Endimion, the man in the moone Playd before the Queenes Maiestie at Greenewich on Candlemas day at night, by the Chyldren of Paules.

Actus secundus. Scaena prima.

Endimion, Tellus.

End.

O Fayre Cynthia, ô vnfortunate Endimion. Why was not thy byrth as high as thy thoughts, or her beautie lesse then heauenlie? or why are not thyne honors as rare as her beautie? or thy fortunes as great as thy deserts? Sweet Cynthia, how wouldst thou be plea∣sed, how possessed? wil labours (patient of all extremi∣ties) obtaine thy loue? There is no Mountain so steepe that I will not climbe, no monster so cruell that I will not tame, no action so desperate that I will not attempt. Desirest thou the passions of loue, the sad and melan∣cholie moodes of perplexed mindes, the not to be ex∣pressed torments of racked thoughts? Beholde my sad teares, my deepe sighes, my hollowe eyes, my broken sleepes, my heauie countenaunce. Wouldst thou haue mee vowde onelie to thy beautie and consume euerie minute of time in thy seruice, remember my solitarie life, almost these seauen yeeres, whom haue I entertai∣ned but mine owne thoughts, and thy vertues? What companie haue I vsed but contemplation? Whom haue I wondred at but thee? Nay whom haue I not contem∣ned,

for thee? Haue I not crept to those on whom I might haue troden, onelie because thou didst shine vp∣on them? Haue not iniuries beene sweet to mee, if thou vouchsafest I should beare them? Haue I not spent my golden yeeres in hopes, waxing old with wishing, yet wishing nothing but thy loue. With Tellus, faire Tellus, haue I dissembled, vsing her but as a cloake for mine affections, that others seeing my mangled and disorde∣red minde, might thinke it were for one that loueth me, not for Cynthia, whose perfection alloweth no compa∣nion, nor comparison.

In the midst of these distempred thoughts of myne, thou art not onelie iealous of my truth, but careles, su∣spicious, and secure: which strange humor maketh my minde as desperate as thy conceits are doubtfull. I am none of those Wolues that barke most, when thou shy∣nest brightest. But that fish, (thy fish Cynthia in the floode Aranis) which at thy waxing is as white as the driuen snowe, and at thy wayning, as blacke as deepest darknes. I am that Endimion (sweet Cynthia) that haue carryed my thoughts in equall ballance with my actions, being alwaies as free from imagining ill, as enterpry∣sing; That Endimion, whose eyes neuer esteemed anie thing faire, but thy face, whose tongue termed nothing rare but thy vertues, and whose hart imagined nothing miraculous, but thy gouernment. Yea that Endimion, who diuorsing himselfe from the amiablenes of all La∣dies, the brauerie of all Courts, the companie of al men, hath chosen in a solitarie Cell to liue, onely by feeding on thy fauour, accounting in the worlde (but thy selfe) nothing excellent, nothing immortall; thus maist thou see euerie vaine sinew, muscle, and artery of my loue, in which there is no flatterie, nor deceipt; error, nor arte. But soft, here commeth Tellus, I must turne my other face to her like Ianus, least she be as suspicious as Juno.

Enter Tellus.

Tellus

Yonder I espie Endimion, I will seeme to su∣spect nothing but sooth him, that seeing I cannot ob∣taine the depth of his loue, I may learne the height of his dissembling; Floscula and Dipsas, with-drawe your selues out of our sight, yet be within the hearing of our saluting; How now Endimion, alwaies solitary? no com∣panie but your owne thoughts? no freende but melan∣cholie fancies?

Endimion

You know (fayre Tellus) that the sweet re∣membrance of your loue, is the onely companion of my life, and thy presence, my paradise, so that I am not a∣lone when no bodie is with mee, and in heauen it selfe when thou art with me.

Tellus

Then you loue me Endimion.

End.

Or els I liue not Tellus.

Tellus

Is it not possible for you Endimion, to dissem∣ble?

End.

Not Tellus, vnlesse I could make me a woman.

Tellus

Why, is dissembling ioyned to theyr sex inse∣parable? as heate to fire, heauines to earth, moysture to water, thinnesse to ayre?

End.

No, but founde in their sex, as common, as spots vpon Doues, moles vpon faces, Caterpillers vpon sweet apples, cobwebs vpon faire windowes.

Tellus

Doe they all dissemble?

Endimion

All but one.

Tellus

Who is that?

End.

I dare not tell. For if I shoulde say you, then would you imagin my flattery to be extreame, if ano∣ther, then woulde you thinke my loue to be but indiffe∣rent.

Tellus

You will be sure I shall take no vantage of your words. But in sooth Endimion, without more cere∣monies, is it not Cynthia?

Endimion

You know Tellus, that of the Gods we are forbidden to dispute, because theyr dieties come not within the compasse of our reasons, and of Cynthia we are allowed not to talke but to wonder, because her ver∣tues are not within the reach of our capacities.

Tellus

Why, she is but a woman.

End.

No more was Venus.

Tellus

Shee is but a virgin.

Endimion

No more was Vesta.

Tellus

She shall haue an ende.

Endim.

So shall the world.

Tellus

Is not her beautie subiect to time?

End.

No more then time is to standing still.

Tellus

Wilt thou make her immortall?

End.

No, but incomparable.

Tellus

Take heede Endimion, lest like the Wrastler in Olimpia, that striuing to lifte an impossible weight, catcht an incurable straine, thou by fixing thy thoughts aboue thy reach, fal into a disease without al recure? But I see thou art now in loue with Cynthia.

Endim.

No Tellus, thou knowest that the statelie Cedar, whose toppe reacheth vnto the clowdes, neuer boweth his head to the shrubs that growe in the valley, nor Iuie that climeth vp by the Elme, can euer get hold of the beames of the Sunne; Cynthia I honour in all hu∣militie, whom none ought, or dare aduenture to loue, whose affections are immortall, & vertues infinite. Suf∣fer me therefore to gaze on the Moone, at whom, were it not for thy selfe, I would die with wondering.

Exeunt.