Du Bartas His Divine Weekes And Workes with A Compleate Collectio[n] of all the other most delight-full Workes: Translated and written by yt famous Philomusus: Iosvah Sylvester |
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167
ADAM.
THE FIRST DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK;
- I. Eden,
- II. The Impostvre,
- III. The Fvries,
- IV. The Handy-Crafts.
Containing
169
1. Eden.
THE FIRST PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.
The Argvment.
Our Poet, first, doth Gods assistance seek:The Scope and Subiect of his Second Week.
Adam in Eden: Edens beauties rare;
A reall Place, not now discerned where:
The Tree of Life; and Knowledge-Tree withall:
Knowledge of Man, before and since his Fall:
His exercise, and excellent Delights,
In's Innocence: of Dreams and Ghostly Sights:
Nice Questions curb'd: Death, Sins effect; whereby
Man (else Immortall) mortall now, must Dy.
Great God, which hast this World's Birth made me see,
Vnfold his Cradle, shew his Infancy:
Walke thou, my Spirit, through all the flowring alleys
Of that sweet Garden, where through winding valleys
Foure liuely floods crauld: tell me what mis-deed
Banisht both Edens, Adam and his seed:
Tell who (immortall) mortalizing, brought-vs
The Balm from heav'n which hoped health hath wrought-vs:
Grant me the story of thy Church to sing,
And gests of Kings: Let me this Totall bring
From thy first Sabbath to his fatall toomb,
My stile extending to the Day of Doome.
Vnfold his Cradle, shew his Infancy:
Walke thou, my Spirit, through all the flowring alleys
Of that sweet Garden, where through winding valleys
Foure liuely floods crauld: tell me what mis-deed
Banisht both Edens, Adam and his seed:
Tell who (immortall) mortalizing, brought-vs
The Balm from heav'n which hoped health hath wrought-vs:
Grant me the story of thy Church to sing,
And gests of Kings: Let me this Totall bring
From thy first Sabbath to his fatall toomb,
My stile extending to the Day of Doome.
Lord, I acknowledge and confess, before,
This Ocean hath no bottom, nor no shore;
But (sacred Pilot) thou canst safely steer
My vent'rous Pinnasse to her wished Peer;
Where once arriv'd, all dropping wet I will
Extoll thy fauours, and my vows fulfill.
This Ocean hath no bottom, nor no shore;
But (sacred Pilot) thou canst safely steer
My vent'rous Pinnasse to her wished Peer;
170
Extoll thy fauours, and my vows fulfill.
The Translator, cōsidering his own weakness and insufficiency for a Work so rare & excellent, as all the World hath worthily admired: craueth also the assistance of the Highest, that (at least) his endeuour may both stir-vp som abler Spirit to vndertake this Task; & also prouoke all other good Wits to take in hand som holy Argument: and with-all, that Himselfe may be for euer sincerely affected, and (as it were) throughly seasoned with the sweet relish of these sacred & religious discourses.
Since it hath pleas'd thee task my tardy Muse
With these high Theames that through mine Art-less Pen
This holy Lamp may light my Country-men:
Ah, teach my hand, touch mine vnlearned lips;
Lest, as the Earths grosse body doth Eclipse
Bright Cynthia's beames, when it is interpos'd
'Twixt her and Phœbus: so mine ill-dispos'd,
Dark gloomy Ignorance obscure the rayes
Of this diuine Sun of these learned dayes.
O! furnish me with an vn-vulgar stile,
That I by this may wain our wanton Ile
From Ouids heirs, and their vn-hallowed spell
Heer charming senses, chaining soules in Hell.
Let this prouoke our modern Wits to sacre
Their wondrous gifts to honour thee, their Maker:
That our mysterious ELFINE Oracle,
Deep, morall, graue, Inventions miracle;
My deer sweet Daniel, sharp conceipted, brief,
Ciuill, sententious, for pure accents chief:
And our new Naso that so passionates
Th'heroike sighes of loue-sick Potentates:
May change their subiect, and aduance their wings
Vp to these higher and more holy things.
And if (sufficient rich in self-inuention)
They scorn (as I) to liue of Strangers Pension,
Let them deuise new Weeks, new works, new wayes
To celebrate the supreme Prince of praise.
And let not me (good Lord) be like the Lead
Which to som Citie from som Conduit-head
Brings holsom water; yet (self-wanting sense)
It selfe receiues no drop of comfort thence:
But rather, as the thorough-seasoned But
Wherein the tears of death-prest Grapes are put,
Retains (long after all the wine is spent)
Within it selfe the liquors liuely sent:
Let me still sauour of these sacred sweets
Till Death fold-vp mine earth in earthen sheets;
Lest, my young layes, now prone to preach thy glory
To Brvtvs heyrs, blush at mine elder Story.
Narration. God, hauing treated & established Man Lord of the creatures, lodgeth him in the fair Garden of Eden.
T'our Father Adam, this inferiour Throne;
Ranging beneath his rule the scaly Nation
That in the Ocean haue their habitation:
Those that in horror of the Desarts lurk:
And those that capering in the Welkin work;
171
A climate temperate both for cold and heat,
Which dainty Flora paveth sumptuously
With flowry Ver's inameld tapistry;
Pomona pranks with fruits, whose taste excels;
And Zephyr fils with Musk and Amber smels:
Where God himself (as Gardner) treads the allies,
With Trees and Corn covers the hils and vallies,
Summons sweet sleep with noyse of hundred Brooks,
And Sun-proof Arbours makes in sundry nooks:
He plants, he proins, he pares, he trimmeth round
Th'ever green beauties of a fruitfull ground;
Heer-there the course of th'holy Lakes he leads,
With thousand Dies hee motleys all the meades.
Ye Pagan Poets that audaciously
Haue sought to dark the ever Memory
Of Gods greeat works; from henceforth still be dum
Your fabled prayses of Elysium,
Which by this goodly module you haue wrought,
Through deaf tradition, that your Fathers taught:
For, the Almighty made his blisfull Bowrs
Better indeed, then you haue fained yours.
Haue sought to dark the ever Memory
Of Gods greeat works; from henceforth still be dum
Your fabled prayses of Elysium,
Which by this goodly module you haue wrought,
Through deaf tradition, that your Fathers taught:
For, the Almighty made his blisfull Bowrs
Better indeed, then you haue fained yours.
For, should I say that still, with smiling face,
Th'all-clasping Heav'ns beheld this happy place;
That honey sweet, from hollow rocks did drain;
That fostring milk flow'd vp and down the Plain;
That sweet as Roses smelt th'ill-savory Rew:
That in all soyls, all seasons, all things grew:
That still there dangled on the self-same treen
A thousand fruits, nor over-ripe, nor green:
That egrest fruits, and bitterest hearbs did mock
Madera Sugars, and the Apricock;
Yeelding more holesom food then all the messes,
That now taste-curious, wanton Plenty dresses,
Disguising (in a thousand costly dishes)
The various store of dainty Fowls and Fishes,
Which far and neer wee seek by Land and Seas,
More to provoke then hunger to appease;
Th'all-clasping Heav'ns beheld this happy place;
That honey sweet, from hollow rocks did drain;
That fostring milk flow'd vp and down the Plain;
That sweet as Roses smelt th'ill-savory Rew:
That in all soyls, all seasons, all things grew:
That still there dangled on the self-same treen
A thousand fruits, nor over-ripe, nor green:
That egrest fruits, and bitterest hearbs did mock
Madera Sugars, and the Apricock;
Yeelding more holesom food then all the messes,
That now taste-curious, wanton Plenty dresses,
Disguising (in a thousand costly dishes)
The various store of dainty Fowls and Fishes,
Which far and neer wee seek by Land and Seas,
More to provoke then hunger to appease;
Or should I say, each morning, on the ground
Not common deaw, but Manna did abound:
That never gutter-gorging durty muds
Defil'd the crystall of smooth-sliding floods,
Whose waters past, in pleasant taste, the drink
That now in Candia decks Cerathus brink:
That shady Groves of noble Palm-tree sprays,
Of amorous Myrtles, and immortall Bays
Never vn-leav'd; but evermore, their new
Self-arching arms in thousand Arbours grew:
Where thousand sorts of birds, both night and day,
Did bill and woo, and hop about, and play;
And, marrying their sweet tunes to th'Angels layes,
Sung Adams bliss and their great Makers prayse.
For then, the Crowes, night-Rav'ns, and Howlets noise
Was like the Nightingals sweet-tuned voyce;
And Nightingals sung like divine Arion,
Like Thracian Orpheus, Linus, and Amphion.
Not common deaw, but Manna did abound:
That never gutter-gorging durty muds
Defil'd the crystall of smooth-sliding floods,
Whose waters past, in pleasant taste, the drink
That now in Candia decks Cerathus brink:
That shady Groves of noble Palm-tree sprays,
Of amorous Myrtles, and immortall Bays
Never vn-leav'd; but evermore, their new
Self-arching arms in thousand Arbours grew:
172
Did bill and woo, and hop about, and play;
And, marrying their sweet tunes to th'Angels layes,
Sung Adams bliss and their great Makers prayse.
For then, the Crowes, night-Rav'ns, and Howlets noise
Was like the Nightingals sweet-tuned voyce;
And Nightingals sung like divine Arion,
Like Thracian Orpheus, Linus, and Amphion.
Th'Aire's daughter Eccho, haunting woods among;
A blab that will not (cannot) keep her tongue,
Who never asks, but onely answers all,
Who lets not any her in vain to call;
She bore her part; and full of curious skill,
They ceasing sung, they singing ceased still:
There Musick raign'd, and ever on the Plain,
A sweet sound rais'd the dead-liue voyce again.
A blab that will not (cannot) keep her tongue,
Who never asks, but onely answers all,
Who lets not any her in vain to call;
She bore her part; and full of curious skill,
They ceasing sung, they singing ceased still:
There Musick raign'd, and ever on the Plain,
A sweet sound rais'd the dead-liue voyce again.
If there I say the Sun (the Seasons stinter)
Made no hot Sommer, nor no hoary Winter,
But louely Ver kept still in liuely lustre
The fragrant Valleys smiling Meads, and Pasture:
That boistrous Adams body did not shrink
For Northren windes, nor for the Southren wink:
But Zephyr did sweet musky sighes afford,
Which breathing through the Garden of the Lord,
Gaue bodies vigour, verdure to the field,
That verdure flowrs, those flowrs sweet savor yeeld:
That Day did gladly lend his sister, Night,
For half her moisture, half his shining Light:
That never hail did Harvest preiudice,
That never frost, nor snowe, nor slippery ice
The fields en-ag'd: nor any stormy stowr
Dismounted Mountains, nor no violent showr
Poverisht the Land, which frankly did produce
All fruitfull vapours for delight and vse:
I think I ly not, rather I confess
My stammering Muses poore vnlearnedness.
If in two words thou wilt her praise comprise,
Say 't was the the type of th'vpper Paradise;
Where Adam had (O wondrous strange!) discourse
With God himself, with Angels intercourse.
Made no hot Sommer, nor no hoary Winter,
But louely Ver kept still in liuely lustre
The fragrant Valleys smiling Meads, and Pasture:
That boistrous Adams body did not shrink
For Northren windes, nor for the Southren wink:
But Zephyr did sweet musky sighes afford,
Which breathing through the Garden of the Lord,
Gaue bodies vigour, verdure to the field,
That verdure flowrs, those flowrs sweet savor yeeld:
That Day did gladly lend his sister, Night,
For half her moisture, half his shining Light:
That never hail did Harvest preiudice,
That never frost, nor snowe, nor slippery ice
The fields en-ag'd: nor any stormy stowr
Dismounted Mountains, nor no violent showr
Poverisht the Land, which frankly did produce
All fruitfull vapours for delight and vse:
I think I ly not, rather I confess
My stammering Muses poore vnlearnedness.
If in two words thou wilt her praise comprise,
Say 't was the the type of th'vpper Paradise;
Where Adam had (O wondrous strange!) discourse
With God himself, with Angels intercourse.
Yet (over-curious) question not the site,
Where God did plant this Garden of delight:
Whether beneath the Equinoctiall line,
Or on a Mountain neer Latona's shine,
Nigh Babylon, or in the radiant East.
Humble content thee that thou know'st (at least)
That, that rare, plentious, pleasant, happy thing
Whereof th'Almighty made our Grand-sire King,
Was a choyce soil, through which did rowling slide
Swift Ghion, Pishon, and rich Tigris tyde,
And that fair stream whose silver waues do kiss
The Monarch Towrs of proud Semiramis.
Where God did plant this Garden of delight:
Whether beneath the Equinoctiall line,
Or on a Mountain neer Latona's shine,
Nigh Babylon, or in the radiant East.
Humble content thee that thou know'st (at least)
That, that rare, plentious, pleasant, happy thing
Whereof th'Almighty made our Grand-sire King,
173
Swift Ghion, Pishon, and rich Tigris tyde,
And that fair stream whose silver waues do kiss
The Monarch Towrs of proud Semiramis.
Now, if that (roaming round about the earth)
Thou finde no place that answers now in worth
This beautious place, nor Country that can showe
Where now-adayes, those noted flouds do flowe:
Include not all within this Close confin'd,
That labouring Neptunes liquid Belt doth binde.
A certaine place it was (now sought in vain)
Where set by grace, for sin remov'd again,
Our Elders were: whereof the thunder-darter
Made a bright Sword the gate, an Angel Porter.
Thou finde no place that answers now in worth
This beautious place, nor Country that can showe
Where now-adayes, those noted flouds do flowe:
Include not all within this Close confin'd,
That labouring Neptunes liquid Belt doth binde.
A certaine place it was (now sought in vain)
Where set by grace, for sin remov'd again,
Our Elders were: whereof the thunder-darter
Made a bright Sword the gate, an Angel Porter.
Nor think that Moses paints, fantastik-wise,
A mystike tale of fained Paradise:
('Twas a true Garden, happy Plenties horn,
And seat of graces) least thou make (forlorn)
An Ideall Adams food fantasticall,
His sinne suppos'd, his pain Poeticall:
Such Allegories serue for shelter fit
To curious Idiots of erronious wit;
And chiefly then, when reading Histories,
Seeking the spirit, they do the body leese.
A mystike tale of fained Paradise:
('Twas a true Garden, happy Plenties horn,
And seat of graces) least thou make (forlorn)
An Ideall Adams food fantasticall,
His sinne suppos'd, his pain Poeticall:
Such Allegories serue for shelter fit
To curious Idiots of erronious wit;
And chiefly then, when reading Histories,
Seeking the spirit, they do the body leese.
But if thou list to ghesse by likelyhood,
Think that the wreakfull nature-drowning flood
Spar'd not this beautious place, which formost saw
The first foul breach of Gods eternall law:
Think that the most part of the plants it pull'd,
And of the sweetest flowrs the spirits dull'd,
Spoild the fair Gardens, made the fat fields lean,
And chang'd (perchance) the rivers chanell clean:
And thinke, that Time (whose slippery wheel doth play
In humane causes with inconstant sway,
Who exiles, alters, and disguises words)
Hath now transform'd the names of all these Fordes,
For, as through sin we lost that place, I feare
(Forgetfull) we haue lost the knowledge where
'T was situate, and of the sugred dainties
Wherewith God fed vs in those sacred plenties.
Think that the wreakfull nature-drowning flood
Spar'd not this beautious place, which formost saw
The first foul breach of Gods eternall law:
Think that the most part of the plants it pull'd,
And of the sweetest flowrs the spirits dull'd,
Spoild the fair Gardens, made the fat fields lean,
And chang'd (perchance) the rivers chanell clean:
And thinke, that Time (whose slippery wheel doth play
In humane causes with inconstant sway,
Who exiles, alters, and disguises words)
Hath now transform'd the names of all these Fordes,
For, as through sin we lost that place, I feare
(Forgetfull) we haue lost the knowledge where
'T was situate, and of the sugred dainties
Wherewith God fed vs in those sacred plenties.
Now of the Trees wherewith th'immortall Powr
Adorn'd the quarters of that blisfull Bowr,
All serv'd the mouth, saue two sustaind the minde:
All serv'd for food, saue two for seals assign'd.
Adorn'd the quarters of that blisfull Bowr,
All serv'd the mouth, saue two sustaind the minde:
All serv'd for food, saue two for seals assign'd.
God gaue the first, for honourable stile,
The tree of Life: true name; (alas the while!)
Not for th'effect it had, but should haue kept,
If Man from duty never had mis-stept.
For, as the ayr of those fresh dales and hils
Preserued him from Epidemick ills,
This fruit had ever-calm'd all insurrections,
All civill quarrels of the crosse complexions;
Had barr'd the passage of twice-childish age,
And ever-more excluded all the rage
Of painfull griefes, whose swift-slowe posting-pase
At first or last our dying life doth chase.
The tree of Life: true name; (alas the while!)
Not for th'effect it had, but should haue kept,
If Man from duty never had mis-stept.
174
Preserued him from Epidemick ills,
This fruit had ever-calm'd all insurrections,
All civill quarrels of the crosse complexions;
Had barr'd the passage of twice-childish age,
And ever-more excluded all the rage
Of painfull griefes, whose swift-slowe posting-pase
At first or last our dying life doth chase.
Strong counter-bane! O sacred Plant divine!
What metall, stone, stalk fruit, flowr, root, or ryne,
Shall I presume in these rude rymes to sute
Vnto thy wondrous World-adorning Fruit?
The rarest Simples that our fields present-vs
Heale but one hurt, and healing too torment-vs:
And with the torment, lingring our reliefe,
Our bags of Gold void, yer our bulks of griefe.
But thy rare fruits hid powr admired most,
Salveth all sores, sans pain, delay, or cost:
Or rather, man from yawning Death to stay,
Thou didst not cure, but keep all ils away.
What metall, stone, stalk fruit, flowr, root, or ryne,
Shall I presume in these rude rymes to sute
Vnto thy wondrous World-adorning Fruit?
The rarest Simples that our fields present-vs
Heale but one hurt, and healing too torment-vs:
And with the torment, lingring our reliefe,
Our bags of Gold void, yer our bulks of griefe.
But thy rare fruits hid powr admired most,
Salveth all sores, sans pain, delay, or cost:
Or rather, man from yawning Death to stay,
Thou didst not cure, but keep all ils away.
O holy, peer-less, rich preservatiue!
Whether wert thou the strange restoratiue
That suddenly did age with youth repair,
And made old Æson younger then his heir?
Or holy Nectar, that in heav'nly bowrs,
Eternally self-pouring Hebé pours?
Or blest Ambrosia (Gods immortall fare)?
Or else the rich fruit of the Garden rare,
Where, for three Ladies (as assured guard)
A fire-arm'd Dragon day and night did ward?
Or pretious Moly, which Ioues Pursuiuan
Wing-footed Hermes brought to th'Ithacan?
Or else Nepenthe, enemy to sadness,
Repelling sorrows, and repealing gladness?
Or Mummie? or Elixir (that excels
Saue men and Angels every creature els)?
No, none of these: these are but forgeries,
But toyes, but tales, but dreams, deceipts, and lies.
But thou art true, although our shallow sense
May honour more, then sound thine Excellence.
Whether wert thou the strange restoratiue
That suddenly did age with youth repair,
And made old Æson younger then his heir?
Or holy Nectar, that in heav'nly bowrs,
Eternally self-pouring Hebé pours?
Or blest Ambrosia (Gods immortall fare)?
Or else the rich fruit of the Garden rare,
Where, for three Ladies (as assured guard)
A fire-arm'd Dragon day and night did ward?
Or pretious Moly, which Ioues Pursuiuan
Wing-footed Hermes brought to th'Ithacan?
Or else Nepenthe, enemy to sadness,
Repelling sorrows, and repealing gladness?
Or Mummie? or Elixir (that excels
Saue men and Angels every creature els)?
No, none of these: these are but forgeries,
But toyes, but tales, but dreams, deceipts, and lies.
But thou art true, although our shallow sense
May honour more, then sound thine Excellence.
The Tree of Knowledge, th'other Tree behight:
Not that it selfly had such speciall might,
As mens duls wits could whet and sharpen so
That in a moment they might all things knowe.
'Twas a sure pledge, a sacred signe, and seal;
Which, being ta'n, should to light man reveal
What ods there is between still peace, and strife;
Gods wrath, and loue; drad death, and dearest life;
Solace, and sorrow; guile, and innocence;
Rebellious pride, and humble obedience.
Not that it selfly had such speciall might,
As mens duls wits could whet and sharpen so
That in a moment they might all things knowe.
'Twas a sure pledge, a sacred signe, and seal;
Which, being ta'n, should to light man reveal
What ods there is between still peace, and strife;
Gods wrath, and loue; drad death, and dearest life;
175
Rebellious pride, and humble obedience.
For, God had not depriv'd that primer season
The sacred lamp and light of learned Reason:
Mankinde was then a thousand fould more wise
Then now: blinde Error had not bleard his eyes,
With mists which make th'Athenian Sage suppose
That nought he knowes saue this, that nought he knowes.
That even light Pirrhons wavering fantasies
Reaue him the skill his vn-skill to agnize.
And th'Abderite, within a Well obscure,
As deep as dark, the Truth of things immure.
The sacred lamp and light of learned Reason:
Mankinde was then a thousand fould more wise
Then now: blinde Error had not bleard his eyes,
With mists which make th'Athenian Sage suppose
That nought he knowes saue this, that nought he knowes.
That even light Pirrhons wavering fantasies
Reaue him the skill his vn-skill to agnize.
And th'Abderite, within a Well obscure,
As deep as dark, the Truth of things immure.
He (happy) knew the Good, by th'vse of it:
He knew the Bad, but not by proof as yet:
But as hey say of great Hippocrates,
Who (though his limbs were numm'd with no excess,
Nor stopt his throat, nor vext his fantasie)
Knew the cold Cramp, th'Angine and Lunacy,
And hundred els-pains, whence in lusty flowr
He liv'd exempt a hundred yeers and foure.
Or like the pure Heav'n-prompted Prophets rather,
Whose sight so cleerly future things did gather,
Because the World's Soule in their soule enseal'd
The holy stamp of secrets most conceal'd.
He knew the Bad, but not by proof as yet:
But as hey say of great Hippocrates,
Who (though his limbs were numm'd with no excess,
Nor stopt his throat, nor vext his fantasie)
Knew the cold Cramp, th'Angine and Lunacy,
And hundred els-pains, whence in lusty flowr
He liv'd exempt a hundred yeers and foure.
Or like the pure Heav'n-prompted Prophets rather,
Whose sight so cleerly future things did gather,
Because the World's Soule in their soule enseal'd
The holy stamp of secrets most conceal'd.
But our now-knowledge hath, for tedious train,
A drooping lise, and over-racked brain,
A face forlorn, a sad and sullen fashion,
A rest-less toyl, and Cares self-pining passion.
Knowledge was then even the soules soule for light,
The spirits calm Port, and Lanthorn shining bright
To straight-stept feet: cleer knowledge; not confus'd:
Not sowr, but sweet: not gotten, but infus'd.
A drooping lise, and over-racked brain,
A face forlorn, a sad and sullen fashion,
A rest-less toyl, and Cares self-pining passion.
Knowledge was then even the soules soule for light,
The spirits calm Port, and Lanthorn shining bright
To straight-stept feet: cleer knowledge; not confus'd:
Not sowr, but sweet: not gotten, but infus'd.
Now Heav'ns eternall all-fore-seeing King,
Who never rashly ordereth any thing,
Thought good, that man (hauing yet spirits sound-stated)
Should dwell els-where, then where he was created;
That he might knowe, he did not hold this place
By Natures right, but by meer gift and Grace;
That he should never taste fruits vn-permitted,
But keep the sacred Pledge to him committed,
And dress that Park, which, God without all tearm,
On these conditions gaue him, as in farm.
Who never rashly ordereth any thing,
Thought good, that man (hauing yet spirits sound-stated)
Should dwell els-where, then where he was created;
That he might knowe, he did not hold this place
By Natures right, but by meer gift and Grace;
That he should never taste fruits vn-permitted,
But keep the sacred Pledge to him committed,
And dress that Park, which, God without all tearm,
On these conditions gaue him, as in farm.
God would, that (void of painfull labour) he
Should liue in Eden; but not idlely:
For, Idleness pure Innocence subverts,
Defiles our body, and our soule perverts:
Yea, sobrest men it makes delicious,
To vertue dull, to vice ingenious.
But that first trauell had no sympathy
With our since-trauails wretched cruelty,
Distilling sweat, and panting, wanting winde,
Which was a scourge for Adams sin assign'd.
Should liue in Eden; but not idlely:
For, Idleness pure Innocence subverts,
Defiles our body, and our soule perverts:
Yea, sobrest men it makes delicious,
To vertue dull, to vice ingenious.
176
With our since-trauails wretched cruelty,
Distilling sweat, and panting, wanting winde,
Which was a scourge for Adams sin assign'd.
For, Edens earth was then so fertile fat,
That he made onely sweet Essayes, in that,
Of skilfull industry, and naked wrought
More for delight, then for the gain he sought.
In briefe, it was a pleasant exercise,
A labour lik't, a paine much like the guise
Of cunning dauncers; who, although they skip,
Run, caper, vault, trauerse, and turn, and trip,
From Morn till Even, at night again full merry,
Renew their dance, of dancing never weary.
Or else of Hunters, that with happy luck
Rousing betimes som often breathed Buck,
Or goodly Stagge, their yelping Hounds vncouple,
Winde lowd their horns, their whoops and halloos double,
Spur-on and spare not, following their desire,
Themselues vn-weary, though their Hackneys tyre.
That he made onely sweet Essayes, in that,
Of skilfull industry, and naked wrought
More for delight, then for the gain he sought.
In briefe, it was a pleasant exercise,
A labour lik't, a paine much like the guise
Of cunning dauncers; who, although they skip,
Run, caper, vault, trauerse, and turn, and trip,
From Morn till Even, at night again full merry,
Renew their dance, of dancing never weary.
Or else of Hunters, that with happy luck
Rousing betimes som often breathed Buck,
Or goodly Stagge, their yelping Hounds vncouple,
Winde lowd their horns, their whoops and halloos double,
Spur-on and spare not, following their desire,
Themselues vn-weary, though their Hackneys tyre.
But, for th'end of all their iolity,
There's found much stifness, sweat and vanity.
I rather match it to the pleasing pain
Of Angels pure, who ever sloath disdain:
Or to the Suns calm course, who pain-less ay
About the welkin posteth night and day.
There's found much stifness, sweat and vanity.
I rather match it to the pleasing pain
Of Angels pure, who ever sloath disdain:
Or to the Suns calm course, who pain-less ay
About the welkin posteth night and day.
Doubtless, when Adam saw our common aire,
He did admire the mansion rich and faire
Of his Successors. For, frosts keenly cold
The shady locks of Forrests had not powl'd:
Heav'n had not thundred on our heads as yet,
Nor given the Earth her sad Diuorces Writ.
He did admire the mansion rich and faire
Of his Successors. For, frosts keenly cold
The shady locks of Forrests had not powl'd:
Heav'n had not thundred on our heads as yet,
Nor given the Earth her sad Diuorces Writ.
But when he once had entred Paradise,
The remnant world he iustly did despise:
[Much like a Boor far in the Countrey born,
Who, never having seen but Kine and Corn,
Oxen, and Sheep and homely Hamlets thatcht
(Which, fond, he counts as kingdomes; hardly matcht)
When afterward he happens to behold
Our wealthy London's wonders manifold,
The silly peasant thinks himselfe to be
In a new World; and gazing greedily,
One while he Art-less, all the Arts admires,
Then the Fair Temples, and their top-less spires,
Their firm foundations, and the massie pride
Of all their sacred ornaments beside:
Anon he wonders at the differing graces,
Tongues, gests, attires, the fashions and the faces,
Of busie buzzing swarms, which still he meets
Ebbing and flowing ouer all the streets;
Then at the signes, the shops, the waights, the measures,
The handy-crafts, the rumours trades, and treasures.
But of all sights, none seems him yet more strange
Then the rare, beautious, stately, rich Exchange.
Another while he maruails at the Thames,
Which seems to bear huge mountains on her streams:
Then at the fur-built Bridge; which he doth iudge
More like a tradefull Citie then a Bridge;
And glancing thence a-long the Northren shore,
That princely prospect doth amaze him more.]
The remnant world he iustly did despise:
[Much like a Boor far in the Countrey born,
Who, never having seen but Kine and Corn,
Oxen, and Sheep and homely Hamlets thatcht
(Which, fond, he counts as kingdomes; hardly matcht)
When afterward he happens to behold
Our wealthy London's wonders manifold,
The silly peasant thinks himselfe to be
In a new World; and gazing greedily,
One while he Art-less, all the Arts admires,
Then the Fair Temples, and their top-less spires,
Their firm foundations, and the massie pride
Of all their sacred ornaments beside:
Anon he wonders at the differing graces,
Tongues, gests, attires, the fashions and the faces,
177
Ebbing and flowing ouer all the streets;
Then at the signes, the shops, the waights, the measures,
The handy-crafts, the rumours trades, and treasures.
But of all sights, none seems him yet more strange
Then the rare, beautious, stately, rich Exchange.
Another while he maruails at the Thames,
Which seems to bear huge mountains on her streams:
Then at the fur-built Bridge; which he doth iudge
More like a tradefull Citie then a Bridge;
And glancing thence a-long the Northren shore,
That princely prospect doth amaze him more.]
For in that Garden man delighted so,
That (rapt) he wist not if he wak't or no;
If he beheld a true thing or a fable;
Or Earth, or Heav'n: all more then admirable.
For such excess his extasie was small:
Not having spirit enough to muse withall,
He wisht him hundred-fold redoubled senses,
The more to taste so rare sweet excellences;
Not knowing, whether nose, or ears, or eyes,
Smelt, heard, or saw, more sauours, sounds, or Dies.
That (rapt) he wist not if he wak't or no;
If he beheld a true thing or a fable;
Or Earth, or Heav'n: all more then admirable.
For such excess his extasie was small:
Not having spirit enough to muse withall,
He wisht him hundred-fold redoubled senses,
The more to taste so rare sweet excellences;
Not knowing, whether nose, or ears, or eyes,
Smelt, heard, or saw, more sauours, sounds, or Dies.
But, Adams best and supreame delectation,
Was th'often haunt and holy conversation
His soule and body had so many wayes
With God, who lightned Eden with his Rays.
For spirits, by faith religiously refin'd,
'Twixt God and man retain a middle kinde:
And (Vmpires) mortall to th'immortall ioyne;
And th'infinite in narrow clay confine.
Was th'often haunt and holy conversation
His soule and body had so many wayes
With God, who lightned Eden with his Rays.
For spirits, by faith religiously refin'd,
'Twixt God and man retain a middle kinde:
And (Vmpires) mortall to th'immortall ioyne;
And th'infinite in narrow clay confine.
Som-times by you, O you all-faining Dreams,
We gain this good; but not when Bacchus streames
And glutton vapours over-flowe the Brain,
And drown our spirits, presenting fancies vain:
Nor when pale Phlegm, or Saffron coloured Choler,
In feeble stomacks belch their divers dolor,
And print vpon our Vnderstandings Tables;
That, Water-wracks; this other, flamefull fables:
Nor when the Spirit of lies, our spirits deceiues,
And guilefull visions in our fancy leaues:
Nor when the pencill of Cares ouer-deep
Our day-bred thoughts depainteth in our sleep.
But when no more the soules chiefe faculties,
Are sperst to serue the bodie many waies,
When all self-vned, free from days disturber,
Through such sweet Transe, she findes a quiet harbour;
Where som in riddles, som more plain exprest,
She sees things future, in th'almighties brest.
We gain this good; but not when Bacchus streames
And glutton vapours over-flowe the Brain,
And drown our spirits, presenting fancies vain:
Nor when pale Phlegm, or Saffron coloured Choler,
In feeble stomacks belch their divers dolor,
And print vpon our Vnderstandings Tables;
That, Water-wracks; this other, flamefull fables:
Nor when the Spirit of lies, our spirits deceiues,
And guilefull visions in our fancy leaues:
Nor when the pencill of Cares ouer-deep
Our day-bred thoughts depainteth in our sleep.
But when no more the soules chiefe faculties,
Are sperst to serue the bodie many waies,
When all self-vned, free from days disturber,
Through such sweet Transe, she findes a quiet harbour;
Where som in riddles, som more plain exprest,
She sees things future, in th'almighties brest.
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And yet far higher is this holy Fit,
When (not from flesh, but from flesh cares, acquit)
The wakefull soule it selfe assembling so,
All selfly dies; while that the body though
Liues motion-less: for, sanctified wholly,
It takes th'impression of Gods Signet solely;
And in his sacred Crystall Map, doth see
Heav'ns Oracles, and Angels glorious glee:
Made more then spirit, Now, Morrow, Yesterday,
To it, all one, are all as present ay.
And though it seem not (when the dream's expir'd)
Like that it was; yet is it much admir'd
Of rarest men, and shines among them bright
Like glistering Stars, through gloomy shades of night.
When (not from flesh, but from flesh cares, acquit)
The wakefull soule it selfe assembling so,
All selfly dies; while that the body though
Liues motion-less: for, sanctified wholly,
It takes th'impression of Gods Signet solely;
And in his sacred Crystall Map, doth see
Heav'ns Oracles, and Angels glorious glee:
Made more then spirit, Now, Morrow, Yesterday,
To it, all one, are all as present ay.
And though it seem not (when the dream's expir'd)
Like that it was; yet is it much admir'd
Of rarest men, and shines among them bright
Like glistering Stars, through gloomy shades of night.
But aboue all, that's the divinest Transe,
When the soules eye beholdes Gods countenance;
When mouth to mouth familiarly he deales,
And in our face his drad-sweet face he seales.
As when S. Paul on his deer Masters wings,
Was rapt aliue vp to th'eternall things:
And he that whilom for the chosen flock,
Made wals of waters, waters of a rock.
When the soules eye beholdes Gods countenance;
When mouth to mouth familiarly he deales,
And in our face his drad-sweet face he seales.
As when S. Paul on his deer Masters wings,
Was rapt aliue vp to th'eternall things:
And he that whilom for the chosen flock,
Made wals of waters, waters of a rock.
O sacred flight! sweet rape! loues soverain bliss!
Which very loues deer lips dost make vs kiss:
Hymen, of Manna, and of Mel compact,
Which for a time dost Heav'n with Earth contract:
Fire, that in Limbeck of pure thoughts divine
Doost purge our thoughts, and our dull earth refine:
And mounting vs to Heav'n, vn-moving hence,
Man (in a trice) in God doost quintessence:
O! mad'st thou man divine in habitude,
As for a space; O sweetest solitude,
Thy bliss were equall with that happy Rest
Which after death shall make vs ever-blest.
Which very loues deer lips dost make vs kiss:
Hymen, of Manna, and of Mel compact,
Which for a time dost Heav'n with Earth contract:
Fire, that in Limbeck of pure thoughts divine
Doost purge our thoughts, and our dull earth refine:
And mounting vs to Heav'n, vn-moving hence,
Man (in a trice) in God doost quintessence:
O! mad'st thou man divine in habitude,
As for a space; O sweetest solitude,
Thy bliss were equall with that happy Rest
Which after death shall make vs ever-blest.
Now, I beleeue that in this later guise
Man did converse in Pleasant Paradise
With Heav'ns great Architect, and (happy) there
His body saw, (or bodie as it were)
Gloriously compast with the blessed Legions
That raign aboue the azure-spangled Regions.
Man did converse in Pleasant Paradise
With Heav'ns great Architect, and (happy) there
His body saw, (or bodie as it were)
Gloriously compast with the blessed Legions
That raign aboue the azure-spangled Regions.
Adam, quoth He, the beauties manyfold
That in this Eden thou doest heer behold,
Are all thine, onely: enter (sacred Race)
Come, take possession of this wealthy place,
The Earth's sole glory: take (deer Son) to thee,
This Farm's demains, leaue the Chief right to me;
And th'only Rent that of it I reserue, is
One Trees fair fruit, to shew thy sute and service:
Be thou the Liege, and I Lord Paramount,
I'le not exact hard fines (as men shall woont).
For signe of Homage, and for seal of Faith,
Of all the profits this Possession hath,
I onely aske one Tree; whose fruit I will
For Sacrament shall stand of Good and Ill.
Take all the rest, I bid thee: but I vow
By th'vn-nam'd name, where-to all knees doo bow,
And by the keen Darts of my kindled ire
(More fiercely burning then consuming fire)
That of the Fruit of Knowledge if thou feed,
Death, dreadfull Death shall plague Thee and thy Seed.
If then, the happy state thou hold'st of me,
My holy mildness, nor high Maiesty,
If faith nor Honour curb thy bold ambition,
Yet weigh thy self, and thy owne Seeds condition.
That in this Eden thou doest heer behold,
Are all thine, onely: enter (sacred Race)
Come, take possession of this wealthy place,
The Earth's sole glory: take (deer Son) to thee,
This Farm's demains, leaue the Chief right to me;
And th'only Rent that of it I reserue, is
One Trees fair fruit, to shew thy sute and service:
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I'le not exact hard fines (as men shall woont).
For signe of Homage, and for seal of Faith,
Of all the profits this Possession hath,
I onely aske one Tree; whose fruit I will
For Sacrament shall stand of Good and Ill.
Take all the rest, I bid thee: but I vow
By th'vn-nam'd name, where-to all knees doo bow,
And by the keen Darts of my kindled ire
(More fiercely burning then consuming fire)
That of the Fruit of Knowledge if thou feed,
Death, dreadfull Death shall plague Thee and thy Seed.
If then, the happy state thou hold'st of me,
My holy mildness, nor high Maiesty,
If faith nor Honour curb thy bold ambition,
Yet weigh thy self, and thy owne Seeds condition.
Most mighty Lord (quoth Adam) heer I tender
All thanks I can, not all I should thee render
For all thy liberall fauours, far surmounting
My hearts conceit, much more my tongues recounting.
At thy command, I would with boyst'rous shock
Go run my selfe against the hardest rock:
Or cast me headlong from som Mountain steep,
Down to the whirling bottom of the Deep:
Yea, at thy beck, I would not spare the life
Of my deer Phœnix, sister-daughter-wife:
Obeying thee, I finde the things impossible,
Cruell, and painfull; pleasant, kinde, and possible.
All thanks I can, not all I should thee render
For all thy liberall fauours, far surmounting
My hearts conceit, much more my tongues recounting.
At thy command, I would with boyst'rous shock
Go run my selfe against the hardest rock:
Or cast me headlong from som Mountain steep,
Down to the whirling bottom of the Deep:
Yea, at thy beck, I would not spare the life
Of my deer Phœnix, sister-daughter-wife:
Obeying thee, I finde the things impossible,
Cruell, and painfull; pleasant, kinde, and possible.
But since thy first Law doth more grace afford
Vnto the Subiect, then the soverain Lord:
Since (bountious Prince) on me and my Descent,
Thou doost impose no other tax, nor Rent,
But one sole Precept, of most iust condition
(No Precept neither, but a Prohibition);
And since (good God) of all the fruits in Eden
Ther's but one Apple that I am forbidden,
Even only that which bitter Death doth threat,
(Better, perhaps, to look on then to eat)
I honour in my soule, and humbly kiss
Thy iust Edict (as Author of my bliss):
Which, once transgrest, deserues the rigor rather
Of sharpest Iudge, then mildness of a Father.
Vnto the Subiect, then the soverain Lord:
Since (bountious Prince) on me and my Descent,
Thou doost impose no other tax, nor Rent,
But one sole Precept, of most iust condition
(No Precept neither, but a Prohibition);
And since (good God) of all the fruits in Eden
Ther's but one Apple that I am forbidden,
Even only that which bitter Death doth threat,
(Better, perhaps, to look on then to eat)
I honour in my soule, and humbly kiss
Thy iust Edict (as Author of my bliss):
Which, once transgrest, deserues the rigor rather
Of sharpest Iudge, then mildness of a Father.
The Firmament shall retrograde his course,
Swift Euphrates goe hide him in his source,
Firm Mountains skip like Lambs; beneath the Deep
Eagles shall diue; Whales in the ayr shall keep,
Yer I presume, with fingers ends to touch
(Much less with lips) the Fruit forbod so much.
Swift Euphrates goe hide him in his source,
Firm Mountains skip like Lambs; beneath the Deep
Eagles shall diue; Whales in the ayr shall keep,
Yer I presume, with fingers ends to touch
(Much less with lips) the Fruit forbod so much.
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Thus, yet in league with Heav'n and Earth, he liues;
Enioying all the Goods th'Almighty giues:
And, yet not treading Sins false mazy measures,
Sails on smooth surges of a Sea of pleasures.
Enioying all the Goods th'Almighty giues:
And, yet not treading Sins false mazy measures,
Sails on smooth surges of a Sea of pleasures.
Heer, vnderneath a fragrant Hedge reposes,
Full of all kindes of sweet all-coloured Roses,
Which (one would think) the Angels daily dress
In true-loue-knots, tri-angles, lozenges.
Full of all kindes of sweet all-coloured Roses,
Which (one would think) the Angels daily dress
In true-loue-knots, tri-angles, lozenges.
Anon he walketh in a levell lane
On either side beset with shady Plane,
Whose arched boughs, for Frize and Cornich bear
Thick Groues, to shield from future change of air:
Then in a path impal'd, in pleasant wise,
With sharp-sweeet Orange, Limon, Citron trees;
Whose leauy twigs, that intricately tangle,
Seem painted wals whereon true fruits do dangle.
On either side beset with shady Plane,
Whose arched boughs, for Frize and Cornich bear
Thick Groues, to shield from future change of air:
Then in a path impal'd, in pleasant wise,
With sharp-sweeet Orange, Limon, Citron trees;
Whose leauy twigs, that intricately tangle,
Seem painted wals whereon true fruits do dangle.
Now in a plentious Orchard planted rare
With vn-graft trees, in checker, round and square:
Whose goodly fruits so on his will doe wait,
That plucking one, another's ready straight:
And having tasted all (with due satiety)
Findes all one goodness, but in taste variety.
With vn-graft trees, in checker, round and square:
Whose goodly fruits so on his will doe wait,
That plucking one, another's ready straight:
And having tasted all (with due satiety)
Findes all one goodness, but in taste variety.
Anon he stalketh with an easie stride,
By som cleer River's lilly-paved side,
Whose sand's pure gold, whose pebbles pretious Gemms,
And liquid silver all the curling streams:
Whose chiding murmur, mazing in and out,
With Crystall cisterns moats a mead about:
And th'art-less Bridges, over-thwart this Torrent,
Are rocks self-arched by the eating current:
Or loving Palms, whose lusty Femals willing
Their marrow-boyling loues to be fulfilling,
(And reach their Husband-trees on th'other banks)
Bow their stiff backs, and serue for passing-planks.
By som cleer River's lilly-paved side,
Whose sand's pure gold, whose pebbles pretious Gemms,
And liquid silver all the curling streams:
Whose chiding murmur, mazing in and out,
With Crystall cisterns moats a mead about:
And th'art-less Bridges, over-thwart this Torrent,
Are rocks self-arched by the eating current:
Or loving Palms, whose lusty Femals willing
Their marrow-boyling loues to be fulfilling,
(And reach their Husband-trees on th'other banks)
Bow their stiff backs, and serue for passing-planks.
Then in a goodly Garden's alleys smooth
Where prodig Nature sets abroad her booth
Of richest beauties, where each bed and border
Is like pide posies divers dies and order.
Where prodig Nature sets abroad her booth
Of richest beauties, where each bed and border
Is like pide posies divers dies and order.
Now, far from noise, he creepeth covertly
Into a Caue of kindly Porphyry,
Which, rock-fall'n spowts, congeald by colder air,
Seem with smooth anticks to haue seeled fair:
There laid at ease, a cubit from the ground,
Vpon a Iaspir fring'd with yvie round,
Purfled with veins, thick thrumm'd with mossie Bever,
Hee falls asleep fast by a silent River;
Whose captiue streams, through crooked pipes still rushing,
Make sweeter Musick with their gentle gushing,
Then now at Tiuoli, th'Hydrantick Braul
Of rich Ferrara's stately Cardinall:
Or Ctesibes rare engins, framed there
Whereas they made of Ibts, Iupiter.
Into a Caue of kindly Porphyry,
Which, rock-fall'n spowts, congeald by colder air,
Seem with smooth anticks to haue seeled fair:
There laid at ease, a cubit from the ground,
Vpon a Iaspir fring'd with yvie round,
Purfled with veins, thick thrumm'd with mossie Bever,
Hee falls asleep fast by a silent River;
Whose captiue streams, through crooked pipes still rushing,
Make sweeter Musick with their gentle gushing,
181
Of rich Ferrara's stately Cardinall:
Or Ctesibes rare engins, framed there
Whereas they made of Ibts, Iupiter.
Musing, anon through crooked Walks he wanders,
Round-winding rings, and intricate Meanders,
Fals-guiding paths, doubtfull beguiling strays,
And right-wrong errors of an end-less Maze:
Not simply hedged with a single border
Of Rosemary, cut-out with curious order,
In Satyrs, Centaurs Whales, and half-men-Horses,
And thousand other counterfaited corses;
But with true Beasts, fast in the ground still sticking,
Feeding on grass, and th'airy moisture licking:
Such as those Bonarets, in Scythia bred
Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;
Although their bodies, noses, mouthes and eys,
Of new-yeand Lambs haue full the form and guise;
And should be very Lambs, saue that (for foot)
Within the ground they fix a liuing root,
Which at their nauell growes, and dies that day
That they haue brouz'd the neighbour-grass away.
Round-winding rings, and intricate Meanders,
Fals-guiding paths, doubtfull beguiling strays,
And right-wrong errors of an end-less Maze:
Not simply hedged with a single border
Of Rosemary, cut-out with curious order,
In Satyrs, Centaurs Whales, and half-men-Horses,
And thousand other counterfaited corses;
But with true Beasts, fast in the ground still sticking,
Feeding on grass, and th'airy moisture licking:
Such as those Bonarets, in Scythia bred
Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;
Although their bodies, noses, mouthes and eys,
Of new-yeand Lambs haue full the form and guise;
And should be very Lambs, saue that (for foot)
Within the ground they fix a liuing root,
Which at their nauell growes, and dies that day
That they haue brouz'd the neighbour-grass away.
O wondrous vertue of God onely good!
The Beast hath root, the Plant hath flesh and blood:
The nimble Plant can turn it to and fro;
Then numméd Beast can neither stir nor go:
The Plant is leaf-less, branch-less, void of fruit;
The Beast is lust-less, sex-less, fire-less, mute:
The Plant with Plants his hungry panch doth feed;
Th'admired Beast is sowen a slender seed.
The Beast hath root, the Plant hath flesh and blood:
The nimble Plant can turn it to and fro;
Then numméd Beast can neither stir nor go:
The Plant is leaf-less, branch-less, void of fruit;
The Beast is lust-less, sex-less, fire-less, mute:
The Plant with Plants his hungry panch doth feed;
Th'admired Beast is sowen a slender seed.
Then vp and down a Forrest thick he paseth;
Which, selfly op'ning in his presence, baseth
Her trembling tresses never-vading spring,
For humble homage to her mighty King:
Where thousand Trees, waving with gentle puffs
Their plumy tops, sweep the celestiall roofs:
Yet envying all the massie Cerbas fame,
Sith fifty pases can but clasp the same.
Which, selfly op'ning in his presence, baseth
Her trembling tresses never-vading spring,
For humble homage to her mighty King:
Where thousand Trees, waving with gentle puffs
Their plumy tops, sweep the celestiall roofs:
Yet envying all the massie Cerbas fame,
Sith fifty pases can but clasp the same.
There springs the Shrub three foot aboue the grass,
Which fears the keen edge of the Curtelace,
Whereof the rich Egyptian so endears
Root, bark and fruit, and much-much more the tears.
Which fears the keen edge of the Curtelace,
Whereof the rich Egyptian so endears
Root, bark and fruit, and much-much more the tears.
There liues the Sea-Oak in a little shel;
There growes vntill'd the ruddy Cochenel:
And there the Chermez, which on each side Arms
With pointed prickles all his precious arms;
Rich Trees, and fruitfull in those Worms of Price,
Which pressed, yeeld a crimsin-coloured juyce,
Whence thousand Lambs are died so deep in grain,
That their own Mothers knowe them not again.
There growes vntill'd the ruddy Cochenel:
And there the Chermez, which on each side Arms
With pointed prickles all his precious arms;
Rich Trees, and fruitfull in those Worms of Price,
Which pressed, yeeld a crimsin-coloured juyce,
182
That their own Mothers knowe them not again.
There mounts the Melt, which serues in Mexico
For weapon, wood, needle, and threed (to sowe)
Brick, hony, sugar, sucket, balm and wine,
Parchment, perfume, apparell, cord and line:
His wood for fire, his harder leaues are fit
For thousand vses of inventiue wit.
Somtimes thereon they graue their holy things,
Laws, lauds of Idols, and the gests of Kings:
Somtimes, conioyned by a cunning hand,
Vpon their roofs for rowes of tile they stand:
Somtimes they twine them into equall threeds;
Small ends make needles; greater, arrow-heads:
His vpper sap the sting of Serpents cures:
His new-sprung bud a rare Conserue indures:
His burned stalks, with strong fumosities
Of pearcing vapours, purge the French disease:
And they extract, from liquor of his feet,
Sharp vinegar pure hony, sugar sweet.
For weapon, wood, needle, and threed (to sowe)
Brick, hony, sugar, sucket, balm and wine,
Parchment, perfume, apparell, cord and line:
His wood for fire, his harder leaues are fit
For thousand vses of inventiue wit.
Somtimes thereon they graue their holy things,
Laws, lauds of Idols, and the gests of Kings:
Somtimes, conioyned by a cunning hand,
Vpon their roofs for rowes of tile they stand:
Somtimes they twine them into equall threeds;
Small ends make needles; greater, arrow-heads:
His vpper sap the sting of Serpents cures:
His new-sprung bud a rare Conserue indures:
His burned stalks, with strong fumosities
Of pearcing vapours, purge the French disease:
And they extract, from liquor of his feet,
Sharp vinegar pure hony, sugar sweet.
There quakes the Plant, which in Pudefetan
Is call'd the Sham-faç't: for, asham'd of man,
If towards it one doo approach too much,
It shrinks his boughs, to shun our hatefull touch;
As if it had a soule, a sense, a sight,
Subiect to shame, fear, sorrow and despight.
Is call'd the Sham-faç't: for, asham'd of man,
If towards it one doo approach too much,
It shrinks his boughs, to shun our hatefull touch;
As if it had a soule, a sense, a sight,
Subiect to shame, fear, sorrow and despight.
And there, that Tree from off whose trembling top
Both swimming shoals, and flying troops doo drop:
I mean the Tree now in Iuturna growing,
Whose leaues, disperst by Zephyr's wanton blowing,
Are metamorphos'd both in form and matter;
On land to Fowls, to Fishes in the water.
Both swimming shoals, and flying troops doo drop:
I mean the Tree now in Iuturna growing,
Whose leaues, disperst by Zephyr's wanton blowing,
Are metamorphos'd both in form and matter;
On land to Fowls, to Fishes in the water.
But, seest thou not (dear Muse) thou treadst the same
Too-curious path thou dost in others blame?
And striv'st in vain to paint This Work of choice,
The which no humane spirit, nor hand, nor voice,
Can once conceiue, less pourtray, least express,
All over-whelm'd in gulfs so bottomless.
Who (matching Art with Nature) likeneth
Our grounds to Eden, fondly measureth
By painted Butter-flies th'imperiall Eagle;
And th'Elephant by every little Beagle.
Too-curious path thou dost in others blame?
And striv'st in vain to paint This Work of choice,
The which no humane spirit, nor hand, nor voice,
Can once conceiue, less pourtray, least express,
All over-whelm'd in gulfs so bottomless.
Who (matching Art with Nature) likeneth
Our grounds to Eden, fondly measureth
By painted Butter-flies th'imperiall Eagle;
And th'Elephant by every little Beagle.
This fear to fail, shall serue me for a bridle,
Lest (lacking wings and guide) too busie-idle,
And over-bould, Gods Cabinet I clime,
To seek the place, and search the very time
When both our Parents, or but one was ta'en
Out of our Earth, into that fruitfull Plain:
How long they had that Garden in possession,
Before their proud and insolent Transgression:
What Children there they earned, and how many,
Of whether sex: or, whether none or any:
Or how (at least) they should haue propagated,
If the sly malice of the serpent hated,
Causing their fall, had not defil'd their kin,
And vnborn seed, with leprosie of Sin.
Lest (lacking wings and guide) too busie-idle,
And over-bould, Gods Cabinet I clime,
To seek the place, and search the very time
When both our Parents, or but one was ta'en
Out of our Earth, into that fruitfull Plain:
183
Before their proud and insolent Transgression:
What Children there they earned, and how many,
Of whether sex: or, whether none or any:
Or how (at least) they should haue propagated,
If the sly malice of the serpent hated,
Causing their fall, had not defil'd their kin,
And vnborn seed, with leprosie of Sin.
If void of Venus; sith vnlike it is,
Such blessed state the noble flowr should miss
Of Virgin-head; or, folk so perfect chaste
Should furious feel, when they their loues imbraç't,
Such tickling flames as our fond soule surprise
(That dead a-while in Epilepsie lies)
And slack our sinews all, by little and little
Drowning our reason in foul pleasure brittle.
Such blessed state the noble flowr should miss
Of Virgin-head; or, folk so perfect chaste
Should furious feel, when they their loues imbraç't,
Such tickling flames as our fond soule surprise
(That dead a-while in Epilepsie lies)
And slack our sinews all, by little and little
Drowning our reason in foul pleasure brittle.
Or whether else as men ingender now,
Sith spouse-bed spot-less laws of God allow,
If no excess command: sith else again
The Lord had made the double sex in vain.
Sith spouse-bed spot-less laws of God allow,
If no excess command: sith else again
The Lord had made the double sex in vain.
Whether their Infants should haue had the powr
We now perceiue in fresh youths lusty flowr,
As nimble feet, limbs strong and vigorous,
Industrious hands, and hearts courageous;
Sith before Sin, Man ought not less appear
In Natures gifts, then his then-seruants were:
And lo the Partridge, which new-hatched bears
On her weak back her parent-house, and wears
(In stead of wings) a bever-supple Down,
Follows her dam through furrows vp and down.
We now perceiue in fresh youths lusty flowr,
As nimble feet, limbs strong and vigorous,
Industrious hands, and hearts courageous;
Sith before Sin, Man ought not less appear
In Natures gifts, then his then-seruants were:
And lo the Partridge, which new-hatched bears
On her weak back her parent-house, and wears
(In stead of wings) a bever-supple Down,
Follows her dam through furrows vp and down.
Or else as now; sith in the womb of Eue
A man of thirty yeers could never liue:
Nor may we iudge 'gainst Natures course apparant,
Without the sacred Scriptures speciall warrant:
Which for our good (as Heav'ns dear babe) hath right
To countermaund our reason and our sight.
A man of thirty yeers could never liue:
Nor may we iudge 'gainst Natures course apparant,
Without the sacred Scriptures speciall warrant:
Which for our good (as Heav'ns dear babe) hath right
To countermaund our reason and our sight.
Whether their seed should with their birth haue brought
Deep Knowledge, Reason, Vnderstanding-thought;
Sith now we see the new-fall'n feeble Lamb
Yet stain'd with bloud of his distressed Dam,
Knowes well the Wolf, at whose fell sight he shakes,
And, right the teat of th'vnknowne Ewe he takes:
And sith a dull Dunce, which no knowledge can,
Is a dead image, and no living man.
Deep Knowledge, Reason, Vnderstanding-thought;
Sith now we see the new-fall'n feeble Lamb
Yet stain'd with bloud of his distressed Dam,
Knowes well the Wolf, at whose fell sight he shakes,
And, right the teat of th'vnknowne Ewe he takes:
And sith a dull Dunce, which no knowledge can,
Is a dead image, and no living man.
Or the thick vail of ignorance's night
Had hooded-vp their issues inward sight;
Sith the much moisture of an Infant brain
Receives so many shapes, that over-lain
New dash the old; and the trim commixation
Of confus'd fancies, full of alteration,
Makes th'vnderstanding hull, which settle would,
And findes no firm ground for his Anchors hould.
Had hooded-vp their issues inward sight;
Sith the much moisture of an Infant brain
Receives so many shapes, that over-lain
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Of confus'd fancies, full of alteration,
Makes th'vnderstanding hull, which settle would,
And findes no firm ground for his Anchors hould.
Whether old Adam should haue left the place
Vnto his Sons; they, to their after-race:
Or whether all together at the last
Should gloriously from thence to Heav'n haue past;
Search whoso list: who list let vaunt in pride
T'haue hit the White, and let him (sage) decide
The many other doubts that vainly rise.
For mine own part I will not seem so wise:
I will not waste my trauell and my seed
To reap an empty straw, or fruit-less reed.
Vnto his Sons; they, to their after-race:
Or whether all together at the last
Should gloriously from thence to Heav'n haue past;
Search whoso list: who list let vaunt in pride
T'haue hit the White, and let him (sage) decide
The many other doubts that vainly rise.
For mine own part I will not seem so wise:
I will not waste my trauell and my seed
To reap an empty straw, or fruit-less reed.
Alas! we knowe what Orion of grief
Rain'd on the curst head of the creatures Chief,
After that God against him war proclaim'd,
And Satan princedom of the earth had claim'd.
But none can knowe precisely, how at all
Our Elders liv'd before their odious Fall:
An vnknowne Cifer, and deep Pit it is,
Where Dircean Oedipus his marks would miss:
Sith Adam's self, if now he liv'd anew,
Could scant vnwinde the knotty snarled clew
Of double doubts and questions intricate
That Schools dispute about this pristin state.
Rain'd on the curst head of the creatures Chief,
After that God against him war proclaim'd,
And Satan princedom of the earth had claim'd.
But none can knowe precisely, how at all
Our Elders liv'd before their odious Fall:
An vnknowne Cifer, and deep Pit it is,
Where Dircean Oedipus his marks would miss:
Sith Adam's self, if now he liv'd anew,
Could scant vnwinde the knotty snarled clew
Of double doubts and questions intricate
That Schools dispute about this pristin state.
But this sole point I rest resolved in,
That, seeing Death's the meer effect of sin,
Man had not dreaded Death's all-slaying might,
Had he still stood in Innocence vpright.
That, seeing Death's the meer effect of sin,
Man had not dreaded Death's all-slaying might,
Had he still stood in Innocence vpright.
For, as two Bellows, blowing turn by turn,
By litte and little make cold coals to burn,
And then their fire inflames with glowing heat
An iron bar; which, on the Anvill beat,
Seems no more iron, but flies almost all
In hissing sparks, and quick bright cinders small:
So, the World's Soule should in our soule inspire
Th'eternall force of an eternall fire,
And then our soule (as form) breathe in our corse
Her count-less numbers, and Heav'n-tuned force,
Wherewith our bodies beauty beautifi'd,
Should (like our death-less soule) haue never di'd.
By litte and little make cold coals to burn,
And then their fire inflames with glowing heat
An iron bar; which, on the Anvill beat,
Seems no more iron, but flies almost all
In hissing sparks, and quick bright cinders small:
So, the World's Soule should in our soule inspire
Th'eternall force of an eternall fire,
And then our soule (as form) breathe in our corse
Her count-less numbers, and Heav'n-tuned force,
Wherewith our bodies beauty beautifi'd,
Should (like our death-less soule) haue never di'd.
Heer (wot I well) som wranglers will presume
To say, Small fire will by degrees consume
Our humor radicall: and, how-be-it
The differing vertues of those fruits, as yet
Had no agreement with the harmfull spight
Of the fell Persian dangerous Aconite;
And notwithstanding that then Adam's taste
Could well haue vsed all, without all waste,
Yet could they not restore him every day
Vnto his body that which did decay;
Because the food cannot (as being strange)
So perfectly in humane substance change:
For, it resembleth Wine, wherein too rife
Water is brew'd, whereby the pleasant life
Is over-cool'd; and so there rests, in fine,
Nought of the strength, sauour, or taste of Wine.
Besides, in time the naturall faculties
Are tyr'd with toil; and th'Humour-enemies,
Our death conspiring, vndermine, at last,
Of our Soules prisons the foundations fast.
To say, Small fire will by degrees consume
Our humor radicall: and, how-be-it
The differing vertues of those fruits, as yet
Had no agreement with the harmfull spight
Of the fell Persian dangerous Aconite;
185
Could well haue vsed all, without all waste,
Yet could they not restore him every day
Vnto his body that which did decay;
Because the food cannot (as being strange)
So perfectly in humane substance change:
For, it resembleth Wine, wherein too rife
Water is brew'd, whereby the pleasant life
Is over-cool'd; and so there rests, in fine,
Nought of the strength, sauour, or taste of Wine.
Besides, in time the naturall faculties
Are tyr'd with toil; and th'Humour-enemies,
Our death conspiring, vndermine, at last,
Of our Soules prisons the foundations fast.
I, but the Tree of life the strife did stay
Which th'Humours caused in this house of clay;
And stopping th'evill, changed (perfect good)
In body fed, the body of the food:
Onely the Soules contagious malady
Had force to frustrate this high remedy.
Which th'Humours caused in this house of clay;
And stopping th'evill, changed (perfect good)
In body fed, the body of the food:
Onely the Soules contagious malady
Had force to frustrate this high remedy.
Immortall then, and mortall, Man was made;
Mortall he liv'd, and did immortall vade:
For, 'fore th'effects of his rebellious ill,
To dy or liue, was in his power and will:
But since his Sin, and proud Apostasie,
Ah! dy he may, but not (alas!) not-dy;
As after his new-birth, he shall attain
Onely a powr to never-dy again.
Mortall he liv'd, and did immortall vade:
For, 'fore th'effects of his rebellious ill,
To dy or liue, was in his power and will:
But since his Sin, and proud Apostasie,
Ah! dy he may, but not (alas!) not-dy;
As after his new-birth, he shall attain
Onely a powr to never-dy again.
FINIS.
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2. The Impostvre.
THE II. PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.
The Argvment.
Iustice and Mercy modul'd in their kinde:Satans proud Hate, and Enuy to Mankinde:
His many Engins, and malitious Wiles,
Whereby the best he many-times beguiles:
Why he assum'd a Body, and began
With Eue; by Her to vndermine her Man:
Their dreadfull Fall: Their drouzy Conscience:
Gods righteous Sentence. for their foul Offence,
On them (and Theirs): Their Exile: Eden barr'd
With flaming Sword, and Seraphin for guard.
O who shall lend me light and nimble wings,
That (passing Swallowes, and the swiftest things)
Even in a moment, boldly-daring, I
From Heav'n to Hell, from Hell to Heav'n may fly?
O! who shall shew the countenance and gestures
Of Mercy and Iustice? which fair sacred sisters,
With equall poiz, doo ever balance ev'n
Th'vnchanging Proiects of the King of Heav'n.
Th'one stern of look, the other milde-aspecting:
Th'one pleas'd with tears, the other bloud affecting.
Th'one bears the Sword of vengeance vn-relenting:
Th'other brings Pardon for the true-repenting.
Th'one, from Earths-Eden, Adam did dismiss:
Th'other hath rais'd him to a higher Bliss.
Who shall direct my pen to paint the Story
Of wretched mans forbidden-Bit-lost glory?
What Spell shall charm th'attentiue Readers sense?
What Fount shall fill my voice with eloquence?
So that I, rapt, may ravish all this ILE
With graue-sweet warbles of my sacred stile;
Though Adams Doom, in every Sermon common,
And founded on the error of a woman,
Weary the vulgar, and be iudg'd a iest
Of the profane zeal-scoffing Atheïst.
That (passing Swallowes, and the swiftest things)
Even in a moment, boldly-daring, I
From Heav'n to Hell, from Hell to Heav'n may fly?
O! who shall shew the countenance and gestures
Of Mercy and Iustice? which fair sacred sisters,
With equall poiz, doo ever balance ev'n
Th'vnchanging Proiects of the King of Heav'n.
Th'one stern of look, the other milde-aspecting:
Th'one pleas'd with tears, the other bloud affecting.
Th'one bears the Sword of vengeance vn-relenting:
Th'other brings Pardon for the true-repenting.
Th'one, from Earths-Eden, Adam did dismiss:
Th'other hath rais'd him to a higher Bliss.
Who shall direct my pen to paint the Story
Of wretched mans forbidden-Bit-lost glory?
What Spell shall charm th'attentiue Readers sense?
What Fount shall fill my voice with eloquence?
187
With graue-sweet warbles of my sacred stile;
Though Adams Doom, in every Sermon common,
And founded on the error of a woman,
Weary the vulgar, and be iudg'd a iest
Of the profane zeal-scoffing Atheïst.
Ah! Thou my God, even Thou (my soule refining
In holy Faiths pure Furnace, cleerly shining)
Shalt make my hap far to surmount my hope,
Instruct my spirit, and giue my tongue smooth scope:
Thou (bountious) in my bould attempts shalt grace-me,
And in the rank of holiest Poets place-me;
And frankly grant, that (soaring neer the sky)
Among our Authors, Eagle-like I fly:
Or, at the least (if Heav'n such hap denay)
I may point others, Honors beautious Way.
In holy Faiths pure Furnace, cleerly shining)
Shalt make my hap far to surmount my hope,
Instruct my spirit, and giue my tongue smooth scope:
Thou (bountious) in my bould attempts shalt grace-me,
And in the rank of holiest Poets place-me;
And frankly grant, that (soaring neer the sky)
Among our Authors, Eagle-like I fly:
Or, at the least (if Heav'n such hap denay)
I may point others, Honors beautious Way.
While
Adam bathes in these felicities,
Hell's Prince (sly parent of revolt and lies)
Feels a pestiferous busie-swarming nest
Of never-dying Dragons in his brest,
Sucking his blood, tyring vpon his lungs,
Pinching his entrails with ten thousand tongues,
His cursed soule still most extreamly racking,
Too frank in giving torments, and in taking:
But aboue all, Hate, Pride, and Envious spight,
His hellish life doo torture day and night.
For, th'Hate he bears to God, who hath him driv'n
Iustly for ever from the glittering Heav'n,
To dwell in darknes of a sulph'ry clowd
(Though still his brethrens service be allow'd):
The Proud desire to haue in his subiection
Mankinde inchain'd in gyues of Sins infection:
And th'Enuious heart-break to see yet to shine
In Adams face Gods Image all divine,
Which he had lost; and that Man might atchiue
The glorious bliss his Pride did him depriue;
Growen barbarous Tyrants of his treacherous will,
Spur-on his course, his rage redoubling still.
Hell's Prince (sly parent of revolt and lies)
Feels a pestiferous busie-swarming nest
Of never-dying Dragons in his brest,
Sucking his blood, tyring vpon his lungs,
Pinching his entrails with ten thousand tongues,
His cursed soule still most extreamly racking,
Too frank in giving torments, and in taking:
But aboue all, Hate, Pride, and Envious spight,
His hellish life doo torture day and night.
For, th'Hate he bears to God, who hath him driv'n
Iustly for ever from the glittering Heav'n,
To dwell in darknes of a sulph'ry clowd
(Though still his brethrens service be allow'd):
The Proud desire to haue in his subiection
Mankinde inchain'd in gyues of Sins infection:
And th'Enuious heart-break to see yet to shine
In Adams face Gods Image all divine,
Which he had lost; and that Man might atchiue
The glorious bliss his Pride did him depriue;
Growen barbarous Tyrants of his treacherous will,
Spur-on his course, his rage redoubling still.
Or rather (as the prudent Hebrue notes)
'Tis that old Python which through hundred throats
Doth proudly hiss, and (past his wont) doth fire
A hell of Furies in his fell desire:
His envious heart, self-swoln with sullen spight,
Brooks neither greater, like, nor lesser wight:
Dreads th'one, as Lord; as equall; hates another;
And (iealous) doubts the rising of the other.
'Tis that old Python which through hundred throats
Doth proudly hiss, and (past his wont) doth fire
A hell of Furies in his fell desire:
His envious heart, self-swoln with sullen spight,
Brooks neither greater, like, nor lesser wight:
Dreads th'one, as Lord; as equall; hates another;
And (iealous) doubts the rising of the other.
To vent his poyson, this notorious Tempter
(Meer spirit) assails not Eue, but doth attempt her
In fained form: for else, the soule diuine,
Which rul'd (as Queen) the Little-worlds designe,
So purely kept her Vow of Chastity,
That he in vain should tempt her Constancy.
Therefore he fleshly doth the Flesh assay
(Suborning that) her Mistress to betray;
A suttle Pandar with more ticing sleights
Then Sea hath Fish, or Heav'n hath twinkling lights.
(Meer spirit) assails not Eue, but doth attempt her
188
Which rul'd (as Queen) the Little-worlds designe,
So purely kept her Vow of Chastity,
That he in vain should tempt her Constancy.
Therefore he fleshly doth the Flesh assay
(Suborning that) her Mistress to betray;
A suttle Pandar with more ticing sleights
Then Sea hath Fish, or Heav'n hath twinkling lights.
For, had he been of an ethereall matter,
Of fiery substance, or aiereall nature;
The needfull help of language had he wanted,
Whereby Faiths ground-work was to be supplanted:
Sith such pure bodies haue nor teeth, nor tongues,
Lips, artires, nose, palate, nor panting lungs,
Which rightly plac't are properly created
True instruments of sounds articulated.
Of fiery substance, or aiereall nature;
The needfull help of language had he wanted,
Whereby Faiths ground-work was to be supplanted:
Sith such pure bodies haue nor teeth, nor tongues,
Lips, artires, nose, palate, nor panting lungs,
Which rightly plac't are properly created
True instruments of sounds articulated.
And furthermore, though from his birth h' had had
Heart-charming cunning smoothly to perswade,
He fear'd (malitious) if he, care-less, came
Vn-masked (like himself, in his owne name)
In deep distrust man entring, suddenly,
Would stop his ears, and his foul presence fly:
As (opposite) taking the shining face
Of sacred Angels full of glorious grace,
He then suspected, lest th'Omnipotent
Should think man's Fal scarce worthy punishment.
Heart-charming cunning smoothly to perswade,
He fear'd (malitious) if he, care-less, came
Vn-masked (like himself, in his owne name)
In deep distrust man entring, suddenly,
Would stop his ears, and his foul presence fly:
As (opposite) taking the shining face
Of sacred Angels full of glorious grace,
He then suspected, lest th'Omnipotent
Should think man's Fal scarce worthy punishment.
Much like (therefore) som theef that doth conceiue
From trauellers both life and goods to reaue,
And in the twi-light (while the Moon doth play
In Thetis Palace) neer the Kings high-way
Himself doth ambush in a bushy Thorn;
Then in a Caue, then in a field of Corn,
Creeps to and fro, and fisketh in and out,
And yet the safety of each place doth doubt;
Till, resolute at last (vpon his knee
Taking his levell) from a hollow Tree,
He swiftly sends his fire-wingd messenger,
At his false sute t'arrest the passenger:
Our freedoms felon, fountain of our sorrow,
Thinks now the beauty of a Horse to borrow;
Anon to creep into a Haifers side;
Then in a Cock, or in a Dog to hide;
Then in a nimble Hart himself to shroud;
Then in the starr'd plumes of a Peacock proud;
And lest he miss a mischief to effect,
Oft changeth minde, and varies oft aspect.
At last, remembring that of all the broods
In Mountains, Plains, Airs, Waters, Wildes and Woods,
The knotty Serpents spotty generation
Are filled with infectious inflammation:
And though they want Dogs teeth, Boars tusks, Bears paws,
The Vultures bill, Buls horns, and Griphins claws;
Yea, seem so weak, as if they had not might
To hurt vs once, much less to kill vs quite:
Yet, many times they treacherously betray vs,
And with their breath, look, tongue or train they slay vs;
He crafty cloaks him in a Dragons skin
All bright-bespect; that, speaking so within
That hollow Sagbuts supple-wreathing plies,
The mover might with th'Organ sympathize.
For, yet the faith-less Serpent (as they say)
With horror crawl'd not groueling on the clay,
Nor to Mankinde (as yet) was held for hatefull,
Sith that's the hire of his offence ingratefull.
From trauellers both life and goods to reaue,
And in the twi-light (while the Moon doth play
In Thetis Palace) neer the Kings high-way
Himself doth ambush in a bushy Thorn;
Then in a Caue, then in a field of Corn,
Creeps to and fro, and fisketh in and out,
And yet the safety of each place doth doubt;
Till, resolute at last (vpon his knee
Taking his levell) from a hollow Tree,
He swiftly sends his fire-wingd messenger,
At his false sute t'arrest the passenger:
Our freedoms felon, fountain of our sorrow,
Thinks now the beauty of a Horse to borrow;
Anon to creep into a Haifers side;
Then in a Cock, or in a Dog to hide;
Then in a nimble Hart himself to shroud;
Then in the starr'd plumes of a Peacock proud;
And lest he miss a mischief to effect,
Oft changeth minde, and varies oft aspect.
At last, remembring that of all the broods
In Mountains, Plains, Airs, Waters, Wildes and Woods,
189
Are filled with infectious inflammation:
And though they want Dogs teeth, Boars tusks, Bears paws,
The Vultures bill, Buls horns, and Griphins claws;
Yea, seem so weak, as if they had not might
To hurt vs once, much less to kill vs quite:
Yet, many times they treacherously betray vs,
And with their breath, look, tongue or train they slay vs;
He crafty cloaks him in a Dragons skin
All bright-bespect; that, speaking so within
That hollow Sagbuts supple-wreathing plies,
The mover might with th'Organ sympathize.
For, yet the faith-less Serpent (as they say)
With horror crawl'd not groueling on the clay,
Nor to Mankinde (as yet) was held for hatefull,
Sith that's the hire of his offence ingratefull.
But now, to censure how this change befell
Our wits com short, our words suffize not well
To vtter it: much less our feeble Art
Can imitate this sly malitious part.
Our wits com short, our words suffize not well
To vtter it: much less our feeble Art
Can imitate this sly malitious part.
Somtimes me seems (troubling Eues spirit) the Fiend
Made her this speaking fancy apprehend.
For, as in liquid clouds (exhaled thickly)
Water and Air (as moist) doo mingle quickly;
The euill Angels slide too easily,
As subtile Spirits, into our fantasie.
Made her this speaking fancy apprehend.
For, as in liquid clouds (exhaled thickly)
Water and Air (as moist) doo mingle quickly;
The euill Angels slide too easily,
As subtile Spirits, into our fantasie.
Somtimes me seems She saw (wo-worth the hap)
No very Serpent, but a Serpents shape:
Whether that, Satan plaid the Iuggler there,
Who tender eys with charmed Tapers blear,
Transforming so, by subtile vapoury gleams,
Mens heads to Monsters, into Eels the beams:
Or whether, Divels having bodies light,
Quick, nimble, actiue, apt to change with sleight,
In shapes or shewes, they guilefull haue propos'd;
In brief, like th'Air whereof they are compos'd.
For, as the Air, with scattred clouds bespred,
Is heer and there black, yellow, white and red,
Resembling Armies, Monsters, Mountains, Dragons,
Rocks, fiery Castles, Forrests, Ships and Wagons,
And such to vs through glass transparent clear
From form to form varying it doth appear:
So, these seducers can growe great, or small,
Or round, or square, or straight, or short, or tall,
As fits the passions they are moved by,
And such our soule receives them from our ey.
No very Serpent, but a Serpents shape:
Whether that, Satan plaid the Iuggler there,
Who tender eys with charmed Tapers blear,
Transforming so, by subtile vapoury gleams,
Mens heads to Monsters, into Eels the beams:
Or whether, Divels having bodies light,
Quick, nimble, actiue, apt to change with sleight,
In shapes or shewes, they guilefull haue propos'd;
In brief, like th'Air whereof they are compos'd.
For, as the Air, with scattred clouds bespred,
Is heer and there black, yellow, white and red,
Resembling Armies, Monsters, Mountains, Dragons,
Rocks, fiery Castles, Forrests, Ships and Wagons,
And such to vs through glass transparent clear
From form to form varying it doth appear:
So, these seducers can growe great, or small,
Or round, or square, or straight, or short, or tall,
As fits the passions they are moved by,
And such our soule receives them from our ey.
Somtimes; that Satan (onely for this work)
Fain'd him a Serpents shape, wherein to lurk.
For, Nature framing our soules enemies,
Of bodies light, and in experience wise,
In malice crafty, curious they assemble
Small-Elements, which (as of kin) resemble,
Whereof a Mass is made, and thereunto
They soon giue growth and lively motion too.
Not, that they be Creators: for, th'Almighty,
Who first of nothing made vaste Amphitrite,
The Worlds dull Centre, Heav'ns ay-turning Frame,
And whirling Air, sole merits that high Name:
Who (onely Beeing) Being giues to all,
And of all things the seeds substantiall
Within their first-born bodies hath inclos'd,
To be in time by Natures hand dispos'd:
Not those, who (taught by curious Art or Nature)
Haue giv'n to things Heav'n-pointed form and stature,
Hastned their growth, or wakened learnedly
The forms that formless in the Lump did ly.
Fain'd him a Serpents shape, wherein to lurk.
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Of bodies light, and in experience wise,
In malice crafty, curious they assemble
Small-Elements, which (as of kin) resemble,
Whereof a Mass is made, and thereunto
They soon giue growth and lively motion too.
Not, that they be Creators: for, th'Almighty,
Who first of nothing made vaste Amphitrite,
The Worlds dull Centre, Heav'ns ay-turning Frame,
And whirling Air, sole merits that high Name:
Who (onely Beeing) Being giues to all,
And of all things the seeds substantiall
Within their first-born bodies hath inclos'd,
To be in time by Natures hand dispos'd:
Not those, who (taught by curious Art or Nature)
Haue giv'n to things Heav'n-pointed form and stature,
Hastned their growth, or wakened learnedly
The forms that formless in the Lump did ly.
But (to conclude) I think 'twas no conceipt,
No fained Idoll, nor no iuggling sleight,
Nor body borrowed for this vses sake,
But the self Serpent which the Lord did make
In the beginning: for, his hatefull breed
Bears yet the pain of this pernicious deed.
No fained Idoll, nor no iuggling sleight,
Nor body borrowed for this vses sake,
But the self Serpent which the Lord did make
In the beginning: for, his hatefull breed
Bears yet the pain of this pernicious deed.
Yet't tis a doubt whether the Divell did
Gouern the Dragon (not there selfly hid)
To raise his courage, and his tongue direct,
Locally absent, present by effect:
As when the sweet strings of a Lute we strike,
Another Lute laid neer it, sounds the like;
Nay, the same note, through secret sympathy
(Vntoucht) receiving Life and Harmony:
Or, as a star, which (though far distant) pours,
Vpon our heads, hap-less or happy showrs.
Gouern the Dragon (not there selfly hid)
To raise his courage, and his tongue direct,
Locally absent, present by effect:
As when the sweet strings of a Lute we strike,
Another Lute laid neer it, sounds the like;
Nay, the same note, through secret sympathy
(Vntoucht) receiving Life and Harmony:
Or, as a star, which (though far distant) pours,
Vpon our heads, hap-less or happy showrs.
Or, whether for a time he did abide
Wit in the doubling Serpents damask hide,
Holding a place-less place: as our soule dear,
Through the dim lanthorn of our flesh, shines clear;
And bound-less bounds it self in so straight space,
As form in body, not as body in place.
Wit in the doubling Serpents damask hide,
Holding a place-less place: as our soule dear,
Through the dim lanthorn of our flesh, shines clear;
And bound-less bounds it self in so straight space,
As form in body, not as body in place.
But this stands sure, how-ever else it went,
Th'old Serpent serv'd as Satans instrument
To charm in Eden, with a strong illusion,
Our silly Grandam to her selfs confusion.
For, as an old, rude, rotten, tune-less Kit,
If famous Dowland daign to finger it,
Makes sweeter Musick then the choicest Lute
In the gross handling of a clownish Brute:
So, whiles a learned Fiend with skilfull hand
Doth the dull motions of his mouth command,
This self-dumb Creature's glozing Rhetorike
With bashfull shame great Orators would strike.
So, Faiery Trunks within Epyrus Groue,
Mov'd by the spirit that was inspir'd by loue,
With fluent voyce (to every one that seeks)
Fore-tell the Fates of light-beleeuing Greeks:
So, all incenst, the pale Engastromith
(Rul'd by the furious spirit he's haunted with)
Speaks in his womb; So, well a workmans skill
Supplies the want of any organ ill:
So doth the Phantike (lifting vp his thought
On Satans wing) with a tongue distraught
Strange Oracles, and his sick spirit doth plead
Euen of those Arts that he did never reade.
Th'old Serpent serv'd as Satans instrument
To charm in Eden, with a strong illusion,
Our silly Grandam to her selfs confusion.
For, as an old, rude, rotten, tune-less Kit,
If famous Dowland daign to finger it,
Makes sweeter Musick then the choicest Lute
In the gross handling of a clownish Brute:
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Doth the dull motions of his mouth command,
This self-dumb Creature's glozing Rhetorike
With bashfull shame great Orators would strike.
So, Faiery Trunks within Epyrus Groue,
Mov'd by the spirit that was inspir'd by loue,
With fluent voyce (to every one that seeks)
Fore-tell the Fates of light-beleeuing Greeks:
So, all incenst, the pale Engastromith
(Rul'd by the furious spirit he's haunted with)
Speaks in his womb; So, well a workmans skill
Supplies the want of any organ ill:
So doth the Phantike (lifting vp his thought
On Satans wing) with a tongue distraught
Strange Oracles, and his sick spirit doth plead
Euen of those Arts that he did never reade.
O ruth-less murderer of immortall Soules!
Alas to pull vs from the happy Poles,
And plunge vs headlong in thy yawning hell,
Thy ceas-less frauds and fetches who can tell?
Alas to pull vs from the happy Poles,
And plunge vs headlong in thy yawning hell,
Thy ceas-less frauds and fetches who can tell?
Thou play'st the Lion, when thou dost engage
Bloud-thirsty Nero's barbarous heart with rage,
While flesh in murders (butcher-like) he paints
The Saint-poor world with the dear bloud of Saints.
Bloud-thirsty Nero's barbarous heart with rage,
While flesh in murders (butcher-like) he paints
The Saint-poor world with the dear bloud of Saints.
Thou play'st the Dog, when by the mouth profane
Or som false Prophet thou doost belch thy bane,
While from the Pulpit barkingly he rings
Bold blasphemies against the King of kings.
Or som false Prophet thou doost belch thy bane,
While from the Pulpit barkingly he rings
Bold blasphemies against the King of kings.
Thou play'st the Swine, when plung'd in pleasures vile,
Som Epicure doth sober mindes defile;
Transforming lewdly, by his loose impiety,
Strict Lacedæmon to a soft society.
Som Epicure doth sober mindes defile;
Transforming lewdly, by his loose impiety,
Strict Lacedæmon to a soft society.
Thou play'st the Nightingale, or else the Swan,
When any famous Rhetorician,
With captious wit and curious language, draws
Seduced hearers; and subverts the laws.
When any famous Rhetorician,
With captious wit and curious language, draws
Seduced hearers; and subverts the laws.
Thou play'st the Fox, when thou dost fain a-right
The face and phrase of som deep Hypocrite,
True painted Toomb, dead-seeming coals but quick;
A Scorpion fell, whose hidden tail doth prick.
The face and phrase of som deep Hypocrite,
True painted Toomb, dead-seeming coals but quick;
A Scorpion fell, whose hidden tail doth prick.
Yet, this were little, if thy spight audacious
Spar'd (at the least) the face of Angels gracious,
And if thou didst not (Ape-like) imitate
Th'Almighties Works, the wariest Wits to mate.
Spar'd (at the least) the face of Angels gracious,
And if thou didst not (Ape-like) imitate
Th'Almighties Works, the wariest Wits to mate.
But (without numbring all thy suttle baits,
And nimble iuggling with a thousand sleights)
Timely returning where I first digrest,
I'le onely heer thy first Deceipt digest.
And nimble iuggling with a thousand sleights)
Timely returning where I first digrest,
I'le onely heer thy first Deceipt digest.
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The Dragon then, Mans Fortress to surprise,
Follows som Captains martiall policies,
Who, yer too neer an adverse place he pitch,
The situation marks, and sounds the ditch,
With his eys leuell the steep wall he metes,
Surveies the flanks, his Camp in order sets;
And then approaching, batters sore the side
Which Art and Nature haue least fortifi'd:
So, this old Souldier, hauing marked rife
The first-born payrs yet danger-dreadless life;
Mounting his Canons, suttly he assaults
The part he findes in evident defaults:
Namely, poor Woman, wauering, weak, vnwise,
Light, credulous, news-louer, giv'n to lies.
Follows som Captains martiall policies,
Who, yer too neer an adverse place he pitch,
The situation marks, and sounds the ditch,
With his eys leuell the steep wall he metes,
Surveies the flanks, his Camp in order sets;
And then approaching, batters sore the side
Which Art and Nature haue least fortifi'd:
So, this old Souldier, hauing marked rife
The first-born payrs yet danger-dreadless life;
Mounting his Canons, suttly he assaults
The part he findes in evident defaults:
Namely, poor Woman, wauering, weak, vnwise,
Light, credulous, news-louer, giv'n to lies.
Eue, Second honour of this Vniverse!
Is 't true (I pray) that iealous God, perverse,
Forbids (quoth he) both you and all your race
All the fair Fruits these siluer Brooks embrace;
So oft bequeath'd you, and by you possest,
And day and night by your own labour drest?
Is 't true (I pray) that iealous God, perverse,
Forbids (quoth he) both you and all your race
All the fair Fruits these siluer Brooks embrace;
So oft bequeath'd you, and by you possest,
And day and night by your own labour drest?
With th'air of these sweet words, the wily Snake
A poysoned air inspired (as it spake)
In Eues frail brest; who thus replies: O! knowe,
What e'r thou be (but, thy kinde care doth showe
A gentle friend) that all the fruits and flowrs
In this earths-heav'n are in our hands and powrs,
Except alone that goodly fruit diuine,
Which in the midst of this green ground doth shine;
But, all-good God (alas! I wot not why)
Forbad vs touch that Tree, on pain to dy.
She ceast; already brooding in her heart
A curious wish, that will her weal subvert.
A poysoned air inspired (as it spake)
In Eues frail brest; who thus replies: O! knowe,
What e'r thou be (but, thy kinde care doth showe
A gentle friend) that all the fruits and flowrs
In this earths-heav'n are in our hands and powrs,
Except alone that goodly fruit diuine,
Which in the midst of this green ground doth shine;
But, all-good God (alas! I wot not why)
Forbad vs touch that Tree, on pain to dy.
She ceast; already brooding in her heart
A curious wish, that will her weal subvert.
As a false Louer, that thick snares hath laid
T'intrap the honour of a fair young Maid,
When she (though little) listning ear affords.
To his sweet, courting, deep-affected words,
Feels som asswaging of his freezing flame,
And sooths himself with hope to gain his game;
And rapt with ioy, vpon this point persists,
That parleing City never long resists:
Even so the Serpent, that doth counterfet
A guilefull Call t'allure vs to his net;
Perceiuing Eue his flattering gloze digest,
He prosecutes, and jocund, doth not rest,
Till he haue try'd foot, hand, and head, and all,
Vpon the Breach of this new-battered wall.
T'intrap the honour of a fair young Maid,
When she (though little) listning ear affords.
To his sweet, courting, deep-affected words,
Feels som asswaging of his freezing flame,
And sooths himself with hope to gain his game;
And rapt with ioy, vpon this point persists,
That parleing City never long resists:
Even so the Serpent, that doth counterfet
A guilefull Call t'allure vs to his net;
Perceiuing Eue his flattering gloze digest,
He prosecutes, and jocund, doth not rest,
Till he haue try'd foot, hand, and head, and all,
Vpon the Breach of this new-battered wall.
No, fair (quoth he) beleeue not, that the care
God hath, mankinde from spoyling death to spare,
Makes him forbid you (on so strict condition)
This purest, fairest, rarest Fruits fruition:
A double fear, an envie, and a hate,
His iealous heart for ever cruciate;
Sith the suspected vertue of This Tree
Shall soon disperse the cloud of Idiocy,
Which dims your eyes; and further, make you seem
(Excelling vs) even equall Gods to him.
O Worlds rare glory! reach thy happy hand,
Reach, reach, I say: why dost thou stop or stand?
Begin thy Bliss, and do no fear the threat
Of an vncertain God-head, onely great
Through self-aw'd zeal: put on the glistring Pall
Of immortality: do not fore-stall
(As envious stepdame) thy posteritie
The soverain honour of Diuinitie.
God hath, mankinde from spoyling death to spare,
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This purest, fairest, rarest Fruits fruition:
A double fear, an envie, and a hate,
His iealous heart for ever cruciate;
Sith the suspected vertue of This Tree
Shall soon disperse the cloud of Idiocy,
Which dims your eyes; and further, make you seem
(Excelling vs) even equall Gods to him.
O Worlds rare glory! reach thy happy hand,
Reach, reach, I say: why dost thou stop or stand?
Begin thy Bliss, and do no fear the threat
Of an vncertain God-head, onely great
Through self-aw'd zeal: put on the glistring Pall
Of immortality: do not fore-stall
(As envious stepdame) thy posteritie
The soverain honour of Diuinitie.
This parley ended, our ambitious Grandam,
Who only yet did heart and ey abandon
Against the Lord; now farther doth proceed,
And hand and mouth makes guiltie of the deed.
Who only yet did heart and ey abandon
Against the Lord; now farther doth proceed,
And hand and mouth makes guiltie of the deed.
A novice Theef (that in a Closet spies
A heap of Gold, that on the Table lies)
Pale, fearfull shivering, twice or thrice extends,
And twice or thrice retires his fingers ends,
And yet again returns; the booty takes,
And fain ly-bold, vp in his cloak it makes,
Scarce findes the doore, with faultring foot he flies,
And still lookes back for fear of Hu-on cries:
Even so doth Eue shew by like fear-full fashions
The doubtfull combat of contending Passions;
She would, she should not not; glad, sad; coms, and goes:
And long she marts about a Match of Woes:
But (out alas!) at last she toucheth it,
And (hauing toucht) tastes the forbidden bit.
A heap of Gold, that on the Table lies)
Pale, fearfull shivering, twice or thrice extends,
And twice or thrice retires his fingers ends,
And yet again returns; the booty takes,
And fain ly-bold, vp in his cloak it makes,
Scarce findes the doore, with faultring foot he flies,
And still lookes back for fear of Hu-on cries:
Even so doth Eue shew by like fear-full fashions
The doubtfull combat of contending Passions;
She would, she should not not; glad, sad; coms, and goes:
And long she marts about a Match of Woes:
But (out alas!) at last she toucheth it,
And (hauing toucht) tastes the forbidden bit.
Then as a man that from a lofty Clift,
Or steepy Mountain doth descend too swift,
Stumbling at somwhat, quickly clips som lim
Of som deer kinsman walking next to him,
And by his headlong fall, so brings his friend
To an vntimely, sad, and sudden end;
Our Mother, falling, hales her Spouse anon
Down to the gulf of pitchy Acheron.
For, to the wisht Fruits beautifull aspect,
Sweet Nectar-taste, and wonderfull effect,
Cunningly adding her quaint smiling glances,
Her witty speech, and pretty countenances,
She so prevails; that her blind Lord, at last,
A morsell of the sharp-sweet fruit doth taste.
Or steepy Mountain doth descend too swift,
Stumbling at somwhat, quickly clips som lim
Of som deer kinsman walking next to him,
And by his headlong fall, so brings his friend
To an vntimely, sad, and sudden end;
Our Mother, falling, hales her Spouse anon
Down to the gulf of pitchy Acheron.
For, to the wisht Fruits beautifull aspect,
Sweet Nectar-taste, and wonderfull effect,
Cunningly adding her quaint smiling glances,
Her witty speech, and pretty countenances,
She so prevails; that her blind Lord, at last,
A morsell of the sharp-sweet fruit doth taste.
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Now suddenly wide-open feel they might
(Siel'd for their good) both soules and bodies sight;
But the sad Soule hath lost the Character,
And sacred Image that did honour her:
The wretched Body, full of shame and sorrow
To see it naked, is in forc't to borrow
The Trees broad leaues, whereof they aprons frame,
From Heav'ns faire ey to hide their filthy shame.
(Siel'd for their good) both soules and bodies sight;
But the sad Soule hath lost the Character,
And sacred Image that did honour her:
The wretched Body, full of shame and sorrow
To see it naked, is in forc't to borrow
The Trees broad leaues, whereof they aprons frame,
From Heav'ns faire ey to hide their filthy shame.
Alas, fond death-lings! O! behold how cleer
The knowledge is that you haue bought so deer:
In heav'nly things yee are more blinde then Moals,
In earthly Owls. O! think ye (silly soules)
The sight that swiftely through th'Earth's solid centers
(As globes of pure transparent crystall) enters
Cannot transpearce your leaues? or do ye ween,
Covering your shame so to conceal your sin?
Or that, a part thus clowded, all doth lie
Safe from the search of Heav'ns all-seeing ey?
The knowledge is that you haue bought so deer:
In heav'nly things yee are more blinde then Moals,
In earthly Owls. O! think ye (silly soules)
The sight that swiftely through th'Earth's solid centers
(As globes of pure transparent crystall) enters
Cannot transpearce your leaues? or do ye ween,
Covering your shame so to conceal your sin?
Or that, a part thus clowded, all doth lie
Safe from the search of Heav'ns all-seeing ey?
Thus yet, mans troubled dull Intelligence
Had of his fault but a confused sense:
As in a dream, after much drink it chances,
Disturbed spirits are vext with raving fancies.
Had of his fault but a confused sense:
As in a dream, after much drink it chances,
Disturbed spirits are vext with raving fancies.
Therefore, the Lord, within the Garden fair,
Moving betimes I wot not I what ayre,
But supernaturall; whose breath divine
Brings of his presence a most certain signe:
Awakes their Lethargie, and to the quick,
Their self-doom'd soules doth sharply press and prick:
Now more and more making their pride to fear
The frowning visage of their Iudge severe:
To seek new-refuge in more secret harbors
Among the dark shade of those tufting arbors.
Moving betimes I wot not I what ayre,
But supernaturall; whose breath divine
Brings of his presence a most certain signe:
Awakes their Lethargie, and to the quick,
Their self-doom'd soules doth sharply press and prick:
Now more and more making their pride to fear
The frowning visage of their Iudge severe:
To seek new-refuge in more secret harbors
Among the dark shade of those tufting arbors.
Adam, quoth God, (with thundring maiesty)
Where art thou (wretch!) what doost thou? answer me
Thy God and Father; from whose hand, thy health
Thou hold'st, thine honour, and all sorts of wealth.
Where art thou (wretch!) what doost thou? answer me
Thy God and Father; from whose hand, thy health
Thou hold'st, thine honour, and all sorts of wealth.
At this sad summons, wofull man resembles
A bearded rush that in a riuer trembles:
His rosie cheeks are chang'd to earthen hew;
His dying body drops in ycie deaw;
His tear-drown'd eyes, a night of clouds bedims;
About his ears, a buzzing horror swims;
His fainted knees, with feebleness are humble;
His faultring feet do slide away and stumble:
He hath not (now) his free, bold, stately port;
But down-cast looks, in fearfull slavish sort;
Now, nought of Adam, doth in Adam rest;
He feeles his senses pain'd, his soule opprest:
A confus'd hoast of violent passions iar;
His flesh and spirit are in continuall war:
And now no more (through conscience of his error)
He hears or sees th'Almighty, but with terror:
And loth he answers (as with tongue distraught)
Confessing (thus) his fear, but not his fault.
A bearded rush that in a riuer trembles:
His rosie cheeks are chang'd to earthen hew;
His dying body drops in ycie deaw;
His tear-drown'd eyes, a night of clouds bedims;
About his ears, a buzzing horror swims;
His fainted knees, with feebleness are humble;
His faultring feet do slide away and stumble:
He hath not (now) his free, bold, stately port;
But down-cast looks, in fearfull slavish sort;
Now, nought of Adam, doth in Adam rest;
He feeles his senses pain'd, his soule opprest:
195
His flesh and spirit are in continuall war:
And now no more (through conscience of his error)
He hears or sees th'Almighty, but with terror:
And loth he answers (as with tongue distraught)
Confessing (thus) his fear, but not his fault.
O Lord! thy voyce, thy dreadfull voyce hath made
Me fearfull hide me in this covert shade.
For, naked as I am (O most of might!)
I dare not come before thine awfull sight.
Me fearfull hide me in this covert shade.
For, naked as I am (O most of might!)
I dare not come before thine awfull sight.
Naked (quoth God)? why (faith-less renegate,
Apostate Pagan!) who hath told thee that?
Whence springs thy shame? what makes thee thus to run
From shade to shade, my presence still to shun?
Hast thou not tasted of the learned Tree,
Whereof (on pain of death) I warned thee?
Apostate Pagan!) who hath told thee that?
Whence springs thy shame? what makes thee thus to run
From shade to shade, my presence still to shun?
Hast thou not tasted of the learned Tree,
Whereof (on pain of death) I warned thee?
O righteous God (quoth Adam) I am free
From this offence: the wife thou gavest me,
For my companion and my comforter,
She made me eat that deadly meat with her.
From this offence: the wife thou gavest me,
For my companion and my comforter,
She made me eat that deadly meat with her.
And thou (quoth God) O! thou frail treacherous Bride,
Why, with thy self, hast thou seduc't thy Guide?
Why, with thy self, hast thou seduc't thy Guide?
Lord (answers Eue) the Serpent did intice
My simple frailty to this sinfull vice.
My simple frailty to this sinfull vice.
Mark heer, how He, who fears not who reform
His high Decrees, not subiect vnto form,
Or stile of Court: who, all-wise, hath no need
T'examine proof or witness of the deed:
Who for sustayning of vnequall Scale,
Dreads not the Doom of a Mercuriall;
Yer Sentence pass, doth publikely convent,
Confront, and heer with eare indifferent
Th'Offenders sad: then with iust indignation,
Pronounceth thus their dreadfull Condemnation.
His high Decrees, not subiect vnto form,
Or stile of Court: who, all-wise, hath no need
T'examine proof or witness of the deed:
Who for sustayning of vnequall Scale,
Dreads not the Doom of a Mercuriall;
Yer Sentence pass, doth publikely convent,
Confront, and heer with eare indifferent
Th'Offenders sad: then with iust indignation,
Pronounceth thus their dreadfull Condemnation.
Ah cursed Serpent, which my fingers made
To serue mankinde: th'hast made thy selfe a blade
Wherewith vain Man and his inveigled wife
(Self-parricides) haue reft their proper life.
For this thy fault (true Fountain of all ill)
Thou shalt be hatefull 'mong all creatures still.
Groueling in dust, of dust thou ay shalt feed:
I'le kindle war between the Womans seed,
And thy fell race; hers on the head shall ding
Thine: thine again hers in the heel shall sting.
To serue mankinde: th'hast made thy selfe a blade
Wherewith vain Man and his inveigled wife
(Self-parricides) haue reft their proper life.
For this thy fault (true Fountain of all ill)
Thou shalt be hatefull 'mong all creatures still.
Groueling in dust, of dust thou ay shalt feed:
I'le kindle war between the Womans seed,
And thy fell race; hers on the head shall ding
Thine: thine again hers in the heel shall sting.
Rebell to me, vnto thy kindred curst,
False to thy husband, to thy self the worst:
Hope not, thy fruit so easily to bring-forth
As now thou slay'st it: hence-forth, every Birth
Shall torture thee with thousand sorts of pain;
Each artire, sinew, muscle, ioynt and vain,
Shall feel his part: besides foul vomitings,
Prodigious longings, thought-full languishings,
With change of colours, swouns, and many others,
Eternall fellows of all future mothers:
Vnder his yoak, thy husband thee shall haue,
Tyrant, by thee made the Arch-tyrants slaue.
False to thy husband, to thy self the worst:
Hope not, thy fruit so easily to bring-forth
As now thou slay'st it: hence-forth, every Birth
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Each artire, sinew, muscle, ioynt and vain,
Shall feel his part: besides foul vomitings,
Prodigious longings, thought-full languishings,
With change of colours, swouns, and many others,
Eternall fellows of all future mothers:
Vnder his yoak, thy husband thee shall haue,
Tyrant, by thee made the Arch-tyrants slaue.
And thou disloyall, which hast harkned more
To a wanton fondling then my sacred lore,
Henceforth the sweat shall bubble on thy brow:
Thy hands shall blister, and thy back shall bow:
Ne'r shalt thou send into thy branchie vains
A bit, but bought with price of thousand pains.
For, the earth feeling (even in her) th'effect
Of the doom thundred 'gainst thy foul defect;
In stead of sweet fruits which she selfly yeelds
Seed-less, and Art-less over all thy fields,
With thorns and burs shall bristle vp her brest:
(In short) thou shalt not taste the sweets of rest,
Till ruth-less Death by his extreamest pain
Thy dust-born bodie turn to dust again.
To a wanton fondling then my sacred lore,
Henceforth the sweat shall bubble on thy brow:
Thy hands shall blister, and thy back shall bow:
Ne'r shalt thou send into thy branchie vains
A bit, but bought with price of thousand pains.
For, the earth feeling (even in her) th'effect
Of the doom thundred 'gainst thy foul defect;
In stead of sweet fruits which she selfly yeelds
Seed-less, and Art-less over all thy fields,
With thorns and burs shall bristle vp her brest:
(In short) thou shalt not taste the sweets of rest,
Till ruth-less Death by his extreamest pain
Thy dust-born bodie turn to dust again.
Heer I conceiue, that flesh and blood will brangle,
And murmuring Reason with th'Almighty wrangle,
Who did our parents with Free-will indue,
Though he fore-saw, that that would be the clew
Should lead their steps into the wofull way
Where life is death ten thousand times a day:
Now all that he fore-sees, befals: and further,
He all events by his free powr doth order.
And murmuring Reason with th'Almighty wrangle,
Who did our parents with Free-will indue,
Though he fore-saw, that that would be the clew
Should lead their steps into the wofull way
Where life is death ten thousand times a day:
Now all that he fore-sees, befals: and further,
He all events by his free powr doth order.
Man taxeth God of too-vniust severity,
For plaguing Adams sin in his posterity:
So that th'old yeers renewed generations
Cannot asswage his venging indignations,
Which haue no other ground to prosecute,
But the mis-eating of a certain fruit.
For plaguing Adams sin in his posterity:
So that th'old yeers renewed generations
Cannot asswage his venging indignations,
Which haue no other ground to prosecute,
But the mis-eating of a certain fruit.
O dusty wormling! dar'st thou striue and stand
With Heav'ns high Monarch? wilt thou (wretch) demand
Count of his deeds? Ah! shall the Potter make
His clay, such fashion, as him list, to take?
And shall not God (Worlds Founder, Natures Father)
Dispose of man (his own meer creature) rather?
The supream King, who (Iudge of greatest Kings)
By number, weight and measure, acts all things,
Vice-loathing Lord, pure Iustice, Patron strong,
Law's life, Right's rule, will he do any wrong?
With Heav'ns high Monarch? wilt thou (wretch) demand
Count of his deeds? Ah! shall the Potter make
His clay, such fashion, as him list, to take?
And shall not God (Worlds Founder, Natures Father)
Dispose of man (his own meer creature) rather?
The supream King, who (Iudge of greatest Kings)
By number, weight and measure, acts all things,
Vice-loathing Lord, pure Iustice, Patron strong,
Law's life, Right's rule, will he do any wrong?
Man, holdest thou of God thy frank Free-will,
But free t'obay his sacred goodness still?
Freely to follow him, and do his hest,
Not Philtre-charm'd, nor by Busiris prest?
God arms thee with discourse: but thou (O wretch!)
By the keen edge the wound-soule sword doost catch;
Killing thy selfe, and in thy loins thy line.
O banefull Spider (weaving wofull twine)
All Heav'ns pure flowrs thou turnest into poyson:
Thy sense reaues sense: thy reason robs thy reason.
For, thou complainest of Gods grace, whose Still
Extracts from dross of thine audacious ill,
Three vnexpected goods; praise for his Name;
Bliss for thy self; for Satan endless-shame:
Sith, but for sin, Iustice and Mercy were
But idle names: and but that thou didst erre,
Christ had not com to conquer and to quell,
Vpon the Cross, Sin, Satan, Death, and Hell;
Making thee blessed more since thine offence,
Then in thy primer happy innocence.
But free t'obay his sacred goodness still?
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Not Philtre-charm'd, nor by Busiris prest?
God arms thee with discourse: but thou (O wretch!)
By the keen edge the wound-soule sword doost catch;
Killing thy selfe, and in thy loins thy line.
O banefull Spider (weaving wofull twine)
All Heav'ns pure flowrs thou turnest into poyson:
Thy sense reaues sense: thy reason robs thy reason.
For, thou complainest of Gods grace, whose Still
Extracts from dross of thine audacious ill,
Three vnexpected goods; praise for his Name;
Bliss for thy self; for Satan endless-shame:
Sith, but for sin, Iustice and Mercy were
But idle names: and but that thou didst erre,
Christ had not com to conquer and to quell,
Vpon the Cross, Sin, Satan, Death, and Hell;
Making thee blessed more since thine offence,
Then in thy primer happy innocence.
Then, might'st thou dy; now death thou doost not doubt:
Now, in the Heav'n; then, didst thou ride without:
In Earth, thou liv'dst then; now in Heav'n thou beest:
Then, thou didst hear Gods word; it, now thou seest:
Then, pleasant fruits; now, Christ is thy repast:
Then might'st thou fall; but now thou standest fast.
Now, in the Heav'n; then, didst thou ride without:
In Earth, thou liv'dst then; now in Heav'n thou beest:
Then, thou didst hear Gods word; it, now thou seest:
Then, pleasant fruits; now, Christ is thy repast:
Then might'st thou fall; but now thou standest fast.
Now, Adams fault was not in deed so light,
As seemes to Reason's sin-bleard Owlie sight:
But 't was a chain where all the greatest sinns
Were one in other linked fast, as Twins:
Ingratitude, pride, treason, gluttony,
Too-curious skill-thirst, enuy, felony,
Too-light, too-late beleef; were the sweet baits
That made him wander from Heav'ns holy straights.
As seemes to Reason's sin-bleard Owlie sight:
But 't was a chain where all the greatest sinns
Were one in other linked fast, as Twins:
Ingratitude, pride, treason, gluttony,
Too-curious skill-thirst, enuy, felony,
Too-light, too-late beleef; were the sweet baits
That made him wander from Heav'ns holy straights.
What wouldst thou (Father) say vnto a Son
Of perfect age, to whom for portion
(Witting and willing, while thy self yet livest)
All thy possessions in the earth thou givest:
And yet th'vngratefull, grace-less, insolent,
In thine own Land, rebellion doth invent?
Map now an Adam in thy memory;
By Gods own hand made with great maiesty,
Not poor, nor pined; but at whose command
The rich aboundance of the world doth stand:
Not slaue to sense, but hauing freely might
To bridle it, and range it still aright:
No idiot fool, nor drunk with vaine opinion;
But Gods Disciple and his deerest Minion:
Who rashly growes for little, nay for nought,
His deadly foe that all his good had wrought:
So mayst thou ghess, what whip, what rope, what rack,
What fire, were fit to punish Adams lack.
Of perfect age, to whom for portion
(Witting and willing, while thy self yet livest)
All thy possessions in the earth thou givest:
And yet th'vngratefull, grace-less, insolent,
In thine own Land, rebellion doth invent?
Map now an Adam in thy memory;
By Gods own hand made with great maiesty,
Not poor, nor pined; but at whose command
The rich aboundance of the world doth stand:
Not slaue to sense, but hauing freely might
To bridle it, and range it still aright:
No idiot fool, nor drunk with vaine opinion;
But Gods Disciple and his deerest Minion:
Who rashly growes for little, nay for nought,
His deadly foe that all his good had wrought:
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What fire, were fit to punish Adams lack.
Then, sith Mans sin by little and little runs
End-less, through every Age from Sires to Sons;
And still the farther this foul sin-spring flowes
It still more muddy and more filthy growes:
Thou ought'st not marvail, if (even yet) his seed
Feel the iust wages of this wicked deed.
For, though the keen sting of concupiscence
Cannot, yer birth, his fell effect commence;
The vnborn Babe, hid in the Mothers womb,
Is sorrow's servant, and Sin's servile groom,
As a frail Mote from the first Mass extract,
Which Adam baen'd by his rebellious fact.
Sound off-spring coms not of a Kinde infected:
Parts are not fair, if totall be defected:
And a defiled stinking sink doth yeeld
More durt then water to the neighbour field.
End-less, through every Age from Sires to Sons;
And still the farther this foul sin-spring flowes
It still more muddy and more filthy growes:
Thou ought'st not marvail, if (even yet) his seed
Feel the iust wages of this wicked deed.
For, though the keen sting of concupiscence
Cannot, yer birth, his fell effect commence;
The vnborn Babe, hid in the Mothers womb,
Is sorrow's servant, and Sin's servile groom,
As a frail Mote from the first Mass extract,
Which Adam baen'd by his rebellious fact.
Sound off-spring coms not of a Kinde infected:
Parts are not fair, if totall be defected:
And a defiled stinking sink doth yeeld
More durt then water to the neighbour field.
While nights black muffler hoodeth vp the skies,
The silly blind-man misseth not his eyes:
But when the day summons to work again,
His night, eternall then he doth complain,
That he goes groping, and his hand (alas!)
Is fain to guide his foot, and guard his face:
So man, that liveth in the wombs obscurity,
Knowes not, nor maketh known his lusts impurity:
Which, for 't is sown in a too-plentious ground,
Takes root already in the Caues profound
Of his infected Hart: with's birth, it peers,
And growes in strength, as he doth growe in years;
And waxt a Tree (though proin'd with thousand cares)
An execrable deadly fruit it bears.
The silly blind-man misseth not his eyes:
But when the day summons to work again,
His night, eternall then he doth complain,
That he goes groping, and his hand (alas!)
Is fain to guide his foot, and guard his face:
So man, that liveth in the wombs obscurity,
Knowes not, nor maketh known his lusts impurity:
Which, for 't is sown in a too-plentious ground,
Takes root already in the Caues profound
Of his infected Hart: with's birth, it peers,
And growes in strength, as he doth growe in years;
And waxt a Tree (though proin'd with thousand cares)
An execrable deadly fruit it bears.
Thou seest, no wheat Helleborus can bring:
Nor barly, from the madding Morrell spring:
The bleating Lambs braue Lions doe not breed:
The leprous Parents, raise a leprous seed:
Even so our Grand-sire, living Innocent,
Had stockt the whole world with a Saint-descent:
But suffering sin in Eden him invade,
His sons, the sons of Sin and Wrath he made.
For, God did seem t'indow, with glory and grace,
Not the first Man so much, as all mans race;
And after reaue again those gifts divine,
Not him so much, as in him all his line.
Nor barly, from the madding Morrell spring:
The bleating Lambs braue Lions doe not breed:
The leprous Parents, raise a leprous seed:
Even so our Grand-sire, living Innocent,
Had stockt the whole world with a Saint-descent:
But suffering sin in Eden him invade,
His sons, the sons of Sin and Wrath he made.
For, God did seem t'indow, with glory and grace,
Not the first Man so much, as all mans race;
And after reaue again those gifts divine,
Not him so much, as in him all his line.
For, if an odious Traitour that conspires,
Against a Prince, or to his state aspires,
Feel not alone the laws extremity;
But his sons sons (although somtimes they be
Honest and vertuous) for their Fathers blame,
Are hap-less scarr'd with an eternall shame:
May not th'Eternall with a righteous terror,
In Adams issue punish Adams error?
May he not thrall them vnder Deaths command,
And fear their brows with everlasting brand
Of infamy, who in his stock (accurst)
Haue graft worse slips then Adam set at first?
Against a Prince, or to his state aspires,
Feel not alone the laws extremity;
But his sons sons (although somtimes they be
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Are hap-less scarr'd with an eternall shame:
May not th'Eternall with a righteous terror,
In Adams issue punish Adams error?
May he not thrall them vnder Deaths command,
And fear their brows with everlasting brand
Of infamy, who in his stock (accurst)
Haue graft worse slips then Adam set at first?
Mans seed then iustly, by succession,
Bears the hard penance of his high transgression:
And Adam heer, from Eden banished,
As first offender is first punished.
Bears the hard penance of his high transgression:
And Adam heer, from Eden banished,
As first offender is first punished.
Hence (quoth the Lord) hence, hence (accursed race)
Out of my Garden: quick, auoyd the place,
This beautious place, pride of this Vniverse,
A house vnworthy Masters so perverse.
Out of my Garden: quick, auoyd the place,
This beautious place, pride of this Vniverse,
A house vnworthy Masters so perverse.
Those that (in quarrell of the Strong of Strongs,
And iust reuenge of Queen, and Countries wrongs)
Were witnesses to all the wofull plaints,
The sighes, and tears, and pitifull complaints,
Of brauing Spaniards (chiefly braue in word)
When by the valiant Heav'n-assisted sword
Of Mars-like Essex, Englands Marshall-Earl
(Then Albions Patron, and Eliza's Pearl)
They were expulst from Cadiz, their deerest pleasure,
Losing their Town, their honour, and their treasure:
Wo worth (said they) wo worth our Kings ambition;
Wo worth our Cleargie, and their Inquisition:
He seeks new Kingdoms, and doth lose his old;
They burne for conscience, but their thirst is gold:
Wo, and alas, wo to the vain brauados
Of Typhon-like inuincible Armados,
Which like the vaunting Monster-man of Gath,
Haue stirr'd against vs little Dauids wrath:
Wo-worth our sins: wo-worth our selues, and all
Accursed causes of our sudden fall.
And iust reuenge of Queen, and Countries wrongs)
Were witnesses to all the wofull plaints,
The sighes, and tears, and pitifull complaints,
Of brauing Spaniards (chiefly braue in word)
When by the valiant Heav'n-assisted sword
Of Mars-like Essex, Englands Marshall-Earl
(Then Albions Patron, and Eliza's Pearl)
They were expulst from Cadiz, their deerest pleasure,
Losing their Town, their honour, and their treasure:
Wo worth (said they) wo worth our Kings ambition;
Wo worth our Cleargie, and their Inquisition:
He seeks new Kingdoms, and doth lose his old;
They burne for conscience, but their thirst is gold:
Wo, and alas, wo to the vain brauados
Of Typhon-like inuincible Armados,
Which like the vaunting Monster-man of Gath,
Haue stirr'd against vs little Dauids wrath:
Wo-worth our sins: wo-worth our selues, and all
Accursed causes of our sudden fall.
Those well may ghess the bitter agonies,
And luke-warm Rivers gushing down the eyes
Of our first Parents, out of Eden driv'n
(Of Repeal hope-less) by the hand of Heav'n;
For, the Almightie set before the dore
Of th'holy Park, a Seraphin that bore
A wauing sword, whose body shined bright,
Like flaming Comet in the midst of night;
A body meerly Metaphysicall,
Which (differing little from th'One vnicall,
Th'Act-simply-pure, the only-beeing Beeing)
Approcheth matter; ne'rtheless, not being
Of matter mixt: or rather is so made
So meerly spirit, that not the murdering blade,
His ioyned quantity can part in two:
For (pure) it cannot Suffer ought, but Doo.
And luke-warm Rivers gushing down the eyes
Of our first Parents, out of Eden driv'n
(Of Repeal hope-less) by the hand of Heav'n;
For, the Almightie set before the dore
Of th'holy Park, a Seraphin that bore
A wauing sword, whose body shined bright,
Like flaming Comet in the midst of night;
A body meerly Metaphysicall,
Which (differing little from th'One vnicall,
Th'Act-simply-pure, the only-beeing Beeing)
Approcheth matter; ne'rtheless, not being
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So meerly spirit, that not the murdering blade,
His ioyned quantity can part in two:
For (pure) it cannot Suffer ought, but Doo.
FINIS.
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3. The Fvries.
THE THIRD PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.
The Argvment.
The World's transform'd from what it was at first:For Adams sin all creatures else accurst:
Their Harmony distuned by His iar:
Yet all again concent, to make him war;
As, th'Elements, and aboue all, the Earth:
Three ghastly Fvries; Sickness, War, and Dearth,
A generall Muster of the Bodies Griefs:
The Soules Diseases, vnder sundry Chiefs:
Both, full of Horror, but the later most;
Where vgly Vice in Vertues Mask doth boast.
This's not the World. O! whither am I brought?
This Earth I tread, this hollow-hanging Vault,
Which Dayes reducing, and renewing Nights,
Renews the grief of mine afflicted sprights;
This Sea I sail, this troubled Ayr I sip,
Are not The First-weeks glorious Workmanship:
This wretched Round is not the goodly Globe
Th'Eternall trimmed in so various Robe:
'Tis but a Dungeon and a dreadfull Caue,
Of that first World the miserable Graue.
This Earth I tread, this hollow-hanging Vault,
Which Dayes reducing, and renewing Nights,
Renews the grief of mine afflicted sprights;
This Sea I sail, this troubled Ayr I sip,
Are not The First-weeks glorious Workmanship:
This wretched Round is not the goodly Globe
Th'Eternall trimmed in so various Robe:
'Tis but a Dungeon and a dreadfull Caue,
Of that first World the miserable Graue.
All-quickning Spirit, great God, that (iustly-strange,
Iudge-turned-Father) wrought'st this wondrous change,
Change and new-mould me; Lord, thy hand assist,
That in my Muse appear no earthly mist:
Make me thine organ, giue my voyce dexterity
Sadly to sing this sad Change to Posterity.
Iudge-turned-Father) wrought'st this wondrous change,
Change and new-mould me; Lord, thy hand assist,
That in my Muse appear no earthly mist:
Make me thine organ, giue my voyce dexterity
Sadly to sing this sad Change to Posterity.
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And, bountious Giuer of each perfect gift,
So tune my voyce to his sweet-sacred Clift,
That in each strain my rude vnready tong
Be liuely Eccho of his learned Song.
And, hence-forth, let our holy Musick rauish
All well-born Soules, from fancies lewdly-lauish
(Of charming Sin the deep-inchaunting Syrens,
The snares of vertue, valour-softning Hyrens)
That toucht with terror of thine indignation,
Presented in this wofull Alteration,
We all may seek; by prayer and true repentance,
To shun the rigour of thy wrathfull Sentence.
So tune my voyce to his sweet-sacred Clift,
That in each strain my rude vnready tong
Be liuely Eccho of his learned Song.
And, hence-forth, let our holy Musick rauish
All well-born Soules, from fancies lewdly-lauish
(Of charming Sin the deep-inchaunting Syrens,
The snares of vertue, valour-softning Hyrens)
That toucht with terror of thine indignation,
Presented in this wofull Alteration,
We all may seek; by prayer and true repentance,
To shun the rigour of thy wrathfull Sentence.
But, yer we farther pass, our slender Bark
Must heer strike top-sails to a Princely Ark
Which keeps these Straights: He hails vs threatfully,
Star-boord our helm; Com vnderneath his Lee.
Ho, Whence your Bark? Of Zeal-land: Whither bound?
For Vertues Cape: What lading? Hope. This Sound
You should not pass; saue that your voyage tends
To benefit our Neighbours and our Frends.
Thanks, Kingly Captain; daign vs then (we pray)
Som skilfull Pylot through this Fvriovs Bay;
Or, in this Chanell, sith we are to learn,
Vouchsafe to togh vs at your Royall Stern.
Must heer strike top-sails to a Princely Ark
Which keeps these Straights: He hails vs threatfully,
Star-boord our helm; Com vnderneath his Lee.
Ho, Whence your Bark? Of Zeal-land: Whither bound?
For Vertues Cape: What lading? Hope. This Sound
You should not pass; saue that your voyage tends
To benefit our Neighbours and our Frends.
Thanks, Kingly Captain; daign vs then (we pray)
Som skilfull Pylot through this Fvriovs Bay;
Or, in this Chanell, sith we are to learn,
Vouchsafe to togh vs at your Royall Stern.
Yer That our Sire (O too too proudly-base)
Turn'd tail to God, and to the Fiend his face,
This mighty World did seem an Instrument
True-strung, well-tun'd, and handled excellent,
Whose symphony resounded sweetly-shrill
Th'Almighties praise, who play'd vpon it still.
While man serv'd God, the World serv'd him; the lyue
And liue-less creatures seemed all to striue
To nurse this league; and, loving zealously
These two deer Heads, embraced mutually:
In sweet accord, the base with high reioyc't,
The hot with cold, the solid with the moist;
And innocent Astræa did combine
All with the mastick of a loue divine.
Turn'd tail to God, and to the Fiend his face,
This mighty World did seem an Instrument
True-strung, well-tun'd, and handled excellent,
Whose symphony resounded sweetly-shrill
Th'Almighties praise, who play'd vpon it still.
While man serv'd God, the World serv'd him; the lyue
And liue-less creatures seemed all to striue
To nurse this league; and, loving zealously
These two deer Heads, embraced mutually:
In sweet accord, the base with high reioyc't,
The hot with cold, the solid with the moist;
And innocent Astræa did combine
All with the mastick of a loue divine.
For, th'hidden loue that now-adaies doth holde
The Steel and Load-stone, Hydrargire and Golde,
Th'Amber and straw; that lodgeth in one shell
Pearl-fish and Sharpling: and vnites so well
Sargons and Goats, the Sperage and the Rush,
Th'Elm and the Vine, th'Oliue and Myrtle-bush,
Is but a spark or shadow of that Loue
Which at the first in every thing did moue,
When as th'Earth's Muses with harmonious sound
To Heav'ns sweet Musick humbly did resound.
But Adam, being chief of all the strings
Of this large Lute, o're-retched, quickly brings
All out of tune: and now for melody.
Of warbling Charms, it yels so hideously,
That it affrights fell Enyon, who turmoils
To raise again th'old Chaos antick broils:
The Steel and Load-stone, Hydrargire and Golde,
Th'Amber and straw; that lodgeth in one shell
Pearl-fish and Sharpling: and vnites so well
Sargons and Goats, the Sperage and the Rush,
Th'Elm and the Vine, th'Oliue and Myrtle-bush,
Is but a spark or shadow of that Loue
Which at the first in every thing did moue,
When as th'Earth's Muses with harmonious sound
To Heav'ns sweet Musick humbly did resound.
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Of this large Lute, o're-retched, quickly brings
All out of tune: and now for melody.
Of warbling Charms, it yels so hideously,
That it affrights fell Enyon, who turmoils
To raise again th'old Chaos antick broils:
Heav'n, that still smiling on his Paramour,
Still in her lap did Mel and Manna pour,
Now with his hail, his rain, his frost and heat,
Doth parch, and pinch, and over-whelm, and bear,
And hoares her head with Snowes, and (iealous) dashes
Against her brows his fiery lightning slashes:
Still in her lap did Mel and Manna pour,
Now with his hail, his rain, his frost and heat,
Doth parch, and pinch, and over-whelm, and bear,
And hoares her head with Snowes, and (iealous) dashes
Against her brows his fiery lightning slashes:
On th'other side, the sullen, envious Earth
From blackest Cels of her foul brest sends forth
A thousand foggy fumes, which every-where
With cloudy mists Heav'ns crystall front besmear.
From blackest Cels of her foul brest sends forth
A thousand foggy fumes, which every-where
With cloudy mists Heav'ns crystall front besmear.
Since that, the Woolf the trembling Sheep pursues;
The crowing Cock, the Lion stout eschews:
The Pullein hide them from the Puttock's flight,
The Mastiffe's mute at the Hyænas sight:
Yea (who would think it?) these fell enmities
Rage in the sense-less trunks of Plants and Trees:
The Vine, the Cole; the Cole-wort Swines-bread dreads,
The Fearn abhors the hollow waving Reeds:
The Oliue and the Oak participate,
Even to their earth, signes of their ancient hate,
Which suffers not (O date-less discord!) th'one
Liue in that ground where th'other first hath growen.
O strange instinct! O deep immortall rage,
Whose fiery fewd no Læthe sloud can swage!
The crowing Cock, the Lion stout eschews:
The Pullein hide them from the Puttock's flight,
The Mastiffe's mute at the Hyænas sight:
Yea (who would think it?) these fell enmities
Rage in the sense-less trunks of Plants and Trees:
The Vine, the Cole; the Cole-wort Swines-bread dreads,
The Fearn abhors the hollow waving Reeds:
The Oliue and the Oak participate,
Even to their earth, signes of their ancient hate,
Which suffers not (O date-less discord!) th'one
Liue in that ground where th'other first hath growen.
O strange instinct! O deep immortall rage,
Whose fiery fewd no Læthe sloud can swage!
So, at the sound of Wolf-Drums rattling thunder
Th'affrighted Sheep-skin-Drum doth rent in sunder:
So, that fell Monsters twisted entrails cuts
(By secret powr) the poor Lambs twined guts,
Which (after death) in steed of bleating mute,
Are taught to speak vpon an Yvory Lute:
And so the Princely Eagles ravening plumes
The feathers of all other Fowls consumes.
Th'affrighted Sheep-skin-Drum doth rent in sunder:
So, that fell Monsters twisted entrails cuts
(By secret powr) the poor Lambs twined guts,
Which (after death) in steed of bleating mute,
Are taught to speak vpon an Yvory Lute:
And so the Princely Eagles ravening plumes
The feathers of all other Fowls consumes.
The First-mov'd Heav'n (in 't self it self still stirring)
Rapts with his course (quicker then windes swift whirring)
All th'other Sphears, and to Alcides Spyres
From Alexanders Altars driues their Fires:
But mortall Adam, Monarch heer beneath,
Erring draws all into the paths of death;
And on rough Seas, as a blinde Pilot rash,
Against the rock of Heav'ns iust wrath doth dash
The Worlds great Vessell, sayling yerst at ease,
With gentle gales, good guide, on quiet Seas.
Rapts with his course (quicker then windes swift whirring)
All th'other Sphears, and to Alcides Spyres
From Alexanders Altars driues their Fires:
But mortall Adam, Monarch heer beneath,
Erring draws all into the paths of death;
And on rough Seas, as a blinde Pilot rash,
Against the rock of Heav'ns iust wrath doth dash
The Worlds great Vessell, sayling yerst at ease,
With gentle gales, good guide, on quiet Seas.
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For (yer his Fall) which way so e'r he rowl'd
His wondering eyes God every-where behold;
In Heav'n, in Earth, in Ocean, and in Ayr,
He sees, and feels, and findes him every-where.
The World was like a large and sumptuous Shop
Where God his goodly treasures did vnwrap:
Or Crystall glass most linely representing.
His sacred Goodness, every-where frequenting.
His wondering eyes God every-where behold;
In Heav'n, in Earth, in Ocean, and in Ayr,
He sees, and feels, and findes him every-where.
The World was like a large and sumptuous Shop
Where God his goodly treasures did vnwrap:
Or Crystall glass most linely representing.
His sacred Goodness, every-where frequenting.
But, since his sin, the wofull wretch findes none
Herb, garden, groue, field, fountain, stream or stone,
Beast, mountain, valley, sea-gate, shoar or haven,
But bears his Deaths-doom openly ingraven:
In brief, the whole scope this round Centre hath,
Is a true store-house of Heav'ns righteous wrath.
Herb, garden, groue, field, fountain, stream or stone,
Beast, mountain, valley, sea-gate, shoar or haven,
But bears his Deaths-doom openly ingraven:
In brief, the whole scope this round Centre hath,
Is a true store-house of Heav'ns righteous wrath.
Rebellious Adam, from his God revolting,
Findes his yerst-subiects 'gainst himselfe insulting:
The tumbling Sea, the Ayr with tempests driven,
Thorn-bristled Earth, the sad and lowring Heav'n
(As from the oath of their allegeance free)
Revenge on him th'Almighties iniury.
Findes his yerst-subiects 'gainst himselfe insulting:
The tumbling Sea, the Ayr with tempests driven,
Thorn-bristled Earth, the sad and lowring Heav'n
(As from the oath of their allegeance free)
Revenge on him th'Almighties iniury.
The Stars coniur'd through envious Influence,
By secret Hang-men punish his offence:
The Sun with heat, the Moon with cold doth vex-him,
Th'Ayr with vnlookt-for sudden changes checks-him,
With fogs and frosts, hails, snowes, and sulph'ry thunders,
Blasting, and storms, and more prodigious wonders.
By secret Hang-men punish his offence:
The Sun with heat, the Moon with cold doth vex-him,
Th'Ayr with vnlookt-for sudden changes checks-him,
With fogs and frosts, hails, snowes, and sulph'ry thunders,
Blasting, and storms, and more prodigious wonders.
Fire, fall'n from Heav'n, or else by Art incited,
Or by mischance in som rich building lighted,
Or from som Mountains burning bowels throw'n,
Repleat with Sulphur, Pitch, and Pumy stone,
With sparkling fury spreads, and in few hours
The labour of a thousand years devours.
Or by mischance in som rich building lighted,
Or from som Mountains burning bowels throw'n,
Repleat with Sulphur, Pitch, and Pumy stone,
With sparkling fury spreads, and in few hours
The labour of a thousand years devours.
The grieved Earth, to ease her (as it seems)
Of such profane accursed weight, somtimes
Swallowes whole Countries, and the airie tops
Of Prince-proud towrs, in her black womb she wraps.
And in despight of him, abhord and hatefull
She many waies proues barren and ingratefull:
Mocking our hopes, turning our seed-Wheat-kernel
To burn-grain Thistle, and to vapourie Darnel,
Cockle, wilde Oats, rough Burs, Corn-cumbring Tares,
Short Recompence for all our costly cares.
Of such profane accursed weight, somtimes
Swallowes whole Countries, and the airie tops
Of Prince-proud towrs, in her black womb she wraps.
And in despight of him, abhord and hatefull
She many waies proues barren and ingratefull:
Mocking our hopes, turning our seed-Wheat-kernel
To burn-grain Thistle, and to vapourie Darnel,
Cockle, wilde Oats, rough Burs, Corn-cumbring Tares,
Short Recompence for all our costly cares.
Yet this were little, if she more malicious,
Fell stepdame, brought vs not Plants more pernicious:
As sable Henbane; Morell, making mad:
Cold poysoning Poppy, itching, drowsie, sad:
The stifning Carpese, th'eyes-foe Hemlock stinking,
Limb-numming belching: and the sinew-shrinking
Dead-laughing Apium, weeping Aconite
(Which in our Vulgar deadly Wolfs-bane hight)
The dropsie-breeding, sorrow-bringing Psylly
(Heer called Flea-Wurt) Colchis banefull Lilly,
(With vs Wilde-Saffron) blistring byting fell:
Hot Napell, making lips and tongue to swell:
Blood-boyling Yew, and costiue Misseltoe:
With yce-cold Mandrake, and a many mo
Such fatall plants; whose fruit, seed, sap, or root,
T'vntimely Grace doe bring our heed-less foot.
Fell stepdame, brought vs not Plants more pernicious:
As sable Henbane; Morell, making mad:
Cold poysoning Poppy, itching, drowsie, sad:
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Limb-numming belching: and the sinew-shrinking
Dead-laughing Apium, weeping Aconite
(Which in our Vulgar deadly Wolfs-bane hight)
The dropsie-breeding, sorrow-bringing Psylly
(Heer called Flea-Wurt) Colchis banefull Lilly,
(With vs Wilde-Saffron) blistring byting fell:
Hot Napell, making lips and tongue to swell:
Blood-boyling Yew, and costiue Misseltoe:
With yce-cold Mandrake, and a many mo
Such fatall plants; whose fruit, seed, sap, or root,
T'vntimely Grace doe bring our heed-less foot.
Besides, she knowes, we brutish value more,
Then Liues or Honours, her rich glittering Ore:
That Auarice our bound-less thought still vexes:
Therefore among her wreakfull baits she mixes
Quick siluer Lithargie and Orpiment,
Where with our entrails are oft gnawn and rent:
So that somtimes; for Body, and for Minde,
Torture and torment, in one Mine we finde.
Then Liues or Honours, her rich glittering Ore:
That Auarice our bound-less thought still vexes:
Therefore among her wreakfull baits she mixes
Quick siluer Lithargie and Orpiment,
Where with our entrails are oft gnawn and rent:
So that somtimes; for Body, and for Minde,
Torture and torment, in one Mine we finde.
What resteth more? The Masters skilfull most,
With gentle gales driv'n to the wished Coast,
Not with less labour guide their winged wayns
On th'azure fore-head of the liquid plains:
Nor crafty Iugglers, can more easily make
Their selfe-liv'd Puppets (for their lucres fake)
To skip, and scud, and play, and prate, and praunce,
And fight, and fall, and trip, and turn, and daunce:
Then happy we did rule the scaly Legions
That dumbly dwell in stormy water-Regions;
Then feathered singers, and the stubborn droues
That haunt the Desarts and the shady Groues:
At every word they trembled then for aw,
And every wink then serv'd them as a law;
And always bent all duty to obserue-vs,
Without command, stood ready still to serue-vs.
With gentle gales driv'n to the wished Coast,
Not with less labour guide their winged wayns
On th'azure fore-head of the liquid plains:
Nor crafty Iugglers, can more easily make
Their selfe-liv'd Puppets (for their lucres fake)
To skip, and scud, and play, and prate, and praunce,
And fight, and fall, and trip, and turn, and daunce:
Then happy we did rule the scaly Legions
That dumbly dwell in stormy water-Regions;
Then feathered singers, and the stubborn droues
That haunt the Desarts and the shady Groues:
At every word they trembled then for aw,
And every wink then serv'd them as a law;
And always bent all duty to obserue-vs,
Without command, stood ready still to serue-vs.
But now (alas!) through our fond Parents fall,
They (of our slaues) are growen our tyrants all.
Wend we by Sea? the drad Leuiathan
Turns vpside-down the boyling Ocean,
And on the suddain sadly doth intoomb
Our floting Castle in deep Thetis womb;
Yerst in the welkin like an Eagle towring,
And on the water like a Dolphin scowring.
Walk we by Land? how many loathsom swarms
Of speckled poysons, with pestiferous arms,
In every corner in close Ambush lurk
With secret bands our sodain banes to work?
Besides, the Lion and the Leopard,
Boar, Beare, and Wolf to death pursue vs hard;
And, ielous vengers of the wrongs divine,
In peeces pull their Soverains sinfull line.
The huge thick Forrests haue nor bush nor brake
But hides som Hang-man our loath'd life to take:
In every hedge and ditch both day and night
We fear our death, of every leafe affright.
Rest we at home? the Masty fierce in force,
Th'vntamed Bull, the hot courageous Horse,
With teeth, with horns, and hooues besiege vs round,
As griev'd to see such tyrants tread the ground:
And ther's no Fly so small but now dares bring
Her little wrath against her quondam King.
They (of our slaues) are growen our tyrants all.
Wend we by Sea? the drad Leuiathan
Turns vpside-down the boyling Ocean,
And on the suddain sadly doth intoomb
Our floting Castle in deep Thetis womb;
Yerst in the welkin like an Eagle towring,
And on the water like a Dolphin scowring.
Walk we by Land? how many loathsom swarms
Of speckled poysons, with pestiferous arms,
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With secret bands our sodain banes to work?
Besides, the Lion and the Leopard,
Boar, Beare, and Wolf to death pursue vs hard;
And, ielous vengers of the wrongs divine,
In peeces pull their Soverains sinfull line.
The huge thick Forrests haue nor bush nor brake
But hides som Hang-man our loath'd life to take:
In every hedge and ditch both day and night
We fear our death, of every leafe affright.
Rest we at home? the Masty fierce in force,
Th'vntamed Bull, the hot courageous Horse,
With teeth, with horns, and hooues besiege vs round,
As griev'd to see such tyrants tread the ground:
And ther's no Fly so small but now dares bring
Her little wrath against her quondam King.
What hideous sights? what horror-boading showes?
Alas, what yels? what howls? what thund'ring throws?
O! Am I not neer roaring Phlegeton?
Alecto, sad Meger' and Thesiphon?
What spels haue charm'd ye from your dreadfull den
Of darkest Hell? Monsters abhord of men,
O Nights black daughters, grim-faç't Furies sad,
Stern Plutos Postes, what make ye heer so mad?
O! feels not man a world of wofull terrors,
Besides your goaring wounds and ghastly horrors?
Alas, what yels? what howls? what thund'ring throws?
O! Am I not neer roaring Phlegeton?
Alecto, sad Meger' and Thesiphon?
What spels haue charm'd ye from your dreadfull den
Of darkest Hell? Monsters abhord of men,
O Nights black daughters, grim-faç't Furies sad,
Stern Plutos Postes, what make ye heer so mad?
O! feels not man a world of wofull terrors,
Besides your goaring wounds and ghastly horrors?
So soon as God from Eden Adam draue,
To liue in this Earth (rather in this Graue,
Where raign a thousand deaths) he summon'd-vp
With thundering call the damned Crew, that sup
Of Sulphury Styx, and fiery Phlegeton,
Bloody Cocytus, muddy Acheron.
To liue in this Earth (rather in this Graue,
Where raign a thousand deaths) he summon'd-vp
With thundering call the damned Crew, that sup
Of Sulphury Styx, and fiery Phlegeton,
Bloody Cocytus, muddy Acheron.
Come snake-trest Sisters, com ye dismall Elves,
Cease now to curse and cruciate your selues:
Com, leaue the horror of your houses pale,
Com, parbreak heer your foul, black, banefull gall:
Let lack of work no more from henceforth fear-you,
Man by his sin a hundred hells doth rear-you.
Cease now to curse and cruciate your selues:
Com, leaue the horror of your houses pale,
Com, parbreak heer your foul, black, banefull gall:
Let lack of work no more from henceforth fear-you,
Man by his sin a hundred hells doth rear-you.
This eccho made whole hell to tremble troubled,
The drowsie Night her deep dark horrors doubled,
And suddainly Auernus Gulf did swim
With Rozin, Pitch, and Brimstone to the brim,
And th'vgly Gorgons, and the Sphinxes fel,
Hydraes and Harpies gan to yawn and yel.
The drowsie Night her deep dark horrors doubled,
And suddainly Auernus Gulf did swim
With Rozin, Pitch, and Brimstone to the brim,
And th'vgly Gorgons, and the Sphinxes fel,
Hydraes and Harpies gan to yawn and yel.
As the heat, hidden in a vapoury Cloud,
Striuing for issue with strange murmurs loud,
Like Guns astuns, with round-round-rumbling thunder
Filling the Ayr with noyse, the Earth with wonder:
So the three Sisters, the three hideous Rages,
Raise thousand storms, leaving th'infernal stages.
Striuing for issue with strange murmurs loud,
Like Guns astuns, with round-round-rumbling thunder
Filling the Ayr with noyse, the Earth with wonder:
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Raise thousand storms, leaving th'infernal stages.
Already all rowle-on their steely Cars
On th'ever-shaking nine-fould steely bars
Of Stygian Bridge, and in that fearefull Caue
They iumble, tumble, rumble, rage and raue.
Then dreadfull Hydra, and dire Cerberus
Which on one body, beareth (monsterous)
The heads of Dragon, Dog, Ounse, Bear, and Bull,
Wolf, Lion, Horse (of strength and stomack full)
Lifting his lungs, he hisses, barks and brays,
He howls, he yels, he bellows, roars, and neighs:
Such a black Sant, such a confused sound
From many-headed bodies doth rebound.
On th'ever-shaking nine-fould steely bars
Of Stygian Bridge, and in that fearefull Caue
They iumble, tumble, rumble, rage and raue.
Then dreadfull Hydra, and dire Cerberus
Which on one body, beareth (monsterous)
The heads of Dragon, Dog, Ounse, Bear, and Bull,
Wolf, Lion, Horse (of strength and stomack full)
Lifting his lungs, he hisses, barks and brays,
He howls, he yels, he bellows, roars, and neighs:
Such a black Sant, such a confused sound
From many-headed bodies doth rebound.
Hauing attain'd to our calm Hav'n of light,
With swifter course then Boreas nimble flight,
All fly at Man, all at intestine strife,
Who most may torture his detested life.
With swifter course then Boreas nimble flight,
All fly at Man, all at intestine strife,
Who most may torture his detested life.
Heer first coms Dearth, the liuely form of Death,
Still yawning wide, with loathsom stinking breath,
With holloweys, with meager cheeks and chin,
With sharp lean bones pearcing her sable skin:
Her empty bowels may be plainly spy'd
Clean through the wrinkles of her withered hide:
She hath no belly, but the bellies seat,
Her knees and knuckles swelling hugely great:
Insatiate Orque, that even at one repast,
Almost all creatures in the World would waste;
Whose greedy gorge, dish after dish doth draw,
Seeks meat in meat. For, still her monstrous maw
Voyds in deuouring, and somtimes she eates
Her own deer Babes for lack of other meats:
Nay more, sometimes (O strangest gluttony!)
She eats her selfe, her selfe to satisfie;
Lessening her self, her selfe so to inlarge:
And cruell thus she doth our Grand-sire charge;
And brings besides from Limbo, to assist-her,
Rage, Feeblenes, and Thirst, her ruth-less sister.
Still yawning wide, with loathsom stinking breath,
With holloweys, with meager cheeks and chin,
With sharp lean bones pearcing her sable skin:
Her empty bowels may be plainly spy'd
Clean through the wrinkles of her withered hide:
She hath no belly, but the bellies seat,
Her knees and knuckles swelling hugely great:
Insatiate Orque, that even at one repast,
Almost all creatures in the World would waste;
Whose greedy gorge, dish after dish doth draw,
Seeks meat in meat. For, still her monstrous maw
Voyds in deuouring, and somtimes she eates
Her own deer Babes for lack of other meats:
Nay more, sometimes (O strangest gluttony!)
She eats her selfe, her selfe to satisfie;
Lessening her self, her selfe so to inlarge:
And cruell thus she doth our Grand-sire charge;
And brings besides from Limbo, to assist-her,
Rage, Feeblenes, and Thirst, her ruth-less sister.
Next marcheth Warr, the mistriss of enormity,
Mother of mischiefe, monster of Deformity:
Laws, Manners, Arts, shee breaks, she mars, she chaces:
Blood, tears, bowrs, towrs; she spils, swils, burns, and razes:
Her brazen feet shake all the Earth asunder,
Her mouth's a fire-brand, and her voice a thunder,
Her looks are lightnings, every glaunce a flash:
Her fingers guns, that all to powder pash.
Fear and Despaire, Flight and Disorder, coast
With hasty march, before her murderous hoast:
As, Burning, Waste, Rape, Wrong, Impiety,
Rage, Ruine, Discord, Horror, Cruelty,
Sack, Sacriledge, Impunity, and Pride,
Are still stern consorts by her barbarous side:
And Pouerty, Sorrow, and Desolation,
Follow her Armies bloody transmigration.
Mother of mischiefe, monster of Deformity:
Laws, Manners, Arts, shee breaks, she mars, she chaces:
Blood, tears, bowrs, towrs; she spils, swils, burns, and razes:
Her brazen feet shake all the Earth asunder,
Her mouth's a fire-brand, and her voice a thunder,
Her looks are lightnings, every glaunce a flash:
Her fingers guns, that all to powder pash.
Fear and Despaire, Flight and Disorder, coast
With hasty march, before her murderous hoast:
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Rage, Ruine, Discord, Horror, Cruelty,
Sack, Sacriledge, Impunity, and Pride,
Are still stern consorts by her barbarous side:
And Pouerty, Sorrow, and Desolation,
Follow her Armies bloody transmigration.
Heer's th'other Fvrie (or my iudgement fails)
Which furiously mans wofull life assails
With thousand Cannons, sooner felt then seen,
Where weakest strongest; fraught with deadly teen:
Blinde, crooked, cripple, maymed, deaf, and mad,
Cold-burning, blistered, melancholik, sad,
Many-nam'd poyson, minister of Death,
Which from vs creeps, but to vs gallopeth:
Foul, trouble-rest, fantastik, greedy-gut,
Blood-sweating, hearts-theef, wretched, filthy Slut,
The Childe of Surfait, and Ayrs-temper vicious,
Perillous knowen, but vnknowne most pernitious.
Which furiously mans wofull life assails
With thousand Cannons, sooner felt then seen,
Where weakest strongest; fraught with deadly teen:
Blinde, crooked, cripple, maymed, deaf, and mad,
Cold-burning, blistered, melancholik, sad,
Many-nam'd poyson, minister of Death,
Which from vs creeps, but to vs gallopeth:
Foul, trouble-rest, fantastik, greedy-gut,
Blood-sweating, hearts-theef, wretched, filthy Slut,
The Childe of Surfait, and Ayrs-temper vicious,
Perillous knowen, but vnknowne most pernitious.
Th'inammeld meads, in Sommer cannot showe
More Grashoppers aboue, nor Frogs belowe,
Then hellish murmurs heer about doe ring:
Nor never did the prety little King
Of Hony-people, in a Sun-shine day
Lead to the field in orderly array
More busie buzzers, when he casteth (witty)
The first foundations of his waxen Citty;
Then this fierce Monster musters in her train
Fel Souldiers, charging poor mankind amain.
More Grashoppers aboue, nor Frogs belowe,
Then hellish murmurs heer about doe ring:
Nor never did the prety little King
Of Hony-people, in a Sun-shine day
Lead to the field in orderly array
More busie buzzers, when he casteth (witty)
The first foundations of his waxen Citty;
Then this fierce Monster musters in her train
Fel Souldiers, charging poor mankind amain.
Lo, first a rough and furious Regiment
T'assault the Fort of Adams head is sent,
Reasons best Bulwark, and the holy Cell
Wherein the soules most sacred powers dwell.
T'assault the Fort of Adams head is sent,
Reasons best Bulwark, and the holy Cell
Wherein the soules most sacred powers dwell.
A King, that ayms his neighbours Crown to win,
Before the brute of open warrs begin,
Corrupts his Councell with rich recompences;
For, in good Councell stands the strength of Princes:
So this fell Fury, for fore-runners, sends
Manie and Phrenzie to suborne her frends:
Whereof, th'one drying, th'other over-warming
The feeble brain (the edge of iudgement harming)
Within the Soule fantastikly they fain
A confus'd hoast of strange Chimeraes vain,
The Karos th'Apoplexie, and Lethargie,
As forlorn hope, assault the enemy
On the same side; but yet with weapons others:
For, they freez-vp the brain and all his brothers;
Making a liue man like a liue-less carcass,
Saue that again he scapeth from the Parcas.
And now the Palsie, and the Cramp dispose
Their angry darts; this bindes, and that doth lose
Mans feeble sinews, shutting vp the way
Whereby before the vitall spirits did play.
Before the brute of open warrs begin,
Corrupts his Councell with rich recompences;
For, in good Councell stands the strength of Princes:
So this fell Fury, for fore-runners, sends
Manie and Phrenzie to suborne her frends:
Whereof, th'one drying, th'other over-warming
The feeble brain (the edge of iudgement harming)
Within the Soule fantastikly they fain
A confus'd hoast of strange Chimeraes vain,
The Karos th'Apoplexie, and Lethargie,
As forlorn hope, assault the enemy
On the same side; but yet with weapons others:
For, they freez-vp the brain and all his brothers;
Making a liue man like a liue-less carcass,
Saue that again he scapeth from the Parcas.
209
Their angry darts; this bindes, and that doth lose
Mans feeble sinews, shutting vp the way
Whereby before the vitall spirits did play.
Then as a man, that fronts in single Fight
His suddain foe, his ground doth trauerse light,
Thrusts, wards, auoids and best advantage spies,
At last (to daze his Riuals sparkling eyes)
He casts his Cloak, and then with coward knife,
In crimsin streams he makes him strain his life:
So Sicknes, Adam to subdue the better
(Whom thousand Gyues al-ready fastly fetter)
Brings to the field the faith-less Ophthalmy
With scalding blood to blind her enemy,
Darting a thousand thrusts; then she is backt
By th'Amafrose and cloudy Cataract,
That (gathering-vp gross humors inwardly
In th'Optike sinnew) clean puts out the ey:
This other caseth in an enuious caul
The Crystall humour shining in the ball.
His suddain foe, his ground doth trauerse light,
Thrusts, wards, auoids and best advantage spies,
At last (to daze his Riuals sparkling eyes)
He casts his Cloak, and then with coward knife,
In crimsin streams he makes him strain his life:
So Sicknes, Adam to subdue the better
(Whom thousand Gyues al-ready fastly fetter)
Brings to the field the faith-less Ophthalmy
With scalding blood to blind her enemy,
Darting a thousand thrusts; then she is backt
By th'Amafrose and cloudy Cataract,
That (gathering-vp gross humors inwardly
In th'Optike sinnew) clean puts out the ey:
This other caseth in an enuious caul
The Crystall humour shining in the ball.
This past: in-steps that insolent insulter,
The cruell Quincy, leaping like a Vulture
At Adams throat, his hollow weasand swelling
Among the muscles, through thick bloods congealing,
Leauing him onely this Essay, for signe
Of's might and malice to his future-line:
Like Hercules, that in his infant-browes
Bore glorious marks of his vndaunted prowes,
When with his hands (like steely tongs) he strangled
His spightfull stepdams Dragons spotty-spangled;
A proof, præsaging the tryumphant spoyls
That he atchiv'd by his Twelue famous Toyls.
The cruell Quincy, leaping like a Vulture
At Adams throat, his hollow weasand swelling
Among the muscles, through thick bloods congealing,
Leauing him onely this Essay, for signe
Of's might and malice to his future-line:
Like Hercules, that in his infant-browes
Bore glorious marks of his vndaunted prowes,
When with his hands (like steely tongs) he strangled
His spightfull stepdams Dragons spotty-spangled;
A proof, præsaging the tryumphant spoyls
That he atchiv'd by his Twelue famous Toyls.
The second Regiment with deadly darts
Assaulteth fiercely Adam's vitall parts:
Al-ready th'Asthma, panting, breathing tough,
With humors gross the lifting Lungs doth stuff:
The pining Phthisick fills them all with pushes,
Whence a slowe spowt of cor'sie matter gushes:
A wasting flame the Peripneumony
Within those spunges kindles cruelly:
The spawling Empiem, ruth-less as the rest,
With foul impostumes fils his hollow chest:
The Pleurisie stabs him with desperate foyl
Beneath the ribs, where scalding blood doth boyl:
Then th'Incubus (by some suppos'd a spright)
With a thick phlegm doth stop his breath by night.
Assaulteth fiercely Adam's vitall parts:
Al-ready th'Asthma, panting, breathing tough,
With humors gross the lifting Lungs doth stuff:
The pining Phthisick fills them all with pushes,
Whence a slowe spowt of cor'sie matter gushes:
A wasting flame the Peripneumony
Within those spunges kindles cruelly:
The spawling Empiem, ruth-less as the rest,
With foul impostumes fils his hollow chest:
The Pleurisie stabs him with desperate foyl
Beneath the ribs, where scalding blood doth boyl:
Then th'Incubus (by some suppos'd a spright)
With a thick phlegm doth stop his breath by night.
Deer Muse, my guide; cleer truth that nought dissembles,
Name me that Champion that with fury trembles,
Who arm'd with blazing fire-brands, fiercely flings
At th'Armies heart, not at our feeble wings:
Hauing for Aids, Cough, Head-ache, Horror, Heat,
Pulse-beating, Burning, cold-distilling-Sweat,
Thirst, Yawning, Yolking, Casting, Shiuering, Shaking,
Fantastick Rauing, and continuall Aking,
With many mo: O! is not this the Fury
We call the Feuer? whose inconstant fury
Transforms her ofter then Vertumnus can,
To Tertian, Quartan, and Quotidian,
And Second too; now posting, somtimes pawsing,
Euen as the matter, all these changes causing,
Is rommidged with motions slowe or quick
In feeble bodies of the Ague-sick.
Name me that Champion that with fury trembles,
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At th'Armies heart, not at our feeble wings:
Hauing for Aids, Cough, Head-ache, Horror, Heat,
Pulse-beating, Burning, cold-distilling-Sweat,
Thirst, Yawning, Yolking, Casting, Shiuering, Shaking,
Fantastick Rauing, and continuall Aking,
With many mo: O! is not this the Fury
We call the Feuer? whose inconstant fury
Transforms her ofter then Vertumnus can,
To Tertian, Quartan, and Quotidian,
And Second too; now posting, somtimes pawsing,
Euen as the matter, all these changes causing,
Is rommidged with motions slowe or quick
In feeble bodies of the Ague-sick.
Ah trecherous beast! needs must I knowe thee best:
For foure whole years thou wert my poor harts guest,
And to this day in body and in minde
I beare the marks of thy despight vnkind:
For yet (besides my veins and bones bereft
Of blood and marrow) through thy secret theft
I feel the vertue of my spirit decayd,
Th'Enthousiasmos of my Muse allaid:
My memory (which hath been meetly good)
Is now (alas!) much like the fleeting flood;
Whereon no sooner haue we drawn a line
But it is canceld, leauing there no signe:
For, the deere fruit of all my care and cost,
My former study (almost all) is lost,
And oft in secret haue I blushed at
Mine ignorance: like Coruine, who forgat
His proper name; or like George Trapezunce
(Learned in youth, and in his age a Dunce).
And thence it growes, that maugre my endeuour
My Numbers still by habite haue the Feuer;
One-while with heat of heauenly fire ensoul'd;
Shivering anon, through faint vn-learned cold.
For foure whole years thou wert my poor harts guest,
And to this day in body and in minde
I beare the marks of thy despight vnkind:
For yet (besides my veins and bones bereft
Of blood and marrow) through thy secret theft
I feel the vertue of my spirit decayd,
Th'Enthousiasmos of my Muse allaid:
My memory (which hath been meetly good)
Is now (alas!) much like the fleeting flood;
Whereon no sooner haue we drawn a line
But it is canceld, leauing there no signe:
For, the deere fruit of all my care and cost,
My former study (almost all) is lost,
And oft in secret haue I blushed at
Mine ignorance: like Coruine, who forgat
His proper name; or like George Trapezunce
(Learned in youth, and in his age a Dunce).
And thence it growes, that maugre my endeuour
My Numbers still by habite haue the Feuer;
One-while with heat of heauenly fire ensoul'd;
Shivering anon, through faint vn-learned cold.
Now, the third Regiment with stormy stours
Sets-on the Squadron of our Naturall Powers,
Which happily maintain vs (duly) both
With needfull food, and with sufficient growth.
One-while the Boulime, then the Anorexie,
Then the Dog-hunger, or the Bradypepsie,
And childe-great Pica (of prodigious diet)
In straightest stomacks rage with monstrous ryot:
Then on the Liver doth the Iaundize fall,
Stopping the passage of the cholerick Gall;
Which then, for good blood, scatters all about
Her fiery poyson, yellowing all without:
But the sad Dropsie freezeth it extream,
Till all the blood be turned into fleam.
Sets-on the Squadron of our Naturall Powers,
Which happily maintain vs (duly) both
With needfull food, and with sufficient growth.
One-while the Boulime, then the Anorexie,
Then the Dog-hunger, or the Bradypepsie,
And childe-great Pica (of prodigious diet)
In straightest stomacks rage with monstrous ryot:
Then on the Liver doth the Iaundize fall,
Stopping the passage of the cholerick Gall;
Which then, for good blood, scatters all about
Her fiery poyson, yellowing all without:
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Till all the blood be turned into fleam.
But see (alas!) by far more cruell foes
The slippery bowels thrill'd with thousand throes:
With prisoned windes the wringing Colick pains-them,
The Iliack passion with more rigour strains-them,
Streightens their Conduits, and (detested) makes
Mans mouth (alas!) euen like a lothsom Iakes.
Then, the Dysentery with fretting pains
Extorteth pure blood from the flayed veins.
On th'other side, the Stone and Strangury,
Torturing the Reins with deadly tyranny,
With heat-concreted sand-heaps strangely stop
The burning vrine, strained drop by drop:
As opposite, the Diabete by melting
Our bodies substance in our Vrine swelting,
Distills vs still, as long as any matter
Vnto the spout can send supply of water.
The slippery bowels thrill'd with thousand throes:
With prisoned windes the wringing Colick pains-them,
The Iliack passion with more rigour strains-them,
Streightens their Conduits, and (detested) makes
Mans mouth (alas!) euen like a lothsom Iakes.
Then, the Dysentery with fretting pains
Extorteth pure blood from the flayed veins.
On th'other side, the Stone and Strangury,
Torturing the Reins with deadly tyranny,
With heat-concreted sand-heaps strangely stop
The burning vrine, strained drop by drop:
As opposite, the Diabete by melting
Our bodies substance in our Vrine swelting,
Distills vs still, as long as any matter
Vnto the spout can send supply of water.
Vnto those parts, wherby we leaue behind-vs
Types of our selues in after-times to mind-vs,
There fiercely flies defectiue Venery,
And the foul, feeble, fruit-less Gonorrhe
(An impotence for Generations-deed,
And lust-less Issue of th'vncocted seed)
Remorse-less tyrants, that to spoyl aspire
Babes vnconceiv'd in hatred of their Sire.
Types of our selues in after-times to mind-vs,
There fiercely flies defectiue Venery,
And the foul, feeble, fruit-less Gonorrhe
(An impotence for Generations-deed,
And lust-less Issue of th'vncocted seed)
Remorse-less tyrants, that to spoyl aspire
Babes vnconceiv'd in hatred of their Sire.
The fell fourth Regiment, is outward Tumours
Begot of vicious indigested humours:
As Phlegmons, Oedems, Schyrrhes, Erysipiles,
Kings-euils, Cankers, cruell Gouts, and Byles,
Wens, Ring-worms, Tetters: these from euery part
With thousand pangs braue the besieged hart:
And their blind fury, wanting force and courage
To hurt the Fort, the champain Country forrage.
Begot of vicious indigested humours:
As Phlegmons, Oedems, Schyrrhes, Erysipiles,
Kings-euils, Cankers, cruell Gouts, and Byles,
Wens, Ring-worms, Tetters: these from euery part
With thousand pangs braue the besieged hart:
And their blind fury, wanting force and courage
To hurt the Fort, the champain Country forrage.
O tyrants! sheath your feeble swords again:
For, Death al-ready thousand-times hath slain
Your Enemy; and yet your enuious rigour
Doth mar his feature and his limbs disfigure.
And with a dull and ragged instrument
His ioynts and skin are saw'd, and torn, and rent.
Methinks most rightly to a coward Crew
Of Wolues and Foxes I resemble you,
Who in a Forrest (finding on the sand
The Lyon dead, that did aliue command
The Land about, whose awfull Countenance
Melted, far off, their yce-like arrogance)
Mangle the members of their liue-less Prince,
With feeble signes of dastard insolence.
For, Death al-ready thousand-times hath slain
Your Enemy; and yet your enuious rigour
Doth mar his feature and his limbs disfigure.
And with a dull and ragged instrument
His ioynts and skin are saw'd, and torn, and rent.
Methinks most rightly to a coward Crew
Of Wolues and Foxes I resemble you,
Who in a Forrest (finding on the sand
The Lyon dead, that did aliue command
The Land about, whose awfull Countenance
Melted, far off, their yce-like arrogance)
Mangle the members of their liue-less Prince,
With feeble signes of dastard insolence.
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But, with the Griefs that charge our outward places,
Shall I account the loathsome Phthiriasis?
O shamefull Plague! O foul infirmitie!
Which makes proud Kings, fouler then Beggers be
(That wrapt in rags, and wrung with vermin sore,
Their itching backs sit shrugging euermore)
To swarm with Lice, that rubbing cannon rid,
Nor often shift of shirts, and sheets, and bed:
For, as in springs, stream stream pursueth fresh,
Swarm follows swarm, and their too fruitfull flesh
Breeds her own eaters, and (till Deaths arrest)
Makes of it selfe an execrable feast.
Shall I account the loathsome Phthiriasis?
O shamefull Plague! O foul infirmitie!
Which makes proud Kings, fouler then Beggers be
(That wrapt in rags, and wrung with vermin sore,
Their itching backs sit shrugging euermore)
To swarm with Lice, that rubbing cannon rid,
Nor often shift of shirts, and sheets, and bed:
For, as in springs, stream stream pursueth fresh,
Swarm follows swarm, and their too fruitfull flesh
Breeds her own eaters, and (till Deaths arrest)
Makes of it selfe an execrable feast.
Nor may we think, that Chance confusedly
Conducts the Camp of our Third Enemy:
For, of her Souldiers, som (as led by reason)
Can make their choice of Country, Age, and Season.
So Portugall hath Phthisiks most of all,
Eber Kings-euils; Arne the Suddain Fall;
Sauoy the Mumps; West-India, Pox; and Nyle
The Leprosie; Plague, the Sardinian-Ile,
After the influence of the Heav'ns all ruling,
Or Countries manners. So, soft Child-hood puling
Is wrung with Worms, begot of crudity,
Are apt to I aske through much humidity:
Through their salt phlegms, their heads are hid with skalls,
Their Limbs with Red-gums and with bloody balls
Of Menstruall humour which (like Must) within
Their bodies boyling buttoneth all their Skin.
To bloody-Flixes, Youth is apt inclining,
Continuall-Feuers, Phrenzies, Phthisik-pyning.
And feeble Age is seldom-times without
Her tedious guests, the Palsie and the Gout,
Coughes and Catarrhs. And so the Pestilence,
The quartan-Ague with her accidents,
The Flix, the Hip-gout, and the Watry-Tumour,
Are bred with vs of an Autumnal humour:
The Itch, the Murrein, and Alcides-grief,
In Ver's hot-moysture doe molest vs chief:
The Diarrhœa and the Burning-Feuer,
In Sommer-season doo their fell endevour:
And Pleurisies, the rotten-Coughes, and Rheums,
Wear curled flakes of white celestiall plumes:
Like sluggish Souldiers, keeping Garrison
In th'ycie Bulwarks of the Years gelt Son.
Conducts the Camp of our Third Enemy:
For, of her Souldiers, som (as led by reason)
Can make their choice of Country, Age, and Season.
So Portugall hath Phthisiks most of all,
Eber Kings-euils; Arne the Suddain Fall;
Sauoy the Mumps; West-India, Pox; and Nyle
The Leprosie; Plague, the Sardinian-Ile,
After the influence of the Heav'ns all ruling,
Or Countries manners. So, soft Child-hood puling
Is wrung with Worms, begot of crudity,
Are apt to I aske through much humidity:
Through their salt phlegms, their heads are hid with skalls,
Their Limbs with Red-gums and with bloody balls
Of Menstruall humour which (like Must) within
Their bodies boyling buttoneth all their Skin.
To bloody-Flixes, Youth is apt inclining,
Continuall-Feuers, Phrenzies, Phthisik-pyning.
And feeble Age is seldom-times without
Her tedious guests, the Palsie and the Gout,
Coughes and Catarrhs. And so the Pestilence,
The quartan-Ague with her accidents,
The Flix, the Hip-gout, and the Watry-Tumour,
Are bred with vs of an Autumnal humour:
The Itch, the Murrein, and Alcides-grief,
In Ver's hot-moysture doe molest vs chief:
The Diarrhœa and the Burning-Feuer,
In Sommer-season doo their fell endevour:
And Pleurisies, the rotten-Coughes, and Rheums,
Wear curled flakes of white celestiall plumes:
Like sluggish Souldiers, keeping Garrison
In th'ycie Bulwarks of the Years gelt Son.
Som, seeming most in multitudes delighting,
Bane one by other, not the first acquiting:
As Measels, Mange, and filthy Leprosie,
The Plague, the Pox, and Phthisik-maladie.
And some (alas!) we leaue as in succession,
Vnto our Children, for a sad possession:
Such are Kings-euils, Dropsie, Gout, and Stone,
Blood-boyling Lepry, and Consumption,
The swelling Throat-ache, th'Epilepsie sad,
And cruell Rupture, payning too-too bad:
For, their hid poysons after-comming harm
Is fast combin'd vnto the Parents sperm.
Bane one by other, not the first acquiting:
As Measels, Mange, and filthy Leprosie,
The Plague, the Pox, and Phthisik-maladie.
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Vnto our Children, for a sad possession:
Such are Kings-euils, Dropsie, Gout, and Stone,
Blood-boyling Lepry, and Consumption,
The swelling Throat-ache, th'Epilepsie sad,
And cruell Rupture, payning too-too bad:
For, their hid poysons after-comming harm
Is fast combin'd vnto the Parents sperm.
But O! what arms, what shield shall we oppose,
What stratagems against those treacherous foes,
Those trecherous griefs, that our frail Art detects
Not by their cause, but by their sole effects?
Such are the fruitfull Matrix suffocation,
The Falling-sicknes, and pale Swouning-passion;
The which, I wote not what strange windes long pause,
I wot not where, I wote not how doth cause.
What stratagems against those treacherous foes,
Those trecherous griefs, that our frail Art detects
Not by their cause, but by their sole effects?
Such are the fruitfull Matrix suffocation,
The Falling-sicknes, and pale Swouning-passion;
The which, I wote not what strange windes long pause,
I wot not where, I wote not how doth cause.
Or who (alas!) can scape the cruell wile
Of those fell Pangs that Physicks pains beguile?
Which beeing banisht from a body, yet
(Vnder new names) return again to it:
Or rather, taught the strange Metempsychosis
Of the wise Samian, one it self transposes
Into som worse Griefe; either through the kindred
Of th'humour vicious, or the member hindred:
Or through their ignorance or auarice
That doe profess Apollos exercise.
So, Melancholy turned into Madnes:
Pro the Palsie, deep-affrighted Sadnes;
Th'Il-habitude into the Dropsie chill:
And Megrim growes to the Comitial-Ill.
Of those fell Pangs that Physicks pains beguile?
Which beeing banisht from a body, yet
(Vnder new names) return again to it:
Or rather, taught the strange Metempsychosis
Of the wise Samian, one it self transposes
Into som worse Griefe; either through the kindred
Of th'humour vicious, or the member hindred:
Or through their ignorance or auarice
That doe profess Apollos exercise.
So, Melancholy turned into Madnes:
Pro the Palsie, deep-affrighted Sadnes;
Th'Il-habitude into the Dropsie chill:
And Megrim growes to the Comitial-Ill.
In brief, poor Adam in this pitious case
Is like a Stag, that long pursu'd in chase,
Flying for succour to some neighbour wood,
Sinks on the suddain in the yeelding mud;
And sticking fast amid the rotten grounds,
Is over-taken by the eger Hounds:
One bites his back, his neck another nips,
One puls his brest, at's throat another skips,
One tugs his flank, his haunch another tears,
Another lugs him by the bleeding ears;
And last of all, the Wood-man with his knife
Cuts off his head, and so concludes his life.
Or like a lusty Bull, whose horned Crest
Awakes fell Hornets from their drowsie nest,
Who buzzing forth, assaile him on each side,
And pitch their valiant Bands about his hide;
With fisking train, with forked head, and foot,
Himselfe, th'ayre, th'earth, he beateth (to no boot)
Flying (through woods, hills, dales, and roaring rivers)
His place of griefe, but not his painfull grievers:
And in the end, stitcht full of stings he dies,
Or on the ground as dead (at least) he lies.
Is like a Stag, that long pursu'd in chase,
Flying for succour to some neighbour wood,
Sinks on the suddain in the yeelding mud;
And sticking fast amid the rotten grounds,
Is over-taken by the eger Hounds:
One bites his back, his neck another nips,
One puls his brest, at's throat another skips,
One tugs his flank, his haunch another tears,
Another lugs him by the bleeding ears;
And last of all, the Wood-man with his knife
Cuts off his head, and so concludes his life.
Or like a lusty Bull, whose horned Crest
Awakes fell Hornets from their drowsie nest,
Who buzzing forth, assaile him on each side,
And pitch their valiant Bands about his hide;
With fisking train, with forked head, and foot,
Himselfe, th'ayre, th'earth, he beateth (to no boot)
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His place of griefe, but not his painfull grievers:
And in the end, stitcht full of stings he dies,
Or on the ground as dead (at least) he lies.
For, man is loaden with ten thousand languors:
All other Creatures, onely feele the angors
Of few Diseases: as, the gleaning Quail
Onely the Falling-sicknes doth assail:
The Turn-about and Murrain trouble Cattel,
Madnes and Quincie bid the Masty battel.
All other Creatures, onely feele the angors
Of few Diseases: as, the gleaning Quail
Onely the Falling-sicknes doth assail:
The Turn-about and Murrain trouble Cattel,
Madnes and Quincie bid the Masty battel.
Yet each of them can naturally find
What Simples cure the sickness of their kind;
Feeling no sooner their disease begin,
But they as soon haue ready medicine.
The Ram for Physick takes strong-senting Rue,
The Tortois slowe, cold Hemlock doth renue:
The Partridge, Black-bird, and rich painted Iay.
Haue th'oyly liquour of the sacred Bay.
The sickly Beare, the Mandrak cures again;
And Mountain-Siler helpeth Goats to yean:
But, we know nothing, till by poaring still
On Books, we get vs a Sophistik skill;
A doubtfull Art, a Knowledge still vnknowen:
Which enters but the hoary heads (alone)
Of those, that (broken with vnthankfull toyl)
Seek others Health, and lose their own the-while:
Or rather those (such are the greatest part)
That waxing rich at others cost and smart,
Growe famous Doctors, purchasing promotions,
While the Church-yards swel with their hurtfull potions;
Who (hang-man like) fear-less, aed shame-less too,
Are prayd and payd for murders that they doo.
What Simples cure the sickness of their kind;
Feeling no sooner their disease begin,
But they as soon haue ready medicine.
The Ram for Physick takes strong-senting Rue,
The Tortois slowe, cold Hemlock doth renue:
The Partridge, Black-bird, and rich painted Iay.
Haue th'oyly liquour of the sacred Bay.
The sickly Beare, the Mandrak cures again;
And Mountain-Siler helpeth Goats to yean:
But, we know nothing, till by poaring still
On Books, we get vs a Sophistik skill;
A doubtfull Art, a Knowledge still vnknowen:
Which enters but the hoary heads (alone)
Of those, that (broken with vnthankfull toyl)
Seek others Health, and lose their own the-while:
Or rather those (such are the greatest part)
That waxing rich at others cost and smart,
Growe famous Doctors, purchasing promotions,
While the Church-yards swel with their hurtfull potions;
Who (hang-man like) fear-less, aed shame-less too,
Are prayd and payd for murders that they doo.
I speak not of the good, the wise, and learned,
Within whose hearts Gods fear is well discerned;
Who to our bodies can again vnite
Our parting soules, ready to take their flight.
For, these I honour as Heav'ns gifts excelling,
Pillars of Health, Death and Disease repelling:
Th'Almighties Agents, Natures Counsellers,
And flowring Youths wise faithfull Governours.
Within whose hearts Gods fear is well discerned;
Who to our bodies can again vnite
Our parting soules, ready to take their flight.
For, these I honour as Heav'ns gifts excelling,
Pillars of Health, Death and Disease repelling:
Th'Almighties Agents, Natures Counsellers,
And flowring Youths wise faithfull Governours.
Yet if their Art can ease some kinde of dolors,
They learn'd it first of Natures silent Schollers:
For, from the Sea-Horse came Phlebotomies,
From the wild Goat the healing of the eys;
From Stork and Hearn, our Glysters laxatiue,
From Beares and Lions Diets wee deriue.
They learn'd it first of Natures silent Schollers:
For, from the Sea-Horse came Phlebotomies,
From the wild Goat the healing of the eys;
From Stork and Hearn, our Glysters laxatiue,
From Beares and Lions Diets wee deriue.
'Gainst th'onely Body, all these Champions stout
Striue; some, within: and other some, without.
Or, if that any th'all-fair Soule haue striken,
'Tis not directly; but, in that they weaken
Her Officers, and spoyle the Instruments
Wherwith she works such wonderous presidents.
Striue; some, within: and other some, without.
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'Tis not directly; but, in that they weaken
Her Officers, and spoyle the Instruments
Wherwith she works such wonderous presidents.
But, lo! foure Captains far more fierce and eger,
That on all sides the Spirit it selfe beleaguer,
Whose Constancy they shake, and soon by treason
Draw the blind Iudgement from the rule of Reason:
Opinions issue; which (though selfe vnseen)
Make through the Body their fell motions seen.
That on all sides the Spirit it selfe beleaguer,
Whose Constancy they shake, and soon by treason
Draw the blind Iudgement from the rule of Reason:
Opinions issue; which (though selfe vnseen)
Make through the Body their fell motions seen.
Sorrow's first Leader of this furious Crowd,
Muffled all-over in a sable clowd,
Old before Age, afflicted night and day,
Her face with wrinkles warped every-way,
Creeping in corners, where she sits and vies
Sighes from her hart, tears from her blubbered eys;
Accompani'd with selfe-consuming Care,
With weeping Pity, Thought, and mad Despaire
That bears, about her, burning Coales and Cords,
Asps, poysons, Pistols, Halters, Kniues, and Swords:
Foul squinting Envy, that self-eating Elf,
Through others leanness fatting vp herself,
Ioying in mischiefe, feeding but with languor
And bitter tears her Toad-like-swelling anger:
And Ielousie that never sleeps, for fear
(Suspicions Flea still nibbling in her ear)
That leaues repast and rest, neer pin'd and blinde
With seeking what she would be loth to finde.
Muffled all-over in a sable clowd,
Old before Age, afflicted night and day,
Her face with wrinkles warped every-way,
Creeping in corners, where she sits and vies
Sighes from her hart, tears from her blubbered eys;
Accompani'd with selfe-consuming Care,
With weeping Pity, Thought, and mad Despaire
That bears, about her, burning Coales and Cords,
Asps, poysons, Pistols, Halters, Kniues, and Swords:
Foul squinting Envy, that self-eating Elf,
Through others leanness fatting vp herself,
Ioying in mischiefe, feeding but with languor
And bitter tears her Toad-like-swelling anger:
And Ielousie that never sleeps, for fear
(Suspicions Flea still nibbling in her ear)
That leaues repast and rest, neer pin'd and blinde
With seeking what she would be loth to finde.
The second Captain is excessiue Ioy:
Who leaps and tickles, finding th'Apian-way
Too streight for her: whose senses all possess
All wished pleasures in all plentiousnes.
She hath in conduct false vain-glorious Vaunting,
Bold, soothing, shameless, lowd, iniurious, taunting:
The winged Giant lofty-staring Pride,
That in the clouds her brauing Crest doth hide:
And many other, like the empty bubbles
That rise when raine the liquid Crystall troubles.
Who leaps and tickles, finding th'Apian-way
Too streight for her: whose senses all possess
All wished pleasures in all plentiousnes.
She hath in conduct false vain-glorious Vaunting,
Bold, soothing, shameless, lowd, iniurious, taunting:
The winged Giant lofty-staring Pride,
That in the clouds her brauing Crest doth hide:
And many other, like the empty bubbles
That rise when raine the liquid Crystall troubles.
The Third, is blood-less, hart-less, witless Feare,
That like an Asp-tree trembles every-where:
She leads black Terror, and base clownish Shame,
And drowsie Sloath, that counterfaiteth lame,
With Snail-like motion measuring the ground,
Having her arms in willing fetters bound,
Foul, sluggish Drone, barren (but, sin to breed)
Diseased, begger, starv'd with wilfull need.
That like an Asp-tree trembles every-where:
She leads black Terror, and base clownish Shame,
And drowsie Sloath, that counterfaiteth lame,
With Snail-like motion measuring the ground,
Having her arms in willing fetters bound,
Foul, sluggish Drone, barren (but, sin to breed)
Diseased, begger, starv'd with wilfull need.
And thou Desire, whom nor the firmament,
Nor ayr, nor earth, nor Ocean can content:
Whose-looks are hookes, whose belly's bottom-less,
Whose hands are Gripes to scrape with greediness,
Thou art the Fourth: and vnder thy Command,
Thou bringst to field a rough vnruly Band:
First, secret-burning, mighty-swoln Ambition
Pent in no limits, pleas'd with no Condition,
Whom Epicurus many Worlds suffice not,
Whose furious thirst of proud aspiring dies not,
Whose hands (transported with fantastike passion)
Bear painted Scepters in imagination:
Then Auarice all-arm'd in hooking Tenters
And clad in Bird-lime; without bridge she venters
Through fell Charybdis, and false Syrtes Nesse;
The more her wealth, the more her wretchedness:
Cruel, respect-less, friendless, faith-less Elf,
That hurts her neighbour, but much more her self:
Whose foule base fingers in each dunghill poar
(Like Tantalus) starv'd in the midst of store:
Not what she hath, but what she wants she counts:
A wel-wingd Bird that neuer lofty mounts.
Nor ayr, nor earth, nor Ocean can content:
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Whose hands are Gripes to scrape with greediness,
Thou art the Fourth: and vnder thy Command,
Thou bringst to field a rough vnruly Band:
First, secret-burning, mighty-swoln Ambition
Pent in no limits, pleas'd with no Condition,
Whom Epicurus many Worlds suffice not,
Whose furious thirst of proud aspiring dies not,
Whose hands (transported with fantastike passion)
Bear painted Scepters in imagination:
Then Auarice all-arm'd in hooking Tenters
And clad in Bird-lime; without bridge she venters
Through fell Charybdis, and false Syrtes Nesse;
The more her wealth, the more her wretchedness:
Cruel, respect-less, friendless, faith-less Elf,
That hurts her neighbour, but much more her self:
Whose foule base fingers in each dunghill poar
(Like Tantalus) starv'd in the midst of store:
Not what she hath, but what she wants she counts:
A wel-wingd Bird that neuer lofty mounts.
Then, boyling Wrath, stern, cruell, swift, and rash,
That like a Boar her teeth doth grinde and gnash:
Whose hair doth stare, like bristled Porcupine;
Who som-times rowles her ghastly-glowing eyn,
And som-time fixtly on the ground doth glaunce,
Now bleak, then bloody in her Countenance;
Rauing and rayling with a hideous sound,
Clapping her hands, stamping against the ground;
Bearing Bocconi, fire and sword to slay,
And murder all that for her pitty pray;
Baning her self, to bane her Enemy;
Disdaining Death, prouided others dy:
Like falling Towers o'r-turned by the winde,
That break themselues on that they vnder-grinde.
And then that Tyrant, all-controuling Loue:
(Whom heer to paint doth little me behooue,
After so many rare Apetleses
As in this Age our Albion nourishes)
And to be short, thou doest to battail bring
As many Souldiers 'gainst the Creatures King,
(Yet not his owne) as in this life, Mankinde
True very Goods, or seeming-Goods doth finde.
That like a Boar her teeth doth grinde and gnash:
Whose hair doth stare, like bristled Porcupine;
Who som-times rowles her ghastly-glowing eyn,
And som-time fixtly on the ground doth glaunce,
Now bleak, then bloody in her Countenance;
Rauing and rayling with a hideous sound,
Clapping her hands, stamping against the ground;
Bearing Bocconi, fire and sword to slay,
And murder all that for her pitty pray;
Baning her self, to bane her Enemy;
Disdaining Death, prouided others dy:
Like falling Towers o'r-turned by the winde,
That break themselues on that they vnder-grinde.
And then that Tyrant, all-controuling Loue:
(Whom heer to paint doth little me behooue,
After so many rare Apetleses
As in this Age our Albion nourishes)
And to be short, thou doest to battail bring
As many Souldiers 'gainst the Creatures King,
(Yet not his owne) as in this life, Mankinde
True very Goods, or seeming-Goods doth finde.
Now, if (but like the Lightning in the sky)
These sudden Passions past but swiftly by,
The fear were less: but, O! too-oft they leaue
Keen stings behinde in Soules thar they deceiue.
From this foul Fountain, all these poysons rise,
Rapes, Treasons, Murders, Incests, Sodomies,
Blaspheaming, Bibbing, Theeuing, False-contracting,
Church-chaffering, Cheating, Bribing, and Exacting.
These sudden Passions past but swiftly by,
The fear were less: but, O! too-oft they leaue
Keen stings behinde in Soules thar they deceiue.
From this foul Fountain, all these poysons rise,
Rapes, Treasons, Murders, Incests, Sodomies,
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Church-chaffering, Cheating, Bribing, and Exacting.
Alas! how these (far-worse then death) Diseases
Exceed each Sickness that our body seises;
Which makes vs open war, and by his spight
Giues to the Patient many a holsom light,
Now by the colour, or the Pulses beating,
Or by som Fit, som sharper dolor threatning;
Whereby, the Leach neer-ghessing at our grief,
Not seldom findes sure meanes for our relief.
But, for the Ills raign in our Intellect
(Which only, them both can and ought detect)
They rest vnknown, or rather self-conceal'd;
And soule-sick Patients care not to be heal'd.
Exceed each Sickness that our body seises;
Which makes vs open war, and by his spight
Giues to the Patient many a holsom light,
Now by the colour, or the Pulses beating,
Or by som Fit, som sharper dolor threatning;
Whereby, the Leach neer-ghessing at our grief,
Not seldom findes sure meanes for our relief.
But, for the Ills raign in our Intellect
(Which only, them both can and ought detect)
They rest vnknown, or rather self-conceal'd;
And soule-sick Patients care not to be heal'd.
Besides, we plainly call the Feuer, Feuer:
The Dropsie, Dropsie: over-gliding never,
With guile-full flourish of a fained phraze,
The cruell Languors that our bodies craze:
Whereas, our fond self-soothing Soule, thus sick,
Rubs her own sore; with glozing Rhetorick
Cloaking her vice: and makes the blinded Blain
Not fear the touch of Reasons Cautere vain.
The Dropsie, Dropsie: over-gliding never,
With guile-full flourish of a fained phraze,
The cruell Languors that our bodies craze:
Whereas, our fond self-soothing Soule, thus sick,
Rubs her own sore; with glozing Rhetorick
Cloaking her vice: and makes the blinded Blain
Not fear the touch of Reasons Cautere vain.
And sure, if ever filthy Vice did iet
In sacred Vertues spot-less mantle neat,
'Tis in our dayes, more hatefull and vnhallow'd,
Then when the World the Waters wholly swallow'd.
In sacred Vertues spot-less mantle neat,
'Tis in our dayes, more hatefull and vnhallow'd,
Then when the World the Waters wholly swallow'd.
Ile spare to speak of foulest Sins, that spot
Th'infamous beds of men of mighty lot;
Lest I the Saints chaste tender ears offend,
And seem them more to teach, then reprehend.
Th'infamous beds of men of mighty lot;
Lest I the Saints chaste tender ears offend,
And seem them more to teach, then reprehend.
Who bear vpon their French-sick backs about,
Farms, Castles, Fees, in golden shreads cut-out;
Whose lavish hand, at one Primero-rest,
One Mask, one Turney, or one pampering Feast,
Spend treasures, scrap't by th'Vsurie and Care
Of miser Parents; Liberall counted are.
Farms, Castles, Fees, in golden shreads cut-out;
Whose lavish hand, at one Primero-rest,
One Mask, one Turney, or one pampering Feast,
Spend treasures, scrap't by th'Vsurie and Care
Of miser Parents; Liberall counted are.
Who, with a maiden voice, and mincing pase,
Quaint loooks, curl'd locks, perfumes, and painted face,
Base coward-hart, and wanton soft array,
Their man-hood only by their Beard bewray;
Are Cleanly call'd. Who like Lust-greedy Goates,
Brothel from bed to bed; whose Siren-notes
Inchant chaste Susans, and like hungry Kite
Fly at all game, they Louers are behight.
Quaint loooks, curl'd locks, perfumes, and painted face,
Base coward-hart, and wanton soft array,
Their man-hood only by their Beard bewray;
Are Cleanly call'd. Who like Lust-greedy Goates,
Brothel from bed to bed; whose Siren-notes
Inchant chaste Susans, and like hungry Kite
Fly at all game, they Louers are behight.
Who, by false bargains, and vnlawfull measures
Robbing the World, haue heaped kingly treasures:
Who cheat the simple; lend for fifty fifty,
Hundred for hundred, are esteemed Thrifty.
Robbing the World, haue heaped kingly treasures:
Who cheat the simple; lend for fifty fifty,
Hundred for hundred, are esteemed Thrifty.
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Who alwaies murder and revenge affect,
Who feed on blood, who never doe respect
State, Sex, or Age: but in all humane liues
In cold blood, bathe their paricidiall kniues;
Are stiled Valiant. Grant, good Lord, our Land
May want such valour whose self-cruell hand
Fights for our foes, our proper life-blood spils,
Our Cities sacks, and our owne Kindred kils.
Lord, let the Lance, the Gun, the Sword, and Shield,
Be turn'd to tools to furrow vp the field,
And let vs see the Spyders busie task
Wov'n in the belly of the plumed Cask.
Who feed on blood, who never doe respect
State, Sex, or Age: but in all humane liues
In cold blood, bathe their paricidiall kniues;
Are stiled Valiant. Grant, good Lord, our Land
May want such valour whose self-cruell hand
Fights for our foes, our proper life-blood spils,
Our Cities sacks, and our owne Kindred kils.
Lord, let the Lance, the Gun, the Sword, and Shield,
Be turn'd to tools to furrow vp the field,
And let vs see the Spyders busie task
Wov'n in the belly of the plumed Cask.
But if (braue Lands-men) your war-thirst be such,
If in your brests sad Enyon boyl so much,
What holds you heer? alas! what hope of crowns?
Our fields are flock-less, treasure-less our Towns.
If in your brests sad Enyon boyl so much,
What holds you heer? alas! what hope of crowns?
Our fields are flock-less, treasure-less our Towns.
Goe then, nay run, renowned Martialists,
Re-found French-Greece, in now-Natolian lists;
Hy, hy to Flanders; free with conquering stroak
Your Belgian brethren from th'Iberians yoak:
To Portugal; people Galizian-Spain,
And graue your names on Lysbon's gates again.
Re-found French-Greece, in now-Natolian lists;
Hy, hy to Flanders; free with conquering stroak
Your Belgian brethren from th'Iberians yoak:
To Portugal; people Galizian-Spain,
And graue your names on Lysbon's gates again.
FINIS.
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4. The Handy-Crafts.
THE IIII. PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.
The Argvment.
The Praise of Peace, the miserable statesOf Edens Exiles: their vn-curious Cates,
Their simple habit, silly habitation:
They find out Fire. Their formost Propagation:
Their Childrens trades, their offerings; enuious Cain
His (better) Brother doth vnkindly brain:
With inward horror hurried vp and down,
He breakes a Horse, he builds a homely Town:
Iron's inuented, and sweet Instruments:
Adam fortels of After-Worlds euents.
Heav'ns sacred Imp, fair Goddess that renew'st
Th'old golden Age, and brightly now re-blew'st
Our cloudy skie, making our fields to smile:
Hope of the vertuous, horror of the vile:
Virgin, vnseen in France this many a yeer,
O blessed Peace! we bid thee welcom heer.
Th'old golden Age, and brightly now re-blew'st
Our cloudy skie, making our fields to smile:
Hope of the vertuous, horror of the vile:
Virgin, vnseen in France this many a yeer,
O blessed Peace! we bid thee welcom heer.
Lo, at thy presence, how who late were prest
To spur their Steeds, and couch their staues in rest
For fierce incounter; cast away their spears,
And rapt with ioy, them enter-bathe with tears.
Lo, how our Marchant-vessels to and fro
Freely about-our trade-full waters go:
How the graue Senate with iust-gentle rigour,
Resumes his Robe; the Laws their antient vigour.
Lo, how Obliuions Seas our striefes do drown:
How walls are built that war had thundred down:
Lo, how the Shops with busie Crafts-men swarm;
How Sheep and Cattell cover every Farm:
Behold the Bonfires waving to the skies:
Hark, hark the cheerfull and re-chanting cries
Of old and young; singing this ioyfull Dittie,
Iö reioyce, reioyce through Town and Cittie,
Let all our ayr, re-eccho with the praises
Of th'everlasting glorious God, who raises
Our ruin'd State: who giveth vs a good
We sought not for (or rather, we with-stood):
So that to hear and see these consequences
Of wonders strange, we scarce beleeue our senses.
O! let the King, let Mounsieur and the Sover'n
That doth Nauarras Spain wrongd Scepter gouern,
Be all, by all, their Countries Fathers cleapt:
O! let the honour of their names be kept,
And on brass leaues ingrav'n eternally
In the bright Temple of fair Memory,
For having quencht, so soon, so many fires,
Disarm'd our arms, appeas'd the heav'nly ires,
Calm'd the pale horror of intestine hates,
And dammed-vp the bifront Fathers gates.
To spur their Steeds, and couch their staues in rest
For fierce incounter; cast away their spears,
And rapt with ioy, them enter-bathe with tears.
Lo, how our Marchant-vessels to and fro
Freely about-our trade-full waters go:
How the graue Senate with iust-gentle rigour,
Resumes his Robe; the Laws their antient vigour.
Lo, how Obliuions Seas our striefes do drown:
How walls are built that war had thundred down:
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How Sheep and Cattell cover every Farm:
Behold the Bonfires waving to the skies:
Hark, hark the cheerfull and re-chanting cries
Of old and young; singing this ioyfull Dittie,
Iö reioyce, reioyce through Town and Cittie,
Let all our ayr, re-eccho with the praises
Of th'everlasting glorious God, who raises
Our ruin'd State: who giveth vs a good
We sought not for (or rather, we with-stood):
So that to hear and see these consequences
Of wonders strange, we scarce beleeue our senses.
O! let the King, let Mounsieur and the Sover'n
That doth Nauarras Spain wrongd Scepter gouern,
Be all, by all, their Countries Fathers cleapt:
O! let the honour of their names be kept,
And on brass leaues ingrav'n eternally
In the bright Temple of fair Memory,
For having quencht, so soon, so many fires,
Disarm'd our arms, appeas'd the heav'nly ires,
Calm'd the pale horror of intestine hates,
And dammed-vp the bifront Fathers gates.
Much more, let vs (deer, World-diuided land)
Extoll the mercies of Heav'ns mighty hand,
That (while the World; Wars bloody rage hath rent)
To vs so long, so happy Peace hath lent
(Maugre the malice of th'Italian Priest,
And Indian Pluto (prop of Anti-christ;
Whose Hoast, like Pharaoh's threatning Israel,
Our gaping Seas haue swallowed quick to hell)
Making our Ile a holy Safe-Retrait
For saints exil'd in persecutions heat.
Extoll the mercies of Heav'ns mighty hand,
That (while the World; Wars bloody rage hath rent)
To vs so long, so happy Peace hath lent
(Maugre the malice of th'Italian Priest,
And Indian Pluto (prop of Anti-christ;
Whose Hoast, like Pharaoh's threatning Israel,
Our gaping Seas haue swallowed quick to hell)
Making our Ile a holy Safe-Retrait
For saints exil'd in persecutions heat.
Much more, let vs with true-heart-tuned breath,
Record the Praises of Elizabeth
(Our martiall Pallas and our milde Astræa,
Of grace and wisdom the divine Idea)
Whose prudent Rule, with rich religious rest,
Wel-neer nine Lustres hath this Kingdom blest.
O! pray we him that from home-plotted dangers
And bloody threats of proud ambitious Strangers,
So many years hath so securely kept her,
In iust possession of this flowring Scepter;
That (to his glory and his deer Sons honour)
All happy length of life may wait vpon her:
That we her Subiects, whom he blesseth by her,
Psalming his praise, may sound the same the higher.
Record the Praises of Elizabeth
(Our martiall Pallas and our milde Astræa,
Of grace and wisdom the divine Idea)
Whose prudent Rule, with rich religious rest,
Wel-neer nine Lustres hath this Kingdom blest.
O! pray we him that from home-plotted dangers
And bloody threats of proud ambitious Strangers,
So many years hath so securely kept her,
In iust possession of this flowring Scepter;
That (to his glory and his deer Sons honour)
All happy length of life may wait vpon her:
That we her Subiects, whom he blesseth by her,
Psalming his praise, may sound the same the higher.
But waiting (Lord) in som more learned Layes,
To sing thy glory, and my Soueraigns praise;
I sing the young Worlds Cradle, as a Proëm
Vnto so rare and so diuine a Poëm.
To sing thy glory, and my Soueraigns praise;
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Vnto so rare and so diuine a Poëm.
Who, Fvll Of wealth and honours blandishment,
Among great Lords his yonger yeares hath spent;
And quaffing deply of the Court-delights,
Vs'd nought but Tilts, Turneis, and Masks, and Sights:
If in his age, his Princes angry doom
With deep disgrace driue him to liue at home
In homely Cottage, where continually
The bitter smoak exhales aboundantly
From his before-vn-sorrow-drained brain
The brackish vapours of a silver rain:
Where Vsher-less, both day and night, the North,
South, East, and West windes, enter and goe forth:
Where round-about, the lowe-rooft broken wals
(In stead of Arras) hang with Spiders cauls:
Where all at once he reacheth, as he stands,
With brows the roof, both wals with both his hands:
He weeps and sighs, and (shunning comforts ay)
Wisheth pale Death a thousand times a day:
And, yet at length falling to work, is glad
To bite a brown crust that the Mouse hath had,
And in a Dish (for want of Plate or Glass)
Sups Oaten drink in stead of Hypocras.
So (or much like) our rebell Elders, driven
For ay from Eden (earthly type of Heav'n)
Ly languishing neer Tigris grassie side,
With nummed limbs, and spirits stupefied.
Among great Lords his yonger yeares hath spent;
And quaffing deply of the Court-delights,
Vs'd nought but Tilts, Turneis, and Masks, and Sights:
If in his age, his Princes angry doom
With deep disgrace driue him to liue at home
In homely Cottage, where continually
The bitter smoak exhales aboundantly
From his before-vn-sorrow-drained brain
The brackish vapours of a silver rain:
Where Vsher-less, both day and night, the North,
South, East, and West windes, enter and goe forth:
Where round-about, the lowe-rooft broken wals
(In stead of Arras) hang with Spiders cauls:
Where all at once he reacheth, as he stands,
With brows the roof, both wals with both his hands:
He weeps and sighs, and (shunning comforts ay)
Wisheth pale Death a thousand times a day:
And, yet at length falling to work, is glad
To bite a brown crust that the Mouse hath had,
And in a Dish (for want of Plate or Glass)
Sups Oaten drink in stead of Hypocras.
So (or much like) our rebell Elders, driven
For ay from Eden (earthly type of Heav'n)
Ly languishing neer Tigris grassie side,
With nummed limbs, and spirits stupefied.
But powrfull Need (Arts ancient Dame and Keeper,
The early watch-clock of the sloathfull sleeper)
Among the Mountains makes them seek their living,
And foaming rivers, through the champain driving:
For yet the Trees with thousand fruits yfraught
In formall Checkers were not fairly brought:
The Pear and Apple liued Dwarf-like there,
With Oakes and Ashes shadowed every-where:
And yet (alas!) their meanest simple cheer
Our wretched Parents bought full hard and deer.
To get a Plum, somtimes poor Adam rushes
With thousand wounds among a thousand bushes.
If they desire a Medlar for their food,
They must go seek it through a fearfull wood;
Or a brown Mulbery, then the ragged Bramble
With thousand scratches doth their Skin bescramble.
The early watch-clock of the sloathfull sleeper)
Among the Mountains makes them seek their living,
And foaming rivers, through the champain driving:
For yet the Trees with thousand fruits yfraught
In formall Checkers were not fairly brought:
The Pear and Apple liued Dwarf-like there,
With Oakes and Ashes shadowed every-where:
And yet (alas!) their meanest simple cheer
Our wretched Parents bought full hard and deer.
To get a Plum, somtimes poor Adam rushes
With thousand wounds among a thousand bushes.
If they desire a Medlar for their food,
They must go seek it through a fearfull wood;
Or a brown Mulbery, then the ragged Bramble
With thousand scratches doth their Skin bescramble.
Wherefore (as yet) more led by th'appetite.
Of th'hungry belly then the tastes delight,
Living from hand to mouth, soon satisfi'd,
To earn their supper, th'after-noon they ply'd,
Vnstor'd of dinner till the morrow-day;
Pleas'd with an Apple, or som lesser pray.
Then, taught by Ver (richer in flowrs then fruit)
And hoary Winter, of both destitute,
Nuts, Filberds, Almonds, wisely vp they hoord,
The best provisions that the woods affoord.
Of th'hungry belly then the tastes delight,
Living from hand to mouth, soon satisfi'd,
To earn their supper, th'after-noon they ply'd,
222
Pleas'd with an Apple, or som lesser pray.
Then, taught by Ver (richer in flowrs then fruit)
And hoary Winter, of both destitute,
Nuts, Filberds, Almonds, wisely vp they hoord,
The best provisions that the woods affoord.
Touching their garments: for the shining wooll
Whence the roab-spinning pretious Worms are full,
For gold and silver wov'n in drapery,
For Cloth dipt double in the scarlet Dy,
For Gemms bright lustre, with excessiue cost
On rich embroideries by rare Art embost;
Somtimes they doe the far-spread Gourd vnleaue,
Somtime the Fig-tree of his branch bereaue:
Somtimes the Plane, somtimes the Vine they shear,
Choosing their fairest tresses heer and there:
And with their sundry locks, thorn'd each to other,
Their tender limbs they hide from Cynthias Brother.
Whence the roab-spinning pretious Worms are full,
For gold and silver wov'n in drapery,
For Cloth dipt double in the scarlet Dy,
For Gemms bright lustre, with excessiue cost
On rich embroideries by rare Art embost;
Somtimes they doe the far-spread Gourd vnleaue,
Somtime the Fig-tree of his branch bereaue:
Somtimes the Plane, somtimes the Vine they shear,
Choosing their fairest tresses heer and there:
And with their sundry locks, thorn'd each to other,
Their tender limbs they hide from Cynthias Brother.
Somtimes the Iuie's climing stems they strip,
Which lovingly his liuely prop doth clip:
And with green lace, in artificiall order,
The wrinkled bark of th'Acorn-Tree doth border,
And with his arms th'Oaks slender twigs entwining,
A many branches in one tissue ioyning,
Frames a loose Iacquet, whose light nimble quaking,
Wagg'd by the windes, is like the wanton shaking
Of golden spangles, that in stately pride
Dance on the tresses of a noble Bride.
Which lovingly his liuely prop doth clip:
And with green lace, in artificiall order,
The wrinkled bark of th'Acorn-Tree doth border,
And with his arms th'Oaks slender twigs entwining,
A many branches in one tissue ioyning,
Frames a loose Iacquet, whose light nimble quaking,
Wagg'd by the windes, is like the wanton shaking
Of golden spangles, that in stately pride
Dance on the tresses of a noble Bride.
But, while that Adam (waxen diligent)
Wearies his limbs for mutuall nourishment:
While craggy Mountains, Rocks, and thorny Plains,
And bristly Woods be witness of his pains;
Eue, walking forth about the Forrests, gathers
Speights, Parrots, Peacocks, Estrich scattered feathers,
And then with wax the smaller plumes she sears,
And sowes the greater with a white horse hairs,
(For they as yet did serue her in the steed
Of Hemp, and Towe, and Flax, and Silk, and Threed)
And thereof makes a medly coat so rare
That it resembles Nature's Mantle fair,
When in the Sunne, in pomp all glistering,
She seems with smiles to woo the gawdie Spring.
Wearies his limbs for mutuall nourishment:
While craggy Mountains, Rocks, and thorny Plains,
And bristly Woods be witness of his pains;
Eue, walking forth about the Forrests, gathers
Speights, Parrots, Peacocks, Estrich scattered feathers,
And then with wax the smaller plumes she sears,
And sowes the greater with a white horse hairs,
(For they as yet did serue her in the steed
Of Hemp, and Towe, and Flax, and Silk, and Threed)
And thereof makes a medly coat so rare
That it resembles Nature's Mantle fair,
When in the Sunne, in pomp all glistering,
She seems with smiles to woo the gawdie Spring.
When (by stoln moments) this she had contriv'd,
Leaping for ioy, her cheerfull looks reviv'd,
Sh' admires her cunning; and incontinent
'Sayes on her selfe her manly ornament;
And then through path-less paths she runs apace,
To meet her husband comming from the Chase.
Leaping for ioy, her cheerfull looks reviv'd,
Sh' admires her cunning; and incontinent
'Sayes on her selfe her manly ornament;
And then through path-less paths she runs apace,
To meet her husband comming from the Chase.
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Sweet-heart, quoth she (and then she kisseth him)
My Loue, my Life, my Bliss, my Ioy, my Gem,
My soules deer Soule, take in good part (I pree-thee)
This pretty Present that I gladly giue-thee.
Thanks my deer All (quoth Adam then) for this,
And with three kisses he requites her kiss.
Then on he puts his painted garment new,
And Peacock-like himselfe doth often view,
Looks on his shadow, and in proud amaze
Admires the hand that had the Art to cause
So many severall parts to meet in one,
To fashion thus the quaint Mandilion.
My Loue, my Life, my Bliss, my Ioy, my Gem,
My soules deer Soule, take in good part (I pree-thee)
This pretty Present that I gladly giue-thee.
Thanks my deer All (quoth Adam then) for this,
And with three kisses he requites her kiss.
Then on he puts his painted garment new,
And Peacock-like himselfe doth often view,
Looks on his shadow, and in proud amaze
Admires the hand that had the Art to cause
So many severall parts to meet in one,
To fashion thus the quaint Mandilion.
But, when the Winters keener breath began
To crystallize the Baltike Ocean,
To glaze the Lakes, and bridle-vp the Floods,
And perriwig with wooll the bald-pate Woods;
Our Grand-sire, shrinking, gan to shake and shiver,
His teeth to chatter, and his beard to quiver.
Spying therefore a flock of Muttons comming
(Whose freez-clad bodies feel not Winters numming)
He takes the fairest, and he knocks it down:
Then by good hap, finding vpon the Down
A sharp great fishbone (which long time before
The roaring flood had cast vpon the shore)
He cuts the throat, flayes it, and spreads the fell,
Then dries it, pares it, and he scrapes it well,
Then cloathes his wife therewith; and of such hides
Slops, Hats, and Doublets for himselfe provides.
To crystallize the Baltike Ocean,
To glaze the Lakes, and bridle-vp the Floods,
And perriwig with wooll the bald-pate Woods;
Our Grand-sire, shrinking, gan to shake and shiver,
His teeth to chatter, and his beard to quiver.
Spying therefore a flock of Muttons comming
(Whose freez-clad bodies feel not Winters numming)
He takes the fairest, and he knocks it down:
Then by good hap, finding vpon the Down
A sharp great fishbone (which long time before
The roaring flood had cast vpon the shore)
He cuts the throat, flayes it, and spreads the fell,
Then dries it, pares it, and he scrapes it well,
Then cloathes his wife therewith; and of such hides
Slops, Hats, and Doublets for himselfe provides.
A vaulted Rock, a hollow Tree, a Caue,
Were the first buildings that them shelter gaue:
But, finding th'one to be too-moist a hold,
Th'other too-narrow, th'other over-cold;
Like Carpenters, within a Wood they choose
Sixteen fair Trees that never leaues do loose,
Whose equall front in quadran form prospected,
As if of purpose Nature them erected:
Their shady boughs first bow they tenderly,
Then enterbraid, and binde them curiously;
That one would think that had this Arbor seen,
'T had been true seeling painted-over green.
Were the first buildings that them shelter gaue:
But, finding th'one to be too-moist a hold,
Th'other too-narrow, th'other over-cold;
Like Carpenters, within a Wood they choose
Sixteen fair Trees that never leaues do loose,
Whose equall front in quadran form prospected,
As if of purpose Nature them erected:
Their shady boughs first bow they tenderly,
Then enterbraid, and binde them curiously;
That one would think that had this Arbor seen,
'T had been true seeling painted-over green.
After this triall, better yet to fence
Their tender flesh from th'ayry violence,
Vpon the top of their fit-forked stems,
They lay a-crosse bare Oken boughs for beams
(Such as dispersed in the Woods they finde,
Torn-off in tempests by the stormy winde)
Then these again with leauy boughes they load,
So covering close their sorry cold abode,
And then they ply from th'eaues vnto the ground,
With mud-mixt Reed to wall their mansion round,
All saue a hole to th'Eastward situate,
Where straight they clap a hurdle for a gate
(In steed of hinges hanged on a With)
Which with a sleight both shuts and openeth.
Their tender flesh from th'ayry violence,
Vpon the top of their fit-forked stems,
They lay a-crosse bare Oken boughs for beams
(Such as dispersed in the Woods they finde,
Torn-off in tempests by the stormy winde)
Then these again with leauy boughes they load,
So covering close their sorry cold abode,
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With mud-mixt Reed to wall their mansion round,
All saue a hole to th'Eastward situate,
Where straight they clap a hurdle for a gate
(In steed of hinges hanged on a With)
Which with a sleight both shuts and openeth.
Yet fire they lackt: but lo, the winds, that whistle
Amid the Groues, so oft the Laurell iustle
Against the Mulbery, that their angry claps
Do kindle fire, that burns the neighbour Cops.
Amid the Groues, so oft the Laurell iustle
Against the Mulbery, that their angry claps
Do kindle fire, that burns the neighbour Cops.
When Adam saw a ruddy vapour rise
In glowing streame; astund with fear he flies,
It followes him, vntill a naked Plain
The greedy fury of the flame restrain:
Then back he turns, and comming somwhat nigher
The kindled shrubs, perceiving that the fire
Dries his dank Cloathes, his Colour doth refresh,
And vnbenums his sinews and his flesh;
By th'vnburnt end, a good big brand he takes,
And hying home a fire he quickly makes,
And still maintains it, till the starry Twins
Celestiall breath another fire begins.
But, Winter being comn again it griev'd him;
T'haue lost so fondly what so much reliev'd him,
Trying a thousand waies, sith now no more
The iustling Trees his domage would restore.
In glowing streame; astund with fear he flies,
It followes him, vntill a naked Plain
The greedy fury of the flame restrain:
Then back he turns, and comming somwhat nigher
The kindled shrubs, perceiving that the fire
Dries his dank Cloathes, his Colour doth refresh,
And vnbenums his sinews and his flesh;
By th'vnburnt end, a good big brand he takes,
And hying home a fire he quickly makes,
And still maintains it, till the starry Twins
Celestiall breath another fire begins.
But, Winter being comn again it griev'd him;
T'haue lost so fondly what so much reliev'd him,
Trying a thousand waies, sith now no more
The iustling Trees his domage would restore.
While (else-where musing) one day he sate down
Vpon a steep Rocks craggy-forked crown,
A foaming beast come toward him he spies,
Within whose head stood burning coals for eyes;
Then suddenly with boisterous armes he throwes
A knobby flint, that hummeth as it goes;
Hence flies the beast, th'ill-aimed flint-shaft grounding
Against the Rock, and on it oft rebounding,
Shivers to cinders, whence there issued
Small sparks of fire no sooner born then dead.
Vpon a steep Rocks craggy-forked crown,
A foaming beast come toward him he spies,
Within whose head stood burning coals for eyes;
Then suddenly with boisterous armes he throwes
A knobby flint, that hummeth as it goes;
Hence flies the beast, th'ill-aimed flint-shaft grounding
Against the Rock, and on it oft rebounding,
Shivers to cinders, whence there issued
Small sparks of fire no sooner born then dead.
This happy chance made Adam leap for glee:
And quickly calling his cold company,
In his left hand a shining flint he locks,
Which with another in his right he knocks
So vp and down, that from the coldest stone
At every stroak small fiery sparkles shone.
Then with the dry leaues of a withered Bay
The which together handsomly they lay,
They take the falling fire, which like a Sun
Shines cleer and smoak-less in the leaf begun.
And quickly calling his cold company,
In his left hand a shining flint he locks,
Which with another in his right he knocks
So vp and down, that from the coldest stone
At every stroak small fiery sparkles shone.
Then with the dry leaues of a withered Bay
The which together handsomly they lay,
They take the falling fire, which like a Sun
Shines cleer and smoak-less in the leaf begun.
Eue, kneeling down, with hand her head sustaining,
And on the lowe ground with her elbowe leaning,
Blowes with her mouth: and with her gentle blowing
Stirs vp the heat, that from the dry leaues glowing
Kindles the Reed, and then that hollow kix
First fires the small, and they the greater sticks.
And on the lowe ground with her elbowe leaning,
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Stirs vp the heat, that from the dry leaues glowing
Kindles the Reed, and then that hollow kix
First fires the small, and they the greater sticks.
And now, Man-kinde with fruitfull Race began
A litle corner of the World to man:
First Cain is born, to tillage all adicted;
Then Abel, most to keeping flocks affected.
Abel, desirous still at hand to keep
His Milk and Cheese, vnwildes the gentle Sheep
To make a Flock; that when it tame became
For guard and guide should haue a Dog and Ram.
Cain, more ambitious, giues but little ease
To's boistrous limbs: and seeing that the Pease,
And other Pulse, Beans, Lentils, Lupins, Rïce,
Burnt in the Copses as not held in price,
Som grains he gathers: and with busie toyl,
A-part hee sowes them in a better soyl;
Which first he rids of stones, and thorns, and weeds,
Then buries there his dying-living seeds.
A litle corner of the World to man:
First Cain is born, to tillage all adicted;
Then Abel, most to keeping flocks affected.
Abel, desirous still at hand to keep
His Milk and Cheese, vnwildes the gentle Sheep
To make a Flock; that when it tame became
For guard and guide should haue a Dog and Ram.
Cain, more ambitious, giues but little ease
To's boistrous limbs: and seeing that the Pease,
And other Pulse, Beans, Lentils, Lupins, Rïce,
Burnt in the Copses as not held in price,
Som grains he gathers: and with busie toyl,
A-part hee sowes them in a better soyl;
Which first he rids of stones, and thorns, and weeds,
Then buries there his dying-living seeds.
By the next Haruest, finding that his pain
On this small plot was not ingrately vain;
To break more ground, that bigger Crop may bring
Without so often weary labouring,
He tames a Heifer, and on either side,
On either horn a three-fold twist he ty'd
Of Osiar twigs, and for a-Plough he got
The horn or tooth of som Rhinocerot.
On this small plot was not ingrately vain;
To break more ground, that bigger Crop may bring
Without so often weary labouring,
He tames a Heifer, and on either side,
On either horn a three-fold twist he ty'd
Of Osiar twigs, and for a-Plough he got
The horn or tooth of som Rhinocerot.
Now, th'one in Cattle, th'other rich in grain,
On two steep Mountains build they Altars twain;
Where (humbly-sacred) th'one with zealous cry
Cleaues bright Olympus starry Canopy:
With fained lips, the other low'd-resounded
Hart-wanting Hymns, on self-deseruing founded:
Each on his Altar offereth to the Lord
The best that eithers flocks, or fields affoords.
On two steep Mountains build they Altars twain;
Where (humbly-sacred) th'one with zealous cry
Cleaues bright Olympus starry Canopy:
With fained lips, the other low'd-resounded
Hart-wanting Hymns, on self-deseruing founded:
Each on his Altar offereth to the Lord
The best that eithers flocks, or fields affoords.
Rein-searching God, thought-sounding Iudge, that tries
The will and heart more then the work and guise,
Accepts good Abels gift: but hates the other
Profane oblation of his furious brother;
Who feeling, deep th'effects of Gods displeasure,
Raues, frets, and fumes, and murmurs out of measure.
The will and heart more then the work and guise,
Accepts good Abels gift: but hates the other
Profane oblation of his furious brother;
Who feeling, deep th'effects of Gods displeasure,
Raues, frets, and fumes, and murmurs out of measure.
What boots it (Cain) O wretch! what boots it thee
T'haue opened first the fruitfull womb (quoth he)
Of the first mother; and first born the rather
T'haue honour'd Adam first, with name of Father?
Vnfortunate, what boots thee to be wealthy,
Wise, actiue, valiant, strongly-limb'd, and healthy,
If this weak Girl-boy, in mans shape disguis'd,
To Heav'n and Earth be dear, and thou despis'd?
What boots it thee, for others night and day
In painfull toyl to wear thy self away:
And (more for others then thine own relief)
To haue deuised of all Arts the chief;
If this dull Infant, of thy labour nurst,
Shall reap the glory of thy deeds (accurst)?
Nay, rather quickly rid thee of the fool,
Down with his climbing hill, and timely cool
This kindling flame: and that none over-crowe thee,
Re-seise the right that Birth and Vertue owe thee.
T'haue opened first the fruitfull womb (quoth he)
Of the first mother; and first born the rather
T'haue honour'd Adam first, with name of Father?
Vnfortunate, what boots thee to be wealthy,
Wise, actiue, valiant, strongly-limb'd, and healthy,
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To Heav'n and Earth be dear, and thou despis'd?
What boots it thee, for others night and day
In painfull toyl to wear thy self away:
And (more for others then thine own relief)
To haue deuised of all Arts the chief;
If this dull Infant, of thy labour nurst,
Shall reap the glory of thy deeds (accurst)?
Nay, rather quickly rid thee of the fool,
Down with his climbing hill, and timely cool
This kindling flame: and that none over-crowe thee,
Re-seise the right that Birth and Vertue owe thee.
Ay in his minde this counsail he revolues:
And hundred times to act it he resolues,
And yet as of relents; stopt worthily
By the pains horror, and sins tyranny.
And hundred times to act it he resolues,
And yet as of relents; stopt worthily
By the pains horror, and sins tyranny.
But, one day drawing with dissembled loue
His harm-less brother far into a Groue,
Vpon the verdure of whose virgin-boughs
Bird had not pearcht, nor never Beast did brouz;
With both his hands he takes a stone so huge,
That in our age three men could hardly bouge,
And iust vpon his tender brothers crown,
With all his might he cruell casts it down.
His harm-less brother far into a Groue,
Vpon the verdure of whose virgin-boughs
Bird had not pearcht, nor never Beast did brouz;
With both his hands he takes a stone so huge,
That in our age three men could hardly bouge,
And iust vpon his tender brothers crown,
With all his might he cruell casts it down.
The murdred face lies printed in the mud,
And lowd for vengeance cryes the martyr'd blood:
The battered brains fly in the murd'rers face.
The Sun, to shun this Tragike sight, a-pace
Turns back his Teem: the amazed Paricide
Doth all the Furies scourging whips abide:
Externall terrors, and th'internall Worm
A thousand kindes of living deaths do form:
All day he hides him, wanders all the night,
Flies his owne friends, of his own shade affright,
Scarr'd with a leaf, and starting at a Sparrow,
And all the World seems for his fear too-narrow.
And lowd for vengeance cryes the martyr'd blood:
The battered brains fly in the murd'rers face.
The Sun, to shun this Tragike sight, a-pace
Turns back his Teem: the amazed Paricide
Doth all the Furies scourging whips abide:
Externall terrors, and th'internall Worm
A thousand kindes of living deaths do form:
All day he hides him, wanders all the night,
Flies his owne friends, of his own shade affright,
Scarr'd with a leaf, and starting at a Sparrow,
And all the World seems for his fear too-narrow.
But for his Children, born by three and three,
Produce him Nephews, that still multiply
With new increase; who yer their age be rife
Becom great-Grand-sires in their Grand-sires life;
Staying at length, he chose him out a dwelling,
For woods and floods, and ayr, and soyl excelling.
Produce him Nephews, that still multiply
With new increase; who yer their age be rife
Becom great-Grand-sires in their Grand-sires life;
Staying at length, he chose him out a dwelling,
For woods and floods, and ayr, and soyl excelling.
One fels down Firs, another of the same
With crossed poles a little lodge doth frame:
Another mounds it with dry wals about
(And leaues a breach for passage in and out)
With Turf and Furse: som others yet more grosse
Their homely Sties in stead of walls inclose:
Som (like the Swallow) mud and hay do mix,
And that about their silly Cotes they fix:
Som make their Roofs with fearn, or reeds, or rushes,
And som with hides, with oase, with boughs, and bushes.
With crossed poles a little lodge doth frame:
Another mounds it with dry wals about
(And leaues a breach for passage in and out)
With Turf and Furse: som others yet more grosse
Their homely Sties in stead of walls inclose:
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And that about their silly Cotes they fix:
Som make their Roofs with fearn, or reeds, or rushes,
And som with hides, with oase, with boughs, and bushes.
He, that still fearfull, seeketh still defence,
Shortly this Hamlet to a Town augments.
For, with keen Coultar having bounded (wittie)
The four-fac't Rampire of his simple Citie;
With stones soon gathered on the neighbour strand,
And clayie morter readie there at hand,
Well trod and tempered, he immures his Fort,
A stately Towr erecting on the Port:
Which awes his owne; and threats his enemies;
Securing som-what his pale tyrannies.
Shortly this Hamlet to a Town augments.
For, with keen Coultar having bounded (wittie)
The four-fac't Rampire of his simple Citie;
With stones soon gathered on the neighbour strand,
And clayie morter readie there at hand,
Well trod and tempered, he immures his Fort,
A stately Towr erecting on the Port:
Which awes his owne; and threats his enemies;
Securing som-what his pale tyrannies.
O Tigre! think'st thou (hellish fratricide)
Because with stone-heaps thou art fortifi'd,
Prince of som Peasants trained in thy tillage,
And silly Kingling of a simple Village;
Think'st thou to scape the storm of vengeance dread,
That hangs already o'r thy hatefull head?
No: wert thou (wretch) incamped at thy will
On strongest top of any steepest Hill:
Wert thou immur'd in triple brazen Wall,
Having for aid all Creatures in this All:
If skin and heart, of steel and yron were,
Thy pain thou could'st not, less auoid thy fear
Which chils thy bones, and runs through all thy vains,
Racking thy soule with twentie thousand pains.
Because with stone-heaps thou art fortifi'd,
Prince of som Peasants trained in thy tillage,
And silly Kingling of a simple Village;
Think'st thou to scape the storm of vengeance dread,
That hangs already o'r thy hatefull head?
No: wert thou (wretch) incamped at thy will
On strongest top of any steepest Hill:
Wert thou immur'd in triple brazen Wall,
Having for aid all Creatures in this All:
If skin and heart, of steel and yron were,
Thy pain thou could'st not, less auoid thy fear
Which chils thy bones, and runs through all thy vains,
Racking thy soule with twentie thousand pains.
Cain (as they say) by this deep fear disturbed,
The first of all th'vntamed Courser curbed;
That while about on others feet he run
With dustie speed, he might his Deaths-man shun.
Among a hundred braue, light, lustie, Horses
(With curious ey, marking their comly forces)
He chooseth one for his industrious proof,
With round, high, hollow, smooth, brown, ietty hoof,
With Pasterns short, vpright (but yet in mean);
Dry sinewie shanks; strong, flesh-less knees, and lean;
With Hart-like legs, broad brest, and large behinde,
With body large, smooth flanks, and double-chin'd;
A crested neck bow'd like a half-bent Bowe,
Whereon a long, thin, curled mane doth flowe;
A firm full tail, touching the lowely ground,
With dock between two fair fat buttocks drownd;
A pricked ear, that rests as little space,
As his light foot; a lean, bare bonny face,
Thin joule, and head but of a middling size,
Full, liuely-flaming, quickly rowling eyes,
Great foaming mouth, hot-fuming nosthrill wide,
Of Chest-nut hair, his fore-head starrifi'd,
Three milky feet, a feather on his brest,
Whom seav'n-years-old at the next grass he ghest.
The first of all th'vntamed Courser curbed;
That while about on others feet he run
With dustie speed, he might his Deaths-man shun.
Among a hundred braue, light, lustie, Horses
(With curious ey, marking their comly forces)
He chooseth one for his industrious proof,
With round, high, hollow, smooth, brown, ietty hoof,
With Pasterns short, vpright (but yet in mean);
Dry sinewie shanks; strong, flesh-less knees, and lean;
With Hart-like legs, broad brest, and large behinde,
With body large, smooth flanks, and double-chin'd;
A crested neck bow'd like a half-bent Bowe,
Whereon a long, thin, curled mane doth flowe;
A firm full tail, touching the lowely ground,
With dock between two fair fat buttocks drownd;
A pricked ear, that rests as little space,
As his light foot; a lean, bare bonny face,
Thin joule, and head but of a middling size,
Full, liuely-flaming, quickly rowling eyes,
228
Of Chest-nut hair, his fore-head starrifi'd,
Three milky feet, a feather on his brest,
Whom seav'n-years-old at the next grass he ghest.
This goodly Iennet gently first he wins,
And then to back him actively begins:
Steady and straight he sits, turning his sight
Still to the fore-part of his Palfrey light.
The chafed Horse, such thrall ill-suffering,
Begins to snuff, and snort, and leap, and fling;
And flying swift, his fearfull Rider makes
Like som vnskilfull Lad that vnder-takes
To holde som ships helm, while the head-long Tyde
Carries away the Vessell and her Guide;
Who neer deuoured in the jawes of Death,
Pale, fearfull, shivering, faint, and out of breath,
A thousand times (with Heav'n erected eyes)
Repents him of so bold an enterprise.
And then to back him actively begins:
Steady and straight he sits, turning his sight
Still to the fore-part of his Palfrey light.
The chafed Horse, such thrall ill-suffering,
Begins to snuff, and snort, and leap, and fling;
And flying swift, his fearfull Rider makes
Like som vnskilfull Lad that vnder-takes
To holde som ships helm, while the head-long Tyde
Carries away the Vessell and her Guide;
Who neer deuoured in the jawes of Death,
Pale, fearfull, shivering, faint, and out of breath,
A thousand times (with Heav'n erected eyes)
Repents him of so bold an enterprise.
But, sitting fast, less hurt then feared; Cain
Boldens himselfe and his braue Beast again:
Brings him to pase, from pasing to the trot,
From trot to gallop: after runs him hot
In full career: and at his courage smiles;
And sitting still to run so many miles.
Boldens himselfe and his braue Beast again:
Brings him to pase, from pasing to the trot,
From trot to gallop: after runs him hot
In full career: and at his courage smiles;
And sitting still to run so many miles.
His pase is fair and free; his trot as light
As Tigres course; as Swallows nimble flight:
And his braue gallop seems as swift to goe
As Biscan Darts, or shafts from Russian bowe:
But, roaring Canon, from his smoaking throat,
Never so speedy spews the thundring shot
(That in an Army mowes whole squadrons down,
And batters bulwarks of a summon'd Town)
As this light Horse scuds, if he doe but feel
His bridle slack, and in his side the heel:
Shunning himself, his sinewie strength he stretches;
Flying the earth, the flying ayr he catches,
Born whirl-winde-like: he makes the trampled ground
Shrink vnder him, and shake with doubling sound:
And when the sight no more pursue him may,
In fieldy clouds he vanisheth away.
As Tigres course; as Swallows nimble flight:
And his braue gallop seems as swift to goe
As Biscan Darts, or shafts from Russian bowe:
But, roaring Canon, from his smoaking throat,
Never so speedy spews the thundring shot
(That in an Army mowes whole squadrons down,
And batters bulwarks of a summon'd Town)
As this light Horse scuds, if he doe but feel
His bridle slack, and in his side the heel:
Shunning himself, his sinewie strength he stretches;
Flying the earth, the flying ayr he catches,
Born whirl-winde-like: he makes the trampled ground
Shrink vnder him, and shake with doubling sound:
And when the sight no more pursue him may,
In fieldy clouds he vanisheth away.
The wise-waxt Rider, not esteeming best
To take too-much now of his lusty Beast,
Restraines his fury: then with learned wand
The triple Corvet makes him vnderstand:
With skilfull voice he gently cheers his pride,
And on his neck his flattering palm doth slide:
He stops him steady still, new breath to take,
And in the same path brings him softly back.
To take too-much now of his lusty Beast,
Restraines his fury: then with learned wand
The triple Corvet makes him vnderstand:
With skilfull voice he gently cheers his pride,
And on his neck his flattering palm doth slide:
He stops him steady still, new breath to take,
And in the same path brings him softly back.
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But th'angry Steed, rising and reaning proudly,
Striking the stones, stamping and neighing loudly,
Calls for the Combat, plunges, leaps and praunces,
Befoams the path, with sparkling eys he glaunces,
Champs on his burnisht bit, and gloriously
His nimble fetlocks lifteth belly-high,
All side-long iaunts, on either side he iustles,
And's waving Crest courageously he bristles,
Making the gazers glad on every side
To give more room vnto his portly Pride.
Striking the stones, stamping and neighing loudly,
Calls for the Combat, plunges, leaps and praunces,
Befoams the path, with sparkling eys he glaunces,
Champs on his burnisht bit, and gloriously
His nimble fetlocks lifteth belly-high,
All side-long iaunts, on either side he iustles,
And's waving Crest courageously he bristles,
Making the gazers glad on every side
To give more room vnto his portly Pride.
Cain gently shoaks him, and now sure in seat,
Ambitiously seeks still som fresher feat
To be more famous; one while trots the Ring,
Another while he doth him backward bring,
Then of all four he makes him lightly bound;
And to each hand to manage rightly round;
To stoop, to stop, to caper, and to swim,
To dance to leap, to hold-vp any lim:
And all, so don, with time-grace-ordered skill,
As both had but one body and one will.
Th'one for his Art no little glory gains:
Th'other through practice by degrees attains
Grace in his gallop, in his pase agility,
Lightnes of head, and in his stop facility,
Strength in his leap, and stedfast managings,
Aptnes in all, and in his course new wings.
Ambitiously seeks still som fresher feat
To be more famous; one while trots the Ring,
Another while he doth him backward bring,
Then of all four he makes him lightly bound;
And to each hand to manage rightly round;
To stoop, to stop, to caper, and to swim,
To dance to leap, to hold-vp any lim:
And all, so don, with time-grace-ordered skill,
As both had but one body and one will.
Th'one for his Art no little glory gains:
Th'other through practice by degrees attains
Grace in his gallop, in his pase agility,
Lightnes of head, and in his stop facility,
Strength in his leap, and stedfast managings,
Aptnes in all, and in his course new wings.
The vse of Horses thus discovered,
Each to his work more cheerly fetteled,
Each plies his trade, and trauels for his age,
Following the paths of painfull Tubal sage.
Each to his work more cheerly fetteled,
Each plies his trade, and trauels for his age,
Following the paths of painfull Tubal sage.
While through a Forrest Tubal (with his Yew
And ready quiver) did a Boar pursue,
A burning Mountain from his fiery vain
An yron River rowls along the Plain:
The witty Huntsman, musing, thither hies,
And of he wonder deeply 'gan devise.
And first perceiving, that this scalding mettle,
Becomming cold, in any shape would settle,
And growe so hard, that with his sharpned side
The firmest substance it would soon divide;
He casts a hundred plots, and yer he parts
He moulds the ground-work of a hundred Arts:
Like as a Hound, that (following loose, behinde
His pensive Master) of a Hare doth finde;
Leaves whom he loves, vpon the sent doth ply,
Figs to and fro and fals in cheerfull Cry;
And with vp-lifted head and nosthrill wide
Winding his game, snuffs-vp the winde, his guide:
A hundred wayes he measures Vale and Hill:
Ears, eys, nor nose, nor foot, nor tail are still,
Till in her hot Form he haue found the pray
That he so long hath sought for every way.
And ready quiver) did a Boar pursue,
A burning Mountain from his fiery vain
An yron River rowls along the Plain:
The witty Huntsman, musing, thither hies,
And of he wonder deeply 'gan devise.
And first perceiving, that this scalding mettle,
Becomming cold, in any shape would settle,
And growe so hard, that with his sharpned side
The firmest substance it would soon divide;
He casts a hundred plots, and yer he parts
He moulds the ground-work of a hundred Arts:
Like as a Hound, that (following loose, behinde
His pensive Master) of a Hare doth finde;
Leaves whom he loves, vpon the sent doth ply,
Figs to and fro and fals in cheerfull Cry;
And with vp-lifted head and nosthrill wide
Winding his game, snuffs-vp the winde, his guide:
230
Ears, eys, nor nose, nor foot, nor tail are still,
Till in her hot Form he haue found the pray
That he so long hath sought for every way.
For, now the way to thousand works reveal'd,
Which long shall liue maugre the rage of Eld:
In two square creases of vnequall sises
To turn to yron streamlings he devises;
Cold, takes them thence: then off the dross he rakes,
And this a Hammer, that an Anvill makes;
And, adding tongs to these two instruments,
He stores his house with yron implements:
As, forks, rakes, hatchets, plough-shares, coultars, staples,
Bolts, hindges, hooks, nails, whittles, spoaks and grapples;
And grow'n more cunning, hollow things he formeth,
He hatcheth Files, and winding Vices wormeth,
He shapeth Sheers, and then a Saw indents,
Then beats a Blade, and then a Lock invents.
Which long shall liue maugre the rage of Eld:
In two square creases of vnequall sises
To turn to yron streamlings he devises;
Cold, takes them thence: then off the dross he rakes,
And this a Hammer, that an Anvill makes;
And, adding tongs to these two instruments,
He stores his house with yron implements:
As, forks, rakes, hatchets, plough-shares, coultars, staples,
Bolts, hindges, hooks, nails, whittles, spoaks and grapples;
And grow'n more cunning, hollow things he formeth,
He hatcheth Files, and winding Vices wormeth,
He shapeth Sheers, and then a Saw indents,
Then beats a Blade, and then a Lock invents.
Happy device! we might as well want all
The Elements, as this hard minerall.
This, to the Plough-man, for great vses serves:
This, for the Builder, Wood and Marble carves:
This arms our bodies against adverse force:
This clothes our backs: this rules th'vnruly Horse:
This makes vs dry-shod daunce in Neptunes Hall:
This brightens gold: this conquers self and all;
Fift Element, of Instruments the haft;
The Tool of Tools, and Hand of Handy-Craft.
The Elements, as this hard minerall.
This, to the Plough-man, for great vses serves:
This, for the Builder, Wood and Marble carves:
This arms our bodies against adverse force:
This clothes our backs: this rules th'vnruly Horse:
This makes vs dry-shod daunce in Neptunes Hall:
This brightens gold: this conquers self and all;
Fift Element, of Instruments the haft;
The Tool of Tools, and Hand of Handy-Craft.
While (compast round with smoaking Cyclops rude,
Half-naked Bronis, and Sterops swarthy-hewd,
All well-neer weary) sweating Tubal stands,
Hastning the hot work in their sounding hands,
No time lost Iubal: th'vn-full Harmony
Of vn-even Hammers, beating diversly,
Wakens the tunes that his sweet numbery soule
Yer birth (som think) learn'd of the warbling Pole.
Thereon he harps, and ponders in his minde,
And glad and fain som Instrument would finde
That in accord those discords might renew,
And th'iron Anvils rattling sound ensew,
And iterate the beating Hammers noise
In milder notes, and with a sweeter voice.
Half-naked Bronis, and Sterops swarthy-hewd,
All well-neer weary) sweating Tubal stands,
Hastning the hot work in their sounding hands,
No time lost Iubal: th'vn-full Harmony
Of vn-even Hammers, beating diversly,
Wakens the tunes that his sweet numbery soule
Yer birth (som think) learn'd of the warbling Pole.
Thereon he harps, and ponders in his minde,
And glad and fain som Instrument would finde
That in accord those discords might renew,
And th'iron Anvils rattling sound ensew,
And iterate the beating Hammers noise
In milder notes, and with a sweeter voice.
It chanc't, that passing by a Pond, he found
An open Tortoise lying on the ground,
Within the which there nothing else remained
Saue three dry sinews on the shell stiff-strained:
This empty house Iubal doth gladly bear,
Strikes on those strings, and lends attentiue ear;
And by this mould frames the melodious Lute,
That makes woods harken, and the windes be mute,
The Hils to dance, the Heav'ns to retro-grade,
Lions be tame, and tempests quickly vade.
An open Tortoise lying on the ground,
Within the which there nothing else remained
Saue three dry sinews on the shell stiff-strained:
This empty house Iubal doth gladly bear,
Strikes on those strings, and lends attentiue ear;
231
That makes woods harken, and the windes be mute,
The Hils to dance, the Heav'ns to retro-grade,
Lions be tame, and tempests quickly vade.
His Art, still waxing, sweetly marrieth
His quavering fingers to his warbling breath:
More little tongues to's charm-care Lute he brings,
More Instruments he makes: no Eccho rings
'Mid rocky concaves of the babbling vales,
And bubbling Rivers rowl'd with gentle gales,
But wiery Cymbals, Rebecks sinews twin'd,
Sweet Virginals, and Cornets curled winde.
His quavering fingers to his warbling breath:
More little tongues to's charm-care Lute he brings,
More Instruments he makes: no Eccho rings
'Mid rocky concaves of the babbling vales,
And bubbling Rivers rowl'd with gentle gales,
But wiery Cymbals, Rebecks sinews twin'd,
Sweet Virginals, and Cornets curled winde.
But Adam guides, through paths but seldom gone,
His other Sons to Vertues sacred throne:
And chiefly Seth (set in good Abel's place)
Staff of his age, and glory of his race:
Him he instructeth in the waies of Verity,
To worship God in spirit and sincerity:
To honour Parents with a reverent aw,
To train his children in religious law:
To love his friends, his Country to defend,
And helpfull hands to all mankinde to lend:
To knowe Heav'ns course, and how their constant swaies
Divide the yeer in months, the months in daies:
What star brings Winter, what is Sommers guide;
What signe foul weather, what doth fair betide;
What creature's kinde, and what is curst to vs;
What plant is holesom, and what venimous.
His other Sons to Vertues sacred throne:
And chiefly Seth (set in good Abel's place)
Staff of his age, and glory of his race:
Him he instructeth in the waies of Verity,
To worship God in spirit and sincerity:
To honour Parents with a reverent aw,
To train his children in religious law:
To love his friends, his Country to defend,
And helpfull hands to all mankinde to lend:
To knowe Heav'ns course, and how their constant swaies
Divide the yeer in months, the months in daies:
What star brings Winter, what is Sommers guide;
What signe foul weather, what doth fair betide;
What creature's kinde, and what is curst to vs;
What plant is holesom, and what venimous.
No sooner he his lessons can commence,
But Seth hath hit the White of his intents,
Draws rule from rule, and of his short collations
In a short time a perfect Art he fashions.
The more he knowes, the more he craves; as fewell
Kils not a fire, but kindles it more cruell.
But Seth hath hit the White of his intents,
Draws rule from rule, and of his short collations
In a short time a perfect Art he fashions.
The more he knowes, the more he craves; as fewell
Kils not a fire, but kindles it more cruell.
While on a day by a cleer Brook they travell,
Whose gurgling streams frizadoed on the gravell,
He thus bespake: If that I did not see
The zeal (dear Father) that you bear to me,
How still you watch me with your carefull ein,
How still your voice with prudent discipline
My Prentice ear doth oft reverberate;
I should misdoubt to seem importunate;
And should content me to haue learned, how
The Lord the Heav'ns about this All did bow;
What things have hot, and what have cold effect;
And how my life and manners to direct.
But your milde Love my studious heart advances
To ask you further of the various chances
Of future times: what off-pring spreading wide
Shall fill this World: What shall the World betide;
How long to last: What Magistrates, what Kings
With Iustice Mace shall govern mortall things?
Whose gurgling streams frizadoed on the gravell,
He thus bespake: If that I did not see
The zeal (dear Father) that you bear to me,
How still you watch me with your carefull ein,
How still your voice with prudent discipline
My Prentice ear doth oft reverberate;
I should misdoubt to seem importunate;
And should content me to haue learned, how
The Lord the Heav'ns about this All did bow;
What things have hot, and what have cold effect;
And how my life and manners to direct.
But your milde Love my studious heart advances
To ask you further of the various chances
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Shall fill this World: What shall the World betide;
How long to last: What Magistrates, what Kings
With Iustice Mace shall govern mortall things?
Son (quoth the Sire) our thoughts internall ey
Things past and present may by means descry;
But not the future, if by speciall grace
It read it not in th'One-Trine's glorious face.
Things past and present may by means descry;
But not the future, if by speciall grace
It read it not in th'One-Trine's glorious face.
Thou then, that (onely) things to come dost knowe,
Not by Heav'ns course, nor guess of things belowe.
Nor coupled points, nor flight of fatall Birds,
Nor trembling tripes of sacrificed Heards,
But by a clear and certain prescience
As Seer and Agent of all accidents,
With whom at once the three-fould times do fly,
And but a moment lasts Eternity;
O God, behould me, that I may behold
Thy crystall face: O Sun, reflect thy gold
On my pale Moon; that now my veiled eyes,
Earth-ward eclipst, may shine vnto the skyes.
Ravish me, Lord, ô (my soules life) reviue
My spirit a-space, that I may see (alive)
Heav'n yer I dy: and make me now (good Lord)
The Eccho of thy all-celestiall Word.
Not by Heav'ns course, nor guess of things belowe.
Nor coupled points, nor flight of fatall Birds,
Nor trembling tripes of sacrificed Heards,
But by a clear and certain prescience
As Seer and Agent of all accidents,
With whom at once the three-fould times do fly,
And but a moment lasts Eternity;
O God, behould me, that I may behold
Thy crystall face: O Sun, reflect thy gold
On my pale Moon; that now my veiled eyes,
Earth-ward eclipst, may shine vnto the skyes.
Ravish me, Lord, ô (my soules life) reviue
My spirit a-space, that I may see (alive)
Heav'n yer I dy: and make me now (good Lord)
The Eccho of thy all-celestiall Word.
With sacred fury suddenly he glowes,
Not like the Bedlani Bacchanalian froes,
Who, dancing, foaming, rowling furious-wise
Vnder their twinkling lids their torch-like eys
With ghastly voice, with visage grizly grim;
Tost by the Fiend that fiercely tortures them,
Bleaking and blushing, panting, shreeking, swouning,
With wrathless wounds their senseless members wounding:
But as th'Imperiall Airy peoples Prince,
With stately pinions soaring-hy from hence,
Cleaves through the clouds, and bravely-bold doth think
With his firm ey to make the Suns ey wink:
So Adam, mounted on the burning wings
Of a Seraphick love, leaves earthly things,
Feeds on sweet Æther, cleaves the starry Sphears,
And on Gods face his eys he fixtly bears:
His brows seem brandisht with a Sun-like fire,
And his purg'd body seems a cubit higher.
Not like the Bedlani Bacchanalian froes,
Who, dancing, foaming, rowling furious-wise
Vnder their twinkling lids their torch-like eys
With ghastly voice, with visage grizly grim;
Tost by the Fiend that fiercely tortures them,
Bleaking and blushing, panting, shreeking, swouning,
With wrathless wounds their senseless members wounding:
But as th'Imperiall Airy peoples Prince,
With stately pinions soaring-hy from hence,
Cleaves through the clouds, and bravely-bold doth think
With his firm ey to make the Suns ey wink:
So Adam, mounted on the burning wings
Of a Seraphick love, leaves earthly things,
Feeds on sweet Æther, cleaves the starry Sphears,
And on Gods face his eys he fixtly bears:
His brows seem brandisht with a Sun-like fire,
And his purg'd body seems a cubit higher.
Then thus began he: Th'ever-trembling field
Of scaly folk, the Arches starry seeld,
Where th'All-Creator hath disposed well
The Sun and Moon by turns for Sentinell;
The cleer cloud-bounding Air (the Camp assign'd
Where angry Auster, and the rough North-winde,
Meeting in battell, throwe down to the soil
The Woods that middling stand to part the broil);
The Diapry Mansions, where man-kinde doth trade,
Were built in Six Daies: and the Seav'nth was made
The sacred Sabbath. So, Sea, Earth and Air,
And azure-gilded Heav'ns Pavilions fair;
Shall stand Six Daies; but longer diversly
Then the daies bounded by the Worlds bright ey.
Of scaly folk, the Arches starry seeld,
Where th'All-Creator hath disposed well
The Sun and Moon by turns for Sentinell;
The cleer cloud-bounding Air (the Camp assign'd
Where angry Auster, and the rough North-winde,
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The Woods that middling stand to part the broil);
The Diapry Mansions, where man-kinde doth trade,
Were built in Six Daies: and the Seav'nth was made
The sacred Sabbath. So, Sea, Earth and Air,
And azure-gilded Heav'ns Pavilions fair;
Shall stand Six Daies; but longer diversly
Then the daies bounded by the Worlds bright ey.
The First begins with me: the Seconds morn
Is the first Ship-wright, who doth first adorn
The Hils with Vines: that Shepheard is the Third,
That after God through strange Lands leads his Heard,
And (past mans reason) crediting Gods word,
His onely Son slaies with a willing sword:
The Fourth's another valiant Shepheardling,
That for a Cannon takes his silly sling,
And to a Scepter turns his Shepheards staff,
Great Prince, great Prophet, Poet, Psalmograph:
The Fift begins from that sad Princes night
That sees his children murdred in his sight,
And on the banks of fruitfull Euphrates,
Poor Iuda led in Captiue heauiness:
Hoped Messias shineth in the Sixt;
Who, mockt, beat, banisht, buried, cruci-fixt,
For our foul sins (still-selfly innocent)
Hath fully born the hatefull punishment:
The Last shall be the very Resting-Day,
Th'Air shall be mute, the Waters works shall stay;
The Earth her store; the Stars shall leave their measures,
The Sun his shine: and in eternall pleasures
We plung'd, in Heav'n shall ay solemnize, all,
Th'eternall Sabbaths end-less Festiuall.
Is the first Ship-wright, who doth first adorn
The Hils with Vines: that Shepheard is the Third,
That after God through strange Lands leads his Heard,
And (past mans reason) crediting Gods word,
His onely Son slaies with a willing sword:
The Fourth's another valiant Shepheardling,
That for a Cannon takes his silly sling,
And to a Scepter turns his Shepheards staff,
Great Prince, great Prophet, Poet, Psalmograph:
The Fift begins from that sad Princes night
That sees his children murdred in his sight,
And on the banks of fruitfull Euphrates,
Poor Iuda led in Captiue heauiness:
Hoped Messias shineth in the Sixt;
Who, mockt, beat, banisht, buried, cruci-fixt,
For our foul sins (still-selfly innocent)
Hath fully born the hatefull punishment:
The Last shall be the very Resting-Day,
Th'Air shall be mute, the Waters works shall stay;
The Earth her store; the Stars shall leave their measures,
The Sun his shine: and in eternall pleasures
We plung'd, in Heav'n shall ay solemnize, all,
Th'eternall Sabbaths end-less Festiuall.
Alas! what may I of that race presume
Next th'irefull Flame that shall this Frame consume,
Whose gut their god, whose lust their law shall be,
Who shall not hear of God, nor yet of me?
Sith those outrageous, that began their birth
On th'holy groundsill of sweet Edens earth,
And (yet) the sound of Heav'ns drad Sentence hear,
And as ey-witnes of mine Exile were,
Seem to despight God. Did it not suffize
(O lustfull soule!) first to polygamize?
Suffiz'd it not (O Lamech) to distain
Thy Nuptiall bed? but that thou must ingrain
In thy great-Grand-sires Grand-sires reeking gore
Thy cruell blade? respecting nought (before)
The prohibition, and the threatning vow
Of him to whom infernall Powrs do bow:
Neither his Pasports sealed Character
Set in the fore-head of the Murderer.
Next th'irefull Flame that shall this Frame consume,
Whose gut their god, whose lust their law shall be,
Who shall not hear of God, nor yet of me?
Sith those outrageous, that began their birth
On th'holy groundsill of sweet Edens earth,
And (yet) the sound of Heav'ns drad Sentence hear,
And as ey-witnes of mine Exile were,
Seem to despight God. Did it not suffize
(O lustfull soule!) first to polygamize?
Suffiz'd it not (O Lamech) to distain
Thy Nuptiall bed? but that thou must ingrain
In thy great-Grand-sires Grand-sires reeking gore
Thy cruell blade? respecting nought (before)
The prohibition, and the threatning vow
Of him to whom infernall Powrs do bow:
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Set in the fore-head of the Murderer.
Courage, good Enos: re-advance the Standard
Of holy Faith, by humane reason slander'd,
And troden-down: Invoke th'immortall Powr;
Vpon his Altar warm bloud-offrings pour:
His sacred nose perfume with pleasing vapor,
And teend again Truths neer-extinguisht Taper.
Of holy Faith, by humane reason slander'd,
And troden-down: Invoke th'immortall Powr;
Vpon his Altar warm bloud-offrings pour:
His sacred nose perfume with pleasing vapor,
And teend again Truths neer-extinguisht Taper.
Thy pupil Henoch, selfly-dying wholly,
(Earths ornament) to God he liveth solely.
Lo, how he labours to endure the light
Which in th'Arch-essence shineth glorious-bright:
How rapt from sense, and free from fleshly lets,
Somtimes he climbs the sacred Cabinets
Of the divine Ideas everlasting,
Having for wings, Faith, fervent Praier and Fasting:
How at somtimes, though clad in earthly clod,
He (sacred) sees, feels, all enioyes in God:
How at somtimes, mounting from form to form,
In form of God he happy doth transform.
Lo, how th'All-fair, as burning all in love
With his rare beauties, not content above
T'haue half, but all, and ever; sets the stairs
That lead from hence to Heav'n his chosen heirs:
Lo, how he climeth the supernall stories.
(Earths ornament) to God he liveth solely.
Lo, how he labours to endure the light
Which in th'Arch-essence shineth glorious-bright:
How rapt from sense, and free from fleshly lets,
Somtimes he climbs the sacred Cabinets
Of the divine Ideas everlasting,
Having for wings, Faith, fervent Praier and Fasting:
How at somtimes, though clad in earthly clod,
He (sacred) sees, feels, all enioyes in God:
How at somtimes, mounting from form to form,
In form of God he happy doth transform.
Lo, how th'All-fair, as burning all in love
With his rare beauties, not content above
T'haue half, but all, and ever; sets the stairs
That lead from hence to Heav'n his chosen heirs:
Lo, how he climeth the supernall stories.
Adieu, dear Henoch: in eternall glories
Dwell there with God: thy body, chang'd in quality
Of Spirit or Angell, puts-on immortality:
Thine eys already (now no longer eyes,
But new bright stars) doo brandish in the skyes:
Thou drinkest deep of the celestiall wine:
Thy Sabbath's end-less: without vail (in fine)
Thou seest God face to face; and neer vnite
To th'One-Trine Good, thou liv'st in th'Infinite.
Dwell there with God: thy body, chang'd in quality
Of Spirit or Angell, puts-on immortality:
Thine eys already (now no longer eyes,
But new bright stars) doo brandish in the skyes:
Thou drinkest deep of the celestiall wine:
Thy Sabbath's end-less: without vail (in fine)
Thou seest God face to face; and neer vnite
To th'One-Trine Good, thou liv'st in th'Infinite.
But heer the while (new Angell) thou dost leaue
Fell wicked folk, whose hands are apt to reaue,
Whose Scorpion tongues delight in sowing strife,
Whose guts are gulfs, incestuous all their life.
Fell wicked folk, whose hands are apt to reaue,
Whose Scorpion tongues delight in sowing strife,
Whose guts are gulfs, incestuous all their life.
O strange to be beleev'd! the blessed Race,
The sacred Flock, whom God by speciall grace
Adopts for his, ev'n they (alas!) most shame-less
Do follow sin, most beastly-brute and tame-less,
With lustfull eys choosing for wanton Spouses
Mens wicked daughters; mingling so the houses
Of Seth and Cain; preferring foolishly
Frail beauties blaze to vertuous modesty.
The sacred Flock, whom God by speciall grace
Adopts for his, ev'n they (alas!) most shame-less
Do follow sin, most beastly-brute and tame-less,
With lustfull eys choosing for wanton Spouses
Mens wicked daughters; mingling so the houses
Of Seth and Cain; preferring foolishly
Frail beauties blaze to vertuous modesty.
From these profane, foul, cursed kisses sprung
A cruell brood, feeding on blood and wrong;
Fell Gyants strange, of haughty hand and minde,
Plagues of the World, and scourges of Mankinde.
A cruell brood, feeding on blood and wrong;
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Plagues of the World, and scourges of Mankinde.
Then, righteous God (though ever prone to pardon)
Seeing His mildeness but their malice harden,
List plead no longer, but resolves the Fall
Of man forth-with, and (for mans sake) of all:
Of all (at least) the living creatures gliding
Along the air, or on the earth abiding.
Seeing His mildeness but their malice harden,
List plead no longer, but resolves the Fall
Of man forth-with, and (for mans sake) of all:
Of all (at least) the living creatures gliding
Along the air, or on the earth abiding.
Heav'ns crystall windows with one hand he opes,
Whence on the World a thousand Seas he drops:
With th'other hand he gripes and wringeth forth
The spungy Globe of th'execrable Earth,
So straightly prest, that it doth straight restore
All liquid flouds that it had drunk before:
In every Rock new Rivers doo begin;
And to his aid the snowes com tumbling in:
The Pines and Cedars haue but boughs to showe,
The shoars doo shrink, the swelling waters growe.
Alas! so many Nephews lose I heer
Amid these deeps, that but for mountains neer,
Vpon the rising of whose ridges lofty,
The lusty climb on every side for safety,
I should be seed-less: but (alas!) the Water
Swallows those Hils, and all this wide Theater
Is all one Pond. O children, whither fly-you?
Alas! Heav'ns wrath pursues you to destroy-you:
The stormy waters strangely rage and roar,
Rivers and Seas haue all one common shoar,
(To wit) a sable, water-loaden Sky
Ready to rain new Oceans instantly.
Whence on the World a thousand Seas he drops:
With th'other hand he gripes and wringeth forth
The spungy Globe of th'execrable Earth,
So straightly prest, that it doth straight restore
All liquid flouds that it had drunk before:
In every Rock new Rivers doo begin;
And to his aid the snowes com tumbling in:
The Pines and Cedars haue but boughs to showe,
The shoars doo shrink, the swelling waters growe.
Alas! so many Nephews lose I heer
Amid these deeps, that but for mountains neer,
Vpon the rising of whose ridges lofty,
The lusty climb on every side for safety,
I should be seed-less: but (alas!) the Water
Swallows those Hils, and all this wide Theater
Is all one Pond. O children, whither fly-you?
Alas! Heav'ns wrath pursues you to destroy-you:
The stormy waters strangely rage and roar,
Rivers and Seas haue all one common shoar,
(To wit) a sable, water-loaden Sky
Ready to rain new Oceans instantly.
O Son-less Father! O too fruitfull hanches!
O wretched root! O hurtfull, hatefull branches!
O gulfs vnknown! O dungeons deep and black!
O worlds decay! O vniversall wrack!
O Heav'ns! O Seas! O Earth (now Earth no more)
O flesh! O bloud! Heer, sorrow stopt the door
Of his sad voice; and, almost dead for wo,
The prophetizing spirit forsook him so.
O wretched root! O hurtfull, hatefull branches!
O gulfs vnknown! O dungeons deep and black!
O worlds decay! O vniversall wrack!
O Heav'ns! O Seas! O Earth (now Earth no more)
O flesh! O bloud! Heer, sorrow stopt the door
Of his sad voice; and, almost dead for wo,
The prophetizing spirit forsook him so.
| Du Bartas | |