enioyed the expectations in the world of him till he was growen to iustifie their expectations so as I needed enuie no father for the chiefe comfort of mortalitie to leaue an other ones-selfe after me I was caried by a bastard sonne of mine if at least I bee bounde to beleeue the words of that base woman my concubine his mother first to mislike then to hate lastly to destroy or to doo my best to destroy this sonne I thinke you thinke vndeseruing destruction What waies be vsed to bring me to it if I shoulde tell you I shoulde tediouslie trouble you with as much poisonous hypocrisie desperate fraude smooth malice hidden ambition and smiling enuie as in any liuing person could be harbored But I list it not no remembraunce of naughtinesse delightes me but mine owne and me thinkes the accusing his trappes might in some manner excuse my fault which certainelie I loth to doo But the conclusion is that I gaue order to some seruauntes of mine whome I thought as apte for such charities as my selfe to lead him out into a forrest and there to kill him But those theeues better natured to my sonne then my selfe spared his life letting him goe to learne to liue poorelie which he did giuing himselfe to be a priuate souldier in a countrey here by But as hee was ready to be greatlie aduaunced for some noble peeces of seruice which he did he heard newes of me who dronke in my affection to that vnlawfull and vnnaturall sonne of mine suffered my selfe so to be gouerned by him that all fauours and punishments passed by him all offices and places of importance distributed to his fauorites so that ere I was aware I had left my selfe nothing but the name of a King which he shortly wearie of too with manie indignities if any thing may be called an indignitie which was laide vppon me threw me out of my seate and put out my eies and then proud in his tirannie let me goe neither imprisoning nor killing me but rather delighting to make me feele my miserie miserie in deede if euer there were any full of wretchednesse fuller of disgrace and fullest of guiltines And as he came to the crowne by so vniust meanes as vniustlie he kept it by force of straunger souldiers in Cittadels the nestes of tirannie and murderers of libertie disarming all his own countrimen that no man durst shew himselfe a well-willer of mine to say the truth I thinke few of them being so considering my cruell folly to my good sonne and foolish kindnesse to my vnkinde bastard but if there were any who felt a pitty of so great a fall and had yet any sparkes of vnslaine duety lefte in them towardes me yet durst they not shewe it scarcely with giuing mee almes at their doores which yet was the onely sustenaunce of my distressed life no body daring to shewe so much charitie as to lende mee a hande to guide my darke steppes Till this sonne of mine God knowes woorthy of a more vertuous and more fortunate father forgetting my abhominable wronges not recking daunger and neglecting the present good way hee was in of doing himselfe good came hether to doo this kinde office you see him performe towardes me to my vnspeakeable griefe not only because his kindnes is a glasse euen to my blind eies of my naughtines but that aboue all griefes it greeues me he should desperatlie aduenture the losse of his well deseruing life for mine that yet owe more to fortune for my deserts as if hee would cary mudde in a chest of christall For well I know he that now raigneth howe much so euer and with good reason he despiseth me of all men despised yet hee will not let slippe any aduantage to make away him whose iust title ennobled by courage and goodnes may one day shake the seate of a neuer secure tyrannie And for this cause I craued of him to leade mee to the toppe of this rocke indeede I must confesse with meaning to free him from so Serpentine a companion as I am But he finding what I purposed onely therein since hee was borne shewed himselfe disobedient vnto mee And now gentlemen you haue the true storie which I pray you publish to the world that my mischieuous proceedinges may bee the glorie of his filiall pietie the onely reward now left for so great a merite And if it may be let me obtaine that of you which my sonne denies me for neuer was there more pity in sauing any then in ending me both because therein my agonies shall ende and so shall you preserue this excellent young man who els wilfully followes his owne ruine The matter in it selfe lamentable lamentably expressed by the old Prince which needed not take to himselfe the gestures of pitie since his face coulde not put of the markes thereof greatly moued the two Princes to compassion which coulde not stay in such harts as theirs without seeking remedie But by and by the occasion was presented for Plexirtus so was the bastard called came thether with fortie horse onely of purpose to murder this brother of whose comming he had soone aduertisement and thought no eyes of sufficient credite in such a matter but his owne and therefore came himselfe to be actor and spectator And as soone as hee came not regarding the weake as hee thought garde of but two men commaunded some of his followers to set their handes to his in the killing of Leonatus But the young Prince though not otherwise armed but with a sworde howe falsely soeuer he was dealt with by others would not betray him selfe but brauely drawing it out made the death of the first that assayled him warne his fellowes to come more warily after him But then Pyrocles and Musidorus were quickly become parties so iust a defence deseruing as much as old friendship and so did behaue them among that companie more iniurious then valiant that many of them lost their liues for their wicked maister Yet perhaps had the number of them at last preuailed if the King of Pontus lately by them made so had not come vnlooked for to their succour Who hauing had a dreame which had fixt his imagination vehemently vpon some great daunger presently to follow those two Princes whom hee most dearely loued was come in al hast following as wel as he could their track with a hundreth horses in that countrie which he thought considering who then raigned a fitte place inough to make the stage of any Tragedie But then the match had beene so ill made for Plexirtus that his ill-led life and worse gotten honour should haue tumbled together to destruction had there not come in Tydeus and Telenor with forty or fifty in their suite to the defence of Plexirtus These two were brothers of the noblest house of that country brought vppe from their infancy with Plexirtus men of such prowesse as not to knowe feare in themselues and yet to teach it others that shoulde deale with them for
had vsed such cunning that the naturall blewe veines of the marble were framed in fitte places to set foorth the beautifull veines of her bodie At her brest shee had her babe AEneas who seemed hauing begun to sucke to leaue that to looke vpon her fayre eyes which smiled at the babes follie meane while the breast runing Hard by was a house of pleasure built for a Sommer retiring place whether Kalander leading him he found a square roome full of delightfull pictures made by the moste excellent workeman of Greece There was Diana when Acteon sawe her bathing in whose cheekes the painter had set such a colour as was mixt betweene shame and disdaine and one of her foolish Nymphes who weeping and with all lowring one might see the workman meant to set forth teares of anger In another table was Atalanta the posture of whose lims was so liuelie expressed that if the eyes were the onely iudges as they be the onely seers one would haue sworne the very picture had runne Besides many mo as of Helena Omphale Iole but in none of them all beautie seemed to speake so much as in a large table which contained a comely old man with a lady of midle age but of excellent beautie and more excellent would haue bene deemed but that there stood betwene them a yong maid whose wonderfulnesse tooke away all beautie from her but that which it might seeme shee gaue her backe againe by her very shadow And such difference being knowne that it did in deed counterfeit a person liuing was there betweene her and all the other though Goddesses that it seemd the skill of the painter bestowed on the other new beautie but that the beautie of her bestowed new skill of the painter Though he thought inquisitiuenes an vncomely guest he could not choose but aske who shee was that bearing shewe of one being in deed could with natural gifts go beyond the reach of inuention Kalander answered that it was made by Philoclea the yonger daughter of his prince who also with his wife were contained in that Table the painter meaning to represent the present condition of the young Ladie vvho stood vvatched by an ouer-curious eye of her parents and that he vvould also haue dravvne her eldest sister esteemed her match for beautie in her shepheardish attire but that the rude clovvne her gardian vvould not suffer it nether durst he aske leaue of the Prince for feare of suspition Palladius perceaued that the matter vvas vvrapt vp in some secresie and therfore vvould for modestie demaund no further but yet his countenance could not but vvith dumme Eloquence desire it Which Kalander perceauing vvell said he my deere guest I knovv your minde and I vvill satisfie it neither vvill I doo it like a niggardly ansvverer going no further than the boundes of the question but I vvill discouer vnto you asvvell that vvherein my knovvledge is common vvith others as that vvhich by extraordinarie meanes is deliuered vnto me knovving so much in you though not long acquainted that I shal find your eares faithfull treasurers So then sitting downe in tvvo chaires and sometimes casting his eye to the picture hee thus spake This countrie Arcadia among all the prouinces of Greece hath euer beene had in singular reputation partly for the svveetnesse of the ayre and other naturall benefites but principally for the vvell tempered minds of the people vvho finding that the shining title of glorie so much affected by other natiōs doth in deed helpe little to the happinesse of life are the onely people vvhich as by their Iustice and prouidence geue neither cause nor hope to their neighbours to annoy them so are they not sturred vvith false praise to trouble others quiet thinking it a small revvard for the vvasting of their ovvne liuès in rauening that their posteritie should long after saie they had done so Euen the Muses seeme to approue their good determination by chosing this countrie for their cheife repairing place and by bestovving their perfecons so largely here that the very shepheards haue their fancies lifted to so high conceits as the learned of other nations are content both to borrow their names and imitate their cunning Here dwelleth and raigneth this Prince whose picture you see by name Basilius a Prince of sufficient skill to gouerne so quiet a countrie where the good mindes of the former princes had set downe good lawes and the well bringing vp of the people doth serue as a most sure bond to hold them But to be plaine with you he excels in nothing so much as in the zealous loue of his people wherein he doth not onely passe all his owne fore-goers but as I thinke all the princes liuing Wherof the cause is that though he exceed not in the vertues which get admiration as depth of wisdome height of courage and largenesse of magnificence yet is he notable in those which stirre affection as trueth of word meekenesse courtesie mercifulnesse and liberalitie He being already well striken in yeares maried a young princes named Gynecia daughter to the king of Cyprus of notable beautie as by her picture you see a woman of great wit and in truth of more princely vertues then her husband of most vnspotted chastitie but of so working a minde and so vehement spirits as a man may say it was happie shee tooke a good course for otherwise it would haue beene terrible Of these two are brought to the world two daughters so beyond measure excellent in all the gifts allotted to reasōable creatures that we may think they were borne to shewe that Nature is no stepmother to that sex howe much so euer some men sharpe witted onely in euill speaking haue sought to disgrace them The elder is named Pamela by many men not deemed inferiour to her sister for my part when I marked them both◠me thought there was if at least such perfections may receiue the worde of more more sweetnesse in Philoclea but more maiestie in Pamela mee thought loue plaide in Philocleas eyes and threatned in Pamelas mee thought Philocleas beautie onely perswaded but so perswaded as all harts must yeelde Pamelas beautie vsed violence and such violence as no hart could resist and it semes that such proportion is betweene their mindes Philoclea so bashfull as though her excellencies had stolne into her before shee was aware so humble that she will put all pride out of countenance in summe such proceeding as will stirre hope but teach hope good manners Pamela of high thoughts who auoides not pride with not knowing her excellencies but by making that one of her excellencies to bee voide of pride her mothers wisdome greatnesse nobilitie but if I can ghesse aright knit with a more constant temper Now then our Basilius being so publickly happie as to bee a Prince and so happie in that happinesse as to be a beloued Prince and so in his priuate blessed as to haue so excellent a wife and so ouer excellent children hath
in colour they excell the Emeralds euerie one striuing to passe his fellow and yet they are all kept of an equall height And see you not the rest of these beautifull flowers each of which would require a mans wit to know and his life to expresse Do not these stately trees seeme to maintaine their florishing olde age with the onely happines of their seat being clothed with a continuall spring because no beautie here should euer fade Doth not the aire breath health which the Birds delightfull both to eare and eye do dayly solemnize with the sweete consent of their voyces Is not euery Eccho thereof a perfect Musicke these fresh and delightfull brookes how slowly they slide away as loth to leaue the company of so many thinges vnited in perfection and with how sweete a murmur they lament their forced departure Certainely certainely cosin it must needs be that som Goddesse enhabiteth this Region who is the soule of this soyle for neither is any lesse then a Goddesse worthie to bee shrined in such a heape of pleasures nor any lesse then a Goddesse coulde haue made it so perfect a plotte of the celestiall dwellings And so ended with a deep sigh rufully casting his eye vpon Musidorus as more desirous of pittie then pleading But Musidorus had all this while helde his looke fixed vpon Pyrocles countenance and with no lesse louing attention marked howe his wordes proceeded from him but in both these he perceiued such strange diuersities that they rather increased new doubtes then gaue him ground to settle anie iudgement for besides his eyes sometimes euen great with teares the oft changing of his colour with a kinde of shaking vnstayednes ouer all his bodie he might see in his countenance some great determination mixed with feare and might perceiue in him store of thoughts rather stirred then digested his wordes interrupted continually with sighes which serued as a burthen to each sentence and the tenor of his speech though of his wonted phrase not knit together to one constant end but rather dissolued in it selfe as the vehemencie of the inwarde passion preuayled which made Musidorus frame his aunswere neerest to that humor which should soonest put out the secret For hauing in the beginning of Pyrocles speech which defended his solitarines framed in his minde a replie against it in the praise of honourable action in shewing that such a kind of contemplatiō is but a glorious title to idlenes that in action a man did not onely better himselfe but benefit others that the gods would not haue deliuered a soule into the bodie which hath armes and legges onely instrumentes of doeing but that it were intended the minde shoulde imploy them and that the minde should best knowe his owne good or euill by practise◠which knowledge was the onely way to increase the one and correct the other besides many other argumentes which the plentifulnesse of the matter yeelded to the sharpnes of his wit When hee found Pyrocles leaue that and fall into such an affected praising of the place he left it likewise and ioyned with him therein because hee found him in that humor vtter more store of passion and euen thus kindely embrasing him he said Your words are such noble cousin so sweetly and strongly handled in the praise of solitarinesse as they would make mee likewise yeeld my selfe vp into it but that the same words make me know it is more pleasant to enioy the companie of him that can speake such wordes then by such wordes to bee perswaded to follow solitarines And euen so doo I geue you leaue sweete Pyrocles euer to defende solitarines so long as to defende it you euer keep companie But I maruell at the excessiue praises you giue to this countrie in truth it is not vnplesant but yet if you would returne into Macedon you should either se many heauens or find this no more then earthlie And euen Tempe in my Thessalia where you and I to my great happynesse were brought vp together is nothing inferiour vnto it But I thinke you will make me see that the vigor of your witte can shew it selfe in any subiect or els you feede sometimes your solitarines with the conceites of the Poets whose liberall pennes can as easilie trauaile ouer mountaines as molehils and so like well disposed men set vp euery thing to the highest note especially when they put such wordes in the mouths of one of these fantasticall mind-infected people that children Musitiās cal Louers This word Louer did no lesse pearce poore Pyrocles then the right tune of musicke toucheth him that is sicke of the Tarantula There was not one parte of his body that did not feele a sodaine motion while his hart with panting seemed to daunce to the sounde of that word yet after some pause lifting vp his eyes a litle from the ground and yet not daring to place them in the eyes of Musidorus armed with the verie conntenance of the poore prisoner at the barr whose aunswere is nothing but guiltie with much a do he brought forth this question And alas saide he deare cosin what if I bee not so much the Poet the freedome of whose penne canne exercise it selfe in any thing as euen that miserable subiect of his conning whereof you speake Now the eternall Gods forbid mainely cryed out Musidorus that euer my care should be poysoned with so euil news of you O let me neuer know that any base affectiō should get any Lordship in your thoughts But as he was speaking more Kalander came and brake of their discourse with inuiting them to the hunting of a goodly stagge which being harbored in a wood thereby he hoped vvould make them good sporte and driue avvay some parte of Daiphantus melancholy They condiscended and so going to their lodgings furnished them selues as liked them Daiphantus writing a fewe words which he left sealed in a letter against their returne Then wēt they together abroad the good Kalāder entertaining thē with pleasaunt discoursing howe well he loued the sporte of hunting when hee was a young man how much in the comparison thereof hee disdained all chamber delights that the Sunne how great a iornie soeuer he had to make could neuer preuent him with earlines nor the Moone with her sober couutenance disswade him from watching till midnight for the deeres feeding O saide he you will neuer liue to my age without you keepe your selues in breath vvith exercise and in hart vvith ioifullnes too much thinking doth consume the spirits and oft it falles out that vvhile one thinkes too much of his doing he leaues to doe the effect of his thinking Then spared he not to remember how much Arcadia was chaunged since his youth actiuitie and good fellowship being nothing in the price it was then held in but according to the nature of the old growing world stil worse and worse Then would he tell them stories of such gallaunts as he had knowē and so with pleasant company
deale contrary to your selfe for if I be so weak then can you not with reason stir me vp as ye did by remembrance of my owne vertue or if indeed I be vertuous then must ye confesse that loue hath his working in a vertuous hart and so no dout hath it whatsoeuer I be for if we loue vertue in whom shall wee loue it but in a vertuous creature without your meaning bee I should loue this word vertue where I see it written in a booke Those troblesome effectes you say it breedes be not the faults of loue but of him that loues as an vnable vessell to beare such a licour like euill eyes not able to looke on the Sun or like a weake braine soonest ouerthrowen with the best wine Euen that heauenly loue you speake of is accompanied in some harts with hopes griefes longinges and dispaires And in that heauenly loue since there are two parts the one the loue itselfe th' other the excellencie of the thing loued I not able at the first leap to frame both in me do now like a diligent workman make ready the chiefe instrument and first part of that great worke which is loue it selfe which when I haue a while practised in this sorte then you shall see me turne it to greater matters And thus gentlie you may if it please you thinke of me Neither doubt ye because I weare a womans apparell I will be the more womannish since I assure you for all my apparrel there is nothing I desire more then fully to proue my selfe a man in this enterprise Much might be saide in my defence much more for loue and most of all for that diuine creature which hath ioyned me and loue together But these disputations are fitter for quiet schooles then my troubled braines which art bent rather in deeds to performe then in wordes to defende the noble desire that possesseth me O Lord saide Musidorus how sharp-witted you are to hurt your selfe No answered he but it is the hurt you speake of which makes me so sharp-witted Euen so saide Musidorus as euery base occupation makes one sharp in that practise and foolish in all the rest Nay rather answered Pyrocles as each excellent thing once well learned serues for a measure of all other knowledges And is that become saide Musidorus a measure for other things which neuer receiued measure in it selfe It is counted without measure answered Pyrocles because the workings of it are without measure but otherwise in nature it hath measure since it hath an end allotted vnto it The beginning being so excellent I would gladly know the ende Enioying answered Pyrocles with a deepe sigh O saide Musidorus now set ye foorth the basenes of it since if it ende in enioying it shewes all the rest was nothing Ye mistake me aunswered Pyrocles I spake of the ende to which it is directed which end ends not no sooner then the life Alas let your owne braine disenchaunt you saide Musidorus My hart is too farre possessed saide Pyrocles But the head giues you direction And the hart giues me life aunswered Pyrocles But Musidorus was so greeued to see his welbeloued friend obstinat as he thought to his owne destruction that it forced him with more then accustomed vehemency to speake these words Well well saide he you lift to abuse your selfe it was a very white and red vertue which you could pick out of a painterly glosse of a visage Confesse the truth and ye shall finde the vtmost was but beautie a thing which though it be in as great excellencye in your selfe as may be in any yet I am sure you make no further reckning of it then of an outward fading benefite Nature bestowed vpon you And yet such is your want of a true grounded vertue which must be like it selfe in all points that what you wisely account a trifle in your selfe you fondly become a slaue vnto in another For my part I now protest I haue left nothing vnsaid which my wit could make me know or my most entier friendship to you requires of me I doo now beseech you euen for the loue betwixt vs if this other loue haue left any in you tovvards me and for the remembrance of your olde careful father if you can remēber him that forget your selfe lastly for Pyrocles ovvn sake who is novv vpon the point of falling or rising to purge your selfe of this vile infection other vvise giue me leaue to leaue of this name of freindship as an idle title of a thing vvhich cannot be vvhere vertue is abolished The length of these speaches before had not so much cloied Pyrocles though he vvere very impatient of long deliberations as this last farevvell of him he loued as his ovvne life did vvound his soule for thinking him selfe afflicted he vvas the apter to conceiue vnkindnesse deepely insomuch that shaking his head and deliuering some shevve of teares he thus vttered his greifes Alas said he prince Musidorus hovv cruelly you deale with me if you seeke the victorie take it and if ye list the triumph haue you all the reason of the world and with me remaine all the imperfections yet such as I can no more lay from me then the Crow can be perswaded by the Swanne to cast of all his blacke fethers But truely you deale with me like a Phisition that seeing his patient in a pestilēt feuer should chide him in steed of ministring helpe and bid him be sick no more or rather like such a friēd that visiting his friend condemned to perpetuall prison and loaden with greeuous fetters should will him to shake of his fetters or he would leaue him I am sick and sick to the death I am prisoner neither is there any redresse but by her to whom I am slaue Now if you list leaue him that loues you in the hiest degree But remember euer to cary this with you that you abandon your friend in his greatest extremitie And herewith the deepe wound of his loue being rubbed a fresh with this new vnkindnes began as it were to bleed againe in such sort that he was vnable to beare it any longer but gushing out aboundance of teares and crossing his armes ouer his woefull hart he suncke downe◠to the ground which sodaine trance went so to the hart of Musidorus that falling downe by him and kissing the weping eyes of his friend he besought him not to make account of his speach which if it had beene ouer vehement yet was it to be borne withall because it came out of a loue much more vehement that he had not thought fancie could haue receiued so deep a wound but now finding in him the force of it hee woulde no further contrary it but imploy all his seruice to medicine it in such sorte as the nature of it required But euen this kindnes made Pyrocles the more melte in the former vnkindenes which his manlike teares well shewed with a silent look vpon Musidorus as who should say
art the only author of my mischiefe Zelmane the more astonished the more she vnderstood her Madam said she whereof do you accuse me that I will not cleere my selfe Or wherein may I steed you that you may not command me Alas answered Gynecia what shall I say more Take pitty of me O Zelmane but not as Zelmane and disguise not with me in words as I know thou doost in apparell Zelmane was much troubled with that worde finding her selfe brought to this streight But as she was thinking what to answere her they might see olde Basilius passe harde by them without euer seeing them complayning likewise of loue very freshly and ending his complaint with this song Loue hauing renewed both his inuention and voyce LEt not old age disgrace my high desire O heauenly soule in humaine shape conteind Old wood in flam'de doth yeeld the brauest fire When yonger dooth in smoke his vertue spend Ne let white haires which on my face doo grow Seeme to your eyes of a disgracefull hewe Since whitenesse doth present the sweetest show Which makes all eyes doo homage vnto you Old age is wise and full of constant truth Old age well stayed from raunging humor liues Old age hath knowne what euer was in youth Old age orecome the greater honour giues And to old age since you your selfe aspire Let not old age disgrace my high desire Which being done he looked verie curiously vpon himselfe somtimes fetching a little skippe as if he had saide his strength had not yet forsaken him But Zelmane hauing in this time gotten some leasure to thinke for an answere looking vpon Gynecya as if she thought she did her some wrong Madam said she I am not acquainted with those words of disguising neither is it the profession of an Amazon neither are you a partie with whom it is to bee vsed If my seruice may please you imploy it so long as you do me no wrong in misiudgeing of mee Alas Zelmane said Gynecia I perceiue you know full little howe percing the eyes are of a true louer There is no one beame of those thoughts you haue planted in me but is able to discerne a greater cloude then you doo goe in Seeke not to conceale your selfe further from mee nor force not the passion of loue into violent extremities Nowe was Zelmane brought to an exigent when the king turning his eyes that waye thorow the trees perceiued his wife and mistres togither so that framing the most louely countenance hee could hee came straightway towardes them and at the first word thanking his wife for hauing entertained Zelmane desired her shee woulde now returne into the lodge because hee had certaine matters of estate to impart to the Ladie Zelmane The Queene being nothing troubled with ielousie in that point obeyed the kinges commaundement full of raging agonies and determinately bent that as she would seeke all louing meanes to winne Zelmane so she woulde stirre vp terrible tragedies rather then faile of her intent And so went she from them to the lodge-ward with such a battaile in her thoughts and so deadlyâ— an ouerthrow giuen to her best resolutions that euen her bodie where the fielde was fought was oppressed withall making a languishing sickenesse waite vpon the triumph of passion which the more it preuailed in her the more it made her ielousie watchfull both ouer her daughter and Zelmane hauing euer one of them entrusted to her owne eyes But as soone as Basilius was ridde of his wiues presence falling downe on his knees O Lady saide hee which hast onely had the power to stirre vp againe those flames which had so long layne deade in mee see in mee the power of your beautie which can make olde age come to aske counsaile of youth and a Prince vnconquered to become a slaue to a stranger And when you see that power of yours loue that at lest in me since it is yours although of me you see nothing to be loued Worthy Prince answered Zelmane taking him vp from his kneeling both your manner and your speech are so straunge vnto me as I know not how to answere it better then with silence If silence please you said the king it shall neuer displease me since my heart is wholly pledged to obey you otherwise if you would vouchsafe mine eares such happinesse as to heare you they shall conuay your words to such a mind which is with the humblest degree of reuerence to receiue them I disdaine not to speake to you mightie Prince said Zelmane but I disdaine to speake to any matter which may bring my honor into question And therewith with a braue counterfeited scorne she departed from the king leauing him not so sorie for his short answere as proud in himselfe that he had broken the matter And thus did the king feeding his minde with those thoughts passe great time in writing verses and making more of himselfe then he was wont to doo that with a little helpe he would haue growne into a prettie kind of dotage But Zelmane being ridde of this louing but little-loued company Alas said she poore Pyrocles was there euer one but I that had receiued wrong and could blame no body that hauing more then I desire am still in want of that I woulde Truly Loue I must needes say thus much on thy behalfe thou hast imployed my loue there where all loue is deserued and for recompence hast sent me more loue then euer I desired But what wilt thou doo Pyrocles which way canst thou finde to ridde thee of thy intricate troubles To her whom I would be knowne to I liue in darkenesse and to her am reuealed from whom I would be most secret What shift shall I finde against the diligent loue of Basilius what shield against the violent passions of Gynecia And if that be done yet how am I the neerer to quench the fire that consumes me Well well sweete Philoclea my whole confidence must be builded in thy diuine spirit which cannot be ignorant of the cruell wound I haue receiued by you But as sicke folkes when they are alone thinke companie would relieue them and yet hauing company do find it noysome changing willingly outward obiects when indeed the euill is inward So poore Zelmane was no more weery of Basilius then she was of her selfe when Basilius was gone and euer the more the more she turned her eyes to become her owne iudges Tyred wherewith she longed to meete her friende Dorus that vpon the shoulders of friendship she might lay the burthen of sorrow and therefore went toward the other lodge where among certaine Beeches she found Dorus apparelled in flanen with a Goats skin cast vpon him and a garland of Laurell mixt with Cypres leaues on his head wayting on his master Dametas who at that time was teaching him how with his sheephooke to catch a wanton Lambe and how with the same to cast a litle clod at any one that strayed out of companie And while Dorus was
the matter alone for accompanied they would not haue suffered them to haue mounted and so those great fellowes scornefully receiuing them as foolish birds falne into their net it pleased the eternall iustice to make them suffer death by their hands and so they were manifoldly acknowledged the sauers of that countrie It were the part of a verie idle Orator to set forth the numbers of wel-deuised honors done vnto them But as high honor is not onely gotten and borne by paine and daunger but must be nurst by the like or els vanisheth as soone as it appeares to the world so the naturall hunger thereof which was in Pyrocles suffered him not to account a resting seate of that which euer either riseth or falleth but still to make one occasion beget another wherby his doings might send his praise to others mouthes to rebound againe true contentment to his spirit And therefore hauing well established those kingdomes vnder good gouernours and rid them by their valure of such giants and monsters as before time armies were not able to subdue they determined in vnknowne order to see more of the world and to imploy those gifts esteemed rare in them to the good of mankinde and therefore would themselues vnderstanding that the King Euarchus was passed all the cumber of his warres goe priuately to seeke exercises of their vertue thinking it not so worthy to be brought to Heroycall effects by fortune or necessitie like Vlysses and Aeneas as by ones owne choice and working And so went they away from verie vnwilling people to leaue them making time haste it selfe to be a circumstance of their honour and one place witnesse to another of the truth of their doings For scarcely were they out of the confines of Pontus but that as they ridde alone armed for alone they went one seruing the other they mette an aduenture which though not so notable for any great effect they perfourmed yet worthy to be remembred for the vn-vsed examples therein as well of true naturall goodnes as of wretched vngratefulnesse It was in the kingdome of Galacia the season being as in the depth of winter very cold and as then sodainely growne to so extreame and foule a storme that neuer any winter I thinke brought foorth a fowler child so that the Princes were euen compelled by the haile that the pride of the winde blew into their faces to seeke some shrowding place which a certaine hollow rocke offering vnto them they made it their shield against the tempests furie And so staying there till the violence thereof was passed they heard the speach of a couple who not perceiuing them being hidde within that rude canapy helde a straunge and pitifull disputation which made them steppe out yet in such sort as they might see vnseene There they perceaued an aged man and a young scarcely come to the age of a man both poorely arayed extreamely weather-beaten the olde man blinde the young man leading him and yet through all those miseries in both there seemed to appeare a kinde of noblenesse not sutable to that affliction But the first words they heard were these of the old man Well Leonatus said he since I cannot perswade thee to leade mee to that which should end my griefe and thy trouble let me now entreat thee to leaue me feare not my miserie cannot be greater then it is and nothing doth become me but miserie feare not the danger of my blind steps I cannot fall worse then I am And doo not I pray thee doo not obstinately continue to infect thee with my wretchednes But flie flie from this region onely worthy of me Deare father answered he doo not take away from me the onely remnant of my happinesse while I haue power to doo you seruice I am not wholly miserable Ah my sonne said he and with that he groned as if sorrow straue to breake his harte how euill fits it me to haue such a sonne and how much doth thy kindnesse vpbraide my wickednesse These dolefull speeches and some others to like purpose well shewing they had not bene borne to the fortune they were in moued the Princes to goe out vnto them and aske the younger what they were Sirs answered he with a good grace and made the more agreable by a certaine noble kinde of pitiousnes I see well you are straungers that know not our miserie so well here knowne that no man dare know but that we must be miserable In deede our state is such as though nothing is so needfull vnto vs as pittie yet nothing is more daungerous vnto vs then to make our selues so knowne as may stirre pittie But your presence promiseth that cruelty shall not ouer-runne hate And if it did in truth our state is soncke below the degree of feare This old man whom I leade was lately rightfull Prince of this countrie of Paphlagonia by the hard-harted vngratefulnes of a sonne of his depriued not onely of his kingdome whereof no forraine forces were euer able to spoyle him but of his sight the riches which Nature graunts to the poorest creatures Whereby and by other his vnnaturall dealings he hath bin driuen to such griefe as euen now he would haue had me to haue led him to the toppe of this rocke thence to cast himselfe headlong to death and so would haue made me who receiued my life of him to be the worker of his destruction But noble Gentlemen said he if either of you haue a father and feele what duetifull affection is engraffed in a sonnes hart let me entreate you to conuay this afflicted Prince to some place of rest and securitie Amongst your worthie actes it shall be none of the least that a King of such might and fame and so vniustlie oppressed is in any sort by you relieued But before they coulde make him aunswere his father began to speake Ah my sonne said he how euill an Historian are you that leaue out the chiefe knot of all the discourse my wickednes my wickednes And if thou doest it to spare my ears the onely sense now left mee proper for knowledge assure thy selfe thou doest mistake me And I take witnesse of that Sunne which you see with that he cast vp his blinde eies as if he would hunt for light and wish my selfe in worse case then I doe wish my selfe which is as euill as may bee if I speake vntruely that nothing is so welcome to my thoughts as the publishing of my shame Therefore know you Gentlemen to whome from my heart I wish that it may not proue some ominous foretoken of misfortune to haue met with such a miser as I am that whatsoeuer my sonne ô God that truth bindes me to reproch him with the name of my son hath saide is true But besides those truthes this also is true that hauing had in lawfull mariage of a mother fitte to beare roiall children this sonne such a one as partly you see and better shall knowe by my short declaration and so
for Loue so forceth me Plangus doth liue and shall Erona dye Erona dye O heauen if heauen there be Hath all thy whirling course so small effect Serue all thy starrie eyes this shame to see Let doltes in haste some altars faire erect To those high powers which idly sit aboue And vertue do in greatest need neglect Basilius O man take heed how thou the Gods do moue To causefull wrath which thou canst not resist Blasphemous words the speaker vaine do proue Alas while we are wrapt in foggie mist Of our selfe-loue so passions do deceaue We thinke they hurt when most they do assist To harme vs wormes should that high Iustice leaue His nature nay himselfe for so it is What glorie from our losse can he receaue But still our dazeled eyes their way do misse While that we do at his sweete scourge repine The kindly way to beate vs on to blisse If she must dye then hath she past the line Of lothsome dayes whose losse how canst thou mone That doost so well their miseries define But such we are with inward tempest blowne Of windes quite contrarie in waues of will We mone that lost which had we did bemone Plangus And shall she dye shall cruell fier spill Those beames that set so many harts on fire Hath she not force euen death with loue to kill Nay euen cold Death enflamde with hot desire Her to enioy where ioy it selfe is thrall Will spoile the earth of his most rich attire Thus Death becomes a riuall to vs all And hopes with foule embracements her to get In whose decay Vertues faire shrine must fall O Vertue weake shall death his triumph set Vpon thy spoiles which neuer should lye waste Let Death first dye be thou his worthy let By what eclipse shall that Sonne be defaste What myne hath erst throwne downe so faire a tower What sacriledge hath such a saint disgra'st The world the garden is she is the flower That sweetens all the place she is the guest Of rarest price both heau'n and earth her bower And shall ô me all this in ashes rest Alas if you a Phoenix new will haue Burnt by the Sunne she first must build her nest But well you know the gentle Sunne would saue Such beames so like his owne which might haue might In him the thoughts of Phaëtons damme to graue Therefore alas you vse vile Vulcans spight Which nothing spares to melt that Virgin-waxe Which while it is it is all Asias light O Mars for what doth serue thy armed axe To let that wit-old beast consume in flames Thy Venus child whose beautie Venus lackes O Venus if her praise no enuy frames In thy high minde get her thy husbands grace Sweete speaking oft a currish hart reclaimes O eyes of mine where once she saw her face Her face which was more liuely in my hart O braine where thought of her hath onely place O hand which toucht her hand when we did part O lippes that kist that hand with my teares sprent O toonge then dumbe not daring tell my smart O soule whose loue in her is onely spent What ere you see think touch kisse speake or loue Let all for her and vnto her be bent Basilius Thy wailing words do much my spirits moue They vttred are in such a feeling fashion That sorrowes worke against my will I proue Me-thinkes I am partaker of thy passion And in thy case do glasse mine owne debilitie Selfe-guiltie folke most prone to feele compassion Yet Reason saith Reason should haue abilitie To hold these wordly things in such proportion As let them come or go with euen facilitie But our Desires tyrannicall extortion Doth force vs there to set our chiefe delightfulnes Where but a baiting place is all our portion But still although we faile of perfect rightfulnes Seeke we to tame these childish superfluities Let vs not winke though void of purest sightfulnes For what can breed more peeuish incongruities Then man to yeeld to female lamentations Let vs some grammar learne of more congruities Plangus If through mine eares pearce any consolation By wise discourse sweete tunes or Poets fiction If ought I cease these hideous exclamations While that my soule she she liues in affliction Then let my life long time on earth maintained be To wretched me the last worst malediction Can I that know her sacred parts restrained be From any ioy know fortunes vile displacing her In morall rules let raging woes contained be Can I forget when they in prison placing her With swelling hart in spite and due disdainfulnes She lay for dead till I helpt with vnlasing her Can I forget from how much mourning plainfulnes With Diamond in window-glasse she graued Erona dye and end this ougly painefulnes Can I forget in how straunge phrase she craued That quickly they would her burne drowne or smother As if by death she onely might be saued Then let me eke forget one hand from other Let me forget that Plangus I am called Let me forget I am sonne to my mother But if my memory must thus be thralled To that strange stroke which conquer'd all my senses Can thoughts still thinking so rest vnappalled Basilius Who still doth seeke against him selfe offences What pardon can auaile or who imployes him To hurt himselfe what shields can be desenses Woe to poore man ech outward thing annoyes him In diuers kinds yet as he were not filled He heapes in outward griefe that most destroyes him Thus is our thought with paine for thistles tilled Thus be our noblest parts dryed vp with sorrow Thus is our mind with too much minding spilled One day layes vp stuffe of griefe for the morrow And whose good haps do leaue him vnprouided Condoling cause of friendship he will borrow Betwixt the good and shade of good diuided We pittie deeme that which but weakenes is So are we from our high creation slided But Plangus lest I may your sicknesse misse Or rubbing hurt the sore I here doo end The asse did hurt when he did thinke to kisse When Zelmane had read it ouer marueyling verie much of the speeche of Eronas death and therefore desirous to know further of it but more desirous to heare Philoclea speake Most excellent Ladie saide she one may be little the wiser for reading this Dialogue since it nether sets foorth what this Plangus is nor what Erona is nor what the cause should be which threatens her with death and him with sorow therefore I woulde humbly craue to vnderstand the particular discourse thereof because I must confesse some thing in my trauaile I haue heard of this strange matter which I would be glad to finde by so sweet an authoritie confirmed The trueth is answered Philoclea that after hee knew my father to bee Prince of this countrie while hee hoped to preuaile something with him in a great request hee made vnto him hee was content to open fully the estate both of himselfe and of that Ladie which with my
thing in trueth neuer till this time by me either heard or suspected for who could thinke without hauing such a minde as Antiphilus that so great a beautie as Eronas indeed excellent could not haue held his affection so great goodnes could not haue bound gratefulnesse and so high aduancement could not haue satisfied his ambition But therefore true it is that wickednesse may well be compared to a bottomlesse pit into which it is farre easier to keepe ones selfe from falling then being fallen to giue ones selfe any stay from falling infinitely But for my Cosen and me vpon this cause we parted from Erona Euardes the braue and mighty Prince whom it was my fortune to kill in the combat for Erona had three Nephewes sonnes to a sister of his all three set among the foremost rancks of Fame for great minds to attempt and great force to perfourme what they did attempt especially the eldest by name Anaxius to whom all men would willingly haue yeelded the height of praise but that his nature was such as to bestow it vpon himselfe before any could giue it For of so vnsupportable a pride he was that where his deeds might wel stir enuie his demeanor did rather breed disdaine And if it bee true that the Gyants euer made war against heauen he had bene a fit ensigne-bearer for that company For nothing seemed hard to him though impossible and nothing vniust while his liking was his iustice Now he in these wars flatly refused his aid because he could not brooke that the worthy Prince Plangus was by his cosen Tiridates preferred before him For allowing no other weights but the sword and speare in iudging of desert how-much he esteemed himselfe before Plangus in that so much would he haue had his allowance in his seruice But now that he vnderstood that his vncle was slaine by me I think rather scorne that any should kil his vncle then any kindnesse an vn-vsed guest to an arrogant soule made him seeke his reuenge I must confesse in manner gallant enough For he sent a challenge vnto me to meete him at a place appointed in the confines of the kingdome of Lycia where he would proue vpon me that I had by some trecherie ouercome his vncle whom els many hundreds such as I could not haue withstood Youth and successe made mee willing enough to accept any such bargaine especially because I had heard that your cosen Amphialus who for some yeares hath vniuersally borne the name of the best Knight in the world had diuers times fought with him and neuer bene able to master him but so had left him that euery man thought Anaxius in that one vertue of curtesie far short of him in all other his match Anaxius still deeming himselfe for his superiour Therefore to him I would goe and I would needs goe alone because so I vnderstood for certaine he was and I must confesse desirous to do something without the company of the incomparable Prince Musidorus because in my hart I acknowledge that I owed more to his presence then to any thing in my selfe whatsoeuer before I had done For of him indeed as of any worldly cause I must grant as receiued what euer there is or may be good in me He taught me by word and best by example giuing mee in him so liuely an Image of vertue as ignorance could not cast such mist ouer mine eyes as not to see and to loue it and all with such deare friendship and care as ô heauen how can my life euer requite vnto him which made me indeed finde in my selfe such a kind of depending vpon him as without him I found a weakenesse and a mistrustfulnes of my selfe as one strayed from his best strength when at any time I mist him Which humour perceiuing to ouer-rule me I straue against it not that I was vnwilling to depend vpon him in iudgement but by weakenesse I would not which though it held me to him made me vnworthy of him Therefore I desired his leaue and obtained it such confidence he had in me preferring my reputation before his owne tendernesse and so priuately went from him hee determining as after I knew in secret maner not to be far from the place where we appointed to meete to preuent any foule play that might be offered vnto me Full loth was Erona to let vs depart from her as it were forefeeling the harmes which after fel to her But I ridde fully from those combers of kindnesse and halfe a dayes iorney in my way toward Anaxius met an aduēture which though in it self of smal importance I wil tel you at large because by the occasion thereof I was brought to as great comber and danger as lightly any might escape As I past through a Laund ech side whereof was so bordred both with high tymber trees and copses of farre more humble growth that it might easily bring a solitarie minde to looke for no other companions then the wild burgesses of the forrest I heard certaine cries which comming by pawses to mine eares from within the wood of the right hand made mee well assured by the greatnesse of the crie it was the voice of a man though it were a verie vnmanlike voice so to crie But making mine eare my guide I left not many trees behinde me before I sawe at the bottome of one of them a gentle-man bound with many garters hand foot so as well he might tomble and tosse but neither runne nor resist he coulde Vpon him like so many Eagles vpon an Oxe were nine Gentle-women truely such as one might wel enough say they were hansome Eche of them held bodkins in their handes wherewith they continually pricked him hauing bene before-hand vnarmed of any defence from the wast vpward but onely of his shirte so as the poore man wept and bled cried and praied while they sported themselues in his paine and delighted in his praiers as the argumentes of their victorie I was moued to compassion and so much the more that hee straight cald to me for succour desiring me at lest to kill him to deliuer him from those tormenters But before my-selfe could resolue much lesse any other tell what I would resolue there came in cholericke hast towards me about seuen or eight knights the foremost of which willed me to get me away not to trouble the Ladies while they were taking their due reuenge but with so ouer-mastring a maner of pride as truly my heart could not brooke it and therefore answering them that howe I woulde haue defended him from the Ladies I knew not but from them I would I began a combat first with him particularly and after his death with the others that had lesse good maners ioyntly But such was the ende of it that I kept the fielde with the death of some and flight of others In so much as the women afraid what angrie victorie would bring forth ran all away sauing onely one who was so flesht
some-thing of that Pamphilus stept to comfort her and though I could not doo that yet I gotte thus much knowledge of her that this being the same Leucippe to whome the vnconstant Pamphilus had betrothed himselfe which had moued the other Ladies to such indignation as I tolde you neither her worthines which in trueth was great nor his owne suffering for her which is woont to endeare affection could fetter his ficklenes but that before his mariage-daye appointed he had taken to wife that Baccha of whome she complained one that in diuers places I had heard before blazed as the most impudently vnchaste woman of all Asia and withall of such an imperiousnes therein that she would not stick to employe them whome she made vnhappie with her fauour to drawe more companions of their follie in the multitude of whome she did no lesse glorie then a Captaine would doo of being followed by braue Souldiers waiwardly proud and therefore bold because extreamely faultie and yet hauing no good thing to redeeme both these and other vnlouely parts but a little beautie disgraced with wandring eyes and vnwaied speeches yet had Pamphilus for her left Leucippe and withal left his faith Leucippe of whom one look in a cleer iudgement would haue bene more acceptable then all her kindnesses so prodigallie bestowed For my selfe the remembrance of his cruell handling Dido ioyned to this stirred me to seeke some reuenge vpon him but that I thought it should be a gayne to him to lose his life being so matched and therefore leauing him to be punished by his owne election we conueyed Leucippe to a house thereby dedicated to Vestall Nunnes where she resolued to spend all her yeares which her youth promised should be many in bewayling the wrong and yet praying for the wrong doer But the next morning we hauing striuen with the Sunnes earlines were scarcely beyond the prospect of the high turrets of that building when there ouertoke vs a young Gentleman for so he seemed to vs but indeede sweete Ladie it was the faire Zelmane Plexirtus daughter whom vnconsulting affection vnfortunately borne to me-wardes had made borrowe so much of her naturall modestie as to leaue her more-decent rayments and taking occasion of Andromanas tumultuous pursuing vs had apparelled her selfe like a page with a pitifull crueltie cutting of her golden haire leauing nothing but the short curles to couer that noble heade but that she ware vpon it a faire head-peece a shielde at her back and a launce in her hand els disarmed Her apparell of white wrought vpon with broken knots her horse faire and lustie which she rid so as might shew a fearefull boldnes daring to doo that which she knew that she knew not how to doo and the sweetenes of her countenance did giue such a grace to what she did that it did make hansome the vnhansomnes and make the eye force the minde to beleeue that there was a praise in that vnskilfulnesse But she straight approached me and with fewe woords which borrowed the help of her countenance to make themselues vnderstoode she desired me to accept her into my seruice telling me she was a noblemans sonne of Iberia her name Daiphantus who hauing seene what I had done in that court had stolne from her father to follow me I enquired the particularities of the maner of Andromanas following me which by her I vnderstood she hiding nothing but her sexe from me And still me thought I had seen that face but the great alteration of her fortune made her far distant from my memorie but liking very well the yong Gentleman such I tooke her to be admitted this Daiphantus about me who well shewed there is no seruice like his that serues because he loues For though born of Princes bloud brought vp with tēderest education vnapt to seruice because a woman and full of thoughts because in a strange estate yet Loue enioyned such diligence that no apprentise no no bondslaue could euer be by feare more readie at all commaundementes then that yong Princesse was How often alas did her eyes say vnto me that they loued and yet I not looking for such a matter had not my conceipt open to vnderstand them how often would she come creeping to me betweene gladnes to be neere me and feare to offend me Truely I remember that then I meruailed to see her receiue my commandements with sighes and yet do them with cheerefulnes sometimes answering me in such riddles as I then thought a childish inexperience but since returning to my remēbrance they haue come more cleere vnto my knowledge and pardon me onely deare Lady that I vse many words for her affection to me deserues of me an affectionate speach But in such sort did she serue me in that kingdom of Bythinia for two moneths space In which time we brought to good end a cruell warre long maintained betweene the king of Bythinia and his brother For my excellent cousin and I diuiding our selues to either side found meanes after some triall we had made of our selues to get such credit with them as we brought them to as great peace between themselues as loue towards vs for hauing made the peace Which done we intended to returne through the Kingdome of Galatia towarde Thrace to ease the care of our father and mother who we were sure first with the shipwracke and then with the other dangers we dayly past should haue little rest in their thoughts till they saw vs. But we were not entred into that kingdome when by the noise of a great fight we were guided to a pleasant valey which like one of those Circusses which in great cities some-where doth giue a pleasant spectacle of running horses so of either side stretching it selfe in a narrow length was it hemd in by wooddy hilles as if indeed Nature had meant therein to make a place for beholders And there we behelde one of the cruellest fightes betweene two Knights that euer hath adorned the most martiall storie So as I must confesse a while we stood bewondred another while delighted with the rare brauery therof til seeing such streames of bloud as threatned a drowning of life we gallopped toward them to part them But we were preuented by a dosen armed Knights or rather villains who vsing this time of their extreame feeblenesse all together set vpon them But common daunger brake off particular discord so that though with a dying weakenes with a liuely courage they resisted and by our help draue away or slue those murdering attempters among whom we hapt to take aliue the principall But going to disarme those two excellent Knights we found with no lesse wonder to vs then astonishment to themselues that they were the two valiaunt and indeede famous Brothers Tydeus and Telenor whose aduenture as afterward we made that vngratious wretch confesse had thus fallen out After the noble Prince Leonatus had by his fathers death succeeded in the kingdome of Galatia he forgetting all former iniuries
company was vnfit for such a parley and therefore to keepe his braines the busier letting him vnderstand what she had learned of his daughters touching Eronas distresse whom in her trauaile she had knowne and bene greatly beholding to she desired him to finish the rest for so far as Plangus had told him Because she said and she said truly she was ful of care for that Ladie whose desart onely except an ouer-base choise was nothing agreeable to misfortune Basilius glad that she would commaund him any thing but more glad that in excusing the vnfitnesse of that time she argued an intention to graunt a fitter obeyed her in this manner Madam said he it is verie true that since yeares enhabled mee to iudge what is or is not to be pitied I neuer saw any thing that more moued me to iustifie a vehement compassion in my selfe then the estate of that Prince whom strong against all his owne afflictions which yet were great as I perceaue you haue heard yet true and noble loue had so pulled downe as to lie vnder sorrow for another In so much as I coulde not temper my long idle pen in that subiect which I perceiue you haue seene But then to leaue that vnrepeated which I finde my daughters haue told you It may please you to vnderstand since it pleaseth you to demaund that Antiphilus being crowned and so left by the famous Princes Musidorus and Pyrocles led thence by the challenge of Anaxius who is now in these prouinces of Greece making a dishonorable enquirie after that excellent prince Pyrocles alreadie perished Antiphilus I say being crowned and deliuered from the presence of those two whose vertues while they were presentâ— good schoolmasters suppressed his vanities hee had not strength of mind enough in him to make long delay of discouering what maner of man hee was But streight like one caried vp to so hie a place that hee looseth the discerning of the ground ouer which he is so was his mind lifted so far beyond the leuell of his owne discourse that remembring onely that himselfe was in the high seate of a King he could not perceiue that he was a king of reasonable creatures who would quickly scorne follies and repine at iniuries But imagining no so true propertie of souereigntie as to do what he listed and to list whatsoeuer pleased his fansie he quickly made his kingdome a Teniscourt where his subiects should be the balles not in truth cruelly but licenciously abusing them presuming so far vpon himselfe that what he did was liked of euery bodie nay that his disgraces wâ—re fauours all because he was a King For in Nature not able to conceyue the boundes of great matters suddenly borne into an vnknowne Ocean of absolute power hee was swayed with all hee knew not howe as euery winde of passions puffed him Whereto nothing helped him better then that poysonous sugar of flatterie which some vsed out of the innate basenesse of their hart straight like dogges fawning vppon the greatest others secretely hating him and disdayning his great rising so suddenly so vndeseruedly finding his humour bent their exalting him onely to his ouerthrow like the bird that caries the shell-fish high to breake him the easier with his fall But his mind being an apt matter to receaue what forme their amplifying speeches would lay vpon it daunced so prettie a musicke to their false measure that he thought himselfe the wysest the woorthyest and best beloued that euer gaue honour to a royal tytle And being but obscurely borne he had found out vnblushing pedegrees that made him not only of the blood royal but true heyre though vniustly dispossest by Eronas auncestours like the foolish birde that when it so hides the heade that it sees not it selfe thinks no bodie else sees it so did he imagine that no bodie knew his basenesse while he himselfe turned his eyes from it Then vainenesse a meager friend to gratefulnesse brought him so to despise Erona as of whome he had receiued no benefit that within halfe a yeeres mariage he began to pretend barrennesse making first an vnlawfull law of hauing mo wiues then one hee still keeping Erona vnder-hand by messages sought Artaxia who no lesse hating him then louing as vnluckie a choise the naughtie King Plexirtus yet to bring to passe what shee purposed was content to train him into false hopes till alreadie his imagination had crowned him King of Armenia and had made that but the foundation of more and more monarchies as if fortune had only gotteÌ„ eies to cherish him In which time a great assembly of most part of all the Princes of Asia being to do honour to the neuer sufficiently praised Pyrocles Musidorus hee would be one not to acknowledge his obligation which was as great as any of the others but looking to haue bene yong-mastered among those great estates as he was amoÌ„g his abusinâ— vnderlings But so many valorous Princes in-deed farre neerer to disdain him then otherwise he was quickly as standing vpon no true ground inwardly out of countenance with himselfe till his seldom-comfortlesse â—latterers perswading him it was enuie and feare of his expected greatnes made him hast away from that company and without further delay appointed the meeting with Artaxia so incredibly blinded with the ouer-bright shining of his roialty that he could thinke such a Queene would be content to be ioined-patent with an other to haue such an husband Poore Erona to all this obeied either vehemency of affection making her stoop to so ouerbase a seruitude or astonished with an vnlooked-for fortune dull to any behoofefull resolution or as many times it falles out euen in great harts when they can accuse none but themselues desperatly bent to maintaine it For so went she on in that way of her loue that poore Lady to be beyond all other examples of ill-set affection she was brought to write to Artaxia that she was content for the publike good to be a second wife and yeeld the first place to her nay to extoll him and euen woo Artaxia for him But Artaxia mortally hating them both for her brothers sake was content to hide her hate till she had time to shew it and pretending that all her grudge was against the two paragons of vertue Musidorus and Pyrocles euen met them halfe way in excusing her brothers murder as not being principall actors and of the otherside driuen to what they did by the euer-pardonable necessitie and so well handled the matter as though she promised nothing yet Antiphilus promised himselfe all that she would haue him thinke And so a solemne enteruiew was appointed But as the Poets say Hymen had not there his saffron-coloured cote For Artaxia laying men secretly and easily they might be secret since Antiphilus thought she ouerran him in loue when he came euen readie to embrace her shewing rather a countenaunce of accepting then offering they came forth and hauing much aduauntage both in number
vniuersalitie whereof wee are but the lest pieces shoulde bee vtterly deuoide thereof as if one shoulde saie that ones foote might be wise and him selfe foolish This hearde I once alledged against such a godlesse minde as yours who being driuen to acknowledge this beastly absurditie that our bodies should be better then the whole worlde if it had the knowledge whereof the other were voide he sought not able to answere directly to shifte it off in this sorte that if that reason were true then must it followe also that the world must haue in it a spirite that could write and read too and be learned since that was in vs commendable wretched foole not considering that Bookes bee but supplies of defects and so are praysed because they helpe our want and therefore cannot be incident to the eternall intelligence which needes no recording of opinions to confirme his knowledge no more then the Sunne wants waxe to be the fewell of his glorious lightfulnes This world therfore cannot otherwise consist but by a minde of Wisedome which gouernes it which whether you will allow to beâ— the Creator thereof as vndoubtedly he is or the soule and gouernour thereof most certaine it is that whether he gouerne all or make all his power is aboue either his creatures or his gouernement And if his power be aboue all thinges then consequently it must needes be infinite since there is nothing aboue it to limit it For beyond which there is nothing must needes be boundlesse and infinite if his power be infinite then likewise must his knowledge be infinite for else there should be an infinite proportion of power which he should not know how to vse the vnsensiblenesse whereof I thinke euen you can conceaue and if infinite then must nothing no not the estate of flies which you with so vnsauerie skorne did iest at be vnknowne vnto him For if it were then there were his knowledge bounded and so not infinite if knowledge and power be infinite then must needs his goodnesse and iustice march in the same rancke for infinitenes of power and knowledge without like measure of goodnesse must necessarily bring foorth destruction and ruine and not ornament and preseruation Since then there is a God and an all-knowing God so as he sees into the darkest of all naturall secretes which is the hart of Man and sees therein the deepest dissembled thoughts nay sees the thoughts before they be thought since he is iust to exercise his might and mightie to performe his iustice assure thy selfe most wicked woman that hast so plaguily a corrupted minde as thou canst not keepe thy sickenesse to thy selfe but must most wickedly infect others assure thy selfe I say for what I say dependes of euerlasting and vnremooueable causes that the time will come when thou shalt knowe that power by feeling it when thou shalt see his wisedome in the manifesting thy ougly shamefulnes and shalt onely perceiue him to haue bene a Creator in thy destruction Thus she saide thus she ended with so faire maiestie of vnconquered vertue that captiuitie might seeme to haue authoritie ouer tyrannie so fowly was the filthinesse of impietie discouered by the shining of her vnstayned goodnes so farre as either Cecropia saw indeed or else the guilty amazement of a selfe-accusing conscience made her eies vntrue iudges of their naturall obiect that there was a light more then humaine which gaue a lustre to her perfections But Cecropia like a Batte which though it haue eyes to discerne that there is a Sunne yet hath so euill eyes that it cannot delight in the Sunne found a trueth but could not loue it But as great persons are woont to make the wrong they haue done to be a cause to doo the more wrong her knowledge rose to no higher point but to enuâ—e a worthier and her will was no otherwise bent but the more to hate the more she found her enemie prouided against her Yet all the while she spake though with eyes cast like a horse that would strike at the stirrop and with colour which blushed through yellownesse she sate rather still then quiet and after her speech rather muttered then replied for the warre of wickednesse in her selfe brought forth disdainefull pride to resist cunning dissimulation so as saying little more vnto her but that she should haue leysure inough better to bethinke her selfe she went away repining but not repenting condemning greatly as she thought her sonnes ouer-feeble humblenesse and purposing to egge him forward to a course of violence For her selfe determining to deale wiâ—h neither of them both any more in maner of a suter for what maiestie of vertue did in the one that did silent humblenesse in the other But finding her sonne ouer-apt to lay both condemnation and execution of sorrow vpon himselfe she sought to mitigate his minde with feigned delayes of comfort who hauing this inward ouerthrow in himselfe was the more vexed that he could not vtter the rage thereof vpon his outward enemies For Basilius taught by the last dayes triall what daungerous effectes chosen courages can bring forth rather vsed the spade then the sworde or the sworde but to defende the spade girding about the whole towne with trenches which beginning a good way off from the towne with a number of well directed Pioners he still caryed before him till they came to a neere distance where he builded Fortes one answering the other in such sort as it was a pretie consideration in the discipline of warre to see building vsed for the instrument of ruine and the assayler entrenched as if he were besieged But many sallies did Amphialus make to hinder their working But they exercising more melancholie then choller in their resolution made him finde that if by the aduauntage of place fewe are able to defende themselues from manie that manie must needes haue power making themselues strong in seate to repell fewe referring the reuenge rather to the ende then a present requitall Yet oftentimes they dealt some blowes in light skirmishes eche side hauing a strong retyring place and rather fighting with manie alarums to vexe the enemie then for anie hope of great successe Which euerie way was a tedious comber to the impacient courage of Amphialus till the fame of this warre bringing thither diuerse both straungers and subiects as well of princely as noble houses the gallant Phalantus who refrained his sportfull delightes as then to serue Basilius whome he honoured for receyued honours when he had spent some time in considering the Arcadian manner in marching encamping and fighting and had learned in what points of gouernement and obedience their discipline differed from others and so had satisfied his minde in the knowledges both for the cutting off the enemies helpes and furnishing ones selfe which Basilius orders could deliuer vnto him his yong spirits wearie of wanting cause to be wearie desired to keepe his valure in knowledge by some priuate acte since the publique policie restrayned him
And then melancholie only rich in vnfortunate remembrances brought before him all the mishaps with which his life had wrestled taking this not only as a confirming of the former but a presage of following miserie and to his harte alredy ouercome by sorrowfulnes euen trifling misfortunes came to fill vp the rolle of a grieued memorie labouring only his wits to pearce farther â—arther into his owne wretchednes So as all that night in despite of darknes he held his eyes open and the morning when the light began to restore to each body his colour then with curtaines bard he himselfe froÌ„ the enioying of it neither willing to feele the comfort of the day nor the ease of the night vntil his mother who neuer knew what loue meant but only to himward came to his bed side and beginning with louing earnestnes to lay a kind chiding vpoÌ„ him because he would suffer the weaknes of sorow to conquere the strength of his vertues he did with a broken peece-meale speach as if the teÌ„pest of passion vnorderly blewe out his words remember the mishaps of his youth the euils he had ben cause of his rebelling with Shame that shame increased with shamefull accidents the deaths of Philoxenus Parthenia wherein he found himselfe hated of the euer-ruling powers but especially and so especially as the rest seemed nothing when he came to that his fatall loue to Philoclea to whom he had so gouerned himselfe as one that could neither conquer nor yeeld being of the one side a slaue of the other a iaylor and with all almost vpbrayding vnto his mother the little successe of her large hoping promises he in effect finding Philoclea nothing mollified and now himselfe so cast downe as hee thought him vnworthy of better But his mother as she had plentifull cause making him see that of his other griefes there was little or no fault in himself and therfore there ought to be little or no griefe in him when she came to the head of the sore indeed seeing that she could no loÌ„ger patch vp her former promises he taking a desperat deafnes to all delaying hopes she confest plainly that she could preuaile nothing but the fault was his owne who had marred the yong Girle by seeking to haue that by praier which he should haue taken by authoritie That as it were an absurd cunning to make hie ladders to go in a plaine way so was it an vntimely and foolish flattery there to beseech where one might commaund puffing them vp by being besought with such a selfe-pride of superioritie that it was not forsooth to be held out but by a denial O God said Amphialus how wel I thought my fortune would bring forth this end of your labors assure yourself mother I wil sooner pull out these eies then they shall looke vpoÌ„ the heauenly Philoclea but as vpoÌ„ a heauen whence they haue their light to which they are subiect if they wil power downe any influeÌ„ces of comfort O happy I but if by the sacrifice of a faithful hart they wil not be called vnto me let me languish wither with languishing and grieue with withering but neuer so much as repine with neuer so much grieuing Mother ô Mother lust may wel be a tyrant but true loue where it is indeed it is a seruant Accursed more then I am may I be if euer I did approch her but that I friezed asmuch in a fearefull reuereÌ„ce as I burned in a vehemeÌ„t desire Did euer maÌ„s eye looke thorough loue vpoÌ„ the maiesty of vertue shining through beauty but that he becam as it wel becam him a captiue is it the stile of a captiue to write Our will and pleasure Tush tush sonne said Cecropia if you say you loue but withall you feare you feare lest you should offend offend and how know you that you should offend because she doth denie denie Now by my truth if your sadnes would let me laugh I could laugh hartily to see that yet you are ignorant that No is no negatiue in a womans mouth My sonne beleeue me a woman speaking of women a louers modesty among vs is much more praised then liked or if we like it so well we like it that for marring of his modestie he shall neuer proceed further Each vertue hath his time if you command your souldier to march formost and he for curtesie put others before him would you praise his modesty loue is your Generall he bids you dare and will Amphialus be a dastard Let examples serue doo you thinke Theseus should euer haue gotten Antiope with sighing and crossing his armes he rauished her and rauished her that was an Amazon and therfore had gotten a habite of stoutnes aboue the nature of a woman but hauing rauished her he got a child of her And I say no more but that they say is not gotten without consent of both sides Iole had her owne father killed by Hercules and her selfe rauished by force rauished and yet ere long this rauished and vnfathered Lady could sportfully put on the Lions skin vpon her owne faire shoulders and play with the clubbe with her owne delicate hands so easily had she pardoned the rauisher that she could not but delight in those weapons of rauishing But aboue all marke Helen daughter to Iupiter who could neuer brooke her manerly-wooing Menclaus but disdained his humblenes and lothed his softnes But so well she could like the force of enforcing Paris that for him she could abide what might be abidden But what Menelaus takes hart he recouers her by force by force carries her home by force inioies her and she who could neuer like him for seruiceablenesse euer aftâ—r loued him for violence For what can be more agreable then vpon force to lay the fault of desire and in one instant to ioyne a deare delight with a iust excuse or rather the true cause is pardon me ô woman-kinde for reuealing to mine owne sonne the truth of this mystery we thinke there wants fire where we finde no sparkles at lest of furie Truly I haue knowen a great Lady long sought by most great most wise most beautifull most valiant persons neuer wonne because they did ouer-superstitiously sollicite her the same Ladie brought vnder by an other inferiour to all them in all those qualities onely because he could vse that imperious maisterfulnesse which nature giues to men aboue women For indeede sonne I confesse vnto you in our very creation we are seruants and who prayseth his seruaunts shall neuer be well obeyed but as a ready horse streight yeeldes when he findes one that will haue him yeelde the same fals to boundes when he feeles a fearefull horseman Awake thy spirits good Amphialus and assure thy selfe that though she refuseth she refuseth but to endeere the obtaining If she weepe and chide and protest before it be gotten she can but weepe and chide and protest when it is gotten Thinke she would not striue but that
indeede you shall haue the ende you shoote at for in steede of one death you shall geue me a thousand and yet in the meane time depriue me of the helpe God may sende me Pyrocles euen ouerwayed with her so wisely vttred affection finding her determinacion so fixed that his ende should but depriue them both of a present contentment and not auoyde a comming euill as a man that ranne not vnto it by a sodayne qualme of passion but by a true vse of reason preferring her life to his owne nowe that wisedome did manifest vnto him that waye woulde not preuayle he retired himselfe with as much tranquillitie from it as before he had gone vnto it Like a man that had set the keeping or leauing of the bodye as a thing without himselfe and so had thereof a freed and vntroubled consideracion Therefore throwing away the barre from him and taking her vp from the place where he thought the consummating of all beawties very vnworthely lay suffring all his sences to deuoure vp their chiefest foode which he assured himselfe they should shortly after for euer be depriued of well said he most deere Lady whose contentment I preferre before mine own and iudgement esteeme more then mine owne I yeeld vnto your pleasure The gods send you haue not woon your owne losse For my part they are my witnesses that I thinke I do more at your commaundement in delayeng my death then another would in bestowing his life But now sayd he as thus farre I haue yeelded vnto you so graunt me in recompence thus much againe that I may finde your loue in graunting as you haue sound your authoritye in obteyning My humble suite is you will say I came in by force into your Chamber for so am I resolued now to affirme and that will be the best for vs both but in no case name my name that whtsoeuer come of me my house be not dishonored Philoclea fearing least refusall would turne him backe againe to his violent refuge gaue him a certayne countenance that might shewe she did yeeld to his request the latter part whereof indeed she meant for his sake to performe Neyther could they spend more wordes together for Philanax with twentie of the noblest personages of Arcadia after him were come into the Lodge Philanax making the rest stay belowe for the reuerence he bare to womanhood as stillie as he could came to the dore and opening it drewe the eyes of these two dolefull louers vpon him Philoclea cloasing againe for modestie sake within her bed the ritchesse of her beawties but Pyrocles tooke holde of his barre minding at least to dye before the excellent Philoclea should receyue any outrage But Philanax rested awhile vppon himselfe stricken with admiracion at the goodlie shape of Pyrocles whome before he had neuer seene and withall remembring besides others the notable acte he had done when with his courage and eloquence he had saued Basilius perchaunce the whole state from vtter ruyne he felte a kinde of relenting minde towardes him But when that same thought came waighted on with the remembraunce of his maisters death which he by all probabilities thought he had bene of Councell vnto with the Queene compassion turned to hatefull passion and lefte in Philanax a straunge medley betwixt pittie and reuenge betwixt lyking and abhorring O Lorde sayde hee to himselfe what wonders doth nature in our tyme to set wickednesse so beawtifully garnished and that which is straungest out of one spring to make wonderfull effectes both of vertue and vice to issue Pyrocles seeing him in such a muse neyther knowing the man nor the cause of his comming but assuring himselfe it was for no good yet thought best to begin with him in this sort Gentleman sayde hee what is the cause of your comming to my Lady Philocleas chamber is it to defende her from such violence as I might goe about to offer vnto her if it be so truly your comming is vayne for her owne vertue hath bene a sufficient resistaunce there needes no strength to be added to so inuiolate chastetie the excellencie of her mind makes her bodie impregnable Which for mine own part I had soone yelded to confesse with going out of this place where I found but little comfort being so disdainefully receiued had I not bene I know not by whom presently vpon my cōming hether so locked into this chamber that I could neuer escape hence where I was fettred in the most gilty shame that euer mā was seing what a paradise of vnspotted goodnes my filthy thoughts sought to defile If for that therfore you come alredy I assure you your arrāt is performed but if it be to bring me to any punishmēt whatsouer for hauing vndertaken so vnexcusable presumption Truly I beare such an accuser about me of mine own conscience that I willingly submit my selfe vnto it Only this much let me demaund of you that you will be a witnesse vnto the King what you heare me say oppose your selfe that neither his sodaine fury nor any other occasion may offer any hurt to this Lady in whome you see nature hath accomplished so much that I am faine to lay mine owne faultines as a foile of her purest excellency I can say no more but looke vppon her beawtie remember her bloud consider her yeares and iudge rightly of her vertues and I doubt not a gentlemans mind will then be a sufficient enstructer vnto you in this I may tearme it miserable chaunce happened vnto her by my vnbridled audacitie Philanax was content to heare him out not for any fauour he owed him but to see whether he would reueale any thing of the originall cause and purpose of the kings death But finding it so farre from that that he named Basilius vnto him as supposing him aliue thinking it rather cunning then ignorance Yong man said he whome I haue cause to hate before I haue meane to know you vse but a point of skill by confessing the manifest smaller fault to be beleeued hereafter in the deniall of the greater But for that matter all passeth to one end and hereafter we shal haue leisure by torments to seke the truth if the loue of truth it selfe will not bring you vnto it As for my Lady Philoclea if it so fall out as you say it shall be the more fit for her yeares comedy for the great house she is come of that an ill gouerned beawtie hath not cancelled the rules of vertue But howsoeuer it be it is not for you to teach an Arcadian what reuerent duty we owe to any of that progeny But said he come you with me without resistance for the one cannot auaile and the other may procure pitie Pitie said Pyrocles with a bitter smiling disdained with so currish an answere no no Arcadian I can quickly haue pitie of my selfe and I would think my life most miserable which should be a gift of thine Only I demaund this innocent Ladies securitie which vntill
thou hast cōfirmed vnto me by an oath assure thy selfe the first that layes hands vpō her shall leaue his life for a testimony of his sacriledge Philanax with an inward storme thinking it most manifest they were both he at least of counsell with the kings death well said he you speake much to me of the king I do here sweare vnto you by the loue I haue euer borne him she shal haue no worse howsoeuer it fal out then her own parents And vpon that word of yours I yeld said the poore Pyrocles deceiued by him that ment not to deceiue him Then did Philanax deliuer him into the hands of a noble man in the company euery one desirous to haue him in his charge so much did his goodly presence wherin true valure shined breede a delightfull admiration in all the beholders Philanax himselfe stayed with Philoclea to see whether of her he might learne some disclosing of this former conclusion But she sweet Lady whom first a kindly shamefastnes had separated from Pyrocles hauing bene left in a more open view then her modesty would well beare then the attending her fathers comming and studying how to behaue her selfe towards him for both their safeties had called her spirits all within her now that vpon a sodaine Pyrocles was deliuered out of the chamber from her at the first she was so surprized with the extreame stroke of the wofull sight that like those that in their dreames are taken with some ougly vision they would fain cry for help but haue no force so remained she awhile quite depriued not only of speach but almost of any other liuely actiō But whē indeed Pyrocles was quite drawne frō her eys that her vital strēgth begā to return vnto her now not knowing what they did to Pyrocles but according to the nature of loue fearing the worst wringing her hands and letting abundance of teares be the first part of her eloquence bending her Amber-crowned head ouer her bed side to the hard-hearted Philanax O Philanax Philanax sayd she I knowe how much authoritye you haue with my father there is no man whose wisedome he so much esteemes nor whose faith so much he reposeth vpon Remember how oft you haue promised your seruice vnto me how oft you haue geuen me occasion to beleeue that there was no Lady in whose fauor you more desired to remayne and if the remembrance be not vnpleasant to your mind or the rehearsall vnfitting for my fortune remember there was a time when I could deserue it Now my chaunce is turned let not your truth turne I present my selfe vnto you the most humble and miserable suppliant liuing neither shall my desire be great I seeke for no more life then I shall be found worthy of If my bloud may wash away the dishonor of Arcadia spare it not although through me it hath in deede neuer bene dishonored My only sute is you wil be a meane for me that while I am suffered to enioy this life I may not be separated from him to whom the Gods haue ioyned me and that you determine nothing of him more cruelly then you do of me If you rightly iudge of what hath past wherein the Gods that should haue bene of our mariage are witnesses of our innocencies then procure we may liue together But if my father will not so conceiue of vs as the fault if any were was vnited so let the punishmēt be vnited also There was no man that euer loued either his Prince or any thing pertaining to him with a truer zeale then Philanax did This made him euen to the depth of his heart receiue a most vehemēt griefe to see his master made as it were more miserable after death And for himselfe calling to mind in what sort his life had bene preserued by Philoclea what time taken by Amphialus he was like to suffer a cruell death there was nothing could haue kept him from falling to all tender pittie but the perfect perswasion he had that all this was ioyned to the packe of his maisters death which the misconceiued speech of marriage made him the more beleeue Therefore first muttering to himselfe such like words The violence the gentleman spake of is now turned to mariage he alledged Mars but she speakes of Venus O vnfortunate maister This hath bene that faire diuell Gynaecia sent away one of her daughters prostituted the other empoysoned thee to ouerthrowe the diademe of Arcadia But at length thus vnto her selfe he sayde If your father Madame were now to speake vnto truly there should no body be found a more ready aduocate for you then my selfe For I would suffer this fault though very great to be blotted out of my minde by your former led life your benefit towards my selfe and being daughter to such a father But since among your selues you haue taken him away in whome was the only power to haue mercy you must now be clothed in your owne working and looke for none other then that which dead pittilesse lawes may allot vnto you For my part I loued you for your vertue but now where is that I loued you in respect of a priuate benefit what is that in comparison of the publike losse I loued you for your father vnhappy folks you haue robbed the world of him These words of her father were so little vnderstood by the only well vnderstanding Philoclea that she desired him to tell her what he meant to speake in such darke sort vnto her of her lord and father whose displeasure was more dreadfull vnto her then her punishment that she was free in her owne conscience she had neuer deserued euill of him no not in this last fact wherein if it pleased him to proceed with patience he should finde her choise had not bene vnfortunate He that saw her words written in the plaine table of her faire face thought it impossible there should therin be contained deceite and therfore so much the more abashed Why said he Madame would you haue me thinke you are not of conspiracy with the Princesse Pamelas flight and your fathers death with that word the sweet Lady gaue a pittifull cry hauing streight in her face breast abundance of witnesses that her hart was far from any such abhominable consent Ah of all sides vtterly ruined Philoclea said she now in deed I may well suffer all conceite of hope to dye in mee Deare father where was I that might not do you my last seruice before soone after miserably following you Philanax perceiued the demonstracion so liuely true in her that he easily acquited her in his heart of that fact and the more was moued to ioyne with her in most heartie lamentation But remembring him that the burthen of the state and punishment of his masters murderers lay all vpon him Well sayde he Madame I can do nothing without all the states of Arcadia what they will determine of you I know not for my part your speaches would much preuaile