Vicissitudo rerum, AN elegiacal Poem, of the interchangeable courses and variety of things in this world.  
The first Part.  Omnia tempore producuntur, mutantur, & consumuntur. 
AUT NUNC AUT NUNQVAM  
Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, dwelling on Adling hill near Carterlane. 1600.   

To the Right honourable Sir William Howard knight, the Lord Howard of Effingham, Son and heir apparent to the Right Honourable Earl of Nottingham, Lord high Admiral of England.  

Minerva, feigned goddess of best skill,  
Seemed friendless to my sad & feeble Muse:  
The Sisters nine barred me Parnassus' hill,  
Mount Helicon, where praised Poets use:  
Therefore (my Lord) my pen deserves no praise,  
But pardon. Honour pardons weak essays.   

The Change of things, in slender verse I sing,  
A weighty subject, common yet to all:  
From lowest creature to the loftiest thing,  
Nature her works doth toss like Tennis ball,  
Now rayzed by force, then down again by poise,  
Rising ne falling, she shows not by noyze.   

But when stern Time each thing created sees,  
She fawns a while, and tenters it on Pride,  
And soon she frowns, and then forthwith decrees  
To pull it down, and lay that thing aside.  
Yet as a mother, she again doth bear  
Some new: and that a while she doth uprear.   

Thus Time by turns, turns all things out of date,  
And will prevail till she herself have end:  
For sure things changes, prove time terminate:  
And times exchanges doth her turn portend.  
This time once gone, a timeless time shall be:  
Till then in things a changing state we see.   

This moves my Muse, erst silent, now to sing,  
Though slenderly, the swift exchange of things:  
And this to you (my Lord) I fearful, bring,  
Wishing that time, that plants & pulls down Kings,  
Would deign long time to her that still is one,  
By whom we here enjoy true Helicon.   
At your honours command, Io. Norden.   

The Preface.  

Sith Time applauds to see Varieties,  
And nought more altars, than Times changing days:  
It fits the Time, to sing sad Eligies  
Of Things exchanges, flourish, and decays.   

And how Things past, rest now, as things forgot,  
And Things that are, exchange and come to end.  
How Time begins to solve the fatal Knot,  
Whereon the World, and worldly things depend.   

Yea, Things aloft of th'moving Firmament,  
Are seen to alter by Times swaying hest,  
The heavens Spheres, Bodies circumferent  
Are not as erst, but in their course oppressed.   

The Elements and elemental things  
Do change, and by silent degrees decay.  
The Sea and Land, Rivers and water- Springs  
Stay not at one, but oft exchange their way.   

And Man himself stands as a waving Twig  
Bend to and fro, or broken with the wind:  
In no state constant, be he base or big.  
Each thing comes divers, in his proper kind.   

As by this first part these are partly seen.  
The second shows the alterations  
That in the world by course of Time have been  
In Men, in Cities, Kings, and Nations.   ovid. Metam. lib. 15. — Sic tempora verti Cernimus, atque alias assumere robora gentes Concidere has. Mar. lib. 9 Quid non longa dies: quid non consumitis anni?  


1.  
SOme sing the Regal acts of worthy Kings,  
Some of fell Wars, some of a public State,  
Some praise haut Beauty, some praise base things.  
Wits have their change: Will stands in highest rate.  
Will, yet, doth waver, Pens paint Love & Hate.  
Therefore my pen shall publish change in all:  
One only Essence standing firm from fall.   

2.  
The Heavens in their peerless pride may boast,  
That they in their orbiculer figure  
Are far the freest, and by change untost,  
Keeping by turn, their Revolutions sure:  
Though still revolving yet alike endure.  
As Orbs and Circles figures perfectest,  
Held by all Artistes to excel the rest.   

3.  
The Heavens seem of most admired might,  
Fixed on nothing, yet stand firm and fast.  
Providence Divine them hath so set aright,  
Worlds may not wave them, nor unprop their baste  
Who then essays to prove they will not last,  
Sith from creating, they are as they were,  
Not changed by chase, nor altered by their steer.   

4.  
These Figures then formed of most perfect mould  
Shaped by Science far exceeding Wit,  
If they have change, how may the base hold,  
That have their Vigors b'influence of it?  
A power more potent 'bove this power doth sit,  
That gives and guides, and sways all as it list,  
In whom the Heavens and the rest consist.   

5.  
And all the movers, and the volving sphere  
He first created, and disposed so,  
As to have progress, and again revere,  
To tell the Times, and seasons as they go:  
Moving in Circles, daily to and fro,  
beginning and ending, as their Circles be,  
Greater or lesser, distinct by degree.   

6.  
Ten Spheres in one, Astronomers do hold:  
The tenth revolving in his fixed tide,  
Twenty four hours, and then his circle rolled,  
Again revolves, powers infinite her guide,  
From East to West, still on the dexter side:  
And by her course most swift and impetous.  
The rest she moveth, most miraculous.   

7.  
For in the self same time she moves the rest,  
Although their movings contrary to her,  
Be on sinister part from West to East.  
And that the ninth Astrologers aver,  
Hath forty nine thousand years thus to err.  
Thirty thousand to the eighth assigned,  
Again, seven thousand as the learned find.   

8.  
The Sphere of Saturn in her thirty years  
Returns; and jupiter in twelve, they say,  
Doth run his race. Fell Mars in two appears  
To end his course: revolving back again.  
Sol, Venus, Mercury, have one year to reign.  
The Moon the lowest, soon her circle rounds,  
Twice fourteen days, & then again rebounds.   

9  
This comely course, and order of this frame  
May challenge most, if ilke Perfection be,  
Or State not changing, but as still the same:  
The Heavens yet, a body as we see,  
In all her parts from Change cannot be free,  
Nor still persever, as they first were set,  
Though none have power, but Power divine to let.   

10.  
Let Time be testy in this cause of doubt,  
That did begin when Heavens and Lights were made:  
She was, and is, and shall remain throughout,  
But not alike, she flourished, 'gins to fade:  
Days, Weeks, and Months, and Years she makes by trade:  
All these do change, none doth alike abide,  
Summer, nor Winter, Autumn, or Springtide.   

11.  
The daily moving of this Firmament,  
Distinguyes frowning Nights from fawning Days,  
And either by such intercourses penned,  
As they ne pass due time, nor make delays:  
None checks the Sun to shade or send her rays  
To banish Darkness, and to fill with Light,  
What was eclipsed with the shade of Night.   

12.  
Yet neither Day nor Night continues one,  
But by reciprocal exchange imparts  
Each to the other Time, as Time is gone:  
Time turns the Year into his aptest parts,  
And Year to Year lends time likewise by arts,  
Rising, and falling, changing by degree,  
The present unlike the preter year we see.   

13.  
The first and greatest Mover of the rest,  
Imparts her moving to the lesser Spheres,  
To men and beasts, and creatures as the Test,  
And tries the bodies that Nature upreares,  
Proving their temper, and their temper steres.  
'Mong all the creatures that are earthly built,  
Best tempered stand, distempered soonest spilled.   

14.  
Nay, minds inclines, and manners good and bad,  
Proceed (some say) by movings and aspects  
Of heavens Spheres, and Planets wherewith clad,  
That give and take, and work the sole effects  
In Men and Beasts, and in all earthly sects:  
All which begin and end by influence,  
That doth proceed by heavens concurrence.   

15.  
Virtues and vices, health and sickness too,  
Long and short life, force, feebleness, and wit,  
Yea, well and ill the heavens egg to do:  
All earthly body's subject unto it.  
human affairs praiseworthy and unfit,  
Depend on these, that of themselves are not,  
But stand created, to their proper lot,   

16.  
Though some prerogative above the rest  
They have. An instrumental mean only,  
And not the cause efficient confessed,  
A fatal Law, or of necossitie,  
None holds it so that hath fidelity.  
Let sacred Wisdom be our studies guide,  
To stay on him that is, and will abide.   

17.  
The pleasing Sun, with sweet resplending rays,  
Doth rise and set, and yields such influence,  
As earthly creatures glory in the days,  
Not in sad nights, that come by consequence,  
The sunny beams that comfort passed hence.  
Men, birds, and beasts, trees, and the herbs in field,  
Bemoan the lack of what the day did yield.   

18.  
Whereby we see the Sun is held a guest,  
That with his rays fills all the fields with glee:  
The plants, the herbs, the blossoms, and the rest,  
unfold in token of gratuity,  
Preaching to men, the suns benignity.  
That ayne revives their members, late near dead:  
All creatures joy to see her beams espred.   

19  
The suns ascent, and her descent renews  
The year with change, as she comes far or near,  
Her course oblique, deprives, again endewes,  
The earthly bodies, and their powers arere  
The Solstices and Equinoxes bear:  
As on the wings of th' Zodiacs twelve signs,  
They years four parts divided by their lines.   

20.  
The Winter with his silver hairs begins,  
When Capricorn receives declining Sun,  
As she returns from Autumn, where she lins:  
And with his cold and moisture now begun,  
Deprives the bodies of their pride late won:  
And all the creatures that of yore grew gay,  
By like degrees do wither and decay.   

21.  
The lovely Spring, which lively lends her skill,  
To re'install these creatures in their pride,  
Enters the Ram, and equalize she will  
The Nights and Days. A moist and hotter tide,  
Restoring green what Winter had vndi'de,  
And yields them vigour that were erst decayed:  
All sects rejoice to be thus re'arrayde.   

22.  
Then comes the Summer with her gloornie rays,  
Embracing Cancer, parching hot and dry,  
Making short nights, and the longest days.  
The Summer Solstice heaves the Sun so high,  
That forthwith she falls and altars by and by  
The surface of the Earth, and all earthly things.  
Thus Time turns the world's glass with silent wings.   

23.  
Friendless Autumn unclothes again apace,  
All that the Spring had clad so fair before:  
The Sun in Libra with beclouded face,  
Affords sad nights, longer than of yore,  
Depriving sap, and withers by her lore  
All vegetables, and transforms the rest:  
A necessary, but unwelcome guest.   

24.  
The Year thus parted in her qualities,  
Yields great effects unto the Earth's creatures,  
Compounded, termed Elementaries,  
As of elemental temperatures:  
Gross soon decay, the purest best endures:  
Exceeding in one quality it dies:  
Nought hath true mean that is below the skies.   

25.  
The Moon hath secrets in her times effects,  
She sways the humours over which she reigns,  
Increasing, decreasing, full, in aspects,  
Still she disposeth Bodies and their Veins.  
In her some mystery, no doubt, remains,  
That worketh wonders by the mean of her,  
Which some affirm so far: in it they err.   

26.  
For she a creature, can yield no Event,  
Compact, as other elemental things,  
(Her virtue in Decrease and Increment)  
But purer, and pure qualities she brings,  
Soaring her circuit by diviner wings:  
And through the force of her high qualities,  
She works in Bodies sundry faculties.   

27.  
As in the Ebbs and flowing of the Deep,  
By course, and by reciprocal retreat,  
Moved by the Moon, as she her course doth keep:  
The Ebb makes empty, Flood again replete:  
The Moon in Form, the Sea unlike in Seat,  
Their like concurrence and like changes show,  
The Moon and Sea alike to wane and grow.   

28.  
The Stars that wander, and that fixed remain,  
Do cause in air great changes, Cold and Heat,  
Winds, Thunder, Tempests, and great gusts of Rain,  
And their Aspects and Oppositions met,  
Some strange presages of Events beget,  
Of War, of Death, of Famine, Drought and Pest.  
Yet nought befalls, but by supernal hest.   

29.  
Though some affirm that these mutations  
Of changes, and of strange and rare events,  
Proceed of such like innovations,  
As heavenly bodies and their concurrents  
Work in the like compounded Elements,  
And give them moving, issue, and success,  
As if effects proceeded of the less.   

30.  
The less, yet great, less in respect of one,  
Who moves the Mover of these movers all:  
He, he, the swayer of events alone:  
And sin the cause that moves these to our thrall,  
That move and change, and cause men rise or fall:  
Not as these will, but as the Powers above  
Make them the means to check for change of love,   

31.  
The greatest changes and most rare events,  
In States, in Kingdoms, and in greatest sects,  
Are said to issue of the Spheres dissents  
The eight and ninth, not by their joint aspects,  
Their awkward movings breed rarest effects,  
Not by their nature's inclination,  
But by their motive trepedation.   

32.  
Besides conjunction of triplicities,  
Of Saturn, jupiter, and Mars aspecting,  
Are held most powerful principalities,  
Greatest alterations effecting,  
Their triplicities duly respecting:  
fiery, or airy, watery, or earthly,  
Th'event corresponds the triplicity.   

33  
Of such, some count seven since the world begun,  
(Five thousand, five hundred, sixty two years,)  
The eight shall be when four years more are come,  
By testy of the best Astrologers.  
Presaged thus, it may well summon tears,  
That he that rules may moderate his ire,  
Lest World consume with fearful gusts of fire.   

34.  
Seneca reports, Belus to foresee  
The universal deluge ere it came:  
And when the conflagration should be,  
To burn the mass, as water drowned the same,  
When of the Stars such opposition came,  
As one right line might pierce their circles all  
In Cancer sign: this last effect should fall.   

35.  
The antic Poets in their Poems teled  
Under their fondest Fables, mysteries:  
By Phaeton, how heavens powers rebelled  
In fires force, and by the histories  
Of Pirrha and Deucalion there lies,  
The like of water's impetuitie,  
In part concurring with divinity,   

36.  
Which hath revvealed the World's destruction  
By water past, her future fall by fire:  
But holds the cause sin, not conjunction  
Of fire or waters selfe-revenging ire:  
The Powers divine commove them to conspire,  
To make the earth and earthly bodies nought,  
That do defile, what he so pure hath wrought.   

37.  
The Priests of Egypt gazing on the stars,  
Are said to see the World's sad ruins passed,  
That had beted by fire and waters jars:  
And how the World inconstant and unchaste,  
Assaylde by these, cannot alike stand fast.  
Earthquakes and wars, famine, hate, and pest,  
Bring perils to the earth, and man's unrest.   

38.  
We at the present see Times changing state,  
And Nature's fearful alterations,  
As if Time now did preach the heavens debate,  
And stars to band in dismal factions.  
Strange signs are seen, divine probations,  
That some effect will follow of admire,  
Too late, when come, to say it will retire.   

39  
The Sun and Moon eclipsed ne'er so much,  
Comets and strange impressions in the air:  
The tides and swelling floods were never such:  
The earth doth tremble, Nature doth impair,  
Hid'ous monsters now possess the chair,  
Where erst dame Nature's true begotten seed  
Sat truly graced in her proper weed.   

40.  
Such changes never have been seen of yore,  
In Countries and in Kingdoms, as of late,  
Manners, and Laws, and Religion's lore,  
Never were prized at so mean a rate:  
Such are the changes of this earths estate,  
It may be said, Time's wings begin to fry,  
Now couching low, that erst did soar so high.   

41.  
Yea, now is proved the progress of the Sun  
To differ far from pristine gredience:  
The Solstices and Equinoxes run,  
As in pretended disobedience.  
The Sun observed by Art's diligence,  
Is found in fourteen hundred years to fall,  
Near twelve Degrees towards the Centre ball.   

42.  
The Zodiac and all her parts and signs  
Alter the course, that first they were assigned,  
And all the orb of Heaven so combines,  
As she unto her Period inclined.  
Time past, far greater than that is behind,  
Doth prove the Heavens in their greatest Pride,  
Subject to changes and to wave aside.   

43.  
Some eke affirm the earthly Sphere to err:  
First set the Centre of the concave Spheres  
Now start aside, (supposed not to star.)  
If so, the Power that Earth and Heaven steres,  
By it foreshows the purpose that he bears,  
That all the Creatures that he made so fast,  
Shall by Degrees alter, wear and waste:   

44.  
Yet all the Changes that succeed below,  
Proceed of Moving: Moving double is:  
The first and chief, moves, yet not moved so:  
The other movers move by force of this,  
But to move rightly or to move amiss.  
Without the first high Providence divine,  
They are unable of their own incline.   

45.  
Guyded they yield such influence of force,  
As notwithstanding alteration,  
They seem to show by fatal course, remorse  
To creatures in their generation:  
And by successive propagation,  
Corrupted things renew, grow, and decay  
Uncessantly, by nature's fatal way.   

46.  
The changes which successively accrue  
Unto the creatures of this lower part,  
And bodies which the Elements endue  
With habit, and which cunning Nature's art  
Contrives with ornaments, that in her mars  
Are had, proceed of contraries,  
That in them breed such strange varieties.   

47.  
For things compounded of the Elements,  
Partake the like compounded faculties  
Themselves unlike, in virtue and contents  
Make all their subjects contraries,  
And mut ' all discord in their offices,  
Producing fruits, and in them enmity,  
Whereby they change by fatal destiny.   

48.  
The water thicked, doth resemble stone  
Or earthy matter: vaporating, air:  
The air enlightened, and her virtue gone,  
Resembles fire: the fire extinct, comes air:  
Air thicked, and by gross impair,  
Gets clouds and misty vaporation.  
All have alternate variation.   

49.  
So these that we call Elements, are not,  
But only like, and not indeed the same:  
As each partaketh of the others lot,  
Hath not selfe- nature, but the feigned ' name,  
Yet is it seen from whence each of them came,  
Like to the thing that each resembles most.  
From these corrupt comes all the earthly host.   

50.  
Yet so prepared, as the Power above  
Doth first decree to shape the lowest things,  
Discrepant and divers, as it list, approve  
Void of all form. Hence formal body springs  
In covert order, with concealed wings:  
Nature herself flies to and fro unseen:  
Till things have life, none sees where she hath been.   

51.  
Then vivall each thing wrayes his faculties,  
And what in it hath chief Predominance,  
Hot, cold dry, or moist, merely contraries,  
All in one body have like penetrance,  
But far unlike in supreme governance:  
The chief in force subdue the feeble sort,  
And foil in fine the body they support.   

52.  
The Elements repugnant each to each,  
Yet seem they all each other to embrace:  
But each on other makes alternate breach,  
As one grows potent, th'other in disgrace:  
Their Powers unequal, not their nature's base  
Doth win or lose, and gains contempt or praise.  
None seems a coward, weakest gives essays.   

53.  
As when a Spark that most partakes of Fire,  
Contends a while, as far as Power permits,  
To dry a Flood, Force faileth, not Desire:  
Likewise a Drop contendeth where it hits,  
To quench a Flame, that quenchless is by Wits:  
Such Feed they foster, not of equal Force:  
That which prevaileth, yieldeth no Remorse.   

54.  
The Earth a massy Lump, is lowest set:  
The Water it surrounds, and lies diffuzed  
Through and about this Orb as friendly met:  
Yet do they strive as if each were abused.  
Balanced they penned, mut'ally confuzed.  
The Fire and Air, light, are surmounted high:  
Yet each polluted with his Neighbour by.   

55.  
The Fire, though highest and in purest place,  
Between the Heavens and the airy Sphere,  
Seems not, yet hath, more than the Airs disgrace:  
For when she volueth, and revolves arere,  
She comes deformed by her often steer:  
And forced downward to the airy cell,  
Falls to the Earth, and so her Forces quell.   

56.  
The Air that sways the region next to Fire,  
Is in the upper part most absolute,  
Most thin and pure, most like her first inspire:  
Her lowest gross, the middle mean acute:  
She thus unequal in her triple suit,  
Stands most corrupted here with us beneath,  
Corrupting bodies that by her do breath.   

57  
And most inconstant of the rest she fares,  
Most variable in her best estate,  
Turned as the Place, whereon she lights prepares,  
And as the Stars aspect and have their Gate:  
So she comes pure or of a grosser rate,  
With Exhallations and with Vapours thick,  
That rise and fall, and in her Limit stick:   

58.  
Whence grow the Clouds, the Thunder, & the Winds,  
Hails, Frost and snow, and Changes manifold,  
Which do afflict the Earth, and earthy kinds,  
With Nature's strive, oft tween Hot and Cold.  
Descent oft forced, and Ascent controlled,  
Moves Wars above in airy firmament,  
tween water-clouds and others discontent.   

59  
Then falls the Rain erst raised by the Sun,  
Of watery vapours, flying from below,  
Forced down again, like twist arere unspun:  
And thus the Clouds by course do come and go.  
The Air now calm, forthwith fell winds do blow.  
What more inconstant than the Air can be,  
Whereby all Bodies breath, and change we see?   

60.  
And if Astrologers authority  
May pass for proof of th'issue of the winds,  
The Sun doth raise the winds called Easterly:  
And jupiter the Northern in their kinds.  
The Southern Mars, the Moon the Wester binds.  
Some hold the Zodiacs triplicities,  
To cause in th' winds such strange diversities.   

61.  
From East three signs of nature hot, and dry,  
That are subjecteth to Equator line:  
Then from the Pole Antarctick as they lie,  
Three other signs the Southern assign,  
The hot and moist, three other then combine  
In Occident, and in Septentrion,  
The cold and moist sway as the rest alone.   

62.  
These four are winds accounted principal,  
That have alternate chief pre-eminence:  
These have again four winds collateral.  
All eight entire, sway with high diligence,  
Eight other half winds of less efficence:  
Between them each an equidistant part:  
All thirty two, which manage Nauticke art.   

63.  
These yet inconstant, full of change do blow,  
Their natures differ, and their properties,  
And alter as the part from whence they grow,  
And place whereon they light, hath qualities:  
And moving thus, breed strange diversities  
In earth, and earthy bodies, and the seas:  
Which moved, no wit nor weapons them appease.   

64.  
The water next, and most contiguous  
Unto the air, hath like varieties;  
Now calm and quiet, now more impetous,  
Wherein the ships and mighty Argosies  
Float under sail, making the voyages,  
That feed one country with another's fruit.  
Peril makes not the greedy gainer mute.   

65.  
Yet in his traffic is alternate state.  
Now golden gain is guide unto his joy:  
His joy now altars, sorrow in like rate.  
The seas are sullen, and the winds been coy,  
Their often combats coiners of annoy:  
The winds, and seas, and element of air  
Combining, bring stout hearts unto despair.   

66.  
The waters that the highest Powers have set  
In secret celles, and valleys of the deep,  
Suround the earth, as if they had no let.  
High powers their rage in limits fast doth keep,  
Taming the bellows that do mount so steep,  
And suffers not the proudest waves to pass,  
Nor to breed peril to the earthy mass.   

67.  
The seas, a universal powerful band,  
Linked in the earth with veins and concave springs,  
That serve as bars to enter-locke the land,  
And which throughout, a needful moisture brings,  
Wherewith refreshed all vegetable things  
Do yield their branches, buds, and bloom, and fruit,  
Self earth to dry, to deck them so in suit.   

68  
Mere reason may admire to see the seas,  
Raging with waves, as if infernal fire  
Them boiled, or furies reft the earth of ease,  
And by and by the tempest to retire  
Of self accord, without ilke human hire,  
And rest appeased, calm, in quiet case,  
And as in love, the earth again embrace.   

69.  
Earth yields the seas, a seat to rest them on,  
And waters all by nature ponderous:  
Though misty Fogs, through exhalation  
Ascend, they fall again more humidous,  
In drops or mists, sometimes contagious,  
And fill the brooks and rivers of the land  
Who hasten soon unto the marine strand.   

70.  
So as the Waters in earth's bowels spread,  
And Rivers that do run as ornaments,  
Upon th' earth's surface, are not in her bred,  
But friendly lent, the Ocean's excrements,  
Rising and falling by swayde accidents  
Salt from the Seas, by th' air refreshed again,  
To show what changes, earth and seas sustain.   

71.  
The earth the waters doth support and bear,  
The Ocean hath triple motions,  
From East to West, from North to South arere.  
Thirdly the ebbings, and the fluctions,  
Six hours rising, six hours digressions:  
So eke the sea termed Mediterrany,  
And other waters of that faculty.   

72.  
The motive causes who so seeks to know,  
The first that moveth from the East to West,  
The firmament is said to move it so:  
And that the spheres are moved and addressed,  
To volve and revolve by the higher hest.  
Where by the Waters take their order's gate,  
Not of self nature, but so destinate.   

73.  
The fall from North to South is said to be,  
For that the waters in Septentrion,  
Are full and far the highest in degree,  
Engendered most in that cold Region:  
In South the suns hot exhalation,  
Abates those Seas, to which the greater fall  
By changing courses, yet perpetual.   

74.  
The third that maketh ebbs and flowing tides,  
Hath been, and is the moons volution,  
Most changing, in one state she never bides,  
Full, half full, and of bicorned fashion,  
White, pale, & red, then clear, then spotted on:  
Sometimes apparent, sometime hidden so,  
As none perceiveth where the Moon doth go.   

75.  
Sometime she shineth in the merkish night:  
Sometime she riseth in the brightest day:  
Sometimes eclipsed, clean deprived of light:  
Sometimes below, sometime in higher way:  
Never at one, but ever in estray:  
East, South, and West, her course uncertain seen:  
Artists best know, how all her courses been.   

76.  
The Moon thus changing, in her movings make  
Like changes in the universal seas,  
Whose ebbs and floods like changes by her take,  
And neither seemeth to have constant ease:  
No art or force their movings may appease:  
But as the Powers divine of yore them set,  
So they keep course, until that power do let.   

77.  
Till then the Moon moves with the heavens Sphere:  
Twenty four hours she takes her turn to run:  
Two ebbs, two flows, in seas she makes appear:  
Six hours she flows, in six her ebb is done:  
In six doth each perform her task begun.  
Increased and decreased, assigned and kept aright,  
Approve the powers that guide them, of great might.   

78.  
Yet still unlike, she doth increase and fall  
Alternately, as time and place assign:  
seven days sh'increasing to her highest wall,  
seven days likewise, she doth again decline.  
Seamen the first, spring-tidings aptly define:  
The latter or decreasing streams they call▪  
Nepe-tides, when seas grow to the low of all.   

79.  
These tides again are of unequal state:  
That swelling high, this lower ayn by far:  
The next more higher, or of lower rate.  
All other tides have like alternate jar,  
Always afflicted with intestine war,  
That makes the Mariner to sigh or sing,  
Hurled down, or heaved aloft by Neptune's wing.   

80.  
The Moon north-east, doth make the sea at full:  
Southeast, low water. Thus the Moon doth guide▪  
Not only humours, making sharp or dull.  
Wits, senses, bodies (as some verifide)  
But sea and land, as things unto her tide.  
And as she wavers, and oft changeth state,  
So do the things by her thus destinate.   

81.  
Oft do some Rivers, and some fountains dry:  
Oft doth the earth yield forth new water-springs:  
Oft doth revive, what seemed erst to die:  
Oft doubtful beginning, sweetest issue brings:  
Oft greatest comfort grows by grievous things.  
Nothing the same, and as the same abides,  
But God the guide, nought standeth firm beside.   

82.  
He is that essence that began of nought:  
He is that Mover of the moving skies:  
He is the concord that true union wrought:  
He is the mean by whom all destinies  
Turn to the ends, that he did first devise.  
Yet are the Heavens and the Earth maintained  
By discord excellent, that he ordained.   

83.  
Can discord then (so much dispraised) be  
The mean to keep things by their contraries?  
Can enmity have such equal degree,  
As may make union in qualities?  
Hath sad contention such sweet faculties,  
As may support in true tranquillity,  
The bodies wherein is disunitie.   

84.  
Then did Heraclitus conceive it right,  
Who did affirm the parents of all things  
To be good concord in a discord pight.  
And Homer said, Who blameth contendings▪  
Reproveth Nature in distributing.  
Empedocles did call that amity,  
That had and held concording enmity.   

85.  
Yet thus, this disagreement must be set,  
As in the discord be no power to wrong:  
For why? supremest have no fatal let,  
But will prevail, as they become too strong.  
Therefore such mean must them be set among,  
As though things be compact of contraries,  
They must by balance, have like quantities.   

86.  
Or else sad ruin will surprise the thing,  
Where in the Elements are at a jar,  
Where eke the principles divided, bring  
Into the body, such internal war,  
As strives for victory, to make or mar.  
And suddenly the body pines or dies,  
For that the strongest works most maladies.   

87.  
The Heavens have their movings contrary,  
But equally disposed, uphold the rest:  
Where, if they moved one way, their harmony  
All of one strain, of discord dispossessed,  
They soon would run to ruin all oppressed:  
Like to a clock, whose wheels run all one way,  
Rash, of no use, without a counterstay.   

88  
The Planets also in their faculties,  
Are set by Providence, that did foresee,  
That if they were without their contraries,  
Among themselves some sudden change would be.  
A mean therefore to keep the heavens free  
From sudden ruin, Power divine hath set  
(As moderator) terms, that none may let.   

89.  
Mild Venus as a mean, is placed near  
Unto fell Mars, to countercheck his ire,  
And helping jupiter, next to the Sphere  
Of malignant Saturn, lest they conspire,  
And wreck the jury of their fell desire  
Upon the rest: if they were not controlled,  
Their wrath would work the world's ill manifold.   

90.  
The world inferior, composed stands,  
Of Elements, which are by nature foes:  
And each with other, in his nature bands,  
And each his force and malice doth disclose.  
Yet are all bodies wholly framed of those:  
And their due order and proportion  
Conserveth long, discording union.   

91.  
None must exceed in his extreme degree:  
For all by nature, reft of mixtion,  
Are so unequal, nothing can be  
Form of one, without destruction.  
But of the four, equal proportion  
Is found the fountain, whence doth flow the seed,  
Where of all creatures in the earth do breed.   

92.  
For in this worlds great mass are found to lie,  
Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, Sun, Moon, and Stars,  
Matter and form, substance, and quantity,  
Simple, compound, active, and passive wars.  
These of themselves have such diurnal jars,  
As try the body, yet preserve it so,  
As discord seems a friend, and not a foe.   

93.  
In human bodies is a discord set,  
Choler and blood, phlegm and melancholy,  
These four the four complexions beget:  
Among them Nature hath sent enmity.  
Yet stands the body of this contrary,  
Which could not live, if one alone did reign:  
One too too strong, the other three complain.   

94.  
All other bodies are composed as this,  
Not of a like, but of unlike in kind.  
As praised body economic is,  
Of husband, wife, and children them assigned,  
Lord and slave, master and servant we find  
To live unlike, yet in good harmony,  
If true concording discord beautify.   

95.  
A body politic, or public state,  
Hath like dissents, which yet assenting stands:  
The King, the subject, and the magistrate,  
Noble and base, rich, poor, peace, and warlike bands,  
Law, religion, idle, working hands,  
Old, young, weak, strong, good men and evil be  
Dislike in parts, yet in consort agree.   

96.  
All Arts have discord, yet in unity  
Concording, as in music, high and low,  
Long and short, these compose the harmony.  
The painter doth by contraries forth show  
By lively hand, what Nature doth bestow,  
By colours, white, black, red, and green and blue:  
These contraries depaynt right Nature's hue.   

97.  
Nothing appears, or can be said the thing,  
Without the contrary: dark from the light,  
Sickness from health, cold winter from the spring,  
True peace from war, sweet love from foul despite,  
Just from unjust, truth from the thing unright,  
None can distinguish, but by qualities,  
That are discovered by their contraries.   

98.  
Who can discourse of grief, that never grieved?  
Who speaks of colours, that could never see?  
Who preacheth joys, that is of joy bereaved?  
Who thinks of freedom, that was never free?  
Some contraries accord, some disagree.  
Yet perfect is Dame Nature's art in things:  
For by dissent, she true assenting brings.   

99  
Yet hath not Nature made that earthly thing,  
But made to it some thing the contrary:  
And each to each extends a fatal sting:  
Birds, beasts and plants, have all antipathy:  
tween God and good men, only sympathy,  
Whose sacred spirit by his sweet inspire,  
Seasons our souls with sacred sweet desire.   

100  
Yet man is not free from his fatal foe,  
That first supplanted Adam, antic sire,  
And works to wreck on Adam's line, like woe:  
Believers only make this foe retire.  
Sacred Messiah paid that deathful hire,  
Whereby we live, and have eternity,  
Though here beclowded with the contrary.   

101.  
What passionate inconstancy have men,  
Which show affections so contrary?  
No creature to a creature worse hath been,  
Then man to man, who in hot enmity,  
Hath wrought each other deadly destiny.  
Yea, some that dearly loved before, comes foes,  
And foes come friends: some work themselves their woes.   

102.  
Nay, man within himself hath self debate,  
His soul and body are at deadly feed.  
Yet man himself is as a public state,  
And reason Prince seems so to sway that steed,  
As foul concupiscence that sows her seed  
In fleshy furrows to corrupt the soul,  
Should not prevail, but have her due control.   

103.  
No marvel then, if brutish creatures been  
In private war, the Millet and the Pike,  
The Cock and Fox, the Eagle and the Wren,  
The Kite, and Crow, the Toad and Spider like,  
That do each other of selfe-nature strike:  
Which makes each sect to stand in fear to fall,  
Sith each hath foes, and foes are full of gall.   

104.  
What makes a Kingdom to continue long,  
But fear of foes, that breeds preventing minds,  
And minds forbidding to do neighbours wrong,  
Lest justice punish, where deserving binds?  
Nought but security a kingdom blinds.  
But when it sees apparent enemies,  
It than takes heed, they are her contraries.   

105.  
The Lacedaemon's made stout Athens fear.  
The Romans roused Carthage, then secure.  
The Saxon furies did the Brytens wear.  
All states have foes, and yet they may endure:  
Though peace to piety should best allure.  
Yet is it seen where is no fear of thrall,  
That state soon stumbles, and hath sorest fall.   

106.  
For pride pricks people that are free from foes.  
And riches ravish minds, dipped in desires,  
To climb aloft. And pleasantly he rows,  
That hath no wind nor tide to check aspires:  
When he but seems to row, indeed retires.  
All have their ends▪ and all are borne to change,  
Cros'd, or at quiet, all like race do range.   

107.  
And though the Elements distributed,  
As may be thought, in true proportion:  
And bodies feel them not distempered,  
Fit lineaments and due conjunction:  
There will in fine be yet confusion.  
For what so is compact of contraries,  
By combats fall to mortal maladies.   

108.  
Then is it seen that earth, and earthly things,  
Conserved long by heavens influence,  
And Elements, the four pretended kings,  
That keep all creatures in obedience:  
Although they have most due ingredience,  
Their discord seeming most sweet concordance,  
In fine they perish by distemperance.   

109.  
Now let us see the earth, and all her parts,  
Her places, and her strange diversities,  
And how the heavens aspects are found by arts  
To work in men, and things antipathies,  
Or by consent of Climates, sympathies,  
How plants and fruits, how birds and fishes fare,  
That all throughout this orb dispersed are.   

110.  
The Heavens and earth divided by the Zones,  
Appear to have five fit partitions,  
Two cold, one hot, and two temperate ones.  
Some seek to prove by strong assertions,  
The cold and hot, of these divisions,  
Were not, nor may at all be habited:  
Two only are, that are well tempered.   

111.  
The Zones, they say, beneath the poles, are cold,  
And so exceed, in that extreme they kill  
The creatures that in them do covet hold.  
The middle Zone, neath Equinoxe as ill,  
That burns the creatures subject to her will:  
And only two, that lie on either side,  
Do foster men and creatures undenide.   

112.  
Yet is it found by due experience,  
That all have people and commodious things,  
And Nature's might and sweet beneficence,  
So sways the Climates, and such issue brings  
Unto this orb of earth, and earthly things,  
As all her parts and limits are beset  
With men and fruit, that Nature daignes to get.   

113.  
Yea, in the North, under the coldest clime,  
Dwell sundry people, and great Nations,  
Long since, and some found in this latter time,  
divers in tongues and habitations,  
In Laws, Religions, and in fashions.  
And though the cold engender Ice and Snow,  
Men travail, traffic, plant, war, air, and sow.   

114.  
As they that dwell in Lythuania,  
Lyvonia, Sweden, and Estoteland,  
Perima, Condora, Nova, Zembla,  
In Norway, Muscovia, and Finland,  
In Iseland, Freysland, and in Lappen-land.  
These and far more, lie in Septentrion,  
Though a distempered and cold Region.   

115.  
Yet when the Sun brings to them wished light,  
And thaws the waters, erst congealed with cold,  
Then doth retire their long and weary night,  
And fruits, and plants, and trees them then unfold,  
And make the earth more sweeter to behold.  
And men that erst in covert caves did dwell,  
Like winter sleepers, rouse them from their cell.   

116.  
For as all Regions are found to lie  
On th'one, or th'otherside th' equator line:  
Their distance far, or their propinquity,  
Do show how much or little they decline,  
Which doth the length of nights and days define.  
And as the Sun comes near, the days do grow,  
And as she passeth from, the nights do so.   

117.  
The limits that do bound the world about,  
Are South, and North, East, and West opposited:  
The first two, firm and stable seem throughout.  
Two last move, as Sun comes low or hight'ned  
In the Zodiac, and signs obliqued.  
Which makes the East and West to alter so,  
(Some hold) as Sun is seen to come and go.   

118.  
And though the countries in extremities  
Of hot and cold, seem much distempered:  
They yield of precious things varieties,  
Wherewith all other parts are plenished.  
For Nature sweetly hath distributed  
Her friendly fruits to all, that all may see,  
That good, and great, and full of fruits is she.   

119.  
She hath ordained the Indies of the East,  
With Pearl of price, with sto●●es of highest deem,  
The Emerald, the Ruby, and the rest,  
Which potent Princes hold in such esteem:  
As in respect, the purest gold doth seem  
More base than these, yet these more base than it,  
Tried by the Test, the Quintessence of Wit.   

120.  
Thence comes the Elephant, a beast of might,  
Of majesty, and human courtesy:  
And the 
* The Rhinoceros a beast, whose parts are all Physical.  Rhinoceros with virtues dight:  
Whose blood, bones flesh, and skin, have secrecy,  
As Physic rules hold most salutary.  
There is also the lofty Palm, a tree,  
That bears a fruit, whereof good wine may be.   

121.  
And thence the silk, high Honour's ornament,  
Or rather Sirick, comes from Sirrick steed;  
In great esteem, yet but worms excrement,  
That lives and dies, and dying leaves a seed,  
That dieth not, but of it other breed.  
High Peers beholden to this silly beast,  
Deck them with that, which it esteemeth least.   

122.  
Arabia South, not of less consequence,  
Yields forth her talon, sable Ibony,  
Finest Cottons, Myrrh, and sweetest incense,  
And jewrie, which of yore had dignity,  
Affords the lofty Cedar, and sweet Balsamy:  
So much embraced for her virtues might,  
In healing hurts of wounded men in fight.   

123.  
Moluccaes in the farthest part of West,  
Yields Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, and spice,  
Ginger, Nutmegs, and Physic drugs the best.  
Yea, from the South comes many things of price.  
Else where are found by nauticke arts device,  
Sweet Civet, and the finest Cassia,  
That Merchants bring from Aethiopia.   

124.  
In Callicute the air most temperate,  
The country never touched with pest:  
All trees and plants are still in green estate,  
Yielding each month new fruits, then in request:  
Fair, sweet, and pleasant: divers yet in test.  
Which eke do differ from all other fruits,  
In colour, form, and in their divers suits.   

125.  
In Syria, where stood fair Paradise,  
As antic writers do the place assign,  
About Damascus, Natures benedice,  
Appears in corn, in flesh, in fruit, in wine,  
Quinces, Pomegranates, and fruits of that line,  
Olives and Almonds, and the fragrant Rose,  
Sing sundry praises by their sweet disclose.   

126.  
But contrary this blessing is denied  
To many people fell and barbarous:  
To them that in Tartara abide,  
And in Arabia, robustious,  
That follow cattle, living beastious,  
Moving by troops, feeding on milk and grass,  
Seldom returning, as they erst did pass.   

127.  
But in the countries of Civility,  
Where Laws do lead, and where Religion guides,  
The people there, live well and decently,  
And plant, and sow, reap, and what beside  
May yield supply, fit for all wants and tides.  
These changing courses, show dame Nature may  
Give, or deprive▪ none countermaundes her way.   

128.  
Her virtues streams, and bounty richly flow,  
From parts and Climates best etempered,  
Where air and waters wholesomely bestow  
Health and fertility, things gloried  
Of men and beasts, that be well qualified,  
In vigour, colour, and complexion,  
But in extremes ill constitution.   

129.  
The Ethiopians near to the sun,  
With parching beams, that on them do reflect,  
Their colours black, some tawny, some are done,  
The head and beard are frizzled of that sect,  
Their bodies drier by the same effect,  
Sharp witted, fierce, stern, and of warlike minds,  
And differ much from them of colder kinds.   

130.  
The people in Septentrional parts,  
In country's cold, and Icy regiments,  
Have softer skin and white, yet brutish hearts:  
For these extremes breed seel good rudiments:  
Yet in them both nature's habiliments.  
Their stature tall, their courage cruel set,  
As heat and moisture their extremes beget.   

131.  
Like difference in other things is found,  
In herbs, in trees, and things inanimate,  
They grow or wither as they like the ground:  
Things of one kind stand not in like estate,  
Too hot or cold, too dry or humidate.  
All vegetables do prove best in land,  
Where air is sharp, yet not too sharp at hand.   

132.  
Some plants applaud, (yet as their nature wills)  
On driest ground, some on the moister steed:  
Some on the valleys, some aloft the hills.  
Pine trees and Ceders, and the Fir agreed,  
To choose high mountains for their better breed.  
The Oak and Beech, the Ash and hazel tree,  
In lower land and Forests best agree.   

133.  
The Alder, Poplar, and the Willow love  
To live below, where rills of water run.  
Each creature seeks (by nature) best behove:  
Their will persevers, as it first begun.  
Art yet may alter, and it may be won,  
To like the place which was not first assigned,  
Yet not, if nature do it counterbind.   

134.  
For if the Orange and the Lemon trees,  
Be brought from Spain, and set in English soil,  
They grow perchance, their nature yet they lose:  
And he that plants them, lends a fruitless toil:  
As wash a Moor (black still) Art hath the foil.  
Nature prevaileth, maugre industry,  
In things where Nature will have dignity.   

135.  
The Vine and Fig tree do refuse to grow  
In Babylon, yet found a fertile land.  
And Indie Occident, doth seem a foe  
To Olive trees, there planted, will not stand  
But fruitless, none therefore doth take in hand,  
To sow or set, the kernels root none take:  
They lose their labour that do trial make.   

136.  
No place is yet of that sterility,  
But yields a portion and benevolence  
To man, a subject who hath sovereignty  
Over all creatures. Nature's efficence▪  
Begets and leaves them to man's diligence:  
And diligence discreet obtains the lot  
Of life and liberty, which sloth hath not.   

137.  
For gold and silver, lead, and tin lie dead,  
And sundry precious things, in minerals:  
None find the celles wherein these things be bred,  
But such as dive into the earth's entrails.  
Which art and labour find out by trials.  
For Nature giveth men hands, feet, and eyes,  
To work, to walk, to see, hearts to devise.   

138.  
Which well is seen among men qualified  
In sacred gifts, learning to live aright:  
They only rule, they only rectified,  
Do only polish Nature with Arts light,  
Disposing creatures pleasing to the sight:  
As Plants and trees, gardens and Orchyards fair,  
Fraught with fair fruits in the holsom'st air.   

139.  
In this doth Europe far excel the rest.  
Spain, Italy, France, high, low Germany,  
And England Northmost, equal with the best.  
The first most famous for sterrillitie:  
The last hath fame for sweet fertility.  
They have the art that nature beautifies,  
And nature gives the rest their dignities.   

140.  
Thus providence divine distributes things  
To men and people, and to Nations  
Peculiar. Most bountiful she brings  
Unto them all change of conditions.  
Land lends to Land such contributions,  
As may supply each others needfulness.  
That land wants most, that wants Truth's heedfulness.   

141.  
Yet in the barreynest, where truth is not,  
And where true light lends not relieving rays,  
There yet have been, and are some gifts by lot,  
That savour, some, (as blemished) of disprayes,  
And some of virtue, all grow by essays.  
Essays breed use, use, custom, custom, arts,  
Arts aiding Nature, perfect both their parts.   

142.  
The parts of Nature, yet most absolute,  
Not subject to the Art, for Art she breeds:  
If she deny, Arts all stand dumb and mute,  
Art only grows from Nature's working deeds,  
Which first did sow in Aristotle seeds,  
That grew to branches, others broke the same  
And planted in their brains, thence Logic came.   

143.  
Avicen and Galen, and the most of skill,  
That first did find the simples Natures out,  
Were not first helpers, but at first did kill.  
Nature gave wit, wit held the thing in doubt:  
Doubt then made proof, proof brought the thing about,  
And found the herbs, fit Physic for unsound:  
Physic minerals Paracelsus found.   

144.  
Geometry the mother of all Arts,  
Was not at first found by a former Art:  
Nature did first delineate those parts,  
That Wits and Wills might come unto her mart,  
And buy by practice (to adorn the heart)  
The principles of Art, as Archimedes did,  
Archytas too, and other, to some hid.   

145.  
Art in Astrology grew by degree,  
The Babylonians excelled therein:  
Imperfect first, till Nature gave to see:  
Anaximandes did the art begin:  
Since many famous in the same have been.  
But if high Nature do forbid the skill,  
None comes to Art, using what means he will.   

146.  
Yet some by nature have such apt incline  
To this or that, as holpen by Arts light,  
Do see the secrets of that Art (for sign)  
To which if they attribute meanest might,  
They soon attain, when others not so dight,  
May strive and struggle to achieve the same,  
But yet in vain, Nature, not will, to blame.   

147.  
To some yet, are some common faculties,  
And people of some lands have private skill,  
In some peculiar trades and mysteries,  
Which do prevail by Nature more than will,  
As if the soil did learn them what they nill▪  
But there it seems Nature and use agrees:  
And willing minds seldom their labour lose.   

148.  
The Scythians did will, and use to ride:  
They grew so excellent, they gained fame,  
Their horses and good horsemanship their pride.  
By Bows the Parths and Medes got greatest name:  
And English Archers famous for the same.  
But now of late, by course they leave the thing  
That got them fame, and glory to their King.   

149.  
The Irishmen strong and robustious,  
Use for offensive weapons, armed darts,  
Their arms are active, bodies valorous,  
Casting by force, assisted by their arts:  
No people equalize them in these parts.  
Their natures and their educations one,  
Makes them most famous in these arts alone.   

150.  
Although of yore the Sarmates and the Geteses,  
Cretens, Armaspi, and the Perses were  
Admired most excelling in these fetes,  
Th'Irish soils most dreadful darters rear,  
Who in the skirmish skip them here and there,  
Over the bogs, that tremble as they run:  
The bullet unborn, darts and arrows won.   

151.  
But men their manners and their properties  
Do alter so, that all things alter too,  
Subject to them, and to their faculties:  
As time doth men, so men invention woe,  
And things do follow as the founders do.  
Man only erreth from right reasons way,  
Fed by fond fancy, guide unto estray.   

152.  
Who doth not see the state of sickle man,  
His changing courses and his divers turns,  
tween aged years, and time he first began,  
How time his terms from time to time adiurnes?  
Time tries him still, to triumph him he wurnes,  
And will not let him glory long in bliss,  
In this short progress where no glory is.   

153.  
Before his birth he lies as in a cave,  
Enclosed with gore, an ugly shape he bears:  
Then by degrees he 'gins some form to have,  
And represents what after he appears,  
A human body: then he comes with tears  
From cell of darkness, and partakes the light,  
A silly creature, and of silly might.   

154.  
Then he forthwith lives, and forthwith he dies,  
Though living long, he lingers and decays  
From youth to age, he pining, mortifies:  
Although he seem to glory in his days,  
His day to die comes stealing, though it stays.  
And when he seemeth to have constant state,  
A change chaps in, of more inconstant rate.   

155.  
Man never standeth, but like waving tide,  
That comes and goes, now calm, then full of ire:  
Now sings he sweet, all sorrows laid aside,  
Then groweth grief, welcome to no desire,  
Heaved up, hurled down, dismayed, or in aspire:  
Graced now, then in disdain, now in the sun  
Of sweetest favour: then eclipsed, undone.   

156.  
Th'inconstant state of man inconstant, moves  
My constant Muse to mourn and pause a while,  
Sad and in silence, as my state approves,  
Beset with sorrows, comforts in exile,  
Fed with imperfect promise (wounding smile.)  
Reft of relief, the world's change I sing.  
This first approved, a second part I bring.   

157.  
Wherein the changes of man's glory seen,  
Of Cities, Kingdoms, tongues, and Nations,  
Shall well approve, Time strong, a checkless Queen,  
Yields not to idle allegations,  
That fruitless fancy frames for fashions,  
To colour sin, and gloze fond vanity,  
With feigned habit of sweet piety.   
FINIS.