⟨C23576 Sylvester, Joshua⟩
⟨Sylvester (Joshua) Lachrimae Lachrimarum, on the Distillation of Teares shede for the untymely death of the incomparable Prince Panaretus, FIRST EDITION, calf extra [...] 1612 ORIGINAL AND MOST RARE EDITION, and not to be confounded with the comparatively common reprint of 1613, when it was accompanied by other productions. The only other copy of the present editio princeps which has occurred during the last forty years is that in the Huth library. (See Collier's "Rarest Books in the English Language," 1865, ii. 410-11, for some account of Sylvester.) The volume is curiously printed on one side of the leaves, the reverse being in black with the royal arms gartered and crowned in white relief at the top, and the printed pages having at head and foot a mourning band, with emblems of mortality at the sides. Sylvester's poem ends on B4; on C1 begins, and continues to the end, a series of verses on the same subject in English, French, Latin, and Italian, by Walter Quin of Dublin, who is styled the Prince's servant.⟩
⟨First Edition.⟩
LACHRIMAE LACHRIMARVM. or
The Distillation of Teares Shede For the vntymely Death of The incomparable Prince PANARETVS.
by Iosuah Syluester.
LACHRIMAE LACHRIMARVM. A funerall
Elegie vpon the All-
lamented Death of the All-admired
(late) PRINCE.
How-euer, short of Others
Art and Witt,
I knowe my powers for such a Part vnfitt;
And shall but light my Candle in the
Sunne,
To doe a Work shalbe so better
Donne:
Could
Teares and
Feares giue my Distractions leaue,
Of sobbing words a
Sable Webbe to weaue;
Could
Sorrowes Fulnes giue my voice a vent,
How would! how should my saddest
Verse lament
(In deepest Sighes, instead of sweetest Songs)
This Losse (alas!) which vnto All belongs:
To all the Godly
now, and
future, farr:
To all the
WORLD (except
S P. Q. R.):
To All together, and to Each a-part
That liues, and loues
Religion, Armes, or Art:
To all abroad, but to vs most of all
That neerest stood to my
High Cedars fall:
But more then most, to
Mee, that had no
Prop
But HENRY's
Hand, and but in
Him, no
Hope.
O Deerest HENRY;
Heav'n and Earths Delight!
O cleerest
Beame of
Vertues, Rising bright!
O purest Spark of
Pious Princely
Zeale!
O surest Ark of
Iustice sacred weale!
O grauest Presage of a
Prudent kinde!
O brauest Message of a
Valiant Mynde
O All-admird,
Benign and
Bountious!
O All-desired (right) PANARETVS!
(PANARETVS
(All-vertuous) was thy Name
Thy Nature such: such euer bee thy Fame).
O deerest! cleerest! purest! surest
Prop!
O grauest! bravest! Highest! nighest
Hope!
O how vntymelie is this Sunne gonne downe!
This Spark put out, This
Ark (as) ouerthrowne!
This Presage crost! This Message lost and left!
This Prop displac't! This Hope of All, bereft!
O! How vnkinde! How, gracelesse! How, ingrate!
Haue
Wee cutt-off Thy likely longer Date!
For, were
This Stroak from Heav'ns immediat hand;
Or (by Heav'ns leaue) from Hells suborned Band:
How c'r it were,
Wee were the
Mouing Cause
That sweet
Prince HENRY breath no longer drawes.
Wee All (alas) haue had our hands herein:
And Each of vs hath by some
cord of
Sinne
Hal'd downe from Heaven, from
Iustice awfull Seat
This Heauie
Iudgement (which yet more doth
Threat)
Wee Clergie first, who too too oft haue stood
More for the Church-goods then the Churches good:
Wee Nobles next, whose Title, euer strong,
Can hardly offer Right, or suffer Wrong:
Wee Magistrates, who mostly, weake of sight,
Are rather faine to feele then see the Right:
Wee Gentles then, who rack and sack, and sell,
To swimme like
Sea-Crabs, in a
foure-wheeld Shell:
Wee Courtiers next, who
French-Italianate,
Fashion our
Faith after the forme of
State:
Wee Lawyers then, who in the forme of
Law,
Dis-claiming
Conscience like the Horse-leach drawe:
Wee Cittizens, who seeming
Pure and Plaine,
Beguile our Brother, make our
God our
Gaine:
Wee Countrey-men, who slander Heav'n and Earth
As Authors of Our
Artificiall Dearth:
All, briefly All; all Ages, Sexes, Sorts,
In
Countries, Citties, Benches, Churches, Courts,
(All
Epicures, Witt-Wantons, Atheists,
Mach'-Aretines, Momes, Tap-To-Bacchonists,
Bats, Harpies, Sirens, Centanres, Bib-all, nights,
Sice-sinckap Asses, Hags Hermaphrodites)
And
Wee, poore
Nothings (fixed in no Spheare,
Right
Wandring Tapers,
Erring euery-where)
Scorne of the
Vulgar, scandall of the
Gowne,
Haue pull'd this Waight of
Wrath, This
Vengeance down:
All, All are
guiltie, in a high Degree,
Of This
High Treason and
Conspiracie,
More brute then
Brutus, stabbing
more then CAESAR,
With Two-hand-SINNES of
Profit and of
Pleasure.
For, for the
Peoples Sinnes, for
Subiects crymes,
God takes-away good
Princes oftentymes:
So good IOSIAH (HENRY's
parallel)
Was (yong) bereft from Sinfull
Izrael:
So our good EDWARD (HENRY's
Pre-cedent)
For ENGLAND's
Sinnes was hence vntimely hent.
So heer, good HENRY is newe taken hence,
For now
Great-BRITAN'S great
Sinnes Confluence.
Wee see th' Effect, wee haue the Cause confest:
O!
Turne wee then, with speed, to
Saue the rest:
O! Turne vs,
Lord; turne to vs, turne away
Thy
Frownes, our
Feares, with humblest Teares wee
pray.
O! saue our
Souverain; save his
Royall seed;
That still his
Owne may on his
Throne succeed.
Let Each of vs make
priuie Search within;
And hauing found, bring forth the
Traitor SINNE
To
Execution, with all
Execration
Henceforth renouncing such
In-Sin-newation.
Let Each of vs (as Each hath thrown a
Dart,
A
Dart of Synne, at HENRY
's princely hart)
Send-vp in Sighes our
Soules devoutest breath,
To
Shield our IAMES, ANNE, CHARLES, ELIZA'BETH
And HIM, whose
Loue shall render HER her
Brother,
And make Her soone a happie
Princes Mother.
Let Each of vs cease to lament (in vain)
Prince HENRY
's Losse. Death is to HIM a Gaine
For
Sauoy's Dukelings, or the
Florentine
He Wedds his
Sauiour (of a Regal
Ligne)
Glorie, for
Gold; for
Hope, Possession (there)
Of Crownes so Rich as neuer entred Eare,
Eye neuer sawe, nor euer Hart conceav'd;
So strong
Assur'd, as cannot be bereav'd.
Waile not his death: His
Vertues cannot
Dye
(Immortall Issue of ETERNITIE)
His Soule in Blisse beholds her Makers Eyes:
His goodlie Body shall more glorious
Rise.
Weepe not for HIM: weepe for our selues (alas)
(Not for our
Priuate, or
Peculiar case:
As for our
Sonn's, Brother's, or
Master's lack,
Or
Prince's losse (our
Expectations wrack)
Our
Places, Graces, Profits, Pensions lost,
Our
present Fortunes cast, our
future crost)
Weepe for our
Sinnes, our
Wicked-Prouocations,
Our haynous, horrid, high ABHOMINATIONS,
Both
seen and
secret; both in High and Lowe:
Weep, weep for
Theis; and stript from Top to Toe,
Of
guiddie-Gaudes, Top-gallant
Tires and
Towers,
Of
Face-pride, Case-pride, Shin-pride, Shoo-pride, ours
(
Like NINIVITES, so neer Their
threatned Fall)
In blackest
Sack and
Cinders shrowded All,
With bended Knees, but more with broken harts,
And th'
inward rest of right
Repentant Parts,
Prostrate our Soules in
Fasting and in
Praier,
Before the Foot-stool of th'
Empyreal CHAIRE:
That So, What-euer bloodie
Deluge float
From th'old
Red Dragons wide-wide-yawning
Throat,
Wee, Humbled MOVRNERS, may be Heau'nly
Markt,
In MERCIE's
Vessell to be All imb
Arkt.
FINIS
THE PRINCES EPITAPH, WRITTEN BY HIS HIGHN.
seruant, WALTER QVIN.
LO here intomb'd a peereless Prince doth lie,
In flowre & strength of age surpris'd by death,
On whō, while he on earth drew vitall breath,
The hope of many Kingdoms did relie;
Not without cause: for heauens most liberally
To him all Princely vertues did bequeath,
Which to the worthiest Princes here beneath
Before had been allotted seuerally.
But when the world of all his vertues rare
The wished fruit to gather did expect,
And that he should such
glorious workes effect,
As with the worthiest fame might him compare:
Vntimely death then from vs did him take;
Our losse, and griefe, heauens gaine, and ioy to make.
Idem in obitum eiusdem Serenissimi Principis.
OCcidit ante diem iuuenum flos, gloria stirpis
Regalis, Patriae spes, columen
(que) suae.
Occidit ante diem, patri populis
(que) Britannis
Flendus, & his iunctis foedere, amore, sacris.
Occidit ante diem, gesturus Principe digna,
Accelerasset ei ni fera Parca necem.
Occidit ante diem, virtutis & vbere fructu,
Et mundum exemplo funere destituens.
Occidit ante diem, si vota & commoda spectes
Publica, vel vitam si breuitate notes.
Sin vitam spectes partam illi morte perennem,
Haud iam, par Superis, occidit ante diem.
Stances du mesme Anthour sur
le mesme sujet.
TAnt plus qu'vn bien est grand, & rare en excellence,
Et que la iouissance en a plus de plaisir;
Tant plus aussi la perte en a de desplaisir,
Et se fait regretter auec impatience.
Ceci se monstre assez en la fruition,
Qu'auons eu d'vn grand Prince, en tous biens admirable;
Et en sa triste mort, d'autant plus deplorable,
Que rare de tout point fut sa perfection.
Tant l'eurent la Nature, & la vertu ensemble,
Et la fortune aussi de leurs dons enrichj,
Que de quelle des trois il fut le plus cherj,
De pouuoir bien iuger malaisè il me semble.
De l'estoc plus ancien d'entre les Roys extrait,
Il fut si bien douè des dons de la Nature
En corps, & en esprit, que iamais creature
N'a estè de son Art chef d'aeuure plus parfait.
D' elle il eut la beautè, la grace, & bienseance,
Force, addresse, esprit vif, & inuincible caeur,
Grandeur & Maiestè meslee auec douceur,
Que reluire on voioit voire en sa contenance.
La vertu se voyant par Nature apprestè
Vn si riche sujet, l'enrichit dauantage
En le rendant pieux, temperè, preux, & sage,
Iuste, clement, & plein de largesse & bontè.
Ceste mesme vertu luy feit les Arts apprendre,
Par lesquelz vn grand Prince a bien regir en paix,
Et a bien soustenir de la guetre le faix;
Quand il en est besoing, capable se peut rendre.
La fortune enuers luy fauorable aussi fut
Sur ses plus chers mignons luy donnant l'auuantage:
Car thresors & grandeurs & le riche heritage
De maint païs & Roiaume, & mainte ville il eut.
Il sembloit que ces trois auec telle largesse
L'ayans de tous leurs dons a l'enui estrenè,
Parla faueur du Ciol il fut au monde nè,
Pour viure vn siecle entier en gloire, heur, & liesse;
Et pour faire jouir aux siens l'exemple & fruit
Dos ses faits vertueux & en paix, & en guerre;
Et estendre son loz aux bornes de la terre,
Ou nostre hyuer esté, nostre jour se fait nuit.
O que le monde auoit bien besoin de sa vie?
Car il seruoit d'espec, & bouclier aux amis;
De terreur, & de fleau contre les ennemis;
De rempart asseurè, & d'ancre a sa Patrie;
D'appui, & de defence a son Pere Royal;
A sa Mere d'honneur; de miroir a son frere;
D'ornement a sa saeur; aux Princes d'exemplaire;
De merueille, & de ioye a tout peuple loial.
Mais, helas, ce grand Prince en la fleur de son age,
Et de nostre esperance (O triste coup du Ciel)
Nous a esté rauí: dont en fiel nostre miel
Se change, & nostre ioye en dueil, regret, & rage.
O Ciel a quelle fin nous prestás tu ce bien,
Ce joyau non-pareil, ce miroir de Noblesse,
Pour nous l'oster si tost? he que ce coup nous blesse,
Nous foudroie, & fracasse, & reduit presqu'en rien?
A quelle fin ie voj: c' est pour prendre vengeance
De noz meschancetez, & horrible meffaits,
Que si cruellement tu descoches tes traits
Sur nous pauures chetife, & miserable engeance.
Trop bon pour nous il fut: reprendre il t'aura pleu
Ton cher gage, duquel auons ioui nagueres,
Affin d'en embellir tes plus belles lumieres,
Et de le reunir a son celeste feu.
Mais enuers toy, cher Prince, ô quel deuoir nous reste?
Auec toy nous faut il nous es
[...]ouir du soit,
Qui t'est escheu au Ciel, des bienheureux le port?
Ou regretter ta mort aux tiens par trop funeste?
L'un, & l'autre ferons: t'applaudiril conuient
En ce que tu jouas si bien ton roole au monde,
Et la viens a reuiure ou tout bonheur abonde,
Et ou tout dueil en joye a conuertir se vient.
Mais tant pius que nons fut ta vie douce & chere,
Et qu'en fleur d'ans la mort nous te vint arracher;
Les resnes d'autant plus nous conuient il lacher
Au dueil, en regrettant nostre perte, & misere.
De. medesimo sopra il
medesimo Suggetto SONETTO.
IL fior' de Prencipi nel fior' de gl'anni,
Et delle nostre speranze, ora è colto
Della spietata morte (ahi lasso) e tolto
A noi dol n
[...]ì e miseri Britanni.
A nessun' popol' mai diè tanti affanni
Morendo alcun' gran Prencipe, per molto
Ch'
[...]i fosse amato quanti il nostro sciolto
Dal corpo cì lascia e dolarì, e danni.
Dal Ciel pareu
[...] ch' cì c
[...] fosse dato,
Pe
[...]che del Padr é successor nel Regno
Fosse, eselio
[...], e chi
[...]ro e'n pace, e'n guerra.
Ma cì vien tolto (ohime) dal Ciel irato
A danni nostrì per che disedegno
Stimollo, e indegna esser' dì luì la terro
FINIS.
LONDON, Printed by Humfrey Lownes. 1612.