L'Aminta, di Torquato Tasso, favola boscherecchia. Tasso's Aminta, a pastoral comedy, in Italian and English.
About this Item
- Title
- L'Aminta, di Torquato Tasso, favola boscherecchia. Tasso's Aminta, a pastoral comedy, in Italian and English.
- Author
- Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595.
- Publication
- Oxford :: printed by L. Lichfield, for James Fletcher; and sold by J. Nourse bookseller, near Temple-Bar. London,
- [1650?]
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- Link to this Item
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A62822.0001.001
- Cite this Item
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"L'Aminta, di Torquato Tasso, favola boscherecchia. Tasso's Aminta, a pastoral comedy, in Italian and English." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A62822.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 6, 2024.
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ACT the FIRST, SCENE the FIRST.
ARE you resolv'd then, Sylvia, to spend this Youth of yours a stran∣ger to the Pleasures of Venus? will you never hear the sweet Name of Mother? and will you never see your little Boys play prettily around you? Ah! change, change, I pray thee, thy Reso∣lution, fond trifler that thou art.
Let others follow the Delights of Love, if there's in Love any Delight: this State of Life pleases me, and all my Diversion is the Care of my Bow, and Arrows; to pursue the flying Beasts, and pin the Savage to the Ground in Combat; and if there fails not Arrows to my Quiver, or wild Beasts to the Wood;
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I don't fear, that Sports will ever fail me.
Insipid Sports truly, and insipid Life, and if it pleases you, 'tis only, because you have not experienc'd any other. Thus the first Race of Mankind, who liv'd heretofore in the World, whilst it was yet in its Sim∣plicity and Infancy, accounted Water and Acorns delicious Drink, and delicious Food; and now Water and Acorns are become the Food, and the Drink of Beasts, since Corn and the Grape are brought into Use. Per∣haps, if you had tasted but once the Thou∣sandth Part of the Joys, which an amorous Heart feels in the Return of mutual Love, you would say, repenting with a Sigh, Lost is all the Time that is not spent in Love: Alas, my Ill-spent Youth! How many lonely Nights, how many melancholly Days have I spent in vain; which might have been em∣ploy'd in that Use, which the oft'ner 'tis re∣peated, proves more delightful. Change, Change thy Resolution, fond Trifler that thou art; for it avails nothing to repent too late.
When I shall say, repenting with a Sigh, these Words which you invent and adorn as you please, the Rivers shall return back to their Fountains, the Wolves shall fly from Lambs, and Grey-Hounds from the tim'rous Hares, the Boar shall love the Sea, and the Dolphin the Alps.
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Well I know the perversness of Youth. As thou art now, such once was I: such was my Carriage, and my Face, and such my beautiful Hair, my Mouth, like thine, was of Vermilion Die, and thus the Rose was mixt with pure White on my plump and delicate Cheeks, it was then my highest Plea∣sure (now I perceive it, the Pleasure of an Idiot) to spread my Nets, to lay the Bird∣lime Twiggs; to sharpen my Dart upon a Whet-stone, to spy out the Foot-steps, and the Cover of the Game; and if at that time I saw an ardent Lover looking on me, I cast down my Eyes, Rustick and Savage as I was, full of Disdain and of Shame; to me my own Beauty was disagreeable, and whatever I had that pleas'd others, was displeasing to my self: as if it had been my Fault, my Shame, and my Reproach, to be lookt at, lov'd and desir'd. But what can not Time do? and what can't a faithful, and impor∣tunate Lover, by Service, Merit, and In∣treaty? I was conquer'd, I confess; and the Arms of the Conqueror were Submission, Sufferings, Tears, Sighs, and Impor∣tunity in requesting a Return to his Love. The Shade of one short Night shew'd me then that, which along Course of Time, and the Light of a Thousand Days had not shew'd me. Then I blam'd my self, and my blind Simplicity, and said with a Sigh: Here, Cynthia, take thy Horn, take thy Bow, for I renounce thy Arrows, and thy way of Life.
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Thus I hope to see, that one Day your Aminta will tame your savage Nature, and will soften that Iron, rocky Heart of thine. Perhaps he is not handsome, or loves not you, or no one else loves him? or perhaps he changes either for the Love of another, or your Hatred? perhaps he yields to you in Birth, if you are the Daughter of Cidippus, to whom the God of this noble River was Father; he is the Son of Sylvanus, to whom Pan was Father, the great God of the Shep∣herds. Bright Amarillis is no less Fair than you, if ever you did view your self in the Mirror of a clear Fountain; and yet he de∣spises her inviting Charms, and follows your contemptuous Scorn. Now make a Fiction, (and Heaven grant it may be only a Fiction) that he, being disgusted at you, should bring himself at last to love the Maid, by whom he is lov'd so much; what will thy Mind be then; and with what Eyes will thou behold him another's? happy in another's Arms, and insulting thee with a Smile.
Let Aminta dispose of Himself, and his Love as he pleases, it matters not me; and so he be not mine, let him be whose he will; but he can't be mine, except I will, neither, were he mine, would I be his.
From whence does your Hatred takes its Birth?
From his Love.
Too gentle Father for so cruel a Son, but when were ever Tygers born of tame Lambs? or Crows of beautiful Swans?
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Either you deceive me, or your self.
I am an Enemy to his Love; because That is an Enemy to my Honour, and I lov'd him as long as he would have nothing of me but what I'd have.
You made the worse Choice: He only wishes to you what he wishes to him∣self.
Daphne, Either be silent, or speak of some other Subject, if you will have an Answer.
Look ye there now, observe the coy Disdain of Youth. Answer me now however: should another love you, would you treat his love in this manner?
In this manner would I treat every Ensnarer of my Virginity, whom you call a Lover, and I an Enemy.
Do'st thou esteem then an Enemy, the Ram to the Ew? the Bull to the Hei∣fer? do'st thou esteem then an Enemy, the Turtle to his faithful Mate? do'st thou imagine then the pleasant Spring to be the season of Enmity and Wrath? which now jocund and smiling, reconciles the whole World to Love, as well brute Beasts as Men and Women: and do'st thou not perceive, how all Things are now inspir'd with a joy∣ous and salutary Love? See there that Dove, which flattering with sweet murmurs, Kisses his Companion: hear that Nightingale, which hops from Bough to Bough singing,
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I love, I love, Even the Adder (whether thou know'st it or no) lays aside his Poison, and runs desirous to his Lover; Tygers rush in∣to Love, the haughty Lion loves, and you only, more Savage than all the wild Beasts, deny Love a Reception in your Breast? But why do I mention Lions, Tygers, and Ser∣pents, which are indued with Sense? nay moreover, even the Trees Love. You may observe with how great Affection, and how many repeated Embraces, the Vine twines herself around her Husband, the Fir-Tree loves the Fir-Tree, the Pine the Pine, the Elm for the Elm, and for the Willow the Willow, and one Beech-Tree for another burns and sighs. That very Oak, that ap∣pears so rugged, and savage, feels within itself the Power of an amorous Fire: and, if thou hadst any Spirit or Sense of Love, thou would'st hear his mute Sighs. Will you be then inferiour to the Plants, by not being a Lover? Change, Change thy Resolution fond Trifler that thou art.
Well then, when I hear the Sighs of the Plants, then I am content to be a Lover.
You turn into Ridicule my faithful Counsel, and Burlesque my Reasons. Oh! no less Deaf than Silly in Love: but go now, the Time will come that you shall repent that you did not follow them, and I don't mean
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when you shall fly from the Fountains, where now you often view your self, and perhaps admire; when you shall fly from the Fountains, only for fear of seeing yourself wrinkled and deform'd; this will happen to you. But I give you warning, not of this only, which though it is a great Misfortune, is a common one. Don't you remember that which Elpin related the other Day; the wise Elpin to the beautiful Lycoris, who had that Power over Elpin with her Eyes, which he ought to have had over her with his Songs, if what ought to be, could al∣ways be found in Love; he related in the hearing of Battus and Thyrsis, great Masters of Love, and he related it in the Cave of Aurora, where over the Door is written, Far, Far hence go ye Profane. He said, and said, that That great Poet told it him, who Sung of Arms, and Love, and bequeath'd him his Pipe when he died; that there be∣low in Hell is a black Den, where issues out a stinking Smoak from the dreadful Fur∣nace of Acaron; and that there ungrateful and unrelenting Women are eternally punish∣ed in Torments of Darkness and Tears. There expect that a Reception will be pre∣par'd for thy Cruelty. And just it is that Smoak should some Time be ever drawing Tears from those Eyes, from whence Pity could never draw them. Follow, follow now thy own Course,
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obstinate that thou art.
But what did Licoris then, and what answer did she make?
You take no Care of your own Affairs, and are willing to know another's. She answer'd him with her Eyes.
How could she answer him with her Eyes only?
They being turn'd upon Elpin answer'd, with a Smile, the Heart and we are thine: more you ought not to desire: the Donor can bestow no more: and this only had been sufficient as a Reward to a chast Lover, if he had thought those Eyes as true as fair, and put an entire Confidence in them.
And why did he not believe them!
Don't you know what Thyrsis wrote of them? when being in Love he wandred frantick through the Forests, so that he mov'd at the same Time the compassion, and the laughter of the Beautiful Nymphs and Shepherds; that which he wrote was not worthy of Laughter, tho' that was worthy of Laughter that he acted, he writ it on a thou∣sand Plants, and with the Plants the Verses grew, and on one of them are thus read:
Deluding Eyes, false Mirrors of the Heart, Too well I know your soft-deceiving Art; But what avails? if Love enforce my Will, T' embrace your Harms, and dote upon you still.
While I am passing the Time in talk∣ing, I forget that this is the appointed Day for going to the Chase agreed on in the oaken Grove. Stay now, if you please, till I have first washt off, in my accustom'd Fountain, the Sweat and the Dust with which I was cover'd Yesterday,
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in chasing a swift Doe, which at length I overtook, and kill'd.
I'll wait, and perhaps will bath my self in the same Foun∣tain: but I'll go first to my House, for it is not as yet late, as you may see; do you wait for me at Yours, till I come to you: and in the mean while think upon that which is of greater Importance than either the Chase, or the Fountain; and if you don't know this, believe that you are Ignorant, and believe the Experienc'd.