University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Olyndus to Lucasia in the Grove.
Olyn.
Mmay't please your Highness, Madam—
I have a friend so much my self, that I
Cann't say he's absent now, yet he hath sent me
To be here present for him: we enterchange
Bosoms, and Counsels, Thoughts and Souls so much,
That he entreats you to conceive you spake
To him in me; All that you shall deposite
Will be in safe, and faithfull Ears; the same
Trust you expect from him, shall keep your words,
And the same Night conceal 'em: 'tis Charistus
The noble Cretan.

Luc.
When you said your Friend,
The rest was needless; I conceive him all
That makes up Vertue, all that we call Good
Whom you Olyndus give your Soul to; yet
I'd rather court his Valour, than his Love,
Did he shine bright in Armour, call for Dangers,
Eager to cut his way through stubborn Troops,
Ev'n this my softness, arm'd as he, could follow
And prompt his Arm, supply him with fresh Fury,
And dictate higher dangers. Then when Dust
And Bloud hath smear'd him (a disguise more worthy
Of Princes far, than that he wears) I could
Embrace him fresh from Conquest, and conceive him
As fair as ever any yet appear'd
To longing Virgins in their Amorous Dreams.

Olyn.
Fury could never from the Den of danger
Awake that horror yet, that bold Charistus
Durst not attempt, stand equall with, and then
Conquer, and trample, and contemn.

Luc.
Revenge
And Hate I do confess, may sometimes carry
The Soul beyond it self to do, and suffer:
But the things then are Furious, not Great,
And sign the Actor Headlong, but not Vertuous.

Olyn.
He that can do this, Madam, and Love too,
Must needs be vertuous; that holy Flame
Clean and untainted, as the fresh desires
Of Infant Saints, enters not Souls that are
Of any foul Complexion. He that Loves,
Even in that he Loves, is good: and as
He is no less an Atheist, that denies
The Gods to be most happy, than the Man
That dares Affirm there are no Gods at all;
So he's no less an Heretick, that shall
Deny Love to be Vertuous, than he
That dares Affirm there is no Love at all.

Luc.
But he hath left his Country now, when that
Her Wealth, her Name, her Temples, and her Altars,
Her Gods, and Liberty, stand yet upon
Th' uncertain Dye; when Danger cals his Arm,
And Glory should arrest his Spirit there;
And this to Court one, whom he knows not, whether
She may think Vertue a meer Airy word,
And Honour but a blast, invented to
Make catching Spirits dare, and do high things.

Olyn.
That you are Vertuous, is a knowledge, that
All must confess they have, but only those
That have not Eyes: For if that Souls frame Bodies,
And that the Excellence of the Architect
Appear in the perfection of the Structure,
Whether you have a Soul enrich'd with vertues,
Must be a blind Man's doubt: Nature dares not
Thrust out so much deceit into the World;
'Twould make us not beleeve her works were meant
For true firm Peeces, but Delusions only.

Luc.
Though I must not agree t' you, to pass by
What you have said, If I were Vertuous,
You must confess him so far ignorant yet,
As not to know whether I'd Love, or no.

Oly.
This Knowledge is of more Extent than th' other.
For being that to be lov'd is the Effect
Of your own worths, you must love all mens Loves
As a Confession of your Graces, that
Your selves have drawn from them. That which your Beauty
Produceth, is a Birth as dear unto you,
As are your Children.

Luc.
Should there more than one
Love us (if this hold) we must love them too,
And so that Sacred Tye that joyns the Soul
To one, and but to one, were but a Fable,
A thing in Poetry, not in the Creature.

Olyn.
One is your Trophy: and he Lov'd as That
The Rest but Witnesses: thus Princes, when
They Conquer Princes, though they only count
Those Names of Glory, and Renown, their Victory,
Take yet their meaner Subjects in, as fair
Accesses to their Triumphs, who, although
They are not the main Prize, are some what yet
That doth confirm that there was worth, and force,
To which the Main did justly yeeld.

Luc.
Be't then
That I do love his Love, I am not yet
Bound to accept it in what shape soever
It doth appear; the Manner, Time, and Place
May not be relish'd, though the thing be lik'd.

Olyn.
For these he doth expect your Dictates, with
As much Religion, as he would the Answers
Of Sacred Oracles, and with the same
Vow of Performance.

Luc.
You must tell him then,
He must go back, and there do Honorably;
Succour his Country, cheer the Souldier, fight,
Spend, and disburse the Prince, where e'r he goes,
Get him a Name, and Title upon Cyprus.
I will not see him 'till he hath Conquer'd, till
He hath rid high in Triumph, and when this
Is done, let him consider then, it is
My Father, & my Subjects, and my Kingdom
That he hath Conquer'd.

Olyn.
I am an Agent only,
And therefore must be faithful.

Luc.
But withall
To shew that I reject him not, you may
Tell him, that being he hath such a friend,
Whiles he is absent I will love Olyndus
Instead of him.

[Exit Lucasia.
Olyn.
But that my Friend is in me
I should have deem'd it Sacrilege, to have had
A thought like that suggested. My Charistus,
Were he not something carefull in his Love,
(I will not call him Jealous) were beyond
The Lot of Man: I must not tell him all,
Some may be hid; yet how shall I unriddle
The Mystery of this Answer? But the knots
That Love doth tye, himself will only find
The way to loose—