loose grounds corne best in thickest proves Choose with thine eie that piece that is most plain There digge a pit and then throw in againe The clods and earth and tread them strongly in If they 'le not fill the pit the soile is thin And best for Vineyards and for pasture grasse But if the clods do more than fill the place The earth is thick and solid try that soile And plow it well though hard and full of toile That earth that 's salt or bitter bad for sowing For that will never be made good by plowing Nor vines nor apples planted there abide In their first generous tast may thus be tride Take a thick-woven Osiar colander Through w ch the pressed wines are strained clear And put a piece of that bad earth into it Well mixt with water then strain them through it You shall perceive the struggling water flow And in great drops will through the Osiars goe But by the tast you may discerne it plaine The bitternesse will make the taster straine His countenance awry So you may know By handling whether ground be fat or no Leane earth will crumble into duâ—t but thicke Like pitch fat earth will to your fingers sticke Moist land brings forth tall grasse and oft is found Too rich oh give not me so rank a ground Nor let it coâ—ns yong husks too richly raise Earth that is heavy her own weight betrayes And so of light our eyes do iudge aright The colour of the land or black or white But to finde out that cursed quality Of cold in grounds of all will hardest be Yet that the trees which prosper there will shew Pitch trees black Ivie and the balefull Yew These things consider'd well remember thou Long before hand in furrowes deep to plow And breake the earth then let it lye thus broke Expos'd to North-cast-windes and winters shock Before thou plant thy fruitfull Vines therein For they thrive best in rotten ground and thin The Windes and hoary Frosts after the toile Of digging Husbandmen wil rot the soile But he that throughly vigilant will be Must finde a place out for a nurcerie Iust like the place he plants in left a tree Transplanted do not with the soile agree And he to plant it as it was must marke The Heavens four quarters on the tender baâ—ke To know how every tree did stand which side Endur'd the South which did the North abide And let their former situation stand Consider then if Plaine or mountaine Land Be best for Vines if plain good ground thou choose Then plant them thicke the Grapes can nothing loose By their thick standing there if on a Hill Thou plant with measure and exactest skill Set them in rowes by equall distance held As when an Army 's ranged in the field And standâ— for triall of a mighty day In equall squadrons they themselves display Ore the broad field which seemes with glittering armes To move before the battel 's fierce alarmes Do â—ound and Mars to both stands doubtfull yet So trees at equall distance ranked set Not only to delight thy prospect there But cause the ground can no way else conferre To all an equall vigour nor can they Have roome at large their branches to display Perchance how deep to digge thy furrowes now thou 'dst learne Thy Vines in shallow ones will grow But other trees more deeply digg'd must be Chiefly th' Aesculean Oake who still more high He lifts his branches in the ayre more low His root doth downward to Avernus go Therefore no windes nor winter stormes orethrow Thoâ—â— Trees for many yeares unmov'd they grow And many ages of mankinde outweare And sp 〈…〉 ing their fair branches here and there Themselves 〈…〉 do make a stately sâ—ade Let not thy Vineyards to the West be made Nor plant tâ—ou â—â—asels 'mongst thy Vines nor yet Lop off their highest branches which are beat With winds nor prune them with blunt knives nor yet Wilde Olive trees 'mongst other Olives set For unawares fire oft is scattered Which in the dry fat â—inde conceal'd and fed Seizes the tree the leaves and branches takes And through the aire a crackling noise it makes Till on the top it reigne with victory Involving all the wood in â—lames and fly Like a black pitchy cloud up to the sky Especially if stormy windes do ly Vpon the wood the â—lames about to beare When this doth chance the Olives burned there Spring from the root no more in their first state But to wilde Olives do degenerate Let none perswade thee then how wise so ere When Boreas blowes the harden'd earth to stir Winter congeales the ground and suffers not The trees new set in th' earth to spread their root But when the golden spring doth first appeare And that white bird is come whom serpents feare Is the best time of all to plant thy vines The next is when the Autumnall cold beginnes When now the 〈◊〉 shortâ—ns the daies and done The Summer is yet winter not begun The Spring 's the time that cloaths the woods with leaves The earth then swells and seed with ioy receives The Iove Almighty down descends and powers Into the earths glad bosome fruitfull showers And mixt with her great body he doth feed All births of hers and foster every seed Each bush with loudly chirping birds is grac'd Beasts at set times the ioyes of Venus tast The ground stirr'd up by Zephyres warmer winde Opens her selfe and brings forth fruit in kinde Young blooming trees dare trust themselves unto The Sun new mounted the vine branches now Feare not the rising Southren windes nor yet The North-East-winde that causes tempests great But shoot their blossoms forth spread their leafe No other daies but such t is my beliefe When first the world beginning had were known Th' earth had no other tâ—nor Spring alone And that perpetual the great world enioy'd No East-windes winter blasts that age annoy'd When first all Cattell their beginning had When of the earth mankindes hard race was made When wilde Beasts fill'd the woods stars the sky Nor could the tender creatures easily Endure this change but heaven to make amends Twixt heat and cold this temper'd season sends What plants so ere thou setst in th' earth be sure Cover them well and with fat dung manure Put shells and sandy stones therein twixt them Moisture will flow and thin exhalings steame From whence the plants will gather hart Some lay Great stones at top vessels of thick clay Which from all stormes will guard and fence them sound This when the dog-star cleaves the thirsty ground And when thou plantst thy Vines dig round about To bring good store of earth to every root Or exercise thy struggling Steeres to plow The ground in surrowes deep twixt every row Then get light reeds smooth wands ashen stakes With horned forkes whose supportation makes Young Vines contemne the windes and to the top Of Elmes to clime by broad-spred branches
them too farre lest Boreas piercing cold Or Phoebus heat should dry the parched mold And wholesome husbandry t was euer found Often to breake and harrow barren ground And well rewarded still at Ceres hand Nor is 't unwholesome to subdue the Land By often exercise and where before You broke the earth againe to plow it ore Crosse to the former Let the Plow-mens prayer Be for moist solâ—â—ices and winters faire For winters dust doth cheere the land and draw So great an haruest that rich Maesia For all her skill obtaines not greater store Nor Ida's hilâ— do boast their plenty more What shall I say to him that sowes his Land Immediately scattering the barren Sand Then brings in watering streames that wil suffice And when in scorched fields all Herbage dyes Lo he from higher bending hillocks drawes In furrowes wateâ—s down which gliding cause Among the pebble stones a murmuring sound And with their streams refresh the thirsty ground Or him that least ranke eares should ouerlade And lodge the stemme he in the tender blade Eates off the rankenes Or that draines his ground With thirsty sand when moisture doth abound When in the Spring or Autume specially Vnconstant seasons riuers swell'd too high Haue fill'd the drenched fields with slime and yet The draining trenches with warm moisture sweat Nor are these things though they mens labors be And beasts not subiect to the iniurie Of â—â—ose Strymonian Cranes the shade of Trees And growing bitter-rooted Suckoryes For Ioue himselfe loath that our liues should proue Too easie first caus'd men the ground to moue Fill'd mortall hearts with cares nor sufferd he The world to fall into a Lethargy Before Ioues reign no Plow-men till'd the ground Nor was it lawfull then their Lands to bound They liu'd in common all and euery thing Did without labour from earths bosome spring Ioue Venome first infus'd in Serpents fell Taught Wolues to prey and stormy Seas to swell Rob'd leaues of honey and hid fire from men And banish'd wine which run in rivers then That th' arts by neede might so in time be found Corne might be sought by tilling of the ground And hidden fire from flints hard veines be drawn Then Aldern boates first plow'd the Ocean The Sailers number'd then and nam'd each starre The Pleiads Hyads and the Northren carre Deceiving bird-lime then they learn'd to make And beasts by hunting or by toyles to take Drag-nets were made to fish within the deep And casting nets did rivers bottomes sweep Then iron first and sawes were understood For men before with wedges clefâ— their wood Then th' arts were found for all things conquer'd be By restlesse toyle and hard necessity First yellow Ceres taught the world to plow When woods no longer could afford enow Wilde crabs and acorns and Dodona lent Her mast no more then miseries were sent To vexe the art of tillage blastings kill'd The stalks and fruitlesse thistles in the field Prevailing spoyl'd the corne rough weeds did grow Of burs and brâ—mbles troubling it and now Within the fields among the harvest graine Corne-vâ—xing darnell and wilde oates did reigne That now unlesse thou exercise the soile Fright birds away and with continuall toile Lop off the shadowing boughes and pray for raine Devoutly still thou mayst behold in vaine Thy neighbours heape of corne with envious eies Labouring with mast thy hunger to suffice The hardy plow-mens tooles must now be shown Without which corne can nor be reapt nor sown The flaile fled coulter share and crooked plow The iron harrow Ceres wagons slow Celeus poor wicker houshold-stuffe and than Harrowes of wood with Bacchus misticke Van. All these before hand must be got by thee If fame thou seeke in noble husbandry Fetch from the woods a fitting elme and bow The same with skill till of a crooked plow It take the forme to that fasten a beame Eight foot in length two eares not far from them The wood that holds the share but tile-tree take Or lofty beech the Oxens yokes to make And tailes of plowes which all the course do guid When smoke the goodnesse of the wood hath tri'd Many of the ancients rules I here could show Vnlesse thou scorne to study Arts so low Let thy Barns floore be digg'd and sodder'd than With tuffest Clay and then rowl'd hard againe Lest it should turne to dust or grasse should grow Many mishaps may fall the mouse below Oft makes her house and garner under ground And there as oft the blinde-borne moles are found There Toades and many earth-bred Monsters ly There little Weeuills heapes of corne destroy And frugall Ants that toyle for times to come Consider thou when nut-Nut-trees fully bloome And with their fragrant blossomes bend the tree As those nuts thriue so will thy harvests be And corne in great abundance gathered But if those trees in broad leaues only spread Then ears though great but little grain wil yeeld Some I haue seene before they sow their field Their seedes with lees of oyle and nitre still To macerate which makes full graines to fill The flattering huskes or else their seedes to boile Seedes I haue seene chosen and pick'd with toile Yet grow ill corne unlesse the man for feare Cull with his hand the greatest every yeare So all things of themselues degenerate And change to worse even by the law of Fate No otherwise than when a man doth row Against a violent streame with much adoo If ere he chance from rowing to refraine His Boate is hurry'd downe the streame againe Plow-men had need each starre as well to know The Kids the Dragon and Arcturus too As Sailors neede who in rough stormes are wont To passe the Oyster-breeding Hellespont When Libra first diuides the world twixt light And darknesse equalling the day and night Then exercise your teames and barley sow Till winter to extremity do grow While yet t is dry thy hempe and poppie sow Before the Winter too tempestuous grow Sow beans i'th'Spring Claue grasse in rotten soile And Willet that requires a yearely toile When with his golden hornes bright Taurus opes The year downward the crosse Dog-star stoops But if thou plow to sow more solid graine A wheat or barley harvest to obtaine First let the morning Pleiades be set And Ariadnes shining coronet Ere thou commit thy seed to ground and there Dare trust the hope of all the following yeare Some that before the fall o' th' Pleiades Began to sow deceived in th' increase Have reapt wilde oates for wheat But if that thou Disdain not Fesels or poor Vech to sow Or care to make Aegyptian lentils thrive Falling Boòtes then to thee will give Signes not obscure Begin to sow and till The midst of winter hold on sowing still And therfore through twelve signes bright Phoebus guides The world and th' earth in severall climes divides Five zones divide the heavens the torrid one Still red still heated by the burning sun On either side are two extreamely cold
Sylvanus from the woods wherein he lived This god Sylvanus was extreamely enamoured on a beauteous youth named Cyparissus who with great care had brought up a tame Deere and when on a time the youth unhappily trying his Bow had mist the marke and slaine unawares his beloved Deere out of extremity and impatience of griefe he dyed Sylvanus lamenting the death of his minion Cyparissus fell downe weeping upon the dead body and vowed never to part from those imbraces which he continued so long â—ntill the gods in pitie to Sylvanus transformed the body of Cyparissus into a tree called from him the Cypresse tree which ever after was a tree of mourning and garnished great mens houses at funerals as all the Poets mention and Sylvanus is accounted the god protector of that tree h Erigone the virgin was the daughter of Icarus an Athenian shepheard whose pieâ—ie to her father was much renowned insomuch as that when her father was slaine as shall bee afterwards declared shee never parted from the dead body but dyed with him and by the pitie of the gods as Poets say was taken up into heaven and made a signe in the Zodiacke called Virgo i The Husbandmen in ancient time sacrificed to Ceres the goddesse of Corne. They killed a fat Hog as the sacrifice it selfe a creature whose rooting endamages the corne About this sacrifice the whole Chorus of the husbandmen danced in a rude inartificiall maner for such dances in Religion were accepted and sang songs in honour of the goddesse Ceres who first invented Corne. They wore upon their heads branches of Oaken trees in a thankefull remembrance of their old food for before her bountiâ— to mankinde had taught them the wayes of tilling and harvest the people lived upon Mast and Acorns k For twice in that countrey the Romans fought in civill warre first Iulius Caesar against Pompey the Great afterward Octavius Caesar and Marcus Antonius against Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius FINIS GEORGICON The second BOOKE THE ARGVMENT THis Booke the nature of all trees defines Of fat-rin'd Olives of heart-cheering Vineâ— And other lesse-fam'd plants to every tree It s proper climate growth and quality Assignes and teaches how to propagate How to engraffe transplant enoculate With what rich fruit some happy lands are blest Which others want and here 'bove all the rest Our Poet doth inferre the praises high Of his owne native fâ—uitfull Italy Her meadowes heards faire townes and rivers knowne To all the world her nations of renowne And men of honour'd name Last it doth shew The blisse of plowmen if their blisse they knew THus much of tillage and coelestiall signes Thee Bacchus now I le sing with thy vines Other wilde Plants and Olives slowly growing Hither ô Father for thy gifts are flowing Ore all things here the vineyards by thy care With rich Autumn all fruit full laden are And vinetages oreflow oâ— hither daine To come great Bacchus and when thou hast tane Thy buskins off oh then vouchsafe with me In new sweet wine to dip thy bared thigh Nature on trees doth different births bestow Some of themselves without mans aide do grow And round the fields and crooked rivers come As limber Osiers Poplars tender broome And grey-leav'd Willowes some from seed arise Such are the lofty Chest nuts and those trees Which Iove his greatest holds th' high Aesculus And th' Oak by Greekes esteem'd oraculous Some from their own great roots make young ones rise About them round as Elmes and Cherry trees And young Parnasâ—ian bayes do often so Vnder their mothers shadow shelter'd grow These waies of planting nature first did bring So trees so herbs and sacred woods did spring But other waies experience since hath found Some plant yong shoots cut off froÌ„ trees in grouÌ„d Some graffe young rooted stalks in deeper mould And sharp crosse-cloven stakes some bow their old Vines into ranges propagating young Which thence in arches on both sides have sprung Some need no roots the Pruner young slips cuts And them into the earth securely puts And wondrous to be told an Olive tree Out from a dry cut trunke oft springs we see And often are the branches of one tree Into another grasfed prosperously So from an Apple stocke ripe Peares do come And hard red cornoiles from a stock of Plumme Therefore be carefull husbandmen to know What art belongs to every tree and how To make wilde trees by dressing better grow Keep no ground barren Ismarus will please Bacchus Taburnus will beare Olive trees And thou a Mecaenas to whose grace I ow My fame and glory be propitious now Lend thy free favour to this subiect plaine I dare not hope this Poeme should containe All parts of it had I an hundred tongues To them an hundred mouthes and iron lungs Waâ—t me from shore the earth's description's plain Nor will I here Maecenas thee detaine With Poets fictions nor oppresse thine eare With circumstance and long exordiums here Those trees which of theÌ„selves shoot up in th' aire Do grow unfruitfully but strong and faire For in the soile their nature is but these If thou do take and graâ—fe in other trees Or else transplant them well they 'le quite forsake Their barren nature and most aptly take By dressing oft what forme thou wouldst bestow The like those trees that spring from roots wil do If them to th' open fields thou do remove But now their mothers leaves and boughes above Oreshadow them and make them barren trees But all those plants which do from seedes arise Grow slow and shade to our grand-children give They still degenerate the more they live Good grapes turne birds meate grown extreamly bad And apples lose the first good iuice they had They must be mended all well digg'd and drest And by much labour tam'd the Olive best And Venus Myrtle set in trunks do live And Vines the best by propagation thrive From small slips set do Filâ—erts grow we see Iove's Oake and great Alcides b Poplar tree The stately Ashes lofty Palmes and Firs Employ'd at sea by ventrous Marriners Rough arbute slips into a hazell bough Are oft ingraffed and good Apples grow Out of a Plaine trees stocke the Chestnut beares Ingraffed Beech in tall wilde Ashes Peares Do flourish best from Elmes Oak-acorns fall To Hogs nor are the wayes alike in all How to ingraffe how to inoculate For where the tender rinde opening of late Shot forth a bud iust at that knot they cut A little hole into that hole they put A budding shoot â—ane from another tree The rinde then closing makes them prosperously Together grow But if the trunke be free From knots they cleave the trunke of such a tree With wedges putting fruitfull slips therein Within short time th' ingrafted slips begin To grow to prosperous height the tother tree Wonders such stranger fruit and leaves to see Nor are the waies alike in all of these In Willowes Lotes Idaean Cypresses And sturdy Elmes nor in
one maner do All kindes of Olives the long Radii grow Nor Olives orchites or Pausia nam'd Nor apples nor Alcinous fruit so fam'd Nor must all shootes of peares alike be set Crustumian Syrian peares and wardens great Nor hang the vines upon our trees as do Those that in Lesbian Methymna grow The Thasian vines in barren soile abound The Maâ—â—otike thrive in richer ground The Psithian grapes are best of all to dry Besides these strong Lagaean wines there be Whose strength makes drunkards stagger doth tye Their tongues â—ath-ripe purple grapes there be But in what verse shall â— enough commend The Rhetian grape yet let it not contend With the Tabernian Aminean vines There are besides which beare the firmest wines Cilician and Phanaean grapes there are And white grapes lesse than those none may compare With these for store of iuice and lasting long Nor will I passe thy vintage in my song O Rhodes for feasts and sacrifices fam'd Nor that great grape from a Cowes udder nam'd But all the kindes and names of grapes that are T is numberlesse and needlesse to declare Which he that seekes to do as soon may know How many Libyan sands the West winds blow Or when fierce Eurus 'gainst the Sailers rores How many waves rowle to th' Iônian shores Nor can all grounds bring forth all plants we see By rivers Willowes prosper th' Alder tree Oâ— moâ—ish grounds on rocky mountaines grow Wilde Ashes Myrtles on the shores below Vines love warm open heights the Northren cold Makes Yew trees prosper And again behold The conquer'd worlds farthest inhabitants Easterne Arabians painted Scythians See there all trees their proper countries know In India only does black Eben grow None but Sabaea boasts of Frankincense Why should I name that fragrant wood froÌ„ whence Sweet Balsam sweats the berries or the buds Of Bears-foot ever greene those hoary woods Of Aethiopia cloath'd with snowy wooll Or how the Seres their rich fleeces pull From leaves of trees or those fair woods w ch grow Neere to the Indian sea whose highest bough No Arrowes flight can reach none shoot so high Although that Nation no bad Archers be Slow-tasted Apples Media doth produce And bitter too but of a happy use Than which no surer Antidote is known T' expell a poyson-temper'd potion When cruell step-dames their sad cups have us'd With chaâ—ming words and banefull herbs infus'd The tree is faire iust like a Laurell tree And were indeed a Laurell perfectly But that their smels far differ no winds blast Shakes off her leaves her blossomes still stick faâ—t With this the Mede short-winded old men eases And cures the lungs unsavory diseases But not the richest land not Median woods Not golden Hermus nor faire Ganges sloods May ought for praise contend with c Italy Nor faire Panchaia fam'd for spiceâ—y Bactia nor India no Bulls that blow Fire from their nostrels did that Region plow No Dragons teeth therein were sow'd to beare A crop of Souldiers arm'd with shield and speare Besides this land a spring perpetuall sees Twice breeding Cattell twice fruit-beaâ—ing trees And summers there in moneths unusuall shine But no wilde Tigers in that coast are seene No savage Lions breed nor in that land Do poisonous c herbs deceive the gatherers hand No huge and sâ—aly snake on those faire grounds Makes fearful tracks or twines in hideous rounds Adde to all these so many structures faire Of beauteous Cities of strong Townes that are Fenced with rocks impregnable and how Vnder those Antient walls great Rivers flow Shall I insist on those two seas that flow 'Bout Italy above it and below Or her great lakes thee mighty Larius Or thee tempestuous sea-like Benacus Or praise her havens or the Lucrine lake Where the imprison'd Iulian waters make A loud wrathfull noise through which the great Sea-tides into Avernus lake are let Besides the land abounds with mettals store With veines of â—ilver gold and brazen ore It nurturs Nations bold the Marsians The â—iâ—â—ce Sabellians dart-arm'd Volâ—cians Hardy Ligurians in particular The Decii Marii those brave names of war The great Camilli valiant Scipio's And thee great Caesar now victorious In Asia's utmost bounds whose conquering powers From flying Indians guard the Roman towers Haile Saturns land in riches great and great In men for thee I will presume t' entreat Of th' ancient praised arts ope sacred springs And through Romes townes Aâ—crean poems sing Now all soiles severall natures let us see Their strengths their colours and fertility First barren hils and hard unfruitfull ground Where clay is scarce and gravell doth abound Is good for Pallas long-liv'd Olive tree For in such soiles we by experience see Wilde Olive trees do in abundance grow And all the fields with their wilde Olives strow But ground more fertile with sweet moisture fill'd Well cloath'd with grasse and fruitfull to be till'd Such as in valleyes we doe oft espy Whither the waters flow from hils on high Leaving a fruitful slime where South-winds blow And Brakes great hinderers of all plowing grow Will yeeld thee spreading vines and full of iuice And lusty wines such as we sacrifice In golden goblets to the gods as soon As the swoln Tuscan trumpeter has done His sounding at the Altar which we load With reeking entrailes brought in chargers broad But if thou rather Heards or Calves wouldst keep Or Goats whose grazing burns the fields or sheep Then seek Tarentums lawnes and farthest coast Such fields as happlesse Mantua has lost Where snowy Swans feed in the meadowes neere The rivers side nor grasse nor water there Thy Heards can want what grasse they eat by dayes The dewy night back to the field repayes But ground in colour blacke and fat below Putrid and loose for such we wish to plow Is best for coâ—ne for from no ground do come Mo lâ—den waggons and tir'd Oxen home Or where of late the plowman grubb'd up wood Which quiet there for many yeares had stood And birds old nests has from the roots orethrown They â—est of dwellings now from thence are flown The new-made ground once plow'd most fruitfull grows Course barren sand hilly scarce bestows Casia and â—lowers for Bees to feed upon Nor chaulk nor that so soft though rugged stone Eat by black snakes no ground on snakes so good Close holes bestowes nor such delicious food But that rich land which doth exhale like smoakes Thin vapors up that showrs of raine in soakes And when â—he lists returns them forth againe Whose mould with â—ust the iron doth not staine Which cloaths herselfe in her own grassie greeneâ— That Land as well in tillage may be seene Is good to pasture cattell good to plow There Vines and Olives prosperously grow Such Lands by Capua by Vesuvius high And Clanius that oâ—eâ—lowes Acerrae ly â— How to discerne each soile â—le teach thee now Which mould is thick and which is loose to know For one â—â—aeus tother Ceres loves Vines love
up But when their leaves do first begin to bee And new-growne branches from supporting free Shoot loose into the Ayre then spare to use Thy pruning knife so soone and rather choose The leaves superfluous with thy hands to pull But when embracing Elmes with armes more full And strong they grow then confidently pare Their leaves and branches too before they fearâ— The pâ—uning knife then do not spare the same But their superfluous growth with rigour tame Then make strong hedges to keep cattell out Young beasts especially and yet unwrought Wilde Bulls and greedy Goates more harm will do Than scorching Summers and cold Winters too There Sheep will browze and feeding Heifers go The Winters hoary Frosts and falling Snow And parching Suns that burne the hardest rocks Endammage Vines lesse than those greedy flockâ—â— Their browzing teeth do venome leave behinde And killing scars upon the stocke and rinde No other fault there was that d Goates did dâ—â— At Bacchus Altars and th' old Comaedie Was celebrated that th' Athenian playes In Villages and all crosse-meeting wayes Were grac'd and men ore meadowes in their poâ—â— Did dance about th' annointed e skins of Goatâ—â— Th' Italian Nations also sprung from Troy Singing Saturnian rythms with open ioy And laughter loose horrid disguises worâ— Of hollow'd barks of trees and did adore With hymnes of mirth Bacchus thy power divine And virgins f statues on the lofty pine Did hang. Then vineyards fruitfully did beare All vales and lawnes were fertile every where Where ere the god his beauteous head do show Therefore let us these rites to Bacchus do In our own mother language offering Full cups and wafers and to th' altar bring A guilty goat led by the hornes and his Fat entrailes rost on spits of cornoile trees Besides in dressing vines more paines is showne To which there never can enough be done For every yeare the ground must digged be Three or foure times and plow'd eternally The leaves must oft bee gathered all the paine That husbandmen bestow returnes againe His own steps back the circling yeare doth tread And when the vines their leaves in Autumn shed And all the woods of cloathing robbed are By North-east-windes even then th' industrious care Of th'husbandman unto the following yeare Extends it selfe then he begins to pare The vine with Saturn's crooked hooke and right By skilfull pruning to refashion it First dig the ground first burne the shreds cut off And lay thy rests up dry within thy roofe Gather thy vintage last Leaves twice oreshade The vines as twice the ranke-grown weeds invade Yong corn Both which require great toil to mend Till thou a little farme though thou commend A great one And besides sharpe twigs of thorne From woods and reedes on bankes of rivers born Thou for thy vines must cut and carefull be For willow groves which else neglected ly Now when the vines are bound prun'd and all And th' husband sings about the vineyard wall Yet there remaines a care to dust them there And storms even when the grapes are ripe to fear Contrariwise unto the Olive tree No dressing doth belong nor needeth shee The crooked hook nor harrow when once faire Shee stands in ground and once has felt the ayre The earth it selfe when furrow'd by the plow Doth food enough on her and corne bestow Therefore the fat and fruitfull Olive nourish So th' Apple tree in a full stock doth flourish And once full grown up to the sky she towres By her own strength and needes no helpe of ours So of themselves wilde Woods and every Bush Beare fruit and with Vermilion berries blush Low shrubs are shorn braÌ„ds on high trees do grow That feede the nightly fire and light bestow And doubt men yet to plant and care bestow To leave great trees Willowes and Broom so low Do cooling shades to Sheep and Shepheards give Hedges for corne and food for Bees to live How pleasantly with Boxe Cytorus stowes With her Pitch trees how faire Maricia showes Oh how it pleases me those fields to see That need no plowes nor humane industrie Those barren Woods on Caucasus high hill Which strong East-windes do wave and rattle still Have each their severall use Pines for the Seas For Houses Cypresse and tall Cedar trees From hence the Plowmen Spokes for wheeles doe takeâ— Covers for Waines Keeles for Ships they make Willowes do usefull twigs afford Elmes shade Of Cornoile trees and Myrtles darts are made Yew trees to make strong Parthian Bowes are bow'd Tile trees pliant Boxe may be bestow'd Hollow'd or turn'd in formes and uses good Light alderne barks do swim the Po's rough floud In rotten-holme stocks and the rindes of trees You oft may finde the hony-combes of Bees What benefits like these come from the Vine That causes guilt The Centaures fill'd with wine Great Rhaetus Pholus and Hylaeus dy'd When they with pots the Lapithees defi'd Oh too too happy if their blisse they knew Plaine Husbandmen to whom the earth with true And bounteous iustice free from bloody war Returnes an easie food who though they are Not early wak'd in high-roof'd Pallaces When waiting Clients come though they possesse No Poasts which Indian shels adorne in state No gold embroidred cloaths Corinthian plate Nor rich Assyrian scarlet nor abuse With sweetest Casia the plaine simple use Of oyle yet rest secure a harmelesse life Enrich'd with severall blessings free from strife Coole caves dark shady groves fountains clear Vntroubled sleeps and cattells lowing there And pleasant huntings want not there they live By labour and small wealth honour they give Vnto their gods and parents iustice tooke Her last step there when she the earth forsooke But let the sacred Muse whose priest I am Me above all with her sweet love inflame Teach me each star each heavenly motion The oft eclipses of the Sun and Moone The cause of Earthquakes why the swelling main Rises and fals into it selfe againe Why Winter suns so soone hast to the sea What makes the Summer nights so short to be But if dull bloud which 'bout my heart doth flow These parts of nature will not let me know Then let me famelesse love the fields and woods The fruitfull water'd vales and running floods Those plains where clear Sperchius runs that mouÌ„t Where Spartan Virgins to great Bacchus wont To sacrifice or shady vales that lye Vnder high Haemus let my dwelling be Happy is he that knowes the cause of things That all his feares to due subiection brings Yea fare it selfe and greedy Acheron Yea happy sure is he who ere has known The â—urall gods Sylvanus and great â—an And all the sister Nymphs that happy man Nor peoples voices nor kings purple move Nor dire ambition sundring brothers love Nor th' Istrian Dacians fierce conspiracies Nor Romes estate nor falling monarchies He sees no poore whose miserable state He suffers for he envies no mans fate He eats such fruits as of their own accord The
contending with their utmost spite Their wounded bodies lay'd in blood do fight Their Hornes with fury meet their bellowings rouÌ„d Olympus great and all nere woods resound Nor do they after both together feede Far into exile goes the vanquished And there alone in forreine fields bewailes His sad disgrace how his proud foe prevailes He unrevenged forc'd to lose his love And from his native Countrey to remove Then he with care his strength doth exercise Vpon the hardest stones all night he lyes On roughest leaves and sharpest herbs he feedes Oft tryes himself with wrathfull horns proceedes Against the trunks of Trees with furious strokes And with his strength the winde it selfe provokes Each place beholds the Prologue to his sight But when his strength is recollected quite And well improv'd he doth with fury go To meete againe his not forgotten â—o As when a furious foaming billow rose In the mid-sea and thence with horrour goeâ— To be at the rocky shore resounding straight And falls no lesse than with a mountaines weight The Seas low'st part mixt with his highest fomes And belch'd black sand up from the bottom comes Even so all kindes on earth led by desire Men Beasts Fish painted Fowle to this sweet fire With fury run Love is the same to all The â—urious Lionesse no time at all Forgetting yong ones through the fields doth rore And rage so much nor ougly Beares do more Black slaughters make nor throgh the woods more wracke Do cruell Bores and furious Tygers make In Libyan desarts t is ill wandring then See how the Horses ioynts all tremble when A Mare 's known sent he through the aire doth feele No stripes no strength of men no bits of steele No Rocks nor Dikes nor Rivers in his way Which roule whole mountaines can his fury stay The sterne Sabellian Bore in love doth whet His tusks and digge the earth up with his feet Against a tree he rubs his lusty fide Rowzing his bristles with a martiall pride What dares the young man do whom loves strong heat Torments within though stormes be nere so great He ore the seas in midst of night dares swim Although the heavens showre down their spite on him And though the sea-beat rocks resound amaine No â—eeping parents can his course restraine Nor that faire Maide whose death his death must prove Why should I speak of spotted â—â—nxes love Of Dogs and cruell Wolves or shew what warre Faint Deer in love will make but strangest farre Is those Mares furious love which Venus sent WheÌ„ they their Master k Glaucus peecemeal rent Love makes them mount ore lofty Gargarus And swim the streames of swift Ascanius And when Love's flame their greedy marrowes burnes Most in the spring for heat then most returnes To th'bones upoÌ„ high rocks they take their places And to the Western winde all turn their faces â—uck in the blasts and wondrous to be said Grow great with Fole without the Horses ayd Then ore the rocks and vallies all they run Not to the North nor to the rising Sun Nor Caurus quarter nor the South whence rise Black showres which darken disturbe the skies Hence flows thick poison from the groines of these Which Shepheards truly call Hippomanes Hippomanes which oft bad stepdames use And charming words and banefull herbs infuse But Time irreparable flyes away While we too much of every thing would say Let this suffice of Heards our tother care Shall woolly Sheep and shaggy Goats declare This is a taske hence Shepheards hope to get Your praise nor am I ignorant how great A paine t will be in words to hit it right And give such lustre to a subiect sleight But me the sweet desire of fame doth beare Over Parnassus hardest ridges there Where never path nor track before I saw Of former Writers to Castalia Now hallowed Pales in a lofty straine I le sing but first I counsell to containe Your Sheep within soft stals to feed at home Whilst Winter lasts till flowery Summer come Bundles of Straw and Bâ—akes upon the ground Strow under them lest the cold ice should wound The tender Cattle and bring scabs and rots This done I counsell thee to feed thy Goats With arbute trees and streames that freshly run And 'gainst the Winde toward the Winter sun Directly to th' Meridian build thy Stals When now the long-chilling Aquarius fals And lends a moisture to the ending yeare Let these unto our care be no lesse deare Nor are they lesse of use though nere so high Milesian fleeces with the purple dye Of Tyre be sold. But Goates if well they thrive Bring young ones ofter and more Milk do give And still the more the milking Pailes are fill'd The more their swelling Vdders still will yeeld Besides the Beards grey Skins and bristly Haire Of the Cyniphian Goats the owners sheare To make their Tents and cloath poore Marriners They feed on Woods Mountaines tops on Briers Brambles and Bushes of the greatest height And of their owne accords come home at night Scarce able their swell'd Vdders to get ore The Threshold then For this do thou the more Guard them from Ice and Winter winde the lesse Themselves perceive mortalities distresse Bring them for food sweet Boughes Osyars cut Nor all the Winter long thy hay-ricke shut But when faire Summer comes when West windes blow Let both thy â—locks to field a grazing goe When first bright Lucifer appeares along The yet coole pastures lead theÌ„ forth whilst yong The Morning is whilst all the Grasse is grey And mingled with sweet Dew that Dew away Taâ—â— by the fourth houres thirsty Sun when rouÌ„d The fields with noise of Grashoppers resound Lead down thy flocks unto the Rivers brink Or else in woodden Channels make them drink In th' heat of day for shady Vallies looke On which some stately and far spreading Oke Sacred to â—ove or Holly grove do grow Which darke but sacred Shadowes do bestow Then sleightly water them againe and let Them feed abroad againe about Sun-set When night to th' ayre a cooler temper yeelds And dew refreshing on the Pasture fields The Moone bestowes Kings-fishers play on shore And thistles tops are fill'd with Linnets store What need I sing of Libyan Shepheards and Their feeding countries where few houses stand There oft the flocks whole moneths both night day Do without stals along the desarts stray The Libyan Shepheard carryes with him ever His armes his Spartan Dog his Cretan Quiver His House and Victuals too provided so To Wars far off the Roman Souldiers go When they too heavie laden march and yet Before the Fo expect encamped get But neere Maeotis in cold Scythian lands Where Ister tumbles up his yellow sands Where Rhodope's extended to the North From Stals they never bring their Cattell forth No Herbage cloaths those fields no leaves appearâ— Vpon their naked trees but farre and neer The hidden ground with hard frosts evermore And snow seven cubites deep is
willing grounds and laden trees afford He sees no wrangling courts no lawes undone By sword nor peoples forc'd election Some search the Seas hid pathes some rush to war In Courts of Kings others attendants are One would his country and dear gods destroy That he himselfe might drink in gemmes and ly On purple beds another hoards up gold And ever wakes his hidden wealth to hold The pleading bars another doth admire And high applause from every seat desire Plebeians and Patritians some for goods Their guilty hands embrue in brothers bloods Some from their houses and dear countries rome In banishment to seek a forreine home Whilest the industrious husband plowes the soile And takes the profit of his yearly toyle With which his house and country too he serves And feedes his Heards th'Oxe that wel deserves No fruitlesse time young Cattell still are bred Or Corne is reap'd or fruits are gathered Corne that the surrowes lades and barnes doth fill When Winter comes Oyle in the Olive mill They make and Porkers fat with Acorns grow The Woods yeeld Crabs but Autumne does bestow All kindes of pleasant fruit the grapes hang by Hot sunny walls and ripen perfectly Meane while his pretty children kissing cull His neck his house is chast with Vdders full His Kine come home and in the flowery Meades His frisking Kids do butt with tender heads He feasts himselfe upon the grassie ground Whilst 'bout the fire carowling cups are crown'd And Bacchus is invok'd in sacrifice Then mongst his herdsmen makes a darting prize And sâ—ts the mark upon an Elme or they Prepar'd for wrastling their hard lims display Such lives as this the ancient Sabines led And so were Romulus and Remus bred So grew renowned Tuscany to fame So Rome the greatest of all lands became And in one wall did seven great hils containe And thus before Dictaean love did reigne And impious nations on slaine cattel fed His life on earth the golden Saturne led No classicks sounded then nor mortall blade Of swords the Smiths laborious anvile made But we enough have now produc'd our course And time it is to ease our wearyed horse FINIS Annotations upon the second BOOKE CAius a Mecaenas that famous cherisher of good learning to whom our Poet in this place acknowledges so much was a Gentleman of Etruria in high favour with Augustas Caesar and in great imployment of State under him Hee was in his friendship with learned men not onely bountifull but judicious in the placing of his bountie and above all others fortunate in the choise of the men Among all the Poets in that wise age wherein he lived Virgil and Horace were the onely two which I can finde whose meane fortunes needed his liberalitie as well as their vertues deserved his acquaintance how liberall he was their often acknowledgements in their Works have testified to the world how judicious or fortunate he was in those mens acquaintance no age of the world hath since beene ignorant his name having beene generally used for the love of learning no lesse than Caesar's for Imperiall dignity though there were both in that and the following ages as Iuvenal witnesseth in his seventh Satyr other men of honourable name and esteeme in Rome who were lovers of such things as Fabius Cotta Proculeius Lentulus c. Those Lords eyther fayled in judgement in the choyse of their friends or the injury of their times affoorded them not wits able enough to raise their fames since wee finde not any such manifest honour done to their memories as to this Mecaenas whose fortune it was that Virgil and Horace should live in his time and in such estates as to need his bounty for his owne honour which is not a thing incident to every age though wittie Martial in an Epigram of his could speake thus Sint Mecaenates non deerunt Flacce Marones yet the contrary by experience hath oft been found Maroes have beene borne when no Mecaenases have lived to cherish them as Homer the wonder of posteritie in his owne time little esteemed and Mecaenases have lived and wanted Maroes What Monarch in the world was ever more desirous of fame in that kinde and more able to requite than Alexander the Great Hee that so much honoured the memory of Homer and at the sacking of Thebes spared all the posteritie of the Poet Pindarus found in his owne time no able Poet to celebrate his fame There were in his time as Arianus witnesseth in the life of Alexander many Poets who would have written of him and stirred up by the greatnesse of his actions or moved with hopes form his known bounty had written in the praise of him but such and so poore were their inspirations they neyther deserued the acceptation of Alexander nor the sight of posterity b The Poplar is called the tree of Hercules for this reason as the Poets faine When Hercules had entred into Hell redeemed Theseus from prison there and returned victorious leading out Cerberus in triumph after him the first tree that he espyed was a Poplar tree of which he made himselfe a Garland and crowned himselfe after his new conquest c Our Poet after the description of those severall trees of strange natures which enrich the severall climates of the earth takes an occasion by way of comparison to extoll in all kinds the fruitfulnesse and withall the happinesse of his native Italy the magnificence of the Italian Cities the multitude and bravery of her people Of the populousnesse of Italy thus Plinius at one place speaketh This is that Italy which when Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Caius Attilius were Consuls upon the fame of the tumult of Gallia armed presently of her owne forces without the aide of any forreyners and without mustering of any Italians beyond the river of Po thirty thousand horsemen and seventy thousand foot and Diodorus Siculus speaking of Rome before the second Carthaginian warre sayes that the Senate as it were foreseeing the comming of Annibal with a warre so bloudy tooke a generall survey of themselves and their tributaries and found the number of men fit to beare armes to be ten hundred thousand And speaking also of the populousnesse of the Iland of Sicily esteemed then as a part of Italy for it was all called magna Graecia bids us not wonder at those mighty armies of Ninus Semiramis Darius or Xerxes since Dionysius the tyrant out of Syracusae onely armed an hundred and twenty thousand footmen with twelve thousand horsemen and a navy of foure hundred ships out of one haven d The sacrifices which in ancient times were offered to the gods were alwayes chosen eyther for likenesse or contrariety for likenesse some were offered as to Pluto the King of the darke world a blacke sheepe or steere were offered in sacrifice Others for contrarietie and hatred as a Sow because she rooteth up land and spoyleth corne was offered unto Ceres the Goat because he browzeth the Vines was offered to Bacchus the Goat was
those Romane ensignes which they before had taken in warre from Marcus Crassus and Marcus Antonius the Triumvir f The horses here mentioned and so famed in Poetry were these the horses of Castor and Pollux called Xanthus and Cyllarus the horses of Mars called Dimos and Phobos and the horses of Achilles called Xanthus and Aethon g The fable is thus Saturne was in love with Philyra the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis shee to avoide the rape was transformed by her parents into a Mare upon which Saturne turned himselfe into a stately Courser and so enjoyed the Nymph in which shape also hee deceived his wife Ops who came thither of purpose to finde him out and discover the fact of which conâ—â—ction of Saturne and Phylira the Poets reported that Chiron the Centaure was borne h As the Thessalians were the first of all that ever invented the use of riding on horse-backe so Ericthonius was the first that taught posteritie the way of joyning horses together in Chariots This Ericthonius was the sonne of Vulcan a man of a goodly personage but deformed onely in his feete which were like the feet of a Serpent Hee to hide this deformity invented Chariots wherein hee might ride and nothing of him but his upper parts exposed to the view i Peletronium is a towne in Thessaly where the use of taming and riding horses was first found for on a time when Thessalus the king of that countrey was much displeased that his Bullocks ran 〈…〉 for it should seeme the horse-fly had stung them he commanded his men which wayted on him to run after them and stop their flight they being not able to overtake the swiftnesse of the Bullocks took up on the sudden a new invention they mounted themselves upon horses backs and so with ease overtooke and turned them These men espied by some of the neighbouring people eyther as they rode swiftly by or else as their horses bowed downe their heads to drinke of the river Peneus gave way to that old fable of the Centaures for the people neere had an opinion that they were halfe men and halfe horses But the name of Centaure was therefore given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because those men when first they rods 〈◊〉 horses were driving of Bullocks k Potnia is the Citie of which Glaucus was who as the Poets fained despised the sacrifices and service of Venus The goddesse angry with his contempt sent a madnesse to possesse the Mares which drew his Chariot who turning upon their Master tore him to pieces The cause of this fiction that Venus should send a madnesse into them is this Glaucus to make his Mares the swifter and fuller of mettall kept them from venery which made his Mares so furious that their ungovern'd spirit turned to the destruction of their Master l Virgil speaking in this place of the plague among cattell ingeniously supposeth that this was the same time wherein that famous history of Herodotus was verified It was the custome for the Votaresse or Priest of Argos to ride to the Temple of Iuno drawne by two Oxen upon festâ—â—all 〈◊〉 But when it so befell upon a solemne day that no Oxen could be found to draw her the plague having consumed the cattell in that countrey her two sonnes Cleobis and Biton put the yoakes upon their neckes and drew their mother to the temple The goddesse Iuno moved with so great a piety in these two young men offered their mother that whatsoever shee would pray for in her sonnes behalfe it should be granted The mother with a pious answer entreated the goddâ—sse that whatsoever she knew the most happy for mortall men shee would be pleased to graunt unto her sonnes the next morning the two young men were both found dead from whence it was generally concluded that nothing was so happy for a man as to dye FINIS GEORGICON The fourth BOOKE THE ARGVMENT THis book describes the Bees industrious state By what chast wondrous means they propagate Their kind breed their coÌ„mon progeny Their age their natures and strange industry Their wars and furious factions how they By lawes of iustice governe and obey In their monarchike state Their maladies And cures and how to make a swarm of Bees When all thy stock is quite consum'd to noughâ— Sad Aristaeus by his mother taught Bindes fast shape-changing Proteus who alone Tels him what caus'd his Bees destruction Orpheus bewailes his wife his musicks straine Charms hell and brings Eurydice againe From thence againe fond love looses her quite 〈…〉 in endlesse wo by night 〈…〉 torne in Bacchus sacrifice By Thracian dames whose beds he did despise Taught Aristaeus doth to them ordaine A sacrifice and findes his Bees againe AEriall Honey next a gift divine I le sing Mecaenas grace this piece of mine Admired spectacles of Creatures small Their valiant Captaines and in order all Their Nations Manners Studies People Fight I will describe nor think the Glory slight Though slight the Subiect be to him whom ere Th' invoked gods and pleas'd Apollo heare First for your Hives a fitting station finde Shelter'd from windes rough violence for winde Hinders their carriage let no Sheep there play Nor frisking Kids the flowery meadowes lay Nor wanton Heifers neare the hiving place Strike off the dew nor tread the springing grasse Let speckled Lizzards thence be far away The Woodpeckers and other Birds of prey And Progne marked on her stained breast With bloody hands for she to feed her nesâ— Seizes the flying Bees and thither 〈…〉 As sweetest food but near pure 〈…〉 Green mossie fountaines stil your Bee-hives place And streames that glide along the Verdant grasse Shaded with palms or spreading olive trees That when new kings draw out their swarming bees And froÌ„ their combes dismiss'd in spring they play The neighboring banks may then invite their stay Cooling their heat and trees so near the hive A green and shady coverture may give Into the poole whether it stand or flow Great stones acrosse and Willow branches throw As bridges for the Bees to stand upon And spread their wings against the SuÌ„mer sun When strong Eastwindes by chance have scatter'd theÌ„ In coÌ„ming home or drown'd them in the streame Let beds of Violets and wilde Betony Greene Cinnamon and fragrant savory Grow round about the spring But whether you To make your hives trees barkes together sow Or hives of limber Osyars woven get Make the mouth narrow lest the summers heat Dissolve the honey or cold winter freeze For both extreames alike annoy the Bees Nor iâ— in vaine that they with all their powers Daube up each chinck with waxe fil with flowers Each breathing hole and to that end prepare A glew more clammy than all birdlime farre And Phrygian Ida's pitch and under ground If fame speak truly Bees have oft been found Breeding in digged caves and oft been known In holes of trees and hollow pâ—mice stone But daube thou vp the chinky hives with clay To keep
them warme and leaves above them lay Neere to the hives let no deep waters flow Nor crabs be drest nor poisonous yew-trees grow Or where mud standing stinkes or eccho's bound From hollow rocks with their reflected sound But when bright Sol hath banish'd Winter chas'd Vnder the earth and Summer light hath grac'd The sky againe over the fields and woods They wander straight lightly the brinkes of floods They sip and tast the purple flowers from thence What sweetnesse ere it be that stir their sence Care for their broâ—de and progeny they take Thence work their waxe and hony clammy make Then when dismiss'd their hives vp to the sky In Summer ayre thou seest them swarming fly Wondring to view dark clouds 〈…〉 wind Then mark theÌ„ well they go sweet streams to 〈◊〉 And leavie bowers upon this place do thou Base honey-â—uckles and beaten mill-â—oile strow And round about let tincking brasse resound Thâ—iâ— farther progresse this charmd place wilbouÌ„d There they will make their stand or else desire Back to their own known lodgings to retire But if they chance to sally out to wars As oft two kings have caused mortall iars The common Bees affections straight are found And trembling hearts to fight that martiall sound Of brasse checks their delay and then a voice Is heard resembling truÌ„pets winding noise Then straight they muster spread their glittering wings And with their beaks whet their dead-doing stings Then to the standard royall all repaire About their king and loudly buzzing dare Their foes t' appeare in weather clear and faire They sally forth their battels ioyne i' th' ayre The Welkin 's fill'd with noise they grapple all And grappling so in clusters head long fall Haile from the winters sky fals not so fast Nor shaken oakes so thick do shed their mast In midst of th' armies with bright glorious wings And mighty spirits fly the daring kings Though bodies small resolved not to yeeld Till one side vanquisht have forsooke the field Wouldst thou this fight and furious heate allay A little dust thrown up will part the fray But when both kings drawn home from battel be Kill him that seemes the worst lest thriftlesse he Do hurt and let the other reigne alone For of two sorts they are one fairely knowne By glittering specks of gold and scales of bright But ruddy hue This fairest to the sight Is best by floth the other's nasty growne And hangs his large unweildy belly downe Different as are the kings the subiects are Some foule and filthy like the traveller That comes from dusty waies and dirt doth spit From his dry throate the other gold-like bright With well proportion'd spots his limbes are deckt This is the better broode from these expect Honey at certaine seasons of the yeare Most sweet and yet not sweet alone but cleare And such as Bacchus hardnesse will allay But when in th' aire the swarmes 〈◊〉 randome play Scorning their combes forsaking their cold hive Dost thou from this vaine sport desire to drive Their waÌ„dring thoughts not toilsome is the pains Clip but the princes wings whilst he remaines Within no common Bee will dare to make High flight nor th'ensignes froÌ„ the campe to take Let Saffron gardens odoriferous Which th' image of Lampsacian Priapus Guards with his hooke of willow to affright Both Theeves and hurtfull Fowles the Bees invite Let him himselfe which feares his Bees to want Bring Thyme Pines down froÌ„ the hils to plant Wearing his hands with labour hard and round Bestow a friendly watering on the ground And did I not now neer my labours end Strike faile and hasting to the harbour tend Perchance how fruitfull gardens may be drest I 'd teach and sing of twice rose-bearing Pest How Succory by waters prospers well On grasse how bending Cucumbers do swell And bankes of Persley greene besides to show How the late blooming Daffodils do grow I would not faile and twigs of Beares-foot slow Shore loving Myrtles and pale Ivie too For where Tarentum's lofty Turrets stand Where slow Galesus soakes the fallow Land I saw an old Cilician who possest Few akers of neglected ground undrest Not fit to pasture beasts nor vines to beare Yet he among the bushes here and there Gathering few pot-hearbs vervaine li lies white And wholesome poppey in his mindes delight Equall'd the wealth of Kings and comming still Late home at night with meat unbought did fill His laden board he gather'd first of all Roses in spring and apples in the fall And when sad winter with extreamest cold Crack'd even the stones course of flouds did hold With bridling ice he then pluck'd leaves of soft Beares-foot and check'd the springs delayings oft And Zephyres sloath He therefore first was found With fruitfull Bees and swarmes still to abound And froathy hony from the combes could squeeze He still had fruitfull vines and linden trees And for each blossome which first cloath'd the tree An apple ripe in Autumne gather'd he He could to order old grown Elmes transpose Old peare trees hard black thorne bearing sloes The plaine tree too that drinking shade bestowes But too much straighten'd I must now forsake 〈◊〉 This taske for others afterward to take And now He show those natures which on Bees Great Iove himselfe bestow'd for what strange fees Following a tinckling noise and brazen ring In Cretan caves they nourish'd heavens high King Bees only live in common-wealths and Bees Only in common hold their progenies Live by lawes constant and their own abodes Certainly know and certain houshold gods And mindfull of ensuing winter they Labour in summer and in publike lay Vp their provision Some for gathering foods Are by the states commission sent abroad To labour in the fields some still at home Lay the foundations of the honey combe Of glue tree-gumme and faire Narcissus reare Then to the top they fasten every where Their claÌ„my waxe care for their brood some take The nations hope some purest honey make Till th' honey combe with clearest Nectar swels Some lot appoints to stand as centinels And to foresee the showres and stormes to come They watch by turns those that come laden home Some case or ioyning all their strengths in one Far from the hive they chase the lazie Drone To work they fall their fragrant honeyes hold A sent of Thyme as when the Cyclops mould Iove's thunder froÌ„ th' hard-yeelding masse in hast Some take and pay againe the windy blast From bull-hide bellowes others in the lakes Do quench the hizzing irons Aetna shakes With weight of anviles whilst their armes so stroÌ„ge In order strike and with hard-holding tongs The iron turne such inbred thrifty care If little things with great we may compare Each in his function Bees of Athens take The elder keep within the townes and make Daedalian fabrieks to adorne the combe But late returne the younger weary home Their thighes laden with Thyme they feed upon Wildings greene Willowes Saffron Cinnamon Pale
me hope for heaven above When lo those ioyes which mortall life did bring Which Bees and Cornes industrious husbanding With all my care could but procure is gone Though thou my Mother be Nay nay go on With thine own hand fell off my growing woods My harvests blast by fire consume my goods My barnes and corn my spreading vines cut down If thou so envious of my praise be grown But from her bower his mother heard the sound Vnder the flood the Nymphs about her round Spun green Milesian wooll Dishevell'd haire Adorn'd their ivorie necks Drymâ— the faire Xâ—ntho Ligaea and Phyllodoce Nesae Spio and Cymodoce Cydippe and bright Licorias one a maide Th' other then first had felt Lucina's aide Clio and Berôe sea-borne sisters both Both guirt with gold in painted mantles both Ephyre Opis Deiopcia too Of Asia and Arethusa now At last growne swift since she her quiver left To these did Climene tell the pleasing theft And slights of Mars with Vulcans bootlesse feares And from the Chaos number'd do their eares The loves of gods Whilst pleasd with what she told The rocks of wooll they on their spindles rowl'd Againe the plaints of Arislaeuâ— pierc't His mothers care but Arethusa first Of all the Nymphs above the water show'd Her beauteous head and far off cry'd aloud Sister Cyrene t was no causlesse feare That sound procur'd thine Aristaeus dear Weeping beside old Peneus streame remaines And of thy cruelty by name complaines Struck with new feares his mother answer'd thus Bring him quoth she bring him along to us He may of right enter the roofe of gods Then by command she straight divides the floods To make him â—oome to passe the swelling flood Like a steep mountaine round about him stood In that vast gulfe receiv'd he was convey'd Down vnder ground and wondring there suruey'd His mothers watery bower lakes closely held In caveâ— and sounding woods and there beheld Astonished to heare that horrid sound That waters motion made how under ground In severall places rivers did commence â—hasis and Lycus and the spring from whence The deep Enipeus breakes whence Tyber is Mysian Caicus stony Hypanis And Annio golden Eridanus With bull-like hornes no streame more furious Doth run nor falls more violent than he Into the purple Adriaticke sea When to his mothers bower of pumice stone He came and she perceiu'd his causlesse mone The Nymphs clear water and fine towels bring To clense his hands with some replenishing The cups while some the feasting tables fill With frankincense the altars smoking still Here take these cups of wine his mother said Let 's sacrifice to th' Ocean then she pray'd Vnto Oceanus father of all things And Nymphs her sisters who the woods springs By hundreds keep Thrice on the fire she threw Nectar to th' roofe the flame thrice upward flew Confirmed with this Omen thus begun Cyrene in Carpathian seas my sonne Great Neptune's Prophet g â—roteus abides Who ore the Maine in his blew chariot rides By horse-fish drawne who now againe resorts To his Pallene and th' Aemathian ports Him aged Nereus and we Nymphs adore For he knowes all things things that heretofore Have been that are and shall hereafter be For so to Neptune it seem'd good that he His heards of fish might under water guide And great Sea-calves He must in chaines be ti'de By thee my sonne to shew the cause thy Bees Are dead and give thee prosp'rous remedies Without compulsion he will nothing tell Nor can entreaties move him binde him well And hard and all his tricks will vanish soone When â—ol is mounted to his height at noone When grasse is dâ—y and cattell seeke the shade I le bring thee thither where thou shalt invade The aged Prophet when his private sleep He takes â—etired weary from the deep But when thou bind'st him to delude thine eyes In severall shapes he will himselfe disguise A scaly Dragon or fierce Tyger he Or Bore or tawny Lionesse will be Or take the noise and shew of fire to scape Or slide away in liquid waters shape But sonne the more in shapes he varyes still Be sure the harder hold thy cords untill Chang'd froÌ„ those figures that first shape h he keep In which thou saw'â—t him lying down to sleep This said sh' annoints the body of her sonne With sweete Ambrosian odours whence anone An heavenly ayre exhaled from his head And able vigour through his limbes was spread Within an eaten Mountaines hollow side Is a vast cave where water driven by tide Doth into turning guifes it selfe divide An harbour safe to storme-tost Marriners Within blew Proâ—eus under stony bars Shut up and guarded lyes Here far from sight In a darke nooke averted from the light Cyrene plac'd her sonne her selfe away Vanish'd obscur'd in clouds At noone of day When now the scorching dog-star from the sky The thirsty â—ndians burn'd the grasse was dry And the sun-beames as low as to the ground Boil'd luke-warm rivers though the most profouÌ„d Proteus from sea to this accustom'd ground Retires himselfe the scaly Nation round Playing about him faâ— salt dew do throw The Calves on shore do severally bestow Themselues to sleep whilst he upon a rock Amidst them fiâ—s and numbers all the flock Like to an Heard when from the mountains home Vnto their stals his Calves from feeding come And wolves are whetted with the lambs loud bleats When Aristaeus this occasion gets Scarce suffering the old Prophet to compose His weary limbes in with a shout he goes Vpon him straight and bindes him as he lyes He not unmindefull of his old devise All his strange shapes assumes in order ore A flaming fire a flood a tusked bore But when no cunning could procure his scape Vanquisht at last in his owne humane shape He speaks Who sent thee hither to my cave Thou bold young man or here what wouldst thou have Thou knowst my mind Proteus thou knowst quoth he Intend it not thou câ—nst not coâ—sen me Following the gods command hither come I For my lost goods to seek a remedie When thus he spake the Prophet much compell'd Scowling with his green eyes with anger swell'd And chaâ—ing thus at last gan prophecie The wrath of some great god doth follow thee For great misdeeds To thee this punishment Though not so great as thou deseru'st is sent From wretched Orpheus unlesse fares resist Who still in wrath for his dear wife persists When from thy lust she fled the never spy'd A water-snake by whose fell sâ—ing she dy'd Lurking upon the graslie banke But all The Dryades at her sad funerall Wept on the mountaines high Pangaea and The Rodepeian towerâ— and warlike land Of Rhaesus Hebrus and the Getes for wo Wept and Athenian Orythia too But he himselfe his sicke soule solacing Oft to his warbling instrument would sing Of thee sweet wife thou on the shore alone Morning and night wert subiect his mone He through the darke fearfull wood did