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 |  |
Downe through the arched wood the Shepherds wend,
And seeke all places that might helpe their end,
When comming neere the bottome of the hill,
A deepe fetch'd sigh (which seem'd of power to kill
The brest that held it) pierc'd the listning wood,
Whereat the carefull Swaines no longer stood
Where they were looking on a tree, whose rinde
A Loue-knot held, which two ioyn'd hearts intwinde;
But searching round, vpon an aged root
Thicke linde with mosse which (though to little boot)
Seem'd as a shelter it had lending beene
Against cold Winters stormes and wreakfull teene:
Or clad the stocke in Summer with that hue
His withered branches not a long time knew:
For in his hollow truncke and perish'd graine
The Cuckow now had many a Winter laine,
And thriuing Pismires laid their egges in store:
The Dormouse slept there, and a many more.
Here sate the Lad, of whom I thinke of old
Virgils prophetique spirit had foretold,
Who whilst Dame Nature for her cunnings sake
A male or female doubted which to make,
And to adorne him more than all assaid
This pritty youth was almost made a Maid.
Sadly he sate, and (as would griefe) alone,
As if the Boy and Tree had beene but one,
Whilst downe neere boughs did drops of Amber creepe,
As if his sorrow made the trees to weepe.
If euer this were true in Ouids Verse
That teares haue powre an Adamant to pierce,
Or moue things void of sense, 'twas here approu'd:
Things, vegetatiue once, his teares haue mou'd.
Surely the stones might well be drawne in pitty
To burst that he should mone, as for a Ditty
To come and range themselues in order all,
And of their owne accord raise Thebes a wall.
Or else his teares (as did the others song)
Might haue th' attractiue power to moue the throng
Of all the Forrests Citizens and Woods,
With eu'ry Denizon of Ayre and Floods,
To sit by him and grieue: to leaue their iarres,
Their strifes, dissentions, and all ciuill warres;
And though else disagreeing, in this one
Mourning for him should make an Vnion.
For whom the heauens would weare a sable sute,
If men, beasts, fishes, birds, trees, stones were mute.
His eyes were fixed (rather fixed Starres)
With whom it seem'd his teares had beene in warres,
The diff'rence this (a hard thing to descry)
Whether the drops were clearest, or his eye.
Teares fearing conquest to the eye might fall,
An inundation brought and drowned all.
Yet like true Vertue from the top of State
(Whose hopes vile Enuie hath seene ruinate),
Being lowly cast, her goodnesse doth appeare
(Vncloath'd of greatnesse) more apparant cleere:
So though deiected, yet remain'd a feature,
Made sorrow sweet plac'd in so sweet a creature.
“The test of misery the truest is,
“In that none hath but what is surely his.
His armes a crosse, his sheepe-hooke lay beside him:
Had Venus pass'd this way, and chanc'd t'haue spide him,
With open brest, locks on his shoulders spred,
She would haue sworne (had she not seene him dead)
It was Adonis; or if e're there was
Held transmigration by Pithagoras
Of soules, that certaine then, her lost-loues spirit
A fairer body neuer could inherit.
His Pipe which often wont vpon the Plaine
To sound the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian straine,
Lay from his Hooke and Bagge cleane cast apart,
And almost broken like his Masters heart.
Yet till the two kinde Shepherds neere him stept,
I finde he nothing spake but that he wept.
And seeke all places that might helpe their end,
When comming neere the bottome of the hill,
A deepe fetch'd sigh (which seem'd of power to kill
The brest that held it) pierc'd the listning wood,
Whereat the carefull Swaines no longer stood
Where they were looking on a tree, whose rinde
A Loue-knot held, which two ioyn'd hearts intwinde;
But searching round, vpon an aged root
Thicke linde with mosse which (though to little boot)
Seem'd as a shelter it had lending beene
Against cold Winters stormes and wreakfull teene:
Or clad the stocke in Summer with that hue
His withered branches not a long time knew:
For in his hollow truncke and perish'd graine
The Cuckow now had many a Winter laine,
And thriuing Pismires laid their egges in store:
The Dormouse slept there, and a many more.
Here sate the Lad, of whom I thinke of old
Virgils prophetique spirit had foretold,
Who whilst Dame Nature for her cunnings sake
A male or female doubted which to make,
And to adorne him more than all assaid
This pritty youth was almost made a Maid.
Sadly he sate, and (as would griefe) alone,
As if the Boy and Tree had beene but one,
Whilst downe neere boughs did drops of Amber creepe,
19
If euer this were true in Ouids Verse
That teares haue powre an Adamant to pierce,
Or moue things void of sense, 'twas here approu'd:
Things, vegetatiue once, his teares haue mou'd.
Surely the stones might well be drawne in pitty
To burst that he should mone, as for a Ditty
To come and range themselues in order all,
And of their owne accord raise Thebes a wall.
Or else his teares (as did the others song)
Might haue th' attractiue power to moue the throng
Of all the Forrests Citizens and Woods,
With eu'ry Denizon of Ayre and Floods,
To sit by him and grieue: to leaue their iarres,
Their strifes, dissentions, and all ciuill warres;
And though else disagreeing, in this one
Mourning for him should make an Vnion.
For whom the heauens would weare a sable sute,
If men, beasts, fishes, birds, trees, stones were mute.
His eyes were fixed (rather fixed Starres)
With whom it seem'd his teares had beene in warres,
The diff'rence this (a hard thing to descry)
Whether the drops were clearest, or his eye.
Teares fearing conquest to the eye might fall,
An inundation brought and drowned all.
Yet like true Vertue from the top of State
(Whose hopes vile Enuie hath seene ruinate),
Being lowly cast, her goodnesse doth appeare
(Vncloath'd of greatnesse) more apparant cleere:
So though deiected, yet remain'd a feature,
Made sorrow sweet plac'd in so sweet a creature.
“The test of misery the truest is,
“In that none hath but what is surely his.
His armes a crosse, his sheepe-hooke lay beside him:
Had Venus pass'd this way, and chanc'd t'haue spide him,
With open brest, locks on his shoulders spred,
20
It was Adonis; or if e're there was
Held transmigration by Pithagoras
Of soules, that certaine then, her lost-loues spirit
A fairer body neuer could inherit.
His Pipe which often wont vpon the Plaine
To sound the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian straine,
Lay from his Hooke and Bagge cleane cast apart,
And almost broken like his Masters heart.
Yet till the two kinde Shepherds neere him stept,
I finde he nothing spake but that he wept.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |