The Complete Poetical Works of George Chapman

by George Chapman

  As they t’adorn euen heauen it selfe were call’d,

  And could not fall in slendrest deawes till Night,

  But keepe daies Beauty firme and exquisite;

  More for delight fit, and doth more adorne

  Euen th’ Euen with Graces, then the youthful morn:

  So you (sweete Earle) stay youth in aged bounds

  Euen absolute now, in all lifes grauest grounds,

  Like Aire, fill euery corner of your place,

  Your grace, your virtue heightening: virtue, grace,

  And keeping all clowds high, aire calme, & cleer

  And in your selfe all that their height should rere,

  Your life and light will proue a still full Moone,

  And all your night time nobler then your noone.

  The Sunne is in his rising, height, and set

  Still (in himselfe) alike, at all parts great,

  His light, heat, greatnes, coullors that are showne

  To vs, as his charge, meerely is our owne:

  So let your charge, my Lord, in others be,

  But in your selfe hold Sun-like constancie.

  For as men skild in Natures study, say,

  The world was not the world, nor did conuay

  To coupling bodies Natures common forme,

  But (all confus’d, like waues struck with a storme)

  Some small were, and (in no set being, staid)

  All comprehension, and connexion fled;

  The greater, and the more compact disturb’d

  With ceaseles warre, and by no order curb’d,

  Till earth receiuing her set magnitude

  Was fixt her selfe, and all her Birth indu’d

  With staie and law: so this small world of ours

  Is but a Chaos of corporeall powers,

  Nor yeelds his mixt parts, forms that may become

  A human Nature; But at randome rome

  Past brutish fashions, and so neuer can

  Be cald the ciuill bodie of a man;

  But in it, and against it selfe still fights,

  In competence of Cares, Ioyes, Appetites:

  The more great in command, made seruile more,

  Glutted, not satisfied: in plenty, poore:

  Till vp the Soule mounts, and the Scepter swaies

  Th’admired Fabricke of her world suruaies,

  And as it hath a magnitude confinde,

  So all the powers therein, she sees combinde

  In fit Acts for one end, which is t’obay

  Reason, her Regent; Nature giuing way:

  Peace, Concord, Order, Stay proclaim’d, and Law

  And none commanding, if not all in Awe,

  Passion, and Anger, made to vnder lie,

  And heere concludes, mans mortall Monarchie?

  In which, your Lordships milde Soule sits so hie J

  Yet cares so little to be seene, or heard,

  That in the good thereof, her scope is Sphear’d.

  The Theban Ruler, paralleling Right,

  Who, thirst of glory turnd to appetite

  Of inward Goodnesse, was of speech so spare,

  To heare, and learne, so couetous, and yare,

  That (of his yeares) none, things so many knew:

  Nor in his speeches, ventured on so few:

  Forth then (my Lord) & these things euer thirst

  Till Scandait pine, and’Bane-fed enuie burst.

  And you, (most noble) Lady as in blood

  In minde be Noblest, make our factious brood

  Whose forked tongs, wold fain your honor sting

  Conuert their venomd points into their spring:

  Whose owne harts guilty, of faults faind in yours

  Wold fain be posting off: but, arme your powers

  With such a siege of vertues, that no vice

  Of all your Foes, Aduantage may entice

  To sally forth, and charge you with offence,

  But sterue within, for very conscience

  Of that Integritie, they see exprest

  In your cleere life: Of which, th’examples Rest,

  May be so blamelesse; that all past must be

  (Being Fount to th’other) most vndoubtedly

  Contest vntouch’t; and Curiositie

  The beame picke rather from her own squint eie,

  Then ramp stil at the motes shade, faind in yours,

  Nought doth so shame this chimick serch of ours

  As when we prie long for assur’d huge prise,

  Our glasses broke, all vp in vapor flies.

  And as, the Royall Beast, whose image you

  Beare in your armes, and aires great Eagle too;

  Still as they goe, are said to keepe in close

  Their seres, & Talions, lest their points shold lose

  Their vseful sharpnes, when they serue no vse:

  So this our sharp-eyd search that we abuse

  In others brests, we should keepe in, t’explore

  Our owne fowle bosomes, and quit them before

  We ransacke others: but (great Ladie) leaue

  These Rules to them they touch; do you receaue

  Those free ioies in your honour, and your Loue

  That you can say are yours; and euer moue

  Where your command, as soon is seru’d as known,

  Joy es plac’t without you, neuer are your owne.

  Your Honours euer most humbly

  and faithfully vowd.

  Geo. Chapman.

  ANDROMEDA LIBERATA.

  AWAY, vngodly Vulgars, far away,

  Flie ye prophane, that dare not view the day,

  Nor speake to men but shadowes, nor would heare

  Of any newes, but what seditious were,

  Hatefull and harmefull euer to the best,

  Whispering their scandals, glorifying the rest,

  Jmpious, and yet gainst all ills but your owne,

  The hotest sweaters of religion;

  Whose poysons all things to your spleenes peruert,

  And all streames measure by the Fount your Heart,

  That are in nought but misrule regulare,

  To whose eyes all seeme ill, but those that are,

  That hate yee know not why, nor with more cause,

  Giue whom yee most loue your prophane applause,

  That when Kings and their Peeres, whose piercing eies

  Broke through their broken sleepes and policies,

  Mens inmost Cabinets disclose and hearts;

  Whose hands loues ballance (weighing all desarts)

  Haue let downe to them; which graue conscience,

  Charg’d with the blood and soule of Jnnocence,

  Holds with her white hand, (when her either skole,

  Apt to be sway’d with euery graine of Soule,

  Her selfe swaies vp or downe, to heauen or hell,

  Approue an action) you must yet conceale

  A deeper insight, and retaine a taint

  To cast vpon the pure soule of a Saint.

  Away, in our milde Sphere doth nothing moue,

  But all-creating, all preseruing Loue,

  At whose flames, vertues, lighted euen to starres,

  All vicious Enuies, and seditious Iars,

  Bane-spitting Murmures and detracting Spels,

  Bannish with curses to the blackest hels:

  Defence of Beauty and of Innocence,

  And taking off the chaînes of Insolence,

  From their prophan’d and godlike Lineaments,

  Actions heroique, and diuine descents,

  All the sweet Graces, euen from death reuiu’d,

  All sacred fruités, from barren Rockes deriu’d,

  Th’Immortall Subi’ects of our Nuptials are:

  Thee then (iust scourge of factious populare;

  Fautor of peace, and all the powers that moue

  In sacred Circle of religious Loue;

  Fountaine of royall learning, and the rich

  Treasure of Counsailes, and mellifluous
speech:)

  Let me inuoke, that one drop of thy spring

  May spirit my aged Muse, and make her sing,

  As if th’inspir’d brest, of eternall youth

  Had lent her Accents, and all-mouing truth.

  The Kingdome that the gods so much did loue,

  And often feasted all the Powers aboue:.

  At whose prime beauties the enamour’d Sunne,

  His Morning beames lights, and doth ouerrunne

  The world with Ardor (Æthiopia)

  Bore in her throne diuine Andromeda,

  To Cepheus and Cassiope his Queene:

  Whose boundlesse beauties, made ore’flow the spleene

  Of euery Neirid, for surpassing them:

  The Sun to her, resign’d his Diadem:

  And all the Deities, admiring stood,

  Affirming nothing mou’d, like flesh and blood:

  Thunder would court her with words sweetly phraz’d,

  And lightning stucke ‘twixt heau’n and earth amaz’d.

  This matchlesse virgin had a mother too,

  That did for beautie, and for wisdome goe

  Before the formost Ladies of her time:

  To whom of super-excellence the crime

  Was likewise lai’d by Iuno, and from hence

  Pin’d Enuie suckt, the poison of offence.

  No truth of excellence, was euer seene,

  But bore the venome of the Vulgares spleene.

  And now the much enrag’d Neireides

  Obtain’d of him that moues the marble seas

  (To wreake the vertue, they cal’d Jnsolence)

  A whale so monstrous, and so past defence,

  That all the royall Region he laid wast,

  And all the noblest edifices rac’t:

  Nor from his plague, were strongest Cities free,

  His bodies vast heape rag’d so heauily.

  With noblest names and bloods is still embrewd

  The monstrous beast, the rauenous Multitude.

  This plague thus preying vpon all the land,

  With so incomprehensible a hand:

  The pious virgin of the father sought,

  By Oracles to know, what cause had brought

  Such banefull outrage ouer all his State,

  And what might reconcile the Deities hate.

  His orisons and sacrifices past,

  The Oracle gaue answere, that the waste

  His Country suffered, neuer would conclude,

  Till his Andromeda he did extrude,

  To rapine of the Monster, he (good man,)

  Resolu’d to satiate the Leuiathan:

  With her, before his Country, though he lou’d

  Her past himselfe, and bore a spirit mou’d

  To rescue Innocence in any one

  That was to him, or his, but kindly knowne,

  To grace, or profite; doe them any good

  That lay in swift streame of his noblest blood,

  Constant to all, yet to his deerest seed,

  (For rights sake) flitting: thinking true indeed,

  The generall vprore, that t’was sinne in her,

  That made men so exclaime, and gods conferre

  Their approbation: saying the Kingdomes bale

  Must end by her exposure to the Whale:

  With whom the Whale-like vulgare did agree,

  And their foule spleenes, thought her impiety;

  Her most wise mother yet, the sterne intent,

  Vow’d with her best endeauour to preuent;

  And tolde her what her father did addresse.

  Shee (fearefull) fled into the wildernesse:

  And to th’instinct of sauage beasts would yeeld,

  Before a father that would cease to shield

  A daughter, so diuine and Jnnocent:

  Her feet were wing’d, and all the search out went,

  That after her was ordered: but shee flew,

  And burst the winds that did incenst pursue,

  And with enamoured sighes, her parts assaile,

  Plaide with her haire, and held her by the vaile:

  From whom shee brake, and did to woods repaire:

  Still where shee went, her beauties dide the ayre,

  And with her warme blood, made proud Flora blush:

  But seeking shelter in each shadie bush:

  Beauty like fire, comprest, more strength receiues

  And shee was still seene shining through the leaues.

  Hunted from thence, the Sunne euen burn’d to see,

  So more then Sunne-like a Diuinity,

  Blinded her eyes, and all inuasion seekes

  To dance vpon the mixture of her cheekes,

  Which show’d to all, that follow’d after far,

  As vnderneath the roundure of a starre,

  The euening skie is purple’d with his beames:

  Her lookes fir’d all things with her loues extreames.

  Her necke a chaîne of orient pearle did decke,

  The pearles were faire, but fairer was her necke:

  Her breasts (laid out) show’d all enflamed sights

  Loue, lie a sunning, twixt two Crysolites:

  Her naked wrists showde, as if through the skie,

  A hand were thrust, to signe the Deitie.

  Her hands, the confines, and digestions were

  Of Beauties world; Loue fixt his pillars there.

  Her eyes that others caught, now made her caught,

  Who to her father, for the whale was brought,

  Bound to a barraine Rocke, and death expected;

  But heau’n hath still such Jnnocence protected:

  Beauty needs feare no Monsters, for the sea,

  (Mother of Monsters) sent Alcyone,

  To warrant her, not onely gainst the waues,

  But all the deathes hid in her watrie graues.

  The louing birds flight made about her still,

  (Still good presaging) shew’d heau’ns sauing will:

  Which cheering her, did comfort all the shore

  That mourn’d in shade of her sad eyes before:

  Her lookes to perle turn’d peble, and her locks

  To burnisht gold transform’d the burning Rocks.

  And now came roring to the tied, the Tide,

  All the Neireides deckt in all their pride

  Mounted on Dolphins, roade to see their wreake

  The waues fom’d with their enuies; that did speake

  In mutest fishes, with their leapes aloft

  For brutish ioy of the reuenge they sought.

  The people greedie of disastrous sights

  And newes, (the food of idle appetites)

  From the kings Chamber, straight knew his intent,

  And almost his resolu’d thoughts did preuent

  Jn drie waues beating thicke about the Shore

  And then came on the prodegie, that bore

  Jn one masse mixt their Image; that still spread

  A thousand bodies vnder one sole head

  Of one minde still to ill all ill men are

  Strange sights and mischief es fit the Populare.

  Vpon the Monster red Rhamnusia rode,

  The Sauage leapt beneath his bloody load

  Mad of his prey, giu’n ouer now by all:

  When any high, haue any meanes to fall,

  Their greatest louer s proue false props to proue it

  And for the mischiefe onely, praise and loue it.

  There is no good they will not then commend,

  Nor no Religion but they will pretend

  A mighty title to, when both are vs’d,

  To warrant Innouation, or see brus’d

  The friendlesse Reed, that vnder all feet lies:

  The sound parts euermore, they passe like flies,

  And dwell vpon the sores, ill in themselues,

  They clearely saile with ouer rockes and shelues,

  But good in others ship wracke in the Deepes:

  Much more vniust is he that
truely keepes

  Laws for more shew, his owne ends vnderstood

  Then he that hreakes them for anothers good.

  And ’tis the height of all malignity,

  To tender good so, that yee ill implie:

  To treade on Pride but with a greater pride.

  When where no ill, but in ill thoughts is tri’d,

  To speake well is a charity diuine:

  The rest retaine the poyson serpentine

  Vnder their lips, that sacred Hues condemne,

  And wee may worthily apply to them,

  This tragicke execration: perish hee

  That sifts too far humane infirmity.

  But as your cupping glasses still exhale

  The humour that is euer worst of all

  Jn all the flesh: So these spic’t conscienc’t men

  The worst of things explore still, and retaine.

  Or rather, as in certaine Cities were

  Some ports through which all rites piaculare,

  All Executed men, all filth were brought,

  Of all things chast, or pure, or sacred, nought

  Entring or issuing there: so curious men,

  Nought manly, elegant, or not vncleane,

  Embrace, or bray out: Acts of staine are still

  Their Syrens, and their Muses: Any ill

  Js to their appetites, their supreme good,

  And sweeter then their necessary food.

  All men almost in all things they apply

  The By the Maine make, and the Maine the By.

  Thus this sweete Ladies sad exposure was

  Of all these moodes in men, the only glasse:

  But now the man that next to loue comptrold

  The triple world; got with a shoure of gold:

  (Armed with Medusa’s head, and Enyos eye:

  The Adamantine sword of Mercury

  The helme of Pluto, and Minerua’s Mirror,

  That from the Gorgus made his passe with Terror)

  Came to the rescue of this enuied mayd:

  Drew neere, and first, in admiration stay’d

  That for the common ill of all the land,

  She the particular obloquie should stand:

  And that a beauty, no lesse then diuine

  Should men and women finde so serpentine

  As but to thinke her any such euent:

  Much lesse that eies and hands should giue consent

  To such a danger and to such a death.

  But though the whole Realme laboured vnderneath

  So foule an error, yet since loue and he

  Tendred her beauty, and integretie,

  In spight of all; the more he set vp spirrit

  To doe her right; the more all wrong’d her merit,

  He that both vertue had, and beauty too

  Equall with her; to both knew what to doe:

  The Ruthles still go laught at to the Graue

  Those that no good will doe, no goodnesse haue: