NOTE.
While we do not deem it expedient to translate this somewhat coarse jeu d'esprit, its sentiment and allusions will be found anticipated in the lines 'To the Reader, upon the Author his Kins-man,' prefixed to 'Follie's Anatomie; or Satyres and Satyricall Epigrams; with a compendious History of Ixion's Wheele. Compiled by Henry Hutton, Dunelmensis.' London, 1619 (pp. 3-4)—which we give here:
Old Homer in his time made a great feast,
And every Poet was thereat a guest:
All had their welcome, yet not all one fare;
To them above the salt (his chiefest care)
He spread a banquet of choice Poesie,
Whereon they fed even to satietie.
The lower end had from that end their cates;
For Homer, setting open his dung-gates,
Delivered from that dresser excrement,
Whereon they glutted, and returned in print.
Let no man wonder that I this rehearse;
Nought came from Homer but it turned to verse.
Now where our Author was, at this good cheere,
Where was his place, or whether he were there;
Whether he waited, or he tooke away,
Of this same point I cannot soothly say.
But this I ghesse: being then a dandiprat,
Some witty Poet took him on his lap,
And fed him, from above, with some choice bit.
Hence his acumen, and a ready wit.
But prayers from a friendly pen ill thrive,
And truth's scarce truth, spoke by a relative.
Let envy, therefore, give her vote herein:
Envy and th' Author sure are nought akin.
He personate bad Envy; yet say so,
He lickt at Homer's mouth, not from below. R[alph] H[utton].Percy Society edit. (Rimbault), 1842. Both Hutton and Crashaw remind us of the like sportiveness (rough) in Dryden and Byron. G.
CUM HORUM ALIQUA DEDICARAM
PRAECEPTORI MEO COLENDISSIMO, AMICO AMICISSIMO, R. BROOKE.[115]
En tibi Musam, Praeceptor colendissime, quas ex tuis modo scholis, quasi ex Apollinis officina, accepit alas timide adhuc, nec aliter quam sub oculis tuis jactitantem.
Qualiter e nido multa jam floridus ala
Astra sibi meditatur avis, pulchrosque meatus
Aërios inter proceres, licet aethera nunquam
Expertus, rudibusque illi sit in ardua pennis
Prima fides, micat ire tamen, quatiensque decora
Veste leves humeros, querulumque per aëra ludens
Nil dubitat vel in astra vagos suspendere nisus,
At vero simul immensum per inane profundis
Exhaustus spatiis, vacuoque sub aethere pendens,
Arva procul sylvasque suas, procul omnia cernit,
Cernere quae solitus: tum vero victa cadit mens,
Spesque suas, et tanta timens conamina, totus
Respicit ad matrem, pronisque revertitur auris.
Quod tibi enim haec feram, vir ornatissime, non ambitio dantis est, sed justitia reddentis; neque te libelli mei tam elegi patronum, quam dominum agnosco. Tua sane sunt haec et mea; neque tamen ita mea sunt, quin si quid in illis boni est, tuum hoc sit totum, neque interim in tantum tua, ut quantumcumque est in illis mali, illud non sit ex integro meum. Ita medio quodam et misto jure utriusque sunt, ne vel mihi, dum me in societatem tuarum laudum elevarem, invidiam facerem; vel injuriam tibi, ut qui te in tenuitatis meae consortium deducere conarer. Ego enim de meo nihil ausim boni mecum agnoscere, nedum profiteri palam, praeter hoc unum, quo tamen nihil melius, animum nempe non ingratum tuorum beneficiorum historiam religiosissima fide in se reponentem. Hoc quibuscumque testibus coram, hoc palam in os coeli meaeque conscientiae meum jacto effero me in hoc ultra aemuli patientiam. Enim vero elegantiore obsequio venerentur te, et venerantur scio, tuorum alii: nemo me sincero magis vel ingenuo poterit. Horum denique rivulorum, tenuium utcunque nulliusque nominis, haec saltem laus erit propria, quod suum nempe norint Oceanum.
TRANSLATION.
WHEN I HAD DEDICATED CERTAIN OF MY POEMS
TO MY MOST ESTIMABLE PRECEPTOR AND MOST FRIENDLY FRIEND, R. BROOKE.