vpon the crab tree blossomes and gray sallowes and Casia and red saffron and vpon the ranke linden trees and also vpon the ironish coloured hyacinth There is one rest from worke to all of them one labour is vnto them all In the morning they rush out of their gates there is no stay againe whenas the euening admonisheth them to depart at length out of the fields from feeding then go they home and then do they cherish their weary bodies A sound is made and they do buz about the bounds and entrances of their hiues Afterwards whenas they haue reposed themselues to rest in their chambers there is silence all the night euery ones owne sleepe possesseth all their wearie lims Nor yet indeede do they depart farre from their hiues if it be like to raine or trust vnto the aire when the Eastwindes will arise But they are watered safely vnder the walls of the citie round about And they aduenture but short courses and oft times do they take vp little stones as floating boates do take vp balasse in a rough water With these same little stones they beare themselues leuell thorough the emptie cloudie aire You wil wonder that that same manner of liuing hath so pleased the bees that they do neither giue themselues to ingendring nor being slothfull do let loose their bodies vnto lust or bring foorth yong with pangs in birth But they do gather their yong ones with their mouth from flowers and sweete herbes They hence prouide their king and their yong progenie and establish their courts and their waxen kingdomes Oft times also they weare their wings by wandring among hard rockes and of their owne accord yeeld vp their liues vnder their burden They haue so great a loue of flowers and such a glory of making hony Therefore although the compasse of a small age entertaines them for they do not liue aboue seuen yeares Yet their stock remaines immortall and the fortune of their house abides for many yeares and the grandsires of their grandfathers are numbred amongst them Moreouer Egypt and great Lydia or the Parthian ‖ the Mede or Indian do not so obserue their king as bees do theirs The king being safe the same mind is in them all But he being lost they breake their faith and they themselues spoile their hony made vp in their cels burst the frames of their hony combes He is the protector of their workes him they admire and all of them stand about him with great humming noise and guard him thicke And oft times they lift him vp with their shoulders and hazard their bodies in warre for him and do desire a glorious death by wounds sustained for his sake Some by these signes and following these examples haue said that there is a part of the diuine vnderstanding and also heauenly spirits in bees for why they say that God goeth thorow all both lands and coasts of the sea and the high heauen Hereupon they haue affirmed both the small and great cattell men and euery kind of wilde beast Yea euery one that is borne to fetch his life from hence Know this that they haue said all things to be restored hither finally and being resolued to be surrendred again and that there is no place for death but that all things so dissolued do flie aliue into the number of the starres and so succeed by course in the high heauen If at any time you will emptie their Al. stately seate and the hony which they haue preserued in their treasuries first spurt vpon them some draughts of water warmed in your mouth and hold before you in your hand smokes following one another They gather their great increase twise in the yeare they haue two times of haruest So soone as Taygete hath shewed her honest face vnto the earth And Pleias hath pushed backe with her foote the scorned waues of the Ocean sea ‖ Or whenas the same Pleias shunning the signe of waterish Piscis Goeth downe more sad from heauen into the Winter waters The bees haue anger aboue measure and being hurt they breathe in poison with their biting and also leaue blind stings hauing fastned them in the veines yea and lay downe their liues in the verie wound But if you feare a hard Winter and will spare for the time to come And shall haue pitie of their bruised hearts and their decayed estates Who then would doubt to perfume their hiues with thyme and pare away the emptie waxe for oft times the newt not knowne of eates away the hony combes and beds are made for moathes which flie the light And also the droane sitting scotfree at others meate Or else the cruel hornet thrusts in himselfe with his vnequall weapons Or that direfull kind of moath or finally the spider odious to Minerua hangs her nets loose in the entrances of the hiues The emptier the bees shall be so much the more eagerly all of them wil bestirre themselues to repaire the ruines of their decayed stocke And will fill vp their hatches and weaue their barnes with flowers But if their bodies shall languish by some sore disease because life hath brought euen our misfortunes vnto bees Which thing you may presently know by vndoubted signes There is forthwith another colour to them when they are sicke an vgly leannesse doth deforme their looke then carry they foorth the bodies of the dead out of their hiues and make dolefull funerals Or they hang at the entries of their hiues clung by their feete Or else they all abide lingring within in their houses shut both sluggish thorough famishment and slothfull by cold which they haue caught Then their sound is heard more heauie and they hum trailingly As sometimes the cold South wind doth sound in th'woods Or as the troubled sea doth make a noise with her rebounding waues
these that neither the Egyptians Lydians Parthians Medes nor Indians are so obseruant carefull for their king as the bees are for theirs ‖ The people of Egypt and of Lydia * Nor the people of the Parthians or ‖ the Medes viz. the people of Media * Or Hydaspes the riuer of India ‖ Reuerence and carefully preserue ‖ So long as their king bee is safe * One mind is to all viz. they are all of one mind * But their king being lost they haue broken their fidelitie and they themselues haue plucked as under their hony built vp viz. layed or hoorded vp in the hony combes For that their king being safe all is in peace amongst them * And haue loosed or dissolued the wattles of their hony combes and so hauing destroyed all they flie away But if he be lost they break their faith spoile their hony and all their owne work which they haue made ‖ The king bee * The keeper or preseruer As he is the protector of their workes so they admire him with all reuerence guarding him thicke round about * They admire him or wonder at him with reuerence * With a thicke humming noise They oft lift him vp and carry him on their shoulders putting their bodies betweene him and all dangers chearefully enduring wounds and readily aduenturing their liues for his cause ‖ Being thicke about him ‖ They bears him on their shoulders * Obiâ—ct their bodies in warre betweene his bodie and the danger viz. when they skirmish with other bees ‖ A faire death y Hence the Poet sheweth that by these obseruations of their gouernment and these former signes of their wisedome some haue thought that bees haue reason and some part of diuine vnderstanding * Certaine men haue said by these signes and following these examples there to be a part of the diuine mind and airie breaths in bees * Draughts from the firmament or diuine draughts viz. such spirits as they draw from heauen * God to go through all viz. that God is a spirit and iâ— in all the elements and euery where as the Poet said before Iouis omnia plena For that God is in all things going thorough all both earth and seas and heauen * Tracts * The lesser cattell heards or droues of beasts And so euery creature to fetch their life from him and so from heauen * Of wilde beasts * Euery man being borne to fetch or get to himselfe his thinne lines viz. life or vitall spirits Yea that all things dying surrender vp their liues backe againe thither ‖ From God * To wit ‖ That all things are restored * Afterwards or in the end ‖ Dissolued by a separation of the soule from the bodie * To be restored hither viz. into the heaâ—ous or to God * Neither any place to be for death And that the spirits of all things that are dissolued do flie vnto the starreâ— euery one to his owne fatal starre and after returne from heauen into new bodies as need is and thus keepe a continuall succession both in heauen and earth * But all things to flie aliue into the number of a signe in heauen viz. into their owne fatall starre from which they came * To succeed to the high heauen viz. to succeed or follow againe in their place in heauen whence they came z And from hence he proceedeth to an eight precept concerning the time of emptying their hiues * Vndaube or vncouer viz. to the end to take forth the hony combes or if you will take forth of the hiues * And the hony kept in their treasures That when the owners of them will take some of their hony forth they first spurt vpoÌ„ theÌ„ some draughts of water out of their mouthes as if it rained to cause them to keepe within their hiues and smoake them with swampes to cast them for the present into a kinde of swoone * Sprinkling before draughts of water warme these draughts with your raouth or make warme with your mouth draughts of water sprinkled on them either sparsus for spargens or sparsos ‖ Water sprinkled on them will cause them to keepe in for feare of raine and smoke wil cast them into a swoon till you haue taken forth the hony * Fumes of swampe or galbanum or the like ‖ The bees fill their hiues twise in the yeare or the husbandman gathers the increase of the bees viz. of hony and waxe twise c. This they do twise in the yeare viz. in the Spring and in the haruest which two times are described by the rising and setting of the seuen starres * Heauie or loaden with increase * There are two times of haruest that is of gathering their hony viz. in the spring and in the haruest i. e. twise in the yeare ‖ First when * Together ‖ Taygete and Pleias are two of the seuen starres called Pleiades By this speech following is meant that the hony is to be gathered twise in the yeare viz. at the rising and setting of the seuen starres The first when the seuen stars called Pleiades rise in the euening which starres are set out by the names of two of them Taygete and Pleias ‖ And also when the same c. viz. at the setting of the seuen starres * Hath thrust backe * The despised riuers of the Ocean sea with her foote viz. at the rising of the seuen starres The second time is at the setting of the seuen starres viz. when they go downe at the arising of Pisces ouer against them * Flying from the signe of the waterish fish viz. because at the setting of the seuen starres Piscis riseth ouer against them ‖ Sets seeming to descend into the Ocean sea and so more sorrowfull or more sad by reason of the Winter showers which then begin a Hitberto the Poet hath set out the nature of bees by their causes works subiects adiuâ—cts now he commeth to the euils and dangers belonging to them * Anger is to them viz to the bees As first that they will be angry without measure and being hurt they will bite and sting * They inspire poison into the bitings viz. they send poison into the places which they bite or they poison the place bitten And with their biting will breathe in a kinde of poison into the place bitten and will also fasten their stings so deepe that commonly they leaue them behind them and their liues withall ‖ Short stings which can hardly be seene to be plucked forth * Darts * And putting their liues in the wound viz leauing oft their stings in the wound and then they die presently after because with the sting if they lose it they lose some of their entrals A second euill is their pouertie through the lacke of hony in the Winter time and by reason of robbers against which he teacheth the remedie That if you feare a hard Winter and haue pitie on your bees and care to preserue them
way he mixeth the praises of Pollio his father and also of Augustus then Emperour of Rome The Poet alone YE Sicilian Muses let vs sing of matters somewhat more ‖ high Groues and low heath do not delight all sorts Notwithstanding if we do sing of woods the very woods may beseeme a Consull for to reade The last age of Sibyls song is now alreadie come The great order of ages doth begin anew Now euen the virgin doth returne Saturnes kingdome comes againe Now is that new of-spring sent downe from heauen Oh chaste Lucina fauour thou the babe that 's now in birth by whom the iron age shall first haue end and the golden age shall begin again in all the world Thy brother Apollo now reigneth And thus oh Pollio this glorie of the world shall enter in whilest thou art Consull I say in thy Consulship and the great moneths shall begin to take their place In thy reigne the prints of our wickednesse if any do remaine Being vtterly taken away shall free the earth from perpetuall feare He shall receiue the life of the immortall Gods and shall see the Nobles of former ages mixt in company amongst the Gods and shall himselfe likewise be seene of them And he shall gouerne the world being set in peace by his fathers valour But vnto thee oh child the earth shall send forth her first gifts without any labour to wit spreading ivies with Ladies gloues and Egyptian beanes intermixed with pleasant branke vrsine The litle goates shall returne home hauing their dugs strut out with milk the herds of cattel shall not feare the fell Lions Thy very cradle shal yeeld thee pleasant flowers Both the serpent shall perish and the deceitfull venimous herbe shall die the Asfyrian vine shall grow euery where But so soone as euer thou shalt be able to reade the praises of worthy Nobles and the famous acts of thy father and to know what valour is The field shall wax yellow by little and little with tender eares of corne And the red grape shall hang vpon the rough bramble The hard oakes likewise shall sweate hony dewes Yet some few prints of ancient guile shall secretly remaine Which can command to trie the Sea with ships and compasse townes with walls and which will inforce to till the ground Then shall there be another Tiphys and another Argo too which may carrie the chosen Nobles there shall be also other warres And valiant Achilles shall be sent againe to Troy But after this when thou shalt come to mans estate Al. The ship-man himselfe shall leaue the sea The ship of pine-tree shall not change her merchandize euery countrey shall beare all things The ground shall not need harrowes nor the vineyard the pruning hooke And now the sturdie plow man shall loose the yoakes from his buls Neither * shall the wooll learne to counterfet diuers colours But the Ram himselfe in the medowes * shall one while change his fleece with a sweete red purple another while with a yellow saffron colour Sandix shall clothe the lambes feeding of it owne accord The fatall Ladies agreeing in a stable decree of destinies haue spoken to their spindles thus Runne ye out such like times Oh deare of spring of the Gods oh great increase of Ioue enter vpon thy high renowne now the time will be at hand Behold the world now reeling with a bending weight Both the earth and the sea coasts and also the high heauen Behold how all things do reioyce for this golden age to come Oh that the last part of my life may last so long to me And of my breath as may suffice to record thy worthy acts Neither Orpheus of Thracia shal passe me then in song Nor yet Liâ— although the mother of the one were by and the father of the other To wit though Calliopeia were present vnto Orpheus and faire Apollo to Linus Yea though Pan also should contend with me Archadia being iudge Yet Pan would acknowledge himself ouercome euen Archadia being iudge Begin oh litle boy to know thy mother by thy smiling For ten moneths haue brought long wearinesse to her ‖ Oh litle boy begin at whom his parents haue not smiled Neither God Genius vouchsafed him his table nor the Goddesse Iuno accounted him worthy of her bed THE FIFTH ECLOGVE intituled DAPHNIS THE ARGVMENT IN this Eclogue two sheepheards Menalcas and Mopfus bewaile the death of their friend Daphnis and one of them sings his Epitaph the other his canonization There are that thinke that by Daphnis Caesar is vnderstood who was stabbed in the Senate house with three and twentie wounds a litle before that the Poet writ these verses Others do take Quintilius Varus slain in Germanie with three legions to be here meant Others thinke it rather of Flaccus Maro Virgils brother concerning whom there is extant that Distick so commonly vsed but of an vncertaine author Oh learned Maro whilest thou doest bewaile the sorowfull destinies of thy Flaccus vnder the name of Daphnis thou equaliâ—est thy brother vnto the immortall Gods The speakers are Menalcas and Mopsus Men. OH Mopsus why sit we not downe here among the elmes mixt with hazels seeing we haue met together both of vs being skilfull thou to blow vp thy light pipes and I to sing in verse Mop. Menalcas thou art mine ancient it is meete for me to yeeld to thee Whether we go into the shades being vncertaine thorough the wauing West winds Or rather if we enter into this caue See how the wilde vine hath ouerspread the caue with bunches of grapes dispersed here and there Men. Let Amyntas onely trie maisteries with thee in these our hils Mops. What if he dare trie to go beyond Apollo in singing Men. Mopsus begin thou first if thou haue either any loues of Phillis or the praises of c Alcon or else the brawlings of Codrus Begin Tityrus shall â—end thy kids whilst that they feed Mops. Yea rather I will trie to sing these songs which I
threefold loues of th' Gods euen from the Chaos With which discourse the Nymphs being caught whilst that they spin the dolefull moane of Aristeus pierst into his mothers eares and all the Nymphes were amazed sitting on their glassie seates but Arethusa looking forth before her other sisters lift vp her yellow head aboue th' top of the water And being farre off thus she spake Oh sister Cyrene affrighted not without iust cause for so great a wailing Aristeus himself thy greatest care sad for thy sake stands weeping at the waues of Peneus thy father and cals thee cruel by name The mother smitten in her mind with a new feare saith to her Go to bring him hither bring him vnto vs it may be lawfull for him to touch the thresholds of the Gods and withall she commands the deepe riuers to depart all abroad where the yong man should enter in But the water stood round about bowed after the manner of a hill And entertained him in her vast bosome and sent him vnderneath the riuer And now admiring his mothers house and her watery realmes And also the lakes shut vp in caues and the sounding groues He went forward and being astonied at the mightie mouing of the waters Beheld all the riuers flowing vnder the great earth both Phasis and Lycus And thâ— head from whence the deepe Eâ—ipeus first Al. bursts forth and shewes it selfe From what place father Tiberine and from whence the streams of Anien do come And Hipanis making a great sound amongst the stones and Caicus flowing out of Mysia And eke Eridanus hauing two golden hornes in a buls face then which not any other riuer flowes more violently thorough the fertile fields into the purple sea After that he was come vnder the roofe of the bed-chamber of his mother Cyrene hanging all with pumish stone and that Cyrene knew the needlesse weeping of her sonne her sister Nymphes giue in order faire spring water for his hands and bring him towels with the nap shorne off Part of them furnish the tables with dainties and oft do fill the cups the altars waxe full sweete with fiers of Panchean wood And then his mother said Take thou these cups of Lydian wine Let vs offer to God Oceanus quoth she And herewith she prayes both vnto Oceanus the father of all things and to the Nymphs her sisters A hundred of them which keepe the woods and also an hundred which keep the riuers Thrise did she sprinkle the burning fire with pure sweete wine Thrise the flame being vnderneath flasht backe againe to th' top of the house With which luckie signe she confirming her mind began thus There is a Prophet of the sea in the Carpathian gulfe Called the skie coloured Proteus who measures out the great sea borne vpon fishes backs And in a chariot drawne by two footed horses He is now gone to renew the ports of Emathia and his countrey Palene Him do the Nymphs adore and ancient Nereus himself for that Prophet knoweth all things Which are which haue bene and which may be protracted to come ere long Because it hath so seemed good to Neptune whose monstrous heards of cattell and huge sea-calues he feeds vnderneath the gulfe This Prophet my sonne is to be bound of thee before thou aske him any thing that he may speedily tell thee euery cause of the diseases of thy bees and may giue thee good successe For he will not giue thee any precepts without constraint neither shalt thou moue him by intreatie * Lay hard hands and bonds vpon him being caught His deceits about these things will at length be vtterly frustrate I my selfe about the noone-tide whenas the Sunne hath kindled his middle heate When the herbes are thirstie and the shadow is more welcome to the cattell Will bring thee into the secret places of th' old man Al. whither he being wearie doth retire himselfe from the waues that thou mayest easily set vpon him lying fast asleepe But when thou shalt hold him taken with hands and bands Then diuers shapes will delude thee and faces of wilde beasts for he will be of a sudden a rough bristled swine and a blacke tiger And also a scaly dragon and a lionesse with a tawnie yellow necke Or else he will giue forth a crackling noise of fire and so he will escape out of thy bands or slipping aside from thee he will go quite away into the thin waters But how much more he turnes himselfe into all shapes So much the more my sonne tie hard his bands to hold him fast Vntill he shall be such a one his bodie being changed againe as thou sawest him when he closed his eyes beginning first to sleepe These things she spake and cast abroad a pure odour of Ambrosia Wherewith she Al. sok't the bodie of her sonne throughout but a sweete sent blew to him hauing his haire neatly drest And an able vigour entred into his lims There is a huge caue in the side of a hill eaten all away whereinto very much water is driuen by the wind and parts it selfe into reflowing creakes Which sometime was a most safe harbour for sea-men caught by tempest Within it doth Proteus close himselfe with the couer of a huge great stone * Here doth the Nymph Cyrene place the yong man turned from the light within the lurking holes and she her selfe Al. went backe farre off obscured with clouds Now the wood Dog-starre called Syrius broyling the thirstie Indians burned in the skie and the fierie Sunne had gone halfe his daily course herbes withered and the sun-beames boyled the hollow riuers warmed to the mud their vpper parts being drie When Proteus went from the riuers going vnto his wonted caues the waterish nation of the vast sea leaping about him sprinkled the bitter dew all abroad The sea-calues
celeusmaticuâ— ex quatuor breuibuâ— pro dactylo or rather by a Synâ—resis reice capellas * Cast away viz driue far away thy litle goates seeding or pasturing * I my selfe ‖ Euery one ‖ Spring * Shall be * Ye boyes ‖ The scorching heate of the mid day * Catch before * Presse hard in vaine in milking their paps with the palmes of our bands * Alas how leane a bull is to me in fat pulse or in a fat field or ranke pasture b Arâ—o some reade erâ—o Erâ—um is a kind of pulse good to fat cattell in a short space * A destruction * To the maister of the cattell * Neither certainly loue is the cause * To these sheepe viz. loue is not the cause of their lâ—nnesse * Their skins scarce cleaue to their bones for lacke of flesh * I know not ‖ What witch with her malicious eie * Bewitcheth my tender lambes to me c This is vnderstood of a chimney and thus propounded to make it more darke * Earths or lands or grounds ‖ Compasse of heauen viz. the heauen * Lieth open or extends it selfe three elnes ‖ And I will esteeme of thee as of the oracle of Apollo d Apollo had principally the power of diuining and declaring obscure matters e By the flowers are thought to be meant Hyacinthus or the red lilly so named of Hyacinthus being slaine turned into a flower of his name hauing as it were the first letter of his name written vpon â—t whereof we may see the fable in the 10. book of Ouâ—ds Met. For both these riddles see Ramus comment * Written on or intituled according to the names of kings viz. wherein are written names of kings ‖ And then if thou tell me this take thee Phyllis as thine owne for whom we contended before * And thou alone haue Phyllis * It is not of vs viz. in our power or abilitiâ— Al. Thus some take the speech to be diuided after Non nostrum inter vos c. Al. No it is not your office but it is ours to compose so great controuersies viz. I to end so great a contentioÌ„ ‖ In my iudgement both of you haue deserued the heifer viz. the wager first offered Palemon speaking of being afraid of sweete loue seemes to aliude to those verses of Menalcas Dulce satis humor c. and to speake it for Menalcas cause and of the bâ—ter loue for Dametas who had said Trisâ—e â—upus stabulis * Either shall feare sweete loues or shall trie by experience bitter loues * Ye boyes shut now your * riuers c. viz. we haue had sport enough now make an end * A sonne is borne to Asinius Pollio Captaine of the Germaine armie the same yeare in which he conquered Salone a citie of Dalmatia whom he called Saloninus from the name of the citie taken a Those things which Sibyl prophecied concerning Christ Virgil turneth and applieth to Saloninus Pollios sonne now borne and to the felicitie of Augustus gouernment * The Poet singeth a Genethliacum to him viz. maketh a Poeme of his natiuitie and future hopes in this Eclogue wresting thither those things which Sibyl had sung of the future felicitie of the golden age ‖ Incidently or vpon occasion ‖ Intermingleth or putteth betweene here and there ‖ Father of Salonicus * Of Augustus himselfe ‖ Ye Muses or ye Goddesses of Sicilâ— viz. of Theocritus b Sicelides casus graecanicus pro Sicilienses * Let vs sing greater things by a litle viz. let vs handle an argument somewhat more stately or loftie then our Pasiorals and so writteÌ„ in a stile somewhat more loftie as two other Eclogues are * Groues of trees or thickets or busheâ— and shrubs viz. verses of such base matters * Wilde Tamariske ‖ All are not delighted in such base matters as our pastorall songs are * All men ‖ Our pastorals * May be worthy of a Consull viz. not vnmeete or vnbeseeming a Consull c The iron age wherof Sibyl the Prophetesse of Cuma writ long before is now come and gone * Of the Cumean verse or song viz. wherof Sibyl of Cuma writ in verse or foretold * Hath come now and is as it were past d The foure ages of the world which Sibyl is said to haue set out by foure kind of mettals viz the golden siluer brazen and iron age wherof see Ouid in his Metamorphosis are now beginning again * Is borne from the whole viz. is begun or restored againe anew as it was from the very first beginning of the world or is renewed e Now viz. now that Saloninus is borne * The virgin also doth returne to the earth to wit iustice being banished long before and gone to heaueÌ„ f Virgo by virgo here may seem to be meant the virgin Maâ— bearing our Sauior thogh the Poet take it for Erigone or Astraea which as the Poets faine was the last of these which went to heauen being placed among the hea uenly signes * Kingdomes returne viz. the golden age wherin Saturne first reigned * Now that new progenie viz. whereof Sibyl spake is sent downe from the high heauen ‖ Issue ‖ From God g Lucina Diana who is therfore named Lucina because she and Iuno are said to bring forth the birth into the light ‖ Preserue * The child being now in the birth or to be now presently borne * Who being safely borne or who liuing and being in safâ—tie * Nation or people shall end first * Shall arise in the whole world ‖ Caesar Augustus the true Apollo of this age h By Apollo he meaneth Augustus the Emperour who was as it were the Apollo of that age hauing then the chiefe Empire of all the world Or because he was thought to be descended from Apollo Apollo and Diana being the children of Iupiter by Latona ‖ And thus * This renowne or honour of the age viz. this golden age ‖ Shall first begin * Thee being Consull I say thee being Consull i By the great moneths are either meant Iuly and August which before were called Quintilis and Sextilis and had not yet taken their names of Iulius and Augustus to maintaine the memorie in their names or else thereby are vnderstood the moneths of the great yeare wherein all the starres should returne to their first placing or constitution * To proceed or go forward * Thee being Captaine or guide * Footsteps tracks or traces or remainders ‖ Of the ciuill warres by Augustus viz. the punishments and plagues due vnto vs for our former wickednes * Made voide or frustrate viz. purged ‖ Deliuer all nations ‖ From feare of vengeance which was continuall before * He viz. Augustus or Saloninus Pollios sonne ‖ Liue as a God or be made a God ‖ Worthy Nobles of Rome * Mixed or mingled with the Gods * And he himselfe shall be seene to them k This he vnderstandeth of Augustus Caesar that he should
promiseth that she her selfe will conduct him to the very place where he may finde Proteus asleepe That about the noone time of the day when as the Sunne is most hote so that the herbs begin to parch and that the cattell seeke after the shadow to stand vnder to saue them from the heate she would guide him to the secret place of this old man * Do thirst or parch as crying for water ‖ Pleasant or delight some ‖ Gods of the sea are fained to be old men and gray haired because of the foame of the sea * Al. Whither he being wearied of the waues or with the water * Doth receiue or betake himselfe Whither he being wearied by reason of his age toyling amongst the waues retires himselfe to rest ‖ Come vpon him * Lying in sleepe p And here she rehearseth againe the maner how her son should inforce him when he had caught him That he must hold him fast and binde him sure because he would change himselfe into diuers shapes to the end to delude him or to affright him so to cause him to let him go * Catched with That so he might come vpon him of a sudden lying fast asleep ‖ Shewes or likenesses * Mouthes * For he will be made suddenly a horrible or dreadfull swine ‖ A cruell tiger That he would be turned of a sudden into a swine and to a blacke tiger ‖ A dragon full of scales ‖ A she lion Likewise into a scaly dragon * With a necke of a deepe yellow shining like gold And into a fierce lionesse * Or else he will giue a sharpe or shrill sound of a flame of fire Or else he would seeme like a flame of fire making a crackling noise to escape out of his bonds * Fall out viz. get away * Or sliding away he will go into the thin waters Or to slip away into the water * But by how much more he shall turne himselfe Against all which she forewarneth him to looke well to it that the more he should so change himselfe he should tie and hold him so much the harder ‖ Change * Formes * My sonne stretch more by so much the bands holding him fast Vntill he come vnto his right shape againe as he was at the first * What a one thou hast seene him * Couered * With sleepe begun or his sleepe begun viz. beginning to sleepe q Cyrene hauing thus directed her sonne she moreouer prouides that he may be liuely valorous against the time of this his conflict with Proteus the better to preuaile And to this purpose she cast vpon him a pure odour of Ambrosia ‖ Thus she spake * Saâ—d ‖ And withall * Powred abroad * A liquid smell or sauour or iuyce r Ambrosia ab a priâ—atiua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortalis because it is â—aid to make them immortall who taste thereof as Nectar of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occido non occido Ramus ‖ By Ambrosia is either meant an herbe commonly called Oke of Ierusalem or Oke of Paradise or else it is taken for the meate of the Gods as vsually in the Poets like as Nectar is the drinke of the Gods * With which she powred or wet throughout the whole bodie of her sonne * A sweete winde or blast breathed vnto him his haires being composed viz combed and neatly set in order ‖ A liuely ablenesse Al. Throughly annointed or led thoroughout * Came. s After all this doth the Poet describe the place of Proteus reâ—t more fully where Cyrene sets her sonne to catch him in such sort as she had directed ‖ A mightie great hoâ—e * Of a mountaine all eaten away with the waters Wherewith she soked his whole bodie thoroughout blew vpon with so sweete a sent that a liuely vigour entred into his lims ‖ Great store of water * Is gathered by the wind * And the waue doth cut or deuide it selfe into bosomes brought backe viz. hollow turnings of water banks where the water is beate backe * In time past a most safe standing or rode to the mariners being catched * Within Proteus doth couer viz. is wont to couer or hide himselfe for his retire That there is a huge caue in the side of a hill eaten with the water where the waues driuen in by the windes are beaten backe * Barre or shut * Vaste or mightie * Here the Nymph his mother doth place the yong man viz. Aristeus turned from the light that is aside from the caues mouth whereby the light came into the caue that Proteus should not see him Which place was sometime a most safe harbour for sea-men caught by tempest ‖ In a secret place How within this caâ—e Proteus vsed to retire rest himselfe couering the mouth of it with a very great stone ‖ She also withdrew her selfe a far off couered with a cloud And how within a creake hereof she placed her sonne secretly that he might stand close and not be seene Al. resistit stands backe viz. stood aside * Obscure with clouds viz. much hidden t Then he declares the effect of her aduice how all things came to passe accordingly and first sets out the time of his surprising him in such sort that it was the beginning of the dog-days viz when the dog-star burnes in the skie and about the midtime of the day which is thus set forth by causes and effects That the Sunne had gone halfe his daily course the herbes withered the hollow riuers waxed warme euen vnto the mud hauing their banks drie * Now Syrius vehement in burning parching or scorching ‖ Syrius is a starre in the mouth of the signe called the Dog at the arising whereof are great and intemperate heates That she withdrew her selfe farre off obscuted with a cloud * Did burne in the heauen viz. did cast his fiery influence from heauen * Had drawne halfe the orbe viz. had past halfe the world that is was come to the midst or height of heauen viz to the noonesteed ‖ The scorching sun had warmed the riuers to the mud * Iawes viz. mouthes or tops of the riuers viz. their banks drie all about the tops u Secondly Proteus his going to sleepe is amplified by the place whither he went viz. to his wonted caues * Flouds * Seeking his accustomed holes or priuie lurking places ‖ The fishes of the sea ‖ Huge great sea ‖ Bounsing about him as triumphing for excessiue ioy ‖ The seawater which is bitter in taste ‖ Far abroad like as fishes do when they leape ‖ The sea monsters * Strew themselues in sleepe in a diuers shore And likewise by his attendants the sea-calues bounsing vp about him as reioycing at his presence and sprinkling the water all abroad ‖ Proteus himselfe ‖ Whenas his cattell go home from feeding And thirdly by the sea monsters laying themselues to sleep on euery shoare Lastly Proteus reposing himselfe to rest