![]() | Argalvs and Parthenia | ![]() |
To number forth her weary steps, or tell
Those obvious dangers, that so oft befell
Our poore Parthenia, in her pilgrimage,
Or bring her miseries on the open stage;
Her broken slumbers; her distracted care;
Her hourely feares, and frights; her hungry fare;
Her daily perils; and her nightly scapes
From rauenous beasts, and from attempted rapes,
Is not my taske; who care not to incite
My Readers passion to an appetite.
We leaue Parthenia now; and our discourse
Must cast an eye, and bend a settled course
To Argalus. When Argalus (returning
To visit his Parthenia, the next morning)
Perceiued she was fled, not knowing whither;
He makes no stay; Consults not with the weather;
Stayes not to thinke, but claps his hasty knees
To his fleet Courser; and away he flees;
His haste enquires no way; (he needs not feare
To lose the roade, that goes he knowes not where;)
One while he pricks vpon the fruitfull plaines;
And now, he gently flicks his prouder reines,
And climbes the barren hills: with fresh Careers
He tryes the right hand way; and then he veres
His course vpon the left: One while he likes
This path; when, by and by, his fancy strikes
Vpon another tract. Sometimes, he roues
Among the Springs, and solitary Groues,
Where, on the tender barkes of sundry trees,
H'engraues Parthenia's name, with his: then flees
To the wild Champian: his proud Steed remoues
The hopefull fallowes, with his horned hooues;
He baulkes no way; rides ouer rocke, and mountaine;
When led by fortune to Diana's Fountaine,
He straight dismounts his steed; begins to quench
His thirsty lippes; and after that, to drench
His fainting limmes, in that sweet streame, wherein
Parthenia's dainty fingers oft had bin.
Those obvious dangers, that so oft befell
78
Or bring her miseries on the open stage;
Her broken slumbers; her distracted care;
Her hourely feares, and frights; her hungry fare;
Her daily perils; and her nightly scapes
From rauenous beasts, and from attempted rapes,
Is not my taske; who care not to incite
My Readers passion to an appetite.
We leaue Parthenia now; and our discourse
Must cast an eye, and bend a settled course
To Argalus. When Argalus (returning
To visit his Parthenia, the next morning)
Perceiued she was fled, not knowing whither;
He makes no stay; Consults not with the weather;
Stayes not to thinke, but claps his hasty knees
To his fleet Courser; and away he flees;
His haste enquires no way; (he needs not feare
To lose the roade, that goes he knowes not where;)
One while he pricks vpon the fruitfull plaines;
And now, he gently flicks his prouder reines,
And climbes the barren hills: with fresh Careers
He tryes the right hand way; and then he veres
His course vpon the left: One while he likes
This path; when, by and by, his fancy strikes
Vpon another tract. Sometimes, he roues
Among the Springs, and solitary Groues,
Where, on the tender barkes of sundry trees,
H'engraues Parthenia's name, with his: then flees
To the wild Champian: his proud Steed remoues
The hopefull fallowes, with his horned hooues;
He baulkes no way; rides ouer rocke, and mountaine;
When led by fortune to Diana's Fountaine,
79
His thirsty lippes; and after that, to drench
His fainting limmes, in that sweet streame, wherein
Parthenia's dainty fingers oft had bin.
![]() | Argalvs and Parthenia | ![]() |