PAMPHILUS

Brother, if any stream of joy can mix With such a sea of grief as mine, and lose not His native sweetness, it's a joy for you. But I am all bitterness. When will my sufferings Make my atonement with my angry goddess? Do you celestial forms retain and anger Eternal as your substance? Do not add Contempt to cruelty. Madam, to insult Upon a prostrate wretch, is harder tyranny Then to have made him so. Courteous death Take wings, thou art too slow. In what a maze I wander! how my sorrows Run in a labyrinth! Madam, I am all love: And if the violence of my flame had met With any heart but marble, I had taught it Some spark of my affection. How am I betrayed, And fallen into the toils of treachery! Give me a man bold as that earthborn raze That bid Jove battle, and besieged the gods; And if I make him not creep Like a worm Upon his belly, and with reverence Lick up the dust you scatter from your shoe, May I for ever lose the light I live in, The sighed of you. Oh my shame! Would it were not Dishonour now to kill thee! Where shall I run And find a desert, that the foot of man Near wandered in, to hide from the world's eyes My shame! 'Sdeath, every Page, and sweaty Footman, And sopie chambermaid will point and laugh at me. I thank thee Innocence. Though earth disclaim Thy title, heaven denies thee not protection. Nay, now your penance does exceed your crime. By that love That made us twins, though born at several births, That grew along with us in height and strength, I will be true. Farewell. IT grieves me that a Lady of your worth, Young, soft, and active as the spring, the star And glory of our nation, should be prodigal Of your affections, and misplace your love On a regardless boy. That my stars should be So cross unto my happiness! Sweet, it is in us To turn the wheel of Fortune, she's a goddess That has no deity where discretion reigns. Do not I Give just exchange, and loose a brother for her? Our sufferings have been equal, and their prides. They must be equal necks that can draw even In the same yoke. See if one softness kiss not in our lips. Let's make the second trial. I know not how to and swer thee. She met me with more courtship then I tendered. Brother. Hear me. Bear me witness heaven, This Actium is unwilling. Brother, at your entreaty I adventured To court Evadne; and because I found her Against my mind, too easy to my suit, Your rage falls heavy on me. GReat Queen of love, sure when the labouring sea Did bring forth thee, before she was delivered; Her violent throws had raised a thousand storms. Yet now, I hope after so many wrecks That I have suffered in thy troubled waves, Thou now wilt land me safe. Health to the fair Evadne. Is my Techmessa here? TAke comfort, Lady. Your honour stands safe on his guard, while I Can use a sword. Wait on heavens pleasure, Madam: such a one The heavens never made for misery, they but give you These crosses as sharp sauce to whet your appetite For some choice banquet. Or they mean to led you Through a vault dark and obscure as hell, To make your paradise a sweeter prospect. —Thus I feed Others with Hope's, while mine own wounds do bleed. WAit till we call. Heaven, if thou hast not emptied all thy treasury Of wrath upon me; here I challenge thee To lay on more. What torments hast thou left, In which thou hast not exercised my patience? Yet cast up all the accounts of all my sorrows, And the whole sum is trebled in the lose Of deer Techmessa. I have stood the rest Of your afflictions, with this one I fell, Fell Like a rock that had repelled the rage Of thousand violent billows, and withstood Their fierce assaults, until the working Tide Had undermined him: then he falls, and draws Partly of the mountain with him. Alas Evadne! Thy Tyndarus is dead. I am come to pay The tribute of my eyes to a dead Love. The Sun shall change his course, and find new paths To drive his chariot in: The Loadstone leave His faith unto the North:—The Vine withdraw Those strict embraces that enfold the Elm In her kind arms:—But, if I change my love From my Techmessa, may I be recorded To all posterity, Loves great Apostate In Cupid's annals. Then there is witchcraft in't. And are the gods Made parties too against me?—Pardon then If I grow stubborn.—While they pressed my shoulders No more then I could bear, they willingly Submitted to the burden.—Now they wish To cast it off.—What treachery has bribed you, Celestial forms, to be my false accusers? I challenge you (for you can view my thoughts, And read the secret characters of my heart.) Give in your verdict, did you ever find Another image graved in my soul Beside Techmessa? No! It's hell has forged These fly impostures! all these plots are coined Out of the devils mintage! Where must I Pay my devotions? Thou gentle soul of my deceased love, If thou still hoverst here about, accept The vows of Pamphilus. —If I ever think Of woman with affection, but Techmessa, Or keep the least spark of a love alive But in her ashes: let me never see Those blessed fields where gentle lovers walk In endless joys. —Why do I idly weep! I'll write my grief in blood. Techmessa, I am yet withheld; but suddenly I'll make escape to find thee. Thou hast revived two lives at once. Celestial powers, You tyrannise over man: and yot it's sin To ask you why you wrong us. My father? Religion is mere juggling. This is nothing But the Priests knavery: a kind of holy trick To gain their superstition credit. Hymen, Why dost thou turn away thy head? I fear Thy bashful deitle is ashamed to look A woman in the face. If so, I pardon thee: If out of spite thou cross me, know, weak godhead, I'll teach mankind a custom that shall bring Thy altars to neglect. Lovers shall couple, As other creatures,—freely, and never stand Upon the tedious ceremony—Marriage: And then thou Priest mayest starve. Who in your temple Will light a —Cere-candle, or for incense burn A grain of frankincense?