Fovre bookes of Du Bartas :: :: University of Virginia Library

Fovre bookes of Du Bartas

I. The Arke, II. Babylon, III. The Colonnyes, IIII. The Columues or Pyllars: In French and English, for the Instrvction and Pleasvre of Svch as Delight in Both Langvages. By William Lisle ... Together with a large Commentary by S. G. S

Lisle, William (1579?-1637)

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A Pastorall Dedication to the King.

[Fovre bookes of Du Bartas]

The end of Adam, and beginning of Nöe.

The first Booke of Noe, called the Arke.

The second Booke of Noe, called BABILON.

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The third Booke of Noe, or the Colonies.

The Pillars, or fourth Booke of Noe.

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The second Booke of Noe, called BABILON.

O what a blessed life doe men lead vnd'r a Prince,

A preface representing the felicitie of commonwealths gouerned by good and wise Princes, and the distresse of people subiect to a Tyrant. Fitly fore placed of the Poet to lead him to the life and deeds of Nimrod.

That seeks, before his own, the weal of his Prouince!
That punisheth the bad, & rids the good of wrong,
That entertaines the graue, and shuns the pleasing tongue,
That sou'raine of himselfe doth all vice ouer-awe
More by his honest life then punishment or law:
That being inward meeke, outward maiesticall,
Hath for his guard the loue of all his comminall.
That maketh not his God the bright-emperled Mace;
And knowing that he stands on stages highest place,
Where, to controule his workes, a world hath him in sight,
Commands not what him lift; but rather what is right.
But sure a hell it is to suffer seruitude,
And daily beare the yoke of Tyrant blood-embrude:
A Denis that for feare with brand himselfe yshau'd,
A Nero that his house with incest all deprau'd:
An Owle that e're auoids the light of gouernment,
Of Parlament and Peeres, that feares the prattlement
Of eu'ry priuate toong; that for his only game
His people sets at odds, and feeds their angers-flame.
That honour, faith and right, hath ne'r before his eyes:
That powling Offices doth euery day deuise;
That likes-not of the men best learned, wisest, strongest;
But, as in field of corne, doth euer crop the longest
And best-y flowred eares: That, worse then Tygre wood,
Without respect of kin sheds eu'n his brothers blood:
That, though he sensed be with sword and halberds aid,
Yet feareth many more, then he doth make afraid.
That boasteth to deuise a taxe before vnknone,

And Canibally gnaw'th his peopl' all to the bone.

Imprint (ô king of Heau'n) within our Princes brests

A prayer to God, fitly arising of the words and matter aforegoing, and making way to the sequele.

Loue to their-people-ward, and reuerence of thine hests:
And where a courtly toong with venomous language,
Or oth'r enormities too-well knowne in this Age,
Shall taint a princely minde with Nimrods propertie,
Draw there thine iron pen, and rase it speedily.
That for proud Babels towre they may thy Sion reare,
And my Muse vnder them may chaunt it euery where.

Scarse is the sonne of Chus now waxen twelue yeere old.

Nimrods first studie and exercise, to get the soueraigntie of the people, furthered by nature.

But straight ou'r all his Peeres he playes the Tyrant bold.
He ouer-growes them all, and of his power to come
Vpon a trim foreshew he layes the ground with some:
And in his childish hand for scepter bearing reeds
Among the shephard-swaines beginn'th his prentise-deeds.
Then knowing that the man, whose courage doth aspire
Vnto the deemed blisse of an awfull Empire,
Must passe in braue exploits the doltish vulgar sort,
Or else by seeming good obtaine a good report,
He wasteth not the night in downie feather-bed,
Nor yet the day in shade; but, young, accustomed
Himselfe to good and ill, and made ambitiouslie
His pillowes of a rocke, his curtaines of the skie.
To toyle is his delight, to shoot, his chiefest game,
His baby-play the lysts, his hawk some Sparrow tame:
His most delicious meat the flesh of tender Kid
Which trembleth yet, and scarse is out of skin yslid.

Sometime he sports himselfe to conquer with a breath

The continuance of his labours to obtaine the peoples fauour.

Some craggy rocks ascent that ouerpeers the heath;
Or else some raging flood against the streame diuide,
That, swolne with raine, hath drou'n a hundred brigs aside,
And with a bounding course vnbridled gallops fast
All ouerthwart the stones in narrow valley cast:
Or else straight aft'r his throw to catch againe his dart,
Or else by footmanship to take the Hinde or Hart.

Thus till his twentith yeare his exercise continues,

He chaseth beasts first and afterward men.

Then vnderstanding well his manly minde and sinewes
May fit some great'r attempt, if he know'th any where
A Leopard, a Tyg'r, a Lion, or a Beare,

He stoutly goes t'encount'r, & knocks him downe with mace,
And plants the goary spoiles in most apparant place.

The people then that see by his all-conquering hands
The wayes enfranchised, and all the waster lands
Rid of such roaring theeues, and feeding now at ease
Their fearfull flocks and heards; they loue this Hercules,
This rid-ill monster-mast'r, and shew him speciall fauour,
And call him euermore their fath'r and eu'n their sauiour.

Here Nimrod by the locks hand-fasting his good fortune,

He leaueth his former chase for a better prey.

And striking th'iron hot, doth flatter, presse, importune
Now one and then anoth'r, and hasting to his blisse,
Before that hunted beasts, now of men hunter is.
For as he did imploy about his prey before
The grins, hare-pipes, and traps, and all the lymie store;
Yea furthermore, at need for stoutest had his art,
The heauy club, the shaft, the sharpe sword and the dart:
So some mens heart he gaines by faire hope closely stealing,
And some he wins by gift, and others by hard dealing:
And breaking all in rage the bonds of equitie,
Of that renforcing world vsurps the royaltie.
Whereas in time before the chiefe of each houshold
The same did rule apart; nor did the young man bold,
Aspiring, gyddie-braind, vpon a wanton braue
His sickle thrust, as now, int'haruest of the graue.

Now he enthroned is, he bendeth all his thought

The tyrannous gouernment of Nimrod, and his proud attempt.

To blood and crueltie, profanely sets at naught
The lawes of God and man, out-braues th'Almighty king,
And beardeth him (as'twere) with scepter flourishing.
And lest the peopl' at length, when ease had bred their pride,
Should aime to cast his yoke he keeps them occupyde:
He lauisheth his wealth, to make them labour still
In building of a towne; nay rath'r an Atlas hill.

We liue too long (quoth he) in brutish wandering;
Now leaue we roaguing tents, our houses wayfaring;
And let's a palace build that stately may be ioynt
In Base vnto the deepe, and vnto heau'n in poynt.

A priuiledged fort against another flood:
And there incorporate liue vnd'r a royall blood.
Lest, if we part in tents with many guides, we run
Asunder, void of help, as far as roules the Sun.

And in case burning coles of at-home-bred sedition,
Or what mishap so-er'e shall driue vs to diuision:
Yet (brothers) let vs leaue, as high as heau'nly flames,
Vpon this Towre engrau'n our euerlasting names.

As fire by shepherds left amidst the dry-leafe woods,
At first is hid, or makes but only smoakie floods

Among the lower shrubs, and then with help of winds
A way by flaming force to further mischiefe finds;
Vnto the bloomy thorne from th'humble shrub it stirres,
From Thorne to Oke, from Oke vnto the tallest Firres;
And, euer gaining ground, runs faster narre the marke,
And leaueth not a nymph within her natiue barke:
Right so this pleasing speech when first it had been grac'd
By fawning Fauourites, of others 'twas embrac'd;
Among the gyddie-braines then goes from hand to hand

Vnto the baser sort of people through the land;
Who greatly bent to see the famous tower made,
Doe labour day and night in all and euery trade.

Some trip the speare-wood Ash, with sharp-edg'd axes stroke,
And some the sailing Elme, and some th'enduring Oke;
So they degrade the woods and shew vnto the Sunne
The ground where his bright eye before had neuer shone.

Who euer did behold some forraine armie sacke
A citie vanquished? ther's griefe and ioy, no lacke,
Together hurly-burld; he carts, and he lays-hold,
He drags by force, he leads; and there the souldier bold,
Can finde no place too sure, nor yet no locke too strong,
The whole towne in a day forth at the gates doth throng.
So quickly do these men pull-off with one assent
From those Assyrian hills the shaking ornament:
The wildernesse of shade they take from off the rocks,
And sheare off albeswat the leuell countries locks:
The waynes and yoked Mules scarse one by the other wend;
The groaning axeltrees with load surcharged bend.

A liuely description of a people, busied about a great worke.

Behold here one for mort'r is day and night abruing
Of some thicke-slimie poole the water fatly gluing.
And here the Tyler bakes within his smoakie kell
His clay to stone; and here one hollows downe to hell
So deep foundations, that many a damned Spright
Aggazeth once againe the Sunnes vnhoped light.
Heau'n ecchoes out the sound of their mauls clitter-clatters,
And Tigris feeles his fish all trembling vnd'r his waters.
The ruddy-colourd walls in-height and compasse grow,
They far-off cast a shade, they far-off make a show.
The world's all on toile, and men borne all to die
Thinke at the first daies worke their hand shall reach the skie.

God being angry with the bold enterprise of Nimrod and his followers; determineth to breake of their enterprise, by confounding their language.

Hereat began th'Lord to sowre his countenance,
And with dread thūders sound that storm-wise wont to glance
Athwart the clowdie racks, that hills wont ouerthrow
And make heau'ns steddy gates flash often too and fro,
See see (quoth he) these dwarfes, see this same rascall people,
These children of the dust. O what a goodly steeple,

What mighty walls they build! Is this the Cittadell,
So recklesse of my shot that shakes the gates of Hell?
I sware an oath to them henceforth the fruitfull ground
Should neuer stand in feare of waters breaking bound:
They doubting fence themselues; I would by their extent
Haue peopled all the world, they by themselues are pent
In prison-walls of brick: I would haue beene for euer
Their master, their defence, their shepherd, their law-giuer;
And they haue chose for King a sauage Liue-by-spoile,
A Tyrant seeking gaine by their great losse and toile;
Who doth my force despise and with vaine-glory swone
Attempts to scale the walls of my most holy throne.
Come let's defeat their drift, and sith the bond of tong;
Of blood, of will, of law, doth egge on all day long,
And hearten them in sin; to stop their hastie intent,
Among them let vs send the Spirit of dissent;
Their language to confound, to make, both one and other,
The father strange to sonne, the brother deafe to brother.

Thus had he said, and straight confusedly there went

The execution of Gods sentence.

I know not what a brute throughout the buyldiment,
None other like (I guesse) then drunken peasants make
Where Bacchus doth his launce with Ivy garland shake.
One doth his language toothe, another nose his note,
Another frames his words vnseemly through the throte;
One howleth, one doth hisse, another stuttereth;
Each hath his babbl', and each in vaine endeuoureth
To finde those loued termes, and tunes before exprest,
That in their cradle-bands they drew from mothers brest.
Goe get thee vp betimes; and, while the morning gay
With rainbow-glosse bedecks the portaile of the day,

A fit comparison.

Giue eare a while and marke the disagreeing moods
Of winged quiristers that sing amid the woods
Good-morrow to their loues; where each one in his fashion
Is pearched on a bough and chaunteth his Oration:
Then shalt thou vnderstand what mingle-mangle of sounds

Confusedly was heard among the Mason-lounds.

A Trowell ho, saith one; his mate a beetl'him heaues:
Cut me, saith he, this stone; and he some timber cleaues.
Come ho, come ho, saith one, and winde me vp this rope;
Then one vnwinding striues to giue it all the scope.
This scaffold bourd, saith one; one makes it downe to fare:
Giue me the line, saith one; and one giues him the square.
He shouts, he signes in vaine, and he with anger boyles;
And looke what one hath made forthwith another spoiles,
VVith such confused cries in vaine they spend their winde;
And all the more they chafe, the lesse is knowne their minde.

At length as men that stand an arched bridge to build,
In riuers channell deepe that wont surround the field,
And sodainly behold how vnexpected raine

Another excellent comparison declaring how neither counsell, art, force, diligence, nor multitude, is able to resist God.

Hath sent a hundred floods, that downhill stretch amaine
Their yoake-refusing waues; they leaue with one aduise
(Some hasting here, some there) their earnest enterprise:
So when these Architects perceiu'd the stormy smart
Of Gods displeasure come, they straight were out of heart.
And there they ceas'd their work & with hands malecontent,
Rules, mallets, plomets, lines, all downe the towre they sent.

O proud rebellion! ô traiterous impietie!

The harmes that men suffer by the confusion of speech.

In what a fearefull fort, by this thy tongues varietie,
Hath God thee punished? alas that pleasant tongue,
That holy bond of townes, of anger bridle strong,
Strong glue of amitie, once one, now doth waifare
A hundred narrow wayes: this gold so richly rare,
Wrath-taming, charming-care, men-tysing, hart-entangling,
Both color, weight, and sound hath lost by mingle-mangling.
This gift corrupted is, and from the North to South
Confused Babels fall sounds yet in euery mouth.
The cold Finlanders once might visit Affricans,
The Spanish Indians, th'English Americans,
Without Interpreter; but now the compasse small
That doth our Cities bound, our language bounds withall:
And if we from our home but ne're so little went,
Dumbe should we seeme, and rest of reasons instrument.
Or if we speake to some that are but neighbour Nations,
'Tis by a borrow'd tongue, or by strange animations:
Without or Schoole, or paine, and sucking mothers brest,
We might haue learn'd the tongue that euery thought exprest,
And after seuen yeeres old vpon the glistring sand
Begun to draw with skill the shape of Sea and Land;
To part and multiply; and so from skill to skill
We might haue climbed soone the double-pointed hill,
Where Arts-perfection, in signe of their victorie,
Her fauourites doth crowne with euerlasting glory.

Now, euer baby-like, we, ere we learne to sound
The Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, are going to the ground.
We learne but eu'n to prate, and for the deepe inseying
Of Natures secresies, and of that onely Being
Which makes all things to be, we labour, as in maze,
To coniugate a verbe, and register a phrase.
In age we learne to spell, like young Grammaticasters,
And nought we know without authoritie of Masters;
Who teach vs still to read, and put into our hands
An A.B.C. for what the Ciuill Law commands:
Instead of Physicke skill, and of that holy Writ,
Where God's to them reueal'd, which godly readen it.

Nay, shall I tell you more? they spake in eu'ry place

The Hebrew tongue generally spoken before the confusion of tongues.

That holy tongue of God; so full of sence and grace,
As not a letter it hath, no not a point so small,
Without some ornament exceeding mysticall.
But since the proud reuolt, in sundry sort they prate
A bastard bibble-babble, impure, effeminate,
And change it eu'ry day; so loosing all their light
They vtter not a word of that first language right.

Once when th'Inhabitants of plenty-flowing Nile,
With men of Ida stroue for eldership of stile,

The Phrygians and Egyptians contend for antiquitie of tongue.

The right of Eloquence they tri'd by stammering,
And such as iudgement lackt they set to iudge the thing;
To wit, two sucking babes, whom their two Mothers dumbe
In hermitages kept, where no man else did come.
No charmy voyce of man was heard sound neere the place,

Till three times had the Sunne runne out his yeerely race.
When brought they were abroad, and set betwixt the people
Of Pantus and of Nile, they cry with voices feeble,
And often cry they Bec: bec, bec is all the ground
That either tongue can frame, or else their mouth will sound;
Whereat the men of Xanth, who knew the word implide
In Phrygian language Bread, in face they signifide
The ioy they felt in heart, and thought them highly blest
T'obtaine on their behalfe dame Natures owne arrest.

O fooles! who neuer cast how that the bleating flocks
That shore the tender flowres vpon the neighbour rocks
Had taught them such a tongue, and that the Dardanish,
French, Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, Egyptian, or English,
They are not borne with vs; but well may be discerned,
That euery tongue by haunt and by long vse is learned.
Disposednesse to speech indeede is Natures gift;
As is the grace of tongues diuersitie and shift,
So variably rich, and richly variable,
As makes a man to beast the more vncomparable.
And if you list oppose, how that the Bull he bellowes,

Men onely speak. An answere to the obiection taken from the vndistinct voyce of beasts. An answer to a second obiection taken from the chirping of birds.

The slothfull Asse doth bray, the Lyon and his fellowes
Now treble roare, now base, and by those tunes ye finde
They seemen eloquent to make vs know their minde:
I say these are no words but onely declarations
Of their disquiet sturres, prouokt by sundry passions;
Confused signes of griefe, or tokens of their sadnesse.
Of ioyfulnesse, of loue, of hunger, thirst, or madnesse,

The like may well be said of that light-winged quier
That on the greene-locke heads of Oake, Elme, Ash and Brier

An answer to the third obiection on touching Parrets.

Record the morning lay: for though (as is the weather)
By two, by three, by more, they seeme to talke together,
And though their voice it bends a hundred thousand wayes,
And descant though they can a hundred wanton layes;
Though great Apolles selfe within their Schoole was taught;
A groundlesse tune it is of notes entending naught:
A thousand times a day the selfe-same song repeated,
A dumbe discourse, amid the wilde of woods defeated.

But onely man hath powre to preach of modestie,
Of honour, of wisedome, of force, of equitie,
Of God, of heau'n, of earth, of water, and of ayre,
With words of good import, yee cull'd and sundry-faire.
Vnfoulding all his thoughts not onely in one language,
But like to Scaliger, the wonder of our age,
The Lampe of learned men, can wisely speake and much,
In Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, English, Italian, Dutch,
In Spanish, Arabicke, French, and Slauonian,
Caldean, Syrian, and Ethyopian.
This man Camelion-like will make his transformation,
(O rich, ô pliant wit!) to any authors fashion.
Great Iulies worthy sonne, great Syluies yonger brother,
In Gascany renoun'd more then was euer other.
But as for Popiniayes, that passing all their ages
Within the pearced grates of thorow-ayred cages,
In eloquence are bould to plead with vs for chiefe,
Pronounce all thorow-out the Christian beliefe;
Repeate the forme of Prayer that from our Sauiour came;
And all the houshold call together name by name;
They like dame Eccho be, our sounding voices daughter,
That through the vaulted hils so rudely bableth-after,
Not weening what she saith: In vaine this ayre they breake,
And speaking without sense, they speake, but nothing speake:
As deafe vnto themselues: for language is definde.
A voyce articulate that represents the minde:
And short it was, and sweet, and deckt with many a flowre,
And vnderstood of all, before the Babell towre.

Now when I duly wey how th'Ebrew doth report,

The Hebrew tongue most ancient.

And readily expresse in words both few and short,
Most cumbersome conceits, and through each secret plight
Of reasons Labyrinth affords the reader light;

The first reason.

Yea farre aboue the Greeke with her Synonyma,
Her lofty Metaphors, her bould Epitheta,
Her compounding of words, her tenses, and her cases,
And of so great request a thousand other graces:
When I consider well how in the Letter-row

The second reason.

Of that same tongue diuine the Rabby-schoole doth show,
All we beleeue with heart, all that with eye we see,

And that within the Law all arts implyed be:
By turning too and fro, and changing letters roome;
(As in Aritchmeticke it mends or bares the summe)
By gathring of some word the numbers mysticall,
And drawing them throughout a word proportionall.

Or that some word is know'n by some one Element,
Or by some onely word a perfect speech is ment;
As in a short deuise of mysticall embleme
The silent Egypt wont imploy a longer theme.

When I consider well that from th'East-Indie sand

The third reason.

Vnto the flaming Mount that borders Iserland,
And from the frozen Sea to scorched Tombuts shore,
Thou Sunne no people seest so voide of wit and lore,
No men so ignorant of Gods most holy Law,
But they retaine as yet, some words of Ebrew saw;
And but their letters doe (though out of order set)
Come neere the sacred names of Moses Alphabet.

When with my selfe I wey that th'holy counterpawne

The fourth reason

Of Gods old Testament was in those letters drawne:
That Vrim, that the Dreame, and that the Vision wise,
But in this Hebrew tongue spake not their prophesies;
And that th'Eternal-selfe did with his finger daigne
To graue in Hebrew stile his Law on tables twaine;
And, many winters since, the Messengers diuine
Did preach the ioyfull word in tongue of Palestine.

And when I further way, that th'ancient Patriarches

The fift reason.

Had all their names impos'd as reasonable markes,
And such as fully shew'd with mightie consequent
What was of all their time the rarest accident;
And thereto that we finde how eu'ry ancient name,
By writ, by sound, by sense, from Hebrew language came

(As Eue is consterd Life, Cain, first of all begot;

[HEBREW]

And Adam made of Clay, and Abel, profit not)
Seth, set in others place, and he surnamed Rest,
Who saw th'all-hurting flood below the ground supprest)
I cannot choose but grant, though Greece with furie some,
Preeminence of age to th'Ebrewes Idiome.

Then thus I thee salute, ô ouer-running spring
Of vtterance of minde, leide of th'eternall King,

Great commendation of the Hebrew tongue.

Thou brightly-shining Pearle, queene-mother of languages,
That spotlesse hast escap'd the dongeon of all ages:
Thou hast no word but wai'th; thy simplest elements
Are full of hidden sense; thy points haue Sacraments.
O holy dialect, in thee the proper names
Of men, townes, countries, are th'abridgements of their fames
And memorable deeds: the names of winged bands,
Of water-habitants, and armies of the Lands,
Are open treatises whereout a man might gather
Their natures historie, before th'heau'n-rowling father,
By mans offence prouokt with flaming Symiteer,
The way of Eden caru'd from these base countries here.

For Adam when in tok'n of his prerogatiue

Adam gaue Hebrew names to all creatures according to their nature.

He did in true Elise each creature title giue
When as before his eyes in muster generall
Two by two, side by side, in ranke they marched all;
He chose the names so fit, that eu'ry learned eare
Which vnderstood the sound, might als the wonders heare
Whereby th'alforming word did richly beautifie,
Or those that liue in wet, or those that liue in dry.

And for each body must or suffer thing, or doe,

He enriched the tongue with verbs and clauses

When he the nownes had fram'd, the verbs he ioyn'd thereto;
And more to beautifie this goodly ground of pleading,
He many titles made, that serue for knots in reading,
The parts of most account to ioyne, as best it sits,
Right as a little glew two plankes of timber knits;
As eke for ornament like wauing plume of Feathers,
Which on the chamfred top of shining helmet weathers:
Or as Marbl'Images their foot-stals haue and bases,

And siluer cups their eares, and veluet robes their laces.

This tongue that Adam spake, till in bad time arriu'd

The Hebrew tongue continued generally spoken, from Adam to Nimrod then it remained onely in the familie of Heber: whence it was called Hebrew.

That heau'n assaulting Prince, sincerely was deriu'd
From Father vnto Sonne, the worlds circumference
Did throughly sound the tunes of her rich eloquence:
But after partiall woxe and quickly she retir'd
To Hebers Family; for either he was not hir'd
Among the rebell crew, or wisely did abide
Farre from the Sennar plaine in so disaster tyde.
Or, if he thither were with other moe constrained,
In corners worship'd God and secretly complained,
And so with slauish hand them holpe to build the wall
Against his will, and wisht it sodainly might fall
Into the darkest hell; as gally-slaue in guyues
That combating the Sea most miserably striues
Against his libertie, and curseth in his heart
The head for whom he toyles in such a painefull art.
Or beit th'eternall God, with his hand euer-giuing,
Preuenting as it were the workes of men well liuing,
For his owne honours sake, and of his onely grace,
This treasure least in trust with Hebers holy race:
While all th'vngodly rest of Masons ill-bested
A hundred thousand wayes the same disfigured,
And eu'rychone dispers'd where destinie them taried,
Into their new-found land a new-made language caried.

But softly sliding Age, whose enuie all doth waste,

The first languages deriued from the Hebrew are each of them againe diuided into diuers others.

Those ancient languages soone eu'ry'chone defac'd,
Which in the thunder-sound of Masons clattring hands
On Tygris banke deuis'd had ouerspread the lands:
And that the world may be more out of order left,
Into a many tongues the least of them hath cleft.

And language altereth by reason of Merchandise,

Whence commeth the alteration of a tongue.

Which bringing vs to land the diuers treasuries
Of azure Amphatrite, and sending ours aboord,
With good successe assaies to change vs word for word:
Or when the learned man delightfully endighting,
With guilt and curled words attires his wanton writing,
And hunting after praise some stampe ne'r seene before
Sets both on deedes and things; or doth at least restore
Disclaimed words to vse, and makes anew be borne
The same that ouer-age with rot and mould had worne.
For herein fals it out as with leaues in a wood,
One sheds, another growes; the words that once were good
And like faire Lyllie-flowers in greenest Medow strew'd,
All ou'r a learned stile their glittring beauty shew'd,
Now are not in request; but, sith Court them exiles,
They blush and hide themselues eu'n vnder cottage tiles:

And such as long agoe were censur'd curiously,
For base and counterfeit, now passe-on currently.

A well-esteemed wit, discreet and fortunate,
May warrant words to passe, albe they but of late
His owne efforged ware; he on the naturall
May graffe some forraine impe, his language therewithall
Enriching more and more, and with a diuers glosse
Enameling his talke, his Poetry or Prose.

Some language hath no Law, but vse vntame and blinde
That runneth wheresoe're the peopl' as light as winde;
Goes headlong driuing it: another closely running
Within the bounds of Art, her phrases fits with cunning:
Some one straight waxing old as soone as it is borne
Is buried in the cradl'; anoth'r it is not worne
With file of many yeeres; some one faint-couraged
Within a straight precinct liues euer prisoned;
Another boldly doth from Alexanders altar
Among the learned reach vnto the Mount Gibraltar:
And such now th'Ebrew tongue, the Greeke and Latine be:

Hebrew, Greeke, and Latine the best of al tongues

For Hebrew still doth hold, as by her hand doe we,
The sacred word of God, eternall mak'r of all,
And was of Lawes diuine the true Originall:
The Greeke, as one that hath within her learned writ
Comprized all the skill of mans refined wit:
And Latine, for the sword, wherewith her eloquence
Was planted through the worlds so wide circumference.

When this I wrote, behold, with tysing labour led

The Poet takes breath to enter afresh into the next discourse, where by way of a Vision, he cunningly describeth the principall tongues, with their best authors

Of Pallas heau'nly skill, full heauy grew mine head:
And now and then I strike my chin vpon my brest,
That softly both mine eyes are closed vp to rest
With sweet Ambrosian dew; knit is my senses band,
And fairely slides my pen forth of my fainting hand.
Vpon my flattring couch I spread my selfe againe,
And plonge in Lethe-streame all troubles of my braine:
So drowne I all my care, saue one, that with no trance
Is discontinued, to please and profit France;
Whose sacred forge of loue, that me enflamed keepes,
Will not let sleepe my soule although my body sleepes.
Then golden-winged dreame from of th'East-Indy shore
Came forth at Christall gate, and little while before
The day-gate was vnlockt to valley of pleasant ayre
By fancie led my soule, where day, night, foule and faire,
The North winds & the South, the Summer & Winters hew,
The spring and fall of leafe did neu'r each other ensue:
Where alway raigned May and Zepherus bedight

VVith rosie coronets did breath-on day and night,
A young woods whizzing boughes, that blossomes sweet did yeeld,
And ouall-wise bewald the flowre-embossed field
In middle point of all this ammell-blooming glade
Arose a mighty rocke in footstall-manner made;
Vpon the top thereof a brasse-colosse did stand,
That in the left hand held a flaming fierbrand,
And in the right a spout; she shew'd a golden tongue,
And thence a many chaines all o're the medow sprong,
That worlds of hearers drew, with fine deuise of art;
For some were held by th'eares, & some were held by th'hart.
Before her feet the Boare, that forrest wilde had haunted,
The Tiger slept, and Beare, all aft'r a sort enchaunted.
The neighbour hillocks leapt, and woods reioyced round,
Carranting (as it were) at her sweet voices sound.

A double circled row of pillers high and dight
By cunning workmans hand all aft'r a Carian right
With bases vnder-pinn'd, to fasten their foundation,
Beset this goodly shrine of eloquent Oration;
And foure by foure bore-vp amid-them one language
Of those that flourish most in this our learned age.

Among the blessed wits, to whom was giu'n the grace
To beare-vp th'Ebrew tongue in such a sacred place;

1. The Hebrue.

The man whose fore-head shines, as doth a blazing starre,
Skie-gracing, frighting-men; who for his scepter barre
A seare, yet budding, rod, and hath in fingers hent
The ten-fould register of Gods Commandement;
Is he that Isac led: and first authoritie,
Both of free stile and verse, left to posteritie:
Such holy works as doe not onely long fore-run
The writings of the Greekes, but all that Greece hath done.
The second Dauid is, whose touch right cunningly
Combined with his voyce drawes downe sweet harmony
From th'Organized heau'ns, on harpe that aye shall sound
As long as dayes great starre shall o're our heads goe round:
Nay long'r, as who can tell, when all these heau'nly lights
Are at their measures end, but that the blessed sprights,

And Champions of Christ, at sound of his accords
Shall honour with a dance th'Almighty Lord of Lords:
When all the Quire of heau'n, and bands of winged ghosts,
Shall Holy, holy sing, O holy Lord of hosts.
The third is Salomon, whose worke more brightly beames

With golden sentences, then doth his crowne with gems.

The last is Amos sonne, beset with graces all,
Graue, holy, full of threats, deuout, rhetoricall.

The Greeke on Homer leanes; who sweetly versifies,

2. The Greeke.

Whose learned schoole hath taught a many Companies
Of old Philosophers, and from whose cunning plea
Run riuers through the world, as from an Ocean Sea.

On Plato th'all-diuine, who like the bird we call
The bird of paradise, ne soyles himselfe at all
VVith earth or waters touch; but, more then hels descent
Surmounted is by heau'n, surmounts the firmament.

On Herodote the plaine; and him, of pleaders arts
The Law Demosthenes, the guilt-tongue Prince of harts.
Then he that thunder-speaks, with lightning blast and shine
The Foe of Anthonie, the scourge of Catiline,

3. The Latine.

The spring of thousand floods wherein the rarest wits
Doe daily toyle themselues agast with wonder-fits;
And Cœsar, that can doe as well as he can plead:
And sinowie Salust next; then he that Troy doth lead
Againe to Tyber-shore, a writer sent from heauen,
That neuer shuts his eyes to slumber, morne or eu'n;
That euer treadeth sure, is euer plaine and graue;
Demurely venterous, and temperately braue;
That still is like himselfe, and vnlike others all;
These hold the sweet-graue tongue was last imperiall.
Th'Italian founded is on Boccace pleasurous;
With Petrarch finely dight, bould and sententious;

4. The Italian.

On flowing Ariost, selfe-vnlike, passionate;
With Tasso, worthy wight to frame a verse of State,
Sharpe, short, fil'd, figured, with language rowling fast,

The first to be esteem'd albeet he wrote the last.

Th'Arabian tongue is here most worthily sustained

5. The Arabian.

By great Auerroes deep-reaching, suttle-brained;
Ibnufarid the smooth allegorizing wag;
And faire-spoake Auicen, and Satyr Eldebag.

The glory of Wittenberg and Isleb, Martin Luther
Is one that beares the Dutch; another is Michael Buther,

6. The Dutch.

Who Sleydan Almaned; my Butrick is the next;
With Peucer, who reguilds his all-entising text.

Then Boscan, then Gueuare, Grenade and Gracilas,

7. The Spanish.

With Nectar all distain'd, that mantleth in the glasse
Of hony-powring Peith, vpheld the Castillane.
And had not th'ancient grace of speaking Catallane
Osias ouer-pleas'd, his learning might haue bore
The Spanish Crowne of Bay from one of th'other foure.

The burd'n of th'English tongue I finde here vndertaken

8. The English.

By quicke Sir Thomas More, and graue Sir Nicolas Bacon;
They knit and rais'd the stile, and were both eloquent,
And Keepers of the Seale, and skill'd in gouernment.
Sir Philip Sydn'y is next, who sung as sweet as Swan
That flaps the swelling waues of Tems with siluer fan:
This Riu'r his honour beares, and eloquence together,
To snow-foot Thetis lap, and Thetis eu'ry whither.
But what new sunne is this that beames vpon mine eyes?
Or, am I rapt amongst the heau'nly companies?

For the fourth piller of the English tongue hee nameth our gratious Queene Elizabeth, duly and truly praising her for wisdome, maintenance of peace, learning, and eloquence.

O what a princely grace! what State Emperiall!
What pleasant-lightning eyes! what face Angelicall!
Say, O yee learned guirles begot of heau'nly breath,
Is't not the wise Minerue, the great Elizabeth?
Who rules the Briton stout with such a tendering,
That neuer did he wish to change her for a King.
She whiles her neighbour Lands are spoil'd with sword and fire,
By Furies weary of hell, with head of snakie tire,
And, whiles the darke affright of tempest roring-great
Doth to the worlds Carack a fearefull ship wrack threat,
Retaines in happie peace her Isle, where true beliefe
And honorable Lawes are reckned of in chiefe.

She hath not only gift of plentie delectable
To speake her Mother-tongue; but readily is able
In Latine, Spanish, French (without premeditation)
In Greeke, Italian, Dutch, to make as good Oration,
As Greece can, as can France, as Rome Imperiall,
As Rhine, as Arne can, plead in their naturall.

O bright Pearle of the North, martiall Mars-conquering,
Loue still and cherish th'Arts, and heare the Muses sing:
And, in case any time my verses winged-light
Shall ouer th'Ocean Sea to thine Isle take their flight,
And by some happie chance into that faire hand slide,
Which doth so many men with lawfull Scepter guide;
O reade with gracious eye and fauourable thought:
I want thine eloquence to praise thee as I ought.

But what are those of France? this Image was vnshap'd,

9. The French.

Whence hath the bunglar hand of Idle mason skrap'd,
No more then th'harder skales of eu'ry rugged knot;
Thee (Marot) sure it meanes, that labourest so hot
Without Art Artist-like, and prickt with Phœbus Lance
Remouest Helicon from Italy to France.
Thee (Clement) I regard eu'n as an old Colosse,
All soiled, all to broke, and ouergrow'n with mosse;
As tabl' or tombe defac'd, more for th'antiquitie,
Then any bewty in them, or cunning that I see.

What one this other is, I scarce remember me;
A Cunning one he seemes, what one soere he be.
I rest yet in suspense, sometime he doth appeare
To be Iames Amiot, sometime Blase Uigineere.

Great Ronsard is the next, who doth of Graces wrong
The Greeke and Latine both to grace his Mother-tongue;
And with a bould attempt doth mannage happily
All kinde of Argument, of stile, of Poetry.

De Mornay this man is, encountring Atheisme,
Iewes stubborne vnbeleefe, and foolish Paganisme,
With weapons of their owne; he godly, graue, and prest,
So solideth his stile both simpl' and courtly-drest,
That feather'd with faire words his reasons sharpe as darts

Instrike themselues adeepe into the brauest hearts.

Then thus I spake to them, ô bright, ô goodly wits

The Poets desire considering the learned Writers of France.

Who in most happie case haue consecrate your writs
To Immortalities sith that my feeble shoulders
May not among you be the French renownes vpholders,
Alas! sith I vneth you follow can with eye
Vpon the twy-top hill so neare acoast the skie:
Yet suffer me at least here prostrate to embrace
Your honourable knees! ô giue me leaue to place
Vpon your shining heads a garland of the Spring,
And of your goodnesse grant that these meane tunes I sing
May in your glory draw an euerlasting glory,
And alway this my verse may register your story.

They yeelding to my suit, made semblance with their head;

The end of the Vision.

So vanished the vale, and all the pillars fled:
In like sort had the dreame with them together hasted,
But that I with mine Inke his nimble feathers pasted.