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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[Well may I graunt you then (thou'lt say perhaps) ther's naught] |
 | The Colonies of Bartas |  |
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[Well may I graunt you then (thou'lt say perhaps) ther's naught]
Well may I graunt you then (thou'lt say perhaps) ther's naughtIn all this vnder-world, but may at length be raught
By mans Ambition: it makes a breache in Hilles,
It runneth dry by sea among the raging Scylles,
And in despight of Thirst it guides the sailing Holme
Amids th' Arabick Sandes, the Numid and the Tolme.
But verely methinks it goes against all sence,
One house, beds only four, should break so large a fence,
As t'ouerbreed the landes af Affrick, Europe, Ase,
And make the world appeer to narrow for the Race.
If little thou regard th'Imortals pow'rfull hest,
That once againe the bond of sacred Marriage blest,
And said, Encrease and Fill: If thou profane deny
That Iacobs little train so thick did multiplie
On Pharses fruitfull ground, that in 400. yere
The 70. lyuing soules fiue hundred thousand were:
At least consider, how (because in elder time
The fruites they ate grew not vpon so foggy slime
As ours doe now, nor was their meates with sauces dight,
Nor altered as-yet with health-destroying slight
Of gluttonating Cookes; because with murdring sword
Of raging enemies they were not laid aboord;
Because their bodies were not ouercome by sloth,
Or void of exercise) they waxt in liuely groth,
And liu'd some hundred yeres, and eu'n in latter daies
With siluer-haired heads were able sonnes to raise.
So that Polygamie, then taken for a right,
This world an Ant-hill made of creatures bolt-vpright:
And many people rose in short time, if thou marke,
From out the fruitfull reines of some one Patriarch.
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Be often times resow'd vpon some harty feildes,
Will stuffe the barnes at length and colour mighty lawnes
With yellow-stalked eares: likewise two fishes spawnes,
Cast int' a standing poole, so fast breed vp and downe,
That aft'r a while they stoare the larders of a towne.
Hath not there been of late a certain Elder known
That with his fruitfull seed a village had oregrown
Of fiue skore houses big, so blessed that he saw
His sonnes and daughters knit by ord'r of mariage Law!
The tree of Parentage was ouer-short and thin
To braunch-out proper names for their degrees of kin.
Who knowes not that within three hundred yeres and lesse,
A few Arabians did Lybie fill and presse
With new Inhabitantes, and Mahom taught in Fesse,
In Oran, in Argier, in Tunis, Buge and Tesse?
Now if they so encrease who dwelt in Afferick
And with an humor sharp, fretting, melancholick,
Prouoak'd are day and night and made more amorous
Then in begetting babes fruitfull and vigorous
(Because the more they force the Citherean deed
The more enfeebled is their vnpreserued seed:
So are their inward parts the colder and the nummer,
By how much more without they feel a boyling summer)
Imagin how the men, who neerer to the Pole
Behold the flaming wheeles of Welkins charrot role,
Doe breed and multiplie: because they come but seeld
And at well-chosen times to Cithereas feild:
And sith colde weather stayes about the northen Beare,
Ore all that rugged coast triumphing eu'ry wheare,
The liuely heate retires within their bodies tower;
And closer trussed makes their seed of greater power.
And thence the Cimbrians, Gaules, Herules, and Bulgares,
The Sweues, Burgundians, Circassians and Tartares,
Huns, Lombardes, Tigurines, Alanes and Eastergoths,
Turks, Vandals, Teutonicks, Normans and Westergoths,
Haue ouerflow'd the landes, and like to grassehoppers
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Whereas the barren South in all these former daies
Hath scarce been abl' enough two martiall bandes to raise
That could the North affright; one vnder Hanniball,
Who brought the Punick State both vnto rule and thrall;
Another powred forth as far as Towers wall,
And there with Abderam was knockt by Charles the Maul.
| The Colonies of Bartas | |