II. HYMNES OF ASTRÆA.
The following is the original title-page of 'Astrœa':
HYMNES OF
ASTRŒA, IN
Acrosticke verse
London
Printed for J. S.
1599
[4o pp. 27: register A. B. C. D. of 4 leaves each.]
Throughout, the Poet spells 'Astrœa': probably Asteria ('Αστερια) were more accurate. Our text for these 'Hymnes' is, as in Nosce Teipsum, the edition of 1622: but throughout, compared with the first, as supra. Title-page in 1622 edition is as follows:
HYMNES
of
ASTREA
In Acrosticke Verse.
London
Printed by A. M. for Richard Hawkins.
1622. [8vo.]
With reference to Elizabeth who is so glorified in these 'Hymnes' as 'Astræa,' cf. the 'Conference between a Gentleman-Usher and a Post' in our Memorial-Introduction. I have since found that another copy of this interesting MS. is preserved among the Harleian MSS.: No. cclxxxvi fol. 248. I would here call attention to the correspondence between the metaphor of the Senses serving the Intellect in 'Nosce Teipsum' and in the 'Conference' as flatteringly descriptive of the position held by her 'ministers' to the Queen. In Davison's 'Rhapsody' the name for Elizabeth is Astræa. G.
[Hymnes to Astrœa.]
HYMNE I.
Of Astrœa.[168]
E arly before the day doth spring,
L et us awake my Muse, and sing;
I t is no time to slumber,
S o many ioyes this time doth bring,
A s Time will faile to number.
B ut whereto shall we bend our layes?
E uen vp to Heauen, againe to raise[169]
T he Mayd, which thence descended;
H ath brought againe the golden dayes,
A nd all the world amended.
R udenesse it selfe she doth refine,
E uen like an Alchymist diuine;
G rosse times of yron turning
I nto the purest forme of gold;
N ot to corrupt, till heauen waxe old,
A nd be refined with burning.
HYMNE II.
To Astræa.
E ternall Virgin, Goddesse true,
L et me presume to sing to you.
I oue, euen great Ioue hath leasure
S ometimes to heare the vulgar crue,
A nd heares them oft with pleasure.
B lessèd Astræa, I in part
E nioy the blessings you impart;
T he Peace, the milke and hony,
H umanitie, and civil Art,
A richer dower then money.
R ight glad am I that now I liue,
E uen in these dayes whereto you giue
G reat happinesse and glory;
I f after you I should be borne,
N o doubt I should my birth-day scorne,
A dmiring your sweet storie.
HYMNE III.
To the Spring.
E arth now is greene, and heauen is blew,
L iuely Spring which makes all new,
I olly Spring, doth enter;
S weete yong sun-beames doe subdue
A ngry, agèd Winter.
B lasts are milde, and seas are calme,
E uery meadow flowes with balme,
T he Earth weares all her riches;
H armonious birdes sing such a psalme,
A s eare and heart bewitches.
R eserue (sweet Spring) this Nymph of ours,
E ternall garlands of thy flowers,
G reene garlands neuer wasting;
I n her shall last our State's faire Spring,
N ow and for euer flourishing,
A s long as Heauen is lasting.
HYMNE IV.
To the Moneth of May.
E ach day of thine, sweet moneth of May,
L oue makes a solemne holy-day.
I will performe like duty,
S ith thou resemblest euery way
A stræa, Queen of beauty,
B oth you fresh beauties do pertake,
E ither's aspect doth Summer make,
T houghts of young Loue awaking;
H earts you both doe cause to ake,
A nd yet be pleas'd with akeing.
R ight deare art thou, and so is shee,
E uen like attractiue sympathy,
G aines vnto both like dearenesse;
I weene this made Antiquitie
N ame thee, sweet May of Maiestie,
A s being both like in clearnesse.
HYMNE V.
To the Larke.
E arley, cheerfull, mounting Larke,
L ight's gentle vsher, Morning's clark,
I n merry notes delighting;
S tint awhile thy song, and harke,
A nd learne my new inditing.
B eare vp this hymne, to heau'n it beare,
E uen vp to heau'n, and sing it there,
T o heau'n each morning beare it;
H aue it set to some sweet sphere,
A nd let the Angels heare it.
R enownd Astræa, that great name,
E xceeding great in worth and fame,
G reat worth hath so renownd it;
I t is Astræa's name I praise,
N ow then, sweet Larke, do thou it raise,
A nd in high Heauen resound it.
HYMNE VI.
To the Nightingale.
E uery night from euen till morne,
L oue's Quirister amidde the thorne
I s now so sweet a singer;
S o sweet, as for her song I scorne
A pollo's voice, and finger.
B ut Nightingale, sith you delight
E uer to watch the starry night;
T ell all the starres of heauen,
H eauen neuer had a starre so bright,
A s now to Earth is giuen.
R oyall Astræa makes our day
E ternall with her beames, nor may
G rosse darknesse ouercome her;
I now perceiue why some doe write,
N o countrey hath so short a night,
A s England hath in Summer.
HYMNE VII.
To the Rose.
E ye of the Garden, Queene of flowres,
L ove's cup wherein he nectar powres,
I ngendered first of nectar;
S weet nurse-child of the Spring's young howres,
A nd Beautie's faire character.
B est iewell that the Earth doth weare,
E uen when the braue young sunne draws neare,
/span> T o her hot Loue pretending;[170] H imselfe likewise like forme doth beare,
A t rising and descending.
R ose of the Queene of Loue belou'd;
E ngland's great Kings diuinely mou'd,
G ave Roses in their banner;
I t shewed that Beautie's Rose indeed,
N ow in this age should them succeed,
A nd raigne in more sweet manner.
HYMNE VIII.
To all the Princes of Europe.
E urope, the earth's sweet Paradise,
L et all thy kings that would be wise,
I n politique deuotion;
S ayle hither to obserue her eyes,
A nd marke her heaunly motion.
B raue Princes of this ciuill age,
E nter into this pilgrimage;
T his saint's tongue is an oracle,
H er eye hath made a Prince a page,
A nd works each day a miracle.
R aise but your lookes to her, and see
E uen the true beames of maiestie,
G reat Princes, marke her duly;
I f all the world you doe suruey,
N o forehead spreades so bright a ray,
A nd notes a Prince so truly.
HYMNE IX.
To Flora.
E mpresse of flowers, tell where away
L ies your sweet Court this merry[171] May,
I n Greenewich Garden allies?[172]
S ince there the heauenly powers do play
A nd haunt no other vallies.
B eautie, vertue, maiestie,
E loquent Muses, three times three,
T he new fresh Houres and Graces,
H aue pleasure in this place to be,
A boue all other places.
R oses and lillies did them draw,
E re they diuine Astræa saw;
G ay flowers they sought for pleasure:
I nstead of gathering crownes of flowers,
N ow gather they Astræa's dowers,
A nd beare to heauen that treasure,
HYMNE X.
To the Moneth of September.
E ach moneth hath praise in some degree;
L et May to others seeme to be
I n sense the sweetest Season;
S eptember thou art best to me,
A nd best dost please my reason.
B ut neither for thy corne nor wine
E xtoll I those mild dayes of thine,
T hough corne and wine might praise thee;
H eauen giues thee honour more diuine,
A nd higher fortunes raise thee.
R enown'd art thou (sweet moneth) for this,
E mong thy dayes her birth-day is;[173]
G race, plenty, peace and honour
I n one faire hour with her were borne;
N ow since they still her crowne adorne,
A nd still attend vpon her.
HYMNE XI.
To the Sunne.
E ye of the world, fountaine of light,
L ife of Day, and death of Night;
I humbly seek thy kindnesse:
S weet, dazle not my feeble sight,
A nd strike me not with blindnesse.
B ehold me mildly from that face,
E uen where thou now dost run thy race,
T he spheare where now thou turnest;
H auing like Phaeton chang'd thy place,
A nd yet hearts onely burnest.
R ed in her right cheeke thou dost rise,
E xalted after in her eyes,
G reat glory there thou shewest;
I n th' other cheeke when thou descendest,
N ew rednesse vnto it thou lendest,
A nd so thy round thou goest.
HYMNE XII.
To her Picture.
E xtreame was his audacitie,
L ittle his skill, that finisht thee;
I am asham'd and sorry,
S o dull her counterfeit should bee,
A nd she so full of glory.
B ut here are colours red and white,
E ach line, and each proportion right;
T hese lines, this red and whitenesse,
H aue wanting yet a life and light,
A maiestie, and brightnesse.
R ude counterfeit, I then did erre,
E uen now when I would needs inferre
G reat boldnesse in thy maker;
I did mistake, he was not bold,
N or durst his eyes her eyes behold:
A nd this made him mistake her.
HYMNE XIII.
Of her Minde.
E arth, now adiew, my rauisht thought
L ifted to Heau'n sets thee at nought;
I nfinite is my longing,
S ecrets of angels to be taught,
A nd things to Heau'n belonging.
B rought downe from heau'n of angels kind,
E uen now doe I admire her mind;
T his is my contemplation,
H er cleare sweet spirit, which is refin'd
A boue humane creation.
R ich sun-beame of th' Æternall light,
E xcellent Soule, how shall I wright?[174]
G ood angels make me able;
I cannot see but by your eye,
N or, but by your tongue, signifie
A thing so admirable.
HYMNE XIIII.
Of the Sun-beames of her Mind.
E xceeding glorious is the starre,
L et vs behold her beames afarre
I n a side line reflected;
S ight bears them not, when neere they are,
A nd in right lines directed.
B ehold her in her vertues' beames,
E xtending sun-like to all realmes;
T he sunne none viewes too neerly:
H er well of goodnes in these streames,
A ppeares right well and clearely.
R adiant vertues, if your light
E nfeeble the best iudgement's sight,
G reat splendor aboue measure
I s in the mind from whence you flow;
N o wit may haue accesse to know,
A nd view so bright a treasure.
HYMNE XV.
Of her Wit.
E ye of that mind most quicke and cleere,—
L ike Heauen's eye, which from his spheare
I nto all things prieth;
S ees through all things euery where,
A nd all their natures trieth.
B right image of an angel's wit,
E xceeding sharpe and swift like it,
T hings instantly discerning;
H auing a nature infinit,
A nd yet increas'd by learning.
R ebound vpon thy selfe thy light,
E nioy thine own sweet precious sight
G iue us but some reflection;
I t is enough for vs if we
N ow in her speech, now policie,
A dmire thine high perfection.
HYMNE XVI.
Of her Will.
E uer well affected will,
L ouing goodnesse, loathing ill,
I nestimable treasure!
S ince such a power hath power to spill,[175]
A nd save vs at her pleasure.
B e thou our law, sweet will, and say
E uen what thou wilt, we will obay
T his law, if I could reade it;
H erein would I spend night and day,
A nd study still to plead it.
R oyall free-will, and onely free,
E ach other will is slaue to thee;
G lad is each will to serue thee:
I n thee such princely power is seene,
N o spirit but takes thee for her Queene,
A nd thinkes she must obserue thee.
HYMNE XVII.
Of her Memorie.
E xcellent iewels would you see,
L ouely ladies? come with me,
I will (for loue I owe you).
S hew you as rich a treasurie,
A s East or West can shew you.
B ehold, if you can iudge of it,
E uen that great store-house of her wit:
T hat beautiful large Table,
H er Memory; wherein is writ
A ll knowledge admirable.
R eade this faire book, and you shall learne
E xquisite skill; if you discerne,
G aine heau'n by this discerning;
I n such a memory diuine,
N ature did forme the Muses nine,
A nd Pallas Queene of Learning.
HYMNE XVIII.
Of Her Phantasie.
E xquisite curiositie,
L ooke on thy selfe with iudging eye,
I f ought be faultie, leaue it;
S o delicate a phantasie
A s this, will straight perceiue it.
B ecause her temper is so fine,
E ndewèd with harmonies diuine;
T herefore if discord strike it,
H er true proportions doe repine,
A nd sadly do[176] mislike it.
R ight otherwise a pleasure sweet
E uer she takes in actions meet,
G racing with smiles such meetnesse;
I n her faire forehead, beames appeare,
N o Summer's day is halfe so cleare,
A dorn'd with halfe that sweetnesse.
HYMNE XIX.
Of the Organs of her Minde.
E clipsed she is, and her bright rayes.
L ie under vailes, yet many wayes
I s her faire forme reuealed;
S he diuersly her selfe conueyes,
A nd cannot be concealed.
B y instruments her powers appeare
E xceedingly well tun'd and cleare:
T his lute is still in measure,
H olds still in tune, euen like a spheare,
A nd yeelds the world sweet pleasure.
R esolue me, Muse, how this thing is,
E uer a body like to this
G aue Heau'n to earthly creature?
I am but fond[177] this doubt to make
N o doubt the angels bodies take,
A bove our common nature.
HYMNE XX.
Of the Passions of her Heart.
E xamine not th' inscrutable heart,
L ight Muse of her, though she in part
I mpart it to the subiect;
S earch not, although from Heau'n thou art,
A nd this an heauenly obiect.
B ut since she hath a heart, we know,
E uer some passions thence doe flow,
T hough euer rul'd with Honor;
H er judgment raignes, they waite below,
A nd fixe their eyes vpon her.
R ectified so, they in their kind
E ncrease each vertue of her mind,
G ouern'd with mild tranquilitie;
I n all the regions vnder heau'n,
N o State doth beare it selfe so euen,
A nd with so sweet facilitie.
HYMNE XXI.
Of the innumerable vertues of her minde.
E re thou proceed in this sweet paines,
L earne Muse how many drops it raines
I n cold and moist December;
S um up May flowres, and August graines,
A nd grapes of mild September.
B eare the Sea's sand in memory,
E arth's grasses, and the starres in skie;
T he little moates which mounted,
H ang, in the beames of Phœbus' eye,
A nd neuer can be counted.
R ecount these numbers numberlesse,[178]
E re thou her vertue canst expresse,
G reat wits this count will, cumber.
I nstruct thy selfe in numbring Schooles;
N ow courtiers vse to begge for fooles,
A ll such as cannot number.
HYMNE XXII.
Of her Wisdome.
E [a]gle-eyed Wisdome, life's loadstarre,
L ooking neere on things afarre;
I oue's best beloued daughter,
S howes to her spirit all[179] that are,
A s Ioue himselfe hath taught her.
B y this straight rule she rectifies
E ach thought that in [her] heart doth rise:
T his is her cleane true mirror,
H er looking-glasse, wherein she spies
A [ll] forms of Truth and Error.
R ight princely vertue fit to raigne,
E nthroniz'd in her spirit remaine,
G uiding our fortunes euer;
I f we this starre once cease to see,
N o doubt our State will shipwrackt bee,
A nd torne and sunke for euer.
HYMNE XXIII.
Of her Justice.
E xil'd Astræa is come againe,
L o here she doth all things maintaine
I n number, weight, and measure:
S he rules vs with delightfull paine,
A nd we obey with pleasure.
B y Loue she rules more then by Law,
E uen her great mercy breedeth awe;
T his is her sword and scepter:
H erewith she hearts did euer draw,
A nd this guard euer kept her.
R eward doth sit in her right-hand,
E ach vertue thence taks her garland
G ather'd in Honor's garden;
I n her left hand (wherein should be
N ought but the sword) sits Clemency
A nd conquers Vice with pardon.
HYMNE XXIV.
Of her Magnanimitie.
E uen as her State, so is her mind,
L ifted aboue the vulgar kind;
I t treades proud Fortune vnder:
S un-like it sits aboue the wind,
A boue the stormes, and thunder.
B raue spirit, large heart, admiring nought,
E steeming each thing as it ought,
T hat swelleth not, nor shrinketh;
H onour is alwayes in her thought,
A nd of great things she thinketh.
R ocks, pillars, and heauen's axeltree,
E xemplifie her constancy;
G reat changes neuer change her:
I n her sexe, feares are wont to rise,
N ature permits, Vertue denies,
A nd scornes the face of Danger.
HYMNE XXV.
Of her Moderation.
E mpresse of kingdomes though she be,
L arger is her soueraigntie
I f she her selfe doe gouerne;
S ubiect vnto her self is she,
A nd of her selfe true soueraigne.
B eautie's crowne though she do weare,
E xalted into Fortune's chaire,
T hron'd like the Queene of Pleasure;
H er vertues still possesse her eare,
A nd counsell her to measure.
R eason, if shee incarnate were,
E uen Reason's selfe could neuer beare
G reatnesse with moderation;
I n her one temper still is seene,
N o libertee claimes she as Queene,
A nd showes no alteration.
HYMNE XXVI.
To Enuy.
E nuy, goe weepe; my Muse and I
L augh thee to scorne: thy feeble eye
I s dazeled with the glory
S hining in this gay poesie,
A nd little golden story.
B ehold how my proud quill doth shed
E ternall nectar on her head;
T he pompe of coronation
H ath not such power her fame to spread,
A s this my admiration.
R espect my pen as free and franke
E xpecting not reward nor thanke,
G reat wonder onely moues it;
I never made it mercenary,
N or should my Muse this burthen carrie
A s hyr'd, but that she loues it.
Finis.
[III. ORCHESTRA.]
NOTE.
In the Registers of the Stationer's Company, under date 25th June, 1594, a Mr. Harrison entered for copy-right of 'Orchestra' (Notes and Queries 3 S. II., p. 461: Dec. 13, '62): but it was not published till 1596. The following is the original title-page:
ORCHESTRA
OR
A POEME ON DAUNCING
Iudicially prooving the
true observation of time and
measure, in the Authenticall
and laudable use of Dauncing.
Ouid. Art. Aman. lib I.
Si vox est, canta: si mollia
brachia, salta
Et quacunque potes dote
placere, place.
AT LONDON:
Printed by J. Robarts
for N. Ling.
1596.
[18mo: pp 46: register A B C of 8 leaves each.]
In the Bodleian copy there is this inscription at top of title-page "Ex dono Wilti. Burdett, amici sui primo die Decembr. 1596 36. E. R."
Instead of the after-dedication 'To the Prince' there was the 'Sonnet' to Martin which we have placed before it. The title-page from the edition of 1622 may be added here:—
ORCHESTRA.
OR
A Poeme expressing the An-
tiquitie and Excellencie
OF DAVNCING.
In a Dialogue betweene Penelope
and one of her Wooers.
Not Finished.
LONDON.
Printed by A. M. for Richard Hawkins.
1622. [8vo.]
With reference to 'Not finished' placed on the later title-page (1622), it is explained by the stanzas restored from the first edition. These shew that the Poet had intended to pursue his subject further; even the hitherto omitted stanzas reading more like a fresh 'invocation' than a 'conclusion.'
Our text, as with 'Nosce Teipsum,' is from the edition of 1622: but compared throughout with above very rare, if not unique, first edition from the Bodleian. At close, by recurrence to the original edition we are able to supply the blanks of all the subsequent editions and reprints. See our Memorial-Introduction, for explanation of the omission: and for Sir John Harington's 'Epigram' on 'Orchestra.' G.
I. TO HIS VERY FRIEND, MA. RICH. MARTIN.[180]
To whom shall I this dauncing Poem send,
This suddaine, rash, half-capreol[181] of my wit?
To you, first mouer and sole cause of it,
Mine-owne-selues better halfe, my deerest frend.
O, would you yet my Muse some Honny lend
From your mellifluous tongue, whereon doth sit
Suada in Maiestie, that I may fit
These harsh beginnings with a sweeter end.
You know the modest Sunne full fifteene times
Blushing did rise, and blushing did descend,
While I in making of these ill made rimes,
My golden howers unthriftily did spend:
Yet, if in friendship you these numbers prayse,
I will mispend another fifteene dayes.
II. TO THE PRINCE.[182]
Sir, whatsoeuer YOV are pleas'd to doo
It is your special praise, that you are bent,
And sadly[183] set your princely mind thereto:
Which makes YOV in each thing so excellent.
Hence is it that YOV came so soon to bee
A man-at-armes in euery point aright;
The fairest flowre of noble chiualrie;
And of Saint George his band, the brauest knight.
And hence it is, that all your youthfull traine
In actiueness and grace, YOV doe excell;
When YOV doe courtly dauncings entertaine
Then Dauncing's praise may be presented well
To YOV, whose action adds more praise thereto,
Then all the Muses with their penns can doo.
OR
A POEME OF DAUNCING.
1.
Where liues the man that neuer yet did heare
Of chaste Penelope, Ulisses' Queene?
Who kept her faith vnspotted twentie yeare,
Till he return'd that farre away had beene,
And many men, and many townes had seen:
Ten yeare at siege of Troy he lingring lay,
And ten yeare in the Mid-land-Sea did stray.
2.
Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse
A great deepe cup with heauenly nectar filld:
The greatest, deepest cup in Ioue's great house,
(For Ioue himselfe had so expresly willd)
He dranke off all, ne let one drop be spilld;
Since when, his braine that had before been drie,
Became the well-spring of all Poetrie.
3.
Homer doth tell in his aboundant verse,
The long laborious trauailes of the Man;
And of his lady too he doth reherse,
How shee illudes with all the art she can,
Th' vngratefull loue which other lords began;
For of her lord, false Fame long since had sworn,
That Neptune's monsters had his carkase torne.
4.
All this he tells, but one thing he forgot,
One thing most worthy his eternall song;
But he was old, and blind, and saw it not,
Or else he thought he should Ulisses wrong,
To mingle it his tragike acts among;
Yet was there not in all the world of things,
A sweeter burden for his Muse's wings.
5.
The courtly loue Antinous did make:
Antinous that fresh and iolly knight,
Which of the gallants that did vndertake
To win the widdow, had most wealth and might,
Wit to perswade, and beautie to delight:
The courtly loue he made vnto the Queene,
Homer forgot, as if it had not beene.
6.
Sing then Terpischore, my light Muse sing
His gentle art, and cunning curtesie;
You lady can remember euery thing,
For you are daughter of Queene Memorie;
But sing a plaine and easy melodie:
For the soft meane that warbleth but the ground,
To my rude eare doth yeeld the sweetest sound.
7.
One onely night's discourse I can report,
When the great Torch-bearer of Heauen was gone
Downe in a maske vnto the Ocean's Court,
To reuell it with Thetis[184] all alone;
Antinous disguisèd and vnknowne,
Like to the Spring in gaudie ornament,
Vnto the Castle of the Princesse went.
8.
The soueraine Castle of the rockie Ile,
Wherein Penelope the Princesse lay;
Shone with a thousand lamps, which did exile
The shadowes darke,[185] and turn'd the night to day;
Not Ioue's blew tent, what time the sunny ray
Behind the Bulwarke of the Earth retires,
Is seene to sparkle with more twinckling fires.
9.
That night the Queen came forth from far within,
And in the presence of her Court was seene;
For the sweet singer Phœmius[186] did begin
To praise the worthies that at Troy had beene;
Somewhat of her Ulisses she did weene.
In his graue hymne the heau'nly man would sing,
Or of his warres, or of his wandering.
10.
Pallas that houre with her sweet breath diuine
Inspir'd immortall beautie in her eyes;
That with cælestiall glory shee did shine,
Brighter[187] then Venus when shee doth arise
Out of the waters to adorne the skies;
The Wooers all amazèd doe admire
And checke their owne presumptuous desire.
11.
Onely Antinous when at first he view'd
Her starbright eyes, that with new honour shind;
Was not dismayd, but there-with-all renew'd
The noblesse and the splendour of his mind;
And as he did fit circumstances find,
Vnto the throne he boldly gan aduance,
And with faire maners wooed the Queene to dance.
12.
'Goddesse of women, sith your heau'nlinesse
'Hath now vouchsaft it selfe to represent
'To our dim eyes, which though they see the lesse
'Yet are they blest in their astonishment;
'Imitate heau'n, whose beauties excellent
'Are in continuall motion day and night,
'And moue thereby more wonder and delight.
13.
'Let me the moouer be, to turne about
'Those glorious ornaments, that Youth and Loue
'Haue fixed in you, euery part throughout;
'Which if you will in timely measure moue,
'Not all those precious iemms in heau'n aboue,
'Shall yeeld a sight more pleasing to behold,
'With all their turnes and tracings manifold.'
14.
With this the modest Princesse blusht and smil'd,
Like to a cleare and rosie euentide,
And softly did returne this answer mild:
'Faire Sir, you needs must fairely be denide
'Where your demaund cannot be satisfide;
'My feet, which onely Nature taught to goe,
'Did neuer yet the art of footing know.
15.
'But why perswade you me to this new rage?
'(For all disorder and misrule is new)
'For such misgouernment in former age,
'Our old diuine Forefathers neuer knew;
'Who if they liu'd, and did the follies view,
'Which their fond nephews make their chiefe affaires,
'Would hate themselues that had begot such heires.'
16.
'Sole heire of Vertue and of Beautie both,
'Whence cometh it (Antinous replies)
'That your imperous vertue is so loth
'To graunt your beauty her chiefe exercise?
'Or from what spring doth your opinion rise
'That dauncing[188] is a frenzy and a rage,
'First knowne and vs'd in this new-fangled age?
17.
'Dauncing[189] (bright Lady) then began to bee,
'When the first seeds whereof the World did spring,
'The fire, ayre, earth, and water—did agree,
'By Loue's perswasion,—Nature's mighty King,—
'To leaue their first disordred combating;
'And in a daunce such measure to obserue,
'As all the world their motion should preserue.
18.
'Since when, they still are carried in a round,
'And changing, come one in another's place;
'Yet doe they neither mingle nor confound,
'But euery one doth keepe the bounded space
'Wherein the Daunce doth bid it turne or trace;
'This wondrous myracle did Loue deuise,
'For Dauncing is Love's proper exercise.
19.
'Like this, he fram'd the gods' eternall Bower,
'And of a shapelesse and confusèd masse,
'By his through-piercing and digesting power,
'The turning vault of heauen formèd was;
'Whose starry wheeles he hath so made to passe,
'As that their moouings do a musicke frame,
'And they themselues still daunce vnto the same.
20.
'Or if this All which round about we see,
'(As idle Morpheus some sicke braines hath taught)
'Of vndeuided motes compacted bee:
'How was this goodly Architecture wrought?
'Or by what meanes were they together brought?
'They erre that say they did concurre by chance:
'Loue made them meet in a well-ordered daunce.
21.
'As when Amphion with his charming lire
'Begot so sweet a syren of the ayre;
'That with her Rethorike made the stones conspire
'The ruines of a citie to repaire:
'(A worke of wit and reason's wise affaire)
'So Loue's smooth tongue, the motes such measure taught
'That they ioyn'd hands; and so the world was wrought.
22.
'How iustly then is Dauncing tearmèd new,
'Which with the World in point of time begun?
'Yea Time it selfe, (whose birth Ioue neuer knew,
'And which indeed is elder then the sun)[190]
'Had not one moment of his age outrunne,
'When out leapt Dauncing from the heap of things,
'And lightly rode vpon his nimble wings.
23.
'Reason hath both their pictures in her treasure,
'Where Time the measure of all mouing is,
'And Dauncing is a moouing all in measure;
'Now if you doe resemble that to this,
'And thinke both one, I thinke you thinke amis:
'But if you iudge them twins, together got,
'And Time first borne, your iudgement erreth not.
24.
'Thus doth it equall age with age inioy,
'And yet in lustie youth for euer flowers;
'Like loue his sire, whom Paynters make a boy,
'Yet is the eldest of the heau'nly powers;
'Or like his brother Time, whose wingèd howers
'Going and comming will not let him dye,
'But still preserve him in his infancie.'
25.
This said; the Queene with her sweet lips diuine,
Gently began to moue the subtile ayre,
Which gladly yeelding, did itselfe incline
To take a shape betweene those rubies fayre;
And being formèd, softly did repayre
With twenty doublings in the emptie way,
Vnto Antinous eares, and thus did say:
26.
'What eye doth see the heau'n, but doth admire
'When it the moouings of the heau'ns doth see?
'My selfe, if I to heau'n may once aspire,
'If that be dauncing, will a Dauncer be;
'But as for this your frantick iollitie
'How it began, or whence you did it learne,
'I neuer could with Reason's eye discerne.
27.
Antinous answered: 'Iewell of the Earth,
'Worthy you are that heau'nly daunce to leade;
'But for you thinke our dauncing base of birth,
'And newly-borne but of a braine-sicke head,
'I will foorthwith his antique gentry read;
'And for I loue him, will his herault[191] be,
'And blaze his Armes, and draw his petigree.[192]
28.
'When Loue had shapt this World,—this great faire wight,
'That all wights else in this wide womb containes;
'And had instructed it to daunce aright,[193]
'A thousand measures with a thousand straines,
'Which it should practise with delightfull paines,[194]
'Vntill that fatall instant should reuolue,
'When all to nothing should againe resolue:
29.
'The comely order and proportion faire
'On euery side, did please his wandring eye:
'Till glauncing through the thin transparent ayre,
'A rude disordered rout he did espie
'Of men and women, that most spightfully
'Did one another throng, and crowd so sore,
'That his kind eye in pitty wept therefore.
30.
'And swifter then the lightning downe he came,
'Another shapelesse Chaos to digest;
'He will begin another world to frame,
'(For Loue till all be well will neuer rest)
'Then with such words as cannot be exprest,
'He cutts the troups, that all asunder fling,
'And ere they wist, he casts them in a ring.
31.
'Then did he rarifie the element,
'And in the center of the ring appeare;
'The beams that from his forehead spreading[195] went,
'Begot an horrour, and religious feare
'In all the soules that round about him weare;
'Which in their eares attentiueness procures,
'While he, with such like sounds, their minds allures.
32.
'How doth Confusion's mother, headlong Chance,[196]
'Put Reason's noble squadron to the rout?
'Or how should you that haue the gouernance
'Of Nature's children, Heauen and Earth throughout,
'Prescribe them rules, and liue your selues without?
'Why should your fellowship a trouble be,
'Since man's chiefe pleasure is societie?
33.
'If sence hath not yet taught you, learne of me
'A comely moderation and discreet;
'That your assemblies may well ordered bee
'When my vniting power shall make you meet,
'With heau'nly tunes it shall be temperèd sweet:
'And be the modell of the World's great frame,
'And you Earth's children, Dauncing shall it name.
34.
'Behold the World, how it is whirled round,
'And for it is so whirl'd, is namèd so;
'In whose large volume many rules are found
'Of this new Art, which it doth fairely show;
'For your quicke eyes in wandring too and fro
'From East to West, on no one thing can glaunce,
'But if you marke it well, it seemes to daunce.
35.
'First[197] you see fixt in this huge mirrour blew,
'Of trembling lights, a number numberlesse:[198]
'Fixt they are nam'd, but with a name vntrue,
'For they all mooue[199] and in a Daunce expresse
'That great long yeare, that doth containe no lesse
'Then threescore hundreds of those yeares in all,
'Which the sunne makes with his course naturall.
36.
'What if to you these sparks disordered seeme
'As if by chaunce they had beene scattered there?
'The gods a solemne measure doe it deeme,
'And see a iust proportion euery where,
'And know the points whence first their mouings were;
'To which first points when all returne againe,
'The axel-tree of Heau'n shall breake in twaine.
37.
'Vnder that spangled skye, fiue wandring flames[200]
'Besides the King of Day, and Queene of Night,
'Are wheel'd around, all in their sundry frames,
'And all in sundry measures doe delight,
'Yet altogether keepe no measure right;
'For by it selfe each doth it selfe aduance,
'And by it selfe each doth a galliard[201] daunce.
38.
'Venus, the mother of that bastard Loue,
'Which doth vsurpe the World's great Marshal's name,
'Iust with the sunne her dainty feete doth moue,
'And vnto him doth all the iestures frame;
'Now after, now afore, the flattering Dame,
'With diuers cunning passages doth erre,
'Still him respecting that respects not her.
39.
'For that braue Sunne the Father of the Day,
'Doth loue this Earth, the Mother of the Night;
'And like a reuellour in rich aray,
'Doth daunce his galliard in his lemman's sight,
'Both back, and forth, and sidewaies, passing light;
'His princely[202] grace doth so the gods amaze,
'That all stand still and at his beauty gaze.
40.
'But see the Earth, when he approcheth neere,
'How she for ioy doth spring and sweetly smile;
'But see againe her sad and heauy cheere
'When changing places he retires a while;
'But those blake[203] cloudes he shortly will exile,
'And make them all before his presence flye,
'As mists consum'd before his cheerefull eye.
41.
'Who doth not see the measures of the Moone,
'Which thirteene times she daunceth euery yeare?
'And ends her pauine[204] thirteene times as soone
'As doth her brother, of whose golden haire[205]
'She borroweth part, and proudly doth it weare;
'Then doth she coyly turne her face aside,
'Then halfe her cheeke is scarse sometimes discride.
42.
'Next her, the pure, subtile, and clensing Fire[206]
'Is swiftly carried in a circle euen;
'Though Vulcan be pronounst by many a lyer,
'The only halting god that dwels in heauen:
'But that foule name may be more fitly giuen
'To your false Fire, that farre from heauen is fall:[207]
'And doth consume, waste, spoile, disorder all.
43.
'And now behold your tender nurse the Ayre[208]
'And common neighbour that ay runns around;
'How many pictures and impressions faire
'Within her empty regions are there found;
'Which to your sences Dauncing doe propound.
'For what are Breath, Speech, Ecchos, Musicke, Winds,
'But Dauncings of the Ayre in sundry kinds?
44.
'For when you breath, the ayre in order moues,
'Now in, now out, in time and measure trew;
'And when you speake, so well she dauncing loues,
'That doubling oft, and oft redoubling new,
'With thousand formes she doth her selfe endew
'For all the words that from our lips repaire
'Are nought but tricks and turnings of the ayre.
45.
'Hence is her pratling daughter Eccho borne,
'That daunces to all voyces she can heare;
'There is no sound so harsh that shee doth scorne,
'Nor any time wherein shee will forbeare
'The ayrie pauement with her feet to weare;
'And yet her hearing sence is nothing quick,
'For after time she endeth euery trick.
46.
'And thou sweet Musicke, Dauncing's onely life,
'The eare's sole happinesse, the ayre's best speach;
'Loadstone of fellowship, charming-rod of strife,
'The soft mind's Paradice, the sicke mind's leach;
'With thine own tong, thou[209] trees and stons canst teach,
'That when the Aire doth dance her finest measure,
'Then art thou borne, the gods and mens sweet pleasure.
47.
'Lastly, where keepe the Winds their reuelry,
'Their violent turnings, and wild whirling hayes,[210]
'But in the Ayre's tralucent[211] gallery?
'Where shee herselfe is turnd a hundreth wayes,
'While with those Maskers wantonly she playes;
'Yet in this misrule, they such rule embrace,
'As two at once encomber not the place.
48.
'If then fire,[212] ayre, wandring and fixed lights
'In euery prouince of the imperiall skie,
'Yeeld perfect formes of dauncing to your sights,
'In vaine I teach the eare, that which the eye
'With certaine view already doth descrie.
'But for your eyes perceiue not all they see,
'In this I will your Senses master bee.
49.
'For loe the Sea[213] that fleets about the Land,
'And like a girdle clips her solide waist,
'Musicke and measure both doth vnderstand;
'For his great chrystall eye is alwayes cast
'Vp to the Moone, and on her fixèd fast;
'And as she daunceth in her pallid spheere,
'So daunceth he about his Center heere.
50.
'Sometimes his proud greene waues in order set,
'One after other flow vnto the shore;
'Which, when they haue with many kisses wet,
'They ebbe away in order as before;
'And to make knowne his courtly loue the more,
'He oft doth lay aside his three-forkt mace,
'And with his armes the timorous Earth embrace.
51.
'Onely the Earth doth stand for euer still:
'Her rocks remoue not, nor her mountaines meet:
'(Although some wits enricht with Learning's skill
'Say heau'n stands firme, and that the Earth doth fleet,
'And swiftly turneth vnderneath their feet)
'Yet though the Earth is euer stedfast seene,
'On her broad breast hath Dauncing euer beene.
52.
'For those blew vaines that through her body spred,
'Those saphire streames which from great hils do spring.[214]
'(The Earth's great duggs; for euery wight is fed
'With sweet fresh moisture from them issuing):
'Obserue a daunce in their wilde wandering;
'And still their daunce begets a murmur sweet,
'And still the murmur with the daunce doth meet.
53.
'Of all their wayes I love Mæander's path,
'Which to the tunes of dying swans doth daunce;[215]
'Such winding sleights, such turns and tricks he hath,
'Such creeks, such wrenches, and such daliaunce;
'That whether it be hap or heedlesse chaunce,
'In this indented course and wriggling play
'He seemes to daunce a perfect cunning hay.[216]
54.
'But wherefore doe these streames for euer runne?
'To keepe themselues for euer sweet and cleere:
'For let their euerlasting course be donne,
'They straight corrupt and foule with mud appeare.
'O yee sweet Nymphs that beautie's losse do feare,
'Contemne the drugs that Physicke doth deuise,
'And learne of Loue this dainty exercise.
55.
'See how those flowres that have sweet beauty too,
'(The onely iewels that the Earth doth weare,[217]
'When the young Sunne in brauery her doth woo):
'As oft as they the whistling wind doe heare,
'Doe waue their tender bodies here and there;
'And though their daunce no perfect measure is,
'Yet oftentimes their musicke makes them kis.
56.
'What makes the vine about the elme to daunce,
'With turnings, windings, and embracements round?
'What makes the loadstone to the North aduance
'His subtile point, as if from thence he found
'His chiefe attractiue vertue to redound?
'Kind Nature first doth cause all things to loue,
'Loue makes them daunce and in iust order moue.
57.
'Harke how the birds doe sing, and marke then how
'Iumpe[218] with the modulation of their layes,
'They lightly leape, and skip from bow to bow:
'Yet doe the cranes deserue a greater prayse
'Which keepe such measure in their ayrie wayes,
'As when they all in order rankèd are,
'They make a perfect forme triangular.
58.
'In the chiefe angle flyes the watchfull guid,
'And all the followers their heads doe lay
'On their foregoers backs, on eyther side;
'But for the captaine hath no rest to stay,
'His head forewearied with the windy way,
'He back retires, and then the next behind,
'As his lieuetenaunt leads them through the wind.
59.
'But why relate I euery singular?
'Since all the World's great fortunes and affaires
'Forward and backward rapt and whirled are,
'According to the musicke of the spheares:
'And Chaunge[219] herselfe her nimble feete vpbeares
'On a round slippery wheele that rowleth ay,
'And turnes all States with her imperuous[220] sway.
60.
'Learne then to daunce, you that are Princes borne,
'And lawfull lords of earthly creatures all;
'Imitate them, and thereof take no scorne,
'For this new art to them is naturall—
'And imitate the starres cælestiall:
'For when pale Death your vital twist shall seuer,
'Your better parts must daunce, with them for euer.
61.
'Thus Loue perswades, and all the crowd[221] of men
'That stands around, doth make a murmuring;
'As when the wind loosd from his hollow den,
'Among the trees a gentle base[222] doth sing,
'Or as a brooke through peebles wandering;
'But in their looks they vttered this plain speach,
'That they would learn to daunce, if Loue would teach.[223]
62.
'Then first of all he doth demonstrate plaine
'The motions seauen that ar in Nature found,
'Upward and downeward, forth and backe againe,
'To this side and to that, and turning round;[224]
'Whereof a thousand brawles he doth compound,
'Which he doth teach vnto the multitude,
'And euer with a turne they must conclude.
63.
'As when a Nimph[225] arysing from the land,
'Leadeth a daunce with her long watery traine
'Down to the Sea; she wries to euery hand,
'And euery way doth crosse the fertile plaine;
'But when at last shee falls into the maine,
'Then all her trauerses concluded are,
'And with the Sea her course is circulare.
64.
'Thus when at first Loue had them marshallèd,
'As earst he did the shapeless masse of things,
'He taught them rounds and winding heyes to tread,
'And about trees to cast themselues in rings:
'As the two Beares, whom the First Mouer flings
'With a short turn about heauen's axeltree,
'In a round daunce for ever wheeling bee.
65.
'But after these, as men more ciuell grew,
'He did more graue and solemn measures frame,[226]
'With such faire order and proportion true,[227]
'And correspondence euery way the same,
'That no fault-finding eye did euer blame;
'For euery eye was mouèd at the sight
'With sober wondring, and with sweet delight.
66.
'Not those yong[228] students of the heauenly booke,
'Atlas the great, Promethius the wise,
'Which on the starres did all their life-time looke,
'Could euer finde such measures in the skies,
'So full of change and rare varieties;
'Yet all the feete whereon these measures goe,
'Are only spondeis, solemne, graue and sloe.
67.
'But for more diuers and more pleasing show,
'A swift and wandring daunce she did inuent,
'With passages vncertaine to and fro,
'Yet with a certaine answer and consent
'To the quicke musicke of the instrument.[229]
'Fiue was the number of the Musick's feet,
'Which still the daunce did with fiue paces meet.
68.
'A gallant daunce, that lively doth bewray
'A spirit and a vertue masculine;
'Impatient that her house on earth should stay
'Since she her selfe is fiery and diuine;
'Oft doth she make her body vpward fline[230],
'With lofty turnes and capriols[231] in the ayre,
'Which with the lusty tunes accordeth faire.
69.
'What shall I name those currant trauases,[232]
'That on a triple dactile foot doe runne
'Close by the ground with sliding passages,
'Wherein that Dauncer greatest praise hath wonne
'Which with best order can all orders shunne;
'For euery where he wantonly must range,
'And turne, and wind, with vnexpected change.
70.
'Yet is there one, the most delightfull kind,
'A loftie iumping, or a leaping round;[233]
'Where arme in arme two dauncers are entwind
'And whirle themselues with strict embracements bound,
'And still their feet an anapest do sound;
'An anapest is all their musick's song,
'Whose first two feet are short, and third is long.
71.
'As the victorious twinnes of Læda and Ioue
'That taught the Spartans dauncing on the sands
'Of swift Eurotas, daunce in heaun aboue,
'Knit and vnited with eternall hands;
'Among the starres their double image stands,
'Where both are carried with an equall pace,
'Together iumping in their turning race.
72.
'This is the net wherein the Sunn's bright eye
'Venus and Mars entangled did behold;
'For in this daunce, their armes they so imply[234]
'As each doth seeme the other to enfold;
'What if lewd wits another tale haue told
'Of iealous Vulcan, and of yron chaynes?
'Yet this true sence that forgèd lye containes.
73.
'These various formes of dauncing, Loue did frame
'And beside these, a hundred millions moe;
'And as he did inuent, he taught the same,
'With goodly iesture, and with comly show,
'Now keeping state, now humbly honoring low:
'And euer for the persons and the place
'He taught most fit and best according grace.[235]
74.
'For Loue, within his fertile working braine
'Did[236] then conceiue those gracious Virgins three;
'Whose ciuell moderation does maintaine
'All decent order and conueniencie,
'And faire respect, and seemlie modestie;
'And then he thought it fit they should be borne,
'That their sweet presence dauncing might adorne.
75.
'Hence is it that these Graces painted are
'With hand in hand dauncing an endlesse round;
'And with regarding eyes, that still beware
'That there be no disgrace amongst them found;
'With equall foote they beate the flowry ground,
'Laughing, or singing, as their passions will:
'Yet nothing that they doe becomes them ill.
76.
'Thus Loue taught men, and men thus learnd of Loue
'Sweet Musick's sound with feet to counterfaite;
'Which was long time before high thundering Ioue
'Was lifted vp to Heauen's imperiall seat;
'For though by birth he were the Prince of Creete,
'Nor Creet, nor Heau'n should the yong Prince haue seen,
'If dancers with their timbrels had not been.
77.
'Since when all ceremonious misteries,
'All sacred orgies and religious rights,[237]
'All pomps, and triumphs, and solemnities,
'All funerals, nuptials, and like publike sights,
'All Parliaments of peace, and warlike fights,
'All learnèd arts, and euery great affaire
'A liuely shape of dauncing seemes to beare.[238]
78.
'For what did he who with his ten-tong'd lute
'Gaue beasts and blocks an vnderstanding eare?
'Or rather into bestiall minds and brute
'Shed and infus'd the beames of reason cleare?
'Doubtlesse for men that rude and sauage were
'A ciuill forme of dauncing he deuis'd,
'Wherewith vnto their gods they sacrifiz'd.
79.
'So did Musæus, so Amphion did,
'And Linus with his sweet enchanting song;
'And he whose hand the Earth of monsters rid,
'And had men's eares fast chaynèd to his tongue
'And Theseus to his wood-borne slaues among,
'Vs'd dauncing as the finest policie
'To plant religion and societie.
80.
'And therefore now the Thracian Orpheus lire
'And Hercules him selfe are stellified;[239]
'And in high heau'n amidst the starry quire,
'Dauncing their parts continually doe slide;
'So on the Zodiake Ganimed doth ride,
'And so is Hebe with the Muses nine
'For pleasing Ioue with dauncing, made diuine.
81.
'Wherefore was Proteus sayd himselfe to change
'Into a streame, a lyon, and a tree;
'And many other formes fantastique, strange,
'As in his fickle thought he wisht to be?
'But that he daunc'd with such facilitie,
'As like a lyon he could pace with pride,
'Ply like a plant, and like a riuer slide.
82.
'And how was Cæneus[240] made at first a man,
'And then a woman, then a man againe,
'But in a daunce? which when he first began
'Hee the man's part in measure did sustaine:
'But when he chang'd into a second straine,
'He daunc'd the woman's part another space,
'And then return'd into his former place.
83.
'Hence sprang the fable of Tiresias,
'That he the pleasure of both sexes tryde;
'For in a daunce he man and woman was
'By often chaunge of place from side to side;
'But for the woman easily did slide
'And smoothly swim with cunning hidden art,
'He tooke more pleasure in a woman's part.
84.
'So to a fish Venus herselfe did change,[241]
'And swimming through the soft and yeelding waue,
'With gentle motions did so smoothly range,
'As none might see where she the water draue;
'But this plaine truth that falsèd fable gaue,
'That she did daunce with slyding easines,
'Plyant and quick in wandring passages.
85.
'And merry Bacchus practis'd dauncing to[o],
'And to the Lydian numbers,[242] rounds did make:
'The like he did in th' Easterne India doo,
'And taught them all when Phœbus did awake,
'And when at night he did his coach[243] forsake:
'To honor heaun, and heau'ns great roling eye
'With turning daunces, and with melodie.
86.
'Thus they who first did found a Common-weale,
'And they who first Religion did ordaine,
'By dauncing, first the peoples hearts did steale:
'Of whom we now a thousand tales doe faine;
'Yet doe we now their perfect rules retaine
'And vse them stil in such deuises new,
'As in the World, long since their withering, grew.
87.
'For after townes and kingdomes founded were,
'Betweene greate States arose well-ordered War;
'Wherein most perfect measure doth appeare,
'Whether their well-set rankes respected are
'In quadrant forme or semicircular:
'Or else the march, when all the troups aduance,
'And to the drum, in gallant order daunce.
88.
'And after Warrs, when white-wing'd Victory
'Is with a glorious tryumph beautified,
'And euery one doth Io Io cry,
'Whiles all in gold the conquerour doth ride;
'The solemne pompe that fils the Citty wide
'Obserues such ranke and measure euerywhere,
'As if they altogether dauncing were.
89.
'The like iust order mourners doe obserue,
'(But with vnlike affection and atire)
'When some great man that nobly did deserue,
'And whom his friends impatiently desire,
'Is brought with honour to his latest fire:[244]
'The dead corps too in that sad daunce is mou'd
'As if both dead and liuing, dauncing lou'd.
90.
'A diuers cause, but like solemnitie
'Vnto the Temple leads the bashfull bride:
'Which blusheth like the Indian iuory
'Which is with dip of Tyrian purple died;
'A golden troope doth passe on euery side,
'Of flourishing young men and virgins gay,
'Which keepe faire measure all the flowry way.
91.
'And not alone the generall multitude,
'But those choise Nestors which in councell graue
'Of citties, and of kingdomes doe conclude,
'Most comly order in their sessions haue;
'Wherefore the wise Thessalians euer gaue
'The name of leader of their Countrie's daunce
'To him that had their Countrie's gouernance.
92.
'And those great masters of their liberall arts,
'In all their seurall Schooles doe Dauncing teach:
'For humble Grammer first doth set the parts
'Of congruent and well-according speach;
'Which Rethorike, whose state the clouds doth reach,
'And heau'nly Poetry, doe forward lead,
'And diuers measures diuersly doe tread.
93.
'For Rhetorick, clothing speech in rich aray
'In looser numbers teacheth her to range,
'With twenty tropes, and turnings euery way,
'And various figures and licencious change;
'But Poetry with rule and order strange,
'So curiously doth moue each single pace,
'As all is mard if she one foot misplace.
94.
'These Arts of speach, the guids and marshals are;
'But Logick leadeth Reason in a daunce:
'(Reason the cynosure and bright load-star,
'In this World's sea t' auoid the rock of Chaunce.)
'For with close following and continuance
'One reason doth another so ensue,[245]
'As in conclusion still the daunce is true.
95.
'So Musicke to her owne sweet tunes doth trip
'With tricks of 3, 5, 8, 15, and more;
'So doth the Art of Numbering seeme to skip
'From eu'n to odd in her proportion'd score;
'So doe those skils, whose quick eyes doe explore
'The iust dimension both of Earth and Heau'n,
'In all their rules obserue a measure eu'n.
96.
'Loe this is Dauncing's true nobilitie,
'Dauncing, the child of Musicke and of Loue;
'Dauncing it selfe, both loue and harmony,
'Where all agree, and all in order moue;
'Dauncing, the Art that all Arts doe approue;
'The faire caracter of the World's consent,
'The Heau'ns true figure and th' Earth's ornament.
97.
The Queene, whose dainty eares had borne too long,
The tedious praise of that she did despise;
Adding once more the musicke of the tongue
To the sweet speech of her alluring eyes,
Began to answer in such winning wise,
As that forthwith Antinous' tongu[e] was tyde,
His eyes fast fixt, his eares were open wide.
98.
'Forsooth (quoth she) great glory you haue won,
'To your trim minion, Dauncing, all this while,
'By blazing him Loue's first begotten sonne;
'Of euery ill the hateful father vile
'That doth the world with sorceries beguile;
'Cunningly mad, religiously prophane,
'Wit's monster, Reason's canker, Sence's bane.
99.
'Loue taught the mother that vnkinde desire
'To wash her hands in her owne infant's blood;
'Loue taught the daughter to betray her sire
'Into most base vnworthy seruitude;
'Loue taught the brother to prepare such foode
'To feast his brothers that the all-seeing sun
'Wrapt in a clowd, that wicked sight did shun.[246]
100.
'And euen this self same Loue hath dauncing taught,
'An Art that showes th' Idea of his minde
'With vainesse, frenzie, and misorder fraught;
'Sometimes with blood and cruelties vnkinde:
'For in a daunce, Tereus' mad wife did finde
'Fit time and place by murther[247] of her sonne,
'T' auenge the wrong his trayterous sire had done.
101.
'What meane the mermayds when they daunce and sing
'But certaine death vnto the marriner?
'What tydings doe the dauncing dilphins[248] bring,
'But that some dangerous storme approcheth nere?
'Then sith both Loue and Dauncing lyueries beare
'Of such ill hap, vnhappy may I[249] proue,
'If sitting free I either daunce or loue.'
102.
Yet once again Antinous did reply;
'Great Queen, condemne not Loue[250] the innocent,
'For this mischeuous lust, which traterously
'Vsurps his name, and steales his ornament:
'For that true Loue which Dauncing did inuent,
'Is he that tun'd the World's whole harmony,
'And linkt all men in sweet societie.
103.
'He first extracted from th' earth-mingled mind
'That heau'nly fire, or quintessence diuine,
'Which doth such simpathy in beauty find,
'As is betweene the elme and fruitful vine,
'And so to beauty euer doth encline;
'Life's[251] life it is, and cordiall to the heart,
'And of our better part, the better part.
104.
'This is true Loue, by that true Cupid got,
'Which daunceth galliards in your amorous eyes,
'But to your frozen hart approcheth not—
'Onely your hart he dares not enterprise;
'And yet through euery other part he flyes,
'And euery where he nimbly daunceth now,
'Though[252] in your selfe, your selfe perceiue not how.
105.
'For your sweet beauty daintily transfus'd
'With due proportion throughout euery part;
'What is it but a daunce where Loue hath vs'd
'His finer cunning, and more curious art?
'Where all the elements themselues impart,
'And turne, and wind, and mingle with such measure,
'That th' eye that sees it surfeits with the pleasure?
106.
'Loue in the twinckling of your eylids daunceth,
'Loue daunceth in your pulses and your vaines,
'Loue when you sow, your needle's point aduanceth
'And makes it daunce a thousand curious straines
'Of winding rounds, whereof the forme remaines;
'To shew, that your faire hands can daunce the hey,
'Which your fine feet would learne as well as they.
107.
'And when your iuory fingers touch the strings
'Of any siluer-sounding instrument;
'Loue makes them daunce to those sweete murmerings,
'With busie skill, and cunning excellent;
'O that your feet those tunes would represent
'With artificiall motions to and fro,
'That Loue this art in ev'ry part might sho[w]e!
108.
'Yet your faire soule, which came from heau'n aboue
'To rule thys house,—another heau'n below,—
'With diuers powers in harmony doth moue,
'And all the vertues that from her doe flow,
'In a round measure hand in hand doe goe:
'Could I now see, as I conceiue thys Daunce,
'Wonder and Loue would cast me in a traunce.
109.
'The richest iewell in all the heau'nly treasure
'That euer yet vnto the Earth was showne,
'Is perfect Concord, th' onely perfect pleasure[253]
'That wretched earth-borne men haue euer knowne,
'For many harts it doth compound in one;
'That when so one doth will, or speake, or doe,
'With one consent they all agree thereto.
110.
'Concord's true picture shineth in this art,
'Where diuers men and women rankèd be,
'And euery one doth daunce a seuerall part,
'Yet all as one, in measure doe agree,
'Obseruing perfect vniformitie;
'All turne together, all together trace,
'And all together honour and embrace.
111.
'If they whom sacred Loue hath link't in one,
'Doe as they daunce, in all their course of life,
'Neuer shall burning griefe nor bitter mone,
'Nor factious difference, nor vnkind strife,
'Arise betwixt the husband and the wife;
'For whether forth or bake[254] or round he goe
As the man doth, so must the woman doe.
112.
'What if by often enterchange of place
'Sometime the woman gets the vpper hand?
'That is but done for more delightfull grace,
'For one[255] that part shee doth not euer stand;
'But, as the measure's law doth her command,
'Shee wheeles about, and ere the daunce doth end,
'Into her former place shee doth transcend.
113.
'But not alone this correspondence meet
'And vniform consent doth dauncing praise;
'For Comlines the child of order sweet,[2]
'Enamels it with her eye-pleasing raies;
'Fair Comlines, ten hundred thousand waies,
'Through dauncing shedds it selfe, and makes shine
'With glorious beauty, and with grace diuine.
114.
'For Comliness is a disposing faire
'Of things and actions in fit time and place;
'Which doth in dauncing shew it selfe most cleere,
'When troopes confus'd, which here and there doe trace
'Without distinguishment or bounded space:
'By dauncing's rule, into such ranks are brought,
'As glads the eye, as rauisheth the thought.
115.
'Then why should Reason iudge that reasonles
'Which is wit's ofspring, and the worke of art,
'Image of concord and of comlines?
'Who sees a clock mouing in euery part,
'A sayling pinnesse,[256] or a wheeling cart;
'But thinks that Reason, ere it came to passe
'The first impulsiue cause and mouer was?
116.
'Who sees an Armie all in ranke aduance,
'But deemes a wise Commaunder is in place,
'Which leadeth on that braue victorious daunce?
'Much more in Dauncing's Art, in Dauncing's grace,
'Blindnes it selfe may Reason's footstep trace;
'For of Loue's maze it is the curious plot,
'And of Man's fellowship the true-love knot.
117.
'But if these eyes of yours, (load-starrs of Loue,
'Shewing the World's great daunce to your mind's eye!)
'Cannot with all their demonstrations moue
'Kinde apprehension in your fantasie,
'Of Dauncing's vertue, and nobilitie;
'How can my barbarous tongue win you there to,
'Which Heau'n and Earth's faire speech could neuer do?
118.
'O Loue my king: if all my wit and power
'Haue done you all the seruice that they can,
'O be you present in this present hower,
'And help your seruant and your true Leige-man
'End that perswasion which I earst began;
'For who in praise of Dauncing can perswade
'With such sweet force as Loue, which Dancing made?
119.
Loue heard his prayer, and swifter then the wind,
Like to a page, in habit, face, and speech,
He came, and stood Antinous behind,
And many secrets to his thoughts did teach;[257]
At last a christall mirrour he did reach
Vnto his hands, that he with one rash view,
All formes therein by Loue's reuealing knew.
120.
And humbly honouring, gaue it to the Queene
With this faire speech: 'See fairest Queene (quoth he)
'The fairest sight that euer shall be seene,
'And th' onely wonder of posteritie,
'The richest worke in Nature's treasury;
'Which she disdaines to shew on this World's stage,
'And thinkes it far too good for our rude age.
121.
'But in another World diuided far:
'In the great, fortunate, triangled Ile,
'Thrise twelue degrees remou'd from the North star,
'She will this glorious workemanship compile;
'Which she hath beene conceiuing all this while
'Since the World's birth, and will bring forth at last,
'When sixe and twenty hundred yeares are past.'
122.
Penelope, the Queene, when she had view'd
The strang eye-dazeling, admirable sight,
Faine would have praisd the state and pulchritude,
But she was stricken dumbe with wonder quite,
Yet her sweet minde retain'd her thinking might;
Her rauisht minde in heaunly thoughts did dwel,
But what she thought, no mortall tongue can tel.
123.
You lady Muse, whom Ioue the Counsellour
Begot of Memorie, Wisdom's treasuresse;
To your diuining tongue is giuen a power
Of vttering secrets large and limitlesse:
You can Penelope's strange thoughts expresse
Which she conceiu'd, and then would faine haue told,
When shee the wond'rous christall did behold.
124.
Her wingèd thoughts bore vp her minde so hie,
As that she weend shee saw the glorious throne
Where the bright moone doth sit in maiesty:
A thousand sparkling starres about her shone,
But she herselfe did sparkle more alone
Then all those thousand beauties would haue done
If they had been confounded all in one.
125.
And yet she thought those stars mou'd in such measure.
To do their soueraigne honor and delight,
As sooth'd her minde, with sweet enchanting plesure,
Although the various change amaz'd her sight,
And her weake iudgement did entangle quite;
Beside, their mouing made them shine more cleare,
As diamonds mou'd more sparkling do appeare.
126.
This was the picture of her wondrous thought;
But who can wonder that her thought was so,
Sith Vulcan king of fire that mirror wrought,
(Who things to come, present, and past, doth know)
And there did represent in liuely show
Our glorious English Courts diuine image,
As it should be in this our Golden Age.
Here are wanting some Stanzaes describing Queene Elizabeth. Then follow these.
127.
Her brighter dazeling beames of maiestie
Were laid aside, for she vouchsaft awhile
With gracious, cheerefull, and familiar eye
Vpon the reuels of her Court to smile;
For so Time's Iourneis she doth oft beguile:
Like sight no mortall eye might elsewhere see,
So full of State, Art, and varietie.
128.
For of her barons braue, and ladies faire,—
Who had they been elsewhere, most faire had been;
Many an incomparable louely payre,
With hand in hand were interlinkèd seene,
Making faire honour to their soueraigne Queene;
Forward they pac'd, and did their pace apply
To a most sweet and solemne melody.
129.
So subtile and curious was the measure,
With such[258] vnlookt for chaunge in euery straine;
As that Penelope rapt with sweet pleasure,
Weend[259] shee beheld the true proportion plaine
Of her owne webb, weaud and unweaud againe;
But that her art was somewhat lesse she thought,
And on a meere ignoble subiect wrought.
130.
For here like to the silkeworme's industry,
Beauty it selfe out of it selfe did weaue
So rare a worke, and of such subtilty,
As did all eyes entangle and deceiue,
And in all mindes a strange impression leaue;
In this sweet laborinth did Cupid stray,
And neuer had the power to passe away.
131.
As when the Indians, neighbours of the morning,
In honour of the cheerefull rising sunne;
With pearle and painted plumes themselues adorning,
A solemne stately measure haue begun;
The god well pleasd with that faire honour done,
Sheds foorth his beames, and doth their faces kis
With that immortal glorious face of his.
132.
So, &c., &c. * * *
Such is 'Orchestra' as given by the Author in 1622: but in the first edition (1596) no fewer than five omitted stanzas are found. They here follow.
127.
Away, Terpsechore, light Muse away!
And come Vranie, prophetese diuine;
Come, Muse of heau'n, my burning thirst allay:
Euen now for want of sacred drinke I tine:
In heau'nly moysture dip thys pen of mine,
And let my mouth with nectar ouerflow,
For I must more then mortall glory show.
128.
O, that I had Homer's aboundant vaine,
I would hierof another Ilias make:
Or els the man of Mantua's[260] charmèd braine,
In whose large throat great Joue the thunder spake.
O that I could old Gefferie's[261] Muse awake,
Or borrow Colin's[262] fayre heroike stile,
Or smooth my rimes with Delia's servants file.[263]
129.
O, could I, sweet Companion, sing like you,
Which, of a shadow, under a shadow sing;[264]
Or, like Salue's sad lover true,
Or like the Bay, the Marigold's darling,[265]
Whose suddaine verse Loue covers with his wing:
O that your braines were mingled all with mine,
T' inlarge my wit for this great worke diuine!
130.
Yet, Astrophell might one for all suffize,
Whose supple Muse Camelion-like doth change
Into all formes of excellent deuise:
So might the Swallow,[266] whose swift Muse doth range
Through rare Idæas, and inuentions strange,
And euer doth enioy her ioyfull Spring,
And sweeter then the Nightingale doth sing.
131.
O that I might that singing Swallow heare,
To whom I owe my seruice and my loue!
His sugred tunes would so enchant mine eare,
And in my mind such sacred fury moue,
As I should knock at Heau'ns gate aboue,
With my proude rimes, while of this heau'nly state
I doe aspire the shadow to relate.[267]
Finis.
Uniform with the present volume.
EARLY ENGLISH POETS
Edited, with Introductions and copious Notes, by the Rev A. B. Grosart. Elegantly printed on fine paper, Crown 8vo., Cloth, 6s. per volume.
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I. FLETCHER'S (GILES B. D.) COMPLETE POEMS, Christ's Victorie in Heaven, Christ's Victorie on Earth, Christ's Triumph over Death, and Minor Poems, with Memorial-Introduction and Notes.
II. DAVIES' (SIR JOHN) COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS, including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and other hitherto unpublished MSS., for the first time collected and edited, with Memorial-Introduction and Notes, 2 volumes.
III. HERRICK'S (ROBERT) HESPERIDES, NOBLE NUMBERS, and complete Collected Poems, with Notes, Introductory Memoir, and facsimile Portrait, Index of First Lines and Glossary, 3 volumes. [In the press.
IV. SIDNEY'S (SIR PHILIP) COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS, including the Songs and Sonnets, Astrophel and Stella, the May Lady, &c., &c., with Memorial-Introduction and copious notes. [In preparation.
V. DONNE'S (JOHN) COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS, including the Poems on Several Occasions, the Satyrs, Polydoran, &c., &c., with Introductory Memoir and copious Explanatory Notes. [In preparation.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Through B. H. Beedham, Esq., as before, I have many details on the two contemporary Sir John Davieses from Sir Bernard Burke Ulster King at Arms, &c., &c., and J. N. C. Atkinson Davis, Esqr., Dublin; and the same acknowledgment has to be made on many points in the Life.
[2] Carte Papers, folios 330-334: Vol. XII. The particular MS. is headed "Notes of the life of Sr John Dauys. May 2d. 1674." These Notes are not very accurate. To begin with, the father's name is mistakenly given as Edward instead of John.
[3] In MS. F 4, 18, Trinity College, Dublin, the same origin is given, but the place beyond ... 'wyn' is illegible in both.
[4] Hoare's Wilts. gives many names; but his pedigrees are rarely trustworthy; as a rule, are exceedingly untrustworthy.
[5] The MSS. of note supra.
[6] Wilts., as before, on Davies, Vol. IV. part I., p. 136; on Bennetts, Vol. III., part II., p. 107.
[7] Lives of Eminent Serjeants, 2 vols., 8vo. (1869). By H. William Woolrych, Sergeant-at-Law: Vol. I., p. 187. Considerable industry is shown in this work, but it literally swarms with blunders.
[8] In the fuller Life to be prefixed to the Prose Works, I hope to furnish more details.
[9] In the same I intend to give account of these Registers, and the many Davies entries, &c.
[10] From the original books, as supra. See Pearce's Inns of Court, p. 293, where it is stated that the elder Davies was a legal practitioner in Wilts.
[11] There is a copy at Lambeth.
[12] There is a copy in the Bodleian.
[13] See Woolrych, as before, and the authorities therein given. At the end of Thomas Coriate's "Traveller for the English Wits," W. Jaggard, 1616 (4to), is a list of his acquaintances, to whom he desires "the commendations of my dutiful respects." Among them occurs "Mr. Richard Martin, Counsellor."
[14] Lord Stowell wrote an elaborate Paper on the whole matter, and the restoration of Davies. It appeared in "Archæologia," Vol. XXI. I propose to write the narrative in extenso in my fuller Life, as before.
[15] Lord Stowell, as before.
[16] Vol. I., pp. 115-116, "Nosce Teipsum."
[17] See Vol. I., pp. 9-11. The date 1592, sometimes (modernly) appended to the dedication of "Nosce Teipsum," has no authority, and is in contradiction with all the known facts and circumstances. Equally erroneous and misleading is the ultra-rhetorically given chronology in "Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne," (2 Vols., 8vo., 1864), which bears the name of the present Duke of Manchester, as thus:—"This Templar ... who wrote a noble work on the immortality of the soul in the very hey-day of his young blood, who afterwards became famous for his gravity as a judge, his wisdom as a politician, and his soundness as a statesman, terminated his literary career as the author of a poem in praise of dancing," (Vol. I., p. 289). This is precisely the reverse of the fact. In his earlier hot-blooded days he threw off his gay and self-named "light" verses. In an interval of penitent self-inspection and worthier aspiration, he wrote "Nosce Teipsum," and he followed this up by ever-deepened grave, wise and weighty (prose) books. It is a pity (perhaps) to spoil your brilliant bits of antithetic scandal; and more pity that they should be hazarded for inevitable spoiling. Or put it in another way: it is too bad to have your cook serving up the Roast Beef of Old England as if it were strawberries (and cream). One need not use severer terms, knowing the ducal editorship is a blind. Campbell in his "Specimens," preceded in the blundering.
[18] In Memorial-Introduction to Poems, as before, pp. 15-21.
[19] See Vol. II., pp. 72-86.
[20] Ibid, pp. 87-95. See on this in second division of this Memorial-Introduction: Postscript.
[21] See Lord Stowell's Paper, in Archælogia, Vol. XXI., pp. 107-112, and our fuller Life, as before.
[22] See Prose Works, as before, Vol. II. With reference to the Lines to the Lord Chancellor on the death of his "second wife" (Vol. I. pp. 112-3) it may be noted that he married (1) Elizabeth, d. of Thomas Ravenscroft of Bretton, co. Flint, Esq., (2) Elizabeth, sister of Sir George More of Loseley co. Surrey, Kt., and widow of Sir John Wolley of Pirford, Surrey, Kt., and before him of Richard Polsted, Esq., of Aldbury, co. Surrey. Her second husband Sir John Wolley (sometimes spelled Wooley) died in February or March 1595-6 and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. She appears to have remarried (viz. the Lord Chancellor) in the same year: so that she did not live long thereafter; for she died on 20th January 1599-1600 and was buried with her second husband. The Lord Chancellor was in profound grief (as the Lines of Davies confirm); but he got over it sufficiently to marry (3) Alice, d. of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe co. Northampton, Kt., and widow of Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby, on 21st October of the same year (1599-1600) exactly nine months after the death of his (lamented) second wife. She survived the Lord Chancellor until 26th January 1636-7 and was buried at Harefield, co. Middlesex. Of Ellesmere himself these data may be given: Sir Thomas Egerton was created Lord Ellesmere 21 July 1603, upon his appointment as Lord High Chancellor of England. He was further created Viscount Brackley 7th Nov. 1616, and was about being made Earl of Bridgewater when he died 15th March 1616-7. His son John was so created 27th May 1617.
[23] Vol. I., pp. 12-13.
[24] The Carte "Notes," as before, make Davies go to the Scottish Court on the birth of Prince Henry; but this is an obvious mistake: and yet it is noticeable that among the hitherto unpublished poems is one to the King, wherein contemporary allusion is made to his Majesty's visit to Denmark for his Queen.
[25] Wood, as before, ii., p. 401.
[26] See my edition of Sir Philip Sidney, being prepared for reproduction from the Fuller Worthies' Library in the present Series.
[27] Sir Bernard Burke and J. N. C. Atkins Davis, Esq., communications through Mr. Beedham, as before.
[28] See Smith's Law Officers of Ireland, s.n. The Patent of 29th May, 1609, I propose to give in extenso in the Life, as before. It is extremely interesting.
[29] As Sergeant-at-Law he ought to have been resident in London, but the King gave him "dispensation" that he might return to Ireland.
[30] Carte MSS. ff. 315-6.
[31] Carte, as before, Vol. 62, ff. 313-14.
[32] See Life to be prefixed to Prose Works for quotations from her writings in verse and prose, and for further details.
[33] See Prose, Vol. II.
[34] See fuller Life, as before, for a complete narrative from contemporary documents.
[35] Ibid, Vol. III.
[36] Willis's Nat. Parl., Vol. III., p. 173.
[37] In the Life, as before, will be given full details of the Grants, with a curious paper of his daughter long afterwards making inquiries as to what had become of the Irish estates, &c., &c.
[38] It will be observed that in the Letter Sir John does not name the gentleman he wishes to succeed him. It was no doubt Sir William Ryves, who actually was appointed. The "neere alliance" was through the family of Mervyn, and is shown in the following details drawn up for me by Mr. B. H. Beedham, from information communicated by Mr. J. N. C. Davis, as before:
| George Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven | Lucy, d. of Sir James Mervyn, Fonthill, Wilts. | ||||||||
| 3 | 2 | ||||||||
| Sir John Davies | Lady Eleanor Touchet | Edward Davys Joan Cave | |||||||
| Matthew Davys b. 1595 ob. 1678. | Ann d. of Edward Mervyn of Fonthill, ob. 8th Nov. 1657. | ||||||||
| John Ryves of Daunsey Court | Elizabeth d. of John Mervyn (several children) | ||||||||
| 6 | 8th son. | ||||||||
| Sir William Ryves settled in Ireland; had numerousappointments, and made large purchases of estates; Attorney General. | Sir Thomas Ryves, Master in Chancery: Judge of the Prerogative Court there. | ||||||||
[39] No. 245. For a notice of the collection from which the above Letter is for the first time printed, see Preface to "The Fortescue Papers ... Edited ... by Samuel R. Gardiner, for the Camden Society (1871). My friend Mr. Gardiner must have overlooked Davies's important letter.
[40] By inadvertence the Patent describes Sir John Davies as "deceased." Unless used as = departed (from Ireland), or = having ceased to fill the office, it is a singular oversight.
[41] In the Life, as before, his appearances in Parliament will be noted and illustrated.
[42] Woolrych, as before, splits the one work into several, and mistakes MSS. of it for distinct works. Vol. I., pp. 209-10.
[43] Vol. III., pp. 1-116.
[44] In the fuller Life, as before.
[45] Pearce's "Inns of Court," p. 293.
[46] See Stow's "Environs of London," by Strype, Book VI., p. 72. But our text of the Inscriptions is from the Carte MSS. Dr. E. F. Rimbault's MS. in the autograph of John Le Neve, as published in Notes and Queries, 1st series, Vol. V., p. 331, is inexplicably imperfect and blundering.
[47] His Prose is of no common order; and will be critically examined in the fuller Life, along with his Prose Works in the Fuller Worthies' Library, as before.
[48] Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries: Vol. II., p. 227, edn. 1860.
[49] A Compendious History of English Literature, &c., Vol. I., p. 577, edn. 1866.
[50] To Southey's praise be it remembered, that he was the first emphatically to regret that there had been no collective edition of Sir John Davies's Works, as thus: "It may be regretted that he did not leave representatives who would have thought it a duty and an honour to publish all that could be collected of his writings; thus erecting the best and most enduring monument to his memory." (British Poets: Chaucer to Jonson: p. 686). Our edition of his Prose and Verse fulfils Southey's wish.
[51] Ashmore (J). Certain Selected Odes of Horace Englished, with Poems of divers Subiects translated. Whereunto are added, both in Latin and English, sundry new Epigrammes, Anagrammes, Epitaphes. 1621 sm. 4o. As this Volume is seldom to be met with, I take the opportunity of adding here the Anagram to Bacon, which does not appear to have been known to his Editors or Biographers.
To the Right Honourable, Sir Francis Bacone, Knight, Lord High Chancelor of England.
| Anagr | {Bacone |
| { Beacon |
Thy Vertuous Name and Office, joyne with Fate,
To make thee the bright Beacon of the State.
I just observe, as my book passes through the Press, that Anthony a-Wood quotes (probably) above, without naming the author.
[52] See my edition of Sidney, Vol. I.
[53] As for much more I am indebted to Dr. Brinsley Nicholson (as before) for most of the details of the above statement. He has likewise favoured me with these additional illustrations of a refrain in the introduction to the "Lottery." In the Queen's Entertainment at Cawdray (Lord Montacute's), in 1591, an angler says, "Madame, it is an olde saying, There is no fishing to the sea nor service to the King: but it holdes when the sea is calme and the King vertuous" (Nichols' Progresses). Greene also uses it in his James IV., when the schemer who has gained by flattering the King, says (I. 2)
"Now may I say as many often sing,
No fishing to the sea nor service to a King."
See Note to the "Lottery," Vol. II., p. 88. It was surely an error of judgment of the late Mr. John Bruce, in reproducing Manningham's "Diary," to leave out the "Lottery," and related entries, on the weak plea that the former had been printed in Shakespeare and Percy Society publications. It may be here mentioned that Manningham, in giving some of the "Lottery" verses, writes on a leaf which is followed by one of the date of 1601; but as Mr. Collier remarks, either the leaves of the Diary got misplaced, or else he was in the habit of using up at after times leaves that he had left blank. Further: Chamberlain, in a letter of October 2, 1602, mentions the visit to the Lord Keeper's at Harefield as part of the late "Progress." The original M.S. of the Entertainment belonged to Sir Roger Newdegate, but is now missing. Finally: I over-looked to annotate in loco in the "Entertainment" itself, that as the Dairy house was to the left while the "House" (of Harefield) was to the right, the Dairymaid ridicules the idea of the Bailiff taking such a party to what she calls a Pigeon house for its size, and which was moreover at that moment in the carpenters' hands. In effect the Queen had to be separated from at least the greater part of her suite.
[54] See my edition of his Complete Poems for the Roxburghe Club.
[55] Spreds in 1st edn. G.
[56] Thomas Davies, as before, misprints 'thro.' G.
[57] Bp. Hacket writes 'Deus' against 'Spirit': but perhaps the Queen only was (flatteringly) intended, as her poetic name of Cynthia would seem to indicate. This word 'Spirit' is misprinted by Thomas Davies and by Southey and usually, 'spring'. G.
[58] Misprinted by Davies and Southey, as before, 'join'd'. G.
[59] Davies and Southey misread
'And influence of such celestial kind'
which I find supported by none of the author's own texts. G.
[60] Davies and Southey, as before, misread 'Her Maiesty's Devoted Subject and Servant' from Tate (1697). See our Memorial-Introduction. G.
[61] In 1599 edition 'Dauies,' and in 1608 edition 'Davis' and also in its title-page: in 1622 edition, as above. G.
⁂ Tate, and after him Thomas Davies, dates this Dedication 'July 11th, 1592.' It is possible that the 'Poem' was then in manuscript: but it was not printed or published until 1599, and there is no date to the Dedication either in that edition or in those of 1602, 1608 or 1622. G.
[62] On this MS. of Nosce Teipsum see our Preface. G.
[63] Misprinted 'and' in 1st edition and in 1608. G.
[64] 'God' in 1st edition. G.
[65] Foolish. G.
[66] In 1st edition 'Thief' is misprinted 'shie' and Bp. Hacket writes here: 'Prometheus stole fire: qui in tulit in terram malum.' G.
[67] Fable in Æsop [Babrius]. G.
[68] Ixion. G.
[69] Danaides. G.
[70] Painstaking. G.
[71] Phaethon. Hacket.
[72] Icarus. Hacket.
[73] Anima tanquam tabula, Aris[totle]. Hacket.
[74] 'One' in 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[75] 'Mortal' in 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[76] Misprinted 'here' but corrected in the errata of 1622 edition, as above, from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[77] Oraculum Appollinis [f]uit Diabolicum. Hacket.
[78] Thomas Davies, as before, misprints 'each' G.
[79] Misprinted 'It is': corrected by H... G.
[80] Io. G.
[81] In 1599 and 1608 more accurately 'sprites'. G.
[82] Davies and Southey substitute 'the mind'. G.
[83] Davies and Southey, as before, mis-substitute 'pry.' G.
[84] An overlooked misprint here is 'seas': found in all the author's own editions, and repeated until now, e.g. by Thomas Davies and Southey, as before. G.
[85] Bounds: as in Race-courses. G.
[86] Thoms Davies, as before, mis-reads 'will'. G.
[87] 'Sense' in 1st edn. G.
[88] Davies and Southey misprint egregiously 'river.' G.
[89] Laymen. G.
[90] Dew: and so spelled also by the Fletchers and other contemporaries. G.
[91] Painstaking. G.
[92] Misprinted 'act' in the 1st edn. G.
[93] In 1st edition 'she thus doth.' G.
[94] Q. Eliz[abeth]. H. [Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'a prudent emperor.' G.]
[95] Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'whom princes do.' Ellesmere. See sonnet addressed to him among 'Minor poems.' G.
[96] 'Spreads' in 1st edn. G.
[97] Meliora proboq ... iora ... sequor ... Sen'a. H. [Rather Ovid vii. 20.
... Video meliora, proboque Deteriora sequor'
Pathetically quoted by Byron in his remarkable Letter to John Sheppard. G.]
[98] The allusion is to Mutius Scaevola, who was taken in an attempt to assassinate Porsena, and thrust his hand into the fire to prove his fortitude: Livy II. 12. G.
[99] The story is told by Plutarch in his Life of Marius c. VI. 415. G.
[100] Pliny XXXV. 36 § 3: told of a picture of Zeuxis, as that of the horse neighing is of another by Apelles (ib § 17.) G.
[101] Misprinted 'temparature.' G.
[102] Clean, pure. G.
'Time but the impression stronger makes
As streams their channels deeper wear.'
Burns: to Mary in Heaven.
[104] Southey misprints 'in.' G.
[105] Misprinted in 1608 and 1622 edition 'other:' correctly, as above, in 1599 edition. G.
[106] Holy Scriptures. G.
[107] = Spoil. G.
[108] Here and elsewhere, the 1622 edn. alters 'since' of the 1599 and 1608 edns. to the earlier form 'sith': on which see Wright's Bible Word-Book. s.v. G.
[109] In 1599 and 1608 edns., 'did.' G.
[110] By an unhappy oversight, the whole of this stanza is dropped out of 1697 edition: and thence, by Davies, and generally. G.
[111] Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'ill.' G.
[112] Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'Maker's will.' G.
[113] Homer, Iliad, VIII. 19: and cf. Tennyson ('Morte d' Arthur,' p. 200: edition 1848.)
'For so the whole round world is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.' G.
[114] It is noticeable that the supreme Divine and Thinker of America—Jonathan Edwards—accepts this symbol of the 'Tree,' and works it out marvellously in his great treatise on 'Original Sin.' G.
[115] Misprinted in 1622 'sports:' 'spots' from 1599, 1602 and 1608. G.
[116] 'Since,' as before in 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[117] One of Heylin's numerous books is called 'Microcosmus:' a little Description of the great World. Oxon: 1st edn., 1622. The word is met with in other old title-pages and in theological (Puritan) writings. G.
[118] Davies and Southey, as before, insert 'forth' here. G.
[119] Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'o'er:' but 'on' is the Poet's own word here and elsewhere. G.
[120] In 1599 and 1608 editions, 'her.' G.
[121] In 1598 and 1608 editions, 'vncorruptible.' G.
[122] 'This' in 1599 edition. G.
[123] Living. G.
[124] St. Luke, x. 40, 41. G.
[125] On the Dryads Cf. Paus. viii. 4. § 2 Apollon. Rhod. ii. 447, &c. G.
[126] Misprinted 'spring,' but corrected in the errata of 1622 edition, as above. G.
[127] Scent. G.
[128] In 1599 and 1608 editions, 'since,' as before. G.
[129] Scents. G.
[130] Misprinted 'then' in 1622 edition, but as above correctly in 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[131] Misprinted 'Fancasticke' in 1622 edition. G.
[132] Cf. Milton's Il Penseroso, lines 5-10. G.
[133] Cf. Phineas Fletcher: Purple Island c. v., stanza 47. G.
[134] Misprinted 'apprehension;' corrected in the errata of 1622 edition from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[135] In 1599 and 1608 editions 'since,' as before. G.
[136] Misprinted 'them' in 1622 edition, corrected as above from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.
[137] Thomas Davies, as before, mis-prints 'bring.' G.
[138] Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, read 'opinion's light:' but in all the Author's editions it is as above = light opinion: or query is 'hight' = named, meant? G.
[139] Davies, as before, 'decree.' G.
[140] Here = o'er as on page 61 ante. G.
[141] = forgetfulness: from Lethe. G.
[142] A numeral '3' here, and in the next stanza but one. G.
[143] = disciples of Epicurus's Philosophy. G.
[144] Davies and Southey, as before, have the extraordinary misprint here of 'lymph.' Cf. 'Orchestra,' stanza 63, which explains the personification. G.
[145] In 1599 and 1608 editions, 'since,' as before. G.
[146] Apollod I., 8, § 2, et alibi: Ovid, Met. viii., 450; et seq: 531: Diod. IV., 34. G.
[147] Spelled in 1622 edition 'Iiebbet,' but in 1599 and 1608 as above. G.
[148] = active, vigorous: an uncommon use of the word. G.
[149] Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, misread 'the.' G.
[150] Hebe. G.
[151] Foolish. G.
[152] Ovid, Met. vii. 163, 250 et alibi. G.
[153] Sic: and also onward. G.
[154] The parenthetic marks are as supra: but perhaps they ought to begin at 'by' and end with 'world.' G.
[155] Davies and Southey, as before, oddly misprint 'bucklers.' G.
[156] Misprinted 'world,' but corrected in the errata of 1622 edition. Davies and Southey, as before, repeat the misprint, and accommodate 'they' to it by reading 'they'd:' so rare is it to recur to an author's own text. G.
'Tell us, ye dead, will none of you in pity,
To those you left behind, disclose the secret?
Oh! that some courteous ghost would blab it out;
What 'tis you are, and we must shortly be.'
Robert Blair: 'The Grave.' G.
[158] Foolish. G.
[159] In 1599 and 1608 editions, 'do.' G.
[160] Numeral '3,' as before, in 1622 edition. G.
[161] Id est 'complain.' G.
[162] 'Goale' in 1608 edition. G.
[163] See Ovid, Met. III., 341 et alibi, and Eustathius (ad Hom. p. 266). G.
[164] 'Serious' dropped by Davies and Southey, as before. G.
[165] Cf. Sir Thomas Browne: 'Vulgar Errors,' s.v. G.
[166] More usually applied to the swan: as ancient Worship puts it 'The whitest swanne hath a blacke foot:' 'Christian's Mourning Garment.' G.
[167] The Original, Nature, and Immortality of the Soul. A Poem. With an Introduction concerning Humane Knowledge. Written by Sir John Davies, Attorney-General to Q. Elizabeth. With a Prefatory Account concerning the Author and Poem. London, Printed by W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street. 1697'—Tate informs us that the 'Remarks' were 'written by an ingenious and learned Divine'—It will be noticed that they finish somewhat abruptly: and while there is 'account' of the Poem, none of the Author.'—Dr. Bliss, in his edition of Anthony-a-Wood's Athenæ, describes above as containing only the second portion: but he is mistaken: the Poem is given completely.
[168] Here spelled 'Astrea.' G.
[169] = to praise or exalt. G.
[170] = reaching forward. G.
[171] Thomas Davies, as before, drops 'merry.'
[172] = alleys. G.
[173] Queen Elizabeth was born on 7th September, 1533. G.
[174] = write. G.
[175] = spoil. G.
[176] Misprinted 'to.' G.
[177] = Foolish. G.
[178] Cf. Paradise Regained, iii. 310. G.
[179] In first edition 'things.' G.
[180] See Memorial-Introduction concerning Martin. G.
[181] Cf. st. 68. l. 6. G.
[182] Query—Henry, son of James I.? He died in 1612. Or Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I.? Most probably the former. G.
[183] = seriously. Cf. Milton: P. L. vi. 541 and Comus, 509. So in Shakespeare frequently. G.
[184] Misprinted 'Tethis.' G.
[185] In 1st edition 'dim darke shades.' G.
[186] Phemius, a great singer at the court of Ulysses: Odys. i. 154, 337: the latter contains the allusion supra, where Penelope stands at the door of the hall and listens to the song. G.
[187] Misprinted 'brigher.' G.
[188] Misprinted in 1612 edition 'danching.' G.
[189] Margin-Note here 'The antiquitie of dancing.' G.
[190] In first edition reads: 'And which is far more ancient then the sun.' G.
[191] Herald. G.
[192] Pedigree. G.
[193] Margin-Note here 'The original of dancing.' G.
[194] 'Painstaking.' G.
[195] In 1st edition 'shining.' G.
[196] Margin-Note here 'The speech of Love, perswading men to learn Dancing.' G.
[197] Margin-Note here 'By the orderly motion of the fixed stars.' G.
[198] Cf. 'Paradise Regained' iii. 310, as in Astrœa, Hymne xxi. G.
[199] In 1st edition 'are mov'd.' G.
[200] Margin-Note here 'Of the planets.' G.
[201] A French 'dance': the name meaning gay or brisk, and so a quick liuely dance, introduced into England about 1541. Thomas Wright's 'Dictionary' s.v. G.
[202] In 1st edition 'gallant.' G.
[203] Black. G.
[204] Spanish pavana: a solemn Spanish dance. G.
[205] Spelled in first edition, 'heire.' G.
[206] Margin-Note here 'Of the Fire.' G.
[207] Cf. 'Nosce Teipsum' page 103, ante: st. fourth, line second. G.
[208] Margin-Note here, 'Of the Ayre.' G.
[209] In first edition 'ye' = the, and so elsewhere. G.
[210] A round country dance. G.
[211] Translucent. Cf. Milton, Samson Agonistes 548, and Comus, 861. G.
[212] In first edition spelled 'fier.' G.
[213] Margin-Note here 'Of the sea.' G.
[214] Margin-Note here 'Of the riuers.' G.
[215] Ovid (Heroides VII. 1, 2)
'Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis,
Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.'
Cf. Sir Thomas Browne 'Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors' Book III.c.xxvii: Works by Wilkin, Vol. II. pp. 517, 518 (edition Pickering 1835.) G.
[216] A round country dance, as before.
[217] Margin-Note here 'Of other things upon the earth.' G.
[218] 'Exact': this illustrates Hamlet i., I, and Othello ii., 3. G.
[219] In first edition a probable misprint is, 'Chaunce.' G.
[220] In first edition 'impetuous.' G.
[221] In first and 1622 editions there is a probable misprint of 'crowne' here. G.
[222] Bass. G.
[223] Margin-Note here: 'How Loue taught men to dance.' G.
[224] Margin-Note here 'Rounds or Country Dances.' G.
[225] This interprets 'Nosce Teipsum,' Reason II, st. 1, page 86 ante.
[226] Margin-Note here 'Measures.' G.
[227] In 1st edition spelled 'trew,' G.
[228] In 1st edition 'old': 'young' in 1622 must be a misprint, unless used in the grand meaning of Sir Thomas Browne. In 1622 it is mis-spelled 'youg.' G.
[229] Margin-Note here 'Galliards.' G.
[230] In 1st edition spelled 'flyne': A.S. 'to fly.' G.
[231] A 'capriole' is a 'lady's head-dress' (Wright): but here seems to mean 'springings and turnings': degenerated into 'capers' at this later day. G.
[232] Margin-Note here, 'Courantoes.' G.
[233] Margin-Note here, 'Lavoltaes.' G.
[234] There is a misprint of 'employ' in Thomas Davies' edition, as before. G.
[235] Margin-Note here 'Grace in dauncing.' G.
[236] In the errata of 1622 edition 'doo' is substituted for 'did,' itself a misprint, perhaps, for 'does.' G.
[237] 'Rites.' G.
[238] Margin-Note here, 'The use and formes of dauncing in sundry affaires of man's life.' G.
[239] Made stellæ=stars or constellations. G.
[240] Virgil, Æneid VI., 448, calls him Cænis:
.... 'et juvenis quondam, nunc femina, Cænis,
Rursus et in veterem fato revoluta figuram.'
He is mentioned again in Homer, Iliad I. 264. G.
[241] Met. III., 320, &c., &c. G.
[242] Cf. L'Allegro 'Lap me in soft Lydian airs.' (l 136.) G.
[243] Qu: couch? G.
[244] Incremation. G.
[245] Pursue or succeed. G.
[246] The Cenci of Shelley has 'married' this tragical crime to 'immortal verse.' G.
[247] In first edition, 'murthering.' G.
[248] In first edition also spelled 'dilphins' = dolphins. G.
[249] In first edition, 'they.' G.
[250] Note here, 'True Loue inventor of dauncing.' G
[251] Spelled 'Liues.' G.
[252] Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, misprint egregiously 'that.' G.
[253] Margin-Note here, 'Concord.' G.
[254] 'Back,' same as 'blake,' page 176, ante, for 'black.' G.
[255] = on. G.
[256] In first edition, spelled 'pinnesse' also, = pinnace. G.
[257] Margin-Note here, 'A passage to the description of dauncing in this age.' G.
[258] Thomas Davies, as before, drops 'such.' G.
[259] Thomas Davies and Southey misread 'when.' G.
[260] Virgil. G.
[261] Chaucer. G.
[262] Spenser. G.
[263] Daniel: The allusion being to his 'Sonnets to Delia.' G.
[264] Edward Guilpin calls his volume 'Skialetheia, or a Shadowe of Truth in certain Epigrams and Satyres,' 1598. G.
[265] I hazard a guess, that this may refer to Charles Best, an associate of Davies in the 'Rhapsody,' and author of certain vivid lines called 'A Sonnet of the Sun: a jewell, being a sun shining upon the Marigold closed in a heart of gold, sent to his mistress, named Mary, among others. See Nicolas's edition of the 'Rhapsody,' Vol. I., pp. 183, 184. G.
[266] Perhaps a play on his 'then' friend's name of Martin. G.
[267] Collier gives supra in his 'Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature,' s.n.