LOVE. Fair Psyche, believe what these eyes tell you. Let yours vie
with each other in instructing me of all your emotions. Trust this
sighing heart, which, so long as yours will answer, will tell you more
by a sigh than a hundred looks can express. 'Tis the sweetest
language, the most powerful, the truest of all!
PSY. The understanding of it was due to both our hearts to make them
equally satisfied. I have sighed, you have understood me; you sigh,
and I heard you. But release me from doubt, my Lord, and tell me, if
by the same road Zephyr has led you hither after me; to tell me what I
hear now. When I arrived here, were you expected? and when you speak
to him, are you obeyed?
LOVE. The empire I exercise over this sweet climate is as sovereign as
yours is over my heart. _Love_ is favourable to me, and 'tis for his
sake that Aeolus has placed Zephyr under my command. It was Love who,
to reward my passion, dictated this oracle, by which your fair days
that were threatened have been released from a throng of lovers; and
which has freed me from the lasting obstacle of so many ardent sighs
that were unworthy of being addressed to you. Ask not of me what this
region be, nor the name of its ruler; you shall know it in time. My
object is to win you; but I wish to do so by my services, my assiduous
care, my constant vows, by a lover's sacrifice of all that I am, of
all my power can effect. The splendour of my rank must not solicit you
for me, neither must I make a merit of my power; and though sovereign
lord of this blissful realm, I wish to owe you, Psyche, to nothing but
my love.
Come with me, Princess, and admire its marvels; prepare your eyes and
ears to the charms it will offer you. You shall gaze on woods and
meads, contesting their beauties with gold and gems; you shall hear
nothing but sweet concerts; a hundred beauties shall serve you here;
without envy they shall worship you, and every moment with a humble
and raptured soul shall solicit the honour of your commands.
PSY. My will waits upon yours; I can no longer have one of my own; but
at any rate your oracle has severed me from two sisters, and the king,
my father, whom my supposed death has all three reduced to bewail me.
Suffer my sisters to be witnesses of my glory and your love for me, to
dissipate the error which overwhelms their soul with mortal sorrow.
Lend them too, as you did me, Zephyr's wings, that they may facilitate
their access to your empire, as they did mine. Let them see where I
live, let them wonder at the success of my loss.
LOVE. You do not yield me all your soul, Psyche. This affectionate
remembrance of a father and two sisters snatches from me part of that
which I crave for my passion only. Have no eyes for anyone but for me,
who have none but for you. Let love for me, and the desire of pleasing
me, be your only thought, and when such cares dare divert you from
it....
PSY. Can you be jealous of affection for kin?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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