The springs glorie vindicating love by temperance against the tenent, Sine Cerere & Baccho friget Venus. Moralized in a Maske. With other Poems, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums of the Authors Thomas Nabbes |
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An Encomium on the leaden Steeple at Worcester,
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 | The springs glorie |  |
An Encomium on the leaden Steeple at Worcester,
repayred after a long time of neglect in the yeare 1628. by the then Deane, who is now the right Reverend, and right Honourable the Lord Bishop of London, and Lord high Treasurer of England.
If e're the Thespian Maidens did inspireA breath of raptures warm'd with sacred fire,
Let them assist. And you whose songs have rays'd
Their fames above their ruines, and so prays'd
Th'Ægyptian Pyramis; The Delian Fane;
Th'Ephesian Temple holy to Diane;
With Romes vast wonder; Mausoleus shrine;
The Sunnes Colossus; thus to make them shine
In their dead ashes, may your Genij
Passe all by transmigration into me.
But chiefly thou blest Saint, now made divine,
Crown'd with rewards of glory, sweetly shine
On these submissive vowes. Let me invite
Thy holy freenesse to accept the mite
Of his devotion, who doth onely show
His will to pay what thousands abler owe.
And thou rare fabrick, who dost comprehend
Proportions beauty in a perfect end
Of all her elements, which formed stand
On thy octædra base, let no black hand
Blot out thy name; for thou deserv'st the skill
Of all that ever climb'd the Muses hill.
Since thy Hiena's strength for many an age
Hath conquer'd stormes, and the impetuous rage
Have taught prevention to their widow'd friends,
I'le sing thy fame; and tell the Northerne spye
That would have rais'd himselfe by beggery
From thy lamented dust: that tooke such cares
How into rounds he might convert thy squares,
Transgressing thus a Geometrick rule,
He prov'd himselfe a true proportion'd fule.
When from thy altitude I doe survey
The distant risings of th'unequall way
That leads beyond perceptions warry eye;
Th'exalted mountaines joyning to the skie:
The confluence of so many various beames
Doe drowne my seeing organes with their streames,
And stupifie the sense. Sometimes againe
I view the subject regions; where my braine
With a vertigo labours; and doth runne
Beyond all comprehension, 'till the Sunne
Seemes to decline, and with his golden chin
To kisse thy bowle, and fixe himselfe therein.
When freed from this confusion I descend
To contemplate thy wonders, every end
Gives new beginning to a second birth
Of artfull prodigies to fright the earth:
And make thy forme seeme a demonstrative
Of those Platonick worlds in number five;
Containing angles infinite in shew
As those small puncts, from whose concretion grow
What else may be divided. Let such dreames
(Rays'd from opinions fancie) be the theames
Of their fanatick founders; whilst to thee
I attribute no immortality,
As part of what must perish: such a trick
Would make me seeme a wilfull heretick
'Gainst Natures doctrine, and debase thy glory
By false allusions. Rather shall thy story
To figure out the greatnesse of his name,
That did at thy erection justifie
By miracles his blessed sanctitie.
A pile exalted stands thy bulke within,
(Which doth uphold thy superficiall skin)
Of consecrated Oakes: Olympian Iove
Had none so faire in's Dodonean grove.
In these each regularitie doth designe
By a transverse, or a perpending line
Some principle of Art; which shewes the eye
Of understanding what's Geometrie.
As thou dost climbe thy forme contracts each side
Into a point, which makes a Pyramide:
And then a Globe corrects thy high ascent
From joyning with the firie element,
Fearing your correspondence. There doth sit
The watchfull Cock (of care an Embleme fit)
To guard thee from surprizals, and to show
From what bad coast the envious windes doe blow;
Who with their batteries have assayl'd thee long;
And would enforce thy chastitie (though strong)
To a base prostitution; and unite
Thee with thy sister steeple by their might
In fatall ruines. But thy conquests prove
Time hath beene kinder: and (for age may love
Faire beauties, raising heates from cold desires)
He meanes to claspe thee in his latest fires.
Thy ponderous outside now weighes downe my skill,
Though it susteine it selfe. Some learned will
Dispos'd it so for feare the weight might crack
The earths strong axle tree, or sinewed back.
So had our glory with the rest beene lost;
And all in new confusion had beene tost:
Unlesse thy beauty once againe might move
A reconcilement by the power of Love
Doe I dilate what's greater then the straine
Of my weake powers; since what I so desire
To comprehend I onely can admire.
Yet I will be thy champion to defend
Thy fame against opposers, and contend
With those that Satyre thee; that vainly spend
Their froth collections for the hated end
Of scorne and laughter, and neglect to pay
Their talents lent them by the King of day.
And though some lately strove to rust thee more
Then times continuance ever did before.
Vertue hath sent good spirits from her clime
Who will preserve thee to the length of time:
Repayre thy breaches, and adorne thy brow;
And make thee shine againe to us below.
And for these vowes which I have payd thy worth,
Oh might I begge, that when my soule goes forth
Of this foule earth, to climbe above thy head,
And that the rest be reckoned with the dead,
Thou wouldst preserve my dust within thy wombe:
So should poore Irus have a Celsus tombe.
| The springs glorie | |