and see,

In wronging these they have rebelled 'gainst thee.

Hereat Reason, seated in the top of the globe,

as in the brain or highest part of man, figured in a venerable personage, her hair white and trailing to her waist, crowned with lights, her garments blue, and semined with stars, girded unto her with a white bend filled with arithmetical figures, in one hand bearing a lamp, in the other a bright sword, descended and spake :

Rea. Forbear your rude attempt; what ignorance

Could yield you so profane, as to advance One thought in act against these mysteries? Are Union's orgies of so slender price? She that makes souls with bodies mix in love, Contracts the world in one, and therein Jove;

are both masculine in genere, not one of the specials but in some language is known by a masculine word. Again, when their influences are common to both sexes, and more generally impetuous in the male, I see not why they should not so be more properly presented. And for the allegory, though here it be very clear, and such as might well escape a candle, yet because there are some must complain of darkness that have but thick eyes, I am contented to hold them this light. First, as in natural bodies so likewise in minds, there is no disease or distemperature, but is caused either by some abounding humour, or perverse affection; after the same manner, in politic bodies (where order, ceremony, state, reverence, devotion, are parts of the mind) by the difference or predominant Iwill of what we metaphorically call humours and affections, all things are troubled and confused. These therefore were tropically brought in before marriage as disturbers of that mystical

founds,

Shall clear unto you from the authentic grounds.

At this the Humours and Affections sheathed their swords, and retired amazed to the sides of the stage, while Hymen began to rank the persons, and order the ceremonies: and REASON proceeded to speak:

Rea. The pair which do each other side, Though, yet, some space doth them divide, This happy night must both make one

Blest sacrifice to Union.
Nor is this altar but a sign
Of one more soft and more divine.
The genial bed, § where Hymen keeps
The solemn orgies, void of sleeps:
And wildest Cupid, waking, hovers
With adoration 'twixt the lovers.
The tead of white and blooming thorn,
In token of increase, is borne:

body, and the rites which were soul unto it; that afterwards in marriage, being dutifully tempered by her power, they might more fully celebrate the happiness of such as live in that sweet union, to the harmonious laws of nature and reason.

* Alluding to that opinion of Pythagoras, who held all reason, all knowledge, all discourse of the soul to be mere number. See Plut. de Plac. Phil.

ceremonia with the Latins; and imply all sorts 1 Opyia, with the Greeks, value the same that of rites: howsoever (abusively) they have been made particular to Bacchus. See Serv. to that of Virg. Eneid 4, Qualis commotis excita sacris Thyas.

Macrob. in Som. Scip. lib. 1.

§ Properly that which was made ready for the new-married bride, and was called Genialis, à generandis liberis. Serv. in 6 Æn.

riage, and made the second Masque. All which, upon the discovery, REASON made narration of.

Rea. And see where Juno, whose great

naine

Is Unio in the anagram,

Displays her glittering state and chair
As she enlightened all the air!

Hark how the charming tunes do beat
In sacred concords 'bout her seat !
And lo! to grace what these intend,
Eight of her noblest Powers descend,1
Which are enstyled her faculties, t
That govern nuptial mysteries;
And wear those masques before their faces,
Lest dazzling mortals with their graces,
As they approach them, all mankind
Should be, like Cupid, strooken blind.
These Order waits for, on the ground,
To keep, that you should not confound
Their measured steps, which only move
About the harmonious sphere of love.
Their descent was made in two great clouds,
that put forth themselves severally, and,
with one measure of time, were seen to
stoop; and fall gently down upon the
earth. The manner of their habits came
after some statues of Juno, no less airy
than glorious. The dressings of their
heads rare; so likewise of their feet: and
all full of splendor, sovereignty, and
riches. Whilst they were descending,

this SONG was sung at the altar.

These, these are they,
Whom Humour and Affection must obey;
Who come to deck the genial bower,

* See Virg. Æneid. lib. 4. Funoni ante omnes cui vincla jugalia curæ: and in another place, Dant signum prima et Tellus et Pronuba Juno: and Ovid. in Phil. Epist. Junonemque terris quæ præsidet alma Maritis.

They were all eight called by particular surnames of Juno, ascribed to her for some peculiar property in marriage, as somewhere after is more fitly declared.

This surname Juno received of the Sabines; from them the Romans gave it her: of the spear, which (in the Sabine tongue) was called curis, and was that which they named hasta celibaris, which had stuck in the body of a slain sword-player, and wherewith the bride's head was drest, whereof Fest. in voce celibar. gives these reasons: Ut quemadmodum illa conjuncta fuerit cum corpore gladiatoris, sic ipsa cum viro sit; vel quia matrone Junonis curitis in tutelâ sit, quæ ita appellabatur à ferenda hasta; vel quod fortes viros genituras ominetur; vel quod nuptiali jure imperio viri subjicitur nubens, quia hasta summa armorum, et imperii est, &c. most of which Plutarch, in his Quæst. Rom. con

Το

This song ended, they danced forth in pairs, and each pair with a varied and noble grace, to a rare and full music of twelve lutes, led on by Order, the servant of Reason, who was there rather a person of ceremony than use. His under garment was blue, his upper white, and painted full of arithmetical and geometrical figures; his hair and beard long, a star on his forehead, and in his hand a geometrical staff: to whom, after the dance, REASON spake:

Rea. Convey them, Order, to
places,

And rank them so, in several traces,
Unto the music of the Hours;
As they may set their mixed powers
And these, by joining with them, know
In better temper how to flow:
Whilst I, from their abstracted names,

Report the virtues of the dames.

their

First, Curist comes to deck the bride's fair tress,

Care of the ointments Unxia§ doth profess.

sents, but adds a better in Romul. That when they divided the bride's hair with the point of the spear, συμβολον εἶναι τοῦ μετὰ μάχης καὶ πολεμικῶς τὸν πρῶτον γάμον γενεσθαι, it noted their first nuptials (with the Sabines) were contracted by force, and as with enemies. Howsoever, that it was a custom with them, this of Ovid. Fast. lib. 2, confirms. Comat virgineas hasta recurva comas.

§ For the surname of Unxia, we have Mart. Capel. his testimony, De Nup. Phil. et Mercu. lib. 2, quòd unctionibus præest: as also Servius, libro quarto Eneid., where they both report it a fashion with the Romans, that before the new

1 Eight of her noblest Powers descend.] The folio does not give their names; but the 4to supplies the defect. "The names of the eight ladies as they were ordered (to the most conspicuous shew) in their dances, by the rule of their statures, were the Countess of Montgomery, Lady Knolles, Mistress A. Sackville, Lady Berkly, Lady Dorothy Hastings, Lady Blanch Somerset, Co of Bedford, Co. of Rutland."

married brides entered the houses of their husbands, they adorned the posts of the gates with woollen tawdries or fillets, and anointed them with oils, or the fat of wolves and boars; being superstitiously possest that such ointments had the virtue of expelling evils from the family; and that thence were they called Uxores, quasi Unxores.

* She was named Fuga, propter Fugum (as Servius says), for the yoke which was imposed in matrimony on those that were married, or (with Sex. Pomp. Fest.) quòd Juges sunt ejusdem fugi Pares, unde et Conjuges, or in respect of the altar (which I have declared before) sacred to Juno, in Vico Jugario.

As she was Gamelia, in sacrificing to her, hey took away the gall, and threw it behind the altar; intimating that (after marriage) there should be known no bitterness nor hatred between the joined couple, which might divide or separate them. See Plutarch. Connub. Præ. This rite I have somewhere following touched at.

The title of Iterduca she had amongst them, quòd ad sponsi ædes sponsas comitabatur, or was a protectress of their journey. Mart. Capel. de Nupt. Philol. et Mercur. libro secundo.

The like of Domiduca, quòd ad optatas domus duceret. Mart. ibid.

Il Cinxia, the same author gives unto her, as the defendress of maids, when they had put off their girdle, in the bridal chamber; to which Festus, Cinxia Junonis nomen sanctum habebatur in nuptiis, quòd initio conjugis solutio erat cinguli, quo nova nupta erat cincta. And Arnobius, a man most learned in their ceremonies, lib. 3, advers. Gent. saith, Unctionibus superest Unxia. Cingulorum Cinxia replicationi.

Telia signifies Perfecta, or, as some translate it, Perfectrix; with Jul. Pol. lib. 3. Onomast. pa réλeia values Funo! Præses Nup

Here they danced forth a most neat and curious measure, full of subtilty and device; which was so excellently per formed, as it seemed to take away that spirit from the invention, which the invention gave to it and left it doubtful whether the forms flowed more perfectly from the author's brain or their feet. The strains were all notably different, some of them formed into letters very signifying to the name of the Bridegroom, and ended in the manner of a chain, linking hands: to which this was spoken:

Rea. Such was the golden chain** let down from heaven;

And not those links more even Than these: so sweetly tempered, so combined

By union and refined.

Here no contention, envy, grief, deceit,
Fear, jealousy have weight;

tiarum: who saith, the attribute depends of TéλELOS, which (with the ancients) signified marriage, and thence were they called réλeLOL that entered into that state. Servius interprets it the same with Gamelia Eneid. 4, ad verb. Et Junone secunda. But it implies much more, as including the faculty too, mature and perfect. See the Greek Scholiast on Pind. Nem. in Hym. ad Thyæum Uliæ filium Argi. TéλeLos δὲ ὁ γάμος διὰ τὸ κατασκευάζειν την τελειότητα TOû Bíov; that is, Nuptials are therefore called TéλELOL, because they affect perfection of life, and do note that maturity which should be in matrimony. For before nuptials, she is called Juno Taρlévos, that is, Virgo; after nuptials, réλela, which is, Adulta or Perfecta.

** Mentioned by Homer, Ilia. 0, which many have interpreted diversely, all allegorically. Pla. in Thateto, understands it to be the Sun, which while he circles the world in his course, all things are safe and preserved others vary it. Macrob. (to whose interpretation I am specially affected in my allusion) considers it thus: in Som. Scip. libr. 1, cap. 14. Ergo cùm ex summo Deo mens, ex mente anima sit; anima vero et condat, et vita compleat omnia quæ sequuntur, cunctaque hic unus fulgor illuminet, et in universis appareat, ut in multis speculis, per ordinem positis, vultus unus: cumque omnia continuis successionibus se sequantur, degenerantia per ordinem ad imum meandi: invenietur pressius intuenti à summo Deo usque ad ultimam rerum fæcem una mutuis se vinculis religans, et nusquam interrupta connexio. Et hæc est Homeri Catena aurea, quam pendere de cœlo in terras Deum jussisse commemorat. which strength and evenness of connexion, I have not absurdly likened this uniting of Humours and Affections by the sacred Powers of marriage.

To

But all is peace and love, and faith and bliss:

What harmony like this?

The gall behind the altar quite is thrown; This sacrifice hath none.

Now no affections rage, nor humours swell;
But all composed dwell.

O Juno, Hymen, Hymen, Juno! who
Can merit with you two?
Without your presence Venus can do
nought

Save what with shame is bought;
No father can himself a parent show,
Nor any house with prosperous issue
grow.

O then, what deities will dare
With Hymen or with Juno to compare?

This speech being ended, they dissolved: and all took forth other persons (men and women) to dance other measures, galliards, and corantos: the whilst this SONG importuned them to a fit remembrance of the time.

Think yet how night doth waste,

How much of time is past,

What more than winged haste
Yourselves would take,

If you were but to taste
The joy the night doth cast

(O might it ever last)

On this bright virgin, and her happy make.

Their dances yet lasting, they were the

second time importuned by speech.

Rea. See, see! the bright* Idalian star, That lighteth lovers to their war, Complains that you her influence lose; While thus the night-sports you abuse.

Hy. The longing bridegroomt in the porch

Shews you again the bated torch;
And thrice hath Junot mixt her air
With fire, to summon your repair.

* Stella Veneris, or Venus, which when it goes before the sun, is called Phosphorus, or Lucifer; when it follows, Hesperus, or Noctifer (as Cat. translates it.) See Cic. 2, de Nat. Deor. Mar. Cap. de Nup. Phil. et Mer. l. 8. The nature of this star Pythagoras first found out: and the present office Clau. expresseth in Fescen. Atollens thalamis Idalium jubar Dilectus Veneri nascitur Hesperus.

It was a custom for the man to stand there, expecting the approach of his bride. See Hotto. de Rit. Nupt.

Rea. See, now she clean withdraws her light;

And, as you should, gives place to night,
That spreads her broad and blackest wing
Upon the world, and comes to bring
A§ thousand several-coloured loves,
Some like sparrows, some like doves,
That hop about the nuptial-room,
And fluttering there, against you come,
Warm the chaste bower which|| Cyptia

strows

With many a lily, many a rose.

Hy. Haste, therefore haste, and call
away!

The gentle night is prest to pay
The usury of long delights

She owes to these protracted rites.
At this, the whole scene being drawn again,
and all covered with clouds, as a night,
they left off their intermixed dances, and
returned to their first places; where, as
they were but beginning to move, this
SONG, the third time, urged them.

O know to end, as to begin:
A minute's loss in love is sin.
These humours will the night out-

wear

In their own pastimes here;
You do our rites much wrong
In seeking to prolong
These outward pleasures:
The night hath other treasures
Than these, though long concealed,
Ere day to be revealed.

Then know to end, as to begin;
A minute's loss in love is sin.

Here they danced their last dances, full of excellent delight and change, and, in their latter strain, fell into a fair orb or circle; REASON standing in the midst, and speaking.

Rea. Here stay, and let your sports be crowned:

The perfect'st figure is the round,

Alluding to that of Virg. Æneid. 4, Frima et Tellus, et Pronuba Juno,

Dant signum: fulsere ignes, et conscius æther Connubii, &c.

§ Stat. in Epit. Fulcra, torosque deæ, teneEpith. Pennati passim pueri, quo quemque rum premit agmen Amorum. And Claud. in vocavit Umbra, jacent. Both which proved the ancients feigned many Cupids. Read also Prop. eleg. 29, l. 2.

Venus is so induced by Stat., Claud., and others, to celebrate nuptials.