University of Virginia Library

When nimble time that all things over-runs
Made me forsake my tops and eldren guns,
Reaching those yeeres in wch the schoole-boyes brag,
In leaving off the bottle and the bag:
The very Spring before I grew so old,
That I had almost thrice five Winters told;
Noting my other fellow-pupils hast,
That to our English Athens flockt so fast:
Lest others for a Truant should suspect me,
That had the selfesame Tutor to direct me,
And in a manner counting it a shame
To under-goe so long a Schoole-boyes name,
Thither went I. For though I'l not compare
With many of them that my fellowes were;
Yet to my Teachers praise (I speake it now)
I all the formes in schoole had quite run through,
And was no whit, for Grammer Rules to seeke,
In Lillies Latine, nor in Camdens Greeke;
But so well grounded, that another day,
I could not with our idle Students say
For my excuse, I was not enter'd well,
For that I was so, can my fellowes tell.
And therefore since I came no wiser thence;
I must confesse it was my negligence:
Yet daily longing to behold and see
The places where the sacred Sisters be;
I was so happy, to that Foard I came
Which of the laboring Oxe doth beare the name,
It is a spring of knowledge that imparts
A thousand severall Sciences and Arts,
A pure cleare Fount, whose water is by ods
Farre sweeter than the Nectar of the Gods:
Or rather (truly to entitle it)
It is the wholesome nurcery of Wit.

There once arriv'd, in yeeres and knowledge raw,
I fell to wondring at each thing I saw:
And for my learning made a month's Vacation,
In noting of the places situation,
The Palaces and Temples that were due
Vnto the wise Minervaes hallowed crew,
Their Cloysters, Walks, & Groves; all which survei'd,
And in my new admittance well apaid;
I did (as other idle Freshmen doe)
Long to goe see the Bell of Osney too:
And yet for certainty I cannot tell
That e'er I dranke at Aristotles Well.
And that perhaps may be the reason why
I know so little in Philosophy.
Yet old Sir Harry Bath was not forgot,
In the remembrance of whose wondrous shot
The Forrest by (Believe it they that will)
Was nam'd Shot-over, as we call it still.

But having this experience, and withall,
Atchiev'd some cunning at the Tennis-ball;
My Tutor (telling me I was not sent
To have my time, there vaine and idly spent)
From childish humours gently cal'd me in,
And with his brave instructions did begin
To teach, and by his good perswasion sought
To bring me to a love of what he taught.

Then after that he labour'd to impart,
The hidden secrets of the Logicke Art;
In stead of Grammar rules he read me then,
Old Scotus, Seton, and new Keckerman.
He shew'd me which the Prædicables be,
As Genus, Species, and the other three:
So having said enough of their contents;
Handles in order th' ten Prædicaments;
Next Post-prædicamenta with Priorum,
Perhermenias and Posteriorum.
He with the Topickes opens; and descries
Elenchi, full of subtile fallacies:
These to unfold (indeed) he tooke much paine,
But to my dull capacity in vaine:
For all he spake was to as little passe,
As in old time unto the vulgar was
The Latine Masse, which (whether bad or good)
The poore unlearned never understood;
But of the meaning were as farre to seeke,
As Coriats horse was of his masters Greeke,
When in that tongue he made a Speech unto him;
That he the greatnes of his strength might shew him.
For I his meaning did no more conjecture,
Than if he had beene reading Hebrew Lecture.
His Infinites, Individuities,
Contraries, and Subcontrarieties,
Divisions, Subdivisions, and a crew
Of tearmes and words, such as I never knew,
My shallow understanding so confounded,
That I was gravell'd, like a ship that's grounded;
And in despaire the Mystery to gaine,
Neglecting all tooke neither heed nor paine.
Yea, I remain'd in that amazed plight,
Till Cynthia six times lost her borrowed light:

But then asham'd to finde my selfe still mute,
And other little dantiprats dispute,
That could distinguish upon Rationale,
Yet scarcely heard of Verbum Personale;
Or could by heart (like Parrots) in the Schooles,
Stand pratling, these (me thought) were pretty fooles,
And therefore in some hope to profit so,
That I like them (at least) might make a show;
I reacht my Bookes that I had cast about,
To see if I could picke his meaning out:
And prying on them with some diligence,
At length, I felt my dull intelligence
Begin to open; and perceived more
In halfe an houre, than halfe a yeëre before.
And (which is strange) the things I had forgot,
And till that very day remembred not,
Since first my Tutor read them; those did then
Returne into my memory agen:
So, that with which I had so much to doe,
A weeke made easie, yea, and pleasing too.
And then not therewith thorowly content,
I practic'd to maintaine an argument:
And having waded thorow Sophistrie,
A little lookt into Philosophie,
And thinking there the Ethicks not enough,
I had a further longing yet to know
The cause of Snow, Haile, Thunder, Frost and Rain.
The Lightnings, Meteors, and what here 'twere vain
For me to speake of, sith I shall but show it,
To those that better than my selfe doe know it.
Then from the causes of things naturall
I went to matters Metaphysicall.
Of which when I a little newes could tell,
I (with the rest in Schooles to wrangling fell.)
And (as example taught me) to disgrace her,
When I oppos'd the Truth, I could out-face her.

But now ensues the worst; I getting foot,
And thus digesting Learnings bitter root:
Was ready to have reacht the fruit and thought
I should a calling in that place have sought,
I found that for other ends ordain'd,
Was from that course perforce to be constrain'd.
For Fortune that full many a boone hath lost me,
Thus in the reaping my contentment, crost me.

You sir (quoth she) that I must make my slave,
For whom in store a thousand plagues I have,
Come home I pray and learne to hold the plough,
For you have read Philosophy enough.
If wrangling in the Schooles be such a sport,
Goe fee those Ploydens at the Innes of Court:
For (aske your parish-neighbours who can tell)
Those fellowes doe maintaine contention well.
For art in numbers, you no coyle need keepe.
A little skill shall serve to tell your sheepe.
Seeke not the Starres thy evils should relate,
Lest when thou know them thou grow desperate;
And let alone Geometry ('tis vaine)
I'l finde you worke enough to marre your braine:
Or would you study Musick? else 'twere pitty,
And yet it needs not, you shall finde I'l fit ye:
I'l teach you how to frame a song, and will
Provide you cares to be the subject still.

This, Fortune or my Fate did seeme to tell me,
And such a chance, indeed, ere long befell me.
For ere my yeares would suffer me to be
Admitted to require the low'st degree:
By Fates appointment (that no stay can brooke)
The Paradise of England I forsooke
To Art and Study both, I bad farewell,
With all that good my thoughts did once foretell:
The sweetest of my hopes I left and went
In quest of Care, Despaire, and Discontent.
For seeing I was forc'd to leave those Mountaines.
Fine groves, faire walks, & sweet delightful Fountains
And saw it might not unto me be granted
To keepe those places where the Muses haunted,
I home returned somewhat discontent,
And to our Bentworth beechy shadowes went,
Bewailing these my first endeavours lost,
And so to be by angry fortune crost,
Who though she daily doth much mischiefe to me,
Can never whilst I live a greater doe me,
Yet there, e'er she on me procur'd her will,
I learn'd enough to scorne at fortune still:
Yea, use had made her envy seeme so vaine,
That I grew almost proud of her disdaine:
And having through her first malice worne,
Began to take a pleasure in her scorne.

But after I returned as is said,
And had a season in the Countrey stai'd,
I there perceiv'd (as I had long suspected)
My selfe of some unjustly ill-affected:
And that e'en those whom I had truly loved,
Had foes unto my good ungently proved,
I found though they in shew my friends had been,
(And kept their hidden malice long unseene,
With such faire shewes as if they sought my good,)
None my advancement with more spight withstood.
For, (seeming kinde) they often did perswade
My friends to learne me some Mechanick Trade,
Vrging expence (perhaps) and telling how
That Learning is but little made of now;
When 'twas through malice, cause they fear'd that I
Might come to understand my selfe thereby,
Exceed their knowledge and attaine to doe
My selfe more good than they would wish me to:
Some such, or worse, at best a wicked end,
Thus mov'd this selfe-conceited crew to bend
Their spightfull heads by secret meanes to crosse
My wisht desire and propagate my losse.

But having noted this their hollownesse,
And finding that meere Countrey businesse
Was not my Calling; to avoid the spight,
(Which at that season was not showne out-right)
And to escape the over-dangerous smiles,
Of those new-found up-landish Crocodiles;
Vpon some hopes I soone forsooke againe
The shady Grove and sweet delightfull plaine,
To see the place of this great Iles resort,
And try, if either there or at the Court.
I might by good endeavour action finde,
Agreeing with the nature of my minde.

But there I view'd another world me thought;
And little hope or none of that I sought.
I saw I must (if there I ought would doe)
First learne new fashions, and new language too.
If I should hang'd have beene I knew not how
To teach my body how to cringe or bow,
Or to embrace a fellowes hinder quarters,
As if I meant to steale away his garters;
When any stoopt to me with conges trim,
All I could doe was stand and laugh at him
Blesse me tought I, what will this Coxcomb doe,
When I perceiv'd one reaching at my shooe.
But when I heard him speake, why, I was fully
Possest, we learn'd but-barbarisme in Tully.
There was nor street, nor lane, but had a Wench,
That at once cōming could have learn'd them French
Grecians had little there to doe (poore soules,)
Vnlesse to talke with beggermen in Pauls.
All our Schoole-Latine would not serve to draw
An Instrument; adjudged good in law:
Nay which is more, they would have taught me faine
To goe new learne my English tongue againe;
As if there had beene reason to suspect
Our ancient-used Hampshire Dialect.
There I perceiv'd those brutish thronging swarmes,
That were transformed by lew'd Cyrces charmes,
There heard I wanton Syrens tune the lay,
That worke th' unwary travellers decay.
The cruell Lycanthropi walkt in sight,
So did the beastly loose Hermaphrodite.
I saw Chimera's, Furies fearefull things,
And fiends whose tongues are such envenum'd stings,
As plague not onely bodies that have breath,
But make a wound that oft uncur'd by death;
The next in bloud doth poyson and goes nigh
To ruine a mans posterity.
There I saw Guls that have no braine at all,
And certaine Monsters which they Gallants call;
New brood of Centaures that were onely proud
Of having their beginning from a Cloud.

These with a thousand other creatures more,
Such as I never saw the like before,
In stranger shaps, and more deform'd and vile,
Than ever yet appear'd to Mandivile,
Flockt there; that I almost to doubt began,
How I might passe the straights of Magalan,
Or gotten on the sudden (with such case)
To see the wonders at th' Antipodes.
O Lord thought I, what doe I meane to runne,
Out of Gods blessing thus into the Sunne!
What comfort or what goodnesse here can I
Expect among these Anthropophagi,
Where like the droves of Neptune in the water,
The lesse are made a prey to feed the greater!
Certaine it is I never shall be able,
To make my humour suit to please this rabble;
Better it were I liv'd at home with wants,
Than here with all these strange inhabitants,
Whose natures doe with me so disagree,
I shall scoffe at them though they ruine me:
Yet being loth to turne till I had try'd,
What fate my new adventure would betide,
I staid for my experience and withall
Flattered my selfe, with hope there would befall,
Something unto my share well worth my sute,
Which honesty might serve to execute,
Without respecting how to please the rude,
And Apish humours of this multitude.
But all in vaine I that preferment sought,
Ill fortune still my hopes confusion wrought.
Which though for ominous some understood,
Yet I presum'd upon some future good;
And (though I scarce am wish't so well of some)
Beleeve there is a happy time to come:
Which when I have most need of comfort, shall
Send me true Ioy to make amends for all.
But say it be not whilst I draw this aire,
I have a heart (I hope) shall ne'er despaire;
Because there is a God, with whom I trust,
My soule shall triumph when my bodie's dust.
Yet when I found that my endeavours still
Fell out as they would have't that wisht me ill;
And when I saw the world was growne so coy,
To curbe me as too young then to imploy:
And that her greatnesse though she did not want me,
Or found no calling bad enough to grant me:
(And having scap't some envies which to touch,
Vnto this purpose appertaines not much)
Weighing both that and therewith also this;
How great a shame and what reproach it is
To be still idle; and because I spy'd
How glad they would be that my state envi'd,
To finde me so although the world doth scorne
T'allow me action, as if I were borne
Before my time; yet e'en to let her see,
In spight of Fortune I'd employed be;
Casting preferments too much care aside,
And leaving that to God that can provide;
The actions of the present time I ey'd,
And all her secret villanies descry'd:
I stript Abuse from all her colours quite,
And laid her ugly face to open sight.
I labour'd to observe her waies, and then
In generall the state and tricks of men.
Wherein although my labour were not seene,
Yet (trust me) the discovery hath beene
My great content: and I haue for my paine,
Although no outward yet an inward gaine.
In which because I can with all my heart,
Allow my Countrey-men to share my part,
And cause I thinke it may doe some a pleasure,
One opportunity Ile now take leasure.
And summon up my Muse to make relation;
I may b'imployd ere long, now's my Vacation.