Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A02622
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Time is a turne-coate. Or Englands three-fold metamorphosis VVherin is acted the pensiue mans epilogomena, to Londons late lamentable heroicall comi-tragedie. Also a panegyricall pageant-speech or idylion pronounced to the citie of London, vpon the entrance of her long expected comfort. Written by Iohn Hanson.
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Hanson, John, fl. 1604.
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1604
(1604)
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STC 12750; ESTC S118582
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34,101
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89
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TIME Is a Turne-Coate OR Englands three-fold Metamorphosis Wherin is acted the Pensiue mans Epilogomena to Londons late lamentable Heroicall Comi-Tragedie ALSO A Panegyricall Pageant-speech or Idylion pronounced to the Citie of London vpon the entrance of her long expected Comfort Qui color ater erat nunc est contrarius atro Written by IOHN HANSON LONDON Printed for I. H. and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Paules Church-yard 1604. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR THOMAS BENNET KNIGHT LORD MAIOR OF the famous Citie of London the right Worshipfull Sir William Romley and Sir Thomas Midleton Knights and Sheriffes of the same Citie increase of honor and euer-flourishing felicitie RIGHT Honorable and right Worshipfull I haue long expected that some men of greater experience and grauer iudgment then my self ere this should haue bent their studies to cōgratulate your prosperous designements with their learned Labours not onely in this regard that it hath seemed gracious in the eyes of Heauen to turne the time of destruction into mirth and exhilaration to dispell the cloudes of desolation from the splendant Sun of this Citie and to seale vp the iawes of that starued Tyger rauening and ranging too and fro with insatiate appetite to gormandize indefinitely without partialitie but also in respect of the proceedings in your general functions and callings therein manifesting your ardent zeale to the Church and Commonwealth in the reformation of some particular and monstrous enormities nurced and fostred vp in the same Citie wounding the hearts of many with the sting of Securitie who thereby fall into a Lethargie of their owne ruination they being naturally like the Basilisk who by stinging a man prouoketh him to conclude his destruction with the period of a sweet sleepe which to discusse vpon more amply were but to light a torch when the Sunne boasteth in his vertical point or to multiplie leaues to a greene tree But perceiuing the turne of Times euent to fall out opposite to my expectation and a time of respiration exhibited vnto me by sacred Prouidence for Deus nobis haec otiafecit I though most vnfit not so much in regard of my litle scholership and reading as in respect of my iuuenilitie and lesse experience though Assiduè discens plurima fiam senex haue thought it not impertinent to my dutie as also consonant to your dignities to cast this poore mite of feruent affection and congratulation into the rich treasurie of your honorable and worshipfull Patronage being inforced hereupon to vse the meanes of that poore man who hauing neither gold nor iewels presented both his hands full of running water to Artaxerxes And the rather for that I behold many presidents and pregnant demonstrations of a flourishing Spring-tide of happinesse substituted to your predomination and gouernment in the constituting of necessarie and requisite lawes for the supplanting and depopulating of vice and being constituted are strictly obserued and executed by your importunate industrie which as Caesar saith is Fortunae Imperator and vrgeth an assent vltra vires rationis leading this citie as peaceable Conductors or as Theodosius did Rome to a fruitfull Autumne For Archidamus being asked what made the Lacedaemonian kingdome to flourish answered First the lawes and next the Magistrates obseruing the Lawes and Aristotle saith that Magistratus est custos legis also Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non differt bonus Princeps à patre bono Whereupon may be inferred that Magistrates as Patres patriae ought seriously and with iudiciall precaution not onely to prescribe ordinances tending to the generall benefite of a citie or commonwealth but also to be respectiue as the father tendreth the successiue fortune of his child with care and vigilancie that they foreslow not their progression in the performance of their due execution for Non decet principem virum totam noctem dormire cui populi gubernacula commissasunt à cuius cura pendent ingentia rerum momenta But lest any man should obiect against me that I pretend by a kind of aemulation and blandiloquence to adorne your merits like a Barbarian image as Alexander was by Midius or on the contrarie to taxe me of calumniation with this inueterate Axiome In medio tutissimus ibis which two proue the Canker-worms of a flourishing countrie for Diogenes the Cynicke being asked what kind of beasts are most deuouring he answered that of tame beasts the Flatterer and of wild beasts the Back-biter therefore so to abandon the first as not culpable of the last I will cleaue to the golden Medium breaking off that discourse and cease to discusse vpon such a Theame And now to returne to my old taske I humbly intreate your fauourable entertainment to these my vnpolished lines being hewed out and squared by one of the meanest of Appolloes Artificers And I the more seriously desire it for that I am deeply resolued they shal find a sufficient shelter vnder the wings of your Honorable and Worshipfull names and Patronage as vnder the receptacle of a strong fortified Testudo against the yelping chaps of those snarling Zoylists qui potiùs pro consuetudine quà m proferocitate latrant barking more for custome then curstnesse who by disgorging their mud-mixed censures vpon the studious essayes of particulars for Apollo nullos habet inimicos nisi nimbos do resolue with themselues by that meanes to win a purchase of a laureall applause and to erect an eternall monument of reputation to themselues vpon the disgraces of other mens indeauours but thereby prouing culpable to thēselues of their owne ignorance and ripping vp the bowels of their imperfections and grosse fatuities in the calumniating of ingenious enterprises and by bringing backe with impudent arrogance those stolne sparkes which they snatched frō Appolloes sacred flames whereby the moistned muddie motions of their brains are enforced to euaporate in a smoothering heate do appeare to the world to surpasse in immanitie the Anthropophagi or Canibals who though they gormandize on other mens flesh yet will not deuoure themselues Thus hoping that these vnlettered lines shal passe without disturbance vnder the couert of your worthie protections I humbly intreat your Honor and Worships to admit this poore pittance into your rich banquetting-house of acceptation and tolleration with no lesse willing mind then by course of affectionate congratulation it is presented vnto your hands which if it may find free accesse I will turne my sequele essayes with the turne of ensuing Time more deepely to conuerse with the Muses thereby to bring foorth a further manifestation of my ardent affection towards your worthie personages In the meane time Heauens prosper your worthie proceedings London 26. of March 1604. Your Honor and Worships humbly deuoted John Hanson The Author and his Booke Book HElpe helpe alas else am I quite vndone O shroud me close from sight of these blacke feends Who wound with Scorpions stings I cannot shunne Alas for ayde some ayde sweet gentle friends Aut. Why how now
with ioy Let all thy Turrets glister in the aire Thy Faire not turn'd to fowle but Fowle to faire Now boast thy selfe amidst thy sommers Pride Thy Ebbe's transformd into a flowing Tide Of Mirth and Gladnesse honor God for ay Who turn'd thy Night into a Sun-shine Day What greater graces to thee could he bring Then grace thy Land with such a gracious King Who lends an eare to euery clients crie Decides his case with princely Grauitie Lycurgus-like hath he prescrib'd his lawes To keepe poore Codrus out of Croesus iawes He succour sends to all opprest by Might Defends true Irus and maintaines his right By him thou reapst the wished fruites of peace And for his sake God giues thee huge increase Of thy fat haruest and thy wel-til'd fields Thy withered Plants do bud and blossome yeelds For Phoebus Lute descants a gladsome note Whereat Time skips and turnes his sable Cote What if th' Almightie had stretch't out his hand To scourge Impietie within thy Land And raz'd thy walles with flat confusion With ciuill broiles and proud Rebellion Then had thy famous Cities gone to wracke And euery towne bene subiect to the sacke Then Rigor would haue rul'd and borne the sway Reason exil'd and banisht quite away Then would the mother dread her dreadlesse child Then spotlesse virgins would haue bene defil'd All these O London to thy extreme paine With present spoile wert likely to sustaine Then hadst thou languisht in th' effusion Of bloudie murther and occision Then Phoebus Lute a Threnos would haue strained And Time with teares his golden vestments stained Me thinke I heare the wailefull weeping cries Of wretched Dames in dreadfull miseries Me thinke I heare the thundring Canons sound Whose bullets gainst the battred walles rebound Me thinke I see huge troupes of glistring shields And coursing Palfreys trampling ore the fields Me thinke I see how souldiers wounded lye With gasping breath and yet they cannot dye But heau'ns great King to thee propitious In lieu of Mars sent graces wonderous Permitting still his Light to shine with thee That thou mightst walke in perspicuitie Romes Minotaure that monstrous enemie To braue Britanniaes peerelesse Progenie In rancor guzled for his annuall food T' imbrue his throate with Innocencies blood Whetting his blacke exacuated fangs To murther sacred soules with tortring pangs Till Albions Theseus with his conquering hand Redeem'd her state from tributarie band And slue this Beast distent with irefull fell Grapling with death in his prodigious cell By Ioues decree reduc'd her Babes away So wan the loue of heau'ns Pasiphaë Adopted England sweet Elysian I le Obserue how God reuiewes with a smile Accumulates a sympathie of ioy To countervaile thy late-sustain'd annoy Remember that twice twentie winters told Thou neuer tastedst of that freezing cold And indigence of true Religion To thee oblig'd by perfect vnion Mercie hath set a supersedeas free On Iustice which conuicts Iniquitie So loth is Heau'n to take reuenge of sin Grants thee more spacious walkes to solace in Reuiues thy saplesse Trees which withering dide Thy wals of Grace with Truth reediside Euen as the Parent educates his child By obsecrations and corrections mild To fraught his soule with filiall reuerence Extenuates Rigor by sweet Indulgence Yet still if he progresse in lusts content Then he inflicts a triple punishment So doth th' Almightie powerfully intice Thy feet to walke in heau'ns faire Paradise And fosters thee with nurcing milke of life Which yeelds an end to endlesse terrene strife His glorious eye Scrutator of thy hart Delighting not to view thy ruthlesse smart Protracts reuenge to thy affections lust As though the Iudge forgetteth to be iust Numbers of daies hast thou possest the light Of his pure Gospell in thee shining bright And now t' enrich thee from his treasures store Hath caus'd it shine farre clearer then before Yet still thou liest in darke Obscuritie Wrapt in the depth of Sensualitie Repugnantly with Aesops frozen Snake Reiects his mercies and his grace forsake Spurning the Clemencie which he hath showne To monstrous crimes deepe transgressions knowne And most perspicuous to his piercing Eye Vindicta's battering gainst the lostie skie Thou sufferedst Vertue in thine iron age To tread the lonelesse path to Hermitage For which his heauie Iudgement foorth did flie To counterchecke that great Solemnitie Which thou esteemedst at so high a rate And consonant with Kings renowmed state Farre dissonant to thy expected Fame Who still aspires to dignifie her name Consider how he hath stretch'd out his hand To scourge the Mother-citie of thy land Breaking her sinewes by diuine Pretence With fierie shafts of feuer Pestilence Withered her Flowers with blasting-venim'daire Driuing her vp-growne Trees to trembling Feare His arrowes sharpe in euery corner flie And euery street did wound outragiously In furie smiting father sonne andall None could eschue the stroke of sudden fall Euen as the Tygresse rauening for her food In furious rage doth range alongst the wood Who in some darksome denne hath long bene pent From meat and sustenance which makes herrent And teare the next shee meeteth by the way As nothing partiall so she gaines a pray Euen so this Plague the Tygresse fierce of heau'n Such lethall wounds such large assaults haue giu'n Consuming seuering midst the hugest throng The youth from age the aged from the young Insatiatly deuour'd in euery place None could persist fore her contagious face O heauie England now behold and see Thy Beautie stricken with the leprosie Of blasphemies imbrac'd without regard To whom the Lord hath sent a iust reward Thy grieuous sins with dreadfull noyse did crie For iust Reuenge vnto his Maiestie Who can both strike and heale preserue and wound Erect thy wals or raze them to the ground How many wonders for thee hath he wrought How many heau'nly Lessons thee hath taught T' asswage thy arrogance suppresse thy hate Yet still thou standest in a fearefull state As he reduc'd his chosen Israell From sauage cruelties of Egypts fell When they were plung'd in perils dangerous At his commaund O wonder maruellous On either side the barking billowes stood Whilst that they marched through the brinie flood When their pursuing foes would them haue slaine Were ouerwhelm'd amidst the troubled Maine Yet did they murmure in the Wildernesse As too vngratefull for their rare successe But heau'ns iust Iudge incens'd with wrathfull ire Powrd foorth his plagues vpon their vaine desire While they tooke repast on their lustfull will Vile venimous beasts their grauer age did kill Euen thus ô England God hath dealt with thee Conducting thee through seas of miserie Redeem'd thy Race from rage of forraine spoile Casting thy foes to base-dishonor'd foile Yet all these graces not incite thy hart With humblenesse to cure thy curelesse smart Demurres thy dayes in dilatorie care Of worldly lusts which Heau'n will neuer spare But in thy heighth of pompe and iolitie The massacring Angell came to visite thee Slaughtring thy people with reuengefull