so I 'le leave you at the present in the midst of all your happiness and pleasant design Your Friend and Servant PHILANDER THE HISTORY OF Tarquin and Lucretia QUeen of all Cities in the World was Rome The Nations far and near did thither come To see their Glory and themselves to please There being all things Land could yeild or Seas Here was the Pomp the Splendor Living-high The Grandees of the world and Bravery Never was seen so great so rich a Court Gallants and Beauties here in Troops resort Chariots and Guilded Rooms held them by daies The nights were spent in Balls Treats Masks and Plaies To give delight nothing was wanting here Their Houses brave and nobly furnish'd were Set off with Painting Marbles and the Glories Of Pictures Statues and the Antient Stories Adorn'd with Walks with Gardens Bathing Courts What e're with Pleasures suited or with Sports Their Vestures were most rich no want of Treasures They melted and dissolv'd in sostest pleafures Great Romulus first wall'd and built this Place Stole Subine Wives and peopled it apace So that in stead of wild Woods Fields and Downs He founds a City and establish'd Crowns And from that time to this they still have kept The Earth in Awe and there securely slept Brave Collatine a Roman Senatour From the proud City liv'd not very far He lead a pleasant and contented life Enjoy'd the world and had a handsom Wife Who was so good and vertuous too withall That they the chast Lucretia did her call No man was happier in his Choice than he Or any woman better pleas'd than she They liv'd and lov'd most dearly at that rate As all did envy or else wish their fate The Gods did bless them and their Joys promove To shew what sweet delights there dwelt in Love Who e're but view'd and saw their Loves combine Plainly beheld th' Almighties great Design When first he Adam made and gave him Eve As one should both his soul and sense relieve And he be to her both a Guard and Guide And greater friend than all the world beside Lucretia now was Young and in her Prime The Beautie and the wonder of her time Thick Aurean pleasant hair bedeck'd her head None was more fair or lovelier white and red A round of Glory like the radiant Sun Behem'd her still as a new Morn begun A kind of pleasant Clouds enclasp'd her myen Transparent and beyond what e're was seen Her sprightly Ayre so wav'd about her face As if it might be caught in every place Her seatures were transcendent such her charms None veiw'd her shape but wish'd her in his arms The Great men had her all in Admiration Yet ne're came near her but by Contemplation For she so careful of her honour was Lest by her means a stain should come to pass That she did surely all the waies prevent Might be her crime or husbands discontent But the fierce Tarquin who was Prince of Rome Came to her when her Husband was from home Pretending business from her noble Lord Or else with him she had not spoke a word For she imploy'd was in her house and sphear Surveighing of her business ev'ry where None had more order in her Family All did obey the dictates of her eye Tarquin the wonder of her ways admir'd The more he saw the more he still desir'd But in discourse at last he told her plain His Errand was her kindest love to gain What should so fair a Lady live so long From Court. There store of all Admirers throng In th' Countrie all is dull while here are Plays And all divertisements your soul can raise Gallants to court you love you and commend you Whilst all the Glories in the world attend you Madam in short I burn in love with you And nought before could e're my heart subdue What Rome can give or all the Earth beside Shall be your Lot if I am not deny'd Pardon my seeming error so great Love Changeth from vice and doth a vertue prove O Sir quoth she and trembling as she stood Powring forth of her Christal tears a flood I am already to another wed And will be truly loyal to his Beb Women are lost and nothing signifie If once they let their same and honour die We must not trust our selves with men alone They who will trust can trusted be by none For if we play and love to courted be We shall resign to Importunity There 's none can promise what may happen to One that will freely let all persons woe Who love to be admired but in Jest Are sure to lose their name if not the rest I scorn the dirty follies of this age Who after various mixtures lust and rage Who marriage make but as a stalking horse That they may sure and slyly act things worse As for the crowds in Cities do appear I value not I 'm best contented here I seek not others honour praise or love My Glory 's constant to my Lord to prove The foolish Gallants with their glittering Train Appear to me ridiculous and vain I wonder what you did see in my face Should make you think I 'd yeild to this disgrace A light deport should ne're with women stay Their very looks should fright ill thoughts away He comes too near who comes to be deny'd Vertue should keep us pure at least our Pride Dear Madam what d' yee mean to think that I Would injure you or make your honour fly I 'le love you and will do you all the good And for your sake will spend my life and blood But now by all that 's sacred here I vow I would not hurt or else dishonour you Grant me your love and I will ever be Your perfect Slave and constant Votarie What is true honour you do much mistake Honour doth never us unhappy make Well manag'd Love's allow'd for secresie Makes it true friendship not dishonesty Love is a kind and natural appetite None can resist it or with nature fight No more than thirst the Doctors preachments can Alter its course no more than alter man Or yet can any love whom that they will But where it comes they must its law fulfill The Gods themselves this Passion all approâ—e And veile their Dieties to own their Love This made the Thunderer lay by his Crown And oft to Beauties on the Earth come down Love breeds such softness by its warming gleams Melting the hardest Rocks to running streams What law can your commanding Beauty bind Such glorious Creatures must not be confin'd The common Rules are for the common sort You are above the world and all report Such lovely souls as you are made to be Surely for more than ones felicity Marriage is but a humour politick Collatine got you by some cheat or trick I wonder in my soul he dar'd aspire To warm his Genius at your heavenly fire You are design'd for better things than these All Kings and Thrones you may command with ease Be gon you
Messenger of Ribaldry How dare you thus to tempt my honesty You make as if I were beyond good fame And honour that 's so great were but a name But you shall know though honour were asleep Reason and Piety my Soul shall keep Were it no crime which yet it is the worst A Whore of all things in the world 's accurst So mean to satisfie base mens disease And then to be thrust off when e're they please And hist at by the world and thrown about As vilest Caitiffs by the Revel Rout. Speak not of naturalness I know all vice Have in you men a very natural rise And if this Passion could not be declin'd All things in common would be soon resign'd These are but fallacies Reason's our Guide Nature from Honesty doth ne're divide What do you tell me that I am exempt From Laws That is a poor thing me to tempt I have a soul and in that Honour find Which Queens themselves as well as others bind And Love must not be common or too free But always circumscrib'd with Loyaltie Greatness or Riches tempt me not at all There 's few enjoy that which we happy call They 'r foolish Girls that fancy gawdy Flies The soul and person only take the wise Where each are pleas'd with each beyond all chance They spurn at Crowns as but a poor advance What 's Wealth or Power or Splendour more to me Then I enjoy my self Felicity Is much mistaken by us Women when We think we 're happy in the greatest men They please themselves When others please us do And they are only happy that live so Who can have more than I who have a friend That nought but death to Love can put an end What I defire I have and I desire Nothing but what true friendship doth require Love is the Star that leads us nothing eases Each others mind but what each other pleases The Bounds are set which you and I must keep And plain to all whose souls are not asleep Let single Persons please themseves in friends Marry'd must not have such unworthy ends They are not then their own but each the others They must live chast and all ill Passion smother Why do you tell me of my Beauty so They only hansome are that hansome doe An ounce of Vertu 's worth a load of Beauty Who hav 't are bound to heaven in greater duty 'T was given to make us happy not more lewd And turn such blessings to Ingratitude You Atheist would you marriage too profane And make me break the sacred oath I have tane This is worst yet to palliate the crime To make fools of the Gods from first of time Know that in keeping firm this holy Pact The Gods the being of the world enact What e're design before had either part Hymen once past nothing must change the heart All wounds are salved and bound up in Love Nothing should ever this great League remove For all excuses then they come too late Both sides must bow and buckle to their fate I like not that you should ill words bestow On Collatine or think him to lay low In my esteem for that 's the common cheat It is not outside or the name of great My soul can charm the Genius I admire How e're none but my Lord I will defire Kings are but little things in my esteem Nought doth to me so great as vertue seem Our Passions and our crimes subdue we must I 'le not mix Poysons but will still be just Or harbour ill for Collatine is he Hath all my heart and shall my constancy Madam one word once understand but Love These seeming Rocks will quickly from you move Love is a Pleasure you ne're understood There is a sprightly Ayre in flesh and blood Which once well ken'd all other things are folly This makes the hearts and souls of those so jolly Converse with Nature that will quickly tell How many Pleasures in this Passion dwell Trees Birds and Beasts and Fishes in the Seas Till they have chose their Loves are ne're at ease There is a Loving Fury feizeth all In Sea Air Earth and Heaven both great and small The lively winged people of the Sky Sing their amours with chanting melody The Stars of heaven at one another dart Which only is a kind and loving Art Why should we fear at all then to be kind When all things that have life are so inclin'd What 's all the Glory men or times possess But whom they love to pleasure and Caress Riches Garb Splendor tend to heighten Love And servants are as it doth turn and move Love is the great wheel here moves Gods and men And when we come to heav'n we love agen Wherefore what is there ere can nobler be Than this which is so good so great so free Kept up 't is at so sweet so kind a rate It wings us clear above the frowns of Fate Then all things else as follyes I despise And wait the sentence of your scornful eyes You make me first an Atheist then instill Sweet melting love so have me at your will But be assur'd for all you are a Prince Yet all your slights and art will ne're convince Tarquin you miss your aim 't will never do Yet love I understand as well as you Vertue and Love together I adore Beyond the Indies or the richest Ore Religion Duty Love then strive to shew Each its affection each for to outdoe For there 's the pleasure when the Love is free From guilt But yours is nought but Treachery Where harbours Vertue Love and Innocence Pleasures as high as heaven there comence These are those pious fervours well begun From which streams of content apace do run Nothings so dear as harmony of Hearts There 's what 's in Kingdoms Empires Crowns or Arts. Whose humourous fancy 's lead them to be great Some forreign matters still with dangers threat And trouble too or Treason doth attend But all things rest and sweeten in a friend Friendship is that all things and creatures woe Makes Life more pleasant than all else can doe Yet these true solid joys ther 's none can tell But those that do in Love's fair Kingdom dwell And this breeds the true pleasure when we know 'T is honest lawfull and we may do so Then without fear we may resign to Love What was a crime a duty now doth prove We may live merry if our Bounds we keep Wine we may drink but must not go too deep Then Tarquin understand and be at rest I 've all things in the world that please me best I 'm pleas'd in my condition and nmy state And I 'le as constant be as holy Fate But did I him not like nought else I 'd love Our fancies should not wander rowl or move We must not straggle or raise needless dust For who does so loves to create a Lust I love not to be call'd a light-heel'd Dame And thought to be regardless of my fame What a
THE HISTORY OF Tarquin and Lucretia Licensed Decemb. 26. 1668. Roger L'Estrange LONDON Printed by T. Leach for C. Wilkinson at the Black Boy over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-Street 1669. FOR LUCINDA Dear Madam THis Poem of Tarquin and Lucretia challenges your Patronage and Protection for I 'le assure you had it not been for your strict Injunctions it had never seen the light But since the subject was of so virtuous a Lady as Lucretia and so ingenuous a Person laid her commands on me to Publish it I was resolved to give way whatever were the hazard of it and let Lucretia come to kiss your hands in that innocent Garb she us'd to wear and that modest Behave that us'd alwayes to accompany her Port aire and actions But I must beg pardon for all the faults for being on another more serious subject I could not review it as I would neither do I but by accident make Verse my study yet for divertisements from my unhappy troubles which you know attend me I sometimes use to make it my recreation I design'd this Poem as I was walking one Morn among the little Trees of my Wilderness and writ most if it down the same day and so as it is send it you What errors there are pray tell me and I will amend it in the next Edition and that 's fair In the mean time you must needs be my Championess to defend me against the censure and malice of the Age and then I doubt not but this Poem will find favour among all the Courtly and Generous world as Lucretia her self must needs oblige the concern of your self and compassion of all the chast and well disposed A virtuous disposition is commendable in all but most in those whose great beauty renders them lyable to many temptations but yet scorn to be allured by the guilded folly and gaudy nonsence of the times but their affections are wrought upon by brave temper honour and worthiness How far doth our Lucretia differ from the lewdness of the world whose aiery Nimphs esteem wantonness well manag'd the best part of their Portion when doubtless sweetness and modesty added to native Beauty are infinitely the best accomplishments in a woman understanding how to value a noble friendship beyond vitious extravagances Poor Lucretia deserves the concern of all for her Misfortune and vindication of all for her Affection and Loyalty which must not be judged as wholly impeach'd though sullyed by this Rape but yet much redeemed by her Trouble Anguish and Death For such Accidents may inevitably fall out some times though women stand on never so strict a Guard though they are genuinly of never so virtuous a temper yet their tender natures are lyable to be frighted into several inconveniencies they were unwary off Poor Lucretia's floods of Tears had expiated her Crime if that could be called a Crime which could not be help'd but by killing her self first which though she had better have done before than after So that by this disaster the Ladies of our times may learn to be fore-witted A Wife that is constant and abominates disloyalty as did Lucretia deserves the Love of her Husband Defence of Nations and Warrs of Kingdomes for her but those that shall voluntarily unvail their Modesty and profane their sacred Vowes at the Altar and joyn in Confederacy against Loyalty no punishment is too bad for them but such low and mean spirits deserve the scorn of all mankind Though their vice is clothed with never so much Grandeur yet they appear too base and unworthy for the Heroick world to own or regard them Their whole Lives being infamous and their Actions black and foolish Their Beauty it self afterwards proves but the Trumpet to make known their disgrace so much the more I would have all Ladies esteem their Honor and put a value on Chastity in a Cottage before the glorious Addresses of Crowns and Empires with Dishonesty For the Lines of their Faces are by it so altered that afterwards all their Garb Paint and Impudence can never set them right again in the view of the world And their Deport makes thousands of others sober and harmlesly free women fare the worse for them But whither do I run Dear Madam I hope you 'l pardon this Digression For the honoured value I have for your Sex makes me being on a subject tending this way give a word or two of caution to the wilder sort For Love ought either not at all to be pretended or if it be to be maintained with the greatest Piety and Constancy in the world I understand no Pleasure on Earth but Philosophy and Love one for the serious part of Life the other for the merry For all the Grandeurs we have tend to this of Love at the last What signifies all the Riches fine Houses fine Coaches Garb Splendor and Equipage but to endeer and entertain the Persons they Love And as Love is that which causeth most pleasure and satisfaction so women are the proper and natural Centure of it What dull Sports are all the Exercises of Hawks Hounds Horses and Drinking to this of adoring your Sex Society is the Life of Life and Women the Life of all Society And lovely women that are virtuous the very Angels of this world Wherefore I would have them do nothing that may render them otherwise than the Starrs and Lustre of the Creation but wearing Souls stampt with the Glory of the Antient Heroes may like little Deities soar above the ordinary Rank of Mortals When others chaining their Lives to dark and crocked wayes live clouded and scandalously and at last sneak out of the world pittifully while the truly Virtuous and Gallant persons are happy in themselves good to others merit the Lawrels of the wise and ride triumphant on the Acclamations of the whole world And after they have by the odours of their virtues perfum'd the Age they live in Immortal Story remembers them to Posterity by Deeds truly Heroick and Honourable But no more of this now lest I make my Epistle swell into a Volumne though all I have said Madam is but to Come to you at last who shew your good Inclinations by having such a Concern for this excellent Lady And as the bravest temper is to be pleasant in all Conditions whatever yet not insensible of the nature of any Condition To be one can reach at Crowns or dwell in an Hermitage So you Madam understand all the Modes and Meanders of women and remain at last generous having the gift also to be lively and well pleased at all times and can be compleisant when you ought to be so and at other times reserved You can be merry when you may do it with Conveniency or otherwise be as well contented to be contriving your Houshold affairs I know also you hate penuriousness as one of the Devils on Earth esteeming it meer madness to live sordidly to dye rich I dare say this is much your humour and