The Complete Poetical Works of George Chapman

by George Chapman

  For as a man, whom Arte hath flattery taught,

  And is at all parts, master of his Craft;

  With long and varied praises, doth sometimes

  Mixe by the way, some sleight and peruiall crimes

  As sawce; to giue his flatteries taste and scope,

  So that Malignitie, may giue her hope

  Of faults beleeu’d effect, she likewise laies

  In her strowd passage, some light flowers of praise.

  But tis not me ahlas, they thus pursue

  With such vnprofiting, Cunning, nor embrue

  Their bitter spent mouthes, with such bloud-mixt fome,

  In chace of any action that can come

  From my poore forme, but from the foot they tread

  Those passages, that thence affect the head.

  And why? who knowes? not that next spirit that is

  Organe to all their knowing faculties,

  Or else, I know I oft haue read of one

  So sharpe-eyd, he could see through Oke and Stone,

  Another that high set in Sicilie

  As farre as Carthage numbred with his eye,

  The Nauie vnder saile, which was dissite

  A night and daies saile; with windes most fore-right;

  And others, that such curious chariots made

  As with a flies wing, they hid all in shade,

  And in a Sesamine (small Indian graine)

  Engrau’d a page of Homers verses plaine.

  These farre-seene meruailes, I could neuer see

  Being made of downe right, flat simplicitie,

  How neere our curious Craftsmen come to these

  They must demonstrate, ere they winne the wise:

  Phe. But who are those you reckon Homicides

  In your rackt Poeme? I sweare, that diuides

  Your wondering Reader, far from your applause.

  Théo. I ioie in that, for weighing with this cause

  Their other Reason, men may cleerely see,

  How sharpe and pregnant their constructions be.

  I proue by Argument, that he that loues

  Is deade, and onely in his louer moues.

  His Louer as t’were taking life from him:

  And praising that kinde slaughter I condemne

  As churlish Homicides, who will denie

  In loue twixt two, the possibility

  To propagate their liues into descent

  Needefull and lawfull, and that argument

  Is Platoes, to a word, which much commends

  The two great personages, who wanting th’ends

  Of wedlocke, as they were; with one consent

  Sought cleere disiunction, which (with blest euent)

  May ioine both otherwise, with such encrease

  Of worthy Ofspring, that posterities

  May blesse their fautors, and their fauoures now:

  Whom now such bans and poisons ouerflow.

  Phem. Bound to a barraine rocke, and death expected,

  See that with all your skill then cleane dissected.

  That (barraine) cleere your edge of, if you can.

  Theo. As if that could applied be to a Man?

  O barraine Malice! was it euer sayd

  A man was barraine? or the burthen layd

  Of bearing fruité on Man? if not, nor this

  Epithete barraine, can be construed his

  In least proprietie: but that such a one

  As was Andromeda; in whose parts shone

  All beauties, both of bodie and of minde

  The sea dame to a barraine rock should binde

  In enuie least some other of her kinde —

  Should challenge them for beauty any more;

  Encreast the cause of making all deplore

  So deare an innocent, with all desert

  No more then (for Humanities shame) peruert

  For of your whole huge reckonings heere’s the sum,

  O saeclum insipiens, & insicetum.

  PRO VERE, AVTVMNI LACHRYMAE.

  TO THE MOST WORTHILY HONORED AND IUDICIALLY-NOBLE LOUER AND FAUTOR OF ALL GOODNESSE AND VERTUE, ROBERT, EARLE OF SOMERSET, &C.

  All lest Good, That but onely aymes at Great,

  I know (best Earle) may boldly make retreat

  To your Retreat, from this Worlds open Ill.

  Of Goodnesse therefore, The Prime part (the Will)

  Enflam’d my Pow’rs, to celebrate as farre

  As their force reach t, This Thunderbolt of Wane.

  His wisht Good, and the true Note of his Worth,

  (Yet neuer, to his full Desert, set forth)

  Being Root, and Top, to this his Plant of Fame,

  Which cannot furnish with an Anagram

  Of iust Offence, and Desire to wrest

  All the free Letters here; by such a Test

  To any Blame: for equall Heauen auert,

  It should returne Reproach, to prayse Desert;

  How haplesse, and peruerse, soeuer bee

  The Enuies, and Infortunes following Mee:

  Whose true, and simple-onely-ayme at Merit,

  Makes your acceptiue, and still-bettering Spirit

  My Wane view, as at Full still; and sustaine

  A Life, that other subtler Lords disdaine:

  Being Suttlers more, to Braggart-written Men,

  (Though still deceiu’d) then any truest Pen.

  Yet Hee’s as wise, that to Impostors giues,

  As Children, that hang Counters on their sleeues:

  Or (to pare all his Wisdome to the Quick)

  That, for th’Elixar, hugges the Dust of Brick.

  Goe then your owne Way still; and God with you

  Will goe, till his state all your steppes auow.

  The World still in such impious Error strayes,

  That all wayes fearefull are, but Pious wayes.

  Your best Lordships

  euer most worthily

  bounden,

  Geo: Chapman.

  PRO VERE, AVTVMNI LACHRYMAE.

  ALL my yeeres comforts, fall in Showres of Teares,

  That this full Spring of Man, This VERE of VERES,

  * * * * * * * * *

  Famine should barre my Fruites, whose Bountie breedes them,

  The faithlesse World loue to deuoure who feedes them.

  Now can th’Exempt Ile from the World, no more

  (With all her arm’d Fires) such a Spring restore.

  The dull Earth thinkes not This; Though should I summe

  The Master-Martiall Spirits of Christendome,

  In his few Nerues; My Summe (t’a thought) were true.

  But who liues now, that giues true Worth his due?

  ’Tis so diuine a Sparke, and loues to liue

  So close in Men; that hardly it will giue

  The Owner notice of his Pow’r or Being.

  Nought glories to be seene, that’s worth the seeing.

  God, and all good Spirits, shunne all Earthy sight,

  And all true Worth, abhorres the guilty Light,

  Infus’de to few, to make it choice and deare,

  And yet how cheape the Chiefe of all is VERE?

  As if his want, wee could with Ease supply.

  When should from Heauen fall His Illustrious Eye,

  We might a Bon-Fire thinke would fill his Sphere,

  As well as any other, make vp VERE.

  Too much this: why? All know, that some one Houre

  Hath sent a Soule downe, with a richer Dowre

  Then many Ages after, had the Graces,

  To Equall in the Reach of all their Races.

  As when the Sunne in his Æquator shines,

  Creating Gold, and precious Minerall Mines

  In some one Soyle of Earth, and chosen Veine;

  When, not ‘twixt Gades and Ganges, Hee againe

  Will daine t’enrich so, any other Mould.

  Nor did great Heauens free Finger, (That extold

  The Race of bright ELIZA’s blesse
d Raigne,

  Past all fore-Races, for all sorts of Men,

  Schollers, and Souldiers, Courtiers, Counsellors)

  Of all Those, chuse but Three (as Successors)

  Eyther to other, in the Rule of Warre;

  Whose Each, was All, his three-Forckt-Fire and Starre:

  Their last, This VERE; being no lesse

  Circular In guard of our engag’d Ile (were he here)

  Then Neptunes Marble Rampier: But (being There

  Circled with Danger) Danger to vs All;

  As Round, as Wrackfull, and Reciprocall.

  Must all our Hopes in Warre then! Safetie’s All;

  In Thee (O VERE) confound their Spring and Fall?

  And thy Spirit (Fetcht off, Not to be confinde

  In lesse Bounds, then the broad wings of the Winde)

  In a Dutch Cytadell, dye pinn’d, and pin’de?

  O England, Let not thy old constant Tye

  To Vertue, and thy English Valour lye

  Ballanc’t (like Fortunes faithlesse Leuitie)

  Twixt two light wings: Nor leaue Eternall VERE

  In this vndue plight. But much rather beare

  Armes in his Rescue, And resemble her,

  Whom long time thou hast seru’d (The PAPHIAN Queene)

  When (all asham’d of her still-giglet Spleene)

  She cast away her Glasses, and her Fannes,

  And Habites of th’Effeminate Persians,

  Her Ceston, and her paintings; and in grace

  Of great LYCVRGVS, tooke to her Embrace,

  Cask, Launce, and Shield, and swum the Spartan Flood

  (EVROTAS) to his ayde, to saue the blood

  Of so much Iustice, as in him had feare

  To wracke his Kingdome. Be (I say) like her,

  In what is chaste, and vertuous, as well

  As what is loose, and wanton; and repell

  This Plague of Famine, from thy fullest Man:

  For, to thy Fame, ‘twill be a lasting Ban,

  To let him perish, Battailes haue beene lay’d

  In Ballance oft, with Kingdomes; and hee weigh’d,

  With Victorie, in Battailes. Muster then

  (Onely for him vp) all thy Arm’d Men,

  And in thy well-rigg’d Nymphs Maritimall,

  Ship them, and plough vp all the Seas of Gall,

  Of all thy Enemies, in their Armed Prease;

  And (past Remission) flye to his Release.

  ’Tis done, as sure as counsail’d: For who can

  Resist God, in the Right of such a Man?

  And, with such Men, to be his Instruments,

  As hee hath made to liue in Forts and Tents,

  And not in soft SARDANAPALIAN Sties

  Of Swinish Ease, and Goatish Venneries.

  And know (Great Queene of Iles)That Men that are

  In Heauens Endowments, so Diuinely rare,

  No Earthy Powre should too securely dare

  To hazard with Neglect, since as much ’tis,

  As if the Worlds begetting Faculties

  Should suffer ruine; with whose losse would lye

  The World it selfe, and all Posteritie.

  For worthy men the breeders are of Worth,

  And Heauens broode in them (cast as Offall forth)

  Will quite discourage Heauen to yeeld vs more:

  Worths onely want, makes all Earths plenty, poore.

  But thou hast now a kind and Pious King,

  That will not suffer his immortall Spring

  To die vntimely; if in him it lye,

  To lend him Rescue: Nor will therefore I

  Let one Teare fall more from my Muses Eye,

  That else has vow’d to pine with him, and dye.

  But neuer was (in best Times most Abuses)

  A Peace so wretched, as to sterue the Muses.

  FINIS.

  A IVSTIFICATION OF A STRANGE ACTION OF NERO

  In burying

  One of the cast HAYRES of his Mistresse

  POPPAEA.

  TO THE RIGHT VIRTVOVS AND WORTHILY HONOURED GENTLEMAN RICHARD HVBERT, ESQUIRE.

  SIR, Greate workes get little regard; little and light are most affected with height: Omne leve sursum; grave deorsum; you know; For which, and because Custome or Fashion, is another Nature, and that it is now the fashion to iustifie Strange Actions; I (vtterly against mine owne fashion) followed the vulgar, and assaid what might bee said, for iustification of a Strange Action of Nero; in burying with a solemne Funerall one of the cast hayres of his Mistresse Poppea. And not to make little labours altogether vnworthy the sight of the great; I say with the great defender of little labours, Jn tenui labor est, at tenuis non gloria. Howsoeuer; As Seamen seeing the aproches of Whales cast out empty vessells, to serue their harmefull pleasures, and diuert them from euerting their maine aduenture; (for in the vast and immane power of any thing, no thing is distinguisht; great and precious things, basest and vilest serue alike their wild and vnwildy swinges) so my selfe hauing yet once more some worthier worke then this Oration, and following Translation, to passe this sea of the land; expose to the land and vulgar Leuiathan, these slight aduentures. The rather, because the Translation containing in two or three instances, a preparation to the iustification of my ensuing intended Translations, lest some should account them, as they haue my former conuersions in some places; licenses, bold ones, and utterly redundant. Though your iudiciall selfe (as I haue heard) hath taken those liberal redundances, rather as the necessary ouerflowings of Nilus; then rude or harmefull torrents swolne with headstrong showers. To whose iudgement and merit, submits these and all his other seruices,

  George Chapman.

  THE FVNERALL ORATION MADE AT THE BURIALL OF ONE OF POPPAEAS HAYRES.

  THIS solemne Pageant graced with so glorious a Presence as your Highnesse selfe, and others, as you see, that mourne in their gowns and laugh in their sleeues; may perhaps breed a wonder in those that know not the cause, and laughter in those that know it. To see the mighty Emperor of Rome march in a mourning habit, and after him all the state of the Empire either present or presented; The Peeres in person though with drie eyes, yet God knowes their hearts; Others in their Rankes; One representing the state of a Courtier (as I iudge by his legge;) another of a Citizen (as I iudge by his head;) another of a Souldier, (as I iudge by his looke;) another the state Poeticall (as I iudge by his clothes;) for the state Physicall, it hath no place heere; for who euer saw a Physitian follow a Funerall? To see, I say, all this Assemblie masking in this Funerall pomp; could hee that saw it imagine any lesse Funerall subiect would follow, then the Herse of your deare Mother Agrippina? or your beloued wife Octauia? or else of her whom you preferre to them both, your diuine Poppaea? At least who would imagine, that a poore hayre broken loose from his fellowes; or shaken off, like a windfall from the golden tree before his time; should haue the honour of this Imperiall solemnitie: And bee able to glory like the flie in the Cart; good heauen what a troope of fooles haue I gathered together?

  It is fatall to all honourable actions to fall vnder the scourge of detracting tongues, and for the most part to bee condemn’d before they come to triall. In regard whereof, I will borrow so much of your patience, as that I may in a word or two examine the whole ground of this spectacle: Not doubting but that I shall make it appeare to all vpright eares, that it is an action most worthy your wisedome (my gracious Soveraigne) and that this silly, this base, this contemptible hayre on this Herse supported, receiues no thought of honour, but what it well deserueth. Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam, was the saying of your master Seneca; and may not your Highnesse goe one step further, and say, Etiam capillus unus habet urnam suam? To enter into the common place of womens hayre, I list not; though it would afford scope enough for my pen to play in; that Theame hath beene already canvast, and worne halfe threedbare by Poets and their fellowes. My meaning is not to exceede the compassé of this hayre, which we haue here in hand. This sacred beame falne from that sunne of beauty P
oppaea; whose very name is able to giue it honour, though otherwise base. And albeit hayre were of it selfe the most abiect excrement that were, yet should Poppaeas hayre be reputed honourable. I am not ignorant that hayre is noted by many as an excrement, a fleeting commodity, subiect to spring, and fall; & he whose whole head last day was not worth one hayre, it shall bee in as good estate the next day as it was euer before: And such as last yeare had as faire a crop of haire as euer fruitfull head afforded; if there come but a hot summer; it shall bee so smooth that a man may slur a Dye on’t. An excrement, it is, I deny not; and yet are not all excrements to be vilified as things of no value: for Muske, Ciuet, Amber, are they not all excrements? yet what more pleasing to the daintiest sense wee haue? Nature giues many things with the left hand, which Art receiues with the right: Sublimate and other drugges are by nature poyson: yet Art turnes them to wholsome medicines; so hayre though by nature giuen vs as an excrement, yet by Art it is made our capitall ornament. For whereas the head is accounted the chiefe member of the body, hayre is giuen vs as the chiefe ornament of the head; I meane of womens heads; for men haue other ornaments belonging to their heads, as shall hereafter appeare more largely. And howsoeuer hayre fais within the name of excrement; yet it is euermore the argument of a rancke or rich soyle where it growes, and of a barren where it fades; for I dare bouldly pronounce in despight of all paltry prouerbs, that a mans wit is euer rankest, when his hayre is at the fullest. I say not his wit is best, but ranckest; for I am not ignorant, that the ranckest flesh is not alwayes the soundest, as the ranckest breath is not alwaies the sweetest. And thus much more I will adde for the generall commendation of hayre, that nature in no part hath exprest such curious and subtill skill as in this (as wee terme it) excrement; for what more excellent point of Art can there be, then to indurate and harden a thinne vapor into a dry and solid substance? And this whole bush of hayre, hath both his being and his nourishment from those sweet vapors, which breathe and steame from the quintessence of the braine, through those subtill pores of the head in which they are fashioned and spunne by natures finger into so slender and delicate a thred; as if she intended to doe like the painter that came to see Apelles, drew that subtill lyne for a masterpeece of his workmanship. And besides the highest place giuen to the hayre, and singularity of workman- ship exprest in it, Nature hath endowed it with this speciall priuiledge, and left therein so great an impression of her selfe, as it is the most certaine marke by which we may ayme at the complexion and condition of euery man; as red hayre on a man is a signe of trechery, what tis in a woman, let the sweet musique of rime inspire vs; a soft hayre chicken-hearted; a harsh hayre churlish natur’d; a flaxen hayre foolish brain’d; what a black-hayr’d man is aske the prouerbe; if ye beleeue not that, aske your wiues; if they will not tell you, looke in your glasses, and ye shall see it written on your foreheads. So that nature hauing honoured hayre with so great a priuiledge of her fauour, why should wee not thinke it worthy all honour in it selfe without any addition of other circumstance. And if Nature hath grac’t the whole Garland with this honour, may not euery flower challenge his part? If any hayre, then this hayre (the argument of our present mourning) more then any: But wee must not thinke (Princes and Senators) that the vndanted heart of our Emperor, which neuer was knowne to shrinke at the butchering of his owne mother Agrippina; and could without any touch of remorse, heare (if not behold) the murther of his most deare wife Octavia after her diuorce; wee must not thinke (I say) this Adamantine heart of his could résolue into softnesse, for the losse of a common or ordinary hayre. But this was (alas why is it not) a hayre of such rare and matchlesse perfection, whether yee take it by the colour or by the substance, as it is impossible for nature in her whole shop to patterne it: So subtill and slender as it can scarce be seene, much lesse felt; and yet so strong as it is able to binde Hercules hand and foot; and make it another of his labors to extricate himselfe. In a word it is such a flowre as growes in no garden but Poppaeas; borne to the wonder of men, the enuie of women, the glory of the Gods, &c. A hayre of such matchlesse perfection, that if any where it should be found by chance, the most ignorant would esteeme it of infinite value, as certaynely some hayres haue beene. The purple hayre of Nisus, whereon his kingdome and life depended, may serue for an instance. And how many yong gallants doe I know my selfe, euery hayre of whose chin, is worth a thousand crowns; and others (but simple fornicators) that haue neuer a hayre on their crownes, but is worth a Kings ransome? At how much higher rate then shall we value this hayre, which if it were not Poppaeas, yet being such as it is, it deseru’d high estimation; but being Poppaeas (if it were not such) it can bee worth no lesse. When therefore a hayre of this excellence is fallen like an Apple from the golden Tree, can the losse bee light? And can such losse doe lesse then beget a iust and vnfayned griefe, not proceeding from humour in our Emperour, nor flattery in vs, but out of true iudgement in vs all? Albeit I must adde this for the qualifying of your griefe (most sacred Emperour) that this diuine hayre is not vtterly lost; It is but sent as a Harbenger before, the rest must follow it: And in the meane time this remaines in blessed estate; it is at rest; it is free from the trouble and incombrance which her miserable fellowes that suruiue are dayly enforc’t to endure. The cruell combe shall no more fasten his teeth vpon it; it shall no more bee tortured with curling bodkins, tied vp each night in knots, wearied with tyres, and by all meanes barr’d of that naturall freedome in which it was borne: And, which is a torment aboue torments, subiect to the fearefull tincture of Age, and to change his amber hew into witherd and mortified gray. From all this feare and trouble this happie hayre is freed; it rests quietly in his Vrne, straight to bee consecrated as a relique vpon this altar of Venus, there to bee kept as her treasure, till it hath fetcht to it a fayre number more; and then to be employed by Venus, eyther as a bracelet for her paramour Mars, or else (which I rather beleeue) for a Periwig for her selfe; all his fellowes and his Mistresse, hauing from it taken the infection of the falling sicknesse. Dixi.