Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A18412
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A free and offenceles iustification of a lately publisht and most maliciously misinterpreted poeme: entituled Andromeda liberata.
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Chapman, George, 1559?-1634.
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1614
(1614)
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STC 4977; ESTC S114692
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6,360
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18
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that in all this my seede time sowing others honours 〈◊〉 super semiâ—auit Zizania c. Whiles I slept in mine innocencie the enuious man hath beene heere who like a venomous spider drawing this subtle thred out of himselfe cunningly spred it into the eares of the manie who as they see all with one eye so heare all with one eare and that alwaies the left where multiplying and getting strength it was spred into an Artificiall webbe to entangle my poore poeticall flie being otherwise God knowes for enough from all venome saue what hath beene â—oro'st into her by her poisonous enemy to sting her to death But the allusion you will say may be extended so farre but qui nimium emulget elicet sanguinem a malicious reader by straining the Allegorie past his intentionall limits may make it giue blood where it yeeldes naturally milke and ouercurious wits may discouer a sting in a flie But as a guiltlesse prisoner at the barre sayd to a Lawyer thundring against his life Num quia tu disertus es ego peribo because malice is witty must Innocence be condemned Or if some other not sufficiently examining what I haue written shall by mistaking the title suppose it carrie such an vnderstanding doth any Law therfore cast that meaning vpon me Or doth any rule of reason make it good that let the writer meane what he list his writing notwithstanding must be construed in mentem Legentis to the intendment of the Reader If then for the mistaking of an enuious or vnskilfull Reader who commonly being praeiudicia pro iudicijs I shal be exposed to the hate of the better sort or taken forciblie into any powerfull displeasure I shall esteeme it an acte as cruell and tyranous as that of the Emperour who put a Consul to death for the errour of a publique Crier misnaming him Emperour in stead of Consul For my selfe I may iustly say thus much that if my whole life were layd on the racke it could neuer accuse me for a Satyrist or Libeller to play with worthie mens reputations or if my vaine were so addicted yet could I so farre be giuen ouer as without cause or end to aduenture on personages of renownd nobilitie hauing infallible reason to assure my selfe that euen those most honoured personages to whose graces I chiefly intended these labors might they but in the lest degree haue suspected any such allusion by me purposed as is now most iniuriously surmised against me they would haue abhorred me and banisht me their sight To conclude Hic Rhodus hic saltus as I said of my life so of my lines heere is the Poeme let euerie sillable of it be tortured by any how partiall and preiudicate so euer for as the case hath beene carried I can now looke for no difference and if the least particle thereof can be brought necessarilie or iustly to confesse any harmefull intention of mine to the height imagined hauing already past the test of some of the most Iudiciall and Noble of this Kingdome if Malice will still make vnanswerably mine what her selfe hath meerely inuented and say with Phisitians that the fault of the first concoction cannot be corrected in the second my meat supposed Harpy-like rauisht at first into her vicious stomacke And that as Herodotus is vniustly said to praise onlie the Athenians that all Grecians else he might the more freelie depraue so Malice will as licentiouslie affirme that my Poeme hath something honourablie applicable that the rest might the more safely discouer my malignance And lastelie If my Iudges being preiudicd with my accusation haue no eare left to heare my defence will therefore powerfullie continue their hostilitie both against my life reputation then ColluÌ„ securi I must endure at how inhumane hands soeuer at least my poore credits amputation humblie retiring my selfe within the Castle of my Innocence there in patience possessing my Soule quietlie abide their vttermost outrage dedefending my selfe as I maie from the better sort by a cleere conscience from the baser by an eternall contempt Pereas qui calamitates hominum colligis Eur The worst of the greatest Act. Aetna quencht Dist Two Plants in one soile fruitlesse Both transplanted Vntoucht finde fit meanes for posterity granted The worst of the least The spleenelesse Flie. Dist The Innocent deliuerd her destroier Her trophe is Her Sauer Her Enioyer Tamen haec fremit Plebs Liv Yet further opposd admit a little further answer Dialogus The Persons Pheme and Theodines Phe. HO you Theodines you must not dreame Y' are thus dismist in Peace se as too extreame Your song hath stird vp to becalmd so soone Nay in your hauen you shipwracke y' are vndone Your Perseus is displeasd and sleighteth now Your worke as idle and as seruile yow The Peoples god-voice hath exclamd away Your mistie cloudes and he seâ—s cleere as day Y 'aue made him scandald for anothers wrong Wishing vnpublisht your vnpopular song Theo. O thou with peoples breaths and bubbles fild Euer deâ—iuered euermore with childe How Court and Citty burnish with thâ— breede Of newes and niâ—les seasoning all their feede With nothing but what onely drest like thee Of surfet tasts and superfluitie Let all thy bladder 〈◊〉 still inspire And make embroderd facte-â—als for the mire With thy suggestions On the clouen feete Of thy Chymaera tost from streete to streete Out Perseus 〈…〉 with the preâ—sâ— Or like th' inconstant Moone be that like these Mâ—kes her selfe readie by her glasse the 〈◊〉 The common Rendes vous of all rude streames And fed in some part with our common Thames As that is hourely seru'd with sewers and sinckes Strengthening and cleansing our sweet meats and drinkes Our Perseus by Mineruaes perfect Mirror Informes his beauties that reformd from th'â—rror Which Change and Fashion in most others finde Like his faire bodie he may make his minde Decke that with knowing ornaments and then Effuse his radiance vpon knowing Men Which can no more faile then the sunne to show By his in-â—ight his outward ouerflow Perseus that when Minerua in her spring Which renders deathlesse euery noble thing Clarified in it thriâ—◠〈◊〉 hath his 〈◊〉 Take from a Sow thâ—t washeth in her stoode The common kenâ—ell euery gut she feedes His food then thinking cleaner And 〈◊〉 then Take it for manly when unfit for Men Can I seeme seruile to him when ahlas My whole Lifes freedome shewes I neuer was If I be rude in speech or not expresse My Plaine Minde wâ—th affected Courtlines His Insight can into the Fountaine reach And knowes sound meaning nere vsde glosing speach Phem. Well be he as you hope but this beleeue All friends haue left you all that knew you griâ—ue For faire condition in you that your Thrall To one Mans humour should so lose them all Theo. One may be worth all and they thus implie Themselues are all bad that our Good â—â—uie Goodnesse and Truth they are the All-good knowes To whom my free
A FREE AND OFFENCELES Iustification OF A LATELY PVBLISHT and most maliciously misinterpreted Poeme ENTITVLED Andromeda liberata Veritatem qui amat emat LONDON Printed for LAVRENCE L'ISLE and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls church-yard at the signe of the Tigers-head 1614. A FREE AND OFFENCELES IVSTIFIcation Of a lately publisht and most maliciously misinterpreted Poeme Entituled Andromeda liberata AS Learning hath delighted from her Cradle to hide her selfe from the base and prophane Vulgare her ancient Enemy vnder diuers vailes of Hieroglâ—phikes Fables and the like So hath she pleased her selfe with no disguise more then in misteries and allegoricall fictions of Poesie These haue in that kinde beene of speciall reputation as taking place of the rest both for priority of time and precedence of vse being borne in the ould world long before Hieroglyphicks or Fabels were conceiued And deliuered from the Fathers to the Sonnes of Art without any Aucthor but Antiquity Yet euer held in high Reuerence and Aucthority as supposed to conceale within the vtter barke as their Eternities approue some sappe of hidden Truth As either some dimme and obscure prints of diuinity and the sacred history Of the grounds of naturall or rules of morall Philosophie for the recommending of some virtue torturing some vice in general For howsoeuer Phisitions alledge that their medicins respect non Hominem â—eâ—t Socratem not euery but such a speciall body Yet Poets professe the contrary that their phisique intends non Socratem sed Hominem not the indiuiduall but the vniuersall Or else recording some memorable Examples for the vse of policie and state euer I say enclosing within the Rinde some fruit of knowledge howsoeuer darkened and by reason of the obscurity of ambiguous and different construction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Est enim ipsa Natura 〈◊〉 Poeâ—â—â— anigmatuâ— plena nec qu â—is eam dignostit This Ambiguity in the sence hath giuen scope to the varietie of expositions while Poem in al ages challenging as their Birth-rights the vse and application of these fictions haue euer beene allowed to fashion both pro contra to their owne offencelesse and iudicious occasions And borrowing to farre the priuiledg'd licence of their professions haue enlarged or 〈◊〉 the Allegory with inuentions and dispositions of their owne to extend it to their present doctrinall and illustrous purposes By which aucthority my selfe resoluing amongst others to offer vp my poore mite to the honour of the late Nuptials betwixt the two most Noble personages whose honored names renown the front of my Poeme singled out as in some parts harmelesly and gracefully applicable to the occasion The Nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda an innocent and spotlesse virgine rescu'd from the polluted throate of a monster which I in this place applied to the sauage multitude peruerting her most lawfully-sought propagation both of blood and blessing to their owne most lawlesse and lasciuious intentions from which in all right she was legally and formally deliuered Nor did I euer imagine till now so farre-fetcht a thought in malice such was my simplicitie That the fiction being as ancient as the first world was originally intended to the dishonor of any person now liuing but presum'd that the application being free I might pro meo iure dispose it innocenly to mine owne obiect if at least in mine owne wrighting I might be reasonablie conscionablie master of mine owne meaning And to this sense I confinde the allegory throughout my Poeme as euery word thereof concerning that point doth cleerely and necessarilie demonstrate without the least intendment I vow to God against any noble personages free state or honor Nor make I any noble whose meere shadowes heerin the vulgar perhaps may imitatate any thought the more mixt with the grosse substance of the vulgar but present the vulgare onely in their vnseuerd herde as euer in antient tradition of all autenticall Aucthours they haue beene resembled To whom they were neuer beholding for any fairer Titles then the base ignoble barbarous giddie multitude The Monster with many heads which the Emperor in his displeasure wisht to haue sprung all from one necke that all at one blow he might haue vâ—trunkt them cui lumen 〈◊〉 without an Eye or at most seeing all by one fight like the Lamiae who had but one eie to serue all their directions which as anie one of them went abroad she put on and put off when she came home giuing vp their vnderstandings to their affections and taking vp their affections on other mens credits neuer examining the causes of their Loues or hates but like curres alwaies baâ—king at all they know not whose most honored deseruings were they knowen to them as to others of neerer and truer obseruation might impresse in them as much reuerence as their ignorance doth rudenesse Euermore baying lowdest at the most eminent Reputations with whoÌ„ as in the kingdom of Frogges the most lowd Crier is the loftiest Ruleâ— No reason nor aucthority able to stoope them though neuer so iudicially religiously vrdging them whose impartiall and cleere truth not their owne bold blindnesse can denie vnlesse they will dare to mutter with the Oratour touching the Delphicke Oracles and say our Oracles of Truth did likewise 〈◊〉 encline to Philip putting no difference betwixt Illusion and Truth the consciences of learned religious men and the cunnings of prophane And then how may my poore endeauours in dutie to Truth and my most deare Conscience for Reputation since it stands for the most part on beasts feete and Deserts hand is nothing to warrant it let it goe with the beastly reforme or escape their vnrelenting detractions The Loues of the right vertuous and truly noble I haue euer as much esteemed as despised the rest finding euer of the first sort in all degrees as worthy as any of my rancke till hauing enough to doe in mine owne necessary ends hating to insinuate and labour their confirmation and encrease of opinion further then their owne free iudgements would excite and direct them I still met with vndermining laborers for themselues who esteeming all worth their own which they detract from others deminisht me much in some changeable estimations Amicuâ—◠〈◊〉 Animal facile mutabilâ— whose supplies yet farre better haue still brought me vnfought and till this most vnequall impression opprest me I stood firme vp with many now onely with God and my selfe For the violent hoobub setting my song to their owne tunes haue made it yeeld so harsh and distastefull a sound to my best friends that my Integritie euen they hold affected with the shrill eccho thereof by reflexion receiuing it from the mouthes of others And thus to 〈◊〉 as strooke dumbe with the disdaine of it their most vnmanly lie both of my baâ—â—â—ing and wounding saying Take this for your Andromeda not being so much as toucht I witnesse God nor one sillable suffering I will descend to a conclusion with this