University of Virginia Library

The .ix. Egloge entituled FALCO.

Faustulus. Candidus.
Faustulus.
O Candid howe befals
that thou from natiue home
A wight exilde in forraine land
and strangie Realme dost rome?
For here no Pastures are
nor Fountaines to be found,
No safe Sheepecoates, no shrouding shades,
to keepe the cattle sound.

Candidus.
Thus (Faustul) stands the case,
one Coridon that in
These quarters kept his flock, and by
that meane great wealth did win,
Draue me to deeme that here
amyd these Mountaines was
Most pleasant Pasture for my Sheepe,
and holsome vaine of grasse.
But sithens now I see
and plainly viewe with eye,
The barren ground & Pastures pielde,
soile rockie, Fountaines drie,
It yrks me that I came
so rashly out of dore,
The iourneys long, and leauing of
my Countrey grieues me sore.

Faustulus.
Well since it was thy happe
in safetie to attaine
The Latine Pastures, I would craue
(if thou wilt take the paine)
To my poore house to come,
of fellowship do so,
I haue fewe akers here of lande
to liue vpon, no mo
Than poorely will maintaine
my lowe and needie state:
But such as 'tis, take parte I pray
let runne in common rate.
Perhaps some better hap
and fortune will befall.
For Chaunce resembles much a blast
of winde, to wauering thrall.
Come to my sedgie Coate
till raging heate be past,
And whilst the flock layd downe on soile
do chewe the Cud full fast.
Do way the Sheepecrooke, sit
thee downe and tipple square:
We neede to drinke, by drinke we shall
auoide this scorching care.
Take thou the Cruse in hande,
for after drinke (they say)
The tale with better grace is tolde
it better goes away.

Candidus.
What mad man would in such
a heate refuse the Cup?

Faustulus.
Yea, Wine doth quel the cruell thirst
if it be tippled vp.
Wine doth diminish care
and dolours of the minde:
As wine breedes friendships, so it doth
augment the strength by kinde.

Candidus.
This Countrey hath good Grapes,
if so they here do growe.

Faustulus.
Fill out againe, the former draught
is but a tast you knowe.
The seconde weates the iawes,
the third doth coole the rage
Of burning mouth, the fourth wt thirst
a cruel warre doth wage.
The fift full fiercely fights,
the sixt doth conquer aye,
The seauenth triumphs, Oenophilus
earst so was wont to say.

Candidus.
'Tis wisdome to incline
and followe sounde aduise,
'Tis for the profite to giue eare
to aged Fathers wise.
Now thirst is conquerd well,
yet naythelesse my harte
Is pensiue aye, & thoughtful care
augments my wonted smart.

Faustulus.
As thirst is banisht, so
the minde shall purchase ease:
Fill out the licour of the Grape,
drincke freely if you please.
This Physick is to driue
the heart pangs out of place.
Rome to abandon cruell cares
this Medcine vsde like case.

Candidus.
All toile and trauaile craues
a time of rest and stay,
Let bottle stande, and stoppe him close
to keepe the Flies away.
The day is nothing wette,
not deawie is the night,
Which makes that forrage cā not grow
but is consumed quight.
Fell famine, cruell toile,
with heate of scortching aire
Haue made the Cattle passing leane,
and brought them in dispaire
Of euer being fat:
scarce can they drawe their winde,
Their guts are clung to emptie skinne,
the bones sticke out behinde.
This Ramme that beate the Woulfe
with horne and bounsing brow,
Is weaker than a Sheepe, a Lambe
doth passe his courage now.
Thus much the Crow declarde
with holy sacred bill:
But I was ouerhastly bent
to followe raging will.
Scarce was I out of dore
but he was straight at hande,
And bringing yll abodement, gan
on houses top to stande
Upon the lefter side,
and with an angrie beake
With open signe of fell myssehap
aloude began to squeake
O most vnhappie beast,
that wonted wert of yore
When on our soile thou feddst, to bring
of Milke and Cattle store,
Nowe seeking Pastures newe,
more kindely strength dost misse
By wearie trauaile, than by foode
thou gained hast ywisse.
Here both we faint yfeare,
thou with thy slender fare,
And I poore wight in sunder crusht
with cruel girding care.
Now is our countrey stuft
with wealth: what Medow grounds
Haue we? What pastures greene as leeke
within our Countrey bounds?
O merrie ioyfull soile,
and fertile fieldes to see,
Where aye is Corne vpon the grounde
and where fresh riuers bee
Aye passing through the Townes
and Burroughs where we woonne,
And where through erie Uillage and
eche Garden flouds do roonne.
This makes the goodly flocks
and Pasture fieldes so fatte.
When crabbed Cancer rules, and men
do plie the threshing batte,
And scortching Iulie scaldes:
the fieldes do flourish greene,
The Apples grow in euery hedge.
amid the brakes are seene
Sweete smelling floures euery where
and pleasaunt to the nose,
In eche bush there standes on stalke
of euery hue a Rose.
O pleasant shade of Groues
and sound of trembling leaues,
Which earst (I minde) with thee I had
among the shadie greaues.
Where we the Turtles plaint
and Swallowes songs did heare
And Philomelas sundrie tunes,
when Locusts first appeare,
That make the Groues to ring
with shrill and shrieking cries,
The aire that shooke the leauie boughs
from Eurus did arise.
Aloft our heads the tree
that Cornus hight there hangde,
Whose boistrous armes were all about
with Berries brauely spangde.
I sitting on the grounde
sawe how the beasts did sporte,
And tender Lambs with hurtlesse horns
did fight in friendly sorte.
And when that sleepe was past,
or staring to the Skies.
I blewe my Pipe, or else did sing
what best I mought deuise.
Another while I would
layd gruffe vpon the grasse,
Pluck Strawberies frō slender stalkes
the time away to passe.

Faustulus.
Then happie was thy life,
thou wert a blessed wight,
But of that friendly Fortune thou
didst take no greate delight.
Thou scorndst that present state,
a worsse not hauing tride,
And that procurde that Fortune so
away from thee did glide.
When so it coms againe,
(if euer thou haue the happe)
Euen as the braunches of the Uine
the propping poastes do lappe,
And them enuiron growe
fast clasping them about:
So catch hir with thy hands, and caught
let hir no way get out.
She goes and makes returne,
and often chaungeth hue:
Much like the Heggs that by reporte
about the Mountaines flue,
And rangled in the darke
and shadie Mist of night.
And as this Fortune shifts hir lookes,
and chops and chaungeth sight,
So wandring is hir minde,
meere iestings are hir ioyes:
Looke what she gaue she takes againe,
no reason, all in toyes.
The man that feares the worst,
or warely lookes about,
She scornes and as an abiect hates,
she shuts the Dastard out.

Candidus.
As oft as we to minde
do call our Countrey soile
We can not paciently endure
this wofull wearie toile.
But whether run my wits
that am tormented thus?
To double present woe do I
now think on former blisse?
Now merrie May is come,
the Uine is greene to viewe,
Now Corne hath taken eire, Pomegra-
nats are of golden hiewe.
Eche where the bushes smell,
the Elder trees are white
Within our Countrey, al about
both Pade and Mince in sight.
But here yet scarcely do
the Groues begin to bood,
And if so be that in the spring
the ground be dead, by th' Rood
What will it do when force
of Winter coms in place,
And soile is clad with frostie clothes
or scalding Sommers blase?
Yet here are hierds of beastes
with slick and finest skin,
Upon whose boistrous brauned neckes
the yoake hath neuer bin:
Whose forheads hardned are
with double horne to see,
No doubt, vnlesse they fed agood,
they could not lightly bee
Deawlapped so before
with dangles hanging downe.

Faustulus.
These beasts whose loftie heads & lokes
are lifted hie from groune,
And haue such spindle shankes
and goe with loftie gates:
Deuoure vp all, first grasse, and then
they make the boughs their cates.
With vpward reaching iawes
and greedie gaping chappe,
They chew the chiefest pasture groūds
and trees in sunder snappe.
This weake and siellie beast
that only feedes on grasse
That growes on groūd, doth fast ful oft
in Pastures bare as glasse.

Candidus.
What needes such lauish talke?
all liuing things of kind
Haue this condition, aye the small
the great his foe doth finde.
The Lambe is praie to Woulfe,
to Eagle gentle Doues,
The Delphin hunts the hurttesse fish
that in the wallowe moues.
How coms this geare about?
a monstrous thing it is.
This place, if from aloft thou looke
will seeme to be ywis
Good pasture ground and fine,
as full of grasse as needes:
But how much neerer that you come,
the more appeare the weedes,
Then shewes the filth his kinde,
then plainly 'tis discride.

Faustulus.
Rome is to men as to the birds
the Owle with visage wide,
She sits vpon a stocke,
and like a stately Queene
With loftie becks she cals a farre
the Birds that nie hir beene.
The route suspecting nought
togither come apace,
They maruell at hir picked eares
and gastly glewing face,
And at hir Monstrous head
and crooked bending byll:
Whilst thus (I say) they hoppe about
not minding any yll,
From sprig to sprig, from bough
to bough, from tree to tree,
Some threaded are with limed lace,
with twigs some other bee
Ycaught: thus all as pray
vnto the Broach do goe.

Candidus.
O this is passing, nothing can
be better sayde I trowe.
But see how yonder Snake
with crooked crawling pace
Glides on the grauell ground, and as
he commeth to the place
With thirstie gaping iawes
and tong infectes the aire.

Faustulus.
O Candid minde well what I say,
let to thy breast repaire,
What time thou wandrest in the wood
thine eyes defende
And garde with hat, for bushie thornes
their poinant pricks pretende
To noy thy face, and if
thou take not great good heede
The crooked hanging brimbles will
rent off thy crooked weede.
Do not away thy Crooke,
haue bosome full of stones,
Least some newe vnexpected foe
oppresse thee for the nones.
Put on thy Cokers eke
and stirteps to beware,
The bushie Groues are ful of Snakes,
with bite they breede our care,
In daylie hazard of our liues,
and now the Sommer makes
Their poysoned Uenom ranckle sore
where so by chaunce it takes.
A thousand Wolues there be,
as many Foxes here
Belowe in bottome of the Uale,
that do not yet appere.
And (monstrous thing to speake)
my selfe haue seene with eye
Men Woulflie shape and manners put
in proufe and practize I,
That with their flocks haue dealt
too cruelly in deede,
And all imbrude with slaughter of
their beasts they forst to bleede.
The neighbour places laugh,
nor feare the cruell spoile,
Nor once will go about to stoppe
this greedie bloudie broile.
And oftentimes appeare
fell vglie shapes to sight,
Which earth by influence vile brings forth,
sometime the Dogs do fight
And vse such cruell rage,
as farre they do surpasse
The tyrannie of bloudie Wolues:
that route that rampire was
And garde to flocks of yore,
put on a wrathfull minde,
And slay the siellie Cattle that
their fortune is to finde.
In Ægypt men report
they honourd certaine beasts
And sundrie coumpted Gods to be
with pompe and solemne feasts.
That superstition was
deseruing lesser blame
Than ours, for we to euery beast
a seuerall Altar frame:
A thing contrary quite
to God, and lawes of kinde.
For he ordainde a man as heade
and chiefe of brutish kinde.
And sundrie times the hote
and scalding Sommers rayes
And plagie yeare approcheth fast,
that euery beast decayes
About the open fieldes:
the sucking Lambe that cries
At deade Dams teate himselfe with vile
disease on sodaine dies.
Euen vnderneath the yoake
the Oxen leese their breath,
And as they trauaile in the way
yelde life to cruell death.
No reason in the plague,
no Physicke to aslake
This venome vile, and poysonde filth:
but house from house doth take
Infection of the same,
and drinkes vp deadly sore,
And dayly so contagion of
this poyson growes to more.
This plague kils lightly no
fell sauage bluddie beast,
The yong ones prosper too too well,
the Wolues make gladsome feast
And rend with ruthlesse chaps
our siellie cattle that
But lately dide, and by our losse
thus Wolues do waxen fat.

Candidus.
Alas unhappie I,
what rash and foolish moode
Drewe me? who so doth credit fame,
I think him mad and wood.
Of Romaine hils I heard,
of stately Tyber eake,
And men of goodlie Romaine roofes
and buildings earst did speake.
I out of hand had great
desire to see the same,
And leade my life within a soile
that was of such a name.
With halfe my hierd I came
(a mad man in my thought)
For whie with me both Tent and all
my Shephierds trinckets brought
Throughout the Mountaines hie,
Pailes, Pans ymade of brasse,
With Caldrons, Cheesefat eke, and all
the rest that fittest was
For making of the Cheese,
and so it was my hap
To lose my troublous trauaile and
my charges at a clap.
Alas what shall I doe?
which way my selfe conuart?
The hoped pleasures are denied,
there are in erie parte
So many daungerous haps,
so sundrie perils prest,
As I am driuen vnto my Coate
againe to take my reft:
Constrainde of force to say
and graunt it ill begunne,
The toile I toke in hand of late
by heate of scalding sunne,
By wearie trauaile home to flocks
I am enforst to runne.
Alas vnhappie hierd,
O Shephierd yll accurst,
More better had it bene for thee
if thou hadst staide at furst
At home in natiue soile,
and there haue waxen olde
(Than thither to haue rashly come)
wher thou moughtst haue bē bold
In countrey well beknowne of thee,
and coast exceeding colde:
And Padus banckes about,
and Athesis too strayde,
Or there wher Myncius twhart ye fields
and Pastures runnes vnstaide.
Or else where Abdua with
his siluer chanel flowes
To haue remainde, and fed thy hierde
with sweete and holsome bowes.

Faustulus.
This light beliefe of thine,
both thee and me beguiles,
For I haue seene those greedie wights
that longd to climbe erewhiles
And sate in pleasures mount,
from praised goods to slip,
Nor could escape: Experience
causeth men beware the whip.
The warie children trie
and wisely looke about,
Nor follow ery liked thing
though braggers boast it out.
Now chiefest things theyr laude
and earned praise do want,
That were of yore right worthy fame,
(all these I needes must graunt)
Whose names alone remaine:
as Lune and Adria eake,
And Saluya with auncient Troie
of whome did Umber speake.
But (as I sayd) the names
are now aliue and left,
The rest ingratefull wasting Time
and fretting Age hath rest.
Though now of lesser laude
and praise our Countrey bee,
Yet better is the thing perhaps.
Eche man aliue doth see
And knowes what great renoume
Rome euer had ere this:
The fame (good fayth) as yet remaines,
the auncient gaine begis
And profit is supprest.
Those flouds that earst did flowe
Atwhart the fields and Pasture groūds,
finde lacke of licour nowe.
Drie are the Wellie vaines,
the moisture quite is gone,
No cloud doth shoure, nor Tyber glides.
the gasping fieldes vppon.
Time auncient Conduites hath
and leaden Pipes defast,
The Towres are in decay: wherfore
hence hence (my Goates) in hast.
Here woons but famine nowe,
here want of wealth doth raigne:
Yet here (they say) doth dwell, and we
our selues haue seene it plaine
A Shephierd, one that of
the Falcon, Falco hight,
Well storde of fleezie Sheepe, for Pa-
sture grounds a wealthie wight.
That in his Songs excels
the antique Poets, and
The skilfull Orpheus that both woods
and rockes about the land
By force of Musike drew,
the rest of Romaine race
He so farre doth surpasse (a straunge
and monstrous vgglie case)
As Padus Tybers streame,
and Abdua Macras flood,
The Willow Bulrush, Thistle Rose,
the Seaweedes Popple wood.
We thinke him not vnlike
that noble worthie wight
Whose Altars Maro made to shine
twelue dayes with sacred light.
This Shephierd kepes his flocks,
with farre more watchfull care
Than Argus did that in his head
a hundreth watchmen bare.
And Daphnis not alone,
but that Apollo eake
That fed Admetus hierd in Thes-
sale soile as Poets speake.
Well worthie to succeede
and take the charge in hand
Of Fisher that forewent his nets,
and kept his Sheepe at land.
He knowes the way to garde
his cattle, how to driue
Diseases from infected flocke,
and saue his Lambs aliue:
Moist eke the Pasture groundes,
giue grasse, let riuers goe,
And reconcile the mightie Ioue,
abandon theeuish foe.
Beate off the barking Woulfe,
that seekes the beasts to kill.
O Candid here make thy abode
if so be Falcos will:
But if he once restraine
his fauour and his grace,
Driue thou away the hierde, and haste
to seeke a better place.