Humours Heaven on Earth; With The Civil Wars of Death and Fortune.  
As also The Triumph of Death: Or, The Picture of the Plague, according to the Life; as it was in Anno Domini. 1603.  
By john Davies of Hereford.  
O! 'tis a sacred kind of Excellence,  
That hides a rich truth in a Tales pretence!  
Printed at London by A. I. 1609.   

  

¶ To the right Noble, Algernon, Lord Percy, son and heir apparent to the right Honourable Henry Earl of Northumberland.  

THrice Noble, and more hopeful Pupil I  
(Who learns thy Hand to show thy Heart's conceits  
Would make thy heart, before it Vice doth try,  
To know her Lures, to shun her sly deceits.  
But, in the Prime but of thy Pupillage  
Before the joints of judgement can be knit,  
(Although for Wit thou may'st be wisdoms Page)  
Vice throws her Lures above thy reach of Wit.  
But yet when Time shall thoroughly close thy Mould,  
Wherein all rare Conceits still cast shall be,  
Then shalt thou (with clear eyes) dark lines behold,  
That lead thee to all knowledge fit for thee.  
And, sith that Childhood more in Tales delights  
Then saddest Truths; I'll tell thee merry Tales,  
Of Lords and Ladies, with their merry Knights,  
Their merry Blisses, and their sorry Bales.  
The outside of these Tales are painted o'er  
With colours rich, to please thine eager sense;  
But, lined with naked Truth (yet richly poor)  
More fit for thy more rich Intelligence.  
When thou canst crack this Nut, within the Shell  
Thou shalt a Kernel find will please thy Taste;  
The palate of thy Wit will like it well,  
When thou shalt swallow it, for joy, in haste.  
Then make this Nut a whirligig the while,  
To make thee merry (if thou canst be so)  
To see the turning of our Sports to toil,  
Wherein observe how pleasures come and go:  
For, as a whirligig doth turn so fast,  
That sharpest sights the fruit do scarce perceive:  
So can no palate fruits of Pleasure taste  
When they are come, so soon they take their leave!  
Read● little Lord, this Riddle learn to reed;  
So, first appose; then, tell it to thy Pecres:  
So shall they hold thee (both in Name and Deed)  
A perfect Pierc-ey that in darkness clears.  
A Pierc-ey, or a piercing Eye doth sh●w  
Both Wit and Courage; and, if thou wilt learn  
By moral Tales sins mortal to eschew,  
Thou shalt be wise, and endless glory earn:  
That so thou may'st, the meanest Tutors praise;  
So, Percies fame shall pierce the Eye of Days:   

Then, by those Rays my Pen (inflamed) shall runn●  
Beyond the Moon, to make thy Moon a Sun!   
Mean while, and ever, I rest priest to honour thee with my poor uttermost, john Davies.   

To the good Knight, and my much honoured Scholar, Sir Philip Carey.  

Sigh Death (dear Sir) hath lately been so fell,  
To reave that life, than dear life dearer far;  
This record of his greater rage may quell  
The less (perhaps) in your particular.  
feign would I (if I could) beguile your grief,  
With telling you of others heavy harms:  
But (ah) such guile gives Grief too true relief,  
In your true human heart, that Pity warms.  
Life is a Plague: for, who doth live, must die;  
Yet some that have the Plague, do scape alive,  
So life more mortal than Mortality:  
Then sith that life (like death) doth life deprive,  
You may rejoice, sith your Adolphus lived,  
True virtues life, which cannot be deprived.   

Vivat post funera virtus.   
As much grieved for your loss, as glad any way to show his love. john Davies.   

To the right worshipful my dear Scholar Sir Humphrey Baskervile of Earsley, Knight: And the no less lovely than virtuous Lady his Wife.  
Sigh I am Lecturing my noblest Scholars,  
(You being two) this Lecture deign to read;  
For though it treats of nought but death & collars,  
Yet it with pleasure may your passion feed:  
For, plagues to see (unplagued) doth Nature please,  
Although good nature (gladly) grieves thereat;  
As we are well-ill pleased to see at Seas  
The woefull'st wrack, while we are safe from that.  
In health to tell what sickness we have passed,  
Makes us more sound; for, Gladness health defends:  
O than your eyes on this Plagues-Picture cast  
To glad and grieve you for glad-grievous ends.  
But my sole End by this poor Mean to ye,  
Is but to tie your Ears, and Hearts to me,  
john Davies.   

To my dear, meek, modest, and entirely beloved Mistress Elizabeth Dutton, Mistress Mary, and Mistress Vere Egerton, three Sisters of hopeful destinies, be all Grace and good Fortune.  
Sigh on my worthiest Scholars I do muse,  
How should my Muse to mind you once neglect,  
Sith you are such? Then, such she should abuse,  
Should she not use you with all dear respect.  
Thou virgin Widow (eldest of the Three)  
(That hold'st thy widow's state, of Death in chief)  
Death in thy youth (being fast) hath made thee free;  
Free from thy joy, & fastened thee to Grief.  
But he that is the Lord of lordly Death,  
Reserves thine honoured Sires most honoured Sire  
From Death's despite; & while he draweth breath,  
Thou (lowly Soul) art likely to aspire.  
Thy Sisters (like in Nature, as in Name,  
And both in Name and Nature nought but good)  
(Beloved Pupils) well may hope the same,  
Sith of like grace there is like likelihood.  
Yet in the height of Earth's felicity,  
A meek regard unto this Picture give,  
To mind you so of life's mortality,  
So shall you live to die, and die to live.  
Mean while I hope, through your clear Stars to spy  
A Trinity of Ladies ere I die.  
He which (for the exercise of your high humility) you please to call Master john Davies.   

To my worthy, and worthily beloved Scholar, Thomas Bodenham Esquire, son and heir apparent of Sir Roger Bodenham of Rotherwas, Knight of the bath.  
ANd, if among them that are dear to me,  
(Remembered by my Pen, my Muse's Tongue,)  
I should forget to show my love to thee,  
Myself, but much more thee, I so should wrong.  
Nay, wrong the right which I to thee do owe:  
But never shall my love so guileful prove,  
As not to pay thee so deserved a due;  
For, I confess thou well deservest my love.  
Thou wert my Scholar; and if I should teach  
So good a Pupil such a Lesson ill  
(By mine example) I might so impeach  
Mine honest fame, and quite disgrace my skill:  
But when I learn thee such detested Lore,  
Then loath my love, and learn of me no more.  
Yours, as what's most yours, john Davies.   

The last Book (being a Picture according to the Life) dedicated To the no less high in Birth, then honourable in Disposition (right noble in either) the Lady Dorothy, and Lady Lucy Percies.  
GReat-little Ladies, greatly might you blame  
My little care of doing as I ought,  
Should I neglect to set your noble Name,  
First of those Principals whose hands I taught.  
Yet, the more high your Birth and Places are,  
The more ye ought to mind the blast of Breath:  
As Philip's Page did show his Master's care,  
When most he flourished, most to think on death!  
Then, with most bliss, when you transported be,  
Look on this Picture; so, perceive ye shall,  
We fall, like Leaves, in Autumn from the Tree,  
When Heaven puffs at Excess in general:  
But from all woes excess I wish ye may  
(Through Heaven on Earth) to heaven the easiest way!  
Your ladyships unworthy Tutor, john Davies.   

To my beloved Master, john Davies.  
When I thy Reasons weigh, & meat thy Rhymes,  
I find they have such happy weight and measure,  
As makes thy Lines extend to Aftertimes,  
To lead them to a Mass of wisdoms Treasure.  
With weighty Matter so thou loadest thy Lines,  
As to dim sights they oft seem dark as Hell;  
But those clear eyes that see their deep designs,  
Do joy to see much Matter couched so well!  
But these thy Numbers most familiar be;  
Because strange Matter plainly they recount:  
For which Men shall familiar be with thee  
That know thee not; and, make thy fame to mount.  
I know no Tongues-man more doth grace his Tongue  
With more material Lines, as straight as strong!  
Ed: Sharphell.   

To mine entirely beloved, Master john Davies of Hereford.  
IN all thy Writings thou hast such a Vain,  
As but thyself thy self canst counterfeit;  
Which, lying far beyond the vulgar strain,  
Is harder well to open, then to get.  
Few idle words thou hast to answer for  
In all thy works; but, thou dost merit much  
(Nay supererogate) who dost abhor  
Superfluous words, though thine be over-rich!  
Both Words and Matter do so well agree,  
To glorify themselves in either kind,  
That we must needs renown both them, and thee,  
Who nearly sought (for us) the same to find:  
Thy Numbers flow from such a Minds excess  
As all seem Raptures, in all happiness!  
Ro: Cox.   

To the Reader in praise of the Author.  

IN every Tale which scarffed Truth contains,  
We must that Truth unmask to see her face:  
Else see we but the half the Tale retains;  
Then such (how e'er well told) lose half their grace.   

But these are Tales, which (though their truth be masked)  
Tickle the itching'st Ears with witching Touches;  
And so such Ears to listen still are tasked,  
By subtle clawing, that such Ears bewitches.   

Canst thou but Riddles read, and not aread?  
These Riddles high (well read) stoop to thy reason:  
That though they fat not Wit, yet Will they feed  
With Wits pure Salt, that Wits fresh-Sweetes doth season:  
The Fiction is for gladdest Will as fit,  
As is the Moral for the saddest Wit.   
Anth: Greys.   

Humours Heaven on Earth.  

1  
Upon a time (thus old wives Tales begin,  
Then listen Lordings to an old wife's Tale)  
There were three men, that were, & were not kin, 
* kin, as they were of the seven deadly sins, no kin as they were different sins.   
(Reed me this Riddle) at the Wine or Ale,  
Did strive who most should grace the dearest Sin,  
For which the daintiest Souls are set to sale:  
For Souls that are most delicate for Sense,  
'Gainst stings of honeyed sins have least defence.   

2  
The first (for first I'll tell you either's name  
To show their natures) hight 
* The Glutton.  Poliphagus:  
A greasy guts, of most unwieldy frame;  
The second named was 
* The Lecher.  Epithymus:  
Light as a feather, apt to lightest game:  
The third and last, hight 
* ●he proud, vain, and ambitious man.  Hyselophronus;  
That still looked on himself, as if he saw  
That which the Gods did love, and Men did awe.   

3  
Nor is it utterly impertinent  
Unto the matter subject, to describe  
The Weeds they ware, which were as different,  
As was their Names, their Natures, & their Tribe;  
The Habit showeth how the heart is bend:  
For, still the Heart the Habit doth prescribe:  
And no external signs can more bewray  
The inwardest Affects then garments may.   

4  
Poliphagus a Suit of Satin ware,  

A description of the Gluttons habit.  Made wide and side; and yet his sides did swell,  
So that his Truss did coverscarse the bare,  
And so his paunch (an homely Tale to tell)  
Was filled with filth, that every stitch did stare  
Of that which cased it; and of grease did smell:  
Which so re-glosst the Satins gloss, that it  
Was varnished like their veils that turn the Spit.   

5  
His Buttons and the Holes, that held them fast,  
His brestmade still to strive which best could hold  
But yet that breast made one another braced,  
And so itself did swell as burst it would;  
Who was some two else compass in the waste,  
And had not seen his knees since two days old:  
No Points he used; whose bum and Belly burst,  
Held up his Slops, as straight as they were trusst.   

6  
A pair of buttoned Buskins cased his Legs,  
Which were all Calf from Hams unto the Heel;  
And after him (like clogs) the same he dregs:  
His Shoes were lined, that he no cold might feele●  
The Soles whereof thick Cork asunder gegs,  
Made broad (without Indents) lest he might reel:  
And over all, he ware a slabberd Gown,  
Which cloaked his Buttocks hugely overgrown!   

7  
Thus have we cased the Sloven, save the Head;  
And wittingly we do the same forbear;  
Because his Shoulders stood in his Heads stead,  
Which hardly did above their pitch appear:  
The lump of flesh was all so overfed,  
As he no man, but some Behemoth were:  
For they whose joy is all in drink and meat,  
Though mean they be, they needs must be too great   

8  
Epithymus (the wanton) on his Crown, 
A description of the Wantoness Apparel.   
A Crown of Roses ware lasciviously;  
A falling Band of Cutwork (richly sown)  
Did his broad Shoulders quite ore-canopy:  
A waistcoat wrought with flowers (as they had grown)  
In coloured silk, lay open to the eye:  
And, as his Bosom was unbuttoned quite,  
So were his Points, untrusst for ends too light!   

9  
His Doublet was Carnation, cut with green  
Rich Taffetas, quite through in ample Cuts;  
That so his Waistcoat might, each where be seen,  
When lusty Dames should eye this lusty Guts:  
And many Favours hung the Cuts between,  
And many more, more light, in them he shuts!  
So that a vacant place was hardly found  
About this Fancy, so well-favoured round.   

10  
His Hose was French, and did his doublet suit,  
For Stuffe and Colour; to which sowed there were  
Silk-stockings, which sat straight his thighs about,  
To make his leg and thigh more acquaint appear:  
Their colour was, as was the upper Suit,  
Save that the quirks with gold and gaudy gear  
Were so embosst, that as the Gallant goes,  
The gloss did light his feet to save his toes.   

11  
His Shoes were like to Sandals, for they were  
So carved above with many a curious Cut,  
That through the same the stocking did appear,  
And in the Lachets were such Ribbons put,  
As shadowed all the foot from Sun well near,  
Though, in Rose-forme, the ribbon up was shut:  
And to make up aright this Woman-Man,  
He at his face still fenced with a fan.   

12  
But Hyselophronus unlike to him, 
The Prowd-ambitious man's apparel described.   
Was richly clad, but much more grave it was;  
For, he could not endure such colours trim,  
Yet used trim colours to bring drifts to pass:  
A Back too bright, doth argue Brains too dim:  
For, no such Ass as is the golden Ass:  
But he that State to catch, doth know the knack,  
Hides all his haughty thoughts in humble black.   

13  
His Hat was Beaver of a middle size,  
The Band, silke-Sipers fourfold wreathed about:  
A shallow Cambric Ruff, with Sets precise,  
Closed with a buttoned string, that still hung out;  
Wherewith he played, while he did Plots devise;  
To gull the Multitude, and rule the Rout:  
His Suit was Satin, pinked, and laced thick,  
As fit, as fair, without each peevish trick.   

14  
His Cloak cloth-rash with velvet thoroughly lined,  
(As plain as Plainness) without welt, or guard,  
To seem, thereby, to be as plain in Mind;  
For, he to seem good, still had good regard:  
His rapier hilts were blacked, which brightly shined,  
A velvet Scobbard did that weapon ward:  
The Hangers and the Girdle richly wrought,  
With Silk of 
* Black.  poorest colour, dearly bought.   

15  
His Stockings (suitable unto the same)  
Were of black silk, and crosswise gartered:  
The Knot whereof a Roses form did frame,  
Which near the ham the sable leaves did spread:  
His Shoes were velvet, which his foot became,  
Thus was he clad, from foot unto the Head:  
Who still was still, as one of judgement stayed,  
Before he heard, and poised, what others said.   

16  
While first (puft-panch) Poliphagus bespoke,  
(But panted as he spoke for want of wind;  
And at each word his fat for fear did quake,  
Lest that winds want that fat should melt, or bind,  
O that (quoth he) then reached to parbreak)  
Man's Neck were like a 
* The wish of Philoxenus a philosopher.  Cranes, than should we find  
More pleasure in our meat & drink, because  
'Twould longer pass, with pleasure to our maws.   

17  
Eating and Drinking sweetly eats up Time  
That eats up all; then, feeding most of all  
We ought to love; for, we are made of 
* Genes. 3.15.  Slime;  
Then should we feed (lest we to slime should fall)  
That so our flesh, by fat, to fat should climb;  
Fat Capons, Turkeys, Fezants we may call  
The 
* The Scale of Gluttony, for the p●nch to climb by.  Ladders to Perfection, and t'ascend  
By such Degrees, is man's perfections end.   

18  
Dear 
* Taste, the sense wherein Men-beasts do most delight.  Taste (quoth he) the life of all my joy),  
Can they be blest that say thou bredst our curse,  
When thou dost sweeten all our lives annoy,  
That else were Hell itself, or rather worse?  
For my part, I esteem that 
* Gene. 3.6.  Tale a Toy;  
And think that Taste alone doth Nature nurse:  
If thou be Nature's Nurse, then say I dare,  
Thou nursest That that makes us what we are.   

19  
Who are by nature Demi-gods at least;  
Gramercies Taste, that mak'st us so to be:  
Man, but for thee, were far worse than a beast;  
And, beasts were worse than nothing, but for thee:  
For, man, and beasts do toil but for the taste;  
Then if our taste should fail us, cursed were we:  
Sith both are borne to labour but for 
* All the labour of man is for the mouth, etc. Eclesiast. 6.7.  food;  
That rather would offend; then do us good.   

20  
The mouth, & Maw are Pleasures blissful Bowers,  
Where she lies dallying with her love Delight:  
The Maw (Charibdis' which Delight devours)  
Takes from the mouth what gives the members might;  
Is That an Idol which such good procures?  
Or should it not be 
* Adored.  served by Nature's right,  
That keeps frail Nature in her vital heat,  
That else would pine for want of tasting meat?   

21  

* Psal. 34.8.  O! taste, and see how sweet the Lord; but why  
Do I enforce what 
* Epicures believe not the Souls immortality, and so no scripture.  forceless I esteem?  
Yet, sith it's held for written-Veritie,  
I'll suck sweet from that weed, and holy seem:  
The sou'raign'st sense, enthroned is in the Eye;  
Yet Taste, this Truth (if truth) doth better deem:  
For, taste, and see, first taste, and after see,  
Implies that Taste, of Sight hath sovereignty.   

22  
O 'tis the Well from whence the Senses draw  
Their summum bonum; sweetest, though short, delight:  
The right highway to Mirth, lies to the Maw;  
The way to mirth that cheers the flesh, & 
* Good food comforts the heart, cheers the spirit.  spirit;  
That warms the blood, & frozen hearts doth thaw,  
In spite of Nature, foiling Nature's spite:  
Then, who distastes these sweet laud's of the Taste,  
His Taste is senseless, and his Wits are waste.   

23  
Ask Proof, how all the Veins do flow with joy  
When as the Mouth takes in confected Sweets;  
Or when the palate doth her Powers employ  
To meet sweet Wines, which she with 
* Which the tongue makes against the palate.  smacks regreets:  
What heart so faint, that then can fear annoy,  
Though Hell itself with all the Senses meets?  
Give strong drink to the damned, & they'll sustain,  
In pains despite, with ease, the spite of Pain.   

24  
What Care can once but touch a merry heart,  
That's merry made with precious blood of grapes?  
And, who can choose but play a frolic part,  
That by strong Sack, from Sorrows sack escapes:  
Smart, them annoys that feel, or think on smart,  
But not those that with Wine are Pleasures rapes:  
For, while they gape to let in, 
* They that drink much, must every way evacuate much.  out to run,  
They feel, & think on nought but Healths begun.   

25  
Thus did this gormandizing Epicure  

* What we most love of that we gladly hear and speak.  Insist in praise of That which Taste commends;  
And, (for wind labouring) laboured past his power  
To make Man's gorge his god, for godless ends:  
When lo, Epithymus (to make it sure)  
In part approved his reasons; yet he bends  
His power to prove the wenching practic part,  
To yield the joy which most affects the heart.   

26  
These Girls (quoth he) so they be fair, and young, 
Epithymus.   
Are they alone that most do ravish Sense;  
For which, no less then for our food we long; 
The praise of Touching.   
The Touch, being furthest from th'Intelligence,  
With much more 
* Touching being furthest removed from the Understanding of all the senses, makes it the more brutish.  liberty, and joy among,  
Doth play her part to prove her excellence:  
It tickles all our veins with lustful pleasure,  
Which the mean while, hath neither mean nor measure.   

27  
What Heart's so cold that is not set on fire,  
With a trans-lucent beaming sunne-brightface?  
But, of that face to have the hearts desire,  
The Heart cannot desire a greater grace:  
Who covets not bright Beauties golden wire,  
His 
* Heroic spirits soonest enthralled with love.  Spirit is abject, and his thoughts are base:  
Sith those wires wind about the turning thought,  
And tie it to rich pleasures dearly bought.   

28  
Who meets with flesh that melts with tenderness,  
And melts not in Desires ay-burning flames?  
Whose kisses, steeped in Sucket, Heaven do press  
From lips 
* Wanton Lovers most profane.  divine, too worthy for such names;  
Can any Eyes look into Beauty's Press,  
And with her trimmest trinkets make no games?  
No human Eyes (I ween) if crystalline,  
But joy to see themselves in Eyes divine.   

29  
To see a Body more than Lily-white,  
With azur'd veins embroidered here and there,  
To see this blissful Body 
* This Object makes the Soul most abject.  naked quite,  
And to behold Loves Hold some other where,  
What Thing, with joy, can more entrance the sight,  
Sith to the sight loves Heaven doth appear?  
Then add to this, a 
* A glancing alluring look.  Look that saith approach,  
It will the Vessel of all Sweetness broach.   

30  
O! to embrace her that embraceth all  
That Beauty can embrace, is to enfold  
In mortal Arms, Arms supernatural,  
Of power both 
* No passion more violent in the Soul of Man or Beast.  Gods and Men (ensnared) to hold;  
And make them, as they please, to rise, or fall,  
Serving Loves Sovereign as Vassals should:  
For, Gods, and men do most obsequiously,  
By nature, serve divine Formosity.   

31  
He that o'erthrew what ere his strength withstood, 
* Hercules.   
And vnderpropt the weight of heavens frame,  
Love, made to spin in weak unmanly mood:  
And He, for wisdom, that had greatest fame,, 
* Solomon.   
Love so, with Lust, inflamed his coldest blood:  
That He a 
* 700 wives, and 300. concubines.  thousand had to quench the same  
For, no Age, Wisdom, Power, or Policy,  
Have power t'impugn divine Formosity!   

32  
Ask Mars the stern and stubborn god of war,  
How much frail Beauty made him (crouching) bow:  
Nay ask (if men may ask) the Thunderer  
The highest of gods, by lordly Love brought low)  
Why he did make his mansion in a Star,  
Yet fell from heaven an earthly 
* Danaae.  Dame to know,  
But that both Gods and Men, most lowlily,  
By nature, serve divine Formosity!   

33  
Give me a Wench that hath the skill, and wit,  
To let me (lovesick) blood in Lusts right vain;  
And can, with pleasure, ease me in the fit,  
Yet ease me so, that Love may still complain  
Of 
* With Love-tricks to make Lustinsatiable.  heat, that is for Lust's life only fit,  
Which to the life of Love yields pleasant pain;  
That can so humour me, and what I feel,  
That she may hurt me still, my hurt to heal.   

34  
Such a Crafts-mistris, in the Art of Love,  
Doth crown the Touch with an imperial 
* A lascivious kiss bewitching wantoness, known best to such.  kiss;  
For, she makes Touching taste joy far above  
The reach of Art to tell men what it is:  
For feelingly, she can both stay, and move  
About the Centre of loves boundless bliss  
Then boundless is the Touches excellence  
That, by a Lass, can so beheau'n the sense.   

35  
Thus did this Orator of Lechery  
Dilate the shortsweete of his lives delight;  
Which, Hyselophronus did not 
* The wicked conspire in evil, though they vary in circumstances.  deny,  
(As though quite opposite) but bend his might,  
To prove highest bliss was borne of Majesty;  
Begot by Potency, right or unright:  
The greatest joy to Greatness appertains  
For joy doth reign (quoth he) in that which reigns.   

36  
A royal rob, a Sceptre, Mound, and Crown  
Are the true Signals of the truest joy:  
They need not fear the threat of Sorrows frown  
That 
* Sovereign authority can silence all, under heaven, that inveighs against her inordinate pleasures.  can confound, all causers of annoy:  
The hand of Majesty puts up, and down  
The means of mirth, and those that mirth destroy:  
he's a rare Clerk that R●gnum can decline  
And Meus, Mea, Meum ad in fine.   

37  
What heart is not enlarged, with joy, as much  
As it can hold, when power is more enlarged  
Than Earth can hold; or, on the same none such,  
When all by him, and he by none, is charged?  
No not so much as with the smallest 
* What man shall say to the Sovereign, What dost thou? without incurring his ire, which is the precursor of Death. Prou. 16.14.  touch,  
Touching his life, lest such be life-discharged:  
It is the greatest glory of Man's state, 
* Where the word of the King is, there is power, and who shall say ta him, What dost thou? Eccles. 8.4.   
When man, like God, doth reign in spite of Hate.   

38  
To eat and drink, and do the acts of lust,  
Is common unto Beasts, as well as Men;  
What praise get they that do what 
* That which men & Beasts by the provocation of Nature only.  needs they must;  
But such as shames the praised now and then?  
For, so may men be praised for deeds unjust,  
Sith Men, by nature, wrong their brethren:  
But, to correct 
* To rule men well is proper to God and men only.  Men, with directing Rods,  
Is proper unto none but Demi-gods.   

39  
The Sphere of Greatness (like the highest sphere,  
That turns the neither with resistlessesway)  
Is the highest step to his Throne without Peer;  
And, to the Sun that makes eternal day;  
Where Bliss abounds an everlasting year,  
For which the most devout do inly 
* Few or none so mortified, but can be contented to live, rather ruling then ruled.  pray:  
Then, Greatness is the great'st good under heaven,  
Which unto none but Gods on Earth is given.   

40  
O! how it rapts the Eye of Majesty,  
To see all downcast underneath her feet;  
That may, if please her, march upon the High,  
Till she with none, but with the Lowly meet:  
Then, 
* human wisdom.  wisdoms reach doth tend to Empery;  
And none but fools neglect it as unmeet:  
It is the highest Note that Art can reach,  
To rule the voice when Sovereignty doth preach.   

41  
And what a glory is't to mortal Man,  
That when he bends his high-erected front,  
Death in the 
* The looks of sovereign majesty doth either kill, or quicken.  folds doth play the Artezan,  
And kill, but with alooke, the highest Count:  
Yet, with a word (like Him that all things can)  
To create others, making them to mount;  
Then, who hath power all men to mar or make,  
Must be a God, that life doth give, and take.   

42  
A Seepter's Circe's Rod; which Men and Beasts  
Doth easily tame, how wild so ere they be:  
For, Birds that in the Stars do build their nests,  
far, far above all Birds, of prey do flee:  
To which pitch if they mount, they scorch their crests;  
For, heat so high is in 
* The indignation of a prince is most mortal.  extreme degree:  
Highness is sacred, and the sacred High,  
With their powers wing above all perils fly!   

43  
O! 'tis a blissful glittering glorious state,  
Able to make Mortality divine;  
Which, with 
* Ars d●minabitur Astris: Wise kings much more.  inspection, binds the hands of Fate,  
And, like the Sun, among the Stars doth shine,  
Till Nature doth the Flesh inanimate;  
And in the mouths of Men men's fames enshrine:  
Then, if in Earth be any divine thing,  
It's more than God, if it be not a King.   

44  
Poliphagus, though he his entrails served,  
As if they were his Fancies Sovereigns,  
Or rather Gods, by which he was preserved,  
Yet he allowance to their fancy feigns;  
That so 
* The concord of the Evil condemns the discord of the Good.  fraternity might be conserved,  
Which concord, in conceit, together chains;  
And, thus immod'rately doth moderate  
The difference of the doubtful Questions state.   

57  
But now, as wakened from a tedious sleep,  
* Logus, chief guide of * Psyche, their chief guide  
(While they were plunged in all pleasures deep)  
Thus 'gan their sensuall-senslesse Souls to chide:  
Whither, O whither run ye, ye lost sheep,  
Not weighing in what danger ye abide?  
The Blind eats many a fly; and so do you,  
That chew sweet poison, which ye should eschew.   

58  
But ere we further prosecute her speech,  
We will describe their Garments (as we may)  
For as we said the Coat and Cut do teach.  
Sight to discern what mood the mind doth sway:  
Logus was clad, as could no State impeach,  
Sith she was clothed with mean, though clean array:  
For, she with Garments far more fit, then fair,  
But safeguard sought from Passions of the Air.   

59  
But, Psyche (whom she guided) like a Qu●●ne  
Was richly decked, with ornaments divine:  
Who lived so closely that she scarce was seen,  
Yet through her Palace did her glory shine,  
As if at least she had a Goddess been;  
Whose virtues were apparent to the Eine:  
Her Ornaments were Wit, Will, Memory,  
Which richly robed her with Regality.   

60  
Upon her sacred Head she ware a Crown  
(Like that of Ariadne's) all of Stars,  
To light her feet in dark ways, and unknown,  
And keep the safest way in Passions wars;  
Those Stars were royal virtues of her own  
(Which some call Cardinal) her guard in jars:  
Who was decked inly with Power, Grace, and Art,  
Being wholly in the whole, and in each Part.   

61  
Her Understandings Power that Power did line,  
Which Heaven and Earth religiously adore;  
And in her Will she ware Grace most divine,  
But in her Memory she Arts did store;  
That made the Whole most gloriously to shine,  
But most divinely did those three decore!  
Affects and Fantasies her Servants were,  
Which were all cloaked with Good, how ill so ere.   

62  
Her princely train, which was of works well wrought,  
Was borne by judgement her chief Officer:  
Then, Contemplation held her, as she ought,  
By the right Arm, so that she could not steer  
Fron those right ways, whereon before she thought:  
And double-Diligence before did clear:  
The outward Senses her purveyors were,  
To whom the Commonsense was Treasurer.   

63  
Thus were these two attended and arrayed,  
Which I have thus described by the way;  
And now to prosecute what Logus said  
From thence where I before did make him stay;  
Quoth he, what mean ye thus to be betrayed  
By sinful Sense, which seeks but your decay?  
You are to seek to know her Fallacies,  
But know them not by seeking in this wise.   

64  
How near to temporal and eternal death  
You are (God wot) ye wot not, ne yet care;  
Not weighing how worlds 
* worlds weal uncertain in our life, but determines utterly in our death.  weal wastes with your breath,  
And that your breaths within your nostrils are;  
Which to the Air you must of force bequeath,  
Perhaps forthwith, at least ere ye beware:  
If temporal death attach ye in this plight,  
Your temporal days will turn t'eternall night.   

65  
To young and old Death is indifferent;  
The Court and Cottage he frequents alike:  
Yet, of the twain, he Courts doth more frequent;  
And loves those, that do 
* Death is most familiar with those that are most strange to him.  mind him least, to strike:  
He wounds the lustful, vain, and insolent  
With their own weapons, quickly to the quick:  
For, ever he doth envy life's delight,  
And makes the same most subject to his might.   

66  
How can vain pleasures please men, having sense  
To feel the sweet and sour of sin, and grace?  
For, if they feel the 
* The sting of Conscience kil● our liveliest pleasures of the flesh.  sting of Conscience,  
All pleasures of the flesh will give it place:  
That grieves the Will, that grieves th'Intelligence,  
Which take no pleasure in their own disgrace:  
But still the lusts offraile flesh to fulfil,  
Is to disgrace Intelligence, and Will.   

67  
The object of the Will is perfect Good;  
Which, the Intelligence to her presents;  
That never yet was found in royal food,  
In dainty Dames, or regal governments;  
By 
* Daily proof tells our understandings, ●hat all worldly pleasures are as ●hort, as vain, and unsure.  Understanding these are understood  
To yield but short, and counterfeit Contents:  
If so they do, how mad are they the while,  
That give their precious Souls for things so vile?   

68  
The 
* Solomon.  wisest yet that ever breathed this Air  
(Of sinful race) who in his wisdoms might  
Made proof of all that was sweet, great, or fair,  
Yea of all pleasures which the sense delight,)  
Said of them all (like Wisdoms truest Heir)  
They were than scum of 
* Eccles. 1.2.  Vanity more light:  
If such great Wisdom found them to be such,  
They are much more than fools that love than much.   

69  
Ask every sense what pleasure they do prove  
In all their objects: they must needs reply,  
(Sith conscience knows it) nought to gain our love;  
For, we love nought but what we 
* Good is the object of love  good do try:  
But, Proof these pleasures do, in fine, reprove;  
Sith they no sooner live, but sooner die:  
For, Trial knowing them to be but vain,  
Kills their delight ere we it entertain.   

70  
And, Crowns are Hives, where stinging cares do swarm;  
Pomp's but the White whereat fell Envy shoots:  
which are as trees, whence grows their owner's harm;  
Harms are the fruit; crowns, flowers; & kingdons, roots:  
The Arm of flesh, is but a feeble Arm;  
And, in such strong Extremes it little boots:  
He knows not yet the nature of a Crown,  
That knows not none may call the same his 
* Our Crown saith the Sovereign.  own.   

71  
What boots a purple rob, when purple blood  
Doth issue from the woeful wearers heart?  
And, of such issue there's more likelihood  
Than issue of his loins to take his part;  
For, oft such issue doth him little good,  
Who conquer 
* The love of a Crown oft makes the son to hate the father.  Nature, by the aid of Art:  
They learn by Art weak Nature to command,  
When Crowns betwixt the Sire & Son do stand.   

72  
oblivion's, are subject to extreme 
* Robert Cou●tesse, Edward the second, Richard the second, Edward the fifth, Rich. the third, Henry the sixth.  despite,  
For lo, a Dog, sometimes, supplied their place:  
A King of Norway, conquering in fight  
The King of Swethland, for the more disgrace,  
Did make a Dog their King, to show his spite,  
And made them near 
* His councillors.  him, that were near as base:  
Then are they worse than dogs that damn their souls  
To catch a kingdom, that a dog controls.   

73  
What joy can be accompanied with fear,  
Sith that companion doth all joy 
* Fear betrayeth the comforts and succours which Reason offereth.  confound?  
But terrene joys about with them do bear  
An hell of 
* True joy contents the desire and excludes fear, which worldly joy doth not.  fear, wherein true Hell is found:  
For, where's unsurety, fear must needs be there;  
And all's unsure that surgeth from the ground  
Of this vast Sea of extreme misery,  
True Antitype of true felicity.   

74  
Besides, no pomp (how ever glorious)  
No joy or pleasure, if sublunary,  
But brings satiety soon with their use,  
As they best know that have best means to try;  
And none have right joy but the 
* The joy of the Soul is incident to good and ghostly livers only.  righteous;  
For, ne'er doth satiate their felicity,  
Which doth content Desire, and Fear exclude,  
Which is the sum of true Beatitude.   

75  
Then, if my power o'er your Sovereign,  
If my words (rules of Reason) can persuade,  
Vain pleasures fly; through which ye fly to pain;  
Which still have marred, but never any made:  
Contain yourselves, and you shall joy contain;  
If you be good, then 
* Glory attends upon God & his only.  glorious is your trade:  
For, nought is great on Earth, but that great heart,  
That scorns all joys by Nature bred, or Art.   

76  
Rouse up yourselves, shake off this sloth of spirit;  
Put on the mind that men of mind becomes:  
Away with all 
* Vain pleasures do effeminate the mind.  effeminate delight,  
That none but worse than women overcomes:  
Show yourselves men of strength in Frailties spite;  
For, graceless joys possess but graceless grooms:  
O, 'tis 
* To obey reason is to rule kingly.  Dominion in the highest degree,  
When men to Reasons rules obedient be.   

77  
Hereat their Conscience touched to the quick,  
Began, half fainting, inwardly to bleed:  
No prick more mortal than the conscience prick;  
It makes our faith to faint, and kills our Creed:  
Yet, frozen in their dregs, therein they stick,  
Without all feeling that which must succeed:  
And, with hard hearts (though said for their behoofs)  
They Logus thus reprove, for his reproofs.   

78  
What wight art thou (presumptuous that thou art)  
That comest to Council, ere thou called be?  
By what power dost thou this? by what desert  
Think'st thou we all should be controlled by thee?  
We know no power thou hast, nor wit, 
* Reason is thought to be most unreasonable by the sensual.  nor Art  
To take the guidance of our actions free;  
Being a mere stranger to us and our state,  
Yet dost from either more than derogate.   

79  
Thou wouldst be taught (that thus presum'st to teach)  
To know good manners, persons, time and place;  
These circumstances they should know that preach,  
Or else they may disgrace their Sermons grace;  
And those that live by preaching do 
* Philem. 9  beseech,  
Not sharply check, which tendeth to disgrace:  
Then think we o'er our passions have great power,  
That give thee sweet advice for cheek so sour.   

80  
You may be gone, we need no councillors,  
That breath out worse than wormwood with their words;  
We are twice seven, and our own governors,  
Your proffered service no good 
* Mer● v●t●●nea putet.  sent affords:  
We are the highest Powers Compettitors,  
And fight for pleasure with our sense, and swords:  
We are resolved to satisfy desire  
With all the comforts that it can require.   

81  
Doth Love (quoth Logus) with ourselves begin?  
It seems not so, for with yourselves it ends:  
Foes to yourselves, sith you are fold to sin;  
Yet will not 
* Not to see our sin, is to live and die in sin.  see whereto that purchase tends:  
To lose your Souls, and all the world to win,  
Is the worst fortune, that fell Fortune sends:  
O be indulgent to your Souls, for why,  

* Christ Lord of life.  Life died itself, that so they might not die.   

82  
I am that Logus, which your Sovereign  
(Great sovereign Psyche) gave you for your 
* Reason, the eye of the soul.  guide:  
Which you would ne'er vouchsafe to entertain,  
Though, 
* human creatures are reasonable, though many live brutishly.  unimploied, I still with you abide:  
I pray you then (for your eternal gain)  
That now at last I may with you reside,  
To do you service, which if you will use,  
I'll make your life and death most glorious.   

83  
Let not my plainness with you, make ye plain  
Of my stern Course; for, sith I am the Stern  
That rules the Mind, I must her so restrain  
(When Passions rise) that she, by me, may learn  
The way to weal, which she seeks to attain,  
Which she, by my 
* human reason assisted by divine grace, true guide to perfect felicity  direction shall discern:  
Now, if the Stern resist repugnant winds,  
The Bark, to which she's bound, to her she binds.   

84  
Ye oft have heard, that Sores quite mortified,  
(If ever they be cured as they ought)  
Must have sharp Corrasives thereto applied,  
Else one sore part may bring the whole to nought:  
Then leave your Gluttony, your Lust, and 
* 3. sins most familiar with men's nature.  Pride;  
Be sober, chaste, and meek, in deed, and thought:  
This must you do; and I must needs say this,  
Except I should both say and do amiss.   

85  
Should I, your Guide, wink when ye go astray?  
Or see you run in bypaths of offence?  
Else draw ye further on, out of the way,  
And by all ways sooth up your erring sense?  
So should I, like a traitor, you betray;  
Which would, in time, your Souls to 
* We hate our evil Councillors, when we are plagued for following them.  hate incense:  
O then let me have leave your Souls to love,  
Which lest I do, when least I you reprove.   

86  
Repentance oft (too oft) comes too too late,  
(Though, better late than never to repent)  
But ne'er too soon can Grace it animate;  
For, Men, 
* All men are conceived in sin.  beyond their birth, are evil bend:  
So, ere they sin, they are in sinful state;  
For, sin in their conception's resident:  
Then sith yer men Be (whole) it Is (in part)  
Repentance should take Being yer the Hart.   

87  
Time past, is gone, in it none can repent,  
If in that Time they did the same neglect:  
The Time to come (although incontinent)  
Is as unsure, as is that rare 
* Repentance.  effect:  
Therefore the 
* The present time is sure to repent in, which is no sooner thought on, but gone for ever.  present Time for it is lent,  
Which straight is gone, then do it not reject:  
Sith so small time may all your time engross,  
The loss of it may be your utter loss.   

88  
But, what avails an angels tongue to move  
A fiend to goodness, that by kind is ill?  
From which he is resolved ne'er to remove;  
No more can 
* They are enemies to reason that desire to live sensually.  Reason their desires fulfil,  
(Though with all reason he doth seek their love)  
For, they desire to live corruptly still;  
And thus, with bitter taunts they do requite  
His love, that ever loves to guide them right.   

89  
What ere thou art (quoth they) we know thee not;  
Nor will we know thee, sith we know thou art  
Repugnant to us; and, thou seem'st a Sot,  
To seek to gain love by contention's Art:  
Thou never knewest, or else thou hast forgot,  
That manners 
* The jay sits with ●he lay. Eccles. 17.9.  like, do still like love impart:  
Therefore farewell, except thou worse will't far,  
We are resolved, in what resolved we are.   

90  
So they to excess fell excessively;  
Sinning, with 
* A true mark of reprobation.  grief, that they could sin no more:  
Now, they enlarge their Bounds of liberty,  
Although it were but too too lose before:  
Like Water they 
* job 15.16.  lap up iniquity,  
Which, through them, overflows both Sea & Shore:  
A cauterized Conscience being checked,  
Becomes far worse, in Cause, and in Effect.   

91  
Logus thus cast from their society,  
Waxed passing pensive (as one desolate)  
Because his Council was no more set by,  
And, with their mother 
* Nature.  Phusis fell at bate;  
As being assured in her the fault did lie,  
That they from him so much did derogate:  
Yet, knew one 
* Custom.  Praxis, Phusis follower,  
Had made them worse, than she them made, by far.   

92  
But by the way we should not do amiss, 
Phusis her habit described.   
To show how Lady Phusis was arrayed,  
(Sith she the mother of each matter is)  
Yer we do prosecute what Logus said:  
For, so her nature may be known by this,  
As outward, inward Things have oft bewrayed:  
For, though it seem the Tale, by force, to part,  
It's recompensed with Descriptions Art.   

93  
Upon her Head she ware a Crown of Corn,  
Like that of Ceres; saving that the same  
Was mixed (like Achelous his plenteous Horn)  
With fruits of every kind, which her became;  
Her Hair by her was still disheuled worn,  
Who naked was, yet her hand hid her shame:  
Or if a vail she ware, it was but when  
She was to come among licentious men.   

94  
About her Neck she ware a Carcanet  
Of every gem as it created was:  
About her Wrists, in Bracelet-wise, were set  
The oars of Gold and Silver, Led, and Brass:  
Thus have we made this Ladies Counterfeit,  
Who being bare, as barely must it pass:  
And now return we eft to Logus speech,  
Who thus to Phusis chidingly did preach.   

95  
Phusis (quoth he) I speak with grief of heart,  
I needs must chide, sith your fault it procures;  
Because you have not played a mother's part  
Touching the breeding of these Sons of yours:  
I know you have, by nature, so much Art,  
As might make them obey their Governors:  
And, that you do not, it is your disgrace,  
That kill your Children with a kind 
* As it is said of the Ape.  embrace.   

96  
You may, perhaps, suppose yourself you clear  
By saying, 
* Custom is another nature.  Praxis hath abused you much;  
In altering of their natures, which were dear,  
For that from you they all received such;  
Which could not be, if you not faulty were,  
For, you might have restrained them with a touch:  
If then you had corrected 
* Custom is overcome by Custom▪ if Nature be willing.  Praxis lore,  
They would have been far better than before.   

97  
Little do Mothers know what hurt they do,  
By their indulgence, to their saucy Sons;  
They make them wanton and rebellious too;  
For, let loose Nature, it to 
* Nature's looseness must be restrained by Reason's steadfastness.  looseness runs;  
Till Soul and Body it doth quite undo;  
For, Custom ill good nature over-runnes:  
But, if the Mother be as Mothers ought,  
She will by Use amend what Use hath wrought.   

98  
Phusis, not being used such checks to take,  
Began to kindle with disdainful ire;  
And, like a 
* Ouer-kinde mothers make unkind Children.  doting mother, she doth make  
A stiff defence, for her sons lewd desire: 
* Though fire be good, yet fire in flax is not good: so, though pleasure be good, yet in you● hi● is not good.   
Alas (quoth she) should they all joys forsake,  
Which both their years, and natures do require?  
Or should they wear their days in wasteful thought  
To bring themselves, and me with them, to nought?   

99  
You are no friend of theirs, if so you would;  
And, if not theirs, than mine you cannot be:  
For, me and them in one loves Band doth hold;  
Whom factiously you seek to disagree:  
I take their part but as a Mother should,  
That her dear children's 
* A good pretence for a fault makes the fault the fouler.  good desires to see:  
For, it a tender Mother doth become,  
As life to love the Children of her womb.   

100  
And, are they not of flesh and blood composed?  
Then can such mixture be aught else but frail?  
Or would you have them otherwise disposed  
Then Adam's heirs, that hold but by the Tail?  
And flesh and 
* Founts of Frailty.  blood to strength are still opposed;  
Yet 
* Strength of pleasures.  strength, in weakness, 'gainst it doth prevail:  
Sith so it is, my Sons may be excused,  
That have in weakness powerful pleasures used.   

101  
Now well I see (quoth Logus) thy fond love  
Makes thee 
* Affection transports judgement into partiality.  unapt to judge what's requisite;  
But, how if their loose lives the monster move  
(Monstrous Gehenna) to devour them quite?  
For, he loves such to eat, as such do prove;  
May you not thank yourself for such despite?  
If Babes do burn them in a Candle's flame,  
Are they, or those that give it them, too blame?   

102  
These heavy words sunk deep in Phusis mind,  
Who (as astonished) at the same did muse;  
Breathed short, in 
* Reason is very prevalent with the attentive.  passion, as if wanting wind,  
Yet at the last, hi● Spirit she up did rouse,  
And asked of Logus, in the kindest kind,  
What practise she to save her Sons might use:  
I hate, as Hell, that Monster, and I would  
My Sons (quoth she) from him, by force, withhold.   

103  
Now Logus, glad her nature had such grace,  
Said, for mine own part, I will but advise,  
Not deal with them; sith they did me 
* When Reason is rejected, men are lest to all brutishness.  disgrace;  
Therefore I council, that in any wise  
You hie you to the Lady 
* Truth.  Aletheias Place,  
And there invoke her aid, with careful Cries;  
Who is endued with power, will, and skill,  
To tell them of their miss, and mend their ill.   

104  
Entreat her, who will soon entreated be,  
(For, she doth love to satisfy goodwill)  
To go unto thy Sons of each degree,  
And tell them of this Monster, made to 
* Hell made for torment. Esa. 30 33.  spill  
All those that live secure in Pleasure's glee,  
And greedily their hungry lusts fulfil;  
I will (said Phusis;) but where doth she dwell?  
Thou knowst (dear Logus) but I cannot tell.   

105  
She wont was (said he) to neighbour me;  
But since that 
* Deceit and Guile excluded Truth from the Earth,  Fraus and Dolus (wicked Twins)  
The World produced, I do her seldom see;  
For, she from my sights reach so slily rinnes,  
As though to her I were an enemy,  
Or made prodigious through my subjects sins:  
Who prosecute her with extreme despite,  
That now she even loathes to see the light.   

106  
Shall I (quoth Phusis) on the Earth her find?  
Hardly (quoth Logus) being chased from thence.  
In th'air, or Water then, or in the Wind;  
Or else within the Fires Circumference  
Is she (quoth she?) said Logus, these by kind  
Are mutable, and full of difference;  
Which she cannot abide, for she is 
* Truth is one, but Error is manifold.  one,  
And rather will, then with such, live alone.   

107  
Is she to Heaven returned (quoth she) again?  
That's like (said Logus) but th'u'rt ne'er the near:  
For, without 
* As without the Sun none can see the Sun, so without Truth none can come at the Author of Truth.  her, thou canst not Heaven attain;  
For, all by her must come, that must come there.  
Alas (said she) how shall I her obtain,  
Sith I must have herself herself to clear?  
For, as without the Sun, none sees the Sun,  
So, without her, none wots where she doth won.   

108  
This once (quoth Logus) I will thee direct  
The best I can, but cannot as I could;  
I oft have heard, and find true, by effect,  
That she is seen about the Mansion old  
Of father 
* Time.  Chronus, which he did erect  
For him, and her, (his daughter dear) to hold;  
Or, 
* Death.  Thanatus, his Man, who rids away  
That which his Master bringeth to decay.   

109  
Which Man, and Masters habits we might paint, 
The description of Chronus and Th●natus.   
Though we but Chalk, & Coals, and Ashes had:  
For, Chronus clad is like a mortal Saint  
In skins of Beasts, to show how life doth fade;  
(Which of their age did seem to make complaint)  
Girt with an Halter, or with Girth as bad:  
Upon whose Head, in stead of Hat, there stood  
An Hourglass, as an Emblem of his mood.   

110  
His Hair was white as was the driven Snow,  
And from his Head it seemed to hang, by drifts  
Turned up again; e'en as the same doth show  
When it doth hang, so driven upon Cliffs:  
His Beard, beneath his girdlestead did grow,  
Which, plaited, in his bosom oft he shifts:  
Whose right hand did a scythe, still moving wield,  
And in his left, an Horologe he held.   

111  
His Man hight Thanatus, bare to the bones,  
Was more than naked from the top to toe:  
All hairless, toothless, eyeless, stocks, or stones,  
Are all as quick, though he much more can do:  
And all he said, I was as you are, once;  
Which was in sullen silence spoken to:  
Upon a Spade he leans, as if he did  
By his day-labour live, called Wink, all hid.   

112  
To these did Logus Phusis wish to wend  
Which were to her the 
* Nature cannot abide▪ Death, nor Time running thereto.  loathsom'st wights alive;  
And hardly thought that Logus was her friend,  
(Although she could not otherwise believe  
Sith her and hers she sought still to defend)  
That would to her such woeful council give:  
And, with the water swelling in her eyes,  
She thus to Logus mournfully replies.   

113  
Alas (quoth she) and to them must I go?  
To their most hateful houses must I high,  
That are the greatest workers of my woe,  
And fain would have me utterly to die?  
What 
* A well tuned tongue cannot please an ear utterly out of tune.  words can please a proud insulting foe,  
That holds in scorn his foes humility?  
Then, what hope have I with them ro prevail,  
Who, though I kneel to them, will me assail?   

114  
What shall I say? alas, what shall I do?  
To win their favour, that will not be won?  
To go to them, I shall myself undo;  
For, though I kiss their feet, they'll me o'errun:  
If not, they'll pain me, and compel me to;  

* The choice is miserable where the best is misery.  Both which, if I do go, I cannot shun:  
I am amazed, I know not what to say,  
If go, I die; if no, my sons decay.   

115  
What shall I do? dear Logus, tell me 
* In case of distress we willingly embrace the advice of Reason.  what?  
O happy were I, if this fear were passed:  
There is no cause (quoth Logus) to fear that  
That no wight living can avoid at last;  
The Stag, the Raven, and the nine-lived Cat  
Must know those houses, then be not aghast,  
But go on boldly with erected Front,  
Where you shall see her live in high account.   

116  
If at the first you cannot see her face,  
Their Porter 
* Sickness.  Nosus will you soon direct  
Unto her privy chamber, where her grace  
Will talk with you, in secret, in effect:  
But, see you bribe the Porter of the place  
With 
* Natural heat sustains the vital powers in sickness.  Calor naturalis, most select:  
So may you pass securely through each Gate,  
That leads to this obscured Ladies State.   

117  

Sickness described.  This Nosus was a true Anatomy  
(Though Thanatus be truly called the same)  
Of mortal grief, or cureless malady,  
Whose Head was hamp'red (which him ill became)  
With homely clouts (tie as unhansomly)  
And with a staff he went as he were lame:  
A Gown (with Potions stained) he, girded, ware,  
Who panted as he went, and went with care.   

118  
Four pair of Stockings did his Legs comprise,  
And yet his Shancks (God wot) but little were,  
Although the upper Stockings were of Freeze,  
Thick Freeze, or rug, or else of warmer gear:  
Whose Slippers were with Cotton lined likewise;  
And yet of taking cold he still did fear:  
Who looked as he had not an hour to live,  
And every step he trod, his Soul did grieve.   

119  
His Face was of the colour of that clout  
That did his head involve, save that his Face  
Did look more white: his Eyes both seemed out,  
For, they were sunk, & shrunk out of their place:  
His Nose was sharper than an Adder's snout;  
His Tongue, & Teeth were furred, in loathsome case;  
His Lips were chapped, his Beard was driveld over,  
And ever breathed as he should breath no more.   

120  
And therewithal he was so wayward still,  
That none might please him, but he fault would find  
With the best words & deeds of mere goodwill;  
His body's pains so perverse made his mind:  
His wozen whezed when his breath it did fill,  
As, through the straightest passage doth the wind:  
And when he spoke, his tongue was furred so thick,  
That oft his words within the same did stick.   

121  
Yet nevertheless, to these must Phusis high,  
For, Logus held her to't by strong persuasion,  
Which thus she priest; Go, or thy Sons must die:  
Thou needs must do it, there is no evasion:  
Herein their life, or death alone doth lie;  
Then, of their peril if thou have compassion▪  
Thou must to These, that they may be secure,  
Then lively go; for, Love can Hell endure.   

122  
Phusis, though while-ere somewhat weakened,  
(By reason of these uncouth Accidents)  
Yet thus, by Logus, being 
* Reason begets in us resolution to die courageously.  comforted,  
To his direction and advice assents:  
And now (all heart) she holdeth high the Head,  
Scorning her wont dread, and dririments;  
And, in her love to her Sons, thither goes,  
Their case to Aletheia to disclose.   

123  
A weary journey had she, and a foul,  
But, what pain is't a mother's 
* True love deems no pain intolerable endured for the beloved.  love will shun?  
Who almost will forsake her dearest Soul,  
Yer once forsake her deere-bought dearer Son:  
By Logus help, she doth her fears control;  
And to these houses goes not, but doth run:  
And as she hies, she more and more doth learn,  
This Lady's Lodging rightly to discern.   

124  

The description of the house of Time.  When to the House of Chronus near she drew,  
(Which was a Cave in Rock of Flint cut out)  
It, to the sense more horrid was in show;  
For, it with Moss was inlaid all about,  
And o'er the Gate, Harts-tongue, & Brambles grew;  
As on the top, did Okes, old, stiff, and stout:  
Which rocks rogh sides huge mossy Beech's bare,  
As if the Flint the weather's threats did fear.   

125  
This antic Top, where these trees did not shade  
A kind of Moss ore-sprad, as hard, as hoar;  

* The upper Crust of a Rock unfrequented.  Which nevertheless, did softly seem to vade,  
And grew far shorter than it was before;  
o'er which strange vermin pretty Paths had made,  
Which there did still increase in needless store:  
For, in those Places where men least frequent,  
There vilest vermin are most resident.   

126  
About the groundsills of this hideous house  
(Without) grew Nettles, 
* Noisome Plants produced from Man's more noisome offence.  Hemlocks, and the like;  
'mongst whom were Snakes and vermin venomous;  
Which unawares th'unwary foot do strike:  
Within the Cave was nought for Nature's use,  
Save water, which there leakt through many a creek:  
Where nought was seen but Darkness, nought was heard,  
But hollow Echoes, making Noise afeard.   

127  
near to this uncouth Cave is situate  
(As 'twere a vault digged underneath the same)  
The House of 
* Death's house described.  Thanatus, which all do hate;  
For, none came ever thence that thither came:  
Then Chronus house it's much more desolate;  
More deadly too, in nature, and in name:  
For, flesh doth faint, when but b'imagination  
She 
* The Grave is irksome to flesh & blood  sees this fearful ugly Habitation.   

128  
The Roof whereof, with Skulls is seeled quite;  
Whereon (in frets) hang shinbones here & there:  
The walls are hung with Mantles of the night;  
Which, all with vermin vile, imbrod'red were:  
If it, through any Chink, received light,  
'twas 
* If graves open by reason of the earth's hollowness, they soon are closed again with feet that tread on them.  soon stopped up with feet which it did bear:  
It paved was with joints and Knuckle-bones,  
Set in no order, but like scattered stones.   

129  
The Gate whereof is made of man's just size,  
Which yet receives all 
* The Grave and Destruction can never be full: Prou. 27.20.  men that ever were;  
Upon whose Pavement all flesh rotting lies;  
And, to the sense most 
* Nothing more noisome to the Nose and Eye than a rotten Carcase.  odious doth appear:  
For, here lie Arms, and there lie Legs, and these;  
heat rotten Teeth, and ragged jawbones there;  
Within whose pores, the worms do keep their hold  
Until they all convert to perfect mould.   

130  
No one here keeps this grim Lord company,  
But sullen Silence, dust, and nasty mud;  
And, yet he seeks all men's society,  
For, still he feedeth on their flesh and blood:  

* Friends of those that are in burying.  Hard at the Gate do mournful mourners cry,  
And tear their hair, too like the Fury-brood:  
Which yet is never heard that house within,  
For, Thanatus is 
* No sense enjoyed in the Grave.  deaf, and hears no din.   

131  
Rotten Corruption here doth revel keep;  
Where Worms (her Minions) out of measure dance:  
For, all about they trace, they turn, and creep,  
And merry make with Flesh's fowl mischance;  
Who all the while lies drowned in puddle deep,  
As full of Soil, as full of Sufferance:  
Where Irksomeness sits on a dusty Throne,  
As if he were Lord of that 
* The earthly▪ Carcase.  Earth alone.   

132  
For, Beauty comes no sooner to the Gate  
Of this true earthly Hell, but she doth look  
As if she were in worse than damned state;  
And all her Graces had her quite forsook:  
The Lures of Love, here turn to Hoods of Hate;  
Hate that no Love (though Love itself) can brook:  
For, 
* Christ the Lord of love.  Love itself, which once three days lay there,  
Fled from the same as if it hateful were.   

133  
Here 
* Isa. 34.14.  Zijm and Limb do love alone to be,  
(Grim Desolations stern Consociates)  
The vale of Visions this doth seem to me,  
Where Sense may see what Sense quite ruinates:  
Whose Organs here, lie in variety  
Of transformation; which Sense deadly hates:  
Where lie all Objects which the sight annoy,  
Yet 'tis the 
* Death is the beginning of ●oy, or misery.  entrance to all grief, or joy.   

134  
Here Sense (saith Sense) lies in a Lethargy;  
Whose powers are quite suppressed with Earth and Stones:  
Here 
* The Grave is the re●t of the restless.  Rest of Labour hath the victory:  
And, Sorrows here surcease their sighs and groans;  
Where lasting sleep beguiles Calamity:  
For, Flesh feels not, if rotten to the bones;  
This is the Lake, which Men most loath, and yet,  
It is the Lethe where they grief forget.   

136  
Down a dark stair (the passage to this house)  
On every step sits all the imps of Fear;  
Confronted with chymaera's hideous,  
Which makes all men to hate their coming there;  
Save such as daily do that 
* The mortified in conversation most familiar with Death.  passage use,  
And with feete-mortifide those steps do wear:  
To them it seems not strange, how ever strange,  
Those Monsters do their ugly fashions change.   

137  
The Elements, whereof all Flesh is made,  
Do, with their 
* The Humours are the Children of● be Elements.  Children, the four Humours, lie  
Confused there, in Death's confused Shade,  
That no Eye can the one from the other spy;  
But His that saw them ere they Being had,  
On whom alone, they all do still rely:  
This is the Picture of Not-beings Pit,  
Where it doth seem (but doth but seem) to sit.   

138  
Sometimes, for pride, or praise, or both, some do  
Bestow a stately 
* Tomb or Pyramed.  Cover on this house;  
For, worldly pomp doth press them thereunto,  
To make the glorified more glorious;  
But Chronus spite that Cover doth 
* Time ruins all monuments how ever substantial.  undo,  
Which cannot brook the pomp of Thanatus:  
It is but vain the dead to honour then,  
With other honour then with Tongue, or Pen.   

139  
Hard at the door of this confused den  
Sat ravenous Ravens, watching for their prey;  
Which door if Chronus opes, they enter then,  
And with the Relics, there, they pray, or play:  
This Rooms description, no Pen well can pen  
But such as marks the measure of 
* In a Grave lies the Anatotomy of Ruin.  Decay:  
O! 'tis a Heaven to hear Hell well set forth,  
And Heaven, if ill described, seems nothing worth.   

140  
The Room is little, this description great;  
And yet too little, for so great a Room,  
Where all mankind have, and do find a Seat,  
Until they have received their later doom:  
Let 
* Truth. True descriptions are able to quicken things dead.  Aletheia then make it complete;  
Sith all descriptions true, come from her womb:  
Sufficeth me to show but e'en a glance  
Of Thanatus his House's countenance.   

141  
The Porter of this Place (as erst was said)  
Is 
* Sickness is manifold: for, we are borne one way, and die an hundred ways.  hundred-headed Nosus; much more stern  
Than Hell's grim Porter, with his threefold head;  
The sight of whom made Phusis heart to yearn;  
But, Logus said, she, by him, should be 
* Nature is ●ed by reason to the knowledge of Truth.  led  
The Lady Aletheia to discern:  
In hope whereof she did the better brook  
The horror of his most detested look.   

142  
Now, by this time, she was within his touch,  
Who, to him trembling came submissively;  
And 
* Gifts get favour, but not with Death, or Sickness: saving that Sickness is the better borne by the gift of natural heat.  gave him of her Calor (though not much)  
That she might be the better used thereby:  
Nosus, whom though diseases made to grudge,  
Yet, through that Calor looked more cheerfully:  
And gently, with familiar aspect,  
He opes the Gate, and straight did her direct.   

143  
For, he denieth passage unto none  
That makes 
* Who tenders sickness shall have his company.  much of him, or doth love him well;  
But, had he well the Lady Phusis known,  
Perhaps he would have been to her more fell:  
For, when she gave him Calor, she did groan,  
To think how soon he would the same 
* Sickness extinguisheth our vital flame.  expel:  
And, Phusis by no means can well endure,  
That Nosus should her any 
* Nature can not endure to be bettered by Sickness.  good procure.   

144  
But he to her is most officious,  
He tenders her his guidance, and what not?  
But yet the 
* An inbred hate twixt Nature and Death.  odds twixt her and Thanatus,  
(Although by Him 'twas more than quite forgot)  
Made Her entreat this Porter courteous,  
To call that Lady forth, whom Chronus, got:  
And gave him some more Calor in a Box,  
Which gave him strength to open the Lady's Locks.   

145  
Herewith he went to Aletheias Bed,  
Who over head and ears lay covered quite;  
And being naked, yet thus 
* Truth is hid with clouds of mysteries that she is hard to be found.  covered,  
He could not have, of her, an open sight:  
But, he aloof his errand uttered;  
Wherewith she rose, yet came within the night:  
For, she being naked Darkness seeks to hide her;  
For, men without a Mist have seld espied her.   

146  
But, out she 
* Truth being masked we must use the more diligen●● to discover her.  (masked) comes to Phusis late,  
Who knew her not, because she came concealed:  
But, asked who she was, who did relate,  
Both who, and what, and straight herself revealed:  
It me behoves (quoth she) to hide my State,  
For, most men have with me like Monsters dealed:  
Who, like to devils, authors of untruth,  
Would force erroneous sense into my mouth.   

147  
I go thus masked (quoth she) sith men like fiends,  
Of my destruction make no conscience:  
Statesmen seek for me, but for subtle ends;  
Some Churchmen would have me Non residence,  
But where their pleasure, or their 
* Many of them measure truth by their present worldly profit.  profit tends;  
And, fond Philosophers pervert my sense:  
Strong thieves, & Lawyers, wound my tender heart,  
The one by force, the other by their art.   

148  
The Merchant and the sly Artificer  
Will, for a penny profit stifle me  
With Falsehoods cloak. The biting Usurer  
Doth use me better, though but cruelly;  
And, hath a will to use me worse by far,  
So he a farthing might the better be:  
But, of all men, that seem me most to pain,  
Upon poor 
* Poets which all men tax for lying, do least lie of any, the moral of their fictions considered.  Poets I can least complain.   

149  
For, though they hide me from the vulgar view,  
With robes (as they suppose) that sumptuous be,  
Yet give they me my right, with more than due;  
As they best know, that have best eyes to see:  
They are my friendly foes, false-lovers true;  
Which hate, in show, but do, indeed, love me:  
Whom I will one day feed with more than praise,  
Which Manna makes them look 
* Their souls abhor that light food, for feeding, it doth but famish.  lean now adays.   

150  
All those that Offices, by coin, come by,  
(To come by coin, by buying Offices)  
In Church or Commonweal, do me defy,  
For interrupting their by-passages:  
No, not so much as Summoner's but can spy  
The way to wound me on advantages;  
In sum, all sorts are resolute herein,  
To lose me quite, so they thereby may win.   

151  
Have I not reason then, concealed to go,  
To shun these Hellhounds, having me in chase;  
Who study, by all means, to work my woe,  
And with their craft transform my constant face?  
I were unlike myself, and mine own foe,  
If I went like myself in such a case:  
By nature, I the Ignorant do hate;  
Then should I loath, if I knew not my State.   

152  
But, wherefore Phusis art thou come to me?  
Who told thee where I lay? who found'st me out?  
Thine eyes are dim, too 
* Nature's eyes are dimmed by Adam's transgression.  dim me well to see;  
Then though thou see me, thou thereof mayst 
* Whether I be myself, or no, because every like is not the same.  doubt.  
Quoth Phusis, that full well I did foresee,  
By Logus, therefore brought I this about;  
Who told me truly who, and where thou wart,  
Whose sayings, touching thee, I conned by heart.   

153  
And I am come to thee for thine advice,  
Touching my children; who (as I am told  
By my friend Logus) are in love with Vice;  
Or rather to that strumpet they are sold:  
Who, with fair 
* Vice's persuasions are most forcible with the Sons of Nature.  words doth sweetly them entice  
To think, and say, and do, but as she would:  
Who, as it's known to all that knoweth aught,  
(In fine) doth bring her Lovers all to nought.   

154  
They being bound to Thanatus his house,  
Are bound likewise (ah woe is me) from thence  
On the left hand, to the land tenebrous,  
Whereas Gehenna holds his residence,  
Which Monster, being more than ravenous,  
Will quite devour their Bodies, Souls, & Sense;  
The manner of whose house, no tongue can tell,  
But such as can describe the lowest Hell.   

155  
here, by the way, we will awhile digress,  
And prosecute the rest of Phusis plaint,  
When as we have described this little less  
Than more than hell, which colours cannot paint:  
For what so black as depth of all distress,  
Where utter darkness reigns without restraint?  
Then sith we colours want, as all do see,  
Our too light shadows must excused be.   

156  
There lie two ways from Thanatus his house,  
(That still are two, sith they still disagree)  
One on the right hand lies, scarce now in use,  
The other on the left, used commonly:  
That, on the left, is full of all abuse,  
And leads unto a world of misery;  
Wherein gehenna's Hold is situate,  
Which, without 
* Hell is much more horrible than can enter into the thought or understanding.  Pattern, thus we figurate.   

157  
A ruinous Room, whose bottom's most profound; 
An ample description of Hell.   
A Pit infernal full of endless dole;  
A loathsome Lake where choking damps abound; 
* Revel. 20.3.   
A dungeon deep, a dreadful darksome hole,  
Where nought but howl, shriks, & grons do sound,  
And human flesh still makes a quenchless Cole:  
The common Burse, where none but Bugs repair,  
An Harbour full of horror and despair.   

158  
Whose light is dark, which dark is 
* Ma●th. 8.12. & 25.30. job. 10.21, 22.  palpable;  
Whose pleasure's 
* Isai 30.33.  pain, which pain no pen can tell:  
Whose life is 
* reve. 20.14  death, which death is damnable:  
Whose peace is 
* reve. 16.11.  strife, which strife is discords well:  
Whose ease is 
* Mark 9.44.48. Isa. 66.24  toil, which toiles unthinkable:  
Where most obedience, learns most to 
* reve. 16.11.  rebel:  
Where all 
* Revel. 6.8.  confusion reigns in endless date,  
In a tumultuous State-disord'ring State.   

159  
Where 
* reve. 16.13.  toads, and vipers, snakes, and vermin vile,  
(Whose hissings make an hellish harmony)  
With slimy gleere, the place do clean defile,  
Swimming in suds of all sordiditie,  
While one on others back themselves they pile  
To touch the top of topless misery:  
Where heat, and coldness, are in their extremes,  
And frozen hearts do float in sulphred streams.   

160  
The walls are hung with Cobwebs, which contain  
Soule-catching hellhounds, clad in Spider's shape;  
The Roof, of burning Brass, which drops like rain;  
Fron which no one below could ere escape:  
The pauement's full of groundless gulfs of pain,  
Which though they still devour, they still do 
* Hell, and the Grave are insatiable.  gape;  
Whose glowing Maws cannot 
* The damned still are dying, and never dead.  concoct the meat  
Which there lies boiling in an hell of heat.   

161  
Here, weeping warbleth notes that anguish show;  
And, 
* Math. 24.51  gnashing Teeth tunes jigs untuning joy:  
Here, Seas of 
* And men boiled in great heat, & blasphemed the name of God which bath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory. Reue 16.9  boiling Lead their Bounds o'erflow,  
To make a boundless deluge of annoy:  
The Sands whereof are Souls o'erwhelmed with woe;  
Which though destroyed, yet death cannot destroy:  
For, endless 
* Devils.  lords of death still life do give  
To those that in that death there still do live.   

162  
From whose wide open Throats great flames they cast,  
Which thunder forth with sense-confounding noise;  
The din whereof makes Horrors heart aghast,  
Which in that den no other bliss enjoys:  
Such Gall of Gall affords no better taste,  
Which still doth feed, with that which still annoys:  
Such boisterous Bugs can yield no other glee,  
But mirth is moan whereas such Monsters be.   

163  
Whose soul blasphemos mouths are fraught with spite,  
That boils with heat of baneful poison there;  
Which spite they 
* Revel. 16.9  spit against the Cause of Light,  
Such is the envy which to It they bear:  
Yet, from their glowing eyes fly sparkles bright,  
As they no eyes but Vulcan's Forges were:  
The sight whereof the sight doth so annoy,  
As though that sight that sense would quite destroy.   

164  
Imagine now you see, (as there is seen)  
Millions of Legions of this foul mouthed crew,  
With fangs more huge than Elephants, more keen  
Than Crocodiles chief grinders, to pursue  
Souls diving in those 
* Revel. 20▪ 3.  deeps to be unseen;  
Which, overgorged, them up again do spew:  
While these dog's watch to take them in the rise,  
With teeth to tear, & fear them with their cries.   

165  
Here may you see a Goblin, grisly grim,  
(With hook and line) stand fishing for a Soul;  
Which, in those boiling 
* Revel. 20.10  Seas, do sinking swim;  
Baiting their hooks with Salamander's foul:  
Which, being hanged he hales it to the brim,  
And, all the while, as hunger-band, doth howl:  
Which fingered, forthwith, in the devils name,  
In go the fangs, that inchmeale tear the same.   

166  
Then others watch (as Spiders for a Fly)  
In obscure Nooks, to catch a flying Ghost;  
That to those Nooks to hide itself, doth fly;  
Which caught, they bind it, lest it should be lost,  
And, to their webs of woe, with joy they hie;  
Where the poor Soul is still in torment tossed:  
In whom they all their deadly poison 
* So fares the Fly with the Spider.  pour,  
Which more than kills them, sith they it endure.   

167  
Now, sullen Silence reigns as all were dead,  
Then, suddenly a world of Clamour rings;  
Whereby the much more horror still is bred;  
For, sudden fear with it most horror brings.  
No heart so heavy as the heart of Lead;  
Yet sudden fear doth start it when it stings.  
The Lightnings flash doth 
* The light of Lightning is much more horrible than comfortable.  fear more than the flame  
That still is seen, and still is seen the same.   

168  
here, in a Chimney, all of burning Bricks,  
Sits Grimnesse, and a red-hot Spit doth turn;  
Whereon a human Creature, 
* Revel. 17.16  melting, sticks;  
Whose grease doth make the fire the more to burn;  
Which Turne-spit, oft, his filthy fingers licks,  
And, with this liquor, doth his lips adorn:  
Basting the roast with what most torment gives,  
Whiles the poor Creature dies, because he lives.   

169  
But, that which is most horrid to be heard,  
But much more hateful to be felt, or seen;  
These Cooks oft gash their 
* Flesh of the tormented.  flesh, to interlard  
The same with sulphur, with woe waxen lean:  
Lest the soft marrow the hard bone should guard,  
From feeling woes incomparable keen:  
So bone, and marrow, sinew, nerve, and vain  
Do there endure pains, far exceeding pain!   

170  
In other Coasts of this infernal Realm;  
(Confusions Land, Gehenna's lording place, 
A prudent man seeth the plague, and hideth himself: but a fool goeth on still, and is punished. Prou. 22.3. Frigida Gehenna.   
True Antitype of new jerusalem)  
It freezeth flesh, which pines in starving case;  
Where, some do, naked, stick amidst a stream  
To ice congealed; whom cold winds freeze apace:  
Yet draw they breath, more cold than coldest frost,  
To freeze their entrails, and congeal their ghost.   

171  
If any spit (for rheums cold places breed)  
It's blown, in Ice-cicles, into their face:  
For, those keen winds do forthwith do the deed,  
And 
* Revel. 16.21  hail, of drops, make in a moment's space:  
On icy morsels there the mouth must feed,  
Sith mouths to icy morsels turn apace:  
Here is cold comfort where is nought but cold,  
That all congeals, on which it taketh hold.   

172  
Here some (but new arrived) while blood is warm,  
Attempt, by motion, so to keep the same;  
But straight they cannot stir, nor Leg, nor Arm;  
For, in the offer, they frieze stiff, and lame:  
Yet hold they vital heat (the more their harm)  
For Ice, like Oil, doth feed their vital flame:  
If such a foe to life, as such a cold  
Keeps life in being, life hath hateful hold.   

173  
Who are so mad with pain that they do cry,  
O what is this we feel! we feel, O what!  
Is't limbs of Flesh that brook this agony?  
All they have raged with pain; but this, to that  
Is like the Ocean to a fountain dry:  
This flesh, nerves, joints, once Racks did lacerate,  
Yet that with this compared, was Heaven to Hell,  
O what is this we feel? Sense die, or tell.   

174  
It's but a moment since we hither came,  
Yet feel what pain Eternity inflicts;  
And though eternally we feel the same,  
Yet us with what we ne'er felt, it afflicts:  
Proteus like still pains new fashions frame;  
And one another ever interdicts:  
Is this the Soul we thought with flesh should die,  
Which feels these mortal plagues immortally?   

175  
Here, some with hands fast frozen to their mouth,  
Do seek to thaw them with their warmest breath;  
But lo, the 
* Revel. 16. 2●  frost that breath so fast pursuth,  
That it doth freeze in coming from beneath:  
So, hand and mouth thereby the faster growth;  
Yet live they still, though frozen quite to death:  
For, like to Alabaster Tombs they stand,  
Frozen to death, yet live at Death's command.   

176  
Here, boisterous Bugbears do at football play  
With a still-tost and tumbled groaning Ghost,  
To catch them heat; which done, they dance the Hay  
About it (breathless) being overtost;  
So, with transmuted forms, it to dismay  
With fear that may afflict the seeing most:  
While that poor Soul lies panting like an Hare,  
Among foul hounds that seek the same to share.   

177  
Now Matacheyns they dance, with visage grim, 
Reward her as she hath rewarded you, and give her double, according to her works: and in the Cup which she ha●h filled to you, fill her the double, Revel. 17.6.   
And at each change they change their horrid shapes:  
And at each turn, they torture life and limb  
Of this tormented Soul, that, gasping gapes,  
As if the Ghost were yielding at the brim  
Of deep Not-beings Pit; which yet it escapes:  
At point of death to live immortally,  
Is still to live, and living, still to die!   

178  
Now comes a chased Ghost that flies, for life,  
Before a foul-mouthed cry of hellish hounds;  
And being caught, twixt them is deadly strife,  
Which of them all shall give it deadliest wounds:  
Each of whose teeth is like an Hangman's knife,  
Which torments, if not utterly confounds:  
O! think then what an hell of fear that heart  
Must hold, that such infernal Hounds do start.   

179  
Here winds, that whistle while they freezing are,  
(As if they merry were for freezing so)  
Bring, with their working, pitchy clouds of Care,  
Wherewith they are involved that thither go;  
Those biting frosts do, there, make all things bare,  
Which make the same a naked world of woe:  
Where nought but nipping frosts are felt, & seen,  
Ne'r-vading griefs do flourish ever green.   

180  

Deliver thyself as a Do from the hand of the hunter, and as a Bird from the hand of the Fowler. Prou 6.5. They shall pass from the waters of the snow to over much heat. job.  Here stands a Fowler, fowl, with Nets of Wire,  
To take a flight of Souls that starving flee;  
Late fled from whence they never can retire;  
So, when in that fast-holding Net they be,  
He drags them to the frost, or to the fire,  
Where either are in the extremest degree:  
This is the welcome which they first receive,  
That of their life misspent have ta'en their leave.   

181  
This flight thus caught, the Legions of the North,  
Fill all those Regions with their hellish howls;  
And, with their ugliest forms, come roaring forth  
To share among them those feare-shaken Souls:  
The 
* The greate● the devil the worse.  worthiest takes the Soul of smallest worth  
To execute thereon the greatest doles.  
Quake flesh to hear what frail flesh here doth feel,  
For endless plagues turn here still like a 
* Psal. 83.13.  wheel.   

182  
Here may you see, for anguish, some to tear  
Their 
* And they gnawed their tongues for sorrow. Reu. 16.10.  flesh from bones, yea bones and flesh to 
* And they gnawed their tongues for sorrow. Reu. 16.10.  gnaw;  
That so they may no more those torments bear,  
Which make them burst, with choler, in their Maw:  
Some grate their 
* Math. 24. 5●  teeth, as teeth they grinding were,  
To cut the flesh which they before did saw:  
And all, and some, are so with tortures tired,  
That they seem quietst, when they most are fired.   

183  
Here Bugs bestir them, with a bellowing roar,  
(As at a Scamble we see Boys to stir)  
Who for Souls scamble on a glowing flore;  
Biting and scratching, like the Cat and Cur;  
Whiles with their Talons they their prey do gore,  
And though they strive, they do, 
* In tormenting.  therein concur:  
Within whose gripes the Soul, in silence groans,  
For fear of feeling thousand hells at once.   

184  
Here, in a corner sits an ugly form,  
That on the matter of a living Corpse  
Finds matter of much mirth; which is, t'inform  
Himself of all the sinews, and their force;  
Who, with a knife, the flesh doth all deform,  
To pull out nerves and sinews in their course:  
Which like strings, broken, hanging at a Lute;  
So hang these nerves the Body all about.   

185  
Here may you see some others driving nails,  
Under the nails of endless sorrows slaves;  
Some others, threshing them (like flax) with flails;  
Then moow then up, in groundless 
* Revel. 20.3.  gulfs by thraves:  
Some, playing on their heartstrings with their nails;  
Some others, broaching them on ragged staves:  
And all and some more busy far then Bees,  
To gather honey from the gall of these.   

186  
If Pain her utmost power awhile for bear,  
(As seld she doth; for, there she's still in force)  
It is supplied with fear, surmounting fear,  
For lo, in Azur'd flames, with voices horse,  
far off approaching grisly Forms appear  
Which fear far off, & near at hand, much worse:  
For, Fantasy with pain is more o'ercome,  
When it is coming, then when it is come.   

187  
And, all about in darkness, 
* Matth. 8.12.  thick as dark;  
Are seen to shine (like Glowworms) ugly eyes;  
Which (like a Partridge sprung) each soul do mark;  
So, that to scape no Souls power can devise:  
For, should they mount (as doth the nimble Lark)  
A ghastly Griphon doth them straight surprise:  
Or should they sink into Pits bottomless,  
There should they meet the like, with like distress.   

188  
In mortal life (though mortal be men's woes)  
Three things their utmost rage do qualify;  
That's Comfort, Hope, and Rest; but, none of those  
Come near this place of pains 
* The pains of the damned are without end, mean, or measure.  extremity:  
men's Rackers, here, being tired, do let them loose;  
But, they are Spirits that men, there, crucify;  
Who can endure all labour, without pain,  
While they do Spirits (that is for ere) remains.   

189  
But, if men's plaguers here immortal were,  
And were of power, untired, to plague them still,  
Yet would they them, yet long, to nothing 
* Nothing in this world that is violent, is permanent.  wear;  
Or them with lacerating torments kill;  
But all, so plagued, are made immortal there,  
Who though they still are spoiled, yet nought can spill:  
Then, though Time wears that on Time doth depend  
Yet they wear not, for Time doth them attend.   

190  
Yea, though their Plaguers & themselves were 
* Immortal.  such  
Yet, in this life, the Instruments of pain  
To nought would waste, with using long, & much;  
But, that same fiery 
* Revel. 19.20  Lake doth still remain,  
Which though it quite confounds, but with a tuch,  
Yet, it confounds but to torment again:  
And, lest the fire should out, prepared there is,  
A Sea of 
* Isay 30.33  Sulphur, which still feedeth this.   

191  
These present pains the Wit do (pining) waste;  
But those to come the Will do martyr most:  
The Memory is plagued with pleasures 
* In this world  past,  
And Understanding with the pleasures 
* In heaven.  lost:  
Which on the Soul the Soul of 
* The more our loss, the more is our grief.  sorrows cast;  
For, endless joys to lose, crosse-wounds our Ghost:  
To have been well, doth but increase our curse,  
But, to lose endless being well, is worse.   

192  
Then, what remains to ease the wounded 
* The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear it? Pro. 18.14.  sprite,  
When Hope, that keeps it 
* Wert not for Hope, Heart would break  whole, becomes Despair:  
For, in that dungeon of eternal night  
That most doth ruin, that should most repair:  
For, Immortality right good, by right,  
The Soul and Bodies powers doth most impair:  
Then, having but one 
* Immortality naturally is good.  good thing natural,  
Yet that made worse than Ill, how ill is All?   

193  
There, reigns what not? (that is not to be told  
With tongue, nor 
* The pain of the damned are as great as the wisdom of the Creator could devise, which is infinite, and unutterable.  pen) that sense afflicts with grief;  
There is Perditions home, Damnation's Hold;  
Which gives death life, & death, gives life relief:  
It is the utmost reach of Hot and Cold,  
And of Despair the habitation chief:  
In sum, it is the sum of all distress,  
Which subdivided makes it nothing less.   

194  
These are gehenna's Consorts; these are they  
That still associate those that thither go:  
This is the Place of that fell Monsters stay;  
The Place where pain is infinite in woe:  
The way thereto is 
* The way to Hell is heavenly in show.  plain, broad, green, and gay,  
All strewed with flowers, to 'tice men thither so:  
All which to Phusis, erst by Logus, told,  
On Aletheia made her fasten hold.   

195  
Now, to return to Phusis, and her plaint,  
Quoth she, (and her embraced all the while)  
Dear Aletheia, help me, for I faint;  
To think my Sons are near this monster vile;  
Who, with his Tusk, will tear, and all to taint  
Their tender flesh, which filthy Lusts defile:  
Which to prevent, I fain would learn of thee,  
For, thou best knowst, what's best for them, & me.   

196  
And, for I know thou canst aright persuade,  
(For all thy words are held in 
* All the earth calleth for Truth, and the Heaven blesseth it: and all things are shaken, & tremble, neither is there any unjust thing in it. 1. E●dr. 4.36.  reverence)  
ay thee beseech from Vice them to dissuade,  
And from this Land; sith none 
* In hell is no redemption.  returns from thence:  
O bid them leave their idle wandering Trade,  
And tell them of this inconvenience:  
Go, Lady go; the way thou canst not miss,  
To all their homes, and tell them home of this.   

197  
I would (quoth Aletheia) gladly go,  
But that, I fear, they will entreat me ill  
For Logus sake (near 
* Truth, and Reason near of kin.  kin to me, they know)  
But thy desire I will herein fulfil:  
For, I will go, though I myself forego,  
To bar their course, and break them of their will;  
For, life is won, though lost, in those Assays,  
Wherein the loser gains immortal praise.   

198  
Go, gracious Lady, 
* Truth is the strength, and kingdom & the power, and majesty of all ages, 1. Esdr. 4 40.  glory be thy guide  
(Quoth Lady Phusis, to this hardy Dame)  
And I, mean while, will at this Gate abide,  
With my friend 
* Nature is greatly grieved till her sons be reform.  Nosus, Porter to the same.  
So, on this journey Aletheia hied,  
For, she, though wounded oft, was never lame,  
In all her Actions she's most upright still;  
For, she will never halt, how ever ill.   

199  
This while sat Phusis at this narrow door,  
Talking with Logus, who came to 
* Reason doth cheer the heaviness of our nature in case of distress.  her there;  
Because she did as he her willed before;  
Who told him all her hope, and all her fear;  
How Aletheia did her case deplore,  
And went to school her Children every where:  
For, Hearts are eased when Tongues unfold at large,  
The griefs, or joys, which do them overcharge.   

200  
Logus her course, herein, did much commend;  
And cheered her, as she could, with heu'nly words:  
Prayed her, with 
* Patience a daughter of the Heavens, the best companion of a forlorn fortune,  patience, to expect the end;  
And comfort every way to her affords:  
Strengthening her hope that now her sons would mend;  
Sith Aletheias sayings would (like swords)  
Subdue all rank rebellion of the sense,  
For, powerful words win more than violence.   

201  
They had not thus sat reas'ning there awhile,  
But Aletheia they far off might see  
Flying to them-wards over stop and Style,  
Oft looking back, as those that chased be;  
Then well they knew hope did their hopes beguile,  
Which they, till they had tried, could not 
* Contingent Accidents are hid from the eye of Reason.  foresee:  
For, that which is contingent who doth know,  
Are only wise, and none but 
* God.  ONE is so.   

202  
But coming near them (almost breathless quite)  
She, panting, told them (windless as she could)  
How she had been (by virtue of her might)  
About the whole world, and, with courage bold,  
(For which, she said, she was in painful plight)  
All Phusis children of their 
* Reprehension unwelcome to all resolute in evil.  errors told:  
To whom (quoth she) in diverse forms I came,  
Yet kept my 
* Truth is like herself in unlike subjects.  nature, though I changed my name.   

203  
Some took me for gross Error, some for mad;  
Some, superstitious; some, heretical:  
Some, for Deceit; and some, for Vice, as bad:  
Presumptuous some; some, hypocritical:  
But, the 
* This guileful world is mortal enemy to Truth.  most part, most malice to me had;  
For they, at first sight, drove me to the wall:  
Some seemed to take my part with Tooth & Nail,  
That did (indeed) me most of all assail.   

204  
The Curious rent my Mask to see my face;  
The Proud, over looked, nay, trod me underfeete,  
The Learned, graced themselves with my disgrace;  
Th'unlearned (gravelled) filled my mouth with 
* Made Truth to speak most for the maintenance of earthly matters, etc.  Greet;  
Which made me fain, and speak as one in chase,  
So, all I met withal, with me did meet:  
Truth gets but hate, but Adulation love:  
That this is truth, unto my pain I prove.   

205  
So, when I saw the peril I was in,  
Away I fled, thus 
* The wine is wicked, the King is wicked, women are wicked, & all the children of men are wicked, and all their wicked works are such, & there is no truth in them, but they perish in their iniquity, But Truth doth abide, and is strong forever, & liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. 1. Esdr. 4.37.38  wounded as you see;  
I held it base to keep unscared my skin,  
Sith mine adventure might bring ease to thee:  
But Phusis, this I did thy love to win,  
Whom I do love, how ere thou lovest me:  
No dearer love can Love bewray then this,  
To venture that, for Love, that dearest is.   

206  
Ah, woe is me (quoth Phusis) that thou shouldst  
For my poor Love (which thou dost well deserve)  
Venture that jewel, which thou dearest hold'st,  
Yet that rare 
* Truth is in extreme peril of depravation among the unclean.  hazard, not my turn to serve:  
Thy will I see, in that I see thou wouldst  
Venture thy life my sons lives to preserve:  
And that thou shouldst for that be wounded so,  
And they the worse for that, the worse my woe.   

207  
Can neither Caveats of Mortality,  
(Which flow from thy mouth with almighty force)  
Nor my persuasions, more than motherly,  
Give them some feeling of their senseless course?  
Are their 
* The Soul that hath no feeling of sin, is dead in sin.  Souls seared with impiety,  
That they for it, therein, feel no remorse?  
Then what shall I a woeful mother do,  
But wish I Were not, and my children too?   

208  
But what, I pray, did Princes say to thee,  
When thou didst mind them that they once must die?  
They said, & therewith stabbed at me (quoth she)  
I, like a devil, in my Throat did lie:  
These, of all others, most I sought to 
* They that lack least worldly things most lack friends that will tell them the truth.  flee;  
And yet I 
* Verity and justice supports the Thrones of Princes.  honour royal Majesty:  
Without my hand sustain, Thrones reeling stand;  
For, all stayed Thrones are stayed by my hand.   

209  
And how (quoth Phusis) do the judges live?  
Many of them (replied she) doomed me death,  
Because I would not (as did others) give  
Them golden 
* Ever since Astrea forsook th' earth whosoever offers justice a golden Scabbard she will sheath her sword therein,  Scabbards, justice Sword to sheathe.  
How Lawyers? They by others losses thrive,  
And oft (quoth she) on all sides sell their breath.  
Physicians how? They reason doubtfully  
Till Fees they finger past recovery.   

210  
Poor Poets how? while they (quoth she) do fill  
The world with Fables, feed themselves with hopes  
More fabulous; so hold they but at will  
Their term of life, of some great 
* That life is worse than death that depends on a mī●ers pleasure.  Lord that opes  
His Mouth, more than his Purse, their Ears to fill  
More than their Maws; which greedy Famine grops:  
Whose biting stomachs still do stomach it,  
The while they starve for want of wealth and wit.   

211  
Ah these dear Hearts I pity in my heart,  
Who live by sweet 
* Immortal lines in Poesy, are worse than mortal lines that end our misery▪ for the first make us labour for our travel, the last make us labour for heaven, if we die well.  Lines, which do end their life;  
For, to live long, they hang themselves by Art;  
Or kill themselves with sharp Inventions knife:  
Sith they, to live, thus die, without desert,  
Long may they live where glory is more rife:  
For, greater glory no flesh can attain,  
Then die for glory, so to live again.   

212  
And do my sons (quoth Phusis) fare but thus?  
O then advise me (Lady) what to do:  
Who said, sith they no better are for us,  
Thou must 
* justice.  Astrea (my dear Sister) woo  
To rule them with the Rod of Summum ius,  
Before themselves they utterly undo:  
And woo thyself to take it patiently,  
For, better thou shouldst bear, than they should die.   

213  
For, if she rule them not when wild they be,  
She will over rule them being truly tamed,  
If, in their life, she do them not oresee,  
She, in their death, will see they shallbe damned:  
Though she be blind, she with mine 
* justice sees with Truth● eyes.  Eyes doth see,  
And I do see how life and death are framed:  
And thus, the best advice that I can give,  
Is them to mortify, that they may live.   

214  
Which having said, she Logus with her took  
(To dress her wounds) and hied her to her Bed;  
So Phusis, being of them both forsook,  
Sat at the door of Thanatus, near dead,  
And fell asleep till Logus her awoke,  
Who came again to her as if he fled:  
Whom when she saw, her heart received cheer,  
And in her face the same did soon 
* The countenance bewrais how the heart is affected.  appear.   

215  
Logus advised her straight to take advice  
Of Thanatus, and Chronus, what to do:  
Which to perform, she seemed somewhat nice,  
Because she thought they sought her to 
* Time and Death enemies to Nature.  undo:  
Yet, her love to her sons did her entice,  
Her enemies, in this behalf, to woe:  
And, thus resolved, she boldly rushed in  
Those Gates, which erst to her had fearful been.   

216  
Whose slipp'ry thresholds had near made her fall  
Into the Lake of Lethe, hard at hand;  
But, Logus held her up; yet, therewithal  
She grew so fearful, that she scarce could stand;  
But held by Logus, and a 
* Body of clay  lomy Wall:  
Then Logus her besought (that might command)  
That she no more that passage would attempt,  
For, 'tis not good the Fates too much to tempt.   

217  
But I (quoth she) will Chronus call outright;  
Who forthwith came, on her sweet sounding call;  
Holp by two wings, one 
* Day & night are the wings of Time.  black, the other white;  
And in his hand a scythe, to cut down All:  
Who seemed behind but low, and 
* When men die, their years seem but so many days, & before they die all their days so many years: The time future seems long but that past, extreme short  poor in plight;  
But yet before, most precious, trim, and tall:  
Thus came he forth, and to these Ladies said,  
Who calls? and spoke with motion most 
* Time's ever in motion.  unstaid.   

218  
'Twas I (quoth Logus) knowst thou not my voice?  
Or wilt not, sith thou wilt become unkind?  
The time hath 
* Before man's fall.  been when It did thee rejoice;  
Though now (it seems) to thee it seems but wind:  
Wilt be unconstant, so to change thy Choice?  
And shall I 
* Time, made by God, the fountain of Reason.  making thee, thee fickle find?  
But, if I shall, of this thou shalt be sure  
Thou shalt the lesser while, for that 
* Iniquity shall shorten Times continuance.  endure.   

219  
Thus Logus Chronus did reprove, because  
He would not know that voice which well he knew;  
But, Chronus he himself, from them, withdraws;  
As one that feared worse chiding to ensue:  
But, Logus bade him stay, or show a cause,  
Which 
* Reasons are yielded by Reason.  shows to Logus are all only due;  
Without whose help, old Chronus doth but dote,  
And cannot sing or say, right Word, or Note.   

220  
On this Injunction, Chronus mute did stand;  
Yet stood as one that still on 
* Still moving.  thorns had stood;  
While Logus seemed his service to command,  
And gave his Tongue 
* The office of Reason.  power to be understood:  
Quoth he, let Phusis have thy helping hand,  
To make, if so thou canst, her children good:  
For, they that hurt must heal, or make amends,  
Then (hurting them) on thee their help depends.   

221  
Here Phusis, hearing how he thus was chid,  
Was at the point, at him, likewise to 
* Our Nature is apt to insult upon the least encouragement  ra●●e,  
But Logus bade her (in her Ear) take heed;  
For, fair words would with Chronus most prevail:  
Wherewith her headstrong Will she bridle did,  
For Logus love, and for her sons avail:  
But yet she said, he did great havoc make  
Of her dear children in that Lethe Lake.   

222  
In which respect she meekly him besought  
(By way of satisfaction) that he would  
Prevent her children's going all to nought;  
And, with 
* A forcible mean to reduce the evil to good.  Examples, them from that withhold:  
For I their Mother, (quoth she) still have sought  
To make them live as toward children should:  
And if they perish, it shall be their blame,  
For, I'll leave nought unsought, to let the same.   

223  
I will, quoth Chronus; and away he flew;  
And, in one instant, made (the world throughout)  
Babes, youths: youths, Men: Men, Old: Old, Babes anew!  
Ph●sis, mean while, with Logus talked, about  
The hope she had that Chronus would subdue  
Her sons to Logus rule; which He did doubt:  
For, no man of a rational discourse  
Can think they'll mend that still wax worse and worse.   

224  
While thus they talked, they on the sudden saw  
Chronus, upon his wings, returning fast;  
Which in her smoothest hope did make a flaw;  
For, so he fled as he had been aghast:  
What news (quoth she) as he near them did draw,  
Fearing, ere she had spoke, he would be passed:  
What do my Children? Chronus say, O what?  
Speak, speak, O speak, I 
* Every moment seems an Age to ●ne that longs to hear that which his soul desires to know.  long to hear of that.   

225  
They are (quoth he) I know not what to say,  
Following their pleasures; and, do think of nought  
But how they may shift me with ease away;  
Yet I thereby the sooner them have caught:  
O what a world it is to see them play  
(Like Apes) with each vain 
* Foolishness is joy to him which is destitute of understanding, etc. Prou. 15.21.  toy too 
* Vanity holdeth nothing too dear, for things near so worthless, that may any way tend to her pleasure.  dearly bought,  
He is no man that cannot do what not?  
That wise men never knew, or have forgot.   

225  
Aim therefore (quoth she) but didst not thou  
With thy scythe menace them, to manage them?  
Didst thou not tell them thou their Backs wouldst bow,  
And that this mortal life was but a 
* job 7.6.  dream?  
O! couldst thou not, with all this, cast them low  
To mount them more to high jerusalem?  
What, have they sense, and cannot use the same,  
That have no kind of sense of sin, and shame?   

226  
When night was come (quoth he) I told each one  
The day was passed: and when the Sabbath came,  
I said a week was fully passed, and gone:  
A month expired, I 
* No warning will prevail with the wilful.  told them of the same:  
And when the Sun his complete course had run,  
I said a year was past, and spent, with shame:  
But▪ they that take delight to run awry,  
Learn so to run by Sols 
* The Sun runs an oblique course in the heavens which measures time, and in time men learn to do amiss.  course in the Sky.   

227  
In Childhood, I did teach; in Youth, did threat:  
In Manhood, I reproved: and in Age,  
With their own bones, their bones I sore did beat:  
And in Decrepitenesse, I worse did rage;  
For, I did even quench their vital heat:  
And to the gripes of death did them engage.  
Yet for all this, they worse and worse became,  
Still spoiling me, till them I 
* Men lewdly living make a sporle of time, till 〈◊〉 spoil them.  overcame.   

228  
What life then do my Younglings live (quoth she?)  
The life (said he) of wanton skipping Roes: 
The vices familiar with our natures in the several ages of our life.   
What the Youngmen? Of Goats, in Lechery:  
And what men grown? Of Cocks, proud, prone to blows:  
What aged men? Of wolves that greedy be  
And what old Age? Of crafty Foxes those:  
But, most of all, do most of all transgress,  
And 
* There is none that doth good, no not one. Psal. 17.  all, and some offend, some more, some less.   

229  
Ah out alas (cried she) what then remains  
To me, or them, but miserable woe?  
But, I will try if yet my care and pains,  
Can move them their wrong courses to forego:  
Logus and 
* In time, by reason, & experience we reform our manners, if we be not utterly void of grace.  Chronus to you it pertains  
To take my part herein, as friends should do:  
Not I (quoth Logus) for, against their will,  
I can save none, that long themselves to spill.   

230  
So, Logus left them, and away he hide  
To seek Astrea; (who, the earth had 
* Leaving her last footsteps among the men which n●w are least acquainted w●th her or her steps, Husbandmen  left)  
That she of Phusis sons might take the guide;  
While Phusis ran about (of Logus rest)  
And on her sons, with tragic voice, she cried  
Pity, O pity, me, she cried est:  
Grief, wanting vent, the Heart (tormented) breaks,  
And pain's not sad, while she at pleasure speaks.   

231  
Whereat Poliphagus (whose hearing was  
All for the Belly) said, me think I hear  
(Yet Ears the Belly 
* Venture auribus caret.  wants, but let that pass)  
The 
* No graceless wretch so unnatural but knows the voice, and law of nature, because it is written in all men's hearts.  voice of Phusis, our kind mother dear:  
The other two said, How comes this to pass  
That she is come? wherewith she did appear,  
And to them said, Dear Sons, how do ye far?  
Exceeding well (quoth they) and frolic are.   

232  
But, do ye not consider (Sons) quoth she)  
How near ye are to be devoured quite  
By that Gehenna, which I loath to see,  
(Damned hellish monster headsman of Delight)  
Except you change your course, and wary be  
To shun him and his hardly 
* Satan winnoweth us like wheat. Luke 21.31.  shunned spite?  
For, that spit's hardly shunned that hath both force  
And will, to make her Object worse and worse.   

233  
Alas (quoth they) we live, as live we should,  
Prolonging 
* They live ill that think to live ever.  Life with life's immunities;  
Except the overthrow thereof you would,  
Do not 
* It is an abomination to fools to depart from evil. Pro●. 13.19.  persuade us to live otherwise:  
What though our Souls to pleasure quite are sold,  
Are they not sold thereby to 
* To have heaven in this life, is to hold hell in the other.  Paradise?  
The Sale is good, as Reason's law maintains,  
When both the Buyer and the Seller gains.   

234  
Phusis (too fond, as too kind Mothers are)  
Seeing them well (for well they seem to be  
That live, how ever ill, without all care)  
Was 
* We measure our friends well-doing altogether by the line of worldly prosperity.  pleased with what she did both hear & see;  
Who said, that Logus sed, they ill did far,  
And were in more than mortal jeopardy:  
But sith she saw they were in perfect plight,  
She would (she said) partake of their delight.   

235  
Indeed (quoth they) that solemn 
* A scorner loves not him that rebukes him, neither will he go to the wise. Pro. 15.12.  Sage we saw;  
Who (algates) would have drawn us from our sports:  
But, whilst he drew us, we made him withdraw  
Himself from us, with many mortal 
* Reason is ever impugned and impeached by carnal Libertines.  hurts:  
He would (forsooth) have had us keep his Law;  
And done our Suit and Service to his Courts:  
Then, sith he would needs Lord it over us,  
We as free men have served his Lordship thus.   

236  
Would that (quoth she) ye had forborn, because  
Many obey him that do rule aright;  
For, Equity doth limit all his Laws;  
And they are held for mad, that with him fight:  
Hereat, as loathe t'offend, she made a pause,  
For, in their Fronts she saw the face of 
* This makes so many miseries by reason of flatterers in the world, for every one covets to please for fear of frowns.  night:  
When men look black, then if you peace desire,  
Look white, for Blackness is the child of fire.   

237  
Here, with a smiling, and indulgent look, (sweet)  
(To change their sour look with looks more than  
She told them Aletheia undertook  
To show them what was for their safety meet:  
For, her (quoth they) we never yet forsook,  
Because we never yet with her did 
* Vicious livers are strangers▪ or rather enemies to Truth ●nd her doctrine.  meet:  
Yet have we heard that she is too precise,  
To live with us in Pleasure's Paradise.   

238  
But doubtless (quoth she) Chronus was with you;  
What said he to you? what was his advice?  
He to and fro (quoth they) about us flew,  
Yet to stay with us seemed more than nice:  
He 
* These are the last, and there fore the worst times, which rather seek to reform by windy, than explanary doctrine, which persuades coldly.  coldly sought our lust's heat to subdue,  
But ere we wist, we lost him a trice:  
Yet, ere he went, with him we merry made,  
And made him most familiar with our Trade.   

239  
Wherefore, we pray you, when you go away,  
Leave him with us; For, we do well 
* All times apt to Vice then Virtue.  agree:  
I will (quoth she) so left them at their play,  
And Chronus sent to bear them company:  
With whom they revelld out the night, and day;  
Though He from them still sought away to flee:  
For Chronus weareth not his Wings for nought,  
Sith he doth far out fly the swiftest Thought.   

240  
While they thus gamesomely with Chronus toyed,  
(Deceiving him with Fancies fallacies)  
They heard a voice (which sorely them annoyed)  
That summoned them to leave their luxuries;  
Herewith by Thanatus, they were 
* They that live without thinking of their end, do commonly die ere they think of Death.  destroyed;  
To satisfy gehenna's gormandize:  
At whose approach, old Chronus fled away,  
For he could never yet, with neither stay.   

241  
Chronus thus leaving them to be devoured  
By fell Gehenna (their foe capital)  
(Of whom, by 
* The first death, to the wicked, is the entrance into the second.  Thanatus, he was assured)  
He fled to Phusis, and so, told her all:  
Who was within the Earth's womb then immured,  
Providing food for her Brood great und small;  
Assuring her He schooled them as they ought,  
Till Thanatus had them past schooling brought.   

242  
Phusis herewith tormented in the Soul,  
Ran (as distracted) where sick Fancy pleased;  
Till, at the last, she heard her Sons to howl,  
As those that were most damnably diseased:  
Exclaiming on their lives, and 
* Repentance may be too late, but never too soon.  follies fowl,  
That pleased the Sense with all that now displeased:  
But such compunction never comes but where  
The penitent doth desperate appear.   

243  
So, when she had well weighed their agonies  
Which they endured in that Monsters jaws,  
And, having viewed the like extremities,  
Proceeding from the like, or worse cause,  
Of cruel 
* Tyrants.  Kings, that of Blood make but Size  
To glue together their most bloody Laws:  
Of corrupt judges; and Priests negligent,  
The three that 
* If good, ●hey raise▪ if bad, they ruin it.  raise, or ruin Government.   

244  
The working woes of th'idle-curious;  
Of the Rich-covetous; and the Poore-prowde;  
Rebellious Subjects; Courtiers vicious:  
Lascivious Dames; damned Bawds; the cursed Crowd:  
Erroneous Teachers; Poets 
* A great torment, in the life to come, is due to those that can, and will take such an immortal revenge for any mortal in●urie.  Libellous:  
Cau'ling Philosophers, (by fools allowed)  
Of crafty Merchants; lying Advocates:  
And swearing Seamen; roving Runagates.   

245  
In few, when she had seen the many woes  
Of all that in gehenna's Hold abide,  
She was, by 
* Fear.  Phobus, (who attended those)  
Brought to the place where she did erst reside;  
Where she did many Prayers sweet compose  
Unto Astrea, (whom the Heavens did hide)  
That she would dign to teach, and to correct  
The rest of her wild Children of each Sect.   

246  
So, at these holy Prayers her I leave,  
(Sith they are never 
* None are forsaken of God that cleave to him by humble & hearty praise.  left that so do pray;)  
Now, Poets say (that all in all perceive)  
Is this a Fiction? or a true Essay?  
If both, than both are ready to deceive  
Those that would pick this Lock without a 
* The Key of Intelligence.  key:  
But, be it what it will, it is the same  
That is in earnest true, how ere in game.   

Bene cogitata, si excidunt, non occidunt.  
Mimi. Publiani.    

THE SECOND TALE: Containing, The Civil Wars of Death and Fortune.  

1  
THere was a Time (as I have heard it said,  
By those that did, at least, in Print it find)  
A certain Marriage was solemnized  
Between a mortal Pair of noble kind;  
And, for the love of those whom Love doth wed,  
Immortal Gods the 
* The Son of God's first miracle he wrought at the marriage, joh. 2. honouring the feast with his personal presence.  company refined  
●ith their pure presence; who, the Feast to grace  
●id revel (as did all the rest) a space.   

2  
Among the rest of that immortal Crew,  
Danced Death and Fortune, whose Masks were so like,  
That none, that danced, the one from other knew;  
So, in their choice of them they were to seek:  
For, some that sought for Fortune, 
* The wisest men are oft thus mistaken for not being able ●o foresee perfectly future events.  Death outdrew;  
And some that sought for Death, did Fortune strike●  
T●me was their Minstrel, who did ever play,  
Aswell when they did dance, as they did stay.   

3  
Fortune delighted most to dance with those  
That best could flatter, and the time observe;  
But Death still loved to foot it with his foes;  
Or else with such as he saw best 
* The best men Death soonest ●akes away, because this wicked world is unworthy of them.  deserve:  
When Fortune danced, she turns, she comes, and goes,  
And kept no time, though Time her turns did serve:  
But, when death danced, he did those measures tread,  
Whose times were long, & short, & tunes were dead   

4  
So, Fortune used Lavoltaes still to dance  
That rise, and 
* Fortune is ever in that m●●ion like a wave moved with the wind.  fall, as Time doth either play:  
And Death the Measure of least dalliance,  
That's Passing-measure, and so straight away:  
Or else the shaking of the Sheets (per chance)  
Which he would dance, untired, night and day:  
Wherein he put them down, so that he did  
Drive them from dancing unto 
* A sport so called.  Winck-all-hid.   

5  
The dancing done, while yet their bloods were hot,  
Fortune and Death began on terms to stand;  
Which, for their dancing, had most glory got;  
And, who their actions did best command:  
From which dispute (with choler overshot)  
They fell to 
* The contentious take small occasion to contend.  urge their powers by Sea and Land;  
The while the Gods stood most attentively,  
To hear their more contentious Colloqui.   

6  
When lo Death (Lord of all that breath this air)  
Thus 'gan t'enforce his power, beyond compare;  
I know (saith he) their honours they impair  
That strive with those that their 
* Yet mighty men of our present times think otherwise, as appeareth by their actions. Oppression.  inferiors are:  
Yet Foulness is not made a whit more fair  
By being compared with Beauty, much more rare;  
But, Foulness takes the greater foil thereby,  
And Moles are foils to set forth Beauties die.   

7  
Wert thou not blind (bold bayard) thou wouldst see,  
A mighty difference twixt thy might and mine;  
Sith among those that most almighty be,  
I do admit no power more divine:  
For Empire large, who can compare with me,  
Sith Earth and air the same cannot confine:  
Nay, in Earth, Water, yea, in Air, and 
* All elemental Bodies subject 〈◊〉 death.  Fire  
(That's all in all) I rule as I desire.   

8  
What breathes, or hath a vegetative Soul,  
But pays me tribute, as unto their King?  
Nay, do I not the host of 
* Which shall have an end.  stars control?  
Then Heaven and Earth I to obedience bring:  
And Kings, as Beggars, are in my Checke-role;  
Nay, Kings more oft then Beggars do I sting:  
As far as any thing hath 
* All that hath motion is subject to dissolution.  motion, I  
Play Rex, for, all that live, do live to die.   

9  
And therefore testify thy modesty  
(For error to defend is impudence)  
In granting that which thou canst not deny,  
And to be true, thou knowst in conscience:  
Thou sure wouldst blush, if thou hadst but one 
* The Eye is said to cause our blushing, etc.  eye,  
To stand on terms with mine omnipotence:  
But sith thine Eyes are blind, and judgement too,  
Thou canst not blush at that thou canst not do.   

10  
Thy reasons seem (quoth Fortune) strong to such,  
As do but slightly weigh them; but to me,  
(That seeth more than thou, at least as much,  
For, thou wanst 
* justice, Fortune, & Death are eyeless sith they have no respect of persons.  Eyes, as well as I, to see)  
They are too base, to brook my Trials Touch,  
For, Tyranny is no true Sovereignty:  
And, Empire large, consists not of large Parts,  
But in the free subjection of whole Hearts.   

11  
Can any King be happy or secure  
That drawing bodies, clean withdraw the hearts?  
Or is it like that Kingdom should endure,  
That is, by Hate, divided into Parts 
* A kingdoms divided, is at point to be dissolved.   
And Hate a cruel Prince must needs procure,  
That seeks his weal by all his subjects smarts:  
The Will is free, and will not be constrained,  
How ere, for it, the body may be pained.   

12  
As universal as the Universe  
Extends (I grant) thy grand authority:  
And that thy Takers (more than most perverse)  
Sickness, Mischance, Disgrace, and Destiny,  
Thy tribute take from Man, Beast (tame or fierce)  
To fill thy still-consuming Treasury:  
But, their 
* Untimely, as well as unreasonable taxings withdraw the loves of the Subjects.  untimely taking, with high hand,  
Makes thy rule odious on Sea and Land.   

13  
Such Officers, in each crazed commonweal;  
(That under colour of their Offices,  
Do, with the oblivion's favour badly deal)  
Great Mischiefs 
* Prince's often become odious to their subjects thorough the fault of those whom they put in trust to govern under them.  cause, & Inconveniences;  
Which though they touch the Subjects, kings do feel  
Who often smart for suffering that disease:  
When Princes tend their private, and neglect  
The common good, they cause this sore effect.   

14  
But balance, on the other side, my might  
In th' upright Schools of true Indiffrencie,  
And, thou shalt find I have their heart and sprite  
Freely obeying mine authority:  
For, thou compelest, but I do invite:  
I Favours 
* The readiest way to win hearts.  give, whose use thou dost deny:  
I do promote all those that rise to me,  
But thou subvertest those that fall to thee.   

15  
Then, though that universal be thy power,  
Think not, therefore, Love must to thee be such:  
For Wit and Courage may high place procure,  
But 
* Love and Bounty the best Baits to catch men.  Love and Bounty ampler power by much;  
Then of my currant 'Cause I am so sure,  
That I dare rub it hard on Trials Touch:  
And, for my part, to end this Civil War,  
I'll put it to judicious jupiter.   

16  
Although I justly may (quoth Death) deny  
To put a question, without question,  
Unto the judgement of selfe-Equity,  
(For so I hold just 
* Captare benevolentiam.  jupiter alone)  
Yet (not affecting Singularity)  
I'll make him judge in this Contention:  
Now Fortune, prove thy power, as I will mine,  
And then let jupiter judge both in fine.   

17  
So, when they were (to play this master's Prize)  
Entered this round world's spacious Theatre,  
Fortune adorned herself with Dignities,  
With Gold, & 
* Men are honoured and followed in this world, only for their fortunes.  gems which made All follow her:  
These did she fall, to make her followers rise,  
To gather which, they did themselves bestir:  
Kaiser's and King's, that usherd her the way,  
Oft caught much more than they could 
* They got Territories which they could not hold.  bear away.   

18  
Here might you see (like Beggars at a dole)  
Some thronged to death, in scambling for her alms;  
He oft sped best, that was the veriest 
* Fortune favours fools,  fool;  
Some took up Come, some Crowns, and others Palms  
For which they pulled each other by the Pole,  
While 
* chirurgeons.  othersome, for them, found precious Balms:  
Some found odd ends to make their States entire,  
And all found some thing that they did desire.   

19  
But, that which was most notable to see,  
Was the poor Priest, who still came lagging last,  
As if (God wot) he cared not rich to be,  
To whom kind Fortune livings large did cast  
(As 'twere to guerdon his humility)  
Which, in the name of God, he still held fast:  
And still looked 
* The way to thrive in that function.  down to find more, if he might,  
For, well he found, he found well by that sleight.   

20  
Philosophers (that gold did still neglect)  
Looked only but (wise-fooles) to find their 
* Elixir.  Stone;  
Which toy, in truth, was nothing, in effect,  
But to get all the world to them alone:  
For, with that Stone they would pure gold project  
Worth all the 
* A little thereof multiplies infinitely, as Alchemists affirm.  world by computation:  
But, whiles they sought a Stone so rich and fair,  
They perfect gold but turned t'imperfect air.   

21  
Thus, at the heels of Fortune all attend,  
Whom well she feëd for attending so:  
On th'other side, Death to and fro did wend  
To seek one that with him would gladly go:  
But, none he 
* Life is sweet.  found; which made him those to end  
He overtook, in going to and fro:  
For, those which are unwilling Death to meet,  
He is most willing soon them to greet.   

22  
Nor could those Officers that him foreranne  
(Sickness, Mischance, Disgrace, and Destiny)  
Affect, with his affection, any Man;  
For, none they found that willingly would die,  
Sith all, before, with 
* O Death, how bitter is thy remembrance to a man that hath pleasure in his riches? Ecclus. 41.1.  favours, Fortune wan,  
And, such desired to live eternally:  
For, it is death to think on Death with such,  
That Fortune makes too merry with too much.   

23  
Through Camps, & Hosts he travelled with a trice,  
(For, soldiers needs must meet death by their trade)  
At last he came where some were throwing dice,  
Who first a Breach should enter newly made;  
Lord how some chafed (through Glories avarice)  
For missing that which they would not have 
* Fron●●●ullae ●ides.  had:  
And, he that won, to lose his life did strive,  
Yet so, as fain he would have scaped alive.   

24  
Among the roving Crew, at Sea, he sought  
For one that willing was to go with him,  
Who, though they valued all their lives at nought,  
And oft for trifles ventured life & limb,  
Yet when their worthless bloods were to be bought  
They sold them dearly, and in blood did swim  
From bloody death, as long as they could move,  
For though they feared not death, they life did love   

25  
Through the Turks Galleys, 'mong the Slaves he went  
To seek some desperate slave that longed to die;  
But lo, not one to die would yield consent,  
For, all, through 
* Hope of future good, in this life, makes men fear death as an intolerable e●ill.  hope, still looked for liberty:  
Hope doth the heart enlarge that Grief forespent;  
And Faith keeps Hope and Life, in charity.  
Despair can never seize that hopeful heart,  
That can, through 
* 1. john 5.4.  Faith endure an hell of smart.   

26  
At last he to a Monastery came,  
(Where mortified life is most professed)  
And sought for one to meet him in the same;  
But, all therein from sudden 
* None so mortified but fears death in point of dying.  death them blest:  
And pra●'d to jesus so their lives to frame  
That suddenly Death might not them arrest:  
A Pater noster, ave, and a Creed,  
They thought right well bestowed, so well to speed.   

27  
Thence went he to an holy Ancrets Cell,  
Who seemed to be quite buried there alive;  
He Death embraced, but yet the fear of Hell  
Made him with Death, for life (in love) to 
* The fe●re of final or particular judgement makes Death unwelcome.  strive:  
He knew himself (old Fox) perhaps, too well  
Straight to presume that God would him forgive:  
So, was most willing, and unwilling too,  
To do as present Death would have him do.   

28  
In fine, Death doubting in his Cause to fail,  
Entreated Sickness such an one to find,  
That would not flinch, though Death did him assail,  
And scorned the favours of that Godddesse 
* Fortune.  blind:  
So, Sickness went, through many a loathsome jail▪  
And found, at last, one mortified in mind:  
Who though he were but poor, yet held it vain,  
To follow Fortune that did him disdain.   

29  
On whom seized Sickness, with resistless force,  
And, pulled him down so low, he could not stand;  
To whom Death came, to make his corpse a Corpse,  
Yet, as his friend, first shaked him by the hand;  
And by 
* Death's eloquence is harsh to the ear of flesh & blood  persuasions, would him fain enforce  
With willing mind, to be at his command:  
Which if he would, Death promised faithfully,  
He should die sleeping, or most easily.   

30  
This forlorn wrech thanked death for his good will,  
But yet desired one happy hour to live,  
Which ended, he would Deaths desire fulfil,  
Who from him with a Purge, did Sickness drive,  

* That which cures one may kill another.  Which shortly did one of his Kindred kill,  
From whom, as heir he did some wealth receive:  
And being well in state of health, and wealth,  
He followed Fortune more than Death, by stealth.   

31  
Now, he betook him to a Furriers Trade,  
And having Stock, he multiplied his Store;  
Then Death did mind him of the match he made,  
But, him he answered as he did before:  
Quoth he, O mar me not ere I am made,  
But let me get (kind Death) a 
* covetousness is l●ke the Dropsy the more it drinks the more 〈◊〉 may.  little more:  
Content (quoth Death) thou shalt have thy desire,  
So I may have thereby what I require.   

32  
Sables and Ermines Death for him did kill,  
And made his wealth thereby, by heaps, increase;  
Who having now (death thought) the world at will,  
He asked him if now he would decease:  
Who yet desired life, of Dearh, to fill  
His coffers to the top, then would he 
* The more interest we have in this world, the more loath we are to leave it.  cease:  
Death yet seemed pleased, and brought all those to nought  
Th'reversions of whose States he erst had bought.   

33  
Then, when he had a world of wealth obtained,  
Death came again for his consent to die;  
But now he told Death, his mind more was pained  
With thought, and 
* ●hen life is at the best, th●n Death i● better.  care, than erst in poverty:  
Therefore he prayed his death might be refrained  
Till he had gotten some Nobility:  
And then he would go willingly with Death,  
And (nobly) yield to him his dearest breath.   

34  
Death yet agreed (sith his good will he sought)  
And gave him leave to compass his intent;  
Who, of a nobleman, decayed, bought  
Both Land & 
* A custom among the Germans.  Lordship, Honour, House, & Rent;  
Then He turned Courtier, and with Courtiers wrought  
(By Death's assistance, & with money lent)  
That he, in time, became a mighty King;  
And all his Projects to effect did bring.   

35  
Then, Death (not doubting of his will to die)  
Unto him came, to know his will therein;  
But, he did Death entreat (most earnestly)  
That sith to him he had so gracious been,  
He yet might gain imperial 
* Which had, makes death the more irksome.  Dignity  
Before his Death, which soon he hoped to win:  
And then he would most willingly resign  
His life to Death, although a life divine.   

36  
Death, hoping, that the greater he was made,  
The greater glory he, by him, should gain,  
(Which might the umpire jupiter persuade  
That Death in power, was Fortunes Sovereign)  
Made neighbour Kings each other to invade,  
To whom this King a Neuter did remain;  
Who when they had by wars themselves consumed,  
He all their States, as Emperor, assumed.   

37  
Now being Caesar, Death came straight to him,  
As most assured of his company,  
But to the Emperor he seemed more grim  
Than erst he did, which made him loath to die;  
Come on (quoth Death, & therewith held a limb)  
No odds there must be now, twixt you and I:  
To 
* Men in fortunate estate had rather go with life to the Diue● then by death to God.  jove I'll bring you, then with goodwill go  
To him, with me, and see you tell him so.   

38  
Alas (said he) I am but newly come  
To honours height, and wilt thou throw me down  
Ere I be warm, or settled in my Room,  
And so my Brows scarce 
* It's a double death to die when we have attained the highest happiness of life.  feel th'●mperiall crown▪  
O suffer me to live, to tell the sum  
Of the Contentments, from my Grandeur grown;  
For, better had it been still Low to lie  
Then, being at the Highest, strait to die.   

39  
Either (quoth Death) come willingly with me  
Or thou shalt die a death thou most dost 
* Death yieldeth double terror.  fear:  
He hearing this, from Death did seek to flee,  
And cried on Fortune to assist him there,  
Peace villain then (quoth Death) I conjure thee,  
Or lower speak, that Fortune may not hear:  
Yet Fortune (which he followed) was at hand,  
And laughed for joy to hear him Death withstand.   

40  
But by this Time, the Time prefixed by jove  
Expired was: and Fortune with her brought  
A world of people, following Her in love,  
Who, willingly, for Fortune long had sought:  
These, as she moved, with her still did move,  
Because she raised them higher than she ought:  
In which respect she had more 
* Where the Carcases are the Eagles resort. Matth. 28.  followars  
Than Sol (that lights Heavens lamps) had waiting Stars.   

41  
Lord● how some (sweeting) dropped in following her,  
To whom she dropped that which be dropped them more;  
For, they were laden so, they scarce could stir,  
Who underwent the same with labour 
* gain take away the thought of pain.  sore:  
And othersome, themselves did so bestir,  
That they in each man's Boat would have an Ore;  
But, seeking to gripe more than well they could,  
Were forced to 
* All coue● all lose.  lose that which they had in hold.   

42  
Among the rest, there was an Usurer,  
(Whose Back his Belly did, for debt, arrest)  
Who being fearful of just 
* Lest he would plague him, for plaguing others with racking.  jupiter,  
Made nice to go with Fortune, and the rest;  
Sith well he knew, He was a Thunderer,  
In, and from whom, he had no interest:  
For he did never deal with such, perhaps,  
That gave for interest nought but Thunderclaps.   

43  
The Soldier came, and gave them much offence,  
That stood between his Breast, & Fortunes Back:  
So, Soldiers have backe-fortune ever since,  
For they, for others good, go still to 
* Wracked for those that will rather rack then any way relieve them.  wrack;  
And for their wracks have wrackful recompense;  
For, they are sacked, if they chance not to sack:  
And if they do, the Public Purse must have,  
That which must keep them as a public Slave.   

44  
They, with right Swords, do balance kingdoms rights;  
(A glorious office they perform the while)  
The worths of 
* The soldiers sword cuts out the Portions of Kings  Kings appears by those their weights;  
Which prove them to be valorous, or vile:  
Yet they gain nought but blows, in bloody fights,  
So, 
* Of blows.  store they get without, or fraud, or guile;  
The while the gown-man keeps unscarred his skin,  
And with his Pen (in peace) the world doth win.   

45  
O thou true jove, bow down thine upright Ear,  
To hear thy lowest Servants Orisons,  
Which, in the love which he to them doth bear,  
He makes for them (that wrack still over-runnes)  
Incline the hearts of Princes far and near,  
As Mars' Minions to love Mars' * sons:  
And, make this little Land yield great increase,  
To stay their stomachs great, in war and peace.   

46  
A Soldiers sword, from sheath, here Fortune took,  
To knight all those that her had followed well,  
Now every man did for a Knighthood look,  
That scarce had found an house wherein to dwell:  
Yet some did much their betters overlook,  
And thrust in for it, while their looks did swell:  
So, Fortune seeing them to look so big,  
Possessed them 
* Audac●s fortuna juuat.  knights, without or Turf or Twig   

47  
Sois Chevalier; Arise sir Knight, (quoth she)  
Then up he springs, for fear lest Fortune would  
Recall her word for his debility;  
Now Knight he is, for nought but being bold;  
For Fortune favours Squires of low 
* A Squire of low Degree is a Squire of no degree.  degree,  
If they be more audacious than they should:  
Now Honour hath He, get Grace where He can,  
Yet Fortune gave him grace to keep a man.   

48  
Some laid on all which they, by Fortune, got  
Upon their backs, that bravely sought to bear  
The Sword upon their shoulders, yet could not;  
For, it fell in the sheath ere it fell there:  
Fell luck it was that so they were forgot;  
Yet they 
* Not remembering who, or what they were.  forgot themselves, as did appear;  
But when they saw they missed of what they sought,  
They barred their backs, to line their guts, for nought.   

49  
Which jupiter himself did laugh to see;  
For, these so much were moved with this disgrace,  
That they were at the point to Death to flee,  
And Fortune leave, for such their fortune base:  
Yet followed her (most malecontentedly)  
Beceuse they followed her unto that place:  
To cast away long service on a spleen,  
Is not to foresee, but to be o'erseen.   

50  
O! 'twas a world to see what shift was made  
To hold up Greatness with a little stay;  
'Twere sin to say some used the Cheater's trade,  
To borrow with a purpose 
* A venial sin at most as these ●imes esteem it.  ne'er to pay;  
And get all, howsoe'er, that might be had,  
No, no, they did not so, I dare well say:  
But this I say, perhaps, they lived by wit,  
And so to live, some great Ones think it fit.   

51  
Now, in these knightly times ye might have seen  
(If you, for pleasure, had but ta'en the pain)  
Each one ye met withal, a Knight in green;  
And so the world, b'ing old, grew green again;  
As if the same but in the Blade had been;  
For, each one did his 
* A Hangerblade in a green scabbard  Hanger on, sustain:  
Now, Time stood still, to sport himself in May;  
For, all was Green, and at that state did stay.   

52  
Some shuffled for some Office: some to gain  
Some Monopole, which then could not be got:  
For, Fortune did those Monopoles restrain,  
Because she thought 'twas to her Rule a Blot  
To pleasure One by all her subjects pain,  
Though oft they made them seem, as they were 
* Changed their Countenance with artificial complexions.  not:  
Some cried for war, and othersome for peace,  
But Fortune, though they cried, still held her peace.   

53  
Now, some, for Coin their Offices did sell,  
As if they had been cloyed with Fortune's grace;  
And those that bought them, others did compel  
To 
* That which is dearly bought, must be dearly sold.  pay for them, when they were in their Place:  
And some, in seeking somewhat, did rebel;  
But Fortune brought them soon to wretched case:  
Some strong, sent long men to jerusalem,  
Out of the way, to make a way for them.   

54  
Now, for Truth's Matters, there was much ado;  
Some this, some that, some none of both would have:  
And yet all three did (restless) Fortune woe,  
To yield to neither, that did either crave  
In world's behalf, or flesh's fixed thereto;  
But all, in 
* All is not gold that glisters.  show, did seek but Truth to save:  
For, all seemed to solicit Zions cause,  
Which they would have confirmed by the Laws.   

55  
Some said they lied that only Truth did teach;  
Some envied them that lived by teaching so:  
And at their lives, and livings sought to reach,  

* The injurious offer.  Which they forgave, but would not so forego:  
Sums Tongues defended Truth, which they did preach,  
Whose actions gave her many a bitter 
* They had Jacob's voice and Esau's hands.  blo:  
Some lived, as dying, while they sought to live;  
And some died living; yet did most relive.   

56  
Some, Liars called Carnall-libertie  
The glorious Liberty of Truth's dear Sons;  
And 
* Truth.  her they urged to prove that verity;  
But, Truth's betrayed by such untrusty Ones,  
That Sacrilege do gild with Sanctity;  
Yet, for that, look for high promotions:  
O 'tis a world of mischief when Pretence  
Doth shroud a world of Inconvenience!   

57  
When Truths sons play the Politicians,  
Heaven help thee Truth, in Earth thy case is hard:  
Truth's hardly matched with Machiavelians,  
That her will wound so they themselves may ward:  
For, pious Politicians are black 
* For their rarity.  Swans;  
And, blessed are Realms that they do (ruling) guard:  
But whereas Statesmen mere Earth meditate,  
There Heavenly matters squared are by the State.   

58  
Some others followed her, by following others;  
Upon great men these greatly did 
* Such dependency is as full of difficulty as uncertainty: Enuying among the servants cause of the first, mutability of those great men's minds occasioneth the last.  depend,  
All those, for likeness, might have been my brothers,  
Who then began to live, when life did end:  
Or if before, they were blest in their mothers;  
For, those they tended that themselves did tend:  
It is absurd that Lords should tend their men,  
Yet some Lords (Gods fools) do it now and then.   

59  
Some of these Servants were so fortunate,  
That they came forwards, 
* In their own not in their Lords right: for many get money in their Lord's service, to buy their Lords lands to do them service.  while their Lords went back:  
For, Love beginning with ourselves, we hate  
Ourselves; if we by Service go to wrack:  
Their Lords they loved for their own estate;  
And loved to have that which their lords did lack:  
O they are careful Servants that will keep  
Their lords estate, while they, with Pleasure sleep.   

60  
And some of this sort thrived, not by their Lords;  
Yet by their Lords; for, by their leave, they sell  
Their favours, nay their honours, deeds, and words,  
And care not who do ill, so they do well:  
Whose Clarkeship so much Art to them affords,  
That for an Inch, aloud, they took an 
* London measure.  Ell:  
So mere Cliffs made they of their Lords to climb  
To some high note, by keeping Tune, and Time.   

61  
These Climbers in each Clime are highest of all  
In their 
* Who are wise in their own eyes, there is more hope of a fool then of such. Prou. 26.125  conceit; for, they conceive they can  
The round world bandy like a Racket-Ball;  
And make a mere fool of the wisest Man:  
They ween the world without them were so small,  
As Ladies well might wield it with their Fan:  
O there's no measure in the pride of such.  
That from too little, rise to reach to too much!   

62  
Some others thought they Fortune gracious found,  
Genus and 
* Mere Scholars.  Species throwing in their way;  
Which they took up, and them together bound,  
To stay with them to be to them a stay:  
But in the binding did them so confound,  
That they proved fools in 
* Men learned, without judgement, whom the Proverb, The greatest Clerks are not the wisest men, concerneth.  specie to betray  
Genus and Species to such bitter Bands,  
For which they lost both honour, goods, and lands.   

63  
Lord, how some cloistered up themselves like Friars,  
To find out 
* Genus and Species.  These, whom thus they did betray;  
And lay in ambush for them many years,  
Watching, by candlelight, oft night and day;  
Spending much money of their friends, or theirs,  
And all (God wot) but to abuse their 
* Misuse that little learning they catch.  prey:  
O Genus, Genus, Species, Species, ye  
Be most accursed, that thus still coursed be;   

64  
Some 
* Mathematicians.  others looked for Euclids Elements,  
Whereof, they thought, the whole world did consist;  
Which found, they found therein such sweet contents,  
That Euclid carried them which way he 
* The Mathematics are most pleasing and alluring knowledges ill rewarded, yet, they steal the studier● thereof from themselves.  list;  
They looked for nothing less than Regiments,  
But held themselves in Euclid only blessed:  
Who blest them so, that if for lands they sought,  
They got no land, but measured land for 
* ●or little.  nought.   

65  
Others there were, that sought to find a 
* Magicians.  Spell,  
And needs would rise to Fortune by a Fiend;  
Whom they would raise, for that intent from hell;  
These tended fiends too much, 
* Conjurers and Witches are always Beggars.  good Fate to tend:  
Who whiles they sought the gods themselves t'excel,  
They died, like damned Beggars, in the end:  
So, they that needs would rise through devils aid,  
Down to the devil were, at last, conveyed.   

66  
Some others looked for Spirits, not Spirits of hell,  
But spirits of 
* Distillators & Extracters of Quintessences.  sack, and liquors of that kind;  
Wherewith they thought (if once they could excel)  
They could the hands of Fortune loose or bind:  
This made them (like poor Crickets) still to dwell,  
In, or about the fire till they were blind:  
And then, like Bats, that still do loath the light,  
They keep the dark conversing with that 
* Of liquours.  spirit.   

67  
Others there were that sought to find the way  
T'annatomize the Corpse of Reasoning,  
With Logical Conclusions; these would play  
As jugglers play with Boxes, or a Ring;  
Make men believe what ere they please to 
* Subtle Sophisters.  say;  
And to a Nonplus reason herself to bring:  
On these, indeed, too oft would Fortune smile,  
To see how they the fond world did beguile.   

68  

Orators.  Some wordy-men, by words, sought worthiness,  
These reached at Rhetorics Rules to rule thereby;  
And they that found the same, found little less  
Than greatest 
* Fortune doth well most commonly by men that do speak well  Rule, for they ruled wordily:  
These men, for need, could make some men confess,  
They Treachers were, and yet themselves bely:  
These still were Fortune's Minions; for they could  
With wind of words o'erthrow wits strongest hold.   

69  
Others there were that still gazed on the Stars,  
As if by Stars, they should the Sun transcend:  

Astronomers, Prognosticators.  These told of future weathers, woes, and wars,  
Of the beginnings of them, and their end:  
Of Prophets that should rise (to kindle jars)  
And of I wot not what, which they defend:  
But while they blabbed out Fortune's Secrets, she  
Made them but poor, and liars held to be.   

70  
Some sought for Notes, so to be notable,  

Musicians.  Not Notes to rule themselves, but Notes in Rule;  
To rule the voice by those Notes tunable,  
Yet many did themselves the while misrule:  
Who while their Heads held points commendable,  
In many points they erred from Reason's Rule:  
So, this gift Fortune gave their Heads: they should  
Still hold more Crotchets, than their Purses Gold.   

71  
Some others sought for Tongues as if they would  
Have stopped their flight, as they from Babel fled, 
Linguists.   
By catching them in nets; so them to hold,  
For themselves only, till themselves were dead:  
These rich in Tongues, were not still so in gold;  
For, their Tongues tasted oft too much of 
* Many golden Linguists have leaden invention.  Lead:  
So, these wel-tonged men tied were by the Tongues,  
Oft to be authors of their proper wrongs.   

72  
As some sought Tongues, so others 
* Penne-men, or fair writers.  Hands did seek;  
Italian, Roman, Spanish, French, and Dutch,  
With Letter Frieze among, and Letter creak;  
Those with their ha●ds, did Fortune seldom touch;  
For, they would needs teach those hands in a week,  
So, sold for little, that they sold for much:  
For it is much to give a Crown for nought)  
But only to mar hands, too evil taught. 
It is a bad bargain to give aught for nought.    

73  
These pasted up, in each place where they came,  
(And no place was there where they did not come)  
Bills (& those Hands they held were oft but lame)  
That they would give their Hands, for some small sum;  
To those that would but trust them for the same  
So, in a week, they cozened all and 
* They shame the 〈…〉 utterly.  some:  
For, in a week, and some odd hours beside,  
They promised that which they could not abide.   

74  
Their occupation brought thus to disgrace,  
They, though they would with all 
* For their recompense.  aforehand be,  
Yet ran behind hand still, from place to place:  
So, with their Hands they caught but A, B, C:  
Which by interpretation of the place,  
Is, ᵃ all ᵇ base ᶜ Cheaters be, that so do flee:  
I wish those Handmen their hands well had used,  
For, I know Penmen that are so abused.   

75  
But some of Fortune's followers were her foes,  
And Death's true 
* Fencers.  friends (who for him swords unsheath  
But showed it not, lest she should then dispose  
Where, if they would, they could not meet with 
* In strait prison.  death:  
These followed her for nothing but for blows,  
For they, with fencing, kept themselves in breath:  
And, for they could but breath by that their trade,  
They still were willing Fortune to invade.   

76  
Some followed her by 
* Stage players.  acting all men's parts,  
These on a Stage she raised (in scorn) to fall:  
And made them Mirrors, by their acting Arts,  
Wherein men saw their 
* Showing the vices of the time.  faults, though ne'er so small:  
Yet some she guerdoned not, to their 
* W.S.R.B.  deserts;  
But, othersome, were but ill-Action all:  
Who while they acted ill, ill stayed behind,  
(By custom of their manners) in their mind.   

78  
If manners make men's fortunes good, or bad,  
According to those manners, bad, or good, 
Sui cuique m●r●s fingunt fortunam.   
Then men, ill-mannered, still are ill bestead;  
Because, by Fortune, they are still withstood:  
Ah, were it so, I muse how those men had  
Among them some that swam in Foizons flood;  
Whose manners were but apish at the best;  
But Fortune made their fortunes but a jest.   

79  
There were knights-arrant, that in Fortune's spite,  
(Because they could not king it as they would)  
Did play the Kings, at least proud kings in sight,  
And oft were prouder than a Caesar should:  
Yet Nature made them men by Fortune's 
* When men have gotten wealth they are said to be made.  might,  
And Fortune made them Nature's Zanee bold:  
So those, in nature, Fortune flouted so,  
That though she made them Kings, she kept them low.   

80  
But some there were (too many such, there are)  
That followed Fortune in more abject kind;  
These matches made between the Hound & Hare, 
Panders.   
I would say whore; for, men hunt such to find:  
These faithless beastly Brokers of cracked ware  
Had too too often Fortune in the wind;  
Who followed so the sent, 
* They live like flesh flies upon the sorts of men.  that oft they did  
Find her where she, from those they spoiled, lay hid.   

81  

Land-badgers Drovers.  Some others followed her by badging Land,  
Or beastly grazing (yet made men thereby)  
For, they that did those mysteries understand  
Caught hold of Fortune in obscurity;  
To whom she (strumpet-like) lay at command,  
Who, lusting for her, gripped her greedily:  
Till they grew great by her: O monstrous birth,  
Where She the He makes great with Grass and Earth!   

82  

Lawyers.  The Lawyers went with these, with hands as full  
Of Deeds, and Manuscripts as they could hold▪  
But, Fortune from the same those Scripts did pull,  

Gold sets an edge on an Orator's tongue, and makes it cut like a razor.  And in exchange filled either fist with Gold:  
For, whiles they had but Papers their were dull;  
But being wel-mettled they were blithe and bold:  
For, Gold's a sovereign Restorative,  
And makes men more than dead, much more than live.   

83  
Aurum potabile is of that power  
(If store thereof be powered in out of hand  
Like jupiters' prevailing 
* Gold is the God of this world th●t ruins and winds the same as it listeth.  Golden Shower)  
That it will make Death lie at Life's command:  
It is the Aquavitae which doth cure  
All sore Consumptions that our weal withstand:  
Nay 'tis the Aqua fortis which will eat  
Through leaden Breasts, Cares, fretting, thence to fret.   

84  
O give me Gold, and I will do, what not?  
And let but store of Angels wait on me,  
I'll make myself a God, with 
* Hire Mercenary Switzers and Soldiers to maintain all unjust quarrels even with monarchs.  Thunder-shot;  
Nay, I will make the Earthly Gods to flee  
To Hean'n, or Hell, where they shall be forgot,  
Sith there no God but I will minded be:  
But God, thou know'st, the Age is iron the while  
That hammer can a God of thing so vile!   

85  
O! gold, the god which now the world doth serve,  
(This Midas-world that would touch nought but gold  
Gild her body while her soul doth starve)  
How glorious art thou (held fast) to 
* So saith the rich miser. Riches gather many friends, but the poor is separate from his neighbour. Prou. 19.4.  behold?  
Thou mak'st a Beast a Man, and Man to swerver  
More than a Beast; yet thou dost all uphold:  
For, whom thou tak'st into thy Patronage,  
It matters not what is his Title-Page.   

86  
Men value men according to thy weight; 
The world in his unjust Balance weighs men accordidg to their Wealth & not by any other worthiness.   
For, be their value ne'er so valorous  
It's held but base and made, by nature, sleight;  
Nor can it be nor good, nor glorious,  
Without thy virtue do it over-freight;  
And so remain they without Grace, or Use:  
But, if thou list to lad a leaden Ass,  
(While thou rid'st on him) he o'er gods doth pass.   

87  
Come Gold: them come (dear Gold) & ride on me,  
I'll be thine 
* No wiseman comparable to the golden Ass.  Ass, or Packhorse, which thou wilt;  
Although thou heavy art, I'll carry thee;  
Albeed thou art much heavier through thy guilt:  
Lad me (good Gold) till my back broken be:  
Sith, thou again canst make me, being spilled:  
For all men now may use me like a Sot,  
(That bears abuse) because I bear thee not.   

88  
Then foot it not whiles Copper rides on me,  
Base Copper dogs, being made themselves to bear  

But it is mere madness not to b●●re with insensible creatures: & blessed are those that in this in●●●ious world, possess their Soule● in patience.  But logs and faggots (for a starving fee)  
And in a Chimneys end away to wear:  
Then up (fair Gold) I'll so mount under thee,  
As if no ground should hold me, when I rear:  
For, by how much the more thou mak'st me bend,  
So much the more thou mak'st me to ascend.   

89  
Ride on me Gold, and I will ride on those  
(If so I lust) of men, or womenkind,  
That shall be great, or fair, or friends, or foes,  
Until I ridden have them out of wind:  

Better is a little with the fear of God, then great treasure, 〈◊〉 trouble 〈…〉 15 16.  But Heaven my Heart still otherwise dispose,  
For, riding so, I blister should my mind:  
Which still would run with matter of annoy,  
And Soul, and Body so, perhaps, destroy.   

90  
Then, gold, sith thou wouldst 
* The touchstone trieth gold and gold trieth men. Be●rer is a dry morsel with peace than an house full of sacrifices with strife. Prou. 17.1.  tempt me to this spoil  
Farewell (dear Gold) I'll not buy thee so dear;  
I am content, without thy help, to toil  
For so much Silver as will arm me here  
'Gainst wounding Wants, which there do keep a coil,  
Where nothing is but care, and grief, and fear;  
My Back and Belly kept, in rest I'll sleep,  
(Through conjuring Books) from gold, that devils keep.   

91  
The Fox will eat no Grapes: well, be it so; 
That that is to be desired of a man, is his goodness, P●. 19 22. which seldom is found among much goods.   
I'll eat no Grapes that set my teeth on edge,  
To eat such bits as bane where oft they go,  
And Heart and Mind do all alike besiege:  
Who gathers golden fruits in Hell that grow,  
Do for the same oft put their Souls to pledge:  
But in that state that stands with little cost,  
Is found the golden life that Adam lost.   

92  
Touching this World (to my blame be it said)  
I think of nothing, but what nothing brings;  
And yet no thing more musing then my head;  
And yet my Muse my head with nothing mings:  

* Head, and Muse.  Both feed on 
* Praise.  air, wherewith is nothing fed  
But dead, or dull, or else mere witless things:  
For sure that wit ne'er came near wisdoms schools  
That weenes' mere Air fat's any thing but fools.   

93  
I would, and would not, have, what I have not:  
I would not have, that had, the heart inflates:  
Yet would I have my Luck light on that Lot  
That 
* As far from want as from too much.  mends the drooping Mind, & Bodies states:  
In too much, Nature oft is overshot;  
And oft too little, Art disanimates:  
Then, in this life, that seek I, for my part,  
That Nature keeps in life, and quickens Art.   

94  
To bury Living thoughts among the dead,  
(Dead earthly things) is, ere Death comes, to die:  
For, dead they are that lie in 
* Minds always conversant with these metals are dull, & make the bodies dead to all goodness wherein they are.  Gold, or Led;  
As they are buried that in Earth still lie:  
The thoughts are most relieved when they are fed  
With angels 
* Divinity.  food, or sweet Philosophy:  
But, some seem on this Manna still to live,  
Whom Quails and Woodcoks most of all relieve.   

95  
Well, let these some outlive as many years,  
As they have hairs, they do but living die:  
If so; their Souls must needs be full of fears,  
Whose Hopes in this dead life alone do lie:  
For, they wear ever double as Time wears;  
In Soul and Body wear they double- 
* Die eternally in both  die:  
O then, how painful is that pleasant life,  
Wherein all joy, with such annoy, is rife.   

96  
Bear with me Readers (that's the recompense  
I ask for telling you this merry Tale)  
For running out of my Circumference,  
I'll come in straight, before a merry Gale:  
But, yet a word or two, ere I go hence,  
And then have with you over Hill and Dale:  
Nothing shall let me to relate the rest,  
For, commonly behind remains the best.   

97  
This world (me seems) is like, I wot not what:  
That's hard; for, that is no comparison: 
The world is like nothing: sith by sin●● 〈◊〉 was m●rre● after it 〈◊〉 made: & 〈◊〉 is nothing, because● he 〈◊〉 that made a●l things made it not.   
Why that's the cause I it compare to that;  
For, who's he like to, that is like to none?  
'tis not like God; for, 'tis too full of hate:  
Nor like the Diu'l, for he fears God alone:  
It is not like to Heaven, Earth, nor Hell,  
Nor aught therein, for, they in compass dwell!   

98  
Then what is't like? if like to any thing,  
It's like itself; and so it is indeed:  
Or, if you will, like to the oldest Ling, 
Simile.   
That limbs their fingers that on it do feed:  
So that, all things they touch, to them do 
* Every ●●nger as good as ● lime twinge.  cling, 
Proverb   
And let them so, from doing purest deed:  
If so it be, how mad are men the while  
To cleave to that which do them so defile?   

99  
Now, this most noghtie thing, or thing of nought,  
I cannot skill of; though but bade I am;  
Therefore by me it least of all is sought,  
Though oft I seek for pleasure in the same;  
Which yet (I hope) shall not be over-bought,  
For, I will give but goodwill for my 
* Harmless recreation.  game:  
And if goodwill will me no pleasure bring  
I'll buy therewith (I hope) a better thing.   

100  
Now from myself, I eft to Fortune fly,  
(And yet I fly from Her, and She from me)  
Who came thus followed with this Company,  
That jupiter did envy it to see:  
There did she muster them, in policy,  
That jove of all might well informed be:  
For, when an heap confused are called by Poll,  
The many parts do make the number 
* It makes the number appear as it is.  whole.   

101  

Philosophers and Poet's furthest off Fortune.  'mongst whom Philosophers and Poets came,  
(Last of the Crowd) and could not well appear;  
To whom blind Fortune gave nought else but fame,  
Whereof they fed; but looked lean with their cheer:  
So, they in Heaven deified this Dame,  
Sith they (poor souls) could not come at her here:  
And ever since a Goddess called she is,  
Poets thank her for That, She you for This.   

102  
Who, though they be (perhaps) but passing poor,  
Yet can they deify whom ere they will;  
Then demi-gods should cherish them therefore,  
That they may make them whole 
* They affect misery much more than Divinity.  gods by their skill:  
Twixt whom there should be interchange of store,  
And make of Wit and Wealth a mixture still,  
That may each others woeful wants supply;  
For, men by one another live, or die.   

103  
Vain fools, what do ye mean to give her heaven,  
That gives you nothing but an earthly hell?  
That's only 
* Flesh-pineing Praise  air, which she to you hath given,  
To make ye pine, whilst ye on earth do dwell:  
Ne'er speak of Wit, for ye are Wit-bereau'n  
To lie for nought, and make 
* Men, like the devil great and nought.  Nought so excel:  
For, now, who for him 
* If thou be wise, thou shalt be wi●e for thyself. Prou. 9.12.  self's not wise alone,  
Is vainly wise, though wise as Solomon.   

104  
By this time Death came with his Emperor,  
Who followed Death, far off, which jove did see;  
To whom Death said, Lo upright jupiter,  
This Kesar (though a Caesar) follows me:  
He doth indeed (said jove) though somewhat far  
(But kept in off, to show indiffrencie)  
For, though the judge do judge aright (sometime)  
Before both Tales be heard) it is a crime.   

105  
How sayst (quoth he) Lieutenant▪ didst thou come  
With Death to us of thy mere own accord?  
Whereat the Emperor was strooken dumb,  
For, he feared 
* The more we love the world the more we fear death.  death, as slaves do fear their Lord:  
Yet, with desire of glory overcome,  
At last he spoke, yet spoke he but a word,  
Which was, save I the shortest word of words,  
For, No a letter more than I affords.   

106  
Which he with submiss voice (scarce audible)  
Uttered, as one that would not well be heard;  
But jupiter (although most sensible)  
took on him not to hear, and priest him hard  
To speak (through fear) not so insensible;  
For, my vice 
* ●●are is a stranger to great hearts.  joves (quoth he) are ne'er afeard:  
Therefore, on thy allegiance unto me,  
I charge thee speak, as thou from death wert free.   

107  
Then, with a princely death-out-daring 
* No courage 〈◊〉 the desperate Cowards.  look  
He said, Dread jove, I had been worse than mad,  
Sith your lieutenancy to me you took,  
If I so great a grace neglected had;  
Which so I had, if so I had forsook  
Without your notice, that which made me glad:  
Nor would I have with Death come now to you,  
But that he threatened me to bring me low.   

108  
Wherewith the judge (just jove) did sentence give 
jupiters' Sentence.   
On Fortune's side; which made Death rage so sore,  
That at the Emperor he amain did drive,  
Whilst jove looked on, and Fortune fled therefore:  
Short tale to make, he did him life deprive,  
And ever since Death rageth more and more:  
That now all men false Fortune do prefer,  
Before just Death; nay juster jupiter.   

109  
And, thus with Death (that All in fine doth end)  
We end our Tale, and, if a lie it be,  
Yet naked Truth dares such a lie 
* Scripture Parables contain truth in their morality, though not in the Letter.  defend;  
Because such lies do lie in verity:  
But though loud lies do lie, they will not bend  
So low as most profound Morality:  
Then, be it lie, or be it what it will,  
It lies too high, and low for Death to kill.   

Bene cogitata, si excidunt, non occidunt.  
Mimi Publiani.   
Finis.   

The Triumph of DEATH: OR, The Picture of the Plague: According to the Life, as it was in Anno Domini. 1603.  

SO, so, just Heavens, so, and none otherwise,  
Deal you with those that your forbearance wrong  
Dumb Sin (not to be named) against us cries  
Yea, cries against us with a tempting tongue.  
And, it is heard; for, Patience oft provoked  
Converts to Furies all-consuming flame;  
And, foulest sin (though ne'er so cleanly cloaked)  
Breaks out to public plagues, and open shame!  
Ne'er did the heavens bright Eye such sins behold  
As our long Peace and Plenty have begot;  
Nor ere did Earth's declining props uphold  
An heavier plague, than this outrageous Rot!  
Witness our Cities, Towns, and Villages,  
Which 
* Therefore ha●h the curse devoured the Land, and the inhabitants thereof are desolate. Isai. 24 6.  Desolation, day and night, invades  
With Coffins (canon-like) on Carriages,  
With trenches rammed with Carcases, with Spades!  
A shiu'ring cold (I sensibly do feel)  
Glides through my veins, and shakes my heart and hand,  
When they do prove their virtue, to reveal  
This plague of plagues, that overlades this Land!  
Horror stands gaping to devour my Sense  
When it but offers but to 
* Who among you shall hearken to this, and take heed and hea●e for afterwards. Isai. 42.23.  mention it;  
And Will abandoned by Intelligence  
Is drowned in Doubt, without her Pilot Wit!  
But, thou, O thou great giver of all grace,  
Inspire my Wit, so to direct my Will,  
That notwithstanding either's wretched case,  
They may paint out thy Plagues with grace, with skill,  
That so these Lines may reach to future 
* Now go & write it before them in a Table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the last day for ever and ever. Isai. 30.8.  times,  
To strike a terror through the heart of Flesh;  
And keep It under that by Nature climbs,  
For, Plagues do Sin suppress when they are fresh.  
And fresh they be, when they are so expressed,  
As though they were in being seen of Sense;  
Which divine Poesy performeth best,  
For, all our speaking Pictures come from thence!  
The object of 
* I am the man that hath seen affliction in the rod of his indignation. Lament 3.1.  mine outward Sense affords  
But too much Matter for my Muse to form;  
Her want (though she had words at will) is words,  
T'express this Plagues unutterable * Storm!  
Fancy, thou needst not forge false Images  
To furnish Wit t'express a truth so true;  
Pictures of Death stop up all Passages,  
That Sense must needs those obvious objects view.  
If Wit had power t'express what Sense doth see,  
It would astonish Sense that 
* Hear, ye deaf, and ye blind▪ regard that ye may see. Isa. 42▪ 18  hears the same;  
For, never came there like Mortality,  
Since Death from Adam to his Children came!  
Scarce three times had the Moon replenished  
Her empty Horns with light; but th'empty Grave  
(Most ravenous) devoured so the Dead,  
As scarce the dead might Christian burial have!  
Th'Almighties hand that long had, to his pain,  
Offered to let his Plagues fall, by degrees,  
And with the offer pulled it back again,  
Now breaks his Vial, and a Plague out-flees,  
That glutts the Air with Vapours venomous,  
That puttrifie, infect, and flesh confound,  

Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, and gone backward: therefore will I stretch out mine hand against thee, and destroy thee: for I am weary with repenting. jerem. 15.6.  And makes the earths breath most contagious,  
That in the Earth and Air but Death is found!  
A deadly Murrain, with resist less force,  
Runs through the Land and levels All with it!  
The Coast it scoured, in uncleanly Course,  
And thousands fled before it to the 
* Fear, & the pit, & the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. Isai. 24.17.  Pit!  
For, ere the breath of this Contagion,  
Could fully touch the flesh of Man, or Beast,  
They on the sudden sink, and straight are gone,  
So, instantly, by thousands, are decreased!  
No Physic could be found, to be a mean,  
But to al●aie their Pain, delay their Death;  
In this physicians Harvest, 
* Physicians.  They could glean  
But corrupt Air and Danger by that Breath.  
All Arts and Sciences were at a stand,  
And All that lived by them, by them did die;  
For death did hold their heads, & stayed their hand,  
Sith they nowhere could use their Faculty.  
The nursing 
* Universities.  Mothers of the Sciences  
Withdrew their Foster-milke while wit did fast;  
For, both our forlorn Universities  
Forsaken were and Colleges made fast▪  
The Magistrates did sly, or if they stayed,  
They stayed to pray, for if they did command,  
Hardly, or never should they be obeyed;  
For, Death dares all Authority withstand.  
And, where's no Magistrate, no Order is;  
Where Order wants, by order doth ensue  
Confusion straight, and in the neck of this  
Must silent Desolation all subdue!  
For fear whereof, both king, & kingdom shakes,  
Sith Desolation threatens them so sore;  
All hope of earthly help the Land forsakes,  
And Heaven powers 
* Then said I, Lord, how long? and he answered, until the Cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the Land be utterly desolate. Isai. 6 11  plags upon it more & more!  
Now, Death refreshed with a little rest  
(As if inspired with the Spirit of Life)  
With fury flies (like Air) through man and beast,  
And makes eftsoons the murrain much more rife!  
London now 
* And the Cities that are inhabited shall be left void, the land shall be desolate, & ye shall know that I am the Lord Ezech. 12.20.  smokes with vapours that arise  
From his foul Sweat, himself he so bestirs;  
Cast out your Dead, the Carcasse-carrier cries,  
Which he, by heaps, in groundless graves interres!  
Now scours he Streets, on either side, as clean  
As smoking showers of rain the Streets do scour;  
Now, in his Murdering, he observes no mean,  
But tag and rag he strikes, and striketh sure.  
He lays it on the skins of Young and Old,  
The mortal marks whereof therein appear:  
Here, swells a Botch, as high as hide can hold,  
And, Spots (his surer Signs) do muster there!  
The South wind blowing from his swelling cheeks,  
Sultry hot Gales, did make Death rage the more,  
That on all Flesh to wreak his Wrath he seeks,  
Which flies, like 
* Zephon. 2.2  chaff in wind, his breath before!  
He raiseth Mountains of dead carcases,  
As if on them he would to Heaven ascend,  
T'assuage his rage on divine Essences,  
When he of Men, on Earth, had made an end.  
Nothing but Death alone, could Death suffice,  
Who made each 
* Even the mouse shall be consumed together, saith the Lord, Isa. 66.17.  Mouse to carry in her Coat  
His heavy vengeance to whole Families,  
Whilst with blunt Botches he cuts others throat!  
And, if such Vermin were thus all employed,  
He would constrain domestic 
* Tame Pigeons, Cocks, Hens, Capons, etc.  fowls to bring  
Destruction to their haunts; So, men destroyed  
As swiftly as they could bestir their wing!  
So, Death might well be said to fly the field,  
And in the House foil with resistless force,  
When he abroad all kind of Creatures killed  
That he found living in his lifeless Course!  
Now like to Bees, in Summer's heat, from Hives,  
Out 
* Arise and depart, for this is not your rest, because it is polluted, it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction. Michah 2.10.  fly the Citizens, some here, some there;  
Some all alone, and others with their wives:  
With wives and children some fly, All for fear!  
Here stands a Watch with guard of Partezans  
To stop their Passages, or too, or fro;  
As if they were nor Men, nor Christians,  
But Fiends, or Monsters, murdering as they go!  
Like as an heart, death-wounded, held at Bay  
Doth fly, if so be can, from Hunter's chase,  
That so he may recover (if he may)  
Or else to die in some more easy place.  
So, might ye see (dear Heart) some lusty Lad  
Struck with the Plague, to high him to the field,  
Where in some Brake, or 
* And he that flieth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, etc. Isa. 24.18  Ditch (of either glad)  
With pleasure, in great pain●, the ghost doth yield!  
Each Village, free, now stands upon her guard;  
None must have harbour in them but their own:  
And as for life and death all watch, and ward,  
And fly for life (as Death) the man unknown!  
For, now men are become so monstruous  
And mighty in their power, that with their breath  
They leave no ills, save goods, from house to house,  
But blow away each other from the Earth!  
The sickest Sucklings 
* Ye shall conceive chaff, & bring forth stubble, the fire of your breath shall devour you. Isai. 33.11.  breath was of that force  
That it the strongest Giant overthrew;  
And made his healthy corpse a carrion Corse,  
If it (perhaps) but came within his view!  
Alarm, alarm, cries Death, down, down with All;  
I have, and give Commission All to kill:  
Let not one stand to piss against a wall,  
Sith they are all so good, in works so ill.  
Vnjoint the body of their Commonweal,  
Hue it in pieces, bring it all to nought;  
With Rigours boisterous hand all Bands conceal,  
Wherein the heavens stand bound to Earth in aught.  
Wound me the scalp of human Policy,  
Sith it would stand without the help of heaven  
On rotten props of all impiety;  
Away with it, let it be life-bereau'n.  
With plagues, strike through Extortions loathed loins,  
And rivet in them glowing pestilence:  
Give, give Injustice many mortal foins,  
And with a plague, send, send the same from hence.  
Wind me a Botch (huge Botch) about the Neck  
Of damned disguised, man-pleasing Sanctity:  
And Simony with self same Choler deck,  
Plague these two Plagues with all extremity.  
For, these are Pearls that quite put out the eyes  
Of Piety in Christian Commonwealths;  
These, these are they, from whom all plagues do rise,  
Then plagues on plagues, by right, must reave their healths.  
Dash Vengeance vial on the cursed brow  
Of 
* Ask now among the Heathen, who hath heard such things? the virgin of Israel hath done very filthily jerem. 18 13.  Zodomy, that ever-crying sin;  
And that it be no more whole 
* A mountain in Thes●al●e.  Pelions throw  
Of plagues upon it both without, and in!  
Through black 
* avernus a lake in Italy, where they say this sin is frequent.  Avernus (hell's mouth) send the same  
Into the deepest pit of lowest hell;  
Let never more the nature, nor the name  
Be known within the Zones, where men may dwell,  
Oppress Oppression, this Lands burning-fever,  
With burning sores of feavers-pestilent;  
And now or never, quell it now and ever,  
For, it doth quell the Poor and Innocent  
Bring down damned Pride with a pure pestilence  
Derived from all plagues that are unpure,  
Extracted to th'extremest quintessence,  
For Pride all Sins, 
* Pride, the cause of Adam's fall, and so of all sin  & plagues for sin, procures.  
In Atheisms breast (instead of her cursed heart)  
Set an huge Botch, or worse plague, more compact;  
That it may never convert, or pervert,  
Nor have power to persuade, much less co-act.  
Beblaine the bosom of each Mistress,  
That bears her 
* They are waxen fat, and shining, they do overpass the deeds of the wicked, etc. Jere 5. 2●  Breasts (lusts signs) guests to allure;  
With a plague kiss her, (that plagues with a kiss)  
And make her (with a murrain) more demure.  
Our puling puppets, coy, and hard to please,  
My too straitlaced all-begarded Girls  
(The scum of Niceness) London Mistresses)  
Their skins embroider with plagues orient Pearls.  
For these, for 
* Strawberries, Cherries, etc. when they first come in.  First-fruits, have 
* Shillings, Crowns, or Pounds.  fifteens to spare  
But to a Beggar say, We have not for ye:  
Then do away this too-fine wasteful Ware  
To second death; for they do most abhor me.  
Then scour the brothelhouses, make them pure,  
That flow with filth that wholsomst flesh infects;  

* Then will I turn mine hand upon thee, and burn out thy dross, till it be pure, and take away thy Tin. Isai 1.25.  Fire out the Pox from thence with plagues unpure;  
For they do cause but most unpure effects.  
Plague carnal Colleges, wherein are taught  
Lusts beastly lessons, which no beast will brook,  
Where Aratine is read, and nearly sought;  
And so Lust's Precepts practised by the Book.  
Who knows not Aratine, let him not ask  
What thing it is; let it suffice he was:  
But what? no Mouth can tell without a Mask;  
For Shame itself, will say, O let that pass!  
He was a Monster, Tush, O nothing less:  
For, Nature monsters makes (how ere unright)  
But Nature ne'er made such a Fiend as this,  
Who, like a Fiend, was made in Nature's spite!  
Therefore, away with all that like his Rules,  
Which Nature doth dislike as she doth Hell:  
Break up those free (yet dear & damned) Schools,  
That teach but 'gainst kind Nature to rebel.  
Rogh-cast the skin of smooth-faced glozing Guile  
With burning blisters to consume the same,  
That swears to sell cracked wares, yet lies the while,  
And of gain, by 
* And every one will deceive his fried and will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongues to speak lies, and take great pains to do wickedly. jerem. 9 5.  deceiving, makes her game.  
Who, but to utter, but a thing of nought,  
Utters all oaths, more precious than her Soul:  
And thinks them well bestowed, so it be bought  
So, utters wares with oaths, by falsehood foul.  
This foul offence to Church & Commonwealth,  
Sweep clean away with Wormwood of annoy:  
For, it consisteth but by lawful 
* ●s a Cage is full of Birds, so are their houses full of deceit, thereby they are become great & waxen ●ich. jerem. 5.27.  stealth;  
Then, let the truest Plagues it quite destroy.  
Of Taverns, reeking still with 
* For all their Tables are full of filthy vomitings: no place is clean. Isai. 28.8.  vomitings,  
Draw, with the Owners, all the Drawers out;  
Let none draw Air, that draw on Surffetting,  
But Excess, and her Slaves, botch all about.  
Sith such by drawing out, and drawing on  
Do live; let such be drawn out on a Bear:  
For, they with wine have many men undone,  
And famished them, in fine, through belly-cheer.  
Brown-paper Merchants (that do ven● such trash  
To heedless heirs, to more wealth borne then wit,  
That 'gainst such Paper-rocks their houses dash,  
While such sly Merchants make much use of it)  
Use them as they do use such heirs to use,  
That is, to plague them without all remorse:  
These with their Brokers, plague; for they abuse  
God, King, and Law, by Laws abused force.  
Then, petti-botching-Brokers, all bebotch  
That in a month catch eighteen pence in pound;  
Six with a 
* Their Bill of Sale.  Bill, and twelve for use they catch,  
So, use they all they catch, to make unsound.  
That they may catch them, and still patches make,  
Which in the pound do yield them eighteen pence;  
Forced, like sheep trespassing, the Pound to take,  
Leaving their 
* And they lie down upon clothes laid to pledge by every Altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. Amos 2.8.  Fleece, at last, for recompense.  
Hang in their hangman's wardrobe plagues to air  
That all may fly, or die that with it mell;  
And so, when none will to their rags repair,  
They must forsake their lives, or labour well.  
Briefly, kill cursed Sin in general,  
And let Flesh Be no more to harbour it;  
Away with filthy Flesh, away with all  
Wherein still-breeding Sin on brood doth sit.  
This was Death's charge, & this charge did he give,  
Which was performed (forthwith) accordingly;  
For now the dead had wasted so the live,  
(Or wearied so) that some unburied lie:  
For, All observed the Pestilence was such  
As laughed to scorn the help of Physics art;  
So that to death All yielded with a touch,  
And sought no help, but help with ease to 
* And death shall be desired rather than life of all the residue that r●ma●n of this wicked family. jere 8 3.  part.  
An hell of heat doth scorch their seething veins,  
The blood doth boil, and all the Body burns,  
Which raging Heat ascending to the Brains  
The powers of Reason there quite overturns!  
Then, 'tis no sin to say a Plague it is  
From whence immortal miseries do flow;  
That makes men reason with their rest to miss,  
And Souls and Bodies do endanger so.  
Here cry the parents for their children's death;  
There howl the children for their parent's loss;  
And often die as they are drawing breath  
To cry for their but now inflicted cross.  
Here goes an husband heavily to seek  
A Grave for his dead wife (now hard to have)  
A wife there meets him that had done the like,  
All which (perhaps) are buried in one Grave.  
The last survivor of a Family,  
Which yesterday (perhaps) were all in health,  
Now dies to bear his fellows company,  
And for a Grave for all, gives all their wealth.  
There wends the 
* Thy Sons have fainted, & ●e at head of all the streets, as a wild Bull in a net, and are full of the wrath of the Lord, and rebuke of thy God. Isa, 51.20.  fainting Son with his dead Sire  
On his sole shoulders borne, him to inter;  
Here goes a father with the like desire,  
And to the Grave alone, his Son doth bear.  
The needy, greedy of a wealthy Pray,  
Run into houses cleansed of Families,  
From whence they bring, with goods, their bane away,  
So end in wealth their lives and miseries.  
No Cat, Dog, Rat, Hog, Mouse, or Vermin vile,  
But ushered Death, where ere themselves did go;  
For, they the purest Air did so defile,  
That whoso breathed it, did his breath forego.  
At London (sink of Sin) as at the Fount,  
This all-confounding Pestilence began.  
According to that Plagues most woeful wont,  
From whence it (flowing) all the realm o'reranne.  
Which to prevent, at first, they pestered  
Pest-houses with their murraine-tainted Sick:  
But, though from them, & thence the healthy fled,  
They, ere suspected, mortified the Quick.  
Those so infected, being ignorant  
That so they are, converse with whom soe'er,  
Whose open Shops and Houses all do haunt,  
And find most danger, where they lest do fear.  
And so not knowing sicke-folke from the sound  
(For, such ill air's not subject to the sense)  
They One with 
* I will d●sh them one against another even the ●athers and the sons together, saith the lord, I will not spare I will not pity, not have compassion upon them, but destroy them. ●erem. 13.14.  Other do themselves confound;  
And so confound all with a pestilence.  
Out flies one from the Plague, and bears with him  
An heavy Purse, and Plague more ponderous;  
Which in the highway parteth life from limb,  
So plagues the next of his coin covetous.  
In this ditch lies one breathing out his last,  
Making the same his Grave before his death!  
On that Bank lies another, breathing fast,  
And passers by he baneth with his breath.  
Now runs the 
* ●herefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of juda as a rottenness, Hosea 5.12.  Rot along each bank & ditch,  
And, with a murrain strikes Swine, Sheep, and all  
(Or man, or beast) that chance the same to touch,  
So, all in fields, as in the City's fall.  
The London Lanes (themseluet thereby to save)  
Did vomit out their undigested dead,  
Who by cart loads, are carried to the Grave,  
For, all those Lanes with folk were overfed.  
There might ye see Death (as with toil oppressed  
Panting for breath, all in a mortal sweat)  
Upon each bulk or bench, himself to rest,  
(At point to faint) his Harvest was so great!  
The Bells had talked so much, as now they had  
Tired all their tongues, and could not speak a word;  
And Grief so toiled herself with being sad,  
That now at Death's faint threats, she would but board.  
Yea, Death was so familiar (ah) become  
With now resolved London Families,  
That wheresoe'er he came, he was welcome,  
And entertained with joys and jollities.  
Goods were neglected, as things good for nought;  
If good for aught, good but to breed more ill:  
The Sick despised them: if the Sound them sought,  
They sought their death which cleaved to them still!  
So Sick, and Sound, at last 
* Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the lords wrath, etc. Zepha. 1.18.  neglected them,  
As if the Sound and Sick were near their last;  
And all, almost, so fared through the Realm  
As if their Souls the judgement day were passed.  
This World was quite forgot; the World to come  
Was still in mind; which for it was 
* Her filthiness is in her ski●●s: she remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. etc. Lament. 1.9.  forgot,  
Brought on our World this little day of Dome,  
That choked the Grave with this contagious Rot!  
No place was free for Freemen; ne for those  
That were in Prisons, wanting Liberty;  
Yet Prisoners frëest were from Plagues and Woes  
That visit Freemen, but too liberally.  
For, all their food came from the healthy house,  
Which then would give God's plags from thence to keep;  
The rest, shut up, could not like bounty use,  
So, woeful Prisoners had least cause to weep.  
The king himself (O wretched Times the while!)  
From place to place, to save himself did fly,  
Which from himself himself did seek t'exile,  
Who (as amazed) not safe, knew where to lie.  
It's hard with Subjects when the Sovereign  
Hath no place free from plagues his head to hide;  
And hardly can we say the King doth reign,  
That no where, for just fear, can well abide.  
For, no where comes He but Death follows him  
Hard at the Heels, and reacheth at his head;  
So sinks all 
* The mir●h of tab●ets ceaseth: the noi●e of them that rei●●ceendeth: the joy of the harp ceaseth. Isa● 24.8.  Sports that would like triumphs swim,  
For, what life have we, when we all are dead;  
Dead in our Spirits, to see our Neighbours die;  
To see our King so shift his life to save;  
And with his Council all Conclusions try  
To keep themselves from th'insatiate Grave.  
For, hardly could one man another meet,  
That in his bosom brought not odious Death;  
It was confusion but a friend to greet,  
For, like a Fiend, he baned with his breath.  
The wildest wastes, and places most remote  
From Man's repair, are now the most secure;  
Happy is he that there doth find a Coat  
To shroud his Head from this Plagues smoking shower  
A Beggar's home (though dwelling in a Ditch  
If far from London it were situate)  
He might rend out, if pleased him, to the Rich,  
That now as Hell their London homes do hate.  
Now, had the Sun the 
* Libra September.  Balance entered,  
To give his heat by weight, or in a mean,  
When yet this Plague more heat recovered,  
And scoured the towns, that erst were cleansed clean.  
Now, sad Despair (clad in a sable weed)  
Did All attend, and All resolved to die;  
For, Heat & cold, they thought, the Plague would feed  
Which, like a 
* A Beast never but feeding, and when he hath eaten as much as his 〈…〉 hold, go, to a for●ed t●ee, and there strains out his fond undigested betweane the twist of the ●●ee, and so again presently falls to se●ue, and being full, again to the tree, and so eftsoons to feed.  jerffe, still sin; d in gluttony.  
The heavenly cope was now ore-canopide,  
(Near each one's Zenith (as his sense supposed)  
With ominous impressions, strangely died,  
And like a Canopy at top it closed.  
As if it had presaged the judge was nigh,  
To sit in judgement his last doom to give,  
And caused his cloth of State t'adorn the Sky  
That All his near approach might so perceive  
Now fall the people unto public Fast,  
And all assemble in the Church to pray;  
Early, and late, their souls, there take repast,  
As if preparing for the later day!  
Where (fasting) meeting with the sound and sick,  
The sick the sound do plague, while they do pray;  
To haste before the judge the dead and quick,  
And pull each other so, in post, away.  
Now Angels laugh to see how contrite hearts  
Encounter Death, and scorn his Tyranny;  
Their judge doth joy to see them play their parts,  
That erst so lived as if they ne'er should die.  
Up go their hearts & hands, and down their knees,  
While Death went up & down, to bring them down;  
That up they might at once (not by degrees)  
Unto the Highest, that doth the humble 
* Isai. 57.15.  crown●!  
O how the thresholds of each double door  
Of Heaven, and Hell, were worn with throngs of ghosts  
Ne'er since the Deluge, did they so before,  
Nor ever since so polished the side-posts.  
The Angels, good and bad, are now all toiled  
With entertaining of these ceaseless throngs;  
With howling some (in heat and horror broiled)  
And othersome in bliss, with joyful Songs.  
Th'infernal Legions, in battalions,  
Seek to enlarge their kingdom, lest it should  
Be cloyed with Colonies of wicked ones;  
For now it held, more than it well could hold!  
The Angels, on the Crystal walls of Heaven,  
Holp thousands o'er the Gates so glutted were;  
To whom authority by Grace was given  
(The press was such) to help them over there.  
The Cherubin eie-blinding Majesty  
Upon his Throne (that ever blessed hath been)  
Is compassed with 
* The world is divided into twelve parts, and ten parts of it are gone already, and half of the tenth part: & there remaineth that which is after the half of the tenth part. 2. Esd. 14.10, 11  unwonted Company,  
And smiles to see how Angels help them in.  
The heavenly streets do glitter (like the Sun)  
With throngs of Sons but newly glorified;  
Who still to praise their Glorifier run  
Along those streets, full fraught on either side.  
Now was the earthly Mammon, which had held  
Their Hearts to Earth, held most contagious;  
A Beggar scorned to touch it (so defiled)  
So, none but castaways were covetous.  
Now Avarice was turned Cherubin,  
Who nought desired but the extremest Good;  
For, now she saw she could no longer sin,  
So, to the Time she sought to suit her mood,  
The loathsome Lecher loathed his wont sport;  
For, now he thought all flesh was most corrupt:  
The brainsick brawler waxed all-amort;  
For, such bloodsuckers Bane did interrupt.  
The Pastors now, steep all their words in Brine,  
With woe, woe, woe, and nought is heard but woe;  
Woe and alas, they say, the powers divine  
Are bend Mankind, for sin to overthrow.  
Repent, repent, (like jonas) now they cry,  
Ye men of England, O repent, repent;  
To see if so ye may move Pities Eye,  
To look upon you, ere you quite be 
* Nevertheless saith the lord, at those d●ys I will not make a full end of you. Ier 4.18.  spent.  
And oft whilst he breathes out thess bitter Words,  
He, drawing breath, draws in more bitter Bane:  
For, now the Air, no Air but death affords;  
And lights of Art (for help) were in the wane.  
Nor people praying, nor the Pastor preaching,  
Death spared aught; but murdered one and other;  
He was a walm, he could not stay impeaching,  

* For it is the day of the Lords vengeance, and the ve●e●● re●●rence for the i●dgement of 〈◊〉 Isai. 34.8  Who smoked with heat, & choked, all with the smother.  
The babe new born hempt straight in the head  
With air that through his yet unclosed Mould  
Did pierce his brains, & through them poison spread,  
So left his life, that scarce had life in hold.  
The Mother after hies, the Father posts  
After the Mother; Thus, at Base they run  
Unto the Goal of that great Lord of Hosts  
That for those keeps it, that runs for his Son.  
The rest Death trips, and takes them prisoners;  
Such lose the Goal without gainesaying-strife;  
But, all, and some, are as Death's Messengers  
To fetch both one and other out of life.  
The Sire doth fetch the Son, the Son the Sire,  
Death, being impartial, makes his Subjects so:  
The Priuate's not respected, but entire  
(Death pointing out the way) away they go.  
The ceremony at their Burials  
Is Ashes but to Ashes, Dust, to Dust;  
Nay not so much; for, straight the Pit-man falls  
(If he can stand) to hide them as he must.  
A Mount thus made, upon his Spade he leans  
(Tired with toil) yet (tired) priest to toil)  
Till Death an heap, in his evnveloped Harvest, gleans,  
That so he may by heaps, ●ft seed the Soil.  
Not long he stays, but (ah) a mightier heap  
Then erst he hid, is made straight to be held;  
The Land is scarce, but yet the Seed is cheap,  
For, all is full, or rather overfilled.  
The Beer is laid away, and Cribbes they get  
To fetch more dung for Fields and Garden-plots; 
* Dung-cribs.   
Workmen are scarce, the labour is so great,  
That (ah) the Seed, 
* They shall die of deaths and diseases, they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung upon the earth, etc. jer. 16.4.  unburied, often rots.  
It rots, and makes the Land thereby the worse,  
For, being rotten, it ill vapours breeds,  
Which many mortal miseries do nurse,  
And the Plague (overfed) so, overfeedes.  
Here lies an human Carcase half consumed;  
And there some fow or beast, in self same plight;  
Dead with the Pestilence, for so it fumed,  
That all it touched, it consumed quite.  
Quite through the host of Nature's Animals  
Death like a Conqueror in Triumph rides;  
And ere he came too near, each Creature falls,  
His dreadful presence than no flesh abides.  
Now man to man (if ever) fiends became,  
Fear of infection choked Humanity;  
The empty Maw (abandoned) got but blame  
If it had once but sought for Charity.  
The Poor must not about, to seek for food,  
And no man sought them, that they might be fed;  
Two Plagues, in one, invaded so their blood,  
Both Famine, and Infection strikes them dead.  
Some stayed, in hope that Death would be appeased,  
And kept the towns, which them & theirs had kept;  
Till their next neighbours were (perhaps) diseased;  
Or with Death's fatal Fan away were swept.  
Then, fain would fly but could not (though they would)  
For, will they, nill they, they must keep their house,  
Till through some chink, on them Death taketh hold,  
And used them, as he did their neighbour's use.  
If any at some Postern could get out,  
As good they stayed, sith sure they stayed should be;  

* They have compassed her about, as the witchmen of the field, because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord jere. 4.17.  For, all the Countries watched were round about,  
That from the town, none might a furlong flee.  
Then, who from Death did fly, the fear of Death  
Made Freemen keep the fliers in his jaws;  
Where (poisoned with his fowl infectious breath)  
Their flesh and bones he (ne'er sufficed) gnaws.  
Now might ye see the Plague devour with speed  
As it near famished were, lest in a while  
It might be so, and want whereon to feed;  
So fed, the future hunger to beguile.  
Now doth it swell (hold hide) nay, 
* If the botch break not, the Patient liveth not.  break, or die)  
Till skin doth crack, to make more 
* It kills others with breaking.  room for meat  
Yet meat, more meat it (never cloyed) doth cry,  
And all about doth run the same to get.  
The Graves do often vomit out their dead,  
They are so over-gorged, with great, and small;  
Who hardly, with the earth are covered;  
So, oft discovered when the Earth did fall.  
Those which in hie- 
* They that feed delicately perish in the streets, they that were brought up in scarlet, embrace the d●●g Lament. 4.5.  ways died (as many did)  
Some worthless wretch, hired for no worthless fee,  
Makes a rude hole, some distance him beside,  
And rakes him in far off; so, there lies he.  
But, if the Pit-man have not so much sense  
To see, nor feel which way the wind doth sit  
To take the same, he hardly comes from thence,  
But, for himself (perhaps) he makes the pit:  
For, the contagion was so violent,  
(The will of Heaven ordaining so the same)  
As often struck stone-dead incontinent,  
And Nature's strongest forces straight o'ercame.  
Here lieth one upon his burning breast,  
Upon the Earth's cold breast, and dies outright;  
Who wanting burial, doth the Air infest,  
That like a Basaliske he banes with sight!  
There reels another like one deadly drunk,  
But newly struck (perhaps) then down he falls,  
Who, in the 
* And their corpses shall lie in the streets of the great city, etc. Revel. 11.8.  Streets, or ways, no sooner sunk,  
But forthwith dies, and so lies by the walls,  
The Haycocks in the Meads were oft oppressed  
With plaguy Bodies, both alive, and dead;  
Which being used, confounded Man and Beast,  
And used they might be ere discovered.  
For, some (like Ghosts) would walk out in the night,  
The City glowing (furnace-like) with heat  
Of this contagion, to seek if they might,  
Fresh air, where oft they died for want of meat.  
The traveler that spied (perhaps his Sire)  
Another far off, coming towards him  
Would fly, as from a flying flame of fire  
That would, if it he met, waste life and limb.  
So, towns feared towns, and men each other feared;  
All were (at least) attainted with suspect,  
And, sooth to say, so was their envy stirred,  

* Because of their pride the Cities shall be troubled the houses shall be afraid, men shall fear. 2. Esd. 15.18.  That one would seek another to infect:  
For, whether the disease to envy moved,  
Or human nature's malice was the cause,  
Th'infected often all Conclusions proved  
To plague him that from them himself withdraws!  
Here do they Gloves, and there they Garters fall;  
Ruffs, Cuffs, & handkerchiefs, and such like things  
They strew about, so to endanger all:  
For, Envy now, most pestilently stings!  
So, heaven and earth, against Man did conspire,  
And Man against Man, to exrirpe his Race;  
Who bellows were t'augment Infections fire,  
And blow abroad the same from place to place.  
Sedition thus marched (with a pestilence)  
From town to town, to make them desolate; 
* Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole Land is wasted etc. jere. 4.20.   
The Brown-bill was too short to keep it thence,  
For, further off it reached the Bill-mans' pate.  
Nor walls could keep it out; for, it is said  
(And truly too) that Hunger breaks stonewalls:  
The plague of Hunger with the Plague arrayed  
Itself, to make way, where ere Succour calls.  
For, hungry Armies fight as Fiends they were:  
No human power can well their force withstand:  
They laugh to 
* job 41.20.  scorn the shaking of the Spear:  
And 'gainst the gods themselves, themselves dare band  
Some ran as mad (or with wine overjoyed)  
From house to house, when botches on them ran;  
Who, though they menaced were with Sword, and Shot,  
Yet forward ran, & fear nor God nor man!  
As when a Ship, at Sea, is set on fire, 
Simil.   
And (all on flame's) wind-driven on a Fleet,  
The Fleet doth fly, sith that Ship doth desire  
(Maugre all force opposed) with it to meet:  
So flies the Billman, and the Muskettire  
From the approaching desperate plaguy wight, 
* Plagues are sent unto you● and who can drive them away. 2. Esd. 16.4.   
As from a flying flame of quenchless fire;  
For, who hath any life, with Death to fight?  
At all, cries Death, than down by heaps they fall:  
He draws in By, and Maine, amain he draws  
Huge heaps together, and still cries, At all:  
His hand is in, and none his hand withdraws.  
For, 
Simil.  look how Leaves in Autumn from the tree  
With wind do fall, whose heaps fill holes in ground;  
So might ye (with the Plague's breath) people see,  
Fall by great heaps, and fill up holes profound.  
No holy Turf was left to hide the head  
Of holiest men; but, most vnhall'wed grounds  
(Ditches and Highways) must receive the dead,  
The dead (ah woe the while) so 
* Many dead Bodies shall be in every place, they shall cast them forth with silence. Amos 8.3.  oreabounds!  
Here might ye see as 'twere a Mountainet  
Founded on Bodies, grounded very deep,  
Which like a Trophy of Death's Triumphs set  
The world on wonder, that did wondering weep:  
For, to the middle Region of the Air,  
Our earthly Region was infected so,  
That Foules therein had cause of just despair,  
As those which over Zodome dying go!  
Some common Carriers, (for their own behoof,  
And for their good, whose Souls for gains do  
Fetching from Londo packs of Plags, & stuff (groan)  
Are forced to inn it, in some Barn alone.  
Where, lest it should the Country sacrifice,  
Barn, Corn, and Stuff a Sacrifice is sent  
(In Aire-refining Flames) to th'angry Skies,  
While th'owners do their Faults & Loss lament.  
The Carriers, to some pest-house, or their own,  
Carried, clapped up, and watched for coming out,  
Must there with Time or Death converse alone,  
Till Time or Death doth free the world of doubt:  
Who though they carriers were, yet being too weak  
Such heavy double Plagues as these to bear,  
Out of their houses some by force do break,  
And 
* This no fiction, nor inserted by poetical licence: But this verily was performed in the borough of Leominster in the county of Hereford: the one at the commandment of sir Herbert Crossed knight, one of the Council of the Marches of Wales: the other by the instigation of Satan, and prococation of the disease.  drown themselves, themselves from plags to clear.  
These are revenges fit for such a God,  
Fit for his justice, power, and Majesty;  
These are right jerks of divine Furies Rod,  
That draw from Flesh the lifeblood mortally.  
If these are but his temporal Punishments,  
Then what are they surmounting Time and Fate?  
Melt Flesh to think but on such Languishments,  
That Soul and Body burn in endless date.  
His utmost Plagues extend beyond the reach  
Of comprehension of the deepest Thought;  
For, he his wisdom infinite doth stretch  
To make them absolutely good for nought.  
Then, O what heart of sensible Discourse,  
Quakes not, as if it would in sunder fall,  
But once to think upon such Fury's force,  
As doth so far surmount the thoughts of all?  
If human Wisdom in the highest strain,  
Should yet stretch further Torments to devise,  
They would be such that none could them sustain,  
Through weight of woes, and raging agonies:  
Then (O) what be they that devised are  
By 
* Torments, devised by infinite wisdom, are infinite in pain.  Wisdom that of Nought made all this All,  
That stretch as far past speech, as past compare,  
Surmounting Wonder; supernatural!  
They be the judgements of that Trinity,  
Which (like themselves) are most inscrutable;  
Then can man's heart, but either swoon or die,  
To think on anguish, so unthinkeable.  
And can our Sense, our Sense so much besot,  
To think such worlds of woe no where exist,  
Sith in this sensual World it feels them not,  
And so in sin (till they be felt) insist?  
Then happy That, that is insensible,  
Since we employ our happiness of Sense  
To feel and taste but pleasures sensible;  
And see no Pain that at their end commence.  
To break the Belly of our damned Desires  
With honeyed Sweets that soon to poison turn;  
And in our Souls enkindle quenchless fires,  
Which all the frame thereof quite overturn.  

* Mortal life is no more (at the most) compared to Eternity.  To please itself a Moment, and displease  
Itself for ever, with ne'r-ending pains;  
To ease the Body with the Souls disease,  
To glad the Guts, to grieve the Heart & Brains.  
To make the Throat a Thoroughfare for Excess,  
The Belly a Charybdis for the same;  
To use Wit still but only to transgress,  
And make our Sense the Sponge of Sin & Shame:  

* So fares it with sensual Epicures and Libertines.  Then happy are sweet Flowers that live and die  
(Without offence) most pleasing unto all:  
And hapless Man that lives unpleasingly  
To Heaven and Earth; so, lives and dies to fall.  
The Rose doth live a sweet life, but to please,  
And when it dies, it leaves sweet fruit behind;  
But Man in Life and Death doth none of these,  
If Grace by 
* The conversion of a sinner is most miraculous.  Miracle ne'er mend his mind.  
Blush Man, that Flowers should so thyself excel  
That wast created to excel what not?  
That on the Earth created was to dwell;  
Then blush for shame to grace thy Beauty's blot.  
Art thou Horizon made (unholy one)  
Betwixt immortal Angels, and bruit beasts?  
Yet wilt twixt beasts and fiends be Horizon  
By that which Angels grieves, and God detests?  
Then Plagues must follow thy misguided Will,  
So to correct thine ill-directing Wit;  
Such as these are, or others much more ill,  
The worst of which Sin (ill of Ills) befit.  
And lo, for Sin; how yet the Plague doth rage  
(With unappeased fury) more and more,  
Making our Troynovant a tragic Stage  
Whereon to show Death's power, with slaughters sore.  
Great Monarch of Earth's ample world he is;  
And of our little 
* Man is Microcosmos.  Worlds (that world's content)  
He gives ill subjects Bale, good Subjects Bliss;  
So, though he reigns, just is his Regiment.  
Our sins (foul blots) corrupt the Earth and air;  
Our sins (souls botches) all this All defile;  
And make our Souls most foul, that were most fair;  
For, nought but sin we all, all nought the while!  
When sharpest wits are whetted to the point,  
To pierce into all secrets, but to sin!  
And all the corpse of Luxury unjoint,  
To see what sensual joy might be therein:  
Whenas such tricks as no Sun ever saw  
Devised are daily by the Serpent-wise,  
To cram all Flesh into the devils maw  
By drifts, as scarce the Devil can devise!  
Can God (most just) be good to men so ill?  
And can the Earth, and Air, wherein such live,  
Keep such alive? O no, all Plagues must fill  
That Air, and Earth, that do such plagues relive.  
What are those men but plagues, that plague but men?  
All men are such, that teach sin in effect;  
And all do so, that sin but now and then,  
If now and then they sin, in overt act.  
What can contain us, if these plagues cannot?  
If neither these we feel, nor those we shall,  
Be not of force to keep our lives from blot,  
What then remains but plagues to scour us all?  
Till we wax less, and they so multiplied,  
That we be nothing less, than what we are;  
Converted, or confounded we abide  
In, or without God, with, or without care!  
If when his iron Rod draws blood from us,  
And is upon our backs, yea breaks our bones,  
We cease not yet to be rebellious,  
What can convert us but plagues for the nonce!  
For Nature's heart doth iron with extreme grief,  
When well she weighs her children's strange est●●,  
Subject to sin, and so to sorrows chief,  
For both in counterchange renew their date:  
For now we sin (yea with a witness sin,  
Witness our conscience) than we plagued are,  
Plagued with a witness, (witness plagues that  
With fury on us) then, when so we fare  
Fall we to pray and creep to Grace for grace,  
Which being got, and ease, and weal at will,  
We fall to sin, and so our soul's disgrace:  
Thus sin and plagues run round about us still  
This ever-circling Plague of plagues and sin,  
Surroundeth Mankind in an hell of woe,  
Man is the Axis standing still therein,  
And goes with it where ever it doth go:  
For since he fell, who at this Centre stays  
By Nature (most unnatural the while)  
Here moves man movelesse as the Axis plays,  
And Times turns (turning with him) doth beguile.  
And yet this Plague (if Griefs tears quench it not)  
Is like a spark of fire in flax too dry,  
And may, if our Lusts cool not, burn more hot  
Than erst it did; so waste us utterly.  
We see it will not out, but still it lies  
In our best Cities Bowels like a Coal  
That threats to flame, and still doth fall and 
* As appeareth by the Plague bills every week. Simil.  rise,  
Wasting a part, thereby to warn the whole.  
None otherwise than when (with grief) we see  
Some house on fire, we straight, to save the town,  
Watch, fast, and pray, and most industrious be,  
With hook and line to pull the Building down:  
So doth this fire of heavens still kindling ire  
Blister our Cities public Body so,  
As we are blistered, but with so much fire,  
As we may quench with tears if they do flow.  
〈◊〉 if it should break forth in flames afresh,  
(As (ah) what stays it but unstinted Grace?)  
What thing should quench it but a world of Flesh?  
Or desolation it away to chase?  
Time never knew since he began his hours,  
(For aught we read) a Plague so long remain  
In any City, as this Plague of ours:  
For now six years in London it hath lain.  
Where none goes out, but at his coming in,  
If he but feels the tenderest touch of smart,  
He fears he is Plague-smitten for his sin;  
So, ere he's plagued, he takes It to the heart:  
For, Fear doth (Loadstone-like) it oft attract,  
That else would not come near; or steal away;  
And yet this plaguy-feare will scarce co-act  
Our Souls to sin no more, this Plague to slay.  
But thou, in whose high hand all hearts are held,  
Convert us, and from us this Plague avert:  
So sin shall yield to Grace, and Grace shall yield  
The Giver glory for so dear desert.  
Too dear for such too worthless wicked Things,  
At best but clods of base Infirmity;  
Too dear for sin that all this murrain brings;  
Too dear for those that live but twice to die.  
In few, what should I say? the best are nought  
That breath, since man first breathing did rebel:  
The best that breath are worse than may be thought,  
If Thought can think the best can do but well:  
For, none doth well on Earth, but such as will  
Confess (with grief) they do exceeding ill!   

The best is but a 
* Micah 7.4.  Briere, and 
* Psal. 14 2.4  none doth good,  
But He that makes Us blameless in his 
* Ephes. 5.12.  Blood.   
FINIS.