Daniel, Samuel
Musophilus
Poems and A Defence of Ryme. Arthur Colby Sprague, ed. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1965
1599
DanMuso67
To the right worthie and judicious
favourer of vertue, maister
Fulke Grevill.
I Do not here upon this hum`rous Stage,
Bring my transformed verse apparailed
With others passions, or with others rage;
With loves, with wounds, with factions furnished:
But here present thee, onelie modelled
In this poore frame, the forme of mine owne heart:
Here to revive my selfe my Muse is lead
With motions of her owne, t`act her owne part
Striving to make, her now contemned arte
As faire t`her selfe as possible she can;
Least seeming of no force, of no desart
She might repent the course that she began,
And, with these times of dissolution, fall
From goodnes, vertue, glorie, fame, and all.
DanMuso69
MUSOPHILUS.
CONTAINING A
generall defence of all
learning.
PHILOCOMUS.
FOnd man Musophilus, that thus dost spend
In an ungainefull arte thy deerest daies,
Trying thy wits and toiling to no end,
But to attaine that idle smoake of praise;
Now when this busie world cannot attend
Th`untimely musicke of neglected layes.
Other delights then these, other desires
This wiser profit-seeking age requires.
Musophilus.
Friend Philocosmus, I confesse indeed,
I love this sacred arte thou sett`st so light,
And though it never stand my life in steed,
It is inough, it gives my selfe delight,
The whiles my unafflicted minde doth feed
Oh no unholy thoughts for benefit.
Be it that my unseasonable song
Come out of time, that fault is in the time,
And I must not do vertue so much wrong
As love her ought the worse for others crime;
And yet I find some blessed spirits among,
That cherish me, and like and grace my rime.
A gaine that I do more in soule esteeme
Then al the gain of dust, the world doth crave;
DanMuso70
And if I may attaine but to redeeme
My name from dissolution and the grave,
I shall have done enough, and better deeme
T`have liv`d to be, then to have dyde to have.
Short-breath`d mortalitie would yet extend
That span of life so far forth as it may,
And rob her fate, seeke to beguile her end
Of some few lingring daies of after staie,
That all this little All, might not descend
Into the darke a universall pray.
And give our labors yet this poore delight,
That whe~ our daies do end they are not done;
And though we die we shall not perish quite,
But live two lives where other have but one.
Philocosmus.
Sillie desires of selfe-abusing man,
Striving to gaine th`inheritance of ayre
That having done the uttermost he can
Leaves yet perhaps but beggerie to his heir;
Al that great purchase to the breath he wan,
Feeds not his race, or makes his house more faire.
And what art thou the better thus to leave
A multitude of words to small effect,
Which other times may scorn and so deceive
Thy promis`d name of what thou dost expect.
Besides some viperous Creticke may bereave
Th`opinion of thy worth for some defect,
And get more reputation of his wit
By but controlling of some word or sence,
Then thou shalt honor for contriving it,
With all thy travell, care and diligence;
Being learning now enough to contradict
And censure others with bold insolence.
DanMuso71
Besides so many so confusedlie sing,
Whose divers discords have the musick mar`d,
And in contempt that mysterie doth bring,
That he must sing alowd that will be heard;
And the receiv`d opinion of the thing,
For some unhallowed strings that vildly iar`d,
Hath so unseason`d now the eares of men,
That who doth touch the tenor of that vaine
Is held but vaine, and his unreck`ned pen
The title but of levitie doth gaine.
A poore light gaine to recompence their toile,
That thought to get eternitie the while.
And therefore leave the left & out-worne course
Of unregarded wayes, and labour how
To fit the times with what is most in force,
Be new with mens affections that are now;
Strive not to run an idle counter-course
Out from the sent of humours, men allow.
For not discreetly to compose our parts
Unto the frame of men (which we must be)
Is to put off our selves, and makes our artes
Rebles to Nature and societie,
Whereby we come to burie our desarts,
In th`obscure grave of singularitie.
Musophilus.
Do not profane the worke of doing well,
Seduced man, that canst not looke so hie
From out that mist of earth as thou canst tell
The wayes of right, which vertue doth descrie,
That over-lookes the base, contemptible,
And low-laid follies of mortalitie:
Nor meate out truth and right-deserving prayse,
By that wrong measure of confusion
The vulgar foote: that never takes his wayes
DanMuso72
By reason, but by imitation;
Rowling on with the rest, and never way`s
The course which he should go, but what is gone.
Well were it with mankind, if what the most
Did like were best, but ignorance will live
By others square, as by example lost;
And man to man must th`hand of errour give
That none can fall alone at their owne cost,
And all because me~ iudge not, but beleeve. (bou~ds,
For what poore bounds have they whom but th`earth
What is their end whereto their care attaines,
When the thing got relieves not, but co~founds,
Having but travaile to succeed their paines?
What joy hath he of living that propounds
Affliction but his end, and griefe his gaines?
Gath`ring, incroching, wrestling, joining to,
Destroying, building, decking, furnishing,
Repairing, altring, and so much a do
To his soules toile, and bodies travailing:
And all this doth he little knowing who
Fortune ordaines to have th`inheriting.
And his faire house rais`d hie in envies eie,
Whose pillars rear`d perhaps on blood & wrong
The spoyles and pillage of iniquitie,
Who can assure it to continue long?
If rage spar`d not the walls of pietie,
Shal the profanest piles of sinne keepe strong?
How manie proude aspiring pallaces
Have we known made the pray of wrath and pride,
Levell`d with th`earth, left to forgetfulnes,
Whilest titlers their pretended rights decide,
Or civill tumults, or an orderles
Order pretending change of some strong side?
Then where is that proude title of thy name,
Written in yce of melting vanitie?
DanMuso73
Where is thine heire left to possesse the same?
Perhaps not so well as in beggerie.
Some thing may rise to be beyond the shame
Of vile and unregarded povertie.
Which, I confesse, although I often strive
To cloth in the best habit of my skill,
In all the fairest colours I can give;
Yet for all that me thinks she lookes but ill,
I cannot brooke that face, which dead-alive
Shewes a quicke bodie, but a buried will.
Yet oft we see the barres of this restraint
Holds goodnes in, which loose wealth would let flie,
And fruitlesse riches barrayner then want,
Brings forth small worth from idle libertie:
Which when disorders shal againe make scant,
It must refetch her state from povertie.
But yet in all this interchange of all,
Virtue we see, with her faire grace, stands fast;
For what hy races hath there come to fall,
With low disgrace, quite vanished and past,
Since Chaucer liv`d who yet lives and yet shall,
Though (which I grieve to say) but in his last.
Yet what a time hath he wrested from time,
And won upon the mighty waste of daies,
Unto th`immortall honor of our clime,
That by his meanes came first adorn`d with Baies,
Unto the sacred Relicks of whose rime
We yet are bound in zeale to offer praise?
And could our lines begotten in this age
Obtaine but such a blessed hand of yeeres,
And scape the fury of that threatning rage,
Which in confused clowdes gastly appeares,
Who would not straine his travailes to ingage,
Whe~ such true glory should succeed his cares?
But whereas he came planted in the spring,
DanMuso74
And had the Sun, before him, of respect;
We set in th`Autumne, in the withering,
And sullen season of a cold defect,
Must taste those soure distastes the times do bring,
Upon the fulnesse of a cloid neglect,
Although the stronger constitutions shall
Weare out th`infection of distempred daies,
And come with glory to out-live this fall,
Recouring of another spring of praise,
Cleer`d from th`oppressing humors, wherewithall
The idle multitude surchange their laies.
When as perhaps the words thou scornest now
May live, the speaking picture of the mind,
The extract of the soule that laboured how
To leave the image of her selfe behind,
Wherein posteritie that love to know
The just proportion of our spirits may find.
For these lines are the vaines, the Arteries,
And undecaying life-strings of those harts
That still shall pant, and still shall exercise
The motion spirit and nature both imparts,
And shall, with those alive so sympathize
As nourisht with their powers injoy their parts.
O blessed letters that combine in one
All ages past, and make one live with all,
By you we do confer with who are gone,
And the dead living unto councell call:
By you th`unborne shall have communion
Of what we feele, and what doth us befall.
Soule of the world, knowledge, without thee,
What hath the earth that truly glorious is?
Why should our pride make such a stir to be,
To be forgot? what good is like to this,
To do worthy the writing, and to write
Worthy the reading, and the worlds delight?
DanMuso75
And let th`unnaturall and waiward race
Borne of one wombe with us, but to our shame,
That never read t`observe but to disgrace,
Raise all the tempest of their powre to blame;
That puffe of follie never can deface,
The worke a happy Genuis tooke to frame.
Yet why should civill learning seeke to wound
And mangle her own members with despight?
Prodigious wits that study to confound
The life of wit, to seeme to know aright,
As if themselves had fortunately found
Some stand fro~ of the earth beyond our sight,
Whence overlooking all as from above,
Their grace is not to worke, but to reprove.
But how came they plac`d in so high degree
Above the reach and compasse of the rest?
Who hath admitted them onely to be
Free-denizons of skill, to judge the best?
From whom the world as yet could never see
The warrant of their wit soundly exprest.
T`acquaint our times with that perfection
Of high conceipt, which only they possess,
That we might have things exquisitely done
Measur`d with all their strict observances:
Such would (I know) skorne a translation,
Or bring but others labors to the presse;
Yet oft these monster-breeding mountains wil
Bring forth small Mice of great expected skill.
Presumption ever fullest of defects,
Failes in the doing to performe her part;
And I have known proud words and poore effects,
Of such indeed as do condemne this Arte:
But let them rest, it ever hath beene knowne,
They others vertues skorn, that doubt their owne:
And for the divers disagreeing cordes,
DanMuso76
Of interiangling ignorance that fill
The dainty eares, & leave no roome for words,
The worthier mindes neglect, or pardon will;
Knowing the best he hath, he frankly foords
And skornes to be a niggard of his skill.
And that the rather since this short-liv`d race,
Being fatallie the sonnes but of one day,
That now with all their powre ply it apace,
To hold out with the greatest might they may
Against confussion that hath all in chace,
To make of all a universall pray.
For now great Nature hath laid down at last
That mighty birth, wherewith so long she went
And overwent the times of ages past,
Here to lie in, upon our soft content,
Where fruitfull she, hath multiplied so fast,
That all she hath on these times, seem`d have spent.
All that which might have many ages grac`d,
Is borne in one, to make one cloid with all;
Where plenty hath imprest a deepe distast,
Of best and worst, and all in generall:
That goodnes seems, goodnes to have defac`t,
And virtue hath to virtue given the fall.
For emulation, that proud nurse of wit,
Skorning to stay below or come behind,
Labors upon that narrow top to sit
Of sole perfection in the highest kind;
Enuie and wonder looking after it,
Thrust likewise on the selfe same blisse to find:
And so long striving till they can no more,
Do stuffe the place or others hopes shut out,
Who doubting to overtake those gone before
Give up their care, and cast no more about;
And so in skorne leave al as fore-possest,
And will be none where they may not be best.
DanMuso77
Even like some empty Creek that long hath lain,
Left or neglected of the River by, (vaine,
Whose searching sides pleas`d with a wandring
Finding some little way that close did lie,
Steale in at first, then other streames againe
Second the first, then more then all supplie,
Till all the mighty maine hath borne at last
The glory of his chiefest powre that way,
Plying this new-found pleasant roome so fast
Till all be full, and all be at a staie;
And then about, and backe againe doth cast,
Leaving that full to fall another way:
So feares this humorous world, that evermore
Rapt with the Current of a present course,
Runs into that which laie contemnd before;
Then glutted leaves the same, and fals t`a worse:
Now zeale holds all, no life but to adore;
Then cold in spirit, and faith is of no force.
Straight all that holie was unhallowed lies,
The scattered carcasses of ruind vowes:
Then truth is false, and now hath blindnes eies,
Then zeale trusts al, now scarcely what it knows:
That evermore to foolish or to wise,
It fatall is to be seduc`d with showes.
Sacred Religion, mother of forme and feare,
How gorgeously somtimes dost thou sit deckt?
What pompous vestures do we make thee weare?
What stately piles we prodigall erect?
How sweet perfum`d thou art, how shining cleare?
How solemnly observ`d, with what respect?
Another time all plaine, and quite threed bare,
Thou must have all within and nought without,
Sit poorely without light, disrob`d, no care
Of outward grace, to amuze the poore devout,
Powrelesse unfollowed, scarcely men can spare
DanMuso78
Thee neccessary rites to set thee out.
Either truth, goodnes, vertue are not still
The selfe same which they are, and alwaies one,
But alter to the project of our will,
Or we our actions make them waite upon,
Putting them in the livery of our skill,
And cast them off againe when we have done.
You mighty Lords, that with respected grace
Do at the sterne of faire example stand,
And all the body of this populace
Guide with the onely turning of your hand,
Keepe a right course, bear up from al disgrace,
Observe the point of glory to our land:
Hold up disgraced knowledge from the ground,
Keepe vertue in request, give worth her due,
Let not neglect with barbarous means co~found
So faire a good to bring in night anew.
Be not, o^ be not accessary found
Unto her death that must give life to you.
Where wil you have vertuous names safe laid,
In gorgeous tombes, in sacred Cels secure?
Do you not see those prostrate heapes betraid
Your fathers bones, and could not keepe them sure?
And will you trust deceitfull stones faire laid:
And thinke they will be to your honor truer?
No, no, unsparing time will proudly send
A warrant unto wrath that with one frown
Wil al these mock`ries of vaine glory rend,
And make them as before, ungrac`d, unknown,
Poore idle honors that can ill defend
Your memories, that cannot keepe their own.
And whereto serve that wondrous trophei now,
That on the goodly plaine neare Wilton stands?
That huge domb heap, that cannot tel us how,
Nor what, nor whence it is, nor with whose hands,
DanMuso79
Nor for whose glory, it was set to shew
How much our pride mockes that of other lands?
Whereon when as the gazing passenger
Hath greedy lookt with admiration,
And faine would know his birth, and what he were,
How there erected, and how long agone:
Enquires and askes his fellow travailer
What he hath heard and his opinion:
And he knowes nothing. Then he turnes againe
And looks and sighs, and then admires afresh,
And in himselfe with sorrow doth complaine
The misery of darke forgetfulnesse;
Angrie with time that nothing should remain,
Our greatest wonders-wonder to expresse.
Then ignorance with fabulous discourse
Robbing faire arte and cunning of their right,
Tels how those stones were by the divels force
From Affricke brought to Ireland in a night,
And thence to Britannie by Magicke course,
From giants hand redeem`d my Merlins sleight.
And then neare Ambri plac`d in memorie
Of all those noble Britons murthred there
By Hengist and his Saxon trecherie,
Comming to parle in peace at unaware.
With this old Legend then credulitie
Holdes her content, and closes up her care:
But is antiquitie so great a liar,
Or, do her yonger sonnes her age abuse,
Seeing after commers still so apt t`admire
The grave authoritie that she doth use,
That reverence and respect dares not require
Proofe of her deeds, or once her words refuse?
Yet wrong they did us to presume so far
Upon our easie credit and delight:
For once found false they straight became to mar
DanMuso80
Our faith, and their owne reputation quite:
That now her truths hardly beleeved are,
And though sh`auouch ye right, she scarce hath right.
And as for thee, thou huge and mightie frame
That stands corrupted so with times despight,
And giv`st false evidence against their fame
That set thee there to testifie their right:
And art become a traitor to their name
That trusted thee with all the best they might;
Thou shalt stand still belide and slandered,
The onely gazing stocke of ignorance,
And by thy guile the wise admonished
Shal never more desire such heapes t`aduance,
Nor trust their living glorie with the dead
That cannot speak, but leave their fame to chance;
Considering in how small a roome do lie
And yet lie safe, as fresh as if alive
All those great worthies of antiquitie,
Which long foreliv`d thee, & shal long survive,
Who stronger tombs found for eternitie,
Then could the powres of al the earth co~trive.
Where they remaine these trifles to obraid
Out of the reach of spoile, and way of rage,
Though time with all his power of yeares hath laid
Long batterie, back`d with underminig age,
Yet they make head onely with their own aide
And war, with his all conquering forces, wage.
Pleading the heavens prescription to be free
And t`have a grant t`indure as long as he.
Philocosmus.
Beholde how every man drawne with delight
Of what he doth, flatters him in his way;
Striving to make his course seeme onely right
DanMuso81
Doth his owne rest, and his owne thoughts betray;
Imagination bringing bravely dight
Her pleasing images in best aray,
With flattering glasses that must shew him faire
And others foule; his skill and his wit best,
Others seduc`d, deceiv`d and wrong in their;
His knowledge right, all ignorant the rest,
Not seeing how these minions in the aire
Present a face of things falsely exprest,
And that ye glimmering of these errors showne,
Are but a light to let him see his owne.
Alas poore Fame, in what a narrow roome
As an incaged Parrot, art thou pent
Here amongst us; where eue~ as good be domb
As speake, and to be heard with no attent?
How can you promise of the time to come
When as the present are so negligent?
Is this the walke of all your wide renowne,
This little point, this scarce discerned Ile,
Thrust from ye world, with who~ our speech unknown
Made never any traffike of our stile.
And is this all where all this care is showne,
T`inchant your fame to last so long a while?
And for that happier tongues have woon so much,
Think you to make your barbarous language such?
Poore narrow limits for so mightie paines,
That cannot promise any forraine vent:
And yet if here to all your wondrous vaines
Were generally knowne, it might content:
But lo how many reads not, or disdaines
The labors of the chiefe and excellent.
How many thousands never heard the name
Of Sydney, or of Spencer, or their bookes?
And yet brave fellowes, and presume of fame
And seem to beare downe all the world with lookes:
DanMuso82
What then shall they expect of meaner frame,
On whose indevours few or none scarse looks?
Do you not see these Pamphlets, Libels, Rymes,
These strange confused tumults of the minde,
Are gronwe to be the sicknes of these times,
The great disease inflicted on mankind?
Your vertues, by your follies, made your crimes,
Have issue with your indiscretion join`d.
Schooles, arts, professions, all in so great store,
Passe the proportion of the present state,
Where being as great a number as before,
And fewer roomes them to accommodate;
It cannot be but they must throng the more,
And kicke, and thrust, and shoulder with debate.
For when the greater wittes cannot attaine
Th`expected good, which they account their right,
And yet perceive others to reape that gaine
Of far inferiour vertues in their sight;
They present with the sharpe of Enuie straine
To wound them with reproches and despight:
And for these cannot have as well as they, (way.
They scorne their faith should daigne to looke that
Hence discontented Sects, and Schismes arise,
Hence interwounding controversies spring,
That feed the simple, and offend the wise,
Who know the consequence of cavilling:
Disgrace that these to others do devise,
Contempt and scorne on all in th`end doth bring
Like scolding wives reckning each others fault
Make standers by imagin both are naught.
For when to these rare dainties time admits,
All commers, all Complexions, all that will,
Where none should be let in, but choisest wits,
Whose milde discretion could comport with skill,
For when the place their humor neither fits,
DanMuso83
Nor they the place: who can expect but ill?
For being unapt for what they tooke in hand,
And for ought else whereto they shalb`addrest
They even become th`incombrance of the land
As out of ranke disordring all the rest:
This grace of theirs to seeme to understand,
Marres all their grace to do, without their rest.
Men find that action is another thing
Then what they in discoursing papers reade,
The worlds affaires require in managing
More arts then those wherin you Clearks proceed,
Whilst timorous knowledge stands considering,
Audacious ignorance hath done the deed.
For who knowes most, the more he knows to doubt,
The least discourse is commonly most stout.
This sweet inchaunting knowledge turnes you cleene
Out from the fields of naturall delight,
And makes you hide unwilling to be seene
In th`open concourse of a publike sight:
This skill wherewith you have so cunning beene,
Unsinewes all your powres, unmans you quite.
Publike societie and commerce of men
Require another grace, another port:
This eloquence, these rymes, these phrases then
Begot in shades, do serve us in no sort,
Th`unmateriall swellings of your pen
Touch not the spirit that action doth import:
A manly stile fitted to manlie eares
Best grees with wit, not that which goes so gay,
And commonly the gaudie liv`rie weares
Of nice corruptions which the times do sway,
And waites on th`humor of his pulse that beares
His passions set to such a pleasing kay;
Such dainties serve onely for stomacks weake,
For men do fowlest when they finest speake.
DanMuso84
Yet do I not dislike that in some wise
Be sung the great heroycall deserts
Of brave renowned spirits, whose exercise
Of worthy deedes may call up others hearts,
And serve a modell for posterities
To fashion them fit for like glorious parts:
But so that all our spirits may tend hereto
To make it not our grace, to say, but do.
Musophilus.
Much thou hast said, and willingly I heare,
As one that am not so possest with love
Of what I do, but that I rather beare
An eare to learne, then a toong to disprove:
I know men must as caried in their spheare
According to their proper motions move.
And that course likes them best which they are on,
Yet truth hath certaine bounds, but falshood none.
I do confesse our limits are but small
Compar`d with all the whole vaste earth beside,
All which againe rated to that great All,
Is likewise as a point scarcelie discride;
So that in these respects we may this call
A point but of a point where we abide.
But if we shall descend from that high stand
Of over-looking Contemplation,
And cast our thoughts but to, and not beyond
This spatious circuit which we tread upon,
We then may estimate our mightie land
A world within a world standing alone.
Where if our fame confind cannot get out,
What, shall we then imagine it is pen`d
That hath so great a world to walke about,
Whose bou~ds with her reports have doth one end:
DanMuso85
Why shall we not rather esteeme her stout
That farther then her owne scorne to extend?
Where being so large a roome both to do well
And eke to heare th`applause of things well done,
That farther if men shall our vertues tell
We have more mouthes, but not more merit won,
It doth not greater make that which is laudable,
The flame is bigger blowne, the fire all one.
And for the few that onely lend their eare,
That few is all the world, which with a few
Doth ever live, and move, and worke and stirre,
This is the heart doth feele, and onely know
The rest of all, that onely bodies beare
Rowle up and downe, and fill but up the row.
And serve as others members not their own,
The instruments of those that do direct.
Then what disgrace is this not to be known
To those know not to give themselves resptect?
And thogh they swel with pomp of folly blown,
They live ungrac`d, and die but in neglect.
And for my part if onely one allow
The care my labouring spirits take in this,
He is to me a Theater large ynow,
And his applause only sufficient is:
All my respect is bent but to his brow,
That is my all, and all I am is his.
And if some worthy spirits be pleased to,
It shall more comfort breed, but not more will;
But what if none; it cannot yet undo
The love I beare unto this holy skill:
This is the thing that I was borne to do,
This is my Scene, this part must I fulfill.
Let those that know not breath esteeme of wind,
And set t`a vulgar ayre their servile song,
Rating their goodnesse by the praise they find,
DanMuso86
Making their worth on others fits belong,
As vertue were the hyreling of the mind,
And could not live if fame had ne`r a tongue.
Virtue. Hath that all-knowing powre that holdes within
The goodly prospective of all this frame,
(Where whatsoever is, or what hath bin,
Reflects a certaine image of the same)
No inward pleasures to delight her in,
But she must gad to seeke an almes of fame?
Must she like to a wanton Curtezan
Open her breasts for shew, to win her praise,
And blaze her faire bright beauty unto man,
As if she were enamourd of his waies?
And knew not weakenes nor could rightly skan
To what defets his humorous breath obaies.
She that can tell how proud ambition
Is but a begger, and hath nought at all
But what is given of meere devotion; (thrall?
For which how much it sweats, how much it`s
What toile it takes, and yet when all is done,
The endes in expectation never fall.
Shall she joine hands with such a servile mate,
And prostrate her faire body to commit
Folly with earth, and to defile that state
Of cleerenes, for so grosse a benefit?
Having reward dwelling within her gate,
And glory of her own to furnish it.
Her selfe a recompence sufficient
Unto her selfe, to give her owne content.
Ist not inough that she hath raisd so hie
Those that be hers, that they may sit and see
The earth below them, and this All to lie
Under their view: taking the true degree
Of the just height of swolne mortalitie
Right as it is, not as it seemes to be,
DanMuso87
And undeceived with the paralax
Of a mistaking eie of passion, know
By these mask`d outsides what the inward lacks
Meas`ring man by himselfe not by his show,
Wondring not at their rich and golden backs
That have poore minds, and little else to shew.
Nor taking that for them, which well they see
Is not to them, but rather is their lode:
The lies of fortune, wherewithall men be
Deemed within, when they be all abroad: (& knee,
Whose ground, whose grasse, whose earth have cap
Which they suppose, is on themselves bestow`d.
And thinke like Isis Asse, all honors are
Given unto them alone, the which are done
Unto the painted Idoll which they beare,
That only makes them to be gazed on:
For take away their pack and shew them bare,
And see what beast this honor rides upon.
Hath knowledge lent to hers the privy kay,
To let them in unto the hiest stage
Of causes, secrets, Councels; to survay
The wits of men, their heats, their colds, their rage,
That build, destroy, praise, hate, say and gainesay;
Beleeve, and unbeleeve, all in one age.
And shall we trust goodnesse as it proceedes
From that unconstant mouth; which with one breath
Will make it bad againe, unlesse if feedes
The present humor that it favoreth?
Shall we esteeme and reckon how it heedes
Our works, that his own vowes unhalloweth?
Then whereto serves it to have been inlarg`d
With this free manumission of the mind,
If for all that we still continue charg`d
With those discovered errors, which we find?
As if our knowledge only were discharg`d,
DanMuso88
Yet we our selves staid in a seruile kind.
That virtue must be out of countenance,
If this grosse spirit, or that weake shallow brain,
Or this nice wit, or that distemperance,
Neglect, distast, uncomprehend, disdaine;
When such sicke eies, can never cast a glance
But through the colours of their proer staine.
Though I must needs confesse the small respect,
That these great-seeming best of men do give,
(Whose brow begets th`inferior sorts neglect,)
Might move the weake irresolute to grieve:
But stronger, see how justly this defect
Hath overtooke the times wherein we live:
That learning needs must run the common fate
Of all things else, thrust on by her own weight,
Comporting not her selfe in her estate
Under this burthen of a selfe conceipt:
Our own dissentious hands opening the gate
Unto Contempt, that on our quarrels waite,
Discovered have our inward government,
And let in hard opinion to disgrace
The generall, for some weake impotent
That beare out their disease with a stolne face,
Who (sillie soules) the more wit they have spent,
The lesse they shew`d not bettring their bad case.
And see how soone this rowling world can take
Advantage for her dissolution,
Faine to get loose from this withholing stake
Of civill science and discretion:
How glad it would run wilde, that it might make
One formelesse forme of one confusion?
Like tyrant Ottomans blindfolded state,
Which must know nothing more but to obay:
For this, seekes greedy ignorance t`abate
Our number, order, living, forme and sway;
DanMuso89
For this, it practises to dissipate
Th`unsheltred troupes, till all be made awaie.
For since our fathers sinnes puld first to ground
The pale of their dissevered dignitie,
And overthrew that holy reverent bound
That parted learning and the laiety,
And laid all flat in common to confound
The honor and respect of pietie:
It did so much invile the estimate
Of th`opened and invulgard mysteries,
Which now reduc`d unto the basest rate,
Must waite upon the Norman subtleties,
Who (being mounted up into their state)
Do best with wrangling rudenesse sympathize.
And yet though now set quite behind the traine
Of vulgar sway (and light of powre wai`d light)
Yet would this giddy innovation faine
Downe with it lower to abase it quite:
And those poore remnants that do yet remain
The spoiled marks of their devided right:
They wholy would deface, to leave no face
Of reverent distinction and degree,
As if they waigh`d no difference in this case
Betwixt Religions age and infancie; (grace
Where th`one must creepe, the other stand with
Least turn`d to a child it overturned bee.
Though to pull backe th`on-running state of things,
(Gathering corruption as it gathers daies)
Unto the forme of their first orderings,
Is the best meanes that dissolution staies,
And to go forward backward, right, men brings,
T`observe the line fro~ whence they tooke their waies.
Yet being once gone wide, and the right way
Not levell to the times condition:
To alter course may bring men more astray;
DanMuso90
And leaving what was knowne to light on none,
Since every change the reverence doth decay
Of that which alway should continue one.
For this is that close kept Palladium,
Which once remov`d brings ruine evermore:
This stird makes men fore-setled to become
Curious to know what was believ`d before:
Whilst faith disputes that used to be dombe,
And more men strive to talke then to adore.
For never head-strong reformation will
Rest till to th`extreame opposite it run,
And over-run the mean distrusted still
As being too neere of kin, to that men shun:
For good and bad, and all must be one ill,
When once there is another truth begun.
So hard it is an even hand to beare,
In tempering with such maladies as these,
Least that our forward passions launce too near,
And make the cure prove worse then the disease:
For with the worst we will not spare the best,
Because it growes with that which doth displease:
And faults are easier lookt in, then redrest;
Men running with such eager violence
At the first view of errors fresh in quest,
As they to rid an inconuenience,
Sticke not to raise a mischiefe in the steed,
Which after mocks their weake improvidence:
And therefore o^ make not your own sides bleed
To pricke at others, you that would amend
By pulling down; and thinke you can proceed
By going backe unto the farther end,
Let stand that little Covert left behind,
Whereon your succours and respects depend.
And bring not down the prizes of the mind,
With under-rating of your selves so base:
DanMuso91
You that the mighties doores do crooching find,
To sell your selves to buy a little grace,
Or waite whole months to out-bid Simonie,
For that which being got is not your place:
For if it were, what needed you to buy
What was your due, your thrusting shews your shift,
And little worth that seekes injuriously
A worthier from his lawfull roome to lift?
We cannot say that you were then preferr`d,
But that your mony was, or some worse gift.
O scattring gath`rers that without regard
Of times to come, will to be made, undo:
As if you were the last of men, prepar`d
To burie in your graves all other to.
Dare you prophane that holie portion
Which never sacreligious hands durst do?
Did forme-establishing devotion,
To maintaine a respective reverence
Extend her bountifull provision
With such a charitable providence,
For your deforming handes to dissipate
And make Gods due your impious expence?
No marvaile then though th`overpestred state
Want roome for goodnes, if our litte hold
Be lessned unto such a narrow rate
That reverence cannot sit, fit as it should;
And yet what need we thus for roomes complaine,
That shall not want void roome if this course hold:
And more then will be fill`d, for who will straine
To get an emptie title to betray
His hopes and travaile for an honour vaine
And gaine a port without support or stay?
What need hath envie to maligne their state
That will themselves so kind, give it away?
This makes indeed our number passe the rate
DanMuso92
Of our provisions; which if dealt aright
Would yeeld sufficient roome t`accommodate
More then we have in places requisite.
The ill disposing onely doth us set.
In disaray, and out of order quite.
Whiles other gifts then of the mind shall get
Under our colours that which is our dues,
And to our travailes neither benefite,
Nor grace, nor honor, nor respect accrewes:
This sicknes of the states soule, Learning, then
The bodies great distemprature insues.
For if that learnings roomes to learned men
Were as their heritage distributed,
All this disordred thrust would cease, for when
The fit were call`d, th`unworthy frustrated
These would b`asham`d to seek, those to b`unsought
And stay`ng their turn were sure they should be
Then would our drooping Academies brought (sped.
Againe in heart, regaine that reverend hand
Of lost opinion, and no more be thought
Th`unnecessarie furnish of the land,
Nor disincourag`d with their small esteeme,
Confus`d, irresolute, and wavering stand.
Caring not to become profound, but seeme
Contented with a superficiall skill
Which for a sleight reward inough they deem,
When th`one succeedes as well as th`other will,
Seeing shorter wayes lead sooner to their end,
And others longer travailes thrive so ill.
Then would they onely labour to extend
Their now unsearching spirits beyond these bounds
Of others powres, wherein they must be pend
As if there were besides no other grounds:
And set their bold Plus ultra far without
The pillers of those Axioms age propounds.
DanMuso93
Discov`ring dayly more, and more about
In that immense and boundlesse Ocean
Of Natures riches, never yet found out
Nor fore-clos`d, with the wit of any man;
So far beyond the ordinarie course
That other unindustrious ages ran,
That these more curious times they might devorce
From the opinion they are linckt unto
Of our disable and unactive force,
To shew true knowledge can both speak and do:
Arm`d for the sharpe, which in these dayes they finde,
With all provisions that belong thereto.
That their experience may not come behind
The times conceipt, but leading in their place
May make men see the weapons of the mind (grace,
Are states best strengths, and kingdoms chiefest
And rooms of charge, charg`d ful with worth & praise
Makes maiestie appeare with her full face,
Shining with all her beames, with all her raies,
Unscanted of her parts, unshadowed
In any darkned point: which still bewrayes
The waine of powre, when powr`s unfurnished
And hath not all those entire complements
Wherewith the state should for her state be sped.
And though the fortune of some age consents
Unto a thousand errors grossely wrought,
Which flourisht over with their faire events
Have past for current, and good courses thought;
The least whereof in other times againe
Most dangerous inconueniences have brought,
Whilst to the times, not to mens wits pertaine
The good successes of ill manag`d deeds,
Though th`ignorant deceiv`d with colours vaine
Misse of the causes whence this lucke proceeds.
Forreine defects giving home-faults the way,
DanMuso94
Make even that weakenes somtimes well succeeds.
I grant that some unlettered practique may
(Leaving beyond the Alpes faith and respect,
To God and man) with impious cunning sway
The courses fore-begun with like effect,
And without stop maintaine the turning on
And have his errors deemd without defect:
But when some powrefull opposition
Shall, with a sound incountring shocke, disjoint
The fore-contrived frame, and thereupon
Th`experience of the present disappoint,
And other stirring spirits, and other hearts
Built-huge, for action, meeting in a point;
Shall drive the world to sommon all their artes
And all too little for so reall might,
When no advantages of weaker parts
Shal beare out shallow councels from the light;
And this sence-opening action (which doth hate
Unmanly craft) shall looke to have her right.
Who then holds up the glorie of the state
(Which lettered armes, & armed letters won)
Who shall be fittest to negotiate
Contemn`d Justinian, or else Littleton?
When it shall not be held wisedome to be
Privately made, and publiquely undon:
But sound deseignes that judgment shal decree
Out of a true discern, of the cleare wayes
That lie direct, with safe-going equitie
Imbroyling not their owne & others dayes.
Extending forth their providence beyond
The circuit of their owne particular;
That even the ignorant may understand
How that deceipt is but a caviller,
And true unto it selfe can never stand,
But stil must with her owne conclusions war.
DanMuso95
Can truth and honestie, wherein consists
The right repose on earth, the surest ground
Of trust, come weaker arm`d into the lists,
The fraud or vice, that doth it selfe confound?
Or shall presumption that doth what it lists,
Not what it ought, carry her courses sound?
Then what safe place out of confusion
Hath plain proceeding honestie to dwell?
What sute of grace, hath vertue to put on
If vice shall weare as good, and do as well?
If wrong, if craft, if indiscretion,
Act as faire parts with ends as laudable?
Which all this mightie volume of events
The worlds, the universall mappe of deedes
Strongly controwles, and proves from all discents,
That the directest courses best succeedes
When craft, wrapt still in many comberments
With all her cunning thrives not, though it speedes.
For should not grave and learn`d experience
That lookes with th`eyes of all the world beside,
And with all ages holdes intelligence,
Go safer then deceipt without a guide?
Which in the by-paths of her diffidence
Crossing the wayes of Right, still runs more wide:
Who will not grant? and therefore this observe,
No state standes sure but on the grounds of Right,
Of vertue, knowledge, judgement to preserve,
And all the powres of learnings requisite;
Though other shifts a present turne may serve,
Yet in the triall they will wey too light.
And do not thou contemne this swelling tide
And streame of words that now doth rise so hie
Above the usuall banks, and spreads so wide
Over the borders of antiquitie:
Which I confesse comes ever amplifide
DanMuso96
With th`abounding humours that do multiplie
And is with that same hand of happines
Inlarg`d as vices are out of their bands;
Yet so, as if let out but to redresse
And calme, and sway th`affections it co~mands:
Which as it stirres, it doth againe represse
And brings in, th`outgone malice that withstands.
Powre above powres, O heavenly Eloquence,
That with the strong reine of commanding words,
Dost manage, guide, and master th`eminence
Of mens affections, more then all their swords:
Shall we not offer to thy excellence
The richest treasure that our wit affoords?
Thou that canst do much more with one poore pen
Then all the powres of princes can effect:
And draw, divert, dispose, and fashion men
Better then force or rigour can direct:
Should we this ornament of glorie then
As th`unmateriall fruits of shades, neglect?
Or should we carelesse come behind the rest
In powre of wordes, that go before in worth,
When as our accents equall to the best
Is able greater wonders to bring forth:
When all that ever hotter spirits exprest
Comes bettered by the patience of the North?
And who in time knowes whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores
This game of our best glorie shal be sent,
T`inrich unknowing Nations with our stores?
What worlds in th`yet unformed Occident
May come refin`d with th`accents that are ours?
Or who can tell for what great worke in hand
The greatnes of our stile is now ordain`d?
What powres it shall bring in, what spirits co~mand,
What thoughts let out, what humors keep restrain`d
DanMuso97
What mischiefe it may powrefully withstand,
And what faire ends may thereby be attain`d.
And as for Poesie (mother of this force) (might,
That breeds, brings forth, and nourishes this
Teaching it in a loose, yet measured course,
With comely motions how to go upright:
And fostring it with bountifull discourse
Adorns it thus in fashions of delight,
What should I say? since it is well approv`d
The speech of heaven, with who~ they have co~merce
That only seeme out of themselves remov`d,
And do with more then humane skils converse:
Those nu~bers wherewith heaven & earth are mov`d,
Shew, weakenes speaks in prose, but powre in
Wherein thou likewise seemest to allow (verse.
That th`acts of worthy men shuld be preserv`d;
As in the holiest tombes we can bestow
Upon their glory that have well deserv`d,
Wherein thou dost no other virtue show
Then what most barbrous countries have observ`d:
When all the happiest nations hitherto
Did with no lesser glory speake then do.
Now to what else thy malice shall object,
For schooles, and Arts, and their necessitie:
When from my Lord, whose judgement must direct
And forme, and fashion my abilitie
I shall have got more strength: thou shalt expect
Out of my better leasure, my reply.
And if herein the curious sort shall deeme
My will was caried far beyond my force,
And that it is a thing doth ill beseeme
The function of a Poem, to discourse:
Thy learned judgement which I most esteeme
(Worthy Fulke Grevil) must defend this course.
By whose mild grace, and gentle hand at first
DanMuso98
My Infant Muse was brought in open sight
From out the darkenesse wherein it was nurst,
And made to be partaker of the light;
Which peraduenture never else had durst
T`appeare in place, but had beene smothered quite.
And now herein incourag`d by thy praise,
Is made so bold and ventrous to attempt
Beyond example, and to trie those waies,
That malice from our forces thinkes exempt:
To see if we our wronged lines could raise
Above the reach of lightnesse and contempt.
FINIS