So in this fearful storm,
This danger to prevent,
Before all hope be spent,
I'le choose the lesser harm;
My tears to seas I will convert,
And drown my eyes, to save my heart.
Oh God, my God! what shall I give
To thee in thanks? I am and live
In thee, and thou didst safe preserve
My health, my fame, my goods, my rent;
Thou makest me eat while others sterve,
And sing while others do lament.
Such unto me thy blessings are,
As if I were thy only care.
But, oh my God! thou art more kind,
When I look inward on my mind:
Thou fillest my heart with humble joy,
With patience, meekness, fervent love
(Which doth all other loves destroy),
With faith (which nothing can remove),
And hope assured of heaven's bliss ;—
This is my state, thy grace is this.
From "Troia Brittanica, or Great Britaine's Troy."
THIS vniverse, with all therein conteined,
Was not at first of water fashioned,
Nor of the fire, as others oft haue feyned,
Nor of the ayre, as some have vainly spred,
Nor the foure elements in order train'd,
Nor of vacuitie and atoms bred;
Nor hath it been eternall, as is thought
By naturall men, that haue no further sought.
Neither hath man in perpetuity bin,
And shall on earth eternally perseuer
By endlesse generation, running in
One circuit, in corruption lasting euer:
Nor did that nation first on earth begin
Vnder the mid equator: some indeauour
So to perswade, that man was first begunne
In the place next to the life-giuing sunne.
Neither was he of earth and water framed,
Tempered with liuely heat, as others write;
Nor were we in a former world first named,
As in their curious problems some recite.
Others, more ripe in iudgement, haue proclaimed
Man fram'd of clay, in fashion exquisite,
In whom were breathed sparkes of celestiall fire,
Whence he still keepes his nature, to aspire.
But this most glorious vniuerse was made
Of nothing, by the great Creator's will:
The ocean bounded in, not to inuade
Or swallow vp the land; so resteth still
The azure firmament, to ouershade
Both continent and waters, which fulfill
The Maker's word: one God doth sole extend,
Without beginning, and shall see no end.
That powerfull Trinity created man,
Adam, of earth, in the faire field Damaske;
And of his rib he Euah formed than,
Supplying them with all things they can aske.
In these first two humanity began,
In whom confined Jehovah's six daies' taske.
From Adam, then, and Euah's first creation,
It follows we deriue our British nation.
Inspire me in this task, Ihoue's seede, I pray;
With Hippocrenes' drops besprinke my head,
To comfort me vpon this tedious way,
And quicken my cold braine, nigh dull and dead ;
Direct my wandering spirits when they stray,
Least foreen and forbidden paths they tread:
My iourney's tedious, blame not then my feares;
My voyage dymes at many thousand yeares.
Oh, giue me leaue from the world's first creation
The ancient names of Britons to deriue,
From Adam to the world's first invndation,
And so from Noah to us that yet suruiue;
And hauing of Troye's worthies made relation,
Your spurs the chariot of my Muse must driue
Through all past ages and precedent times,
To fill this new world with my worthless rymes.
Oh, may these artlesse numbers in your eares,
Renowmed James, seem musically strung,-
Your fame, oh Ioue's-star'd Prince, spread euerywhere,
First giue my still and speechlesse Muse a tung;
From your maiestike vertues, prised deare,
The infant life of these harsh meeters sprung.
Oh take not then their industrie in skorne,
Who, but to emblaze you, had yet been vnborne.
Nor let your princely peeres cold in disdaine
To haue their auncestry stilde and inrolde
In this poore register: a higher straine
Their merits aske, since brazen leaues vnfold
Their neuer-dying fame; yet thus much daine,
Not to despise to heare your vertues told
In a plaine style, by one whose wish and heart
Supplies in zeale his want both of skill and art.
Times faithfully conferd the first inuention
Of most thinges now in vse: heare you
shall finde,
Annex't with these, the vse and comprehention
Of poesie, once to the goddes desceind.
Suffer our bluntnesse then, since our intention
Is to good vse, sent from a zealous mind:
If stones, in lead set, keep their vertues, then
Your works the same, though blazde by a rude
WHILST one may labour, and take paine to live, To idlenesse his minde let him not give ;
Whilst one may have a thing, a thing that's offer'd him,
Let him not leave the thing which time hath profer'd him:
Whether it be preferment, art, or glory,
Health, wealth, or pleasure, which are transitory.
The man that may, and will not, mend his state,
May not redresse it when it is too late.
Time is so swift that none can stay his course,-
Time is so strong that none can match his force:
Like to a thiefe, Tyme stealingly doth haste;
No man can call time backe when Time is past:
Time still describ'd in poets thus we finde,
Bushy before, but very bald behinde.
Even as the bee sucks hony out of thyme,
So may a man sucke sweetnesse out of Time.
Thyme is a sweete flower, Time a sweeter word,
And more commodity doth farre afford:
But even as the spider poyson sucketh
From that same herbe from whence the poore bee plucketh
The purest hony; so the slothfull wight,
That doth in nought but idlenesse delight,
Sucks sowre from sweet, sucks gall instead of hony:
Time cannot be recall'd for love or money.
|