If you will swear so yet, I'll make away The king.
Leu. You are a strumpet.
Bach. Nay I care not
For all your railings: they will batter walls And take in towns as soon as trouble me :
Tell him; I care not; I shall undo you only, Which is no matter.
Still, and for ever, that are and cannot be other.— Madam, I see 'tis in your power
To work your will on him and I desire
To lay what trains you will for my wish'd death, But suffer him to find his quiet grave In peace; alas he never did you wrong; And farther I beseech you pardon me For the ill word I gave you, for however You may deserve, it became not me To call you so, but passion urges me
I know not whither; my heart break now, and ease me
THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. BY JOHN
Clorin, a Shepherdess, watching by the Grave of her Lover, is found by a Satyr.
Clor. Hail holy earth, whose cold arms do embrace The truest man that ever fed his flocks
By the fat plains of fruitful Thessaly. Thus I salute thy grave, thus do I pay My early vows, and tribute of mine eyes, To thy still loved ashes; thus I free Myself from all ensuing heats and fires
Of love: all sports, delights, and jolly games, That shepherds hold full dear, thus put I off. Now no more shall these smooth brows be begirt With youthful coronals, and lead the dance. No more the company of fresh fair maids And wanton shepherds be to me delightful: Nor the shrill pleasing sound of merry pipes Under some shady dell, when the cool wind Plays on the leaves: all be far away, Since thou art far away, by whose dear side How often have I sate crown'd with fresh flowers For summer's queen, whilst every shepherd's boy Puts on his lusty green, with gaudy hook, And hanging scrip of finest cordevan.
But thou art gone, and these are gone with thee, And all are dead but thy dear memory: That shall out-live thee, and shall ever spring, Whilst there are pipes, or jolly shepherds sing. And here will I in honour of thy love,
Dwell by thy grave, forgetting all those joys That former times made precious to mine eyes, Only remem'bring what my youth did gain In the dark hidden virtuous use of herbs. That will I practice, and as freely give All my endeavours, as I gain'd them free. Of all green wounds I know the remedies In men or cattel, be they stung with snakes, Or charm'd with powerful words of wicked art; Or be they love-sick, or through too much heat Grown wild, or lunatic; their eyes, or ears, Thick'ned with misty film of dulling rheum: These I can cure, such secret virtue lies In herbs applied by a virgin's hand.
My meat shall be what these wild woods afford, Berries, and chesnuts, plantains, on whose cheeks The sun sits smiling, and the lofty fruit
Pull'd from the fair head of the straight-grown pine. On these I'll feed with free content and rest, When night shall blind the world, by thy side blest. A Satyr enters.
Satyr. Thorough yon same bending plain That flings his arms down to the main, And through these thick woods have I run, Whose bottom never kist the sun. Since the lusty spring began, All to please my master Pan, Have I trotted without rest To get him fruit; for at a feast He entertains this coming night His paramour the Syrinx bright: But behold a fairer sight! By that heavenly form of thine, Brightest fair, thou art divine, Sprung from great immortal race Of the gods, for in thy face, Shines more awful majesty, Than dull weak mortality
Lowly do I bend my knee In worship of thy deity.
Deign it, goddess, from my hand To receive whate'er this land From her fertile womb doth send Of her choice fruits: and but lend Belief to that the Satyr tells, Fairer by the famous wells To this present day ne'er grew, Never better, nor more true. Here be grapes whose lusty blood Is the learned poet's good,
Sweeter yet did never crown
The head of Bacchus; nuts more brown Than the squirrels teeth that crack them, Deign, O fairest fair, to take them::
For these, black-eyed Driope
Hath oftentimes commanded me With my clasped knee to climb. See how well the lusty time
Hath deckt their rising cheeks in red, Such as on your lips is spread. Here be berries for a queen, Some be red, some be green, These are of that luscious meat
The great god Pan himself doth eat:
All these, and what the woods can yield, The hanging mountain, or the field,
I freely offer, and ere long
Will bring you more, more sweet and strong;
Till when, humbly leave I take,
Lest the great Pan do awake,
That sleeping lies in a deep glade,
Under a broad beeches shade.
I must go, I must run,
Swifter than the fiery sun.
Clor. And all my fears go with thee.
What greatness, or what private hidden power, Is there in me to draw submission
From this rude man and beast? sure I am mortal; The daughter of a shepherd; he was mortal, And she that bore me mortal; prick my hand
And it will bleed; a fever shakes me, and
The self same wind that makes the young lambs shrink, Makes me a-cold: my fear says I am mortal: Yet I have heard (my mother told it me)
And now I do believe it, if I keep
My virgin flower uncropt, pure, chaste, and fair; No goblin, wood-god, fairy, elf, or fiend,
Satyr, or other power that haunts the groves, Shall hurt my body, or by vain illusion Draw me to wander after idle fires, Or voices calling me in dead of night To make me follow, and so tole me on
Through mire, and standing pools, to find my ruin. Else why should this rough thing, who never knew Manners nor smooth humanity, whose heats Are rougher than himself, and more misshapen, Thus mildly kneel to me? Sure there's a power In that great name of Virgin, that binds fast All rude uncivil bloods, all appetites
That break their confines. Then, strong Chastity, Be thou my strongest guard; for here I'll dwell In opposition against fate and hell.
Perigot and Amoret appoint to meet at the Virtuous Well. Peri. Stay, gentle Amoret, thou fair-brow'd maid, Thy shepherd prays thee stay, that holds thee dear, Equal with his soul's good.
Thee freedom, shepherd, and thy tongue be still The same it ever was, as free from ill,
As he whose conversation never knew
The court or city, be thou ever true.
Peri. When I fall off from my affection,
Or mingle my clean thoughts with ill desires,
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