University of Virginia Library

Scena quarta.

Amarillis.
Mirtillo , O Mirtillo! couldst thou see
That heart which thou condemn'st of cruelty,
(Soul of my soul) thou unto it wouldst show
That pity which thou begg'st from it I know.
O ill starr'd Lovers! what avails it me
To have thy love? T'have mine, what boots it thee?
Whom Love hath joyn'd why dost thou separate,
Malitious Fate! And two divorc'd by Fate
Why joyn'st thou perverse Love? How blest are you
Wild beasts, that are in loving ty'd unto
No lawes but those of Love! whilst humane lawes
Inhumanely condemn us for that cause.
“O why, if this be such a naturall
“And powerfull passion, was it capitall!
“Nature too frail, that do'st with Law contend!
“Law too severe, that Nature do'st offend!

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“But what? they love but little who death fear.
Ah, my Mirtillo! would to heav'n that were
“The onely penaltie. Vertue, which art
“The bindingst Law to an ingenuous heart,
This inclination which in me I feel,
Lanc'd with the sharp point of thy holy steel,
To thee I sacrifice; and pardon (deer
Mirtillo) her, that's onely cruell, where
She must not pitie. Pardon thy fierce foe
In looks and words: but in her heart not so.
Or if addicted to revenge thou be,
What greater vengeance canst thou take on me
Then thine own grief? for if thou be my heart
(As in despight of Heaven and Earth thou art)
Thy sighs my vitall spirits are, the flood
Of tears which follows is my vitall blood,
And all these pangs, and all these groans of thine
Are not thy pangs, are not thy groans, but mine.