University of Virginia Library

Scena Prima.

Silvio, Linco, With Huntsmen.
Sil.
Go you that lodg'd the Monster, as y'are wont
Amongst the neighb'ring sheepcoats, raise the Hunt.
Rowse eyes and hearts with your shrill voice and horn;
If ever in Arcadia there were born
A shepherd, who did follow Cynthia's Court
As a true lover of her rurall sport,
Within whose Quarry-scorning mind had place
The pleasure or the glory of the Chase,
Now let him show that courage and that love,
By following me, where in a little grove
To Valour a large field doth open lye,
That dreadfull Boar, I mean, that Prodigy
Of Nature and the Woods, that huge, that fell,
And noted'st Tyrant that did ever dwell
And reign in Erimanthus; the fields mower,
The mowers terror: Go you then before,
And do not only with your early horn
Anticipate, but wake the drowsie morn.—
Exeunt Hunts. sounding.
We, Linco, will to prayers, this perilous Chase
(Heav'n being our guide) we may more boldly trace.
“That work which is begun well is half done,
“And without Prayer no work is well begun.

Lin.
Thy worshipping the Gods I well commend,
But not thy troubling them who do attend
The Gods: The Priests as yet are all asleep,
To whom day springs yet later, where the steep
Surrounding hils a short Horizon make.

Sil.
To thee whose heart is hardly yet awake
The whole world sleeps.

Lin.
O Silvio, Silvio,
Why did frank Nature upon thee bestow
Blossoms of Beauty in thy prime, so sweet
And fair, for thee to trample under feet?
Had I thy fresh and blooming cheek, Adieu
I'ld say to beasts, and nobler game pursue.
The Summer I would spend in feasts and mirth
In the cool shade, the Winter by the hearth.

Sil.
How's this? Thou art not Linco sure; for he
Such counsell never us'd to give to me.

Lin.
“Counsell must change as the occasion doth:
If I were Silvio, so I'ld do insooth.

Sil.
And I, if I were Linco would do so,
But as I am, I'll do like Silvio.

Lin.
Fond youth, for a wild Beast so far to roame,
Whom thou must hunt with danger, when at home
One's safely lodg'd!

Sil.
Dost thou speak seriouslie?
How neer is it?

Lin.
As thou art now to me.

Sil.
Th'art mad.

Lin.
Thou art.

Sil.
In what wood doth hee rest?

Lin.
Silvio's the wood, and Cruelty the beast.

Sil.
Mad I was sure!

Lin.
To have a Nymph so fair,
(Rather a Goddesse of perfections rare)
Fresher and sweeter then a Rose new blown,
Softer and whiter then an old Swans down,
For whom there lives not at this day a swain
So proud 'mongst us but sighs, and sighs in vain:
To have, I say, this matchlesse Paragon
By Gods and men reserv'd for thee, nay, thrown
Into thine arms without one sigh or tear,
And thou (unworthy!) to disvalue her?
Art thou not then a beast? a savage one?
Rather a senselesse clod, a stock, a stone?

Sil.
“If not to be in love be cruelty,
“Then cruelty's a Vertue: Nor do I
Repent, but boast, I lodge him in my brest
By whom I've conquerd Love, the greater beast.

Lin.
How couldst thou conquer (silly Idiot)
Whom thou nere try'dst?

Silv.
In that I try'd him not.

Lin.
O hadst thou try'd him Silvio, and once found
In mutuall Lovers what true joyes abound,
I know thou'ldst say, O Love, the sweetest guest,
Why hast thou been an alien to this brest?
Leave, leave the woods, leave following beasts, fond boy,
And follow Love..

Sil.
Linco, I take more joy
In one beast caught by my Melampo, far,
Then in the love of all the Nymphs that are.
Keep they those joyes unto themselves alone
That finde a soul in them; for I finde none.

Lin.
No soul in Love (the world's great Soul)? But fool,
Too soon (believe't) thou'lt finde he is all soul:
(Perchance too late;) for “hee'll be sure before
“We die, to make us all once feel his power.
And (take my word) “worse torment none can prove,
“Then in old limbs the youthfull itch of love:
“All tampring then will but exasperate
“The sore. If Love a young man wound, he straight
“Balms him again, hope holds up sorrows head,
“And smiles revive him, if frowns strike him dead.
“But if an aged man those flames endure,
“Whose own defects his own repulse procure,
“Then, then the wound is unsupportable
“And mortall; then the anguish is a Hell:
“Then if he pity seek, it is a curse
“To go without it, and to gain't a worse.
“Ah! hasten not before th'appointed day
“The curse of dayes; for if when thou art gray
“Thou learn to love, 'twill breed a double sense,
“Of thy youth's pride, and age's impotence.
Leave, leave the woods, leave following beasts, fond boy,
And follow Love.

Sil.
As if there were no joy
But these Chimera's in a Lovers head,
Of strange Eliziums, by his feaver bred!

Lin.
Tell me if in this jolly month of May,
When earth is clad in all her best array,
In stead of bladed fields, brooks uncontroul'd,
Green woods and painted meads, thou shouldst behold
Bald fields and meads, brooks bound with Ice, the Pine,
The Beech, the Ash, the Oak, the Elm, the Vine,
And Poplar, like inverted Sceletones,
Stand desolate, ratling their naked bones;
Wouldst thou not say, Nature is out of tune,
The world is sick, and like to dye in June?
Now the same horrour which thou wouldst receive
From such a monstrous noveltie, conceive
At thine own self. “The all-disposing Heav'n
“To ev'ry age hath proper Humors giv'n:
“And as in old men love absurdly shows;
“So young men enemies to love oppose
“Nature and Heav'n. Look Silvio round about,
Examine the whole Universe throughout:
All that is fair or good, here, or above,
Or is a Lover, or the work of Love.
Th'all-seeing Heav'n, the fruitfull Earth's a Lover,
The Sea with love is ready to boil over.
Seest thou yon Star of such excelling hew,
The Suns Postillion? That's a lover too:
Nor is exempted from her own son's laws,
But feels that passion which her beauties cause.
Perchance this very hour too shee did part
From her stoln sweets, and Him that keeps her heart.
Mark what a wanton eye she has! In woods
Rough Bears, the crook-backt Dolphin loves in floods,
And sluggish Whales; That little bird which sings
So sweetly, and so nimbly plyes the wings,
Flying from tree to tree, from Grove to Grove,
If he could speak, would say, I am in love.
But his heart sayes it, and his tongue doth say't
In language understood by his deer Mate:
And Silvio, heark how from that wildernesse
His dear Mate answers, And I love no lesse.
The Cowes low in the valley; and what's this
But an inviting unto amorous blisse?
The Lions roar in solitary Groves,
Not for their prey, but for their absent Loves.
All things that are, but Silvio, are in love,
The burthen's that: Here, round us, and above,
No soul but Silvio is a foe to joy.
Leave, leave the woods, leave following beasts, fond boy,
And follow Love.

Sil.
Had I my tender yeers
Committed to the care of thy gray hairs,
That thou shouldst thus effeminate my heart
With love? Knowst thou who I am? who thou art?

Lin.
Thou art a man (or shouldst be one) and I
Another; what I teach Humanity.
And if thou scorn that name (which is my pride)
Take heed, in stead of being deifi'd,
Thou turn not beast.

Sil.
That monster-taming King,
From whom my lofty pedegree I bring,
Had never grown so valiant, nor so fam'd,
If first the monster Love he had not tam'd.

Lin.
See foolish youth, how idly thou talkst now!
Had great Alcides been no Lover, how
Hadst thou been born? Rather, if he orecame
Monsters and men, to Love impute the same.
Knowst thou not yet, that to comply with fair
Omphales humour, he not onely ware
(In stead of the fierce Lions rugged skin)
Womens soft robes, but taught those hands to spin,
And hold a feeble distaffe, which did bear
The knotty Club? His interludes these were
Between his Acts; And when his ribs were beat
With dear-bought Counquests, he would then retreat
Into her lap (the bay of sweet delight)
As in Love's port to be new built for fight.
“His sighs from his past toils sweet breathings were,
“And spirits strengthning him new toils to bear.
“For as the iron, of it self too rough,
“And of a harsh unmalleable stuffe,
“Softned with fire, and gentler metall, strength
“From weaknesse gathers, and becomes at length
“Fit for the noblest use: so hearts untam'd,
“(Which their own stifnesse often breaks) enflam'd
“With generous Love, and with his sweets allay'd,
“Are cleerer, apter for great Actions made.
If th'art ambitious then to imitate
Great Hercules, and not degenerate
From thy high strain, since woods thou dost affect,
Follow the woods, but do not Love neglect:
I mean so lawfull and so worthy love
As that of Amarillis. I approve
(So far from blaming that as cruelty)
Thy shunning of Dorinda; For in thee
Who standst upon thy bloud, 'twere double shame
To scorch thy brest with an unlawfull flame,
For injuring thy Spouse.

Sil.
What saist thou man?
Shee is not yet my Spouse.

Lin.
Was there not than
A promise solemnly receiv'd and giv'n?
Take heed proud Boy, how thou provokest Heav'n.

Sil.
“Man's freedom is Heav'ns gift, which doth not take
“Us at our word when forced vows we make.

Lin.
I, but (unlesse our hopes and judgements fail)
Heav'n made this Match, and promis'd to entail
A thousand blessings on't.

Sil.
'Tis like that there
Is nothing else to do; a proper care
To vex the calm rest of the gods above!
Linco, I like nor this, nor t'other Love.
I was a Huntsman, not a Lover bred;
Thou who art all for love, go back to bed.

Lin.
Thou sprung from Heav'n, harsh Boy? nor of divine
Can I suppose thee, nor of humane Line.
Alecto's poyson thy cold limbs did fashion;
Sweet Venus had no hand in thy creation.