Bring forth the virgin, the fatal virgin, the fairest virgin, if you mean to appease Neptune and preserve your country.

5.2.4937Ericthinis. Here she cometh, accompanied only with men, because it is a sight unseemly 938(as all virgins say) to see the misfortune of a maiden, and terrible to behold the fierceness 939of Agar the monster.

Miserable and accursed Hebe, that, being neither fair nor fortunate, thou shouldst be 943thought most happy and beautiful! Curse thy birth, thy life, thy death, being born to live in 944danger and, having lived, to die by deceit. Art thou the sacrifice to appease Neptune and satisfy 945the custom, the bloody custom, ordained for the safety of thy country? Ay, Hebe, poor Hebe: men 946will have it so, whose forces command our weak natures. Nay, the gods will have it so, 947whose powers dally with our purposes. The Egyptians never cut their dates from the tree, because they 948are so fresh and green; it is thought wickedness to pull roses from the stalks in the 949garden of Palestine, for that they have so lively a red; and whoso cutteth the incense tree 950in Arabia before it fall committeth sacrilege.

5.2.8951 Shall it only be lawful amongst us in the prime of youth and 952pride of beauty to destroy both youth and beauty, and what was honored in fruits and flowers 953as a virtue to violate in a virgin as a vice? But alas! Destiny alloweth no dispute. 954Die, Hebe, Hebe, die! Woeful Hebe, and only accursed Hebe! Farewell the sweet delights of life, and 955welcome now the bitter pangs of death! Farewell, you chaste virgins, whose thoughts are divine, whose faces 956fair, whose fortunes are agreeable to your affections! Enjoy, and long enjoy, the pleasure of your curled 957locks, the amiableness of your wished looks, the sweetness of your tuned voices, the content of your 958inward thoughts, the pomp of your outward shows. Only Hebe biddeth farewell to all the joys that 959she conceived and you hope for, that she possessed and you shall. Farewell, the pomp of princes' 960courts, whose roofs are embossed with gold and whose pavements are decked with fair ladies; where the 961days are spent in sweet delights, the nights in pleasant dreams; where chastity honoreth affections and commandeth, 962yieldeth to desire and conquereth!

5.2.9963 Farewell, the sovereign of all virtue and goddess of all virgins, Diana, whose 964perfections are impossible to be numbered and therefore infinite, never to be matched and therefore immortal! Farewell, 965sweet parents, yet, to be mine, unfortunate parents! How blessed had you been in barrenness! How happy 966had I been if I had not been! Farewell, life, vain life, wretched life, whose sorrows are 967long, whose end doubtful, whose miseries certain, whose hopes innumerable, whose fears intolerable! Come, Death, and welcome, 968Death, whom nature cannot resist, because necessity ruleth, nor defer because destiny hasteth! Come, Agar, thou unsatiable 969monster of maidens' blood and devourer of beauty's bowels. Glut thyself till thou surfeit, and let my 970life end thine. Tear these tender joints with thy greedy jaws, these yellow locks with thy black 971feet, this fair face with thy foul teeth. Why abatest thou thy wonted swiftness? I am fair; 972I am a virgin; I am ready. Come, Agar, thou horrible monster, and farewell, world, thou viler monster![They wait, but no monster comes.]

The monster is not come, and therefore I see Neptune is abused, whose 974rage will, I fear me, be both infinite and intolerable. Take in this virgin, whose want of 975beauty hath saved her own life and [destroyed] all yours.

We could not find any fairer.

Neptune will. Go deliver her to her father.

Fortunate Hebe, how shalt thou express thy joys? Nay, unhappy girl, that art 979not the fairest. Had it not been better for thee to have died with fame than to 980live with dishonor, to have preferred the safety of thy country and rareness of thy beauty before 981sweetness of life and vanity of the world? But alas! Destiny would not have it so. Destiny 982could not, for it asketh the beautifullest. I would, Hebe, thou hadst been beautifullest.

Come, Hebe, here is no time for us to reason. It had been best for us thou hadst been most beautiful.