THE LOVES AND ADVENTVRES OF CLERIO LOZIA A ROMANCE Written Originally in French and Translated into English By Fra. Kirkman Gent. LONDON Printed by J. M. and are to be sold by William Ley at his shop at Pauls Chain 1652. TO His much honored Friend WIL. BEESTON Esq Worthy Sir DIvers times in my hearing to the admiration of the whol Company you have most judiciously discoursed of Poësie which is the cause J presume to chuse you for my Patron and Protector who are the happiest interpretor and judg of our English Stage-Playes this Nation ever produced which the Poets and Actors of these times cannot without ingratitude deny for J have heard the chief and most ingenious of them acknowledg their Fames Profits essentially sprung from your instructions judgment and fancy J am vers'd in Forraign tongues and subscribe to your opinion that no Nation ever could glory in such Playes as the most learned and incomperable Johnson the copious Shakespear or the ingenuous Fletcher compos'd but J beleeve the French for amorous language admirable invention high atchievements honorable Loves inimitable constancy are not to be equalled and that no Nation yeilds better Arguments for Romance Playes the onely Poëms now desired then the French Therefore and for you have I translated the Adventures and Loves of Clerio and Lozia and I doubt not though they fail to receive incouragement from you your son Mr George Beeston whom knowing men conclude a hopeful inheritor of his Fathers rare ingenuity may receive them with a gracious allowance And sir though the work be not entirely happy in your construction for my years are not arrived to knowledg to add where the Author wants matter or to lessen where he abounds yet you will find much newness in the Story worthy an excellent Poët to insoul it for the Stage where it wil receive ful perfection equal to the ambition of The constant admirer of your Excellent Parts Fra. Kirkman jun. THE Loves and Adventures OF CLERIO and LOZIA THe Fortune of Man is an obscure riddle which Time only the most Orthodox Interpretor of the Heavens of the Gods and Nature can truely explicate My Ladies The Fortune of the Famous Clerio and the fair Lozia whose lives and loves are both delineated in this insuing History I present to you with this perswasion That as a pleasant Land-skip it will yeild some small contentment to your mindes and recreation unto your Spirits In the Description of whose variable conditions I will first begin with Clerio whom with my pen I will portrait before your eyes as our chiefest and choisest Judges This young Gentleman from his youth being indued with courage and induced by curiositie went abroad into Forraign parts to see the customs of those places to add by industry some higher degree of perfection to that which Nature amorous of him had so freely bestowed upon him After he had seen Germany and the Eastern Countries he stayed three whole years in Italy where he was accounted so perfect and exact in all sorts of exercises becoming a Gentleman that it was impossible to finde any man more perfectly accomplished then himself This Merchant for honour having made a successfull adventure returned home to the Court full fraught both with glory and renown which durst I say so was empty during his absence of the greatest part of its splendor who was not like a star of the first Magnitude shining brightly in the firmament thereof but as a glorious Sun whose presence brought a day and whose absence a night upon the Horizon of the Court which did not only inlighten it but sliding from the eyes it crept into the hearts of the fairest Ladies the Court afforded who at the first sight of so lovely a wonder were wonderfully enamored of him Clerio not setling the circumference of his desires in the center of any of their hearts which were so desirous of his but as a triumphant Conqueror carried al theirs captives into Spain leaving them behind to bemoan their misery in so happy yet unhappy affections where also he murthered a Million of innocent lovers by an over-rigid disdain of their beauties but they were soon avenged on him for this rigorous dealing for not long after he became exceedingly in love with the Princess Lozia who was young rich and very beautiful equally adorned with pulchritude in her face and perfection of parts in her mind And although Clerio was a gentleman but worth fifteen thousand Francs of revenue yet did he undertake to serve so noble a Princess who since the decease of her Father and Mother was under the Gardianship of the Duke of Blanfort her Uncle who intended to match her to the Duke of Doudonne his Son and for fear any other should espouse her he watched her so narrowly above the common custome of the Country both with Argo's and with Lynk's eyes and kept her within so straitned limits that if Clerio could by chance see her yet could by no means come to speak to her Fill'd with love and despair he did so diligently inquire and carefully pursue his desired wishes that at last he came to know her Lady of honour which was named Vincia and was a French Gentlewoman the death of whose husband did so exceedingly afflict her that she was constrained to banish her self by a voluntary exile into Spain Clerio being very joyfull of this news procured the sight of her whom at the first view he knew not although she was his neer Kinswoman because he had not lately seen her and which was the strangest she was acoutred after the Spanish fashion but in fine after a thousand hearty congratulations and welcome imbracements they promised to owe each the other so much service and affection that under this pretext Clerio visited Vincia every day not so much because his respects unto his Cousin did oblige him thereto as he was drawn thither by the attractive loadstone of lovely Lozia The Moon had six severall times received its borrowed light before Clerio durst discover unto his Cousin that affection which he bore to her Mistress but at last not being able to resist those fervent flames that the eyes those two glorious Suns of that famous Princess had kindled in his heart meeting one day with Vincia in the Garden thus aboarded her Vincia do not you know seeing my countenance altered and my face so wan that there is also a change in my heart which appeareth thus upon my brows and that if you were very quick sighted and had but a window to open into my heart you would see the Characters of love so deeply ingraven thereon that the very perusall of them would sufficiently acquaint you with my dolefull condition Vincia being overtaken with sorrow and impatience interrupted his discourse saying Clerio I never had so sensible an apprehension of any afflictions as of that which your dolorous speeches have caused in my heart alas whence hath so sudden a change as since yesterday happened
would never cease to cast out its water till it were dryed up by the enjoyment of her long'd for Clerio She as curious to know her distemper and cautious of her health would demand the cause of such a sudden change All supper time she did so narrowly eye her actions that she was past all peradventure perswaded that she was in a love-sick Paroxism Then began the Princess to revive her spirit with the exhilerating thoughts of excellent Clerio then again is there ingendred in her brest carnest desires for his sweet enjoyments with affectionate sighings for that long'd for opportunity whose lives were no sooner began by love but they were strangled in the womb by fear and discretion Her humid eyes firmly fastened downward her trembling body her unaccustomed startlings and disquietness her asking for one thing in stead of another would have sufficiently evidenced her perplexity of spirit to any body which would have added the least suspicion to an intelligent mind As soon as Vincia was gone from table she wrote this Letter unto her Cousin CLERIO Your merits and your wining behavior are such powerful Orators for you to your Mistress that I hope you will not need your Cousins help I have many things to acquaint you withall but those I had rather speak then write thereby to be honored with your company I fear this unexpected joy may be as great an impediment to your rest as your accustomed afflictions were Clerio read the Letter but did not make an appearance of any change lest Lozia's Page should discover any thing thereby After he had prayed him to stay till he returned he went into his Closet and wrote this ensuing Answer I should did not I repose my whole confidence in your gracious endeavors and anchor my hopes upon the assurance of your constancy be tossed up and down as a Ship is upon the waves in the expectation of so great a happiness as you promise to me and if many others had not received the like courtesies and favours from Fortune as I now do wait for I should doubt of the obtaining of my desires I have desired nothing more then the fruition of the fair Lozia as witnesseth my superlative passions to be her servant which I have much desired but yet have despaired hitherto to encompass because she is the most fair and famous Princess in the world Lozia sustaining her spirit with hope to finish her begun love would often turn her eyes towards the Chamber of her servant upon what errand you know well enough but missing the view of Clerio she saw her Page with a Letter in his hand coming from his house to whom she presently sent one of her Gentlewomen for the Letter and the Page before he had spoken to any body Presently the Gentlewoman went and conducted the Page unto Lozia who was alone in a Gallery Lozia demanded who had sent him to Clerio his house he not knowing any thing freely told her that Vincia had sent him with a Letter to her Cousin and he had there the Answer to it She without any more ado opened the Letter and read it and not dreaming of any thing less then the ardent affections that were in Clerio towards her at the sight of such unexpected tydings she was ravished almost between love and the extasie of joy Wherefore she commanded the Page to go his way that he might not discover that sudden and cheerful alteration that was easily legible in her countenance Who hath seen the Sun after he hath for a season retired from us return and with his glittering beams dissipate all those mists clouds and vapors that did obscure our light and with a fair day give us also so fructifying a warmth that the Earth which did before in his absence bring forth nothing but brambles and thistles by the profitable approach thereof is made the mother of a fruitful Harvest he might have also seen the Sun of his Love disperse those griefs and sorrows and discloud those gloomy days and enliven a number of sweet delights and joyful raptures which before were stifled with immoderate fears This fair Princess after she had read and kissed the Letter an hundred and an hundred times uttered forth these words drawn from the bottom of her affected heart If those Mortals are esteemed most happy and most in Heavens favor which are most gratified with divine Benedictions there is no Princess in the world which at this time can truly say she is more happy then my self who am so highly honored by the most perfect and peerless Gentleman in all the world whose vertues and person I reverence admire and adore altogether as much as the love and knowledg that I already have of his unmatchable merits do oblige me O sweet Letter I cannot but kiss thee once again seeing thou hast been touched with the hands of my Clerio let me behold thee with admiration and affection seeing I find in thee so perfect pleasure let me read thee that I might retain in memory those selected words of thine which assure me of thy love my noble Clerio O mine head open the flood-gates of thy tears and expend them upon the excess of thy present extasie of joy O mine heart still contribute more fuel unto the flames of thine affections and make as it were a bonefire therein in token of triumph for thy conquest over so loving an enemy Lozia being a little recovered from this sweet and sudden transportation call'd Vincia and took her by the hand and told her her heart saying You know the affection which I have born to you ever since you entered into my service and those desires I have had to do you any courtesie but your not having occasion nor I opportunity to oblige you must not be objected against my natural disposition which inclineth me to engage indifferently all sorts of persons but principally those to whom I am deeply indebted as I am to you And if the sensibility of so many faithful services which I have received from you should not draw me to an acknowledgment of your affections yet mine own honour and reputation and your deserts would freely force me to procure your advancement I know that you having a sufficient estate have made choyce of me among many others who have desired you not for any inconveniency in your affairs but affection unto my welfare I am not ignorant of your quality nor those perfections wherewith you are endowed which is the reason I have permitted you so familiar a society with my self above all others which are near me There is not need of any other testimony of the truth thereof then your own knowledg But if it fall out to my misfortune to have more need of your assistance then you have of my protection will you therefore Vincia cease to continue your former favours and upon the utterance of these words embraced her and poured from her beautiful eyes a pearly showre of tears upon the bosom of
were gone out after that manner and then they began their Dance in seven or eight different airs with a world of Characters and Figures interlaced which caused them all to admire As it was done Mars and Love fought and after a world of blows Mars perceiving his eyes wounded with a bolt which Love had secretly shot at him in stead of being daunted by so sweet a wound was rather madded and vexed that he should be thus vanquished and so fell on so courageously that coming something near him he snatched away Cupids band which blindfolding his eyes caused him to strike a many fruitless blows But Love recovering his sight the loss of which had made him so often fail took one of the sharpest arrows in his Quiver and shot it so directly that piercing the very heart of his enemy he gained his honour and his life The gods which were upon the Heavens of these Clouds quitted their divine Seat and came presently to put the band again about Cupids eyes lest this divine Archer should see to dispeople the Heaven of gods the Earth of men and that sharing in the Empire of Pluto they should dwell together in those obscure shades Jupiter as the greatest and also the most incensed of them all spake thus unto them Mortals who not being able to comprehend and dive into the reasons of divine actions offend us often by your rebellious ignorance That it may not happen to you to fall any more into this disobedience know that Love having taken its original from Heaven doth yet retain some sparks of Divinity among you earthly humanes and that you are not to give him battel but obedience If we bind up his eyes it is not to blind his sight but only make him a little more submissive and that we may set him free when any one is so foolish as to disdain and contemn so great an infant as to equal his strength to his These words ended the gods returned into their proper places and Jupiter to demonstrate his anger suddenly did eclipse the glorious Sun and in stead of light gave the company a sweet showre of rain with hail of Pearls and Sugar-plums Whilest the company was busie in the gathering of them this superbe Vanquisher receiving the Trophies and the Laurels that Mars had upon his head went to sacrifice them with his heart and liberty to the beauty and graces of the fair Lozia and kneeling unto this sacred Deity after he had kissed the border of her Gown spake as followeth Fair Princess I give unto your eyes all the honor of this glorious Conquest to whom I consecrate these Laurels as an acknowledgment of this favour and these Mirtles as the first homage after my new subjection If their sweet flames have inflamed my Soul with an amorous heat their dainty darts serving themselves with my hands have utterly extinguished it in mine enemies I hope this Mask hath not given you any mistrust of my love and beleeve what I have untertaken hath been to deceive this peoples eyes and not yours my fair Princess To which I wish that the violent flames that I have received therefrom these six moneths and the entertainment which I shall keep always ready for your service may be as continual as is my countenance which carrieth both my love and heart upon the front thereof as the most weighty testimony of the truth of my words And saying so he plucked aside his Mask to shew Lozia his face and put it on presently again for fear of being seen of others The Lord and Ladies supposed it to be some Country Gentleman and his companions thought he would tell her some tale and so without suspicion he deceived both the one and the other and continued his discourse saying Fair Princess whose Sun may it never set permit me this day to call you the Mistress of my desires and all my wills together that I may have the honour to receive the honorable quality of the most humble servant of yours which I shall esteem as great a favour as your beauty your graces and merits making you the noblest Paragon of all others give me desires and knowledg of so great an happiness swearing to you by the faithfullest oaths a constant Lover can make unto his Mistress That I will rather dye then disobey the least of your Commandments and shall honour nothing more then the flames of love and passion which your beautiful eyes have kindled in my brest If love transformed into your face animateth my heart with the sweet heat of your eyes with an impatient desire to serve you the vertue under the sweet object of your merits much more ravishing by its admirable attractions takes away with a thousand delectable transportations my will from my will to leave me nothing but the inclination to honour you for ever as the Soul of my Soul which giveth motion to my life by that of mine affection Fair goddess were I to write thy delicate loves I would not invoke as did the ancient Apollo for his divine heat but would come unto thy fair eyes to animate so effectually my spirit and my pen that my discourse may be so gravely sweet that it may delight the most delicate ears of those which read it and so learnedly grave that the most elevated spirits may highly esteem it who seek rather for the steeled points of weapons to satisfie their minds then the quaint and alluring sweetness of fair words to please their ears which is the outward bark of all unto generous spirits Princess I finish my words to give beginning to those which you shall say to your servant Clerio saith Lozia your noble spirit and your gallantry are sufficient not only to oblige Lozia but the greatest and graciousest Queen in the world to honour your love and merits I perceive my self so happy in the amorous assurance of your affections that I ten times more esteem the possession of your good grace then of twenty Realms A Lady which sate somewhat near her not dreaming of any thing less then of these Loves came nearer to hear their discourse to whom Lozia breaking her discourse said without any appearance of alteration Madam you do me a pleasure to come hither for this hour hath this same Maskman talked to me in Italian and I know not what he saith therefore I pray you be mine Interpreter and you will ease me of a hard task This Lozia said purposely that Clerio who speak perfect Italian might quckly deride her for her broken language and drive her away for shame He being of a quick apprehension knew his Mistresses intentions and so began to tell an hundred jests which so amazed this poor woman that she knew not what to do but that others did come to participate of the pleasure which Clerio seeing stole away and unmasked himself and went to his Cousin with whom he discoursed till the Dance was ended of the contentment he had received by the honour Lozia did
theirs Clerio live in the belief of this that as you are the first so the most faithfully loved by Lozia in all the world Fortune yesterday gave you this ring on your finger and Lozia gives you to day her heart and her pourtraiture which is in this Box as an earnest of her true affection wear it for my sake I desire you And giving it him gave him likewise a kiss which did so amorously conjoyn their lips and loves that from thence their souls and hearts were knit in an insolvable knot This is not all quoth Vincia Mistress to give such happy beginnings to so firm amity if withall you do seek out some ways to continue it you know that all the rest in the house depend upon your Uncle and I only solely upon you who will rather dye then expend my life upon any other service and so necessary is our diligence in the pursuing of our affairs for to preserve my life and safety with my Cousins that our neglect to regard them will ruine us I know if you will both be advised by me how to actuate this present business as to finish it to our contentment Those which are passionate if they are prudent must be governed by the directions and dictates of those which are exempted from it Clerio you must as I have formerly hinted to you continue your simulation of loving me I am neither so old nor ill-favour'd yet that none will credit it that every time you are discoursing with my Mistress they may think it is to employ her in our loves You must first collogue with the Duke of Blanfort and the Prince of Doudonne because it is needful that they should be first gulled who are most interested in the business And my Mistress you must not make any shew of sorrow and if you cannot altogether impede its entrance into your heart yet let wisdom so curb your natural inclination that you discover it not unto your familiars which that you may the better perform from henceforth make as if you loved reading which will be an excuse for that little alteration any one shall perceive and still have a little book in your pocket which take out and read when you cannot rid your self of those troublesom thoughts which break in upon you and for my part leave me to act that without the advantage of instructions Lozia and Clerio concluded of this as their securest course and intended to pursue it and so received reciprocal assurances of each others affections with abundance of joy and contentment That as those Lands which are nearest to the Sun have their fruits soonest ripe and ready to gather so these two faithful Lovers equally passionate did in the midst of their ardent flames approach so near to love that by the vertue of its vicinity like the Orange trees they put forth in few days the leaves flowers and fruit Hence-forward did this superstitious Lover so dote upon his Mistress that he kissed her hands now a thousand times which before he durst scarce look on Consider noble Knights that Ladies sometimes cause you to pass beyond the narrow limits of your first condition honorably to enlarge them Knights I beseech you once again as a testimony of your birth and breeding to respect Ladies and think not you have less honour for the honorable performance of this duty then you should have if it were freely tendered by the greatest of the world They are capable of making you more glorious and renowned then all your own perfections and deservings There is nothing in the world so perswasive as them who with their words and actions do inchant our wills and deprive our senses of their proper function and with their eyes give life and motion to our spirits and desires We are the true Chameleons of their humors who receive in our hearts all the various and vive impressions of so fair and divine objects These are those glorious Suns whose splendid light our eyes cannot any more remove then can our hearts the heat thereof which they receive according to the disposition of our minds and not the strength of these divine and amorous beams If there is any spirit so agitated that it never could see the dawning of a glorious day nor a sparkle of light as a pledg of future Sun-shine such must rather weep for and complain of then any ways desire and expect a favorable aspect from these frowning malign Planets Briefly he who knoweth not this gallantry is accounted more fit for a Clown then a Courtier and a simple Sot rather then a Noble man Thus far are we indebted to them they give grace to our actions eloquence to our words a day to the obscure shadows of our spirits a Soul to the hearts and spirits of those which have none Fair Ladies little but little indeed gods upon Earth who are the absolutest Commanders of men tyrannize not over Nobility who alone knoweth and esteemeth your merits Live so discreetly with them that none may ever go discontented from your company It is no graceful thing to make your selves pensive on purpose to excuse that sottish humor wherewith you are troubled in the company of those whose society you do not affect All those whom you see are neither your Husbands nor your Cousins that you should impatiently bear their imperfections Cannot you courteously entertain a Gentleman which will be gone within an hour without a discovery of rancor or malice or at least contempt Do not make signs to your consorts nor brabble and tattle with them without sufficient reason whilest any Gentleman is in discourse with you which will make him think you do deride him rather if he be a Sot then if a sweet-behavior'd and ingenuous Gentleman for foolish persons will expound all texts to their own disadvantage and thence proceed stinging words and netling speeches which well-bred women should avoyd as a dangerous Precipice which always bringeth fears or hurts Frequentation with foolish company is a contagious air that will infect the most perfect reputation and taint the most unstained honour this gives the first motion of life to the calumnies and opprobrious speeches which active men fruitful mothers and well-fed nurses do bring forth and hatch up Thus fair Ladies to invite these unhappy accidents I set your souls and hearts at liberty from inthraldom to any but honor all and above all the Nobility who draw their swords in your service who is of the same quality as you your Sex only making the difference and those whose spirit and parts you do sometime misprise do often enter into your service advantaged by their means only If fire hath neither the quality nor the name of fire so long as it is contained in the stone which conceives it your vertue likewise is not truly vertue because of the secret possession thereof but because of the publique cognizance that there is had of it Men have not the nature of gods they know not the cause
but by the effects in view Flatter not your selves your honour is not your own if it is not in the mouths and hearts of those that frequent you It is an excellent Pourtraiture hung up for future memory and painted with the immortal hands of Vertue in discretion like to that of the most affectionate of your servants which you amorously carry in a Box as a Trophy of your beauty and a pleasant object for your eyes But this divine Painter is so jealous of this most exquisite piece of Manufacture that he puts out theirs who go about never so little to dispraise it Therefore Ladies I desire you to be others when you are in company and ever your own when you are alone Adieu my Ladies for I hear Lozia calls me and reprehendeth me as well as you for staying so long to write the faults and defects of the most part of women I have stole this time from her to give it you and shall not be sorry for it willingly taking all the reproach to my self that all the profit of the robbery may be yours Fair Princess I went into the other chamber to discourse with the Knights and Ladies which durst not come in to you for fear of displeasing you they have imbarked me so far in talking that the night hath come before the end of our discourse began therefore I intreat you to excuse me if their pleasurable society hath stayed me longer then I intended and ought to have been there I did imagine that the sight of Clerio was so contentful to you that you were indifferent as to other objects But fair goddess recite a little of the joys and sweet transportations and ravishing extasies that your spirits have received after the asswagement of the tempestuous Sea wherein you have been tossed When I think that at the appearance of Clerio Lord Paramount of thy graces and beauties thy eyes have poured out as many tears for joy as they had formerly done for trouble and despair methinks I see the inhabitants of a City take up their arms as well to honour the arrival of their Prince as to frustrate the assaults of their adversaries Lozia dry up this pearly dew with a sparkling beam from thy beauteous eyes re-assume thy former serene vizage which was enamel'd with so many beauties and graces make calm the passions of thy Soul which were raised by the wind of the afflictions and sorrows of thy Clerio Wilt thou be willing it should be objected to him that he prepareth in lieu of delights and contentments dolours sorrows sighs and tears for that person whom he honours and esteems more then any person in the world Let this be enough that he alone mingleth his life with his love make for him with thy delicate hands a Crown as the chiefest of the most faithful and perfect Lovers that ever was Whilest she was in these sad tears and sorrowful sighs yet sweet imaginations Vincia came to tell her of the arrival of the Prince of Doudonne This unwelcom news did cause as great an alteration in her heart as in her face This antipathy of fire and ice did couple so perfectly well her beauties and graces her Lillies and Roses her love and discretion her smiles and her frowns that her Cousin could not discern any alteration in her countenance but she seemed so much more beauteous to him as she was more then usually richly attired which did incite him to a more fervent desire to obtain her This poor Princess in this intestine conflict between hatred and affection contempt and respect overcame triumph a thousand times in a moment enjoying as much satisfaction from the contemplation of the gallantry and ingenuity of Clerio as she did trouble from the unwelcom view of her Cousin who did so vehemently importune her to speak of love that she was forced to make as if she was sick that she might be rid of him Vincia who knew her Mistresses design said presently Mistress you having been sick all day this talking maketh you worse The Prince of Doudonne thinking that was the reason returned home presently My good Vincia how tedious is it to an honest and modest woman to hear a Sot talk of love who will then most wilfully wait on them when they are most shamefully repulsed and neglected by them I had rather a thousand times dye then that my Cousin who is as ignorant and as impudent as others should importune me so long with his irksom loves which are as displeasant to me as himself What likelyhood is there that without grace they should hope to obtain gracious and graceful Ladies without a noble and heroick spirit they should oblige their divine Souls to be obedient unto their desires without beauty and love and those charms allurements and delicacies in their eyes wherewith the Heavens and Nature do graciously endow some they should win the love of those Ladies in whom these and many other invaluable gifts of Nature are in a superlative measure Vincia I intreat thee to make our souls and loves as free as they are fair and divine It is from thee onely that I expect so great a good who art able to go forward with so high and perilous an enterprise Mistress said Vincia seeing you do me the honour as to command it me I will declare what I think most necessary and I hope my counsel will be so profitable that our undertaking shall succeed according to our desires I should like it well if you would tell every body especially your Uncle that you will shortly compleat our marriage that the report of our nuptials may give some repose to your loves until some few days shall be gone and when they think least of it you shall know how much I watch for your service He cannot long continue his constant repair hither but either your own folks or the Duke of Blanfort will be suspicious But in lieu of my nuptials we will solemnize yours in this manner as I will declare to you You have an hundred Villages where you have never been the Priests whereof know you as little as the great Turk one of these days making as if we went to walk for our recreation with a Coach we will take a time so fit for the purpose that it shall be almost night when we come into one of them the Curate of which is as blind as he is old and by that means will not know you and before we come to the place you shall go a foot to the Church door the people presently will assemble to see what is the matter and therefore will I pray you to command your Gentlemen and Damsels to stay without to stop this press of people under colour of divers ill accidents which fall out at marriages by this means and so being all alone the Priest shall espouse you during this time I will be hard by vailed making as if I were Lozia and so for this time you and Clerio must give
in general very well satisfied to have so well passed their time and leaving these two Lovers in their desired solitude who seeing themselves thus bereft of all society entertained themselves in a joint entertainment Fair eyes which speake in your sweet regards wherefor do you deprive the Readers my pen of its function so many fair Ladies from the agreeable pleasure of your amorous discourses which I cannot recount amorously enough I not having had the honor to be an auricular or ocular testator of their cōmunications you are cause that a world of honest men make uncivil quarrels to my spirit which might not very diliciously be delivered of the divine conceptions of your amorous souls that you have hidden from it under your silence but one thing consolates me which writing not but for your fair ones who have a million of Cavaleers slaves to your beauty you discover in an instant these amorous characters that the learned passion hath often explicated if the sots and the deformed raile against the misprizal that I make of it fair ones remember you defend me or make retreat to your gracious beauties and my spirit which should be of the rose and lillies and my pen of thorns for the conservation of both I cannot accompany my book every where to assist it but I hope this good office from your grace and beauties which sill all the world with respect and honor and which from their amorous beams discipated the insupportable indiscretions as from the nocturnal obscurity which troubled the furtherance of their society These Lovers were not at all troubled to give to their eyes the self same pleasure they had a thousand times received if Vincia had not in a manner seperated them by force and caused this fair Princess to go to bed that she might not be sick on the next day The night was soon passed And Lozia according to the designs of Vincia espoused her Clerio as I have already told you most happily It was somewhat late when they returned which was the cause that these damsels being surprised with so suddain nuphials did rather think of preparations to bed then to supper for Vincia who demeaned her self like a married woman and Clerio did use the like fallacie to deceive these poor Damsels So as the Chamber was made ready Lozia commanded Vincia to go to bed who seemed unwilling and in the end she answered her Madam I will not go to my bed until I have had the honor to see you in yours Lozia who well understood her design soon accorded therunto to the end that the Damsels might no more return into her chamber unless it were one whose name was Charlotta who came out of Fance with Vincia and was well acquainted with their actions Vincia gave the good night to her Mistris and accompained with Damsels went to bed the Damsels after they had seen her in bed did all depart to give place to Clerio who in stead of going to bed to his dear Cousin to whom he was so much engaged kissed her and went to his Spouse who extreamly desired his company These two passionate Lovers ravished with their ravishments being in bed together remained dumb to give audience to their loves in the middle of a thousand sweet kisses which perfectly united their hearts their eys and their mouths Thus these two amorous souls remained captivated in one anothers arms all this night until the morning When as the radient beams of Phoebus golden light provoked them both to arise from their beds Ladies I shall not here relate at large the several pastimes and exercises that were diurnally practised during the continuance of this wedding which lasted for the space of eight days with great magnificence for the honor of Clerio but I shall return to Don Allio who continuing his amorous suit and the Duke of Blantfort perceiving that Lozia regarded him with a pleasing aspect thereupon began to doubt that his purposes would have no good end and therefore he resolved to carry her away violently and marry her to the Prince of Doudonne his son that he might be exempted from those continual alarums which he dreaded Wherefore he came one day in the company of thirty men to visite Lozia but principally to put his horrid design in execution Lozia was astonished to see so many men and did not know what to imagine and the Duke of Blantfort approaching uttered this discousre to her My Neice I have been advertised that Don Allio should espouse you on this day and therefore I shall be much blamed if it shall so happen having the honor to be entrusted with the care of your person If this evil had happened to you I should have died for grief and therefore so soon as ever I was made acquainted herewith I came to you to offer my Castle unto you as a place of safety and if you will honor me so much as to let me have your company therein I will desire no greater office during your abode there then to be your keeper These honest Gentle men have done me the honor to accompany me that you may retire your self in greater State Lozia dissembling her design returned an answer to him in these terms Sir amongst all the Obligations wherin I am bound to you I account of this as the chiefest and because I will make appear unto you that I greatly desire any thing that thou shalt think convenient I will instantly go dress my self to go with you and therefore I would intreat you if so be you shal think it good to take a turn or two in the garden until I am ready which shall be very suddenly The Duke of Blantfort did accordingly and she presently sent for Clerio to whom she said Clerio now is the time wherein there is need for you to shew your courage and affection towards me can you suffer this Villain to snatch me out of your arms Go now if you love to Don Allio and both of you gather together the most of your friends that you can and kill this Cuckold and his followers who will not be sufficiently assured to defend themselves and let it suffice you that you have Lozia and her love for your fortune and guide There were six of her Gentlemen at that time present wherefore she caused them to be called to her to whom she used these speeches Sirs the assurance of your fidelity and the desire I have to do you good is the cause you are Gentlemen of my houshold which place many do importunately desire will you not then dispute my liberty and your fortunes against this Traitor the Duke of Blantfort who is below to carry me away prisoner They all answered yes Go then my friends said she and do what Clerio shall desire you at your return every one that doth well shall have 2000 crowns They all presently departed with this resolution that they would fight couragiously Lozia then called Clerio and said to him my Dear