Search all the world records that are They all come short of this by farre Thy debt is more if this be blame That for thy sake did act the same From thee we taken haue the shame So said the head he did display And from it takes the vaile away But deaths pale hue his lookes estranged The features of his face were changed ¶ Caesar at first did not despise This gift but turn'd aside his eyes And musing staid the truth to sound Of this foule fact which when he found T was fit he thought that they all saw He was a pious Father-in-law Wherewith he fained teares did shed And sighes for that his comfort bred Hoping this way to be the best To cloke those ioyes that in him rest And did the Tyrants fault detest And would the Treason rather blame Then seeme indebted for the same He that before with scorne did tread Vpon the Senators laid dead And that with dryed eyes beheld The slaughter of Pharsalias field Now dares not Pompey thee deny A deepe-fetcht sigh and weeping eye O cursed lot of dismall fate Hast thou pursu'd this dire debate O Caesar and in that preuail'd That now deserues to be bewail'd The contracts of thy son-in-law To no compassion doth thee draw Nor yet thy daughter makes this mood Nor little Nephewes of their blood But thou dost hope thy teares will moue The people that did Pompey loue Thy Armes the rather to approue Or else perchance thou dost enuy This traytor tyrants destiny That any hand such power hath showne On Pompeys bowels but thine owne And grieu'st such meanes to others left VVhereby reuenge from thee is reft And that the end of Pompeys bane From the proud victors sword is tane But whatsoeuer humor t were That made thee sigh or shed a teare It did no pious meaning beare Didst thou with such an eager vaine Expose thy force by land and maine And didst not meane withall that hee In any place should ruin'd be O well did death this act fulfill That left it not vnto thy will VVhat shame and blame hath heauy fate Remoued from the Roman state That would not suffer Pompey liue That thou wretch sholdst him pardon giue And yet thou darst with outward showes To blinde the world in that it knowes And fained sorrowes face dost frame To gaine to thee a loyall name ¶ Souldier that vnto me do'st bring This direfull present from thy King Depart my sight beare it away For thou dost Caesar more betray And worse of him it merited Then of great Pompey murthered For this proud fact doth vs bebarre The greatest glory of our warre Which is that mercy might be showne By vs vnto our vanquish't fone And did not this vile tyrant hate His sister partner of his state I quickly could thy King requite VVith equall scorne and like despight And Cleopatra send thy head Vnto thy brother for blood-shed VVhat mou'd him thus with secret might So to entrude his swords despight In actions longing to our right Haue we to this end conquest sought At the Pharsalian battaile fought That we should lawlesse power affoord In this kinde vnto Aegypts sword Must we our state and safety gaine By fauours that your kingdomes daine Shall I that would not brooke for Mate Great Pompey in the Roman state Endure thee Ptolemey my Peere Then what are we a whit the neere So many Nations to haue led Vnder our Roman Ensignes spred If in this world there should be knowne Any but Caesars power alone Or if the earth could parted bee Twixt any other man and mee VVe should now turne our Latium Ores Aloofe from these Aegyptian shores But that our honours are denayd For then perhaps it would be said That we for feare did Pharus shunne And not as loathing this deed done But do not you perswade your minde That you the victors eyes can blinde But that he knowes had heauens hest So driuen him to be your guest He should haue tasted the like feast And that my head is not so vsd Pharsalia's fortune hath excusd I see that we haue waged warre More perilous to vs by farre Then euer yet our minde did feare To banishment we subiect were Then Pompey vs pursu'd with hate And threatnings from the Roman state So as if we had been distrest Then Ptolemey had vs opprest But with his youth we do dispence And pardon him for his offence But to the Pharian King make knowne A greater grace cannot be showne See therefore you entombe the head Of such a worthy Captaine dead But fashion not his funerall As though his acts were criminall Deseruing to be hid from sight But Incense giue him flaming bright Of his wrong'd ghost appease the mones And gather vp his burned bones That on your shores lye all defac't And in an vrne let them be plac't So let him thereby vnderstand His father-in-law came to this land And let his soule heare therewithall My feeling sorrow for his fall Although before our vowed loue He did all other things approue And rather chose his Pharian ward Then our due grace his life to guard Whereby the people reaued beene That happy day they might haue seene And that same concord was supprest That had restor'd the world to rest But so the heauens did now ordaine That my desires should be but vaine Who meaning heare to lay aside Those conquering Armes that I haue try'd VVith friendly hands and enterview VVe might our ancient leagues renew And free from grudge and ciuill strife In those true tearmes haue wisht thy life Thinking my paines at full rewarded To be thy equall peere regarded Then had I with this loyall peace Brought it to passe that thou shouldst cease To blame the Gods for warres disgrace And thou haue made Rome me embrace But all these words no passion bred Amongst his mates nor one teare shed Neither did they at all beleeue That he spake as his minde did giue All sighes and sorrowes they supprest Their faces shewd ioy in their breast O pretious liberty the while That they with merry lookes durst smile VVhen Caesars selfe did waile and rue That bloody spectacle to view Finis libri noni Lucans Pharsalia The tenth Booke THE ARGVMENT CAesar arriues at Pharos Bay And doth with dreadlesse face suruay Their Temples and their Monuments The King with him in league assents There Cleopatra pleades her right And fauour findes in Caesars sight Then feasts and banquetings ensue And Aegypts treasure set to view Whilst Achoreus doth discourse Of Nylus springs and flowing sourse Photinus doth with force employ Achillas Caesar to destroy Against the Court their Armes they bend Which Caesar brauely doth defend And in the secret of the night By ship to Pharos takes his flight Where being straighted by his foes From thence by swimming safely goes AS soone as Caesar being led By him that offred Pompeys head Had brought his Nauy to the land And trode on Pharos wretched sand The
sacrifice he ready made But yet the beast with struggling might Resists to serue that sacred Rite Wherein the Gods tooke no delight And yet at last the Priestly rout Pulles downe this Bull that was so stout Then bound and laid to loose his life Within his throat they sheath'd the knife Which with so deepe a gash they slit That thence abundantly did flit A reeking streame of venom blacke Which did of blood the colour lacke This vncouth sacrifice amaz'd Pale Aruns whilst thereon he gaz'd And yet againe he further seekes To finde some cause of heauens dislikes And vp the paunch he rippeth wide To see what lucke would there betide But that which more did him confound Were bowels spotted and vnsound Of colour pale and blew commixt With clotted goare congeal'd betwixt Then rotten liuer which he saw Was cloathed with the waterish maw The left side guts no ill signes wants The lung-veines neither stirres nor pants The slender rimme too weake to part The boyling liuer from the heart The smothered heart exprest no pulse The crackt-shrunke intrailes did convulse Corrupted bloud into the vaines The cawle the paunch-hest ouer-straines And that of all which hee found worst No part appear'd but seem'd accurst Then he amongst these inwards findes Two massy heads of sinnoye kindes Wannish the one and all fore-spent Flaggy corrupt and drooping bent The other with more vitall heates His vaines with naughty humors beats ¶ All these he takes to be true showes Prognosticating future woes And then cryes out O Gods I see 'T is more then lawfull now for me To blaze abroad your high decree Neither O Ioue do I designe This offering to thy grace diuine For I suspect the fiends of hell Within these slaughtered bowels dwell We feare mis-haps not fit to speake Yet worser shortly out will breake Heau'ns turne to good what is betide Let no presage in bowels bide But Tages fictions to deuise Such mysteries in sacrifice Thus doubtfully his doome he shrowdes Of what was seene and spake in clouds ¶ But Figulus that deeply lookes Into the heau'ns as in his bookes And onely did his time bestow The natures of the Gods to know Who in Astrology exceld The Aegiptians that in Memphis dweld Thus said either the heauens quoth he Disordred in their motions be And all the Planets in their sway Doe hold a cleane contrary way Or else if prouidence diuine Thus strangely guide them to encline Sudden and heauy wracke will fall Vpon this Citty and vs all But whether the Earth gaping wide VVill in her wombe whole Cities hide Or whether the contagious Aire VVith pestilence will health impaire Or that the Land barren of food VVill cease to nourish humane brood Or that the Riuers from their heads Streames with infectious poyson spreads I cannot say O supreme powers VVhat woes vpon our mortall bowers Or what strange plagues doe you intend Vpon this wretched world to send Shall now with vs all ages end If Saturnes chill vnlucky starre Had in the tenth house rang'd his Carre Then might Aquarius watry vaine Haue brought Deucalions floud againe And all the earth ore-whelm'd with raine And raging Neptunes rising maine Or if thou Phoebus hadst combin'd VVith Leo of Nemean kinde The Fire would then the Earth haue melt And with thy flames the heau'ns haue swelt But now these planets being still O Mars what hath incenst thy will VVith the great force of thy aspect Such beames on Scorpio to reflect As that his taile all flaming roles VVith scorching clawes as red as coles Milde Iupiter with friendly eyes Into the west his progresse hies But Venus face with smiling lips Is now obscured in Eclips And Mercury so swift of sourse Doth retrograde distort his course So Mars as now in this discord Is of th' ascendant onely Lord And whilst all starres their roomes resignes Blading Orion onely shines Fury of warre comes now in date And force of armes will steare the State Iustice and lawes may both goe sleepe Strong hand will them in bondage keepe Vice now shall Vertues name retaine And many yeares this rage shall raigne What boots it then the Gods to pray This misery to turne away For peace againe we shall not haue Till all become a Tyrants slaue O Rome post off if thou haue power The date of this vnhappy houre Extend these furies off a farre And vs preserue from ciuil warre ¶ These hard predictions sadly told Did make the peoples hearts full cold But that which followed on behind Trencht deeper wounds within their minde For as Aedonis Bacchus Nunne From Pyndus hill inrag'd doth runne When as Ogigian wine distraines The madding humor of her braines So did a Matron of the Towne In franticke wise gadde vp and downe Vttring such words as they expresse Whom sprights of prophesing possesse O Paean tell me then she said Vnto what place am I conuaid What shore wilt thou cast me vpon That rapt aboue the clouds haue gone Me thinkes Pangeus mount I spye Vpon whose top the snow doth lye And thence Philippi's fields I see That at the foot of Haemus be O Phoebus tell me the intent By this great hurly-burly meant Why doe the Roman armies straine Against themselues with might and maine By what meanes comes it to be so They warre without a forraine foe Nay whither am I further tost Me seemes I now am on the coast Eastward where Nylus her seuen heads VVithin the Ocean softly beds There see I him and him deplore That lies vpon that sandy shore A headlesse trunke distain'd with gore Thence am I rap't againe anew And now the Lybian Syrts I view VVhere Destinies transport with spight The remnants of Pharsalias fight Yet further am I forst to walke Ouer the Cloud-brow'd Alpes to stalke And in this flitting whirle-winde vease I passe the Mountaines Pyrinees Thence backe vnto my Natiue Towne VVhere I finde all turn'd vp-side-downe Vprore diuision and debate Turmoyles the Senate and the State So am I now from mine owne shore Hurry'd about the world once more O Phoebus ease me of this toyle In vnknowne seas and vnknowne soyle For I haue seene Philippies broyle Thus said a slumbring rest she takes VVherewith this fury her forsakes Finis Libri primi LVCANS PHARSALIA· The second Booke THE ARGVMENT FOre-knowledge much it doth bewaile Of woes that needes must men assaile The Roman Matrons plaints exprest All lawes and iustice are supprest Marius and Sylla's rage it showes Brutus in doubt to Cato goes Who once againe doth Martia wed Attir'd like mourners for the dead Pompey to Capua takes his way Caesar at large beares all the sway And doth Domitius prisoner take Pompey doth his oration make His sonne hee sends for more supplyes Himselfe then at Brundusium lies And there besieg'd thence hardly flies NOw haue the Gods reueal'd their ire The heauenly signes with warres conspire And Nature likewise with fore-sight Her lawes
coast whereas binne The chilly sharpe windes fostered All these with praise were honored Then by the Senators decree Iuba designed was to bee The soueraigne of all Libicke land To sway that scepter with his hand But oh dire Fates thou that hast name Of Ptolomey thou Fortunes shame To thee a kingdome was design'd Whose people were of faithlesse kinde The Gods herein most faulty were To grace thy wretched head of haire VVith that braue Alexandrian crowne That had from Peleus his renowne Thou boy didst take the sword in hand To rule the people of this land And would to God to them alone Thy tyrant sword had beene made knowne But Lagus Realme was giuen thee more And thou defil'd with Pompey's gore Thy sisters Crowne thou didst depriue And Caesars wracke wel-neere contriue This great assembly now dismist The multitude in Armes persist VVhilst Souldiers and the Captaines all Fore-casting nought what might befall Their Ensignes and their Armes aduance Guided by giddy Fortunes chance But Appius was the onely man That did this purpose better scan For he did feare with rash attempt To hazard doubtfull warres euent And therefore he the Gods besought To shew to what end t would be brought VVhich done he takes his iourney then To the Phoebeian Delphicke Denne That he this Oracle might heare VVhich had beene shut vp many a yeare ¶ Parnassus mountaine toppe is spred VVith lofty double forked head And in the worlds mid way doth rest Iust plac't betweene the East and West This sacred hill as eld designes To Phoebus and the God of wines With equall hest was consecrate Where they their Oracles relate His onely toppe surmounting stood Of all the earth aboue the flood That in Deucalions time did drowne The world with her high towring crowne And onely as a confine seene The waters and the skies betweene Yet thou Parnassus didst not rise So high but that one forkes poynt lyes Vnder the water hid from eyes Reuenging Paean there did show The vigor of his arme and bow Calling to minde his mothers wrong Whilst he within her wombe did throng She from her natiue home expeld He with his arrowes Python queld Which yet he scarce had skill to weld This sacred soyle as then did rest With Trypods vnder Thaemis best As soone as Paean first beheld The sounding voyce these caues did yeeld Diuinely breathing out such sawes With windy words from earths deep iawes He secretly himselfe with-drawes And in the sacred dennes did shade There Paean was a Prophet made ¶ What God quoth he is here inclosd What supreme power from heauen deposd Vouchsafes confined thus to dwell Within this solitary Cell What Deity of heauenly birth Can be partaker with this earth Within whose all conceiuing breast Eternall secrets liue and rest Whose high fore-knowledge hath descride What shall in future times betide That preacheth to the peoples eares That humane forme and nature beares Dreadfull and potent in his state And whether he doth sing of Fate Or do command that which he sings He Fate vnto perfection brings Perhaps of Iupiter entire A great part doth his soule inspire Which was vnto the earth downe sent To sway this or by continent With true proportion'd vpright paise Whereby amidst the Aire it staies Which power diuine accustom'd then To haunt in this Cyrrhaean Denne And was withall conioyned nye To thundring Ioue aboue the skye This power that had such grace receiu'd Was in a virgins breast conceiu'd With humane soule it did subsist Sounding his voice when as him list The mouth he opened of the Priest With so great force as flaming blasts That Mountaine Aetna's toppe out casts Or as Typhaeus ouer-prest With hugie weight vpon his breast Whom great Inarymes doth hide Constrained from his stomach wide To vomit vp with ratling grones Campana's flinty rugged stones ¶ This power exposd to all mens good No mortals prayers hath withstood Onely his nature doth disdaine To be defil'd with humane staine Wicked inchanters neuer dwels Nor yet converse within his celles There witches mutter not their spelles A constant truth his speeches are To alter which none ought to dare Forbidding mortals that desire His fauour is the iust mans hire For vnto such cast from their seat He hath restored Cities great The Tyrrians so he did relieue And gaue them meanes away to driue The threatnings proud of hostile Lords As Salaminian sea records The barren lands he fruitfull makes Contagious aires away he takes And teacheth how the same he slakes This age of ours with griese may say The Gods from vs hold not away A blessed gift of greater grace Then was this Delphicke sacred place Which prophesing no longer sings So future feare doth hold our kings And in that iealous doubtfull vaine All Oracles they doe restraine Yet Cyrraen Prophets nought lament That so their voyces are vp-pent Or that their Temples none frequent For if this God-heads spirit lights Within the hearts of mortall wights They that this power diuine receaues Death vnto him thereby bequeaues The full reward of present blisse Or else his paine eternall is For those weake powers of humane life Faint in the waues and vrging strife That in this fury raigneth rife So can the Gods when they doe streeke Shake mortall mindes and make them meeke Now Appius that searcheth out To vnderstand this latest doubt Of the Hesperian hidden Fate Addrest himselfe vnto the gate Of this same silent vncoth caue Whose Oracles no answeres gaue Long time before nor Trypods draue There he the Prelate doth intreat Then to set ope his sacred seate And to let in the fearfull Nunne Phaemonoë that now did runne And gadde about in shady woods And by Castalio's secret floods Where wandring carelesse she was caught And so vnto the Temple brought ¶ The Nunne whom feare did now disswade This vgly entry to invade Vsd all the Art she could inuent To hold this Lord from his intent Whereon his minde was so hot bent Great Roman Lord I muse quoth she What wicked hope inueagleth thee To search to know thy future Fate Where Oracles are out of date Parnassus long hath silent stood The God suppressed hath his mood His voyce is either dumbe or hoarse Or else this seat he doth not force But rometh in by-waies vntry'd Or Trypod-couering hide Is by Barbarians burnt and fry'd Whose ashes in the Cauernes lies And Phoebus passage so denies Or whether that the Gods high hest With Cyrrha's prophesies shall rest And that the Sibylls old presage Of things to come in future age Which are committed vnto verse Sufficiently may Fates rehearse Or Paean that is vsd to chase The spirits of a harmfull race Cannot finde out in this fraile time A truthfull tongue deuoid of crime Now in this virgins words and cheere Dissembling fraud did plaine appeare Her guilty feare did then descry She falsely did the Gods deny Her writhed fillet she
Did vnto eldest yeares designe And in the midst breake off his twine But since the order of all things From one first chiefe beginning springs And Fates do labour in this all And thou of that a change wouldst call Whereby one onely mortall stroke Might this worlds vniverse revoke All our consorts must needs agree That Fortune can do more then wee But if it may suffise thy hope Of one mans hap to know the scope T is easie certainly to doe And many meanes do helpe thereto The earth the aire the Chaos old The fields with hearbes so manifold The rockes of Rhodopeian land VVould sound that we should vnderstand But since that daily there is store Of new slaine bodies with fresh gore T is easie for Emathia's field One head for our designes to yeeld VVhose carkasse warme and newly slaine Doth yet a sound of voyce retaine VVhose corpes not parched with the sunne Nor warmth as yet from members runne This Stygian ghost not yet will stutter But to our eares will plaine words vtter ¶ VVhen she had said her sullen head She artificially ore-spread VVith doubled darknesse of the night And with a foggy mist bedight About the bodies slaine she pries That in the fields vnburied lies And with her lookes she did affray The rauening Wolues and birds of pray VVho from the bodies fled away VVhilst that this hagge a carkasse prold And search't the marrow deadly cold Wherein the lungs and lights she found Quite starke but free from any wound Then for a voyce she seekes and pries Within this body where it lies Meane while there hung in question than The fate of many a slaughtred man VVhom she againe from death would call For had she try'd to take them all That of both Armies there lay slaine The warres she had supply'd againe And silenced Erebus law For could this powerfull monster draw From Stygian lake so great a crew Their fighting alwayes would renew But now a body she hath got That had no wound but in the throat Him she elects and him doth hooke VVith halter and with Iron crooke And through the rockes the ruthlesse hagge This miserable corpes did dragge That life must take and doth it trace VVhereas a hollow vaulted place Vnder a lofty cliffe doth rise VVhere she fell Witch doth sacrifice ¶ Here is a land not farre from hell VVhere lies a deepe obscured cell Sunke vnder ground with cauernes vast VVhose toppe with shades is ouer-cast For bowes of trees so enter-lace That they obscure and vaile this place So as no where can mortall eye Discerne the Sunne or glimpse of skye But deadly darknesse and long night In this sad Denne be-clouds all sight And but by charmes hath neuer light The foggy aire within this cell More lothsome is then dampes of hell And this swarth Region on all sides Auernus from our world diuides And hither the infernall King His ghosts doth neuer feare to bring For though this witch of Thessaly The Fates by force can qualifie Yet doubtfull is it whether she From this place into hell can see Or whether personally this fend Vnto the Stygian shades discend A smokie foule rag'd weed she weares With open face and back-cast haires The fillets that her lockes do trace She doth with vipers inter-lace And when she saw in how great feare Yong Pompey and his followers were As men that horror did confound Looking downe wistly to the ground What now quoth she be of good cheare Lay doubt aside and do not feare For now you shall forthwith perceaue A figure new true life receaue Though dread do make your spirits weake Yet may you heare him plainly speake If I should shew you Stygian lakes And helles bankes breathing fiery flakes And that you may the Furies see Safely safe-conduited by me And Cerberus with curled breast Shaking his hideous snaky crest And Gyants huge whose feter'd hands Behinde their backes are tide in bands VVhy stand you cowards in such frights To looke vpon poore trembling sprights ¶ Then she doth luke-warme blood convay Into the body as it lay And with new wounds the same doth gash And clotterd gore away doth wash Then she together working mings All vncoth births that Nature brings The froth of mad dogges iawes she takes That feare to see fresh watry lakes The Lynx his bowels laid thereon With the Hyena's ioyntlesse bone The marrow of a stagge new dead That hath a serpent swallowed And that same little fish whose force Can so with-hold the forward course Of any ship amidst the maine When all her sailes the winde doth straine A Dragons eyes therewith she prest And that stone in the Aegles nest That ratling sounds and heate doth catch Amongst the egges that she doth hatch Th' Arabian Serpent that makes wing The poys'nous Viper whose sharpe sting The red-sea Cockle doth defend Wherein the pretious pearle is pen'd And therewithall the skinne new flead From the Coerastae but halfe dead With those burnt ashes that arise Out of the Phoenix sacrifice These venom'd heapes she workes frames Distinguish't by their seuerall names And leaues she addes repleate with spelles And growing hearbes wherewith she melles The spittle of her driueling iawes And euery other poysons cause Deuised by her sorcerous sawes ¶ Then with a voyce that farre exceeds The strength of all hearbs that earth breeds She calles and charmes the Gods of hell And mutters first a confus'd spell Of varying sounds that wistly iarre From humane language diffring farre She hath the barking of a hound And of a Wolfe the howling sound The hollow whooping of the Owle The skryching of the blacke night fowle The bellowing of the sauadge beast With hissing of a Snake exprest The hollow murmures of the waues Beating against the cliffie caues The whistling of the wooddy leaues And thunders noise the clouds that cleaues So many sounds from one voyce flye The rest her direfull charmes supply And with her tongue she frames a spell That pierc'd downe to the depth of hell ¶ Ye Destinies the Stygian scourge That torments on offenders vrge And thou Auernus gulfe profound That swalowing canst whole worlds confound And thou that all this earth dost sway Whose death the heauenly powers delay That thereby thou for longer times Maist be reseru'd to plague thy crimes O Styx and yee Elizian fields That solace none to witches yeelds And thou Persephon that dost loth The heauens and thy mother both And Hecate our deerest frend That to my tongue dost cunning lend Whereby commerce and vse I haue Of ghosts and the infernall graue Thou Porter of infernall gates That dost on bowels share for cates VVith thy deuouring rauenous iawes And you three sisters that forth drawes And cuts in two each liuing line Of power to breake this worke of mine And thou ô Ferry-man growne old That hast so long those waues controld Doe not these soules from me with-hold But grant to me that I request If my petition
wonted colours dy'd The beauty thereof thicke clouds hide Her thirst she in the Ocean slakes And to the clouds beares what shee takes And when they are disperst againe They showring fall into the maine And now the Pyrenean hilles Whose heapes of snow neuer distilles By any vigor of the Sunne In torrents downe do swiftly runne Dissolu'd with mighty raines that fall Which those steepe rockes do bathe withall So as the monstrous streames that slides Downe from those hugie Mountaines sides So fast into the riuers flye And doe their channels raise so hye As that their bankes they ouer-stride For want of roome their course to guide And ouer all the field so skimmes That Caesars Campe now floting swimmes And with the rage of this fierce flood The tents are swept from whence they stood The medowes and the pastures dry All in a poole do bathing lye So as no cattell they can get Nor ought else whereof to make meate Nor fodder for their horse to eate For those that goe to fetch in pray In vnknowne paths doe range and stray And doubtfull roame on euery hand The floods so couers all the land ¶ Now mischiefes mate dire famines rage So playes his part vpon this stage That Caesars troopes to ruine goes And yet besieged with no foes One Souldier giues a heape of gaine Onely to buy a little of graine Yet therein shewes no prodigue vaine O hatefull humor Couetise Whose quenchlesse thirst nought can suffise A starued man cannot with-hold But he will sell his food for gold The mountaines now and hilles are hid The floods hath all things ouer-strid One onely face of waters vaste Hath all the lands cleane ouer-cast No troopes of craggy cliffes are kend To sauadge cotes where wilde beasts dend Vpon this ore-growne waters driues Where beasts swim strugling for their liues There flote the neighing Coursers braue Snatcht vp with this all-sweeping waue Which more then did the Ocean raue The Sunne to darknesse so gaue way That night was all as cleare as day Heauens face with such confusion mourn'd That all was topsie-turuy turn'd And as the Poles and Northerne Zones So vnder cold this milde clime grones No twinkling starres by night are seene The frozen earth brings forth no greene The chill num'd aire did coole the heate That makes the Torrid Zone to sweate ¶ Great guider of this endlesse All Let these dire mischiefes so befall And Neptune thou that hast next place Assist vs with thy powerfull mace O Ioue doe not these clouds restraine But let them fill the aire with raine And Neptune when thou forth dost send Thy streames forbid them backe to bend Their course nor let them haue Retrait to thee but with thy waue Repulse the refuge that they craue And with thy Trident strike the ground That fountaines may from thence abound Let Rhenus ouer-whelme these fields And Rhodanus that swift streame yeelds Yea let all spring-heads flye at large And on this soile their sourse discharge Let mount Rhypheus snowes discend And euery lake to this place bend Let ponds and Pooles that stand at stay With oblique course encline this way Whereby the world may finde release From ciuill warres that vs oppresse But Fortune with this little tutch Is pleasd to thinke all done to much Vntill she Caesar doe restore Vnto her fauours as before And all the Gods are now in paine To make this man amends againe The aire therefore is rarefy'd And Phoebus with his wonted pride Dissolues these wool-packes in the skies Aurora blushing red doth rise Each thing his wonted order takes The starres from them moist humors shakes And where dampe mists too much abound They are confin'd within the ground The groues begin with leaues to bud The hilles are seene aboue the flud The vallies and the pleasant meades Firme grasse and flowers ouer-spreades ¶ When Sicoris had left her prankes And drawne her selfe within her bankes Caesar small skiffes prepares and rigges Composed of greene willow twigges And ouer it doth Oxe-hides dight Wherwith to keepe them staunch and tight Thus able made their load to take By them he doth his passage make So the Venetian frames like boates Wherewith on Padus streame he floates And so the Brittons in such skiffes Do coast alongst their Oceans cliffes And so with Canes conioyn'd together Couerd vpon with vntan'd leather The Memphites doe on Nylus trade Of which Canes leaues they paper made Now Caesar with all speed transports A many of his chiefe cohorts Who being on the other side Do timber for a bridge prouide Wherewith this riuer to bestride But doubting that it might againe Aboue the bankes his channell straine He would not on the riuers brinke The ground-work posts driue down sinke But somwhat farther in the lands On both sides the foundation stands And least that Sicoris should rise With new floods he did then deuise Deepe trenches cut alongst the sides To draine away all swelling tides Now when Petreius plainly found That Fate with Caesar went so round His courage was therewith pluck't downe And left Ilerda's lofty Towne And thus his Army he withdrew From those he trusted lesse then knew And takes his way with all his traine Towards the vtmost coasts of Spaine A Nation that he heard was man'd With many a stout and warlike band Of courage fierce in broyles still bred Affecting Armes and scorning dread When Caesar saw the hilles left bare And Tents no longer standing thare He bids his troopes their Armes to take And would not stay this bridge to make Nor gage the riuer for a foord But bids them swim and with that word They cut the streame with nimble hands And in that sort transport the bands The Souldiers being grieu'd at heart To see their foes should so depart In head-long swarmes do flye to Mart. No sooner dry'd they fall to Arme And then their chilly ioynts doe warme With speedy march and neuer stay Vntill the noone-tide of the day By this did Caesars horse out-goe The marching battaile of the foe Who were with that vnlook't-for sight Doubtfull whether to flye or fight Here where they met a large field lies In which two ample hilles did rise That rocky were and nothing greene And there a valley lay betweene Which barren earth of stony ground A ledge of hilles doth both sides bound And by them trending there did stray A crooked and vncoth by-way The entrance whereof if the foe Had gained first he safe might goe As Caesar saw and lead the warre Into a Quarter strange and farre The Countrey wilde and ill to passe Whose people fierce and sauadge was Therefore he bids his men be bold Haste on quoth he no order hold Turne backe againe your flying foes The face of Mart gainst them oppose With threatning looks shew them their death Let cowards draw no lingring breath If they by fight away would scape With your sharp blades their bosomes rape No
first the rage of warre to cease They offer them to treate of peace And onely this contract would haue To yeeld themselues their liues to saue Except they more desired death Then to preserue a Captiue breath But these braue yonkers did disdaine Parlie for life to entertaine They were resolu'd that their owne Armes Should free them from all scornfull harmes Their mindes prepar'd for vtmost woes Could not be mou'd with clamorous foes Few hands of theirs sustain'd the brunt Of multitudes that them affrunt By land and seas on euery side Constant to death they firme abide And when they saw of hostile gore That they had shed sufficient store They turn'd their fury from the foe And with themselues in hand they goe The noble Captaine led the way Vulteius braue that doth display His naked breast and thus did say That hand amongst you most of worth My blood with glory to let forth Let him giue proofe by wounding me That he likewise himselfe dares free From captiue fate No more he spake But therewithall short worke to make More swords then one became so fierce That all at once his bowels pierce Yet he that on him first did light Him with like kindnesse to requite His dying hand did then bestow On him againe a fatall blow Then all the Troope hand ouer head With mortall wounds each other sped In such sort rag'd the Dircaean breed That did spring vp of Cadmus seed Which did presage the dismall fate Of Theban brethrens dire debate Whose earth-bred race their linnage drawes From that same waking Dragons iawes Whose teeth sowne in the Phasian fields Such cankred bloody natures yeelds As that the furrowes flowing stood With fowle inrag'd allied blood Contriu'd by wrathfull Magickes mood And vile Medea that these harmes Did bring to passe with sorcerous charmes Fear'd what thereof might more betide Because those spelles she had not try'd In this sort dy'd those gallant laddes Whose mutuall fate each other glads Death to great vertue did expose To quell such valiant men as those Yet they together dye and fall No one mans hand did faile at all To giue a wound but it did bring With dying hand deaths deadly sting Neither did they to strong blowes trust But through their breasts the swords did thrust And for it should be throughly donne Vp to the hilts they did them runne In this blood-thirsty slaughtring fray The brother doth the brother slay Sonnes fathers send the selfe-same way And yet their hands were not affright ' Gainst natures lawes to shew their might But this was deem'd a pious deed With one blow and no more to speed Now did the bowels all bestrow The hatches and the bloud did flow Ouer the sides into the seas To see the light did them displease But that with proud disdainfull grace They might looke in the victors face And scornfully their deaths embrace The Raffe was heap't and ouer-spred With these braue youths that there lye dead To whom the Conquerors impart Due funerals as their desart And all the Captaines wondring stood At this braue Captaines dauntlesse mood And now the fame of this deed donne As matchlesse through the world did run But yet this patterne cannot make Many base mindes like heart to take Dread will not let them vnderstand That Vertue with her valiant hand May easily their woes release If slauish Fate do them oppresse But Tyrants swords do them appall Their freedome vnder force doth fall Because they do not vnderstand Why swords were fitted to the hand O Death therefore doe not affright The poore dismaied coward wight But shew thy tyrant murdrous dart Vnto the dauntlesse noble heart Like courage he in Mart exprest That doth the Lybian fields inuest For noble Curio leaues the rode Of Lilybey where his abode With all his fleet a while he made Which now the Ocean do inuade When as a friendly Northerne gale His ships vnto the port did hale Whereas the waues the ruines beat Of great Carthagoes famous seat And then vnto the harbour came Clupea hight of noted name There first he maketh his discents And farre in land did pitch his tents Hard by the stow Bagrada's sides That furrowes vp the sands with tides Then to the hilles his Army goes And to those hollow rockes that showes Where great Antaeus raigned king As old bards do not vainly sing Here Curio seriously desires To heare report of ancient sires And what the peasants of the land Did by tradition vnderstand From what occasion that tale rose That through the world this rumor blowes ¶ Long after that same monstrous brood Of Earth-borne Gyants Ioue with-stood Our Libian Countrey did not reare Such ore-growne creatures as they were Neither was Typhons worth so much Nor Tityos nor Briareus such As in the world they glory bare But sure the earth the heauens did spare That then Antaeus was not borne Nor did in Thessaly soiorne A man so deere vnto the earth From whom he tooke his liuing birth As that he neuer touch't the ground But his maine force did more abound And when his huge limbes fainting grew Fresh strength in them it did renue This caue the house where he did dwell And vnder this high rocke the cell Where he did lodge and for his meate The flesh of Lyons he did eate On wilde beasts skinnes he would not lye Nor on the broad leaues soft and drye But on the bare mould he would rest Wherewith his vigor still encreast The people ouer all the lands Were mangled with his murdrous hands Of strangers that the coast did trade A slaughter and a spoyle he made But for a time proud of his force He did the helpe of earth diuorce And though he were of so great might That none durst him withstand in fight Yet when the fame abroad was spread Of this foule monster so a-dread And what great mischiefe he had donne It mou'd Alcides noble sonne To passe to Affricke on the maine To buckle with this surly swaine ¶ But ere his taske he did beginne From him he casts his Lyons skinne That in Cleoneae he had slaine Antaeus likewise did refraine To weare his Lybicke Lyons spoyle Then Hercules the soueraigne oyle Vpon his brawny limbes infusd That in Olympian games he vsd But now Antaeus earst so stout His proper force began to doubt And therefore stretcht himselfe at length Vpon the sands that gaue him strength Now with their hands they hand-fast take And fiercely doe their straind armes shake Then did they long but all in vaine Each other by the collars straine And brow they doe confront to brow Which neither of them both would bow But each of them did muse to see One that his equall match could bee Alcides yet forbare to show His vtmost vigor on his foe But vrg'd him so with cunning slight That out of breath he puts him quight Which by oft
with flaming blast And those that on the walles would reare He quels with Iron-pointed speare And with his blade sheares off their wrists On battlements that lay their fists Their chines he cracks breaks their bones With casting down huge weights of stones And those whose Morions are but weake Their sculs in sunder he doth breake Others againe he burnes and scalles With streaming shoures of wilde fire balles So as their cheekes their haire and eyes Rapt with the flames lowd bissing fries ¶ Now when the bodies that were slaine Did rise and mount aboue the plaine Off from the turrets top he leapes Vpon the corpes that lay in heapes And in the midst of them he stood With threatning browes and raging mood As if a Leopard should skippe Out of the Hunters toyle to slippe So he enclosd with trooping swarmes Engag'd repelles all force of Armes His looks with dread their courage charms His sword that like a razor cuts The dryed blood now blunts and gluts That it abated had the edge And turned dull like to a wedge So as when Scaeua with it stroke Where as it lights the bones it broke But drew nor blood nor gashing wounded The steele with hewing was confounded On him the burthen of the fight Did lye and many a dart did light No hand in vaine against him bent No Iauelins push vnlucky spent Fortune now sees new warres in hand The prowes of one doth all withstand The Target of this valiant Knight Did ring with blowes that on it light His hollow caske so crackt and brys'd That it his browes and temples squis'd And yet this while no mortall blow Had he receiued by his foe Onely the darts were throwne so thicke That in his bones the heads did sticke ¶ O witlesse gulles why do you spend Your shafts and darts thus to no end These many shoots that you haue driuen Not yet one deadly wound hath giuen Your mighty slings you shold haue brought And so this one mans end haue wrought Or hugie stones from off the wall Whose weight on him you might let fall Or else your battering Ramme whose force Quickly from him would life diuorce Or your Balista's you might proue If force thereof could him remoue From off the entrance of this port Where he doth so your force retort And as a mighty Bul-warke stands For Caesars side and scornes your hands And Pompey's force in idle wasts But now those Armes away he casts That should protect his breast from foes And in his shield no trust repose His left arme doth therewith dispence For hauing liu'd by his defence And naked doth expose his breast Vnto all harmes that him opprest And in his body fixt he beares A wood of darts of shafts and speares Then hee with fainting steppes seekes out Some one in all this hostile rout Whom he might crush and on him fall Like to a marine monstrous whale And as the beasts of Libicke shore And Affrickes Elephants do rore Opprest with multitudes of speares When from their bloudy backes they teares And do shake off the pointed darts Which in their rugged tough hide smarts Whose hidden wounds not dangerous are But pierce the flesh and giue a skarre Nor all those darts that hang so thicke Nor all the shafts that doe them pricke Can fix on them so deepe a wound To lay them flat dead on the ground But now behold with skilfull art Farre off Gortinus thrylles his dart And Scaeua's head therewith he smot And in his eye there stickes the shot Yet not appal'd when he did feele The blow he brake the crooked steele And from the wound the shaft did plucke Whereto the tender eye fast stucke Then on the ground he lets it fall And spurnes the dart and eye withall So doth the grisly Poland Beare When he is wounded with the speare And madded with the sticking steele Which hee with pricking smart doth feele Gnawes on the wound and like rage spends Vpon the dart that him offends But whilst he flying raues and kickes Within his flanke the lance fast stickes The rancor of this direfull shot His visage did most vgly blot For all his face was swolne and smear'd With clotted bloud no shape appear'd Herewith so lowd the foes did shout As if from heauen some storme burst out More ioy in them could not be seene If Caesars selfe had wounded beene Then they exprest which did surmount At this mans hurt of meane account But he with haughty stedfastnesse Hereof doth the offence suppresse Mildly in shew and with a grace As though in him wroth had no place Forbeare deere Countrey-men quoth he And turne your weapons off from me No more wounds now my death doth need You haue already done the deed These darts but pluck't out of my breast Of bloud I shall be dispossest O take me vp and let me lye In Pompey's Campe before I dye Doe not your Captaine so betray To hold from him what I doe say Scaeua had rather Caesar leaue Then not an honest death receaue ¶ Vnlucky Aulus credit gaue To those false words that he did raue And to his sword he did not list Which he held ready in his fist And as he came for to disarme This Captaine not suspecting harme Quite through the middle of his throte Scaeua his pointed fauchion smote Then he new courage takes againe As soone as he had Aulus slaine And said so let him be embru'd That hopes that I am yet subdu'd Let Pompey know that Scaeua's sword No other place will him affoord Vntill his Ensignes he do yeeld To Caesars will and quit the field Thinke you base men that euer I Like Pompey's Cowards meane to dye Deaths loue giues me more powerfull lawes Then Pompey's or the Senates cause These threats no sooner from him flies But that huge clouds of dust did rise VVhereby they all did then descry That Caesar with his troopes was nye ¶ And he arriued in good time For thereby he takes off the crime And foule disgrace from Pompey's part That they deserued in this Mart. Else Scaeua thou perhaps alone All Pompey's troopes hadst ouer-throwne For with the ending of this fight Thy life likewise did take his flight But whilst that any did withstand The warres gaue vigor to thy hand But lying now stretcht on the ground Thine own friends swarme about thee round And striue to whom the grace may fall To beare thee to thy funerall And him withall they did adore As if within his breast he bore Some heauenly gift or power diuine That made his vertue liuely shine Then all of them did straine and striue Out of his limbes the darts to riue VVhich to the Gods they consecrate To memorize his noble fate And with the Armes of Scaeua's breast The God of warre they did invest But yet how blest had beene thy name And thou obtain'd more glorious fame If Spaniards fierce of thee adread Had turn'd their backes and
approaching night With his high top shading the light And they that in the vale are bred Where mount Olympus lifts his head Those bitter blasts neuer offends That Boreas from his cauerne sends Nor know they whether that the Beare Be all night glowing in the spheare ¶ Whilome this vallie that did lie In midst of all these mountaines hie Was fennish grounds and moorish muds Still ouerwhelm'd with standing fluds And those vast lakes that drownd this plaine Ranne not through Tempe to the Maine But in one pond stood alwayes still And euer more did waters swill Vntill that the Herculean wonder With mightie straine did rent asunder The Ossan mount from Pelion hill And then these waters did distill Into Nereus brakish fields And so to Thetis sonne it yeelds Emathias kingdome where abounds Pharsalos goodly champion grounds But how much better had it beene A watry plash then grassie greene There now Philaces cittie stands That first sent ships to Ilium lands There Ptelos and Dorion towne Wailing the Muses wrathfull frowne Trachin likewise is seated there And Melibaea freed from feare By Hercules Artillery The bitter price of periury Larissa likewise of great power And noble Argos here did tower Where now the cultor shares the soyle And plough-men dayly eare and toyle Here stood as fables olde relates Echions Thebes with seauen folde gates Whereas Agaue banished The Bacchanals she worshipped By Pentheus her kingly sonne Him all inrag'd to death hath donne Whose head though cast into the fire Could not appease her franticke ire ¶ This hugie lake that now had vent To let out all her waters pent In many parts it selfe deuides Then Aeas with small current slides But with cleare streame bends to the west Till in Ionian seas she rest Nor yet with stronger course then this Doth run the sire of Isidis Whose maiden shape high Ioue restores And her transports to Egypts shores So Achelous thence doth passe O Caeneus that almost was Thy sonne in law and then defiles With slimie waues Echinads Iles. With Euenos that bare the staines Of blood from Nessus wounded vaines And with his current streameth on Through Meleagers Calydon Then Sperchios that with greater speed The waues Maliacan doth feed And sweet Amphrisos that doth sweepe With cristall streames and channell deepe The fields where Phoebus fed his sheepe And still Anauros whence doth rise Nor vapours that the clouds supplies Nor airie dewes that moisture casts Nor gentle breathes of windy blasts All other riuers else beside Into the maine that do not glide With their own strength and proper course Into Paeneus yeeld their source Then stickle stream'd Aepidanus With neuer swift Enipeus Till she with other waters bed Thence doth Asopos take her head Phoenyx and Melas doe the same And Tytaresse that holds his name And waues so firme and from his springs A vertue takes which neuer mings With other streame but safe and sound A path hath on Peneus found As if it ran vpon dry ground And as Fame sayes this riuers head Is in the Stygian waters bred And being mindfull of his fount Doth hold it selfe in more account Then with the common waues to mixe But keepes the maiestie of Styxe ¶ As soone as all these ponds were drain'd Which erst this tracke of land retain'd Bebicius with his furrowing shares For tillage these fat fields prepare And all the Lelegans then tride How they the plough thereon could guide Thereto the ploughmen put their hands Of Dolop and Aeolian lands The Magnetes there their horses stoares And people knowne to Minyen oares Here did the Centaure birth of clowds That in Pelethron darke dens shrowds Ingendred of Ixions race Disperse themselues for dwelling place And thou Moniche didst wonne there That Pholoes rockes didst riue and teare And Rhetus that on Aetnas top Those hugie trees didst wresting lop Which Boreas with his boystrous blast Could hardly teare or ouercast And Phole in this soile did rest Where great Alcides was his guest And wicked Nessus here resides That afterwards gain'd bloody sides With Lernean shafts that Hercles guides And thou O Chiron now growne old Conuerted to a starre so cold Thy strong Aemonian bow dost draw Against great Scorpios poysoned maw So on this land in euery part Did shine the direfull seedes of Mart. Here first of all the goodly breeds Of the Thessalian fierie steedes For vse of warre so prone and fit Did rise when as Neptunus smit The flintie stones with Marine mace Engendring so the coarsers race That champs the bit with praucing pace And here the Lapiths hands first straines Their foaming mouths with bridling raines Hence gallies cut the waues with oares Sent from the Pagasaean shoares And Inland men did first engage To venter on the billowes rage And here Ionos that did raigne Ouer the vast Thessalian plaine Did first of all his stamps conioyne To molten mettals fram'd for coyne And maketh siluer run in streames Swelting amidst the fiery gleames The gold likewise at first he brake And thereof money he did make And in the boyling furnace vast The copper he did liquid cast Then thence did all that garboyle spring And mischiefe that the warres did bring Enticing all the world to armes For riches gaine the seeds of harmes Here was huge vgly Python bred In Cyrrhan dens lurking his head And then was vsde Thessalian bayes To yeeld the Pythian games their praise Wicked Alaeus broode from hence Was sent that made that high offence Against the Gods waging their warres On Pelions top neare to the starres Heaping mount Ossa on his backe Whereby heauens course they thought to slack ¶ Now when in these vnluckie lands Both Chieftains had incampt their bands The doubt of future warres euents Their minds with equall cares torments For now they see approaching nie The day that must their fortunes trie And as the houre did draw more neare So coward minds the more did feare And still the worst their thoughts retaine But yet some few of these againe Giues to their courage better scope By ballancing their feare with hope And Sextus now amongst this rowte Did shew himselfe a crauen lowte As one that no way did inherit The glory of great Pompeys spirit For he will take a Pirates trade And will the Scycill seas inuade Whereby those Triumphs he distaind That on the seas his father gain'd But now his feares stirres vp his mind To know how chances stood design'd And growne impatient of delayes Long'd to foreknow his future dayes The Delos God he doth not heede Nor yet consults with Pythias reede Nor what Dodona sawes relates That breeds the Akorne swynish cates Which groue from Ioues mouth soundeth fates Nor yet the Augures skill he tries Of bowel'd beasts for sacrifise Nor what the flying birds presage Nor yet obserues the lightnings rage Nor doth he search to vnderstand The knowledge of th' Assyrian land By motions of the starres on hie And how the planets
corps behould Pale and dis-figured on the mould Another in his dreame discernes His fathers wounds whereat he yearnes And all these sprights and hellish feares Then Caesars guilty conscience teares No lesse then did those hagges of hell Within Orestes spirits dwell That with affrights his visage vrg'd Till Scythian Altars him had purg'd Nor yet Pentheius in his minde More furious gastly fits did finde Nor mad Agaue in her kinde ¶ For all the swords that bloud did staine Now shed on the Pharsalian plaine And those reuenging swords withall That should in future on him fall By force of Senatorian spight In dreames oppressed him this night So doe the furies him affright How liues this wretched man in feare That doth such guilt in conscience beare That in his dreames he seemes to see The Stygian ghosts about him flee With all the foule infernall traines Whilst Pompey still aliue remaines Yet this no whit his conscience straines But when cleare day with shining beames Bewraid Pharsalia's bloody streames The horror of that vgly sight Did not his gasping eyes affright Nor turne them from those lothsome lands But lookes how thicke the riuers stands Clotted with gore and how likewise As high as hilles the bodies rise That on the Champian heaped lies Of Pompeys men a tale he takes And in that place a feast he makes He pries amongst the bodies there What faces knowne vnto him were And herein great contentment found He could not see Emathias ground Nor cast his eyes vpon the plaine Hid with the bodies that lay slaine There saw he how his fortune stood And all his Gods clothed in blood And for because he would not lose This pleasing prospect on dead foes Still madding in his wicked ire He would not giue them funerall fire But let them rotting there to rest Emathias aire so to infest He might haue learn'd by Hanniball That gaue our Consull funerall And how he humane rites bestowes In Cannas fields vpon his foes With pyles of wood to burne the dead Which Lybicke torches kindled But that sterne wroth that him enrag'd The slaughter had not yet asswag'd For he remembred in his minde The Romans were to him vnkinde But now we do not here desire For euery one a single fire Or any glorious funerall Bestow but one fire on them all We do not seeke that they should burne In parted flames and shared vrne Or if thou Pompey more wouldst spite All Pindus woods then hew downe quite And the Oetean oakes lay wast And make of all one pile so vast That he may from the seas descrie Pharsalian flames streame in the skie ¶ This rage of thine auaileth nought By whatsoeuer meanes t is wrought That these dead bodies may consume For be it with a fierie fume Or else with time that they do rot And turne to dust it skilleth not For nature in her louing wombe Doth freely mortals all intombe All bodies that do breath and liue Their end to her as debt must giue And though that Caesar in disdaine Their funerall fire from them detaine Yet when the Earth and Ocean vast Shall be consum'd with flames at last One common fire the world shall haue And starres with humane bones engraue And vnto whatsoeuer place Fortune thy flitting soule shall chase These soules the selfe-same way shall wend No higher shall thy ghost ascend But lodge in Stygian shade below No better mansion shalt thou know From Fortunes freakes death frees vs all What earth doth yeeld earth doth recall And he that lies vnburied With heauens high cope is couered And thou that dost whole nations wrong From burials that to them belong Why dost thou loth these slaughtred bands And shunne these soild contagious lands Caesar doe thou these waters drinke In this aire breath that so doth stinke But these corrupted bodies slaine Doe take from thee Pharsalia plaine And in despight do hold the place And thence the conquerours do chase ¶ But to this carnage for their food Thither repaires with rauening mood The Thracian wolues that vent from farre The bloud of this Aemonian warre The Lyons come from Pholoen And doe forsake their haunted denne To quench in gore their thirsting iawes Whom sent of slaughter thither drawes The grisly Beares do leaue their caues And on these festred bodies raues The filthy dogges forsake their homes And all about these fat fields romes And whatsoeuer else by kinde With senting nose can sauors winde When as the aire is putrifide With carkasses long mortifide And hither flocks of fowles do throng That both the camps had followed long And those same birds that change the aire Of Thracian cold and do repaire Vnto the gentle Southerne blast Where they the streames of Nylus tast So many vultures thither flie As neuer earst did clowd the skie With other rauenous foules of pray Which euery wood sent day by day And to the branches boughs and leaues The clotterd gore and bowels cleaues That these birds brings and oft withall Vpon the victors heads doth fall And on those wicked ensignes borne The flesh and guts that they had torne Which from their weary talents slip Hauing got more then they could grip Neither could they so sharke and share The flesh whereby the bones were bare All was not made a pray to beasts They were so glutted with these feasts As that they now began to loath The inwards and the marrow both And onely on choise morsels feede Most of the lims of Latium breede Vnto long time to wet and heate They left to rot and would not eate So as whole troops in heaped bands Lay festring there and dung'd the lands O Most vnhappy Thessaly How hast thou wrong'd the Gods on hie That thou shouldst be so pestered With cruell slaughters and bloodshed What future age or tract of time May well repaire this bloody crime Or lodge this in obliuous graue VVhat corn bringst thou that shal not haue Vpon his blade a bloody staine To shew these slaughters in thy graine VVhat plow-share can here furrows rend But they will Roman ghosts offend And yet new armies here shal meet And with like rage each other greete Before that euer thou canst drye The blood that in thee now doth lie Should we our fires sepulchers rake And of their tombes a ruine make Searching the depth to find the chest And lay all open where they rest More cynders yet there would be found Turnd vp in the Aemonian ground By force of crooked cultors share VVhen as the plowman tilleth there And more bones spuing out their marrow Crusht with the iron-toothed harrow No marriner though tempest tost VVould euer anchor on this coast No tilsman would plow vp these fields That vnto Romans buriall yeelds Their ghosts wold cause the peasants quake The droues the pastures would fosake The shepheards durst not be so bold Their fleecie flocks to feede and fold That they their hunger might suffise On grasse that from our bowels rise But thou
then plies both saile and oare Till he th' Icarian cliffe had past From Ephesus he bends his mast And Colophonas pleasant waues And Samos rockes that foaming raues And then a gentle puffing gale His sailes from Coōs coasts did hale Gnydon he leaues and Rhodes doth shunne That voue their Altars to the Sunne Then that great bay Telmesydos Aloofe he flies and ouer-goes And from the middle of the maine Pamphilias coast appeared plaine But yet he would not make aduenter Within a walled towne to enter Little Phaselis was the coast That Pompey first did make his oast The slender habitation there Made him the lesse the place to feare The empty houses people needed His ship their troope by farre exceeded From hence againe his course he bends And sees how Taurus mountaine trends Whence Dypsas to the seas discends ¶ Would Pompey euer this suspected When he the Pyrates force subiected Or euer in his minde haue thought That to this stresse he should be brought For safety so to range the maine In one poore ship with so small traine But now the Senates greatest part Escaped from Pharsalias Mart Together met though put in rout And at the length found Pompey out At anchor in the little port Calendrys hight where great resort Of shipping passeth to and froe As Selyns streame doth ebbe or flow Pompey at length with heauy cheere Desired them these words to heare Companions deere in warre and flight The modell of our Countries right Although that now to this bare coast By wretched Fortune we be tost Consulting on Cylicias strands Not guarded with our armed bands Yet now we must begin againe New proiects warres to entertaine To your braue mindes good comfort yeeld All fell not in Pharsalias field Nor am I so with fate opprest But that I can raise vp my crest And scorne the blow that vs distrest Could Marius in the Lybicke soyle Repaire againe his bitter foyle And win to him a Consuls state And fixe his fame in Roman date And thinke you I through Fortunes spight Will be supprest with lesser might In Grecian seas for my auaile I doe retaine a thousand saile And haue as many Captaines more That will attend me on the shore Our force this battaile rather parted Then any way the same subverted My fame that is of such account Can easily this losse surmount The whole worlds force I soone will moue My onely name so much they loue Do you consider and aduise What Realmes or States most fittest lies To serue vs now for our availe Whose force and faith will not vs faile Whether that Lybia be the place Or Aegypt now as stands the case Or Parthians friendship we embrace Which of all these you estimate Worthiest to aid the Roman state For me my Lords I will disclose In my conceit what I suppose And all my reasons lay downe flat That leads my minde to this or that The Nylus King is but a youth And that makes me to doubt his truth For constant faith more sure doth rest Within a graue and manly breast The Moore I do no whit applaud We all do know them full of fraud And how that wicked Carthage race Hath alwayes practis'd Romes disgrace We right well know and that there rests More Hanniballes yet in their breasts And as for the Numidian Kings That now from bastards races springs Whose murdrous hands the blood distaines Of their true lawfull soueraignes And did of late with so great pride Varus that led our force deride Who sought his aid and with disgrace Alotted Rome a second place This makes me thinke t is best we proue Our friends by East and trust their loue Great Euphrates with his vaste streames Diuides and boundeth many Realmes The Caspian sea hath limits large And harbours safe within his varge In other sort the heauens aspects Th' Assirian dayes and nights directs That sea is of another staine And flat secluded from our maine Their people conquering humors beare And for the warres large Coursers reare VVith stronger bowes they battaile wage The yong and old and euery age Affects his vigrous draught to show Each arrow giues a deadly blow The Parthes were first that brake the rankes Of Alexanders piked slanks And Bactra that same Citty great VVonne from the Medes their Regal seate And Babylon with walles so hye That doth Assiria dignifie Our Piles the Parthians holds slight And in the field with vs dare fight And with what force Scythes arrowes flye Crassus defeat too well did try They haue not onely heads of steele VVhose piercing force their foes do feele But poyson on those heads they fixe So as if any place it prickes The smallest wound death with it brings And all the blood with venomemings ¶ VVould God no cause did me encline To trust to proud Arsaces line These Parthes with their subsisting fate Our Empire still did emulate And all the heauenly powers with grace Haue lookt vpon the Parthian race But I would also send for bands And valiant troopes from other lands The furthest East I would incite To send to vs their Martiall might But if the Easterne faith refuse So as their aid we cannot vse And the Barbarian leagues doe faile Let Fortune strike my ship-wracke saile And me conuay to vnknowne coasts Neuer subdu'd by Roman hoasts I neuer basely meane to pray Their aid that earst did me obay T will comfort me when as I dye That in strange climes my limbes shall lye Whereby proud Caesar shall not haue The power to grace or wrong my graue And I will onely meditate The glory past of my liues fate Which that worlds part did celebrate What was beyond Meotis lake And what scope Tannais did take With her streames trending in the East So farre hath my renowne encreast To what lands hath my name more runne For famous conquests by me wonne Or else from whence hath my desarts More triumphs gaind then from those parts ¶ O Rome my enterprise now guide VVhat greater boone can heauens betide To thee then in this ciuill Mart To see the Parthians beare a part So to consume them with our Armes And mix their wrackes amongst our harmes For when that Caesars forces stands Encountring with the Parthian bands Fortune must me the victor make Or else for Crassus vengeance take Thus said he saw the Senates minde Stood not to his aduice enclin'd But Lentulus amonst the rest VVhom vertues courage forwards prest And noble griefe for Roman fate He holding then the Consuls state His worthy voyce did eleuate ¶ Hath so this late Thessalian blow Thy minde deiected and brought low Hath one dayes fate the world opprest Must we amongst our selues contest Now after this Aemathian wound Doth that all hope of helpe confound Hath Fortune Pompey all bereft That he in Parthians hands is left Why shouldst thou as a runnagate So range the world to mend thy fate In forraine climes
about those lands And doubt to march on Nylus sands But if so reuerent a name Thou wilt inscribe vpon the same His noble acts therewith consort His great atchieuements of imports And there to that rebellious iarre That he supprest in th' Alpyn warre VVhen as proud Lepidus conspirde And how a Consull he retirde Cald backe when he had put to foyle Setorrius in his Spanish broyle When for it he in Triumphs pride Through Rome with great applause did ride And how he gaue the world commerce When he the pirats did disperse Adde thereunto the nations wonne And the Barbarians ouerrunne With whatsoeuer in the East Or in the Northerne parts did rest Shew that he euer armes laid downe His conquest done and tooke the gowne That thrice he had in Triumphs sate And gaue great spoyles vnto the state What graue can this mans worth containe His tombe lies leuell with the plaine His wretched hearse thou dost not raise With titles equall to his praise Nor yet those holy orders write That Roman Callenders recite Which on the stately pillars stand Of Gods the Patrons of our land Nor with those glorious trophees grac't That are on temples arches plac't Alas our Pompeys sepulcher Leuels the Egypt sands so neare And lies so flat vpon the shore To reade it men must stooping pore Which any Roman that goes by But being told will hardly spy ¶ We were not cautious as we ought Of that Cumana Sybill wrote Who warn'd vs in all ciuill broyle To shun the harmes of Egypts soyle And that no Roman chieftaine should Come neare to Nyles Pelusian mould But shun that sommer swelling shore What dismall fate may I implore Against that cruell land that durst Attempt and act this deed accurst Let Nylus bacward bend his head And stay whereas his spring is bred And let this parched soile remaine VVithout all helpe of winters raine And let such burning heates it rost As fries the Aethiopian coast Thy Isis Aegypt for thy sake We did into Romes temple take And currish Demigods withall On whom with Cymbals you do call And thou Osyris whom with plaint As but a man your selues depaint But Egypt thou in scorne dost hold Our spirits in base dustie mould And thy selfe Rome that with such state Didst those braue Temples dedicate Vnto the wicked Tyrants name Hast not yet ask't for feare of blame The ashes of thy Pompey slaine VVhose ghost doth banisht still remaine And though at first that fearefull age VVere ouer-awd by Caesars rage Yet now take vnto thee at last Thy Pompeys bones since feare is past Except that the encroaching maine Do them and all that shoare detaine Else who needs doubt his graue to turne VVith sacred rites to grace his vrne O would that deed were made my taske And Rome at my hands would it aske O happy I and too much blest Might I remoue that sacred chest And bring the same to rest in Rome If lawfull tis to force his tombe ¶ But yet ô Pompey it may chance That if ill seasons dearth aduance Or that contagious plagues oppresse Or fearefull fires should Rome distresse Or earthquakes put vs in a fright These miseries to banish quite Vnto the Gods we make request And thereupon by their behest Thou maist againe to Rome returne To expiate these with thy vrne And that the chiefe Priest we shall call To beare thee to thy funerall But now what passenger goes by Syenen that the heates do frie Of Cancers parched torryd zoane Or vnto whom is Nylus knowne That costs her Thaebas burning sands Which vnder showring Plyades stands Or who the red Seas gulffe doth trade Or trafficks vsing to be made About the rich Arabian ports Or else for marchandise consorts With those that come from Eastern shore But Pompeys graue he will explore And seeke to see that reuerent stone That lies his low lodg'd tombe vpon And turne a side out of the way To see thy cynders if he may That on the sands perhaps do stray And therewithall will take delight To sacrifice vnto thy spright And will thy worthie name preferre Before the Cassian Iupiter So as this little paltery shrine Will more aduance that fame of thine Then if thou hadst a Tombe of gold Such as our Temples vse to hold For here interred lies with thee The Fortune of Romes libertie So as a farre more happie stone The Lybicke waues shall beate vpon Then are those Altars to be prisde Whereon the victor sacrifisde For those that often are so bold Their incense offrings to withhold From the Tarpeian Deities Will shew their loues and charities Vnto the shrine of thy sweete soule Here raked vp in this duske hole ¶ Hereof the fame of future dayes More glory vnto thee will raise Then if thy monument were built With stately marbles caru'd and guilt And that the measure of thy graue A huger height and scope might haue For now a little time will chace Thy heaped cinders from this place When as these sands away shall fall That couer now thy buriall And so the knowledge will decay How thou camst to thy fatall day Then ages happier will liue Which will no trust nor credit giue To any that this stone shall show Which yet the world so well doth know But Egypt will disproue this reed Vnto her children that succeed And make the Death and Tombe likewise Of Pompey but such tales and lies As were those of the Cretan I le Whence thundring Ioue doth take his style Finis libri octaui Lucans Pharsalia The ninth Booke THE ARGVMENT FRom Earth great Pompeys blessed spright Vnto the heauens doth take his flight Cato the remnants of the host Transports vnto the Lybian cost Cornelia wailing grieues and mournes And Pompeys robes to ashes burnes Cnaeus his sonne reuenge intends Cato his noble minde commends The saylers fall to mutinie Whom Catos speech doth qualifie About the Syrtes his nauie trades And Lybia then his hoast inuades Thence through the wildernesse he trends And vnto Hamons Temple wends Caesar Pharsalia now forsakes And towards Nyle his iourney takes Where Pompeys head they him present The which with teares he doth lament BVt yet the soule aloft aspires And staid not in the Pharian fires Such flames could not his blessed spright Restraine from their high mounting flight But from the funerall it flits And those halfe burned members quits That base vnworthy tombe it leaues The thundring vault the same receaues Whereas the duskie aire confines Next to the orbes that lowest shines And where the distance spacious Is spread betweene the Moone and vs. Where soules and demi-gods doe dwell Whose shining vertues did excell And vpright liues did them prepare In this low element to share Whereas his blessed ghost it reares To rest in the eternall spheres Those come not thither that are plac't In perfum'd tombes beguilt and chac't And when he was in this faire seate With ioyous perfect
Vnto iust warre draw on their swords And their loose minds whom pleasure feeds He then recals to martiall deeds And patiently warres brunt to beare With industrie and free from feare ¶ And first of all vpon the sands He traines and drawes them out in bands Then next to that they do inuest Cyrenas wals and it possest And though that towne had him refusde Yet he on them no rigor vsd For Cato no reuenge would take To conquer did his anger slake Thence he his speedie march designes To Iubas kingdome whose confines Confront the Mauritanian lands But that the Syrts his course withstands Amidst his way although he thought All difficulties might be brought To passe by vertues dantlesse prowes When nature did at first dispose These Syrts and shapt their figure out She left it to the world in doubt Whether it should be land or seas For vtterly it doth not please To sinke it selfe beneath the maine Nor yet the land can so restraine The waues but they will haue a share And such a dangerous place prepare That there to trauell none shall dare For here the Sea doth channels straine And there the lands do rise againe Here is a long stretcht tracke of shore And there the swallowing whirlepooles rore So nature wretchedly designde This portion of her proper kinde Vnto no vse or else of old Those Syrts more waues in them did hold And with the Seas were ouer rowld But that atractiue Titans beames Feeding vpon the ocean streames That to the torrid zone were nie Some of the weltring waues did drie And yet the Ocean in despight Resisteth Phoebus parching might But yet his beames as they draw neare And wearing time those seas will cleare And make the Syrts firme land appeare For scarcely now a little boate Can on the superficies flote Of those drown'd sands where water stayes And more and more that sea decayes ¶ As soone as by the helpe of oares The fleet was gotten from the shores Into the deepes with all their fraight The blacke Southwind blowing a haight Out of his region stormy gales Farre from her course the nauie hales And with huge tempests that he sends Those seas attempted now defends Farre from the Syrts the waues he beates Against the cliffes the billow freates And all the ships that sailes did beare The tempest from the yards did teare In vaine the tackling and the shrouds Their sailes deny'd to those fierce clouds But ouer boord away are borne Fluttering at large their ships they scorne And if that any sayler stout Vnto the yards do goe about To fixe the sailes with cordage fast He 's borne away with whirlwind blast And from the naked yard is cast But all those ships found better chance That in the lofty billows dance And still aloofe their course did keepe Amidst the channels in the deepe And by the boord did cut their masts Lesse subiect thereby to the blasts So as the tides had power on them And in despight with force did stemme The puffing windes full in the mouth And bare those vessels to the South The other ships the water sailes Their Keeles vpon those hye sands trayles That lifts it selfe aboue the flood So as in doubtfull state they stood The shelfe the one part doth detaine The other part hangs in the maine And as the billowes comes more thicke The faster in the sholes they sticke For though the forcing Southerne racke Rowles one waue on anothers backe Yet all those waues could not suffise To drench the shelfe where it did rise This hugy heape of cluttered sand Vncouered now lay farre from land And higher vnto sight was rear'd Then Neptunes rugged backe appear'd The wretched Saylers there are grounded The ships vpon the shelfe confounded So farre that they no shore can spye And in the seas thus beating lye Yet of this fleet the greater part With bitter stirrage got the start Of these and safely scap't away Taking their best course as it lay With skilfull Pilots that did know The coasts and where the channels goe And so at length by chance they light On that slow streame that 's Tryton hight ¶ That God as old reports do tell Which with his ringing Trumpe of shell Makes all the maine his sound to heare With windy notes so shrill and cleare Of riuers all loues this most deare And Pallas like esteeme did make That of Ioues braine her birth did take For that same Lybian Region Was first land that she trode vpon And is vnto the heauens most neare As by his heates it doth appeare In whose smooth waters christall shine She then did see her face diuine And there her plants she did dispose And to her selfe the name she chose Of Trytonesse where this streame flowes Neare which as fame reports likewise The silent Laethe doth arise That with infernall veines is fed By which forgetfulnesse is bred Here also was conioyn'd to these The garden of Hesperides Despoiled of her leaues so bright Kept by the waking Dragons might That man is spitefull of condition That will detract from old tradition Or call the Poets to accompt For ought which may the truth surmount This golden groue of treasures store Whose boughs such shining apples bore A troope of virgins guarded still Whose glistring streames the aire did fill And that soule Serpents charge to keepe Whose eyes are aye debard of sleepe And with his taile the trunks infold That stoope with ouerwaight of gold But great Alcydes tooke away From these rich trees the pretious pray And did those shining apples bring To Euristaeus Argiues king The nauie so cast on this caost And from the Syrts so clearely tost Past not as yet beyond the shore Of Gaeramants where as they more But Sextus with his troops staid there Where Affricks climes more pleasant were Though Catos valor brooks no stay But with his cohorts takes his way Through coasts vnknown where dangers lay His confidence in armes did stand And circuits all the Syrts by land And this the winters wroth perswades That then did barre those seas of trades Besides the fires of Phoebus rayes The falling showres then much allayes So as his iourney he might hold Neither opprest with heate nor cold For where the flaming heate did rage The dewy season doth asswage So through the barren sands he venters And vsd this speech before he enters ¶ O ye that with one common will Dauntlesse to hold your fre edome still Do follow me with such content Let now your minds be wholy bent To vndergoe this valours taske That toyle and constancy doth aske We goe into the barren fields Of clymats scorcht that nothing yeelds Where Tytan parcheth all the ground And fountaines rarely to be found Whereas the lands in plenty brings Forth serpents with their poysnous stings A iourney that with horror rings Let therefore those whom deare loue drawes To freedome and his Countries cause March on through Lybia with mee And search
Praise-worthy deeds to enterprise And whether that it be successe Makes honest actions more or lesse This we already know as well As Ammon can the same vs tell Vpon the Gods we all depend And though this Temple had an end Yet otherwise nought can succeed But by Gods ordinance decreed His mighty power no voyce doth need The Author of all mortall kinde Hath once for all declar'd his minde Our knowledge is by him confin'd These barren sands are not his choyce Where he will vtter forth his voyce Nor in this dust doth hee conceale Those truthes that he meanes to reueale The sacred seates of God are these The Heauens the Aire the Earth the Seas And vertues selfe why should wee proue To search beyond the Gods aboue What so thou seest where so thou art Of Iupiter himselfe is part Let faithlesse minds these witch-crafts need And such as dread what shall succeed No Oracles can me secure But death it selfe that is most sure The Coward and the valiant Knight Must fall at last and leaue this light And now for all may vs suffice That Ioue himselfe speakes in this wise So hauing said with faiths repose The Temples Altars he forgoes And Ammons counsell doth disdaine Leauing it to those people vaine ¶ Then in his hand he takes his pile And march't a foot himselfe the while Before his troopes that panting went He shewes them how to be content To suffer toyle without constraint Since labour could not make him faint He is not on their shoulders borne A Charret he did hold in scorne Small rest and sleepe he vsd to take And last of all his thirst would slake For when by chance a spring they met The thirsty Souldier dry with heat Constrained was to drinke then he The last of all the troope would be That tooke his share and did forbeare Vntill the Scullions serued were If great renowne be deemed due To goodnesse that is meerely true Or if that naked vertues praise That wants successe men rightly waighes What euer was so much renown'd That in our ancestors was found Were fortunes gifts that did abound For which of them for happy Mart Could challenge that as their desart Or who could claime as his owne good The fame they wanne with others blood But this mans triumph I would more Desire to follow on this shore Whereas the Syrts doe dangers threat And thorough Lybias parching heate Then thrice in Pompeys Carre to wend And to the Capitoll ascend Or gIuurths warre to bring to end Behold him that true father is Vnto his Countries cause and blisse When Rome may thinke fit to aspire Vnto her Altars sacred fire To honor whom she needs not shame To sweare and vow by his deere name And whom if euer Rome should see Her state restor'd from dangers free Hereafter him to glorifie His name she well may deifie Now march they through a wretched soyle That feruent heates doe parch and broyle A clymate neere the torrid zone Which heauens wold haue to men vnknown Here water rare was to be found And yet amidst this dusty ground One fountaine large the Souldiers spide Where many Serpents did reside So thicke that they the waters hide Vpon the brinkes the Aspickes sit And in the midst the Dipsa's flit ¶ When Cato saw his men opprest VVith heates and thirst this fount detest He said O Souldier whom vaine feare Of death makes thee this spring forbeare Thou needst not doubt thy thirst to slake These waters safely thou maist take The Serpents pest no dangers brings Except when as with blood it mings His sting from it doth poyson send And with his bite doth life offend The fountaine holsome is and pure So said he drinkes them to assure The water that they poysnous thinke But still before he vsd to drinke The last of all during the time That they had spent in Lybias clime Our care and labour cannot finde The cause why Lybia is enclin'd To aire of such contagious kinde Where many plagues abounding swarmes Fruitfull in nought but deadly harmes Nor yet what secret nature did When in that soyle such faults she hid Except it be that fabling lye That ouer all the world doth flye The which doth euery age deceiue When for a truth they it receiue ¶ In the extreames of Lybias soyle Wheras the ground with heat doth broyle And where the Ocean it confines Warm'd with the Sunne when he declines Those fields and Countries all abrode With foule Medusas filth was strode No greene-leau'd woods did yeeld a shade Nor Coulters there had furrowes made But with their Mistresse balesull eyes There onely stones and rockes did rise Hence hurtfull nature first drew seedes That mortall plagues in bodies breedes About her eares there dangling hung The hissing snakes with stinging tongue Which like a tresse her backe behinde Did spred as haire of women kinde And whilst about her necke they crawle The fell Medusa ioy'd withall Then all their heads vp-right in ranke Her brow did like a frontlet pranke But when she comb'd her crawling crowne The viprous venome trailed downe Cursed Medusa taxlesse pries On whom she list with fatall eyes For who can feare this monsters face VVhen to dread death they haue no space For where her ghastly looke she bends They are trans-form'd before their ends And rap't away from doubtfull fate Preuenting feare before their date The bodies metamorphosed Retaine the spirits captiued And buried so within the bones Turne stupid like to sencelesse stones The Furies with their gastly haires Did onely stirre vp franticke feares And Cerberus that hellish hound Orphaeus calm'd with musicke sound And Hydra Hercules beheld When he that vgly Serpent queld But this vile monster did affright Phorcus her father with her sight Phorcus that next doth rule and raigne To Neptune on the raging maine Ceto her mother with her looke She scarres her sisters cannot brooke Her vgly sight the seas and skies She can make stone with her sterne eyes She vttterly can raze from earth The worlds whole race of humane birth Amidst the aire from lofty flight The winged fowles do fall downe-right The wilde beasts and the horned Harts She into craggie rockes conuarts And all the people in the scope That bounds next vnto Aethiope She hath transform'd from flesh and bones Into hard rugged Marble stones No creatures can her sight abide Her hairy snakes behinde her hide And will not of her eyes be spy'd The mighty Atlas Tytans sonne That by Hesperian straights did wonne She turn'd into a hugie rocke The Gyants of Phlaegraean flocke That with their Serpents feet sometime Did striue into the heauens to clime She lofty mountaines of them fram'd Whereby that Gyants warre was tam'd When Pallas in her shield did place This grisly Gorgons hideous face Now after that Mercurius wings The first concorder of those strings That on th' Arcadian harpe doe sound And first likewise that wrestling found