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A68450
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A morall poem, intituled the Legend of Cupid and Psyche. Or Cupid and his mistris As it was lately presented to the Prince Elector. Written by Shackerley Marmion, Gent.; Legend of Cupid and Psiche
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Marmion, Shackerley, 1603-1639.
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1638
(1638)
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STC 17444A; ESTC S112188
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40,406
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100
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loade with Iron chaines or send away Farre from his Kingdome into banishment Or tortures use cause I would not consent To murder thee however take thy flight Post for thy life whilst Venus and the night Doe fauour thee and onely this vouchsafe VVhen I am dead to write my Epitaph The meere remembrance of this vertuous deed Did a remorce and kind of pitty breed In Psyches brest for passions are infus'd According to the stories we are us'd To reade and many men doe amorous prove By viewing acts and monuments of loue But yet her sisters malice that still stood In opposition against all that 's good Ceases not to precipitate her on Till they had gain'd this confirmation To put in act what ere they did desire Thus fury like they did her soule inspire Night and her husband came and now the sport Of Venus ended he began to snort Psyche though weake of mind and body both Yet urg'd by cruell fate and her rash oath Rose up to make provision for her sinne Lye still faire maide thou mayst more honour win And make thy murder glory not a crime If thou wouldst kill those thoughts that doe beslime And knaw upon thy breast and never cease With hishing clamours to disturbe thy peace When thine owne heart with Serpents doth abound Seeke not without that may within be found Yet was she not so cruell in her hast But ere she kild him she his lips would tast Wishing she neede not rise out from her bed But that she had the power to kisse him dead Now with her lips she labours all she may To sucke his soule out whilst he sleeping lay Till she at last through a transfused kisse Left her owne soule and was inspir'd with his And had her soule within his body stay'd Till he therein his vertues had convay'd And all pollution would from thence remove Then after all her thoughts had beene of love But since she could not both of them retaine She restor'd his and tooke her owne againe Sorry that she was forc'd it to transferr And wisht though dead that he might live in her Then in one hand she held the emuâ—our light And in the other tooke the sword so bright As 't would her beauty and the fire out-shine And she thus arm'd became more masculine But when by friendship of the Lampe her eye Had made a perfect true discovery Of all was in the roome what did she see Object of Love wonder of Deity The god of love himselfe Cupid the faire Lye sweetly sleeping in his golden haire At this so heavenly sight the lampy spire Encreas'd his flames and burnt more pure and higher The very sencelesse sacrilegious steele Did a strong vertue from his presence feele Which turn'd the edge poore Psyche all amaz'd With joy and wonder on his beauty gaz'd His necke so white his colour so exact His limbes that were so curiously compact His body sleeke and smooth that it might not Venus repent t' have such a sonne begot A bright reflexion and perfumed sent Fill'd all the roome with a mixt blandishment Shot from his wings and at his feete did lye His bow and arrows and his armory And in this extasie she thought to hide The cursed steele but in her owne deare fide And had perform'd it sure had not the sword Flew from her hand out of its owne accord Glansing on all with eyes unsatisfied At last she his artillery espyed The Quiver was of needle-worke wrought round With trophies of his owne where Cupid crown'd Sate in the midst with a Bay-wreath which he Had proudly pluckt from the Peneian tree Next Venus and Adonis sad with paine The one of love the other of disdaine There love in all his borrowed shapes was drest His thefts and his adulteries exprest As Emblemes of Loves tryumph and these were Drawne with such lively colours men would sweare That Laeda lay within a perfect bower And Danaes golden streames were a true shower Saturns two other sonnes did seeme to throw Their Tridents at his feete and him allow For their Supreme and there were kneeling by Gods Nymphs and all their Geneology Since the first Chaos saving the abuse And Cupids pride none could the worke traduce Pallas in envy of Aracknes skill Or else to curry favour and fulfill Cupids behest which she durst not withstand Had fram'd the emulous peece with her owne hand And there were portray'd more a thousand loves Besides himselfe the skinnes of Turtle-doves Lin'd it within and at the upper end A silver plate the Quiver did extend Full of small holes where his bright shafts did lye Whose plumes were stiffe with gummes of Araby His Bow was of the best and finest Yew That in all Ida or faire Tempe grew Smooth as his cheeke and checkerd as his wing And at each end tipt with a Pearle the string Drawne from the Optick of a Ladies eye That whensoere he shoots strikes harmony Psyche with timorous heed did softly touch His weapons least her prophane hand might smutch The glosse of them then drew a shaft whose head Was wrought of Gold for some are done with Lead And laid her fingers end upon the Dart Tempting the edge untill it caus'd a smart For being pointed sharpe it raz'd the skin 'Till drops of blood did trickle from within She wounded with the poison which it bore Grew more in love than ere she was before Then as she would her selfe incorporate She did her numerous kisses equall make Vnto his haires that with her breath did play Steept with rich Nectar and Ambrosia Thus being ravisht with excesse of joy With kissing and embracing the sweet Boy Loe in the height of all her jollity Whether from envy or from treachery Or that it had a burning appetite To touch that silken skin that lookt so white The wicked Lampe in an unlucky houre A drop of scalding oyle did let downe powre On his right shoulder whence in horrid wise A blister like a bubble did arise And boyl'd up in his flesh with a worse fume Then blood of Vipers or the Lernean spume Neere did the Dog-starre rage with so great heate In dry Apulia no Alcides sweat Vnder his shirt so Cruell oyle that thou Who of all others hast the smoothest brow Shouldst play the traytor who had any thing Worse than thy selfe as fire or venom'd sting Or Sulphur blasted him shouldst first have came And with thy powerfull breath suckt out the flame For though he be Loves god it were but vaine To thinke he should be privilidg'd from paine For we in Homer have like wounded read Of Mars and Venus both by Diomed. But for this haynous and audacious fact Cupid among his statutes did enact Henceforth all lights be banisht and exempt From bearing office in Loves government And in the day each should his passage marke Or learne to finde his Mistresse in the darke Sure all the crew of lovers shall thee hate Nor blest Minerva hold thee consecrate When Cupid
the best minds Iudge trees by fruit not by their leaves and rinds And such can find full knowledge having gain'd Jn leaden Fables golden truths contain'd Thy subjects of that nature a sublime And weighty rapture which being cloath'd in ryme Carries such sweetnesse with 't as hadst thou sung Vnto Apollo's Harpe being newly strung These had they issued from an others Pen A stranger and unknowne to me I then Could not have bin so pleas'd But from a Friend Where I might enuy I must now commend And glad J am this faire course thou hast runne Vnvext to see my selfe so farre out done Twixt Jntimates who mutuall love professe More 's not requir'd and mine could show no lesse Thomas Heywood The Argument THere were inhabitant in a certaine Cittie a King and Queene who had three Daughters the elder two of a moderate and meane beauty but the yongest was of so curious so pleasing a feature and exact symmetry of body that men esteem'd her generally a Goddesse and the Venus of the earth Her sisters being happily married to their desires and dignities shee only out of a super-excellency of perfection became rather the subject of adoration then Love Venus conceiving an offence and envious of her good parts incites Cupid to a revenge and severe vindication of his mothers honour Cupid like a fine Archer comming to execute his mothers designe fals in love with the maide and wounds himselfe Apollo by Cupids subornation adjudges her in marriage to a Serpent Vpon which like Andromeda she is left chain'd to a Rocke her marriage being celebrated rather with funerall obsequies than Hymenaeall solemnities In this miserable affright she is borne farre away by the west Wind to a goodly faire house whose wealth and statelinesse no praise can determine Her husband in the deadnesse and solitude of night did oft-times enioy her and as he entred in obscurity so he departed in silence without once making himselfe knowne unto her thus she continued for a long season being onely waited upon by the ministery of the winds and voyces Her sisters came every day to feeke and bewaile her and though her husband did with many threats prohibit her the sight of them yet naturall affection prevailed above coniugall duty for she never ceased with teares to solicite him till he had permitted their accesse They no no sooner arived but instantly corrupt her and with wicked counsell deprave her understanding infusing a beliefe that she had married and did nightly embrace a true Serpent nor are they yet contented to turne the heaven of her security into the hell of suspicion but with many importunities proceed exhorting her to kill him which she also assents unto Thus credulity proves the mother of deceite and curiosity the Step-mother of safety Having thus prepar'd for his destruction the Sceane is altered and shee acts the Tragedy of her owne happy fortunes for comming with an intent to mischiefe him so soone as the light had discovered what he was shee fals into an extremity of love and passion being altogether ravisht with his beauty and habiliments and while she kisses him with as little modesty as care the burning Lampe drops upon his shoulder whereupon her husband furiously awakes and having with many expostulations abandoned her falsehood scornes and forsakes her the maide after a tedious pilgrimage to regaine his love and society Ceres and Juno having both repulsed her freely at the last offers up her selfe to Venus where through her iniunctions and imperious commands she is coursely intreated and set to many hard and grievous taskes as first the seperation of severall graines with the fetching of the Stygian water and the golden fleece and the boxe of beauty from Proserpine all which by divine assistance being performed shee is reconcil'd and in the presence of all the gods married to her husband the wedding is solemniz'd in heaven The Mitheology BY the City is meant the World by the King and Queene God and Nature by the two elder sisters the flesh and the will by the last the soule which is the most beautifull and the youngest since she is infused after the body is fashioned Venus by which is understood lust is feigned to envy her and stirre up Cupid which is Desire to destroy her But because Desire has equall relation both to good and evill he is here brought in to love the soule and to be ioynd with her whom also he perswades not to see his face that is not to learne his delights and vanities for Adam though he were naked yet he saw it not till he had eaten of the tree of concupiscence And whereas she is said to burne him with the despumation of the Lampe by that is understood that she vomits out the flames of desire which was hid in her breast for desire the more it is kindled the more it burnes and makes as it were a blister in the minde thus like Eve being made naked through desire she is cast out of all happinesse exhil'd from her house and tost with many dangers By Ceres and Iuno both repulsing of her is meant that neither wealth nor honour can succour a distressed soule in the separation of severall graines is understood the act of the soule which is recollection and the substance of that act her fore-past sinnes by her going to hell and those severall occurrences are meant the many degrees of despaire by the Stygian water the teares of repentance and by the golden fleece her forgivenesse All which as in the argument is specified being by divine providence accomplisht she is married to her spouse in heaven A Morall Poem Intituled the Legend of CUPID and PSICHE THE FIRST SECTION TRuth sayes of old and we must owe that truth Vnto tradition when the world in youth which was the glodē age brought for the pen Love and the Muses which fince gave to men Inheritance of Fame for these began At once and were all coetanean A happy season when the ayre was cleare No sicknesse nor infection did appeare No sullen change of seasons did molest The fruitfull soyle but the whole yeare was blest With a perpetuall Spring no Winter storme Did crispe the Hills nor mildew blast the Corne Yet happier farre in that it forth did bring The subject of this verse whereof I sing Vnder the Zenith of Heavens milke-white way Is a faire country called Lusinia 'T is Natures chiefest Wardrop where doe lye Her ornaments of rich veriety Where first her glorious Mantle she puts on When through the world she rides procession Here dwelt a King and Queene of mighty power Iudg'd for their vertues worthy such a dower They had betwixt themselves three Daughters born Conspicuous for their comlinesse and forme The elder two did neither much excell But then the younger had no paralell Whose lovely cheekes with Heavenly luster shone And eyes were farre too bright to looke upon Nay it is credible though fancies wing Should mount above the Orbes and thence downe