The Frontispeece.
THe Sunne is glorious still, and maketh day,
Where ever shineth his Eternall Ray;
Yet when he sets, so clouds may vaile the skye,
That men may thinke him drownded to the eye.
Faire, strong is Man, if one should say, he'le dye,
Scarce can he well beleeve it, 'fore he try;
But seeing death in others, then he sayes;
Surely Deaths constant stroke will end my dayes.
Spring's dainty; Summer vigorous and strong;
Autumne hath plenty; Winter dyes ere long.
¶ The Sunne of Glory set, and then was night,
And darkenesse, in the true beleevers sight;
Th' Eclipse did passe, and He was seene, by all,
Ascending, whether he the world doth call.
Let man behold his Saviour, he will say,
Welcome sweete death, my Iesus led the way.
Infants, and babes, young men, you strong, and old,
Turne to the right-hand, and the Sunne behold;
For as He conquers darkenesse, so we shall
Triumph o're death, by Him who conquerd All.
KALENDARIVM HVMANAE VITAE THE KALENDER OF MANS LIFE.
Authore Roberto Farloeo.
S'coto Britaniq.
Ipse iubet mortis nos meminisse Deus.
LONDON Printed for William. Hope and are to be sould at ye vnicorne neare the Royall Exchange. 1638.
ILLVSTRISSIMO ET NOBILISSIMO Domino Dno. ROBERTO KARO, Comiti a Summerset, &c.
AEGyptii inter primos Sapientiae patres, sic sibi consuluerunt, ut laetissimis ipsorum conviviis sceleton interesset; Cum imperio delati sunt mores; & Philippus qui Graecam monarchiam fundavit, voluit adolescentem se mortalitatis suae admonere; ipse Augustus Caesar noluit, sine hoc more, orbi [...] [Page] imperium amplecti, qui & micam, & grabatum suum habuit.
Tibi (Nobilis [...]ime Heros) hoc mortalitatis symbolum offero; atque eò magis, quòd sciam Te verâ Nobilitate praeditum, cui ipsius mortis memoria semper erit gratissima, cujus nomine ipsa philosophia dignata est. Accipe quaeso, (Nobilissime Heros) hoc qualecunque est, humanitatis [...], neque enim ab hujusmodi studiis ipse abhorres, quùm mortis meditationi, & futurae vitae contemplationi, lucernae tuae oleum soleas impendere: accipe inquam (verè Heros) hanc, quâ solitus es clementiâ, animi potius integritatem, quam solertem exquisiti ingenii velitationem. Meum putabam hoc opusculum, quod mortale esset; Tu Domine, si Tuum duxeris, immortale proculdubiò erit; & quod a meo ingenio sperare minimè potuit; hoc Tuo Genio (nobilis ingeniorum & musarum Pater) libenter debebit. Vive, & Vale, a cujus ore, & favore, ipsarum charitum & musarum vitaque & valetudo dependet; Illae jam dediscent Apollinem, Iovemque suum, & Graecorum numerosos deos implorare; Deum unum, verum, bonum, supplicibus votis adorabunt, ut Te [Page] Patronum, ipso Mecaenate benignior [...]m & camem magis, hîcin terris, omni honore, postea in Coelis, omni felicitate & beatitudine accumulet. Effata pronunciat
Celsitudini Tuae addictissimus ROBERTVS FARLAEVS.
To the Author.
FAme pluckes a pinion from the wings of Time,
Dips it in nectar, graves thy mighty rime
Within her brasen sheetes, makes envy stand
(Mauger her heart) and light her duskie brand:
Whil'st she in crimson letters writes: These, these,
Shall be the whole worlds Ephemerides.
Did not Ʋrania loose thy fetter'd minde,
Out▪ of the clayeie prison, and resign'd
Her place to it? did not thy purer lay
Flow from the fountaine of the Milkie way?
Did not she dictate to thee, how to skan
These moneths of woe, this Almanacke of man?
An Almanacke that ne're shall b' out of date,
But last as long as time, as firme as fate.
She did, (heare, envie, heare and burst) and by
Her staffe thou took'st the height of Poetry:
Th' Arcadian Shepheards shall make thee their starre,
And place this next to Tityrus Calendar.
Like to another Phaebus thou dost take
Thy twelvemoneths taske through lifes short Zodiacke:
But these are too too narrow bounds for thee,
Eeach moneth's an age, each age eternitie.
The names, not nature's of the moneths, I see
Described in thy caelestiall poetrie.
Fresh May and lusty Iune triumph alone
In thy warme breast, December there is none.
Envie her selfe can finde no fault but this,
Perfect thy moneths, thy globe imperfect is.
No parallell is seene in all thy spheare,
Besides too, no Aequator doth appeare.
E. Coleman.
To the Author.
SOme use to flatter worth by too much Praise;
Who rather doe detract than give him Bayes,
Who merits it: And some againe betray
Like some course Prologue to a courser Play)
The Authors Subject; both are bad: but I
Will none of both: rather I will belye
[...]esert, and say this Poeme speakes thee vaine:
For to speake truth, I'm angry with thy Straine;
For that it is so short: (though sweete) expect,
[...]le taxe thee alwayes with that small defect.
Yet (out of Policie) perhaps thy Lyre
Thou layd'st aside so soone, least we Expire;
And the chiefe cause proceede from thence: For 'tis
Certaine, as too much griefe is mortall, so of blisse.
All I will say, is, my beleefe is such
That after-times will thanke thee for this touch:
And such my Charity, I wish it may
Out live the last, and longest Summers day,
And that this present Age, may please to give
It pleasant smiles; and helpe its Hope to live.
H. M.
TO THE COVRTEOVS READER.
The Roses.
PRoc [...]e did flye, and Parti-colour'd Flora
Now felt soft nipping colds breath from Aurora,
And Phoebus, usherd with the cooler day,
Gave warning to prevent his scorching ray;
While I the checkerd gardens walk'd along,
Seeking refreshment dainty flowers among,
I saw the fragrant herbes bending their tops,
With pearle-like dew hanging in silver drops;
And in the Coleworts cabbines I did see,
The queeres of Nectar dancing joyfully,
I saw the Rose beds in their Pestan weeds,
Wet with the foame of Phoebus neighing steedes;
The tender buds did in their night-geare stand,
Of hoary plush, wrought by dame Natures hand,
Ready to put it off, when they did spy
Dayes charriter coursing along the sky;
One might have doubt, whether the Heav'n did dye
The Roses, or they purple-paint the skye:
The Sunne and Rose, were in one liv'ry clad,
For they one Lady Aphrodite had;
Perhaps one smell they had, but that as higher
Evanish'd, this breath'd sweetely from the brier▪
How many minutes draweth forth an houre,
So many habits chang'd this curious flower;
It sometimes nimph-like, mantled was in grenee,
Wearing a cap much like the Fairy Queene:
Sometimes it woare a comely purple crest,
And had its haire in anticke fashion drest;
Then by and by her brest unlac'd, to shew
What heavenly fragrant Nectar did thence flow;
At last sh'unvail'd herselfe, and shew'd her face,
To Phoebus, with a modest blushing grace;
Her dandling tresses wreath'd like threds of Gold.
Scarse without envy Titan could behold;
But lo dame Natures darling, which just now
Did flourish naked stands, I know not how;
Of so great glory then, I thought it strange,
To see so suddaine and so sad a change,
The Rose to bud, to blossome in her prime,
To fade, to fall, to wither at [...] time;
Then for her mantle greene, a murry clout
All torne did hang her gastly lookes about;
The cap▪ the purple crest and all was gone,
Baldnesse her wrinckled head did seize upon▪
O what a sight it was to see her lie
Vpon her mothers lap ready to die!
Small comfort had the earth, to see her brood
Pluckt from her milky breasts, and bath'd in blood;
Phoebus who rising from the glassie streames
Did court this Virgin with his chearefull beames,
Going to bed he sees the naked thorne,
And cannot love her 'cause shee is forlorne.
So long as lasts a day, a Rose may live,
That day doth kill the Rose, which life did give:
A Virgin in the morning, and at noone
Which had her prime, becomes decrepit soone.
So pull the Rose, and thinke, when thou dost see
It's brittle beauty, that it points to Thee.
Farewell.
Pullulo.
I bud.
VER.
Martius sive Natalis.
FAbrica multiplicem quae sic glomeratur in orbem,
Tam variis faecunda bonis, tot daedala formis,
Vnda priusquam pontus erat, Terra arida centrum;
Nutabat (que) levi vertigine stellifer orbis;
Sordebat deforme chaos, primordia mundi
Parturiens, rerum & discordi semine praegnans:
Talis origo hom [...]nis, magni compendia mundi
Corporis exigui angusto qui limite claudit,
Empyrei scintilla priusquam vivida Caeli
Vita auget, sensu movet, aut ratione gubernat,
Ante sibi quam Elementa legant dis [...]ord [...]a sedes,
Organaque, affectus (que) animae & parentia membra,
Ante suum referat quam Iovae patris Imag [...]
Ad Coelos atque astra genus, vultumque supinet;
Putrescit genitura rudis▪ communia vermi
Semina sortitus, limacisque aemula cunis:
Sed tamen hos artus augustos fingit in artus
Cura [...]ei, immensum ex nihilo quae excudit olympum.
Quali [...] frugiserae concredita semina Terrae
Ceu tumulo defossa, jacent in viscere sulci;
Nasc [...]ndi virtu [...] tamen & genitab [...]tis arvi
Natura, hyberni defendit frigoris i [...] as,
Quadrupedis donec Phryxaei cornua scandit
Phoebus, & illustri radio, foetoque calore
Inque diem, & Coeli vitales elicit auras:
Talis ho [...]o c [...]cis uteri jacet embryon antris
Naturae ingeniosae opus, & compago recentis
Lactea ceu massae teneros coalescit in artus.
Semina habent siliquas, tegitur massa inque volucri [...]
Pelliculae, cognata ipsi quae fascia crevit.
Tum Deus inspirante animam quâ vivida surgunt
Omnia, divinae largitur particulam aurae.
Conjugium firmat stabile hîc Hymen [...]us Olympi;
Nubit terra polo, decus immortale caduci
Corporis ingluviem consortem in saecula ducit.
Sic ne ergo (hei miserae) impurâ cum conjuge vivet
Virgo anima, & castis contagia prendet in ulnis?
Sed benè quod furvis coeant, sine luce, tenebris,
Teda suo impuram prodat ne lumine sponsam.
Quid fi animae vox ulla foret? quàm tristè queratur
Se c [...]elum mutasse luto, & caligine lucem,
Vel Ionae similem, superis desedibus imum
In ceti cecidisse uterum, noctemque profundam▪
Aemula Tartareo domus est habitanda barathro,
Gurgusti piceus carcer, pistrina malorum.
C [...]rnimus hîc quoties jactari, dum impete facto
Rumpere vallatae conatur vincula vulvae;
Saepe etiam ingreditur mox egressura, perosum
Sic antri hospitium, sic diversoria sordent;
Cernere (pro dolor) est foecundae viscera matris
Esse urnam foetus, intestinumque sepulcrum.
Mitte sed infaustos casus, & respice partus
Quos natura volet, praescripta lege, labores;
Tormina, convulsique artus, trepidique dolores,
Et gen [...]um cordis (que) tremor, lamenta, duellum
Tale cient inter matrem natumque tumultus
Qualis avernales, vento subeunte, cavernas
Concitat, in tremulos tollens ima antra tumores.
Ergone praenovit venturae incommoda▪ vitae
Nondum natus Homo, lucemque exterritus odit?
Sic pugnans contra matrem, & molimina partus
Vipereo miseram exanimavit more parentem.
Credideris animam sordentem labe paternâ
Nolle subire diem, ne se suus inquinet error,
Ne cum damnatis exclamet forte catervis;
O utinam mihi natalis lux nulla fuisset.
Ast ubi nunc infans uterina repagula rup [...] ▪
Symbola secum adfert vitae manifesta futurae:
Dextram protendens, manuum mercede b [...]atum
Se fore demonstrat; pede nudo triste capessi [...]
Vitae iter, & superûm adventat p [...]regrinus ad auras.
Ʋtcun (que) ingreditur nudus, lacrymabilis infans
Doctior ad fletum est, rudior (que) ad c [...]tera natus.
Vagitus cudit lacrymas non verba querelae,
Vae benè quum nequeat fari, (va) t [...]istius edit:
Thr [...]icio sic more, suis natalibus infans▪
Sollicitat luctus, etiam sine voce, loquentes.
Omen habet vitae partus; portendit acerbus
Hic dolor & Labor, humanos tristes (que) labores.
Naturae praescripta manet Lex; usp [...]e luctu
Ʋt nascatur Homo, comite (que) hoc pergat ad O [...]um▪
Natura exponit nudum mors excutit, u [...]na
Excipit, & nudum Proserpina manibus addit.
¶
Ergo quum partus rudimenta nostri
Inchoet damni, renovato me [...]tem
Integram (Christe) ut videam parentis
Tecta beata.
Hunc novum partum comites sequuntur
Anxij cordis tremuli timores,
Flumina in largas lacrymas soluta, et
Turba dolorum.
Hunc susurrantis tacitum querelae
Murmur, & tristis fremitus Leonis
Temperat, luctus Pelicani ad instar
Triste querentis
Gaudium & luctus parit ille vitae
Coelitis, verae pietatis ante—
Ambulo in terris, superas Olympi
Ducit ad arces.
Tunc genâ moestis lacrymis carente,
Et cohaeredes Domino, beato
Possumus nostri patris intueri
Lumine vultus.
Invicem luctus nova cantilena
Panget aeterni decus Haleluja,
Et novum carmen modulis sonorum
Audiet Aether.
APRIL.
O What a pleasure is't to see
My new-sprung bud, which will be tree!
The glist'ring grasse with Phoebus ray
Doth make me cheerefull looke, and gay:
But (ah!) if these my Flowers should die,
Lord what would then become of me.
¶ Ile tell thee, this thy brood will wither,
Doe not despare, you'le have another.
Aprilis sive Infantia.
QƲalis odoriserum foecundans imber Aprilem
Flore novo Martis lactentia germina vestit,
Nectare Olympus alit dulci, Phoebúsque calore,
Frigora ne exurant, nimius vel torreat aestus▪
Sic gremio charae matris dum tollitur infans,
Ne necet importuna fames, & tristis egestas,
Nectareo de fonte bibit spumantia lacti [...]
Flumina, quae gemino mammarume tubere manant.
Saepe novercatur Natura, aut turgida fastu
Nectaris hos gaudet genitrix occludere rivos;
Ergo ubi non possunt duram exorare parentem,
Mendicant aliundè, luparumque ubera sugunt;
Saepe eti [...]m tantùm odérunt sua pignora matres,
Sustineant solis ut nata exponere sylvis;
Tunc superant pietate [...]erae volucresque parentes,
Dant alienigenis quando ubera mutua natis:
Deposuit rabiem lupa, dum lactaret alumnos,
Rom [...] tuos, matrem & dominae se ostenderet orbis:
Ast illi cum lacte lupae suxere furorem,
Fraterno (que) urbem stabilivit sanguine frater.
Exposuit quem dirus avus, jussit (que) necari,
Ille canis foeta a mammâ lactante pependit,
Inde sitis semper tenuit vesana cruoris,
Praedandique fames, humano sanguine donec
Immersum caput, & satiatum caede natavi [...].
Degenerem toties patriis est cernere pro [...]em
Moribus, averso tanquam sit sidere nata,
Nutricis cum lacte bibat quo [...] semina morum,
Imbutusque semel fuerit quo parvus odore
Infans, hunc redolet maturis auctior annis.
Ʋbere jam satur est puer, incunabula somnu [...]
Poscit, ubi tremulis agitatur nutibus, inter
Motun (que) & requiem, miserae dans symbola vitae,
Cujus, ceu navis, medijs jactatur in undis
Spe [...] (que) metum (que) inter, nec cessat, lumina donec
Mors claudat Longoque Orci [...]et fessasopori,
Ramicibus sed ne turgentibus ilia rumpat,
B [...]anda soporifero de [...]ulcet carmine nutrix.
Infantis vel nulla [...]tas a crimine [...]ura,
Est insons, fraudis non gnara, exp [...]rs (que) nocendi,
Innumeris tamen illa malis o [...]noxia vita,
Ludibriumque recens casus, & sortis iniquae est;
Quod si crudeles Herodes asper [...]t iras,
Inno [...]uo infantes maculabunt sanguine ferrum.
Obijce formicas quantumvis Graecia Midae,
Mellificasque Platonis [...]pes, facundia linguae
Enthea queî [...] portenta, & cornu▪ copia rerum est;
Tristibus auspi [...]ijs sed nostra infantia surgit,
Contemplatur aves sc [...]vas, quas omnia dirà
Infaustant, rata quae facit aetas plena dolorum,
Tristitiae, luctus, curae, d [...]ri (que) laboris.
Hoc solo felix, miserum quod nesciat infans
In medijs sese esse malis, careatque timore▪
¶
Cum meae matris niveo liquore
Nectaris, tetrum sceleris reatum
Imbibi, primi patris inquinatus
Labe cruentâ.
Addidi vitae proprium nefandae
Crimen, annosque in vitiis peregi,
Meque fatal [...] capulo propin quu [...]
Detinet error.
Christe dacunas pictatis, atque
Grati [...] [...]tatem teneram, priusquam
Parca peccato gravidae senectae
Finiat annos.
Vagit infans haec anima▪ ô salutis
Author, infirmam satura beato
Lacte, & oeterno saturato divi
Nectare verbi.
Ablue, ô sordes uteri, meique
Criminis naevos, placidâ quiete
Ʋt tui regni fruar, & piis tur—
—Malibus addar.
Ne sin [...]s vani hanc modulo sopiri
Carminis, Siren recinet dolosa
Qua [...]e; sed Caeli v [...]giles ocellos
Tendat ad arces.
Neve mergatur rapidis procellae
Fluctibus, prendas Domine in tuumque
Suscipe amplexum; patrias Olymp [...]
Defer ad arces.
Sic Tuoe, a cunis (Deus) ass [...]efiet
Grati [...], tu sic animam hanc amabis
Et Tibi grates aget hoec perennes
Invicem amato.
NOw are my Flowers with Aurora dight,
And Flora sees her long wisht-for delight▪
Each Tree a Quire, each Leafe a Bird doth beare,
All singing Harmony to Heav'ns Spheare;
The Lambkins skipping trip, they dance and play,
This is the glory of the moneth of May.
¶ Remember Flowers fade, come will the night,
When Nightingale shall sing from Mortals sight.
Maius sive Pueritia.
GErmina quoe genuit Mars, quae lactavit Aprilis
Nunc geminant decus, & Maij pinguntur honore
Vndi (que) Pestano sic splendent cuncta nitore
Vt gnarae Natura rudis contendere dextroe
Artificis possit; Zephyritis gramina pingit,
Gramina Panchaeos supra fragrantia indos.
Plumea genus auras tenui modulamine mulcet,
Aera (que), & sylvas, habitantem & montibus Echo:
Talis Homo puer in teneros quando emicat annos,
Securas fallens inter sua gaudia luces:
Adde alas, Coeli credas stellantis alumnum
Pennigerum, tamrara novae stat gratia formae:
Huic cedant pictis albentia Lilia campis,
Aemula Sithonijs invibus, puro (que) elephanto;
Huic cedant biferi rubicunda rosaria Pesti;
Punicat ingenuos tam pulchra modestia vultus.
Pancheum pueri spirant precordia amomum
Assyrios (que) balant accensi thuris honores,
Impar queîs sordet medicatae copianaris.
Permultos avium seducit ad avia cantus,
Certatubi turdus merulis, ubi Lucari acanthis
Consonat, & noctem sylvoe citbaristria mulcet;
Me juvat ingenui vocem exaudire puelli,
Dum teneros fingit sermones aure magistrâ,
Aemula syderibus cui adamantina Lumina fulgent,
Qualia in humanos defigit stellio vultus:
Gratia jucundat faciem, simplex (que) venustas,
Totus amor, Veneris (que) decus, pignuszue parentum est.
Adspice, sed tempus gaudet quo fallere Ludo,
Ingenium artificis mentitus, & arma, manum (que),
Sive equitat mulo Mariano, aut agmina ducit,
Sive molam condit, celsae vel maenia turris,
Cereus ingenio cunctas se fingit ad artes,
Aemulus aetatis maturae, cuncta recenter
Spectat, & est vitae, quam cernit, simius actae,
Ne, nimium miseri tamen exultate parentes,
Praecocia haec durus comitetur gaudia moeror:
Cernitis, ut pictae pubes Alahandica Florae
Marcescit, nudam (que) relinquit saucia spinam:
Nulla nitet tessellati sic gloria veris,
Imbriferi quam non affla [...]us destruat Austri:
Si semel imbriferitetigit contagio morbi,
Languent membra, fugit (que) decus mirabile formae:
Pallentes artus, tristi (que) gravedine pressum
Tunc caput, immodicam condemnant jure parentunc
Laetitiam, e geminis oculorum fata fenestris
Prospiciunt, gelido (que) meat vix ore mephitis:
Improba vis morbi cogit mutare querelis
Blanditias, teneros (que) sales, lingua (que) lepores:
Maximatum superant majores gaudia luctus,
Mutantur (que) vices tristi tum funere laetae.
Hic sudum affulsit, Borea impendente procellâ,
Hic posuit mare tranquillum, sed fluminis iras
Parturiente salo, meditanti & praelia vento.
Ah! quid fata fugit? mortali propria vitae
Res est nulla, dedit quae sors, mors omnia raptat.
¶
Gratiae vires, Deus O, recentis
Suffice, infans haec puerascataetas,
Discat ut certos magis & magis pes
Figere gressus.
Passibus dum Te sequor haud secundis
Christe, praecedas jubar aequitatis,
Te ne (que) aspectu, O animae redemptor,
Subtrahe nestro.
Cerne, quo pacto vagulus vacillat
Gressus, & fract [...]s animos adauge,
Er [...]gas, quando titu [...]o, salutis,
Anchora certoe.
Vt vioelongos tolerem Labores,
Ferto opem lasso, ex [...]ilara dolentem
Et retrectantem male, gratuitis
Allice donis.
Dum vioe angustas meo per salebr as,
Adjuva, & dextrá stabilito plantam;
Quas (que) largiris pueris, Olympi
Ducito ad arces.
Tunc ero Coeli Empyrei minister
Aliger, diva specie decorus,
Talis & ducam nihili beatos,
Nestoris annos.
Jam messis in Herbâ.
This will be Wine.
AESTAS.
Iunius, sive Adolescentia.
CƲrvati quum Phaebus equos, per brachia Cancri,
Cogit anhelantes, acclivi in vertice coeli,
Fervidiore calet radio tunc florida Tellus,
Et primae faetus adolescunt flore juventae,
Letas promittunt fruges, & signa futuri
Dant fructus, avidum (que) beat spes prima Colonum:
Humanae tali florescit ephebia vitae,
Cum pia scintillant coelestis semina flammae.
Hoec rudis ingenij moles sed cerea, Lambi
Poscit, & est Ratio studio formanda colendi.
Humani generis pater ex quo tempore lapsus,
Humanae in cineres mersa est s [...]intillula mentis,
Non nisi inexhausto jam recuperanda Labore,
Gemma velut Stygio Lethes in gurgite mersa
Ʋ [...]inatoris dextrá expiscanda profundo est.
Tempus erat quo stabat homo de stirpe deorum,
Dotibus ingenij plusquam mortalibus auctus:
Arbitrij sed frena regentem devius error
Abflulit, & recto aver sum de tramite flexit:
Inde sumus stirpis pravoe vitiosa propago,
Degeneres sancti primevà ab origine Coeli,
Nascimur ignari rerum, virtutis inanes
Omnigenoe, veluti picto [...]is rasa tabella
Inscribenda notis queis vis, tamen oblita nullis.
Nam veluti distorta recens que pullulat arbor
Corrigitur, quamdiu lactenti cortice mollet,
Solliciti teneros animos sic cura magistri,
Et cultura Scholae tortum, sed molle refingit
Ingenium, studijs & cerea pectora format,
Cortinae quem certa Sophum suffragia primum
Dixerunt, quondam a vultus censore sophista
Damnatus vitij, & tacitoe, insulsoe que [...]amilloe.
Talem vitales primum se luminis auras
Hausisse ai [...]bat, diro sub sidere natum;
Posteased factum Sophiae Coelestis alumnum,
In melius mutasse animum, Ge [...]iumque malignum;
Quum bonad lapidat genitor, juga dura subire
Compellit natos duri tristisque laboris;
Quam gravis (ab) labor est lapsum reparare parentis,
Et nunquam tamen a [...]issas attingere dotes!
Naturae nascentis erant elementa loquendi,
Cornea quae pueris nunc abecedaria monstran:
Ac veluti folijs oracula scripta Sibyllae
Pen [...]lopes opus est, salvo componere sensu,
Literulas sic liter [...]l [...]s conjungere oportet
Syllabae ut a [...]crescant, quarum farragine vcces
Dum fiunt, operam crebró damnamus inaxem.
Nunc fluxa & fragilis, fuerat firmissima quondam
Mneme, depositi custos firmissima, proma—
Conda penus nostri, loculis sensata reponens,
Depromens (que) eadem, si quando posceret usus;
Fidit sed mnemae qui nunc, in pulvere scribit
Sensa animi, aut fluxoe frustrá committit arenae:
Nunc vaga congertes rerum, coeci (que) recessus
Confundunt species, veliniqua obliterat atas.
Obstat saepe [...]bi rerum male congrua moles
Fermentata Chao, infausto partuque laborat;
Dumque homo rimat [...]r cerebrum, quae scrinia pulse [...]
Nescit, & insano similis stat pharmacopolae,
Omnia scrutatur, nec quod petit, invenit usquam
Cogimur hinc nimium fragili d [...]ffidere mnemae,
Et chartis mandare alta molimina mentis,
Sic mutis vox viva tacet concredita libris;
Quum (que) foret quondam patulis mos auribus artem
Haurire, [...] tacitis nunc est discenda magistris,
Atque legenda oculis, variis vox picta siguris.
[...] [Page] Singula nce tamen haec prosunt, quo nescio fato,
Saepe latet tantis hominis m [...]ns pressa tenebris;
Nil salit a laevâ; pigri de more caballi
Promovet haud, quamvis virgas calcaribus [...]ddas.
Quàm gravis (ah) labor est nobis, quae perdidit hor [...]
In nullos reparare dies, laterem (que) lavare.
Dicite Adamigenae pomo quid vilius uno?
Et tamen hoc tantos potuit generare Labores.
¶
O qui Mosaici dogmata foederis
Impubis poteras pandere patribus
Iudae, sc [...]ta tui da mih [...] noscere
Patris, morigerum redd [...]t [...] legibus
Coeli. Cimmerijs mens mea caecutit
Caligans tenebris, pandito Lumina.
Non me sic uteri crimina polluunt;
Nec [...]orum impietas inquinat unguibus
Me sic a teneris, quin tua gratia
A foed [...] uteri sordibus expiet,
Et morum macul [...]s unica diluat.
Dotes ingenij quas m [...]nuit pater
Humani generis, gratia sarciet.
Fac me, Coriste, tuae discipulum Schola,
Censurâ ferulae leniter uteri,
Pendas pro (que) meis verbera viribus.
ARies was strong. Taurus did stronger prove,
Then Gemini did double heat and love:
Cancer who mounted, straight returnd againe,
That Leo might couragious remaine;
Till Virgo with her fruitfull, hopefull eares
Doe rellish well the Farmers greedy feares.
¶ Since Signes for Mortals good can so agree,
To Heav'n let ev'ry one most thankefull be.
Iulius, sive Ephebia.
FLavus ubi aestivos Quintilis promovet ortus,
Exhilaran [...] blandum radijs ferventibus annum,
Luxurians arbor fructus matural adultos,
Foeta sui, similem tentat producere prolem:
Talis Homo quum floriferos adolescit ad annos,
Parturit, & Genij specimen maturius edit;
Pullulat ingenij foetus quem cura Magistri
Lambit, & ursino deformem more refinxit.
Tunc vitae molitus iter se accingit ad artem
Ʋivendi (que) modum; nec enim sunt ocia tuta.
Progenies Hybl [...] veluti fragrantia rura
Pervolat, ac Fiorae lactentia germina libat,
Parsque rosas carpit, pars sugit amabile nectar
Narcissi, aut stimulis albentia lilia tentat,
Mille legunt florum succos, & mille viarum
Ambages Lustrant, una est sed meta laboris:
Tam varijs fertur studijs fervent [...]or aetas
Fatorum quum lege trabit sua que [...] (que) voluptas:
Aesopi haud major calvis currentibus error,
Sensibus humanis quam stat sententia discors;
Sed tamen ad metam vitae contend [...]tur unam,
A tegete, & tristiquae defendenda baci [...]io est.
Quam variae rerum species, quot membra, quot artus
Corporis hum [...]ni quot sunt molimina mentis,
Deliciae quot sunt sensus, vitijs (que) laborat
Quam varijs male-sanus homo, bona deni (que) quot sunt
Quot mala; tot prostant artes, queîs quoerimus illa,
H [...] vitamus; & est vitae multiplic is Hydra.
Cara fuit, mundo nascente parabile victus
Esse penu, tuto (que), [...]udi licet, indui amictu;
Ingeniosa adeo mortalia pectora vexit
Luxuries nunc, ut Terras, o [...]bem (que) fatiget.
Discendae sunt mille artes, si fingere ad unguem
Ingenium humanum, mores, & tempora poscas;
Luxuries sic forte juvat, quòd mille nepoti
Artifices debent tolerandoe commoda vitae.
Esuriunt quando latis animantia campis,
In mundo dat Terra dapes, dant pocula lymphae;
Dira fames hominem quoties ad turpia cogit,
Infandas acuens spes & rodens?
Importuna fames moro sae debita cessit
Paena gulae: justâ nemesi sic numina plectunt;
Illicit as gustare dapes homo fortiter ausus,
Saepe nequit licitis jejunia pellere mensis.
Sudandum est igitur, (vendunt dij cuncta labore)
Ante suum misero quam pandat Edulia cornu,
Sollicitae sic dura capessens munia vitae
Degener aquali factus origine, cernit.
Interea arrectas quae vox mihi verberat aures
Ocia tuta beans tranquilla (que) castra Minervae,
Musarumque leves choreas, placidosque recessus,
Permessi saltus, & flumma grata poetis?
Invidiae vox est laudans diversa sequentes;
Damocles celsâ recubet si sede Tyranni,
Nulla laborabit jucundum musa soporem.
Vt venias hederâ dignus, tua lumina somnum
Saepe vident nullum? an studio macrescit imago?
Iapetonidae volucres sunt cura, labor (que),
Pervigil, & studij sitis implacata profundi.
Horologi fusum veluti, fraenumque, rotasque
Spira regit, secumque suo conamine raptat:
Anxta sic curis quum mens distracta laborat,
Nulla loporiferam sentiscunt membra quietem.
Aasp [...]ce cognatas cyclon qui circinat artes,
Quàm miserae vitae dispendia quanta catenet.
Primigenae quia dedidicit vernacula linguae,
Cogitur ignotas Babylonis discere voces;
Quodque prius dederant cunae, nunc vix capitaetas;
Si numeres linguas, Mithridates occidit infans.
Est homini tantilla fides, sine Rhetoris orte
Nesciat ut sibi concordes inducere sensus,
Quodque nequit ratio fucato suadeat ore,
Verbaque det levibus toties diffundere ventis.
Caligat tantis acies interna tenebris,
Confusaeque latent species, Platonis ut annus
Eruere hanc satagat cariosae sorde librorum,
Qui ratione probant hominem rationis egentem:
Dum numeros nectit numeris, dum millibus auget
Millia, dum paribus distingutt littora micis.
Dum numerat stellas, guttis discriminat aequor,
In levae digito fluxos sibi computat annos.
Dulce melos, tristis quamvis medicina doloris
Dicitur, hoc tamen (ah) lacrymarum sluctus acerbat,
Dum fatum recolens effundit flebile carmen,
Qualicient memores vicinae mortis olores.
Quàm dolet! astrif. rum radio dum mensus Olympum,
Hic contemplatur radiantes eminus orbes,
Nec licet ad patrias sursum contendere sedes,
Vnde genus traxit cognata ab origine Divûm.
Denique dum variodescribit schemate Terras
Quinque secans zonis, distinguens climate lucem
Maxima quae vertit cyclis solaribus annum,
Convexum paribus mensurans passibus orbem,
Quá jubar auricomum Terris oriensque cadensque,
Punicat equoreas piscosae Tethyos undas
Quáque dies medium q [...]a nox dispe [...]cit Olympum,
Respiciens modulum ipse suum; quid metior, inquit,
Hanc molem, Archytas prope littus dona matinum
Pulveris ex [...]gui poscit, cur mente rotundum
Percurro Coelum moriturus; stamina vitae
Parca mihi simul ac secuit: septempeda corpus
Exanimum, tumuli angusto mihi limite claudet.
Cernere mortalem est plures adolescere ad annos,
Aerumnasque simul, tristi (que) inolere dolori:
Hoc tantum est miseri for san solamen Ephebe,
Praterijsse aliquas lapso cum tempore curas.
¶
Coelestis Genitor, quoe mare coerulum
Quoe Tellus viridans, & liquidi oetheris
Nutrit hoec regio, Te Dominum suum
Agnoscunt, Patulae munera dexterae
Exposcunt (que) tuae: Tu saturas dape
Quicquid te precibus sollicitat Deum.
Corvus non didicit vertere vomere
Telluris gravidae sa xea viscera,
Optatis epulis non tamen indiget.
Nunquam pensa trahunt candida lilia,
Flora at luxuriant splendida syrmate,
Quali Rex Solymoe non nituit pies.
Curis distraberis mens mea, cur metis
Quassaris, stabilem spem tibicolloca
Inrerum Domino, qui dabit omnia
Quoe vitoe fragili commoda senserit.
Sed ne debilitent ocia languidam
Mentem, luxuriâ & pectora diffluant,
Hydrae multiplicis ne mala pullulent:
Quo vitam tolerem, munere da frui
Artis, qua senium sustineat meum,
Et victu invalidos sustineat dies.
Me quae so Aethereis dotibus instrue,
Quadratas fabricae dum lego literas,
Coelorum speculans tam varias vias,
Et tot pennigeros aeris incolas,
Et tot pinnigeros Aequoris ordines,
Tot vernantis humi [...]aedala germina,
Errantesque greges, silvicolas feras,
Rimatusque mei scrinia pectoris,
Artus, atque animam, donaque coelitus
Augusti tenebris abaita corporis.
Te rerum Dominum, munificum patrem
Agnoscam, Aethereis laudibus efferens
Dones, me aligeris civibus addito,
Aerumnis dederit mors requiem meis.
VVHat Plough & harrow with laborious toile,
Did trust to mother earth, & fruitfull soile;
Astraea, justice Scepter who can sway,
To Sickle and the Barne doth that repay;
The Husbandman he will now weepe no more;
When just Astraea shews him hope of store.
¶ The Gods are just, let men then pious be,
To use their blessings with sobriety.
Augustus sive Iuventus:
PHoebus quum blandis Astraeae amplexibus haeret,
Et cultos maturat agros, tunc germina Terrae
Omnigenos pariunt fructus, pars foeta veneno,
Nectare pars dulci, virtus non omnibus vna est:
Talis Homo aetatis juvenili robore gliscit,
Actae dans specimen vitae, signum (que) futurae.
Vt cinerae quae immersa latet scintilla, coruscat
Et rapit ardentem crepitanti in fomite flammam:
Sic Natura prius teneris malè debilis annis,
Nunc fervore viget venarum & robore nervi.
Vina velut generosa cadis spumantia fervent,
Exertant (que) novas per caeca foramina vires:
Sic fermentatae Iuvenis fervore juventae
Exerit affectus vires, gaudet (que) tumultu.
Non citius levibus stipulis Vulcanius ardor
Grassatur, juveni quam mens correpta furore
Flagrat, & insulsae probat enthyememata falsa
Esse Stoae, virtuti animos affectibus addens.
Sic domuit matutinum Pelloe decus orbem,
Et capita Alcides dirae demessuit Hydrae,
Rettulit & vellus Phryxaeum Dorica pubes
Ducens Argivam per inhospita coerula pinum.
Passio virtutis cos est & acuminat ausus,
Saepe etiam exitium languens calcaribus urget.
Persephones malè sanus amor sub Tartara misit
Perithoum, Stygias (que) domos penetrare coegit.
Praeceps ira truces in mutua vulnera fratres
Compulit, at (que) odium cinerum post busta superstes.
Materno foedare manus vindicta cruore
Horrendae jussit fitientem caedis Oresten.
Sic dolor Ajacem fregit male sanus, ut ensis
Vim proprii fer [...]et, fortem (que) ad vulnera dextram,
Haec ignara modi intensis affectibus aetas
Fertur, & est pra [...]i penitus studiosa juventus,
Haec aetas juvenes bivii ad divortia ducit,
Constitit Alcides quondam quo incertus eundi.
Altera lat a via est, & multo flore decord
Vndi (que) Pestani veris subridet honore,
Ʋberibus Cereris crescunt ubi munera sul [...]is,
Nectareos latices Bacchi carchesia fundunt,
Mollia [...]ycnaeis stant pulvinaria plumis,
Ʋndique Panchaeos spirant & aromata odores,
Aligeriqu [...] chori mulcent concentibus auras,
Vernantesque rep [...]ent tremulo modulamine sylvas.
Hic levibus recubat plumis fucata Voluptas
Floribus in mediis & s [...]avia cinnama spirat.
Deliciosa jacet, facies ostentat amores,
Lumina fidereo splendent accensa nitore,
Tota lepos (qualis parebat ab aequore Cypris)
Mellitas voces, & verba papavere condit,
Est externa soris species, & gratia vultus;
Pectoris interni at pateat si forte recessus,
Foeda latet scabies picto male discolor ori;
Pigmento quocunque animum cerussat, amaror
Corde latet, dolor exanimans & turpis egestas.
Aemula luminibus Basilisci lumina tollunt
Evitâ quodcunque vident, ceu noxia Siren
Cantat, Niliaci aut fletu insidiatur alumni;
Sed lacrymis ne crede, scatent quae fraude, metuque;
Pocula Cir [...]i [...] praebet medicata venenis,
Lethaeam misce [...]s Loton, virusque rubetae;
Inque sues homines vertit, caprosque salaces,
Rugentesque feras, & mimos cercopithecos,
Saepe scyphis madidos deponit, pectora vino
Accendens, socio mox restinguendo cruore;
Deni (que) tam lautas damnum exitiale corona [...]
Delicias, mortis miserae praenuncia tabes,
Nervorum vel dira lues, aut hectica febris,
Aut laterum dolor, & stagnans pituita fatigat
Sic miseros, dirae cupiant ut taedia vitae,
Et quamcun (que) petant, nequeant quum vivere, mortem.
Quòd si quis Polemo primos disperdidit annos
Imprudens, castam luxu tentare juventam
Ausus, jam (que) Sophi monitis resipiscere tandem
Incipit, & Baccho sacras lacerare corollas;
Tal [...]s erit saecli Phenix, rarissimus ales,
Q [...] cum piceis cycnus secat aera pennis;
Co [...]uetudo malitam caeco pectora callo
Ob [...]urat, nequeant ullâ ut molle scerecurâ,
Sic vi [...]iat Genij dotes, sic inquinat aurae
Particulam, ut sibi naturae jus vendicet omne,
Pristina nec profit studiosi cura magistri,
Quam penitus dirus peccandi obliterat usus.
Proh dolor! ergo parens genuit Natura bea [...]um
Indole, quae laetae gest [...]at semina frugis?
Ergòne lactabat mater, primosque fovebat
Carmine vagitus, omen mentita secundum,
Cura (que) sollicitis est demandata, magistris;
Scilicet ut pubes primo sub flore periret?
Altera dura via est, acclivi trami [...]e callem
Augustans, nisi grassanti non pervia dextrae.
Sente scatet multâ, nudis stat semita spinis,
Hanc stipant dirae monstrorum hinc inde catervae,
Qualia Tartarei servant penetralia Regis.
Hic sua mordaces posuere cubilia curae,
Hic tremuli genibus stant pallentes [...]ne timores;
Illic pervigiles acie flammante dracones,
Ignea queis somno [...]on mulcet lumina Morpheus;
Improbus & vanus lahor hîc ad culmina moniis
Sisypheum volvit saxum frustra (que) revolvit.
I [...]lic exanguis stat Desperatio f [...]ces
Vix laqueo stringens, vitam (que) exosa fatiscit.
His adversa venit lymphatis passio turmis,
Ordinibusque instructa ferocia ventilat arma;
Ira oculos ardens, torvo succensa furore
Aetheria de sede Iovem turbare minatur,
Hanc comitatur Eris, facibusque incendia mundo
Dira parat, gaudens orbem miscere tumultu;
Hîc veco [...]s odium tacito sub pectore celat
Horrendum scelus, & diras excogitat artes;
Imprudens tensos hîc scandit Abulia funes,
Et non sueta prius tentare pericula gaudet;
Ceratis hîc vana petit [...]p [...]s Aethera pennis,
Icar [...]o ardentem visens conamine Solem.
Haec angusta via horrendis scatet undi (que) monstris,
Et vitae innumeris est interclusa periclis,
Sed tamen incolumes hâc virtus ducit alumnos
Extrema ut vitent, ne pes hinc inde vacillet:
Quo (que) magis per Maea [...]dri curvamina pergant,
Ipsa Ariadnaeo regit hos Prudentia filo
Mox Arete, fidae comites Constantia & Ardor
Pectoris, infractos animos currentibus addunt;
Spem fove [...] hic, monstrat (que) intentas [...]min [...]s arcet
Virtutis, quarum tenet Elpis florida culmen.
Si quan [...]o offendit gressus, Constantia cursum
Firmans, ad metam laudis c [...]lcaribus urget▪
Proclamat longe Spes, hîc sunt digna laboris
Praem [...]a, & excipient mor [...]aces gaudia curas,
Pax sincera quies nullo temeranda dolore,
Laetit [...]a hic habitant magnum, sine fine, per aevum.
Sic ubi meandros eme [...] & monstra viarum,
Tandem perti [...]gunt hil [...]es ad culmina montis,
Splend [...]da quad [...]atis ubi st [...]t suffulta col [...]nis
Reg [...]a V [...]rtut [...]; porta hinc Crystallina claudi [...]
[...] [...]Atria Pactoli flavis rutilantia arenis,
Et varijs, quales vix nota dat India, gemmis.
Ante fores livor jacet ater, lumina tanto
Saucius aspectu, dum quam videt, invidet arci:
Hunc simulac pressere duces, per splendida templa
Ʋirtutis, magni subeunt penetralia Honoris.
Gloria mox claris sublimat facta trophaeis,
Fama (que) Seraphicis insertat nomina turmis.
Hoc bivium est; teritur tamen altera semita, sordet
Altera caeca situ, rara & vestigia monstrat.
Saepe Voluptatem numerosa colonia stipat,
Incomitata solet divina incedere Virtus;
Forte etiam mortale genus, quod nascitur, omne
Errat, & a recto obliquos fert tramite gressus,
Felix ad veram quicun (que) recurrere metam
Possit, & errori non indulgere nefando.
Transversos ducit caeca ignorantia multos,
Dum carpunt Virtutis iter, medium (que) capessunt,
Extremis illabuntur; vix littore solvit
Navis, cum caecis impingit naufraga saxis;
Ast alij meliora vident, cupiunt (que), sed obstat
Res angusta, deae (que) ira importuna novercae;
Paupertatis onus dirae sic viribus impar
Deprimit, ut longo vix repant intervallo.
Quam pauci juvenum, de tot modò millibus, actu
Extremo functi, scenam cum laude relinquunt!
Parva manus (qualis Gideonis) laude juventae
Clarescit, parvam decimant tamen invida fata.
Incipiunt teneri quum maturescere fructus,
Enecet hos Boreae vis importunae furentis;
Florescens pereat sic tristi funere pubes.
Aequa senum juvenumque simul mors funera densat,
Rugosae quam saepe genae juvenilia busta
Effoetis lacrymis, sicco fletuque rigârunt;
Saepe ilex muscosa recentem turbine fagum
Subversam videt, oppedit tamen ipsa procellae.
Sola homini restat mortalis propria vitae
Conditio, & sortis lex est praescripta caducae.
Ʋna patet cunctis n [...]scentis semita vitae,
Mille viae mortis ad fata latentia tendunt.
¶
Non tot multifremum fluctibus Adria
Turget, quum piceis nubibus aequora
Miscet, quot tremulum cor tumet astibus,
Et fervent dubijs pectora motibus.
Irae praecipites, & furor impius
Mesaepe exagitant, exanimant metus,
Tollunt spesque leves, excruciat dolor,
Tranquillum Domine, at da mihi spiritum,
Pelle & cuncta meum quae mala lancinant
Pectus, da placidâ mente quies [...]ere.
Aevi primitias sanctifica Deus,
Vt (que) artus, animam fic mihi robora;
Gressus per (que) tuam dirige semitam,
Ad Coeli Empyrei quae penetralia
Ducit, C [...]licolûm & stelliferas domos.
Servame incolumem a Tartareo grege,
Sic, metam potero visere ad ultimam.
Tunc Paeana canam pennigeris choris,
Mors c [...]u [...]elis ubi jam stimulus tuus;
Inter Christicolos victor ovans greges,
Dicam tunc tumulo gloria ubi est tua.
Mallem per latebras tendere Daedali,
Et vitae o [...]nigenis [...]asibus obijci;
Quam Coeli caream dul [...]ibus ocijs.
Eu [...]is praepetibus transvolat ocyor,
Vitae luctificae dira molestia:
Durant astrigeri gaudia sed poli,
N [...]men dum adnumerat saecula saeculis.
Sementis pervenit ad Messem.
Seed-time is made Harvest.
AVTVMNVS.
September, sive Aetas virilis.
SOL noctes lucesque pa [...]i quum examine librat,
Et medio Phoebus dispescit tramite mundum,
Naturae tunc grata, suum dant germina semen,
Ipsa (que) quos habuere, alijs dant foetibus ortus;
Exc [...]e [...]erra [...]um rimas, rerum (que) latebras,
Omnia Naturae species, & semina servant;
Sic v [...]rio natura jub [...]t sobo [...]escere sexu,
In terris quaecun (que) vigen [...], caelo (que) mari (que).
Nulla quidem tanto turgescit corpore moles,
Exig [...]um cujus non dat compendia semen;
Cl [...]d [...]t [...]r & moles arcto tam limite nulla,
Quae non mult [...]plici foec [...]ndet semina prole.
Cum paria Humanam distinguunt tempora vitam
Inque dies retr [...], & venturas postea luces:
Tunc sibi cons [...]rtem vitae, lectique jugalis
Poscit Homo ut speciem servet, sobolemque propag [...]t.
Quique Homini dixit; vae soli; ad gaud [...]a vitae,
Huic dedit [...]xorem Deus, & sobole scere jussit.
Non pictam Iunonis avem, capramve salacem,
Latracemve canem, vel mimam voce vo [...]ucrem,
Sed lateris costam conso [...]tem junxit, ut esset
Ipse sibi, sole sex [...]s discrimine, conjux.
Hactenus humano generi infestissimus hostis,
Dissimulans Satanas ta [...]uit, mendacia frauais:
Contigit at p [...]stquam sequiorem cernere sexum,
Consilij instruxit cuneos, fraudumque phalangas?
Naumachus ut quondam dux, qui versabat Athenas,
Filiolum imperij moderantem induxit habenas:
Optabat quae namque puer, sententia matris
Ʋna fuit, pueri mox respondere rogatis,
Et mandare viro, regni qui sceptra gerebat,
Sic puero imperium Soritis linea desert:
Haud aliter Satanas, quod vir uxorius esset
Noverat, & faci [...]em vidit parere maritum,
Agnov [...]t (que) ream, divino ex foedere, prolem,
Patraret quaecunque parens & sanguinis author.
Sic ubi mendaci pater, impostor (que) sophista
Ʋxorem coeci labyrintho inclusit elenchi,
Blanditiis fuit illa nocens, Sirenis & instar
Allexit miserum, ad fraudem, exitiumque, maritum.
Digna fuit violata fides hoc nomine mulctae,
Credere quum Autori renuit, rerumque parenti,
Conjugium sic tris [...]e fuit, quod gaudia primù [...]
Spondebat, jussiq [...]e vices mutare parentes.
O rerum dubios casus! quò vertere sese
Possit nomo? tenet aure lupum, bivioque vacillat.
Coelebs si vivet, moerebit solus & o [...]bus
Occidet, & veneris n [...]n dulcia praemia norit;
Audiet ingratus Naturae, habuisse parentes,
Nec tamen esse par [...]ns; ut quondam fama Catonem
Ad Floram venisse res [...]rt, ut fugerit inde;
Sic coelebs gaudet naturae intrare theatrum,
Exeat ut coelebs; taedas dabit invida parca
Ferales, non dat taedas Cytherea jugales,
Vivit, sed solus vivit, quo? scilicet orbem
Vt videat tantam▪ vis [...]mque ut ephemera linquat;
Se capul [...] totum tradit, post fata superstes
Nullâ parte sui est, & vulnere concidit uno;
O [...]nia dignus paenâ, quia semine gentem
Ipse su [...]m spoliat, crescentique invidet orbi;
Huic humana foret quid si gens amula, Terras
Qui so [...]erent homines, cole ent quae numina caelos?
Tunc meritò Xerxes conscendens culmina monti [...]
Deploret mortale genus, speciesque caduca [...];
Gaudia si qu [...]ndo contingunt, gaudia sol [...]
Nescit, & est vita pars di [...]idiata secunda;
Illi aerumna gravis nimium nec grande levare
Solus possit onus, rebusque est tristibus impar;
Divitias & agros ignotus possidet haeres
Dignior, ipsius fruitur qui messe lahoris:
Quod si forte suam reparet fine semine gentem
Solis avis, renovant sobolem cui incendia thuris,
Phaenicesque hominum quos ardens gloria tollit
Mortalem supra sortem, post funera possint
Et cineres, immortali dare nomina famae;
Pro monstro exemplum est, inter tot millia, quorum
Vita, & fama simul Lethaeis mergitur undis.
Quid faciet, ducet ne? malis obnoxia vita haec
Innumeris, multos dira ad suspendia cogit,
Socraticae haud quemvis tranquilla modestia mentis
Temperat, ut possit Xantippe [...] ferre querelas.
Ʋita via est, quae nos caelestes ducit ad arces,
Octor est cursus, quum sarcina nulla fatigat;
Mi [...]itat omnis homo virtutis castrase quutus,
Stat (que) novercantis contra fera spicula sortis.
Quò gravius premit hunc onus, est inidoneus armis
Hoc magis, & vires haerentia pondera frangunt;
Quem (que) suos Natura jubet sentiscere manes,
Vxoris ducit curas & jurgia conjux,
Curarum quamvis satagat miser ipse suarum,
Alterias manes, proprijs fert manibus impar;
Ʋxorem si forte virum (que) examine libres
Aequo, faemineus dependet amaror, amor (que)
Si formosa juvat, fo [...]ma est inimica pudori
Non tutò spectata Gygi, nocturna (que) regis
Praeda, pudicitiam mulctavit vulnere laesam.
Si dotata, virum mactat, fastu (que) superbit
Iurgia diraciens, aurata (que) cornua tollit;
Respuit eloquium morosa Terentia Tulli,
Fulvia (que) Antoni potuit compescere Suadam;
S [...]pius uxor, quae debebat nubere, ducit,
Imperitare viro, nonnunquam tollere gaudet
Aut tunicâ tabo medicatâ, aut fraude aconiti,
Massagetûm de more aliae communia quaerunt
Gaudia, queîs lecti reverentia nulla juga [...]is;
Improba si cessit conjux, est hectica febris,
Mors nisi, nulla tibi tollant medicamina damnum.
Penelope tîbi casta placet, mirandaque conjux
Admeti, tuaque o Hieronignara virorum?
Contigit haud cuivis vento petiisse Corinthum?
Nec cunctis cessere, petunt quae gnaviter omnes▪
Sorte uxor ducenda tibi est, sors candida rara
Exit, nigrarum vomit undam mobilis urna;
Finge probam cecidisse tibi, quae pulchra, pudica,
Et dotata, tamen comis, quae sedula, prudens,
Sobria prole beet, non ull [...] & lite fatiget
Aemula Corneliae & claris gravitate Sabinis;
Hanc ubi mors inopina rapit, vel casus iniquus
Destruit, aut fato nati moriuntur acerbo,
Quam gravis (ah) pensat tua pristina gaudia maeror!
Tunc felix esses, nisi felix ante fuisses.
Qualis ab aeriâ vidu [...] gemit arbore turtur,
Et querulo solas funestat murmure sylvas,
Pervolat omne nemus, sociam non invenit [...]squam,
Ʋsque tamen quaetit, solus dum vivere nescit;
Sic tu quem socii fidissima junxit amoris
Copula, tam du [...]cem nes [...]is dediscere amorem,
Parte carens me liore tui consumere tabo
Ingratus Soli, rapidoque injurius Orco,
Dimidius jam vivis homo; Te insomnia noctis
Forte beant, qu [...]ties somno obversatur imago
Conjugis, & quondam dulces mentitur amores,
Maerorem sed pulsa quies luctumque recentat,
Planctibus & gemita noctesque diesque fatigas;
Orpheus Eurydice quondam ceu flevit ademptâ,
Obmutuit (que) lyra fracta, fidibus (que) revulsis,
Denuò quum tristes conjux raperetur ad umbras.
O hominis duram sortem, & crudelia fata,
Seu ducas, vivas ceu coelebs, vita dolori
Subjacet, infaust is semper temeranda querelis!
Huccine mortalis pertingunt tempora vitae,
Gaudia nec possunt placidaesentiscere sortis?
Siprimi Autumni tantas dedit hora procellas,
Quas dabit acris hyems, & iniqui [...]deris annus?
¶
Tu magne rerum conditor, imperas
Qui, lege sanctâ, Patrsbus obsequi,
Honore charos & Parentes
Affic [...]re, ut patriâ fruamur.
Idem Parentes linquere nos finis,
Castos amores conjugis & sequi,
Ʋt nos propago conjugalis
Exhilarans decoret Parentes.
Sed, Christe, qui non omnia deserit,
Nec gaudet orbi qui valedicere
Vt te fruatur, non Iesu
Dignus erit Domino, Deo (que).
Sunt quêis peractis gaudia n [...]ptijs;
Et vina dulcis laetitiae fluunt,
Quos non dolores faeculenti,
Non aqueus cruciant amaror.
Mihi si acescunt arida dolia,
Imo manet si pessimum & ultimum,
Mutato Lympharum dolores
Aetherei laticis sapore.
Damihi constans rebus in omnibus
Pectus, secundis ne nimis efferar,
Adversa ne frangant, praemantque
Instabiles malères timentem.
Quaecunque sors fit conjugii mihi,
Solati [...]m mentem hoc reficit mea [...]
Ha [...] posse Christo conjugari
Stelliferi Domino theatri.
Isacidûm qui progenuit tribus
Iudae Pater prae Labanidi [...] pio
Amore, duram servitutem
Sustinuit vigilis laboris.
Non ego duros pertolerem metus
C [...]sus iniqui, & cuncta pericula
Amore Christi, qui maritus
Hanc animam faciet heatam.
Qui me redemit faucibus inferi,
Cruore servavit polyporphyro,
Tandemque c [...]li cum triumpho
Empyreos feret ad penates.
Excubias mens nunc age sedula,
Dum sponsus adventat tuus, instrue
Lucernam oliva, mox Iesus
Ne vocet aetherias choreas,
Quando angelorum millia, millia,
Et celsi Olympi pennigeri greges
Latum Peanem suscit [...]bunt,
Et tonitru resonabit orbis.
TAke heed when Barnes are full, and wine doth flow
Least Scorpius with his sting all overthrow;
Dog-dayes are past, when men were glad to weare
Torne cloathes, if you be wise, October feare;
Extreames are dangerous, doe not you make bold
From fire, to runne out naked in the cold.
¶ In midst of plenty, let us thinke on want;
If we be healthfull let's not therefore vant.
October, sive Aetas media.
CVm jubar incurvis Phoebaeum amplectitur ulnis
Scorpius, & passim flavescit frugibus annus;
Apparent primùm tunc tempora grata colonis,
Messis & expectata dies, quam rustica voto
Turba r [...]d [...] divas Cererem petiere palemque.
Falce cadunt fruges, spoliantur foetibus horti,
Oma [...] labore pecus fervent, hominesque, bovesque
Solli [...]itis tonsi [...]umant sudoribus agri.
Cum venit blandis sperata parentibus aetas
Et natos videre viros; tunc fervida messis
Humanae vitae est: neque enim condensius agmen
Formicaru [...] urget rapidos per rura labores,
Sepedibus quan [...]o populis frumenta parantur,
Granatim & totisubito minuuntur acervi,
Sedula quam variis studiis ruit unda virorum
Et mund▪ populantur opes. Quae dissita tellus
Quae regio sub sole jacens, quae Tethyos unda
Quae loca Naturae [...]aecis abstrusa tenebris,
Cognita nec Soli, Humani non plena laboris?
H [...]c queritur quondam dives Gangetica tellus,
Et fluvi [...]s, posuit Phrygiae quo vota tyrannus
A [...]rea, Tertessumque fluit quam propter Ibrus,
Et Tagus huic popularis, arenis inclyta quondam
Flumina, nunc vili decurrunt languida musco,
Quasque dab [...]nt, coguntur opes nunc quaerere ab oris
Non viso quae Sole calent, rapuere Corinthi
Aera viri, solam destruxit Mummius urbem,
Heliades siccae lacrymis augere fluenta
Eridani nequeunt, Erythraeo in littore gemmas
Iam frustra scrutatur Arabs, conchylia Sidon
Miratur non ire freto, jam deficit ostrum
Spar [...]um, lanâ frustra celebrantur Amyclae,
Nescit ubi ponat nidos Panchaius ales,
Mascu [...]a odorif ris quum desint thura Sabaeis;
Synna [...]a, Sp [...]rta, Paros Mygdonia nulla columnas
Marmoreas [...]actant; citr [...]as Maurusia mensas
Dedidicit flavis auri circundare lamnis,
Aulae [...]sque p [...]us Babyl [...]n formosa superbis,
Nulla Sem [...] ami [...] decoras jam [...]ecta tapete,
Daedala nam defecit acus. Tu [...] ersia nullas
Mox jactabis opes; haec ferr [...]a sit licet aetas,
Ignorant Chalybes ferrum, nec tela [...]alonis
Spumiferi flavis extincta gelantur in undis:
Gargara des [...]ruit messis vix sertilis Enna
Trinacrias nutrit Cer [...]ali munere Terras,
Non Dodo [...] jam glande pluit, non flumina Nili
Lente scatent, gravidisque tumet Methymna racemis,
Rarior est viti [...] Ga [...]ro, diti (que) Faler [...]o:
Co [...]sica non taxos metuit, nec flavus Hymetti
Mella favus sudat; calvescit pinifer Ida:
Non Phoebo Pa [...]nasse t [...]o das l [...]urea serta:
Non taxum Cyrnus, non palmam mittit Idume:
Nec fragrant biferi rubicu [...]da rosaria Pesti,
Et crocus a Cilicum nunc rarior advenit hortis,
Deseruit ripas Eurotae palladis arbor:
Pontus Castorcâ, Colchis jam nulla veneno
Clarescit, dudum (que) gemit quòd viderit Argo.
Daedalagens hominum sedes muta [...]e coegit
Monstra, feras, homines, pisces, variasque volucres.
Bellatoris equi est Epiro gloria nulla,
Euganeas pecudes, Calabr [...]sque B [...]itannia vincit
Insula dans niveis spumantia vellera floccis;
Terra Iubae quondam quos pavit vincla leones
Nostra tenent, Dannos (que) lupos, catulosque Molossos,
Spartanos (que) canes, & saevos dentibus apros
Marse tuos, & quos frondens dat Maenalus ursos:
Hic afri sua monstra vident▪ captiva volucrum
Agmina pictarum nostras ducuntur ad oras.
O genus humanum natum indulge [...]e labori
Audax natu [...]ae vetitos transcendere fines!
Saeva tridentiferi calcas tu dorsa tyranni
Eluctibus insultans tumidis, Coelique fragores
Vertice sustentans mediis involve [...]i [...] undis,
Vimque offers ventis, & mortis tela fatigas.
Nau fragus (ah) quoties sedisti in cantibus horrens,
Tunc scopuli hospitio felix, cum Pontus & Aether
Nubibus hic saevos, undis daret▪ ille tumultus,
Aut tabulae insidens fluitasti in gurgite vasto
Ludibrium Coelique, salique, tuosque videres
Circum te nantes post fatum triste sodales,
Incertus num dirafames, an saeva procelloe
Vis d [...]ret infandi genus (ah) miserabile leti.
Supp [...]cibus votis tunc Coeli numen adorans
Addebas Lachry [...]as undis, suspiria ventis;
Optati tamen ut tetigisti Littoris oram,
Neptuno madidas renuis suspendere vestes,
Atque novam meditare ratem sub pondere pictae
Press [...]s adhuc tabulae; dum vis miser esse libenter
Indocilis tutam cum paupertate quietem
Ferre domi, ignotis malis confundier undis.
Pars quaerunt Nili fontes, pars ultima Thules
Frigora, & ad gelidam propius quod pertinet axem,
Vna dies totum, nox una ubi dividit annum.
Invenere novas Terras, nec sufficit unus
Orbis, [...]ò humani generis vesania crevit.
Pars terram fodiunt caecis gens aemula Talpis,
Exosique diem gaudent habitare tenebris
Cimmeriae noctis, Summani Tartara pulsant
Divitiasque a dite petunt; pars [...]mula mutis
Gentibus Aequoreas scrutantur saepe latebras
Et scopulos coecos, & arenas gurgitis alti.
O duras hominum sortes! sic vivere parcae
Iusserunt? O crudeles ad numia Parcas!
Naturae placuit pretiosa abscondere rerum
Hum ini pretio tantum acquirenda laboris:
Hyblaeum nectar servant armata juventus
Tauriginae sobolis, nec fit sine vulnere praeda;
Cuspide munitur numerosâ gloria Pesti,
Carpuntur Ʋeneris rarò sine sanguine Flores;
Discolor in lucem niveo quae vertice surgit
Herba, pici similem radicem in viscera terrae
Mittit, mortalesque beat, sed vellitur aegrè.
Et mediâ in sylvâ fulvo quae virga metallo
Frondescit, tegitur c [...]cae convallibus umbrae
Ac luco latet omni, aurato vimine ramus;
Qui cupit Hesperidum rutilantia carpere poma,
Custodes domuisse prius sit cura Dracones.
Omnia, quae mater genuit Natura, laborant:
Continuâ rapitur circum vertigine Caelum
Ignorat (que) vices oti; Sol surgit ab ortu,
Occiduasque petit ceu cur sor strenuus oras,
Neo minus a capro versus tua brachia Cancer
Scandit, retrogrado repetit vel tramite Caprum:
Ingeminat Phoebe motus, nec cernitur uno
Ʋultu▪ Terra vices observat quatuor anni,
Vere novo pictos d [...]stinguit germine flores,
Hos aestu nutrit, Solis (que) calore focillat,
Autumno canos foecundat frugibus agros,
In (que) hyeme Aeolijs nimborum vapulat austris,
Nulla quies ponto est: subeunt jumenta labores,
Damnati (que) jugis Tauri; requie fine jussit
Nos etiam Natura dies transire fugaces.
Eia igitur socij per tot mala tadia vitae
Pergite, per duri casus discrimina mille:
Nos aliò divina vocat sors; grata sequentur
Ocia; sic olim dura haec meminisse juvabit.
¶
Quà Terra longam circinat orbitam
Solis, polorum quà cadit ambitus
Aut surgit orbi, fraudulenta
Sors homines trahit impotentes.
Quaerunt quod ignis destruat, aut aquae
Aut fur refossis parietibu [...] domus
Aut tineae dens vellicantis
Hostis & insidians rapina.
Coelum tenet sed divitias meas
Christum redemptorem pia & agmina
Caelituum qui ter beatas
Hoc duce concelebrant choraeas,
Hîc Nectar alto flumine defluit,
Hîc stant acervis Ambrosiae poli
Hic gloria & pax, & triumphus
Omnia quae exhilarent ovantes.
Non finient haec gaudia saecula
Non saeculorum saecula, saecula,
Non quotquot erunt & dierum
Quae nebulâ & tenebris carebunt.
Huc ducito me cuncta per ardua,
Per saxa terrae, per scopulos maris,
Per quicquid Orbi est inquietum
Fulguraper, tonitru, procellas.
Sit modò portus sollicitae viae
Quies Olympi, metaque sit mihi
Sedes coruscans Angelorum,
Et patriae superae penates.
NOw piercing darts descend from heav'n above,
We are corslets if your bodyes health you love,
For Autumnes latter raine, strikes to the heart,
Oftner than doth the flying Parthians dart.
When Sagittarius bends his bow, take heede,
For if you shun't not, he can strike you dead.
¶ O gracious Heav'n who can make mortals sad,
And merry; still foretelling good and bad.
November, sive Aetas provectior.
PLeiades Eoo Coeli cum cardine surgunt,
Praecipitemque rapit messem penultimus anni
Imber, & instanti [...] praecurrit frigora brumae
Caedua calcatur messis, calet area fruges
Exsiliquat tritura boûm; pars munera Bacchi
Temperat, & variis spumantia praela racemis;
Turgida ferventi stant labra undantia musto;
Mella premunt alii, spoliantque examina ceris,
Hyblaeisque favis; stat nectaris amphora plena,
Fervet opus varium, nec messis omnibus una est;
Talis gens humana, quibus non discolor oris
Esse figura potest magè quàm sententia mentis;
Diversis diversa placent, studioque trahuntur
Non uno mortale genus, sublimis Olympi
Pars legit amfractus, & Coeli sydera pulsat
Vertice; reptat humi ignavipars maxima vulgi;
Sed pauci virtutis iter, med [...]umque sequuntur
Gallinae niveae pulli, quos ardor honoris
Accendit veri, & rerum prudentia solers.
Ambitio humani generis dirissima pestis
Turget, & Icariis summum petit Aethera pennis
Nobilitat que polum fastu, Terrasque ruinâ,
Terrigenûm Coelos temerans de more Gigantum,
Impiaque in numen Divinum affectat honorem.
Pellaeus juvenis devicto non satur orbe,
Nec patre contentus mortali, spurius esse
Maluit illius, nomen qui debet arenis;
Vngula mortalem fecit, Lethesque liquore
Ebrius, angusto tandem sub carcere clausus
Sarcophagi, posuit fastus immensaque vota;
Scilicet attenuat magnos, frangitque superbum
Omne Deus, nullo regnans, rivale secunde.
Commode non clavâ defendere fata trinodi
Tupoteras, nec te Herculeae sine vulnere tutum
Exuviae dederant, laqueo expirare coactum,
Decollare Deos Poterat, cui castra dederuni
Cognomen caligae, proprium (que) imponere truncis
Ridiculum caput, ut templi decoretur honore,
O scelus horrendum sale nullo, & thure piandum!
Mortales superi sic regna capessere Coeli,
In victi (que) Iovis componere fulmina sceptris,
Sceptris, quae baculo mutarit casus iniquus,
Et Nemesis divina, Iovis nam dextra Tyrannos
Imperio regit, & graviori regna coercet
Regno; purpuream tribuunt crudelia mortem
Purpureis cur fata viris, nec funera ficca?
Scilicet injusti quia Coeli numina temnunt,
Aemuli & aeolidae mendacia fulmina mitt unt.
Sunt alij fortuna dedit queîs provida cunas
Privatas, vetuit (que) manu contingere sceptrum,
Hos tamen accendit regnandi dira cupido,
Ʋivere Romulea qui nolunt urbe secundi,
Monstr [...] hominum, Terrae (que) lues, Acherontia proles:
Ergo Deos nequeun [...] cûm flectere, tota movebunt
Tartara, & infidijs sacrum diadema cruentis,
Fraude, dolis (que) petent: sed Coeli dextra tuetur
Cognatum imperium, & numen venerabile regis,
Exitij sunt causa sui, inveniunt (que) ruinam
Quam meruere gravem, & dignas conamine poenas,
Dum scandunt altas Cedros, sub pondere rami,
Franguntur, mittunt (que) truces ad Tartara fastus:
Turbo velut rapidae erumpens de nube procellae,
Ingeminans motu vires, fervescit eundo,
Crebrius aeriae quatiendo cacumina quercus
Concutitur magis, vires (que) in robore perdit,
Ambitio vexat sic hos dum dira, feruntur
Impete praecipiti, & perplexo ad culmina rerum,
Mole [...]uun [...] tandemque suâ: conatibus impar
Repperit horendos injusta superbia lapsus.
Quid juvat excelsi conscendere culmen honoris
Invito Iove, percellunt si fulmina montes
Aerios, coeli superant quî vertite nubes?
Tutius est latuisse casae sub cespite vilis,
Aurea quàm Regum captare palatia fraude;
Tutius est Clymenes tenues coluisse penates,
Quam phoebi ignitos temerè tentare jugales;
Fidere ceratis sum [...]a estinsania pennis,
Vicino quae Sole fluunt; quid turgida tollis
Vela per horrendas, sinuo figurgitis undas?
Non portus fortuna petit, deprendit in alto
Sed naves, quarum contingunt suppara nubes.
Felix, heu nimium felix fi sorte quie scat
Contentum mortale genus, tutissima vita est
Quae didicit servare modum, quae nescia fraudis
Ambitione caret, populi non tollitur aurâ,
Nec cadit insani levia ad suffragia vulgi,
Non timet haec un [...]os Sejani & tristia Manli
Funera, qui saxum quo deturbaverat hostes
Caedesuâ spar sit, dum Romam non capit impar.
Sunt quibus unum opus est loculos distendere, plenas
Condere flavissas, totisque incumbere gazis,
Corradunt quodcunque trahunt torrentibus amnes
Auriseri, quodcunque tenet scrupulosius undae
Littus Erythraeae, qui coeli numina tanquam,
Suspiciunt gazas, quarum quò copia major
Hoc magis ardet opes, & non saturatur egestas,
Semper hiat rimis non auro explebile pectus,
Diti inopes voto sunt, crescit census, habendi
Crescit iniquus amor; quantumque accedit ad aurum,
Sacra fames auri, tantum sub viscere gliscit;
Gentis avaritia humanae dirissima pestis,
Metropolis scelerum, Gento quae dedita Terrae,
Negligis aetherias Divini numinis arces;
Indulges tibi dira lues, ut languor aquosus
A [...]cendit potando sitim; tu pluribus aucta
Plura petis bona fortunae, quae sordida cura
Acc [...]mulat, servat (que) timor, perdunt (que) dolores;
Tefine Coelestem potuissent ducere vitam
Mortales, qualem selicia saecula quondam
Degerunt sub patre Iovi [...] ▪ quúm sors sua quem (que)
Ditabat sine lege bonum, sine fraude heatum.
Sunt & qui solidas inter convivia luc [...]s
Consumunt, proceresque gulae Saliaria mensis,
Fercula dant Siculis, capiunt (que) in viscera sylvas,
Et maria, aeternosque lacus, colles (que) Falernos,
Invitant Solem, propinant pocula nocti,
Conti [...]uant (que) dapes redivivae ad taedia lucis;
Exercere gulas vallatas gloria summa est:
Dicite quos patinae Aesopi, scutum (que) Minervae,
Pingue juvat, dubia & cerealis caena saginat,
Dicite, quò sumptus & tot dispendia rerum,
Mollia nervosas ut frangant ocia vires
Et solvat morbi pituita intercutis artus;
Quid de tot dapibus fiet? sentina cloacae
Hoc dicat, totos vertit, quae in ster [...]ora census.
Ter felix quisquis vitaenephalia servat
Contentus tenui mensâ parvo (que) salillo;
Sobria cui exiguam jucundat calda farinam;
Hic lites nescit, nec magnae est assecla mensae,
Huic satis parcâ tribuunt quod numina dextrâ,
Nullo pauper eget, nec enim penuria parvi est;
Hic, sibi far modicum, postquam quae sivit aratro,
Ad fluvium caenat, geneross nectaris instar
Haustus aquae sapit indocto frugi (que) p [...]lato;
Huic mens sicca, tenax recti, moderata, pudica,
Ipse probus, sceleris purus, sectator honesti,
Integer atque animi fortis, crudusque vigore
Quales pris [...]a dabat curios casa cesp ie tecta
Pugnaces, tenuique beatos sorte Camillos
Fabricios parvo contentos; qualis aratrum
Serranus liquit proprîum, fascesque recepit;
Felices animae patriam qui laudè bearunt,
Et sibi perpetuum fecere in saecula nomen!
Miles in adversas acies qui fortiter audet
Cernere, & hostilem dextrâ confundere dextram,
Ense viam sternens & multâ caede decorus,
Defendit, qui marte focos & numinis aras;
Sive opus excubiis tenebras defendere noctis,
Metari seu castra, sudum circundare vallo
Agmina, vel duro sylvas succidere serro,
Aut per operta soli medias emergere in urbes,
Aut liquidos remigi fluvios superare natatu,
Proterere haerentem glaciem, calcare paludes,
Arietibus muros, testudine vellere portas;
Pro patriâ est huic dulce mori, dum vulnera fronte
Excipit, & primus conscendit maenia, vallum
Perrumpit, cuneo ve animae jam prodigus instat.
Ergo ubi jam victos trahit arcta catena duelles,
Ferratique vi [...]i currum comitantur, equique,
Bellorum exuviis laeti truncisque trophaeis,
Pugna triumphali legitur quum fortis in arcu,
Instaurantque diem festis convivia pompis;
Cum populi Paeana canunt, & classica diras
Deponunt iras, & Martis gaudia clangunt.
Ipse viro major dux auro insignis & Ostro
Sublimis curru ingreditur, tot millia pascens
Spectantarum▪ urbis scandit cum laude ruinas;
Suprà quò tendat non est; est culmen honoris,
Ʋnde cadat, graviore ruens in Tartara lapsis,
Sors infida solet laetos foedare triumphos,
Et dubijs nimium volitat victoria pennis:
Lusce tuis turge quantumvis poene trophaeis,
Et Romae terrore trementes concute portas;
Metire in modijs equites, & montis aceto
Frange jugum; simulac fallax fortuna reflârit
Bithynio tunc cogeris servire Tyranno,
Et miseram tacito vitam fixire veneno.
Hectora priamidem cur caesum jactat Achilles
Priamidae Paridis moritur vin lice telo?
Quid juvat incensam vastare Agamemnona Trojam,
Si reduci parat insidias saevissima conjux?
O sors flaxa hominum ma [...]è pensas magna ruinis
Nec pateris constare diu mortalia; casu
Omnia sed fluxo, & fatorum turbine versas.
Quòd si summa rotae teneat fastigia Croesus,
Mox cadit, & radio victor stat Cyrus in alto,
Impatiens donec Tomyris de sede Tyrannum
Excutit, humano gaudens saturare cruore;
Sic ludens noa certa sui fallax (que) clienti
Inconstans Fortuna supremis infima mutas.
Felix qui casus sese componit ad omnes,
In duris sperans meltora hic, in (que) secundis
Deteriora timens, medio sic tramite vitam,
Dirigit, ut nullo noc at Rhamnusia vultu.
Firma velut pelagi rupes im nobilis haeret
Quadratâ radice sedens, temnit (que) procellas
Et concurrentes ad fervida praelia ventos;
Fluctus se illidunt scopulis, fracto (que) residunt
Impete, & illuso perdunt conamine vires:
Non aliter, quando rerum fremuere tumultus,
Ipse sibi constat sapiens, ridei (que) timores
Insani vulgi, & torquentia fat [...] fatigat
Quod si disruptis rueret compagibus orbis
Machina, non trepidum tumularent rudera mundi.
¶
Da Christe vires, da mihi gratiae
Virtute, diras ire per hostium
Turmas, & insanas phalangas
Perfi [...]iae, invidiae, timoris:
Internus hostis me male sauciat,
Externus hostis vulnere lancinat,
Quocunque me verto, cruentis
Obsideor Satanae catervis.
Tu dux, Deus Tu, Tu Dominus mihi
Arx, salus, rupes, praesidium, decus
Tua sub umbra militabo
Nec metuam rabidos duelles.
Donec fugatis liberor hostibus,
Quum tu potenti numine proteres
Gentes rebelles, & superbis
Iniicies manibus catenas.
Quando sonabunt aethere classica
Parebis altis nubibus insidens,
Ad Te vocabis tunc amicos
In patre Coelituum beatos.
Qualis triumphi tunc facies erit
Quando resurget turba fidelium
Stabuntque caetus impiorum
Numinis ad superum tribunal.
Agmen malorum sulphureas domos
Intrabit orci, saecula in omnia
Tormenta passurum Gehennae
Et tenebras Stygîi barathri.
Scandent polorum culmina sed pii
Inter coruscas Scraphici gregis
Turmas, & aeterno fruentur
Gloria & imperio, as honore.
Friget.
It's cold.
HYEMS.
December, sive Senectus.
PRonus ad hirsuti quum Titan cornua capri
Pertigit, australem Coeli relegatus ad aulam;
Incipiunt languere dies, & tristior anni
Apparet vultus, multum mutatus ab illo
Qui primi pictos veris jactabat honores
Lilia purpureis dans intermista roset is;
[...]licò dimidiae incipiunt decrescere luces
Ducere & exiguos arcus; longissim [...] noctis
Tempora dant immortales mortalibus umbras;
Frigoribus venti horrescunt, auraeque pruinis,
Flumina pigritie torpent, & sor [...]ibus arva,
Nube riget Coelum, lacrymarum gurgite stagnat
Telluris gremium, canescit fluctious aequor
Omniaque inversum contr [...]stant luctibus annum:
Obrepit sic tarda homini, tristisque senectus
Innumeris comitata malis, obnoxia morbis,
Estque odiosa sibi, nonnunquam digna cicutis,
Et fragiles cani cycnaeis tempora plumis
Cingunt, & niveâ crines aspergine tingunt;
S [...]pe velut Boreae rapidis percuss a procellis
Quercus stat foliis jam despoliata caducis,
Corticeque horrescit scabrâ, nec frondibus umbr [...]
Sed trunco reddit: sic nostra malignior aetas
Crine caput spolians, levi ceu pumice calvam
Nudat, & excussis hyemem testuta capillis,
Perdit quos volu [...]t Proserpina tollere crines.
Nunc eboris quid forma juvat candore coruscans
Purpureoque rosae quondam distincta colore,
Lilia ceu rubris fulgent contexta Amaranthis,
Maeotis a [...]t minio qualis nix certat Hibero,
Nunc abit in rugas macie livente senile [...],
Et pallet calido Siri ceu prata vapore
Marcent, solstitij geminat quando hora calores,
Rugantur (que) genae, dependet pro cute pellis.
Lumina noctivagas quondam superantia stellas
Aemula flammivomis Erythraeo in littore gemmi [...],
Oc [...]ipitis fugiunt caeca, ad penetralia, damni
Sic pudet ipsa sui, tenebrae pro lumine regnant;
Caligant ipsi Soli, senio (que) fatiscunt.
Spina riget laceri protenso tubere dorsi,
Quae (que) humero Pelopis poterant contendere, nutant
Incurvae in pectus scapulae, fit (que) ossea imago
Corpus, quod p [...]lchrum sudabat pingue nitorem.
O vecors sine mente Paris! Lacedaemona classe
Cur petis, hospitij rupturus foedera sacri?
Cur trahis ad Trojae miseranda incendia Graecas
Non nisi post patriae redituras funera classes?
Scilicet Argivae flagrat tibi pectus amore
Tyndaridis, fragilis (que) juvat te gloria formae?
Aspice sed rugas Hecubae, ma [...]ie [...] (que), situm (que),
Ossa tumore macro crescentia, sumina lemis;
Aspice & illius formae dispendia, quondam
Quae Priamo dulces juvent dedit una calores:
Tyndaris illa tuae nunc unica gaudia mentis,
Post fatum crudele tuum, post fata parentum,
Cognatasque neces, incendia, furta, rapinas,
Tandem rugosas scalpet ceu simia buc [...]as,
Dissimilisque sui ad speculi simula [...]ra dolebit.
Quid vires, robur (que) juvant, quae effoeta senectus
Frangit, & enerv [...] labefactat pondere molis?
Sacra Iovi quercus▪ postquam duo saecla peregit
Crescens, consistensque aetas, ubi tertia venit
Fatalisque aevi series, radice vacillat
Exesâ▪ nutat (que) auris bacchantibus impar;
Ipse Atlas, humeris qui coelum & sydera fulsi [...],
Annorum spatio confectus supposuit, quem
Noxin se rediens genuit, dum furta [...]onantis
Opt [...]to pulchrae Alemenes satiantur amore;
Qui diduit portare bovem, totique theatro
Ostentare suas populi ad spectacula vires,
Iam s [...]ni [...] gravis, & longaevis debilis annis,
Se minor effoetos vidit pendere l [...]certos,
Ing [...]muitque, animo non respondere vietos
Cer [...]ui▪ & in terram proni jam corporis artus;
Ʋt Leo sylvarum quondam formido, senectae
Ignavae fractus morb [...], vix languida post se
Membra trabens, impune videt per pascua tauros
Infirm [...]sque errare greges, fame sa [...]cius aegrâ,
Sed se [...]io tardus flaccenti debilis alce
Ʋndique quam spectat, nescit deprendere praedam;
Sic miles quercus quondam decoratus honore,
De victo duxit qui s [...]pius hoste triumpho [...]
(Qualis ponte fletit Cocles, qualisque Quirinus
Rettulit Acronem Iovis ad delubra Feretri,
Quique ducem potuere sequi Marcellus, & acer
Cossus, victores, & opimi gloria Martis)
Iam rude donatus suspensis defidet armis;
Classica turmarum rauco quum murmure clangunt,
Tympa [...]aque ingeminant pulsus, hinnitus equorum
Quum fremit, exurgitque minax ad s [...]dera clamor,
Hic sedet immotus, nulloque cientur ab [...]re
Pectora [...]agnanimos quae dididicere calores.
Navita, Pygmaeos legit qui classe penates,
Post coeli, Pontique hyemes, in tuta recedit
Ocia, quum laxis tremuli compagibus artus
Insanos nequeunt pelagi tolerare labores,
Neptuno piceas gaudet suspendere vestes;
Dimida ut navis rimis atque imbre dehiscens
In sicco laceras resupinat littore costas
Iam dudum pertaesa maris; sic tardus & aeger
Nauta domi recubat, terrae ut committere possit
Relliquias mari [...], ac ingratae taedia vitae.
Dulce fuit quodcun (que) prius defluxit, in imo,
Vltima sola manet sex, & deterrima fundo.
Poscitis O miseri seros cur Nestoris annos
Alterna numerare manu, contendere cervo
Ʋivaci, & vet [...]lae corri is ducere vitam?
Nulla dies moerore vacat, nec luctibus hora
Ʋlla car [...]t, trescit cum (que) anxietatibus aetas.
Longius ia fluctus si quossa carina profundos
Egreditur, diris d [...]bet ludioria ventis
Hoc magis, & timor est, rep [...]tat n [...]n aufraga littus,
Troite tu felix impubes fortiter annos
Finisti, scro cui non temerata dolore est
Imbe [...]is, tristis (que) aetas: si fata dedissent
Hanc infelici l'riamo cum conjuge mortem,
Non tot vidisset natorum funera, raptas
Crinibus I [...]adas laceris, nec Pergama flammis
Diruta, non rivo maculasset sanguinis aras.
Quid non longaevi la be factat temporis aetas?
Pyramides cedunt annis, & Mausolaea,
Destruxit Rhodium curiosa senecta Colossum;
Longa dies minuit vires, fortisque vigorem
Corporis exilem citius perducit ad umbram.
Forma perit; census non aegro in corpore sensus
Instaurat; pereunt Naturae & munera sortis;
Virtus sola manet, studio quam prima juventus
Quaesivit, tristem consolatur (que) senectam;
Haec praestat miseris jucunda viatica canis,
Ʋt scin [...]illantes Titanis lumina stellas
Obscurant; virtus tristes sic mole dolores
Opprimis, insanas non passa exire querelas;
Ipsa sibi merces pulcherrima, digna (que) votis
Sola pijs, casu tranquillos reddit in omni.
Dira Syracusias quum flamma incenderet arces,
Marcelli (que) manus densarent undi (que) caedes,
Inter tot fremitus, strepitus, lamenta ruinas,
Inter tot gemitus, planctus, querulos (que) dolores,
Coeli docte senex animo studiis (que) vacabas,
Alcyon veluti medijs securus in undis,
Vix hostile tuo sensisti in pectore ferrum.
O animi dulcis requies, o sola voluptas
Virtus! Tu tollis humanae incommoda vitae,
Damna senectutis minu is, mulces (que) dolores,
Laetitiam, quamvis miseris, mortalibus adfers.
¶
Horrida cycnaei vallant mihi tempora cani,
Testantur (que) hyemis tempus adesse nives.
Lux (que) maligna meas obfuscat nube fenestras,
Attritu dentes consenuere molae.
Corporis & fractae incipiunt nutare columnae,
Ac labat infirmâ mole caduca domus.
I am tristes adfert morbos curiosa Senectus,
Debilis enervat languida membra stupor.
Quicquid dulce fuit perijt; mihi gaudia vitae
Si qua fuere meae, jam me minisse grave est.
Moesta (que) pallentes Lethes mens somniat umbras
Occursat (que) oculis mortis imago meis.
Impia dum recolo lascivae facta juventae,
Concidit ad gemitus moesta senecta graves.
Picta velut nubes juvenilis gloria fugit;
Iris uti, in lacrymas vita soluta fluir.
O clemens ignosce pater, damnum (que) senectae
Salvifica reparet gratia sancta fide.
Spiritus Aetherios instauret pectore sensus,
Vt solum sapiat mens animus (que) polum.
Det (que) mihi noxae tecmeria certa remissae,
Cedas & aeterni f [...]deris arrha mihi:
Sic ego Coelestis patriae oblectabor amore,
Hoc mihi lenimen dulce doloris erit.
Sic cupiam gratâ dissolvi morte, parentem
Christe, tuum ut possim cernere, Christe, meum.
Empyreas aeterna tuas ubi pax colit arces,
Gaudiaque in nullos interitura dies.
Spectabitque fides, quae credidit, & potietur
Spes voto, Caeli regna tenebit amor.
I Am Aquarius, now is my turne,
To throw forth balefull floods out of mine urne;
Spring wher's thy dresse? Summer thy fragrant flowers?
Autumne thy pleasant fruits? loe here's my showers.
What ever pleasure in the world was found,
By this my fatall deluge now is drown'd.
¶ When men a Noah so long preaching heare,
Let ev'ry one take heede and stand in feare.
Ianuarius sive Mors.
TRistis ubi inve sam profundit aquarius urnam,
Iupiter & gelido de scendit plurimus imbre,
Ac nebulis urget mundum, brumamque flagellat
Stridula tempestas, & Caeli grando sonora;
Omnia tunc refugo in terram stant marcida succo,
Exanimata g [...]la moriuntur semina vitae,
Si qua manent, imae tumulantur viscere terrae;
Mole gemunt nivium saltus, lacerisque rigescit
Ramis, & rupto macrescit cortice sylva;
Stant & aquae pa [...]sim glacia [...]i compede vinctae,
Immenso sque lacus capuli crystallina condit
Arca, natant vivi torpenti i [...] flumine pisces;
Terra sepulta jacet nivibus, torpedine tacti
Frigoris, exangues perdunt sua gramina campi:
Aetatis desaevit hyems, quum incurva vacillat
Vixque effoeta levi sustentat membra bacill [...].
Se minor est homo majus onus, quum cernuus aegrum
Obstipat caput in silices, capularis ad orcum
Festinat pedibus trinis, sed gressihus impar
Inque potens ruit in praeceps, inopina Charontis
Ad ferrug [...]eam dum fertur fa [...]cina cymbam.
Nascendt le [...]certa, via est mortalibus una
In lucem, sed mille patent ad funera portae.
Parcae molle secant prim [...] lanugine stam [...]n,
Et quod rugosa carie, canisque rigescit;
Persophonae a fugit n [...]llum, non Proteus ora
Tot poterat mutare, vices variare quot illa;
Saevior in quosdam tormenta excogitat, arma
Carnificis, clavos, uncos, cuneosque trabales;
M [...]tior est aliis, sensi [...]nque in corpore vires
Et sibras minuit, frangitque atate cic [...]das.
Innumeros fati casus, discrimina mi [...]le
Morhorum, & diras febrium numerare cohortes
Quis valeat? non tot volitant sub sydere claro
Corpora quae fallunt oculos sine lumine Solis,
Quot mala versutae comitantur stamina parcae;
Quilibet unius fruitur qui munere vitae
Mille modis pereat; tot non arteria motus,
Febriculosa ciet, quot mors dare vulnera possit;
Sive placet macie gracilenti corporis artus,
Liqui, cera fluit lentis ceu saucia flammis,
Seu calor exurit, mergit seu nimius humor
Et rumpunt elementa fidem; seu dira synanche
Et tonsillarum vis flammea fauce tumescunt;
Seu capitis dolor affligit, cephalaea (que) rumpens
Tempora, quae (que) oculos tendit catalepsis hiante [...];
Sive veternosi tabes lethargica somni
Enervat, saltus (que) rotans vertigine corpus,
Et morbus rigidos convellens spasmate nervos;
Sive cutem scabris maculis elephantia pingit,
Seu nitet haec multum distenta intercute lymphâ;
Seu phagedena nocet, sive orthopnaea meatum
Non facilem pr [...]bet vitalis follibus aurae,
Seu papulis turgens [...]oa: Mors est gnara nocendi
Mille artes docta, & fraudum studiosa novarum▪
Sed gravior nullus quam Caeli morbus, & aethrae
Exitiosa lues, populatrix unica mundi;
Flumina Lethaeis quum currunt languida lymphis,
Et gravidae letho n [...]es fatale venenum
Diffundunt, patuli (que) meat mors faucibus oris;
Nectareo prorore greges aconita trilinguis
Dira ferae lambunt, stant lurida pabula tabo;
In (que) homines saevire solet crudelius (eheu)
Vidimus, & tanti fuimus pars magna doloris;
Quum saepe & subitò Angligenas grassata per oras
Noluit haec populum decimare; sed undi (que) totos
Ʋrbibus exhaustos leto vastare penates.
Londinum quoties Tamisinas fletibus undas
Auxisti, dicant, quos vix dum cymba Charontis
Transmisit, manesque tui, quos vix capit Orcus?
Morte gravi gravior pestis, teterrima lethi
Est facies; pigris sordent languoribus artus,
Lumina stant flammis, exardent ora rubore,
Corporis inque arcem scandit vaporigneus, artus
Pascitur, & crescit flammis torrentibus herpes;
Inde stupore rigent oculi, de naribus at er
Sanguinis it rivus, reson [...]nt tinaitibus aures,
Ilia singultu tenduntur, surgit ab alto
Spiritus, arcano gemitu, gravis; aspera clausas
Lingua premit fauces, fitis insatiabilis urget,
Amplexuque crebro torpentia sana fatigant,
Et gelidos poscunt fontes, custode remoto;
Liventes papulae dant sparso in corpore naevos,
Et maculae narrant disrumpi stamina vitae.
Huic genus omne mali cedit mortalibus agris
Quod Pandora dedit; vis morbi haud tristior ulla est.
Non tantùm nocuit gravis amphisbaena veneno,
Non tantùm ammodites flavis agnatus arenis,
Vipera, nec scytale vario quae tergore fallit,
Non salamandra gravis, sitiensque in flumine dipsas,
Non seps tabificus, non tristi Scorpio caudâ,
Frigidus aut Bufo, non sulcans arva pareas,
Non aspis, diroque necas qui regule visis.
O supert! procul a nostris haec exulet oris;
Ʋt liceat patribus natorum claudere ocellos,
Et natis geli [...]as animas baurire parentum.
Aequora qu [...]t vasto mergunt in gurgite, Martis
Quot furor exitio dedit, & vesanacupido,
Et malesanus amor, visque implacabilis irae?
O fragilis vita, o incerta, o fluxa, caduca,
Innumeris obsessumalis, impar tamen uni!
Siccine ventorum concurrunt agmina, bullam
Vt frangant Coeli (que), soli (que), soli (que) furores
Ergo anima hospitio quum corporis exulat, arces
Empyreas repetit, patrium (que) invisit Olympum,
Felix post tantos vitae (que) viaeque labores,
Optatos Coe [...]ipoterit quae intrarepenates,
Aeternâque frui requie, clarisque triumphis:
Felixincertae post tot discremina sortis,
Contigit Aetherio cui jam requiescere portu:
Interea corpus varij ludibria casus,
Praeda jacet crudae sylvae, aut sublime putrescent
Dat corvis, coeloque dapes; quot gurgite vasto
Corpora dant avidis inopinam piscibus escum?
Pauca suae matris redeunt in viscera terrae,
Imponuntque rogis cla [...]atu cadavera, paucos
Praefica deflet anus, lugubris vel naenia pompae,
Quéis ante ora patrum, natorum, uxoris, amici,
Contigit oppetere, & capulo mutare pen [...]tes.
Sic animae postquam discessus solverit artus
In luti deforme Chaos: non frigidiora
Membra jacent, quam friget amor lugentis amici,
Ʋxorisque novos meditan [...]is tunc hymenaos.
Sollicitat luctum, pulisque nitoribus haeres
Gaudia personat, dum toto laetior asse
Naturam beat & parcas, quod cana parentis
Funera solentur loculi, solentur & arcae,
Lenius & plena suspiret planctus in a [...]là.
Sic ubi, quicunque est haeres (haec sunt mea) dixit.
Defunctus proprios jussus mutare penates
Effertur, foribus quia non pedes ocyus exit:
Agmina amicorum stipant ex ordine longo,
Arma viri claris portant spectanda trophaeis,
Moestitiam que tub [...] fingu [...]t, pullatuque turb [...]
Vitae annos numerat; praelustris it undique pompa;
Sed posiquam ventum est ad tetra palatia mortis,
Ingluviemque Orci, & putres telluris hiatus
Iniiciunt nudum capulum: deque agmine tanto
Non est, [...]um veteri qui nunc inhumetur amico;
Discedunt omnes, solus jacet ille sepulchro,
Ve [...]mib [...]s [...]s [...]a, chaos capuli putre, fabula vulgi.
¶ Operae precium hic videbatur cycnaeum illud carmen poetae quidem clarissimi, sed anonymi, latinitate donare, quod homines mortalitatis suae non insuaviter moneat.
QƲalis Pestanae pubes Alabandica florae,
Qualis & arboreae gloria prima comae,
Quale de [...]us florum verno sub tempore ridet,
Quale nitet primo mane serena dies,
Quale jubar rutilans, qualisque evanida nubes,
Qualis Amathidae roscida scena fuit,
Talis homo, cujus fatalia stamina vitae
Net simul, & diro pollice parca secat:
Spina rosae superest, funduntur ab arbore flores
Herba perit, parvo tempore mane f [...]git,
Occiduum jubar est, nubis praetervolat umbr [...],
Scena repente cadit, vita caduca perit.
Qualia stant teneris nascentia gramina campis,
Qualis & in vanum fabula c [...]pta jocum,
Qualis avis sylvae nullae quae sede moratur,
Qualis & in pratis pendula roris onyx,
Qualis & est horae, spithamae dimensio qualis,
Quale solet carmen fundere tristis olor:
Talis homo, cujus non certo obnoxia fato
Tempora, & I [...]iacis accumulata malis:
Gramina flaccescunt, properum dat fabula finem,
Avolat hinc volucris, ros & in alta micat,
Hora brevis, spithamae non est dimensio longa,
Ʋt moriturus olor, sic moriturus homo.
Qualis bulla natat tremuli prurigine rivi,
Qualis & in speculo levi [...] [...]ago nitet,
Qualis Arachnaeam telam percurrit arundo,
Qualis arenoso littera scripta solo.
Qualis & est nictu [...] mentis, vel fictile somni,
Quale fluit murmur desilientis aquae;
Talis homo duri [...] de [...]ens ludibria parcis.
Errat & instabiles it (que) redit (que) vices;
Bulla crepat, levis speculi disparet imago,
Torquetur pecten, caeca litura perit,
Excidit ex animo sensus, de lumine somnu [...],
Et tanquam rivi murmure vita fluit.
Quales decurrunt fluvij torrentibus undis,
Qualis & a Parthi missa s [...]gitta manu,
Qualis equi cursus, superat qualis pila metam;
Qualis & e diti sportula missa domo,
Quales non certo cursu stant aequoris [...]stus,
Qualis Arachnaei pendula tela laris:
Talis homo vitae medijs jactatus in undis,
Nulla cui mentis gaudia, nulla quies;
Missile abit telum, reduces sunt aequoris aestus,
Null [...] mora est curs [...], rupta (que) tela cadit,
Emicat ad metam pila, mox est sportula nulla,
Sic repetens manes est modo nullus homo.
Quale coruscanti descendit ab Aethere fulgur,
Angarus ad Dominum quale c [...]pessit iter
Quales sunt cantus pausae numeri (que) minores,
Aut via per tridui continuata moras,
Liquitur aestivo qualis nix saucia sole,
Quale pyrum praecox, qualia pruna cadunt:
Tali [...] & accumulat fatali lege dolores,
Et subit hanc lucem cras moriturus homo;
Vanescit fulgur, festinat nuncius, omnem
Paus [...] rapit cantus, & via parva moram,
Et pyraputrescunt, funduntur pruna, liquescit
Nix, tandem quicquid vixit in orbe, perit.
Resurrectio.
QƲalia frugiferis concredita semina sulcis,
Quale a Marthiden ceperat urna putris,
Qualis mortifero Tabitha oppressa sopore,
Qualis, qui ceti viva saburra fuit,
Qualia lucifugae scintillant sydera noctis,
Et condunt vultus adveniente die.
Talis & Humanae condit mors lumina vitae;
Morte tamen victâ fit redivivus Homo.
Semina viviscunt, Marthides surgit ab urnâ,
Fit Tabitha vigil, bellua reddit onus,
Nox fugit, & stellae; subeunt mox gaudia lucis,
Atque Homo post fatum triste superstes ovat.
MEn, beasts and birds, mountaines, and castles hye
Like fishes in oblivion drowned lye;
The seas and floods prevaile, and all is gone,
Deucalion and Pyrra, are left alone;
The faire, the pleasant, fruitfull yeare is past,
And Consummatum now hath com'd at last.
¶ As in the seas, the life, there fishes have,
So shall we take our being from the grave.
Februarius, sive Mortuorum Februa.
Epitaphium Adami primi humani generis conditoris.
HVmani generis pater, immortalis in horam,
Mox mihi, mox cunctis mortis origosui.
Solus ego vixi felix, consorte beatus
Postquam felici, factus uter (que) miser.
Primus peccavi, non solus; nam mea proles
In me peccavit, debet & illa mori.
Gratia divinae mihi primo missa salutis,
Vt (que) ego, sic proles hanc habitura fide est.
Methushalami omnium, qui vixerunt, maxime longaevi.
ILle Ego sum longae monstrum admirabile vitae,
Aevi non numerent as [...]ia minuta mei.
Si mare clepsydrae vitreo sit carcere clausum,
Non satis est horis gurgitis unda meis,
Tot maris immensi non surgunt turbine fluctus,
Quot vid [...] Eoo surgere ab axe dies.
Saepius ardenti vidi sub Sole r [...]tentes
Phoenices nidis exiluisse suis.
Et soboles Quercus, & quae nascuntur a [...] illis,
Nostrorum annorum consenuere moris,
Credideram non posse mori me, vellit at aurem
Sera licet, dicens par [...]a, necessi mori est.
Hoc me solatur, fuerit quò longior aetas,
Hòc me mortis postea somnus erit.
Abrahami patris fidelium.
QƲum spes nulla foret prolis, rugo saque conjux
Rideret Domini foedera laeta sui.
Ecce statim pulchrâ fecit me prole parentem,
Et quia credideram me fore, factus eram.
Ille puer magnae fuerat spes uni [...]a gentis,
Quae Coeli stellis aequiparanda foret,
Sed mactare Deus jussit, quod strenuns egi:
Velle meum Dominus credidit esse satis.
Illa fides mihi vera fuit, me natum habiturum
Credere, & hoc caeso, me tamen esse patrem.
Ʋno sic nato, gemino sed nomine factus
Sanctorumque parens, I sacidumque pater.
Ʋtque ego, sic soboles terrae perigrina per oras
Errat, & est patriam mox habitura polum.
Samsoni fortissimi Israelitarum ducis.
NAzarita Deo facer ipso a semine patris,
Abstemiâ natus de genetrice fui.
Isacidûm fulmen gentis, vindexque duellûm:
Nostra Palaestinos perdidit ira duces.
Quod sensere gravi rivales clade perempti,
Et quae vulpinâ fraude cremata seges.
Quosque asini casu gingiva oblata cecidit,
Sedarunt cujus pocula mira fitim.
Quasque tuli, mea sunt testatae robora portae,
Et quae disrupi fortia vincia manu.
Sed tamen has vires vicit muliercula fraude;
Illim atque auri, robora victa dolis.
Davidis Sanctissimi Israelitarum Regis.
ILle ego qui quondam plectro modulatus & ore
Carmina grata mihi, carmina grata Deo.
Arcâ qui coram, [...]opulo spectante choragus
Ludibrium Michalae, prae pietate, fui.
Barbitos, at (que) lyrae concentus, nablia, lucis
Gaudia, cui mediae gaudia noctis erant.
Interdum rivis lacrymarum strata rigavi,
Et cinere, at (que) situ diriguere genae.
Scilicet humanis ut rebus, tristia laetis
Miscentur, sic sunt in pietate vices.
Nam modò tranquillas perfundunt gaudia mentes,
Tota (que) sunt nostro pectora plena Deo.
Et modo Cimmerijs merguntur corda tenebris,
In (que) animis visus nullus adesse Deus.
Ne desponde animum, Coeli qui numen adoras,
Difficiles, faciles experiere vices.
Absalomi Israelitarum pulcherrimi.
DAvidide Isacidas inter pulcherrime natos,
Oris tam pulchri gloria vana fuit.
Compta (que) Caesaries promisso crine decora,
Lumina, quae clarum ceu nituere jubar,
Florentes (que) genae, minio (que) rubentialabra,
Quales condecorant lilia pulchrarosae,
Threicias quae colla nives, humeri (que) Elephantum
Vincebant, juvit nil juvenile decus,
Brachia candidulis multùm formosa lacertis,
Corporis & facies immaculata tui.
Quum tua probroso sordescat crimine fama,
Sordeat & nomen tempus in omne tuum.
Mentis erat virtus, pi [...]tas (que) petenda; sine illâ
Forma bonum fragile est, & nisi fucus iners.
Salomonis sapientissimi & ditissimi Israelitarum Regis.
JLLe ego sum Salomon, cujus sapientia metam,
Divitiae cujus non habuere modum.
Omnia qui nòram, cedrosque, hederasque sequaces,
Saxorum argenti copia ad instar erat.
Orbis & extremis mea fama vocavit oris
Reginam, testis quae foret ipsa mei.
Venit, me vidit, suspexit, deinde beavit
Turbam quae mensae tunc famulata meae est.
Omnia quae humanae poterant contingere sorti,
Nostra fuere; decus, gloria, splendor, opes.
Omnia at inveni, quae sublunaria, vana,
Vota hominum sensi fluxa, caduca, nihil.
FINIS.
Terram fodio.
I dig the ground.
SPRING.
March, or Mans birth.
THis Sphere redoubling Fabricke wheeling round.
Which big with beings doth with shapes abound,
Before the Heavens did move, & Earth was stable,
Before the boundlesse Waves were Navigable,
It was a Chaos and confused masse,
Wherein the jarring seeds of all things was;
Such is the birth of Man, who doth comprise
The greater Fabricke in a lesser sise:
Before Heavens sacred spark, whereby he liveth
His vegetation, sense and reason giveth,
To Elements 'fore places bee assign'd,
And qualities to Organes are confin'd,
Before Ioves Image from the starrie light
Doth claime his race, and looke with face upright,
What is he at first but seede, whereof we see
The basest vermine take their pedegree;
Yet God the great Creator of all things
This vilenesse to a glorious creature brings.
Like as the Graine doth in earths fruitfull wombe,
As it were dead, it selfe in dust entombe,
Yet by earths vertue and his seeding power
Preserve it selfe safe from the winters stoure;
Vntill like Phryxus, Phoebus ride upon
The Ramme, and more conspicuous in his Throne,
With geniall heat, and life-begetting ray
He twist it forth and make it see the day.
So man in wombe an Embryon doth lye,
Curded like milke, and wrought miraculously,
Clothed like seede with huskes, wrapt up in bags,
Which are its native home-spun swadling rags.
Then God Almighty, who life to all things giveth,
Breaths in that Divine soule, whereby it liveth.
Here is a marriage made; to dust and clay
The Heaven is wedded, still with it to stay;
Here immortality, by Gods command,
Poore fraile mortality takes by the hand;
O what a pitty, that the Virgin soule
Should have a mate so leprous and so foule!
Its well in darkenesse they the match doe make,
For if it saw, the body it would forsake.
O if it could then speake, what would it say,
That it hath come from Heaven, to dwell in clay?
Or that like Ionas, from the Saphire vaile
Its fallen into the belly of a Whale?
The lodging they have got is darke as hell,
But if not there, they know not where to dwell;
So oft we see them tumbling to and fro,
They shew themselves content, but so and so:
Yea many times the soule so loaths this Inne,
It leaves it, when it scarce hath entred in;
And oft the bowels doe become a grave
For their owne brood, to which they lodging gave.
But take the best, and you your selfe will blisse,
To see in birth what misery there is;
Clamorous convulsions, painefull throwes, and cries,
Sharpe shewes strayning the backe, weakning the thighes,
Much like an Earthquakes shaking you may see,
Betwixt them such intestine warres there be.
O doth the child then know, what is this life,
Who will not enter it without such strife?
Yea oft the one so fights against the other,
That Viper like the child doth kill the mother.
May you not thinke, the soule defild with sinne
Originall, doth to regrate begin,
And wish it may not see this life at all,
Least it should adde thereto sinne actuall,
And once perhaps, should with the wicked say,
O if it never had seene light of day.
But marke, when he is borne, how he will give
An Embleme of the life, which he must live;
Telling as't were, when he his hand puts forth,
That he must worke for what he shall be worth;
Or thrusting downe his naked foote he sayes,
That he must walke a Pilgrime all his dayes.
How e're he comes, he naked poore doth lye
And can doe nothing silly babe but cry;
He cannot speake, but yawle for greefe, and so
His rude expression cryeth (wa) for (woe)
So Thracian-like into this world of feares
He ushereth himselfe with many teares.
These paines of birth and woefull agony
Foretokneth our ensuing misery;
They clearely doe point forth the curse of man,
That he must live in sorrow, as he began:
His nakednesse shewes he must nothing have
Which with him he may carry to his grave.
¶
Since then my birth is of my bane
The primer, me be get againe,
Renew my spirit Lord, so with Thee
I shall thy fathers dwellings see.
His second birth is brought with feares.
A broken heart, and floods of teares,
Roaring, chatt'ring in the night,
Like Pelican from mortalls sight.
Heart-consuming sighes and cries,
Soule-quelling fits and agonies,
Thought-killing muttring, when the heart
Knowes no wayes how to play its part.
But moment-lasting sorrow is
Fore-runner to eternall blisse,
If here on earth it doth annoy,
Yet leads it us to Heavens joy.
When we shall with tearelesse eyes,
Meete our Saviour in the skies,
When we with him coheires shall be
Of glory and immortality.
Then shall our teares be wip't away,
Then shall there be no night, but day;
Then for our mourning we shall sing,
A Halelujah to Heavens King.
Ecce novum gaudium.
Behold new joy.
April, or Mans Infancie.
AS Aprils soft and balmy showers doe nourish
The March-bred Buds, untill they come to flourish;
Sunne with its heare, Heav'n with its dew them cherish,
Lest they with nipping cold, or drought should perish▪
Even so the infant on his mothers knee,
Lest he should starve for want or penury,
With milky Nectar he his belly fills
Which floweth from the two breast-towring hills,
Oft times Stepmother nature, Mothers pride
Doth stop those sources, which when they are dry'd,
What they cannot obtaine from cruell mothers,
Poore Infants! they are forc'd to beg from others:
Sometime the parents so unnaturall prove,
That they expose, which they sould dearest love;
Then beasts and birds, against their nature, shew
More love then parents, who this duty owe:
Did not the Woolfe her fiercenesse lay aside,
To give what curs'd Amulius deny'd;
Romes twinnes so nurs'd with Woolfes unkindly foode,
Like ravenous beasts, one shed the others blood.
A Bitch did nurse great Cyrus, when they did
Expose him, cause his surly Grandsire bid,
From that time forth in jarres his life he led,
Seeking for prey, and thirsting blood to shed,
Vntill by Schythian Tomyris at last,
His head into a bag of blood was cast.
What is the cause, why children oft times are
Vnkind unto their parents? cause they were
Weaned from others; and it stands with reason,
That they should smell of, what first did them season.
But when the babe hath suckt, then must it goe
To Cradle, there to cry rockt too and fro.
(A pregnant Embleme of his life that followes,
Where like a barke, hee's tost among the billowes
Of hope and feare, nor rests till cruell fates
Doe thrust him into Proserpines black gates)
But lest with crying he should be opprest,
Humming Enchantments lull him to his rest.
If any life be innocent at all,
The filly Infants life such may you call;
Yet to how great and various miseries,
Good God! the harmelesse Infant subject lies;
Nay, if an Herod shew his cruelty,
These guiltlesse children every one must die.
Greece talkes of Midas Welth▪ presaging Ants,
Of Platoes Beehiv'd eloquence she vaunts,
And Cradle-luck sent from the God; but I
Can see nothing foremeant in Infancie,
Besides great sorrow, trouble, care, and toyle,
And whatsoever can true pleasure spoyle.
Yet there's one comfort, children doe not know
Their misery, which lessneth much their woe.
¶
With Nurses milke I have drunke in
The deadly guilt of parents sinne;
So am I, as my parent was
Infected with Adams trespasse.
But (ah) that is the meanest share
Considering what mine actuall are;
I have my yeares in sinning past,
Nor can I leave them now at last.
O make me (Lord) in grace begin
To live before I end in sinne;
Thine Infant (Lord) to be I crave,
Let not my gray haires sinne to grave.
My soule doth cry▪ still thou it Lord
With milke of thy eternall Word;
Author of grace, nurse grace in me,
So I at length shall strengthned be.
Clense me from first and second guilt▪
Onely thou canst (Lord) if thou wilt;
Then shall I be a Denninzon
There, where uncleannesse commeth none.
Let not Hells Siren lull asleepe
My soule to drowne it in the deepe;
Lord make it watch for Heav'ns joyes
Regarding nothing worldly toyes.
Behold my soule rock't too and fro,
Doth cry for feare and cannot goe;
Now least in storme it drowned be,
Take it into the ship with Thee.
So shall Thou thinke me to be thine,
And I shall thinke thy kingdome mine;
So shall my soule thy mercies prove
And learne thy mercies how to love.
Florescunt▪
They flourish.
May or Mans Childhood.
WHen May, Springs-glory paints the gaudy fields,
And beauty t' Aprils sucking infants yeelds,
The bloomes and blossomes are so strangely dy'd,
That Nature seemes her cunning to have try'd.
Flora perfumes her brood, which give a smell,
That may the Phoenix nest well paralell,
The plumed minstrels with their Musicke fils
The smiling heav'n, the wood, and ecchoing hils.
Mans Childhood is his May, wherein he playes,
And wantonly beguiles his carelesse dayes:
Then lookes he like an Angell, had he wings,
He is the prettiest 'mongst a thousand things.
What Snow-white Lilly, can Flora afford so faire,
Which with his spotlesse beauty may compare?
Pestans twice-bearing rose-beds, blush to see
His Virgins red-enamelled modesty;
His fragrant breath so from his breast doth smell,
As if Arabia's bird did therein dwell;
Nor fancied nosegay, nor compos'd perfume,
Above his simple nature dare presume.
Many repaire to Groves and love to heare
The Nightingale, the Thrush, and plumed quire,
If I should choose, I could take greater joy
To heare the pratling of a lovely boy.
His eyes like glistring Diamonds doe shine,
Twinckling like Lizards, while they stare on thine.
But marke what pleasant sport t' himselfe he makes,
All Arts and Trades he boldly undertakes;
He'le raise a Castle, build a sandy Mill,
He'le ride a horse, he'le traine, he's what you will;
He doth what ever unripe Nature can,
He is the pleasant, pretty ape of man:
But harke you Parents, be not over joy'd,
Your pleasure (ah) may quickely be destroy'd.
You see the Damaske Rose which is the peer
Of flowers, it fades and leaves the naked brier:
No blossome is so glorious and so faire,
But may be nipped with a noysome aire,
If an encountring blast of sickenesse blow,
All feature passeth like a minuts shew,
He droopes his head, his gastly lookes condemne
The fondnesse of child-deifying men,
Then through his eyes as windowes looketh death,
A loathsome earthly smell infects his breath.
His merry tales and chat, is then forgot,
For painefull sickenesse makes him change his note.
Then looke how great your joy exc [...]ll'd before,
Your griefe is doubled now, if't be not more.
Here was a Sun-shine blinke, before the clouds
Did send the winds to combat with the floods;
Here was a calme above, while as below
The sea was great with storme, winds threatn'd to blow,
Ah world of woe! what thing canst thou call thine,
Poore man, but death can quickly say its mine?
¶.
Grant strength of grace, O Lord, to me,
And make me grow from infancy
To childhood; teach me how to trace
The footesteps of thy saying grace.
While with unequall paces I,
Doe lag, shew forth thy Light from high;
O doe not goe quite out of sight
Lord Soules Redeemer, sole delight.
Looke to my wadling pace and if
[...] fall, raise me, and comfort give
Lord, when I stagger, set me right,
O Soules eternall anchor plight.
And that I may the way endure,
With thy free graces me allure,
Lord if I faint encourage me;
But pull me if I stubborne be.
Thus suffer me not, Lord▪ to stray,
But guide me on the narrow way;
And 'cause thy Kingdome doth belong
To Children, place me them among:
Then Heavens bright Angell shall I be
Cloathed with immortality,
Rather such Childhood to me give,
Then here Methushalems age to live.
Retrogradus ero.
I shall goe backward.
SVMMER.
June, or Mans young age.
IN Iune when Phoebus up to Cancer hies,
Driving aloft his Chariot in the skies,
The Earth is cherisht with a warmer ray,
Her Youthfull brood lusty appeare and gay;
Then promise they some fruit and give essayes,
Of what shall be their further-ripening dayes:
Such is the strip [...]ing halfe-growne age of man,
When fiery seed of reason sparkle can,
When his rude wit [...] but waxen (as the Beare
Fashions her cub) is lickt and fram'd with care.
Since mans great Sir [...] did from his maker fall,
Mans reason's lost, scarce to be found at all;
Much like a gemme in Lethes darkenesse drownd,
With dangerous painefull dyving to be found.
There was a time, when man Gods off-spring stood
Indued with gifts greater then mortall good;
But whilst he rul'd his reines, his will did stray,
With drawing him out of the righter way:
Thus when corrupte was the stocke and tree,
We branches thereof must corrupted be;
Borne voide of knowledge, rude and ignorant,
The meanest character of good we want,
Like to a smooth and waxed writing table,
Its voide, but write you, to receive its able.
A tree which crooked growes and bends awry,
While it is young, skill can it rectifie;
So tender mindes the Masters care correcteth,
What Nature could not, Discipline effecteth;
Learning makes straight perverse and crooked wits,
And them like wax to any fashion fits.
He whom Apollo's Oracle did call,
The wisest 'mongst the Gr [...]acian Sophies all,
Condemned, by a criticke of mans face,
As dull and stupid, void of wit and grace,
Made answer, such himselfe by birth to be,
But better'd by Divine Philosophy.
A lavish Father, when his state he spoiles,
He puts his children to a thousand toyles;
Good God! what paines and care it doth us cost,
To seeke and not to finde what Adam lost.
Language was Natures worke, we should be borne
Thereto, without fescue, or booke of horne.
But as to gather Sibyls leaves dispersed
Is desp'rate worke to find what she rehearsed;
To gather letter by letter, so w'are faine
Syllabe by syllabe, word by word in vaine.
Our fraile and britle memory before
Did safely keepe the whole conceptions store;
A faithfull Steward, what she kept, she could
Distribute that, when use and season would;
But now who to his memory doth trust,
He writes the charter of his mind in dust.
Now wandring, brainesicke thoughts the speces kill,
And what they spare, old age abolish will.
Oft so a masse of things is hurld together,
That Chaos-like, one parts not from another;
When men now search their braines, they cannot find
The box, which holds the conceit of their mind:
They fret, much like to dull Apothecaries
Who cannot hit upon their box and wares.
Hence memories distrust makes us to write
Our minds in papers, that they may endite
Againe to us, so word of mouth is come
To silence of our writings, which are dumbe,
And what was got before b' attentive eare
Dumbe bookes doe teach us, 'cause they're oculare.
[...]Nor is this all, oft times the Schollar's so
Vntoward, without rod he will not goe;
Sometimes, cause nothing in his left side sturres,
Hee'le neither ride with rod, nor yet with spurres
O what adoe is here for to supply
That which we lost, but cannot now come by▪
Tell sonnes of Adam, what you thinke of one
Poore apple, which, hath mankind thus undone.
¶
O Lord, who in this age was preaching found,
And teaching those who did the law expound,
Teach me, my Saviour, whats thy Fathers will,
And grant me grace that I may it fulfill.
I am by nature, and in grace a moule,
Redeemer touch mine eyes, illighten my Soule.
I am not Lord by Parents sinne so spilt,
Nor so desil'd with mine owne actuall guilt;
But if thou wilt, thou canst by thy free grace,
Clense me from all which doth my Soule deface;
What ever gifts Adam hath lost to me,
Those and farre greater, Lord, I find by Thee.
Master, make me thy Schollar; when I shall
Correction crave, use mercy there withall;
Master, thy Schollar humbly begs of thee,
That to my strength thy rod may tempered be.
Concurrunt sidera Coeli.
The Starres agree in one.
July, or Striplings age.
VVHen rypening Iuly brings Hyperion forth,
From Tethys chambers lying towards North,
The fruitfull tree, advanceth more and more
His fruit, desiring still his kind to store:
So Man when his Youths blossomes gin to blow,
Desires some way wits timely fruites to show.
After these wits, which imperfect were wrought,
Are now by licking into fashion brought;
Then every man betakes him to a trade,
For no man e're for idlenesse was made.
Like as the Bees the meddowes range about,
Tasting of every flower the field throughout;
Some brotch the Primrose nectar some the Lillies,
Some crop the Thyme, and some the Daffodillies;
Each one a sundry way and flower doth take,
And yet all to one Hive doe honey make:
So men, in Youth, according to their mindes,
Doe choose their trades, of sundry diverse kindes;
For Esops skuls did not so disagree,
As men in severall phansies different be:
Yet though there is 'mongst men so great division,
All seeke one thing, this mortall lifes provision.
How many sorts of things, how many joynts
Are of the body, how many crotchet points
Are of the mind, or senses fond delights,
How many vices are in wicked wightes;
For goods, for evils, the're equall artes in number,
Which like an Hydra doth this life encumber.
Fathers of old time, surely, crav'd no more,
But clothes for backe and for the belly store;
Now pride and ryots humors for to fit,
Whole countries, nations, doe employ their wit;
A thousand trades, now, doe the best you can,
Are too too little to compleate a man;
This accidentall good doth riot give,
One spendthrift maketh many poore men live.
If beasts be hungry in the desert field,
The earth their meate, their drinke the rivers yeeld;
What wicked hopes doe mortals entertaine
Seeking to shunne hungers heart-biting paine:
Vntimely fasting, a Nemesis we see
Of mans untimely feasting impiously,
Man eate, when God forbad him to doe so,
Therefore when man would eate, oft God sayes no;
Thus man before he is thought worthy of meate,
He must find out some way to toyle and sweate:
So when the Youth begins his painefull trade,
He sees what he is now, what he was made.
But loe, I heare some say; the Schollar's blest,
As free from labour, and enjoying rest,
Talking of dauncing Nymphes, and shaddowy woods,
Parnassus groves, and pleasant running floods;
It's envyes voice; who discontented still,
That which shek nowes not, discommend she will.
Put Damocles in Dionysius place,
Hee'le praise the pleasure, but enjoy no peace:
That thou may'st weare the Ivy, canst thou looke
With sleepelesse eyes, and paleface on thy booke?
What meane the Vultures which Prometheus teare,
But watchfull study, and heart-eating care.
As in a clocke, springs motion doth make
The barrell, fusie, wheeles, and ballance shake:
So when the minde doth stirre with thoughts opprest,
Thinke you the bodies spirits are at rest.
But looke what doth his encyclopedy
Teach him, but lectures of his misery.
Cause Paradises tongue he cannot reach,
Grammar doth him Babels confusion teach;
His life time cannot give what cradles could,
Mithridate was a babe, if tongues were tould.
So little credite man hath, without art
Of Rhetoricke, he cannot move the heart;
His smoothed tongue he doth more powerfull find,
Then reason; yet his words are oft but wind.
Darke ignorance so mantles up his wit,
That Platoes yeare can scarce deliver it,
From rotnesse of the Logick systemes rable,
Which proving all things, proveth man a bable.
He by Arithmeticke can picke the shore
Of all his sands; and adde to millions more,
Divide and multiply the starres, and tell
How many drops doe make the Ocean swell;
But when he comes his dayes to calculate,
He finds a figure or two doe stand for that.
Though musicke be a sweet solatious thing,
It teacheth him his Lachrimae to sing,
And Swan-like in a dolefull Elegy,
A dying to bewaile mortality.
A stronomy doth make him discontent,
That he should peepe up through an instrument,
And take the elevation of that place,
From whence he had his being and his race.
Whiles that Geometry doth teach him how
The surface of this earthly globe to view,
To cut it out by zones and climates way,
By hotter, colder, and the longer day,
To pace it forth, in inches, rods, and miles,
From Easterne Seas, unto the Westerne Isles,
From dayes Meridian, to the midnight line,
Where night is darkest, day doth brightest shine;
When he lookes home t' himselfe, he sighes and sayes▪
In measuring earth, why spend I thus my dayes?
Archytas ghost, neere to the Matin shore,
Besides a little dust, doth seeke no more;
Why should I then survey this globe with eyes,
And sore with thought above the sphered skyes?
When destiny shall cut my fatall haire,
Of all this earth, seven foote shall be my share,
Thus may we see, that as in age we grow,
Sorrowes along with us in age doe goe,
A Youth one comfort after all, at last
Receives; some of his toyle and sorrowes past.
¶
What Heaven above, below, the Sea, and Land
Containe, all stand and fall at thy command.
Father, all things to thee their eyes doe bend,
Thou do'st, to them their food in season send;
What ere thou hast created by thy word,
Thou keepst, if they acknowledge Thee their Lord.
Thou with thy blessing feedst the wandring Crow,
Although it cannot either till or low,
The Lillies of the field they cannot twist
Or spinne, yet are they, Lord, so by Thee blest,
That Salomon in all his rich aray,
Was not so glorious as they are gay.
Why art thou Soule cast downe with feare and care?
Trust in thy Lord and Maker, He's thy share
And portion sure, who will unto thee grant,
What usefull things for life he knowes thee want.
But yet lest idlenesse should on me cease,
Which is the Hydra of vice, and Soules disease:
Give me some calling Lord, whereby I may,
Sweate truely for my daily bread, this day,
Which may maintaine my gray-haires, when I can
Doe nothing but bewaile the state of man.
What knowledge, Lord, thou giv'st me of the creature,
Make it the on of Thee my great Creator.
When I behold the Cristall Heavens so faire,
So many winged troopes piercing the aire,
So many finned armies in the strands,
Rowing themselves amongst the rockes and sands;
When I behold the flowers, the fields and fennes,
The grazing flockes, the wild beasts in their dennes;
When I rip up my breast, and there doe finde,
An earthly body, but an heavenly minde;
I see thy greatnesse Lord, in every thing,
To thee therefore I will here praises sing:
Till I shall come unto thy blessed traine,
Then death shall put an end to all my paine.
Haec Pietas.
This is Piety.
August, or Mans Youth.
VVHen Phoebus doth with chast Astrea meete,
Crowning the fruits & fields with influence sweet
Then plants bring forth their fruits, after their kinde,
Not all alike, some good some bad we finde.
So man in Youth shewes by his conversation,
His towardnesse, and former education.
Like as the fire which long hath lurkt in ashes,
When it gets stronger fewel, flames and flashes,
So nature which in weakenesse long did lurke,
Doth now in heate of blood begin to worke:
Or like strong wines in caske, when first they vent,
They shew themselves in motion vehement,
So man in leavned age, and youthfull prime
Gives passions most violent for a time;
Tinder nor flaxe takes not with Vulcanes ire
More quickely, than youths bloods set on fire,
And oft condemnes the Stoicke apathie,
As by his passionate [...]alour we may see.
So Pellas flower did conquer all the East,
Alcides kill'd the many-headed beast,
Iason with the noble Youths of Greece,
In spight of dangers wonne the golden fleece:
This passion as it is a whetting stone
To goodnesse, so to evill it spurreth on.
Loves passion made Perithous desc [...]nd
To Plutoes house t' attend his lustfull end;
Anger made Eteocles kill his brother,
Nor could their funerall smoake agree together;
Revenge did cause Orestes put to death
His mother, who did give him life and breath;
So griefe made Ajax turne his wrath from Troy,
And with the fatall sword himselfe destroy:
This age still in extremes can scarce obey
Reason, cause passion beares so great a sway,
And oft, when reason and affection too
Concurre, the danger's, not to overdoe.
It leadeth us unto a forked way,
Where the great Hercules was sayd to stay,
The one is broad, plumed on every side,
With Damaske Roses, and with Flora's pride,
There Ceres gifts in great aboundance grow,
And Bacchus cupps with nectar overflow;
There's downy beds stuffed with swa [...]sike plumes,
There every thing is sweetned with perfumes;
The winged quiristers with their sweete throates,
Doe warble forth their eares bereaving notes;
And painted pleasure lyeth all along
Vpon her downes, the fragrant flowers among;
Her lookes are lovely, and her eyes are cleare
Much like to Venus, when she did appeare
First from the sea; the honey's not so sweete,
As are her words, she's outwardly compleate,
But O if one should see her breast within,
Farre different would he finde it from [...]e [...] skinne.
What ever she pretends she meanes no lesse
Than death, destruction, gall, and bitternesse;
Her eyes, like Basil [...]skes, they see and kill,
Her voyce like Sirens doth entise to ill;
Beleeve her no wayes, when she sheddeth teares,
For like the Crocodiles, they're full of feares;
She gives Circean cuppes of giddy wine,
Mixt with toades poyson, and the Lotish rine,
And turnes man into Goate, or mimicke Ape,
Or Wolfe, or Lyon, which doth roare and gape;
Oft times she with her cupps so doth them drench,
That without blood their thirst they cannot quench;
But which is worst of all behold the end,
To misery and death they are condemn'd.
A little swinish pleasure deare they buy,
With Gout, Consumption, or the Pleurisie,
And brings upon themselves such misery,
That they can choose, or doe nothing, but dye.
Perhaps one Polemo who in her waies,
Hath lavish'd out his young and tender dayes,
When he a wise Xenocrates doth heare,
Will be ashamed, and his garlands teare;
But he is one amongst a thousand, who
Farre otherwayes, then he hath done, will doe;
For vitious custome puts them so in ure,
As that it doth their hearts and minds obdure;
Their better parts from Heav'n it doth deface,
And tyran-like usurpeth Natures place,
Then nothing profits carefull education,
And hope is gone of healthfull reformation.
O what a pitty's this! Nature brought forth,
A towardnesse, which gave some hopes of worth;
Their mother suffered paines, and gave them sucke,
And dandled them with songs of happy lucke,
Then were they put to Schooles, and learning taught,
And now when tis their prime, all is for naught.
The other is a steepe and narrow path,
And, beside which you make, no passage hath,
Its straw'd with briers, thornes grow all along,
Through which, who ere so walkes, he needs must throng;
On every side are monsters, such as dwell
In Plutos prisons, and the pits of hell:
Here sits gray-headed, and heart killing cares,
Here lyes palefaced, and joynt-shaking feares;
Here watchfull Dragons, whose unsleepy eyes,
The care-relenting Morphews never sees;
There vaine and phrenticke labour rowles a stone
Like Sisyphus the craggy rockes upon;
At last Despaire drooping and almost dead,
Scarcely can pull the rope over her head.
On th' otherside, the furious Passions stand,
Marching with armes along, in traine-like band.
Anger with fiery eyes and frownes doth threat
To pull high thundring Iove downe from his seate;
Next comes Contention with her cursed brands
Seeking to set on fire both sea and lands;
Then Hatred in her hollow heart doth keepe
Revenge, and for occasion forth doth peepe;
There Rashnesse, on a rope hangs by the toe,
And of her boldnesse makes a foolish show:
Vaine Hope with waxen wings doth love to flye
Like I [...]arus, above the Azure sky.
Fierce monsters doe this narrow passage bound,
And deadly dangers it encompasse round.
Yet Vertue doth her followers safely guide,
Least they should goe astray on either side.
Prudence through the darke windings doth them lead,
Safely with Ariadnes clew of thread.
Then Vertues ushers, Courage, Constancy,
Doe hearten them on against adversity:
And show them Vertues Castle, how on high.
It stands resplend [...]nt all with Majesty.
If they doe stumble gainst a blocke or stone,
Then Constancy saies, stay not here, goe on;
And Hope proclaimes afarre: Loe here you shall
Have joy for sorrow, Hony for▪ your gall.
Here peace and joyfull rest, for ever dwell
Which neither crosse nor time shall ever quell,
So when they have these hideous monsters past
With joy they reach the mountaines top at last.
Where Vertues pallace stands on pillars square
The courts of gold, the gates of chrystall are,
[...] [...] [...]nd all this glorious castle's founded on
[...]he Chrysolite, Saphire, and Berill stone.
[...]efore the stately gates, blacke Envy lies,
[...]ormented with the aspect of her eyes;
[...]n whom, when once these Champions doe trample,
Through Vertues Courts, they enter Honours Temple,
Then Glory doth eternall Trophees raise,
And Fame Seraphik-like, their name doth blaze.
There but two wayes; and yet where one dare venter
On this, a thousand by the other enter:
Vertue, oft, all alone doth goe and dwell;
Pleasure doth lead whole colonies to hell.
Nay, I dare say, the most of men doe stray
At first, and enter in the broader way;
Happy are they who doe returne, before
They runne too deepe in cursed pleasures score,
Darke ignorance doth blindfold many so,
That from the meane into th' extremes they goe.
Their ship scarce from the shore her course doth take,
When she on deadly rockes doth shipwracke make;
Others have knowledge and the best desire,
But crost with stormes and fortunes spightfull ire,
There strength and meanes answer not to their mind,
And so poore soules they're forst to lag behind.
Amongst so many thousands of this age
How few with faire applause goe off the stage;
And yet those few like Gideons fleece, we see
Tith'd by untimely fates mortality.
When fruites are almost ripe, storme can them shake,
When Youth is almost man, death may him take.
Search you deaths Lime pits, and youle finde therein,
As oft the Young Steeres as the Oxes skinne;
Oft time old gray-haird wrinkles swim in teares,
For you thes who dyed in their prime of yeeres;
The ancient Pollard Oake ofttimes doth see,
The overthrowing of a Young Beech tree,
This onely law is propper unto man,
To dye, or soone, or late, doe what he can.
One way he comes to life, if Fates dispose
Will once of him, a thousand wayes he goes.
¶
The stormy seas doe not with waves so fret,
When roaring surges, glowming clouds doe threat,
As with contrary tides my breast doth swell,
And doubtfull thoughts my plunged soule doth quell;
Whilst furious anger doth me headlong lead,
And shaking feares doe strike me almost dead;
While hope doth raise and sorrow downe me cast;
Lord after storme, shew forth thy calme at last.
Chase anger, feare, vaine hope and griefe away,
That joy and rest of soule, enjoy I may.
The first fruites of my young age sanctifie,
With strength of body, strength thy grace in me,
Direct me Lord along thy narrow path,
Which may lead me to Heaven, by saving faith,
Strengthen me with perseverance to the end,
From Satan, and Hels monsters me defend:
So when I shall come to Heavens rest, I'le sing,
O cruell death, where is thy deadly sting:
And when I shall triumph in Heaven with thee,
I'le say, O Grave, where is thy victory,
Before I want this rest, I had rather goe
Through thousand Lab'rinths of this mortall woe.
These worldly crosses, last but for a day,
And like the Eastwind, quickly flye away:
But sure I am when earthly sorrow's past,
Heav'ns thought-surpassing joy shall ever last.
Aequa Die nox est.
Summers Equinoctiall.
AVTVMNE.
September, or Mans age.
VVHen Libra in equall scales weighs night and day,
And Phoebus through the midline makes his way:
Then every plant thankefull to nature seedeth,
As it was bred, so other plants it breedeth,
For view the Vniverse and you shall finde,
That every thing seekes to preserve its kind;
With sexe and seede nature bids multiply
Man, beast, the foule and fish, the hearbe and tree,
None of their volumes ere so great can be,
Which compendiz'd in seed, we doe not see,
And none so meane and small but doe encrease
And multiply the more, because they're lesse.
Mans age, mans life when it doth equall share,
In by past nights, and dayes which comming are,
Then man in his September seekes a mate,
His speece for to conserve and propagate.
When God into mans nostrils breathed life,
He fittest thought for him to have a wife,
And he who sayd, woe to him who's alone,
Gave man a consort and companion:
He gave him not a Peacock nor a Goate,
Nor Dogge, nor Parret with her mimicke throate,
But of himselfe his fellow he did make,
And from his side his consort he did take.
But all this while Sathan mans mortall foe,
Lurking his craft and malice did not show,
So when he saw the weaker sexe of man,
To use his stratagems then he began.
Sometimes Themistocles was wont to say,
That Diophantus Athens state did sway;
The Childes desire was all his mothers will,
Nor would she rest till he did that fulfill;
And Athens was obedient to his call,
So by Sorites Diophant was all;
And wherein Adam did trespasse he knew:
His off-spring thereof should be guilty too▪
So when the devill that lying Sophister.
With cunning captions had seduced her,
She with her Complements to cogge began,
In place of joy becomming woe to man;
And justly so for trusting her relation,
Better then God, and workes of the Creation;
Thus marriage which before a blessing was
Became a curse, because of mans trespasse.
O dolefull, doubtfull case! what shall man doe?
He knowes not here what hand to turne him to,
If [...]e live all alone, he childlesse goes
To grave, chast Ʋenus joyes he never knowes;
Vnthankefull to dame Nature he doth live,
Who life receiv'd, but life to none will give;
Much like as Cato came to Flora's play,
And having entred, straight did runne away;
So Natures stage, he entring rather can
Depart, before he act the married man;
Before he will glad marriage torches have,
With funerall Lights he's carried to his grave;
He lives, but to what end? that he may see,
The world, and like Ephemeron quickely die;
All of him dies at once, his overthrow
Is totall, death doth kill him at one blow;
The curse of Onan he must undergoe,
Cause being bid raise seed he did not so;
What if all were like him, where should there be
Saints for the Heaven, for earth posterity;
Great Xerxes then might justly shed his teares,
And say, that all should dye within few yeares.
In joy he hath no true companion,
And knowes not how for to rejoyce alone;
Woes him in sorrow, he must needes despaire,
Who hath no fellow, who may with him share;
His riches who shall have, he doth not know,
A stranger reapes them, who did never sow.
What if th' Assyrian bird lives without mate,
And yet her rarest kinde doth propagate?
What if some Phenix-like can Virgins live?
To those we honour due and reverence give;
For when they're burn'd in glory's spycie flame,
They leave eternall off-spring of their fame;
But we of mankind talke, where one so dyes,
A thousand batchlers in oblivion lyes.
What shall he marry? that's a life of care,
Of sorrow, poverty, if not despaire.
For every one is not a Socrates
Who can a bold and mad Xantippe please.
Our life's a journey to our heav'nly aboad,
He walkes with ease, who walkes without a load;
This life's a warrefare, wherein we must fight
Against Step-mother Fortunes ire and spight,
The greater burthens doe a man oppresse,
He needes must sincke the more, and fight the lesse,
What man hath not his crosse, which he must carry;
He's subject to anothers if he marry;
Weigh man and wife, and (as Tiresias sayd
Of her desire) you'le finde her crosse downe weigh'd.
Doth beauty like thee? that a foe doth prove
Oftimes to chastity and mariage love,
Not fit for Gyges sight, once made a prey
To lust, for greefe, it made it selfe away.
Great portions please thee; these are cause of pride,
Disdaine and brauling jarres on either side,
Terentia queld Tullyes sweete eloquence,
To Antony oft Fulvia gave offence;
In marriage who are vail'd for modesty,
Once marryed take to them supremacy;
I will not talke of great Alcides wife
And Claudius shrew, judges of death and life;
Some thinking joyes, the more they common are
The greater, will have no peculiare;
A bad wife, a consumption you may call,
For none but death can free thee from her thrall.
You'le praise Penelope and Alcestis care,
And she, who thought all, like [...]er huband were;
But every one cannot to Corinth saile,
All wish the best, but all cannot prevaile;
Wife's choos'd by Lott'ry, be you ne're so wise,
You may have forty blanks, and not one prise.
Suppose you have a good one, chaste and faire,
Both rich and modest prudent, full of care,
Teeming with children, never raising strife,
Like to Cornelta or a Sabin wife;
If death shall take her, or fatality,
Vndoe her, if thy children deare shall dye.
Then for thy former joyes, what griefe is seene,
Happy wert thou, if happy th'hadst not beene.
Like as the widdower turtle all alone,
Makes sad the shaddowy groves with dolefull mone,
Searching each wood; no wood his mate doth give,
Yet search he will; alone he cannot live:
So is't with thee, whom love ty'd with his knot,
By thee, that love can never be forgot;
Thou'st lost thy better part, thou pin'st away,
Halfe man, defrauding grave, and wronging day;
Perhaps thy dreames in sleepe doe make thee blest,
While as thou fancies her in midnight rest,
And she belyes thy joy; but once awake,
Then more, and more thou grievest for her sake,
Thou wear'st out nights and dayes in griefe and moane,
Like Orpheus, when Eurydice was gone,
He broke his strings, and Harpe away he cast,
When she the second time to hell had past.
O dolefull case of man! O cruell fa [...]e!
Marry, or not, still wr [...]tched is his state.
Good God! hath wretched man come this farre on,
And yet can finde no joy to build upon,
In Autume such a tempest if he see▪
What thinke you will his stormy Winter be?
¶
Almighty God, who gavest strait command,
To honour parents and our sacred Sires;
That so we may enjoy the promis'd land,
And brooke thy blessings and our hearts desires;
Thou likewise sayest, men doe parents leave
Betaking them to marriage chastity,
That they may to their lawful [...] consorts cleave,
And have some comfort of posterity.
But he that will not for thy sake leave all,
Parents, wife, children, and what goods he hath,
Vnworthy of thee (O Lord) thou dost him call,
Who should be saved by thy blessed death
Some after wedding, drinke the cheerefull wine
Of gladnesse, while their cup doth overflow,
While without dregges of sorrow it doth shine,
What want and trouble meanes they doe not know.
If I shall drinke the water of affliction,
Because the marriage wine is gone and past,
Turne't into nectar of thy benediction;
So shall the wine be best which comes at last.
[...]n all estates, Lord grant me constancy,
Least I with good successe be overjoy'd,
Or yet cast downe with great adversity,
Let me not be with crosses much annoy'd.
What e're the state of this my marriage is,
I shall one day a better wedding see;
With this one comfort, Lord, my Soule I blisse,
With thee Heav'ns Lord, my Soule shall marryed be.
Iacob, great Iuda's sire wrought eare and late,
He thought the time quickly away did slide,
Though worne in night with cold, in day with heat,
All seemed nothing, cause he lov'd his bride.
Shall not my Soule, for Christ the bridegroomes glory,
Suffer what ever mortall crosse shall be,
For all these crosses are but transitory,
His joyes shall last to all eternity.
He did poore soule, so much of thee esteeme,
Delivering thee from Hels infernall pit,
That with his blood, he did thy life redeeme,
That thou may'st with him in his glory sit.
Watch therefore, Soule, let not thy Lights goe out,
Let constant hope, and faith, still persevere,
So when thy blessed Bridegroomes joyfull shout,
Shall rise, thou mayest enter without feare.
Then millions of winged Angels shall,
Vnto Heav'ns gloryous firy-courts thee bring,
And there amongst these troopes Coelestiall,
The Seraphines thy marriage song shall sing.
Habet stimulum in caudâ.
He hath a sting in his tale.
October, or middle age.
VVHen Scorpius in his bending cleyes doth gripe
Phaebus, and gray-haird Ceres fruites are ripe,
Then wisht-for times to husbandmen appeare,
When rurall Gods hath blest the fruitefull yeare;
Then Corne is reapt, and joyfully they mow,
And gather, what in hopes they first did sow;
Then ev'ry man and beast, with sweat doe toyle,
To take the Harvest from the fertile soyle,
When Parents doe enjoy their wish, and see
Their children come to full maturity,
Then is the Harvest of the life of man,
Then ev'ry one endeav'reth what he can.
Like as the Pisemires with their num'rous bands,
Six-footed creatures cover fields and lands,
When they doe carry home their Winter store,
Great stackes of Corne, they lessen more and more:
So men in companies themselves divide,
And rob the world of riches and her pryde.
What Country doth beneath th' Horizon lye,
What sea, what place, not seene by Phoebus eye,
What depth, what darkenesse neere unto the Center,
Is there, to which mans labour doth not venter?
Thus India sometime rich, doth now complaine,
And Pactol, which with Gold, Midas did staine:
Tagus, and Iber, once did richly flow,
But now their Channels mosse doth overgrow,
Now seeke they, what they gave, from forraigne coastes,
In vaine now Corinth of her Copper boasts:
The daughters of the Sunne doe not decore
With Amber teares Eridanus his shore:
In vaine th' Arabian picks the glistring sands
For Gemmes, Sidon admires her empty strands.
Sparta no scarlet▪ Amycle no wooll
Produceth, other coasts are thereof full;
The Phoenix knowes not where her nest to build▪
Sabea cannot savory spices yeeld,
Paros exhausted is of Marble stone,
Mauri [...]ias precious tables are all gone;
And thou faire Babylon, some time agoe
What were thy hangings, now thou dost not know;
Persia take heede, the Chalybes can give
No iron, though in this iron age they live;
Salon thy darts are gone, which thou was wont,
Amidst thy streame▪ to temper hard as flint;
Ceres from fertile Gargara hath fled,
And Sicily by Enna scarce is fed;
Dodon no Acornes, Egypt Lentiles send,
Nor doe we now Methymnas grapes commend;
In Gaurus and Falernas wines are rare,
With Hymet any place dare most compare,
Corsicke no honey yeelds; Ida hath lost
His pines; of groaves Parnassus cannot boast,
Idume sends no palmes, nor Cyrnus yewes,
Nor Pestum roses of so many hewes;
Cilicias gardens seldome saffron sees;
Eurotas banck's doe beare no olive trees,
Now Pontus bezer, Colchis poyson lacke,
This long agoe doth mourne for Argos sake.
Industrious mankind patient of great toyle,
Make monsters, men, beasts, fish, fowles change their soyle.
The glory of horses, Epire hath forsaken,
And Britaine hath Calabrius glory taken,
Whose sheepe doe goe beyond Euganean flockes,
With snowlike fleeces and their curled lockes,
The Lyons which kings Iubas land hath bred,
We see them in our chaines and fetters led;
The Daunian wolves, Spartan, Molossian dogges,
The Marsian Bores▪ Arcadian beares, and hogges;
The African may here his monsters find,
His painted birds, and foules of strangest kind.
O mankind borne to beare care and distresse,
Who darest Natures furthest bounds trangresse,
Thou plow'st the seas, not fearing dolefull wracke,
And tramplest on the Tyran Neptunes backe,
Thou dost the ruines of the Heav'n uphold,
Thou dost thy selfe in foamy waves enfold,
Thou dar'st the wind, and wearyest threatning fate,
When Heav'n and stormy seas, are at debate;
Oft times thy lodging is a roaring rocke,
Or planke, to stormes thou'rt then a mocking stocke;
Thou seest thy fellowes tumble, nor dost know,
What first shall give thee deaths last cursed blow.
Then call'st thou Heaven for helpe, and none canst find,
Encreasing seas with teares, with sighes the wind;
But when thou com'st unto the wisht-for shore,
Thou wilt not vow, that thou shalt saile no more,
But while thou shipbroke, beg'st for misery,
Thou think'st another voyage how to try.
Thou know'st not how at home to live in rest,
Meanely, and therefore still will be distrest.
Some seeke Niles source, the Poles some come so neere,
That light and darkenesse doth compleat a yeere;
There new-found Lands, nor can one world suffice,
What mans too curious fancy doth devise;
Some digge earths cavernes, not unlike to moles,
Hating the day, they live in pits and holes,
And from Cimmerian darkenesse of the hell,
They seeke their riches from curst Pluto's cell.
Some like the fishes dive into the strands,
And there doe grople 'mongst the rockes and sands.
O toylesome Lote of men! hath so the fates
Ordain'd their life? O hard commanding fates!
Nature thought good her treasures to conceale,
Which nothing, besides labour, can reveale.
The Oxe bred bees with stings defend their hives,
And fight for them, as for their dearest lives:
The Rose is fenc't with prickies round about,
He must be prickt, who seekes to finde them out,
The Moly beares a blossome white as snow,
His swarthy roote deepe in the earth doth grow,
It cureth maladies of every kinde,
But hardly digged up, when men it finde:
With all the grove so Proserpine doth cover
The bough, with which men Lethes flood passe over,
Who seeke from the Hesperides a prize,
Must lull a sleepe the Dragons watchfull eyes.
What nature hath produced worke it must,
Heav'n by th' intelligence about is thrust,
It knowes no rest, the sunne from East doth rise,
And towards West doth course along the skies,
Vp from the Goate he climes to Cancers seate,
Then to the Goate againe he makes retreate.
The Moone her courses multiplyeth so
That still one countenance she ne're doth shew;
The earth keepes seasons of the yeere, in spring
She bringeth forth the buddes of every thing;
In summer she them heate and moysture yeelds,
With corne in Autumne she doth crowne the fields,
But when the Winter stormes and windes doe blow,
She's wrapped up with seede in fleece of Snow:
The Sea rests never, beasts must undergoe
The yoke of toyle, and mankinde must live so.
Then you my fellowes let us still advance,
Through all these hazards of unluckie chance,
Our lot is elsewhere, joy shall come at last,
Then gladly shall we thinke of troubles past.
¶
From mornings East, unto the evenings West,
From South, to North, as Poles doe rise and fall,
Men framing Fortune still seeke for the best,
And oft too curious are deceiv'd of all.
They seeke what fire and water can destroy,
Or moth consume, or theefe can steale away,
Or wherein they doe place their greatest joy,
The enemy can take it as a prey.
Heav'n hath my treasure with my Lord and King,
With companies of glorious Saints in blisse,
Where holy quires doe dance triumph and sing,
They follow, and our Saviour leader is.
Here Nectar rivers every where doe flow,
Ioy without sorrow, holy daliance,
Here stands Ambrosias heapes, where ere you goe,
And what immortall glory can advance.
If you should multiply ten thousand ages,
They shall not end this joy and glorious light,
Nay though you goe beyond ten thousand stages,
Nor all the dayes which never shall know night.
Hither lead me, O Lord through all distresse,
O're mountaines of the land, rockes of the seas,
Through whatsoever hath no quietnesse,
Through stormes and thunder, if it so Thee please.
So that the Haven of this my voyage be,
Heav'ns rest, so that the goale be of my race,
The Court of Angels, who attend on Thee,
And in thy Fathers house some dwelling place.
Sagitta in nervo est.
I have bended my bow.
November, or age farre spent.
VVHen Pleiades doe rise from Easterne hindge,
And now November latter harvest brings
Vshering the Winter; men doe Ceres huccen,
Which is unhusked by hard▪ treading Oxen;
Then from the pressed grapes the wine runnes downe,
And Muste with Nectars foame, the Fats doth crowne;
From waxen cels, some doe the hony straine,
And pots are full, while empty hives complaine;
Then every one workes what in him can lye
Yet all one and the same worke doe not ply.
Even such-like men in full ripe age, we finde,
Whose faces differ no more then their minde;
Each one a diverse palate hath, nor can
One taste that which likes well another man;
Some soare like Eagles, and will reach the sky,
Others, like vermine, in earths dust doe lye;
There few, or none, but whom great Iove doth love,
Who keepe the meane, who wise and happy prove.
Ambition mortals greatest plague doth hye,
Vpwards, and with Icarian wings will flye;
While Gyant-like, she will rob Heav'n of all,
She catcheth still the more notorious fall.
Pellas faire flower, who could not be content
With the rich conquest of the Orient,
Nor with a mortall father did proclaime
Himselfe Ioves bastard, to his Parents shame;
The hoofe which Lethes water did containe,
Did prove him mortall, and his hopes but vaine,
Whose huge desires, one world could not suffice,
A short and narrow coffin was his prize.
God tyrans flouts, nor can with pride away,
Without a rivall, he the world doth sway,
Nor could Alcides club or hayrie coate,
Save from a fatall rope Commodus throate.
Caligula most impious amongst men,
Dar'd to behead his Country Gods, and then
Did cause their shoulders his gold'n head up beare,
That all might worship him with divine feare.
O curst impiety that can no way
Be expiated! which with Heaven's scepter sway,
And match their Scepters with Ioves thundring hand,
Who doth the greatest Monarchies command,
There Scepters are but fraile, and fortune strange,
There Scepters with a beggers staffe doth change;
Why doe these purple tyranes often dye
Shedding their purple soules most cruelly?
Because Heav'ns Deity then doe contemne,
And like Salmonius thunder amongst men.
For others Fortune wisely did foresee,
Cradels well fitting with their low degree,
Commanding them no wayes t' aspire so high
As to usurpe sacred supremacy:
Yet some have so ambitious desire,
They will not live second in Romes Empire.
Monsters of men, Earths plagues▪ Hells cursed brood,
They will be wicked cause the Gods are good,
Seeking t' ensnare Earthes Sacred government:
Besides curst treason they have no intent,
But yet heav'ns hand can still that power defend,
Which to its blest anoynted it doth lend;
They're authors of their woe, they catch a fall,
And cursed death just Nemesis of all,
Who scale the Cedars finde top-boughes too weake,
Which once oppressed easily doe breake:
Much like a whirle [...] wind rushing from above,
Waxing still more, the more that it doth move,
While it doth wrastle with the aged Oake,
It weak'ns its eager strength at every stroke:
So doth ambition vex those, who doe flye,
With all their might to supreame dignity;
Which when they cannot reach, they breake their strength,
And with their weight, they fall to ground at length,
They seeke the honours 'gainst the Eternall Will
Of Iove. When thunder strikes the highest hill,
More safely in a cottage you may lurke,
Then in a Pallace cursed treason worke,
Better with Clymene at home t'abide,
Then Phoebus flaming horses to misguide;
What greater madnesse then to tempt the Sunne
With waxen wings, which presently will runne?
Saile softly; Fortune passeth by the shores,
Catching the ship, which with her streamers soares.
O happy mankind, if men once did know
With meane estate themselves content to show!
That life is safest which doth keepe a meane,
Free from ambition, and from falshood cleane;
It neither stands nor fals at vulgars breath,
Nor feares ambitious Sejans cursed death;
Nor Manlius fate, who would be Lord of Rome,
And from the Capitol had both praise and doome.
Some men doe seeke with gold, their bagges to fill,
And hoording treasures, thirst for treasures still;
They scrape what ever flowes from Hermus sand,
And what the red sea casteth forth to land,
They deifie their riches and their store;
The more it is, they seeke for more and more;
Their chincky breasts they cannot fill with gold,
Their hearts desire their coffers cannot hold:
They covet more, the greater state they have,
And having purchas'd more, still more they crave;
Thou cursed Plague of mankinde avarice,
Author of woe and Hydra of all vice,
Earths Genious thou onely dost adore,
Neglecting Heav'n which lasts for evermore;
Thou like the dropsie still thy thirst do'st feede,
The more thou drinkest, greater is thy neede,
With care and feare, the more thou dost possesse,
With griefe thou thinkest thy riches lesse and lesse,
Were't not for thee, mortals might happie be,
Such as the blessed golden age did see;
Good without feare of Lawes, who still did smile
Content with ev'ry state, rich without guile.
Some love to feast their bellies all the day,
With Salian cates in idlenesse and play;
They doe devoure whole woods and lakes, and Seas,
And Falerne mountaines, so their gut to please;
They feast the Sunne, carowsing to the night,
And wearie out the next insuing light.
Tell me whose glory is onely dainety fare,
Such as Vitellius, Aesops dishes were;
Tell me who Ceres doubtfull suppers love,
At last, what doth your waste and charges prove?
These soft delights doe breake your sinewie strength,
And dropsie shaketh loose your joynts at length;
What comes of all your cates? the jakes can tell,
Which turnes your gold into Mephitis smell.
Thrice and more happy is the sober man,
Who on a little live contented can;
Like Heraclitus, who with meale and water
Maintaines the peace, and knowes not how to flatter;
He think't enough, what God doth sparely give,
And in his meane estate doth richly live:
He doth his bread-corne by the Plough provide,
And loves to sup hard by the river side:
Whose water to his sober pallate tasteth,
Better then Nectar, which the gluttons wasteth;
His minde is constant, chaste, and moderate,
Himselfe is honest, strong, and temperate;
Like Curij and Camilli, who did dwell
In cottages, whom nothing ere could quell;
Or like Serranus who his plough did leave,
That he Romes powerfull ensignes might receive;
O happy Soules, who with eternall praise,
Did blesse their Country, and their trophees raise.
The Souldier, who with firy courage stands,
Against the Martiall fierce encountring bands,
Who with his sword makes way, and will not flie,
Maintaining Church, and Countries liberty;
Whether in darkenesse he ly'th centenall,
Or doth entrench his forces with a wall,
Or on a suddaine fell downe tallest woods,
Or undermine strong Townes, or swim o'refloods,
Or breake the ice, search Foordes, assaile the Ports,
Or with fierce warlike engines batter Forts;
He for his Countryes sake, is glad to dye,
And will with honest wounds his courage try,
While first he scales the wall, and thorow runnes,
The Fortlets, fearing neither swords nor gunnes.
So when he leads his captive foes in chaines,
When iron-men, when Horse, and Mars his traines
Doe show his spoyles, and with his Trophees march,
The fight is read in the triumphall Arch,
With feasts and shewes, they doe renue the day,
With triumph-songs his glory they display;
Trumpets forgetting ire, sound joy and peace▪
He in his chariot rides aloft with grace.
So through the ruine of the wall he goes,
And feeds the eyes of all men with his showes;
Higher he cannot reach, but fall he may,
From top of glory into mire and clay;
Fortune with Triumphs deales unconstantly,
And victory with doubtfull wings doth flye.
Boast of thy triumphs Hannibal and tell,
How thou the Ports of Rome with feare didst quell,
Measure their Knights in bushels, mountaines breake
With vineger; when fortune shall forsake
Thy standard, thou must serve a forraigne King,
Till thou at length dy'st by thy poyson'd ring;
Why boasts Achilles that fierce Hector's gone,
If Paris shall revenge his death anone;
From Troy with triumph Agamemnon goes,
But (ah) at home he findes his fa [...]all foes.
Inconstant lot of men, which greatest things,
To greater downfall and confusion brings!
If Craesus hold the toppe of Fortunes wheele,
Cyrus anon will cause him downeward reele,
Vntill incensed Tomyris doth thrust
His head in blood, his honour in the dust;
So fortune constant in unconstancy,
And false, thou changest lowest things with high.
Happy is he who sets himselfe for all
Chances, who hopes a rising, feares a fall,
And so doth guide his life in all estates,
That he nor cares for Fortunes smiles nor threats:
Like as a rocke which stands with fixed rootes,
At windes and whirling tempests scoffes and flouts;
They breake themselves while with impetuous chocke
They dash and butte against th' unmoved rocke;
Even so a wise man, if a tumult rise,
Can vulgar feares and levity despise,
If fates doe crosse him with an hatefull ire,
Before his patience, their despight doth tire.
Nay if the world should fall about his eares,
It would not quell his constant heart with feares.
¶
Grant courage Lord, and by thy saving grace,
Through all mine hostile troupes me safely leade,
Suffer me not to shrinke from ranke and place,
But fight 'gainst treach'ry, envy, feare and dread.
My inward enemy doth my heart assaile,
My outward foe with wounds upon me set,
Goe where I will, my foemen doe prevaile,
With Satans bloody ambush I'me beset.
Thou'rt my Captaine, Thou'rt my God and Lord,
My castle, safety, rocke, defence, and prize
Thy shaddow, safeguard can to me afford,
Gainst all what ever enemies devise.
Till they be put to rout, and I set free,
Then shalt thou Tyrans to subjection bring
Vnder thy great Man-person'd Deity,
And with their bands, their rebell neck's shall wring.
When from Heavens corners, trumpets loud shall blow,
When thou O Lord the wicked dost endite,
Thou in the clouds shalt make a glorious show,
And with thy Fathers blessed ones invite.
O what a triumph shall that triumph be,
When godly men shall from their graves arise
Before their Saviour; and impiety
Shall stand before their Iudges flaming eyes.
The wicked shall passe to Sulphureous fire,
There tortures to endure without all end,
The flame, the worme, the whips that never tyre,
And to eternall darkenesse be condemn'd.
The godly mount on high with glorious song,
Mongst Seraphims and Cherubims most bright,
With triumph-pomp, convoying Christ along
T'enjoy all pleasure, glory in Gods sight.
Fruor Par [...]tis.
I enjoy my fruits.
WINTER.
December, or old age.
VVHen Phoebus makes to Capricorne retreat,
In Southward declination lessoning heat,
Then days doe languish and the sa [...]der yeare,
Lookes gloomy with his cold and dolefull cheare;
Not like that yeare, which Flora's pride did show,
With Roses red, and Lillies white as snow;
The dayes halfe-shortned more and more decrease,
The nights extended and the Light growes lesse;
Then mortals in Cimmerian darkenesse dwell.
The aire with hoare-frost, winds with coldnesse swell;
Rivers are duld with ice, the earth is bound
With cold, and pooles of teares o'reflow the ground;
The Sea lookes gray with waves, and every thing
Doth droope, for absence of the pleasant spring:
So sad and slow, old age on man doth seize,
Fraughted with evils, an Hydra of cursd disease,
Lothing it selfe, oft so it hates the day,
That joyfully it makes it selfe away.
Then crasie gray-haires cloathes the head with snow,
And swanlike plumes about the temples grow:
Like as an Oake which Boreas bare hath made,
Look's bald, onely its stocke doth cast a shade;
So mans malignant age, with dreary fate,
Doth rob him of his lockes, and peele his pate.
Leafs fall, shewes Winter, man is neere to dye,
When age the fatall razor doth supply.
What now availes the Ivory beauties grace,
Which did with Pestane Roses paint the face,
As Amaranths which grow white Lillies by,
Or Thracian snow, which takes vermillion dye,
Now is it plough'd with wrinckles and lookes wan,
And leane, more like a with'red weed then man;
Like scorched grasse, when Sirius heate doth burne,
And into ashes doth earths moysture turne:
His cheekes are hollow, his body looketh thin
In place of muscles hangs a wrinckled skin:
His gemme-like eyes sometime Dames natures pryde
Are dim, and now for shame themselves doe hide,
They scarce can see the Sunne, they're blinde as Moles,
In place of eyes, we see nothing but holes.
His back's a ridged bone, his shoulders bend,
Which sometimes could with Pelops well contend;
All feature's gone, his beauties faire and bright
Is made a sceleton and ugly sight.
Mad Paris; why to Sparta dost thou hye,
To breake the lawes of hospitality?
Why dost thou call the Grecian fleete to Troy,
Which 'fore it doth returne will it destroy?
Is 't cause thy brest with love is set on fire,
And thou nothing but Hellen canst desire?
Looke to thy mothers wrinckles and her face,
Which age and filthy leannesse doth disgrace;
Her bleardnesse and her age thou dost detest
Yet once it kindled fire in Priams brest:
Helen thy greatest joy and sole delight,
After thy death and Iuno's deadly spight,
After friends slaughters, and thy sisters rape,
Shall scratch her wrinckles like a munckie Ape,
And oft with teares shall blot the looking glasse,
Seeing what she is now, and what she was.
What profits strength, when feeble age doth shrinke,
The body under his owne weight shall sinke,
Ioves sacred oake, whose growing standing age,
Two hundred yeeres hath stood 'gainst Boreas rage,
When the third fatall age is come at last,
It staggers yeelding to the meanest blast:
Atlas, who did the starry Heaven uphold,
When worne with space of yeares [...]e waxed old,
He laide his charge Alcides necke upon,
Whom Iove begetting▪ drove two nights in one:
Milon, who learnd to carry by degrees
A Bull, did weepe to see his feeble knees,
When worne with age, his sinews he did find,
And Limbes not answering to his champion minde.
The Lyon, at whose noyse, the woods did quake,
And every beast, with dreadfull feare did shake,
Now broken with yeares, he scarce his taile can drag,
Behind the silly flockes he's forc'd to lagge,
He's hunger bitten, the herds securely play,
He sees, but cannot catch his wonted prey.
Even so the Souldier who did weare a Crowne
Of Oake, and oft triumphed with renowne,
(Such as brave Cocles for his Country stood,
Or Romulus sprinkled with Acrons blood,
Or stout Marcellus, or fierce Cossus which
Did Iupiter Feretrius all enrich)
Now free to Mars he hangeth up his armes,
Nor is he sturred up with fierce alarmes;
When Martiall trumpets sound, and drummes are beaten,
When horses neigh, when noyse the starres doth threaten,
He sits unmov'd, nothing his courage whets,
His wonted heate and spirit he forgets.
The Marriner who saild the Pygmies coast▪
After with many stormes he hath beene tost,
He takes himselfe to rest, because he can
Not now endure the raging Ocean;
He hangs his pitchie cloathes on Neptunes shrine,
The land both him and ship doth now confine,
Both weary of Sea; it rots upon the shore,
He lyes at home, cause he can saile more;
That which the Sea hath left, and stormes and toyle,
He minds to trust it to his Country soyle.
Sweetenesse is gone, nothing but dregs remaine,
The bottome doth both least and worst containe.
Why seeke you wretched men to reckon your dayes
With three ag'd Nestor? as if it were praise,
To live beyond the Stagge, and Crow; no day
Doth want his crosse, each houre which doth delay
Our death, prolongs our misery, our woe
Encreaseth more, the more in age we grow;
The leaking ship, the longer way she makes,
The greater danger still she undertakes;
And if she shall lanch further in the deepe,
No skilfull Art can her from shipwracke keepe.
Thrice happy Troile who did bravely dye,
Before thy gray-haires tasted misery;
If destinies had so with Priame delt,
He should not have so grievous sorrowe's felt,
His childrens death, rapes, flames and clam'rous groanes▪
Nor with his blood, have drench'd the Altar stones.
What doth not age consume? The monument
Of Caria's gone, the Pyramids are spent;
Rhodes graet Colossus now is turn'd to nought,
And strength of body is to weakenesse brought;
Age lessning vigour turnes man to a ghost,
Who lately did of nerves and sinewes boast.
Beauty decayes, wealth cannot cure disease,
On Natures gifts, consuming age doth seize;
Constant and firme, Vertue remaines alone,
And comforts age, when strength and all are gone,
Gray-haires provision. Like as Phoebus bright
Darkneth the Planets with his greater light;
So vertues greatnesse doth all sorrowesquell
And suffers not hearts sad complaints to swell.
It doth content it selfe, its owne reward
In greatest danger, still the safest guard.
When flames did Syracuses Castles burne,
When Roman forces did them overturne;
Mongst slaughters, clamours, ruines, deadly noyse,
Thou Archimedes onely didst rejoyce;
Alcyon-like in trouble thou hadst rest,
And scarsely felt the sword thrust in thy brest.
O happy rest of minde, O onely pleasure,
Comfort of age, mans blest and onely treasure,
Thou lessnest woe, nothing can thee annoy,
In midst of misery, thou affordest joy.
¶
Gray bayres encompasse now my head, snowes
Tell me that Boreas blowes.
A foggy dimmenesse doth my eyes assaile,
My grinders gin to faile.
My staggering pillars cannot stand at all,
My house is neere to fall.
Old age brings with it sicknesse and disease,
My limbes seeke sluggish ease.
All pleasure's gone; it doth me sore annoy,
To thinke of youths delight and former joy.
My mind doth dreame of Ghostes, before mine eyes
Deaths image still doth rise.
When errours of my youth I call to mind,
Old age doth sorrow finde.
Youths glory like the rainebowes painted spheres,
Doth vanish into teares.
O Father pardon and with saving faith,
Repaire what losse age hath.
Let thy good spirit quicken thy grace in me,
That Heav'n my thought, my hearts desire may be.
Grant me assurance of forgivnesse Lord,
Earnest of sprit and word.
So shall the thought of Heavens eternall rest,
Comfort my soule distrest.
So let me be dissolv'd, to be with Thee,
Our Father, Lord, to see.
Where blessed peace, eternall joy doth dwell,
Which no time e're can quell.
Where faith doth sight, and hope doth wish obtaine,
Where endlesse love for evermore shall raigne.
Cavete.
Take heed.
Ianuary, or Death.
VVHen cold Aquarius empties all his paile,
And Iupiter with clouds the world doth vaile,
When noysing tempest jerks the winter sky,
And crackling haile, alongs the aire doth flye,
Then to earths bowels Plants do send their juice,
And every thing benummed stands with ice;
If any seeds of life are to be found,
They lye etombed in the frosty ground;
The groaning woods, their burthens cannot beare,
Which from the stocke the boughs and barke doe teare,
With icy setters rivers fast are bound.
And in a Crystall coffing Lakes are found,
Live fishes in dead waters swimme, and cold,
Cramplike, the earth doth with Convulsion hold:
Mans winter is, when he hath waxed old,
And with his staffe, can scarce himselfe uphold;
The lesse he growes, the heavier he him finds,
And stooping downe, nothing but grave he minds,
Thither he hastning with three feete, cannot
Make good his pace, and fals in Charons boat.
We know our birth; there's one way to this light,
But more then thousand wayes to fatall night;
The destinies doe cut the threed new spunne,
As well as that, which wearing hath undone.
Death misseth none, and Proteus could not take
More shapes, then she strange kinds of death can make;
To some more cruell torments she invents,
Gibbet and Racke, which naturall death prevents;
To some more meeke, them softly she outweares,
Substracting life, by multiplying yeares;
What man can tell the many thousand kindes
Of strange diseases, which for man she findes?
Sunne never so many A tomes fly,
As fates have wayes for our Mortality;
We have one life, we may a thousand wayes
Lose it; each stroke of pulse can end our dayes.
Whether consumption us extenuate,
As waxe with lingring fire is macerate,
Or too much heate or moysture doth us quell,
Or squincie inflames the jawes and makes them swell;
Or aches, meegrimes, head-tormenting paine,
And staring catalepsis from the braine;
Or a continuall sleepe of lethargie,
Or giddy shaking of some Artery;
Or strong Convulsion fits of crampe or goute,
Or leprosie which paints the skinne without;
And deadly water which puffes up the skin,
Thirsting the more, the more it swilleth in:
Or running cancer usher us to death,
Or vitall bellowes scarce afford us breath;
Or poxe or measles; cunning death doth know
A thousand trickes mans life to overthrow,
But none more grievous than infectious ayre,
Which lyeth waste this Fabricke every where;
Then fainting brookes with Lethes streames doe flow,
Clouds big with death abroad doe poyson blow;
When men and beasts mortality doe breath,
And beasts for dew, from grasse doe licke their death:
Heav'n raines infection, suddaine death doth fall
Like Manna, meat's made poyson, honey gall.
It rageth most 'gainst men, as we have seene,
Who of this evill partakers late have beene;
When raging in this land both night and day,
It did not tithe, but sweepe whole townes away;
As thou (alasse) faire London well canst tell,
How thou Thames river with thy teares didst swell;
They could declare, whom sepulchers cannot
Containe, nor yet have past in Charons boat;
The Plague more grievous is then death, no wits
Can ere devise more fearefull lookes and fits;
A heavy languor doth their spirits tire,
Their eyes with flames, their faces burne with fire;
A scorching vapour doth their head possesse;
The sore bursts forth; their eyes with stupidnesse
Doe stare; their nostrils drop with filthy gore;
Their eares doe tingle, and their griefe is more:
Their bowels like to burst with sighes and mones,
Draw from their inward parts most grievous grones,
Their tongues swell in their throates, and thirst them kils,
They grasp cold stones, when they have their wils:
Blacke wheales arising give a certaine token,
That now their fatall threed of life is broken.
No mortall evill like this Pandora brought,
Nor such disease stepmother Nature wrought:
The double-headed serpent with his sting,
Nor sandy viper, can such venime bring,
Nor Scytale, whose back's like glistring gold,
Nor thirsty Snake, nor Salamander cold,
Nor rotting Horne▪ worne, nor the Scorpions taile,
Nor Toade, nor wide▪mouth'd serpent so prevaile,
Nor Africks Aspe nor Basiliske, who sees
A farre and kils with poyson of his eyes,
Good God, doe banish such a curse away,
That friends, their friends in sicknesse comfort may.
How many in the Oceans bottome lye,
Or else by love, or warres revenge, doe dye?
O brittle, fraile, uncertaine life, undone
By thousand evils, and yet not match to one!
Shall fury of Heavn, of Sea, and Land this blow,
And winds concurre a bubble to o'rethrow.
So when the soule the body doth forsake
And can it selfe to fyrie heav'n betake,
Happy that after labours it can goe
To Heav'ns eternall mansions from below,
T' enjoy the pleasures of eternall rest,
With triumphs 'mongst the Angels to be blest;
Happy who after so uncertaine chance
Can safely to the haven of Heav'ns advance.
Perhaps the body hath become a prey
To beasts, or in the ayre doth rot away,
Or feedes the vultures, or by cruell fate,
To greedy fishes hath become a bate:
Few to their mothers belly doe returne,
And few are layd on sav'ry piles to burne,
For whom old women sing a mourning song;
None besides those, who dye their friends among,
Whose kinsmen deere their dying eyes doe shut,
And from their beds them in a coffing put.
So when the soule hath parted cleane away
And left the body like a lumpe of clay:
The carcase is not colder then the love
Of wife and friends, who doe unconstant prove.
The heire in mourning weedes lookes very fine,
He maskes his joy, and thankes the fates divine,
And nature, that his gray-hayr'd father's gone,
And he of all his bagges left heire alone:
He joyes to see the treasures newly found,
The more he sees, his sighes more softly sound:
The dead is sacrificed on the shrine,
Of Proserpine, the heire sayes, All is mine:
And 'cause he cannot goe, he's caried forth
Accompany'd with all his friends of worth:
His trophees flye abroad, and martiall armes,
And warlike trumpets whisper sad alarmes.
Hyr'd mourners shew his yeeres, the pompe so brave,
Convoy him to his cold and sad like grave:
But when they come to deaths pale habitation
And see the pit which gapes with desolation,
They throw the naked coffing in; of all
His friends, not one for love will with him fall:
All gets them gone, he still alone doth lye,
Rottennesse, wormes bate, tale of mortality.
Resurgent.
All shall arise.
February, or Epitaphs, which may be termed Februa, celebrated for the memory of certaine soules.
Epitaph of Adam the first father of mankind.
I First of mankind, made by power divine,
Immortall once, brought death on me and mine.
Alone I stood, but marryed, I became
Cursed, as likewise cursed was my dame.
I sinned first, but not alone, my brood
Were one with me, whether I fell or stood.
Salvation first was preacht to me, as I
By faith, so may my off-spring come thereby.
Of Methusalem the longest liver of mankind.
I'Me he, whom all for age doe wonder at,
Whose minutes fixed starres scarce calculate:
If of the sea, an houre glasse you should make,
Each houre of mine each drop of sea could take;
How many waves in Sea can you devise,
As I have seene Sunnes from the Sea arise?
Oftner than once the Phenix I have knowne,
From spycie cradles freshly to have flowne:
Oakes and their off springs off-spring I did see
Decay'd with fatall yeeres antiquity:
I thought I could not dye; but death me told,
That dye I must, though I were ne're so old:
This comforts me, the longer I did live,
The fates the shorter sleepe of death shall give.
Of Abraham, the Father of the Faithfull.
WHen hope of issue now was all forlorne,
And Sara laughed God of Heaven to scorne,
She straight brought forth, and me a Father made,
Cause I beleeved what Almighty said;
The child the hope was of posterity,
Which to the starres of Heav'n should equall be;
God bid me sacrifice this onely Sonne,
My will h' accepted, as it had beene done.
Tell me, was not this constant faith in me,
To looke for fruites and yet to burne the tree?
So by one Sonne, I was made father then
Of Israel, and of all faithfull men:
As I, so shall my off-spring travlers be
On earth, untill their Country Heav'n they see.
Of Sampson the strongest judge of Israel.
A Nazarite from the wombe, God did me call,
My mother did not taste of wine at all;
The Mighty Iudge of Israel, and the fell
Revenge of Philistimes, as well could tell,
My rivales, whom I quickely did confound,
The Corne which firy foxes burnt on ground,
Those whom I kild with jaw bone of an asse,
Which in my deadly thirst my fountaine was:
So Gaza's gates my strength did testify,
The withes, ropes, web, which I broke easily:
Yet all this strength a silly woman could
Vndoe, seduced with foes-briding gold.
Of David the most holy King of Israel.
I The sweete singer once in Israel
Who lov'd these songs, which lik'd Almighty well,
Who danc'd before the Arke in peoples sight,
Accounted therefore by my Michal light:
I made Harpe, Timbrell, Lute, my whole delight,
Heav'ns harmony, my joy both day and night;
Yet sometimes on my couch these joyes did turne,
In floods of teares, and I did sadly mourne:
As in all things, so in the godly heart
Sorrow and joy by course doe play their part;
Sometimes the heart is calme and sweetely still,
When God the soule doth with his presence fill▪
Sometimes in deadly sorrow it is drown'd,
And then no gracious presence can be found.
Be not cast downe good soule, how e're it goe;
If thou be sad, it shall not still be so.
Of Absalom the fairest of Israel.
THou Absalom great Israels beauty rare.
What did availe thy shape, and feature faire,
What profit made thy lockes and weighty haire,
Thy eyes with which the starres could well compare;
Thy comely cheekes, thy lips vermilion red,
As lillies doe decore the roses bed,
Thy iv'ry shoulders and thy snow-white necke,
Thy youthfull grace which did thy body decke;
Thy dainty armes with their embracements sweete,
Thy body without blemish all compleat?
If now reprochfull vice doth brand thy fame,
And leudnesse of thy life disgrace thy name.
The vertue of the mind thou shouldst have sought,
For beauty, without that, is painting thought.
Of Solomon the wisest and richest King of Israel.
I Once the Solomon, who did excell
In wit, in riches had no paralell,
Who did from Cedars to the Ivy know,
Whose plenteous silver did like slaitestones goe,
Whose glorious fame a Queene brought from the South,
That she a witnesse might be of the truth.
She came, and saw, and wonderd, and did say,
That those were happy, who did with me stay,
I had alone, which all their owne doe call,
Riches, and honour, pleasure, I had all:
Yet I did find all under Sunne to be
Mortall, fraile, brittle, and but vanity.
[...].
FINIS.