battaile now be scan'd No man his perils deemes aright But greater doubts doe them affright For who is hee that sees the maine With surges swallow vp the plaine The highest mountaines ouerflowne With billowes from the Ocean blowne The skies and Phoebus blazing crowne Vnto the earth come tumbling downe In such a publicke wracke each where Would of his priuate stand in feare No man had leasure now to dread The harmes that hanged ore his head Romes destiny and Pompeys fall Was it that did distract them all ¶ Vnto their swords they put no trust Except new ground and scour'd from rust Their darts are sharpned at the end With stronger strings their bowes they bend Their quiuers also stored full With choycest shafts that they could cull The rowels of the horse-mens spurre Enlarg'd to make his courser sturre If it were lawfull to compare Mans labours with the supreame care So Mars did grinde his fauchion Vpon the rough Cycilian stone When the Phlegrean Gyants fierce Did make attempt the skies to pierce So Neptune his three-forked mace With fiery temper did enchase And Paean so new steel'd againe His shafts when he had Python slaine So Pallas furbusht vp her Targe VVith Gorgons head and lockes at large And so to chastise those reuolts Vulcan then chang'd Ioues thunder-bolts ¶ Nature did not that time refraine By many signes to shew most plaine The fearefull accidents at hand The skies the armed troopes withstand Marching to the Pharsalian land The tearing clouds with thunder-claps The Souldiers on their faces raps Contrary flames and pillars bright Of scorching fire did them affright Typhons commixt with sparkling beames That did affect the water streames Brake out withall and lightning flashes Dazled their eyes with findging dashes From off their helmes it strake the crests And from the blades the hilts it wrests It also melts the headed Pile The sulfrie aire rusts murdring steele The swarming bees in clustred flights By heapes vpon their Ensignes lights So as the Ensigne-bearers might Could not from ground raise them vpright The weight thereof was growne so dead It made them bow both backe and head Their publique Standards in a swet And Roman Aegles weeping wet VVhilst forward to the field they set The Bull brought for the sacrifice VVith fury from the Altar flies And running head-long himselfe cast Into Emathias field at last So as no offring could be found To expiate that lucklesse ground ¶ But what malignant Deities And Furies of impieties O Caesar hast thou cal'd vpon What power of Stygian Region What wicked damn'd infernall sprights That range about in gloomy nights Hath stir'd thee vp and whet thy rage This odious wicked warre to wage But now this doubt againe doth rise Whether that feare abus'd their eyes Or that these monstrous visions seene Of Gods the Reuelations beene For many thought they did behold How Pindus to Olympus rold And that mount Aemus that same houre A gaping velley did deuoure And that throughout Pharsalia's ground Strange howlings did by night resound That streames of bloud by Ossa's hill Did to Boebeida's lake distill That they beheld in darke shades vail'd How men with force their foes assail'd The day pale dimnesse ouer-whelmes Darke shades likewise incloud their helmes Their parents buried ghosts did rise And fluttring doe accost their eyes But this one comfort did remaine To ease them in perplexed paine That those who with a guilty minde Did hope the wicked meanes to finde Their aged fathers throats to cut And in their brothers blood to glut Reioyced at the monstrous sights That with such horror maz'd mens sprights And hop't these suddaine furies rage Did vnto them successe presage But why should it seeme strange at all That those for whom death now did call Should changes feele as life growes slacke And trembling fits of natures wracke If to the minde of man be giuen Knowledge of future things to steeuen The guest that wonnes in Tyrian Gades The Roman that Armenia trades And those that vnder any clime Of all the world liu'd at that time Did grieue and yet wist no cause why And tooke their griefes offensiuely But little knew what they should lose At these Emathian fatall blowes ¶ If old Records we credit may Vpon Euganeo's hill they say An Augure sitting neere those streames Where Aponus breath-reeking steames Do rise and spread their springs abrode And in Timavas flood vnlode Where was Antenors first abode Now comes this Augure then did say A great and lamentable day The mightest things of humane state Are like forth-with to haue their date Pompeys and Caesars wicked Armes Will now rush on to ciuill harmes But whether that the thunders rage And Ioues dire darts did thus presage Or that the gazing on the skies The heauens discordant humor spies Or that the sad duskt firmament Did note to him this daies euent By dimnesse of th' eclipsed sunne That was with darknesse ouer-runne Nature in this dayes forme exprest Such difference from all the rest As that if men did vnderstand As did this Augure to haue scan'd And well obseru'd the nouell change Of heauenly signes how they did range Then all the world might plaine haue seene As well as hee Pharsalia's teene O worthy wights by Fate reseru'd Of all the world to be obseru'd Whose destinies to bring to end The whole heauens leasure did intend If after ages heare the same And to our Nephewes come their fame Or if to men of great estate Our labours care Time shall relate So as their mindes it recreate When as these ciuill warres they read It will provoke both hope and dread And draw such wishes from their thought As shall be lost and profite nought For reading they will be distracted As though these were not matters acted But as if they were strifes depending Whose Fates as yet had not their ending And all that while wish from their heart The best successe to Pompeys part ¶ As soone as Pompey's armed bands March't towards the Pharsalian lands The shining Sunne-beames bright aspect Against their armours did reflect So as the valleyes and the hilles All round about with light it filles They did not rashly take the field The haplesse Army order held And Lentulus had for his part The ordring of the left wings Mart And those two Legions therewithall That of the Campe was principall The first and fourth they did them call And vnto thee Domitius stout Was giuen in charge the right wings rout All-be-it with vnlucky hand Thou for thy Countries cause didst stand The middle battaile strong compact With thick rang'd troops that were extract Out of the Cilician hoast That came with Scipio from that coast Who heere held but a Souldiers place Though Affrick after did him grace As chiefe Commander in the field The mountaine Capadocians held Their Cohorts rang'd in ordred rankes On Enipheus riuers bankes And with them all alongst that flood That Pontus large-rain'd
To take away the liues of those Whom he subdues although his foes Though Pompey in his cruell mood Did glut his sword with Roman blood When he our troopes at vantage tooke Pent vp within a narrow nooke Who out of valor chose to dye Rather then from their station flye But my braue youths I you intreate Shew no such rigor in your heate Kill not a man that shunnes your eyes Deeme him a Citizen that flies But whilst their weapons they doe vse Let not fond pittie you abuse Nor be then mou'd vnto remorse But flat resist your parents force Yea on their faces turne your swords Whom reuerent yeares gray hairs affoords If any should his kinsman finde And in his breast his sword hath shrin'd Or else so deere a friend shall wound To whom for fauours he stands bound Whilst they against you shew their might Account your selfe from guilt acquite As free as if he were a foe That you before did neuer know And now throw downe your Trenches wall And fill the ditches therewithall Whereby imbattail'd as it stands The Army may march with full bands And runne not out at little coopes Dispersed into petty troopes Your owne pauillions do not spare For to that Campe wee marching are From whence that Army doth discend Whereof we soone shall make an end Scarcely had Caesar spoken all But each one to his charge did fall And suddainly they all did Arme Throughout the campe and took the larme Downe went the Trench and Tents in haste The troopes are not in order plac't According to their Chiefetaines Art To Fates they doe commit this Mart. But if they all had Caesars bin And such as did affect to win The Roman Empire as their owne By martiall art and valour showne They would not then haue headlong prest To fight a Battaile for their rest ¶ When Pompey saw his foes draw out Bending to him with all their rout And that the warre would no delay But that the Gods design'd this day He stood amaz'd his heart grew cold The which in Armes mishap foretold That feare should such a captaine thrall Like dread did his whole host appall Then he a loftie horse bestrides And through his troops and cohorts rides The day quoth he that your braue sprights Prest on to end all lingring fights Is now at hand therefore expose Your vtmost force against your foes This is the vpshot now for all One houre will vs together call He that his countries cause respects Or his deare houshold Gods affects He that his children and his wife And all deare pledges of his life Doth seeke to haue and hold againe Must with his sword the same obtaine For all is now by God prouided In this one field to be decided And we must hope that haue the right The heauenly powers for vs will fight They so will guide our weapons fierce That they shall Caesars bowels pierce It is their wills that with his blood Romes sacred lawes should be made good Had they design'd to Caesars fate The world and all the Romane state By Destinies and their decree My elder yeares might shortned be But since the Gods by their high doome Both of the people and of Rome Haue Pompey plac't as leader chiefe T is no signe of their wroth or griefe All means that may bring victorie We haue prouided seriously And many a Prince and noble Lord Our fortunes run with free accord The ancient bands of martiall wights With graue aduice on our part fights And if vnto our later yeares Fate had reseru'd those worthy peares The Curij and Camilli stout The Decij that did make no doubt Freely to sacrifice their blood Thereby to gaine their Countrie good All these on our side would haue stood The nations that are farhest East Vnto this seruice now are prest And many cities of account So as our forces do surmount All other armed troopes by farre That euer yet attempted warre The whole worlds strength at once we haue The souldiers and the leaders braue That both the Tropicks do containe From Southerne pole to Northerne waine We able are our wings stretcht out To close our enemies about Few hands to conquer will suffise Our troops will dant them with their cries Caesar with his bare feeble host To fight with vs can be but lost Thinke that vpon Romes walls there stands With dangling locks and cast vp hands The Roman Matrones in your sight Calling on you brauely to fight And thinke the Senate those graue Peeres Vnfit for Mart through aged yeeres Following our Campe do at your feete Prostrate their siluer haires with greete And that Romes selfe you do encounter Fearing a Tyrant should surmount her Thinke that the Romanes of these dayes And those that future times shall raise With one voyce altogether praise In freedome to receiue their birth And so returne vnto the earth And after these so deare respects If Pompey might mone your affects He and his children and his spouse Would at your feete cast selfe same vowes If lawfull t were reserued free The Empires sacred maiestie And lest we conquer them in fight Pompey is but a banisht wight And but his father-inlawes base scorne And to your shame a man forlorne My elder yeares I now should nate And longer loath to draw my date To bring hoare haires to seruile state The heauie words their captaine vsde Hath all their minds with rage enfusde The Romane valour it doth moue Rather a present death to proue Then those suspects should true be found That in his speech he did propound Then both the armies rusht together With equall furie shew'd by either Feare doth one side to courage straine The others hope to rule and raigne And now their hands do that destry Which no age can againe supply Nor euer any humane paine Will be of powre to raise againe Although from armes they still refraine For this one onely battell day Will future Maurood much decay And will those peoples births destroy That after worlds might else enioy So as the noble Latine name Will be a by-word of defame The Albane and Laurentine bowres The Gabine and the Veian towres And Coram rotted all with rust Will not be seene for ruines dust The Country voide and desolate So as the Senatorian state Vnwillingly will their remaine Longer then night shall them constraine And that to do they oft repine Though one of Numas lawes diuine But t is not age that this hath done Nor putrifaction ouerrun Such mighty frames but ciuill broyle Hath laide such citties with the soyle What is become of all the store Of humane races but of yore That in the world were borne and bread The townes are vnreplenished The champian vninhabited One citie now vs all containes The fields manur'd by slaues in chaines The mouldy howses neuer airde With their foundations vnrepaird Do euerie minute mouldring fall Whilst in them no man dwels at all The Romane walls do not embrace The
light repleat He viewes the wandring starres in skies And fixed planets Markes likewise And sees in value of that light Our brightest dayes are but as night And of those scornes he makes but mirth That they doe to his Trunke on earth From hence Emathias field hee eyes And Caesars bloody Ensignes spies Then flittes hee ouer all the maine Where flotes the sparsed Nauies traine Then sits in Brutus sacred breast Where for this guilt reuenge doth rest And thence hee flittes a place to finde In worthy Catos dreadlesse minde ¶ He whilst the strife in doubt depended And that the question was not ended Whom this sterne ciuill warre would call To bee the supreame Lord of all Did Pompey hate although his part He tooke as fellow in this Mart Led thereto for his Countries cause And to obserue the Senates Lawes But when Pharsalias field was fought Then Pompeys course did rule his thought And into his protection takes His countrey that a guider lacks And to their fearefull hands affords Weapons againe that left their swords But neither seeking soueraigntie Nor that he fear'd seruilitie Did he new ciuill warres erect It was not for his owne respect But after Pompey lost his life For libertie was all their strife And lest that Caesar might inuest Himselfe of all the troopes distrest By his surprises suddenly After his gained victorie They being so disperst in rout Through all the countrey round about He to Corcyra did resort And thither to a secret port He all the scattered fragments led That from Emathias slaughter fled A thousand ships he fill'd with these And thence he put vnto the seas ¶ Who would haue thought the scattred traines That of Pharsalias wracke remaines Suffisd so many ships to fill Or that the Seas were stuffed still With such a fleet prepar'd for Mart Belonging to the conquered part Hence he to Malean Doris goes And vnto Tenerus that showes The way to hell and therewithall On the Cytherean cost doth fall And so alongst he leaueth Creete The Northwind driuing on his fleete And vrged by the shrinking tides Dictaean shores he ouer slides Thence to Phycunta he resorts That held his nauie from their ports But puts that Towne to great distresse And sackes it that deseru'd no lesse Thence did a fitting winde procure Him to thy shore O Palinure For thou dost not alone retaine Thy monuments on Latium maine But Lybia's quiet ports do tell They pleas'd the Troian Pilot well Then they aloofe a fleet descride Which did with doubts their minds diuide Whether it did consist of foes Or of the fellowes of their woes The victors great celerity Still held them in perplexity And what ships on the seas they see They still thought Caesar there to bee But those poore hulles alas did beare Nothing but wofull plaints and feare Yea such as mournfull sobbes might wrest From Stoicke Cato's hardned breast ¶ For after that with vaine request Cornelia had her Pilots prest And son-in-law that would away A longer time neere Nyle to stay Because her husbands Corpes shee thought Might to the weltring waues bee brought By surges of the raging maine That on the Pharean shore did straine For proofe whereof shee said withall His corpes had no right buriall Of Fortune then quoth shee was I So worthlesse that thou shouldst deny Mee meanes and leaue for to attend My husband at his funerall end And on the cold limbes of my spouse To stretch my armes with latest vowes And my torne lockes with him to burne And place those ashes in an vrne That now the waues doe tosse and turne And that I might powre floods of teares Into those wounds his body beares And on my garments cast at once The hot burnt cinders of his bones And whatsoeuer lawfull were From out his funerall to beare With my hands might be gathered In Temples of the Gods to spread But out alas his funerall No flaming honour had at all Perhaps some hand of Pharos cost Perform'd that act griefe to his ghost O Crassian cinders yee were blest That still vncouered doe rest For seeing Pompey had that flame The Gods repute it greater blame Shall my hard destiny still finde Such dismall woes to vex my minde Shall neuer I the fortune haue To lay my husbands in a graue Nor present be when as they dye To fill their vrnes with flowing eye But what need I seeke them a graue Or instruments O griefe to craue Vaine woman doth not Pompey rest Intombed in thy faithfull breast Doth not his image fixt remaine In thy grieu'd soule and euery vaine Let after ages then for me Seeke where his cinders scattred be Yet now me seemes I see his fire With a malignant flame aspire And something dazles in mine eyes That from the Pharian shore doth rise That to thee Pompey doth pertaine And now that flame is out againe And yeelds a smoake that Pompey beares In vapours to the Easterne spheres Whilst spitefull windes do me betray And beares our sailes another way No lands by Pompey conquered Nor where his triumphes Carres were led Alongst the streetes with glorious bayes To the high Capitolean wayes More deere to me since reft my breast Then Pharian sands where he doth rest T is Pompey I would haue so faine Whom Nylus doth from me detaine And that makes me not loath to stay Longer within this wicked bay The heynous fact that I deplore Is that that now adornes this shore If euer I did Pompey loue I would not from this coast remoue ¶ Do thou O Sextus warres pursue And ouer all the world renew The Ensignes of thy famous sire Such was his will and his desire That he in charge to me did giue Which words within my soule still liue Pronounced with his latest breath The houre that queld me with his death My sonnes see that you vndergoe This ciuill warre against our foe Whilst any of our name or birth Remaines aliue vpon the earth Admit not Caesars tyranny Moue states that stand for liberty And mighty Townes that doe the same And him resist with glorious fame These parts to you I recommend These Armes I would you should entend Which of my sonnes the seas likes best Shall finde a Nauy ready prest My heire likewise in following Mart Shall Nations finde to take his part Onely remember that you beare True noble mindes deuoyd of feare And know t is fit that you obay Onely to Cato if he sway For liberty and hold that way O Pompey thus doe I discarge Thy trust and tell thy will at large But thy deceits haue done me wrong Forsaken thus I liue too long And yet will not with perfidy Forbeare thy words to testifie But now deere spouse where so thou be I am resolu'd to follow thee To Chaos vast and vnto hell If such there bee as old sawes tell But yet to me it is vnsure How long this life of mine shall dure And
so much paine endure So with the fall of ruines heft Are bones and members crusht and cleft And so deform'd in tempests drown'd Vpon the rockes are bodies found VVhat fruit or pleasure could they take This wofull spectacle to make Of Marius vgly mangled face Forsooth they knew they should gain grace To shew it Sylla in that case ¶ Now comes in Praenestina's turne For her inhabitants to mourne VVhom she beheld all at a trice To pay the bloudy sword like price Then quailed were th' Hesperian flowers And Latium youths now death deuours Then loathsome streame from bodies slaine The pleasant fields of Rome distaine Where gallants in their owne bloud baine Not Famines rage nor wrackes of seas Not Earthquakes dreads nor Plagues t'apease The Heauens wrath nor bloudy Warres Euer gaue vs such deadly scarres For now the heapes of bodies dead The murderers sway so pestered That they lackt roome to fetch the blow When they would hewing wounds bestow And when that any one was slaine He could not fall flat on the plaine The dead did reeling them sustaine But slaughters came at last so thicke That bodies dead stifle the quicke Nothing at all these horrid facts Sylla's vnmated minde distracts But from his Turrets top doth eye Without remorse those swarmes that dye And carelesse heares their clamorous cry The Tyrrhen gulfe at last receiues Millions whom death to it bequeaues Of Syllane slaughters whose torne limmes At first vpon the Tyber swimmes But at the last t was heapt so high That bodies did on bodies lye So as the boats were stopt their course And Tybers streames were bard their sourse For heaps of limmes that thither flocke Damb'd vp the riuer like a locke But that part next vnto the seas Had liberty to take his vease And that which was the heapes behinde The clustred carkasses did binde Nathlesse the torrents of the bloud Did force a way and with his floud Aboue the Tyber strand did rise And ouer all the fields it flies So as the streames of bloud gaue vent Vnto the River that was pent The bankes could not this floud withstand Which cast the bodies on the land And thence into the Tyrrhene maine The bloud did fall with such a traine That her blew waues it did diuide Into a sanguine colour dy'd Were these the meanes to mend amisse Was Sylla Foelix nam'd for this Is this the merit he doth yeeld To haue his Tombe in Martius field ¶ These mischiefes must be borne againe This warre will follow that same vaine Of ciuill strife I feare this curse To fall at last from bad to worse For where two armed factions meets Mankinde with common bane it greets The Marian rage did onely tend His exil'd state but to amend So Rome receiues him as a frend And Sylla did no more desire But to reuenge his quenchlesse ire With bloudy ruine of all those That were of party with his foes But Fortune calles these Captaines twaine I doubt me to a higher straine These both in Armes are stout and strong And will together rush ere long The others raisd no ciuill strife And Sylla tooke a priuate life So did this graue old fire lament His mindfull woes of time fore-spent Fearing this ciuill warres euent ¶ And yet no feare a place could finde In noble Brutus valiant minde This staggering dread that mazed all His constant heart could not appall But ere the dawning of the day When Parrhasis did downeward sway The oblique Axels of her waine And did the drowsie skies refraine Vnto the little lodge he hies Where Cato his deare Vnkle lies And at his wicket lowd he rapt Whom he found not in slumbers wrapt But tossing in his carefull mood The fortunes of the common good And safety of the Cities state Which he more wey'd then his owne fate Then thus with him he did debate ¶ O matchlesse Truth and vndefil'd Which all the world hath now exil'd O Vertue whilome in request Now onely lodg'd in thy iust breast Which no worlds fortunes thence can wrest Affoord thy graue aduice to me Settle my thoughts that wauering be And with thy iudgement sound and stout Direct me now that am in doubt Some now on Caesars side will warre Others of Pompeyes party are But reuerend Cato or else none Shall Brutus Captaine be alone And whether thou resolued art In these fraile times to stay from Mart Or that thy minde be not dismaid One of these selfe-wild guides to aid And that thou deeme this ciuill strife worthy the waging of thy life I do not know but others all Respects to wicked Armes doe call Some for their filed houses cause Some that in peace feare Iustice lawes Others their staru'd estate to mend To spoyles and ciuill rapine tend And many banckrouts drownd in debts In troubled streames would cast their nets None take vp Armes with good intent But all for hope of profit bent Onely thy selfe no humor drawes To warres but for thy Countries cause What can it now tend to thy praise To haue vprightly spent thy dayes So fraught with vertue free from crimes In these our vice-corrupted times If thou at last this censure haue Thy honest minde so to depraue That others were corrupt before In these vile warres thy armes had bore But now thy selfe this strife accurst Hath made as faulty as the worst But I beseech the Gods aboue That from thy heart they so remoue The humor of this mood vnmilde That with it thou be not defil'de And that thy armes thou doe not straine To cast the Pile with might and maine In clouds amongst the common rout And so great valour spend in doubt For in these warres if any erre The blame on thee they will conferre And those whom others bring to bane Thy sword therewith they will prophane And make thee author of all harmes That in this ciuill discord swarmes Peace better with thy temper sorts Exempt from enuies false reports Like as the heauenly bodies sway With true and milde vnchanging way The aire that to the earth is next With thunders rage is most perplext Whilst windes earth plants doth ouercast And lightning flashes do them blast Olympus ' boue the clouds stands fast It is ordain'd by Ioues high hest That discord should small things infest But concord highest states hath blest How would it Caesars eares content That such a Peere as thou wert bent To yeeld thy selfe vnto the warres And be partaker of these iarres For if thou Pompey's part do take He would thereof aduantage make And please himselfe withall to thinke Cato at Ciuill warres doth winke The Senate for the greatest part And Consuls likewise range their Mart Now vnderneath a priuate head And many other Lords so lead To whom adde Cato to the rest A Souldier vnder Pompeys hest So Caesars power shall be increast For then will he sway all alone That in his Campe compeere hath none But if our Armes we needs must
faction we no parties are Our charge we held before this warre And to that former Martiall trust Whilst we had power we haue beene iust To striue with Fate we do not lust Spaine we deliuer to thy hands We opned haue the Easterne lands Those coasts shall be secur'd from wracke That thou dost leaue behinde thy backe This conquest now on vs so gain'd Is not with losse of bloud obtain'd Thy hand or sword it hath not stain'd This onely boone in thee doth rest To spare thy foes that are distrest It is not much that we do craue On our mishaps remorse to haue Permit our liues that thou dost giue From ciuill discord free to liue And rest secure of our intent These prostrate troops their spleen haue spent It fits not with thy happy Armes To mingle our subiected swarmes Nor that our captiue Troopes should dare Triumphes with thy braue Hoast to share These with contentment know their fare Onely this grace let vs obtaine That thou do not our Armes constraine And force vs conquer'd men to be Hereafter Conquerors with thee ¶ Thus said Caesar of nature milde With gracious lookes was reconcil'd All punishment he did remit And them from vse of Armes acquit No sooner was this grace obtain'd And their faith bound to be maintain'd But straight in heapes the Souldiers flee Vnto the riuers then set free And on the bankes did groueling fall Striuing for that was free for all So greedily the streames they swill And suddenly their panches fill As that their breath they neuer take Striuing their thirsty iawes to slake Whereby the aire that should relieue Their empty vaines and comfort giue No passage to their lights can finde And so withall they life resign'd This scorching pestilent disease So still doth on their bowels ceaze That though they ready be to burst The more they drinke the more they thurst Yet many comfort finde at length And well refresht receiue new strength O Luxury thou prodigue vaine That neuer canst the meane retaine And thou insatiate Glut tonie Pamper'd with superfluitie That rak'st and rob'st both land and seas Thy wanton appetite to please O learne and better do aduise How small reliefe will life suffise For Nature doth excesse despise The strong old wine that we do keepe Time out of minde in Cellars deepe No health or helpe at all can bring To sickly sowles whom feuers wring They mixed liquors do not suppe Delitiously in golden cuppe Fresh water and the hearty graine Doth strength restore and life sustaine O! with what stormes do they contend That in the warres their liues do spend The Souldier now his Armes bequeaues To Caesar whence he grace receaues And more securely he doth rest Then with his corslet on his breast For freed thus from carke and care Vnto the Citties they repare And now do they that finde release From warres by this so happy peace That bloody trade and trauaile scorne Wishing they neuer Armes had borne To haue endur'd such thirst withall And on the Gods in vaine to call For conquest on their side to fall The wished hope of good successe With doubts doth stoutest hearts oppresse When Armies sterne confonting striues Such toyles the wretched world contriues That Fortune neuer should haue rest If she should tend to their request As oft as men doe call and cry When they doe doubt of victory For through the world must bloud be shed Where troopes with Caesars fate are led And therefore we may thinke him blest That knoweth where in quyet rest His head to shelter free from scarres Since all the world is set on iarres So that this wretched ciuill broyle Men wearied do not ouer-toyle And slumbring soules are not affright When Trumpets sound calles men to fight The wife may haue her deere consort Parents may with their children sport And lodg'd in simple Cotes secure Their fields may labour and manure Vnforc'd warres hazards to endure Thus Fortune now becomes more kinde And hath releast from cares our minde So as no cause of feare we finde Caesar is founder of our rest But we were led by Pompey's hest And now this boone thereby we haue That whilst these ciuill warres do raue For neither side successe we craue ¶ Fortune doth not her grace expresse On Caesars side with like successe In other coast but there she shewes That she dares crosse him with some blows For where the Adriaticke maine His waues doth on Salona straine And whereas luke-warme Iaders sourse Into soft Zephyr bends his course Antonius with his troopes resides Which coasts vpon the vtmost sides The Adriaticke sea doth bound There is he shut vp in that ground And trusts vnto those valiant bands That he had from the Curets lands And able was his warre to wage Against the force of hostile rage Had Famine not his campe distrest Wherewith strong forts are oft opprest This soyle for horse no fodder yeelds Nor any graine grew in the fields The hungry souldiers from the turfe Pluckes vp for food the heathy scurfe And with their teeth do gnabbe the greene Of medowes that earst mow'd had beene But when these men their friends descry'd Vpon the shore on th' other side And saw Basilus Ensigne spred Vnder whose conduct they were led A new deuice they vndertake By sea their secret flight to make But not with ships of common wont With sayles or oares the waues to front But with vn-vsed stratagems Together they did binde huge beames That would a mighty fraight sustaine And safely swim vpon the maine With empty Caske supported vp Which would not sinke nor water sup These bundled trees great chaines did strength With doubled rankes combin'd in length Not drawne with oares on either sides Vpon the waues these vaste piles slides But by the floating of the beames They are borne vp vpon the streames And in that sort doth slily wend With secret course not to be kend For neither sailes do make them flye Nor any oares they doe apply But now they doe the tides attend For then the seas did backward bend And with the ebbe the shores and sands All bare and dry vncouered stands But after when the swelling maine With turning flood did rise againe These structures that they did compose Were slidde into the floting Oase With two shippes that before them goe And after them these Raffes did tow These ships had turrets built vpright That plainly did appeare in sight And on the decke the trembling mast Did bow and stoope with euery blast But now Octauius Admirall That on the seas did gouerne all For Pompey's part would not in hast Assaile these Raffes but still stood fast And did his nimble ships restraine From ranging out into the maine Vntill the foe were in his way Aloofe at sea farre from the bay Securely running on his race Doubting no sayles to giue them chase So doth the fearefull Hart refraine To scoure or range vpon the plaine But sculkes
Achoreus of the race Of Egypts breed who in that place Did sit vpon a bench of state In this sort did his mind relate O reuerend sire that for thy part To sacred rites deuoted art That with the Gods hast such esteeme As by thy aged yeares may seeme To me the first beginning shew From whence th' Egyptian race did grow The climate of this fruitfull land And how the peoples customes stand And of your Gods the forms and rites The which your old records recites And what ingrauen is in stone Vpon your Pyramides make knowne Reueale your Gods that would be showne If your fore-fathers did their art And sacred mysteries impart To Plato of a Grecian name Then may you well reueale the same To Caesars selfe for where can rest In all the world a worthier guest To whom your skill may be exprest I must confesse that Pompeys name Was some cause that did make me frame My iourney to the Pharian coast And yet when all my warres were most I euermore did giue my mind The motions of the stars to find My thoughts were to the heauens enclind So as Eudoxus Calender Shall not surpasse my framed yeare And therefore as within my brest A great and true desire doth rest Of knowlegde and of vertues lore So nothing do I couet more Then to finde out the secret course From whence this riuer takes his source And where his fountaines head appears That lies vnknowne so many yeares O I will hope at last to see Where Nylus springs for certaine be And so from ciuill warre rest free So Caesar makes an end to speake And this graue sire did silence breake ¶ Caesar I thinke that well I may These mysteries to thee bewray That our great Fathers hidden kept And in their thoughts obscured slept Reserued from the vulgar waies From age to age to these our daies Let others thinke it pietie To silence any mysterie But I do deeme the Gods aboue The worke as gratefull will approue That their great wonders should be showne And sacred rules to all made knowne When first an order was ordaind Whereby the world should be maintaind A diuers motion to the starres Was giuen to hold concordant iarres That they the orbs might onely sway And temper in their whirling way Contrarie to that rapide Pole That first of all doth mouing rolle The Sun doth still diuide and steare The times and seasons of the yeare And so the daies to nights doth change And doth restraine the stars to range About their orbs with powrefull rayes His station staies those wandring wayes The Moone her alteration breeds Vpon the seas and earthly seeds Old Saturne his empiring holds On freezing zoanes and ycie colds And Mars with wrathfull looke abashes The boisterous winds and lightning flashes Great Ioue no tempests doth procure But keepes all in milde temperature And fruitfull Venus of her grace Doth cherrish seeds in euery place Whilst Mercurie with charming vaine Doth moderate the wild vast maine ¶ Now when Cyllenius doth appeare In that part of the wheeling spheare Where Leos sparkling torchets are In enterchange with Cancers starre Where Syrius with his scorching ray Contagiously enflames the day And where the circle that doth change The yearely season iust doth range Betwixt the Tropicks equally Vnder whose couert Nyle doth lie Which when this powre I say that keepes An order in the raging deepes Doth touch with his starres influence Nylus as hauing thereof sence His channell lifts with swelling crest Scorning within his banks to rest Iust as Neptunus Empire flowes When Phoebes horned visage growes Nor doth he call his streames againe In their old harbour to remaine Vntill the Sun by his decline Do vnto the night those houres resigne That halfe the yeare he kept away To make her equall with the day The olde conceit is but a dreame Of this increase of Nylus streame That Aethiopias molten snowes Is cause of her great ouerflowes For in those mounts the Northern stowre Nor Boreas blasts haue any powre And to assure thee that is true Marke but the peoples Sun-burnt hue And those warme vapours that they find Perpetually from Austers winde Then for more proofe adde this likewise That euery riuer that doth rise By falling of the molten yse Doth then begin to be embost When summers spring first melts the frost But Nylus neuer waxeth hire Before the Dog-starre breaths his fire Nor euer doth her waues restraine To keepe within her banks againe But when as Libra with iust paise Doth equallize the nights and dayes Againe those rules do beare no sway With Nyle that other streames obay For winter giues to him no pride His fountaines then their forces hide But when the temper of the skies Most feruently with burning fries Amidst those heates then out he flies And cooles those lands that fire would wast Which vnderneath the line are plast So Nylus helps the world to swage The scorching flames of Leos rage And being cald doth giue redresse To his Syene in distresse When Cancers heates do it oppresse And from these fields draws not his streams Vntill the force of Phoebus beames In Autumns season do decline And Neroe do shade the shine Now who can hereof tell the cause But so great Nature giues her lawes That Nylus thus should range his flood And needfull t is for humane good But former times haue vainely guest This cause of winds blowne from the west Who with great force the aire doth chace With long continuance in one place And that this occidentall blast Doth driue the watrie clouds so fast A thwart the South and their in showres Downe right vpon the Nylus powres Or that the seas so often tost And beating on the Zoylan coast The very furie of the maine Repels the riuer backe againe So as restrained of his way By the vast Oceans powrefull sway Aloft beyond his bounds doth stray There are againe that do suppose That his great inundation growes Of moisture breathing from the earth Whose steaming vapors haue their birth Within the concaues of the ground And belcht out where great rifts are found And that these moistures meerely are By secret courses drawne from farre Out of the Northerne Region By the attracting middle zoane When Titans arrows shot down right On Meroe do parching light And to the burned land it brings The waters from farre rising springs Ganges and Padus send their streames In secret thorow many realmes Then Nylus powres out by one vaine All riuers that he doth retaine But many outlets makes of these When he conuaies them to the seas Another fancy many holds That the vast Ocean which enfolds The circuit of the earth about Flowing from farre at last breakes out With violence where Nyle doth range And with long tracke at length doth change The salt sea streames to waters sweete Whilst through earths bowels they do fleet Some thinke againe that these maine waues Rapt by the Sun when Cancer
raues Into the middle regions height VVhich cannot well retaine their weight The nights do them againe distill On Nylus flood and his banks fill But I ô Caesar do beleeue If I may be so bold to giue My censure in so great a doubt VVhen many ages were run out After the worlds first fabricate Some wattery waues but new create VVithin the earth by fatall stroake Brake out which God did not prouoke And some againe there being had When this great All at first was made Which the Creator high doth hoâ—â—d Vnder a constant law controld ¶ But that desire that leades thee so Great Roman Lord the cause to know Why Nylus doth thus strangely flow The Pharian Tyrants heretofore And Greekes and Persians did explore And euery age desir'd the praise Of leauing vnto future dayes The knowledge of this mystery But Nature still with secresie Conceales it from discouery That great Macedon King of Kings Whose high renowne our Memphis rings Did Aethiopian men select To search the cause of this effect In scorne of Nylus those hee sends To suruey Affrickes vtmost ends But loe the Torrid Zone with heates Held them from doing of those feates To see what springs warme Nyle repleates Then to the Westerne furthest land Sesostris goes and takes in hand This busie taske and with great pride To draw his Charrets Kings he tide But Rhodonus and fertile Poe Your Riuers he might sooner know Then euer he could come to drinke At Nyles concealed fountaines brinke Then fierce Cambyses Easterne throng Comes where the people liue so long But his huge traine was staru'd for meate So as at last themselues they eate And then return'd with nothing gain'd Nyles springs to him vnknowne remain'd No fables euer yet did dare The head of thy springs to declare But whosoeuer thee hath seene Yet are to seeke where thy heads beene No nation hath attain'd the fame To know from whence thy rising came But yet ô Nyle I will relate So much of thy discouered state As that great God shall giue me leaue From whom thou dost thy course receaue Thou risest from the Southerne Pole And with thy swelling streames dost role Against hot Cancers fiery face And forth-right North dost run thy race Amidst Boötes wheeling chase Somtimes thy streams doth westward trend And sometimes to the East doth bend Sometimes thou seest Arabia's lands And sometimes shar'st with Lybias sands The Seres first of all thee see Yet whence thou art vncertaine be Through Aethyopia thou dost stray But from what fount they cannot say No land that to the world is knowne Can claime thy birth to be her owne Nature hath not discouered To any wight thy secret head Nor euer in a slender streame Wert thou seene run through any Realme For Nature that thy fountaine hides Within her bosomes so prouides Men rather should admire thy course Then know from whence thou tak'st thy source Thy waues permitted are to clime The Solstice being in his prime A winter strange makes thy increase Then thou beginst when others cease Onely to thee is granted grace From Pole to Pole to run thy race Towards the South thy head doth rise And in the North thy current dyes Neroë that blacke people breedes Thy riuer there diuided feedes And doth that Isle inuiron round VVhere pleasant Heben doth abound VVhich trees altough still full of greene Yet shelters not with shade the sheene For on it with a downe-right line The Lyon bands his fiery eyne Thou shewst thy face to Phoebus rage And yet thy streames doe not asswage The barren sands thou meetst in length Sometimes collecting all thy strength And branches into one selfe streame And then againe through Aegypts Realme Thou dost disperse them all abrode Thy bankes with ease are ouerflowd Then thy slow chanell calles amaine His ranging riuelets backe againe Where Phile that doth frontring stand On borders of Aegyptian land Doth from Arabia diuide That kingdome through which thou dost glide Then through those desarts thou dost cut That all that great comerce doth shut Betwixt that sea of scarlet staine And the earth middle cutting maine Running but with a gentle traine But who O Nylus now would wot That thou which here dost mildly flote Shouldst suddenly enraged fret With such a violent out-let For when the rugged broken wayes Thy falling water-courses stayes And steepy Cataracts from hye A gentle passage doth deny Thy waues that no resistance finde Scorning that rocks their race should bind Do spit their foame into the winde And with the brushing that they make The very aire and shores doe quake With murmuring rut the mountains sound And this streames froth doth so abound As that with strain'd resistlesse might His boisterous billowes all turne white Here is that I le of Abatos As reuerent ancients did suppose A mighty land and whereas first Those thundring roarings out doe burst And where the rockes as they haue said With springing vaine this streame doth aid For proofe whereof this signe is plaine That here he swels anew againe Here Nature doth with hilles enclose These stickle streames that wandring goes Which doth thee Nyle from Lybia hold And thy huge heaped waues enfold Within a spacious valley deepe Through which thy swelling chanels sweep Then Memphis to thee freedome yeelds By lending thee her open fields And doth forbid within her land That any bound should thee withstand ¶ Thus they the time securely spent Till mid-night vail'd the Element And as in peace tooke their delight But yet Photinus trayterous spright Since he that sacred blood had spilt Prepared was for any guilt And thought that no fact was vn-milde Now Pompeys death had him defilde Whose ghost did broyle within his breast And him with murdrous mood possest The Gods likewise with vengeance due Stird vp in him presumptions new For he his abiect hands reputed Worthy with blood to bee poluted Of Caesars selfe that was the man By Fortunes hest designed than The powerfull Roman reuerent state To ouer-awe and captiuate The scourge that ciuill warre should haue And vengeance that the Senate craue Was almost left vnto a slaue But O the ruling Fates we pray To turne from vs that fault away That Caesar may not haue his meed If Brutus hand doe not the deed For else the Roman Tyrants blame Shall chastisd be vnto our shame By Aegypts sword and thereby shall Iustice example quaile withall But still this viper Fates prouoke To giue this tyrants necke the stroke And yet he doth not now prepare With secret plots his life to snare But openly meanes to assaile The Captaine whom no Mart could quaile Such hope his wickednesse hath bred To triumph ouer Caesars head And will O Pompey do his best That Caesars fate with thine may rest And by a secret seruant sends These lines to shew what he entends And to Achillas them commends That was his partner in the deed VVhen Pompeys murther was decreed This man the