HUGO GROTIUS HIS Sophompaneas, OR joseph.  
A TRAGEDY.  
With Annotations.  
By FranCIs GoLDsMIth, Esq;  
LONDON, Printed by W. H. and are to be sold by John Hardesty at the Black-spred-Eagle in Duck-lane.   

TO THE Right Honourable, HENRY, Lord marquis of Dorchester, Earl of Kingston, Viscount Newark, Lord Pierrepont, &c.  
My Lord,  
NOt any merit of mine hath emboldened me to set forth this Piece with( so resplendent a Frontispiece) your Name; but a duty of doing one of our best modern Latin Poets that full right, which my pen otherwise comes short of. Bee pleased likewise, that Sophompaneas, a divinely inspired Prophet, and royal Favourite, famous in holy Writ( which your own eminent virtues will most like) for wisdom and chastity, may find a favourable entertainment with your Lordship. I am not ignorant upon how great disadvantage any thing of this kind is presented unto your Lordship, after juvenal by Sir Robert Stapylton. Neither have I, though I much more need it, the warrant of your Lordships command, which might beg pardon for my disabilities and erratas: Yet that this free-will& cheaper offering may be not unacceptable to your most noble goodness, and that this Coat of joseph is not so sullied with my handling, but that it may bee known, is the confidence and ambition of  
Your Lordships most humble Servant, FRANCIS GOLDSMITH.   

THE PREFACE.  
IF an account is to bee given the Commonwealth, as Cato thought, even of our idleness; take then, at thine own leisure, this of mine. For such and no better may a grave Censor deem it, though I writ after a most learned Copy, and have the privilege of a Divine Argument. Yea, I myself, had I not the allowance of some friends, both candid and judicious, would sooner commit these Papers to the light of the fire, then of the Sun. It may likewise be a question perhaps, whether an Interpreter deserve the name of a Poet; but he, that is one indeed, a Virgil or Homer need not envy a Cicero or Demosthenes. I had rather saith Tacitus( or who else is the Author) in Dialog. d. Orator. have the secure and secret retirement of Virgil, wherein yet he neither wanted the favour of Augustus Caesar, nor the being taken notice of by the People of Rome: Witness the Epistles of Augustus, witness the People themselves, who upon hearing some verses of Virgil in the theatre, rose all up, and did the same reverence to Virgil, by chance then present, and a spectator, as unto Augustus. Our Author is an excellent and admirable pattern, not onely for Poetry and Oratory, but all Divine and human learning; I would gladly follow the best examples, and overtake them, when any other of my endeavours shall from the Father of lights( from whom every good and perfect gift cometh down) receive such a blessing.   

To GERARDUS VOSSIUS, Professor of History and civill Arts, in the most flourishing City of Amsterdam, HUGO GROTIUS.  
I Were, most excellent Vossius, what I least would bee, that is, ungrateful, if when all your papers are full of me, I should keep the love and honour of you shut up within the closet of my mind, and take no care, that posterity, if yet my labours may so hope, might have some monument extant of our inseparable conjunction; which you in my adversity, such as is wont either to discover false affections, or to change light, have been so far fron lessening, as that by many offices you have made it greater. If I should say, your learning indeed singular and infinite hath brought me to esteem you as I do, I say but what is common to me with the University of them through the whole world that love letters. But the nearer I have been admitted to know your most candid manners, and goodness shut against no man, I have always thought it a great part of my felicity to bee joined with you in so much a greater tie. The common study of all human literature is a very strong bond: but I add also, that in this ages fervent heat of theological disputations, I have found you of that singular prudence and moderation of mind, as that from those things which the Churches planted by the Apostles, and which they who agreed with them in likeness of discipline, have held as certain and resolved, you would never depart; but from those, which of old have had a free disputation, you would inhibit your decretory style. To hold which purpose more happily, you had two great helps at hand, a very great, and as much as ever had any man, diligence, and a pure judgement in revolving ecclesiastical Antiquities; whereof no man can doubt who shall have red your Pelagian History, a work most famous through France and britain. To your so great virtues and merits towards me some extraordinary present was due: But whereas I could not as yet appoint a certain seat for my hitherto scattered papers and books, and so not put my last and irrevocable hand to any of my greater works; mindful in the mean time of human chances, though unable to pay, yet by giving even a small pledge I would testify how much and how gladly I am indebted. And yet if you permit me( what Horace allows himself) to set a price upon my gift, it is a Tragedy I bring, a kind of writing( as you very well know, Vossius, of whom after precepts of grammar and eloquence, we have also the art of Poetry expressed in lively colours) royal, and of so great dignity, as that Sophocles hath not thought it below his high place which he held in Athens; nor Augustus Caesar his own mind comprehending the whole power of the Roman Empire. I may commend it too for the Argument fetched not from the miseries of Troy and Thebes, polluted with the lies of the Grecians, but out of the History of Moses untouched by falsehood: and indeed, unless I mistake, the only one in Divine Writ, which hath those two things thought by Aristotle( a man in this part also, as you concur with me, of greatest judgement) even single to add very much to the grace of a Tragedy; an unlooked for Agnition, and sudden change of things. For both joseph discovers himself to his Brethren, who for a long while knew him not, and his Brethren themselves are suddenly translated out of the greatest fear into the highest prosperity. Some perhaps will find fault, that this Tragedy hath not a sad conclusion: who if they have not yet laid aside that error in distinguishing between the buskin and socke; let them red either Aeschylus's Danaides, or our Euripides his Alcestes, Ion, Helena, and which I have lately turned into Latin, Iphigenia among the Tauri: or( if they will not take that pains) those your precepts I now mentioned of the Art of Poetry. whereunto, whether what I here present bee agreeable, I desire no other judge then yourself; not indeed upon confidence of my endeavours, which both by the cruelty hitherto of fortune and my declining age itself( whereof you almost alone are not sensible) begin to flag, but in the equity of your judgement, which yet I hope not for as a friend; for neither would I corrupt you in what I ought to offer unto you as precious, but as one who have propounded to myself ever to deserve the best of letters and lovers of letters. There is also in this argument another thing, which whether it will please others I know not, for wee live in a malignant age; that certainly it will please you, I doubt not. Philo, little less then a Christian, hath taught me, that Moses, whom both we and the Jews( by the manifest evidence of what he foretold) believe to have been divinely inspired, and who is celebrated for a most wise Law-maker by wise men, and born in a very wise age, Diodorus the Sicilian, Trogus Pompeius a Roman, and a Cappadocian indeed, but the most judicious, Strabo; when in the preamble of his most holy laws he had given us three choice patterns for a private life, the first of him who by the aid of arts and excellent learning came from false gods to the true; the second, whose birth itself and happy education did very much advantage him; and a third, who besides these benefits had this also, which I by experience think the greatest, a trial by afflictions, would add likewise a man exercised in public government, notable, not onely for those hereditary and domestic virtues, but what were also profitable to the Common-wealth; which indeed in joseph he hath so performed, as that he, a leader of the people, if ever any, provident for the future, unbroken in evils, a maintainer of justice, observing moderation in all things, may seem to have set himself no other copy, next to the divine Commandements, by which to order his actions, then the life of this joseph; far differing from those worst of men, and consequently of teachers, who when they would give us the Character of a Prince, are wont to make him a man composed of deceit and perfidiousness, and an obdurate contempt of God and all laws, as well common as peculiar, to any people; a constitution of mind, unless I mistake, not attainable, but through a long custom of villainies. But these things it is your part to prosecute more at large, of whom after your books the best guides unto, and Judges of the greek and Latin Annalists; wee all, who who love truth and right, I say not expect, for that is too little, but earnestly beg the sum also of universal History. Farewell man nearest my heart, and comfort your want of a lost son( since it hath so pleased God) with those many children of your learning, begotten by you, and sent abroad through the whole World.  
Francfort. The Ides of july, 1634.   

Vossius in Addend. l. 2. Institut. Poetic.  
THe question is, whether it bee lawful to make a dramatic Poem of a sacred argument: if examples may be pleaded; Ezekiel a jewish tragic Poet, hath written the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt. There is likewise extant Christs Passion, whether by Gregory Nazianzen, or Apollinaris of Laodicea. Neither have there been wanting in our age famous men also, who have written sacred Dramatiques both comical and tragical: But I am rather of opinion, it were better to choose another argument, then sacred. For it agrees not with the majesty of sacred things to be made a play and fable. It is also a work of very dangerous consequence to mingle human inventions with things sacred; because the Poet adds uncertainties of his own, sometimes falsities; which is not onely to play with holy things, but also to over-reached in mens minds uncertain opinions, and now and then false.— These things have place especially, when we bring in God, or Christ, speaking, or treat of the mysteries of Religion. I will allow more where the History indeed is taken out of the sacred Scriptures, but in the nature of its argument is civill. As if the action bee of David flying from his son absalon, or of Joseph sold by his Brethren; advanced by Pharaoh to the government of Egypt, and in that dignity adored by, and made known unto his Brethren. Of which argument is Sophompaneas, made by the most illustrious and incomparable man, Hugo Grotius, ambassador, when he lived, of the most gracious Queen and kingdom of Sweden, to the most Christian King of France. Which Tragedy I suppose may be set for a pattern to him that would handle an argument fetched from the holy Scriptures; and I would even more commend it in this place, then which a fitter could not be; did I not fear, I might seem to do it as well in regard of that love, which was ever between us, as also in officiousness of a grateful mind, forasmuch as he would have this excellent Poem come forth into the light, dedicated unto my name.   

To his own old dear Francis Goldsmith, Esq;  

SO doth the toiling Husbandman at last,  
Feed full his longing mind, his eye, and taste,  
When once into his own hands he doth get  
That Pear or Plum which the same hands had set.  
A modest pride so flatters me, to see  
What was my kernel once, now grown a three.  
So on the Cart, the poor Fly doth out thrust  
Its Tiffan wings, as if it raised the dust.  
I thanked thee thee for thy catechism before,  
But Sophompaneas much augments the score:  
His Brethren and his Fathers Father he,  
Brethren and Father both doth find in thee.  
Thou bringst him Spice, balm, our best English Honey,  
And( in thy learned notes) bringst double Money.  
Jacob in Syria, and Egypt, made him live,  
Another life in britain thou dost give.  
But how doth Grotius indebted stand  
To thee, that makest him denizen of our Land?  
Go on dear Frank, and let thy pious toil,  
Transport, translate, enrich our barren Soil  
With all his spoils, that are( all are) of worth,  
His Gallo-Belgick labours have brought forth.  
Teach us his Laws of war( but rather peace)  
Teach us his Christian Truth, that may increase,  
And here produce of Faith a plenteous breed,  
( We have some Indians here stand much in need.)  
Teach us by him Gods word to understand:  
These Works, my Frank, call for thy worthy hand.  
In the mean time though more of thee we crave,  
We thankfully accept of what we have.  
This Joseph, and thy catechizing us,  
Shall style thee new, rise Francis Grotius.   

— Mihi Nulla rura, at  
Spiritum Graiae tenuem Camaenae  
Parca non mendax De did,&—    

Somnium Dramaticum Synesii Iunioris, Cognomento CHIROSOPHI.  
THe evil of the Day had tired light,  
Glad to fall into the dark arms of Night.  
When Moses sacred Genesis had fed  
My thoughts so full, that in my active Head  
The waking Phant'sie wrought the holy theme  
Into the form of a dramatic dream.  
Me thought I saw fair Joseph, while they cried  
Abrech before Him, in great honour ride;  
The tender Father of the King proclaimed:  
Zapnath-paaneah by great Pharo named.  
I took three sips of his Divining Cup,  
Which heightened my prophetic spirit up  
To such a pitch, that I could soon unfold  
All Secrets the Synesian Riddles hold.  
The silver Goblet( upon Arts command)  
turned to refined Gold within his Hand;  
The Scenes were with all properties endued,  
Could heighten a majestic interlude.  
The Acts( rehearsed) might reconcile the Stage  
To chaster ears, and purify the Age.  
Things were so done; there did more lustre spring  
From his rich Buskin, then from Pharo's Ring.  
The Plaudit was so loud at every clause,  
I wakened with the echoes of applause.  
The Day return'd: upon my thoughts review,  
I found my Dream, in your Translation, true.  
So well performed: it will extend the famed  
Of reverend Grotius, and advance Your name.  
Thus while with pious thoughts the learned strive  
To infuse new life, Joseph is yet alive!  
Increasing still for others, as of old,  
'twill be his fortune to be bought and sold.  
But friend, I think 'twas the best chance of wit,  
To find a Patron for the Poem sit.  
T' ignoble greatness for to prostitute  
Thy Joseph, did not with thy honour suite.  
Such who affect Effeminate extremes,  
Would make him blushy for to expound their dreams.  
debauched and empty Lords, whose poppy heads  
Now Levell-switcht, fall to their earthly beds.  
But thou hast choose one, high, rich, learned, good,  
With all the virtues of ennobled blood.  
Where worth doth over mens affections sway,  
There will the sons of Art their Tribute pay.  
CHIROSOPHUS Francisco Chrysergo Grotio, Amicitiae& Cognominis Ergo.   

On the Subject, Joseph. The Poet, Hugo Grotius. The Translator, F. Goldsmith.  

JOSEPH! Thou Heir of Love! in whom wee find  
Fair Rachels Face, and holy Jacobs Mind.  
Their Darling, Egypts Idol, Heavens Delight,  
Both Pharaohs, and Jehovahs Favourite.  
Chast, Fair, Just, Great, None such Live in our Daies:  
We can but act thy Actions in plays.   

GROTIUS! Thy Exile was the Worlds good Fate,  
Which to thy Books redeemed thee from the State:  
Our common plays blushy at thy Tragedy,  
The Law, and Life of Christian Poetry.  
For Action Joseph I would wish to be;  
For Writing, Grotius, I most honour thee.   

FRANK! Thou to us his catechism didst give,  
There Teaching, and here showing how to live.  
Sands in Christs Passion did before thee go  
In tragic steps, which thou hast followed so,  
That were your Names concealed, it might be said,  
One did them both Translate, as One them made.  
S. got.    

To his honoured Friend, FRANCIS GOLDSMITH, Esq; Upon his Translation of, &c.  
FRiend, did my famed and Muse shine forth as bright  
As the renowned Ben's, then would that light  
Like th' hour telling Sun, the Rectifier  
Of Clocks and Watches, shine to the whole choir  
Of common censu'rers, who would each correct  
His peccant humour by my Dialect.  
And their fond fancies pinning on my slieve,  
Without examination would believe:  
But since my humble Muse could never soar  
Parnassus height, nor is so popular  
To make all vote with me, let thy own worth,  
Thy well couched Phrase, neat lines, not tumbled forth  
By a pie-corner Muse or wild sick brain,  
But the most noble issue of thy vein  
Speaks its own praise only, let these have grace,  
To stick like patches on a beauteous face.  
Tho: Berney.   

In Sophompaneam, Tragaediam, a cultissimo viro, Domino Francisco Goldsmith, Anglico Idiomate donatam.  
DEtonat ignoto sublimis Grotius ore,  
Et maestam tragico syrmate verrit humum.  
Josephum dederat Latio velamine tectum,  
vest sub hàc nobis said male notus erat.  
Musarum è sacra prodit faber aureus aulâ,  
Et scaenam egregiâ condidit arte novam.  
Sanctorum doctè huc transfert miracula patrum,  
Et nostri indigenas jam jubet esse soli.  
Quantus pro Phario dictabat jura tryanno;  
Instantemque videns reppulit arte famem.  
En tantus Josephus adest, nosterque vocatus,  
Virtutisque tuae, clear vir, istud opus.  
Cum genio foelix, sic aurea carmina pangas,  
Sortitus merito es nomina digna tuo.  
Haec tibi cum Groti Elysias portentur ad oras,  
Gaudebis Latium dedicisse sonum.  
D. WHITFORD.  
— Debes etiam nobis Sophompaneam, pulchriori à te indutum tunicâ quàm olim fecerat illi indulgentier parens, quam suam vellat Sandisius,&, ni tibi foret injurius.  
Tuissimus, Sandysius Staunton.   

THe History is recorded by Moses, Gen. 44.& 45 Chapters, with the contexts there adjoining: Psal. 105. Acts 7. by Philo in the life of Joseph; by Josephus in his second book of the Jewish antiquities, and partly by Justin out of Trogus Pompeius the 36 book: It is extant also in Astapanus out of Alexander Polyhistor, and in Demetrius: the places you may see in Eusebius his preparation to the Gospel.   

The Translators 

This neither the Latin, nor Greek tragic Writers use: But why may not they, as well as the comic, commend the person of the Poet? or to win benevolence, and attention, expound the argument? Vossi. Instit. poeti. l. 2. c. 26.  
Nor want I the example of Buchanan in his Jephthes,& Baptistes.   PROLOGUE.  
HEre no Medea her own Children kills,  
Nor Hercules the Stage with horror fills:  
The Poet your delight and profit seeks,  
( Not borrowing a Fable from the Greeks;)  
But from the sacred Oracles of Truth,  
Where chaster then hippolytus a Youth  
High Providence did out of Prison bring,  
To save and rule a Nation and a King.  
And after twenty yeers, who dead was thought,  
Is by his Sire and Brethren found unsought.  
If yet the Interpreter or Argument,  
Shall not to critics give a full content:  
Who look for sadder strains, and that we tread,  
More loftily in tragic bufkins, red  
His Christus patience made yours by Sands,  
Which to admire and love the World commands.  
But above all two Champions appear,  
The noble Falkland there, and Vossius here.   


The Persons.  
joseph, who also is Sophompaneas.  
Chorus of Aethiopian Maides.  
Ramses Steward of Iosephs house.  
judah, Iosephs Brethren.  
Reuben, Iosephs Brethren.  
Nuntius.  
Simeon, Iosephs Brethren.  
Benjamin, Iosephs Brethren.  
Pharaoh, King of Egypt.   

Mute Persons.  
Manasses the Son of joseph.  
The train and guard of joseph. Likewise of the King.  
Seven other Brethren of joseph.   
The Scene, Memphis.   

The First Act.  JOSEPH. 

CHasing again the Night his glorious head  
The Sun shows to the world, as from his bed  
A Bridegroom rising comes in rich array  
( 1) Out of his chamber. The returning day  
Doth by a constant course the Lord declare,  
And of a Deity the Sun beams are  
An evidence( 2) where God we may behold,  
Better then in all Ivory and Gold,  
Inhabiting an orb of( 3) mental light.   

Hard labour too, and cares succeed the Night,  
And of so vast a Kingdom all that space,  
From Meroe to the shore, all th' arms embrace  
Of that great River,( 4) whose head Heaven knows,  
On my solicitous heart its burden throws.   

Some may admire the( 5) beams from Libanus,  
The spotted marble,( 6) Groves within my house,  
Of artificial meat so many dishes,  
The several kinds unknown to Nile of Fishes,  
( 7) Strange beasts from afric, which yet want a name,  
And birds which from the Arabian desert came,  
( 8) Wool from boughs by the ceres combed& brought,  
( 9) At Babylon with skilffull needles wrought.  
Bright( 10) pearls a present from the Indian shore,  
The guards about my person and my door.   

Vain, vain, these are, and for so great a weight  
Too small a price. Under this diadems height  
Lies a huge load of cares. In this attire,  
To serve the King my office doth require,  
And with such glittering lustre to surprise  
The peoples mindes, whilst it attracts their eyes;  
This ornament I use, but not enjoy.  
How much more freely lived I, when a boy;  
Without such pensive thoughts I ruled the Flock,  
Which came from my great grandsire Abra'ms stock;  
Where the sheep graze in Sichems pleasant grounds,  
And whose fair vale a double hill surrounds.   

( 11) Ambition did not a great table spread,  
But the sweet( 12) Mandrake with flowers garnished  
Gave me meat,& the Palm, which, though with dates  
Full laden, nothing of its height abates.  
No sparkling wines of Meroe I knew,  
No juice of barley which th' Egyptians brew,  
And( 13) Zythum call: but from the ground which burst  
( 14) A well quenched mine and my forefathers thirst.  
( 15) My timbrel was a reed, but which did sing  
To Syrian tunes the Worlds Almighty King.   

If then, under my fathers eye, when none  
Almost were, but my brethren, to me known;  
Envy yet found me, and a dream, but late  
Made true to me, could pull such cruel hate  
On my innocent head, what may I look for now,  
To whom a stranger all the Memphians bow?  
And Egypt a rough Nation is, the yoke  
Which of her native Lords hath often broken:  
The harder is my task them to command,  
With neither too remiss nor strict a hand.  
But mildness Gravity to her must join,  
And Modesty with Majesty combine.   

Yet more. When a faire gale the sails doth fill,  
The meanest Master of a ship hath skill  
To steer the course; but when from several caves,  
The rushing winds lash the tumultuous waves,  
And lift up watery Mountaines from the deep,  
Then through the stormy Seas the way to keep;  
Ther's need of greatest art. egypt, thy boat,  
In such a boisterous tempest seems to float.  
Twice the beguiled Husbandman in vain,  
Into a barren soil hath cast his grain.  
From whence great danger to a State still grows,  
For raging( 16) hunger no allegiance knows.  
The People rather will rebel then starve,  
Almighty Father, who wouldst have me serve  
Thy gracious providence, and that this Nation,  
Unto my care should owe its preservation;  
Most humble thanks and highest praise to thee  
I give, by whom I things to come fore-see.  
The former seven years plenty shall supply,  
The seven succeeding yeers great scarcity.   

Nor by my gift doth egypt only live,  
Syria doth likewise crave that I would give  
relief to her, that my old dreams now may  
Prove waking truths, God hath found out this way.   

Hither by Famine driven twice unknown,  
My brethren at my knees have fallen down.  
Twice by them my old Sire, and who my dead  
Mothers room fills, humbly incline their head.  
I am that Star, to whom the Moon and Sun,  
And the eleven stars have homage done.   

Now though my brethrens hatred did device  
My death, though they of me made merchandise,  
And to hard bondage sold; I have forgot  
All this, and quiter out of my mind it blot.  
I know what 'tis to suffer, and am mildred  
By nature, so instructed from a child  
By my good Father: yet lest in their breast  
The dregs of an inveterate sin should rest  
Not well purged out, I take a pious care;  
And must use all my cunning to make bare  
The secrets of the heart, which use to shrowded  
Themselves not seldom in too thick a cloud.  
At dinner yesterday I to this end  
The greatest mess did to the youngest sand;  
That by their countenance I might divine,  
Whether they loved the same whole blood with mine,  
Or sparks of ancient hate raked up did lye;  
Nor know I yet: I must them further try.  
( 17) Ile charge the Lad that he my cup did steal,  
How they affect him, this will best reveal.  
A vessel doth not always plough the seas  
In a strait line; but for the Pilots ease  
And better speed it often doth avail,  
To fetch a compass with an obliqne sail.  
Truth by a wile is sometimes understood;  
I hope, to find; if not, to make them good.   

Hear me Manasses, when a man thou art,  
And of this Realm hereafter any part  
Fall to thy Government, let egypt be  
Thy country, she hath well deserved so. See,  
Her benefits thou recompense. The King  
Next unto God think the most sacred thing.  
Let the supreme Law be him to obey,  
And tribute of a loyal heart to pay;  
Then pride the tumour of the mind keep down,  
( 18) Power is but frail, a King that smiles may frown.  
A sudden change hath in an hour laid flat  
Him on the ground, who above Princes sat;  
And often but a little space between  
A palace and a dungeon is seen.  
If any wrong be done thee, if a wound  
Thine honour shall receive, be ever found  
Ready to pardon. To offend how prove  
We are, by our first parents fall is known,  
Whose hand did the forbidden apple pull.  
To them that mercy show, God's merciful:  
By their own law, and with what measure they  
Shall deal, he will to every man repay.  
The sovereign virtue&( 19) which keeps in breath  
All virtues, and doth triumph over death,  
Is Piety. idleness always fly,  
The friend to 'vice, Honor herself bears high.  
For when the world in her illustrious seat,  
Shall gaze on thee, thy famed must needs be great;  
But whether good or bad this in thee lies.   

Now go we to survey the Granaries,  
Her store where this great City doth reserve,  
Lest from my charge in any part I swerve.   ( 20) Chorus. 

IN a rich bed, her Lord gone thence,  
With his prophetic eloquence,  
( 21) Asenath wearied lies, the day  
The losses of the night must pay.   

Here that no noise disturb her sleep,  
By her command the doors we keep,  
To wait on her sent( by our King,  
Whose royal blood( 22) from Cush doth spring)  
From Nubae's utmost parts, through whose  
Dry land the River Niger flows.  
Our hair in circling waves doth run,  
Not curled with Irons, but the Sun.  
( 23) With noses flat and skin like jet,  
Made black by too contiguous heat;  
Thick are our lips where fenced lye,  
Our teeth as white as ivory.   

O happy house, which governed art  
By a chast couple with one heart.  
The Children like the Father, known  
Are by their looks to be his own:  
Which makes the virtuous mother glad;  
Nor doth her Lord, after the bad  
( 24) custom of barbarous Princes range,  
Who every night their wives do change;  
Whereby is strife and hatred sown,  
But he delights in her alone:  
And in his honest breast no room  
Is for strange fires; to overcome  
Which, he did know long since, when he,  
Though but a servant, yet more free  
Then his vile mistris, did despise  
The glance of her adulterous eyes.  
With naked breasts and wanton speech,  
Who might command, did first beseech;  
Then threaten, but against a rock,  
In vain the foaming billows knock.  
Would you, saith he, have me no less  
Commit, then threefold wickedness.  
Madam, should I dishonour you,  
And to my Lord prove most untrue;  
Breaking the trust he puts me in,  
And against God should I thus sin?   

O thou, who guid'st the starry sphere,  
Ordering the Seasons of the Year:  
The spring with Roses thou dost crown,  
In Summers heat corn ripe is grown.  
Then autumn purple grapes brings forth,  
Then comes could winter from the North.  
( 25) How stands it with thy providence,  
That 'vice should tread on Innocence?  
A woman who with lust did burn,  
Which, when repulsed, to rage did turn,  
His garment a false evidence,  
Keeps in her hand, that she from thence  
Her husband might delude, and lay  
The crime on him who fled away.  
The Judge corrupting with a kiss,  
But he to whom chastity is  
A triple guard, and( 26) rarely known  
To Beauty a companion,  
Into a cruel dungeon cast,  
With true adulterers lies fast.  
Yet even there how foul the breach.  
Of wedlock is, he doth them teach.  
The Prisoners wonder in so young  
A head, to hear so grave a tongue,  
Whose honest looks and modest eyes,  
With reverend awe did them surprise.  
Among his fellow prisoners he,  
Is made a Judge; and when they see  
What life he leads, and by it try  
Their own, they all do guilty cry,  
God neither doth quiter hid his way  
From us, nor yet it quiter display.  
His Children he keeps in a state  
Not wanton, not too delicate.  
As a good captain doth enure,  
His Souldiers hardship to endure:  
So the great Father of us all,  
Whom he doth love, will have to fall  
Into affliction, lest the Soul  
Through ease, should grow corrupt and foul.  
Yet leaves he not them comfortless,  
But in the midst of their distress  
Courage unto his own doth give,  
( 27) Who with glad hopes in patience live.  
In a dark dungeon and could chains,  
Our Lord his freedom still retains;  
And did keep others, who elsewhere  
Resisted lust, here conquers fear.  
Whose beauty did his mistress take,  
His virtue did the captive make  
And Keeper love him. To his care  
The wretched rabble trusted are.  
Hence he presaged what happened since,  
And in a Prison was a Prince.  
Where scarce the Sun did ever shine,  
Thither did come a light divine,  
Fixing in his pure heart its beams,  
Interpreting the prisoners dreams:  
Pardon to one, death he foretells  
To th' other. In his voice God dwells.  
Thus flowed adversities rough stream,  
( 28) Till the King troubled with a dream,  
In vain did the( 29) Magicians call,  
In vain, what new fate should befall  
Among( 30) Heavens constellations sought:  
The Prophet then from bonds was brought,  
Worthier a chain of gold and ring,  
( 31) A silk white rob,& next the King  
To rule the Land, then whom alone  
He lower now sits in the Throne.    

The second Act.  Ramses, Judah, Reuben. Ram. 
YOuth, to thy years my pitty I afford,  
Who must go back a prisoner to my Lord,  
Great( 1) Sophompaneas. But what he commands,  
Our duty must perform, A servant stands  
Not to control his master, but obey.  Jud. 
Yet, Ramses, hear me a few words I pray:  
If his ingenuous face may not acquit  
Him from such guilt, and tender age scarce fit  
For any fraud, what yesterday we did,  
Weigh now. Our money by your error hide  
In our sacks, of our own accord again  
We brought from Syria, where none could complain,  
Or challenge it: a present we did add,  
Though small, such as we in our Country had.  
A sovereign salue for wounds( 2) the precious balm,  
( 3) Dates like mens fingers growing on the palm.  
( 4) Spices, Nuts, Almonds,( 5) Nectar of the Bees,  
Sweet smelling Myrrh, which drops from weeping trees.  
More could our beasts have born, you must confess,  
We were not covetous, but thieves much less.  Ram. 
Words, which the fact confutes, are spent in vain,  
I do not charge you, that you had a gain:  
Your money in your sacks, we have no lack  
Of money. But the Cup found in this sack  
Is that wherein my Lord doth offer wine,  
When he pours out his prayers and( 6) would divine.  
For the great God of Heaven doth often make,  
Him of his secret councils to partake.  Jud 
If he know secrets, he can also tell,  
That we are innocent.  Ram. 
Your bosoms well  
Examine. Better none then thy own heart  
Will speak the truth. But take heed lest in part  
Thou judge thyself: thou must into the tract,  
And whole course of thy former life look back.  
God slow to wrath, to punish is not wont  
At first, but when heaps of new sins do mount  
Upon the old( 7) his arm which was so flow  
In lifting up fals with the heavier blow.  
The Giants in old time lived long undrown'd,  
Before that Heaven did earth and seas confounded.  
When on the Mountain tops the waves did roar,  
And made the World a sea without a shore.  
Proud Babel threatening heaven was built high,  
Ere unknown tongues dashed the conspiracy.  
Long in unnatural lusts had Sodom lain,  
Ere God sulphureous showers of fire did rain.  Jud. 
O Dothan dismal name! O horrid pit,  
And thou Arabian greedy Merchant fit  
For any purchase, how you now perplex  
My sad rem●mbrance and my conscience vex!  Reub. 
Spake I not oft to you, not to commit  
Such wickedness? His ruthful looks are yet  
Fresh in my mind, when he besought with tears  
His brethren; at his cry who stopped their ears:  
But Heaven hath heard him.  Jud. 
You may easily blame  
Anothers fault, though guilty of the same.  Ram. 
Among yourselves what do you mutter thus?  Jud. 
To think on Syria it doth trouble us,  
Our country, where our Ancestors did live,  
Famous for goodness, to whom Kings did give  
The hand of Friendship, and them faithful found,  
Who were for hospitality renowned,  
Whose good report through all the Region flies,  
Which between Jordan and Euphrates lies.  Ram. 
Posterity not always doth inherit  
The praises of their Ancestors high merit;  
But 'tis oft seen, that a degenerate race,  
With lust and falsehood doth the stock disgrace.  Jud. 
O child, and of our blood a part,  
Which in thy youths fresh flower art,  
Wherein doth this poor comfort lye,  
Thou know'st not thine own misery.  
O graceful visage, blushing sweet,  
As when with purple milk doth meet;  
Or the first dawning of the rose,  
Its beauty in the bud disclose.  
And thou, like Lybian gold, o hair,  
The pastime of the wanton air:  
What dire blow shall unto thee give  
Thy death, or if thou chance to live,  
What horrid dungeon shall thee hold?  
Or in what land shalt thou be sold,  
Far from us, and thy Father, where  
A servile yoke thy neck shall bear?  
Alas born unto better sates,  
Whose Ancestors were Princes mates.  
In thy gay coat thy Father thee  
Playing about no more shall see.  
Nor when at high noon the Suns heat  
Shall make us from our Flocks retreat,  
( Under a three, or by a spring)  
Shalt thou in hast our dinner bring.  
And some perhaps( for spite doth reign  
In every Country) will again  
Accuse thee falsely, when that thee  
A stranger, poor, forlorn they see.  Ram. 
To love him you do well, who is so nigh  
In blood.( 8) Among men great diversity  
There is of manners, and in every land  
Are several laws, as the Prince will command,  
Or people make for public benefit:  
( 9) This law is every where, nor is it writ  
In Cedar tables, nor in Marble cut;  
Nor brass, but( 10) in the heart God hath it put.  
Who flies it, flies himself: Wild beasts we find,  
To love by nature those of their own kind.  Jud. 
Our very grief you touch, as nothing more.  
But see where strongly guarded to his door  
The Governor is coming, if we now  
Not guilty pled, who will believe us? How,  
If we confess, can we for pardon pray?  
Oh I am at a loss ● what I should say,  
Or how to look I know not. Conscience  
Of my old guilt takes from me all defence.  Ramses, Joseph, Judah. Ram. 
The thief is taken, the cup safe, we found  
It with this Lad, whom we have brought here bound.  
His brethren uncompel'd would with him go,  
Rending their garments to express their woe.  Jos. 
What wretched avarice, what boldness drove  
You to this dead? Wot you not that I have  
Intelligence from heaven, that God a mind  
Hath given me, which all hide things can find:  
And, which another Prophet is to me  
wisdom, whose clear eyes in the dark can see?  Jud. 
Right high and mighty Prince, the second head  
Of this great Kingdom, at whose feet we spread  
Our hands, what can we say? how shall we clear  
ourselves, against whom God doth thus appear?  
But thou who Nations rul'st, rule what is more,  
Thy wrath, nor let thy will be as thy power.  
Make thy gift good: our lives by thee we have  
preserved from famine, now again us save.  
( 11) Mercy alone man nigh to God doth make,  
Us and our brother for thy bond-men take.  Jos. 
( 12) Such hath been, and such is the custom still  
Of many Eastern Nations, that they will  
Not that the punishment should have an end  
In them who are found guilty, but extend  
To parents, children, brethren, crimes of one  
( 13) Five families wrap in like contagion.  
whilst I in egypt do bear any sway,  
Heer's no such law, nor after me, I pray,  
May any such be. He who sins shall bear  
His sin himself: no further shall the fear  
Go then the fault, or to the heir descend.  
He shall my bond-slave be that did offend;  
With whom the Cup was found, I will release  
The rest, unto your Sire go home in peace.  Jud. 

Though our condition and your excellence  
Make me afraid unto so great a Prince  
To speak, yet I beseech you to suspend  
Your anger, and a gracious ear to lend  
Unto a poor distressed Syrian,  
But what for audience is enough, a man.   

When hither first the Famine did us drive,  
You did us ask, we answered, that alive  
We had a Father, but exceeding old;  
Who had above twice threescore winters  told.  
And that besides us ten he had a boy,  
A little one, his comfort and his joy;  
As born in his old age, and of his mother  
The only issue left, his elder brother  
Whom the same womb did bear is long since dead.  
This child to you that we should hither led  
Him with your Princely favours to enrich,  
A strict command you did us give. To which  
It nothing could avail us to reply:  
Our Father, if the lad him leave, will die.  
You said, that we no more should have access  
Unto you, or behold your face, unless  
Our Brother came; which when the old man heard,  
His reverend face with ashes he besmeared,  
And silent sate and wept. When all our food  
Began to fail us, and we fearful stood  
Looking on one another at the nigh  
Approaching famine; Go, said he, and buy  
More corn for us in egypt. We contend,  
That you must be obeyed: if he not sand  
Our youngest brother with us, but at home  
Him keep, we doubtless back should empty come.  
But sadly he: two children did my dear,  
My best beloved Rachel to me bear:  
The first of them whom I shall ne'er see more,  
A wild beast( so ye  told me) did devour.  
If now you take this other from my sight,  
And any mischief should upon him light,  
( As our frail lives to many dangers still  
Exposed are) then think I pray what will  
Become of my gray hairs: with grief and woe  
consumed I down into the grave shall go.  
Now I beseech you even for the sake  
Of this old man,( your self if I may make  
So bold, had once a father) and to save  
His life, which if he miss the Lad will have  
A speedy period, do not suffer it  
Among your glorious titles to be writ,  
Great Saviour of egypt: You did slay  
An old man. In my brothers stead, I pray,  
Take me. I can do better service. He  
A weak and tender child will rather be  
A burden to a house. I did become  
A surety for him to my Father, whom  
O let me never see, unless I keep  
My promise, lest he me accuse and weep,  
Till life dissolve, and when in earths dark vault  
I bury him, I bury there my fault.   Jos. 
Not all which you have said, though something, I  
believe. Who doth a matter hastily  
Determine, he unto repentance hies  
The ready way. I further will advice.  Jud. 
If dead, o happy Joseph then, that thou  
These miseries dost not feel with us now;  
If living, that God unto whom belongs  
Vengeance not unreveng'd doth see thy wrongs.  Chorus. 
WHere egypt when the Sun doth rise  
Looks on his beams( 14) Phoenicia lies;  
Which, whether it more good or ill  
Hath done to mankind may be still  
A question. For inventions rare,  
( 15) Taauta doth the praises bear.  
( 16) In twice twelve letters to comprise,  
Which first did teach what in the skies,  
Or sea, or land, or in the mind  
Of man( which all contains) we find.  
But as if sickness, beasts of prey,  
Not fast enough snatch men away.  
And, which among the Reeds of Nile,  
In ambush lies the( 17) Crocodile,  
The same( 18) to death a new way shows  
In a frail Bark the sea which plows.  
As formerly in sight oth' shore,  
The vessel now sails by no more:  
But launching out into the deep  
Mediterranean Sea, doth keep  
Now Southward, then the Northern Star  
It follows: not to fetch from far  
What may give nature fresh supplies,  
Whose use a few things do suffice.  
But( 19) purple, by Kings to be worn,  
And the rich fingers to adorn;  
The( 20) Emerald then grass more green,  
Which sparkling in the ring is seen.  
This did the thirst of gold device,  
Mad thirst of gold, which to despise  
The raging of the sea, the wrath  
Of Heaven, and( 21) to a thin plank hath  
Our precious lives taught to commit.  
Dire avarice, to what crimes doth it  
Not drive adventurous mankind? Hence,  
Of right or wrong no difference  
Is made: no place, no persons are  
From rapine safe, nor will men spare  
The very Altars; but to meet  
With plunder any where is sweet.  
( 22) O happy the first age, in which  
He who found Strawberries was rich;  
Or tasted the delicious juice,  
Which trees unplanted did produce.  
One Law there was, 'vice not to know:  
( 33) A simplo life, chast enough, though  
Naked. But when( 24) a coat became  
A covering to hid our shane;  
And then by violence the field  
A crop of corn was forced to yield,  
The Brother did his hands embrew,  
In's Brothers blood, and anger knew  
No kindred. Nor did the bold hand  
Of men stay here: the trembling land  
Her bowels to be digged did feel,  
And better hide, a vein of steel  
Was found. stern slaughter further goes,  
Than single bodies; the sword mows  
Great Nations in a short space,  
And powerful wickedness the face  
Of glorious war so long did wear,  
Till the earth could no longer bear,  
But to her aid the Sea did call,  
Another Sea from Heaven did fall.  
( 25) With such a noise, as Nile down flows,  
When from steep Rocks himself he throws.  
But neither hath it for the good  
Of mankind been to press the blood  
Of grapes: by wine great damage came,  
( 26) The son laughed at his fathers shane;  
( 27) The daughter to her Father brought  
A grandchild, what hath lust not wrought?  
O egypt, thee and these our times  
We much congratulate, whose crimes  
An excellent governor restrains,  
And in the narrowest bounds contains.  
Who 'vice by laws makes men give o'er,  
But by his own example more.  
Stay here; a tempest up is raised: now wee  
How it at length will be appeased, would see.   

The third Act.  Nuntius, Joseph. Nun. 
ALL that fierce people bordering on the( 1) read,  
And the Carpathian Sea, by fury lead  
Are up in arms. Each man is his own law,  
And the great Kings command keeps none in awe.  Jos. 
A crime in egypt frequent now, though great.  
But it is not enough to know what heat  
A pestilence doth rage with, or what part  
It hath infected, and where lies the smart.  
Who a disease would cure the cause must know;  
Say, from what fountain did this mischief flow?  Nun. 
The Magistrates gave the first cause, whilst they  
Greedy of gain your orders disobey;  
And at excessive rates the corn transport,  
Whereby the Country dweller had but short  
Allowance: and still less and less. Some starve;  
The wealthy buyer longer did preserve  
His life;( 2) bread by a gripping hand was sold:  
So much more great the hunger was of gold.  
When no more corn could in the fields be found,  
The people then the cattle and the ground  
Began to envy, and their bellies fill  
With shrubs and herbs: nor therein saw what ill  
They did. For when the earth of grass was voided,  
The Flocks and Herds by famine were destroyed;  
And all which nature gives for food to men.  
On Dogs the Country sentinels they then,  
Yea, on the( 3) sacred Ibis, and on such  
Unclean things too, as loathsome are to touch,  
A feast make. Who would think it?( 4) Asps are meat  
To some, and witting they poison eat.  
Their cheeks are ghastly pale, loose hangs their skin,  
With joints wide gaping, eyes deep sunk within.  
Sad sighing did a while complaints suppress;  
At length some wont in sloth and idleness  
To spend their daies, who formerly durst prate,  
And dart ill language at the Magistrate,  
Call Conventicles,( 5) when the shady Night  
destroys all colours, and obscures the Light:  
Adding new faults; or when( as miseries  
Make men devout) to offer sacrifice  
The people met, there they with speeches take  
The multitude. What end will this dearth make?  
Or what hope is there left for us? they say,  
Is it for this our patience doth stay,  
That we may fight who shall have the first bit  
Of th' others limbs, that on the Fathers spit  
The sor●●● roasted, and( 6) the mother bear  
Her ch●●● ag●●●●? Do ye now stand in fear  
Of sovereign power? this is nothing, but  
An empty name, which in a fright may put  
Those who walk by themselves, but he who shall  
Awe single persons is afraid of all.  
These things once heard, every one as he goes  
Doth scatter, and enlarge. A few, but whose  
Authority was over-ruled, contend,  
That they to you should a Petition sand.  
The greater part, as if an hornet had  
Them stung, then their first setters on more mad  
Doth rage. With what a violence the wind  
Breaking the Mountain where it was confined,  
And rushing through the empty air down casts  
The sturdy oaks: with such a fury hastes  
The Country rout, and stones and fire-burnt stakes,  
And pieces of a broken plow up takes.  
A thousand voices cry: to( 7) Coptos where  
The higher power sit; we may have there  
Bread and revenge. The army greater grows  
In marching. Many, as along it goes,  
Admire and make the number: when they came  
Nigh to the town, the gates they on a flamme  
With torches set. The timber fire soon takes,  
And a strong Eastern wind it fiercermakes;  
And drives to the next houses: the sparks fly:  
A globe of pitchy smoke ascends the sky.  
And whilst the frighted Citizens prepare  
To quench the flamme, the peasants of this fear  
Taking advantage, where the wall was thin,  
And weakly guarded, on that side break in.  
And forthwith from the Magazines they take,  
And put on arms, and glittering weapons shake.  Jos. 
Doth at the Magistrate this only strike?  
Or doth it wander further, and alike  
Involve the guilty and the innocent?  Nun. 
The rage at first against the Rulers bent  
Hath many cut in pieces: for the Grave  
Nothing was left of them. A few did save  
Themselves by flight, whom now a secret den  
Of a wild beast doth hid. The garners then  
They fall upon. The corn,( which, if a right,  
And equal dole had been, a long while might  
Have driven back the famine) snatched away  
Without all rule and measure, a short stay  
Thereof did make. The mischief thus begun,  
Like an incurable disease did run.  
And threescore the public treasury,  
Or private coffers kept, what gifts on high  
Hang in the temples, all a prey became:  
The greedy hand not put back by the flamme  
Doth plunder burning Coptos. Then their hate  
Both Noble men and youths doth captivated,  
Who to a barbarous soil for slaves are sold.  Jos. 
To buy a freeborn race who was so bold?  Nun. 
The twelve Arabian Princes, Ismaels seed.  Jos. 
That Nation is of Hagar the right breed,  
Like her, in unjust manners. But, say, how  
The City being tane is governed now.  Nun. 
Not any form held long: they first choose one  
With sovereign power; him they dislike anon.  
Another is set up by arms, but whose  
Authority is limited by those  
That are joined fellows with him: nor did this  
Continue long: the government then is  
Committed to the people. Clamour there  
Carries all votes, and boldness sway doth bear.  
Nor is their raging discord within bounds  
Of words contained: the matter's tried by wounds.  
Their swords to mutual slaughter then they draw,  
engaged in a sharp conflict I them saw.  Jos. 
These tidings promise present victory.  
Ramses, what troops you can, raise speedily  
To compass in the City. Ile convey  
Men under ground, who by a secret way  
Shall come within the walls: and you shall have  
( 8) The battering Ram, and( 9) creeping Vine to save  
Your heads in the assault. When thus you shall  
Enjoy the town, let not the soldier fall  
To kill or spoil the Citizens. From me  
Let him expect reward; the King will be  
Able to pay them all: o let none then  
Seek gain by ruin of his Countrymen.  
The civill government give not to such  
As over wealthy be, who having much  
Still covet more, and will no liberty  
Allow the people, or themselves deny:  
Nor yet to beggars; envy feeds upon  
The hearts of such, which an obstruction  
To justice is, foe to society,  
On others good casting an evil eye.  
The middle sort will govern best, who be  
From riot far, from sordid baseness free.  
Corn I will sand from hence, which through the land  
You may distribute with an equal hand.  
Where th'utmost Pharian border lies, which o'er  
The read Sea hath a prospect to the shore  
Of Cyprus, with strong towers those parts defend.  
Propitious Heaven better times will sand,  
When egypt shall those( 10) Nabataeans tame,  
Which warm themselves in our afflictions flamme.  
Them, who their power abused, commit to close,  
And dark imprisonment, and likewise those,  
Who, though of wicked Magistrates, the blood  
Have foully spilled; the manner is not good,  
Nor tolerable, and a foe to peace,  
Those punishments more terror will increase,  
Which not in hasty wrath inflicted bee,  
But by, grave councils friend, a slow decree.  
Let them a pardon find, who did transgress  
No more, then hunger thereunto did press;  
Nor with a covetous mind the wealth invade  
Of others. But who of their fellows made  
A mock and gain, what Laws they did invent,  
Let them now feel in their own punishment.  
( 11) Alive them bury in the Mines: there they  
By labour measuring time, deprived of day,  
Shall heavy shackles at their heels draw still.  
But yet let these be fed too: and what ill  
Unto their Country by their dire offence  
Is done, let their example recompense.  
And their long miseries to others be  
A wholesome spectacle. For these things, see  
Thou care. Now what concerns my own estate,  
( 12) Ile to my faithful Wife within relate.  Judah, Simeon. 
O Simeon, what a man is this! How he  
Hath all things wisely done! How equal bee  
His censures to the merits of the cause,  
How close he keeps to justice and the Laws!  Sim. 
Such I have long observed him, having been  
A pledge here for you. I have often seen  
Him sit, and( 13) with an equal patience hear  
Both sides: nor could it by his words appear;  
Nor by his looks or gesture any sign  
Could I discover, how he did incline:  
The credit of the witnesses prevailed  
More then the number with him: If there failed  
A witness, then the life which formerly  
The prisoner lead, did that defect supply.  
To follow the strict rules of Law he sought,  
unless where clemency persuaded ought  
To bait of rigour, yet not so unbent,  
As 'vice from thence should take encouragement:  Jud. 
What should I say, that Sophompaneas  
Yesterday feasting us did each guest place  
According to our birth by nature.  Sim. 
This,  
believe me Brother, but the least thing is  
In him, which you so much seem to admire.  
Th' Almighty power of God doth him inspire,  
And what not any mortal mind can reach,  
( 14) A Heavenly Spirit doth, within, him teach.  Jud. 
What gallery's this of such an ample space,  
Which with three sides doth the whole house embrace?  Sim. 
The King, to's friend who bears an open hand,  
Upon jonian pillars did command  
This to be built.  Jud. 
May I within it see?  Sim. 
You may, and it well worth your sight will be.  
Here curious pictures by rare pencils wrought  
Are added, which to strangers hither brought  
Might Sophompaneas acts and honors show,  
And where he his own history might know.  Jud. 
Let's enter therefore. Fear not Benjamin,  
We will not leave thee, we will keep within  
Thy sight, and all thy brethren will appear,  
When the great Presidents door we open hear.  Sim. 
Run o'er these pieces with a nimble eye.  Iud. 
What doth this angry woman signify,  
With locks all torn, whose cheeks are wet and read,  
Which hath his cloak snatched up who from her fled?  Sim. 
A Lady great and fair, whom lust did sting,  
Being denied, on the chast youth doth fling  
Her crime, and palliates her sin with sin.  
His Garment to her lye must credit win.  Jud. 
I see a dark and loathsome prison.  Sim. 
There  
He of anothers fault the blame doth bear.  Iud. 
What's he, who from three branches of a Vine  
Pressing the grapes in the Kings Cup pours wine?  Sim. 
This is no real story. One who was  
A prisoner with Sophompaneas,  
Had such a dream, which he interpnted;  
That when the Sun had thrice his radiant head  
In Heaven advanced, the King would as before  
Him to his place of Cup-bearer restore.  
The event proves him a Prophet. But alas,  
How soon are benefits forgot! His place,  
Wealth, favour, honour, having now again  
recovered, he unmindful did remain  
Of former friendship, of what to him had  
been thus foretold, and of the Covenant made  
Between them, till his annual course the Sun  
Through the( 15) twelve signs had twice completely run.  
And none of the magicians could expound  
The Kings dark dream: then was the Prophet found.  Iud. 
Another sad and gloomy piece I see  
Full of all sorts of dainty baked meats, three  
Baskets, a flock of Birds the meat thence draws  
Out with their beaks, and tears it with their claws.  Sim. 
This also but a dream is of a poor  
Prisoner, who had chief Baker been before  
To Pharaoh: and as the Prophet did  
Foretell, when the third morning forth was rid  
In her bright chariot, with his carcase he  
The greedy birds fed hanging on a three.  Iud. 
Out of the River Nile seven oxen rise,  
Fat and well favoured, which with heavy thighs  
Measuring the bank in a green meadow feed;  
Seven other follow, which the Lake doth breed  
Lean and ill favoured, which scarce having power  
To creep so far, those goodly Kine devour.  
Seven goodly ears of corn bend with their own  
Weight to the ground, they yellow ripe are grown.  
As many other stalks I see to lye  
Almost upon the ground, a withered, dry,  
Thin handful, scorched with the Suns burning heat,  
And these the seven gallant ears up eat.  
What's he in scarlet lying sees this sight?  Sim. 
The King. For unto him( 16) in dreams by night  
Obscurely God seven fruitful yeers foretold,  
And seven of famine. Yet none could unfold  
These knots, but who from prison for this thing.  
Was fetched, and made his second by the King.  Iud. 
I know him pictured in fine linen, whom  
An Ivory chariot draws, a diamond from  
His left hand sparkles, a gold chain hangs round  
About his neck, the people to the ground  
Bowing adore him, and his praises sing.  
But what are those there( 17) in a triple ring  
Divided and distinguished? The first are  
Close gird in coats: the next prepared for war,  
Sweat under armor: the third sort in sight  
Appear from head to foot arrai'd in white.  Sim. 
The people of this Kingdom by the Ile  
Of Philae bounded, and the sea and Nile  
He wisely hath divided in three parts,  
And distributing them to several arts  
Had added new inventions. Behold where  
In the first rank the husbandmen appear;  
And they whose labours do sustain our lives,  
To lift the foaming flood up he contrives  
With the perpetual motion of a wheel,  
Whose endless circlings footing never feel.  
Behold there others( 18) a strange sight) to tread  
Meal with their feet, day with their hands to knead.  
The second sort are souldiers, whom in peace  
He hath trained up to war: by some of these  
A trench is cast; others contend who most  
Swiftly can run in arms, and at a post  
Deal heaviest blows: some make a horse to bound,  
kerbing his tender mouth, and riding round  
Into a circled draw. But others strive  
A chariot armed with dreadful hooks to drive.  
Some measure places out, wherein to pitch  
Their tents, them fencing with a bank& ditch.  
With ● huge quarter-staffe those armed go;  
These shoot an arrow from a twanging bow.  
These with a pole-axe in their hands to fight,  
practise. See there whole troops, now to the right,  
Now to the left hand turning, now exposed  
In a broad front, into a wedge now closed.  
The third sort to religion sequestered,  
From taxes free, by the Kings store are fed:  
And think not that they onely serve to put  
Sabaean odours on the Altars, but  
By Sophompaneas they are taught t' inquire  
What makes the wandering planets back retire.  
Why, when the Sun in Cancer is, the day  
Is longest:( 19) whether the North-star doth stay the whole  
Ever at the same distance from the Pole:  
( 20) Why heaven brings forth new stars: and through  
Work of the world the divine counsels they  
Search out as far as nature bears a sway.  
( 21) See you those figures written in the dust?  
How great a surface a triangle must  
Contain, they dispute: what proportion there  
The circled hath to the Diameter.  
Then all in war done valiantly, or in  
Peace pleasingly, what wholesome laws have been  
For egypt made: the names of all who e're  
From Mziraim their first King the Crown did wear  
At Memphis, all the peoples dreadful storms,  
Mysteriously in( 22) Hieroglyphicke forms  
About the vast high( 23) Pyramids they cut,  
And signs of things not sounds of words there put.  Iud. 
What's by that picture meant, where to the Court  
Such multitudes trembling and pale resort?  Sim. 
( 24) A business of great moment, for the King  
Is agitated. When no crop did spring  
Up the first year, hunger did them compel▪  
( Their money being spent) their slaves to sell  
For corn, which by the Prophet warned, in store  
The King had hoarded. When the famine more  
Cruelly pinched, they then bring all their breed  
Of Oxen, and what other cattle feed  
In the green pastures: then they mortgage all  
Their Lands, and afterward themselves enthrall.  
So all those grounds which the great Nile doth see,  
Except what to the Priests allotted bee;  
And all the people by the King were bought,  
Whom to forsake( for this the governor thought  
To be the kingdoms safety) he commands,  
Where long their ancestors had dwelled, the Lands,  
And in strange places he new Colonies  
Hath planted.  Iud. 
O how politic and wise  
His Counsels are! whether long use or Heaven  
Such wisdom from above to him hath given!  
But lest this may us hurt, my heart to fear  
Hath cause; I wish that he less knowing were.  Sim. 
On that side of the Gallery behind  
The house, there nothing is, which you may find  
Worth looking on. There he foreknowing all  
The fates hereafter egypt to befall,  
Hath them disposed. These now are in a flood  
Of darkness drowned, but shall be understood,  
When time shall make the truth break forth like day.  
And now the fearful Lad for us doth stay.  Chorus. 
( 25) NIle, or if Siris rather we,  
Or,( 26) with our parents better thee  
Astapus call, who from a spring  
Unknown through deserts wandring  
Deep under ground, where thou for men  
mayst useful rise, breakest out again,  
And from high rocks down falling makest  
An horrid murmur, and thence tak'st  
A double course, which gently glides  
Embracing egypt on both sides;  
Until far spreading with seven wide  
Channels it doth the sea divide.  
( 27) What shall I say a Virgin, when  
We hear so many learned men  
To differ, whom my Lord doth call  
Often to dine with him? what shall  
I say, the direful causes be,  
That thou wont egypt formerly  
To water so,( 28) it had no need  
Of rain from Heaven, wilt not exceed  
Eight cubits, nor the( 29) dog-star though( 30)  
Thus often call, wilt higher flow?  
Is the Sun by conjunction  
Of other stars now hotter grown.  
And Aethiopia, where I first  
Did nourishment receive, such thirst,  
And drought now feel she can no more,  
( 31) Her Rain into thy river poure?  
Or whether doth( 32) slow Saturn ty  
Up the swift Planet( 33) Mercury,  
To vegetate thy course ordained?  
( 34) Or hath the frozen west restrained  
His vernal blasts which make thee swell,  
And o'er the banks thy flood compel?  
Or doth the falling earth deny  
Unto thy streams their old supply,  
whilst,( 35) which the world begirts, the great  
Ocean whose waves on Atlas beat,  
By a blind passage, and through hidden  
Caverns to go it hath forbidden?  
( 36) Or hath it stopped the secret way  
By which thy fellow floods convey  
Themselves and join by stealth with thee?  
These things I doubt o're-wisely ye  
In vain seek.( 37) God the world who made,  
And when the water did invade  
Ill mingled earth, the liquid deep  
Did teach in shores and banks to keep;  
Hath made Nile also, whom he in  
A Law hath bound, which hating sin  
He changeth, and this age doth fright,  
This wicked age, that so he might  
By prodigies mankind( in all  
'vice lost) to virtue thus recall.   

The Fourth Act.  Joseph, judah, Benjamin. Ios. 
unbind the Lad there, that more freely he  
May answer, and ye of my guard, and ye  
( 38) O Nubians, and my faithful train be gone;  
A while I with these guests will talk alone.  
( 39) Lives the old man your Sire, of whom ye spake?  Iud. 
He lived, when hither we did our journey take.  Ios. 
How great an age was he arrived at then?  Iud. 
He had seen almost sixscore yeers and ten.  Ios. 
Is such declining age from sickness free?  Iud. 
Sorrow except, else no disease hath he.  Ios. 
Doth he mourn for the absence of this Lad?  Iud. 
He hath another grief that makes him sad.  Ios. 
May not I know? I have a Sire that's old.  Iud. 
He grieves for a lost son, I late you  told.  Ios. 
What cruel chance bereaved him of his son?  Iud. 
God knows, before whose eyes all things are done.  Ios. 
To vouch him who knows all things you do well.  Iud. 
The certainty no mortal can us tell.  Ios. 
By time things hidden oft discovered be.  Iud. 
O if that wished for day I once might see!  Ios. 
That to his Father him restore you may.  Iud. 
Could my death purchase't, Ile make no delay.  Ios. 
So dear unto his Father was the Lad?  Iud. 
No son a more fond father ever had.  Jos. 
Was't for his honest and not envious mind?  Iud. 
And a rare towardness that in him shined.  Ios. 
Say, what your thoughts of this great kingdom are.  Iud. 
It may with the best Syrian Lands compare.  Ios. 
Do ye the Government, and Laws approve?  Iud. 
All things, you governing, our wonder move.  Ios. 
And would you in this Country now remain?  Iud. 
Gladly: lest famine us invade again.  Ios. 
Hence to depart what therefore doth you make?  Iud. 
Our Sire at home left we must not forsake.  Iud. 
May not the old man hither too be brought?  Iud. 
He must resolve that; obey him I ought.  Ios. 
Love of his son perhaps may draw him here.  Iud. 
This child was also ever to him dear.  Ios. 
What name he called him by, to know I crave.  Iud. 
Benjamin is the name his Father gave.  Ios. 
Therein's an omen of a strong right hand.  Iud. 
How's that? Do you the Hebrew understand?  Ios. 
I formerly did in your Country dwell.  Iud. 
What brought you hither, I beseech you tell.  Ios. 
Envy, though unprovok'd, a cruel beast.  Iud. 
That monster in our Land is no strange guest.  Ios. 
Are free born bodies there wont to be sold?  Iud. 
This is by( 40) custom and sharp laws controlled.  Ios. 
Many things done against the laws I see.  Iud. 
Which, if men fail, by God will punished be.  Ios. 
Now say what was his name whom ye did lose.  Iud. 
joseph. That name his parents did impose.  Ios. 
What in your language noted is thereby?  Iud. 
It to our house Increase doth signify.  Ios. 
The thing doth often with the name agree.  Iud. 
But the event proves this name vain to be.  Ios. 
Nothing's too hard for God. Never despair.  Iud. 
O that God would grant this, though hopeless, prayer.  Ios. 
He hath, and will. Look here on me. I am  
joseph, my Brethren. Me another name  
egypt hath given. Behold, your eyes now see,  
How God hath my estate increased. Hence be  
Dothan, the threats of death, and dreadful pit,  
And the Arabian Merchants banished quiter  
Out of your mindes. Let my dreams credit have:  
This is enough. No more of you I crave.  Iud. 
Excellent Prince; For Brother I not dare  
To call you, since our guilty looks declare  
We have not dealt with you like Brethren, now  
Again we suppliants, miserable bow  
Down at your knees, not that we may not starve,  
But that you from yourself would us preserve.  
Pardon us. Wearied with long grief our Sire  
Doth this entreat, or, if you will, require.  Ios. 
Cast away care. You ask too late wh●● is  
Already granted. To forgive you, 'tis  
Too light. As Brethren I a Brother you  
Do love, whereas to Benjamin a true  
Affection I see you bear, which I  
Have long by circumstances sought to try.  
That this not grieve you the felicity  
Of the event deserves. Ther's reason why  
I should give thankes to you, by whom I here  
The second honours of this Kingdom bear.  
God who hath all things made, o'er all things whose  
Eyes watch, who cares for all, and doth dispose  
His counsels afar off, that I should bee  
A Saviour to you and my Father, me  
Hath hither sent before. Two yeers are fled,  
Since egypt, and which wont thence to be fed,  
The adjacent Countries hunger hath pinched sore;  
There yet remain five yeers of famine more.  
Go therefore to my Father who my fate  
bewails, the strange and joyful news relate.  
Whom he hath long thought dead, alive that I  
Not only am, but great, renowned and high  
Do sit, enjoying heaps of wealth. Come ye,  
And of my power all partakers be.  
( 41) Let me him happily requited, to whom  
I owe my birth; and let my Father come,  
And see, whom he hath so desired, his son.  
I'l find rich pastures for the flocks, and on  
The Pharian grass shall Isaacs cattle grow.  
My Brethren not these twenty yeers seen, O  
How glad am I to fall upon your necks!  
And on thine Benjamin, whose hair's like wax;  
Which here I take delight to touch, and stand  
Leaning upon thy shoulders with each hand.  
The tears run down my cheeks, how I rejoice,  
My weeping speaks, though it hath drowned my voice.  Ben. 
Hail, who with me of Rachel the same mother  
Wert born; here found, but yet unlooked for Brother.  
A man, a child, a Prince, me wronged protect:  
With what art you rule egypt, me direct:  
And that these tears, signs of true love, I may  
Now pour upon thy neck, permit I pray.  Ios. 
O day I never hoped to see,  
How great my joys are made by thee!  Ben. 
Now I my journey not repent,  
That down I into egypt went:  
Nor falsely accused that I bands  
Did wear upon my innocent hands.  Ios. 
Sorry I am that you did bear  
Such imputation, and such fear  
Were in: this was my wile to prove,  
Whether your Brethren did you love.  Ben. 
I much have gained them thus to clear,  
Nor can I think the price too dear.  Jos. 
Now is my life more sweet, since I  
Have found my Brethrens piety.  
More glad I was not in that day,  
When I from prison came away;  
And when the King himself and( 42) all  
Memphis did me their Father call.  Ben. 
Brother to see your happiness,  
I feel more joys then I express.  Jos. 
What thou seest mine,  
Brother, is thine.  Ben. 
O how will our old Father be  
o'erjoyed together us to see!  Jos. 
he'l come, he'l come: ye shall not stay,  
With such a train I'l you away  
sand, as becomes the Governors,  
Both Brethren and Ambassadors.  
But we hereafter shall have time enough  
These pleasures to enjoy. My hour's come now,  
Wherein such conference I with the King  
Am wont to have, as the day forth doth bring;  
Or such as may be fit for him to hear.  
Ye fellows of my guard again appear.  Judah, Reuben, Benjamin. Jud. 
Though on the constant faith and piety  
Of a kind brother I am bid rely;  
The very face yet of wronged innocence,  
And his remembrance of our dire offence,  
Such terror and amazement in me wrought,  
As after a few words which I scarce brought  
Out, all this while I nothing more could say.  
Now thee, whom he doth chiefly love, we pray;  
A branch of the same womb, not guilty, free  
From blame: make him propitious to us, be  
The pious peace-maker. He looking on  
Thee, favouring thee may drink oblivion.  Reu. 
What judah hath said the same words believe  
We all say. If thou ever didst receive  
From us thy Brethren any kindness, now  
requited it. The thing easy is which thou  
mayst do; yet unto us it of no small  
Importance is. Do what we ever shall  
Take delight to remember. So may thee  
At home in safety thy old Father see.  Ben. 
As I conceive, this needs not. Yet will I  
Not have it said, that I my help deny  
To my dear Brethren; when I came away,  
My Father me instructing thus did say.  
O son, hate none, but yet( 43) to them be kind  
Chiefly, whom blood doth nearest to thee bind.  
Them to retain, by suffering seek, and not  
Only by duties. Abraham to Lot  
Was such an uncle. As who did expose  
His own life, that he might from savage foes  
Him rescue by his sword, and back he brings  
Victoriously( 44) the spoils home of four Kings.  
And to avoid the strife of bounds, the East  
He quiter forsaking far did travel West.  
So mocking ishmael, though his mother were  
A bond slave, Isaac patiently did bear.  
And that I of myself may something add,  
When my fierce natured brother Esau had  
threatened to kill me, twenty yeeres I lead  
A wandering life, and from his presence fled  
An exile, that the length of time might tame,  
And tyre his anger, and when home I came,  
Him swelling big, I although innocent,  
With gifts and humble prayer made to relent.  
These Lessons my good Father gave, which I  
Not onely have to faithful memory  
Committed, but will them perform in deeds.  Jud. 
Brave issue, which from Rachels womb proceeds!  Chorus. 
famed flying to my ears  
Good tidings swiftly bears,  
The governor hath found  
His Brethren: a glad sound  
To Priest-born Asenath  
Daughter of Potiphrath;  
Since she hath understood  
Her Lord of noble blood:  
Whose Ancestors of great  
Antiquity a seat  
Had in those parts, in which  
( 45) Euphrates making rich,  
And then a shaft more fleet  
( 46) Tigris, twice mingling meet.  
From this ground God did take  
The dust, which he did make  
A man( 47) in his own image,  
From whom mankind his lineage  
Derives, in whom all wee  
Conclude our pedigree.  
Then six daies work he shut  
Up, and an end here put,  
God having man created,  
Nought greater meditated.  
For him of his free grace  
He gave a mind and face,  
Which Heaven might contemplate;  
Then long to propagate  
His seed, he from his side  
A rib took, a fair Bride  
Which to the man became,  
Whose heart felt a new flamme,  
as soon as he did wake,  
( 48) And sleep his limbs forsake.  
Hence is the marriage knot,  
A holier there is not:  
Whence, a beloved name  
To Parents, Children came.  
The babe on's mothers nipple,  
A vein of milk doth tipple.  
Brethren come next behind,  
Whom seeds of birth fast bind.  
As horses running neigh,  
And with their fellows play:  
Or under one yokes law  
Oxen together draw.  
O that( 49) the phoenix on  
Her wings of Cinnamon  
Which smell( 50) of whose rare kind,  
But one the World can find,  
Would through the air me bear  
To Aethiopia, where  
( Who too much Sun-burnt bee)  
My Brethren I might see.  
But yonder, before whom the Priest doth bring  
( 51) The sacred fire, comes the egyptian King.   

The Fifth Act.  Pharaoh, Joseph, Judah, Chorus. 
THee having gratulated, thy wife I  
The honour now of her affinity  
Will gratulate too. Thy deservings can  
Be equalled by no favours: thou the man  
Art by whose aid no cares my breast annoy,  
By whom my Kingdom freely I enjoy.  
To thee her safety egypt owes, and I  
My quiet. That all wast the fields not lye  
By men forsaken, that the plow doth lift  
The earth up to new hopes, is all thy gift.  
And therefore to thy honours I will this  
Have to be added, as the manner is  
Of th' Eastern Nation, that a place in heaven  
Unto thy name among the stars be given.  
And the field-tiller the( 1) celestial Bull  
Of thy full merit shall be made a full  
And lasting monument, as a place great Cham  
Old Mizraims Sire hath in( 2) the neighbouring ram.  Jos. 
So many honours and so great on me  
( 3) Your Majesty hath heaped, as I would be  
Rather eased of the burden, then it have  
Made heavier. Yet why I something crave,  
My Brethren are the cause, and hither whom  
With them I would have out of Syria come  
My Father. They by occupation are  
Shepherds. A pleasant Land there lies not far  
From( 4) Heliopolis, where grass still green,  
And pastures ever flourishing are seen.  
The bordering Pelusians it call  
Goshen. This Land hath hitherto been all  
Lost to the use of men,( 5) because your Nation  
Holds every Shepherd an abomination.  
These grounds if on my kindred you bestow,  
I promise it shall to the profit grow  
Of them and egypt. See, in words what I,  
They by their gestures beg, and prostrate lye.  Jud. 
Long may the Mighty Pharian Monarch live.  Phar. 
Rise up: I for your flocks will pastures give;  
And, your whole house and Father to convey,  
Waggons, and fit provision for the way:  
And the best things which fruitful egypt can  
Afford, a present for the good old man.  Ios. 
Give me leave that I may this add. You see  
Under your government a people free  
Come voluntarily. O then let none  
To change their Rites and their Religion  
Ever compel them. If they have a mind  
Hence to depart, either because they find,  
That some calamity will them befall,  
Or because better hopes away them call,  
Let none forbid them. May pure air so bless  
egypt, and Nilus keep a just increase;  
And mothers with a numerous issue fill  
The Land, and your race sway the sceptre still.  Phar. 
By him, who all things can o're-rule, I swear,  
( 6) And this my head and successors I here  
For ever bind; that their Religion free  
To th' Hebrews, their departure safe shall bee.  
If any King hereafter break this oath,  
May foaming Nilus with a bloody froth  
Colour the Ocean, loathsome Frogs the ground  
Cover, and in the bed-chambers abound.  
A raging Murrain on the cattle light;  
No herbs look green, the corn a tempest smite.  
Nor fruit nor leaves on any three remain,  
With torrid ulcers vexed may men complain.  
Thick darkness, such as in th'infernal shade  
Is to be felt, the face of heaven invade.  
Night follow night without a glimpse of day,  
Through every house the pestilence display,  
A sad infection, and the first-born kill,  
Which may with woeful cries the City fill.  
If this be not enough, in the profound  
read sea may the whole Nation be drowned.  Jos. 
Nor shall it be rich Pharian soil, in vain,  
That thou the Hebrews e're didst entertain.  
whilst to a race beloved of God, thou kind  
Shalt prove, all things to prosper thou shalt find  
Above thy wish. Nature her self shall bee  
Thy handmaid. There will come an age with thee  
When of our Nation famous Kings shall make  
A League, and( 7) Israel a wife shall take  
From egypt. Again some of th' Hebrew Nation  
Shall hither come and make( 8) a new plantation.  
Afterwards, when descending from the skies  
He foretold by so many Prophesies,  
The Worlds Redeemer, Prince of piety,  
Shall visit mortals, he shall hither fly.  
A faithful place of refuge this shall be,  
And( 9) safe to him an infant exile. he  
The same laws both unto my Country-men  
The Hebrews, and unto th' Egyptians then  
Shall give, and Nile and jordan teach in one  
channel to meet of( 10) pure Religion.  Chorus. 
( 11) PArtakers of so great a good may wee  
In Aethiopia also be;  
And our hearts burn with a celestial heat,  
Then Phaebus more divine and great.   

FOr the satisfaction of the Printer, and not so much to illustrate any passage in this( though short, not obscure) Poem, as increase the bulk, rather, then the price, these Annotations are presented: Which for the most part( wherein I please myself, and shall, I hope, others) I have gleaned out of the rich crops of Vossius and Grotius themselves.   

ANNOTATIONS ON THE FIRST ACT.  
( 1) OUt of his chamber] or veil, as our English Geneva translation hath it in the marginal note, Psal. 19. v. 6. Upon which Aretius Felinus a Commentator: The manner was among the Hebrews, and is observed even at this day, that having spread a vail they deliver the Bride to the Bridegroom under it, out of which he coming forth exhilarates all, and the wedding feast begins. To which also Jo. Baptist alluded when he said, The friend of the Bridegroom rejoiceth, when he heareth the Bridegrooms voice, Jo. 3.29. So, the sun rising, and the morning putting forth its golden head into the world, the face of the Universe is in a wonderful manner refreshed, and as it were renewed.  
I may here commend the Author for taking a similitude( suitable to the argument, and person of Joseph) out of the Holy Scriptures.  
he observes also the Law of the best Dramaticks, who( usually) begin the Action with the Morning, and keep within the compass of one day.  
( 2) Where God wee may behold] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power, and Godhead.— Rom. 1.20.  
( 3) mental light] What the Sun is to our sense, that is God to our understanding: and as we see not the Sun, but by the light of the Sun; so neither do we see God, but by the spiritual light of himself. Having therefore our senses enlightened, we must turn our mind towards God, that our understanding may also be enlightened, Vos●d. Idol. l. 2. c. 2.  
( 4) Whose head Heaven knows] As for the original Of Nilus, which many both Ancient and Modern schoolmasters have delivered to be utterly unknown, Philostratus hath it rightly, l. 1. Icon. The Aepyptians indeed have the channels of Nilus, but the Aethiopians the fountains. For it runs down from the craggy rocks, which are called the Mountaines of the Moon through Aethiopia into egypt, which is rightly hinted by Paulus Jovius l. 18. Hist. sui temp.& Hierom. Osorius l 9. de gestis Emanuelis. But before it rusheth from the mountaines, it makes a huge Lake: of which also Pansanias makes mention, l. 5. And experience hath confirmed the truth of it; as we may see out of Nicolaus Leonicus, l. 2. de Var. Hist. c. 56. The Country where it riseth is called Goyome; and is in the jurisdiction of the King of the Abyssines, who also in his imperial titles( among other) writes, King of Goyome, where Nilus riseth. witness the King of Aethiopia David in his letters to Emanuel King of Portugal: and out of them Damianus à Goes, a Portugal. Voss. de idol. l. 2. c. 75.  
( 5) beams from Libanus] Or( in the Scriptures) Lebanon. A mountainous forest, whence Solomon was furnished with Cedars by Hiram King of Tyre, for the building of the Temple.  
( 6) Groves within my house] Groves, saith Festus, signify pleasant woods, such as the Ancients had within the enclosures of their houses Hor. l. 3. odd. 10. 
— With what a noise the wood  
Among fair buildings situate  
Rebellowes to the wind.  And Epist. ad Fusc. 
A grove among pillars of marble grows.  
And woods in houses like our sacred groves,  
And gilded doors, and marble floors. Tibul. l. 3.  Torrentius upon Sueton. Aug. c. 72.  
Where likewise Casaubon: the more elegant sort of Romans were so taken with groves, that even in their City houses, if they could in no other place, they would at the least have them on their house tops, Jo. Schildius Commentar. in Sueton.  
Live they not contrary to nature, who plant Orchards on their highest turrets? Whose woods shake over the roofs and tops of their houses, their roots springing up thence, where their tops should hardly have reached. Senec. Epist. 122. Upon which Lipsius: Gardens and Groves on the coverings and tops of their houses. As wee have seen in the royal City of Brussels: but upon flat tops, and without a ridge; where the earth was mounted on beams, or arches of brick. Seneca de Ira. 1. c. ult. calls it, to suspend woods. Which the other Seneca gives a touch of, in Thyestes: 
— On my house top no wood  
There planted waves.  
And Woods climb up the house tops,  Plin. l. 15. c. 14.  
Nero built a house, in which precious stones and gold were not so much wondered at( as a thing long used, and by superfluous riot common) as the fields and pools, in manner of a wilderness; on the one side woods, on the other spacious fields and prospects. Tacit. Annal. l. 15. c. 10. See Nero's golden house in Suetonius and Hackwels Apol. l. 4.  
I conclude with our Author: 
Groves over the roof tops, and lakes within,  
A house contains what every where hath been.  H. Grot. Farrag. l. 2. In Jo. Meursii. de luxu Rom. librum.  
( 7) Strange beasts from afric.] Our Author, I suppose, by a medio die, means the Meridian or South parts of afric; and alludes to an old proverb: Afrca still brings forth some new creature. Nor is egypt itself( say some Geographers) in afric, but in the borders of Asia, and next unto afric.  
( 8) Wool from boughs by the ceres combed.] The ceres are a people of the East. From this Nation silk( called in latin Sericum) was brought into Persia: From Persia, conquered by Alexander, into Greece. From Greece, the Roman Empire flourishing, into Rome; where a pound of silk was sold for a pound of gold. until Justinian the Emperour not liking to pay so dear for garments to the Persian his enemy, by good hap two Monks came out of India, who  told Caesar of the silk-wormes, and that the worms could not be brought to Constantinople, but the eggs might, out of which the worms would breed. The Monks therefore were sent back to fetch the eggs. And from hence is all that kind of silk-wormes, which we have at this day in Europe. But the more vulgar opinion was, that silk was carded or combed from the boughs and barks of trees. Whence Virgil. 2. Geor. v. 120.  
Or th' Aethiopian woods white with soft wool?  
Fine flecces how from leaves the ceres pull?  Vos. Idol. l. 4. c. 90. 
( 9) At Babylon with skilful needles wrought.] The Veil of the Temple at jerusalem is described by Josephus, to consist of violet, purple and scarlet-silk cunningly mixed and wrought by Babylonian Needles. Sands Annotat. on Christus Pat. Act 4. v. 296.  
( 10) pearls a present from the Indian.] Among the Indians and Persians pearls are found in hard white shells of sea fish, and bread at a certain time of the year by mixture of due, which they take in with often gaping. That this kind of jewel also, though not so good, is bread and gathered in the british sea wee are not ignorant. Ammian. Marcellin. And to the like purpose Pliny, l. 9. c. 35. It is certain that small and discoloured Pearls are bread in Britta●n, whereas the commendation of them consists in whiteness, greatness, roundness, smoothness, weight: yet in hope of the british pearls, such as they were, Julius Caesar, saith Suetonius, first went into britain, and consecrated a breastplate of them to Venus his progenitrix. See Sir H. Savil, upon Tacit. in the life of Agricola.  
I will speak first of pearls, as Tertullian saith, precious in the very name. The latins call them Uniones, not because there are never two found together, but because no two are found unsever'd. That the shells open and shut themselves is certain enough. But they are said to open in the night, that from the Lunar aspersion, that is, the due, they may conceive. This is Pliny's opinion, and thence of Solinus, and from him of Ammian, Marcel. But though this may bee true of the Land shell, yet it will bee false of the sea shell, as even this is an argument, that whereas of the shells some are at the bottom, others float, and swim on the top of the sea; these on the superficies are the least. I know they may answer, the shells go to the bottom as soon as they have conceived: but the shells having the biggest pearls are bread in the bottom, and wander not, but stick there, so that the Diver must often sink twenty fathom for them. Vossi. Idol. l. 4. c. 47.  
( 11) Ambition did not a great Table spread.]  
luke. l. 4. O luxury too prodigal of things!  
Content with no provision easily brought;  
Ambitious hunger for things dearly sought  
o'er land and sea, pride of a sumptuous table,  
See what small store to cherish life is able,  
And nature please: these souldiers fainting souls,  
No unknown Consul's noble wine in bowls  
Of myrrh and gold restores; from fountains pure  
Water and bread their fleeting lives assure.  T. MAY. 
( 12) Mandrake.] Grotius, I believe, alludes to Josephs elder brother Reubens Mandrakes, and a place in the Canticles 7.14. where they are spoken of as a pleasant fruit; Though they which are called so among us are not so. And Iunius and Tremellius translate the word, amabiles flores.  
No sparkling wines of Meroe.]  
luke. 1.10. In golden plate they fill their feasting boards,  
With what the air the earth or Nile affords,  
What luxury with vain ambition had  
Sought through the world, and not as hunger bade,  
Beasts, fowls, the Gods of Egypt are devoured,  
From crystal Ewres is Niles water powred  
Upon their hands: studded with gems that shine,  
Their bowls contain no Mareotick wine,  
But strong and sparkling wines of Meroe.  T. M. 
( 13) Zythum] Is a drink made of Barley. Theophrastus saith, that there is a wine made of Barley and Wheat, which the egyptians call Zythum. See jerome upon Esay, c. 19.  
( 14) A Well] See the wells digged by Isaac, Gen. 24. And Jacobs well. Jo. 4.6.  
( 15) timbrel] Or Sistrum. A musical Instrument peculiar( it seems) to the Egyptians. And therefore Virgil of Cleopatra: 
The Queen her troops with her own Sistrum calls.  Aenead. l 8.  
And Lucan, She with her Sistrum frights the capitol. l. 10.  
( 16) Hunger no allegiance knows.] luke. l. 3.  
Corn most stirs their hate most draws their loves,  
And only Famine to rebellion moves  
Cities; and fear is bought, where great men feed  
The slothful Commons: nought starved people dread.  T. M. 
( 17) I'll charge the Lad that he my cup did steal.] An example perhaps of a blameless untruth( Philo also commending it) may be given in Joseph, who being the Kings Vicegerent and in highest authority, feignedly, and not so thinking, accuseth his Brethren, first as spies, then as thieves, Grot. d. jure bell. ac pac. l. 3. c. 1§ 15.  
And so parents, Schoolmasters, Tutors and Magistrates may understand our English proverb. Tell a lye, and find a truth. We allow likewise Physitians and nurses to say to a child or patient, that a bitter potion is sweet, &c.  
( 18) Power is but frail.] Therefore if wee are placed amidst the noise of Cities, let a Monitor stand by our side, and against praisers of great patrimonies commend him that is rich with a little, and measures wealth by the use. Against them who extol favour and power, let him set leisure employed in studies and a mind turned back from external things to its own. Let him show these in the vulgar opinion happy ones, trembling and astonished at their own envied height, and thinking far otherwise of themselves then they are esteemed by others: For what unto others seem high places, unto themselves are precipices. Then are they heartless and quaking as often as they look down from that steep height of their greatness; For they think on the various casualties, and most slippery to them that are aloft, then they fear what they coveted, and the felicity which makes them heavy to others lies heavier on themselves: Then they praise a still quietness and freedom, they hate splendour, and fly from their yet unshaken state; then may you see them for fear playing the Philosophers; and sound counsels of a sick mind. Sen. Ep●st. 94.  
( 19) Which keeps in breath All virtues— Piety] Take away Piety, saith Cicero, faith also and the most excellent virtue Justice is taken away. See Grot. d. jure bell. ac pac. l. 2. c. 20. sect. 44, 45, 46.  

Upon the CHORUS.  
( 20) THe Chorus is a part of the Fable after the Act, or even before it, brought in with music: Yet not only is understood by the name of Chorical what is sung; by the choir, but also what is said by it. The Chorus is also defined, a part of the Fable between Act and Act. But not so aptly: because the Chorus hath place likewise after the last Act. Scaliger defines it, l. 1. c. 9. a part of the Fable after the Act with music. But the Fable also begins from the Chorus; as in Eschylus's Persae, and Euripides's Rhesus. I believe, because it is very unusual; Scaliger thought that there was no regard to be had thereof. The office of the Chorus is very well expressed by Horace in Art. Poetic.  
An Actors part and office too, the choir  
Must maintain manly, not be heard to sing  
Between the Acts a quiter clean other thing  
Then to the purpose leads, and fitly' grees.  
It still must favour good men, and to these  
Be won a friend; It must both sway and bend  
The angry, and love those that fear to offend.  
Praise the spare diet, wholesome justice, laws,  
Peace, and the open ports that peace doth cause:  
hid faults, pray to the gods, and wish aloud  
Fortune would love the poor, and leave the proud.  B. JONSON. 
The Chorus after the fifth Act was of another nature then the former, For it often as a Judge gave sentence of those things which had been acted; But this, as it is observed by the Greeks, so it is for the most part omitted by Seneca. The Chorus consisted of women, or men: not children, who are not enough fitted to act things; nor hath their speech that weight in comforting, admonishing, &c. which are the parts of the Chorus: Sometimes it sung not, but did only speak; For when the Chorus was entred upon the Stage, it never went quiter off: but, during the Play, some indeed went in with the Actors, the rest stayed still. Lest therefore the Actors being present it should seem altogether idle, sometimes they interrupted the Actors, but in a few words, and when but two were talking together. If a third were present, the Chorus expected till he were gone.  
Thus much concerning the nature of the Greek and latin Chorus out of Vossius's Institut. Poetic. l. 2. c. 6. Whither I refer you for further instruction; as likewise to my Fellow-Translator of Grotius's catechism, in his preface to his Electra of Sophocles.  
( 21) Asenath] Who was given a wife to Joseph, the daughter not indeed as many think, of the Keeper of the Prison, by name Potiphar, who bought Joseph of the Ishmaelites;( for by reason of the notorious immodesty of his wife, he might justly have refused the daughter) but of the Priest, or rather Prince of On; that is, Heliopolis, whose name was Potiphe-rah▪ Voss. Idol. l. 1. c. 29. p. 210.  
( 22) From Cush] Cush was the eldest son of Cham, Gen. 10.6. From whom came the Aethiopians. The name signifies an Aethiopian or blackamoor. Some are of opinion that the curse of Noah was the cause of the blackness of Chams posterity.  
( 23) With noses flat, &c.] A flat nose, thick lips, and a black skin is esteemed the greatest beauty among the Aethiopians, who paint the devil white. But, how to judge of true beauty, see in one of Bacons essays; and in another of those, which my once School-fellow but ever honoured Samuel got, hath lately put forth.  
( 24) custom of barbarous Princes] Tacitus hath it, how that in his time the Germans almost alone of all barbarous Nations were content with single wives. Which also appears every where in the Histories of both the Persians and Indians. Grot. d. jur. bell. &c. l. 2. c. 5.§. 9. See likewise there, why it was not unlawful for the Patriarks to have many wives. And how Polygamy was disliked by the wiser sort of the Heathen.  
Of the not onely many but incestuous marriages of the Parthians, you may red in our English luke. l. 8.  
The Venus of those barbarous Courts who hears not?  
Which like bruit beasts all wedlock rites exile,  
And with wives numberless all Laws defile:  
Th' incestuous beds abhorred secrets lye  
Ope to a thousand Concubines, raised high  
With wine and banqueting; the King refrains  
No lawless lust, though ne're so full of stains, &c.  
( 25) How stands it with thy providence, &c.] A weak Christian may herein be satisfied by the wise Heathen Seneca's Answer to Lucilius's Quaere, Why good men suffer misfortunes, seeing there is a Divine Providence. But see likewise Grot. d. verit. Chr. Rel. l. 1.  
( 26)— Rarely known  
To beauty a companion.]  
he alludes to that of Juvenal in his tenth satire.  
So seldom beauty is with virtue match't.  Sir Rob: Stapylton. 
( 27) Who with glad hope in patience live] Because they understand all those afflictions to bee sent from God, either for chastisement of sins, or for exercising of their virtues, they not onely patiently but joyfully, as obedient children, receive them from the hands of a merciful Father, and give thanks also, either for a mildred correction, or an inestimable advantage. Erasm. Colloq. Epicur.  
( 28) Till the King troubled with a dream] The consideration of dreams is not altogether to be rejected, which neither Physitians themselves contemn; whence there is extant a book of Hippocrates {αβγδ}. Yet this must bee done warily, lest wee mingle false things with true, which when Aristotle saw to be done of many, it made him say, that there are no divine dreams, though to him who thoroughly looks into that book, will appear footsteps of a contrary opinion. Surely the wisest sort have rightly distinguished dreams into divine and human. Spondanus in Homers Ilia. l. 1. v. 63. {αβγδ}.  
On which see likewise, Plin. Epist. to Suetonius Tranquil. l. 1.  
God revealed himself, and his will frequently in old times, especially before the sealing of the Scripture Canon, by dreams; sometimes even to Infidels, as Pharaoh, nabuchadnezzar, &c. But since the preaching of the Gospel became ecumenical, dreams, as also Miracles, have ceased to be of ordinary and familiar use: So as now, we ought rather to suspect delusion in them, then expect direction from them. Yet, although God hath now tied us to his holy written Word, he hath no where abridged himself to intimate the knowledge of his will, and the glory of his might by dreams, miracles, &c. But because the devil may suggest dreams, and work many strange effects, which may seem Divine Revelations or Miracles, when they are nothing less, it is not safe to give easy credit to dreams, &c. as Divine; until upon due trial there shall appear a direct tendance to the advancement of Gods glory, and a conformity unto the revealed will of God in his written Word. Moreover, so to observe our ordinary dreams, as to divine, or foretell of future contingents, or to forecast there-from good or ill luck( as we call it) in the success of our affairs, is a damnable superstition. Lastly, there may yet be made a lawful, yea and a very profitable use, even of our ordinary dreams; both in physic and Divinity. Of our bodies first. For since that the predominancy of Choler, Blood, phlegm, and Melancholy; as also the differences of strength, and health, and diseases, and distempers, by diet, passion, or otherwise, cause impressions of different forms in the fancy: our dreams may help to discover both in time of health, our natural constitution, complexion, and temperature; and in times of sickness, from the rankness and tyranny of which of the humors the malady springeth. Of our souls too. For since our dreams for the most part look the same way, which our freest thoughts incline, the observing of our ordinary dreams may bee of good use for us unto that discovery, which of these three is our master sin( for unto one of the three every other sin is reduced) The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. Dr Sanderson, but more at large in his sixth Sermon, ad populum, of Gods appearing to Abimelech, Gen. 6.20.  
( 29) Magicians] We commonly so call them, who use diabolical arts, and have any compact or commerce with evil spirits. That such were these, may be suspected by their successors in the time of Moses; Though the Persian Magi were Philosophers. And Cic. l. 1. de Div. The Magi are a kind of learned and wise men among the Persians. The Wise men of the East are so called, Mat. 2. The Word hath since been taken in an ill sense for Witches, or Conjurers, and had the like fate with Tyrant, Sophister, &c.  
Vossius makes three sorts of art magic. natural, as when an egg moves on a Table, because of Quick-silver put into it; or a nail hangs in the air, because a Load-stone is hide above and beneath it. artificial, when Archimedes burnt the Roman Ships with looking-glasses, and Archytas made a wooden Dove to fly. daemoniacal, when a man is carried a hundred miles in an hour; a Brazen head answers to any question, &c. Which magic who exercise, commonly join therewith the natural and artificial, that they may be thought in all the rest to wo●k by nature or art.  
( 30) Heavens constellations] Theagenes foretold the Empire to Augustus. Thrasyllus shew'd what imminent danger himself was in from Tiberius, The Mathematicians banished Rome by Vitellius, foretold his death should bee before the Calends of October. Ascletarion accused for a Mathematician, and not denying it, boasted of what he had foreseen by his art: Domitian asked him if he could tell what his own end should be, and when he affirmed that he should shortly be torn of Dogs, commanded him to be slain forthwith; and, to confute the vanity of his art, carefully put into the funeral fire: which done, it happened, by a sudden tempest the pile was cast down, and his body half burnt, was devoured by Dogges. The Empire was likewise foretold to Ralph of Auspurgh, and the popedom to lo the tenth. But it is not so hard to answer these, as is supposed. For a thing is fore-known, either by commerce with the devil, who by reason of his subtlety and experience is seldom deceived; and often, God permitting, brings to pass what he foretells: Or when Astrologers are familiar with great men, and knowing what they go about, boast that they foreknow many things by the Stars, which they have learned elsewhere: or lastly, when crafty men among many false speak something true by chance. For that they do not always tell truth, is proved by innumerable examples; I will now only bring in that of Pope John. 21. a Philosopher, Astrologer, and physician, who having before his familiar friends promised himself long life, died the fourth month after. Voss. de idol. l. 2. c. 48. See also a discourse against Astrologers in Barclayes Argenis. l. 2.  
( 31) A silk white rob] White garments were worn by Princes and persons of honour among the eastern nations, as purple among the Western. And therefore( unless I mistake) Herods souldiers arrayed our Saviour( though mockingly) in white( for so our old English translations red it, with St jerome, if the vulgar Edition be his) and Pilates in a purple rob.    

Annotations upon the Second ACT.  
( 1) SOphompaneas] Is in the original Saphenath Paneah: which Onkelos renders, a man unto whom secrets are revealed. Jonathan, a man an Interpreter of secrets; Josephus, a finder out of secrets. But the vulgar latin differs from all these, which translates it the Saviour of the World: and that it so signified in the Egyptian language, Saint jerome also saith in his Quaest. Hebraic. He was called also, saith he, the Saviour of the world, because he delivered the Land from an imminent destruction by Famine. But it is a hard matter to decide this controversy, the old Egyptian tongue being at this day almost quiter lost. Voss. de Idol. l. 1. c. 29.  
( 2) The precious balm] Judea abounds with fruits like ours; and besides them with the balm and palm. The palm trees are tall and beautiful. The balm is a little three. As any bough swells, if you go about to cut it with iron, the veins shrink back, as if afraid: they are opened with a piece of sharp ston or shell. The juice is accounted medicinable. Tacit. Hist. l. 5.  
What should I tell you of the sweeting balm From fragrant wood?  Virg. george. 2, 
Upon which Servius: balm, or balsam is the three itself: Opobalsame the juice gathered from the three, for {αβγδ} signifies juice, {αβγδ} wood: whence Xylobalsame the wood of the three itself. The trial of Opobalsame( as Pliny saith) is thus: if it be held against the Sun, and be not corrupted, it will burn the hand that holds it. Some will, that war was denounced to the Jews, and jerusalem destroyed; because they denied to pay the tribute of balm to the Romans.  
There springs the shrub three foot above the grass,  
Which fears the keen edge of the Curtelace;  
Whereof the rich egyptian so endears  
Root, bark and fruit,& much-much more the tears.  Du BARTAS. 
See Pliny, l. 12. c. 35.  
( 3) Dates like mens fingers] And therefore I suppose called Dactyli from the Greek {αβγδ}, a finger.  
( 4) Spices] I follow herein our English Translation, Gen. 43.11. Grotius hath Medicinable herbs. And others expound the Hebrew word, aromatical drugs.  
( 5) Nectar of the Bees] Honey. Ovid calls milk Nectar.  
Which carry Nectar in a strutting bag.  Metam. 15. 
Honey prolongs life, preserves dead bodies from putrefaction; is good against the biting of a mad Dog, the sting of serpents and other poisons: good for the eyes, ears, jaws, squinsie, kernels, cough, lungs, stomach, pain in the ears, foulness of the nostrils, ulcers of the mouth, blemishes of the face, clefts of the skin about the nailes of the fingers: to heal wounds, a carbuncle, boil, imposthume, leprosy. Voss. de Idol. c. 79.82.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.  
( 6) Would divine] I understand that word in a good sense. Our last English translation of the Bible hath make trial in the margin. And Junius and Tremellius say we should wrong so good and holy a man as Joseph was, to think he would obscure the gift received from God of knowing secrets, and transfer the glory to himself.  
( 7) His arm which was so slow] The Divine wrath proceeds to vengeance with a loft place, and recompenseth the slowness of the punishment with the heaviness thereof. Val. Max. And it was a proverb among the wiser Heathen, that, The Gods had woollen feet, but iron hands.  
( 8) Among men great diversity there is of manners] There is no Nation, which wholly useth the same customs; yea there is often much difference in neighbouring Cities. But Right itself is equally expedient for all men, and profitable both to Greeks and Barbarians. Josephus Antiq. Hist. 16.  
( 9) This Law is every where] Right reason is a law which cannot lye, nor is it a corruptible law of this or that mortal man; or a dead law written in dead books, or pillars, but engraven by an immortal nature in an immortal understanding. Philo.  
( 10) In the heart God hath it put] When the Gentiles which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law: these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves; Which show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, Rom. 2.14, 15.  
( 11) Mercy alone man nigh to God doth make] Antoninus to Faustina: There is nothing can better commend a Roman Emperor to Nations than Clemency. This made Caesar a God, this consecrated Augustus. And Themist. in orat. Whereas there be three things which make God to bee God; Eternity of life, almightiness of power, and uncessantly to do good unto men: in this last onely can a King come to be like God. The most wise City of Athens took mercy not for an affection but a Deity, saith Fab. l. 5. c. 11. Eumenius makes mention of an Altar there built to Mercy. How much also the Romans esteemed thereof appears, in that they, and especially the latter writers are wont to honour Clemency with the name of Piety.  
Be pious above all things: onely we,  
Unlike else, are like Gods in Clemency.  Claudian. 
V●ss. Instit. Orat. l. 1. p. 153. See like wise Grot. de jur. bel. l. 2. c. 21.  
( 12) Such hath been and such is the custom] But if those laws of men are unjust, which kill the children for the parents fault; certainly much more unjust was the Law of the Persians and Macedonians, which put to death their kindred, to the end they who had offended the King might perish more sad, as Curtius speaks, l. 8. Grot. de jur. bel. &c. l. 2. c. 25.  
( 13) Five Families] I did not at the first fully understand the Authors meaning. But afterwards I found in his Book de jur. bel. &c. a note that gives light to this very place. viz Philo saith, It was the custom for tyrants to destroy with the parties condemned the five next Families to them. Grot. ut supra, in Annotat.  

Upon the CHORUS.  
( 14) PHaenicia] A country of Asia near unto Judea, whose chief Cities were Tyre and Sidon. Josephus writes, that they first invented the Greek Letters; and Strabo, that they were famous for arts of navigation and war.  
That phoenix was the same with Esau or Edom, thus Vossius: The Erythraeans are from {αβγδ}, read; Erythea, from {αβγδ}, redness. And the Erythraean sea took this name from King Erythras, as the Gentiles call him, who in the Scriptures is Esau, or Edom, that is, read. They differ only in language; therefore the Hebrew, Edoms, or Idumean sea, the greek {αβγδ}, and the latin mere rubrum, or read sea. But if the Tyrians came from the Idumaean sea; the reason is not obscure, why they are called {αβγδ}. For {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} are the same. And {αβγδ} the same with {αβγδ}, that is, read: And therefore the latins of {αβγδ} have made puniceus: as from {αβγδ} Paenus, whence Punicus. But that the Tyrians came from the Idumaean sea, Pliny and Solinus say: Herodotus also, and Strabo, and Procopius.  
( 15) Taauta] Perhaps I should say Taautas. I took it for the name of a town in Phaenicia. But I find in Vossius: That Taautus invented the art of writing, and was the first who left behind him Commentaries of things done: and was by the egyptians called Thoor, or rather Thoud, by the Alexandrians Thoth, by the Grecians Hermes, the same with Mercury.  
( 16) In twice twelve letters] The common opinion both of our men, and the Hebrews was, that Moses was the Author of the Hebrew letters, which is asserted by Eupolemus, Artapanus, and other profane writers, who report that Moses was a wise man, and the Inventor of letters, which he delivered to the Jews, from whom the neighbouring Phaenicians received them, from the Phaenicians the grecians by Cadmus. Moreover, the same Artapanus believes that Moses gave the egyptians letters, and is that Mercury, whom wee find among all the Greek and latin Writers to have taught that Nation letters. But if any ask, in what letters then the wisdom of the Egyptians was contained, wherein wee red that Moses was learned, perhaps he will find, it was only wont to be delivered and taught by word of mouth, and preserved in the memory of the teachers and learners▪ and that the forms of letters, if there were any then, were images of living Creatures which they called hieroglyphics. Philo Judaeus ascribes the Invention of Letters to Abraham: but they seem to have been many yeeres before Abraham. For Josephus 1 Antiq. tells us, That by the sons of Seth the son of Adam were erected two pillars, one of ston, the other of brick, and that the Arts which they had invented, were written on them, of which that of ston remained in Syria even in his time. Viv. in Aug. de. Civ. Dei. l. 18. c. 39.  
( 17) Crocodile] Voss. de. Idol. l. 3. p. 1027. The Crocodile is eighteen foot long. It is bread out of an egg no bigger then a goose egg. Nor is there any other Creature( as Pliny saith) which from a lesser beginning grows to a greater magnitude. Yea, as he adds afterwards, some think that this one Creature grows as long as it lives. p. 1034. The Crocodile hath an exceeding great force in the tail; with the stroke whereof it breaks the legs even of a strong four-footed beast.  
Voss. out of Plin. The eye-teeth of a Crocodile drives away agues, if you fill them with frankincense( for they are hollow) so that the sick party see not him in five daies who shall have bound them unto him. They say that the little stones taken out of her belly are good against the shaking fits of an ague.  
They are wont, as Herodotus in Euterpe hath it, to take Crocodiles in this manner. They put a hook into a chine of Pork which the hunter casts into a River: Then standing on the bank, he beats a live big, whose cry the Crocodile hearing comes on apace, and lighting upon the chine of Pork devours it with the hook; and is forthwith drawn upon the bank; and because so also he will bee troublesone enough, they fill his eyes with mud, that he may not see what the hunter does. Voss. p 1134.  
Some say, that Crocodiles weep, because their tears are become a proverb. But this is meant of feigned tears not true: nor is it clear enough what truth there is under that fable of the feigned tears of a Crocodile.  
The Crocodile also is made to have speech by the stoics in their sophism which they call Crocodilites. But this is to bee put among Aesops Fables. For as Pliny saith, This one terrestrial creature wants the use of a tongue. Idem. p 978.  
( 18) To death a new way shows] There is a book of Dicaearchus, concerning the destruction of men, who having collected all other causes, as deluge, pestilence, desolation, also sudden multiplying of wild beasts, by whose incursion he shows, that some people have been consumed, compares then, how many more men have been destroyed by the invasion of men, that is, by wars, or seditions, then by any other calamity. Cic. de office. l. 2.  
( 19) Purple by Kings to be worn] The purple colour at this day is not from the liquour of the shell-fish called a Purple, but from herbs. In times past the water and fishes had this honour. Whence Saint Ambrose Hexam. l. 5. c. 2. What should I speak also of the Purples which furnish the tables and the the garments of Kings? What is adored in Kings, is from the water. Voss. l. 4. p. 1463.  
( 20) The Emerald] Emeralds of all precious stones are most pleasing to the sight in regard nothing is greener which you can compare with them. They onely of all gems take up the eye and not satisfy it. Moreover, the sight wearied with being intentive upon other things is recreated by an Emerald. And therefore they who cut jewels refresh their weariness with this most delightful greenness. Perot. upon marshal. p. 248.  
( 21) To a thin plank hath  
Our precious lives taught to commit] It was said by one, that there was but an inch board between Seamen and death. And Cato repented him, that ever he went by water, when he might have gone by Land.  
Rash man was he with ships frail beak  
Did first the treacherous billows break.  Senec. Med. Englished by E.S. 
( 22) O happy the first Age] How well what the Poets have fabled of the golden Age, agrees with the state of man in Paradise! as I doubt not, but they had these things from tradition. Surely the first age of man in the Poets is the same with the first in the Scriptures: And Saturne the same with Adam. Voss.  
But what Poets writ of the golden Age is not unknown. Hear what an Orator saith of it and them. — That happy and as we call it golden Age was barren of Orators and crimes, but abounded with Poets and Prophets. Quintil. Dialog. de Orat.  
( 23) A simplo life, chast enough though naked] That the first life of man was with simplicity and nakedness, the Egyptians also taught; whence the Poets golden Age, celebrated even by the Indians, as Strabo hath it, Grot. de ver. Rel. l. 1.  
( 24) A coat became A covering to hid our shane]  
After that the woman deceived by the Serpent, had drawn her husband to partake of her sin, their eyes indeed were opened, but so as that they saw themselves to be destitute of a covering, not only of a coat, but also of virtue. Voss. de Idol. l. 1. p. 2.  
( 25) With such a noise as Nile down flows] Where Nilus fals down headlong from those most high Mountaines at those places which are called the Cataracts; the people that inhabit thereabouts, by reason of the greatness of the noise want the sense of hearing. Cic. in Somn. Scip.  
Nor that which Nilus falling water makes  
Precipitated down the Cataracts,  
When with his fo●m he seems to lave the sky,  
And strikes a deafness through the dwellers nigh.  Continuation of luke. Book 3. 
( 26) The son laughed at his Fathers shane] The ancient Bacchus is no other then Noah. For he first planted a Vineyard, and taught how to make wine, Gen. 9.20. Nor are there wanting learned men, who suppose, that the very name of Bacchus makes for this opinion. For they will have from Noach Noachus, hence Nachus, thence bacchus, then Bacchus. But though I think Bacchus to be worshipped in Noah, Yet I like not so forced an Etymology, especially whereas the Greeks seem not to have said Noa●h but Noe. Voss de Idol. l. 1. c. 19.  
Of Noah supplanted by wine, thus Du Bartas.  
oppressed with sleep he wallowes on the ground,  
His shameless snorting trunk so deeply drowned  
In self oblivion, that he did not hid  
Those parts, which Caesar covered when he died.  
( 27) The Daughter to her Father brought a Grandchild—] Lot's Daughters; of whom likewise D. Bartas.  
Within your wombs you bear for nine moneths time,  
The upbraiding burden of your shameless crime;  
And troubling kindreds names and natures quiter,  
You both became even in one very night  
Wives to your fathers, sisters to your sons,  
And mothers to your brothers all at once.    

Annotations upon the Third ACT.  
( 1) read Sea] The Sea, with which that[ Land] is washed, differs not from others in colour, the name is given it from King Erythras[ which signifies read] and therefore ignorant people believe that the waters are read. Curtius l. 8. See the note upon Phaenicia.  
( 2) Bread by a gripping hand was sold] There is no oppression and exaction, saith Gregory Naz anzen at the funeral of Basil, more harsh and heavy, then of those who watch for hard times, that they may have the better trading in a dearth, and make a harvest out of others calamity. Tiberius is rather to be imitated, who( as it is in Tacitus) the people complaining of a dearth of corn, set down a price for the the buyer, promising to pay of his own in every bushel 
3. ob. q. Sir H. S.  two nummos. Aerodius rerum judicat. l. 9. Tit. de annona c. 5.  
( 3) Sacred Ibis] Of worshipping the Ibis[ a bide in egypt] not only Lucian, but Cic. l. 1. de Nat. dear.& Tusc. 5. Also Javen. Sat. 15. make mention. Plin. l. 10. c. 28. saith: The egyptians invocate their Ibes against the approach of Serpents. The same cause of divine honour Herodotus gives in Euterpe, where also he describes them, and saith, It was a capital crime among the egyptians for any one to kill an Ibis, or hawk, whether knowingly, or ignorantly. Vos. l. 4. p 1274.  
The Ibis drinks not of foul water or infected with poison, but pure and wholesome: and this is said to be the cause, why, as Aelian saith, l. 7. de animal. c. 45. the Priests in egypt sprinkle not themselves with any water, but with that which they believe the Ibis to have drank of. Voss.  
As Herodotus is Author, that other Nations had the use of a clyster from the Egyptians: So Galen acknowledgeth that the Egyptians lea●ned it from the Ibis. And before him, thus Pliny: With the hookednesse of their beak they purge themselves in that part, out of which it is most wholesome to cast the burden of our meat. Voss l. 3. p. 1258.  
( 4) Asps] Infuse not( as some say) poison with their tail, but, like other serpents, having made a wound with their saw-like teeth, they breath it thereinto out of small holes underneath, wherein a little skin they keep it for those uses: Whence of Detractors, Psal. 140. The poison of asps is under their lips. Cleopatra choose the biting of an asp, as an easier kind of death then to drink poison, or fall upon a sword. For it is so little the asp hurts, as it cannot be felt, nor so much as the prick of a needle be seen, which lessons the grief, whereas the greater wounds are wont to have the greater pain. The pain is also less lasting, because of a poison, 
Which in no Serpent is compacted more.  luke. l. 9.  
A most piercing poison therefore, saith Aelian, and penetrating most swiftly; which is the cause, why, whereas it comes so speedily to the heart, it also hastens death. This is done sooner by the females then the males; because the males have but two teeth, the females four. But though the wound bee so little, there comes a little blood out, and that discoloured, who are strike live not above four houres. Yet, such is the divine goodness, they are curable by drinking of vinegar; which was first found out by a Boy, who being bitten by an asp, and extreme thirsty, for want of water at hand drank often of a vinegar bottle which he carried, and by that means recovered. See Plin. and Celsus, cited by Voss. l. 4. p. 1515.  
( 5) When the shady night] I suppose our Author alludes to a place in Tacit. Annal. l. 1 There was one Percennius— Who after the better sort were gone to their lodgings, by little and little in secret conventicles in the night, or in the shutting of the evening gathered together, and stirred up the unexpertest of the Souldiers, and such as were most doubtful what entertainment they should expect after the death of Augustus.  
Englished by Sir H. Savile.  
( 6) The mother bear her child again] Such horrid effects of Famine wee red in Josephus at the siege of jerusalem. Our Author in his Christus patience makes Joseph of Arimathea wish them( Prophetically) to the Jews for crucifying our Saviour. An example hereof we have likewise( to omit profane Histories) in the siege of Samaria, 2 Kings 6.29. Wherein was fulfilled what the Divine vengeance threateneth to a disobedient people, Deut. 28.53. The hands of the pitiful women have sudden their own children, they were their meat, Lam. 4.10. See Lips. d. Const. l. 2. c. 23. Hackwel's Apolog. l. 2.§. 4. Fox. Martyrol. vol. 1. p. 482. Anno Dom. 1314.  
( 7) Coptos] The Antiquity of this City wee know by this, that Queen Isis here heard the news of the death of her husband Osiris, and for grief cut off her hair. Whence the Greeks think the City took the name of {αβγδ} or {αβγδ}, because {αβγδ} signifies to cut. But others imagine the City hath the name from the egyptian word Copti, which signifies privation: because Isis when she lived there, was deprived of her husband. Of both which Plutarch. Voss. l. 2. p. 617. In Diripitur ardens Coptos our Author imitates Senec. in Troad. Diripitur ardens Troia.  
( 8) The battering Ram] An Engine used in War, of which Cic. d. office. l. 1. They who laying down their arms shall come out upon the faith of the general, though the Ram have battered the wall, are to be received.  
( 9) The creeping Vine] An Engine, under which souldiers safely hide came to undermine the walls of a town. Whereof Lucan l. 3.  
Then did a thin earth covered work proceed,  
Under whose covert those that lay did fall  
To work in undermining of the wall.  
Sometimes the back forced Ram did strongly drive  
Forward, the well compacted wall to rive. T. M.  
( 10) Nabataeans] A people of the East, of whom Ovid: 
The East wind to Aurora took his flight  
And Nabataean Kingdoms—  Metam. 1.  
They are so called from Nebaioth the eldest son of Ishmael. Gen. 25.13.  
( 11) Alive them bury in the Mines] We descend into the entrails of the earth, we go down as far as to the seat and habitation of the infernal spirits, and all to meet with rich treasure, &c. Plin. l. 33. in Proaem.  
I will not dispute it, whether all minerals were made at the first creation, or have since received increase by tract of time, which latter I confess I rather with Quercetan incline unto, they being somewhat of the nature of stones, which undoubtedly grow, though not by augmentation or accretion, yet by assimilation or apposition, turning the neighbouring earth into their substance; Yet thus much may we confidently affirm, that the Minerals themselves wast not in the ordinary course, but by the insatiable desire of mankind. Nay, such is the Divine Providence, that even there, where they are most vexed and wrought upon, yet are they not worn out, not wasted in the whole. Of late within these few yeers Mendip hills yielded, I think, more led then ever; and at this day I do not hear that the Iron Mines in Sussex, or the Tin works in Cornwall are any whit abated; which I confess to be somewhat strange, considering this little corner furnishes in a manner all the Christian world with that mettall. Dr Hackwels Apology, l. 2.  
( 12) I'll to my faithful wife( within) relate] Our Author makes Sophompaneas a good and loving husband, and endowed with virtues, not onely political but Oeconomicall. Wherein he doth indeed present to you the perfect Idea of a worthy Magistrate, who ought( with the Apostles Bishop, 1 Tim. 3.4.) to be one that ruleth well his own house.  
( 13)— With an equal patience hear Both sides.]  
Who, th' other side unheard, makes a Decree,  
Although it may be just, yet unjust he.  Sen. Medea. 
( 14) A heavenly spirit doth, within, him teach] For he was most skilful in prodigies, and the first that found out the interpretation of dreams, nor did any thing of divine or human law seem unknown to him: in so much as that he foresaw a dearth many yeeres before, and all egypt had perished unless by his admonition the King had commanded corn to be laid up for many yeers, and his experiments were so great, as that his answers seemed to be given not by a man, but from God. Justin. l. 36.  
( 15) Twelve signs] Astrologers have divided the zodiac into twelve signs and no more; because the sun whilst it goes circuit is in conjunction twelve times with the moon, and they have distributed every sign into 30 degrees, because the Moon in thirty daies is again in conjunction with the sun, whence also it is clear, why there be 360 degrees, for as much as they come to so many, if you reckon 12 times thirty. Voss. l. 2. p. 568.  
( 16) In dreams by night] Of divine dreams see Num. 12 6. Joel 2.28. Acts 2.17. Examples thereof in the old Testament, the dream of Abraham, Abimelech, Jacob, Laban, Joseph, Pharaoh, Solomon, Nabuchodonosor, Dan●el, &c. And in the New, of Joseph, the Magi, Pilates wife, Paul. Whereby is abundantly confuted the opinion of Aristotle, when he proves that no dreams are from God, because it would be absurd to sand them, not to the best and wisest, but to the simpler sort: For that they were nor only sent to the simplo and unskilful, the examples alleged sufficiently teach. But Aristotle was deceived, in that the dreams which the Gentiles boasted for divine, were for the most part of vulgar men. Indeed the devil could more easily abuse the more simplo and credulous. But the forenamed were almost a●l men famous for wisdom and holinesse, yea many of them in high dignity. Whence also is refeled that he thought all divinations introduced by laws to be the better observed by the people. Some defend Aristotle herein, in that God would rather teach m●n waking then sleeping, and in open words then in dreams for the most part obscure. But God would instruct us by more then one way. Besides therefore the ordinary manner wherein by reading or hearing his word he certifies us concerning heavenly Mysteries and his will; he would also use another way, whereby he makes us partakers of his secrets even neither seeing nor hearing. Moreover, it is manifest that the mind of man is more fit in his sleep to receive heavenly things, because it is then voided and free from earthly cares. And when he awakes& ruminates on the dream, the darkness and silence of the night breed a greater veneration towards Divine things. Surely the night is fit for the meditation of weighty matters. Yea this also adds to the veneration, that the dreams were not always plain: By which means men were withall stirred up to seek the understanding of them from God or godly men. So that this also was an argument of the Divine goodness, that sometimes he would sand dreams even to Heathen Kings; but the interpretation whereof they should fetch not from Magicians but from holy men: as Pharaoh from Joseph, Nabuchodonosor from Daniel. For hereby God invited both the Kings and their wise men, yea all their subjects to an acknowledgement of the celestial and true Deity, and to repentance from their sins. Voss. idol. l. 3. c. 35.  
( 17) In a triple ring] egypt was divided into six several sorts of people. The three first, which were Kings, Priests, and souldiers, governed the State and Common-wealth of egypt: The other three served in the Country to use things necessary for the Kingdom and state, which were Husbandmen, craftsmen, and shepherds. Diod. Sic.  
( 18)— Astrange sight to tread  
meal with their feet, day with their hands to knead.] I suppose Grotius means Bakers, and Bricke-makers, or Potters. And I find in Joan. Aubanus( a German Geographer) who, I believe hath it out of Diodorus Siculus, That( among other strange customs) the Egyptians did use to make bread with their feet and day with their hands.  
( 19)— Whether the North Star doth stay  
Ever at the same distance fom the Pole.]  
The Poets fable that the seventh Star of the Pleiades by name Electra, after the Destruction of Troy would no more be seen: because Dardanus the founder of the Trojan Nation was born of Electra. And, that I may the more easily pardon the heathen poets, there have not been wanting in our age, who thought, that the Polar star hath in like manner hide itself after the taking of Constantinople; than which nothing is more vain. For if you except a little one which lies between the Pole and Ursa minor, that very same in the tail of Ursa minor, as it was of old in the time of Hipparcus and ptolemy, is also at this day most near the Pole, and in like manner is called the Polar star. Voss.  
( 20) Why Heaven brings forth new stars] But, say they, if Heaven be either watery, or airy, or stars fiery; both are of an elemental nature; and so liable to generation and corruption: which the experience of so many ages contradicts; seeing no alteration hitherto is made either in the magnitude or number or brightness of the stars. Which when they say they little think that they give judgement of a body so remote from our senses; where innumerable mutations may be, unto which the edge of our eyes cannot reach. For it is as if from Heaven wee should contemplate earth; whose magnitude and form would always seem the same to us, however singulars are subject to corruption. Moreover, their opinion is clearly refel'd by new stars which at divers times have appeared in Heaven. As that mentioned by Pliny, l. 2. c. 26. Another in the time of Adrian the Emperor. Another under Otho 1. Another in the year 1264. And what shall wee say to that in the year 1572? Which to have truly been in the firmament, Clavius proves by a double argument: one, because it was seen by all men from most divers parts of Europe in the same place of Cassiopea: the other, that as long as it lasted( which was almost two yeeres) it constantly followed the motion not of one Planet, but of the fixed stars. Now that it was a new star, and never before seen, all the Mathematicians thought, except Annibal Raimund of Verona. Wherefore wee must conclude, that this new star was of celestial matter, but not wrought so solidly, and unto perpetuity as others are wont, which because more compact, are so much more perfect, and not so dissoluble. And even at this day an empty space is there seen, where that star first appeared. I dispute not whether it shined with its own light, or the light of the Sun. It is enough, that the matter thereof was not carried up thither from the earth. For how should it be elevated above the Sun itself? In what manner likewise could so gross a matter exhale out of the globe of the earth, and that three hundred times bigger then the globe of the Earth and Water? For such was the magnitude of that star at the beginning; what shall I say of other stars afterwards in like manner, in the judgement of Mathematicians, bread in the sky? as of that in the year 1577, which appeared seven weekes: of which another in 1600: another in 1604. And surely whether it were a star or a comet in the year 1618. all good Astrologers placed it in heaven. Voss. l. 2. c. 39.  
( 21) See you those figures written in the dust] The old egyptians much exercised themselves in Geometry, arithmetic, Astronomy; Geometry they studied of necessity, because when the bounds of their fields were removed by the o'reflowing of Nilus, after the River was returned into it's channel, every one was to have their own restored again: nor could the portion of grounds be otherwise assigned then by applying an art, which made up out of certain principles, could not deceive skilful measurers. And it was therefore called Geometry, as it were a measuring of the Earth. Now they gave themselves to Astronomy by reason of the commodity thereof, as who having always clear nights, and beholding the Region of Heaven far and wide, troubled with no clouds nor mists, could easily observe the rising and setting, the progress and regress of the stars, which was most pleasant to know and profitable for life, and worthy the exercise of mans wit: then also to these two Geometry and Astrology was added, that as it were subservient, and whose ministry these cannot bee without, the knowledge of numbers which is called arithmetic. Viv. in Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 18. c. 39.  
( 22) Hieroglyphicke] The egyptian Priests in stead of letters did use figures of all sorts of creatures, under which they clearly expressed their conceptions. Plutarch l. de Iside& Osiride.  
The rivers yet had not with paper served  
egypt, but carved beasts, birds and stones preserved  
Their magic language. luke. l. 3. May.  
( 23) Pyramids] The Pyramids are worthy wonder and amazement by reason of their magnitude. Some are reported to have been so high, as all did greatly admire how the cement could be carried up. They say that one of them was twenty yeers in building by 360000 men. That there was no other cause of building them, then a vain ostentation of the wealth of the Egyptian Kings: either lest the leaving money to their successors might be an occasion of treason against them, or that the people should not be idle. There were three between Memphis and Delta, whereof two are reckoned the wonders of the World. The third is less, but cost more. The lower half is of that black ston whereof mortars are made. Under this some say, Rhodope is butted, one of whose shoes, whilst she was washing, an Eagle took up, and let fall in the lap of an Egyptian King. Which he admiring caused her to be sought out, and married her. And, when she was dead, built this pyramid over her. They are so called from {αβγδ} fire, which is broad at bottom, and sharp in the top. Their Kings were butted under them. Perot. Cornucop. in marshal.  
( 24) A business of great moment] All Monopolies are not repugnant to the law of nature: For they may sometimes be permitted by the supreme power upon a just cause, and at a set rate. Whereof wee have an illustrious example in the history of Joseph, when he was the Kings Vicegerent in egypt. Grot. de Jur. bel. &c. l. 2. p. 235.  

Upon the CHORUS.  
( 25) NIle or if Siris] Nilus is in the Scriptures called by a double name: one common; the other more proper. The common appellation is the river of egypt, Gen. 15.18. which in Hebrew is Nachal Mitzraim. Now for Nahal or Naal, the Syrians and Egyptians say Neel; as the Phaenicians and others for Bahal or Baal, Beel; and as from Beel Bel, thence {αβγδ}, so from Neel Nel, whence {αβγδ}. The other name in the Scripture is Sichor, Isa. 23.3. Jer. 2.18. which signifies black. For Scachar is to be made black. Whence the old Latin word scurus, and with a preposition, obscurus. For the water of Nile is thick and blackish, by reason of the mud it brings with it from the South parts. It makes also the land black in moistening it: as the hairs of young men are black by reason of moisture, which afterwards through defect thereof grow hoary. And what if we say that Osiris is from Sihor or Sior? For Sior, the letters transposed, is Osir, whence, adding the greek and latin termination, Osiris. And from Osiris they said Siris. For so the Ethiopians and Egyptians call Nilus. Voss. l. 2. c. 74.  
( 26) With our parents] The Ethiopians. By whom Nilus was also called Astapus, which, in their language, signifies water breaking out of darkness, and which likewise on the left side where the stream fals is called Astabores,& on the right side Astusabes, and not Nilus before they meet in one full River. Plin. l. 5. c. 9.  
( 27) What shall I say—] Our Author I suppose alludes to a discourse after supper between Caesar, and the old egyptian Priest Achoreus, concerning the original of Nilus, in the last book of Lucan. Which may serve for a Comment upon this whole Chorus, and is worth your reading, but too long to bee transcribed hither by me. See likewise Seneca l. 4. Natural. Quaest. c. 2. Farnab. in Lucan. l. 10.  
( 28) It had no need of rain from Heaven] Whosoever shall consider the benefits of Nilus, he will cease to wonder, that Water was by no Nations had in greater honour, then among the Egyptians. For without Nilus what would all Egypt be? Seeing its soil is nitrous, and parched with the sun, and almost as hard as any ston; in many places also gaping so, as that a Horse-man cannot travel; nor is this evil remedied by rain, which egypt knows not, if you except Alexandria, and other places nigh the Sea. But Nilus is to the Egyptian soil in stead of rain from heaven: whereupon, not Ovid indeed, as L. Seneca l. 4. Nat. Quaest. c. 2. his memory flipping, relates; but his contemporary Tibullies hath sung: 
Thou art the cause, thy land doth beg no rain,  
Nor the dry grass for showers to Jove complain.  l 1. el. 7.  
Parmeno also of Byzantium hath it in Athaeneus, O Nile the egyptian Jupiter. Wherefore it is by Philo, l. de profugis, said to be onely not a corrival of Heaven. Yea Heliodorus in his ninth book saith expressly, that it is called by the Egyptians the corrival of Heaven: and he adds the reason, because without rain it waters, and moistens as it were with a shower. This is the first benefit of Nilus. But it would bee a small thing, that a nitrous and barren soil should be watered. By the Divine Providence therefore another benefit is, that when it ebbs, it leaves the grounds not only softened, but also mudded: as it is in Cic. 2. de Nat. dear. And more fully thereof Seneca, l. 4. Quaest. Nat. c. 2. Nilus on a sandy and thirsty soil brings both water and earth. For whereas it flows troubled and foul, it leaves all the dregs in the dry and gaping places, and daubes up the chinks with whatsoever fat is carried along with it: and is profitable to the grounds for two causes, both that it overflows, and that it bemires them. Vos. de idol. l. 2. c. 75.  
( 29) Eight Cubits] The fertility of egypt is according to the increase of Nilus: whence Pliny, lib. 5. Hist. cap. 9. At twelve cubits a famine follows, at thirteen there will yet be a dearth; fourteen make the Egyptians merry, fifteen secure, sixteen luxurious. Voss. l. 1. p. 216.  
( 30) The Dog star] As among the Planets the star of Venus, which we call Phosphorus, and Hesperus, so among the fixed stars the Dog-star was the first which had Divine honours given it. Yea it was preferred by the Egyptians before Hesperus, and called Isis, which with Osiris is their chief Deity. This star is so bright above other stars, as that if you lay a looking-glasse upon the water you may see it at noon day; yea, who are sharp sighted may see it or think they see it, even without a glass. Voss. l. 2. p. 498.  
The Dog-star is called Sirius from Siris; because of the great conspiracy between the Dog-starre and Nilus. For in the dog-days Nilus doth most of all overflow; as that in like manner both the Dog in Heaven, and Nilus rageth in earth. Idem, p. 692.  
( 31) Her rain into thy river power] Nilus begins to increase by and by after the Solitice about the fifteenth of June. The cause whereof are the perpetual showers nigh the equinoctial line: where it is Winter, when it is Summer with them, who dwell under the tropic of Cancer, and on this side of it. With these showers therefore rushing in heaps towards the North, all egypt is overflowed, which because( happening in the midst of July, when the Sun enters into lo) it was believed to be the benefit of the celestial lion, among the Egyptians the lion was the symbol of a flood: and they so made their aqueducts, and Conduit-pipes, as that the waters were spouted out of the head of a lion gaping with open jaws. And from the Egyptian Architects the Greeks and Romans took up this fashion, from them and other Nations. As also it hath been derived to us from the Egyptians, that upon the battlements of our houses, especially of our Churches, we put the heads and yawning mouths of lions. Vos. l. 2. p. 696.  
( 32) Slow Saturne] The Planet Saturne is twenty nine yeeres, one hundred fifty five dayes, seven houres, thirty six minutes going through the whole zodiac. Hence was the original of the Fable of Saturn bound by Jupiter his son and cast into Hell. hear we Lucian discoursing thereof, l. de Astrolog. Neither hath Jupiter bound Saturne, nor cast him into hell, or done such other things, as men suppose; but Saturne is carried in his external motion at a vast distance from us, and his motion is slow and not easily seen by men. Wherefore they say, he stands still, as it were bound. And that huge profundity of air is called Hell. Voss.  
( 33) Mercury to vegetate thy course—] 

Cyllenius rules o'er waters that are great,  
And consequently o'er Nilus.   

o'er which when Mercuries proud fires do stand,  
And in a line direct( as by command  
Of Phoebe the obeying Ocean grows)  
So from his opened fountain Nilus flows. May. Lucan. l. 10.    
( 34) Or hath the frozen West restrained Thy vernal blasts.] 
As vainly doth antiquity declare  
The West winds cause of their increases are—  
— Their blasts the Rivers current meet,  
And will not let it to the Ocean get,  
Prevented so from falling to the main,  
The stream swells back, and overflows the plain.  Idem.  
( 35) Which the world begins the great Ocean—] 
From th' Ocean swelling which begirts about  
All lands, some think increased Nile breaks out;  
The waters lose e're they so far have ran,  
Their saltness quiter—  Idem.  
( 36) Or hath it stopped the secret way.] 
Some through the caverns of earths hollow womb  
In secret channels think these waters come  
Attracted to th' Aequator from the could  
North climb, when Sol his Meroe doth hold,  
The scorched earth attracting Water, thither  
Ganges and Padus flow unseen together:  
Venting all rivers at one fountain so  
Within one channel Nilus cannot go.   
( 37) God the world who made, Hath made Nile, &c.  
Because it was a custom in egypt, that the measure of the rising of the river Nilus should be carried to the Temple of Serapis, as it were to the author of the inundation, and increase of the waters; when his image was cast down and burnt, it was generally said that Serapis mindful of the injury would not make the waters flow beyond their wonted channel. But that God might show it was not Serapis, who was much younger then Nilus, but that it was himself, who could command the waters of the River to increase in their seasons, there was so great an inundation from that time and afterwards, as no age could remember to have been formerly: and therefore the cubit itself, that is the measure of the water which they call Pechys, was from that time wont to bee carried into the Church to the Lord of the waters. ruffian. l. 2. in append. ad Euseb. Cassiodorus. l. 1. c. 18.    

Annotations upon the Fourth ACT.  
( 38) O Nubians] The Chorus of Ethiopian, or blackamoor maids sent— 
From Nubae's utmost parts through whose  
Dry land the River Niger flows.  Act 1.  
And which, though the song and Act were ended, stayed still upon the stage.  
( 39) Lives the old man] Edward 1. hearing both together of the death of his son and of his father, wept and lamented much more for his father then for his son, saying to the French King( which asked the cause thereof) that the loss of his child was but light; for children might after increase and be multiplied, but the loss of his parent was greater, which could not be recovered. Fox. Martyrol. vol. 1.  
( 40) custom and sharp laws, &c.] If he who shall suffer himself to be sold incur so great hatred; what shall be done unto him that hath sold one against his will or kept him in bondage? the laws both of the Jews and Athenians did punish this wickedness with death, as it is written by Moses, and Severus Sulpitius. Dinarchus tells us, that the Athenians put to death one Nemon a Miller, who had stolen an ingenuous child and kept him a bond-slave to work in his Mill. See Aerodius rerum judieat. l. 9. Tit. 7. De Plagiariis, where he bitterly inveighs against the jesuits, who under colour of Religion entice children from their parents. And( as you may red in a singular Treatise of his De Patrio jure) had inveigled away his own son.  
( 41) Let me him happily requited—] Maintenance is due likewise to parents; which we are not onely  told by the laws, but by a common proverb {αβγδ}[ taken from the piety of storks which requited their parents by feeding them in their old age] So that Solon is commended, because upon them who should not do it he set a mark of infamy. But this is not so ordinary as for the parents to maintain their children; for children, when they are born, bring nothing with them whereon to live. Besides, they have a longer time to live then their parents: and therefore as honour and obedience is due to the parents and not to the children; so maintenance is due more to the children then to the parents. And the Apostle saith, 2 Cor. 12.14. The children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children, Grot. de jur. bell. ac pac. l. 2. c. 7.§ 5. Yet the same Apostle saith, 1 Tim. 5 4. Let them( the children or Nephews, I understand with Beza) learn first to show piety at home and to requited their parents. And our Saviour rebukes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who by reason of religious oblations thought themselves not bound to relieve their parents, mark 7.12.  
( 42) All Memphis did me their Father call.] Joseph was but thirty yeeres old when he stood before Pharaoh, and deserved the Title of Father of egypt. And Augustus Caesar was not full four and thirty yeers of age, when he was saluted with the goodly name of Father of his country by the Senate and people of Rome.  
( 43) To them be kind chiefly] But if any contention or comparison arise, to whom wee owe most duty; in the first place to our Country and Parents, by whose benefits we are most of all obliged; in the next, our children and whole Family which looks upon us onely, and can have no other refuge: then, well agreeing kindred, who for the most part have one common fortune. Wherefore necessary aids of livelihood are most due( as I have said) to them. But life and common conversation▪ counsels, discourses, exhortations, consolations, sometimes also chidings are of most vigour among friends: and that friendship is the most pleasant, which is contracted by likeness of manners, &c. Cic. de office. l. 1.  
( 44) The spoils home of four Kings] By the Law of nature those things are in a just war acquired by us, which are either equivalent to that which whereas it is due to us wee cannot otherwise attain, or also which brings damage to him that hurts us within an equal measure of punishment. By this Law Abraham gave tithes to God of the spoils he had taken from the Kings. Gen. 14.16. Heb. 7.4. Grot. de jur. bell. ac pac. l. 3. c. 6.§ 1.  

Annotations upon the CHORUS.  
( 45) EUphrates] As in Asia by Perath or Prath, which signifies a River, is meant the River {αβγδ}, which the Greeks call Euphrates. So in egypt is Nilus called from Nachal which is in Hebrew a River. Voss. See the Note upon Nile.  
( 46) Tigris] So called from the most swift course, because it seems to equal the swiftness of an arrow which the Medes in their language call Tigris.  
( 47) In his own image] Not of body, but of mind, which consists in immortality, in innocency, and righteousness, and other gifts and endowments of the mind. Vatabl. in Gen. 1.26. And Junius upon the same place saith, That man was made in the image of God, to wit in the nature of the soul, its qualities and attributes. In the nature, for it is an eternal and spiritual, and intelligent essence; in qualities, for man was made after God in righteousness, and true holinesse[ or holinesse of truth as Junius and the margin in our English Bible have it] Lastly in the attributes, for he obtaineth a dominion or principality in these inferior things, as it were a certain image of the divine principality. See Eph. 4.24. Col. 3.10.  
( 48) And sleep his limbs forsake] Adam should have slept, though he had never sinned. For albeit that sleep had not proceeded from a weariness of the exterior senses, or the spirits serving them( for neither in that happy state would labour have had place) though also it had not been to repair the spirits in part consumed by the natural heat( for neither would there have been any loss or decay of strength) yet man had not wanted the pleasure of sleep; because the vapours from the aliment had then also gone up to the brain: the spirits too had been more inwardly allured to a cessation: and thence again invited to exterior functions. I am further persuaded to this opinion( which the great Aquinas was of) by that sleep sent by God upon Adam. I know the Septuagint translate it {αβγδ}: and it is a sure argument of an ecstasy, that with the eyes of his mind he saw a rib taken from him, and Eve to be framed thence: so that being awake he forthwith broke out into these words; This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. Bu● though it were an ecstasy, yet it might bee a slee● too; In his sleep surely Adams mind was divinel● elevated, so as it saw what was done by God. A●●this was confirmed by the Hebrew word Tardema, which signifies a deep sleep. Voss. l. 3. c 34.  
( 49) The phoenix] Paulus Fab●us, and L. Vitellus being Consuls, after the revolution of many ages, the bide phoenix came into egypt: and afforded matter of discourse upon that miracle to the most learned both of the inhabitants, and of the Greeks. What they agree in, and many things doubtful, but not unworthy the knowledge, I have thought sit to set down. That this creature is sacred to the sun, and differing foom others in the beak and feathers, all agree, who have described her form. Of the number of her yeeres the report is various. The most common is 500. some affirm 1461. And that the former birds, first in the reign of Sesostris, afterward of Amasis, and then of ptolemy the third of the Macedonian race, flew into the City called Heliopolis, a flock of other birds accompanying them and wondering at the new shape. But antiquity indeed is herein obscure. Between ptolemy and Tiberius were less then 250 yeeres. Whence some thought this a false phoenix, and not to have come from Arabia, &c. These things are uncertain and fabulously augmented. But that this bide is sometime seen in Egypt is not to be doubted. Tac. Annal. l. 6.  
The phoenix is said to appear against a great change in the world. And the egyptians paint this bide, when they would express a vicissitude and restauration of things. Voss. l. 2. in Addend.  
( 50) Of whose rare kind but one] What wise man can believe, there is a single bide, which burns herself in a fire, kindled both by the sun beams and the fanning of her own wings; that from her turned into ashes, or at least from her marrow or blood is bread a worm, which afterwards having taken wings becomes this bide, repaired by her own death, because she died that she might live, and so is made both the parent and issue: Whence and when fit for the burden, her first care is that( if she spring again not out of the ashes but marrow or blood) shee carry her parents body to Heliopolis, and offer it upon the Altar of the Sun. To have related these things is to have confuted them. Yet that there is such a bide hath been believed even by Tacitus: Yea Tertullian thought the Scriptures made mention of the phoenix. For in his Book de Resurrect. he hath rendered that in Psalm. 92. {αβγδ}. The just shall flourish as a phoenix; whereas he should have said, as a palm three. With the very like error, as another in Plutarch, which Muretus observes in Variis, l. 13. cap. 12. hath translated {αβγδ}, the brain of a phoenix, whereas it signifies the pith of a palm three. Surely that David meant a plant, is clear, by that which there follows of the Cedar, and Plane three. But indeed Clemens Romanus, a contemporary with the Apostles, makes mention of this bide in his first Epistle to the Corinthians: Which a few yeeres since came forth into the light by the singular care of that famous man Patrick Young. Yet there are, who judge this Epistle to bee none of Clements, because by the nature of a bide, which is no where, he seeks to illustrate those things, which belong to heavenly truth. But by what we have formerly said of Pliny and Tacitus, we plainly see that in those times wherein Clement lived, that opinion of the phoenix, was common. And this is enough in a writing, ecclesiastical indeed, yet not appertaining to the Canon of faith, and life. For neither is it necessary that we believe, that Clement knew all things, which did concern the secrets of nature. Nor are we bound to believe it of the Apostles; although Christ promised, John 16.13. That he would sand the Holy Ghost, who should led them into all Truth. Surely this is to be restrained to the truth of those things, which appertain to the business of salvation. Yea not indeed to all them, because the Apostles themselves, 1 Corinth. 13.9. saw in part, and Prophesied in part: but of all, which it was needful to know for the attaining another life. Voss. idol. lib. 3. cap. 99.  
( 51) The sacred fire] Was wont to be carried before the King of the Persians, when he came abroad in public, in honour of the sun, who was adored by them; Which fire was never put out, until the death of the King. The same ceremony our Author makes Pharaoh to use here, the Persian Mithra, and the egyptian Osiris, being the same; that is, the sun.    

Annotations upon the Fifth ACT.  
( 1) celestial Bull] It is said of Joseph, Deut. 33.17. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock. Upon which Junius and Tremellius: he performed the duty of an ox( whereof Prov. 14.4.) when he nourished his Fathers Family in Egypt. Wherefore the Egyptians are said to have placed the image of an ox next unto the image of Joseph, because that the ox in tillage doth cooperate with man.  
( 2) The neighbouring ram] But if from the Egyptians the first sign of the zodiac took the figure of a ram in honour of Cham, or Jove Ammon, who, to signify his power, was represented with rams horns: What hinders, but that wee may believe the second sign of the zodiac to have took from them the figure of a Bu●l; and that thereby they understood either the son of Cham, Osiris, the same with Mesoris or Mizraim: by whom the Egyptians were taught tillage( the ox being the symbol of tillage) or the Patriarch Joseph, who for having preserved Egypt in a great Famine, did deserve the symbol of an ox, and at length came to have divine honours. And in this conjecture concerning Joseph you may see the most illustrious and greater then all praise Hugo Grotius going before me in his Sophompaneas, a Tragedy, where Pharaoh is brought in by him thus speaking unto Joseph: 
To thee her safety Egypt owes, and I  
My quiet. That the grounds all wast not lye  
By men forsaken, that the plow doth lift  
The earth up to new hopes is all thy gift.  
And therefore to thy honour I will this  
Have to be added; as the manner is  
Of the Eastern Nations, that a place in Heaven  
Unto thy name among the stars be given:  
And the field-tiller the celestial Bull  
Of thy full merit shall be made a full  
And lasting monument: as a place great Cham,  
Old Mizraims sire hath in the neighbouring Ram.   
Which verses I rather recite, because out of that Poem; which as for the argument and handling it is the love and admiration of all good and learned men, is so much more ardently affencted, as it is meet it should bee esteemed by me, unto whose, though undeserving name, that excellent man would have it dedicated and come forth into the light. Vos. idol. l. 2. p. 501.  
( 3) Your Majesty] Our Author hath Your goodness. The first part of divine worship is to believe that there are Gods. The next, to render unto them their Majesty, to render unto them their goodness, without which goodn●sse there is no Majesty. Seneca Epist. 99. And Junius in his Notes upon Exod. 33.18, 19.( where Moses doth beseech the Lord to show him his glory, and is answered: I will make all my goodness pass before thee, &c.) observes, that the goodness of God is his glory.  
( 4) Heliopolis] Which signifies the City of the sun. It is the same, which is called On in the Scriptures, Gen. 41.45. Vossius. See the Note upon Asenath, in the first Chorus.  
( 5)— Because your Nation Holds every Shepherd an abomination.] Gen. 43.32.  
The cause is not there expressed, but by comparing that Text with Gen 46.34. and Exod. 8.26. it appears that the Egyptians did abhor a Shepherds life, and them who fed upon Oxen, or other cattle; or did sacrifice those creatures which they worshipped for Gods. Jun.& Tremell.  
( 6) And this my head, &c.] Moreover it was an ancient custom to swear by naming other things and persons[ besides God] whether they did imprecate that they should be hurtful to them[ for perjury] as the Sun, the Earth, Heaven, the Prince; or whether they desired to be punished in them, as in their head, their children, their country, their Prince. neither was this the custom only of profane Nations, but also of the Jews, as Philo teacheth us. For he saith, that wee ought not, when we would swear, to run for every thing presently, to the Creator and Father of the Universe; but to swear by our Parents, Heaven, Earth, the World. The like whereunto is noted by the Interpreters of Homer, that the ancient Greeks did not lightly swear by the Gods, but by other things at hand, as by their sceptre: and that this was ordained by the most just King Radamanth is delivered by Porphyry, and the Scholiast upon Aristophanes. So Joseph is red to have sworn by the life of Pharaoh, Gen. 42.15. from a custom received among the Egyptians, which Aben Ezra there notes, Elizaeus by the life of Elias, 2 Kin. 2.2. Neither doth Christ, Mat. 5. as some think, mean that these oaths are less lawful then what are made by the express name of God: but whereas the Hebrews did less regard them, through a certain opinion not unlike his, who said, He thought his sceptre not to be the Gods, he sheweth that even these are true oaths. For also Ulpian hath said very well: He who swears by his own life, seems to swear by God, for he swears with a respect of the Divine Deity. So Christ shows, that he who swears by the Temple, sweareth by God that dwelleth in the Temple, and he that sweareth by Heaven, by God, who sitteth thereon, as his throne. But the Hebrew Doctors of those times thought, that men were not bound by oaths made by things created, unless, &c.— Grot. de jur. bell. ac pac. l. 2. c. 13. De Jure jurando.  
( 7) Israel a wife shall take from egypt.] That is, Solomon shall mary Pharaohs daughter.  
( 8) A new plantation] And all the people both small and great, and the Captaines of the Armies arose, and came to egypt, 2 Kin. 25, 26.  
( 9) Safe to him an infant exile] Our author in his Christus patience.  
These arms about my neck have hung,  
couched on the flowery banks of Nile;  
egypt, so just to thy exile,  
Hath now redeemed her former curse:  
Our Jews then those of Memphis worse.  G. Sandys. 
( 10) Pure Religion] Give me leave to remember a few verses not impertinent, out of that Divine Poet Mr George Herbert in his Church Militant.  
To Egypt first she came, where they did prove  
Wonders of anger once, but now of love.  
The ten Commandements there did flourish more  
Then the ten bitter plagues had done before.  
Holy Macarius and great Antony,  
Made Pharaoh Moses changing th' History.  
Goshen was darkness, Egypt full of lights,  
Nilus for monsters brought forth Israelites.  
Such power hath mighty baptism to produce,  
For things misshapen things of highest use.  
( 11) Partakers of so great a good] The King of Ethiopia( said by Geographers to bee one of the greatest Monarchs in the world) is commonly called Prester John, and in the ethiopic Language Negush Chawariavvi, which( saith Jos. Scaliger l. 7. de emendat. temp.) doth signify, The apostolic Emperor, or the Christian King. It is very probable, the Gospel was early planted there, even( as histories report also) by that honourable person the Eunuch, of so great authority under Q. Candace, and her Treasurer, who was baptized by the Apostle Philip. Act. 8.38 Of Ethiopia likewise, Du Bartas by Sylvester.  
And scalding quick-sands of those thirsty plains,  
Where Jesus name yet in some reverence reigns;  
Where Prester John( though part he Judaize)  
Doth in some sort devoutly Christianize.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  

Before the Poem.  
IN Mr Berney's Verses, for speaks it own praise only, red speak its own praise; only  
In the Latin prose for vellat r. velvet. for injurius. r. injurius,   

In the Poem.  
page. 9. l. 28. for a gain: r. again. p. 10. l. 13. for flow r. slow. p. 28. l. 4. for Mziraim r. Mizraim. p. 29. l. 11. for wandring r. wandering.   

In the Annotations.  
page. 46. l. 19. for egyptians r. egyptians. p. 56. l. 18. for banqueting; r. banqueting, p. 65. l. 22. for laugnage; therefore r. language therefore;