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 | Hippolitus |  |
Scena Secunda.
Phædra. Nurse.Ph.
O
Crete, great Soveraign of the Seas that be
Replete with ships, on each side coasting thee,
All such as plough the Deep, and cut their way
Thorow these Floods, open t' Assyria;
Replete with ships, on each side coasting thee,
All such as plough the Deep, and cut their way
Thorow these Floods, open t' Assyria;
Why am I hostage, where I hate? or why,
Given in Marriage to my Enemy,
To be drawn out in misery and teares,
Hast thou condemnd the remnant of my yeares?
My wandring Husband absent Theseus hath
Not in his Marriage, lost his wonted faith.
Champion to an audacious Suitor now
The Hero stalketh in the dark below;
Pluck'd from the throne of the infernall King
These mad-men Proserpine again will bring.
Nor fear, nor sence of shame restrain him: Thus
The glorious Father of Hippolitus.
In Hell it self endeavoureth to meet
With lowless pleasures and forbidden sheets.
Given in Marriage to my Enemy,
To be drawn out in misery and teares,
Hast thou condemnd the remnant of my yeares?
My wandring Husband absent Theseus hath
Not in his Marriage, lost his wonted faith.
5
The Hero stalketh in the dark below;
Pluck'd from the throne of the infernall King
These mad-men Proserpine again will bring.
Nor fear, nor sence of shame restrain him: Thus
The glorious Father of Hippolitus.
In Hell it self endeavoureth to meet
With lowless pleasures and forbidden sheets.
But (ah) I am with greater weights opprest
Not from my cares by Night or sleep releast:
The Ill is nourish'd, which too fast doth grow
And burns within; so vapours straitned flow
From the wombe of Ætna idle stands
The loom, the shittle falleth from my hands.
Now in their Temples do I take no care
To bribe the Gods with vows to hear my prayer
Nor 'twixt the Altars, joyn'd with Attick Dames,
Shake in those silent Duties conscious flames.
Nor with chast Prayers, and pious rites draw near
The Goddess, that Præsides by conquest here.
I rather would pursue the roused beast
My soft hand with a rugged javelin prest.
O! whither will my vexed soul? Alas,
Why Frantick, doe I thus affect the chase?
My mothers crime was fatall now I prove
And in the Woods have plac'd my sinful Love.
Mother, I doe repent thee now. Thou took
A Bull, wild, and impatient of the yoke.
Distemper'd with thy ill, thy lust prefer'd
The Fierce Conductor of the Salvage herd.
Yet did he something love: What God can ease,
What Dedalus can quench such flames as these
Should he return, whose powerfull Art did build
The Labyrinth my Brothers Monster held
He could not help, my case admits of none
Venus offended with the tell-tale Sun,
On us his off-spring doth revenge the Gyves
She, and her Mars sustain'd, who ere derives
Herself from Sol, Venus depraves her mind
None dead with Love, but Love and impious joyn'd.
Not from my cares by Night or sleep releast:
The Ill is nourish'd, which too fast doth grow
And burns within; so vapours straitned flow
From the wombe of Ætna idle stands
The loom, the shittle falleth from my hands.
Now in their Temples do I take no care
To bribe the Gods with vows to hear my prayer
Nor 'twixt the Altars, joyn'd with Attick Dames,
Shake in those silent Duties conscious flames.
Nor with chast Prayers, and pious rites draw near
The Goddess, that Præsides by conquest here.
I rather would pursue the roused beast
My soft hand with a rugged javelin prest.
O! whither will my vexed soul? Alas,
Why Frantick, doe I thus affect the chase?
My mothers crime was fatall now I prove
And in the Woods have plac'd my sinful Love.
Mother, I doe repent thee now. Thou took
A Bull, wild, and impatient of the yoke.
Distemper'd with thy ill, thy lust prefer'd
The Fierce Conductor of the Salvage herd.
6
What Dedalus can quench such flames as these
Should he return, whose powerfull Art did build
The Labyrinth my Brothers Monster held
He could not help, my case admits of none
Venus offended with the tell-tale Sun,
On us his off-spring doth revenge the Gyves
She, and her Mars sustain'd, who ere derives
Herself from Sol, Venus depraves her mind
None dead with Love, but Love and impious joyn'd.
Nu.
Thou wife of Theseus, and the child of Jove
From thy chaste brest drive this unseemly Love:
Quench me these Flames, nor yeeld to such a hope
As may affright thee. He who gives a stop
And a Repulse to Love at first, hath bin
Victor, and Safe: who cherishes the Sin,
Too late denyes to undergo the yoke
Himself put on: Neither am I mistooke
In Princely tumors, how the stubborn mind
Scorns truth, and will not be to right inclind,
The Fates decrees are welcome, who are old
To see their end approaching grew more bold.
First wilt t' oppose, nor faulter in that will,
'Tis next to modesty to know in ill
A measure. Wretch! what wilt thou do? Ah, why
Dost thou increase thy houses infamy,
And overact thy Mother? this exceeds
Her sin, and more than monstrous be thy deeds.
For to compulsive Fate we attribute
Monsters, but sins to manners we impute
7
'Cause Theseus sees not what is acted here?
Thou art mistaken, for suppose he dwell
For ever there, doom'd t' a perpetuall Hell.
What will thy Father doe; thy Father aws
The Sea, and gives a hundred Cities Laws:
And Parents are quick-sighted; What will he
Winke at so horrid an Impiety?
But grant our craft, or circumspection might
Conceal it from him. What will that great Light
Of all things, Father to thy Mother doe?
What the Gods fruitfull Seminator, who
As he his Thunder brandishes, doth shake
The trembling world? are these like to mistake
Canst thou yet hope unseen, to keep thy crime
From these All-seeing Grandfathers of thine?
But say the fav'ring Deities should hide
The fact, and (as it does great sins betide)
None credited thy incest: yet thou'lt finde
A present pain, a self accusing mind,
With horror big, and of is self afraid,
Some unreavel'd, none sin unpunished.
Bridle thy impious love, a crime which yet
No barb'rous Nation ever did commit:
To Goths, and Scythians, and those who on
Inhospitable Taurus dwell unknown.
From thy chaste brest expell these strange desires,
Thy Mother warnes thee from such uncouth fires:
Shall Son, and Father have one common bed,
Thy impious womb fill'd with a mixed seed?
8
'Gainst Nature, and impose new Laws on her.
We are at want of Monsters, and of late
Thy Brothers Court (alas) is desolate!
Shall unaccustom'd births the world appall
And Nature be as oft unnaturall
As a Cretense shall love?
Ph.
I know dear Nurse,
Your counsel's good, but I must follow worse;
Fury compelleth: Wittingly I stray,
Striving in vain my judgement to obey,
So when an over-burdened ship receives
The unwelcome Buffets of encountring waves,
Vain is the Seamans toil, in spite of them
The Vessel goes with the prevailing stream.
Love reason vanquishes, and countermands
Nor will admit a Rivall where he reigns,
His Kingdome is the World, he hath great Jove
Scorched with the unruly flames of Love.
Fired the brest of the stern God of war.
And the dread-thunder-forging Mulciber;
He, who in Ætna, doth for ever turn,
The glowing Embers with a spark doth burne
Phœbus himself who aims his shafts so true,
By the more skillful Boy is wounded too.
Grievous his power in Heaven, in Earth the same.
Nu.
Lust fav'ring Vice did first this Godhead frame
And that it might the greater freedome have
The name of Deity to fury gave.
Condemn'd (forsooth) by Venus for to live
Thorough the World a restless fugitive
9
Fashions his troublesome Artillery;
And now this Little one so great is grown
The Gods submit to his dominion.
These Vanities were feignd: Some guilty mind
To her a Godhead, him a bow assign'd.
Swell'd with prosperity who flows in Vice
Not daining to admit one pleasure twice;
Lust the companion of great Fortunes waits
On him: he is not pleas'd with wonted cates
Firm-builded houses, nor your grosser meat.
Why doth this Pallace-haunting plague retreat
From humble roofs? a pious Love dwells there:
The Vulgar have affections void of fear.
Princes, and rich men will have more than right
When meaner men can curb their appetite.
Who but too much can doe, yet would that he
Could more. Consider thou thy quality
And thy returning Husbands Scepter fear.
Ph.
Alas Love swayes his powerfull Scepter here
And I fear no returns, none gone from hence
To the dark house of death find passage thence.
Nu.
Be not too credulous, say the gates of Hell
Were shut, and Cerberus the Centinell:
Theseus hath forc'd the way hath bin forbid.
Ph.
Yet he perhaps would pardon, if did.
Nu.
Why He was cruell to a wife was chaste
Antiope can testifie his hast.
But grant we might appease thy angry Spouse,
Yet who can move the stern Hippolitus?
10
And obstinately vows a single life.
Marriage he shuns, an Amazon thou knows.
Ph.
Stay, he in mountains crown'd with frequent snows,
Or fly he over the sharp rocks; I will
Follow him through the woods, and ore the hils.
Nu.
Will he be tempted who resisteth Love?
Will he chaste pleasures for unchast remove?
Be kind to thee, for whom (perhaps) alone
He hates the sexe?
Ph.
With prayers he may be won.
Nu.
Hee's cruell.
Ph.
Love tameth the cruell too.
Nu.
Hee'l flie.
Ph.
Flie he by Sea, I will pursue.
Nu.
Remember thou thy Father.
Ph.
We doe call
Our Mother too, to memory withall.
Nu.
All woman-kind he hates.
Ph.
I am the more
Secure, of being rival'd with a whore.
Nu.
Theseus will come.
Ph.
And Pyrithous together.
Nu.
Thy Father'l come.
Ph.
What Ariadnes Father.
Nu.
By these dear brests, by these time-dyed hairs,
And by this bosome over-worn with cares,
I pray thee have compassion on thy selfe.
For to desire it is a peece of health,
11
I have not lost all shame: Nurse I obey.
The Love I cannot rule I conquer may.
Thou shalt not suffer in thy Fame; this is
The onely reason bridles my amiss.
My Husband will I follow, and prevent
My sin by death.
Nu.
Dear Madam, some restraint,
Give to these passions. I the more esteem
Your life, because you do your self condemn.
Ph.
Yes, dye I will: but whether halter, knife,
Or leap from Pallas tower conclude my life
I know not yet. Oh that my chastity
Can only guarded by selfe-ruine be.
Nu.
What think'st thou me? so impotent my age
To suffer this? yet moderate thy rage.
Ph.
To such as merit, and resolve to dye
Reason in vain doth urge the contrary.
Nu.
Thou onely comfort of my aged yeares,
Since so perverse, a fate thy will ore bears,
Contemn thy fame. Fame speaks not as it shou'd
Good to the bad, and bad unto the good.
Let us assay him, and this Nature prove,
So froward, so intractable to Love.
This labour shall be mine; Ile undertake
The Stubborn youth, and exorable make.
Exeunt.
12
Goddess, the off-spring of the troubled floud,
And Mother to as troublesome a God,
The twin'd Cupid; with what a certain aim,
Alike immod'rate in his flames and them,
The boy his shafts doth levell! the disease
Creeps through the marrow and impoverishes
With an insinuating fire the veins.
The Wound appeareth not in scars, but pains
Within, ransacks the very bones; this boy
To peace is a professed enemy.
Thorow the world, his shafts are nimbly thrown,
Those Coasts that first salute the rising Sun,
Or hid him last good night: those that do sweat
Under the torrid Crabs consuming heat,
And those which doe beneath the cold Bear freeze,
Peopl'd but with uncertain Colonies
Have felt these flames; in youth he blows the fire,
Reviveth age-extinguished desire
In crazed limbes, and the cold Virgins snow
Melts with a warmth her bosome doth not know.
At his command the Gods forsake the skies,
And borrowed shapes obscure their Deities.
Phœbus his harp layes by; unequall reeds
Gather the herd he in Thessalia feeds.
How often hath the cloud-dispelling Jove
Bin clothed in the meanest shapes for love?
Now like a Swan he claps his silver wings,
And sweeter than the dying true one sings.
Now like a wanton Steer in play doth take
The Royall Virgin on his humbled back,
With his oare-imitating feet he plyes
His brothers waves, and unknown Realms descries;
He breaks the Sea with his opposed brest,
Of his fair Rape, fear'd to be disposest.
The clear-fac'd Goddess of the night hath burn'd,
And over her forsaken Chariot turn'd
To her unskilful Brother; now the Sun
Doth learn to drive two horses, and doth run,
A shorter course; day rises slowly, and night,
Keeps no proportion with the wronged light
Retarded by the unaccustom'd weight.
Alcides hath his quiver laid aside,
And the Nemæan Lions dreadfull hide;
Now he the Emrauld to his finger fits
And his neglected hair in order sits.
With gold-embroidered buskins he doth bind
His legs, his feet, in yellow socks contein'd,
And with that hand in which the club was born
He twists the threed, and doth the spindle turn.
And Mother to as troublesome a God,
The twin'd Cupid; with what a certain aim,
Alike immod'rate in his flames and them,
The boy his shafts doth levell! the disease
Creeps through the marrow and impoverishes
With an insinuating fire the veins.
The Wound appeareth not in scars, but pains
Within, ransacks the very bones; this boy
To peace is a professed enemy.
Thorow the world, his shafts are nimbly thrown,
Those Coasts that first salute the rising Sun,
Or hid him last good night: those that do sweat
Under the torrid Crabs consuming heat,
And those which doe beneath the cold Bear freeze,
Peopl'd but with uncertain Colonies
Have felt these flames; in youth he blows the fire,
Reviveth age-extinguished desire
In crazed limbes, and the cold Virgins snow
Melts with a warmth her bosome doth not know.
At his command the Gods forsake the skies,
And borrowed shapes obscure their Deities.
Phœbus his harp layes by; unequall reeds
Gather the herd he in Thessalia feeds.
How often hath the cloud-dispelling Jove
Bin clothed in the meanest shapes for love?
Now like a Swan he claps his silver wings,
And sweeter than the dying true one sings.
13
The Royall Virgin on his humbled back,
With his oare-imitating feet he plyes
His brothers waves, and unknown Realms descries;
He breaks the Sea with his opposed brest,
Of his fair Rape, fear'd to be disposest.
The clear-fac'd Goddess of the night hath burn'd,
And over her forsaken Chariot turn'd
To her unskilful Brother; now the Sun
Doth learn to drive two horses, and doth run,
A shorter course; day rises slowly, and night,
Keeps no proportion with the wronged light
Retarded by the unaccustom'd weight.
Alcides hath his quiver laid aside,
And the Nemæan Lions dreadfull hide;
Now he the Emrauld to his finger fits
And his neglected hair in order sits.
With gold-embroidered buskins he doth bind
His legs, his feet, in yellow socks contein'd,
And with that hand in which the club was born
He twists the threed, and doth the spindle turn.
Persia, and fruitfull Lydia saw the skin
Of the fierce beast lye by rejected then;
And those huge shoulders, which did once support
And serve for pillars to the heavenly Court,
Clad in a Pall with Tyrian purple dy'd,
The fire is sacred, (credit those have try'd)
And but too potent; for as far as land
By the salt Ocean is invirond, and
The scattered Stars illuminate the Skie,
Reaches the Kingdom of this peevish boy.
Though guarded by the interposed seas,
His darts have wounded the Nereides;
Nor could the Ocean quench the kindled flame,
The feather'd Nation too hath felt the same,
By lust provok'd; how the fierce Bull hath warr'd
To be the sole Commander of the Herd!
The tim'rous Hart his rival once in sight,
Fearles, himself addresses to the fight;
And testifies his fury with his voice.
Then the black Indies tremble at the noise,
Of spotted Tigres: Then, all white his mouth.
With rage engendred foam, the wild Boar doth
His deadly tushes whet: The Lyon when
He feels this sting of Love, his horrid mane
Tosses on high, the very forrest faints
Then with the noise of her inhabitants.
The Monsters of the deep this power have prov'd,
Both they, and the Lucanian Oxe have lov'd.
Nature doth claim a priviledge in all,
Her yoke is universall, hate doth fall
At the command of Love, that ancient fire
Extinguish'd by the new one of desire,
Why should I more rehearse? it is enough
We see a Step-dames bosome not of proof
Against the Strok of Love. What news bringst thou?
Speak Nurse, and say, where thou hast left her now.
Of the fierce beast lye by rejected then;
And those huge shoulders, which did once support
And serve for pillars to the heavenly Court,
Clad in a Pall with Tyrian purple dy'd,
The fire is sacred, (credit those have try'd)
And but too potent; for as far as land
By the salt Ocean is invirond, and
The scattered Stars illuminate the Skie,
Reaches the Kingdom of this peevish boy.
14
His darts have wounded the Nereides;
Nor could the Ocean quench the kindled flame,
The feather'd Nation too hath felt the same,
By lust provok'd; how the fierce Bull hath warr'd
To be the sole Commander of the Herd!
The tim'rous Hart his rival once in sight,
Fearles, himself addresses to the fight;
And testifies his fury with his voice.
Then the black Indies tremble at the noise,
Of spotted Tigres: Then, all white his mouth.
With rage engendred foam, the wild Boar doth
His deadly tushes whet: The Lyon when
He feels this sting of Love, his horrid mane
Tosses on high, the very forrest faints
Then with the noise of her inhabitants.
The Monsters of the deep this power have prov'd,
Both they, and the Lucanian Oxe have lov'd.
Nature doth claim a priviledge in all,
Her yoke is universall, hate doth fall
At the command of Love, that ancient fire
Extinguish'd by the new one of desire,
Why should I more rehearse? it is enough
We see a Step-dames bosome not of proof
Against the Strok of Love. What news bringst thou?
Speak Nurse, and say, where thou hast left her now.
| Hippolitus | |