University of Virginia Library

Scen. 3.

Eglantine
sola.
Since that the gods will not my woe redresse,
Since men are altogether pittilesse,
Ye silent ghosts unto my plaints give eare;
Give eare (I say, ye ghosts) if ghosts can heare:
And listen to my plaints that doe excell
The dol'rous tune of ravish'd Philomel.
Now let Ixions wheele stand still a while,
Let Danaus daughters now surcease their toyle:
Let Sisyphus rest on his restlesse stone,
Let not the Apples flye from Plotas sonne;
And let the full gorg'd Vultur cease to teare
The growing liver of the ravisher;
Let these behold my sorrowes, and confesse
Their paines doe farre come short of my distresse.
Were I but Lady of more wealthy store
Then e're the Sunne beheld; or had I more
Then Midas e're desir'd; I would (in briefe)
Give all to be deliver'd from this griefe.
Rocks of rich Indian pearle, shores pav'd with gemmes,
Mountaines of gold, and Empires Diadems,
These would I give, yea, and my selfe to boot,
My selfe and these proftrating at his foot,
To enioy him whom I so dearely love.
Aye me, fond love, that art a sweet sower evill,
A pleasant torture, a well-favour'd devill.
But why doe I, weake wretch, prolong my griefe?
Why doe I live, since death affords reliefe?
Doe thou (sweet ponyard) all my sorrowes ease,
That art a medicine for all grievances,
Assist my hand, thou goddesse of revenge,
That on my selfe, I may my selfe avenge.

Enter Poneria and Agnostus.
Po.
Hold, hold thy hand, faire Shepheardesse,
Attempt not to commit a fact so horrid.

Eg.
What Fury sent you hither, Caitiffes vile,
Thus to prolong my sorrow, and my toyle.

Po.
No Fury, but your happy Genius
Brought us to these uncomfortable shades,
For to prevent your mischeivous intent.

Eg.
Death is a plaister for all ills (they say)
What mischiefe then can be in death, I pray.

Po.
'Tis true; death is a mortall wound that cures all wounds
Of body, and of mind: it is the soules potion
That purgeth her from corporall pollution.
But you must not your owne Physician prove,
Not be the Doctor, and the Patient too:
For if thy soule be sickly, and grow weary
Of this unwholesome earthly habitation,
Because this ayres spissitude suits not
With her Celestiall Constitution,
She must not like a bankrupt Tenant prove,
That flyes by night from an unprofitable Farme,
Before the terme of his Lease be expir'd:
But stay till heaven shall give her egresse free
Vnto the haven of rest and happinesse.

Eg.
Were I not plunged in a grievous plight,
Perhaps I would not thinke thy counsell light.

Po.
Art not thou the sister of Cynosbatus,
Lord of the silver mines, and golden mountaines.
And art not thou as faire a Shepheardesse
As trips upon the plaines of Thessaly?

Eg.
For being great, I am malign'd by Fate,
For being faire, I am unfortunate.

Po.
I know thy sorrowes, sweetest Eglantine;
Thy Rhodons absence hath wrought all thy woe,
Who now, they say, doth beauteous Iris court.
But if thov wilt make me thy instrument,
I'll undertake to breake the match,
If not, renew the love which earst he bare to thee.

Eg.
Doe this, and I will live (Poneria)
To give thy merit ample satisfaction.
I will adore thy skill, and thee adorne
With what may make thee famous through all Thessaly.

Po.
Then banish all these melancholly thoughts,
And decke thy selfe in thy most sumptuous weeds.
Make hast unto the Fane of gentle Venus,
A payre of Turtles of a snowy hue,
Vpon her altars offer thou to her,
And her beseech to intercede for thee
Vnto her angry boy: Then shalt thou finde
The god and goddesse to true lovers kinde.

Eg.
My deare Poneria, I am truly thine.
But tell me, I prethe, what grave Sr. is this
That lookes like one of Greeces Sages;
His reverent Countenance makes me surmise
That he's a man of sublime qualities.

Po.
He is but what he seemes, faire Shepheardesse:
His head's the officine of art; his tongue
The oracle of truth; he is the man
Whom onely Nature hath vouchsaf'd to make
Her privy Counsellour.
Those abstruse secrets which no mortall eye
Did ever view, he plainely can discry;
He is the man that's destin'd to find out
That grand mysterious secret, in whose discovery
So many bold adventrous wits have perished:
I meane th'Elixar, the Philosophers precious stone.
Heis the man who by strange policies
Can breake the strong Confederacies of Kings,
And overthrow more Empires by his plots,
Then mighty Alexander er'e did by strength:
Agnostus is his name, renown'd no lesse
For honesty, than skill in Sciences.

Eg.
His silence argues something extraordinary.

Ag.
Belphegor, Zazel, Astragoth, Golguth,
Machon Malortor.

Egl. offers to flye away, and is stayed by Po.
Eg.
Aye me, Poneria.

Po.
Agnostus, not a word more for thy life.
Stay, stay, sweet Eglantine, and dread no harme,
This is the language which the Persian Magi us'd
When they with their familiars did converse,
To which he is so frequently accustom'd,
That oft he speakes it e're he be aware.
(Agnostus) vouchsafe to use your native language,
That Eglantine may know what you are.
I hope you know your lesson,
Aside.
Twice twenty times and ten, &c.

Ag.
Twice twenty times and ten, hath Titan run
Quite through the Zodiacke, since I begun
To converse with wise fiends, that I might get
The golden key of Natures Cabinet.
By industry I got immortall same,
For ignorance begets contempt and shame:
So perfect in the Magicke Arts I grew,
That natures secrets most abstruse I knew;
The spirits of ayre and earth did me dread,
And did at my venite come with speed;
The silly ghosts from graves I did forth call.
The earth I make to bellow, starres to fall.
The world at my great awfull charmes did quake,
Nature her selfe for very feare did shake:
To change midday to midnight, or to cause
Estiuall snowes, or breake the vipers iawes,
Or to drive rivers backe to their spring heads,
And make seas stand unmov'd, or to strike dead
The vernall blossome, or the haruest eare:
A man would thinke these strange conclusions were,
But I account them of small weight: I know
The use of hearbes, and whatsoever grow;
The cause to the effect I can apply,
And worke strange things by hidden sympathies.
I doe exactly know the compositions
Of unctious Philters, and loves potions:
Figures, suspensions, and ligations,
Characters and suffumigations.
For I the vertues of all simples know
From whence; effects that seeme impossible I show.
The gall of shreeke Owles, & harsh night Ravens tongus
Guts of Panthers, and Chamelions lungs,
A blacke Buls eyes, a speckled roads dry'd head,
Frankincense, camphire, and white poppie-seed;
Poysenous Melanthion, and a white Cocks bloud,
Sweet Myrrhe, Bay-berries, precious balsome wood,
A Harts marrow that hath devour'd a snake,
And scalpes which from a wilde beasts jawes we take,
The bone that lyes ith' left side of a Frogge,
A stone that is bitten with a mad dogge.
The Mandrake root, the blood of a blacke Cat,
A Turtles liver, the braines of a Batt,
Hyænas heart, the Cockatrices bloud,
That are against so many evils good:
The haire of a thiefe that hangs on a tree;
The nailes of ships that wracked be,
The blood of a wretched man that was slaine,
The eyes of a Dragon and Weasels braines.
These precious simples, and a thousand more
I could produce; I have them all in store:
And though they seeme to men meere trifling things,
Each one (I vow) ore'weighes ransomes of Kings.
The blindnesse of these times cannot discrie
The vertues rare that in these simples lye.

Po.
Enough Agnostus: Now faire Shepherdesse,
I hope you have a faire expression
Of this learn'd mans sublime desert, and art?

Eg.
I doe admire his skill, and see (by happe)
Good stuffe may be beneath a fatten Cap.

Exeunt.