reverence in the modern Garb condemns him as much as to speake false Latine in the Universitie or goe naked in the Country where to become every mans acquaintance is to bee none of his owne civill and charitable to every stranger every impudent unchristian Begger incivill uncharitable to himselfe his fortune plentie health ease authoritie pietie and naturall neighbours where thoughts and actions are neither consonant to religion or Philosophy nor language to the thoughts innocency and vanitie are the prey of rapine and deceipt the purse falls into a dysentery good order and conscience to a luxation and the outside of the Platter is all the businesse When I formerly lived in Towne I was at home in my place of birth and education with my Land close by my fortune hath now made it other with mee and foâ— my comfort if time which should improve my judgement abuse me not as it commonly doth the distastednesse of old men the condition of the Towne is altered from what I have known it Prizes continue double upon a sudden and that which is most strange without either scarcity of yeares or plenty of mony penury of wit good oeconomy with abundance of luxury work the effect No ancient brave Romane was ever more free and prodigall of his blood in the way of honour and his Countreys defence then our English gluttonous Gallant and Epicure is easily and insensibly parted with his money another blood to the wise for fashion and sensuality He affects bravery and yet contemns what feeds it Hee seemes indulgent to his Genius and soule yet thinks it base and superstitious to befriend them by looking into his reckonings with God and Man The conscience of the seller prescribes no limits but what he can get nor is the buyer restrained by any rule of discretion or price broad Tables large Diet many courses and dainties make slender fortunes and narrow soules gay houses and outsides ill furnish't mindes wee are I know not how become possest of late with a malus pudor a slacknesse a wretchlesnesse and shamefacednesse to doe what wee ought for our profit and good with a confident glory in our ruine and what we should avoid till God authorized example and wholsome sumptuary laws reform us we shall never mend Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes vitious custome hath prevailed by the discountenance of wisdome and vertue falsification and corruption have so invaded us that we have forgotten and lost the very Arts and Idea's as well as the habit of true working and living To strength of my minde and authority all is easie grosse impunity animates and confirmes offenders and the great feare is we shall never grow wise but with a mischief for my part as I am without power so am I worne out of fashion and acquaintance and I find little new worth the seeking and imbracing friendships are grown rare dissimulation cost and ceremony have extirpated them Generosity is hardly to bee found All distrust cunning pride self-conceited self-affected and never lesse wit judgement courage or vertue to boast of As the World is I cannot blame such as frequent the society and conversation of women they pretend not so much wit and knowledge but have commonly more then men Plus sapiunt quia quantum opus est sapiunt Their study and concernings lying in lesse room they more strongly certainly and perfectly attain and comprehend they exercise not such a falshood of Art trade and conversation as men their Discourse is more free friendly and ingenuous their intelligence none of the worst for they command generally our secrets and what from the pulpit what from our open hearted conference communicate without booke the quintessence of our thoughts and studies they study us as wee our bookes They are the winning common-wealth and society of this our world and like the Jesuites strongly combine and make it good by wit They are greater lovers of worth and valour They are more innocent and lesse dangerous to good men Observe their waies and bargaines and judge if they be not ordinarily more cautious and frugall then our selves they grudge not to take paines and bee at some cost with themselves to please your eye No Confectio Alkermes is so good against melancholy so you surfeit noton their dainties as the diversion and pretty trivial lighter part of their entertainment gratification is the very worst of them and you shall wrong your selfe and them if you condemn them all for the worst amongst them What was ever totally perfect If some bee bad the best are to bee the more esteemed There is I confesse a difference amongst them so also of us therein is our choice and judgement to bee exercised The company of the best men best at leisure is to be enjoyed and found amongst them the very best things are often subject to abuse contain and make a Covenant with your eyes and take but a preservative of ne quid nimis along with you and you are safe and happy They are generally better affected to the times and lesse possest with base and prolling designes then we Their power with us and over us proves their wit to bee above ours finer clearer stronger They are not destitute of Art but are more friends and instruments of nature and shee theirs Thus as I use have I mingled lesse with more serious matter this latter part belongs rather to others then to you I presume of your friendship whom I know indulgent to ingenuity an honest free career and Your most faithfull Friend to serve you Ianuary the 10. 1638. Pathetically if not too Prophetically Inspired upon the death of the late Noble and Brave Prince HENRY An imperfect but true Inventory and Dissection OH how much happier had my fortune been To doe thee service with my Sword then Pen And to have shed my bloud for thee then teares Faire Prince whose life our hope death bred our feares Though thine own vertues have embalm'd thy Fame As farre as planted is the Christian Name And are too beauteous well proportioned To bee by me unskilfull crayoned Yet duty bids me offer at thy hearse The faithfull incense of this mournfull verse Which contrary to common Monuments Is not made faire without for foule contents But poore without such riches doth possesse As budding youth did ne'r so faire expresse Nor feare I now suspect of flattery For to the living such their praise apply Greedy to turne sweet poison to reward Care lesse of duties and of truths regard Thy fresh and well known worth that tax doth free Which livelyer wee shall know by losse of thee Irreparable losse where overthrown Lies our Great British worthy Champion Strong Bulwark of our Peace steel point of warre Loadstone of vertue glorious Northern Starre The Muses love favourer of all good Arts Friend to all good designes and worthy parts Judicious just hardy and temperate Splendide in well ruled managing thy State Too curious frame to last Modell compact
advantage that no hope of losse Nor hope of life remains except your grace Relieve faire Huntresse my afflicted case INdustrious vertue Mistris of the wise Faire child of nature and of precept born Finding her selfe misprised and forlorn Since shee and beauty have beene enemies Whose quarrell and divorce at first did grow For that her counsell Beauty nought respected And idly nothing but her selfe affected Vertue now pitying eithers overthrow The more esteeme with all and grace to gain A league of late with Beauty hath compact And made it as a part of her contract Both in one mutuall mansion to remain And none so worthy none so faire approving They both united in Coelestia dwell No wonder then that shee doth all excell Love by their vertue or their beauty moving Vertue as her attendants brings along Modesty wisedome courtesie and truth Beauty brings smoothnesse white and red and youth Grace plumpnesse stature feature and that tongue Which like all her perfections void of Art Charmes and subdues even the austerest heart SInce I the fortresse of my heart resign'd That Conqu'resse faire unable to withstand Who here on earth loves forces doth command Cupid hath oft solicited my mind Her glory and his pow'r divine to write VVherein I humbly did his pardon ask Alleadging for excuse it was a task Too great and high for my unlearned might That I a stranger to those lofty straines And smoothly wrought ingenious conceits VVhich Poesie sententiously treats Should more imbase then honor with my paines Whereat my selfe hee will'd mee animate And bade me boldly undertake his will For hee with moving Rhetorick and skill My hearts invention would illuminate And told mee I should need no other book Then those faire Hieroglyphick Characters VVhich shee of worthinesse and glory beares To all eyes visible that on her look VVherewith embold'ned lowly thus I write VVhat Cupid and her eyes to me indite INjurious Time father of ugly vice Mercilesse enemy 'gainst beauty sworn Why mad'st thou not Coelestia to bee born VVhen beauties prize was put to compromise Had shee but then in competition been Ioves golden apple of contention Which caus'd the Goddesses dissention Had nevr glorifi'd the froth-born Queen For shee poore Dame had nothing to procure Their amorous Judge his favour to encline To judge to her that glorious prize divine But beauties bare and casuall fading lure Which with those gifts the other couple vaunted Hearts Idol joyfull wealth by Iuno proffer'd And gracefull wisdome by Minerva offer'd Coelestia all united could have granted She like Pandora doth all grace possesse Wherewith the Gods humanity doe blesse My fortune was the other day My Mistris to surprize Sleeping alone The fairest one That ever closed eyes Or ever Morpheus seis'd for prey Each part so pleasing faire remain'd You easily might discover Their beauty scorn'd To bee adorn'd By borrowing of another Nor wanted what her eyes contain'd Such sleeping conqu'ring grace to see Will certaine credit win That fire of love Doth only move From sightlesse power divine Of Cupid and her Deitie It by this slumbring beauty seem'd Sleep was with her agreed So much to grace Her sleeping face That shee should all exceed Who fairest waking were esteem'd Shee seemed like an Evening cleare VVhen absent is the Sunne Though not so gay More sweet then day Whose scorching heat men shun When th' eye of heaven doth appeare There might I gaze and view at leisure Each parts peculiar grace Brow white and even As snow smooth driven The heaven of her face Faire cover of the under treasure Her cheeks were fresh as blushing morn Nor tincture fetcht from Spain Nor ever art Could like impart True unite Roses stain By those our fatall Houses born Her silken breasts I next espy Faire wrought with heav'nly blew Time truly keeping Amidst her sleeping Blest who may rest on you Where Venus and the Graces lie Thus whilst in ravishment I stand Tempted by her faire lips To steale a kisse VVorlds second blisse In watchfull Argus skips My pleasures progresse to withstand Well Argus wel though then you crost Those my delightfull hopes I nothing doubt To fit you out True tun'd Mercurian notes Pleasures defer'd yet are not lost So happy is the pow'r of Love That wit could ne're prevent Nor care dissolve VVhat two resolve VVith musicall consent Affections mutuall joyes to prove Fond husbands cease your selves to vex True Cornut's onely hee VVhose feare adornes His brow with hornes And thinkes himselfe to bee Giving due right by wrong suspects Iealousie often makes unjust Deceit is taught by feare Who hornes doth watch Hornes may hee catch And faire ones may hee weare Resolv'd to wed resolve to trust MY cruell friend too inconsiderate of my state Why did you not conceale my too injurious fate To tell mee my Coelestia loves and loves not me Unfortunate subsisting eyes that day to see Why am I not like Niâ—be to stone convert Since love and shee prove so unjust to my desert Tell mee my dearest friend what reason what respect What beautious parts in him in mee what lame defect Makes her that frame of vertue so ungratefull prove So ill discerning zeale so to misplace her love If to bee full of feare of passion of desire My blood now over-runne with cold now all on fire If to possesse a passion-spâ—aking heavy eye Which if unfixt on her dejected still doth lie If stead oâ— periods with sighes to interlace All my discourse answers impertinently place If t' have a heart o'rewhelm'd with thoughts ready to breake And yet a â—ongue benumm'd that would and cannot speake If these affects I onely in her presence finde And stupid else with her alone am rapt in minde If in her absence ' stead of pastime mirth and joy I nothing can possesse but thoughts care and annoy A restlesse pensive heart 'twixt hope and feare distraught VVhich full with passions sighes and troubled anguish fraught VVhat late it best approv'd for tastlesse now rejects Nor any company but onely hers affects If sadly shadow'd brow and eyes armes intertwin'd A spirit to retire and solitude confin'd That never rest enjoyes nor joy but in her sight Banisht from all but this heart-easing pen-delight If whilst heavens torch his light doth unto us extend My thoughts to her alone and to her glory bend And when the night invades that gives all creatures rest I restlesse sole remaine my thoughts on her addrest If my enamour'd breast sollicit still my tongue To sound forth chosen stanza's passionately sung And some smooth-sliding well-tun'd eare-inchanting verse That may my love her prizelesse worth and name rehearse If this alas my friend her love cannot deserve Unfortunate I live unfortunate I serve No no you may forbeare an answer to returne Why I for her yet shee doth for another burne I know you will reply the God of love is blinde His arrowes poyson'd such as doe corrupt the minde With headstrong passion and with reasonlesse desire
halfe a thought of writing upon her for a subject but I become opprest with a croud of matter conceptions and materiall Ingeniosities that offer their service and presse upon mee so importunate that if I presently give them not a birth they threaten they will neither ever bee found of mee againe nor that I shall ever finde so good I seeme carelesse as never despairing of my fancy where shee is the subject Nay such is the plentie and treasure of her materialls as scorne the helpe of fancy and require no more but a reasonable Recorder and Register What an unmatchable fortune hath Lees been blest with in two wives the one the first to the father the other to the sonne The one like a Romuluâ— the other like a Numâ— to Rome What a foundation of estate vertue and beautie brought the one What an Oeconomy besides portion Alliance vertue beautie and Religion the other Candish was her name but most Candid her soule and condition The enfolded Serpent is her Crest most proper to her excellent discretion and judgement which was as naturall as her Dove-like innocency acquisite unto her Whatsoever in her condition was to bee wished other was fatally accidentall Her perfections were all her owne nor was there any perfection wanting in her if not of not being her owne enough It is too unhappy and frequent an incident to goodnesse to bee too indulgent to others and not to give themselves their due Time had not hardned her to endure a hardnesse of time and fortune if there can be an excesse in goodnesse and charitie it was in her naturall morall and divine vertues contended in her for precedencie But as well her death as life witnest her charitie in its true prerogative to outgoe them all Shee was matched to a field of crosses shee converted them all to a blessing upon her soule and would have done upon the family had not unlucky disease and death prevented Shee was an Echo of her mothers name and vertues and that as full as numerous I may crave pardon of her soule and you for writing thus rashly and hastily upon so pretious so daintie and sacred a subject my study must be to stop and containe my selfe as others use to worke and labour their braine and fancie for invention Shee neither was nor is as other women death that was ever gastly and hideous to me in others is to behold in her a piece of sweetnesse and excellence Her memory and whatsoever represents it except her sad misfortune and Catastrophe is all perfume all rapture unto me Were I not strongly instructed in Religion I could not forbeare a continued veneration and addresse unto her as the Saint of my soule Great griefes indeed are not allowed a tongue nor can they at first finde one nor ever a due adaequate and full one But it were a kind of Sacriledge to rob the world in the due testimony of so divine a worthinesse and our sorrowes tribute at least in some proportion This is the miserable constitution of mortalitie who will be indolent must be stupid and without affections if we will love much vertue or whatsoever we must be contented to subject our serles to over-flowing sorrow it never had a fairer truer or juster occasion But I will abruptly breake off at this time that sense and prosecution which shall otherwise neither fade nor expire in me And to conclude with you to whom I began The first passage of your Verses though I answer it not in kind where you mention the crookednesse and unproportionable lownesse of one part of my house that where that noblest of soules left this unsutable and unworthy world I meane in monument and memory of her to raise and grace the lower side thereof to such a decoration as though nothing can become the occasion shall not be unworthy of the neighbouring Piles And that for all your farewell I hope you will often become an eye-witnesse unto The lines I gave you yesterday you finde by their disguise were intended as a concealement and so to bee kept and therefore covered Let this letter also remaine with you as under seale of Your most sincerely affectioned friend and servant This morning of Septem 14. 1638. I Have formerly wondred at Montagne whom you lately instanced unto mee that in his Essayes hee often takes a title and writes little upon it I finde it now in my selfe I propose to my selfe one thing and other occurring matter and fancy possesse and carry mee away my writings become Oleos which if like others you affect varietie I hope you will the rather pardon Even now the entrance to my letter hath been as well diversion as matter unto mee It is received that wee should write as wee would speake my speech to you would bee without formalitie why should I debate with my selfe how to entitle you at the beginning of my letter to superiours and personages of great respect and little familiaritie I grant it decent and necessary to others there is a kind of odnesse in it which showes not well you were ne're the lesse welcome unto mee as were my other friends in your company at our meales though I saluted you not with my cup It is to many especially inferiours more trouble and interruption then gratification there is meanes sufficient otherwise to expresse our good affections and I see not but why as well our kissing salutes as that might bee antiquated and left kissing is a kind and degree of copulation which should bee and is so observed by the greatest and wisest nations more elective and private A Lady of wit and qualitie whom you well knew would never put her selfe to the chance of a Valentine saying that shee would never couple her selfe but by choyce The custome and charge of Valentines is not ill left with many other such costly and idle customes which by a tacit generall consent wee lay downe as obsolete onely with God wee grow more ceremonious except in the Lords Prayer where I know not why wee are growing to leave out the doxology though St. Matthew the leading Evangelist hath it at large and so have wee been brought up to it What may the people conceive of our former stile in Prayers and Religion if they shall bee occasioned to thinke they have not till now enjoyed so much as the right use of our Pater noster Wee are also in our Creed growne more familiar with Pontius Pilate hee must now be Ponce and why not as well Iulius Caesar Iuly Quantulacunque estis vos ego magna voco As I said to some none of the most obscure of our Ecclesiastiques who blamed the Puritans for troubling the people with abstruse points and novelties that there was order enough to bee taken with them so that themselves upon whom wee have no coertion would let us bee quiet and that my selfe who had been long learning the hard lesson of Religion and conscience would bee loath to bee set to seek in
carelesnesse presumption impatience and a treacherous indulgence to his own humours our common reigning maladies have been the cause Wee are of late so out of our wits that our very mother wit of keeping our selves warme failes both in our mothers and us By naturall heate wee live want of clothes want of cherishing it makes us all suffer Though you know my mind concerning Physitians yet such is their Ius acquisitum that my sonne is under their jurisdiction God send it to his good cold taken upon Physick hath cast him downe I have been present at their Anatomicall discourse of his distemper danger and cure excellent termes to amuse and amase the credulous ignorant enough to worke a cure by the enchantment and charme of their words and language Yet I cannot but compare it to a Rope-dancer whom I have seene doe his tricks and show his Art in a Sack if his footing were right good if other hazard for a neck or limbe But here if their learned blindnesse mistake the poore paying Patient must suffer It is just that they who cannot governe themselves should be ruled by others often worse These and more evills must we suffer as it is in the 14. Chap. of the booke of Wisedome Verse the 22. from the warres of theirs and our ignorance A word or two lesse would have ended with the bottome of the page but howsoever I end well if you continue and accept me Your faithfull Friend and Servant November 12. 1638. The Shepherd Sheep and Wolfe MY true fair-minded Friend I beleeve you now in labour to Preach and mend the vitious world I also wish but little hope to doe it by writing you sow and I write in the Sand wee both dwell at the sign of the Labour in vaine the More will not change his hew nor the Leopards their spots they cannot nay they would not you shall not perswade them they are blemishes no more then the Lady her affected patches on her face they are in fashion and appeare faire in their own eyes as every mans way and pleasure to himselfe we may lament one anothers endevours others will deride us or possibly some will be so good as say Well said well writ and as they use their feasts eate and forget the sober diet breeds the better nourishment example is the better Teacher but it must bee numerous to prevaile Vertue is grown but a name and that neither well understood nor agreed on Some honest men there are Rari nantes in gurgite vasto they may make much of themselves and wrap themselves in their own vertue a habit God knows out of fashion they are fitter for Cloysters then the worlds traffique and like square playing Gamesters shall be sure to bee made a prey and sit down by the losse their strong constitution may resist the corruption of the times they shall not alter them their innocence shall have as little power howsoever commended as fresh waters upon the Seas saltnesse the worlds antiperistasis may better them not they the world But how comes it that so few are honest is it that perfection must bee as rare and hard in Nature as in Art is it that our artificiall confused meat and drink infect our bodies and they our soules is it the perniciousnesse of example in great and powerfull persons who sway the times and seldome originally attain to riches honours and greatnesse by just and honest wayes Or is it that as some species of creatures are of a perverse and evill nature such as live by rapine and destruction such as Apes Wolves c. so man is naturally of a mischievous kind if so them may a good natured man be esteemed a Monster and rather an error then perfection of Nature Is it these or is it not rather the corruption of our mindes and affections by having changed and perverted Nature from her first purity into Artificiall fancy and affectation of enthralling others and inriching our selves So that as women are in respect of their attire often the least part of themselves the like may bee said of man in the disguise of the minde So it is and such punishment is deserved in our desertion and rebellion against God and Nature We are one anothers scourges wee are scourges to our selves If you and I and others are rather Sheep then Wolves let us thank God whose grace it is let us cloathe our selves in our own wooll short Pasture will content us for food little drink more then the dew of Heaven Thither let us tend towards him whose mark we bear the great Shepherd of our Soules Let Wolves be wolves whilest hee is our Shepherd and his good Angels our guard we are safe and happy now and forever let the wolves of this world the Loup-garrons the mankinde wolves devoure what they can they shall devoure but what they can most commonly one another There are so few of us they would else want meat though their rage be great their time is short our comforts are sweeter more permanent as much as they contemn us they are content to make use of our cloathing they reckon us foolish Martyrs of a foolish Philosophy and wee them beasts of a foule deformity They are ugly to God ugly to goodnesse often ugly to one another and ugly to themselves especially when affliction sicknesse and infirmity le ts loose that Band-dog Conscience upon them which they had formerly in their prosperity tyed up and kept in darknesse and sleep hating and hated flattering themselves with strong delusions to one anothers torture for the present and eternall torment hereafter I leave them committing you and all good men the Sheep of God to his inviolable infallible protection Amen Amen November 14. 1638. NO wonder if a perverse nature use perverse and crooked wayes a Serpent cannot goe right craft is the evill mans instrument to evill ends as cunning is sometimes necessary to good men for good purposes evill men are in the dark they are blinde to true vertue and charity their workes are workes of darknesse and their wayes accordingly it is the glory of discreet power in goodnesse to walk fairly and choose the open safe and faire way where others how ever powerfull needlesly encumber and bemire themselves in bryers and bogges As I have often said it is a sweet thing to see knaves miscarry and play the fooles as commonly they doe they like the Woodcock think themselves more concealed then they are as much unduly overweening themselves as undervaluing others I never knew a foole without some kinde of craft nor a wise man affect it MY second Father Brother and spirit of comfort thus yet I am so happy as to converse with you in absence it is a piece of my misfortune to bee at so great a distance from you in the same Town my late long and hasty walke unto you endangered a distemper and sicknesse upon me but as burning with burning so evill of exercise with exercise is cured Naturall