Who fairest seed seekes, fairest women gets:
Who loues the minde, with loueliest disciplines
Loues to enforme her, in which verity shines.
Her beauty yet, we see not, since not her:
But bodies (being her formes) who faire formes beare
We view, and chiefely seeke her beauties there.
The fairest then, for faire birth, see embrac’t,
Haste ye that guide the web, haste spindles haste.
Starres ye are now, and ouershine the earth:
Starres shall ye be heereafter, and your birth
In bodies rule heere, as your selues in heau’n,
What heer Detraction steals, shall there be giuen:
The bound that heer you freed shal triumph there]
The chaîne that touch’t her wrists shal be a starre
Your beauties few can view, so bright they are: —
Like you shalbe your birth, with grace disgrac’t,
Haste ye that rule the web, haste spindles haste.
Thus by diuine instinct, the fates enrag’d,
Of Perseus and Andromeda presag’d
Who, (when the worthy nuptial State was done
And that act past, which only two makes one,
Flesh of each flesh and bone of eithers bone)
Left Cepheus Court; both freed and honoured.
The louing Victor, and blest Bride-groome led
Home to the Seriphins, his rescu’d Bride;
Who (after issue highly magnifi’d)
Both rapt to heau’n, did constellations reigne,
And to an Asterisme was turn’d the chaine
That onely touch’t his grace of flesh & blood,
In all which stands the Fates kinde Omen good.
APODOSIS.
Thus through the Fount of stormes (the cruell seas)
Her Monsters and malignant deities,
Great Perseus made high and triumphant way
To his starre crownd deed, and bright Nuptiall day.
And thus doe you, that Perseus place supply
In our loues loue, get Persean victorie
Of our Land Whale, foule Barbarisme, and all
His brood of pride, and liues Atheisticall:
That more their pallats, and their purses prise
Then propagating Persean victories:
Take Monsters parts, not aucthor manly parts:
For Monsters kill the Man-informing Arts:
And like a lothed prodegie despise
The rapture that the Arts doth naturalise,
Creating and immortalising men:
Who scornes in her the Godheads vertue then,
The Godheads selfe hath boldnesse to despise,
And hate not her, but their Eternities:
Seeke vertues loue, and vicious flatteries hate,
Heere is no true sweete, but in knowing State.
Who Honor hurts, neglecting vertues loue,
Commits but Rapes on pleasures; for not loue
His power in thunder hath, or downeright flames,
But his chiefe Rule, his Loue and Wisedome frames.
You then, that in loues strife haue ouercome
The greatest Subiect blood of Christendome,
The greatest subiect minde take, and in Both
Be absolute man: and giue that end your oth.
So shall my sad astonisht Muse arriue
At her chiefe obiect: which is, to reuiue
By quickning honor, in the absolute best:
And since none are, but in Eternitie, blest,
He that in paper can register things
That Brasse and Marble shall denie euen Kings:
Should not be trod on by ech present flash:
The Monster slaine then, with your cleere Seas, wash
From spots of Earth, Heauens beauty in the minde
In which, through death, hath all true Noblesse shinde.
FINIS.
A FREE AND OFFENCELES IVSTIFICATION OF ANDROMEDA LIBERATA.
OF A LATELY PUBLISHT AND MOST MALICIOUSLY MISINTERPRETED POEME; ENTITULED.
Andromeda liberata.
AS Learning, hath delighted from her Cradle, to hide herselfe from the base and prophane Vulgare, her ancient Enemy; vnder diuers vailes of Hieroglyphickes, Fables, and the like; So hath she pleased her selfe with no disguise more; then in misteries and allegoricall fictions of Poesie. These haue in that kinde, beene of speciall reputation; as taking place of the rest, both for priority of time, and precedence of vse; being borne in the ould world, long before Hieroglyphicks or Fabels were concerned: And deliuered from the Fathers to the Sonnes of Art; without any Aucthor but Antiquity. Yet euer held in high Reuerence and Aucthority; as supposed to conceale, within the vtter barke (as their Eternities approue) some sappe of hidden Truth: As either some dimme and obscure prints of diuinity, and the sacred history; Or the grounds of naturall, or rules of morall Philosophie, for the recommending of some vertue, or curing some vice in generall (For howsoeuer Phisitions alledge; that their médecins, respect non Hominem, sed Socratem; not euery, but such a speciall body: Yet Poets professe the contrary, that their phisique intends non Socratem sed Hominem, not the indiuiduall but the vniuersall) Or else recording some memorable Examples for the vse of policie and state: euer (I say) enclosing within the Rinde, some fruit of knowledge howsoeuer darkened; and (by reason of the obscurity) of ambiguous and different construction. Est enim ipsa Natura vniuersa Poesis aenigmatum plena, nec quiuis earn dignoscit: This Ambiguity in the sence, hath giuen scope to the varie tie of expositions; while Poets in al ages (challenging, as their Birth-rights, the vse and application of these fictions) haue euer beene allowed to fashion both, pro & contra, to their owne offencelesse, and iudicious occasions. And borrowing so farre the priuiledg’d licence of their professions; haue enlarged, or altred the Allegory, with inuentions and dispositions of their owne, to extend it to their present doctrinall and illustrous purposes. By which aucthority, my selfe (resoluing amongst others, to offer up my poore mite, to the honour of the late Nuptials; betwixt the two most Noble personages, whose honored names renown the front of my Poeme) singled out (as in some parts harmelessly, and gracefully applicable to the occasion) The Nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda, an innocent and spotlesse virgine, rescu’d from the polluted throate of a monster; which I in this place applied to the sauage multitude; peruerting her most lawfully-sought propagation, both of blood and blessing, to their owne most lawlesse and lasciuious intentions: from which in all right she was legally and formally deliuered. Nor did I euer imagine till now so farrefetcht a thought in malice (such was my simplicitie) That the fiction being as ancient as the first world, was originally intended to the dishonor of any person now liuing: but presum’d, that the application being free, I might pro meo iure dispose it (innocently) to mine owne obiect: if at least, in mine owne wrighting, I might be reasonablie & conscionablie master of mine owne meaning. And to this sense, I confinde the allegory throughout my Poeme; as euery word thereof, (concerning that point) doth cleerely and necessarilie demonstrate: without the least intendment (I vow to God) against any noble personages free state, or honor. Nor make I any noble (whose meere shadowes herein, the vulgar perhaps may imitate) any thought the more mixt with the grosse substance of the vulgar: but present the vulgare onely in their vnseuerd herde; as euer in antient tradition of all autenticall Aucthours they haue been resembled: To whom they were neuer beholding for any fairer Titles; then the base, ignoble, barbarous, giddie multitude; The Monster with many heads (which the a Emperor, in his displeasure, wisht to haue sprung from one necke; that all at one blow, he might haue vntrunckt them) cui lumen ademptum; without an Eye; or, at most, seeing all by one sight (like the Lamiae, who had but one eie to serue all their directions, which, as anie one of them went abroad, she put on, and put off when she came home) giuing vp their vnderstandings to their affections, and taking vp their affections on other mens credits, neuer examining the causes, of their
Loues or hates, but (like curres) alwaies barking at all they know not; whose most honored deseruings (were they knowen to them as to others of neerer and truer observation) might impresse in them as much reuerence as their ignorance doth rudenesse: Euermore baying lowdest at the most eminent Reputations, & with whom (as in the kingdom of Frogges) the mostlowd Crier, is the loftiest Ruler: No reason nor aucthority able to stoope them; though neuer so Judicially & religiously vrdging them: whose impartiall and cleere truth, not their owne bold blindnesse can denie; vnlesse they will dare to mutter with the Oratour touching the Delphicke ] Oracles, and say our Oracles of Truth, did likewise, encline to Philip: putting no difference betwixt Illusion and Truth, the consciences of learned religious men, and the cunnings of prophane. And then how may my poore endeauours, in dutie to Truth, and my most deare Conscience (for Reputation, since it stands, for the most part, on beasts feete, and Deserts hand is nothing to warrant it, let it goe with the beastly) reforme or escape their vnrelenting detractions? The Loues of the right vertuous and truly noble, I haue euer as much esteemed, as despised the rest: finding euer of the first sort, in all degrees, as worthy as any of my rancke, till (hauing enough to doe, in mine owne necessary ends, hating to insinuate and labour their confirmation, and encrease of opinion, further then their owne free iudgements would excite and direct them) I still met with vndermining i laborers for themselues, who (esteeming all worth their own, which they detract from others) deminisht me much in some changeable estimations (Amicus enim Animal facile mutabile) whose supplies yet farre better haue still brought me vnsought: and till this most vnequall impression opprest me, I stood firme vp with many, now onely, with God and my selfe. For the violent hoobub, setting my song to their owne tunes, haue made it yeeld so harsh and distastefull a sound to my best friends, that my Integritie, euen they hold, affected with the shrill eccho thereof, by reflexion; receiuing it from the mouthes of others. And thus (to omit, as strooke dumbe with the disdaine of it, their most vnmanly lie both of my baffling and wounding, saying, Take this for your Andromeda, not being so much as toucht, I witnesse God, nor one sillable suffering) I will descend to a conclusion with this; that in all this my seede time, sowing others honours, Inuidus superseminauit Zizania &c. Whiles I slept in mine innocencie, the enuious man hath beene heere, who like a venomous spider, drawing this subtle thred out of himselfe, cunningly spred it into the eares of the manie (who as they see all with one eye, so heare all with one eare, and that alwaies the left) where multiplying and getting strength it was spred into an Artificiall webbe, to entangle my poore poeticall flie; being otherwise (God knowes) far enough from all venome, saue what hath been forc’st into her, by her poisonous enemy to sting her to death. But the allusion (you will say) may be extended so farre; but qui nimium emulget elicet sanguinem; a malicious reader by straining the Allégorie past his intentionall limits, may make it giue blood, where it yeeldes naturally milke, and ouercurious wits may discouer a sting in a flie: But as a guiltlesse prisoner at the barre sayd to a Lawyer thundring against his life, Num quia tu disertus es, ego peribo? because malice is witty, must Innocence be condemned? Or if some other, not sufficiently examining what I haue written, shall by mistaking the title, suppose it carrie such an vnderstanding; doth any Law therfore cast that meaning vpon me? Or doth any rule of reason make it good, that let the writer meane what he list, his writing notwithstanding must be construed in mentem Legentis? to the intendment of the Reader? If then, for the mistaking of an enuious or vnskilfull Reader, who commonly bring praeiudicia pro iudicijs, I shal be exposed to the hate of the better sort, or taken forciblie into any powrefull displeasure, I shall esteeme it an acte as cruell and tyranous, as that of the Emperour, who put a Consul to death for the errour of a publique Crier; misnaming him Emperour in stead of Consul. For my selfe I may iustly say thus much, that if my whole life were layd on the racke, it could neuer accuse me for a Satyrist or Libeller, to play with worthie mens reputations; or if my vaine were so addicted, yet could I so farre be giuen ouer, as without cause or end, to aduenture on personages of renownd nobilitie? hauing infallible reason to assure my selfe, that euen those most honoured personages, to whose graces I chiefly intended these labors, might they but in the least degree haue suspected any such allusion by me purposed, as is now most iniuriously surmised against me, they would haue abhorred me and banisht me their sight. To conclude Hic Rhodus, hic saltus; as I said of my life, so of my lines; heere is the Poeme; let euerie sillable of it be tortured by any how partiall and preiudicate soeuer (for as the case hath beene carried: I can now looke for no difference) and if the least particle thereof, can be brought, necessarilie or iustly to confesse, any harmefull intention of mine to the height imagined, hauing already past the test of some of the most Iudiciall and Noble of this Kingdome: if Malice will still make vnanswerably mine, what her selfe hath meerely inuented, and say with Phisitians, that the fault of the first concoction cannot be corrected in the second, (my meat supposed Harpy-like rauisht at first, into her vicious stomacke) And that as Herodotus is vniustly said to praise onlie the Athenians, that all Grecians else he might the more freelie depraue, so Malice will as licentiouslie affirme, that my Poeme hath something honourablie applicable, that the rest might the more safely discouer my malignance: And lastelie, If my Iudges (being preiudicd with my accusation, haue no eare left to heare my defence) will therefore powerfullie continue their hostilitie both against my life & reputation, then Collum securi, I must endure at how inhumane hands soeuer (at least) my poore credits amputation: humblie retiring my selfe within the Castle of my Innocence, Si there in patience possessing my Soule, quietlie abide their vttermost outrage: defending my selfe, as I maie, from the better sort, by a cleere conscience, from the baser, by an eternall contempt.
Pereas, qui calamitates h o in i n “m colligis. Eur:
The worst of the greatest Act.
Ætna quencht.
Dist: Two Plants in one soilefruitlesse;
Both transplanted:
(Vntoucht) finde fit meanes for posterity granted.
The worst of the least.
The spleenelesse Flie.
Dist: The Innocent deliuerd, her destroier
Her t r o p h e is: Her Sauer, Her E n i o y e r.
T am en h ae c frémit P l eb s, Liv:
Yet further opposd; admit a little further answer.
DIALOGUS.
The Persons Pheme and Theodines.
PHE. Ho! you! Theodines you must not dreame
Y’are thus dismist in Peace, seas too extreame
Your song hath stird vp, to be calmd so soone:
Nay, in your hauen you shipwracke, y’are vndone,
Your Perseus is displeasd, and sleighteth now
Your worke, as idle, and as seruile, yow.
The Peoples god-voice, hath exclamd away
Your mistie cloudes, and he sees cleere as day
Y’aue made him scandald for anothers wrong,
Wishing vnpublisht your vnpopular song.
Théo. O thou with peoples breaths and bubbles fild,
Euer deliuered, euermore with childe:
How Court and Citty burnish with thy breede
Of newes and nifles? seasoning all their feede
With nothing, but what onely (drest like thee)
Of surfet tasts and superfluitie?
Let all thy bladder-blowers still inspire
And make embroderd foote-bals for the mire
With thy suggestions: On the clouen feete
Of thy Chymaera tost from streete to streete;
Our Perseus skornes to skuffle with the prease
Or like th’inconstant Moone be, that like these
Makes her selfe readie by her glasse the seas J
The common Rendes vous of all rude streames:
And fed in some part, with our common Thames
As that is hourely seru’d with sewers and sinckes,
Strengthening and cleansing our sweet meats and drinkes,
; Our Perseus by Mineruaes perfect Mirror
Informes his beauties: that reformed from th’error
Which Change and Fashion in most others finde,
Like his fair bodie, he may make his minde,
Decke that with knowing ornaments, and then
Effuse his radiance, vpon knowing Men,
Which can no more faile then the sunne to show
By his in-light, his outward ouerflow.
Perseus? (that when Minerua in her spring
Which renders deathlesse, euery noble thing
Clarified in it, thrice washt hath his foode)
Take from a Sow, that washeth in her floode
(The common kennell) euery gut she feedes?
His food then thinking cleaner? And but then
Take it for manly, when vnfit for Men?
Can I seeme seruile to him, when ahlas
My whole Lifes freedome, shewes I neuer was?
If I be rude in speech, or not expresse
My Plaine Minde, with affected Courtlines
His Insight can into the Fountaine reach,
And knowes, sound meaning nere vsde glosing speach.
Phem. Well, be he as you hope, but this beleeue,
All friends haue left you, all that knew you grieue
(For faire condition in you) that your Thrall,
To one Mans humour, should so lose them all:
Theo. One may he worth all, and they thus implie
Themselues are all bad, that one Good enuie.
Goodnesse and Truth they are (the All-good knowes)
To whom my free Soule all her labours vowes.
If friends for this forsake me, let them flie;
And know that no more their inconstancie
Grieues, or disheartens my résolu’d endeavours
Then I had shaken off so many feauers.
My faire condition moues them: Euen right thus
Far’d the Phisition, Aristoxenus
With still poore Socrates; who terming rude,
Lustfull, vnlearnd, and with no wit indude
The most wise Man, did adde yet, he is iust;
And with that praise, would giue his dispraise trust.
The Complete Poetical Works of George Chapman Page 36
