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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With golden sentences, then doth his crowne with gems.
The last is Amos sonne, beset with graces all,
Graue, holy, full of threats, deuout, rhetoricall.
Graue, holy, full of threats, deuout, rhetoricall.
The Greeke on Homer leanes; who sweetly versifies,
Whose learned schoole hath taught a many Companies
Of old Philosophers, and from whose cunning plea
Run riuers through the world, as from an Ocean Sea.
Whose learned schoole hath taught a many Companies
Of old Philosophers, and from whose cunning plea
Run riuers through the world, as from an Ocean Sea.
On Plato th'all-diuine, who like the bird we call
The bird of paradise, ne soyles himselfe at all
VVith earth or waters touch; but, more then hels descent
Surmounted is by heau'n, surmounts the firmament.
The bird of paradise, ne soyles himselfe at all
VVith earth or waters touch; but, more then hels descent
Surmounted is by heau'n, surmounts the firmament.
On Herodote the plaine; and him, of pleaders arts
The Law Demosthenes, the guilt-tongue Prince of harts.
Then he that thunder-speaks, with lightning blast and shine
The Foe of Anthonie, the scourge of Catiline,
The spring of thousand floods wherein the rarest wits
Doe daily toyle themselues agast with wonder-fits;
And Cœsar, that can doe as well as he can plead:
And sinowie Salust next; then he that Troy doth lead
Againe to Tyber-shore, a writer sent from heauen,
That neuer shuts his eyes to slumber, morne or eu'n;
That euer treadeth sure, is euer plaine and graue;
Demurely venterous, and temperately braue;
That still is like himselfe, and vnlike others all;
These hold the sweet-graue tongue was last imperiall.
Th'Italian founded is on Boccace pleasurous;
With Petrarch finely dight, bould and sententious;
On flowing Ariost, selfe-vnlike, passionate;
With Tasso, worthy wight to frame a verse of State,
Sharpe, short, fil'd, figured, with language rowling fast,
The first to be esteem'd albeet he wrote the last.
The Law Demosthenes, the guilt-tongue Prince of harts.
Then he that thunder-speaks, with lightning blast and shine
The Foe of Anthonie, the scourge of Catiline,
The spring of thousand floods wherein the rarest wits
Doe daily toyle themselues agast with wonder-fits;
And Cœsar, that can doe as well as he can plead:
And sinowie Salust next; then he that Troy doth lead
Againe to Tyber-shore, a writer sent from heauen,
That neuer shuts his eyes to slumber, morne or eu'n;
That euer treadeth sure, is euer plaine and graue;
Demurely venterous, and temperately braue;
That still is like himselfe, and vnlike others all;
These hold the sweet-graue tongue was last imperiall.
Th'Italian founded is on Boccace pleasurous;
With Petrarch finely dight, bould and sententious;
On flowing Ariost, selfe-vnlike, passionate;
With Tasso, worthy wight to frame a verse of State,
Sharpe, short, fil'd, figured, with language rowling fast,
75
Th'Arabian tongue is here most worthily sustained
By great Auerroes deep-reaching, suttle-brained;
Ibnufarid the smooth allegorizing wag;
And faire-spoake Auicen, and Satyr Eldebag.
By great Auerroes deep-reaching, suttle-brained;
Ibnufarid the smooth allegorizing wag;
And faire-spoake Auicen, and Satyr Eldebag.
The glory of Wittenberg and Isleb, Martin Luther
Is one that beares the Dutch; another is Michael Buther,
Who Sleydan Almaned; my Butrick is the next;
With Peucer, who reguilds his all-entising text.
Is one that beares the Dutch; another is Michael Buther,
Who Sleydan Almaned; my Butrick is the next;
With Peucer, who reguilds his all-entising text.
Then Boscan, then Gueuare, Grenade and Gracilas,
With Nectar all distain'd, that mantleth in the glasse
Of hony-powring Peith, vpheld the Castillane.
And had not th'ancient grace of speaking Catallane
Osias ouer-pleas'd, his learning might haue bore
The Spanish Crowne of Bay from one of th'other foure.
With Nectar all distain'd, that mantleth in the glasse
Of hony-powring Peith, vpheld the Castillane.
And had not th'ancient grace of speaking Catallane
Osias ouer-pleas'd, his learning might haue bore
The Spanish Crowne of Bay from one of th'other foure.
The burd'n of th'English tongue I finde here vndertaken
By quicke Sir Thomas More, and graue Sir Nicolas Bacon;
They knit and rais'd the stile, and were both eloquent,
And Keepers of the Seale, and skill'd in gouernment.
Sir Philip Sydn'y is next, who sung as sweet as Swan
That flaps the swelling waues of Tems with siluer fan:
This Riu'r his honour beares, and eloquence together,
To snow-foot Thetis lap, and Thetis eu'ry whither.
But what new sunne is this that beames vpon mine eyes?
Or, am I rapt amongst the heau'nly companies?
O what a princely grace! what State Emperiall!
What pleasant-lightning eyes! what face Angelicall!
Say, O yee learned guirles begot of heau'nly breath,
Is't not the wise Minerue, the great Elizabeth?
Who rules the Briton stout with such a tendering,
That neuer did he wish to change her for a King.
She whiles her neighbour Lands are spoil'd with sword and fire,
By Furies weary of hell, with head of snakie tire,
And, whiles the darke affright of tempest roring-great
Doth to the worlds Carack a fearefull ship wrack threat,
Retaines in happie peace her Isle, where true beliefe
And honorable Lawes are reckned of in chiefe.
She hath not only gift of plentie delectable
To speake her Mother-tongue; but readily is able
In Latine, Spanish, French (without premeditation)
In Greeke, Italian, Dutch, to make as good Oration,
As Greece can, as can France, as Rome Imperiall,
As Rhine, as Arne can, plead in their naturall.
By quicke Sir Thomas More, and graue Sir Nicolas Bacon;
They knit and rais'd the stile, and were both eloquent,
And Keepers of the Seale, and skill'd in gouernment.
Sir Philip Sydn'y is next, who sung as sweet as Swan
That flaps the swelling waues of Tems with siluer fan:
This Riu'r his honour beares, and eloquence together,
To snow-foot Thetis lap, and Thetis eu'ry whither.
But what new sunne is this that beames vpon mine eyes?
Or, am I rapt amongst the heau'nly companies?
O what a princely grace! what State Emperiall!
What pleasant-lightning eyes! what face Angelicall!
Say, O yee learned guirles begot of heau'nly breath,
Is't not the wise Minerue, the great Elizabeth?
Who rules the Briton stout with such a tendering,
That neuer did he wish to change her for a King.
She whiles her neighbour Lands are spoil'd with sword and fire,
By Furies weary of hell, with head of snakie tire,
And, whiles the darke affright of tempest roring-great
Doth to the worlds Carack a fearefull ship wrack threat,
Retaines in happie peace her Isle, where true beliefe
And honorable Lawes are reckned of in chiefe.
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To speake her Mother-tongue; but readily is able
In Latine, Spanish, French (without premeditation)
In Greeke, Italian, Dutch, to make as good Oration,
As Greece can, as can France, as Rome Imperiall,
As Rhine, as Arne can, plead in their naturall.
O bright Pearle of the North, martiall Mars-conquering,
Loue still and cherish th'Arts, and heare the Muses sing:
And, in case any time my verses winged-light
Shall ouer th'Ocean Sea to thine Isle take their flight,
And by some happie chance into that faire hand slide,
Which doth so many men with lawfull Scepter guide;
O reade with gracious eye and fauourable thought:
I want thine eloquence to praise thee as I ought.
Loue still and cherish th'Arts, and heare the Muses sing:
And, in case any time my verses winged-light
Shall ouer th'Ocean Sea to thine Isle take their flight,
And by some happie chance into that faire hand slide,
Which doth so many men with lawfull Scepter guide;
O reade with gracious eye and fauourable thought:
I want thine eloquence to praise thee as I ought.
But what are those of France? this Image was vnshap'd,
Whence hath the bunglar hand of Idle mason skrap'd,
No more then th'harder skales of eu'ry rugged knot;
Thee (Marot) sure it meanes, that labourest so hot
Without Art Artist-like, and prickt with Phœbus Lance
Remouest Helicon from Italy to France.
Thee (Clement) I regard eu'n as an old Colosse,
All soiled, all to broke, and ouergrow'n with mosse;
As tabl' or tombe defac'd, more for th'antiquitie,
Then any bewty in them, or cunning that I see.
Whence hath the bunglar hand of Idle mason skrap'd,
No more then th'harder skales of eu'ry rugged knot;
Thee (Marot) sure it meanes, that labourest so hot
Without Art Artist-like, and prickt with Phœbus Lance
Remouest Helicon from Italy to France.
Thee (Clement) I regard eu'n as an old Colosse,
All soiled, all to broke, and ouergrow'n with mosse;
As tabl' or tombe defac'd, more for th'antiquitie,
Then any bewty in them, or cunning that I see.
What one this other is, I scarce remember me;
A Cunning one he seemes, what one soere he be.
I rest yet in suspense, sometime he doth appeare
To be Iames Amiot, sometime Blase Uigineere.
A Cunning one he seemes, what one soere he be.
I rest yet in suspense, sometime he doth appeare
To be Iames Amiot, sometime Blase Uigineere.
Great Ronsard is the next, who doth of Graces wrong
The Greeke and Latine both to grace his Mother-tongue;
And with a bould attempt doth mannage happily
All kinde of Argument, of stile, of Poetry.
The Greeke and Latine both to grace his Mother-tongue;
And with a bould attempt doth mannage happily
All kinde of Argument, of stile, of Poetry.
De Mornay this man is, encountring Atheisme,
Iewes stubborne vnbeleefe, and foolish Paganisme,
With weapons of their owne; he godly, graue, and prest,
So solideth his stile both simpl' and courtly-drest,
That feather'd with faire words his reasons sharpe as darts
Instrike themselues adeepe into the brauest hearts.
Iewes stubborne vnbeleefe, and foolish Paganisme,
With weapons of their owne; he godly, graue, and prest,
So solideth his stile both simpl' and courtly-drest,
That feather'd with faire words his reasons sharpe as darts
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Then thus I spake to them, ô bright, ô goodly wits
Who in most happie case haue consecrate your writs
To Immortalities sith that my feeble shoulders
May not among you be the French renownes vpholders,
Alas! sith I vneth you follow can with eye
Vpon the twy-top hill so neare acoast the skie:
Yet suffer me at least here prostrate to embrace
Your honourable knees! ô giue me leaue to place
Vpon your shining heads a garland of the Spring,
And of your goodnesse grant that these meane tunes I sing
May in your glory draw an euerlasting glory,
And alway this my verse may register your story.
Who in most happie case haue consecrate your writs
To Immortalities sith that my feeble shoulders
May not among you be the French renownes vpholders,
Alas! sith I vneth you follow can with eye
Vpon the twy-top hill so neare acoast the skie:
Yet suffer me at least here prostrate to embrace
Your honourable knees! ô giue me leaue to place
Vpon your shining heads a garland of the Spring,
And of your goodnesse grant that these meane tunes I sing
May in your glory draw an euerlasting glory,
And alway this my verse may register your story.
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