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Pleasant dialogues and dramma's

selected out of Lucian, Erasmus, Textor, Ovid, &c. ... By Tho. Heywood

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In praise of Archery.
  
  
  


280

In praise of Archery.

Brave Archery what rapture shall I raise,
In giving thee thy merit, and due praise?
Divine thou art, as from the Gods begot:
Apollo with an arrow Python shot,
And Cupid the faire Venus sonne we know
Is alway figured with his shafts and Bow.
The chaste Diana with her Nimphes in chase,
Will with no other armes their shoulders grace.
A mighty Bow the great Alcides drew,
When he (to save his bride) the Centaur slew.
It is the powerfull hand of Heaven that bends
The all-coloured Rainbow that so farre extends,
Before the Tormentary art was found,
The jarring string did make the dreadfulst sound.
And that invulner'd Greeke unskard, by steele
Was shot, and slaine by Paris in the heele.
The naked Indian doth on armor lack
His bow being bent, and quiver at his back.
And the wild Tartar doth no danger feare,
His arrow nockt, and string drawne to his eare.
The Parthian in this practise hath such skill,
That when he flies he can shoot back and kill.
For us; What forraigne Chronicles, but sing
Our honours purchast by the Gray-goose wing?
Brave Cordelion with a feathered band
Beat the proud Soldan from the holy Land.
O what an honour did the Black Prince gaine,
When he with English Archers conquerd Spaine!
So ancient, so divine, so nobly fam'd;
(Yet for the bodies health there's nothing nam'd.)
It is an exercise (by proofe) we see
Whose practise doth with nature best agree.
Obstructions from the liver it prevents,
Stretching the Nerves and Arty'rs, gives extents

281

To the spleenes oppilations, cleares the brest
And spungy lungs: It is a foe profest
To all consumptions: More, what need I name?
The State approves it for a lawfull game.
What woon our honour, is now made our sport,
Witnes Poicteirs, Cressy, and Agincourt.