University of Virginia Library

Scene 2.

Sylvander, Diana, Astræa, Phillis.
Sylvander.
Say fair Mistris, what Judgement may we prove
Leads her by the hand.
In your fair Thoughts on diff'rent of our Love?

Diana.
Phillis, methinkes, scarce counterfeiteth well;
The mast'rie's yours; you her in It excel.

Sylvander.
It were Impiety so to prophane
Divine Beauty with inexpi'able staine.
It's true, at first, Love did lay down his Arms,
To Sport, not Fight, to shew th'force of your Charms
In this his facile Conquest; But ev'n now,
That I his purest Flames do feel, do vow
Ev'n by those your own sacred Beams, whose light
Hath found a way to Murder with Delight.

Diana.
'Tis better still to confirm what I say,
But better lose this Subject then our Way.
Have we yet far unto the place?

Sylvander.
Yon hill
Will our Journey, with your command fulfill.

Diana.
It seems impassible.

Sylvander.
Ile force a Way.

He makes as though he would go before.
Astræa.
And leave your Enemy here you to betray.

Sylvander.
Friendly warning; Fair Mistris her command
To this your Service that she joyn her hand.

Phillis.
Now you are guilty of the same Suspect,
Of which you sought me lately to detect.

Sylvander.
Not my Mistris, but Enemy 'tis I fear.

Phillis.
Therein your Jealousie of her is clear:
If you do not suspect your Mistris Love,
Why am I thus redoubtable It to prove?

Sylvander.
Not of her Love, but of your Treachery.

Phillis.
Y'are Jealous then of her Sufficiency;
For to your advantage you heard her say,
I had no skill the Counterfeit to play.

Sylvander.
On that belief doth your Advantage rise,
With greater ease, neglected, to surprize.

Phillis.
To Diana and Astræa. Exeunt Sil. and Phil.
I do assent to It, least at the length,
He say I him o'recome with Slight, not Strength.

Diana.
What doth this Shepherd to thy Thoughts appear?

Astræa.
Leonice stealingly listens behind them.
What you me ask unto your self is clear,
Ev'n so as Children in the Tapers flame
Sport with their finger till they burn the same.
But what think you? how do you this affect?

Diana.
Alas! my self I begin to suspect.

Astræa.
Blush not, dear Companion, Love's no Guilt;
If such it were, Beauty and Worth were spilt.

Leonice retires.
Leonice.
This was but wanting, full Revenge to take,
On which I will the sure Foundation make.

Sylvander, Hylas Phillis.
Return. Hylas encounters them.
Sylvander.
Fair Mistris, the Passage now is free,
Something w'ave found worth Curiosity.

Hylas.
How Mistris! leave that Shepherd; I suspect
To Phillis.
That with his Venome he will thee infect;
His false Axiomes have buri'd one alive;
So will they thee, if thou with him survive.

Sylvander.
What's he?

Hylas.
Tyrsis, who Mortals hath forsook,
And to his grave, his Cell, hath him betook,
In yonder Forrest, where with howling note,
As do his fellow Wolves, set's forth his throat;
A pretty effect of Love to court th'ayre,
And for what can't be had so to despaire.

Phillis.
To Hylas.
Servant, I think, my pray'rs were but in vain,
Should I implore you not incur the same.

Hylas.
Spare them good Mistris, you may well suppose,
That my wise Love some End will still propose.
To Sylvander.
What End hath his? you that his cause maintain's.

Sylvander.
Love is a God, who himself entertains
Within himself; nor doth he ought require
Without himself to cherish his Desire.
He is the Center of his own Being,
Whence his delight doth ever fall and spring,
As you may see in a well figur'd Sphere,
His End's beginning and end is ev'rywhere.

Hylas.
A pretty Myst'ry! Love doth nought require
Forth his own self; Love then is no Desire,
Since no Desire from what we have is known,

Sylvander.
But this Desire, that makes of Two but One,
Which both the Lover and the Lov'd so chains,
That what's desir'd It in It self contains.

Hylas.
So, so, this proves my Grandames Saying true,
Of one Error another doth ensue.
If Lovers to their Lov'd we chang'd could see,
Then I not Hylas, but Phillis should be.

Sylvander.
That follows not; for you do not her love;
But such Effects I in Diana prove.

Hylas.
Is not your Hat become her Hood?

Looks on his hat.
Sylvander.
Oh fie,
You know 'tis not my Hat that love's, 'tis I.

Hylas.
A modest Sepherdess, and Breeches wear!
'Tis very strange!

Sylvander.
Thus I these doubts will clear,
It is the Soul all Actions doth produce,
The Body but the instrument for her use;
So that 't being the Soul which only loves,
'Tis the Soul onely Transformation proves.

Hylas.
But since I love the Body with the Mind,
Why do not I now my self Phillis find?

Sylvander.
It is Equality, that Love begets;
The Body, Soul's inferior, it not admits;
The Soul onely the Soul can love; But see
A more plain Reason for this Unity:
The Understanding, Will, and Memory
Are said the Soul in ev'ry Faculty.
Of only what we know, can Love remain,
The knowledge and thing known are but the same.
Like Transformation doth each Function prove,
Since they all joyn th'Affection but to move:
Will to the will'd, the Memory is brought
Into the thing whereon 't imploys the Thought:
If thus each Function, then must needs the Whole
Transmute it self into the loved Soul.

Hylas.
You fetch this far; yet this not much avails,
Since still the Bodies Transformation fails.

Sylvander.
Phillis Body of her's no part; for dead,
Not that 'tis, but was Phillis, 'twould be sed.

Hylas.
Unite me to her Body, take the Rest,
And see which of them both shall please us best.

Phillis.
They advance to the far side of the Theater.
You have too long withheld us; Night draws near.

Sylvander.
Hah! a Temple, whose Inscription doth bear;
From hence, far, far, avoid all ye
Are untouch't with Love's purity.
Within this sacred Grove each day
Burneth a true immolish't Heart,
Which liveth onely by loves Art
T'adore the Goddess Astræa.

Diana.
Is this the place y'intended us to lead?

Sylvander.
I ne're, before, on it did ever tread,
I have mistook that way.

Phillis.
May we draw nigh?

Sylvander.
Not without Rev'rence to this Deity.
Thou divne Pow'r, who herein worship't art,
Make obeysance to the temple and goes in.
Accept as thou requir'st so pure a Heart.

Hylas.
I do suspect my own Love's purity,
He hath so oft told me the Contrary.

Phillis.
Why how now Servant! is your Love so weak,
They enter while Hylas lies down at the door.
It forceth you our Company to break?

Hylas.
It is an Argument of my Piety;
No jesting, Mistris, with a Deity.

Sylvander.
He takes out a table and reads.

Hylas.
I do believe what thou hast read, is ta'ne
From whence 'twas hatch't, thy melancholy Brain;
Which thou ventest as from this Diety,
To give thereto better Authority.

Sylvander.
That might well be, if none could read but I.

Hylas.
Confirm me with the sight thereof.

Sylvander.
Not I.
If your Body this holy place prophane,
Their holier Laws much more your Eyes will stain.

Phillis.
Hylas steals forth the table, where unseen he alters them.
'Tis Celadons hand.

Diana.
And that Picture we see
Upon the Altar, should Astræas be.

Phillis.
Then 'tis an Argument h' is yet alive.

Astræa.
My dying Sorrow do not again revive.

Phillis.
This rather is a cause of Joy, then Grief.

Astræa.
If you make him alive in my Belief,
And prove it not; he is twice slain to me.

Sylvander.
Our Druy'ds do teach us this Divinity;
Those Bodies on earth unburie'd remain,
Their Souls still wander up and down the same;
Such may be his; whose body being drown'd,
Could not b' interr'd, 'cause it could not be found.
Yet in this Case, the Ceremonies will
Appease his Ghost, if all rights we fullfill.

Astræa.
Which my sad Piety shall undertake.

Diana.
A Druy'd there is hard by; lets thither make.

Hylas.
Mistris! I see, here dwels some Diety;
I feel a scruple of m' Impiety
In Love; and would an unfaign'd Convert be,
If that the Tables Lawes I might but see.

Phillis.
Why you have heard them;

Hylas.
From an Enemy,
Against me fram'd of Contrariety.

Diana.
That is but just.

Sylvander.
Though unprofitable,
To fix a mind s' extreamly vari'able.

Hylas.
Wilt thou ingage thy self with me by vow,
What is therein to follow, and allow?

Sylvander.
I will dispense with yours: Love is my tye.

Hylas.
And what I find therein, such Ties will I,
Phillis brings the table to him, and he reads.
If thou wilt perfect lover be:
What thou lov'st, love not inf'nitely.

Sylvander.
Read right Shepherd:

Hylas.
Mistris; do you oresee.
Else he'l suspect, 'tis but my Trechery.
Phillis overlookes him.
Med'ocrity, gives love the prise,
Extremity therin doth rise
Rather from a selfe Treachery,
Then from a firme Fidelity:

Sylvander.
Can it be so?

Phillis.
I'me sure, so I it find.

Sylvander.
Then you must make me beleeve I was blind.

Hylas.
Mistrists! had I not Reason to suspect?
And you, Shepherd, to your vow have Respect.

Diana.
Here's that will end the Diff'rence; oh Deceit?
Diana looking on the table finds the deceit.
Neither need fail; here each reads his Conceit;
Both what 'twas and is;

Sylvander.
It must repair'd be
With his own hand;

Exeunt.
All.
To that we all agree.

A SONG.
Sung in the intermission.


Rest gentle Ghost, to consummate thy Night;
And gentle Earth unto his Bones be light.
Farewell Cëladon, Cëladon, farewell;
Our Dolefull Notes thus ring thy fun'rall Knell;