The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
I will you lend; the rest yourselves must give,
That it both seen and felt may with you live.
Full glad they were, and took the naked spright,
Which straight the earth clothed in his clay:
The lion heart; the ounce gave active might;
The horse, good shape; the sparrow, lust to play;
Nightingale, voice, enticing songs to say.
Elephant gave a perfect memory:
And parrot, ready tongue, that to apply.
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The fox gave craft; the dog gave flattery:
Ass patience; the mole, a working thought;
Eagle, high look; wolf, secret cruelty:
Monkey, sweet breath; the cow, her fair eyes brought;
The ermine, whitest skin, spotted with nought;
The sheep, mild seeming face; climbing, the bear.
The stag did give the harm eschewing fear.
The hare, her sleights; the cat, his melancholy;
Ant, industry; and coney, skill to build;
Cranes, order; storks, to be appearing holy;
Chameleon, ease to change; duck, ease to yield:
Crocodile, tears, which might be falsely spill’d:
Ape, great thing gave, though he did mowing stand,
The instrument of instruments, the hand.
Each other beast likewise his present brings:
And but thy dread their prince they ought should want,
They all consented were to give him wings:
And aye more awe towards him for to plant,
To their own work this privilege they grant,
That from thenceforth to all eternity,
No beast should freely speak, but only he.
Thus man was made; thus man their lord became:
Who at the first, wanting, or biding pride,
He did to beasts’ best use his cunning frame
With water drink, herbs meat, and naked hide.
And fellow like let his dominion slide;
Not in his sayings, saying “I,” but “we”;
As if he meant his lordship common be.
But when his seat so rooted he had found,
That they now skill’d not how from him to wend;
Then gain in guiltless earth full many a wound,
Iron to seek, which ’gainst itself should bend,
To tear the bowels, that good corn should send,
But yet the common dam none did bemoan;
Because, though hurt, they never heard her groan.
Then ’gan the factions in the beasts to breed;
Where helping weaker sort, the nobler beasts
(As tigers, leopards, bears, and lions’ seed)
Disdain’d with this, in deserts sought their rests:
Where famine ravin taught their hungry chests,
That craftily he forc’d them to do ill,
Which being done, he afterwards would kill.
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For murders done, which never erst was seen,
By those great beasts, as for the weaker’s good,
He chose themselves his guarders for to been.
’Gainst those of might, of whom in fear they stood,
As horse, and dog, not great, but gentle blood:
Blithe were the common cattle of the field,
Tho’ when they saw their foe’n of greatness kill’d.
But they or spent, or made of slender might,
Then quickly did the meaner cattle find,
The great beams gone, the house on shoulder’s light:
For by and by the horse fair bits did bind:
The dog was in a collar taught his kind.
As for the gentle birds like case might rue,
When falcon they, and goss-hawk saw in mew.
Worst fell to smallest birds, and meanest herd,
Whom now his own, full like his own he used.
Yet first but wool, or feathers off he tear’d:
And when they were well us’d to be abused:
For hungry teeth their flesh with teeth he bruised:
At length for glutton taste he did them kill:
At last for sport their silly lives did spill.
But yet, O man, rage not beyond thy need:
Deem it not glory to swell in tyranny.
Thou art of blood, joy not to see things bleed:
Thou fearest death: think they are loth to die.
A plaint of guiltless hurt doth pierce the sky.
And you poor beasts in patience bide your hell,
Or know your strengths, and then you shall do well.
Thus did I sing and pipe eight sullen hours
To sheep, whom love, not knowledge, made to hear,
Now fancy’s fits, now fortune’s baleful flowers:
But then I homeward call’d my lambkins dear;
For to my dimmed eyes began to appear
The night grown old, her black head waxen grey,
Sure shepherd’s sign, that morn should soon fetch day.
According to the nature of divers ears, divers judgments soon
followed: some praising his voice, others his words fit to frame a
pastoral style, others the strangeness of the tale, and scanning what
he should mean by it. But old Geron, who had borne him a grudge ever
since in one of their eclogues he had taken him up over-bitterly, took
hold of this occasion to make his revenge, and said, he never saw a
thing worse proportioned, than to bring in a {519} tale of he knew not
what beasts at such a sport-meeting, when rather some song of love, or
matter for joyful melody was to be brought forth. “But,” said he,
“this is the right conceit of young men, who think then they speak
wiseliest, when they cannot understand themselves.” But little did the
melancholic shepherd regard either his dispraises, or the other’s
praises, who had set the foundation of his honour there, where he was
most despised. And therefore he returning again to the train of his
desolate pensiveness, Geron invited Histor to answer him in
eclogue-wise; who indeed having been long in love with the fair Kala,
and now by Lalus over-gone, was grown into a detestation of marriage.
But thus it was.
GERON and HISTOR
GERON
In faith, good Histor, long is your delay,
From holy marriage, sweet and surest mean:
Our foolish lust in honest rules to stay,
I pray you do to Lalus’ sample lean:
Thou seest how frisk, and jolly now he is,
That last day seem’d, he could not chew a bean.
Believe me man, there is no greater bliss,
Than is the quiet joy of loving wife:
Which whoso wants, half of himself doth miss.
Friend without change, playfellow without strife,
Food without fullness, counsel without pride,
Is this sweet doubling of our single life.
HISTOR
No doubt, to whom so good chance did betide,
As for to find a pasture strewed with gold,
He were a fool if there he did not bide.
Who would not have a Phoenix if he could:
The humming wasp if it had not a sting,
Before all flies the wasp accept I would;
But this bad world, few golden fields doth bring;
Phoenix but one, of crows we millions have.
The wasp seems gay, but is a cumbrous thing.
If many Kala’s our Arcadia gave,
Lalus’ example I would soon ensue,
And think, I did myself from sorrow save.
But of such wives we find a slender crew;
Shrewdness so stirs, pride so puffs up the heart,
They seldom ponder what to them is due.
With meagre looks, as if they still did smart
Puling or whimpering, or else scolding flat,
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Make home more pain than following of the cart.
Either dull silence, or eternal chat;
Still contrary to what her husband says;
If he do praise the dog, she likes the cat.
Austere she is, when he would honest plays;
And gamesome then, when he thinks on his sheep,
She bids him go, and yet from journey stays,
She war doth ever with his kinsfolk keep,
And makes them fremb’d, who friends by nature are,
Envying shallow toys with malice deep.
And if forsooth there come some new found ware,
The little coin his sweating brows have got,
Must go for that if for her lowers he care:
Or else; Nay faith, mine is the luckiest lot,
That ever fell to honest woman yet:
No wife but I hath such a man, god wot:
Such is their speech, who be of sober wit:
But, who do let their tongues show well their rage,
Lord, what bywords they speak, what spite they spit?
The house is made a very loathsome cage,
Wherein the bird doth never sing, but cry.
With such a will as nothing can assuage.
Dearly their servants do their wages buy,
Revil’d for each small fault, sometimes for none:
They better live that in a jail do lie
Let other fouler sports away be blown,
For I seek not their shame, but still methinks
A better life it is to live alone.
GERON
Who for such fickle fear from virtue shrinks,
Shall in his life embrace no worthy thing:
No mortal man the cup of surety drinks.
The heav’ns do not good haps in handfuls bring,
But let us pick our good from out much bad:
That still our little world may know his king.
But certainly so long we may be glad,
While that we do what nature doth require,
And for th’ event we never ought be sad.
Man oft is plagu’d with air, is burnt with fire,
In water drown’d, in earth his burial is:
And shall we not therefore their use desire?
Nature above all things requireth this,
That we our kind do labour to maintain:
Which drawn-out line doth hold all human bliss.
Thy father justly may of thee complain
If thou do not repay his deeds for thee,
In granting unto him a grandsire’s gain.
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Thy Commonwealth may rightly grieved be,
Which must by this immortal be preserved,
If thus thou murder thy posterity.
His very being he hath not deserved,
Who for a self-conceit will that forbear,
Whereby that being, aye must be, conserved.
And God forbid women such cattle were
As you paint them: but well in you I find,
No man doth speak aright who speaks in fear,
Who only sees the ill is worse than blind.
These fifty winters married have I been;
And yet find no such faults in womankind.
I have a wife worthy to be a queen,
So well she can command, and yet obey:
In ruling of a house so well she’s seen.
And yet in all this time betwixt us twa,
We wear our double yoke of such content,
That never passed foul word, I dare well say:
But these are your love toys, which still are spent
In lawless games, and love not as you should,
But with much study learn late to repent.
How well last day before our prince you could
Blind Cupid’s works with wonder testify?
Yet now the root of him abase you would.
Go to, go to, and Cupid now apply,
To that where thou thy Cupid may’st avow,
And thou shalt find in women virtues lie,
Sweet supple minds which soon to wisdom bow
Where they by wisdom’s rule directed are,
And are not forc’d fond thraldom to allow.
As we to get are fram’d, so they to spare:
We made for pain, our pains they made to cherish:
We care abroad, and they of home have care,
O Histor, seek within thyself to flourish:
Thy house by thee must live, or else be gone:
And then who shall the name of Histor nourish?
Riches of children pass a prince’s throne;
Which touch the father’s heart with secret joy,
When without shame he saith, “These be mine own.”
Marry therefore, for marriage will destroy
Those passions which to youthful head do climb,
Mothers and nurses of all vain annoy.
HISTOR
Perchance I will, but now methinks it time
To go unto the bride, and use this day,
To speak with her while freely speak we may.
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He spoke these words with such affection, as a curious eye might
easily have perceived he liked Thyrsis’ fortune better than he loved
his person. But then indeed did all arise, and went to the women,
where spending all the day, and good part of the night in dancing,
carolling and wassailing; lastly, they left Thyrsis, where he long
desired to be left, and with many unfeigned thanks returned every man
to his home. But some of them having to cross the way of the two
lodges, might see a lady making doleful lamentation over a body which
seemed dead unto them. But methinks Dametas cries unto me, if I come
not the sooner to comfort him, he will leave off his golden work, that
hath already cost him so much labour and longing.
[End of Book III]
ARCADIA
BOOK IV
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The almighty wisdom evermore delighting to show the world that by