Du Bartas His Divine Weekes And Workes with A Compleate Collectio[n] of all the other most delight-full Workes: Translated and written by yt famous Philomusus: Iosvah Sylvester |
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| TETRASTICHA. OR THE QVADRAINS OF GVY DE FAVR, Lord of Pibrac.
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557
TETRASTICHA. OR THE QVADRAINS OF GVY DE FAVR, Lord of Pibrac.
Translated, By Iosvah Sylvester.
558
TO THE RIGHT EXCELLENT AND MOST Hopefull young Prince, Henry.
After so many golden Rules of State,Religious Lessons, Morall Precepts grave,
As in your Fathers Royal-Gift you have;
These seem superfluous, or to com too-late:
Yet, 't is no Error to re-iterate
The Voice of Wisdome to the tender Ear
Of Princes (chiefly) such as You, that bear
The Hope and Hap of Europe in your Fate.
And, though You want not these weak helps of ours
To consummate Your Self in Excellence:
Yet may those Subiects, which shall once bee Yours,
Draw vertuous Wisdom, and all Duty hence,
If You but daign with your dear Name to grace-it,
Which (Load-stone-like) shall draw them to imbrace-it.
Iosvah Sylvester.
559
THE QVADRAINS OF PIBRAC.
1
First, honour God, and then thy Parents dear:Be True and Iust: and see thou never grudge
The Innocent oppressed cause to clear;
For, one-day God shall also bee thy Iudge.
2
If gold and bribes corrupt thy conscience,If fear or favour in thy Iudgement sway-thee,
If thou respect the Persons difference;
Bee sure that God will in the end repay-thee.
3
Begin thy Daies-Work when the Day begins,First blessing God's thrice-blessed Name (devout)
And then at Evening, when thy labour ends,
Praise him again: so bring the Yeer about.
560
4
Adore thou sitting (as the Greek doth bid)For, running praier is preposterous:
With stedfast Heart God will be worshipped,
But such a Heart himselfe must giue to vs.
5
Say not, My hand this Work to end hath brought;Nor, This my Vertue hath attained to:
Say rather thus; This, God by mee hath wrought:
God's Author of the little Good I do.
6
The World is all but a round City like,Where each may right be said a Citizen:
As well the rude Barbarian as the Greek,
As well the meanest as the mightiest men.
7
In this fair Citie's goodly Wals God plantedAnd placed man as in a Sanctuary,
Where Hee, himselfe in thousand parts hath painted
With lively colours that doo never vary.
8
There's not a nook so small in all this Temple,Wherein Gods Greatnes doth not plain appear:
Which that wee might the better all contemple,
Hee placed man iust in the middle heer.
561
9
Yet can hee, no where better knowe the sameThen in himself, wherein hee may behould
(As in a Glass) Earth, Water, Air and Flame:
For, all the World, his Essence doth infould.
10
Who of himselfe hath perfect Knowledge gain'd,Ignoreth nothing that hee ought to knowe:
But the best means whereby it is attain'd,
Is oftentimes to Wisdoms Glass to goe.
11
That which thou seest of Man, it is not Man:'Tis but a Prison that him Captiue keeps:
'Tis but a Toomb where Hee's interred (wan):
'Tis but a Cradle where a while hee sleeps.
12
This mortall body; where the ravisht senseSees sinnews, flesh, bones, muscles, blood and skinne,
It is not Man: Man's of more excellence,
As the fair Temple that God dwelleth-in.
13
Rightly to speak: what Man wee call and count,It is a beamling of Divinity:
It is a dropling of th'Eternall Fount:
It is a moatling hatcht of th'Vnity.
562
14
Then knowe (O Man) thine owne Originall:And, brave-ambitious, scorn base Cells of Earth,
Sith thou shalt flourish in Heav'ns glistring Hall,
And art (indeed) a Divine Plant by Birth.
15
Well maist thou vaunt thee of thy glorious Race,Not from thy mortall Parents either Line:
But from thy true Immortall Fathers Grace,
Who, by the Modell of his Face, made thine.
16
There's not in Heav'n a number infiniteOf bright Idéas (Plato did mistake):
God's onely Will (the onely Rule of Right)
Was th'onely mould of all that hee did make.
17
Hee Will'd, and it was done: Hee (without pain)All kinde of Creatures (to the least that is)
Created, feedeth, and doth still sustain:
And re-dissolves them with that breath of his.
18
Lift vp thine eyes: The hanging Vault above,The goodly Seeling of a Watry hew,
The perfect Orb's Twin-Globes that ever move,
The spangled Firmament so far from view:
563
19
All (to bee briefe) past, present, and to come,In Earth and Sea, and Air (beyond your seeing);
So soon as God thought good, each in their room
Immediately received All their Beeing.
20
Shunne Epicures profane and filthy sect(Bold Mis-creants, blaspheming every way)
The which no God acknowledge nor respect,
Save onely Nature and her fatall Sway.
21
And in the meane-while (like the grunting Hog)Lie alwaies wallowing in the stinking Mire:
And feed on filth (like to the loathsome Frog)
Voluptuous filth of every Flesh-desire.
22
Happy whose hope on God alone relies:And who on him in either Fortune call;
As well in calmes as in calamities,
And put no Trust in humane helps at all.
23
Canst thou assure thy hopes on worldly things,Frail mortall things (I pry thee tell mee, how.)
Such are the greatest of all earthly Kings,
And have more need to bee secur'd then Thou.
564
24
God is the iust-mans Anchor and his Aid,His sure Defence, when all the World forsakes-him:
And therefore, then is hee the least dismaid;
Knowing, that God then most to safe-gard takes him.
25
The Goods of Fortune and the Body (call'd)They are not Goods, if wee them rightly name:
For, to least changes they are ever thrall'd:
“But Onely Vertue still persists the same.
26
Vertue, between the Two extreams that haunts,Between too-mickle and too-little sizes;
Exceeds in nothing, and in nothing wants:
Borrowes of none: but to it self suffizes.
27
O Vertue! could wee see thy naked face,How would thy sacred Beauties sweetly mad-vs?
Sith rarest Wits (rapt with a Seeming Grace)
Have in all Ages courted (even) thy Shadowes.
28
The Parents comfort is a prudent Sonne:Now, such a Sonne if thou desirest ay,
Direct him yong in Duties race to runne:
But, Thine Example is the neerest way.
565
29
If thou be borne Sonne of a prudent Sire,Why tread'st thou not in his faire beaten Trace?
If otherwise: why doost not thou desire
(By vertuous Deeds) to couer this Disgrace?
30
'Tis no small Honour, from illustrous LigneTo be descended by our Predecessours:
But 'tis much more, then by their Light to shine,
Our selues to shine vnto our owne Successours.
31
Cease not to learne vntill thou cease to liue:Think that Day lost, wherein thou draw'st no Letter,
Nor gain'st no Lesson, that new grace may giue,
To make thy Selfe Learneder, Wiser, Better.
32
If any Stranger in his Iourney strayThrough doubtfull Paths (as happens now and then)
Direct him rightly in his readie waie;
And if he fall, soone help him vp again.
33
Thine Honour more then thine owne Life respect,Th'honour (I meane) which each mans dutie drawes
(To th'vtter most w' are able to effect)
To GOD, our King, our Country, and our Lawes.
566
34
What now thou canst, deferre not till to-morrow,Like selfe-lame Sloath (of foulest Sinnes the Mother):
Nor be like those who others hands doo borrow,
And what themselues might doo, will doo by other.
35
Frequent the good, flie vngodly folke,Especially in thy Youths tender season,
The while outrageous appetites prouoke,
And arme thy Sense against the sway of Reason.
36
When to the double Way of those two Dames(Alcides-like) thou shalt be summoned,
Follow thou her who farre from glorious shames,
Ouer sleepe Mountaines vp to Heav'n doth lead.
37
Set not thy foot to make the blinde to fall:Nor wilfully offend thy weaker Brother.
Nor wound the Dead vvith thy Tongues bitter gall:
Neither reioyce thou in the fall of other.
38
Let thy Discourse be True in euery Word,Whether as publike Witnes thou be prest
To cleere a Question: whether, at thy Boord
With pleasant that thou cheere thy welcom Guest.
567
39
The Truth resembles right the right Cubes Figure(The Cube, contrary to light instability)
Whose quadrat flatnes neuer doth dis-figure;
Whose solide Forme admits no mutability.
40
The crafty Fowler, to beguile the Birds,Deceitfully their owne sweet Notes doth faine:
So subtle Mates doo counterfeit the words,
And simple guise of honest men and plaine.
41
Reueale not what in secret hath been told;Nor busily of Others things inquire.
To' inquisitiue can hardly Counsell hold:
The carrie-Tale is commonly a Lyer.
42
Make alwayes equall waight and lawfull measure,Though none could spie, thy dealing to discouer:
But where thou hast receiued any Pleasure,
Restore it still with some aduantage ouer.
43
Keep carefully what thou hast tane in charge:And when the Owner shall demand-againe-it,
Deny it not; neither with Conscience large
By subtle Law-tricks striue thou to detaine-it.
568
44
Hate euermore the bloody Homicide;Hunt him with hue and crie: as Shepheards hunt
The Lybian Tigre which they haue espide
Spoyling his Prey, and rioting vpon-'t.
45
'Tis not enough, that thou do no man wrong:Thou euen in others must suppresse the same;
Righting the Weake, against th'vnrighteous Strong,
Whether it touch his Life, his Goods, or Name.
46
Whoso the Fame of Valour doth desire,Must Tame his Anger and his Belly both,
And that heart-swelting, Marrow-melting Fire,
Blowne by the winde of Error and of Sloth.
47
Our-owne-Selfes Conquest is the most victorious:For in our Selues ambush our greatest Foes;
And th'only vvay to make vs euer glorious,
Is by stout Reason still to vanquish those.
48
If so thy Friend haue done thee som Offence,Fall not out flat, nor vrge him vvith abuse;
But milde and meekely, without insolence,
Make thy complaint, and take thou his excuse.
569
49
All men are faulty: none aliue can say,I haue not Erred; euen the Perfectest,
If thou his Life in word and deed suruaigh,
Thou shalt perceiue he hath Perfection mist.
50
See th'Hypocrites seuere and Saint-like guise,Whom th'elder Caro thou would'st think, for life;
Yet in th'darke he groaping hunts and hies
T'entice and trap his honest Neighbours wife.
51
'Tis a most busie yet a boot-les spaine,To hide ones fault: for doo the best thou can
Thou canst not hide it from thy Selfe (though faine)
For who can hide him from himselfe O Man)!
52
More of thy Selfe, then others be asham'd;Thy Selfe art most wrongd by thine owne offence:
And of thy Selfe, thy Selfe first (Selfly-blam'd)
Must giue account to thy Selfes Conscience.
53
Care not so much to seeme in outward showe,As to be good indeede and in the proofe:
For from false Rumours which the Vulgar blowe,
A selfe-cleere Conscience is Defence enough.
570
54
Relieue the Needie, after thine ability,And in their wants participate thy store.
For, God doth blesse with Plenty and Tranquillity
The House that pitties the distressed Poore.
55
What boot thy bagges to be so cramm'd with Coyne?Thy Ward-Robe stuffed with such store of Change?
Thy Cellars filled with such choise of Wine?
And of all Grainos such plenty in thy Grange;
56
If all the while the naked Poore (halfe deadWith cold and hunger) shiuer at thy Gate;
And at the length gets but a peece of bread,
And manie times (perhaps) but hardly that?
57
Hast thou a heart so cruell, as to scorneTh'vnhappy Poore, that at thy back doth bow,
Who like thy Selfe into this World is borne,
And beares Gods Image euen as well as Thou?
58
Misfortune is a common lot to all;Yea, euen to Princes, Kings, and Emperours:
Only the Wise are freed from her thrall,
But O; where are they in this Age of ours?
571
59
The wise man's free, among a thousand chaines;He's only Rich (content with his estate)
Only secure in Dangers, eas'd in Paines;
Only true King of Fortune and of Fate.
60
He is not daunted with a Tyrants threat,But by his Trouble growes more strong and hard:
Knowes his owne merit, looks not from the Great
For Recompence; Vertue's her owne Reward.
61
True Morall Vertue cannot purchast beBy Study, Treasure, or the Grace of Kings:
Nor by one action, nor by two, or three:
But long-long practice her perfection brings.
62
Who Readeth much and neuer Meditates,Is like a greedy Eater of much Food,
Who so surcloyes his stomach with his Cates,
That commonly they doo him little good.
63
How many might (in time) haue wise been made;Before their time, had they not thought them so?
What Arttist e'r was Master of his Trade,
Yer he began his Prentiship to knowe?
572
64
From smallest Springs, the greatest Riuers rise:But those that roar so loud and proud at first,
Runne seldome farre, but soon their glory dies
In som neer Bogg, by their selfs-furie burst.
65
Cursed is he that doth defraud the seed:Or who detains the Hirelings promis'd right:
Or whom gratefull for the kindest deed)
Thinks neuer of his Friends but in their sight.
66
For sweare thee not, what euer cause be giuen:And if for ought thou needs an Oath must take,
Swear not by Man nor by the Earth, nor Heav'n,
But by his sacred Name who all did make.
67
For God who doth all Periury detest,And iustly plagues it as most execrable,
Would not we should the constant Truth contest
By any thing that's false or alterable.
68
To som one Art apply thy whole affection;And in the Craft of others seldom mell:
But in thine owne, striue to attain perfection.
For 'tis no little honour, to excell:
573
69
T'embrace no more then one can manage fit,Not to the top of Greatnes to aspire:
To vse the World, and yet not couet it:
Neither to dread Death, neither death desire.
70
We must not Chastities fair Gift restrainOnly to th'actuall Pleasure of the Night:
And in the mean while not a whit refrain
Our hart, our hand, our tongue, our care, our sight.
71
O vvhat a hard blowe is a box on th'Eare!Som-time it driues men euen besides their Wit,
Especially vvhen (stunned as it vvere)
With the sweet vvonder of smooth vvords, 'tis smit.
72
'Tis therfore best our tender Ears to arme,To shunne the danger of those deadly blowes:
Warie Vlysses so eschew'd the Charm
Of those soule-rapting Impes of Acheloes.
73
What ere it be that enters by the Eare,Immediately into the Brain doth creep;
And th'only mean to shunne the mischief there,
Is the Ears Casements euer close to keep.
574
74
Much talke is seldom without Lies among,Or at the least without som idle bables:
Vnto the truth, brief Language doth belong:
And many words are fit for Dreams and Fables.
75
Th'Egyptians graue aspect and sober brow,When his fore-finger seales his lips so sure;
Better then Plato, doth instruct vs how
To honour Silence, with deuotion pure.
76
As at the Opening of the CabinetOf som great Prince, many rare Things we see,
Rich Monuments, and all that fair and neat,
From either Inde Portingals bring or wee:
77
So when the Wise and Learned doth beginT'open the Organs of his plentious Wit,
A wondrous Treasure suddainly is seen,
A Treasure hidden in th'Abderians Pit:
78
And Standers by, say by and by, This cameFrom Greece, from Rome That, That from such a Place,
And (lastly) that from th'Hebrue: and the same,
And all the rest most full of Prudent grace.
575
79
Our Goods (how euer great) the least doo seem,Our Neighbours Fields still bear the better Grain:
But Others harmes we alwaies light esteem;
Tush, they are nothing: vvhy should they complain?
80
To th'Enuious-man no Torment I assigne;For, Iudge and Hang-man to himself he is:
And there's no Denis Bull, nor Rack (in fine)
So fell a Torture as that Heart of his.
81
To pourtray Slaunder, to the life, behoouesTo doo 't in th'instant vvhile one feeleth her:
For vvho so happy that her neuer prooues,
Can scarce imagine vvhat she is or vvhere.
82
Neither in th'Aire hath Shee her residences,Nor in the vvilde Woods, nor beneath the Waues:
But she inhabits in the eares of Princes,
Where th'Innecent and Honest she depraues.
83
And when this Monster hath once chaunc't to trap-vs,Her spightfull Cords she can so closely knit,
That though at last vve happen vn-wrap-vs;
The print thereof still in our Fames will sit.
576
84
Neuer giue Sentence in thy proper cause:In our owne case, we all Erre easily:
Our interest our partiall Iudgement drawes;
And euer makes the Balance hang awry.
85
Vpon the Law thy Iudgements alwayes ground,And not on Man: For that's affection-less;
But Man in Passions strangely doth abound:
Th'one all like God, th'other too-like to Beasts.
86
The sacred Number proueth alwayes euen,Whether diuided or intire it be:
So Iustice (shar'd in Atomies) is giuen
Still like it selfe, in iust equalitie.
87
Learn by long Trauail (as Vlysses conned)To gouern right thy Natiue Ithaca:
Many haue Scylla and Charibdis shunned,
That (after) haue at home been cast-away.
88
Before thou Promise, ponder what and why:But hauing Promis'd, what-so-euer 'twere,
Yea, were it to thy greatest Enemy,
Thou must perform, thy tongue hath ty'd thee there.
577
89
Maintain those Lawes (how euer rude and plain)Whereby (before) thy Common-wealth hath thriv'd:
Good Fortune oft comes by the meanest mean:
How or from whence somtimes is scarce perceiv'd.
90
In youth and age shunne Circes banefull Boule,Lend not thine Eare to Sirens wanton Notes:
Least thou (inchanted in thy sense and Soule)
Become more brute then Hoggs, and Doggs, and Goats.
91
We must our Will still limit with our Power,And bound our Power within the Lists of Law;
Measuring both, and what so els is our,
By the Right line th'eternall Iust did draw.
92
A suddaine Change in any mighty State,Is full of Danger vnto each Degree:
And though Lycurgus found it fortunate,
No consequent can that Example be.
93
I hate these phrases: Of Power absolute:Of full Authority: Of full proper motion.
The Diuine Lawes they haue trod vnder foot,
And Humane-too; for priuate Mens promotion.
578
94
Not right-discerning Friends from Flatterers,Light-crediting, and suddain Resolution,
Young gidaie counsell, and new Seruitors,
Haue often caus'd the highest States confusion.
95
Dissimulation is a seruile Vice,A vice still followed by Disloyalty,
Whence in Great hearts doth Cruelty arise,
Which alwayes ends in ciuill Mutiny.
96
Nought more beseemes a Prince then Liberality,So it be giuen to those that Merit well,
By due proportion not by iust equality.
And without but then to the Common-weale.
97
'Tis to be more then Sylla Letter-lesse,To hurrie Armes into the Vulgars hand:
For, when again you think them to suppresse,
In steed of Subiects, they will All command.
98
Sith all the World is nought but meerely vanity,Laugh if thou list like blythe Democritus:
Yet somtimes toucht with tender-soul'd humanity,
Weep for our Woes with sad Heraclitus.
579
99
Be kind to Strangers and propitious,And to their cause thy willing eare incline:
But to bestowe thy Goods out of thy House,
Is shame and wrong vnto thy self and thine.
100
I'le teach you here (if any list to proue)A passing Loue-drink, any hart to get;
Loue vertuously, and be assur'd of Loue:
And this (beleeue-it) is the best Receipt.
101
The Fear that springs from Loue and Reuerence,A firme support to Royall Greatnes giues:
But he that makes him fear'd for Violence,
Himself fears most, and in distrust still liues.
102
He that knewe right what were a Diadem,As soon would seek in a colde Toombe to lie,
As girt his Temples with that glorious Gem:
For, then begins he to himselfe to die.
103
For, day and night to stand as Sentinel;For Publike good ingratefull toyle to take;
Incessantly to watch for others weal:
This is, to Raigne, if we it rightly take.
580
104
I neuer saw Wisedome and Youth, but two:Nor him Command well, that had not Obay'd:
Nor any fear'd, that was not hated too:
Nor Tyrant, aged in his Toombe be lay'd.
105
Come not as Reuells, vvho delights not Dance:Nor on the Sea, vvho fears rough waues and winde:
Nor at a Feast, vvho a good stomack vvants:
Nor at the Court, vvho means to speak his minde.
106
The soothing hony of smooth Parasites:The poys'ny Tongues of slaunderous Sycophants:
The ieering Buffon that the best still bites:
The brazen-face of begging Cormorants:
107
To gull the Simple; and the Weake to braue:To hate the Truth; to halt in euery-thing:
To vnder-mine: The Absent to depraue:
These are the Flowers that in the Court doo spring.
108
An Enemy, Misfortune, and Disgrace,Are three Essayes to proue if Friends be loyall:
For many haue the Name, and beare the face,
That are not so, if they be put in triall.
581
109
Commend the State where-vnder born you are:If it be Royall, loue the Royalty:
If of the Best, or meerely Popular;
Allowe of either where thy Lot shall be.
110
'Tis lawfull (vvhere they vvant) to wish good Princes:But men the while must beare them as they are.
'Tis better beare a Tyrants insolences,
Then to disturbe the Common-weal with Warre.
111
Sport not too boldly with thy Lord and King;And though he bid thee (if thou canst) refuse:
From highest Fortunes suddain down they ding
Who doo presume a Princes grace 't abuse.
112
Thou (Fortunes vvonder) that from lowest placeDoo'st in a morning to the top attain:
Suppose it but a winde that blew a-space
Which yet yer night (perhaps) vvill calme again.
113
The meane Estate is the most permanent:We see the Vales with euery shower are drown'd;
And Mountain tops with euery Thunder rent:
But Little Hils are pleasant, safe, and sound.
582
114
Nature's with little pleas'd: enough's a Feast:A sober life, but a small charge requires:
But Man the Author of his owne vn-rest,
The more he hath, the more he still desires.
115
When thou shalt see th'Almighty take from hence,By one and one the Vertuous of the Land,
Say boldly thus; These are the Arguments
Of som drad Tempest of his Wrath at hand.
116
For, Vertuous Men are euen the Buttresses,The mighty Columnes and the Arches strong,
Which against all Times fellest outrages
Support a State, and doo maintain it long.
117
Man doth the shortnes of his Life repine;Yet doth not duly spend nor rightly driue
The Time he hath: which might suffice his minde;
If, To liue well, he did desire to liue.
118
Thou hardly canst sufficiently requiteHim, vvho thy Child-hood hath been Tutor to;
Nor Him, that hath instructed thee a-right,
Both, well to speak, but chiefly well to doo.
583
119
In Theaters, at publike Playes and Feasts,Giue alwayes place vnto the hoary head:
So, vvhen like age shall siluerize thy Tresse,
Thou shalt by others be like-honoured.
120
Who, for thy Friendship showes himself ingrate,Unwillingly extolls thy Benefit:
But to vp-brayde one, makes a Man ingrate;
Who vaunts his Kindnes, payes himself for it.
121
To eate, and drink, and exercise, in measure,Three props of Health the certainest she hath:
But the excess in these (or other Pleasure)
Enforceth Nature, and doth hasten Death.
122
If euill men speak somtimes ill of thee,What need'st thou care? alas! it is thy Praise:
Blame from the Author takes authority,
And 'tis a good Report that good men raise.
123
We all confound; true Language is trans-formed;Vice oftentimes puts on the Vertues name
Next onto file: 'Tis Forme to be de-formed:
Blame is a Praise: and Commendation Blame.
584
124
Of what is spoken, euer make the best:Bear the defect of Neighbour and of Friend:
Couer their fault; publish it not (at least):
Ready to prayse, and slowe to reprehend.
125
He that esteems and vaunts himself for wise,Think him a foole: And Him that doth assume
The name of Learned, whoso soundly tries,
Shall finde him nothing but bare words and fume.
126
The better Learned, learn the more their want,And more to doubt their owne sufficiencie:
And Vertuous men are neuer Arrogant.
These are the Fruits of my Philosophy.
FINIS.
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