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 |  |
A wooddy hill there stood, at whose low feet
Two goodly streames in one broad channell meet,
Whose fretfull waues beating against the hill,
Did all the bottome with soft muttrings fill.
Here in a nooke made by another mount,
(Whose stately Oakes are in no lesse account
For height or spreading, then the proudest be
That from Oëta looke on Thessaly)
Rudely o'rehung there is a vaulted Caue,
That in the day as sullen shadowes gaue,
As Euening to the woods. An vncouth place,
(Where Hags and Goblins might retire a space)
And hated now of Shepherds, since there lies
The corps of one (lesse louing Deities
Then we affected him) that neuer lent
His hand to ought but to our detriment.
A man that onely liu'd to liue no more,
And di'd still to be dying. Whose chiefe store
Of vertue was, his hate did not pursue her,
Because he onely heard of her, not knew her;
That knew no good, but onely that his sight
Saw euery thing had still his opposite;
And euer this his apprehension caught,
That what he did was best, the other naught;
That alwaies lou'd the man that neuer lou'd,
And hated him whose hate no death had mou'd;
That (politique) at fitting time and season
Could hate the Traitor, and yet loue the Treason;
That many a wofull heart (ere his decease)
In peeces tore to purchase his owne peace;
Who neuer gaue his almes but in this fashion,
To salue his credit, more then for saluation;
Who on the names of good-men euer fed,
And (most accursed) sold the poore for bread.
Right like the Pitch-tree, from whose any limbe
Comes neuer twig, shall be the seed of him.
The Muses scorn'd by him, laugh at his fame,
And neuer will vouchsafe to speake his Name.
Let no man for his losse one teare let fall,
But perish with him his memoriall!
Two goodly streames in one broad channell meet,
Whose fretfull waues beating against the hill,
Did all the bottome with soft muttrings fill.
83
(Whose stately Oakes are in no lesse account
For height or spreading, then the proudest be
That from Oëta looke on Thessaly)
Rudely o'rehung there is a vaulted Caue,
That in the day as sullen shadowes gaue,
As Euening to the woods. An vncouth place,
(Where Hags and Goblins might retire a space)
And hated now of Shepherds, since there lies
The corps of one (lesse louing Deities
Then we affected him) that neuer lent
His hand to ought but to our detriment.
A man that onely liu'd to liue no more,
And di'd still to be dying. Whose chiefe store
Of vertue was, his hate did not pursue her,
Because he onely heard of her, not knew her;
That knew no good, but onely that his sight
Saw euery thing had still his opposite;
And euer this his apprehension caught,
That what he did was best, the other naught;
That alwaies lou'd the man that neuer lou'd,
And hated him whose hate no death had mou'd;
That (politique) at fitting time and season
Could hate the Traitor, and yet loue the Treason;
That many a wofull heart (ere his decease)
In peeces tore to purchase his owne peace;
Who neuer gaue his almes but in this fashion,
To salue his credit, more then for saluation;
Who on the names of good-men euer fed,
And (most accursed) sold the poore for bread.
Right like the Pitch-tree, from whose any limbe
Comes neuer twig, shall be the seed of him.
The Muses scorn'd by him, laugh at his fame,
And neuer will vouchsafe to speake his Name.
Let no man for his losse one teare let fall,
But perish with him his memoriall!
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |