Endure the highest test; and then it feels
The sum of delectation, since it now
Attains its perfect end; and shows its object,
By one intense act; all its verity,

Which by a thousand and ten thousand words
It would have took a poor diluted pleasure
To have imperfectly express'd.

URANIA makes a mock assignation with the King, and substitutes the Queen in her place. The King describes the supposed meeting to the Confident, whom he had employed to solicit for his guilty passion.

Pyrrhus, I'll tell thee all. When now the night
Grew black enough to hide a skulking action;
And Heaven had ne'er an eye unshut to see
Her representative on earth creep 'mongst
Those poor defenceless worms, whom nature left
An humble prey to every thing, and no
Asylum but the dark, I softly stole
To yonder grotto through the upper walks,
And there found my Urania. But I found her,
I found her, Pyrrhus, not a mistress, but

A goddess rather; which made me now to be
No more her lover, but idolater.

She only whisper'd to me, as she promised,
Yet never heard I any voice so loud ;

And, though her words were gentler far than those
That holy priests do speak to dying saints,
Yet never thunder signified so much.

And (what did more impress whate'er she said)
Methought her whispers were my injured Queen's,
Her manner just like hers! and when she urged,
Among a thousand things, the injury

I did the faithfulest princess in the world,
Who now supposed me sick, and was perchance
Upon her knees offering up holy vows

For him who mock'd both Heaven and her, and

was

Now breaking of that vow he made her, when
With sacrifice he call'd the gods to witness;
When she urged this, and wept, and spake so like
My poor deluded Queen, Pyrrhus, I trembled;
Almost persuaded that it was her angel

Spake through Urania's lips, who for her sake
Took care of me, as something she much loved.
It would be long to tell thee all she said,
How oft she sigh'd, how bitterly she wept :
But the effect-Urania still is chaste;
And with her chaster lips hath promised to
Invoke blest Heaven for my intended sin.

COMMENDATORY

VERSES BEFORE

I.

II.

III.

IV.

THREE PLAYS OF SIR WILLIAM

KILLIGREW :

By T. L.

THAT thy wise and modest Muse
Flies the stage's looser use;

Not bawdry Wit does falsely name,
And to move laughter puts off shame :
That thy theatre's loud noise
May be virgins' chaste applause;
And the stoled matron, grave divine,
Their lectures done, may tend to thine :

That no actor 's made profane,

To debase gods, to raise thy strain;
And people forced, that hear thy play,
Their money and their souls to pay:

That thou leav'st affected phrase
To the shops to use and praise;
And breath'st a noble courtly vein,—
Such as may Cæsar entertain,

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XI.

When he wearied would lay down
The burdens that attend a crown;
Disband his soul's severer powers;
In mirth and ease dissolve two hours :

These are thy inferior arts,
These I call thy second parts!

But when thou carriest on the plot,
And all are lost in the subtle knot:

When the scene sticks to every thought
And can to no event be brought;

When (thus of old the scene betray'd)
Poets call'd gods unto their aid,

Who by power might do the thing,
Art could to no issue bring;

As the Pellean prince, that broke
With a rude and downright stroke

The perplex'd and fatal noose,
Which his skill could not unloose :-
Thou dost a nobler art profess;
And the coil'd serpent canst no less

Stretch out from every twisted fold,
In which he lay inwove and roll'd :
Induce a night, and then a day,
Wrap all in clouds, and then display.

The easy and the even design:
A plot, without a god, divine !—
Let others' bold pretending pens
Write acts of gods, that know not men's;
In this to thee all must resign;

The surprise of the scene is wholly thine.

SOLO

SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE'S TRANSLATION OF "QUERER POR QUERER"-"TO LOVE FOR LOVE'S SAKE:" A ROMANTIC DRAMA.

WRITTEN IN SPANISH BY MENDOZA, 1623.

FELISBRAVO, prince of Persia, from a picture sent him of the brave Amazonian queen of Tartary, ZELIDAURA, becoming enamoured, sets out for that realm; in his way thither disenchants a queen of Araby; but first, overcome by fatigue, falls asleep in the Enchanted Grove, where ZELIDAURA herself, coming by, steals the picture from him. The passion of the romance arises from his remorse at being taken so negligent; and her disdain that he should sleep, having the company of her picture. She here plays upon him, who does not yet know her, in the disguise of a rustic.

Fel. What a spanking Labradora!

Zel. You, th' unkent Knight, God ye gud mora! 1 Fel. The time of day thou dost mistake.

Zel.

and joy

Fel. of what?

Zel. That I discover,

By a sure sign, you are awake.

Fel. Awake? the sign?

Zel. Your being a lover.

Fel. In love am I?

Zel. and very deep.

Fel. Deep in love? how is that seen!
Zel. Perfectly you do not sleep.
Fel. Rustic excellence, unscreen,

And discover that sweet face,

Which covers so much wit and grace. Zel. You but dreamt so: sleep again, And forget it.

Fel. Why now saint?

Zel. Why? the lady, that went in,2

1 She affects rusticity.

2 The enchanted queen of Araby, of whom Zelidaura is jealous.

Looks as if that she did paint.

Fel. What has that to do with sleeping?
She is, indeed, angelical.

Zel. That picture now 's well worth your keeping :
For why? 'tis an original.

Fel. Is this shepherdess a witch?

Or saw the sleeping treason, which
I committed against love,

Erst, in the Enchanted Grove?

Me hast thou ever seen before?

Zel. Seen? and know thee for a man

ay,

That will turn him, and sleep more
Than a dozen dunces can.

Thou ken'st little what sighs mean.
Fel. Unveil, by Jove, that face serene.
Zel. What, to make thee sleep again?
Fel. Still in riddles ?

Zel. Now he sees :

This pinching wakes him by degrees. Fel. Art thou a nymph?

Zel. Of Parnass Green.

Fel. Sleep I, indeed? or am I mad ?

Zel. None serve thee, but th' enchanted queen?
I think what dull conceits y' have had

Of the bird phoenix, which no eye

E'er saw, an odoriferous lie:

How, of her beauty's spells, she 's told,
That by her spirit thou art haunted
And, having slept away the old,

;

With this new mistress worse enchanted.

Fel. I affect not, shepherdess,

Myself in such fine terms t' express;

Sufficeth me an humble strain :

Too little happy to be vain!

Unveil !

Zel. Sir Gallant, not so fast.

Fel. See thee I will.