Lucasta [33]
chain'd in one another fast. Lucasta to him doth relate Her various chance and diffring fate: How chac'd by Hydraphil, and tract The num'rous foe to Philanact, Who whilst they for the same things fight, As Bards decrees and Druids rite, For safeguard of their proper joyes And shepheards freedome, each destroyes The glory of this Sicilie; Since seeking thus the remedie, They fancy (building on false ground) The means must them and it confound, Yet are resolved to stand or fall, And win a little, or lose all. From this sad storm of fire and blood She fled to this yet living wood; Where she 'mongst savage beasts doth find Her self more safe then humane<33.19> kind. Then she relates, how Caelia--<33.20> The lady--here strippes her array, And girdles her in home-spunne bayes Then makes her conversant in layes Of birds, and swaines more innocent, That kenne not guile [n]or courtship ment. Now walks she to her bow'r to dine Under a shade of Eglantine, Upon a dish of Natures cheere Which both grew, drest and serv'd up there: That done, she feasts her smell with po'ses Pluckt from the damask cloath of Roses. Which there continually doth stay, And onely frost can take away; Then wagers which hath most content Her eye, eare, hand, her gust or sent. Intranc't Alexis sees and heares, As walking above all the spheres: Knows and adores this, and is wilde,<33.21> Untill with her he live thus milde.<33.22> So that, which to his thoughts he meant For losse of her a punishment, His armes hung up and his sword broke, His ensignes folded, he betook Himself unto the humble crook. And for a full reward of all, She now doth him her shepheard call, And in a see of flow'rs install: Then gives her faith immediately, Which he returns religiously; Both vowing in her peacefull cave To make their bridall-bed and grave. But the true joy this pair conceiv'd, Each from the other first bereav'd, And then found, after such alarmes, Fast-pinion'd in each other's armes, Ye panting virgins, that do meet Your loves within their winding sheet, Breathing and constant still ev'n there; Or souls their bodies in yon' sphere, Or angels, men return'd from hell And separated mindes--can tell.
<33.1> The punctuation of this piece is in the original edition singularly corrupt. I have found it necessary to amend it throughout.
<33.2> The marigold.
<33.3> A flower so called.
<33.4> More commonly known as THE GILLIFLOWER.
<33.5> i.e. the lady gathers the flowers, and binds them in her hair with a silken fillet, making of them a kind of chaplet or crown.
<33.6> i.e. silvery or white milk.
<33.7> An uncommon word, signifying WRINKLED. Bishop Hall seems to be, with the exception of Lovelace, almost the only writer who used it. Compare, however, the following passage:--
"Like to a WRITHEL'D Carion I have seen (Instead of fifty, write her down fifteen) Wearing her bought complexion in a box, And ev'ry morn her closet-face unlocks." PLANTAGENET'S TRAGICALL STORY, by T. W. 1649, p. 105.
<33.8> Original has PRIZE THEIR.
<33.9> The fish with their silvery scales.
<33.10> Fins.
<33.11> Original reads BUT LOOK.
<33.12> Original has THERE.
<33.13> i.e. condemned.
<33.14> This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning. See Halliwell's DICTIONARY OF ARCHAIC WORDS, art. POSSE, and Worcester's Dict. IBID, &c. The context here requires TO TURN SHARPLY OR QUICKLY.
<33.15> Original has SIGHT.
<33.16> Original reads I. The meaning seems to be, "I crave that my woes may be smothered in me, and I may be smothered in my grave."
<33.17> Reverence.
<33.18> i.e. in heaven.
<33.19> i.e. than among human kind.
<33.20> It may be presumed that LUCASTA had adopted the name of CAELIA during her sylvan retreat.
<33.21> Impatient.
<33.22> Tranquil or secluded.
TO ELLINDA, THAT LATELY I HAVE NOT WRITTEN.
I. If in me anger, or disdaine In you, or both, made me refraine From th' noble intercourse of verse, That only vertuous thoughts rehearse; Then, chaste
<33.1> The punctuation of this piece is in the original edition singularly corrupt. I have found it necessary to amend it throughout.
<33.2> The marigold.
<33.3> A flower so called.
<33.4> More commonly known as THE GILLIFLOWER.
<33.5> i.e. the lady gathers the flowers, and binds them in her hair with a silken fillet, making of them a kind of chaplet or crown.
<33.6> i.e. silvery or white milk.
<33.7> An uncommon word, signifying WRINKLED. Bishop Hall seems to be, with the exception of Lovelace, almost the only writer who used it. Compare, however, the following passage:--
"Like to a WRITHEL'D Carion I have seen (Instead of fifty, write her down fifteen) Wearing her bought complexion in a box, And ev'ry morn her closet-face unlocks." PLANTAGENET'S TRAGICALL STORY, by T. W. 1649, p. 105.
<33.8> Original has PRIZE THEIR.
<33.9> The fish with their silvery scales.
<33.10> Fins.
<33.11> Original reads BUT LOOK.
<33.12> Original has THERE.
<33.13> i.e. condemned.
<33.14> This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning. See Halliwell's DICTIONARY OF ARCHAIC WORDS, art. POSSE, and Worcester's Dict. IBID, &c. The context here requires TO TURN SHARPLY OR QUICKLY.
<33.15> Original has SIGHT.
<33.16> Original reads I. The meaning seems to be, "I crave that my woes may be smothered in me, and I may be smothered in my grave."
<33.17> Reverence.
<33.18> i.e. in heaven.
<33.19> i.e. than among human kind.
<33.20> It may be presumed that LUCASTA had adopted the name of CAELIA during her sylvan retreat.
<33.21> Impatient.
<33.22> Tranquil or secluded.
TO ELLINDA, THAT LATELY I HAVE NOT WRITTEN.
I. If in me anger, or disdaine In you, or both, made me refraine From th' noble intercourse of verse, That only vertuous thoughts rehearse; Then, chaste