University of Virginia Library

Scena quinta.

Montano, Carino, Dameta.
Mon.
Now thou old doting fool: thank Heav'n thou art
His Father; for (by Heav'n) unlesse thou wert,
To day I'd make thee feel my fury, since
Thou hast so much abus'd my Patience.
Knowst thou who I am? Knowst thou that this wand
Doth both Divine and Humane things command?

Car.
“Let not the Priest of Heav'n offended be
“For begging mercy.

Mont.
I have sufferd thee
Too long, and that hath made thee insolent.
Dost thou not know, “when anger wanteth vent
“In a just bosome, it is gathering strength
“Within, and bursts out with more force at length?

Car.
“Anger was never in a noble mind
“A furious tempest: but a gentle wind
“Of Passion onely, which but stirs the soul,
“(Where Reason still doth keep her due comptroll)
“Lest it should grow a standing pool, unfit
“For vertuous action. If I cannot get
Thee to extend that mercy which I crave,
Afford me justice; this I ought to have
From thee. “For they who lawes to others give,
“Ought not themselves without all law to live.
“And he that is advanc'd to greater sway,
“Him that requireth Justice must obey.
And (Witnesse) I require it now of thee;
Do't for thy self, if thou wilt not for me.
Thou art unjust if thou Mirtillo slay.

Mont.
I prethee how?

Car.
To me didst thou not say,
Thou mightst not offer here a strangers blood?

Mon.
I did: and said what Heav'n commanded.

Car.
Good:
This is a stranger then.

Mon.
A stranger? what?
Is he not then thy Son?

Car.
All's one for that.

Mon.
Is't that thou gott'st him in a forraign land?

Car.
The more thou seek'st, the lesse thou't understand.

Mon.
It skils not here, where, but by whom hee's got.

Car.
I call him stranger, cause I got him not.

Mon.
Is hee thy Son then, and not got by thee?

Car.
I said he was my Son; not born of me.

Mon.
Thy grief hath made thee mad.

Car.
I would it had!
I should not feel my grief, if I were mad.

Mon.
Thou art or mad, or impious, chuse thou whether.

Car.
For telling the truth to thee I am neither.

Mon.
How can both these (son and not son) be true?

Car.
Son of my Love, not of my Loins.

Mon.
Go to;
He is no stranger, if he be thy Son:
If he be not, to thee no harm is done.
So Father, or not Father, th'art confuted.

Car.
“Truth is truth still: though it be ill disputed.

Mont.
“That man that utters contradictions must
“Speak one untruth.

Car.
Thy action is unjust,
I say again.

Mont.
Let all this action's guilt
Light on my head, and on my Son's.

Car.
Thou wilt
Repent it.

Mont.
Thou shalt, if thou wilt not take
Thy hands from off me.

Car.
My appeal I make
To men and Gods.

Mon.
To God, despis'd by thee?

Car.
And if thou wilt not hear, hearken to me
O Heav'n and Earth! and thou great Goddesse here
Ador'd! Mirtillo is a Forraigner,
No Son of mine: the holy Sacrifice
Thou dost profane.

Mon.
Blesse me good Heav'ns from this
Strange man! Say then, if he be not thy Son,
Who is his Father?

Car.
'Tis to me unknown.

Mo.
Is he thy kinsman?

C.
Neither.

M.
Why dost thou then
Call him thy Son?

Car.
'Cause from the instant when
I had him first, I bred him as mine own
Still with a fatherly affection.

Mo.
Didst buy him? steal him? from whence hadst him?

(Ca.
From
Elis (the gift of a strange man).

Mon.
From whom
Had that strange man him?

Ca.
That strange man? why he
Had him of me before.

Mon.
Thou mov'st in me
At the same time both laughter and disdain:
What thou gav'st him, did he give thee again?

Car.
I gave to him what was his own; then he
Return'd it as his courteous gift to me.

Mo.
And whence hadst thou (since thou wilt make me mad
For company) that which from thee he had?

Car.
Within a thicket of sweet Mirtle, I
Had newly found him accidentally,
Neer to Alfeo's mouth, and call'd him thence
Mirtillo.

Mon.
With what likely circumstance
Thou dost thy lye embroider? Are there any
Wild beasts within that Forrest?

Car.
Very many.

Mon.
Why did not they devour him?

Car.
A strong flood
Had carry'd him into that tuft of wood,
And left him in the lap of a small Isle
Defended round with water.

Mon.
Thou dost file
One Lye upon another well. And was
The flood so pitifull to let him passe
Undrown'd? Such nurses in thy Country are
The Brooks, to foster infants with such care?

Car.
He lay within a cradle, which with mud
And other matter gather'd by the flood
Calk't (to keep out the water) like a Boat
Had to that thicket carry'd him afloat.

Mon.
Within a cradle lay he?

Car.
Yes.

Mon.
A child
In swathing bands?

Car.
A sweet one; and it smil'd.

Mon.
How long ago might this be?

Car.
'Tis soon cast:
Since the great Flood some twenty yeers are past,
And then it was.

Mon.
What horrour do I feel
Creep thorow my veins!

Car.
He's silenc'd, and yet will
Be obstinate. “O the strange pride of those
“In place! who conquer'd, yeeld not: but suppose,
“Because that they have all the wealth, with it
“They must be Masters too of all the wit.
Sure hee's convinc'd; and it doth vex him too,
As by his mutt'ring he doth plainly show:
And one may see some colour he would find
To hide the errour of a haughty mind.

Mon.
But that strange man of whom thou tel'st me, what
Was he unto the child? his father?

Car.
That
I do not know.

Mon.
Nor didst thou ever know
More of the man then thou hast told mee?

Car.
No.
Why all these Questions?

Mon.
If thou saw'st him now,
Should'st know him?

Car.
Yes; he had a beetle-brow,
A down-look, middle-stature, with black hair,
His beard and eye-browes did with bristles stare.

Mo.
Shepherds & servants mine, approach.

Da.
W'are here.

Mon.
Which of these shepherds who do now appear,
To him thou talk'st of likest seems to thee?

Car.
Not onely like him, but the same is hee
Whom thou talkst with: and still the man doth show
The same he did some twenty yeers agoe,
For he hath chang'd no hair, though I am gray.

Mon.
Withdraw, and let Dameta onely stay.
Tell me, dost thou know him?

Dam.
I think I doe:
But where, or how I know not.

Car.
I'le renew
Thy memory by tokens.

Mon.
Let me talk
First with him if thou please, and do thou walk
Aside a while.

Car.
Most willingly what thou
Command'st I'le doe.

Mon.
Tell me Dameta now,
And do not lie.

(Dam.
O Gods, what storm comes here!)

Mon.
When thou cam'st back ('tis since some twenty yeer)
From seeking of my child, which the swoln Brook
Away together with its cradle took,
Didst thou not tell me thou hadst sought with pain
All that Alpheo bathes, and all in vain?

Dam.
Why dost thou ask it me?

Mon.
Answer me this:
Didst thou not say thou couldst not find him?

Dam.
Yes.

Mon.
What was that little infant then which thou
In Elis gav'st to him that knows thee now?

Dam.
'Twas twenty yeers ago; and wouldst thou have
An old man now remember what he gave?

Mon.
Hee is old too, and yet remembers it.

Dam.
Rather is come into his doting fit.

Mon.
That we shall quickly see: Where art thou stranger?

Ca.
Here.

Da.
Would thou wert interr'd, & I from danger!

Mon.
Is this the Shepherd that bestow'd on thee
The present, art thou sure?

Car.
I'm sure 'tis hee.

Da.
What present?

Car.
Dost thou not remember when
In Jove Olympicks Fane, thou having then
Newly receiv'd the Oracles reply,
And being just on thy departure, I
Encountred thee, and asking then of thee
The signes of what th'adst lost, thou toldst them mee;
Then I did take thee to my house, and there
Shew'd thee thy child laid in a cradle; where
Thou gav'st him me.

Dam.
What is inferr'd from hence?

Car.
The child thou gav'st me then, and whom I since
Have brought up, as a tender Father doth
An onely Son, is this unhappy youth
Who on this Altar now is doom'd to die
A Sacrifice.

Dam.
O force of Destinie!

Mon.
Art studying for more lyes? Hath this man sed
The truth or not?

Dam.
Would I were but as dead
As all is true!

Mon.
That thou shalt quickly be
If the whole truth thou dost not tell to me.
Why didst thou give unto another what
Was not thine own?

Dam.
Dear Master, ask not that;
For Heav'n's sake do not: too much thou dost know
Already.

Mon.
This makes me more eager grow.
Wilt not speak yet? Still keepst thou me in pain?
Th'art dead if I demand it once again.

Dam.
Because the Oracle foretold me there,
That if the child then found returned e're
To his own home, he should be like to die
By's Father's hand.

Car.
'Tis true, my self was by.

Mon.
Ay me! now all is cleer: This act of mine
The Dream and Oracle did well Divine.

Car.
What wouldst thou more? can ought behind remain?
Is it not plain enough?

Mon.
'Tis but too plain.
I know, and thou hast said too much; I would
I had search'd lesse, or thou lesse understood.
How (O) Carino, have I ta'ne from thee
At once thy Son, and thy Calamitie!
How are thy passions become mine! this is
My Son: O too unhappy Son, of this
Unhappy man! O Son preserv'd and kept
More cruelly, then thou from hence wert swept
By the wild flood, to fall by thy Sires hand,
And stain the Altars of thy native Land!

Car.
Thou Father to Mirtillo? Wondrous! How
Didst lose him?

Mon.
By that horrid flood which thou
Hast mention'd. O deer pledge! thou wert safe then
When thou wert lost: And now I lose thee, when
I finde thee.

Car.
O eternall Providence!
For what deep end have all these Accidents
Lain hid so long, and now break forth together?
Some mighty thing thou hast conceived, either
For good or evill: some unwonted birth
Thou art big with, which must be brought on earth.

Mon.
This was the thing my Dream foretold me; too
Prophetick in the bad, but most untrue
In the good part: This 'twas which made me melt
So strangely; this, that horrour which I felt
Creep through my bones, when I heav'd up my hand,
For Nature's self seem'd to recoil, or stand
Astonished, to see a Father go
To give that horrid and forbidden blow.

Car.
Thou art resolved then not to go on
With this dire Sacrifice?

Mon.
No other man
May do it here.

Car.
Shall the Son then be slain
By his own Sire?

Mon.
'Tis law: and who dare strain
His charity to save another man,
When true Aminta with himself began?

Car.
O my sad Fate! what am I brought to see?

Mon.
Two Fathers over-acted Pietie
Murther their son; Thine to Mirtillo; mine
To Heav'n. Thou by denying he was thine,
Thought'st to preserve him, and hast lost him; I
(Searching with too much curiosity)
Whilst I was to have sacrific'd thy son
(As I suppos'd) find and must slay my own.

Car.
Behold the horrid Monster Fate hath teem'd!
O Cruell! O Mirtillo! more esteem'd
By me then life: Was this it which to me
The Oracle foretold concerning thee?
Thus dost thou make me in my Country blest?
O my deer Son, whilome the hope and rest,
But now the grief and bane of these gray hairs!

Mon.
Prethee Carino lend to me those tears:
I weep for mine own blood. (Ah! why, if I
Must spill it, is it mine?) Poor son! but why
Did I beget thee?—(Why was I got rather?)
The pitying deluge sav'd thee, and thy Father
Will cruelly destroy thee. Holy Pow'rs
Immortall (without some command of yours
Not the least wave stirs in the Sea, breath in
The Air, nor leaf on Earth) what monstrous sin
Hath been by me committed 'gainst your Law,
This heavie Judgement on my head to draw?
Or if I have transgress'd so much; wherein
Sinn'd my Son so, ye will not pardon him?
And thou with one blast of thy Anger kill
Me, thundring Jove? But if thy bolts lie still,
My blade shall not: I will repeat the sad
Example of Aminta, and the Lad
Shall see his Father through his own heart run
His reeking blade, rather then kill his Son.
Dye then Montano; Age should lead the way:
And willingly I do't: Pow'rs (shall I say
Of Heav'n or Hell?) that do with anguish drive
Men to despair; Behold, I do conceive
(Since you will have it so) your fury! I
Desire no greater blessing then to dye.
A kind of dire love to my naturall Gole
Doth lash me on, and hallow to my soul,
To death, To death.

Car.
'Las poor old man! in troth
I pity thee: for though we need it both,
Yet as by day the Starrs forbear to shine,
My grief is nothing, if compar'd with thine.