157

NOTE.

In the Registers of the Stationer's Company, under date 25th June, 1594, a Mr. Harrison entered for copy-right of 'Orchestra' (Notes and Queries 3 S. 11., p. 461: Dec. 13, '62) but it was not published till 1596. The following is the original title-page:

:

ORCHESTRA

OR

A POEME ON DAUN

CING

Iudicially prooving the

true observation of time and

measure, in the Authenticall

and laudable use of Daun

cing.

Ouid. Art. Aman. lib 1.

Si vox est, canta: si mollia

brachia, salta

Et quacunque potes dote
placere, place.

AT LONDON:

Printed by J. Robarts

for N. Ling.
1596.

[18mo: pp 46: register A B C of 8 leaves each.]

In the Bodleian copy there is this inscription at top of title

page "Ex dono Wilti. Burdett, amici sui primo die Decembr. 1596 36. E. R.”

Instead of the after-dedication To the Prince' there was the 'Sonnet' to Martin which we have placed before it. The title-page from the edition of 1622 may be added here :—

ORCHESTRA.

OR

A Poeme expressing the An-
tiquitie and Excellencie

OF DAVNCING.

In a Dialogue betweene Penelope

and one of her Wooers.

Not Finished.

LONDON.

Printed by A. M. for Richard Hawkins.
1622. [8vo.]

With reference to 'Not finished' placed on the later titlepage (1622), it is explained by the stanzas restored from the first edition. These shew that the Poet had intended to pursue his subject further; even the hitherto omitted stanzas reading more like a fresh 'invocation' than a 'conclusion.'

Our text, as with 'Nosce Teipsum,' is from the edition of 1622 but compared throughout with above very rare, if not unique, first edition from the Bodleian. At close, by recurrence to the original edition we are able to supply the blanks of all the subsequent editions and reprints. See our Memorial-Introduction, for explanation of the omission: and for Sir John Harington's 'Epigram' on 'Orchestra.' G.

[Dedications.]

I. TO HIS VERY FRIEND, MA. RICH.

MARTIN.1

To whom shall I this dancing Poem send,

This suddaine, rash, half-capreol2 of my wit?
To you, first mouer and sole cause of it,
Mine-owne-selues better halfe, my deerest frend.
O, would you yet my Muse some Honny lend
From your mellifluous tongue, whereon doth sit
Suada in Maiestie, that I may fit

These harsh beginnings with a sweeter end.
You know the modest Sunne full fifteene times
Blushing did rise, and blushing did descend,
While I in making of these ill made rimes,
My golden howers unthriftily did spend:

Yet, if in friendship you these numbers prayse,

I will mispend another fifteene dayes.

1 See Memorial-Introduction concerning Martin. G.

2 Cf. st. 68. 1. 6. G.

II. TO THE PRINCE.1

IR, whatsoeuer vov are pleas'd to doo

SIR,

It is your special praise, that you are bent, And sadly 2 set your princely mind thereto : Which makes yov in each thing so excellent.

Hence is it that yov came so soon to bee

A man-at-armes in euery point aright;
The fairest flowre of noble chiualrie;

And of Saint George his band, the brauest knight.

And hence it is, that all your youthfull traine
In actiueness and grace, yov doe excell;
When yov doe courtly dauncings entertaine
Then Dauncing's praise may be presented well

To yov, whose action adds more praise thereto,
Then all the Muses with their penns can doo.

1 Query-Henry, son of James I.? He died in 1612. Or Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I.? Most probably the former. G.

2

=

seriously. Cf. Milton: P. L. vi. 541 and Comus, 509. So in Shakespeare frequently. G.

Orchestra,

OR

A POEME OF DAUNCING.

I.

WHERE liues the man that neuer yet did heare

Of chaste Penelope, Ulisses' Queene?

Who kept her faith vnspotted twentie yeare,
Till he return'd that farre away had beene,
And many men, and many townes had seen:
Ten yeare at siege of Troy he lingring lay,
And ten yeare in the Mid-land-Sea did stray.

2.

Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse

A great deepe cup with heauenly nectar filld : The greatest, deepest cup in Ioue's great house, (For Ioue himselfe had so expresly willd)

He dranke off all, ne let one drop be spilld;

Since when, his braine that had before been drie, Became the well-spring of all Poetrie.

L