University of Virginia Library

Scen. 5.

Niso. Narete, Amyntas. Celia.

Oh my sweet Celia, Oh my dearest soul!

Nar.
Give way, that I may let her Bodice loose
And give ease to her breast.

Amyn.
Lives she Narete? say?

Narete.
Now I may feel her heart,
What leaves are these which in her bosome thus
Lye here conceal'd, as if they had of late
Been gather'd by her hand?

Amyn.
Comes she not yet unto her self?

Niso.
Oh sad discouler'd Roses, mixed with
This perfect snowy white: loe here the shape,
Which death should take, if death could then be made
Subject to love.

Narete.
O miserable, strange unheard of case!
O most unhappy Maid, unusual death!
O most cruel homicide!

Amyn.
Ah me! then is she dead?

Niso.
And who was he that was the Homicide?
Where is the wretch?

Amyn.
In what foul den, or in what horrid Cave
May the most hateful Tigre be found out?

Niso.
Let us pursue him straight.

Amyn.
Lets go,
Already I have kil'd him in my thoughts,
And now me thinks I tear him with my teeth
Down to the very heart,

Narete.
Fond frantick men, what fury thus transports
Your erring minds? or whither will you go?

Niso.
To seek revenge.

Narete.
Ah turn again blinde men, the murderer,
The Homicide is here.

Niso.
Come back Amyntas, her's our enemy.

Amyn.
And where?

Niso.
Where good Narete, where?

Narete.
See here at once, both she that did the deed,
And she that suffers under it, extinct:
Observe what here with her own proper hands
The unhappy maid hath written in these leaves:
For Niso and Amyntas, I did burn,
But I was cruel, and a faithless love;
And that I might not still be false to them,
And cruel to my self: Lo thus I dye.
O thousand, thousand times, most wofull chance!

Amyn.
Ah me!

Niso.
Ah me! so loud that Heaven it self may hear
Amyntas! ah Amyntas, was this fair?

Amyn.
Niso, for loves-sake peace, by all the Gods
Thou do'st me wrong thus to complain of me:
I lov'd by force, yet never made it known.

Niso.
And this thy silence now brings death to me.

Amyn.
Ah me! no more.

Niso.
But since fair Celia's dead, 'tis fit I dye;
And yet alas my death's not worthy hers.

Amyn.
Ah me!

Narete,
Yet I would see at least, how 'twas she dy'd.

Niso.
Amyntas ah! since thou did'st help to make
Me thus unhappy, help me now to mourn,

Narete.
Her fair white neck carries no guilty signe,
Of any strangling cord.

Amyn.
Ah me, poor soul, my grief is all shut up
Within my broken heart, and there it feeds
Onely on tears, and will not suffer one
To spring out of mine eyes.

Narete.
Nor is this place neer any precipice.

Amyn.
But cruel Wo, insatiable griefe,
Do thou devour my heart, and let my tears,
Distil out of mine eyes, give way at last
To pitty, that it may break up
The deep abyssus of my sad laments.

Narete.
Her dart is innocent of this offence.

Niso.
Sweet Celia, wilt thou not hear me yet?
Poor naked soul, to what place art thou fled?
Could'st thou endure to leave this comely frame
Here all alone, benum'd, and frozen thus?

Narete.
Her garments are untouch't:

Niso.
Come back, return, and look but once again
Upon this lovely feature, and then fly
From it, the second time, if thou hast power.

Narete.
What hearb is this wherewith her lap is fild?
Niso, Amyntas, run, run, quickly run,
Unto the nearest fountain:

Niso.
What neerer Fountain can there be found out
Then the fresh springing current of mine eyes?
Let us lament, our office is to mourn,
Let bathes, and funeral piles, be others care:

Narete.
Alas 'tis now no time to weep in vain,
Go, go, I say, fetch me some water straight
To bath her face withal, leave off, begon.

Amyn.
What other water needs there here to bath
Her face withal, which thou seest all bedew'd.
With our distilling tears?

Narete.
Then I must go my self.

Amynt.
Come, come, Narete, come, me-thinks she stirs.

Niso.
Quickly, Narete, come, fair Celia lives,
And 'gins to breath again.

Nar.
O blest eternal providence!
O happy tears! strange, powerful Antidote!
Which trickling down upon her face, prevails
Against this poysonous hearb, and so recals
Her wandring soul into her breast again.

Niso.
Ah Celia!

Amynt.
Celia!

Nar.
Disturb her not, see, she makes shew to rise;
Lend her your help.

Cel.
How hard and wearisom's the way to death?
I am quite tir'd; all my visage melts
Into faint drops of sweat.

Nar.
Amazed yet she raves, and thinks your tears
Are drops of sweat upon her fainting face.

Cel.
I am arriv'd at last within the skirts
Of the vast shady empire, and these are
The baleful Stygian fields.

Nar.
Go both of you and hold her up.

Cel.
Who presseth on me thus? now out, alass,
Behold th'infernal Monsters which are wont
In form of their abused Lovers to torment
False faithless souls,

Niso.
Ah Celia!

Cel.
Ah me!

Nar.
Go from her shepheards, go, and silent stand
Conceal'd apart, till I can undeceive
Her poor distracted fancie thus abus'd.

Cel.
And yet their looks renew within my soul
The wonted fire of love. Ah me, can then
Th'infernal Monsters breath out loving flames?
O hell is too too cruel, if it burn
With the hot flames of love.

Nar.
O daughter!

Cel.
But who is he with that white hoary beard?
Perhaps 'tis aged Charon, am I not
Yet past then to the other side?

Nar.
Celia, thou talk'st idlely, call again
Thy wandring sences, thou art yet alive;
And if thou wilt not credit what I say,
Look up and see the heavens turning round,
The Sun descending down into the West,
Which not long since thou sawst rise in the East:
Observe that with the motion of the air,
These fading leaves doe fall:
In the infernal region of the deep
The Sun doth never rise, nor never set,
Nor doth a falling leaf there ere adorn
Those black eternal plants;
Thou still art on the earth 'mongst mortal men,
And still thou liv'st: I am Narete, these
Are the sweet fields of Scyros, know'st thou not
The meddow where the Fountain springs? this wood?
Euro's great mountain, and Ormino's hill?
The hill where thou wert born? why do'st thou look
So wistly round about? thou know'st them all;
Speak then, leave musing, art not yet awake?

Cel.
I am alive then, it is too too true,
Narete saith it, yet my sence of grief
Makes me beleeve it rather true then he,
But I was dead, and once I was below
Within deaths empire, and there one by one
Saw all the hellish furies, horrid hags,
And fearful torments which doe there abide,
Who then had power to draw me thus by force
Out of th'infernal deep?

Nar.
Thy wofull lovers mourning for thy death,
Were able by their tears to give thee life.

Cel.
'Twas ill for me, their tears had power to make
Even hell it self seem pittifull; but sure
'Twas not their tears; for I am well assur'd
Where Hydra's hiss, and bawling Cerberus
Sends out his howling noise, no other voice
Can there be heard.
It was the horror of this faithless soul
Which horrid hell it self could not endure
But sent it back: And woes me do I live?
Doe I live still? and is my hatefull life
The vomit of th'infernal pit?

Niso.
Mark good Narete how she is involv'd
In the chymeraes still of hell and death.

Cel.
Unhappy life, when even death it self
Proves false to thy desires.

Nar.
Do you without disturbing her take heed
She doe not come again to her despair,
And act a second death.

Cel.
But thou eternal justice of the heavens,
Thou happily art pleased to decree
That being doubly false, I should return
Into this life again, that once again
I might submit to death, and double death,
Might so revenge my double hearted sin.

Niso.
But thou, Narete, whither do'st thou go?
Ah leave us not here all alone to act
So hard a part as this.

Nar.
I goe into the valley of Alcander, and
Will straight return with hearbs to purge the brain,
And free her from this extasie.

Cel.
To death then let us go, to death.