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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Alas, yet thinke at least, how (for in elder time
The fruits they ate ne grew not on so foggy slime
As ours doe now, nor was their meats with sawces dight,
Nor altered as yet with health-empairing slight
Of gluttonating Cooks; and for with murdring sword
Of neighbour enemies they seld were swept aboord;
And for their mightie limbes they dulled not by sloth,
Or want of exercise) they wox in liuely groth,
And liu'd some hundred yeeres, and in their latter daies
With siluer haired heads were able sons to raise.
So that Polygamie, then taken for a right,
This world an ant-hill made of creatures bolt-vpright,
And many peopl' arose in short time (if thou marke)
From out the fruitfull raines of some one Patriarch.
The fruits they ate ne grew not on so foggy slime
As ours doe now, nor was their meats with sawces dight,
Nor altered as yet with health-empairing slight
Of gluttonating Cooks; and for with murdring sword
Of neighbour enemies they seld were swept aboord;
And for their mightie limbes they dulled not by sloth,
Or want of exercise) they wox in liuely groth,
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With siluer haired heads were able sons to raise.
So that Polygamie, then taken for a right,
This world an ant-hill made of creatures bolt-vpright,
And many peopl' arose in short time (if thou marke)
From out the fruitfull raines of some one Patriarch.
Eu'n as a graine of wheat, if all th'increase it yeelds
Be often-times resow'd vpon some harty fields,
Will stuffe the barnes at length and colour mighty launes
With yellow-stalked eares: and as two fishes spaunes
Cast int' a standing poole, so fast breed vp and downe,
That aft'r a while they store the larders of a towne.
And haue we not of late a certaine Elder knowne,
That with his fruitfull seed a village had o're-growne
Of fiuescore houses big; so blessed that he saw
His sonnes and daughters knit by ord'r of mariage law?
The tree of parentage was ouershort and thin
To branch-out proper names for their degrees of kin.
Who knowes not that within three hundred yeeres and lesse,
A few Arabians did Lybie fill and presse
With new inhabitants, and taught Mahound in Fesse
In Oran, in Argier, in Tunis, Bugy and Tesse?
Now if they so increas'd that woon'd in Afferick,
That with an humor sharpe, fretting, melancholick,
Prouok'd are day and night, and made more amorous,
Then able to beget, (for deed venerious,
Be often-times resow'd vpon some harty fields,
Will stuffe the barnes at length and colour mighty launes
With yellow-stalked eares: and as two fishes spaunes
Cast int' a standing poole, so fast breed vp and downe,
That aft'r a while they store the larders of a towne.
And haue we not of late a certaine Elder knowne,
That with his fruitfull seed a village had o're-growne
Of fiuescore houses big; so blessed that he saw
His sonnes and daughters knit by ord'r of mariage law?
The tree of parentage was ouershort and thin
To branch-out proper names for their degrees of kin.
Who knowes not that within three hundred yeeres and lesse,
A few Arabians did Lybie fill and presse
With new inhabitants, and taught Mahound in Fesse
In Oran, in Argier, in Tunis, Bugy and Tesse?
Now if they so increas'd that woon'd in Afferick,
That with an humor sharpe, fretting, melancholick,
Prouok'd are day and night, and made more amorous,
Then able to beget, (for deed venerious,
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