University of Virginia Library

Diogenes and Mausolus.

The Argument.

The dead Mausolus doth himselfe advance
Before all others of the buried Throng:
And therefore he erects his countenance,
Because on earth he was so faire and strong.
Diogenes derides his boastings vaine,
And proves himselfe more happy of the twaine.

The Dialogue.

Diog.
Attend, ô Carion, what is thine intent
To be even still so proud and insolent?
Prating of thy great worth, others to brave,
As if thou for some great desert wouldst have
Before us all precedence.

Maus.
I first claime
Prioritie, rais'd from a kingdomes name,
(O Synopesian) for I empir'd o're
All Caria: next, I pierc'd the Lydian shore,
There govern'd Nations barbarous and rude:
Besides, I many other Isles subdu'd.
The great'st part of Ionia I laid wast,
And my great army to Miletum past.
Nay more, I was of beautifull aspect,
Tall and well shap'd, and (what I much affect)
In power (before me) I exceeded all.
But that which made me most majesticall,
Of costly marble from the rocke dissected,
I have a stately monument erected
In Halicarnassus, fam'd for magnitude,
With rare and never equal'd pulchritude,
So faire, so large, that all that see it know,
No King that ere deceast the like can show.
Statues of men and horses 'bout it stand,
Graven and carv'd by a most elaborat hand;
In which expression Artists were at strife,
Not one of them but imitating life;
Of such admired height and spatious roome,
It rather seemes a Temple, than a Toome.
What wrong is't then, my glories not to smother,
And to claime a precedence before other?

Diogenes.
Is't potencie? is't beauty? or rich stones
In such huge number heap'd upon thy bones,
That swells thee with such pride?

Maus.
By Iove the same.

Diog.
And yet Mausolus, thou that hast the name
Of Beautifull, thy strength is not all one,
Nor face that was; both now are past and gone:
For an unpartiall Vmpire should we chuse
To point the Fairer out; let him but use
An unsway'd eye, not squinted with affections,
Shall finde small difference in our two complexions:
For both our heads are bald and alike bare,
Having no lips, our teeth apparant are;
Neither of us a nosthrill hath to show,
But through these empty holes alike we blow.
This being granted, if because thy shroud
Beneath so great a Structure make thee proud,
And that thy countrymen that Mole retaine,
Boasting of it with ostentations vaine,
To shew to strangers the rare excellence
Of polisht stone; what profit reapst thou thence,
Thou exquisite man? unlesse thy shallow wit
Account thy greatest hurt a benefit;
To have of huge stones, wondrously convay'd,
A greater heape than others on thee layd.

Maus.
Am I no whit the better then for these?
Is Mausolus one with Diogenes?

Diog.
Not so, good man, no paritie 's confest;
The Carian King shall be with griefe opprest,
Excruciated and perplext in minde,
To thinke of his great pleasures left behinde,
Honors and wealth: Diogenes the while
At thy vexation stand aloofe and smile.
Thou in thy lasting memorie shalt have
The art and charge bestow'd upon thy grave,
By thy faire sister and thy widdowed Queene,
In Halicarnassus still to be seene.
When as Diogenes yet doth not know
Whether on earth he have a grave or no;
Therefore can take no care for't. My fame lies
Tomb'd in the bosomes of the Iust and Wise.
Stories to future times deliver can,
I lead a life that did become a man.
Time shall thy Structure wast, but never myne,
(Thou impure Carian) for 'tis made divine:
My monument growes neerer to the skye,
As built in place much more sublime and hye.