University of Virginia Library

Thus Perseus stood affected, in a Time
When all loue, but of riches was a crime
A fancy and a follie. And this fact
To adde to loues deseruings, did detract;
For twas a Monster and a monstrous thing
Whence he should combat out, his nuptiall ring,
The monster vulgar thought, and conquerd gaue
The combatant already, the foule graue
Of their fore-speakings, gaping for him stood
And cast out fumes as from the Stigian flood
Gainst his great enterprise, which was so fit
For Ioues cheefe Minion, that Plebeian wit
Could not conceiue it: Acts that are too hie
For Fames crackt voice, resound all Jnfamie:
O poore of vnderstanding: if there were
Of all your Acts, one onely that did beare
Mans worthie Image, euen of all your best
Which truth could not discouer, to be drest
In your owne ends, which Truths selfe not compels,
But couers in your bottoms, sinckes and hels.
Whose opening would abhor the sunne to see
(So ye stood sure of safe deliuerie
Being great with gaine or propagating lust)
A man might feare your hubbubs; and some trust
Giue that most false Epiphonem, that giues
Your voice, the praise of gods: but view your liues
With eyes impartiall, and ye may abhorre
To censure high acts, when your owne taste more
Of damned danger: Perseus scorn'd to feare
The ill of good Acts, though hel-mouth gap't there:
Came to Andromeda; sat by, and cheerd:
But she that lou'd, through all the death she fear'd,
At first sight, like her Louer: for his sake
Resolu'd to die, ere he should vndertake
A combat with a Monster so past man
To tame or vanquish, though of Ioue he wanne
A power past all men els, for man should still
Aduance his powers to rescue good from ill,
Where meanes of rescue seru'd: and neuer where
Uentures of rescue, so impossible were
That would encrease the danger: two for one
Expose to Ruine: Therefore she alone
Would stand the Monsters Fury and the Shame
Of those harsh bands: for if he ouercame
The monstrous world would take the monsters part
So much the more: and say some sorcerouse art
Not his pure valour, nor his Jnnocence
Preuail'd in her deliuerance her offence
Would still the same be counted, for whose ill
The Land was threatned by the Oracle.
The poisoned Murmures of the multitude.
Rise more, the more, desert or power obtrude:
Against their most (sayd he) come J the more:
Vertue, in constant sufferance we adore.
Nor could death fright him, for he dies that loues:
And so all bitternesse from death remoues.
He dies that loues, because his euery thought,
(Himselfe forgot) in his belou'd is wrought.
Jf of himselfe his thoughts are not imploy'd
Nor in himselfe they are by him enioy'd.
And since not in himselfe, his minde hath Act
(The mindes act chiefly being of thought compact)
Who workes not in himselfe, himselfe not is:
For, these two are in man ioynt properties,
To worke, and Be; for Being can be neuer
But Operation, is combined euer.
Nor Operation, Being doth exceed,
Nor workes man where he is not: still his deed
His being, consorting, no true Louers minde
He in himselfe can therefore euer finde
Since in himselfe it workes not, if he giues
Being from himselfe, not in himselfe he liues:
And he that liues not, dead is, Truth then said
That whosoeuer is in loue, is dead.
Jf death the Monster brought then, he had laid
A second life vp, in the loued Mayd:
And had she died, his third life Fame decreed,
Since death is conquer'd in each liuing deed:
Then came the Monster on, who being showne
His charmed sheild, his halfe he turn'd to stone
And through the other with his sword made way:
Till like a ruin'd Cittie, dead he lay
Before his loue: The Neirids with a shrieke
And Syrens (fearefull to sustaine the like)
And euen the ruthlesse and the sencelesse Tide
Before his howre, ran roring terrifi'd,
Backe to their strength: wonders and monsters both,
With constant magnanimitie, like froth
Sodainely vanish, smother'd with their prease;
No wonder lasts but vertue: which no lesse
We may esteeme, since t'is as seldome found
Firme & sincere, and when no vulgar ground
Or flourish on it, fits the vulgar eye
Who viewes it not but as a prodegie?
Plebeian admiration, needes must signe
All true-borne Acts, or like false fires they shine:
Jf Perseus for such warrant had contain'd
His high exploit, what honour had he gain'd?
Who would haue set his hand to his designe
But in his skorne? skorne censures things diuine:
True worth (like truth) sits in a groundlesse pit
And none but true eyes see the depth of it
Perseus had Enyos eye, and saw within
That grace, which out-lookes, held a desperate sin:
He, for it selfe, with his owne end went on,
And with his louely rescu'd Paragon
Long'd of his Conquest, for the latest shocke:
Dissolu'd her chaines, and tooke her from the rocke
Now woing for his life that fled to her
As hers in him lay: Loue did both confer
To one in both: himselfe in her he found
She with her selfe, in onely him was crownd:
While thee J loue (sayd he) you louing mee
In you J finde my selfe: thought on by thee,
And I (lost in my selfe by thee neglected)
In thee recouer'd am, by thee affected:
The same in me you worke, miraculous strange
Twixt two true Louers is this enterchange,
For after J haue lost my selfe, if I
Redeeme my selfe by thee, by thee supply
I of my selfe haue, if by thee I saue
My selfe so lost, thee more then me I haue.
And neerer to thee, then my selfe I am
Since to my selfe no otherwise I came
Then by thee being the meane: In mutuall loue
One onely death and two reuiuals moue:
For he that loues, when he himselfe neglects
Dies in himselfe once, In her he affects
Straight he renewes, when she with equall fire
Embraceth him, as he did her desire:
Againe he liues too, when he surely seeth
Himselfe in her made him: O blessed death
Which two liues follow: O Commerce most strange
Where, who himselfe doth for another change,
Nor hath himselfe, nor ceaseth still to haue:
O gaine, beyond which no desire can craue,
When two are so made one, that either is
For one made two, and doubled as in this:
Who one life had: one interuenient death
Makes him distinctly draw a two fold breath:
Jn mutuall Loue the wreake most iust is found,
When each so kill that each cure others wound;
But Churlish Homicides, must death sustaine,
For who belou'd, not yeelding loue againe
And so the life doth from his loue deuide
Denies himselfe to be a Homicide?
For he no lesse a Homicide is held,
That man to be borne lets: then he that kild
A man that is borne: He is bolder farre
That present life reaues: but he crueller
That to the to-be borne, enuies the light
And puts their eyes out, ere they haue their sight.
All good things euer we desire to haue,
And not to haue alone, but still to saue:
All mortall good, defectiue is, and fraile;
Unlesse in place of things, on point to faile,
Ve daily new beget. That things innate
May last, the languishing we re'create
In generation, re'creation is,
And from the prosecution of this
Man his instinct of generation takes.
Since generation, in continuance, makes
Mortals, similitudes, of powers diuine,
Diuine worth doth in generation shine.
Thus Perseus sayd, and not because he sau'd
Her life alone, be her in marriage crau'd:
But with her life, the life of likely Race
Was chiefe end of his action, in whose grace
Her royall father brought him to his Court
With all the then assembled glad resort
Of Kings and Princes: where were solemniz'd
Th'admired Nuptialls: which great Heau'n so priz'd
That Ioue againe stoopt in a goulden showre
T'enrich the Nuptiall as the Natall howre
Of happy Perseus: white-armd Iuno to
Depos'd her greatnesse, and what she could do
To grace the Bride & Bride-groome, was vouchsaft
All Subiect-deities stoopt to: and the Shaft
Golden and mutuall, with which loue comprest
Both th'enuied Louers: offerd to, and kist: