He laught at common people's cares and feares;
Oft at their joyes, and sometimes at their teares,
He in contempt to threatning fortune throwes
A halter, and his scornefull finger showes.

We rub the knees of gods with waxe, to gaine
From them such things as hurtfull are, or vaine;
Pow'r subject to fierce spite, casts many downe,
Whom their large stiles, and famous titles drowne.
The statues fall, and through the street are roll'4:
The wheels, which did the chariots weight vphold,
Are knockt in pieces with the hatchets stroke:
The harmelesse horses legs are also broke:
The fires make hissing sounds, the bellowes blow,
That head dissolu'd, must in the furnace glow,
Which all with honours like the gods did grace.
The great Seianus crackes, and of that face,
Which once the second in the world was nam'd,
Are basons, frying-pans, and dishes fram'd.
Place bayes at home, to Ioue's chiefe temple walke,
And leade with thee a great oxe, white as chalke.
Behold Seianus drawne upon a hooke,

All men rejoyce, what lips had he, what looke?
"Trust me" (saith one) "I never could abide
This fellow;" yet none askes for what he dy'd:
None knowes who was the man that him accus'd;
What proofes were brought, what testimony vs'd;
A large epistle fraught with words great store,
From Capreæ comes: 'tis well, I seek no more,
The wau'ring people follow fortune still,
And hate those whom the state intends to kill.
Had Nurtia fauor'd this her Tuscan child:
Had he the aged carelesse prince beguild;
The same base tongues would in that very houre
Haue rays'd Seianus to Augustus' pow'r.
"It is long since that we forbidden are,
To sell our voyces free from publike care:
The people which gaue pow'r in warre and peace,
Now from those troubles is content to cease,
And eu'ry wish for these two ends bestowes,
For bread in plenty, and Circensian showes.
I heare that many are condemn'd to dye;
No doubt the flame is great, and swelleth high.
Brutidius looking pale, did meet me neere
To Mars his altar, therefore much I feare,
Lest vanquisht Aiax find out some pretence,
To punish those that faild in his defence:
Let us run headlong, trampling Cesar's foe,
While on the bank he lies, our fury show:
Let all our seruants see, and witnesse beare,
How forward we against the traytor were,
Lest any should deny, and to the law
His fearefull master by the necke should draw."
These were the speeches of Seianus then,
The secret murmures of the basest men.
Would'st thou be flatter'd, and ador'd by such
As bow'd to him? Would'st thou possess as much?
Would'st thou giue ciuill dignities to these?
Would'st thou appoint them gen'rals who thee
Be tutor of the prince, who on the rock [please?
Of Capreæ sits with his Chaldean flock:
Thou surely seek'st it as a great reward,
T' enjoy high places in the field or guard.
This thou defend'st, for those that haue no will
To make men die, would haue the power to kill:
Yet what such fame or fortune can be found,
But still the woes above the ioyes abound?
Hadst thou then rather chuse the rich attire
Of this great lord,now drawne through common mire,
Or beare some office in the wretched state
Of Gabi, or Fidena, and relate

The lawes of measures in a ragged gowne,
And breake small vessels in an empty towne ?
By this time I pe ceiue thou hast confest,
That proud Seianus could not wish the best:
He that for too much wealth and honour cares,
The heaped lofts of raysed towres prepares,
Whence from the top his fall declines more steepé,
And headlong ruine drawes him to the deepe.
This done, rich Crassus and the Pompeys threw,
And him who Romane freedome could subdue,
Because to height by cunning they aspire,
And enuious gods giue way to their desire.
Few tyrants can to Pluto's court descend,
Without fierce slaughter, and a bloody end.

Demosthenes' and Tully's fame and speech,
Each one that studies rhet'rike, will beseech
At Pallas' bands, and during all the dayes
Of her Quinquatria for this onely prayes,
Though worshipping her picture basely wrought,
Such as with brazen money he hath bought,
While in a little chest his papers lie,
Which one poore seruant carries waiting nigh:
Yet both these orators whom he admires,
Dy'd for that eloquence which he desires :
What did them both to sad destruction bring,
But wit which flow'd from an abundant spring?
The wit of Tully caus'd his head and hand
To be cut off, and in the court to stand.
The pulpits are not moistned with the flood
Of any meane vnlearned pleaders blood.
When Tully wrote; O Rome most blest by fate,
New-borne when I enioy'd the consul's state:
If he his prose had like his verses shap'd,
He Antony's sharpe swords might haue escap'd.
Let critikes here their sharpe derision spend,
Yet those barsh poems rather I commend,
Than thee, diuine Philip picke, which in place
Art next the first, but hast the highest grace;
He also with a cruell death expir'd,
Whose flowing torrent Athens so admir'd,
Who rul'd th' vnconstant people when he list,
As if he held their bridles in his fist.

Ah wretched man, begotten with the hate
Of all the gods, and by sinister fate,
Whom his poore father, bleare-ey'd with the soote
Of sparkes which from the burning ir'n did shoote,
From coales, tongs, anuile, and the cutler's tooles,
And durty forge, sent to the rhet'ricke schooles.

The spoyles of warre, some rusty corslet plac'd
On maymed trophees, cheekes of helmes defac'd,
Defectiue chariots, conquer'd nauies' decks,
And captiues, who themselues with sorrow vexe,
(Their faces on triumphant arches wrought)
Are things aboue the blisse of mortall thought:
For these incitements to this fruitlesse end,
The Romane, Greeke, and barb'rous captaines tend,
This caus'd their danger, and their willing paine,
So much their thirst is greater for the gaine
Of fame than vertue: for what man regards
Bare vertue, if we take away rewards?
In ages past the glory of a few,
Their countrey rashly to destruction drew,
Desiring prayse and titles full of pride,
Inscrib'd on graue-stones which their ashes hide,
Which perish by the sauage fig-tree's strength:
For tombes themselues must have their fate at
Let Annibal be ponder'd in thy mind; [length.
In him thou shalt that waight and value find,
Which fits a great commander. This is he,
Whose spirit could not comprehended be

In Africk, reaching from th' Atlantick streames,
To Nilus heated with the sunny beames;
And southward stretcht as farre as Ethiope feeds
Huge elephants, like those which India breeds :
He conquers Spaine, which cannot him inclose
With Pyrenean hills, the Alpes and snowes,
Which nature armes against him, he derides,
And rockes made soft with vineger diuides.
He Italy attaines, yet striues to runne
On further: "Nothing yet," saith he, "is done,
Till Punicke souldiers shall Romes gates deface,
And in her noblest streets mine ensignes place."
How would this one-ey'd general appeare
With that Getulian beast which did him beare,
If they were set in picture? What became
Of all bis bold attempts? O deare-bought fame,
He, vanquisht, into exile headlong flies,
Where (all men wondring) he in humble wise,
Must at the palace doore attendance make,
Till the Bythinian tyrant please to wake.
No warlike weapons end that restlesse life,
Which in the world caus'd such confused strife.
His ring reuengeth all the Romans dead

At Cannæ, and the blood which he had shed.
Foole, passe the sharpe Alpes, that thy glory's
dreame
[theame.
May schoole-boyes please, and be their publike
One world contents not Alexander's mind,
He thinkes himselfe in narrow bounds confin'd:
It seems as strait as any little isle,

Or desart rocke to him, whom lawes exile:
But when he comes into the towne, whose walls
Were made of clay, his whole ambition falls
Into a graue: death onely can declare
How base the bodies of all mortals are.
The lying Greekes persuade vs not to doubt,
That Persian nauies sailed round about
The mountaine Athos seuer'd from the maine,
Such stuffe their fabulous reports containe :
They tell vs what a passage framed was

Of ships, that wheels on solid seas might passe :
That deepest riuers failed we must thinke,
Whose floods the Medians at one meale could drink:
And must beleeue such other wond'rous things,
Which Sostratus relates with moyst'ned wings.
But that great king of whom these tales they frame,
Tell me how backe from Salamis he came,
That barb'rous prince who vs'd to whip the winds,
Not suff'ring strokes when Aeolus them binds;
He who proud Neptune in his fetters chain'd,
And thought his rage by mildnesse much restrain'd,
Because he did not brand him for his slaue;
Which of the gods would such a master haue.
But how return'd he with one slender bote,
Which through the bloody waues did slowly flote,
Oft stay'd with heapes of carkases: these paines
He as the fruits of long-wisht glory gaines.
"Giue length of life, O Joue, giue many yeeres,"
Thou prayst with vpright count'nance, pale with
feares

Not to be heard, yet long old age complaines
Of great continuall griefes which it containes :
As first a foule and a deforined face
Valike it selfe, a rugged hide in place

Of softer skin, loose cheekes, and wrinkles made,
As large as those which in the woody shade
Of spacious Tabraca, the mother ape
Deepe furrow'd in her aged chaps doth scrape.
Great diff'rence is in persons that be young,
Seme are more beautifull, and some more strong

Than others: but in each old man we see
The same aspect; his trembling limbs agree
With shaking voyce, and thou may'st add to those
A bald head, and a childish dropping nose.
The wretched man when to this state he comes,
Must break his hard bread with vnarmed gummes,
So lothsome, that his children and his wife
Grow weary of him, he of his owne life;
And Cossus hardly can his sight sustaine,
Though wont to flatter dying men for gaine.
Now his benumbed palate cannot taste
His meate or drinke, the pleasures now are past
Of sensuall lust, yet he in buried fires
Retaines vnable and vnfit desires.

What joy can musicke to his hearing bring,
Though best musicians, yea, Seleucus sing,
Who purchase golden raiments by their voyce:
In theaters he needs not make his choice
Of place to sit, since that his deaf'ned eare
Can scarce the cornets and the trumpets heare:
His boy must cry aloud to let him know
Who comes to see him, how the time doth goe:
A feuer only heates his wasted blood
In eu'ry part assaulted with a flood
Of all diseases: if their names thou aske,
Thou mayst as well appoint me for a taske
To tell what close adulterers Hippia loues;
How many sick-men Themison remoues
Out of this world within one autumn's date:
How many poore confederates of our state,
Have been by griping Basilus distrest:
How many orphanes Irus hath opprest;
To what possessions he is now preferr'd,
Who in my youth scorn'd not to cut my beard.
Some feeble are in shoulders, loynes, or thighes,
Another is depriu'd of both his eyes,

And enuies those as happy that haue one.
This man too weake to take his meate alone,
With his pale lips must feede at others' hands,
While he according to his custome stands
With gaping jawes like to the swallowes brood,
To whom their hungry mother carries food
In her full mouth: yet worse in him we find,
Than these defects in limbes, a doting mind;
He cannot his owne seruants' names recite,
Nor know his friend with whom he supt last night;
Not those he got and bred: with cruell spots
Out of his will his doubtlesse heires he blots,
And all his goods to Phiale bequeathes :
So sweet to him a common strumpet breathes.
But if his senses should not thus be spent,
His children's fun'ralls he must oft lament
He his deare wiue's and brothers' death bemones,
And sees the vrnes full of his sisters' bones.
Those that liue long endure this lingring paine,
That oft they find new causes to complaine,
While they mishaps in their owne house behold,
In woes and mournefull garments growing old.
The Pylian king, as Homer's verses show,
In length of life came nearest to the crow: [beares,
Thou thinkst him blest whom death so long for
Who on his right hand now accounts his yeeres
By hundreds with an ancient num'rall signe,
And hath the fortune oft to drinke new wine.
But now obserue how much he blames the law
Of Fates, because too large a thread they draw:
When to Antilochus' last rites he came,
And saw his beard blaze in the fun'rall flame,
Then with demands to those that present are,
He thus his gre'uous mis'ry doth declare :

"Why should I last thus long, what hainous crime
Hath made me worthy of such spatious time?"

Like voyces Peleus vs'd, when he bewail'd
Achilles, whom vntimely death assail'd:
And sad Laertes, who bad cause to weepe

For his Vlisses swimming on the deepe.

| Should bounteous nature's lib'rall hand bestow
Chast disposition, modest lookes, which glow
With sanguine blushes, (what more happy thing
To boyes can fauourable nature bring?
Whose inclinations farre more pow'rfull are,
Than many keepers and continuall care :)

When Troy was safe, then Priam might haue gone Yet are they neuer suffer'd to possesse
With stately excquies and solemne mone,
Taccompany Assaracus his ghost,

His fun'rall herse, enricht with princely cost,
Which Hector with his other brothers beares,
Amidst the flood of Ilian women's teares.
When first Cassandra practis'd to lament;
And faire Polyxena with garments rent:
If he had dy'd ere Paris plac'd his sayles
In ventrous ships, see what long age auailes:
This caus'd him to behold his ruin'd towne,
The swords and fires which conquer'd Asia drowne;
Then he, a trembling souldier, off doth cast
His diademe, takes armour; but at last
Falls at loue's altar, like an oxe decai'd;
Whose pittifull thinne necke is prostrate laid
To his hard master's knife, disdained now,
Because not fit to drawe th' vngratefull plow:
Yet dy'd he humane death; but his curst wife
Bark't like a dog, remaining still in life.
To our examples willingly I haste,
And therefore Mithridates haue orepast;
And Croesus whom iust Solon bids t' attend,
And not to judge men happy till the end.
This is the cause that banisht Marius flies,
That he imprison'd is, and that he lies

[forth

In close Minturnæ's fennes to hide his head,
And neere to conquer'd Carthage begs his bread.
Wise nature had not fram'd, nor Rome brought
A citizen more noble for his worth;
If hauing to the view his captiues led,
And all his warlike pompe, in glory spred;
Then his triumphant soule he forth had sent,
When from his Cimbrian chariot downe he went.
Campania did for Pompey's good provide
Strong feuers, which (if he had then espy'd
What would ensue) were much to be desir'd.
But many cities' publike vowes conspir'd,
And this so happy sicknesse could deface,
Reseruing him to dye with more disgrace:
Rome's and his fortune onely sau'd his head
To be cut off when ouercom'n he fled.
This paine the traytor Lentulus doth scape:
Cethegus not disfigur'd in his shape,
Enioying all his limbes vnmaimed lyes,
And Catiline with his whole carkase dyes.

The carefull mother when she casts her eyes
On Venus' temple in soft lowly wise,
Demands the gift of beauty for her boyes,
But askes it for her girles with greater noyse,
At common formes her wish she neuer staies,

But for the height of delicacy prayes,

The name of man; such foul corrupters presse,
And by the force of large expences trust,
To make their parents instruments of lust.
No tyrant in his cruell palace gelt
Deformed youths; no noble child had felt
Fierce Nero's rapes, if all wry-leg'd had beene :
If in their necks foule swellings had been scene;
If windy tumours had their bellies rays'd;
Or camels' bunches had their backes disprais'd:
Goe now with ioy thy young-man's forme affect,
Whom greater dangers, and worse fates expect;
Perhaps he shortly will the title beare
Of a profest adult'rer, and will feare
To suffer iustly for his wicked fact,
Such paines as angry husbands shall exact:
Nor can he happier be than Mars his starre, [warre.
T'escape those snares which caught the god of
Yet oft that griefe to sharper vengeance drawes,
Than is permitted by th' indulgent lawes;
Some kill with swords, others with scourges cut,
And some th' offenders to foule torments put.
But thine Endymion happily will proue
Some matron's minion, who may merit loue;
Yet when Seruilia him with money hires,
He must be hers against his owne desires:
Her richest ornaments she off will take,
And strip herself of iewels for his sake.
What will not Hippia and Catulla giue
To those, that with them in adult'ry liae:
For wicked women in these base respects
Place all their manners, and their whole affects.
But thou wilt say, "Can beauty hurt the chaste?
Tell me what ioy Hippolitus did taste;
What good seuere Bellerophon receiu'd,
When to their pure intents they strictly cleau'd.
Both Sthenobæa and the Cretan queene,
Asham'd of their repulse, stirr'd vp their teene :
For then a woman breeds most fierce debate,
When shame addes piercing stings to cruell hate.
How would'st thou counsell him, whom th' emp'ror's
Resolues to marry in her husband's life:
The best and fairest of the lords must dye;
His life is quencht by Messallina's eye:
She in her nuptiall robes doth him expect,
And openly hath in her gardens deckt
A purple marriage bed, nor will refuse
To giue a dowre, and ancient rites to vse.

The cunning wizzard who must tell the doome

[wife

Of this successe, with notaries must come. [view

Thou think'st these things are hid from publike
And but committed to the trust of few.

And why should'st thou reproue this prudent choice? Nay, she will haue her solemne wedding drest

Latona in fair Phebe doth reioyce.

O but Lucretia's haplesse fate deterres,
That others wish not such a face as hers;
Virginia her sweet feature would forsake,
And Rutila's crook'd backe would gladly take.
Where sonnes are beautifull, the parents, vext
With care and feare, are wretched and perplext.
So seldome an exact consent betweene
Well-favour'd shapes and chastity is seene.
For should they be with holy manners taught
In homely houses, such as Sabinęs wrought:

With shew of law: then teach him what is best :
He dies ere night vnlesse he will obay;
Admit the crime, he gaines a little stay,
Till that which now the common people heares,
May come by rumour to the prince's cares:
For he is sure to be the last that knowes
The secret shame which in his houshold growes
Thy selfe a while to her desires apply,
And life for some few dayes so dearely buy.
What way socuer he as best shall chuse,
That faire white necke he by the sword must luse,

A FUNERALL HYMNE OUT OF PRUDEN- That reu'rend man in goodnesse bred,