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النشر الإلكتروني

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.

Leu. I appeal to you,

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

you

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

ever.

THE

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. BY JOHN

FLETCHER.

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,

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Dwell

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

Dare

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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.

[Exit.

Clor. And all my fears go with thee.

What

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.

Amo. Speak, I give

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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