their dance, drew all their swords, offered to encompass the altar, and disturb the ceremonies. At which Hymen, troubled, spake: Hy. Save, save the virgins; keep your hallowed lights Untouched; and with their flame defend our rites. The four untempered Humours are broke And with their wild Affections go about came, Look forth, and with thy bright and numerous flame* Instruct their darkness, make them know 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 Could yield you so profane, as to advance Is spring and end of all things :‡ yet, most strange, Herself nor suffers spring, nor end, nor change. No wonder they were you, that were so For none but Humours and Affections would And urge the masqued and disguised pre tence Of saving blood and succouring innocence: the stars. Inform yourselves, with safer reverence, Shall clear unto you from the authentic 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 ceremo nies: and REASON proceeded to speak: Rea. The pair which do each other side, Blest sacrifice to Union. body, and the rites which were soul unto it; *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. 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 will of what we metaphorically call humours and affections, all things are troubled and con- § Properly that which was made ready for fused. These therefore were tropically brought the new-married bride, and was called Genialis, in before marriage as disturbers of that mystical | à generandis liberis. Serv. in 6 Æn. 1 Opyia, with the Greeks, value the same that of rites: howsoever (abusively) they have been ceremonia with the Latins; and imply all sorts See Serv. to that of Virg. Eneid 4, Qualis commotis excita made particular to Bacchus. sacris Thyas. Macrob. in Som. Scip. lib. 1. And also, with the ominous light,* **Plutar. in Quæst. Rom. et in Romui. tt Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 8, cap. 48. That was Nodus Herculeanus, which the husband at night untied, in sign of good fortune, that he might be happy in propagation of issue, as Hercules was, who left seventy children.-See Fest. in voc. Cingul. §§ Plutarch. in Quæst. Rom. See Mart. Capel. lib. 6 de Nupt. Phil. et Mor. in numero Pentade. TT With the Greeks Juno was interpreted to be the air itself. And so Macr. de Som. Scipio. 2. 1, c. 17, calls her. Mar. Cap. surnames her Aëria, of reigning there. *** They were sacred to Juno in respect of their colours and temper, so like the air. Ovid. de Arte Amand. Laudatas ostendit aves Junonia pennas: and Met. lib. 2: Remain as common; so we see Here the upper part of the scene, which was all of clouds, and made artificially to swell, and ride like the rack, began to open: and the air clearing, in the top thereof was discovered Juno, TT sitting in a throne, supported by two beautiful peacocks*** her attire rich, and like a queen, ttt a white diadem‡‡‡ on her head, from whence descended a veil, and that bound with a fascia of several coloured silks,§§§ set with all sorts of jewels, and raised in the top with lilies and roses :||||||| in her right hand she held a sceptre, in the other a timbrel, at her golden feet the hide of a lion¶¶¶was placed: round about her sat the spirits of the air in several colours, making music: above her the region of fire, with a continual motion, was seen to whirl circularly, and Jupiter standing in the top (figuring the heaven) brandishing his thunder: beneath her the rainbow Iris, and on the two sides eight ladies, attired richly and alike, in the most celestial colours, who represented her powers, as she is the governess of mar §§§ After the manner of the antique bend, the varied colours implying the several mutations i the air, as showers, dews, serenity, force of winds, clouds, tempest, snow, hail, lightning, thunder, all which had their noises signified in her timbrel: the faculty of causing these being ascribed to her by Virg. Æneid. lib. 4, where he makes her say, His ego nigrantem commista grandine nimbum Desuper infundam, et tonitru cœlum omne ciebo. Lilies were sacred to Juno, as being made white with her milk that fell upon the earth, when Jove took Hercules away, whom by stealth he had laid to her breast: the rose was also called Junonia. ¶¶¶ So she was figured at Argos, as a stepmother, insulting on the spoils of her two privigni, Bacchus and Hercules. 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 Hark how the charming tunes do beat 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 cura: and in another place, Dant signum prima et Tellus et Pronuba Juno: and Ovid. in Phil. Epist. Funonemque 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 matrona Junonis curitis in tutela sit, quæ ita appellabatur à ferenda hasta ; vel qudd fortes viros genituras ominetur; vel quod nuptiali jure imperio viri subjicitur nubens, quia hasta summa armorum, et imperii est, &c. To most of which Plutarch, in his Quæst. Rom. con 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 their And rank them so, in several traces, places, 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. First, Curist comes to deck the bride's fair tress, Care of the ointments Unxiaş 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.) qudd Juges sunt ejusdem Jugi 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, they 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. || 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, Unctionibussuperest Unxia. Cingulorum Cinxia replicationi. Telia signifies Perfecta, or, as some translate it, Perfectrix; with Jul. Pol. lib. 3. Onomast. pa réλeta values Funo! Prases Nup Here they danced forth a most neat and curious measure, full of subtilty and device; which was so excellently performed, 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. tiarum: who saith, the attribute depends of Téλeos, which (with the ancients) signified marriage, and thence were they called TéλELOL 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 Thyaum Ulia filium Argi. Téλelos δὲ ὁ γάμος διὰ τὸ κατασκευάζειν την τελειότητα TOû Bíov; that is, Nuptials are therefore called Téλelot, because they affect perfection of life, and do note that maturity which should be in matrimony. For before nuptials, she is called Juno Tapeévos, 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 allusion) considers it thus: in Som. Scip. libr. interpretation I am specially affected in my 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 facem una mutuis se vinculis religans, et nusquam interrupta connexio. Et hæc est Homeri Catena aurea, quam pendere de calo 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; O Juno, Hymen, Hymen, Juno ! who do 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, If you were but to taste (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; * 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, 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. O know to end, as to begin : wear In their own pastimes here; 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, Prima 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, 1. 2. Venus is so induced by Stat., Claud., and others, to celebrate nuptials. |