University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

The Scene is the Temple of Apollo Delphicus, with Columns of the Dorick Order, inrich'd with Gold, in the middle a stately Cupulo, on the top of it the Figure of the Sun; some distance before it an Altar lin'd with Brass; under it a large Image of Apollo before which stands the Tripod.
Enter in a Solemn Procession, the Chief Priest crown'd with Lawrel, in a white Vestment, over that a Purple Gown, over that a Cope embroidered with Gold, over all a Lamb-skin Hood with the Wool on: He has four Boys attending, two before two behind, clad in Surplices, and girt with Girdles of Gold; the first carrying a golden Censor with Mirrhe, Frankincense, and sweet Gums, &c. The Second a Barley Cake, or Barley Meal, with Salt, upon a golden Service. The third, a golden Cruise, full of Honey and Water. The fourth a large gilt Book emboss'd with Gold. After them six Priests, with Books of Hymns, clad in Surplices and embroider'd Copes. Then Men with Wind-Instruments, clad in Surplices, all crown'd with Wreathes of Lawrel. After them Nicander, Cidippe, Polinices, Aglaura, Theander, Psyche. Then a Train of Ladies. All the Women with their faces cover'd with white Veils. After all, Theander's Attendants and Guards in their Procession. This following Hymn is sung in Chorus.
[By this time they come near the Altar, they all bow, and divide, and stand on each side of the Altar, and the Chief Priest before. The Chief Priest kneels and kisses the Altar. The Priest and Boys kneel with him; they rise, and he, holding the Altar in his hands, sings alone, as follows.
[A Dance of Priests entring from each side of the Stage, with Cymbals, Bells, and Flambeaux.
After the Dance, they all kneel, and the Chief Priest begins with a loud voice; All answer as follows.
Ch. Pr.
Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Saturn, Cibele,

Respons.
Be propitious to our vows and prayers.

Ch. Pr.
Mars, Bellona, Venus, Cupido, Vulcanus.

Resp.
Be propitious, &c.

Ch. Pr.
Bacchus, Pan, Neptunus, Sylvanus, Fawnus, Vertumnus,
Palæmon.

Resp.
Be propitious, &c.

Ch. Pr.
All ye Gods, Goddesses, and all the powers.

Resp.
Be propitious, &c.

They rise: The Chief Priest turns to the left hand, and runs, or dances about the Altar, Priests and Boys following him, all the Instruments sounding. They sing as follows:
Chor.
To Apollo our Celestial King,
The Dancers mingle with the Singers.
We will Io Pæan sing;
Io Pæan, Io Pæan,
Io Pæan, will we sing:

The Chief Priest kneels at the Altar. The Boys stand about him. The Priests take the Libamina from the Boys, after a little pause. One Priest rises and waves a wand. Then all fall on their knees.
1. Pr.
Favete linguis, favete linguis, favete linguis.

2. Pr.
(rises, waves a wand)
Hoc agite, hoc agite, hoc agite.

Ch. Pr. rises, and turns to the people.
Ch. Pr.
(with a loud voice)
ΤΙΣ ΤΗ Δ Ε.

Response of all.
ΠΟΛΛΟΙ Κ'ΑΙΑΘΟΙ.

Chief Priest turns and kneels at the Altar again. The Boys run out and fetch, one a Flambeaux, the other little Fagots of Cedar, Juniper, &c. The Priest rises and lays them on the Altar. All but the Chief Priest and Boys are kneeling, intent upon the Altar, without speech or motion. As soon as the fire is kindled, which the Priest does himself with the Flambeau.
Ch. Pr.
(with a loud voice)
Behold the Fire.

All but the Chief Priest fall flat on their faces, then rise again. The Boys reach the Libamina to the Chief Priest: 1. The Censor, with Gums, which he offers. 2. The Barley Cake, which he strews with salt, then lays it on the Fire. Then sprinkles the Honey and Water on the Fire. Chief Priest waves his Wand to Theander and Psyche, who draw near, and kneel just behind.
Ch. Pr.
Now ask the God the thing for which you came,
And after that we'll sacrifice a Ram.

Thean.
That we may know, we humbly pray,
Who shall Psyche's Husband be.
She will most cheerfully obey
Her Destiny, and your Decree.

As the Priestess Pythia is mounting the Tripod it Thunders and Lightens extremely. Apollo's Image trembles, at which they all rise affrighted.
Ch. Pr.
O Heaven! what prodigy is this?
Something is in our holy Rites amiss.

It Thunders and Lightens again, the Image trembling, and in convulsions, with a very loud and hollow voice utters these following Lines:
Apollo.
You must conduct her to that fatal place,
Where miserable Lovers, that despair,
With howls and Lamentations fill the air;
A Husband there your Daughter shall embrace.
On Venus Rock upon the Sea,
She must by you deserted be;
A poys'nous Serpent there she'l find,
By Heav'n he Psyche's Husband is design'd.

[At this they all start, affrighted.
Thean.
Gods! that I e'r should live to see this day.
'Tis for some great offence
Of mine, that thou art to be snatch'd from hence.
Oh take my life, and let her stay.
But 'tis in vain to ask, we must obey:
For which I'll weep my hated life away.

Cydip.
Venus has kept her word, and she shall be
Much more ador'd by me,
Then any other Deity.

Aglau.
Now my fair Sister must a Serpent have,
'Stead of a Nuptial Bed, a Grave.
Now she shall suffer for her pride;
Our Love and Hate will now be satisfi'd.

Psyc.
To whatsoe'r the Oracle thinks fit,
I cheerfully submit:
I have not liv'd so ill, but I
With ease can die:
I with a willing heart
Can with my life as with a trifle part:
As no joy yet could ever fill my mind,
I from no danger can distraction find.

Thean.
Lead on; and with a funeral pace,
For I in that unhappy place
Must bury all my joy, and leave my life behind.

Nican.
Stay but a moment, stay;
You will not sure this Oracle obey.
Consider and be wise:
If it be good Psyche to sacrifice,
You were oblig'd to't without this command,
And we the action should not then withstand.

Polyn.
If bad, then Heav'n it self can't make it good;
All good and ill's already understood.
Heav'n has forbid the shedding guiltless bloud.
If good and ill anew it has design'd,
The Gods are mutable, and change their mind.

Nican.
Be not by this Imposture, Sir, betray'd,
By this dull Idol which the Priests have made:
Too many Cheats are in the Temple found,
There fraud does more then piety abound:
They make the sensless Image speak with ease
What e'r themselves shall please.

Ch. Pr.
Do not the sacred Image thus profane,
Which will revenge it self, and all its Rites maintain.

Polyn.
If that be sacred, and you that adore,
Then him that made it you should worship more:
To th'poor Mechanick you give no respect,
Y'adore his Workmanship, but him neglect.

Nican.
For Sacred you impose what you decree,
And the deluded Multitude believe,
By boasting of Infallibility,
Th'unthinking Rabble you with ease deceive.

Pol.
What ever in Divinity you know,
In all concernments of Mankind below:
In all the objects of the Mind,
And in all humone Science we can find,
In Priests more Errors then in all Mankind.

Nican.
In Sacred Things yet you so much excel
All others, in your Sleeps you can foretell;
When after surfeits in your holy Feasts
You sleep in skins of sacrificed Beasts,
The troubled Dreams you from those fumes receive,
To the unheedful world for Oracles you give.

Thean.
In holy Mysteries you must lay by
Your intricate Philosophy.
After the dreadful Cloud with Thunder broke,
It was some loud immortal voice that spoke.

Ch. Pr.
The holy Rites you saw perform'd,
By Miracles were now confirm'd.

Nican.
Miracles!
Your holy Cheats t'advance your Mystery:
The noblest Science is Divinity.
But when become a Trade, I see 'twill be,
Like other Trades, maintain'd by Knavery.

Ch. Pr.
By Miracles the pow'r of Heav'n is known.

Polyn.
Heav'ns power is more by setl'd order shown.
The beauty of that order which is found,
To govern the Creation in a round,
The fix'd uninterrupted Chain whereby
All things on one another must depend,
This method proves a wise Divinity,
As much as should the Gods on earth descend.

Ch. Pr.
You speak from Nature, which is ignorance;
But we to Inspiration must advance.

Nican.
If, Priest, by Means not nat'ral Heav'n declares
Its will, and our obedience so prepares;
The Gods by this their weakness wou'd confess,
What you call Miracles, wou'd make them less.
If something without Nature they produce,
Nature is then defective to their use:
And when by that they cannot work their end,
By Miracle their Instrument they mend.

Polyn.
If this be granted, Priest, by this we find,
The Gods foresee not, or else change their mind.
But Heav'n does nothing to our sense produce,
But it does outward Nat'ral Causes use.
Fools trust in Miracles, and fools ne'r doubt:
'Tis ignorance of Causes, Priest, makes fools devout.

[Thunders again.
Ch. Pr.
Be gone, profane and wicked men,
You have provok'd Heav'ns wrath again.
Heav'n does again to you in Thunder speak!

Nican.
'Twas nothing but a petty cloud did break;
What, can your Priesthoods grave Philosophy
So much amaz'd at common Thunder be?

Psyc.
We should obey without these prodigies;
I to Heav'ns Will my own will sacrifice.

Cidip.
Must I then with my much lov'd Sister part?

Aglau.
The dismal loss will break my tender heart.

Thean.
Joy of my life, let's to the fatal place,
Where thine and all my sorrow is design'd:
When thee the pois'nous Serpent shall embrace,
Assure thy self I'll not stay long behind.

Polyn.
Thus the great Agamemnon was betray'd,
And Iphigenia thus a Victim made:
Such horrid ills Religion can perswade.

[Exeunt omnes.
The Scene changes to a Rocky Desart full of dreadful Caves, Cliffs, and Precipices, with a high Rock looking down into the Sea.
Enter two despairing Lovers.
1. Lov.
Ah what a dreadful Rocky Desart's this,
The Melancholly Region of despair:
Where e'r I turn me, poisonous Serpents hiss,
And with their venomous breaths infect the air.

2. Lov.
Here pestilential vapours do abound,
And killing Damps the Vaults and Caverns breath;
From dreadful gapings of the craggy ground,
The fatal Desart seems to yawn forth death.

1. Lov.
A gloomy darkness hovers o'r this place;
Here sure the Sun ne'r shews his joyful face.
Nature this place for horrour did design:
No beam of comfort here can shine;

2. Lov.
Nothing but houls of sad despair,
And dismal groans of Wretches fill the air.
Who in Agonies their hated lives resign.

1. Lov.
How many various ways to death we have:
Some from that Rock have plung'd into the Deep;
And in the Sea we saw 'em find a grave.

2. Lov.
Some by their Ponyards meet deaths easie sleep:
Some desp'rate Lovers find out death,
By wilful stopping their own breath.

1. Lov.
Nature this place did for my grief intend.

2. Lov.
And here my fatal life and love shall end.

1. Lov.
Psyche is hither by Apollo sent,
Here to fulfil the Oracles intent.

Two despairing Men and two despairing Women sing as follows.
1. Man.
Break , break distracted heart, there is no cure
For Love, my minds too raging Calenture.

1. Wom.
Sighs which in other passions vent,
And give them ease when they lament,
Are but the bellows to my hot desire.

2. Wom.
And tears in me not quench, but nourish fire.

2. Man.
Nothing can mollifie my grief,
Or give my passion a relief.

1. Man.
Love is not like our earthly fire,
You soon may smoother out that flame;
Concealing does increase desire,
No opposition Love can tame.

2. Wom.
Despair in Love transcends all pain,
Lost hope will ne'r return again.

1. Wom.
In Hell there's no such misery,
As now oppresses me.
I this one pang alone
Wou'd change for Sisyphus his Stone.

2. Man.
I would the torments which I feel
Change for Ixion's Wheel.

2. Wom.
The Vulture should on me for ever feed,
Rather then thus my heart for Love should bleed.

1. Man.
Oh Tantalus! for thy eternal Thirst;
I'm more on Earth then thou in Hell accurst.

1. Wom.
Was ever grief like mine?

2. Wom.
Like mine?

1. Man.
Like mine?

2. Man.
Like mine?

Chorus.
Was ever grief like mine?
Was ever, &c.

2. Wom.
Nothing but death can cure our misery.

1. Wom.
I'll die.

1. Man.
I'll die.

2. Man.
I'll die.

Chorus.
Nothing but death can cure our misery.
Nothing but, &c.

1. Man
speaks.
How long shall I for this dull Serpent stay,
Ere I become his prey?
Come forth from out thy pos'nous Den:
Dost thou despise the flesh of Men.

2. Man.
The lazy Serpent breakfasted to day;
I will not for his waking stomach stay:
Ill b' Author of my fate, and make my self away.

[Falls on his sword.
1. Wom.
Your Sex no more in courage shall excel,
For I can die as well.
I in this dagger my relief will find,
And kill my body thus to ease my mind.

[Kills her self.
1. Man.
I to the top of all the Rock will climb;
And if in little time
The Serpent there I cannot see,
I'll find a way to follow thee.

2. Wom.
My heart that office will perform for me.
A death-like pang I feel,
I have no need of steel.
A faint cold sweat besmears my face,
I can make haste and die apace.
And these are the last words I ere shall speak,
Farewell my cruel Love, for thee my heart does break.

[She dies.
Then he on the top of the Rock falls headlong into the Sea.
Enter Theander, Psyche, Cydippe, Aglaura, Psyche's two Women, and other Attendants, in Funeral habits, weeping; then the Guards.
Psyc.
Oh stop those Royal Fountains, tears are things
Which ill become the Majesty of Kings.

Thean.
But they become a Father, who must lose
The onely comfort of his fading life;
Who barbarously must his Child expose,
By Heavens command, to be a Serpents Wife,

Psyc.
That dread command I'm ready to obey,
I beg you will no longer stay.
Deaths cold embraces I will court;
I can my fate, but not your tears support.

Thean.
Ye Gods, why did ye ever bless
Me with this gift, to snatch it back again?
My burden's greater then I can sustain!

Psyc.
I never could deserve such tenderness;
Nay, good Sir, dry your eyes, my heart will break;
To bear your grief, I am too weak.

Thean.
Oh that I'd never seen thy much lov'd face,
And that thou'dst perish'd in the womb:
I had not led thee to this fatal place,
Thy Father had not brought thee living to thy Tomb.

Psyc.
Your sad complaints so soften me,
My heart will melt to that degree,
That I shall have none left when death I see.

Thean.
Heav'n! what could thus your cruelty provoke?
Your Altars by my bounty daily smoke.
With Fat, with Incense, and with Gums;
Nor have you wanted Hecatombs.
And must I thus rewarded be?

Cidip.
See how the Dotard weeps, while we
Rejoyce at this her Destiny.
Oh how it wou'd my envy feed,
Could my glad eyes behold her bleed!

Aglau.
O good dear Serpent, make her sure,
Her death, our grief can onely cure.
Oh that she were at my command,
And that her heart were throbbing in my hand.
Some miracle may else relieve
Her from this death, and we afresh may grieve.

Psyc.
Good Sir, be gone, the will of Heav'n obey:
Besides, if you should longer stay,
Before the Serpent comes, my life will steal away,
Weigh not your loss, but what you have remain;
You have the comfort of my Sisters left,
Who will your drooping age sustain,
When y'are of me bereft.
Sisters, be good, and to my Father give
All comfort, and his grief relieve;
He, from you Two, much pleasure may receive.

Cid.
Our grief as much as his relief will need.
Oh that I might with Psyche bleed:
Did not the Gods self-murder hate,
I wou'd accompany your Fate.

Aglau.
Oh that the Gods would suffer me
To be exchang'd for thee!

Psyc.
Sisters, farewel, pray dry your eyes;
kisses her Sisters.
I am for you a sacrifice.
You may your choice of many Princes have,
When I am cold, forgotten in my Grave.

Thean.
Gods! can I yet hear this and live?
Oh take my life, or me my Psyche give.

Psyc.
Sir, if you longer stay,
You'll cause my death, not they.
I on my knees beseech you quit
This fatal place, and to Heaven's will submit.
Farewell: 'tis time,
I now the Rock my fatal Tomb must climb.
Farewell for ever—

Thean.
Say not so,
For I to death will go
My Soul to morrow shall meet thine below.

[Exeunt all but Psyche.
Psyche sola.
Even now grim death I slightly did esteem,
With the wrong end o'th'Glass I look'd on him;
Then a far off and little he did seem:
Now my Perspective draws him near,
He very big and ugly does appear.
Away—it is the base false Glass of fear.
Enter Nicander and Polynices.
Why do you come to see me wretched here?
What can you hope from her whose death's so near?

Polyn.
To save your life our lives we will expose.

Psyc.
Can mortal men the heav'nly pow'rs oppose?

Nican.
What Heav'n commands is surely good,
Heav'n has declar'd 'gainst shedding humane bloud.
Bores, Rams and Bulls will serve Apollo's turn,
Whilst Gums and Incense on his Altars burn.
'Tis to the Priests that you are sacrific'd.

Psyc.
I must not hear the Oracle despis'd.

Nican.
In vain, 'gainst prejudice we still dispute:
Our Swords shall this great Oracle confute.
No Serpent whilst we live shall you embrace,
Nor any other Rival in this place.

Psyc.
He carries deadly venome in his breath,
Which certainly will give you death.

Polyn.
Cadmus without Love's aid the Dragon slew;
Inspir'd by Love, what cannot Princes do?

Psyc.
Why for my preservation shou'd you strive?
For neither my affection e'r cou'd move,
Though Heav'n for that wou'd suffer me to live:
No Prince on earth cou'd ever make me love.

Nican.
'Tis time we both of us should die,
Since we from you no pity can deserve.
Yet—
Had we no love for generosity
Spight of your self we wou'd your life preserve.

Polyn.
You have made Rivals thus agree,
Though cou'd you love, but one cou'd happy be.
Each will assist the other, and you'll see,
In spight of Oracles we'll set you free.

Psyc.
Farewell: I must not hear this blasphemy.

Nican.
We cannot leave you till you die,
No Oracle shall that deny.

[The Earth opens, infernal Spirits rise and hurry the Prince away. Two Zephiri descend and take Psyche by each arm and fly into the Clowds with her.
Cupid descends a little way, hanging in the air.
Cup.
Be gone, you Rivals of an angry Deity:
Shall I by insolent Princes rivall'd be?
Shall Mortals for my Psyche strive with me?
Vulcan make haste, prepare
My costly Palace for my fair;
I in that splendid place
My Love, my Dear, my Psyche will embrace.

[He flies away.
Enter Nicander and Polynices.
Nican.
By what Enchantment were we hurri'd hence?
Psyche is gone. Let's use all diligence
Soon to prevent her fate,
Or we shall come too late.

Polyn.
We will our much lov'd Psyche find.
Or we will leave our hated lives behind.

[Exuent.