CHORUS 4. Rare are those virtues now in women's mind! Where shall we seek such jewels passing strange? Scarce can you now among a thousand find One woman stedfast: all delight in change. Mark but this princess, that lamented here Of late so sore her noble husband's death, And thought to live alone without a pheer; Behold how soon she changed hath that breath! I think those ladies that have lived 'tofore, A mirror and a glass to womenkind; By those their virtues they did set such store, That unto us they none bequeath'd behind; Else in so many years we might have seen As virtuous as ever they have been.
CHORUS 1. Yet let not us maidens condemn our kind, Because our virtues are not all so rare: For we may freshly yet record in mind, There lives a virgin,[60] one without compare, Who of all graces hath her heavenly share; In whose renown, and for whose happy days, Let us record this paean of her praise.
CUPID. So now they feel what lordly Love can do, That proudly practise to deface his name; In vain they wrastle with so fierce a foe; Of little sparks arise a blazing flame. "By small occasions love can kindle heat, And waste the oaken breast to cinder dust." Gismund I have enticed to forget Her widow's weeds, and burn in raging lust: 'Twas I enforc'd her father to deny Her second marriage to any peer; 'Twas I allur'd her once again to try The sour sweets that lovers buy too dear. The County Palurin, a man right wise, A man of exquisite perfections, I have like wounded with her piercing eyes, And burnt her heart with his reflections. These two shall joy in tasting of my sweet, To make them prove more feelingly the grief That bitter brings: for when their joys shall fleet, Their dole shall be increas'd without relief. Thus Love shall make worldlings to know his might; Thus Love shall force great princes to obey; Thus Love shall daunt each proud, rebelling spirit; Thus Love shall wreak his wrath on their decay. Their ghosts shall give black hell to understand, How great and wonderful a god is Love: And this shall learn the ladies of this land With patient minds his mighty power to prove. From whence I did descend, now will I mount To Jove and all the gods in their delights: In throne of triumph there will I recount, How I by sharp revenge on mortal wights Have taught the earth, and learned hellish sprites To yield with fear their stubborn hearts to Love, Lest their disdain his plagues and vengeance prove. [CUPID _remounteth into the heavens_.