The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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AN EPICED ON MR. FISHBOURNE. |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
AN EPICED ON MR. FISHBOURNE.
As some, to farre inquisitiue, would fayne
Know how the Arke could so much lyfe contayne;
Where the Ewe fed, and where the Lyon lay,
Both hauing den & pasture, yet all Sea:
When fishes had our constellations true,
And how the hauke and partridge had one mewe;
So do I wonder, in these looser tymes,
When men commit more villanies then rymes,
How honord Fishbourne, in his lesser Arke,
Could so much immortality imbarke;
And take in man too. How his good thoughts lay
With wealth & hazard both of them at sea:
Howe when his debtors thought of longer oweing,
His chiefest care was of that summes bestowing
In pious vses. But to question all;
Did this Rich man come to an Hospitall
To curbe the Incomes, or to beg the Leades,
Or turn to straw more charitable bedds?
Or gaz'd he on a prison with pretence,
More to inthrall then for a prayer thence?
Or on the Leuites part the churches living
Did he ere look wthout the thought of giuing?
Noe: (as the Angell at Bethesda) he
Came neuer in the Cells of Charitye,
Vnlesse his mynde by heauen had fraughted byn,
To helpe the next poore cripple that came in;
And he came often to them; and withall
Left there such vertue since his funerall,
That, as the Ancient Prophetts buryed bones,
Made one to knowe two Resurrections:
So after death it will be said of hym,
Fyshborne reuiued this man, gaue that a Lymme:
Such myracles are done in this sad age,
And yet we doe not goe in Pilgrimage.
Know how the Arke could so much lyfe contayne;
Where the Ewe fed, and where the Lyon lay,
Both hauing den & pasture, yet all Sea:
315
And how the hauke and partridge had one mewe;
So do I wonder, in these looser tymes,
When men commit more villanies then rymes,
How honord Fishbourne, in his lesser Arke,
Could so much immortality imbarke;
And take in man too. How his good thoughts lay
With wealth & hazard both of them at sea:
Howe when his debtors thought of longer oweing,
His chiefest care was of that summes bestowing
In pious vses. But to question all;
Did this Rich man come to an Hospitall
To curbe the Incomes, or to beg the Leades,
Or turn to straw more charitable bedds?
Or gaz'd he on a prison with pretence,
More to inthrall then for a prayer thence?
Or on the Leuites part the churches living
Did he ere look wthout the thought of giuing?
Noe: (as the Angell at Bethesda) he
Came neuer in the Cells of Charitye,
Vnlesse his mynde by heauen had fraughted byn,
To helpe the next poore cripple that came in;
And he came often to them; and withall
Left there such vertue since his funerall,
That, as the Ancient Prophetts buryed bones,
Made one to knowe two Resurrections:
So after death it will be said of hym,
Fyshborne reuiued this man, gaue that a Lymme:
Such myracles are done in this sad age,
And yet we doe not goe in Pilgrimage.
When by the Graues of men alyue he trode,
Prisons where soules and bodyes haue abode
Before a judgment; and, as (there they lye,)
Speake their owne Epitaphs and Elogye:
Had he a deafe eare then? threw he on more
Irons or actions then they had before?
Nay: wish'd he not, he had sufficient worth
To bid these men (dead to the world) come forth?
Or since he had not, did not he anone
Prouide to keepe them from corruption?
Made them new shrowds (their cloths are sure no more,
Such had the desert wanderers heretofore)
Imbalmed them, not with spice and gums, whereby
We may lesse noysome, not more deadly lye;
But with a charitable food, and then
Hid him from thanckes to doe the like agen.
Me thinkes I see him in a sweet repaire,
Some walke (not yet infected wth the ayre
Of newes or Lybell) weighing what may be
(After all these) his next good Legacie;
Whither the Church that lyes wthin his ken,
With her Revenews feeds or beasts or men,
Whither (though it equiuocally keepe
A carefull shepherd and a flock of sheepe)
The patron haue a Soule, & doth intreate
His friends more to a Sermon then his meate.
In fine, if Church or Steeple haue a Tongue,
Bells by a Sexton or a Weather rung?
Or where depopulations were begun,
An almeshouse were for men by it vndone?
Those (Fishbourne) were thy thoughts: the pulse of these
Thou felt'st, and hast prescrib'd for the disease.
Some thou hast curd, and this thy Gilead Balme
Hath my præludium to thy Angells Psalme.
Prisons where soules and bodyes haue abode
Before a judgment; and, as (there they lye,)
Speake their owne Epitaphs and Elogye:
Had he a deafe eare then? threw he on more
Irons or actions then they had before?
316
To bid these men (dead to the world) come forth?
Or since he had not, did not he anone
Prouide to keepe them from corruption?
Made them new shrowds (their cloths are sure no more,
Such had the desert wanderers heretofore)
Imbalmed them, not with spice and gums, whereby
We may lesse noysome, not more deadly lye;
But with a charitable food, and then
Hid him from thanckes to doe the like agen.
Me thinkes I see him in a sweet repaire,
Some walke (not yet infected wth the ayre
Of newes or Lybell) weighing what may be
(After all these) his next good Legacie;
Whither the Church that lyes wthin his ken,
With her Revenews feeds or beasts or men,
Whither (though it equiuocally keepe
A carefull shepherd and a flock of sheepe)
The patron haue a Soule, & doth intreate
His friends more to a Sermon then his meate.
In fine, if Church or Steeple haue a Tongue,
Bells by a Sexton or a Weather rung?
Or where depopulations were begun,
An almeshouse were for men by it vndone?
Those (Fishbourne) were thy thoughts: the pulse of these
Thou felt'st, and hast prescrib'd for the disease.
Some thou hast curd, and this thy Gilead Balme
Hath my præludium to thy Angells Psalme.
And now ye Oracles of Heauen for whome
He hath preparde a candle, stoole, and Roome,
That to St. Mary's, Pauls, or else where come,
To send vs sighing, and not laughing home.
Ye, that the howre may run away more free,
Bribe not the clerk, but wth your doctrine mee;
Keep ye on wing his euer honord fame,
And though our Learned Mother want his name,
'Twas modesty in him that his deare Browne
Might haue place for his charity, and crowne
Their memoryes together. And though his
The Citty got, the Vniversityes
Might haue the others name. You need not call
A Herald to proclaime your funeral,
Nor load your graues with marble, nor expend
Vpon a Statue more then on a friend;
Or make Stones tell a Lye to after tymes,
In prose inscryptions, or in hyred rymes.
For whilst there shall a church vnruinde stand,
And fiue blest soules as yours preserue the Land;
Whilst a good preacher in them hath a Roome,
You liue, and need nor Epitaph, nor Tombe.
He hath preparde a candle, stoole, and Roome,
That to St. Mary's, Pauls, or else where come,
To send vs sighing, and not laughing home.
Ye, that the howre may run away more free,
Bribe not the clerk, but wth your doctrine mee;
Keep ye on wing his euer honord fame,
And though our Learned Mother want his name,
317
Might haue place for his charity, and crowne
Their memoryes together. And though his
The Citty got, the Vniversityes
Might haue the others name. You need not call
A Herald to proclaime your funeral,
Nor load your graues with marble, nor expend
Vpon a Statue more then on a friend;
Or make Stones tell a Lye to after tymes,
In prose inscryptions, or in hyred rymes.
For whilst there shall a church vnruinde stand,
And fiue blest soules as yours preserue the Land;
Whilst a good preacher in them hath a Roome,
You liue, and need nor Epitaph, nor Tombe.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |