TYNDARUS

WHat Fury shot a viper through my soul To poison all my thoughts? Civil dissension Wars in my blood: here Love with thousand bows And twenty thousand arrows lays his siege To my poor heart; which, maned with nought but fear, Denies the great God entrance. Oh Evadne! Canst thou that risest fairer then the morn, Set blacker then the evening? —Weak jealousy!— Did ever thy prying and suspicious sighed Find her lip guilty of a wanton smile? Or one lascivious glance dart from her eye? The blushes of her cheeks are innocent, Her carriage sober, her discourse all chaste; No toyish gesture, no desire to see The public shows, or haunt the Theatre. She is no popular Mistress, all her kisses Do speak her Virgin, such a bashful heat At several tides ebbs, flows; flows, ebbs again, As 'twere afraid to meet our wilder flame. But if all this be cunning, (as who knows The sleights of Sirens?) and I credulous fool Trained by her songs to sink in her embraces; I were undone for ever—wretched Tyndarus! Away foul sin. —It's Atheism to suspect A devil lodged in such divinity. Call snow unchaste, and say the ice is wanton, If she be so. No, my Evadne, no, I know thy soul as beauteous as thy face. That glorious outside which all eyes adore, Is but the fair shrine of a fairer saint. Oh pardon me thy penitent infidel: By thy fair eyes (from whom this little world Borrows that light it has) I henceforth vow, Never to think sin can be grown so bold As to assault thy soul. Here is and argument, Tyndarus, to incite And tempt thy free neck to the yoke of Love. Are these the joys we reap i'th'nuptiall bed? First in thy bosom warm the snake, and call The viper to thy arms—Oh gentle death, There is no sleep blessed and secure but thine. Wives are but fair afflictions: sure this woman Was wooed with protestations, oaths, and vows As well as my Evadne; thought as fair, As wise and virtuous as my soul speaks her: And may not she or play the hypocrite now? Or after turn Apostate? —Guilty thoughts Disturb me not. For were the sex a sin, Her goodness were sufficient to redeem And ransom all from slander. Cold jealousy, I shall account thee now No idle passion, when the womb that bore her Shall plead her gilded, I must forget her name. Fly from my memory, I will drink oblivion To lose the loathed Evadne. Good impertinent. Be not rash, Tyndarus. This malicious woman May as well hate her daughter, as her husband. I am too sudden to conclude her false On such sleight witness. Shall I think the Sun Has lost his crown of light, because a cloud Or envious night hath cast a robe of darkness betwixt the world's eye and mine-? I am resolved upon a safer trial. Sir, you are Courtly, and no doubt the Ladies Fallen out about you: for those rare perfections Can do no less then ravish. Could you now But pull the maiden-blossoms of a rose Sweet as the spring it buds in, fair Evadne; Or gain her promise, and that grant confirmed By some sleight jewel, I shall vow my self Indebted to the service, and live yours. As how, I pray? I do believe you. Go on—return victorious. Oh poor-heart, What sorrows dost thou teem with! Here she comes. ANd is it possible so divine a goddess Should fallen from heaven to wallow here in sin With a Babjon as this is? —My Evadne, Why should a sadness dwell upon this cheek To blast the tender roses? spare those tears To pity others, thy unspotted soul Has not a stain in't to be washed away With penitent waters. Do not grieve, thy sorrows Have forced mine eyes too to this womanish weakness. I have lost all distrust, seal me my pardon In a chaste turtles kiss. The doves that draw The rosy chariot of the Queen of love, Shall not be linked in whiter yokes then we. Come let us kiss, Evadne. —Out temptation! There was too much, and that too wanton heat In thy lascivious lip—Go to the stews, I may perchance be now and then a customer, But do abjure thee from my chaster sheets. Exit Tyndarus. PHysicians say, there's no disease so dangerous As when the Patient knows not he is sick. Such, such is mine. I could not be so ill, Did I but know I were not well. The fear Of dangers but suspected, is more horrid Then present misery. I have seen a man During the storm, shake at the thoughts of death: Who when his eyes beheld a certain ruin, Died hugging of the wave. Were Evadne true I were too blessed; or could I say she's false, I could no more be wretched.—I am well: My pulse beats music, and my lively blood Dances a healthful measure.—Would! What's this Gnaws at my heart? what viperous shirt of Nessus Cleaves to my skin, and eats away my flesh? It's some infection— My Asotus? It's love Is my infection. Dear, deer self! How fares the darling of the age? Say, what success? I know the rest of women may be frail, Brittle as glasses: but my Evadne stands A rock of Parian marble, firm and pure. The crystal may be tainted, and rude feet Profane the milky way: The Phoenix self, Although but one,—no virgin: Ever I harbour Dishonourable thoughts of that bright maid! No Tyndarus, reflect upon thy self, Turn thine eyes inward, see thine own unworthiness That does thy thoughts to this suspicion move: She loves thee not, because thou deservest no love. Too too well. And must her lust break into open flames, To lend the world a light to view her shames? Could not she taste her Page? or secretly Admit a tuft-backed Groom into her arms? Or practice with her Doctor, and take Physic In a close room? But thus, good heavens, to take Her stallions up i'th' streets! While sin is modest It may be healed; but if it once grow impudent, The fester spreads above all Hope's of cure. I never could observe so strange a boldness In my Evadne. I have seen her cheeks Blush, as if modesty her self had there Lain in a bed of coral. —But how soon Is virtue lost in women! Oh do not hold me longer in suspense: The prisoner at the bar may with less fear Hear the sad sentence of his death pronounced, Then stand the doubtful trial. Pray confirm me. Oh my sad heartstrings crack! This did I give her, and she vowed to keep it By all the oaths religion knew. No Deity In all the court of heaven but highly suffers In this one perjury. The diamond Keeps his chaste lustre still, when she has foiled A glory of more worth then all those toys Proud folly gave such price to. Where art thou patience? Hence contagious mists That would infect the air of her pure fame: My sword shall purge you forth, base dross of men, From her refined metal. Why should I Afflict my self for her? No, let her vanish. Shall I retain my love, when she has lost The treasure of her virtue? Stay, perchance Her innocence may be wronged. Said I, perchance? That doubt will call a curse upon my head To plague my unbelief.—But here's a witness Of too too certain truth stands up against her. Me thinks the flame that burned so bright die in me. I am no more a captive, I have shaked My fetters off, and broke those gyves of steel That bound me to my thraldom.— My fair prison Adieu.— How sweetly breathes this open air? My feet grown wanton with their liberty, Could dance and caper till I knocked at heaven With my advanced head. Come deer Asotus, There are no pleasures but they shall be ours. We will dispeople all the elements To please our palates. Midnight shall behold Our nightly cups, and wear a blacker mask, As envious of our jollities. The whole sex Of women shall be ours. Merchant's shall proffer Their tender brides. Mother's shall run and fetch Their daughters (ever they yet be ripe) to satisfy Our liquorish lustest. Then Tityrus happy call, That losing one fair maid has purchased all. And when we have run over the catalogue Of former pleasures, thou, and I, and Ballio Will fit and study new ones. I will raise A sect of new and rare Philosophers, Shall from my name be called Tyndarides. Come, blessed restorer of my liberty. We will be frolic, boy; and ever we partly, Remember thee, Thou mighty man of art. TEchmessa? never did I understand The sweets of life till now. I will pronounce This for my birthday. PAmphilus, welcome: Shake thy sorrows off, Why in this age of freedom dost thou fit A captived wretch? I do not feel the weight Of clay about me. Am I not all air? Or of some quicker element? I have purged out All that was earth about me, and walk now As free a soul as in the separation. It's a touchy Tiger. How happy am I that have scaped the dens Of these she-wolves! That blood of goats should soften Adamant! And poor weak woman with and idle face Should make the soldier to forget his valour, And man his sex! I joy to think that I shall meet Evadne Turned on the sudden Moor. How black and vile She will appear! Oh Heavens! who will not dare Henceforth to scorn your powers, and call sacrilege Merit and piety? I do not see A hair deformed, no tooth or nail sustain The brand of her deserved shame. You punished The Queen of beauty with a mole; but certainly Her perjury hath added to her from, And that the abused gods bribe her with beauty, As the wracked tenant strives to buy the favour Of his imperious Landlord. Oh lust! on what bright altars blaze thy flames, While chastity lets her cold fires glow out In deformed temples, and on ruined altars! Tempt me not strumpet, you that have your hirelings, And can with jewels, rings, and other toys Purchase your journeymen-letchers. I am turned eagle now, and have and eye Dares boldly gaze on that adulterate sun. I must be short. Who must this ring direct Into your guilty sheets? A fine dissembler! would! what tumults here? I am again thy servant, mighty love! Oh my Evadne, how shall I appear So bold as but to plead in mine own cause? It is so foul that none can seal my pardon, But you that should condemn me. It's double life Granted by such a seal. Officers, you are discharged. Enough. Your satisfaction now is full and ample. BRother, I find my soul a troubled sea Whose billows are not fully quieted, Although the storm be over. Therefore, Pamphilus, By the same womb that bred us, and the breasts Of our dead mother Lalage, I conjure thee, With all the charms that love can teach thee, Assault Evadnies faith: if thou report her Constant, I end my jealousy: if frail, The torrent of my love shall bend his course To find some other channel. Be sudden, Pamphilus. Exit Tyn. PAmphilus, how is't? Then farewell all respect of blood and friendship, I do pronounce thee stranger. If there can be Valour in treachery, put thy trust in steel As I do, not in brother's.— Draw, or die. I hate the name, it is a word Whets my just anger to a sharper edge. I will no pleading but the sword. Wertenberg thou protected by Apollo's temple, Or hadst the altar for security, Religion should not bind me from thy death. Couldst thou retreat into my mother's womb, There my revenge should find thee. I am sudden, And talk is tedious. Oh how frail is man! One Sunny day the exhalation rears Into a cloud: at night it falls in tears. Exeunt. I F it be not immodesty to demand So bold a question; I would be resolved Of one doubt yet. When you were young, And lively appetite reveled in your blood, Did you not find rebellion in your veins? Did not the same embraces tedious grow? And cause a longing in your thoughts to taste Varieties of men? Steeled impudence! What fruit can I expect the bough should bear That grows from such a stock? Sure this old piece of lust When she is dead will make her grave a brothel, And tempt the worms to adulterate her carcase. Is there no house To meet at, but this Ballios? Is Evadne Acquainted there? is that the rendezvous Of her hight meetings?—yet I still suspect This woman's malice to her child not lost. I will bestow some time, and go to see The strange event of this dark mystery. What nursery of sin is this? what temple Of lust and riot? Was this place alone Thought a fit witness for the knitting up Chaste and religious love? Deeds dark as hell, Incest and murder might be acted here. The holy God of Marriage never lighted His sacred torch at so profane a den. It is a cage for schreetch-owls, bats, and ravens, For crows and kites, and such Like birds of prey. But the chaste turtle, the indulgent pelican, And pious stork, fly hence as from infection. Evadne meet me here? Is she a parcel Of the damned family? Are there such white devils Among their Succuba's? No, thou art wronged, Evadne: And there be some that scatter snakes amongst us, Have stung too deep already. Bless me eyes! My troubled fancy fools me. I am lost In a distracted dream. It is not she. Awake thee Tyndarus: what strange sleeps are these! Me thinks I am in hell, and yet behold A glorious Angel there. Or have these devils Broke into Paradise! for the place is such, She blesses with her presence.—Mere contradictions, Chimaeras, of a restless brain. It's Evadne, It's the fair-foul Evadne. Now my sword, That hadst a good edge to defend this woman, Go send her soul into another mansion Black as it self. It is too foul a tenant For this fair palace. Stay yet, too forward steel, Take her encircled in her stallions arms, And kill two sins together. —.Let they be At hell to bear the punishment of lust Ever it be fully acted. That's a task for me. A way fowl ravishers, I will teach my sword Justice to punish you. Such a troup of Harpies To force a Ladies honour! I will quench With your own blood the rage of that hight lust That spurred you on to base and bold attempts. Lady be safe. This courtesy deserves Some fair requital. Heaven be not deaf! Prayer is cheap reward. And nothing now bought at a rate so easy As that same highway beware.—Heaven bless your worship. In plain words Lady (I can use no language But what is blunt) I must do what they would have done. Come: no circumstance. Your answer? quick. You are discourteous, Lady! Why do I trifle time away in begging That may command.—Proud Damsel, I will force thee. Be not too masculine, Lady. Incomparable Lady! By all those powers that the blest-men adore, And the worst fear, I have no black design Upon your honour; only as a soldier I did desire to prove whither my sword Had a deserving cause: I would be loath To quarrel for light beware. Now I have found you Full weight, I'll wear his life upon my point That injures so much goodness. Blessed be this minute, sanctify it, Time, Above all thy calendar. Now I find her gold. This touchstone gives her perfect. The discovery Of never found kingdoms, where the blow turns up Rich oar in every furrow, is to this A poor success. Now all my doubts are cleared, And I dare boldly say, Be happy Tyndarus! Pamphilus here? He comes to meet Evadne. This is their house Of toleration. She had spied me out Through my disguise: and with what studied art, What cunning language, how well acted gesture, How much of that unbounded store of tears She wrought on my credulity! The Fox, Hyaena, Crocodile, and all beasts of craft, Have been distilled to make one woman up. Exit. How close they wind, Like glutinous snakes engendering, Sure were Evadne false, yet Pamphilus Would not be made the instrument to wrong me. Or suppose Pamphilus were a treacherous brother; Me thinks Evadne should be kinder to me. Techmessa join with me in one search more, Ballio. Oh Ballio, it's in you and deer Asotus To make two wretches happy. 'Ile make you two joint heirs of my estate, And you shall give it out: we two are dead By our own hands. And bear us both this night To church in coffins. Whence we'll make escape, And bid farewell to Thebes. To secure you, We'll write before what we intend to act: Our hands shall witness with your innocence. What strange Maeanders Cupid leads us through! When most we forward go, we backward move. There is no path so intricate as Love! HOw poor a thing is man, whom death it self Cannot protect from injuries! Oh you gods! Is't not enough our wretched lives are tossed On dangerous seas, but we must stand in fear Of Pirates in the haven too? Heaven made us So many buts of clay, at which the gods In cruel sport shoot Misery's. —Yet, I hope, Their spleen's grown milder, and this blessed occasion Offers it self and earnest of their mercy. Their sins have furnished us with fit disguises To quiet our perplexed souls. Techmessa, Let me array you in this woman's robes. I'll wear the Sextons garments in exchange. Our sheets and coffins shall be theirs. Yet to those prisons will we now commit These two offenders. A great one: If my Evadne, or thy Pamphilus Ever loved us living, they will haste to make Atonement for our souls, stained with the gilded Of our own blood: if not, they will rejoice Our death's have opened them so clear a passage To their close loves: and with those thoughts possessed, They will forget the torments hell provides For those, that leave the warfare of this life Without a pass from the great General. So pray I. I will desire you statue, be so courteous To partly with's beard a while.—So we are now Beyond discovery. Let's use a charm for these! Quiet sleep, or I will make Erinys whip thee with a snake. And cruel Rhadamanthus take Thy body to the boiling lake, Where fire and brimstone never slake. Thy heart shall burn, thy head shall ache And every joint about thee quake. And therefore dare not yet to wake. But who comes hither? Ballio, what's his business? These, Sir, will cure my deafness. Sir, you have bought me. Ask these.— Yes. 'Twas charitably done. Sir, if your courtesy had not bound me yours, This act of goodness had. Here was a strange deliverance! who can be So confident of fortune, as to say, I now am safe? Would!—It's so!—It's so! I see it with clear eyes.—Oh cursed plot! And are you brooding crocodiles? I may chance To break the serpents egg, ever you have hatched The viper to perfection. Come Techmessa, My anger will no longer be confined To patient silence: Tedious expectation Is but a foolish fire by night, that leads The traveller out on's way—Break forth, my wrath: Break Like a deluge of consuming fire, And scorch they both to ashes, in a flame Hight as their lust.—No:—It's too base a blood For me to spill.—Let they e'ne live engender A brood of monsters:—May perpetual jealousy Wait on their beds, and poison their embraces With just suspicions: may their children be Deformed, and fright the mother at the birth: May they live long, and wretched; all men's hate, And yet have misery enough for pity: May they be long a dying—of diseases Painful, and loathsome:—Passion, do not hurry me To this unmanly womanish revenge. Wilt thou curse Tyndarus when thou wearest a sword? But would, hark, observe!— Be not too credulous. I am moved: Yet I will make this trial full and perfect. What, at this dismal hour, when nothing walks But souls tormented, calls you from your sheets To visit our dark cells, inhabited By death and melancholy? Fair Lady, may I ask one question of you? Did you admit no love into your bosom But only his? I know not whither it be joy or grief Forces tears from me. Pretty sorrow! These cannot be. There gentle Lady. What mean you, Lady? Your impious rather. If you were dead, who then were left to make Lustration for his crime? shall foolish zeal Persuade you to a hasty death, and so Leave Tyndarus to eternity of flames? Be not too rash: I will revive Techmessa. No, Evadne, Receive me new created, of a clay Purged from all dregs; my thoughts do all run clear. Take hence those coffins. I will have them born Trophies before me, when we come to tie The nuptial knot: for death has brought us life. Suspicion made us confident, and weak jealousy Hath added strength to our resolved love. Cupid hath run his maze, this was his day: But the next partly Hymen intends to play. How does my friend Asotus? Ballio, I thank you heartily You had and honest and religious care To see us both well buried. Why should this be? The reason is apparent: Evadne has been false, and the chaste deity Abhors the sacrifice of a sported soul. Go thou dissembler, mask thy self in modesty, Wear virtue for a veil, and paint false blushes On thy adulterate check. Though thou mayest cozen The eyes of man, and cheat the purblind world, Heaven has a piercing sighed. Hymen, I thank thee; Thou stoppedst my foot stepping into the gulf. How near was I damnation! To search the reason, will you please to proffer These to his godhead? I, there the faith is plighted. False Pamphilus, the honour of the temple, And the respect I bear religion, Cannot protect thee. I will stain the altars, And sprinkle every statue in the shrine With treacherous blood. Well, you may take Evadne, heaven give you joy. I am amazed. My father? He puls off his disguise I see our jealous thoughts were not in vain. Nature abhorring from so foul a sin, Infused those doubts into us. Sir, as you cleared our doubts, I will clear yours. See you these ghosts? Well Sexton, take heed hereafter How you rob the dead; some of they may cozen you. Well, you shall both fast to night, and take penance at the lower end of the table in these sheets, and that shall be your pu nishment. You have prevailed. No man be sad to day. Come, you shall dine with me. Come then: our joys are ripened to perfection. Let us give heaven the praise, and all confess, There is a difference betwixt the jealousy Of those that woo, and those that wedded be. This will hatch vipers in the nuptial bed, But that prevents the aching of the head. Exeunt cum choro can tantium in laud. Him. Dear Chremylus, The reverence to your age hath tied my hands: But were my thread of life measured by his, I'de cut it off, though we both fell together; That my incensed soul might follow his, And to eternity prosecute my revenge.