MƲSAEƲS, ON THE LOVES Of HERO AND LEANDER: With Annotations upon the Originall. By Sir Robert Stapylton KNIGHT, Gentleman of the PRIVIE CHAMBER to the PRINCE.
LONDON, Printed by F. B. for Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes in Saint Pauls Church Yard 1647.
The Argument of the Poëm and Frontispice.
MUSAEVS on The Loves of HERO & LEANDER. With Annotations upon the Originall by S r Robert Stapyston K t. Gent: of y e Privy Chamber to the PRINCE
To the Right Honourable My very good LORD, HENRY LORD Marquesse of Dorchester, Earle of KINGSTON, &c. AND One of the Lords of His MAIESTIES Most Honourable Privie Counsell.
THe secret love of Hero and Leander first brought to light in the pure Greek of divine Musaeus, was afterward [Page] new moulded in Latin by the fluent Ovid; in imitation of whose Epistles, the most eminent Poëts of all Climates have (in their native languages) written upon this subject so many Paraphrases and Essayes, that like the numerous streames of Nile, they almost overflow the remembrance of their Fountaine. I confesse the report of Poëms borrowed from Musaeus made so great a noyse, that to mee the Authour had beene lost in the crowd of Imitatours, [Page] if I had not heard his soft lines sweetned by your Lordship's accent; but then I could not be satisfied till I made triall how the Greeke would go in English: my intent being to translate and dedicate it privately to your Lordship. The Translation was forthwith dispatched, the Dedication is now presented, but the intended Privacy lay not in my power; for my acquaintance (who would know what I was doing) had ingaged me for so many Copies, [Page] that I held it my safest course, rather to venture upon the Printers pardonable errours, then to runne the hazzard of grosse mistakes in ignorant Transcribers. Yet, as I could not make it altogether private, so I meant it should not be altogether publique, and therefore at first I suffered no more to be printed, then the just number promised. But now, finding so many freinds as challeng not a few copies but a whole Impression. I am forced to answer them, as Pisistratus [Page] did his sons, that I have done my best to convert them to my Opinion, but since I cannot prevaile, I am resolved to be of theirs; and for their sakes, what I writ for my private excercise, shal be exposed to common censure, yet among the crowd of Readers if some pretending Critick shall assault me, I shall smile to see him retire with double speed, beholding the name of the illustrious and learned person that priviledges
To the Ladies.
YOur Ladyships may pardon mee, for presuming that you will lay up Musaeus in your richest Cabinets. I confesse it is a Confidence, but such a one, as hee that wants it, must bee guilty of an Impudence, for hee must either deny the Harmony of this Poëm, or of your Spirits. Whereas my Opinion is, like perfections cannot meet without a Sympathy. And therefore I conclude it as impossible, for [Page] Musaeus to breath his Passions in your Clossets, and you not to feele them in your Bosomes: as it is for two of your Lutes to bee set at the same Pitch, and not both to move, though but one of them he toucht.
But of late under the counterfeit name of Love, such a vast Multitude of Wanton Bookes have been brought to kiss, or rather soyle, the handes of Ladies: that I feare you will be startled at the Title of a Love-Poëm, yet so Musaeus calls his Hero and Leander. To cleare all scruple, let me assure your Ladyships, the pure and innocent Love this Poëm treats of, is consistent both with Yours and the Time's Modesty. For Courtship here is directed to a Sacred end, and onely [Page] invites you after our Deluge of bloud, like Deucalion's Wife after his Deluge of water, to restore your now unpeopled Country. Yet if the Time's necessity required it not, however it would be a strang Injustice, to barre your Sex from being Patronesses to that Power, by which you raigne over the hearts of Men.
Next your Prerogative, give me leave to plead my Author's Priviledge, who (as I formerly intimated) challenges as due to his first of Love-Stories, the first place in your esteeme, which I doubt not but your Ladyships will as freely grant him in those blessed fields your Bosomes, as Virgil gave it him in his Elizium. Otherwise how preposterous would the Herauldry of Entertainments be, [Page] if you should still doe honour to the meaner Ofspring of this Poëm: and in the meane time throw a neglect upon the Mother; so great a Beauty, as no Age can hopc to parallel. For certainly if this Peece could ever have been matcht, it must needs have been when Ovid held a Pencill, and endeavoured to draw the same Hero and Leander; the Epistles he fancyed them to enterchange, I have here annexed to their Originall Historie: that you may see two, the greatest Masters of Greek and Latin Poësy, using their Art upon one Subject, and appealing to your judgement, in your own language.
How I have taught them to speak English, is likewise most proper for your Ladyships Determination; [Page] from whose lips English sounds sweeter then both their learned languages. And if you please to give me your allowance, I care not much what surly Clown dislikes me. Although indeed, I have so high an Opinion of Musaeus in the first place, and in the next of Ovid, that I perswade my selfe they could arrive upon no Coast so barbarous, where they would not gain a civility from the Wild Inhabitants, if they spake to them, though by as rude an Interpreter as your servant the Translator.
TO The Gentlemen.
IF you expect an account of the Author's Life, how sorry I am, that 'tis not in my power to answer your desires, though at the rate of any Search or Industry. For you could not read of Musaeus with more contentment, then I should have writ. But all Inquiry is in vaine, no Record extant how he lived, no Tomb where he dyed.
Only there remaines this eternall Monument of his Studyes. Of his Name were foure famous Poëts. The first, Musaeus the [Page] Eleuisinian. The second was Grandchild to the first, and writ [...] The Genealogies of the Gods. The third, a Lyrick Poet, lived at Thebes before the Trojan War. The fourth, after the death of Alexander the Great, dwelt at Ephesus, and writ of Eumenes and Attalus. But of this [...] The Loves of Hero and Leander, no mention is made by any of the old Greek Criticks: though Censurers are like Informers, that notwithstanding they know a man guiltless, will yet bring his name upon the Stage. We find likewise (but of a latter date) a Philosopher and a Grammarian of his Name. And out of all these (induced thereto by that silence of the ancient Criticks, together with the title in Sophianus [...]) Causabon thought Musaeus the Grammarian, Authour of this Poëm. For my part I dare not affirme any of them to be the Musaeus, that writ Hero and Leander: but this I dare boldly say, whosoever writ it, had the gifts and endowments of them all. For his language might have become Musaeus the Grammarian, his knowledge [Page] in pasions and affections, Musaeus the Philosopher: and the divinity of his verses, the First and Great Musaeus, that dedicated his Hymne [...] of God to Orpheus. But least you should suspect I am writing a Panegyrick on Musaeus, I will shut up my praise of him, with the testimony of the Master-Critick Iulius Caesar Scaliger, in the fift Booke and the fift Chapter of his Critick where he gives this Judgement.
OF SESTOS and ABYDOS.
WHen you read in Musaeus, that Hero was born at Sestos, and Leander at Abydos: you are then fully informed of the greatest honour those Cities ever had. But for as much as I suppose you will gladly heare of other though lesse actions done upon the place, I shall give you a description thereof, with all the memorable particulars, which I have either noted in good Authors, or can (at present) call to mind.
Sestos, famous for the entercourse of a great love (so Pomponius Mela stiles it) lyes in the 42. degree of Northern latitude, on the Sea-Coast of Thrace in Europe, diametrally opposite to Abydos in Asia, a City built (as Strabo sayes) for the Milesians, by permission of Gyges King of Lydia, then Lord of all the signiory of [Page] Troas, or Asia the lesse. Betwixt Sestos and and Abydos flowes the Hellespontick Sea, not above a Mile broad, if we trust Xenephon's account; but wanting a Furlong of a Mile, if we believe Pliny in his Naturall History. These two Cities, divided by nature, the great King of Persia Xerxes joyned together with a Bridge of Boates, over which he passed his vast Army, designed for the Conquest of Greece, consisting of seaventeene hundred millions of foote, and eighty millions of horse, according to Herodotus. Such a moving world might easily drinke the river of Scamander dry. Justin is of opinion, the number hee himselfe mentions might have done it, yet hee but musters them at 700000. Persians, and 300000. Auxiliaries, with a Fleet of 200000. Saile. But to all this Army there wanted a Generall. For if you consider the King, you will not admire his Conduct, but his wealth: which did so abound in his Dominions, that although the Rivers were exhausted, yet his Treasury was full. But he himselfe [Page] was still noted, to be the first that fled, and the last that fought, fearefull in dangers, and if his fit of feare left him, blowne up with pride. Before he had the experience of a Warre, he was so confident of his strength, that as LORD of Nature, he levelled Mountaines, filled up Vallies, and some Seas hee covered with Bridges, others (for the benefit of his Fleet) he cut in a straight line; Whose comming into Greece was not so terrible, but his departure was as base and foule. To this Justin addes, That when Themistocles had got him by stratagem to give the signall of Battaile at Salamin, Xerxes himselfe kept aloofe off, with part of his Fleet, standing as a Spectator, while Queene Artemisia charged among his formost Auxiliaries. For as a womanish feare possessed the man, so you might be▪ hold in the woman a manly courage, And when by a second stratagem, Themistocles had frighted him out of Greece, Xerxes (finding his Bridge of Boates scattered by the stormy winter) shaking and trembling [Page] went aboard a Fisher-boate, and so escaped. A strange spectacle, rare in consideration of humane frailty and the turns of things, to see him skulking in a Fisherman, whom the Ocean a little before had scarce Searoome enough to entertaine; and now not waited on by any servant, whose Army for the multitude was a burden to the Earth. Here you see how Xerxes appeares in History, passing from Abydos to Sestos (as Lord of Nature) over the boarded Hellespont, but returning from Sestos to Abydos (as the slave of Fortune) in a poore boate alone. Yet in regard there never was a greater Example of the instability of worldly Honour, I hope you will not think time ill spent, if I shew you how he appeares in Poesy, whipping the Wind, and fettering of the Sea, for breaking his wooden bridge: till the hand of Providence whipt his Pride, and fettered his Ambition, for a warning to the Insolent. They are the words of the Prince of Satyrists, Juvenall, Sat. 10.
But least I trench too much upon your Patience, I will now passe from old Sestos and Abydos, to a description of those [Page] Towers of Love, as they are at this day rebuilt and fortified by the Grand Signior, and their Plat-formes given us by Michael Heberer in a Treatise that beares the name of his Aegyptian Bondage. Lib. 11. cap. 29. Then from the Ile of Tenedos and the Trojan Coast, we came to those Straits of the Sea, which they call the Helles-pont: whose entrance is guarded by two gallant Towers, one of which is called Sestos, lying on Europe-side, at the foote of a hill, appearing to us in the forme of a Triangle. Towards the sea (hanging over the water) we saw seven and twenty great Cannon planted to command the Landing place, besides the other pieces of Ordnance that are round about the Walls and Towers. In the middle of this Fort stands a goodly quadrangular Tower, encompassed with three distinct Pergula's or Tarrasses, that shew like three-leaf'd Grass, out of which they may easily beat back the danger of a Storme. In full diameter to this Tower of Sestos, stands the strong Castle of Abydos, on the Coast of Asia, [Page] now called Nat [...]lia, scituate in a plain, and surrounded with deep trenches: this Fort is Quadrangular, and environed with a triple Tower towards the Sea. In the middle stands a noble and conspicuous Square that commands the rest. From sea, the prospect betwixt the Walls and Trenches lookes like an open Court, and terminates at a cross-wall built of solid stone, and planted thick with Cannon to scoure the Port. At the middle Tower is a Draw-bridg over the Ditch, that passes into a faire green Area, adorn'd with divers trees and a cleare spring for the benefit of the Garrison. Not far from this Fort lyes a little village, whose Inhabitants are most of them Greeks, and they supply the Travelour with necessaries. Thus Mich. Heberer, of the new Sestos and Abydos, now in possession of the Turk, that calls them Bogasaffer. It remaines, that I tell how they came into his hands, and so I shall conclude my discourse. It was the same veine of Love, that the sometime-neighbour to the place [Page] faire Hero had (but running with degenerate blood) which delivered up the Fort of Abydos to the Enemy of Christendome by the hand of a Christian Lady, daughter to the Governour of Abydos, who being frighted in her Dreame, with falling into a deep foule ditch; either the accident of her sleeping fancy, or her accustomary waking desires, represented to her a handsome young Souldier, that with great civility helped her up, and instead of her cloaths spoyled with the dirt, presented her with a rich Garment, such as the Eastern Princes cast upon their Favorites. The Gentleman's Image made a deepe impression in the Lady's tender breast, so that she now dreamed of him waking. Till at length old Accecozza the Turk's Generall, layes siedg to the Castle, and the young Lady (being all ayre, and desirous of every new sight) stands upon a Tower to take the pleasure of beholding the continuall skirmishes and pickeering, while the gallant Turke young Abduruchman, made his approaches to the Fort, so valiantly, that beyond [Page] his expectation, he took in the Lady's heart, who makes her selfe beleeve, he is the very man that appeared in her vision. And presently (her invention being as sudden as her resolution) she writes to him, that she was predestinated by the decrees of Heaven to be his, and if he would promise love to her; he must get the Generall to make a shew of raising the seidg, and that night, when her father and his men were brought to a sound sleep by the healths they would drinke to their enlargment, she would deliver them up his Prisoners. This letter she fasten'd to a stone, and so cast it, that it fell at Abduruchman's feet; who prevailed with the Generall, that his unseen Mistris might be obeyed: nor did she faile of performing her unfortunate Promise. Thus ABYDOS, and shortly after SESTOS, was render'd to the OTTOMAN Family. The Keyes of Christendome being lost by hanging at a LADY'S girdle.
[Page]If this unhappy LADY put you out of love with ABYDOS, LEANDER will (I hope) reconcile you to his Birth-place: whom you shall now behold swimming from thence to SESTOS, where you may imagine HERO (the greatest beauty of the world) expecting her Love, and your Attention.
MƲSAEƲS, ON THE LOVES OF HERO and LEANDER.
ANNOTATIONS Upon Musaeus. Speake GODESSE.
a [...] ▪ Musaeus begins with Invocation, and then summes up the story he intends to write of, after the manner of Homer, Hesiod, and of other Greeke and some Latin Poets. But the deity invoked, whether it be Venus (the subject being Love) or Homer's [...] once translated, Great Goddesse of my Verse, I leave to his Genius, whom Chapman in his Preface calls his first mover: and to such others as are best able to understand and judge, and that well know the POET's Imperative [...], rather signifies an incitall or application to an action, whereof there had beene an intermission.
( b) The Ancients supposed light to see. Lucian makes a Tyrants Lamp, that burned a-nights in his bed-chamber, witnesse against him in Hell.
[Page]( c) [...]] from [...] and [...], not subject to corruption; as the unhappy Torch was.
( d) [...]] [...] is the proper Attribute of Mercury. Qui pias laetis animas reponis sedibus; Hor. [...] Hom. Odys. o. v. 138. the Greeke Masters call him [...]. So that I here translate it ( Guide) because that as Mercury ferryed over the soules, so this Mercuriall Torch guided poore Leander to the shore of his Elizium.
( e) [...]] which with me, Cassius Parmensis would translate [ Exsomnem] Ausonius Vigilacem, not unfitly (you having v. 11.) [...]. Insomnes longo veniunt examine curae. Claudian.
( f) For on this Torch depend's Leander's Love and Life.
( g) [...]. Ad Sestum adversum Abydo, & distantem non plus octo stadijs. Xenoph. Philosoph. 4. Rerum Graecarum. Which Helles-pont had not the name from Xerxes bridg, as Ammianus: [Page] But because it wanted a bridg for Hell [...].
( h) [...]. Signum indubtatum. For else Cupid might have shot his other arrow that repells Love, as OVID expresseth it.
( i) [...].] burning. Volucrem esse fingit immitem Deum Mortalis error, armat & telis manus, Arcus (que) sacros miscuit saeva face. Sen. Octav.
( k) [...]] nuptiarum ignara, virgineo nullum corpore passa virum. Ovid Fast. lib. 5. [...], nuptias non experta Cassiod. lib. 7. Anthol.
( l) [...]] Witness that famous Dispute of Juno, Pallas, and Venus, whereof Paris was the unfortunate Arbiter.
( m) [...]] Or the Goddess, or the Planet, both causes of the same effect.
( n) [...]] Which darted make a wild-fire in the blood, not to be quench'd. Vulnus alit venis et caeco carpitur igni. Virg.
( p) [...]] So called, perhaps because celebrated by all the people, at least, [Page] by the major part, the vulgar and meaner sort, for so Porphiry interprets [...] out of Homer. Consonant to that of Xenophon, Plato, Theocritus, and others who mention two Venuses, the first, [...] Urania, Goddess of chast affection; the other, Pandemos, Queen-Regent of the grosser bodily love common to Man and Beast, and therefore her Feast is called [...], which might be solemnized by any or all the Islanders, for they came, as you see in the very verse following, [...] or as some, [...], that is, [...]; By companyes, multitudes, all the Islanders together.
( q) [...]] Haemonia from Haemon Pyrrha's son, formerly Pyrrhaea from his Mother, and afterward Thessalia from his son Thessalus.
( r) [...]] Rather then [...], Libanon being full of the Priests of Venus, that loved dancing like their Goddess. Iam Cytherea choros ducit Venus.
( s) [...]] Helliodorus lib. 3. interprets [Page] it [...].
( t) [...]] A field of Roses. Achilles Tatius fancyed in the Peacock's Traine a Meddow full of flowers.
( u) Any thing pleasant being accounted to comprehend the Graces.
( w) Thalia, Aglaia, Euphosyne, Natal. Comes, Mythol. 4. cap. 15.
( x) Of the wonderfull smiling of the Eye, see Nonnus, who particularly ascribes to the Eye, the visible faculty, differencing Man from Beast, the Lovers Eye and every Sence being banished into his Object.
(A) Chiefe City of Sparta, nam'd from Lacedaemon son to Iupiter [...].
(B) [...]. I need to say nothing of their Challenges, since the Lady-Combatants of Sparta are so wel known as to raise a Proverb. Such was the Prize at the Feast of the Eleusinian Ceres, where Herodice was adjudged [...]. The most beautifull & the [...], the Crown of Beauty set upon her Forehead. Nic. [Page] in Rebus Arcadicis: Homer mentions the like Prizes held among the Lesbians.
(C) [...]] Virgil hath the same expression, where he saies of Dido, Expleri mentem nequit, ardescit (que) tuendo. [...] here may therefore be rendered Satiety, The food of the eye being known by that of Terence, Oculos pavere. of Plautus, Oculis epulas dare. And of Martial, Inspexit molles pueros, oculisque comedit. Nay sayes Plautus, Aures, oculi, animus ampliter fiant saturi. And Aristophanes [...] dixit, & [...] dicta exsorbent.
(D) The Lovers Wish to enjoy and dye. Illum ego si cernam tunc tangam vertice caelum. Aus.
(E) [...]] Venus, so cal'd from her arrivall at Cythera in a shell saith Festus.
(F) [...]] Vulnus alit venis & caeco carpitur igni. Virg lib. 4. Aeneid.
(G) [...], so Theocritus cals Love. Nullam mentem animi habeo, ubi sum ibi non sum. Plautus.
(H) [...] Love being a [Page] kind of fire, Est mollis flamma medullas interea Virg. lib. 4. Aeneid.
(I) [...]. A bosome wound so Nonnus, lib. 4.
(K) [...]. To a young man a woman's eye's a Dart: Hesychius therefore considering love to spring from the sight, calls him [...], all eye.
(M) [...] Looking obliquely▪ Theocritus Idyl.
(O) [...]] His Name and Country being as yet unknown to her; or else she calls him Stranger, to shew her unwillingness to a nearer relation.
(P) [...]] The Oestrum is a creature annoying beasts with her Sting, and making them fling and run, like mad: [...] (saith Suidas) [...], every violent motion is cal'd oestrum. [...] the deadly rage of necessity, Nonnuslib. 21.
[Page](Q) [...]] The necke is first kist sayes Achil: Tatius. The Persians salute thus, the equall kisses the mouth, the inferiour the hand, the person of honour the cheek or eye-lids, the peasant falls prostrate on the ground. Vide si's Drusilum, lib. 9. pag. 380.
(T) [...].] Not knowing the use they were ordained for.
(V) [...]] The Orgyes of Bacchus were full of wild vagaryes, perhaps for that reason he uses the word.
(VV) [...]] Commotaculum, Mercury's rod, so called because when he moved it, the Ghosts went forward.
(X) Daughter to Abbas, King of Arcadia, Mayd of Honour to Diana. So Callima.
(Y) [...]] Silence is powerfull in the extreames of Passion. Nec vox aut spiritus oris redditur, Claud.
(Z) [...]] Who is silent, denies not, saith the Law.
[A] [...]] Illa graves poterat quercus, adamanta (que) durum, Surda (que) [Page] blanditijs saxa movere suis. OVID.
[B] [...]] a stolne bed, Euripides; and Homer calls the off-spring of stolne love [...], things of darknesse. Hence Phocylides [...].
(C) [...]] Pindarus names [...] Calumny, [...], Which I have rendred slander, the true signification of [...], being to cut and wound the heart with griefe, [...]. So the Scholiast in Apolonius. [...]. According to the Scoliast in Oppian.
(D) [...]] A frequent Epithete of Cupid, whence the Distick, perfringunt, penetrant, urunt mea spicula fulmen. Scilicet hinc nomen est mihi [...].
‘Non potuit Iuno vincere, vicit Amor.’
(E) [...]. Illustrated by Ovid, as you shall read it when his Leander names the Pilot's Starres.
(G) [...]] ARATUS saith, [...]. Wherefore [Page] the Romans called Orion, Iugula, from the sword he weares.
(H) [...]] Euripides agreeing with my sense calls it [...] nigro peplo indutam Noctem.
(I) [...]] Nox erat & placidum capiebant fessa soporem Corpora. Virg. lib. 4. Aeneid.
(K) [...]] Ausonius gives us the Pedegree of Venus. Orta salo, suscepta solo, patre edita caelo.
(M) [...].] From this anointing of the Greeks, the Romans had the fashion of their Baths and pretious unguents: (the expence wherof is known to every one) though the unguents Cosmus us'd in's brazen Bath, were all on him diffus'd Juv. Sat. 8.
(N) [...],] Petr. Faber. thinkes this to be the sacerdotall band or diadem, grounding his opinion upon Hero's Reply to Leander, holding her vesture, [...]. v. 82.
(O) [...]] Venus being then in a benevolent aspect, or a propitious [Page] inclination, optimâ mente praedita, so the word imports.
(P) [...]] Quae fuerat virgo credita, mater er at, sayes Ovid of Calisto, one of the Maydes to Diana. So that [...] seemes to be appropriated to such, quae virum passae sunt.
(Q) [...]] Potens maris Deus. Her.
(R) The Ancients say that Boreas ravisht Orythia as she was gathering flowers neare the Spring Cephisus, and that he carryed her into Thrace (whither now Leander was a swimming) See Natal. Com. lib. 8. Mythol. c. 2.
(S) [...]] Such as it was not easie to cope with.
(T) [...]] Things that disrellish are commonly called [...], sharp or bitter things [...].
LEANDER'S LETTER TO HERO, And her Ansvver: Taken out of OVID. With ANNOTATIONS. By Sir Robert Stapylton KNIGHT, Gentleman of the PRIVIE CHAMBER to the PRINCE.
LONDON, Printed by F. B. for Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes in Saint Pauls Church Yard 1647.
TO My deare Wife THE LADY STAPYLTON.
PErhaps the Wits may be as much offended at men for writing to, as Walking with their owne Wives: neither is in fashion I confesse, but [Page] sure they would exceedingly well-become our Age. Indeed Gifts between Man and Wife, were prohibited by the Roman Legislator, yet hee intended not to destroy Kindness by a Law, but to declare Community in Marriage, where both have equall Proprieties, in that which either is possessed of. And even in reason (the ground of Law) he that makes a Present to his Wife, offers an Injury in a Complement: for he intitles her to that by his Gift, [Page] which is hers in her owne Right.
I will not therefore so much transgresse, as to say, I give thee my English of Leander's Epistle and Hero's answer: for that were to imply, an expectation of receiving Thankes, for what was thy own as soone as mine. All that (by praefixing of thy Name) I pretend to, is first, to shew the World how sensible I am of thy Love, expressed to mee in both fortunes, the later being lively [Page] represented in these Letters, that past betweene Husband and Wife divided by a Storme. In the next place, I shew thee, how I spent part of that time, when I had nothing left but (what Fortune could not take away) some houres for study, wherein I enjoyed my selfe as much, as I could, in thy absence. Lastly, I do an honour to my Authour, for I dare boldly say, the strictest and most rigid Modesty will not scruple to read a passion writ by OVID, [Page] where his name is placed so near to thine, which nothing unchast durst ever be so impudent to approach. And if my Augury deceive me not, the Goodness of the Times is such, that the Lady I send to beare thee company, Hero, will be studyed by thy Sex in generall; her vertue drawn into President, and the greatest Modesties discovered in the greatest Beauties; teaching the bold Pretenders to their favour, to court them, not in lewd unmanly Verse (the new-sickness of [Page] the mind) but in Leander's primitive way of wooing, timerous blushes, noble undertakings, and gallant performances: but all of the vertuous ancient straine, such as this, wherein Ovid himself presumed not to use one lascivious syllable: and if the Muse of so incomparable a Wit, presumed not upon a looser Flight, when his subject was the faire dead Sestian: how dare our puny Aretines draw a wanton line, when they write of Hero's yet alive? I hope this Patterne [Page] will ruin their Designe; to which good purpose, if my poore Endeavours may conduce, I must account them seasonably bestowed. Howsoever I shall not repent me, since they are crowned with so desired successe, that they publish me, as I am,
[...] which this is quoted) to be a Fragment; and so, that he gives not the full number, must be imputed as an injury done by time to him, and not by that eloquent Historian to the noblest Poët. I have therefore praefixed a Star before the name of Homer, to signifie a space, that should be filled up with the title of Musaeus. This, if it were his Interpreters single Opinion, might perhaps incur the suspition of partiality. But I have already shewed you it to be voted by Virg. and Scaliger, the first of these placing Musaeus above all the blessed Soules, and calling him (by Sybil's mouth) the Best of Poëts: the other, challenging for him particular precedency of Homer; and now to make [Page] up a Triumvirate of matchless Authours, and confirme them by the authority of a Triumvirate of learned Judges, I produce these Letters pend by OVID, when hee thought it an honour to be Secretary to Musaeus his Hero and Leander; wherein the Great Master that taught Love to Rome, acknowledges Greece to be the Mistresse of his Learning, for when he had writ so many soft and melting Love-Poëms; never equalled by the Latins, nay after all those Epistles of Penelope to Vlysses, Paris to Hellen, and the rest summed up by himselfe in his Elegyes, yet could not Ovid rest satisfied with the numerous Trophies of his Wit, till hee had surprised the Roman [Page] Ladies with this Greek Stratagem. Here I cannot but take notice how ridiculous they are, that because OVID names not these Epistles, would inferre some other writ them: as if Ovid when hee had numbred some, were obliged to write no more, but I will not trouble my selfe or these Sages of Grammar further, then to wish them a better stock of Logick; and if they know not the stile of Ovid when they read it, yet to make submission to the Consent of Times, and Schollars, such as Mich. Neander, who in his Description of the Orbe of the Earth, the first part, pag. 245 sayes thus. Sestos nota amore Leandri & Herûs &c. Sestos famous for Hero and Leander's [Page] Love, celebrated in a peculiar Poëm by Musaeus, and after him by Ovid in his Heroical Dispatches. But that which I most admire in Ovid, is his Modesty wherewith he copies out this Patterne, Love pointing in these Letters to the true Poles, Delight and Vertue; which Example may (I hope) reduce Love-Stories to their Primitive Purity, and make Ovid's wanton followers blush at the variation of their Compass. This is the reason that induced me (after I had taken my Leave of Poetry) to suffer this Impression. And yet J hope it would be favourably received, if it were only, like heaving of the Log in Navigation, drawn up to shew you, (as Worthy [Page] Mr. Sandys did) how many Leagues we have sailed in Language; since you read
After which old English verse, it will not haply be unseasonable to sweeten you with an Epigram of Martiall upon Hero and Leander.
Having now (I hope) prepared you by making Presents in English [Page] of all extant in the Greek and Latin, that concernes Hero and Leander; I shall conclude with preferring of a Suite, which is, that you will please to take notice, I make it not my businesse to construe, but to translate: for the first I hold only fit for a Pedant, the other for an Interpreter; the End of Construction being to acquaint us with the Grammar of a Language; whereas Translation, should reduce a forrein tongue to the lustre of our own, not losing any of the Authour's strength and spirits, but teaching him to speak as if he had been born upon the Place. Which though I pretend not to have done, yet 'twill I am confident find acceptance, that I have endevoured it.
LEANDER TO HERO.
Annotations upon Leanders Letter to HERO.
a BOreas] so the North-wind was called, from his loud and torrent-like noise, [...] ▪ He is fained by the Poëts, to be sonne to the River Strymon, and that falling in love with Orythia, Daughter to the King of Athens, Ericthonius; he made his suit for the Royall assent, but meeting with an absolute denyall, the violent Boreas caught up the Princesse, and carryed her into Thrace, where he had issue by her, two winged sonnes, Zete and Calais, that went the voyage to Cholchis with Jason, and free'd their brother-in-law King Phineus of the Harpyes, those woman-faced vultures, that were so noysome to his Palace. Of this story [Page] of the Athaenian Nymph (so Musaeus calls Orythia) Leander remembers Boreas even while he blowes to sinke him, [...]. And Boreas of Orythia put in mind.
[ b] Aeolus] Monarch of the Windes, sonne to Jupiter and Sergesta [or Acesta] Daughter of the Trojan Hippotas, whence Ovid, Metam lib. 1. calls him Aeolus Hippotades, that imprisons the Windes. The manner of their imprisonment Juvenal describes Sat. 5.
Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. 3. delivers Aeolus to be son unto Heleneus and that reigning in the Vulcanian or Aeolian Iles he was called [Page] King of the Windes, because he foretold by the flying of the smoake and Clouds what quarters the Wind would change to. Diod. Siculus sayes hee got this knowledge by the Starres. Strabo, that it came by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea. The Poetick part of his story is thus moralized. Aeolus is a prudent man, that knowes how to moderate his Passions and can (according to the present time and businesse) faine anger or dissemble it, for that is, to imprison or inlarge the Windes; Nat. Comes. Mythologiae lib. 8. cap. 1.
[ c] Daedalus.] The fable of Daedalus [how, to escape out of the Labarynth he made wings for himselfe and his sonne Icarus▪ who would not take his counsell, but ambitiously flying at the Sunne, fell and was drowned in the Sea, named from his mis-fortune the Ioarian Ocean] is so knowne a story, that I shall not trouble you with the relation, but if any have not yet read it, I referre him from Ovid here, to Ovid in his Metamorph [as I remember] lib. 8. That Daedalus was an [Page] Athenian, we have Juvenal's authority Sat. 3.
This rare Mechanick [ Daedalus] invented the Saw, the Plane, the Levell, the Wimble, Glew and Mortar, Saileyards and Sailes, which for their swiftness, and because the Wind transports them, being called Wings by the Poets, occasioned the tale of his flying in the ayre▪ being onely his sayling on the Sea; where he alighted, that is, landed, Umbricius in the said 3. Sat. tells us, who removing from Rome to Cuma sayes
[ d] Latmian hill] to the toppe of the hill Latmus in Caria (si Graecia vera) if [Page] you credit the Greeke Poets, the Moone descended to kisse Endymion (sometimes favorite to Jove) awaking him from the long sleepe to which Jupiter had condemned him, out of a jealousie that Juno intended to make him her Favourite too. Apolon. lib. 4. Argonaut. tells us, Endymion was a great Mathematician, that by his judgement in Astrology found out the course of the Moon, for which hee was intitled the Beloved of the Moone.
[ e] Cynthia] an Attribute given to the Moone from Cynthus, a Mountaine in the Isle of Delos, where Latona was delivered of her Twinnes, Diana and Apollo. Virg. lib. 2. Aeneid. ‘Qualis in Eurotae ripis, aut per juga Cynthi Excercet DIANA Choros.’ ‘As on Eurota's banks, or Cynthus top DIANA dances.’
( f) The Halcyons] The birds we call the Kings-Fishers, never seene at Sea but [Page] in a Calme of fourteene dayes, seaven of which she layes in, and in the other 7. hatches her Egges. Whence peaceable times are titled [...], Halcyon dayes. And therefore Ovid in this place describing the smooth Sea favouring the first Love-voyage, elegantly mentions the singing of the Halcyons, which Aristotle confirmes [...]. They are (according to Poëtick Herauldry) the Issue of that Halcyon that Hero in her Answer tells Neptune of, by whom he had a daughter of that name marryed to KING Ceyx, who would needs (much against his Wife's mind) make a voyage to the Oracle at Delphos, to know what judgment of the gods his house deserved that his brother had beene turned into a Gosse-Hawke, but meeting with a storme in the Aegean Sea, he and ship were sunke. Poore Halcyons dreames that he was drowned, and in the morning going, as shee used to doe, to the Port where the King tooke shipping, she sees a thing floating on the Sea, which coming still nearer, at last she knew it to [...]e her husbands Corpse, and running upon [Page] the waves to embrace it, the Gods in pity metamorphosed her into a Kings-Fisher, immediately flying to the body, she kissed it, and Ceyx with that [...] was likewise turned into a Halcyon. See Ovid. lib. 11. Met.
( g) Tython] The happiest Old man that ever I heard of, being in his Gray-Haires ravished to heaven by the young Goddesse Aurora, 'tis fabled by the Poets that she first carryed him in her Chariot into Aethiopia, where he had Memnon by Aurora. Of whom Ovid makes Sapho jealous, that she had catcht up him for Cephalus, Ovid in Sapho.
Lastly, the Poets (that can doe any thing) turne Tython into a Grasse-Hopper, Ovid. lib. 9. which some of them say [Page] came by the griefe he conceived for his sonne Memnon's death, for whom he still cryes, to the trouble of his hearers. But Horace attributes his consumption to those infinite yeares that his Celestiall Wife by her pretious balme caused him to live, ‘Longa Tithonum minuit senectus’ ‘His old age shrunk up Tithon.’ The ground of these Fictions, was the long life of Tithon, continued by his rising with the Day-breake, which Aurora signifies, who with her morning-deaw, gave him perspiration and kept him long in health. Let the youth that hope to be Old, follow this President, and spend the early day in business: while they that are regardlesse of their future health, consume the Morning and themselves in sleepe.
( h)▪ Virgin-Sea] the Straites dividing Europe and Asia, named the Helles-pont, because the Virgin-Princesse Helle was there drownd by a fall from the golden Ramme, [Page] on which shee rid behind her brother Phryxus. The occasion of their journey through the Sea (for I cannot call it a voyage) was this. These two being the Children of Athamas King of Thebes by Nephele; the King after her decease marrying Jno, Nurse to Bacchus, she like a true step-mother and one that had the tongue of a Nurse, continually night and day filled the King's eares with railing at Phryxus and Helle; to avoyd this torment to himselfe, and the danger of her spleen to his Children, the good Old man delivered to them the Ramme, whose Fleece was Gold; on which he assured them, they might ride safely through the Sea, and plant themselves out of the reach of their Mother in law: for which Juno sent the furies to him, that so possessed him, as that Ino comming in with her two sonnes Learchus and Melicertes, he imagined his Wife to bee a Lionesse, and the boyes her Whelps, and catching up Learchus, swung him (as Ovid hath it rarely, Met. lib. 4.) twice or thrice about his head, and then knockt out his braines, at [Page] which Ino tooke a fright, and running with little Milicertes in her armes to the Rock Leucothea, cast her selfe into the Sea together with the Child, both metamorphosed by the compassionate Gods; she into a Sea-nymph named of the rock [...] Leucothea, the white Nymph; the Latin calls her Matuta, the Dawning: and Melicertes into a Sea-god, called by the Greeks [...], Palaemon, P [...]tron of the Ports▪ which the Romans called Portunus. See Natal. Com. lib. 8. cap. 4.
( i) Phryxus] who having lost his Sister Helle in the Straites betwixt Sestos and Abydos, passed safely through the Propontick and Pontick sea, and alighting at Colchis sacrificed the golden Ramme (that bore him) to Mars, and hung up his fleece in the Temple, where it was religiously preserved, till Iason stole it; for how ever the Greeks gloryed in it as a Conquest, the honest Roman, Iuvenall, termes it plaine theft. Sat. 1. ‘— Ʋnde alius furtivae devehat aurum pelliculae.’ ‘What Thiefe obtain'd The Golden-Fleece.’
[Page]( k) Charles-waine] So the English name the Constellation of the greater Arctos or Beare, the Graecians call it Helice [...], because it turnes about the Pole. Betwixt the Pole and the great Beare lyes Cynosura, or the lesser Beare, of both which Constellations Ovid in his Fastis writes so consonant to himselfe in this place, that it were a madnesse to suspect that Booke and this Epistle could bee writ by severall hands; but if you thinke me partiall, be your selves the Iudges.
( l) Andromeda] [or Andromede] Daughter to Cepheus and Cassiopea King and Queene of Aethiopia, in revenge of whose pride (for the Queen had compared her selfe with the beauties of the Sea) as the Princesse Andromeda was walking to take the ayre by the Sea-side, [Page] the Nymphs catcht her, and chaining her to a rock, left her to be devoured by the Sea-monsters, but she was destined to better fortune, Propertius, lib. 1.
But to be rescued by, and marryed to Perseus was only the fortune she lived to, for she dyed to a farre nobler fate, being by Minerva's speciall favour, received into the number of the Starres, where she now shines in the North-part of Pisces.
( m) The bright Crown] Virg. lib. 1. Georg. calls it the Gnossian Crowne, of Gnossos the City where Ariadne's Father Minos kept his Court, this Crowne (no [...] a Constellation, jewelled with seaven sparkling Starres) was a present made to Ariadne by her servant Bacchus, who fell enamoured of her in the Isle of Naxos, where she was left to her fortune, by the [Page] ingratefull Theseus, delivered by the guidance of her clew out of her Father's Labyrinth, where he was to be devoured by the Minotaur, halfe man, halfe bull, the monstrous issue of her mother Queen Pasiphae, which she had conceived in a Cow of Wood, made her by the rare Workeman Daedalus, to satisfie her longings for a Bull. A prodigious story, made out of the Clinch or equivocall signification of a word, as you shall heare in the History it selfe, whereof we have the truth in Plutarch's Theseus; Where hee tells us, that Androgeus the son of Minos being reported to be murthered in Attica, Minos in revenge, made warre upon the the signiory of Athens by the sword, and the Gods by Famine and Pestilence; the very Rivers being dryed up. But when the Oracle had instructed them, that the way [...]o be reconciled to the Gods was first to give satisfaction to Minos, they made their peace with him for a yearely Tribute of seaven young Boyes, and as many Girles, to continue for nine yeares. Thus farre (he sayes) all Authors agree. But that Philochoros [Page] sayes the Cretans absolutely deny the monstrous Fable. The Labyrinth they affirm to be the Prison the Children were kept in, which had no other Ill in it, but that it lockt them up safe; and that Minos, (ordaining Warlike exercises in memory of Androgeus,) gave the Athaenian prisoners to him that had the Victory, which fell successively the two first yeares to a Commander greatly favoured by the King, one Tauros, whose name signifying a Bull, and his harsh nature agreeing with his name (for he used the children proudly and cruelly) gave hint for the horrid tale of the Minotaur; a word compounded out of Minos and Tauros, and set forth by Euripides, to be a monstrous birth of the mixt nature of a man and Bull; but 'tis Aristotles opinion, that the Boyes were not slaine, but lived to bee old slaves among the Cretans. Thus a great Prince and one of the justest and Noblest Legislators was reported to be made Cuckold by a Bull, and likewise said to be a Iudge in Hell, meerly for incurring the displeasure of the University of Athens. [...] [Page] [...] and indeed (sayes Plutarch) 'tis a sad misfortune, to incurr the enmity of a Towne, that hath the command of language and the Muses.
( n) She] Calisto Daughter to Lycaon King of Arcadia, one of the Mayds of honour to Diana, deceived by Iupiter coming to her in the forme of her chast Mistresse, like those Philosophers Iuvenal mentions, Sat. 2. that disguised lust. in the figure of Modesty; but poore Calisto might cry out as the Satyrist does there, ‘Frontis nulla fides—’ ‘No trust to Faces.—’ For Diana▪ fac'd Jove over▪ mastered her (See Ovid. lib. [...].) and had Arcas by her, who gave his name to that much famed Country of Arcadia. But though the Princesse Calisto suffer'd a kind of banishment, wandring in the woods, yet was not Iuno so appeased, but changed her beauty into the ugly shape of a Beare: but good-natur'd Jupiter tooke up that Beare with him to heaven, and fix'd it there a Constellation in the cold Pole, as Ovid tels [Page] us, only her pawes are a little without the Artick Circle, Propertius, l. 2.
( o) All the Pontick seas] that is, the Hellespontick, Propontick, and Pontick: through all which Iasons ship (the Argo) sayled to Colchis, hee being taught by King Phineus how to passe the Thracian Bosphorus, the Straits that open into the Pontick or Euxine sea, in which passage Ulysses told the Phaeacks that the Cyan rocks meet. This Argo was built of Prophetick wood that grew in Dodona's vocall Forrest, by Argos a rare workman, who the Poets say, received instructions for the Modell of her, from the Goddesse Minerva. Horace,
( p) Palaemon] (see letter h ▪) Some say Theseus instituted the Isthmian games in honour of Palaemon; but I think they are as much out in their conjectures, as hee that takes the Eve for the Feast-day, for the Isthmian games were consecrated to Neptune by Theseus, and were the solemnity of the day: those little sports he ordained in the memory of Palaemon, being done in the night, and only ushering in the other, see Plutarch.
( q) Him] Glaucus, a fisher-man, who drawing his nets, and tumbling down his fish upon the shore, wondered to see some of them bound back into the sea, as if they had got wings: and marking the rest more narrowly, found the cause thereof to be in the rare quality of an herbe wheron they nibled; this put him into a longing to tast it too, which he had no sooner done, but away he bounced after them into the sea, and was made the sea-God [...], or the colour Green drawing upon White.
[Page]( r) Olympick barriers] Hercules was the Founder of the Olympick games dedicated to Iupiter, in imitation whereof, Theseus brought in the above-named Isthmian exercises, celebrated in honour of Neptune, he that won the Olympick Chariotrace or foot-race, was Crowned with Olive, the Conqueror in the Isthiman games with Pine.
( s) To hope] Ovid points you to the fable of Tantalus, the perfect Hyrogliphick of bare Hope; for the Poets say, he stands in the water with fruit bobbing at his lips, the water complementing with his thirst, ready to enter his mouth, and yet is never the nearer to his meat or drink.
( t) Charles] Arcas, son to Calisto by Jupiter, by other names Bootes and Arctophylax, the Constellation of the Carrman, whom we see pictured in the Celestiall Globe following of the Waine, terga sequentis habet. Ovid.
( u) The Pleiades] The seven Stars that keep the Bull from kissing the Ramme's Tayle: their Winter-rise being much about the time that Bootes and the Goate [Page] rises, when the Sun is in or about Libra, and therefore at their appearance Stormes may be expected by the Sea-faring men. But in the Spring the Pleiades rising, signify a faire time for Sayling, whence they derive their name [...]. They were daughters to the supporter of the heavens, Atlas, by the Nymph Pleione, their names and fortunes my Author takes notice of, l. 4. Fast.
( w) Kid] The Goate, with whose Milk Amalthaea suckled Iupiter, for which service he advanced it into the fellowship of the Stars.
HERO TO LEANDER.
Annotations upon HERO'S Letter TO LEANDER.
(1 Annointed] Leander (it appeares) was twice nointed. First, at his going into the water, with plaine oyle of Olive.
The second time, the faire Hero at his arrivall, [...] nointed his body, but [Page] how? [...] - with fragrant oyle of Roses- [...] -that extinguished the fulsome smell, so Musaeus; thus I.
(2) Helle's Mother] Nephele wife to King Athamas, (see letter h.) who being turn'd into a Sea-Nymph, is very happily fancy'd by Ovid to visit her daughters watry Sepulcher; and weeping is no less proper to her, the Greek word [...] signifying a weeping Cloud. Nor do I doubt, but the Poet would have mentioned a visit from her father, whom he Metamorphosed into a River, but that hee thinks it not agreeable to Hero's modesty to talke of men, nor with the Maxim's of her sex, to beleeve that a Man can love so constantly and passionately as a Woman.
(3) Her Stepmother] Ino, of whom in the letter ( h)
(5) Amimone] Danaus's daughter, a Huntress; and while she used exercise [Page] and action ( Diana's great Antidote against the Philters of Venus) so severe a punisher of every lascivious thing, that she cast her dart at a sleeping Satyr, and let out some of his wanton blood; but the Modesty hardned by the Woods, was softned by the Waters, for Neptune prevayled with her, who rescued her from the awaked Satyr, and enjoyed her himselfe.
(6) Tyro] daughter to that proud King of Elis, Salmoneus, who being ambitious to counterfeit Jove's thunder and lightning, made a bridge of brass, which raised upon stupendious arches, covered the greatest part of the City of Elis, over whose heads he thundred in his furious Chariots, and lightned more dangerously then the sky, for that only blastes some, but this fire inevitably destroyed all it fell upon, they being instantly dispatched of their lives, by the miinsters of his fury. But Lucian might have forborne to jeere Iove with Salmoneus, if he had considered a truer History then his own, that assures us, this mock-lightning was revenged with [Page] a true-thunderbolt, that struck that proud and cruell Salmoneus: to avoyd whose Fire-works, perhaps the faire Tyro ('tis Propertius calls her so) fell among the Water-works of Neptune, who had two boyes by her, Neleus and Pelias. Propertius l. 7.
(7) Abymon's child] Iphidemia; who brags in Homer, that she had issue by Neptune.
(8) Halcyone] one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and mother to Halcyone the wife of Ceyx▪ (see letter f.)
(9) Circe] daughter to the Sun, and the Nymph Perseis▪ mentioned by Hesiod in his [...]. This Circe was marryed to the King of Sarmatia, whom she poysoned, and usurped the Crowne, but governed so tyrannically▪ that the people rose up in armes and expelled her: thence she fled into Italy, and seated her selfe in the Circean hills▪ (so named from her plantation) a place abounding with excellent Wine and Oysters▪ (sayes Iuvenal) and affording many hearbs which (with help of [Page] her Wine) transformed Vlysses his followers into Hogs. Iuv. S. 15.
In these hills (then the bounds of Latium) Circe fell in love with the Sea-God Glaucus (mention'd letter g.) and poysoned the fountaine where his Mistresse Scylla used to drink, transforming her into a Sea-monster.
(10) Medusa] Begot upon a Whale by Phoroys King of Corsica and Sardinia, with whose haire (not to be distinguisht from the purest threads of Gold) Neptune was so taken, that he could not forbeare to make love to her in the Temple of Minerva, which put the Godelesse into such a rage, that she turned those bewitching haires into horrid snakes, induing them with a quality to transforme all their beholders into Stone. And therefore Perseus when he undertooke the killing of this Monster, borrow'd Minerva's steeleshield, [Page] wherein he might see her, without looking upon her, that is by reflection: and coming to the other 2. Gorgons her sisters threatned her that had the eye (for they had but one betwixt them) that he would kill her, unlesse she shewed him Medusa sleeping, which she did, and he dispatcht at a blow, cutting off Medusa's ugly head, which ever after Minerva bore in her Shield. pugnanti Gorgone Maura. Iuv. Sat. 12.
(11) Laodice] Mother to Cignus, and daughter to Priam.
(12) Celaeno] Halcyone's Sister and another of Neptune's Mistresses, See Letter ( u)
(13) Two parts o'th world, viz. Europe and Asia▪ severed by the Helles-pont: See the discourse of Sestos and Abydos.
(14) Sea-cross'd Ulysses] King of the Isles of Ithaca and Dulichium, a great Polititian, but no fighter, for when the Greek Princes made their Association against the Trojans, he being desirous to live at home with his young Wife in Peace, gathers [Page] together a multitude of severall Animals and str [...]es falt before them, the report whereof being spread abroad made the Grecians believe him to be mad, and therefore uselesse for the Wars. But Palamed who was excellent at invention, for 'tis said he found out Cards and Dice, weights, measures, diverse Greeke Letters, Voting in Courts of Iudicature, &c. among the rest, found out the Knavery of Ulysses, by laying his young son Telemachus before him as hee was holding the Plough, who stopping on a sudden for feare of hurting the Child, discovered himselfe to have the use of reason, and then there was no remedy but he must to the siedge of Troy. Where even his affectionate Penelope was afraid his Policy might want successe, especially when she heard of the miscarriage of any plot. Ovid in Penelope's Letter.
It had been happy for poore Palamedes, if Penelope had proved a Prophetesse; for the designe Vlysses had upon him took so well, that it cost Palamed his life; It was Priam's hand counterfeited to a letter sent to Palamed wherein he thanks him for Intelligence, and mentions a great summe of Gold sent him for Intelligence-mony. This being read in a Councell of Warre, Vlysses rises and delivers his opinion, that no credit is to bee given to an Enemy's Letter, only the matter of fact should be insisted on, and his Tent searched, which being done accordingly, the Gold (sent by Vlysses and hid by one of the Palamed's corrupted servants) was found, and guiltlesse Palamedes stoned to death. See the Metamorph, lib. 13. For these his Villanies done a- land, Vlysses suffered and was crost at Sea, where Neptune so persecuted him, that although he was ready sometimes to land in Ithaca, yet he was [Page] blowne back, and tossed about the world. Read Homer's Odysses where he discovers his adventures, but at last he came off by the favour of the Goddess of Wisdom. I. Sabinus. in Vlyssis Epist.
Lastly by this Deity's guidance, he got home in the habit of a beggar; where he found his sonne with his workmen in the fields, and laying the plot to come unexpected upon his Wive's uncivill suitors, he was carryed to his Palace by a hoggheard that knew him not, and armes being secretly hid for that purpose, he, his son, and his hindes tooke them up, and killed all those lewd intruders, to a man. But learning of the Oracle that his Sonne should kill him, he kept out of the way, [Page] to avoyd his legitimate sonne Telemachus, and was unwittingly slaine by his bastard son Telegonus, one he had by Circe, that came with an intention to waite upon him. Which teaches us the truth of what the Historian Tacitus sayes, quae fato manent, quamvis significata, non vitantur. What remaines in Fate, though foretold, is not to be avoyded. And therefore I shall advise the curiosity of men, with the same Author, De moribus Germanorum. Sanctius ac reverentius visum, de actis Deorum credere quam scire. It shewes more holy and more reverent, rather to believe then know the actions of the heavenly Powers. In Vlysses, Homer gives the perfect Character of a VVorldly Wise-man, see Natalis Comes. l. 9. c. 1.
(15) Sea-born] [...]. ‘He Sea-born Venus oft implor'd.’
(16) Iason] Son to Aeson King of Thessaly, and by him, on his death-bed, bequeathed to the tuition of his▪ brother [Page] Pelias, to whom he left his Crown, with condition to restore it to Iason, when hee came to age fit for government; but the Queen-Dowager Alcimedes, fearing Pelias would make away his Nephew, conveighed her young sonne to the Centaur Chiron, that rare Musitian, Martialist, and Physitian; tutor to Aesculapius, Hercules, and Achilles. Iuv. Sat. 7.
Iason now grown learned and accomplisht under the hand of Chiron, no sooner was out of his non-age▪ but he came to court, accompanyed with the young Gentry of Greece, and made his claim to the Crown. But subtile Pelias, finding that his speculative [Page] Learning had inflamed him with a vast desire of glory, complyed with his ambitious thoughts so long, till at last he put him upon the famous expedition for Colchis, to restore to the Greeks the Goldenfleece, which Phryxus (see h.) had carried from Thebes and consecrated to Mars in Colchis. Who presently, with the good liking of the Grecians, began his voyage in the Argo. (see o.) And by the instructions of King Phineas passing safe between the meeting Gyan Rocks that guard the mouth of the Thracian Bosphoros, he arriv'd at Colchis, where the Princess Medea, enamoured of the gallantry and undaunted courage of Iason, taught him how to quel the Bulls, whose hoofs were brass, and to bring into a sleep the everwaking Dragon. Following her advise he carryed away the Golden-Fleece and his faire Counseller; another Prize in Hero's account, but Seneca the Tragaedian reckons it otherwise.
(17) Paris] The effeminate sonne to that stout old Prince, Priam King of Troy, who had been happy sayes Juvenal S. 10.
But he had a nobler fate then his aged Queen Hecuba, as it followes in the Satyrist▪
The cause of this fiction was, for that Hecuba following the Greekes to the seaside and bitterly lamenting, if not cursing [Page] them, for being the ruin of her house, they cry'd out she bark't, and tearing her to pieces, said she was turn'd into a Bitch. Vlysses in Sabinus tells the passage, where he sayes the first ill omen of his crosses at Sea, was her strange fate, he meanes her curses.
But all this which the GREEKES call'd barking, was only the violence of dying passion, and the bowels of a mother to her Children, expressed not alone at her own and their funeralls, but [Page] likewise at the birth of Paris; for she preserved him in his swathing clouts, when Priam had commanded his servant Archelaus to make away the child, upon a declaration of the sooth-sayers: that Hecuba's dreame of her being delivered of a Fire-brand, signified, the child she went with, [ Paris] should be the cause of firing Troy. But notwithstanding the Kings severe command, the compassionate Queen Hecuba (for that very act deserving a nobler Metamorphosis) made the infant be put forth to nurse among the shepherds of the mountaine Ida, where he fell enamoured of the Nymph Oenone. Of which his love and pastorall life the forsaken Nymph remembers him when he had stollen away HELLEN; Ovid in Oenone, verse 3.
And a little further.
[Page]Thus you heare how Paris spent his time in Ida, whether upon the fame of his justice, (his only vertue and soon after put off with his shepherds weeds) came the three Goddesses, Iuno, Pallas, and Venus, to have his judgement in their claimes to the Golden apple (by discord shuffled in among the fruit that was served up at Peleus his wedding) with this inscription upon it, Let this be given to the fairest: they appeared to him like Vandike's Mistresse when he drew her Picture, and all made larg promises, but VENUS'S offer liked him best, for she promised HELLEN to him, as he writes to Hellen. OVID in Paride.
Thus the young Inamorato, Paris, contemning the offers of Iuno & Pallas, Soveraignty and Wisdom, only that he might enjoy Venus's promise, pleasure, had his wish as Agrypina in Tacitus had hers, oecidat dum imperet, let him kill me, so he be an Emperour, for as Nero to his Mother, so was Hellen to her Servant, his desired ruin. Her husband Menelaus with the confederate▪ Grecians pursuing of the ravisher, and beseiging him in Troy, to which at last the Flame that Paris fancyed to bee Love, prov'd to be the fire his sister Cassandra prophesied, and his Mother dreamed of, that consumed Troy to ashes.
(18) To purge it] It was the custome of the Ancient Greeks, after any accident portending misfortune, to purge themselves and the place by Torch-light, with a lustration made of meale, thereon casting hallowed water, which they cal [...]; and in this water they quenched a brand [Page] taken from the altar, wherewith the sprinkled the assembly. The ROMAN▪ added Sulphur and Laurell. Juvena▪ Sat. 2.