On Peters rocke and not on Peters Sands The third in order of these things Diuine Is that bright heauen transparent Christaline Hauing no twinkling starre or glistering pride But like some waterie body clarified From wheÌ„ce some say that wheÌ„ the world was made And that great Elohim the globes bases laid Dispersing darkenesse and the tenebrous night To formes of beautie and celestiall light That then his mightie Spirit heauen did moue To seperate those waters from aboue From these below and to this element To place his likenesse in the firmament For since we see that seaes with earth compare And heauen with earth in things that likely are The earth brings foorth the dog the foamie maine And Heauen it selfe equiuocates the same When with his singing and canicular beames He bakes the earth and dries the Christall streames And therfore with Harmonious consent Heauen hath proportion to this Element And thus we reade in natures Characters Like liues with like to shun intestine warres The fourth heau'n is that glorious spangled globe Embost with starres and like a gorgeous robe Purl'd ore with natures Ape and Zany-art Trailes downe his starrie traine and doth impart Day to black night and with his groue of starres Like candles shine to wind wrackt Marriners Some fixt some wandring in their tinsell'd Orbe Whose number fixt Philosophers record To be one thousand two and twentie cleare Well knowne vnto the Sea-cuft Maâ—riner By these the iocund Boateson at first sight Soust with the Ruffin seaes and scratch with might Whistle a maine and from the hatches skip The nimble squires of the dancing ship And fearelesse kick the billowes with disdaine Tearing the curled bowels of the maine These giue propension to each mans deffects And by their fatall influence and aspects Besides that vniuersall prouidence On whose great nod depends each consequence Of second causes from their crittick powers At Caesars birth acts Caesars tragick howers But if their kind coniunctions smiling meete Our first natiuitie and with a sweet And Iouiall dalliance in a golden shower Kindly imbrace our first conceptions hower Then shall Augustus though but meane by birth Sway seuen hill'd Rome and taxe the verge of earth Foot-boyes shall pearch with Kings Tanners ride On great Seianus courser side by side With some most Lordly Consull Rearemice flie By daylight with the Eagles maiestie And will not reason mount Agathocles The Potters sonne to the Piramides Of honour and high state what vertue marres And hates in fooles shall prosper by their starres Yet feare not thou whose crabbed fate suspends Thy fortune progresse and whose learned ends Aimes at eternitie though whipt with need And dogged censure and whose wounds doe bleed With times incision sterne authoritie Dissecting Arts like an Anotomie Reading their physick lectures to the eares Of our contempts to greatnesse great in feares And pale suspects who iealious of deserts Doe Sepulcher aliue both Armes and Artes For thou in spight of their maleuolent rage Times simony and furie of the Age Ecclipses and all Planetarie hate Like a Byssextile-yeere shalt leape thy fate Wise men like sluces in the plague of warres Were made to rule those onely rule the starres Nor can base Gypses tell them of their fate Impostors with their figures calculate Of blacke futuritie Astrologie diuine The ascendent fortune of their heauenly signe For wise men are not borne as Midwiues be To waite on luckie howres or for the fee Of Bisket influence their vertue barres The superstition of such gossipping starres But more then man his reason rules the skies His manhood shares a godhead that is wise In this faire starrie Mirrour of the skie Damaskt with beautie and varietie Of thousand constellations whose cleare flames Are knowne in maps by their celestiall names For there the faire Oryon and the Beare Maior and Minor grace this hemispheare Swift Pegasus and Perseus radiant light Burnish the tan'd face of the blackemores night Bright Cassiopeia and Ioues Eagles shines Besides the constellations of the signes Which euery foole in Physicke can make good Their vse in purges pills and letting blood And euery Almanacke druggest poorely read Can tell what witlesse signe raignes in his head But leauing these beyond their yearely date To smoke an Indian sulphure we create Againe our hallowed Altars and in fires Of morrall vowes our sacred Muse aspires Tell me thou graue and mightie Stagerite Oracâ—lous Schocleman whose deluding light The lothsome Epicure and horrid sect Of damned Atheisme follow with direct And eager sent what genius could deuise To spread so large such monstrous heresies That euen besides graue Orpheus and the rest Proclus and Plinie and the learned brest Of sharpe Auerroes Christian Atheists crie The world 's eternall and shall neuer die VVhen by the state of starres we may discrie The world 's firme ruin and mortalitie And Platoes creature hauing life and breath As they decline shall languish vnto death And as a crazed bodie full of howers Renders his siluer head and vitall powers His radicall moisture spent and euery part Gasping for motion from the panting hart To natures disolution so shall passe Both heauen and earth vnto their pristine Mars Although some say that this great Continent And all this glorious guilt-hatcht firmament Shall change his forme and accidentall frame Although the part substantiall be the same Alleaging for their weake Philosophie This sacred place of sweet diuinitie Yet by the fall of starres our reasons prooue A totall wrack of earth and heauen aboue For first we see the Sunne whose bright Carrier Trots through the ring of time and dates the yeer In his diurnall progresse now declines More neere the earth then in the former times When learned Ptolome obserued the starres Their houses signes and different characters Cheering old Ops now doting with long daies VVith cordiall flames and charitable rayes That else in this consumption would exspire VVanting so bright a Nurse whose cheering fire Restores her health with his preseruatiue cure Adding new life to her old temperature Besides infection of each element Corruption of the purest temperament Physitions now turne Satyrs and complain That nature is a stepdame in the frame Of this last Age when croking Rauens sing Their liues large Charter merrier then a king The stately Stag a hundred yeares shall graze But man to wormes meate turnes in fewer dayes Pigmies for Gyants that with Babell power Were wont to scale the high Olympiade Tower And wrastle with the Gods now dwarfes are borne Ne're made to fight but made to natures scorne The Arcadian Kings two hundred yeares did liue But now the thriftie heauens doe scarcely giue Halfe of that pension to the noblest man His graue but sixe foot long his life a span VVhich shewes the world corrupted from his best Declines his setling progresse to the west For since all things from their sincere creation Couet absurdities in generation And euery thing steales to his priuatiue
surest men Vertue was then a habit of the minde Without equiuocation and confinde To his true obiect of beatitude Diuided from the world or multitude Of popular prayses Arts did then despise The secular habits of great vanities Liu'd richly reuerent in poore simple weeds Without Monasticke hoods did Saint-like deeds Had neither pride to enuie whom doth rise Nor Patron to bestow a benefice And did supply poore nature with poore clothes Dranke when a thirst and eate when hunger growes Gaue no gratuities but to present A worthlesse Dunce to schollers discontent And hire a simple Curate scarcely paide With as much wages as a laundry-mayde Liu'd without grumbling or ambitious hate And slept contented with an humble fate The Arts contemn'd men of high swelling rankes And scarce to Alexander would giue thankes For visiting their tub so much their hate Scorn'd the prowd painted sepulchers of state Learning did then liue pure in Paradice But since her fall to pride and auarice And al diseases that infect the Arts Do rot and putrifie their knowing parts Since these contagions learning is possest These make the musicke of a learned brest Iarre in harsh discords and vnrellisht straines And do corrupt the most refined braines With Saturnes snarling spirit grosse and dull Inspiring rage into a patient skull For when we see that in the Muses chaire Midas is Iudge and vertue must despaire Of a right worthy Patron Faunius preach Where once Apollo did sweet musicke teach Arachne with Minerua doth compare Dunces with Doctors and their betters farre This makes the worthy Artist dull and sad And rare deserts most melancholy mad Yet thus much know you whose deep Genius claâ—â—â— The honor of a Scholler not the names When Iupiter tooke all the Arts of price To heauen with vertue and left onely vice In stead of iustice and white chastitie Vnto the earth left bribes and symonie Yet in a boxe he onely hope did spare To wretched man that neuer leaues him bare Another sort of these dull sectarists Are our most supercilious Humorists Who Saturnisde with this vnkinde aspect Goes as a plodding Lawyer circumspect As though his braine pan thro'd of some great strain Tor I de from Yorke to London backe againe His eyes looke like two soyled tablebookes In which are written most obseruant lookes His formall brow contracted to a frowne Lookes like the Maior of some Puritan towne Spic'd with austeerest schisme that scarce will see A Maypole to be nearer heauen then hee As sterne as Socrates or Catoes grace That ne're was seene to change their sullen face As crabtree brow'd as Iudges at a Size That dart their hanging terrors from their eyes Profest deepe politicians these we call Yet farre from state and depth politicall Although their trauels well do vnderstand Sweete Sion and the blessed holy-land Iudeas ruines and the raced Towers Of great Ierusalem by Titus powers The sacred relickes of that tombe they made VVherein our Sauiours body Ioseph laide The worlds seuen wonders whom all times prefer To be Mausolus stately sepulcher Egypts Pyramides the second is The third the Obeliske of Semiramis The fourth the rich Colossi of the Sonne At Rhodes the fifth the walls of Babylon The sixth Dianaes temple as appeares That was in building two and twentie yeares The seuenth and last was that most curious frame Of Iupiter Olympus knowne by Fame All which because they can with points relate They boldly challenge eminence in state And walke with mumbling and a grim neglect As if each stone were bound to giue respect With notice of their trauells that haue runne Their progresse through the world from sunne to sun As if the state like Gray-hounds thought men fit For footmenship and not for searching wit A horse of Barberie that scowers the ground Or Drake's fleete Pinnis that did dance the round About the world in trauell can compare With the most proudest traueller that dare Cut the burnt line or with Trans-alpine state Contend in pilgrimage with Coryat T' is not bare trauell that can make men wise But this from man not from the Climates rise Gold makes not India rich but India poore Sith their men want although their mines haue store Though Alchimy do beare a glorious glosse Compar'd with gold t' is bullion and base drosse Things superficiall in state ne're agree Without dimension of profunditie Desert and not opinion of their merit Shall grace a Sceane of state when as the spirit Of a true information personates In liuely actions both to kings and states Abilitie to shew how kingdomes thriue And to be practicke not contemplatiue Like Caesar's Parrat these can only sound Aue to Caesar but in talke profound And mazes of true politicks of State That towse graue heads with windings intricate Th' are like the gates of Myndus built so wide As if Diogenes aloud had cride Ho fooles of Myndus keepe you in those straites Lest that your citie doe runne through your gates Lord-like these trauell and doe spend the time Onely for fashions in a forraine Clime Without obseruant searching of the hart Of nations customes or the rationall part Of fundamentall pollicie and with fashion Are more transform'd then form'd in their creatioÌ„ Yet like an antick mountibanck commends The vertue of his drugges and then pretends Experience of his oyles farre fetcht from hence How forraine States admired his excellence when he perhaps this taske did entertaine For three to one at his returne againe Yet these Italionated antick shapes Transform'd from men to immitationes Apes Like Hyppocentaures or some monstrous creature Chang'd from pure English to outlandish nature Or rather in both sexes take delight Diuided halfe like an Hermophrodite From their owne fashions most doe alienate Like monstrous births and kindes degenerate When their fond trauell at the deerest price Brought nothing home but their ill fashioned vice Fond-medling fooles that beare the character Of that poore-carping and base-shoomaker That checks Apelles in his curious frame Goe not beyond your last lest to your shame Your sullen humors to that Orbe aspire Where your pride burnes you in your pollitick fire Packe to the center you dull-pated slaues And there in grosse and melancholly caues â—ie mischiefes with your Planet and let state Be left to him that shares a worthier fate Those whom bright honour and intelligence Of their high secrets crownes with reuerence Of age and sollide iudgement those whose paines Like Chimes at midnight seasons strikes their braines With vigilantest motion whose desire Like to a Glassehouse keepes continuall fire Of zealous flames whose stately honours rise Euen from the ashes of that sacrifice That in whose Hecatombes of loyall blood Their Noble houses euer haue made good Vnto their Prince and Countrie such shall ride Like Ariadnes honours stellified Throughout the milke-white circle and there shine To forraine nations in that golden line Of Roman Curtius till the marble hart Of enuie and detraction breake and part From his staru'd karâ—as and times
VVhen neither Sea nor bind coopt in a ring Keept their conseruatiue place nor any thing Had an essentiall forme or element Circle or Center had true complement Of Art or nature but when heauen and earth Had from confusions bowels knawne the birth Of this faire Child nam'd Cosmos the Mouers eie Distinguisht this faire obiect of the skie From his disordred masse with all this globe And suted it in farre more formall robe Of quantitie and figure Then began All lights to light the Makers darling MAN For which indeer'd creation and respect This Microcosme of man was made errect With vpright speculation lineally To view this rich imbrodred Cannopie Of those Coelestiall bodies and begin 〈◊〉 crie Heauen is my Countrie Earth my Inne But leauing him to Heauen of Earth we sing As being of the world the perfects thing In the Creations wonder and the end Of our aspiring hopes which we ascend 〈◊〉 to our locall blisse and naturall place To end euen there where neuer ended grace Of Heauen THis glorious globe of heauens resplendent ball Trapt richly with his lights pontificall Fountaine of motion by which euery starre Is whirld from East to West orbicular In foure and twentie houres as Shepheards say Trotting the circuite of the naturall day Is of no frame nor forme geometricall But round of body and as Sphericall As the Egyptian Sages did compare The winding Snake vnto the circled yeere For of all figures this doth best appeare Euery way shewing a iust hemis pheare Bending vpon it selfe most capable To comprehend this frame so strong and able To boulster vp this loade and ponderous frame As it hath neither ioynts but still the same Keeping his actiue body aply sound As it is iointlesse pointlesse endlesse round Now whether this pure quintessence of nature Be euerliuing or a dying creature Or whether that diuine intelligence That giues to heau'n his turning excellence Giue essence or assistance as without The soule that moues it it were still from doubt Of what we call it now as ships that scowre The Oceans curled billowes by the powre And cunning of the Pilote eu'n to that clime Where that great idoll gold Saint of the time To whom the Indian Pilgrimes sacrifice Such three yeares Hecatombs of widowes cries Speaking in golden Oracles of drosse The Brusses murmure and the Mariners losse And yet at last returne with crazed slides With grasse-greene ribs furd with tempestuous tides With two or three aliue the Pilotes hand Guiding the sickely vessell to the land By which we see his forme and name he saues Although the Pilotes motion plowes the waues With card and compasse so in naturall sense Heau'n takes no forme from his intelligence Which onely like a Pilote sweetly steeres The harmony of nature in the spheares With powre assistent and their motions carrie With certaine lawes and statutes voluntarie That as when euery element doth striue To moue vnto his place conseruatiue As being so imperfect and so base That they must pine and die without a place And locall conseruation yet is heau'n a creature Of such a perfect quintessense of nature That it esteemes not place for conseruation But to another end of generation Moues with his powerfull influence whence began Our Schooles to ring the sun and man get man But leauing these to treade the thornie maze Of Schoole-cram'd Sophistrie againe we raise Our haughtie Muse to flie with sollid wings And search with starres and subcelestiall things For since we see that by the loadstones might The yron age is drawne where with delight The readers eye doth fansie and mens wits Like Bagpipes sound no sound but pleasant fits We are resolu'd to plucke such fruits from schooles And once to please Physitians knaues and fooles For to all these I know our booke shall come Packe Doctor to thy vrine and be dumbe The sottish Empericke onely fooles haue land And so haue countrey-knights these these command The Muses sonnes with an idolatrous knee To pray to Angels or a noble fee Of some poore Pamphlet Hence bastards to your sire Whilest we reuiue our quicke Promothean fire The number of these turning spheares of heauen Some say but nine others affirme eleuen Which all Diuines more full of holy fire Nam'd sacred Hirarchies where the blest quier Of heauenly Angels and true Martirs rides That with triumphant wreaths shall iudge the tribes The order of the Orbes caelestiall Are numbred thus the first imperiall So called of the Greekes as being a place Most full of holy light and Angels grace Whose blessed soules from passion doe suruiue Their substance onely being definitiue Not circumscriptiue as our bodies be With the aires cincture or concauitie Their bodies free from any locall span Of grose dimensions or precinctes of man And therefore in one bodie spirits dwell All in one place more then large Art can tell For round about the iust mans life and merits Million of Angels and bright flaming spirits Shall at one time and in one place vnite Their most regardant powers infinite And vnextended in our bodies moue With subtill motion from their place aboue Either to saue with a protectors will Heauens glorious darling or by their power distill With whippes of vengeance by their power diuine In Legions name possessing men and swine This Heauen the seate of those most happie soules Whose summum bonum all true blisse enrowles Was that third heauen whose glorious excellence Most sweetly rauisht Pauls admiring sence That steept in Loethe of so blest a trice He prayes to be disolued to Paradice And gorg'd with holy raptures full of grace He sings th' Abysse blisse riches of that place The second is the primum mobile So called by Sages in Philosophie Because as from so cleare and christall spring Proceeds the birth death motion of each thing Being the first that in his iust Carrere Deriues all motion to each second Spheare And yet himselfe in golden meane doth ride Equall in motion like the sacred guide Of some prime reuerent Prelat whose great Sea Is mou'd with hauenly Regularite Diuine in motion and Diuine in place Free of his learned influence rich in grace Oh pardon me dull age if I proclaime His venerable life more then his name Suparlatiuely gratious barke Heriticks to see Such Metropolitan vniformitie VVhilest your great fisherman in Tibers flood Shall moue in purple streames of royall blood And with disorderd orders turne the keyes To locke young fooles in Limbo and with ease Martyr a fond Apostate who reconcild By a graue goate-like father liues exild In some Sulphureous troope of Iesuites Whose powder-treason-Collidges inuites A Tiborne resolution whether sent or come Dies Traitors here and halter Saints at Rome But with a certaine order moues our heau'n Not swift nor slow but paraleld and euen From whence we truly know and can define Her motion heauenly and write it in the line Of Orthodoxall faith which moouing stands
To stretch foorth all thy powers to excesse And fat thy heart with mortall foolishnesse These are those atomes of nobilitie Which in thy schoole thou taugh'st erroneously To be the worlds beginning Laugh fond Sir Such moates of gentrie makes a Vsurer Raile foule-mouth'd Cinick lend thy lanthorne here That to thy candles brightnesse may appeare These Scums of gentrie turne my beagle-Muse To lash these Butterflies that doe abuse The name of that bright Planet that shootes forth More virtue then their Tailors-billes are worth And if my Satyr gently letting blood Might of true nobler brests be vnderstood What we call honor or Nobilitie Who knowes not vertue is gentilitie An habit of the minde not of the clothes Which euery poore Logician truly knowes To be in diuers Categories plac'd The one in qualitie the other grac'd With Art and Scituation Courtiers then Would scorne such gaudy Gallifoists of men And rather fill their honord traine with starres Such whose vnspotted vertues weares no Scarres Of bankerout Citizens that weares his owne Like Byas still about him and not growne To surfets with excesse in sutes of trust Filling his hot veines with insatiat lust To formes of alteration yet at last Is alwaies poore in vertue rich in wast The honor of this Planet shewes the minde And not the cast-clothes of some fawning hinde That by obseruance to his mightie Lord Hath crept into good outsides by a word Bought afore moud For some poore office feede That now is fallen to helpe the busie neede Of some poore Groome Great Iupiter forbeare To hurle thy influence from thy princely Spheare That these may claime their most abortiue birth Vpon this leastall of this noisome earth From thy heroick flames as from their sire But to right noble brests giue nobler fire Let such adore thy rising in thy East That feele an honord furie in their brest Charme all ignoble-thoughts and with the age Leaue reliques of his honord pilgrimage Euen to his speaking marble that his stone May swet with memorie and his dust bemone The liuelesse forme of his dead Element Hearst vp in death whose liuing Monument Can with this heauenly Ecco thus resound Prince Henries steps hath taught vs the same groūd Of noble buildings and since him succeds A Princely Iupiter in noble-deeds And honord hopes how then can honour er That shares the spirits of this Iupiter And Princely beames whose motion most direct Treads worthie of so bright and faire aspect That trobled at his birth his princely rayes Behold great Prince what in these Antick dayes May make true honor currant and exclude The ends of high blouds from the multitude And fire of baser ranckes that when your age Shall come to vnderstand the Bedlame rage Of this distracted time and ripely see That not by reason but base phantasie Reflext from our opinions we define Honours to be the fashion of the time Like coloured Rainebowes that deceiue our eies With superficiall shapes of vanities And with mature and clearer beames of sight Distinguish of all obiects of the light In your perspicuous iudgement then your sense Shall in one point vnite the difference Of what a long time your too tender eie Your Organ not dispos'd could ne're discrie Then all things rightly set the Medium faire And the most grosse parts of this sinfull aire Diaphanall and cleare your eie shall see That the true species of nobilitie Is not th' extreame and outward visible part But the profound concealement of the hart Exempt from outward fashions so appli'd As it is truly noble without pride Or forraine imitation but intire To his owne fashion made not to admire But to attire poore nature and to draw The peoples hearts with an obsequious awe Vnto the Commons loue not common gaze Of Player-like-fashions for true honors praise Is like the blessed Hebrew tongue so strange That in confusions it did neuer change His primitiue purenesse and how vnlike we be To heauenly boaies in simplicitie In motion and in formes speake heauens in thunder And rate this mad world in a peale of wonder That euer since the order of thy frame Keepes still one fashion and moues still the same Nor is the soule as fond Pithagor as said Of a true nóble man to be conuai'd By transmigration or phantastick shapes Into the bodies of such Zainie-Apes As fashions make the English but assigned To the immortall vertue of the mind That 's not traduc'e or mixt of elements But of the most infused temperaments Subiect to no mortalitie of Fate Except base actions doe degenerate From that immortall and pure quintessense That vertue giues vs in our innocence From which if honor by relapse digresse We lose that paradice of happinesse Where honor was created and that place Where vertue did infuse originall grace Into a great mans soule Princes may eate Of euery tree that vertue made for meate Onely that tree in midd'st of Eden spred The tree of vice a touch of that strikes dead Thinke what it is great Prince that makes you liue Greater then you were borne when worth shall giue Vnto your actions such a long-liu'd fame As to all ages shall enrowle your name And such is vertue that can ne're exspire But like a Salamander liues in fire And furie of the times and there ne're burnes After the funerall ashes of our Vrnes For 't is not that great title that you weare Of princely greatnes and a future feare That can make you controler of the starres Or write your name in endlesse Characters To all posterities nor i st applause Or popularitie that can giue cause To make you liue for euer but in fine 'T is vertue giues a Godhead makes diuine Not Caesars birth made Caesar to suruiue But Caesars vertues that are yet aliue Great Alexander Homers Iliades read Whose vertues made him liue when he was dead A great mans vices dammes his fame so deepe Ther 's no redemption when his vertues sleèpe Actions crowne vertues and like Pulses prooue Whether the soule of greatnesse sweetly mooue With Natures harmony which standing still Or faintly beating shewes them dead or ill All this sweet Prince is to instruct your youth Without equiuocation to the truth Of honourable actions that doe rise And mount by vertue to possesse the skies For marke but that diuorce that time hath sude From such a Kingly troope and multitude Of memorie and fame and with their toombe Buried their honours with an equall doome In silence and obliuion you shall see That vertue reades the Art of memorie And can doe miracles euen from the dead To raise true worth by time canonized And fetch new breath in princes when our shame And vice in Lymbo shall ramme vp our name What pen shall blaze that Epicures dam'd vaine That wisht his licorish pallate like a Crane In surfets and high sparklings healthes of wine Vnlesse some Satyr with his lashing line Flea his abuse or else the stage hath stung His life
He 's wisest that by others harmes growes wise When I behold the Queene of seas and night Shifting her formes in changes to our sight I see the world Cameleon-like pursue Her changing humors and her diuers hue Sometimes me thinks I see a peasant ride In his full-moone of surfet and of pride As if he tilted gainst authoritie Defied his Taylors importunitie Scornd his poore Saffron-laundresse and his hoast Beat his poore Shoomaker and rid in post To dicing-Tauerns next day without faile His moone is chang'd he damned in a Iayle Sometimes I see some sacred retiques turnd To Theaters prophane and tapers burnd For damned Comedies where singing quires At midnight cast their odoriferous fires Which to a diuell would appeare a change Of most vnchristian toleration strange Sometimes I see more then mine eyes would see Steeples to stables turn'd and Sanctitie Chang'd into rauenous Roabes of pollicie That I more wonder at this transmutation Then at the Moones alturnate alteration Againe reflect mine eye vpon the age That was and is I see times pilgrimage Corrupted with such pestilence of euill That man to man turnes wolfe nay more a diuell I see ambition begging innocence Well-landed for a foole as if all sense Were tied to pompe or policie of state That our best landed men are fooles by fate Which makes meÌ„ count a Scholler blest in Schooles Which though they begge the 'r seldom begd for fools He 's got in an Eclipse so weake by birth He liues by th' aire hath not a foote of earth This is a fatall thing prodigious chance Great fortunes fauour grossest ignorance Sometimes I see the euer-turning spheare Of man and fortune like new-Moones appeare Still waxing to a full increase of light Till it seeme round full circled and most bright To all men eyes till by the darkesome shade Of some mischance a blacke eclipse be made Thus haue I seene inconstant Tradesmen floate Now rich to morrow broake not worth a groate T is the condition of this glorious frame And all things that beneath the Moone we name Nay eu'n the things aboue her orbed face Do couet changes from their naturall place Till with mutations all things thinke it best To melt vnto their Chaos and so rest When man is borne and speechlesse prophesies Of times successions and his miseries He first begins to waxe then wanes to worse Sees many Moones and then begins to curse The changes of the times which many yeares His vexed soule hath markt the swift careeres Of Sunne and Moone and notes the age turnd Iew With tedious howers then he bids adeiw Vnto his golden daies when in his rage His long liu'd tongue speakes of the wicked age Tels what a braue world t was when Bullens towers Trembled like Aspen leaues at Henries powres Obseruing not the world the same to stand VVhen t is mens manners change and not the land Here could I fing the changes of all states Eu'n from the conquering and victorious gates Of Tyber-grasping Roome tell of her storie VVrite of her changes and her waning glorie Euen to this mightie Westerne Monarchie Since first the Danes subdude her libertie But more then I can write all things perswade What euer were or is to be shall fade And though the world were euiternall thought T is not eternall but shall change to nought But now I turne my sailes from seas to land Here 's more then men will reade or vnderstand Though orderly next to the firmament These wandring planets do themselues present And next to them earth water aire and fire Succeed in place my spirit to inspire VVith matter of diuine Philosophie To tell of euerie primate qualitie That with predomination doth present The Lordly pride of euerie Element In bodies mixt and first I should repaire To the three Regions of the subtill Aire Tell of the fearefull Comets in the skie Whose diuers formes giue to the prodigie Ten fearefull seuerall kinds which so we name As they are diuers in their formes or flame Of thunder lightning and their blasting mightâ— Of haile snow raine and tempests of the night Of Fiers that haunt Churchyards and forlorne graues Of Winds by which our ships dance on the waues Of earthquakes and the veines of euerie mine Of gold for which we cut the burning line Of plants of trees and of their qualities How in their formes and place they simbolize And how againe for enuie and despight The vine and Colewort neuer do delight To grow one by another then to sing Of glistering Iewels and each pretious thing To tell the vertue of the Chrysolite The sparkling Carbuncle that shines by night The purple Hyacinth whose stone imparts Sollace and mirth to our griefe-nummed harts The heauenly Azure Saphirs qualitie Whom Authors say preserueth chastitie The greene Smaragdus foe to Venus reakes Whose stone in hot coniunction blushing breakes And many more that by the glorious Sunne In the earths wombe take their conception These in their order should my pen incite Of Natures vniuersall workes to write And in sweet morall lectures to applie The worlds abuses to their misterie But that I hardly can be brought to thinke The time loues gaull by which I make mine inke Or haue so much wit in their shallow braines To reade and vnderstand me for my paines For by this plague we euer are outstript When we whip others we our selues are whipt By Carters and poore silly senslesse hinds Whose grosser bodies carry grosser minds For vnderstanding such lend onely lookes And thinke of Poems as of coniuring bookes Where in they see braue circles to the eye But more admire then know the misteriee Of Arts profunditie I feare none but such My selfe hath liu'd too long and writ too much FINIS Pâ—thagoras his opinion The end of Man Anaxagoras Principle Motus raptus Or contrary motion Plinie lib. 1. vt nauta naui it a intelligentia coeli Zab. lib. de motu coeli Scalig. excer 68. Sect. 1. Heauenneeds no place of conseruation Sol homo generat hominem Ptolomies opinion Empuros Arist. Aquinas his opinion Math. Ch. 5. In this heauen Paul was rapt Genes 1. Parescumparibus Sapiens dominabitur Astris Aâ—st lib. 1. de coelo The world is eternall Theophrastus Plinie Cic. Odimus quos timemus Uox populi vox Dei Corruptio vnius generatio alterius The beautious Princesse Elizabeth Arist. l. 4. probl 15. Animum cum coelo mutant Zabarell lib. 1. de motu grauium leuium Uenienti occurrite morbo Non nobis solum nati Aristocratâ—a Democratia Monarchia Omnis motus non est causa calorss Scaliger Virtus vera nobilâ—tas Omnia mea mecum porte Pithegoeas his opinion Anima est totaâ—toto in qualibet parte Thales opinion of water to be the mother of all things Himmasequitur temperamentum corporis opino Galen Zeuxis an excellent Painter Singulariae sensus vniuersaliâ— intellectus Aris. Topi. lib. prim Ichnumon or Pharoahs rat Regdomontanus made a Flie of Iron like a natural Flie. * Copernicus his opinion
THE PHILOSOPHERS SATYRS WRITTEN BY M. ROBERT ANTON of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge Gaude quod spectant oculi te mille loquentem Quicquid sub terra est in apricum proferet aetas LONDON Printed by T. C. and B. A. for Roger Iackson and are to be sold at his shop in Fleetstreet ouer against the great Conduit 1616. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM LORD HERBERT EARLE OF Pembrooke Baron of Cardiffe Marmion and Saint Quintin one of his Maiesties most honourable priuie Counsell and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter Robert Anton wisheth a happy life militant and triumphant I Remember Right Honourable the whining complaint of the Poet concerning vertue Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam delapsum in coelis 'T is the iron age and vertue must haue Estredge like concoction or else die in an Hospitall for want of a Patron T is well she is stellified in heauen for earth is her locall place of torment I haue been a sad spectator of her iniuries and deplore her miserable exile yet her ecclipse by the interposition of vice is not a totall defect of her heauenly light but partiall and limited yet how prodigious it is the tragicall changes of this age can truly prophesie Some Surgeon might haue begd a dead body from the fanges of execution whose Anotomy might haue taught the age the constitution of vice impostumated with murder and hot raind affections My prayer is more charitable then Cynicall to wish any plants of such an vnfortunate tree I haue seene vice adored with her superstitious Imagerie and I wish all true Protestants to vertue rather to die Martyrs then reuolt from her profession in whose faith your honour is held a most religious professor the sects of vice are more then in Amsterdam to whose errors I oppose my booke as an eager disputant The motions of this planitarie satire are regular and presented in a maske of a seuenfold vniformity Appeare Philosopher in thy vndaunted humor of grauity spit defiance in the face of scurrile satirrisme lend heauenly whipcord and borrow correction from the Sunne fetch blood from the whole body of Nature and the sixe planets lay on load on the stigmatick shoulders of vice This book was conceiued in dog-daies and must bite the signe is in Scorpio and the planets in their most criticall mansion Be as the world thinkes you vertuous and reade this booke with a more then laurell resolution The thunder hath no power ouer a consecrated and vertuous mind it smites onely strong timbred villanies Kings haue accepted rootes from a Philosopher the gift is small yet it calls you Lord and me master A satire is musicke worthie of Pithagor as his opinion especially when the planets dance a heauenly lauolto they are nimble spirited and actiue and onely hope for the passiue part of your noble patronage Your Honours obliged Robert Anton. TO THE COVRTEOVS AND Iudicious Reader WHo ere thou art that art intellectuall be thou my Organist and let thy soule which with Philosophers is but a harmonie keepe time with this Musicall maske of the Spheares I haue laboured here to present Art and Nature without their vgly periwiggs of obsceane and shallow Poetry and haue distinguisht the confusion of time from a graue and methodical dialect How poore and naked doth that labour appeare that hath no other clothes but the sustian of Apes and base imitation how like a Bedlam looks a Poet by nature that neuer writes but in full Moones of surfets and Bacchanalian quotations of young Gentlemens ruins and dice consuming Lordships how poore a Graduate is learning wheÌ„ it keeps acts in tenebris murders the Presse with fellonious Pamphlets stolne froÌ„ the imperfections of their deerest friends nay purloined froÌ„ their own scabbed dispositions and vlcerous inclinations I must confesse my selfe to bee a sorrowfull patient in my owne defects yet a phisicall proficient in their remedies I take no pleasure in the incision of other men Onely I reade an Anotomie lector of their vices Comment vpon me with iudgement not censure and thou shalt find thy soule brimfull of emulation but void of enuie for others that are not borne with a generous infusion I hold with Galen that the temperament of their soules followes the temperament of their grosse and sottish bodies and therefore basely vncapable Thine as thy iudgement is R. A. IN SATYRAS DIGNISSIMAS et vere Phylosophicas amici sui verissimi Roberti Anton. INcipe sis primus sophiae qui mystica iura In Satyras vertens crimina vera canit Phylosophus verus sis nominis ellumon inde Sit tibi sâ—m philos tu mihi chare sophos To his 〈◊〉 friend R. A. DEesert and praise are Twins The first being quicke The second still is so or if it die Then is the first too sound or else too sicke And so may dye in grace or Enuies eye But this with wonder in my stomacke stickes That Satyrs wrapt but in base Balladrie Are praisd beyond the moone of lunatickes As being sun-begot so cannot die Needs must I hugge the Muse and praise the pen Of him that makes his Satires dance a brall Vnto the musicke of the spheares euen then When as the planets footed it withall Thou sharply singst but he the burden beares That would haue songe more sharpe but for his eares I. D TO THE AVTHOR WEll may we praise those books that bring vs store Of profit with their pleasure here to fore Th' art of Astronomie was such tough meate It almost broke our teeth ere we could eate â—â—t thou with quaint and curious dressing hast Made it melt now like honâ—â— â—n the 〈◊〉 And sith heauen 's so farre 〈◊〉 one easily may Goe thither for 't is vphill all the way Thou to saue vs the paine of trauelling thus Iudicious writer bringst the heauens to vs Makst the starres serue as letters by which we May reade the secrets of Astronomie Yet winn'st thou not graue tutor more respect When thou didst teach then when thou dost correct The golden age is past iron the worst Is onely left and that 's halfe eate with rust Rough files and corsiue waters onely may For oyle does no good fetch this rust away Well therefore hast thou chose with Satyricke rimes To whip and fetch blood from these Bedlam times So wise Physitians when they see bad blood Open a veine that they may make it good P. B. Medii Temp. THE PHILOSOPHERS SEVEN Satyrs aluding to the seuen Planets And first of his Section of heauen THere was a time before all time begun VVhen the proud Iennets of the radiant Sunne VVere scarce deliuered from the wombe of night And backt by circular motion when all light Soiourn'd with darknesse and this glorious ball Had neither forme nor soule Angelicall To moue those orbes aboue as some propound With rauishing musicke or such heauenly sound As that great distance of those rowling spheares Barres from the organs of all humane eares