Several Poems
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Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
SEVERAL POEMS Compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight; Wherein especially is contained a complete Discourse, and Description of The Four
- ELEMENTS
- CONSTITUTIONS,
- AGES of Man,
- SEASONS of the Yea •
- ASSYRIAN,
- PERSIAN,
- GRECIAN.
And beginning of the Roman Common-wealth to the end of their last King: With diverse other pleasant & serious Poems,
By a Gentlewoman in New-England.
The second Edition, Corrected by the Author, and enlarged by an Addition of several other Poems found amongst her Papers after her Death.
Boston, Printed by John Foster, 1678.
Kind Reader:
HAd I opportunity but to borrow some of the Authors wit, 'tis possible I might so trim this curious work with such quaint expressions, as that the Preface might bespeak thy further Perusal; but I fear 'twill be a shame for a Man that can speak so little, To be seen in the title page of this Woman's Book, lest by comparing the one with the other, the Reader • hold pass his sentence that it is the gift of wom • n not only to speak most but to speak best; I shall leave therefore to commend that, which with any ingenious Reader will too much commend the Author, unless men turn more peevish then women, to envy the excellency of the inferior Sex. I doubt not but the Reader will quickly find more then I can say, and the worst effect of his reading will be unbelief, which will make him question whether it be a woman's work, and ask, Is is possible? If any do, take this as an answer from him that dares avow it; It is the Work of a Woman, honored, and esteemed where she lives, for her gracious demeanour, her eminent parts, her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and discreet managing of her Family occasions, and more then so, these Poems are the fruit but of some few hours, curtailed from her sleep and other refreshments. I dare add little lest I keep thee too long; if thou wilt not believe the worth of these things (in their kind) when a man says it, yet believe it from a woman when thou seest it. This only I shall annex, I fear the displeasure of no person in the publishing of these Poems but the Author, without whose knowledge, and contrary to her expectation, I have presumed to bring to public view, what she resolved in such a manner should never see the Sun; but I found that diverse had gotten some scattered Papers, affected them well, were likely to have sent forth broken pieces, to the Authors prejudice, which I thought to prevent, as well as to pleasure those that earnestly desired the view of the whole.
MErcury
showed
Apollo, Bartas
Book,
Minerva
this and wisht him well to look,
And tell uprightly, which did which excel,
He viewed and viewed, and vow
•
d he could not tell.
They bid him Hemisphear his mouldy nose,
With's cracked leering glasses, for it would pose
The best brains he had in's old pudding-pan,
Sex weighed, which best the Woman, or the Man?
He peer'd, and por'd, & glar'd, & said for wore,
I am even as wise now, as I was before:
They both 'gan laugh, and said, it was no mar'l
The Auth'ress was a right
Du Bartas
Girle.
Good sooth quoth the old
Don,
tell ye me so,
I muse whither at length these Girls will go;
It half revives my chil frost-bitten blood,
To see a Woman once, do ought that's good;
And chode by
Chaucers
Boots, and
Homers
Furrs,
Let Men look toit, least Women wear the Spurrs:
N. Ward.
To my dear Sister, the Author of these Poems.
THough most that know me, dare (I think) affirm
I never was born to do a Poet harm,
Yet when I read your pleasant witty strains,
It wrought so strongly on my addle brains;
That though my verse be not so finely spun,
And so (like yours) cannot so neatly run,
Yet am I willing, with upright intent,
To show my love without a come
•
lement.
There needs no painting to tha
•
••
mely face,
That in its native beauty hath such grace;
What I (poor silly I) prefix therefore,
Can but do this, make yours admired the more,
And if but only this, I do attain
Content, that my disgrace may be your gain.
If women, I with women may compare,
Your works are solid, others weak as Air;
Some Books of Women I have heard of late,
Perused some, so witless, intricate,
So void of sense, and truth, as if to err
Were only wisht (acting above their sphere)
And all to get, what (silly Souls) they lack,
Esteem to be the wisest of the pack;
Though (for your sake) to some this be permitted,
To print yet wish I many better witted;
Their vanity make this to be inquired,
If Women are with wit and sense inspired:
Yet when your Works shall come to public view,
'Twill be affirmed, 'twill be confirmed by you:
And I▪ when seriously I had revolved
What you had done I presently resolved,
Theirs was the Persons, not the Sexes failing,
And therefore did be-speak a modest vailing.
You have acutely in
Eliza
's ditty,
Acquitted Women, else I might with pity,
Have wisht them all to women's Works to look,
And never more to meddle with their book.
What you have done, the Sun shall witness bear,
That for a woman Work 'tis very rare;
And if the Nine, vouchsafe the Tenth a place,
I think they rightly may yield you that grace.
But least I should exceed, and too much love,
Should too too much endeared affection move,
To super-add in praises, I shall cease,
Least while I please myself I should displease
The longing Reader, who may chance complain,
And so requite my love with deep disdain;
That I your silly Servant, stand in the' Porch,
Lighting your Sun-light, with my blinking Torch;
Hindring his minds content, his sweet repose,
Which your delightful Poems do disclose
When once the Caskets op'ned, yet to you
Let this be added, then I will bid adieu,
If you shall think, it will be to your shame
To be in print, then I must bear the blame:
Ifit be a fault, 'tis mine, 'tis shame that might
Deny so fair an Infant of its right,
To look abroad; I know your modest mind,
How you will blush complain, 'tis too unkind:
To force a woman's birth provoke her pain,
Expose her labors to the Worlds disdain.
I know you I say, you do defy that mint,
That stamped you thus to be a fool in print.
'It is true it doth not now so neatly stand,
As if 'twere pollisht with your own sweet hand;
'It is not so richly decked, so trimly tired,
Yet it is such as justly is admired.
If it be folly, 'tis of both, or neither,
Both you and I, we'll both be fo
••
s together;
And he that says, 'tis foolish,
〈◊〉
my word
May sway) by my consent shall make the third,
I dare out-face the worlds disdain for both,
If you alone profess you are not wroth;
Yet if you are, a Woman's wrath is little,
When thousands else admire you in each Tittle.
• W.
Upon the Author; by a known Friend.
NOw I believe Tradition, which doth call
The Muses, Virtues, Graces, Females all;
Only they are not nine, eleven nor three;
Our Auth' r
•
ss proves them but one unity.
Mankind take up some blushes on the score;
Monopolize perfection no more;
In your own Arts, confess yourselves out-done,
The Moon hath totally eclipsed the Sun
Not with her sable Mantle muffl
•
ng him,
But her bright silver makes his gol
•
lo
•
k aim:
Just as his beams force our pa
•
lamps to wi
•
k,
And earthly Fires, within their ashes shrink.
B. W.
I cannot wonder at
Apollo
now,
That he with Female Laurel crowned his brow,
That made him witty: had I leave to chose,
My Verse should be a page unto your Muse
C. B.
In praise of the Author, Mistress Anne Bradstreet, Virtues true and lively Pattern, Wife of the Worshipful Simon Bradstreet Esq
At present residing in the Occidental parts of the World in America, Alias NOV-ANGLIA.
WHat golden splendent STAR is this so bright,
One thousand Mile
•
•
wice told, both day and night,
(From th' Orient first sprung) now from the West
That shines; swift-winged
Phoebus,
and the rest
Of all
Jove
's fiery flames surmounting far
As doth each Planet, every falling Star;
By whose divine and lucid light most clear
Natures dark secret mysteries appear;
Heavens, Earths, admired wonders, noble acts
Of Kings and Princes most heroic facts,
And what e're else in darkness seemed to die,
Revives all things so obvious now to th' eye,
That he who these its glittering rays views over,
Shall see what's done in all the world before.
N. H.
Upon the Author.
'TWere extreme folly should I dare attempt,
To praise this Authors worth with complement;
None but herself must dare commend her parts,
Whose sublime brain's the Synopsis of Arts.
Nature and skill, here both in one agree,
To frame this Master-piece of Poetry:
False Fame, bely their Sex no more, it can
Surpass, or parallel, the best of Man.
C. B.
Another to Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, Author of this Poem.
I'Ve read your Poem (Lady) and admire,
Your Sex to such a pitch should e're aspire;
Go on to write, continue to relate,
New Historyes, of Monarchy and State:
And what the
Romans
to their Poets gave,
Be sure such honor, and esteem you will have.
H. S.
An Anagram. Anna Bradestreate Deer neat An Bartas.
So
Bartas
like thy fine spun Poems been,
That
Bartas
name will prove an Epicene.
Another. Anne Bradstreate Arts bred neat An.
UPON Mrs. Anne Bradstreet Her Poems, &c.
MADAM, twice through the Muses Grove I walked,
Under your blissful bowres, I shrowding there,
It seemed with Nymphs of
Helicon
I talked.
For there those sweet-lip'd Sisters sporting were,
Apollo
with his sacred Lute sat by,
On high they made their heavenly Sonnets fly,
Posies around they strow'd, of sweetest Poesie.
2
Twice have I drunk the Nectar of your lines,
Which high sublim'd my mean born fantasy.
Flusht with these streams of your
Maronean
wines
Above myself wrapped to an ecstacy:
Methought I was upon mount
Hiblas
top,
There where I might those fragran
•
flowers lop,
Whence did sweet odors flow, and honey spangles drop.
3
To
Uen
•
s
shrine no Altars raised are,
Nor venom'd shafts from painted quiver sly,
Nor wanton Doves of
Aphrodites
Carr,
Or fluttering there, nor here forlornly lie,
Lorne Paramours, not chatting birds tell news
How sage
Apollo, Daphne
hot pursues,
Or stately
Jove
himself is wont to haunt the stews.
4
Nor barking Satyrs breath, nor driety clouds
Exhal'd from
Styx,
their dismal drops distil
Within these
Fairy,
flowery fields, nor shrouds
The screeching night Raven, with his shady quill:
But Lyrick strings here
Orpheus
nimbly hitts,
Orion
on his saddled Dolphin sits,
Chanting as every humor, age & season fits.
5
Here silver swans, with Nightingales set spells,
Which sweetly charm the Traveler, and raise
Earths earthed Monarchs, from their hidden Cells,
And to appearance summons lapsed days,
There heavenly air, becalms the swelling frayes,
And fury fell of Elements allays.
By paying everyone due tribute of his praise.
6
This seemed the Scite of all those verdant vales,
And purled springs, whereat the Nymphs do play,
With lofty hills, where Poets rear their tales,
To heavenly vaults, which heavenly sound repay
By echoes sweet rebound, here Ladies kiss,
Circling nor songs, nor dances circle miss;
But whilst those Sirens sung, I sunk in sea of bliss.
7
Thus weltering in delight, my virgin mind
Admits a rape; truth still lie
•
undiscri'd,
Its singular, that plural seemed, I find,
'Twas Fancies glass alone that multipli'd;
Nature with Art so closely did combine,
I thought I saw the Muses treble trine,
Which proved your lonely Muse, superior to the nine.
8
Your only hand those Poesies did compose,
Your head the source, whence all those springs did flow,
Your voice, whence changes sweetest notes arose,
Your feet that kept the dance alone, I trow:
Then veil your bonnets, Poetasters all,
Strike, lower amain and at these humbly fall,
And deem yourselves advanced to be her Pedestal.
9
Should all with lowly Congees Laurel
•
bring,
Waste
Floraes
Magazine to find a wreathe;
Or
Pineus
Banks 'twere too mean offering,
Your Muse a fairer Garland doth bequeath
To guard your fairer front; here 'tis your name
Shall stand immarbled; this your little frame
Shall great
Colossus
be, to your eternal fame.
I will please myself, though I myself disgrace,
What errors here be found, are in
Errataes
place.
J. Rogers.
To her most Honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq these humbly presented.
Of your four Sisters clothed in black and white,
Of fairer Dames the Sun never saw the face;
Though made a pedestal for
Adams
Race;
Their worth so shines in those rich lines you show
Their paralels to find I scarcely know
To climb their Climes, I have nor strength nor skill
To mount so high requires an Eagles quill;
Yet view thereof did cause my thoughts to soar▪
My lowly pen might wait upon those four
I bring my four times four, now meanly clad
To do their homage, unto yours, full glad:
Who for their Age, their worth and quality
Might seem of yours to claim precedency:
But by my humble hand, thus rudely penned
They are, your bounden handmaids to attend
These same are they from whom we being have
These are of all, the Life the Nurse, the Grave,
These are the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry,
That sink, that swim, that fill, that upwards fly,
Of these consists our bodies, Clothes and Food,
The World, the useful hurtful, and the good,
Sweet harmony they keep, yet jar oft times
Their discord doth appear, by these har
•
h rimes
Yours did contest for wealth, for Ar
•
s for Age,
My first do show their good, and then their rage.
My other foures do intermixed tell
Each others faults, and where themselves excel,
How hot and dry contend with moist and cold,
How Air and Earth no correspondence hold,
And yet in equal tempers, how they 'gree
How divers natures make one Unity
Something of all (though mean) I did intend
But feared you'ld judge
Du Bartas
was my friend
I honor him, but dare not wear his wealth
My goods are true (though poor) I love no stealth
But if I did I durst not send them you
Who must reward a Thief, but with his due.
I shall not need, mine innocence to clear
These ragged lines, will doit, when they appear:
On what they are, your mild aspect I crave
Accept my best, my worst vouchsafe a Grave.
From her that to yourself, more duty owes
Then water in the boundess Ocean flows.
March 20. 1642.
ANNE BRADSTREET.
THE PROLOGUE.
1.
TO sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,
Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun,
For my mean pen are too superior things:
Or how they all, or each their dates have run
Let Poets and Historians set these forth,
My obscure Lines shall not so dim their worth.
2.
But when my wondering eyes and envious heart
Great
Bartas
sugar'd lines, do but read over
Fool I do grudge the Muses did not part
'Twixt him and me that overfluent store,
A
Bartas
can, do what a
Bartas
will
But simple I according to my skill.
3.
From school-boys tongue no rhet'rick we expect
Nor yet a sweet Consort from broken strings,
Nor perfect beauty, where's a main defect:
My foolish, broken blemish'd Muse so sings
And this to mend, alas, no Art is able,
'Cause nature, made it so irreparable.
4.
Nor can I, like that fluent sweet tongu'd Greek,
Who lisp'd at first, in future times speak plain
By Art he gladly found what he did seek
A full requital of his, striving pain
Art can do much, but this maxim's most sure
A weak or wounded brain admits no cure.
5.
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a nee
•
le better fits,
A Poets pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
For such despite they cast on Female wits:
If what I do prove well, it would not advance,
They'l say it's stolen, or else it was by chance.
6.
But sure the Antique Greeks were far more mild
Else of our Sexe, why feigned they those Nine
And poesy made,
Calliop
•
's own Child;
So 'mongst the rest they placed the Arts Divine.
But this weak knot, they will full soon untie,
The Greeks did naught, but play the fools & lie.
7.
Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are
Men have precedency and still excel,
It is but vain unjustly to wage war;
Men can do best, and women know it well
Preeminence in all and each is yours;
Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours.
8.
And oh ye high flown quills that soar the Skies,
And ever with your prey still catch your praise,
If e're you deign these lowly lines your eyes
Give Thyme or Parsley wreath I ask no bayes,
This mean and unrefined ure of mine
Will make you glistering gold, but more to shine:
The Four Elements
THe Fire, Air, Earth and water did contest
Which was the strongest, noblest and the best,
Who was of greatest use and might'est force;
In placide Terms they thought now to discourse,
That in due order each her turn should speak;
But enmity this amity did break
All would be chief, and all scorned to be under
whence issu'd winds & rains, lightning & thunder
The quaking earth did groan, the Sky looked black
The Fire, the forced Air, in sunder crack;
The sea did threat the heavens, the heavn's the earth,
All looked like a Chaos or new birth:
Fire broiled Earth, & scorched Earth it choked
Both by their darings, water so provoked
That roaring in it came, and with its source
Soon made the Combatants abate their force
The rumbling hissing; puffing was so great
The worlds confusion, it did seem to threat
Till gentle Air, Contention so abated
That betwixt hot and cold, she arbritrated
The others difference, being less did cease
All storms now laid, and they in perfect peace
That Fire should first begin, the rest consent,
The noblest and most active Element.
Fire.
What is my worth (both ye) and all men know,
In little time I can but little show▪
But what I am, let learned Grecians say,
What I can do well skilled Mechanics may:
The benefit all living by me find,
All sorts of Artists here declare your mind,
What tool was ever framed, but by my might?
Ye Martilists, what weapons for your fight,
To try your valor by, but it must feel
My force? your sword, & Gun, your Lance of steel▪
Your Cannon's bootless and your powder too
Without mine aid, (alas) what can they do:
The adverse walls not shak'd, the Mines not blown▪
And in despite the City keeps her own;
But I with one Granado or Petard,
Set ope those gates, that'fore so strong were barred.
Ye Husband-men, your Coulters made by me
Your Hooes your Mattocks, & what e're you see
Subdue the Earth, and fit it for your Grain
That so it might in time requite your pain:
Though strong limb'd Vulcan forged it by his skill
I made it flexible unto his will▪
Ye Cooks, your Kitchen implements I frame
Your Spits, Pots, Jacks, what else I need not name.
Your daily food I wholesome make, I warm
Your shrinking Limbs, which winter's cold doth harm.
Ye
Paracels
••
too in vain's your skill
In Chemistry unless I help you Still.
And you Philosophers if e're you made
A transmutation it was through mine aid.
Ye silver Smiths your Ure I do refine
What mingled lay with Earth I cause to shine;
But let me leave these things, my flame aspires
To match on high with the Celestial fires:
The Sun an Orb of fire was held of old,
Our Sages new another tale have told:
But be he what they will yet his aspect
A burning fiery heat we find reflect,
And of the self same nature is with mine
Cold sister Earth, no witness needs but thine:
How doth his warmth, refresh thy frozen back
And trim thee brave, in green, after thy black:
Both man and beast rejoice at his approach,
And birds do sing, to see his glittering Coach
And though naught, but
Salmanders
live in fire
And fly Pyrausta called, all else expire,
Yet men and beast Astronomers will tell
Fixed in heavenly Constellations dwell,
My Planets of both Sexes whose degree
Poor Heathen judged worthy a Diety:
There's
Orion
armed attended by his dog;
The
Theban
stout
Alcides
with his Club,
The valiant
Perseus,
who
Medusa
slew,
The horse that killed
Belerophon,
then flew.
My Crab, my Scorpion, fishes you may see
The Maid with balance, wain with horses three,
The Ram, the Bull, the Lion, and the Beagle,
The Bear, the Goat, the Raven, and the Eagle,
The Crown the Whale, the Archer, Bernice Hare,
The Hidra, Dolphin, Boys that water bear,
Nay more, then these, Rivers 'mongst stars are found
Eridanu
•
,
where
Phaeton
was drowned.
Their magnitude, and height, should I recount
My story to a volume would amount,
Out of a multitude these few I touch,
Your wisdom out of little gather much.
I will here let pass my choler, cause of wars
and influence of divers of those stars
When in Conjunction with the Sun do more
Augment his heat, which was too hot before.
The Summer ripening season I do claim
And man from thirty unto fifty frame.
Of old when Sacrifices were Divine,
I of acceptance was the holy sign,
'Mong all my wonders which I might recount,
There's none more strange then
Aetna
's Sulphry mount
The choking flames, that from
Vesuvius
flew
The over curious second
Pliny
slew,
And with the Ashes that it sometimes shed
Apulia
's 'jacent parts were covered.
And though I be a servant to each man
Yet by my force, master, my masters can.
What famous Towns, to Cinders have I turned?
What lasting sorts my kindled wrath hath burned?
The stately Seats of mighty Kings by me
In confused heaps, of ashes may you see.
Wher's
Ninu
•
great wall'd Town, &
Troy
of old
Carthage,
and hundred more in stories told
Which when they could not be overcome by foes
The Army, through my help victorious rose
And stately
London,
(our great
Britain
's glory)
My raging flame did make a mournful story,
But maugre all, that I, or foes could do
That
Phoenix
from her Bed, is risen New.
Old sacred
Zion,
I demolished thee.
So great
Diana
's Temple was by me,
And more then brutish
Sodom,
for her lust
With neighbouring Towns, I did consume to dust
What shall I say of Lightning and of Thunder
Which Kings & mighty ones amaze with wonder,
Which made a
Caesar, (Rome's)
the worlds proud head,
Foolish
Caligula
creep under's bed.
Of
Meteors, ignis satuus
and the rest,
But to leave those to th'wise, I judge it best.
The rich I oft make poor, the strong I maim,
Not sparing Life when I can take the same;
And in a word, the world I shall consume
And all therein, at that great day of Doom;
Not before then, shall cease, my raging ire,
And then because no matter more for fire.
Now Sisters pray proceed, each in your Course
As I, impart your usefulness and force.
Earth.
The next in place Earth judged to be her due,
Sister (quoth she) I come not short of you,
In wealth and use I do surpass you all,
And mother earth of old men did me call:
Such is my fruitfulness, an Epithite,
Which none ere gave, or you could claim of right
Among my praises this I count not least,
I am the original of man and beast.
To tell what sundry fruits my fat soil yields
In Vineyards, Garden, Orchards & Corn-fields,
Their kinds, their tastes, their colors & their smells
Would so pass time I could say nothing else:
The rich the poor, wise, fool, and every sort
Of these so common things can make report.
To tell you of my countries and my Regions,
Soon would they pass not hundreds but legions:
My cities famous, rich and populous,
Whose numbers now are grown innumerous.
I have not time to think of every part,
Yet let me name my
Grecia,
'tis my heart.
For learning arms and arts I love it well,
But chiefly 'cause the
Muses
there did dwell.
I will here skip ore my mountains reaching skies,
Whether
•
yrenean,
or the
Alps,
both lies
On either side the country of the
Gauls
Strong forts, from
Spanish
and
Italian
brawls.
And huge great
Taur
••
longer then the rest,
Dividing great
Arm
•
ia
from the
•
east;
And
Hemus
whose steep sides none foot upon,
But farewell all for dear mount
Hel
•
con.
And wondrous high
Olimpus,
of such fame,
That heaven itself was oft called by that name.
Parn
•
ssus
sweet, I dote too much on thee,
Unless thou prove a better friend to me:
But I will leap ore these hills, not touch a dale,
Nor will I stay, no not in
Tempe
Vale,
I will here let go my Lions of
Nu
••
a
••
,
My Panthers and my Leopards of
Libia,
The Behemoth and rare found Unicorn,
Poysons sure antidote lies in his horn,
And my
Hiaena
(imitates man's voice)
Out of great numbers I might pick my choice,
Thousands in woods & plains, both wild & tame,
But here or there, I list now none to name:
No, though the fawning Dog did urge me sore,
In his behalf to speak a word the more,
Whose trust and valor I might here commend;
But time's too short and precious so to spend.
But hark you wealthy merchants, who for prize
Send forth your well-man'd ships where sun doth rise,
After three years when men and meat is spent,
My rich Commodityes pay double rent.
Ye
Galenists,
my Drugs that come from thence,
Do cure your Patients, fill your purse with pence;
Besides the use of roots, of herbs and plants,
That with less cost near home supply your wants.
But Mariners, where got you ships and Sails,
And Oars to row, when both my Sisters fails?
Your Tackling, Anchor, compass too is mine,
Which guides when sun nor moon nor stars do shine.
Ye mighty Kings, who for your lasting fames
Built Cities, Monuments, called by your names,
Were those compiled heaps of massy stones
That your ambition laid, ought but my bones?
Ye greedy misers, who do dig for gold
For geni
•
s, for silver, Treasures which I hold,
Will not my goodly face your rage suffice
But you will see what in my bowels lies?
And ye Artificers, all Trades and sorts
My bounty calls you forth to make reports,
If ought you have, to use, to wear, to eat,
But what I freely yield upon your sweat?
And Cholerick Sister, thou for all thine ire
Well knowest my fuel must maintain thy fire.
As I ingenuously with thanks confess,
My cold thy fruitful heat doth crave no less:
But how my cold dry temper works upon
The melancholy Constitution;
How the autumnal season I do sway,
And how I force the grey-head to obey,
I should here make a short, yet true Narration,
But that thy method is mine imitation.
Now must I show mine adverse quality,
And how I oft work man's mortality:
He sometimes finds, maugre his toiling pain
Thistles and thorns where he expected grain.
My sap to plants and trees I must not grant,
The vine, the olive, and the fig tree want:
The Corn and Hay do fall before there mown,
And buds from fruitful trees as soon as blown;
Then dearth prevails, that nature to suffice
The Mother on her tender infant
•
lies;
The husband knows no wise, nor father sons,
But to all outrages their hunger runs:
Dreadfull examples soon I might produce,
But to such Auditors 'twere of no use.
Again when Delvers dare in hope of gold
To ope those veins of
Mine,
audacious bold:
While they thus in mine entrails love to dive,
Before they know, they are inter'd alive.
Y'affrighted wights appal'd, how do ye shake,
When once you feel me your foundation quake?
Because in the Abbysse of my dark womb
Your cities and yourselves I oft intomb:
O dreadful Sepulcher! that this is true
Dathan
and all his company well knew,
So did that Roman, far more stout then wise,
Bur'ing himself alive for honors prize.
And since fair
Italy
full sadly knows
What she hath lost by these remed'less woes.
Again what veins of poy
•
on in me l
•
e,
Some kill outright, and some do stupifye:
Nay into herbs and plants it sometimes creeps,
In heats & colds & gripes & drowsy sleeps:
Thus I occasion death to man and beast
When food they seek, & harm mistrust the least.
Much might I say of the hot
Libian
sand
Which rise like tumbling Billows on the Land
Wherein
Cambyses
Army was o'rethrown
(but windy Sister, 'twas when you have blown)
I will say no more, but this thing add I must
Remember Sons, your mould is of my dust
And after death whether interred or burned
As Earth at first so into Earth returned.
Water.
Scarce Earth had done, but th'angry water moved
Sister (quoth she) it had full well behov'd
Among your boastings to have praised me
Cause of your fruitfulness as you shall see:
This your neglect shows your ingratitude
And how your subtlety, would men delude
Not one of us (all knows) that's like to thee
Ever in craving, from the other three;
But thou art bound to me, above the rest
Who am thy drink, thy blood, thy sap and best:
If I withhold what art thou? dead dry lump
Thou bearst nor grass or plant nor tree▪ nor stump
Thy extreme thirst is moistened by my love
With springs below, and showers from above
Or else thy Sun burnt face, and gaping chop
•
Complain to th' heavens if I withhold my drops
Thy Bear, thy Tiger, and thy Lion stout,
When I am gone, their fierceness none needs doubt
Thy Camel hath no strength, thy Bull, no force
Nor metal's found, in the courageous Horse
Hinds leave their calves, the Elephant▪ the Fens
The wolves and savage beasts, forsake their Dens
The lofty Eagle, and the Stork fly low,
The Peacock and the Ostrich, share in woe,
The Pine, the Cedar, yea, and
Daphne
's Tree
Do cease to flourish in this misery,
Man wants his bread and wine, & pleasant fruits
He knows, such sweets, lies not in Earths dry roots
Then seeks me out, in river and in well
His deadly malady I might expel:
If I supply, his heart and veins rejoice,
If not, soon ends his life, as did his voice;
That this is true, Earth thou canst not deny
I call thine
Egypt,
this to verify,
Which by my fatting
Nile,
doth yield such store
That she can spare, when nations round are poor
When I run low, and not o'reflow her brinks
To meet with want, each woeful man be-thinks:
And such I am, in Rivers, showers and springs
But what's the wealth, that my rich Ocean brings
Fishes so numberless, I there do hold
If thou shouldst buy, it would exhaust thy gold:
There lives the oyly Whale, whom all men know
Such wealth but not such like, Earth thou mayest show
The Dolphin loving music,
Arians
friend
The witty Barbel, whose cra
•
t doth her commend
With thousands more, which now I list not name
Thy silence of thy Beasts doth cause the same
My pearls that dangle at thy Darlings ears,
Not thou, but shel-fish yield, as
Pliny
clears.
Was ever gem so rich found in thy trunk,
As
Egypt's
wanton,
Cleopatra
drunk?
Or hast thou any color can come nigh
The Roman purple double
Tirian
Dye?
Which
Caesar's
Consuls, Tribunes all adorn,
For it to search my waves they thought no scorn.
Thy gallant rich perfuming Amber-greece
I lightly cast ashore as frothy fleece:
With rolling grains of purest massy gold,
Which
Spain's Americans
do gladly hold.
Earth thou hast not moe countries vales & mounds
Then I have fountains, rivers lakes and ponds.
My sundry seas, black, white and
Adriatique,
Ionian, Baltique
and the vast
Atlantique,
Aegean, Caspian,
golden Rivers five,
Asphaltis lake
where naught remains alive:
But I should go beyond thee in my boasts▪
If I should name more seas then thou hast Coasts.
And be thy mountains n'er so high and steep,
I soon can match them with my seas as deep.
To speak of kinds of waters I neglect,
My diverse fountains and their strange effect:
My wholesome bathes, together with their cures;
My water Sirens with their guileful lures.
Th'uncertain cause of certain ebbs and flows,
Which wondering
Aristotle's
wit n'er knows.
Nor will I speak of waters made by art,
Which can to life restore a fainting heart.
Nor fruitful dews, nor drops distil'd from eyes,
Which pity move, and oft deceive the wise:
Nor yet of salt and sugar, sweet and smart,
Both when we list to water we convert.
Alas thy ships and oars could do no good
Did they but want my Ocean and my flood.
The wary merchant on his weary beast
Transfers his goods from south to north and east,
Unless I ease his toil, and do transport
The wealthy freight unto his wished port.
These be my benefits, which may suffice:
I now must show what ill there in me lies.
The flegmy Constitution I uphold,
All humors, tumors which are bred of cold:
O're childhood, and ore winter I bear sway,
And
Luna
for my Regent I obey.
As I with showers oft times refresh the earth,
So oft in my excess I cause a dearth,
And with abundant wet so cool the ground,
By adding cold to cold no fruit proves sound.
The Farmer and the Grasier do complain
Of rotten sheep, lean kine, and mildew'd grain.
And with my wasting floods and roaring torren
•
,
Their cattle hay and corn I sweep down current.
Nay many times my Ocean breaks his bounds,
And with astonishment the world confounds,
And swallows Countries up, n'er seen again,
And that an island makes which once was Main:
Thus
Britain
fair (tis thought) was cut from
France
Scicily
from
Italy
by the like chance,
And but one land was
Africa
and
Spain
Untill proud
Gibraltar
did make them twain.
Some say I swallowed up (sure tis a notion)
A mighty country in th'
Atlantique Ocean.
I need not say much of my hail and snow,
My ice and extreme cold, which all men know,
Whereof the first so ominous I rained,
That
Israel's
enemies therewith were brained:
And of my chilling snows such plenty be.
That
Caucasus
high mounts are seldom free.
Mine ice doth glaze
Europes
great rivers over,
Till sun release, their ships can sail no more.
All know that inundations I have made,
Wherein not men, but mountains seemed to wade,
As when
Achaia,
all under water stood,
That for two hundred years it n'er proved good.
Dencalions
great Deluge with many moe,
But these are trifles to the flood of
No
•
,
Then wholly perished Earths ignoble race,
And to this day impairs her beauteous face,
That after times sh
••
never feel like woe,
Her confirmed sons behold my color'd bow.
Much might I say of wracks, but that I will spare,
And now give place unto our Sister
Air,
Air.
Content (quoth Air) to speak the last of you,
Yet am not ignorant first was my due:
I do suppose you will yield without control
I am the breath of every living soul.
Mortals, what one of you that loves not me
Abundantly more then my Sisters three?
And though you love Fire, Earth and Water well
Yet Air beyond all these you know toexcel.
I ask the man condemned, that's near his death,
How gladly should his gold purchase his breath,
And all the wealth that ever earth did give,
How freely should it go so he might live:
No earth, thy witching trash were all but vain,
If my pure air thy sons did not sustain.
The famished thirsty man that craves supply,
His moving reason is, give least I die,
So loath he is to go though nature's spent
To bid adieu to his dear Element.
Nay what are words which do reveal the mind,
Speak who or what they will they are but wind.
Your drums your trumpets & your organs sound,
What isit but forced air which doth rebound,
And such are echoes and report ofth' gun
That tells afar th'exploit which it hath done.
Your Songs and pleasant tunes they are the same,
And so's the notes which Nightingales do frame.
Ye forging Smiths, if bellows once were gone
Your red hot work more coldly would go on.
Ye Mariners, tis I that fill your sails
And speed you to your port with wished gales.
When burning heat doth cause you faint, I cool,
And when I smile, your ocean's like a pool.
I help to ripe the corn, I turn the mill,
And with myself I every
Vacuum
fill
The ruddy sweet sanguine is like to air.
And youth and spring, Sages to me compare,
My moist hot nature is so purely thin,
No place so subti
•
lie made, but I get in.
I grow more pure and pure as I mount higher,
And when I am thoroughly rarifi'd turn fire:
So when I am condens'd, I turn to water,
Which may be done by holding down my vapor.
Thus I another body can assume,
And in a trice my own nature resume.
Some for this cause of late have been so bold
Me for no Element longer to hold,
Let such suspend their thoughts, and silent be,
For all Philosophers make one of me:
And what those Sages either spake or writ
Is more authentic then our modern wit.
Next of my fowls such multitudes there are,
Earths beasts and waters fish scarce can compare.
Th'Ostrich with her plumes, th'Eagle with her ey
•
The Phoenix too (if any be) are mine,
The stork, the crane, the partridg, and the phesant
The Thrush, the wren, the lark a prey to'th' pesant.
With thousands more which now I may omit
Without impeachment to my tale or wit.
As my fresh air preserves all things in life,
So when corrupt, mortality is rife:
Then Fevers, Purples, Pox and Pestilence,
With divers moe work deadly consequence:
Whereof such multitudes have died and fled,
The living scarce had power to bury dead;
Yea so contagious countries have we known
That birds have not 'scapt death as they have flown
Of murrain, cattle numberless did fall,
Me
•
feared destruction epidemical.
Then of my tempests felt at sea and land,
Which neither ships nor houses could withstand,
What woeful wracks I have made may well appear,
If naught were known but that before
Algere,
Where famous
Charles the fifth
more loss sustaind
Then in his long hot war which
Milan
gained.
Again what furious storms and Hurricanoes
Know western Isles, as
Christophers, Barbado
•
s,
Where neither houses, trees nor plants I spare;
But some fall down, and some fly up with air.
Earthquakes so hurtful, and so feared of all,
Imprison'd I, am the original.
Then what prodigious sights I sometimes show,
As battles pitched in th' air, as countries know,
Their joining fighting, forcing and retreat,
That earth appears in heaven, O wonder great!
Sometimes red flaming swords and blazing stars,
Portentous signs of famines, plagues and wars.
Which make the mighty Monarchs fear their fates
By death or great mutation of their States.
I have said less then did my Sisters three,
But what's their wrath or force, the same's in me.
To add to all I have said was my intent,
But dare not go beyond my Element.
Of the four Humours in Mans Constitution.
THe former four now ending their discourse,
Ceasing to vaunt their good, or threat their force,
Lo other four step up, crave leave to show
The native qualities that from them flow:
But first they wisely showed their high descent,
Each eldest daughter to each Element.
Choler was owned by fire, and Blood by air,
Earth knew her black swarth child, water her fair:
All having made obeisance to each Mother,
Had leave to speak, succeeding one the other:
But 'mongst themselves they were at variance,
Which of the four should have predominance.
Choler first hotly claimed right by her mother,
Who had precedency of all the other:
But Sanguine did disdain what she required,
Pleading herself was most of all desired.
Proud Melancholy more envious then the rest,
The second, third or last could not digest.
She was the silentest of all the four,
Her wisdom spake not much, but thought the more
Mild Flegme did not contest for chiefest place,
Only she craved to have a vacant spac
•
.
Well, thus they parle and chide; but to be brief,
Or will they, nill they, Choler will be chief.
They seeing her impetuosity
At present yielded to necessity.
Choler.
To show my high descent and pedigree,
Your selves would judge but vain prolixity▪
It is acknowledged from whence I came,
It shall suffice to show you what I am,
My self and mother one, as you shall see,
But she in greater, I in less degree.
We both once Masculines, the world doth' know,
Now Feminines awhile, for love we owe?
Unto your Sisterhood, which makes us render
Our noble selves in a less noble gender.
Though under Fire we comprehend all heat,
Yet man for Choler is the proper seat:
I in his heart erect my regal throne,
Where Monarch like I play and sway alone.
Yet many times unto my great disgrace
One of yourselves are my Compeers in place,
Where if your rule prove once predominant,
The man proves boyish, sottish, ignorant:
But if you yield subservience unto me,
I make a man, a man in th'high'st degree:
Be he a soldier, I more fence his heart
Then iron Corslet 'gainst a sword or dart.
What makes him face his foe without appal,
To storm a breach, or scale a city wall,
In dangers to account himself more sure
Then timorous Hares whom Castles do immure?
Have you not heard of worthyes, Demi-God's?
Twixt them and others what isit makes the odds
But valor? whence comes that▪ from none of you,
Nay milksops at such brunts you look but blew.
Here's sister ruddy, worth the other two,
Who much will talk, but little dares she do,
Unless to Court and claw, to dice and drink,
And there she will out-bid us all, I think,
She loves a fiddle better then a drum,
A Chamber well, in field she dares not come,
She'l ride a horse as bravely as the best,
And break a staff, provided be in jest;
But shuns to look on wounds, & blood that's spilled,
She loves her sword only because its gilt.
Then here's our sad black Sister, worse then you.
She'l neither say she will, nor will she do;
But peevish Malcontent, musing sits,
And by misprissions like to loose her wits:
If great persuasions cause her meet her foe,
In her dull resolution she's so slow,
To march her pace to some is greater pain
Then by a quick encounter to be slain.
But be she beaten, she'l not run away,
She'l first advise ifit be not best to stay.
Now let's give cold white sister phlegm her right,
So loving unto all she scorns to fight:
If any threaten her, she'l in a trice
Convert from water to congealed ice:
Her teeth will chatter▪ dead and wan's her face,
And 'fore she be assaulted, quits the place.
She dares not challenge, if I speak amiss,
Nor hath she wit or heat to blush at this.
Here's three of you all see now what you are,
Then yield to me preeminence in war.
Again who fits for learning, science, arts?
Who rarifies the intellectual parts:
From whence fine spirits f
•
ow and witty notions:
But tis not from our dull, slow sisters motions:
Nor sister sanguine, from thy moderate heat,
Poor sp
•
rits the Liver breeds, which is thy seat.
What comes from thence, my heat refines the same
And through the arteries sends it over the frame:
The vital spirits they are called▪ and well they may
For when they fail, man turns unto his clay.
The animal I claim as well as these,
The nerves, should I not warm, soon would they freeze
But phlegm herself is now provoked at this
She thinks I never shot so far amiss.
The brain she challengeth, the head
•
s her seat;
But know'ts a foolish brain that wanteth heat.
My absence proves it plain, her wit then flies
Out at her nose, or melteth at her eyes.
Oh who would miss this influence of thine
To be distilled, a drop on every Line?
Alas, thou hast no Spirits thy Company
Will feed a dropsy, or a Tympany,
The Palsy, Gout, or Cramp, or some such dolour:
Thou wast not made, for Soldier or for Scholar;
Of greazy paunch, and bloated cheeks go vaunt,
But a good head from these are dissonant.
But Melancholy, wouldst have this glory thine,
Thou sayst thy wits are staid, subtle and fine,
'It is true, when I am Midwife to thy birth
Thy self's as dull, as is thy mother Earth:
Thou canst not claim the liver, head nor heart
Yet hast the Seat assigned, a goodly part
The sink of all us three, the hateful Spleen
Of that black Region, nature made thee Queen;
Where pain and sore obstruction thou dost work,
Where envy, malice, thy Companions lurk.
If once thou art great, what follows thereupon
But bodies wasting, and destruction?
So base thou art, that baser cannot be,
Th' excrement adustion of me.
But I am weary to dilate your shame,
Nor isit my pleasure thus to blur your name,
Only to raise my honor to the Skies,
As objects best appear by contraries.
But Arms, and Arts I claim, and higher things,
The princely qualities befitting Kings,
Whose profound heads I line with policies,
They'r held for Oracles, they are so wise,
Their wrathful looks are death their words are laws
Their Courage it foe, friend, and Subject awes;
But one of you, would make a worthy King
Like our sixth
Henry
(that same virtuous thing)
That when a Varlet struck him over the side,
Forsooth you are to blame, he grave replied.
Take Choler from a Prince, what is he more
Then a dead Lion, by Beasts triumphed over.
Again you know, how I act every part
By th' influence, I still send from the heart:
It's nor your Muscles, nerves, nor this nor that
Do's ought without my lively heat, that's slat:
Nay th' stomach magazine to all the rest
Without my boiling heat cannot digest:
And yet to make my greatness, still more great
What differences, the Sex? but only heat.
And one thing more, to close up my narration
Of all that lives, I cause the propagation.
I have been sparings what I might have said
I love no boasting that's but Children's trade.
To what you now shall say I will attend,
And to your weakness gently condescend.
Blood.
Good Sisters give me leave, as is my place
To vent my grief, and wipe off my disgrace:
Your selves may plead your wrongs are no whit less
Your patience more then mine, I must confess▪
Did ever sober tongue such language speak.
Or honesty such tyes unfriendly break?
Dost know thyself so well us so amiss?
Isit arrogance or folly causeth this?
I will only show the wrong thou'st done to me,
Then let my sisters right their injury.
To pay with railings is not mine intent,
But to evince the truth by Argument
I will analyse this thy proud relation
So full of boasting and prevarication,
Thy foolish incongruityes I will show,
So walk thee till thou art cold, then let thee go.
There is no Soldier but thyself (thou sayest,)
No valor upon Earth, but what thou hast
Thy silly provocations I despise,
And leaveit to all to judge, where valor lies
No pattern, nor no pattron will I bring
But
David, Judah
's most heroic King,
Whose glorious deeds in Arms the world can tell,
A rosie cheek Musician thou knowest well;
He knew well how to handle Sword and Harp,
And how to strike full sweet, as well as sharp,
Thou laugh'st at me for loving merriment,
And scorn'st all Knightly sports at Turnament.
Thou sayst I love my Sword, because it's gilt,
But know, I love the Blade, more then the Hill
•
,
Yet do abhor such temerarious deeds,
As thy unbridled barbarous Choler breeds:
Thy rudeness counts good manners vanity,
And real Complements base flattery.
For drink, which of us twain like it the best,
I will go no further then thy nose for test:
Thy other scoffs, not worthy of reply
Shall vanish as of no validity:
Of thy black Calumnies this is but part,
But now I will show what soldier thou art.
And though thou'st used me with opprobrious spite
My ingenuity must give thee right.
Thy choler is but rage when tis most pure,
But useful when a mixture can endure;
As with thy mother fire, so tis with thee,
The best of all the four when they agree:
But let her leave the rest, then I presume
Both them and all things else she would consume.
Whilst us for thine associates thou take'st,
A Soldier most complete in all points makest:
But when thou scorn'st to take the help we lend,
Thou art a Fury or infernal Fiend.
Witness the execrable deeds thou
•
st done,
Nor sparing Sex nor Age, nor Sire nor Son;
To satisfy thy pride and cruelty,
Thou oft hast broke bounds of Humanity,
Nay should I tell, thou wouldest count me no blab,
How often for the lie, thou'st given the stab.
To take the wall's a sin of so high rate,
That naught but death the same may expiate,
To cross thy will, a challenge doth deserve
So shed'st that blood, thou art bounden to preserve
Wilt thou this valor, Courage, Manhood call:
No, know 'tis pride most diabolical.
If murders be thy glory, tis no less,
I will not envy thy feats, nor happiness:
But if in fitting time and place 'gainst foes
For countries good thy life thou darest expose,
Be dangers n'er so high, and courage great,
I will praise that prowess, fury, Choler, heat:
But such thou never art when all alone,
Yet such when we all four are join'd in one.
And when such thou art, even such are we,
The friendly Coadjutors still of thee.
Nextly the Spirits thou dost wholly claim,
Which nat'ral, vital, animal we name:
To play Philosopher I have no list,
Nor yet Physician, nor Anatomist,
For acting these, I have no will nor Art,
Yet shall with Equity, give thee thy part
For natural, thou dost not much contest;
For there is none (thou sayst) if some not best
That there are some, and best, I dare aver
Of greatest use, if reason do not err:
What is there living, which do'nt first derive
His Life now Animal, from vegetive:
If thou givest life, I give the nourishment,
Thine without mine, is not, 'tis evident:
But I without thy help, can give a growth
As plants trees and small Embryon know'th
And if vital Spirit
•
, do flow from thee
I am as sure, the natural, from me:
Be thine the nobler, which I grant, yet mine
Shall justly claim priority of thine.
I am the fountain which thy Cistern fills
Through warm blew Conduits of my venial rills▪
What hath the heart but what's sent from the liver
If thou art the taker, I must be the giver.
Then never boast of what thou dost receive:
For of such glory I shall thee bereave.
But why the he art should be usurped by thee,
I must confess seems something strange to me:
The spirits through thy heat made perfect are,
But the Materials none of thine, that's clear▪
Their wondrous mixture is of blood and air,
The first myself, second my mother fair.
But I will not force retorts, nor do thee wrong,
Thy fi'ry yellow froth is mixed among,
Challeng not all, 'cause part we do allow;
Thou knowest I have there to do as well as thou:
But thou wilt fay I deal unequally,
Their lives the ira
••
ible faculty,
Which without all dispute, is Cholers own;
Besides the vehement heat, only there known
Can be imputed, unto none but fire
Which is thyself, thy Mother and thy Sire
That this is true, I easily can assent
If still you take along my Aliment;
And let me be your partner which is due,
So shall I give the dignity to you:
Again, Stomacks Concoction thou dost claim,
But by what right, nor doest, nor canst thou name
Unless, as heat, it be thy faculty,
And so thou challengest her property.
The help she needs, the loving liver lends,
Who th' benefit o'th' whole ever intends
To meddle further I shall be but shent,
Th'rest to our Sisters is more pertinent;
Your slanders thus refuted takes no place,
Nor what you've said, doth argue my disgrace,
Now through your leaves, some little time I will spend
My worth in humble manner to commend
This, hot, moist nutritive humor of mine
When 'tis untaint, pure, and most genuine
Shall chiefly take the place, as is my due
Without the least indignity to you.
Of all your qualities I do partake,
And what you single are, the whole I make
Your hot, moist, cold, dry natures are but four,
I moderately am all, what need I more;
As thus, if hot then dry, if moist then cold,
If this you cannot disprove, then all I hold
My virtues hid, I have let you dim
•
y see
My sweet Complection proves the verity.
This Scarlet die's a badge of what's within
One touch thereof, so beauti
•
ies the skin:
Nay, could I be, from all your tangs but pure
Mans life to boundless Time might still endure.
But here one thrusts her heat, where'ts not required
So suddenly, the body all is fired,
And of the calm sweet temper quite bereft,
Which 'makes the Mansion, by the Soul soon left.
So Melancholy seizes on a man,
With her unchearful visage, swarth and wan,
The body dries, the mind sublime doth smother,
And turns him to the womb of's earthy mother:
And flegm likewise can show her cruel art,
With cold distempers to pain every part:
The lungs she rots, the body wears away,
As if she'd leave no flesh to turn to clay,
Her languishing diseases, though not quick
At length demolishes the Faberick,
All to prevent, this curious care I take,
In th' last concoction segregation make
Of all the perverse humors from mine own,
The bitter choler most malignant known
I turn into his Cell close by my side
The Melancholy to the Spleen toabide:
Likewise the whey, some use I in the veins,
The overplus I send unto the reins:
But yet for all my toil, my care and skill,
Its doomed by an irrevocable will
That my intents should meet with interruption,
That mortal man might turn to his corruption.
I might here show the nobleness of mind
Of such as to the sanguine are inclined,
They're liberal, pleasant, kind and courteous,
And like the Liver all benignious.
For arts and sciences they are the fittest▪
And maugre Choler still
•
hey are the wittiest:
With an ingenious working Fantasy,
A most voluminous large Memory,
And nothing wanting but Solidity.
But why alas, thus tedious should be,
Thousand examples you may
•
aily see.
If time I have transgressed, and been too long,
Yet could not be more brief wi
•
hout much wrong;
I have scarce wiped off the spots proud choler cast,
Such venom lies in words, though but a blast:
No brags i've used, to you I dare appeal,
If modesty my worth do not conceal.
I have used no bittererss, nor
•
axt your name,
As I to you, to me do ye the same.
Melancholy.
He that with two Assailants hath to do,
Had need be armed well and active too.
Especially when friendship is pretended,
That blow's most deadly where it is intended.
Though choler rage and rail, I will not do so,
The tongue's no weapon to assau
•
t a foe
•
But
•
ith we fight with words, we might be kind
To spare ourselves and beat the whistling wind,
Fair rosie sister, so mightest thou scape free;
I will flatter for a time as thou didst me:
But when the first offender I have laid,
Thy soothing girds shall fully be repaid.
But Choler be thou cool
•
d or chaf'd, I will venter,
And in contentions lists now justly enter.
What moved thee thus to vilify my name,
Not past all reason, but in truth all shame:
Thy fiery spirit shall bear away this prize,
To play such furious pranks I am too wise:
If in a Soldier rashness be so precious,
Know in a General tis most pernicious.
Nature doth teach to shield the head from harm,
The blow that's aimed thereat is latcht by th'arm.
When in Batalia my foes I face
I then command proud Choler stand thy place,
To use thy sword, thy courage and thy art
There to defend myself, thy better part.
This wariness count not for cowardice,
He is not truly valiant that's not wise.
It's no less glory to defend a town,
Then by assault to gain one not our own;
And if
Marcellus
bold be called
Rome's
sword,
Wise
Fabius
is her buckler all accord:
And if thy hast my slowness should not temper,
'Twere but a mad irregular distemper;
Enough of that by our sisters heretofore,
I will come to that which wounds me somewhat more
Of learning, policy thou wouldst bereave me,
But's not thine ignorance shall thus deceive me:
What greater Clark or Politician lives,
Then he whose brain a touch my humor gives?
What is too hot my coldness doth abate,
What's diffluent I do consolidate.
If I be partial judged or thought to err,
The melancholy shake shall it aver,
Whose cold dry head more subtlety doth yield,
Then all the huge beasts of the fertile field·
Again thou dost confine me to the spleen,
As of that only part I were the Queen▪
Let me as well make thy precincts the Gall,
So prison thee within that bladder small▪
Reduce the man to's principles, then see
If I have not more part then all you three:
What is within, without, of theirs or thine,
Yet time and age shall soon declare it mine.
When death doth seize the man your stock is lost,
When you poor bankrupts prove then have I most.
You will say here none shall e're disturb my right
You high born from that lump then take your flight
Then who's man's friend, when life & all forsakes?
His Mother mine, him to her womb retakes:
Thus he is ours, his portion is the grave,
But while he lives, I will show what part I have:
And first the firm dry bones I justly claim,
The strong foundation of the stately frame:
Likewise the useful Slpeen, though not the best,
Yet is a bowel called well as the rest:
The Liver, Stomack, owe their thanks of right,
The first it drains, of th'last quicks appetite.
Laughter (though thou say malice) flows from hence,
These two in one cannot have residence.
But thou most grossly dost mistake to think
The Spleen for all you three was made a sink,
Of all the rest thou'st nothing there to do,
But if thou hast, that malice is from you.
Again you often touch my swarthy hue,
That black is black, and I am black tis true;
But yet more comely far I dare avow,
Th
•
n is thy torrid nose or brazen brow.
But that which shows how high your spite is bent
Is charging me to be thy excrement:
Thy loath
•
ome imputation I defy,
So plain a
••
nder needeth no reply.
When by thy heat thou'st back'd thyself to crust;
And so art called black Choler or adust,
Thou witless thinkest that I am thy excretion,
So mean thou art in Art as in discretion:
But by your leave I will let your greatness see
What Officer thou art to us all three.
The Kitchen Drudge, the cleanser of the sinks
That casts out all that man e're eats or drinks:
If any doubt the truth whence this should come,
Shew them thy passage to th' Duodenum;
Thy biting quality still irritates,
Till filth and thee nature exonerates:
If there thou art stopped, to th' Liver thou turn'st in,
And thence with jaundies saffrons all the skin.
No further time I will spend in confutation,
I trust I have cleared your slanderous imputation.
I now speak unto all, no more to one,
Pray hear, admire and learn instruction.
My virtues yours surpass without compare,
The first my constancy that jewel rare:
Choler's too rash this golden gift to hold,
And Sanguine is more fickle manifold,
Here, there her restless thoughts do ever fly,
Constant in nothing but inconstancy.
And what Flegme is, we know, like to her mother,
Unstable is the one, and so the other;
With me is noble patience also found.
Impatient Choler loveth not the sound,
What sanguine is, she doth not heed nor care,
Now up, now down, transported like the Air:
Flegme's patient because her nature's tame,
But I, by virtue do acquire the same.
My Temperance, Chastity is eminent,
But these with you, are seldom resident;
Now could I stain my ruddy Sisters face
With deeper red, to show you her dsgrace,
But rather I with silence vai
•
e her shame
Then cause her blush, while I relate the same.
Nor are ye free from this inormity,
Although she bear the greatest obloquy,
My prudence, judgment, I might now reveal
But wisdom 'tis my wisdom to conceal.
Unto diseases not inclined as you,
Nor cold, nor hot, Ague nor Plurisie,
Nor Cough, nor Quinsey, nor the burning Feaver,
I rarely feel to act his fierce endeavor;
My sickness in conceit chiefly doth lie,
What I imagine that's my malady.
Chymeraes strange are in my phantasy,
And things that never were, nor shall I see
I love not talk, Reason lies not in length,
Nor multitude of words argues our strength;
I have done pray sister Flegme proceed in Course,
We shall expect much sound, but little force.
Flegme.
Patient I am, patient i'd need to be,
To bear with the injurious taunts of three,
Though wit I want, and anger I have less,
Enough o
•
both, my wrongs now to express
I have not forgot, how bitter Choler spake
Nor how her gaul on me she causeless brake;
Nor wonder 'twas for hatred there's not small,
Where opposition is Diametrical.
To what is Truth I freely will assent,
Although my Name do suffer detriment,
What's slan
•
erous repel, doubtful dispute,
And when I have nothing left to say be mute.
Valour I want no Soldier am 'tis true,
I will leave that manly Property to you;
I love no thundering guns nor bloody wars,
My polished Skin was not ordained for Skarrs;
But though the pitched field I have ever fled,
At home the Conquerors have conquered.
Nay, I could tell you what's more true then meet,
That Kings have laid their Scepters at my feet;
When Sister sanguine paints my Ivory face:
The Monarchs bend and sue, but for my grace
My lilly white when joined with her red,
Princes hath slav'd, and Captains captived.
Country with Country, Greece with
Asia
fights
Sixty nine Princes, all stout
Hero
Knights.
Under
Troys
walls ten years will wear away,
Rather then loose one beauteous
Helena.
But 'twere as vain, to prove this truth of mine
As at noon day, to tell the Sun doth shine.
Next difference that 'twixt us twain doth lie
Who doth possess the brain, or thou or I?
Shame forced the say, the matter that was mine,
But the Spirits by which it acts are thine:
Thou speakest Truth, and I can say no less,
Thy heat doth much, I candidly confess;
Yet without ostentation I may say,
I do as much for thee another way:
And though I grant, thou art my helper here,
No debtor I because it's paid else where.
With all your flourishes, now Sisters three
Who isit that dare, or can, compare with me,
My excellencies are so great, so many,
I am confounded; fore I speak of any:
The brain's the noblest member all allow,
Its form and Situation will avow,
Its Ventricles, Membranes and wondrous net,
Galen, Hippocrates
drive to a set;
That Divine Ofspring the immortal Soul
Though it in all, and every part be whole,
Within this stately place of eminence,
Doth doubtless keep its mighty residence.
And surely, the Soul sensitive here lives,
Which life and motion to each creature gives,
The Conjugation of the parts, to th' brain
Doth show, hence flow the pow'rs which they retain
Within this high Built
Cittadel,
doth lie
The Reason, fancy, and the memory.
The faculty of speech doth here abide,
The Spirits animal, from hence do slide:
The five most noble Senses here do dwell;
Of three it's hard to say, which doth excel.
This point now to discuss, 'longs not to me,
I will touch the sight greatest wonder of the three;
The optic Nerve Coats, humors all are mine,
The watery, glassie, and the Chrystaline;
O mixture strange! O color colourless,
Thy perfect temperament who can express:
He was no fool who thought the soul lay there,
Whence her affections passions speak so clear.
O good, O bad, O true, O traitorous eyes
What wonderments within your Balls there lies,
Of all the Senses fight shall be the Queen,
Yet some may wish, O had mine eyes never seen.
Mine, likewise is the
•
arrow, of the back,
Which runs through all the Spondles of the rack,
It is the substitute o'th royal brain,
All Nerves, except seven pair, to it retain.
And the strong Ligaments from hence arise,
Which joint to joint, the entire body tyes.
Some other parts there issue from the Brain,
Whose worth and use to tell, I must refrain:
Some curious learned
Crooke,
may these reveal
But modesty, hath charged me to conceal
Here's my Epitome of excellence:
For what's the Brains is mine by Consequence,
A foolish brain (quoth Choler) wanting heat
But a mad one sail, where 'tis too great,
Frensy's worse then folly, one would more glad
With a tame fool converse then with a mad;
For learning then my brain is not the fittest,
Nor will I yield that Choler is the wittiest.
Thy judgment is unsafe, thy fancy little,
For memory the sand is not more brittle;
Again, none's fit for Kingly state but thou,
If Tyrants be the best▪ I
•
le it allow:
But if love be as requisite as fear,
Then thou and I must make a mixture here.
Well to be brief, I hope now Cholers laid,
And I will pass by what Sister sanguine said.
To Melancholy I
•
le make no reply,
The worst she said was instability,
And too much talk both which I here confess
A warning good, hereafter I will say less.
Let's now be friends; its time our spite were spent,
Lest we too late this rashness do repent,
Such premises will force a sad conclusion,
Unless we agree, all falls into confu
•
ion.
Let Sangine wit
•
her hot hand Choler hold,
To take her moist my moisture will be bold:
My cold▪ cold melancholy hand shall clasp;
Her dry, dry Cholers other hand shall grasp.
Two hot two moist, two cold, two dry here be,
A golden Ring the Posey
UNITY.
Nor jars nor scoffs, let none hereafter see,
But all admire our perfect Amity
Nor be discerned▪ here's water, earth, air, fire,
But here a compact body, whole entire.
This loving counsel pleased them all so well
That flegm was judged for kindness to excel.
Of the four Ages of Man.
LO now four other act upon the stage.
Childhood and Youth the Manly & Old age;
The first son unto flegm, Grand-child to water,
Unstable, supple, co
••
and moist's his nature.
The second frolic, claims his pedigree
From blood and air, for hot and moist is he.
The third of fire and Choler is compos
•
d
Vindicative and quarrelsome disposed.
The last of earth, and heavy melancholy,
Solid, hating all lightness and all folly.
Childhood was clothed in white & green to show
His spring was intermixed with some snow:
Upon his head nature a Garland set
Of Primrose, Daizy & the Violet.
Such cold mean flowrs the spring puts forth betime
Before the sun hath thoroughly heat the clime.
His Hobby striding did not ride but run,
And in his hand an hour-glass new begun,
In danger every moment of a fall,
And when tis broke then ends his life and all:
But if he hold till it have run its last,
Then may he live out threescore years or past.
Next Youth came up in gorgeous attire,
(As that fond age doth most of all desire)
His Suit of Crimson and his scarfe of green,
His pride in's countenance was quickly seen,
Garland of roses, pinks and gilli-flowers
Seemed on's head to grow bedew'd with showers:
His face as fresh as is
Aurora
fair,
When blushing she first 'gins to light the air.
No wooden horse, but one of metal tried,
He seems to fly or swim, and not to ride.
Then prancing on the stage, about
•
e wheels,
But as he went death waited at his heels.
The next came up in a much graver sort,
As one that cared for a good report,
His sword by's side, and choler in his eyes,
But neither used as yet, for he was wise:
Of Autumns fruits a basket on his arm,
His golden God in's purse, which was his charm.
And last of all to act upon this stage
Leaning upon his staff came up Old Age,
Under his arm a sheaf of wheat he bore,
An harvest of the best, what needs he more?
In's other hand a glass even almost run,
Thus writ about
This out then am I done.
His hoary hairs, and grave aspect made way,
And all gave ear to what he had to say.
These being met each in his equipage
Intend to speak according to their age:
But wise Old age did with all gravity
To childish Childhood give precedency,
And to the rest his reason mildly told,
That he was young before he grew so old.
To do as he each one full soon assents,
Their method was that of the Elements,
That each should tell what of himself he knew,
Both good and bad, but yet no more then's true.
With heed now stood three ages of frail man,
To hear the child, who crying thus began:
Childhood.
Ah me! conceived in sin and born with sorrow,
A nothing, here today and gone tomorrow,
Whose mean beginning blushing cannot reveal,
But night and darkness must with shame conceal.
My mothers breeding sickness I will spare,
Her nine months weary burden not declare.
To show her bearing pains, I should do wrong,
To tell those pangs which cannot be told by tongue:
With tears into the world I did arrive,
My mother still did waste as I did thrive,
Who yet with love and all alacrity,
Spending, was willing to be spent for me.
With wayward cries I did disturb her rest,
Who sought still to appease me with the breast:
With weary arms she danc'd and
By By
sung,
When wr
•
tched I ingrate had done the wrong.
When infancy was past, my childishness
Did act
•
ll folly that it could express,
My silliness did only take delight
In that which riper age did scorn and slight.
In Rattles, Baubles and such toyish stuff,
My then ambitious thoughts were low enough:
My high-born soul so straightly was confined,
That its own worth it did not know nor mind:
This little house of flesh did spacious count,
Through ignorance all troubles did surmount;
Yet this advantage had mine ignorance
Freedom from envy and from arrogance.
How to be rich or great I did not cark,
A Baron or a Duke never made my mark,
Nor studious was Kings
•
avours how to buy,
With costly presence or base flattery:
No office coveted wherein I might
Make strong myself and turn aside weak right:
No malice bare to this or that great Peer,
Nor unto buzzing whisperers gave ear:
I gave no hand nor vote for death or life,
I'd naught to do 'twixt King and people's strife.
No Statist I, nor Martilist in'th field,
Where ere I went mine innocence was shield.
My quarrels not for Diadems did rise,
But for an apple, plum, or some such prize:
My strokes did 'cause no blood no wounds or skars,
My little wrath did end soon as my Warrs:
My Duel was no challenge, nor did seek
My foe should weltering in his bowels reek.
I had no suits at law neighbors to vex,
Nor evidence for lands did me perplex.
I feared no storms, nor all the wind that blows,
I had no ships at sea; nor fraights to loose.
I feared no drought nor wet, I had no crop,
Nor yet on future things did set my hope.
This was mine innocence, but ah! the seeds
Lay raked up of all the cursed weeds
Which sprouted forth in mine ensuing age,
As he can tell that next comes on the stage:
But yet let me relate before I go
The sins and dangers I am subject to,
Stained from birth with
Adams
sinful fact,
Thence I began to sin as soon as act:
A perverse will, a love to what's forbid,
A serpents sting in pleasing face lay hid:
A lying tongue as soon as it could speak,
And fifth Commandment do daily break.
Oft stubborn, peevish, sullen, pout and cry,
Then naught can please, and yet I know not why.
As many are my sins, so dangers too;
For sin brings sorrow, sickness death and woe:
And though I miss the tossings of the mind,
Yet griefs in my frail flesh I still do find.
What gripes of wind mine infancy did pain,
What tortures I in breeding teeth sustain?
What crudityes my stomach cold' hath bred,
Whence vomits, flux and worms have issued?
What breaches, knocks and falls I daily have,
And some perhaps I carry to my grave,
Sometimes in fire, sometimes in water fall,
Strangly presev'd, yet mind it not at all:
At home, abroad my dangers manifold,
That wonder tis, my glass till now doth hold.
I have done; unto my elders I give way,
For tis but little that a child can say.
Youth.
My goodly clothing, and my beauteous skin
Declare some greater riches are within:
But what is best I will first present to view,
And then the worst in a more ugly hue:
For thus to do we on this stage assemble,
Then let not him that hath most craft dissemble,
My education and my learning such,
As might myself and others profit much;
With nurture trained up in virtues schools
Of science, arts and tongues I know the rules,
The manners of the court I also know,
And so likewise what they in'th Country do.
The brave attempts of valiant knights I prize,
That dare scale walls and sorts reared to the skies.
The s
•
orting Horse, the trumpet, Drum I like,
The glitt'ring sword, the Pistol and the Pike:
I cannot lie intrench'd before a town,
No
•
wait till good success our hopes doth crown:
I scorn the heavy Corslet, musket-proof;
I fly to catch the bullet thats aloof.
Though thus in field, at home to all most kind,
So affable, that I can suit each mind.
I can insinuate into the breast,
And by my mirth can raise the heart deprest:
Sweet music raps my brave harmonious soul,
My high thoughts elevate beyond the pole:
My wit, my bounty, and my courtesy,
Make all to place their future hopes on me.
This is my best▪ but Youth is known, Alas!
To be as wild as is the snuffing Ass:
As vain as froth, or vanity can be,
That who would see vain man, may look on me
My gifts abus
•
d▪ my education lost,
My woeful Parents longing hopes are crossed,
My wit evaporates in merriment,
My valor in some beastly quarrel's spent:
My lust doth hurry me to all that's ill:
I know no law nor reason but my will.
Sometimes lay wait to take a wealthy purse,
Or stab the man in's own defense (that's worse)
Sometimes I cheat (unkind) a female heir
Of all at once▪ who not so wise as fair
Trusteth my loving looks and glozing tongue,
Untill her friends, treasure and honor's gone.
Sometimes I sit carousing others health,
Untill mine own be gone, my wit and wealth
•
From pipe to pot, from pot to words and blows,
For he that loveth wine, wanteth no woes.
Whole nights with Ruffins, Roarers Fiddlers spend,
To all obscenity mine ears I lend:
All Counsel hate, which tends to make me wise.
And dearest friends count for mine enemies.
If any care I take tis to be fine,
For sure my suit▪ more then my virtues shine
If time from lewd Companions I can spare▪
'It is spent to curle, and pounce my new bought hair.
Some new
Adonis
I do strive to be;
Sardanapalus
n
•
w survives in me.
Cards, Dice, and Oaths concomitant I love,
To plays, to masques, to
•
averns still I move.
And in a word, if what I am you would hear,
Seek out a
British
brutish Cavaleer:
Such wretch, such Monster am I but yet more,
I have no heart at all this to deplore,
Remembering not the dreadful day of doom,
Nor yet that heavy reckoning soon to come.
Though dangers do attend me every hour,
And gastly Death oft threats me with his power,
Sometimes by wounds in idle Combates taken,
Sometimes with Agues all my body shaken:
Sometimes by fevers, all my moisture drinking,
My heart lies frying, & mine eyes are sinking,
Sometimes the Quinsey, painful Pleurisy,
With sad affrighrs of death doth menace me:
Sometimes the twofold Pox me sore be mars
With outward marks, & inward loathsome scars,
Sometimes the Frenzy strangely mads my brain,
That oft for it in
Bedlam
I remain.
Too many my diseases to recite,
That wonder tis, I yet behold the light,
That yet my bed in darkness is not made,
And I in black oblivions Den now laid.
Of aches full my bones, of woe my heart,
Clapt in that prison, never thence to start.
Thus I have said, and what I have been, you see
Childhood and Youth are vain ye vanity.
Middle Age.
Childhood and Youth (forgot) I have sometimes seen
And now am grown more staid who have been green
What they have done, the same was done by me,
As was their praise or shame, so mine must be.
Now age is more; more good you may expect,
But more mine age, the more is my defect.
When my wild oates were sown & ripe and mown
I then received an harvest of mine own.
My reason then bad judge how little hope
My empty seed should yield a better crop:
Then with both hands I graspt the world together
Thus out of one extreme into another:
But yet laid hold on virtue seemingly,
Who climbs without hold climbs dangerously▪
Be my condition mean, I then take pains
My Family to keep, but not for gains.
A Father I, for children must provide;
But if none, then for kindred near ally'd.
If rich, I am urg
•
d then to gather more,
To bear a port in the' world, and feed the poor.
If noble, then mine honor
•
o maintain,
If not, riches nobility can gain.
For time, for place, likewise for each Relation
I wanted not, my ready allegation.
Yet all my powers for self ends are not spent,
For hundreds bless me for my bounty lent.
Whose backs I have clothed, and bellies I have fe
•
With mine own fleec
•
, & with my household bread,
Yea, justice have I done, was I in place,
To cheer the good, and wicked to deface.
The proud I crushit, th'oppressed I set free,
The liars curbed, but nourished verity.
Was I a Pastor, I my Flock did feed,
And gently lead the Lambs as they had need.
A Captain I, with Skill I trained my Band,
And showed them how in fa
•
e of Foes to stand.
A Soldier I, with speed I did obey
As readily, as could my leader say.
Was I a laborer, I wrought all day
As cheerfully as e're I took my pay.
Thus hath mine Age in all sometimes done well▪
Sometimes again, mine Age been worse then Hell.
In meanness, greatness, riches, poverty▪
Did toil, did broyle, oppressed, did steal and lie.
Was I as poor as poverty could be,
Then baseness was Companion unto me.
Such scum as hedges and highways do yield,
As neither sow, nor rea
•
, nor plant nor build,
If to Agriculture I was or
•
ain'd,
Great labors, sorrows, Crosses I sustained.
The early Cock did summon but in vain▪
My wakeful thoughts up to my painful gain:
My weary Beast rest from his toil can find,
But if I rest the more distrest my mind.
If happiness my sordidness hath found,
'Twas in the Crop of my manured ground.
My thriving Cattle and my new-milch-Cow,
My fleeced Sheep, and fruitful farrowing Sow:
To greater things I never did aspire,
My dunghill thoughts or hopes could reach no higher.
If to be rich or great it was my fate,
How was I broyl'd with envy and with hate?
Greater then was the greatest was my desire,
And thirst for honor, set my heart on fire:
And by Ambition's sails I was so car
•
ied,
That over Flats and sands, and Rocks I hurried,
Opprest and sunk, and stav'd all in my way
That did oppose me, to my longed Bay.
My thirst was higher then nobility,
I oft lo
•
g'd sore to taste on Royalty:
Then Kings must be deposed or put to flight,
I might possess that Throne which was their right;
There set, I rid myself straight out of hand
Of such Competitors, as might in time withstand.
Then thought my state firm founded sure to last,
But in a trice 'tis ruined by a blast,
Though cemented with more then noble blood,
The bottom naught, and so no longer stood.
Sometimes vain glory is the only bait
Whereby my empty Soul is lur'd and caught.
Be I of wit, of learning, and of parts,
I judge I should have room in all men's hearts,
And envy gnaws if any do surmount,
I hate, not to be held in high'st account.
If
Bias
like I am stripped unto my skin,
I glory in my wealth I have within.
Thus good and bad, and what I am you see,
Now in a word, what my diseases be.
The vexing stone in bladder and in reins,
The Strangury torments me with sore pains.
The windy Cholick oft my bowels rend,
To break the darksome prison where it's penned.
The Cramp and Gout doth sadly torture me,
And the restraining, lame Sciatica.
The Astma, Megrim, Palsy, Lethargy,
The quartan Ague, dropsy, Lunacy:
Subject to all distempers (that's the truth)
Though some more incident, to Age or Youth.
And to conclude, I may not tedious be,
Man at his best estate is vanity.
Old Age.
What you have been, even such have I before·
And all you say, say I, and somewhat more.
Babes innocence, youths wildness I have seen,
And in perplexed middle Age have been:
Sickness, dangers, and anxieties have past,
And on this stage am come to act my last.
I have been young and
•
rong and wise as you:
But now
Bis pueri seen
•
,
is too true.
In every Age I have found much vanity,
An end of all perfection now I see.
It's not my valor, honor, nor my gold,
My ruined house now falling can uphold,
It's not my learning Rhetoric wit so large,
Hath now the power, death's warfare to discharge▪
It's not my goodly state, nor bed of down
That can refresh, or ease if Conscience frown.
Nor from Alliance can I now have hope,
But what I have done well, that is my prop;
He that in youth is godly, wise and sage,
Provides a staff then to support his Age.
Mutations great, some joyful and some sad,
In this short pilgrimage I oft have had.
Sometimes the Heavens with plenty smiled on me
Sometime again rained all Adversity.
Sometimes in honor, sometimes in disgrace,
Sometime an Ab
••
ct, then again in place.
Such private changes oft mine eyes have seen,
In various times of state I have also been.
I have seen a Kingdom flourish like a tree,
When it was ruled by that Celestial she;
And like a Cedar, others so surmount:
That but for shrubs they did themselves account.
Then saw I
France
and
Holland,
saved
Cales
won,
And
Philip
and
Albertus
half undone.
I saw all peace at home, terror to foes,
But ah, I saw at last those eyes to close,
And then methought the day at noon grew dark
When it had lost that radiant Sun-like Spark:
In midst of griefs I saw our hopes revive,
(For 'twas our hopes then kept our hearts alive)
We changed our queen for king under whose rays
We joy'd in many blest and prosperous days.
I have seen a Prince, the glory of our land
In prime of youth seized by heavens angry hand,
Which filed our hearts with fears, with tears our eyes,
Wailing his fate & our own destinies.
I have seen from
Rome
an execrable thing,
A Plot to blow up Nobles and their King,
But saw their horrid fact soon disappointed,
And Land & Nobles saved with their anointed.
I have Princes seen to live on others lands;
A royal one by gifts from strangers hands
Admired for their magnanimity,
Who lost a Prince-dome and a Monarchy.
I have seen designs for
Ree
and
Rochelle
crossed,
And poor
Palatinate
forever lost
I have seen unworthy men advanced high,
(And better ones suffer extremity)
But neither favor, riches, title, State,
Could length their days or once reverse their fate
I have seen one stabbed, and some to loose their heads
And others fly, struck both with gilt and dread.
I have seen and so have you▪ for tis but late,
The desolation of a goodly State,
Plotted and acted so that none can tell,
Who gave the counsel, but the Prince of hell,
Three hundred thousand slaughtered innocents,
By bloody Popish, hellish miscreants:
Oh may you live, and so you will I trust
To see them swill in blood until they burst.
I have seen a King by force thrust from his throne,
And an Usurper subt'lie mount thereon.
I have seen a state unmoulded rent in twain,
But ye may live to seeit made up again.
I have seen it plundered, taxed and soak'd in blood,
But out of evil you may see much good.
What are my thoughts, this is no time to say.
Men may more freely speak another day.
These are no old-wives tales, but this is truth,
We old men love to tell what's done in youth.
But I return from whence I stepped awry,
My memory is bad, my brain is dry:
Mine Almond tree, grey hairs, do flourish now,
And back once straight, apace begins to bow:
My grinders now are few, my sight doth
•
ail,
My skin is wrinkled, and my cheeks are pale,
No more rejoice at musicks pleasing noise,
But waking glad to hear the cocks shrill voice:
I cannot scent savors of pleasant meat,
Nor sapors find in what I drink or eat:
My arms and hands once strong have lost their might
I cannot labor, much less can I fight.
My comely legs as nimble as the Roe
Now stiff and numb, can hardly creep or go,
My heart sometimes as fierce as Lion bold,
Now trembling is, all fearful sad and cold;
My golden Bowl and silver Cord e're long
Shall both be broke, by racking death so strong:
Then shall I go whence I shall come no more,
Sons, Nephews leave my farewell to deplore.
In pleasures and in labors I have found
That Earth can give no consolation found;
To great to rich to poor▪ to young to old,
To mean to noble, fearful or to bold:
From King to beggar all degrees shall find
But vanity vexation of the mind.
Yea knowing much the pleasants life of all,
Hath yet among those sweets some bitter gall;
Though reading others works doth much refresh,
Yet studying much brings weariness to th' flesh:
My studies, labors readings all are done,
And my last period now even almost run.
Corruption my Father I do call▪
Mother and Sisters both, the worms that crawl
In my dark house such kindred I have store,
Where I shall rest till heavens shall be no more,
And when this flesh shall rot and be consumed,
This body by this Soul shall be assumed:
And I shall see with these same very eyes,
My strong Redeemer coming in the Skies.
Triumph I shall over sin, over death, over Hell,
And in that hope I bid you all farewell.
The four Seasons of the Year.
Spring.
ANother four I have left yet to bring on,
Of four times four the last
Quaternion,
The Winter, Summer, Autumn & the Spring,
In season all these Seasons I shall bring:
Sweet Spring like man in his Minority,
At present claimed, and had priority.
With smiling face and garments somewhat green,
She trimmed her locks, which late had frosted been,
Nor hot nor cold, she spake, but with a breath,
Fit to revive, the numbed earth from death.
Three months (quoth she) are 'lotted to my share
March, April, May
of all the rest most fair.
Tenth of the first,
Sol
into
Aries
enters,
And bids defiance to all tedious winters,
Crosseth the Line, and equals night and day,
Stil adds to th' last til after pleasant
May
And now makes glad the darkened northern wights
Who for some months have seen but starry lights.
Now goes the Plow-man to his merry toil,
He might unloose his winter locked soil:
The Seeds-man too, doth lavish out his grain,
In hope the more he casts, the more to gain:
The Gardner now superfluous branches lops,
And poles erects for his young clambering hops.
Now digs then sows his herbs, his flowers & root
•
And carefully manure his trees of fruits.
The
Pl
••
ades their influence
now give,
And all that seemed as dead afresh doth live.
The croaking frogs, whom nipping winter killed
Like birds now chirp, and hop about the field,
The Nightingale the black-bird and the
•
hrush
Now tune their lays, on sprayes of every bush.
The wanton frisking Kid, and soft-fleec'd Lambs
Do jump and play before their feeding Dams,
The tender tops of budding grass they crop,
They joy in what they have, but more in hope:
For though the frost hath lost his binding power,
Yet many a fleece of snow and stormy shower
Doth darken
Sol
's bright eye, makes us remember
The pinching North-west wind of cold
December,
My second month is
April,
green and fair,
Of longer days, and a more temperate Air:
The Sun in
Taurus
keeps his residence,
And with his warmer beams glanceth from thence
This is the month whose fruitful showers produces
All set and sown for all delights and uses:
The Pear the Plum, and Apple-tree now flourish
The grass grows long the hungry beast to nourish.
The Primrose pale, and azure violet
Among the vir
•
uous grass hath nature set,
That when the Sun on's Love (the earth) doth shine
These might as lace set out her garment fine.
The fearful bird his little house now builds
In trees and walls, in Cities and in fields.
The outside strong, the inside warm and neat;
A natural Artificer complete.
The clocking hen her chirping chickins leads
With wings & beak defends them from the gleads
My next and last is fruitful pleasant
May,
Wherein the earth is clad in rich array,
The Sun now enters loving
Gemini,
And heats us with the glances of his eye,
Our thicker raiment makes us lay aside
Lest by his fervor we be torrifi'd.
All flowers the Sun now with his beams discloses,
Except the double pinks and matchless Roses.
Now swarms the busy, witty, honey-Be,
Whose praise deserves a page from more then me
The cleanly Huswifes Da
•
y's now in th' prime,
Her shelves and firkins filled for winter time.
The meads with Cowslips, Honey-suckles dight,
One hangs his head, the other stands upright:
But both rejoice at th' heavens clear smiling face,
More at her showers, which water them a space.
For fruits my Season yields the early Cherry,
The hasty Peas, and wholesome cool Strawberry.
More solid fruits require a longer time,
Each Season hath his fruit so hath each Clime:
Each man his own peculiar excellence,
But none in all that hath preeminence.
Sweet fragrant Spring, with thy short pittance fly
Let some describe thee better then can I.
Yet above all this privilege is thine,
Thy days still lengthen without least decline.
Summer.
When
Spring
had done, the
Summer
did begin,
With melted tauny face, and garments thin,
Resembling Fire, Choler, and Middle age,
As
Spring
did Air, Blood, Youth in's equipage.
Wiping the sweat from of her face that ran,
With hair all wet she puffing thus began;
Bright
June, July
and
August
hot are mi
•
e,
In'th first
Sol
doth in crabbed
Cancer
shine.
His progress to the North now's fully done,
Then retrograde must be my burning Sun,
Who to his southward Tropic still is bent,
Yet doth his parching heat but more augment
Though he decline, because his flames so fair,
Have thoroughly dry'd the earth, and heat the air.
Like as an Oven that long time hath been heat,
Whose vehemency at length doth grow so great,
That if you do withdraw her burning store,
It is for a time as fervent as before.
Now go those frolic Swains, the Shepherd Lads
To wash the thick clothed flocks with pipes full glad
In the cool streams they labor with delight
Rubbing their dirty coats till they look white:
Whose fleece when finely spun and deeply died
With Robes thereof Kings have been dignified.
Blest rustic Swains, your pleasant quiet life,
Hath envy bred in Kings that were at strife,
Careless of worldly wealth you sing and pipe,
Whilst they are imbroyl'd in wars & troubles rise:
Which made great
Bajazet
cry out in's woes,
Oh happy shepherd which hath not to lose.
Orthobulus,
nor yet
Sebastia
great,
But whist'leth to thy flock in cold and heat.
Viewing the Sun by day, the Moon by night
Endimions, Dianaes
dear delight,
Upon the grass resting your healthy limbs,
By purling Brooks looking how fishes swims.
If pride within your lowly Cells ere haunt,
Of him that was Shepherd then King go vaunt.
This month the Roses are distil'd in glasses,
Whose fragrant smell all made perfumes surpasses
The Cherry, Gooseberry are now in th' prime,
And for all sorts of Pease, this is the time.
July
my next, the hot'st in all the year,
The sun through
Leo
now takes his Career,
Whose flaming breath doth melt us from afar,
Increased by the star Canicular.
This Month from
Julius Caesar
took its name,
By Romans celebrated to his fame.
Now go the Mowe
•
s to their slashing toil,
The Meadowes of their riches to dispoyle,
With weary strokes, they take all in their way,
Bearing the burning
•
eat of the long day.
The forks and Rakes do follow them amain,
Which makes the aged fields look young again.
The groaning Carts do bear away this prize.
To Stacks and Barns where it for Fodder lies.
My next and last is
August
fiery hot
(For much, the
Southward
Sun abateth not)
This Moneth he keeps with
Virgo
for a space,
The dried Earth is parched with his face.
August
of great
Augustus
took its name,
Rome's
second Emperor of lasting fame,
With sickles now the bending Reapers go
The russling tress of
terra
down to mowe;
And bundles up in sheaves, the weighty wheat,
Which after Manchet makes for Kings to eat:
The Barly, Rye and Pease should first had place,
Although their bread have not so white a face.
The Carter leads all home with whistling voice,
He plow'd with pain, but reaping doth rejoice;
His sweat, his toil, his careful wakeful nights,
His fruitful Crop abundantly requites.
Now's ripe the Pear, Pear-plumb, and Apricock,
The prince of plumbs, whose stone's as hard as Rock
The Summer seems but short, the Autumn hasts
To shake his fruits, of most delicious tastes
Like good old Age, whose younger juicy Roots
Hath still ascended, to bear goodly fruits.
Until his head be gray, and strength be gone.
Yet then appears the worthy deeds he 'th done:
To feed his boughs exhausted hath his sap,
Then drops his fruits into the eaters lap.
Autumn.
Of
Autumn
months
September
is the prime,
Now day and night are equal in each Clime,
The twelfth of this
Sol
riseth in the Line,
And doth in poizing
Libra
this month shine.
The vintage now is ripe, the grapes are pressed,
Whose lively liquor oft is cursed and blest:
For naught so good, but it may be abused,
But its a precious juice when well its used.
The raisins now in clusters dried be,
The Orange, Lemon dangle on the tree:
The Pomegranate, the Fig are ripe also,
And Apples now their yellow sides do show.
Of Almonds, Quinces, Wardens, and of Peach,
The season's now at hand of all and each.
Sure at this time, time first of all began,
And in this month was made apostate Man:
For then in
Eden
was not only seen,
Boughs full of leaves, or fruits unripe or green,
Or withered stocks, which were all dry and dead,
But trees with goodly fruits replenished;
Which shows nor Summer Winter nor the Spring
Our Grand-Sire was of Paradise made King:
Nor could that temp'rate Clime such difference make,
If scited as the most Judicious take.
October
is my next, we hear in this
The Northern winter-blasts begin to hiss.
In
Scorpio
resideth now the Sun,
And his declining heat is almost done.
The fruitless Trees all withered now do stand,
Whose sapless yellow leaves, by winds are fan'd,
Which notes when youth and strength have past their prime
Decrepit age must also have its time.
The Sap doth slily creep towards the Earth
There rests, until the Sun give it a birth.
So doth old Age still tend unto his grave,
Where also he his winter time must have;
But when the Sun of righteousness draws nigh,
His dead old stock, shall mount again on high.
November
is my last, for Time doth haste,
We now of winters sharpness 'gins to taste.
This month the Sun's in
Sagitarius.
So far remote, his glances warm not us.
Almost at shortest is the horren'd day,
The
Northern
pole behold
•
h not one ray.
Now
Gre
•
nland, Groanland, Finland, Lapland,
see
No Sun, to lighten their obscurity:
Poor wretches that in total darkness lie,
With minds more dark then is the dark'ned Sky.
Beaf, Brawn and Pork are now in great request,
And solid meats our stomachs can digest.
This time warm clothes, full diet and good fires,
Our pinched flesh, and hungry mawes requires:
Old, cold, dry Age and Earth
Autumn
resembles,
And Melancholy which most of all dissembles.
I must be short, and shorts, the short'ned day,
What winter hath to tell, now let him say.
Winter.
Cold, moist, young flegmy winter now doth lie
In swaddling Clouts, like new born Infancy
Bound up with frosts, and furr'd with hail & snows,
And like an Infant, still it taller grows;
December
is my First, and now the Sun
To th' Southward
Tropic
his swift race doth run:
This month he's house'd in horned
Capricorn.
From thence he 'gins to length the shortened morn,
Through
Christendom
with great Feastivity,
Now's held; (but ghost) for blest Nativity.
Cold frozen
January
next comes in,
Chilling the blood and shrinking up the skin;
In
Aquarius
now keeps the long wisht Sun,
And Northward his unwearied Course doth run:
The day much longer then it was before,
The cold not lessened, but augmented more.
Now Toes and Ears, and Fingers often freeze,
And Travelers their noses sometimes leese.
Moist snowie
February
is my last,
I care not how the winter time doth haste,
In
Pisces
now the golden Sun doth shine.
And Northward still approaches to the Line,
The Rivers 'gin to ope, the snows to melt,
And some warm glances from his face are felt,
Which is increased by the lengthen'd day,
Until by's heat, he drive all cold away,
And thus the year in Circle runneth round:
Where first it did begin, in th' end its found.
My Subjects bare, my Brain is bad,
Or better Lines you should have had:
The first fell in so nat'rally,
I knew not how to pass it by
;
The last, though bad, I could not mend,
Accept therefore of what is penned,
And all the faults that you shall spy
Shall at your feet for pardon cry.
The four Monarchyes, the Assyrian being the first, beginning under Nimrod, 131. Years after the Flood,
WHen time was young, & World in Infancy,
Man did not proudly strive for Sovereignty:
But each one thought his petty Rule was high,
If of his house he held the Monarchy.
This was the golden Age, but after came
The boisterous son of
Chus,
Grand-Child to
•
am,
That mighty Hunter, who in his strong toils
Both Beasts and Men subjected to his spoils:
The strong foundation of proud
Babel
laid,
Erech, Accad,
and
Culneh
also made.
These were his first, all stood in
Shinar
land,
From thence he went
Assyria
to command,
And mighty
Nineveh,
he there begun,
Not finished till he his race had run.
Resen, Caleh,
and
Rehoboth
likewise
By him to Cities eminent did rise.
Of
Saturn,
he was the Original.
Whom the succeeding times a God did call,
When thus with rule, he had been dignified,
One hundred fourteen years he after died.
Belus.
Great
Nimrod
dead,
Belus
the next his Son
Confirms the rule, his Father had begun;
Whose acts and power is not for certainty
Left to the world, by any History.
But yet this blot forever on him lies,
He taught the people first to Idolize:
Titles Divine he to himself did take,
Alive and dead, a God they did him make.
This is that
Bel
the
Chaldees
worshiped,
Whose Priests in Stories oft are mentioned;
This is that
Baal
to whom the
Israelites
So oft profanely offered sacred Rites:
This is
Beelzebub
God of
Ekronites,
Likewise
Baalpeor
of the
Mohabites,
His reign was short, for as I calculate,
At twenty five ended his Regal date.
Ninus.
His father dead,
Nirus
begins his reign,
Transfers his seat to the
Assyrian
plain;
And mighty
Nineveh
more mighty made,
Whose Foundation was by his Grand-sire laid.
Four hundred forty Furlongs wall'd about,
On which stood fifteen hundred Towers stout.
The walls one hundred sixty foot upright,
So broad three Chariots run a breast there might.
Upon the pleasant banks of
Tigris
flood
This stately Seat of warlike
Ninus
stood:
This
Ninus
for a God his Father canonized,
To whom the sottish people sacrifi
•
ed.
This Tyrant did his Neighbors all oppress,
Where e're he war'd he had too good success.
Barzanes
the great
A
•
m
•
nia
•
King
By force and fraud did under Tribute bring.
The
Median
Country he did also gain,
Thernus
their King he caused to be slain;
An Army of three millions heled out
Against the
Bactrians
(but that I doubt)
Zor
•
aster
their King he likewise flew,
And all the greater
Asia
did subdue.
Semiramis
from
Menon
did he take
Then drowned himself, did
Menon
for her sake.
Fifty two years he reigned, (as we are told)
The world then was two thousand nineteen old.
Semiramis.
This great oppressing
Ninus,
dead and gone,
His wife
Semiramis
usurped the Throne;
She like a brave
Uirago
played the
Rex
And was both shame and glory of her Sex:
Her birth place was Philistines
Ascolan,
Her mother
Dorceta
a Curtizan.
Others report she was a vestal
Nun,
Adjudged to be drowned for th' crime she'd done.
Transform'd into a Fish by
Venus
will,
Her beauteous face, (they feign) retaining still.
Sure from this Fiction
Dagon
first began,
Changing the woman's face into a man:
But all agree that from no lawful bed,
This great renowned Empress issued:
For which she was obscurely nourished,
Whence r
•
se that Fable, she by birds was fed.
This gallant Dame unto the
Bactrian
war,
Accompanying her husband
Menon
far,
Taking a town, such valor she did show,
That
Ninus
amorous of her soon did grow,
And thought her fit to make a Monarchs wife,
Which was the cause poor
Menon
lost his life:
She flourishing with
Ninus
long did reign,
Till her Ambition caused him to be slain.
That having no Compeer, she might rule all,
Or else she sought revenge for
Menon
's fall.
Some think the Greeks this slander on her cast,
As on her life Licentious, and unchaste,
That undeserv'd, they blur'd her name and fame
By their aspersions, cast upon the same:
But were her virtues more or less, or none,
She for her potency must go alone.
Her wealth she show
•
d in building
Babylon,
Admir'd of all, but equaliz'd of none;
The Walls so strong, and curiously was wrought,
That after Ages, Skill by them was taught:
With Towers and Bulwarks made of costly stone,
Quadrangle was the form it stood upon▪
Each Square was fifteen thousand paces long,
An hundred gates it had of metal strong:
Three hundred sixty foot the walls in height,
Almost incre
•
ible, they were in brea
•
th
Some writers say, six Chariots might affront
With great facility, march sa
•
e upon it:
About the Wall a ditch to deep and wide,
That like a River long it did abide.
Three hundred thousand men here day by day
Bestow'd their
•
abour, and received their pay.
And that which did all cost and A
•
t excel,
The wondrous Temple was, she reared to
Bell
:
Which in the midst of this brave Town was placed,
Continuing till
Xerxes
it defaced:
Whose stately top above the Clouds did rise,
From whence Astrologers oft viewed the Skies.
This to des
•
ribe in each particular,
A structure rare I should but rudely mar.
Her Gardens, Bridges, Arches, mounts and spires
All eyes that saw, or Ears that hear admires,
In
Shinar
plain on the
Euphratian
flood
This wonder of the world, this
Babel
stood.
An expedition to the
East
she made
Staurobates,
his Country to invade:
Her Army of four millions did consist,
Each may believe it as his fancy list.
Her Camels, Chariots, Gallyes in such number,
As puzzles best Historians to remember;
But this is wonderful, of all those men,
They say, but twenty e're came back agen.
The River
Judas
swept them half away,
The rest
S
••
urobates
in fight did slay;
This was last progress of this mighty Queen,
Who in her Country never more was seen.
The Poets feigned her turned into a Dove,
Leaving the world to
Venus
soar'd above:
Which made the
Assyrians
many a day,
A Dove within their Ensigns to display:
Forty two years she reigned, and then she died
But by what means we are not certifi'd.
Ninias or Zamies.
His Mother dead,
Ninias
obtains his right,
A Pr
•
nce wedded to ease and to delight,
Or else was his obedience very great,
To sit thus long (obscure) robbed of his Seat.
Some write his Mother put his habit on,
Which made the people think they served her Son.
But much it is, in more then forty years
This fraud in war nor peace at all appears:
More like it is his lust with pleasures fed,
He sought no rule till she was gone and dead.
What then he did of worth can no man tell,
But is supposed to be that
Amraphel
Who war'd with
Sodom's
and
Gomorrahs
King,
'Gainst whom his trained bands
Abram
did bring,
But this is far unlike, he being Son
Unto a Father that all Countries won
So suddenly should loose so great a state,
With petty Kings to join Confederate.
Nor can those Reasons which wise
Raileih
finds,
Well satisfy the most considerate minds:
We may with learned
Usher
better say,
He many Ages lived after that day.
And that
Semiramis
then flourished
When famous
Troy
was so beleaguered:
What e're he was, or did, or how it fell▪
We may suggest our thoughts but cannot tell.
For
Ninias
and all his race are left
In deep oblivion, of acts bereft:
And many hundred years in silence sit,
Save a few Names a new
B
•
rosu
•
writ.
And such as care not what befalls their fames,
May feign as many acts as he did Names;
It may suffice, if all be true that's past.
T'
Sardanapalas
next, we will make haste.
Sardanapalas
Sardanapalas,
Son to
Ocrazapes,
Who wallowed in all voluptuousness,
That palliardizing sot that out of doors,
Ne're showed his face but revel'd with his whores
Did wear their garbs, their gestures imitate,
And in their kind, t
•
excel did emulate.
His baseness knowing, and the people's hate
Kept close, fearing his well deserved fate;
It chanced
Arbaces
brave unwarily,
His Master like a Strumpet clad did spy.
His manly heart disdained (in the least)
Longer to serve this Metamorphos'd Beast;
Unto
Belosus
then he brake his mind,
Who sick of his disease,
•
e soon did find
These two, ruled
Media
and
Babylon
Both for their King, held their Dominion;
Belosus
promised
Arbaces
aid▪
Arbaces
him fully to be repaid.
The last The
Medes
and
Persians
do invite
Against their monstrous King▪ to use their might.
Belosus,
the
Chaldeans
doth require
And the
Arabians,
to further his desire:
These all agree, and forty thousand make
The Rule, from their unworthy Prince to take:
These Forces mustered and in array
Sardan
•
pal
•
s
leaves his Api
•
h play.
And though of wars, he did abhor the sight;
Fear of his diadem did force him fight.
And either by his valor or his fate,
Arbaces
Courage he did so abate;
That in dispair, he left the Field and fled,
But with fresh hopes
Belosus
succoured,
From
Bactria,
an Army was at hand
Prest for this Service▪ by the Kings Command:
These with celerity
Arbaces
meet,
And with all Terms of amity them greet.
With promises their necks now to unyoke,
And their Taxations sore all to revoke;
T'insranchise them, to grant what they could crave,
No privilege to want, Subjects should have,
Only intreats them, to join their Force with his,
And win the Crown, which was the way to bliss.
Won by his loving looks, more by his speech,
T' accept of what they could, they all beseech:
Both sides their hearts their hands, & bands unite,
And set upon their Princes Camp that night;
Who revelling in Cups, sung care away,
For victory obtained the other day:
And now surprised, by this unlookt for fright,
Bereft of wits, were slaughtered down right.
The King his brother leaves, all to sustain,
And speeds himself to
Nineveh
amain.
But
Salmeneus
slain, the Army falls;
The King's pursued unto the City Walls,
But he once in, pursuers came to late,
The Walls and Gates their hast did terminate,
There with all store he was so well provided:
That what
Arbaces
did, was but derided:
Who there incamp'd, two years for little end,
But in the third, the River proved his friend,
For by the rain, was
Tigris
so o'reflown,
Part of that stately Wall was overthrown.
Arbaces
marches in the Town he takes,
For few or none (it seems) resistance makes:
And now they saw fulfilled a Prophesy,
That when the River proved their Enemy,
Their strong wall'd Town should suddenly be taken
By this accomplishment, their hearts were shaken.
Sardanapalas
did not seek to fly,
This his inevitable destiny;
But all his wealth and friends together gets,
Then on himself, and them a fire he sets.
This was last Monarch of great
Ninus
race
That for twelve hundred years had held the place;
Twenty he reigned same time, as Stories tell,
That
A
••
z
•
ah
as King of
Israel.
His Father was then King (as we suppose)
When
Jonah
for their sins denounced those woes.
He did repent, the threatening was not done,
But now accomplished in his wicked Son.
Arbaces
thus of all becoming Lord,
Ingeniously with all did keep his word.
Of
Babylon Belosus
he made King,
With overplus of all the wealth therein.
To
Bactrians
he gave their liberty,
Of
Ninevites
he caused none to die.
But suffered with their goods, to go else where,
Not granting them now to inhabit there:
For he demolished that City great,
And unto
Media
transferred his Seat.
Such was his promise which he firmly made,
To
Medes
and
Persians
when he craved their aid:
A while he and his race aside must stand,
Not pertinent to what we have in hand;
And
Belochus
in's progeny pursue,
Who did this Monarchy begin anew.
Belosus or Belochus.
Belosus
settled in his new old Seat,
Not so content but aiming to be great,
Incroaching still upon the bordering lands,
Till
Mesopotamia
he got in's hands.
And either by compound or else by strength,
Assyria
he gained also at length;
Then did rebuild, destroyed
Nineveh,
A costly work which none could do but he,
Who owned the Treasures of proud
Babylon,
And those that seemed with
Sardanapal's
gone;
For though his Palace did in ashes lie,
The fire those Mettals could not damnify▪
From these with diligence he rakes,
Arbaces
suffers all, and all he takes,
He thus inricht by this new tried gold.
Raises a Phoenix new, from grave o'th old;
And from this heap did after Ages see
As fair a Town, as the first
Nineveh.
When this was built, and matters all in peace
Molests poor
Israel,
his wealth t' increase.
A thousand Talents of
Mena
•
em
had,
(Who to be rid of such a guest was glad;)
In sacrid writ he's known by name of
Pul.
Which makes the world of difference so full.
That he and
Belochus
could not one be,
But Circumstance doth prove the verity;
And times of both computed so fall out,
That these two made but one, we need not doubt:
What else he did, his Empire to advance,
To rest content we must, in ignorance.
Forty eight years he re
•
g
•
'd, his race then run,
He left his new got Kingdom to his Son.
Tiglath Pulassar.
Belosus
dead,
Tiglath
his warlike Son.
Next treads those steps, by which his Father won;
Damascus
ancient Seat, of famous Kings
Under subjection, by his Sword he brings.
Resin
their valiant King he also slew,
And
Syri
•
t' obedience did subdue.
Judas
had King occasioned this war,
When
Resins
force his Borders sore did mar,
And divers Cities by strong hand did seize:
To
Tiglath
then, doth
Ahaz
send for ease,
The Temple robs, so to fulfil his ends,
And to
Assy
•
ia
's King a present sends.
I am thy Servant and thy Son, (quoth he)
From
Resin,
and from
Pekah
set me free,
Gladly doth
Tiglath
this advantage take,
And succors
Ahaz,
yet for
Tiglath
's sake▪
Then
Resin
slain, his Army overthrown,
He
Syria
makes a Province of his own.
Unto
Damascus
then comes
Judah
's King,
His humble thankfulness (in haste) to bring,
Acknowledging th'
•
ssyrians
high desert,
To whom he ought all loyalty o
•
heart.
But
Tiglath
having gained his wished end,
Proves unto
Ah
•
z
but a feigned friend;
All
Israel's
lands beyond
Jordan
he takes,
In
Galilee
he woeful havoc makes.
Through
Sy
•
ia
now he marched none stopped his, way
And
Ahaz
open at his mercy lay;
Who still implor'd his love, but was distrest▪
This was that
Ahaz,
who so high transgressed:
Thus
Tiglath
reigned, & war'd twenty seven years
Then by his death released was Israel's fears.
Salmanassar or Nabanassar.
Tiglath
deceased,
Salmanassar
was next,
He Israelites, more then his Father vext▪
H
••
he
•
their last King he did invade,
And him six years his Tributary made;
But weary of his servitude, he sought
To
Egypt
King, which did avail him naught;
For
Salm
•
nassar
with a mighty Host,
Besieg'd his Regal Town, and spoil'd his Coast,
And did the people, nobles, and their King,
Into perpetual thralldom that time bring;
Those that from Joshua's time had been a state, 1
•
years.
Did Justice now by him eradicate:
This was that strange, degenerated brood,
On whom▪ nor threats, nor mercies could do good;
Laden with honor, prisoners▪ and with spoil,
Returns triumphant Victor to his soil;
He placed
Israel
there, where he thought best,
Then sent his Colonies, theirs to invest;
Thus
Jacob's
Sons in Exile must remain,
And pleasant
Canaan
never saw again:
Where now those ten Tribes are, can no man tell,
Or how they fare, rich, poor, or ill or well;
Whether the
Indians
of the East, or West,
Or wild
Tartarians,
as yet never blest.
Or else those
Chinoes
rare, whose wealth & arts
Hath bred more wonder then belief in hearts:
But what, or where they are; yet know we this,
They shall return, and
Zion
see with bliss.
Sennacherib.
Sennacherib Shalmaneser
succeeds,
Whose haughty heart is shown in words & deeds
His wars; none better then himself can boast,
On
Henah, Arpad,
and on
Juahs
coast;
On
Hevahs
and on
Shepharvaims
gods,
'Twixt them and
Israel's
he knew no odds,
Untill the thundering hand of heaven he felt,
Which made his Army into nothing melt:
With shame then turned to
Nineveh
again,
And by his sons in's Idols house was slain.
Essarhadon.
His Son, weak
Essarhaddon
reigned in's place▪
The fifth, and last of great
Bellosus
race.
Brave
Merodach,
the Son of
Baladan,
In
Babylon
Lieftenant to this man
Of opportunity advantage takes,
And on his Masters ruins his house makes.
As
Belosus
his Sovereign did onthrone,
So he's now stilled the King of
Babylon.
After twelve years did
Essarhaddon
die,
And
Merodach
assume the Monarchy.
Merodach Balladan.
All yield to him, but
Nineveh
kept free,
Untill his Grand-child made her bow the knee.
Ambassadors to
Hezekiah
sent,
His health congratulates with complement.
Ben Merodach.
Ben Merodach
Successor to this King,
Of whom is little said in anything.
But by conjecture this, and none but he
Led King
Manasseh
to Captivity.
Nebulassar.
Brave
Nebulassar
to this King was son,
The famous
Nineveh
by him was won,
For fifty years, or more, it had been free,
Now yields her neck unto captivity:
A Vice-Roy from her foe she's glad to accept,
By whom in firm obedience she is kept.
This King's less famed for all the acts he's done,
Then being Father to so great a Son.
Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebopolassar.
The famous acts of this heroic King
Did neither
Homer, Hesiod, Virgil
sing;
Nor of his Wars have we the certainty
From some
Thucydides
grave history,
Nor's Metamorphosis from
Ovid's
book,
Nor his restoriag from old Legends took▪
But by the Prophets, Pen-men most divine,
This prince in's magnitude doth ever shine
This was of Monarchyes that head of gold,
The richest and the dread fullest to behold:
This was that tree whose branches filled the earth,
Under whose shadow birds and beasts had birth:
This was that king of kings did what he pleased,
Kil'd, saved pulled down, set up, or pained or eased;
And this was he, who when he feared the least
Was changed from a King into a beast.
This Prince the last year of his fathers reign
Against
Jehoiakim
marched with his train,
Judah's
poor King besieged and succourless
Yields to his mercy, and the present '
•
press;
His Vassal is, gives pledges for his truth,
Children of royal blood, unblemished youth:
Wise
Daniel
and his fellows, mongst the rest,
By the victorious king to
Babel
's pressed:
The Temple of rich ornaments defaced,
And in his Idols house the vessels placed.
The next year he with unresisted hand
Quite vanquish
•
d
Pharaoh Necho
with his band:
By great
Euphrates
did his army fall,
Which was the loss of
Syria
withal.
Then into
Egypt Necho
did retire,
Which in few years proves the
Assyrians
hire.
A mighty army next he doth prepare,
And unto wealthy
Tyre
in hast repair.
Such was the situation of this place,
As might not him, but all the world out-face,
That in her pride she knew not which to boast
Whether her wealth, or yet her strength was most
How in all merchandize she did excel,
None but the true
Ezekiel
need to tell.
And for her strength, how hard she was to gain,
Can
Babels
tired soldiers tell with pain.
Within an Island had this city seat,
Divided from the Main by channel great:
Of costly ships and Gallyes she had store,
And Mariners to handle sail and oar:
But the
Chaldeans
had nor ships nor skill,
Their shoulders must their Masters mind fulfill,
Fetcht rubbish from the opposite old town,
And in the channel threw each burden down;
Where after many essays, they made at last
The sea firm land, whereon the Army past,
And took the wealthy town; but all the gain,
Requited not the loss, the toil and pain.
•
ull thirteen years in this strange work he spent
Before he could accomplish his intent:
And though a Victor home his Army leads,
With peeled shoulders, and with balded heads.
When in the
Tyrian
war this King was hot,
Jehoiakim
his oath had clean forgot,
Thinks this the fittest time to break his bands
Whilest
Babels
King thus deep engaged stands:
But he whose fortunes all were in the ebb,
Had all his hopes like to a spiders web;
For this great King withdraws part of his force,
To
Judah
marches with a speedy course,
And unexpected finds the feeble Prince
Whom he chastis'd thus for his proud offense,
Fast bound, intends to
Babel
him to send,
But changed his mind, & caused his life there end,
Then cast him out like to a naked Ass,
For this is he for whom none said alas.
His son he suffered three months to reign,
Then from his throne he plucked him down again,
Whom with his mother he to
Babel
led,
And seven and thirty years in prison fed:
His Uncle he established in his place
(Who was last King of holy
David's
race)
But he as perjured as
Jehoiakim,
They lost more now then e're they lost by him.
Seven years he kept his faith, and safe he dwells;
But in the eighth against his Prince rebels:
The ninth came
Nebuchadnezzar
with power,
Besieg'd his city, temple,
Zion's
tower,
And after eighteen months he took them all:
The Walls so strong, that stood so long, now fall.
The cursed King by flight could no wise fly
His well deserved and foretold misery:
But being caught to
Babels
wrathful King
With children, wives and Nobles all they bring,
Where to the sword all but himself were put,
And with that woeful sight his eyes close shut.
Ah! hapless man, whose darksome contemplation
Was nothing but such gastly meditation.
In midst of
Babel
now till death he lies;
Yet as was told never saw it with his eyes.
The Temple's burnt the vessels had away.
The towers and palaces brought to decay:
Where late of harp and Lute were heard the noise
Now
Zim
&
Jim
lift up their scrieching voice.
All now of worth are Captive led with tears,
And sit bewailing
Zion
seventy years.
With all these conquests,
Babels
King rests not,
No not when
Moab, Edom
he had got,
Kedar
and
Hazar,
the
Arabians
too,
All Vassals at his hands for Grace must sue.
A total conquest of rich
Egypt
makes,
All rule he from the ancient
Phraohes
takes,
Who had for sixteen hundred years born sway,
To
Babylon's
proud King now yields the day.
Then
Put
and
Lud
do at his mercy stand.
Where e're he goes, he conquers every land.
His sumptuous buildings passes all conceit,
Which wealth and strong ambition made so great.
His Image
Judah's
Captives worship not,
Although the Furnace be seven times more hot.
His dreams wise
Daniel
doth expound full well,
And his unhappy change with grief foretell.
Strange melancholy humors on him lay,
Which for seven years his reason took away,
Which from no natural causes did proceed.
But for his pride, so had the heavens decreed.
The time expired, brutish remains no more,
But Goverment resumes as heretofore:
In splendor, and in Majesty he sits,
Contemplating those times he lost his wits.
And if by words we may ghess at the
•
eart,
This king among the righteous had a part:
Fourty four years he reigned, which being run,
He left his wealth and conquests to his son.
Evilmerodach
Babels
great Monarch now laid in the dust,
His son possesses wealth and rule as just:
And in the first year of his Royalty
Easeth
Jehojakims
Captivity:
Poor forlorn Prince,
〈◊〉
had all state forgot
In seven and thirty years had seen no jot.
Among the conquered Kings that there did lie
Is Judah's King now lifted up on high:
But yet in
Babel
he must still remain,
And native
Canaan
never see again:
Unlike his Father
Evilmerodach,
Prudence and magnanimity did lack;
Fair
Egypt
is by his remissness lost,
Arabia,
and all the bordering coast.
Warrs with the
Medes
unhappily he wag'd
(Within which broils rich
Croesus
was engaged)
His Army routed, and himself there slain:
His Kingdom to
Belshazzar
did remain.
Belshazzar.
Unworthy
Belshazzar
next wears the crown,
Whose acts profane a sacred Pen sets down,
His lust and crueltyes in stories find,
A royal State rul
•
d by a brutish mind.
His life so▪ base and dissolute invites
The noble
Persian
to inva
•
e his rights.
Who with his own, and Uncles power anon,
Lays sie
•
ge to's Regal Seat, proud
Ba
••
n,
The coward King▪ whose strength lay in his walls,
To banqueting and revelling now falls,
To show his little dread, but greater store,
To cheer his friends▪ and scorn his foes the more.
The holy vessels thither brought long since,
They carrows'd in▪ and sacrilegious prince
Did praise his God's of metal, wood, and stone,
Protectors of his Crown, and
Babylon,
But he above, his doings did deride,
And with a hand soon dashed all this pride.
The King upon the wall casting his eye,
The fingers of a hand writing did spy,
Which horrid sight▪ he fears must needs portend
Destruction to his Crown▪ to
•
s Person end.
With quaking knees, and heart appall'd he cries,
For the Soothsayers, and Magicians wise;
This language strange to read, and to unfold;
With gifts of Scarlet robe and Chain of gold,
And highest dignity next to the King,
To him that could interpret, clear this thing:
But dumb the gazing Astrologers stand,
Amazed at the writing, and the hand.
None answers the affrighted Kings intent,
Who still expects some fearful sad event;
As dead, alive he sits, as one undone:
In comes the Queen, to cheer her heartless Son.
Of
Daniel
tells, who in his grand-sires days
Was held in more account then now he was.
D
•
niel
in haste is brought before the King,
Who doth not flatter, nor once cloak the thing;
Reminds him of his Grand-Sires height and fall,
And of his own notorious sins withal:
His Drunkenness, and his profaneness high,
His pride and sottish gross Idolatry.
The guilty King with color pale and dead
Then hears his
Mene
and his
Tekel
read.
And one thing did worthy a King (though late)
Perform'd his word to him that told his fate.
That night victorious
Cyrus
took the town,
V
•
ho soon did terminate his life and crown;
With him did end the race of
Baladan:
And now the
Persian
Monarchy began.
The End of the Assyrian Monarchy.
The Second Monarchy, being the Persian, began under Cyrus, Darius being his Uncle and Father-in-law reigned with him about two years.
CYrus Cambyses
Son of
Persia
King,
Whom Lady
Mandana
did to him bring,
She daughter unto great
Astiages,
He in descent the seventh from
Arbaces.
Cambyse
•
was of
Achemenes
race,
Who had in
Persia
the Lieftenants place
When
Sardanapalus
was overthrown,
And from that time had hell
•
it as his own.
Cyrus, Darius
Daughter took to wife,
And so unites two Kingdoms without strife.
Darius
unto
Man
•
a
•
a
was brother.
Adopts her son for his having no other.
This is of
Cyrus
the true pedigree,
Whose Ancestors were royal in degree;
His Mothers dream, and Grand-Sires cruelty,
His preservation, in his misery,
His nourishment afforded by a Bitch,
Are fit for such, whose ears for Fables itch.
He in his younger days an Army led,
Against great
Cress
••
then of
Lidia
head;
Who over-curious of wars event,
For information to
Apollo
went:
And the ambiguous Oracle did trust,
So overthrown by
Cyrus,
as was just;
Who him p
•
asues to
Sardis,
takes the Town,
Where all that dare resist, are slaughtered down;
Disguised
Cressus
hoped to scape in the' throng,
Who had no might to save himself from wrong;
But as he past, his Son who was born dumb,
With pressing grief and sorrow overcome:
Among the tumult, blood-shed, and the strife,
Brake his long silence, cried, spare
Cressus
life.
Cressus
thus known, it was gr
•
at
Cyrus
doom,
(A hard decree) to ashes he consume;
Then on a wood pile set, where all might eye,
He
Solon, Solon, Solon,
thrice did cry.
The Reason of those words
Cyrus
demands,
Who
Solon
was? to whom he lifts his hands;
Then to the King he makes this true report,
That
Solon
sometimes at his stately Court,
His Treasures, pleasures pomp and power d
•
d see,
And viewing all, at all naught moved was he:
That
Cressus
angry, urged him to express,
If ever King equaled his happiness.
(Quoth he) that man for happy we commend,
Whose happy life attains an happy end.
Cyrus
with pity moved, knowing Kings stand,
Now up and down, as fortune turns her hand,
Weighing the Age, and greatness of the Prince,
(His Mothers Uncle) stories do evince:
Gave him his life, and took him for a friend,
Did to him still his chief de
•
igns commend.
Next war the restless
Cyrus
thought upon,
Was conquest of the stately
Babylon,
Now treble wall'd, and moated so about,
That all the world they need not fear nor doubt;
To drain this ditch, he many Sluces cut,
But till convenient time their heads kept shut;
That night
Belshazzar
feasted all his rout,
He cut those banks, and let the River out,
And to the walls securely marches on,
Not finding a defendant thereupon;
Enters the Town, the sottish King he s
•
ayes,
Upon Earths richest spoils his Soldiers preys;
Here twenty years provision good he found,
Forty five miles this City scarce could round;
This head of Kingdoms
Chaldees
excellence,
For Owls and Satires made a residence,
Yet wondrous monuments this stately Queen,
A thousand years had after to beseen.
Cyrus
doth now the Jewish Captives free,
An Edict made, the Temple built be,
He with his Uncle
Daniel
sets on high,
And caused his foes in Lions Den to die.
Long after this he gainst the
Scythians
goes,
And
Tomris
Son and Army overthrows;
Which to revenge she hires a mighty power,
And sets on
Cyrus,
in a fatal hour;
There routs his Host, himself she prisoner takes,
And at one blow (worlds head) she headless makes
The which she bath'd, within a But of blood,
Using such taunting words, as she thought good.
But
Xenopho
•
reports he died in's bed,
In honor, peace, and wealth, with a grey head;
And in his Town of
Bassagardes
lies,
Where some long after sought in vain for prize,
But in his Tomb, was only to be sound
Two
Scythian
boys, a Sword and Target round:
And
Alexander
coming to the same,
With honors great, did celebrate his fame.
Three daughters and two Sons he left behind,
Innobled more by birth, then by their mind;
Thirty two years in all this Prince did reign,
But eight whilst
Babylon,
he did retain:
And though his conquests made the earth to groan,
Now quiet lies under one marble stone.
And with an Epitaph, himself did make,
To show how little Land he then should take.
Cambyses.
Cambyses
no waves like his noble Sire,
Yet to enlarge his State had some desire,
His reign with blood and Incest first begins,
Then sends to find a Law, for these his sins;
That Kings with Sisters match, no Law they find,
But that the
Persian
King may act his mind:
He wages war the fifth year of his reign,
'Gainst
Egypt's
King, who there by him was slain.
And all of Royal Blood, that came to hand,
He seized first of Life and then of Land,
(But little
Narus
scaped that cruel sat,
Who grown a man, resum'd again his State.)
He next to
Cyprus
sends his bloody Host.
Who landing soon upon that fruitful Coast,
Made
Evelthon,
their King with bended knee,
To hold his own, of his free Courtesie.
Their Temple he destroys, not for his Zeal,
For he would be professed, God of their weal;
Yea, in his pride, he ventured so far,
To spoil the Temple of great
Jupiter
:
But as they marched over those desert sands,
The stormed dust o'rewhelm'd his daring bands;
But scorning thus, by
Jove
to be outbrav'd,
A second Army he had almost grav'd,
But vain he found to fight with Elements,
So left his sacrilegious bold intents.
The Egyptian
Apis
then he likewise slew,
Laughing to scorn, that sottish Calvish Crew:
If all this heat had been for pious end,
Cambyses
to the Clouds we might commend.
But he that 'fore the God's himself prefers,
Is more profane then gross Idolaters;
He after this, upon suspicion vain,
Unjustly caused his brother to be slain.
Praxaspes
into
Persia
then is sent,
To act in secret, this his lewd intent:
His Sister (whom Incestuously he wed,)
Hearing her harmless brother thus was dead.
His woeful death with tears did so bemoan,
That by her husbands charge, she caught her own,
She with her fruit at once were both undone
Who would have born a Nephew and a son.
Oh hellesh husband, brother, uncle, Sire,
Thy cruelty all ages will admire.
This strange severity he sometimes used
Upon a Judge, for taking bribes accused,
I laid him alive, hung' up his stuffed skin
Over his seat, then placed his son therein,
To whom he gave this in remembrance,
Like sault must look for the like recompense.
His cruelty was come unto that height
He spared nor foe, nor friend, nor favourite.
'Twould be no pleasure, but a tedious thing
To tell the facts of this most bloody King,
Feared of all, but lov
•
d of few or none,
All wisht his short reign past before 'twas done.
At last two of his Officers he hears
Had set one
Smerdi
•
up, of the same years,
And like in feature to his brother dead,
Ruling, as they thought best under this head.
The people ignorant of what was done,
Obedience yielded as to
Cyrus
son.
Toucht with this news to
Persia
he makes,
But in the way his sword just vengeance takes,
Unsheathes, as he his horse mounted on high,
And with a mortal thrust wounds him ith' thigh,
Which ends before begun his home-bred war:
So yields to death, that dreadful Conqueror.
Grief for his brothers death he did express,
And more, because he died Issueless.
The male line of great
Cyrus
now had end,
The Female to many Ages did extend.
A
Babylon
in
Egypt
did he make,
And
Mero
•
built for his fair Sisters sake.
Eight years he reigned, a short, yet too long time
Cut off in's wickedness in's strength and prime.
The inter regnum between Cambyses And Darius Histaspes.
Childless
Cambyses
on the sudden dead,
(The Princes meet, to choose one in his stead,
Of which the chief was seven, called
Satrapes,
Who like to Kings, ruled Kingdoms as they please,
Descended all of
Achemenes
blood,
And Kinsmen in account to th' King they stood.
And first these noble
Magi
'gree upon.
To thrust th' imposter
Smerdis
out of Throne:
Then Forces instantly they raise, and rout
This King with his Conspirators so stout,
But yet '
•
ore this was done much blood was shed,
And two of these great Peers in Field lay dead.
Some write that sorely hurt they scaped away,
But so, or no, sure 'tis they won the day.
All things in peace and Rebels thoroughly quelled,
A Consultation by those States was held,
What form of government now to erect
The old, or new, which best, in what respect.
The greater part declined a Monarchy
So late crushed by their Princes tyranny,
And thought the people would more happy be
If governed by an Aristocracy:
But others thought (none of the dullest brain)
That better one then many tyrants reign.
What Arguments they us
•
d I know not well,
Too politick, its like, for me to tell,
But in conclusion they all agree,
Out of the seven a Monarch chosen be.
All envy to avoid, this was thought on
Upon a green to meet by rising sun,
And he whose horse before the rest should neigh,
Of all the Peers should have precedency.
They all attend on the appointed hour,
Praying to fortune for a kingly power.
Then mounting on their snorting coursers proud,
Darius
lusty Stallion neigh'd full loud,
The Nobles all alight, bow to their King,
And joyful acclamations shrill they ring,
A thousand times, long live the King they cry,
Let Tyranny with dead
Cambises
die:
Then all attend him to his royal room:
Thanks for all this to's crafty stable groom.
Darius Hystaspes.
Darius
by election made a King,
His title to make strong omits nothing:
He two of
Cyrus
daughters then doth wed,
Two of his Neeces takes to Nuptial bed,
By which he cuts their hopes for future time,
That by such steps to Kingdoms often clime.
And now a King
•
y marriage choice and blood:
Three strings to's bow, the least of which is good;
Yet firmly more, the people's hearts to bind.
Made wholesome, gentle laws which pleased each mind.
His courtesy and assability.
Much gained the hearts of his nobility.
Yet notwithstanding all he did so well,
The
Babylonians
'gainst their prince rebel.
An host he raised the city to reduce;
But men against those walls wore of no use.
Then brave
Zopirus
for his masters good,
His manly face disfigures, spares no blood:
With his own hands cutts off his ears and nose,
And with a faithful fraud to th' town he goes,
tells them how harshly the proud king had dealt,
That for their sakes his cruelty he felt,
Desiring of the Prince to raise the siege,
This violence was done him by his Liege.
This told, for entrance he stood not long,
For they believed his nose more then his tongue
With all the city's strength they him betrust,
If he command, obey the greatest must.
When opportunity he saw was sit
Delivers up the town, and all in it.
To loose a nose, to win a town's no shame;
But who dares venture such a stake for th' game
Then thy disgrace, thine honor's manifold,
Who doth deserve a statue made of gold.
Nor can
Darius
in his Monarchy.
Scarce find enough to thank thy I yalty:
Yet over thy glory we must cast this veil,
Thy craft more then thy valor did prevail.
Darius
in the second of his reign
An Edict for the
•
ews publish
•
d again:
The Temple to rebuild, for that did rest
Since
Cyrus
time,
Cambises
did molest.
He like a King now grants a Charter large,
Out of his own revennues bears the charge,
Gives Sacrifices, wheat, wine oil and salt,
Threats punishment to him that through default
Shall let the work or keep back anything.
Of what is freely granted by the King:
And on all Kings he pours out Execrations
That shall once dare to rase those firm foundations
They thus backed by the King, in spite of foes
Built on and prospered till their house they close.
And in the sixth year of his friendly reign,
Set up a Temple (though a less) again
Darius
on the
Scythians
ma
•
e a war;
Entring that large and barren Country far:
A Bridge he made, which served for boat & barge
O're
Ister
fair, with labor and with charge.
But in that desert 'mongst his barbarous foes
Sharp wants, not swords, his valor did oppose,
His Army fought with hunger and with cold,
Which to assail his royal Camp was bold.
By these alone his host was pinched so sore,
He war'd defensive, not offensive more.
The Salvages did laugh at his distress,
Their min
••
s by Hiroglyphicks they express,
A Frog a Mouse, a bird, an arrow sent,
The King will needs interpret their intent;
Possession of water, earth and air,
But wise
Gob
••
as
reads not half so fair:
(Quoth he) like frogs in water we must dive,
Or like to mice un
•
er the earth must live
Or fly like birds in un
•
nown ways full quick,
Or
Scythian
arrows in our sides must stick.
The King seeing his men and victual spent,
This fruitless war beg place to repent,
Return'd with little honor, and less gain
His enemies scarce seen, then much less slain.
He after this intends
Greece
to invade,
But troubles in less
Asia
him staid,
Which husht he straight so orders his affairs,
For
At
•
a
•
a
an army he prepares;
But as before, so now with ill success
Return'd with wondrous loss, and honourless.
Athens
perceiving now their desperate state
Arm'd all they could, which eleven thousand made
By brave
Miltiades
their chief being l
•
d:
Darius
multitudes before them fled.
At
Marathon
this bloody field was fought,
Where
Grecians
proved themselves right soldiers stout
Tho
Persians
to their gallies post with speed
Where an
Athenian
showed a valiant deed,
Pursues his flying foes then on the sand,
He stays a launching gally with his hand,
Which soon cut off, inrag'd, he with his left,
Renews his hold, and when of that bereft,
His whetted teeth he claps in the firm wood,
Off flies his head, down showers his frolic blood,
Go
Persians,
carry home that angry piece,
As the best Trophe which ye won in
Greece,
Darius
light, yet heavy home returns,
And for revenge, his heart still restless burns,
His Queen
Atossa
Author of this stir,
For
Grecian
maids ('tis said) to wait on her.
She lost her aim, her Husband he lost more,
His men his coin, his honor and his store;
And the ensuing year ended his Life,
(It is thought) through grief of this successless strife
Thirty six years this noble Prince did reign,
Then to his second Son did all remain.
Xerxes,
Xerxes, Darius,
and
Atossa
's Son,
Grand child to
Cyrus,
now sits on the Throne:
(His eldest brother put beside the place,
Because this was, first born of
Cyrus
race.)
His Father not so full of lenity,
As was his Son of pride and cruelty;
He with his Crown receives a double war,
The
Egyptians
to reduce, and
Greece
to mar,
The first begun, and finished in such haste,
None write by whom, nor how, 'twas over past.
But for the last, he made such preparation,
As if to dust, he meant, to grind that nation;
Yet all his men, and Instruments of slaughter,
Produced but deri
•
ion and laughter,
Sage Artabanus
Counsel had he taken,
And's Couzen young
Mardonius
forsaken,
His Soldiers credit, wealth at home had staid,
And
Greece
such wondrous triumphs never had made.
The first dehorts and lays before his eyes
His Fathers ill success, in's enterprize,
Against the
Scythians
and
Grecians
too,
What Infamy to's honor did accrue.
Flatt'ring
Mardonius
on the other side;
With conquest of all
Europe,
feeds his pride:
Vain
Xerxes
thinks his counsel hath most wit,
That his ambitious humor best can fit;
And by this choice unwarily posts on,
To present loss, future subversion.
Although be hasted, yet four years was spent
In great provisions, for this great intent:
His Army of all Nations was compounded,
That the vast
Persian
government surrounded.
His Foot was seventeen hundred thousand strong,
Eight hundred thousand horses to these belong
His Camels, beasts for carriage numberless,
For Truths ashamed, how many to express;
The charge of all, he severally commended
To Princes, of the
Persian
blood descended:
But the command of these commanders all,
Unto
Mardonius
made their General,
(He was the Son of the fore named
Gobrius,
Who married the Sister of
Darius.
)
Such his land Forces were, then next a fleet,
Of two and twenty thousand Gallies meet
Man'd with
Phoenicians
and
Pamphylians
Cipriots, Dorians
and
Cilicians,
Lycians, Carians
and
Ionians,
Eolians
and the
Helispontines
Besides the vessels for his transportation,
Which to three thousand came (by best relation)
Brave
Artemisia, Hallicarnassus
Queen
In person present for his aid was seen,
Whose Gallyes all the rest in neatness pass,
Save the
Z
•
donians,
where
Xerxes
was:
But hers she kept still separate from the rest,
For to command alone, she judged was best.
O noble Queen, thy valor I commend;
But pity 'twas thine aid thou here didst lend.
At
Sardis
in
Lydia,
all these do meet,
Whether rich
Pythias
comes
Xerxes
to greet,
Feasts all this multitude of his own charge,
Then gives the King a king-like gift full large,
Three thousand talents of the purest gold,
Which mighty sum all wondered to behold:
Then humbly to the king he makes request,
One of his five sons there might be released,
To be to's age a comfort and a stay,
The other four he freely gave away.
The king calls for the youth, who being brought,
Cuts him in twain for whom his Sire besought,
Then laid his parts on both sides of the way,
'Twixt which his soldiers marched in good array.
For his great love is this thy recompense?
Is this to do like
Xerxes
or a Prince?
Thou shame of kings, of men the detestation,
I Rhetoric want to pour out execration.
First thing he did that's worthy of recount,
A Sea passage cut behind
Athos
mount.
Next over the
Helespont
a bridge he made
Of Boats together coupled, and there laid:
But winds and waves those iron bands did break,
To cross the sea such strength he found too weak,
Then whips the sea, and with a mind most vain
He fetters cast therein the same to chain.
The work-men put to death the bridge that made,
Because they wanted skill the same to've staid.
Seven thousand Gallyes chain
•
d by
Tyrians
skill,
Firmly at last accomplished his will.
Seven days and nights, his host without least stay
Was marching over this new devised way.
Then in
Abidus
plains mustering his forces,
He glories in his squadrons and his horses,
Long viewing them, thought it great happiness,
One king so many subjects should possess:
But yet this sight from him produced tears,
That none of those could live an hundred years.
What after did ensue had he foreseen,
Of so long time his thoughts had never been.
Of
Artubanus
he again demands
How of this enterprise his thoughts now stands,
His answ
••
was, both sea and land he feared,
Which was not vain as after soon appeared.
But
Xerxes
resolute to
Thrace
goes first,
His Host all
Lissus
drinks, to quench their thirst,
And for his Cattle, all
Pissyrus
Lake
Was scarce enough for each a draught to take:
Then marching on to th' straight
Thermopyle,
The
Spartan
meets him brave
Leonade
;
This 'twixt the mountains lies (half Acre wide)
That pleasant
Thessaly
from
Greece
divide
Two days and nights, a fight they there maintain,
Till twenty thousand
Persians
fell down
•
lain;
And all that Army then dismayed, had fled,
But that a Fugitive discovered.
How some might over the mountains go about,
And wound the backs of those brave warriors stout
They thus behem'd with multitude of Foes,
Laid on more fiercely their deep mortal blows.
None cries for quarter nor yet seeks to run;
But on their ground they die each Mothers Son.
O noble Greeks, how now degenerate,
Where is the valor of your ancient State?
When as one thousand could a million daunt,
Alas! it is
Leonades
you want.
This shameful victory cost
Xerxes
dear,
Among the rest, two brothers he lost there;
And as at Land, so he at Sea was crossed,
Four hundred stately Ships by storms was lost;
Of Vessels small almo
•
t innumerable,
The Harbours to contain them was not
〈◊〉
Yet thinking to out match his Foes at S
••
Enclos'd their Fleet in the' straight of
Eube
••
But they as fortunate at Sea as Land,
In this straight as the other firmly stand.
And
Xerxes
mighty Gallyes battered so,
That their split sides witness'd his overthrow;
Then in the straight of
Salamis
he tried,
If that small number his great force could? bide:
But he in daring of his forward Foe,
Received there a shameful overthrow.
Twice beaten thus at Sea he war'd no more,
But then the
P
••
cians
Country wasted sore;
They no way able to withstand his force,
That brave
Themistocles
takes this wise course,
In secret manner word to
Xerxes
sends,
That Greeks to break his Bridge shortly intends:
A
•
d as a friend warns him what e're he do
For his Retreat, to have an e
•
e thereto,
He hearing this, his thoughts & course home bended
Much fearing that which never was intended.
Yet 'fore he went to help out his expense
Part of his Host to
Delphi
sent from thence,
To rob the wealthy Temple of
Apollo,
But mischief sacrilege doth ever follow.
Two mighty Rocks brake from
Parnassus
hill,
And many thousands of those men did kill;
Which accident the rest affrighted so,
With empty hands they to their Master go:
He finding all, to tend to his decay,
Fearing his Bridge, no longer there w
•
uld stay.
Three hundred thousand yet he left behind,
With his
Mardonius
Index of his mind;
Who for his sake he knew would venture far,
(Chief instigator of this hapless war.)
He instantly to
Athens
sends for peace,
That all Hostility from thence forth cease;
And that with
Xerxes
they would be at one,
So should all favor to their State be shown.
The
Spartans
fearing
Athens
would agree,
As had
Macedon, Thebes,
and
Thessaly,
And leave them out, this Shock now to sustain,
By their Ambassador they thus complain,
That
Xerxes
quarrel was 'gainst
Athens
State,
And they had helped them as Confederate;
If in their need they should forsake their friends,
Their infamy would last till all things ends:
But the
Athenians
this peace detest,
And thus replied unto
Mardon
's request.
That whilst the Sun did run his endless Course
Against the
Persians,
they would bend their force;
Nor could the brave Ambassador he sent,
With Rhetoric gain better Complement:
A
Macedonian
born, and great Commander.
No less then grand-Sire to great
Alexa
•
d
•
r
Mardonius
proud hearing this Answer stout,
To add more to his numbers lays about;
And of those Greeks which by his Skill he'd won,
He fifty thousand joins unto his own:
The other Greeks which were Confede
•
ate
In all one hundred and ten thousand made
The
Athenians
could but forty thousand Arm,
The rest had weapons would do little harm;
But that which helped defects, and made them bold,
Was victory by Oracle foretold.
Then for one battle shortly all provide;
Where both their Controversies they'll decide;
Ten days these Armies did each other face,
Mardonius
finding victuals wast apace,
No l
•
nger dared, but bravely on set gave,
The other not a hand nor Sword would wave,
Ti
•
l in the
•
ntrails of their Sacrifice
The signal of their victory did rise,
Which found like Greeks they fight, the
Persians
fly,
And troublesome
Mardonius
now must die.
All's lost, and of three hundred thousand men,
Three thousand only can run home agen.
For pity let those few to
Xerxes
go,
To certify his final overthrow:
Same day the small remainder of his Fleet,
The Grecians at
Mycale
in
Asia
meet.
And there so utterly they wracked the same,
Scarce one was left to carry home the Fame;
Thus did the Greeks, consume, destroy, disperse.
That Army, which did fright the Universe.
Scorn'd
Xerxes
bated for his cruelty,
Yet ceases not to act his villainy.
His brothers wife solicits to his will,
The chaste and beauteous Dame refused still;
Some years by him in this vain suit was spent,
Nor prayers nor gifts could win him least content;
Nor matching of her daughter to his Son,
But she was still as when he first begun:
When jealous Queen
Amestris
of this knew,
She Harpy like upon the Lady flew,
Cut off her breasts her lips her nose and ears,
And leaves her thus besmear'd in blood and tears.
Straight comes her Lord, and finds his wife thus lie,
The sorrow of his heart did close his Eye▪
He dying to behold that wounding sight,
Where he had sometime gaz'd with great delight,
To see that face where rose, and Lillies stood,
O'reflown with Torrent of her guiltless blood,
To see those breasts where Chastity did dwell,
Thus cut and mangled by a Hag of Hell:
With loaden heart unto the King he goes,
Tells as he could his unexpressed woes;
But for his deep complaints and showers of tears,
His brothers recompense was naught but jears:
The grieved prince finding nor right, nor love,
To
Bactria
his household did remove.
His brother sent soon after him a crew,
With him and his most barbarously there slew
Unto such height did grow his cruelty,
Of life no man had least security.
At last his Uncle did his death conspire,
And for that end his Eunuch he did hire;
Who privately him smothered in his bed,
But yet by search he was found murdered;
Then
Artabanus
hirer of this deed,
That from suspicion he might be free'd:
Accus'd
Darius X
••
xes
eldest Son,
To be the Author of the crime was done.
And by his craft ordered the matter so,
That the Prince innocent to death did go:
But in short time this wickedness was known,
For which he died, and not he alone,
But all his Family was likewise slain:
Such Justice in the
Persian
Court did reign.
The eldest son thus immaturely dead,
The second was inthron'd in's fathers stead.
Artaxerxes Longimanus.
Amongst the Monarchs, next this prince had place
The best that ever sprung of
Cyrus
race.
He first war with revolted
Egypt
made,
To whom the perjured
Grecians
lent their aid:
Although to
Xerxes
they not long before
A league of amity had firmly swore,
Which had they kept,
Greece
had more nobly done
Then when the world they after overrun.
Greeks
and
Egyptians
both he overthrows,
And pays them both according as he owes,
Which done, a sumptuous feast makes like a king
Where ninescore days are spent in banqueting.
His Princes, Nobles, and his Captains calls,
To be partakers of these Festivals:
His hangings white and green, and purple die,
With gold and silver beds▪ most gorgeously.
The royal wine in golden cups did pass,
To drink more then he list▪ none bidden was.
Queen
Vashti
also feasts, but 'fore tis ended,
She's from her Royalty (alas) suspended,
And one more worthy placed in her room,
By
Memucans
advice so was the doom.
What
Esther
was and did, the story read,
And how her Country men from spoil she freed,
Of
Haman's
fall, and
Mordicaes
great Rise.
The might of th' prince, the tribute of the Isles.
Good
Ezra
in the seventh year of his reign,
Did for the Jews commission large obtain,
With gold and silver, and what ere they need:
His bounty did
Darius
far exceed.
And
Nehemiah
in his twentieth year,
Went to
Jerusalem
his city dear,
Rebuilt those walls which long in rubbish lay,
And over his opposites still got the day,
Unto this King
Themistocles
did fly,
When under
Ostracisme
he did lie;
For such ingratitude did
Athens
show,
(This valiant Knight whom they so much did owe)
Such royal bounty from his prince he found,
That in his loyalty his heart was bound.
The king not little joyful of this chance,
Thinking his
Gresian
wars now to advance,
And for that end great preparation made
Fair
Attica
a third time to invade.
His grand-Sires old disgrace did vex him sore,
His Father
Xerxes
loss and shame much more▪
For punishment their breach of oath did call
This noble
Greek,
now fit for General.
Provisions then and season being fit,
To
Themistocles
this war he doth commit,
Who for his wrong he could not choose but deem
His Country nor his Friends would much esteem:
But he all injury had soon forg it;
And to his native land could bear no hate,
Nor yet disloyal to his Prince would prove,
By whom obliged by bounty, and by love;
Either to wrong, did wound his heart so sore,
To wrong himself by death he chose before:
In this sad conflict marching on his ways,
Strong poison took, so put an end to's days
The King this noble Captain having lost,
Disperst again his newly levied host:
Rest of his time in peace he did remain,
And died the two and forti'th of his reign.
Darius Nothus.
Three sons great
Artaxerxes
left behind;
The eldest to succeed, that was his mind:
His second Brother with him fell at strife,
Stil making war, till first had lost his life:
Then the Surviver is by
Nothus
slain,
Who now sole Monarch doth of all remain.
The two first sons (are by Historians thought)
By fair Queen
Esther
to her husband brought:
If so they were the greater was her moan,
That for such graceless wre
••
hes she did groan.
Revolting
Egypt
'gainst this King rebels,
His Garrisons drives out that 'mongst them dwells;
Joyns with the
Greeks,
an
•
so maintain their right,
For sixty years, maugre the
Persians
might.
A second trouble after this succeeds,
Which from remissness in
••
e
•
s Asi
•
breeds.
Amo
•
ges,
whom for Vice-Roy he ordained,
Revolts, treasure and people having gained,
Plunders the Country, & much mischief wrought
Before things could to quietness be brought.
The King was glad with
Sparta
to make peace,
That so he might those troubles soon appease:
But they in
Asia
must first restore
All towns held by his Ancestors before.
The King much profit reaped by this league,
Regains his own, then doth the Rebel break
Whose strength by
Grecians
help was overthrown,
And so each man again possessed his own.
This King
Cambises
like his sister wed,
To which his pride, more then his lust him led:
For
Persian
Kings then deemed themselves so good
No match was high enough but their own blood.
Two sons she bore, the youngest
Cyrus
named,
A Prince whose worth by
Xenophon
is famed:
His Father would no notice of that take
Prefers his brother for his birthrights sake.
But
Cyrus
scorns his brothers feeble wit,
And takes more on him then was judged fit.
The King provoked sends for him to th' Court,
Meaning to chastise him in sharpest sort,
But in his slow approach, e're he came there
His Father died, so put an end to's fear.
'Bout nineteen years this
Nothus
reigned, which run,
His large Dominions left to's eldest Son.
Artaxerxes Mnemon.
Murmon
now set upon his Fathers Throne,
Yet fears all he enjoys, is not his own:
Still on his Brother casts a jealous eye,
Judging his actions tends to's injury.
Cyrus
on th' other side weighs in his mind,
What help in's enterprize he's like to find;
His Interest in th' Kingdom now next heir,
More dear to's Mother then his brother far:
His brothers little love like to be gone,
Held by his Mothers Intercession.
These and like motives hurry him amain,
To win by force, what right could not obtain;
And thought it best now in his Mothers time,
By lower steps towards the top to climb:
If in his enterprize he should fall short,
She to the King would make a fair report,
He hoped if fraud nor force the Crown would gain
Her prevalence, a pardon might obtain.
From the
Lieutenant
first he takes away
Some Towns, commodious in less
Asia,
Pretending still the profit of the King.
Whose Rents and Customs duly he sent in;
The King finding Revenues now amended,
For what was done seemed no whit offended,
Then next he takes the
Spartans
into pay,
One Greek could make ten
Persia
•
u
•
away.
Great ear was his preten
•
e those Soldiers stout,
The Rovers in
Pisidia
should drive out;
But lest some blacker news should fly to Court,
Prepares himself to carry the report:
And for that en
•
five hundred Horse he chose;
With posting speed on towards the
•
ing he goes:
But same more quick, arrives ere he comes there,
And fills the Court with tumult, and with fear.
The old Queen and the young at bitter jars,
The last accused the first for these
•
a
•
wars,
The wife against the mother still doth cry
To be the Author of conspiracy.
The King dismayed, a mighty host doth raise,
Which
Cyrus
hears, and so fore
•
lows his pace:
But as he goes his forces still augmen
•
s,
Seven hundred
Greeks
repair for his m
••
n
•
s,
And others to be warmed by the new sun
In numbers from his brother daily run.
The fearful King at last
•
usters his forces,
And counts nine hun
•
red thousand Foot & horses▪
Three hundred thousand
•
e to by
•
sent
To keep those straits his brother to prevent.
Their Captain hearing but of
Cyrus
name,
Forsook his charge to his eternal
••
ame.
This place so made by nature and by art,
Few might have kept it had they had a heart.
Cyrus
dispair'd a passage there to gain
So hir'd a fleet to waft him over the Main:
The 'mazed King was then about to fly
To
Bactria
and for a time there lie,
Had not his Captains sore against his will
By reason and by force detained him still,
Up then with speed a mighty trench he throws
For his security against his foes,
Six yards the depth and forty miles in length,
Some fifty or else sixty
•
oot in breadth;
Yet for his brothers coming durst not stay,
He safest was when farthest out of th' way.
Cyrus
sin
•
ing his camp, and no man there,
Was not a little jocund at his fear.
On this he and his soldiers careless grow,
And here and there in carts their arms they throw
When suddenly their scouts come in and cry,
Arm, Arm,
the King with all his host is nigh.
In this confusion each man as he might
Gets on his arms, arrays himself for fight,
And ranged stood by great
Euphrates
side
The brunt of that huge multitude to 'bide,
Of whose great numbers their intelligence
Was gathered by the dust that rose from thence,
Which like a mighty cloud darkened the sky,
And black and blacker grew, as they drew nigh:
But when their order and their silence saw,
That, more then multitudes their hearts did awe;
For tumult and confusion they expected,
And all good discipline to be neglected.
But long under their fears they did not stay,
For at first charge the
Persians
ran away,
Which did such courage to the
Grecians
bring,
They all adored
Cyrus
for their King:
So had he been, and got the victory,
Had not his too much valor put him by.
He with six hundred on a Squadron set,
Of thousands six wherein the King was yet,
And brought his Soldiers on so gallantly,
They ready were to leave their King and fly;
Whom
Cyrus
spies cries loud, I see the man,
And with a full carreer at him he ran:
And in his speed a dart him hit in the' eye,
Down
Cyrus
falls, and yields to destiny:
His Host in chase knows not of this disaster,
But treads down all, so to advance their master;
But when his head they spy upon a Lance,
Who knows the sudden change made by this chance
Senseless & mute they stand, yet breath out groans,
Nor
Gorgons
head like this transformed to stones.
After this trance, revenge new Spirits blew,
And now more eagerly their Foes pursue;
And heaps on heaps such multitudes they laid,
Their Arms grew weary by their slaughters made.
The King unto a Country Village flies,
And for a while unkingly there he lies.
At last displays his Ensign on a Hill,
Hoping by that to make the Greeks stand still;
But was deceived▪ to him they run amain,
The King upon the spur runs back again:
But they too saint still to pursue their game,
Being Victors oft now to their Camp they came.
nor lackt they any of their number small,
Nor wound received, but one among them all:
The King with his dispersed, also incamp'd,
With Infamy upon each Forehead stamped.
His hurri'd thoughts he after recollects,
Of this days Cowardize he fears th' effects.
If Greeks in their own Country should declare,
What dastards in the Field the
Persia
•
s
are,
They in short time might place one in his Throne▪
And rob him both or Sce
•
ter and of Crown;
To hinder their return
•
y craft or force,
He judged his wisest and his safest Course.
Then sends, that to his Tent, they straight address,
And there all wait, his mercy weaponless;
The Greeks with scorn reject his proud Commands
Asking no favor, where they feared no bands:
The troubled King his He
••
sends again,
And sues for peace, that they his friends remain,
The smiling Greeks reply, they first must bait,
They were too hungry to Capitulate;
The King great store of all provision sends,
And Courtesie to th' utmost he pretends,
Such terror on the
Persians
then did fall,
They quak'd to hear them to each other call,
The King perplexed, there dares not let them stay:
And fears as much, to let them march away,
But Kings never want such as can serve their will,
Fit Instruments t' accomplish what is ill.
As
Tyssaphernes
knowing his masters mind,
Their chief Commanders feasts and yet more kind,
With all the Oaths and deepest Flattery,
Gets them to treat with him in privacy,
But violates his honor and his word,
And Villain like there puts them all to th'Sword.
The
Greeks
seeing their valiant Captains slain,
Chose
Xenophon
to lead them home again:
But
Tissaphernes
what he could devise,
Did stop the way in this their enterprize.
But when through difficulties all they brake,
The Country burnt, they no relief might take.
But on they march through hunger & through cold
O
•
re mountains, rocks and hills as lions bold,
Nor Rivers course, nor
Persians
force could stay,
But on to
Trabesond
they kept their way:
There was of
Greeks
settled a Colony,
Who after all received them joyfully.
Thus finishing their travail, danger, pain,
In peace they saw their native soil again.
The
Greeks
now (as the
Persian
king suspects)
The
Asiaticks
cowardi
•
e detects,
The many victoryes themselves did gain,
The many thousand
Persians
they had slain,
And how their nation with facillity,
Might gain the universal Monarchy.
They then
Dercilladus
send with an host,
Who with the
Spartans
on the
Asian
coast,
Town after town with small resistance take,
Which rumour makes great
Artaxerxes
quake.
The
Greeks
by this success encouraged so,
Their King
Agesila
•
s
doth over go,
By
Tissaphernes
is encountered,
Lieftenant to the King, but soon he fled.
Which overthrow incensed the King so sore,
That
Tissaphern
must be Viceroy no more.
Tythraustes
then is placed in his stead,
Commission hath to take the others head:
Of that perjurious wretch this was the fate,
Whom the old Queen did bear a mortal hate.
Tyt
••
austes
trusts more to his wit then Arms,
And hopes by craft to quit his Masters harms;
He knows that many Towns in
Greece
envyes
The
Spartan
State, which now so fast did rise;
To them he thirty thousand Tallents sent
With suit, their Arms against their Foes be bent;
They to their discontent receiving hire,
With broils and quarrels sets all
Greece
on fire:
Agesilaus
is called home with speed,
To defend, more then offend, there was need,
Their winnings lo
••
, and peace their glad to take
On such conditions as the King will make.
Dissention in
Greece
continued so long,
Till many a Captain tell, both wise and strong,
Whose courage naught but death could ever tame
'Mongst these
Epimanondas
wants no same,
Who had (as noble
Raileigh
doth evince)
All the peculiar virtues of a Prince;
But let us leave these Greeks to discord bent,
And turn to
Persia,
as is pertinent.
The King from foreign parts now well at ease,
His home bred troubles sought how to appease;
The two Queens by his means seem to abate,
Their former envy and inveterate hate:
But the old Queen implacable in strife,
By poison caused, the young one lose her life.
The King highly inrag'd doth hereupon
From Court exile her unto
Babylon
:
But shortly calls her home, her counsels prize,
(A Lady very wicked, but yet wise)
Then in voluptuousness he leads his life,
And weds his daughter for a second wife.
But long in ease and pleasure did not lie,
His sons sore vext him by disloyalty.
Such as would know at large his wars and reign,
What troubles in his house he did sustain,
His match incestuous cruelties of th' Queen,
His life may read in
Plutarch
to be seen.
Forty three years he ruled, then turned to dust,
A King nor good, nor valiant, wise nor just.
Dorius Ochus.
Ochus
a wicked and Rebellious son
Succeeds in th' throne his father being gone.
Two of his brothers in his Fathers days
(To his great grief) most subtly he slays:
And being King commands those that remain,
Of brethren and of kindred to be slain.
Then raises forces, conquers
Egypt
land,
Which in rebellion sixty years did stand:
And in the twenty third of's cruel reign
Was by his
Eunuch
the proud
Bagoas
slain.
Arsames or Arses,
Arsames
placed now in his fathers stead,
By him that late his father murdered.
Some write that
Arsames
was
O
•
hus
brother,
Inthron'd by
Bagoas
in the room of th' other:
But why his brother 'fore his son succeeds
I can no reason give, 'cause none I read.
His brother; as tis said, long since was slain,
And scarce a Nephew left that now might reign:
What acts he did time hath not now left penned,
But most suppose in him did
Cyrus
end,
Whose race long time had worn the diadem,
But now's devolved to another stem.
Three years he reigned, then drank of's fathers cup
By the same Eunuch who first set him up.
Darius Codomanus.
Darius
by this
Bagoas
set in throne,
(Complotter with him in the murder done)
And was no sooner settled in his reign,
But
Bagoas
falls to's practices again,
And the same sauce had served him no doubt,
But that his troason timely was found out.
And so this wretch (a punishment too small)
Lost but his life for horrid treasons all.
This
Codomanus
now upon the stage
Was to his Predecessors Chamber pag
••
Some write great
Cyrus
line was not
〈◊〉
run,
But from some daughter this new king was sprung
If so, or not, we cannot tell, but find
That several men will have their several mind;
Yet in such differences we may be bold,
With learned and
•
udicious still to hold;
And this 'mongst all's no Controverred thing,
That this
Dari
••
was last
Persian
King,
Whose Wars, and losses we may better tell,
In
Alex
•
nder
's reign who did him quell,
How from the top of worlds felicity,
He fell to depth of greatest misery.
Whose honors, treasures, pleasures had short stay,
One deluge came and swept them all away,
And in the sixth year of his hapless reign,
Of all did scarce his winding Sheet retain:
And last a sad Catastrophe to end,
Him to the grave did Traitor
Bessus
send.
The End of the Persian Monarchy:
The Third Monarchy, being the Grecian, beginning under Alexander the Great in the 112. Olympiad.
GReat
Alexander
was wise
Philip's
son,
He to
Amyntas,
Kings of
Macedon
;
The cruel proud
Olympias
was his Mother,
She to
Epirus
warlike King was daughter.
This Prince (his father by
Pausanias
slain)
The twenty first of 'sage began to reign.
Great were the Gilts of nature which he had,
His education much to those did add:
By art and nature both he was made fit,
To 'complish that which long before was writ.
The
•
ry day of his Nativity
To ground was burnt
Dianaes
Temple high:
An Omen to their near approaching woe,
Whose glory to the earth this king did throw.
His Rule to
Greece
he scorned should be confined,
The Universe scarce bound his proud vast mind.
This is the He-Goat which from
Grecia
came,
That ran in Choler on the
Persian
Ram,
That brake his horns, that threw him on the ground
To save him from his might no man was found:
Philip
on this great Conquest had an eye,
But death did terminate those thoughts so high.
The Greeks had chose him Captain General,
Which honor to his Son did now befall.
(For as Worlds Monarch now we speak not on,
But as the King of little
Macedon
)
Restless both day and night his heart then was,
His high resolves which way to bring to pass,
Yet for a while in
Greece
is forced to stay,
Which makes each moment seem more then a day,
Thebes
and stiff
Athens
both 'gainst him rebel,
Their mutinies by valor doth he quell.
This done against both right and natures Laws,
His kinsmen put to death, who gave no cause;
That no rebellion in in his absence be,
Nor making Title unto Sovereignty.
And all whom he suspects or fears will climb,
Now taste of death least they deserved in time,
Nor wonder is
•
t if he in b
•
ood begin,
For Cruelty was his parental sin,
Thus eased now of troubles and of fears,
Next spring his course to
Asia
he steers,
Leavs
Sage Antipa
•
,
at home to sway,
And through the
Hellis
••
nt
his Ships made way.
Coming to Land, his dart on shore he throws,
Then with alacrity he after goes;
And with a bount'ous heart and courage brave;
His little wealth among his Soldiers gave.
And being asked what for himself was left,
Reply'd enough, since only hope he kept.
Thirty two thousand made up his Foot force,
To which were join'd five thousand goodly horse.
Then on he marched, in's way he viewed old
Troy,
And on
Achilles
tomb with wondrous joy
He offered, and for good success did pray
To him, his Mothers Ancestors, (men say)
When news of
Alexander
came to Court,
To scorn at him
Darius
had good sport;
Sends him a frothy and contemptuous Letter,
Stiles him disloyal servant, and no better;
Reproves him for his proud audacity
To lift his hand 'gainst such a Monarchy.
Then to's Lieftenant he in
Asia
sends,
That he be ta'ne alive, for he intends
To whip him well with rods, and so to bring
That boy so mallipert before the King.
Ah! fond vain man, whose pen ere while
In lower terms was taught a higher style.
To River
Granick Alexander
hyes
Which in
Phrygia
near
Propontike
lies
The
Persians
ready for encounter stand,
And strive to keep his men from off the land;
Those banks so steep the
Greeks
yet scramble up,
And heat the coward
Persians
from the top,
And twenty thousand of their lives bereave.
Who in their backs did all their wounds receive.
This victory did
Alexander
gain,
With loss of thirty four of his there slain;
Then
Sardis
he, and
Ephesus
did gain,
Where stood of late,
Diana
's wondrous
Phane,
And by
Pa
•
me
••
o
(of renowned Fame,)
Militus
and
Pamphilia
overcame.
Halli
•
arnassus
and
Pisidia
He for his Master takes with
Lycia.
Next
Alexander
marched towards the black Sea,
And easily takes old
Gordium
in his way;
Of Ass ear'd
Midas,
once the Regal Seat,
Whose touch turned all to gold, yea even his meat
Where the Prophetick knot he cuts in twain,
Which who so doth, must Lord of all remain.
Now news of
Memnon
's death (the Kings Viceroy)
To
Alexanders
heart's no little joy,
For in that Peer, more valor did abide,
Then in
Darius
multitude beside:
In's stead, was
Arses
placed, but durst not stay,
Yet set one in his room, and ran away;
His substitute as fearful as his master,
Runs after two, and leaves all to Disaster.
Then
Alexander
all
Silicia
takes,
No stroke for it he struck▪ their hearts so quakes.
To
Gre
•••
he thirty thousand talents sends.
To raise more Force to further his intends:
Then over he goes
Darius
now to meet,
Who came with thousand thousands at his feet.
Though some there be (perhaps) more likely write
He but four hundred thousand had to fight,
The rest Attendants, which made up no less,
Both Sexes there was almost numberless.
For this wise King had brought to see the sport,
With him the greatest Ladies of the Court,
His mother, his beauteous Queen and daughters,
It seems to see the
Macedonian
slaughters.
Its much beyond my time and little art,
To show how great
Darius
plaid his part;
The splendor and the pomp he marched in,
For since the world was no such
••
geant seen.
Sure 'twas a goodly sight there to behold,
The
Persians
clad in silk, and glistering gold,
The stately horses trapt, the lances gilt,
As if addrest now all to run a tilt.
The holy sire was borne before the host,
(For Sun and
•
ire the
Persians
worship most)
The Priests in their strange habit follow after,
An object, not so much of fear as laughter.
The King sat in a chariot made of gold,
With crown and Robes most glorious to behold,
And over his head his golden God's on high,
Support a party coloured Canopy.
A number of spare horses next were led,
Lest he should need them in his Chariots stead;
But those that saw him in this state to lie,
Suppos'd he neither meant to fight nor fly.
He fifteen hundred had like women dressed;
For thus to fright the Greeks he judged was best.
Their golden ornaments how to set forth,
Would ask more time then was their bodies worth
Great
Sysigambis
she brought up the Reer,
Then such a world of waggons did appear,
Like several houses moving upon wheels,
As if she'd drawn whole
S
••
han
at her heels.
This brave
Virago
to the King was mother,
And as much good she did as any other.
Now lest this gold, and all this goodly stuff
Had not been spoil and booty rich enough
A thousand mul
•
and Camels ready wait
Loaden with gold, with jewels and with plate:
For sure
Darius
thought at the first sight,
The
Greeks
would all adore, but none would fight
But when both Armies met, he might behold
That valor was more worth then pearls or gold,
And that his wealth served but for baits to 'lure
To make his overthrow more fierce and sure.
The
Greeks
came on and with a gallant grace
Let fly their arrows in the
Persians
face.
The cowards feeling this sharp stinging charge
Most basely ran, and left their king at large:
Who from his golden coach is glad to 'light,
And cast away his crown for swifter flight:
Of late like some immovable he lay,
Now finds both legs and horse to run away.
Two hundred thousand men that day were slain,
And forty thousand prisoners also tane,
Besides the Queens and Ladies of the court,
If
Curtius
be true in his report.
The Regal Ornaments were lost, the treasure
Divided at the
Macedonians
pleasure;
Yet all this grief, this loss, this overthrow,
Was but beginning of his future woe.
The royal Captives brought to
Alexander
T'ward them demean'd himself like a Commander
For though their beauties were unparaled,
Conquer'd himself now he had conquered.
Preserv'd their honor, used them bounteously,
Commands no man should do them injury:
And this to
Al
•
xander
is more fame
Then that the
Persian
King he overcame.
Two hundred eighty Greeks he lost in fight,
By too much heat, not wounds (as authors write)
No sooner had this Victor won the field,
But all
Phenicia
to his pleasure yield,
Of which the Goverment he doth commit
Unto
Permenion
of all most fit.
Darius
now less lofty then before,
To
Alexander
writes he would restore
Those mournful Ladies from Captivity,
For whom he offers him a ransom high:
But down his haughty stomach could not bring,
To give this Conqueror the Style of King.
This Letter
Alexander
doth disdain,
And in short terms sends this reply again,
A King he was, and that not only so,
But of
Darius
King, as he should know.
Next
Alexander
unto
Tyre
doth go,
His valor and his victoryes they know:
To gain his love the
Tyrians
intend,
Therefore a crown and great Provision send,
Their present he receives with thankfulness,
Desires to offer unto
Hercules,
Protector of their town, by whom defended,
And from whom he lineally descended.
But they accept not this in any wise,
Lest he intend more fraud then sacrifice,
Sent word that
Hercules
his temple stood
In the old town, (which then lay like a wood)
With this reply he was so deep enraged,
To win the town his honor he engaged:
And now as
Babels
King did once before,
No leaves not till he made the sea firm shore,
But far less time and cost he did expend,
The former Ruines forwarded his end:
Moreover had a Navy at command,
The other by his men fetched all by land.
In seven months time he took that wealthy town,
Whose glory now a second time's brought down.
Two thousand of the chief he crucified,
Eight thousand by the sword then also died,
And thirteen thousand Gally slaves he made,
And thus the
Tyrians
for mistrust were paid.
The rule of this he to
Philotas
gave
Who was the son of that
Permenion
brave.
Silicia
to
Socrates
doth give,
For now's the time Captains like Kings may live▪
Zidon
he on
Ephestion
bestows,
(For that which freely comes, as freely goes)
He scorns to have one worse then had the other,
So gives his little Lordship to another.
Ephestion
having chief command of th' Fleet,
At
Gaza
now must
Alexander
meet.
Darius
finding troubles still increase,
By his Ambassadors now sues for peace,
And lays before great
Alexanders
eyes
The dangers difficultyes like to rise,
First at
Euphrates
what he's like to 'bide,
And then at
Tigris
and
Araxis
side,
These he may scape, and if he so desire,
A league of friendship make firm and entire.
His eldest daughter he in marriage proffers,
And a most princely dowry with her offers.
All those rich Kingdoms large that do abide
Betwixt the
Hellespont
and
Halys
side.
But he with scorn his courtesy rejects,
And the distressed King no whit respects,
Tells him, these proffers great, in truth were none
For all he offers now was but his own.
But quoth
Permenion
that brave Commander,
Was I as great, as is great
Alexander,
Darius
offers I would not reject,
But th' kingdoms and the Lady soon accept.
To which proud
Alexander
made reply,
And so if I
Permenion
was, would I.
He now to
Gaza
goes, and there doth meet,
His Favorite
Ephestion
with his Fleet,
Where valiant
Betis
stoutly keeps the town,
(A loyal Subject to
Darius
Crown)
For more repulse the
Grecians
here abide
Then in the
Persian
Monarchy beside;
And by these walls so many men were slain,
That
Greece
was forced to yield supply again,
But yet this well defended Town was taken,
For 'twas decree'd, that Empire should be shaken;
Thus
Betis
ta'en had holes bor'd through his feet,
And by command was drawn through every street
To imitate
Achilles
in his shame,
Who did the like to Hector (of more fame)
What hast thou lost thy magnimity,
Can
Alexander
deal thus cruelly?
Since valor with
Heroicks
is renowned,
Though in an Enemy it should be found;
If of thy future fame thou hadst regard,
Why didst not heap up honors and reward?
From
Gaza
to
Jerusalem
he goes,
But in no hostile way, (as I suppose)
Him in his Priestly Robes high
Jaddus
meets,
Whom with great reverence
Alexander
greets;
The Priest shows him good
Daniel
's Prophesy,
How he should overthrow this Monarchy,
By which he was so much encouraged,
No future dangers he did ever dread.
From thence to fruitful
Egypt
marched with speed,
Where happily in's wars he did succeed;
To see how fast he gained was no small wonder,
For in few days he brought that Kingdom under.
Then to the
Phane
of
Jupiter
he went,
To be install'd a God, was his intent.
The
Pagan
Priest through hire, or else mistake,
The Son of
Jupiter
did straight him make:
He Diobolical must needs remain,
That his humanity will not retain.
Thence back to
Egypt
goes, and in few days;
Fair
Alexandria
from the ground doth raise▪
Then settling all things in less
Asia,
In
Syria, Egypt,
and
Phenicia,
Unto
Euphrate
•
marched and overgoes,
For no man's there his Army to oppose;
Had
••
tis
now been there, but with his band,
Great
Alexander
had been kept from Land.
But as the King, so is the multitude,
And now of valor both are destitute.
Yet he (poor prince) another Host doth muster,
Of
P
••
si
••
s, Scythians, Inaians
in a cluster;
Men but in shape and name, of valor none
Most fit, to blunt the Swords of
Macedon.
Two hundred fifty thousand by account,
Of Horse and Foot his Army did amount;
For in his multitudes his trust still lay,
But on their fortitude he had small stay;
Yet had some hope that on the spacious plain,
His numbers might the victory obtain.
About this time
Darius
beauteous Queen,
Who had sore travail and much sorrow seen,
Now bids the world adue, with pain being spent,
Whose death her Lord full sadly did lament.
Great
Alexander
mourns as well as he,
The more because not set at liberty;
When this sad news (at first
Darius
hears,
Some injury was offered he fears:
But when informed how royally the King.
Had used her, and hers, in everything,
He prays the immortal God's they would reward
Great
Alexander
for this good regard;
And if they down his Monarchy will throw,
Let them on him this dignity bestow
And now for peace he sues as once before,
And offers all he did and Kingdoms more;
His eldest daughter for his princely bride,
(Nor was such match in all the world beside)
And all those Countries which (betwixt) did lie
Phanisian
Sea, and great
Euphrates
high:
With fertile
Egypt
and rich
Syria,
And all those Kingdoms in less
Asia.
With thirty thousand Talents to be paid,
For the Queen Mother, and the royal maid;
And till all this be well performed, and sure,
Ochus
his Son for Hostage should endure.
To this stout
Alexander
gives no ear
No though
Permenion
plead, yet will not hear;
Which had he done▪ (perhaps) his fame he'd kept,
Nor Infamy had wak'd, when he had slept,
For his unlimited prosperity
Him boundless made in vice and Cruelty.
Thus to
Darius
he writes back again,
The Firmament, two Suns cannot contain.
Two Monarchyes on Earth cannot abide,
Nor yet two Monarchs in one world reside;
The afflicted King finding him set to jar,
Prepares against tomorrow, for the war,
Permenion, Alexander,
wisht that night,
To force his Camp, so vanquish them by flight.
For tumult in the night doth cause most dread,
And weakness of a Foe is covered,
But he disdained to steal a victory:
The Sun should witness of his valor be,
And careless in his bed, next morne he lies,
By Captains twice is called before he'l rise,
The Armies join'd a while, the
Pe
•
sians
••
ght.
And spilled the Greeks some blood before their flight
But long they stood not e're they are forced to run,
So made an end, As soon as well begun.
Forty five thousand
Alexander
had,
But is not known what slaughter here was made,
Some write th' other had a million, some more,
But
Quintus Curtius
as before.
At
Arbela
this victory was gained,
Together with the Town also obtained;
Darius
stripped of all, to
Media
came,
Accompan'ed with sorrow, fear, and shame,
At
Arbela
left his Ornaments and Treasure,
Which
Alexander
deals as suits his pleasure.
This conqueror to
Babylon
then goes,
Is entertained with joy and pompous shows,
With showers of flours the streets along are strown,
And incense burnt the silver Altars on.
The glory of the Castle he admires,
The strong Foundation and the lofty Spires,
In this, a world of gold and Treasure lay,
Which in few hours was carried all away.
With greedy eyes he views this City rou
••
Whose fame throughout the world was so
〈◊〉
And to possess he counts no little bliss
The towers and bowres of proud
Semiramis,
Though worn by time, and rac'd by foes full sore,
Yet old foundations showed and somewhat more.
With all the pleasures that on earth are found,
This city did abundantly abound,
Where four and thirty days he now did stay,
And gave himself to banqueting and play:
He and his soldiers wax effeminate,
And former discipline begin to hate.
Whilst revelling at
Babylon
he lies,
Antipater
from
Greece
sends fresh supplies.
He then to
Shushan
goes with his new bands,
But needs no force, tis rendered to his hands.
He likewise here a world of treasure found;
For 'twas the seat of
Persian
Kings renown
•
d.
Here stood the royal Houses of delight,
Where Kings have shown their glory wealth and might
The sumptuous palace of Queen
Esther
here,
And of good
Mordicai,
her kinsman dear,
Those purple hangings, mixed with green and white
Those beds of gold and couches of delight.
And furniture the richest in all lands,
Now fall into the
Macedonians
hands.
From
Shushan
to
Persipolis
he goes,
Which news doth still augment
Darius
woes.
In his approach the governor sends word,
For his receipt with joy they all accord,
With open gates the wealthy town did stand,
And all in it was at his high command.
Of all the Cities that on earth was found,
None like to this in riches did abound:
Though
Baby
•
on
was rich and
Shushan
too
Yet to compare with this they might not do:
Here lay the bulk of all those precious things
That did pertain unto the
Persian
Kings:
For when the soldiers rifled had their pleasure,
And taken money plate and golden treasure,
Statues some gold, and silver numberless,
Yet after all, as stories do express
The share of
Alexander
did amount
To an hundred thousand talents by account.
Here of his own he sets a Garison,
(As first at
Shushan
and at
Babylon
)
On their old Governors titles he laid,
But on their faithfulness he never staid,
Their place gave to his Captains (as was just)
For such revolters false, what King can trust▪
The riches and the pleasures of this town
Now makes this King his virtues all to drown,
That wallowing in all licentiousness,
In pride and cruelty to high excess.
Being inflamed with wine upon a season,
Filled with madness, and quite void of reason,
He at a bold proud strumpets lewd desire,
Commands to set this goodly town on fire.
Permenion
wise intreats him to desist▪
And lays before his eyes if he persist
His fames dishonor, loss unto his state,
And just procuring of the
Persians
hate:
But deaf to reason, bent to have his will,
Those stately streets with raging flame did fill.
Then to
Darius
he directs his way,
Who was retired as far as
Media,
An
•
there with sorrows, fears & cares surrounded
Ha
•
now his army fourth and last compounded,
Which forty thousand made, but his intent
Was these in
Bactria
soon to augment:
But hearing
Al
•
xander
was so near,
Thought now this once to try his fortunes here,
And rather chose an honorable death,
Then still with infamy to draw his breath:
But
B
•
ssus
false, who was his chief Commander
Perswades him not to fight with
Alexander.
With sage advice he sets before his eyes
The little hope of profit like to rise:
If when he'd multitudes the day he lost,
Then with so fow, how likely to be crossed.
This counsel for his safety he pretended,
But to deliver him to's foe intended.
Next day this treason to
Darius
known
Transported sore with grief and passion,
Grinding his teeth, and plucking off his hair,
Sate overwhelmed with sorrow and dispair:
Then bids his servant
Artahasus
true,
Look to himself, and leave him to that crew,
Who was of hopes and comforts quite bereft,
And by his guard and Servitors all left.
Straight
Bessus
comes, & with his trait'rous hands
Lays hold on's Lord, and binding him with bands
Throws him into a Cart, covered with hides,
Who wanting means t' resist these wrongs abides,
Then draws the cart along with chains of gold,
In more despite the thraled prince to hold,
And thus toward
Alexander
on he goes,
Great recompense for this, he did propose:
But some detesting this his wicked fact▪
To
Alexander
flies and tells this act,
Who doubling of his march, posts on amain,
Darius
from that traitors hands to gain.
Bessus
gets knowledge his disloyalty
Had
Alexanders
wrath incensed high,
Whose army now was almost within sight,
His hopes being dashed prepares himself for
•
light:
Unto
Darius
first he brings a horse,
And bids him save himself by speedy course:
The woeful King his courtesy refuses,
Whom thus the execrable wretch abuses,
By throwing darts gave him his mortal wound.
Then slew his Servants that were faithful found,
Yea wounds the beasts that drew him unto death,
And leaves him thus to gasp out his last breath.
Bessus
his partner in this tragedy,
Was the false Governor of
Media.
This done, they with their host soon speed away,
To hide themselves remote in
Bactria.
Darius
bath'd in blood, sends out his groans,
Invokes the heavens and earth to hear his moans:
His lost felicity did grieve him sore,
But this unheard of treachery much more:
But above all, that neither Ear nor Eye
Should hear nor see his dying misery;
As thus he lay,
Polistrates
a Greek,
Wearied with his long march, did water seek,
So chanced these bloody Horses to espy,
Whose wounds had made their skins of purple die
To them repairs then looking in the Cart,
Finds poor
Darius
pierced to the heart,
Who not a little cheered to have some eye,
The witness of this horrid Tragedy;
Prays him to
Alexander
to commend
The just revenge of this his woeful end:
And not to pardon such disloyalty,
Of Treason, Murder, and base Cruelty.
If not, because
Darius
thus did pray,
Yet that succeeding Kings in safety may
Their lives enjoy, their Crowns and dignity,
And not by Traitors hands untimely die.
He also sends his humble thankfulness,
For all the Kingly grace he did express;
To's Mother, Children dear, and wife now gone▪
Which made their long restraint seem to be none:
Praying the immortal God's, that Sea and Land
Might be subjected to his royal hand,
And that his Rule as far extended be,
As men the rising setting Sun shall see,
This said, the Greek for water doth entreat,
To quench his thirst, and to allay his heat:
Of all good things quoth he) once in my power,
I have nothing left, at this my dying hour;
Thy service and compassion to reward,
But
Alexander
will, for this regard.
This said, his fainting breath did fleet away,
And though a Monarch late, now lies like clay;
And thus must every Son of
Adam
lie,
Though God's on Earth like Sons of men they die.
Now to the East, great
Alexander
goes,
To see if any dare his might oppose,
For scarce the world or any bounds thereon,
Could bound his boundless fond Ambition;
Such as submits again he doth restore
Their riches, and their honors he makes more,
On
Artabaces
more then all bestowed,
For his fidelity to's Master showed.
Thalestris
Queen of th'
Am
••
s
now brought
Her Train to
Alexander,
(as 'tis thought)
Though most of reading best and soundest mind,
Such Country there, nor yet such people find.
Then tell her errand, we had better spare
To th' ignorant, her title will declare:
As
Alexander
in his greatness grows,
So daily of his virtues doth he lose.
He baseness counts, his former Clemency,
And not
•
eseeming such a dignity;
His past sobriety doth also
•
ate,
As most incompatible to his State▪
His temperance is but a sordid thing,
No ways becoming such a mighty King
His greatness now he takes to represent
His fancy'd God's above the Firmament.
And such as showed but reverence before,
Now are commanded strictly to adore;
With
Persian
Robes himself doth dignify,
Charging the same on his nobility,
His manners habit, gestures, all did fashion
After that conquered and luxurious Nation.
His Captains that were virtuously inclined,
Griev'd at this change of manners and of mind
The ruder sort did openly deride,
His feigned Diety and foolish pride;
The certainty of both comes to his Ears,
But yet no notice takes of what he hears:
With those of worth he still desires esteem,
So heaps up gifts his credit to redeem
And for the rest new wars and travails finds,
That other matters might take up their minds,
And hearing
Bessus,
makes himself a King,
Intends that Traitor to his end to bring.
Now that his Host from luggage might be free,
And with his burden no man burdened be,
Commands forthwith each man his fardle bring,
Into the market place before the King;
Which done sets fire upon those goodly spoils,
The recompense of travails wars and toils.
And thus unwisely in a mading fume,
The wealth of many Kingdoms did consume,
But marvel 'tis that without mutiny,
The Soldiers should let pass this injury;
Nor won
•
er less to Readers may it bring,
Here to observe the rashness of the King.
Now with his Army doth he post away
False
Bessus
to find out in
Bactria:
But much distrest for water in their march,
The drought and heat their bodies sore did parch.
At length they came to th' river
Oxus
brink,
Where so immoderately these thirsty drink,
Which more mortality to them did bring,
Then all their wars against the
Persian
King.
Here
Alexander
's almost at a stand,
To pass the River to the other land.
For boats here's none, nor near it any wood,
To make them Rafts to wast them over the flood:
But he that was resolved in his mind,
Would without means some transportation find.
Then from the Carriages the hides he takes,
And stuffing them with straw, he bundles makes.
On these together ti'd, in six days space,
They all pass over to the other place.
Had
Bessus
had but valor to his will,
With little pain there might have kept them still:
But Coward durst not fight, nor could he fly,
Hated of all for's former treachery,
Is by his own now bound in iron chains,
A Coller of the same, his neck contains.
And in this sort they rather drag then bring
This Malefactor vile before the King,
Who to
Darius
brother gives the wretch,
With racks and tortures every limb to stretch.
Here was of
Greeks
a town in
Bactria,
Whom
Xerxes
from their Country led away,
These not a little
•
oy'd this day to see,
Wherein their own had got the sov'raignty
And now revived, with hopes held up their head
From bondage long to be Enfranchised.
But
Alexander
puts them to the sword.
Without least cause from them in deed or word;
Nor Sex, nor age, nor one, nor other spared,
But in his cruelty alike they shar'd:
Nor reason could he give for this great wrong,
But that they had forgot their mother tongue.
While thus some time he spent in
B
•
ctria,
And in his camp strong and securely lay▪
Down from the mountains twenty thousand came
And there most fiercely set upon the ame:
Repelling these, two marks of honor got
Imprinted in his leg, by arrows shot.
The
Bactrians
against him now rebel;
But he their stubbornness in time doth quell.
From hence he to
Jaxarta
River goes
Where
Scythians
rude his army doth oppose,
And with their outcries in an hideous sort
Beset his camp or military court,
Of darts and arrows, made so little spare,
They flew so thick they seemed to dark the air
•
But soon his soldiers forced them to a flight,
Their nakedness could not endure their might▪
Upon this rivers bank in seventeen days
A goodly City doth completely raise,
Which
Alexander
he doth likewise name,
And sixty furlongs could but round the same▪
A third Supply
Antipater
now sent,
Which did his former forces much augment;
And being one hundred twenty thousand strong;
He enters then the Indian Kings among:
Those that submit he gives them rule again,
Such as do not both them and theirs are slain.
His wars with sundry nations I will omit,
And also of the
Mallians
what is writ.
His F
•
ghts, his dangers, and the hurts he had,
How to submit their necks at last they are glad.
To
Nis
•
goes by
Bacchus
built long since,
Whose feasts are celebrated by this prince;
Nor had that drunken god one who would take
His Liquors more devoutly for his sake.
When thus ten days his brain with wine he'd soaked,
And with delicious meats his palate choked:
To th' River
Indus
next his course he bends,
Boats to prepare▪
Ephestion
first he
•
ends,
Who coming thither long before his Lord,
Had to his mind made all things to accord,
The vessels ready were at his command,
And
Omph
••
King of that part of the land,
Through his persuasion
Alexander
meets,
And as his Sovereign Lord him humbly greets
Fifty six Elephants he brings to's hand,
And tenders him the strength of all his land;
Presents himself first with a golden crown,
Then eighty talents to his captains down:
But
Alexander
made him to behold
He glory sought, no silver nor no gold;
His presents all with thanks he did restore,
And of his own a thousand talents more.
Thus all the Indian Kings to him submit,
But
Porus
stout, who will not yield as yet:
To him doth
Alexander
thus declare,
His pleasure is that forthwith he repair
Unto his Kingdoms bor
•
ers and as due,
His homage to himself as Sovereign do:
But kingly
Porus
this brave answer sent,
That to attend him there was his intent,
And come as well provided as he could,
But for the rest, his sword advise him should.
Great
Alexander
vext at this reply,
Did more his valor then his crown envy,
Is now resolved to pass
Hydaspes
flood,
And there by force his sovereignty make good.
Stout
Porus
on the banks doth ready stand
To give him welcome when he comes to land.
A potent army with him like a King,
And ninety Elephants for war did bring:
Had
Alexander
such resistance seen
On
Tigris
side, here now he had not been.
Within this spacious River deep and wide
Did here and there Isles full of trees abide.
His army
Alexander
doth divide
With
Ptolemy
sends part to th' other side▪
Porus
encounters them and thinks all's there,
When covertly the rest get over else where,
And whilst the first he valiantly assail'd,
The last set on his back, and so prevailed.
Yet work enough here
Alexander
found,
For to the last stout
Porus
kept his ground:
Nor wasit dishonor at the length to yield,
When
Alexander
strives to win the field.
The kingly Captive 'fore the Victor's brought,
In looks or gesture not abased ought,
But him a Prince of an undaunted mind
Did
Alex
•
nder
by his answers find:
His fortitude his royal foe commends,
Restores him and his bounds farther extends.
Now eastward
Alexander
would go still,
But so to do his soldiers had no will,
Long with e
•
cessive travails wearied,
Could by no means be farther drawn or led,
Yet that his fame might to posterity
Be had in everlasting memory
Doth for his Camp a greater circuit take,
And for his soldiers larger Cabbins make.
His mangers he erected up so high
As never horse his Provender could eye.
Huge bridles made, which here and there he left,
Which might be found, and for great wonders kept:
Twelve altars then for monuments he rears,
Whereon his acts and travels long appears.
But doubting wearing time might these decay,
And so his memory would fade away,
He on the fair
Hydaspes
pleasant side,
Two Cities built, his name might there abide,
First
Nicaea,
the next
Bucephal
•
n,
Where he entomb'd his stately Stalion.
His fourth and last supply was hither sent,
Then down
Hydaspes
with his Fleet he went;
Some time he after spent upon that shore,
Whether Ambassadors, ninety or more,
Came with submission from the Indian Kings,
Bringing their presents rare and precious things,
These all he feasts in state on beds of gold,
His Furni
•
ure most sumptuous to behold;
His meat & drink, attendants, everything,
To th' utmost showed the glory of a King.
With rich rewards he sent them home again,
Acknowledged their Masters sovereign;
Then sailing South, and coming to that shore,
Those obscure Nations yielded as before:
A City here he built, called by his Name,
Which could not sound too oft with too much fame
Then sailing by the mouth of
Indus
flood,
His Gallyes stuck upon the flats and mud;
Which the stout
Macedonians
amazed sore,
Depriv'd at once the use of Sail and Oar:
Observing well the nature of the Tide,
In those their fears they did not long abide.
Passing fair
Indus
mouth his course he steered
To th' coast which by
Euphrates
mouth appeared;
Whose inlets near unto, he winter spent,
Unto his starved Soldiers small content,
By hunger and by cold so many flain,
That of them all the fourth did scarce remain.
Thus winter, Soldiers, and provisions spent,
From hence he then unto
Gedrosia
went.
And thence he marched into
Carmania,
And so at length drew near to
Persia,
Now through these goodly Countries as he past,
Much time in feasts and rioting did waste;
Then visits
Cyrus
Sepulcher in's way,
Who now obscure at
•
assa
•
ardis
lay:
Upon his Monument his Robe he spread,
And set his Crown on his supposed head.
From hence to
Babylon,
some time there spent,
He at the last to royal
Shusha
•
went;
A wedding Feast to's Nobles then he makes,
And
S
•
aty
•
a, Dar
•
us
daughter takes,
Her Sister gives to his
Ephestian
dear,
That by this match he might be yet more near;
He fourscore
Persia
Ladies also gave,
At this same time unto his Captains brave:
Six thousand guests unto this Feast invites,
Whose Sences all were glutted with delights.
It far exceeds my mean abilities
To shadow forth these short felicities,
Spectators here could scarce relate the story,
They were so wrapped with this external glory:
If an Ideal Paradise a man would frame,
He might this Feast imagine by the same;
To every guess a cup of gold he sends,
So after many days the Banquet ends.
Now
Alexanders
conquests all are done,
And his long Travails past and overgone;
His virtues dead, buried, and quite forgot,
But vice remains to his Eternal blot.
'Mongst those that of his cruelty did taste,
Philotus
was not least, nor yet the last,
Accus'd because he did not certify
The King of treason and conspiracy:
Upon suspicion being apprehended,
Nothing was proved wherein he had offended
But silence, which was of such consequence,
He was judged guilty of the same offense,
But for his fathers great deserts the King
His royal pardon gave for this soul thing.
Yet is
Phylotas
unto judgment brought,
Must suffer, not for what is proved, but thought.
His master is accuser, judge and King,
Who to the height doth aggravate each thing,
Inveighs against his father now absent,
And's brethren who for him their lives had spent.
But
Philotas
his unpardonable crime,
No merit could obliterate, or time:
He did the Oracle of
Jove
deride,
By which his Majesty was diefi'd.
Philotas
thus o'recharg'd with wrong and grief
Sunk in despair without hope of Relief,
Fain would have spoke and made his own defense,
The King would give no car, but went from thence
To his malicious Foes delivers him,
To wreak their spite and hate on every limb.
Philotas
after him sends out this cry,
O
Alexander,
thy free clemency
My foes exceeds in malice, and their hate
Thy kingly word can easily terminate.
Such torments great as wit could worst invent,
Or flesh and life could bear, till both were spent
Were now inflicted on
Permenion
's son
He might accuse himself, as they had done,
At last he did, so they were justified,
And told the world that for his guilt he died.
But how these Captains should, or yet their master
Look on
Permenion,
after this disaster
They knew not, wherefore best now to be done,
Was to dispatch the father as the son.
This sound advice at heart pleased
Alexander,
Who was so much engaged to this Commander,
As he would never confess, nor yet reward,
Nor could his Captains bear so great regard:
Wherefore at once, all these to satisfy,
It was decreed
Permenion
should die:
Polidamus,
who seemed
Permenion
's friend
To do this deed they into
Media
send;
He walking in his garden to and fro.
Fearing no harm, because he none did do,
Most wickedly was slain without least crime,
(The most renowned captain of his time)
This is
Permenion
who so much had done
For
Philip
dead, and his surviving son,
Who from a petty King of
Macedon
By him was set upon the
Persian
throne,
This that
Permenion
who still overcame,
Yet gave his Master the immortal fame,
Who for his prudence, valor, care and trust
Had this reward, most cruel and unjust.
The next, who in untimely death had part,
Was one of more esteem, but less desert;
Clitus
beloved next to
Ephestian,
And in his cups his chief companion;
When both were drunk,
Clitus
was wont to jeer,
Alexander
to rage, to kill, and swear;
Nothing more pleasing to mad
Clitus
tongue,
Then's Masters Godhead to defy and wrong;
Nothing touched
Alexander
to the quick,
Like this against his Diety to kick:
Both at a Feast when they had tippled well,
Upon this dangerous Theam fond
Clitus
fell;
From jest to earnest, and at last so bold,
That of
Permenion
's death him plainly told.
Which
Alexanders
wrath incensed so high,
Nought but his life for this could satisfy;
From one stood by he snatched a partizan,
And in a rage him through the body ran.
Next day he tore his face for w
•
at he'd done,
And would have slain himself for
Clitus
gone:
This pot Companion he did more bemoan,
Then all the wrongs to brave
Permenion
done.
The n
•
x of worth that suffered after these,
Was learned, virtuous, wise
Calisthenes,
Who loved his Master more then did the rest,
As did appear, in flattering him the least;
In his esteem a God he could not be,
Nor would adore him for a Diety:
For this alone and for no other cause,
Against his Sovereign, or against his Laws,
He on the Rack his Limbs in pieces rent,
Thus was he tortured till his life was spent.
Of this unkingly act doth
Seneca
This censure pass, and not unwisely say,
Of
Alexander
this th' eternal crime,
Which shall not be obliterate by time.
Which virtues fame can never redeem by far,
Nor all felicity of his in war
When e're 'tis said he thousand thousands slew,
Yea, and
Calisthenes
to death he drew.
The mighty
Persian
King he overcame,
Yea, and he killed
Calist
•
h
•
n
•
s
of fame.
All Countries, Kingdoms, Provinces, he wan
From
Hellispont,
to th' farthest Ocean.
All this he did, who knows' not to be true?
But yet withal,
Catisthenes
he slew.
From
Macedon,
his Empire did extend
Unto the utmost bounds o'th' orient:
All this he did, yea, and much more, 'tis true,
But yet withal,
Catisthenes
he slew.
Now
Alexander
goes to
Media,
Finds there the want of wise
Permenion
;
Here his chief favourite
Ephestian
dies,
He celebrates his mournful obsequies:
Hangs his Physician, the Reason why
He suffered, his friend
Ephestian
die.
This act (methinks) his Godhead should a shame,
To punish where himself deserved blame;
Or of necessity he must imply,
The other was the greatest Diety.
The Mules and Horses are for sorrow shorn,
The battlements from off the walls are torn.
Of stately
Ecbatane
who now must show,
A rueful face in this so general woe;
Twelve thousand Talents also did intend,
Upon a sumptuous monument to spend:
What e're he did, or thought not so content,
His messenger to
Jupiter
he sent,
That by his leave his friend
Ephestion,
Among the Demy God's they might inthrone.
From
Media
to
Babylon
he went,
To meet him there t'
Antipater
he'd sent,
That he might act also upon the Stage,
And in a Tragedy there end his age.
The Queen
Olimpias
bears him deadly hate,
Not suffering her to meddle with the State,
And by her Letters did her Son incite,
This great indignity he should requite;
His doing so, no whit displeased the King,
Though to his Mother he disprov'd the thing.
But now
Antipater
had lived so long,
He might well die though he had done no wrong;
His service great is suddenly forgot,
Or if remembered yet regarded not:
The King doth intimate 'twas his intent,
His Honors an
•
his riches to augment;
Of larger Provinces the rule to give,
And for his Counsel near the King to live.
So to be caught,
Antipater
•
s too wise,
Permenion
's death's too fresh before his eyes;
He was too subtle for his crafty soe.
Nor by his baits could be ensnared so:
But his excuse with humble thanks he sends,
His Age and journey long he then pretends;
And pardon craves for his unwilling stay,
He shows his grief, he's forced to disobey.
Before his Answer came to
Babylon.
The thread of
Alexanders
life was spun;
Poison had put an end to's days ('twas thought)
By
Philip
and
Cassander
to him brought,
Sons to
Antipater,
and bearers of his Cup,
Lest of such like their Father chance to sup;
By others thought, and that more genera
•
lie,
That through excessive drinking he did die:
The thirty third of's Age do all agree,
This Conqueror did yield to destiny.
When this sad news came to
Darius
Mother,
She laid it more to heart, then any other,
Nor meat, nor drink, nor comfort would she take,
But pin
•
d in grief till life did her forsake;
All friends she shuns, yea, banished the light.
Till death inwrapt her in perpetual night.
This Monarchs same must last whilst world doth stand,
And Conquests be talked of whilst there is land;
His Princely qualities had he retained,
Unparalled forever had remained.
But with the world his virtues overcame,
And so with black beclouded, all his fame;
Wise
Aristotle
Tutor to his youth.
Had so instructed him in moral Truth▪
The principles of what he then had learned
Might to the last (when sober) be discerned.
Learning and learned men he much regarded,
And curious Artist evermore rewarded:
The Illiads of
Homer
he still kept,
And under's pillow laid them when he slept.
Achilles
happiness he did envy,
'Cause
Homer
kept his acts to memory.
Profusely bountiful without desert,
For such as pleased him had both wealth and heart
Cruel by nature and by custom too,
As oft his acts throughout his reign doth show:
Ambitious so, that naught could satisfy,
Vain, thirsting after immortality,
Still fearing that his name might hap to die,
And
•
ame not last unto eternity.
This Conqueror did o
•
t lament (tis said)
There were no more worlds to be conquered.
This folly great
Augustus
did deride,
For had he had but wisdom to his pride,
He would have found enough there to be done,
To govern that he had already won.
His thoughts are perished, he aspires no more▪
Nor can he kill or save as heretofore.
A God alive, him all must Idolize,
Now like a mortal helpless man he lies.
Of all those Kingdoms large which he had got,
To his Posterity remained no jot.
For by that hand which still revengeth blood,
None of his kindred, nor his race long stood:
But as he took delight much blood to spill,
So the same cup to his, did others fill.
Four of his Captains now do all divide,
As
Daniel
before had prophysi'd.
The Leopard down the four wings gan to rise,
The great horn broke, the less did tyranize.
What troubles and contentions did ensue
We may hereafter show in season due.
Aridaeus.
Great
Alexander
dead, his Armies left,
Like to that Giant of his Eye bereft;
When of his monstrous bulk it was the guide,
His matchless force no creature could abide.
But by
Ulisses
having lost his sight,
All men began straight to contemn his might;
For aiming still amiss, his dreadful blows
Did harm himself, but never reached his Foes,
Now Court and Camp all in confusion be,
A King they'll have, but who, none can agree;
Each Captain wisht this prize to bear away,
But none so hardy found as so durst say:
Great
Alexander
did leave Issue none,
Except by
Artabas
•
s
daughter one:
And
Roxane
fair whom late he married,
Was near her time to be delivered.
By natures right these had enough to claim,
But meanness of their mothers barred the same,
Alledg'd by those who by their subtle Plea
Had hope themselves to bear the Crown away.
A Sister
Alexander
had, but she
Claim'd not, perhaps, her Sex might hindrance be.
After much tumult they at last proclaimed
His base born brother
Aridaeus
named,
That so under his feeble wit and reign,
Their ends they might the better still attain.
This choice
Perdiccas
vehemently disclaimed,
And Babe unborn of
Roxane
he proclaimed;
Some wished him to take the style of King,
Because his Master gave to him his Ring,
And had to him still since
Ephestion
died
More then to th' rest his favor testifi'd.
But he refused, with feigned modesty,
Hoping to be elect more generally.
He hold on this occasion should have laid,
For second offer there was never made.
'Mongst these contentions▪ tumults▪ jealousies,
Seven days the corps of their great master lies
Untoucht, uncovered slighted and neglected,
So much these princes their own ends respected:
A Contemplation to astonish Kings,
That he who late possessed all earthly things,
And yet not so content unless that he
Might be esteemed for a Diety;
Now lay a Spectacle to testify.
The wretchedness of man's mortality.
After some time, when stirs began to calm,
His body did the
Egyptians
embalm;
His countenance so lively did appear,
That for a while they durst not come so near:
No sign of poison in his entrails found,
But all his bowels coloured, well and sound.
•
er
•
iccas
seeing
Arideus
must be King
Under his name began to rule each thing.
His chief Opponent who Control'd his sway,
Was
M
••
ager
whom he would take away,
And by a wile he got him in his power,
So took his life unworthily that hour.
Using the name and the command of th' King
To authorize his acts in everything.
The princes seeing
Perdiccas
power and pride,
For their security did now provide.
Antigonus
for his share
Asia
takes,
And
Ptolemy
next sure of
Egypt
makes:
Se
••
ucus
afterward held
Babylon,
Antipater
had long ruled
Macedon.
These now to govern for the king pretends,
But nothing less each one himself intends.
Perdiccas
took no province like the rest,
But held command of th' Army (which was best)
And had a higher project in his head,
His Masters sister secretly to wed:
So to the Lady, covertly he sent,
(That none might know, to frustrate his intent)
But
Cleopatra
this Suitor did deny,
For
L
•
on
•
tus
more lovely in her eye,
To whom she sent a message of her mind,
That if he came good welcome he should find.
In these tumultuous days the thralled
Greeks
;
Their Ancient Liberty afresh now seeks.
And gladly would the yoke shake off, laid on
Sometimes by
Philip
and his conquering son.
The
Athenians
force
Antipater
to fly
To
Lamia
where he shut up doth lie.
To brave
Crate
•
us
then he sends with speed
For succors to relieve him in his need.
The like of
Leonatus
he requires,
(Which at this time well suited his desires)
For to
Antipater
he now might go,
His Lady take in th' way, and no man know.
Antiphilus
the
Athenian
General
With speed his Army doth together call,
And
Leonatus
seeks to stop, that so
He join not with
Antipater
their foe.
The
Athenian
Army was the greater far,
(Which did his Match with
Cleopatra
mar)
For fighting still, while there did hope remain
The valiant Chief amidst his foes was slain.
'Mongst all the princes of great
Alexander
For personage, none like to this Commander.
Now to
Antipater Craterus
goes,
Blockt up in
Lamia
still by his foes,
Long marches through
Silicia
he makes,
And the remains of
Leonatus
takes:
With them and his he into
Grecia
went,
Antipater
released from prisonment:
After which time the
Greeks
did never more
Act anything of worth, as heretofore:
But under servitude their necks remained,
Nor former liberty or glory gained.
Now died about the end of th'
Lamian
war
Demosthenes,
that sweet-tongue'd Orator,
Who feared
Antipater
would take his life
For animating the
Athenian
strife:
To end his days by poison, rather chose
Then fall into the hands of mortal foes.
Craterus
and
Antipater
now join,
In love and in affinity combine,
Craterus
doth his daughter
•
kila
wed
Their
•
riendship might the more be strengthened.
Whilst they in
Macedon
do thus agree,
In
Asia
they all asunder be.
Perdiccas
grieved to see the princes bold
So many Kingdoms in their power to hold,
Yet to regain them, how he did not know,
His soldiers 'gainst those captains would not go
To suffer them go on as they begun,
Was to give way himself might be undone.
With
Antipater
to join he sometimes thought,
That by his help, the rest might low be brought,
But this again dislikes; he would remain,
If not in style, in deed a sovereign;
(For all the princes of great
Alexander
Acknowledged for Chief that old Commander)
Desires the King to go to
Macedon,
Which once was of his Ancestors the throne,
And by his presence there to nullify
The acts of his Vice-Roy now grown so high.
Ant
•
gonus
of treason first attaints,
And summons him to answer his complaints.
This he avoids, and ships himself and son,
goes to
Antipater
and tells what
•
s done.
He and
Craterus,
both with him do join,
And 'gainst
Perdiccas
all their strength combine.
Brave
Ptolemy,
to make a fourth then sent
To save himself from danger imminent.
In midst of these garboyles with wondrous state
His masters Funeral doth celebrate:
In
Alexandria
his tomb he placed,
Which eating time hath scarcely yet defaced.
Two years and more, since natures debt he paid,
And yet till now at quiet was not laid.
Great love did
Ptolemy
by this act gain,
And made the soldiers on his side remain.
Perdiccas
hears his foes are all combin
•
d,
'Gainst which to go, is not resolved in mind.
But first 'gainst
Ptolemy
he judged was best,
Neer'st unto him, and farthest from the rest,
Leaves
Eumenes
the
Asian
Coast to free
From the invasions of the other three,
And with his army unto
Egypt
goes
Brave
Ptolemy
to th' utmost to oppose.
Perdiccas
surly carriage, and his pride
Did alinate the soldiers from his side.
But
Ptolemy
by affability
His sweet demeanour and his courtesy,
Did make his own, firm to his cause remain,
And from the other side did daily gain.
Perdiccas
in his pride did ill entreat
Python
of haughty mind, and courage great.
Who could not brook so great indignity,
But of his wrongs his friends doth certify,
The soldiers 'gainst
Perdiccas
they incense,
Who vow to make this captain recompense,
And in a rage they rush into his tent,
Knock out his
••
ains: to
Ptolemy
then went
And offer him his honors, and his place,
With style of the Protector him to grace.
Next day into the camp came
Ptolemy,
And is received of all most joyfully.
Their proffers he refused with modesty,
Yields them to
•
ython
for his court
••
e.
With what he held he was now more content,
Then by more trouble to grow eminent.
Now comes there news of a great victory
That
Eumenes
got of the other three.
Had it but in
P
•
rdiccas
life ariv'd,
With greater joy it would have been received.
Thus
Ptolemy
rich
Egypt
did retain,
And
Python
turned to
Asia
again.
Whilst
Perdiccas
encamp'd in
Africa,
Antigonus
did enter
Asia,
And fain would
Eumenes
draw to their side,
But he alone most faithful did abide:
The other all had Kingdoms in their eye,
But he was true to 's masters family,
Nor could
Craterus,
whom he much did love.
From his fidelity once make him move:
Two Battles fought, and had of both the best,
And brave
Craterus
slew among the rest:
For this sad strife he pours out his complaints,
And his beloved foe full sore laments.
I should but snip a story into bits
And his great Acts and glory much eclipse,
To show the dangers
Eumenes
befell,
His stratagems wherein he did excel:
His Policies, how he did extricate
Himself from out of Lab'rinths intricate:
He that at large would satisfy his mind,
In
Plutarch’s Lives
his history may find.
For all that should be said, let this suffice,
He was both valiant, faithful, patient, wise.
Python
now chose Protector of the state,
His ru
•
e Queen
Euridice
begins to ha
•
e,
Sees
Arrideus
must not King it long,
If once young
Alexander
grow more strong,
But that her husband serve for supplement,
To warm his seat, was never her intent.
She knew her birth right gave her
Macedon,
Grand-child to him who once sat on that throne
Who was
Perdiccas, Philip's
eldest brother,
She daughter to his son, who had no other.
Pythons
commands, as oft she countermands;
What he appoints, she purposely withstands.
He wearied out at last would needs be gone,
Resign'd his place, and so let all alone:
In's room the soldiers chose
Antipater,
Who vext the Queen more then the other far.
From
Macedon
to Asia he came,
That he might settle matters in the same.
He placed, displac'd, controlled ruled as he list,
And this no man durst question or resist;
For all the nobles of King
Alexander
Their bonnets veiled to him as chief Commander.
When to his pleasure all things they had done,
The King and Queen he takes to
Macedon,
Two sons of
Alexander,
and the rest,
All to be ordered there as he thought best.
The Army to
Antigonus
doth leave,
And Goverment of Asia to him gave.
And thus
Antipater
the ground-work lays,
On which
Antigonus
his height doth raise,
Who in few years, the rest so overtops,
For universal Monarchy he hopes.
With
Eumenes
he diverse Battels fought,
And by his slights to circumvent him sought:
But vain it was to use his policy,
'Gainst him that all deceits could scan and try.
In this Epitome too long to tell
How finely
Eumenes
did here excel,
And by the self same Traps the other laid,
He to his cost was righteously repaid.
But while these Chieftains do in Asia fight,
To
Greece
and
Macedon
lets turn our sight.
When great
Antipater
the world must leave,
His place to
Polisperchon
did bequeath,
Fearing his son
Cassander
was unstaid,
Too rash to bear that charge, if on him laid.
Antigonus
hearing of his decease
On most part of
Assyria
doth seize.
And
Ptolemy
next to encroach begins,
All
Syria
and
Phenicia
he wins,
Then
Polisperchon
'gins to act in's place,
Recalls
Olimpias
the Court to grace.
Antipater
had banished her from thence
Into
Epire
for her great turbulence;
This new Protector's of another mind,
Thinks by her Majesty much help to find.
Cassander
like his
•
ather could not see,
This
Polisperchons
great ability,
Slights his Commands his actions he disclaims,
And to be chief himself now bends his aims;
Such as his Father had advanced to place,
Or by his favors any way had graced
Are now at the devotion of the Son,
Prest to accomplish what he would have done;
Besides he was the young Queens favourite,
On whom ('twas thought) she set her chief delight:
Unto these helps at home he seeks out more,
Goes to
Antigonus
and doth implore,
By all the Bonds 'twixt him and's Father past,
And for that great gift which he gave him last.
By these and all to grant him some supply,
To take down
Polisperchon
grown so high;
For this
Antigonus
did need no spurs,
Hoping to gain yet more by these new stirs,
Streight furnished him with a sufficient aid,
And so he quick returns thus well appaid,
With Ships at Sea, an Army for the Land,
His proud opponent hopes soon to withstand.
But in his absence
Polisperchon
takes
Such friends away as for his Interest makes
By death by prison, or by banishment,
That no supply by these here might be lent,
Cassander
with his Host to
Grecia
goes,
Whom
Polisperchon
labors to oppose;
But beaten was at Sea, and foiled at Land,
Cassanders
forces had the upper hand,
Athens
with many Towns in
Greece
beside,
Firm (for his Fathers sake) to him abide.
Whilst
•
ot in wars these two in
Grecee
remain,
Antigonus
doth all in
Asia
gain;
Still labors
Eumenes,
would with him side,
But all in vain,
•
e faithful did abide:
Nor Mother could nor Sons of
Alexander,
Put trust in any but in this Commander.
The great ones now began to show their mind,
And act as opportunity they find.
Ari
•
aeus
the scorned and simple King▪
More then he bidden was could act nothing.
Polisperchon
for office hoping long,
Thinks to inthrone the Prince when riper grown;
Eurid
•
ce
this injury disdains,
And to
Cassandar
of this wrong complains.
Hateful th
•
••
me and house of
Alexander,
Was to this proud vindicative
Cassander
;
He still kept locked within his memory,
His Fathers danger, with his Family;
Nor thought he that indignity was small,
When
Alexander
knocked his head to th'wall.
These with his love unto the amorous Queen,
Did make him vow, her servant to be seen.
Olimpias, Aridaeus
deadly hates,
As all her Husbands, Children by his mates,
She gave him poison formerly ('tis thought)
Which damage both to mind, and body brought;
She now with
Polisperchon
doth combine,
To make the King by force his Seat resign:
And her young grand-child in his State inthrone,
That under him, she might rule▪ all alone.
For aid she goes t'
Epire
among her friends,
The better to accomplish these her ends;
Euri
•
ice
hearing what she intends,
In haste unto her friend
Cassander
sends,
To leave his siege at
Tegea,
and with speed,
To save the King and her in this their need:
Then by entreaties, promises and Coyne,
Some forces did procure with her to join.
Olimpias
soon enters
Macedon,
The Queen to meet her bravely marches on,
But when her Soldiers saw their ancient Queen,
Calling to mind what sometime she had been;
The wife and Mother of their famous Kings,
Nor darts, nor arrows, now none shoots or flings.
The King and Queen seeing their destiny,
To save their lives t'
Amphipolis
do fly;
But the old Queen pursues them with her hate,
And needs will have their lives as well as State:
The King by extreme torments had his end,
And to the Queen these presents she did send;
A Halter, cup of poison, and a Sword,
Bids choose her death, such kin
•
ness she'l afford.
The Queen with many a curse, and bitter check,
At length yields to the Halter h
•
r fair neck;
Praying that fatal day might quickly haste,
On which
Olimpias
of the like might taste.
This done the cruel Qu
•
en rests not content,
'Gainst all that loved
Cassander
she was bent;
His Brethren, Kinsfolk and his chiefest friends,
That fell within her reach came to their ends:
Dig'd up his brother dead, 'gainst natures right,
And threw his bones about to show her spite:
The Courtiers wondering at her furious mind,
Wisht in
Epire
she had been still confined.
In
Peloponesus
then
Cassander
lay,
Where hearing of this news he speeds away,
With rage, and with revenge he's hurried on,
To find this cruel Queen in
Macedon
;
But being stopped, at straight
Thermopoly,
Sea passage gets, and lands in
Th
••
aly
:
His Army he divides, sends post away,
Polisperchon
to hold a while in play;
And with the rest
Olimpias
pursues,
For all her cruelty, to give her dues.
She with the chief o'th' Court to
Pydna
flies,
Well fortifi'd, (and on the Sea it lies)
There by
Cassander
she's blocked up so long,
Untill the Famine grows exceeding strong,
Her Couzen of
Epire
did what he might,
To raise the Siege, and put her Poes to flight.
Cassander
is resolved there to remain,
So succors and endeavors proves but vain;
Fain would this wretched Queen capitulate,
Her foe would give no Ear, (such is his hate)
The Soldiers pinched with this scarcity,
By stealth unto
Cassander
layly fly;
Olimpias
means to hol
•
out to the last,
Expecting nothing but of death to taste:
But his occasions calling him away,
Gives promise for her life, so wins the day.
No sooner had he got her in his hand,
But made in judgment her accusers stand;
And plea
•
the blood of friends and kindreds spilled,
Desiring justice might be done for guilt;
And so was he acquitted of his word,
For justice sake she being put to th' Sword:
This was the end of this most cruel Queen,
Whose fury scarcely paralleled hath been.
The daughter sister, Mother, Wife to Kings,
But Royalty no good conditions brings;
To Husbands death ('tis thought) she gave consent,
The murderer she did so much lament:
With Garlands crowned his head, bemoan'd his fates,
His Sword unto
Apollo
consecrates.
Her Outrages too tedious to relate,
How for no cause but her inveterate hate;
Her Husbands wives and Children after's death,
Some slew, some fry'd, of others stopped the breath:
Now in her Age she's forced to taste that Cup,
Which she had others often made to sup.
Now many Towns in
Macedon
suppressed,
And
P
•
llas
fain to yield among the rest▪
The Funerals
Cassander
celebrates,
Of
A
••
daeus
and his Queen with State▪
Among their Ancestors by him they are laid,
And shows of lamentation for them made.
Old
Thebes
he then rebuilt so much of fame,
And
Cassandria
raised after his name.
But leave him building, others in their Urne,
Let's for a while, now into
Asia
turn
True
Eumenes
endeavors by all Skill,
To keep
Antigonus
from
Shushan
still;
Having command o'th' Treasure he can hire,
Such as no threats, nor favor could acquire.
In divers Battels he had good success,
Antigonus
came off still honourless;
When Victor oft he'd been, and so might still,
Peucestes
did betray him by a wile.
T'
Antigonus,
who took his Life unjust,
Because he never would forgo his trust;
Thus lost he all for his fidelity,
Striving t' uphold his Masters Family.
But to a period as that did haste,
So
Eum
•
nes
(the prop) of death must taste;
All
Persia
now
Antigonus
doth gain▪
And Master of the Treasure sole remain:
Then with
Seleu
•
us
straight at odds doth fall,
And he for aid to
Ptolemy
doth call,
The Princes all begin now to envy
Antigonus,
his growing up so high;
Fearing his force, and what might hap e're long,
Enters into a Combination strong,
S
•••
c
••
,
•
tolemy Cassander
joins,
Lysimachus
to make a fourth combines:
Ant
••
onus
desirous of the
Greek
•
,
To make
Cassander
odious to them seeks,
Sends forth his declarations near and far,
And clears what cause he had to make this war,
••
ss
•
nders
outrages at large doth tell,
Shows his ambitious practices as well.
The mother of their King to death he'd put,
His wife and son in prison close had shut:
And aiming now to make himself a king,
And that some title he might seem to bring,
Thessalonica
he had newly wed,
Daughter to
Philip
their renowned head:
Had built and called a City by his name.
Which none e're did, but those of royal fame:
And in despite of their two famous Kings
Hatefull
Olinthians
to
Greece
rebrings.
Rebellious
Thebes
he had reedified,
Which their late King in dust had damnified,
Requires them therefore to take up their arms
And to requite this traitor for these harms.
Then
Ptolemy
would gain the
Greeks
likewise,
And he declares the others injuryes:
First how he held the Empire in his hands,
Seleueu
•
driven from Goverment and lands,
The valiant
Eumenes
unjustly slain,
And Lord of royal
Shus
•
an
did remain,
Therefore requests their help to take him down
Before he wear the universal Crown.
These princes at the sea soon had a sight,
Where great
Antigonus
was put to slight:
His son at
Gaza
likewise lost the field,
So
Syria
to
Ptolemy
did yield:
And
Seleucus
recovers
Babylon,
Still gaining Countries eastward he goes on.
Demetrius
with
Ptolemy
did fight,
And coming unawares, put him to flight;
But bravely sends the prisoners back again,
With all the spoil and booty he had tane.
Courteous as noble
Ptolemy,
or more,
Who at
Gaza
did the like to him before.
Antigonus
did much rejoice, his son
With victory, his lost repute had won.
At last these princes tired out with wars▪
Sought for a peace, and laid aside their jars:
The terms of their agreement, thus express
That each should hold what now he did possess,
Till
Alexander
unto age was grown,
Who then should be enstalled in the throne.
This touched
Cassander
sore▪ for what he'd done,
Imprisoning both the mother and the son:
He sees the Greeks now favor their young Prince
Whom he in durance held, now and long since,
That in few years he must be forced or glad,
To render up such Kingdoms as he had;
Resolves to quit his fears by one deed done,
So puts to death the Mother and her Son.
This
Roxane
for her beauty all commend,
But for one act she did, just was her end.
No sooner was great
Alexander
dead,
But she
Darius
daughters murdered.
Both thrown into a well to hide her blot,
Perdiccas
was her Partner in this plot.
The heavens seemed slow in paying her the same;
But at the last the hand of vengeance came▪
And for that double fact which she had done,
The life of her must go, and of her son
Perdiccas
had before for his amiss,
But by their hands who thought not once of this.
Cassanders
deed the princes do detest,
But 'twas in show; in heart it pleased them best.
That he is odious to the world, they are glad:
And now they were free Lord's of what they had.
When this foul tragedy was past and done,
Polysperchon
brings the other son
Call'd
Hercules,
and elder then his brother,
(But
Olimpia
•
would prefer the other)
The
Greeks
touched with the murder done of late,
This Orphan prince 'gan to compassionate,
Begin to mutter much 'gainst proud
Cassander,
And place their hopes on th' heir of
Alexander.
Cassander
feared what might of this onsue,
So
Polis
•
erchon
to his counsel drew,
And gives
Peloponesus
for his hire,
Who slew the prince according to desire.
Thus was the race and house of
Alexander
Extinct by this inhumane wretch
Cassander.
Antigonus,
for all this doth not mourn,
He knows to's profit▪ this at last will turn,
But that some Title now he might pretend,
To
Cleopatra
doth for marriage send;
Lysimachus
and
Ptolemy
the same,
And lewd
Cassander
too, sticks not for shame:
She then in
Lydia
at
Sardis
lay,
Where by Embassage all these Princes pray.
Choice above all, of
Ptolemy
she makes,
With his Embassador her journey takes;
Antigonus
Lieutenant stays her still,
Untill he further know his Masters will:
Antigonus
now had a Wolf by th' Ears,
To hold her still, or let her go he fears.
Resolves at last the Princess should be slain,
So hinders him of her, he could not gain;
Her women are appointed for this deed,
They for their great reward no better speed:
For by command, they straight were put to death,
As vile Conspirators that stopped her breath.
And now he hopes, he's ordered all so well,
The world must needs believe what he doth tell;
Thus
Philip's
house was quite extinguished,
Except
Cassanders
wife who yet not dead.
And by their means who thought of nothing loss,
Then vengeance just▪ against them to express;
Now blood was paid with blood for what was done
By cruel Father, Mother cruel Son:
Thus may we hear, and fear, and ever say,
That hand is righteous still which doth repay.
These Captains now the style of Kings do take,
For to their Crowns their's none can Title make;
Demetrius
first the royal style assumed,
By his Example all the rest presumed.
Antigonus
himself to ingratiate,
Doth promise liberty to
Athens
State;
With Arms and with provision stores them well,
The better 'gainst
Cassander
to rebel.
Dem
•
trius
thither goes, is entertained
Not like a King▪ but like some God they feigned;
Most grossly base was their great Adulation,
Who Incense burnt, and offered oblation:
These Kings afresh fall to their wars again,
Demetrius
of
Ptolemy
doth gain.
'Twould be an endless Story to relate
Their several Battels and their several fate,
Their fights by Sea, their victories by Land,
How some when down, straight got the upper hand
Antigonus
and
Seleucus
then fight
Near
Ephesus,
each bringing all his might,
And he that Conqueror shall now remain,
The Lordship of all
Asia
shall retain.
This day 'twixt these two Kings ends all the strife,
For here
Antigonus
lost rule and life:
Nor to his Son, did e're one foot remain
Of those vast Kingdoms, he did sometimes gain.
Demetrius
with his Troops to
Athens
flies,
Hopes to find succors in his miseries;
But they adoring in prosperity,
Now shut their gates in his adversity:
He sorely grieved at this his desperate State
Tryes Foes, since friends will not compassionate.
His peace he then with old
Seleucus
makes,
Who his fair daughter
Strotonica
takes,
Ant
•
ochus, S
•
leu
•
us,
dear loved Son
Is for this fresh young Lady quite undone;
Falls so extremely sick, all feared his life▪
Yet durst not say, he loved his Fathers wife,
When his disease the skilled Physician sound,
His Fathers mind he wittily did sound,
Who did no sooner understand the same,
But willingly resigned the beauteous Dame:
Cassander
now must die his race is run,
And leaves the ill got Kingdoms he had won.
Two Sons he left, born of King
Philip's
daughter,
Who had an end put to their days by slaughter;
Which should succeed at variance they fell,
The Mother would, the youngest might excel:
The eld'st inrag'd did play the Vipers part,
And with his Sword did run her through the heart:
Rather then
Philip's
race should longer live,
He whom she gave his life, her death shall give.
This by
Lysimacus
was after slain,
Whose daughter he not long before had
•
a'ne;
Demetrius
is called in by th' youngest Son,
Against
••
simachus
who from him won.
But he a Kingdom more then's friend did eye,
Seaz'd upon that, and slew him traitrously.
Thus
Philip's
and
Cassander
's race both gone,
And so falls out to be extinct in one;
And though
Cassander
died in his bed,
His Seed to be extirpt, was destined;
For blood which was decree'd that he should spill,
Yet must his Children pay for Fathers ill;
Jehu
in killing
Ana
•
's house did well,
Yet be avenged must blood of
〈◊〉
.
Demetrius
thus
Cassander
's Kingdoms gains.
And now in
Macedon
as King he reigns;
Thoug
•
men and money both he hath at will,
In neither fin
•
s content if he sits still.
That
S
•
l
•
ucus
holds
Asia
grievs hi
•
sore,
Those Countries large his Fat
•
er got before.
These to recover, musters all his might,
And with his Son in Law will needs go fight;
A mighty Navy rig'd, an Army stout,
With these he hopes to turn the world about:
Leaving
Antigonus
his eldest Son,
In his long absence to rule
Macedon.
Demetrius
with so many troubles met,
As Heaven and Earth against him had been set▪
Disaster on disaster him pursue,
His story seems a Fable more then true:
At last he's taken and imprisoned
Within an Isle that was with pleasures fed,
Injoy'd what ere beseem'd his Royalty,
Only restrained of his liberty:
After three years he died▪ left what he'd won,
In
Greece
unto
Antigonus
his Son.
For his Posterity unto this day,
Did never regain one foot in
Asia
;
His Body
S
•
le
•
cus
sends to his Son,
Whose obsequies with wondrous pomp was done.
Next died the brave and noble
Pro
•
emp,
Renown'd for bounty, valor, clemency,
Rich
Egypt
le
•
t, and what else he had won,
To
Philadelp
•
us
his more worthy Son
Of the old
Heroe
•
,
now but two remain,
Seleucus
and
•
y
••
machus
these twain,
Must needs go try their fortune and their might,
And so
Lysi
•
machus
was slain in fight;
'Twas no small joy unto
Seliucus
breast,
That now he had out lived all the rest:
Possession of
Europe
thinks to take▪
And so himself the only Monarch make;
Whil
•
with these hopes in
Greece
he did remain,
He was by
Ptolemy Ceraunus
slain.
The second Son of the first
Ptolemy,
Who for Rebellion unto him did fly;
Seleucus
was a Father and a friend,
Yet by him had this most unworthy end.
Thus with these Kingly Captains have we done,
A little now how the Succession run,
Antigonus, Seleucus
and
Cassander,
With
Ptolemy,
reigned after
Alexander
;
Cassander
's Sons soon after's death were
•
lain,
So three Successors only did remain:
Antigonus
his Kingdoms lost, and life,
Unto
Seleucus,
Author of that
•
tri
•
e.
His Son
Demetrius,
all
Cassander's
gains,
And his posterity, the same retains;
Demetrius
Son was called
Antigonus,
And his again was nam
•
d
Demetrius.
I must let pass those many Battels fought,
Betwixt those Kings, and noble
Pyrrhus
stout,
And his Son
Alexander
of
Epire,
Whereby immortal honor they acquire;
Demetrius
had
Philip
to his Son,
(Part of whose Kingdoms
Titus Quintius
won)
Philip
had
Perseus
w
•
o was made a Thrale
T
•
Emil
•
us
the Roman General;
Him with his Sons in Triumph lead did he,
Such riches too as
Rome
did never see:
This of
Ant
•
gonus,
his Seed's the
•
ate,
Whose Empire was subdued to th' Roman State.
Longer
Seleucus
held the royalty,
In
Syria
by his Posterity;
Antiochus Soter
his Son was named,
To whom the old
Berosus
(so much famed,)
His Book of
Assurs
Monarchs dedicates
Tells of their names, their wars, their riches, fates,
But this is perished with many more,
Which oft we wish was extant as before.
Antiochus Theos
was
Soter
's Son,
Who a long war with
Egypt's
King begun;
The Affinityes and Wars
Daniel
sets forth.
And calls them there the Kings of South & North,
This
Th
•
os
murder'd was by his lewd wife,
Seleucus
reigned, when he had lost his life.
A third
Seleucus
next sits on the Seat,
And then
Antiochus
firnam'd the great,
Whose large Dominions after was made small,
By
Scipio
the Roman General;
Fourth
Seleucus Antiochus
succeeds,
And next
Epiphanes
whose wicked deeds,
Horrid Massacres, Murthers, cruelties,
Amongst the Jews we read in
Maccabees.
Antiochus Eupater
was the next,
By Rebels and Impostors daily vext;
So many Princes still were murdered,
The Royal Blood was nigh extinguished;
Then
Tygranes
the great
Arm
•
niar
King,
To take the Government was called in,
Lucullus,
Him, (the Roman General)
Vanquish'd in fight, and took those Kingdoms all;
Of
Greece
and
Syria
thus the rule did end,
In
Egypt
next▪ a little time we'l spend.
First
Ptolemy
being dead, his famous Son
Call'd
Philadelphus,
did possess the Throne.
At
Alexandria
a Library did build,
And with seven hundred thousand Volumes filled;
The seventy two Interpreters did seek,
They might translate the Bible into Greek.
His Son was
Evergetes
the last Prince,
That valor showed, virtue or excellence,
Philopater
was
Evergetes
Son,
After
Epiphanes
sat on the Throne;
Philometor, Evergetes
again,
And after him, did false
Lathurus
reign:
Then
Alexander
in
Lathur
•
s
stead,
Next
Auletes,
who cut off
Pompey's
head.
To all these names, we
Ptolemy
must add,
For since the first, they still that Title had.
Fair
Cleopatra
next, last of that race,
Whom
Julius Caesar
set in Royal place,
She with her Paramour,
Mark Anthony
Held for a time, the
Egyptian
Monarchy,
Till great
Augustus
had with him a fight
At
Actium,
where his Navy
•
s put to flight;
He seeing his ho
•
our lost, his Kingdom end,
Did by his Sword his life soon after send.
His brave
U
•
rago Asps
sets to her Arms,
To take her life, and quit her from all harms;
For 'twas not death nor danger she did dread,
But some disgrace in triumph to be led.
Here ends at last the
Grecian
Monarchy,
Which by the Romans had its destiny;
Thus King & Kingdoms have their times & dates,
Their standings, overturnings, bounds and fates:
Now up now down now chief, & then brought under,
The heavn's thus rule, to fil the world with wonder
The
Assyrian
Monarchy long time did stand,
But yet the
Persian
got the upper hand;
The
Grecian
them did utterly subdue,
And millions were subjected unto few:
The
Grecian
longer then the
Persian
stood,
Then came the
Roman
like a raging flood;
And with the torrent of his rapid course,
Their Crowns, their Titles, riches bears by force.
The first was likened to a head of gold.
Next Arms and breast of silver to behold,
The third, Belly and Thighs of brass in sight,
And last was Iron, which breaketh all with might;
The stone out of the mountain then did rise,
•
nd smote those feet those legs, those arms & thighs
Then gold silver, brass, Iron and all the store,
Became like Chaff upon the threshing
•
loor.
The first a Lion, second was a Bear,
The third a Leopard, which four wings did rear;
The last more strong and dreadful then the rest,
Whose Iron teeth devoured every Beast,
And when he had no appetite to eat,
The residue he stamped under feet;
Yet shall this Lion, Bear, this Leopard, Ram,
All trembling stand before the powerful Lamb.
With these three Monarchyes now have I done,
But how the fourth, their Kingdoms from them won,
And how from small beginnings it did grow,
To fill the world with terror and with woe;
My tired brain leaves to some better pen,
This task befits not women like to men:
For what is past, I blush, excuse to make,
But humbly stand, some grave reproof to take;
Pardon to crave for errors, is but vain,
The Subject was too high beyond my strain,
To frame Apology for some offense,
Converts our boldness into impudence:
This my presumption some now to requite,
Ne suitor ultra crepidam
may write.
The End of the Grecian Monarchy.
After some days of rest, my restless heart
To finish what's begun, new thoughts impart,
And maugre all resolves, my fancy wrought
This fourth to th' other three, now might be brought:
Shortness of time and inability.
Will force me to a confused brevity.
Yet in this Chaos, one shall easily spy
The vast Limbs of a mighty Monarchy,
What e're is found amiss take in good part,
As faults proceeding from my head, not heart:
The Roman Monarchy, being the fourth and last, beginning Anno Mundi, 3213.
STout
Romulus, Rome's
founder, and first King,
Whom vestal
Rhea
to the world did bring,
His Father was not
Mars
as some devised,
But
Aemulus
in Armor all disguiz'd:
Thus he deceived his
Niece,
she might not know
The double injury he then did do.
Where sheperds once had Coats, & sheep their folds
Where Swains & rustic Peasants kept their holds,
A City fair did
Romulus
erect,
The Mistress of the World, in each respect,
His brother
Rhemus
there by him was slain,
For leaping over the wall with some disdain.
The stones at first was cemented with blood,
And bloody hath it proved, since first it stood.
This City built and Sacrifices done,
A Form of Government, he next begun;
A hundred Senators he likewise chose,
And with the style of
Patres,
honored those,
His City to replenish, men he wants,
Great privileges then to all he grants;
That will within those strong built walls reside,
And this new gentle Government abide.
Of wives there was so great a scarcity,
They to their neighbors sue for a supply;
But all disdain Alliance, then to make,
So
Romulus
was forced this course ro take:
Great shows he makes at
Tilt
and
Turnament,
To see these sports, the
Sabins
all are bent.
Their daughters by the Romans then were caught,
Then to recover them a Field was fought;
But in the end, to final peace they come,
And
Sabins
as one people dwelt in
Rome.
The Romans now more potent 'gin to grow,
And
Feainates
they wholly overthrow.
But
Romulus
then comes unto his end.
Some feigning to the God's he did ascend:
Others the seven and thirtyeth of his reign,
Affirm, that by the Senate he was slain.
Numa Pompilius.
Numa Pompilius
next chose they King,
Held for his piety some sacred thing,
To
Janus
he that famous Temple built;
Kept shut in peace, set ope when blood was spilled;
Religious Rites and Customs instituted,
And Priests and Flamines likewise he deputed,
Their Augurs strange, their gestures and attire,
And vestal maids to keep the holy fire.
The Nymph
Aegeria
this to him told,
So to delude the people he was bold:
Forty three years he ruled with general praise,
Accounted for a God in after days.
Tullius Hostilius.
Tullius Hostilius
was third Roman King,
Who Martial discipline in use did bring;
War with the ancient
Albans
he did wage,
This strife to end six brothers did engage.
Three called
Horatii
on the Romans side,
And
Cu
•
tatii
three
Albans
provide:
The Romans conquer, th' other yield the day,
Yet in their Compact, after false they play.
The Romans sore incensed their General slay,
And from old
Alb
•
fetch the wealth away;
Of Latin Kings this was long since the Seat,
But now demolished, to make
Rome
great.
Thirty two years did
Tullus
reign, then die.
Left
Rome
in wealth and power still growing high.
Ancus Martius.
Next
Ancus Martius
sits upon the Throne,
Nephew unto
Pompilius
dead and gone:
Rome
he enlarged, new built again the wall,
Much stronger, and more beautiful withal;
A sta
•
ely Bridge he over
Tiber
made.
Of Boats and Oars no more they need the aid.
Fair
Ostia
he built this Town, it stood
Close by the mouth of famous
Tiber
•
oud,
Twenty four years time of his Royal race,
Then unto death unwillingly gives place.
Tarquinius Priscus
Tarquin
a Greek at
Corinth
born and bred,
Who from his Country for Sepition fled.
Is entertained at
Rome,
and in short time.
By wealth and favor doth to honor climb;
He after
Martius
death the Kingdom had,
A hundred Senators he more did add.
Wars with the Latins he again renews,
And Nations twelve of
Tuscany
subdues,
To such rude triumphs as young
Rome
then had,
Some State and splendor did this
Priscus
add:
Thirty eight years (this stronger born) did reign,
And after all, by
Ancus
Sons was slain.
Servius Tullius.
Next
Servius Tullius
gets into the Throne,
Ascends not up By merits of his own,
But by the favor and the special grace
Of
Tanquil
late Queen, obtains the place.
He ranks the people into each degree,
As wealth had made them of ability;
A general Muster takes, which by account,
To eighty thousand Souls then did amount.
Forty four years did
Servius Tullius
reign,
And then by
Tarquin Priscus
Son was slain.
Tarquinius Superbus the last King of the Romans
Tarquin
the proud, from manners called so,
Sat on the Throne, when he had slain his Foe.
Sextus
his Son did most unworthily,
Lu
•
retia
force, mirror of Chastity:
She loathed so the fact, she loathed her life,
And shed her guiltless blood with guilty knife
Her Husband sore incensed to quit this wrong,
With
Junius Brutus
rose, and being strong,
The
Tarquins
they from
Rome
by force expel,
In banishment perpetual to dwell;
The Government they change, a new one bring,
And people swear never to accept of King.
An Apology.
To finish what's begun▪ was my intent,
My thoughts and my endeavors thereto bent;
Essays I many made but still gave out,
The more I mus'd, the more I was in doubt:
The subject large my mind and body weak,
With many moe discouragements did speak.
All thoughts of further progress laid aside,
Though oft persuaded,
•
as oft denied,
At length resolved, when many years had past,
To prosecute my story to the last;
And for the same, I hours not few did spend,
And weary lines (though lank) I many penned:
But 'fore I could accomplish my desire,
My papers fell a prey to th' raging fire.
And thus my pains (with better things) I lost,
Which none had cause to wail, nor I to boast.
No more I will do since I have suffered wrack,
Although my Monarchies their legs do lack:
Nor matter isit this last, the world now sees,
Hath many Ages been upon his knees.
A Dialogue between Old England and New; concerning their present Troubles, Anno, 164 • .
New-England.
ALas dear Mother, fairest Queen and best,
With honor, wealth, and peace, happy and blest;
What ails thee hang thy head, & cross thine arms?
And sit in the' dust, to sigh these sad alarms?
What deluge of new woes thus over-whelme
The glories of thy ever famous Realm?
What means this wailing tone, this mournful guise?
Ah, tell thy daughter, she may sympathize.
Old England.
Art ignorant indeed of these my woes?
Or must my forced tongue these griefs disclose?
And must myself dissect my tatter'd state,
Which 'mazed Christendom stands wondering at?
And thou a Child, a Limbe and dost not feel
My fainting weakened body now to reel?
This Physic purging potion, I have taken,
Will bring consumption, or an Ague quaking,
Unless some Cordial, thou fetch from high,
Which present help may ease my malady.
If I decease▪ dost think thou shalt survive?
Or by my wasting state dost think to thrive?
Then weigh our case, if 't be not justly sad;
Let me lament alone, while thou art glad.
New-England.
And thus (alas) your state you much deplore
In general terms, but will not say wherefore:
What medicine shall I seek to cure this woe,
If th' wound so dangerous I may not know.
But you perhaps, would have me ghess it out:
What hath some
H
•
ngist
like that
Saxon
stout
By fraud or force usurped thy flowring crown,
Or by tempestuous wars thy si
•
kls trod down?
Or hath
Canutus,
that brave valiant
Dane
The Regal peaceful Scepter from thee tane?
Or isit a
Norman,
whose victorious hand
With English blood bedews thy conquered land?
Or isit Intestine wars that thus offend?
Do
Maud
and
Stephen
for the crown contend?
Do Barons rise and side against their King,
And call in foreign aid to help the thing?
Must
Edward
be deposed? or isit the hour
That second
Richard
must be clapt in the tower?
Or isit the fatal jar, again begun
That from the red white pricking roses sprung?
Must
Richmonds
aid, the Nobles now implore?
To come and break the Tushes of the Boar,
If none of these dear Mother, what's your woe?
Pray do you fear
Spain's
bragging
Armado
?
Doth your Allye, fair
France,
conspire your wrack,
Or do the
Scots
play false, behind your back?
Doth
Holland
quit you ill for all your love?
Whence is the storm from Earth or Heaven above?
Isit drought, isit famine, or isit pestilence?
Dost feel the smart, or fear the Consequence?
Your humble Child intreats you, show your grief,
Though Arms, nor Purse she hath for your relief,
Such is her poverty▪ yet shall be found
A Suppliant for your help, as she is bound.
Old England.
I must confess some of those sores you name,
My beauteous body at this present maim;
But foreign foe, nor feigned friend I fear,
For they have work enough (thou knowest) elsewhere
Nor is it
Alcies
Son, nor
Henryes
daughter;
Whose proud contention cause this slaughter,
Nor Nobles siding, to make
John
no King,
French Jews unjustly to the Crown to bring;
No
Edward, Richard,
to lose rule and life,
Nor no
Lancastrians
to renew old strife:
No Duke of
•
ork,
nor Earl of
March
to soil
Their hands in kindreds blood whom they did foil
No crafty Tyrant now usurps the Seat.
Who Nephews slew that so he might be great;
No need of
Tudor,
Roses to unite,
None knows which is the red, or which the white;
Spain's
braving Fleet a second time is sunk,
France
knows how oft my fury she hath drunk:
By
Edward
third and
Henry
fifth of fame.
Her Lilies in mine Arms avouch the same.
My Sister
Scotland
hurts me now no more.
Though she hath been injurious heretofore;
What
Holland
is I am in some suspense?
But trust not much unto his excellence.
For wants, sure some I feel, but more I fear,
And for the Pestilence, who knows how near;
Famine and Plague, two Sisters of the Sword,
Destruction to a Land, doth soon afford:
They're for my punishment ordained on high,
Unless our tears prevent it speedily.
But yet I Answer not what you demand.
To show the grievance of my troubled Land?
Before I tell th' Effect, I will show the Cause
Which are my sins the breach of sacred Laws,
Idolatry supplanter of a Nation,
With foolish Superstitious Adoration,
Are liked and countenanc'd by men of might,
The Gospel trodden down and hath no right▪
Church Offices were sold and bought for gain,
That Pope had hope to find,
Rome
here again,
For Oaths and Blasphemies, did ever Ear.
From
Belzebub
himself such language hear;
What scorning of the Saints of the most high?
What injuries did daily on them lie?
What false reports, what nick-names did they take
Not for their own, but for their Masters sake?
And thou poor soul, wert jeered among the rest,
Thy flying for the truth was made a jest.
For Sabbath-breaking, and for drunkenness,
Did ever land profaneness more express?
From crying blood yet cleansed am not I,
Martyrs and others, dying causelessly.
How many princely heads on blocks laid dow
•
For naught but title to a fading crown?
'Mongst all the crueltyes by great ones done
Of
Edwards
youths, and
Clarence
hapless son,
O
Jane
why didst thou die in flowring prime?
Because of royal stem, that was thy crime.
For bribery Adultery and lies.
Where is the nation, I cannot paralliz
•
With usury, extortion and oppression,
These be the
Hydraes
of my stout transgression.
These be the bitter fountains, heads and roots,
Whence flowed the source, the sprigs, the boughs & fruits
Of more then thou canst hear or I relate,
That with high hand I still did perpetrate:
For these were threatened the woeful day,
I mocked the Preachers, put it far away;
The Sermons yet upon Record do stand
That cried destruction to my wicked land:
I then believed not, now I feel and see,
The plague of stubborn incredulity.
Some lost their livings, some in prison pent,
Some fin'd from house & friends to exile went.
Their silent tongues to heaven did vengeance cry.
Who saw their wrongs & hath judged righteously
And will repay it seven-fold in my lap:
This is fore-runner of my A
•
terclap.
Nor took I warning by my neighbors falls,
I saw sad
Germanyes
dismantled walls,
I saw her people famished, Nobles slain,
Her fruitful land, a barren Heath remain.
I saw unmov'd, her Armies foiled and fled,
Wives forced, babes tossed, her houses calcined.
I saw strong
Rochelle
yielded to her Foe,
Thousands of starved Christians there also.
I saw poor
Ireland
bleeding out her last,
Such crueltyes as all reports have past;
Mine heart obdurate stood not yet agast.
Now sip I of that cup, and justit may be
The bottom dregs reserved are for me.
New-England.
To all you've said, sad Mother I assent.
Your fearful sins great cause there's to lament,
My guilty hands in part, hold up with you,
A Sharer in your punishment's my due.
But all you say amounts to this effect,
Not what you feel, but what you do expect,
Pray in plain terms, what is your present grief?
Then let's join heads & hearts for your relief.
Old England.
Well to the matter then, there's grown of late
'Twixt King and Peers a Question of State,
Which is the chief, the Law, or else the King.
One said, it's he, the other no such thing.
'It is said, my better part in Parliament
To ease my grouning Land, showed their intent,
To crush the proud, and right to each man deal.
To help the Church, and stay the Common-weal.
So many Obstacles came in their way,
As puts me to a stand what I should say;
Old customs, new Prerogatives stood on,
Had they
•
ot held Law fast▪ all had been gone:
Which by their prudence stood them in such stead
They took high
Straff
•
rd
lower by the head.
And to their
Laud
beit spoke, they held in the tower
All
England's
Metropolitan that hour;
This done, an act they would have passed fain,
No Prelate should his Bishopric retain;
Here tugg'd they hard (indeed,) for all men saw
This must be done by Gospel▪ no
•
by Law.
Next the Militia they urged sore,
This was denied, (I need not say wherefore)
The King displeased at
York,
himself absents,
They humbly beg return, show their intents;
The writing, printing, posting too and fro,
Shows all was done, I will therefore let it go.
But now I come to speak of my disaster,
Contention grown, 'twixt Subjects & their Master;
They worded it so long, they fell to blows,
That thousands lay on heaps, here bleeds my woes,
I that no wars so many years have known,
Am now destroyed and slaught'red by mine own;
But could the Field alone this strife
••
cide,
One Battle two or three I might abide:
But these may be beginnings of more woe
Who knows, but this may be my overthrow.
Oh pity me in this sad perturbation,
My plundered Towns, my houses devastation,
My weeping Virgins and my young men slain;
My wealthy trading fallen, my dearth of grain.
The seed-times come, but ploughman hath no hope
Because he knows not, who shall inn his Crop:
The poor they want their pay, their children bread,
Their woeful Mothers tears unpittied,
If any pity in thy heart remain,
Or any childlike love thou dost retain,
For my relief, do what there lies in thee,
And recompense that good I have done to thee.
New-England.
Dear Mother cease complaints, & wipe your eyes,
Shake off your dust, cheer up, and now arise,
You are my Mother Nurse, and I your flesh,
Your sunken bowels gladly would refresh,
Your griefs I pity, but soon hope to see,
Out of your troubles much good fruit to be;
To see those latter days of hoped for good,
Though now beclouded all with tears and blood:
After dark Popery the day did clear,
But now the Sun in's brightness shall appear.
Blest be the Nobles of thy noble Land,
With ventured lives for Truths defense that stand.
Blest be thy Commons, who for common good,
And thy infringed Laws have boldly stood.
Blest be thy Counties, who did aid thee still,
With hearts and States to testify their will.
Blest be thy Preachers▪ who do cheer thee on,
O cry the Sword of God and
Gid
•
on
;
And shall I not on them wish
M
•
ro
's curse,
That help thee not with prayers, Arms and purse?
And for myself let miseries abound,
If mindless of thy State I e're be found.
These are the days the Churches foes to crush,
To root out Popelings head, tail, branch and rush;
Let's bring
Baals
vestments forth to make a fire,
Their Mytires, Surplices, and all their Tire,
Copes, Rotchets, Crossiers, and such empty trash,
And let their Names consume, but let the flash
Light Christendom, and all the world to see
We hate
Rome's
whore, with all her trumpery.
Go on brave
Essex
with a Loyal heart,
Not false to King, nor to the better part;
But those that hurt his people and his Crown,
As duty binds, expel and tread them down.
And ye brave Nobles chase away all fear,
And to this hopeful Cause closely adhere;
O Mother can you weep, and have such Peers,
When they are gone, then drown yourself in tears
If now you weep so much, that then no more
The briny Ocean will o'reflow your shore.
These, these are they I trust, with
Charles
our King,
Out of all mists such glorious days shall bring;
That dazzled eyes beholding much shall wonder
At that thy settled peace, thy wealth and splendor.
Thy Church and weal established in such manner▪
That all shall joy, that thou display'dst thy Banner;
And discipline erected so I trust,
That nursing Kings shall come and lick thy dust:
Then Justice shall in all thy Courts take place,
Without respect of person, or of case;
Then Bribes shall cease, & Suits shall not stick long
Patience and purse of Clients oft to wrong:
Then high Commissions shall fall to decay,
And Pursivants, and Catchpoles want their pay.
So shall thy happy Nation ever flourish,
When truth & righteousness they thus shall nourish
When thus in peace, thine Armies brave send out,
To sack proud
Rome,
and all her Vassals rout;
There let thy Name, thy fame, and glory shine,
As did thine Ancestors in
Palestine
:
And let her spoils full pay, with Interest be,
Of what unjustly once she poll'd from thee.
Of all the woes thou canst, let her be sped,
And on her pour the vengeance threatened;
Bring forth the Beast that ruled the World with's beck,
And tear his flesh, & set your feet on's neck;
And make his filthy Den so desolate,
To th' stonishment of all that knew his state:
This done with brandish'd Swords to
Turkey
go,
For then what isit, but English blades dare do,
And lay her waste for so's the sacred Doom,
And do to
Gog
as thou hast done to
Rome.
Oh
Abraham
's see
•
lift up your heads on high,
For sure the day of your Redemption's nigh;
The Scales shall fall from your long blinded eyes,
And him you shall adore who now despise,
Then fullness of the Nations in shall flow,
And Jew and Gentile to one worship go;
Then
•
ollows days of happiness and rest;
Whose lot doth fall to live therein is blest:
No Canaanite shall then be found in the' Land,
And holiness on horses bells shall stand.
If this make way thereto, then sigh no more,
But if at all, thou didst not seeit before;
Farewell dear Mother, rightest cause prevail,
And in a while, you'le tell another tale.
An Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney, who was untimely slain at the Siege of Zutphan, Anno, 1586.
WHen
England
did enjoy her Halsion days,
Her noble
Sidney
wore the Crown of Bayes;
As well an honor to our
British
Land,
As she that swayed the Scepter with her hand;
Mars
and
Minerva
did in one agree,
Of Arms and Arts he should a pattern be,
Calli
•
pi
with
Terpsichor
•
did sing,
Of Poesie, and of music, he was King;
His Rhetoric struck
Pol
•
mina
dead,
His Eloquence made
Mercury
wax red;
His
Logic
from
Euterpe
won the Crown,
More worth was his then
Clio
could set down.
Thalia
and
Melpomene
say truth,
(Witness
Arcadia
penned in his youth,)
Are not his tragick Comedies so acted.
As if your ninefold wit had been compacted.
To show the world, they never saw before
That this one Volume should exhaust your store;
His wiser days condemned his witty works,
Who knows the spells that in his Rhetoric lurks,
But some infatuate fools s
•
on caught therein,
Fond
Cupias
Dame had never such a gin
Which makes severer eyes but slight that story,
And men of morose minds envy his glory:
But he's a Beetle head that cannot descry
A world of wealth within that rubbish lie,
And doth his name, his work his honor wrong,
The brave refiner of our British tongue,
That sees not learning, valor and morality,
Justice, friendship, and kind hospitality,
Yea and Divinity within his book,
Such were prejudicate, and did not look.
In all Records his name I ever see
Put with an Epithite of dignity,
Which shows his worth was great his honor such,
The love his Country ought him, was as much.
Then let none disallow of these my strains
Whilst English blood yet runs within my veins.
O brave
Achilles,
I wish some
Homer
would
Engrave in Marble, with Characters of gold
The valiant fe
•
s thou didst on
Flanders
coast,
Which at this day fair
Belgium
may boast.
The more I say, the more thy worth I stain,
Thy fame and praise is far beyond my strain.
O
Zutphen, Zutphen
that most fatal City
Made famous by thy death, much more the pity:
Ah! in his blooming prime death plucked this rose
E're he was ripe, his thread cut
Atropos.
Thus man is born to die, and dead is he,
Brave
Hector,
by the walls of
Troy
we see.
O who was near thee but did sore repine
He rescued not with life that life of thine:
But yet impartial Fates this boon did give,
Though
Stancy
died his valiant name should live:
And live it doth in spite of death through fame,
Thus being overcome, he overcame.
Where is that envious tongue, but can afford
Of this our noble
Scipio
some good word.
Great
Bartas
this unto thy praise adds more,
In sad sweet verse, thou didst his death deplore.
And
Phoenix Spencer
doth unto his life,
His death present in sable to his wife.
Stella
the fair▪ whose streams from Conduits fell
For the sad loss of her dear
Astrophel.
Fain would I show how he fames paths did tread,
But now into such Lab'rinths I am lead,
With endless turns, the way I'find not out,
How to persist my Muse is more in doubt;
Which makes me now with
Silvester
confess,
But
Sidney
's Muse can sing his worthiness.
The Muses aid I craved▪ they had no will
To give to their Detractor any quill,
With high disdain, they said they gave no more,
Since
Sidney
had exhausted all their store.
They took from me the scribbling pen I had,
(I to be eased of such a task was glad)
Then to revenge this wrong, themselves engage,
And drave me from
Pa
•
nassus
in a rage.
Then wonder not if I no better sped,
Since I the Muses thus have injured.
I pensive for my fault sat down, and then
Errata
through their leave, threw me my pen,
My Poem to conclude, two lines they deign
Which writ, she bad returnit to them again;
So
Sidneys
fame I leave to
England's
Rolls,
His bones do lie interred in stately
Paul's.
His Epitaph.
Here lies in fame under this stone,
Philip
and
Alexander
both in one;
Heir to the Muses, the Son of
Mars
in Truth,
Learning, Valour, Wisdom all in virtuous youth,
His praise is much, this shall suffice my pen,
That
Sidney
died 'mong most renowned of men.
In honor of Du Bartas, 1641.
Among the happy wits this age hath shown.
Great, dear, sweet
Bartas
thou art matchless known,
My ravished Eyes and heart with faltering tongue,
In humble wise have vowed their service long,
But knowing th'task so great, & strength but small,
Gave over the work before begun withal,
My dazzled sight of late review'd thy lines,
Where Art, and more then Art, in nature shines,
Reflection from their beam
•
ng Altitude,
Did thaw my frozen hearts ingratitude;
Which Rayes darting upon some richer ground,
Had caused flours and fruits soon to abound;
But barren I my Dasey here do bring,
A homely flour in this my latter Spring,
If Summer, or my Autumn age do yield,
Flours, fruits in Garden, Orchard, or in Field,
They shall be consecrated in my Verse,
And prostrate offered at great
Bartas
Herse;
My muse unto a Child I may compare,
Who sees the riches of some famous Fair,
He feeds his Eyes, but understanding lacks
To comprehend the worth of all those knacks:
The glittering plate and lewels he admires,
The Hats and Fans, the Plumes and Ladies tires,
And thousand times his mazed mind doth wish
Some part (at least) of that brave wealth was his,
But seeing empty wishes naught obtain,
At night turns to his Mothers cot again,
And tells her tales, (his full heart over-glad)
Of all the glorious sights his Eyes have had:
But finds too soon his want of Eloquence,
The silly pratler speaks no word of sense,
But seeing utterance fail his great desires,
Sits down in silence, deeply he admires:
Thus weak brained I, reading thy lofty style,
Thy profound learning, viewing other while;
Thy Art in natural Philosophy,
Thy Saint like mind in grave Divinity;
Thy piercing skill in high Astronomy,
And curious insight in Anatomy:
Thy Physic, music and state policy,
Valour in war, in peace good husbandry.
Sure lib'ral Nature did with Art not small,
In all the arts make thee most liberal.
A thousand thousand times my se
•
sless senses
Moveless stand charmed by thy sweet influences;
More senseless then the stones to
Amphio
•
s
Lute,
Mine eyes are sightless, and my tongue is mute,
My full astonished heart doth pant to break,
Through grief it wants a faculty to speak:
Volleyes of praises could I echo then,
Had I an Angels voice, or
Bartas
pen:
But wishes cannot accomplish my desire,
Pardon if I adore, when I admire.
O France thou didst in him more glory gain
Then in thy
Martel, Pipin, Charlemain,
Then in St.
Louis,
or thy last
Henry
Great,
Who tamed his foes in wars, in blood and sweat.
Thy fame is spread as far, I dare be bold,
In all the Zones, the temp'rate hot and cold.
Their Trophies were but heaps of wounded slain,
Thine, the quintessence of an heroic brain.
The oaken Garland ought to deck their brows,
Immortal Bayes to thee all men allows.
Who in thy triumphs never won by wrongs,
Lead'st millions chaind by eyes, by ears, by tongues
Oft have I wondered at the hand of heaven,
In giving one what would have served seven.
If e're this golden gift was shower'd on any,
Thy double portion would have served many.
Unto each man his riches is assigned
Of Name, of State, of Body and of Mind:
Thou hadst thy part of all, but of the last,
O pregnant brain, O comprehension vast:
Thy haughty Style▪ and rapted wit sublime
All ages wondering at, shall never climb.
Thy sacred works are not for imitation,
But Monuments to future Admiration.
Thus
Bartas
fame shall last while stars do stand,
And whilst there's Air or Fire, or Sea or Land.
But least mine ignorance should do thee wrong,
To celebrate thy merits in my Song.
I will leave thy praise to those shall do thee right,
Good will, not skill, did cause me bring my Mite.
His Epitaph.
Here lies the Pearl of
France, Parnassus
Glory;
The World rejoiced at his birth, at his death was sorry.
Art and Nature join'd, by heavens high decree
Now showed what once they ought, Humanity:
And Natures Law, had it been revocable
To rescue him from death, Art had been able.
But Nature vanquished Art, so
Bartas
died,
But Fame out-living both, he is revived.
In Honor of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth OF HAPPY MEMORY.
The Proem.
ALthough great Queen thou now in silence lie
Yet thy loud Herald Fame doth to the sky
Thy wondrous worth proclaim in every Clime,
And so hath vowed while there is world or time.
So great's thy glory and thine excellence,
The sound thereof rapts every human sense,
That men account it no impiety,
To say thou wert a fleshly Diety:
Thousands bring offerings (though out of date)
Thy world of honors to accumulate,
'Mongst hundred Hecatombs of roaring verse,
Mine bleating stands before thy royal Herse.
Thou never didst nor canst thou now disdain
T' accept the tribute of a loyal brain.
Thy clemency did yerst esteem as much
The acclamations of the poor as rich,
Which makes me deem my rudeness is no wrong,
Though I resound thy praises 'mongst the throng.
The Poem.
No
Phoenix
pen, nor
Spencers
poetry,
No
Speeds
nor
Cambdens
learned History,
Elizahs
works, wars praise, can e're compact,
The World's the Theatre where she did act.
No memoryes nor volumes can contain
The 'leaven Olympiads of her happy reign:
Who was so good, so just, so learned so wise,
From all the Kings on earth she won the prize
Nor say I more then duly is her due,
Millions will testify that this is true.
She hath wiped off th' aspersion of her Sex,
That women wisdom lack to play the Rex:
Spain,
Monarch says not so, nor yet his host:
She taught them better manners, to their cost.
The
Salique
law, in force now had not been,
If
France
had ever hoped for such a Queen.
But can you Doctors now this point dispute,
She's Argument enough to make you mute.
Since first the sun did run his nere run race,
And earth had once a year, a new old face,
Since time was time, and man unmanly man,
Come show me such a
Phoenix
if you can?
Was ever people better ruled then hers?
Was ever land more happy freed from stirs?
Did ever wealth in
England
more abound?
Her victoryes in foreign Coasts resound,
Ships more invincible then
Spain
's her foe
She wracked, she sacked, she sunk his Armado:
Her stately troops advanced to
Lisbons
wall
Don Anthony
in's right there to install.
She frankly helped,
Franks
brave distressed King,
The States united now her same do sing,
She their Protectrix was, they well do know
Unto our dread Virago, what they owe.
Her Nobles sacrificed their noble blood,
Nor men nor Coyn she spared to do them good.
The rude untamed
Irish,
she did quel.
Before her picture the proud
Tyrone
fell.
Had ever prince such Counselors as she?
Her self
Minerva
caused them so to be.
Such Captains and such soldiers never seen,
As were the Subjects of our
Pallas
Queen.
Her Sea-men through all straights the world did round;
Terra incognita
might know the sound.
Her
Drake
came laden home with Spanish gold:
Her
Essex
took
Cades,
their Herculean Hold:
But time would fail me, so my tongue would to,
To tell of half she did▪ or she could
•
oe.
Semiramis
to her, is but obscure,
More infamy then fame, she did procure.
She built her glory but on
Babels
walls,
Worlds wonder for a while, but yet it falls.
Fierce
Tomris▪ (Cyrus
heads-man)
Scythians
queen,
Had put her harness off, had she but seen
Our Amazon in th' Camp of
Til
•
ury,
Judging all valor and all Majesty
Within that Princess to have residence,
And prostrate yielded to her excellence.
Dido
first Foundress of proud
Carthage
walls,
(Who living consummates her Funerals)
A great
E
•
iza
▪ but compared with ours▪
How vanisheth her glory, wealth and powers▪
Profuse proud
Cleopatra,
whose wrong name,
Instead of glory, proved her Countries shame:
Of her what worth in Storyes to be seen,
But that she was a rich Egyptian Queen.
Zenobya
potent Empress of the East,
And of all these, without compare the best,
Whom none but great
Aurelius
could quel;
Yet for our Queen is no fit Parallel.
She was a Phoenix Queen, so shall she be,
Her ashes not revived, more Phoenix she,
Her personal perfections, who would tell,
Must dip his pen in th'
Heleconian Well,
Which I may not, my pride doth but aspire
To read what others write, and so admire.
Now say, have women worth? or have they none?
Or had they some, but with our Queen isit gone?
Nay Masculines, you have thus taxed us long,
But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong.
Let such as say our Sex is void of Reason,
Know tis a Slander now, but once was Treason.
But happy
England
which had such a Queen;
Yea happy, happy, had those days still been▪
But happiness lies in a higher sphere,
Then wonder not
Eliza
moves not here▪
Full fraught with honor, riches and with day
•
She set, she set, like
Titan
in his rays.
No more shall rise or set so glorious sun
Untill the heavens great revolution,
If then new things their old forms shall retain,
Eliza
shall rule
Albion
once again.
HER EPITAPH.
Here sleeps THE Queen, this is the Royal Bed,
Of th' Damask Rose, sprung from the white and red,
Whose sweet perfume fills the all-filling Air:
This Rose is withered, once so lovely fair.
On neither tree did grow such Rose before,
The greater was our gain, our loss the more.
Another.
Here lies the pride of Queens, Pattern of Kings,
So blaze it Fame, here's feathers for thy wings.
Here lies the envi'd, yet unparalled Prince,
Whose living virtues speak, (though dead long since)
If many worlds, as that Fantastick framed,
In everyone be her great glory famed▪
David's Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan. 2. Sam. 1.19.
ALas slain is the Head of Israel,
Illustrious
Saul
whose beauty did excel,
Upon thy places mountainous and high,
How did the Mighty fall, and falling die?
In
Gath
let not this things be spoken on,
Nor published in streets of
Askalon,
Lest daughters of the Philistines rejoice,
Lest the uncircumcis'd lift up their voice.
O
Gilbo
Mounts, let never pearled dew,
Nor fruitful showers your barren tops bestrew,
Nor fields of offerings ever on you grow,
Nor any pleasant thing e're may you show;
For there the Mighty Ones did soon decay,
The shield of
Saul
was vilely cast away,
There had his dignity so sore a foil,
As if his head never felt the sacred oil.
Sometimes from crimson blood of gastly slain,
The bow of
Jonathan
never turned in vain:
Nor from the fat, and spoils of Mighty men
With bloodless sword did
Saul
turn back agen.
Pleasant and lovely, were they both in life,
And in their death was founnd no parting strife.
Swifter then swiftest Eagles so were they,
Stronger then Lions ramping for their prey.
O Israel's Dames, o'reflow your beauteous eyes
For valiant
Saul
who on Mount
Gilbo
lves,
Who clothed you in Cloath of richest Dye,
And choice delights, full of variety,
On your array put ornaments of gold,
Which made you yet more beauteous to behold.
O! how in Battle did the mighty fall
In midst of strength not succoured at all.
O lovely
Jonathan
! how wast thou slain?
In places high, full low thou didst remain.
Distrest for thee I am, dear
Jonathan,
Thy love was wonderful, surpassing man,
Exceeding all the love that's Feminine,
So pleasant hast thou been, dear brother mine,
How are the mighty fallen into decay?
And warlike weapons perished away?
To the Memory of my dear and ever honored Father Thomas Dudley Esq Who deceased, July 31. 1653. and of his Age, 77.
BY duty bound, and not by custom
〈◊〉
To celebrate the praises of the dead,
My mournful mind, sore pressed, in trembling verse
Presents my Lamentations at his Herse,
Who was my Father, Guide, Instructer too,
To whom I ought whatever I could do:
Nor isit Relation near my hand shall tie;
For who more cause to boast his worth then I?
Who heard or saw▪ observed or knew him better?
Or who alive then I, a greater debtor?
Let malice bite, and envy knaw its fill.
He was my Father, and I will praise him still.
Nor was his name, or life lead so obscure
That pity might some Trumpeters procure.
Who after death might make him falsely seem
Such as in life, no man could justly deem.
Well known and loved, where ere he lived by most
Both in his native, and in foreign coast,
These to the world his merits could make known,
So needs no Testimonial from his own;
But now or never I must pay my Sum;
While others tell his worth, I will not be dumb:
One of thy Founders, him
New-England
know,
Who staid thy feeble sides when thou wast low▪
Who spent his state, his strength, & years with care
That After-comers in them might have share.
True Patriot of this little Commonweal,
Who isit can tax thee ought, but for thy zeal?
Truths friend thou wert, to errors still a foe,
Which caused Apostates to malign so.
Thy love to true Religion e're shall shine,
My Fathers God, be God of me and mine.
Upon the earth he did not build his nest,
But as a Pilgrim what he had, possessed.
High thoughts he gave no harbor in his heart,
Nor honors puffed him up, when he had part:
Those titles loathed, which some too much do love
For truly his ambition lay above.
His humble mind so loved humility,
He left it to his race for Legacy:
And oft and oft, with speeches mild and wise,
Gave his in charge, that Jewel rich to prize.
No ostentation seen in a
•
l his ways,
As in the mean ones, of our foolish days,
Which all they have, and more still set to view,
Their greatness may be judged by what they show.
His thoughts were more sublime, his actions wise,
Such vanityes he justly did despise.
Nor wonder 'twas, low things never much did move
For he a Mansion had, prepared above.
For which he sigh'd and prayed & longed full sore
He might be clothed upon, for evermore.
Oft spake of death, and with a smiling cheer,
He did exult his end was drawing near,
Now fully ripe, as shock of wheat that's grown,
Death as a Sickle hath him timely mown,
And in celestial Barn
•
ath house'd him high,
Where storms, nor showers, nor ought can damnify.
His Generation served his labors cease;
And to his Fathers gathered is in peace.
Ah happy Soul, 'mongst Saints and Angels blest,
Who after all his toil, is now at rest:
His hoary head in righteousness was found:
As joy in heaven on earth let praise resound.
Forgotten never be his memory,
His blessing rest on his posterity:
His pious Footsteps followed by his race,
At last will bring us to that happy place
Where we with joy each others face shall see,
And parted more by death shall never be.
His Epitaph.
Within this Tomb a Patriot lies
That was both pious, just and wise,
To Truth a shield, to right a Wall,
To Sectaryes a whip and Maul,
A Magazine of History,
A Prizer of good Company
In manners pleasant and severe
The Good him loved, the bad did fear,
And when his time with years was spent
If some rejoiced, more did lament.
An EPITAPH On my dear and ever honored Mother Mrs. Dorothy Dudley, Who deceased Decemb. 27. 1643. and of her age, 61 :
Here lies,
A Worthy Matron of unspotted life,
A loving Mother and obedient wife,
A friendly Neighbor, pitiful to poor,
Whom oft she fed, and clothed with her store;
To Servants wisely awful, but yet kind,
And as they did, so they reward did find:
A true Instructor of her Family,
The which she ordered with dexterity.
The public meetings ever did frequent,
And in her Closet constant hours she spent;
Religious in all her words and ways,
Preparing still for death, till end of days:
Of all her Children, Children, lived to see,
Then dying, left a blessed memory.
CONTEMPLATIONS.
SOme time now past in the Autumnal Tide,
When
Phoebus
wanted but one hour to bed,
The trees all richly clad, yet void of pride,
Where gilded over by his rich golden head.
Their leaves & fruits seemed painted, but was true
Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hew,
Rapt were my senses at this delectable view.
2
I wist not what to wish, yet sure thought I,
If so much excellence abide below;
How excellent is he that dwells on high?
Whose power and beauty by his works we know.
Sure he is goodness, wisdom glory, light,
That hath this under world so richly dight:
More Heaven then Earth was here▪ no winter & no night.
3
Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye,
Whose ruffling top the Clouds seemed to aspire;
How long since thou wast in thine Infancy?
Thy strength, and stature, more thy years admire▪
Hath hundred winters past since thou wast born
•
Or thousand since thou brakest thy shell of horn,
If so, all these as naught, Eternity doth scorn.
4
Then higher on the glistering Sun I gaz'd,
Whose beams was shaded by the levy Tree,
The more I looked, the more I grew amazed,
And softly said, what glory's like to thee?
Soul of this world, this Universes Eye,
No wonder, some made thee a Deity:
Had I not better known, (alas) the same had I.
5
Thou as a Bridegroom from thy Chamber r
••
hes,
And as a strong man, joys to run a race,
The morn doth usher thee, with smiles & blushes,
The Earth reflects her glances in thy face.
Birds insects, Animals with Vegative,
Thy heart from death and dullness doth revive:
And in the darksome womb of fruitful nature dive.
6
Thy swift Annual, and diurnal Course,
Thy daily straight, and yearly oblique path,
Thy pleasing fervor, and thy scorching force,
All mortals here the feeling knowledge hath
Thy presence makes it day, thy absence night,
Quaternal Seasons caused by thy might:
Hail Creature, full of sweetness, beauty & delight.
7
Art thou so full of glory, that no Eye
Hath strength, thy
•
hining Rayes once to behold?
And is thy splendid Throne erect so high?
As to approach it, can no earthly mould.
How full of glory then must thy Creator be?
Who gave this bright light luster unto thee:
Admir'd, adored forever, be that Majesty.
8
Silent alone, where none or saw, or heard,
In pathless paths I lead my wandering feet,
My humble Eyes to lofty Skyes I reared
To sing some Song, my mazed Muse thought meet.
My great Creator I would magnify,
That nature had, thus decked liberally:
But Ah, and Ah, again, my imbecility!
9
I heard the merry grasshopper then sing,
The black clad Cricket, bear a second part,
They kept one tune, and plaid on the same string,
Seeming to glory in their little Art.
Shall Creatures abject, thus their voices raise?
And in their kind resound their makers praise:
Whilst I as mute, can warble forth no higher lays.
10
When present times look back to Ages past,
And men in being fancy those are dead,
It makes things gone perpetually to last
And calls back months and years that long since fled
It makes a man more aged in conceit,
Then was
Methusilah,
or's grand-sire great:
While of their persons & their acts his mind doth treat.
11
Sometimes in
Eden
fair, he seems to be,
Sees glorious
Adam
there made Lord of all,
Fancyes the Apple, dangle on the Tree,
That turned his Sovereign to a naked thral▪
Who like a miscreant's driven from that place,
To get his bread with pain, and sweat of face▪
A penalty imposed on his backsliding Race.
12
Here sits our Grandame in retired place,
And in her lap, her bloody
Cain
new born,
The weeping Imp oft looks her in the face.
Bewails his unknown hap, and fate forlorn;
His Mother sighs, to think of Paradise,
And how she lost her bliss, to be more wise,
Believing him that was, and is, Father of lies.
13
Here
Cain
and
Abel
come to sacrfiice,
Fruits of the Earth, and Fatlings each do bring,
On
Abel's
gift the fire descends from Skies,
But no such sign on false
Cain's
offering;
With sullen hateful looks he goes his ways.
Hath thousand thoughts to end his brothers days,
Upon whose blood his future good he hopes to raise
14
There
Abel
keeps his sheep, no ill he thinks,
His brother comes, then acts his fratricide,
The Virgin Earth, of blood her first draught drinks
But since that time she often hath been cloy'd;
The wretch with gastly face and dreadful mind,
Thinks each he sees will serve him in his kind,
Though none on Earth but kindred near then could he find.
15
Who fancyes not his looks now at the Barr,
His face like death, his heart with horror fraught,
Nor Male-factor ever
•
elt like war,
When deep dispair, with wish of life hath sought,
Branded with guilt and crushed with treble woes,
A Vagabond to Land of
N
•
d
he goes
A City builds, that walls might him secure from foes.
16
Who thinks not oft upon the Fathers ages.
Their long descent how nephews sons they saw,
The starry observations of those Sages,
And how their precepts to their sons were law,
How Adam signed to see his Progeny,
Cloath'd all in his black sinful Livery,
Who neither guilt, nor yet the punishment could fly.
17
Our Life compare we with their length of days
Who to the tenth of theirs doth now arrive?
And though thus short, we shorten many ways,
Living so little while we are alive;
In eating, drinking, sleeping, vain delight
So unawares comes on perpetual night,
And puts all pleasures vain unto eternal
•
light:
18
When I behold the heavens as in their prime,
And then the earth (though old) still clad in green,
The stones and trees, insensible of time,
Nor age nor wrinkle on their front are seen;
If winter come and greeness then do fade,
A Spring returns, and they more youthful made▪
But Man grows old, lies down, remains where once he's laid.
20
By birth more noble then those creatures all,
Yet seems by nature and by custom cursed,
No sooner born, but grief and care makes fall
That state obliterate he had at first▪
Nor youth, nor strength, nor wisdom spring again
Nor habitations long their names retain
But in oblivion to the final day remain.
20
Shall I then praise the heavens the trees, the earth
Because their beauty and their strength last longer
Shall I wish there, or never to had birth,
Because they are bigger, & their bodies stronger?
Nay, they shall darken, perish, fade and die,
And when unmade, so ever shall they lie,
But man was made for endless immortality.
21
Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm
Close sat I by a goodly Rivers side,
Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm;
A lonely place, with pleasures dignified.
I once that loved the shady woods so well,
Now thought the rivers did the trees excel.
And if the sun would ever shine, there would I dwell▪
22
While on the stealing stream I
•
ixt mine eye.
Which to the longed for Ocean held its course,
I marked, nor crooks, nor rubs that there did lie
Could hinder ought, but still augment its force▪
O happy Flood, quoth I, that holds thy race
Till thou arrive at thy beloved place,
Nor is it rocks or shoals that can obstruct thy pace
23
Nor isit enough, that thou alone mayest slide,
But hundred brooks in thy clear waves do meet,
So hand in hand along with thee they glide
To
Thetis
house, where all embrace and greet:
Thou Emblem true, of what I count the best,
O could I lead my Rivolets to rest,
So may we press to that vast mansion, ever blest.
24
Ye Fish which in this liquid Region 'bide,
That for each season, have your habitation,
Now salt, now fresh where you think best to glide
To unknown coasts to give a visitation,
In Lakes and ponds, you leave your numerous fry,
So nature taught and yet you know not why,
You watery folk that know not your felicity.
25
Look how the wantons frisk to taste the air,
Then to the colder bottom straight they dive,
Eftsoon to
N
•
ptun
's glassie Hall repair
To see what trade they great ones there do drive,
Who forage over the spacious sea-green field,
And take the trembling prey before it yield,
Whose armor is their s
•
ales, their spreading sins their shield.
26
While musing thus with contemplation fed,
And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain,
The sweet-tongu'd Philomel percht ore my head,
And chanted forth a most melodious strain
Which wrapped me so with wonder and delight,
I judged my hearing better then my sight,
And wisht me wings with her a while to take my flight.
28
O merry Bird (said I) that fears no snares,
That neither toils nor hoards up in thy barn,
Feels no sad thoughts, nor cruciating cures
To gain more good, or shun what might thee harm
Thy clothes never wear, thy meat is everywhere.
Thy bed a bough, thy drink the water clear,
Reminds not what is past, nor whats to come dost fear
28
The dawning morn with songs thou dost prevent,
Sets hundred notes unto t
••
feat
•
ered crew,
So each one tunes his pretty instrument,
And warbling out the old beg
•
n
〈◊〉
,
And thus they pass their youth in summer season,
Then follow thee into a better R
•
g
••
n,
where winter's never felt by that sweet airy legion
29
Man at the best a creature frail and vain,
In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak,
Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain,
Each storm his state, his mind, his body break.
From some of these he never finds cessation,
But day or night, within, without, vexation,
Troubles from foes, from friends, from dearest, near'st Relati
••
30
And yet this sinful creature, frail and vain,
This lump of wretchedness, of sin and sorrow
This weather-beaten vessel wracked with pain,
Joyes not in hope of an eternal morrow,
Nor all his losses, crosses and vexation,
In weight, in frequency and long duration
Can make him deeply groan for that divine Translation▪
31
The Mariner that on smooth waves doth glide,
Sings merrily, and steers his Barque with ease,
As if he had command of wind and tide,
And now become great Master of the seas;
But suddenly a storm spoils all the sport.
And makes him long for a more quiet port.
Which' gainst all adverse winds may serve for
•
ort.
32
So he that saileth in this world of pleasure,
Feeding on sweets, that never bit of th' sour,
That's full of friends, of honor and of treasure,
Fond fool, he takes this earth even for heavens bower.
But sad affliction comes & makes him see
Here's neither honor, wealth, nor safety;
Only above is found all with security.
33
O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things,
That draws oblivions curtains over kings,
Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not,
Their names without a Record are forgot,
Their parts, their ports, their pomp's all laid in th' dust
Nor wit nor gold, nor buildings scape times rust,
But he whose name is grav'd in the white stone
Shall last and shine when all of these are gone.
The Flesh and the Spirit.
IN secret place where once I stood
Close by the Banks of
Lacrim
flood
I heard two sisters reason on
Things that are past, and things to come;
One flesh was called, who had her eye
On worldly wealth and vanity;
The other Spirit, who did rear
Her thoughts unto a higher sphere:
Sister, quoth Flesh, what liv'st thou on
Nothing but Meditation?
Doth Contemplation feed thee so
Regardlesly to let earth go?
Can Speculation satissy
Notion without Reality?
Dost dream of things beyond the Moon
And dost thou hope to dwell there soon?
Hast treasures there laid up in store
That all in th' world thou count'st but poor
Art fancy sick, or turned a Sot
To catch at shadows which are not?
Come, come, I will show unto thy sense,
Industry hath its recompense.
What canst desire, but thou mayest see
True substance in variety?
Dost honor like? acquire the same,
As some to their immortal fame:
And trophyes to thy name erect
Which wearing time shall never deject.
For riches dost thou long full fore?
Behold enough of precious store.
Earth hath more silver, pearls and gold,
Then eyes can see, or hands can hold.
Affect's thou pleasure? take thy fill,
Earth hath enough of what you will.
Then let not go, what thou mayest find,
For things unknown, only in mind,
Spir.
Be still thou unregenerate part,
Disturb no more my settled heart,
For I have vowed, (and so will do)
Thee as a soe, still to pursue
And combat with thee will and must,
Untill I see thee laid in th' dust.
Sisters we are, ye twins we be.
Yet deadly feud twixt thee and me;
For from one father are we not,
Thou by old Adam wast begot,
But my arise is from above
Whence my dear father I do love.
Thou speak'st me fair but hat'st me sore,
Thy flatt'ring shows
•
e trust no more.
How oft thy slave, hast thou me made,
when I believed, what thou hast said,
And never had more cause of woe
Then when I did what thou bad'st do.
I will stop mine ears at these thy charms,
And count them for my deadly harms,
Thy sinful pleasures I do hate,
Thy riches are to me no bait,
Thine honors do, nor will I love;
For my ambition lies above.
My greatest honor it shall be
When I am victor over thee,
And triumph shall, with laurel head,
When thou my Captive shalt be led,
How I do live, thou needest not scoff,
For I have meat thou knowest not off;
The hidden Manna I do eat,
The word of life it is my meat.
My thoughts do yield me more content
Then can thy hours in pleasure spent.
Nor are they shadows which I catch,
Nor fancies vain at which I snatch,
But reach at things that are so high,
Beyond thy dull Capacity;
Eternal substance I do see,
With which enriched I would be:
Mine Eye doth pierce the heavens, and see
What is luvisible to thee.
My garments are not silk nor gold,
Nor such like trash which Earth doth hold,
But Royal Robes I shall have on,
More glorious then the glistering Sun;
My Crown not Diamonds, Pearls, and gold,
But such as Angels heads infold.
The City where I hope to dwell,
There's none on Earth can parallel;
The stately Walls both high and strong,
Are made of precious
Jasper
stone;
The Gates of Pearl, both rich and clear,
And Angels are for Porters there;
The Streets thereof transparent gold,
Such as no Eye did e're behold,
A Crystal River there doth run,
Which doth proceed from the Lambs Throne:
Of Life, there are the waters sure,
Which shall remain forever pure,
Nor Sun, nor Moon, they have no need,
For glory doth from God proceed:
No Candle there, nor yet Torch light,
For there shall be no darksome night.
From sickness and infirmity,
For evermore they shall be free,
Nor withering age shall e're come there,
But beauty shall be bright and clear;
This City pure is not for thee,
For things unclean there shall not be:
If I of Heaven may have my fill,
Take thou the world, and all that will.
The Uanity of all worldly things.
AS he said vanity, so vain say I,
Oh! vanity, O vain all under Sky;
Where is the man can say, lo I have found
On brittle Earth a Consolation sound?
What isit in honor to be set on high?
No, they like Beasts and Sons of men shall d
••
And whilst they live, how oft doth turn their
〈◊〉
He's now a captive, that was King of
•
ate
What isit in wealth, great Treas
•
res to obtain?
No that's hut labor, anxiou
•
care and pain,
He heaps up riches, and he heaps up sorrow,
It's his today, but who's his
•
eir tomorrow?
What then? Content in pleasures canst thou find,
More vain then all, that's but to grasp the wind.
The sensual senses for a time they please,
Mean while the conscience rage, who shall appease?
What isit in beauty? No that's but a snare,
They're foul enough today, that once were sai
•
.
What isit in stowring youth, or manly age?
The first is prone to vice▪ the last to rage.
Where is it then, in wisdom, learning arts?
Sure if on earth, it must be in those parts:
Yet these the
••
sest man of men did find
But vanity, vexation of mind.
And he that knows the most, doth still bemoan
He knows not all that here is to be known.
What is it then, to do as
Stoics
tell.
Nor laugh, nor we
•
p, let things go ill or well.
Such
Stote
are but Stocks such teaching vain,
While man is man, he shall have ease or pain.
If not in honor beauty, age nor treasure
Nor yet in learning wisdom youth nor pleasure,
Where shall I climb, sound, seek search or find
That
Summum Bonum
which may stay my mind?
There is a path, no vultures eye hath seen,
Where Lion fierce, nor lions whelps have been,
Which lea
•
s unto that living Crystal Fount,
Who drinks thereof, the world doth naught account
The depth & sea have said tis not in me,
With pearl and gold, it shall not valued be.
For Sapphire, Onix, Topaz, who would change:
Its hid from eyes of men, they count it strange.
Death and destruction the fame hath heard,
But where & what it is, from heaven's declared,
It br
•
ngs to honor, which shall never decay,
It stores with wealth which time cannot wear away.
It yieldeth pleasures far beyond conceit,
And truly beautifies without deceit,
Nor strength, nor wisdom nor fresh youth shall sade
Nor death shall see. but are immortal made.
This pearl of price, this tree of l
••
e, this spring
Who is possessed of, shall reign a King
Nor change of state, nor cares shall ever see,
But wear his crown unto eternity.
This satiates the Soul, this stays the mind,
And all the rest, but Vanity we find.
FINIS
The Author to her Book.
THou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise then true
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Ma
•
e thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudg,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge)
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But naught save home-spun Cloth, in the' house I find
In this array, 'mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam
In Critics hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy Father asked, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy Mother she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.
Several other Poems made by the Author upon Diverse Occasions, were found among her Papers after her Death, which she never • ednt should come to public view, amongst which, these following (at the desire of s • me friends that knew her well) are 〈◊〉 ins • rted
Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632. Atats suae, 10.
TWice ten years old, not sully told
Since nature gave me breath,
My race is run, my thread is spun,
lo here is fatal Death.
All men must die, and so must I
this cannot be revok'd
For Adams sake, this word God spake
when he so high provoked.
Yet live I shall, this life's but small,
in place of highest bliss,
Where I shall have all I can crave,
no life is like to this.
For what's this life, but care and strife?
since first we came from womb,
Our strength doth waste, our time doth hast,
and then we go to th' Tomb.
O Bubble blast, how long canst last?
that always art a breaking,
No sooner blown, bu
•
dead and gone,
even as a word that's speaking.
O whilst I live this grace me give,
I doing good may be.
Then deaths arrest I shall count best,
because it's thy decree;
Bestow much cost there's nothing lost,
to make Salvation sure,
O great's the gain, though got with pain▪
comes by profession pure.
The race is ran, the field is won,
the victory's mine I see,
For ever know, thou envious foe,
the soil belongs to thee.
Upon some distemper of body
In anguish of my heart repleat with woes,
And wasting pains, which best my body knows▪
In tossing slumbers on my wakeful bed,
Bedrencht with tears that slow'd from mournful head
Till nature had exhausted all her store,
Then eyes lay dry, disabled to weep more;
And looking up unto his Throne on high,
Who sendeth help to those in misery,
He chac'd away those clouds, and let me see
My Anchor cast in the' vale with safety.
He eased my Soul of woe, my flesh of pain,
And brought me to the shore from troubled Main;
All things within this fading world hath end,
Adversity doth still our joys a
••
end;
No tyes so strong no friends so dear and sweet,
But with deaths parting blow is sure to meet.
The sentence past is most irrovocable,
A common thing, yet oh inevitable,
How soon, my Dear death may my steps attend.
How soonit may be thy L
•
t to
•
ose thy friend,
We both are ignorant, yet love bi
•
s me
These farewell lines to recommend to thee,
That when that knot
•
s untie
•
e that made us one,
I may seem thine, who in effect am none.
And ill see not half my day that's due,
What
••
ture would, God grant to yours and you:
The many faults that well you know I have,
Let be in
•
erred in my oblivions grave,
Many worth or virtue were in me,
Let that live freshly in thy memory
And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harms,
Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms:
And when thy loss shall be repaid with ga
•
ns
Look to my little babes my dear remains▪
And if thou love thyself, or lovedst me
These O protect from step Dames injury.
And if chance to thine eyes shall bring this verse,
With some sad sighs honor my absent Herse;
And kiss this paper for thy loves dea
•
sake,
Who with salt tears this last Farewell did take
A. B.
To my Dear and loving Husband.
IF ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee,
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense,
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persevere,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
A Letter to her Husband, absent upon Public employment.
My head, my heart, mine Eyes, my life, nay more,
My joy, my Magazine of earthly store,
If two be one, as surely thou and I,
How stayest thou there, whilst I at
Ipswich
lie?
So many steps, head from the heart to sever
If but a neck, soon should we be together:
I like the earth this season, mourn in black,
My Sun is gone so far in's Zodiac,
Whom whilst I'joy'd, nor storms, nor frosts I felt,
His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.
My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlor
•
;
Return, return sweet
Sol
from
Capricorn,
In this dead time, alas, what can I more
Then view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?
Which sweet contentment yield me for a space,
True living Pictures of their Fathers face.
O strange effect now thou art
Southward
gone,
I weary grow, the tedious d
•
y so long;
But when thou
Northward
to me shalt return,
I wish my Sun may never set, but burn
Within the Cancer of my glowing breast,
The welcome house of him my dearest guest.
Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence,
Till natures sad decree shall call thee hence;
Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone,
I here, thou there, yet both but one.
A. B.
Another.
Phoebus
make haste, the day's too long be gone,
The silent night's the fittest time for moan;
But stay this once, unto my suit give ear,
And tell my griefs in either Hemisphere:
(And if the whirling of thy wheels donit drowned)
The woeful accents of my doleful sound,
If in thy swift Carrier thou canst make stay,
I crave this boon, this Errand by the way.
Commend me to the man more loved then life,
Shew him the sorrows of his widdowed wife;
My dumpish thoughts, my groans, my branish tears
My sobs, my longing hopes, my doubting fears,
And if he love, how can he there abide?
My Interest's more then all the world beside.
He that can tell the stars or Ocean sand,
Or all the grass that in the Meads do stand,
The leaves in th' woods, the hail or drops of rain,
Or in a corn-field number every grain.
Or every mote that in the sun-shine hops,
May count my sighs, and number all my drops:
Tell him, the countless steps that thou dost trace,
That once a day, thy Spouse thou mayst embrace;
And when thou canst not treat by loving mouth,
Thy rays afar, salute her from the south.
But for one month I see no day (poor soul)
Like those far scituate under the pole,
Which day by day long wait for thy arise,
O how they joy when thou dost light the skies.
O
Phoebus,
hadst thou but thus long from thine
Restrain'd the beams of thy beloved shine,
At thy return, if so thou couldest or durst
Behold a Chaos blacker then the first.
Tell him here's worse then a confused matter,
His little world's a fathom under water,
Nought but the servor of his ardent beams
Hath power to dry the torrent of these streams.
Tell him I would say more, but cannot well,
Oppressed minds, abruptest tales do tell.
Now post with double speed, mark what I say,
By all our loves conjure him not to stay.
Another.
A
•
••
ving Hind that (Hartless) warts her Deer,
S
•
uds through the woods and Fern with hearkening ear,
Perplext, in every bu
•
h &
•
ook doth pry,
Her dearest Deer might answer ear or eye;
So doth my anxious foul, which now doth miss,
A dearer Dear (far dearer Heart) then this.
Still wait with doubts, & hopes, and failing eye,
His voice to hear, or person to descry.
Or as the pensive Dove doth all alone
(On withered bough) most uncouthly bemoan
The absence of her Love, and loving Mate,
Whose loss hath made her so unfortunate:
Even thus do I, with many a deep sad groan
Bewail my turtle true, who now is gone,
His presence and his safe return, still woos,
With thousand doleful sighs & mournful Cooes.
Or as the loving Mullet, that true Fish,
Her fellow lost, nor joy nor life do wish,
But lanches on that shore, there for to die,
Where she her captive husband doth espy.
Mine being gone, Head a joyless life,
I have a loving ph
•
re, yet seem no wife:
But worst of all, to him cannot steer my course
I here, he there, alas, both kept by force:
Return my Dear▪ my joy, my only Love,
Unto thy Hind, thy Mullet and thy Dove,
Who neither joys in pasture, house nor streams,
The substance gone, O me, these are but dreams.
Together at one Tree, oh let us bronze,
And like two Turtles roost within one house,
And like the Mullets in one River glide,
Let's still remain but one, till death divide.
Thy loving Love and Dearest Dear, At home, abroad, and everywhere. A. B.
To her Father with some verses.
MOst truly honored, and as truly dear,
If worth in me, or ought I do appear,
Who can of right better demand the same?
Then may your worthy self from whom it came.
The principle might yield a greater sum,
Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb;
My stock's so small, I know not how to pay,
My Bond remains in force unto this day;
Yet for part payment take this simple mite.
Where nothing's to be had Kings loose their right
Such is my debt, I may not say forgive,
But as I can, I will pay it while I live;
Such is my bond, none can discharge but I,
Yet paying is not paid until I die.
A. B.
In reference to her Children, 23. June, 166.
I Had eight birds hatched in one nest,
Four Cocks there were, and Hens the rest,
I nursed them up with pain and care,
Nor cost, nor labor did I spare,
Till at the last they felt their wing▪
Mounted the Trees, and learned to sing;
Chief of the Brood then took his flight,
To Regions far and left me quite:
My mournful chirps I after send,
Till he return, or I do end,
Leave not thy nest, thy Dam and Sire,
Fly back and sing amidst this Choir.
My second bird did take her flight,
And with her mate flew out of sight;
Southward
they both their course did bend,
And Seasons twain they there did spend:
Till after blown by
Southern
gales,
They
Norward
steerd with filled sails.
A prettier bird was nowhere seen,
Along the Beach among the treen.
I have a third of color white,
On whom I placed no small delight;
Coupled with mate loving and true,
Hath also bid her Dam adieu:
And where
Aurora
first appears,
She now hath percht, to spend her years;
One to the Academy flew
To chat among that learned crew.
Ambition moves still in his breast
That he might chant above the rest,
Striving for more then to do well,
That nightingales he might excel.
My fifth, whose down is yet scarce gone
Is 'mongst the shrubs and bushes flown,
And as his wings increase in strength▪
On higher boughs he will pearch at length▪
My other three, still with me nest,
Untill they are grown, then as the rest,
Or here or there, they'll take their flight,
As is ordained, so shall they light.
If birds could weep, then would my tea
•
Let others know what are my fears
Lest this my brood some harm should catch,
And be surprised for want of watch,
Whilst pecking corn, and void of care
They fall un'wares in Fowlers snare:
Or whilst on trees they sit and sing,
Some untoward boy at them do fling:
Or whilst allured with bell and glass,
The net be spread, and caught, alas.
Or least by Lime twigs they be foil'd,
Or by some greedy hawks be spoil'd.
O would my young, ye saw my breast,
And knew what thoughts there sadly rest,
Great was my pain when I you bred,
Great was my care, when I you fed,
Long did I keep you soft and warm,
An w
••
m wings kept off all harm,
My cares are more, and fears then ever,
My thr
•
bs such now, as 'fore were never:
Alas my birds, you wisdom want,
O
•
perils you are ignorant,
Oft times in grass, on trees, in flight,
Sore accidents on you may light.
O to your safety have an eye,
So happy may you live and die:
Mean while my days in times I will spend,
Till my weak lays with me shall end.
In shady woods I will sit and sing,
And things that past, to mind I will bring.
Once young and pleasant, as are you,
But former toys (no joys) adieu.
My age I will not once lament,
But sing, my time so near is spent.
And from the top bough take my flight,
Into a country beyond sight,
Where old ones, instantly grow young,
And there with Seraphims set song:
No seasons cold, nor storms they see;
But spring lasts to eternity,
When each of you shall in your nest
Among your young ones take your rest,
In chirping language, oft them tell,
You had a Dam that loved you well,
That did what could be done for young,
And nursed you up till you were strong,
And 'fore she once would let you fly,
She showed you joy and misery;
Taught what was good, and what was ill,
What would save life, and what would kill?
Thus gone, amongst you I may live,
And dead, yet speak, and counsel give:
Farewell my birds, farewell adieu,
I happy am, if well with you.
A. B.
In memory of my dear grand-child Elizabeth Bradstreet, who deceased August, 1605. being a year and half old.
FArewel dear babe, my hearts too much content,
Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye,
Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent,
Then ta'en away unto Eternity.
Blest babe why should I once bewail thy fate,
Or sigh the days so soon were terminate;
Since thou art settled in an Everlasting state.
2.
By nature Trees do rot when they are grown.
And Plumbs and Apples thoroughly ripe do fall,
And Corn and grass are in their season mown,
And time brings down what is both strong and tall.
But plants new set to be eradicate.
And buds new blown, to have so short a date,
Is by his hand alone that guides nature and fate.
In memory of my dear grand child Anne Bradstreet. Who deceased June 20. 1669. being three years and seven Moneths old.
WIth troubled heart & trembling hand I write,
The Heavens have changed to sorrow my delight.
How oft with disappointment have I met,
When I on fading things my hopes have set?
Experience might 'fore this have made me wise,
To value things according to their price:
Was ever stable joy yet found below?
Or perfect bliss without mixture of woe.
I knew she was but as a withering flour,
That's here today perhaps gone in an hour;
Like as a bubble, or the brittle glass,
Or like a shadow turning as it was.
More fool then I to look on that was lent,
As if mine own, when thus impermanent.
Farewell dear child, thou ne
•
re shall come to me,
But yet a while, and I shall go to thee,
Mean time my throbbing heart's cheered up with this
Thou with thy Savior art in endless bliss.
On my dear Grand-child Simon Bradstreet, Who died on 16. Novemb. 1669. being but a month, and one day old.
No sooner come, but gone, and fallen asleep,
Acquaintance short, yet parting caused us weep,
Three flours, two scarcely blown, the last in the' bud,
Cropt by th' Almighty's hand; yet is he good,
With dreadful awe before him let's be mute,
Such was his will, but why, let's not dispute,
With humble hearts and mouths put in the dust,
Let's say he's me
•
ciful as well as just.
He will return, and make up all our losses,
And smile again, after our bitter crosses.
Go pretty babe go rest with Sisters twain
Among the blest in endless joys remain.
A. B.
To the memory of my dear Daughter in Law, Mrs. Mercy Bradstreet, who deceased Sept. 6. 1669. in the 28. year of her Age.
And live I still to see Relations gone,
And yet survive to sound this wailing tone▪
Ah, woe is me, to write thy Funeral Song,
Who might in reason yet have lived long,
I saw the branches lopped the Tree now fall,
I stood so nigh, it crushed me down withal;
My bruised heart lies sobbing at the Root,
That thou dear Son hath lost both Tree and fruit:
Thou then on Seas failing to foreign Coast;
Was ignorant what riches thou hadst lost.
But ah too soon those heavy tidings fly,
To strike thee with amazing misery;
Oh how I sympathize with thy sad heart,
And in thy griefs still bear a second part:
I lost a daughter dear, but thou a wife,
Who loved thee more (it seemed) then her own life.
Thou being gone, she longer could not be,
Because her Soul she'd sent along with thee.
One week she only past in pain and woe,
And then her sorrows all at once did go;
A Babe she left before, she soar'd above,
The fifth and last pledge of her dying love,
E're nature would, it hither did arrive,
No wonder it no longer did survive.
So with her Children four, she's now at rest,
All
•
reed from grief (I trust) among the blest;
She one hath left, a joy to thee and me,
The Heavens vouchsafe she may so ever be▪
Chear up (dear Son) thy fainting bleeding heart,
In him alone, that caused all this smart;
What though thy strokes full sad & grievous be,
He knows it is the best for thee and me.
A. B.
A Funeral Elogy, Upon that Pattern and Patron of Virtue, the truly pious, peerless & matchless Gentlewoman Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, right Panaretes, Mirror of Her Age, Glory of her 〈◊〉 whose Heaven-born-Soul leaving its earthly Shrine, chose its native home, and was taken to its Rest, upon 16 th. Sept. 1672.
ASk not why hearts turn Magazines of passions,
And why that grief is clad in several fashions;
Why She on progress goes, and doth not borrow
The smallest respite from th'extremes of sorrow,
Her misery is got to such an height,
As makes the earth groan to support its weight,
Such storms of woe, so strongly have beset her▪
She hath no place for worse, nor hope for better;
Her comfort is, if any for her be▪
That none can show more cause of grief then she.
Ask not why some in mournful black are clad;
The Sun is set, there needs must be a shade.
Ask not why every face a sadness shrowdes;
The setting Sun ore-cast us hath with Clouds.
Ask not why the great glory of the Skye
That gil
•
s the stars with heavenly Alchamy,
Which all the world doth lighten with his rays,
The
Perslan
God the Monarch of the days;
Ask not the reason of his ex
•
asie,
Paleness of late, in midnoon Majesty,
Why that the palefac'd Empress of the night
Disrob'd her brother of his glorious light.
Did not the language of the stars foretell
A mournful Sc
•
ne when they with tears did swell?
Did not the glorious people of the Skye
Seem sensible of future misery?
Did not the lowering heavens seem to express
The worlds great lose, and their unhappiness?
Behold how tears
•
ow from the learned hill,
How the bereaved Nine do daily fill
The bosom of the fleeting Air with groans,
And woeful Accents, which witness their moans.
How do the Goddesses of verse the learned quire
Lament their rival Qui
•
l, which all admire?
Could
Maro
's Muse but hear her lively strain,
He would condemn his works to fire again.
Methinks I hear the Patron of the Spring,
The unshorn Diety abruptly sing.
Some do for anguish weep, for anger I
That Ignorance should live, and Art should die.
Black, fatal, dismal, inauspicious day,
Unblest forever by
Sol
's precious Ray,
Be it the first of Miseries to all;
Or last of Life, defam'd for Funeral.
When this day yearly comes, let everyone,
Cast in their urne, the black and dismal stone.
Succeeding years as they their circuit go,
Leap over this day, as a sad time of woe.
Farewell my Muse, since thou hast left thy shrine,
I am unblest in one, but blest in nine.
Fair
Thespian
Ladies, light your torches all,
Attend your glory to its Funeral,
To court her ashes with a learned tear.
A briny sacrifice, let not a smile appear.
Grave Matron, whoso seeks to blazon thee,
Needs not make use of wits false Heraldry,
Whoso should give thee all thy worth would swell
So high, as 'twould turn the world infidel.
Had he great
Maro
's Muse, or
Tully
's tongue,
Or raping numbers like the
Thracian
Song,
In crowning of her merits he would be
sumptuously poor, low in Hyperbole.
To write is easy but to write on thee,
Truth would be thought to forfeit modesty.
He'l seem a Poet that shall speak but true;
Hyperbole's in others, are thy due.
Like a most servile flatterer he will show
Though he write truth, and make the subject, You.
Virtue never dies, time will a Poet
•
aise
Born under better Starrs, shall sing thy praise.
Praise her who list, yet he shall, be a debtor
For Art never seign'd, nor Nature framed a better.
Her virtues were so great, that they do raise
A work to trouble fame, astonish praise.
When as her Name doth but salute the ear,
Men think that they perfections abstract hear.
Her breast was a brave Palace, a
Broad-street,
Where all heroic ample thoughts did meet,
Where nature such a Tenement had tane,
That others souls, to hers, dwelt in a lane.
Beneath her feet, pale envy bites her chain,
And poison Malice whetts her sting in vain.
Let every Laurel, every Myrtel bough
Be stripped for leaves toadorn and load
•
er brow.
Victorious wreathes, which 'cause they never fade
Wise elder times for Kings and Poets made.
Let not her happy memory e're lack
Its worth in Fames eternal Almanac,
Which none shall read, but straight their loss deplore,
And blame their Fates they were not born before.
Do not old men rejoice their
•
ates did last,
And infants too, that theirs did make such hast,
In such a welcome time to bring them forth,
That they might be a witness to her worth.
Who undertakes this subject to commend
Shall nothing find to hard as how to end.
Finis & non.
John Norton.
Omnia
Romanae
sileant Miracula Gentis.