This suddaine, rash, half-capreol[181] 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.
[Footnote 180: See Memorial-Introduction concerning Martin. G.]
[Footnote 181: Cf. st. 68. l. 6. G.]
II. TO THE PRINCE.[182]
Sir, whatsoeuer YOV are pleas'd to doo
It is your special praise, that you are bent,
And sadly[183] 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.
[Footnote 182: Query--Henry, son of James I.? He died in 1612. Or
Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I.? Most probably the former. G.]
[Footnote 183: = seriously. Cf. Milton: P. L. vi. 541 and Comus, 509.
So in Shakespeare frequently. G.]
_Orchestra_,
OR
A POEME OF DAUNCING.
1.
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.
3.
_Homer_ doth tell in his aboundant verse,
The long laborious trauailes of the _Man_;
And of his lady too he doth reherse,
How shee illudes with all the art she can,
Th' vngratefull loue which other lords began;
For of her lord, false Fame long since had sworn,
That _Neptune's_ monsters had his carkase torne.
4.
All this he tells, but one thing he forgot,
One thing most worthy his eternall song;
But he was old, and blind, and saw it not,
Or else he thought he should _Ulisses_ wrong,
To mingle it his tragike acts among;
Yet was there not in all the world of things,
A sweeter burden for his Muse's wings.
5.
The courtly loue _Antinous_ did make:
_Antinous_ that fresh and iolly knight,
Which of the gallants that did vndertake
To win the widdow, had most wealth and might,
Wit to perswade, and beautie to delight:
The courtly loue he made vnto the Queene,
_Homer_ forgot, as if it had not beene.
6.
Sing then _Terpischore_, my light Muse sing
His gentle art, and _cunning curtesie_;
You lady can remember euery thing,
For you are daughter of Queene Memorie;
But sing a plaine and easy melodie:
For the soft meane that warbleth but the ground,
To my rude eare doth yeeld the sweetest sound.
7.
One onely night's discourse I can report,
When the great Torch-bearer of Heauen was gone
Downe in a maske vnto the Ocean's Court,
To reuell it with Thetis[184] all alone;
Antinous disguisèd and vnknowne,
Like to the Spring in gaudie ornament,
Vnto the Castle of the Princesse went.
8.
The soueraine Castle of the rockie Ile,
Wherein _Penelope_ the Princesse lay;
Shone with a thousand lamps, which did exile
The shadowes darke,[185] and turn'd the night to day;
Not _Ioue's_ blew tent, what time the sunny ray
Behind the Bulwarke of the Earth retires,
Is seene to sparkle with more twinckling fires.
[Footnote 184: Misprinted 'Tethis.' G.]
[Footnote 185: In 1st edition 'dim darke shades.' G.]
9.
That night the Queen came forth from far within,
And in the presence of her Court was seene;
For the sweet singer _Ph[oe]mius_[186] did begin
To praise the worthies that at _Troy_ had beene;
Somewhat of her _Ulisses_ she did weene.
In his graue hymne the heau'nly man would sing,
Or of his warres, or of his wandering.
10.
_Pallas_ that houre with her sweet breath diuine
Inspir'd immortall beautie in her eyes;
That with cælestiall glory shee did shine,
Brighter[187] then _Venus_ when shee doth arise
Out of the waters to adorne the skies;
The Wooers all amazèd doe admire
And checke their owne presumptuous desire.
[Footnote 186: Phemius, a great singer at the court of Ulysses: Odys.
i. 154, 337: the latter contains the allusion _supra_, where Penelope
stands at the door of the hall and listens to the song. G.]
[Footnote 187: Misprinted 'brigher.' G.]
11.
Onely _Antinous_ when at first he view'd
Her starbright eyes, that with new honour shind;
Was not dismayd, but there-with-all renew'd
The noblesse and the splendour of his mind;
And as he did fit circumstances find,
Vnto the throne he boldly gan aduance,
And with faire maners wooed the Queene to dance.
12.
'Goddesse of women, sith your heau'nlinesse
'Hath now vouchsaft it selfe to represent
'To our dim eyes, which though they see the lesse
'Yet are they blest in their astonishment;
'Imitate heau'n, whose beauties excellent
'Are in continuall motion day and night,
'And moue thereby more wonder and delight.
13.
'Let me the moouer be, to turne about
'Those glorious ornaments, that Youth and Loue
'Haue fixed in you, euery part throughout;
'Which if you will in timely measure moue,
'Not all those precious iemms in heau'n aboue,
'Shall yeeld a sight more pleasing to behold,
'With all their turnes and tracings manifold.'
14.
With this the modest Princesse blusht and smil'd,
Like to a cleare and rosie euentide,
And softly did returne this answer mild:
'Faire Sir, you needs must fairely be denide
'Where your demaund cannot be satisfide;
'My feet, which onely Nature taught to goe,
'Did neuer yet the art of footing know.
15.
'But why perswade you me to this new rage?
'(For all disorder and misrule is new)
'For such misgouernment in former age,
'Our old diuine Forefathers neuer knew;
'Who if they liu'd, and did the follies view,
'Which their fond nephews make their chiefe affaires,
'Would hate themselues that had begot such heires.'
16.
'Sole heire of Vertue and of Beautie both,
'Whence cometh it (_Antinous_ replies)
'That your imper[i]ous vertue is so loth
'To graunt your beauty her chiefe exercise?
'Or from what spring doth your opinion rise
'That dauncing[188] is a frenzy and a rage,
'First knowne and vs'd in this new-fangled age?
[Footnote 188: Misprinted in 1612 edition 'danching.' G.]
17.
'_Dauncing_[189] (bright Lady) then began to bee,
'When the first seeds whereof the World did spring,
'The fire, ayre, earth, and water--did agree,
'By Loue's perswasion,--Nature's mighty King,--
'To leaue their first disordred combating;
'And in a daunce such measure to obserue,
'As all the world their motion should preserue.
[Footnote 189: Margin-Note here 'The antiquitie of dancing.' G.]
18.
'Since when, they still are carried in a round,
'And changing, come one in another's place;
'Yet doe they neither mingle nor confound,
'But euery one doth keepe the bounded space
'Wherein the Daunce doth bid it turne or trace;
'This wondrous myracle did Loue deuise,
'For Dauncing is Love's proper exercise.
19.
'Like this, he fram'd the gods' eternall Bower,
'And of a shapelesse and confusèd masse,
'By his through-piercing and digesting power,
'The turning vault of heauen formèd was;
'Whose starry wheeles he hath so made to passe,
'As that their moouings do a musicke frame,
'And they themselues still daunce vnto the same.
20.
'Or if this All which round about we see,
'(As idle _Morpheus_ some sicke braines hath taught)
'Of vndeuided _motes_ compacted bee:
'How was this goodly Architecture wrought?
'Or by what meanes were they together brought?
'They erre that say they did concurre by chance:
'Loue made them meet in a well-ordered daunce.
21.
'As when _Amphion_ with his charming lire
'Begot so sweet a syren of the ayre;
'That with her Rethorike made the stones conspire
'The ruines of a citie to repaire:
'(A worke of wit and reason's wise affaire)
'So Loue's smooth tongue, the _motes_ such measure taught
'That they ioyn'd hands; and so the world was wrought.
22.
'How iustly then is Dauncing tearmèd new,
'Which with the World in point of time begun?
'Yea Time it selfe, (whose birth _Ioue_ neuer knew,
'And which indeed is elder then the sun)[190]
'Had not one moment of his age outrunne,
'When out leapt Dauncing from the heap of things,
'And lightly rode vpon his nimble wings.
23.
'Reason hath both their pictures in her treasure,
'Where _Time the measure of all mouing is_,
'And Dauncing is a moouing all in measure;
'Now if you doe resemble that to this,
'And thinke both one, I thinke you thinke amis:
'But if you iudge them twins, together got,
'And Time first borne, your iudgement erreth not.
24.
'Thus doth it equall age with age inioy,
'And yet in lustie youth for euer flowers;
'Like loue his sire, whom Paynters make a boy,
'Yet is the eldest of the heau'nly powers;
'Or like his brother Time, whose wingèd howers
'Going and comming will not let him dye,
'But still preserve him in his infancie.'
[Footnote 190: In first edition reads: 'And which is far more ancient
then the sun.' G.]
25.
This said; the Queene with her sweet lips diuine,
Gently began to moue the subtile ayre,
Which gladly yeelding, did itselfe incline
To take a shape betweene those rubies fayre;
And being formèd, softly did repayre
With twenty doublings in the emptie way,
Vnto _Antinous_ eares, and thus did say:
26.
'What eye doth see the heau'n, but doth admire
'When it the moouings of the heau'ns doth see?
'My selfe, if I to heau'n may once aspire,
'If that be dauncing, will a Dauncer be;
'But as for this your frantick iollitie
'How it began, or whence you did it learne,
'I neuer could with Reason's eye discerne.
27.
Antinous answered: 'Iewell of the Earth,
'Worthy you are that heau'nly daunce to leade;
'But for you thinke our dauncing base of birth,
'And newly-borne but of a braine-sicke head,
'I will foorthwith his antique gentry read;
'And for I loue him, will his herault[191] be,
'And blaze his Armes, and draw his petigree.[192]
28.
'When Loue had shapt this World,--_this great faire wight_,
'That all wights else in this wide womb containes;
'And had instructed it to daunce aright,[193]
'A thousand measures with a thousand straines,
'Which it should practise with delightfull paines,[194]
'Vntill that fatall instant should reuolue,
'When all to nothing should againe resolue:
29.
'The comely order and proportion faire
'On euery side, did please his wandring eye:
'Till glauncing through the thin transparent ayre,
'A rude disordered rout he did espie
'Of men and women, that most spightfully
'Did one another throng, and crowd so sore,
'That his kind eye in pitty wept therefore.
[Footnote 191: Herald. G.]
[Footnote 192: Pedigree. G.]
[Footnote 193: Margin-Note here 'The original of dancing.' G.]
[Footnote 194: 'Painstaking.' G.]
30.
'And swifter then the lightning downe he came,
'Another shapelesse Chaos to digest;
'He will begin another world to frame,
'(For Loue till all be well will neuer rest)
'Then with such words as cannot be exprest,
'He cutts the troups, that all asunder fling,
'And ere they wist, he casts them in a ring.
31.
'Then did he rarifie the element,
'And in the center of the ring appeare;
'The beams that from his forehead spreading[195] went,
'Begot an horrour, and religious feare
'In all the soules that round about him weare;
'Which in their eares attentiueness procures,
'While he, with such like sounds, their minds allures.
32.
'How doth Confusion's mother, headlong Chance,[196]
'Put Reason's noble squadron to the rout?
'Or how should you that haue the gouernance
'Of Nature's children, Heauen and Earth throughout,
'Prescribe them rules, and liue your selues without?
'Why should your fellowship a trouble be,
'Since man's chiefe pleasure is societie?
[Footnote 195: In 1st edition 'shining.' G.]
[Footnote 196: Margin-Note here 'The speech of Love, perswading men to
learn Dancing.' G.]
33.
'If sence hath not yet taught you, learne of me
'A comely moderation and discreet;
'That your assemblies may well ordered bee
'When my vniting power shall make you meet,
'With heau'nly tunes it shall be temperèd sweet:
'And be the modell of the World's great frame,
'And you Earth's children, _Dauncing_ shall it name.
34.
'Behold the _World_, how it is _whirled round_,
'And for it is so _whirl'd_, is namèd so;
'In whose large volume many rules are found
'Of this new Art, which it doth fairely show;
'For your quicke eyes in wandring too and fro
'From East to West, on no one thing can glaunce,
'But if you marke it well, it seemes to daunce.
35.
'First[197] you see fixt in this huge mirrour blew,
'Of trembling lights, a number numberlesse:[198]
'_Fixt they are_ nam'd, but with a name vntrue,
'For they all mooue[199] and in a Daunce expresse
'That _great long yeare_, that doth containe no lesse
'Then threescore hundreds of those yeares in all,
'Which the sunne makes with his course naturall.
[Footnote 197: Margin-Note here 'By the orderly motion of the fixed
stars.' G.]
[Footnote 198: Cf. 'Paradise Regained' iii. 310, as in Astr[oe]a, Hymne
xxi. G.]
36.
'What if to you these sparks disordered seeme
'As if by chaunce they had beene scattered there?
'The gods a solemne measure doe it deeme,
'And see a iust proportion euery where,
'And know the points whence first their mouings were;
'To which first points when all returne againe,
'The axel-tree of Heau'n shall breake in twaine.
37.
'Vnder that spangled skye, fiue wandring flames[200]
'Besides the King of Day, and Queene of Night,
'Are wheel'd around, all in their sundry frames,
'And all in sundry measures doe delight,
'Yet altogether keepe no measure right;
'For by it selfe each doth it selfe aduance,
'And by it selfe each doth a galliard[201] daunce.
[Footnote 199: In 1st edition 'are mov'd.' G.]
[Footnote 200: Margin-Note here 'Of the planets.' G.]
38.
'_Venus_, the mother of that bastard Loue,
'Which doth vsurpe the World's great Marshal's name,
'Iust with the sunne her dainty feete doth moue,
'And vnto him doth all the iestures frame;
'Now after, now afore, the flattering Dame,
'With diuers cunning passages doth erre,
'Still him respecting that respects not her.
39.
'For that braue Sunne the Father of the Day,
'Doth loue this Earth, the Mother of the Night;
'And like a reuellour in rich aray,
'Doth daunce his galliard in his lemman's sight,
'Both back, and forth, and sidewaies, passing light;
'His princely[202] grace doth so the gods amaze,
'That all stand still and at his beauty gaze.
[Footnote 201: A French 'dance': the name meaning gay or brisk, and
so a quick liuely dance, introduced into England about 1541. Thomas
Wright's 'Dictionary' _s.v._ G.]
[Footnote 202: In 1st edition 'gallant.' G.]
40.
'But see the Earth, when he approcheth neere,
'How she for ioy doth spring and sweetly smile;
'But see againe her sad and heauy cheere
'When changing places he retires a while;
'But those blake[203] cloudes he shortly will exile,
'And make them all before his presence flye,
'As mists consum'd before his cheerefull eye.
[Footnote 203: Black. G.]
41.
'Who doth not see the measures of the Moone,
'Which thirteene times she daunceth euery yeare?
'And ends her pauine[204] thirteene times as soone
'As doth her brother, of whose golden haire[205]
'She borroweth part, and proudly doth it weare;
'Then doth she coyly turne her face aside,
'Then halfe her cheeke is scarse sometimes discride.
[Footnote 204: Spanish _pavana_: a solemn Spanish dance. G.]
[Footnote 205: Spelled in first edition, 'heire.' G.]
42.
'Next her, the pure, subtile, and clensing Fire[206]
'Is swiftly carried in a circle euen;
'Though Vulcan be pronounst by many a lyer,
'The only halting god that dwels in heauen:
'But that foule name may be more fitly giuen
'To your false Fire, that farre from heauen is fall:[207]
'And doth consume, waste, spoile, disorder all.
[Footnote 206: Margin-Note here 'Of the Fire.' G.]
[Footnote 207: Cf. 'Nosce Teipsum' page 103, _ante_: st. fourth, line
second. G.]
43.
'And now behold your tender nurse the _Ayre_[208]
'And common neighbour that ay runns around;
'How many pictures and impressions faire
'Within her empty regions are there found;
'Which to your sences Dauncing doe propound.
'For what are _Breath_, _Speech_, _Ecchos_, _Musicke_, _Winds_,
'But Dauncings of the Ayre in sundry kinds?
[Footnote 208: Margin-Note here, 'Of the Ayre.' G.]
44.
'For when you breath, the _ayre_ in order moues,
'Now in, now out, in time and measure trew;
'And when you speake, so well she dauncing loues,
'That doubling oft, and oft redoubling new,
'With thousand formes she doth her selfe endew
'For all the words that from our lips repaire
'Are nought but tricks and turnings of the ayre.
45.
'Hence is her pratling daughter _Eccho_ borne,
'That daunces to all voyces she can heare;
'There is no sound so harsh that shee doth scorne,
'Nor any time wherein shee will forbeare
'The ayrie pauement with her feet to weare;
'And yet her hearing sence is nothing quick,
'For after time she endeth euery trick.
46.
'And thou sweet _Musicke_, Dauncing's onely life,
'The eare's sole happinesse, the ayre's best speach;
'Loadstone of fellowship, charming-rod of strife,
'The soft mind's Paradice, the sicke mind's leach;
'With thine own tong, thou[209] trees and stons canst teach,
'That when the Aire doth dance her finest measure,
'Then art thou borne, the gods and mens sweet pleasure.
[Footnote 209: In first edition 'y^{e}' = the, and so elsewhere. G.]
47.
'Lastly, where keepe the _Winds_ their reuelry,
'Their violent turnings, and wild whirling hayes,[210]
'But in the Ayre's tralucent[211] gallery?
'Where shee herselfe is turnd a hundreth wayes,
'While with those Maskers wantonly she playes;
'Yet in this misrule, they such rule embrace,
'As two at once encomber not the place.
[Footnote 210: A round country dance. G.]
[Footnote 211: Translucent. Cf. Milton, Samson Agonistes 548, and
Comus, 861. G.]
48.
'If then fire,[212] ayre, wandring and fixed lights
'In euery prouince of the imperiall skie,
'Yeeld perfect formes of dauncing to your sights,
'In vaine I teach the eare, that which the eye
'With certaine view already doth descrie.
'But for your eyes perceiue not all they see,
'In this I will your Senses master bee.
[Footnote 212: In first edition spelled 'fier.' G.]
49.
'For loe the _Sea_[213] that fleets about the Land,
'And like a girdle clips her solide waist,
'Musicke and measure both doth vnderstand;
'For his great chrystall eye is alwayes cast
'Vp to the Moone, and on her fixèd fast;
'And as she daunceth in her pallid spheere,
'So daunceth he about his Center heere.
[Footnote 213: Margin-Note here 'Of the sea.' G.]
50.
'Sometimes his proud greene waues in order set,
'One after other flow vnto the shore;
'Which, when they haue with many kisses wet,
'They ebbe away in order as before;
'And to make knowne his courtly loue the more,
'He oft doth lay aside his three-forkt mace,
'And with his armes the timorous Earth embrace.
51.
'Onely the Earth doth stand for euer still:
'Her rocks remoue not, nor her mountaines meet:
'(Although some wits enricht with Learning's skill
'Say heau'n stands firme, and that the Earth doth fleet,
'And swiftly turneth vnderneath their feet)
'Yet though the Earth is euer stedfast seene,
'On her broad breast hath Dauncing euer beene.
52.
'For those blew vaines that through her body spred,
'Those saphire streames which from great hils do spring.[214]
'(The Earth's great duggs; for euery wight is fed
'With sweet fresh moisture from them issuing):
'Obserue a daunce in their wilde wandering;
'And still their daunce begets a murmur sweet,
'And still the murmur with the daunce doth meet.
[Footnote 214: Margin-Note here 'Of the riuers.' G.]
53.
'Of all their wayes I love _Mæander's_ path,
'Which to the tunes of dying swans doth daunce;[215]
'Such winding sleights, such turns and tricks he hath,
'Such creeks, such wrenches, and such daliaunce;
'That whether it be hap or heedlesse chaunce,
'In this indented course and wriggling play
'He seemes to daunce a perfect cunning _hay_.[216]
[Footnote 215: Ovid (Heroides VII. 1, 2)
'Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis,
Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.'
Cf. Sir Thomas Browne 'Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors' Book
III.c.xxvii: Works by Wilkin, Vol. II. pp. 517, 518
(edition Pickering 1835.) G.]
[Footnote 216: A round country dance, as before.]
54.
'But wherefore doe these streames for euer runne?
'To keepe themselues for euer sweet and cleere:
'For let their euerlasting course be donne,
'They straight corrupt and foule with mud appeare.
'O yee sweet Nymphs that beautie's losse do feare,
'Contemne the drugs that Physicke doth deuise,
'And learne of Loue this dainty exercise.
55.
'See how those flowres that have sweet beauty too,
'(The onely iewels that the Earth doth weare,[217]
'When the young Sunne in brauery her doth woo):
'As oft as they the whistling wind doe heare,
'Doe waue their tender bodies here and there;
'And though their daunce no perfect measure is,
'Yet oftentimes their musicke makes them kis.
[Footnote 217: Margin-Note here 'Of other things upon the earth.' G.]
56.
'What makes the vine about the elme to daunce,
'With turnings, windings, and embracements round?
'What makes the loadstone to the North aduance
'His subtile point, as if from thence he found
'His chiefe attractiue vertue to redound?
'Kind Nature first doth cause all things to loue,
'Loue makes them daunce and in iust order moue.
57.
'Harke how the birds doe sing, and marke then how
'Iumpe[218] with the modulation of their layes,
'They lightly leape, and skip from bow to bow:
'Yet doe the cranes deserue a greater prayse
'Which keepe such measure in their ayrie wayes,
'As when they all in order rankèd are,
'They make a perfect forme triangular.
[Footnote 218: 'Exact': this illustrates Hamlet i., I, and Othello ii.,
3. G.]
58.
'In the chiefe angle flyes the watchfull guid,
'And all the followers their heads doe lay
'On their foregoers backs, on eyther side;
'But for the captaine hath no rest to stay,
'His head forewearied with the windy way,
'He back retires, and then the next behind,
'As his lieuetenaunt leads them through the wind.
59.
'But why relate I euery singular?
'Since all the World's great fortunes and affaires
'Forward and backward rapt and whirled are,
'According to the musicke of the spheares:
'And Chaunge[219] herselfe her nimble feete vpbeares
'On a round slippery wheele that rowleth ay,
'And turnes all States with her imperuous[220] sway.
[Footnote 219: In first edition a probable misprint is, 'Chaunce.' G.]
[Footnote 220: In first edition 'impetuous.' G.]
60.
'Learne then to daunce, you that are Princes borne,
'And lawfull lords of earthly creatures all;
'Imitate them, and thereof take no scorne,
'For this new art to them is naturall--
'And imitate the starres cælestiall:
'For when pale Death your vital twist shall seuer,
'Your better parts must daunce, with them for euer.
61.
'Thus Loue perswades, and all the crowd[221] of men
'That stands around, doth make a murmuring;
'As when the wind loosd from his hollow den,
'Among the trees a gentle base[222] doth sing,
'Or as a brooke through peebles wandering;
'But in their looks they vttered this plain speach,
'That they would learn to daunce, if Loue would teach.[223]
[Footnote 221: In first and 1622 editions there is a probable misprint
of 'crowne' here. G.]
[Footnote 222: Bass. G.]
[Footnote 223: Margin-Note here: 'How Loue taught men to dance.' G.]
62.
'Then first of all he doth demonstrate plaine
'The motions seauen that ar in Nature found,
'_Upward_ and _downeward_, _forth_ and _backe againe_,
'_To this side_ and _to that_, and _turning round_;[224]
'Whereof a thousand brawles he doth compound,
'Which he doth teach vnto the multitude,
'And euer with a turne they must conclude.
[Footnote 224: Margin-Note here 'Rounds or Country Dances.' G.]
63.