University of Virginia Library

I can but muse to see thy timerous muse,
Of Enuies hidden sting to stand in awe:
What though th'Athinian carpenter did bruse
The forward youth, foyboasting of his saw:
Enuie will turne to loue, and loue to liking,
Such influence abideth in thy wryghting.

Let but the gentle reader read thy yeares,
Thy cygnet for a swanne he will allow;
For by Achilles loues it well appeares,
Thee with hir treasure Pallas did indow.
Let this suffice for all, thou mayst be bolde,
So young a head neare wrote a verse so olde.

THE PREFACE TO THE TITLE.

The leprosie yf phisicke bin approued,
Achilles cure, because Achilles loued:
The leprosie (saith Gordon) a disease,
Which on the child as yet vnborne doth sease,
Infectious and contagious, I could proue
It is incurable, and so is loue.
Loues leprosie, according to her kinde,
Made him a leaper in a louers minde.

Troy lost hir souldier, Priam lost a sonne,
Troye's hopes were past, and Priam's triumphes donne.
The Phrygian dames, those sad Illyades,
Earth spherifying lyghtes, heauen's Pleiades,
Do fret the pauement of his brasen tombe
With teares, whose currants from their eylids runne,
With teares in stead of flowers they strew the way,
Such sollemne rites beseeme so blacke a day;
With teares they wash his woundes, and then againe,
Lament with teares their brother Hector slaine.
Euen at these exequies amongst the rest,
Was Peleus issue an vnwelcome guest.
He noates their sorrow, and each seuerall passion,
Affrighting Nemesis with inuocation
Polyæena sendes foorth from trembling brest.
Yee Gods in whom Troy holdes her interest
Be iust vpon Achilles for this deede,
Who first begirt me with a mourning weede:
At this incenst, to heare such imprecation,
As to his owne soule had so neare relation,
His blood grows proud, and makes his brow the land
Which he tryfallowes like caractered sand.
Thus he replyes in language mixt with gall,
That but for honour of the capitall,
And of that truce whereto they were coniured,
By Hector's blood, which had the earth manured,
And all the soules which by vntimely fate
His sword had sent to hell before their date;
That tongue from whom such ranckor had his course,
Should begge for life and yet finde no remorce;
But sacrificious at her brother's shrine,
Besprinkling it with blood, her soule refine.
These wordes he vsed, and vsing them came neare,
So nigh that faire Polyxene did appeare:
Our Mermaidonian captaine all amazed,
Stone still he standes, and standing still he gazed:
His eyes were dimde, the obiect was so bright,
Such is the force of beautie, such her might;
His heart an anuill to a tragicke theame,
Where death began to forge a stratageme,
Will not endure while furie strikes a heate,
But at the first allarums sounds retreate.
His handes extended like that furious knight,
Who thought the Græcian fleet might proue his right,
Or as him selfe, when as his second selfe,
Breathed foorth his soule, diuorst from life and death.
Euen now, as then for his Patroclus sake,
Now did I say, euen now I mistake:
O now they plead as oraclcs of grace,
They menace none, for loue hath changed the case;
A change to see his knee to offer duetie,
The foote whereof spurnes at all changing beautie.
Achilles loues Polyxene: What is shee?
The lyuing daughter of his enemie.
How shall he woe her, that hath wed another?
How shall he winne her, that hath slaine her brother?
His trophees and his triumphes she doth hate;
In Hector's death his vallor liued too late;
Liue blest in this, that thou art Orpheus brother:
Hee none of thine, nor Thetis is his mother.
Hee in Castalian, therein didst thou bath,
And thou in Stygian, so he neuer hath:
Minion to Mars, and champion to the Nine:
O that our age could elbow that of thine.
But widow shee hath lost Achilles mate,
Sydney whose breathing fame admits no date.
O but for him I neuer should abyde,
But tell the Achademicks lowde he lyde,
Who mid those holsome hearbes which he did cherish
Suffered Metemsacosin so to florish.
In him Achilles wandring soule did rest,
Who like an eagle could not buyld her nest,
Till she had found him out; but full of paine,
Seekes her Echytes els-where all in vaine.
With finding him, my muse hath lost her selfe,
Come backe; for natures banquerout of her wealth,
The phœnix burnes, would teares might quench the flame;
Andromache calls on dead Hectors name;
Though he be dead, his honors euer liue,
My infant penne shall him his tribute giue;
And when this cygnet hath a whiter hew,
Shee vowes to swimme or sinke in open view:
Achilles wooes her loue, is full of woe,
Polyxen yeeldes, but Hecuba sayes noe.
Alas that loue the sonne, and loue the mother,
By opposition should aduerse each other;
Shee doth accuse him as degenerate,
Whose birth a goddesse did contaminate:
Hee sweares shee is vnkinde of woman kinde,
Predominance stuffes her ambitious minde.
Both striue to soueraignize, both emulate,
Such ciuill warre the weale doth dissipate.
O I should deeme them, but for their descents,
Two of the foure substantiall elements:
Those two I meane, whose contrarietie,
Seekes to expell by their aduersitie.
Hence is't Polyxen loues and loathes together,
Much like the vaine that's guyded by the weather:
This is the influence of loue the mother,
And loue the sonne, efficient of the other.
Once more, and reprehende not for digression,
A womans minde is fit for each impression:
Hippocrates electuarie wyse
Attributes it to weaknesse in their eyes;
Induce mee to subscribe he neuer can,
For euery female will outface a man,
And sinke him in the center of her eye,
Drentcht with the sourses of immodestye.
Olde Hecuba, well learned in their sex,
Instructes her daughter in this diuelish text;
Hate occupie the center of thy hart,
Varnish with loue the superficiall part,
That when Achilles hopes to croppe a flower,
The hidden snake may haue him in her power.
The dryft is this, Achilles being slayne,
The Græcian trophees will decline and wayne:
Loue him as rangers vse to loue their deare,
That being fat, they fall at time of yeere.
The Lecturis was diligent to reed,
The pupill as attentiue giues good heed:
The Græcian at the first encounter faylde,
Albeit, his second orasons preuaylde.
Maydes at the first, feare to be counted light,
And therefore vse their noe but as a slight:
Yet yf she loue, preuenting nay at thrice,
For feare shee loose her pray, cryes yea at twice.
Egiptus sonne whom Danaa takes to wyfe,
Feeles ere he sees his throate to kisse the knyfe:
Euen so our louer, fearing no infection,
Tastes by the tongue, but tryes not by digestion.
And now he strikes a higher noate in loue,
Than earst when baser stringes did onely moue;
Am I loues thrall, (quoth he) and must I yeelde
To her the honors which I wonne in feelde?
Loe Cytherea, at thy sacred shryne
My conquestes I do willingly resigne;
Where loue's the goale, and beautie giueth ayme,
Ile proue an archer, though I loose the gayme.
Some of my shaftes are spent, nor will I spare,
But other shaftes shell proforate the ayre:
When all are gone heauens archar shall supplie,
By him ile calculate loues destenie,
Joynd with the most propitiate of the seauen,
Dart foorth cœlestiall influence from heauen.
For this dayes deede O chide mee not to morrow,
Tis not of Maurus that I begge or borrow:
If I do so let Fuseus loose his right,
And yet tis farre to reach vnto the whight.
His heauie quiuer and my hart of lead,
Will make the crasie sicke, the sick-men dead.
The destenies were neuer yet my saintes,
At fortunes shrine I breath not foorth my plaintes.
How much I scorne to borrow Maurus' bow,
Heauens constellations may confirme and show;
I will commaund them all; yf they refuse,
The pledge of wisdome shall be my excuse.
If Sagitarius throw me from a farre,
Foure spheres remote to Phœbus thirling carre,
And he suppose it be disparagement,
To giue a heauen wrackt soule some intertainment,
Like to a fire I'll sit vpon the maynes
Of his vnmanaged jades, and burne their raynes:
Then will I take my goddesse by the hand,
Whose awfull scepter guydeth Paphos land.
How I am wronged shee shall informe her sonne,
And he shall helpe when all my hopes are done.
If Cupid fauour not, then will I prooue
Apostate vnto the god of love.
Nay more, a cynick like Diogenes,
Misanthropos and a Misogones:
This resolution did proceede from loue,
In whose thought flying orb his soule did mooue:
The day he spendes in studie how to gaine her,
His studie nothing els but to obtaine her:
Obseruing this a motiue in their kinde,
High prayses humor best a woman's minde.
And this mooues him to proue practitioner;
Solicite loue pleas Cupid's barrister.
Polyxenes poet in his mistres prayse,
Thus gins to volley foorth his amorous layes.
Thou wretchles father of a wretched sonne,
Sire to that dismounted Phaeton:
Giue raynes vnto those fierie steedes of thine,
That tread the path of the signiferous lyne.
Faire sunne that seest each mother's sonne on earth,
Cynthius by loue, Latoides by thy birth:
Proude for the one, promoted for the other,
Vowde to thy loue, deuoted to thy mother.
Eye of all seeing heauens, earthes lyfe, worldes light,
Whose presence makes the day, and absence night:
Performe the reuolution of swift time,
According to these faire demaundes of mine.
Poynt at that time, that wished time, and say,
Loe! this of many a selected day
Wherein thy loue yeeldes her consenting voyce,
Of thee (would God of mee) to make her choyce.
Knowst thou, earth animating lyght, my saint?
The fountaine of my griefe, and hartes complaint?
If not, attende the whilst I shall thee show,
How thou my loue from others loues mayst know.
O shee is fayrer then the louely boy,
Who by his death bereft Hyperions ioy.
Had this Diana naked in the spring,
By any forrester bin euer seene,
He could not haue the power to runne away;
But there inchaunted, at the gaze to stay.
Nor neede she call the Nimphes to reach her boe,
The sight had rauisht and bewitcht him soe.
Her voyce the ground of winged Hermes sweete,
Wherewith Lucinae's watchman fell a sleepe:
Her handes, yf Joue perceiue they seeme to craue,
She need not speake, Joue graunts what she would have.
The margent is so fayre to gaze vpon,
That he shall surfet yf he gaze too long.
Her armes Heavens continent, the way so bright,
Reflecting Cynthias rayes seemes lacteall whight.
Once more the more for to decipher her,
Shees like thy selfe, O none so like faire starre.
The beautie thy disheuered lockes contayne,
Doth in the tramels of her hayre remayne.
As wee eye thee (all obiectes set apart)
So shee hath power to draw both eyes and hart.
If any penne distinguish twixt the Gods
And fayre Polyxen, I allow him ods:
Mainteine, there is no difference but this;
That they in Heauen, shee on the center is.
By him her prayses haue eternitie,
And shee layes naked his mortallitie.
True loue's a sainct, so shall you true loue know:
False loue a Schythian, yet a sainct in show.
When many elegies of loue were done,
Polyxens hand, but not her hart he wonne:
On this condition, that his sword and shield
Should neuer be aduanst in Teucrian field;
And euery Mermaidon whom he controlde,
The same with him inuiolate to holde.
By this the dayes of truce did take an ende,
And heere begins the practize they intende.
A second leader to the forebred fight
Was instigated, Troilus behight:
He knowes Achilles sleepes within his tent,
His loynes vngirded, and his bowe vnbent.
He there, the Troian gallant playes his prankes,
Passes confronted pykes and breakes their rankes.
The Græcians flye, their captaynes being slayne,
Our younger sonne to Mars pursues amayne:
Makes pauement of their trunkes, and where he rides,
The hollow hoofe checkquered in blood abides,
Leauing the print behinde, as who should say,
Be witnesse that the Troian rode this way:
Achilles doth beholde by loue restraynde,
He feares to be orebolde, but restes contaynde,
With execration that he did consent,
By solemne oath vnto this darke intent;
Their instrumentes of warre keepe times accord,
The Spartan king, before Antenors sword
Flyes, in such danger of recouerie,
He wisht nighte's mantell were his sanctuarie.
His foe growes insolent, made proude with pray,
And conquest must her vtmost duetie pay.
Achilles is not tyde vnto the mast,
The Acheloydes singe, and he in hast
Leapes from his cabbin. O 'twere treble wrong
That he impatient should abstayne so long;
Well mounted and well met they ioyne togeather
Like flowdes whose rushing cause tempestuous weather:
And now their clattering shildes resemble thunder;
The fire a lightning when the cloudes do sunder:
Long did it thunder ere the heauens were bright,
So long that when it cleered the day was night:
A night perpetuall vnto Priams sonne;
His horse was slaine, the day was lost and won,
And heere each one might heare windes whispering sound,
When earst the drums their senses did confound;
Troilus dethes chiefe conquest from the fielde,
Wrapt in their colours, couered with his shielde,
They carry him to make the number more,
Whose bleeding sydes Achilles speare did gore.
O had he not bin ouer insolent,
Achilles speare had rested in his tent:
But his prouoking pride did seeme to braue
The brauest souldier in the ayre concaue.
This is the onely price that vallour yeeldes,
Thy soule shall finde his rest in Martiall fieldes.
The second league for dayes they doe proclaime,
And now Achilles visites his faire dame.
Ill fare that outward faire that's inward foule,
An angels face wed to Proserpine's soule:
If diuels in dietie thus masked bin,
The man thats so bewitcht doth no whit sin.
Thus pleades the subiect of my weeping muse,
For his fond loues alleadging this excuse.
If hee complayne on Loue, shee heares his plaintes
With delinition, and because he faintes
Shee doth reuiue him, brooking no delay,
With assignation of a wedding day.
Foorthwith a marriage twixt them was concluded:
Alas, that true loue should be so deluded.
The sunne is rose, sees Thetis sonne to fall
Vnder this false pretended nuptiall.
The Delphick oracle is now fulfilde,
Eare Troy be wonne, Achilles must be kilde.
This is the day wherein they surfet all,
With blood of his who made the Troians thrall;
And this the day wherein he did appease
Vnquiet soules, which earst could find no ease.
This day was nyght to him, and day to those
By whom vntimely death did heere repose.
His liues familliar starre doth shoote and fall,
The fairest starre the heauens weare gracte withall.
Euen when his steppes salute the temple porch
With hymmes, and Hymænus burning torch,
A shaft from Paris hand did soone disclose
Where Styx had kist him, and how high it rose.
Where the Stygian flood did neuer reach,
Deathes winged messenger did make a breach:
Whence from each veine the sacred breath descending,
Polyxens ioyes began, and his had ending.

Of all the Gods aboue
I did honour loue,
Loue his dietie;
Nothing might me mooue,
For I did approue
Loue his pietie.
I did loue,
He did proue
Nothing myght my loue remoue.
He did proue
I did loue,
Witnesse this the Gods aboue.

He did not respect mee,
But he did reiect mee
In his royaltie;
He did not affect mee,
But he did suspect mee
Of disloyaltie:
No respect
Did reiect
Mee in this his royaltie;
No affect
Did suspect
Mee for no disloyaltie.

I the fielde did leaue,
And mine armes bequeath
To the loue queene.
To my brow did cleaue
Venus myrtill wreath;
There was loue seene.
I did leaue
And bequeath,
Myne armour for a myrtill wreath;
Myrtle wreathe
Purchast leaue,
To my temples fast to cleaue.

The boy that was so blinde,
Showed himselfe vnkinde
To mine amours:
Playning to the winde
I no ease coulde finde
To my clamours.
He was blinde
And vnkynde,
So vnconstant was his minde,
As the winde,
So vnkinde,
Ease for loue I could not finde.

Now I doe repent mee,
Now I do lament mee,
But alas! too late.
Gentle hart relent thee,
Though thou must content thee
With thy froward fate.
Hart content thee,
Hart relent thee,
Since Polyxen was vntrue,
I lament mee,
And repent mee;
Loue and women both adew.