The Complete Poetical Works of George Chapman

by George Chapman

  Wretched euents, to all men they commend;

  All things inuerted are; nought brookes the light

  But what may well make blush the blackest night.

  VIGILIÆ QUARTÆ & VLTIMÆ.

  INDUCTIO.

  The tast of all ioies in societie

  The sicke world felt a little satisfie:

  The garland, and the Iuie-twisted lance,

  Put on, and tost were, by the God of dance.

  Vulcan guilt houses, th’Elutherian feast

  Of all the liberals: now paid Rites to rest.

  Songs, Hymeneals, all the cares of day

  Tumults, and quarrels, turnd to peace and play.

  Representation, that the Chymists part

  Plaies in her pastimes, now turnd with her Art

  This Iron world into the goulden age,

  Earths antient worthes, showing on her stage:

  Where those sweete swarmes that tast no crabbed lacks

  Hang thicke, with all their honnie on their backs,

  Imbrac’t with musicke, and the pride of wit:

  Silence much more in solemne state doth sit

  In that faire concourse, with an Actors voice,

  Then where Rich Law insults, still vext with noise,

  And where nine Herolds could not crowne her peace,

  One Prologue here, puts on her wreath with ease.

  Loue ioies began to burne; and all did rise

  To giue the thriftlesse euening sacrifice.

  Then went the muses, virtues, graces on,

  The Herse, and Toombe, the croune to set vpon

  Of this most endlesse noble Lord deceast,

  And to his soules ioy, and his bodies rest

  A Hymne aduance, which to the Trumpe of Fame,

  Poore Poesie sung; Her euery other dame

  (Th’ingenuous Muses) ringing out, the Chore;

  Fame sounded; Poesie, sung the part before:

  Hymnus ad D. Russelium defundum:

  1

  Rising and setting, let the sunne

  Grace whom we honor;

  And euer at her full, the Moone

  Assume vpon her,

  The forme his Noblesse did put on;

  In whose Orb, all the vertues shone,

  With beames decreasing neuer;

  Till faith, in her firme Rocke reposde;

  Religion, his lifes Circle closd,

  And opened life for euer.

  Earth, seas, the Aire, and Heauen, O heare

  These Rites of ours, that euery yeare,

  We vow thy Herse,

  And breath the flames of soules entire,

  Thrice het, with heauens creating fire,

  In deathlesse verse.

  2

  Russell, Lord Russell, while we pay

  Thy name our numbers:

  Directed by the eye of day

  That neuer slumbers:

  May all Heauens Quire of Angels sing,

  And glorifie in thee, their king

  That death with death subdueth;

  While we strike Earths sounds dumbe, and deafe,

  And Croune thee with a feastfull leafe

  Whose verdure still reneweth.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, and Heauen, O heare,

  These Rites of ours, that euery yeare

  We vow his Herse;

  And breath the flames of soules entire,

  Thrice het, with heauens creating fire

  In deathles vierse.

  3

  Euer O euer may this Eue

  That we keepe holy,

  Thy name encreasing honors giue,

  That serue it solely.

  And second with diuine encrease

  Thy progenies religious peace,

  Zeales Altars euer smoking;

  And their true Pieties excite

  With full draughts of celestiall light,

  Thy vertues still inuoking.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, and Heauen O heare

  These Rites of ours, that euery yeare

  We vow his Herse, &c.

  4

  Requests that Iustice would fulfill

  Great Giuer giue them,

  Vniust moodes, make them bridle still

  And here, out Hue them.

  Directly let their zealous praiers

  Her eyen ope in their blest affaires,

  And of their Noblest Father;

  Enable them to fill the Place;

  And euery one; proofes of his Race

  From his Example gather.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, and Heauen, O heare

  These rites of ours that euery yeare

  We vow his Herse, &c.

  5

  Honors, that vertues keepe in height

  With fires deceased;

  All know, make vp their Comforts weight,

  And them more blessed.

  And therefore in thus wishing thine,

  We wish the more, thy worth may shine,

  Great Grace of all men Noble;

  From whose life, faith, and zeale did flow,

  In whose death, they shall freshly grow,

  And thy blest Race redouble.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, and Heauen, &c.

  6

  Monsters, for Nobles, let the Earth,

  Bring forth to brand her;

  And their Adulterate Beastly Birth

  At swindge commaund her.

  Yet slaues made to their Lusts, and Hell

  They shall but here, like Giants dwell,

  And breede but flames, and Thunder

  To beate them vnder their owne Hils,

  Their sweetes turnd Torments, their Goods, ils,

  Thy Race, their Enuies wonder.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, &c.

  7

  Exult, and triumph then in all

  Thy thoughts intended,

  Which heauen did into Ioies exhall

  For thee, ascended.

  If not a haire, Much lesse a thought

  Shall losse claime, of what Goodnesse ought,

  But shine in heauen together;

  Whose ioies (to truely-studied soules)

  Shall shine euen here, like ashe-kept Coles,

  Laid open gainst the weather.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, &c.

  8

  Knowledge, not fashiond here to feele

  Heauens promist pleasure;

  In lifes sea, is a turnd-vp Keele

  With all her Treasure:

  Not One, return’d from Death, to tell

  The Ioies of Heauen, the paines of Hell,

  Can ad to that relation;

  Which (possible impulsions vs’d)

  The Soule knowes here: and spirits infus’d,

  Farre past her first creation.

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, &c.

  9

  Infuse this into his deare kinde,

  Truth’s free vnfolder:

  With Fire that first informd the minde,

  Now nothing coulder.

  For which the Thrice Almighty One:

  The Spirit, Sire, and word still done:

  Praise giue, that gifts transcendeth.

  Despisd soules, Comfort with thy loue:

  In whom, with thy first motion moue,

  Till in fixt truth it endeth:

  Earth, Seas, the Aire, and Heauen, O heare,

  These Rites of ours, that euery yeare,

  We vow thy Herse:

  And breath the flames of soûles intire,

  Thrice het with heauens creating Fire,

  In deathlesse verse,

  Explicit Hymnus.

  With this, Eugenia, from her Trance arose

  And in her loues assur’d Ioies did repose,

  Her Noble Sorrowes, being assur’d with al

  That no effect did memorably fall,

  From his Renown’d Example, but was found

  In his true Sonne, and would in him resound.

  Then left she straight Fames loftie region:<
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  Stoop’t Earth, and vowd to dwell with him, or None,

  Whom since the Muses, Vertues, Graces now,

  Of force must follow (sweete Lord) be not you

  Carelesse of them, that she esteemd so deare:

  For howsoeuer they to Earth appeare,

  Where in their Truth they are, and are not prisd,

  In them, is true Religion despisd.

  Remember your Religious Father then,

  And after him: Be you the man of men.

  To these, the Night, thus short sem’d, and thus bare

  Was euery clamorous worldling, at his care,

  Care cried in Citties, and in Countries ror’d:

  Now was the soule, a Toie: Her gifts abhor’d,

  All Ornament, but brauery, was a staine:

  Nought now akinne to wit, but Cosening Gaine.

  Crafts, and Deceipts enricht, made Arts so poore:

  Which Artists seeing: Rich apparraile wore

  And bore out Art, Light’s onely made for show

  And show for lightnesse; Grauest Booke Men now

  Most rich in show bee, for their approbation,

  And neuer swagger, but in sacred Fashion.

  Looke blancke on good life: and point-blancke on Thrift:

  He that is richest, hath the wholiest gift.

  In Night Men dreame: Day best showes what is fit;

  Learning was made for Gaine, Not Gaine, for it.

  Now bellies deafned eares, in euery streete,

  And backs bore more then heads, heads more then feete.

  Explicit Eugeniae Ecstasis

  Musa quae Inuidia?

  FINIS.

  ANDROMEDA LIBERATA.

  TO THE PREIVDICATE AND PEREMPTORY READER.

  I AM still in your hands; but was first in his, that (being our great sustainer of Sincerity, and Jnnocence) will, J hope, defend mee from falling. J thinke you know not him J intend, more then you know me, nor can you know mee, since your knowledge is imagined so much aboue mine, that it must needes ouersee. He that lies on the ground can fall no lower. By such as backebite the highest, the lowest must looke to be deuor’d, Forth with your curious Scrutinie, and finde my Rush as knotty as you lust, and your owne Crab-tree, as smooth. Twillbe most ridiculous and pleasing, to sit in a corner, and spend your teeth to the stumps, in mumbling an ould Sparrow, till your lips bleed, and your eyes water: when all the faults you can finde are first in your selues, t’is no Herculean labor to cracke what you breed. Ahlas who knowes not your uttermost dimensions? Or loues not the best things v you would seeme to loue, in deed, and better? Truth was neuer the Fount of Faction. In whose Sphere since your purest thoughts moue, their motion must of force be oblique and angulare. But whatsoeuer your disease bee, I know it incurable, because your vrine will neuer shew it. At aduenture, at no hand be let blood for it, but rather sooth your ranke bloods and rub one another.

  You yet, ingenuous and iudicious Reader: that (as you are your selfe) retaine in a sound bodie, as sounde a soule: if your gentle tractability, haue vnwares let the common surfet surprize you: abstaine, take Phisique heere, and recouer. Since you reade to learne, teach: Since you desire to bee reform’d, reforme freely. Such shall be rich Balmes to it, comfort, and strengthen the braine it beares, and make it healthfully neese out, whatsoeuer anoies it. Vale.

  THE ARGUMENT.

  Andromeda, Daughter of Cepheus, King of Æthiopia; and Cassiope (a virgine exempted from comparison in all the vertues & beauties, both of minde and bodie) for the enuie of Iuno to her Mother; being compar’d with her for beauty and wisedome; (or as others write, maligned by the Nereides, for the eminent Graces of her selfe) moued so much the Deities displeasures; that they procur’d Neptune to send into the Region of Cepheus, a whale so monstrously vaste and dreadfull: that all the fields he spoild and wasted; all the noblest edifices tumbling to ruine; the strongest citties of the kingdome, not forcible enough to withstand his inuasions. Of which so vnsufferable a plague Cepheus consulting with an Oracle; and asking both the cause, and remedie; after accustomed sacrifices, the Oracle gaue answer, that the calamity would neuer cease, till his onely daughter Andromeda, was exposed to the Monster. Cepheus returnd, and with Iron chaînes bound his daughter to a rocke, before a cittie of the kingdome called Ioppe. At which cittie, the same time, Perseus arriued with the head of Medusa &c who pittying so matchles a virgines exposure to so miserable an euent; dissolu’d her chaînes and tooke her from the Rock. Both sitting together to expect the monster, & he rauenously hasting to deuoure her, Perseus, turnd part of him into stone, & through the rest made way with his sword to his vtter slaughter. When (holding it wreath enough for so renownd a victory) He took Andromeda to wife, & had by her one daughter called Perse, another Erythraea, of whom, the sea in those parts is called Mare Erythraeum; since she both liued and died there: and one sonne called after himselfe, another Electrion, a third Sthenelus: and after liued Princely and happily with his wife and his owne Mother to his death. Then faind for their vertues to be made Constellations in Heauen.

  TO THE RIGHT WORTHILY HONORED, ROBERT EARLE OF SOMMERSET, &C.

  AND

  HIS MOST NOBLE LADY the Ladie FRANCES.

  AS nothing vnder heauen is more remou’d

  From Truth & virtue, then Opinions prou’d

  By vulgar Voices: So is nought more true

  Nor soundly virtuous then things held by few:

  Whom Knowledge (entred by the sacred line,

  And gouernd euermore by grace diuine,)

  Keepes in the narrow path to spacious heauen,

  And therefore, should no knowing spirit be driuen

  From fact, nor purpose; for the spleens prophane

  Of humours errant, and Plebeian;

  But, Famelike, gather force as he goes forth,

  The Crowne of all Acts ends in onely worth.

  Nor will I feare to prostrate this poore Rage

  Of forespoke Poesie, to your patronage,

  (Thrice worthy Earle), & your vnequald grace

  (Most Noble Countesse) for the one-ear’d Race

  Of set-eyd vulgars, that will no waie see

  But that their stiffe necks driue them headlongy,

  Stung with the Gadflie of misgouernd zeale:

  Nor heare but one tale and that euer ill.

  These I contemne, as no Rubs fit for me

  To checke at, in my way t’Jntegritie.

  Nor will ye be incenst that such a Toie

  Should put on the presumption to enioie

  Your grauer eare, my Lord, and your faire eye

  (Illustrous Ladie) since poore Poesie

  Hath beene a Iewell in the richest eare

  Of all the Nuptiall States, that euer were.

  For as the Bodies pulse (in Phisique) is

  A little thing; yet therein th’Arteries

  Bewray their motion, and disclose, to Art

  The strength, or weakenesse, of the vitall part;

  Perpetually moouing, like a watch

  Put in our Bodies: So this three mens catch,

  This little Soules Pulse, Poesie, panting still

  Like to a dancing pease vpon a Quill,

  Made with a childes breath, vp and downe to fly,

  (Is no more manly thought); And yet thereby

  Euen in the corps of all the world we can

  Discouer all the good and bad of man,

  Anatomise his nakednesse, and be

  To his chiefe Ornament, a Maiestie:

  Erect him past his human Period

  And heighten his transition into God.

  Thus Sun-like, did the learnd and most diuine

  Of all the golden world, make Poesie shine;

  That now, but like a glow worm, gleams by night

  Like Teachers, scarce found, by their proper light.

  But this (my Lord) and all poore virtues else

  Expos’d, ahlas, like perdu Sentinels

  To warne the world of what must needs be nie,
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  For pride, and auarice, glas’d by Sanctitie,

  Must be distinguisht, and decided by

  Your cleere, ingenuous, and most quiet eye

  Exempt from passionate, and duskie fumes,

  That blinde our Reason: and in which consumes

  The Soule, halfe choakt, with stomacke casting mists

  Bred in the purest, turnd mere humorists.

  And where with douelike sweet humility

  They all things should authorise or deny,

  The vulgar heate and pride of splene and blood

  Blaze their opinions, which cannot be good.

  For as the Bodies Shadow, neuer can

  Shew the distinct, and exact Forme of Man;

  So nor the bodies passionate affects

  Can euer teach well what the Soule respects.

  For how can mortall things, immortall shew?

  Or that which false is, represent the trew?

  The peacefull mixture then that meetes in yow

  (Most temperat Earl) that nought to rule doth ow:

  In which, as in a thorough kindled Fire,

  Light and Heat marrie Judgement and Desire,

  Reason is still in quiet, and extends

  All things t’aduantage of your honored Ends,

  May well authorise all your Acts of Note,

  Since all Acts vicious, are of Passion got:

  Through dead Calms, of our Perturbations euer

  Truths Voice (to soules eares set) we heare or neuer.

  The meerely animate Man, doth nothing see

  That tends to heauen: It must be onely He

  That is mere soule: Her separable powers

  The scepter giuing heere: That then discourse

  Of Motions that in sence doe neuer fall,

  Yet know them too, and can distinguish all

  With such a freedome, that our earthly parts

  Sincke all to earth: And then th’ingepuous arts

  Doe their true office, Then true Policie

  Windes like a serpent, through all Empery,

  Her folds on both sides bounded, like a flood

  With high-shores listed, making great and good

  Whom she instructeth, to which, you (my Lord)

  May lay all claimes that Temper can afford;

  Nought gathering ere t’is ripe: and so must taste

  Kindely and sweetely, and the longer last.

  All fruits, in youth, ripe in you; and must so

  Imply a facultie to euer growe.

  And as the morning that is calme and gray,

  Deckt all with curld clowds, that the Sunne doth lay

  With varied coullours; All aloft exhall’d