Vicissitudo rerum AN Elegiacall Poeme of the interchangeable courses and varietie of things in this world The first Part. Omnia tempore producuntur mutantur consumuntur AVT NVNC AVT NVNQVAM Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford dwelling on Adling hill neere Carterlane 1600. To the Right honorable Sir VVilliam Howard knight the Lord Howard of Effingham Sonne and heyre apparent to the Right Honorable Earle of Nottingham Lord high Admirall of England MInerua fained goddesse of best skill Seem'd friendles to my sad feeble Muse The Sisters nine bar'd me Parnassus hill Mount Helicon where praised Poets vse Therefore my Lord my pen deserues no praise But pardon Honor pardons weake essayes The Change of things in slender verse I sing A weighty subiect common yet to all From lowest creature to the loftiest thing Nature her workes doth tosse like Tennis ball Now rayz'd by force then downe again by poyze Rising ne falling she showes not by noyze But when sterne Time eche thing created sees She fawnes a while and tenters it on Pride And soone she frownes and then forthwith decrees To pull it downe and lay that thing aside Yet as a mother she againe doth beare Some new and that a while she doth vpreare Thus Time by turnes turnes all things out of date And will preuaile till she her selfe haue end For sure things changes proue time terminate And times exchanges doth her turne portend This time once gone a timelesse time shall bee Till then in things a changing state wee see This mooues my Muse erst silent now to sing Though slenderly the swift exchange of things And this to you my Lord I fearfull bring Wishing that time that plants puls downe Kings Would daigne long time to her that still is one By whome we here enioy true Helicon At your Honors command Io. Norden The Preface SYth Time applaudes to see Varieties And nought more alters then Times chāging dayes It fits the Time to sing sad Eligies Of Things exchanges florish and decayes And how Things past rest now as things forgot And Things that are exchange and come to end How Time begins to solue the fatall Knot VVhereon the World and worldly things depend Yea Things aloft of th'mouing Firmament Are seene to alter by Times swaying hest The Heauens Spheres Bodies circumferent Are not as earst but in their course opprest The Elements and elementall things Do change and by silent degrees decay The Sea and Land Riuers and water Springs Stay not at one but oft exchange their way And Man himselfe stands as a wauing Twig Bent to and fro or broken with the wind In no state constant be he base or big Ech thing comes diuers in his proper kind As by this first part these are partly seene The second showes the alterations That in the world by course of Time haue beene In Men in Cities Kings and Nations Ouid. Metam lib. 15. Sic tempora verti Cernimus atque alias assumere robora gentes Concidere has Mar. lib. 9. Quid non longa dies quid non consumitis anni 1. SOme sing the Regall actes of worthy Kings Some of fell Warres some of a publique State Some praise haut Beawty some praise baser things Wittes haue their change Will stāds in highest rate Will yet doth wauer Pennes paint Loue Hate Therfore my pen shal publish change in all One onely Essence standing firme from fall 2. The Heauens in their peereles pryde may bost That they in their orbiculer figure Are farre the freest and by change vntost Keeping by turne their Reuolutions sure Though still reuoluing yet alike endure As Orbes and Circles figures perfectest Held by all Artistes to excell the rest 3. The Heauens seeme of most admired might Fixed on nothing yet stand firme and fast Prouidence Diuine them hath so set aright Worldes may not waue them nor vnprop their bast Who then essayes to prooue they will not last Syth from creating they are as they were Not changed by chace nor alter'd by their stere 4. These Figures then form'd of most perfect mold Shaped by Science farre exceeding Wit If they haue change how may the baser hold That haue their Vigors b'influence of it A powre more potent boue this Powre doth sit That giues and guides and swayes all as it list In whome the Heauens and the rest consist 5. And all the mouers and the voluing sphere He first created and disposed so As to haue progresse and againe reuere To tell the Times and seasons as they go Mouing in Circles daily to and fro Ginning and ending as their Circles bee Greater or lesser distinct by degree 6. Ten Spheres in one Astronomers do hold The tenth reuoluing in his fixed tide Twenty foure houres and then his circle rold Againe reuolues powers infinite her guide From East to West still on the dexter side And by her course most swift and impetous The rest she moueth most miraculous 7. For in the selfe same time she moues the rest Although their mouings contrary to her Be on sinister part from West to East And that the ninth Astrologers auerre Hath forty nine thousand yeeres thus to erre Thirty thousand to the eighth assign'd Againe seuen thousand as the learned find 8. The Sphere of Saturne in her thirty yeeres Returnes and Iupiter in twelue they sayne Doth runne his race Fell Mars in two appeares To end his course reuoluing backe againe Sol Venus Mercury haue one yeere to raigne The Moone the lowest soone her circle rounds Twice foureteene daies then againe rebounds 9. This comely course and order of this frame May challenge most if ilke Perfection be Or State not changing but as still the same The Heauens yet a body as wee see In all her parts from Change cannot be free Nor still perseuer as they first were set Though none haue power but Power diuine to let 10. Let Time bee testie in this cause of doubt That did begin when Heauens and Lights were made She was and is and shall remaine throughout But not alike shee flourish'd gins to fade Dayes Weekes and Months and Yeeres she makes by trade All these doe change none doth alike abide Summer nor Winter Autumne or Spring-tide 11. The dayly moouing of this Firmament Distinguyes frowning Nights from fawning Dayes And either by such entercourses pent As they ne passe due time nor make delayes None checks the Sunne to shade or send her rayes To banish Darkenes and to fill with Light What was eclipsed with the shade of Night 12. Yet neither Day nor Night continues one But by reciprocall exchange imparts Each to the other Time as Time is gone Time turnes the Yeere into his aptest parts And Yeere to Yeere lends time likewise by arts Rising and falling changing by degree The present vnlike the preter yeere wee see 13. The first and greatest Mouer of the rest Imparts her moouing to the lesser Spheres To men and beasts and creatures as the Test And tries
the bodies that Nature vpreares Prouing their temper and their temper steres Mong all the creatures that are earthly built Best temper'd stand distemper'd soonest spilt 14. Nay mindes inclines and manners good and bad Proceede some say by moouings and aspects Of Heauens Spheres and Plannets wherewith clad That giue and take and worke the sole effects In Men and Beasts and in all earthly sects All which beginne and end by influence That doth proceede by Heauens concurrence 15. Vertues and vices health and sicknesse too Long and short life force feeblenesse and wit Yea well and ill the Heauens egge to doo All earthly bodies subiect vnto it Humane affayres prayse-worthie and vnfit Depend on these that of themselues are not But stand created to their proper lot 16. Though some prerogatiue aboue the rest They haue An instrumentall meane onely And not the cause efficient confest A fatall Law or of necossitie None holds it so that hath fidelitie Let sacred Wisedome be our studies guide To stay on him that is and will abide 17. The pleasing Sunne with sweete resplending rayes Doth rise and set and yeeldes such influence As earthly creatures glorie in the dayes Not in sad nights that come by consequence The sunnie beames that comfort passed hence Men birds and beasts trees and the hearbes in field Bemone the lacke of what the day did yeeld 18. Whereby wee see the Sunne is held a ghest That with his rayes filles all the fields with glee The plants the hearbs the blossoms and the rest Vnfolde in token of gratuitie Preaching to men the Sunnes benignitie That ayne reuiues their members late neere dead All creatures ioy to see her beames espred 19. The Sunnes ascent and her descent renewes The yeere with change as she comes farre or neere Her course oblique depriues againe endewes The earthly bodies and their powers arere The Solstices and Equinoxes bere As on the wings of th' Zodiackes twelue signes They yeeres foure parts diuided by their lines 20. The Winter with his siluer hayres beginnes When Capricorne receiues declining Sunne As she returnes from Autumne where she lins And with his cold and moysture now begunne Depriues the bodyes of their pride late wonne And all the creatures that of yore grew gay By like degrees doe wither and decay 21. The louely Spring which liuely lends her skill To re'install these creatures in their pride Enters the Ram and equalize she will The Nights and Dayes A moyst and hotter tyde Restoring greene what Winter had vndi'de And yeelds them vigor that were erst decayde All sects reioyce to bee thus re'arrayde 22. Then comes the Summer with her gloornie rayes Imbracing Cancer parching hote and drie Making short nights and the longest dayes The Summer Solstice heaues the Sunne so hie That forthwith she falles and alters by and by The surface of the Earth and all earthly things Thus Time turnes the worlds glasse with silent wings 23. Friendlesse Autumne vnclothes againe apace All that the Spring had clad so fayre before The Sunne in Libra with beclouded face Affords sad nights longer then of yore Depriuing sap and withers by her lore All vegitables and transformes the rest A necessarie but vnwelcome ghest 24. The Yeere thus parted in her qualities Yeeldes great effects vnto the Earths creatures Compounded termed Elementaries As of elementall temperatures Grosse soone decay the purest best endures Exceeding in one qualitie it dies Nought hath true meane that is below the skies 25. The Moone hath secrets in her times effects She swayes the humors ouer which she raignes Increasing decreasing full in aspects Still she disposeth Bodyes and their Vaines In her some mysterie no doubt remaines That worketh wonders by the meane of her Which some affirme so farre in it they erre 26. For shee a creature can yeeld no Euent Compact as other elementall things Her vertue in Decrease and Increment But purer and pure qualities she brings Soring her circuite by diuiner wings And through the force of her high qualities She works in Bodies sundrie faculties 27. As in the Ebbes and flowing of the Deepe By course and by reciprocall retreat Moou'd by the Moone as she her course doth keepe The Ebbe makes emptie Floud againe repleate The Moone in Forme the Sea vnlike in Seate Their like concurrence and like changes shew The Moone and Sea alike to wane and grow 28. The Starres that wander and that fix'd remaine Do cause in ayre great changes Cold and Heate Windes Thunder Tempests and great gusts of Raine And their Aspects and Oppositions met Some strange presages of Euents beget Of Warre of Death of Famine Drought and Pest. Yet nought befalles but by supernall hest 29. Though some affirme that these mutations Of changes and of strange and rare euents Proceede of such like innouations As heauenly bodies and their concurrents Worke in the like compounded Elements And giue them moouing issue and successe As if effects proceeded of the lesse 30. The lesse yet great lesse in respect of one Who mooues the Moouer of these Moouers all He he the swayer of euents alone And sinne the cause that moues these to our thrall That moue and change and cause men rise or fall Not as these will but as the Powers aboue Make them the meanes to checke for change of loue 31. The greatest changes and most rare euents In States in Kingdomes and in greatest sects Are sayd to issue of the Spheres dissents The eight and ninth not by their ioynt aspects Their awkward moouings breede rarest effects Not by their natures inclination But by their motiue trepedation 32. Besides coniunction of triplicities Of Saturne Iupiter and Mars aspecting Are held most powerfull principalities Greatest alterations effecting Their triplicities duely respecting Fierie or ayrie watrie or earthly Th' euent corresponds the triplicity 33 Of such some count seu'n since the world begunne Fiue thousand fiue hundred sixtie two yeeres The eight shall be when foure yeeres more are come By testie of the best Astrologers Presaged thus it may well summon teares That he that rules may moderate his ire Lest World consume with fearefull gusts of fire 34. Seneca reports Belus to foresee The vniuersall deluge e're it came And when the conflagration should be To burne the masse as water drown'd the same When of the Starres such opposition came As one right line might pierce their circles all In Cancer signe this last effect should fall 35. The antique Poets in their Poems tel'd Vnder their fondest Fables mysteries By Phaeton how heauens powers rebel'd In fires force and by the histories Of Pirrha and Deucalion there lies The like of waters impetuitie In part concurring with diuinitie 36. Which hath reueyl'd the Worlds destruction By water past her future fall by fire But holds the cause sinne not coniunction Of fire or waters selfe-reuenging ire The Powers diuine commoue them to conspire To make the earth and earthly bodies nought That doe defile what he so pure hath wrought 37. The Priests
of Egypt gazing on the starres Are sayd to see the Worlds sad ruines past That had beted by fire and waters iarres And how the World inconstant and vnchast Assaylde by these cannot alike stand fast Earthquakes and warres famine hate and pest Bring perils to the earth and mans vnrest 38. We at the present see Times changing state And Natures fearefull alterations As if Time now did preach the Heauens debate And starres to band in dismall factions Strange signes are seene diuine probations That some effect will follow of admire Too late when come to say it will retire 39. The Sunne and Moone eclipsed ne're so much Comets and strange impressions in the ayre The tydes and swelling flouds were neuer such The earth doth tremble Nature doth impayre Hid'ous monsters now possesse the chayre Where erst dame Natures true begotten seede Sate truely graced in her proper weede 40. Such changes neuer haue beene seene of yore In Countries and in Kingdomes as of late Manners and Lawes and Religions lore Neuer were prized at so meane a rate Such are the changes of this earthes estate It may bee sayd Times wings beginne to frie Now couching low that erst did soare so hie 41. Yea now is proou'd the progresse of the Sunne To differ farre from pristine gredience The Solstices and Equinoxes run As in pretended disobedience The Sunne obserued by Artes diligence Is found in foureteene hundred yeeres to fall Neere twelue Degrees towards the Center ball 42. The Zodiack and all her partes and signes Alter the course that first they were assign'd And all the orbe of Heauen so combines As she vnto her Period inclin'd Time past farre greater then that is behind Doth prooue the Heauens in their greatest Pride Subiect to changes and to waue aside 43. Some eke affirme the earthly Sphere to erre First set the Center of the concaue Spheres Now start aside supposed not to sterre If so the Power that Earth and Heauen steres By it foreshowes the purpose that he beares That all the Creatures that he made so fast Shall by Degrees alter weare and wast 44. Yet all the Changes that succeed below Proceed of Mouing Mouing double is The first and chiefe moues yet not moued so The other mouers mooue by force of this But to moue rightly or to moue amis Without the first high Prouidence diuine They are vnable of their owne incline 45. Guy ded they yeeld such influence of force As notwithstanding alteration They seeme to shew by fatall course remorce To creatures in their generation And by successiue propagation Corrupted things renew grow and decay Vncessantly by natures fatall way 46. The changes which successiuely accrew Vnto the creatures of this lower part And bodies which the Elements endew With habite and which cunning Natures art Contriues with ornaments that in her mars Are had proceede of contraries That in them breede such strange varieties 47. For things compounded of the Elements Partake the like compounded faculties Themselues vnlike in vertue and contents Make all their subiects contraries And mut ' all discord in their offices Producing fruits and in them enmitie Whereby they change by fatall destinie 48. The water thicked doth resemble stone Or earthie matter vaporating ayre The ayre enlightened and her vertue gone Resembles fire the fire extinct comes ayre Ayre thicked and by grosse impayre Gets cloudes and mistie vaporation All haue alternate variation 49. So these that wee call Elements are not But onely like and not indeede the same As each partaketh of the others lot Hath not selfe nature but the fayned ' name Yet is it seene from whence each of them came Like to the thing that each resembles most From these corrupt comes al the earthly host 50. Yet so prepared as the Power aboue Doth first decree to shape the lowest things Discrepant and diuers as it list approue Voyde of all forme Hence formall bodie springs In couert order with concealed wings Nature her selfe flies to and fro vnseene Till things haue life none sees where she hath beene 51. Then viuall each thing wrayes his faculties And what in it hath chiefe Predominance Hot cold drie or moyst meerely contraries All in one body haue like penetrance But farre vnlike in supreme gouernance The chiefe in force subdue the feeble sort And foyle in fine the body they support 52. The Elements repugnant each to each Yet seeme they all each other to imbrace But each on other makes alternate breach As one growes potent th' other in disgrace Their Powers vnequall not their natures base Doth winne or lose and gaines contempt or prayse None seemes a coward weakest giues essayes 53. As when a Sparke that most partakes of Fire Contendes a while as farre as Power permits To dry a Floud Force fayleth not Desire Likewise a Drop contendeth where it hittes To quench a Flame that quenchles is by Wittes Such Feede they foster not of equall Force That which preuayleth yeeldeth no Remorce 54. The Earth a massie Lumpe is lowest set The Water it surrounds and lies diffuz'd Through and about this Orbe as friendly met Yet do they striue as if eche were abuz'd Ballanced they pend mut'ally confuz'd The Fire and Ayre light are surmounted hie Yet ech polluted with his Neighbour by 55. The Fire though highest and in purest place Betweene the Heauens and the ayrie Sphere Seemes not yet hath more then the Ayres disgrace For when she volueth and reuolues arere She comes deformed by her often stere And forced downeward to the ayry cell Fals to the Earth and so her Forces quell 56. The Ayre that swayes the region next to Fire Is in the vpper part most absolute Most thin and pure most like her first inspire Her lowest grosse the middle meane acute She thus vnequall in her tryple sute Stands most corrupted here with vs beneath Corrupting bodies that by her do breath 57. And most inconstant of the rest she fares Most variable in her best estate Turn'd as the Place whereon she lights prepares And as the Starres aspect and haue their Gate So she comes pure or of a grosser rate With Exhallations and with Vapors thicke That rise and fall and in her Lymit sticke 58. Whence grow the Clowdes the Thunder the Windes Hayles Frost and Snowe and Changes manifold Which do afflict the Earth and earthy kinds With Natures striuings oft tweene Hot and Cold. Descent oft forced and Ascent controld Mooues Warres aboue in ayrie firmament Tweene water-clouds and others discontent 59. Then fals the Rayne erst raysed by the Sunne Of watry vapors flying from below Forc'd downe againe like twist arere vnspun And thus the Clowdes by course do come and goe The Ayre now calme forthwith fell winds do blow What more inconstant then the Ayre can be Whereby all Bodies breathe and change we see 60. And if Astrologers aucthority May passe for proofe of th' issue of the winds The Sunne doth rayse the winds cal'd Easterly And Iupiter the Northern in their kinds