The Passionate Poet With a Description of the Thracian Ismarus. By T. P. [i.e. Thomas Powell] |
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The Oliue. |
 | The Passionate Poet |  |
The Oliue.
Here is Oliues lenitie,
And the Vine in Emperie.
Vine and Oliue in concrete,
Making gouernement complete.
And the Vine in Emperie.
Vine and Oliue in concrete,
Making gouernement complete.
Whil'st yet these outward senses all surchargd,
With the deluge of curious Arte enlargd
Beyond the natiue bounds which Nature knowes,
And Arte with Nature both were interposd,
The sensiue matter and the mysterie,
As yet her workemanship we did applie.
But when this grosser ayre was so dispergd,
We saw the Vine with Oliue tree invergd.
Here written Bountie matcht with Prouidence,
Vnder this offered dutie did commence.
Within a girdle was the Vine empaild,
Much like that Amarynthian star enraild
In her discoulored cyrcle, or the zone
Which once Thaumantiaes sire bestowed vpon
The vaporous Iuno. This faire Coronet
Was of the choysest Oliue trees complet
That tree which most affects her, and from hence
We view that part of Natures prouidence.
Of many Oliues she compos'd the same,
And here Th' assumption is requir'd againe,
Vnto her bountie multiplied thus,
Vpon this little hill of Ismarus.
If Nature be so rich in donatiue,
If see the thing that yet is blind of life,
Then may I liue to her that so aduerts
When I am dead to Athens and to Arts.
And from a liberall hand with bountie crownd,
The Oliue and her lenitie resound.
To sing of faire accord and mutuall vse
In Wine and Oyle the Oliues exprest iuice.
At Ismarus this is a worthie tree,
For ther's her Tryne or best triplicitie.
Since to the Vine it holds a neere accesse,
T'is high, t'is; O but do not thou impresse
Thy lowly selfe within descriptions weight,
For honor is a slight suspending bayt.
And how vnworthy might I there insist,
That am the Vineyards yongest herborist.
My skil's my counterfait within this act,
And both as yet of genuine infract.
But shee's suggestiue to selfe-flatterie,
Soothing her imperfections to soothe me.
And when I say the Oliue tree is tall,
Of faire dimension, beautifull withall,
Her oft diuided roote so deepely laid,
And head like blossomes on the Palme displaid:
If say her pyth is rare, and so disperst
T'is seldome seene, though many times trauerst:
This flattering Giglot susurrates as much,
And sweares this accent is a Doricke touch;
Though harsh of musicke, and of measuring,
Yet stops and strikes vnto the selfe same string.
This delinition stimulates vs on,
And bids me set a nice diuision
In gardaine Oliues, and be discrepant
Betwixt the melancholie stipticke Plant
And the fat Oliue, from whose subtill parts
We drayne the oyle of many chearefull hearts.
This was the suffrage spousall which the Dame
Propos'd to Athens for her borrowed name,
When strife was vnder wing, and since that time
Her branches well beseeme th' Ionicke shrine.
This tree, as of it selfe is so abounding
In thriftie fat, that added moystur's drowning,
And suffocates the pure and subtill oyle:
wherefore the fattest's not the fittest soyle
where to insert this Oliue: O but yet
It withers, if the Sunne be opposit.
For wisely say our ancient herborists,
It is affected to the rorall mists:
And bee't, with limitation that her seat
Be not exempt from sense of heauenly heat,
which may be able to extenuate,
And lay her foggie moisture separate,
which in a moderne heat an Aprils Sunne
Is powerfull to attract, but not consume;
Her beries yet on tree are immature,
And (though by many yeeres) they so endure.
which that they may attaine a sauorie taste,
Our skilfull husbandmen do vse to place
A modest quantitie of riper ones,
In a congested pile whereon enthrones
Such fauourable and conforting shine,
As some makes timely ripe, some fore their time.
But in confirmed iuice the oyle is best,
That's drayn'd and separated easiest
From purse or huske, and such like iuice as this,
Is not with earth or earthly parts commist
The most experienc't husbandman sustaines;
Bad Oliues aske no soyle, the good no paines:
Good needes nor scythe nor pruning instrument,
For so vnskilfull husbandmen preuent
Th' increase of after seasons, and such bleeding
Ads detriment vnto the yeeres succeeding.
This tree requires no hands applied to wound it,
No trident rake, nor trenching spade to sound it;
She needes not these, nor needs it vs to wrong her,
Disclose the roote, but take we nothing from her.
Perhaps we may the earth discumulate,
Descrie some gowte or branch adulterate,
Some tuberous prim, or superfluitie
About the root of her vnwittingly;
(As not a tree in fruitfull Ismarus,
But these attempt t'infect and choake her thus;
And fairest Plants conceals the fowlest weed)
If any such in Oliue be descried,
Incision must be vsde, yet warilie:
Cut off th' adulterate branch, but touch no tree.
For why it well deserues, that well discernes
Preseruatiue for good, and cure for harmes.
From hence the Romanes had it still in vse,
When Ianus gates were ope and when occluse.
For with her taglets did they stephanize
Their peace-affected heads in ciuill wise.
And in a forraigne expedition,
When fire-eyd war had leaue to looke vpon
Their neighbouring Prouinces, as to preuent
And obuiate defection imminent;
Their store in wine and oyle did they propose,
And where these wanted, there supplied their woes.
And such was Oyle. But this is serious,
I rather do propose her homely vse:
To speake her as the cause of permanence
In colour, light, or such familiar sense.
For when the industrious hand would faine pretend
Some inabrasiue worke vnto whose end
No later age aspires, t'is layd in Oyle,
Whose durance neither time nor age assoyle.
And when our Lampes are niggard of their light,
Th' infused Oyle makes smoake to burne more bright.
This liquor's of an ayerie qualitie,
And still aspires to principalitie:
T'is liquids president, t'is auersate
With other moists to be incorporate,
Albeit that moyst and dry and euery thing
Reteine the fauor of her moystening.
So doth it penetrate and finde euasion
Throughout the incompacted pores dilation:
And therefore we appoint his proper place,
The solid matter of this brittle glasse:
This brittle glasse. And what's not glasse and brittle?
The flower that scapes the sythe shall meete the sickle.
From glasse this precious vnguent we extract,
Though it be brittle, yet is it compact;
So should it be transparent with the eyes
Of worthie patients, not of Polities:
Because the constant vessell of our oyle,
In whose behalfe may all these senses toyle,
Much to her selfe, but more for sympathie
With wine and the viniferous qualitie.
For Vine and Oliue knowes one horoscope,
Albeit the Vine first answered Natures hope
Their sometimes mother vnder timely birth,
And therefore iustly held the heire of earth.
Yet in their mutuall vse we find that meane,
That's equall different from each extreame.
The Vine is Physicks powerfull Emperie,
The Oliue of a yeelding lenitie,
T'is milde in practise as a soueraigne thing
Her too much vse is too much nourishing
In the rancke feeding bodies of our state,
Whose commessation is immoderate,
Their senses languishing in excrement,
The stomacke opilate and findes no vent,
If wine not interuent, and well decide it;
And to such maladie we must prescribe it.
When oyle makes ranck, and rancour so possest
By powerfull wine his station is deprest;
The sword of Physicke purging remedie,
To indigested parts which excrefie,
T'is like the wealth of many Seas enlarg'd,
Whose all-conspiring waues together charg'd,
Disfound the highest arches and defence,
Preferring all before their violence:
Such is th' abstracted wine, as in it selfe,
That will not daine t'intreat the bodies health,
When it hath power to search the very raines,
Th' interimies, and all that life sustaines.
With the deluge of curious Arte enlargd
Beyond the natiue bounds which Nature knowes,
And Arte with Nature both were interposd,
The sensiue matter and the mysterie,
As yet her workemanship we did applie.
But when this grosser ayre was so dispergd,
We saw the Vine with Oliue tree invergd.
Here written Bountie matcht with Prouidence,
Vnder this offered dutie did commence.
Within a girdle was the Vine empaild,
Much like that Amarynthian star enraild
In her discoulored cyrcle, or the zone
Which once Thaumantiaes sire bestowed vpon
The vaporous Iuno. This faire Coronet
Was of the choysest Oliue trees complet
That tree which most affects her, and from hence
Of many Oliues she compos'd the same,
And here Th' assumption is requir'd againe,
Vnto her bountie multiplied thus,
Vpon this little hill of Ismarus.
If Nature be so rich in donatiue,
If see the thing that yet is blind of life,
Then may I liue to her that so aduerts
When I am dead to Athens and to Arts.
And from a liberall hand with bountie crownd,
The Oliue and her lenitie resound.
To sing of faire accord and mutuall vse
In Wine and Oyle the Oliues exprest iuice.
At Ismarus this is a worthie tree,
For ther's her Tryne or best triplicitie.
Since to the Vine it holds a neere accesse,
T'is high, t'is; O but do not thou impresse
Thy lowly selfe within descriptions weight,
For honor is a slight suspending bayt.
And how vnworthy might I there insist,
That am the Vineyards yongest herborist.
My skil's my counterfait within this act,
And both as yet of genuine infract.
But shee's suggestiue to selfe-flatterie,
Soothing her imperfections to soothe me.
And when I say the Oliue tree is tall,
Of faire dimension, beautifull withall,
Her oft diuided roote so deepely laid,
And head like blossomes on the Palme displaid:
If say her pyth is rare, and so disperst
T'is seldome seene, though many times trauerst:
This flattering Giglot susurrates as much,
And sweares this accent is a Doricke touch;
Though harsh of musicke, and of measuring,
Yet stops and strikes vnto the selfe same string.
This delinition stimulates vs on,
In gardaine Oliues, and be discrepant
Betwixt the melancholie stipticke Plant
And the fat Oliue, from whose subtill parts
We drayne the oyle of many chearefull hearts.
This was the suffrage spousall which the Dame
Propos'd to Athens for her borrowed name,
When strife was vnder wing, and since that time
Her branches well beseeme th' Ionicke shrine.
This tree, as of it selfe is so abounding
In thriftie fat, that added moystur's drowning,
And suffocates the pure and subtill oyle:
wherefore the fattest's not the fittest soyle
where to insert this Oliue: O but yet
It withers, if the Sunne be opposit.
For wisely say our ancient herborists,
It is affected to the rorall mists:
And bee't, with limitation that her seat
Be not exempt from sense of heauenly heat,
which may be able to extenuate,
And lay her foggie moisture separate,
which in a moderne heat an Aprils Sunne
Is powerfull to attract, but not consume;
Her beries yet on tree are immature,
And (though by many yeeres) they so endure.
which that they may attaine a sauorie taste,
Our skilfull husbandmen do vse to place
A modest quantitie of riper ones,
In a congested pile whereon enthrones
Such fauourable and conforting shine,
As some makes timely ripe, some fore their time.
But in confirmed iuice the oyle is best,
That's drayn'd and separated easiest
From purse or huske, and such like iuice as this,
Is not with earth or earthly parts commist
The most experienc't husbandman sustaines;
Good needes nor scythe nor pruning instrument,
For so vnskilfull husbandmen preuent
Th' increase of after seasons, and such bleeding
Ads detriment vnto the yeeres succeeding.
This tree requires no hands applied to wound it,
No trident rake, nor trenching spade to sound it;
She needes not these, nor needs it vs to wrong her,
Disclose the roote, but take we nothing from her.
Perhaps we may the earth discumulate,
Descrie some gowte or branch adulterate,
Some tuberous prim, or superfluitie
About the root of her vnwittingly;
(As not a tree in fruitfull Ismarus,
But these attempt t'infect and choake her thus;
And fairest Plants conceals the fowlest weed)
If any such in Oliue be descried,
Incision must be vsde, yet warilie:
Cut off th' adulterate branch, but touch no tree.
For why it well deserues, that well discernes
Preseruatiue for good, and cure for harmes.
From hence the Romanes had it still in vse,
When Ianus gates were ope and when occluse.
For with her taglets did they stephanize
Their peace-affected heads in ciuill wise.
And in a forraigne expedition,
When fire-eyd war had leaue to looke vpon
Their neighbouring Prouinces, as to preuent
And obuiate defection imminent;
Their store in wine and oyle did they propose,
And where these wanted, there supplied their woes.
And such was Oyle. But this is serious,
I rather do propose her homely vse:
To speake her as the cause of permanence
In colour, light, or such familiar sense.
For when the industrious hand would faine pretend
No later age aspires, t'is layd in Oyle,
Whose durance neither time nor age assoyle.
And when our Lampes are niggard of their light,
Th' infused Oyle makes smoake to burne more bright.
This liquor's of an ayerie qualitie,
And still aspires to principalitie:
T'is liquids president, t'is auersate
With other moists to be incorporate,
Albeit that moyst and dry and euery thing
Reteine the fauor of her moystening.
So doth it penetrate and finde euasion
Throughout the incompacted pores dilation:
And therefore we appoint his proper place,
The solid matter of this brittle glasse:
This brittle glasse. And what's not glasse and brittle?
The flower that scapes the sythe shall meete the sickle.
From glasse this precious vnguent we extract,
Though it be brittle, yet is it compact;
So should it be transparent with the eyes
Of worthie patients, not of Polities:
Because the constant vessell of our oyle,
In whose behalfe may all these senses toyle,
Much to her selfe, but more for sympathie
With wine and the viniferous qualitie.
For Vine and Oliue knowes one horoscope,
Albeit the Vine first answered Natures hope
Their sometimes mother vnder timely birth,
And therefore iustly held the heire of earth.
Yet in their mutuall vse we find that meane,
That's equall different from each extreame.
The Vine is Physicks powerfull Emperie,
The Oliue of a yeelding lenitie,
T'is milde in practise as a soueraigne thing
Her too much vse is too much nourishing
In the rancke feeding bodies of our state,
Their senses languishing in excrement,
The stomacke opilate and findes no vent,
If wine not interuent, and well decide it;
And to such maladie we must prescribe it.
When oyle makes ranck, and rancour so possest
By powerfull wine his station is deprest;
The sword of Physicke purging remedie,
To indigested parts which excrefie,
T'is like the wealth of many Seas enlarg'd,
Whose all-conspiring waues together charg'd,
Disfound the highest arches and defence,
Preferring all before their violence:
Such is th' abstracted wine, as in it selfe,
That will not daine t'intreat the bodies health,
When it hath power to search the very raines,
Th' interimies, and all that life sustaines.
T'is in the simple practize ouer strong,
Vnlesse some other mixture do prolong,
Call backe, and mitigate the violence
Which her sequestred spirits shall commence.
And what is so competible concreat?
What more restringing the intentiue heat
Of cleansing wine, when wine admits restraint,
(As Votaries sometime direct their Saint)
Then smooth and gentle Oyle of milde aspect,
That wine represt by it, may it erect?
T'is milde: so is the wine that's ministred
At sound mens tables, not the sicke mans bed:
To well disposed bodies soueraigne Wine,
But in prescript of potion t'is enclind
To Emperie, where the disease requires
Extinguishment to opilations fires.
But oyle alone infus'd relieues the same,
Where Oyle with Wine hath power to quench his flame.
Or rather soueraigne Wine as it doth tend
To maintenance and a preseruing end.
For when it cleanseth, nothing is subiected,
But some vnnecessaries which infected
The better parts: and when Purgations force
Moues other loyall members with the sourse
And strength thereof, th' enacted violence
Sauors of nothing more than prouidence,
That lowly rectifies by inquisition,
Least they retaine some tincture from Ambition
So doth it search them and so rectifie,
That pure may sauor nought but puritie.
So is it soueraigne Wine, and so alone,
As to the sound, and in abstraction:
And notwithstanding of it selfe consisting
T'is great in Medicine, yet in commixing
With gentle Oyle it is more general,
For wine and oyle are Phisicks all in all.
Vnlesse some other mixture do prolong,
Call backe, and mitigate the violence
Which her sequestred spirits shall commence.
And what is so competible concreat?
What more restringing the intentiue heat
Of cleansing wine, when wine admits restraint,
(As Votaries sometime direct their Saint)
Then smooth and gentle Oyle of milde aspect,
That wine represt by it, may it erect?
T'is milde: so is the wine that's ministred
At sound mens tables, not the sicke mans bed:
To well disposed bodies soueraigne Wine,
But in prescript of potion t'is enclind
To Emperie, where the disease requires
Extinguishment to opilations fires.
But oyle alone infus'd relieues the same,
Where Oyle with Wine hath power to quench his flame.
Or rather soueraigne Wine as it doth tend
For when it cleanseth, nothing is subiected,
But some vnnecessaries which infected
The better parts: and when Purgations force
Moues other loyall members with the sourse
And strength thereof, th' enacted violence
Sauors of nothing more than prouidence,
That lowly rectifies by inquisition,
Least they retaine some tincture from Ambition
So doth it search them and so rectifie,
That pure may sauor nought but puritie.
So is it soueraigne Wine, and so alone,
As to the sound, and in abstraction:
And notwithstanding of it selfe consisting
T'is great in Medicine, yet in commixing
With gentle Oyle it is more general,
For wine and oyle are Phisicks all in all.
It is her gouernement of Optimatee
Who vnder presidence confirme a State.
Who vnder presidence confirme a State.
The vulgar Plants out of this Emperie
Reseruing but a modest libertie,
Be they applied vnto the outward parts,
When wine erects or inwardly subuerts
Out of occasion: when the Wine with oyle
Is more of power t'establish or assoyle,
More victuall: wherefore sometimes guilded age
Held their inseparable equipage,
Prescribing Wine and Oyle to euery griefe,
The one to cleanse, the other for reliefe.
For both may this griefe-labouring Ismarus
Vpon her arbitrating power infuse
Myriads of mulsiue Orasons whose sense
May giue to wine and oyle long residence.
That after seasons may present them yet
To purge and rectifie each Ismarit.
Reseruing but a modest libertie,
Be they applied vnto the outward parts,
When wine erects or inwardly subuerts
Out of occasion: when the Wine with oyle
Is more of power t'establish or assoyle,
More victuall: wherefore sometimes guilded age
Held their inseparable equipage,
Prescribing Wine and Oyle to euery griefe,
The one to cleanse, the other for reliefe.
For both may this griefe-labouring Ismarus
Vpon her arbitrating power infuse
Myriads of mulsiue Orasons whose sense
May giue to wine and oyle long residence.
That after seasons may present them yet
To purge and rectifie each Ismarit.
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