To his loving kinsman the Author.
When first I view'd the travails of thy quill,
I lik'd, approv'd, admir'd thy nimble skill
In sudden raptures, fancies, judgement, phrase,
Invention, quickness, life, detraction, praise—
So that I favour'd their conceit which feign'd
The soul to be an harmony, and reign'd
Amongst the senses with accounts and measures,
All which thy lofty poesy entreasures,
That quaintest warblers cannot with delight
Outworth the poet in his lyric height.
As those which with quick eyes where judgement sits,
Thy vindication of poetic wits
Do read, may see, whose swelling metres teach
All aliens such high English that to reach
Is harder than to like or belch forth scandals.
Witness thy journey, Somnus, Morpheus, sandals,
The orbs, gods, muses, critics, accusation,
The poet's names, employments, vindication,
These silencèd my pen, it dared no more;
Till, voic'd by thy Bellame again, her store
Of suitors, one approv'd by friends, not her:
Rivelezzo's wrath (wherein most parents err),
Her grief, encloist'ring, entertainment high,
Albino's heart and hers met in their eye,
Their whisp'ring dalliance, Piazzella's care,
Bardino's falsehood, their affections rare,
Her disencloist'ring, and his nunning plot,
The nuns' thick bellies, his repentant grot.
His freedom, flight, encount'ring with his saint,
His conjuration, prodigies, and plaint,
The shepherd lout, Bellama's second quest,
His ghosting, coming from th' Elysian rest,
Their parles, his dis-enghosting, her denials,
His rage, her kindness, both their loves and trials,
Conrad's immuring, Piazzella's fury,
His freedom, Foppo and his monkish jury,
The lovers' ale-house cheer, bed, coarse apparel,
The monks' strict quest, their finding, mirth, and quarrel,
Their scape, fear, raddle, kinsman, and at length
Their nuptial tede, when malice lost its strength.
How thou hast shown (dear coz) thy art in arts,
Let them express who brag of abler parts
Than I, which have a bigger part in thee,
Thy love, and blood, till being cease to be.
John Whiting,
Master of Arts, Clare Hall, Camb.
Amico suo carissimo N. W. huius Poematis authori
Collegii Regnalis Canta. in artibus magistro.
Pan petat Arcadiam: Druides effundite cantus,
Et iuvenes flores spargite, Bardus adest.
Tu qui struxisti memoranda trophaea poesi,
Dicere multa tibi nescio, nolo nihil.
Vota, preces, calamus, cor, carmen, singula, laudes
Ultro perdignas, concelebrare student.
An decus, ingenium, tua laus, tua facta, peribunt?
Dignum laude virum musa perire vetat.
Corpore defuncto te candida musa sequetur
10Admiratur opus, primitiasque tuas.
Fata, precor, faustae plectant tua stamina vitae
Ut scribas opera plurima digna tua.
Jacobus Bernard sacrosanctae
& individuae Trinitatis Collegii
in artibus magister.