Fovre bookes of Du Bartas I. The Arke, II. Babylon, III. The Colonnyes, IIII. The Columues or Pyllars: In French and English, for the Instrvction and Pleasvre of Svch as Delight in Both Langvages. By William Lisle ... Together with a large Commentary by S. G. S |
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The right of Eloquence they tri'd by stammering,
And such as iudgement lackt they set to iudge the thing;
To wit, two sucking babes, whom their two Mothers dumbe
In hermitages kept, where no man else did come.
No charmy voyce of man was heard sound neere the place,
Till three times had the Sunne runne out his yeerely race.
When brought they were abroad, and set betwixt the people
Of Pantus and of Nile, they cry with voices feeble,
And often cry they Bec: bec, bec is all the ground
That either tongue can frame, or else their mouth will sound;
Whereat the men of Xanth, who knew the word implide
In Phrygian language Bread, in face they signifide
The ioy they felt in heart, and thought them highly blest
T'obtaine on their behalfe dame Natures owne arrest.
And such as iudgement lackt they set to iudge the thing;
To wit, two sucking babes, whom their two Mothers dumbe
In hermitages kept, where no man else did come.
No charmy voyce of man was heard sound neere the place,
54
When brought they were abroad, and set betwixt the people
Of Pantus and of Nile, they cry with voices feeble,
And often cry they Bec: bec, bec is all the ground
That either tongue can frame, or else their mouth will sound;
Whereat the men of Xanth, who knew the word implide
In Phrygian language Bread, in face they signifide
The ioy they felt in heart, and thought them highly blest
T'obtaine on their behalfe dame Natures owne arrest.
O fooles! who neuer cast how that the bleating flocks
That shore the tender flowres vpon the neighbour rocks
Had taught them such a tongue, and that the Dardanish,
French, Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, Egyptian, or English,
They are not borne with vs; but well may be discerned,
That euery tongue by haunt and by long vse is learned.
Disposednesse to speech indeede is Natures gift;
As is the grace of tongues diuersitie and shift,
So variably rich, and richly variable,
As makes a man to beast the more vncomparable.
And if you list oppose, how that the Bull he bellowes,
The slothfull Asse doth bray, the Lyon and his fellowes
Now treble roare, now base, and by those tunes ye finde
They seemen eloquent to make vs know their minde:
I say these are no words but onely declarations
Of their disquiet sturres, prouokt by sundry passions;
Confused signes of griefe, or tokens of their sadnesse.
Of ioyfulnesse, of loue, of hunger, thirst, or madnesse,
That shore the tender flowres vpon the neighbour rocks
Had taught them such a tongue, and that the Dardanish,
French, Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, Egyptian, or English,
They are not borne with vs; but well may be discerned,
That euery tongue by haunt and by long vse is learned.
Disposednesse to speech indeede is Natures gift;
As is the grace of tongues diuersitie and shift,
So variably rich, and richly variable,
As makes a man to beast the more vncomparable.
And if you list oppose, how that the Bull he bellowes,
The slothfull Asse doth bray, the Lyon and his fellowes
Now treble roare, now base, and by those tunes ye finde
They seemen eloquent to make vs know their minde:
I say these are no words but onely declarations
Of their disquiet sturres, prouokt by sundry passions;
Confused signes of griefe, or tokens of their sadnesse.
Of ioyfulnesse, of loue, of hunger, thirst, or madnesse,
The like may well be said of that light-winged quier
That on the greene-locke heads of Oake, Elme, Ash and Brier
Record the morning lay: for though (as is the weather)
By two, by three, by more, they seeme to talke together,
And though their voice it bends a hundred thousand wayes,
And descant though they can a hundred wanton layes;
Though great Apolles selfe within their Schoole was taught;
A groundlesse tune it is of notes entending naught:
A thousand times a day the selfe-same song repeated,
A dumbe discourse, amid the wilde of woods defeated.
But onely man hath powre to preach of modestie,
Of honour, of wisedome, of force, of equitie,
Of God, of heau'n, of earth, of water, and of ayre,
With words of good import, yee cull'd and sundry-faire.
Vnfoulding all his thoughts not onely in one language,
But like to Scaliger, the wonder of our age,
The Lampe of learned men, can wisely speake and much,
In Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, English, Italian, Dutch,
In Spanish, Arabicke, French, and Slauonian,
Caldean, Syrian, and Ethyopian.
This man Camelion-like will make his transformation,
(O rich, ô pliant wit!) to any authors fashion.
Great Iulies worthy sonne, great Syluies yonger brother,
In Gascany renoun'd more then was euer other.
But as for Popiniayes, that passing all their ages
Within the pearced grates of thorow-ayred cages,
In eloquence are bould to plead with vs for chiefe,
Pronounce all thorow-out the Christian beliefe;
Repeate the forme of Prayer that from our Sauiour came;
And all the houshold call together name by name;
They like dame Eccho be, our sounding voices daughter,
That through the vaulted hils so rudely bableth-after,
Not weening what she saith: In vaine this ayre they breake,
And speaking without sense, they speake, but nothing speake:
As deafe vnto themselues: for language is definde.
A voyce articulate that represents the minde:
And short it was, and sweet, and deckt with many a flowre,
And vnderstood of all, before the Babell towre.
That on the greene-locke heads of Oake, Elme, Ash and Brier
Record the morning lay: for though (as is the weather)
By two, by three, by more, they seeme to talke together,
And though their voice it bends a hundred thousand wayes,
And descant though they can a hundred wanton layes;
Though great Apolles selfe within their Schoole was taught;
A groundlesse tune it is of notes entending naught:
A thousand times a day the selfe-same song repeated,
A dumbe discourse, amid the wilde of woods defeated.
56
Of honour, of wisedome, of force, of equitie,
Of God, of heau'n, of earth, of water, and of ayre,
With words of good import, yee cull'd and sundry-faire.
Vnfoulding all his thoughts not onely in one language,
But like to Scaliger, the wonder of our age,
The Lampe of learned men, can wisely speake and much,
In Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, English, Italian, Dutch,
In Spanish, Arabicke, French, and Slauonian,
Caldean, Syrian, and Ethyopian.
This man Camelion-like will make his transformation,
(O rich, ô pliant wit!) to any authors fashion.
Great Iulies worthy sonne, great Syluies yonger brother,
In Gascany renoun'd more then was euer other.
But as for Popiniayes, that passing all their ages
Within the pearced grates of thorow-ayred cages,
In eloquence are bould to plead with vs for chiefe,
Pronounce all thorow-out the Christian beliefe;
Repeate the forme of Prayer that from our Sauiour came;
And all the houshold call together name by name;
They like dame Eccho be, our sounding voices daughter,
That through the vaulted hils so rudely bableth-after,
Not weening what she saith: In vaine this ayre they breake,
And speaking without sense, they speake, but nothing speake:
As deafe vnto themselues: for language is definde.
A voyce articulate that represents the minde:
And short it was, and sweet, and deckt with many a flowre,
And vnderstood of all, before the Babell towre.
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