Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) [in the critical edition by John Horden] |
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 | Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) |  |
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
1
Lament, lament; Looke, looke what thou hast done!Lament the worlds, lament thine owne Estate;
Looke, looke, by doing, how thou art undone;
Thy Faith is broken, and thy Freedome gone,
See, see too soone, what thou lament'st too late:
O thou that wert so many men; nay, all
Abridg'd in one, how has thy desp'rate fall
Destroid thy unborne seed, destroid thyself withall!
2
Uxorious Adam, whom thy Maker madeEquall to Angels, that excell in pow'r,
What hast thou done? O why hast thou obayd
Thy owne destruction? Like a new-cropt flowre
How does the glory of the beauty fade!
How are thy fortunes blasted in an houre!
How art thou cow'd, that hadst the pow'r to quell
The spite of new-faln Angels; baffle Hell,
And vye with those that stood, and vanquish those that fell!
3
See how the world (whose chast and pregnant wombe,Of late, conceiv'd and brought forth nothing ill)
Is now degenerated, and become
A base Adultresse, whose wombe false Births do fill
The Earth with Monsters, Monsters that do rome
And rage about, and make a Trade, to kill:
Now Glutt'ny paunches; Lust begins to spawne;
Wrath takes revenge; and Avarice, a pawne
Pale Envy pines; Pride swels; and Sloth begins to yawne.
4
The Ayre, that whisper'd, now begins to roare,And blustring Boreas blowes the boyling Tide;
The white-mouthed Water now usurpes the Shore,
And scornes the pow'r of her trydentall Guides;
The Fire now burnes, that did but warme before,
And rules her Ruler with resistlesse Pride;
Fire, Water, Earth and Ayre, that first were made
To be subdu'd, see, how they now invade;
They rule whom once they serv'd; command, where once obaid.
5
Behold; that nakednesse, that late bewraidThy Glory, now's become thy shame, thy wonder;
Behold; those Trees whose various Fruits were made
For food, now turn'd a Shade to shrowd thee under:
Behold; That voice (which thou hast disobayd)
That late was Musick, now affrights like Thunder:
Poore man! Are not thy Joynts grown sore with shaking
To view th'effect of thy bold undertaking
That in one houre didst marre, what heav'n six dayes was making.
S. AUGUST. lib. 1 de lib. arbit.
It is a most just punishment, that man should lose that Freedome which man would not use, yet had power to keep if he would: And that he who had knowledge to do what was right, and did not, should be deprived of the knowledge of what was right; And that he who would not doe righteously when he had the power, should lose the power to do it, when he had the will.
HUGO de anima.
They are justly punished that abuse lawfull things, but they are more justly punished, that use unlawful things; Thus Lucifer fell from heaven; thus Adam lost his Paradise.
| Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) | |