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Now Minos after strict examination,
And iustly informed by their accusation,
Contrudes them all vnto the sad society
Of such as are condemn'd for their impiety;
With them incessant torments to endure,
A iust infliction for their deeds impure.
But against such he is incensed most,
Who whilest they liv'd did of their Riches boast;
Whom Dignity and Stile swell'd with ostent,
Who in their proud hearts could haue been content
To haue had Adoration. He hates Pride,
And doth such haughty insolence deride,
As short and momentary; because they knowing
Themselues vnto their Marbles hourely growing,
As being Mortals: yet in their great glory
Thinke not their wealth and riches transitorie.
But all these splendors they haue now layd by,
Wealth, Gentry, Office, Place, and dignity;
Naked, sad-lookt, perplext with griefe extreame,
Thinking what past in life-time a meere Dreame.
To behold which I tooke exceeding pleasure,
And was indeed delighted aboue measure.
If any one of them by chance I knew,
As priuat as I could I neere him drew,
Demanded what before was his condition,
And whether, as the rest, swell'd with Ambition?
About the dore there was a throng of such
By Pluto's Ministers offended much,
Beaten and thrust together all about,
Who, as it seemes, would gladly haue got out.
To these he scarcely mouing, in a gowne
Which from his shoulders to his heele flow'd downe,
Of Scarlet, Gold, and diuers colours mixt,
Casting his head that way, on some he fixt
An austere eye; such counting it a blisse,
To whom he but vouchsaft a hand to kisse:
At which the others murmur'd. Minos then
Setling himselfe vpon his Throne agen,
Some things with fauor sentenc'd. There appear'd
The Tyrant Dionysius, ev'lly chear'd,
Not knowing what excuses to rely on,
Being of heinous crimes accus'd by Dion:
The Stoicks testates were to that conviction.
And he now ready to be doom'd to infliction.
But Aristippus Cyrenæus now
In th' interim comes, whom all the Ghosts allow,
And giue him before others the prioritie,
As bearing sway, and of no meane authoritie.
The Tyrant, sentenc'd to Chimæra, hee
By oratory acquitted and set free;
As prouing, That he Learning did admire,
And gaue to the Professors liberall hire.
From the Tribunall, we our course extend
Vnto the place of Torments, where (ô Friend)
Infinite miseries at once appeare,
All which we freely might both see and heare,
Together with the sound of stripes and blowes;
Loud ejulations, shrieks, teares, passionate woes
Echo'd from those wrapt in invisible flames,
Wheeles, Racks, Forks, Gibbets; to tel all their names,
Not possible. Here Cerberus besmeares
His triple chaps in bloud, rauens and teares
The wretched Soules: the fell Chimæra takes
Others in her sharpe phangs, and 'mongst them makes
A fearefull massacre, limbe from limbe diuiding.
Not far from thence, in a darke place abiding,
Were Captiues, Kings and Prefects, (of these store)
And with them mingled both the Rich and Poore;
These all together, and alike tormented,
Who now too late haue of their sinnes repented:
And some of them whom we beheld, we knew,
Who dyde not long since. Such themselues withdrew,
And as asham'd to be in torments seene,
In darke and obscure noukes their shadowes skreene;
Or if they doubtfully cast backe their eyes,
Blushes are seene from their pale cheekes to rise:
And onely such themselues in darknesse shroud,
Who were in life most insolent and proud.
As for the Poore, whom they in life did scoff,
Halfe of their punishment in Hell's tooke off,
As hauing intermission from their paine,
And after rest tormented are againe.
What by the Poets is in Fables told
Of Phrygian Tantalus, I there behold;
Of Sisiphus, Ixion, and the son
Of our great Grandam Earth, bold Tytion:
O ye iust gods, (like as I oft haue read)
How many acres doth his body spread!
These Objects hauing past, at length wee come
Vnto the Field call'd Acherusium.
No sooner there, but straight we hapt among
The demi-gods, the Heroës, and a throng
Of sev'rall troupes, (it seemes in Tribes sequestred)
Some appear'd old and feeble, as if pestred
With Cramps and Aches. These (as Homer writes)
Thin vanishing Shadowes: Others, Youthfull Sprites,
Sollid and sound, vpright, and strongly nerv'd,
As if their bones had better been preserv'd
Beneath Ægyptian structures. And now most
Difficult 'twas for vs to know one Ghost
From other, for their bones alike were bare;
Distinguish them we cannot, though we stare
With leaue and leasure: neither wonder was 't,
They were so obscurely and ignobly plac't,
Shadow'd in holes, our better view t'escape,
And keeping nothing of their pristine shape.
So many fleshlesse bones at once appeare,
Peeping through holes in which their eyes once were,
Who wanting lips, their teeth now naked show.
I 'gan to thinke, by what marke I might know
Thersites from faire Nereus; as desirous,
From great Corcyra's King to point out Irus.
Or else distinguish Agamemnons looke,
From Pirrhia's, the fat and greasie Cooke.
Now remaines nothing of them to be seene,
By which the eye may iudge what they haue beene;
All of one semblance, Incorporeall,
But not to be distinguished at all.
These things beholding, I consid'red than,
How fitly to compare the life of Man
Vnto a lingring Pompe, of which (who knowes her)
Fortune is made the Guide and free disposer,
To prouide Robes and Habits, and indeed
All properties and toyes the Actors need.
On him whom she most fauors, she bestowes
A Kingly vesture: To his head she throwes
A stately Turban, giues him Knights and Squires,
With all such ornaments his pompe requires,
(According to her pleasure) and with them,
Perhaps a rich and stately Diadem.
The habit of a seruant poore and bare
She puts vpon another: makes him faire,
The next deform'd, and to the Stage a scorne,
(A spectacle) in which she doth suborne
All kinde of People, Sexes, and Degrees,
Many of which their States and Garments leese
In the mid-Scœne, nor suffers them to run
In the same passage that they first begun,
But changing still their garment: Crœsus graue
She forceth to the habit of a Slaue.
Meandrides then, sitting 'mongst his Groomes,
She brings into the rich and stately roomes
Of Tyrant Polycrates, seemes to smile,
And lets him there perchance abide a while,
Clad in those Regall ornaments: but when
The time of his great pompe is ouer, then
Each Actor must his borrow'd sure restore,
As by him, after to be worne no more;
Now being as at first, and in the end
Nought differing from his Neighbour or his Friend.
Yet some through ignorance, loth to lay by
Those painted Robes in which they late look thy,
Are on the sudden ev'n as pensiue growne,
As had they put off nothing but their owne
They being of anothers goods possest,
In which they had no claime or interest.
I know thou hast seene often in a Play,
Amongst the Tragicke Actors, how still they
In ev'ry passage, as the project's laid,
One in this Dramma is a Cræon made;
A Priam that, an Agamemnon hee:
Perhaps the same too (as the chance may be)
Cecrops or Ericthœus before playd,
And of them both a true resemblance made:
Yet he (if so the Poet but assent)
Next day a seruile Groome shall represent.
But when the Play is done, and that each one
Resignes the golden Vesture he put on;
With that, the person likewise represented,
His pantofles and all: he is contented,
Bee'ng from the Stage acquitted, to walke forth
A priuat man, it may be nothing worth.
Nor doth he looke like Agamemnon now,
The great Atræa's sonne; neither (I vow)
Resembles Cræon, Menicæus heire;
Polus he may, a fellow leane and spare,
Of Cariclæus Samosensis bred;
Of Satyrus, from Theogiton (dead)
Descended. Such as I beheld them then,
Appear'd to me th' affaires of mortall Men.
Phil.
One thing, Menippus, tell me I entreat;
Those that haue Tombes magnificent and great
Here on the earth, with Columnes, Pictures, and
Inscriptions large; haue these no more command,
Nor honors done them, than to such as ar'
Priuat, and with the rest familiar?

Men.

Phil.
Thou tell'st me (ô Menippus) of these Kings
Newes vnbeleeuable, miraculous things.
Of Socrates and of Diogenes what
Is (with the Wise) become? resolue me that.

Men.

Phil.
Of these enough. But touching the Decree
Of which thou spak'st at first, what might that be,
Publisht against the Rich?

Men.
Thou call'st me well
To my remembrance; what 'twas I shall tell.
But Friend, I feare me I haue done thee wrong,
From what I purpos'd to haue stayd so long.
Whilst I converst there, th' Officers of State
Call'd an Assembly, to deliberate
Of things behoofull for the Common good.
A mighty Conflu'ence gather'd there, I stood
Thronging among the Dead, to heare what newes:
They (after many things debated) chuse
That of Rich Men: all other things or'e-past,
They make it the most serious and the last.
For many Crimes against them bee'ng objected,
As those whose vilenesse was at length detected,
Their Violence, Extortion, Inso'lence, Pride,
Rapine and Theft, with other things beside;
One (as it seemes a prime amongst the Dead)
Starts vp, and by command this Edict read: