the face you know the man so by these as by Titles you know the contents of that division It was composed by Mahomet their Prophet with the help of Abdalla a Jew Sergius a Nestorian Monk who for embracing the Heresies of Arrius Cedron Sabellinâ—s and others was banished from Constantinople and comming into Arabia fell acquainted with Mahomet whom though formerly circumcised he baptized and taught to misinterpret many places of the Scriptures out of which false glosses of theirs they coined a new Religion neither wholly Jewish or wholly Christian but rejecting in both what they disliked and this newest Religion from him was called Mahumetisme So Pomponius Laetus Joan. Baptista Egnatius c. But the Glossers of the Alcoran and their Book Azar which is a History of Mahomet authentique among the Moores as the Gospel among us Christians say that those that helped Mahomet in compiling his Alcoran were two Sword-Cutlers Christian slaves unto one of Mecca who knew much confusedly of the new Testament and out of their imperfect informations he gleaned what served his turn not looking for antecedents subsequents or coherence any where So observes Joannes Andreas Maurus who was once an Alfaqui or Bishop among the Moores of the City of Sciatinia in the Kingdom of Valentia and afterwards Circ An. 1487. a Christian Priest and probable it is that the composers of that rapsody of errours were illiterate persons because they contradict all philosophy sciences History and Reason the Alcoran being a Fardel of Blasphemies Rabinical Fables Ridiculous Discourses Impostures Bestialities Inconveniences Impossibilities and Contradictions To speak a word of the chief Author Mahomet his peâ—son he was born about the year 600 not to mention any paâ—ticular yeare I find Authors so differ about it and I want room heâ—e to reconcile them or shew reason for adâ—ering to any one some say in Itrarip a Village of Arabia others in the City of Mecca others in Medina Alnabi of obscure parentage some that name his Father call him Abdalla a Pagan pâ—rhaps mistaken him for one of his Tutors such make his Mother a Jewess and of ill repute whom they call Emina So uncertain was the beginning of this Impostor Baudier saith that his Father dying and his Mother being left very poor she not able to keep him committed him to an Uncle but he casting him off young Mahomet was a prey to Theeves who put him in chaines among other slaves and in that quality being set to sale a rich Merchant named Abdemonople bought him he dying Mahomet by marriage of his mistresse the Merchants wife not effected as was thought without Witch-craft attained to much riches whereupon leaving the exercise of Merchandize he became a Captain of certain voluntary Arabians that followed the Emperour Heraclius in his Persian Wars who falling into a mutiny for that they were denyed the military Garment and incensing the rest of their Nation with the reproachful answer given them by the Treasurer which was that they ought not to give that to Dogs which was ordained for the Roman Souldiers a paâ—t of them chose Mahomet for their Ring-leader but being disdained by the better sort for the basenesse of his birth to avoid ensuing contempt he gave it out that he attained not to that honour by military favour but by divine appointment That he was sent by God to give a new Law unto man and by force of armes to reduce the world to his obedience then wrested he every thing to a divine honour even his naturall defects calling those fits of the falling sicknesse wherewith he was troubled holy trances and that Pigeon which he had taught to feed out of his Ear on pease the holy Ghost So went he on to feign his messages from heaven by the Angel Gabriel and to composse his Alcoran A man of a most infamous life he was Bonsinus writes that he permitted adultery and Sodomy and lay himselfe with beasts and Mr. Smith in his Confutation of Mahumetism arraigns him of Blasphemy Pridâ— lyes Sodomy Blood Fraud Robbery for he was a common Thief usually robbing the Caravans of Merchants as they travelled as entitles him Heir apparent unto Lucifer no lesse then 12000. falshoods being contained in his fabulous Alcoran To particularize a little what higher blasphemy could he be guilty of then to prefer himselfe as far before Christ as he was above Moses He also denyes the divinity of our Saviour and affirms that the Holy Ghost is not distinct in peâ—son but onely an operative virtue of the God-head that inspires good motions Many other absurdities he is guilty of concerning the Trinity as not comprehending that glorious mysterie The Alcoran impugnes both the divine Law and naturall Reason at once in that assertion lib. 4. Cap. 2. viz. That at the end of the world a Trumpet shall blow and the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth shall fall downe dead and at the second sounding rise again So it makes the Angels mortal when who knows not that the Angels are Spirâ—ts having no bodies so cannot die for death is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body Adams sinne was the cause of his death and his posterity whence it followes had he not sinn'd neither he nor we had dyed And surely the good Angels being not guilty of the cause of death sin must be exempt from the effect Lucifer and the evill Angels that sinn'd with him by their Pride were deprived of the glory of heaven and cast into the bottomlesse pit for ever but not condemned to die because they were spirits And if the Devils that sinned dyed not how is it that the Alcoran saith that the Angels that sinned not shall die Another fable concerning Angels is in the first Chaper lib. 1. Sc. That God sent two Angels called Harod and Marod as Judges to do justice in the City of Babylon where in a Cave for soliciting a Ladies chastity they hang by the eye-lids and must so hang till the day of judgement and the woman was transformed into the morning star O divine Metamorphosis It 's like Mahomet might have heard somewhat of the story of Susanna and the Elders and so ignorantly shuffled it into this But to follow his Text I would ask a Moorish Astrologer whether the morning star be not more ancient then the City of Babylon how then could an inhabitant of that City be turned into that star And I would know of their Divines why if the Angels have bodies the Alcoran in many places contradicting it selfe calls them Roch Spirits if they be spirits and uncorporeal how were they capable of knowing women or hanging by the eye-lids If they be Corporeal where abouts in Babylon may one see them hanging and why doth the Alcoran confesse them to be Spirits Another ridiculous assertion of the Alcoran concerning Angels is s. 1. cap. 1. and l. 2. c. 1. c. viz. That God made man of all sorts and colours of earth and being formed for some
ELEGIE sung to the Harp GRief and Horror seize on all From the Suns rise to his fall But in in sighs no breath be spent No voice heard but to lament In each face the cause is read FATYMA and Beauty's dead SOL disturb not sorrows night She gone none deserves thy light And ther 's none now whose eye may Bright as hers did gild thy Ray. Birds that did your songs forbear Hers with more delight to hear And did still expecting stand Notes from her voice meat her hand You again may sing alone You 'l be heard now she is gone To her name your voices set And ne'r sing a note but that Flowerâ— droop your leaves and wither You no more her hand shall gather Wither wither for there 's none Worth a Garland she being gone Water Nymphs that in a maze Oft have stopt your sports to gaze At her sitting on your banks Or else tripping ore their cranks In a Dance with odorous feet And a grace as VENUS sweet Weep her losse weep more you 'l ne'r See your selves out-done by her Weep till you thaw melting mourn Till into your streams you turn Winds let sighs henceforth consume yee Her breath shall no more perfume yee Be astonish'd thou O Earth Thou hast lost thy fairest birth See! see all the charm obey Into night is shrunk the day The Sun mourns or to judge right He wants her to give him light Birds have learnt her name and now Hark! they sing 't on every bough Of the flowers some decay Others wither quite away Or if any beauty have Still they keep it for her grave Grief has turn'd the Primrose pale Lillies droop and all bewail Down the Violet hangs her head All the Roses tears have shed Cups full have each Daffadil Down along the cheeks they trill Of the rest and trembling there Hang true Pearles for sorrows wear Fountains weep winds sigh her fall Earth is stupified withall Onely Gods from grief refrain Since earths losse is Heavens gain For since she arriv'd at Heaven Now the Graces number 's even Abb. No more let bold Philosophers denie That Vertues are from Nature since here â—ies An heap of Beauties with more graces born Then Education or Art ere gave The longest liver Once a divine soul â—nform'd that curious Body and so acted â—t to all good that Heaven envied Earth Th' enjoyment of it therefore took it home As bright as when she lent it the fair modell And now it shines the brightest star she has But why so soon good Heaven hast dispossess'd Earth of her glory Is 't because you mean To call the Chaos back again and she The soul o th' world must first be tane away Day must depart before soul night can come Or fail'd your Power could you not make the summer And Autumn of her Age as glorious As her sweet Spring and so destroy'd it quite Or doubted you she would engrosse all hearts All loves and make us think there was no Heaven No Paradise but her and her sweet favour So jealous of your Honour took her hence No but now that her viper Father had Given up his name to mischief and Rebellion That all that 's good of him might fall she must And fall his crime but O that crime alone Had he no more should sink his monstrous head Below the deepest Hell I punish him Not now for crimes committed against me But 'gainst himself these I could have forgiven And Nature almost now had won me to it But this dire murder of my joy and comfort Has chas't away all pitty from my thoughts And arm'd my heart and hand with torments for him Who will not crush the worme that eats his Rose Goe FARRABAN lade the inhumane Monster With pondrouâ— chains as heavy as his guilt Remove all comforts from him pine his carkasse Till his own flesh be his abhorred food He may as well devour that as this Tell him we 'l study Torments for him Torments Witty and requisite as he wishes us Deliver th' message to him in words fit For a just anger great as ours is 'T will be some comfort to this innocents soul To see her murderers blood poured upon Her divine ashes Pardon glorious Ghost For now devotion 's due to thy bright lustre That we mix with thy sacred dust a blood So tainted yet 't is but thy sacrifice You FARRABAN see SOFFIE be regain'd Again you 'd best I wonder at your neglect Of care to guard so great Prisoner Far. My Liege I' th aproar when the guards were all Employ'd to stop the Princes frantick rage He made escape Abb. Well see he be sought out Lead on and enrich Earth with Heavens envy MIRZA PAGE GReat NEMESIS now have I sacrific'd To thee the best of Creatures Persia had If the old Tyrant feeleth but the wound I have mine ends and thou a feast of blood Pag. But sir I fear the blow you gave through her Will fall most heavy on your self and make Him more incens'd Mir So he but feels a grief I 'l triumph in my pains and scorn his worst MIRZA PAGE FARRABAN WHo 's that Pag. 'T is FARRABAN in his looks I see Revenge and Torments threatned Mir. Tut Far. Sir the King Mir. Peacâ— thou most impudent tongue Call him not King but dotard Tyrant Serpent Go on Far. Commands me to deliver's wrath To you in thunder Pardon the messenger He threats you with Strapadoes Famine Tortures Cunning and cruell for your dire deed Mâ—r. I thank his Tyrantship return thou him From me many curses but how took he His minions death Far. As he would do the sight Of his own Executioner heavily His life-blood seem'd to stream from 's aged eyes Horror to seize his Limbs and grief his soul. He tore his silver hair beat 's reverend breast Threw himself prostrate on the loved body And curs'd his starrs the killing newes is like To do as much for him as for the old PANDION the like act of PROGNE's did He slights his meat seems wholly given over To sorrow and revenge Mir. Io Io PAEAN Sing victory sing victory my soul I 'm Conquerour I 've vanquish't the stern Tyrant In a great deed 'bove th' horror of his own Now I can make him grieve I 'l make him bleed Bleed next dog Goaler bleed his damned soul To air which will turn to Pestilence And poyson and infect the cursed world He has but yet a tast of what I 'l do Far. Sir sir we 'l keep you from all further outrage Pag. Be civill villain to your Royal Master Far. He must excuse me I 'm but an Officer Mâ—r. O' th Devills Traytor do thy drudgery Far. He has commanded me to load your limbs With weighty gyves and famish your stout stomach Pag. The Devill has Mir. His gyves are ornaments To me and Famine that I fear not slave I 'l feed on my revenge Come bring thy fetters I will adore them as a lover does His Ladies favours Pag.
it but to make him the better foyle to Bacon who shews there was no need of Italian help to the Brittish History One great Art of the Magi was the Exposition of Dreams amongst them believed of granâ— importance holding that though sleep be the Image of death Dreams are the portraiture of â—ife though Cassius reasoning with Brutus about the apparition to him in Sardis laboured according to his Epicurian sect to Father all upon deception and the strength of imagination Plut. in vit Brut. And though Dreams are more often Histories then presages grounded upon things that are in being and which we have seen for the imagâ—nation which is the Couch and Nursery of Dreams repâ—esenteth commonly what she hath received yet Dreams are not alwayes of nature but also of the inspiration of God as Jacob's Ladder Joseph's Sun and Moon and 11 Stars Pharoahs fat and leane â—ine c. So Richâ—ome Pilg. Loret and as D' Brown observes Rel. Med. There is surely a neerer apprehension of any thing that delights each of us in our Dreames then in our waked senses Paulò post The slumber of the body seems to be but the waking of our soules It is the ligation of our sense but the liberty of Reason With him seem to agree Galen and Aristotle in their singular Tracts of Sleep And M. Sandys in his Commentary upon Ovids Met. l. 11. Defines Dreams those Images which are formed in our sleeps by the various discursion of the spirits in the brain the spirits being the Chariot of the soul which follow concoction when the blood is least troubled and the phantasie uninteâ—rupted â—y ascending vapours These the Poet divides into three kinds the one imâ—tating the Rational the other the Animal and the third the Inanimate the first called Morpheus which signifies Form the second Icelos by the Gods which is similitude but Phobetor or fear by Mortals in regard of the terrors apprehended by beasts and Monsters and the last Phantasius of the Imagination And as the Cogitations of Princes far differ from those of the vuigar so their Dreams are unvulgar and different to this purpose M. Howel in his vocal Forrest Oftentimes the conceptions of Kings are as farre above the Vulgar as their condition is for being higher elevated and walking upon the battlements of soveraignty they sooner receive the inspirations of heaven As sleep was created to recreate the body and free the mind from care for a season so Dreams are sometimes sent to terrifie the guilty as those that the Usuâ—per Richard the third is reported to have had the night before the great deciding battel at Bosworth field Sometimes they are to confirm the good as those that the Earl of Richmond afterwards King Henry the seventh had on the aforesaid night and they are not seldom prophetical as they proved to those two Princes So Ovid it being the businesse of Poets in the contemplation of Nature to represent things that are not as if they were makes Morpheus present her dâ—owned Husband Ceyx to Alcyone in a Dream and â—aesars wife Calphurnia foresaw her Husbands Tragedy in heâ— sleep but examples are innumerable yet such divine Revelations wâ—re often imitated by Spirits of darknesse to beget a superstition which in the end so increased that Aristides compiled an Ephemerides of his own Dreams and Mithridates of those of his Concubines But the Romans finding the inconveniences thereof because all Dreames without distinction of Causes were drawn to Divination forbad the same by a publique decree though they more politiquely then wisely made their Religion and Auguries ever serve their occasions as Machiavel observes at large in his discourses upon Livie Much ado I have to take off my hand from describing their method in expounding of Dreams as to dream of the dead signified receiving of Money to dream of waters and green fields the dâ—ath of friends c. As also their manner in procuring of Dreams as wrapping themselves up in beasts skins and lying on their backs before the Tâ—mples with a branch of Misletoe in their hands or laying of an odd number of â—ay-leaves under their pillows which they held efficacious to produce tâ—ue Dâ—eams c. But such superstitions I had â—ather â—mit sâ—eing I need not tell them to the leaâ—ned nor am I willing to teach them to the ignorant whom I refer to the Text where they shall see borrowed of the incâ—mparable Sir Philip Sidney that Wisdom and virtue be The only Destinies set for man to follow c. 23 Larr Larr is a sandy Kingdom adjoyning upon Susiana almost wholly a Deseâ—t being for 400. miles together sterile full of loose sand and danger having high hills on each side without Grasse River or Herbage It hath for the seat of justice a City of the same name seated under the Latitude of 27 degrees and forty minutes North fourteen dayes jouâ—ney distant from Shiras This City is ancient and had about fifty years since 5000 houses in her of which 3000 were overturned by an Earth quake 'T is now famous onely for a strong Castle and handsome Buzzar the Castle is built at the Noâ—th end upon an high aspiring Mountaine well stored with Ordnance brought fâ—om Ormus the order and Scituation of this Fort and Fabrick equalizing if not preceding any other in Persia. Here is a Mosque or Temple framed in some part with Mosaique work and round in figure at the entrance hangs a Mirror or Looking glasse wherein Mahometans behold their defoâ—mities This Church lodges the gâ—eat long named long buried Pâ—ophet Emyr-ally-saddey-ameer whose sleep they say has been 1500 years long in that Sepulcher they expect his Resurrection shortly to wait upon Mahomet of whom he prophesied 500 years before his birth This Town affords Dates Orenges Aqua-vitae or Arack c but is very ill watered some Maps place it by a great River wherein they mistake so exceedingly that theâ—e is not any River within 100 miles of it Rain is also a great stranger here not a shower somtimes in five years when it falls it brings incredible joy and profit to the people and sun-burnt Country though sometimetimes no lesse detriment for not long since such a violent storm of Rain unburthened it self near to Techoa that caused such a suddain deluge and Cataract as a Caravan of 2000 Camels perished by it The people are black and needy amongst whom many miserable Jewes inhabit and have their Synagogues This City and Province were under the great Duke of Shiras of whose reducing of it to the Persian Crown see the 19th Note upon the Fourth Act. Herbert c. 24 BAIAZETS Cage see the 10th Note upon the Fourth Act. ANNOTATIONS UPON THE FOURTH ACT. 1 BIzantiums walls of fire The ancient walls of Bizantium or Constantinople were said to be of a just even height every stone so cemented together with brass Couplets that the whole wall seemed to be but one entire stone Some affirm the same of the outmost wall of