Pro vere, avtvmni lachrymae Inscribed to the immortal memorie of the most Pious and Incomparable Souldier, Sir Horatio Vere, Knight: Besieged and distrest in Mainhem. By Geo: Chapman |
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PRO VERE, AVTVMNI Lachrymæ. |
 | Pro vere, avtvmni lachrymae |  |
PRO VERE, AVTVMNI Lachrymæ.
All my yeeres comforts, fall in Showres of Teares,That this full Spring of Man, This Vere of Veres,
Famine should barre my Fruites, whose Bountie breedes them,
The faithlesse World loue to deuoure who feedes them.
(With all her arm'd Fires) such a Spring restore.
The dull Earth thinkes not This; Though should I summe
The Master-Martiall Spirits of Christendome,
In his few Nerues; My Summe (t'a thought) were true.
But who liues now, that giues true Worth his due?
'Tis so diuine a Sparke, and loues to liue
So close in Men; that hardly it will giue
The Owner notice of his Pow'r or Being.
Nought glories to be seene, that's worth the seeing.
And all true Worth, abhorres the guilty Light,
Infus'de to few, to make it choice and deare,
And yet how cheape the Chiefe of all is Vere?
As if his want, wee could with Ease supply.
When should from Heauen fall His Illustrious Eye,
We might a Bon-Fire thinke would fill his Sphere,
As well as any other, make vp Vere.
Too much this: why? All know, that some one Houre
Hath sent a Soule downe, with richer Dowre.
To Equall in the Reach of all their Races.
As when the Sunne in his Æquator shines,
Creating Gold, and precious Minerall Mines
In some one Soyle of Earth, and chosen Veine;
When, not 'twixt Gades and Ganges, Hee againe
Will daine t'enrich so, any other Mould.
Nor did great Heauens free Finger, (That extold
The Race of bright Eliza's blessed Raigne,
Past all fore-Races, for all sorts of Men,
Of all Those, chuse but Three (as Successors)
Eyther to other, in the Rule of Warre;
Whose Each, was All, his three-Forckt-Fire and Starre:
Their last, This Vere; being no lesse Circular
In guard of our engag'd Ile (were he here)
Then Neptunes Marble Rampier: But (being There
Circled with Danger (Danger to vs All;
As Round, as Wrackfull, and Reciprocall.
Must all our Hopes in Warre then! Safeties All;
And thy Spirit (Fetcht off, Not to be confinde
In lesse Bounds, then the broad wings of the Winde)
In a Dutch Cytadell, dye pinn'd, and pin'de?
O England, Let not thy old constant Tye
To Vertue, and thy English Valour lye
Ballanc't (like Fortunes faithlesse Leuitie)
Twixt two light wings: Nor leaue Eternall Vere
In this vndue plight. But much rather beare
Armes in his Rescue, And resemble her,
When (all asham'd of her still-giglet Spleene)
She cast away her Glasses, and her Fannes,
And Habites of th' Effeminate Persians,
Her Ceston, and her paintings; and in grace
Of great Lycvrgvs, tooke to her Embrace,
Cask, Launce, and Shield, and swum the Spartan Flood
(Evrotas) to his ayde, to saue the blood
Of so much Iustice, as in him had feare
To wracke his Kingdome. Be (I say) like her,
As what is loose, and wanton; and repell
This Plague of Famine, from thy fullest Man:
For, to thy Fame, 'twill be a blasting Ban,
To let him perish. Battailes haue beene lay'd
In Ballance oft, with Kingdomes; and hee weigh'd,
With Victorie, in Battailes. Muster then
(Onely for him vp) all thy Armed Men,
And in thy well-rigg'd Nymphs Maritimall,
Ship them, and plough vp all the Seas of Gall,
And (past Remission) flye to his Release.
'Tis done, as sure as counsail'd: For who can
Resist God, in the Right of such a Man?
And, with such Men, to be his Instruments,
As hee hath made to liue in Forts and Tents,
And not in soft Sardanapalian Sties
Of Swinish Ease, and Goatish Veneries.
And know (Great Queene of Iles) That Men that are
In Heauens Endowments, so Diuinely rare,
To hazard with Neglect, since as much 'tis,
As if the Worlds begetting Faculties
Should suffer ruine; with whose losse would lye
The World it selfe, and all Posteritie.
For worthy men the breeders are of Worth,
And Heauens broode in them (cast as Offall forth)
Will quite discourage Heauen to yeeld vs more:
Worths onely want, makes all Earths plenty, poore.
But thou hast now a kind and Pious King,
To die vntimely; if in him it lye,
To lend him Rescue: Nor will therefore I
Let one Teare fall more from my Muses Eye,
That else ha's vow'd to pine with him, and dye.
But neuer was (in best Times most Abuses)
A Peace so wretched, as to sterue the Muses.
FINIS.
| Pro vere, avtvmni lachrymae | |