THE

COUNTESS of Pembroke's

ARCADIA

W

A SIXTH BOOK.*

HAT changes in fortune the princes of Macedon and Theffaly have paft, together with what event the uncertain actions of fo blind a goddefs have been crowned, they may remember, whofe ears have been fed with their eloquent ftory, written by the never-enough renowned Sir Philip Sidney.

Bafilius, therefore, having beheld with the eye of fuc cefs, the accomplishment of his mifinterpreted oracle, haftned (together with Euarchus) to his court of Mantinea; where the infinite affembly, and the publick facrifices of his fubjects, did well witnefs what joy did poffefs their hearts, whofe eyes were reftored to the fight of long eclipfed foveraignty. Fame, alfo, proud to be the meffenger of fuch royal news, had foon (with fpeedy flight) paft the limits of Arcadia; fo as in few days the court was filled with foreign princes, whom either the tie of a long-obferved league of amity, or a

* This Sixth Book, was written in the Year 1633.

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nearnefs in blood to Bafilius, at fuch a time, brought thither, to congratulate with him; or were fuch, whofe honour-thirty minds hunted after occafions. to make known their acts in chivalry.

And now was the marriage-day cone, when Pamela, attired in the ftately ornament of beauteous majesty, led by the conftant forwardness of a virtuous mind, waited on by the many thoughts of his fore-paft croffes in her love, which now made up a perfect harmony in the pleafing difcord of indeared affection, was brought to church; whom, foon after, her fifter Philoclea (being in the fame degree of happiness, clad in the bafhful innocency of an unfpotted foul, guided by the thamefaced defire of her Pyrocles's fatisfaction, attended on by many graces of a mild chearfulness) followed; both equally admired, both equally looked upon.

The temple (whereto in triumph beauty and majefty were led prifoners by the famous fifters) was a fit dwelling-place for the Arcadian Deities, fenced from the fun and winds too free accefs, by many ranks of even-grown, even-fet trees, near which, in divided branches, ran two clear ftreams, whofe fweet murmur (as they tumbled over their bed of pebble-ftones) did much adorn the religious folitarinefs of that place. And, that nothing fhould be wanting that might fet forth the careful judg ment of the builder, it was feated in fuch a near diftance from the palace, as might not prefently bury the glorioufnefs of the fhow, nor cloy the beholders with the tedioufnefs of the fight. In the way, on both hands, were many altars, on which the crowned intrails of the much-promifing facrifices were laid. At the door the two filters were received by as many virgins, attired in a white lawn livery, with garlands on their heads of lillies and rofes intermixed, holding in their left hands a pair of pigeons, the grateful offering to the Queen of Love. Soon after, the accuftomed rites in the Arcadian nuptials being ended, the king and Euarchus, with the reit of the princes, returned unto a ftately palace, fumptuously furnished, where both art and nature feemed to be at variance, whether fhould bestow most ornaments to inrich fo rare a work: feated where the earth did rife a little (as proud to be the fupporter of fo curious a building) by means whereof, the fight had freedom to

overlook a large territory; where the green level of the Arcadian plains, beautified by the intercourfe of many forefts, reprefented the delightful mixture of a civil wilderness. The building of marble, where whether the art in carving into many forms, the in vain refifting hardness of the ftone, the cunning in knitting the dis jointed members, or the invention in contriving their feveral rooms, did excel, was hard to be judged of.

The infide alfo might well be the inner part of fo glorious an outfide; for, befides the well-matched largenefs of the rooms, and lightfome pleafantnefs of the windows, it was all hung with the choice rarenefs of far-fetched Arras, in which the ingenious workman, with the curious pencil of his little needle, had limned the dumb records of revived antiquity. Here did he prefent the memorable fiege of Thebes, where the ruins of her walls feemed yet to hang, and make the beholders fear the downfal of the lively ftones. There you might fee how cunningly he had expreffed the conftrained flight of the Trojan prince, and the cruel facrifice of inraged Dido's love. Nor was the ftory of Scylla forgotten, who there ftood before Minos, with the prefent of her father's fatal hair, while you might perceive, by his bent brows and difdainful countenance, the juft reward of her unnatural attempt. With thefe and others, wherein coft and invention ftrove for the maftery, were the hangings adorned; yet thefe many ftories did fo ftealingly fucceed each other, that the most curious obferver's eye (though his admiration might dwell on each piece) could find no caufe of ftay, until he had overlooked them all. But neither thefe, nor what art or nature could have added, did fet forth fo much the palace, as the graceful prefence of the Arcadian fifters, whofe beauties, till now, of long time had borne a part with their troubled minds, in a fweet pilgrimage to a happy event; and therefore at this prefent, fo far difburthened of thofe thoughts, as it was to be fettled in the most defired injoying of unspeakable bliss, the imagination would needs perfuade, if it were poffible, were bettered.

Dinner being fet and ended, while the knights (who, to honour that day with tilting, and to fhew what they dared and could effect in the fervice, as they thought, of unrefiftable

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refiftable beauties) were putting on their armour, there entered the hall a page, who, with fubmiffive humblenefs, told the king, He was fent from his mafter, the naked knight, who defired there to be received as a challenger, to eternize, as the juftness of his caufe required, the famous memory of his deceafed miftrefs Hellen, the queen of Corinth. Bafilius, much pitying the before-unheard death of fo excellent a queen, willed the page to relate the circumftance; which being strange in itself, and of fo great a fubject, wrought a paffionate willingness in the hearers to be attentive.

After that fortune (faid he) had bestowed, by the conqueft of Amphialus, at Cecropia's castle, the victory on his adverfary the black knight, this Queen (having long time, by the command of Love, her inward tyrant, made all Greece a ftage for her wandring paffions) at length went thither, where the end of her fearch was the beginning of her forrows. Finding the curtains of eternal night ready to close up his eyes, who (in the voyage her affection made) had alway been the port The fteered to; yet hoping the knew not what, that if perhaps Proferpine fhould meet in Elyzium his departed foul, The would, in meer compaffion of her forrow, fend it back to re-inhabit her ancient feat; fhe carried the life little defiring body to Corinth, where, at that time, lived an aged man, by name Artelio, one, whofe fortunate experience in defperate cures had made famous. Him, by the powerful command of his queen, and the humble tears of a' ftill-miftrufting lover, the conjures to employ the uttermoft of his skill, in preferving him in whom the lived. Some time there was, e'er his vital fpirits, almoft now proved ftrangers to their wonted manfion, would accept the tye of hofpitality; but when the hand of art had taught them courtefy, and that each fenfe, though faintly, did exercife his charge, Amphialus, returning to himself, from that fweet igno. rance of cares, wherein he lived, began to question, In what eftate the castle was against the befiegers? thinking he had alway been there; when Hellen entred the room, with a countenance where beauty appeared through the clouds of care and fear of his danger: Her, the double and deeply wounded patient (bearing ftill about him the inward picture of Phileclea, whom long I have heard,

heard, in vain, he loved) thought to be the fame faint, the remembrance of whom returned, together with his wandring foul, from which it was infeparable. Now, therefore, with a languishing look (the true herald of what he fuffered) Lady, faid he, though the welcome harbinger of a near-following death hath provided this body (while it was mine, alway devoted to your fervice) as a lodging for his mafter an ever certain gueft; yet when I pass to the Elyzian plains (if any memory there remain of this world of comfort you now vouchfafe, heaven knows! your faithful, though unfortunate fervant) I fhall never ceafe to pay the eternal tribute of thanks to well-deferving death, who, with his prefence, brings the happinefs in life denied me.

The queen, with a penfive filence, forrowing fhe ftood to act the counterfeit of her rival, and still defirous to injoy the fweet fpeech of her revived Amphialus, was like a paffenger, whom the loud command of the rough winds had forced to wander through the unevennefs of the deep-furrowed feas, now in fight of land, equally distracted between the defire to leave his unnatural habitation, where each wave feems to be the proud meffenger of deftruction, and fear to approach it, being jealous of his hard entertainment on the rocky fhore: thus did fhe continue (fixed in a doubtful imagination) loth to interrupt his pleafing fpeech, and more than grieved he meant not her whom he fpake to; until Amphialus (ftrengthening his newly recovered fenfes with the conceited prefence of Philoclea) found his error, and then, with a look on his mistaken object (which he could not make difdainful, because his happy thoughts had once adored it for Philoclea) he fuddenly fell into a deadly trance; whereat Hellen (feelingly fuffering in his danger) ran to him, and bedewing his even then lovely face with the loving oblation of her many tears, he, together poured forth the most paffionate plaints that love could invent, or grief utter; fo as a while, this accident overthrowing the fabrick of her half-built comfort with the fuddennefs of fo unlooked-for an affault,constrained her (with bemoaning his cafe) to forget the care of his fafety; but being withdrawn by her fervants, the indifpofition of her body, caufed her a while to entertain in bed the fever of her affectionate forrow.

In