University of Virginia Library

Sing vnto her generous selfe,
Sing her pleasance and of health:
To th' innated Ipes sing,
And the Orgists reuelling.

Some call her Vine, as if she were inuited,
Borne and yet taught, though willing, yet incited
To industrie, and some do well contend
She were no Vine, did she not apprehend
What euer neighbouring tree within her tendrels,
When neighbourhood is dead and trees are friendles.
But I must blesse her by no other name
Then that of Vine, because she is the same.
Because shee's vitall in mortalitie,
By whose well tempered heat they liue and be.
They liue and be where honor health and pleasure
Admit no emulation, meane nor measure.
Of Plants, the Vine is onely generous,
Powerfull in medicine and Physicks vse,
So is she pleasures bed, trees chiefest beautie,
For at her feete they prostitute all dutie.
Delight, whose complacence is gracious,
Proues her the Maiestie of Ismarus;
Honor of Plants, and syluane Emperie,
A gracious Vine, a pleasing Maiestie.
Assist me, O thou spirit once traduc'te
From nature of a more heroick Muse.
Thou soule of musicke houering in the ayre,
Vnto thy Ismarus at length repaire,
Returne and stand my strong intelligence,
That I may sing the Vines faire presidence:
Excusse my feare, lest fearing I do faint
In the cold blood which shall my heart attaint:
Preuent it, O preuent it, and repute me
Able to sing her greatnesse worth and beautie.

That she is generous, the vse makes good;
It fils the veines of Kings with royall blood.
No liquor but that of the purple grape,
Makes blood so pure, so fresh, so roseate,
T'is that extracted and essentiall spirit,
Which from the foure a second place doth merit:
T'is euer such, as euer is the same,
So lustre fresh, as moyst within the veine.
For why the Vine, as time and age aspire,
So nouell good doth excellence acquire.
So is it pure as fresh, and who not knowes,
That pure and fresh do both affect the Rose?
All celebrations do preferre the Vine:
The festall and the sacrificing shrine.
In it the deities are reconcil'd,
It makes the countenance of Gods more milde,
And well deserues of men, whose feastes do know,
Th' administred wine addes royaltie thereto,
And grace, whereof those feasts may glory most,
Which in the knowledge of their Vine do boast.
O do not thou this grace and man disseuer,
But make the Gods propitious, O for euer.

Shee's generous, that's most vnto her selfe,
But shee's more soueraigne within the health
Of others, hauing both the power and will,
To search and cleanse all crude infectious ill:
And to confirme those necessary parts,
Whose dissolution vtterly subuerts
The bodies state. My verse may be replete
With faire distinguishment of formes concrete,
To whose dissent the Vine doth moderate
In kind obseruance of the better state,
Contending to make actiue her intent
In homogeneall and in excrement
Diuided: Neither could I not relate,
How t'is the vine that doth assimilate
The better nutritiues, how it is shee,
That purgeth the corrupting reliquie,
Disioynes the good from bad, digesteth all,
To proue it so, is no prouinciall.
Thou soueraigne Plant, O cleanse this body still,
Be euer Iudge betwixt the good and ill.

Shee's generous great: and in salubritie
Vnto that greatnesse she doth multiplie
More worth: O but the Vine's most worthie then,
Her excellence preferd into the Scene.
I do pretend that beautie whose delight
In faire applause commends it to the sight.
Pleasure the subiect of true complacence,
There hath she laid her primate residence.
Sing ye of this, that in aduersitie
Make her your refuge and your sanctuarie:
That vnderneath her capreols do debar
The scorching heat of a Meridian star,
And with her leauie teguments elate
The cold of ayre admoued and dislocate.
Your testimonie is requir'd herein,
That euer liu'd securely by the Vine.
Yee Catadupæ deafe vnto the fall
Of Nilus, or the spheres so musicall
Acknowledge thy securer Lethargie,
As from the Vine and not a Poppie tree:
Thy great dimension howsoeuer great,
Is by the Vine conceald from cold and heat;
To the secur'd, distrest, or whomsoeuer,
T'is in the vse of refuge, or of pleasure.
The body of this tree it selfe is small,
But notwithstanding it hath armes withall,
Whose faire extent so large, so spacious
Shadowes the Citizens of Ismarus,
Not borrowing light or lustre from the great,
But as the Sunne which makes each star repleat
With light of his, so doth she lend to all,
And hence it is some do her Cynthia call,
But that's in heau'n: They know her on the earth,
The chaste Alphæa or Latonaes birth;
Vnder her shade Apollo well discloses
Diana sleeping on a bed of Roses:
Sleepe on, and sleepe securely, for thy bed
Is all of Roses, mixt with white and red.
O how shall I acquite me of this tree,
Being so engag'd to her amenitie?
If flie from inward pleasance, t'is in vaine,
Her outward greatnesse meets thee there againe;
If I reuerse my sight as blind of these,
Her soueraigne hand is seene on other trees:
That hand whose Generous beautie led me forth,
And now consounds me in her Soueraigne worth.
As moderne Painters in their arras story
Shew many arches vnderneath one body:
So fares this Ode referd vnto the Vine,
Whose many heads one body must conioyne,
Being all imperfect and impertinent,
As meere position and no argument.
The subtill matter is so implicit,
I suffocate in condigesting it;
And then I faint, and so did Cissus die,
She fell before the vine, and so must I.
She (by the earths aduice) embrac't the tree,
With iuie leaues and such like borderie,
In token of her loue in ages past,
And with such iuie is our vine enchast.
With loue of Cissus Cissos euer liues,
And life and loue in vines are relatiues.
From this relation many do pretend
A zealous loue, when life's proposd the end,
The scope the exigent, and destinie,
Of all their saffron guilded obsequie.
And such the vermin of these subtill times,
Such are th' innated Ipes of our vines,
Bred of the bodies thrift and fat increase,
Begotten by the Sunne that shines in peace:
Like the Egyptian frie when Amphytrite
Giues slimy Nilus to the Theorite:
As Sunne and slime engender those Nilites,
So hot and moyst begets our ages Ipes.
Our husbandmen which trauaile much herein,
Do find this woorme obnoxious to the vine;
Yea some suggest that are more Chymicke wise,
These are the Ipes that anotomize
This goodly tree, that feed vpon her leaues,
And whats without the rinde, this worme bereaues,
And but that Hydraes waues are of such force,
That no obiection counterchecks her course,
Time might produce a some-Herculean wit,
Which by elaborate hand might limit it.
Besides these Ipes, there are Orgists too,
which to the world the shapes of-men do show:
But O how much inhumane are they then,
whom wholesome wine makes monsters, and no men?
Too much haue they, that are immoderate,
And change the vines true vse appropriate,
That surfet in her bountie, and beguile
Their senses with the too much sweet of wine,
That being drunke dares wrong the innocent,
And in his outrage be incontinent,
Aduance th' unworthie rich: what dares he not
In frenzie to deuise? contriue, complot,
And yet the Vine is not in cause of it,
The draft is all vnguiltie of the drift:
Their furie is the better arguist,
To proue her powerfull where she doth insist:
So best Elixers make compendious breath,
And fairest obiect soonest rauisheth.
I dare sustaine that no infectious ayre
Can penetrate the Moones more solid spheare;
Nor prophanation in a borrowed shape
Be entertaind within the temples gate.
So are my thoughts secure. Great God secure them,
That Vines conceale no serpents to inure them;
But make this tree the fairest of our time,
Like Sphere and Temple solid and diuine:
Of thee we aske it, and it is in thee,
To giue her greatnesse, pleasance, soueraigntie.
T'is thine to punish drunkards, and t'is thine
To bruise th' innated Ipes of our Vine.
May neuer Monster be of able power,
Nor serpent-time in all her nights, deuoure
This goodly tree, each Ismarite prostrate
Here say Amen, and all asseuerate.