PAULINUS

IN your six years travail, friend, no doubt you have met with Many, and rare adventures, and ob served The wonders of each climate, vary king in The manners, and the men, and so return, For the future service of your prince and country, In your understanding bettered. She indeed is A perfect Phoenix, and disdains a rival. Her infant years, as you know, promised much But grown to ripeness she transcends, and makes Credulity her debtor. I will tell you In my blunt way, to entertain the time, Until you have the happiness to see her, How in your absence she hath born her self, And with all possible brevity, though the subject Is such a spacious field, as would require And abstract of the purest eloquence (Derived from the most famous Orators The nurse of learning, Athens, showed the world) In that man, that should undertake to be Her true Historian. To make use of and Informer? tell me in what Can you advantage me? See, she appears, What think you now? Now opportunity courts you, Prefer your suit, You may presume No pomp, nor ceremony could be w nting, Where there was Privilege to command, and means To cherish rare inventions. At the new empress suit I had the honour. For which I must ever serve her. The marriage followed, And as it's said, the Emperor made bold To turn the day to night, for, to bed they went Assoon a they had dined, and there are w gers Laid by ome merry Lord's, he hath already Begotten a boy upon her. But of late, Frugal and paring, now nor bounds, nor limits To his magnificent bounties. He affirmed, Having received more blessings by his empress Then he could hope, in thankfulness to heaven He cannot be to prodigal to others. What ever s'off red to his royal hand He signs without perusing it. And I all malefactors that are not Convicted, or for treason or fowl murder, Such only are excepted; Which we must not dispute, but put in practice. I have found her, And it please your Majesty. As she made Her speediest approach to your presence, A servant of the Princ sses Pulcheria Encountered her; what 'twas, he whispered to her I am ignorant, but hearing it, she started, And willed me to excuse her absence from you, The third partly of and hour. I am sure I feel one, In my leg already. My forced companion, Philanax. Rest and forbearing wine, with a temperate diet, Though many Montebancks pretend the cure of't, I have found my best Physicians, At some ease, I thank you, I would you could assure continuance of it, For the moiety of my fortune. Your plain dealing Deserves a fee. Would there were many more such Of your profession. Happy are pooremen, If sick with the excess of heat or cold, Caused by necessitous labour, not lose surfeits They, when spare diet, or kind nature fail, To perfect their recovery, soon arrive at Their rest in death, but on the contrary The great, and noble are exposed as preys To the rapine of Physicians, and they In lingering out what is remediless, Aim at their profit, not the patients health; A thousand trials and experiments Have be put upon me, and I forced to pay deer For my vexation, but I am re olu'd, ( I thank your honest freedom) to be made A property no more for knaves to work on. What have you there? Some Empiric. Impossible, Usher in your monster. For your good wish, I thank you. I marry Sir, that cured I shall be apter To give credit to the rest Why do you smile? I would be instructed, Hence with the rascal. Yet hurt him not, he makes me smile, and that Frees him from punishment. They thrust off the Emper So soon returned? In my heart I kneel, and thank her bounty. deer friend Cleon Give him the cupboorde of Plate in the next room. For a reward. Most glorious fruit, but made More precious by her grace, and love that sent it. To touch it only coming from her hand Makes me forget all pain. A Diamond Of this large size, though it would buy a Kingdom, Hewed from the rock, and laid down at my feet, Nay though a Monarchs gift, will hold no valve, Compared with this, and yet ere I presume To ast it, though san question it I Some heavenly restorative, I in duty Stand bound to weigh my own unworthiness: Ambrosi is food only for the Gods; And not by humane lips to be profaned: I may adore it as some holy Relic, Derived from thence, but impious to keep it, In my possession; the Emperor only, Is worthy to enjoy it go good Cleon, Enter Cleon (And cease this admiration at this object;) From me present this to my royal master, I know it will amaze him, and excuse me That I am not my self the bearer of it. That I should be lame now, when with wings of duty I should fly to the service of this Empress, Nay no delay good Cleon. Thy is most barbarous! how have you lost All feeling of humanity, as honour; In your consent alone to have me used thus? But to be as you are a looker on, Nay more a principal actor in't (the softness Of your former life considered) almost turns me Into a senseless statue. Am to suffer? Let such, whose happiness, and heaven depend Upon their present being fear to partly with A fort they cannot long hold, mine to me is A charge that I am weary of, all defences By pain, and sickness battered; Yet take heed, Take heed Lord Philanax, that for private spleen Or any false conceived grudge against me, (Since in one thought of wrong to you, I am Sincerely innocent) you do not that My oyall Master must in justice punish, If you pass to your own heart thorough mine The murder as it will come out discovered. The Emperor! Goodness, and innocence guard me! wheels, nor racks Can force into my memory, the remembrance Of the least shadow of offence, with which I ever did provoke him, though beloved (And yet the peoples love is short, and fatal) I never courted popular applause; Feasted the men of Actium, or laboured By prodigal gifts to draw the needy soldier, The tribunes, or centurious to a faction, Of which I would rise up the head against him. I hold no place of S rength, fortress, or castle In my command, that can give sanctuary To malecontents, or countenance rebellion. I have built no palaces to face the court, Nor do my followers bravery shame his train And though I cannot blame my fate for want, My competent means of life deserves no envy. In what then am I dangerous? None of these? In what then am I worthy his suspicion? But it may, nay it must be, some informer To whom my innocence appear worser a crime, Hath poison worser his late good opinion of me. 'Tis not to die, but in the censure of So good a Master guilty, that afflictes me. No, I have a friend yet, Could he strictness of your warrant give way to it, To whom the S ate I stand in now delivered, That by fair intercession for me would So far prevail, that my defence unheard I should not innocent, or guilty suffer, Without a fi distinction. She that dares plead For innocence without a fee, the Empress, My great, and gracious Mistress! Over familiar? And is that The crime for which I am to die? Of all My numerous sins, was there not one of weight Enough to sink me, if he borrowed not The colour of a gilded I never saw, To paint my innocence, in a deformed And more strous shape? but that it were profane To argue heaven of ignorance, or injustice, I now should tax it. Had the stars that reigned At my nativity such cursed influence, As not alone to make ee miserable, But in the neighbourhood of her goodness to me To force contagion upon a Lady, Whose purer flames were not inferior, To theirs, when they shine brightest? to die for her Counterfeit pared with what she suffers is a trifle. By her example warned, let all great women Heereaf er throw pride, and contempt on such As truly serve they, since a retribution In lawful courtesies, is now stiled lust, And to be thankful to a servants merits Is grown a vice, no virtue. She is prepared Nor can the freeing of and innocent From the Emperors furious jealousy hinder her. It shall out, it's resolved, but to be whispered To you alone. What a solemnizing mne preparation Is made here to put forth and inch of taper In it self almost extinguished? mortal poison? The hangmans sword, the halter? Since Arcadius death, Our late great Master, the protection of The Prince his Son, the second Theodosius, By a general vote and suffrage of the people; Was to her charge assigned, with the disposure Of his so many Kingdoms. For his person She hath so trained him up in all those arts That are both great and good, and to be wished In and Imperial Monarch, that the Mother Of the Gracchi, graven Cornelia (Room still boasts of) The wise Pulcheria but named, must be No more remembered. She by her example Hath made the court a kind of Academy, In which true honour is both learned, and practised, Her private lodging's a chaste Nunnery, In which her sisters as probationers hear From her their sovereign Abbess, all the precepts Read in the school of virtue. I shall ere I conclude. For here the wonder Begins, not ends Her soul is so immense, And her strong faculties so apprehensive, To search into the depth of deep designs, And of all nature's, that the burden which To many men were insupportable, To her is but a gentle exercise, Made by the frequent use familiar to her. So they have, But to no purpose. She that knows her strength To rule, and govern Monarchs, scorns to wear On her free neck the servile yoke of marriage. And for one lose desire, envy it self Dares not presume to taint her. Venus son Is blind indeed, when he but gazes on her. Her chastity being a rock of Diamonds, With which encountered his shafts fly in splinters, His flaming torches in the living spring Of her perfections, quenched: and to crown all; She's so impartial when she sits upon The high tribunal, neither swayed with piety, Nor awed by fear beyond her equal scale, That it's not superstition to believe Astraea once more lives upon the earth, Pulcheria's breast her temple. She deserves it, And such is the commanding power of virtue, That from her vi jous enemies it compels Paeans of praise as a endue tribute to her. Solemno loud music: It ushers The Emperors morning meditation, In which Pulcheria is more then assistant. 'Tis worth your observation, and you may Collect from her expense of time this day, How her hours for many years have been disposed of. Did you note The majesty she appears in? And then with what speed She order his dispatches, not one daring To interpose; the Emperor himself Without reply putting in act what ever She pleased to impose upon him. They ate Employed by diverse Princes, who desire Alliance with our Emperor, whose years now As you see, write him man. One would advance A daughter to the honour of his bed, A second, his fair sister: to instruct you In the particulars would ask longer time Then my own designs give way to. I have letters From special friends of mine, that to my care Commend a stranger virgin, whom this morning I purpose to present before the Princess, If you please, you may accompany me. Forget them, Remembering those may help you. She is bound to it By the surest chain, her natural inclination To help the afflicted, nor shall long delays (More terrible to miserable suitors Then quick denials) grieve you; Dry your fair eyes, This room will instantly be sanctified With her blessed presence; to her ready hand Present your grievances, and rest assured You shall depart contented. Away you rascal, Did I ever keep such servants? Whats your suit Sir? And thou the arch-knave, The great devour the less. A notable canniball? but should I hear thee, In what do your knaves concern me? Before they are condemned? Hence Rogue, Here's a fine knave. And all men else that honour beauty May it please your excellence, That is and easy task , I though no scholar, Dare undertake it; clear truth cannot want Rhetorical persuasions. Come my fai e one, I hope my convert. Better you never had been. She holds out yet, And yields not to th'assault. You are advanced too high Sir, To acknowledge a beholdings, it's discharged, And I, beyond my Hope's, rewarded, if My service please your Majesty. These are strange devices Philanax. Any will serve, To take away my gout, and life together. I would not have the Emperor imitate Rome's Monster, Nero, in that cruel mercy Ilee showed to Seneca ; when you have discharged What you are trusted with, and I have given you Reasons beyond all doubt, or disputation, Of the Empresses and my innocence, when I am dead, Since it's my Master's pleasure, and high treason In you not to obey it, I conjure you, By the Hope's you have of happiness hereafter, Since mine in this world are now parting from me, That you would win the young man to repentance Of the wrong done to his chaste wise Eudoxiam, And if perchance he shed a tear for what In his rashness he imposed on his true servant, So it cure him of future jealousy, 'Twill prove a precious balsamum, and find me When I am in my graven. Now when you please, For I am ready. Eunuchs of the Emperors chamber, that repine, The globe and awful sceptre should give place Unto the distaff, for as such they whisper A woman's government, but dare not yet Express themselves. This argues weakness, though your brother's were Cruel beyond expression, and the judges That sentenced you, corrupt, you shall find here One of your own feign sex to do you right, Whose beams of justice Like the Sun extend Their light, and heat to strangers, and are not Municipal, or confined. When you know, fair creature, It is the Emperor that honours you With such a strict survey of your sweet parts, In thankfulness you cannot but return Endue reverence for the favour. Live long Sir, May I do so to serve you and if that I live does not displease you, you owe for it To this good Lord. What think you now? Pray you so take it; Fair Athenais not long since a Suitor, And almost in her Hope's forsaken, first W Christened, and the Emperors mother's name Eudoxiam, as he willed, imposed upon her: Pulcheria the ever matchless Princess, Assisted by her reverend Aunt Maria, Her Godmothers. Nor this, nor the age before us ever looked oh The Like solemnity.