bold began assay How he could buckle with the monsters force Not meaning once to harbor mild remorce Downe he alighted from his milk-white steed And gaue him Veramount to walk o' th plaine Then stept to'th monster with a wise-bold heed Thou monstrous fiend quoth he thy pray refrain For with my sword I le work thy mortall paine The beast gan looke as one tbat were adrad Fearing her future hap would proue full bad At length as one that from a traunce awakes She stretched foorth her selfe vpon the ground And to her cursed tongue herselfe be takes Hoping hir speech wold yield best aid that stound Faire Sir quoth she t' is said this soile hath found That I haue brought this Countries good to spoyle But knight beleeue me I haue t'ane much toile To feare the wolues with changed voyce of tong When they haue e'en beene ready to assaile The ewes that haue beene suckling their yong Then hath my speech their purpose causde to faile My very heart doth bleede O how I waile To thinke vpon the spoyle the wolues would make Did not my Care them force their prey forsake To her Syrenian song the Knight gaue eare And noted in her speech how subtill Arte Her gesture framde to eu'ry word so neare That had he beene a man of massiue hart He would haue melted at her Mermaides part But he being a Knight of noble spirit Her tongue could not him of his heart dis'nherit But spurr'd him to reuenge the spoyle she made Commixt with poyson of hypocrisie He strait vnsheathes his trusty steeled blade And silent doth demonstrate presently The bottome of his minde effectually Soone as she feeles the smart she startes abacke And for defence with poyson hellie blacke Forth hurled from her wide stretcht foaming throat She thinkes t' infect the vninfected Knight But stowt Mauortio wore a steeled coate So iunctly ioynted that in all their fight Hir hellish poyson neuer enter might All were it natur'd still to search for way To saue hir life by hir foes liues decay Short had the fight bin had she onely beene And great his honour by hir only death But eu'ry drop of bloud his sword all keene Causde issue from hir noysome steeming breath Transformed were to monsters on the heath All with their poyson like a rounding ring The good encombred Knight encompassing So that the more that she enhoped him By deadly gaspes the conquest soone would end The more his labour sprung and seem'd to dim Eftsoones alas the hope his toile did send Yet he of all was victor in the end And for this act vntill the end his fame Wil through the world high raise Mauortio's name The Knight about to sheath chaunc'd turne his eie And spies the multitude that him enround Nay then quoth he no time approacheth me To take our leaues of this thiefe-harb'ring ground Before Apollo Thetis lap hath found They all shall die if heau'n doth smiling stand Viewing the heart of his Mauortio's hand His ' squire with artfull courage aides his knight Both vsde their blades vnto so good auaile That who had ei'd this bloudy fi'rie fight Might here see maimed wights low creeping traile Their owne hew'd limbes there gasping iawes that waile To see their limbs lopt from their bodies lie On hugie heapes like vnto mountaines high And twixt thē streams of streaming blod swift running With bloudles trunks lop'd heads legs thighs and armes Vpon the riuer like dead fishes swimming Ere Sol with Neptune sleeped slept their harmes All beeing shooke with deaths all deadly charmes O happy houre that so Mauortio ioy'd To see the monsters by his arme destroy'd This noble conquest made him famouzed By all the heards throughout the Deltan soile Who vow'd his name should be aeternized Despight of Fortune and her trustlesse foyle In memorizing lines which worldly broyle Nor Enuies canker neuer should deface Long as the world retaine's her worldly face O peerelesse worth O worth Mauortian Heau'n vpholding Atlas warres melodie Knight of the lilly heauens champion Artes patron Muses dearest Adonie Vrania's soule refreshing Castalie Worthy the world the world not worthy thee That art deem'd worthy of the deitie Of heauen it selfe that but eu'n now lamented The sun-fall of thy selfe whom heau'n disdained Whom heau'ns high trinary was not contented That in the world thy spirit be contained But there shuld dwel where Ioue himself remained For that on earth thy spirit earth directed Heau'n hath thy spirit for high heau'n elected While heau'n did daigne the world should him inioy The nine-fold Sorory themselues exiled Euen from their natiue home to arts annoy From twin-topt mount vnto a place defiled Where pined writ and starued art compiled Their harm they knew harm with heart imbraced To nurse their deare heart by their cheap art graced Graced by nurses arts nurse highly grac'd him Who fed him with pure marrow of the Muses And when he list with moisture to refresh him He drunke cleare Helicon cleare from abuses He bent his mind to pure Vranian vses Vranianie him did to heau'n vpreare And made to man him demi-god appeare Since wisedome then vpreares a man to heau'n Since wisedome then that doth high God adore When he of all that earth yeelds is bereau'n When all els failes doth God-like him decore O world erect thy blisse on wisedomes lore The greatest man decores not wisedomes horne But wisedome doth the meanest wight adorne Pieria's darling cleare-streaming Helicon Boeotia's pearle the nine voic'd harmony Heart crystalline tongue pure Castalion Delta's Adamant Elizium's melody Vrania's selfe that sung coelestially Was then for Mars apt by the Muses nurs'd For Mars his knights are ' squires to'th muses first Downe to the world descended Mars at length When the Pierides had knit the veines That from his heart did giue his body strength With soule-sweet Manna marrow of the reines Downe he descended and no whit disdaines To liue on earth leauing the sacred skies Only the muses deare to Martialize But O when Delta's hope the muses wonder Foes feare feares foe Ioues martialist On Thetis gan like to a fearefull thunder Make Hydra shake with a Dodonian fist When Delta deem'd her selfe in him thus blest Then Delta of her hope was quite bereaued See how the world is by the world deceiued The Phoebus of his soile scarce shewd his sheen And fac'd the West with smiling Aurory When fatall Neptune with his trident keene Behind him hal'd him to his Thetisie But Ioue downe sent swift-winged Mercurie And charged him to lay him 's wings vpon And be the conuoy of his champion When Mercurie approch'd the seat of Ioue With Mauors spirit on his winged arme Ioue daign'd descend downe from his seat aboue And him imbraced with all heau'nly charme Aboue the lofty skies deuoid of harme Sits Mauors spirit as a demi-god Instead of Mars swaying his warlike rod. While Mars himselfe goes wandring vp and downe Associated with the sacred brood That hand in hand like an
this Cosmosie Is now transform'd to tawny Charon's boate And on the Acheronticke maine doth floate Th'olimpique Globe is now a hollow ball The huge concauitie blacke Plutoe's hall Where shall I stand that I may freely view Earths stage compleate with tragick sceans of wo No meade no groue whose comfortizing hew Might make sad Terror my sad minde forgoe No sun-grac'd mount soule-frighting horrors foe No sun-grac'd mount how can the sun mounts grace When mountaines seeke his countnance to deface See see that mount that was the worldes admire The stately Pyramis of glorious price Whose seau'n hill'd head did ouer all aspire Is now transform'd to Hydra-headed vice Her hellish braine pan of each enterprice On sinnes full number loe she is erect For why Great Pluto was her Architect Blacke Auarice makes sale of Holines And steeming luxurie doth broach her lust Red-tyrannizing wrath doth soules oppresse And cankred Enuie falsifies all trust T' enrich her coffers with soule-choaking dust On slouth and gluttonie they build their blisse Whereon they raise Ambitions Pyramis The frame 's too slender for continuance Too earthly high for soules to builde vpon And of her strength my only esperance Is for to see her sad confusion Whose vapours are the worldes infection Her high esteeme is of high heau'n despisde O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd Where shall I finde a safe all-peacefull seat To whose prospect the worldes circumference Presents it selfe high Ioue I thee intreate Let Dodon's groue be lauish in expence And scaffoldize her oakes for my defence Forgiue me God for help doth not consist In Dodon's groue nor a Dodonian fist Where shall I stand O heau'n conduct me now Ioue Israellize my tongue and let my voyce Preuayle with thee shew me the manner how To free me from this change O soule reioyce For heau'n hath free'd me from black hels annoies O see O see Ioue sets me free from thrall Such is his loue to them that on him call Loe where I stand vpon a stedfast rocke Whose peerelesse trust is free from all compare See how it brookes the Phlegetonticke shocke And bides what foemen to each other share The raging sea on this side doth it dare On that side flames such is the earthly state Of those from earth seeke them to alienate Now eies prepare and be your sight as cleare As is the Skie when none but Phaetons sire Inhabites it for O alas I feare They will be dazled with smoake and fier That with repulse of heau'n doth downe retire Heart teach my tongue directed by mine eie To be the Chorus to this tragedie Marke you spectators of this tragicke act If any rest vnmetamorphosed O you whose soules with hel are not contract Whose sacred light is not extinguished Whose intellectuall tapers are not fed With Hells flame marke the transformation Wrought by the charmes of this rebellion That sacred female which appear'd to him Who was inspir'd with heau'ns intelligence Who was the last that drunke vpon the brim Of deepe diuining sacred influence That heau'nly one of glorious eminence She whom Apollo clothed with his robe And plac'd hir feet vpon th' inconstant globe So cloath'd his mantle might her shelter be To shrowde her safe from Acheronticke mistes So plac'd hir ground might feede hir egencie Farre as it on necessitie consistes And not t' exceede the bound of heau'nly listes So cloath'd she might to heau'n her minde applie So plac'd to vse it in necessitie But marke O woe her high rebellious starres Their minds ambitioniz'd do seeke her fall And hauing dim'd the Sun with smoaky warres Haue found his dearest one how to appall And mixe her honny with the bitterst gall See how her eies are fixed on the globe Which which O wo hath quite trāsformd her robe Her robe that like the Sun did clearly shine Is now transform'd vnto an earthy coate Of massiue gold because she did combine Affection with the Moon and did remote Her heart from heau'ns book where her name was wrote The globe takes head that was her footstoole set And from her head doth pull her coronet Her twelue starr'd glorious coronet which Ioue Did make her temples rich enuironrie And for the more to manifest his loue Encircled them with faire imbrodetie Of sacred lights in ayre-cleare azurie She is depriued off and doth begin To be the couerture of laethall sin The vines Aedonides dead Murcianie Smooth Philoxenus murders ground Disquiet Eriphila hel's Syrenie Philocrematos the soules deepe wound And whatso els in Hydra's head is found Do maske themselues within her pleasing smile And so with deadly sinne the world beguile What dreadfull sight O do mine eies behold See frosty age that should direct aright The grassie braine that is in vice so bold With heedie doctrine and celestiall light Hath bin conuersing with hells taper night Whose diuelish charmes like Circés sorcerie Haue metamorphosde Eos Eonie Apolloe's herauld that was wont to cheare Night-wounded soules with bright celest'all raies Faire Phosphorus whose looke was wont to feare Infernall hagges that haunt frequented wayes To drawe the soule to hell that wandring strayes Is metamorphosde to a torch of hell And makes his mansi'on-house blacke horrors cell Whose deepe foundation 's raisde from Phlegeton The fi'rie riuer of blacke Orcus hall Whence pillers rise which do themselues vpon Quadrangle wise vphold Erebus wall Worldes trustlesse trust soules vnmistrusted fall Birds vines and floures and eu'ry sundry fruite Do compasse it for best that place they sute For since the spirit the bodies prisner Of heau'nly substance wholy is compact And since the flesh the soules imprisoner Of excrementall earth is wholy fact Since this with that it selfe cannot contract Needes must the soule the earthly prison doubled For all earths pleasures slime be smothered From out the lake a bridge ascends thereto Whereon in female shape a serpent stands Who eies her eie or views her blew vain'd brow With sence-bereauing gloses she inchaunts And when she sees a worldling blind that haunts The pleasure that doth seeme there to be found She soothes with Leucrocutanized sound Thence leades an entrie to a shining hal Bedeckt with flowers of the fairest hew The Thrush the Lark and nights-ioy nightingale There minutize their pleasing laies anew This welcome to the bitter bed of rue This little roome will scarce two wights containe T' enioy their ioy and there in pleasure raigne But next thereto adioynes a spacious roome More fairely farre adorned then the other O woe to him at sinne-awhaping doome That to these shadowes hath his mind giu'n ouer For O he neuer shall his soule recouer If this sweet sinne still feedes him with her smacke And his repentant hand him hales not backe The fraudfull floore of this deceitfull place Is all of quagmires to intrap the wight That treades thereon yet couer'd o're with grasse Of youthful hew al pleasing to earth's sight For so doth satan worke his diu'lish spight This roome will centuries of
worlds containe How small mirths place how large the place of paine Who ere 's deceiu'd by this illusion Must surely fall into this deepe abisse Downe to the horror of deepe Phlegeton Whose fi'ry flames like vultures gnaw on flesh Yet iote of it neuer consumed is O let no wight trust to this worldly sheene For such ioyes hate of God best loued beene Erinnis purueyor young elth I meane Teares vp our mothers wombe to finde hir slime And doth ysearch her bowells all vncleane For noysome filth the poyson of our time Base dunghill slaue for meanes for his to clime So may he well for now earths baddest good Makes eu'ry peasant seeme of gentle blood Yet certs if the naked truth I say Nor from the golden mine comes gentry true Nor can this age the next and so for ay Ech his succeeding age with it indue For it 's no heritage to heires t' ensue But shines in them to heau'n their minde that giue Then who doth so in him doth gentrie liue O that old age that kept the treasuries Of great Apollo once whose faltring tongue Intreates old earth performe his obsequies Should now by hell be metamorphosde yong And with desire of soule-infecting dong Seeke vnto vice weake infancie to winne And make his heart Epithesis of sinne The oldest man saith ech day one day more One day nay sure a twelue-months time t' will be Ere seriant death will call me at my doore Craz'd drooping age why can thine eies not see Pale death arresting tender infancie O that his memory thee still would tell Now out of me might death my breath expell Where are the centinels the armed watch Who draw their breath from Phoebus treasurie Somnus awake vnlocke the rustie latch That leades into the caues somniferie Rowze vp the watch lull'd with worlds Syrenie Somnus awake pull off their golden maske And bid them strait finderesize their taske Somnus awake hell and the world conspire Pan is transform'd and al his flocke neere drownd Pan that from heau'n receiu'd his due paid hyre He that was wont vpon the fertile ground Of Arcadie to feed wherein was found No golden India that might preuent That high estate of poore meane rich content Pan that was wont to make his quiet life Th'exordium of ech soule-sweet argument Pan that was wont to make his voide of strife The period of ech sentence of Content Temper'd with surrop of heau'ns document Pan that was once a cleere Epitimie Is now transform'd to hot Epithymie O where are they Apollo did appoint To guard Arcadia's sea-enuiron'd banckes The oceans monarch whom Ioue did annoint The great controller of the whaly ranckes Is landed on Arcadia's tender flankes Enuies protector Pan with gold hath fed And Pan with gold is metamorphosed Wealth 's shipwracke India's minerie The pearly pibble which the Ocean keepes The Treasure-house of Neptunes Thetisie The faire sweete poison of th' infernall deepes Hell's twinckliug instrument that neuer sleepes Is that great gift Tridentifer presents To make faire passage for his soule intents O see that head that once was couered With fleecy wooll that hung on earth-low brakes Is scarce contented now it selfe to wed With what Eriphila from India takes Now Pan of gold himselfe a Cor'net makes His eies that 'fore were clearely cophosie Now cannot see but in a minery His hand to pawes his sheep-hooke to a mace Are metamorphosed his heart whose height Did ne're before o're-peere Arcadia's face With cloud-high thoughts aspiring high is fraight And chaoiz'd Idea's of conceit Doth make his gesture seem a troubled skie And fills his count'nance with sad meteorie Awake O heau'n and all thy pow'rs awake For Pan hath sold his flocke to Thetis pheer O how the center of my soule doth quake That barb'rous India should ouer-peer Fruitful Arcadia the worlds great Peere Hot fiery dust with trickling teares ec'n weeps To see Arcadia's flockes drown'd in the deeps O how vnworthie's he a heard to be That leaues his flocke for ech temptation As into magistrates ech man may see When by the means of vice th' are call'd vpon To execute their duteous function O eu'n as they are knowne when vap'rous vice Breathes forth a mist of blacke iniquities Eu'n so a shepheard tells where to hee 's bent When mighty Ioue after long summers ioy Of high celestiall kindnes to vs lent Doth please vs trie with winters sharp annoy Or tempt his heart with earthly seeming ioy Which time if he with care his flock doth feed Shewes loue to 's flock and hate to 's earthly meed But though I speake 'gainst this hypocrisie This hellish ill o'remask'd with holinesse Na'th lesse I neither can nor wil deny That if thereby we reaue no wight of blisse We may preuent our earthly wretchednesse For lawfull t is our owne harme to preuent If not by ill we compasse our intent Is 't possible the world should yet affoord More cause of woe then yet mine eies haue seene Can Pluto in his horrors caue yet hoord More woe then in this tragicke sceane hath beene Is 't true I see Or do I ouerweene O O I see more then I can expresse Amaz'd with sence-confounding wretchednesse In Delta that 's enuiron'd with the sea The hills and dales with heards are peopled That tend their tender flockes vpon the lea And tune sweet laies vnto their pipes of reed Meane while their flockes vpon the hillockes feed And sometime nibble on the buskie root That did his tender bud but lately shoote Long while the heards enioy'd this sweet content Not fearing wolues that might their flocks molest For nothing harbor'd neare that harm thē meant And this content long might they haue possest Had not a beast spoil'd this their sweetned rest Whether the soile him bred or foes him brought I doubt seemes some that Deltaes damage sought Among the shrubbes had set him priuily To spoyle the lambes that sometime did estray Nor onely thus deuour'd them theeuishly But oft allured them from out their way With such chaung'd voice no mortal wight could say But that the notes were voice of man he sung O what deceit is lodged in the tongue This dayly spoyle through ech mans eare did runne At length Mauortio a gallant Knight The meane whereby his Country honor wonne Heard of the harme wrought by Hyenn'as spight Scarce heard he of the spoyle but that his sp'rite Aethereall not hable to endure His heart should knowledge of such harme immure An houre and th'wrong rest vnirrooted out Him draue as sail-swel'd barks are droue by wind And strait he armd him moūting's prancer stout He forward pricks spurr'd by a noble mind Awaited on by Truth his Page full kind And by a'squire that artfull strength was call'd Seem'd Hercules him could not haue appalld Thus pricking on the plaine at last he ey'd The grisly beast as in her den she lay Tearing a lamb with iawes farre stretch'd awide A seely lambkin which she made her pray Straight with a courage
enchaining rowne Encompasse him eu'n dead with want of food If want may heauen hurt with deadly bood Much teen they bide in search for such an one Whom they may make their nurs'ries paragon A pitchie night encurtained with clowdes That kept from it heau'ns star-bright comforture Is the sole Theater that them enshrowdes Fogs damps trees stones their sole encompassure To whom they mone black todes giue responsure Their woe is like vnto that wretches paine Whom s'parents dead no man will entertaine Before that death by life had stellified Great Mauors spirit in the loftie skie Befote his spirit in heau'n was deified Mars and the Muses had their dignity The sacred sisters did him aptifie For Mars he kindly fed his parents want And made that plenty which before was scant But now O woe they long may go vnfed Ayde mighty Ioue for Nilus Crocodiles Are bathing in the pure Castalian head Pure horse-foot Helicon their filth defiles Art like Aegyptian dogs must scape their wiles O dreary woe the Muses did but sup And are infected with that pois'nous cup. How like blacke Orcus lookes this dampy caue This obscure dungeon of Cimmerian sin This hugy hell my spirit gins to raue To see blacke Pluto banquetting within The once-form'd world with his faire Proserpin O see the world all is by heau'n reiected Now that the sacred Muses are infected See where Vrania onelie's seated on The twin-top'd hill the steepie craggy mount That ouer-peeres once cristall Helicon There bides she eu'ry storme that once was wont To bathe her selfe in the Castalian fount Yet this me gladdes though she of ioy be reau'n Yet is she now come neerer vnto heau'n O where 's Mauortis may the Muses say And haue the heau'ns bereaued vs of blisse O heau'ns nay O sweet heau'n fed Muses stay Exclaime not on the sacred heau'ns for this But as a mother that her childe doth misse Lament and be your heart from despaire wonne Your wombe may bring forth such another sonne And as thy Sunne not still could face the north But by his falling reaued thee of day Because the day light 's by the night put forth Nor can thy nights blacke hew endure alway Then hope sweet Delta hope from murmure stay Thy Phoebus slumbreth but in Thetis lap Hee 'l rise before thou thinkst of such a hap See that same rocke the rocke of my defence Is metamorphosde to an Vnicorne Whose shining eies of glorious eminence Doth all the world with brightnes cleare adorne And with Ioues strength hir life-preseruing horne Hath purified the cristallized fount That streames along the valley of Artes mount Her streaming rayes haue pierc'd the cloudie skies And made heau'ns traitors blush to see their shame Cleared the world of her blacke vironries And with palefeare doth all their treason tame Delta's Bellonian name of peerelesse fame Hath free'd Apollo from their treacherie And plac'd him in his former dignitie Come come you wights that are transformed quite Eliza will you retransforme againe Come star-crown'd female and receiue thy sight Let all the world wash in her boundlesse maine And for their paine receiue a double gaine My very soule with heau'nly pleasure 's fed To see th'transform'd remetamorphosed Vrania sits amid Pernassus vale O're shelterd with an aire-cleare Canopie O senses nurse soule-sweet refreshing dale Gods nectar heau'ns sweet ambrosianie Conuert each riuer to pure Castalie That India it selfe may sweetly raise Her well tun'd notes in high Iehouah's praise FINIS The Epilogue NOw are the pitchie Curtains that enclosde The heau'nly radiance of Apollo's shine Drawne backe and all that in hels caue reposd Are dauncing chearely in a siluer twine With heau'ns Vrania shaming Proserpine Hell's Phlegetontike torches are put forth And now the Sunne doth face the frosty north Sacred Apollo cheeres the lightsome day And swan-plum'd Phoebe gards the star-faire night Lest Pluto's forester should cause estray Darke Cosmos Pilgrim's wandring without light Heau'ns star-embroderie doth shine full bright Heau'ns sacred lights agree in one consent To driue the cloudes from foorth the firmament Now is the Moone not blemisht with a cloud Nor any lampe that should illuminate And lighten eu'ry thing that heau'n doth shrowd Darkned or else my sight gin's to abate And s'reaued of it intellectuate Each obscure caue is lightned by the day Or else mine eyes are forced to estray But when my heart was vrged forth to breath Fell accents of soule-terrifying paine My subiect was a heau'nly tapers death Night was my lampe my inke hell's pitchy maine Then blame me not if my wittes light did waine Since but with night I could with none conferre In this my Epinyctall register FINIS