LOVE In it's EXTASIE: OR, The large Prerogative.

A kind of Royall Pastorall written long since, by a Gentleman, Student at Aeton, and now published.

Multitudine Amicarum est salus.

LONDON, Printed by W. Wilson for Mercy Meighen, Gabriell Bedell, and Thomas Collins, and are to be sold at their shop at Middle Temple gate. 1649.

To the Reader.

READER,

THe torrent of the Presse that now sweepes All, amongst other Pamphlets has laid this before you. Did the Stage enjoy 'its former lustre, this would have lien still neglected and forgotten: but since those pastimes are denied us wherein we saw the soule and genius of all the world lye contracted in the litle compasse of an English Theatre, I have thought fit amidst a number of more serious pieces to ven­ture this in publike. You may be confident there lyes no Treason in it nor State invective, (The common issues of this pregnant age) It is inoffensive all, soft as the milkie dayes in was written in, for although it appeares now so late before you like a winter blossome in the middle of a boysterous and ill­boding season, yet this Interlude was long since the early recreation of a Gentleman not fully Seventeene, and those times admitted but of small di­stempers, or those yeares but little judgement to discerne them. Were all mens Religion come up to the height once of a Drammatick Poem, We should not feare that Stage where Virtue ever finds Reward, and Vice, Repen­tance or a punishment.

Farwell

The Scene Lelybaeus.

The Persons.
  • Charastus, King of Lelybaeus
  • Brabantas, King of Pachynus
  • Sperazus, King of Pelorus
  • Virtusus, Sonne to Brabantas enamoured of Thesbia
  • Fidelio, Sonne to Sperazus betrothed to Constantina
  • Bermudo, A noble man of Lelybaeus
  • Halisdus, An old commander
  • Arontas, The Captaine of the Citadell
  • Spadatus, A Courtier.
  • Iayler
  • Messenger
  • Attendants
  • Guard.
  • Constantina, Sister to Virtusus
  • Thesbia, Sister to Fidelio
  • Desdonella, Sister to Charastus
  • Flavanda, Sister to Bermudo.
  • Eccho.

Love in it's Extasie.

Actus Primus. Scena Prima.

Enter Arontas and Spadatus.
Spa.
YOur feares are vaine Arontas.
Aron.
I wish to heavens they would not prove
True Omens to the King­dome.
Spa.
Can you suppose the King, whose pow­erfull nod
Can force a thousand Virgins, to become their owne bawdes,
And prostitue themselves unto his loose em­braces,
Will for one coy girle resigne that g [...]ft
Onely in which the Gods can truely boast their liberty?
Fye Arontas, think not so poorly of your Soveraign;
He is a Man, and therefore has Ambition.
Aron.
So has he Love.
Sapd.
But can that Love,
That weaker fancy of an idle braine,
Make Charastus yeeld, unto a composition, so absurd?
As for to grant a Kingdome for a conquest.
Aron
'Tis to be feard; The obdurate Girle
Persists still in her enterprise: nor will shee yee'd
The fortresse of her Love without the resig­nation
Of his Diadem unto her Brother, a man
Ambitious as the Devill.
Spa.
Hear reason.
Aron.
'Tis not her will alone,
The womans cheifest argument, that denyes him,
But her weighty reasons, with which she still convinces
All that dare venture opposition.
Spa.
Is not the Kings prerogative an ar­gument
Beyond weake womans will? The wise men say,
Kings ought to force when subjects wo'nt o­bey.
Aron.
Love cannot sir be for [...]'d;
It is a spirit thinner than Ayr, which when
With boysterous hands we strive to capti­vate
Doth vanish into nothing.
Spa.
But should the King, in this his height of dotage,
Offer up his crowne, the Trophee of her cruelty,
Think you his Subjects will e're give consent
That one should weare it, so generally hated as Bermudo?
One fill'd with such variety of wickednesse,
[...]s if the end of his creation was
Onely to shame his Maker.
Aron.
Did he deserve a Worser character,
[Page] Yet when the Crowne, when that imperi­all Gem
Once triumphs on his brow, his Vices Sir
Will turne to virtues: such is the fate of Princes.
Nor may we sir oppose his reign
Since tis our King that wills it.
Kings are the Gods immediate Substitutes,
And their VVills are most divine, and holy statutes,
Which our Religion in so strict a manner
Bindes us to observe, that should Bermudo,
In that very instant, on which the Crowne
Is plac'd upon his head, command our lives,
'Twere more impiety to contradict,
Than cruelty to obey.
Spa.
Strange superstition!
Aron.
It may seeme so to you, a stranger: for
Forraign Nations laugh at us, and call our zeale
A blinde obedience, their prouder hearts
Can brooke no Kings, but like unruly steeds
Contemn their Riders, and blow Rebellion, Witchcrafts Ape,
Even in the faces of their Soveraignes; good Gods!
Is this piety? is this Religion? shall He
The principall of all subordinates, one by that Royall wreath
Distinguish'd from the common Chaos, and created Head?
Shall He be subject to the VVills of an
Irregular Multitude that Knowes nothing of a States necessity?
The Sun- [...]and slave that labours at the Oare
Knowes not a life so servile then. But let 'um on,
And glory in their disobedience: we whose soules
Has stil been subject to those higher powers,
Must allwayes think that man is cheifly blest,
That suffers.
Spa.
Be Happy then, I dare pronounce you Happy
If Bermudo reignes; Felicity with a venge­ance
Will flow unto you, till 'its hideous tor­rent
Has consum'd the Kingdome.
Aron.
If 'tis our fate 't [...]s wellcome, 'twill onely prove
The greater Argument of our Allegiance.
The Citadell, of which I am the unworthy Master
Must be kept strongly for him, till his Will,
Not Tyranny disclaimes it.
Spa.
No more: The Kings on entrance.

Act. 1. Sce. 2.

Loud Musick. Enter Charastus, Flavanda, Bermudo, Halisdus, Spadatus, Arontas, and Attendants.
Cha.
Was't not a direfull Tempest that last night
Affrighted our Horizon? was ever yet your age
Acquainted with the like Halisdus?
Hal.
Never my gratious Lord: yet I have seene
Many, that would have terrified the boldest:
When our Aetnean Hill, spitted his fiery venome
'Gainst the Heavens; when the affrighted Sun
For three dayes has withdrawn himself; yet these
Compar'd with this for horror,
Deserve not to be mentioned.
Cha.
It was a dreadfull night indeed; yet see
How gloriously the Sunne appeares: the Heavens
In labour were all night, & from their preg­nant womb
This morn a Sun springs forth, whose glo­rious beames
Frights back their pristine terrour.
Hal.
Wer't not a sin too great and ir­religious
To mistrust the heavens diviner Mercy,
I should conceive this ill-aboding night
Portendeth some ensuing misery.
Cha.
Doe not Halisdus with thy miscon­struing fear
Strive to disturb our joyes: Thy sight Fla­vanda,
Like to Auroras Beames, darted from out the Eastern Hills,
Expells those drossie exhalations, which this too sad night
Infused to my sadder soul.
Fla.
Your highnesse has a privilege for flattery.
Char.
[Page]
Still harping on that string Flavan­da?
If for to speake what my inclining soul
Prompts me to utter, and to conceive what I have said
Is but a derogation from thy worth, be Flat­tery,
I must confesse I am guilty of that fault,
Which never King did act, unlesse upon himselfe.
Fla.
Pardon my incredulity great Sir.
When I consider that the lofty Pines
Stoop not to brambles, that your S [...]aring Hawkes
Bend not to lesser Birds, except for prey: I must confesse
My virgin fear holds back those wandring thoughts
VVhich your Al-potent Majesty extracted
Lest I should perish like a hasty Blossome
Cropt by the setting winter.
Cha.
Is yet my Loyalty in question?
How oft have I with sacrilegious lipps
Dissected all the Gods for Oathes, and must I still
Remain suspected of disloyalty? surely I have a conscience.
Fla.
Yes, pure and more spotlesse than the wandering snow
VVhich the least breath of any calmer wind
Blowes up and down: such a conscience,
That had it not a burthen of Felicity
I should court its Master.
Cha.
VVas ever yet Felicity a Burthen?
Fla.
Yes, that which you vainly stile one:
You doe suppose a Crown a brave and glo­rious
Trophee of felicity, which had you been without,
One poor commanding word had done that deed,
VVhich now your vain intreaties sue for.
You are my King Sir.
Cha.
But tell me Dearest, how has my for­mer life
Deservd that title of your King: has my taxa­tions
Ever yet filld my oreflowing coffers?
Have I replenish'd once my appetite
VVith the direfull noyse of any subjects cur­ses?
Our gentler reign abhorr'd those vices
Which most Kings doe Boast in: And canst thou think
When I doe subjugate my self to thee,
I shall become more ravenous than when I was
Sole Monarch?
Fla.
I dare not question Sir that virtue which in you
All Princes can't admire enough, much more not imitate.
Tis not the Tyrannick usage of a Scepter
That confirm's a King; He that is truely Royall,
Rules not his kingdome with the severe
And cruell Rigour of an austerer judgement,
But with a mild severity, a virtue which you
Have practis'd long; I must confesse, you are adorn'd
With all the Ornaments that make a King
A second Deity; But can those glorious trappings,
Your Crown, your scepter, arm'd with that virtue too,
Can they all resist those blasts, which en­vious fame
Will hurl upon my honour?
Cha.
What can the giddy multitude report
Against thy virtues? Thou art beyond their malice.
Fla.
I were beyond then all that's good,
Beyond the heavens themselves, and the celestiall powers.
That Love that tends to a superior,
Be it ne're so pure, is amongst them
But an ambitious Lust, sold for preferment.
Should Hymen joyn our hands in a lawfull union
With our hearts, yet they would say,
Flavanda does not give, but prostitutes her love
To satisfie her vaine Ambition: Thus I should ever
Rather bee thought your Strumpet, than your Wife.
Cha.
Canst thou suspect me yet Flavan­da?
Fla.
[Page]
I should suspect my selfe rather, for I know
Our sex are all like watry clouds
Made various still by the reflecting Sun.
Whilst that the Crowne, Great Sir,
Impalls your Royall Brow, I cannot be your Wife
And to be your Whore, I dare not.
Cha.
Infortunate condition of a King! when that
Hi [...] chiefest Ornament becomes his greatest punishment.
A Crowne, and Scepter are but transitory toyes,
That wait on bigg and pompous Misery.
Oh thou ambitious Man, whose soaring thoughts
Aime onely at a crown! knewst thou
The inconver [...]ence now of mine, thou then
Wouldst wish, thou hadst rested in secu­rity,
And nere had sought so vain a happinesse,
Fla.
If that your boasted constancy bee firm
As 'twere a sinne to suspect the contrary,
That our loves may not diminish from each others lustre,
Invest my Brother in your dignity: So I a Princess
May equall you a some [...]times King.
Cha.
Must I resigne, or perish in felicity?
Is this thy doome then still irrevocable?
Fla.
As Fate.
Cha.
A sad and dismall sentence! yet stay,
And ere I part with this same glorious gemme,
Let me recall the long lost man within mee,
And with him, Mans better part, my Reason,
Reason! alas I have none
This trifle woman has unmand my soule,
And made me like her selfe irrationall.
Reason would tell me that I am a King,
And in that name, something there is
That whispers to my thoughts I may com­mand.
'Tis true, I may, o're things
Grosse as my self; This arme of mine can levell
Cedars with the humblest shrubbs, and this my voyce
Can with one accent, breath more certain Fate
Than plague, or Fire. But can its loudest note
Silence one murmuring thought? or can this potent grasp
Inclose heavens lighting, or the smallest beame
Which from the sun is darted? Love is more pure
And lesse substantiall, 'tis no created body, Form,
And Matter, but an etheriall essence, Fan­cyes creatures.
And to be Master of an immateriall Soule,
Who would refuse to sacrifice that drosse,
That clogges Mortality? He is a beast
That would not fall, to rise a Constellation.
Hal.
Yet, Sir, consider what you give,
A Crowne, a Scepter, and a Kingdome.
Cha.
These are but titular Emblemes of [...]elicity,
Visions of Blisse, Symptomes of Happinesse.
What is there in a crowne, worthy our esti­mation?
(He puts it on Flavandus head.
Place it here in its most proper spha [...]re,
'Tis but a glorious trifle; looke now Ha­lisdus
With impartiall eyes, and tell me which casts
The greater lustre; thy silence does con­demne thee.
See, I kisse it, embrace it, and no virtuous heat
Payes a gratuity: One Kisse of hers
Makes me contemplate of a future happi­nesse
That rapes me to an Extasie of pleasure.
Dull, sencelesse, and base stupid E [...]rth,
Goe to the Center; My aery thoughts climbes Heaven,
And graspeth now a Deity.
Ber.
Beware a cloud Ixion▪ if my plo [...]s hitt right,
It shall be twice as fatall.
Char.
Yet 'ere Bermudo
I doe fully cease, 'ere that my soul
Be quite dismantled of that glorious robe
Which Fate so freely did allot [...],
Oh let these dewy drops, the truest Harbingers
of a set [...]ing Sun, entreat thee
Not to bring my frailty to a custome:
Do not, oh do not! do [...]te like me Bermudo,
[Page] Let not posteritie in succeeding times
Account this folly lawfull, and traduce Me,
Me the Originall; 'Twill vex me in my urn.
Ber.
It shall not sir. I'le break the custome,
And to show how much my soule's
Obedient to your will, and that the world may see
That 'tis not pompe nor majesty affects me,
I make a vow before just heavens, and you,
That if ere my heart be conquer'd with a womans love,
Your Crown shall be restor'd.
Cha.
Thou knowst not what thou vow'st Bermudo.
Ber.
I doe my Lord, and know withall
How strictly Religion bindes me to perfor­mance;
For should I dare to violate what I have vow'd,
It would call a curse upon me, high
As the punishment Damnation payes to sin­ners:
I must then royall sir, & so must ye, my Lords,
And Peeres of Lelybaeus, acknowledge him again
Your Soveraign, unlesse a doe a deed
Which humane frailty names impossible,
Cha.
Canst thou be so good Bermudo?
Ber.
'Tis not a Crowne great sir,
With that same large Prerogative annext,
Can make Bermudo be ingratefull;
You nourish'd my declining fortunes,
And brought them to that height which now
They stand in, and should I like ungatefull plant
Consume the stemme that nourish'd me,
In [...]amy would surely blast me.
Cha.
Thus then I doe indulge thee
All the prerogatives of Majestie.
Goe and ascend my throne, and let all with one applause
Say after me, Long live Bermudo King of Lelybaeus.
Trumpets and shouts within.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lely­baeus.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lely­baeus.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lely­baeus.
Ber.
I have it now, seated firm, beyond the power
Of Revocation: Thanks to the Heavens,
And our diviner Policy. Long has this King­dome
Under the easie yoak of an esteminate King
Surfetted with luxury, and been a Proverb
For our neighbouring Princes to express lasciviousness:
The thought whereof did grate my heart,
And stir'd a noble Anger in my blood.
Shame of all Kings, dishonor of thy race,
It was I that forc't my credulous [...]ister
To make this tryall of thy constancy.
I made Flavanda to demand thy Crowne, onely
With a promise to restore it: But can you think
A Gemme so lost, will e're be found
Before the extirpation of that seed
Which thy effeminate government has sown
In this too much abused Kingdome?
Cha.
If that the thought of what I was
Can not procure some reverence,
Yet slight me not [...]or what I may be,
When the conditions which you hold
Your Kingdome by are broken.
Ber.
Conditio [...]s? 'Tis true, I promis'd when e're
My heart was conquer'd with a womans love
Your Crown should be restor'd.
Fla.
That was not all▪ A vow
Was past to me, seal'd with an Oath,
That when our Nuptialls should be solem­niz'd
You would restore the Kingdome.
Ber.
It is confess'd: nor dare I disobey it.
Vowes of this nature may not be broken
Without the violation of Religion.
Cha.
Come dearest then, let Hymenae all Rites
Restore a double happiness.
Ber.
Stay rash man, hear our Decree first▪
Reade Arontas, and let thy voiyce
Strike terror to the Nation.
Arontas reads.

Whereas this [...]ertile Kingdome, under the easie raign of our esteminate predeces­sor, has long su [...]setred with a degenerate passion, which the weaker ones stile Love, the wiser Folly, to the high dishonor of the [Page] Nation, and great displeasure of that Virgin Goddess whose rites we ought to celebrate. That we may now therefore repair our lost honour, appease the wrath of that incens­ed Deity, and avert those judgments which are now so imminent; We have thought fit to decree, and be it decreed by the most high, and excellent Bermudo, the Supreme Lord, and Ruler of this Nation, that for the space of seven years next ensuing, none shall presume to entertain that passion: If any one shall presumpt [...]ously, contrary to this our pleasure, be [...]ound so weak as to express it in the least of Circumstance, their lives to Heavens shall forfeit,

Bermudo.
Ber.
You have heard our will Charastus,
Presume not then to disobey it: 'Tis not the remembrance
Of your former greatness, or the Peoples love,
Can exempt you from the justice of our an­ger.
Could'st thou suppose, fond man, Bermudo
Would restore a Crown for bare gratuity; No,
I did but pull away the baite, to make
The hasty fish receive it with more eager­ness,
Which now is caught, thanks to our In­dustry:
And that the captive may not flatter his imagination
With a hopes of a Recovery, Let our De­crees be publish'd.
Exit Arontas.
Cha.
That sir you have a power to punish my credulity,
This knee, nere bent before to humane greatness, testifies.
Oh Royall sir! Let the severity of your Law stop here,
Here on my head let your anger fall:
Punish not my folly in your loyall Subjects,
Guilty in nothing but obedience. If not for my sake,
For my sisters sake, for Desdonellas sake,
Shee though a Princess lov'd you sir a Sub­ject:
I saw it, and was silent, and surely,
Had not I thought, you had suppos'd
I [...]gratitude the worst of evills,
I neere had left my self so bare,
Cloath'd onely with my shame and ruine.
Ber.
If Desdonella harbours such a thought,
She feeds the flame that will consume her:
Nor she, nor any sir shall dare to doe,
What is deni'd their Soveraigne.
Cha.
Then thus proud man I rise,
And boldly tell you, that though Religion
Tyes our hands, yet there's a power above you,
Which neither custome nor Religion can controul,
He sir will punish to the height the deadly sin
Of an abus'd Authority: Remember it, and tremble.
Fla.
Alas, fond mayd, to what a deluge of misfortune
Has this thy incredulity now brought thee?
VVhat indigested heaps of misery has it thrown
On thy ore-charged soul? Yee sacred Powers
That guard distressed Innocence!
If that my brothers tyranny has not as yet
Exiled ye this Nation, pitie my teares,
And since I needs must hate where I am forc'd to love
Learn me a loving hate: But can I hope
The heavens will pity me in such a vale of wickedness?
No surely, I'le therefore to the woods,
There harmeless Innocence wrapt in secu­ri [...]y,
Entombs faint envie, there vain Ambition
Covets no other Crown but Roses, No Scep­ter
But a Sheephook, these will I covet too.
Farewell Bermudo; and because once thou wert my brother,
In Heavens I wish thee.
Ber.
And I thee in hell for wishing it.
Fla.
Since that the Constellations yet do want
A fierce and cruell Tyger, I'le pray the Heavens
To place thee there, that when a Tyrant's born,
The world may say Bermudo gave the in­fluence.
My ill-spent tears bids thee adue: Fare­well all cruelty,
[Page] A VVolfe and Lamb compar'd to us, for symp [...]thy,
May well be stil'd the Zodiacks Gemini.
Exit.
Cha.
Farewell thou perfect Modell of all goodness,
Haste to the shadie woods, there I will live,
In contemplation of thy excellence:
Loves Theory shall be my study; a Science
Far beyond thy reach Bermudo; thy grosser [...]ence
Is ignorant of all loves, except of that
VVhose baser flame knowes no commerce with purity,
That which insatiate lust perhaps has prompt thee too;
Mine is a love superplatonick, a flame,
VVhose bright continued Pyramide of splen­dour
Shall soare above thy dulle [...] reach Bermudo,
And make thy faint ambition become more blinde
Than are thy thoughts that guide it.
Ber.
VVhat curses mutterst to thy self?
Are they 'gainst me, or 'gainst the destinies?
Cha.
Thou art not worthy of my curses,
And to curse my stars were irreligious,
For 'twas Love, not Fate
That made Charastus thus infortunate.
Exit.
Ber.
Farewell, a pair of Fondlins.
Is Arontas gon to publish our Decree?
Hall.
He is my Lord. Shall I recall him?
Ber.
Stir not a foot to h [...]nder our designs.
Hall.
Oh good my Lord! This is not the way
To keep you in your Kingdome long Sir.
Ber.
VVhy? Lives there a man so bold
As to violate the Majesty of a King?
Hal.
It is a crime I must confess, that we Scicilians
Most abhor; nor do I think there lives a man
So irreligious: But by your leave,
He is no King that has no Subjects,
And if you take this course, what Subjects will remain?
Consider sir, Love is the principall cause
That begets you Subjects, And if you take away
The Cause, the effect will follow.
Ber.
Let not that trouble you sir.
Let it be your care joyn'd with Arontas
To send a Guard unto the utmost limits of our Kingdom
That bound upon the other Promontories
With a Commission to let none pass:
If any of another Nation come within their reach,
Bring straight to our subjection; which don
Haste ye unto our Ports, burn there our ships;
If that a man escapes, your heads shall pay his ransome.
We long have surfeted with extremes, and now
Extremes shall cure this deadly malady,
Which Justice is Halisdus, and not Ty­ranny.
Exeunt.

Act. 1. Sce. 3.

Enter Virtusus.
Vir.
Once more in spight of fortune, and the raging waves
Of a tumultuous Sea, does my unhappy foot
Salute the Earth again. Did ever man
From all eternity behold a night so dismall
Leave behinde no sad remembrance of its former horror?
Here's not a stemm that's widdowed of his leaf,
No, nor one branch become
The hopeless issue of the Husbandman, but all
In a sweet tranquillity enjoy that happiness
Which Nature has allotted them: I am
The onely object of Heavens Tyranny,
Else had these senseless Plants
Perish'd this fatall night, when both the Ar­tick,
And Antartick Poles, striving to kiss each o­ther,
Confounded Heaven, Earth, Sea, Hell, and All
Into an indigested Chaos: yet in this dire
Confusion of the Elements, these stand un­toucht
Outbraving Fortunes Malice, whil'st wretch­ed I,
The heavens least part of care,
Was banded too and fro by the immerci­less winds
Uncertain of a rest, and had not the thought
Of thee my Thesbia, ballanc't my rottering soul,
The insatiate bosome of the Ocean
Had been my wish't [...]for grave.
[Page] Enter Fidelio like a Shepheard.
Sir, the fortune of the Sea having cast me,
A sad and desolate man, upon the Confines
Of an unknown Land, I must desire
Your charitable disposition to declare
Your Countreys name unto me.
Fid.
Most willingly. Know sir you are cast
Upon a most unfortunate shore, Lelybaeus
Is the Countreys Name, one of the three
Promontorian Kingdoms of famous Scicily.
Vir.
Heavens, now I see ye are not altoge­ther cruell:
This is the happy Countrey that my voyage aim'd at.
Fid.
Call it not happy sir, for tis the most
Infortunat'st habitation that ever man en­joy'd.
Vir.
It seems not so by the outward Ap­pearance.
Fid.
Oh no! Nature has bedeck't it with the best
Of all her ornaments, nor could she, if she would
Create another world, frame any part
To parallel with this.
Vir.
What diastrous chance then
Has made it thus unfortunate?
Fid.
Pardon me if I refuse to tell you that,
The relation whereof would draw tears
From my ore-charged eyes. Let this Decree
Inform you sir.
He gives him a paper, and he reads.
Heavens I thank ye: This curtesie
Will make me dye ungratefull to your bounty.
Oh how my soul now gluts it self, to see his enemy
Thus offer'd as a sacrifice to his incensed Ire!
Just anger seise me then, and Constantina,
Let the thoughts of thy sad sufferings
Inspire my soul with vengeance, arm my strength
With a Revenge as ample as the cause:
Yet Prince Virtusus I'le not kill thee basely;
That were to mistrust my cause, which is as just
As heavens are innocent, Thou shalt not dye
For to be damn'd in ignorance: No, I'le sum­mon
All thy faults, and thunder ' [...]m to thy ears;
If then thy treachery has not exil'd thy va­lour,
Let thy sword plead thy innocence:
By which most noble pleading thou shalt dye
Honor'd, by my Revenges charity.
Vir.
Oh my unjuster stars! Why did ye stop
The Oceans mouth, denying me an entrance,
Yet bring me here to be entomb'd
Alive upon the shore? was it because I fear'd
Your threatning waves, or that the louder windes
Strake terror to my affrighted Conscience? This cannot be:
For how oft in scorn has my undaunted sighs
Ecchoed the blustering winds, and my full tide eyes
For fear of scarcity, how oft have they
Replenished the waves, and nourish'd
The decaying Billowes? Yet must all this be
The Prologue only to my ensuing Tragedy?
Oh cruell Pity! Oh inhumane charity!
Enter Charastus.
Fid.
Peace sir: The King.
They Kneel.
Cha.
Why kneel ye unto me sirs?
If I have not deserv'd your pity,
I have not deserv'd your scorn I am sure.
Fid.
The Heavens forbid, when ere I see
Such Beames of Majesty, that I should pre­sume
To approach without that awfull adoration
Which my Allegiance payes unto my Sove­raign.
Cha.
'Tis true, good Subjects ought to do so:
But when a Lyon's dead, the baser Ass
Will come, and trample on him,
And spurn that face, which when alive
Was death to look on.
Fid.
Such incivility becomes the Beasts;
But man whose purer soul
Claimes something of divinity, can easily di­scern
That sacred Majesty which on Kings
Hang like the Gods re [...]in'd Idaeas: He cannot be
So foolishly impious, to think the Sun,
Because oft-times he does obscure himself
Under the gloomy shade of some gross ex­halation,
That he never will again come to his p [...]istine splendor.
How oft do we see those blazing Members
[Page] Of the Ayre, decline? those fiery Comets,
Which though compos'd of exhalations
Covet the highest Region, where hurried
With their vain imaginations for a while they reign,
Contracting their own ruine that at length will come
As suddenly as fearfull? Such will Bermudo's fall be,
And the higher he lifts his towring thought [...]
The deadlier will his precipice become.
Cha.
Canst thou perceive that Majesty which to Kings
Is still essentiall, and speak these words a­gainst
Thy lawfull Soveraign? Surely thou art no Scicilian.
Fid.
I am great sir, and yet dare say
'Tis virtue makes a King: Majestie without that
Is a disjoynted structure that must fall,
And come to ruine. 'Tis not a Crown alone
That I adore, for should I do [...]e on that,
And slight the goodness which you are Master of,
I were worse than he, that fears the Idoll,
Yet contemnes the Godhead: since then Bermudo
Wants the better part of King, a Royall soul,
I'le look on him, as on polluted incense,
Sacred, though not holy; And on you, as on
An unfurnish'd Temple, pious, though not glorious.
Then pardon sir, if I prefer an undecent sanctity
Before a comely wickedness.
Cha.
Couldst thou distinguish, I confess 'twere just:
But since wise Nature has ordain'd
Goodness essentiall to Supremacy, 'tis fit
You serve and honour him.
Fid.
And so I will: but it must be
As Infidels do Devils, for fear, not love.
Far be it from me sir to confine
Goodness to Greatness only, or suppose that man
Is solely Rovall that's ambitious;
That were to thinke the Heavens an easie spunge,
From which the daring soul
Squeases his ends out: He rather sir is great
That dares be good.
Cha.
Then thou art great I swear; ex­ceeding great:
Thou canst distinguish between good and good.
Had I had such an intellectuall soul
To put a difference 'twixt those attributes
That make a King compleat, the gilded flashes of his tongue
Would then have rendred him, as far con­temptible,
As now he is fatall. Come nearer to us Shepherd:
Nay! flatter not a falling greatness;
To kneel unto an Altar that's defac't
Smels more of Superstition than Devotion▪
Arise, worthy our Armes,
And if thou needs will serve thy King
In me his small Epitome, chide not his folly
With this strickt observance; to make him Master
Of those joyes, which [...]e han' [...] power to com­mand,
Is exprobation not affection.
Vir.
Noble Charastus!
Thy miseries cannot outvie thy virtues,
Nor can they suffer an ignoble act
To derogate from fortunes Conquest,
Though she has made thy sufferings
Ample as her power. Wonder not, great Prince,
Who 'tis dares Comment on thy miseries,
Since none can truly know a Kingdomes loss,
But he that feels it.
Cha.
If thou hast lost one then,
And that experience stimulates this bold­ness,
I shall rejoice in thy society: I oft have seen
A feather'd Captive sadly in a cage
Mourning in silence his determin'd free­dome,
But having got a partner of his sufferings, the silly Bird,
As if revived by anothers mischief,
Has from his drousie taciturnity awak't,
Chirping sweet Io Paeans to our ravish't ears,
Untill his eyes became the sad oblation
Of his fainting voyce.
Vir.
Behold a partner then, O [...]e
[Page] That fortunes malice has in sundry shap [...]
Horrid as Cowards fears, or midnight ap­prehensions,
Strove to appall his courage, yet to him
Those P [...]nick horror [...] seem'd but painted fires
Quench't with the smallest drop of's resolu­tion.
Behold a Prince equally distressed:
But if our sympathetic [...]ll disasters
Has not created an instinct to know me,
Summe up your patience sir, [...]nd that will tell you
That none can parallell its fortitude,
Except Pachynas Prince, Infortunate Vir­tusut.
Cha.
Stay, and ere thou further speak'st
Let me survey thee sully, for in thee is drawn
The just resemblance of my misery.
By all our former happiness! 'Tis rarely limm'd;
Fortune, thou hadst eyes, thou nere couldst
Copie me so truly else.
Oh Royall Prince, my woes sad character!
Let us incorporate, and be one,
One Monumentall Trophee of misfortune.
Bear witness oh thou sacred Register of uni­ted hearts,
How Virtusus here joyes to behold Chara­stus there.
Vir.
Alli'd thus by misfortune, our uni­ted wills
Shall hate a separation. One act wee'l still pursue;
One thought wee'l think; One soul wee'l have;
One heart, and one Ambition.
Cha.
Ambition! In that wee'l imitate our mother Earth,
To fall is her Ambition, should she aspire,
'Twere not Ambition, because not naturall.
Vir.
This Union sown in tears
Shall rise in glory; my prophetick soul di­vines it:
Mean while wee'l live here in these woods disguis'd,
Sometimes wee'l visit Court, and see if Fate
Will put a period to our sufferings, till then
From you renowned Shepherd we must crave concealment.
Fid.
Your graces may command your humblest vassall.
I have a story of my own to tell you; But for a while
I must crave leave to lie conceal'd.
Cha.
Then wee'l not urge it.
Hence, hence Ambition now, and all those pleasing thoughts,
Which Crowns and Scepters whistled to our ears.
The silent Groves, and murmuring streams,
The shadie woods, and whistling windes, will be
A recreation beyond Court vanities. There we three
Will fancy to our selves a Triarchy.
Exeunt.

Act. 1. Scen. 4.

Enter Bermudo.
Ber.
Of what aery substance is Mans soul
That still 'tis so ambitious to aspire?
The higher stil I am lifted, the more I covet.
Is there no end Heavens of our vain desires?
Cannot a Crown and Scepter stay our towr­ing thoughts?
But must we aim at things impossible?
Are we All compos'd of that same disputa­ble element
Whose question'd flames outstrips the highest Region?
Is there no Earth commixt within us,
Or did we drop it at our first creation?
Enter Halisdus.
Thou envious Man, why com'st thou with a face
So wretched, thus to check our joyes?
What sorrow 'ist thy tears does thus prog­nosticate?
Hal.
I now lament the wofull fruits
Of your dire cruelty: Oh too much wrong­ed Princess!
Wretched Desdonella!
Ber.
What of her? Perhaps her passion
Has caus'd her to lay violent hands upon her self.
Is't not so?
Hal.
Your Highness is too true a Prophet,
For the wofull Princess when as the fatall newes
Of her dear brothers Misery, resounding in her ears
Was seconded by the late publish't edict, Knowing
[Page] That she could not live without your anger,
Which to her was worst of miseries,
Threw her dejected body into the hideous stream,
Where the en [...]oured wa [...]es proud of their rich prey
Even kild he [...] with embracings▪
Ber.
She was a fond and foolish woman.
We will not spend one tear would it recover her.
Hal.
She lov'd you sir to [...] too well.
Ber.
For that we will not▪ Those looser thoughts
Shall never ceise Bermudo▪ The world shall know,
To offend in those absurdities is not the Na­ture
But the Vice of Power, from which I'le flye
As from a singing Syren, or a weeping Cro­cadile.
Enter Arontas.
What newes portends your haste?
Aron.
Two ships my gracious Lord, this morn
Arriv'd within your harbour, which we,
Bound by our duty, & your express Command,
Took, ransaked, and burnt: But seizing of the men,
Two cried out, Lay not your hands on sacred Majesty;
For we are Kings: yet nevertheless
We have brought 'um here to be examin'd by your highness.
Ber.
Spies on my life! Let 'um be brought before us;
They shall dye. Tis I, their fate, have said it.
Exeunt.
Kings are not safe in their own territories;
But still are subject unto Treachery.
He that ascends a Throne by such severe,
And unjust dealing, goes but on a slippery path,
Where but to a stumble is a precipice.
Beware Bermudo then, Traps are laid to take thee,
Envie's big, and will be deliver'd of her brat Ambition,
Which we must strangle in the Infancy,
Or all will perish.
He that begins in mischief must go on, and in it reign,
If he but leanes to virtue once, he fals amain.
Exit.

Actus secundus. Scena Prima.

Enter Virtusus hastily, and Fidelio following, in each hand a naked Rapier.
Fid.
OH save thee Great Prince, from yo [...] ­der Hill
A fierce and cruell Beast comes raging.
Vir.
Where is this hideous Monster?
Fid.
Alas! it follows thee▪ Here, take this sword,
And stand upon thy Guard: See, how [...]e yawnes,
As if he meant to swallow thee alive:
His eyes are numberless from which pro­ceeds
Such a sulphureous flame, that alas, I fear,
The very smell will kill thee: Oh what a black
And noysome mist his gaping mouth sends forth?
His tongues spit floods of venome, and his reaching tayle
Sweeps down whole mountaines, on his
Cristed back doth rise, so many and such massy spears,
That you would swear whole Armies
Came to thy destruction.
Vir.
I see nothing, sir, so horrid.
Fid.
Alas, it comes invisible.
Vir.
Would'st have me fight with sha­dowes?
I fear you are distracted sir.
Fid.
So, now you are safe from company,
I'le be more plain.
This fierce inhumane Beast, which I so men­tion'd,
Lodges here, here in my Breast his den is,
Long on my inmost Bowels he has gnaw'd
Lacking his worthy prey; But now on thee
He means to seize. Revenge his Name is;
You may guess the Monster.
Vir.
My innocence is ignorant of his Na­ture.
Fid.
I'le prompt it in few words. You must dye.
Vir.
It is acknowledged: So must we All.
Fid.
Nay, by this Hand I mean, Reven­ges Instrument.
Vir.
I am so innocent,
[Page] I can't perswade my self to credit you.
Fid.
Cowards still plead Innocence.
Dar'st thou not fight?
Vir.
My cause too good is, yours too bad.
Think what a staine my honor would re­ceive,
Should I but fight when such an inequality
Parts our causes.
Fid.
Oh Coward!
Vir.
Are you more valiant, Because
In a distemper'd rage you dare draw a sword,
Which not provok't you durst not?
'Tis he is truly valiant that will fight,
Not when his furious Blood boyles
In his veines thus, not when a fervent inun­dation
Swells his distemper'd channels, but when it coldly flowes
With a mild, soft, and quiet motion:
Those streams that run with such a hideous violence
Are still the shallowest; The silent waters
Are most dangerous.
If I have wrong'd you sir in such a manner,
That nought but death will expiate my crime,
Let me understand my fault before I dye.
Beasts do not fight without their naturall parlye:
Fid.
I scarce have so much patience
As to tell thee: Thou had'st a sister.
Vir.
And, hope I have one yet. What of her?
Fid.
Canst thou remember her, and no crimson Blush
S [...]in thy immodest cheeks? oh impudence!
Vir.
When I remember her,
I have less guilt than I expected:
For if my wronging her my onely fault is,
Heaven knowes I am virtuous.
Fid.
Hell is divine then: Less Tyranny is harbour'd there.
If for to cloyster up a sister be a vertue,
Let me be vicious Heavens: For to have kill'd her
Had been charity; But to bury her alive
Where she must still consume in Loves hot torturing flames
And never perish, is an act that Saints
All humane Malice. Know'st not me yet?
Know'st not Fidelio?
Vir.
Fidelio! Let me embrace thee: I must.
Fid.
Keep off dissembling Crocadile: Too long
Has the thought of thee already rioted in my bosome,
Which now I'le banish quite: Prepare to dye.
Vir.
Hold yet your hand:
She is not in a Nunnery as you think.
Fid.
Ha! Is she dead then? oh my mis­construing soul!
'Tis too true: Can I know it,
And let thee live a minute after?
Vir.
Do not abuse your patience: She is not dead.
Fid.
What happy place containes her then?
Vir.
I know not that sir.
When that my Father did with bad success
Send unto Delphos, to demand what fortune
Should betide my sister, after that solemn Contract
That was made between you, He received from thence
This short but fatall Oracle.
Brabantas take this answer, and no other,
Thy daughter's born to disinthrone her Brother.
These words did so inrage my Father,
To think his own bowels should root out
His own posterity, that nought but
The immurement of my sister could asswage his Passion,
Which shortly he determin'd to performe;
But she, the night before that dismall day,
The silent darkness helping her escape,
Departed from the Court; But whither
I am uncertain, for my raging Father
Supposing me the plotter of her flight, next day
Did banish me his Kingdom, on pain of death
No [...] to return without her.
First to Pelorus I begun my voyage,
Which then I found all drown'd in tears,
Lamenting your departure, which as I heard
Her late suppos'd immurement had caus'd.
Long there I staid not, but sayling onwards,
The tempestuous Sea cast me unawares
On this infortunate Kingdome; VVhere I shall never finde her.
Fid.
[Page]
And would'st thou carry her back again
To her imprisonment? Oh! the unconscio­nable
Cruelty of a Brother!
Vir.
Do not deceive your self. Heaven Knowes
My thoughts are innocent.
Fid.
Talk not of innocence false man,
It is a virtue which thy childhood nere could boast off,
Thy tainted blood runs thick within thy veines,
And I must vent it, lest it prove dangerous.
Vir.
'Twill prove as clear as christall
In token of my Innocence: No silver wan­dring stream
Shall with a purer current flow, than this
My unpolluted blood shall, to invite
Thy guilty hands, to wash them of their staine.
Fid.
There I could bathe eternally, and never faint.
Prepare. Have at you sir. So cunning?
They fight, and a Letter drops.
Vir.
Hold: What had I forgot?
For this same crime Fidelio I will not dye
Innocence is wrong'd in't: I'le give thee
A juster cause for thy Revenge, thy sisters Will:
Here in this letter 'tis inclos'd.
He gives him the Letter.
Fid.
Letters to me from Thesbia? art sure
The inclos'd injunctions are to kill thee?
Vir.
Her threatning brow at my depar­ture told me so.
VVhen I receiv'd them, me thoughts her face appear'd
Like to a quiet stream crispt on the suddain
By some gentle winde, which soon, too soone
Arose to Billowes; Then her tongue
Proclam'd me vagabond, commanding me to finde
My sister and her Brother, or neer to see her more.
Fid.
Thou wilt grow odious to all the world.
She lov'd thee once Virtusus, and ever would
Had not thy virtue fail'd, for which
If now she has sent thy doome,
Millions of Armies shall not hold my hand
From acting a Revenge, that shall puzzle
All the Furies for to second.
He reads.
Vir.
Never did guilty Prisoner at the Bar
Await the sentence of the Magistrate, with such
A Holy and Religious fear as I do mine.
See how his clouded brow
Already doomes me guilty: Such another look
Would save the Executioner his labour.
Fid.
Oh cruell sister! Would'st have me pardon him?
Think'st thou he is innocent? the cruell Leopard
Is less spotted.
Enter a Messenger.
The Newes?
Mess.
The Prince Charastus is return'd from Court,
And does desire a speedie conference.
Fid.
Wee'l wait him instantly.
Mess.
But good sir, stay not; The affaire,
He sayes, is very weighty.
Exit.
Fid.
My sisters pleasure, and the Kings affairs
Defers our combate till some other time, meane while
Read this inclosed Letter, my sister sends it thee,
Shee'l not the Proverb break,
Love bids us write what we are sham'd to speak.
Exeunt.

Act. 2. Sce. 2.

Enter Arontas and Spadatus.
Spa.
VVhy so sad Arontas?
Can the Honors lately confer'd upon you
Make you forget your wonted liberty?
Aron.
I am already weary with their bur­then;
Fate has converted my felicity to a wicked­ness
So horrid, that the Ghosts of injur'd Kings
VVill for ever haunt me.
Spa.
VVhat desert in thee can procure
So Royall Attendance?
Aron.
Hast thou not heard then of that cruelty
Which will for ever record my name
[Page] Amongst the Tyrants?
Spa.
I yet am ignorant; Prithee inform me.
Aron.
I tremble but to think on't.
The Kings of Pachynus and Pelorus, going to Delphos
To consult, about the finding of their late lost Children,
VVere by the last infortunate Tempest Cast on this Shore.
Spa.
What of that?
Aron,
I▪ bound by my new got office, and the hopes
Of future honor, presented them to the King,
Who, contrary to my expectation, has,
As Spyes, condemn'd them, le [...]t by their flight
The world should know the Tyrany of his cruell Lawes.
Spa.
And must they dye then?
Aron.
Most certain.
Spa.
Surely they must not.
Aron.
VVhy? what should hinder?
Spa.
The people.
Aron.
Heavens keep such thoughts from Scicily.
The People? they resist Authority?
Spa.
May they not oppose a Tyrant?
Aron
Take heed whil'st they oppose one
They introduce not thousands. Be confi­dent
The ruine, spoile and rape of Innocence that attends
But one such single act, will be far greater than
The malice of ten Tyrants can ever perpe­tra [...]e.
Spa.
Though Innocence may suffer for a while in it,
And much too, Yet we shall at length be free.
Aron.
Neve [...], Oh never. Ope but that gap once,
And ten thousand unseen miseries will enter.
Those whom the People dote on so, admire,
And saint for seeming virtues, if they once get power
(Heavens having stampt that curse still on such changes)
Will turn the greatest and the worst Tor­ [...]entors.
Oppression in a lawfull King, is but a kinde of wantonness;
But in all others, a Necessity. No power, I must confess,
There is without its whip; but the usurper
Lashes with Scorpions.
Spa.
Then we can change again.
Aron.
Most likely sir you will.
Change will beget a change, till All are no­nothing.
Rebellion is a Circle that will finde no end
Till men want Ambition, or the People, Madness.
Spa.
What must we do then?
Aron.
Keep close unto that sacred rule of strict obedience.
Though Tyrants reign, one grave, or age may end it;
But Government let loose to change, and popular disorders,
Contracts that ruine which nothing but eternity can bury.
Spa.
I find it a sad truth; yet would these Kings
VVere sav'd though. I am strangely trou­bled.
Aron.
No King can fall, but good men
[...]inde an Earthquake.
Spa.
Shall we to Court, and see the event?
Aron.
Lead on, I'le follow. Oh Allegiance,
Thou elder child of Virtue, Lend us thy passive fortitude,
With that high Saint-like goodness arm this Nation.
Resistance ever brings a swift damnation.
Exeunt.

Act. 2. Sce. 3.

Enter Brabantas, Sperazus, and Iaylor.
Iay.
My Lords, the King commends him to ye
In this Message. He bad me tell ye,
Ye must prepare your selves for a Noble,
Suddain, and a fatall entertainment.
Bra.
What does his cruelty entend to do now?
Iay.
No more than Tarquin did to the Poppeys
When he lopt their stately heads off.
Bra.
Must then our Heads goe off?
Iay.
No sir; They must be cut off: My worship
[Page] Is appointed to execute that honourable function.
Bra.
Base peasant, has thy Master sent thee thus
To jeer our Misery?
Iay.
Good words sir, I shall be a cruell Destiny,
And have three cuts at your thread of life else.
Bra.
Thus dares the baser Ass revile the dying Lyon.
Hence thou unnecessary Parenthesis of Na­ture,
Or by my just anger, thou shalt be our Har­binger.
Iay.
I am gon, but shall return in Thun­der.
Exit.
Bra.
Oh ye powers!
Where's that Majestic [...] glory, which to Kings
Is still e [...]entiall? where is that awfull power
Which our least Nod may justly chalenge?
Surely you have but flatter'd us, else Peasants tongues
Could ne're thus triumph o're our Misery.
Spe.
Be patient Great Brabantas.
Bra.
Oh 'tis above my patience, that we two
VVhom the All-potent Gods have fram'd their Image,
And have given as equall power to rule in Earth
As they in heaven, should thus be mock't by one
Whom Natures over-charged breast has vo­mited,
And made a drossy lump worth nought
But scorn and foul reproach of purity.
Kings are Earths Gods, how dares the baser sort
Prophane their Deities?
Enter Fidelio and Virtusus like Priests.
Vir.
Most Royall firs, no sooner did your sad estate
Arrive ou [...] Knowledge, but it rais'd
Pity within us, so far, that being bound
By the Religion of our office, and the com­miseration
Of your Miseries, we thought it fit to visit ye,
And p [...]escribe some necessary comfort.
Bra.
There is no comfort left beyond my miseries.
That name is banish'd quite; my cr [...]me so horrid is,
That all the infernall torments will be
But my deserved penance, and no punish­ment,
And the enduring them but my devotion, and no sufferance.
Oh reverend Fathers! there's such a crime
Lyes burthening my sad conscience, that to relate it
VVould affright your ears, and puzzle
Your Inventions for a penance.
Fid.
Let not the defect of a sufficient pe­nance
Make you irreligious; Heavens mercy
Is above your crime.
Bra.
Had there been ever sin of such an exorbitant nature
For their mercies president, I might be con­fident;
But now to hope it, were flat impudence.
The crying voyces of my injur'd children
Are too clamorous for any prayers of mine
To arive there.
Vir.
No question sir your Childrens cryes
Are Mediators for you. They will but prove the steps
Whereby your prayers may easily ascend:
It is their filiall duty.
Bra.
Ought there to be a filiall duty
Where no paternall care was? Such goodness
Would but aggravate my crime; should they
But plead for me, how wicked then were I
In wronging them? oh sirs!
Is't not a crime most horrid, when a father
Shall immure his daughter in a Nunnery,
Because a foolish Oracle did say, she was born
To disinthrone her Brother?
Fid.
Will not a carefull Husbandman oft-times
Cut off a branch, because he sees it may of­fend
Some other? Necessity compelleth oft to cruelty.
And he is mad that will not part
VVith a corrupted limb, when it may prove
Injurious to the whole body.
Bra.
But he is worse that kills himself,
Because he wou [...]d not dye. Shall I
For fear of drowning from a well rig'd ship
Leap down into the waves? This is
[Page]Wilfully to court, that which I fain would sh [...].
Vir.
Your Son sir I perceive in this
Was chiefest Author; 'Twas his accursed fear
That made your tenderness to use
Such rigour on your daughter. Though him you father,
Father not his crimes.
Bra.
Would'st have me still heap sin on sin?
Is not the ruine of a daughter an offence sufficient,
But must I rob a Son too of his Honor,
And make a rape of Innocence my Relaxa­tion?
My soul already is replenish't, I need not bring
Vice in a newer fashion: Had he been guilty
He might have rested safely in Pachynu [...].
Fid.
No more: It is enough Virtusus.
They discover.
Bra.
I would my eyes were fountains
Fraught with tears, that I might ever
Weep for joy at this thy safety.
Spe.
My Son Fidelio, welcome to my Arms;
Now let me dye Bermudo, for thus supported
Dare I stand out braving Fate, and make
Death cremble at my boldness.
Bra.
Arise my son; Let all the blessings
That the Earth can give to mortalls, light on thee:
That thou mayst safely florish and spring up,
When this same withered trunck's blown down
By ag [...]s Tyranny.
Fid.
Tri [...]le not time▪ Great Sirs.
Take these our ill beseeming robes, in these
You may escape the Keepers curious eye,
And pass all undiscovered.
Bra.
But how will ye escape then?
Vir.
Leave that to Heavens and us.
D [...]spure it not: I pray make haste.
Spe.
Heavens be your guard then.
Vir.
And yours.
Exeunt Bra. and Spe.
Fid.
Oh Virtusus, Pardon my infidelity,
No thought of mine was the first that caus'd
That [...]oul suspition of thy Loyalty,
Only the ill-sounding Trump of same▪
Blew some such speeches to my ears, which they
Too suddenly entertain'd, and would as sud­denly
Have banish'd, had not some envious tongues
Then seconded it. That friendship which before
I vow'd, shall now be' establish'd;
I have call'd a Parliament within me,
'Tis now confirm'd by Act. Fool that I was
Ever to mistrust thee.
A continued cry within of Fire.
Heark, tis done; Charastus now I see
Thou are truly faithfull.
Enter Charastus hastily.
Cha.
The Lodge is fir'd, the Keeper's gone,
And I am pursude.
Both.
How? pursude?
Cha.
Time will not give us leave to talk on't;
Make haste, and save your selves.
Exeunt.
A confused company pass o're the stage, crying stop the Shepherd.

Act. 2. Sce. 4.

Enter Bermudo and Arontas.
Ber.
What tumult's grown in our disturb­ed Court?
Will not the heavens permit me for to take
One peacefull hour, But must they still
Molest my wearied senses with these dismall sounds?
But heavens I thank ye: ye have now awak't
And summon'd up an almost forgot Revenge:
The slow pac't time is now fulfill'd in which
The two proud insolent Kings are doom'd to suffer.
A cry within of fire.
Heark: Surely the Gods already have pre­par'd a fire,
And do expect the Kings for sacrifice.
A cry again of fire.
Still more and more; Look out Arontas.
Exit Arontas.
What should these flames portend? what secret mystery
Is in Fate, that passes thus a Kings capacity?
Be it good or bad, speak it ye powers;
Speak it in thunder Heavens: or if
The affrighted world must still be ignorant of its ruine,
Let some gentle wind whisper it to me alone:
[Page] Why should Bermudo be deni'd to be Fates Councellor?
If it be treachery against me you would con­ceal thus,
Be speedy in your plo [...]s, I will unfold 'um else,
Unlock fates Cabinet, rip ope the all-con­taining breasts
Of the inscrutable destinies, where thus
I'le dissipate them all. Ha!
A shout within.
Why tremblest so my breast? wilt never be refin'd
[...]rom that terrestriall passion? Are not my thoughts
Too crown'd? Must they still live
In base subjection unto fear?
Enter Arontan.
The cause Arontas, quickly?
Aron.
The Porters lodge, most gracious sir,
Fir'd by a malicious Shepherd, caused
These sudden accl [...]mations of your Subjects.
Ber.
And was that a fit subject for their ri­diculous shouts?
Now I perceive they are weary of my go­vernment,
Else my danger could nere beget their mirth.
Aron.
The mirth proceeded at the Shep­herds Apprehending:
See where he is.
Enter Spadatus Iayler and Guard bring­ing in Virtusus and Fidelio.
Iay.
Justice most gracious Soveraign. Ju­stice I desire.
Ber.
'Tis Treason to suspect the contrary.
Which was the Author of the flames?
Iay.
Of that your great Authority must inform you,
For both were taken flying, yet but one
Was seen about the Lodge; which that one was
By examination you may easily find sir.
Ber.
Be assur'd wee'l do our best: it con­cerns us neerly.
In the mean while fetch you forth the Pri­soners.
Iay.
Your Highness will shall be obey'd.
Exit.
Ber.
VVhen the severer hand of Justice menaceth destruction
The innocent oft trembles, when the guilty smiles:
How often has my doom beat terror
To affrighted Innocence, yet these two
Conscious persons, which must upon ne­cessity expect
'Its fatall fall on them dare arm themselves
With impudence, and suffer their audacity
To outface my justice, appearing rather
My Judges than my Prisoners.
Are all good manners blotted from your memory?
If that the horror of my Justice cannot
Beat down those stubborn flood-gates, yet let
Your guilty consciences make roome for showres
Of penitentiall tears to wipe away
My hovering severity, or it will fall as una­voidable
As deadly. VVhen heavens thunder speaks
The senseless Ash will bow his head in a true
Submissive reverence, but the stubborn Oak
Unmov'd refists their threatnings, and with soaring pride
Advances still his branches; But oft times we see
He payes a fatall forfeit for his impudence. So shall ye.
Vir.
He stands to be suspected sir that basely fears.
Who would commit pure and undefiled Innocence
Unto so cowardly a protection?
Ber.
VVho dares be vicious, dares be im­pudent in deniall.
That is an essentiall part of Villany;
He is but a poor proficient in the Mercurian Art,
That frames not an excuse before the Plot.
Fid.
Excuses sir we have none: There is
Too great a contrariety 'twixt innocence and them,
One breast cannot harbour both.
Ber.
That Innocence which you so falsely to you
Attribute, is but an excuse it self, or other­wise
It would have dar'd the utmost of suspition,
And not have caus'd such timerous flight.
Fid.
Does not the Lamb the sacred Em­bleme
Of happy Innocence, make haste away, if he once spye
[Page] A ravenou [...] wolfe pursue him? and yet his flight
Ought not to raise the least suspition of his virtue.
The dismall noyse of Fire worse than a ra­venous wolf
Followed our ears, which made us I confess to flie;
But whither? only to your Court sir.
Had we been guilty, we never could suppose
Your Court to be our Sanctuary;
For he is mad, that having slain the husband▪
Will seek protection in the widows house:
We had been far worse, that having fir'd a Member,
Would dare to take refuge in the body.
Will e're the timerous Hart flie unto the Hu [...]ter?
Or the harmless Dove meet the pursuing Falcon?
Enter Iayler.
Iay.
Mercy most gracious Soveraign, Mercy I desire.
Ber.
Where are the prisoners sirrha?
Iay.
They have escap't, my Liege. Mer­cy, oh mercy.
Ber.
Escap't? Speak it again villain.
Iay.
They have escap't. Oh mercy.
Ber.
Escapt? what treachery is hatching in the infernall Pit?
What damn'd Magitians has the Furies sent
To stupifie a Kings divinity? ye heavenly Powers,
And you diviner Providence, yield,
Yield your precedency to Hell,
From thence proceeds the Master-piece of plots
That justly robs you of Supremacy. Escapt!
It was as easie for a Lamb to escape
From out the pawes of a half starv'd Lyon,
Or for a damned body to return from out
The jawes of Acheron, had they not been
More than mortall. They were Devils, dam­ned Devils,
Sent from Hell to jeer me;
Had they no other shapes to personate but Kings?
Must Divinity become a cloak to Treachery?
Oh ye Gods restore 'um back again,
Or take your Bounties.
Aron.
Good my Lord, this passion ill be­comes your Highness.
Ber.
I am mad Arontas, stark mad:
Fury like lightning feeds upon my soul.
Good Heavens send down some ministring Spirit
To divert this flame, or I shall fall
Arm'd with an universall ruine. Hear me
Ye just powers, 'Tis I, Fates Fate, intreat ye.
Enter Halisdus, and Thesbia in boyes Apparell.
And art thou come blest Spirit? why now I see
The Heavens are but our wishes Instruments.
Hail glorious Saint, thy charity has rob'd thee
Of thy excellence: Thou that sats't en­thron'd
Amongst the Deities, filling the heavenly Quires
With thy Harmony, whil'st with thy notes
The em [...]lous Sphears jar'd in confusion,
Why hast thou vouchsaf't to lay aside Divi­nity,
And visit poor and undeserving Mortalls?
Hal.
Mistake him not my Lord: He is a Mortall,
Sent as a Present from your Subjects
That guard the confines.
Ber.
Thou art blind, old man, I can per­ceive
Divinity within him, the least part whereof
Will make a monster of Perfection. Nor shall I
Think him less than he does seem to be,
Unless his courteous voyce proclame it.
Thes.
Let no supposed excellence in me
Make you an Idolater, but if you see ought
In this poor fabrick, worthy this Admiration,
Admire the Deity that did infuse it:
Give not the cr [...]ature the Creators due.
Ber.
If beauteous sweet thou art mortall, as yet
I am not fully satisfied, Tell me thy name and Country.
Thes.
Anthrogonus men call me sir.
Pelorus is my native Country.
Ber.
Oh happy Country that canst boast of such a rarity!
Look here effeminate men, ye that with im­partiall eyes
Adore a thing call'd woman, here, here
You may find a difference; but I have too much lost my self.
[Page]Revenge bids me retire. Iayler, were not thy head
Too base to answer for two Kings,
I'de make thee an example to succeeding times
For such neglectfull villains.
Iay.
Oh! good my Lord! my Lodge wa [...] fir'd only,
That I being bufie in the quenching it
They might escape.
Ber.
Thou promptst me well, Shepherds confess or dye.
Fid.
He that confesses sir an undone crime,
Deserves the punishment of the sacrilegious,
Honor, that Holy and Religious Mysterie, is defil'd in't,
And if they be punish'd in the highest na­ture
That rob a Church of some divine and holy ornament,
What punishment deserve they that take away
Divinity it self, and make a rape of their De­votion.
Honor a household God is, which remov'd
Destruction surely enters.
Ber.
Not confess then?
Oh Allegiance, where's now thy former glory?
Me thinks I see thee buried in the earth,
Crying aloud for vengeance on these Tray­tors.
Rest quiet soul, I will assert thy cause,
And wreck thy vengeance in a full effusion
Of blood and horror.
Once more bold Shepherds wee'l vouchsafe to ask ye,
VVill ye confess the Author? we may be mercifull.
Fid.
I'le not bely our Innocence to gain your mercy.
Let me be tortur'd with all the torments
That timpanized cruelty swel'd to the height
Could ever yet invent first.
Ber.
Let him have his will in't.
Away with him to Tortures.
Vir.
Oh spare his life great King; Spill not one drop
Of his pure innocent blood. 'Tis worth thy Nation.
Ber.
Let him confess then.
Vir.
I will confess what ever you will have me.
Ber.
Didst thou not fire the Lodg then?
Vir.
Alas I did not.
Ber.
Iayler away with him.
Vir.
I did, upon my knees I did.
Fid.
Believe him not great King: 'tis this accursed Policy
To rob me of the glory of my sufferings.
Vir.
Shall I no [...] be believ'd then? Stay, you need
No witness, when you have one really con­selling.
Thes.
It is confess'd you see great sir, what would you more?
Be now a King and pardon him:
Rigor becomes your petty Magistrates that know
Nothing of their Authority, but oppression.
A Throne's a Mercy-seat, and he that sits thereon
Ought to distribute it, where ere he sees
True penitence, that's promis'd by con­fession.
Ber.
Peace Anthrogonus,
He is not worth thy pleading for.
Thes.
Those better spirits that ascend
Will oft look down, and wheresoere they see
Virtue oppressed, will vouchsafe to help with pitie.
I do no more, I pity him, and spend
Some tears, and prayers, a poor boyes bene­volence.
Ber.
Thy tears Anthrogonus have prevail'd▪
My adamantin heart melts at those showers.
He shall live. And be thy prisoner only▪ No more.
Come, wee'l be for Martiall sports: The Boar
Wee'l hunt to morrow. Prepare our javelin [...].
A King like a Colossus stands, or'e striding fate
Whil'st envies sails swel'd with ambitious windes
Floateth between his legs, and cracks her Mast
With Admiration only at his height: No Fate
The true Nativity of Kings can calculate.
Exeunt.

Actus tertius. Scena Prima.

Enter Charastus.
Cha.
NOt one tear more I'le spend for thee my sister;
It is a grief too light to solemnize thy exe­quies.
My heart in silence shall weep blood, when I remember
Desdonellus fate. Hence then eff [...]minate tears:
Ye are too soft an expresser of my misery,
The senceless Trees but struck in favor by the Sun
Will do as much, and shall I when fortune darts
Her reall beams of malice, express no great­er sorrow?
Yes, an inward bleeding is most dangerous,
That, that I will learn to practise.
Enter Fidelio.
Cha.
Fidelio! Let me embrace thee.
I do contain more worth within these arms
Than Atlas bears upon his shoulders. Speak dearest friend.
Where is Virtusus? living or 'mongst the dead?
Fid.
Alive too, but in prison.
Cha.
I'le free him instantly; I'le have my Crown again,
Too long Bermudo has usurpt it. I'le break upon him,
Like some di [...]efull Contet sparkling my ven­geance
'Bout his Throne, or like a swelling chan­nel lon [...] damn'd up
Will I discharge my streams on all sides of him,
Rushing forth with a strong and hideous tor­rent
As mischievous as irresistable.
Fid.
Forbid it Providence. Be not too rash fond man,
R [...]l [...]gion, and your sacred Lawes oppose it.
You have indulg'd him all the Prerogatives of Majesty,
Crown'd him your self, and should you now
Lay violent hands upon him before his Crown is forfeited,
How would you violate your Laws, and scandall
Your Religion? Think what an easie presi­dent
'Twill be hereafter to your Subjects.
Cha.
Far be it from me to violate Reli­gion:
I would not for the worlds vast Monarchy
Receive the morgag'd Crown before its for­feiture.
I'le wed Flavanda first, so doing
Religion seconds my attempts, and restores
The Diadem again unto me.
Fid.
Still you grow rasher: will you for a Crown
Receive a Serpent to your bosome? His Sister?
VVill all your glory, and your high swoln titles
Make constant her that loves thee not.
Take heed, there's danger in't, great danger.
Cha.
Her Love's more constant than the Rocks,
Less blasted with the puffs of vain Ambition:
Nature has lost the mold where she was fram'd,
And cannot second what she did:
'Twas my Flavanda whom her curious hand
From all eternity strove to make perfect.
Fid.
Were she the e [...]actest piece of Curi­osity that ever
Admiration doated on, yet if she want a soul
Able for to govern all those excellencies,
We cannot stile her perfect (Perfection be­ing
The unity of both most excellent) our Loves
Like to our selves are still terrestriall,
Reflecting only on the outward object,
Without regard of that divine and most ce­lestiall
Fabrick of the soul We think
Those seeming spots within the Moon, meer motes
And blemishes, when indeed they are most pure,
And most pellucide; so on the contrary,
VVe deem all virtuous that is fair, and yet
The Moon is fair we must confess, yet she
Is only constant in Inconstancy.
Cha.
Can'st thou look virtuously on any thing that's fair?
Cans't thou behold dame Natures Master­piece.
And no new Admiration swell thy enamourd fancie?
[Page]Can'st thou but seeme to court Divinity,
Or behold the Sun in all his glory, without a true
And reall Adoration? if so: Go court my best Flavanda.
Carry a thousand Ovids in thy tongue,
Let thy words melt to the winning'st elo­quence
That e're enchanted Lady; Speak in thy highest phrase,
Thou canst not flatter her; she is as far be­yond it,
As I come short of admiration,
And if all this does produce a tear,
Or sigh, more than in pity of thy folly,
I will as much abhor inconstancy,
As now I doate upon her excellence.
Fid.
I were injurious unto you, and to that Diety
That lies inshrin'd within those rayes, should I
Presume to approach but with a virtuous adoration.
No immodest thought shall once extract
An amorous glance, no rude word shall preach
Uncivill doctrin to her, nor any melting touch
Cast a delicious silence o're her body, whil'st
Her pleas'd eye retorts a second invitation:
All shall be truly harmless, all divine.
I'le lay a seeming [...]iege against her constancy,
And if she bravely can maintain that fort,
I'le stile thee happy in thy humble choyce, happier
Than those that wed 'bove their aspiring fortunes,
Where every nod of the displeased wife
Clames an obedience in the Husband.
Cha.
On to thy wars then, but take heed,
Fly not too long about those flames, lest that
Thy melted wings like to a second Icarus
Throws thee down into a deadly Ocean of destruction,
Where thou must sink eternally: So Fare­well.
Exeunt.

Act. 3. Scen. 2.

Enter Virtusus reading a Letter.
Vir.
Thine for ever Thesbia. If this be true
I am above thee Fate. Why should I doubt it? Her hand
Is the truest Character of her faith, her Seal
The firm and furest obligation of her Love
Which like the Gordian Knot binds most inseparably.
'Tis that divinest Thesbia that has tide
Our absent souls together, reuniting too
Our hands though distant in as firm a Kno [...]
As Hymen and his sacred Rites could do, though present.
Be frolick then my soul; To day
Thou art wedded to thy happiness. Swell high my blood;
I'le entertain my Thesbia in a dream:
There my delighted fancy may in spite
Of cursed distance, kiss its fill,
There in a second slumber I may lye
Melting my soul with hers, whil'st cach em­brace
Invites another, and each amorous look
Calls to a second Parley; There my ravish't senses
Rapt to the highest extasie may find out
New sorts of pleasures, and sweet fresh de­lights.
Rest here then melting soul, to All good night.
He sleeps
Enter Thesbia.
Thes.
Did our chief bliss consist in worldly pleasures
As Epicurus did define, I might suppose my self
Most happy; But alas, take heed,
Trust not a Lyon though he [...]awns.
Oh ye powers! why did ye not!
When this same fabrick lay like melted wax
Void of all form or feature, why did ye not
Frame it most miserable? why was I made
Beyond the reach of happiness?
I would Bermudo thou hadst ha [...]ed me,
I could have been ambitious then, and Crowns
Are like Love, nere pleasant but in getting,
Once got, they are troublesome: Happiness consists
In expectation only; Fond Gamsters when they play
Desire to win, but having won, their play is ended.
[Page] Sick men wil please their thoughts with that,
Which to enjoy were deadly: Ambition
Were a virtue could [...] shun the end.
What sleeping prisoner? Thou art happy in thy thraldom;
Kings cannot sleep so soundly;
Where is my father Shepherd? where is he?
For whom thou endur'st this thraldom?
Cannot thy sleeps inform me? This Paper may.
She takes the Letter.
Ha? Amaze me not ye Heavens!
Do not abuse my too inclining senses with the fight
Of this same flattering object. Oh desire
Thou art a false Optick misleading of our fancies
To that sight which most we covet.
Why thus transform'd Virtusus? Are these a Princes Robes?
Is sleep a Lovers fellow? at noon tide too?
Then Thesbia is forgotten.
Sleep on sweet soul, she has deserv'd thy scorns;
Let Quires of heavenly Spirits guard thy slumbers,
And when thou walk'st let thy enamourd soul
Turn to those pleasing sounds: Thesbia would have
No mortall Rivall. Alas he wakes.
Vir.
Stay Morpbeus stay, force not thy leaden wings
So quickly from mine eyes: oh let me ere behold
This Pleasing object. How has my fancy
Travel'd all this while? what Seas, what Gul [...]s,
What unknown Lands has my imagination compast?
If dreams those weaker fancies of our brain
Can work so really upon our souls,
Oh let me dream eternally, let all my life
Be one continued slumber: Ha? a Vision!
Thes.
No, a reall piece of Misery, one that begs
Upon his knees a Curtesie.
Vir.
Thou art my Jayler boy,
Thou mayst command it.
Thes.
I not command, but my obedient soul
Poures out it self in supplication: Because I am your Jayler,
Let not that keep back your clemencie,
I will become your fellow-prisoner rather,
Weep when you weep, sigh when you sigh,
And be the true and perfect flatterer of your misery.
Tell me, oh tell me! where's that unhappy King Sperazus,
Whose life thy loss of liberty has purchas'd?
Long have I sought him up and down,
Yet still was so unhappy as to miss him.
Vir.
Wouldst thou betray him then false Boy?
Thes.
Far be it from me, I would but chide him only;
Tell him he was cruell, inhumanely cruell,
Cruell to his own dear daughter,
Robbing her of that affection by his strict command
Which she had plac't on Prince Virtusus:
Nor was this enough to satisfie his ire,
But he must force her to revile him too,
(Heaven knows too much against her will.)
How oft poor maid has she with showres of tears,
Distilled from those never empty fountains,
Pray'd that the heavens would set an ever­lasting seal
Upon those lips that utter'd such a propha­nation?
But they reserv'd them for to sing in heaven,
As now they do.
Vir.
Is she dead then?
Thes.
No, she lives in heaven a sacrifice
Unto Virtusus ire.
Vir.
I have heard too much: Hence Night-Raven
Hencethou black interpreter of death,
Haste to the Stygian shades, be never more
Here heard on earth: Thy voyee will blast us all.
Thes.
I am sorry sir—.
Vir.
Hold, stop thy accursed Mouth;
Let it not breath such dismall vapors:
Haste unto Pluto's Quire, there let the Man­drakes voyce
Yell forth his Mattens; Howl there the Dirges
Of tormented souls; Learn Harmony from Toads.
Thes.
Yet hear me.
Vir.
Never, oh never.
Exit.
Thes.
[Page]
Thus often Politicians with their too much care
Turn what was perfect to a just dispair.
Exit.

Act. 3. Sce. 3.

Enter Flavanda and Constantin [...] as Shepherdesses.
Fla.
Call you this place a Cottage, it is a beautious
Palace rather, adorn'd to entertain some Deity;
Art sure? and Nature too has met to make it
A per [...]ect Paradice: I have liv'd in ignorance too long;
Courts are false Opticks blinding our weak­er fancies
With a false and basely forg'd felicity.
This is the truest happiness.
Con.
Now I perceive things are most sweet
Known by their contraries; Courtiers 'mongst us
Are had in admiration; we whose simplicity
Can be but honest only think flattery virtue.
one knocks.
Fla.
Some one knocks, pritheee admit him.
Enter Fidelio.
Con.
One from Charastus Madam desires
To speak with you.
Fla.
From Charastus? come you from him sir?
Pardon me if I express a greater pleasure
Than modesty will allow me: How does that Prince?
Alas, I fear all is not well you look so strangely.
Is he alive or dead? speak quickly, quickly gentle [...]ir.
Release me of this fear. Why are yo [...]
So cruelly silent?
Fid.
Admiration Lady stopt my speech: He lives,
Lives happily in contemplation of your ex­cellence▪
Fla.
Does this same visit sir proceed from him?
Fid.
No Lady: my devotion bound me hither
With as great a zeal, as Pilgrims to their Pilgrimage▪
For since Charastus tongue that poor inter­preter
Of your worth blaz'd your perfections to me,
My heart would never be at quiet
Till my ambitious eyes were witnesses of that excellence,
Which now alas I find of such a ful authority,
That I am forc't to adoration: Thus low
I offer up my self unto your mercy.
Oh be as gentle then as fair,
And let some showres of pitie quench those flames,
Or cruell love worse than a flash of lightnin [...]
Will consume the Sacrificer, Altar, and the Sacrifice.
Fla.
If showres of tears could quench the flame
I would be full of pity, but Loves fire
Is of that nature that the more we strive
To quench it, the more it still does burn.
Pity 'its fewell is, and should I spend some Tears,
It would raise a strange presumption in you
Of an ea [...]ie Conquest; I'le not deceive
Your hopes so much: Charastus sir has con­quer'd,
And is of force to keep. I am only his.
Fid.
Only his? Good ought to be com­mon still:
Do not, oh do not, sweet, confine a happi­ness
To only one: Make not a stealth of Natures bounty,
But like some gentle stream running betwixt two fields
Be a delicious ornament to both.
The twining Ivie that ascends
Embracing the lou'd Elm will oft vouchsafe
The encircling of some neighbouring bough, and yet
The Elm cannot accuse it of inconstancy.
Fla.
To suffer our affections so to wander
Were but to prostitute▪ and make common that
Which nature hath reserv'd within for a prize
Due to the most deserving.
Fid.
The Sun himself nere stands upon curiosity,
But lends his beams to all: He nere rega [...]ds desert.
[Page] Be wise Flavanda, know he that woes thee
Is a Prince, the Prince of great Pelorus
Whither he shall car [...]y thee in as full a Tri­umph
As he would his Penates.
There thou mayst shine in all thy glory
Whilist thy Beholders melt to see those rayes,
And never seek a shade to shelter them,
Whil'st here you stay, the Tyrants Law
Wor [...]e than a grosly exhalation duls your beams,
Not suffering them to shine at all, no not so much
As on my friend Charastus.
Fla.
With what face dare you call him friend
Whom thus you strive to ruine? Can you suppose
He will forget this injury? Surely
Hee'l ever hate you for't.
Fid.
Hee'l rather love me for't:
Atheists themselves love Atheists, and shall we,
We of so pure a faith maintain a hate
Against one another for being of the same Religion?
How injurious should we prove unto that Dei [...]y
To whom we pay this reverence,
Should we but think her mercy lay confin'd
Within the circumscribed bounds of con­stancy,
Or suppose that that love can ere be limited
By a promise which Nature has made free;
Love rests not in a point, 'tis large,
Diffusive as the Ayre, not like a stream that still
Tends to the Ocean, but like some wandring flood
Which at the will and pleasure of the Spring
Returns unto her bosom: Draw part, Sweet,
Of that wandring stood to this side of the fountain,
Here let it come in a full effusion,
I'le meet its pleasing Billows with a virgin Love
That yet remains unstain'd, unproffer'd, un­polluted.
[...] Thou lyest, false man,'tis staind,'tis proffer'd,
And polluted too.
Fid.
Nay, blush not, Sweet:
Thou'lt make Aurora blush to see her self out-gon
In her peculiar excellence.
Fla.
Let not this crimson have a coloura­ble mistake,
'Tis a red flag of just defiance 'gainst thy Treachery.
Recant fond man, thou wilt grow odious else,
More odious to me than my evill Genius:
I shall abhor thy sight till penitence
Has washt away this prophanation. Dearest of Friends,
If e're thou wilt do a favour to Flavanda,
Haste to Charastus, Tell him this man's dis­loyalty.
He surely will severely punish it.
Con.
I obey most willingly.
Exit.
Fid.
Now She's gone, I am not what I seem'd
The base abuser of thy constancy: No saw­cy flame
Burns now within my veins, 'Tis a religious fire,
I cannot stile it love, but zeal.
Why didst thou sweet suspect me? I was
Too confident to be a Lover: Loves flames burn high
Still trembling with their height;
Mine were too base, and too audacious▪
Be happy now Flavanda, ere that too mor­rows Sun
Shall deck these meadows with his beams
Hymen shall joyn you to Charastus. I was se [...]t
Not as his Rivall, but his Instrument.
Exeunt.

Act. 3. Sce. 4.

Horns within.
Enter Bermudo.
Ber.
This Boar has mist us strangely: I'le see
Whither I can trace him in the woods.
He goes out and enters again.
No sign at all? 'Tis strange: Where lies the wind?
[Page] North or North-East? He must needs be this way.
Stay:
what foot is that? 'Tis fresh and new­ly printed.
Musick below ground.
Ha! Guard me Diana: A Rape, a Rape;
Where flies my ravisht senses? oh
From what earthly cave proceeds this hea­venly harmony?
Dissolve, dissolve my soul, turn Ayr▪
And Eccho forth those blest harmonious ac­cents;
A voyce too? Orphens, Orphens, begst thou again Euricide?
Let amorous Lovers take delight
And glory in variety,
Love still to gaze, though every sight
Ads still unto their misery.
Song.
I in a Cave
More pleasure have
Loving but one,
Than they that love,
Still to remove
Can in a Throne.
Surely the ground is holy where I tread;
The heavenly Choristers are met to day
To consecrate this wood, Eternall Mini­sters of heaven
If my rash foot has offended in the distur­bance
Of your holy Ceremonies, blame my rude fo [...]rune.
Oh let me not wander here in admiration thus,
But send some gentle Ayr to be my guide
Out of this pleasing Labytinth: Oh Diana
Take pity on your servant.
Eccho. Servant.
Ber.
What voyce calls? Art thou a ta [...] ­ling Eccho?
Eccho.
No.
Ber.
No? what art thou then? Art thou some gentle Nymph
Inhabiting these woods? or art Dianas self?
Eccho.
Dianas self?
Ber.
Most gracious Goddess of these silent groves,
Long has thy servant liv'd the poor admirer
Of thy excellence▪ long has he liv'd in igno­rance
Of that glory whose true worth to know
Would surfet Admiration▪ Tell me, of tell me,
Mayst thou be seen by mortall eye?
Eccho.
I.
Ber.
I will no longer live in ignorance.
I'le seek thee in the deepest caves,
Search the remorest corners of the wood
To view thy splendor. Oh stay then Gentle Goddess,
Fly not hence, oh stay I come.
Eccho.
Stay, I come.
Ber.
Come not to me sweet Goddess,
I am not worth such favour: 'tis happiness enough
For me to seek thee, though I nere should find thee.
Oh come not then, I am thy servant,
I am Bermudo stay.
Eccho.
Bermudo stay.
Ber.
Yes, with a zeal as fervent as the
Melting Bride expects the wish'd arrivall
Of the Bridegroom.
Enter Desdonella from the Cave attir'd like a Sylvan Goddess.
Des.
Lye there thou sweet and sole com­panion
Of my mise [...]y, whil'st I from out this solitary Cave
Behold the so admired fabrick of the Hea­vens,
And then contemplate on their excellence.
Ber.
Eternall piece of chastity, at whose shrine
Pure Virgins offer up unspotted incence,
Lo thus prostrate at thy feet Bermudo lies
Offring himself a most unworthy sacrifice.
Des.
Alas I am betraid: it is Bermudo.
I must dissemble.
Ber.
Beauteous Diana, Goddess of the woods
May I behold thy splendor? As yet I durst not
Lest thy refulgent eyes should blind me for presumption.
Oh draw a veil ore that majestick counte­nance
I shall be blinded else with too much seeing.
Des.
Mens weaker eyes must not behold
Divinity in all its lustre: That were a sight
Too glorious, else Bermudo I would appear to thee
[Page] D [...]ckt with divine, and holy ornaments,
B [...]t envious Fates sorbid that happiness to man,
I must assume some other shape
Before thou canst behold me.
Ber.
Take any gracious Goddess so I may see thee,
Couldst thou assume the Devils 'twould be lovely.
Des.
I have thought of one Bermudo not so terrible
Though bad enough, what thinkst thou of Desdonella's
The late dead Princess? thou hatedst her alive,
Her shape then surely cannot ravish thee.
Shall I assume hers?
Ber.
Oh any gracious Goddess, any▪
Des.
Arise Bermudo then, Look up,
Behold in Desdonella's shape Diana; Speak,
Am I not very like her? Ca [...]'st not perceive
Her tear swoln eyes, her trembling hands,
And love-fick countenance? Look I not
Like a true and perfect Lover?
Ber.
Oh Desdonella wert thou now alive,
I should admire thee;
Thy shape was never lovely until now.
Thou art transparent grown, I can perceive
Divinity within thee, the reflection whereof
Dissolves my frozen bosom, and makes me stand
Like to a burning Statue, all on fire,
Des.
Why tremblest so Bermudo? can Desdonella's shape
Of late so odious, make thee tremble?
Fond man, where's thy Allegiance to Diana?
Wher's now that chastity which so oft
Vpon mine Altars thou hast boasted?
Ber.
Pardon Divinest Goddess; no loose desire
Causes this sudden alteration, no upstart slame
Makes me forgetfull of my loyalty;
'Tis not the outward shape that I admire,
(Though I must needs confess 'tis excellent)
There's that within clameth an Adoration,
And I were worse than sacrilegious should I rob
Divinity of its due.
Des.
Look no more thorough that false optick, fear;
[...]e not so timorous; Divinity is laid aside,
And I am perfect mortall, come, [...] consident,
And kiss our hand; why so fearfull?
He kisses her hand.
Now for this favour you'l report Diana is un­chast.
Ber.
Let me be blasted then; I were more impious
Than superstition, should I think a kiss or an embrace
Could be a breach of chastity; Those are rewards
Given to afflicted goodness; but what merit lies in me
Whose just worth from out the center of your
Chaster mercies may extract so great a favor
I must confess I know not, unless I take
Your liberality for the cause.
Des.
I am so far from being ingratefull unto him
That harbors but a spark of chastity, that I suppose
The favour of our hand, a poor
And trifling recompense for so much virtue;
But should I offer up a lip to you Bermudo,
You▪ would be civilly fearfull, thinking me
Vnchast to offer it, and your self
More impious to receive it.
Ber.
I were erroneous should I think so;
Will not the Sun oft-times vouchsafe
An humble salutation to the earth, and yet not lose
One of his chaster glories; far,
Far be it from me to think, when ere I see
Approaching beams of Chastity, that I may refuse
To meet them with an equall ardour:
When I consider that the unity of two chast bodies
Makes chastity entirely perfect, I dare put on
A confidence to salute a Deity,
Provided alwayes our intents be chaste.
'Tis not an outward ceremonious action
That can spot the soul, for could we sin
And think but chastly, 'twere no fault.
Arm'd with which opinion I am confident,
And dare tast the sweetness of that lip,
And think it lawfull too.
He kisses her.
Des.
Ou [...] impudence; That kiss has pul'd a ruine on thee.
[Page]Hence from my sight, make haste,
Lest my pursuing vengeance overtake thee.
Exit.
How neer my Virgin-modesty was forfeited?
Who can look virtuously with affections eyes?
Beware ye vesfall Virgins, ye that do make
Your chastity your Religion, beware of too much gazing;
Eyes oftentimes dart forth a lustre
That will dull devotion were it arm'd
With all its sacred glories.
Enter Halisdus.
Hal.
How fares it Royall Princess with you
After this wished conference?
Des.
As with a [...]eary Mariner shipwracke in the Haven.
Many a tedious voyage has this wandring bark
Past in the gulf of desperation, yet still was ever
Lost in the port of happiness; oh Halisdus!
I am grown weary with this sayling;
Is there no other way for to be happy,
But by this most infortunate adventure?
Hal.
Yes Madam, if you'l be advis'd. You know
On what condition Bermudo holds his Crown
Just now with you broke it; If you please then
I'le tell your brother of the forfeiture, and so
To save his life hee'l condiscend unto your will.
Des.
Accursed policie to shun a rock
And fall mongst Pyrates; Far,
Far be it from D [...]sdonella to enjoy that love
That comes by composition; that were an act
Becoming those that set a common price on Chastity,
And sell Repentance unto Prodigals.
True love admits no hire, tis Lust not Love
We bargain for. Grant he has sin'd,
Ought I to punish him: Will ere the Leo­pard
Chide the Ermine for being spotted? That were
To blame their own deformity in another
Without excusing of themselves.
Hal.
Thou art too virtuous Desdonella:
None I can blame for the misfortune but thy virtue.
Oh ye powers! Is this that just reward which virtue payes?
All will hereafter strive for to be vicious
If excellence must merit misery. Come Desdonella
I'le to thy Cave, and furnish all thy wants:
Thy virtues glories had they their perfect light
Would puzzle all eternity to write.
Exeunt to the Cave.

Act. 3. Sce. 3.

Enter Constantina.
Con.
Where am I now? what mak'st thou Constantina here?
Alas I am come to do a Message,
And have forgot my errand; oh nere re­member it.
Could'st thou forget ever, thou mighst be happy.
Thou must accuse Fidelio; Thou must dye first:
Though he has sin'd, thy tongue shall never punish him.
Oh Fidelio thou art false, false as inconstan­cy it self,
False unto me, and to the worlds vast expe­ctation too.
Is this the melancholy life thou vow'dst so oft
To lead in Lelybaeus? why did my soul
Leave her religious Sanctuary, Countrey, friends, and all
To see thee court my ruine in an unknown Land?
Should I now chide, and seek Revenge,
I did but Justice, 'Twere equity
No Rigor should I kill thee.
I cannot be so much a woman; oh ye powers
Why made ye me so soft, and him so cruell.
Enter Charastus.
Hail gracious sir, these so dejected looks
Speak you Charastus: I have a message to you,
Would but your eye suffer your ear to hear it.
Why do you g [...]e so? has your divining soul
[Page]Fore-told the happy tidings that I bring you?
If some instinct has forestal'd my errand,
I shall not need for to relate. I'le only tell you sir.
You have a friend, by name Fidelio, a Man,
(A [...]ine rather where scatter'd virtues ga­ther'd up
Lye hoarded in a commixt unity)
If ere perfection was, it is in him. He Sir
Has spoke your cause so [...]eelingly to Fla­vanda;
Pleaded with such divine and holy Oratory,
That her love now blazes with such violence
As I could wish you presently would see her.
Cha.
Divinest closu [...]e of a soul more pure,
No general pardon sent from Heaven
Could strike attention in me with so great a zeal
As thy commanding voyce as don; dearest,
Dearest Flavanda can'st thou suppose a poor,
And silly garment can keep me from
The discerning of thy excellence, that knew it,
When I lay a mishapen Embrio in the Chaos?
'Tis not a silken cloud, Divinest, that can hide the Sun.
Con.
You do mistake it sure.
This is a Meteor only, reflected from the true one.
Cha.
Those rayes are too too glorious for reflections,
They cast a lustre would make
An Angell of Ae [...]hiop, would not their heat
Convert him to his wonted colour.
Nor can I think such beams can meet
But in my dear Flavanda: Art thou not she?
I prithee say thou art, 'twill ease me some­what.
Con.
Your reason sir will tell you that I am not.
Cha.
Make me not m [...]d I prithee: can there be
Two most excellent, two most rare,
Two chiefest above all, it is a mysterie
Beyond two worlds: The Sun admits
No partner of his glory, the Phaenix no partaker,
Why should not she the chiefest of all wo­men
Assume the like Prerogative? Must there be
A divided essence of an united excellence?
Oh Nature! why didst thou give to man, two hands,
Two eyes, two Affections, and but one heart?
Pardon divinest Lady if my too much care
Has made me negligent, there is
A direfull conflict fought within me by two friends,
Either must have victory by my ruine:
What will that victory yield.
Con.
I see you are disturb'd sir;
I'le crave leave to return.
Exit.
Cha.
Thus does the Sun flie our Horizon,
This Night clad in a misty veil,
Spreads darkness o're the world,
Whil'st mortals wander in obscurity.
Oh Love, thou are too much a wanton;
Thy sport's too serious. VVho fires a Church
Or kills his parents may be happy,
Repentance oft will wash away that stain,
But he that loves, loves doubtfully as I,
No tears, no sorrows, nor repentant sighes
Can wipe away his misery, but he must dye
Starv'd in the midst of plenty.
Enter Fidelio.
Fid.
Why so sad Charastus? prepare your ears
To entertain news that will startle all your
Melancholy thoughts, and make you pam­perd appetite
Swell high with contemplation of a happi­ness,
Flavanda's constant, more constant
Than a miser to his gold; The vestal Virgins
At their Altar may be tempted, but not she.
Cha.
Oh Fidelio thou hast abus'd my trust, I
Sent thee not to praise my constancy, but to try hers;
Didst thou not promise me to court her,
Nay court her in thy chiefest Rhetorick,
To use all the perswasions that thy tongue
Could in civility pronounce?
Fid.
And so I did, by all that's good, I did.
Cha.
Thou swearst not by thy self now:
He is not good that's false unto his friend.
VVhy stird'st thou a suspition in me of her constancy,
Yet ne're would seek to prove it?
Fid.
[Page]
What Dev [...] has inspir'd thee with this falshood?
Cha.
It was my better Angel rather
Sent from Heaven to warn mee.
Didst thou not flatter me? extoll my loy­alty
Beyond its merit? Tell her each figh I spent?
What tears her love had caus'd?
But that I know she is constant,
I should suspect her for thy prayses.
Fid.
If thou believ'st Charastus there is faith
Or loyalty in Fidelio, (which surely thou oughtst not to suspect)
I tempted her as far as piety and friendship
Would permit me, yet like a stedfast rock she stood
Throwing the insulting billows on the mo­vers face.
Oh Charastus thou art happy;
She is a gem incomparable, and did I know
What envious tongue had blasted thus our reputation,
I'de make it eat its venome.
Cha.
If thou but heardst, it thou wouldst start,
And stand amaz'd to hear such sweetness.
Fid.
Do not delay your joyes with her E [...]comium.
A Priest and your Flavanda does expect you
For to tye that Knot which you before
Too rashly would have don, had my unlucky hand
Not hinder'd it.
Cha.
Alas Fidelio the tide is turn'd;
If now you wed me tis unto my grave.
From my divided heart springs a biforked flame,
Hymen will stand amaz'd to see't, and will not tell
At which to light his torch at.
Farewel Fidelio, death he needs not fear
That does desire to meet it every where.
Exit
Fid.
Oh Love thou art too cruell! How can'st thou tyrannize
Ore his too soft nature? Hadst thou but eyes
Thou then would'st pity him, but as thou art,
Blind and obdurate, thou shootst at random still;
So fortune guides thy shafts, and alwayes she
Upon desert spends all her cruelty.
Exit.

Actus quartus. Scena Prima.

Enter Flavanda.
Fla.
THe lying Painters picture aged time
With wings at's heels, as if he always flew,
But that their licence warranteth their acts
I justly might accuse them of their falshood;
The time that Love obeys is slow, exceeding dull,
Hel'd back with leaden fe [...]ers.
Each tedious minute makes a week,
Each moneth an age, and each delaying year
Seems fully a Platonnick.
Enter Charastus.
Cha.
Whither dispair do'st hurry me?
What new found death canst thou invent
For an inconstant Lover? If there be one
Which never yet imagination compast, let me enjoy
Its wish't virginity, I have deserv'd it fully.
Fla.
T [...]lk not of death Charastus now; my arms shall be
Thy living sepulcher, my Bed thy winding-sheet;
Hymen shall write thy joyfull Epitaph,
And Virgins pure shall [...] an Epithala­mium for an Elegy;
We two like to two meeting channels will turn one,
One individed and united Body.
Cha.
Oh Flavanda I blush to see thee;
I am a villain grown, yet I still dearly love thee▪
I am inconstant, Dearest, c [...]n'st thou think it?
The ficklest fortune is more stedfast:
The wind oft-times is stable, but my heart
Wavers at every object.
Fla.
Have I a Rivall then Charastus?
Is the stream of your Affection then divided,
And your Love grown less?
Cha.
Not less Flavan [...]a; Streams parted with a stop
[Page] [...] with a greater violence [...] her side,
Than when they k [...]pt united in one channel.
Fla
I [...] [...]on [...]ss my unwo [...]thiness; I will resign
Unto thy [...]ether love, could I but think her worthy.
Cha.
Never, oh never, never shal't thou do it.
For sooner sure the Gods can separate the orbs
Th [...]n our so long united Hearts.
Enter Constantina.
Were the separation but in Natures power, here comes
Those rayes that easily would make the dis­solution.
Fla.
Thou hast made a worthy choyce Charastus.
I glory in my Rivall more than Lovers in their Nuptialls:
This Act confirms your love to me, and should I dye
I make no question but my liveless trunck
Would pleasure in your happiness; no [...]o [...]i­embrace
Could ye exchange, but I should be partaker
No kiss without a joyfull blush from my wan cheeks
Should joyn your tender lips together.
Delay not then your joyes for me.
My Love is old and stale; He [...]'s fresher
Than the mayden Rose whose pure [...]ess ye [...]
No boysterous hand has touch't prophanely.
I'le imitate those friends that take more pleasure
For to see some feed, than if they fed them­selves.
Con.
I'le starve before I'le taste such cares,
They will infect me with inconstancy▪
They're like devouring flames, they still turn
All they meet with to their own nature:
But I will fly them worse than stings of Scor­pions,
Or that deadly root, that pallateth the eye
But poysons still the pallate.
Fla.
Shun not approaching happiness for my sake;
I am grown old in his affection, and Age
You know must dye, yet when I am dead
Be not I [...] jealous of my Ghost.
Con.
If death can end this controversie, 'tis fittest
I should yield, when I am dead
I happily may love him, but never living.
Cha.
Contend not so my hearts two pa­rallels
For what's anothers due; Death my desert is,
Here I live, like to a needle 'twixt two Load­stones,
Paying a trembling reverence to both,
No full Allegiance unto either.
Oh ye individed moities of my soul,
Tear not my heart with your attractive vir­tues
Thus by piece-meals, divide it gently,
Ye both are victors of my better part al­ready,
My body is not worth your quarrell.
Con.
Nor your heart; we night as well
Quarrell for fortune, she's as constant.
Fla.
But not so lovely.
Con.
Constancy the only beauty is in eyes
That true affection governs, which till Cha­rastus
Gets again, I shall abhor to see him.
Exit.
Fla.
Would I could do so too; But envi­ous Fate
[...]wharts my desires, and condemns my hate.
Exit.
Cha.
Do I yet live? remain my senses perfect?
Oh I could rave, tear out my traiterous eyes,
Dissect my heart, and rend affection from af­fection.
Surely I am mad, because I am not mad:
Mad men enjoy their happiness, but we
In having reason know our misery.
Exit.

Act. 4. Sce. 2.

Enter Constantina.
Con.
Where is that boasted constancy which so oft
Men use to glory in? where is that Faith,
And that eternall Loyalty, which once ex­alted men
'Bove Demi-Gods? Is there not one left vir­tuous?
[Page]We might have been inconstant by Autho­rity,
Custome wou'd have allow'd, it but men,
Whose purer souls should harbor most divi­nity▪
Are now become less constant far than we
That clame no being but from them.
Why should we suffer then for what's ano­thers fault?
My act shall work a reformation in the world,
And man, not woman, shall hereafter be
The Proverb to express Iuconstancy.
Enter Fidelio.
Fid.
Kneel you to me Lady?
Con.
Wonder not Fidelio why thus low
An unknown Virgin offers her obedience;
It is a reverence that we ought to pay
When we behold such virtue, and should I
Be so uncivilly modest to deny an adoration
When duty and affection bind me,
The world might justly stile me irreligious.
Fid.
That modestie I must confess is in­civilitie
That smothers an affection; But what worth in me
Can stir affection in your chaster breast I know not,
And I must needs Lady either be a fool
In extolling of my self, or uncivill in con­demning your Judgment.
Con.
I look not on you sir with superstiti­ous eyes,
I cannot make an Idol of perfection,
It is your souls Idaea I admire
Whose excellence I have studied long
Taught by your Constantina's prayses.
Fid.
You have chose a most unprofitable Subject
For your study Lady, it is so sparing of re­ward
That it forgets it self, and must for ever, you.
Con.
It is a study like the Chimick,
The end I must confess is hard to gain, but yet
It shews most sweet conclusions to the indu­strious.
Many there are that study it with delight,
But none with such a fearfull fervency as I;
Yet though I tremble, I dispair not, since she,
That only had the power to obtain it,
Has resign'd it to me for a Legacie, which I may
Justly chalenge, and you may not without imp [...]ety deny.
Fid.
A Legacie? if she be dead that was
Sole Mistress of the Art, the Art m [...]st dye too.
Con.
Mistake me not, she is not dead sir,
She has usurpt another studie only, call'd
Obedience to a Husband, for Constantin [...] your once betrothed
Is now married to the Duke of Florence my only Brother.
Fid.
She is worse then, her constancie is dead,
And with it dies my love eternally.
Con.
Oh say not so; that was my Legacy given to me
By her departing Constancy, and if the Laws fulfill
The wills of wicked men, 'tis fit that sacred Constancie's
Should be obei'd▪ She told me here you liv'd
In Lelybaeus a disguised Shepherd for her sake,
Which made me take this journey and this habit,
And surely had you not a fresher Love,
You nere could disobey your Constantina's will,
Especially to one so like her.
Fid.
I must confess thou art so like her,
That I should believe what thou hast said is true,
Were I not so confident of her Loyalty.
Con.
Shall I not be believ'd then?
Let her hand perswade you, since my tongue cannot.
She gives him a Letter.
Fid.
This is her seal and Character, I know'um well;
The direction, [...]o her wrong'd Fidelio.
I begin to tremble, my gelid blood
Flies fast unto n [...]y heart, a [...]d ca'ls for venge­ance.
He reads.
Con.
Read and repent false man.
Fid.
Oh heavens! VVhy of those nume­rous torments
[Page]That attend our sinfull actions, chose you a woman
Yo torment me? If that my crime so hai­nous was,
That all your malice joyn'd with fortunes
Could not invent a punishment to equall it,
Hell surely might have furnish'd you,
You needed not have call'd a woman to your councell,
Their malice is above H [...]ls hate,
But I'le be reveng'd on, all their Sex,
For none I am sure is constant since she is false.
Con.
Be not so confident of our weakness:
The loving Turtle shall not serve her mate
With half that faithfulness as I will you.
Fid.
Hence Ethiopean Devill; Thou art too like her
To be good: I'de rather meet a Succubus,
Embrace a sooty Moore, or dally with a Negro's horrid curles.
They may by chance prove constant, but thou
Wilt presently deny thou lov'st me.
Con.
Let me dye eternally, if ever I deny
I love you.
Fid.
Then follow me to Bermudo, thou shalt be the first
I'le sacrifice to my just anger. Oh men ac­curst!
Exeunt.

Act. 4. Sce. 3.

Enter Virtusus.
Vir.
Oh thou restrainer of our wilder actions,
Thou that keepst in awe all raging superflu­i [...]ies,
Teaching sobriety to the grossest Epicures,
Could'st thou restrain our wandring imagi­nations too
Thou wert a Paradice, but they in the ob­scurest places
Wander most, and in the darkest Caves, where light
Nere yet vouchsa [...]t an entrance, oft will see
A perfect splendor and a full effusion of im­materiall Beams
Descending down from an impenitrable po­stern.
Thoughts are the Devils chiefest Instru­ments.
The holyest Frier in his seclusest Cell
Oft sins in imagination; The purest Vestall
At the Altar will oft-times fancy a thing un­lawfull;
And should that be the utter ruine of Vir­ginity,
Where should we seek it Heavens?
Enter Bermudo and Thesbia.
Thes.
See yonder he is, Great Sir.
Ber.
Thou art a courteous Jayler; He sares
More like a Prince than Prisoner.
Thes.
I love not Sir to triumph over Mi­sery.
Exit.
Ber.
Shepherd, thou hast thy liberty.
The importunate intreaties of Anthrogenus have commanded it.
See now thou goest, and with submissive knees
Be thankfull to his bounty; It is
But a poor gratuity for freedom.
Vir.
I scorn that freedome that is given
Not for desert, but out of curtesie.
Flattery a thraldom is beyond a Prison,
And I abhor it worse; I'le not thank him
Nor Heavens for what's my due sir.
Ber.
Why stubborn fool? What merit lies in thee
Whose just power may chalenge but a favor from him?
It was not thy desert that rais'd this pity,
But his Charity.
Vir.
His duty rather: true goodness
Whensoere he se [...]s oppressed Innocence
Is bound in duty to relieve it.
Ber.
Is Innocence the ground of your pre­sumption?
Shepherd beware lest thy contempt
Kindle a flame that will consume thee.
Thou hast stir'd the embers, without pre­vention
'Twill be dangerous.
Enter Thesbia.
Thes.
Oh smother it a while, Great Sir;
Let it not spend
As yet its violence: He will accept your curtesie,
[Page]I know he will▪ It was not He, it was
His modesty that refus'd it; See how he blushes Sir.
Gentle Shepherd, dye not ingratefull to our bounty;
That crime will blot your former innocence,
And make it seem as loathsome as impiety.
If against me you do conceive this Hate,
Go but with me, and I'le tell you sir
She is not dead, Thesbia is not dead,
And reconcile us two in a perpetuall league of friendship.
Vir.
For once I'le try your cunning.
Ber.
Shepherd choose which you wil have,
A perfect freedom, or a sudden grave.
Vir.
I shall have both in either.
Exeunt Virtusus and Thesbia.
Ber.
Hast thou Bermudo with ambitious wings
Soar'd 'bove the reach of common thoughts?
Have I obtain'd that happiness which proudest envie
Scarce can prye into? And must I stoop
Unto a boyes soft Lure? Surely some holy power
Conceals it self within that pleasant habita­tion,
Whose awfull noyse freezes my raging ap­petite,
And tu [...]ns my fury into Charity.
Enter Fidelio.
Fid.
The hardned Earth made stiffe with winters frost
Views not the Sun with such a full alacrity,
As I your Highness.
Ber.
A lustfull couple joyn'd in loose em­braces
Hate not the approaching Morn with such an enmity,
As I your flattery.
Pid.
Believe me Sir I cannot flatter you.
My simple honesty leaves that study unto them
That seek preferment by it: I never hop't
To raise my fortunes by my handsome lying.
The zeal I bear your lawes has arm'd my confidence,
And I do wish I had a thousand unchast Damzels
To present you for a sacrifice.
Ber.
And I do wish if this be true,
I had ten thousand favors to requite thee with.
Fid.
My duty Sir, and not those hopes of recompence
Has bred this hate, which death shall not ex­tinguish,
But my angry Ghost shall hate 'um in Eli­zium.
The very name of woman is grown odious,
And I abhor a Lovers sighs worse than the ayr
Breathed from infection.
Ber.
Let me contain thee in my arms thou faithfull Champion;
We two will grow together, and be one,
One terror to that foolish passion.
Fid.
I have not earn'd such favor yet.
I would not willingly receive my hire
Before I have deserv'd it: Let your Re­venge
Eat of my labors first; I can present you
With a taste, a woman, that dares outface
Impudence it self, who in despight of all your Laws,
And that, which lately I did count
An ornament of woman, blest modstie,
Is turn'd a shameless wooer.
Ber.
If this be true, I'le wear thee here
My better Genius; Long have I sought out such a one.
To make their sex more odious to my eyes,
But nere till now could find one.
Conscience that food of fools and bane of Greatness
Has abus'd me still, making my subjects
To conceal those crimes, which had they but reveal'd,
My exercis'd severity ere this
Had bred a Hate, more deadly to their Sex,
Than raging Dog-dayes, and Platonnick men.
Thou art an honest subject, Shepherd, thou preferst
Thy Kings content before that Bug bear Conscience,
For which, ask any thing, 'tis thine,
Ask Monopolies, I'le seal 'um all, yet do not,
They are the rewards of flattery, and can­not
[Page] Equall thy desert.
Fid.
Your favor Sir will far exceed my merit.
Enter Constantina.
Ber.
Hast any witness, Shepherd, of the fact?
Con
Yes sir, I am his witness;
I know she loves him, Loves him as her soul,
And were there but a thing more dear unto her,
She would love him better.
Fid.
Oh Audacity: This is she.
Ber.
She? Unto what height of impu­dence are women grown?
Dar'st thou defend thy crime, that thou art grown
So confident?
Con.
I come not Sir for to defend my crime,
Or to expostulate with your Highness, for if I did,
I then would tell you, she that loves most truly
Ought to be thought most modest,
And that affection if but constant does as far
Exceed your chastity, as Chastity, Inconti­nence.
Ber.
Bold woman! Hast thou forgot thy Sex?
Con.
I think I have, for I cannot dissem­ble now,
But what I say, proceeds from Truth
Great as thy Tyranny. I flatter not your Highness,
Such common Courtship let them use that are
Affraid to dye; My resolution shall out brave thy rigor,
Use then thy full Authority.
Ber.
Who waits without?
Enter Guard.
Convey that Strumpet hence, ere that the Night
Sheds Poppeys on the Earth, she dyes.
Con.
Now I shall dye in charity with all
Since thou art mercifull: For this same cur­tesie Bermudo
Whil'st I live, I'le pray thou may'st repent,
And when I am dead my obsequient Ghost
Shall wait upon thee still to put thee in re­membrance.
Ex. Guard with Constantina.
Ber.
Shepherd, this curtesie has fatred my revenge,
My raging fu [...]y feeds upon this fuell with a devouring appetite,
And if thou add [...]st not still unto the flame
Vengeance will lack his prey, and f [...]ast on me.
Proceed then in thy holy work, and sooner shall each sense
Forget this Organ, than I my pious instru­ment.
Exit.
Enter Virtusus.
Vir.
Whither so fast Fidelio? How fares it friend?
Fid.
Well.
Vir.
That well sounds ill me thinks.
Is this the joy you give my liberty?
Hadst thou receiv'd thy freedom so,
The calmer Seas when Halcyons breed
Should have appear'd more boysterous than I:
I'de not have frown'd to see thee free,
But if some billows did by chance arise,
I would have turn'd 'um into dancing waves
For joy of thy secuity.
Fid.
Alas Virtusus, I am glad to find thee safe, but
My afflicted soul cannot express the joy.
Oh seest not my heart sweld with revenge
Extend my stretch't out sides, and can'st thou hope
For any thing but frowns?
Vir.
Thy looks I mu [...]t confess declare a Passion,
But of what nature I am ignorant.
Fid.
If thou ha [...]t lost thy penetrating eye,
Look upon my face, and there my eyes
Sparkling forth fire for anger, will give light to read it by.
Can'st not conceive it yet? See'st thou not woman there
Imprinted in the wrinckles of my frowing forehead?
Oh woman, woman, woman!
Vir.
Come, forget this passion for a while,
Forget all women, and their virtues too.
Fid.
[Page]
Alas there is not one left virtuous, but are all
As false and as disloyall as thy sister.
Vir.
I hope you don't suspect her sir.
Fid.
Yes, and your Mother too.
One man could not beget two contraries:
Thou art too good to be her Brother, and she
Too bad to be Brabanta's daughter.
Vir.
My ears have suck't in poyson, which works
Like Stybium in my brains. If this be true
(Which yet I cannot credit) nor pietie nor sisters cries
Shall hold my hand, but I will sacrifice her blood
For an atonement to thy anger.
Fid.
Oh Virtusus 'tis too true: wouldst thou rip ope my heart,
There, there thou nightst behold
Disloyall Constantina writ in bloody notes;
There too as in a perspective thou shouldst see
The Duke of Florences lustfull eyes
Fixt fast on Constantina, whilst the amorous Girl
Playes with his wanton hair, and in
A thousand other wayes invites embraces.
Vir.
Should Heavens in thunder speak it,
I durst to contradict 'um.
Fid.
'Twill be a less impiety to contradict this paper.
He gives him a Letter.
Vir.
It is her seal and Character:
I'le read no more; would 'twere her body,
Thus I'de rend it; Thus would I tear her unchaste limbs,
And blow 'um like to Atomes in the ayr;
Thus in contempt I'de spurn her lustful face,
Bowl with her rouling eyes, and twist her hayr
In [...]opes for executions. Did I but know
What vein her blood inhabits,
I'de make a sluce and draw that channel dry
Though I lay drowned in its gore.
But I am too passionate; who fury can allay,
Vengeance may sooner, and securelier pay.
Enter Charastus.
Fid.
Oh Charastus, never till now unwel­come to Fidelio.
Thou art too happy now for my companion.
I have dissolv'd thy Loves ambiguous Rid­dle,
And given thy soul a free election,
By making a necessity of thy choyse.
Cha.
False and disloyal man, da [...]'st thou yet live
And glory in thy wickedness? Hast thou a Conscience
Not to kill thy self when such a stain com­mands thee?
Oh thou prophaner of all Justice
Ought he to live that cannot look upon per­fection
But with envious eyes?
Fid.
My care has not deserv'd these words Charastus.
Cha.
Call not that care Fidelio which thy spleen
Too long has nourish'd, 'tis an inveterate Hate
Sent from the fouler mansion of thy soul
To blast perfection: Is that Physitian care­full
That instead of Physick gives deadly poyson
To his patient?
Fid.
No dire mistake was author of my charity,
But a Revenge which all their Sex must tremble under,
And 'twas my fortune to practise first on her,
And her honor to precede whole thousands.
Cha.
Thou art the worst of Mounte­banks, they kill
Their poorest Patients for experiments,
But thou destroyst Patience it self, the rich­est Gen
That ever Art envied dame Nature for.
Fid.
It is the nature of Revenge to punish first
Those things from whence they took their poyson.
Cha.
Poyson from her?
Herein thou shew'st thy venemous disposi­tion:
Spiders suck poyson from the sweetest flow­ers
When Bees draw Honey. Her words
Though arm'd to my destruction seem'd to me
Adorn'd with more variety of sweetness
[Page]Than ere enricht our Hybla, more pleasant
Than the jucie grape stole from the Vine
Just at the entrance of maturity;
And can they then, can these delicious words
D [...]still'd to the invitation of a happiness be a poyson?
[...]Tis thy bad Nature only that converts to vaught
What ere the Gods thought good.
Vir.
Doat not Charastus so on one, whose scorn
Makes her condition poorer than her birth,
Which surely is ignoble. The Kingly Eagle
Stoops not unto flies.
Cha.
But yet a Flye mounted on Eagles wings
Deserves more commendations than your pairted Peacocks
That boast but in the gross absurdity of Na­ture.
Vir.
If for to reach a glove dropt from
A neighbouring Queen, be to degenerate
From Majesty?
What will the world report when they shall hear
Charastus stoopt to the meaness of a Shep­herdess?
Cha.
Art thou disloyall too Virtusus? two such more
Wou'd learn the Heavens impiety. Adue false friends,
Know my revenge shall be
Fully as ample as your Tyranny.
Exit.
Fid.
I dare, vie vengeance with thee at the highest;
My heart's as great with rage, and less con­fin'd
Within the bounds of charity, tis free,
Freer than Ayr, it soars aloft, hovering
Like some prodigious Meteor ore all women.
All shall groan under its heavie weight, all must sink
Or all my ends will perish,
Vir.
Not all Fidelio, be not so severe: Out of
Those numberless thousands that do clog the Earth
One may be found unspotted: thy Sisters Virtue
[...] of sufficient value to redeem a destin'd Heca [...]ombe
Of unchaste women, though doom'd by Ty­ranny it self.
Fid.
I do suspect her too; she is too much
A woman to be good: Women are all
The fruits of drunkenness, begot when men
Like senseless beasts wallow in strange de­sires;
Then coveting to frame a Monster like themselves
Nature complying with their avarice, sends them
A daughter: How can that Sex then be di­vine
That's thus engendred betwixt Lust and Wine.
Vir.
Be more charitable Fidelio in your opinion:
Blame not all for one.
Fid.
Charity is cold:
'Twill breed a contrariety in my raging breast.
Give me hot fuell: I would be all on flame.
Feed me with Bridegrooms thoughts, and let me drink
The fervent sighes breath'd from the truest penitence;
Bathe me in Lovers tears, drie me with
The fiery palme of some notorious Red-haird Scrumpet:
I would be a living element of fire
To cross the new Philosophers opinion.
Yet from this flame I would send one spark
But to the ruine of a woman,
For now I finde the Proverb's verified
He that begets a daughter surely went drunk to bed.
Exeunt.

Act. 4. Sce. 4.

Enter Sperazus and Constantina.
Spe.
Daughter this forwardness of yo [...]rs to dye,
Makes me believe you are innocent, and now I am
Grown confident that what you said is true,
Although at first I must confess it startled in­credulity.
Con.
As grave Sir I am not bound with an untruth
To wrong myself; so I do scorn
To mitigate my crime with coin'd excuses.
[Page]I must confess I am guilty of that sin
Which now they tax me with: If it be a sin
Chastly to love, I am most wicked, if not,
I call the Gods to witness I am innocent,
For no loose desire has ever yet prophan'd me.
Spe.
Thou art the purest Virgin living then,
Purer than those that think all Love
An argument of loosness: Who nere knew Wine
Cannot be thought abstemius, 'tis the for­bearing taster
That is temperate. She that is chast and ne­ver lov'd
Does only good compel'd by ignorance;
But she that loves and can be chast
Enjoys that virtue in its full perfection.
Such an one, divinest Maid, art thou,
Whom but to ransome from the Tyrants Law,
I'd stretch my feeble limbes with vigour on the Altar,
And with a zeal undaunted meet the flames:
So with them should my soul aspire
Beyond the reach of gross mortality.
Con.
And do you envie me that happiness?
Is not my soul as free as yours to expiate
Its own transgressions; The Gods I am sure
Desire a Sacrifice though spotted, if offer'd
By the repentant sinner, more than whole Hecatombs
Bestow'd by Innocence.
Spe.
Thou pleadst divinely gainst thy self; thy only fault
Is too much goodness, which lest the Hea­vens
Should not know how to pardon, by want­ing of a president,
I'le furnish thee with showres of tears
To make a flood wherein thy soul may float
In peace unto security.
Con.
Reserve them for some other sub­ject;
I make no question but to dye for him
Will be both penance and a pardon. Could my heart
Be but so kindly stubborn to resist my thoughts oppressions,
And no [...] break till I endure this martyrdom,
I should receive the joyfull Crown of im­mortality.
Spe.
Let not the thought of that, divinest, trouble thee;
Here is a juyce distilled from Nepenthe, Drink it,
And the remembrance of thy former mise­ries
Will flye thy imagination.
He gives her a Viall.
Con.
Alas I dare not take it: my life
Is of so short a moment, that I shall nere re­quite you,
And I would not willingly dy [...] ingratefull.
Spe.
I owe both this and far more to thy virtue.
Farewell thou mirrour of all goodness;
Take these my tears, my prayers, my sighes,
Companions of thy journey, and when thou art amidst
Those sacred flames, thy'l help to wast thee to eternity.
Exit.
Con.
Right heavenly Sir adue.
Spe.
Where were thy eyes Fidelio?
This will be news
Will make thy affrighted blood start from thy veins,
And turn thee more pale than she consum'd to Ashes.
Exit.

Act. 4. Sce. 5.

Enter Bermudo.
Ber.
Now sayles our wishes with a sted­dy course,
The tottering bark poiz'd by a seconds help
Floats safely on the Maine. But yet be not
Too credulous fond man, the ballance is un­certain,
And should that fail the shipwrack would be deadly.
Trust not too much unto a friend; Oppor­tunity
Base mischiefs Bawd to them is too obse­quious.
Brutus could pierce great Caesars side
When Pompey could not; Mistrust then all Bermudo,
Be intimate with none; 'Tis State policy.
[Page]A Snak [...] though foster'd in a Kings own bo­some
Will grow at length as mischievous as un­controulable,
And pierce that breast that nourish'd it.
Enter Charastas.
Cha.
Ye silent Ministers of Night
S [...]nd your Cimme [...]ian darkness ore the world,
Choak up the Sun with fogs and misty va­pours,
Let it b [...] night eternall, or let my eyes
Drop from their hollow caverns, that I may never see again
So gross impiety.
Ber.
What fury does transport thee?
Cha.
In what foul part lies my accursed memory?
I'le tear it out, and be a lump of dead for­fogetfulness.
Entomb: ye just Heavens within oblivious Cave,
I would forget my self, my all, so with them
I might forget that wickedness
Which these my eyes were witnesse off.
Ber.
What art thou frantick fellow?
Cha.
Pardon dread Soveraign if my rage
His slack't my due obedience. Fury so blinded me
I could not see those rayes which from your Majestie
Shoot in a continued lustre.
Oh Modesty where's now thy ruddy wings?
Where is that bashfull trembling which so [...]
I have seen adorning Country Mansions?
Why liv'st thou now an exile in the woods
[...]anisht from Court and City?
Ber.
The man is mad.
Cha.
I would I were great King so this were [...]alse:
Oh Sir, your Court is spotted with such Lust
As can command a blush for ever in my cheek to think on.
Ber.
Ha! my Court?
Cha.
Yes, your Court, that Holy Temple
Where Justice and Religion hand in hand
Walks in a happy unitie, is now become
The sink of soul impietie.
Ber.
My Court become a bro [...]hell house of Lust?
Cha.
These two unhappy eyes saw two
Melting in close embraces, Kissing each other with such fervencie
As if their lips desir'd to be united and be­come
An individuall happiness; Alas my chaster tongue
Cannot express those amo [...]ous tricks
Which their hot appetites belcht out
To teach old Lust a new lasciviousness.
Ber.
Swell higher yet my rage;
Thou art at too low an [...]bb to punish such impietie,
Swell till your channels crack▪
Let a generall inundation break the banks
And turn to ruine all it meets with.
Their two deaths cannot alone dissolve
This mass of wickedness: Thousands must dye
To expiate this crime, if it be true.
Cha.
'Tis too true great Sir; your eyes
Shall be witness of it, if you'l be pleas'd to follow.
Ber.
Lead on.
Exeunt▪

Act. 4. Sce. 6.

Enter Constantina and Thesbia.
Con.
The holy absolution of the Priest
Sings not so glad a Requiem to my departing soul
As this thy comfortable presence; Do not,
Oh do not then obscure thy self with ill be­seeming tears,
I shall suspect thou think'st me still unchaste,
And spend'st these tears to puri [...]e my spot­ted Conscience.
Thes.
When friends do part but for a week or so,
Their weeping eyes the emblems of their troubled hearts
Will let fall tears, and shall we
That now must part eternally
Denie our souls that charitable sacrifice?
Thou a long journey Constantina now must take,
Who knows whither I shall see thee more;
Con.
Alas poor soul, weep not for my fe­licity.
It is a glorious place that I shall go too.
[Page]There in a golden firmament enameld with bright stars,
Amidst a thousand Virgins I shall hear
Eternall harmony, still sounding, and still pleasant,
There fragrant smells shall never cloy
My fainting appetite though still presented odoriferous.
And canst thou weep because thy f [...]iend
Must go to such a Paradise?
Thes.
I weep not dearest because thou goest,
But that I stay behind; Could I accompany thee,
No Vestall Virgins at the Altar should appear
With such a joyfull countenance: But since I here must live
A walking Ghost pent in an earthly sepul­chre,
It would be impudence to refrain from tears;
Weep on then Thesbia, let thy eyes
Flow with a continued moysture, to drain these fens
Will puzzle all projecting undertakers.
Con.
My weakness can resist no longer.
These tears proclame thy triumph;
We two like two Niobes will shed tears
Till we become one Fountain.
Enter above Charastus and Bermudo.
Cha.
See great Sir how close they are?
Oh do you start Sir?
Ber.
Ha! Anthregonus, I would my eyes were lightning
For to blast thy spotted soul, yet leave thee still as fair.
Cha.
With what affection they embrace?
See how their wanton heads wearied with kissing
Hang like two drooping Lillies on each others shoulder,
Their very eyes to sympathize with them
Melt into tears.
Ber.
My rage involves a thunderbolt, this poor thin cloud
Cannot contain it long; 'twill out to all our times.
Oh Anthregonus little canst thou think
What raging sorrows boyle within my breast
At this sad spectacle; The sight of such im­pi [...]ty
Feeds on my heart worse than Cantharides▪
Or the deadly sting of a foul Conscience.
My eyes shall be no more your Pander.
Take heed fond fools, Bermudo comes
Arm'd to destruction:
Exit.
Cha.
Thus climbs Revenge: thus her aspiring head
One step has mounted, ere to the top it comes
Your hearts false men shall feel its rigor.
Sleep on fond Boy, thou hast a soft but fa­tall pillow,
Had not Bermudo lov'd thee, nor thou sav'd their lives,
Thou mightst have liv'd, but now
To punish three thou diest.
Thus by degrees Revenge must rise
Who straight brings death knows not to ty­rannize.
Exit.
Bermudo within breaks ope the doors upon them.
Con.
Alas we are betraid.
Thes.
I care not I since Innocence is my guard.
Enter Bermudo and Guard.
Ber.
Seize on that lustfull couple.
Thes.
Why this violence? ye needed not have come
Thus armed to betray our innocence:
That weak resistance we could make
One word might have subdude, but if you think
To f [...]ight us with your strength, know we have
A guard abou [...] us shall con [...]ro [...]t your hopes.
Ber.
Guilt's a s [...]fficient terror to it self,
It needeth no addition; but Justice as it strikes
So must it speak, like thunder.
Con.
Should it strike here, it would be truly so;
The holyest Temples oft are struck with thunder.
Should you but ta [...]e his Nature and destroy
So pure an edifice as his, it were no Justice
But prophane severity.
Thef.
Plead not for me: I dare his utmost rigour,
[Page]In that he will be constant, and constancy I love
Be it in cruelty.
Ber.
My cruelty will but water when it flowes on thee.
Oh thee such tender years can be so old in wickedness.
Hadst thou a soul A [...]throgonus as pure
As its inclosure thou mighest have been
E [...]h [...]on'd a Deity for mortals to have won­der'd at.
Wouldst thou yet live? There is a strange
Conflict fought within me, by Piety and Af­fection.
Thes.
Let not Affection pull a curse upon you.
It is not in the power of your Majesty
To spare my life and take he [...]s, unless you will be
More impious in breaking of your Lawes,
Than you were pious in the making them.
Ber.
'Tis true Anthrogonus, thou canst not live
Without I violate Religion; Thy body must
Within an odoriferous cloud ascend the Skies
To crave a pardon for thy soul.
Con.
The Gods require no humane sacri­fice.
Mercy if offer'd in a free oblation, is the on­ly incence
They delight in. I am enough to satisfie the Law,
Make not Religion sir too great a Butchery,
Your pity and his repentant tears
Will be a sacrifice more sweet,
Than all the Cookery of humane entrails.
Ber.
Witness ye Gods with what unwil­ling hands
I offer up this sacrifice; But Laws must be obey'd
VVhen piety commands, though to the ma­kers ruine.
Kings that make Laws to encrap others, may
With their own plots by chance themselves betray.
Exeunt.

Actus quintus. Scena Prima.

Enter Constantina and Flavanda.
Con.
IF thou wilt know a reason why I sent for thee,
Ask of my heart, for that would never be
At quiet till I had seen thee,
But rowling still in my disturbed breast
Prompted my soul to dye not stain'd with such forgetfulness.
Fla.
Thy immaculate mind tells me thy soul is pure,
I should suspect the heavens before its whiteness:
The alabaster Mines helpt by the Sums re­flection
Cannot shew a piece so candid.
Con.
I cannot boast its colour, 'tis a foul one,
And ere I dye, it will be one continued spot
More ugly than deformity it self: There is
A crime that I must perpetrate, or else my Ghost
Cannot rest quiet in its utne.
Fla.
There is no crime so horrid, but thy former goodness
Has made a virtue: One drop of poyson
Pour'd into the Ocean, polluteth not the water,
But clears it self and adds unto the stream.
Con.
Ingratitude is a sea of venome,
Which my malicious soul has entertain'd,
And most discharge her poyson upon thee;
Thou that hast been the partner of my sor­rows
Must now become the subject of my malice.
Fla.
Thou canst not find a fitter subject, I dare
Encounter with the deadliest poyson thou canst give
And think it a preservative.
Con.
Mine is the worst of venomes;
If thou but tak'st it, 'tis not thy body only
That must perish, but thy soul too.
To what sure destruction do I run on either side?
If I refuse to sue unto thee, I am ingratefull,
And if do, the same stain brands me still.
Canst thou be inconstant? wonder not Fla­vanda
Why I ask so rude a question,
For by thy inconstancy, I must be proved constant,
Thy weakness must be my triumph,
And thy disloyalty my eternall glory.
To ask thee now whether thou couldst leave Charastus
[Page]Were a Tautology as absurd as to name, Flavanda
And most excellent, I know thou dost
Already understand me.
Fla.
Yet I am ignorant for whom thou pleadst.
Con.
I plead for one that loves thee with an ardour
More fervent than Charastus, one that will n [...]t waver
When he sees whole Chataracks of beauty, much less
At the small suspition of a feature. Fidelio
Is the man; which ought you to respect then most
Him that left me for you, or you for me?
Fla.
Be not mistaken Constantina,
That love that he profess'd to me was only feign'd:
Charastus sent him but to trie me.
Con.
I prithee say not so; thou wilt undo
A Virgin with a truth; if he be constant,
How impious then was my suspition.
Fla.
When you were gon, he told his treachery,
And with what plots he sought for to betray me.
Con.
No more.
Thou hast returnd my poyson to the full;
The false suspition of his Loyalty heaps sin on sin.
My soul's one leprosie so foul,
That surely the flames in which I must be sa­crific'd
Will 'gainst their Nature downwards tend,
And hurry me to Hell. Oh Fidelio, never before
I wisht thee false: thy constancy will be my ruine.
Enter Fidelio.
Fid.
Oh Constantina here shall my knee take root,
Untill thy voice denounce my sentence:
This penitence
Entreats no pardon, 'tis Justice rather Rigour
I desire.
Con.
Let this suffice
To shew my duty and my penitence: could
I fall lower
My ambition to out-go thee in humility
Should force me down.
Fid.
Kneel'st thou to me? the earth shall not resist me,
But my obedient soul shall pr [...]ss me down,
Till nature bids me stay, lest I should
Violate her Lawes by falling upwards.
Con.
Thou canst not kneel Fidelio and I stand,
When the Sun is down, the exhalations fall:
Arise, and I will personate those vapours.
Fid.
Thy sentence must dissolve my fro­zen joynts
Or I shall fall again: Canst thou forgive me?
Con.
Canst thou forgive me?
Fid.
No, I cannot; it lies not in heavens power
To forgive where none is guilty; A pardon
Does belong unto a Conscience stain'd with wickedness,
But thou art innocent, so innocent
That the purest Chrystall will confess some spots
To see thy whiteness.
Con.
To make me clear, prove not your self disloyall.
Or you inconstant are, or I more stain'd
Than misbelieving Atheists with my incre­dulity.
Fid.
Thou art become more glorious by thy incredulity:
Thou couldst suspect, and yet be virtuous.
Thou thoughtst me false, yet lov'd me still,
When I upon a supposition sought Revenge,
And most unluckily obtain'd it.
Con.
Yet I was Author of thy crime:
My foul suspition was thy sin [...] sad pr [...]sident.
Fid.
Thou mak'st my sin appear more horrid:
Thy suspition was but the confirmation of thy constancy,
And were that a President to me
How wicked then were I for to be vicious
Because thou wert virtuous.
Con.
I cannot conquer you with argu­ments, yet
In civility you must yield: contend not with a woman;
That victory will be no glory surely;
You must not sir deny me that: See,
My soul pours out it self in a petition.
Fid.
Weep'st thou Constantina: I'le plough the earth,
[Page]And sow those precious seeds, [...]ee'l have
A crop of Pea [...]l, more glorious than the Ori­entall:
Venus shall have a neck-lace of these Gems,
Dianas Virgin Zoac these beads shall beau­tifie,
The other Deities shall labour in our Har­vest,
And think one seed a pay too prodigall.
Weep Sweet no more, thou hast shed enough
To purchase immortality, I prithee weep no more
Lest I be forc't to sow my Tares
Among that heavenly [...]rain.
Fla.
How well those drops become them? the pleasing dew
Adds not a greater lustre to the Rose.
With what a sweet variety they slow?
How prettily they spo [...]t in method?
One Knocks.
Alas! one knocks Fidelio.
Fid.
I will not wake to hear him. Tell him
I say I will not: in this sweet slumber
I'de not disturb the Heavens with a petition,
Or should they call, I would refuse to hear them.
Enter Arontas.
Aron.
Most noble Shepherd, the King expects you in the Temple,
For to s [...]e the sacrifice, and you fair Shep­herdess
(I am [...] I must become so sad a messen­ger)
Must presently prepare to suffer.
Exit.
Fid.
Never did voyce jar ho [...]ser in my ears,
Oh what a hellish sound it leaves!
Hells three mouth'd Porter joyn'd to Scyl­la's quite
Cannot howl out so sad a Message.
Prepare to suffer? VVhat is that?
Comment on those sad words sweet Hea­vens,
Unsold that hideous mysterie: I dare not think
Upon the exposition [...]s so horrid.
Know'st thou what 'tis to suffer?
C [...]n.
Yes, 'tis to dye, and be immortall.
Fid.
Death is the common [...]ode to im­mortality; men
VVhose lives abhor'd all virtue but Repen­tance,
In abundant troops, flock by that common High-way,
And shall she whose Virgin soul no thought has blemish'd
Find no unknown path peculiar to such ex­cellence?
Con.
To dye a spotless sacrifice is a glo­rious path
Nere trod [...]n but by them whose Saint-like presence
Still addeth to its curiositie: The Altar is no funerall Pile,
That melts its fuell into Ashes, but a re [...]ining fire,
As gentle as those flames from which
The purified Gold receives it lustre.
Fid.
Oh do not deceive thy self: How often do we see
The Sacrifices perish, and nere return
More glorious by their sufferings.
Con.
'Tis true, that fire that cleanses but the Gold
Consumes the drosser Mettalls: Had bea's,
Our common sacrifices, but souls confirm'd divine
By Innocence and Reason, we might adore 'um
On our Altars without the blot of supersti­tion.
Fid.
If death must purchase immortality,
Thou must not, shalt not be immortall:
There is a debt due unto Nature for thy goodness.
Live here an everlasting mortall then and pay it.
The glory freely given unto dese [...]t
Is greater than if purchas'd.
Con.
But who can give it? 'Tis not in Natures power.
She frames our goodness for the Heavens;
There I must live, hem'd in with happiness:
There no felicity will be wanting, but when
These tears makes me remember thee.
Fid.
Let not the thought of me thy mur­derer
Disturb thy happiness: I will revenge thy quarrell to the full.
Something must be done: Farewell thou heavenly Candidate▪
[Page]Thou hast a place selected mongst the De­ities
Where thou must sit and teach the ignorant world
That constancy, which none but thou couldst ever boast of.
I shall betray a womanish passion in me
Should I stay longer. Farewell thou new elected Deity.
Exit.
Con.
My Tears so stop my speech, I cannot Bid Farewell.
Enter Thesbia.
Thes.
What weeping Constantina? Can the fear of death
From out the circle of thy purest innocence
Draw such a saintness.
Con.
The senseless trees, Hearbs, plants, and flowers
In dewy tears lament the Suns sad absence, and shall I
Deny that duty to Fideli [...] when a sad Ecclips
Must hide him from me to eternity.
Tears are not Emble [...]es of a saint belief,
The hottest dayes melt often into showers.
Oh Thesbia! my heart will break,
And cheat the Altar of its sacrifice.
Thes.
Here, drink this Nepenthe's juice then,
'Twill ease thy heart, do not refuse it, the Priest
Ju [...]t now bequeath'd it to me as an heavenly Cordiall.
Con.
What had I forgot? See here's the same.
Oh 'twas a Holy man; He would sain have died
To save my life.
Thes.
So would he to have sav'd mine: Trust me
He made me weep to see his silver tears
Distill in such abundance from his eyes;
My dear, dear father could have don no more.
Con.
Lets then on bended knees in adora­tion of his charity
Wish that the Heavens will never be in­gratefull,
But [...]ill showre down on his deserts a due felicity.
Thes.
Upon our knees we wish it;
And as this juice from our orecharged souls
Expels our miseries, so may his sorrows va­nish.
They drink.
'Tis down. My congeled blood late frozen to my heart
Dissolves, and with a quick agility
Leaps in my new-fill'd veins. My thoughts have pleasant [...]uell,
And every sense is ravish't with an unknown happiness.
Con.
I am strangely alter'd; I have forgot
The principal end of my creation, to be mi­serable.
Come sit down, I have a great mind
To imitate the dying Swans upon Caiisters Banks,
And sing my funerall Elegie.
She sings.
Swell swell my thoughts, and let my Breast
Receive with joy eternall Rest,
Swell higher yet, faint not to see
The end of all thy misery.
Death's but a sleep,
Then do not weep,
But with desire
Embrace the fire,
So shall thy soul, so shall thy soul, aspire
Unto a place where it shall see
Etern [...]ll Crowns of Majesty
Attending on its pompous train
Uncompel'd, without disdain:
Then let not fire
Make thee retire,
Nor yet deny
This obsequie.
Lest in dispair, lest in dispair thou die.
Then let not fire
Make thee retire,
Nor yet deny
This obsequie.
Lest in dispair, lest in dis—pair—
she sleeps.
Fla.
Thus ceast the dying Nightingale, enamor'd sleep
Delighted with thy Harmony stole the last accent
From our ears. Thesbia! what has her voyce
Husht thee into a slumber too, and left me here
The sole resister of its power? Sleep on sweet souls,
[Page]And when ye wake, think it no pain
If ye be forc't too soon to sleep again.
Exeunt.

Act. 5. Sce. 2.

An Altar discover'd: Loud Musick.
Enter Bermudo, Arentas, Spadatus, Halis dus, Virtusas and Fidelio.
Ber.
What means this silence Shepherd? me thinks you look
As if you were at some most solemn [...]unerall,
Where the c [...]rps of an endeared friend is to be interr'd:
These visages become that place; but when you go
To [...]alu [...]e the heavenly Deities with your f [...]ee oblations,
You must put on a far more pleasing counte­nance
That the Gods may pleasure in your offer­ings,
And delight in your burnt sacrifice.
Fid.
My divining soul great King, foretels
An universall ruine in this sacrifice,
A generall numness prompts my heart unto a sad,
And deadly melancholy: Surely I have offended.
Ber.
Yes in thy drooping zeal. Come, let not [...]ear
Hinder that devotion, which thou beganst
With such a noble resolution, to thy immor­tall glory.
Fid.
I do conjure you Sir by that hate which you
Conceive gainst women; By your Crown, by your Scepter,
By all the Gods I do conjure you
To spare this humane sacrifice.
If you needs must offer to their Deities,
Surfe [...] their Altars with the richest gums,
Fetch forth the Phaenix nest for an oblation,
Or [...]er the world lament the loss of all their cattle,
Prophane not thus their Altars with a wo­mans blood.
Ber.
Thou hast won so much on me by thy former service,
That to deny thee now were a most vild in­gratitude
Did not the Gods require it: my vow to Heavens is past
And cannot be recall'd, to promise them
The malefactors for an offering, and then
Cheat 'um with a sheep or some such tri [...]le,
Is not to sacrifice but defraud.
Fid.
The Gods nere feast on humane en­trails,
Their Nectar is not mortalls blood:
Think you their stomacks have so base an ap­petite
To hunger after that which men do loath?
Repentance is their banquet, the steam of fervent sighes
Their food, and tears not blood's the potion they delight in:
Ber.
Be not ingratefull Shepherd;
Strive not, for my love, to make me impious:
Justice and fidelity commands them for a sacrifice.
Fid.
Sacrifices must be pure, not spotted;
The fairest bea [...]s are destin'd to the Altar.
Ber.
The sinner gets his pardon sooner
By his own sufferings, than if h'ad suffer'd by a Proxee.
Fid.
I did belye her Innocence, believe me Sir
She is innocent, as innocent as the new-be­gotten child.
Ber.
To purge a sin, oft-times a Lamb must dye▪
And so shall she, our zeal will be the greater.
Fid.
Rather your impiety:
Who offers up one Godhead to anothers ho­nour?
Be not so irreligious to destroy that gem,
Which I adore, as a resplendant Deity
Sent from Heaven, to beautifie the earth.
Ber.
Take heed; Be not so fondly super­stitious.
Thus to contract a Deity to a Beast.
Fid.
A Beast! can Heavens heare this,
And no thunderbolt tell the proud King he lyes?
A beast! wert thou arm'd with thunder,
Or were it but to see thee ten thousand deaths,
Nor piety, nor Religion should withhold me,
But I would tear tha [...] venemous tongue out,
And hang it like a lying Meteor in the Ayr.
Ber.
He grows frantick: Alas poor man,
He deserves my pity more than anger.
Fid.
Where sleeps your Justice now?
[Page]Rouze up your drousie headed Lawes
To take revenge on him that dares their ut­most.
Solemn Musick.
Ber.
Whence this sad Musick?
Enter Sperazus, Flavanda, and others bring­ing in Constantina and Thesbia, veild All in a solemn manner.
Fla.
Cease your petitions: it lies not in the power
Of your prayers, nor his mercy to recall 'um:
Fate has deceiv'd the Altar Sir; The Lambs
That should have been the sacrifice, are dead.
Ber.
Dead!
Fla.
Yes; Your threats great King has prov'd
Their executioner: Imagination that unna­turall flame
Has not consum'd, but broke their tender Hearts.
Here you may see the ruines of those well-built Temples.
She unvails them.
Fid.
Ha! Heavens vanish't unto Heaven;
Why did'st thou steal thy death divinest?
Why did thy flitting soul poast so away,
And give no warning to thy friends?
Hands off ye dogs, do not deny the Gods their sacrifice.
He snatches at a Sword, and the Guard hold him.
Me thinks the Genius of the world doth stagger;
The affrighted Earth turns round, and sends forth
Foggy trees, in a continued lamentation for its loss:
The Heavens stand still to entertain her ex excellence,
And all the Planets turn to Constellations
With amazement: Copernicus, thy opinion Now is verified.
Ber.
Most reverend father, though cruell destiny
Has abrig'd part of our triumph by their deaths
Yet to manifest our duty, in all ceremonious order
Let their corps be sacrific'd.
Spe.
I dare not Sir pollute the Altars
With a dead oblation: High Heavens will be displeased
With our offerings; The very beasts abhor the dead.
Let but their bodies be inter'd, & then come
And offer a few prayers, and without doubt
The Deities will be appeas'd.
Ber.
Your will shall rule us
Exeunt.
Manent Fidelio and Virtusus with Constantina and Thesbia.
Fid.
Oh death, thou grand Commissioner of Fate,
Seize these my vitall spirits, since she is gon
Whose warmer breath so oft has nourish'd them.
What! canst thou not hear now Death?
Art thou grown astonish't at thy late got prize?
Assume he quickly heavens; Death wil forget
His office else and let the populous world
Surfet with multiplicity.
Vir.
Did ever traveller so faint to see
The end of all his travells? Has all my wea­ried steps
Tended to this Home, and tremble I to be [...]hold it?
Where be those pleasing smiles, those wheeling eyes,
And that harmonious voyce, which once did call me, Brother?
Are all gon? Has death ravish't thy Virgin blushes too,
To adorn thy soul translated to some Deity?
Fid.
That new star which the Astrono­mers of late
Observ'd in Cassiopeia, was but thy Harbin­ger,
Sent to prepare that roome to entertain thy excellence:
There thou must set, Queen Regent of the Constellation;
Oh be my Zenith ever!
Lend me thy influence to direct my actions,
And sooner shall the Adamant forget the North,
Than I thy sacrifice.
Vir.
What Justice would not stagger
To condemn such excellence? what Tyger almost famish'd
Would not stand amaz'd, and rather starve,
Than make a prey of such perfections?
Fid.
Why mad'st her Nature of such goodness,
And tookst no care for to preserve her?
Me thinks those lips, soft and as ruddy
As the purest wax, invites impression.
[Page]He kisses her.
Heavens, be not jealous If I kiss her.
They're warme: a crimson blush begins
To beautifie her cheeks, and sayes I was im­mode [...]:
Oh Heavens! She stirs too; Now for some glorious apparition.
Con.
What new fire burns my polluted breast?
Whence come these unknown flames?
Guard me some chaster power; good provi­dence
Redeem this Temple from a prophanation.
Fid.
Thou hast mistook thy way divinest; Heaven
Lies not here; That h [...]s a narrow pa [...]h
N [...]re trod on but by vertue; Go, Knock
At Repentance gate, one rear of thine
VVill easily compell an entrance: Thy goodness surely
Is not ignorant, it is thy charity only
To enrich the earth again with thy diviner presence
That has caus'd this wilfull error.
Con.
If thou bee'st here, I'le seek no other path,
This is the only way my wishes aim at.
F [...]d.
Keep off; The beams of thy divinity
Will consume me; I begin to melt;
My knees more stubborn than the Elephants
Bows down in adoration with thy lustre.
Con.
I cannot tell what strange effects
Sleep has procur'd upon my outward shape;
My thoughts are su [...]e the same, they have Fidelio
Still thei [...] subject, which makes me confident
That I am not chang'd, but still am Constan­tina.
Fid.
Thou art some Goddess rather, which
To appear more glorious has assum'd her shape;
Alas, the Heavens has stole her soul
For an immortall Pyramide, and it would be
Too great a prejudice to it, should it return
From such celestiall happiness.
Con.
I am transform'd in nothing but my tongue,
That once was powerfull to charme belief;
VVher's now its vain Authority? Thesbia
I prithee sweet awake, and tell thy incredu­lous Brother
That I live, yet straight must dye
Kild with his most misjudging charity.
Vir.
'Tis she; oh Thesbia my dearest sweet, Awake
Awake, Virtusus calls thee; Depart not in a dream;
Let not thy soul he ravish't with those joyes
Which heaven presents thee with; good sle [...]p
Be not so cruell to be eternall.
Enter Sperazus.
Spe.
Tri [...]le not time Fidelio with these Ceremonies;
Arise, 'twas only sleep caus'd by a potion
That deceiv'd the King.
Fid.
May I believe you?
Spe.
Belive your senses, why so fearfull?
She's no Ghost.
Fid.
Liv'st thou Constantina? thou art so pure
I do suspect it.
Thes.
What pleasing waves rocks my de­lighted soul?
How is it tost within a gulf of happiness? Ha!
Vir.
Let it float still, divinest, the ena­mor'd waves
Will be made happy by its presence.
Nay, fly not Thesbia from the Haven:
Here are no trayterous sands, no sudden storms,
Nor unseen Rocks to ruine thee. All
Is as free from danger as thy wishes.
Why casts thou Anchor? Hop'st thou to be securer
In that miserable Ocean? Oh Thesbia
Thou wilt raise storms in that securer Port
If thou deniest an entrance.
Thes.
Surely you do mistake me Sir.
Thesbia was a woman, and can you love her,
And think her so immodest to turn man.
Con.
Thou canst no longer Thesbia lye conceal'd,
He knows All.
Thes.
Ha'st thou betraid me Constantina?
Oh let me sink under my shames sad burthen.
Vir.
Wee'l sink together then; thou and I
Will be each others monument.
Spe.
No more!
I heare Bermudo coming: true Lovers care
Will in possession o [...]t-times breed dispair.
Exeunt.

Act. 5. Sce. 3.

Enter Bermudo.
Ber.
My Plots still fail, and all my shafts
[Page]Shot gainst resisting walls
Bring back a ruine to the sender that sacri­fice
Wherewith I thought to expiate my crime
Fate has converted to a murther so horrid,
That I must sink, or get a pardon for devo­tion.
Oh how my groveling soul prest down with wickedness
Rowles like the imprison'd wind
Pent in the hollow caverns of the Earth,
Finding no vent to aspire, but still must lye
Under the heavie weight of soul impiety.
Repentance must redeem it from its thral­dome, a Ransome
Which I dare not think on lest envious Fates
Should turn that too into a wickedness.
The greatest are not still the best I see,
Kings are but crown'd to fall deckt with a pompous infamy.
A grone within.
Ha! what dismall noyse beats that alarm
To my guilty conscience? my affrighted blood retires,
And leaves my trembling arms
Shaking like sapless branches at the Nor­thern wind,
My feet the Basis of this tottering Pyramide
Cleaves close unto the earth, whilst my erect­ed hair
Stiffer then bristles of a Porcupise
Stares in the face of Heaven: Oh I am thunderstruck.
Enter Constantins and Thesbia severally.
Ha! the easie stomack't earth vomits thei dead,
To tortors me; Am I environ'd round with Ghosts?
Conceal me ye good Heavens;
Spread an eternall darkness ore the world,
That very sprights may wander still in igno­rance:
VVrap my affrighted soul in a defence
Not to be pierc'd with apprehensions eye;
Make me invisible or blind.
Con.
Heavens cannot hide you from my just revenge
Without the forfeiture of goodness: Murder.
That crying sin has like a power Spell
Summon'd my scarce cold corps, not fully setled
In my latest urn, to appear again on earth,
And force as accusation of thy conscience.
Ber.
Mount mount my soul, and with the swiftest winds
Fly to some unkwown Land, where the af­frighted Su [...]
Nere yet durst enter, nor the amazed Hea­vens
Think on a place so horrid: where the cor­rupted ayr
Darts forth infection, & the ulciferous winds
VVhiffs plagues to the inhabitants more loathsome
Than the stench breath from polluted char­nell houses;
Where death surfets his fatall arrow,
And each funerall Knell yeld by a dying Mandrake
Proves still the dirge of an ensuing frailty.
Is there no Sanctuary for a guilty conscience?
Let me then sink, sink to the Center.
Release those captive Gyants Heavens, that now groan
Under the heavie weight of mighty Moun­tains
Hurle Pelion upon Ossa, and Olimpus upon Pelion,
And all their fetters upon me, to press me down
Beyond the reach of Register: Let me not suffer
In their Annalls too, but let a sad mortality
Of Remembrance ceaz all succeeding times,
That I may fall forgotten.
Thes.
Is this the way to expiate thy crime Bermudo?
Are prophaner wishes thy repentance? take Heed
Do not precipitate thy inclining ruine; Pull not
That hovering Justice on thy head, lest it fall
No less than fatall.
Ber.
Thou blest Idaea of a form divine, forgive
My rash devotion; ent [...]mbe Revenge a­mongst those
Sacred Reliques, and let thy incensed ghost
Sleep in its peacefull urne: oh be as mild as excellent:
Draw hence those looks, fill'd with such plea­sing horror,
And each succeeding day shall add
New Trophees to thy mercie.
Thes.
Thinkst thou my patient Ghost can rest in quiet,
Whil'st thy majestick cruelty tramples ore the ruines
Of my lost honor? Can I behold thy ambi­tious mind
Sweld higher with my suffering, and no pi­ous envie
Seek to abate thy triumph? shall wronged innocence
[Page]Unrevenged lie, whil'st charity proclames it lawfull?
A crime unpunish'd is a virtue in the opinion
Of the giddy multitude.
Ber.
Let not misconstruing fools contract those beams
VVhich in a bountious manner use to slow
Even to the period of their lustre.
No Mortalls force procur'd my hate:
I still preserv'd thee like a blooming Rose,
VVater'd thee with my choisest streams, and sand thee
VVith my pleasingst gales, till envious fate
Stole that delicious Bud, not fully ripened.
Thes.
Thou hadst fore [...]all'd his office else; and like
A treacherous wretch to make my ruine seeme more horrid,
VVhen that my pamper'd Appetite lay bathing in felicity
Thou wouldst have thrown me headlong to destruction,
There to die like to some harmeless Beast
Fatted for slaughter.
Ber.
It was devotion sought thy ruine, I was compelld
To play the Tyrant by Religion: and like
A carefull Mariner in a storm, to throw away
A Gem, p [...]iz'd far beyond my Diadem,
VVitness ye Heavens how oft my Zeal
Suffer'd affections checks; how oft my Love
Held back my hand from ruining that come­ly Temple
VVhich I so admir'd, and ever must, though now
Imagination makes it horrid.
Thes.
Play not still the Hypocrite;
VVhy mention'st Love? Did ever Love
Pronounce so sad a sentence.
Ber.
VVitness ye powers before whom I kneel
How dearly, dearly I did love thee; And surely
Had not fate been so hasty, I had rug'd hard
VVith my Religion to have sav'd thee.
Enter Charastus, Brabantas, Sperazus, Fla­vanda, Fidelio, Virtusus, Arontas, Spa­datus, Attendants and Guard.
Gha.
His own words condemn him▪
Omnes.
They do most mighty Prince, and we obey.
Cha.
Love that so long has bar'd me from my throne
Once more reseats me in my former dignity.
Seiz on the Usurper Guard.
Ber.
Hands off, Rebellious Miscreants, that unjust authority
Prophanes our sacred person? Can Scicilians
Grow so impious, to violate their Kings?
Cha.
The date of your supremacis is ex­pir'd; your approaching end
Must put a fatall period to your Tyranny:
A Crown
Is off too pure a mettle to endure long
VVithin so gross a Mine.
Ber.
Unheard of wickedness! Heavens can you hear this,
And dart no quick consuming plague into his treacherous bosome:
VVhere be those Lawes which we Scicilians still
Held as Religious orders? where's Piety
And Allegiance, out ador'd Penates.
Cha.
Here in this breast: Long has Religion
And my former vow maintain'd thy Tyrany:
Long have I seen thy pompous heigth
Grown riotous with my ruine, yet still have flatter'd it
Without ambitious interruptions: No
High fwell'd thought has once desir'd a re­possession
Nor ever should, had not thy love of him
Declar'd a forfeture.
Ber.
Take not so poor a Covert for thy irreligion:
A Boyes chast Love forfeits no Diadem.
Thes.
Thus, that false title I renounce: thus
I appear my self, deckt with my virgins inno­cence;
She discovers her self.
These blushes speaks me woman Sir.
Ber.
Am I outreacht in policy? good Fate
Send some invisible dart, and kil me quickly,
Shame will deceive thee of thy triumph else.
Spe.
Be not asham'd Bermudo: It is an honor for to fall
Thrust by a Royall hand: A practis'd Poli­titian
No ignoble brain did work thy ruine.
Bra.
Our revenge must thank thee Thesbia;
Thou hast dissolv'd this mass of Tyranny,
And brought our long-lost honors to their former lustre:
We owe duty to thee for our second birth,
And ignorance must pay ingratitude, if you refuse
The reacceptance of that Crown bestowd so freely
By your Liberality. I will not say Vintusus has desert
Whose just heat may chalenge your affection,
That were to extoll him beyond humane merit,
But I dare say though poor in worth
[Page]Hee's rich in his endeavors.
Spe.
Her blushes do bewray her Love, which long ete this
Had met its wish'd for happiness, Had not revenge
For my second Fidelio been too obstinate.
The love of him made her forgoe her Coun­try,
And on unknown Lands hazard these many dangers
In his search: She told it to me, when her Confessor.
Here take her Virtusus as a Virgin Sacrifice,
Pure as the timely blossome whose forward Zeal
Decks the arising Spring.
Bra.
I'le make the harmony compleat:
Thus from that cloyster which my timerous age
Before design'd thee too, a parents care re­leases thee;
And with the same devotion confines thee to Fidelio;
Turn thy Repentance to obedience, thy zeal to Love,
And all thy care into a setled constancy,
That from the ruines of that chaster Temple
A sacred Structure may erect it self, no less perspicuous.
Spe.
May our Kingdoms joyn'd by this double concord
Like two flames of incence shoot up still
In one continued lustre, whil'st our souls
Peitcht on their sparing glories
Reach an immortality.
Cha.
Can I yet live and see my life divided?
Shall Hymeneall flames consume her Virgin Zone
And I stand by a vain Spectator: Patience
Thou art a virtue.
Fla.
What sad thought great King can in the midst
Of this solemnity draw such a veil ore that majestick splendor?
Which in his perfect brightness ought to shine
To the refreshing of your nummed Subjects.
Cha.
The remembrance of my lost Sister, hangs like a dog
Upon my soul, yet prompts me forward to revenge.
Can Charastus triumph whil'st Desdonella lies
In her eternall sleep, rockt with the pleasing Lullaby
Of falling waters? Can I maintain a thought
Tending to happiness, before Revenge
Has quietly entomb'd her? first shall my rage
Swell higher than the streams that buried her,
That all may perish with its inundation.
Fla.
Rob not the Heavens Charastus of the honour
Due for your happiness: can you be so in­gratefull
To their mercy, to let revenge
Cheat them of their alacritie clam'd justly by their [...]avors.
Ber.
Stop not the current of his anger: Let it flow.
Here are no trembling barks that fear its vi­gor.
Could he invent a torment which never yet
His predecessors boasted of, my patience
Should convert it into charity.
Enter Desdonella and Halisdus.
Diana! amaze me not ye Heavens:
Can she vouchsafe such favor unto him
Who late abus'd her with immodesty? my incredultty
Sins too much against her virtue: 'Tis she,
The Ayr's perfum'd, the odoriferous clouds
Fill'd with delicious spices distills to odors:
The fragrant flowers as she walks
Offers their sweetest incence, and where she treads
The adoring grass bows in a pious gratitude.
Are ye all amaz'd? why kneel ye not,
And with a generall adoration entertain that Deity
That freely comes to visit you? Thus greatest Goddess
My obedient soul submits with truest peni­tence,
I must confess I did abuse your presence
With most prophane & unchast ceremonies,
Yet I must say it was my Zeal,
And the assurance of your clemency, that made me.
Des.
Arise Bermudo: it is I must kneel;
Thus as a Subject to your power I bow,
But as a powerfull Subject thus I stand.
If my supposed death has in your noble breast
Kindled religious sparks, if Desdonellas fare
Has mov'd your patience to Revenge,
Calm your disturbed thoughts; See I live
This shape is truly reall.
Cha.
My Sister Desdonella, more welcome than my immortality:
Unto what power shall I ascribe this happi­ness?
Des.
I owe my life unto his curtesie;
He mock't Bermud'os Statutes with my feign­ed death,
Whil'st in a Cave my melancholy Lu [...]e and I
[Page]Flatter'd each others misery.
Cha.
Surely Halisdus thou wert born
To make thy King ungratefull; my joyes abound
To an unmeasur'd height, I fear they are
Too vehement to last.
Ber.
I am amaz'd; my converted appetite
Courts an unknown desire; my fervent zeal
Turns to a looser flame, and worships now
The Temple for the Deity.
Des.
Why now so strange Bermudo? didst thou admire
The structure only for the builders sake?
Is it become less glorious in anothers right?
Can virtue vanish with a name.
Ber.
No Desdonella thy suppos'd divinity
Made me perceive something that still is ex­cellent;
All is not vanisht with those beams,
The departed Sun leaves still a heat behind him.
Des.
But can that heat, cast from those weaker rayes
Extract so full an adoration? Canst thou bu [...] pay
A liking to its fervor, and not contemn it
For the absent Sun?
Ber.
How impious were I should I hate that shape
Which I durst think Diana would inhabit?
When I contemn it, may my blood forget its motion,
My soul her faculties, and the Heavens my soul.
Cha.
On that condition take thy throne again.
Learn now to be a King, and rule with such pleasing majestie
That thy Subjects may sooner doubt thy fa­vor,
Than fear thy anger.
Ber.
This Councell might be welcome unto them
That do desire a Diadem; But unto him
That is already wearied with his weight,
It is as vain as expent fencing unto Cowards,
They may have skill, but dare not use it.
Yet, if you'l needs instruct my unwilling soul
In that virtue which you only Sir are Master of,
Raign longer than, and let me learn by your example.
Cha.
He must not raign that cannot rule Affection;
If you refuse this favor, I shall suspect you
Still to be a Tyrant, and nor worthy of my Sister.
Des.
Alas what means my Brother?
Cha.
To make thee Queen, and [...]eat thee
In the highest dignity, whil'st [...] in Shepherds weeds
Learn to asswage desires. Nay weep not sweet Flavanda,
Perhaps thou dost suspect thou art a stranger to my heart,
But witness, oh ye Heavens, that what I do
Proceeds from Love to thee; Thee I will meditate,
And when I sleep my dreams shal fancie thee.
Still I'le discouse of thee, and when the happy end
Has crown'd my studies that I truly know thee,
I shall have search't the deepest point of all Philosophie.
But you fair Princess whose conquering eye
Has took a prisoner captive, and now boasts
In the bare spoyle of anothers victory,
You I must nere remember, but must
As ill taught children learn to forget again
What my greedy eye too soon conceived.
Con.
Good Sir.
Make not me an accessory to your inconstan­cy.
Your hopes of me you see are vain,
Hymen has joyn'd our hearts already in a knot
Which naught can separate but death.
Cha.
Tis true, fair Creature, you are His:
Meet him with an ardent Love.
And from the Ashes of thy nicer cha [...]ty
Let a tall Phoenix issue, whil'st I
In silent groves desire of Fate to dye.
Fid.
Stay Charastus; Let not thy destruction
Crown our wedding.
Cha.
Let fortune then decide the co [...]ro­versie: Here
Take this sword, and plead thy title, a cause so just
Would make a Coward valiant:
Fid.
But me a Coward.
Cha.
Thy goodness has incen'st me;
Dost thou refuse the combate? take [...]eed
Pull not a ruine on thee with thy virtue; I am enrag'd.
My envious heart is tympaniz'd with anger.
Hadst thou but offer'd to have fought at first,
I then had left the combat, and with as much scorne
Had hated thy disloyalty, as now I emulate thy goodness.
[Page]Guard thy self.
Hal.
Hold, Princes hold, Make not a Theater of the Temple:
Do not prophane this sacred place
With an incestuous quarrell.
Cha.
Incestuous? Is love incestuous?
Hal.
Yes, of your sister.
Cha.
I have no sister except Desdonella.
Hal.
Pardon me great King if I unfold a secret.
Which never should have been reveal'd
Had not the fear of your destruction forc't me.
Cha.
If it be good, do not delay my joyes so long
As I shall be in pardning thee.
Hal.
You greatest Princess, I have injur'd most,
But yet I know your virtues to be such
That I dispair not of a Pardon.
Des.
Assure thy self there is no crime so horrid
But the remembrance of thy former goodness
Will command a Pardon for.
Hal.
Then thus Braba [...]tas I restore thy Son
Took from thee in the late intestine wars
When Scicilies three Monarchs like three meeting streams
Strove to convert each others Kingdom
To their own Dominions.
Bra.
I must confess in those inhumane broyls
When Scicily groaned with her civill wars, I lost a Son
Who in his tender years was taken from his Nurse
By the rough violence of a barbarous soldier.
Hal.
I was that souldier that in hope of great reward
Took from the nurse that unresisting Babe
And brought him here to Lelybaevs to present
The King with: But fortune, that seldom
Crosses wicked men, then [...]rown'd on me:
For our tender Prince committed for the more security
To my loving wife, did with a fall
From her too careless arms receive his death.
Bra.
Oh most unhappy fate.
Hal.
I then was forc't to turn my captive to a Prince again,
For in the room of dead Charastus
I then plac't your Son, who hitherto
Has liv'd our Soveraign, and ever should, Had not
The fear of their approaching ruines told it.
Bra.
This happiness may be wish't for, not obtain'd.
Hal.
I could produce your Kingdoms Arms
Wove on his Mantle, but this would be
A shallow testimony to that I'le shew you.
Look on his left wrist, there you may see
The half Moon, from which Lunaster he was nam'd
If Fames Report be true.
Bra.
It is most true; He had his name from then [...]e.
Hal.
See Royall Sir, 'tis still preserv'd.
Bra.
Do I yet live, and see my Son Lu­naster?
Fate thou art too bounteous: I cannot live
To pay a due gratuity, an age will be too lit­tle
To express my joyes in.
Cha.
Am I deceast that now my transmi­grated soul
Seeks out a new inolosure?
Tell me my name good Heavens, my Coun­trey too,
Who are my Kin, or rather who are not.
All here I think do clame alliance.
Fairest Constantina my divining soul
Prompts me to call thee Sister: Be not I prithee
Angry with my Love, I will no more
Harbor ince [...]uous flames, yet I will see thee still,
And keep a Brothers distance: you'l not be jealous Sir?
Fid.
I were injurious to her virtue then.
Cha.
Nor you Flavanda?
Fla.
Let me dye hated first of all,
And have no tomb but malice.
Cha.
I am not mortall sure, such joyes as these
Belong to immortality.
Spe.
When three Kingdoms joyn, it is a Royall unity,
Scicily shall be no more Trinacria now
But one promontory whose soaring top
Stretch'd hove th' insulting billows
Shall strike a terror to our foes, whil'st we
Arm'd with their fear sleep in security▪
Vir.
Let not the loss dear Brother
Of this Kingdome trouble you; wee'l haste unto Pachynus
[Page]And when that envious [...]ate bereaves us of our father,
Thou and I, will like the Zodiacks Gemini,
Raign our alternate courses in that happy Kingdome.
Con.
Yet I must ruinate that happiness:
It is I Virtusus that must disinthrone thee.
So Apollo said.
Cha.
No dearest Sister, I am
That Brother that Apollo meant; my crown
Already thou hast lost, my Love to thee has lost it.
Ha [...]st thou been less fair, less constant to Fi­lio,
And more kind to me, I still had raign'd;
This nere had been divulg'd; Had it Ha­lisdus?
Hal.
Never Sir. Tortures should nere have forc't it
From me.
Cha.
The Oracle is fulfill'd then. Let all fears vanish.
Heavens knew a Crown was not my due,
That made me sure so willing for to part with't.
I am glad tis gon so fairly, and I am confi­dent
There's none, knew he the cares, the troubles,
The perplexed thoughts and dangers that attends
A good Kings throne, but he would resign
As willingly as I do, did not his calling,
And his shame forbid it. That Kingdom
Which my ignorance so long usurpt, returns to thee Bermudo,
'Tis Desdonella's right, she is the richer Jewell.
Be once a man again, and from the ruines
Of thy pristine Tyranny, build a most glo­rious Structure
To reach Heaven; Let not thy former cru­elty
Make thee dispair; who would aspire
Ought first to fall, that he may rise the higher.
Ber.
Come dearest Desdonella, too long I have practis'd Tyranny;
Mercy hereafter shall become my study. For now I see
Our lives are but a Scene, a Scene that changes
At the will and pleasure of the Author;
We are all but Actors and do take
Each severall day a severall part; This day
We personate a King, the next a Beggar.
This is our course of life which varies still, till Death
The closer up of all comes in and clean
Puts out the Tapers, and withdraws the Scene.
Exeunt.
FINIS.

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