English.
With Rod in hand, set in the middle of the Branches,
With water I wet the Limb and the Foot,
In fear I writ, quaking in my sleeves,
Divine splendor! the Divine sitteth by.
ANNOT.
Amongst the customs, the Ancients observed, before they pronounced their Oracles; one was to take a Tuffie Branch of Laurel, and with it dipt in water, to sprinkle the edges and Columns of the Table, that was upon the Brazen Trevet, by which ceremonies they procured credit to their Oracles.
The Author willing to let us know, that his Verses were not only a simple writing, but also Prophetical and full of Oracles, doth represent them to us by this Metaphore of the Ancients, when they did amuse the people with their ambiguous, and many times fallacious Oracles.
Being then sitting and quiet in his solitariness; coming out of that great devotion of mind, animated by the virtue of his good Genius, he putteth first the Rod into his hand, that is the Pen, and putteth it in the middle of the Branches, putting it between his Fingers. Secondly he dippeth this Rod into Water, dipping his Pen in his Ink; with this Pen dipt in Ink, he wetteth the Limb and the Foot, writing upon his paper from one end to the other, and from the top to the bottom.
Which we must understand by this word Lymbe, which is a Latin word, signifying the long and narrow pieces of stuffe, which women wore at the bottom of their Petticoats, therefore the Latins called them Lymbos, from the Latin Verbe Lambo, which in matter of cloths signifieth, to leek or sweep; and because those pieces of cloath were in the bottom of their Garments, the word hath been afterwards employed to signifie the brims of some things, so that the Lymbs of a sheet of paper, are the two margines, and the top and the bottom, as if it were the four ends of a Quadrangular Figure.