University of Virginia Library

Scena Secunda.

Polyeuctes
alone, his Guards being retired to the corners of the Stage.
Delicious Spring of love, yet fruitfull still
In misery, of me what is your will?
Ye flattering pleasures, baits of flesh and blood,
Why fly you not, since I esteem you mud?
Vanish vain honours, worldly glory pass,
Which shines, and is as brittle too as glass:
Hope not that I'le sigh after you at all,
It is in vain your weak charms to estall.
Why shew you me Gods enemies in state
And flourishing? he doth reserve a fate
That shall confound those great ones, and the sword
Suspended o're their heads, at his least word
Shall fall on them, so much more heavily,
As that they dream't not of their misery.
Thou cruel Tiger Decius that dost thirst
For blood, thou shalt be glutted till thou burst:
That God, which we adore, hath for a while
Permitted thee, wild forrest Boar, to spoil
His lovely Vineyard, but thy fearfull fate
Draws near which will thy glory terminate.
The Scythian comes like an impetuous flood,
To revenge Christian and Persian blood:
A little yet, and then thy hour is come,
When thou shalt sleep until the day of doom
In body, not in mind, out of the name
Of Christian, that is fed still with a flame,
Which never dies. Nothing can warrant thee,
The thunder's ready in the cloud, I see,
And will no longer hold in expectation
Of thy repentance, wretch in obstination!
In the mean time let Felix sacrifice
Me to thy rage, my Rivall blind his eyes,
And make himself his Son-in-Law, I yield
Unto my loss, rather I win the field:
Vain baits, I slight you and despise your art,
For in this Christian and Regenerate heart,
I feel a divine flame, whose Ray will dim
Paulina's beauty in her brightest trim.
I look upon her now but as a toy
That would detain me from my heavenly joy.
Adoreable Idea's, sweets above
You fill a heart that's capable to love;
The souls Possessed with your sacred fire
Fix there, and firmly settle their desire
Never to change; you promise, and give more,
Your benefits do still increase your store:
The happy death which I expect, to me
Is a sweet passage to eternity.
'Tis you, O divine flame, which nothing can
Extinguish, that make me more then a man
Look on Paulina's face, and never fear;
Her assaults and temptations I can bear;
I see her, but my heart inflamed now
With holy zeal, to her charms cannot bow,
And my eyes cleared with celestiall light,
Hers appear clouded in a vail of night.