 | Amyntas |  |
Scen. 9.
Alexis. Laurinda.Lau.
—I will Alexis,
And so he must if oathes be any tye.
Alex.
To lovers they are none, we break those bonds
As easily as threds of silke: A bracelet
Made of your maidens haire's a stronger chaine
Then twenty cobweb oathes, which while we break
Venus but laughs: it must be your perswasion
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Lau.
Damon, you must stand
To what you promis'd, how shall I believe
Those other oathes you sweare, if you respect
This one no better: It was my device
To have her judge, was it not, Amarillis?
How, all in blood!
Cla.
Yes, this unmercifull man
(If he be man that can doe such a crime)
Has wounded her.
Amar.
Indeed it was not hee.
Pil.
You see her selfe frees him.
Lau.
When last we left her
She was with Damon.
Ama.
Pray believe her not,
She speaks it out of anger, I nere saw
Damon to day before.
Alex.
And when we left 'em
He was incens'd.
Amar.
You are no competent witnesse;
You are his Rivall in Laurinda's love,
And speak not truth but malice, 'tis a plot
To ruin innocence.
Lau.
O ungratefull man!
The wolfe that does devoure the brest that nurst it
Is not so bad as thou: here, here, this Letter
Th'eternall Chronicle of affection,
That ought with golden characters to be writ
In Cupids Annals, will (false man) convince thee
Of fowle ingratitude: you shall hear me read it.
The wolfe that does devoure the brest that nurst it
Is not so bad as thou: here, here, this Letter
Th'eternall Chronicle of affection,
That ought with golden characters to be writ
In Cupids Annals, will (false man) convince thee
Of fowle ingratitude: you shall hear me read it.
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Laurinda, you have put it unto mee
To choose a husband for you, I will be
A judge impartiall, upright, just and true,
Yet not so much unto my selfe as you.
Alex.
To choose a husband for you, I will be
A judge impartiall, upright, just and true,
Yet not so much unto my selfe as you.
Now I expect to hear my blessed doome.
Lau.
Alexis well deserves, but Damon more;
I wish you him I wisht my selfe before.
Alex.
O, I am ruin'd in the height of hope.
How like the hearb Solstitiall is a lover,
Now borne, now dead again, he buds, sprouts forth,
Flourishes, ripens, withers in a minute.
Lau.
Take him, the best of men, that ever eye
Beheld, and live with him for whom I dye.
Amarillis.
Here look on't.—
Dam.
Writ with blood? o let me kisse
My bill of Accusation! here my name
Lookes like my soule, all crimson, every line,
Word, syllable, and letter, weares the livery
Of my unnaturall action. Amarillis
That name of all is black, which was alone
Worthy so pretious inke; as if disdaining
The character of cruelty, which the rest
Were cloathd in: for as if that word alone
Did weare this mourning colour, to bewaile
The funerall of my vertue, that lies buried
Here in this living tombe, this moving sepulchre.
Lau.
Know murtherer I hate thy bed, and thee,
Unkind, unthankfull villaine.
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Nay, Laurinda,
You have bound your selfe to stand to my award;
The sentence now is past, and you must love him,
It cannot be revers'd; you are deceiv'd,
He is not guilty of this sinne, his love
To me, for mine, makes him against his conscience
Seeme to confesse it, but believe him not.
Lau.
Nor will, he is all falshood, and ingratitude.
Da.
Laurinda, you may spare in this harsh language
To utter your dislike: had you a beauty
More then immortall, and a face whose glory
Farre outshind Angels, I would make my choyce
Here, and no where but here; her vertue now
Moves a more noble flame within my brest
Then ere your beauty did; I am enamour'd
More of her soule, then ever yet I doted
Upon your face: I doe confesse the fact;
Pardon me vertuous maid, for though the action
Be worthy death, the object most condemnes mee!
Take me to death Corymbus; Amarillis,
I goe to write my story of repentance
With the same inke, wherewith thou wrotes before
The legend of thy love, farewell, farewell.
Exeunt Corymb. Dam.
Pil.
Laurinda, and Alexis, doe you call
The Sheapheards, and the virgins of Sicilia
To see him sacrific'd, whose death must make
There loves more fortunate; this day shall be
Happy to all Sicilians, but to mee.
Yet come thou cursed Claius, the sweet comfort
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Will something ease the sorrow for my sonne.
Clai.
Amarillis, prethee call Amyntas to mee,
And Thestylis: I faine would have mine eye
Behold them once again before I dye.
Ex. Pil. Cla.
Ale.
Come my Laurinda, through how many chances,
Suspicions, errors, sorrowes, doubts, and feares
Love leads us to our pleasures; many stormes
Have we sail'd through my Sweet, but who could feare
A tempest, that had hope to harbour here.
Ex. Alex. Lau.
Amarillis sola.
Amar.
All, all but the distressed Amarillis
Are happy, or lesse wretched; fair Laurinda
Is ready for a wedding, old Pilumnus
Hath lost a sonne, yet mitigates his griefe
In Claius death, my father Claius dies
Yet joyes to have the sonne of his old enemy
A partner of his sorrowes; my father looses
Only himselfe; and Damon too no more;
Amyntas but a father, onely I
Have lost all these; I have lost Claius, Damon,
And my selfe too; A father with Amyntas,
And all the rest in Damon, and which more
Affects mee, I am cause of all; Pilumnus
Had not else lost his sonne, nor had Amyntas
Wept for a Father, nor poore Thestylis
Bewail'd a brother; Damon might have liv'd,
And Claius but for mee; all circumstances
Concurre to make my miseries compleat,
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As soone as I had found him, and my Damon
As soone as I had found he lov'd mee: thus
All I can find is losse; o too too wretched,
Distressed virgin! when they both are dead
Visit their Ashes, and first weepe an howre
On Claius Vrne, then go, and spend another
At Damon's; thence again goe wet the tombe
Of thy dead father, and from thence returne
Back to thy lovers grave; thus spend thy age
In sorrowes; and till death doe end thy cares
Betwixt these two equally share thy teares.
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