SCENE II.[7

[_Enter_] TELLUS _and_ FLOSCULA.

_Tellus._ Treacherous and most perjured Endymion, is Cynthia the sweetness of thy life and the bitterness of my death? What revenge may be devised so full of shame as my thoughts are replenished with malice? Tell me, Floscula, (5) if falseness in love can possibly be punished with extremity of hate? As long as sword, fire, or poison may be hired, no traitor to my love shall live unrevenged. Were thy oaths without number, thy kisses without measure, thy sighs (10) without end, forged to deceive a poor credulous virgin, whose simplicity had been worth thy favour and better fortune? If the gods sit unequal beholders of injuries, or laughers at lovers’ deceits, then let mischief be as well forgiven (15) in women as perjury winked at in men.

_Flosc._ Madam, if you would compare the state of Cynthia with your own, and the height of Endymion his thoughts with the meanness of your fortune, you would rather yield than (20) contend, being between you and her no comparison; and rather wonder than rage at the greatness of his mind, being affected with a thing more than mortal.

_Tellus._ No comparison, Floscula? And (25) why so? Is not my beauty divine, whose body is decked with fair flowers, and veins are vines, yielding sweet liquor to the dullest spirits; whose ears are corn, to bring strength; and whose hairs are grass, to bring abundance? (30) Doth not frankincense and myrrh breathe out of my nostrils, and all the sacrifice of the gods breed in my bowels? Infinite are my creatures, without which neither thou, nor Endymion, nor any, could love or live. 35

_Flosc._ But know you not, fair lady, that Cynthia governeth all things? Your grapes would be but dry husks, your corn but chaff, and all your virtues vain, were it not Cynthia that preserveth the one in the bud and nourisheth the (40) other in the blade, and by her influence both comforteth all things, and by her authority commandeth all creatures. Suffer, then, Endymion to follow his affections, though to obtain her be impossible, and let him flatter himself in his (45) own imaginations, because they are immortal.

_Tellus._ Loath I am, Endymion, thou shouldest die, because I love thee well; and that thou shouldest live, it grieveth me, because thou lovest Cynthia too well. In these extremities, (50) what shall I do? Floscula, no more words; I am resolved. He shall neither live nor die.

_Flosc._ A strange practice,[8] if it be possible.

_Tellus._ Yes, I will entangle him in such a sweet net that he shall neither find the means (55) to come out, nor desire it. All allurements of pleasure will I cast before his eyes, insomuch that he shall slake that love which he now voweth to Cynthia, and burn in mine, of which he seemeth careless. In this languishing, between (60) my amorous devices and his own loose desires, there shall such dissolute thoughts take root in his head, and over his heart grow so thick a skin, that neither hope of preferment, nor fear of punishment, nor counsel of the wisest, nor (65) company of the worthiest, shall alter his humour, nor make him once to think of his honour.

_Flosc._ A revenge incredible, and, if it may be, unnatural.

_Tellus._ He shall know the malice of a woman (70) to have neither mean nor end; and of a woman deluded in love to have neither rule nor reason. I can do it; I must; I will! All his virtues will I shadow with vices; his person (ah, sweet person!) shall he deck with such rich (75) robes as he shall forget it is his own person; his sharp wit (ah, wit too sharp that hath cut off all my joys!) shall he use in flattering of my face and devising sonnets in my favour. The prime of his youth and pride of his time shall be spent 80 in melancholy passions, careless behaviour, untamed thoughts, and unbridled affections.

_Flosc._ When this is done, what then? Shall it continue till his death, or shall he dote forever in this delight? 85

_Tellus._ Ah, Floscula, thou rendest my heart in sunder in putting me in remembrance of the end.

_Flosc._ Why, if this be not the end, all the rest is to no end. 90

_Tellus._ Yet suffer me to imitate Juno, who would turn Jupiter’s lovers to beasts on the earth, though she knew afterwards they should be stars in heaven.

_Flosc._ Affection that is bred by enchantment (95) is like a flower that is wrought in silk,—in colour and form most like, but nothing at all in substance or savour.

_Tellus._ It shall suffice me if the world talk that I am favoured of Endymion. 100

_Flosc._ Well, use your own will; but you shall find that love gotten with witchcraft is as unpleasant as fish taken with medicines[9] unwholesome.

_Tellus._ Floscula, they that be so poor that (105) they have neither net nor hook will rather poison dough than pine with hunger; and she that is so oppress’d with love that she is neither able with beauty nor wit to obtain her friend, will rather use unlawful means than try intolerable (110) pains. I will do it. _Exit._

_Flosc._ Then about it. Poor Endymion, what traps are laid for thee because thou honourest one that all the world wondereth at! And what plots are cast to make thee unfortunate that (115) studiest of all men to be the faithfulest! _Exit._