Classic Poem

ACT . III. S CEN. IV.

Lucasia, Florina, Malthora, Eumela. Lu .

Madam, ne'r fear your Dream, for that is only
The reliques of your day-time thoughts, that are
Preserv'd b'your Soul, to make a Scene i'th' Night. Eum .
Have you not dream'd the like before? Mal .
Yes thrice. Eum .
Why then Pastanus now hath perish'd thrice,
Or else y' have sometimes dream'd in vain. Flor .
Eumela ,
I told her this, and that her troubled Sleeps
Were one Love still waking. Luc .
Wee'l divert
This anxious fear. Reach me the Lute Eumela .
Have you not heard how Venus did complain
For her belov'd Adonis ? The young Poet,
That was desir'd to give a Language to
Th' afflicted Goddess, thought her words were these.

The Ode Luc .

Wake my Adonis, do not dye;
One Life's enough for thee and I.
Where are thy words? thy wiles?
Thy Loves, thy Frowns, thy smiles?
Alas in vain I call;
One death hath snatch'd 'em all;
Yet Death's not deadly in that Face,
Death in those Looks it self hath Grace.

'Twas this, 'twas this I feard
When thy pale Ghost appear'd;
This I presag'd when thund'ring Jove
Tore the best Myrtle in my Grove;
When my sick Rose-buds lost their smell,
And from my Temples untouch'd fell;
And 'twas for some such thing
My Dove did hang her Wing.

Whither art thou my Deity gone?
Venus in Venus there is none .
In vain a Goddess now am I
Only to Grieve, and not to dye.
But I will love my Grief,
Make Tears my Tears relief;
And Sorrow shall to me
A new Adonis be .

And this no Fates can rob me of, whiles I
A Goddess am to Grieve, and not to Dye. Flor .

Madam, they say 'twas in this very Grove
The Goddess thus complain'd.