ARETE

You tell us wonders, CRITES. Patience, gentle CRITES. This knot of spiders will be soon dissolved, And all their webs swept out of CYNTHIA'S court, When once her glorious deity appears, And but presents it self in her full light: Till when, go in, and spend your hours with us Your honoured friends, TIME, and PHRONESIS, In contemplation of our goddess name. Think on some sweet, and choice invention, now, Worthy her serious, and illustrous eyes, That from the merit of it we may take Desired occasion to prefer your worth, And make your service known to CYNTHIA. It is the pride of ARETE to grace Her studious lovers; and (in scorn of time, Envy, and ignorance) to lift their state Above a vulgar height. True happiness Consists not in the multitude of friends, But in the worth, and choice. Nor would I have Virtue a popular regard pursue: Let them be good that love me, though but few. Not I, MORIA, I thank you. Gallants, you are for this night free, to your peculiar delights; CYNTHIA will have no sports: when she is pleased to come forth, you shall have knowledge. In the mean time, I could wish you did provide for solemn revels, and some vnlook't-for device of wit, to entertain her, against she should vouchsafe to grace your pastimes with her presence. Why, I'll send for CRITES, and have his advice; be you ready in your endeavours: He shall discharge you of the inventive partly. Not now, PHANTASTE. There is your error. For as HERMES wand Charms the disorders of tumultuous ghosts, And as the strife of Chaos then did cease, When better light then Nature's did arrive: So, what could never in it self agree, Forgetteth the eccentrike property, And at her sighed, turns forthwith regular, Whose sceptre guides the flowing Ocean. And though it did not, yet the most of them (Being either courtiers, or not wholly rude) Respect of majesty, the place, and presence, Will keep them within ring; especially When they are not presented as themselves, But masqued Like others. For (in troth) not so T'incorporate them, could be nothing else, Then Like a state ungoverned without laws; Or body made of nothing but diseases: The one, through impotency poor, and wretched, The other, for the anarchy absurd. That, CRITES, is not purposed without Particular knowledge of the Goddess mind, (Who holding true intelligence, what follies Had crept into her palace) she resolved, Of sports, and triumphs, under that pretext, To have them muster in their pomp, and fullness: That so she might more strictly, and to root, Effect the reformation she intends. Leave to suspect us: CRITES well shall find, As we are now most deer, we'll prove most kind. Hark, I am called. Most true, most sacred Goddess ; for the heavens Receive no good of all the good they do. Nor JOVE, nor you, nor other heavenly power, Are fed with fumes, which do from incense rise, Or sacrifices reeking in their gore, Yet, for the care which you of mortals have, (Whose proper good it is, that they be so) You well are pleased with odours redolent: But ignorant is all the raze of men, Which still complains, not knowing why, or when. How Cynthian-ly (that is, how worthily And Like herself) the matchless CYNTHIA speaks! Infinite jealousy's, infinite regards, Do watch about the true virginity: But PHoeBE lives from all, not only fault, But as from thought, so from suspicion free. "Thy presence broad-seals our delights for pure, "What's done in CYNTHIA'S sighed, is done secure. Excellent Goddess, to a men, whose worth, (Without hyperbole,) I thus may praise; One (at least) studious of deserving well, And (to speak truth) indeed deserving well: "Potential merit stands for actual, "Where only opportunity does want, "Not will, nor power: both which in him abound. One, whom the MUSES, and MINERVA love. For whom should they, then CRITES, more esteem, Whom PHŒBUS (though not Fortune ) holds deer? And (which convinceth excellence in him ) A principal admirer of your self. Even, through the ungentle injuries of fate , And difficulties, which do virtue choke, Thus much of him appears. What other things Of farther note, do lie unborn in him, Them I do leave for cherishment to show, And for a Goddess graciously to judge. Lo, here the man (celestial DELIA) Who (Like a circle bounded in it self) Contains as much, as man in fullness may. Lo, here the man, who not of usual earth, But of that nobler, and more precious mould, Which PHŒBUS self does temper, is composed; And, who (though all were wanting to reward) Yet, to himself he would not wanting be: Thy favours gain is his ambitions most, And labours best; who (humble in his height) Stands fixed silent in thy glorious sighed. How well Diana can distinguish times? And further censures? keeping to her self The doom of gods, leaving the rest to us? Come, cite them, CRITES, first, and then proceed. Nay, forward, for I delegate my power. And will that at thy mercy they do stand, Whom they so oft so plainly scorned before. "It's virtue which they want, and wanting it, "Honour no garment to their backs can fit. Then, CRITES, practice thy discretion.