ART. IX. Extracts from England's Parnassus.
SEE CENSURA LITERARIA, VOL. II. P. 317.
"The Muses not long since, intrapping love,
In chains of roses linked all array;
Gave Beauty charge to watch in their behove
With graces three, lest he should wend away;
Who fearing yet he would escape at last,
On high Barnassus top they clapp'd him fast.
When Venus understood her son was thrall,
She made post haste to bave God Vulcan's aid;
Sold him her gems and ceston therewithall;
But all in vain; the Muses made no store
Of gold, but bound him faster than before."
"Even as defaults will more conspicuous be,
How much the offender greater is esteem'd;
So Virtue in a princely body seen,
Lamp-like, and far more excellently deem'd,
That in such unity it's seldom seen,
In mutual approach of highest bliss,
Whether more graced each by other is."
"Such time as from her mother's tender lap The night arose, guarded with gentle winds,
And with her precious dew refresh'd the sap
Of bloom and dark, (whilst that her mantle blinds
The veil of heaven, and every bird was still,
Save Philomel, that did bemoan her ill:)
When in the west Orion lift aloft
His stately crest, and smil'd upon the twins,..
And Cynthia seemly bright, whose eye full oft
Had watch'd her love, with radiant light begins
To peirce the veil of Silence with her beams,
Sporting with wanton clear in Ocean streams;
When little winds in beating of their wings
Did woo the eyes to leave their constant walk,
And all was hush'd save Zephirus that sings
With lovely breathings for the sea-nymph's sake,
My wrathful griefs perplex my mind so sore,
That forth I walk'd my sorrows to deplore."
"In chariot framed of celestial mould,
And simple pureness of the purest sky,
A more than heavenly Nymph I did behold,
Who, glancing on me with her gracious eyc,
So gave me leave her beauty to espy;
For sure no sense such sight can comprehend,
Except her beams their fair reflection lend.
Her beauty with eternity began,
And only unto God was ever seen;
When Eden was possess'd with sinful man,
She came to him, and gladly would have been
The long succeeding world's eternal Queen;
But they refused her, O heinous deed!
And from that garden banish'd was that seed.
Since when at sundry times and sundry ways,
Atheism, and blinded Ignorance conspire,
How to obscure those holy burning rays,
And quench that zeal of heart-inflaming fire,
As makes our souls to heavenly things aspire:
But all in vain; for maugre all their might
She never lost one sparkle of her light.
Pearls may be foil'd, and gold be turn'd to dross,
The sun obscur'd, the moon be turn'd to blood;
The world may sorrow for Astrea's loss,
The heavens darken'd like a dusky wood;
Waste deserts lie where watry fountains stood;
But fair THEOLOGY, for so she hight,
Shall never lose one sparkle of her light.
Such one she was, as in his Hebrew song
The wisest King for fairest creature proves,
Embracing her the cedar trees among,
Comparing her to roses and to doves,
Preferring her before all other loves;
Such one she was, and every whit as fair;
Besides these two was never such a pair."
“Her hand-maids in Amazon-like attire
Went chaste and modest, like Diana's train;
One by her gazing looks seems to aspire
Beyond the moon, and in a high disdain
To deem the world, and worldly treasures vain;
She hight ASTROLOGY, on whose bright lawn
Spheres, astrolabes, and skilful globes are drawn."
"The next, fair smiling with a pleasing cheek,
Had power to ravish and enchant men's ears,
Hight RHETORICK, whose shadowed veil shews clear
With silver tongues, and over it she wears
A wimpled searf, bedew'd with hearer's tears,
Whose captive hearts she would detain long while
With pleasure of her unaffected stile."
"The third, a quick-eyed Dame of piercing sight,
That reason's worth in equal balance weighed,
The truth she lov'd above all earthly wight,
Yet could not tell her love; but, what she said,
Was certain true, and she a perfect maid;
Her garments short, tuck'd up to earth prepar'd;
And she call'd LOGIC without welt or guard."
"Arithmetic, Music, Geometry.
"Next these, whose outward looks I knew aright,
And bade some portion of their endless treasure,
Fair ALGEBRA, with fingers richly dight;
Sweet MUSIC, founder of delightsome pleasure,
Earth-scouring Nymph, directress of all measure.
These humbly did her sovereign highness greet,
And meekly laid their garlands at her feet.
From every one she pluck'd a special flower,
And laid each flower upon a several part;
Then from her one, a stem of wondrous power,
Whose leaves were beams, whose stalks a fiery dart;
And that she laid upon my trembling heart:
These were the buds of art, this plant of bliss:
This gave them life, they yielded grace to this."
"Daughter of Time, sincere Posterity,
Always new born, yet no man knows thy birth, The arbitress of pure sincerity,
Yet changeable, like Proteus, on the earth,
Sometime in plenty, sometime join'd with dearth;
Always to come, yet always present here,
Whom all run after, none come after near;
Impartial Judge of all, save present state,
Truth's idioma of the things are past,
But still pursuing present things with hate,
And more injurious at the first than last,
Preserving others, while thine own do waste;
True treasurer of all antiquity,
Whom all desire, yet never one could see."
When many a weary step
Had brought us to the top of yonder mount,
Mild Zephirus embrac'd us in his arms,
And in a cloud of sweet and rich perfumes
Cast us into the lap of that green mead,
Whose bosom stuck with purple violets,
Half-budded lilies, and young musk-rose trees,
About whose waist the amorous woodbine twines,
Whilst they seem maidens in a lover's arms;
There on the curled forehead of a bank,
That swell'd with camomile, over whose beauty
A wanton hyacinth held down his head,
And by the wind's help oft stole many a kiss,
He sate us down, and thus we did arrive."
"Disquiet thoughts the minutes of her watch,
Full from her cave the fiend full oft doth fly.
To Kings she goes, and troubles them with wars,
Setting those high aspiring bonds on fire,
That flame from earth unto the seat of Jove:
To such as Midas, men that doat on wealth,
And rent the bowels of the middle earth
For coin, who gape as did fair Danae
For showers of gold, there Discontent in black
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