Have lost their safety of the plain,
Then begs of Fate the vales again.

The now confounded shepherd cries,
Ye all-confounding destinies!

How did you make that voice so sweet
Without that glorious form to it?
Thou sacred spirit of my dear
Whene'er thou hover'st o'er us hear!
Embark thee in the laurel tree,
And a new Phoebus follows thee,
Who 'stead of all his burning rays
Will strive to catch thee with his lays;
Or if within the orient vine,
Thou art both Deity and wine;
But if thou tak'st the myrtle grove
That Paphos is, thou queen of love,
And I thy swain who (else) must die
By no beast's,-but thy cruelty:
But you are rougher than the wind;

Are souls on earth than heav'n more kind?

Imprisoned in mortality,

Lucasta would have answer'd me.

Lucasta, Aramantha said,

Is she, that virgin-star, a maid,
Except her prouder livery,

In beauty poor, and cheap as I?
Whose glory like a meteor shone,

Or aëry apparition,

Admir'd awhile, but slighted known.

Fierce, as the chased lion hies,
He rouses him; and to her flies,
Thinking to answer with his spear-
Now, as in war intestine, where
I'th' midst of a black battle, each
Lays at his next, then makes a breach
Through th' entrails of another whom
He sees nor knows, when he did come
Guided alone by th' rage and th' drum;
But stripping, and impatient wild,
He sends too soon his only child.

So our exposing desp'rate lover Far'd, when amaz'd he did discover Lucasta in this nymph, his sin Darts the accurs'd javelin

'Gainst his own breast, which she puts by

With a soft lip and gentle eye,

Then closes with him on the ground;

And now her smiles have heal'd his wound,

Alexis too again is found:

But not until those heavy crimes

She hath kiss'd off a thousand times,

Who not contented with this pain

Doth threaten to offend again.

And now they gaze, and sigh, and weep, Whilst each cheek doth the other's steep, Whilst tongues as exorcis'd are calm;

Only the rhetoric of the palm
Prevailing pleads, until at last

They chain'd in one another fast:
Lucasta doth to him relate

Her various chance and diff'ring fate:
How chas'd by HYDRAPHIL, and tract
The numerous foe to PHILANACT,
Who whilst they for the same things fight
AS BARDS decrees, and DRUIDS rite;
For safeguard of their proper joys
And shepherds freedom, each destroys
The glory of this Sicily;

Since seeking thus the remedy,

They fancy (building on false ground)

The means must them and it confound,
Yet are resolv'd 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 Herself more safe than humankind.

Then she relates how CELIA

The lady here strips her array,

And girdles her in homespun baize,
Then makes her conversant in lays
Of birds, and swains more innocent
That ken not guile or courtshipment.

Now walks she to her bower to dine Under a shade of eglantine

Upon a dish of nature's cheer,

Which both grew dress'd, and serv'd up there:
That done, she feasts her smell with posies
Pluck'd from the damask cloth of roses.
Which there continually doth stay,
And only frost can take away;

Then wagers which hath most content
Her eye, ear, hand, her gust or scent.

Intranc'd ALEXIS sees and hears,
As walking above all the spheres:
Knows and adores this, and is wild
Until with her he live thus mild.

So that which to his thoughts he meant
For loss of her a punishment,

His arms hung up, and his sword broke,
His ensigns folded, he betook

Himself unto the humble crook:

And for a full reward of all,

She now doth him her shepherd call,

And in a SEA of flow'rs install:

Then gives her faith immediately,
Which he returns religiously;

Both vowing in her peaceful cave
To make their bridal-bed and grave.

But the true joy this pair conceiv'd Each from the other first bereav'd; And then found after such alarms Fast pinion'd in each other's arms: 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 minds can tell.