The Faithful Shepherdess | Page 8

how long
My heart has been her
servant, and how strong
My passions are: call her unkind and cruel,

Offer her all I have to gain the Jewel
Maidens so highly prize: then
loath, and fly:
This do I hold a blessed destiny.
Enter Amaryllis.
Amar_. Hail Shepherd, _Pan bless both thy flock and thee, For being
mindful of thy word to me.
Sul. Welcom fair Shepherdess, thy loving swain
Gives thee the self
same wishes back again,
Who till this present hour ne're knew that
eye,
Could make me cross mine arms, or daily dye
With fresh
consumings: boldly tell me then,
How shall we part their faithful
loves, and when?
Shall I bely him to her, shall I swear
His faith is
false, and he loves every where?
I'le say he mockt her th' other day to
you,
Which will by your confirming shew as true,
For he is of so
pure an honesty,
To think (because he will not) none will lye:

Or

else to him I'le slander Amoret,
And say, she but seems chaste; I'le
swear she met
Me 'mongst the shady Sycamores last night
And
loosely offred up her flame and spright
Into my bosom, made a
wanton bed
Of leaves and many flowers, where she spread
Her
willing body to be prest by me;
There have I carv'd her name on
many a tree,
Together with mine own; to make this show
More full
of seeming, Hobinall you know,
Son to the aged Shepherd of the glen,

Him I have sorted out of many men,
To say he found us at our
private sport,
And rouz'd us 'fore our time by his resort:
This to
confirm, I have promis'd to the boy
Many a pretty knack, and many a
toy,
As gins to catch him birds, with bow and bolt,
To shoot at
nimble Squirrels in the holt;
A pair of painted Buskins, and a Lamb,

Soft as his own locks, or the down of swan;
This I have done to
win ye, which doth give
Me double pleasure. Discord makes me live.
Amar. Lov'd swain, I thank ye, these tricks might prevail With other
rustick Shepherds, but will fail
Even once to stir, much more to
overthrow
His fixed love from judgement, who doth know
Your
nature, my end, and his chosens merit;
Therefore some stranger way
must force his spirit,
Which I have found: give second, and my love

Is everlasting thine.
Sul. Try me and prove.
Amar. These happy pair of lovers meet straightway,
Soon as they fold
their flocks up with the day,
In the thick grove bordering upon yon
Hill,
In whose hard side Nature hath carv'd a well,
And but that
matchless spring which Poets know,
Was ne're the like to this: by it
doth grow
About the sides, all herbs which Witches use,
All
simples good for Medicine or abuse,
All sweets that crown the happy
Nuptial day,
With all their colours, there the month of May
Is ever
dwelling, all is young and green,
There's not a grass on which was
ever seen
The falling Autumn, or cold Winters hand,
So full of heat
and vertue is the land,
About this fountain, which doth slowly break


Below yon Mountains foot, into a Creek
That waters all the vally,
giving Fish
Of many sorts, to fill the Shepherds dish.
This holy well,
my grandam that is dead,
Right wise in charms, hath often to me said,

Hath power to change the form of any creature,
Being thrice dipt
o're the head, into what feature,
Or shape 'twould please the letter
down to crave,
Who must pronounce this charm too, which she gave

Me on her death-bed; told me what, and how,
I should apply unto
the Patients brow,
That would be chang'd, casting them thrice asleep,

Before I trusted them into this deep.
All this she shew'd me, and
did charge me prove
This secret of her Art, if crost in love.
I'le this
attempt; now Shepherd, I have here
All her prescriptions, and I will
not fear
To be my self dipt: come, my temples bind
With these sad
herbs, and when I sleep you find,
As you do speak your charm, thrice
down me let,
And bid the water raise me Amoret;
Which being
done, leave me to my affair,
And e're the day shall quite it self
out-wear,
I will return unto my Shepherds arm,
Dip me again, and
then repeat this charm,
And pluck me up my self, whom freely take,

And the hotst fire of thine affection slake.
Sul. And if I fit thee not, then fit not me:
I long the truth of this wells
power to see. [Exeunt.
Enter Daphnis.
Daph. Here will I stay, for this the covert is
Where I appointed Cloe;
do not miss,
Thou bright-ey'd virgin, come, O come my fair,
Be not
abus'd with fear, nor let cold care
Of honour stay thee from the
Shepherds arm,
Who would as hard be won to offer harm
To thy
chast thoughts, as whiteness from the day,
Or yon great round to
move another way.

My language shall be honest, full of truth,
My
flames as smooth and spotless as my youth:
I will not entertain that
wandring thought,
Whose easie current may at length be brought

To a loose vastness.

Alexis within. Cloe!
Daph. 'Tis her