The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
Faire siluer-footed Thetis that time threw
Along the Ocean with a beautious crew
Of her attending Sea-nymphs (Ioues bright Lamps
Guiding from Rocks her Chariots Hippocamps.)
A iourney, onely made, vnwares to spye
If any Mighties of her Empery
Opprest the least, and forc'd the weaker sort
To their designes, by being great in Court.
O! should all Potentates whose higher birth
Enroles their titles, other Gods on earth,
Should they make priuate search, in vaile of night,
For cruell wrongs done by each Fauorite;
Here should they finde a great one paling in
A meane mans land, which many yeeres had bin
His charges life, and by the others heast,
The poore must starue to feed a scuruy beast.
If any recompence drop from his fist,
His time's his owne, the mony, what he list.
There should they see another that commands
His Farmers Teame from furrowing his lands,
To bring him stones to raise his building vast,
The while his Tenants sowing time is past.
Another (spending) doth his rents inhance,
Or gets by tricks the poores inheritance.
But as a man whose age hath dim'd his eyes,
Vseth his Spectacles, and as he pryes
Through them all Characters seeme wondrous faire,
Yet when his glasses quite remoued are
(Though with all carefull heed he neerly looke)
Cannot perceiue one tittle in the Booke;
So if a King behold such fauourites
(Whose being great, was being Parasites)
With th' eyes of fauour, all their actions are
To him appearing plaine and regular:
But let him lay his sight of grace aside,
And see what men he hath so dignifide,
They all would vanish, and not dare appeare,
Who Atom-like, when their Sun shined cleare,
Danc'd in his beame; but now his rayes are gone,
Of many hundred we perceiue not one.
Or as a man who standing to descry
How great floods farre off run, and vallies lye,
Taketh a glasse prospectiue good and true,
By which things most remote are full in view:
If Monarchs, so, would take an Instrument
Of truth compos'd to spie their Subiects drent
In foule oppression by those high in seat
(Who care not to be good but to be great)
In full aspect the wrongs of each degree
Would lye before them; and they then would see,
The diuellish Politician all conuinces,
In murdring Statesmen and in poisning Princes;
The Prelate in pluralities asleepe,
Whilst that the Wolfe lies preying on his sheepe;
The drowsie Lawyer, and the false Atturnies
Tire poore mens purses with their life-long-iournies;
The Country Gentleman, from's neighbours hand
Forceth th' inheritance, ioynes land to land,
And (most insatiate) seekes vnder his rent
To bring the worlds most spacious continent;
The fawning Citizen (whose loue's bought dearest)
Deceiues his brother when the Sun shines clearest,
Gets, borrowes, breakes, lets in, and stops out light,
And liues a Knaue to leaue his sonne a Knight;
The griping Farmer hoords the seed of bread,
Whilst in the streets the poore lye famished:
And free there's none from all this worldly strife,
Except the Shepherds heauen-blest happy life.
Along the Ocean with a beautious crew
Of her attending Sea-nymphs (Ioues bright Lamps
Guiding from Rocks her Chariots Hippocamps.)
A iourney, onely made, vnwares to spye
If any Mighties of her Empery
Opprest the least, and forc'd the weaker sort
To their designes, by being great in Court.
O! should all Potentates whose higher birth
Enroles their titles, other Gods on earth,
Should they make priuate search, in vaile of night,
For cruell wrongs done by each Fauorite;
Here should they finde a great one paling in
A meane mans land, which many yeeres had bin
His charges life, and by the others heast,
The poore must starue to feed a scuruy beast.
189
His time's his owne, the mony, what he list.
There should they see another that commands
His Farmers Teame from furrowing his lands,
To bring him stones to raise his building vast,
The while his Tenants sowing time is past.
Another (spending) doth his rents inhance,
Or gets by tricks the poores inheritance.
But as a man whose age hath dim'd his eyes,
Vseth his Spectacles, and as he pryes
Through them all Characters seeme wondrous faire,
Yet when his glasses quite remoued are
(Though with all carefull heed he neerly looke)
Cannot perceiue one tittle in the Booke;
So if a King behold such fauourites
(Whose being great, was being Parasites)
With th' eyes of fauour, all their actions are
To him appearing plaine and regular:
But let him lay his sight of grace aside,
And see what men he hath so dignifide,
They all would vanish, and not dare appeare,
Who Atom-like, when their Sun shined cleare,
Danc'd in his beame; but now his rayes are gone,
Of many hundred we perceiue not one.
Or as a man who standing to descry
How great floods farre off run, and vallies lye,
Taketh a glasse prospectiue good and true,
By which things most remote are full in view:
If Monarchs, so, would take an Instrument
Of truth compos'd to spie their Subiects drent
In foule oppression by those high in seat
(Who care not to be good but to be great)
In full aspect the wrongs of each degree
Would lye before them; and they then would see,
The diuellish Politician all conuinces,
In murdring Statesmen and in poisning Princes;
190
Whilst that the Wolfe lies preying on his sheepe;
The drowsie Lawyer, and the false Atturnies
Tire poore mens purses with their life-long-iournies;
The Country Gentleman, from's neighbours hand
Forceth th' inheritance, ioynes land to land,
And (most insatiate) seekes vnder his rent
To bring the worlds most spacious continent;
The fawning Citizen (whose loue's bought dearest)
Deceiues his brother when the Sun shines clearest,
Gets, borrowes, breakes, lets in, and stops out light,
And liues a Knaue to leaue his sonne a Knight;
The griping Farmer hoords the seed of bread,
Whilst in the streets the poore lye famished:
And free there's none from all this worldly strife,
Except the Shepherds heauen-blest happy life.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |