The Colonies of Bartas VVith the Commentarie of S. G. S. in diuerse places corrected and enlarged by the Translatour [i.e. William Lisle] |
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[It shall suffise me then to keepe me neare th'encloses] |
 | The Colonies of Bartas |  |
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[It shall suffise me then to keepe me neare th'encloses]
It shall suffise me then to keepe me neare th'encloses,He groundeth all his discourse vpon holy writ; and sheweth more particularly how the 3. sons of Noe peopled all the World.
Amram his learned sonne, in verses to record
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And that of mighty Noe the far out-roming boat,
Did thus the second time all countries ouer-flowt.
Yet not as if Sems house from Babilon did run
Together all at once vnto the rising Sun;
To drinke of Zaiton the water siluer-fine,
To peopl' all rich Catay, with Cambala & Chine:
Nor Iaphet vnto Spaine; nor that vngodly Cham
Vnto the droughty soyle of Meder and Bigam,
The fields of Cefala, the mount of Zanzibar,
The Cape of hoped good, in Affrick most afarre.
For as th'Iblean hills, or those Hymettick trees,
Were not in one yeares space all ouer-buzz'd with bees;
But that some litle rocke that swarmed ev'ry prime
Two surcreases or three, made on their tops to clime,
Their sydes and all about, those nurslings of the Sun,
At length all ore the Clyffes their hony-combes to run:
Or as two springing Elmes, that grow amids a field
With water compassed, about their stocks do yeeld
A many yonger trees, and they againe shoot-out
As many like themselues encroaching all about;
And gaining peece by peece so thriue that aft'r a while
They for a shared mead a forest make that Isle:
Accordingly the Wrights that built proude Babels towre
All scattering abroad (though not all in an howre)
At first enhous'd themselues in Mesopotamie;
By proces then of time encreasing happily
Past riuer after riuer, and seiz'd land after land,
And, had not God forboad the world should euer stand,
No countrey might be found so sauage and vnknowne,
But by the stocke of Man had bin ere this ore-growne.
And hence it comes to passe the Tig'r-abutting coast
In all the former Age of all did florish most:
That first began to war, that only got a name,
And little knew the rest but learned of the same.
For Babilon betimes draw'n vnd'r a kingly throne,
Th' emperiall scepter swayd before the Greekes were knowne
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Amphion walled Thebes of selfe-empyling stones.
Or Latins had their townes, or Frenchmen houshold-rents,
Or Almains Cottages, or Englishmen their tents.
The sonnes of Heber had with Angels often spoke,
And of all stranger Gods detested th'altar-smoke,
They knew the great vnknowne, and (ô most happy thing)
With faithfull eyes beheld their vnbeholden king:
The learned Chaldee knew of stars the numb'r and lawes,
Had measured the skie, and vnderstood the cause
That muffleth vp the light of Cinthia's siluer lips,
And how her thwarting doth her brothers beames eclips:
The priest of Memphis knew the nature of the soule,
And straightly marked how the heau'nly flames do roule.
(Who, that their faces might more flaming seeme and gay,
In Amphitrites poole once wash them eu'ry day)
He Phisick also wrote, and taught Geometree,
Before that any Greek had learnd his A Be Cee.
All Egypt ouer shone with golden vtensills
Before the limping Smith by Ætna's burning kill's
Had hammerd Iern barres, before Prometheus found
The fire and vse therof vpon th' Argolian ground.
Alas we were not then, or, if we were at least,
We led an vnkouth life, and like the sauage beast
Our garments feathers were that birds in moulting cast:
We feasted vnder trees, and gaped after must.
When as the men of Tyre already durst assay
To rase the salty Blew twixt them and Africa;
Were set on Marchandize, with purpl'en-guirt their flankes,
And all the pleasures rain'd about Euphrates bankes.
As, if a pebblestone thou on the the water fling
Of any sleepy poole, it frames a litle ring
About whereas it fell, and far about doth rase
The wauing marbl', or eu'n the trembling Chrystal face,
With gentil moouing of a number circles mo,
That reaching further out together waxing flow
Vntil the round at length most outward and most large
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So from the cent'r of All, which here I meane to pitch
Vpon the the waters brinke where discord sprong of speech,
Man dressing day by day his knowledge more and more
Makes Arts and wisdome flow vnto the Circle-shore;
As doth himselfe encrease, and as in diuerse bands
His fruitfull seede in time hath ouergrowne the lands.
For from Assyria the Semites gan to trauell
Vnto the land beguilt with Hytans glistring grauell,
And peopling Persiland dronke Oroates luyse,
And cleere Coaspes eke, that luckes the walles of Suse;
So to the fruitfull dale and flowerbearing plaine
Betwixt high Caucase tops, whereas th' Arsaces raigne.
And some in Medie dwelt, and some began to make
The fields abutting on the great Mesendin lake.
These mens prosteritie did like a flood surround
And ouerflow in time the Cheisel-fronting ground:
They came in diuerse troopes vpon Tachalistan,
Carz, Gadel, Chabula, Bedane, and Balestan.
Their ofspring afterward broke vp with toiling hands
Narzinga, Bisnagar, and all the plenteous lands
That Gauges thorow-flowes, and peopled Toloman,
The Realme of Mein, and Aue, and muskie Carazan;
And saw the fearfull sprights in wildernesse of Lop,
That maske in hundred shapes wayfaring men to stop.
Long after sundry times this Race still coasting East
Tipura seizd that breedes the horny-snowted beast,
Mangit and Gaucinchine that Aloes hath store,
And stopt at Anie Straights and Cassagalie shore.
Now from the center-point enclining to the Set
Far spread abroade themselues the Children of Iaphet.
To Armenie the lesse, and after to Cilice,
So got the hau'ns at length of Tarsis and of Ise,
The sweete Corician Caue, that neare Pernassus Hill
Delights the commers-in with Cimbal-sounding skill:
Hvge Taure his lofty downes, Ionie, Cappadoce,
Mœanders winding bankes, Bithyne and Illios.
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They dronke the waters cold of Strimon, Heb'r, and Nest:
The Rhodopean dales they graz'd, and laid in swathes
The leas that (running-by) Danubies water bathes.
Thrace did athonside fill the Grecian Territory:
Greece people Vitalie lawgiuing, louing-glory:
By Italy was France, by France was filled Spaine,
The borderings of Rhyne, and all the great Brettaigne.
Ath'other side againe it sent a Colonie
Both to the Pont-Eusine and towards Moldauie:
So raught Transsiluanie, Morauie, Hungarie,
And Seruie farther west, and east-ward Podolie:
Thence men to Prussie came, and Wixell borders eard
And that of Almanie, that narre the pole is reard,
Now turning to the South, consider how Chaldea
Spewes out in Arabie, Phœnice and Cannæa,
The cursed line of Cham; yet nerthelesse it growes,
And right betwixt two seas downe into Egypt goes:
So stores the towne Corene, and that renowmed coast
Whereon the punick Seas are all to froth betost:
Fosse, Gogdea, Terminan, Argin, Gulosa, Dara,
Tombuto, Gualata, Melli, Gago, Mansara,
The sparkling wildernesse of Lybie breeding-venim,
Cana, Guber, Amasen, Born, Zegzeg, Nubie, Benim,
And of the droughty soyle those euer-mouing sandes,
Where Iesus yet is knowne, and Prestre Ian commands;
Who, though in many points he commeth neare the law,
Yet hath a kind of Church not all vnlike the true.
And if thou long to know whence all the land is large,
That vnder-lyes the draught of many a sliding barge,
All ouer pau'd with Ise, and of the sea of Russe
Enuironed about with surges mutinous,
Was cora-vnto by men, thinke after they forsooke
The plaine where Tegill stood swift-running ouertooke
Once and againe the streame of running-far Euphrates,
They lodged at the foot of hoary hill Niphates,
So forth of Arvseny the field Hiberian,
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Were furnished with mer; thence to the Suns Vprist
The cruel Tartar went, that roameth where he list
All ore those quarters huge: and thence acoast the Set
Was stoar'd the land that Rha doth neare his rising fret,
The shore of Liuonie, the plaines of Moscouie,
Biarmie, Permie, Russe, Whitelake and Scrifinie.
| The Colonies of Bartas | |