The First Week: The Fourth Day

THE ARGUMENT.

The twinkling Spangles of the Firmament:
The wandring Seav'n (Each in a seuerall Tent);
Their Course, their Force, their Essence is disputed;
That they (as Beasts) doe eat and drink; refuted.
Heav'ns (not the Earth) with rapid motion roule:
The famous Stars observ'd in either Pole:
Heav'ns sloaping Belt: the Twelue celestiall Signes,
Whear Sol the Seasons of the Year confines:
Dayes glorious Prince: Nights gloomy Patroness:
His Light and Might: Her constant Change-fulnes.

PVre Spirit that rapt'st aboue the Firmest Sphear,
In fiery Coach, thy faithfull Messenger,
Who smiting Iordan with his pleighted Cloak,
Did yerst diuide the Waters with the stroak:
O. take me vp; that, far from Earth, I may
From Sphear to Sphear, see th' azure Heav'ns To-Day,
Be thou my Coach-man, and now Check by Ioule
With Phoebus Chariot let my Chariotroule;
Driue on my Coach by Mars his flaming Coach;
Saturn and Luna let my wheels approach:
That having learn'd of their Fire-breathing Horses,
Their course, their light, their labour, and their forces,
My Muse may sing in sacred Eloquence,
To Vertues Friends, their vertuous Excellence:
And with the Load-stone of my conquering Verse,
Aboue the Poles attract the most perverse,

And you fair learned soules, you spirits diuine,
To whom the Heav'ns so nimble quils assigne,
As well to mount, as skilfully to limn
The various motion of their Taperstrim;
Lend me your hand; lift mee aboue Parnassus;
With your loud Trebbles help my lowly Bassus.
For sure, besides that your wit-gracing Skill
Bears, in itself, itself's rich guerdon still;
Our Nephews, free from sacrilegious brauls,
Where Horror swims in bloud about our wals,
Shall one day sing that your deer Song did merit
Better Heav'n, better hap and better time to hear-it.

And, though (alas) my now new-rising Name
Can hope heer-after none, or little Fame:
The time that most part of our betterwits
Mis-spend in Flattery, or in Fancy-Fits,
In courting Ladies, or in clawing Lords,
Without affection, in affected words:
I mean to spend, in publishing the Story
Of Gods great works, to his immortall glory.
My rymes, begot in pain, and born in pleasure,
Thirst not for Fame (the Heathen hope's chief treasure):
'T shall me suffice, that our deer France doo breed
(In happy season) som more learned sced,
That may record with more diuine dexterity
Then I haue don these wonders to Posterity.

Much less may these abortiue Brats of Mine
Expect Respect (but in respect of Thine):
Yet sith the Heav'ns haue thus entaskt my layes
(As darkly Cynthia darts her borrow'd rayes)
To shadow Thine; and to my Countrey render
Som small reflection of thy radiant splendor;
It is inough, if heer-by I incite
Som happier spirit to do thy Muse more right;
And with more life giue thee thy proper grace,
And better follow great du BARTAS trace.

GOD'S NONE of these faint idle Artizens
Who, at the best abandon their designes,
Working by halfs; as rather a great deal,
To do much quickly, then to do it well:
But rather, as a workman neuer weary,
And all-sufficient, he his works doth carry
To happy end; and to perfection,
With sober speed, brings what he hath begun.

Hauing therfore the Worlds wide Curten spread
About the circuit of the fruitfull Bed,
Where (to fill all with her vnnumbred Kin)
Kinde Natures self each moment lyeth in:
To make the same for euer admirable,
More stately-pleasant, and more profitable;
He th' Azure Tester trimm'd with golden marks,
And richly spangled with bright glistring sparks.

I knowe, those Tapers, twinkling in the sky,
Doo turn so swiftly from our hand and eye,
That man can neuer (rightly) reach, to seeing
Their Course and Force, and much-much less their Being:
But, if coniecture may extend aboue
To that great Orb, whose mouing All doth moue,
Th' imperfect Light of the first Day was it,
Which for Heavn's Eyes did shining matter fit:
For, God, selecting lightest of that Light,
Garnisht Heav'ns seeling with those Torches bright:
Or else diuided it; and pressing close
The parts, did make the Sun and Stars of those.

But, if thy wits thirst rather seek these things,
In Greekish Cisterns then in Hebrew Springs;
Then I conclude, that as of moistfull matter,
God made the people that frequent the Water,
And of an Earthy stuff the stubborn droues
That haunt the Hills and Dales and Downs and Groues:
So, did he make, by his Almighty might,
The Heav'ns and Stars, of one same substance bright;
To th' end these Lamps, dispersed in the Skies,
Might with their Orb, it with them, sympathize.
And as (with vs) vnder the Oaken bark
The knurry knot with branching vains, we mark
To bee of substance all one with the Tree,
Although far thicker and more rough it bee:
So those gilt studs in th' vpper story driven,
Are nothing but the thickest part of Heav'n.

When I obserue their Light and Heat yblent
(Meer accidents of th' vpper Element)
I thinke them Fire: but not such Fire as lasts
No longer then the fuel that it wastes:
For then, I think all th' Elements too-little
To furnish them only with one days victual.

And therefore smile I at those Fable-Forges,
Whose busy-idle stile so stifly vrges,
The Heavn's bright Cressets to be living creatures,
Ranging for food, and hungry fodder-eaters;
Still sucking-vp (in their eternall motion)
The Earth for meat, and for their drink, the Ocean.
Sure, I perceive no motion in a Star,
But natural, certain, and regular;
Wher-as Beasts motions infinitely vary,
Confus'd, vncertain, diuers, voluntary.
I see not how so many golden Postes
Should scud so swift about Heav'ns azure coasts,
But that the Heav'ns must ope and shut som-times,
Subiect to passions, which our earthly climes
Alter, and toss the Sea, and th' Aire estrange
From it selfs temper with exceeding change.
I see not how, in those round blazing beams,
One should imagine any food-fit limbs:
Nor can I see how th' Earth, and Sea should feed
So many Stars, whose greatnes doth exceed
So many times (if Star-Diuines say troth)
The greatnes of the Earth and Ocean both:
Sith heer our Cattle, in a month, will eat
Seav'n-times the bulk of their owne bulk in meat.

These Torches then range not at random, o're
The lightsom thicknes of an vn-firm Floor:
As heer below, diuersly mooving them,
The painted Birds between two aires do swim.
But rather fixed vnto turning Spheares,
Ay, will-they, nill-they, follow their careeres:
As Cart-nails fastned in a wheel (without
Selfs-motion) turn with others turns about.

As th' Ague-sicke, vpon his shivering pallet,
Delaies his health oft to delight his palat;
When wilfully his taste-les Taste delights
In things vnsauory to sound Appetites:
Even so, som brain-sicks liue ther now-adaies,
That lose themselves still in contrary waies;
Preposterous Wits that cannot rowe at ease,
On the smooth Chanell of our common Seas.
And such are those (in my conceit at least)
Those Clarks that think (think how absurd a iest)
That neither Heav'ns nor Stars do turn at all,
Nor dance about this great round Earthly Ball;
But th' Earth it self, this Massie Globe of ours,
Turns round-about once euery twice-twelue houres:
And wee resemble Land-bred nouices
New brought aboord to venture on the Seas;
Who, at first launching from the shoar, suppose
The ship stands still, and that the ground it goes.

So, twinkling Tapers, that Heav'ns Arches fill,
Equally distant should continue still.
So, neuer should an Arrow, shot vpright,
In the same place vpon the shooter light;
But would doo (rather) as (at Sea) a stone
Aboord a Ship vpward vprightly throw'n;
Which not within-boord fall's, but in the Flood
A-stern the Ship, if so the winde be good.
So, should the Fouls that take their nimble flight
From Western Marshes toward Mornings Light,
And Zephyrus, that in the Summer time
Delights to visit Eurus in his clime,
And Bullets thundred from the Canons throat
(Whose roaring drowns the Heavn'ly thunders note)
Should seem recoyl: sithens the quick career,
That our round Earth should daily gallop heer,
Must needs exceed a hundred-fold (for swift)
Birds, Bullets, Windes; their wings, their force, their drift.

Arm'd with these reasons, 'twere superfluous
T' assail the reasons of Copernicus;
Who, to salve better, of the Stars th' appearance,
Vnto the Earth a three-fold motion warrants:
Making the Sun the Center of this All,
Moon, Earth, and Water, in one only Ball.
But sithens heer, nor time, nor place doth sute,
His Paradox at length to prosecute;
I will proceed, grounding my next discourse
On the Heav'ns motions, and their constant course.

I oft admire Greatnes of mighty Hills,
And pleasant beauty of the flowry Fields,
And count-les number of the Oceans sand,
And secret force of sacred Adamant:
But much-much more (the more I mark their course)
Stars glistering greatnes, beauty, number. force.

Euen as a Peacock, prickt with loues desire,
To woo his Mistress, strowting stately by her,
Spreads round the rich pride of his pompous vail,
His azure wings and starry-golden tail,
With rattling pinions wheeling still about,
The more to set his beautious beautie out:
The Firmament (as feeling like aboue)
Displays his pomp; pranceth about his Loue,
Spreads his blew curtain, mixt with golden marks,
Set with gilt spangles, sow'n with glistring sparks,
Sprinkled with eyes, specked with Tapers bright,
Poudred with Starrs streaming with glorious light,
T' inflame the Earth the more, with Louers grace,
To take the sweet fruit of his kinde imbrace.

Hee, that to number all the Stars would seek,
Had need inuent som new Arithmetick;
And who, to cast that Reck'ning takes in hand,
Had need for Counters take the Ocean's sand:
Yet haue our wise and learned Elders found
Foure-dozen Figures in the Heav'nly Round,
For aid of memory; and to our eyes
In certain Howses to diuide the Skyes.
Of those, are Twelue in that rich Girdle greft
Which God gaue Nature for her New-yeres-gift
(When making All, his voice Almighty most,
Gaue so fair Laws vnto Heav'ns shining Hoast)
To wear it biaz, buckled ouer-thwart-her;
Not round about her swelling waste to girt-her.

This glorious Baldrick of a Golden tindge,
Imbost with Rubies, edg'd with Siluer Frindge,
Buckled with Gold, with a Bend glistring bright,
Heav'ns biaz-wise enuirons day and night.
For, from the period, whear the Ram doth bring
The day and night to equall ballancing,
Ninetie degrees towards the North it wends,
Thence iust as much toward Mid-Heav'n it bends,
As many thence toward the South; and thence
Towards th' Years Portall, the like difference.

Nephelian Crook-horn, with brass Cornets crown'd,
Thou buttest brauely 'gainst the New-yeres bound;
And richly clad in thy fair Golden Fleece,
Doo'st hold the First House of Heav'ns spacious Meese.
Thou spy'st anon the Bull behinde thy back:
Who, least that fodder by the way he lack,
Seeing the World so naked; to renewg't,
Coats th' infant Earth in a green gallant sute;
And, without Plough or Yoak, doth freely fling
Through fragrant Pastures of the flowry Spring.
The Twins, whose heads, arms, shoulders, knees and feet,
God fill'd with Starrs to shine in season sweet,
Contendin Course, who first the Bull shall catch,
That neither will nor may attend their match.
Then, Summers-guide, the Crab coms rowing soft,
With his eight owres through the Heavn's azure lo•t;
To bring vs yeerely, in his starry shell,
Many long daies the shaggy Earth to swele.
Almost with like pase leaps the Lion out,
All clad with flames, bristled with beams about;
Who, with contagion of his burning breath,
Both grass and grain to cinders withereth.
The Virgin next, sweeping Heav'ns azure Globe
With stately train of her bright Golden robe,
Milde-proudly marching in her left hand brings
A sheaf of Corn, and in her right hand wings.
After the Maiden, shines the Balance bright,
Equall druider of the Day and Night:
In whose gold Beam, with three gold rings, there fastens
With six gold strings, a payr of golden Basens.
The spitefull Scorpion, next the Skale addrest,
With two bright Lamps couers his loathsom brest;
And fain, from both ends, with his double sting,
Would spet his venom ouer euery thing;
But that the braue Half-horse Phylirean Scout,
Galloping swift the heav'nly Belt about,
Ay fiercely threats, with his flame-feathered arrow
To shoot the sparkling starry Viper thorough.
And th' hoary Centaure, during all his Race,
Is so attentiue to this onely chase,
That dread-less of his dart, Heav'ns shining Kid
Coms iumping light, iust at his heels vnspid.
Mean-whilethe Skinker, from his starry spout,
After the Goat, a siluer stream pours-out;
Distilling still out of his radiant Fire
Riuers of Water (who but will admire?)
In whose cleer channel mought at pleasure swim
Those two bright Fishes that doo follow him;
But that the Torrent slides so swift away,
That it out-runs them euer, euen as they
Out-run the Ram, who euer them pursues;
And by renewing Yearely, all renues.

Besides these Twelue, toward the Artik side,
A flaming Dragon doth Two-Bears diuide;
After, the Wainman coms, the Crown, the Spear;
The Kneeling Youth, the Harp, the Hamperer
Of th' hatefull Snake (whether we call the same
By Aesculapius, or Alcides name)
Swift Pegasus, the Dolphin, louing man;
Ioues stately Aegle, and the siluer Swan:
Andromeda, with Cassiopeia neer-her,
Her father Cepheus, and her Perseus deerer:
The shining Triangle, Medusa's Tress,
And the bright Coach-man of Tindarides.

Toward th' other Pole, Orion, Eridanus,
The Whale, the Whelp, and hot-breath't Sirius,
The Hare, the Hulk. the Hydra, and the Boule,
The Centaure, Wolf, the Censer, and the Foul
(The twice-foul Rauen) the Southern Fish and Crown,
Through Heav'ns bright Arches brandish vp and down.

Thus, on This-Day working th' eightth azure Tent,
With Art-les Art, diuinely excellent;
Th' Almighties fingers fixed many a million
Of golden Scutchions in that rich Pauilion:
But in the rest (vnder that glorious Heav'n)
But one a-peece, vnto the seuerall Seav'n;
Least, of those Lamps the number-passing number
Should mortall eyes with such confusion cumber,
That we should neuer, in the cleerest night,
Starrs diuers Course see or discern aright.

And therfore also, all the fixed Tapers
He made to twinkle with such trembling capers;
But, the Scaven Lights that wander vnder them,
Through various passage, neuer shake a beam:
Or, he (perhaps) made them not different;
But, th' hoast of Sparks spred in the Firmament
Far from our sense, through distance infinite,
Seems but to twinkle, to our twinkling sight:
Wheras the rest, neerer a thousand fold
To th' Earth and Sea, we doo more brim behold.
For, the Heav'ns are not mixtly enterlaced,
But th' vndermost by th' vpper be imbraced,
And more or less their roundels wider are,
As from the Center they be neer or far:
As in an Egg, the shell includes the skin,
The skin the white, the white the yolk with-in.

Now as the Winde, buffing vpon a Hill
With roaring breath against a ready Mill,
Whirls with a whiff the sails of swelling clout,
The sails doo swing the winged shaft about,
The shaft the wheel, the wheel the trendle turns,
And that the stone which grindes the flowry corns:
Or like as also in a Clock well tended,
Iust counter-poize, iustly thereon suspended,
Makes the great Wheel goe round, and that anon
Turns with his turning many a meaner one,
The trembling watch, and th' iron Maule that chimes
The intire Day in twice twelue equall times:
So the grand Heav'n, in foure and twenty houres,
Surueying all this various house of ours,
With his quick motion all the Sphears doth moue;
Whose radiant glances gild the World aboue,
And driues them euery day (which swiftnes strange-is)
From Gange to Tagus; and from Tay to Ganges.

But, th' vnder-Orbs, as grudging to be still
So straightly subiect to anothers will,
Still without change, still at anothers pleasure
After one pipe to dance one onely measure;
They from-ward turn. and traversing aside,
Each by himself an oblique course doth slide:
So that they all (although it seem not so)
Forward and backward in one instant goe,
Both vp and down, and with contrary pases,
At once they poste to two contrary places:
Like as my self, in my lost Marchant-years
(A loss, alas, that in these liues appears)
Wa•ting to Brabant, Englands golden Fleece
(A ritcher pryze then Iason brought to Greece)
While toward the Sea, our (then, Swan-poorer) Thames
Bare down my Bark vppon her ebbing streams:
Vpon the hatches, from the Prow to Poup
Walking in compass of that narrow Coop,
Maugre the most that Winde and Tide could doo,
Haue gone at once towards LEE and LONDON too.

But now, the neerer any of these Eight,
Approach th' Empyreall Palace walls in height,
The more their circuit, and more daies they spend,
Ye• they return vnto their Iourneys end.

It's therefore thought, That sumptuous Canapy,
The which th' vn-niggard hand of Maiesty
Poudred so thick with Shields so shining cleer,
Spends in his voyage nigh seaven thousand year.

Ingenious Saturn, spouse of Memory,
Father of th' Age of Gold; though coldly dry,
Silent and sad, bald, hoary, wrinkle-faced,
Yet art thou first among the Planets placed:
And thirty years thy Leaden Coach doth run
Ye• it arrive where thy Career begun.

Thou, rich, benign, Ill-chasing Iupiter,
Art (worthy) next thy Father sickle-bear,
And while thou doost with thy more milde aspect
His froward beams disast'rous frouns correct,
Thy Tinnen Chariot shod with burning bosses,
Through twice-six Signes in twice six twelue months crosses.

Braue-minded Mars (yet Master of mis-order,
Delighting nought but Battails, blood, and murder)
His surious Coursers lasheth night and day,
That he may swiftly passe his course away:
But in the road of his eternall Race,
So many rubs hinder his hasty pase,
That thrice, the while, the lively Liquor-God
With dabbled heels hath swelling clusters trod,
And thrice hath Ceres shav'n her amber tress,
Ye• his steel whels haue done their business.

Pure goldie-locks, Sol, States-friend, Honour-giuer,
Light-bringer, Laureat, Leach-man, all Reviver,
Thou, in three hundred threescore daies and five,
Doost to the period of thy Race arrive.
For, with thy proper course thou measur'st th' Year,
And measur'st Daies with thy constrain'd career.

Fair dainty Venus, whose free vertues milde
With happy fruit get all the world with-childe
(Whom wanton dalliance, dancing, and delight,
Smiles, wittie wiles, youth, loue, and beauty bright,
With soft blind Cupids evermore consort)
Of light som Day opens and shuts the port;
For, hardly dar• her siluer Doves go far
From bright Apollos glory-beaming Car.

Not much vnlike so, Mercury the wittie,
For ship, for shop, book, bar, or Court, or Citie:
Smooth Orator, swift Pen-man, sweet Musician,
Rare Artizan, deep-reaching Politician,
Fortunat Marchant, fine Prince-humour-pleaser;
To end his course takes neer a twelue-months leasure:
For, all the while, his nimble winged heels
Dare little bouge from Phoebus golden wheels.

And lastly Luna, thou cold Queen of night,
Regent of humours, parting Months aright,
Chaste Emperess to one Endymion constant;
Constant in Love, though in thy looks in constant
(Vnlike our Loues, whose hearts dissemble soonest)
Twelue times a year through all the Zodiak runnest.

Now, if these Lamps, so infinite in number,
Should stil stand-stil as in a sloathfull slumber,
Then should som Places (alwaies in one plight)
Have alwaies Day, and •om haue alwaies Night:
Then should the Sommers Fire, and Winters Frost,
Rest opposite still on the self same Coast:
Then nought could spring, and nothing prosper would
In all the World, for Want of Heat or Cold.
Or, without change of distance or of dance,
If all these Lights still in one path should prance,
Th' inconstant parts of this lowe Worlds contents
Should neuer feel so sundry accidents,
As the Conjunction of celestiall Features
Incessantly pours vpon mortall Creatures.

I'll n'er beleeve that the Arch-Architect
With all these Fires the Heav'nly Arches deckt
Onely for Shewe, and with these glistering shields
T' amaze poor Shepheards watching in the fields.
I'll n'er beleeve that the least Flowr that pranks
Our Garden borders, or the Common banks,
And the least stone that in her warming Lap
Our kind Nurse Earth doth covetously wrap,
Hath som peculiar vertue of it owne;
And that the glorious Stars of Heav'n have none:
But shine in vain, and haue no charge precise,
But to be walking in heav'ns Galleries,
And through that Palace vp and down to clamber
As Golden Gulls about a PRINCES CHAMBER.

Sens-less is he (who without blush) denies
What to sound senses most apparant lies:
And 'gainst Experience he that spets Fallacians,
Is to be hisst from learned Disputations:
And such is he, that doth affirm the Stars
To have no force on these inferiours;
Though heav'ns effects we most apparant see
In number more then heav'nly Torches be.

I nill alleadge the Seasons alteration,
Caus'd by the Sun in shifting Habitation:
I will not vrge, that neuer at noon daies
His enuious Sister intercepts his Raies
But som great State eclipseth, and from Hell
Alecto looses all these Furies Fell,
Grim, lean-fac't Famine, foul infectious Plague;
Blood-thirsty War, and Treason hatefull Hag:
Heere pouring down Woes vniuersall Flood,
To drown the World in Seas of Tears and Blood.

I'l overpass how Sea doth Eb and Flowe,
As th' Horned Queen doth eyther shrink or growe;
And that the more she Fills her forked Round,
The more the Marrow doth in bones abound,
The Bloud in Veins, the sap in Plants, the Moisture
And lushious meat, in Creuish, Crab and Oyster:
That Oak, and Elm, and Firr, and Alder, cut
Before the Crescent have her Cornets shut,
Are neuer lasting, for the builders turn,
In Ship or House, but rather fit to burn:
And also, that the Sick, while shee is filling,
Feele sharper Fits through all their members thrilling.
So that, this Lamp alone approoves, what powrs,
Heav'ns Tapers have even on these soules of ours:
Temp'ring; or troubling (as they be inclin'd)
Our mind and humours, humours and our minde,
Through Sympathy, which while this Flesh we carie,
Our Soules and Bodies doth together marry.

I'l only say that sith the hot aspect
Of th' Heav'nly Dog-Star, kindles with effect
A thousand vnseen Fires, and dries the Fields,
Scorches the Vallies, parches-vp the Hills,
And often times into our panting hearts,
The bitter Fits of burning Fevers darts:
And (opposit) the Cup, the dropping Pleiades,
Bright-glistering Orion and the weeping Hyades,
Neuer (almost) look down on our aboad,
But that they stretch the Waters bounds abroad,
With Clowdy horror of their wrathfull frown,
Threatning again the guilty World to drown:
And (to be brief) sith the gilt azure Front
Of Firmest Sphear hath scarce a spark vpon't
But poureth down-ward som apparant change,
Toward the Storing of the Worlds great Grange;
We may coniecture what hid powr is given
T' infuse among vs from the other Seaven,
From each of those which for their vertuerare
Th' Almighty placed in a proper Sphear.

Not that (as Stoiks) I intend to tye
With Iron Chains of strong Necessitie
Th' Eternal's hands, and his free feet enstock
In Destinies hard Diamantin Rock:
I hold, that God (as The first Cause) hath giv'n
Light, Course, and Force to all the Lamps of Heav'n:
That still he guides them, and his Providence
Disposeth free, their Fatall influence:
And that therefore (the rather) we belowe
Should study all, their Course and Force to knowe:
To th' end that, seeing (through our Parents Fall)
T' how many Tyrants we are waxen thrall,
Euer since first fond Womans blind Ambition,
Breaking, made Adam break Heav'ns High-Commission:
We might vnpuff our Heart, and bend our Knee,
T' appease with sighs Gods wrathfull Maiestie;
Beseeching him to turn away the storms
Of Hail, and Heat, Plague, Dearth, and dreadfull Arms,
Which oft the angry Starrs, with bad Aspects,
Threat to be falling on our stubborn necks:
To give vs Curbs to bridle th' ill proclivitie
We are inclin'd-to, by a hard Nativitie:
To pour som Water of his Grace, to quench
Our boyling Fleshes fell Concupiscence,
To calm our many passions (spirituall tumours)
Sprung from corruption of our vicious humours.

Latonian Twinns, Parents of Years and Months,
Alas! why hide you so your shining Fronts?
What? nill you shew the splendor of your ray,
But through a Vail of mourning Clouds, I pray?
I pray pul-off your mufflers and your moorning,
And let me see you in your native burning:
And my deer Muse by her eternall flight,
Shal spread as far the glory of your Light
As you your selues run, in alternat Ring,
Day after Night, Night after Day to bring.

Thou radiant Coach-man, running end-les course,
Fountain of Heat, of Light the lively sourse,
Life of the World, Lamp of this Vniverse,
Heav'ns richest Gemm: O teach me wher my Verse
May but begin thy praise. Alas! I fare
Much like to one that in the Clouds doth stare
To count the Quails, that with their shadow cover
Th' Italian Sea, when soaring hither over,
Fain of a milder and more fruitfull Clime,
They com, with vs to pass the Summer time:
No sooner he begins one shoal to summ,
But more and more, still greater shoals do com,
Swarm vpon Swarm, that with their count-les number
Break off his purpose, and his sense incumber.

Daies glorious Eye! even as a mighty King,
About his Countrie stately Progressing,
Is compast round with Dukes, Earls, Lords, and Knights,
(Orderly marshall'd in their noble Rites)
Esquires and Gentlemen, in courtly kinde
And then his Guard before him and behinde;
And there is nought in all his Royal Muster,
But to his Greatness addeth grace and lustre:
So, while about the World thou ridest ay,
Which only lives by vertue of thy Ray,
Six Heav'nly Princes, mounted evermore,
Wayt on thy Coach, three behinde, three before,
Besides the Hoast of th' vpper Twinklers bright,
To whom, for pay thou giuest onely Light.
And, ev'n as Man (the little-World of Cares)
Within the middle of the body, bears
His heart (the Spring of life) which with proportion
Supplieth spirits to all, and euery portion:
Even so (O Sun) thy Golden Chariot marches
Amid the six Lamps of the six lowe Arches
Which seel the World, that equally it might
Richly impart them Beauty, Force, and Light.

Praysing thy Heat, which subtilly doth pearce
The solid thickness of our Vniuerse,
Which in th' Earths kidneys Mercury doth burn,
And pallid Sulphur to bright Metal turn;
I do digress, to praise that Light of thine,
Which if it should, but one Day, cease to shine,
Th' vnpurged Aire to Water would resolve,
And Water would the mountain tops inuolve.

Scarce I begin to measure thy bright Face,
Whose greatness doth so oft Earths greatness pass,
And with still running the Coelestiall Ring,
Is seen and felt of every liuing thing;
But that fantastikly I change my Theam
To sing the swiftness of thy tyer-les Teem;
To sing, how, Rising from the Indian Waue,
Thou seem'st (O Titan) like a Bride-groom brave,
Who, from his Chamber early issuing out
In rich array, with rarest Gems about;
With pleasant Countenance, and lovely Face,
With golden tresses, and attractive grace,
Cheers (at his comming) all the youthfull throng
That for his presence earnestly did long,
Blessing the day, and with delightfull glee,
Singing aloud his Epithalamie.

Then, as a Prince that feeles his Noble heart,
Wounded with Loues pure Honor-winged dart
(As HARDY LAELIVS, that Great GARTER-KNIGHT,
Tilting in Triumph of ELIZA'S Right
(Yeerely that Day that her deerraign began)
Most brauely mounted on proud RABICAN,
All in gilt armour, on his glistering Mazor
A stately Plume, of Orange mixt with Azur,
In gallant Course, before ten thousand eyes,
From all Defendants bore the Princely Prize)
Thou glorious Champion, in thy Heav'nly Race,
Runnest so swift we scarse conceivethy pase.

When I record, how fitly thou dost guide
Through the fourth heav'n thy flaming Coursers pride,
That as they pass, their fiery breaths may temper
Saturn's and Cynthya's cold and moist distemper
(For, if thou gallop'st in the neather Room
Like Phaëton thou would'st the World consume:
Or, if thy Throne were set in Saturn's Sky,
For want of heat, then euery thing would dy)
In the same instant I am prest to sing,
How thy return reviveth every thing;
How, in thy Presence, Fear, Sloath, Sleep, and Night,
Snowes, Fogs, and Fancies, take their sodain Flight.
Th' art (to be brief) an Ocean wanting bound,
Whear (as full vessels haue the lesser sound)
Plenty of Matter makes the speaker mute;
As wanting words thy worth to prosecute.

Yet glorious Monarch, 'mong so many rare
And match-less Flowrs as in thy Garland are,
Som one or two shall my chaste sober Muse
For thine Immortall sacred Sisters chuse.
I'll boldly sing (bright Soverain) thou art none
Of those weak Princes Flattery works vpon
(No second EDWARD, nor no RICHVRD Second,
Vn-kinged both, as Rule-vnworthy recon'd)
Who, to inrich their Minions past proportion,
Pill all their Subiects with extream extortion;
And charm'd with Pleasures (O exceeding Pity!)
Ly alwaies wallowing in one wanton City;
And, loving only that, to mean Lieutenants
Farm out their Kingdoms care, as vnto Tenants.
For, once a day, each Country vnder Heav'n
Thou bidst Good-Morrow, and thou bidst Good-Ev'n.
And thy far-seeing Ey, as Censor, views
The rites and fashions Fish, and Foule do vse,
And our behaviours, worthy (every one)
Th' Abderian Laughter, and Ephesian Moan.

But true it is, to th' end a fruitfull lew
May every Climat in his time renew.
And that all men may neerer in all Realms
Feel the alternat vertue of thy beames;
Thy sumptuous Chariot, with the Light returning,
From the same Portall mounts not every Morning:
But, to make know'n each-where thy daily drift,
Doo'st every day, thy Coursers Stable shift:
That while the Spring, prankt in her greenest pride,
Raigns heer, els-wher Autumne as long may bide;
And while fair Summers heat our fruits doth ripe,
Cold Wintets Ice may other Countries gripe.

No sooner doth thy shining Chariot Roule
From highest Zenith toward Northern Pole,
To sport thee for three Months in pleasant Inns,
Of Aries, Taurus, and the gentle Twinns,
But that the mealie Mountains (late vnseen)
Change their white garments into lusty green,
The Gardens prank them with their Flowry buds,
The Meads with grass, with leaves the naked Woods,
Sweet Zephyrus begins to buss his Flora,
Swift-winged Singers to salute Aurora;
And wanton Cupid, through this Vniverse,
With pleasing wounds, all Creatures hearts to perce.

When, backward bent, Phlegon thy fiery Steed,
With Cancer, Leo, and the Maid, doth feed;
Th' Earth cracks with heat, and Summer crowns his Ceres
With gilded Ears, as yellow as her hair-is:
The Reaper, panting both for heat and pain,
With crooked Rasor shaves the tufted Plain;
And the good Husband, that due season takes,
Within a Month his year's Provision makes.

When from the mid-Heav'n thy bright flame doth fly
Toward the Cross-Stars in th' Antartik Sky,
To be three months, vp-rising, and down-lying
With Scorpio, Libra, and the Archer flying,
Th' Earth by degrees her louely beauty bates,
Pomona loads her lap with delicates,
Her Apron and her Osiar basket (both)
With dainty fruits for her deer Autumns tooth
(Her health-less spouse) who bare-foot hops about
To tread the iuice of Bacchus clusters out.

And last of all, when thy proud-trampling Teem
For three Months more, to soiourne stil doth seem
With Capricorn, Aquarius, and the Fishes
(While we in vain revoke thee with our wishes)
In stead of Flowrs, chill shivering Winter dresses
With Isicles her (self-bald) borrow'd tresses:
About her brows a Periwig of Snowe,
Her white Freez mantle freng'd with Ice belowe,
A payr of Lamb-lyn'd buskins on her feet,
So doth she march Orythias love to meet;
Who with his bristled, hoarie, bugle-beard,
Comming to kiss her, makes her lips afeard;
Whear-at, he sighs a breath so cold and keen,
That all the Waters Crystallized been;
While in a fury, with his boystrous wings
Against the Scythian snowie Rocks he flings,
All lusks in sloath, and till these Months do end,
Bacchus and Vulcan must vs both befrend.

O second honour of the Lamps supernal,
Sure Kalender of Festiuals eternal,
Seas Soueraintess, Sleep-bringer, Pilgrims guide,
Peace-loving Queen: what shall I say beside?
What shall I say of thine inconstant brow,
Which makes my brain wauer, I woat not how?
But, if by th' Ey, a mans intelligence
May ghess of things distance so far from hence,
I think thy body round as any Ball,
Whose superfice (nigh equall ouer all)
As a pure Glass, now vp, and down anon,
Reflects the bright beams of thy spouse, the Sun.
For as a Husbands Nobless doth illustre
A mean-born wife: so doth the glorious lustre
Of radiant Titan, with his beams, embright
Thy gloomy Front, that selfly hath no light.

Yet 'tis not alwaies after one self sort,
For, for thy Car doth swifter thee transport,
Then doth thy Brothers, diversly thou shin'st,
As more or less thou from his sight declin'st.
Therfore each month, when Hymen (blest) above
In both your bodies kindles ardent love,
And that the Starrs-king all inamoured on thee,
Full of desire, shines down direct vpon thee;
Thy neather half-Globe toward th' Earthy Ball
(After it's Nature) is obserued all.
But, him aside thou hast no sooner got,
But on thy side a siluer file we noat,
A half-bent Bowe; which swels, the less thy Coach
Doth the bright Chariot of thy spouse approach,
And fils his Circle. When the Imperiall Star
Beholds thee iust in one Diameter,
Then by degrees thy Full face falls away,
And (by degrees) Westward thy Horns display:
Till fal'n again betwixt thy Louers arms,
Thou wink'st again, vanquisht with pleasures charms.

Thus dost thou Wax and Wane, thee oft renuing;
Delighting change: and mortall things, ensuing
(As subiect to thee) thy selfs transmutation,
Feel th' vnfelt force of secret alteration.

Not, but that Phoebus alwaies with his shine,
Cleers half (at least) of thine aspect divine;
But't sems not so: because we see but heer
Of thy round Globe the lower Hemisphear:
Though waxing vs-ward, Heav'n-ward thou dost wane;
And waning vs-ward, Heav'n-ward grow'st again.

Yet, it befalls, even when thy face is Full,
When at the highest thy pale Coursers pull,
When no thick mask of Clouds can hide away,
From liuing eys, thy broad, round, glistering Ray,
Thy light is darkned, and thine eys are seel'd,
Couered with shadow of a rusty shield.
For, thy Full face in his oblique designe
Confronting Phoebus in th' Ecliptick ligne,
And th' Earth between; thou losest for a space,
Thy splendor borrowd of thy Brothers grace:

But, to revenge thee on the Earth, for this
Fore-stalling thee of thy kind Lovers kiss,
Somtimes thy thick Orb thou doo'st inter-blend
Twixt Sol and vs, toward the later end:
And then (because his splendor cannot pass
Or pearce the thicknes of thy gloomy Mass)
The Sun, as subiect to Deaths pangs, vs sees-not,
But seems all Light-less, though indeed he is not.

Therfore, far differing your Eclipses are;
For thine is often, and thy Brothers rare:
Thine doth indeed deface thy beauty bright;
His doth not him, but vs bereave of Light:
It is the Earth, that thy defect procures;
It is thy shadow, that the Sunne obscures:
East-ward, thy front beginneth first to lack;
West-ward, his brows begin their frowning black:
Thine at thy Full, when thy most glory shines;
His, in thy Wane, when beautie most declines:
Thine's generall, toward Heav'n and Earth together;
His, but to Earth, nor to all places neither.

For, th' hideous Cloud, that cov'red so long since
With nights black vail th' eys of the Starry-Prince
(When as he saw, for our foul Sinfull slips,
The Match-less Maker of the Light, eclipse)
Was far, far other: For, the swarty Moors,
That sweating toyl on Guinnés wealthy shoars:
Those whom the Niles continuall Cataract
With roaring noise for euer deaf doth make:
Those, that suruaying mighty Cassagale,
Within the Circuit of her spacious Wall
Do dry-foot dance on th' Orientall Seas;
And pass, in all her goodly crossing ways
And stately streets fronted with sumptuous Bowrs,
Twelue thousand Bridges, and twelue thousand Towers:
Those that, in Norway and in Finland, chase
The soft-skind Martens, for their pretious Cace;
Those that in Ivory Sleads on Ireland Seas
(Congeal'd to Crystall) slide about at ease;
Were witness all of his strange grief; and ghest,
That God, or Nature was then deep distrest.
Moreover Cynthia, in that fearfull stound,
Full-fild the compass of her Circle round;
And, being so far off, she could not make
(By Natures course) the Sun to be so black:
Nor, issuing from the Eastern part of Heav'n,
Darken that beauty, which her own had given.
In brief, mine ey, confounded with such Spectacles
In that one wonder sees a Sea of Miracles.

What could'st thou doo less, then thy Self dishonour
(O chief of Planets!) thy great Lord to honor?
Then for thy Fathers death, a-while to wear
A moorning Roab on th' hatefull Hemi-spheare?
Then at high-noon shut thy fair eye, to shun
A Sight, whose sight did Hell with horror stun?
And (pearç't with sorrow for such iniuries)
To please thy Maker, Nature to displease?

So, from the South to North to make apparant,
That God reuoak't his Seri•ant Death's sad Warrant
'Gainst Ezechias: and that he would give
The godly King fifteen years more to live:
Transgressing Heav'ns eternall Ordinance;
Thrice in one Day, thou through one path didst prance:
And, as desirous of another nap,
In thy ver million sweet Aurora's Lap,
Thy Coach turn'd back, and thy swift sweating Horse
Full ten degrees lengthned their wonted Course:
Dials went false, and Forrests (gloomy black)
Wondred to see their mighty shades go back.

So, when th' incensed Heav'ns did fight so fell
Vnder the Standard of deer Israel,
Against the Hoast of odious Ammorites;
Among a million of swift-Flashing Lights,
Rayning down Bullets from a stormy Cloud,
As thick as Hail, vpon their Armies proud:
That such as scaped from Heav'ns wrathfull thunder,
Victorious swords might after heaw in-sunder;
Co••ur'd by Iosuah, thy brave steeds stood still,
•• •ull Career stopping thy whirling wheel.
And, one whole Day, in one degree they stayd
In midst of Heav'n, for sacred Armies ayd:
Least th' Infidels, in their disordred Flight,
Should save themselues vnder the wings of Night.

Those, that then liv'd vnder the other Pole,
Seeing the Lamp which doth enlight the Whole,
To hide so long his lovely face away,
Thought never more to haue re-seen the Day;
The wealthy Indians and the men of Spain,
Never to see Sun Rise or Set again.
In the same place Shadows stood still, as stone;
And in twelue Houres the Dials shew'd but one.