But he must aske his mother to define
How manie ierkes she would his breech should line.
All these obseru'd, he could contented bee,
To giue fiue markes and winter liuerie.
IN th' heauens vniuersall alphabet,
All earthly thinges so surely are foreset,
That who can read those figures, may foreshew
What euer thing shall afterwards ensue.
Faine would I know, (might it our artist please,) 5
Why can his tell-troth Ephemerides
Teach him the weathers state so long beforne,
And not fore-tell him, nor his fatall horne,
Nor his deaths-day, nor no such sad euent,
Which he mought wisely labour to preuent?
Thou damned mock-art, and thou brainsick tale
Of old Astrologie, where didst thou vaile
Thy cursed head thus long; that so it mist
The black bronds of some sharper satyrist?
Some doting gossip mongst the Chaldee wiues
Did to the credulous world thee first deriue,
And superstition nurs'd thee euer sence,
And publisht in profounder arts pretence:
That now who pares his nailes, or libs his swine,
But he must first take counsell of the signe;
So that the vulgars count for faire or foule,
For liuing or for dead, for sicke or whole.
His feare or hope, for plentie or for lacke,
Hangs all vpon his new-years almanack.
If chance once in the spring his head should ake, 25 It was foretold,—thus sayes mine almanack.
In th' heauens High-streete are but dozen roomes, In which dwels all the world, past and to come.
Twelue goodly innes they are, with twelue fayre signes, Euer well tended by our star-diuines.
Euerie mans head innes at the horned Ramme,
The whiles the necke the Black-buls guest became ;
Th' arms, by good hap, meet at the wrastling twins,
Th' heart in the way at the Blew-lion innes.
The legs their lodging in Aquarius got,
That is the Bride-streete of the heauen, I wot.
The feete tooke vp the Fish with teeth of gold;
But who with Scorpio lodg'd, may not be told.
What office then doth the star-gazer beare?
Or let him be the heauens ostelere;
Or tapsters some; or some be chamberlaines,
To waite vpon the guests they entertaine.
Hence can they reade, by vertue of their trade,
When anie thing is mist where it was laide.
Hence they diuine, and hence they can deuise,
If their ayme faile, the stars to moralize.
Demon, my friend, once liuer-sicke of loue,
Thus learn'd I by the signes his griefe remoue.
In the blinde Archer first I saw the signe,
When thou receiu'dst that wilfull wound of thine; 50 And now in Virgo is that cruell mayd,
Which hath not yet with loue thy loue repaide.
But marke when once it comes to Gemini,
Straight way fish-whole shall thy sicke liuer be.
But now (as th' angrie heauens seem to threat) 55
Manie hard fortunes, and disastres great,
If chance it come to wanton Capricorne,
And so into the Rams disgracefull horne,
Then learne thou of the vgly Scorpion,
To hate her for her fowle abusion:
Thy refuge then the ballance be of right,
Which shall thee from thy broken bond acquite;
So, with the Crab, go backe whence thou began,
From thy first match, and liue a single man.
SOME say my satyres ouer-loosely flowe,
Nor hide their gall inough from open showe;
Not riddle-like, obscuring their intent ;
But packe-staffe plaine, vttring what thing they ment; Contrarie to the Roman ancients,
Whose words were short, and darkesome was their sence.
Who reades one line of their harsh poesies,
Thrise must he take his winde, and breath him thrise :
My Muse would follow them that haue fore-gone,
But cannot with an English pineon;
For looke how farre the ancient comedie
Past former satyres in her libertie ;
So farre must mine yeeld vnto them of olde: 'Tis better be too bad then be too bolde.
was, and that was term'd the time of gold, When world and time were young, that now are old;
(When quiet Saturne swaid the mace of lead,
And pride was yet vnborne, and yet vnbred.)
Time was, that whiles the autumne fall did last,
Our hungrie sires gapte for the falling mast
of the Dodonian oakes.
Could no vnhusked akorne leaue the tree,
But there was challenge made whose it might be ;
And if some nice and licorous appetite
Desir'd more daintie dish of rare delite,
They scal'd the stored crab with clasped knee,
Till they had sated their delicious eye;
Or search'd the hopefull thicks of hedgy-rowes
For brierie berries, or hawes, or sowrer sloes ;
Or when they meant to fare the fin'st of all,
They lickt oake-leaues besprint with hony fall.
As for the thrise three-angled beech nut-shell,
Or chesnuts armed huske and hid kernell,
No squire durst touch, the law would not afford,-
Kept for the court, and for the kings owne board. 20
Their royall plate was clay, or wood, or stone;
The vulgar, saue his hand, else had he none.
Their onely seller was the neighbour brooke,—
None did for better care, for better looke;
Was then no playning of the brewers scape,
Nor greedie vintner mixt the strained
The kings pauilion was the grassy green,
Vnder safe shelter of the shadie treen.
Vnder each banke men layd their lims along,
Not wishing anie ease, nor fearing wrong;
Clad with their owne, as they were made of old,
Not fearing shame, not feeling anie cold.
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