Humours Heau'n on Earth With The Ciuile Warres of Death and Fortune. As also The Triumph of Death: Or, The Picture of the Plague, according to the Life, as it was in Anno Domini. 1603. By Iohn Dauies of Hereford |
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 | Humours Heau'n on Earth |  |
O! t'is a sacred kinde of Excellence,
That hides a rich truth in a Tales pretence!
That hides a rich truth in a Tales pretence!
To the right Noble, Algernon, Lord Percy, sonne and heire apparant to the right Honorable Henry Earle of Northumberland.
Thrice
Noble, and more hopefull Pupill I (ceits)
(Who learnes thy Hand to shew thy Hearts con-
Would make thy heart, before it Vice doth trie,
To know her Lures, to shunne her slie deceits.
But, in the Prime but of thy Pupillage
Before the ioynts of Iudgement can be knit,
(Although for Wit thou mai'st be Wisedomes Page)
Vice throwes her Lures aboue thy reach of Wit.
But yet when Time shall throwly close thy Mould,
Wherein all rare Conceits still cast shall bee,
Then shalt thou (with cleere eies) darke lines behold,
That leade thee to all knowledge fit for thee.
And, sith that Childhood more in Tales delights
Then saddest Truths; Ile tell thee merry Tales,
Of Lords and Ladies, with their merry Knights,
Their merry Blisses, and their sory Bales.
The outside of these Tales are painted o're
With colours rich, to please thine eagre sence;
But, lin'd with naked Truth (yet richly poore)
More fit for thy more rich Intelligence.
When thou canst cracke this Nut, within the Shell
Thou shalt a Kernell finde will please thy Taste;
The Pallate of thy Wit will like it well,
When thou shalt swallow it, for ioy, in haste.
Then make this Nut a whirligigge the while,
To make thee merry (if thou canst be so)
To see the turning of our Sports to toile,
Wherein obserue how pleasures come and go:
For, as a whirligigge doth turne so fast,
That sharpest sights the fruit do scarse perceiue:
So can no Pallate fruits of Pleasure taste
When they are come, so soone they take their leaue!
Reads little Lord, this Riddle learne to reede;
So, first appose; then, tell it to thy Peeres:
So shall they hold thee (both in Name and Deed)
A perfect Pierc-ey that in darkenesse cleeres.
A Pierc-ey, or a piercing Eie doth shew
Both Wit and Courage; and, if thou wilt learne
By morall Tales sinnes mortall to eschew,
Thou shalt be wise, and endlesse glorie earne:
That so thou mai'st, the meanest Tutors praise;
So, Percies fame shall pierce the Eie of Daies:
(Who learnes thy Hand to shew thy Hearts con-
Would make thy heart, before it Vice doth trie,
To know her Lures, to shunne her slie deceits.
But, in the Prime but of thy Pupillage
Before the ioynts of Iudgement can be knit,
(Although for Wit thou mai'st be Wisedomes Page)
Vice throwes her Lures aboue thy reach of Wit.
But yet when Time shall throwly close thy Mould,
Wherein all rare Conceits still cast shall bee,
Then shalt thou (with cleere eies) darke lines behold,
That leade thee to all knowledge fit for thee.
And, sith that Childhood more in Tales delights
Then saddest Truths; Ile tell thee merry Tales,
Of Lords and Ladies, with their merry Knights,
Their merry Blisses, and their sory Bales.
The outside of these Tales are painted o're
With colours rich, to please thine eagre sence;
But, lin'd with naked Truth (yet richly poore)
More fit for thy more rich Intelligence.
When thou canst cracke this Nut, within the Shell
The Pallate of thy Wit will like it well,
When thou shalt swallow it, for ioy, in haste.
Then make this Nut a whirligigge the while,
To make thee merry (if thou canst be so)
To see the turning of our Sports to toile,
Wherein obserue how pleasures come and go:
For, as a whirligigge doth turne so fast,
That sharpest sights the fruit do scarse perceiue:
So can no Pallate fruits of Pleasure taste
When they are come, so soone they take their leaue!
Reads little Lord, this Riddle learne to reede;
So, first appose; then, tell it to thy Peeres:
So shall they hold thee (both in Name and Deed)
A perfect Pierc-ey that in darkenesse cleeres.
A Pierc-ey, or a piercing Eie doth shew
Both Wit and Courage; and, if thou wilt learne
By morall Tales sinnes mortall to eschew,
Thou shalt be wise, and endlesse glorie earne:
That so thou mai'st, the meanest Tutors praise;
So, Percies fame shall pierce the Eie of Daies:
Then, by those Raies my Pen (inflam'd) shall runne
Beyond the Moone, to make thy Moone a Sunne!
Beyond the Moone, to make thy Moone a Sunne!
Meane while, and euer, I rest prest to honour thee with my poore vttermost, Iohn Dauies.
To the good Knight, and my much honored Scholler, Sir Philip Carey.
Sith Death (deere Sir) hath lately beene so fell,To reaue that life, than deere life deerer farre;
This record of his greater rage may quell
The lesse (perhaps) in your particular.
Faine would I (if I could) beguile your griefe,
With telling you of others heauie harmes:
But (ah) such guile giues Griefe too true reliefe,
In your true humane heart, that Pitty warmes.
Life is a Plague: for, who doth liue, must die;
Yet some that haue the Plague, doe scape aliue,
So life's more mortall than Mortalitie:
Then sith that life (like death) doth life depriue,
You may reioyce, sith your Adolphus liu'd,
True Vertues life, which cannot be depriu'd.
Uiuat post funera virtus.
As much grieu'd for your losse, as glad any way to shew his loue. Iohn Dauies.
To the right worshipfull my deere Scholler Sir Humfrey Baskeruile of Earsley, Knight:
And the no lesse louely than vertuous Lady his Wife.
Sith I am Lecturing my noblest Schollers,(You being two) this Lecture deigne to reade;
For thogh it treats of nought but death & dollers,
Yet it with pleasure may your passion feede:
For, plagues to see (vnplagu'd) doth Nature please,
Although good nature (gladly) grieues thereat;
As we are well-ill pleas'd to see at Seas
The wofull'st wracke, while we are safe from that.
In health to tell what sickenesse we haue past,
Makes vs more soūd; for, Gladnes health defends:
O then your eies on this Plagues-Picture cast
To glad and grieue you for glad-grieuous ends.
But my sole End by this poore Meane to yee,
Is but to tie your Eares, and Hearts to mee,
Iohn Dauies.
To my deere, meeke, modest, and intirely beloued Mistris Elizabeth Dutton, Mistris Mary, and Mistris Vere Egerton, three Sisters of hopefull destenies, be all Grace and good Fortune.
Sith on my worthiest Schollers I doe muse,How should my Muse to minde you once neglect,
Sith you are such? Thē, such she shuld abuse,
Should she not vse you with all deere respect.
Thou virgin Widow (eldest of the Three)
(That hold'st thy widows state, of Death in chief)
Death in thy youth (being fast) hath made thee free;
Free from thy Ioy, & fastned thee to Griefe.
But he that is the Lord of lordly Death,
Reserues thine honor'd Sires most honor'd Sire
From Deaths dispite, & while he draweth breath,
Thou (lowly Soule) art likely to aspire.
Thy Sisters (like in Nature, as in Name,
And both in Name and Nature nought but good)
(Beloued Pupills) well may hope the same,
Sith of like grace there is like likelihoode.
Yet in the height of Earths felicitie,
A meeke regard vnto this Picture giue,
To minde you so of lifes mortalitie,
So shall yon liue to die, and die to liue.
Meane while I hope, through your cleere Stars to spie
A Trinitie of Ladies ere I die.
He which (for the exercise of your hie humilitie) you please to call Master
To my worthy, and worthily beloued Scholer, Thomas Bodenham Esquier, sonne and heire apparant of Sir Roger Bodenham of Rotherwas, Knight of the Bathe.
And , if among them that are deere to mee,(Remembred by my Pen, my Muses Tongue,)
I should forget to shew my loue to thee,
My selfe, but much more thee, I so should wrong.
Nay, wrong the right which I to thee doe owe:
But neuer shall my loue so guilefull proue,
As not to pay thee so deseru'd a due;
For, I confesse thou well deseru'st my loue.
Thou wert my Scholer; and if I should teach
So good a Pupill such a Lesson ill
(By mine example) I might so impeach
Mine honest fame, and quite disgrace my skill:
But when I learne thee such detested Lore,
Then loathe my loue, and learne of me no more.
Yours, as what's most yours, Iohn Dauies.
The last Booke (being a Picture according to the Life) dedicated To the no lesse high in Birth, then honorable in Disposition (right noble in either) the Ladie Dorothie, and Ladie Lucy Percies.
Great-little Ladies, greatly might you blameMy little care of doing as I ought,
Should I neglect to set your noble Name,
First of those Principalls whose hands I taught.
Yet, the more high your Birth and Places are,
The more ye ought to mind the blast of Breath:
As Philips Page did shew his Masters care,
When most he flourisht, most to thinke on death!
Then, with most blisle, when you transported be,
Looke on this Picture; so, perceiue ye shall,
We fall, like Leaues, in Autumne from the Tree,
When Heau'n puffes at Excesse in generall:
But from all woes excesse I wish ye may (way!
(Throgh Heau'n on Earth) to heau'n the easiest
Your Ladiships vnworthie Tutor, Iohn Dauies.
To my beloued Master, Iohn Dauies.
VVhen I thy Reasons weigh, & meat thy Rimes,I find they haue such happy weight and measure,
As makes thy Lines extend to After-times,
To leade them to a Masse of Wisedomes Treasure.
With weighty Matter so thou load'st thy Lines,
As to dimme sights they oft seeme darke as Hell;
But those cleere eies that see their deepe designes,
Do ioy to see much Matter coucht so well!
But these thy Numbers most familiar bee;
Because strange Matter plainely they recount:
For which Men shall familiar be with thee
That know thee not; and, make thy fame to mount.
I know no Tongues-man more doth grace his Tong
With more materiall Lines, as streight as strong!
Ed: Sharphell.
To mine entirely beloued, Master Iohn Dauies of Hereford.
In all thy Writings thou hast such a Vaine,As but thy selfe thy selfe canst counterfet;
Which, lying farre beyond the vulgar straine,
Is harder well to open, then to get.
Few idle words thou hast to answer for
In all thy workes; but, thou dost merite much
(Nay supererogate) who dost abhorre
Superfluous words, though thine be over-rich!
Both Words and Matter do so well agree,
To glorifie themselves in either kinde,
That we must needs renowne both them, and thee,
Who neerely sought (for vs) the same to finde:
Thy Numbers flow from such a Minds excesse,
As all seeme Raptures, in all happinesse!
Ro: Cox.
To the Reader in praise of the Author.
In
every Tale which scarffed Truth containes,
We must that Truth vnmaske to see her face:
Else see we but the halfe the Tale retaines;
Then such (how e're well told) lose halfe their grace.
We must that Truth vnmaske to see her face:
Else see we but the halfe the Tale retaines;
Then such (how e're well told) lose halfe their grace.
But these are Tales, which (though their truth be maskt)
Tickle the itching'st Eares with witching Touches;
And so such Eares to listen still are taskt,
By subtill clawing, that such Eares bewitches.
Tickle the itching'st Eares with witching Touches;
And so such Eares to listen still are taskt,
By subtill clawing, that such Eares bewitches.
Canst thou but Riddles reade, and not areede?
These Riddles high (well read) stoope to thy reason:
That though they fat not Wit, yet Will they feede
With Wittes pure Salt, that Wits fresh-Sweetes doth season:
The Fiction is for gladdest Will as fit,
As is the Morall for the saddest Wit.
These Riddles high (well read) stoope to thy reason:
That though they fat not Wit, yet Will they feede
With Wittes pure Salt, that Wits fresh-Sweetes doth season:
The Fiction is for gladdest Will as fit,
As is the Morall for the saddest Wit.
Anth: Greys.
1
Humours Heauen on Earth.
1
Vpon a time (thus olde wiues Tales begin,Then listen Lordings to an old wises Tale)
There were three men, that were, & were not kin,
(Reedeme this Riddle) at the Wine or Ale,
Did striue who most should grace the deerest Sin,
For which the daintiest Soules are set to sale:
For Soules that are most delicate for Sense,
Gainst stings of honied sinnes haue least defence.
2
The first (for first Ile tell you eithers nameTo shew their natures) hight Poliphagus:
A greasie guttes, of most vnweldie frame;
The second named was Epithymus:
Light as a feather, apt to lightest game:
The third and last, hight Hyselophronus;
That still lookt on himselfe, as if he saw
That which the Gods did loue, and Men did awe.
2
3
Nor is it vtterly impertinentVnto the matter subiect, to describe
The Weedes they ware, which were as different,
As was their Names, their Natures, & their Tribe;
The Habit sheweth how the heart is bent:
For, still the Heart the Habit doth prescribe:
And no externall signes can more bewray
The inwardest Affects then garments may.
4
Poliphagus a Sute of Satten ware,Made wide and side; and yet his sides did swell,
So that his Trusse did couer scarse the bare,
And so his Panch (an homely Tale to tell)
Was fill'd with filth, that eu'ry stich did stare
Of that which casd it; and of grease did smell:
Which so re-glosst the Sattens glosse, that it
Was varnisht like their vailes that turne the Spit.
5
His Buttons and the Holes, that held them fast,His brest made stil to striue which best could hold
But yet that breast made one another brast,
And so it selfe did swell as burst it would;
Who was some two elles compasse in the waste,
And had not seene his knees since two daies old:
No Points he vs'd; whose bumme and Belly burst,
Held vp his Sloppes, as strait as they were trusst.
3
6
A paire of button'd Buskins casd his Legges,Which were all Calfe from Hams vnto the Heele;
And after him (like clogges) the same he dregges:
His Shooes were lin'd, that he no cold might feele;
The Soales whereof thicke Corke asunder gegs,
Made broad (without Indents) lest he might reele:
And ouer all, he ware a slabberd Gowne,
Which cloakt his Buttockes hugely ouergrowne!
7
Thus haue we casd the Slouen, saue the Head;And wittingly we doe the same forbeare;
Because his Shoulders stoode in his Heads stead,
Which hardly did aboue their pitch appeare:
The lumpe of flesh was all so ouer-fed,
As he no man, but some Behemoth were:
For they whose ioy is all in drinke and meate,
Thogh mean they be, they needs must be too great
8
Epithymus (the wanton) on his Crowne,A Crowne of Roses ware lasciuiously;
A falling Band of Cut-worke (richly sowne)
Did his broad Shoulders quite ore-canopy:
A waste-coate wrought with floures (as they had growne)
In colour'd silke, lay open to the eie:
And, as his Bosome was vnbutton'd quite,
So were his Points, vntrusst for ends too light!
4
9
His Doublet was Carnation, cut with greeneRich Taffataes, quite through in ample Cuttes;
That so his Wast-coate might, ech where be seene,
When lusty Dames should eie this lusty Guttes:
And many Fauours hung the Cuttes betweene,
And many more, more light, in them he shuttes!
So that a vacant place was hardly found
About this Fancy, so well-fauour'd round.
10
His Hose was French, and did his doublet sute,For Stuffe and Colour; to which sow'd there were
Silke-stockings, which sate strait his thighs about,
To make his leg and thigh more quaint appeere:
Their colour was, as was the vpper Sute,
Saue that the quirkes with gold and gawdie geere
Were so embosst, that as the Gallant goes,
The glosse did light his feete to saue his toes.
11
His Shooes were like to Sandalls, for they wereSo caru'd aboue with many a curious Cut,
That through the same the stocking did appeere,
And in the Lachets were such Ribbands put,
As shadow'd all the foote from Sunne well neere,
Though, in Rose-forme, the ribband vp was shut:
And to make vp aright this Woman-Man,
He at his face still fenced with a fan.
5
12
But Hyselophronus vnlike to him,Was richly clad, but much more graue it was;
For, he could not endure such colours trim,
Yet vs'd trimme colours to bring drifts to passe:
A Backe too bright, doth argue Braines too dim:
For, no such Asse as is the golden Asse:
But he that State to catch, doth know the knacke,
Hides all his haughtie thoughts in humble blacke.
13
His Hat was Beauer of a middle sise,The Band, silke-Sipers foure-fold wreath'd about:
A shallow Cambricke Ruffe, with Sets precise,
Clos'd with a button'd string, that still hung out;
Wherewith he plai'd, while he did Plottes deuise;
To gull the Multitude, and rule the Rout:
His Sute was Satten, pinckt, and laced thicke,
As fit, as faire, without each peeuish tricke.
14
His Cloke cloth-rash with veluet throughly lin'd,(As plaine as Plainenesse) without welt, or garde,
To seeme, thereby, to be as plaine in Mind;
For, he to seeme good, still had good regarde:
His rapier hilts wer blackt, which brightly shin'd,
A veluet Scobbard did that weapon warde:
The Hangers and the Girdle richly wrought,
With Silke of poorest colour, deerely bought.
6
15
His Stockings (sutable vnto the same)Were of blacke silke, and crosse-wise gartered:
The Knot whereof a Roses forme did frame,
Which neare the ham the sable leaues did spred:
His Shooes were veluet, which his foote became,
Thus was he clad, from foote vnto the Head:
Who still was still, as one of iudgement staid,
Before he heard, and poiz'd, what others saide.
16
While first (puft-panch) Poliphagus bespake,(But panted as he spake for want of winde;
And at each word his fat for feare did quake,
Lest that winds want that fat should melt, or bind,
O that (quoth he) then reached to perbrake)
Mans Necke were like a Cranes, then should we find
More pleasure in our meat & drink, because
T'would longer passe, with pleasure to our mawes.
17
Eating and Drinking sweetly eates vp TimeThat eates vp all; then, feeding most of all
We ought to loue; for, we are made of Slime;
Then should we feed (lest we to slime should fall)
That so our flesh, by fat, to fat should climbe;
Fat Capons, Turkies, Fezants we may call
The Ladders to Perfection, and t'ascend
By such Degrees, is mans perfections end.
7
18
Deere Taste (quoth he) the life of all my ioy),Can they be blest that say thou bredst our curse,
When thou dost sweeten all our liues annoy,
That else were Hell it selfe, or rather worse?
For my part, I esteeme that Tale a Toy;
And thinke that Taste alone doth Nature nurse:
If thou be Natures Nurse, then say I dare,
Thou nursest That that makes vs what we are.
19
Who are by nature Demi-gods at least;Gramercies Taste, that mak'st vs so to be:
Man, but for thee, were farre worse then a beast;
And, beasts were worse then nothing, but for thee:
For, man, and beasts do toile but for the taste;
Then if our taste should faile vs, curst were we:
Sith both are borne to labor but for foode;
That rather would offend; then doe vs good.
20
The mouth, & Maw are Pleasures blisfull Bowres,Where she lies dallying with her loue Delight:
The Maw (Charibdis which Delight deuoures)
Takes frō the mouth what giu's the mēbers might;
Is That an Idol which such good procures?
Or should it not be seru'd by Natures right,
That keepes fraile Nature in her vitall heate,
That else would pine for want of tasting meate?
8
21
O! taste, and see how sweete the Lord; but whieDo I enforce what forcelesse I esteeme?
Yet, sith it's held for written-Veritie,
Ile sucke sweete from that weede, and holy seeme:
The sou'raign'st sense, enthron'd is in the Eie;
Yet Taste, this Truth (if truth) doth better deeme:
For, taste, and see, first taste, and after see,
Implies that Taste, of Sight hath sou'raigntie.
22
O tis the Well from whence the Senses draweTheir summum bonum; sweet'st, thogh short, delite:
The right hie-way to Mirth, lies to the Mawe;
The way to mirth that cheares the flesh, & sprite;
That warms the blood, & frozen harts doth thaw,
In spight of Nature, foiling Natures spight:
Then, who distasts these sweet Lauds of the Taste,
His Taste is senslesse, and his Wittes are waste.
23
Aske Proofe, how all the Veines do flow with ioyWhen as the Mouth takes in confected Sweetes;
Or when the Pallate doth her Powres imploy
To meet sweet Wines, which she with smacks regreets:
What hart so faint, that thē can feare anoy,
Though Hell it selfe with all the Senses meets?
Giue strong drink to the damn'd, & they'l sustaine,
In Paines despight, with ease, the spight of Paine.
9
24
What Care can once but touch a merry hart,That's merry made with precious blood of grapes?
And, who can choose but play a frolicke part,
That by strong Sacke, frō Sorrows sacke escapes:
Smart, them annoyes that feele, or thinke on smart,
But not those that with Wine are Pleasures rapes:
For, while they gape to let in, out to run,
They feele, & think on nought but Healths begun.
25
Thus did this gormandizing EpicureInsist in praise of That which Taste commends;
And, (for winde lab'ring) labour'd past his powre
To make Mans gorge his god, for godlesse ends:
When loe, Epithymus (to make it sure)
In part approu'd his reasons; yet he bends
His pow'r to proue the wenching practicke part,
To yeeld the ioy which most affects the hart.
26
These Girles (quoth he) so they be faire, and yong,Are they alone that most do rauish Sense;
For which, no lesse then for our foode we long;
The Touch, being furthest from th'Intelligence,
With much more libertie, and ioy among,
Doth play her part to proue her excellence:
It tickles all our veins with lustful pleasure,
Which the mean while, hath neither mean nor mesure.
10
27
What Heart's so cold that is not set on fire,With a trans-lucent beaming sunne-brightface?
But, of that face to haue the hearts desire,
The Heart cannot desire a greater grace:
Who couets not bright Beauties golden wire,
His Sprite is abiect, and his thoughts are base:
Sith those wires winde about the turning thought,
And tie it to rich pleasures dearely bought.
28
Who meets with flesh that meltswith tendernesse,And melts not in Desires ay-burning flames?
Whose kisses, steept in Sucket, Heau'n do presse
From lips diuine, too worthy for such names;
Can any Eies looke into Beauties Presse,
And with her trimmest trinckets make no games?
No humane Eies (I weene) if christaline,
But ioy to see themselues in Eies diuine.
29
To see a Body more then Lilly-white,With azur'd veines imbrodred here and there,
To see this blisfull Body naked quite,
And to behold Loues Hold some other where,
What Thing, with ioy, can more intrāce the sight,
Sith to the sight Loues Heauen doth appeare?
Then adde to this, a Looke that saith approch,
It wil the Vessell of all Sweetnesse broch.
11
30
O! to embrace her that embraceth allThat Beauty can embrace, is to infold
In mortall Armes, Armes supernaturall,
Of pow'r both Gods and Men (insnar'd) to hold;
And make them, as they please, to rise, or fall,
Seruing Loues Soueraigne as Vassals should:
For, Gods, and men do most obsequiously,
By nature, serue diuine Formositie.
31
He that orethrew what ere his strength withstood,And vnderpropt the weight of Heauens frame,
Loue, made to spinne in weake vnmanly moode:
And He, for wisedome, that had greatest fame,,
Loue so, with Lust, inflam'd his coldest blood:
That He a thousand had to quench the same
For, no Age, Wisedome, Pow'r, or Policie,
Haue pow'r t'impugne diuine Formositie!
32
Aske Mars the sterne and stubberne god of warre,How much frail Beuty made him (crouchīg) bow:
Nay aske (if men may aske) the Thunderer
The high'st of gods, by lordly Loue brought low)
Why he did make his mansion in a Starre,
Yet fell from heau'n an earthly Dame to know,
But that both Gods and Men, most lowlily,
By nature, serue diuine Formositie!
12
33
Giue me a Wench that hath the skill, and wit,To let me (loue-sicke) bloud in Lustes right vaine;
And can, with pleasure, ease me in the fit,
Yet ease me so, that Loue may still complaine
Of heate, that is for Lusts life onely fit,
Which to the life of Loue yeelds pleasant paine;
That can so humour me, and what I feele,
That she may hurt me still, my hurt to heale.
34
Such a Crafts-mistris, in the Arte of Loue,Doth crowne the Touch with an imperiall kisse;
For, she makes Touching tast ioy farre aboue
The reach of Arte to tell men what it is:
For feelinglie, she can both staie, and moue
About the Center of Loues boundlesse blisse
Then boundlesse is the Touches excellence
That, by a Lasse, can so beheau'n the sense.
35
Thus did this Orator of LecheryDilate the short sweete of his liues delight;
Which, Hyselophronus did not deny,
(As though quite opposit) but bent his might,
To proue high'st blisse was borne of Maiesty;
Begot by Potency, right or vnright:
The greatest ioy to Greatnesse appertaines
For ioy doth raign (quoth he) in that which raigns.
13
36
A roiall Robe, a Scepter, Mound, and CrowneAre the true Signals of the truest ioy:
They neede not feare the threat of Sorrows frown
That can confound, all causers of anoy:
The hand of Maiesty puts vp, and downe
The meanes of mirth, and those that mirth destroy:
Hee's a rare Clarke that Regnum can declyne
And Meus, Mea, Meum ad in fine.
37
What Hart is not enlarg'd, with ioy, as muchAs it can hold, when pow'r is more enlarg'd
Then Earth can hold; or, on the same none such,
When all by him, and he by none, is charg'd?
No not so much as with the smallest touch,
Touching his life, lest such be life-discharg'd:
It is the greatest glorie of Mans state,
When man, like God, doth raigne inspite of Hate.
38
To eate and drinke, and do the acts of lust,Is common vnto Beasts, as well as Men;
What praise get they that do what needs they must;
But such as shames the praised now and then?
For, so may men be praisd for deedes vniust,
Sith Men, by nature, wrong their Bretheren:
But, to correct Men, with directing Rods,
Is proper vnto none but Demi-gods.
14
39
The Spheare of Greatnes (like the highest sphere,That turnes the neather with resistlesse sway)
Is the high'st step to his Throne without Peere;
And, to the Sunne that makes eternall day;
Where Blisse abounds an euerlasting yeare,
For which the most deuout doe inly pray:
Then, Greatnes is the great'st good vnder heau'n,
Which vnto none but Gods on Earth is giu'n.
40
O! how it rapts the Eie of Maiestie,To see all downe-cast vnderneath her feete;
That may, if please her, march vpon the Hie,
Till she with none, but with the Lowly meete:
Then, Wisedomes reach doth tend to Emperie;
And none but fooles neglect it as vnmeete:
It is the highest Note that Arte can reach,
To rule the voice when Sou'raigntie doth preach.
41
And what a glorie is't to mortall Man,That when he bends his high-erected front,
Death in the foldes doth play the Artezan,
And kill, but with alooke, the highest Count:
Yet, with a word (like Him that all things can)
To create others, making them to mount;
Then, who hath pow'r all men to marre or make,
Must be a God, that life doth giue, and take.
15
42
A Seepter's Circes Rod; which Men and BeastsDoth easlie tame, how wilde so ere they bee:
For, Birds that in the Stars doe build their neasts,
Farre, farre aboue all Birds, of prey doe flee:
To which pitch if they mount, they scorch their crests;
For, heat so high is in extreame degree:
Highnesse is sacred, and the sacred Hie,
With their pow'rs wing aboue all perills flie!
43
O! tis a blisfull glitt'ring glorious state,Able to make Mortalitie diuine;
Which, with inspection, binds the hands of Fate,
And, like the Sunne, among the Stars doth shine,
Till Nature doth the Flesh inanimate;
And in the mouthes of Men mens fames enshrine:
Then, if in Earth be any diuine thing,
It's more then God, if it be not a King.
44
Poliphagus, though he his Intralls seru'd,As if they were his Fancies Soueraignes,
Or rather Gods, by which he was preseru'd,
Yet hee allowance to their fancie faines;
That so fraternitie might be conseru'd,
Which concord, in conceit, together chaines;
And, thus immod'rately doth moderate
The diffrence of the doubtfull Questions state.
16
45
All our Desires (quoth he) may well concurre,Because they ayme at earthly pleasure all;
For, Pompe which thou preferr'st, is as a Spurre,
To make flesh runne to pleasures corporall:
For, flesh, in meane estate, doth meanely sturre,
As wanting meanes to make it sensuall:
But, where Aboundance is, there doth abound
All pleasures, which or sense, or wit hath found.
46
Then, sith our appetites may well conspireT'effect the pleasure most affecting sense,
There is no cause to differ in Desire;
Sith vnion may attone that difference,
Which, like a sweete Compound, may be entire,
Entire to make sweete pleasures confluence:
They are the sweetest accents of the voice,
When diffrent Parts accord, sense to reioice.
47
Therefore lets frolicke it; Care kills a Cat;Else lies the Prouerbe, which Truth onely makes;
Thought is a Canker feeding on our fat;
And makes our bones ore-laden, leane as Rakes:
What bones so senslesse be, to like of that;
Sith Bones, when bare they be, asunder shakes:
O tis most holsome and the Creame of Wit,
To breede good blood, good foode still feeding it.
17
48
Pleasure doth end, when ended is Lifes date:Then sith that is so certainely vnsure,
We hate our selues if we doe pleasure hate,
Which makes our liues immortally endure;
For, Mirth the liueliest lumpes doth animate,
And, to old age doth Eagles youth procure:
If such a Cause then yeeldes such sweete effects,
Sowre is the Cause that such a Cause reiects.
49
We nothing want, if we want not a will,To giue full satisfaction to our sense:
And if all Wants be wanting to our ill,
The fault is ours, if ours be such offence:
We may, if so wee lust, our lusts fulfill:
Then what remaines, but banish abstinence,
And, with full Sailes of Powër, passe those Seas,
Where Pleasure flowes, to Hau'ns of lustfull ease.
50
Let leane-fac'd leaden sprited Saturnists,(Who, madde with melancholy, mirth detest)
Prate what they list to bring all in the Lists
Of Moderation; who cannot disgest
The honied Sweetes that feede true Iouialists,
We hauing sense, to proue what pleaseth best,
Will not, lest Sorrow stabbe giue Sense the lie;
For, they but faine to liue, that faine would die.
18
51
And, were we Furies of infernall kinde,By kinde, we then should pleasure take in paine:
But, being men, and men of perfect minde,
By nature, we from all annoy refraine:
Who doth not so, as mad men, men should binde
Till they be dead, or in their wittes againe:
For, they are Fiends (not men) the foes of ioy,
That please their Soules in all that sense annoy.
52
Tell me not of a Stoicke (senslesse Stocke)That makes an Idoll of I wot not what;
Is't vertue in a man to be a Blocke?
And beare vnmou'd, what life doth ruinate?
These are the wisemen, that wisemen do mocke;
Whose senslesse folly all men wonder at:
It's vertue in a man of sense, say I,
To liue as liuing, and not liuing die.
53
Are they not murd'rers of themselues, that willThinke life away, and not thinke how to liue?
As good they hang'd themselues, as do more ill;
For lesse, much lesse, they do kinde Nature grieue,
Who quickly die, then who are dying still;
Both which to life, like violence do giue:
Then let thē be stak't throgh, when dead they are,
That run thēselues throgh with the sword of care.
19
54
I value Vertue at too high a price,Thē to be bought & sold for worthlesse Thought;
That Vertue is not halfe so good as Vice,
That brings a man, before his time, to nought:
Such Vertue then, can trone but Babes entice,
That seek thīgs hurtful, which shuld not be soght:
In Vertues Schoole no Babes can learne, but those
That know the good frō bad, & ioyes from woes.
55
For, Nature were a step dame if she shouldProduce her Darlings but to thought and care:
But, she is kinde, as her kinde children hold,
Producing them for things that blisfull are;
Who, being many, are more manifold;
For, rare ioyes are ordain'd for Creatures rare:
Then let them be orewhelm'd with all annoy,
That may, and will not, swimme in Seas of Ioy.
56
The other twaine, with many pleasing smiles,Whiles he was speakīg, his speech seem'd to praise,
(Who seem'd to glorie in himselfe the whiles)
And now, by word, well-word they what he saies;
And, all agree, by whatsoeuer guiles,
In all delights, to beguile nights and daies:
So, thus resolu'd they fully execute,
All that wherein they are so resolute.
20
57
But now, as wak'ned from a tedious sleepe;Logus, chiefe guide of Psyche, their chiefe guide
(While they were plunged in all pleasures deepe)
Thus gan their sensuall-senslesse Soules to chide:
Whither, O whither runne ye, ye lost sheepe,
Not weying in what danger ye abide?
The Blinde eates many a flie; and so doe you,
That chew sweet poyson, which ye should eschue.
58
But ere wee further prosecute her speach,We will describe their Garments (as we may)
For as we said the Coate and Cut do teach
Sight to discerne what mood the mind doth sway:
Logus was clad, as could no State impeach,
Sith she was cloth'd with mean, thogh cleane aray:
For, she with Garments farre more fit, then faire,
But sauegard sought from Passions of the Aire.
59
But, Psyche (whom she guided) like a QueeneWas richly deckt, with ornaments diuine:
Who liu'd so closely that she scarce was seene,
Yet through her Pallace did her glory shine,
As if at least she had a Goddesse beene;
Whose virtues were apparant to the Eine:
Her Ornaments were Wit, Will, Memory,
Which richly roab'd her with Regality.
21
60
Vpon her sacred Head she ware a Crowne(Like that of Ariadnes) all of Starres,
To light her feete in darke waies, and vnknowne,
And keepe the safest way in Passions warres;
Those Starres were royall vertues of her owne
(Which some call Cardinall) her gard in Iarres:
Who was deckt inly with Pow'r, Grace, and Arte,
Being wholy in the whole, and in each Part.
61
Her Vnderstandings Pow'r that Pow'r did line,Which Heau'n and Earth religiously adore;
And in her Will she ware Grace most diuine,
But in her Memory she Artes did store;
That made the Whole most gloriously to shine,
But most diuinely did those three decore!
Affects and Fantasies her Seruants were,
Which were all cloakt with Good, how ill so ere.
62
Hir prīcely train, which was of works wel wroght,Was borne by Iudgement her chiefe Officer:
Then, Contemplation held her, as she ought,
By the right Arme, so that she could not steere
Frō those right waies, whereon before she thoght:
And double-Diligence before did cleere:
The outward Senses her Purueiours were,
To whom the Common-sense was Treasorer.
22
63
Thus were these two attended and araid,Which I haue thus described by the way;
And now to prosecute what Logus said
From thence where I before did make him stay;
Quoth hee, what meane ye thus to be betraid
By sinfull Sense, which seekes but your decay?
You are to seeke to know her Fallacies,
But know them not by seeking in this wise.
64
How neere to temporall and eternall deathYou are (God wot) ye wot not, ne yet care;
Not weying how worlds weale wastes with your breath,
And that your breaths within your nostrills are;
Which to the Aire you must of force bequeath,
Perhaps forthwith, at least ere ye beware:
If temp'rall death attach ye in this plight,
Your temp'rall daies will turne t'eternall night.
65
To yong and old Death is indifferent;The Court and Cottage he frequents alike:
Yet, of the twaine, he Courts doth more frequent;
And loues those, that do mind him least, to strike:
He wounds the lustfull, vaine, and insolent
With their owne weapons, quickly to the quicke:
For, euer he doth enuy lifes delight,
And makes the same most subiect to his might.
23
66
How can vaine pleasures please men, hauing senseTo feele the sweete and sowre of sinne, and grace?
For, if they feele the sting of Conscience,
All pleasures of the flesh will giue it place:
That grieues the Will, that grieues th'Intelligence,
Which take no pleasure in their owne disgrace:
But still the lusts offraile flesh to fulfill,
Is to disgrace Intelligence, and Will.
67
The obiect of the Will is perfect Good;Which, the Intelligence to her presents;
That neuer yet was found in roiall food,
In dainty Dames, or regall gouernments;
By Vnderstanding these are vnderstood
To yeeld but short, and counterfet Contents:
If so they do, how madde are they the while,
That giue their pretious Soules for things so vile?
68
The wisest yet that euer breath'd this Aire(Of sinfull race) who in his wisedomes might
Made proofe of all that was sweet, great, or faire,
Yea of all pleasures which the sense delight,)
Said of them all (like Wisedoms truest Heire)
They were than skumme of Vanitie more light:
If such great Wisedome found them to be such,
They are much more thē fools that loue thē much.
24
69
Aske eu'ry sense what pleasure they doe proueIn all their obiects: they must needes replie,
(Sith consciēce knows it) nought to gaine our loue;
For, we loue nought but what we good do trie:
But, Proofe these pleasures doe, in fine, reproue;
Sith they no sooner liue, but sooner die:
For, Triall knowing them to be but vaine,
Kills their delight ere we it entertaine.
70
And, Crownes are Hiues, where stinging cares do swarme;Pomp's but the White whereat fell Enuy shoots:
which are as trees, whēce groes their owners harm;
Harms are the fruit; crowns, flours; & kīgdōs, roots:
The Arme of flesh, is but a feeble Arme;
And, in such strong Extreames it little bootes:
He knowes not yet the nature of a Crowne,
That knows not none may call the same his owne.
71
What bootes a purple Robe, when purple bloodDoth issue from the wofull wearers hart?
And, of such issue there's more likelihood
Then issue of his loines to take his part;
For, oft such issue doth him little good,
Who conquer Nature, by the aide of Arte:
They learne by Arte weake Nature to command,
When Crowns betwixt the Sire & Son doe stand.
25
72
Sou'raignes, are subiect to extreame despight,For lo, a Dog, sometimes, supplide their place:
A King of Norway, conquering in fight
The King of Swethland, for the more disgrace,
Did make a Dog their King, to shew his spight,
And made thē neere him, that were neere as bace:
Then are they worse then dogges that damne their soules
To catch a kingdom, that a dog cōtroules.
73
What ioy can be accompanied with feare,Sith that companion doth all ioy confound?
But terrene ioyes about with them do beare
An hell of feare, wherein true Hell is found:
For, where's vnsuretie, feare must needs be there;
And all's vnsure that surgeth from the ground
Of this vast Sea of extreame miserie,
True Antitype of true felicitie.
74
Besides, no pompe (how euer glorious)No ioy or pleasure, if sublunarie,
But brings sacietie soone with their vse,
As they best know that haue best meanes to trie;
And none haue right ioy but the righteous;
For, ne'r doth saciate their felicitie,
Which doth content Desire, and Feare exclude,
Which is the summe of true Beatitude.
26
75
Then, if my power ore your Soueraigne,If my words (rules of Reason) can perswade,
Vaine pleasures fly; throgh which ye fly to paine;
Which still haue marr'd, but neuer any made:
Containe your selues, and you shall ioy containe;
If you be good, then glorious is your trade:
For, nought is great on Earth, but that great hart,
That scornes all ioyes by Nature bred, or Art.
76
Rouze vp your selues, shake off this sloth of sprite;Put on the mind that men of mind becomes:
Away with all effeminate delight,
That none but worse then women ouercomes:
Shew your selues men of strength in Frailties spite;
For, graceles ioyes possesse but graceles groomes:
O, tis Dominion in the high'st degree,
When men to Reasons rules obedient bee.
77
Hereat their Conscience touched to the quicke,Beganne, halfe fainting, inwardly to bleede:
No pricke more mortal then the consciēce pricke;
It makes our faith to faint, and kills our Creede:
Yet, frozen in their dregges, therein they sticke,
Without all feeling that which must succeede:
And, with hard harts (thogh said for their behoofs)
They Logus thus reprooue, for his reproofes.
27
78
What wight art thou (presumptuous that thou art)That com'st to Councell, yer thou called bee?
By what pow'r dost thou this? by what desart
Think'st thou we all should be controld by thee?
We know no pow'r thou hast, nor wit, nor Art
To take the guidance of our actions free;
Being a meere stranger to vs and our state,
Yet dost from either more then derogate.
79
Thou would'st bee taught (that thus presum'st to teach)To know good maners, persons, time and place;
These circūstances they should know that preach,
Or else they may disgrace their Sermons grace;
And those that liue by preaching do beseech,
Not sharply checke, which tendeth to disgrace:
Then think we o're our passions haue great powre,
That giue thee sweet aduice for cheeke so sowre.
80
You may be gon, we need no councellors,That breathe out worse thē wormwood with their words;
We are twice seau'n, and our owne gouernors,
Your proffred seruice no good sent affords:
We are the highest Powres Compettitors,
And fight for pleasure with our sense, and swords:
We are resolu'd to satisfie desire
With all the comforts that it can require.
28
81
Doth Loue (quoth Logus) with ourselues begin?It seemes not so, for with yourselues it ends:
Foes to your selues, sith you are folde to sinne;
Yet will not see whereto that purchase tends:
To lose your Soules, and all the world to win,
Is the worst fortune, that fell Fortune sends:
O be indulgent to your Soules, for whie,
Life died it selfe, that so they might not die.
82
I am that Logus, which your Soueraigne(Great sou'raigne Psyche) gaue you for your guide:
Which you would ne'r vouchsafe to entertaine,
Though, vnimploied, I still with you abide:
I pray you then (for your eternall gaine)
That now at last I may with you reside,
To doe you seruice, which if you will vse,
Ile make your life and death most glorious.
83
Let not my plainenesse with you, make yee plaineOf my sterne Course; for, sith I am the Sterne
That rules the Mind, I must her so restraine
(When Passions rise) that she, by me, may learne
The way to weale, which she seekes to attaine,
Which she, by my direction shall discerne:
Now, if the Sterne resist repugnant windes,
The Bark, to which she's bound, to her she bindes.
29
84
Yee oft haue heard, that Sores quite mortified,(If euer they be cured as they ought)
Must haue sharpe Corrasiues thereto appli'd,
Else one sore part may bring the whole to nought:
Then leaue your Gluttony, your Lust, and Pride;
Be sober, chaste, and meeke, in deed, and thought:
This must you doe; and I must needes say this,
Except I should both say and doe amisse.
85
Should I, your Guide, winke when ye go astray?Or see you runne in by-paths of offence?
Else drawe ye further on, out of the way,
And by all waies soothe vp your erring sense?
So should I, like a traitor, you betray;
Which would, in time, your Souls to hate incense:
O then let me haue leaue your Soules to loue,
Which least I do, when least I you reproue.
86
Repentance oft (too oft) comes too too late,(Though, better late then neuer to repent)
But ne'r too soone can Grace it animate;
For, Men, beyond their birth, are euill bent:
So, yer they sinne, they are in sinfull state;
For, sinne in their conception's resident:
Then sith yer men Be (whole) it Is (in part)
Repentance should take Being yer the Hart.
30
87
Time past, is gone, in it none can repent,If in that Time they did the same neglect:
The Time to come (although incontinent)
Is as vnsure, as is that rare effect:
Therefore the present Time for it is lent,
Which strait is gone, then doe it not reiect:
Sith so small time may all your time ingrosse,
The losse of it may be your vtter losse.
88
But, what auailes an Angells tongue to moueA fiend to goodnesse, that by kind is ill?
From which he is resolu'd ne'r to remoue;
No more can Reason their desires fulfill,
(Though with all reason he doth seeke their loue)
For, they desire to liue corruptly still;
And thus, with bitter taunts they do requite
His loue, that euer loues to guide them right.
89
What ere thou art (quoth they) we know thee not;Nor will we know thee, sith we know thou art
Repugnant to vs; and, thou seem'st a Sot,
To seeke to gaine loue by contentions Art:
Thou neuer knew'st, or else thou hast forgot,
That manners like, do still like loue impart:
Therefore farewell, except thou worse wilt fare,
We are resolu'd, in what resolu'd we are.
31
90
So they to excesse fell excessiuely;Sinning, with griefe, that they could sin no more:
Now, they inlarge their Bounds of libertie,
Although it were but too too loose before:
Like Water they lappe vp iniquitie,
Which, through thē, ouerflows both Sea & Shore:
A cauterized Conscience being checkt,
Becomes farre worse, in Cause, and in Effect.
91
Logus thus cast from their societie,Waxt passing pensiue (as one desolate)
Because his Councell was no more set by,
And, with their mother Phusis fell at bate;
As being assur'd in her the fault did ly,
That they from him so much did derogate:
Yet, knew one Praxis, Phusis follower,
Had made them worse, then she them made, by far.
92
But by the way we should not do amisse,To shew how Ladie Phusis was araid,
(Sith shee the mother of each matter is)
Yer we do prosecute what Logus said:
For, so her nature may be knowne by this,
As outward, inward Things haue oft bewraid:
For, though it seeme the Tale, by force, to part,
Its recompenced with Descriptions Art.
32
93
Vpon her Head she ware a Crowne of Corne,Like that of Ceres; sauing that the same
Was mixt (like Achelous his plenteous Horne)
With fruits of eu'ry kinde, which her became;
Her Haire by her was still disheuled worne,
Who naked was, yet her hand hid her shame:
Or if a Vaile she ware, it was but when
She was to come among licentious men.
94
About her Necke she ware a CarcanetOf eu'ry Iemme as it created was:
About her Wrists, in Bracelet-wise, were set
The ores of Gold and Siluer, Lead, and Brasse:
Thus haue we made this Ladies Counterfet,
Who being bare, as barely must it passe:
And now returne we eft to Logus speach,
Who thus to Phusis chidingly did preach.
95
Phusis (quoth he) I speake with griefe of hart,I needs must chide, sith your fault it procures;
Because you haue not plaid a mothers part
Touching the breeding of these Sonnes of yours:
I know you haue, by nature, so much Art,
As might make them obey their Gouernours:
And, that you doe not, it is your disgrace,
That kill your Children with a kinde embrace.
33
96
You may, perhaps, suppose your selfe you cleereBy saying, Praxis hath abus'd you much;
In alt'ring of their natures, which were deere,
For that from you they all receiued such;
Which could not be, if you not faultie were,
For, you might haue restrain'd them with a touch:
If then you had corrected Praxis lore,
They would haue bin farre better then before.
97
Little do Mothers know what hurt they do,By their indulgence, to their saucie Sonnes;
They make them wanton and rebellious too;
For, let loose Nature, it to loosenesse runnes;
Till Soule and Body it doth quite vndoe;
For, Custome ill good nature ouer-runnes:
But, if the Mother be as Mothers ought,
She wil by Vse amend what Vse hath wrought.
98
Phusis, not being vs'd such checkes to take,Beganne to kindle with disdainefull ire;
And, like a doating mother, she doth make
A stiffe defence, for her sonnes lewd desire:
Alas (quoth she) should they all ioyes forsake,
Which both their yeares, and natures do require?
Or should they wear their days in wastful thought
To bring themselues, and me with them, to nought?
34
99
You are no friend of theirs, if so you would;And, if not theirs, then mine you cannot be:
For, me and them in one Loues Band doth hold;
Whom factiously you seeke to disagree:
I take their part but as a Mother should,
That her deere Childrens good desires to see:
For, it a tender Mother doth become,
As life to loue the Children of her wombe.
100
And, are they not of flesh and blood compos'd?Then can such mixture be aught else but fraile?
Or would you haue them otherwise dispos'd
Then Adams heires, that hold but by the Taile?
And flesh and blood to strength are still oppos'd;
Yet strength, in weaknes, gainst it doth preuaile:
Sith so it is, my Sonnes may be excus'd,
That haue in weakenes powrefull pleasures vs'd.
101
Now well I see (quoth Logus) thy fond loueMakes thee vnapt to iudge what's requisite;
But, how if their loose liues the monster moue
(Monstrous Gehenna) to deuoure them quite?
For, he loues such to eate, as such do proue;
May you not thanke your selfe for such despite?
If Babes do burne them in a Candles flame,
Are they, or those that giue it them, too blame?
35
102
These heauy words suncke deepe in Phusis minde,Who (as astonied) at the same did muse;
Breath'd short, in passion, as if wanting winde,
Yet at the last, his Spirite she vp did rowze,
And askt of Logus, in the kindest kinde,
What practise she to saue her Sonnes might vse:
I hate, as Hell, that Monster, and I would
My Sons (quoth she) frō him, by force, with-hold.
103
Now Logus, glad her nature had such grace,Said, for mine owne part, I will but aduise,
Not deale with them; sith they did me disgrace;
Therefore I councell, that in any wise
You hie to Lady Aletheias Place,
And there inuoke her aide, with carefull Cries;
Who is indu'd with power, will, and skill,
To tell them of their misse, and mend their ill.
104
Entreate her, who will soone intreated bee,(For, she doth loue to satisfie Good-will)
To go vnto thy Sonnes of each degree,
And tell them of this Monster, made to spill
All those that liue secure in Pleasures glee,
And greedily their hungry lusts fulfill;
I will (said Phusis;) but where doth she dwell?
Thou know'st (deare Logus) but I cannot tell.
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105
She wonted was (said he) to neighbour mee;But since that Fraus and Dolus (wicked Twinnes)
The World produc'd, I do her seldome see;
For, she from my sights reach so slily rinnes,
As though to her I were an enemy,
Or made prodigious through my subiects sinnes:
Who prosecute her with extreame despight,
That now she euen loathes to see the light.
106
Shall I (quoth Phusis) on the Earth her finde?Hardly (quoth Logus) being chas'd from thence.
In th'Aire, or Water then, or in the Winde;
Or else within the Fires Circumference
Is she (quoth she?) said Logus, these by kinde
Are mutable, and full of difference;
Which she cannot abide, for she is one,
And rather will, then with such, liue alone.
107
Is she to Heau'n return'd (quoth she) againe?That's like (said Logus) but th'art ne'r the neere:
For, without her, thou canst not Heau'n attaine;
For, all by her must come, that must come there.
Alas (said she) how shall I her obtaine,
Sith I must haue herselfe her selfe to cleere?
For, as without the Sunne, none sees the Sunne,
So, without her, none wots where she doth wonne.
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108
This once (quoth Logus) I will thee directThe best I can, but cannot as I could;
I oft haue heard, and finde true, by effect,
That she is seene about the Mansion old
Of father Chronus, which he did erect
For him, and her, (his daughter deere) to hold;
Or, Thanatus, his Man, who riddes away
That which his Master bringeth to decay.
109
Which Man, and Masters habites we might paint,Though we but Chalke, & Coles, and Ashes had:
For, Chronus clad is like a mortall Saint
In skinnes of Beasts, to shew how life doth fade;
(Which of their age did seem to make complaint)
Girt with an Halter, or with Girth as bad:
Vpon whose Head, in stead of Hat, there stoode
An Houre-glasse, as an Embleme of his moode.
110
His Haire was white as was the driuen Snow,And from his Head it seem'd to hang, by drifts
Turn'd vp againe; eu'n as the same doth show
When it doth hang, so driuen vpon Clifts:
His Beard, beneath his girdle-stead did grow,
Which, platted, in his bosome oft he shifts:
Whose right hand did a Sithe, still mouing weld,
And in his left, an Horologe he held.
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111
His Man hight Thanatus, bare to the bones,Was more then naked from the toppe to toe:
All hairelesse, toothlesse, eielesse, stocks, or stones,
Are all as quicke, though he much more can doe:
And all he said, I was as you are, once;
Which was in sullen silence spoken to:
Vpon a Spade he leanes, as if he did
By his day-labour liue, call'd Wincke, all hid.
112
To these did Logus Phusis wish to wendWhich were to her the loathsom'st wights aliue;
And hardly thought that Logus was her frend,
(Although she could not otherwise beleeue
Sith her and hers she sought still to defend
That would to her such wofull councell giue:
And, with the water swelling in her eies,
She thus to Logus mournefully replies.
113
Alas (quoth she) and to them must I goe?To their most hatefull houses must I hie,
That are the greatest workers of my woe,
And faine would haue me vtterly to die?
What words can please a prowd insulting foe,
That holds in scorne his foes humilitie?
Then, what hope haue I with them to preuaile,
Who, though I kneele to them, will me assaile?
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114
What shall I say? alas, what shall I do?To winne their fauour, that will not be wonne?
To go to them, I shall my selfe vndo;
For, though I kisse their feete, they'l me ore-runne:
If not, they'l paine me, and compell me to;
Both which, if I do go, I cannot shunne:
I am amaz'd, I know not what to say,
If go, I die; if no, my Sonnes decay.
115
What shall I do? deere Logus, tell me what?O happy were I, if this feare were past:
There is no cause (quoth Logus) to feare that
That no wight liuing can auoide at last;
The Stag, the Rauen, and the nine-liu'd Cat
Must know those houses, then be not agast,
But go on boldly with erected Front,
Where you shall see her liue in high account.
116
If at the first you cannot see her face,Their Porter Nosus will you soone direct
Vnto her priuy chamber, where her grace
Will talke with you, in secret, in effect:
But, see you bribe the Porter of the place
With Calor naturalis, most select:
So may you passe securely through each Gate,
That leades to this obscured Ladies State.
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117
This Nosus was a true Anatomie(Though Thanatus be truely call'd the same)
Of mortall griefe, or curelesse maladie,
Whose Head was hāp'red (which him ill became)
With homely clowts (tide as vnhansomly)
And with a staffe he went as he were lame:
A Gowne (with Potions stain'd) he, girded, ware,
Who panted as he went, and went with care.
118
Foure paire of Stockings did his Legs comprize,And yet his Shancks (God wot) but little were,
Although the vpper Stockings were of Frize,
Thicke Frize, or Rugge, or else of warmer geare:
Whose Slippers were with Cotton lin'd likewise;
And yet of taking cold he still did feare:
Who lookt as he had not an houre to liue,
And eu'ry steppe he trode, his Soule did grieue.
119
His Face was of the colour of that clowtThat did his head inuolue, saue that his Face
Did looke more white: his Eies both seemed out,
For, they were sunck, & shrunke out of their place:
His Nose was sharper then an Adders snowt;
His Tong, & Teeth were furr'd, in lothsome case;
His Lips were chapp'd, his Beard was driueld ore,
And euer breath'd as he should breathe no more.
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120
And therewithall he was so waiward still,That none might please him, but he fault wold find
With the best words & deeds of meere good-will;
His bodies paines so peruerse made his mind:
His wozen whez'd when his breath it did fill,
As, through the straitest passage doth the wind:
And when he spake, his tong was furr'd so thicke,
That oft his words within the same did sticke.
121
Yet ne'rthelesse, to these must Phusis hie,For, Logus held her to't by strong perswasion,
Which thus she prest; Go, or thy Sonnes must die:
Thou needes must do it, there is no euasion:
Herein their life, or death alone doth lie;
Then, of their perill if thou haue compassion,
Thou must to These, that they may be secure,
Then liuely go; for, Loue can Hell endure.
122
Phusis, though while-ere somewhat weakned,(By reason of these vncouth Accidents)
Yet thus, by Logus, being comforted,
To his direction and aduice assents:
And now (all heart) she holdeth high the Head,
Scorning her wonted dread, and dririments;
And, in her loue to her Sonnes, thither goes,
Their case to Aletheia to disclose.
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123
A wearie iorney had she, and a foule,But, what paine is't a mothers loue will shunne?
Who almost will forsake her deerest Soule,
Yer once forsake her deere-bought deerer Sonne:
By Logus helpe, she doth her feares controule;
And to these houses goes not, but doth runne:
And as she hies, she more and more doth learne,
This Ladies Lodging rightly to discerne.
124
When to the House of Chronus neere she drew,(Which was a Caue in Rocke of Flint cut out)
It, to the sense more horride was in shew;
For, it with Mosse was inlaid all about,
And ore the Gate, Harts-tongue, & Brābles grew;
As on the top, did Okes, old, stiffe, and stout:
Which rocks rogh sides huge mossie Beeches bare,
As if the Flint the weathers threats did feare.
125
This antique Top, where these trees did not shade,A kind of Mosse ore-sprad, as hard, as hore;
Which ne'rthelesse, did softly seeme to vade,
And grew farre shorter then it was before;
Ore which strange vermin prety Paths had made,
Which there did still increase in needlesse store:
For, in those Places where men least frequent,
There vilest vermine are most resident.
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126
About the groundsills of this hideous house(Without) grew Nettles, Hemlocks, and the like;
Mongst whō were Snakes and vermin venomous;
Which vnawares th'vnwarie foote do strike:
Within the Caue was nought for Natures vse,
Saue water, which ther leakt throgh many a creek:
Where nought was seene but Darknes, nought was heard,
But holow Ecchoes, making Noise afeard.
127
Neere to this vncouth Caue is scituate(As t'were a vault digg'd vnderneath the same)
The House of Thanatus, which all do hate;
For, none came euer thence that thither came:
Then Chronus house its much more desolate;
More deadly too, in nature, and in name:
For, flesh doth faint, when but b'imagination
She sees this fearefull vgly Habitation.
128
The Roofe whereof, with Sculles is seeled quite;Whereon (in frets) hang shin-bones here & there:
The walls are hung with Mantles of the night;
Which, all with vermine vile, imbrod'red were:
If it, through any Chinke, receiued light,
Twas soone stopt vp with feet which it did beare:
It paued was with Ioynts and Knuckle-bones,
Set in no order, but like scatt'red stones.
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129
The Gate whereof is made of mans iust size,Which yet receiues all men that euer were;
Vpon whose Pauement all flesh rotting lies;
And, to the sense most odious doth appeare:
For, here lie Armes, and there lie Legs, and Thies;
Hete rotten Teeth, and ragged Iaw-bones there;
Within whose pores, the worms do keep their hold
Vntill they all conuert to perfect mould.
130
No one here keepes this grim Lord company,But sullen Silence, dust, and nastie mud;
And, yet he seekes all mens societie,
For, still he feedeth on their flesh and bloud:
Hard at the Gate do mournefull mourners crie,
And teare their haire, too like the Fury-brood:
Which yet is neuer heard that house within,
For, Thanatus is deafe, and heares no din.
131
Rotten Corruption here doth reuell keepe;Where Worms (her Minions) out of mesure dance:
For, all about they trace, they turne, and creepe,
And merry make with Fleshes fowle mischance;
Who all the while lies drown'd in puddle deepe,
As full of Soile, as full of Sufferance:
Where Irksomnesse sits on a dustie Throne,
As if he were Lord of that Earth alone.
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132
For, Beauty comes no sooner to the GateOf this true earthly Hell, but she doth looke
As if she were in worse then damned state;
And all her Graces had her quite forsooke:
The Lures of Loue, here turne to Hoods of Hate;
Hate that no Loue (thogh Loue it selfe) can brook:
For, Loue it selfe, which once three days lay there,
Fled from the same as if it hatefull were.
133
Here Zijm and Iim do loue alone to be,(Grimme Desolations sterne Consociates)
The vale of Visions this doth seeme to me,
Where Sense may see what Sense quite ruinates:
Whose Organs here, lie in varietie
Of transformation; which Sense deadly hates:
Where lie all Obiects which the sight annoy,
Yet tis the entrance to all griefe, or ioy.
134
Here Sense (saith Sense) lies in a Lethargie;Whose powres are quite supprest with Earth and Stones:
Here Rest of Labour hath the victorie:
And, Sorrows here surcease their sighs and grones;
Where lasting sleepe beguiles Calamitie:
For, Flesh feeles not, if rotten to the bones;
This is the Lake, which Men most loathe, and yet,
It is the Lethe where they griefe forget.
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136
Downe a darke staire (the passage to this house)On eu'ry step sits all the impes of Feare;
Confronted with Chymæraes hideous,
Which maks all men to hate their comming there;
Saue such as daily do that passage vse,
And with feete-mortifide those steps do weare:
To them it seemes not strange, how euer strange,
Those Monsters do their vgly fashions change.
137
The Elements, whereof all Flesh is made,Do, with their Children, the foure Humors, lie
Confused there, in Deaths confused Shade,
That no Eie can the one from the other spie;
But His that saw them ere they Being had,
On whom alone, they all do still rely:
This is the Picture of Not-beings Pit,
Where it doth seeme (but doth but seeme) to sit.
138
Sometimes, for pride, or praise, or both, some doBestow a stately Couer on this house;
For, worldly pompe doth presse them thereunto,
To make the glorified more glorious;
But Chronus spite that Couer doth vndoe,
Which cannot brooke the pompe of Thanatus:
It is but vaine the dead to honour then,
With other honour then with Tongue, or Pen.
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139
Hard at the doore of this confused denSit rau'nous Rauens, watching for their pray;
Which doore if Chronus opes, they enter then,
And with the Relickes, there, they prey, or play:
This Roomes description, no Pen well can pen
But such as markes the measure of Decay:
O! tis a Heau'n to heare Hell well set forth,
And Heau'n, if ill describ'd, seemes nothing worth.
140
The Rowme is little, this description great;And yet too little, for so great a Rowine,
Where all mankinde haue, and doe finde a Seate,
Vntill they haue receiu'd their later doome:
Let Aletheia then make it compleate;
Sith all descriptions true, come from her wombe:
Suffizeth me to shew but eu'n a glaunce
Of Thanatus his Houses countenaunce.
141
The Porter of this Place (as erst was sed)Is hundred-headed Nosus; much more sterne
Then Hells grim Porter, with his threefold head;
The sight of whom made Phusis hart to yerne;
But, Logus said, she, by him, should be led
The Lady Aletheia to discerne:
In hope whereof she did the better brooke
The horror of his most detested looke.
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142
Now, by this time, she was within his touch,Who, to him trembling came submissiuely;
And gaue him of her Calor (though not much)
That she might be the better vs'd thereby:
Nosus, whom though diseases made to grutch,
Yet, through that Calor lookt more cheerefully:
And gently, with familiar aspect,
He opes the Gate, and strait did her direct.
143
For, he denieth passage vnto noneThat makes much of him, or doth loue him well;
But, had he well the Ladie Phusis knowne,
Perhaps he would haue bin to her more fell:
For, when she gaue him Calor, she did grone,
To thinke how soone he would the same expell:
And, Phusis by no meanes can well endure,
That Nosus should her any good procure.
144
But he to her is most officious,He tenders her his guidance, and what not?
But yet the oddes twixt her and Thanatus,
(Although by Him t'was more then quite forgot)
Made Her entreate this Porter curteous,
To call that Ladie forth, whom Chronus, got:
And gaue him some more Calor in a Box,
Which gaue him strēgth to ope the Ladies Locks.
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145
Herewith he went to Aletheias Bed,Who ouer head and eares lay couer'd quite;
And being naked, yet thus couered,
He could not haue, of her, an open sight:
But, he aloofe his errand vttered;
Wherewith she rose, yet came within the night:
For, she being naked Darkenes seeks to hide her;
For, men without a Mist haue seld espide her.
146
But, out she (masked) comes to Phusis late,Who knew her not, because she came conceal'd:
But, asked who she was, who did relate,
Both who, and what, and strait her selfe reueal'd:
It me behoues (quoth she) to hide my State,
For, most men haue with me like Monsters deal'd:
Who, like to deuills, authors of vntruth,
Would force erroneous sense into my mouth.
147
I goe thus mask'd (quoth she) sith men like fiends,Of my destruction make no conscience:
Statesmen seeke for me, but for subtill ends;
Some Churchmen would haue me Non residence,
But where their pleasure, or their profit tends;
And, fond Philosophers peruert my sense:
Strong thieues, & Lawyers, wound my tender hart,
The one by force, the other by their art.
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148
The Merchant and the slie ArtificerWill, for a penny profit stifle me
With Falshoods cloake. The biting Vsurer
Doth vse me better, though but cruelly;
And, hath a will to vse mee worse by far re,
So he a farthing might the better bee:
But, of all men, that seeme me most to paine,
Vpon poore Poets I can least complaine.
149
For, though they hide me from the vulgar view,With robes (as they suppose) that sumptuous be,
Yet giue they me my right, with more then due;
As they best know, that haue best eies to see:
They are my friendly foes, false-louers true;
Which hate, in shew, but do, indeed, loue me:
Whom I wil one day feed with more then praise,
Which Manna makes thē look leane now adays.
150
All those that Offices, by coine, come by,(To come by coine, by buying Offices)
In Church or Common-weale, do me defie,
For interrupting their by-passages:
No, not so much as Somners but can spie
The way to wound me on aduantages;
In summe, all sorts are resolute herein,
To loose me quite, so they thereby may winne.
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151
Haue I not reason then, conceal'd to go,To shunne these Helhounds, hauing me in chase;
Who study, by all meanes, to worke my woe,
And with their craft transforme my constant face?
I were vnlike my selfe, and mine owne foe,
If I went like my selfe in such a case:
By nature, I the Ignorant do hate;
Then should I loathe, if I knew not my State.
152
But, wherefore Phusis art thou come to me?Who told thee where I lay? who found'st me out?
Thine eies are dimme, too dimme me well to see;
Then thogh thou see me, thou therof maist doubt.
Quoth Phusis, that full well I did foresee,
By Logus, therefore brought I this about;
Who told me truly who, and where thou wart,
Whose sayings, touching thee, I kon'd by hart.
153
And I am come to thee for thine aduice,Touching my children; who (as I am told
By my friend Logus) are in loue with Vice;
Or rather to that strumpet they are sold:
Who, with faire words doth sweetly them intice
To thinke, and say, and do, but as she would:
Who, as its knowne to all that knoweth ought,
(In fine) doth bring her Louers all to nought.
152
154
They being bound to Thanatus his house,Are bound likewise (ah woe is me) from thence
On the left hand, to the land tenebrous,
Whereas Gehenna holdes his residence,
Which Monster, being more then rauenous,
Will quite deuoure their Bodies, Soules, & Sense;
The manner of whose house, no tongue can tell,
But such as can describe the lowest Hell.
155
Heere, by the way, we will awhile disgresse,And prosecute the rest of Phusis plaint,
When as wee haue describ'd this little lesse
Then more then hell, which colours cannot paint:
For what so blacke as depth of all distresse,
Where vtter darkenesse raignes without restraint?
Then sith we colours want, as all do see,
Our too light shadowes must excused bee.
156
There lie two waies from Thænatus his house,(That still are two, sith they still disagree)
One on the right hand lies, scarse now in vse,
The other on the left, vs'd commonly:
That, on the left, is full of all abuse,
And leades vnto a world of misery;
Wherein Gehennaes Hold is scituate,
Which, without Patterne, thus wee figurate.
153
157
A ruinous Rowme, whose bottom's most profoūd;A Pit infernall full of endlesse dole;
A lothsome Lake where choaking damps abound;
A dungeon deepe, a dreadfull darkesome hole,
Wher noght but howlīgs, shriks, & grons do soūd,
And humane flesh still makes a quenchlesse Cole:
The common Burse, where none but Bugs repaire,
And Harbor full of horror and despaire.
158
Whose light is darke, which darke is palpable;Whose pleasur's paine, which pain no pen cā tell:
Whose life is death, which death is damnable:
Whose peace is strife, which strife is discords well:
Whose ease is toile, which toile's vnthinkable:
Where most obedience, learnes most to rebell:
Where all confusion raignes in endlesse date,
In a tumultuous State-disord'ring State.
159
Where toads, and vipers, snakes, and vermine vile,(Whose hissings make an hellish harmony)
With slimie gleere, the place do cleane defile,
Swimming in Suddes of all sordiditie,
While one on others backe themselues they pile
To touch the top of toplesse misery:
Where heate, and coldnes, are in their extreames,
And frozen harts do floate in sulphred streames.
154
160
The wals are hung with Cobwebs, which cōtaineSoule-catching hellhounds, clad in Spiders shape;
The Roofe, of burning Brasse, which droppes like raine;
Frō which no one below could ere escape:
The pauement's ful of groundlesse gulfes of paine,
Which thogh they stil deuoure, they stil do gape;
Whose glowing Mawes cannot cōcoct the meate
Which there lies boiling in an hell of heate.
161
Here, weeping warbleth notes that anguish show;And, gnashing Teeth tunes Iigges vntuning ioy:
Here, Seas of boiling Lead their Bounds oreflow,
To make a boundlesse deluge of annoy:
The Sands whereof are Soules orewhelm'd with woe;
Which though destroi'd, yet death canot destroy:
For, endlesse lords of death still life do giue
To those that in that death there still do liue.
162
From whose wide open Throats great flames they cast,Which thūder forth with sense-cōfounding noise;
The din whereof makes Horrors heart agast,
Which in that den no other blisse enioyes:
Such Gall of Gall affords no better tast,
Which stil doth feed, with that which stil annoyes:
Such boistrous Bugs can yeeld no other glee,
But mirth is mone whereas such Monsters be.
155
163
Whose foule blasphemos mouths are fraught withThat boils with heat of baneful poisō there;
Which spite they spit against the Cause of Light, spite,
Such is the enuy which to It they beare:
Yet, from their glowing eies flie sparkles bright,
As they no eies but Vulcans Forges were:
The sight whereof the sight doth so annoy,
As thogh that sight that sense wold quite destroy.
164
Imagine now you see, (as there is seene)Millions of Legions of this foule mouth'd crue,
With fangs more huge then Elephāts, more keene
Then Crocadiles chiefe grinders, to pursue
Soules diuing in those deepes to be vnseene;
Which, ouergorg'd, them vp againe do spue:
While these dogs watch to take them in the rise,
With teeth to teare, & feare them with their cries.
165
Here may you see a Goblin, grisly grim,(With hooke and line) stand fishing for a Soule;
Which, in those boiling Seas, do sinking swim;
Baiting their hooks with Salamanders foule:
Which, being hang'd he hales it to the brim,
And, all the while, as hunger-band, doth howle:
Which fingred, forthwith, in the diuells name,
In go the fangs, that inch-meale teare the same.
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166
Then others watch (as Spiders for a Flie)In obscure Nookes, to catch a flying Ghost;
That to those Nooks to hide it selfe, doth flie;
Which caught, they binde it, lest it should be lost,
And, to their webs of woe, with ioy they hie;
Where the poore Soule is still in torment tost:
In whom they all their deadly poison poure,
Which more then kills them, sith they it endure.
167
Now, sullen Silence raignes as all were dead,Then, sodainely a world of Clamor rings;
Whereby the much more horror still is bred;
For, sodaine feare with it most horror brings.
No heart so heauie as the hart of Lead;
Yet sodaine feare doth start it when it stings.
The Lightnings flash doth feare more than the flame
That stil is seene, and stil is seene the same.
168
Heere, in a Chimney, all of burning Brickes,Sits Grimnesse, and a red-hote Spit doth turne;
Whereon a humane Creature, melting, stickes;
Whose grease doth make the fire the more to burn;
Which Turne-spit, oft, his filthy fingers lickes,
And, with this liquor, doth his lippes adorne:
Basting the roast with what most torment giues,
Whiles the poore Creature dies, because he liues.
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169
But, that which is most horrid to bee heard,But much more hatefull to be felt, or seene;
These Cookes oft gash their flesh, to interlard
The same with sulphure, with woe waxen leane:
Lest the soft marrow the hard bone should guard,
From feeling woes incomparable keene:
So bone, and marrow, sinew, nerue, and vaine
Do there endure paines, farre exceeding paine!
170
In other Coasts of this infernall Realme;(Confusions Land, Gehennaes lording place,
True Antitype of new Ierusalem)
It freezeth flesh, which pines in staruing case;
Where, some do, naked, sticke amidst a streame
To yce congeal'd; whom cold winds freeze apace:
Yet draw they breath, more cold thē coldest frost,
To freeze their intralls, and congeale their ghost.
171
If any spit (for rheums cold places breede)Its blowne, in Ice-cicles, into their face:
For, those keene winds do forthwith do the deede,
And haile, of drops, make in a moments space:
On ycie morsells there the mouth must feede,
Sith mouthes to ycie morsells turne apace:
Here is cold comfort where is nought but cold,
That all congeales, on which it taketh hold.
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172
Here some (but new arriu'd) while blood is warme,Attempt, by motion, so to keepe the same;
But strait they cannot stirre, nor Leg, nor Arme;
For, in the offer, they freeze stiffe, and lame:
Yet hold they vitall heate (the more their harme)
For Ice, like Oile, doth feede their vitall flame:
If such a foe to life, as such a cold
Keepes life in being, life hath hatefull hold.
173
Who are so madde with paine that they do crie,O what is this we feele! we feele, O what!
Is't limbes of Flesh that brooke this agony?
All they haue rag'd with paine; but this, to that
Is like the Ocean to a fountaine drie:
This flesh, nerues, ioynts, once Racks did lacerate,
Yet that with this compar'd, was Heau'n to Hell,
O what is this we feele? Sense die, or tell.
174
It's but a moment since we hither came,Yet feele what paine Eternity inflicts;
And though eternally we feele the same,
Yet vs with what we ne'r felt, it afflicts:
Proteus like still paines new fashons frame;
And one another euer interdicts:
Is this the Soule we thought with flesh should die,
Which feeles these mortall plagues immortally?
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175
Here, some with hands fast frozen to their mouth,Do seeke to thaw them with their warmest breath;
But lo, the frost that breath so fast pursuth,
That it doth freeze in comming from beneath:
So, hand and mouth thereby the faster growth;
Yet liue they still, though frozen quite to death:
For, like to Alabaster Tombs they stand,
Frozen to death, yet liue at Deaths command.
176
Here, boistrous Bugbeares do at foot-ball playWith a still-tost and tumbled groning Ghost,
To catch thē heat; which done, they dāce the Hay
About it (breathlesse) being ouer-tost;
So, with transmuted formes, it to dismay
With feare that may afflict the seeing most:
While that poore Soule lies panting like an Hare,
Among foule hounds that seeke the same to share.
177
Now Matacheyns they daunce, with visage grim,And at ech chāge they chāge their horrid shapes:
And at ech turne, they torture life and limb
Of this tormented Soule, that, gasping gapes,
As if the Ghost were yeelding at the brim
Of deepe Not-beings Pit; which yet it scapes:
At point of death to liue immortally,
Is still to liue, and liuing, still to die!
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178
Now comes a chased Ghost that flies, for life,Before a foule-mouth'd crie of hellish hounds;
And being caught, twixt them is deadly strife,
Which of them all shall giue it deadliest wounds:
Each of whose teeth is like an Hangmans knife,
Which torments, if not utterly confounds:
O! thinke then what an hell of feare that hart
Must hold, that such infernall Hounds do start.
179
Here winds, that whistle while they freezing are,(As if they merry were for freezing so)
Bring, with their working, pitchy clouds of Care,
Wherewith they are involu'd that thither go;
Those biting frosts do, there, make all things bare,
Which make the same a naked world of woe:
Where nought but nipping frosts are felt, & seene,
Ne'r-vading griefes do flourish euer greene.
180
Here stands a Fowler, fowle, with Nets of Wire,To take a flight of Soules that staruing flee;
Late fled from whence they neuer can retire;
So, when in that fast-holding Net they bee,
He dragges them to the frost, or to the fire,
Where either are in the extream'st degree:
This is the welcome which they first receaue,
That of their life mis-spent haue tane their leaue.
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181
This flight thus caught, the Legions of the North,Fill all those Regions with their hellish houles;
And, with their vgliest formes, come roaring forth
To share among them those feare-shaken Soules:
The worthiest takes the Soule of smallest worth
To execute thereon the greatest doles.
Quake flesh to heare what fraile flesh heere doth feele,
For endlesse plagues turne here still like a wheele.
182
Here may you see, for anguish, some to tearTheir flesh from bones, yea bones and flesh to gnaw;
That so they may no more those torments beare,
Which make thē burst, with choler, in their Maw:
Some grate their teeth, as teeth they grīding were,
To cut the flesh which they before did saw:
And all, and some, are so with tortures tir'd,
That they seeme quietst, when they most are fir'd.
183
Here Bugs bestirre them, with a bellowing rore,(As at a Scamble we see Boyes to sturre)
Who for Soules scamble on a glowing flore;
Biting and scratching, like the Cat and Curre;
Whiles with their Talons they their prey do gore,
And thogh they striue, they do, therein concurre:
Within whose gripes the Soule, in silence grones,
For feare of feeling thousand hells at once.
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184
Here, in a corner sits an vgly forme,That on the matter of a liuing Corse
Finds matter of much mirth; which is, t'informe
Himselfe of all the sinews, and their force;
Who, with a knife, the flesh doth all deforme,
To pull out nerues and sinews in their course:
Which like strings, broken, hanging at a Lute;
So hang these nerues the Body all about.
185
Here may you see some others driuing nailes,Vnder the nailes of endlesse sorrowes slaues;
Some others, threshing them (like flax) with flailes;
Thē moow thē vp, in groūdlesse gulfs by thraues:
Some, playing on their hart-strīgs with their nails;
Some others, broaching them on ragged staues:
And all and some more busie farre then Bees,
To gather hony from the gall of these.
186
If Paine her vtmost pow'r awhile forbeare,(As seld she doth; for, there she's still in force)
It is suppli'd with feare, surmounting feare,
For loe, in Azur'd flames, with voices horse,
Farre off approaching grisly Formes appeare
Which feare far off, & neare at hand, much worse:
For, Fantasie with paine is more orecome,
When it is comming, then when it is come.
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187
And, all about in darknesse, thicke as darke;Are seene to shine (like Gloworms) vgly eies;
Which (like a Partrige sprong) ech soule do mark;
So, that to scape no Soules pow'r can deuise:
For, should they mount (as doth the nimble Lark)
A gastly Griphon doth them strait surprise:
Or should they sincke into Pits bottomlesse,
There shuld they meet the like, with like distresse.
188
In mortall life (though mortall be mens woes)Three things their vtmost rage do qualifie;
That's Comfort, Hope, and Rest; but, none of those
Come neare this place of paines extremity:
Mens Rackers, here, being tir'd, do let them loose;
But, they are Sprites that men, there, crucifie;
Who can endure all labour, without paine,
While they do Sprites (that is for ere) remaine.
189
But, if mens plaguers here immortall were,And were of pow'r, vntir'd, to plague them still,
Yet would they them, yer long, to nothing weare;
Or them with lacerating torments kill;
But all, so plagu'd, are made immortall there,
Who thogh they stil are spoil'd, yet noght cā spill:
Thē, thogh Time wears that on Time doth depēd
Yet they weare not, for Time doth them attend.
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Yea, thogh their Plaguers & themselues were suchYet, in this life, the Instruments of paine
To nought would waste, with vsing long, & much;
But, that same firie Lake doth still remaine,
Which though it quite cōfounds, but with a tuch,
Yet, it confounds but to torment againe:
And, lest the fire should out, prepar'd there is,
A Sea of Sulphure, which still feedeth this.
191
These present paines the Wit do (pining) waste;But those to come the Will do martire most:
The Memory is plagu'd with pleasures past,
And Vnderstanding with the pleasures lost:
Which on the Soule the Soule of Sorrowes cast;
For, endles Ioyes to lose, crosse-woūds our Ghost:
To haue bin well, doth but encrease our curse,
But, to lose endlesse being well, is worse.
192
Then, what remaines to ease the wounded spright,When Hope, that keeps it whole, becoms Dispaire:
For, in that dungeon of eternall night
That most doth ruine, that should most repaire:
For, Immortalitie right good, by right,
The Soule and Bodies powres doth most impaire:
Then, hauing but one good thing naturall,
Yet that made worse then Ill, how ill is All?
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193
There, raignes what not? (that is not to be toldWith tong, nor pen) that sense afflicts with griefe;
There is Perditions home, Damnations Hold;
Which giues death life, & death, giues life reliefe:
It is the vtmost reach of Hot and Cold,
And of Dispaire the habitation chiefe:
In summe, it is the summe of all distresse,
Which subdiuided makes it nothing lesse.
194
These are Gehennaes Consorts; these are theyThat still associate those that thither go:
This is the Place of that fell Monsters stay;
The Place where paine is infinite in woe:
The way thereto is plaine, broad, greene, and gay,
All strew'd with floures, to tice men thither so:
All which to Phusis, erst by Logus, told,
On Aletheia made her fasten hold.
195
Now, to returne to Phusis, and her plaint,Quoth she, (and her embraced all the while)
Deere Aletheia, help me, for I faint;
To thinke my Sonnes are neere this monster vile;
Who, with his Tuske, will teare, and all to taint
Their tender flesh, which filthy Lusts defile:
Which to preuent, I faine would learne of thee,
For, thou best know'st, what's best for them, & mee.
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And, for I know thou canst aright perswade,(For all thy words are held in reuerence)
I thee beseech from Vice them to disswade,
And from this Land; sith none returns frō thence:
O bid them leaue their idle wandring Trade,
And tell them of this inconuenience:
Go, Lady go, the way thou canst not misse,
To all their homes, and tel them home of this.
197
I would (quoth Aletheia) gladly goe,But that, I feare, they will entreate me ill
For Logus sake (neare kin to me, they know)
But thy desire I will herein fulfill:
For, I will go, though I my selfe forgoe,
To bar their course, and breake them of their will;
For, life is wonne, though lost, in those Assaies,
Wherein the loser gaines immortall praise.
198
Go, gracious Ladie, glory be thy guide(Quoth Lady Phusis, to this hardy Dame)
And I, meane while, will at this Gate abide,
With my friend Nosus, Porter to the same.
So, on this iourney Aletheia hi'd,
For, she, though wounded oft, was neuer lame,
In all her Actions shee's most vpright still;
For, she will neuer halt, how euer ill.
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199
This while sate Phusis at this narrow dore,Talking with Logus, who came to her there;
Because she did as he her will'd before;
Who told him all her hope, and all her feare;
How Aletheia did her case deplore,
And went to schoole her Children eu'ry where:
For, Hearts are eas'd when Tongs vnfold at large,
The griefes, or ioyes, which do them ouercharge.
200
Logus her course, herein, did much commend;And cheer'd her, as she could, with heu'nly words:
Praid her, with patience, to expect the end;
And comfort eu'ry way to her affords:
Strengthning her hope that now her sons would mend;
Sith Aletheias sayings would (like swords)
Subdue all rancke rebellion of the sense,
For, powrefull words winne more then violence.
201
They had not thus sate reas'ning there awhile,But Aletheia they farre off might see
Flying to them-wards ouer stoppe and Stile,
Oft looking backe, as those that chased bee;
Thē wel they knew hope did their hopes beguile,
Which they, till they had tri'd, could not foresee:
For, that which is contingent who doth kno,
Are onely wise, and none but ONE is so.
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202
But comming neere thē (almost breathlesse quite)She, panting, told them (windlesse as she could)
How she had bin (by vertue of her might)
About the whole world, and, with courage bold,
(For which, she said she was in painefull plight)
All Phusis children of their errors told:
To whom (quoth she) in diuerse formes I came,
Yet kept my nature, though I chang'd my name.
203
Some tooke me for grosse Error, some for mad;Some, superstitious; some, hereticall:
Some, for Deceipt; and some, for Vice, as bad:
Presumptuous some; some, hipocriticall:
But, the most part, most malice to me had;
For they, at first sight, draue me to the wall:
Some seem'd to take my part with Tooth & Naile,
That did (indeed) me most of all assaile.
204
The Curious rent my Maske to see my face;The Prowd, orelookt, nay, troade me vnderfeete,
The Learned, grac'd themselues with my disgrace;
Th'vnlerned (graueld) filld my mouth with Greet;
Which made me faine, and speake as one in chase,
So, all I met withall, with me did meete:
Truth gets but hate, but Adulation loue:
That this is truth, vnto my paine I proue.
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205
So, when I saw the perill I was in,Away I fled, thus wounded as you see;
I held it base to keepe vnscar'd my skin,
Sith mine aduenture might bring ease to thee:
But Phusis, this I did thy loue to win,
Whom I do loue, how ere thou louest me:
No dearer loue can Loue bewray then this,
To venture that, for Loue, that dearest is.
206
Ah, woe is me (quoth Phusis) that thou shouldstFor my poore Loue (which thou dost well deserue)
Venture that Iewell, which thou dearest holdst,
Yet that rare hazard, not my turne to serue:
Thy will I see, in that I see thou wouldst
Venture thy life my sonnes liues to preserue:
And that thou shouldst for that be wounded so,
And they the worse for that, the worse my woe.
207
Can neither Caueats of Mortalitie,(Which flow frō thy mouth with almighty force)
Nor my perswasions, more then motherly,
Giue them some feeling of their senslesse course?
Are their Soules seared with impiety,
That they for it, therein, feele no remorce?
Then what shall I a woefull mother do,
But wish I Were not, and my children too?
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But what, I pray, did Princes say to thee,When thou did'st mind them that they once must die?
They said, & therewith stabb'd at me (quoth she)
I, like a deuill, in my Throate did lie:
These, of all others, most I sought to flee;
And yet I honor roiall Maiestie:
Without my hand sustaine, Thrones reeling stand;
For, all staid Thrones are staied by my hand.
209
And how (quoth Phusis) doe the Iudges liue?Many of them (replied she) doom'd me death,
Because I would not (as did others) giue
Them goldē Scabberds, Iustice Sword to sheath.
How Lawyers? They by others losses thriue,
And oft (quoth she) on all sides sell their breath.
Physitions how? They reason doubtfully
Till Fees they finger past recouery.
210
Poore Poets how? while they (quoth she) do fillThe world with Fables, feed thēselues with hopes
More fabulous; so hold they but at will
Their tearme of life, of some great Lord that opes
His Mouth, more then his Purse, their Eares to fill
More then their Mawes; which greedie Famine grops:
Whose biting stomacks stil do stomack it,
The while they starue for want of wealth and wit.
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Ah these deere Harts I pitty in my hart,Who liue by sweet Lines, which do end their life;
For, to liue long, they hang themselues by Arte;
Or kill themselues with sharpe Inuentions knife:
Sith they, to liue, thus die, without desart,
Long may they liue where glorie is more rife:
For, greater glory no flesh can attaine,
Then die for glorie, so to liue againe.
212
And doe my sonnes (quoth Phusis) fare but thus?O then aduise me (Lady) what to doe:
Who said, sith they no better are for vs,
Thou must Astrea (my deere Sister) wooe
To rule them with the Rod of Summumius,
Before themselues they vtterly vndoe:
And wooe thy selfe to take it patiently,
For, better thou shuldst beare, then they shuld die.
213
For, if she rule them not when wilde they bee,She will ore rule them being truely tam'd,
If, in their life, she doe them not oresee,
She, in their death, will see they shalbe damn'd:
Thogh she be blind, she with mine Eies doth see,
And I doe see how life and death are fram'd:
And thus, the best aduice that I can giue,
Is them to mortifie, that they may liue.
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214
Which hauing said, she Logus with her tooke(To dresse her wounds) and hi'd her to her Bed;
So Phusis, being of them both forsooke,
Sate at the doore of Thanatus, neere dead,
And fell asleepe till Logus her awooke,
Who came againe to her as if he fled:
Whom when she saw, her hart receiued cheare,
And in her face the same did soone appeare.
215
Logus aduis'd her strait to take aduiceOf Thanatus, and Chronus, what to do:
Which to performe, she seemed somewhat nice,
Because she thought they sought her to vndoo:
Yet, her loue to her sonnes did her entice,
Her enemies, in this behalfe, to woo:
And, thus resolu'd, she boldly rushed in
Those Gates, which erst to her had fearefull bin.
216
Whose slipp'ry thresholds had neere made her fallInto the Lake of Lethe, hard at hand;
But, Logus held her vp; yet, therewithall
She grew so fearefull, that she scarse could stand;
But held by Logus, and a lomy Wall:
Then Logus her besought (that might command)
That she no more that passage would attempt,
For, tis not good the Fates too much to tempt.
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But I (quoth she) will Chronus call outright;Who forthwith came, on her sweet sounding call;
Holpe by two wings, one blacke, the other white;
And in his hand a Sithe, to cut downe All:
Who seem'd behind but low, and poore in plight;
But yet before, most pretious, trimme, and tall:
Thus came he forth, and to these Ladies said,
Who calls? and spake with motion most vnstaid.
218
T'was I (quoth Logus) know'st thou not my voice;Or wilt not, sith thou wilt become vnkinde?
The time hath bin when It did thee reioyce;
Though now (it seemes) to thee it seemes but wind:
Wilt be vnconstant, so to change thy Choice?
And shall I making thee, thee fickle find?
But, if I shall, of this thou shalt be sure
Thou shalt the lesser while, for that endure.
219
Thus Logus Chronus did reproue, becauseHe wold not know that voice which wel he knew;
But, Chronus he himselfe, from them, withdrawes;
As one that fear'd worse chiding to ensue:
But, Logus bade him stay, or shew a cause,
Which shews to Logus are all onely due;
Without whose help, old Chronus doth but dote,
And cannot sing or say, right Word, or Note.
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220
On this Iniunction, Chronus mute did stand;Yet stood as one that still on Thornes had stood;
While Logus seem'd his seruice to command,
And gaue his Tongue powre to be vnderstood:
Quoth he, let Phusis haue thy helping hand,
To make, if so thou canst, her children good:
For, they that hurt must heale, or make amends,
Then (hurting them) on thee their help depends.
221
Here Phusis, hearing how he thus was chid,Was at the point, at him, likewise to raile,
But Logus bade her (in her Eare) take heede;
For, faire words wold with Chronus most preuaile:
Wherewith her headstrong Will she bridle did,
For Logus loue, and for her sonnes auaile:
But yet she said, he did great hauocke make
Of her deere children in that Lethe Lake.
222
In which respect she meekely him besought(By way of satisfaction) that he would
Preuent her Childrens going all to nought;
And, with Examples, them from that withhold:
For I their Mother, (quoth she) still haue sought
To make them liue as toward children should:
And if they perish, it shall be their blame,
For, Ile leaue nought vnsought, to let the same.
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I will, quoth Chronus; and away he flew;And, in one instant, made (the world throughout)
Babes, youths: youths, Men: Men, Old: Old, Babes anew!
Phusis, mean while, with Logus talkt, about
The hope she had that Chronus would subdue
Her sonnes to Logus rule; which He did doubt:
For, no man of a rationall discourse
Can thinke thei'l mend that still waxe worse and worse.
224
While thus they talkt, they on the sodaine sawChronus, vpon his wings, returning fast;
Which in her smoothest hope did make a flaw;
For, so he fled as he had beene agast:
What news (quoth she) as he neere them did draw,
Fearing, ere she had spoke, he would be past:
What do my Children? Chronus say, O what?
Speake, speake, O speake, I long to heare of that.
225
They are (quoth he) I know not what to say,Following their pleasures; and, do thinke of noght
But how they may shift me with ease away;
Yet I thereby the sooner them haue caught:
O what a world it is to see them play
(Like Apes) with each vaine toy too deerely bought,
He is no man that cannot do what not?
That wise men neuer knew, or haue forgot.
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225
Ay me therefore (quoth she) but didst not thouWith thy Sithe menace them, to manage them?
Didst thou not tell them thou their Backs wouldst bow,
And that this mortal life was but a dreame?
O! couldst thou not, with all this, cast them low
To mount them more to high Ierusalem?
What, haue they sense, and cannot vse the same,
That haue no kinde of sense of sinne, and shame?
226
When night was come (quoth he) I told ech oneThe day was past: and when the Sabboth came,
I said a weeke was fully past, and gone:
A month expir'd, I told them of the same:
And when the Sun his compleate course had run,
I said a yeare was past, and spent, with shame:
But, they that take delight to runne awrie,
Learne so to runne by Sols course in the Skie.
227
In Childhood, I did teach; in Youth, did threat:In Manhood, I reprooued: and in Age,
With their own bones, their bones I sore did beat:
And in Decrepitenesse, I worse did rage;
For, I did euen quench their vitall heat:
And to the gripes of death did them ingage.
Yet for all this, they worse and worse became,
Still spoiling me, till them I ouercame.
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228
What life then do my Yonglings liue (quoth she?)The life (said he) of wanton skipping Roes:
What the Yongmen? Of Goates, in Lecherie:
And what mē grown? Of Cocks, prowd, prone to bloes:
What aged men? Of wolues that greedy be
And what old Age? Of crafty Foxes those:
But, most of all, do most of all transgresse,
And all, and some offend, some more, some lesse.
229
Ah out alas (cride she) what then remainesTo me, or them, but miserable woe?
But, I will trie if yet my care and paines,
Can moue them their wrong courses to forgoe:
Logus and Chronus to you it pertaines
To take my part herein, as friends should doe:
Not I (quoth Logus) for, against their will,
I can saue none, that long themselues to spill.
230
So, Logus left them, and away he hideTo seeke Astrea; (who, the earth had left)
That she of Phusis sonnes might take the guide;
While Phusis ranne about (of Logus rest)
And on her sonnes, with tragicke voice, she cri'd
Pitty, O pitty, me, she cried eft:
Griefe, wāting vent, the Heart (tormented) breaks,
And Paine's not sad, while she at pleasure speakes.
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231
Whereat Poliphagus (whose hearing wasAll for the Belly) said, me thinke I heare
(Yet Eares the Belly wants, but let that passe)
The voice of Phusis, our kind mother deare:
The other two said, How comes this to passe
That she is come? wherewith she did appeare,
And to them said, Deere Sonnes, how do ye fare?
Exceeding well (quoth they) and frolicke are.
232
But, do ye not consider (Sonnes) quoth she)How neere ye are to be deuoured quite
By that Gehenna, which I loathe to see,
(Damn'd hellish monster headsman of Delight)
Except you change your course, and warie bee
To shunne him and his hardly shunned spight?
For, that spit's hardly shun'd that hath both force
And will, to make her Obiect worse and worse.
233
Alas (quoth they) we liue, as liue we should,Prolonging Life with lifes immunities;
Except the ouerthrow thereof you would,
Do not perswade vs to liue otherwise:
What thogh our Soules to pleasure quite are sold,
Are they not sold thereby to Paradise?
The Sale is good, as Reasons law maintaines,
When both the Buyer and the Seller gaines.
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234
Phusis (too fond, as too kinde Mothers are)Seeing them well (for well they seeme to be
That liue, how euer ill, without all care)
Was pleas'd with what she did both heare & see;
Who said, that Logus sed, they ill did fare,
And were in more then mortall ieoperdy:
But sith she saw they were in perfect plight,
She would (she said) partake of their delight.
235
Indeed (quoth they) that solemne Sage we saw;Who (algates) wold haue drawne vs frō our sports:
But, whilst he drew vs, we made him withdraw
Himselfe from vs, with many mortall hurts:
He would (forsooth) haue had vs keepe his Law;
And done our Suite and Seruice to his Courts:
Then, sith he would needs Lord it ouer vs,
We as free men haue seru'd his Lordship thus.
236
Would that (quoth she) ye had forborne, becauseMany obey him that do rule aright;
For, Equitie doth limit all his Lawes;
And they are held for mad, that with him fight:
Hereat, as loath t'offend, she made a pawse,
For, in their Fronts she saw the face of night:
When men looke blacke, then if you peace desire,
Looke white, for Blackenesse is the child of fire.
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237
Here, with a smiling, and indulgent looke,(To change their sowre look with looks more thē sweet)
She told them Aletheia vndertooke
To shew them what was for their safetie meet:
For, her (quoth they) we neuer yet forsooke,
Because we neuer yet with her did meet:
Yet haue we heard that she is too precise,
To liue with vs in Pleasures Paradise.
238
But doubtlesse (quoth she) Chronus was with you;What said he to you? what was his aduice?
He to and fro (quoth they) about vs flew,
Yet to stay with vs seemed more then nice:
He coldly sought our lusts heate to subdue,
But yer we wist, we lost him a trice:
Yet, yer he went, with him wee merry made,
And made him most familiar with our Trade.
239
Wherefore, we pray you, when you goe away,Leaue him with vs; For, we do well agree:
I will (quoth she) so left them at their play,
And Chronus sent to beare them company:
With whom they reuelld out the night, and day;
Though He from them still sought away to flee:
For Chronus weareth not his Wings for nought,
Sith he doth farre out flie the swiftest Thought.
181
240
While they thus gamesomely with Chronus toy'd,(Deceiuing him with Fancies fallacies)
They heard a voice (which sorely them annoy'd)
That sommon'd them to leaue their luxuries;
Herewith by Thanatus, they were destroy'd;
To satisfie Gehennaes gurmandize:
At whose approach, old Chronus fled away,
For he could neuer yet, with neither stay.
241
Chronus thus leauing them to be deuour'dBy fell Gehenna (their foe capitall)
(Of whom, by Thanatus, he was assur'd)
He fled to Phusis, and so, told her all:
Who was within the Earths womb then immur'd,
Prouiding foode for hir Broode great und small;
Assuring her He school'd them as they ought,
Till Thanatus had them past schooling brought.
242
Phusis herewith tormented in the Soule,Ranne (as distracted) where sicke Fancie pleas'd;
Till, at the last, she heard her Sonnes to howle,
As those that were most damnably diseas'd:
Exclaiming on their liues, and follies fowle,
That pleas'd the Sēse with all that now displeas'd:
But such compunction neuer comes but where
The penitent doth desperate appeare.
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243
So, when she had well wai'd their agoniesWhich they endured in that Monsters Iawes,
And, hauing view'd the like extremities,
Proceeding from the like, or worser cause,
Of cruell Kings, that of Blood make but Size
To glew together their most bloudy Lawes:
Of corrupt Iudges; and Priests negligent,
The three that raise, or ruine Gouernment.
244
The working woes of th'idle-curious;Of the Rich-couetous; and the Poore-prowde;
Rebellious Subiects; Courtiers vicious:
Lasciuious Dames; damn'd Bawdes; the cursed Crowde:
Erroneous Teachers; Poets Libellous:
Cau'ling Philosophers, (by fooles allow'd)
Of craftie Merchants; lying Aduocates:
And swearing Sea-men; roving Runnagates.
245
In few, when she had seene the many woesOf all that in Gehennaes Hold abide,
She was, by Phobus, (who attended those)
Brought to the place where she did erst reside;
Where she did many Praiers sweete compose
Vnto Astrea, (whom the Heau'ns did hide)
That she would digne to teach, and to correct
The rest of her wilde Children of each Sect.
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246
So, at these holy Praiers her I leaue,(Sith they are neuer left that so do pray;)
Now, Poets say (that all in all perceiue)
Is this a Fiction? or a true Essay?
If both, then both are ready to deceaue
Those that wold picke this Locke without a kay:
But, be it what it will, it is the same
That is in earnest true, how ere in game.
Bene cogitata, si excidunt, non occidunt. Mimi. Publiani.
THE SECOND TALE:
Containing, The Ciuile Warres of Death and Fortune.
1
There was a Time (as I haue heard it sed,By those that did, at least, in Print it finde)
A certaine Marriage was solemnized
Betweene a mortall Paire of noble kinde;
And, for the loue of those whom Loue doth wed,
Immortall Gods the company refin'd
With their pure presence; who, the Feast to grace
Did reuell (as did all the rest) a space.
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2
Among the rest of that immortall Crue,Danc'd Death and Fortune, whose Masks were so like,
That none, that danc'd, the one from other knew;
So, in their choice of them they were to seeke:
For, some that soght for Fortune, Deth out-drew;
And some that soght for Deth, did Fortune strike:
Time was their Minstrell, who did euer play,
Aswell when they did dance, as they did stay.
3
Fortune delighted most to dance with thoseThat best could flatter, and the time obserue;
But Death still lou'd to foote it with his foes;
Or else with such as he saw best deserue:
When Fortune danc'd, she turnes, she comes, and goes,
And kept no time, thogh Time hir turns did serue:
But, whē death danc'd, he did those Mesures tread,
Whose times were lōg, & short, & tunes were dead
4
So, Fortune vs'd Lauoltaes still to danceThat rise, and fall, as Time doth either play:
And Death the Measure of least dalliance,
That's Passing-measure, and so strait away:
Or else the shaking of the Sheets (perchance)
Which he would dance, vntired, night and day:
Wherein he put them downe, so that he did
Driue them from dancing vnto Winck-all-hid.
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5
The dācing done, while yet their bloods were hot,Fortune and Death began on tearmes to stand;
Which, for their dancing, had most glorie got;
And, who their actions did best command:
From which dispute (with choller ouershot)
They fel to vrge their powres by Sea and Land;
The while the Gods stoode most attentiuely,
To heare their more contentious Colloqui.
6
When loe Deth (Lord of all that breathe this aire)Thus gan t'inforce his powre, beyond compare;
I know (saith he) their honors they impaire
That striue with those that their inferiors are:
Yet Foulnesse is not made a whit more faire
By being compar'd with Beauty, much more rare;
But, Foulenesse takes the greater foile thereby,
And Moles are foiles to set forth Beauties die.
7
Wert thou not blind (bold baiard) thou woldst see,A mighty diffrence twixt thy might and mine;
Sith among those that most almighty bee,
I do admit no power more diuine:
For Empire large, who can compare with mee,
Sith Earth and Aire the same cannot confine:
Nay, in Earth, Water, yea, in Aire, and Fire
(That's all in all) I rule as I desire.
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8
What breathes, or hath a vegetatiue Soule,But paies me tribute, as vnto their King?
Nay, doe I not the hoast of starres controule?
Then Heau'n and Earth I to obedience bring:
And Kings, as Beggars, are in my Checke-role;
Nay, Kings more oft then Beggars do I sting:
As farre as any thing hath motion, I
Play Rex, for, all that liue, do liue to die.
9
And therefore testifie thie modestie(For error to defend is impudence)
In graunting that which thou canst not deny,
And to be true, thou know'st in conscience:
Thou sure woldst blush, if thou hadst but one eie,
To stand on tearmes with mine omnipotence:
But sith thine Eies are blind, and Iudgement too,
Thou canst not blush at that thou can'st not doo.
10
Thy reasons seeme (quoth Fortune) strong to such,As do but sleightly weigh them; but to mee,
(That seeth more then thou, at least as much,
For, thou wanst Eyes, as well as I, to see)
They are too base, to brooke my Trialls Touch,
For, Tyrranny is no true Sou'raigntie:
And, Empire large, consistes not of large Partes,
But in the free subiection of whole Harts.
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11
Can any King be happy or secureThat drawing bodies, cleane with-draw the harts?
Or is it like that Kingdome should endure,
That is, by Hate, diuided into Parts
And Hate a cruell Prince must needes procure,
That seekes his weale by all his Subiects smarts:
The Will is free, and will not be constrain'd,
How ere, for it, the body may be pain'd.
12
As vniuersall as the VniuerseExtends (I graunt) thy grand authoritie:
And that thy Takers (more then most peruerse)
Sicknesse, Mischance, Disgrace, and Destinie,
Thy tribute take from Man, Beast (tame or fierce)
To fill thy still-consuming Treasurie:
But, their vntimely taking, with high hand,
Makes thy rule odious on Sea and Land.
13
Such Officers, in each craz'd common-weale;(That vnder colour of their Offices,
Do, with the Sou'raignes fauour badly deale)
Great Mischiefs cause, & Inconueniences;
Which though they touch the Subiects, kings do feele
Who often smart for suffring that disease:
When Princes tend their priuate, and neglect
The common good, they cause this sore effect.
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14
But ballance, on the other side, my mightIn th' vpright Scholes of true Indiffrencie,
And, thou shalt find I haue their heart and spright
Freely obaying mine authoritie:
For, thou compellest, but I do inuite:
I Fauors giue, whose vse thou dost deny:
I do promote all those that rise to mee,
But thou subuertest those that fall to thee.
15
Then, though that vniuersall be thy powre,Thinke not, therefore, Loue must to thee be such:
For Wit and Courage may high place procure,
But Loue and Bountie ampler powre by much;
Then of my currant Cause I am so sure,
That I dare rubbe it hard on Trialls Touch:
And, for my part, to end this Ciuile Warre,
Ile put it to iudicious Iupiter.
16
Although I iustly may (quoth Death) denyTo put a question, without question,
Vnto the Iudgement of selfe-Equity,
(For so I hold iust Iupiter alone)
Yet (not affecting Singularitie)
Ile make him Iudge in this Contention:
Now Fortune, proue thy powre, as I will mine,
And then let Iupiter iudge both in fine.
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17
So, when they were (to play this masters Prize)Entred this round worlds spatious Theater,
Fortune adorn'd her selfe with Dignities,
With Gold, & Iems which made All follow her:
These did she fall, to make her followers tise,
To gather which, they did themselues bestirre:
Keisars and Kings, that vsherd her the way,
Oft caught much more then they could beare away.
18
Here might you see (like Beggars at a dole)Some throng'd to death, inscābling for her almes;
He oft sped best, that was the veriest foole;
Some tooke vp Come, some Crownes, and others Palms
For which they pull'd each other by the Pole,
While othersome, for thē, found precious Balms:
Some found odde ends to make their States intire,
And all found some thing that they did desire.
19
But, that which was most notable to see,Was the poore Priest, who still came lagging last,
As if (God wot) he car'd not rich to bee,
To whom kinde Fortune Liuings large did cast
(As t'were to guerdon his humilitie)
Which, in the name of God, he still held fast:
And still look'd downe to find more, if he might,
For, well he found, he found well by that sleight.
190
20
Philosophers (that gold did still neglect)Lookt only but (wise-fooles) to find their Stone;
Which toy, in truth, was nothing, in effect,
But to get all the world to them alone:
For, with that Stone they would pure gold proiect
Worth all the world by computation:
But, whiles they sought a Stone so rich and faire,
They perfect gold but turn'd t'imperfect aire.
21
Thus, at the heeles of Fortune all attend,Whom well shee feëd for attending so:
On th'other side, Death to and fro did wend
To seeke one that with him would gladly go:
But, none he found; which made him those to end
He ouertooke, in going to and fro:
For, those which are vnwilling Death to meete,
He is most willing soonest them to greete.
22
Nor could those Officers that him foreranne(Sickenese, Mischance, Disgrace, and Destinie)
Affect, with his affection, any Man;
For, none they found that willingly would die,
Sith all, before, with fauours, Fortune wan,
And, such desir'd to liue eternally:
For, it is death to thinke on Death with such,
That Fortune makes too merry with too much.
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23
Throgh Campes, & Hosts he trauel'd with a trice,(For, soldiers needs must meet deth by their trade)
At last he came where some were throwing dice,
Who first a Breach should enter newly made;
Lord how some chaf'd (through Glories auarice)
For missing that which they wold not haue had:
And, he that wan, to lose his life did striue,
Yet so, as faine he would haue scapt aliue.
24
Among the rouing Crew, at Sea, he soughtFor one that willing was to go with him,
Who, thogh they valu'd all their liues at nought,
And oft for trifles ventred life & limme,
Yet when their woorthlesse bloods were to bee bought
They sold them deerely, and in blood did swim
From bloody death, as long as they could moue,
For thogh they fear'd not death, they life did loue
25
Through the Turkes Gallies, 'mong the Slaues he wentTo seek some desp'rat slaue that lōg'd to die;
But loe, not one to die would yeeld consent,
For, all, through hope, still lookt for libertie:
Hope doth the hart enlarge that Griefe forespent;
And Faith keepes Hope and Life, in charitie.
Dispaire can neuer seize that hopefull hart,
That can, through Faith endure an hell of smart.
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26
At last he to a Monasterie came,(Where mortified life is most profess'd)
And sought for one to meete him in the same;
But, all therein from sodaine death them blest:
And prai'd to Iesus so their liues to frame
That sodainely Death might not them arrest:
A Pater noster, Aue, and a Creede,
They thought right wel bestow'd, so wel to speed.
27
Thence went he to an holie Ancrets Cell,Who seem'd to be quite buried there aliue;
He Death embrac'd, but yet the feare of Hell
Made him with Death, for life (in loue) to striue:
He knew himselfe (old Fox) perhappes, too well
Strait to presume that God would him forgiue:
So, was most willing, and vnwilling too,
To do as present Death would haue him doo.
28
In fine, Death doubting in his Cause to faile,Intreated Sickenesse such an one to finde,
That wold not flinch, thogh Deth did him assaile,
And scorn'd the fauors of that Godddesse blinde:
So, Sickenes went, throgh many a lothsome Iaile,
And found, at last, one mortified in minde:
Who though he were but poore, yet held it vaine,
To follow Fortune that did him disdaine.
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29
On whom seiz'd Sickenesse, with resistlesse force,And, pull'd him downe so low, he could not stand;
To whom Death came, to make his corps a Corse,
Yet, as his friend, first shak'd him by the hand;
And by perswasions, would him faine enforce
With willing minde, to be at his command:
Which if he would, Death promis'd faithfully,
He should die sleeping, or most easily.
30
This forlorne wrech thākt death for his good wil,But yet desird one happy howre to liue,
Which ended, he would Deaths desire fulfill,
Who from him with a Purge, did Sicknesse driue,
Which shortly did one of his Kinred kill,
From whome, as heire he did some wealth receiue:
And being well in state of health, and wealth,
He followed Fortune more thē Death, by stealth.
31
Now, hee betooke him to a Furriers Trade,And hauing Stock, hee multiplide his Store;
Then Death did mind him of the match he made,
But, him hee answer'd as hee did before:
Quoth he, O marre me not ere I am made,
But let me get (kind Death) a littlemore:
Contēte (quoth Death) thou shalt haue thy desire,
So I may haue thereby what I require.
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32
Sables and Ermines Death for him did kill,And made his wealth thereby, by heapes, increase;
Who hauing now (death thoght) the world at will,
He asked him if now he would decease:
Who yet desired life, of Death, to fill
His coffers to the top, thē would he cease:
Death yet seem'd pleas'd, and brought all those to nought
Th'reuersions of whose States he erst had bought.
33
Then, when he had a world of wealth obtain'd,Death came againe for his consent to die;
But now he told Death, his mind more was pain'd
With thought, and care, then erst in pouertie:
Therefore he prai'd his death might be refrain'd
Till he had gotten some Nobilitie:
And then he would go willingly with Death,
And (nobly) yeelde to him his deerest breath.
34
Death yet agreed (sith his good will he sought)And gaue him leaue to compasse his intent;
Who, of a noble-man, decayed, bought
Both Land & Lordship, Honor, House, & Rent;
Then Hee turn'd Courtier, and with Courtiers wroght
(By Deaths assistance, & with mony lent)
That he, in time, became a mightie King;
And al his Proiects to effect did bring.
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35
Then, Death (not doubting of his will to die)Vnto him came, to know his will therein;
But, he did Death intreate (most earnestly)
That sith to him he had so gracious bin,
He yet might gaine imperiall Dignitie
Before his Death, which soone he hop'd to win:
And then he would most willingly resigne
His life to Death, although a life diuine.
36
Death, hoping, that the greater he was made,The greater glorie he, by him, should gaine,
(Which might the vmpire Iupiter perswade
That Death in powre, was Fortunes Soueraigne)
Made neighbour Kings each other to inuade,
To whom this King a Neuter did remaine;
Who whē they had by wars themselues consum'd,
He all their States, as Emperour, assum'd.
37
Now being Cæsar, Death came strait to him,As most assured of his company,
But to the Emperour he seem'd more grim
Then erst he did, which made him loath to die;
Come on (quoth Deth, & therwith held a limme)
No oddes there must be now, twixt you and I:
To Ioue Ile bring you, then with goodwill go
To him, with me, and see you tell him so.
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38
Alas (said hee) I am but newly comeTo honors height, and wilt thou throw me downe
Ere I be warme, or settled in my Roome,
And so my Brows scarse feele th'imperiall crown;
O suffer me to liue, to tell the summe
Of the Contentments, from my Grandure grown;
For, better had it bin still Low to lie
Then, being at the Highest, straite to die.
39
Either (quoth Death) come willingly with meOr thou shalt die a death thou most dost feare:
Hee hearing this, from Death did seeke to flee,
And cried on Fortune to assist him there,
Peace villaine then (quoth Death) I coniure thee,
Or lower speake, that Fortune may not heare:
Yet Fortune (which he follow'd) was at hand,
And laught for ioy to heare him Death withstand.
40
But by this Time, the Time prefixt by IoueExpired was: and Fortune with her brought
A world of people, following Her in loue,
Who, willingly, for Fortune long had sought:
These, as she moved, with hir still did moue,
Because she rais'd them higher then she ought:
In which respect she had more followars
Then Sol (that lights Heau'ns lamps) had waiting Stars.
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41
Lord! how some (sweating) dropt in foll'wing hir,To whō shee dropt that which bedrops thē more;
For, they were laden so, they scarse could stirre,
Who vnder-went the same with labour sore:
And othersome, themselues did so bestirre,
That they in each mans Boat would haue an Ore;
But, seeking to gripe more then well they could,
Were forc'd to lose that which they had in hold.
42
Among the rest, there was an Vsurer,(Whose Backe his Belly did, for debt, arrest)
Who being fearefull of iust Iupiter,
Made nice to goe with Fortune, and the rest;
Sith well he knew, He was a Thunderer,
In, and from whom, he had no interest:
For he did neuer deale with such, perhaps,
That gaue for intrest nought but Thunderclaps.
43
The Souldier came, and gaue them much offence,That stood betweene his Breast, & Fortunes Back:
So, Souldiers haue backe-fortune euer since,
For they, for others good, go still to wracke;
And for their wracks haue wrackful recompence;
For, they are sackt, if they chance not to sacke:
And if they doe, the Publique Purse must haue,
That which must keepe them as a publique Slaue.
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44
They, with right Swords, do ballance kingdomes rights;(A glorious office they perform the while)
The woorths of Kings appeares by those their weights;
Which proue thē to be valorous, or vile:
Yet they gaine nought but blows, in blody fights,
So, store they get without, or fraude, or guile;
The while the gown-mā keeps vnscarr'd his skin,
And with his Pen (in peace) the world doth win.
45
O thou true Ioue, bow downe thine vpright Eare,To heare thy lowest Seruants Orisons,
Which, in the loue which he to them doth beare,
He makes for them (that wracke still ouer-runnes)
Incline the hearts of Princes farre and neare,
As Marses Minions to loue Marses sonnes:
And, make this little Land yeeld great increase,
To stay their stomackes great, in warre and peace.
46
A Soldiers sword, from sheath, here Fortune took,To knight all those that her had followd well,
Now eu'ry man did for a Knighthood looke,
That scarse had fonnd an house wherein to dwell:
Yet some did much their betters ouer-looke,
And thrust in for it, while their lookes did swell:
So, Fortune seeing them to looke so big,
Possest them knights, without or Turffe or Twig
199
47
Sois Cheualier; Arise sir Knight, (quoth she)Then vp he springs, for feare lest Fortune would
Recall hir word for his debilitie;
Now Knight he is, for nought but being bold;
For Fortune fauours Squires of lowe degree,
If they be more audacious then they should:
Now Honor hath He, get Grace where He can,
Yet Fortune gaue him grace to keepe a man.
48
Some layd on all which they, by Fortune, gotVpon their backes, that brauely sought to beare
The Sword vpon their shoulders, yet could not;
For, it fell in the sheathe ere it fell there:
Fell lucke it was that so they were forgot;
Yet they forgat themselues, as did appeare;
But when they saw they mist of what they sought,
Thei bar'd their backs, to line their guts, for noght.
49
Which Iupiter himselfe did laugh to see;For, these so much were mou'd with this disgrace,
That they were at the point to Death to flee,
And Fortune leaue, for such their fortune bace:
Yet followed her (most malecontentedly)
Beceuse they followed her vnto that place:
To cast away long seruice on a spleene,
Is not to foresee, but to be oreseene.
200
50
O! twas a world to see what shift was madeTo hold vp Greatnes with a little stay;
T'were sinne to say some vs'd the Cheaters trade,
To borrow with a purpose ne'r to pay;
And get all, howsoe'r, that might be had,
No, no, they did not so, I dare well say:
But this I say, perhaps, they liu'd by wit,
And so to liue, some great Ones thinke it fit.
51
Now, in these knightly times ye might haue seene(If you, for pleasure, had but tane the paine)
Each one ye met withall, a Knight in greene;
And so the world, b'ing old, grew greene againe;
As if the same but in the Blade had beene;
For, each one did his Hanger on, sustaine:
Now, Time stood still, to sport himselfe in Maie;
For, all was Greene, and at that state did stay.
52
Some shuffled for some Office: some to gaineSome Monopole, which then could not be got:
For, Fortune did those Monopoles restraine,
Because she thought t'was to hir Rule a Blot
To pleasure One by all her Subiects paine,
Thogh oft they made thē seem, as they were not:
Some cried for warre, and othersome for peace,
But Fortune, thogh they cried, still held hir peace.
201
53
Now, some, for Coine their Offices did sell,As if they had bin cloid with Fortunes grace;
And those that bought them, others did compell
To pay for them, when they were in their Place:
And some, in seeking somewhat, did rebell;
But Fortune broght them soone to wretched case:
Some strong, sent long men to Ierusalem,
Out of the way, to make a way for them.
54
Now, for Truths Matters, there was much adoe;Some this, some that, som none of both wold haue:
And yet all three did (restlesse) Fortune woe,
To yeeld to neither, that did either craue
In worlds behalfe, or fleshes fixt thereto;
But all, in shew, did seeke but Trueth to saue:
For, all seem'd to sollicite Sions cause,
Which they would haue confirmed by the Lawes.
55
Some sed they lied that only Truth did teach;Some enuied them that liu'd by teaching so:
And at their liues, and liuings sought to reach,
Which they forgaue, but would not so forgo:
Somes Tongues defended Truth, which they did preach,
Whose actiōs gaue hir many a bitter blo:
Some liu'd, as dying, while they sought to liue;
And some died liuing; yet did most reliue.
202
56
Some, Liers called Carnall-libertieThe glorious Libertie of Truths deere Sonnes;
And her they vrg'd to prooue that veritie;
But, Truth's betraid by such vntrustie Ones,
That Sacrilege doe gild with Sanctitie;
Yet, for that, looke for high promotions:
O tis a world of mischiefe when Pretence
Doth shrowd a world of Inconuenience!
57
When Truths sonnes play the Polititians,Heau'n help thee Truth, in Earth thy case is hard:
Truth's hardly matcht with Machiauelians,
That her wil woūd so they themselues may ward:
For, pious Polititians are blacke Swans;
And, blest are Realmes that they do (ruling) gard:
But whereas Statesmen meere Earth meditate,
There Heau'nly matters squar'd are by the State.
58
Some others followed her, by following others;Vpon great men these greatly did depend,
All those, for likenes, might haue bin my brothers,
Who then began to liue, when life did end:
Or if before, they were blest in their mothers;
For, those they tended that themselues did tend:
It is absurd that Lords should tend their men,
Yet some Lords (Gods fooles) do it now and then.
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59
Some of these Seruants were so fortunate,That they came forwards, while their Lords went backe:
For, Loue beginning with our selues, we hate
Ourselues; if we by Seruice goe to wracke:
Their Lords they loued for their owne estate;
And lou'd to haue that which their lords did lack:
O they are carefull Seruants that will keepe
Their lords estate, while they, with Pleasure sleep.
60
And some of this sort thriu'd, not by their Lords;Yet by their Lords; for, by their leaue, they sell
Their fauours, nay their honors, deeds, and words,
And care not who do ill, so they do well:
Whose Clarkeship so much Art to them affords,
That for an Inch, alow'd, they tooke an Ell:
So meere Cliffs made they of their Lords to clime
To some high note, by keeping Tune, and Time.
61
These Climers in each Clime are high'st of allIn their conceit; for, they conceiue they can
The round world bandy like a Racket-Ball;
And make a meere foole of the wisest Man:
They ween the world without them were so small,
As Ladies well might weld it with their Fan:
O there's no measure in the pride of such.
That from too little, rise to reach to too much!
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62
Some others thoght they Fortune gratious found,Genus and Species throwing in their way;
Which they tooke vp, and them together bound,
To stay with them to be to them a stay:
But in the binding did them so confound,
That they proou'd fooles in specie to betray
Genus and Species to such bitter Bands,
For which they lost both honor, goods, and lands.
63
Lord, how some cloisterd vp thēselues like Friers,To find out These, whom thus they did betray;
And lay in ambush for them many yeares,
Watching, by Candle-light, oft night and day;
Spending much money of their friends, or theirs,
And all (God wot) but to abuse their pray:
O Genus, Genus, Species, Species, yee
Be most accurst, that thus still coursed be;
64
Some others lookt for Euclids Elements,Whereof, they thought, the whole world did cōsist;
Which found, they found therin such sweet cōtēts,
That Euclide carried them which way he list;
They lookt for nothing lesse then Regiments,
But held themselues in Euclide onely blist:
Who blest them so, that if for lands they sought,
They got no land, but measur'd land for nought.
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65
Others there were, that sought to find a Spell,And needs would rise to Fortune by a Fiend;
Whom they would raise, for that intent from hell;
These tēded fiends too much, good Fate to tend:
Who whiles they soght the gods thēselues t'excel,
They died, like damned Beggars, in the end:
So, they that needs would rise through diuels aide,
Downe to the diuell were, at last, conuai'd.
66
Some others lookt for Spirits, not Sprites of hell,But spirits of sack, and liquors of that kinde;
Wherwith they thoght (if once they could excell)
They could the hands of Fortune loose or binde:
This made them (like poore Crickets) stil to dwel,
In, or about the fire till they were blinde:
And then, like Bats, that still doe loathe the light,
They keep the darke conuersing with that sprite.
67
Others there were that sought to finde the wayT'annatomize the Corps of Reasoning,
With Logicall Conclusions; these would play
As Iugglers play with Boxes, or a Ring;
Make men beleeue what ere they please to say;
And to a Non-plus Reas'n herselfe to bring:
On these, indeed, too oft would Fortune smile,
To see how they the fond world did beguile.
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68
Some wordy-men, by words, sought worthinesse,These raught at Rethorikes Rules to rule thereby;
And they that found the same, found little lesse
Then greatest Rule, for they rul'd wordily:
These mē, for need, could make some mē confesse,
They Treachers were, and yet themselues belie:
These still were Fortunes Minions; for they could
With wind of words orethrow wits strōgest hold.
69
Others there were that still gaz'd on the Starres,As if by Starres, they should the Sunne transcend:
These told of future weathers, woes, and warres,
Of the beginnings of them, and their end:
Of Prophets that should rise (to kindle Iarres)
And of I wot not what, which they defend:
But while they blabb'd out Fortunes Secrets, she
Made them but poore, and liars held to be.
70
Some sought for Notes, so to be notable,Not Notes to rule themselues, but Notes in Rule;
To rule the voice by those Notes tunable,
Yet many did themselues the while mis-rule:
Who while their Heads held points cōmendable,
In many points they err'd from Reasons Rule:
So, this gift Fortune gaue their Heads: they should
Still hold more Crochets, then their Purses Gold.
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71
Some others sought for Tongues as if they wouldHaue stopt their flight, as they from Babel fled,
By catching them in nettes; so them to hold,
For themselues onely, till themselues were dead:
These rich in Tongues, were not still so in gold;
For, their Tongues tasted oft too much of Lead:
So, these wel-tong'd men tied were by the Tongs,
Oft to be authors of their proper wrongs.
72
As some sought Tongs, so others Hands did seek;Italian, Romane, Spanish, French, and Duch,
With Letter Freeze among, and Letter Creeke;
Those with their hads, did Fortune seldom touch;
For, they wold needs teach those hands in a week,
So, sold for little, that they sold for much:
For it is much to giue a Crowne for nought)
But onely to marre hands, too euill taught.
73
These pasted vp, in ech place where they came,(And no place was ther where they did not come)
Bills (& those Hands they held were oft but lame)
That they would giue their Hands, for some small sum;
To those that wold but trust thē for the same
So, in a weeke, they coson'd all and some:
For, in a weeke, and some odde houres beside,
They promis'd that which they could not abide.
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74
Their occupation brought thus to disgrace,They, though they would with all aforehand be,
Yet ran behind hand still, from place to place:
So, with their Hands they caught but A,B,C:
Which by interpretation of the place,
Is, all base Cheaters are, that so doe flee:
I wish those Hand-men their hands well had vs'd,
For, I know Pen-men that are so abus'd.
75
But some of Fortunes followers were her foes,And Deaths true friends (who for him swords vnsheath
But shewd it not, lest she shuld thē dispose
Wher, if thei wold, thei could not meet with deth:
These followed her for nothing but for blowes,
For they, with fencing, kept themselues in breath:
And, for they could but breath by that their trade,
They still were willing Fortune to inuade.
76
Some followed her by acting all mens parts,These on a Stage she rais'd (in scorne) to fall:
And made them Mirrors, by their acting Arts,
Wherin men saw their faults, thogh ne'r so small:
Yet some she guerdond not, to their desarts;
But, othersome, were but ill-Action all:
Who while they acted ill, ill staid behinde,
(By custome of their maners) in their minde.
209
78
If maners make mens fortunes good, or bad,According to those maners, bad, or good,
Then men, ill-manner'd, still are ill bestad;
Because, by Fortune, they are still withstood:
Ah, were it so, I muse how those men had
Among them some that swamme in Foizons flood;
Whose maners were but apish at the best;
But Fortune made their fortunes but a Iest.
79
There were knights-arrant, that in Fortunes spite,(Because they could not king it as they would)
Did play the Kings, at least prowd kings in sight,
And oft were prowder then a Cæsar should:
Yet Nature made them men by Fortunes might,
And Fortune made them Natures Zanees bold:
So those, in nature, Fortune flowted so,
That though she made them Kings, she kept them low.
80
But some there were (too many such, there are)That follow'd Fortune in more abiect kinde;
These matches made between the Hoūd & Hare,
I would say whoore; for, men hunt such to finde:
These faithlesse beastly Brokers of crackt ware
Had too too often Fortune in the winde;
Who followed so the sent, that oft they did
Find her where she, frō those they spoil'd, lay hid.
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81
Some others followed her by badging Land,Or beastly grazing (yet made men thereby)
For, they that did those myst'ries vnderstand
Caught hold of Fortune in obscuritie;
To whom she (strumpet-like) lay at command,
Who, lusting for her, gript her greedily:
Till they grew great by her: O monstrous birth,
Where Shee the He makes great with Grasse and Earth!
82
The Lawyers went with these, with hands as fullOf Deedes, and Manuscripts as they could hold:
But, Fortune from the same those Scripts did pull,
And in exchange fill'd either fist with Gold:
For, whiles they had but Papers their were dull;
But be'ng wel-mettl'd they were blithe and bold:
For, Gold's a soueraigne Restoratiue,
And makes men more then dead, much more then liue.
83
Aurum potabile is of that powre(If store thereof be powrde in out of hand
Like Iupiters preuailing Golden Showre)
That it will make Death lie at Lifes command:
It is the Aqua-vitæ which doth cure
All sore Consumptions that our weale withstand:
Nay tis the Aqua fortis which will eate
Throgh leaden Brests, Cares, fretting, thēce to fret.
193
84
O giue me Gold, and I will doe, what not?And let but store of Angells waite on me,
Ile make my selfe a God, with Thundet-shot;
Nay, I will make the Earthly Gods to flee
To Heau'n, or Hell, where they shall be forgot,
Sith there no God but I will minded be:
But God, thou knowst, the Age is yron the while
That hammer can a God of thing so vile!
85
O! gold, the god which now the world doth serue,(This Midas-world that would touch nought but gold
Gilding hir body while hir soul doth sterue)
How glorious art thou (held fast) to behold?
Thou mak'st a Beast a Man, and Man to swerue
More then a Beast; yet thou dost all vphold:
For, whom thou tak'st into thy Patronage,
It matters not what is his Title-Page.
86
Men value men according to thy weight;For, be their value ne'r so valorous
Its held but base and made, by nature, sleight;
Nor can it be nor good, nor glorious,
Without thy vertue doe it ouer-freight;
And so remaine they without Grace, or Vse:
But, if thou list to lade a leaden Asse,
(While thou rid'st on him) he ore gods doth passe.
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87
Come Gold: thē come (deere Gold) & ride on me,Ile be thine Asse, or Pack-horse, which thou wilt;
Although thou heauy art, Ile carry thee;
Albe't thou art much heauier through thy guilt:
Lade me (good Gold) till my backe broken bee:
Sith, thou againe canst make me, being spilt:
For all men now may vse me like a Sot,
(That beares abuse) because I beare thee not.
88
Then foote it not whiles Copper rides on mee,Base Copper dogs, be'ng made thēselues to beare
But logs and faggots (for a staruing fee)
And in a Chimneis end away to weare:
Then vp (faire Gold) Ile so mount vnder thee,
As if no ground should hold me, when I reare:
For, by how much the more thou mak'st me bend,
So much the more thou mak'st me to ascend.
89
Ride on me Gold, and I will ride on those(If so I lust) of men, or women-kinde,
That shall be great, or faire, or friends, or foes,
Vntill I ridden haue them out of winde:
But Heau'n my Heart still otherwise dispose,
For, riding so, I blister should my minde:
Which still would runne with matter of annoy,
And Soule, and Body so, perhaps, destroy.
213
90
Then, gold, sith thou woldst tēpt me to this spoileFarewell (deere Gold) Ile not buy thee so deere;
I am content, without thy help, to toile
For so much Siluer as will arme me heere
'Gainst wounding Wants, which there do keepe a coile,
Where nothing is but care, and griefe, and feare;
My Backe and Belly kept, in rest Ile sleep,
(Throgh coniuring Bookes) from gold, that diuels keepe.
91
The Fox will eate no Grapes: well, be it so;Ile eate no Grapes that set my teeth on edge,
To eate such bittes as bane where oft they go,
And Heart and Minde do all alike besiege:
Who gathers golden fruits in Hell that gro,
Do for the same oft put their Soules to pledge:
But in that state that stands with little cost,
Is found the golden life that Adam lost.
92
Touching this World (to my blame be it sed)I thinke of nothing, but what nothing brings;
And yet no thing more musing then my head;
And yet my Muse my head with nothing mings:
Both feed on Aire, wherewith is nothing fed
But dead, or dull, or else meere witlesse things:
For sure that wit ne'r came neere wisdoms schools
That weenes meere Aire fats any thing but fooles.
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93
I would, and would not, haue, what I haue not:I would not haue, that had, the Hart inflates:
Yet would I haue my Lucke light on that Lot
That mends the drouping Mind, & Bodies states:
In too much, Nature oft is ouershot;
And oft too little, Art disanimates:
Then, in this life, that seeke I, for my part,
That Nature keepes in life, and quickens Art.
94
To bury Liuing thoughts among the dead,(Dead earthly things) is, ere Death comes, to die:
For, dead they are that lie in Gold, or Lead;
As they are buried that in Earth still lie:
The thoughts are most relieu'd when they are fed
With Angells foode, or sweete Philosophie:
But, some seeme on this Manna still to liue,
Whom Quailes and Woodcoks most of al relieue.
95
Well, let these some out-liue as many yeares,As they haue haires, they do but liuing die:
If so; their Soules must needs be full of feares,
Whose Hopes in this dead life alone do lie:
For, they weare euer double as Time weares;
In Soule and Body weare they double- die:
O then, how painefull is that pleasant life,
Wherein all ioy, with such annoy, is rife.
215
96
Beare with me Readers (thats the recompenceI aske for telling you this merry Tale)
For running out of my Circumference,
Ile come in strait, before a merry Gale:
But, yet a word or two, ere I goe hence,
And then haue with you ouer Hill and Dale:
Nothing shall let me to relate the rest,
For, commonly behind remaines the best.
97
This world (me seemes) is like, I wot not what:Thats hard; for, that is no comparison:
Why thats the cause I it compare to that;
For, who's he like to, that is like to none?
Tis not like God; for, tis too full of hate:
Nor like the Diu'l, for he feares God alone:
It is not like to Heau'n, Earth, nor Hell,
Nor aught therein, for, they in compasse dwell!
98
Then what is't like? if like to any thing,Its like itselfe; and so it is indeede:
Or, if you will, like to the oldest Ling,
That limes their fingers that on it doe feede:
So that, all things they touch, to them do cling,
And let them so, from doing purest deede:
If so it be, how mad are men the while
To cleaue to that which do them so defile?
216
99
Now, this most noghtie thing, or thing of noght,I cannot skill of; though but bad I am;
Therefore by me it least of all is sought,
Though oft I seeke for pleasure in the same;
Which yet (I hope) shall not be ouer-bought,
For, I will giue but good-will for my game:
And if good-will will me no pleasure bring
Ile buy therewith (I hope) a better thing.
100
Now from my selfe, I eft to Fortune flie,(And yet I flie from Her, and She from me)
Who came thus followd with this Company,
That Iupiter did enuie it to see:
There did she muster them, in policie,
That Ioue of all might well informed be:
For, when an heape confus'd are call'd by Poll,
The many parts do make the number whole.
101
Mongst whom Philosophers and Poets came,(Last of the Crowde) and could not well appeare;
To whō blind Fortune gaue noght else but fame,
Wherof they fed; but lookt lean with their cheere:
So, they in Heau'n deifi'd this Dame,
Sith they (poore souls) could not come at her here:
And euer since a Goddesse call'd she is,
Poets thanke her for That, Shee you for This.
217
102
Who, though they be (perhaps) but passing poore,Yet can they deifie whom ere they will,
Then Demy-gods should cherish them therefore,
That they may make thē whol gods by their skil:
Twixt whom there shuld be interchange of store,
And make of Wit and Wealth a mixture still,
That may each others woefull wants supply;
For, men by one another liue, or die.
103
Vaine fooles, what do ye meane to giue hir heau'n,That giues you nothing but an earthly hell?
Thats only aire, which she to you hath giu'n,
To make ye pine, whilst ye on earth do dwell:
Ne'r speake of Wit, for ye are Wit-bereau'n
To lie for nought, and make Nought so excell:
For, now, who for him self's not wise alone,
Is vainely wise, though wise as Salomon.
104
By this time Death came with his Emperor,Who followed Death, far off, which Ioue did see;
To whom Death said, Loe, vpright Iupiter,
This Kesar (though a Cæsar) followes mee:
He doth indeed (said Ioue) though somewhat farre
(But kept in off, to shew indiffrencie)
For, though the Iudge do iudge aright (sometime)
Before both Tales be heard) it is a crime.
218
105
How saist (quoth he) Lieutenant, didst thou comeWith Death to vs of thy meere owne accord?
Whereat the Emprour was stroken dumbe,
For, he fear'd death, as slaues do feare their Lord:
Yet, with desire of glorie ouercome,
At last he spake, yet spake he but a word,
Which was, saue I the shortest word of words,
For, No a letter more then I affords.
106
Which he with submisse voice (scarse audible)Vtterd, as one that would not well be heard;
But Iupiter (although most sensible)
Tooke on him not to heare, and prest him hard
To speake (through feare) not so insensible;
For, my vice Ioues (quoth he) are ne'r afeard:
Therefore, on thy allegeance vnto mee,
I charge thee speake, as thou from death wert free.
107
Then, with a princely death-out-daring lookeHe said, Dread Ioue, I had bin worse then mad,
Sith your Lieutenancie to me you tooke,
If I so great a grace neglected had;
Which so I had, if so I had forsooke
Without your notice, that which made me glad:
Nor would I haue with Death come now to you,
But that he threatned me to bring me low.
219
108
Wherewith the Iudge (iust Ioue) did sentence giueOn Fortunes side; which made Death rage so sore,
That at the Emprour he amaine did driue,
Whilst Ioue lookt on, and Fortune fled therefore:
Short tale to make, he did him life depriue,
And euer since Death rageth more and more:
That now all men false Fortune doe preferre,
Before iust Death; nay iuster Iupiter.
109
And, thus with Death (that All in fine doth end)We end our Tale, and, if a lie it be,
Yet naked Truth dares such a lie defend;
Because such lies doe lie in veritie:
But though loude lies do lie, they will not bend
So lowe as most profound Moralitie:
Then, be it lie, or be it what it will,
It lies too high, and lowe for Death to kill.
Bene cogitata, si excidunt, non occidunt. Mimi Publiani.
Finis.
220
The Triumph of Death: OR, The Picture of the Plague:
According to the Life, as it was in Anno Domini. 1603.
So, so, iust Heau'ns, so, and none otherwise,
Deale you with those that your forbearaunce wrōg
Dumb Sin (not to be nam'd) against vs cries
Yea, cries against vs with a tempting tong.
And, it is heard; for, Patience oft prouokt
Conuerts to Furies all-consuming flame;
And, fowlest sinne (thogh ne'r so cleanly cloakt)
Breaks out to publike plagues, and open shame!
Ne'r did the Heau'ns bright Eie such sins behold
As our long Peace and Plenty haue begot;
Nor ere did Earths declining proppes vphold
An heauier plague, then this outragious Rot!
Witnesse our Citties, Townes, and Villages,
Which Desolation, day and night, inuades
With Coffins (Cannon-like) on Carriages,
With trenches ram'd with Carkases, with Spades!
A shiu'ring cold (I sensibly do feele)
Glides through my veines, and shakes my hart and hand,
When they doe proue their vertue, to reueale
This plague of plagues, that ouerlades this Land!
Horror stands gaping to deuoure my Sense
When it but offers but to mention it;
And Will abandon'd by Intelligence
Is drown'd in Doubt, without her Pilot Wit!
But, thou, O thou great giuer of all grace,
Inspire my Wit, so to direct my Will,
That notwithstāding eithers wretched case,
They may paint out thy Plagues with grace, with skil,
That so these Lines may reach to future times,
To strike a terror through the heart of Flesh;
And keep It vnder that by Nature climbes,
For, Plagues do Sin suppresse when they are fresh.
And fresh they be, when they are so exprest,
As though they were in being seene of Sense;
Which diuine Poesie performeth best,
For, all our speaking Pictures come from thence!
The obiect of mine outward Sense affords
But too much Matter for my Muse to forme;
Her want (though she had words at will) is words,
T'expresse this Plagues vnvtterable Storme!
Fancie, thou needst not forge false Images
To furnish Wit t'expresse a truth so true;
Pictures of Death stoppe vp all Passages,
That Sēse must needs those obuious obiects view.
If Wit had powre t'expresse what Sense doth see,
It would astonish Sense that heares the same;
For, neuer came there like Mortalitie,
Since Death from Adam to his Children came!
Scarse three times had the Moone replenished
Her empty Horns with light; but th'empty Graue
(Most rauenous) deuoured so the Dead,
As scarse the dead might Christian buriall haue!
Th'Almighties hand that long had, to his paine,
Offer'd to let his Plagues fall, by degrees,
And with the offer pull'd it backe againe,
Now breakes his Viall, and a Plague out-flees,
That glutts the Aire with Vapors venemous,
That puttrifie, infect, and flesh confound,
And makes the Earthes breath most contagious,
That in the Earth and Aire but Death is found!
A deadlie Murraine, with resistlesse force,
Runnes through the Land and leuells All with it!
The Coast it scoured, in vncleanlie Course,
And thousands fled before it to the Pitte!
For, ere the breath of this Contagion,
Could fully touch the flesh of Man, or Beast,
They on the sodaine sinke, and strait are gone,
So, instantlie, by thousands, are decreast!
No Phisicke could be found, to be a meane,
But to allaie their Paine, delaie their Death;
In this Phisitions Haruest, They could gleane
But corrupt Aire and Danger by that Breath.
All Artes and Sciences were at a stand,
And All that liu'd by them, by them did die;
For death did hold their heads, & staid their hād,
Sith they no where could vse their Facultie.
The nursing Mothers of the Sciences
Withdrew their Foster-milke while witt did fast;
For, both our forlorne Vniuersities
Forsaken were and Colledges made fast!
The Magistrates did flie, or if they staid,
They staid to pray, for if they did command,
Hardly, or neuer should they be obaid;
For, Death dares all Authority withstand.
And, wheres no Magistrate, no Order is;
Where Order wants, by order doth ensue
Confusion strait, and in the necke of this
Must silent Desolation all subdue!
For feare wherof, both king, & kingdome shakes,
Sith Desolation threatens them so sore;
All hope of earthly helpe the Land forsakes,
And Heau'n powres plags vpō it more & more!
Now, Death refreshed with a little rest
(As if inspired with the Spirit of Life)
With furie flies (like Aire) throgh man and beast,
And makes eftsoons the murraine much more rife!
London now smokes with vapors that arise
From his foule Sweat, himselfe he so bestirres;
Cast out your Dead, the Carcasse-carrier cries,
Which he, by heaps, in groūdlesse graues interres!
Now scowres he Streets, on either side, as cleane
As smoking showrs of raine the Streets do scowre;
Now, in his Murdring, he obserues no meane,
But tagge and ragge he strikes, and striketh sure.
He laies it on the skinnes of Yong and Old,
The mortall markes whereof therein appeare:
Here, swells a Botch, as hie as hide can hold,
And, Spots (his surer Signes) do muster there!
The South wind blowing frō his swelling cheeks,
Soultry hot Gales, did make Death rage the more,
That on all Flesh to wreake his Wrath he seekes,
Which flies, like chaffe in wind, his breath before!
He raiseth Mountaines of dead carkases,
As if on them he would to Heau'n ascend,
T'asswage his rage on diuine Essences,
When he of Men, on Earth, had made an end.
Nothing but Death alone, could Death suffize,
Who made each Mouse to carry in her Coate
His heauy vengeance to whole Families,
Whilst with blunt Botches he cuts others throate!
And, if such Vermine were thus all imploide,
He would constraine domestike foules to bring
Destruction to their haunts; So, men destroid
As swiftly as they could bestirre their wing!
So, Death might well be said to flie the field,
And in the House foile with resistlesse force,
When he abroad all kinde of Creatures kill'd
That he found liuing in his lifelesse Course!
Now like to Bees, in Summers heate, from Hiues,
Out flie the Citizens, some here, some there;
Some all alone, and others with their wiues:
With wiues and children some flie, All for feare!
Here stands a Watch with guard of Partezans
To stoppe their Passages, or too, or fro;
As if they were nor Men, nor Christians,
But Fiends, or Monsters, murdring as they go!
Like as an Hart, death-wounded, held at Bay
Doth flie, if so he can, from Hunters chase,
That so he may recouer (if he may)
Or else to die in some more easie place.
So, might ye see (deere Heart) some lustie Lad
Strooke with the Plague, to hie him to the field,
Where in some Brake, or Ditch (of either glad)
With plesure, in great paine, the ghost doth yield!
Each Village, free, now stands vpon her guard;
None must haue harbour in them but their owne:
And as for life and death all watch, and ward,
And flie for life (as Death) the man vnknowne!
For, now men are become so monsterous
And mighty in their powre, that with their breath
They leaue no ils, saue goods, from house to house,
But blow away each other from the Earth!
The sickest Sucklings breath was of that force
That it the strongest Giant ouerthrew;
And made his healthie corpse a carrion Corse,
If it (perhaps) but came within his view!
Alarme, alarme, cries Death, downe, downe with All;
I haue, and giue Commission All to kill:
Let not one stand to pisse against a wall,
Sith they are all so good, in works so ill.
Vnioynt the body of their Common-weale,
Hew it in peeces, bring it all to nought;
With Rigors boistrous hand all Bands canceale,
Wherin the heau'ns stād bound to Earth in aught.
Wound me the scalpe of humane Policie,
Sith it would stand without the help of heau'n
On rotten proppes of all impietie;
Away with it, let it be life-bereau'n.
With plagues, strike through Extortions loathed loines,
And riuet in them glowing pestilence:
Giue, giue Iniustice many mortall foynes,
And with a plague, send, send the same frō hence.
Wind me a Botch (huge Botch) about the Necke
Of damn'd disguis'd, man-pleasing Sanctitie:
And Simony with selfe same Choller decke,
Plague these two Plagues with all extremitie.
For, these are Pearles that quite put out the eies
Of Piety in Christian Common-wealths;
These, these are they, from whō all plagues do rise,
Thē plagues on plagues, by right, must reaue their healths.
Dash Veng'āce viall on the cursed brow
Of Zodomy, that euer-crying sinne;
And that it be no more whole Pelions throw
Of plagues vpon it both without, and in!
Throgh black Auernus (hels mouth) send the same
Into the deepest pit of lowest hell;
Let neuer more the nature, nor the name
Be known within the Zones, where mē may dwel,
Oppresse Oppression, this Lands burning-feauer,
With burning sores of feauers-pestilent;
And now or neuer, quell it now and euer,
For, it doth quell the Poore and Innocent
Bring downe damn'd Pride with a pure pestilēce
Deriued from all plagues that are vnpure,
Extracted to th' extreamest quintessence,
For Pride all Sinnes, & plagues for sin, procures.
In Atheismes breast (instead of her curst hart)
Set an huge Botch, or worse plague, mere cōpact;
That it may neuer conuert, or peruert,
Nor haue powre to perswade, much lesse coact.
Beblaine the bosome of each Misteris,
That bares her Brests (lusts signes) ghests to allure;
With a plague kisse her, (that plagues with a kisse)
And make her (with a murraine) more demure.
Our puling puppets, coy, and hard to please,
My too strait-laced all-begarded Girles
(The skumme of Nicenesse) London Mistresses)
Their skins imbroder with plagues orient Pearls.
For these, for First-fruits, haue Fifteenes to spare
But to a Beggar say, We haue not for yee:
Then do away this too-fine wastefull Ware
To second death; for they do most abhorre mee.
Then scowre the Brothel-houses, make them pure,
That flow with filth that wholsomst flesh infects;
Fire out the Pox from thēce with plages vnpure;
For they do cause but most vnpure effects.
Plague carnall Colleges, wherein are taught
Lusts beastly lessons, which no beast will brooke,
Where Aratine is read, and nearely sought;
And so Lusts Precepts practiz'd by the Booke.
Who knowes not Aratine, let him not aske
What thing it is; let it suffice hee was:
But what? no Mouth can tell without a Maske;
For Shame it selfe, will say, O let that passe!
He was a Monster, Tush, O nothing lesse:
For, Nature monsters makes (how ere vnright)
But Nature ne'r made such a Fiend as this,
Who, like a Fiend, was made in Natures spight!
Therefore, away with all that like his Rules,
Which Nature doth dislike as she doth Hell:
Break vp those free (yet deere & damned) Schools,
That teach but gainst kinde Nature to rebell.
Rogh-cast the skin of smooth-fac'd glozing Guile
With burning blisters to consume the same,
That swears to sell crackt wares, yet lies the while,
And of gaine, by deceiuing, makes her game.
Who, but to vtter, but a thing of nought,
Vtters all othes, more precious then her Soule:
And thinks them well bestowd, so it be bought
So, vtters wares with othes, by falshood foule.
This foule offence to Church & Commonwealth,
Sweep cleane away with Wormewood of annoy:
For, it consisteth but by lawfull stealth;
Then, let the truest Plagues it quite destroy.
Of Tauerns, reaking still with vomitings,
Draw, with the Owners, all the Drawers out;
Let none draw Aire, that draw on Surffettings,
But Excesse, and her Slaues, botch all about.
Sith such by drawing out, and drawing on
Do liue; let such be drawne out on a Beare:
For, they with wine haue many men vndone,
And famisht them, in fine, through belly-cheare.
Browne-paper Merchants (that do vent such trash
To heedlesse heirs, to more wealth borne then wit,
That gainst such Paper-rocks their houses dash,
While such slie Merchants make much vse of it)
Vse them as they do vse such heires to vse,
That is, to plague them without all remorce:
These with their Brokers, plague; for they abuse
God, King, and Law, by Lawes abused force.
Then, petti-botching-Brokers, all bebotch
That in a month catch eighteene pence in pound;
Six with a Bill, and twelue for vse they catch,
So, vse they all they catch, to make vnfound.
That they may catch them, and still patches make,
Which in the pound do yeeld thē eighteen pence;
Forc'd, like sheep trespassing, the Pownd to take,
Leauing their Fleece, at last, for recompence.
Hang in their hang-mans wardrop plagues to aire
That all may flie, or die that with it mell;
And so, when none will to their ragges repaire,
They must forsake their liues, or labour well.
Briefly, kill cursed Sinne in generall,
And let Flesh Bee no more to harbour it;
Away with filthie Flesh, away with all
Wherein still-breeding Sinne on broode doth sit.
This was Deaths charge, & this charge did he giue,
Which was perform'd (forthwith) accordingly;
For now the dead had wasted so the liue,
(Or wearied so) that some vnburied lie:
For, All obseru'd the Pestilence was such
As laught to scorne the help of Phisickes art;
So that to death All yeelded with a touch,
And sought no help, but help with ease to part.
An hell of heate doth scorch their seething vaines,
The blood doth boile, and all the Body burnes,
Which raging Heate ascending to the Braines
The powres of Reason there quite ouerturnes!
Then, tis no sinne to say a Plague it is
From whence immortall miseries do flow;
That makes men reason with their rest to misse,
And Soules and Bodies do endanger so.
Here crie the parents fot their Childrens death;
There howle the children for their parents losse;
And often die as they are drawing breath
To crie for their but now inflicted crosse.
Here goes an husband heauily to seeke
A Graue for his dead wife (now hard to haue)
A wife there meets him that had done the like,
All which (perhaps) are buried in one Graue.
The last suruiuor of a Familie,
Which yesterday (perhaps) were all in health,
Now dies to beare his fellowes company,
And for a Graue for all, giues all their wealth.
There wends the fainting Son with his dead Sire
On his sole shoulders borne, him to interre;
Here goes a father with the like desire,
And to the Graue alone, his Sonne doth beare.
The needie, greedie of a wealthie Pray,
Runne into houses cleans'd of Families,
From whence they bring, with goodes, their bane away,
So end in wealth their liues and miseries.
No Cat, Dog, Rat, Hog, Mouse, or Vermine vile,
But vsher'd Death, where ere themselues did go;
For, they the purest Aire did so defile,
That whoso breath'd it, did his breath forgo.
At London (sincke of Sinne) as at the Fount,
This all-confounding Pestilence began.
According to that Plagues most wofull wont,
From whence it (flowing) all the realme o'reranne.
Which to preuent, at first, they pestered
Pest-houses with their murraine-tainted Sicke:
But, though from them, & thence the healthie fled,
They, ere suspected, mortified the Quicke.
Those so infected, being ignorant
That so they are, conuerse with whom soere,
Whose open Shops and Houses all doe haunt,
And finde most danger, where they least do feare.
And so not knowing sicke-folke from the sound
(For, such ill Aire's not subiect to the sense)
They One with Other do themselues confound;
And so confound all with a pestilence.
Out flies one from the Plague, and beares with him
An heauy Purse, and Plague more ponderous;
Which in the hie-way parteth life from limbe,
So plagues the next of his coine couetous.
In this ditch lies one breathing out his last,
Making the same his Graue before his death!
On that Bancke lies another, breathing fast,
And passers by he baneth with his breath.
Now runnes the Rot along each bancke & ditch,
And, with a murraine strikes Swine, Sheep, and all
(Or man, or beast) that chance the same to touch,
So, all in fields, as in the Cities fall.
The London Lanes (themseluet thereby to saue)
Did vomit out their vndigested dead,
Who by cart loads, are carried to the Graue,
For, all those Lanes with folke were ouerfed.
There might ye see Death (as with toile opprest
Panting for breath, all in a mortall sweat)
Vpon each bulke or bench, himselfe to rest,
(At point to faint) his Haruest was so great!
The Bells had talkt so much, as now they had
Tir'd all their tongs, and could not speake a word;
And Griefe so toild herselfe with being sad,
That now at Deaths faint threats, shee would but bourd.
Yea, Death was so familiar (ah) become
With now resolued London Families,
That wheresoere he came, he was welcome,
And entertain'd with ioyes and iolities.
Goods were neglected, as things good for nought;
If good for aught, good but to breed more ill:
The Sicke despis'd them: if the Sound thē sought,
They sought their death which cleaued to thē stil!
So Sicke, and Sound, at last neglected them,
As if the Sound and Sicke were neere their last;
And all, almost, so fared through the Realme
As if their Soules the Iudgement day were past.
This World was quite forgot; the World to come
Was still in minde; which for it was forgot,
Brought on our World this little day of Dome,
That choakt the Graue with this contageous Rot!
No place was free for Free-men; ne for those
That were in Prisons, wanting Libertie;
Yet Prisoners frëest were from Plagues and Woes
That visite Free-men, but too lib'rally.
For, al their food came frō the helthy house,
Which then wold giue Gods plags from thence to keep;
The rest, shut vp, could not like bountie vse,
So, woefull Pris'ners had least cause to weepe.
The king himselfe (O wretched Times the while!)
From place to place, to saue himselfe did flie,
Which from himselfe himselfe did seekes' exile,
Who (as amaz'd) not safe, knew where to lie.
Its hard with Subiects when the Soueraigne
Hath no place free from plagues his head to hide;
And hardly can we say the King doth raigne,
That no where, for iust feare, can well abide.
For, no where comes He but Death follows him
Hard at the Heeles, and reacheth at his head;
So sincks al Sports that wold like triumphs swim,
For, what life haue we, when we all are dead;
Dead in our Spirits, to see our Neighbours die;
To see our King so shift his life to saue;
And with his Councell all Conclusions trie
To keepe themselues from th'insatiate Graue.
For, hardly could one man another meete,
That in his bosome brought not odious Death;
It was confusion but a friend to greet,
For, like a Fiend, he baned with his breath.
The wildest wastes, and places most remote
From Mans repaire, are now the most secure;
Happy is he that there doth finde a Cote
To shrowd his Head from this Plagues smoaking showre
A Beggars home (though dwelling in a Ditch
If farre from London it were scituate)
He might rent out, if pleas'd him, to the Rich,
That now as Hell their London homes doe hate.
Now, had the Sunne the Ballance entered,
To giue his heate by weight, or in a meane,
When yet this Plague more heate recouered,
And scowr'd the towns, that erst were clēsed clean.
Now, sad Dispaire (clad in a sable weede)
Did All attend, and All resolu'd to die;
For, Heat & cold, they thought, the Plague would feede
Which, like a Ierffe, still sinn;d in gluttony.
The heau'nly Coape was now ore-canopide,
(Neere each ones Zenith (as his sense suppos'd)
With ominous impressions, strangely died,
And like a Canopie at toppe it clos'd.
As if it had presag'd the Iudge was nie,
To sit in Iudgement his last doome to giue,
And caus'd his cloth of State t'adorne the Skie
That All his neare approach might so perceiue
Now fall the people vnto publike Fast,
And all assemble in the Church to pray;
Earely, and late, their soules, there take repast,
As if preparing for the later day!
Where (fasting) meeting with the sound and sicke,
The sicke the sound do plage, while they do pray;
To haste before the Iudge the dead and quicke,
And pull each other so, in post, away.
Now Angells laugh to see how contrite hearts
Incounter Death, and scorne his Tiranny;
Their Iudge doth ioy to see them play their parts,
That erst so liu'd as if they ne'r should die.
Vp go their harts & hands, and downe their knees,
While Death wēt vp & down, to bring thē down;
That vp they might at once (not by degrees)
Vnto the High'st, that doth the humble crowne!
O how the thresholds of each double dore
Of Heau'n, and Hell, were worne with throngs of ghosts
Ne'r since the Deluge, did they so before,
Nor euer since so pollisht the side-posts.
The Angells, good and bad, are now all toil'd
With intertaining of these ceaselesse throngs;
With howling some (in heat and horror broild)
And othersome in blisse, with ioyfull Songs.
Th'infernall Legions, in Battallions,
Seeke to inlarge their kingdome, lest it should
Be cloid with Collonies of wicked ones;
For now it held, more then it well could hold!
The Angells, on the Cristall walls of Heau'n,
Holpe thousands ore the Gates so glutted were;
To whom authoritie by Grace was giu'n
(The prease was such) to helpe them ouer there.
The Cherubin eie-blinding Maiestie
Vpon his Throne (that euer blest hath bin)
Is compast with vnwonted Company,
And smiles to see how Angells helpe them in.
The heau'nly streets do glitter (like the Sunne)
With throngs of Sonnes but newly glorifide;
Who still to praise their Glorifier runne
Along those streets, full fraught on either side.
Now was the earthly Mammon, which had held
Their Harts to Earth, held most contagious;
A Beggar scornd to touch it (so defilde)
So, none but castawaies were covetous.
Now Auarice was turned Cherubin,
Who nought desir'd but the extreamest Good;
For, now she saw she could no longer sinne,
So, to the Time she sought to suite her moode,
The loathsome Leacher loath'd his wonted sport;
For, now he thought all flesh was most corrupt:
The brainsicke brawler waxed all-amort;
For, such blood-suckers Bane did interrupt.
The Pastors now, steep all their words in Brine,
With woe, woe, woe, and nought is heard but woe;
Woe and alas, they say, the powres diuine
Are bent Mankind, for sinne to ouerthrow.
Repent, repent, (like Ionas) now they crie,
Ye men of England, O repent, repent;
To see if so yee maie moue Pitties Eye,
To looke vpon you, ere you quite be spent.
And oft whilst he breathes out thess bitter Words,
He, drawing breath, drawes in more bitter Bane:
For, now the Aire, no Aire but death affords;
And lights of Art (for helpe) were in the wane.
Nor people praying, nor the Pastor preaching,
Death spared ought; but murd'red one and other;
He was a walme, he could not stay impeaching,
Who smoakt with heat, & chokt, all with the smother.
The babe new born he nipt strait in the head
With aire that through his yet vnclosed Mould
Did pierce his brains, & throgh thē poison spread,
So left his life, that scarse had life in hold.
The Mother after hies, the Father posts
After the Mother; Thus, at Base they runne
Vnto the Gole of that great Lord of Hoasts
That for those keepes it that runnes for his Sonne.
The rest Death trippes, and takes them prisoners;
Such lose the Gole without gainesaying-strife;
But, all, and some, are as Deaths Messengers
To fetch both one and other out of life.
The Sire doth fetch the Sonne, the Sonne the Sire,
Death, being impartiall, makes his Subiects so:
The Priuate's not respected, but intire
(Death pointing out the way) away they go.
The ceremonie at their Burialls
Is Ashes but to Ashes, Dust, to Dust;
Nay not so much; for, strait the Pit-man falles
(If he can stand) to hide them as he must.
A Mount thus made, vpon his Spade he leanes
(Tired with toile) yet (tired) prest to toile)
Till Death an heape, in his inn'd Haruest, gleanes,
That so he may, by heapes, eft seed the Soile.
Not long he staies, but (ah) a mightier heape
Then erst he hid, is made strait to be hild;
The Land is scarse, but yet the Seed is cheape,
For, all is full, or rather ouerfill'd.
The Beere is laid away, and Cribbes they get
To fetch more dung for Fields and Garden-plots;
Worke-men are scarse, the labour is so great,
That (ah) the Seede, vnburied, often rottes.
It rottes, and makes the Land thereby the worse,
For, being rotten, it ill vapors breedes,
Which many mortall miseries doe nurse,
And the Plague (ouerfed) so, ouerfeedes.
Here lies an humane Carcasse halfe consum'd;
And there some fow or beast, in selfe same plight;
Dead with the Pestilence, for so it fum'd,
That all it touched, it consumed quite.
Quite through the hoast of Natures Animalls
Death like a Conquerer in Triumph rides;
And ere he came too neare, each Creature falls,
His dreadfull presence then no flesh abides.
Now man to man (if euer) fiends became,
Feare of infection choakt Humanitie;
The emptie Maw (abandon'd) got but blame
If it had once but sought for Charitie.
The Poore must not about, to seeke for foode,
And no man sought them, that they might be fed;
Two Plagues, in one, inuaded so their blood,
Both Famine, and Infection strikes them dead.
Some staid, in hope that Death would be appeas'd,
And kept the towns, which thē & theirs had kept;
Till their next neighbors were (perhaps) diseas'd;
Or with Deaths fatall Fanne away were swept.
Thē, fain wold fly but could not (thogh thei wold)
For, wil they, nill they, they must keep their house,
Till throgh some chink, on thē Death taketh hold,
And vs'd them, as he did their neighbours vse.
If any at some Posterne could get out,
As good they staid, sith sure they staid should be;
For, all the Countries watcht were round about,
That from the towne, none might a furlong flee.
Then, who from Death did flie, the feare of Death
Made Free-men keep the fliers in his Iawes;
Where (poison'd with his fowle infectious breath)
Their flesh and bones he (ne'r suffized) gnawes.
Now might ye see the Plague deuoure with speed
As it neare famisht were, lest in a while
It might be so, and want whereon to feede;
So fed, the future hunger to beguile.
Now doth it swell (hold hide) nay, breake, or die)
Till skin doth crack, to make more room for meat
Yet meat, more meate it (neuer cloid) doth crie,
And all about doth runne the same to get.
The Graues do often vomit out their dead,
They are so ouer-gorg'd, with great, and small;
Who hardly, with the earth are couered;
So, oft discouer'd when the Earth did fall.
Those which in hie- waies died (as many did)
Some worthlesse wretch, hir'd for no worthles fee,
Makes a rude hole, some distance him beside,
And rakes him in farre off; so, there lies hee.
But, if the Pit-man haue not so much sense
To see, nor feele which way the winde doth sit
To take the same, he hardly comes from thence,
But, for himselfe (perhaps) he makes the pit:
For, the contagion was so violent,
(The wil of Heau'n ordaining so the same)
As often strooke stone-dead incontinent,
And Natures strongest forces strait orecame.
Here lieth one vpon his burning brest,
Vpon the Earths cold breast, and dies outright;
Who wanting buriall, doth the Aire infest,
That like a Basaliske he banes with sight!
There reeles another like one deadly druncke,
But newly strooke (perhaps) then downe he falls,
Who, in the
Streets, or waies, no sooner suncke,
But forthwith dies, and so lies by the walles,
The Hay-cockes in the Meades were oft opprest
With plaguy Bodies, both aliue, and dead;
Which being vs'd, confounded Man and Beast,
And vs'd they might be ere discouered.
For, some (like Ghosts) wold walk out in the night,
The Citie glowing (furnace-like) with heate
Of this contagion, to seeke if they might,
Fresh aire, where oft they died for want of meate.
The Traueler that spied (perhaps his Sire)
Another farre off, comming towards him
Would flie, as from a flying flame of fire
That would, if it he met, waste life and limbe.
So, towns fear'd townes, and men ech other fear'd;
All were (at least) attainted with suspect,
And, sooth to say, so was their enuy stirr'd,
That one would seeke another to infect:
For, whether the disease to enuy mou'd,
Or humane natures malice was the cause,
Th'infected often all Conclusions prou'd
To plague him that frō thē himselfe withdrawes!
Here do they Gloues, and there they Garters fall;
Ruffs, Cuffs, & handkerchers, and such like things
They strow about, so to endanger all:
For, Enuy now, most pestilently stings!
So, heau'n and earth, against Man did conspire,
And Man against Man, to exrirpe his Race;
Who Bellowes were t'augment Infections fire,
And blow abroad the same from place to place.
Sedition thus marcht (with a pestilence)
From towne to towne, to make them desolate;
The Browne-Bill was too short to keep it thence,
For, further off it raught the Bill-mans pate.
Nor walls could keepe it out; for, it is said
(And truely too) that Hunger breakes stone-walls:
The plague of Hunger with the Plagne arrai'd
It selfe, to make way, where ere Succour calls.
For, hungrie Armies fight as Fiends they were:
No humane powre can well their force withstand:
They laugh to scorne the shaking of the Speare:
And gainst the gods thēselues, thēselues dare band
Some ranne as mad (or with wine ouer-shot)
From house to house, when botches on them ranne;
Who, though they menac'd were with Sword, and Shot,
Yet forward ran, & feare nor God nor man!
As when a Ship, at Sea, is set on fire,
And (all on flame's) winde-driuen on a Fleete,
The Fleete doth flie, sith that Ship doth desire
(Maugre all force oppos'd) with it to meete:
So flies the Bill-man, and the Muskettire
From the approaching desperate plaguy wight,
As from a flying flame of quenchlesse fire;
For, who hath any life, with Death to fight?
At all, cries Death, then downe by heaps they fall:
He drawes in By, and Maine, amaine he drawes
Huge heapes together, and still cries, At all:
His hand is in, and none his hand withdrawes.
For, looke how Leaues in Autumne from the tree
With wind do fall, whose heaps fil holes in groūd;
So might ye (with the Plagues breath) people see,
Fall by great heapes, and fill vp holes profound.
No holy Turffe was left to hide the head
Of holiest men; but, most vnhall'wed grounds
(Ditches and Hie-waies) must receiue the dead,
The dead (ah woe the while) so oreabounds!
Here might ye see as t'were a Mountainet
Founded on Bodies, grounded very deepe,
Which like a Trophee of Deaths Triumphs set
The world on wonder, that did wondring weepe:
For, to the middle Region of the Aire,
Our earthly Region was infected so,
That Foules therein had cause of iust dispaire,
As those which ouer Zodome dying go!
Some common Carriers, (for their owne behoofe,
And for their good, whose Soules for gaines doe
Fetching frō Lōdō packs of Plags, & stuffe (grone)
Are forc'd to inne it, in some Barne alone.
Where, lest it should the Country sacrifise,
Barne, Corne, and Stuffe a Sacrifice is sent
(In Aire-refining Flames) to th'angrie Skies,
While th'owners do their Faults & Losse lament.
The Carriers, to some Pest-house, or their owne,
Carried, clapt vp, and watcht for comming out,
Must there with Time or Death conuerse alone,
Till Time or Death doth free the world of doubt:
Who thogh they Cariers were, yet being too weak
Such heauy double Plagues as these to beare,
Out of their houses som by force do break,
And
drowne themselues, themselues from plags to cleare.
These are reuenges fit for such a God,
Fit for his Iustice, Powre, and Maiestie;
These are right ierkes of diuine Furies Rod,
That draw from Flesh the life-blood mortally.
If these are but his temp'rall Punishments,
Then what are they surmounting Time and Fate?
Melt Flesh to thinke but on such Languishments,
That Soule and Bodie burne in endlesse date.
His vtmost Plagues extend beyond the reach
Of comprehension of the deepest Thought;
For, he his wisedome infinite doth stretch
To make them absolutely good for nought.
Then, O what heart of sensible Discourse,
Quakes not, as if it would in sunder fall,
But once to thinke vpon such Furies force,
As doth so farre surmount the thoughts of all?
If humane Wisedome in the highest straine,
Should yet stretch further Torments to deuise,
They would be such that none could them sustain,
Through weight of woes, and raging agonies:
Then (O) what be they that deuised are
By Wisedome that of Nought made all this All,
That stretch as farre past speach, as past compare,
Surmounting Wonder; supernaturall!
They be the Iudgements of that Trinitie,
Which (like themselues) are most inscrutable;
Then can mans heart, but either swoone or die,
To thinke on anguish, so vnthinkeable.
And can our Sense, our Sense so much besot,
To thinke such worlds of woe no where exist,
Sith in this sensuall World it feeles them not,
And so in sinne (till they be felt) insist?
Then happy That, that is insensible,
Since wee imploy our happinesse of Sense
To feele and taste but pleasures sensible;
And see no Paine that at their end commence.
To breake the Belly of our damn'd Desires
With honied Sweets that soone to poison turne;
And in our Soules enkindle quenchlesse fires,
Which all the frame thereof quite ouerturne.
To please it selfe a Moment, and displease
It selfe for euer, with ne'r-ending paines;
To ease the Bodie with the Soules disease,
To glad the Guttes, to grieue the Heart & Braines.
To make the Throat a Through-fare for Excesse,
The Belly a Charibdis for the same;
To vse Wit still but onely to transgresse,
And make our Sense the Spunge of Sin & Shame:
Then happy are sweet Floures that liue and die
(Without offence) most pleasing vnto all:
And haplesse Man that liues vnpleasingly
To Heau'n and Earth; so, liues and dies to fall.
The Rose doth liue a sweete life, but to please,
And when it dies, it leaues sweet fruit behinde;
But Man in Life and Death doth none of these,
If Grace by Miracle ne'r mend his mind.
Blush Man, that Floures should so thy selfe excell
That wast created to excell what not?
That on the Earth created was to dwell;
Then blush for shame to grace thy Beauties blot.
Art thou Horizon made (vnholy one)
Betwixt immortall Angells, and bruit beasts?
Yet wilt twixt beasts and fiends be Horizon
By that which Angells grieues, and God detests?
Then Plagues must follow thy misguided Will,
So to correct thine ill-directing Wit;
Such as these are, or others much more ill,
The worst of which Sinne (ill of Ills) befit.
And loe, for Sinne; how yet the Plague doth rage
(With vnappeased furie) more and more,
Making our Troy-nouant a tragicke Stage
Whereon to shew Deaths powre, with slaughters sore.
Great Monarch of Earths ample world he is;
And of our little Worlds (that worlds content)
He giues ill Subiects Bale, good Subiects Blisse;
So, though he raignes, iust is his Regiment.
Our sins (foule blots) corrupt the Earth and Aire;
Our sins (soules botches) all this All defile;
And make our Soules most foule, that were most faire;
For, nought but sin we all, all nought the while!
When sharpest wits are whetted to the point,
To pierce into all secrets, but to sinne!
And all the corps of Luxury vnioint,
To see what sensuall ioy might be therein:
When as such trickes as no Sunne euer saw
Deuis'd are daily by the Serpent-wise,
To cramme all Flesh into the Deuills maw
By drifts, as scarse the Deuill can deuise!
Can God (most iust) be good to men so ill?
And can the Earth, and Aire, wherein such liue,
Keepe such aliue? O no, all Plagues must fill
That Aire, and Earth, that do such plagues reliue.
What are those men but plagues, that plague but men?
All men are such, that teach sin in effect;
And all do so, that sinne but now and then,
If now and then they sinne, in ouertact.
What can containe vs, if these plagues cannot?
If neither these we feele, nor those we shall,
Be not of force to keepe our liues from blot,
What then remaines but plagues to scowre vs all?
Till we wax lesse, and they so multiplide,
That we be nothing lesse, than what we are;
Conuerted, or confounded we abide
In, or without God, with, or without care!
If when his yron Rod drawes blood from vs,
And is vpon our backes, yea breakes our bones,
We cease not yet to be rebellious,
What can conuert vs but plagues for the nones!
For Natures heart doth yrne with extreame griefe,
When wel she weighs her childrens strange estate,
Subiect to sinne, and so to sorrowes chiefe,
For both in counterchange renew their date:
For now we sinne (yea with a witnesse sinne,
Witnesse our conscience) then we plagued are,
Plagu'd with a witnes, (witnesse plagues that
With fury on vs) then, when so we fare
Fall we to pray and creepe to Grace for grace,
Which being got, and ease, and weale at will,
We fall to sinne, and so our soules disgrace:
Thus sinne and plagues runne round about vs still
This euer-circling Plague of plagues and sinne,
Surroundeth Mankinde in an hell of woe,
Man is the Axis standing still therein,
And goes with it where euer it doth goe;
For since he fell, who at this Center staies
By Nature (most vnnaturall the while)
Here moues man mouelesse as the Axis plaies,
And Times turns (turning with him) doth beguile.
And yet this Plague (if Griefs tears quench it not)
Is like a sparke of fire in flax too drie,
And may, if our Lusts coole not, burne more hot
Than erst it did; so waste vs vtterly.
We see it will not out, but still it lies
In our best Cities Bowells like a Cole
That threats to flame, and stil doth fall and rise,
Wasting a part, thereby to warne the whole.
None otherwise than when (with griefe) we see
Some house on fire, we strait, to saue the towne,
Watch, fast, and pray, and most industrious bee,
With hooke and line to pull the Building downe:
So doth this fire of heau'ns still kindling ire
Blister our Cities publike Body so,
As we are blister'd, but with so much fire,
As we may quench with teares if they do flo.
But if it should breake forth in flames afresh,
(As (ah) what staies it but vnstinted Grace?)
What thing shuld quench it but a world of Flesh?
Or desolation it away to chace?
Time neuer knew since he beganne his houres,
(For aught we reade) a Plague so long remaine
In any Citie, as this Plague of ours:
For now six yeares in London it hath laine.
Where none goes out, but at his comming in,
If he but feeles the tendrest touch of smart,
He feares he is Plague-smitten for his sinne;
So, ere hee's plagu'd, he takes It to the heart:
For, Feare doth (Loadstone-like) it oft attract,
That else would not come neere; or steale away;
And yet this plaguy-feare will scarse coact
Our Soules to sinne no more, this Plague to slay.
But thou, in whose high hand all hearts are held,
Conuert vs, and from vs this Plague auert:
So sin shall yeeld to Grace, and Grace shall yeeld
The Giuer glory for so deere desert.
Too deere for such too worthles wicked Things,
At best but clods of base Infirmitie;
Too deere for sinne that all this murraine brings;
Too deere for those that liue but twice to die.
In few, what should I say? the best are nought
That breathe, since man first breathing did rebell:
The best that breath are worse thā may be thoght,
If Thought can thinke the best can do but well:
For, none doth well on Earth, but such as will
Confesse (with griefe) they do exceeding ill!
Deale you with those that your forbearaunce wrōg
Dumb Sin (not to be nam'd) against vs cries
Yea, cries against vs with a tempting tong.
And, it is heard; for, Patience oft prouokt
Conuerts to Furies all-consuming flame;
And, fowlest sinne (thogh ne'r so cleanly cloakt)
Breaks out to publike plagues, and open shame!
Ne'r did the Heau'ns bright Eie such sins behold
As our long Peace and Plenty haue begot;
Nor ere did Earths declining proppes vphold
An heauier plague, then this outragious Rot!
Witnesse our Citties, Townes, and Villages,
Which Desolation, day and night, inuades
With Coffins (Cannon-like) on Carriages,
With trenches ram'd with Carkases, with Spades!
A shiu'ring cold (I sensibly do feele)
Glides through my veines, and shakes my hart and hand,
When they doe proue their vertue, to reueale
This plague of plagues, that ouerlades this Land!
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When it but offers but to mention it;
And Will abandon'd by Intelligence
Is drown'd in Doubt, without her Pilot Wit!
But, thou, O thou great giuer of all grace,
Inspire my Wit, so to direct my Will,
That notwithstāding eithers wretched case,
They may paint out thy Plagues with grace, with skil,
That so these Lines may reach to future times,
To strike a terror through the heart of Flesh;
And keep It vnder that by Nature climbes,
For, Plagues do Sin suppresse when they are fresh.
And fresh they be, when they are so exprest,
As though they were in being seene of Sense;
Which diuine Poesie performeth best,
For, all our speaking Pictures come from thence!
The obiect of mine outward Sense affords
But too much Matter for my Muse to forme;
Her want (though she had words at will) is words,
T'expresse this Plagues vnvtterable Storme!
Fancie, thou needst not forge false Images
To furnish Wit t'expresse a truth so true;
Pictures of Death stoppe vp all Passages,
That Sēse must needs those obuious obiects view.
If Wit had powre t'expresse what Sense doth see,
It would astonish Sense that heares the same;
For, neuer came there like Mortalitie,
Since Death from Adam to his Children came!
Scarse three times had the Moone replenished
Her empty Horns with light; but th'empty Graue
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As scarse the dead might Christian buriall haue!
Th'Almighties hand that long had, to his paine,
Offer'd to let his Plagues fall, by degrees,
And with the offer pull'd it backe againe,
Now breakes his Viall, and a Plague out-flees,
That glutts the Aire with Vapors venemous,
That puttrifie, infect, and flesh confound,
And makes the Earthes breath most contagious,
That in the Earth and Aire but Death is found!
A deadlie Murraine, with resistlesse force,
Runnes through the Land and leuells All with it!
The Coast it scoured, in vncleanlie Course,
And thousands fled before it to the Pitte!
For, ere the breath of this Contagion,
Could fully touch the flesh of Man, or Beast,
They on the sodaine sinke, and strait are gone,
So, instantlie, by thousands, are decreast!
No Phisicke could be found, to be a meane,
But to allaie their Paine, delaie their Death;
In this Phisitions Haruest, They could gleane
But corrupt Aire and Danger by that Breath.
All Artes and Sciences were at a stand,
And All that liu'd by them, by them did die;
For death did hold their heads, & staid their hād,
Sith they no where could vse their Facultie.
The nursing Mothers of the Sciences
Withdrew their Foster-milke while witt did fast;
For, both our forlorne Vniuersities
Forsaken were and Colledges made fast!
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They staid to pray, for if they did command,
Hardly, or neuer should they be obaid;
For, Death dares all Authority withstand.
And, wheres no Magistrate, no Order is;
Where Order wants, by order doth ensue
Confusion strait, and in the necke of this
Must silent Desolation all subdue!
For feare wherof, both king, & kingdome shakes,
Sith Desolation threatens them so sore;
All hope of earthly helpe the Land forsakes,
And Heau'n powres plags vpō it more & more!
Now, Death refreshed with a little rest
(As if inspired with the Spirit of Life)
With furie flies (like Aire) throgh man and beast,
And makes eftsoons the murraine much more rife!
London now smokes with vapors that arise
From his foule Sweat, himselfe he so bestirres;
Cast out your Dead, the Carcasse-carrier cries,
Which he, by heaps, in groūdlesse graues interres!
Now scowres he Streets, on either side, as cleane
As smoking showrs of raine the Streets do scowre;
Now, in his Murdring, he obserues no meane,
But tagge and ragge he strikes, and striketh sure.
He laies it on the skinnes of Yong and Old,
The mortall markes whereof therein appeare:
Here, swells a Botch, as hie as hide can hold,
And, Spots (his surer Signes) do muster there!
The South wind blowing frō his swelling cheeks,
Soultry hot Gales, did make Death rage the more,
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Which flies, like chaffe in wind, his breath before!
He raiseth Mountaines of dead carkases,
As if on them he would to Heau'n ascend,
T'asswage his rage on diuine Essences,
When he of Men, on Earth, had made an end.
Nothing but Death alone, could Death suffize,
Who made each Mouse to carry in her Coate
His heauy vengeance to whole Families,
Whilst with blunt Botches he cuts others throate!
And, if such Vermine were thus all imploide,
He would constraine domestike foules to bring
Destruction to their haunts; So, men destroid
As swiftly as they could bestirre their wing!
So, Death might well be said to flie the field,
And in the House foile with resistlesse force,
When he abroad all kinde of Creatures kill'd
That he found liuing in his lifelesse Course!
Now like to Bees, in Summers heate, from Hiues,
Out flie the Citizens, some here, some there;
Some all alone, and others with their wiues:
With wiues and children some flie, All for feare!
Here stands a Watch with guard of Partezans
To stoppe their Passages, or too, or fro;
As if they were nor Men, nor Christians,
But Fiends, or Monsters, murdring as they go!
Like as an Hart, death-wounded, held at Bay
Doth flie, if so he can, from Hunters chase,
That so he may recouer (if he may)
Or else to die in some more easie place.
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Strooke with the Plague, to hie him to the field,
Where in some Brake, or Ditch (of either glad)
With plesure, in great paine, the ghost doth yield!
Each Village, free, now stands vpon her guard;
None must haue harbour in them but their owne:
And as for life and death all watch, and ward,
And flie for life (as Death) the man vnknowne!
For, now men are become so monsterous
And mighty in their powre, that with their breath
They leaue no ils, saue goods, from house to house,
But blow away each other from the Earth!
The sickest Sucklings breath was of that force
That it the strongest Giant ouerthrew;
And made his healthie corpse a carrion Corse,
If it (perhaps) but came within his view!
Alarme, alarme, cries Death, downe, downe with All;
I haue, and giue Commission All to kill:
Let not one stand to pisse against a wall,
Sith they are all so good, in works so ill.
Vnioynt the body of their Common-weale,
Hew it in peeces, bring it all to nought;
With Rigors boistrous hand all Bands canceale,
Wherin the heau'ns stād bound to Earth in aught.
Wound me the scalpe of humane Policie,
Sith it would stand without the help of heau'n
On rotten proppes of all impietie;
Away with it, let it be life-bereau'n.
With plagues, strike through Extortions loathed loines,
And riuet in them glowing pestilence:
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And with a plague, send, send the same frō hence.
Wind me a Botch (huge Botch) about the Necke
Of damn'd disguis'd, man-pleasing Sanctitie:
And Simony with selfe same Choller decke,
Plague these two Plagues with all extremitie.
For, these are Pearles that quite put out the eies
Of Piety in Christian Common-wealths;
These, these are they, from whō all plagues do rise,
Thē plagues on plagues, by right, must reaue their healths.
Dash Veng'āce viall on the cursed brow
Of Zodomy, that euer-crying sinne;
And that it be no more whole Pelions throw
Of plagues vpon it both without, and in!
Throgh black Auernus (hels mouth) send the same
Into the deepest pit of lowest hell;
Let neuer more the nature, nor the name
Be known within the Zones, where mē may dwel,
Oppresse Oppression, this Lands burning-feauer,
With burning sores of feauers-pestilent;
And now or neuer, quell it now and euer,
For, it doth quell the Poore and Innocent
Bring downe damn'd Pride with a pure pestilēce
Deriued from all plagues that are vnpure,
Extracted to th' extreamest quintessence,
For Pride all Sinnes, & plagues for sin, procures.
In Atheismes breast (instead of her curst hart)
Set an huge Botch, or worse plague, mere cōpact;
That it may neuer conuert, or peruert,
Nor haue powre to perswade, much lesse coact.
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That bares her Brests (lusts signes) ghests to allure;
With a plague kisse her, (that plagues with a kisse)
And make her (with a murraine) more demure.
Our puling puppets, coy, and hard to please,
My too strait-laced all-begarded Girles
(The skumme of Nicenesse) London Mistresses)
Their skins imbroder with plagues orient Pearls.
For these, for First-fruits, haue Fifteenes to spare
But to a Beggar say, We haue not for yee:
Then do away this too-fine wastefull Ware
To second death; for they do most abhorre mee.
Then scowre the Brothel-houses, make them pure,
That flow with filth that wholsomst flesh infects;
Fire out the Pox from thēce with plages vnpure;
For they do cause but most vnpure effects.
Plague carnall Colleges, wherein are taught
Lusts beastly lessons, which no beast will brooke,
Where Aratine is read, and nearely sought;
And so Lusts Precepts practiz'd by the Booke.
Who knowes not Aratine, let him not aske
What thing it is; let it suffice hee was:
But what? no Mouth can tell without a Maske;
For Shame it selfe, will say, O let that passe!
He was a Monster, Tush, O nothing lesse:
For, Nature monsters makes (how ere vnright)
But Nature ne'r made such a Fiend as this,
Who, like a Fiend, was made in Natures spight!
Therefore, away with all that like his Rules,
Which Nature doth dislike as she doth Hell:
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That teach but gainst kinde Nature to rebell.
Rogh-cast the skin of smooth-fac'd glozing Guile
With burning blisters to consume the same,
That swears to sell crackt wares, yet lies the while,
And of gaine, by deceiuing, makes her game.
Who, but to vtter, but a thing of nought,
Vtters all othes, more precious then her Soule:
And thinks them well bestowd, so it be bought
So, vtters wares with othes, by falshood foule.
This foule offence to Church & Commonwealth,
Sweep cleane away with Wormewood of annoy:
For, it consisteth but by lawfull stealth;
Then, let the truest Plagues it quite destroy.
Of Tauerns, reaking still with vomitings,
Draw, with the Owners, all the Drawers out;
Let none draw Aire, that draw on Surffettings,
But Excesse, and her Slaues, botch all about.
Sith such by drawing out, and drawing on
Do liue; let such be drawne out on a Beare:
For, they with wine haue many men vndone,
And famisht them, in fine, through belly-cheare.
Browne-paper Merchants (that do vent such trash
To heedlesse heirs, to more wealth borne then wit,
That gainst such Paper-rocks their houses dash,
While such slie Merchants make much vse of it)
Vse them as they do vse such heires to vse,
That is, to plague them without all remorce:
These with their Brokers, plague; for they abuse
God, King, and Law, by Lawes abused force.
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That in a month catch eighteene pence in pound;
Six with a Bill, and twelue for vse they catch,
So, vse they all they catch, to make vnfound.
That they may catch them, and still patches make,
Which in the pound do yeeld thē eighteen pence;
Forc'd, like sheep trespassing, the Pownd to take,
Leauing their Fleece, at last, for recompence.
Hang in their hang-mans wardrop plagues to aire
That all may flie, or die that with it mell;
And so, when none will to their ragges repaire,
They must forsake their liues, or labour well.
Briefly, kill cursed Sinne in generall,
And let Flesh Bee no more to harbour it;
Away with filthie Flesh, away with all
Wherein still-breeding Sinne on broode doth sit.
This was Deaths charge, & this charge did he giue,
Which was perform'd (forthwith) accordingly;
For now the dead had wasted so the liue,
(Or wearied so) that some vnburied lie:
For, All obseru'd the Pestilence was such
As laught to scorne the help of Phisickes art;
So that to death All yeelded with a touch,
And sought no help, but help with ease to part.
An hell of heate doth scorch their seething vaines,
The blood doth boile, and all the Body burnes,
Which raging Heate ascending to the Braines
The powres of Reason there quite ouerturnes!
Then, tis no sinne to say a Plague it is
From whence immortall miseries do flow;
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And Soules and Bodies do endanger so.
Here crie the parents fot their Childrens death;
There howle the children for their parents losse;
And often die as they are drawing breath
To crie for their but now inflicted crosse.
Here goes an husband heauily to seeke
A Graue for his dead wife (now hard to haue)
A wife there meets him that had done the like,
All which (perhaps) are buried in one Graue.
The last suruiuor of a Familie,
Which yesterday (perhaps) were all in health,
Now dies to beare his fellowes company,
And for a Graue for all, giues all their wealth.
There wends the fainting Son with his dead Sire
On his sole shoulders borne, him to interre;
Here goes a father with the like desire,
And to the Graue alone, his Sonne doth beare.
The needie, greedie of a wealthie Pray,
Runne into houses cleans'd of Families,
From whence they bring, with goodes, their bane away,
So end in wealth their liues and miseries.
No Cat, Dog, Rat, Hog, Mouse, or Vermine vile,
But vsher'd Death, where ere themselues did go;
For, they the purest Aire did so defile,
That whoso breath'd it, did his breath forgo.
At London (sincke of Sinne) as at the Fount,
This all-confounding Pestilence began.
According to that Plagues most wofull wont,
From whence it (flowing) all the realme o'reranne.
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Pest-houses with their murraine-tainted Sicke:
But, though from them, & thence the healthie fled,
They, ere suspected, mortified the Quicke.
Those so infected, being ignorant
That so they are, conuerse with whom soere,
Whose open Shops and Houses all doe haunt,
And finde most danger, where they least do feare.
And so not knowing sicke-folke from the sound
(For, such ill Aire's not subiect to the sense)
They One with Other do themselues confound;
And so confound all with a pestilence.
Out flies one from the Plague, and beares with him
An heauy Purse, and Plague more ponderous;
Which in the hie-way parteth life from limbe,
So plagues the next of his coine couetous.
In this ditch lies one breathing out his last,
Making the same his Graue before his death!
On that Bancke lies another, breathing fast,
And passers by he baneth with his breath.
Now runnes the Rot along each bancke & ditch,
And, with a murraine strikes Swine, Sheep, and all
(Or man, or beast) that chance the same to touch,
So, all in fields, as in the Cities fall.
The London Lanes (themseluet thereby to saue)
Did vomit out their vndigested dead,
Who by cart loads, are carried to the Graue,
For, all those Lanes with folke were ouerfed.
There might ye see Death (as with toile opprest
Panting for breath, all in a mortall sweat)
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(At point to faint) his Haruest was so great!
The Bells had talkt so much, as now they had
Tir'd all their tongs, and could not speake a word;
And Griefe so toild herselfe with being sad,
That now at Deaths faint threats, shee would but bourd.
Yea, Death was so familiar (ah) become
With now resolued London Families,
That wheresoere he came, he was welcome,
And entertain'd with ioyes and iolities.
Goods were neglected, as things good for nought;
If good for aught, good but to breed more ill:
The Sicke despis'd them: if the Sound thē sought,
They sought their death which cleaued to thē stil!
So Sicke, and Sound, at last neglected them,
As if the Sound and Sicke were neere their last;
And all, almost, so fared through the Realme
As if their Soules the Iudgement day were past.
This World was quite forgot; the World to come
Was still in minde; which for it was forgot,
Brought on our World this little day of Dome,
That choakt the Graue with this contageous Rot!
No place was free for Free-men; ne for those
That were in Prisons, wanting Libertie;
Yet Prisoners frëest were from Plagues and Woes
That visite Free-men, but too lib'rally.
For, al their food came frō the helthy house,
Which then wold giue Gods plags from thence to keep;
The rest, shut vp, could not like bountie vse,
So, woefull Pris'ners had least cause to weepe.
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From place to place, to saue himselfe did flie,
Which from himselfe himselfe did seekes' exile,
Who (as amaz'd) not safe, knew where to lie.
Its hard with Subiects when the Soueraigne
Hath no place free from plagues his head to hide;
And hardly can we say the King doth raigne,
That no where, for iust feare, can well abide.
For, no where comes He but Death follows him
Hard at the Heeles, and reacheth at his head;
So sincks al Sports that wold like triumphs swim,
For, what life haue we, when we all are dead;
Dead in our Spirits, to see our Neighbours die;
To see our King so shift his life to saue;
And with his Councell all Conclusions trie
To keepe themselues from th'insatiate Graue.
For, hardly could one man another meete,
That in his bosome brought not odious Death;
It was confusion but a friend to greet,
For, like a Fiend, he baned with his breath.
The wildest wastes, and places most remote
From Mans repaire, are now the most secure;
Happy is he that there doth finde a Cote
To shrowd his Head from this Plagues smoaking showre
A Beggars home (though dwelling in a Ditch
If farre from London it were scituate)
He might rent out, if pleas'd him, to the Rich,
That now as Hell their London homes doe hate.
Now, had the Sunne the Ballance entered,
To giue his heate by weight, or in a meane,
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And scowr'd the towns, that erst were clēsed clean.
Now, sad Dispaire (clad in a sable weede)
Did All attend, and All resolu'd to die;
For, Heat & cold, they thought, the Plague would feede
Which, like a Ierffe, still sinn;d in gluttony.
The heau'nly Coape was now ore-canopide,
(Neere each ones Zenith (as his sense suppos'd)
With ominous impressions, strangely died,
And like a Canopie at toppe it clos'd.
As if it had presag'd the Iudge was nie,
To sit in Iudgement his last doome to giue,
And caus'd his cloth of State t'adorne the Skie
That All his neare approach might so perceiue
Now fall the people vnto publike Fast,
And all assemble in the Church to pray;
Earely, and late, their soules, there take repast,
As if preparing for the later day!
Where (fasting) meeting with the sound and sicke,
The sicke the sound do plage, while they do pray;
To haste before the Iudge the dead and quicke,
And pull each other so, in post, away.
Now Angells laugh to see how contrite hearts
Incounter Death, and scorne his Tiranny;
Their Iudge doth ioy to see them play their parts,
That erst so liu'd as if they ne'r should die.
Vp go their harts & hands, and downe their knees,
While Death wēt vp & down, to bring thē down;
That vp they might at once (not by degrees)
Vnto the High'st, that doth the humble crowne!
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Of Heau'n, and Hell, were worne with throngs of ghosts
Ne'r since the Deluge, did they so before,
Nor euer since so pollisht the side-posts.
The Angells, good and bad, are now all toil'd
With intertaining of these ceaselesse throngs;
With howling some (in heat and horror broild)
And othersome in blisse, with ioyfull Songs.
Th'infernall Legions, in Battallions,
Seeke to inlarge their kingdome, lest it should
Be cloid with Collonies of wicked ones;
For now it held, more then it well could hold!
The Angells, on the Cristall walls of Heau'n,
Holpe thousands ore the Gates so glutted were;
To whom authoritie by Grace was giu'n
(The prease was such) to helpe them ouer there.
The Cherubin eie-blinding Maiestie
Vpon his Throne (that euer blest hath bin)
Is compast with vnwonted Company,
And smiles to see how Angells helpe them in.
The heau'nly streets do glitter (like the Sunne)
With throngs of Sonnes but newly glorifide;
Who still to praise their Glorifier runne
Along those streets, full fraught on either side.
Now was the earthly Mammon, which had held
Their Harts to Earth, held most contagious;
A Beggar scornd to touch it (so defilde)
So, none but castawaies were covetous.
Now Auarice was turned Cherubin,
Who nought desir'd but the extreamest Good;
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So, to the Time she sought to suite her moode,
The loathsome Leacher loath'd his wonted sport;
For, now he thought all flesh was most corrupt:
The brainsicke brawler waxed all-amort;
For, such blood-suckers Bane did interrupt.
The Pastors now, steep all their words in Brine,
With woe, woe, woe, and nought is heard but woe;
Woe and alas, they say, the powres diuine
Are bent Mankind, for sinne to ouerthrow.
Repent, repent, (like Ionas) now they crie,
Ye men of England, O repent, repent;
To see if so yee maie moue Pitties Eye,
To looke vpon you, ere you quite be spent.
And oft whilst he breathes out thess bitter Words,
He, drawing breath, drawes in more bitter Bane:
For, now the Aire, no Aire but death affords;
And lights of Art (for helpe) were in the wane.
Nor people praying, nor the Pastor preaching,
Death spared ought; but murd'red one and other;
He was a walme, he could not stay impeaching,
Who smoakt with heat, & chokt, all with the smother.
The babe new born he nipt strait in the head
With aire that through his yet vnclosed Mould
Did pierce his brains, & throgh thē poison spread,
So left his life, that scarse had life in hold.
The Mother after hies, the Father posts
After the Mother; Thus, at Base they runne
Vnto the Gole of that great Lord of Hoasts
That for those keepes it that runnes for his Sonne.
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Such lose the Gole without gainesaying-strife;
But, all, and some, are as Deaths Messengers
To fetch both one and other out of life.
The Sire doth fetch the Sonne, the Sonne the Sire,
Death, being impartiall, makes his Subiects so:
The Priuate's not respected, but intire
(Death pointing out the way) away they go.
The ceremonie at their Burialls
Is Ashes but to Ashes, Dust, to Dust;
Nay not so much; for, strait the Pit-man falles
(If he can stand) to hide them as he must.
A Mount thus made, vpon his Spade he leanes
(Tired with toile) yet (tired) prest to toile)
Till Death an heape, in his inn'd Haruest, gleanes,
That so he may, by heapes, eft seed the Soile.
Not long he staies, but (ah) a mightier heape
Then erst he hid, is made strait to be hild;
The Land is scarse, but yet the Seed is cheape,
For, all is full, or rather ouerfill'd.
The Beere is laid away, and Cribbes they get
To fetch more dung for Fields and Garden-plots;
Worke-men are scarse, the labour is so great,
That (ah) the Seede, vnburied, often rottes.
It rottes, and makes the Land thereby the worse,
For, being rotten, it ill vapors breedes,
Which many mortall miseries doe nurse,
And the Plague (ouerfed) so, ouerfeedes.
Here lies an humane Carcasse halfe consum'd;
And there some fow or beast, in selfe same plight;
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That all it touched, it consumed quite.
Quite through the hoast of Natures Animalls
Death like a Conquerer in Triumph rides;
And ere he came too neare, each Creature falls,
His dreadfull presence then no flesh abides.
Now man to man (if euer) fiends became,
Feare of infection choakt Humanitie;
The emptie Maw (abandon'd) got but blame
If it had once but sought for Charitie.
The Poore must not about, to seeke for foode,
And no man sought them, that they might be fed;
Two Plagues, in one, inuaded so their blood,
Both Famine, and Infection strikes them dead.
Some staid, in hope that Death would be appeas'd,
And kept the towns, which thē & theirs had kept;
Till their next neighbors were (perhaps) diseas'd;
Or with Deaths fatall Fanne away were swept.
Thē, fain wold fly but could not (thogh thei wold)
For, wil they, nill they, they must keep their house,
Till throgh some chink, on thē Death taketh hold,
And vs'd them, as he did their neighbours vse.
If any at some Posterne could get out,
As good they staid, sith sure they staid should be;
For, all the Countries watcht were round about,
That from the towne, none might a furlong flee.
Then, who from Death did flie, the feare of Death
Made Free-men keep the fliers in his Iawes;
Where (poison'd with his fowle infectious breath)
Their flesh and bones he (ne'r suffized) gnawes.
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As it neare famisht were, lest in a while
It might be so, and want whereon to feede;
So fed, the future hunger to beguile.
Now doth it swell (hold hide) nay, breake, or die)
Till skin doth crack, to make more room for meat
Yet meat, more meate it (neuer cloid) doth crie,
And all about doth runne the same to get.
The Graues do often vomit out their dead,
They are so ouer-gorg'd, with great, and small;
Who hardly, with the earth are couered;
So, oft discouer'd when the Earth did fall.
Those which in hie- waies died (as many did)
Some worthlesse wretch, hir'd for no worthles fee,
Makes a rude hole, some distance him beside,
And rakes him in farre off; so, there lies hee.
But, if the Pit-man haue not so much sense
To see, nor feele which way the winde doth sit
To take the same, he hardly comes from thence,
But, for himselfe (perhaps) he makes the pit:
For, the contagion was so violent,
(The wil of Heau'n ordaining so the same)
As often strooke stone-dead incontinent,
And Natures strongest forces strait orecame.
Here lieth one vpon his burning brest,
Vpon the Earths cold breast, and dies outright;
Who wanting buriall, doth the Aire infest,
That like a Basaliske he banes with sight!
There reeles another like one deadly druncke,
But newly strooke (perhaps) then downe he falls,
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But forthwith dies, and so lies by the walles,
The Hay-cockes in the Meades were oft opprest
With plaguy Bodies, both aliue, and dead;
Which being vs'd, confounded Man and Beast,
And vs'd they might be ere discouered.
For, some (like Ghosts) wold walk out in the night,
The Citie glowing (furnace-like) with heate
Of this contagion, to seeke if they might,
Fresh aire, where oft they died for want of meate.
The Traueler that spied (perhaps his Sire)
Another farre off, comming towards him
Would flie, as from a flying flame of fire
That would, if it he met, waste life and limbe.
So, towns fear'd townes, and men ech other fear'd;
All were (at least) attainted with suspect,
And, sooth to say, so was their enuy stirr'd,
That one would seeke another to infect:
For, whether the disease to enuy mou'd,
Or humane natures malice was the cause,
Th'infected often all Conclusions prou'd
To plague him that frō thē himselfe withdrawes!
Here do they Gloues, and there they Garters fall;
Ruffs, Cuffs, & handkerchers, and such like things
They strow about, so to endanger all:
For, Enuy now, most pestilently stings!
So, heau'n and earth, against Man did conspire,
And Man against Man, to exrirpe his Race;
Who Bellowes were t'augment Infections fire,
And blow abroad the same from place to place.
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From towne to towne, to make them desolate;
The Browne-Bill was too short to keep it thence,
For, further off it raught the Bill-mans pate.
Nor walls could keepe it out; for, it is said
(And truely too) that Hunger breakes stone-walls:
The plague of Hunger with the Plagne arrai'd
It selfe, to make way, where ere Succour calls.
For, hungrie Armies fight as Fiends they were:
No humane powre can well their force withstand:
They laugh to scorne the shaking of the Speare:
And gainst the gods thēselues, thēselues dare band
Some ranne as mad (or with wine ouer-shot)
From house to house, when botches on them ranne;
Who, though they menac'd were with Sword, and Shot,
Yet forward ran, & feare nor God nor man!
As when a Ship, at Sea, is set on fire,
And (all on flame's) winde-driuen on a Fleete,
The Fleete doth flie, sith that Ship doth desire
(Maugre all force oppos'd) with it to meete:
So flies the Bill-man, and the Muskettire
From the approaching desperate plaguy wight,
As from a flying flame of quenchlesse fire;
For, who hath any life, with Death to fight?
At all, cries Death, then downe by heaps they fall:
He drawes in By, and Maine, amaine he drawes
Huge heapes together, and still cries, At all:
His hand is in, and none his hand withdrawes.
For, looke how Leaues in Autumne from the tree
With wind do fall, whose heaps fil holes in groūd;
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Fall by great heapes, and fill vp holes profound.
No holy Turffe was left to hide the head
Of holiest men; but, most vnhall'wed grounds
(Ditches and Hie-waies) must receiue the dead,
The dead (ah woe the while) so oreabounds!
Here might ye see as t'were a Mountainet
Founded on Bodies, grounded very deepe,
Which like a Trophee of Deaths Triumphs set
The world on wonder, that did wondring weepe:
For, to the middle Region of the Aire,
Our earthly Region was infected so,
That Foules therein had cause of iust dispaire,
As those which ouer Zodome dying go!
Some common Carriers, (for their owne behoofe,
And for their good, whose Soules for gaines doe
Fetching frō Lōdō packs of Plags, & stuffe (grone)
Are forc'd to inne it, in some Barne alone.
Where, lest it should the Country sacrifise,
Barne, Corne, and Stuffe a Sacrifice is sent
(In Aire-refining Flames) to th'angrie Skies,
While th'owners do their Faults & Losse lament.
The Carriers, to some Pest-house, or their owne,
Carried, clapt vp, and watcht for comming out,
Must there with Time or Death conuerse alone,
Till Time or Death doth free the world of doubt:
Who thogh they Cariers were, yet being too weak
Such heauy double Plagues as these to beare,
Out of their houses som by force do break,
And
This no fiction, nor inserted by poeticall licence: But this verily was performed in the borough of Leominster in the county of Hereford: the one at the commandement of sir Herbert Crost knight, one of the Councell of the Marcher of Wales: the other by the instigation of Sathan, and prococation of the disease.
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Fit for his Iustice, Powre, and Maiestie;
These are right ierkes of diuine Furies Rod,
That draw from Flesh the life-blood mortally.
If these are but his temp'rall Punishments,
Then what are they surmounting Time and Fate?
Melt Flesh to thinke but on such Languishments,
That Soule and Bodie burne in endlesse date.
His vtmost Plagues extend beyond the reach
Of comprehension of the deepest Thought;
For, he his wisedome infinite doth stretch
To make them absolutely good for nought.
Then, O what heart of sensible Discourse,
Quakes not, as if it would in sunder fall,
But once to thinke vpon such Furies force,
As doth so farre surmount the thoughts of all?
If humane Wisedome in the highest straine,
Should yet stretch further Torments to deuise,
They would be such that none could them sustain,
Through weight of woes, and raging agonies:
Then (O) what be they that deuised are
By Wisedome that of Nought made all this All,
That stretch as farre past speach, as past compare,
Surmounting Wonder; supernaturall!
They be the Iudgements of that Trinitie,
Which (like themselues) are most inscrutable;
Then can mans heart, but either swoone or die,
To thinke on anguish, so vnthinkeable.
And can our Sense, our Sense so much besot,
To thinke such worlds of woe no where exist,
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And so in sinne (till they be felt) insist?
Then happy That, that is insensible,
Since wee imploy our happinesse of Sense
To feele and taste but pleasures sensible;
And see no Paine that at their end commence.
To breake the Belly of our damn'd Desires
With honied Sweets that soone to poison turne;
And in our Soules enkindle quenchlesse fires,
Which all the frame thereof quite ouerturne.
To please it selfe a Moment, and displease
It selfe for euer, with ne'r-ending paines;
To ease the Bodie with the Soules disease,
To glad the Guttes, to grieue the Heart & Braines.
To make the Throat a Through-fare for Excesse,
The Belly a Charibdis for the same;
To vse Wit still but onely to transgresse,
And make our Sense the Spunge of Sin & Shame:
Then happy are sweet Floures that liue and die
(Without offence) most pleasing vnto all:
And haplesse Man that liues vnpleasingly
To Heau'n and Earth; so, liues and dies to fall.
The Rose doth liue a sweete life, but to please,
And when it dies, it leaues sweet fruit behinde;
But Man in Life and Death doth none of these,
If Grace by Miracle ne'r mend his mind.
Blush Man, that Floures should so thy selfe excell
That wast created to excell what not?
That on the Earth created was to dwell;
Then blush for shame to grace thy Beauties blot.
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Betwixt immortall Angells, and bruit beasts?
Yet wilt twixt beasts and fiends be Horizon
By that which Angells grieues, and God detests?
Then Plagues must follow thy misguided Will,
So to correct thine ill-directing Wit;
Such as these are, or others much more ill,
The worst of which Sinne (ill of Ills) befit.
And loe, for Sinne; how yet the Plague doth rage
(With vnappeased furie) more and more,
Making our Troy-nouant a tragicke Stage
Whereon to shew Deaths powre, with slaughters sore.
Great Monarch of Earths ample world he is;
And of our little Worlds (that worlds content)
He giues ill Subiects Bale, good Subiects Blisse;
So, though he raignes, iust is his Regiment.
Our sins (foule blots) corrupt the Earth and Aire;
Our sins (soules botches) all this All defile;
And make our Soules most foule, that were most faire;
For, nought but sin we all, all nought the while!
When sharpest wits are whetted to the point,
To pierce into all secrets, but to sinne!
And all the corps of Luxury vnioint,
To see what sensuall ioy might be therein:
When as such trickes as no Sunne euer saw
Deuis'd are daily by the Serpent-wise,
To cramme all Flesh into the Deuills maw
By drifts, as scarse the Deuill can deuise!
Can God (most iust) be good to men so ill?
And can the Earth, and Aire, wherein such liue,
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That Aire, and Earth, that do such plagues reliue.
What are those men but plagues, that plague but men?
All men are such, that teach sin in effect;
And all do so, that sinne but now and then,
If now and then they sinne, in ouertact.
What can containe vs, if these plagues cannot?
If neither these we feele, nor those we shall,
Be not of force to keepe our liues from blot,
What then remaines but plagues to scowre vs all?
Till we wax lesse, and they so multiplide,
That we be nothing lesse, than what we are;
Conuerted, or confounded we abide
In, or without God, with, or without care!
If when his yron Rod drawes blood from vs,
And is vpon our backes, yea breakes our bones,
We cease not yet to be rebellious,
What can conuert vs but plagues for the nones!
For Natures heart doth yrne with extreame griefe,
When wel she weighs her childrens strange estate,
Subiect to sinne, and so to sorrowes chiefe,
For both in counterchange renew their date:
For now we sinne (yea with a witnesse sinne,
Witnesse our conscience) then we plagued are,
Plagu'd with a witnes, (witnesse plagues that
With fury on vs) then, when so we fare
Fall we to pray and creepe to Grace for grace,
Which being got, and ease, and weale at will,
We fall to sinne, and so our soules disgrace:
Thus sinne and plagues runne round about vs still
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Surroundeth Mankinde in an hell of woe,
Man is the Axis standing still therein,
And goes with it where euer it doth goe;
For since he fell, who at this Center staies
By Nature (most vnnaturall the while)
Here moues man mouelesse as the Axis plaies,
And Times turns (turning with him) doth beguile.
And yet this Plague (if Griefs tears quench it not)
Is like a sparke of fire in flax too drie,
And may, if our Lusts coole not, burne more hot
Than erst it did; so waste vs vtterly.
We see it will not out, but still it lies
In our best Cities Bowells like a Cole
That threats to flame, and stil doth fall and rise,
Wasting a part, thereby to warne the whole.
None otherwise than when (with griefe) we see
Some house on fire, we strait, to saue the towne,
Watch, fast, and pray, and most industrious bee,
With hooke and line to pull the Building downe:
So doth this fire of heau'ns still kindling ire
Blister our Cities publike Body so,
As we are blister'd, but with so much fire,
As we may quench with teares if they do flo.
But if it should breake forth in flames afresh,
(As (ah) what staies it but vnstinted Grace?)
What thing shuld quench it but a world of Flesh?
Or desolation it away to chace?
Time neuer knew since he beganne his houres,
(For aught we reade) a Plague so long remaine
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For now six yeares in London it hath laine.
Where none goes out, but at his comming in,
If he but feeles the tendrest touch of smart,
He feares he is Plague-smitten for his sinne;
So, ere hee's plagu'd, he takes It to the heart:
For, Feare doth (Loadstone-like) it oft attract,
That else would not come neere; or steale away;
And yet this plaguy-feare will scarse coact
Our Soules to sinne no more, this Plague to slay.
But thou, in whose high hand all hearts are held,
Conuert vs, and from vs this Plague auert:
So sin shall yeeld to Grace, and Grace shall yeeld
The Giuer glory for so deere desert.
Too deere for such too worthles wicked Things,
At best but clods of base Infirmitie;
Too deere for sinne that all this murraine brings;
Too deere for those that liue but twice to die.
In few, what should I say? the best are nought
That breathe, since man first breathing did rebell:
The best that breath are worse thā may be thoght,
If Thought can thinke the best can do but well:
For, none doth well on Earth, but such as will
Confesse (with griefe) they do exceeding ill!
The best is but a
Briere, and
none doth good,
But He that makes Vs blamelesse in his Blood.
But He that makes Vs blamelesse in his Blood.
FINIS.
| Humours Heau'n on Earth | |