〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. THE SHADOW OF NIGHT: CONTAINING TWO POETICAL HYMNS, Devised by G. C. Gent.  Versus mei habebunt aliquantum Noctis. Antilo. 
AT LONDON, Printed by R. F. for William Ponsonby. 1594.   

TO MY DEAR AND MOST WORTHY FRIEND MASTER MATHEW ROYDON.  
IT is an exceeding rapture of delight in the deep search of knowledge, (none knoweth better than thyself sweet Matthew) that maketh men manfully endure th'extremes incident to that Herculean labour: from flints must the Gorgonean fount be smitten. Men must be shod by Mercury, girt with Saturn's Adamant●e sword, take the shield from Pallas, the helm from Pluto, and have the eyes of Great (as Hesiodus arms Perseus against Medusa) before they can cut of the viperous head of benumbing ignorance, or subdue their monstrous affections to most beautiful judgement.  
How then may a man stay his marveling to see passion-driven men, reading but to curtal a tedious hour, and altogether hidebownd with affection to great men's fancies, take upon them as kill censures as if they were judgements Butchers, or as if the life of truth lay tottering in their verdicts.  
Now what a supererogation in wit this is, to think skill so mightily pierced with their loves, that she should prosti●utely show them her secrets, when she will scarcely be looked upon by others but with invocation, fasting, watching; yea not without having drops of their souls like an heavenly familiar. Why then should our Intonsi Catones with their profit-ravisht gravity esteem her true favours such questionless vanities, as with what part soever thereof they seem to be something delighted, they queimishlie commend it for a pretty toy. Good Lord how serious and eternal are their Idolatrous platts for riches! no marvel sure they here do so much good with them. And heaven no doubt will grovill on the earth (as they do) to embrace them. But I st●y this spleen when I remember my good A●a●. how joyfully oftentimes you reported unto me, that most ingenious Derby, deep searching Northumberland, and skill embracing heir of Hunsdon had most profitably entertained learning in themselves, to the vital warmth of freezing science, & to the admirable lustre of their true Nobility, whose high deserving virtues may cause me hereafter strike that fire out of darkness, which the brightest Day shall envy for beauty. I should write more, but my hasting out of town taketh me from the paper, so preferring thy allowance in this poor and strange trifle, to the passport of a whole City of others. I rest as resolute as Seneca, satisfying myself if but a few, if one, or if none like it.  
By the true admirour of thy virtues and perfectly vowed friend. G. CHAPMAN.   

Hymnus in Noctem.  
GReat Goddess to whose throne in 
1 
HE calls these Cynthi● fires of Cynthius or the Sun. In whose beams the fumes and vapours of the earth ar● exhaled. The earth being as an altar, and those fumes as sacrificing smokes, because they seem pleasing to her in resembling her. That the earth is called an altar, Aratus in Astronimicis testifies in these verses: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc.  
Nox antiqua suo curru convoluitur Ar●●  
Hanc circum, qua● signa dedit certissima ●a●tis  
Commiserata vir●m metue●dos undique cas●s.  In which verses the substance of the first four verses is expressed.   Cynthian fires,  
This earthly Altar endless fumes exspires,  
Therefore, in fumes of sighs and fires of grief,  
To fearful chances thou send'st bold relief,  
Happy, thrice happy Type, and 
2 
Night is called the nurse or mother of death by Hesiodus in Theogonia, in these verses repeating her other issue: 
Nox peperit fatumque malum, Parcamque nigrantem  
Et mortem & somnum, diversaque so●nia: natos  
Hos peperit, nulli dea nox coniuncta marito.    nurse of death,  
Who breathless, seeds on nothing but our breath,  
In whom must virtue and her issue live,  
Or die for ever, now let humour give  
Seas to mine eyes, that I may quickly weep  
The shipwreck of the world: or let soft sleep  
(Binding my senses) lose my working soul,  
That in her highest pitch, she may control  
The court of skill, compact of mystery,  
Wanting but franchisement 
3 Plat● saith dicere is nothing else but reminisci.  and memory  
To reach all secrets: then in blissful trance,  
Raise her (dear Night to that perseverance,  
That in my torture, she all earths may sing,  
And force to tremble in her trumpeting  
heavens crystal 
4 The heavenly abodes are often called, celestial temples by Homer & alijs.  temples: in her powers implant  
Skill of my griefs, and she can nothing want.  
Then like fierce bolts, well rammd with heat & cold  
In Ioues Artillery, my words unfold,  
To break the labyrinth of every ear,  
And make each frighted soul come forth and hear,  
Let them break hearts, as well as yielding air,  
That all men's bosoms (pierced with no affairs,  
But gain of riches) may be lanced wide,  
And with the thr●ates of virtue terrified.  
sorrows dear sovereign, and the queen of rest,  
That when unlightsome, vast, and indigest  
The formless matter of this world did lie,  
Fildst every place with thy Divinity,  
Why did thy absolute and endless sway,  
Licence heavens torch, the sceptre of the Day,  
Distinguished intercession to thy throne,  
That long before, all matchless rusde alone?  
Why lettest thou order, orderless disperses,  
The fight parents of this universe?  
When earth, the air, and sea, in fire remained,  
When fire, the sea, and earth, the air contained,  
When air, the earth, and fire, the sea enclosed,  
When sea, fire, air, in earth were indisposde,  
Nothing, as now, remained so out of kind,  
All things in gross, were finer than refined,  
Substance was sound within, and had no being,  
Now form gives being; all our essence seeming,  
Chaos had sou●e without a body then,  
Now bodies live without the souls of men,  
Lumps being digested; monsters, in our pride.  
And as a wealthy fount, that hills did hide,  
Let forth by labour of industrious hands,  
Powers out her treasure through the fruitful strands,  
Seemly divided to a hundred streams,  
Whose beauties shed such profitable beams,  
And make such Orphean Music in their courses,  
That Cities follow their enchanting forces,  
Who running far, at length each powers her heart  
Into the bosom of the gulfie desert,  
As much confounded there, and indigest,  
As in the chaos of the hills compressed:  
So all things now (extract out of the prime)  
Are turned to chaos, and confound the time.  
A stepdame Night of mind about us cli●gs,  
Who broods beneath her hell obscuring wings,  
World's of confusion, where the soul defamed,  
The body had been better never framed,  
Beneath thy soft, and peaceful covert then,  
(Most sacred mother both of Gods and men)  
Treasures unknown, and more unprisde did dwell;  
But in the blind borne shadow of this hell,  
This horrid stepdame, blindness of the mind,  
Nought worth the sight, no sight, but worse than blind,  
A Gorgon that with brass, and snaky brows,  
(Most harlot-like) her naked secrets shows:  
For in th'expansure, and distinct attire,  
Of light, and darkness, of the sea, and fire,  
Of air, and earth, and all, all these create,  
First set and ruled, in most harmonious state,  
Disjunction shows, in all things now amiss,  
By that first order, what confusion is:  
Religious curb, that managed men in bounds,  
Of public welfare; loathing private grounds,  
(Now cast away, by self loves para●ores)  
All are transformed to Calydonian bores,  
That kill our bleeding vines, displow our fields,  
Rend groves in pieces▪ all things nature yields  
Supplanting: tumbling up in hills of dearth,  
The fruitful disposition of the earth,  
Ruin creates men: all to slaughter bend,  
Like envy, fed with others famishment.  
And what makes men without the parts of men,  
Or in their manhoods, less than children,  
But manless natures? all this world was named  
A world of him, for whom it first was framed,  
(Who (like ● tender Cheurill,) shrunk with fire)  
Of base ambition, and of selfe-desire,  
His arms into his shoulders crept for fear  
Bounty should use them; and fierce rape forbear,  
His legs into his greedy belly run,  
The charge of hospitality to shun)  
In him the world is to a lump reversed,  
That shrunk from form, that was by form dispersed,  
And in nought more than thankless avarice,  
Not rendering virtue her deserved price:  
Kind Amalth●a was transferred by jove,  
Into his sparkling pavement, for her love,  
Though but a Goat, and giving him her milk,  
Baseness is flinty; gentry soft as silk,  
In heavens she lives, and rules a living sign  
In human bodies: yet not so divine,  
That she can work her kindness in our hearts.  
The senseless Argive ship, for her deserts,  
Bearing to Colchos, and for bringing back,  
The hardy Argonauts, secure of wrack,  
The fautor and the God of gratitude,  
Would not from number of the stars exclude.  
A thousand such examples could I cite,  
To damn stone-pesants, that like Typhon's fight  
Against their Maker, and contend to be  
Of kings, the abject slaves of drudgery.  
Proud of that thraldom: love the kindest jest,  
And hate, not to be hated of the best.  
If then we frame man's figure by his mind,  
And that at first, his fashion was assigned,  
erection in suc● Godlike excellence  
F●r his soul's sake, and her intelligence:  
She so degenerate, and grown depressed,  
Content to share affections with a beast,  
The shape wherewith he should be now ●nd●de,  
Must bear no sign of man's similitude,  
Therefore 
* ●e calls them Promethe●n Poets in this high conceit, by a figurative comparison betwixt them, that as 〈◊〉. with fire fetched from heaven, made men: so Poets with the fire of their souls are said to create those Harpies, and Centaurs, and thereof he calls their souls Geniale.  Promethean Poets with the coals  
Of their most genial, more-then-humane souls  
In living verse, created men like these,  
With shapes of Centaurs, Harpy, Lapithes,  
That they in prime of erudition,  
When almost savage vulgar men were grown,  
Seeing themselves in those Pierean founts,  
Might mend their minds, ashamed of such accounts.  
So when ye hear, the 
* Call●ope is called the sweetest Muses, her name being by signification, Cautus suavitas, vel mod●l●●io.  sweetest Muses son,  
With heavenly rapture of his Music, won  
Rocks, forests, floods, and winds to leave their cou●●  
In his attendance: it bewrays the force  
His wisdom had, to draw men grown so rude  
To civil love of Art, and Fortitude,  
And not for teaching others 
5 Insolence is here taken for rareness or unwontedness.  insolence,  
Had he his date-exceeding excellence  
With sovereign Poets, but for use applied,  
And in his proper acts exemplified.  
And that in calming the infernal kind,  
To wit, the perturbations of his mind,  
And bringing his Eurydice from hell,  
(Which justice signifies) is proved well.  
But if in rights observance any man  
Look back, with boldness less than Orphean,  
Soon falls he to the hell from whence he rose:  
The fiction than would temprature dispose,  
In all the tender motives of the mind,  
To make man worthy his hel-danting kind.  
The golden chain of Homer's high device  
Ambition is, or cursed avarice,  
Which all Gods haling being tied to jove,  
Him from his settled height could never move:  
Intending this, that though that powerful chain  
Of most Herculean vigour to constrain  
Men from true virtue, or their pristine states  
Attempt a man that manless changes hates,  
And is ennobled with a deathless love  
Of things eternal, dignified above:  
Nothing shall stir him from adorning still  
This shape with virtue, and his power with will.  
But as rude painters that contend to show  
Beast's, fowls or fish, all artless to bestow  
Ostlery side his native counterfeit,  
Above his head, his name had need to set:  
So men that will be men, in more than face,  
(As in their foreheads) should in actions place  
More perfect characters, to prove they be  
No mockers of their first nobility:  
Else may they easily pass for beasts or fowls:  
Souls praise our shapes, and not our shapes our souls.  
And as when Chloris paints th'enameled meads,  
A flock of shepherds to the bagpipe treads  
Rude rural dances with their country loves:  
Some a far off observing their removes,  
Turns, and returns, quick footing, sudden stands,  
Reel aside, odd actions with their hands;  
Now back, now forwards, now locked arm in arm,  
Not hearing music, think it is a charm,  
That like lose froes at Bacchanalean feasts,  
Makes them seem frantic in their barren jests.  
And being clustered in a shapeless crowd,  
With much less admiration are allowed.  
So our first excellence, so much abused,  
And we (without the harmony was used,  
When Saturn's golden sceptre struck the strings  
Of Civil government) make all our doings  
Savour of rudeness, and obscurity,  
And in our forms show more deformity,  
Then if we still were wrapped, and smothered  
In that confusion, out of which we fled.  
And as when hosts of stars attend thy flight,  
(Day of deep students, most contentful night)  
The morning (mounted on the Muse's 
6 
Lycophron in Alexandra, affirms the morning useth to ride upon Pegasus in his verses: 
Aurora montem Phagium advoluerat  
V●locis altum nuper alis Pegasi.    stead)  
Ushers the son from 
7 Vulcan is said by Natalis Comes in his Mythology, to have made a golden bed for the Sun, wherein he swum sleeping till the morning.  Vulcan's golden bed,  
And then from forth their sundry roofs of rest,  
All sorts of men, to sorted tasks addressed,  
Spread this inferior element: and yield  
Labour his due: the soldier to the field,  
Statesmen to counsel, judges to their pleas,  
Merchants to commerce, mariners to seas:  
All beasts, and birds, the groves and forests range,  
To fill all corners of this round Exchange,  
Till thou (dear Night, o goddess of most worth)  
Lettest thy sweet seas of golden humour forth  
And Eagle like dost with thy starry wings,  

8 Quae lucem pellis sub terras: Orpheus.  Beat in the fowls, and beasts to Somnus lodgings,  
And haughty Day to the infernal deep,  
Proclaiming silence study, ease, and sleep.  
All things befor● thy force's put in rout,  
Retiring where the morning fired them out.  
So to the chaos of our first descent,  
(All days of honour, and of virtue spe●t)  
We basely make retreat, and are no less  
Then huge impolish heaps of filthiness.  
men's faces glitter, and their hearts are black,  
But thou (great Mistress of heavens gloomy rack)  
Art black in face, and glitterst in thy heart.  
There is thy glory, riches, force, and Art;  
Opposed earth, beats black and blue thy face,  
And often doth thy heart itself deface,  
For spite that to thy vertue-famed train,  
All the choice worthies that did ever reign  
In eldest age, were still preferred by jove,  
Esteeming that due honour to his love.  
There shine they: not to seamen guides alone,  
But sacred precedents to every one.  
There fixed for ever, where the Day is driven,  
Almost four hundred times a year from heaven.  
In hell than let her sit, and never rise,  
Till Morn's leave blushing at her cruelties.  
Mean while, accept, as followers of thy train,  
(Our better parts aspiring to thy reign)  
Virtues obscured, and banished the day,  
With all the glories of this spongy sway,  
●risond in flesh, and that poor flesh in bands  
Of stone, and steel, chief flowers of virtues Garlands.  
O then most tender fortress of our woes,  
That bleeding lie in virtues overthroes,  
Hating the whoredom of this painted light:  
Raise thy chaste daughters, ministers of right,  
The dreadful and the just Eumenideses,  
And let them wreak the wrongs of our disease,  
Drowning the world in blood, and stain the skies  
With their spilled souls, made drunk with tyrannies.  
Fall Hercules from heaven in tempests hurled,  
And cleanse this beastly stable of the world:  

9 Here he alludes to the fiction of Hercules, that in his labour at Tartessus fetching away the oxen, being (more than he liked) heat with the beams of the Sun, he bent his bow against him, etc. Vt ait Pherecides in 3. lib. Historiarum.  Or bend thy brazen bow against the Sun,  
As in Tartessus, when thou hadst begun  
Thy task of oxen: heat in more extremes  
Than thou wouldst suffer, with his envious beams.  
Now make him leave the world to Night and dreams.  
Never were virtues labours so envied  
As in this light: shoot, shoot, and stoop his pride:  
Suffer no more his lustful rays to get  
The Earth with issue: let him still be set  
In Somnus thickets: bound about the brows,  
With pitchy vapours, and with Ebony bows.  

10 This Periphrasis of the Night he useth, because in her the blessed, (by whom he intends the virtuous) living obscurely are relieved and quieted, according to those verses before of Aratus, Commiserata virum metuendos undique casus.  Rich-tapird sanctuary of the blessed,  
Palace of Ruth, made all of tears, and rest,  
To thy black shades and desolation,  
I consecrate my life; and living moan,  
Where furies shall for ever fight be,  
And adders hiss the world for hating me,  
Foxes shall bark, and Night-ravens belch in groans,  
And owls shall hollow my confusions:  
There will I furnish up my funeral bed,  
Strewed with the bones and relics of the dead.  
Atlas shall let th'olympic burden fall,  
To cover my untombed face withal.  
And when as well, the matter of our kind,  
As the material sul stance of the mind,  
Shall cease their revolutions, in abode  
Of such impure and ugly period,  
As the old essence, and insensive prime:  
Then shall the ruins of the fourfold time,  
Turned to that lump (as rapting Torrents ri●e)  
For ever murmur forth my miseries.  
Ye living spirits then, if any li●e,  
Whom like extremes, do like affections give,  
Eat, shun this cruel light, and end your thrall,  
In these soft shades of sable funeral:  
From whence with ghosts, whom vengeance holds from rest,  
Dog-fiends and monsters haunting the distressed,  
As men whose parents tyranny hath slain,  
Whose sisters rape, and bondage do sustain.  
Bu● you that near had birth, nor ever proved,  
How dear a blessing 'tis to be beloved,  
Whose friends idolatrous desire of gold,  
To scorn, and ruin have your freedom sold:  
Whose virtues feel all this, and show your eyes,  
Men made of Tartar, and of villainies.  
Aspire th'extraction, and the quintessence  
Of all the joys in earth's circumference:  
With ghosts, fiends, monsters: as men robbed and racked,  
Murdered in life: from shades with shadows blacked:  
Thunder your wrongs, your miseries and hells,  
And with the dismal accents of your knells,  
Revive the dead, and make the living die  
In ruth, and terror of your torturie:  
Still all the power of Art into your groans,  
Scorning your trivial and remissive moans,  
Compact of fiction, and hyperboles,  
(Like wanton mourners, cloyed with too much ease)  
Should leave the glasses of the hearer's eyes  
Unbroken, cou●ting all but vanities.  
But paint, or else create in serious tr●th,  
A body figured to your virtues ruth,  
That to the sense may show what damned sin,  
For your extremes this Chaos tumbles in.  
But woe is wretched me, without a name:  
Virtue feeds scor●e, and noblest honour, shame:  
Pride baths in tears of poor submission,  
And makes his soul, the purple he puts on.  
Kneel then with me, fall wormlike on the ground,  
And from th'infectious dunghill of this Round,  
From men's brass wits, and golden foolery,  
Weep, weep your souls, into felicity:  
Come to this house of mourning, serve the night,  
To whom pale day (with whoredom soaked quite)  
Is but a drudge, selling her beauties use  
To rapes, adultries, and to all abuse.  
Her labours feast imperial Night with sports,  
Where Loves are Christmast, with all pleasures sorts:  
And whom her fugitive, and far-shot rays  
Disjoin, and drive into ten thousand ways,  
Night's glorious mantle wraps in safe abodes,  
And frees their necks from servile labours loads:  
Her trusty shadows, secure men dismayed,  
Whom Days deceitful malice hath betrayed:  
From the silk vapours of her jueryport,  
Sweet Protean dreams she sends of every sort:  
Some taking forms of Princes, to persuade  
Of men deject, we are their equals made,  
Som● clad in habit o● deceased friend's,  
For whom we mourned, and now have wished a●●nds,  
And some (dear favour) Ladylike attired,  
With pride of Beauty's full Meridian fired:  
Who pity our contempts, revive our hearts:  
For wisest Ladies love the inward parts.  
If these be dreams, even so are all things else,  
That walk this round by heavenly sentinels:  
But from Night's port of horn she greets our eyes  
With graver dreams inspired with prophecies,  
Which o●t presage to us succeeding chances,  
We proving that awake, they show in trances.  
If these seem likewise vain, or nothing are  
V●ine things, or nothing come to virtues share:  
For nothing more than dreams, with us sh●e finds:  
Then since all pleasures vanish like the winds,  
And that most serious actions not respecting  
The second night, are worth but the neglecting,  
Since day, or light, in any quality,  
For earthly uses do but serve the eye.  
And since the eyes most quick and dangerous use,  
Inflames the heart, and learns the soul abuse,  
Since mournings are preferred to banquetings,  
And they reach heaven, bred under sorrows wings.  
Since Night brings terror to our frailties still,  
And shameless Day, doth marble us in ill.  
All you possessed with indepressed spirits,  
Endued with nimble, and aspiring wits,  
Come consecrate with me, to sacred Night  
Your whole endeavours, and detest the light.  
Sweet pieces richest crown is made of stars,  
Most certain g●ides of ho●●rd Mari●ars,  
No pen can any thing eternal wright,  
That is not ●●eept i● h●m●r of the Night.  
Hence beasts, and birds ●o caves and b●shes then,  
And welcome Night, ye noblest heirs of men,  
Hence Phoebus to thy glassy strumpet's bed,  
And never more let The●●● daughters spread, 
11 
Themis daughters are the three hours, viz. Dice, Ire●e, and E●●omia, begotten by jupiter. They are said to make ready the horse & chariot of the Sun every morning. ut Orph. Et lovis & Themidis Horae the se●ine 〈◊〉, etc.    
Thy golden harness 〈◊〉 thy rosy horse,  
But in close thickets 〈◊〉 thy obliqne c●●rse.  
See now ascends, the glorio●●●ride of Brides,  
Nuptials, and triumphs, glittering by her sides,  
juno and Hymen do her train adorn,  
Ten thousand torches ro●●d about them bor●e:  
Dumb Silence 〈◊〉 on the Cyprian star,  
With becks, reb●kes the winds before his car,  
Where she 〈◊〉; beats down with clo●die ●ace,  
The feeble light to black Saturnius palace:  
Behind her, with a brace 
12 
Cynthia or the Moon, is said to be drawn by two white hinds, ut ait Cali●ach●●: 
A●rea nam d●mitrix Tityi sunt arma Diana  
Cuncta tibi & zona, & fuga qua● cer●icibus a●rea  
Cer●arum imponis currum c●● d●cis ad a●re●●.    of silver hinds,  
In ivory chariot, swifter than the winds,  
In great 
13 
Hesiodus in Theogonia calls her the daughter of Hyperion, and Thya, in his versibus. 
Thia parit Sole● 〈…〉  
Auroram quaefert luce● mortalibus 〈◊〉  
C●elicolisque This cunctis, Hyperionis al●●  
Semine concepit, namque illos Thia d●cora   
So is she said to wear particoloured garments: the rest intimates her Magic authority.   Hyperions horned daughter drawn  
Enchantresse-like, decked in disparent lawn,  
Circkled with charms, and incantations,  
That ride h●ge spirits, and outrageous passions:  
Music, and mood, she lo●es, but lo●e she hates,  
(As curious Ladies do, their public cates)  
This train, with meteor's, comets, lightnings,  
The dreadful presence of our Empress sings:  
Which grant for ever (● eternal Night)  
Till virtue flourish in the light of light.  
Explicit Hymnus.   

Gloss  
1 HE calls these Cynthi● fires of Cynthius or the Sun. In whose beams the fumes and vapours of the earth ar● exhaled. The earth being as an altar, and those fumes as sacrificing smokes, because they seem pleasing to her in resembling her. That the earth is called an altar, Aratus in Astronimicis testifies in these verses: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc.  
Nox antiqua suo curru convoluitur Ar●●  
Hanc circum, qua● signa dedit certissima ●a●tis  
Commiserata vir●m metue●dos undique cas●s.  In which verses the substance of the first four verses is expressed.  
2 Night is called the nurse or mother of death by Hesiodus in Theogonia, in these verses repeating her other issue: 
Nox peperit fatumque malum, Parcamque nigrantem  
Et mortem & somnum, diversaque so●nia: natos  
Hos peperit, nulli dea nox coniuncta marito.   
3 Plat● saith dicere is nothing else but reminisci.  
4 The heavenly abodes are often called, celestial temples by Homer & alijs.  
5 Insolence is here taken for rareness or unwontedness.  
6 Lycophron in Alexandra, affirms the morning useth to ride upon Pegasus in his verses: 
Aurora montem Phagium advoluerat  
V●locis altum nuper alis Pegasi.   
7 Vulcan is said by Natalis Comes in his Mythology, to have made a golden bed for the Sun, wherein he swum sleeping till the morning.  
8 Quae lucem pellis sub terras: Orpheus.  
9 Here he alludes to the fiction of Hercules, that in his labour at Tartessus fetching away the oxen, being (more than he liked) heat with the beams of the Sun, he bent his bow against him, etc. Vt ait Pherecides in 3. lib. Historiarum.  
10 This Periphrasis of the Night he useth, because in her the blessed, (by whom he intends the virtuous) living obscurely are relieved and quieted, according to those verses before of Aratus, Commiserata virum metuendos undique casus.  
11 Themis daughters are the three hours, viz. Dice, Ire●e, and E●●omia, begotten by jupiter. They are said to make ready the horse & chariot of the Sun every morning. ut Orph. Et lovis & Themidis Horae the se●ine 〈◊〉, etc.  
12 Cynthia or the Moon, is said to be drawn by two white hinds, ut ait Cali●ach●●: 
A●rea nam d●mitrix Tityi sunt arma Diana  
Cuncta tibi & zona, & fuga qua● cer●icibus a●rea  
Cer●arum imponis currum c●● d●cis ad a●re●●.   
13 Hesiodus in Theogonia calls her the daughter of Hyperion, and Thya, in his versibus. 
Thia parit Sole● 〈…〉  
Auroram quaefert luce● mortalibus 〈◊〉  
C●elicolisque This cunctis, Hyperionis al●●  
Semine concepit, namque illos Thia d●cora   
So is she said to wear particoloured garments: the rest intimates her Magic authority.  
FINIS.  
 
For the rest of his own invention, figures and ●●●iles, touching their aptness and novelty he hath not laboured to justify them, because he hopes they will be proud enough to justify themselves, and prove sufficiently authentical to such as understand them; for the rest, God help them, I can not (do as others), make day seem a lighter woman than she is, by painting her.   

Hymnus in Cynthiam.  

1 
HE gives her that Periphrasis, viz. Nature's bright eye sight, because that by her store of humours, issue is given to all birth: and thereof is she called Lucina, and Ilythyia, quia praeest parturientibus cum invocaretur, and gives them help: which Orpheus in a Hymn of her praise expresseth, and calls her besides Prothyrea, ut sequitur. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. 
Audi m● veneranda Dea, cui nomina multa:  
Prag●antum adi●●rix, patientum dulce 〈◊〉  
Sola puellarum sernatrix▪ solaque prudens:  
Auxilium velox te●●ris Prothyrea puelli●●.  And a little after, he shows her plainly to be Diana, Ilythyia, and Prothyrea, in these verses: 
Solam anim● requiem te clamant par●● rusts.  
Sola potes dir●● partus placare labores  
Diana, Ilythyia gravis, sumus & Prothyrea.    Nature's bright eyesight, and the Night's fair soul, 
2 He calls her the soul of the Night, since she is the purest part of her according to common conceit.   

3 
Orpheus in these verses, in Argonauticis saith she is three headed, as she is Hecate, Luna, and Diana, ut sequitur. 
Cumque illis Hecate, properans horre●da cucurrit,  
Cui trinum caput est, ge●●is quam Tartarus olim.   
The rest above will not be denied.   That with thy triple forehead dost control  
Earth, seas, and hell: and art in dignity  
The greatest, and swiftest Planet in the sky:  
Peaceful, and warlike, and the 
4 
That she is called the power of fate, read Hesiodus in Theogonia when he gives her more than this commendation▪ in these verses: 
jupiter ingentes illi largitur honores,  
Muneraque imperium terr●que marisque profundi:  
Cunctoru●que simul, quae coelum amplectitur altum,  
Admittitque preces facilis Dea, pro●pta, benigna:  
Divitias pr●bet, quid ei concessa potest●●,  
Imperat haec cunctis, qui sunt è ●emi●e nati:  
Et terrae & Coeli, cunctorum fata gube●●●t.    power of fate,  
In perfect circle of whose sacred state,  
The circles of our hopes are compassed:  
All wisdom, beauty, majesty and dread,  
Wrought in the speaking portrait of thy face.  
Great Cynthia, rise out of thy 
5 
In Latmos she is supposed to sleep with Endymion, ut Catullus. 
Vt tr●●iam furtim sub L●●mia saxa ●elegans,  
Dulcis amor Gyro de●oce● A●ri●.    Latmian palace,  

6 
Homer with a marvelous Poetical sweetness, saith she washes her before she apparels herself in th'atlantic sea. And then shows her apparel, as in th●se verses. In Ocean● Lavacri. 
Rursus Atlant●is, in lymphis membra lavata,  
Vestibus indut●●, & ●●●idis Dea Luna micantes:  
Curru iunxit equos celeres, quibus ardua colla.    Wash thy bright body, in th'atlantic streams,  
Put on those robes that are most rich in beams:  
And in thy All-ill-purging purity,  
(As if the shady 
7 Cithaeron, as Menander saith was a most fair boy, and beloved of Tisiphone, who since she could not obtain his love, she tears from her head a Serpent, & threw it at him, which stinging him to death, the Gods in pity turned him to a hill of that name, first called A●t●rius, full of woods wherein all Poets have affirmed wild beasts live, and use it often to express their haunts, or store of woods, whereupon he invokes Cynthia, to rise in such brightness, as if it were all on fire.  Cithaeron did fry  
In sightfull fury of a solemn fire)  
Ascend thy chariot, and make earth admire  
Thy old swift changes, made a young fixed prime,  
O let thy beauty scorch the wings of time,  
That fluttering he may fall before thine eyes,  
And beat himself to death before he rise:  
And as heavens 
8 This is expounded as followeth by Gyraldus Lil●●s. The application most 〈◊〉 made by this author.  Genial parts were cut away  
By Saturn's hands, with adamantine 
9 Harp should be written thus, not with a y, yet here he useth it, lest some, not knowing what it means, read it for a Harp, having found this grossness in some scholars. It was the sword Perseus used to cut of Medusa's head.  Harpey,  
Only to show, that since it was composed  
Of universal matter: it enclosed  
No power to procreate another heaven.  
So since that adamantine power is gi●en  
To thy chaste hands, to cut of all desire  
Of fleshly sports, and quench to cupids fire:  
Let it approve: no change shall take thee hence,  
Nor thy throne bear another inference:  
For if the eu●ious forehead of the earth  
Lower on thy age, and claim thee as her birth.  
Tapers, nor torches, nor the forests b●rning,  
Soule-winging music, nor teare-stilling mourning,  
(Used of old Romans and rude Maced●ns  
In thy most sad, and black discessions)  
We know can nothing further thy recall,  
When Nights dark r●bes (whose objects blind us all)  
Shall celebrate thy changes funeral.  
But as in that thrice dreadful fought ●field  
Of ruthless Cannas, whe● sweet Rule did yield,  
Her beauty's strongest proofs, and h●gest love:  
When men as many as the lamps above,  
Armed Earth in steel, and made her like the skies,  
That two Aurora's did in one day rise.  
Then with the terror of the trumpets call,  
The battles joined as if the world did fall:  
Continewd long in life-disdaining fight,  
Ioues thundering Eagles feathered like the night,  
Hovering above them with indifferent wings,  
Till Bloods stern daughter, cruel 
10 
Fortune is called Tyc●●, 〈◊〉 witnesseth Pausanias in Messeniacis, who affirms her to b● one of the daughters likewise of Ocea●●●, which was playing with Pr●serpine, when Dis ravished her. 
una omnes vario per prata co●●ntia ●●ore,  
Candida L●ucipp●, Physic, El●ctraque●ant ●e.   
Melobosisque Tych●, Ocyrh●e pr●●gnis oc●llis. And Orpheus in a Hymn to Fortuna, saith she is the daughter of blood, ut in his, sanguine prognathi, Vi & inexpugnabile numen.   Tyc●e ●●ings  
The chief of one side, to the blushing gro●●d,  
And then his men (whom griefs, and fears confounded)  
Turned all their cheerful hopes to grim despair,  
Some casting of their souls into the air,  
Some taken prisoners, some extremely mai●d,  
And all (as men accursed) on fate exclaimed.  
So (gracious Cy●thia) in that sable day,  
When interposed earth takes thee away,  
(Our sacred chief and sovereign general,  
As chrimsine a retreat, and sleep a fall  
We fear to suffer from this peace, and height,  
Whose thancklesse sweet now cloies us with receipt.  

11 Plutarch writes thus of the Romans, and Macedons, in Paulus Ae●ilius.  The Romans set sweet M●sicke to her charms,  
To raise thy stoop, with her ●yrie arms:  
Used loud resound with ●●spicious brass:  
Held torches up to heaven, and flaming glass,  
Made a whole forest but a burning eye,  
T● admire thy mournful partings with the sky.  
The Macedonians were so stricken dead,  
With skilless horror of thy changes dread:  
They wanted hearts, to lift up sounds, or fires,  
Or eyes to heaven; but used their funeral tires,  
Trembled, and wept; assured some mischief's fury  
Would follow that afflicting Augury.  
Nor shall our wisdoms be more arrogant  
(O sacred Cynthia) but believe thy want  
Hath cause to make us now as much afraid:  
Nor shall Democrates who first is said,  
To read in nature's brows, thy changes cause,  
Persuade our sorrows to a vain applause.  
Time's motion, being like the reeling suns,  
Or as the sea reciprocally ru●nes,  
Hath brought us now to their opinions;  
As in our garments, ancient fashions  
Are newly worn; and as sweet poesy  
Will not be clad in her supremacy  
With those strange garments (Rome's Hexa●●ters)  
As she is English: but in right prefers  
Our native robes, (put on with skilful hands  
English heroics) to those antic garlands,  
Accounting it no meed but mockery,  
When her steep brows already prop the sky,  
To put on startups, and yet let it fall.  
No otherwise (O Queen celestial)  
Can we believe Ephesias state willbe  
But spoil with foreign grace, and change with thee  

12 These ar● commonly known to be the properties of Cynthia.  The pureness of thy never-tainted life,  
Scorning the subject title of a ●ife,  
Thy body not composed in thy birth,  
Of such condensed matter as the earth,  
Thy sh●nning faithless men's society,  
Betaking thee to hounds, and Archery  
To deserts, and inaccessible hills,  
Abhorring pleasure in earth's common ills,  
Commit most willing rapes on all o●r hearts:  
And make us tremble, lest thy so●eraigne parts  
(The whole preservers of our happiness)  
Should yield to change, Eclipse, or hea●inesse.  
And as thy changes happen by the site,  
Near, or far distance, of thy 
* 〈…〉 Phe●isses, calls her the daughter not sister of the Sun, O 〈…〉 etc.  father's light,  
Who (set in absolute remotion) re●ues  
Thy face of light, and thee all darkened leaves:  
So for thy absence, to the shade of death  
Our souls fly mourning, winged with our breath.  
Then set thy Crystal, and Imperial throne,  
(Girt in thy chaste, and never-loosing 
13 
This Zone is said to be the girdle of Cynthia. And thereof when maids lost their maidenheads, amongst the Athenians, they used to p●t of their girdles. And ●●ter, customs made it a phrase 〈…〉, to lose their maidenheades, ut Apol●. lib. 1. 
〈…〉    zone)  
'Gainst Europa's Sun directly opposite,  
And give him darkness, that doth threat thy light.  
O how accursed are they thy favour scorn? 
14 These are the verses of 〈◊〉 translated to effect. O miseri, quibble ipsa 〈…〉 etc.   
Diseases pine their flocks, tars spoil their corn●:  
Old men are blind of issue, and young wi●es  
Bring forth abortive fruit, that ne●er thrives.  
B●t then how blest are they thy favour grace●,  
Peace in their hearts, and youth reigns in their faces:  
Health strengths their bodies, to subdue the seas,  
And dare the Sun, like Theban Hercules  
To calm the furies, and to quench the fire:  
As at thy altars, in thy Persicke Empire,  

15 This Strabo testifieth 〈…〉  Thy holy women walked with naked soles  
Harmless, and confident, on burning coals:  
The vertue-temperd mind, ever preserves,  
Oils, and exp●lsatorie Balm that serves  
To quench lust's fire, in all things it anoints,  
And steels our feet to march on needles points:  
And 'mongst her arms, hath armour to repel  
The canon, and the fiery darts of hell:  
She is the great enchantress that commands  
Spirits of every region, seas, and lands,  
Round heaven itself, and all his sevenfold heights,  
Are bound to serve the strength of her conceits:  
A perfect type of thy Almighty state,  
That hold'st the thread, and rul'st the sword of fate.  
Then you that exercise the virgin Court  
Of peaceful Thespya, my muse consort,  
Making her drunkes with 
16 Pegasus is called 〈◊〉 since Po●ts feign, that when Pers●●● smote of Medusa's head, 〈◊〉 ●●ew from the wound: & therefore the Muse's 〈◊〉 wh●●h he made with his hoof, is called G●rg●●●.  Gorgonean Dews,  
And therewith, all your Ecstasies infuse,  
That she may reach the topless starry brows  
Of steep Olympus, crowned with freshest bows  
Of Daphnean Laurel, and the praises sing  
Of mighty Cynthia: truly figuring,  
(As she is Hecate) her sovereign kind,  
And in her force, the forces of the mind:  
An argument to ravish and refine  
An earthly soul, and make it ●eere divine.  
Sing then withal, her Palace brightness bright,  
The dasle-sunne perfections of her light,  
Circling her face with glories, sing the walks,  
Where in her heavenly Magic mood she stalks.  
Her arbours, thickets, and her wondrous game,  
(A huntesse, being never matched in fame)  
Presume not then ye flesh confounded souls,  
That cannot bear the full Castalian bowls,  
Which sever mounting spirits from the senses,  
To look in this deep fount for thy pretences:  
The juice more clear than day, yet shadows night,  
Where humour challengeth no drop of right:  
But judgement shall display, to purest eyes  
With ease, the bowels of these mysteries.  
Se● then this Planet of our lines descended  
To rich 
17 Ortigia is the country where she was brought up.  Ortigia, gloriously attended,  
Not with her fifty Ocean Nymphs: nor yet  
Her twenty foresters: but doth beget  
By powerful charms, delight some servitors  
Of flowers, and shadows, mists, and meteors:  
Her rare Elysian Palace she did build  
With studied wishes, which sweet hope did gild  
With sunny foil, that lasted but a day:  
For night must needs, importune her away.  
The shapes of every wholesome flower and tree  
She gave those types of her felicity.  
And Form herself, she mightily conjured  
Their priselesse values, might not be obscured,  
With disposition base than divine,  
But make that blissful court of hers to shine  
With all accomplishment of Architect,  
That not the eye of Phoebus ●●●ld detect.  
Form then, twixt two superior pillars framed  
This tender building, Pax Imperij named,  
Which cast a shadow, like a Pyramid  
Whose basis, in the plain or back part is  
Of that quaint work: the top so high extended,  
That it the region of the Moon transcended:  
Without, within it, every corner filled  
By beauteous form, as her great mistress wild.  

18 These are the verses of 〈◊〉 before.  Here as she sits, the thunder-loving jove  
In honours past all others shows his love,  
Proclaiming her in complete Empery,  
Of what soever the Olympic sky  
With tender circumuecture doth embrace  
The chiefest Planet, that doth heaven enchase:  
Dear Goddess, prompt, benign, and bounteous,  
That hears all prayers, from the least of us  
Large riches gives, since she is largely given,  
And all that spring from seed of earth and heaven  
She doth command: and rules the fates of all,  
Old Hesiod sings her thus celestial:  
And now to take the pleasures of the day,  
Because her night star soon will call away,  
She frames of matter intimate before,  
(●o wit, a bright, and dazzling meteor)  
A goodly Nymph, whose beauty, beauty stains  
Heavens with her jewels; gives all the rains  
Of wished pleasance; frames her golden wings,  
But them she binds up close with purple strings,  
Because she now will have her run alone,  
And bid the base, to all affection.  
And Euthimya is her sacred name,  
Since she the cares and toils of earth must tame:  
Then strait the flowers, the shadows a●d the mists,  
(Fit matter for most pliant humorists)  
She hunters makes: and of that substance hounds  
Whose mouths deaf heaven, & furrow earth with wounds,  
And marvel not a Nymph so rich in grace  
To hounds rude pursuits should be given in chase:  
For she could turn herself to every shape  
Of swiftest beasts, and at her pleasure scape,  
Wealth fauns on fools; virtues are meat for vices,  
Wisdom conforms herself to all earth's guises,  
Good gifts are often given to men past good,  
And Noblesse stoops sometimes beneath his blood.  
The hounds that she created, vast, and fleet  
Were grim Melampus, with th'Ethiops feet,  
White Leucon, all eating Pamphagus,  
Sharp-sighted Dorceus, wild Oribasus  
Storme-breathing Lelaps, and the savage thereon,  
Wingd-footed Pterelas, and Hinde-like Ladon,  
Greedy Harpyia, and the painted Styct●,  
Fierce Trigis, and the thicket-searcher Agree,  
The black Melaneus, and the bristled Lachne,  
Lean lustful Cyprius and big chested Aloe.  
These and such other now the forest ranged,  
And Euthimya to a Panther changed,  
Holds them sweet chase; their mouths they freely speed,  
As if the earth in sunder they would rend.  
Which change of Music liked the Goddess so,  
That she before her foremost Nymph would go,  
And not a huntsman there was eagrer seen  
In that sports love, (yet all were wondrous keen)  
Then was their swift, and windie-footed queen.  
But now this spotted game did thicke● take,  
Where not a hound could hungered passage make:  
Such proof the couret was, all armed in thorn,  
With which in their attempts, the dogs were torn,  
And fell to howling in their happiness:  
As when a flock of school boys, whom their mistress  
(Held closely to their books) gets leave to sport,  
And then like toyle-freed dear, in headlong sort  
With shouts, and shrieks, they hurry from the school.  
Some strew the woods, some swim the silver pool:  
All as they list to several pastimes fall,  
To feed their famished wantonness with all.  
When straight, within the woods some wolf or bear,  
The heedless limbs of one doth piecemeal tear,  
Affrighteth other, sends some bleeding back,  
And some in greedy whirl pits suffer wrack.  
So did the bristled covert check with wounds  
The lickerous haste of these game greedy hounds.  
In this vast thicket, (whose descriptions task  
The pens of furies, and of fiends would ask:  
So more than human thoughted horrible)  
The souls of such as lived implausible,  
In happy Empire of this Goddess glories,  
And scorned to crown her Phanes with sacrifice  
Did ceaseless walk; exspiring fearful groans,  
Curses, and threats for their confusions.  
Her darts, and arrows, some of them had slain,  
Others her dogs eat, painting her disdain,  
After she had transformed them into beasts:  
Others her monsters carried to their nests,  
Rend them in pieces, and their spirits sent  
To this blind shade, to wail their banishment.  
The huntsmen hearing (since they could not hear)  
Their hounds at fault; in eager chase drew near,  
Mounted on Lions, unicorns, and Boars,  
And saw their hounds lie licking of their sores,  
Some yearning at the shroud, as if they chid  
Her stinging tongues, that did their chase forbid:  
By which they knew the game was that way gone.  
Then each man forced the beast he road upon,  
T'assault the thicket; whose repulsive thorns  
So galled the Lions, Boars and unicorns,  
Dragons, and wolves; that half their courages  
Were spent in rores, and sounds of heaviness:  
Yet being the Princeliest, and hardiest beasts,  
That gave chief fame to those Ortygian forests,  
And all their riders furious of their sport,  
A fresh assault they gave, in desperate sort:  
And with their falchions made their ways in wounds:  
The thicket opened, and let in the hounds.  
But from her bosom cast prodigious cries,  
Wrapped in her Stygian fumes of miseries:  
Which yet the breaths of those courageous steads  
Did still drink up, and cleared their venturous heads:  
As when the fiery coursers of the sun,  
Up to the palace of the morning run,  
And from their nostrils blow the spiteful day:  
So yet those foggy vapours, made them way.  
But pressing further, saw such cursed sights,  
Such Aetna's filled with strange tormented spirits,  
That now the vaprous object of the eye  
Out-pierst the intellect in faculty.  
Baseness vas Nobler than Nobility:  
For ruth (first shaken from the brain of Lo●e,  
And love the soul of virtue) now did move,  
Not in their souls (spheres mean enough for such)  
But in their eyes: and thence did conscience touch  
Their hearts with pity: where her proper throne,  
Is in the mind, and there should first have shone:  
Eyes should guide bodies and our souls our eyes,  
But now the world consists on contraries:  
So sense brought terror, where the minds presight  
Had sa●t that fear, and done but pity right,  
But servile fear, now forged a wood of darts  
Within their eyes, and cast them through their hearts:  
Then turned they bridle, then half slain with fear,  
Each did the other backwards overbear,  
As when th'Italian Duke, a troop of horse  
Sent out in haste against some English force,  
From stately sited sconce-torne Nimigan,  
Under whose walls the 
19 The Wall is ● most excellent river, in the Low countries parting with another river, called the Ma●e, near a town in Holland, called Gurckham, and runs up to Guelderland under the walls of Nimigen. And these like S●●iles, in my opinion drawn from the honourable deeds of our noble countrymen, clad in comely habit of Poesy, would become a Poem as well as further-fetcht grounds, if such as be Poets now a days would use them.  wall most Cynthian,  
Stretcheth her silver limbs loaded with wealth,  
Hearing our horse were marching down by stealth.  
(Who looking for them) wars quick Artisan  
Fame-thriving Vere, that in those Countries won  
More fame than guerdon; ambus●ados laid  
Of certain foot, and made full well appaide  
The hopeful enemy, in sending those  
The lo●g-expected subjects of their blows  
To move their charge; which straight they give amain,  
When we retiring to our strength again,  
The foe pursewes assured of our lives,  
And us within our ambuscado drives,  
Who strait with thunder of the drums and shot,  
Tempest their wraths on them that witted it not.  
Then (turning headlong) some escaped us so,  
Some left to ransom, some to overthrow,  
In such confusion did this troop retire,  
And thought them cursed in that games desire:  
Out flew the hounds, that there could nothing find,  
Of the sly Panther, that did beard the wind,  
Running into it full, to clog the chase,  
And tyre her followers with too much solace.  
And but the superficies of the shade,  
Did only sprinkle with the sent she made,  
As when the sun beams on high billows fall,  
And make their shadows dance upon a wall,  
That is the subject of his fair reflectings: 
Sim●le ad ●andem explicat.   
Or else; as when a man in summer evenings,  
Something before sunneset, when shadows be  
Racked with his stooping, to the highest degree,  
His shadow climbs the trees, and scales a hill,  
While he goes on the beaten passage still,  
So slightly touched the Panther with her scent,  
This irksome covert, and away she went,  
Down to a fruitful Island sited by,  
Full of all wealth, delight, and Empery,  
Ever with child of curious Architect,  
Yet still delivered: pa●'d with Dames select,  
On whom rich feet, in foulest boots might tread,  
And never fowl them: for kind Cupid spread●,  
Such perfect colours, on their pleasing faces,  
That their reflects clad foulest weeds with graces,  
Beauty strikes fancy blind; pied show deceau's us,  
Sweet banquets tempt our healths, when temper leaves us  
Inchastity, is ever prostitute,  
Whose trees we loath, when we have plucked their fruit.  
Hither this Panther fled, now turned a Boar  
More huge than that th' Aetolians plagued so sore,  
And led the chase through noblest mansions,  
Gardens and groves, exempt from Parragons,  
In all things ruinous, and slaughter some,  
As was that scourge to the Aetolian kingdom:  
After as if a whirlwind drove them one,  
Full cry, and close, as if they all were one  
The hounds pursue, and fright the earth with sound,  
Making her tremble▪, as when winds are bound  
In her cold bosom, fight for event:  
With whose fierce Ague all the world is rend.  
But days arm (tired to hold her torch to them)  
Now let it fall within the Ocean stream,  
The Goddess blue retreat, and with her blast,  
Her morn's creation did like vapours waste:  
The winds made wing, into the upper light,  
And blew abroad the sparkles of the night.  
Then ●swift as thought) the bright Titanides  
Guide and great sovereign of the marble seas,  
With milk-white Herffers, mounts into her Sphere,  
And leaves us miserable creatures here,  
Thus nights, fair days: thus griefs do joys supplant:  
Thus glories graven in steel and Adamant  
Never supposed to waste, but grow by wasting,  
(Like snow in rivers fallen) consume by lasting.  
O than thou great 
20 The Philosopher's stone, or Philosophica Medicina is called the great Elixir to which he here alludes.  Elixir of all treasures,  
From whom we multiply our world of pleasures,  
Dis●end again, ah never leave the earth,  
But 
21 This of our birth, is explained before.  as thy plenteous humours gave us birth,  
So let them drown the world in night, and death  
Before this air, leave breaking with thy breath.  
Come Goddess come, 
22 
The double-fathered son is Orion, so called since he was the sun of jove and Apollo, borne of their ●eede enclosed in a Bulls hide, which abhorreth not from Philosophy (according to Poet's intentions) that one son should have two fathers▪ for in the generation of elements it is true, since omnia sint in omnibus. He offering violence, was stung of a Scorpion to death, for which: the Scorpion's figure was made a sign in heaven, as Nicander in Theriacis affirms. 
Grandine signatum Titanis at inde p●ella,  
Scorpion immisit qui cuspide surgat acuta:  
B●oto ut meditata n●cem fuit Orioni,  
Impuris ausus manibus q●ia prendere peplum:  
Ille D●● est▪ 〈◊〉 percussit Scorpi●s illi,  
Sub parvo lap●●e occul●●● vestigia propter.    the double fathered son,  
Shall dare no more amongst thy train to run,  
Nor with polluted hands to touch thy vail:  
His death was darted from the Scorpion's tail,  
For which her form to endless memory,  
With other lamps, doth lend the heavens an eye,  
And he that showed such great presumption,  
Is hidden now, beneath a little sto●e.  
If proud 
23 Alpheus' taken with the love of Cynthia▪ not answered with many repuls●● pursued her to her company of virgins, who mocking him, cast mire in his face, and drove him away. Some affirm him to be a flood, some the son of Parthenia, some the waggoner of Pelops, etc.  Alpheus offer force again,  
Because he could not once thy love obtain,  
Thou and thy Nymphs shall stop his mouth with mire,  
And mock the fondling, for his mad aspire.  
Thy glorious temple 
24 Lucifera is her title▪ and Ignif●ra: given by Euripides, in Iphige●d in Ta●ris.  (great Lucifera)  
That was the study of all Asia,  
Two hundred twenty summers to erect,  
Built by Chersiphrone thy Architect,  
In which two hundred, twenty columns stood,  
Built by two hundred twenty kings of blood,  
Of curious beauty, and admired height,  
Pictures and statues, of as praysefull sleight,  
Convenient for so chaste a Goddess fane,  
(Burnt by Herostratus) shall now again,  
Be reexstruct, and this Ephesia be  
Thy country's happy name, come here with thee,  
As it was there so shall it now be framed,  
And thy fair virgine-chamber ever named:  
And as in reconstruction of it there,  
There Ladies did no more their jewels wear,  
But frankly contribute them all to raise,  
A work of such a chaste Religious praise:  
So will our Ladies; for in them it lies,  
To spare so much as would that work suffice:  
Our Dames well set their jewels in their minds,  
Insight illustrates; outward bravery blinds,  
The mind hath in herself a Deity,  
And in the stretching circle of her eye  
All things are compassed, all things present still,  
Will framed to power, doth make us what we will,  
But keep your jewels, make ye braver yet,  
Elysian Ladies; and (in riches set,  
Upon your foreheads), let us see your hearts:  
Build Cynthia's Temple in your virtuous parts,  
Let every jewel be a virtues glass:  
And no Herostratus shall ever race,  
Those holy monuments: but pillars stand,  
Where every Grace, and Muse shall hang her garland.  
The mind in that we like, rules every lim●e,  
Gives hands to bodies, makes them make them trim:  
Why then in that the body doth dislike,  
Should not 
25 T●e beauty of the 〈◊〉 being signified in Ganemede, h● here by Pros●p●p●ia, gi●●s a man's shape unto it.  his sword as great a vennie strike?  
The bit, and spur that Monarch ruleth still,  
To further good things, and to curb the ill,  
He is the Ganemede, the bird of jove,  
Rapt to her sovereigns' bosom for his love,  
His beauty was it, not the body's pride,  
That made him great Aquarius stellified:  
And that mind most is beautiful and high,  
And nearest comes to a Divinity,  
That furthest is from spot of earth's delight,  
Pleasures that lose their substance with their sight,  
Such one, Saturnius ravisheth to love,  
And fills the cup of all content to jove.  
If wisdom be the minds true beauty then,  
And that such beauty shines in virtuous men,  
If those sweet Ganemedes shall only find,  
Love of Olympus, are those wizards wise,  
That nought but gold, and his dyiections prise●  
This beauty hath a fire vp●● her brow,  
That dims the Sun of base desires in y●●,  
And as the cloudy bosom of the tree,  
Whose branches will not let the s●●mer see,  
His solemn shadows; but do entertain,  
Eternal winter: so thy sacred train,  
Thrice mighty Cy●thia should be frozen dead,  
To all the lawless flames of Cupid's Godhead,  
To this end let thy beams divinities,  
For ever shine upon their sparkling eyes,  
And be as quench to those pestiferent fires,  
That through their eyes, empoison their desires,  
Thou never yet wouldst stoop to base assault,  
Therefore those poets did most highly fault,  
That feigned thee 
26 Pausamas in Eliacis, affirms it: others that she had but three, viz. P●●n, which Homer calls the God's Physician, Epeus, and Aetolus, etc. Cicero saith she had none, but only for his love to the study of Astrology, gave him chaste kisses.  fifty children by 〈◊〉  
And they that writ thou hadst but three alone,  
Thou never any hadst, but didst affect,  
Endymion for his studious intellect.  
Thy soule-chast kisses were for virtues sake,  
And since his eyes were evermore awake,  
To search for knowledge of thy excellence,  
And all Astrology: no negligence,  
Or female softness feed his learned trance,  
Nor was thy vail once touched with dalliance,  
Wise poets feign thy Godhead properly,  
The thresholds of men's doors did fortify,  
And therefore built they thankful altars there,  
Serving thy power, in most religious fear.  
Dear precedent for us to imitate,  
Whose doors thou guardst against Imperious fate,  
Keeping our peaceful households safe from sack,  
And freest our ships, when others suffer wrack.  

27 Her temple in Ephesus was called her virgin chamber.  Thy virgin chamber then that sacred is,  
No more let hold, an idle Salmacis,  
Nor let more sleights, Cydippe injury:  
Nor let black jove possessed in Sicily,  
Ravish more maids, but maids subdue his might,  
With well-steeld lances of thy watchful sight.  

28 All these are proper to her as she is Hecate.  Then in thy clear, and Icy Pentacle,  
Now execute a Magic miracle:  
Slip every sort of poisoned herbs, and plants,  
And bring thy rabid mastiffs to these haunts.  
Look with thy fierce aspect, be terror-strong;  
Assume thy wondrous shape of half a furlong:  
Put on thy feet of Serpents, viperous hairs,  
And act the fearefulst part of thy affairs:  
Convert the violent courses of thy floods,  
Remove whole fields of corn, and hugest woods,  
Cast hills into the sea, and make the stars,  
Drop out of heaven, and lose thy Mariners.  
So shall the wonders of thy power be seen,  
And thou for ever live the Planets Queen.  
Explicit Hymnus.  
Omnis ut umbra.   

Gloss.  
1 HE gives her that Periphrasis, viz. Nature's bright eye sight, because that by her store of humours, issue is given to all birth: and thereof is she called Lucina, and Ilythyia, quia praeest parturientibus cum invocaretur, and gives them help: which Orpheus in a Hymn of her praise expresseth, and calls her besides Prothyrea, ut sequitur. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. 
Audi m● veneranda Dea, cui nomina multa:  
Prag●antum adi●●rix, patientum dulce 〈◊〉  
Sola puellarum sernatrix▪ solaque prudens:  
Auxilium velox te●●ris Prothyrea puelli●●.  And a little after, he shows her plainly to be Diana, Ilythyia, and Prothyrea, in these verses: 
Solam anim● requiem te clamant par●● rusts.  
Sola potes dir●● partus placare labores  
Diana, Ilythyia gravis, sumus & Prothyrea.   
2 He calls her the soul of the Night, since she is the purest part of her according to common conceit.  
3 Orpheus in these verses, in Argonauticis saith she is three headed, as she is Hecate, Luna, and Diana, ut sequitur. 
Cumque illis Hecate, properans horre●da cucurrit,  
Cui trinum caput est, ge●●is quam Tartarus olim.   
The rest above will not be denied.  
4 That she is called the power of fate, read Hesiodus in Theogonia when he gives her more than this commendation▪ in these verses: 
jupiter ingentes illi largitur honores,  
Muneraque imperium terr●que marisque profundi:  
Cunctoru●que simul, quae coelum amplectitur altum,  
Admittitque preces facilis Dea, pro●pta, benigna:  
Divitias pr●bet, quid ei concessa potest●●,  
Imperat haec cunctis, qui sunt è ●emi●e nati:  
Et terrae & Coeli, cunctorum fata gube●●●t.   
5 In Latmos she is supposed to sleep with Endymion, ut Catullus. 
Vt tr●●iam furtim sub L●●mia saxa ●elegans,  
Dulcis amor Gyro de●oce● A●ri●.   
6 Homer with a marvelous Poetical sweetness, saith she washes her before she apparels herself in th'atlantic sea. And then shows her apparel, as in th●se verses. In Ocean● Lavacri. 
Rursus Atlant●is, in lymphis membra lavata,  
Vestibus indut●●, & ●●●idis Dea Luna micantes:  
Curru iunxit equos celeres, quibus ardua colla.   
7 Cithaeron, as Menander saith was a most fair boy, and beloved of Tisiphone, who since she could not obtain his love, she tears from her head a Serpent, & threw it at him, which stinging him to death, the Gods in pity turned him to a hill of that name, first called A●t●rius, full of woods wherein all Poets have affirmed wild beasts live, and use it often to express their haunts, or store of woods, whereupon he invokes Cynthia, to rise in such brightness, as if it were all on fire.  
8 This is expounded as followeth by Gyraldus Lil●●s. The application most 〈◊〉 made by this author.  
9 Harp should be written thus, not with a y, yet here he useth it, lest some, not knowing what it means, read it for a Harp, having found this grossness in some scholars. It was the sword Perseus used to cut of Medusa's head.  
10 Fortune is called Tyc●●, 〈◊〉 witnesseth Pausanias in Messeniacis, who affirms her to b● one of the daughters likewise of Ocea●●●, which was playing with Pr●serpine, when Dis ravished her. 
una omnes vario per prata co●●ntia ●●ore,  
Candida L●ucipp●, Physic, El●ctraque●ant ●e.   
Melobosisque Tych●, Ocyrh●e pr●●gnis oc●llis. And Orpheus in a Hymn to Fortuna, saith she is the daughter of blood, ut in his, sanguine prognathi, Vi & inexpugnabile numen.  
11 Plutarch writes thus of the Romans, and Macedons, in Paulus Ae●ilius.  
12 These ar● commonly known to be the properties of Cynthia.  
13 This Zone is said to be the girdle of Cynthia. And thereof when maids lost their maidenheads, amongst the Athenians, they used to p●t of their girdles. And ●●ter, customs made it a phrase 〈…〉, to lose their maidenheades, ut Apol●. lib. 1. 
〈…〉   
14 These are the verses of 〈◊〉 translated to effect. O miseri, quibble ipsa 〈…〉 etc.  
15 This Strabo testifieth 〈…〉  
16 Pegasus is called 〈◊〉 since Po●ts feign, that when Pers●●● smote of Medusa's head, 〈◊〉 ●●ew from the wound: & therefore the Muse's 〈◊〉 wh●●h he made with his hoof, is called G●rg●●●.  
17 Ortigia is the country where she was brought up.  
18 These are the verses of 〈◊〉 before.  
19 The Wall is ● most excellent river, in the Low countries parting with another river, called the Ma●e, near a town in Holland, called Gurckham, and runs up to Guelderland under the walls of Nimigen. And these like S●●iles, in my opinion drawn from the honourable deeds of our noble countrymen, clad in comely habit of Poesy, would become a Poem as well as further-fetcht grounds, if such as be Poets now a days would use them.  
20 The Philosopher's stone, or Philosophica Medicina is called the great Elixir to which he here alludes.  
21 This of our birth, is explained before.  
22 The double-fathered son is Orion, so called since he was the sun of jove and Apollo, borne of their ●eede enclosed in a Bulls hide, which abhorreth not from Philosophy (according to Poet's intentions) that one son should have two fathers▪ for in the generation of elements it is true, since omnia sint in omnibus. He offering violence, was stung of a Scorpion to death, for which: the Scorpion's figure was made a sign in heaven, as Nicander in Theriacis affirms. 
Grandine signatum Titanis at inde p●ella,  
Scorpion immisit qui cuspide surgat acuta:  
B●oto ut meditata n●cem fuit Orioni,  
Impuris ausus manibus q●ia prendere peplum:  
Ille D●● est▪ 〈◊〉 percussit Scorpi●s illi,  
Sub parvo lap●●e occul●●● vestigia propter.   
23 Alpheus taken with the love of Cynthia▪ not answered with many repuls●● pursued her to her company of virgins, who mocking him, cast mire in his face, and drove him away. Some affirm him to be a flood, some the son of Parthenia, some the waggoner of Pelops, etc.  
24 Lucifera is her title▪ and Ignif●ra: given by Euripides, in Iphige●d in Ta●ris.  
25 T●e beauty of the 〈◊〉 being signified in Ganemede, h● here by Pros●p●p●ia, gi●●s a man's shape unto it.  
26 Pausamas in Eliacis, affirms it: others that she had but three, viz. P●●n, which Homer calls the God's Physician, Epeus, and Aetolus, etc. Cicero saith she had none, but only for his love to the study of Astrology, gave him chaste kisses.  
27 Her temple in Ephesus was called her virgin chamber.  
28 All these are proper to her as she is Hecate.  
Explicit Coment.  
FINIS.