THE SECOND DAY OF THE FIRST Weeke of the most excellent, learned, and diuine Poet, VVilliam, Lord Bartas.

Done out of French into English Heroi­call verse by THOMAS VVINTER, Maister of Artes.

Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Interpres.

Hor. de arte Poet.

LONDON, Printed for Iames Shaw. 1603.

To his Translation.

GO little eccho of anothers voice,
Tell in thy mother tongue a strangers mind.
And when thou com'st abroade, and findest choise
Of readers differing in their various kind,
Reeccho backe vnto the gentle spirit,
Such thankes as his iudicious skill shall merit.
But if thou meete with any dunsing lauell,
That is an homager to ignorance,
And yet doth enuiously presume to cauill,
And blunder out such words as these by chance:
That he sees not how Bartas doth surpasse,
Diuide his word, and turne him backe the Asse.

TO THE HONORABLE handes of the most noble and valo­rous Knight, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord VVarden of the Stanneries, Captaine of her Maiesties Guard, Lieutenant of the countie of Cornewall, and Gouernour of the Ile of Iersey.

BEing desirous (my honorable Lord) to exhibite some testimony of that ardent desire which I haue to doe your Lordship seruice, I am enfor­ced to imitate that poore mā, which wanting better meanes to expresse his aff [...]ction, offered his hands full of running water to Artax [...]rxes. For, knowing your Lordships loue to learning, (for Ars non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem) and hauing no inuention of mine owne, I haue boldly aduentured to draw water from another mans fountaine, and to commend this poore translation to your fauourable censure and honorable protection. Which I do the more humbly desire, for that I know your Lordships honorable name will be a sufficient bul­warke against those snarling dogs, Quibus innatum est, vt non pro feritate, sed pro consuetudine latrent, which barke [Page] more of custome then of curstnesse; which being guiltie to themselues of their owne imperfections, and hauing such muddie wits, that a man would sweare they were borne at Puddle wharfe, do notwithstanding labour to build their owne reputation vpon other mens disgraces; and by disgorging their malicious censures vppon the painful indeuors of all those which either diligētly write, or painfully translate, do thinke to purchase a lease of e­ternall commendation. I will not blot my paper with any commendation of my Author, who was so noble for his birth, so famous for his learning, and so admirable for his inuention; lest I should seeme to hang out a bush where good wine is alreadie knowne to be sold, or to light a candle when the Sunne is in his vertical point. For if he proue any where distastful to your iudicious vnder­standing, I must ascribe the fault to my selfe, which haue done him iniury, to cloath him with a sute so ill fitting to his proportion. But how meane soeuer it be, my humble request is, that your Lordship will accept it as a pledge of his dutifull loue, which is desirous to be euer at your Lordships commandement. And so humbly presuming to kisse your faire hands, I pray continually for the happie successe of all your honorable deseignements.

Your Honors most humbly deuoted, TH. VVINTER.

In Gulielmi Salustij primae Heb­domadis Diem secundum à Thoma Wintero Anglicè reddi [...]um.

QVod tibi materiem tantam, tam nobile pensum
Sumpsisti, valde laudo applaudo (que) libenter.
Nominis auspicio quid conuenientius aptes,
Quam quod nunc proc [...]dis opus tam diuite venâ?
Quem potuit decuisse magis tot scribere fumos,
Fulmina cum ventis, tempestates (que) sonoras,
Vnde repente ruit lapis ille c [...]aunius atris
Nubibus excussus, cum Iupiter intonat altè;
Quis melius nimbos & roscida tempora dicat,
Atque pruinosos grumos, cùm stiria pendet
Et glacies per quam tecti suggrundia squalent;
Aeris & quicquid dat contignatio triplex,
Quâ Natura locans aeterni frigoris arcem
Rorat agros, atque vnde Iouis distringitur ira:
Quam qui fers Hyemis nomen? quippe ille putatur
Nimborum (que) niuis (que) pater pluuialibus astris.
Phoebus auus, Tellus mater, matertera nubes,
Aër circus, vbi sese haec miracula pandunt,
Quo natura suam solet exercere palestram.
Macte; tuum vatem vates imitare priorem,
Floribus ornatus vernantia tempora posthaec
Persequere, vt qui nunc nobis tot dira minando
Luxuriem mundi (que) decus frondare videris;
Obstrictis ventis, & factus, mitior auras
Dando salutares, dicare Salustius alter.
Io. Sanfordus.

In secundi Diei primae Heb­domadis versionem.

FRendis Salusti mutatio tanta diei
Quod sit facta tuae? quod quae lux vnica Gallis
Emicuit primò: tandem suffulserit Anglis?
Improbus iniustè praecordia liuor adurit,
Et te Naturae capiunt obliuia sacrae,
Quae de vicino fieri vult lumine lumen.
Et tamen hos oculo si quis conspexerit aequo
Winteri radios, quibus est lux addita luci,
Dixerit in Gallis micuisse crepuscula verbis,
Sed medium fulsisse diem sub sole Britanno.
Ed. Lapworth.

Eiusdem de Die translato.

EST fraudulenti trahere de die diem,
Transferre forsan de Die Diem est scelus:
Si sit vel error, error hic culpâ caret,
Fiet (que) foelix scelere Translator suo.
Ed. Lapw.

To the Translator.

HEauen, Labour, Art, all ioyntly did conspire
To crowne thy verse with neuer-fading bayes:
First Gods sweete breath did teach thy Muse t'aspire
To caroll out Lord Bartas heauenly layes.
Then thy high thoughts to second this rare choise,
Droue forth with matchlesse paines thy great intent:
And last to sing Gods notes with Angels voice,
Art did consort to make a full concent.
Great choise, great paines, great art, all good, all great▪
All three thy litle booke do greatly praise:
Why striue I then in Honours chaire to seate
Thy Muse, which of it selfe, it selfe can raise?
O then braue impe of Phoebus still pursue
Thy great deseigne, aduance thy Poetrie:
Let enuious France by reading find this true,
That Bartas scornes not our rich liuerie.
Then shall the French an English wonder see,
How Winter yeelds a spring of Poesie.
Douglas Castillion.

Iohn Dauies of Hereford in praise of the Author, and Translator.

WInter, a man would thinke thy works are cold,
That did but heare thy name, or know thy kind,
But yet such heate this worke of thine doth hold,
As in a Sommers day we scarce shall find
Among our hote-brain'd Poets. Thou hast hit
Vpon that heate (though with another fire)
That did enflame the rarest Poets wit,
That ere in France (worlds garden) did respire.
Bartas, the bosome of whose blessed Muse
With Homers sacred fire (refin'd) did burne:
Did (as should seeme) into thy breast infuse
That fire by touching him; for thou dost turne
His heate to thine, and thine to his, if so
Both in this Tract translated thou dost show.
His opinion Touching translators, and translation.
TO turne one tongue t'another is a tricke
That many tongues-men can in prose performe;
But when the tongues on numbred feete do sticke,
It's hard two tongues discordant to conforme.
Who word for word, and phrase for phrase translates
In verse, may vaunt he earnes his Authors fame:
But, but few tongues are tyde t'our English pates,
That can with ease directly do the same.
Many translators haue we, but not many
That turne not th' Authors meaning with his words.
Famous were England if she had not any,
That to them selues such libertie affords.
To translate so, is to adulterate:
And all Adulterers God and men do hate.
‘Omne bonum, Dei donum.’

The Argument.

OVr Poet intending a D [...]scou [...]se of the worlds crea­tion, and hauing in the first day of this Weeke indi­ciously declared that the world had a beginning, a­gainst the absurd paradoxes of some doting phi­losophers, which held that it was from all eternity: and ha [...]ing both taxed and answered their a [...] hei­sticall curiositie, which busie their [...]dle and addle brains, about enqui­ring what God did before the creation: prouing also that there can be but one world, and confuting diuerse oth [...]r errors of the anci [...]nts: sheweth, that God [...]irst made some cònfused matter or Chaos, of which he afterward framed the particular parts of the whole body of this world. And then shortly and sweetly discoursing of the light, the d [...]y and the night, [...]ith the singular commodities redounding to mā ­kind by their successiue reuolutions, he ends that booke with the crea­tion of the Angels. All which being learnedly perfourmed, [...]e ad­dresseth himselfe in this second booke to the d [...]ciphering of the second dayes creation. Wherei [...], first he layeth open th [...] vanitie of the lasci­uious and wenching pamphleters of our age, which prodigally spend their precious time, in adorning some degenerate imp [...], or loose-liuing Lady with those honors, which should be onely confined to vertuous design [...]ments. Then he inuoketh the ass [...]stance of Gods spirite, and briefly proposing his chast intention, fals directly to the handling of the [...]lements, their number and composition in mixt bodies; of the commoditie and inconuenience of their agreeing or disagreeing pro­portions in mans bodie: then reasoning of their continuance, he re­futes di [...]erse errors touching the generation, corruption and altera­tion of things in their matter and forme. After, breathing a while, he enters a discourse of the Aire, shewing how it is deuided, what the temperature of each region is, with the causes of the same: and how [Page 2] the mists, the blasts, the clouds, the deaw, the yee and other waterie meteors are ingendred: and consequently intreateth of the falling starres, and comets, with the rest of the fiery impressions which are often seene in the two extreme regions of the aire. Hereunto he ad­ioyneth a philosophicall narration of the thunder and lightning, tou­ching in briefe their strange yet certaine effects; not omitting, for the more absolute complement of his discourse, to assigne probable reasons of the raine-bow, the circles about the Sunne and Moone, and the many Sunnes and Moones, which affright the ignorant with their appearance. But albeit he shewes himself a Philosopher in producing these naturall reasons, yet he would haue euery man to shew himselfe a Christian, in not wholy resting satisfied with these second causes; but euer so to acknowledge the wisedome of the Almighty, that he rather admire the creator, then adore the creature: adding thereunto the religious vse, which Christians should make of these impressions and prodigious signes. And that he may clip the wings of mans pride, which is wont to soare beyond it selfe in self-conceits, he demonstrates how it is impossible for the most cunning naturalist, to render sound reasons of all accidents. Then leauing the aire, he ouerthrowes their opinion which hold but three elements, and shewes the difference be­tween that elementarie and our compounded fire; adioyning therunto a briefe treatise of the matter, the motion and number of the celestial spheares. And answering those which are of opinion, that there are no waters aboue the firmament, he assumes a fit occasion to mention the generall floud; with an elegant description whereof he ends this second dayes worke. All which excellent points he adornes with such pleasant illustrations, that

Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit vtile dulci.

The second day of the first Weeke of the Lord Bartas.

THose Learned wits, whose soothing rimes do change
The v [...]nity of lasciuious Poets.
Fowle into faire, and lewd with chast do range,
And of a bastard, dwarfe, blind, [...]irting boy
Do make a god, nay all the gods to sway:
They lose both seed and trauell of their hand,
In plowing of th'vngratefull fruitlesse sand.
And setting nets for to intrap the winde
Of some vaine praise, which doth their wisedome blinde,
They imitate the Spiders curious paine,
Which weaues a needlesse web withou [...]en gaine.
But though more deare then time we nought possesse,
Yet would I grieue their losse of that the lesse,
If by their guilefull verse their too much Art
Made not their hearers share with them a part.
The sugred baite of those their learned writs,
Doth shrowd that poison, which the yonger wits
Quaffe downe with breathlesse draughts, and loues hote wine,
Making them host at drunken Bacchus signe,
Distempers so their stomacks, that they feede
On such ill meats as no good humours breede.
Their charming numbers with a mightie glaunce,
Cast headlong downe fresh readers to mischaunce.
Which by a vaine desire soone make them [...]lide,
From this liues mountaine, where they might abide.
The songs to which their Muse sweete notes doth frame,
Are bellowes of lewd lust, which do enflame
That wanton heate, which yet yong tender age,
In modest ashes keepes in vassallage.
[Page 4]
The chast in [...]ē ­tion of the L. Ba [...]tas.
Now all such as I am, I haue deuoted
That art and wit which heauen hath me allotted,
To th' honor of great Ioue, such verse to frame,
As virgins reading need not blush for shame.
Inuocatio.
Thou Learnings spring, soule of this worldly round,
Sith thou wilt haue my low-tun'd verse to sound
Of thy great praise, graunt that my keaking quill,
Celestiall Nectar euer may distill:
And fill this volume with her hornes store,
Which cherisht once a god then late y bore.
That in some rate it may be correspondent,
To the greatnesse of so graue an argument.
Rid cleane the path, which now I am to tread,
From bushie brakes which do it ouer-spread.
Throughout my course so lend me still thy ligh [...],
That to my Inne I may arriue ere night.
The chaos crea­ted of nothing
That endlesse end▪ broade length and heigth profound,
Which yet no world, yet was a worldly round:
That massie lumpe which nourisht ciuill hatred,
Was instantly of verie nought created:
And was that fertile soile from which should grow
Earth, water, aire, the fire, and heauen also.
Th [...] compositiō of [...]he fo [...]e [...]le­ment [...] i [...] mixt [...]odies.
Now these foure brethren two-twind generation,
Thus made, not onely keepe their seuerall station,
But are the simples too, to make the mixt
Of euery thing, whereon our sense is fixt.
Whether their onely qualities remaine,
And in each part of each mixt bodie raigne:
Or their essentiall formes be all combined,
These foure as one sole bodie are defined.
Si [...]ile.
As in a chrystall glasse we see the bloud
Of grapes, allaide with Achelou [...] floud.
Or as the meate and drinke▪ which we haue singled
Out for our nouriture, in vs is mingled,
And by our inward heate yeelds moisture, good
To be conuerted into purest bloud.
[Page 5]This in a burning brand we see full plaine,
Example.
His firetowers vp, his heauenly home t'attaine,
His aire to smoake, hi [...] earth to ashes goeth,
Out of his knobs the boiling water floweth.
Like warre our bodies quiet peace maintaineth:
For fire and aire in vitall spir [...]ts remaineth,
The flesh is earth, the humors water be.
Yea in each particle we plainely see
Each of these mingled, though some ones minority,
Among his brethren beares not like authority.
So in the bloud, those muddie lees which craue
(As being earthie) lowest place to haue,
Are melancholy; in the middle swimmes
The purest bloud like aire; about the brimmes
Lies watrie phlegme; and on the top there [...]ubbles
That firie choler which so many troubles.
Yet in the bodie no one element
One element [...]lvv [...]es pre­domin [...]nt in [...]ixt bodies.
Doth daily play the king, but is content
To take his turne, and so his subiect [...] awes,
As if they take new Lord, he makes new lawes.
As each good townse-man bloud or wealth nought heeding,
Simile.
Is rul'd, which earst in ruling made proceeding
In a free citie, which doth lose his fashion,
Soone as the rulers suffer alteration.
For the light vulgar tost with euerie wind,
Are to their princes humors still enclind
Cameleon-like, which change of colours weareth,
As oft as change of obiect him anneareth.
Example.
So th' element of which wine most partaketh,
Now moist, now dry, now hote, now cold it maketh.
And as these foure are coupled more or lesse,
So do th' effects and tast the same expresse:
So that in time the iuyce of grapes vnripe,
Becomes new wine to fill the emptie pipe;
And that same new growes good as it growes old▪
Which kept too long, for vineger is sold.
[Page 6]
Any ele [...]ent excessi [...]ely pre­domi [...]nt, i [...] dangerous to t [...]e bodie.
Now whiles the Prince which keepes the rest in aw,
Doth subiugate his greatnesse to the law;
He rules in safetie and doth still increase,
His commons ioy for their so happie peace.
But if of subiects bloud which he doth spill
By dint of sword, he neuer take his fill,
At length his rage dispeopling so his land,
Must leaue his realme to sauage beasts command▪
Right so as long as some one element,
Doth rule the rest with modest gouernment;
And a proportion in the humors found,
Though some do more then other some abound,
The bodie's in faire plight, as those faire lines,
Drawne on the surface, are thereof good signes.
Caligula.
But if that cruell king it represent,
Who wisht that all of his great regiment,
Had one sole necke, that at one chop he might
Butcher all Rome in furious despight:
Then doth it breed corruption of the rest,
And th' house whereof the tyrant is possest,
Doth by degrees decay; so that the eye
The bodies totall change may soone descrie.
Excesse o [...] moist [...]re c [...] ­set [...] the dropsie.
So whensoere the liuer is opprest
With moisture, which it cannot well digest,
Which runs along the flesh, it makes it swell,
And stops the conduit pipes which should e [...]pell
Moist excrements, and bolteth fast the dore,
Which to the panting breath should euermore
Yeeld backe; and in the water doth torment
The dropsie-sicke with thirstie languishment.
Nor doth it leaue the patient any rest,
Vntill the graue be of his corps possest.
Excesse of dri­ [...]esse causeth the Hectique [...]er.
So, too much drought a lingring feuer breeds,
Which with some paine on th' Hectique daily feedes;
Feebles the sinewes, clads the heart with griefe,
The face with sadnesse, playes the very thiefe,
[Page 7]In stealing from the limmes their moist reliefe,
Like as the flaming torch, which is the chiefe
Cause of his peecemeale burning cleane away,
Feeds by his life, liues by his owne decay.
Nor doth it l [...]nd the patient any rest,
Vntill the graue be of his corps possest.
So too much heate doth breed the feauer lourdane,
Excess [...] of h [...]at [...] the cause of th [...] quarta [...]e ague.
The tongue surcharging with a slimie burthen,
And makes the drudging pulse to trot apace,
And in the braine more diuerse shapes doth trace
With a fantasticke pencill, then can art,
Or chance, or Nature to the eye impart.
Nor doth it lend the burning patient rest,
Vntill the graue be of his corps possest.
So too much cold vpon the aged pate
Excesse of cold causeth old age.
Doth clap a hoarie fleece, and doth abate
The flesh, and furrowes vp the late-smooth forehead,
Hollowes the eyes, and makes a man abhorred
Vnto himselfe, and gliding through each part,
Doth by his winters freeze the very heart.
Nor doth it lend the aged any rest,
Vntill the graue be of his corps possest.
Yet thinke not that this great excesse doth bring
Nibil in [...]ibi­lum riducitur.
Annihilation vnto any thing:
It onely doth diuersifie the fashion,
So as the matter by this commutation,
Do it within, or else without remaine,
Nor can be sayd to lose, nor yet to gaine.
What ere is made, is of that matter fram'd,
Which in the ancient nought the
M [...]t [...]ri [...] [...]rima.
First was nam'd.
And whatsoeuer is resolu'd againe,
Vnto that former matter runnes amaine.
For since that God of nothing made this All,
[...]x ni [...]il [...] [...]i [...]il fit.
Of nought is nothing made, nor euer shall
Ought vnto nought be brought: but all that's borne,
Or dyes againe doth onely change his forme.
[Page 8]His bodie sometimes shrinkes, sometimes is lengthened,
Sometimes is thickened, sometimes straightened,
[...].
And if (in sooth) of nothing bodies were,
The earth vntild should fruit abundant beare;
Desired children, virgins should enioy;
And each thing grow each where without annoy;
The thirstie hart should in the Ocean lie;
The monstrous whale should dwell vpon the drie;
The fleecie sheepe should grase amid the aire;
The seruice tree, and eke the pine-tree faire,
Should take their rooting in the raging floud;
Out of the oke the ches-nut tree should bud;
And from the ches nut tree should achornes fall;
And natures lawes being violated all,
The eagle with the silly doue should match,
And each of these the others broode should hatch.
Nothing can enlarge it selfe by it self [...].
And if that bodies of themselues could grow,
Then man which in his growing is so slow,
Should instantly be of that very stature,
Which in full age is giuen him by nature.
Vnplanted trees with leauie branches dight,
Should rob the shaded groues of Phoebus light.
The suckling elephant his backe should yeeld,
Vnto the warlike castle for the field.
The yongling Colt couragiously should neigh,
Bucephal-like in warre to breake the ray.
Contrariwise, if ought annihild be,
Then whatsoere we touch, or tast, or see,
Still losing something of his quantitie,
At length should come vnto a nulliti [...].
If death could something to a nothing bring,
Then should that change be vtter perishing.
Exemplific [...]ti [...]
Sometimes the mountaines prouder tops do fall,
But then the dales are filled therewithall.
And when as Rhone, or Thesis swelling pride,
Doth ouerflow the field through which they glide,
[Page 9]No more on either side is drownd and lost,
Then is recouerd on the other coast.
The louely heauen doth showre downe many a floud,
That his beloued spouse the earth may bud;
Which she repa [...]es squirting them vp amaine,
Through hidden poares of hearbes and trees againe.
He that this only obseruation makes,
Simil.
How waxe a hundred diuerse fashion takes,
Yet still the same; to him the daily change
Of this inferiour world cannot be strange.
The worlds First ma [...]ter is this waxe vnformed▪
Which with a thousand formes is all adorned;
The forme is the seale, and heauens great King,
Is this high Chancelor, who with his ring,
His great or lesser seales doth print vpon her,
Which sometime bring her shame, and somtimes honor.
With vs is nothing firme and constant; here
Both life and death in turne do dominere.
One bodie springs not till another fade,
Onely the matter is immortall made.
Gods writing table, bodie of this All,
Receiuer of what accidents befall;
All like it selfe, all in it selfe compacted,
It neither is enlarged nor contracted.
Whose essence is vuchanged, but her shape
No fewer outward fashions doth escape,
Then Proteus, or the fish cald Manie-feete,
Which for to prey amid the watrie deepe,
Himselfe discolours, and in imitation
Fitly resembles our French-neighbour nation,
Mat [...]ri [...] pri­ma Gall [...] similis.
Which like an ape doth euermore delight,
To be in stranger fashions alway dight:
Whose shirt no oftner suffers any change,
Then his apparell doth a fashion strange.
This Matter is a Lais, whose delight
Would chaunge a hundred louers in a night▪
[Page 10]Who scarcely of some yonkers arme vnlaced,
Hath in her cogitation straight embraced
Anothers culling, and her nouell sport,
Doth cause her wish for plentie of that sort.
For this same matter prickt with strong desire
Of change: and yet vnable to attire
Her selfe with euery shape, doth by succession
Receiue in euery part a new impression.
The cause of the trans [...]u­tation of the elemen [...]s.
The chiefest cause of these euanishments,
Is deadly fewd of our foure elements;
Which in their turne do prey one on the other,
As snow and water being maide and mother,
Do make a mutuall change: each of these foure,
In two chiefe qualities doth shew his powre;
Whereof the one doth still the scepter sway,
To whom the other doth his homage pay.
Those elements whose forces disagree,
And wholy sauour of antipathie,
Maintaine a longer fight in open field,
Or either of them to the other yeeld.
The fire to water turnes not speedily,
Nor doth the aire rauen so greedily
Vpon the earth: for being deadly foes,
They fight both with their fingers and their toes.
But aire to water, earth to fire likewise
Doth sooner turne; for that they symbolize
Some qualitie: and easier tis to quell
One enemie▪ then two that do rebell.
Sith then this worlds children none can see,
Vntill these elements conioyned be
In holy wedlocke: and that nothing dies,
Till by diuorce these foure are enemies;
Which by vnconstant changing of their place,
Produce those various formes, wherwith the face
Of this great All is so embellished:
Simil.
(Iust as a song is sweetly relished
[Page 11]With some few notes in sundrie line and space▪
Which by their charming, sweet, harmonious grace,
Do make the hearers eares the broad high way,
By which they may their soules from them conuey.
Or as the letters of the Alphabet,
Simil.
By being in a diuerse order set,
Do make these words; and then these words againe,
Which here do flow from my poëtike braine,
Changing their rancke, enrich these sacred lines,
With choice of new discourse a thousand times.)
It wants not reason: why Gods caref [...]ll hand,
Sharing among them, all their common land,
Gaue ea [...]h a place fit for his quantitie,
Which also might preserue his qualitie.
He then that sees a drossie wedge of gold,
Exampl [...] ▪
Mai [...]terd by V [...]l [...]an, how it doth vnfold
His wished riches, and how lingringly
The gold vnto the gold doth striue to sli [...];
The siluer seekes the siluer, and the brasse
Betweene them both doth run, and how that masse
Composd of peeces neither like his fellow,
Doth branch it selfe in streames, blacke, white, and yello [...]:
He doth conceiue that soone as God assigned
A place, to which each one should be confined▪
The earth, the fire, the water, and the aire,
Vnto their like do speedily repaire.
So then this Chaos muddie lees do sinke
The situ [...]tio [...] of t [...]e [...]arth & the fi [...]e.
Right downeward by their naturall instinct.
The fire doth trie a new conclusion,
Runs through the chinkes of this Confusion,
And sparkleth vpward by his nimble pace,
And of this lower world gets highest place.
As one may see when as the dawne doth paint
Simil.
The Zenith of Catay with colours quaint,
Dead pooles to reake, and from the poarie ground,
Exhaled vapours in the aire abound.
[Page 12]
Th [...] situation of t [...]e vvat [...]r and the aire.
But least the fire which doth the rest inclose,
Should burne the earth by his too neare repose,
As arbiters betweene such deadly foes,
Did God the water and the aire dispose.
One of which two could neuer end their fight,
The water p [...]rent-like would take delight
To helpe the earth: the ayer would desire
T'vphold the quarrell of his cousin fire.
But both of them their sundred loue vniting,
Might quickly end their quarrell and their fighting:
Which questionlesse if't had not bene perfou [...]ned,
This new-made world to his first state had turned.
The aire is plac'd aboue, the water vnder,
No chance, but God so placing them asunder,
Who that each thing in other may take ple [...]sure,
Hath made his works in number, waight, and measure.
For if neare Vulcan, Neptune had his place,
Th [...]t cholericke element would straight embrace
Suspect of outrage, and his place forsake,
That of his wrong some iudgement he might take.
Now then the linkes of this most holy chaine,
Which doth the members of this All containe,
Are such as he alone can them vntie,
Who linked them together cunningly.
The water armd with moisture and with cold,
Doth in one arme the cold-drie earth enfold,
And in the other doth the aire embrace;
The aire as hote and moist doth hie apace
To ioyne himselfe by heate vnto the fire,
And by his moisture water doth desire.
Simil.
As when the shepheardesses chaunce to meete,
Trampling the flowers with their tripping feete,
Marrying their pitches to the oaten sounds,
And sportfully do daunce their rusticke rounds
Vnder the branches of some shadie tree,
By ioyning hand in hand so coupled be,
[Page 13]As that the first clinching her fellow fast▪
Is ioyned by her fellowes to the last.
For sith the earth alonely doth not nourish
VVhy th [...] [...]rt [...] is th [...] c [...]ter of th [...] vvorld▪
Those creatures which in the same do flourish▪
But, which is more, doth with her dugs supply
Foode to the winged people of the skie,
And gluts the scaly troupe with longed food,
Wh [...]ch cleaue the billowes of the briny floud,
So that what ere doth creepe, runne, swimme or flie,
Is by this Mother nourced carefully:
It did behoue that she should counter-waigh
Her selfe, that so she might the firmer stay
Against the barking of the stonnie maine,
And might the anger-swollen cheekes disdaine
Of Auster, who in parching heate delighteth,
And Boreas, who with freezing cold still fighteth.
It did behoue, her body dull and flow,
Should farthest be from heauen here below,
That she might nere be wheel'd about, by force
Of heauens swift and neuer-resting course:
Which doth with strong and stubborne rauishment,
Pull round about the highest element.
And sith againe that the harmonious course
Of heauenly planets, is th'immortall source
Of life in earthly things, and that their changing
Is caused by the starres their circled ranging:
Th'Almightie could no fitter lodge prouide,
Whereas our grandame earth might well abide,
Then in the center of this worldly round.
For vitall beames wherewith the starres abound,
Do shatter downe their powerfull influence
Vpon the aire his waving residence,
On th' arched fire, and on the swelling maine
Where scaly people wanting lungs remaine.
But they in fine vnite their forces all,
Within the circle of this earthy ball,
[Page 14]
Simil.
Which is the worlds naue: like as we may
See in a wheele which chalketh out his way
Amid the mudde; whose widest spoakes do meete
Within the button by their ioyned feete.
Simil.
And as the Sunne doth pierce the window glasse,
So do these starrie influences passe,
Through euerie part without impediment
Of the transparant firie element,
The regions of the aire, and water bright,
But not the earth, wherein is firmely pight
The worlds foundation; so that we name,
(And iustly too) the water, aire and flame,
The concubines of euer-mouing heauen,
For that his Sunne, and Moone, and Starry-seuen,
Neuer inioy their loue, but when by chance
By these three regions along they glance:
When heauen husband-like hath no intent
To be diuorc'd from the driest element:
And with such seed as still doth animate
Each liuing thing, he doth engrauidate
The fruitfull earth his lawfull wedded bride;
And with a bodie so diuersifide
In disposition and in outward forme,
He doth the structure of this All adorne.
VVhy the vva­ [...]er is placed be­tvveene the earth and the aire.
The water lighter then the earthie lumpe,
And heauier then the aire, doth pitch his iumpe
Betweene them both; that being moist and cold,
By those two qualities he may be bold,
To slacke the thirstie drinesse of our Mother,
And coole the feruor of his airie brother.
Apostrophe ad Musam suam.
But whither away my Muse? thou wanton stay,
Spend not thy Poetry at one essay:
Surcease to day, to sing of sea and land,
Their compasse, power and praise▪ and where they stand.
Do not too hastily preuent the time,
Wherein the world was in his flowing prime:
[Page 15]Le [...]ue mountaine rockes with waters ouer-spread,
Till Phoebus rise againe from's easterne bed:
For when he shewes againe his blushing face,
Then shall Gods powerfull hand asunder place
These mingled bodies; and shall richly dight
The earth, with bushie trees of goodly height.
It's time my loue, my ioy and onely deare,
To soare aloft, to lodge no longer here.
Or neuer now tis time, to graft my wings
On thy immortall virgin-pin [...]onings:
That on thy backe I being nimbly light,
May safely vnto heauen take my flight.
Come, come then luckily, thy shoulder lend,
That mounted on the same I hence may wend
To gaine that crowne, to win that wreathed bay,
Which neuer Poets, that in Fraunce did sway,
Did weare; and which the heauens nigardize
Hath long concealed from my longing eyes.
The aire (which foggie mists doth entertaine,
The aire hov [...] and vvhy it is d [...]uided into three r [...]g [...]o [...]s.
The play-game of the tempests and the raine;
Th'inconstant house where winged clouds abide,
Swift Aeol [...]s his kingdome and his pride.
The shop where winds are sold, whose trafficke maketh,
That euerie mouing thing of life partaketh)
Is not all one, for men by learning guided,
Into three lofts hau't rightf [...]lly deuided.
Whereof the high'st (for that the restlesse course
Regi [...] suprema.
Of the first Mouer puls it round by force,
From Ea [...]t to West, and likewise from the West
Vnto the place where faire Aurora's drest:
And for it bounds vpon the burning [...]ame)
The learned do this loft the hottest name.
That loft wherein we breath, by turne doth hold
Regio infima.
Now melting heate, now all-congealing cold:
Now neither, so his waters in the Spring
Are coldly hote; in Autumne wauering,
[Page 16]In winter cold, and hote in sommers raigne,
For then the earth rebat [...]th backe againe
Those beames, which starrie bow-men shoote apace;
Especially the Sunne (the heauens chiefe grace)
Who for his shafts doth eue [...]ore d [...]light,
To make the circled earth his but tand white.
Medi [...]io.
The middle-loft, for that it still remaineth
Farre from the burning [...]eeling, which containeth
This lower world in his firie seate,
Vnable also to partake the heate,
Which from the earth is banded bolt-vpright,
Doth in continuall freezing take delight.
For how could water hardned be to haile,
Euen when the sommer heate doth so preuaile,
That haruest fields looke white, if y [...]ie cold
His shiuering climates did not all enfold?
VVhy the mid­dle region is th [...] c [...]ld [...]st.
Assoone as Phoebus hath his court remoued
From the
T [...] sig [...] Gemini.
two twinnes, so mutually beloued,
And takes his lodging with his
Cancer.
Crabbed hoste,
Or panting Lyon; then this middle coast
His cold redoubleth: for enuironed
With heate of armies newly mustered,
Which more then ere are now encouraged
To haue his coldest times vnwintered:
Delayes the time to traine his men no longer,
His forces ioyn'd together are the stronger.
S [...]mil.
As Christians leauing farre their natiue land,
Feare not the furie of the Turkish band,
Marching disorderly; make now and then,
As many squadrons, as there be of men;
So that sometime the clownes with bils and bowes,
Driue them before them with their stubborne blowes:
But when they see the Mooned flags appeare,
(Armes of old Ottoman) and when they heare
The horrid thunder of cannons sound,
Which by their shocke do leuell with the ground,
[Page 17]The strongest wals that euer yet immured
Rhodes and Belgrada, while their prime indured,
Straight they retire, and in some neighbour plaine,
Do set themselues in order all againe;
Their warlike courage doth increase their strength,
Their bloud doth boile for heate, and at the length
The bordring circumcised peoples aide
Doubling their forces, makes their foes afraid.
This antiperistasis (for tis no danger
T [...]e effe [...]s of the A [...]tip [...]ri­s [...]a [...]s of the [...]i [...]le r [...]gio [...].
To naturalize a word that is a stranger▪
Yea in this worke, where we haue no one word,
That doth so strong an emphasis afford)
Doth cause that in the heate of winters cold,
We feele the chimney hotter many-fold
Then in the sommer: and that Scythia,
Saluted often by Orithia
Her blustering louer, euermore doth breed
Children, whose stomackes crauing still to feed,
Continually digest more store of meate,
Both in the winter, and in sommers heate,
Then those leane scranlings whom the Delphian torch▪
Vpon the Lybian sand doth alway scorch.
This makes that we, which haue the happie lucke
Sweete aire into our spongie lungs to sucke,
More liuely heate within our stomackes hide,
When freezing Ianiuere doth here abide:
Then when the Sunne is banisht for a while
From Chus, and to our tropicke doth recuile,
Gods mightie hand did thus the aire deuide,
That in the middle lo [...]t there might reside
The mists, the comets and the windie traine,
The tempests and the dew, the y [...]e and raine.
Some of the which appointed are to make
The earth to yeeld her fruit, the rest to take
Weapons against our sinnes: that so they might
Engraue in hardest hearts each day and night,
[Page 18]The awfull loue, the sweet-alluring feare
Of him, which of this All the crowne doth weare.
Simil.
As in a cupping-glasse a litle flame,
To shunne a vacuum (which is natures shame)
Or [...] it selfe from cupped partes doth bring
Th [...]abounding humor, which lies pestering
The flesh; which being thinne and too subtile,
Doth by the ruddie eyes distill each while:
Right so the Sunne, whose yellow golden haire
Doth daily guild this and that hemispheare,
Two sorts of vapors euermore exhales
From wauing fields, and from the flowrie dales.
E [...]atio.
The one is thinne, pure, nimble, burning, dry,
Vapor.
T [...]e other hote, moist, rising heauily,
Which runne amid the aire throughout the yeare,
And make the world vnlike it selfe appeare.
O [...] [...]he blasts, o [...] n [...]l d [...]vv.
If then a vapor do so thinly rise,
As that it cannot be in any wise
To water turned; and his heauie wing
G [...]ued with cold, lie onely houering
Vpon the earth his gaudy flowred weed,
A blacknesse in the aire it straight doth breed,
And the [...]ewithall a sluggish mi [...]tie blast,
Vpon the hearbes and flowers hangeth fast.
O [...] the d [...]vv a [...] the ye [...].
If so this vapor lingringly do flie
Scarce to the middle region of the sky,
Yet higher then the clouds, it's in a trice,
In Aprill dew, in Ianuarie y [...]e.
[...] the raine.
But if this vapor actiuely do get,
Vnto the shiuering winters cabinet;
The water which hath got the highest place,
Is turned in a verie litle space
By cold into a [...]loud, and through the skie,
Vpon the winged winds doth swiftly flie:
Vntill his waters dropping downe amaine,
Do find their grandame riuers once againe.
[Page 19]Whether one cloud be driuen by the wind,
Coni [...]c [...]urall reason [...]of the raine.
Against another in a furious kind;
And with a stubborne shocke are forc'd againe,
To shed their water in a showre of raine:
As oftentimes, a wanton lad doth dash
Simil.
The brittle vessels, seruing for to wash,
B [...]tweene his waggish hands, and so doth spill
The water which the vessels earst did fill:
Or whether it be, a gentler gale do play
Amid the aire, and sighing in his way,
Wrings out their teares: as after a great raine,
Another showre stilleth downe againe
From tops of forrests trees; when as the wind
Among their bushy boughes doth pleasure find,
And sports to crispe their wauing leauie tresses:
Or whether it be a higher cloud that presses
The vnder cloud with a moist heauie waight;
And that the humor se [...]kes an issue straight,
Prest by another water: as is s [...]ene,
The more that
Grapes.
Bacchus presents piled bene
Vpon the hurdle in the vintage time,
The faster doth the new, sweet, [...]uming wine
Streame from the bottome pierced all below,
And to the froathie tub amaine doth flow.
Then many heauenly streames our flouds augment,
Saue teares is nothing scene: the firmament
Darkned with clouds, in drops doth seeme to still,
And stinking frogs the earthie plaines to fill:
Hovv frogs may b [...] [...]nge [...] ­dred v [...]h t [...] raine
Whether the vapor that doth vpward [...]lie,
Be of it selfe both cold, hote, moist and drie;
Whose mixture quickneth euerie liuing thing:
Or whether it be, the Easterne blustering
Sweeping the earth, do heape into the sky
Some fertile dust, whereof confusedly
These ougly things are made; as neare the brimme,
Where some new mountaine floud doth swiftly swimme,
[Page 20]The froathy mud is turn'd in a strange kind
Into a frog, which yet vnshhap't behind
Within the dirt enioys some small pastime,
Halfe dead, and halfe aliue, halfe flesh, halfe slime.
Of the snovv.
S [...]times it hapneth, that the freezing cold
Congeales the totall cloud; then we behold
Great lockes of heauenly wooll to tumble downe,
The trees vnleau'd, no grasse vpon the ground,
The world hath all one die; aboue the snow
The stagge his horned head can hardly shew.
Of the [...]aile.
Sometimes it chanceth otherwise againe,
Soone as the cloud is turned into raine,
Th'excessiue cold that's in the middle loft,
To haily bullets hardneth it full oft;
Which falling downe (alas they so should fall)
Our hoped vintage greedily forestall;
Without a sickle reape our vnripe graine,
Vnblossome all our trees, and do constraine
The birds to leaue the neasts they lately made,
Do rob the woods and groues of wonted shade,
Do bruise our bullockes grazing as they go,
Do make our verie houses cracke for woe,
Of t [...]e vvinds hovv they are caused.
If so the starres which Gods creating hand
Sow'd scatteringly vpon the heauenly land,
Draw fumes from off the earth both hote and dry,
Their actiue fire would lodge them instantly
In Phoebus lap: but t [...]ey no sooner gaine
The loft, where freezing cold doth still remaine,
And feele the strength of their audacious foes,
But straight they striue to gaine a sweete repose
Vpon the earth from whence they did ascend,
Assisted by the waight she did them lend.
But from the fields there fumes another fire,
Which comes to aide them in their backe re [...]ire
Which stops their downeward course, restores their hearts,
And weapons to their trembling hands imparts.
[Page 21]With these fresh souldiers they fiercely fight,
Now tumbling downe, now towring bolt vpright,
Driuing now here, now there our aire along,
According as the matter's weake, or strong.
This holds but for a while, for in this fray
The heate and cold both bearing equall sway,
To end this stirre, one lets their vpward flight,
The other stops their fall with all his might:
So that this vapour taking litle rest,
To moue in circled wise doth hold it best,
And buzzing flies from pole to pole, from Spaine
To Easterne India, and backe againe.
These puffing winds although they quickned be
The f [...]ur [...] thi [...] winds rese [...] ­bled t [...] th [...] foure seasons of the yeare, the fo [...]re hu­m [...]s of a man [...] bodie, the foure elements, and t [...]e fo [...]re ages.
By spirit and vapour of like qualitie:
Yet doth the diuerse place where they are borne,
With diuerse names and power them all adorne▪
Whiles I obserue the foure winds principall,
Which quarter out the cantons of this All,
In their effects as humming on they flie,
I find that they resemble properly
Foure times of th'yeare, foure humors that abound,
Foure simples, whereof nature doth compound
Each mingled bodie, and the foure-fold age,
Which man runs ouer in his pilgrimage.
The wind which doth with faire Aurora dwell,
The Eastwind.
Resembles in his nature passing well [...],
The naked sommer and the tender age,
The fire and choler (apt to kindle rage.)
The wind which barbrous Africa doth greet,
The Sout [...].
Is like the ioyfull Spring▪ the aire most sweet:
That age wherein man doth in strength excell,
The bloud wherein the soule of man doth dwell.
The wind which doth with drops bedew the West,
The VV [...]st.
The water and the phlegme resembles best,
The age wherein mans strength fals to decay,
The time when hoarie winter beareth sway.
[Page 22]
The North.
The wind which from the shiuering North doth flie▪
May be compar'd and not iniuriously,
To Autumne, earth, and melancholie sad,
And to the age when man becomes a lad.
Not [...]at vntill this time we haue not learned
More winds then East, West, North and South are tearmed.
The man that liues vpon the watrie plaine,
Hath on his compasse noted thirtie twaine.
Though, as the places number do exceed,
From whence these exhalations do proceed;
So are the winds in number numberlesse,
Which cleanse the aire of mistie fogginesse.
Yet from what place so ere they sallie forth,
They mustred are by South, East, West or North.
The eff [...]cts of the winds.
Sometimes they with a whizzing broome do sweepe
The aire, where duskie cloudes their court do keepe,
Sometimes they drie the fields which drowned bin,
With teares of Phaeton his weeping kin.
Sometimes they temper with a welcome cold
The aire, which while the fainting dog-daies hold,
Do frie for heate. They ripe the ruddie peare,
The beane in huske, the corne within the eare.
They make the winged ship to flie with ease,
Throughout the world vpon the raging seas.
And with a li [...]gring hast whirling around
The milstone, vnder which the graine is ground,
To vndeuided atomies they bring
The seed, which from the earth they made to spring.
Diuerse ef­fects of th [...] hote exhala­tio [...].
Now if the fume be hote and glutinous,
And yet vnable to be mutinous
Against the ysicles, [...]hat rule and raigne
Amid the aire; then doth it still remaine,
Houering betweene vs and the middle skie,
Vntill it kindled be, and downeward flie:
Iust like a squib (that serues for sportfull games)
Or like an arrow feathered all with flames.
[Page 23]But when againe the exhalation
Of the comets.
Surmounts cold winters habitation,
It lights it selfe and makes a blazing starre,
Foredooming some mischance that is not farre.
But then his flame hauing more nouriture
Then th'other vapour, longer doth endure;
Whether the fume ytost withouten stay,
Become a brand by heauens circled sway,
Kindling it selfe like coales that ouer-spread
With straw, do for a while lye seeming dead,
Which afterward the artisan doth shake,
Of darksome night a lightsome day to make:
Or whether from the highest element,
It do receiue his firie nutriment,
Like as the torch of flaming life depriued,
Is by the burning linke againe reuiued.
According as the vapour's thicke or rare,
Of the other fierie impressi­ons in the aire.
Long, equall, large, vnequall, round, or square,
It makes those various shapes in th'aire appeare,
Whose sight doth make the sottish quake for feare.
Here doth a steeple seeme to flame by night,
There doth a cruell dragon come in sight.
Here is the torch, and there the arrow flies,
The forked beame and speare here greet our eyes,
And there the dart, which crossing in their waies,
Clashing together sparkle out their raies.
The wanton goate with firie tassels dight,
By often skips doth simple men affright,
The bloudie tresses of a twinkling starre,
Do threaten on the other side from farre,
To plague the neat-h [...]ards with tempestuous haile,
With stormes to souce the mariners that saile,
To punish shepheards with their flockes decay,
And citizens with many a bloudie fray.
What rumbling noise in heauen do I heare?
Of the thunder.
The wals of this great All as doth appeare,
[Page 24]In euery corner suffer batterment,
It seemes Proserpina hath some intent,
To set at large her furious daughters three,
And leaue her queenedome of blacke Tartarie,
And in the aire to hold her hellish raigne.
I know that some do studie [...]o maintaine,
That when the vapour doth ascend on high,
Compact of aire and water euenly,
And burning vapours mounting vp likewise
Into the middle region of the skies,
The hotter fume y compassed around
With cold thicke cloudes which in the aire abound,
Doubles his heate, and taking heart of grace,
Makes warre on his cold neighbour foes apace.
Simil.
The lion banisht from the forrest wide
His natiue home, and forced to abide
In some straight den, where maides and idle boyes
Do hisfe, and mocke, and anger him with toyes,
Doth fill his narrow parke with dreadfull sound,
Runs forth and backe in such his straightned pound,
And being mad, doth not so much desire
His libertie, as to reuenge his ire:
Right so this fier crauing for to rent
His floating prison, cannot be content;
But [...]till bestirs him running round about,
Wi [...]h grumbling, rumbling, and a thundring rout,
Vntill he make a renting breach below,
And thundring cannon-shot on vs do throw.
For longing in these sharpe and cruell warres,
To ioyne his weake enfeebled souldiers
Vnto his brother forces, and obtaine
In Cynthia's lap that he may still remaine;
He snarlingly endeuours foorth to get,
But with so huge an host he is beset,
And so intrenched euery where about,
That though he striue on this side to get out,
[Page 25]And now on that side skirmish with the cold,
Yet finds he many a souldier that is bold,
Couragiously to stand against his strength,
And so despairing, furiously at length
Forgets his honour, and doth backe retire,
With shame enough as wanting his desire.
The ocean boiles for feare, and Neptunes band,
Effects of the thun [...]r.
Finding the sea too straight, do hie to land.
The earth doth quake, the shepheard all alone,
Is hardly safe vnder the rockie stone.
The skie is rift in twaine, and Plutoes selfe
Lookes pale and bleake like some night-wandring elfe.
The aire doth slame throughout with firie flashes,
For then the lightning which so fiercely dashes
Against the cloud, the which it doth surprise,
Doth sparkle foorth those flames which dimme our eyes.
Right like the man on whom the Muses fawne,
Simil.
Doth with his steele before the morning dawne,
Compell the sparkes to issue from the flint
Vntill they kindle his halfe burned lint.
And which is more, the lightning being framed
Stran [...]e effe [...] of the lig [...]t­ning.
Of fumes which of themselues are still enflamed,
Can breake the bones with his admired art,
Yet keepe the flesh from feeling any smart:
Can melt the coine wherewith the niggard's blest▪
Yet with his burning force not hurt the chest:
Can breake the foyning blade short off in twaine,
Yet misse the scabbard that doth it containe:
Can kill the babe, ere it be brought to light,
Yet to the mother offer no despight,
Who with the strange euent astonished,
Doth see her child no sooner borne then dead.
Can burne the shoo, and not offend the foot,
Nor pierce the tunne, yet draw the liquour out.
I haue beheld with these (then younger) eyes,
This thundring flame a woman to surprise,
[...]xa [...]ple.
[Page 26]And from those parts to whiffe away the haires,
Which here to name my modest Muse forbeares.
O [...] the circles abou [...] t [...]e Sun and Moone.
Shall I conceale those various shapes, which be
Painted in heauens face? Sometimes I see
A firie circle fram'd of many a ray,
Which Sunne and Moone, and other starres display;
Which on some cloude whiles they are darted downe,
Of substance thicke, and by his figure round,
Through which they cannot passe with all their strength,
Flie round about the edges at the length,
And do a crowne resemble very right.
Like as the torch, which when it burneth bright
Within some angle of a darkesome cell,
Whose gate is bolted, cannot very well
Send through the doore the lustre of his raies,
But by the chinkes his flaming light displaies.
Of the raine­bow.
But when the Sun begins himselfe to shrowd
In Thetis bed, and on some aduerse clowd,
Vnable any longer to containe
His watrie humour, shootes his beames amaine;
Then doth he shadow his resplendent face
Vpon that cloude▪ and variously doth trace
The bending of that partie-coloured bow,
Whose sight doth glad our faces here below.
For th' aduerse cloude, which doth the arrowes take
Of this great archer, instantly doth make
That on the neighbour cloude they backe rebound,
And doth with Titans golden beames compound
His various colours: altogether like
The Sun, which while his darts some violl strike
Vpon thy window▪ thou dost straight espie
The trembling brightnesse banded vpwardly,
Against the s [...]eling of thy glittering hall.
Of the diuerse S [...]ns & Moons which are som [...]imes seen.
But if contrariwise the cloude do fall,
Not ore against, nor vnder, but beside
The Sunne or Moone▪ (the heauens nightly pride)
[Page 27]Both one and th' other on th [...]t cloude do trace,
With powerfull skill their two or three-fold face,
The sillie vulgar are astonished,
To see at once three coachmen furnished,
To draw the Sun, the father of the day;
And that the night for anger doth assay,
To haue more Moones in heauen to r [...]maine,
And there as crowned Queenes to rule and raigne.
But why (ô foolish men) go ye about,
An Apostrophe to those that wholy ground t [...]mselues vpon reaso [...].
To search the wonders of th' Almighty out
With your so shallow sence? what proud desire,
Nay madnesse rather, makes you so aspire
Without his helpe to open all his workes?
I know that in a learned man there lurkes
That skill, whereby he can some reason show,
Of whatsoeuer moueth here below:
But not so sound, that he may leaue a man
Without all scruple; and if so he can,
Yet of these instruments when we do boast,
We should commend those cunning fingers most,
Which set them all on worke, and by such waies
Things more then dead to life againe do raise.
When thunder roares, that voice me seemeth rings,
T [...]e religious vse that we should make of th [...]se me­teors and im­pressions.
Which makes kings shepheards, and of shepheards kings.
The towre-bruising shocke oflightning, telleth
What wondrous power in Gods right hand there dwelleth.
When as I see the flashes in the aire,
I see beames of Gods eyes diuinely faire.
When timely raine doth fall, I then espie▪
How he showres downe his blessings plenteously.
When as the bridges in the fields are drownd,
And streames do ouerwhelme our tilled ground;
Me thinkes that God doth weepingly lament
Those sinnes, whereof we neuer do repent.
And neuer doth the bow in heauen appeare,
But it's a seale and pledge to me most deare,
[Page 28]That neuer more the vniuersall floud,
Sh [...]ll proudly ouerwaue that forrest wood,
Which Atlas seemeth in the cloudes to hide,
Or doth on snowie Caucasus abide.
But chiefly I am mou'd, when heauens ire,
Salutes our eyes with prodigies of fire:
When this great All is all disordered,
And his old customes strangely altered.
The most lear­ned vnable to assigne true reasons of all accide [...]ts.
Suppose there do in some one scholer flourish
As many wits, as Pallas deignes to nourish:
And let thilke man out of his subtill braine,
Shew me a certaine reason of the raine,
Of milke, and flesh, and wooll, which whilome fell
From heauen; and let his deeper skill me tell,
How in the clouds that store of graine might grow,
Which hath bene seene at twise to ouerflow
That part of Germanie where it did fall,
Which vulgarly Carinthia men do call.
The heauens great King doth now and then delight,
To crosse each where the course of natures might:
Minding that such irregularities,
Should heralds be of future miseries.
That firie showre which once was seene to raigne
On the
Plutarch in the l [...]fe of Crafs [...].
Lucanian fields; (when Rome did traine,
And send their brauest souldiers to that field,
Which vnto fat Euphrates way doth yeeld)
Foretold the Parthians neuer missing bow,
Should all th' Italian armies ouerthrow.
That ratling noise of armes, those trumpets sound,
Which from abou [...] did simple men astound,
(While as the
Plutarch in the life of Ma­rius.
Romaines most couragious crew,
So many Danes and Almaines fiercely slew)
Tell vs that chaunce in nature worketh nought,
Against the errors Epicurus taught.
Thou which dost see the lightnings three-fold stroke
Dash out
A certaine Arrian Bishop, who for h [...]s [...]orrible blas­phemies, was s [...]ine by the lightning.
Olympus braines, which did prouoke
[Page 29]Bl [...]sphemously the triple-vnitie:
Dar'st thou presume t'expect impunity
From God, while thou dost barke against his Grace,
And shamest not to spit vpon his face,
Whose iustice neuer leaues vnpunished
Blasphemous mouths against him opened?
Thou Iew, no Iew, but now a barbrous seed
Of Turkish, [...]Scythian, or Tartarian breed;
What is thy thought, when as thou dost espie
Thy
Iose [...]us i [...] the vv [...]rres of t [...]e I [...]oes.
temple threatned with a sword on high?
But that th' Almightie with his powerfull hand,
Should powre his vengeance downe vpon thy land.
That dearth and famine should sweepe them away,
Which to the pestilence were not a pray:
And that the sword should seaze on them againe,
Which had escaped from the former twaine:
That execrable mothers in that stowre,
Their miserable children should deuoure:
That there the plough his rustinesse should scowre,
Where flourished of late thy stately bowre.
And all for murdring in thy deadly strife,
That King which came from heauen to giue thee life.
That streame of bloud which once was seene to flow,
Those craggie rockes from whence great Ione did throw
His fearefull lightning on Liguria land,
And all those bloudie crosses seeme to stand
On mournefull habits of appearing men,
Did seeme to cry with open mouth, that then
In Genes the Turke with his enraged crew,
Should pitch their standards, as it did ensue.
O franticke Fraunce, how is't thou gainest nought,
An apos [...]op [...] to his o [...]vne countrey of Fraunce.
By all those signes whereby thy God hath sought
To call thee home? canst thou with tearlesse eyes
Behold those fearefull firie prodigies,
Wherewith the heauens do vs all affright,
That
He vnder­stands the co­met seene in the yeare▪ 1577
blazing starre which threatens euerie night,
[Page 30]Our land with warre, with pestilence and hunger,
Three deadly points of that prepared thunder,
Which when th' Almightie ginneth once to frowne,
On vs rebellious men he powreth downe?
But what (alas) can heauen vnarm'd preuaile,
When as thy backe thresh'd with so many a flaile,
Drawes not one sigh from thy obdurate heart?
Thou art delighted with thy painefull smart,
Thy hunger makes thee on thy flesh to feed,
And makes thy bloud thy drinke; and thou indeed
As dull as one that hath the lethargie,
Shunnest the salue might cure thy maladie,
The more thou feel'st the spurre, the more thou tirest,
And voide of holy care, thou lesse desirest
T'amend thy wayes, but like an Asse dost striue
To fat thy selfe with blowes, with losse to thriue:
And as the iron or the steeled blade,
So thou by hammering art harder made.
But better twere I see this talke to end,
Then speaking to the deafe my time mispend:
I see twere better tread my wonted way,
And in my verse Gods greatest workes display.
Of the elemen­tarie fi [...].
As then in court the king is hemmed in
With princes of his royall bloud and kin,
And next to them with nobles of his traine,
And after them with magistrates againe,
Marching along in order and degree,
As they are nearest to his Maiestie:
So God in order wisely did dispose,
That Cinthia should that element enclose,
Which did in his resplendent actiuenesse
The nature of the heauens best expresse;
And after him, the others as they bene
Annear'd vnto the planets by their kin.
And yet foole-many crediting their eyes
Aboue their reason, many wayes deuise
[Page 31]To pull this essence from his natiue place,
And with his want this lower All deface.
The fier giuing brightnesse, heate and flame,
Ignis enco­mium.
Welspring of motion, Alchymist of fame,
A cleanser, quickner, smith and souldier,
Bell-founder, surgeon, cooke and cannoner,
And goldsmith too, which doth and can do all,
Embracing round the aire and earthie ball.
If so the fire (say they) encamped be
Obi [...]ction.
Betweene the heauen and vs, then should we see
The same by night; for then our eyes do marke
The shining glowormes in the greatest darke.
Besides, how should we see the worldes eyn [...],
Throughout so great an element to shine?
Sith that with vs the sharpest sighted eye
Can nothing through a candles flame espie,
You vnbeleeuing men, if so the puffes
Soluti [...]n.
Of wanton Zephirus, or angrie snuffes
Of rainie Auster, made you not beleeue
They haue a being▪ you would credence giue,
That from the earth vnto the firmament,
There were a vacuum and no element.
And your opinion would aswell desire,
To thinke no aire, as to conceiue no fire.
Those torches wherewith we prolong the dayes
The di [...]f [...]r [...]n [...]e betvveene the elementarie and our mixt fire.
(Which in the winter Capricorne assaies
To drowne in Westerne seas, t'enlarge the night)
Compar'd vnto the Sunne, the heauens great light,
Are lesse, by many hundreth times, obscure,
Then is our mixt and compound fire impure,
Compar'd to that resplendent element,
This lower Vniuerse his chiefest ornament.
Our fire is nothing but a lightsome shade
Of darksome thicke and pitchie grosenesse made:
But that aboue, by being wholy pure
From mixture of compounded nouri [...]ure.
[Page 32]And being farre remoued from our sight,
And vnacquainted with the blustering might
Of Aeolus, doth much resemblance beare
Vnto the nature of the heauenly spheare.
Of the matter of the h [...]auens.
But (heauenly God) what matter may I name,
Of which thou didst the heauenly arches frame?
Vncertaine, I resemble euerie howre,
The cocke that stands vpon some steepled towre,
Which doth as oft new place and maister find,
As in the aire we feele a change of wind.
Sometimes I am of Aristotles traine,
Sometimes I follow Plato's mind againe;
Tracking the foot-steps of the Stagirite,
I rob the firmament of mixture quite.
I do auerre that Gods omnipotence
Did fashion heauen of a quintessence:
Sith that the elements directly flie,
Some to the center, others to the skie.
But heauens course giuing no inch of ground,
Is euer turned in a circled round.
Their motion dures not, but they so abide,
As God the worlds first day did them diuide:
But neuer-breathing heauen still doth runne,
That constant p [...]sting course it hath begun:
It treads one path, mou'd with vnburdened waight,
And knowes not what it is a teeme to baite.
The earth and water, fire and aire vnited,
Are with an inbred warring hate delighted,
Cau [...]ing in time their springing and their fall,
Increase and decrease; suffring not at all,
Beneath the horned planet any forme,
For one halfe houre one subiect to adorne:
But heauen neuer knowes death's equall rigor,
Growing in year [...]s, it groweth not in vigor,
Nor weares with vse, but's flowring eld may beare
Resemblance to his childhood euery where.
[Page 33]Tracing againe the steps of Plato's skill,
Hovv a [...]d to vvhat vse the elements may be in the hea­ [...]e [...]s, according to Platoes opi­nion.
The heau'nly orbes with elements I fill.
Th'earth makes them solid, that they neuer craue
A fleeting disposition to haue;
The aire transparant, fire makes them light,
Hote, nimble, actiue, and resplendant bright.
And all the eadges which do counter-kisse
Their fellow-wheeling globes, do neuer misse
Of water, whose cold humor stops the course
Of burning heate, arising from the source
Of their swift motion, lest the heauenly land
Should be conuerted to a flaming brand.
Not that I equalize these elements,
The differenc [...] betweene those elements wher­of the heauens, and those wher [...]of the Sublunarie bodi [...]s are compounded.
Of which I frame the heau'nly tenements,
To those dull bodies which are here below,
Which men by sight and frequent handling know.
They are all pure, a heau'nly harmonie
Combines their substances eternally.
Their aire is free from tossing, and their fire
From burning; and their earth doth not desire
From his high mansion to tumble downe,
Nor doth their water fleete vpon the ground.
Lo, here th'extent of humane surque drie
Blinded with error and simplicitie,
Which dares (as though his cunning could calcine
The matter of the heau'nly orbes) define
With an vnbridled tongue, what wood and stone
Th'Almightie chose to carpenter his throne.
I rather had still doubtfull to remaine,
Then lead awrie the simple of my traine;
Waiting for holie Paul his rediscent:
Orfreed from the vicious pesterment
Ofthis rebellious flesh, which doth depresse
My clogged soule with counter-heauinesse,
These eyes may see the beauties of that place,
Diuers [...] [...] ­nions touching the number of the sp [...]ares.
If then I ought would see saue Gods bright face,
But men as manie curious questions moue,
[Page 34]About the number of the spheares aboue:
One holds but one, through which he makes to glide
The eyes, wherewith this All is beautifide:
Like as amid the sea, the scaly traine
Diuide the surges of the watrie plaine.
Another iudging all things by his eye,
Marking the seauen planets in the skie
To haue a diuerse course; and that beside
The other starres (which fixed do abide,
Guilding by night the heau'nly firmament)
Runne but one way; his wise experiment
By such his obseruation hath found,
Eight [...]undry lofts in the cele [...]tiall round.
Another ma [...]king in the starrie skie,
A three-fold motion dancing actiuely,
And that on [...] bodie hath but one sole race
By naturall instinct; doth forthwith place
A ninth and tenth, not numbring in that count
Th imperiall spheare, which doth the rest surmount;
Where streames of nectar neuer cease to flow,
Where soule-delighting pleasures euer grow,
Where one may see a [...] all times flourishing
The pleasing beauties of a happie spring;
Where life doth neuer die through crooked eld,
Where Gods high parliament is alway held
His glorious essence being hemmed in
With troupes of many a flaming Seraphin,
And soules of men which he hath purchased
By hauing of that bodie murthered,
Whose glorious resurrection and ascent,
Hath plac'd the earth aboue the firmament.
But here ile stop my ouer-posting teame.
Not daring to discusse so deepe a theame.
C [...]eli [...]ncomion.
O faire and ten-fold round, which hat'st to stay,
Life of this Vniuerse, spring of the day,
Mould of thy selfe, begetter of the yeare,
Which neuer changest place, yet dost appeare
[Page 35]To flie so fast, that onely in our mind,
We can thy neuer-lingring motion find:
Finite, yet infinite, from growing free,
From discord, death and hatefull miserie,
Which louest sound and dancing harmonie,
still like thy selfe in all eternitie,
Transparant, light, law of this lower round;
Which with thy limits euery thing dost bound▪
And yet vnbounded art, which dost enfold
What euer thing this lower All doth hold,
Throne of great Ioue: I willingly would sing
The various orders of thy quauering▪
If time would giue me leaue, and that this Day
Would not be ouer-long by that essay.
Besides, I feare that some detracting tongue,
Will blab abroad among each vulgar throng,
That to each gale of wind for small auaile,
My tatling Muse doth spread her fardled saile;
And that a longer web she moughten weaue,
She quils each thread, not caring when to leaue.
But thinke who ere thou be, that reasonlesse
I do not here so many workes expresse
Of the creation; sith I vnderstand
By that great firmament (which Gods right hand
VVhat is v [...] ­derstood by the firmament. Gen. 1.6.
Did hang this day betweene our watrie plaine,
And that aboue the skie) the whirling traine
Of spheares and aire, and th'hottest element,
Which make a large deuiding sunderment
Betweene the waters of our azurde deepe,
And those which God aboue the skie doth keepe.
Now in the learned bookes of high esteeme,
Against [...]hose [...]hich hold no vvaters aboue the fir [...]ament.
My ignorance hath not so litle seene,
But we [...]l I know, that their so curious skill
Presumes with subtile arguments to fill
Their volumes, scoffing at the christall spheare,
And at the waters which are placed there,
And at that ocean which doth all containe
[Page 36]Which vnderneath his compasse doth remaine.
Simil.
But as a modest matrons beauteous face,
(Who as contented with the bounteous grace
Which nature franckly hath bestow'd vpon her,
Striues not with painting to increase her honour
Of her so faire art-wanting countenance)
Deserues more praise, then doth th'immodest glaunce,
The wanton gesture, and the mincing pace,
The borrowed tresses and depainted grace,
Wherewith a curtisan of filthie trade
Maintaines her beauty which begins to fade:
So of the holy tongue I more account,
Although the country phrase it not surmount,
And that bare truth be her sole ornaments,
Then of Athenian painted eloquence
And guilded lines, wherewith men striue to shade
The errors, which their vaine conceits haue made.
I rather had my reason oft should lie,
Then from the sacred truth once go awry,
Gen. 1.6. Psal 104.3.148.4.
Which in so manie places loud doth crie,
That God hath plac'd some waters ore the skie.
Be it that their estranged qualitie,
With these below haue small affinitie:
Or turn'd vnto a cloudie element,
Do compasse round the starrie firmament▪
Or be it (as some say) a christall spheare,
Embrace the golden firmament each where.
And why shall I tost with vncertainties,
Conclude of these as doubtlesse verities?
A [...]g. a pari.
I see not why mans reasonable sence
Should not beleeue, that his omnipotence,
Who whilome made the sea like wals to stand
For Iacobs troupe to passe as on dry land,
Could not aboue the wheeling globes compose
That watrie spheare, the others to enclose.
Thou seest that euerie howre the clouds cont [...]ine,
So many seas which threatning vs with raine,
[Page 37]Are only vnderpropt with feeble aire,
Tost with each wind that thither doth repaire,
And yet so weake, that it can hardly beare
The litlest burthen any one can reare.
Thou seest the sea which doth our mother bound,
Spite of all accidents remaineth round;
His waues not daring once their bounds to passe,
To equalize their circled watrie masse.
Why then beleeu'st thou not this vaulted spheare
Vpon his backe a totall sea may beare▪
Yet that the water firmely may abide?
O stonie heart, perswade thy selfe beside,
That God sustaines those waters in that case;
And thinke if natures working take such place,
Arg. a mi [...]i.
That pearle and christall glasse are by her skill
Compos'd of streames, which droppingly distill;
What then at once can the Almightie do,
Which did create both heauen and nature too?
Perswade thy vnbeleeuing mind againe,
That this proud pallace where thou hold'st thy raigne,
Tho built with wondrous art, would soone decay,
If on a watrie ground it did not stay.
For as the braine doth hold the highest seate
Simil.
Of mans small vniuerse, t'alay the heate
Which from the cordiall parts doth euer flow,
With his coole moisture; altogether so,
That God might mixe the water with the flame,
And coole the ardor of the heau'nly frame,
He plac'd aboue the starrie firmament,
A vaulted sea of that moist element.
Me [...]ti [...]ing t [...]e waters abo [...] the firmament, be assumes oc­cas [...]n to men­tion the floud, which be de­scribes mo [...] elegantly.
These higher waters (as the stories go)
Ioyning themselues vnto the flouds below,
And striuing with their ouer-swelling pride,
The proudest mountaine tops with waues to hide,
Had drown'd this All, if (dancing on the floud)
Noe had not shut the world into a wood;
Building an Arke, a huge and mightie frame,
[Page 38]Keeping aliue all creatures in the same.
They were no sooner in, but straight the Lord
With onely power of his all-mightie word,
Opened the doore of that vast, horrid caue,
Where Aeolus his crew their dwelling haue;
And bolted in the cloud-expelling North,
And let the rainy southerne issue forth;
Which gins forthwith to wag his dropping wing,
His beard hath no one haire but is a spring:
A night of clouds enuellops him around,
His hanging lockes in raine are showred downe,
And whiles t [...]e thickest clouds he fiercely dashes,
They breake out into showers and stormie flashes.
The froathie torrent, and the riuer stowre,
Do make each other swell in one selfe howre;
Their mingled waters scorne their former bankes,
Runne to the sea to play their furious prankes,
Spoiling the hopefull haruest as they goe,
The earth doth quake [...]nd sweate for very woe,
Not leauing in her vaines one watrie drop.
And thou, ô heauen, thy scluses doest vnstop,
To plague thy sister earth, whose former race
Was shamelesse, lawlesse and withouten grace;
Who tooke her onely and her chiefe delight,
To offer to her maker mickle spite.
The land is hid, now Neptune hath no shore,
The riuers bend their course to him no more,
They are a sea themselues, and all the number
Of seas, which earst deuided were asunder,
Make but one ocean; yea this vniuerse
Is nothing but a watrie wildernesse,
Which longs to ioyne his liquid wauing plaine,
Vnto the flouds which in the heauens remaine.
The sturgeon coasting by the castled bowres,
Admires the drowning of so many towres.
The mular and the manat side those rockes,
Where lately fed the wantonizing flockes
[Page 39]Of bearded goates: the Dolphin cuts the [...]loud
Where it surmounts the highest mountaine wood.
The horse, the tyger, hart, the hound, the hare,
By their swift paces now vnsuccour'd are:
They seeke for ground (alas) but tis no booting,
For still they see they lose their hoped footing.
The beauer, torteise and the crocodile,
Which did enioy a two-fold house ere while,
Haue nought but water now wherein to dwell:
The tender lambkins and the Lyons fell,
The rauenous wolfe, the nimble fallow deare,
Swimme side by side without suspitious feare;
The swallow, yearly Herauld of the spring,
The vulture hatch'd for hatefull rauening▪
fighting, and striuing longer to contend,
Against their certaine neare approaching end,
Not finding where to pearch themselues againe,
Do fall at length into the angred maine.
As for poore men in that tempestuous stowre,
Imagine one to get some loftie tower,
Another to ascend some mountaine hill,
Another practising his climbing skill,
With hands and fe [...]te clasping some cedar tree,
Striuing vpon his vpmost top to be;
But still the floud rising as they ascend,
If once they stay, their sinfull life doth end.
One hardily vpon some planke doth venter,
Another doth into some coffer enter,
Another swimmeth in some kneading tub,
Another halfe asleepe perceiues the floud
T'assaile his bed and life at once; another
Keepes with his armes and legs a swimming pother.
Whe [...]eby he may resist the waters wrath,
Whose rage but euen then deuoured hath
Hard by his side his sister and his brother,
His friend, his child, his father and his mother:
But wearied at the l [...]ngth doth y [...]ld againe,
[Page 40]Vnto the mercie of the cruell maine.
All stand at once at death his loathed doore,
But yet the cruell Parcae, which of yore
Were arm'd with many a murthering deuice,
To rake to them the things of greatest price,
No other hangmen at this instant haue,
Beside the froathie ouer-whelming waue.
Meane while the Arke securely doth remaine,
Vpon the surges of that watrie plaine;
Tho all vnrigd from any hauen farre,
For God was both her pilote and her starre.
Thrise fiftie dayes this monstrous floud did stay,
Making of all this lower All a pray,
Vntill this spoile had mou'd at length the Lord,
Who had no sooner sounded with his word
Vnto those wasting flouds a backe retire,
But instantly the billowes do conspire,
To runne vnto their former place and state;
And straight the swelling riuers do abate:
The sea bounds in it selfe▪ the hils appeare,
The forrest trees which drowned were whileare,
Do shew their slimie boughes; the champion field
Encreaseth as the waters backward yeeld.
And to be briefe, Gods thunder-shooting hand
Did let the Sunne behold againe the land;
That he againe might see the smoake arise,
Of a deuout, sweet-smelling sacrifice,
Fuming with sweete Panchayan franke-incense,
Vnto the praise of his omnipotence.
He concludeth vvith a prayer for the Church.
O God, sith thou art pleas'd in this our age,
To saue thy holy ship from stormie rage;
Graunt that those few, whose setled confidence
Is anchored on thy sacred prouidence,
May by thy blessing euermore increase
In number, faith and loue, the bond of peace.
FINIS.

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