University of Virginia Library

Scena quinta.

Corisca, Amarillis.
Cor.
Sister, no more dissembling.

Am.
Woe is me!
I am discovered.

Cor.
I heard all: now see,
Was I a Witch? I did believe (my Heart)
Thou wert in love; now I am sure thou art.
And would'st thou keep't from me? thy closet? tush,
This is a common evill, never blush.

Am.
Corisca, I am conquer'd (I confess't)

Cor.
No, now I know't, deny it thou wert best.

Am.
“Alas! I knew a womans heart would prove
“Too small a vessell for o're-flowing love.

Cor.
Cruell to thy Mirtillo! but unto
Thy self much more!

Am.
'Tis cruelty that grew
“From pitie.

Cor.
Poyson ne're was known to grow
“From wholsom root: What diff'rence canst thou show
'Twixt such a crueltie as doth offend,
And such a pitie as no help will lend?

Am.
Ay mee, Corisca!

Cor.
'Tis a vanitie
(Sister) to sigh, an imbecillitie
Of mind, and tastes too much of woman.

Am.
Wer't
Not crueller to nourish in his heart
A hopelesse love? To fly him is a signe
I have compassion of his case and mine.

Cor.
But why a hopelesse love?

Am.
Do'st thou not know
I am contracted unto Silvio?
Do'st thou not know besides what the Law saith,
'Tis death in any woman that breaks faith?

Cor.
O fool! and is this all stands in thy way?
Whether is ancienter with us (I pray)
“The Law of Dian, or of Love? this last
“Is born with us, and it growes up as fast
“As we do, Amarillis; 'tis not writ,
“Nor taught by Masters, Nature printed it
“In humane hearts with her own powerfull hand:
“Both Gods and men are under Loves command.

Am.
But if that Law my life away should take,
Can this of Love a restitution make?

Cor.
Thou art too nice; if women all were such,
And on these scruples should insist so much,
Good dayes adieu. I hold them simple souls
Will live obnoxious to such poor comptrolls.
“Lawes are not for the wise: if to be kind
Should merit death, Jove help the cruell mind!
But if fools fall into those snares, 'tis fit
They be forbid to steal, who have not wit
“To hide their theft. For honestie is but
“An art, an honest glosse on vice to put.
Think others as they list; thus I conceive.

Am.
These rotten grounds, Corisca, will deceive.
“What I can't hold 'tis wisdome soon to quit.

Cor.
“And who forbids thee fool? our life doth flit
“Too fast away to lose one jot of it;
“And men so squemish and so curious grown,
“That two of our new Lovers make not one
“O'th'old. We are no longer for their tooth
“(Believ't) then while w'are new. Bate us our youth,
“Bate us out beauty, and like hollow trees
“Which had been stuff'd with honey by the bees,
“If that by licourish hands away be ta'ne,
“Dry and despised trunks we shall remain.
Therefore let them have leave to babble what
They please, as those who know nor reckon not
What the poor woman Amarillis bears,
Our case alas is differing much from theirs.
“Men in perfection as in age increase,
“Wisdome supplies the losse of handsomnesse:
“But when our Youth and Beauty (which alone
“Conquers the strength and wit of men) are gone,
All's gone with us; nor canst thou possibly
“Say a worse thing, or to be pardon'd thee
“More hardly, then Old woman. Then before
Thou split on that unevitable shore,
Know thine own worth, and do not be so mad,
As when thou mayst live merry; to live sad.
What would the lion's strength boot him, or wit
Avail a man, unlesse he used it?
Our beauty is to us that which to men
Wit is, or strength unto the lion. Then
“Let us use it whilst wee may;
“Snatch those joyes that haste away.
“Earth her winter-coat may cast,
“And renew her beauty past;
“But, our winter come, in vain
“We sollicite spring again:
“And when our furrows snow shall cover,
“Love may return, but never Lover.

Am.
Thou say'st all this only to try me sure,
Not that thy thoughts are such. But rest secure,
Unlesse the way thou unto me shalt show
Be a plain way, and warrantable too
To break this Match; I am resolv'd to die
A thousand deaths, 'ere stain my honestie.

Cor.
More wilfull woman I did never know.
But since thou art so resolved, be it so.
Tell me good Amarillis, seriously,
Do'st thou suppose thy Silvio sets by
His faith as much as thou thy honestie?

Am.
Thou mak'st me laugh at this: wherein should he
Expresse a faith, who is to love a foe?

Cor.
Love's foe? O fool! thou knowst not Silvio.
He is the still sow, hee. O these coy souls!
Believe them not: the deep stream silent rowls.
“No theft in Love so subtil, so secure,
“As to hide sin by seeming to be pure.
In short, thy Silvio loves: but 'tis not thee
(Sister) he loves.

Am.
What Goddesse may she be?
For certainly she is no mortall Dame
That could the heart of Silvio inflame.

Cor.
Nor Goddesse, nor yet Nymph.

Am.
What hast thou said?

Cor.
Do'st thou know my Lisetta?

Am.
Who? the Maid
That tends thy Flocks?

Cor.
The same.

Am.
It cannot be
She, I am sure, Corisca?

Cor.
Very she,
I can assure thee, she is all his joy.

Am.
A proper choice for one that was so coy.

Cor.
But wilt thou know how he doth pine away
And languish for this Jewell? Every day
He feigns to go a hunting.

Am.
Every morn
Soon as it dawns I hear his cursed horn.

Cor.
And just at noon, when others are i'th'heat
Of all the sport, he doth by stealth retreat
From his Companions, and comes all alone
Unto my garden by a way unknown:
Where underneath a haw-thorn hedges shade
(Which doth the garden fence about) the Maid
Hears his hot sighs, and amorous pray'rs, which she
Comes laughing afterwards and tels to me.
Now hear what I to serve thee've thought upon;
Or rather, what I have already done.
I think thou knowst, that the same Law which hath
Enjoyn'd the woman to observe her faith
To her betrothed, likewise doth enact,
That if the woman catch him in the fact
Of falshood, spight of friends she may deny
To have him, and without disloyalty
Marry another.

Am.
This I know full well;
And there of some examples too could tell,
Of my own knowledge; Egle having found
Licotas false, remain'd her self unbound.
Armilla did from false Turingo so,
And Phillida from Ligurino go.

Cor.
Now list' to me: My Maid (by me set on)
Hath bid her credulous Lover meet anon
In yonder cave with her; whence he remains
The most contented of all living swains,
And waits but th'hour: there thou shalt catch him; where
I too will be witnesse of all to bear:
(For without this our plot would be in vain.)
So without any hazard, or least stain
To thine, or to thy fathers honour, thou
Shalt free thy self from this distastefull vow.

Am.
I like it rarely: but the way, the way,
Corisca?

Cor.
Marry thus (observe me pray)
I'th'middle of the cave (which narrow is
And very long) upon the right hand lies
Another lesser Grot (I know not whether
By nature, or by art, or both together
Made) in the hollow stone, whose slimie wall
Is hid with clinging Ivie, and a small
Hole in the roof lets light in from above,
(Fit receptacles for the thefts of Love,
Yet cheerfull too enough) there thou shalt hide
Thy self, and hidden in that place abide
Till the two Lovers come; I mean to send
Lisetta first, and after her, her friend,
Following his steps my self aloof: And when
I shall perceive him stept into the den,
Rush after him will I. But left he should
Escape from me: when I have laid fast hold
Upon him, I will use Lisetta's aid,
And joyning both (for so the plot is laid
Between us two) together we will make
A cry, at which thou too shalt come, and take
The penalty o'th'law 'gainst Silvio.
Then my Lisetta and we two will go
Before the Priest; and so thou shalt unty
The Nuptiall knot.

Am.
Before his Father?

Cor.
Why?
What matters that? Think'st thou Montano's blood
Will stand in balance with his Countries good?
Or that his sacred function hee'l neglect
For any carnall or profane respect?

Am.
Go to then (setting all disputes aside)
I wink, and follow thee my faithfull guide.

Cor.
Then linger not (my Heart) enter into
The Cave.

Am.
Unto the Temple first I'le go
“T'adore the gods: For unlesse Heaven give
“Successe, no mortall enterprise can thrive.

Cor.
“To devout hearts all places Temples are:
It will lose too much time.

Am.
“In using pray'r
“To them that made time, time cannot be lost.

Cor.
Go and return then quickly—. So almost
I'm past the bad way; onely this delay
Gives me some cause of trouble; yet this may
Be of use too. Something there would be done
T'abuse my honest Lover Coridon.
I'le say, I'le meet him in the Cave, and so
Will make him after Amarillis go.
This done, by a back way I'le thither send
The Priest of Dian her to apprehend:
Guilty she will be found, and sentenced
To death without all doubt. My Rivall dead,
Mirtillo is mine own: His cruelty
To me being caus'd by's love to her. But see
The man! I'le sound him till she comes. Now rise,
Rise all my Love into my tongue and eyes.