Pleasant dialogues and dramma's selected out of Lucian, Erasmus, Textor, Ovid, &c. ... By Tho. Heywood |
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The Dialogve. |
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 | Pleasant dialogues and dramma's |  |
The Dialogve.
Crat.Tell me Diogenes, hast thou not knowne
Rich Moerichus, the man so overgrowne
With wealth superfluous, that from Corinth came
With ships so richly fraught? the very same,
Cousin to Aristæus thought to be,
By computation full as rich as he:
Tkese two betwixt themselves use Homers phrase,
Claw me, I'le claw thee; Let's live many dayes.
Diog.
What was the reason, Crates, first did move
These monied men to enterchange such love?
127
The cause they were intyr'd so, and calld brother,
Was, aiming to be heire to one another,
Being equally possest: and therefore they
Publisht their Wills; If Moerichus his day
Should before Aristæus chance to fall,
He the succeeder then should enioy all.
So Aristæus, If he dy'de before,
Then Moerichus was heire to all his store.
Was, aiming to be heire to one another,
Being equally possest: and therefore they
Publisht their Wills; If Moerichus his day
Should before Aristæus chance to fall,
He the succeeder then should enioy all.
So Aristæus, If he dy'de before,
Then Moerichus was heire to all his store.
This by Indenture seald, they cog, speake faire,
Flatter, in hope to be each others heire,
With gifts and presents mutually contending,
Yet still one gaping for the others ending.
Insomuch that Diviners (whether skild
I'th stars or no I know not) all have fild
Their itching eares with Novels. Dreamers too
(Like the Chaldæans) have enough to doo
To mocke them with vain hopes, and at high rate
Having betwixt them cast so even a fate,
Phœbus himselfe was pusled: first agreeing,
That Aristæus should have longest beeing;
And then again, That Moerichus the Old
Should count new daies when he had all his told:
Not knowing whose ambition should prevaile,
Their Fates being ballanc'd in so even a skale.
Flatter, in hope to be each others heire,
With gifts and presents mutually contending,
Yet still one gaping for the others ending.
Insomuch that Diviners (whether skild
I'th stars or no I know not) all have fild
Their itching eares with Novels. Dreamers too
(Like the Chaldæans) have enough to doo
To mocke them with vain hopes, and at high rate
Having betwixt them cast so even a fate,
Phœbus himselfe was pusled: first agreeing,
That Aristæus should have longest beeing;
And then again, That Moerichus the Old
Should count new daies when he had all his told:
Not knowing whose ambition should prevaile,
Their Fates being ballanc'd in so even a skale.
Diog.
But what's become of this their time out-wearing?
Speake freely Crates, 'tis a tale worth hearing.
Crat.
Those that each others state sought to betray
By bribes and flatteries, both dy'de in one day;
And that huge Magozin did chance to arrive
To those whom they scarce thought of, being alive,
Thrasicles and Eunomius their Allyance:
Yet the Diviners in their great pre-science
Ne're spake of them. Now the two rich men, they,
Fearelesse, still hoping with the Fates to play,
Being from Sycion unto Cyrra bound,
Were in the mid way neere Iapygium drownd.
128
No matter, Crates, but when we were living,
There was no emulation, no such striving
To be each others heire; never did I
Desire of heaven, Antisthenes should die,
To be made his Executor; or summe
His dayes, in hope his staffe to me might come.
Nor do I thinke thou ever didst desire
(O Crates) I the sooner might expire,
To inherit my possessions, and to strip
Me from my Tun, and pulse left in my scrip.
Crat.
I had no need of them, nor thou to claime
His staffe for legacie, since thou didst aime
At a much fairer heritage, to bee
Better'd by him, as I have bin by thee;
And that in treasures richer and more hye,
Such as the Persian Empire cannot buy.
Diog.
And what be those?
Crat.
Wisedome, frugalitie,
Truth and good life, in all these libertie.
Diog.
By Iove, I well remember I had store
Of these from him, but thou (ô Crates) more.
Crat.
Yet others that have thought themselves more wise,
All such inheritances much despise;
Nor sycophant they us, such things to attaine
By us, as we from him were proud to gaine,
They only thirst and hunger after gold.
Diog.
No marvell, since they all of them have sold
Themselves to Ignorance, not capable
Of Knowledge and instructions profitable;
Having their mindes with dissolute lusts infected,
Like foule and loathsome dishes long neglected,
Grow fur'd and sluttish with voluptuous sin,
Corrupting the most choice Cates serv'd therein.
Th' are full of rifts and cranies, every houre
Greater than other: therefore should we poure
Into these leaking Vessels, Iudgement sound,
129
Through their craz'd bottomes, and lie spilt and wasted,
Much with their putrid noisomnesse distasted:
(So Danaus daughters here in hell are said,
Laboring with Sives a flowing Spring to unlade)
And yet even those that can no goodnesse keep,
Will watch gold falling from them, and shun sleep,
Hoording it with all care.
Crat.
And so 'tis best
We do those vertues we in life possest.
Locke they their stuft bags in chests ne're so strong,
They shall but one poore halfe-penny bring along,
And that no further than to Charons barge;
The Ferriman will ease them of that charge.
| Pleasant dialogues and dramma's | |