Workdiary 4 (editorial transcript)

Link to Editorial Headnote for Workdiary 4

[BP 3, fol. 146]
A
Miscellaneous
COLLECTION
Begun
March the 25th 1648/9.

We cannot without regret Mention or call to mind the losse of our Estates, & yet we can remember without sorrow, the Losse (in Adam) of our first State of Innocency.

Over-sollicitous Persons are worse natur'd to themselves then the very Divell, for he would by no meanes be tormented before his time.

[Integral marginalia:]
Lrd. Br.
Yea Prince of Earth Let man assume to be.
And Nature of Religion to have sense.
Man were to God as Deafnesse is to sounds.
Good life would would find a Good Religion out.
Both buying shaddowes with the soule's expence.
Which Naturall disease of mortall Witt.
- For what feare Comprehends not, it enclines
To make a God whose Naturealtered from 'Natures' it beleeves,
Much more enclin'd to punish then relieve.
Flesh the foundation is, fancie the worke.
Not to do w deleted ill, more then do well it loves,
fashions God unto Man, not Man to God.
[Integral marginalia:]
Hypocrisie) (margin, at first line of verse)
Tyrants Lawes (margin, written between last two lines of verse)
The World's Religion borne of Wit & Lust;
all which like hunters, follow things that fly,
& still beyond things found, find something must.
Wit there is Priest, which sacrifice doth Make
of all in heav'n & earth to this Desire,
for from this Wit, GOD & religion take
As many shapes, as many strange attires.
- Which Zeale divine to humane homage drawes.
[Integral marginalia:]
B

Being uncapable of any Concerne but my greatest.
Unlesse Fl: will esteeme Perolla's possessing a Woman of as much Inc: as beauty a sufficient Punishment

[BP 8, fol. 118] [text begins in body of page]

We cannot without regret mention or call to minde the losse of our Estates, & yet we can remember without sorrow, the Losse (in Adam) of our first State of Innocency. deleted

Sollicitous Persons are worse natur'd to themselves then the very Divell, for he wud by no meanes be tormented before his time. deleted

[Integral marginalia:]
B

She found it farre more difficult to oppose Virtue then Persecution.

Beg'd her to beleeve'e' at end of word altered from 'd', that he was more troubled at hir Teares, then she could be for their subject; & that she would not so much contribute to his Torment, as to manifest that she was sensible of it, nor to his Recovery, as shewing him a Beauty that was capable of greater Miracles.

If - yet hir & your Condition would be but as desperate as without that Essay.

[Retrospective marginalia:]
R deleted

A happynesse that the God deleted

-Your Vertues are so greate that I can better suffer your Passion then your ruine.

May not I feare I owe this Preservative to your Duty not your Mercy.

I may ende my Life with that which gives rellish to it.

This promise I do more Joyfully receive then the health & life it will restore me to.

If it had not been for P. this Threatning had lost that quality; & the Pennance had invited hir to sinne.

And implor'd them to direct my Actions to hir satisfaction, tho to my owne ruine.

-That I exclaim'd against my Fate that had made my being his Friend & Isadora's servant inconsistent.

And I beseech the Gods to make me as unfortunate in the other world as I have been in this, if I resent any trouble for my Death, but what I apprehend it may create in him, & that by this one Argument of my Flame, I am render'd for ever uncapable of giving him any other.

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- The Gods declar'd their Justice in forcing him that had bin hir Enemy to become hir Revenger.

- His Tombe, which had no other Inscription then Here lyes Hanniball, & indeed was not capable of a Greater.

- Which to do by feare & not by necessity was &c

- To oppose their Captivity in a way that if it afterwards prov'd their Destiny, yet at least it wud be esteem'd their misfortune & not their Defect.

For perhaps my sacrilegious arm might have been employ'd against a Virtue, which to have fought against or resisted, would have more troubled me then to be vanquisht by it: & which to know is so greate a Felicity, that I count my Defeate an easy purchase of it.

- There to preserve hir honor or not live to see it violated.

On which (story) if, I have too long insisted, 'twas to publish what twere a sin to conceale.

[BP 8, fol. 118v]

I cannot beleeve Miracles are ceasd since I see your Constancy.

Death has more Dores then one & I will tr deleted try them all but I will find a Passage.

Your suspitions wrong me more then You beleeve my Treachery dos You:

Unlesse my presenting P. to You be a Treachery, I am guilty of none.

<To> A Place where meritt & Love have no Enemys, & where a Virtuous & a happy flame are the same thing.

The Gods will not so much tempt us to doubt their Providence, as to decline rewarding Your V on the same stage where it has so conspicuously shin'd; which were to make sin, Reason.

-But that his embracing Your offer will render him unworthy of it: for the receiving a resign'd up mistriss is like the deleted loosing a l.c. for a Friend, where that Act that makes the Obligation imposes an impossibility of Gratitude.

And will You give away what You have given Your self to?

With a looke as Cold as Temperate, & as farre above misfortune as she was unworthy any;

At the finishing these Words she left me as if life had so deleted done so.

-Izadora for theisaltered from 'her' Reward, who can find none worthy of hir, but he that she raises to that height by hir esteeming him soe; & since she has created Perolla, not found him in that blest Condition, let hir impose what Commands she will on the worke of hir Creation; he will either act them, or not survive his impotency & disobedience.

-Leave no meanes unessay'd-(I will not so much wrong You as to limit them no further then honor shall direct.

My Intelligence was to be without witnesses or interruption.

My not unfruitfull Passion for Is. a Mis deleted fortune, since I feare it may deny me a Friendship, which is a blessing next to [hirs]unclear.

-is as greate a Demonstration of hir Partiality as of my happynesse.

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If I thought Your Justice were not as great as your Conquests.

-which she cloathes with the Name of a hih generosity.

Where he would have no guard but my fidelity.

-Who had they not scorn'd to owe their safety to a sin that had renderd them unworthy of it.

-How they had rather hazard their Empire then their Reputation.

-By permitting an ill act in an Epirote, which he had no interest in but what his Knowledge of it gave him.

-Had not hiher Consider. plac't limits to my just revenge.

-Endeavor to make me question his Mother's Faith which I should have done, did I not know one of the greatest Vices was to suspect she had any.

He endavor'd it obliquely.

That I might not suspect the first service I did him was by accident but Designe.

[BP 8, fol. 119][text begins in body of page]

-Or perhaps Fortune giving him some Ease to enable him to undergo hir longer Cruelty.

-A single Valor, which could not but be transcendent, since it had such an Admirer.

-Who to sell his Life at a rate worthy so high a Purchase - with blowes that strucke as great a Terror into the rest, as the very Examples of those Deaths.

-His Courage might be worsted by (tho not yeeld to) his Enemys Numbers.

And there being no greater Invitation to his generous Mind for the releeving of Virtue, then to find it in distresse.

-Whose harts are as ill as their Cause, & who need rely on their Number since they cannot on their Quarrell.

-So farre above his strength tho not himselfe.

-I might as easily evince that Truth as I acknowledge it.

If (sayd Art.) there be any Obl. in what I have done, it wholly reflects upon me, that have more oblig'd my selfe then You in serving so prodigall a Gratitude. - To excuse the rudenesse of theiraltered from 'this' Joy

-And cannot fancy any that knows me & is my Enemy, can be so much mistaken in his Revenge as to thinke Killing me is any.

The virtuous Call. was highly satisfy'd to have at once in his house, more Virtue then the World possest besides.

But Call. more intent upon their health then their Civility;

And tho his Curiosity was greate, yet his Civility was greater, which hindred him &c.

-for thinking those Wounds a Misfortune that had secur'd his Friend, that Art. by being forc't to beleeve them none found them a greater.

-They joyntly assur'd him, his company could never prove an Injury, but in his depriving them of it.

-since You have made Your Curiosity my Request.

Began his obedience to his Friend's Commands in these Termes - Which had nothing in degrees equall to it but-

A hazard, which I attest the Gods was a higher trouble to me then the Benefit I thereby enjoy'd was a Satisfaction; I found in Rysolis by your Commands, a Continuance of your Favors.

-I was much more esteem'd of then either I thought or merited

-And had I cast it off (my Disguize) I had cast of my safety with it.

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As free from feare as guilt.

Would looke too like a Designe not to be taken for one.

Esteem'd it his Duty to informe Art. of this, & as much his Duty to dissuade him from accepting it.

But the Information was so darke & confus'd that it left me in as deepe an Ignorance as their silence could.

-Was to be as unmindfull of the generall Gratitude as safety.

-Made hir suppresse all resentments of Words in hope to acquaint him with others in a more sensible Way.

-And manifested so tr: a Joy for my Del. that the sight of it inspir'd me with a greater then the Cause of it could my Princesse.

-That the same Fortune I had in Love did follow me in Warre, since I ow'd my Pres. to my Conqueror.

But'u' altered' alas these Cont. were as short as their Relation.

[BP 8, fol. 119v][text begins in body of page]

-Yes, tis my Inclination as wel as Duty & next the spending of it in your service, the best fortune it can aspire to, is to lose it in it.

-That he should acknowledge he had found his Interest in his Duty.

Is it possible that K. shud so much bewitch your reason as to make you consider your servants as Your Enemyes, & they as your friends?

- Were I as confident of his Loyalty as of his that made me suspect it.

-You may learne them better by their Effects then Description; which were that they wholly converted Art. suspitions into as greate a Confidence.

To extinguish all Diffidences.

I am then a Creature as farre above being capable of more misery, as of reliefe.

My reason cannot so much yeeld to hope.

-Begg'd me to make hast, least he might misse of Victory by missing me.

-Event, which was an entire Victory on the justest side, & which shew'd that Fortune had no hand in it.

My griefe for his Captivity would have been so large that I could have done nothing but deplore it.

-P will neither envy nor deny You that Title.

-Had You rather I shud be unconstant then Dead? & had you rather have me live in Vice, then Dye in Innocence, when too, that Vice would render me as unworthy as undesirous to live.

-If he do not, he will find his punishment in his fault.

-Whose effects I shall eternally deplore with as much Cause as Violence.

Hir opinion was our Resolution.

But it may be she shed those for his Crimes & not his fal:

-Who reign'd more In Art. subjects, then he himselfe did over them.- As vaine as dangerous.

-Of an honorable Death alone since I was deny'd it <in company.>

-My army contributing nothing to the Conqueror's Glory, but the not having participation in it.

I found the sight of my Preserver was a greater Blessing then the Pres. it selfe.

- Who was engaged in his Cause morealtered from 'bore' by his Relation to those in it, then approbation of it.

- That my Patience in enduring my Torments, was of a quality that convinc't him that they proceeded not from my Fortitude but Innocence, & concluded that he was thereby invited to be of a Cause which gave the possessors of it power to conquer their Enemys by their very sufferings.

If he would decline Z. For Art. he should thereby better his Fortunes as much as his Cause.

Instead of helping Art. to a victory, I have robb'd him of one.

-Protested he had brought him 2 things he most ambitiously desir'd; Victory & Ann: that he was as much oblig'd to him for the latter as the former.

-Commission, that Ann-'s liberty made my Justice & my Duty restore.

But to abuse your Patience as little as I can without disobedience.

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Our Admiration was Cur'd by our Greefe.

-Who were he not concern'd in hir safety for his King's sake, I beleeve he would be for his sonne's.

- Twas more like Armenians to fall by the sword then by submission.

The King esteem'd what I sayd to be fitter for his Commendation then his Practise.

- To learne I had no small Power with one of the Romans that had so much with all the rest.

Having promis'd my Desire.

Commands- which I desir'd to learne that I might obey them. - I would not (sayd V.) have given you this Trouble but to serve you & to evince &c.

-For Alexander's having been his Foyle & not his Patterne

-Who (if my affection deceive me not,) You will see as famous for his Power, as he is already for his Courage & virtue.

-The successe of the action would be blemisht by the Cause.

And was in such transports, that had we been ignorant what his fears had been, by his joys we miht have read them.

[BP 8, fol. 120][text begins in body of page]

-But make your selfe so guilty to Your selfe,that shud Is. want Friends to revenge your Cruelty, your Conscience would assume that parte, & act with as much certainty as horror.

-I must have concluded them both excellent; I tell You, (sayd he,) true, tho not the truth.

- Is. who having hir owne Perfections to try others by, evinces his to be Greate since they were esteem'd so by hir.

-And would be oblig'd to B. for nothing but his wishes & the opp. of making my addresses

-Since Arte in Love is rather a Virtue then a Crime You must pardon me if I cannot raise my Faith so farre above my Reason.

-So rude an Admirer of Is. - & when to manifest that reality.

-So that - I cannot consider You but as Your owne & not Isadora's Agent.

-But let her Generosity instruct Your's, & remember it can be but vertuous to imitate Is.

-In joyes of hopes, till those of Fruition make them vanish into Greater.

-I must beg your pardon for not crediting Your vowes, since my unbeleefe is with reason & against my self.

Be not so cruell to Truth & to me, as to suspect hir guilty of such a Crime. for had she any Intentions of that nature, she needed not employ any to kill me; for she knowes, she has not only the Power to act it her selfe, but by the honor of dying by hir Commands, she has wherewithall abundantly to recompence my Deth.

-Whom I will thinke Innocent because You do so

- H. whose Gallantry she admir'd as much as she esteem'd hir selfe unfortunate in being uncapable of rewarding it.

-Magnify'd my actions in terms as flattering as handsome.

-And words so distracted, yet so significant, that Is. found Rhetoricke did not wholly consist in well-speaking, or in talking sence.

-That I shall consider my Affliction as my Joy, if it can build your's. & if by the learning my owne Misfortunes I can put a Period to Isadora's; she will more oblige me by building hir happynesse on the ruine of mine, then if she continu'd my hopes by hir sufferings.

- Your vertue is such that it makes mine my Paine: why then, ô Gods, do you render Perseverance in Good a Torment as great as the fault in declining it?

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And lest I might yet doubt- he voluntarily embraces Death to justify that Truth.

-For twas only to be treacherous to redeeme his Ingratitude, & thereby commit one Crime to act another.

-What hapned was but an accident, but his taking up armes was a Designe.

I beseech you to consider he is his owne Witnesse.

In which (Rape) every accessory is a Principall.

By his unfort

But because she has told hir owne Story with so much Arte that it may induce you to consider my resentments as an Injustice, I shallaltered from 'will' give deleted breefly give You a true Comment upon it.

-When too, shee contributed nothing to his ruine but the Performing of hir Duty.

-But also in making the purchase of that safty.

-When for my unsuccesfull endevors & Duty to the Roman Empire.

Gives him unjust prayses, to make me give them an unjust reward.

[BP 8, fol. 120v][text begins in body of page]

-To preserve You from Death, I was willing to exchange our Destinyes.

You have not only taught me what to practice, but given me the Power to act it.

-And preserve a life, which must be my Contentment since it has establisht your's, & is esteemed by you.

-Made a resignation of all his Passions for Isadora, but those of being serviceable to hir, & became as perfect a Friend as he had bin a Lover.

-That he could no longer cloude the fallacy.

-By a speedy Marriage to exempt our selves from the Power both of Blacius & of fortune.

-So the Place of hir future sanctuary were of such a quality, that she might be confident hir honor would no more suffer in report then in Action.

-But when my hope had resign'd it selfe to despaire.

-Was not content only to leave Is. but to helpe hir to me.

-Till she might make it hir Election & not Constraint

-Hir living Grave.

-That having lost the hopes of this World he would no longer live in it; that having been a servant to Is. he could not goe lesse (loosing that servitude then become one to the Gods; & that he was the more fitted for their service by having practis'd under their perfectest resembler.

-that had plac't us above the Thoughts of any other Felicity.

But what he had done renderd fruitlesse what he had spoake; & his Actions were more eloquent then his Tongue.

-With a looke as serene as his Thought, & with words as hev'nly as his Profession.

We implor'd him by his Prayers to preserve us in as good a Condition as his Vertue had plac't us in.

- Aaltered from 'a' favor above a President.

-Which course was sufficiently justifyable, since we sought to make use of Power but to oppose Tyranny; & to obtaine that from authority which was deny'd to reason.

-And encrease his hatred by encreasing his Jealousy.

The Greefe of this Message was not much inferior to the satisfaction of having freed Is. from so greate a hazard, & the having setled hir in as great a security.

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-My hart & my Tong were strangers.

-As hard to be reveng'd as pardon'd.

-That they had acknowledg'd themselves vanquisht in such a Way, that the very proofes they had giv'n of that confession, render'd them for ever uncapable of repairing their Condition.

-congratulated a successe which none could doubt that were not ignorant of Scipio's Cause & Virtue.

-But this misfortune was tearm'd a Crime by the Courtiers, who apprehended Hannibals Knowledge in Warre would soone, if once manifested to their King,) discover their Ignorance in it.

-A passage which perhaps You may esteem worthy the Digression.

-Without - he inclusively acknoledg'd him soe.

Which (fatall Cup) has afforded him that Ease, which nonesecond 'n' altered in composition that know him & vertu can participate of, till they are in his Condition.

[BP 8, fol. 121][text begins in body of page]

- Your ryvall's Life, I had found a Way which should have made it his Torment, & whose successe could not have bin ill, without the God's declaring themselves as much enemyes to your Love as they have been friends to your Glory.

That You are resolv'd to give hir a Testimony of Your Passion by suppressing the Effects of it, that since the onely way to manifest'm' altered from 'd' how much you valu'd hir Contentment was to deprive your selfe of your owne you are come to divest your selfe of it by renouncing your hopes, & resigning them to P. who you must acknowledge is more worthy of the Felicity by hir esteeming him soe; that since You could not conquer her, You have vanquish't your selfe, & that in imitation of hir, you valu'd him above your selfe.

You thinke, Madam, to silence my passion by reproaches, because you will not pay it in the same Coyne; to avoyd Ingratitude by becomming Unjust; & by accusing my Innocency, to decline being a Debtor to my Flame.

And will You attribute that to your Place which I to you? No no Sir, all the World shall be salapia to me, & the senate cannot give so absolute a Power over me as my Inclinations do.

-Mine, which I take the Goods to witnesse, is not dearer to me upon any scoare then out of a beleefe that may be serviceable to you.

That (said P.) which is the subject of your sorrow, is, of my Contentment; by my fortunes furnishing me with the meanes of convincing you, that I expect no other Glory in serving you, then the only Advantage you receive from that Performance.

-Embrac't the opportunity, & him that gave it him.

I do acknowledge that you have vanquish't me & by such noble arms, that I am as well satisfy'd with my Defeate as you can be with your victory.- Whose Friendship I will meete with open armes.

You may in some measure guesse at their Greatness when so excellent a Wit found silence the best way of expressing them: but tho his Tong was unemploy'd, yet He was not: for - & by a 1000 such Extr. was more eloquently gratefull then he could possibly have been in Words.

-Beg'd some time to worke on his Inclination to submit unto his Duty. - An Agony whose Torments nothing but an unfortunate Lover is capable to imagine.

-And perhaps beleeving, if she had a reall Passion for him, that hir owne fate would be the lesse bitter by his not being involv'd in it; & if she had not, the losse would be more tollerable, he resolv'd to preserve hir in his Memory that he could not in his Embraces.

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-And nothing but a storme Greate enuf to swallow us up deleted shall hinder our arrivall in Italy. Thou rejoycest me (I reply'de) for the best fortune, next to our intended harbor is a Wreck.

But since by what he had offer'd he gave me the Confidence to implore sometheng of him, I would make use of those humble prayers to &c.

-Who expresst as much sadnesse for the Cause of my Departure, as for my abandoning them.

-But having declin'd it upon the same scoare that I did Massiniss' as offer too.

-That tho it rais'd a storme of it selfe, yet we knew it was but the fore-runner of a Greater.

-And the Gods of the Wind & Sea with the Queen of Love, who sprung from that Element, so favor'd my Resolution, (which had for End the releeving of a Deity as faire as she, & which presented her more Votaries then all the residue of hir sexe.)

-Least the rumor of my Arrivall might prejudice the Intention of it.

[BP 8, fol. 121v][text begins in body of page]

-But his Wound open'd so large a Way for his soule that it flew out at that Passage. This Losse the C.[arthaginians] resented at a higher rate then the Battell that was the Cause of it.

-Lowe submissions, (which indeed were too humble to be reall.)

-To relate, & it shall be in as little volume, as I can possibly contract so much Truth & bisnesse in.

-That the S. easily div'd into their harts.

-that a hart that's fill'd with so divine an Image cannot be capable of so lowaltered from 'lowe' a sin as feare; but on the contrary 'twill inspire me with resolution enuf to seeke thee out ev'n in the very Center of thy Troopes.

-Where I will more handsomly punish those Miserys thy better starres have cast upon me; & by thy Death before 200000 witnesses evince thou hadst more Fortune then Merit in thy Love, as also by destroying the Object of Izadora's flame, punish hir Ingratitude to mine.

-And never implore a greater certainty for the punishment of thy Crimes, then to have thee defend them with thy sword.

M. & L. were so farre from Condemning my Confidence that they acknowledg'd their Fault; & after the Battell confest &c. (This I tell you, not to acquaint you with my V but to show you how secure they were in their owne.

I will omit, (G. S.) informing you, how &c.

For whilst we were following those whose Lowe resistance made them unworthy our armes, we abandon'd those whose Resolutions merited our Assistance & whose Condition needed it.

-Was upon the point of loosing a Victory, by our having prosecuted one too farre.

-Perceiving his Misf. was so farre from being terrify'd with it; that observing - he told me. Why dost thou not (P.) embrace an Opportunity, which Fortune has offer'd thee, since thou canst never expect an advantage over me but on such a scoare. These words mov'd me a little, but not so much as his Condition.

'Tis not from Fortune, but from Justice I will derive my Revenge, for since I underake to vindicate an injur'd Innocency; I must make use of no wayes but those as Virtuous as the subject of my quarrell. Thy attempt on - I condemn'd, & therefore will not practise a resembling Crime: since to imitate so lowe a sin were rather to authorize then punish it. Go thenaltered from 'them' and get a better Cause as well as sword; for if the first be the same, the latter will be so too.

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I am ready to obey your & my Mistriss'es Commands, & the Gods knowing the Justice of my obedience will, (doubtlesse contribute to soe necessary a Duty.

Ile force force the sea to be my Friend or Ruine, by perishing in attempting of my Duty.

How ill thou understandst me, to beleeve that Triumphs or the Empire of the World can one minute suspend the serving the divine Iz.

But my Passion (for hir that merited a hiher)was so great.

To repaire this rudenesse, (which nothing could excuse but the Cause of it;) I told M. - & besought him that had knowne the Effect of Love from the faire Sophonisba's Eyes, to pardon those which proceeded from a resembling Perfection; He told me, He was sadly skilfull enough in the Operations of Buty, not only to excuse what it produc't't' altered from 'd', but was bound by his Knowledge of those Effects, to offer all his assistance to them.

- His Kingdome which was at my Devotion by my having renderd it at his.

[BP 8, fol. 122][text begins in body of page]

Neither can she alleadge this impious proceeding was an Effect of a precipitate Election upon a sudden emergency.

-Gave hir not only leasure to reflect on hir Crime but power to recall it.

-Was a premeditated Dessein, & not a hasty choice.

-Which action of V hir depraved Reason makes a confirmative argument of continuing in hir vice.

This Sir, which I beleeve deleted, alleadge wud be, I beleeve the reasoning of a stranger which has any.

And tho in this Action I evinc't that I preferr'd Gratitude before Life - so I did too, that I preferr'd Death before any Alliance with P.

For to justify she murther'd me with a good intention.

As if one Crime cud expiate another.

-To consider hir sufferings as an immediate Justice of the Gods, for hir want of Duty; yet as soone as H. threatned to be their instrument in it, I not only hazarded &c

Neither did his long abstaining from justifying himselfe to me, proceed, (as Is. said) from his Ignorance of my Resentments, but from his being conscious to the justice of them.

And after that by my former concessions I had manifested to hir that my present proceedings were effects of my Reason & not Aversion for hir Lover.

-So farre from sympathizing with me in -

And hir not by deleted being marryed which she alleadges to qualify, is an aggravation of hir Crime.

-She must be more oblig'd to men's Charitys then to hir actions, if they have not thereby as bad a Character of hir Chastity, as I of hir Duty.

-They are not much dissonant from truth.

If your Justice be proportionable to your Pow'r.

-To Declaime upon a Theame which would have furnish't reasons to a Judgment as Ill as his was excellent.

Whose guilt is as much in their faces as their harts.

This office we accepted; were seemingly wicked but to be really the Contrary: for we apprehended our Declining their overture might have induc't them to invite some other to embrace it; where the Greatnesse of the reward might have cover'd the Greatnesse of the Crime.

-had bin a sin as well against Gratitude as honor.

-'twas not only by your Permission but by your command.

- That whosoever endeavor'd the Death of the Generall, shud receive his owne for punishment: so that he had nothing to do but to give the Law it's Course, which in that case to oppose, was not to be Mercifull but Unjust.

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-That since for him to be just would make them happy; they would pardon a revenge which he inflicted as much upon their score as his owne.

-At Sp. feete, which having a while washt with their Teares, they beg'd him either to alter his sentence or permit them to participate in it.

-That if - they would be rather content with their eternall separation, then purchase it at that rate.

That the Cause of their Union would take away all satisfaction in the Effect; that they should be more miserable byaltered from 'in' the losse of their parents then in their Cruelty.

-And either by Greefe or resolution suddenly follow them.

Which they would suddenly repaire by embracing a resembling Destiny to their's.

Are you so much fortify'd against V, that soe powerfull an Assault must remaine fruitlesse?

[BP 8, fol. 122v][text begins in body of page]

-They commanded them to consider theyr sentence but as a Tribute to the Lawe of Nature & Warre; & they shud in the Joyes of their Union, extinguish all the sorrow their Death cud inspire.

-That he was glad an attempt against his Life had setled the Felicity of theirs; which he would have gladly bought by the attempt's being turn'd into an Execution.

And the Passions of - resign'd their roomes into -

He was put in possession of his Is. which was a Felicity so farre above needing a foyle to sett it off, that his past troubles & Crosses, were not consider'd but forgot.

Madam. If I durst in any thing have the confidence to instruct my Knowledge at so uncivill a Rate, as the Lengthning of your Trouble, it shud be in his Story: Sir (reply'd Iz:) since you seeme to decline the being inform'd of his Generous adventures, only out of a beleefe that the telling them may prove my Trouble; I would by an Experiment of that nature convince you, nothing can beare that Name, nor have that operation with me, which proves a satisfaction to the Gallant Sp. but that I beleeve the Relation will be more exact by Perolla's making it then by mine; whose willingnesse to obey you I dare answer for by mine deleted my owne, since the sympathy betwixt us has been so greate & Constant, that I alwayes knew his Hart by mine.

-And protested that he undertooke the story to ease hir & not to improve it.

Or are you ignorant that it lyes not in your Power in this World, to repaire the Miserys you have cast upon me in it.

Shall I find Courage is as greate a Curse to me as it is a Blessing to others; & shall I find in V a greater Torment then ever you inflicted for the Punishment of Vice? If you intended my ruine, why do you bring your Power in question by not effecting it; & if you design'd my Felicity why did you take Parth. to you.

- And all the reward I beg for so painfull an Obedience, is that by a Marke of your fury I may receive one of your Love; but if Thunder be kept for the Wicked & not the Unfortunate, let your Oracle command me to dye: this hand, (when you have taken off th'impiety) shall be the joyfull Executioner, of your sentence

-And that he always spoake the faire Izadora's Words-

-They were perform'd more upon the scoare of Love then Glory.

[text begins in margin, writing parallel to spine]

I attributed my Misery to all Causes rather then hir Infidelity: but if by a Miracle I should learne from C. that she was capable of any.

For to thinke 'twas in the Power of a Miracle for you to be one in any thing but Virtue, is a sinne greater then all things but the Perfection & the Mercy which has forgiven it: in confidence that you have so againe which I implore with a humility as transcendent as my offence; &c.

Tho I have as often begg'd & obtain'd your Pardon for this Crime, as I have mention'd it, yet I must still continue that Practise.

-In a house where Nothing was visible but Joy.

Canst thou be faythfull to Is. when thy Fidelity is a Crime, & when she makes use of thy Affection for so fatall an End as to become hir Murtherer? No no. P. doubtlesse will be more satisfy'd to find hir in the Armes of H: then those of Death.

- As If hindring hir Fate - would hinder it till the hand of Age impos'd it.