ΠΑΝΑΛΕΘΑ πλαστολόγα.
Or the DEPLUMATION OF Mrs Anne Gibbs, Of those furtivous perfections whereof She was supposed a Proprietary, By Envious Fame.
Deplored by her (once) Admirer, R. W.
Aud. Ep. Lib. 1.
Forma tibi famam peperit, sed filia matrem
Occidit, formam, non bona fama, bonam.
Thy beauty got thee fame, but th' daughter spoil'd
The Mother, thy ill name thy face hath soil'd.
Printed Anno Virginis parturientis, 1662.
[...]
From his Umbrello As he sat Fishing, 8bris 9. 1662.
Πανάλεθα Πλαστολόγα.
Down by those batfull Banks I sate erewhile,
Where Royal Thames old Thorney did in-isle.
But barr'd his ancient road the amorous youth
Ran round about to know the real truth
Of what his mother Isis heard, while she
Was entertain'd by th' Gowned Company.
Which was that LUCRECE for both mind and face
Surpassed all with whom she came in place.
So he,(a) inflam'd by th' rumor, did repaire
To match hers with his parent's famous (a)haire;
But b'ing arrived on that (c)fertil Strand,
Where Elineor's Obelisk did stand,
He heard Fame's trumpet sound a quick retreat,
Extenuating what she once proclaim'd so great
Therefore he would not stay, but went before
To meet old Walbrook his sly paramour.
To whom I heard him in a fume rehearse
What he had heard; but this my Tragick verse
Shall speak another passion, all this while
I was projecting in what mournfull stile
I should articulate my woes, what Muse
For this grave expedition I should chuse.
I call'd the Sisters nine, but could not finde
One sad enough to personate my minde.
Want of gravity they pretended all,
Melpomene was too too Comicall.
Wherefore I meant my silence not to break,
But pass that over which I could not speak.
But 'lass I found this burthen worse than th' first,
And that the cask, if 't did not leak, would burst.
So thence I migrated and now reside
'Mongst Feck'nhams faunes by murm'ring Arro's side,
To whom I told my grievance, and he sought
Quick means for to redress it, for he brought
One of his Naiads to me, who had long
In solitude complained of the wrong
Old Feck'nhams Satyrs did her since his fall,
Sculking in caverns 'bout her Master's Hall.
And after Catalogues of griefs agen,
The sable Nymph thus dictates to my pen.
Let none henceforth explode that Sophister who said
The Snow was black, to what may not sense be missed?
What falsities may'n't Demonstration lead us to,
When that great rule of Re [...]son(a)Gartrude proves untrue?
Now Barbara, once thought absolute, 'mongst the rest,
Logicians shall account but Topical at best.
Tell me no more of Claudia who Poets dream
Drew Cybele's image up royal Tyber's Stream.
Tell me no more of Artemisia, nor her
Who took up water in a porous Colander.
Britona, Teuca, Penelope, Claelia,
Baldraca, Pero, Alceste, Cornelia,
Euridice, Vesta, Evadn', Alcyone,
Hypsecratea, Pandora, Rhodigune,
Aemilia, Valeria, whose names of yore
Were celebrated with such Eulogyes, no more
Shall be thought worthy so great honor, but suspended
Until this Grand Inquest of chastity be ended.
For how can vertue by such Petits be imbrac'd,
When their superlative LUCRETIA proves unchast?
Once did I think her chastity as free from stain
As th' Chrystalized Ice within the frozen Main,
Or the Castisick Emerald, and did prefer
Her Name to the first Rubrick in my Kalender.
But now her Innocence alass is blurr'd by Fame,
And with a blacker cole I must ingross her Name.
This said she flung her self upon the Stream
Abruptly leaving this unweildy Theme;
And hasts to Arro's Nuptials, who was willing
T' espouse fair Alne, the Woodland's clearskin'd dilling.
Leaving my passions t' gether by the ears,
And me to speak the residue in tears.
FINIS.