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at LUTESIO's hands that he would participate his secrets unto her, and promised not only to be silent, but to yield her opinion of the hope of his success; so she took the letter and promised the next morning to give it him again, and so they fell into other chat, talking of sundry matters, as their present occasions did minister, till at last PHILOMELA, with child to see the contents of the letter, took her leave and went into her closet, where unripping the seals, she found lines far unfitting to her expectation.

As soon as she saw LUTESIO's love was meant to her, she rent the paper in a thousand pieces, and exclaimed against him in most bitter terms, vowing her Lord should be revenged upon him for this intended villainy, or else he should refuse her for his wife. Thus alone while she breathed out most hard invectives against him, yet at last, that she might aggravate her husband's displeasure the more against him, she gathered up the pieces, and laying them together, read them over, where, perceiving his passions, and thinking them to grow from a mind full of fancy', having somewhat cooled her choler, she resolved not to tell her husband, lest if he should kill LUTESIO she might be thought the occasion of the murder, and so bring her unblemished honour in question; and therefore she took paper and ink, and wrote him this sharp reply.

PHILOMELA TO THE MOST FALSE LUTESIO,

WISHETH WHAT HE WANTS HIMSELF.

If thou wonderest what I wish thee, LUTESIO, enter into thine own want, and thou shalt find, I desire thou mightst have more honour and less dishonesty; else a short life and a long repentance.

1 This contest between the indignation of virtue and the intoxication of flattery is naturally drawn.

E

I see now that hemlock, wheresoever it be planted, will be pestilent; that the serpent with the brightest scales shroudeth the most fatal venom; that the ruby, whatsoever foil it hath, will shew red; that when nature hatcheth vicious, nurture will never make virtuous.

Thou art like, LUTESIO, unto the hyssop, growing in America, that is liked of strangers for the smell, and hated of the inhabitants for the operation, being as prejudicial in the one, as delightsome in the other: so thou in voice art holden honest, and therefore liked, but being once looked into, and found lascivious, thou wilt grow into as great contempt with thy familiars as now thou art honoured amongst strangers. Hadst thou none answerable to thine appetite but PHILOMELA? nor none to wrong but PHILIPPO? Canst thou wish me so much harm, or owe him so little friendship; I honouring thee so kindly, and he loving thee so dearly? How canst thou love the wife that betrayest the husband? or how shall I deem thou wilt prove constant in love that art false in thy faith, and to such a friend, who, next myself, counteth thee second in his secrets? Base man, that harbours so bad a thought, ransack thy thoughts and rip up the end of thy attempt! and then, if that shame hath not utterly abandoned thee, thou wilt for fear of shame leave off thy lust, and grow into more grace'.

Tell me, LUTESIO, (and if thou speakest not what thou knowest I defy thee,) wherein hast thou seen me so light, or have my gestures been so lewd, that thou shouldest gather hope to gain thy love? Hath Venice suspected me for a wanton? Hath Italy deemed me dissolute? Have I granted unto thee, or to any other, extraordinary favours? Have I been froward to my Lord, or by any wanton

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tricks shewed the wrack of my chastity? If any of these blemishes have disgraced me, speak it, and I will call for grace and amend them, but never a whit the more befriend thee: for whereas I honourably thought of LUTESIO, unless I find thy humour changed, I will aim at thy dishonour, and proclaim thee an enemy to ladies, 'cause thou art a friend to lust.

Ah, LUTESIO! I would sooner have deemed the seas should have become dry, the earth barren, and the sun without light, than thou wouldest have sought to violate the honesty of PHILOMELA, or blemish the honour of PHILIPPO. PHILIPPO's wealth is at thy will, his sword at thy command, his heart placed in thy bosom; he reserveth of all that he hath for thee, save only me to himself; and canst thou be so unkind to rob him of his only love, that owes thee so much love? Judge the best, and I hope that I imagine truth, thou doest it but to try me. If it be so, I brook it with the more patience, yet discontent thou shouldst trouble mine eyes with a wanton line; but if thy passionate humour be in earnest, it contents me not to deny thee, but to defy thee; I proclaim myself enemy to thy life, as thou art envious of mine and my husband's honour.

I will incense PHILIPPO to revenge with his sword what I cannot requite with words; and never live in quiet till I see thee die, infamous traitor as thou art. Unless thy grace be such, to cease from thy treachery, come no more in my husband's house, lest thou look for a dagger in thy bosom; feed not at my table, lest thou quaff with Alexander thy fatal draught! To be brief, love not PHILOMELA, if thou mean to live, but look up to heaven; become penitent for thy fond and foolish passions; let me see repentance in thy eyes, and remorse in thy actions; be as thou hast been, a friend to PHILIPPO, and a favourer of mine honour; and though thou hast deserved but meanly, yet thou shalt be welcome heartily, and whatsoever is past, upon thy penitence, I will pardon,

and for this time conceal it from the knowledge of the Count; otherwise, set down thy rest, we will not both live together in Italy. Farewell.

Never thine,

though she were not PHILIPPO's,

PHILOMELA MEDIA.

Having ended her letter, she resolved to answer his sonnet, as well to shew her wit, as to choke his wantonness, and therefore she writ this

poem.

Quot corda, tot amores.

Nature foreseeing how men would devise

More wiles than Proteus, women to entice,

Granted them two, and those bright shining eyes,
To pierce into man's faults if they were wise.
For they with shew of virtue mask their vice,
Therefore to women's eyes belongs these gifts,
The one must love, the other see men's shifts.

Both these await upon one simple heart,
And what they choose, it hides up without change.
The emerald will not with his portrait part,
Nor will a woman's thoughts delight to range.

They hold it bad to have so base exchange.

One heart, one friend, though that two eyes do choose him,

No more but one, and heart will never lose him.

Cor unum, amor unus.

As soon as she had sealed up her letter, she brooked no delay, but sent it straight by one of her waiting women to LUTESIO, whom she found sitting alone in his chamber reading upon a book. Interrupting his study, she delivered him the letter, and the message of

her lady. LUTESIO kind, gave the gentlewoman a kiss; for he thought she valued a lip favour more than a piece of gold, and with great courtesy gave her leave to depart. She was scarce out of the chamber, but he opened the letter, and found what he expected, the resolution of a chaste Countess, too worthy of so jealous a husband.

Praising in himself the honourable mind of PHILOMELA, he went abroad to find out PHILIPPO, whom at last he met, near unto the arsenal. Walking together to LUTESIO's house, there he shewed PHILIPPO his wife's letter, and did comment upon every line, commending greatly her chastity, and deeply condemning his suspicion.

"Tush," says PHILIPPO, "all this wind shakes no corn. Helena

writ as sharply to Paris, yet she ran away with him. Try her once again, LUTESIO, and for my life thou shalt find calmer words and sweeter lines." LUTESIO, with his eyes full of choler, made him this answer. "PHILIPPO, if thou beest so sottish, with Cephalus to betray thy wife's honour, perhaps with him prove the first that repent thy treachery. When the wild boar is not chafed, thou mayest chasten him with a wand, but being once indammaged with the dogs, he is dismal.

"Women that are chaste while they are trusted, prove wantons being suspected causeless. Jealousy is a spur to revenge. Beware PHILOMELA hear not of this practice, lest she make thee eat with the blind man many a fly. Canst thou not, PHILIPPO, content thyself that thy Lady is honest, but thou must plot the means to make her a harlot'? If thou likest hunters' fees so well, seek another woodman, for I will not play an apple-squire to feed thy humours. If Venice knew as much as I am privy to, they would hold thee

1 How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

Makes ill deeds done.

King John.

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