 | A transcript of Edward Taylor's Metrical History of Christianity by Donald E. Stanford |  |
In the Reign of Lewis the Godly, beginning 814
Greate Store of ruin the aire and Earth annoi'd
The Pestilence all over France rangd wide
Ore men, and beasts, bread Corn and pulse all Spoild
That little got Soon rots. Wine all nought, mild,
Or quickly Soure. Rivers overflow
In many places, many ponds doe grow.
No Seedstime now in autumn many fields
Admit of and the winter following Steels
The Danow, Rhine, Albis, Sequane, and
Other great Streams, for thirty dayes that stand,
Embridged ore with ice for Carts to go
And when they brake up, dammage great they do.
Hard by a river in Turingia
A turfe of Earth was pluckt up alaway
Fifty foot long and fourteen broad its said
A foot and halfe in thickness and it made
A Speedy journey four and twenty feet
But how it mov'd account we none do meet.
Ith Eastern parts of Saxony by th'lake
Of Arnsey th'Earth sweld like a bank up great,
And it tooke up without the help of man
For fifty paces such a patch or Span,
As made it seem like to a vally run,
But by what means none tell us, it was done.
In Tulla Coasts nigh to Augustodune
A girle of twelve years old that did Commune
At Sacrament, for ten months space refraind
From bread, then from all meat and drinck abstaind
For full three years, after which time she came
Back to her former life with men again.
Twenty three Villages in Saxony
Houses, Men, Cattle burnt with Lightening ly.
It also Stones did rain. And hailstons such
By which the Stalks of fruits were dammag'd much.
A piece of ice fifteen foot long, two thick
And seven broad In Burgundy down skip
Did on them out of heaven: and the Plague
Did rage through France all ore in deadly trade.
The Pestilence all over France rangd wide
Ore men, and beasts, bread Corn and pulse all Spoild
That little got Soon rots. Wine all nought, mild,
Or quickly Soure. Rivers overflow
In many places, many ponds doe grow.
No Seedstime now in autumn many fields
Admit of and the winter following Steels
The Danow, Rhine, Albis, Sequane, and
Other great Streams, for thirty dayes that stand,
Embridged ore with ice for Carts to go
And when they brake up, dammage great they do.
Hard by a river in Turingia
A turfe of Earth was pluckt up alaway
Fifty foot long and fourteen broad its said
A foot and halfe in thickness and it made
A Speedy journey four and twenty feet
But how it mov'd account we none do meet.
Ith Eastern parts of Saxony by th'lake
Of Arnsey th'Earth sweld like a bank up great,
And it tooke up without the help of man
For fifty paces such a patch or Span,
As made it seem like to a vally run,
But by what means none tell us, it was done.
In Tulla Coasts nigh to Augustodune
A girle of twelve years old that did Commune
At Sacrament, for ten months space refraind
From bread, then from all meat and drinck abstaind
For full three years, after which time she came
Back to her former life with men again.
Twenty three Villages in Saxony
Houses, Men, Cattle burnt with Lightening ly.
311
By which the Stalks of fruits were dammag'd much.
A piece of ice fifteen foot long, two thick
And seven broad In Burgundy down skip
Did on them out of heaven: and the Plague
Did rage through France all ore in deadly trade.
Popielus King of Polony vile
His Parents Curse him oft did thus assoile.
Let Mice devour thee. He the same Curse usd.
When by the Counsill which his Wife out musde,
He poison'd had his Unkles, and his Peers
Mice from their Corps leap out long for his Eares.
While he was with his Wife, and Children there
A glutting of his pawnch with all good cheere,
His guarde to 'fende their Lord, a fire do make
To drive the Mice away, in vain: which take
Their journey through the fire them to devour,
He to a Ship doth run: they thither poure
Then through the waters. Knaw it through: the men
Fearing its sinking, thrust to Shoare again.
He them with his highs to a mighty tower.
They them persue, and them therein devour.
In France Hail both some men, and Cattle bains
In Gascon bread Corn like short wheat it rains.
In other places mighty heaps are found
Of Grain of all Sorts in the Champion ground.
Which if the Cattle tast, they forth with die.
Its meale doth vanish in mens hands and fly.
His Parents Curse him oft did thus assoile.
Let Mice devour thee. He the same Curse usd.
When by the Counsill which his Wife out musde,
He poison'd had his Unkles, and his Peers
Mice from their Corps leap out long for his Eares.
While he was with his Wife, and Children there
A glutting of his pawnch with all good cheere,
His guarde to 'fende their Lord, a fire do make
To drive the Mice away, in vain: which take
Their journey through the fire them to devour,
He to a Ship doth run: they thither poure
Then through the waters. Knaw it through: the men
Fearing its sinking, thrust to Shoare again.
He them with his highs to a mighty tower.
They them persue, and them therein devour.
In France Hail both some men, and Cattle bains
In Gascon bread Corn like short wheat it rains.
In other places mighty heaps are found
Of Grain of all Sorts in the Champion ground.
Which if the Cattle tast, they forth with die.
Its meale doth vanish in mens hands and fly.
An Earthquake dandles Aquisgrane: a Storm
Houses, and Temples of their Crowns disorn.
A blazing Star in libra hangs, another
In Aries the next yeare, also a cother
Of little fiery sparkles for Some dayes
Are seen to run through heaven Sig'bert sayes.
Constantinople by an Earthquake shakes
Five dayes. Which many folk, houses off, takes.
But pardon me, my Muse, in that my feet
Still keep a Distich for Hexastichs sweet.
For justice in Efficiency Divine
By miracles still larums with her shine.
The Matter therefore common thus to both,
In tunes, that justice sung forth, thus forgoeth.
But now the rest shall in those measures run
Which in the former Centuries were sung
Out by Efficiency, whose Warblings greet
A brisk Tetrastich, with a Distich sweet.
Houses, and Temples of their Crowns disorn.
A blazing Star in libra hangs, another
In Aries the next yeare, also a cother
Of little fiery sparkles for Some dayes
Are seen to run through heaven Sig'bert sayes.
Constantinople by an Earthquake shakes
Five dayes. Which many folk, houses off, takes.
But pardon me, my Muse, in that my feet
Still keep a Distich for Hexastichs sweet.
For justice in Efficiency Divine
By miracles still larums with her shine.
The Matter therefore common thus to both,
In tunes, that justice sung forth, thus forgoeth.
But now the rest shall in those measures run
Which in the former Centuries were sung
Out by Efficiency, whose Warblings greet
A brisk Tetrastich, with a Distich sweet.
| A transcript of Edward Taylor's Metrical History of Christianity by Donald E. Stanford | |