Babilon, a part of the seconde weeke of Gvillavme de Salvste Seignevr dv Bartas With the Commentarie, and marginall Notes of S. G. S. Englished by William Lisle |
 |
 | Babilon, a part of the seconde weeke of Gvillavme de Salvste Seignevr dv Bartas |  |
Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit vtile dulci.
TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, Charles lord Howard, baron of Effingham,
Knight of the most renowmed order of the Garter, one of hir Maiesties priuie Councell,
and Lord high Admirall of England, &c.
9
BABILON.
O how great good it is to liue vnder a Prince,
That counts more thā his weal, the weal of his puince!
Still hark'ning to the wise, no eare to gloser lending,
The wicked punishing, and honest man defending:
That sou'raigne of himselfe, doth all vice ouer-awe,
More by his honest life, than punishment, or lawe:
That being inward meeke, outward maiesticall,
Hath, for his persons guard, loue of his subiects all.
That makes no idol of his bright imperled Mace;
And knowing himselfe set on stages highest place,
Where to controll his works, a world hath him in sight,
Doth not what ere him list, but rather what is right.
But sure a hell it is to liue in seruitude,
A mans whole course of life, vnder a Tyrant rude:
Such one as Dionyse, that with hot coles him shau'd,
Or Nero, that his house with incest all deprau'd:
Or as an owle, that hates the light of gouernment,
Of parlament and peeres, that feares the prattlement
Of euery priuate toong, that for his best delight,
His subiects sets at ods, and still maintains their spight.
Ne're sets before his eies faith, honour or iustice,
But raiseth eurie day office vpon office:
Nor would his subiects were the best learn'd, wisest, strongest,
But eu'rie day crops off, that eare whose stalke is longest
Throughout his haruest field: and worse than Tigre wood,
Will not his kindred spare, no not his brothers blood.
Who though enuironed with sword and halberds aid,
Yet feares much people, more than he doth make afraid:
Reioyceth to inuent, new taxes generall,
And his owne to the bones, eates like a Caniball.
That counts more thā his weal, the weal of his puince!
Still hark'ning to the wise, no eare to gloser lending,
The wicked punishing, and honest man defending:
That sou'raigne of himselfe, doth all vice ouer-awe,
More by his honest life, than punishment, or lawe:
That being inward meeke, outward maiesticall,
Hath, for his persons guard, loue of his subiects all.
That makes no idol of his bright imperled Mace;
And knowing himselfe set on stages highest place,
Where to controll his works, a world hath him in sight,
Doth not what ere him list, but rather what is right.
But sure a hell it is to liue in seruitude,
A mans whole course of life, vnder a Tyrant rude:
Such one as Dionyse, that with hot coles him shau'd,
Or Nero, that his house with incest all deprau'd:
Or as an owle, that hates the light of gouernment,
Of parlament and peeres, that feares the prattlement
Of euery priuate toong, that for his best delight,
His subiects sets at ods, and still maintains their spight.
Ne're sets before his eies faith, honour or iustice,
But raiseth eurie day office vpon office:
Nor would his subiects were the best learn'd, wisest, strongest,
But eu'rie day crops off, that eare whose stalke is longest
Throughout his haruest field: and worse than Tigre wood,
Will not his kindred spare, no not his brothers blood.
Who though enuironed with sword and halberds aid,
Yet feares much people, more than he doth make afraid:
Reioyceth to inuent, new taxes generall,
And his owne to the bones, eates like a Caniball.
Imprint (O king of heau'n) within our princes brests,
Loue to their people-ward, and reu'rence of thine hests.
And incase any courtiers poysoned language,
Or these enormities familiar in our age,
Shall leaue there any taint of Nimrods propertie,
Draw thereupon thy quill, and rase it speedily:
That for proud Babels towre they may thy Sion reare,
And my Muse vnder them may chaunt it eu'ry where.
Loue to their people-ward, and reu'rence of thine hests.
And incase any courtiers poysoned language,
Or these enormities familiar in our age,
10
Draw thereupon thy quill, and rase it speedily:
That for proud Babels towre they may thy Sion reare,
And my Muse vnder them may chaunt it eu'ry where.
12
Nimrod scarce yet in age to twelue yeeres did arise,
But ouer all his peeres, he sets to tyrannise:
He ouergrowes them all, and of his might future,
The ground-worke planteth he vpon so good Augure:
And bearing in his hand, in steed of scepters reedes,
Among the shepheard-swaines begins his prentise-deedes.
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 passed not the night drown'd in a featherbed,
Nor yet the day in shade: but yoong accustomed
Himselfe to good and ill, making ambitiously
His boulster of a rocke, his curtaines of the skie.
Sweate is his sweet delight, his games are bow and arrowes,
His Ganimeads the lists, his haukes the little sparrowes.
His most delicious meat, the flesh of tender kid,
Which trembleth yet, and scarce is from the skin vnhid.
Somtime he sports himselfe, to conquer with one breth,
Some craggie rocks asscent that ouer-peeres 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, vnbrid'led gallops fast,
All ouerthwart the stones, in some strait vallie cast:
Or else after his cast, to catch againe his dart,
Or in plaine field on foote, to take the Hinde or Hart.
But ouer all his peeres, he sets to tyrannise:
He ouergrowes them all, and of his might future,
The ground-worke planteth he vpon so good Augure:
And bearing in his hand, in steed of scepters reedes,
Among the shepheard-swaines begins his prentise-deedes.
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 passed not the night drown'd in a featherbed,
Nor yet the day in shade: but yoong accustomed
Himselfe to good and ill, making ambitiously
His boulster of a rocke, his curtaines of the skie.
13
His Ganimeads the lists, his haukes the little sparrowes.
His most delicious meat, the flesh of tender kid,
Which trembleth yet, and scarce is from the skin vnhid.
Somtime he sports himselfe, to conquer with one breth,
Some craggie rocks asscent that ouer-peeres 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, vnbrid'led gallops fast,
All ouerthwart the stones, in some strait vallie cast:
Or else after his cast, to catch againe his dart,
Or in plaine field on foote, to take the Hinde or Hart.
But now once ouerpast twenty fiue yeeres of age,
And feeling with high minde, his sinewes and courage
Worthie a fiercer Mars, if he know any where
A Lion, a Leopard, a Tigre, or a Beare,
He fearlesse sets thereon, kils, conquereth, and foiles,
And plants in highest place of those the bloodie spoiles.
The people then that see, by his hands martiall frayes,
From those boot-hailers wilde, each-where set free the wayes,
The fearfull cattels heardes, and all the waste forests
Rid of their hideous cries, loues this tamer of beasts,
This chase-ill Hercules, and shewes him speciall fauour,
And cals him euermore their father and their sauiour.
And feeling with high minde, his sinewes and courage
Worthie a fiercer Mars, if he know any where
A Lion, a Leopard, a Tigre, or a Beare,
He fearlesse sets thereon, kils, conquereth, and foiles,
And plants in highest place of those the bloodie spoiles.
The people then that see, by his hands martiall frayes,
From those boot-hailers wilde, each-where set free the wayes,
The fearfull cattels heardes, and all the waste forests
Rid of their hideous cries, loues this tamer of beasts,
This chase-ill Hercules, and shewes him speciall fauour,
And cals him euermore their father and their sauiour.
Nimrod now by the haire hand-fasting this good fortune,
And striking th'iron hot, doth flatter, presse, importune,
Somtime some, somtime others, and hasting to his blisse,
Before that hunted beasts, now of men hunter is.
For as he did imploy, in his hunting before,
The grins, hare-pipes, and traps, and all the limie store:
And further at his need, against the most haggarts,
The heauie clubs, the shafts, the sharpe swords, and the darts:
So some mens harts he gaines, by faire hopes closely stealing,
Others he wins by gifts, and others by hard dealing,
And breaking furiously the bonds of equitie,
Of that respringing world, vsurpes the Royaltie.
Whereas in time before the chiefe of each houshold
The same did rule apart, nor did the yoong-man bold,
Boyst'rous, ambitious, vpon a wanton braue,
His sickle thrust (as now) in haruest of the graue.
And striking th'iron hot, doth flatter, presse, importune,
Somtime some, somtime others, and hasting to his blisse,
Before that hunted beasts, now of men hunter is.
For as he did imploy, in his hunting before,
The grins, hare-pipes, and traps, and all the limie store:
And further at his need, against the most haggarts,
The heauie clubs, the shafts, the sharpe swords, and the darts:
So some mens harts he gaines, by faire hopes closely stealing,
Others he wins by gifts, and others by hard dealing,
And breaking furiously the bonds of equitie,
Of that respringing world, vsurpes the Royaltie.
Whereas in time before the chiefe of each houshold
14
Boyst'rous, ambitious, vpon a wanton braue,
His sickle thrust (as now) in haruest of the graue.
15
Now he enthroned is, by force he will haue wrought
A thousand cruelties, carelessely sets at naught
Lawes both of God and man, out-braues th'almightie king,
And reares vp to his nose the scepter florishing.
And least the people at length (ease puffing vp their pride)
Should thinke to cast his yoke, he keeps them occupide.
He powreth foorth his coyne, and makes them labour still,
In building of a Towre, more like an Atlas hill.
We liue too long (quoth he) thus like beasts wandering:
Let's leaue these gadding tents, these houses wayfaring:
A pallace let vs build, that stately may be ioynt,
In Base vnto the deepe, and vnto heau'n in Poynt.
A Sanctuarie safe, and priuiledg'd refuge,
Against the swelling rage of a rauenous Deluge.
Come let vs build a Towne, and there incorporate,
Passe the rest of our daies vnder a royall state:
Least that we sundered in tents with many princes,
Be scattered abroad throughout all the prouinces,
That with bright shining course are viewd by Phœbes brother,
Not able then to helpe, or counsell one another:
And in case burning coles of at-home-breed sedition,
Or what mishap so e're, shall driue vs to diuision,
Yet brothers, let vs leaue for lasting monument
Our names grau'n on these wals, high as the firmament.
A thousand cruelties, carelessely sets at naught
Lawes both of God and man, out-braues th'almightie king,
And reares vp to his nose the scepter florishing.
And least the people at length (ease puffing vp their pride)
Should thinke to cast his yoke, he keeps them occupide.
He powreth foorth his coyne, and makes them labour still,
In building of a Towre, more like an Atlas hill.
We liue too long (quoth he) thus like beasts wandering:
Let's leaue these gadding tents, these houses wayfaring:
A pallace let vs build, that stately may be ioynt,
In Base vnto the deepe, and vnto heau'n in Poynt.
A Sanctuarie safe, and priuiledg'd refuge,
Against the swelling rage of a rauenous Deluge.
Come let vs build a Towne, and there incorporate,
Passe the rest of our daies vnder a royall state:
Least that we sundered in tents with many princes,
Be scattered abroad throughout all the prouinces,
That with bright shining course are viewd by Phœbes brother,
Not able then to helpe, or counsell one another:
And in case burning coles of at-home-breed sedition,
Or what mishap so e're, shall driue vs to diuision,
Yet brothers, let vs leaue for lasting monument
Our names grau'n on these wals, high as the firmament.
Like as the Vulcan weake, that some chill companie,
Of shepheards in the leaffie verges haue let lie
Of some one forest wide, awhile it selfe keepes in,
Yet vomiting smoke-waues, dark'neth the bright welkin:
Then by soft Zephyrs helpe, whiles in low bush it lurks,
Makes a red flaming way to his fierce angers works;
Vp to the blooming Thorne, fro th'humble bush it stirs,
From thorne to oke, from oke vp to the tallest firs,
And still it gaineth ground, by running force it findes,
No Dryades it leaues within their natiue rindes:
Right so this pleasant speech soone as his toong had plac'd,
Of some few Fauorites with praise it was imbrac'd:
And straight with giddie-braines it goes from hand to hand,
Eu'n to the baser sort of people through the land,
Who greatly bent to see the great Towre perfect made,
Themselues toyle day and night, eu'rychone in his trade.
Some trip great Asshes downe, with sharp-edg'd axes strokes,
Some fell the sailing Elmes, and some th'enduring okes.
So they degrade the woods, and shew vnto the Sunne
The ground where his bright eye before had neuer shunne.
Hast thou at any time, an armie seene to sacke
A citie vanquished? ther's griefe and ioy no lacke,
Togither hurly burl'd, one carteth, one takes hold,
One drawes, another leades, and there the soldiour bold
Can finde no place too sure, nor yet no locke too strong,
The whole towne in one day forth at the gates doth throng:
So do these carpenters pill off in one moment,
From those Assyrian hils, the shaking ornament
Of their shadie Deserts, despoyle they the mountains,
And boiling hot mow down the trembling branched plains.
The waines and teemes of Mules, scarce one by other wend:
The groning axeltrees, o'rcharg'd with loades do bend.
Heere to make morter hard, one day and night is bruing,
Of some thicke slimy poole the water flatly gluing:
Heere the brick-burner bakes within his smokie kell
Claie into stone, and heere some hollow downe to hell
So deepe foundations, that many a damned spright
Gazeth on once againe the sunnes vnhoped light.
All heau'n replyes the sound of their maules clitter clatters,
And Tigris feeles his fish all trembling vnd'r his waters.
The ruddie coloured wals in length and height do growe,
Far do they cast a shade, far do they make a showe.
With workmen al's turmoyl'd, the feeble and mortall frie,
Thinke at the first daies work, their hand shall reach the skie.
Of shepheards in the leaffie verges haue let lie
Of some one forest wide, awhile it selfe keepes in,
Yet vomiting smoke-waues, dark'neth the bright welkin:
Then by soft Zephyrs helpe, whiles in low bush it lurks,
Makes a red flaming way to his fierce angers works;
Vp to the blooming Thorne, fro th'humble bush it stirs,
From thorne to oke, from oke vp to the tallest firs,
And still it gaineth ground, by running force it findes,
16
Right so this pleasant speech soone as his toong had plac'd,
Of some few Fauorites with praise it was imbrac'd:
And straight with giddie-braines it goes from hand to hand,
Eu'n to the baser sort of people through the land,
Who greatly bent to see the great Towre perfect made,
Themselues toyle day and night, eu'rychone in his trade.
Some trip great Asshes downe, with sharp-edg'd axes strokes,
Some fell the sailing Elmes, and some th'enduring okes.
So they degrade the woods, and shew vnto the Sunne
The ground where his bright eye before had neuer shunne.
Hast thou at any time, an armie seene to sacke
A citie vanquished? ther's griefe and ioy no lacke,
Togither hurly burl'd, one carteth, one takes hold,
One drawes, another leades, and there the soldiour bold
Can finde no place too sure, nor yet no locke too strong,
The whole towne in one day forth at the gates doth throng:
So do these carpenters pill off in one moment,
From those Assyrian hils, the shaking ornament
Of their shadie Deserts, despoyle they the mountains,
And boiling hot mow down the trembling branched plains.
The waines and teemes of Mules, scarce one by other wend:
The groning axeltrees, o'rcharg'd with loades do bend.
Heere to make morter hard, one day and night is bruing,
Of some thicke slimy poole the water flatly gluing:
Heere the brick-burner bakes within his smokie kell
Claie into stone, and heere some hollow downe to hell
So deepe foundations, that many a damned spright
Gazeth on once againe the sunnes vnhoped light.
All heau'n replyes the sound of their maules clitter clatters,
And Tigris feeles his fish all trembling vnd'r his waters.
The ruddie coloured wals in length and height do growe,
Far do they cast a shade, far do they make a showe.
With workmen al's turmoyl'd, the feeble and mortall frie,
Thinke at the first daies work, their hand shall reach the skie.
God seeing this, to wrath inclin'd his countenance,
And with a thundring sound, that doth like tempest glance,
Downe through the clowdy plain, that doth hils ouerthrow,
And makes heau'ns stedfast 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 mightie wals they build! O th'impregnable castle,
Of strength to beare my shot, and with my wroth to wrastle!
I sware an oth to them, hencefoorth the fruitfull ground
Should neuer stand in feare of waters breaking bound:
They doubting, fense themselues: I would by their extent
Haue peopled all the world, they by themselues here pent
Are prisner-like emparkt: I would haue bin for euer
Their master, their defence, their shepheard, their law-giuer;
And they haue chose for king a sauage liue-by-spoyle,
A tyrant seeking gaine by their great losse and toyle:
Who doth my force despise, and with vaine-glorie swo'ne,
Attempts to scale the wals, of my most holy throne.
Come, let's breake off their drift, and sith by speeches vnitie,
As by will, as by law, and as by consanguinitie,
They hart'ned are to ill, and with a saucie toong,
Waxe mad vpon this worke all night and all day long;
Let's set a pulbacke on their hastie-pac'd intention,
And strike them quickly with the spirit of dissention.
Their language let's confound, and make both one and other,
Sire barbarous to his sonne, and brother deafe to brother.
And with a thundring sound, that doth like tempest glance,
17
And makes heau'ns stedfast 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 mightie wals they build! O th'impregnable castle,
Of strength to beare my shot, and with my wroth to wrastle!
I sware an oth to them, hencefoorth the fruitfull ground
Should neuer stand in feare of waters breaking bound:
They doubting, fense themselues: I would by their extent
Haue peopled all the world, they by themselues here pent
Are prisner-like emparkt: I would haue bin for euer
Their master, their defence, their shepheard, their law-giuer;
And they haue chose for king a sauage liue-by-spoyle,
A tyrant seeking gaine by their great losse and toyle:
Who doth my force despise, and with vaine-glorie swo'ne,
Attempts to scale the wals, of my most holy throne.
Come, let's breake off their drift, and sith by speeches vnitie,
As by will, as by law, and as by consanguinitie,
They hart'ned are to ill, and with a saucie toong,
Waxe mad vpon this worke all night and all day long;
Let's set a pulbacke on their hastie-pac'd intention,
And strike them quickly with the spirit of dissention.
Their language let's confound, and make both one and other,
Sire barbarous to his sonne, and brother deafe to brother.
Thus had he said, and straight confusedly there went
I know not what a noise throughout the battlement.
Right such a iangling sound as one heares in a band
Of slaues, whō drunkards God doth with his launce cōmand.
One doth his language toothe, another noze his note,
Another frames his words vnseemly through the throte,
One howles, and one doth hisse, another stuttereth;
Each hath his babble, and each in vaine endeuoreth
To find those loued termes those tunes before exprest,
That in their rowling cradle they drew from mothers brest.
Go get thee vp betimes, and whiles the morning gay
With Rainbow-glosse bedecks the portail of the day,
Giue eare awhile and marke the disagreeing moodes
Of those trim quiristers that sing amidst the woodes
Goodmorrow to their loues: where each one in his fashion,
Pearched vpon a bough, pronounceth his oration:
Then shalt thou vnderstand what mingle-mangle of sounds
Confusedly was heard among those mason-lounds:
A Trowell ho saith one, his mate a Beetle 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 too fare:
Giue me the line saith one, and one giues him the square.
He shoutes, he signes in vaine, and he with anger boyles,
And looke what one hath made, forthwith another spoyles.
With those confused cries they windles chafe in vaine:
Each one the more he striues the lesse appeeres his paine.
And shortly as the men that altogither stood
To build in channell deepe of some great rau'ning flood
High arches of a bridge, marking from hils descend
A hundred sudden streames, and now far to extend
The mountaine-hating waues, leaue off without aduise,
Scudding some here, some there, their goodly enterprise:
Right so these Architects, feeling the stormie smart
Of Gods displeasure rise, had neither strength nor hart.
But there they left their worke, and with hands malcontent,
Rules, mallets, plummets, lines, all down the Towre they sent.
I know not what a noise throughout the battlement.
Right such a iangling sound as one heares in a band
Of slaues, whō drunkards God doth with his launce cōmand.
One doth his language toothe, another noze his note,
Another frames his words vnseemly through the throte,
One howles, and one doth hisse, another stuttereth;
Each hath his babble, and each in vaine endeuoreth
To find those loued termes those tunes before exprest,
That in their rowling cradle they drew from mothers brest.
Go get thee vp betimes, and whiles the morning gay
With Rainbow-glosse bedecks the portail of the day,
Giue eare awhile and marke the disagreeing moodes
18
Goodmorrow to their loues: where each one in his fashion,
Pearched vpon a bough, pronounceth his oration:
Then shalt thou vnderstand what mingle-mangle of sounds
Confusedly was heard among those mason-lounds:
A Trowell ho saith one, his mate a Beetle 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 too fare:
Giue me the line saith one, and one giues him the square.
He shoutes, he signes in vaine, and he with anger boyles,
And looke what one hath made, forthwith another spoyles.
With those confused cries they windles chafe in vaine:
Each one the more he striues the lesse appeeres his paine.
And shortly as the men that altogither stood
To build in channell deepe of some great rau'ning flood
High arches of a bridge, marking from hils descend
A hundred sudden streames, and now far to extend
The mountaine-hating waues, leaue off without aduise,
Scudding some here, some there, their goodly enterprise:
Right so these Architects, feeling the stormie smart
Of Gods displeasure rise, had neither strength nor hart.
But there they left their worke, and with hands malcontent,
Rules, mallets, plummets, lines, all down the Towre they sent.
22
O proud rebellion, O traiterous impietie!
Marke in what maner sort by thy speeches varietie
God hath thee punished, alas that pleasant toong,
That holy bond of townes, of anger bridle strong,
Strong glue of amitie, once one, now doth wayfare
In hundred riuers drie; this gould so richly rare,
Wroth-taming, charming-care, men-drawing, hart-intāgling,
Both colour, waight, and sound, hath lost by mingle-mangling.
This gift corrupted is, and from the North to South
Babels confused fall sounds yet in eu'ry mouth.
The cold Finlanders once might visit Africans,
The Spanish Indians, th'English Americans,
Without interpreters; but now the compas small
That doth our cities bound, our language bounds withall:
And if we from our home but ne're so little went,
Dombe should we be, and reft of reasons instrument.
Or if we speake at least vnto our neybour nations,
'Tis by a borrow'd toong, or by strange animations.
Without schoole, without paines, sucking our mothers brest,
We might haue learn'd the tong that all mens minds exprest;
And after seu'n yeeres old, vpon small glistring sand
Begun to draw with skill the shape of sea and land,
To part and multiplie; and so from skill to skill
We might haue climbed soone the ridge of that high hill,
Where Arts perfection, in signe of their victorie,
Crowneth hir Fauorites with euerlasting glorie.
Now, infants we alwaies, soone as we learne to sound
The Latine, Hebrue, Greeke, are going to the ground.
We learne but prittle-prattle, and for the deepe inseeing
Of natures secresies, and of that onely Being
That makes all things to be, we labour, neuer staying,
Well to decline a Verbe, or find some prety saying:
Of letters and syllabs to way the quantitie,
Old knowing naught without masters auctoritie:
Who teach vs how to read, and put into our pawes
Some little Chriscrosrow, in stead of ciuill lawes,
And for Hippocrates, and for that holy wrighting
Where God himselfe reueales to Readers there delighting.
Marke in what maner sort by thy speeches varietie
God hath thee punished, alas that pleasant toong,
That holy bond of townes, of anger bridle strong,
Strong glue of amitie, once one, now doth wayfare
In hundred riuers drie; this gould so richly rare,
Wroth-taming, charming-care, men-drawing, hart-intāgling,
23
This gift corrupted is, and from the North to South
Babels confused fall sounds yet in eu'ry mouth.
The cold Finlanders once might visit Africans,
The Spanish Indians, th'English Americans,
Without interpreters; but now the compas small
That doth our cities bound, our language bounds withall:
And if we from our home but ne're so little went,
Dombe should we be, and reft of reasons instrument.
Or if we speake at least vnto our neybour nations,
'Tis by a borrow'd toong, or by strange animations.
Without schoole, without paines, sucking our mothers brest,
We might haue learn'd the tong that all mens minds exprest;
And after seu'n yeeres old, vpon small glistring sand
Begun to draw with skill the shape of sea and land,
To part and multiplie; and so from skill to skill
We might haue climbed soone the ridge of that high hill,
Where Arts perfection, in signe of their victorie,
Crowneth hir Fauorites with euerlasting glorie.
Now, infants we alwaies, soone as we learne to sound
The Latine, Hebrue, Greeke, are going to the ground.
We learne but prittle-prattle, and for the deepe inseeing
Of natures secresies, and of that onely Being
That makes all things to be, we labour, neuer staying,
Well to decline a Verbe, or find some prety saying:
Of letters and syllabs to way the quantitie,
Old knowing naught without masters auctoritie:
Who teach vs how to read, and put into our pawes
Some little Chriscrosrow, in stead of ciuill lawes,
And for Hippocrates, and for that holy wrighting
Where God himselfe reueales to Readers there delighting.
25
What shall I tell you more? Men spoke in eu'ry place
That holy Dialect, the language of Gods grace,
A parfit toong, that hath no Letter, no small tyttle,
But is embellished with mysteries not lyttle.
Now since this proud reuolt seu'rally people prate,
Depraued bibble-babbles, bastard, effeminate,
That eu'ry day do chaunge, and loosing all their light,
Scarse vtter any sound of that first language right.
That holy Dialect, the language of Gods grace,
A parfit toong, that hath no Letter, no small tyttle,
But is embellished with mysteries not lyttle.
Now since this proud reuolt seu'rally people prate,
Depraued bibble-babbles, bastard, effeminate,
That eu'ry day do chaunge, and loosing all their light,
Scarse vtter any sound of that first language right.
Long since the Phrygians and those by Nilus dwelling,
Nilus that nourisheth, and fats the ground by swelling,
Desirous to haue tri'de which was of more antiquitie
Of their two languages, trusted against all equitie
The right of eloquence to tender stammering,
And those that iudgement lackt made iudges of the thing:
To wit, two sucking Babes whom their two Mothers dombe
In Hermitages kept, where go man else did come:
No humain charming voice was heard sound neare the place
Of their toong-ty'de aboad, for whol three twelmonth space.
Then being called foorth and set betweene the people
Of Xanthus and of Nile, they cry with voices feoble,
And often cry they, Bec; bec bec is all the ground
That either toong can frame or else their mouth will sound.
Whereat the Phrygians that knew bec signify'de
In their owne language Bread, their countenances dy'de
With ioy their hart conceiu'd, bicause they were so blest,
To haue on their behalfe obtain'd natures arrest.
Nilus that nourisheth, and fats the ground by swelling,
Desirous to haue tri'de which was of more antiquitie
Of their two languages, trusted against all equitie
The right of eloquence to tender stammering,
And those that iudgement lackt made iudges of the thing:
To wit, two sucking Babes whom their two Mothers dombe
In Hermitages kept, where go man else did come:
No humain charming voice was heard sound neare the place
Of their toong-ty'de aboad, for whol three twelmonth space.
Then being called foorth and set betweene the people
Of Xanthus and of Nile, they cry with voices feoble,
And often cry they, Bec; bec bec is all the ground
That either toong can frame or else their mouth will sound.
Whereat the Phrygians that knew bec signify'de
In their owne language Bread, their countenances dy'de
With ioy their hart conceiu'd, bicause they were so blest,
26
O fooles, that litle thought how those bec-bleating flocks,
That shore the tender flowres from off the neybour rocks,
Had school'd them to this terme, & that the words Roomish,
French, Latin, Hebrue, Greeke, Egyptian or English,
Are not brought-forth with vs; but well may be discern'd
That each language by haunt and by long vse is learn'd.
Onely remaines a powre, this or that sound to place,
Gift naturall to men; as eeke that other grace,
Which variably rich, and richly variable,
Vs rendreth most vnlike heards brute and miserable.
And if thou list oppose how that the Bull doth bellow,
The slothfull Asse doth bray, the Lion cruell fellow,
Now treble rores, now base, and by those tunes we finde,
They seeme right eloquent to make vs know their minde;
Surely those are no words, they are but declarations
Of their disquiet stur, by meanes of some few passions;
Confused signes of griefe, and tokens of their sadnes,
Of ioyfulnes, of loue, of hunger, thirst, and madnes.
The like may well be said of that light winged quier
That to the verdaunt boughes of bushes doth retier,
Chirping before the sunne: for though against faire weather
Two by two, three by three, they seeme to talke together,
Though their voice bends it selfe a hundred thousand wayes,
Though they can descant bold a hundred wanton layes,
Though great Apolloes selfe within their schoole was taught,
'Tis but a groundlesse tune of notes intending naught:
A thousand times a day the selfesame song repeated,
A dombe discourse amids the trembling trees 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 aire,
With words of good import, diuers and chosen faire,
Vnfolding all his thoughts not by some one language:
But like to Scaliger the woonder of our age,
The lampe of learned men, can wisely speake, and much,
In Latine, Hebrue, Greeke, English, Italian, Dutch,
Spanish, Arabian, French, and Slauonian,
Chaldean, Syrian, and Æthiopian:
Who like Chameleon maketh his transformation
(O rich, O pliant wit!) to any auctors facion.
Great Iulies worthy sonne, great Siluies yonger brother
In Gasconie renowmd more than was euer other.
Now as for Popinjayes that passing all their ages
Within the pearced grates of thorow-aired cages,
Doubt not in eloquence to plead with vs for chiefe;
Pronounce all thorowout the Christian beliefe;
Repeat the praire deuout that from our Sauiour came,
And all the houshold call togither name by name;
They like to th'eccho be, our sounding voices daughter,
That through the vaulted Vales importune bableth after,
Not weening what she saith: in vaine this aire they breake,
And speaking without sense, they speake, and nothing speake:
Not hearing their owne voice; bicause the right language,
Naught is but of the minde the right sounding image:
Chiefly when it is short, when it is sweete and painted,
As that wherewith All were, ere Nimrods time, acquainted.
Now when I duly way how th'Ebrue toong doth shew
And readily expresse in words a very few
Most combersome conceits, and through each secret plight
Of reasons laberynth affoords the Reader light,
Much better than the Greeke with hir Synonymons,
Hir lofty Metaphors, hir bould Epithetons,
Hir compounding of words, hir tenses and hir cases,
And of so great request a thousand other graces:
When I consider well how that the schoole Rabine
Findes in the letter-row of that language diuine
All we beleeue with hart, all that with eie we see,
And that within the law all Arts comprised be:
Be it that with much ado one curiously assaies
The letters of each word to turne a hundred waies;
(For in Arithmetike as cyphers changing roome
Doth either much enhaunse or much abate the somme,
So th'Anagramme straight knits or else vndoth the grace
Of words whose letters take right enterchange of place)
Or beit to put togither thou rightly do deuise
The numbers mysticall that from the letters rise
Of some one Hebrue word, and vnder that one name
Another findest hid in number like the same;
Or that some word is know'n by some one element,
Or by some onely word a parfit speech is ment,
As in an Embleme short th'Egyptian silence
Was mystically woont to presse a long sentence.
When I consider well that from th'East-Indian sand
Vnto the flaming mount that borders Ireland,
From cold Tartarian seas to schorched Tambuts shore,
Thou Sunne no people see'st so voide of gentle lore,
No men so ignorant of Gods most holy law,
But they retaine as yet some words of Hebrue Saw;
And but their letters do (though out of order set)
Come neere the holy names of Moses Alphabet;
When with my selfe I way the sacred counterpawn
Of Gods old Testament was in those letters draw'n;
That Vrim, that the Dreame, and that Vision wise
But in the Hebrue toong spake not their Prophesies;
And that th'Eternals selfe would with his finger deigne
To graue in Hebrue words his Law on Marbles twaine;
And that since many yeeres the messengers Diuine
Did preach the ioyfull Word in language Palestine;
And when I farther way, that th'ancient Patriarchs
Had not their names impos'd without some reasons marks,
Yea such as fully shew'd (and that with great moment)
Of their whole course of life some famous accident,
And that a man may see that eu'ry ancient name
Both by sound and by sence from Hebrue language came,
As Eue, is consterd life; Cain, first of all begot;
Adam, create of clay; Abel, that profits not;
Seth, set in others place; and he surnamed Rest,
That saw th'all-stroying flood below the ground supprest;
I cannot choose but grant, though Greece do fret and fome,
The sacred elder right to th'Ebrewes Idiome.
That shore the tender flowres from off the neybour rocks,
Had school'd them to this terme, & that the words Roomish,
French, Latin, Hebrue, Greeke, Egyptian or English,
Are not brought-forth with vs; but well may be discern'd
That each language by haunt and by long vse is learn'd.
Onely remaines a powre, this or that sound to place,
Gift naturall to men; as eeke that other grace,
Which variably rich, and richly variable,
Vs rendreth most vnlike heards brute and miserable.
And if thou list oppose how that the Bull doth bellow,
The slothfull Asse doth bray, the Lion cruell fellow,
Now treble rores, now base, and by those tunes we finde,
They seeme right eloquent to make vs know their minde;
Surely those are no words, they are but declarations
Of their disquiet stur, by meanes of some few passions;
Confused signes of griefe, and tokens of their sadnes,
Of ioyfulnes, of loue, of hunger, thirst, and madnes.
The like may well be said of that light winged quier
That to the verdaunt boughes of bushes doth retier,
Chirping before the sunne: for though against faire weather
Two by two, three by three, they seeme to talke together,
Though their voice bends it selfe a hundred thousand wayes,
Though they can descant bold a hundred wanton layes,
Though great Apolloes selfe within their schoole was taught,
'Tis but a groundlesse tune of notes intending naught:
A thousand times a day the selfesame song repeated,
A dombe discourse amids the trembling trees 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 aire,
With words of good import, diuers and chosen faire,
Vnfolding all his thoughts not by some one language:
But like to Scaliger the woonder of our age,
The lampe of learned men, can wisely speake, and much,
In Latine, Hebrue, Greeke, English, Italian, Dutch,
27
Chaldean, Syrian, and Æthiopian:
Who like Chameleon maketh his transformation
(O rich, O pliant wit!) to any auctors facion.
Great Iulies worthy sonne, great Siluies yonger brother
In Gasconie renowmd more than was euer other.
Now as for Popinjayes that passing all their ages
Within the pearced grates of thorow-aired cages,
Doubt not in eloquence to plead with vs for chiefe;
Pronounce all thorowout the Christian beliefe;
Repeat the praire deuout that from our Sauiour came,
And all the houshold call togither name by name;
They like to th'eccho be, our sounding voices daughter,
That through the vaulted Vales importune bableth after,
Not weening what she saith: in vaine this aire they breake,
And speaking without sense, they speake, and nothing speake:
Not hearing their owne voice; bicause the right language,
Naught is but of the minde the right sounding image:
Chiefly when it is short, when it is sweete and painted,
As that wherewith All were, ere Nimrods time, acquainted.
33
And readily expresse in words a very few
Most combersome conceits, and through each secret plight
Of reasons laberynth affoords the Reader light,
Much better than the Greeke with hir Synonymons,
Hir lofty Metaphors, hir bould Epithetons,
Hir compounding of words, hir tenses and hir cases,
And of so great request a thousand other graces:
When I consider well how that the schoole Rabine
Findes in the letter-row of that language diuine
All we beleeue with hart, all that with eie we see,
And that within the law all Arts comprised be:
Be it that with much ado one curiously assaies
The letters of each word to turne a hundred waies;
(For in Arithmetike as cyphers changing roome
Doth either much enhaunse or much abate the somme,
So th'Anagramme straight knits or else vndoth the grace
Of words whose letters take right enterchange of place)
Or beit to put togither thou rightly do deuise
The numbers mysticall that from the letters rise
Of some one Hebrue word, and vnder that one name
Another findest hid in number like the same;
Or that some word is know'n by some one element,
Or by some onely word a parfit speech is ment,
As in an Embleme short th'Egyptian silence
Was mystically woont to presse a long sentence.
When I consider well that from th'East-Indian sand
Vnto the flaming mount that borders Ireland,
From cold Tartarian seas to schorched Tambuts shore,
Thou Sunne no people see'st so voide of gentle lore,
No men so ignorant of Gods most holy law,
But they retaine as yet some words of Hebrue Saw;
34
Come neere the holy names of Moses Alphabet;
When with my selfe I way the sacred counterpawn
Of Gods old Testament was in those letters draw'n;
That Vrim, that the Dreame, and that Vision wise
But in the Hebrue toong spake not their Prophesies;
And that th'Eternals selfe would with his finger deigne
To graue in Hebrue words his Law on Marbles twaine;
And that since many yeeres the messengers Diuine
Did preach the ioyfull Word in language Palestine;
And when I farther way, that th'ancient Patriarchs
Had not their names impos'd without some reasons marks,
Yea such as fully shew'd (and that with great moment)
Of their whole course of life some famous accident,
And that a man may see that eu'ry ancient name
Both by sound and by sence from Hebrue language came,
As Eue, is consterd life; Cain, first of all begot;
Adam, create of clay; Abel, that profits not;
Seth, set in others place; and he surnamed Rest,
That saw th'all-stroying flood below the ground supprest;
I cannot choose but grant, though Greece do fret and fome,
The sacred elder right to th'Ebrewes Idiome.
Then do I thee salute, O euer-running Spring
Of reasons portraiture, Phrase of th'eternall king,
Thou brightly-shining Pearle, Queene-mother of languages,
That spotles hast escap'd the Dungeon of all ages,
That hast no word but wai'th, whose very elements
Are full of hidden sence, whose points haue Sacraments,
O holy Dialect, in thee the proper names
Of men, towns, countries, are th'abridgments of their fames
And memorable deedes: the names of winged bands,
Of water-habitants, of armies of the lands,
Are open treatises, whereout each one might gather
Their natures histories, before th'heau'n-rowling father
By raging anger mou'd with flaming Symeteer
The way to Eden karu'd from these base cuntries heere.
Of reasons portraiture, Phrase of th'eternall king,
Thou brightly-shining Pearle, Queene-mother of languages,
That spotles hast escap'd the Dungeon of all ages,
That hast no word but wai'th, whose very elements
Are full of hidden sence, whose points haue Sacraments,
O holy Dialect, in thee the proper names
Of men, towns, countries, are th'abridgments of their fames
And memorable deedes: the names of winged bands,
Of water-habitants, of armies of the lands,
Are open treatises, whereout each one might gather
Their natures histories, before th'heau'n-rowling father
By raging anger mou'd with flaming Symeteer
The way to Eden karu'd from these base cuntries heere.
For when Adam, in signe of his preheminence,
Names did in true Elyse to all creatures dispence
Then when before his eies in muster generall
Two by two, side by side, in ranke they marched all,
He chose them all so fit, that eu'ry learned eare
Bearing the sound to minde, the maruailes might eke beare
Wherewith th'al-fourming word did richly beautifie
Both those that liue in wet, and those that liue in drie.
35
Then when before his eies in muster generall
Two by two, side by side, in ranke they marched all,
He chose them all so fit, that eu'ry learned eare
Bearing the sound to minde, the maruailes might eke beare
Wherewith th'al-fourming word did richly beautifie
Both those that liue in wet, and those that liue in drie.
And for each Body must suffer some thing, or do,
Whē he the Nounes had fram'd, the Verbes he ioyn'd therto;
Then, more to beautifie this goodly ground of pleading,
Many a tittle made, that serues to grace the reading,
The parts of most account to sow togither fit;
As doth a little glue two mightie planchers knit:
And farther serues as doth the wauing plume of feathers
That on the chamfred top of glistring helmet weathers:
To marble Images, as footstals do and bases
To siluer cups their eares, to veluet robes their laces.
Whē he the Nounes had fram'd, the Verbes he ioyn'd therto;
Then, more to beautifie this goodly ground of pleading,
Many a tittle made, that serues to grace the reading,
The parts of most account to sow togither fit;
As doth a little glue two mightie planchers knit:
And farther serues as doth the wauing plume of feathers
That on the chamfred top of glistring helmet weathers:
To marble Images, as footstals do and bases
To siluer cups their eares, to veluet robes their laces.
This toong that Adam spoke, till in bad time arriu'd
That heau'n-assaulting prince, sincerely was deriu'd
From father vnto sonne, the worlds circumference
Did throughly sound the tunes of hir rich eloquence:
But then as partiall full quickly was she gone
To Hebers familie, or bicause he was none
Of that rebellious band, or wisely did abide
Far from the Sennar plaine in that vnhappie tide;
Or if he thither were among the rest constrain'd
In corners worshipt God and secretly complain'd,
And so with slauish armes holpe them to build those wals
Which in despight he vow'd vnto the deepe entrals
Of darksom Tartarus: as gally-slaue in giues,
That combating the sea most miserably striues
Against his libertie, and curseth in his hart
Those for whom night and day he practiseth his art:
Or beit th'eternall God with his hands euer-giuing
Preuenting as it were the works of men well liuing,
For his owne honors sake, and of his onely grace,
This treasure left in trust with Hebers holy race;
When as of Masons proud the rest full ill bested
A hundred thousand waies the same disfigured,
And eu'ry one dispers'd where destinie them taried
Into a new-found land a new-made language caried.
That heau'n-assaulting prince, sincerely was deriu'd
From father vnto sonne, the worlds circumference
Did throughly sound the tunes of hir rich eloquence:
But then as partiall full quickly was she gone
To Hebers familie, or bicause he was none
Of that rebellious band, or wisely did abide
Far from the Sennar plaine in that vnhappie tide;
Or if he thither were among the rest constrain'd
In corners worshipt God and secretly complain'd,
And so with slauish armes holpe them to build those wals
Which in despight he vow'd vnto the deepe entrals
Of darksom Tartarus: as gally-slaue in giues,
That combating the sea most miserably striues
Against his libertie, and curseth in his hart
Those for whom night and day he practiseth his art:
Or beit th'eternall God with his hands euer-giuing
Preuenting as it were the works of men well liuing,
For his owne honors sake, and of his onely grace,
This treasure left in trust with Hebers holy race;
36
A hundred thousand waies the same disfigured,
And eu'ry one dispers'd where destinie them taried
Into a new-found land a new-made language caried.
46
But softly-sliding Age, that enuious all doth wast,
Those ancient languages soone eu'ry one defac'd
That in the thundring sound of masons clattring hands,
By Tygris banks deuis'd, had ouerspred the lands:
And, that the world might be more out of order left,
Into a many toongs the least of them hath cleft.
Those ancient languages soone eu'ry one defac'd
That in the thundring sound of masons clattring hands,
By Tygris banks deuis'd, had ouerspred the lands:
And, that the world might be more out of order left,
Into a many toongs the least of them hath cleft.
Each language altereth, beit for that marchandise
Imparting vnto vs the treasures of great prise
From azur'd Amphitrite, and sending ours aboord,
Bould with a good successe, oft changeth word for word:
Or that the learned man ingenuously endighting
With guilt and curled words tricks vp his wanton writing.
And hunting after praise some stampe nere seene before
Sets both on deeds and things, or doth at least restore
Disclaimed words to vse, and makes againe be borne
Those that with ouer-age, with rot and mould were worne.
With them it falleth out, as with leaues in a wood,
One fals, another growes; the words that once were good,
And, like faire Lillie floures in greenest medow strew'd,
Quite through the lerned speech their glittring beuty shew'd,
Now are not in request; but sith Court them exiles,
Asham'd they shrowd themselues vnder base cottage tiles:
And those that long-ago were censur'd curiously
For base and counterfait, now passe on currantly.
Imparting vnto vs the treasures of great prise
47
Bould with a good successe, oft changeth word for word:
Or that the learned man ingenuously endighting
With guilt and curled words tricks vp his wanton writing.
And hunting after praise some stampe nere seene before
Sets both on deeds and things, or doth at least restore
Disclaimed words to vse, and makes againe be borne
Those that with ouer-age, with rot and mould were worne.
With them it falleth out, as with leaues in a wood,
One fals, another growes; the words that once were good,
And, like faire Lillie floures in greenest medow strew'd,
Quite through the lerned speech their glittring beuty shew'd,
Now are not in request; but sith Court them exiles,
Asham'd they shrowd themselues vnder base cottage tiles:
And those that long-ago were censur'd curiously
For base and counterfait, now passe on currantly.
A courage bould led with discretion fortunate
May licence words to passe, although they but of late
Were forged in his shop, among plants naturall
May graffe some forraine imps, his language therewithall
Enriching more and more, and with a diuers glose
Enameling his talke, his Muses taske, or prose.
Some language hath no law, but Vse head-strong and blinde,
That runneth wheresoere the people light as winde
Goes headlong driuing it: another closely running
Within the bounds of Art, hir phrases frames with cunning:
Some one straight waxing old assoone as it is borne
The cradle hath to graue, another is not worne
With file of many yeeres; some liueth ill bested
Within a straight precinct for euer prisoned,
Another bouldly doth from Alexanders altar
Among the learned stretch vnto the mount Gibraltar.
Such now the Hebrue toong, the Greeke and Latine be;
Hebrue, for still she holds, and by hir hand hold we,
The Word, the sacred Word of God thrise-eternall,
And was of Lawes diuine the true originall:
The Greeke, as one that hath within hir learned writ
Plainly comprised all the knowledge of mans wit.
And valiant Latine eke, bicause hir eloquence
By sword was planted through the worlds circumference.
May licence words to passe, although they but of late
Were forged in his shop, among plants naturall
May graffe some forraine imps, his language therewithall
Enriching more and more, and with a diuers glose
Enameling his talke, his Muses taske, or prose.
Some language hath no law, but Vse head-strong and blinde,
That runneth wheresoere the people light as winde
Goes headlong driuing it: another closely running
Within the bounds of Art, hir phrases frames with cunning:
Some one straight waxing old assoone as it is borne
The cradle hath to graue, another is not worne
With file of many yeeres; some liueth ill bested
Within a straight precinct for euer prisoned,
Another bouldly doth from Alexanders altar
Among the learned stretch vnto the mount Gibraltar.
Such now the Hebrue toong, the Greeke and Latine be;
Hebrue, for still she holds, and by hir hand hold we,
The Word, the sacred Word of God thrise-eternall,
And was of Lawes diuine the true originall:
The Greeke, as one that hath within hir learned writ
48
And valiant Latine eke, bicause hir eloquence
By sword was planted through the worlds circumference.
50
Tracing these latter lines, halfe tyred as I were
With this entising paine of heau'nly Pallas Lere,
Still now and then I strike my chin vpon my brest,
And softly both mine eies begin to close to rest,
Moist with Ambrosian dew; knit is my senses band,
And fairely slides my pen foorth of my fainting hand.
Vpon my flattring couch I spread my selfe againe,
And plunge in Lethe-streame all troubles of my braine:
There drowne I all my cares, saue one, that with no traunce
Is discontinued, to please and profit Fraunce.
The sacred Forge of Loue, that me enflamed keepes,
Will not let sleepe my soule although my body sleepes.
With this entising paine of heau'nly Pallas Lere,
Still now and then I strike my chin vpon my brest,
And softly both mine eies begin to close to rest,
Moist with Ambrosian dew; knit is my senses band,
And fairely slides my pen foorth of my fainting hand.
Vpon my flattring couch I spread my selfe againe,
And plunge in Lethe-streame all troubles of my braine:
There drowne I all my cares, saue one, that with no traunce
Is discontinued, to please and profit Fraunce.
The sacred Forge of Loue, that me enflamed keepes,
Will not let sleepe my soule although my body sleepes.
And golden-winged Dreame rising in th'Easterne shore
Foorth at his Christall gate, a little while before
The Day-gate opened, into a Valley faire
Me led fantasticall, where day and nights fresh aire,
The north windes & the south, the drought & th'Ises mother
The faire daies and the foule, came not one after other:
There May did alway raigne, and Zephirus bedight
With Rosie coronets, blew nicely day and night
A woods soft-rustling boughes, that blossoms sweet did yeeld
And Oualwise bewall'd the flowr-embroidred field.
Foorth at his Christall gate, a little while before
The Day-gate opened, into a Valley faire
Me led fantasticall, where day and nights fresh aire,
The north windes & the south, the drought & th'Ises mother
The faire daies and the foule, came not one after other:
There May did alway raigne, and Zephirus bedight
With Rosie coronets, blew nicely day and night
A woods soft-rustling boughes, that blossoms sweet did yeeld
And Oualwise bewall'd the flowr-embroidred field.
Iust in the midst of all this Ammel-blooming glade
Raisd was a mightie Rocke, in footstall maner made:
Vpon the top thereof a brasse Colosse did stand,
That in the left hand held a flaming fierbrand,
An Ewer in the right; out from hir golden toong
A thousand little chaines all ore the medow sprong,
That worlds of hearers drew, fine wrought by subtill art,
Some linked by the eares, and some fast by the Hart.
The Boare lay at hir feete, nor foming, nor enraged,
There slept the Tigre charm'd, & Beares their fume asswaged:
The neighbour Hillocks leapt, the Woods reioiced round,
Eu'n daunsing as it were at hir sweete voices sound.
A double circled row of pillers high and dight
By cunning workmans hand after the Carian right,
With bases vnderpinn'd for their more sure foundation,
Beset this rauishing Image of sweete Oration:
And foure by foure bore vp amid them one language
Of those that flourish most in this our learned age.
51
Vpon the top thereof a brasse Colosse did stand,
That in the left hand held a flaming fierbrand,
An Ewer in the right; out from hir golden toong
A thousand little chaines all ore the medow sprong,
That worlds of hearers drew, fine wrought by subtill art,
Some linked by the eares, and some fast by the Hart.
The Boare lay at hir feete, nor foming, nor enraged,
There slept the Tigre charm'd, & Beares their fume asswaged:
The neighbour Hillocks leapt, the Woods reioiced round,
Eu'n daunsing as it were at hir sweete voices sound.
A double circled row of pillers high and dight
By cunning workmans hand after the Carian right,
With bases vnderpinn'd for their more sure foundation,
Beset this rauishing Image of sweete 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 heau'n gaue the grace
That they should vnderprop the Hebrue in this place
The man whose face did shine like to a blasing starre
Heau'n-decking, fraying-men; that for a Scepter barre
A seare, yet budding rod, and in his fingers hent
The ten-fold register of Gods Commandement;
He guideth Israel, he left authoritie
First both of prose and verse to his posteritie.
Such holy writings as not onely long fore-run
The writings of the Greekes, but all that they haue done.
The second Dauid is, whose touch right cunningly
Combined with his voice drawes downe sweete harmony
From th'organized heau'ns, on Harpe that still shall sound
As long as daies great star shall ore our heads go round.
Nay farther who can tell, after these heau'nly Lights
Their Measures ended haue, but that the blessed Sprights,
Christs holy champions, at sound of his accords
Shall daunce in honor of th'Almightie Lord of Lords:
When many legions of Angels, winged ghosts,
Shall sing holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.
The third is Salomon; whose goodly monuments
Are wisely powdred with more store of documents
And golden sentences, than doth his diademe
With Diamondes and Pearles, and firy Rubies beame.
The fourth is Amos sonne, that hath the Graces all,
Deuout and full of threats, graue and Rhetoricall.
That they should vnderprop the Hebrue in this place
The man whose face did shine like to a blasing starre
Heau'n-decking, fraying-men; that for a Scepter barre
A seare, yet budding rod, and in his fingers hent
The ten-fold register of Gods Commandement;
He guideth Israel, he left authoritie
First both of prose and verse to his posteritie.
Such holy writings as not onely long fore-run
The writings of the Greekes, but all that they haue done.
The second Dauid is, whose touch right cunningly
Combined with his voice drawes downe sweete harmony
From th'organized heau'ns, on Harpe that still shall sound
As long as daies great star shall ore our heads go round.
Nay farther who can tell, after these heau'nly Lights
Their Measures ended haue, but that the blessed Sprights,
Christs holy champions, at sound of his accords
Shall daunce in honor of th'Almightie Lord of Lords:
When many legions of Angels, winged ghosts,
Shall sing holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.
52
Are wisely powdred with more store of documents
And golden sentences, than doth his diademe
With Diamondes and Pearles, and firy Rubies beame.
The fourth is Amos sonne, that hath the Graces all,
Deuout and full of threats, graue and Rhetoricall.
The Greeke Homer vpholds, that sweetely versifies,
Whose learned Schoole brought foorth a many companies
Of old Philosophers, that made his cunning plea
The world to ouerflow like some great Ocean sea.
And Plato all Diuine, who like the Bird we call
The Bird of Paradise, soyles not himselfe at all
With earth or waters touch; but, more than Hels descent
Surmounted is by Heau'n, surmounts the firmament.
And smooth Herodotus; and he of pleaders Arts
The Law, Demosthenes; gold-mouthed, king of harts.
Whose learned Schoole brought foorth a many companies
Of old Philosophers, that made his cunning plea
The world to ouerflow like some great Ocean sea.
And Plato all Diuine, who like the Bird we call
The Bird of Paradise, soyles not himselfe at all
With earth or waters touch; but, more than Hels descent
Surmounted is by Heau'n, surmounts the firmament.
And smooth Herodotus; and he of pleaders Arts
The Law, Demosthenes; gold-mouthed, king of harts.
Then he of Anthony and Catiline great foe
That lightneth and thundreth, & from whose brest doth flow
A thousand streaming floods, wherin the rarest wits
Daily torment themselues, surpris'd with maruaile-fits.
And Cæsar, that can do aswell as he can plead;
And Salust full of force; and he that Troy doth lead
Againe to Tybers banks, a writer sent from heau'n,
That neuer shuts his eies to sleepe morning nor eu'n,
That euer treadeth sure, alway plaine, alway graue,
Shamefac'dly venterous and temperately braue,
That still is like himselfe, and vnlike others all:
These beare the sweete-graue toong was last emperiall.
Th'Italian founded is on Boccace pleasurous;
On Petrarch finely dight, bold and sententious;
On Ariosto smoothe, diuers, in passions feirce;
And Tasso, worthie man to write heroick verse,
Sharpe, short, fyl'd, figured, with language flowing fast,
The first to be esteem'd albeet he wrote the last.
That lightneth and thundreth, & from whose brest doth flow
A thousand streaming floods, wherin the rarest wits
Daily torment themselues, surpris'd with maruaile-fits.
And Cæsar, that can do aswell as he can plead;
And Salust full of force; and he that Troy doth lead
Againe to Tybers banks, a writer sent from heau'n,
That neuer shuts his eies to sleepe morning nor eu'n,
That euer treadeth sure, alway plaine, alway graue,
Shamefac'dly venterous and temperately braue,
That still is like himselfe, and vnlike others all:
These beare the sweete-graue toong was last emperiall.
Th'Italian founded is on Boccace pleasurous;
On Petrarch finely dight, bold and sententious;
On Ariosto smoothe, diuers, in passions feirce;
And Tasso, worthie man to write heroick verse,
Sharpe, short, fyl'd, figured, with language flowing fast,
The first to be esteem'd albeet he wrote the last.
The language Arabick is mightily sustained
By Auerroës great, deepe-reaching subtill-brained:
By faire-spoke Auicen, and Eldebag satyricall;
By smooth Ibnu-farid, pleasant and allegoricall.
By Auerroës great, deepe-reaching subtill-brained:
By faire-spoke Auicen, and Eldebag satyricall;
53
The Dutch dependeth on the famous Michell Buther,
That Sleidan turn'd to Dutch; and next on Martin Luther.
Witbergs and Islebe's fame, and on my Butrick next,
And last of Peucer sweet, that dooble-guilds his text.
That Sleidan turn'd to Dutch; and next on Martin Luther.
Witbergs and Islebe's fame, and on my Butrick next,
And last of Peucer sweet, that dooble-guilds his text.
Then Gueuare, and Boscan, Grenade, and Gracilas,
With Nectar all distaind, that mantleth in the glas
Of honny-powring pyth, vphold the Castillan,
And had not th'ancient grace of speaking Catallan,
Osias rauished, his learning might haue bore
The Spanish Lawrel from one of the foresaid foure.
With Nectar all distaind, that mantleth in the glas
Of honny-powring pyth, vphold the Castillan,
And had not th'ancient grace of speaking Catallan,
Osias rauished, his learning might haue bore
The Spanish Lawrel from one of the foresaid foure.
The speech of Englishmen hath for hir strong pillers
Three Knights, Bacon and More, they two Lord Chancellers,
Who knitting close their toong rais'd it from infancie,
And coupled eloquence with skill in policie:
Sir Philip Sydney third, who like a Cignet sings
Faire Tham'ses swelling waues beating with siluer wings:
This streame with honour fild his eloquence doth beare
Into dame Thetis lap, and Thetis eu'ry-where.
Three Knights, Bacon and More, they two Lord Chancellers,
Who knitting close their toong rais'd it from infancie,
And coupled eloquence with skill in policie:
Sir Philip Sydney third, who like a Cignet sings
Faire Tham'ses swelling waues beating with siluer wings:
This streame with honour fild his eloquence doth beare
Into dame Thetis lap, and Thetis eu'ry-where.
But what new Sunne is this that beameth on mine eies?
What? am I wrapt amongst the heau'nly companies?
O what a princely grace! what state emperiall!
What pleasant lightning eies! what face Angelicall!
Ye learned daughters of him that all gouerneth,
Is't not that Pallas wise, the great Elizabeth:
That makes the sturdie men of England nothing bent
For mans empire to change a womans gouernment?
Who whiles Erynnis, loth to tarry long in Hell,
Hir neighbour kingdomes all with fire & sword doth quell,
And whiles the darke affright of tempest roring-great
Doth to the worlds Carack a fearfull shipwracke threat,
Holdeth in happie peace hir Isle, where true beliefe,
And honorable lawes are reck'ned of in chiefe:
That hath not onely gift of plentie delectable
To speake hir mother-toong, but readily is able
In Latine, Spanish, French, without premeditation,
In Greeke, Italian, Dutch, to make as good oration,
As Greece can, as can Fraunce, as Rome emperiall,
As Rhine, as Arne can, plead in their naturall.
O bright pearle of the North, martiall, Mars-conquering,
Loue still and cherish Arts, and heare the Muses sing:
And incase any time my verses winged-light
Shall ouer th'Ocean sea to thine Isle take their flight,
And by some happie chaunce into that faire hand slide,
That doth so many men with lawfull scepter guide:
View them with gracious eie and fauourable thought,
I want thine eloquence to praise thee as I ought.
What? am I wrapt amongst the heau'nly companies?
O what a princely grace! what state emperiall!
What pleasant lightning eies! what face Angelicall!
Ye learned daughters of him that all gouerneth,
Is't not that Pallas wise, the great Elizabeth:
That makes the sturdie men of England nothing bent
For mans empire to change a womans gouernment?
Who whiles Erynnis, loth to tarry long in Hell,
Hir neighbour kingdomes all with fire & sword doth quell,
And whiles the darke affright of tempest roring-great
Doth to the worlds Carack a fearfull shipwracke threat,
Holdeth in happie peace hir Isle, where true beliefe,
And honorable lawes are reck'ned of in chiefe:
That hath not onely gift of plentie delectable
To speake hir mother-toong, but readily is able
In Latine, Spanish, French, without premeditation,
In Greeke, Italian, Dutch, to make as good oration,
54
As Rhine, as Arne can, plead in their naturall.
O bright pearle of the North, martiall, Mars-conquering,
Loue still and cherish Arts, and heare the Muses sing:
And incase any time my verses winged-light
Shall ouer th'Ocean sea to thine Isle take their flight,
And by some happie chaunce into that faire hand slide,
That doth so many men with lawfull scepter guide:
View them with gracious eie and fauourable thought,
I want thine eloquence to praise thee as I ought.
But what are these of Fraunce? this count'nance is vnshap'd
Hence hath the bungler hand of idle Mason scrap'd
Onely the harder scales of eu'ry rugged knot;
'Tis Clement Marot sure that laboureth so hot
Artistlike without art, and prickt with Phæbus launce
Transporteth Helicon from Italie to Fraunce.
Marot I honour thee like as an old Colosse
All soiled, all-to-broke, all ouergrow'n with mosse,
Worne pictures, tombes defac'd, not so for their beautie
As in deuout regard of their antiquitie.
What one this other is I scarse remember me;
A cunning one he seemes what one so ere he be.
Still rest I in suspence, somtime he doth appeere
To be Iames Amiot, somtime Blase Viginiere.
Great Ronsard is the next, that doth of graces wrong
The Greeke and Latin both, to grace his mother-toong,
And with a courage bould doth mannage happily
All kind of argument in prose and poetrie.
De Mornay this man is, that combats Atheisme,
Iewes stubborne vnbeleefe, and foolish Paganisme,
With weapons of their owne, he godly, graue, setled,
Stifneth so well his stile, plaine eke and flourished,
That pregnant reasons of his winged words, like darts,
Deeply instrike themselues into all gentle harts.
Then thus I spoke to them. O bright, O goodly wits,
Who in most happie case haue consecrate your writs
To immortalitie! sith that my feeble shoulders
May not among-ye be the French glories vphoulders;
Alas! sith I can scarce looke after you so hie
As is the double mount approching to the skie,
Yet suffer me at least heere prostrate to imbrace
Your honourable knees, graunt me at least the grace
On your bright-shining heads to guirlond Aprils spring;
Graunt of your gentlenes that these base tunes I sing
May in your glorie get an euerlasting glorie,
And that alway my verse may register your storie.
Hence hath the bungler hand of idle Mason scrap'd
Onely the harder scales of eu'ry rugged knot;
'Tis Clement Marot sure that laboureth so hot
Artistlike without art, and prickt with Phæbus launce
Transporteth Helicon from Italie to Fraunce.
Marot I honour thee like as an old Colosse
All soiled, all-to-broke, all ouergrow'n with mosse,
Worne pictures, tombes defac'd, not so for their beautie
As in deuout regard of their antiquitie.
What one this other is I scarse remember me;
A cunning one he seemes what one so ere he be.
Still rest I in suspence, somtime he doth appeere
To be Iames Amiot, somtime Blase Viginiere.
Great Ronsard is the next, that doth of graces wrong
The Greeke and Latin both, to grace his mother-toong,
And with a courage bould doth mannage happily
All kind of argument in prose and poetrie.
De Mornay this man is, that combats Atheisme,
Iewes stubborne vnbeleefe, and foolish Paganisme,
With weapons of their owne, he godly, graue, setled,
Stifneth so well his stile, plaine eke and flourished,
That pregnant reasons of his winged words, like darts,
Deeply instrike themselues into all gentle harts.
Then thus I spoke to them. O bright, O goodly wits,
Who in most happie case haue consecrate your writs
To immortalitie! sith that my feeble shoulders
55
Alas! sith I can scarce looke after you so hie
As is the double mount approching to the skie,
Yet suffer me at least heere prostrate to imbrace
Your honourable knees, graunt me at least the grace
On your bright-shining heads to guirlond Aprils spring;
Graunt of your gentlenes that these base tunes I sing
May in your glorie get an euerlasting glorie,
And that alway my verse may register your storie.
They granting my request made semblance with their hed,
So vanished the vale, and all the pillers fled:
So likewise had the Dreame with them togither hasted,
But that I with mine inke his nimble feathers pasted.
So vanished the vale, and all the pillers fled:
So likewise had the Dreame with them togither hasted,
But that I with mine inke his nimble feathers pasted.
56
FINIS.
| Babilon, a part of the seconde weeke of Gvillavme de Salvste Seignevr dv Bartas | |