University of Virginia Library

Scena Prima.

Nurse.
Nu.
No hope can salve this sore, nor wil that fire
Be ever quench'd which frenzy raizes higher
Although no crackling flame, although conceald
In her close brest, 'tis by her face reveal'd;
Her eies doe sparkle, and her shrunke cheeks flie
The light. Best pleased with variety
Is her divided soul; her body feels
The motion of her troubled sprite and reels.
Now her faint limbs a dying measure tread,
And scarce her weary neck sustains her head;
Now would she rest a while, but straight forbears
Forgotten sleep, and spends the night in teares:
She rises, and again is laid: Shee looses
Her scattered tresses, and again composes;
She varies habit, weary of her self,
And grows regardles both of food and health;
She languishingly goes, her strength decay'd
And from her cheeks the wither'd roses fade.
Care doth dissolve her joynts: a trembling pace
She holds, not near so comely as shee was.
And those same eyes, that testified her line
From Phœbus, nothing like her Grandsire shine.
Still are her cheeks with teares bedewed: so
A warm showr melteth the dilated snow
Upon the cliffs of Taurus; but behold
The Court is ope, where on a couch of gold
Leanes the inclined Lover, and her brain
Distemperd, doth her own attire disdain.

Ph.
Good maids these gold and purple garments bear
From hence, what should the Tyrian dye doe here?
Or wooll, which the trees mollified rind
Yeelds to the Sexes? a short Zone shall bind
My loins, for expedition girt; no load
Of pearl, on us by Indian Seas bestowd,
Shall lengthen out my cares, nor will I deck
With any Carkanet my widdowed neck.
No perfume my dishevel'd hair doth need,
Careless upon my neck and shoulders spread,
And by the wind displayed, my left shall bear
A quiver, and my right hand shake a spear.
Such was Hippolita, and as she guides
From frozen Tanais, and Mæotis sides
Her troops to Attick coasts, her hair collected
Into a knot, and then again rejected;
A Crescent shield gaurding her side, even so
Accoutred I, into the woods will goe.

Nu.