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Argalvs and Parthenia

Written by Fra: Quarles

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My Lord,

Had your strong Oratory but the Art,
To make me conscious of so great desert,
As you perswade, I should be bound in duty
To praise your Rhet'ricke, as you prize my beauty;
Or if the frailty of my iudgement could
Flatter my thoughts so grosly, as to hold
Your words for currant, you might boldly dare
Count me as foolish, as you terme me faire.
If you vye Courtship, fortune knowes that I
Haue not so strong a Game, to see the vye:
Alas, my skill durst neuer vndertake
To play the game, where hearts be set at stake;
Needs must the losse be great, when such haue bin
Seldome obseru'd to saue themselues that win:
You craue my heart; My Lord, you craue withall,
Too great a mischiefe; My poore heart's too small
To fill the concaue of so great a brest,
Whose thoughts can scorne the amorous request
Of loue sicke Queenes, and can requite the vaine,
And factious suits of Ladies with disdaine:
Stoope not so low beneath your selfe (great Lord)
To loue Parthenia: Shall so poore a word
Staine your faire lips? whose merits doe proclaime
A more transcendent fortune, then that name
Can giue: Call downe Ioues winged Pursuiuant,
And giue his tongue the power to enchant

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Some easie Goddesse, in your name, and treat
A mariage fitting so sublime, so great
A mind as yours, and fill the fruitfull earth
With Heroes, sprung from so diuine a birth:
Partheniaes heart could neuer yet aspire
So high: Her homebred thoughts durst ne're desire
So fond an honour, matcht with so great pride,
To hope for that, which Queenes haue beene denyde.
Be wise, my Lord; vouchsafe not to repeat
S'vnfit a suit; Be wise, as you are great:
Aduance your noble thoughts: hazard no more
To wrack your fortunes on so fleet a shore,
That, to the wiser world, it may be knowne
The lesse y'are mine, the more you are your owne.
Like as a guilty prisner, vpon whom
Offended Iustice lately past her doome,
Stands trembling by, and, hopelesse to preuaile,
Baules not for mercy, but to the loath'd Iaile
Dragges his sad yrons, and from thence commends
A hasty suite to his selected friends,
That by the vertue of a quicke Reprieue
The wretch might haue some few daies more to liue.
Euen so Demagoras, whose rewounded heart
Had newly felt the vnexpected smart
And secret burthen of a desp'rate doome,
Replies not, takes no leaue, but quits the roome,
And, in his discontented mind, reuolues
Ten thousand thoughts; and at the last resolues
What course to runne, relying on no other,
But the assistance of Partheniaes mother.
Forthwith his fierce misguided passion droue
His wandring steps to the next neighboring groue.

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A keene Steeletto in his trembling hand
He rudely grip'd, vpon his lips did stand
A milke white froth; his eyes like flames; sometimes
He curses heauen; himselfe; and then, the times;
Railes at the proud Parthenia; raues; despaires;
And from his head rends off his tangled hayres;
Curses the wombe that bare him; bans the Fates;
And drunke with spleene, he thus deliberates,
Why dyest thou not, Demagoras, when as death
Lends thee a weapon? Can the whining breath
Of discontent and passion send reliefe
To thy distraction, or asswage thy griefe?
Why moou'st thou not the Gods? Or rather, why
Do'st not contemne, and scorne their power, and dye?
But stay! Of whom dost thou complaine? A woman.
To whom (fond man) dost thou complaine? A woman.
And shall a womans frownes haue power to grieue thee?
Or shall a womans wanton smile relieue thee?
Fye, fie, Demagoras, shall a womans eye
Preuaile, to make the stout Demagoras dye,
And leaue to after-times an entred name
Ith Callender of fooles? Rouze vp for shame
Thy wasted spirits: whet thy spleene and liue
To be reueng'd: She, she that would not giue
Admittance to thy proferd loue must drinke
The potion of thy hate: stirre then the sinke
Of all thy passion; where thou canst not gaine
By fairer lauguage, Tarquin-like constraine.
But hold thy hand, Demagoras, and aduise;
Art giues aduantage oft, where force denyes;
Suspend thy fury: Make Partheniaes mother
Thy meanes: One Adamant will cut another:

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Sweeten thy lips with amorous Oratorie;
Affect her tender heart, with the sad story
Of thy deare loue; Extoll Partheniaes beauty;
But most of all, vrge that deserued duty
Thou ow'st her vertue, and make that the ground
Of thy first loue, that gaue thy heart the wound:
Mingle thy words with sighes; and it is meet,
If thou canst force a teare, to let her see't
Against thy will: Let thy false tongue forbeare
No vowes, and though thou beest forsworne, yet sweare:
If ere thy barren lips shall chance to pause,
For want of words; Parthenia is the cause,
Who hath benumm'd thy heart; If e're they goe
Beyond their lists, Parthenia made them so.
Withall; be sure, when ere thou shalt aduance
The daughters vertues, let the glory glance
Vpon the prudent mother; Women care not
To heare too much of vertue, if they share not.
When thus thou hast prepar'd her melting eare
To soft attention; closely, in the reare
Of thy discourse, preferre thy sad petition,
That she would please to fauour the condition
Of a distressed louer, and afford
In thy behalfe, a mothers timely word;
So shalt thou wreck thy vengeance by a wilde,
And make the mother bawd to her owne childe.
He paused not; but like a rash proiector
(Whose franticke passion was supreme director)
Fixt his first thoughts, impatient of the second
Which might bin betterd by aduise, and reckon'd
All time but lost, which he bestowed not
On th'execution of his hopefull plot;

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Forthwith his nimble paces he diuided
Towards the Summer Pallace, where resided
The faire Partheniaes mother, boldly enters,
And after mutuall complement, aduenters
To breake the yce of his dissembled griefe;
Thus he complaines, and thus he begs reliefe.