Anonymous

The Player's Tragedy. Or, Fatal Love, a New Novel

London

Randal Taylor

1693

"Why is Love then (said the Count) so irreconcilable an Enemy to Reason, that it can never cohabit with it?"

Why is Love then (said the Count) so irreconcilable an Enemy to Reason, that it can never cohabit with it? Oh! without doubt (reply'd Gerardo) they are at mortal odds, for Reason in all things prefers a medium as the surest basis of all Certainty and Good, but a mean in Love is as odious as in Poetry. Right, (assum'd Montano, for 'tis but indifference disguis'd in another word, and what is so contradictory in Nature, as an unconcern'd and indifferent Lover? True, (pursu'd Gerrardo) for indifference banishes Desire, and he that's once free from Desire, is no longer in the number of the Loving; for Love, is nothing but an unsatisfi'd desir'd Union, and becoming, as much as Nature will allow, one with the Object we admire. I find, (reply'd Montano with some satisfaction) that you Gerardo have known what Love is, since you give so very good an account of its Nature, for tho' we cannot all be like Salmacs transform'd, or as I may better say, swallow'd up into the very same Being with our Mistress, yet certainly no Lover, if he Lov'd as I do, but wou'd desire a perpetual Union, and ne'er be parted from, but eternally be cleaving to the fair one he adores. --
(pp. 34-5)

War::Enemy Population::Cohabitation

C-H Lion

Anonymous, The Player's Tragedy. Or, Fatal Love, a New Novel (London: Printed, and Sold by Randal Taylor, 1693)

06/15/2013