University of Virginia Library

previous section Odes In Imitation of the Seaven Penitential Psalmes
next section
109

VISIONS OF THE vvorlds instabillitie.

I.

When musing on this worlds vnsted fastnes,
Ere sleep attain'd my sences to surprise,
Agreeued at the woful wretchednes,
That sad examples set before myne eyes:
It chanced mee in this perturbed plight,
By Morpheus arrested for to bee,
In whose close prison lying in the night,
Srange visions then there did apeer to mee:
A spatious Theatre first mee thought I saw,
All hang'd with black to act some tragedie,
VVhich did mee vnto much attention draw,
To see the sequel of the misterie:
About the which; my braine oft haue I broken,
To skan what such phantasmataes betoken.

II.

I saw a Holly sprig brought from a hyrst,
And in a princely garden set it was,
VVhere of all trees it stroue to bee the first,
In stately height whereto it grew a pace:
Talle Cedar trees it ouertopped far.
And all with coral berries ouerspred,
110

It seem'd the roses beauty for to mar,
And to deface it with a skarlet red:
VVhereat the Gardner when hee it suspected,
Or might perhaps misweene this trees intent,
For all first fauour now grew il affected,
And all the boughes a way did race and rent:
Thus stood disgrac'd the stock so braue before,
VVhich now of grief grew dead and sprong no more.

III.

Two stately pillers then to mee appered,
Of Ruby thone of Saphir thother was,
That on their bases strongly stood vp-reared,
VVhose vnder-ground-woork was a rocky place:
And through transparent lusture shyning bright,
They not alone their beauty did extend,
But they did serue as lanternes in the night,
The trauailers from straying to defend:
Yet it befel; hee that the soyle did owe,
Gan to deuyse these pillars downe to take,
On his new buyding them for to bestow,
And woorkmen brought, & theretro ginnes did make:
But out alas, in lang or I complaine,
In forceing them; they fel, and burst in twayne.

IIII.

I saw a bird, of Egles race I deeme,
For that shee hatched was in Egles nest.
VVhich of a Lord was held in high esteeme,
And to his lure shee only her adrest:
But it so fel that hee a Hauke espyde,
And tooke such pleasure in her speckled plume,
That hee for her his faire foule thrust a syde,
In vndeserued sorrow to consume:
111

But lo this Hauke he now bore on his fist,
Oblyg'd and taught to come when as hee lured,
VVould not by him bee lured as hee list,
But was by stelth to others lures enured:
VVhich when hee saw, in wrath and in despyte,
He wrang her neck of from her body quyte.

V.

A pleasant crop of trees then did I see,
On which sweet nightingales did sit and sing,
Til one that sem'd to hate their melody,
Sought how hee might them to destruction bring:
He sat vp snares and grinnes and lymy twigs,
And all deuyses that might them betray,
And brake their nestes that were among the sprigs,
And many kild and many chaste away:
And that they should no more come there againe,
The very trees vnto the ground hee threw,
That scarsly any one he let remaine,
But see how iust reuenge did soone ensue;
His foot slipt in a pitfal hee had cast,
And downe hee fel and so his neck he brast.

VI.

A Giant then mee thought there came in place,
VVho dreaded was for greatnesse of his stature,
And many trembled to behold his face,
And mused at the strangenesse of his nature:
for hee a swoord did hold in either fist,
And freindes and foes he cared not to kil,
For few could in his fauour long persist,
Because to keep his loue was such a skil:
At last a monster all compact of bones,
Came traytor-lyke and with a darte him hent,
112

That downe hee fel and so was dead at once,
And as it seem'd, few did his losse lament:
And where alyue he monuments defaced,
Now dead, no monument on him was placed.

VII.

VVhen all these thinges were vanisht from my view,
At such vnwonted sights I greatly mused,
And though I not the certaine meaning knew,
Yet did it seeme, although it seem'd confused:
That thinges which are the cause of others wrong,
Themselues do often also suffer wrack,
VVhereby is seene that sway endures not long,
And that reuenge not alwayes cometh slack:
And that theirs none on earth hath leaue to tarry,
And that when bearing-rule hath taken end,
Fame doth suruyue, and takes an inuentarie,
Of rulers actions and whereto they tend:
And vnto after ages shee it shewes,
To learne them what of good or il ensues.
previous section Odes In Imitation of the Seaven Penitential Psalmes
next section