to A goodly theater where rocks are round With reverent age and lovely lasses crown'd Such was the lake which held this dreadfull pare Within the bounds of noble Warwicks share Warwicks bold Earle then which no title beares A greater sound among our British Peeres And worthy hee the memory to renew The fate and honour to that title due Whose brave adventures have transfer'd his name And through the New-world spred his growing fame But how they fought and what their valour gain'd Shall in another Canto be contain'd CANTO III. The bloody fight successlesse toile And how the fishes sack'd the Jsle THe boate which on the first assault did goe Stroke with a harping-iron the younger foe Who when hee felt his side so rudely goar'd Loud as the Sea that nourish'd him hee roar'd As a broad Breame to please some curious tast While yet alive in boyling water cast Vext with unwonted heate bounds flings about The scorching brass and hurles the liquour out So with the barbed javeling stung hee raves And scourges with his tayle the suff'ring waves Like Fairy Talus with his iron flaile Hee threatens ruine with his pond'rous taile Dissolving at one stroke the batter'd boate And downe the men fall drenched in the moate With every fierce encounter they are forc't To quit their boates and fare like men unhoist The bigger Whale like some huge carrack lay Which wanteth Sea-roome with her foes to play Slowly shee swims and when provok'd shee wou'd Advance her tayle her head salutes the mud The shallow water doth her force infringe And renders vain her tayles impetuous swinge The shining steel her tender sides receave And there like bees they all their weapons leave This sees the Cub and does himselfe oppose Betwixt his cumbred mother and her foes With desp'rate courage hee receives her wounds And men and boates his active tayle confounds Their furies ioyn'd the Seas with billowes fill And make a tempest though the winds bee still Now would the men with half their hoped pray Bee well content and wish'd this Cub away Their wish they have Hee to direct his Dam Unto the gap through which they thither came Before her swims and quits the hostile Lake A pris'ner there but for his Mothers sake Shee by the rocks compell'd to stay behind Is by the vastness of her bulk confin'd They shout for joy and now on her alone Their fury falls and all their Darts are thrown Their Launces spent One bolder then the rest With his broad sword provokes the sluggish beast Her oylie side devoures both blade and heft And there his steele the bold Bermudian left Courage the rest from his example take And now they change the colour of the Lake Blood flowes in rivers from her wounded side As if they would prevent the tardie tide And raise the flood to that propitious height As might convey her from this fatall streight Shee swims in blood and blood does spouting throw To heaven that heaven mens cruelties might know Their fixed Javelins in her side shee wears And on her back a grove of Pikes appears You would have thought had you the Monster seen Thus drest shee had another Island been Roaring she tears the ayr with such a noise As well resembled the conspiring voice Of routed armies when the field is won To reach the ears of her escaped Son Hee though a league removed from the so Hasts to her ayd the pious Trojan so Neglecting for Creusa's life his own Repeats the danger of the burning town The men amazed blush to see the seed Of Monsters humane pietie exceed Well proves this kindness what the Grecians sung That Loves bright Mother from the Ocean sprung Their courage droops and hopeless now they wish For composition with th'unconquer'd Fish So shee their weapons would restore again Through rocks they 'd hew her passage to the Main But how instructed in each others mind Or what commerce can men with Monsters find Not daring to approach their wounded so Whom her couragious Son protected so They charge their Muskets and with hot desire Of fell revenge renew the fight with fire Standing aloofe with Lead the bruise the scales And teare the flesh of the incensed Whales But no success their fierce endeavours found Nor this way could they give one fatall wound Now to their Forts they are about to send For the loud Engines which their Isle defend But what those peeces fram'd to batter Walls Would have effected on those mighty Whales Great Neptune will not have us know who sends A tide so high that it relieves his friends And thus they parted with exchange of harms Much blood the Monsters lost and they their arms Vpon the death of my Lady Rich. MAy those already curs'd Essexian plains Where hasty Death and pining sickness raigns Prove all a Desert and none there make stay But salvage beasts or men as wilde as they There the faire light which all our Island grac'd Like Hero's Taper in the windows plac'd Such fate from the malignant ayr did find As that exposed to the boystrous wind Ah cruell heaven to snatch so soon away Her for whose life had we had time to pray With thousand vows and tears we should have sought That sad decree's suspension to have wrought But we alas no whisper of her pain Heard till 't was sin to wish her here again That horrid word at once like lightning spread Strook all our ears The Lady Rich is dead Heart-rending news and dreadfull to those few VVho her resemble and her steps pursue That Death should licence have to rage among The faire the wise the vertuous and the young The Paphian Queen from that fierce battell born VVith goared hand and Vail so rudely torn Like terrour did among th'Immortals breed Taught by her wound that God desses might bleed All stand amazed but beyond the rest Th'Heroique Dame whose happy womb she blest Mov'd with just grief expostulates with heaven Urging that promise to th' obsequious given Of longer life for ne'r was pious soul More apt t' obey more worthy to controul A skilfull eye at once might read the race Of Caledonian Monarchs in her face And sweet humilitie her look and mind At once were lofty and at once were kind There dwelt the scorn of vice and pity too For those that did what shee disdain'd to doe So gentle and severe that what was bad At once her hatred and her pardon had Gracious to all but where her love was due So fast so faithfull loyall and so true That a bold hand as soon might hope to force The rowling lights of heaven as change her course Some happy Angell that beholds her there Instruct us to record what she was here And when this cloud of sorrow 's over-blown Through the wide world we 'l make her graces known So fresh the wound is and the grief so vast That all our art and power of speech is wast Here passion swayes but there the Muse shall raise Eternall
from endless care To my young Lady Lucy Sidney VVHy came I so untimely forth Into a world which wanting thee Could entertaine us with no worth Or shadow of felicity That times should mee so far remove From that which I was borne to love Yet fairest blossome do not slight That age which you must know so soone The rosy morne resignes her light And milder glory to the Noon And then what wonders shall you doe Whose dawning beauty warmes us so Hope waits upon the flowry prime And summer though it be lesse gay Yet is not look'd on as a time Of declination or decay For with a full hand that doth bring All that was promis'd by the spring Of the Lady who can sleep when she pleases NO wonder sleep from carefull Lovers flyes To bath himselfe in Sacharissa's eyes As faire Astraea once from earth to heaven By strife and loud impiety was driven So with our plaints offended and our teares Wise Somnus to that Paradise repaires Waits on her will and wretches does forsake To court the Nymph for whom those wretches wake More proud then Phoebus of his throne of gold Is the soft God those softer limbs to hold Nor would exchange with Jove to hide the skyes In darkning clouds the power to close her eyes Eyes which so farre all other lights controul They warme our mortall parts but these our soul Let her free spirit whose unconquer'd brest Holds such deep quiet and untroubled rest Know that though Venus and her Son should spare Her rebell heart and never teach her care Yet Hymen may inforce her Vigils keepe And for anothers joy suspend her sleepe Of the misreport of her being painted AS when a sort of Wolves infest the night With their wilde howlings at fair Cynthia's light The noise may chase sweet slumber from our eyes But never reach the Mistris of the skyes So with the news of Sacharissa's wrongs Her vexed servants blame those envious tongues Call love to witness that no painted fire Can scorch men so or kindle such desire While unconcerned she seems mov'd no more With this new malice then our loves before But from the height of her great minde looks down On both our passions without smile or frown So little care of what is done below Hath the bright Dame whom heav'n affecteth so Paints her 't is true with the same hand which spreads Like glorious colours through the flowry meads When lavish Nature with her best attire Cloaths the gay Spring the season of desire Paints her 't is true and does her cheek adorn With the same art wherewith she paints the morn With the same art wherewith she guildeth so Those painted clouds which forme Thaumantia's bow Of her passing through a crowd of people AS in old Chaos heav'n with earth confus'd And stars with rocks together crush'd bruis'd The Sun his light no farther could extend Then the next hill which on his shoulders lean'd So in this throng bright Sacharissa far'd Oppress'd by those who strove to be her guard As ships though never so obsequious fall Foul in a tempest on their Admirall A greater favour this disorder brought Unto her servants then their awfull thought Durst entertain when thus compell'd they prest The yeelding Marble of her snowy brest While Love insults disguised in the cloud And welcome force of the unruly croud So th' amorous tree while yet the ayre is calm Just distance keeps from his desired Palm But when the wind her ravisht branches throws Into his armes and mingles all their boughs Though loth he seems her tender leaves to presse More loth he is the friendly storme should cease From whose rude bounty he the double use At once receives of pleasure and excuse Song SAy lovely dream where couldst thou finde Shales to counterfeit that face Colours of this glorious kinde Come not from any mortall place In heaven it self thou sure wert drest With that Angel-like disguise Thus deluded am I blest And see my joy with closed eyes But ah this image is too kinde To be other then a dreame Cruell Sacharissa's mindo Never put on that sweet extreame Faire dream if thou intendst me grace Change this heavenly forme of thine Paint despis'd love in thy face And make it to appeare like mine Pale wan and meager let it looke With a pity-moving shape Such as wander by the brooke Of Lethe or from graves escape Then to that matchlesse Nymph appeare In whose shape thou shinest so Softly in her sleeping eare With humble words expresse my woe Perhaps from greatnesse state and pride Thus surprised she may fall Sleep does disproportion hide And death resembling equals all Song BEhold the brand of beauty tost See how the motion does dilate the flame Delighted Love his spoiles does boast And triumph in this game Fire to no place confin'd Is both our wonder and our feare Moving the minde Like lightning hurled through the ayre High heaven the glory does increase Of all her shining Lamps this artfull way The Sun in figures such as these Joyes with the Moon to play To these sweet strains they advance Which do result from their own sphears As this Nymphs dance Moves with the numbers which she hears TO AMORET FAire that you may truly know What you unto Thirsis ow I will tell you how I doe Sacharissa love and you Joy salutes me when I set My blest eyes on Amoret But with wonder I am strook When I on the other look If sweet Amoret complains I have sense of all her pains But for Sacharissa I Doe not only grieve but die All that of my selfe is mine Lovely Amoret is thine Sacharissa's captive fain Would untie his iron chain And those scorching beams to shun To thy gentle shadow run If the soul had free election To dispose of her affection I should not thus long have born Haughty Sacharissa's scorn But 't is sure some power above Which controuls our will in love If not Love a strong desire To create and spread that fire In my breast solicits mee Beauteous Amoret for thee 'T is amazement more then love Which her radiant eyes doe move If less splendour wait on thine Yet they so benignly shine I would turn my dazled sight To behold their milder light But as hard 't is to destroy That high flame as to enjoy Which how easily I may doe Heaven as easily scal'd does know Amoret as sweet and good As the most delicious food Which but tasted does impart Life and gladness to the heart Sacharissa's beautie's wine Which to madness doth incline Such a liquor as no braine That is mortall can sustaine Scarse can I to heaven excuse That devotion which I use Unto that adored Dame For 't is not unlike the same Which I thither ought to send So that if it could take end 'T would to heaven it selfe be due To succeed her and not you Who already have of mee All that 's not Idolatry Which though not so fierce a flame Is
them not to rage The brave Emylius his charge laid down The force of Rome and fate of Macedon In his lost sons did feele the cruell stroke Of changing fortune and thus highly spoke Before Romes people wee did of implore That if the heavens had any ill in store For your Emylius they would powre that ill On his owne house and let you flourish still You on the barren Seas my Lord have spent Whole springs and summers to the publique lent Suspended all the pleasures of your life And shortned the short ioy of such a wife For which your country's more obliged then For many lives of old less happy men You that have sacrific'd so great a part Of youth and private bliss ought to impart Your sorrow too and give your friends a right As well in your affliction as delight Then with Emylian courage beare this cross Since publique persons only publique loss Ought to affect And though her form and youth Her application to your will and truth That noble sweetnes and that humble state All snatcht away by such a hasty fate Might give excuse to any common brest With the huge weight of so iust griefe opprest Yet let no portion of your life be stain'd With passion but your character maintain'd To the last act it is enough her stone May honour'd bee with superscription Of the sole Lady who had power to move The great Northumberland to grieve and love To my Lord Admirall of his late sicknes and recovery VVIth joy like ours the Thracian youth invades Orpheus returning from th' Elysian shades Embrace the Hero and his stay implore Make it their publique suite hee would no more Desert them so and for his spouses sake His vanisht Love tempt the Lethean lake The Ladies too the brightest of that time Ambitious all his lofty bed to clime Their doubtfull hopes with expectation feed Who shall the faire Eurydice succeed Eurydice for whom his num'rous moan Makes listning trees and salvage mountains groan Through all the ayre his sounding strings dilate Sorrow like that which toucht our hearts of late Your pining sicknesse and your restless pain At once the Land affecting and the Main When the glad news that you were Admirall Scarce through the Nation spread 't was fear'd by all That our great Charles whose wisdome shines in you Would bee perplexed how to choose a new So more then private was the joy and grief That at the worst it gave our souls relief That in our age such sense of vertue liv'd They joy'd so justly and so justly griev'd Nature her fairest lights eclipsed seemes Her selfe to suffer in those sharpe extremes While not from thine alone thy blood retires But from those cheeks which all the world admires The stem thus threatned and the sap in thee Droop all the branches of that noble tree Their beauty they and wee our loves suspend Nought can our wishes save thy health intend As Lillies overcharg'd with rain they bend Their beauteous heads and with high heav'n contend Fold thee within their snowy armes and cry Hee is too faultless and too young to dye So like Immortalls round about thee they Sit that they fright approching death away Who would not languish by so faire a train To bee lamented and restor'd again Or thus with-held what hasty soul would go Though to the blest O're young Adonis so Fair Venus mourn'd and with the pretious showre Of her warme teares cherish'd the springing flowre The next support faire hope of your great name And second pillar of that noble frame By loss of thee would no advantage have But step by step pursues thee to the grave And now relentless Fate about to end The line which backward does so farre extend That Antique stock which still the world supplyes With bravest spirits and with brightest eyes Kind Phoebus interposing bid mee say Such stormes no more shall shake that house but they Like Neptune and his Sea-borne Neece shall bee The shining glories of the land and Sea With courage guard and beauty warm our Age And lovers fill with like Poetique rage On the friendship betwixt Sacharissa and Amoret TEll me lovely loving Paire Why so kind and so severe Why so careless of our care Only to your selves so deare By this cunning change of hearts You the power of Love controul While the Boyes deluded darts Can arrive at neithers soul For in vain to either brest Still beguiled Love does come Where he finds a forain guest Neither of your hearts at home Debters thus with like designe When they never mean to pay That they may the law decline To some friend make all away Not the silver Doves that fly Yoakt in Cytharea's Carre Not the wings that lift so high And convey her son so farre Are so lovely sweet and fair Or doe more ennoble Love Are so choicely matcht a pair Or with more consent doe move A la Malade AH lovely Amoret the Care Of all that know what 's good or fair Is Heaven become our Rivall too Had the rich Gifts confer'd on you So amply thence the common end Of giving Lovers to pretend Hence to this pining Sickness meant To weary thee to a consent Of leaving us no power is given Thy Beauties to impaire for Heaven Solicites thee with such a care As Roses from their stalkes we tare When wee would still preserve them new And fresh as on the bush they grew With such a grace you entertain And look with such contempt on pain That languishing you conquer more And wound us deeper then before The lightnings which in stormes appear Scorch more then when the skies are clear And as pale sickness does invade Your frailer part the breaches made In that faire Lodging still more clear Make the bright Guest your Soule appear So Nymphs o'r pathless Mountains born Their light robes by the Brambles torn From their faire limbs exposing new And unknown Beauties to the view Of following Gods increase their flame And hast to catch the flying Game Of her Chamber THey tast of Death that doe at Heaven arrive But we this Paradise approch alive In stead of Death the dart of Love does strike And renders all within these walls alike The high in titles and the Shepheard here Forgets his greatness and forgets his fear All stand amaz'd and gazing on the Faire Loose thought of what themselves or others are Ambition loose and have no other scope Save Carlisles favour to imploy their hope The Thracian could though all those tales were true The bold Greeks tell no greater wonders doe Before his feet so Sheep and Lyons lay Fearless and wrathless while they heard him play The Gay the Wise the Gallant and the Grave Subdu'd alike all but one passion have No worthy mind but finds in hers there is Something proportioned to the rule of his While she with cheerfull but impartiall grace Borne for no one but to delight the race Of men like Phoebus so divides her light And warmes
hasty seem and slow At once too cruell and unwilling too Th. Under how hard a law are Mortalls born Whom now we envie we anon must mourn What heaven sets highest and seems most to prize Is soon removed from our wondring eyes But since the Sisters did so soon untwine So faire a thread I 'll strive to peece the line Vouchsafe sad Nymph to let me know the Dame And to the Muses I 'll commend her name Make the wide Countrey echo to your moan The list'ning trees and salvage mountains groan What rocks not moved when the death is sung Of one so good so lovely and so young Gal. 'T was Hamilton whom I had nam'd before But naming her griefe lets me say no more Fabula Phoebi Daphnes ARcadiae juvenis Thirsis Phoebique sacerdos Ingenti frustra Galateae ardebat amore Haud deus ipse olim Daphne majora canebat Nec fuit asperior Daphne nec pulchrior illa Carminibus Phoebo dignis premit ille fugacem Per rupes per saxa volans per florida vates Pascua formosam nunc his componere Nympham Nunc illis erudelem insana mente solebat Audiit illa procul miserum citharamque sonantem Audiit at nullis respexit mota querelis Ne tamen omnino caneret desertus ad alta Sidera perculsi referunt nova carmina montes Sic non quaesitis cumulatus laudibus olim Elapsa reperit Daphne sua laurea Phoebus The Battell of the Summer Islands CANTO I. What fruit they have and how heaven smiles Upon those late discovered Isles AYde me Bellona while the dreadfull fight Betwixt a Nation and two Whales I write Seas stain'd with goare I sing advent'rous toile And how these Monsters did disarme an Isle Bermudas wall'd with rocks who does not know That happy Island where huge Lemmons grow And Orange trees which golden fruit doe beare Th' Hesperian garden boasts of none so faire There shining Pearl Corall and many a pound On the rich shore of Amber-greece is found The lofty Cedar which to heaven aspires The Prince of trees is fuell for their fires The smoak by which their loaded spits doe turn For incense might on sacred Altars burn Their private roofs on odorous timber born Such as might Palaces for Kings adorn The sweet Palmetta's a new Bacchus yield With leaves as ample as the broadest shield Under the shadow of whose friendly boughs They sit carousing where their liquor grows Figs there unplanted through the fields doe grow Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show With the rare fruit inviting them to spoil Carthage the Mistris of so rich a spoil The naked rocks are not unfruitfull there But at some constant seasons every yeare Their barren tops with luscious food abound And with the eggs of various fowles are crown'd Tobacco is their worst of things which they To English landlords as their tribute pay Such is the mould that the blest tenant feeds On pretious fruits and payes his rent in weeds With candid Plantines and the ivy Pine On choisest Melons and sweete grapes they dine And with Potatoes fat their wanton swine Nature these Cates with such a lavish hand Powres out among them that our courser land Tasts of that bounty and does cloth returne Which not for warmth but ornament is worne For the kind spring which but salutes us here Inhabits there and courts them all the yeare Ripe fruits and blossomes on the same trees live At once they promise what at once they give So sweete the ayre so moderate the clime None sickly lives or dyes before his time Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst To shew how all things were created first The tardy plants in our could orchards plac't Reserve their fruits for the next ages tast There a small grain in some few months will bee A firme a lofty and a spacious tree The Palma-Christi and the faire Papah Now but a seed preventing natures law In halfe the circle of the hasty year Project a shade and lovely fruit doe wear And as their trees in our dull region set But faintly grow and no perfection get So in this Northern tract our hoarser throates Utter unripe and ill constrained notes Where the supporter of the Poets stile Phoebus on them eternally does smile O how I long my careless limbs to lay Vnder a Plantanes shade and all the day With amorous ayres my fancy entertaine Invoke the Muses and improve my vaine No passion there in my free brest should move None but the sweete and best of passions Love There while I sing if gentle love bee by That tunes my Lute and winds the strings so high With the sweete sound of Sacharissa's name I 'le make the listning salvages grow tame But while I doe these pleasing dreames indite I am diverted from the promis'd fight CANTO II. Of their affright and how their foes Discovered were this Canto showes THough rocks so high about this Island rise That well they may the num'rous Turke despise Yet is no humane fate exempt from fear Which shakes their hearts while through the Isle they hear A lasting noyse as horrid and as lowd As thunder makes before it breaks the clowd Three dayes they dread this murmure ere they know From what blind cause th' unw̄oted sound may grow At length two Monsters of unequall size Hard by the shore a fisherman espies Two mighty Whales which swelling seas had tost And left them pris'ners on the rocky coast One as a mountaine vast and with her came A Cub not much inferiour to his Dam Here in a poole among the rocks ingag'd They roar'd like Lions caught in toyles and rag'd The man knew what they were who heretofore Had seen the like lye murther'd on the shore By the wild fury of some tempest cast The fate of ships and ship-wrackt men to tast As careless Dames whom wine and sleepe betray To frantick dreames their infants overlay So there sometimes the raging Ocean failes And her owne brood exposes when the Whales Against sharpe rocks like reeling vessells quasht Though huge as mountaines are in peeces dasht Along the shore their dreadfull limbs lye scatter'd Like hills with earthquakes shaken torne shatter'd Hearts sure of brass they had who tempted first Rude Seas that spare not what themselves have nurst The welcome newes through all the nation spread To suddaine ioy and hope converts their dread What lately was their publique terrour they Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey Dispose already of th' untaken spoyl And as the purchase of their future toyl These share the bones and they divide the oyl So was the huntsman by the Beare opprest Whose hide hee fold before hee caught the beast They man their boates and all their young men arm With whatsoever may the monsters harm Pikes Holdberts Spits and Darts that wound so far The tooles of peace and instruments of war Now was the time for vigorous lads to show What love or honour could invite them