 | Part of the Kings Entertainment in Passing to his Coronation |  |
The Inuention was a Raine-bow, the Moone, Sunne, and those seuen starres, which antiquitie hath styl'd the Pleiades, or Vergiliæ, aduanced betweene two magnificent Pyramid's, of 70. foot in height, on which were drawne his Maiesties seuerall pedigrees Eng. and Scot. To which bodie (being fram'd before) we were to apt our soule. And finding that one of these seuen lights, Electra, is rarely or not at all to be seene, (as Ouid. lib. 4. Fast. affirmeth.
Pleiades incipient humeros releuare paternos:Quæ septem dici, sex tamen esse solent.
And by and by after,
Siue quòd Electra Troiæ spectare ruinasNon tulit: antè oculos opposuitque manum.
And Festus Auien.
Fama vetus septem memorat genitore creatasLongæuo: sex se rutila inter sidera tantùm
Sustollunt, &c.
And beneath
—cerni sex solas carmine MynthesAsserit: Electram cœlo abscessisse profundo, &c.)
We ventred to follow this authoritie; and made her the speaker: presenting her hanging in the ayre, in figure of a Comet; according to Anonymus. Electra non sustinens videre casum pronepotum fugerit; vnde & illam dissolutis crinibus propter luctum ire asserunt, & propter comas quidam Cometen appellant.
THE SPEECH.Electra.
Are dried; and now mine eyes run teares of ioy.
No more shall men suppose Electra dead,
Though from the consort of her sisters fled
Vnto the Arctick circle, here to grace,
And gild this day with her serenest face:
Her roseat wings, in compasse of a bow,
About our state, as signe of my approach:
Attracting to her seate from Mithras coach,
A thousand different, and particular hiewes,
Which she throughout her body doth diffuse.
The Sunne, as loth to part from this halfe spheare,
Stands still; and Phœbe labors to appeare
In all as bright (if not as rich) as he:
And, for a note of more serenety,
My fixe faire sisters hither shift their lights;
To do this hower the vtmost of her rites.
Where lest the captions, or prophane might doubt,
How these cleere heauenly bodies come about
All to be seene at once; yet neithers light
Eclips'd, or shadow'd by the others fight:
Let ignorance know, great king, this day is thine,
And doth admit no night; but all doe shine
As well nocturnall, as diurnall fires,
To adde vnto the flame of our desires.
Which are (now thou hast closd vp Ianvs gates.
And giu'n so generall peace to all estates)
That no offensiue mist, or cloudie staine
May mixe with splendor of thy golden raigne;
But, as th'ast free'd thy Chamber, from the noyse
Of warre and tumult; thou wilt powre those ioyes
Vpon this place, which claimes to be the seate
Of all the kingly race: the cabinet
To all thy counsels; and the iudging chayre
To this thy speciall kingdome. Who so faire
And wholsome lawes, in euery court, shall striue
By Æquitie, and their first innocence to thriue;
The base and guiltie bribes of guiltier men
Shall be throwne backe, and iustice looke, as when
She lou'd the earth, and feard not to be sold
For that, which worketh all things to it, gold.
Shall here locke downe her iawes, and that rude vice
Of ignorant, and pittied greatnesse, pride,
Decline with shame; ambition now shall hide
Her face in dust, as dedicate to sleepe,
That in great portalls wont her watch to keepe.
No lesse from enuie, then from flatterie;
All tumult, faction, and harsh discord cease,
That might perturbe the musique of thy peace:
The querulous nature shall no longer find
Roome for his thoughts: One pure consent of mind
Shall flow in euery brest, and not the ayre,
Sunne, moone, or starres shine more serenely faire.
This from that loud, blest Oracle, I sing,
Who here, and first, pronounc'd, thee Brittaines king
Long maist thou liue, and see me thus appeare,
As omenous
For our more authoritie to induce her thus, See Fest. Auien. paraph. in Arat. speaking of Electra, Non nunquam Oceani tamen istam sargere ab vndis, In conuexa poli, sed sede carere sororum; Atque os discretum procul edere, detestatam. Germanosque choros sobolis lachrymare ruinas, Diffusamque comas cerni, crinisque soluti Monstrari effigie, &c.
Vnto thy raigne; as that
All comets were not fatall, some were fortunately ominous, as this to which we allude; and wherefore we haue Plinies testimonie. Nat. Histo. lib. 2 cap. 25. Cometes in vno totius orbis loco colitur in templo Romæ, admodum faustus Diuo Augusto iudicatus ab ipso: qui incipiente eo, apparuit ludis quos faciebat Veneri Genetrici, non multò post obitum patris Cæsaris, in collegio ab eo instituto. Namque his verbis id gaudium prodidit. Iisipsis ludorum meorum diebus, sydus crinitum per septem dies in regione Cœli, quæ sub septentrionibus est, conspectum. Id oriebatur circa vndecimam horam diei, clarumque & omnibus terris conspicuum suit. Eo sydere significari vulgus credidit, Cæsaris animam inter Deorum immortalium numina receptam: quo nomine id insigne simulacro capitis eius, quod mox in foro consecranimus adiectum est. Hæc ille in publicum, interiore gaudio sibi illum natum seque in eo nasci interpretatus est. Et siverum fatemur, salutare id terris fuit.
So lasting glory to Avgvstvs state.
| Part of the Kings Entertainment in Passing to his Coronation | |