All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet Being Sixty and three in Number. Collected into one Volume by the Author [i.e. John Taylor]: With sundry new Additions, corrected, reuised, and newly Imprinted |
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 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet |  |
VVhen restlesse Phœbus seem'd himselfe to rest
His flaming Carr, descending to the West,
And Hesperus obscur'd her twinkling light:
Then in a sable mantle (Madame night)
Tooke of the world the sole command, and keepe
Charming the eyes of mortals sound a sleepe:
She sent dull Morpheus forth, and Somnus both,
(The Leaden Potentates of Sleepe and Sloth)
Who vnto euery one good rest imparts
Saue Louers, guilty mindes, and carefull hearts.
The stealing houres, creep'd on with sleeping pace,
When masqued Midnight shew'd her Ebon face;
When Hagges, and Furies, Witches, Fairies, Elues,
Ghosts, Sprites, & Goblins doe disport themselues:
When fond imaginarie dreames doe raigne
In formelesse formes, in mans molested braine:
On such a time, I sleeping in my bed,
An vnaccustom'd dreame came in my head,
Me thought as neere vnto a Riuers side,
Within a pleasant Groue I did abide,
That all the feathered birds that swims or flies,
Or liues betwixt the breeding earth and skies,
One at the least of euery seuerall sort,
Did for their recreation there resort.
There was such a variety of notes,
Such warbling, & such whistling frō their throates:
The Base, the Tenor, Trebble, and the Meane,
All acting various Actions in one Sceane:
The sober Goose (not thinking ought amisse)
Amongst the rest did (harshly) keake and hisse:
At which the Peacocke, and the pyde-coate Iay,
Said, Take the foolish gaggling Goose away.
The Goose (though angry) with a modest looke,
Seem'd as she gently this affront would brooke,
When all the Fowles in generall out did breake,
Commanding her she should not dare to speake.
Away the melancholly Goose return'd,
And in a banke of Reede she sate and mourn'd,
Complaining 'gainst the hatefull multitude,
And iustly taxing with Ingratitude
The Race of all mortality; and then
Is none (quoth she) suruiuing amongst men,
That will my true worth search and vnderstand,
And in my quarrell take a Pen in hand,
And in a stately high Heroicke stile,
My Predecessours noble Acts compile,
From age to age descending vnto me,
That my succeeding Issue all may see
The admirable deedes that I haue done,
And runne that worthie course that I haue runne.
O impious age, when there is no defence
For Vertue, and for hated Innocence:
When Flatt'rers, Fooles, and Fiddlers are rewarded,
When I must liue inpittied, vnregarded!
Me thought these last words ended with a keake
Of such force, as if her heart would breake.
At which I starting, wak'ned from my dreame,
And made the Gooses wrong, my Muses theame:
I' arose, put on my cloathes, sate downe, and than
I tooke my Pen in hand, and thus began.
His flaming Carr, descending to the West,
And Hesperus obscur'd her twinkling light:
Then in a sable mantle (Madame night)
Tooke of the world the sole command, and keepe
Charming the eyes of mortals sound a sleepe:
She sent dull Morpheus forth, and Somnus both,
(The Leaden Potentates of Sleepe and Sloth)
Who vnto euery one good rest imparts
Saue Louers, guilty mindes, and carefull hearts.
The stealing houres, creep'd on with sleeping pace,
When masqued Midnight shew'd her Ebon face;
When Hagges, and Furies, Witches, Fairies, Elues,
Ghosts, Sprites, & Goblins doe disport themselues:
When fond imaginarie dreames doe raigne
In formelesse formes, in mans molested braine:
On such a time, I sleeping in my bed,
An vnaccustom'd dreame came in my head,
Me thought as neere vnto a Riuers side,
Within a pleasant Groue I did abide,
That all the feathered birds that swims or flies,
Or liues betwixt the breeding earth and skies,
One at the least of euery seuerall sort,
Did for their recreation there resort.
There was such a variety of notes,
Such warbling, & such whistling frō their throates:
The Base, the Tenor, Trebble, and the Meane,
All acting various Actions in one Sceane:
The sober Goose (not thinking ought amisse)
Amongst the rest did (harshly) keake and hisse:
At which the Peacocke, and the pyde-coate Iay,
Said, Take the foolish gaggling Goose away.
The Goose (though angry) with a modest looke,
Seem'd as she gently this affront would brooke,
When all the Fowles in generall out did breake,
Commanding her she should not dare to speake.
Away the melancholly Goose return'd,
And in a banke of Reede she sate and mourn'd,
Complaining 'gainst the hatefull multitude,
And iustly taxing with Ingratitude
The Race of all mortality; and then
Is none (quoth she) suruiuing amongst men,
That will my true worth search and vnderstand,
And in my quarrell take a Pen in hand,
And in a stately high Heroicke stile,
My Predecessours noble Acts compile,
From age to age descending vnto me,
That my succeeding Issue all may see
The admirable deedes that I haue done,
And runne that worthie course that I haue runne.
O impious age, when there is no defence
For Vertue, and for hated Innocence:
When Flatt'rers, Fooles, and Fiddlers are rewarded,
When I must liue inpittied, vnregarded!
Me thought these last words ended with a keake
Of such force, as if her heart would breake.
At which I starting, wak'ned from my dreame,
And made the Gooses wrong, my Muses theame:
I' arose, put on my cloathes, sate downe, and than
I tooke my Pen in hand, and thus began.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet | |