University of Virginia Library

Scene VI.

Enter to him Montenor.
Mon.
Wherefore doth Lysis mourn?

Ly.
Oh Sheepherd, tremble,
For all the Gods confederate against us;
Thou ne're shalt see the Sun to set again,
The Woods shall be afire, the Rivers dry,
Meddowes shall lose their flowers, Echo be silent,
In fine, all is destroy'd—Charita's angry.

Mon.
Gods!

Ly.
Didst not see her violent transport?
It was a Tygresse with her sparkling eye,
Yet Montenor, I must confesse that I
Never did yet behold so faire a Tygresse,
And that her fiercenesse something had of grace,
Even when she did pronounce my banishment.

Mon.
Ah—could she banish thee?

Ly.
With great injustice.

Mon.
Why dost afflict thy self? Be crosse as she;
Thou sure canst change thy vowes, if she be chang'd.

Ly.
No, Ile attend th'afflicted Lovers Fate,
Whom when the Gods to such rude storms expose,
Toucht with their miseries they oft transform them.

Mon.
That once was good:

Ly.
And so continues still;
For wherefore should the Arm o'th' Gods be shortned?
No, Mercurie this night came with his wand,
To let me understand their pleasure towards me,
And I must change my form.

Mon.
On that great Hope,
Thou scorn'st Charita, and no more wilt see her?

Ly.
Would you that I provoke her with my presence?
Yet I may see the place where she inhabits,
And here, at distance, mounted on this Tree,
With my last homage may adore her beauty.
(He ascends the Tree, and falls into the Trunk of it, being hollow.)
I see't! what hid that Palace from my sight—
But O miraculous issue of my hopes!
At length I finde the Gods have not abus'd me—
And Lysis now, in earnest, is transform'd,
I am become a Tree—O divine wonders!
My feet I feele already stretch'd to roots,
And my flesh chang'd to wood, with sudden shoots
Produceth branches at my fingers ends.

Monten.
Strange madnesse this!

Ly.
But O thou ocular witnesse
Of this my change, to Lovers Ordinary
Go, and disperse the fame of my new fate,
And if thou er'e didst love me, guard my flock.