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 |
 | 1, 2. |
 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
Happier those times were, when the Flaxen clew
By faire Arachne's hand the Lydians knew,
And sought not to the worme for silken threds,
To rowle their bodies in, or dresse their heads.
When wise Minerua did th' Athenians learne
To draw their milke-white fleeces into yarne;
And knowing not the mixtures which began
(Of colours) from the Babylonian,
Nor wooll in Sardis dyde, more various knowne
By hues, then Iris to the world hath showne:
The bowels of our mother were not ript
For Mader-pits, nor the sweet meadowes stript
Of their choise beauties, nor for Ceres load
The fertile lands burd'ned with needlesse Woad.
Through the wide Seas no winged Pine did goe
To Lands vnknowne for staining Indico;
Nor men in scorching clymates moar'd their Keele
To traffique for the costly Coucheneele.
Vnknowne was then the Phrygian brodery,
The Tyrian purple, and the Scarlet dye,
Such as their sheepe clad, such they woue and wore,
Russet or white, or those mixt, and no more:
Except sometimes (to brauery inclinde)
They dide them yellow caps with Alder rinde.
The Græcian mantle, Tuscan robes of state,
Tissue, nor Cloth of gold of highest rate,
They neuer saw; onely in pleasant woods,
Or by th' embrodered margin of the floods,
The dainty Nymphs they often did behold
Clad in their light silke robes, stitcht oft with gold.
The Arras hangings round their comely Hals
Wanted the Cerites web and minerals:
Greene boughes of trees which fatning Acornes lade,
Hung full with flowres and Garlands quaintly made,
Their homely Cotes deck'd trim in low degree,
As now the Court with richest Tapistry.
In stead of Cushions wrought in windowes laine,
They pick'd the Cockle from their fields of Graine,
Sleepe-bringing Poppy, by the Plow-men late
Not without cause to Ceres consecrate,
For being round and full at his halfe birth
It signifi'd the perfect Orbe of earth;
And by his inequalities when blowne,
The earths low Vales and higher Hils were showne.
By multitude of graines it held within,
Of men and beasts the number noted bin;
And she since taking care all earth to please,
Had in her Thesmophoria offred these.
Or cause that seed our Elders vs'd to eat,
With honey mixt (and was their after meat)
Or since her Daughter that she lou'd so well
By him that in th' infernall shades doth dwell,
And on the Stygian bankes for euer raignes
(Troubled with horrid cries and noyse of chaines)
(Fairest Proserpina) was rapt away;
And she in plaints the night in teares the day
Had long time spent, when no high Power could giue her
Any redresse; the Poppy did releeue her:
For eating of the seeds they sleepe procur'd,
And so beguil'd those griefes she long endur'd.
Or rather since her Loue (then happy man)
Micon (ycleep'd) the braue Athenian,
Had beene transform'd into this gentle Flowre,
And his protection kept from Flora's powre.
The Daizy scattred on each Mead and Downe,
A golden tuft within a siluer Crowne:
(Faire fall that dainty flowre! and may there be
No Shepherd grac'd that doth not honour thee!)
The Primrose, when with six leaues gotten grace
Maids as a True-loue in their bosomes place:
The spotlesse Lilly, by whose pure leaues be
Noted the chaste thoughts of virginitie;
Carnations sweet with colour like the fire,
The fit Impresa's for imflam'd desire:
The Hare-bell for her stainlesse azur'd hue
Claimes to be worne of none but those are true:
The Rose, like ready youth, inticing stands,
And would be cropt if it might choose the hands.
The yealow King cup Flora them assign'd
To be the badges of a iealous minde;
The Oringe-tawny Marigold: the night
Hides not her colour from a searching sight.
To thee then, dearest Friend (my songs chiefe mate),
This colour chiefly I appropriate,
That spight of all the mists Obliuion can
Or enuious frettings of a guilty man,
Retain'st thy worth; nay, mak'st it more in prise,
Like Tennis-bals, throwne downe hard, highest rise.
The Columbine in tawny often taken,
Is then ascrib'd to such as are forsaken;
Flora's choise buttons of a russet dye
Is Hope euen in the depth of misery.
The Pansie, Thistle, all with prickles set,
The Cowslip, Honisuckle, Violet,
And many hundreds more that grac'd the Meads,
Gardens and Groues, (where beautious Flora treads)
Were by the Shepherds Daughters (as yet are
Vs'd in our Cotes) brought home with speciall care:
For bruising them they not alone would quell
But rot the rest, and spoile their pleasing smell.
Much like a Lad, who in his tender prime
Sent from his friends to learne the vse of time,
As are his mates or good or bad, so he
Thriues to the world, and such his actions be.
By faire Arachne's hand the Lydians knew,
And sought not to the worme for silken threds,
To rowle their bodies in, or dresse their heads.
When wise Minerua did th' Athenians learne
To draw their milke-white fleeces into yarne;
And knowing not the mixtures which began
(Of colours) from the Babylonian,
Nor wooll in Sardis dyde, more various knowne
By hues, then Iris to the world hath showne:
The bowels of our mother were not ript
For Mader-pits, nor the sweet meadowes stript
Of their choise beauties, nor for Ceres load
The fertile lands burd'ned with needlesse Woad.
Through the wide Seas no winged Pine did goe
To Lands vnknowne for staining Indico;
Nor men in scorching clymates moar'd their Keele
To traffique for the costly Coucheneele.
35
The Tyrian purple, and the Scarlet dye,
Such as their sheepe clad, such they woue and wore,
Russet or white, or those mixt, and no more:
Except sometimes (to brauery inclinde)
They dide them yellow caps with Alder rinde.
The Græcian mantle, Tuscan robes of state,
Tissue, nor Cloth of gold of highest rate,
They neuer saw; onely in pleasant woods,
Or by th' embrodered margin of the floods,
The dainty Nymphs they often did behold
Clad in their light silke robes, stitcht oft with gold.
The Arras hangings round their comely Hals
Wanted the Cerites web and minerals:
Greene boughes of trees which fatning Acornes lade,
Hung full with flowres and Garlands quaintly made,
Their homely Cotes deck'd trim in low degree,
As now the Court with richest Tapistry.
In stead of Cushions wrought in windowes laine,
They pick'd the Cockle from their fields of Graine,
Sleepe-bringing Poppy, by the Plow-men late
Not without cause to Ceres consecrate,
For being round and full at his halfe birth
It signifi'd the perfect Orbe of earth;
And by his inequalities when blowne,
The earths low Vales and higher Hils were showne.
By multitude of graines it held within,
Of men and beasts the number noted bin;
And she since taking care all earth to please,
Had in her Thesmophoria offred these.
Or cause that seed our Elders vs'd to eat,
With honey mixt (and was their after meat)
Or since her Daughter that she lou'd so well
By him that in th' infernall shades doth dwell,
And on the Stygian bankes for euer raignes
(Troubled with horrid cries and noyse of chaines)
36
And she in plaints the night in teares the day
Had long time spent, when no high Power could giue her
Any redresse; the Poppy did releeue her:
For eating of the seeds they sleepe procur'd,
And so beguil'd those griefes she long endur'd.
Or rather since her Loue (then happy man)
Micon (ycleep'd) the braue Athenian,
Had beene transform'd into this gentle Flowre,
And his protection kept from Flora's powre.
The Daizy scattred on each Mead and Downe,
A golden tuft within a siluer Crowne:
(Faire fall that dainty flowre! and may there be
No Shepherd grac'd that doth not honour thee!)
The Primrose, when with six leaues gotten grace
Maids as a True-loue in their bosomes place:
The spotlesse Lilly, by whose pure leaues be
Noted the chaste thoughts of virginitie;
Carnations sweet with colour like the fire,
The fit Impresa's for imflam'd desire:
The Hare-bell for her stainlesse azur'd hue
Claimes to be worne of none but those are true:
The Rose, like ready youth, inticing stands,
And would be cropt if it might choose the hands.
The yealow King cup Flora them assign'd
To be the badges of a iealous minde;
The Oringe-tawny Marigold: the night
Hides not her colour from a searching sight.
To thee then, dearest Friend (my songs chiefe mate),
This colour chiefly I appropriate,
That spight of all the mists Obliuion can
Or enuious frettings of a guilty man,
Retain'st thy worth; nay, mak'st it more in prise,
Like Tennis-bals, throwne downe hard, highest rise.
The Columbine in tawny often taken,
37
Flora's choise buttons of a russet dye
Is Hope euen in the depth of misery.
The Pansie, Thistle, all with prickles set,
The Cowslip, Honisuckle, Violet,
And many hundreds more that grac'd the Meads,
Gardens and Groues, (where beautious Flora treads)
Were by the Shepherds Daughters (as yet are
Vs'd in our Cotes) brought home with speciall care:
For bruising them they not alone would quell
But rot the rest, and spoile their pleasing smell.
Much like a Lad, who in his tender prime
Sent from his friends to learne the vse of time,
As are his mates or good or bad, so he
Thriues to the world, and such his actions be.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |