University of Virginia Library

ACT. III.

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—

Scen. II.

To him Charistus.
Olyn.
—And here Charistus comes.
Souls once possess'd, as his, are most impatient,
They meet what they should stay for.

Cha.
Dear Olyndus,
Pardon that I expect not, but make hast
To intercept my Doom Others perhaps
May wait the punctuall Minute, and observe
The just and even Period: but Charistus
Doth love too slow, when time, and Sun can bind him
Unto a regular Motion.

Olyn.
Would you had
Been there your self! would you had drunk in all
The Looks, Words, Graces, and Divinities
That I have done! I'm like the Priest that's full
Of his inspiring God, and am possess'd
With so much rapture, that methinks I could
Bear up my self without a Wing, or Chariot,
And hover o'r the Earth, still dropping something
That should take root in Kingdoms, and come up
The Good of people.

Cha.
Let me ask thee then
As we do those that do come fresh from Visions,
What saw'st thou there?

Olyn.
That which I see still, that
Which will not out; I saw a Face that did
Seem to participate of Flames, and Flowers;
Eyes in which Light combin'd with Jet to make
Whiteness be thought the Blot, and Black hereafter
Purchase the Name of Innocence, and Lustre.
The whole was but one solid Light, and had I
Not seen our Goddess rising from the Flouds
Pourtray'd less fair, less Goddess, I had thought
The thing I saw, and talk'd with, must have been
The Tutelar Deity of this our Island.

Cha.
That I should let thee go! that I should be
So impious to my self, as not to break
Her great Commands, and so become a Martyr
By daring to be happy 'gainst her will—
But on Olyndus.

Olyn.
You may think this
The Height, the Achme, and the All of her:
But when I tell you, that She hath a Mind
That hides all this, and makes it not appear,
Disparaging as 'twere, what ever may
Be seen without her, then you'l thus exclame;
Nature, thou wert o'rseen to put so mean
A Frontispeece to such a Building.

Cha.
Give me,
O quickly give me the whole Miracle,
Or presently I am not.

Olyn.
Think, Charistus,
Think out the rest, as 'tis, I cannot speak it.

Cha.
Alas! what should I think?

Olyn.
Conceive a Fire
Simple and thin; to which that Light we see,
And see by, is so far impure, that 'tis
Only the stain, and blemish of the World;
And if it could be plac'd with it in one
And the same Tablet, would but only serve
As bound and shadow to it: Then conceive
A Substance that the Gods have set apart,
And when they would put generous Motions
Into a Mortall Breast, do take the Soul
And couch it there, so that what e'r we call
Vertue in us, is only but a Turning
And Inclination toward her from whom
This Pow'r was first deriv'd.

Cha.
What present God
Lent thee his Eyes, and stood blind by, whiles thou
Did'st gaze, and surfet on these Glories?

Olyn.
Others
Do Love the shape, the Gesture, and the Man,
But She the Vertue. Mark Charistus. She
Saies She could Court you ring'd about with Dangers,
Doat on you smear'd, and stiff with hostile Bloud,
Count and exact your wounds, as a due sum
You are to pay to Valour; All which when
I told her was in Love, she said I did
Present a spark, when she desir'd a full
And glorious Constellation—to be short,
She saies you must go back, do honourably,
Get you a Name upon the Cyprian Forces;
And bids when you have done all this, consider
It is her Father, and his Subjects, and
His Kingdome that you conquer—

Cha.
And her self
That I shall lose by doing so. If I
Return, and Crete be Conquer'd, then She will
Count me Spoyl, and Luggage; and my Love
Only a Slave's Affection. If I Conquer,
And Cyprus follow my Triumphant Chariot,
My Love wil then be Tyranny: and She,
How can she light an Hymeneal Torch
From her lov'd Countries Flame? I am rejected,
Charistus is a Name of scorn.

Olyn.
VVhat Fates
Dare throw that Name upon my Friend? To shew
That she rejects you not, because there is
That Trust, rhat Faith, and that Confusion of
Charistus and Olyndus 'twixt us, in the mean
VVhiles he is absent, tell him, saith she, that
I'll love Olyndus in his stead.

Cha.
How! Man
Th' hast dealt dishonourably. This the Light?
And this the Fire that makes that Light a stain?

Olyn.
This I foretold my selfe: my good Charistus
Let not your Anger carry you beyond
The bent of Reason; can I give account
Of others Passions? did I first conceive
The words my self; then speak 'em?

Cha.
O ye Gods!
Where is the Faith? where the Olyndus now?
Th' hast been a Factor for thy self: I'd thought
I'd sent a Friend, but he's return'd a Merchant,
And will divide the Wealth.

Olyn.
Far be that Brand
From your Olyndus! far from your Lucasia!
She hath a Face hath so much Heaven in it,
And this Olyndus so much Worship of it,
That he must first put on another Shape,
And become Monster, e'r he dare but look
Upon her with a thought that's Masculine.

Cha.
Peace Treachery! I am too cold; my Anger
Is dull and lazy yet. I'l search that Breast,
And dig out falshood from the secret'st Corner
In all thy Heart, here, in the very place
That thou hast wrong'd me.

Olyn.
There is nothing here
That my Charistus knows not. 'Pray you open,
And search, and judge; and when you find all true,
Say you destroy'd a Friend.

Cha.
It is your Art
I see to wooe, but I will make you speak
Something that is not Flattery.

Olyn.
Olyndus
Ne'r lov'd the Man as friend yet, whom he did
I ear as an Enemy. 'Tis one part of Valour
That I durst now receive, conceal, and help you,
Here in the Bosome of that State, which hath
Cast out a spear into the Cretan Field,
And bid you War.

Cha.
Thou hast already here
Betray'd my Love; thy falshood will proceed
Unto my Person next. I'd thought I'd been
Clasp'd in Embraces, but I find I am
Entangled in a Net.

Olyn.
Y'are safe as in
The Bosome of your Father, take this Veyl
Of Passion from your Eyes; and you'l behold
The same Olyndus still.

Cha.
The same Deceiver,
The same false perjur'd Man. Draw, or by Heaven,
That now should Thunder and revenge my wrongs,
Thou shalt dye sluggishly.

Olyn.
Recall your self,
And do but hear—

Cha.
What words a Coward will
Fawn on me with, to keep an abject life,
Not worth the saving.

Olyn.
Witness all ye Gods
That govern Friendship, how unwillingly
I do unty the Knot.

Cha.
Draw quickly, lest
It may be known I am the Cretan Prince,
And so my juster Fury be not suffer'd
To scourge a timorous and perfidious Man.

Oly.
Though thou stand'st here an Enemy, and we have
The Pledge of all the Cretan State, yet know
Though all our Island's People did look on,
And thou proclaim'st thy self to be the Man,
They should not dare to know the Prince, untill
I'd done this Sacrifice to Honour.

Cha.
So!

They fight, and wound each other dangerously, and then retire, Charistus to Lucasia's Myrtle, and Olyndus to the next adjoyning, and leaning there speak.
Olyn.
I have not long to stay 'mongst Mortals now,
And then you may search all those Corners that
You talk'd of in my Heart. But if you find
Ought that is falshood towards you, or more
Than reverence to Lucasia, may I want
The Honour of a Grave—Hear O ye Gods,
(Ye Gods whom (but a while) and I am with)
Lucasia is as spotless, as the Seat
That you prepare for Virgin Lovers!

Cha.
I
Have wrong'd thee, my Olyndus, wrong'd thee much,
But do not chide me; there's not life enough
Left in me to make use of Admonition.

Olyn.
If you survive, love your Lucasia; 'twill
Make your Olyndus happy; for the good
Of the surviving Friend, some holy men
Say, doth pertain unto the Friend Departed.

Cha.
Vertuous Lucasia! and hadst thou Olyndus
Not been so too; my Gods had fought for me;
But I must dye—Olyndus.

[Charistus faints.
Olyn.
Heaven forbid
That my Charistus perish! I have only
Strength left to wish: If I can creep yet to thee
I'l help thee all I can.

[Olynd. sinks
Cha.
And I will meet thee;
[They creep one to the other and so embrace.]
Let us embrace each other yet. The Fates
Preserve our Friendship, and would have us equall,
Equall ev'n in our Angers: we shall go
Down equall to the Shades both, two waies equall,
As Dead, as Friends. And when Lucasia shall
Come down unto us (which the Heavens forbid
Should be as yet) I'l not be Jealous there.

Scen. III.

To them as they lye groveling, and embracing thus, Machessa and Philænis.
Phi.
O me! Good Heavens! had you the Balsam, Lady,
Now that you told me of, 'twould do some good.

Mach.
This is Olyndus, that the honour'd Stranger;
Brave Spirits are a Balsam to themselves:
There is a Nobleness of Mind, that heals
Wounds beyond Salves—look not, but help Philænis,
Gather the Weapons, and the rest up quickly;
Where two are wrong'd, I ought to succour both.

Machessa carries 'em out.

Scen. IV.

Lucasia, Florina, Malthora, Eumela.
Lu.
Madam, ne'r fear your Dream, for that is only
The reliques of your day-time thoughts, that are
Preserv'd by'our Soul, to make a Scene i'th'Night.

Eum.
Have you not dream'd the like before?

Mal.
Yes thrice.

Eum.
Why then Pæstanus now hath perish'd thrice,
Or else y' have sometimes dream'd in vain.

Flor.
Eumela,
I told her this, and that her troubled Sleeps
Were one Love still waking.

Luc.
Wee'l divert
This anxious fear. Reach me the Lute Eumela.
Have you not heard how Venus did complain
For her belov'd Adonis? The young Poet,
That was desir'd to give a Language to
Th'afflicted Goddess, thought her words were these.

The Ode.
Cal.

Flor.
Madam, they say 'twas in this very Grove
The Goddess thus complain'd.

Scen. V.

To them Philænis with a couple of Napkins.
Eum.
How now Philænis?
Are you turn'd Sewer to the Lady-Errant?

Phi.
Lady I'm sent to wipe away the Bloud
From these two Myrtles.

Eum.
Bless me! what Bloud Philænis?

Luc.
I hope the Song will not prove ominous.

Phi.
'Tis fit we have some Wars at home too, else
My Lady would have no employment left.

Luc.
What Wars? whose Bloud?

Phi.
A pair of froward Lovers,
Olyndus, and the Stranger, fought, it seems,
Here till they almost kill'd themselves: and when
Neither did fear, but both did faint, it seems
Olyndus lean'd there, and the Stranger there,
And with their Blouds besmear'd the Trees a little;
We did not think your Highness should have seen it.

They rise amaz'd, the Princess repairs to the Tree where Charistus bled, and Eumela to the Tree where her Olyndus bled.
Luc.
Is this Olyndus way of mingling Souls?

Eum.
Is this the Others Enterchange of Breasts?

Luc.
O Heavens! durst your Olyndus thus?

Eum.
O Heav'ns,
And O ye Gods too! durst that other this?

Luc.
Did he then stay behind for this Eumela?

Eum.
And did he leave his Country to destroy
One worth it all, here in our very Bosoms?

Luc.
H' has ruin'd one, whose like if Nature will
Shew to the World again, she must lay up,
And gather, till she hath store enough of Graces
To throw into the World.

Eum.
Olyndus stood
As high, and brave as he, his Enemy had
But this advantage of him, that he was
A Cretan, as by Birth, so too in Faith.

Luc.
Were he the Birth of some unshelter'd Cottage,
He were yet fairer in the Eye o'th' World
Than e'r Olyndus could have been, in that
He was a Princess's thoughts; 'twas I that lov'd him.

Eum.
Although the Name of Princess be upon you,
And signs you Dread, and Soveraign, yet I must
Tell you that Love's a Princess too in me,
And stamps as much Heroick Majesty
Upon my Thoughts, as Birth hath done on yours.

Luc.
Though, as a Princess, I could make thy Love
And thee forgotten Names, yet I depose
My self, and am thy Equall.

Eum.
'Tis no need
That you descend, Love carries up Eumela
To be as high as is her Princess, and
In this sad Fate placeth her equall with
Her Dread Lucasia.

Luc.
Hear, hear this brave man!
And if thou liv'st revenge it on Olyndus.

Eum.
And thou the Spirit of my dear Olyndus,
Be thou still worthy, still thy self. Speak thou
O Nature, was there not the same clay knead
To make our Hearts? did not the same Fire kindle
Our Souls? and thou, O Love, was't not the same
Metall that wounded both? you must not count
The Princess into th' worth of your Affection;
Love when he ballanceth the Hearts that come
Under his Power, casts not in their Births,
Fortunes, and Titles.

Luc.
Would some powerfull God
Would change our Persons, and make thee Lucasia,
And me Eumela, that I might avow
The justice of my Love in spight of State.

Mal.
Forbear Eumela.

Flor.
'Tis the Princess speaks.

Eum.
Nor Prince, nor Subject speaks, but Love in both.

Scen. VI.

They leave their Trees, and repair to Machessa.
To them Machessa.
Flo.
Here's one can tell you all.

Luc.
Say, good Machessa,
How doth the Stranger?

Eum.
Lives Olyndus yet?

Mac.
Both live, but wounded much, yet hopes of both;
For they are Friends, and as their Minds have clos'd,
Their wounds may shortly too.

Luc.
How fell they out?

Mach.
I heard the Stranger, Madam, thus confess,
As our Olyndus did embrace him; Thou
Wert honourable, my Olyndus, ever;
But I was foul, and Jealous: then Olyndus
Fell on his Neck, told him 'twas only heat,
And strength of Love; and vow'd he'd never tell
The cause and ground o'th' Quarrell: but the Stranger
Swore by his Gods, and Altars, that he would
Go find, and tell, and ask the Deity
Forgiveness first, then him—I heard no more
But only sighs from either.

Luc.
'Twas too much—
That I should throw away my grief for one
That durst have such a thought! Charistus, you
And I are both deceiv'd in one another;
[aside.
And, poor Olyndus, deerly hast thou paid
For both our Errors—
—Machessa, as you love me
Be carefull of Olyndus, for the other—
My care hath been more than he's worth already—

[aside.
Flo.
Eumela,
The Princess is much troubled, pray heav'n your freedom
Did not offend her Highness.

Eum.
I hope it did not:
Madam, if too much Love made me forge,
And pass the bounds of Duty, humbly, I beg
Your Graces pardon, beseeching you t' impute
My folly to my Passion.

Luc.
Call't not Passion,
'Twas Reason to Contest: Love's Kingdom is
Founded upon a Parity; Lord, and Subject,
Master, and Servant, are Names banish'd thence;
They wear one Fetter all, or, all one Freedom.

Eum.
There was some Spirit spake within me, 'twas—

Luc.
Alas! excuse it not: all that do Love,
In that they love, are equall, and above none,
None, but those only whom the God denies
The honour of his Wound—Eumela, hear me,
Whispers her.
Charistus is grown foul, and thy Olyndus
Is now my Martyr, for my sake he bleeds,
And I, for this, will make Charistus know,
That he, who doubts his Friend, is his own Foe.

Exeunt.