The Iron Age especially shall end And Age of Gould begin through all the Earth Lucina chast with thy best helpe befriend Now thine Apollo houlds the Diadem And Pollio thou being Consul shall come in This the words glorious ornament and gem And the grand Months shall their increase begin If any print or monument remaine Of our inherent sinnes thy wondrous grace From endlesse feare of punishment and paine Shall vs redeeme and all misdeedes deface A God-like life he shall receive and see The heavenly Hero'es the Gods among And hee of them ylike shall viewed bee Al 's ' shall hee by his Fathers vertue strong The world with peacefull governance maintaine But yet faire Child the Earth shall bring to thee Her first fruites without labour and hard paine Selfe-growne without all helpe of husbandry Wilde-climbing Ivie with her Berries black And Brank with cheerefull Hares-foote yea the Goates With fullâ—blowne udders even like to crak With creamy Milke shall come home to their Cotes Ne shall the Heards the ramping Lyon feare The Cradles-selves to thee sweete flowres shall yeeld Dye shall the Serpent and all hearbes which beare Inchanting venome wither in the field Th' Assyrian Rose in each high way shall grow And herewithall the prayses thou maist reede Of princely Woorthies and shalt learne to know Thy Fathers vertues and each doubty deede The Fields shall by degrees full goodly shew Their tender Eares all yellow as the gould The rugged Oake shall sweate with honny deaw And the wilde Thornes as full as they can hould With ruddie Grapes shall hang yet some small track Of ancient fraud and lewdnesse shall remaine Which shall tempt men at Sea to venture wrack And wall in Towns and plough the Champian-plaine Then second Typhis and new Argosye Of select Lords shall beare a princely traine And Garboyles and fresh warres abroade shall flye And great Achilles sent to Troy againe Now when firme age to mans state once thee brings Seamen in ships shall trucke no more for ware For every Land shall yeeld all manner things No Furrowes in the Land the Plough shall are Ne Vines shall pruning neede the Ploughman shall For ever quit his Oxen from the yoake Ne shall the snow-white wooll in severall Diâ—couloured waters more bee taught to soake But in the meadowes dainty diapred With purple flowres with red spotts sweetly staind And saffron Lands like scarlet couloured The Ramme shall change his fleece al deepe ingraynd The feeding Lambes with Ceruse naturally Shall cloathed beene Th'agreeing Parcae to their spindles said By fatall power of stable destiny Runne out at length and let such age bee made Decre Childe of God Ioves infinite increase Oh once begin the time now nigheth neere Great honours and much glory to possesse Come see the world decrepit now and seere E'ne nodding-ripe with it owne pondrous heape The Seas and Earth and highest heavens view How all things in them all doon even leape For joy of this same age now to ensue Oh mote I live but long enough to tell Thy woorthy acts not Lynus-selfe should mee Ne yet the Thracian Bard my songs excell Allbee Calliope Orpheus Mother bee And Syre to Lynus bright Apollo come Yea should selfe Pan Arcadia beeing Iudg Contend with mee yet by Arcadia's doome Selfe Pan to mee the conquest would not grudg Begin young Babe with cheerefull smile to knowe Thy Mother for her ten moneths tedious paine Infant begin whose Parents wept for woe For thee at bed nor boord Goddesse nor God did daign POLLIO The GLOSSE SIcelian Muses c. Heerein hee hath respâ—ct to Theocritus the Sicelian whom in this kinde of verse hee doth especially imitate and therefore hee termeth the Pastorall verse by the title of the Muses of Sicely Yet a little higher c. For all men delight not in this low straine of Pastoralls Of woods albee I sing c. Let none wonder that I sing of great matters in a homely kinde of verse For even the woods are oftentimes a fitt subject for a Consul that is worthy they are of a Roman Consuls gravity as Suetonius writeth that the hills and woods were apportioned to Iulius Caesar in his Consulship for his Province The Period and last time c. Concerning the Sybils Ludovicus Vives hath spoken largely upon Austin The comming of our Lord was a thing of such weight and moment that it was necessary to have it foretold both to Iewes and Gentiles that thereby who were before his comming might expect him these in his time might receive him and those which came after him might beleeve him and therefore as there were Prophets among the Iewes so were there amongst the Gentiles Sybils that is to say such as were privy and conscious of heavenly counsaile Now Virgil did conjecture that the time of this Prophecy was neere to accomplishment because diverse of the Sybils verses were so composed as that the first or last letters of the verses did even point out the very time or the person as Cicero teacheth in his Divination in Eusebius there is a Sybils Prophecy of the last judgmeÌ„t of Christ set forth in the same manner which S. Austin citeth in his 18 book of the Citty of God Cuma is a Towne in Ionia the lesse where one of the Sybils did abide of which place shee was called Sybilla Cumaea The Virgin now returnes c. Peradventure the Sybils spake something about the blessed Virgin Mary which the Poet here applyes to Astraea the Mayden-Lady Iustice or perhaps shee meanes it of the wondrous Iustice of Christ and of the goulden age which also the Prophet Esay describes Chap. 9. And there shall bee in the last times c. And Saturnes reigne c. In his time men lived in great tranquillity and quiet with great equality amongst all sorts without pride wrath or envie such as the people of God who are to adapt themselves to his commandements ought to bee indeede Now a new Progenie c. The descent of the Sonne of God from heaven amongst us could not by a Christian man bee expressed more exactly or in more absolute termes Now thine Apollo c. Diana is termed Lucina of bringing those that are borne into the light Apollo is her Brother hee prayes Diana to bee propitious and favourable to the child in his birth namely in the Kingdome of her Brother Apollo Augustus was thought to bee Apollo's sonne and in a manner was also called by the name of Apollo And Pollio thou beeing Consul c. Pollio Asinius was fellow Consul with Cneius Domitius Calvinus in the Triumvitate in the yeare of the Citties building 714 and before our Saviour Christs birth 37. yeares Grand Moneths the Moneths of this Great yeare Thy wondrous grace c. Originall sinne shall bee blotted out by the vertue of Christ as in Baptisme is performed by a true faith in him hee hath with great reason called it the monument or print of sinne for originall sinne is
Selfe-have I a Pipe of seaven-fold joynted Rheede Which once Damaetas left mee by his deede This Pipe quoth hee as hee his last did breathe To thee the second owner I bequeathe Heereat the Foole Menalcas much repin'd Besides two milke-white spotted Kids I haue Which in a perillous dale I chanc't to find Two duggs they daily suck whilst they can crave And these I purposely for thee doe save Though Thestilis full faine would have them both And so shee shall sith thou my gifts doost loath Come hither my faire Boy with Bolles brim-full Of silver Lillyes See where the Nimphes doe come And lovely Nais violets pale doth pull And Poppy tops and pretiouse Cynnamum Sweete-savoury Dyll and Daffodillyes some With Hurtles soft decking the Marigould And other sweete flowres mingled manifould And I 'le thee pluck the downe-soft hoarie Quince Chessnutts which my ' Amaryllis did affect And mellow Plums a present for a Prince Yee Laurells also still with verdure deckt And next yee Myrtles I will you collect And by your leave your bonny Berries take For pretious perfume yee together make But Corydon thou's but a sorry swaine Nor doth thy gifts Alexis ought regard Ne thou Iola's free consent canst gaine Albee thou shouldst him tempt with rich reward Ah how have I mine owne faire market mard My flowres keeper I the South have made And to the Bore my Christall streames betrayde Ah foolish Fon whom doost thou seeke to shun Why Dardan Paeris that same Shepheard Knight Yea e'ne the gods themselves the woods did woon Let Pallas praise her Towres goodly hight And in her pompous Pallaces delight Which shee hath builded but of all the rest In my conceit the Forrest-life is best The crewell-grim-fac'd Lionesse pursues The bloody Woolfe the Woolfe the Kid so free The wanton capring Kidd doth chiefly câ—use Amongst the flowring Cithysus to bee And Corydon Alexis followes thee So each thing as it likes and all affect According as their nature doth direct But now from plough the yoaked Oxen creepe And Sol his eeking shades doth double kest Yet Love burnes mee for Love no meane can keepe Ah Corydon Corydon what chance vnblest Or madnesse hath at mischiefe thee possest Vnfinisht thus to leave thy halfe-prun'd Vine Which on these leavie Elmes doth heere incline Whilst thou doost rather chuse some other way Of lesser paines to set on worke thy witt At least which may thy present neede defray Some homely Haske of Osyers woven fit With Rushes round and soft how ever yet If still Alexis doe disdaine thy love Thou shalt some other finde will kinder prove ALEXIS The GLOSSE AND Thestilis doth garlicke beate c. This Thestilis was the name of a Country wench who according to the fashion of hot Countries did pound leekes garlicke and other strong hearbes together for the workemen to allay their heate in extreame whote weather for as Pliny saith in his Naturall History Omnis medicina aut à contrario aut à simili quaeritur All remedies are fetcht either from contraries or from things of like quality whence it comes that extreame heate is abated either by cold which is his direct opposite or by another heate According to which Principle the Poet in the last Aeglogue brings in the Lover resolving to finde remedie to his vehement heate of Love either by travailing into Scythia or into Aegypt two Countries quite different in disposition the one extreme colde the other extreame whote Farre bet for mee c. It had beene much better for mee to have made choice of some friend of meaner condition with whom I might have conversed and discoursed and delighted my mind with his acquaintance vnto my owne hearts desire there being in this life nothing more sweete than a paritie in friendship Ah my faire Boy c Trust not too much to the gifts of Fortune whereof the greatest often fall away and the meanest are preserved As also amongst great persons often friendship is dissolved when amongst meane folke it is charily maintained For who would willingly affect his acquaintance which by reason of his greatnesse he can never conveniently enioy In friendship there must be every way an equality that so friends may enjoy each other so much the more freely Did I forbeare to sing my woonted Rhime c. I doe not onely vnderstand and am skilled in the human arts but I make verses like the auncient Poets and so neere imitate them that there is hardly any difference to bee found betweene them for amongst the later writers it is held a great honour to bee compared to these of former ages when yet ofttimes the later farr exceede the former Selfe as I stood on shore c. For I have conversed with Octavian himselfe with Mecaenas with Tuccas and Varus so that I learne to set a true value vpon my selfe by their judgement of mee When even was the Flood c. In the time of the last peace when in the cessation of warres every man betooke him to his owne home laying by their Armes and all tumults remooved that so it may appeare that they were at leisure to make a true estimate of me For as a quiet still water doth receive the resemblance of the face and so presents it back againe so when the minde is quiet it gives right judgement which being troubled and full of agitation it is not able to perform the Poet here very fitly names Italy the Sea and the Windes the troubles of wars The Hurtle is a wilde berry black as Iet Pan first deviz'd c. This Pan by the Poets feigned to bee the Country god his shape they have made as it were the counterfeit of Nature from whence he hath his denomination of Pan which signifies All as resembling every part and member of nature For hee hath hornes in resemblance of the beams of the Sunne and the hornes of the Mooneâ— his complexion and face is ruddie in resemblance of the skie hee hath in his breast the spotted skinne of a fallow Deere representing the Starres his inferiour members are rough and shagged resembling thereby the Trees Shrubbs and wilde Beasts hee hath Goates feete signifying thereby the solidity and fast compacture of the earth hee hath a pipe of seaven joynts intimating thereby the Harmony of the heaven in which there are seaven severall sounds seaven distinct ayres or kindes of voices lastly he hath his sheepe-hooke or staffe with a crooke at one end resembling the yeare which runnes his course till it returne into it selfe where it began now because hee is the generall god of all nature the Poets have feigned that on a time he and Love contended together and that Pan was overcome according to that principle which the Poet holds Omnia vincit Amor. Ne e're repent c. Hereby hee plainely showes that Cornelius Gallus was the first composer of Pastorall verses having indeed made tryall of rusticke Rimes but not of the rusticke life Cicuta is properly the
of none the fed Oxe c. Heerein hee intimates the great consternation and dismay of the Shepheards that is of the Apostles of Christ and the cessation of the doctrine of the Gospell by the death of Christ so that there neither were any to teach nor the auditors that were would harken to what was taught the mindes of all were so perversly alienate from the meanes of savation As tho then or at that time The Lybian Lyons c. Even Lyons that is most fierce and salvage Beasts and farthest from all sense of humanity did lament the death of Christ Many to weet of the Iewes and Gentiles as the Centurion and Pilate and others who returning to Ierusalem testified their griefe by smiâ—ing their breasts The Woods and Mountaines c. Perchance heerein the Prophecy of the Sybil hath allusion to the renting of the stones the opening of the graves and the earthquake at the time of our Saviours giving up the Ghost Armenian Tygres c. Christ was the authour of a new and everlasting Religion and thereby did bend the stubborne and untamed neckes of the most fierce Tygres inforcing them meekely to submit unto the yoake of his lawes and commandements By Tygres heere is meant such worldly Tyrants as live altogether like these brute creatures rather then men and yet Iesus Christ by the inward working of his grace can bring this impossible-seeming worke to passe Daphnis to Bacchus c. Servius saith that these words have relation to the history of Caesar because hee first did institute the sacrifice and feasts to Liber that is to Father Bacchus But saith Vives I doe not remember to have read this in any other authour neither is it likely or probable forasmuch as there were in Rome feasts to Bacchus before Caesars time But I will hould my order in glossing which I have propounded to my selfe hee seemes therefore especially to mention the sacrifices to Bacchus for that antiquity did beleeve that they were available for the purging of soules and for that reason gave him that title of Liber which signifies free because hee doth free the minde from cares and molestations As the Vine is honour c. Christ is the head and glory of all spirituall creatures Bestrew the ground c. After Christs resurrection did follow a renewing and repaire of all things and new joy was declared to the Shepheards namely to the Apostles whom God appointed as Shepheards of his Flock Such Daphnis wills c. The tombe of Christ is the perpetuall remembrance of his death which the Church hath evermore in sight for what is a tombe but a monument of death And fixe this Epitaph c. This shall bee the superscription of the death of Christ. Epicedion is a mournefull song made before the body bee interred And Epitaphion a funerall song after buriall I Daphnis in the woods c. Write not upon him as on other dead mens tombs Heere hee lyes interred For Christ now liveth not in earth onely but is acknowledged above the starres and deerely loved of men and Angells Well knowne unto the starres c. The Sonn of God descended from heaven to become man after hee beeing man ascended from earth to heaven Therefore Christ as hee was man began first to bee knowne upon earth and so from thence the knowledge of him reached up into heaven Of a Flock so faire c. Christ beeing most faire pure and good nay beauty purity and goodnesse it selfe doth admit none into his Kingdome and unto his pasture but those who are faire pure and good Iddio fa suoi al suo essempio God frames his to his owne sample patterne And hee makes onely them such who doe with all readines commit themselves unto him to bee by him reformed and refined Christ hath chosen out Angels and holy men These are the Cattle of the Shepheard who is incomparably more faire and beautifull then any the best creatures in whose lipps grace is diffused Poet divine c. If a song upon Caesars death beeing otherwise bitter to the friends of Octavian and hurtfull to many to none profitable was so acceptable to a Shepheard how pretious ought the remembrance of Christs death to bee to us from whence redoundeth everlasting salvation to all mankinde Queme please a Saxon word Spencer For mee did Daphnis allgates love c. This cannot bee meant of Virgil who I verily thinke saith Vives was never knowne to Iulius Caesar nor scarce ever seene For Virgil was but a Childe at the time of Caesars murther neither did Cicero ever see or heare any of Virgils workes seeing Cicero outlived Caesar not above two yeares and therefore it is a meere fiction which I know not who writes in the life of Virgil as likewise many other things are taken upon report from the hearesay of others that Cicero protested of him in these words Magnae spes altera Romae Therefore they are spoken in the person of Menalcas who was elder then Virgil Allgates also Now lovely Daphnis c. The Sybil hitherto sung the death of Christ here shee prophecies of his ascension and of the eternity of his kingdome in heaven Christ in his humanity beeing received up into heaven doth rejoyce to behould all things subdued unto him according to that which heerein wee are taught in the holy Scriptures And sees the clowds and starres c. All things both in heaven and earth The ioyous Groves and pleasant c. By Christs ascension into heaven abundant great joy hath flowed downe upon the Apostles first by the sending of the holy Ghost then after upon all men in generall for by his ascension hee hath ledd our captivity captive and given gifts unto men The Woolfe from ravin c. The peace of Christ is hereby meant which subdues all Tense and motion of the superiour over the inferiour of the wilde beast against the tame of the crafty against the simple charity making an equality every where and causing all things to bee safe and secure For Daphnis ioyes in sweete c. Charity is the speciall commandement of Christ and Peace his Inheritance The Mountaines c. The holy Ghost saith Saint Paul is diffused in our hearts by Iesus Christ and beeing fullfilled with this joy wee come truly to understand Iesus Christ who he is and acknowledge him to bee God For no man saith that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and the Gospell Blessed art thou Simon Bar-tona because flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaveÌ„ By the Mountaines is meant the Bishops and chiefe learned men of the Church and other where by Rockes is meant the inferiour sort by shrubbs is meant the common people All doe openly professe and adore the divinity of Christ. A God a God hee is c. To the afflicted minde for the sad and lamentable death of Christ it is said VVhy doost thou weepeâ— Bee of good comfort for