VVhen neither Sea nor bind coopt in a ring Keept their conseruatiue place nor any thing Had an essentiall forme or element Circle or Center had true complement Of Art or nature but when heauen and earth Had from confusions bowels knawne the birth Of this faire Child nam'd Cosmos the Mouers eie Distinguisht this faire obiect of the skie From his disordred masse with all this globe And suted it in farre more formall robe Of quantitie and figure Then began All lights to light the Makers darling MAN For which indeer'd creation and respect This Microcosme of man was made errect With vpright speculation lineally To view this rich imbrodred Cannopie Of those Coelestiall bodies and begin 〈◊〉 crie Heauen is my Countrie Earth my Inne But leauing him to Heauen of Earth we sing As being of the world the perfects thing In the Creations wonder and the end Of our aspiring hopes which we ascend 〈◊〉 to our locall blisse and naturall place To end euen there where neuer ended grace Of Heauen THis glorious globe of heauens resplendent ball Trapt richly with his lights pontificall Fountaine of motion by which euery starre Is whirld from East to West orbicular In foure and twentie houres as Shepheards say Trotting the circuite of the naturall day Is of no frame nor forme geometricall But round of body and as Sphericall As the Egyptian Sages did compare The winding Snake vnto the circled yeere For of all figures this doth best appeare Euery way shewing a iust hemis pheare Bending vpon it selfe most capable To comprehend this frame so strong and able To boulster vp this loade and ponderous frame As it hath neither ioynts but still the same Keeping his actiue body aply sound As it is iointlesse pointlesse endlesse round Now whether this pure quintessence of nature Be euerliuing or a dying creature Or whether that diuine intelligence That giues to heau'n his turning excellence Giue essence or assistance as without The soule that moues it it were still from doubt Of what we call it now as ships that scowre The Oceans curled billowes by the powre And cunning of the Pilote eu'n to that clime Where that great idoll gold Saint of the time To whom the Indian Pilgrimes sacrifice Such three yeares Hecatombs of widowes cries Speaking in golden Oracles of drosse The Brusses murmure and the Mariners losse And yet at last returne with crazed slides With grasse-greene ribs furd with tempestuous tides With two or three aliue the Pilotes hand Guiding the sickely vessell to the land By which we see his forme and name he saues Although the Pilotes motion plowes the waues With card and compasse so in naturall sense Heau'n takes no forme from his intelligence Which onely like a Pilote sweetly steeres The harmony of nature in the spheares With powre assistent and their motions carrie With certaine lawes and statutes voluntarie That as when euery element doth striue To moue vnto his place conseruatiue As being so imperfect and so base That they must pine and die without a place And locall conseruation yet is heau'n a creature Of such a perfect quintessense of nature That it esteemes not place for conseruation But to another end of generation Moues with his powerfull influence whence began Our Schooles to ring the sun and man get man But leauing these to treade the thornie maze Of Schoole-cram'd Sophistrie againe we raise Our haughtie Muse to flie with sollid wings And search with starres and subcelestiall things For since we see that by the loadstones might The yron age is drawne where with delight The readers eye doth fansie and mens wits Like Bagpipes sound no sound but pleasant fits We are resolu'd to plucke such fruits from schooles And once to please Physitians knaues and fooles For to all these I know our booke shall come Packe Doctor to thy vrine and be dumbe The sottish Empericke onely fooles haue land And so haue countrey-knights these these command The Muses sonnes with an idolatrous knee To pray to Angels or a noble fee Of some poore Pamphlet Hence bastards to your sire Whilest we reuiue our quicke Promothean fire The number of these turning spheares of heauen Some say but nine others affirme eleuen Which all Diuines more full of holy fire Nam'd sacred Hirarchies where the blest quier Of heauenly Angels and true Martirs rides That with triumphant wreaths shall iudge the tribes The order of the Orbes caelestiall Are numbred thus the first imperiall So called of the Greekes as being a place Most full of holy light and Angels grace Whose blessed soules from passion doe suruiue Their substance onely being definitiue Not circumscriptiue as our bodies be With the aires cincture or concauitie Their bodies free from any locall span Of grose dimensions or precinctes of man And therefore in one bodie spirits dwell All in one place more then large Art can tell For round about the iust mans life and merits Million of Angels and bright flaming spirits Shall at one time and in one place vnite Their most regardant powers infinite And vnextended in our bodies moue With subtill motion from their place aboue Either to saue with a protectors will Heauens glorious darling or by their power distill With whippes of vengeance by their power diuine In Legions name possessing men and swine This Heauen the seate of those most happie soules Whose summum bonum all true blisse enrowles Was that third heauen whose glorious excellence Most sweetly rauisht Pauls admiring sence That steept in Loethe of so blest a trice He prayes to be disolued to Paradice And gorg'd with holy raptures full of grace He sings th' Abysse blisse riches of that place The second is the primum mobile So called by Sages in Philosophie Because as from so cleare and christall spring Proceeds the birth death motion of each thing Being the first that in his iust Carrere Deriues all motion to each second Spheare And yet himselfe in golden meane doth ride Equall in motion like the sacred guide Of some prime reuerent Prelat whose great Sea Is mou'd with hauenly Regularite Diuine in motion and Diuine in place Free of his learned influence rich in grace Oh pardon me dull age if I proclaime His venerable life more then his name Suparlatiuely gratious barke Heriticks to see Such Metropolitan vniformitie VVhilest your great fisherman in Tibers flood Shall moue in purple streames of royall blood And with disorderd orders turne the keyes To locke young fooles in Limbo and with ease Martyr a fond Apostate who reconcild By a graue goate-like father liues exild In some Sulphureous troope of Iesuites Whose powder-treason-Collidges inuites A Tiborne resolution whether sent or come Dies Traitors here and halter Saints at Rome But with a certaine order moues our heau'n Not swift nor slow but paraleld and euen From whence we truly know and can define Her motion heauenly and write it in the line Of Orthodoxall faith which moouing stands
On Peters rocke and not on Peters Sands The third in order of these things Diuine Is that bright heauen transparent Christaline Hauing no twinkling starre or glistering pride But like some waterie body clarified From wheÌ„ce some say that wheÌ„ the world was made And that great Elohim the globes bases laid Dispersing darkenesse and the tenebrous night To formes of beautie and celestiall light That then his mightie Spirit heauen did moue To seperate those waters from aboue From these below and to this element To place his likenesse in the firmament For since we see that seaes with earth compare And heauen with earth in things that likely are The earth brings foorth the dog the foamie maine And Heauen it selfe equiuocates the same When with his singing and canicular beames He bakes the earth and dries the Christall streames And therfore with Harmonious consent Heauen hath proportion to this Element And thus we reade in natures Characters Like liues with like to shun intestine warres The fourth heau'n is that glorious spangled globe Embost with starres and like a gorgeous robe Purl'd ore with natures Ape and Zany-art Trailes downe his starrie traine and doth impart Day to black night and with his groue of starres Like candles shine to wind wrackt Marriners Some fixt some wandring in their tinsell'd Orbe Whose number fixt Philosophers record To be one thousand two and twentie cleare Well knowne vnto the Sea-cuft Maâ—riner By these the iocund Boateson at first sight Soust with the Ruffin seaes and scratch with might Whistle a maine and from the hatches skip The nimble squires of the dancing ship And fearelesse kick the billowes with disdaine Tearing the curled bowels of the maine These giue propension to each mans deffects And by their fatall influence and aspects Besides that vniuersall prouidence On whose great nod depends each consequence Of second causes from their crittick powers At Caesars birth acts Caesars tragick howers But if their kind coniunctions smiling meete Our first natiuitie and with a sweet And Iouiall dalliance in a golden shower Kindly imbrace our first conceptions hower Then shall Augustus though but meane by birth Sway seuen hill'd Rome and taxe the verge of earth Foot-boyes shall pearch with Kings Tanners ride On great Seianus courser side by side With some most Lordly Consull Rearemice flie By daylight with the Eagles maiestie And will not reason mount Agathocles The Potters sonne to the Piramides Of honour and high state what vertue marres And hates in fooles shall prosper by their starres Yet feare not thou whose crabbed fate suspends Thy fortune progresse and whose learned ends Aimes at eternitie though whipt with need And dogged censure and whose wounds doe bleed With times incision sterne authoritie Dissecting Arts like an Anotomie Reading their physick lectures to the eares Of our contempts to greatnesse great in feares And pale suspects who iealious of deserts Doe Sepulcher aliue both Armes and Artes For thou in spight of their maleuolent rage Times simony and furie of the Age Ecclipses and all Planetarie hate Like a Byssextile-yeere shalt leape thy fate Wise men like sluces in the plague of warres Were made to rule those onely rule the starres Nor can base Gypses tell them of their fate Impostors with their figures calculate Of blacke futuritie Astrologie diuine The ascendent fortune of their heauenly signe For wise men are not borne as Midwiues be To waite on luckie howres or for the fee Of Bisket influence their vertue barres The superstition of such gossipping starres But more then man his reason rules the skies His manhood shares a godhead that is wise In this faire starrie Mirrour of the skie Damaskt with beautie and varietie Of thousand constellations whose cleare flames Are knowne in maps by their celestiall names For there the faire Oryon and the Beare Maior and Minor grace this hemispheare Swift Pegasus and Perseus radiant light Burnish the tan'd face of the blackemores night Bright Cassiopeia and Ioues Eagles shines Besides the constellations of the signes Which euery foole in Physicke can make good Their vse in purges pills and letting blood And euery Almanacke druggest poorely read Can tell what witlesse signe raignes in his head But leauing these beyond their yearely date To smoke an Indian sulphure we create Againe our hallowed Altars and in fires Of morrall vowes our sacred Muse aspires Tell me thou graue and mightie Stagerite Oracâ—lous Schocleman whose deluding light The lothsome Epicure and horrid sect Of damned Atheisme follow with direct And eager sent what genius could deuise To spread so large such monstrous heresies That euen besides graue Orpheus and the rest Proclus and Plinie and the learned brest Of sharpe Auerroes Christian Atheists crie The world 's eternall and shall neuer die VVhen by the state of starres we may discrie The world 's firme ruin and mortalitie And Platoes creature hauing life and breath As they decline shall languish vnto death And as a crazed bodie full of howers Renders his siluer head and vitall powers His radicall moisture spent and euery part Gasping for motion from the panting hart To natures disolution so shall passe Both heauen and earth vnto their pristine Mars Although some say that this great Continent And all this glorious guilt-hatcht firmament Shall change his forme and accidentall frame Although the part substantiall be the same Alleaging for their weake Philosophie This sacred place of sweet diuinitie Yet by the fall of starres our reasons prooue A totall wrack of earth and heauen aboue For first we see the Sunne whose bright Carrier Trots through the ring of time and dates the yeer In his diurnall progresse now declines More neere the earth then in the former times When learned Ptolome obserued the starres Their houses signes and different characters Cheering old Ops now doting with long daies VVith cordiall flames and charitable rayes That else in this consumption would exspire VVanting so bright a Nurse whose cheering fire Restores her health with his preseruatiue cure Adding new life to her old temperature Besides infection of each element Corruption of the purest temperament Physitions now turne Satyrs and complain That nature is a stepdame in the frame Of this last Age when croking Rauens sing Their liues large Charter merrier then a king The stately Stag a hundred yeares shall graze But man to wormes meate turnes in fewer dayes Pigmies for Gyants that with Babell power Were wont to scale the high Olympiade Tower And wrastle with the Gods now dwarfes are borne Ne're made to fight but made to natures scorne The Arcadian Kings two hundred yeares did liue But now the thriftie heauens doe scarcely giue Halfe of that pension to the noblest man His graue but sixe foot long his life a span VVhich shewes the world corrupted from his best Declines his setling progresse to the west For since all things from their sincere creation Couet absurdities in generation And euery thing steales to his priuatiue
health in both the Worlds Of Venus ♀ MAdam behold your vertues doe intice The best of art to write the worst of vice That as the beautious forme of christall light Opposde to darknesse seemes more richly-bright So from the times worst obiects you may spie How vertue shines best by her contrarie And best doth edifie when to our sense She seemes to vertue in her innocence Like some cleare liquid cloud against the Sunne In proudest formes of opposition Heere shall you see the Anatomie of times And imperfections bowelld with the crimes Of brazen impudence condemn'd to death Like Traytors breathing an infectious breath From your sweet fauours I began this booke And hope a faire successe from your faire looke As earth to heauen presented to our sense Seemes but a point to the circumference Compar'd to his large bodie so in show Are these my studies vnto that Iowe Vnto your Ladiship this mite shall speake My Art and Hart both gratefull although weake As Dwarfes seeme gracious so may proue this elfe This booke though small may teach great time it selfe Your Ladiships humble and poore Kinsman of his duty Robert Anton. THE PHYLOSOPHERS FIFT Satyr of Venus ♀ NExt vnto blood and death the Paphian queene Of the inferiour-planets first is seene The harbinger of faire Auroras light Bright day-starre sliking the rough brow of night Faire Citharaea amorous flame of loue That next vnto the glorious sunne doth moue Goddesse of generation that dost giue A father to each Bastard how to liue Make my Muse ramble that it truly tell The scapes of lust that in thy influence dwell Appeare you horned-monsters that do swell With high-brow-Antlers that gainst heaun rebell And stumble against Taurus with your hornes Behold the lustfull Planet of your scornes By whose insatiate and hot lustfull fire Your wiues are strumpets your brows rear'd higher Vnder this starre bright Helena was bred That made her hushand higher by the head And Messalina by this planets power Wife to great Claudius Romes high Emperour Fall two and twentie times in one sole day Cornuted Caesar with her lustfull play Here may thy Satyr riot with thy pen And lash to blood this crooked fate of men Whose shameleswiues o'r warmd with bastard wine Like Messalina breakes that sacred signe That holy wedlocke in their vowes hath made By that lasciuious and insatiate trade That nature growes so horrid and so full That like Pasiphae amored of a Bull In any forme of incest or hot rape The sensuall appetite affects his shape Preposterous motions in this planet raigne Mothers turne Bawdes vnto their Daughters gaine Husbands haue sold their wiues like Galliflaues Vnto a strangers bed whole streets of knaues Deepe red in hot Adulterie so confounds The reputation of our honest grounds As if the world and Iustices agreede To make a Chaos of their bastard seede Why frownes not Minos at that ciuill whore That in a Puritans habit dwells next doore Vnto his worship and with Saintlike motion Minces the pauement with her pure deuotion Whom some hot Tradesman keeps doth disguise In Angels robes to gull the iealous eies Of shallow iudgement following Machauell Cunning in sinne treads warily to hell Why Carts not iustice that old Dipsas Baude That with her sorcerous charmes disperst abroad Among the vestall Virgins holy bred Hath betrai'd many a well-borne Maidenhead To the luxurious hands of riotous heyres Drowning their mothers happinesse in teares Why doe our lustfull Theaters entice And personate in liuely action vice Draw to the Cities shame with guilded clothes Such swarmes of wiues to breake their nuptiall othes Or why are women rather growne so mad That their immodest feete like planets gad With such irregular motion to base Playes Where all the deadly sinnes keepe hollidaies There shall they see the vices of the times Orestes incest Cleopatres crimes Lucullus surfets and Poppeas pride Virgineaes rape and wanton Lais hide Her Sirens charmes in such eare charming sense As it would turne a modest audience To brazen-fac'et profession of a whore Their histories perswade but action more Vices well coucht in pleasing Sceanes present More will to act then action can inuent And this the reason vnlesse heauen preuent Why women most at Playes turne impudent And yet not to their sexe doe we applie A Stoicall and stout necessitie Of shamefull sinne to women in this kind But I could wish their modestie confin'd To a more ciuill and graue libertie Of will and free election carefullie Hating this hellish confluence of the stage That breeds more grosse infections to the age Of separations and religious bonds Then e're religion with her hallowed hands Can reunite rather renew thy web With chast Penelope then staine thy bed With such base incantations But why in vaine Doe I confound the musicke of my straine With such vnrellisht Pantomimmicke slaues Whose liues prophane a lashing Satyr craues Oh yet my graue muse be not to profuse Applaud their good scourge onely their abuse No rather my keene pen with art dissect The Anotomie of woman whose defect May reade such Physicke to their longing sexe As what most horrid guilt of lust deâ—ects And cast aspersions on their Angels faces May salue their burning feauers of disgraces Not in a squibbing vaine my pen shall taske Your feeble imperfections but vnmaske With far more reuerent hand your slippery natures Since your first fall proues you backsliding creatures When heauen and earth from his confusion tooke Proportion firme and a more gracious looke Of order and creation then was crown'd Man the imperiall Monarch of this Round Which being made of a grosse element Vnfit alone for Kingly gouernment Woman as his adiutor was assign'd That to their powers the earth might be confin'd And man then one in number therefore none In her might be more perfect then alone When she was made in that prime innocence Each element bestowed the quintessence Of his best qualities fire then was more remisse With out hot lust that now more ex'lent is Water did temper his moyst qualitie Without the swetting palmes of venerie The subtill parts of aire did not inspire A lightnesse to their body or desire The sollid parts of earth vpheld their frame That now falls back to ruinate the same Her harmonie of nature most refin'd From the dull Mans an Angell in her kind Her face as beautious as the Crysped Morne Strooke from smudg'dnight created and not borne To keepe grosse-pated Adams from foule sin With adoration like some Cherubin Which not alone that naked Sill could doe Except the mightie mouer had made two Both which had kept faire Edens royalties To their succession and posterities And then vncensur'd had the woman ben From th' originall cause of mortall sinne Had not that Hel-bred Politician Beguil'd the woman and the woman man But since her sacred reason was beguil'd And she for him and he for both exild From that foure-riuer-running-Paradice To the large cursed center of their vice