University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

Cupid returns with Zephirus.
Cupid.
She's mine, she's mine; mine in every tender Part;
Love revels now, and centers in her Heart;
The kindling Sparks within her Breast take Fire;
Care in her Looks, and in her Heart Desire.
Yet still my Promise, Justice to pursue,
Proud Cinthia, is to sigh and languish too;
Which I'll perform in th'Instant with a Vow.
She comes! Stay Zephirus, and wait her here,
And power the soft Infection in her Ear;
I through the Air will instantly take Wing,
And hover o're the Covert whilst you sing.

[Cupid Ascends.
SCENE discovers a beautiful Garden, at the further End of which is a Bower, adorned with Flowers and Trophies of Luna, Cinthia, and Proserpine; a Throne fixed, over which a Full Moon appears in a serene Sky: Then enter Attendants with Banners, bearing the Inscription, Cinthia, then Hermes, Endimion. Then Enter Cinthia richly dress'd, attended by Psyche, Daphne, Syrinx, and Pleiades; Neptune, Amphitrite, Pactolus, Ganges, Tiber, Thames, &c. they divide on both sides the Stage, till Neptune prepares to Sing.
Neptune
Sings.
From the vast Empire of the Sea below,
Whose secret State no Mortal e're can know,
From Coral-grove, and Banks of Pearl and Ore,
And watry Caves, where Nature hoards her Store,
Lo Neptune does arise,
Lighted by charming Amphetrite's Eyes,
To welcome the bright Goddess of the Skies:
Proud Eolus to day shall lose his Power,
The Wind shall rage no more,
But with a gentle Breeze
Shall languish o're the Seas,
Whilst Cinthia's glorious Name,
Great Cinthia's glorious Name,
Shall with repeated Eccho's bless the Shore.

Zephirus Sings.
Zeph.
Each River and murmuring Spring,
In honour of Cinthia shall sing,
Who fills us with Joy and Delights,
And guilds with her Beauty our Nights:
For half our Lives Pleasure were gone,
By losing the Light of the Sun,
If she did not counterfeit Noon,
And supply the Defect by a Moon.

Pactolus Sings.
Pactol.
I come the mighty Neptune to obey,
The great and happy Monarch of the Sea;
Far as the famous Asian Strands
I daily glide o're Golden Sands;
Yet when he calls ne're durst delay,
But curl my shining Locks, and streight obey.

Granges Sings.
Ganges.
And I, that still amongst the swarthy Moors
Rowl, rowl, rowl out my tedious Hours,
In true Obedience hither come with Joy.

Tiber Sings.
Tib.
And so do I.

Pactol.
And so do I.

Ganges.
And I.

Omnes.
And all with equal Haste, with equal Joy.

Tiber.
But first came I.

Pactol.
And then came I.

Ganges.
Then I.

Omnes.
And all with equal Haste, with equal Joy,
And all, &c.

Thames Sings.
Tham.
I must confess, were I like you,
Then I should be obedient too;
But know ye puny shallow Streams,
That I the deep, wealthy, and beauteous Thames,
That by Augusta, famous for her Stores,
Wash the delightful Shores,
Had never this way bent my crooked Course,
Had Neptune not controll'd my Will by force:
For, like our Natives, I've the common Evil,
Of Plenty proud, and stubborn as the Devil.

Neptune
Sings.
Ye Sons of the Ocean, say what's to be done,
The Thames is rebellious and mutinous grown.

Pactol.
He never no more shall his City oblige,
For we'll dam up his Current just close to the Bridge.

Ganges.
Importing of Goods, and his Trading shall fall,
And Citt with his Spouse walk on Foot to Fox-hall.

Tib.
The Mayor at his Triumph shall grutch at his Charges,
And swear there's not Water enough for his Barges.

Amphitrite Sings.
Amph.

Thames Sings.
Tham.
See, I obey: Appear, appear
My beauteous Daughters all, and revel here:
When Power formidable grows,
'Tis Folly to oppose.
This let Augusta know,
To whom I all my stubborn Humours owe;
And still am to her ancient Maxim just,
I do obey; I do, because I must.

Grand Chor.
Each River and murmuring Spring,
In Honour of Cinthia.

[Here Cinthia descends, and comes forwards.]
Cinth.
To seek Apollo exil'd here below,
[Aside.
To chear his Sorrows, and Jove's Pardon show,
I come—tho' 'tis not fit that these should know.
A Secret of the Gods must Sacred be,
'Tis Chance on Earth, in Heaven 'tis Mystery.

Omnes.
Hail, Cinthia, hail, Night's glittering Deity.

Cinth.
When mighty Jove my Breast did influence
With mystick Rules of his Celestial Sence,
Humility he sacredly Assign'd,
As the most charming Virtue of the Mind.
Therefore, tho' Power unlimited I bear,
And can, whene're I please, unsheath it here;
Yet now resolv'd a mortal State to try,
I for a Month will lay my Godhead by;
My Lustre veil, from yon bright Orb remove,
And rank with every Virgin of the Grove.

Syrinx.
What an attractive Grace I Inviting Air!
[Aside.
What a Heart-wounding Eye, and Cheek as fair
As in their Glory full-blown Roses bear,
Has that Endimion? Oh! I love so well,
I fancy every Glance or Blush will tell.

Herm.
Through all the Nations of the Universe,
Where is a Place that's like Ionia blest?
Vertue and Beauty their old Claims renew,
And their Divine Perfection take from you:
Since your Approach the Groves refin'd have been,
And the wildest Shepherds now forget to sin.

Endim.
All Vice from their rebellious Blood is driven,
And now the talk of you equal with Heaven;
Should you another Month these Lawns possess,
The Court of Jove would suffer a Disgrace,
And fam'd Ionia prove the holier Place.

Cinth.
Oh Vice of Courts! How wretched should I be,
If I were pleas'd to hear this Flattery?

Daph.
In this soft-tongu'd Endimion you may find
The vile Epitome of all his Kind.
Men are the grand Originals of Vice,
Train'd up in Mischief, Treachery and Lies;
Debauch'd in Nonage, profit not by Rules;
To Fools are Wits, but witty Womens Fools;
Betrayers of our Liberties and Rest,
And she that scapes them is for ever blest.

Psyche.
Tho' some are bad, sure all Men are not so:
Have they no Mark by which a Maid may know?
If in my Bosom any Ill could be,
My very Blushes would discover me.
My Eyes the Falshood of my Heart betray.

Syrinx.
Poor Ignorance, thou art of Yesterday,
Else thou wouldst know we are as false as they.
As skill'd in all the Doubles of the Mind,
Deceipt; Fool, is the Character of our Kind;
For which of us e're vow'd her Love was true,
That had not first learnt to dissemble too.
Men must be fool'd, and when this Art we prove,
Fraud stands for Truth, Hypocrisie for Love.

Cinth.
O thou Defamer to thy Sex, a Curse,
Rude Pan himself would not expose 'em worse.
The blasting Breath of Envy could not place
A worse Detraction on the Female Race.
Men well may hear Invectives against them,
If thus they one another do condemn.
Let Musick sound, dull Love or Flattery is
A Subject fitter to be heard than this.

Cupid hovers o're.
Cupid.
Now at my wished Haven to arrive,
I must a deep and subtle Plot contrive:
Infect proud Syrinx with a jealous Rage,
Which nought but Revenging can asswage.
Whilst Cinthia does for her Endimion pine,
And for his Love, wish she were less Divine.

Ascends.
Cinth.
How my transported Soul this Musick charms!
How strangely, how effectually it warms!
My Heart's new tremblings troubles my repose,
My cold chast Zeal too, on the Instant glows.
I rave, and now think Jove of mean degree;
For yonder Youth seems more a God than he.
Heavens! I'm lost, for still the more I gaze,
The more I dote upon his charming Face.
Hence from my sight thou! away!
[To Endim.
By all my Fame, Death punishes thy stay.
From her high Sphere, can Cinthia ever bow?
To meet a Fate, so despicably low.
Immortal Gods! if ever this can be,
May my own Stars against me Mutiny.
May my Illustrious Brother mount his Throne.
Ordain new Sway, and rule the World alone:
Let Order cease through all the Earth, and Sky;
Matter confus'd, in huddled Attoms lye:
And Nature lose its Course, rather than I.
My Fate, and Fame in my own Orb must move,
Or there's no Deity worth Cinthia's Love.

Exeunt.
The End of the Second Act.