich men will have more than right When meaner men can cu•b their appetite Who but too much can doe yet would that he Could more Consider thou thy quality And thy returning Husbands Scepter fear Ph. Alas Love swayes his powerfull Scepter here And I fear no returns none gone from hence To the dark house of death find passage thence Nu. Be not too credulous say the gates of Hell Were shut and Cerberus the Centinell Theseus hath forc'd the way hath bin forbid Ph. Yet he perhaps would pardon if did Nu. Why He was cruell to a wife was chaste 14 Antiope can testifie his hast But grant we might appeale thy angry Spouse Yet who can move the stern Hippolitus He doth abhor the very name of wife And obstinately vows a single life Marriage he shuns an Amazon thou knows Ph. Stay he in mountains crown'd with frequent snows Or fly he over the sharp rocks I will Follow him through the woods and ore the hils Nu. Will he be tempted who resisteth Love Will he chaste pleasures for unchast remove Be kind to thee for whom perhaps alone He hates the sexe Ph. With prayers he may be won Nu. Hee 's cruell Ph. Love tameth the cruell too Nu. Hee 'l flie Ph. Flie he by Sea I will pursue Nu. Remember thou thy Father Ph. We doe call Our 15 Mother too to memory withall Nu. All woman-kind he hates Ph. I am the more Secure of being rival'd with a whore Nu. Theseus will come Ph. And 16 Pyrithous together Nu. Thy Father'l come Ph. What 17 Ariadnes Father Nu. By these dear brests by these time-dyed hairs And by this bosome over-worn with cares I pray thee have compassion on thy selfe For to desire it is a peece of health Ph. I have not lost all shame Nurse I obey The Love I cannot rule I conquer may Thou shalt not suffer in thy Fame this is The onely reason bridles my amiss 18 My Husband will I follow and prevent My sin by death Nu. Dear Madam some restraint Give to these passions I the more esteem Your life because you do your self condemn Ph. Yes dye I will but whether halter knife Or leap from Pallas tower conclude my life I know not yet Oh that my chastity Can only guarded by selfe-ruine be Nu. What think'st thou me so impotent my age To suffer this yet moderate thy rage Ph. To such as merit and resolve to dye Reason in vain doth urge the contrary Nu. Thou onely comfort of my aged yeares Since so perverse a fate thy will ore bears Contemn thy fame Fame speaks not as it shou'd Good to the bad and bad unto the good Let us aslay him and this Nature prove So froward so intractable to Love This labour shall be mine I le undertake The Stubborn youth and exorable make Exeunt CHORUS 1 GOddess the off-spring of the troubled floud And Mother to as troublesome a God 2 The twin'd Cupid with what a certain aim Alike immod'rate in his flames and them The boy his shafts doth levell the disease Creeps through the marrow and impoverishes With an insinuating fire the veins The Wound appeareth not in scars but pains Within ransacks the very bones this boy To peace is
refuse I life courage my mind Try execute what thou thy self injoyn'd Speak boldly she who fearfully doth crave Begs a deniall my worst crime I have Acted long since Shame commeth now too late I 've lov'd a sin if in it fortunate A Husbands name may palliate the deed Those sins are oft thought honest which succeed Go too begin my soul Sir I a while desire Your privacy let all the rest retire Hip. See here is none to interrupt us speak Ph. But m• seal'd lips cannot the silence break Both urg'd to speech and forced to be still I call you Gods to witness that my will Hip. Can you not speak your mind Nu. Great griefs are best By silence little ones by words exprest Hip. Mother give me the burthen of your cares Ph. The name of Mother to much distance bears An Humbler name becomes our Love Call us Thy sister or thy maid Hippolitus But rather maid I the most slavish yoke Will wear Command it shall be undertook I le clime the frozen Pindus through deep snows Run through the fire and armed t•oops expose My naked brest to naked swords receive 1 This Scepter then and let me be thy slave To rule becommeth thee me to obey It ill becomes a womans arm to sway So great a Nation thou who 'rt in the pride Of blooming youth thy Fathers people guide Protect thy suppliant in thy bosome hid Take pitty on a widdow Hip. Heaven forbid Madam my Father will come safely back Ph. •rom Styx and those insatiate realms no track Doth lead to the forsaken light shall he 2 Who came a ravisher dismissed be ' Lesse Plut'ol sit down a tame Cuckold too Hip. Heavens far more equall power this will doe But while it yet rests in suspence I le please My Brethren with all fitting offices Protect Thee that thou seem not widdowed I The absence of my Father will supply Ph. O credulous Lovers O deceitfull Love Hath he not said enough now prayers shall move O pitty hear even my silence wooe I would yet would not speak Hip. What ailest thou Ph. That which thou little thinks a step-dame should Hip. Speak plainly and thy doubtful words unfold Ph. Why Love within my raging bosome fumes And with a cruel fire my reins consumes The flame which in my bowels hid remains Thence shooteth up and down my melting veins As agile fire over dry timber spread Hip. What with chast love of Theseus thou art mad Ph. Thou art in the right I love that ancient face Which Theseus had when he a stripling was When first the down budding upon his chin He saw the house the 3 Minotaur was in And crooked mazes the long thred up wound How glorious then his hair with sillets bound A dainty blush over his cheek was spread And his soft arms were the securest bed Like thy Diana or my Phaebus then Or rather thee thus thus he looked when He pleas'd his foe thus loftily did bear His head but thou art something hansomer Thou 'st all thy fathers parts and yet against Reason some of thy Mothers too retain'st A S•ythian rigour in a Graecian face Had'st thou come with thy Father in those dayes Then Ariadnes clew had sure been thine Thou thou my Sister wherefoere thou shine In spangled •kies a cause so like thine own Assist one family hath both undone The Father thee and me the Son thou sees A suppliant Princes fallen on her knees Free from aspersions innocently good Chang'd but to thee I 'm sure none else have woo'd This day to gri•f or life an end shall bring Pitty a Lover Hip. Thou Almighty King Of Gods canst thou so mildly see so mildly hear Her wickednes if now the Heavens be clear When wilt thou thunder let the troubled air Now run on heaps and day a Vizard wear May the reversed Stars now backwards •un And what dost thou thou the irradi•te Sun Behold thy Grand•ilds lusts for shame lay by Thy beams and into utter darkness fly And why art thou idle Spectator turn'd Great Iove the world not yet with lightning burn'd Thunder at me let thy quick flame consume Me I am wicked and deserve the doom I 've pl•as'd my Step-dame merit I to be Inc•ous thought for this Impiety Seem'd I most fit deserves my strictness this O Women excellent in wickedness O thou in thy unbounded lusts more wild Than was thy Mother Sh•e only defil'd Her self yet was the wicked the•t betray'd By the Prodigious issue which shee had The doubtfull birth witness'd his Mothers shame With his fierce look from the same womb thou came Thrice happy are they in their prosp'•ous fate Who are by fraud consum'd destroid by hate Father I envie thee this sin this sin Is greater then Medeas could have been Ph. I know our houses Fate I crave I know What is forbid but cannot h•lp it tho Thee thorough flames o're rocks the foaming deep And heady torrents comp•ny I 'le keep Where ere thou goes there frantick I will be Behold coy youth again I kneel to thee Hi. Keep of and touch not my chast lims what now Immodest wretch wilt thou imbrace me too Then shall my sword du• vengeance take my hand Wreath'd in her hair her shameless neck doth bend Bow-bearing Goddess never bloud with more Justice was on thy Altars spilt before Ph. Why now Hippolitus I have my wish Thou curst my frenzy 'bove my hope was this To perish by thy hand and chast Hip. Avaunt And live least any thing to thee I graunt Nor shall this steel by thee polluted ere Defile my chaster side by hanging there What Tanais what Maeotis which doth pay His waters tribute to the Pontick sea Can wash me clean not all great Neptunes flouds Can expiate this crime O Beasts O Woods Nu. Why so dull sulled now the crime is known Let us plead force and uncompelled own The impious act Sin is best hid by sinn Who fear to be accused should begin Whether the lewd attempt were ours or his Since secret who shall be his witnesses Help help Athenians servants the obscene Hippolitus is ravishing the Queen Her with his naked sword he threatneth And awes her chastity with fear of death See now he flyes and by his fearfull speed Hath left his sword a witness of the deed First chear the Queen but let her hair still be Thus torne and thus disordered as you see These pregnant testimonies of an act So vile bear to the City recollect Your senses Madam Why alas do you Afflict your self and sly the publike view No Woman ever was from the event Esteem'd immodest but from the assent Exeunt CHORUS SWift as a tempest doth he fly so fast Cloud-gathering Chorus doth not make such hast A shooting Meteor doth more slowly stream When rapid winds fan the extended flame Now may admiring Fame conferr on thee The honour due to all antiquity For so thy beauty doth all others passe As Phoebe seemeth fairer then she was When at the
those Illustrious 1 signs Which glorifie th' Actean Nation shines But how escaped he Ph. Why these can say With what a fearfull speed he fled away Actus Tertii Scena Tertia Theseus The OH sacred Piety O King of Gods And thou who rul'st the 1 second Lot the floods What rage possest this impious brat did Greece Taurus or Colchian 2 Phasis teach him this His deeds declare his line and he hath shew'd Whence he first sprung by his degenerate bload Those mad Viragos marriage do despise And weary of their long kept Chastities Turn Prostitutes at last O cursed root Which when transplanted bears no better fruit Yet even they flie Incest an innate Shame doth keep Natures laws unviolate Now where 's his feign'd austerity desire To imitate the ancients rude attire Strictness of manners gravitie of look O jugling life how art thou still mistook The foulest •oul wears the serenest face The Impudent doth blush Strife seems at Peace Sin wears the robes of Piety Deceit Applaudeth truth and the effeminate A rigid abstinence doe counterfeit Thou the fierce Virgin Sylvan wert thou then Reserv'd for this must thy sins write thee man And in thy Fathers bed now on my knees I humbly thanke the carefull D•ities That I did kill Antiope least thou Had'st in my absence forc'd thy Mother too Fly vagabond to unknown Realms although Thou to the worlds remotest countries goe Sever'd from Earth by interposing seas Or shouldst thou dwell in the Antipodes Or hide thy self in the obscurest hole Beyond the Kingdoms of the Northern Pole The seat of snow and winter left behind And the cold blasts of that loud-threatning wind Yet yet the sword of vengeance should thee find I will pursue thee every where search places Remote Landlock'd abstuce confounding mazes And wayes inexplicable and where force Cannot arrive I le reach thee with a curse Dost thou know whence I came great 3 Neptune gave Me Pow'r three times to ask what I would have And seald his promise by the Stygian s•oud Behold how sorrowfull a boon I wou'd No more let him behold the light but goe From his wrong'd Father to the Ghosts below To me thy Son a hated pitty show This 4 last gift never had bin ask'd if I Were not oppress'd by such an injury When in the womb of Hel where D is did roar And threatning Pluto stormed I forbore Make good thy promise now why dost thou stay Why hast thou still so undisturb'd a Sea With wind-contracted clouds put out the light Of Stars obscure the Heav'ns and masque the night Pour out thy Seas drive all thy Monsters hither Call from the Deep the waves retired thither Exit CHORUS O Nature Mother to the Gods and Iove Who sway'st the bright Olympus who doest move The Stars scatterd in their swift O• be and force Ev'n those wand'rers to observe a course And on their hinges turnst the 1 Pol•s Why art Thou alwaies busied in the heavenly part Still ord'ring those Celestiall Forms why dost Thou take such care that now the winters frost Sould strip the woods and then agai•t adorn Them with fresh shades that now the parched corn The rage of the hot 2 Lion should endure Which the more temp'rate Autume doth mature But why hast thou who these dost regulate And mov'st the Sphears poys'd with their proper weight So little care of man nor dost provide That good the good and ill the ill betide Mortals doe follow the blind guide of chance Whose hood winkt bounty doth the worst advance The holy perish in the crafty toils Of lust The Court is governed by wiles The people love to give the wicked pow'r And as soon hate whom they doe now adore Dejected vertue reapeth but a small Reward for doing well the chaste doe fall Under the curse of want while potent vice Is crowned for his fam'd Adulte•ies Vain Modesty and empty Fame but stay What doth the breathless Nuncius hast to say And sadly stopping what sinister Chance Figures he in his wofull Countenance Finis Actus Tertii Actus Quarti Scena Prima Nuncius Theseus Nun. O The sad Fate of Servants Why am I The messenger of our calamitie Th. Speak thy news boldly custom thou shalt find For all afflictions hath prepard my mind Nun. My tongue refuses the sad office The Say What fresh Mis-fortunes our declining house oppress Nun. Ah me your Son is dead The I wept my Son Long since now but a ravsher is gone But speak the manner Nun. Why as he forsook The City painting hatred in his look Away he flieth with redoubled speed And quickly harnesses his lofty Steeds Their mettal'd heat he with the curb allayes And divers things un•o himself he sayes Curses your throne oft on your name doth call And fiercely shakes his slackned reins withall When suddenly the Sea did roar and swell Up to the Stars not any breathing gale Did crispe the flouds no thunder tore the air The Sea it self raised a tempest there Sicilian Seas are with the South-wind lesse Disturb'd nor half that fury doe express When 1 Chorus rains stones tumbling up and down And with white spume doth high 2 Leucates crown A hill of waves big with a Monster fled Unto the shore to be delivered Nor is this tempest for the ships prepar'd But for the land the Sea rolls thitherward With a main speed nor can we guesse what she Should labour with what uncouth Prodigie Earth would shew Heaven a new 3 Cyclas did 〈◊〉 4 E•culapius Temple now was hid And the famd rocks of Scyron and with these The land straightned betwixt two neigh'bring Seas While these amaz'd we seek behold the Main Doth roar and all the rocks resound again Whose tops are sprinkled with the waves which he Sucks in and spouteth forth Vicissively So through the Ocean as the whirlpool roams A globe of water from his nostrils comes Anon this mountain bursts and to the shore Brings something worse than was our fear before The Sea doth follow where the Monster lead And overwhelms the land we shook with dread The What was the shape of this prodigious beast Nun. He like a Bul erects his seagreen crest And virid front tosses his mane his ears Pricks up and party coloured horns he bears Such as might both the conduct of the herd Become and the Seas Issues he appear'd His e•es do sparkle and he vomits flame His neck curl'd like the Ocean whence he came His open nostrils snort aloud his chest And deawlap in tenacious Moss are drest His ample sides with red are spotted then Ends in a Monster his huge slimie train Drag'd after him in far•hest Seas those Whales Have such which swallow up the obvious sails Earth trembles with the load astonish'd fly The scatter'd cattle nor are followed by Th' affrighted Pastor beasts the forrest clear And all the Huntsmen are half dead with fear Only Hippolitus unmov'd remains And his amaze• St•eds with straighter reins Encourag'd by his wel-known voice retai•s