PHILOPONUS

Ecce vigil nitido ab ortum Purpureas aurora fores, et plenam rosarum Atrium. Dissugiunt stellae, quarum agmina cogit Luciser, & coeli station novissimus exit. Jungere equos Titan velocibus . What bold Nymph is this, that durst intrude a amongst the Muses? Ignorant suspicious soul, be content, I will be thine Interpreter. Then so. Now begins the fair Due dabbling blushing morn To open to the earth heavens Eastern gate, Displaying by degrees the new born light. The stars have aced their dance, and unto night Now id good night. The young days Centinel the morning slarre Now drives before him all his glittering slock, And bids them rest within the old Till with his whistle Hesper call them forth. Now Titan up and ready calls aloud, And bids the rolling hours bosti e them quick And harness up his p auncing foaming steeds To hurry out the suns bright Chariot. Oh now I hear their trampling feet approach: Now now I see that glorious lamp to dart His nearer beams, and all bepaint with gold The over peeping tops of highest hills. I have said but one word, Lu cit, to is morning. I give no morrow unto thee, but to the Muses, and my self. Welcome fair light, most welcome unto me, When these thy beams reflect upon my book. Oh how it joys my watchful eyes and heart, To crop the first fruits of the virgin morn. And spend that precious stock of common light Upon this Authors lines, and such bookeware. The morning is the Muses gainest friend. Oh how my blood does warmly sweetly thrill, My senses lulled, my heart enwrapped with joy, To see these plains, this fair two-headed hill, Those bowers, these towers, those winding banks, These shady laurels, and that Temple gate The seat, the throne, the nest, the rest, the school Of great Apollo, and his darlings nine. NO Court of King, no Palace stately rich, Though proud of marble feet & guilded head Can outbid these for true and sweet content. Let others grovel and embrace the earth, (The earth the whole world's basest sediment) Let them there dig their mother's bowels out, And thence ache gold (the earth's worst excrement) Let muddy minds oard up, and hug, and de, And fit upon the eggs of au rice: Thence hatching vipers of their stinging care . Let others fell their lives away in sport, Or play the Parasites in fickle Court. Let others swell with greatness, burst with pride. And others lusk and S word in lazy sleep, Or worser ench and soak themselves in Bacchus sudds, Or wallow in the mire of pleasures lewd: These seats, these bowers, are to Philoponus True pleasure, riches, honour, kingdom, rest. But now fair Phœbus with his rising rays Strikes on his own bright Temples battlements, The watchword for the daily sacrifice. The suns first heat, that warms this temples top, Calls for the Altar to be warm below. Now now Musaeus his observant Priest With other sc uiters bestir them quick To fe worser that never-ceasing sacred fire. My partly must be in that devotion, To take from thence a blessing for the day. Our actions hence have their prosperity, By timely worshipping the deity. ANd now me thinks my spirits lighter are, My soul more clear, my wits more active far Since I received from graven Mulaeus hand Apollos benediction for this day. But where is my Amphibius? he promised to overtake me at this morning sacrifice. I hasted not, I did pro tract till Phœbus (whose Swift Chariot no hand can stay) by his visible messenger called for our common duty and devotion. What will he thus leave me alone? And yet even thus alone I am not. Numquam minus solus quam cum solus. My books and meditations are my companions, that never fail me. With me they walk and talk, with them I rest at home: and other while when I travel abroad and converse with contemplation, how short and easy are the ways? yea, and how safe too? I can fear no the eves: the Muses are my guard. And in very truth, what can the eves rob me of? My purse is light, and so my heart. My true riches treasured up in the cabinet of this breast, no lurching hand by stealth, no robbing rover by force can seize upon. My Father hath no land to leave me. I think his mean estate is the better means of my happiness. This education which he astoo ds me, I take for a more goodly and durable inheritance, then if he could have left me thousands of stocks and acres, without any bringing up in quality other then the gentle vanities of the times. I envy not our spruce gallant Jingle, that now forsooth scorns to be our schoolfellow any longer. Our sa ble robe is too homely for such gaudy butterflies. But ho Philoponus whither dost thou range? These flies not worth the gazing on would seduce me out of my way. Away you flutering moths that fain would eat holes in the Muses robes. Come with Philosophers, come soul-plying Orators. Nay to you I come; you are my home, the true centre whereon my circling thoughts do rest. Oh melliflu ous Tully. Oh streaming overflowing Ovid. Oh May stique Virgil. Grave Quintillian. Sententious Isocra tes. Virtuous Sentta Plentiful Plutarch. Profound A ristotle. Divine Plato. My solace, my guides, my instru cters. Oh how your words distil into my thirsting soul, Like to immortalizing Nectar. Where left we last, sweet numbersome Isocrates? Oh here, where thy lamp burns bright. in non-Latin alphabet . Isocrat and Demonic. This rule he delivers, Think not to walk unseen when thou goest about any wickedness. For, though no man oh uerspye thee, thine own conscience keeps watch over thee. Oh the divine power of unbred conscience? Suitable to this is that of Seneca. Quid prodest non habere con scium habenti conscientiam? When Amphibius and I discoursed on this point at our private reading of See neca, I remember how affectionately he would take the book into his bosom, and hug it, and protest that this one sentence is able to make us honest men. I will seek him out, that we may mutually kindle the sparks of conscience in our breasts, Exit. PArnassus plains. I he banks of Hippocrene, The laurel grove, all walked, all searched by me: and yet I find him not. Oh here not hoped, yet now found. Found? Is this he? Is this my Amphibius? Where a to thou? Who art thou? Look up and show thy friendly brow. I Hope no distaste estrangeth thee om thy Philoponus. What have we here: The walking ghost of Amphibius? Where is his soul, his life, his look, his speech? Wandering? I know no by way can call thee off from me. These groves, these banks, and shades, Oh owe oft have they been companions and witnesses of our friendship, and discourses of earth, of sea, of stars, of spheres, of motions, of rest, of beasts, of plants, of all Dame nature's works, and wondrous art, by which this All stands thus composed, and framed in most exact proportion. Awake I say, the Muses call us to our task. I know thou canst not envy me. Thy heart is so generous, and my worth so mean, thou love me I know, for the parity of our dispositions and studies. What Amphibius, you are always modest. Hic virtutis colour. Blushing is virtues scarlet robe. What blast hath thunder-strucken thee? Whence art thou fallen? Thou from Apollo? First may the stars be plucked from heaven. Why but how? Soldier? Which of the furies plucked thee from our wonted peace and quiet in Apollos service, now to pitch thy tent in Marses field? Oh Tragedy! What Scene is this? On what Stage dost thou tread? With whom? Both sides? Who are the Cumbattants? What force compels? Our fates? Speak ri ht, and say, our faults. They overrule and overturn us, when we are willing to be conquered, and then to colour our follies, we put on the mask oh tragic exclamation upon our stars, our fates, our cross inexorable adamantine destinies. Cure it? I will cure it. Let me feel thy pulse. Oh what boiling and beating waves of passion! W thou calm them? Recipe a iletto or aylors bodkin; make but one eyelet hold under the left pap, three inches deep: your blood would be cooled; and you shall fallen into a sweet sleep, and presently be transported into the Elisian fields. TO obatum est. Not I, but—you fate mon ers teach you this. But in earnest I advise thee thus. Give over parling and combating: blow away your enemy out of the field with one blast. One word will do it. Only this sloutly said N lo. What? do you blow hight and cold at once, at once will and nill? Oh Sir, do you think Medea a fit pattern for you? Have you no better a Mistress to instruct your wavering soul, then monstrous Medea? Overawes? Oh faint fondling, not worthy to march under the Muses banner, whose Escuch on is Virtue Argent, crowned Or. And the two supporters, win ged Victory, and winged alleyed, all-eared, all-ton gued Fame. What mandates other then usurped Tyranny? What conquests other then by voluntary yielding to false allurements? What writ? what arrest? you needs not obey it. At least you might lurk and withdraw your self, and make them return a Non est inventus: Reason? what other reason then ut cum ration insa nias, that you may be reasonably raving mad? Then let all the nine Muses hiss at me, and ba nish me out of Apollos school. What are these forged patches which plead their workmanship from the Muses looms? Have you been weaving them in your sequestered studies? Oh how Pocticall you are grown, and fantastical? I think that paper hath infected you. But by what hand was it conveyed to you? Nay then I perceive he is handsomely caught. I have herd of strong lines, admitted by weak judgements, and derided by the judicious. To my not so deer, as worthy to be far dearer, Amphibius the flower of youth— Honour and envy of his rank.— Accomplisher of virtue — In nothing wanting, but that he is indebted,— Indebted to himself, in infinite sums of most currant delights, over chum shly neglected by him. Oh forgery Oh soppery! Thinkest thou that Queen Hedone wrote this lever to thee? I think she never herd of Amphi bius. See how thy good nature is wrought upon. This inscription I none of Queen Hedones hand. Seest thou the character nothing a kin to the letter within Let me tell thee a short tale. Thou hast herd oh Burching-lane in London. So. And there are many volumes of Appárell made at large by guess for no man, and for every man, for all, whom they may fit, or who will buy them. And honest rural guest coming thither, is hailed into a shop, and Can ed with a suit which though too wide, too long or short, he's persuaded ' was made foe him and none else, he pays, and goes, and after finds it S inks. Yes to thee. Mutato nomixe de to Fabulam narratur. Thou art this new come guest, gazing on and admi ring the varnished wares, set out in the deceitful shop of Hedone. She cuts out and tacks together, large de clamations in folio. In laudem voluptatis. These she sends abroad by the and of her Broaker Siren: Who, lo den with these blank letters, rambles up & down: and, when she lights upon any credulous soul, pre sently she adds and endorsement, and makes the re ceiuer believe that eene Hedone her self does woo him. Against the concourse of this solemn day this Siren, hovering here for gain, now seizeth on thee. And thou believest that this paper garment was cut out and sowed and laced for Amphibius. I she meet with me, verily I shall have another the same letter, endorsed, To her deer, her only deer Philopo nus. Then shall I be the flower of youth, and what not? Thy yielding? And why not mine as well? I m of the same old with thee. But I bethink my self, Why hath Reason the Sceptre in her hand, if rebel Passion may be suffered to crowd into the Throne. Where is thy Logic? thy Philosophy? Art thou and Orator to persuade others to that which they know not, and canst thou not persuade thy self, in that which thou acknowledgest? Why then comes she not now to Apollos Court at this solemn assem lie, to l y in her claim for it? Such draste of si ens by thy feast. What slout reasons? What authorities? This time and place S S not to examine these par ticulars. Come lets to the lau ell Grove. There will we gage to the bottom this farthel of false wares. Grave guide of endear youth, Interpreter Of great Apollos laws chief secretary Unto the learned Muses, all your words Are lodged safe in this laborious breast. Think your command's no sooner said then done Does your child desire so much? His language is so harsh, that I will speak, if it be but to rid my ears of this preposterous found. Vene rabble Mus us. May it please our Lord Apollo, now after two years penance to remit the remaining year. My self can partly witness that. SEe how thy soul was sna ed with sophistry. No Author here alleged for Hedone, But quels those poisons with their Antidotes. Mark Tully in that place does smoothly plead For youthful Calius, so to palliate His Clients true objected vanities. There Tully played the Lawyer for his fee. Behold him now a sage Philosopher: Discoursing of Old Age, he there concludes, In voluptatis regno virtutem non posse onsistere, That virtue cannot stand where pleasure reigns. was a wanton Epicure, A glossing Poet, but wd Moralist: He should his soul to Venus and her son, Such writers we for style, not matter read. Siren from Terence pleads, that in young men Deep quaffing, roating, whoring, is no fault. Does not that Poet represent the par S, The passion, and several enormities Of cockering doting father's, of lewd sons, Of cheating slaves, and cogging parasites? Thus he describes the vices of those times, That readers might them hate, no imitate. S , Comic Poets set out drunkenness In him that pleads for , and the while Does swagger, stagger, swallow, wallow, snort, The soul that this picture is, the more That swinish vice breeds loathing of it self. If I would on a Comic slage display Virtue in conflict stoutly labouring, And then in conquest honoured by ; First would I personate her enemy In some such busy guiles and forgery, As this lewd Siren represents to thee. The rest of Authors, Motives, Arguments, Which in that letter you so stood upon, Are of no better stamp, as I have shown. And can fa re more at large. But why should I distrust thy judgement so? Your best revenge on her will be henceforth, No more to speak with her by word or pen, Women's fair words work deep with passive men Come let us up into Apollos Court. The Session long since begun. There shall you more confirm your resolution, by hea king Apollo himself in his judge meant seat. Exeunt. She spins nothing but spiders webs, to catch flies. Oh joust worser ome, that pleasure shall be always to pain. Which also this false Siren proves. irst, a face see king fair to meet with: but if you further go, turpem in pisc mul formos superne. What misfortune? fire? or thieves? The means his cards and counters. Blind fortune h that quit he oh that; but she I true to her name . For y partly I will not be of counsel to cut off that en ail. He will not answer, unless you give him all his titles. . Sl e of Slugge-ha l. Stand upright, and leave thy yawning. Nay, you must foot it thither, there lies the ma owe of your punishment. I hope, not from our bound of friendship. I am sure these afford impenctrable a mor against the ssaults of Hedone. And now are they brought on the other side against their wills? He that would find Lu , must seek im at the sign of the Labour in vam e. One boy said, that this was the Captains losty cap ring trick.