Hypnerotomachia: The Strife of Loue in a Dreame
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Number 87
THE ENGLISH
EXPERIENCE
Its Record in Early Printed Books
Published in Facsimile
(FRANCESCO COLONNA)
HYPNEROTOMACHIA
London 1592
Da Capo Press
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd.
Amsterdam 1969 New York
* * * * *
The publishers acknowledge their gratitude
to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, Oxford,
for their permission to reproduce
the Library's copy.
S.T.C. No.5577
Collation: A-Z (4o.), Aa-Cc (4o.)
Published in 1969 by
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd.,
O. Z. Voorburgwal 85, Amsterdam
&
Da Capo Press
: a division of Plenum Publishing Corporation :
227 West 17th Street, New York. 10011
Printed in The Netherlands
* * * * *
HYPNEROTOMA-
_CHIA_.
The
Strife of Loue in a
_Dreame_.
At London,
Printed for Simon Waterson, and are
to be sold at his shop, in S. Paules Church-
_yard, at Cheape-gate_.
_1592._
TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR _PHILLIP_
_SYDNEY_ KNIGHT; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED HIM,
_AND BEING DEAD GIVE HIM_
_HIS DVE_.
To the Right Honourable Robert
Deuorax, Earle of Essex and Ewe, Viscount
Hereford, and Bourghchier, Lorde Ferrers of Chartley,
Bourghchier and Louaine, Maister of the Queenes Maie-
_sties Horse, and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter:_
Is wished, the perfection of all happinesse, and tryumphant
felicitie in this life, and in the worlde
to come.
When I had determined (Right honorable) to dedicate this Booke, to the
euerlyuing vertues of that matchlesse Knight Syr _Phillip Sydney_; me
thought that I could not finde out a more Noble personage then your
selfe, and more fit, to patronize, shield, and defende my dutie to the
deade, then your Honour, whose greatnes is such, and vertues of that
power, as who so commendeth them, deserueth not to be accounted a
flatterer, but he that doth not the same, may be thought an euill
willer. Hovv your Honor vvill accept hereof, I make no doubt, because
that curtesie attendeth vpon true nobilitie; but my humble request is,
that your Honor may not thinke of me (by the tytle of the Booke, and
some part of the discourse) as if I vvere amorous, and did speake
according to my ovvne passions, for I beeing restrained of my liberty,
and helde in the graue of obliuion, where I still as yet remaine,
oppressed with Melancholie, and wearied vvith deeper studies, I vvas
glad to beguile the time with these conceits, anothomising in them,
the vanitie of this life, and vncertaintie of the delights therof, in
the Dreame of _Poliphilus_; Which if it shall please your Honor at
conuenient leysure to looke ouer, pardoning what you finde amisse,
and weighing my good will, I shall thinke my selfe most happy.
And thus I humbly take my leaue, vntill that I may present your Honour,
with a matter more fitting the same.
_Your Honors deuoted,_
R. D.
* * * * *
Anonymi elegia ad Lec-
_torem_.
Candide _Poliphilum_ narrantem somnia Lector
auscultes, summo somnia missa polo,
Non operam perdes, non h[ae]c audisse pigebit,
tam varijs mirum rebus abundat opus.
Si grauis & tetricus contemnis erotica, rerum
nosce precor seriem tam bene dispositam.
Abnuis? ac saltem stylus & noua lingua novusq;
sermo grauis, sophia, se rogat aspicias.
Id quoq; sirenuis, geometrica cerne vetusta
plurima milliacis disce referta notis.
Hic sunt Pyramides, therm[ae], ingentesq; Colossi,
ac Obeliscorum forma vetusta patet.
Hic diuersa basis fulget, vari[ae]que column[ae]
illarumq; arcus, Zophora, epistilia,
Et capita atq; trabes, et cum quadrante coron[ae]
symmetria, & quicquid tecta superba facit.
Hic regum cernes exculta palatia, cultus
Nympharum, fontes, egregiasque epulas.
Hinc bicolor chorea est latronum, expressaque tota
in Laberintheis vita hominum tenebris.
Hinc lege de triplici qu[ae] maiestate tonantis
dicat, & in portis egerit ipse tribus._
Polia _qua fuerit forma, quam culta, tryumphos
inde Iouis specta quatuor [ae]thereos.
H[ae]c pr[ae]ter varios affectus narrat amoris,
atque opera & quantum s[ae]uiat ille Deus._
Faultes escaped in the printing.
[Transcriber's Note:
The corrections listed here have been made in the text. In many cases
the printed form is different from that shown under "faults"; these
original forms are given in [brackets].]
+------+-------+-------+--------------------+---------------------+
| Fol. | page. | line. | faults. | correction. |
| | | | | |
| 1. | 2 | 38 | I begin of the | I began the |
| 4. | 2 | 8 | member. | members. |
| 6. | 1 | 12 | troake, | trunke, |
| 6. | 2 | 3 | assured, | azur'd. |
| 7. | 1 | 33 | fiing, [fying] | flying. |
| 10 | 1 | 23 | Laborinth, | Laborinths. |
| | | | [laborinth] | |
| 10 | 2 | 20 | Palia. | Polia. |
| 11 | 1 | 2 | foote, | fowre. |
| 11 | 1 | 29 | cariec, [carreic] | carrier. |
| | | | [carreic] | |
| 11 | 2 | 3 | backs, [backes] | backe. |
| 12 | 1 | 11 | pecee, [peeee] | peece. |
| 13 | 1 | 3 | adolestency, | adolescency. |
| | | | [adolestencie] | |
| 13 | 1 | 5 | soliature. | foliature. |
| 14 | 1 | 29 | stone, | sonne. |
| 19 | 2 | 12 | soliature, | foliature. |
| 19 | 2 | 25 | briganine, | brigandine. |
| | | | [bryganine] | |
| 19 | 2 | 39 | all. | off. |
+------+-------+-------+--------------------+---------------------+
+------+-------+-------+--------------------+---------------------+
| Fol. | page. | line. | faultes. | correction. |
| | | | | |
| 21 | 1 | 38 | subuaging, | suruaighing |
| | | | [sub-/vaging | |
| | | | at line break] | |
| 21 | 2 | 2 | sardins, [Sardins] | sardius. |
| 22 | 1 | 7 | vanubraces, | vaumbraces. |
| | | | [Vanubraces] | |
| 22 | 1 | 12 | coronie, [Coromie] | coronice. |
| 22 | 2 | 18 | Daphus, | Daphne. |
| 22 | 1 | 28 | chanifered, | chamfered. |
| 22 | 1 | 30 | contract, | contrast. |
| 22 | 2 | 29 | Aehanthis. | Achanthis. |
| | | | [Aehanthus] | |
| 23 | 1 | 12 | hapies, [Hapies] | Harpies. |
| 23 | 1 | 15 | fishen, | fishie. |
| 23 | 2 | 4 | did Anaglipts, | did y^e Anaglipts |
| 23 | 2 | 5 | Briapis, | Briaxes. |
| 24 | 2 | 22 | Andraene, | Andracine. |
| | | | [Andraeme] | |
| 24 | 2 | 32 | bel flowred | bell flowre. |
| | | | fox gloue, | |
| | | | [bell flowered | |
| | | | Foxgloue] | |
| 26 | 2 | 2 | menifis, | memphis. |
| | | | [Meniphis] | |
| 26 | 2 | 34 | which my, | which with my |
| 28 | 2 | 8 | vastus, [vastues] | vastnes. |
+------+-------+-------+--------------------+---------------------+
[Decoration]
Poliphili hypnerotomachia,
Wherein he sheweth, that all humaine and
worldlie things are but a dreame, and but as vanitie it
_selfe. In the setting foorth whereof many things_
are figured worthie of remembrance.
_The Author beginneth his _Hypnerotomachia_, to set downe the hower
and time when in his sleepe it seemed to him that hee was in a quiet
solitarie desart, and vninhabited plaine, and from thence afterward
how he entered vnaduisedly before he was aware, with great feare,
into a darke obscure and vnfrequented wood._
The discription of the morning.
What houre as _Phoebus_[a] issuing foorth, did bewtifie with brightnesse
the forhead of _Leucothea_[b], and appearing out of the Occean waues,
not fully shewing his turning wheeles, that had beene hung vp, but
speedily with his swift horses _Pyrous_ & _Eous_[c], hastning his
course, and giuing a tincture to the Spiders webbes, among the greene
leaues and tender prickles of the Vermilion Roses, in the pursuite
whereof he shewed himselfe most swift & glistering, now vpon the neuer
resting and still moouing waues, he crysped vp his irradient heyres.
[Sidenote a: Ph[ae]bus the Sunne.]
[Sidenote b: Leucothea the morning.]
[Sidenote c: Pyr & Eo, the horses of the Sunne.]
Vppon whose vprising, euen at that instant, the vnhorned Moone
dismounted hir selfe, losing from hir Chariot hir two horses, the one
white and the other browne, and drewe to the Horrison[d] different from
the Hemisphere[e] from whence she came.
[Sidenote d: Horison a circle deuiding the halfe speare of the
firmament from the other halfe which we doe not see.]
[Sidenote e: Hemispere is halfe the compasse of the visible heauen.]
And when as the mountaines and hilles were beautifull, and the northeast
winds had left of to make barraine with the sharpnesse of their blasts,