 | The Sun's-Darling |  |
Actus Quintus.
Enter three Clowns.1.
Hear you the news neighbor?
2.
Yes, to my grief neighbor; they say our Prince Raybright
is coming hither, with whole troops and trains of Courtiers;
wee'r like to have a fine time on't neighbors.
3.
Our Wives and Daughters are, for they are sure to get by
the bargain, tho our barn be emptied, they will be sure to bee
with barn for't: Oh! these Courtiers, neighbors, are pestilent
1.
Faith neighbor let's lay our heads together, and resolve to
die like men, rather then live like beasts.
2.
I, like horn-beasts, neighbor; they may talk and call us
Rebells, but a figg for that, 'tis not a fart matter; let's be true
amongst our selvs, and with our swords in hand resist his entrance—
Enter Winter.
Wint.
What such murmurings does your gall bring forth,
Will you prov't true, no good coms from the North;
Bold sawcie mortals, dare you then aspire
With snow and ice to quench the sphere of fire:
Are your hearts frozen like your clime, from thence
All temperate heat's fled of obedience:
How durst you else with force think to withstand
Your Princes entrie into this his land;
A Prince who is so excellently good,
His virtue is his honor, more then blood;
In whose clear nature, as two Suns, do rise
The attributes of Merciful, and Wise:
Whose laws are so impartial, they must
Be counted heavenly, cause th'are truly just:
Who does with princely moderation give
His subjects an example how to live;
Teaching their erring natures to direct
Their wills, to what it ought most to affect:
That as the Sun does unto all dispence
Heat, light, nay life from his full influence,
Yet you wilde fools, possest with gyant rage,
Dare, in your lawlesse furie, think to wage
War against heaven, and from his shining throne
Pull Jove himself, for you to tread upon;
Were your heads circled with his own green Oak,
Yet are they subject to his thunder-stroak;
And he can sink such wretches as rebell,
From heaven's sublime height, into the depth of hell.
1.
The divel a can as soon, we fear no colors, let him do his
worst; there's many a tall fellow besides us, will die rather then
see his living taken from them, nay even eat up; all things are
neighbor.
2.
Thou'rt a wise fellow, neighbor, prate is but prate; they
say this Prince too would bring new laws upon us, new rights
into the Temples of our gods, and that's abominable, wee'l all
bee hang'd first—
Wint.
A most fair pretence,
To found rebellion upon conscience;
Dull stubborn fools, whose perverse judgments still
Are govern'd by the malice of your will,
Not by indifferent reason, which to you
Coms, as in droughs the elemental dew
Does on the parch'd earth, 'twets, but does not give
Moisture enough to make the plants to live:
Things void of soul, can you conceive that he,
Whose every thought's an act of pietie,
Who's all religious, furnish'd with all good
That ever was compris'd in flesh and blood,
Cannot direct you in the fittest way
To serv those powers, to which himself does pay
True zealous worship, nay's so near ally'd
To them, himself must needs be deified—
Enter Follie.
Fol.
Save you Gentlemen! 'tis very cold, you live in frost,
y'ave Winter still about you.
2.
What are you sir?
Fol.
A Courtier sir; but you may guesse, a very foolish one,
to leav the bright beams of my Lord, the Prince, to travel hither;
I have an Ague on me, do you not see me shake: Well, if our
Courtiers, when they com hither, have not warm young wenches,
good wines, and fires to heat their bloods, 'twill freez into an Apoplexie;
farewell frost, I'le go seek a fire to thaw me, I'me all
ice I fear already.
Exit.
1.
Farewel and be hang'd, ere such as these shall eat what we
have sweat for, wee'l spend our bloods; com neighbors, let's go
call our company together, and go meet this Prince he talks
so of.
3.
Som shall have but a sowr welcom of it, if my Crab-tree
cudgel hold here.
'Tis, I see,
Not in my power to alter destinie:
You'r mad in your rebellious mindes, but hear
What I presage, with understanding clear:
As your black thoughts are mistie, take from me
This as a true and certain augurie,
This Prince shall com, and by his glorious side
Lawrel-crown'd conquest shall in triumph ride,
Arm'd with the justice that attend's his cause,
You shall with penitence embrace his laws:
Hee to the frozen northern clime shall bring
A warmth so temperate, as shall force the Spring
Usurp my privilege, and by his Ray
Night shall bee chang'd into perpetual day.
Plentie and happinesse shall still increase,
As dors his light, and Turtle-footed Peace
Dance like a Faire through his realms, while all
That envie him shall like swift Comets fall,
By their own fire consum'd, and glorious he
Ruling, as 'twere, the force of destinie,
Shall have a long and prosperous reign on earth,
Then flie to heaven, and give a new star birth.
Florish.
Enter Raybright, Humor, Bountie, Winter and Delight.
But see, our star appear's, and from his eie
Flie thousand beams of sparkling majestie.
Bright son of Phebus! welcom, I begin
To feel the ice fal from my crifled skin;
For at your beams the Waggoner might thow
His Chariot, axell'd with Riphean snow;
Nay, the slow moving North-star having felt
Your temperate heat, his isicles would melt.
Ray.
What bold rebellious Catives dare disturb
The happie progresse of our glorious peace.
Contemne the Justice of our equall lawes,
Prophane those sacred rights, which still must bee
Attendant on monarchall dignitie.
I came to frolick with you, and to chear
Your drouping soules by vigor of my beams;
I'me come to be your guest; your bounteous free
Condition does assure, I shall have
A welcom entertainment.
Win.
Illustrious sir! I am ignorant
How much expression my true zeale will want
To entertain you fitlie, yet my love,
And hartie dutie, shall be farr above
My outward welcome, to that glorious light,
Of heaven, the Sunne which chaces hence the night;
I am so much a vassaile, that I'le strive,
By honoring you, to keep my faith alive
To him, brave Prince, tho you, who do'inherit
Your fathers cheerefull heat, and quickning spirit;
Therefore as I am Winter, worne and spent
So farre with age, I am Tymes monument;
Antiquities example, in my zeale,
I, from my youth, a span of Tyme will steale
To open the free treasures of my Court,
And swell your soul with my delights and sport.
Ray.
Never till now
Did admiration beget in me truly
The rare match'd twins at once, pittie and pleasure;
So royall, so aboundant in earth's blessings,
Should not partake the comfort of those beames,
With which the Sun beyond extent doth cheere
The other seasons, yet my pleasures with you,
From their false charmes, doth get the start as farr
As heaven's great lamp from every minor starr.
Boun.
Sir! you can speak wel, if your tongue deliver
The message of your heart, without some cuning
Of restraint, we may hope to enjoy
The lasting riches of your presence hence,
Without distrust or change
Ray.
Winters sweet bride,
All Conquering Bounty, queen of harts, life's glory,
Natures perfection; whom all love, all serve;
To whom Fortune, even in extreame's a slave,
Then let me be ranck'd as nothing.
Boun.
Come you, flatter mee.
Ray.
I flatter you! Why Madam? you are Bounty;
Sole daughter to the royall throne of peace.
Hu.
He minds not mee now.
Ray.
Bounties self!
For you he is no souldier dares not fight,
No Scholar he, that dares not plead your merites,
Or study your best Sweetness, should the Sun,
Eclips'd for many yeares, forbeare to shine
Upon the bosome of our naked pastures,
Yet where you are, the glories of your smiles
would warm the barren grounds, arm hartless misery,
And cherish desolation. Deed I honor you,
And as all others ought to do, I serve you.
Hu.
Are these the rare sights, these the promis'd Complements.
Win.
Attendance on our revells, let delight
Can joyn the day with sable-footed night;
Both shall forsake their orbes, and in one sphere
Meet in soft mirth, and harmlesse pleasures here;
While plump Lyeus shall, with garland crown'd
Of triumph-Ivie, in full cups abound
Of Cretan wine, and shall dame Ceres call
To waite on you, at Winters festivall:
While gawdy Summer, Autumne, and the Springe,
Shall to my Lord their Choycest viands bring.
Wee'l robb the sea, and from the subtill ayre,
Fetch her inhabitant, to supply our fare.
That were Apicious here, he in one night
Should sate with danties his strong appetite.
Begin our revells then, and let all pleasure
Flow like the Ocean, in a boundlesse measure—
Florish.
Enter Conceit, and Detraction.
Con.
Wit and pleasure soft attention,
Grace the sports of our invention.
De.
Conceit peace, for Detraction
Hath already drawn a faction,
Shall deride thee.
Con.
Antick leave me;
For in laboring to bereave me
De.
Here's a hot age;
When such pettie penmen covet
Fame by folly, on, I'le prove it
Scurvie by thy part, and trie thee
By thine owne wit.
Con.
I defie thee,
Here are nobler Judges, wit
Cannot suffer where they sit.
De.
Pri'thee foolish Conceit, leave off thy set-speeches, and
come to the conceit if selfe in plain languages; what goodly thing
is't, in the name of laughter?
Con.
Detraction doe thy worste, Conceit appears,
In honour of the Sunne, their fellow-friend,
Before thy censure; know then that the spheres,
Have for a while resigned their orbes, and lend
Their seats to the Four Elements, who joyn'd
With the Four known Complexions, have atton'd
A noble I ague, and severally put-on
Materiall bodies; here amongest'em none
Observes a difference; Earth and Ayre alike
Are sprightly active; Fire and Water seek
No glory of preheminence; Phlegm and Blood,
Choler and Melancholy, who have stood
In contrarieties, now meet for pleasure,
To enterain Time in a courtly measure.
De.
Impossible and inproper; first to personate insensible
Creatures, and next to compound quite opposite humors; fie, fie,
fie, i'ts abominable.
Con.
Fond ignorance! how darest thou vainly scan
Impossibility; what reignes in man
Without disorder; wisely mixt by nature,
Maskers.
To fashion and preserve so high a creature.
De.
Sweete sir! when shall our mortall eyes behold this new
peece of wonder;
Con.
See, thus the clouds flie off, and run in chase,
The Maskers discover'd.
When the Sun's bountie lends peculiar grace.
Fine ifaith; pretty, and in good earnest but sirrah scholar;
will they come down too?
Con.
Behold em well, the foremost represents
Ayr, the most sportive of the Elements,
De.
A nimble rascall, I warrant him some Aldermans son;
wonderous giddy and light-headed; one that blew his patrimony
away in feather and Tobacco.
Con.
The next near him is Fire.
Det.
A cholerick gentleman, I should know him, a younger
brother and a great spender, but seldom or never carries any money
about him; he was begot when the sign was in Tauria, for
a rores like a Bull, But is indeed a Bell-weather.
Con.
The third in rank is Water.
Det.
A phlegmatick cold piece of stuff, his father me thinks
should be one of the Dunce-table, and one that never drunk strong
beer in's life but at festival times, and then he caught the heart-burning
a whole vacation and half a Term after.
Con.
The fourth is Earth.
Det.
A shrewd plodding-pated fellow, and a great lover of
news; I guesse at the rest, Blood is placed near Air, Choler near
Fire, Phlegme and Water are sworn brothers, and so are Earth
and Melancholie.
Con.
Fair nymph of Harmonie, be it thy task
To sing them down, and rank them in a mask.—
SONG.
See the Elements conspire,
Nimble Air doe's court the Earth,
Water doe's commix with Fire,
To give our Princes pleasure birth;
Each delight, each joy, each sweet,
In one composition meet.
All the seasons of the year,
Winter doe's invoke the Spring,
Summer doe's in pride appear,
Autumn forth its fruits doth bring,
And with emulation pay
Their tribute to this Holy-day;
In which the Darling of the Sun is com,
To make this place a new Elisium.
Dance.
How do these pleasures please?
Hu.
Pleasures!
Boun.
Live here,
And be my Lord's friend, and thy sports shall vary
A thousand waies, invention shall beget
Conceits as curious as the thoughts of change
Can aim at.
Hu.
Trifles: progresse o're the year
Again my Raybright, therein like the Sun,
As he in heaven runs his circular course,
So thou on earth run thine, for to be fed
With stale delights, breeds dulnesse and contempts
Think on the Spring.
Ray.
She was a lovely Virgin.
Wint.
My roial Lord!
Without offence, be pleas'd but to afford
Me give yon my true figure, do not scorn
My age, nor think, cause I appear forlorn,
I serve for no use, 'tis my sharper breath
Doe's purge grosse exhalations from the earth;
My frosts and snows do purifie the air
From choking foggs, makes the skie clear and fair:
And though by nature cold and chill I be,
Yet I am warm in bounteous charitie;
And can, my Lord, by grave and sage advice,
Bring you toth' happie shades of Paradice.
Ray.
That wonder; Oh! can you bring me thither?
Wint.
I can direct and point you out a path.
Hu.
But where's the guide?
Quicken thy spirits, Raybright, I'le not leav thee,
Wee'l run the self same race again, that happinesse
These lazie, sleeping, tedious winters nights
Becom not noble action.
Ray.
To the Spring
Recorders.
I am resolv'd—Oh! what strange light appears;
The Sun is up sure.
The Sun above.
Sun.
Wanton Darling look, and worship with amazement.
Oes! gracious Lord.
Thy sands are numbred, and thy glasse of frailtie
Here runs out to the last; here in this mirror
Let man behold the circuit of his fortunes;
The season of the Spring dawns like the Morning.
Bedewing Childhood with unrelish'd beauties
Of gawdie sights; the Summer, as the Noon,
Shines in delight of Youth, and ripens strength
To Autumns Manhood, here the Evening grows,
And knits up all felicitie in follie;
Winter at last draws on the Night of Age;
Yet still a humor of som novel fancie
Untasted, or untry'd, puts off the minute
Of resolution, which should bid farewel
To a vain world of wearinesse and sorrows.
The powers from whom man do's derive his pedigree
Of his creation, with a roial bountie
Give him health, youth, delight for free attendants
To rectifie his carriage: to be thankful
Again to them, Man should casheer his riots,
His bosom whorish sweet-heart, idle Humor;
His Reasons dangerous seducer, Follie; then shall
Like four streight pillars, the four Elements
Support the goodly structure of mortalitie;
Then shall the four Complexions, like four heads
Of a clear river, streaming in his bodie,
Nourish and comfort every vein and sinew.
No ficknesse of contagion, no grim death
Of deprivation of healths real blessings
Shall then affright the creature built by heaven,
Reserv'd to immortalitie, henceforth
In peace go to our Altars, and no more
Question the power of supernal greatnesse,
But give us leav to govern as wee please
Nature, and her dominion, who from us,
And from our gracious influence, hath both being
And preservation; no replies but reverence.
Man hath a double guard, if time can win him;
Heavens power above him, his own peace within him.
| The Sun's-Darling | |