I will, yea, and I may;
Who shall oppose my way?
For what is he alone,
That of himselfe can say,
10Hee's Heire of Helicon?
Apollo, and the Nine,
Forbid no Man their Shrine,
That commeth with hands pure;
Else be they so diuine,
They will not him indure.
For they be such coy Things,
That they care not for Kings,
And dare let them know it;
Nor may he touch their Springs,
20That is not borne a Poet.
Pyreneus, King of Phocis, attempting to rauish the Muses.
That instrument ne'r heard,
Strooke by the skilfull Bard,
It strongly to awake;
But it th' infernalls skard,
30And made Olympus quake.
Sam. lib. 1. cap. 16.
Orpheus the Thracian Poet. Caput, Hebre, lyramque Excipis. &c. Ouid. lib. 11. Metam.
Mercury inuentor of the Harpe, as Horace Ode 10. lib. 1. curuaq; lyra parentẽ.
Thebes fayned to haue beene raysed by Musicke.
And diuersly though Strung,
So anciently We sung,
To it, that Now scarce knowne,
If first it did belong
To Greece, or if our Owne.