THE STRIFE OF LOUE IN A DREAME FRANCESCO COLONNA Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/strifeofloveindrOOcolo Cutioc Ht'brarp. THE STRIFE OF LOVE IN A DREAM. Five hundred copies of this Edition are printed. THE STRIFE OF LOVE IN A DREAM BEING THE ELIZABETHAN VERSION OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE H Y P N E R O T O M A C H I A OF FRANCESCO COLONNA 9 A NEW EDITION BY ANDREW LANG, M.A. LONDON PUBLISHED BY DAVID NUTT IN THE STRAND MDCCCXC CHISWICK PRESS: — C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. INTRODUCTION. IGHT or nine years ago I chanced to go into the shop of Mr. Toovey, in Picca- dilly, and began turning over the cheaper and less considered of his books. Among them I found " Hypnerotomachia. The strife of Loue in a Dreame. At London, Printed for Simon Waterson, and are to be sold at his shop, in S. Paules Churchyard, at Cheape-gate, 1592." This is the usual title, my specimen, as will be seen, varied slightly. The Bodleian copy also contains this (the 2nd) title. The book was a small thin quarto, not in good condition. It contained no name of author or translator, and the initials, R. D., of the dedication (the most in- teresting part of the work), tell us nothing. Mr. Douce conjectures that they may stand for Robert Dallyngton, the translator of " The Mirrour of Mirth, etc., from the French of Bonaventure des Periers," London, 1 583, 4to. The woodcuts were excessively debased reminiscences of those famous examples in the Aldine edition of 1499. The little book seemed an oddity, and I purchased it from Mr. Toovey for the sum of twenty shillings. I was then but an ignorant collector of the Cheap and the Odd in books, and Mr. Toovey's own attention had been given to more beautiful things than this shabby quarto. I took it home, read it, wrote a little article on it in the St. James's Gazette, and found out that the volume was imperfect. Having ex- hausted my interest in it, I carried it back to Mr. Toovey, pointed out the absence of the last five pages, and re- turned it, in exchange for " Les Memoires de la Reyne Marguerite, a Paris, chez Claude Barbin, dans la Grand' Salle du Pallais, au Signe de la Croix, m.d.c.lxi," in yellow morocco. I never made a worse bargain. The Hypneroto7nachia, imperfect as my copy was, is among the very rarest of books, and therefore among the most desirable. This particular copy, by the way, was "printed for Iohn Busbie, and to be sold at his Schoppe, at the west doore of Paules." Meanwhile M. Claude Popelin had long been lying in wait for the English version of Francesco Colonna's book. He was engaged on his ex- cellent version of the original, to which this preface owes a boundless debt for information. 1 The English version was not to be found in the British Museum, nor in the Bibliotheque Nationale, nor in the libraries of Berlin, Amsterdam, the Hague, Leyden, Utrecht, Vienna, or Munich, nor have I heard of it even in America. In short this despised and rejected tract is among the extreme rarities of the world. And I had swopped it for La Reyne Marguerite in a new edition ! One man's loss is another's gain, and M. Popelin, hunting the sale rooms in London, bought my castaway copy " a un de ces prix qu'on n'avoue pas a sa menagere." M. Popelin deserved to get it for his learned edition, and I deserved to lose it for my carelessness. I am only sorry Liseux, Paris, 1883. vi I did not know he wanted it, when it would have been much at his service, for love, and the mdnagere would not have been justly vexed by extravagance Vile damnum, after all, the loss of the book, if we look only at the literary merits of the Hypnerotomachia in Elizabethan English. The translation is ignorant and unintelligible : a meaning cannot be made out of much of it, and the sense, when the translator does " deviate into sense," is not always that of his original. We have re- printed it with absolute fidelity. The idea of altering the punctuation was mooted, but where the translators meaning was obscure, the original text cast no light on it whatever ; so any alteration would have been conjectural. Thus the volume reappears with all its sins on its head, except the horrors of its barbarous illustrations. For these miseries, a few examples copied from the original have been substituted. Obvious misprints alone have been corrected, and the text is reproduced from the example in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. About the original Hypnei'otomachia, and its author, and illustrator, and meaning, all that is ever likely to be known has been set forth by M. Popelin. As is usual in antiquarian subjects, where almost everything is uncertain, there is a great deal of learning about Francesco Colonna, the author, his mistress Polia, his purpose, and his book. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili y " Loves strife in a dream with the Loves of Pollia," as we may paraphrase the title, was published, in folio, by Aldus Manutius in 1499. It contains an hundred and seventy-two woodcuts, which have been attributed, wildly, to Raphael, to either Bellini, to Andrea Mantegna, to the two Montagnas, to Carpaccio, to the author himself, to the anonymous Master of the Dolphins, to the Bolognese engraver Peregrini, and pro- vii bably to other people. 1 M. Eugene Piot introduced the belief in the Master of the Dolphins, who illustrated many other books for the Aldi. M. Popelin is inclined to agree with M. Piot, especially as the animals in an s&sop illustrated by the Master of the Dolphins closely re- semble those in the Hypnerotomachia. Mr. W. B. Scott (Athen&um, March 27, April 10, 1880) votes for Stephanus Caesenus Peregrinus. This opinion rests on certain initials, subscribed to the frontispieces of certain other works of the period. But nothing can certainly be known, and internal evidence is notoriously untrustworthy. As Mr. Carlyle says about the poet of the Nibelungenlied, to be certain about the letters that make up his name would be of very little benefit to us. It is probable that many an artist of his date, inspired by the old art and the new learning, could do all that he did. Francesco Colonna, too, the author of the Hypneroto- machia, is little more than the shadow of a name. Benoit de Court, writing in 1533 on the Arresta Amorum of Martial de Paris, calls Colonna multiscius, "full of know- ledge." That he knew a great deal about ancient architec- ture, rather late Greek and Roman essayists, and obscure mythology, is clear enough from his book, whereof the object is to make a parade of learning. Rabelais cites him in Gargantua (i. ix.). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries authors on architecture speak highly of Colonna, and offer guesses about his biography. He was said to have belonged to a family of Lucca, and to have been born in Venice about 1433. If his book was finished, as the colophon says, in 1467, when he would have been thirty-four, it may contain 1 Popelin, i. cxcviii. viii all the lore and the learning of his youth, a sacrifice of them to the goddess of Pedantry, Une chapelle dc parfums Et de cierges mclancholiqiies. The biography, however, is made up, like many classical biographies, out of hints in the author's work. Polia, the beloved of Francesco, would be, on this showing, Ippolita, niece of Teodoro Lelio, bishop of Treviso, in whose house- hold Colonna had a place. The authority cited is a MS. note on a copy of the book in the library of the Domini- cans delle Zatere. The note points out that the first letters of each chapter in the book, when placed together in order, produce — Poliam f rater Franciscus Colonna peramavit. Ad hue vivit Venetiis in S. Iohannce et Paulo. The biography, or romance, goes on to say that Polia and Francesco were betrothed ; that, in terror of the plague, the lady vowed to take the veil if she escaped with life ; that she kept her word, and that Colonna also went into religion, and became a monk in 1464. But all this is pure fiction. Colonna was a monk as early as 1455. From a Venetian MS. in the convent of St. John and St. Paul, we gather that Colonna died, at a great old age, in 1527. M. Popelin's personal researches in Italy have added nothing to the few scattered notices of a long and quiet life. As to Polia, we must guess for ourselves whether she was once a living girl, whether she was a mere ideal, or whether she is an allegory of antique beauty and learning. The prettiest and most human pas- sage in the book contains, at least, a picture of life, and tells how Polia was sitting at her window, sunning her long yellow locks, when Poliphile passed by, and was caught in that golden net, as Lucius was by the hair of Fotis. ix b Every day he wandered by the palace windows, every night he would sing beneath them, and all to no avail. Then Polia, in fear of a pestilence, "vowed herself to Diana." In vain he implored her to be his, with abun- dance of reference to the Fates, Atys, Agave, Pentheus, Scylla, and Charybdis, and that African lake which is cold by day under the sun, and boiling hot at night. Perhaps no woman was ever in this manner wooed ; Poliphile, we may be certain, never urged his suit in this absurd way ; more probably there was no suit to urge, no Polia, no love affair, nothing but the inexperienced day-dream of a young monk who is sorry for his lost youth, and feigns in fancy the kisses that never were real. Polia beholds, in a dream, the punishments that love inflicts on his rebels and renegades (as in Boccaccio), and betakes herself to consult Venus in her temple. Here she is told a good deal about the two shafts of Love, the leaden and the golden, and learns the sad fate of a lady who scorned de- sire till she was twenty-eight, and at that advanced age was smitten by passion, and given to a hideous old man in marriage. The second state of this lady was therefore worse than the first, and the nauseous descriptions prove that " realism " is no new thing in literature. The lady determined to slay herself, but, classical to the last, she crowned herself with fatal smylax, and the leaves of ostry, appropriate vegetables, before dealing the fatal stroke. Venus then points out to Polia that if she wastes her time in youth, she will vainly dye her hair, and rouge in her longing later years. It is an inordinately long sermon, rich in pedantry, and with a Greek epigram or two for text. Polia repents, and thinks of all the classic stories about hard-hearted and despairing lovers. She seeks Poliphile, finds him fainting, x she upbraids Lucina (who has presided over her own birth), and finally, rouses Poliphile, sits on his knee, and kisses him in a hearty fashion, sympathetically rendered by the artist. He was tired, no doubt, of nymphs, cupids, pyramids, fountains, altars, tombs, and was happy to design persons who loved " in a more human sort of way." But presently the priestesses of Diana, in the exercise of their duty, turned poor Polia and her lover out of the temple. After the reconciled lovers have told their stories with immense learning and at enormous length, Poliphile is wakened, as Rufinus was kept awake, by the song of the nightingale, singing, Trjpevg , Trjpevg Efie kfiiaaaro. And he rises, and behold it is all a dream, and none of it probably was ever anything but a dream. Perhaps Polia was IloXm ; — hoar antiquity. Perhaps she was but a pale imitation of the Lauras and Beatrices of Italian poetry. We may believe that the author had seen fair ladies bath- ing their locks in the sunlight to steal its golden dye, but it is hard to believe that he ever ventured to woo any one of them, with his examples out of Pliny, Ptolemy, Hyginus, and Ovid. He was fond of antiquity, no doubt, but in an almost barbaric fashion. He carried to absurd lengths the uncritical fanaticism of the Renaissance. He did, indeed, love what was beautiful in art, and in architecture and sculpture especially. But he loved it all with a pedantic lack of discrimination. His learning is late, and sometimes mediaeval. Pliny supplies him with the mar- vellous natural history of plants and animals, with their wonderful virtues, which was so dear to Lilly and the Euphuists. Nature herself he has never observed at all, and he reads into her all the fables that folklore or folly xi devised, and false learning and false taste perpetrated. As Pliny, /Elian, and mediaeval works as credulous as theirs supply Colonna with a work of ideal grotesques ; as he lives, so to speak, on an earth peopled by monsters out of missals, so Vitruvius inspires that delight in archi- tecture which is, perhaps, the real motive of his long romance. Using the common mediaeval formula of a dream, in that dream he sees palaces, pyramids, fountains, statues, and is far less in love with Polia than with the Roman art of buildings; with altars, pillars, marbles of Paros, or of Syene. An amphitheatre intoxicates him ; he waxes enthusiastic over baths and tombs, and long classical pageants, masques of gods, with all their appro- priate symbolism. He is " an art-intoxicated man," be- mused and almost maddened by a vision of aesthetic triumphs. When he speaks of the intoxication of the senses, as he does more than need be, the nymphs who allure him are ghosts risen from old marbles, or figures from the frescoes of his sympathetic contemporaries. Such frescoes of triumphant pagan processions were fre- quently painted by an artist of Treviso, Donatello, on the walls of the Bishop's palace. We may easily fancy Colonna watching these as they grew beneath the painter's hand, revelling in them, releasing the nymphs and god- desses from them in a book which is itself the revel of the sensuous Renaissance. His landscape is usually a garden landscape, artificial enough, artificial as the odd pedantic medley of his language, a mixture of styles, tongues, and idioms, which has been compared to the jargon of Rabe- lais's Limousin. From the dedicatory epistle it seems that Colonna wrote his book in another language first, perhaps in Latin, and then translated it into what could hardly be called the vernacular. He uses many words xii from the Greek, as philopono, laborious, ckrysocari, with golden head (of Polia), gampsonycha, with crooked talons, and so forth. Greek was so new, then, and so delightful was their learning to the learned, as later to Ronsard and the French Pleiad, that they thought it could never be out of place. Such Greek as Colonna's is rather like the Baboo English, which often makes us laugh. Perhaps most of our Greek is little better, and Colonna's queer words are not odder than Panmixia, a new invention of scientific men. His extreme indulgence in allusions to obscure myths is another trait of his manner which be- comes excessively fatiguing. His whole work, in fact, is a specimen of the Renaissance in its fever of paganism. He is a Christian monk, vowed to poverty and chastity, and nothing is dear to him but heathenism and luxury in all its forms. Beautiful naked bodies, beautiful faces, beautiful buildings, fountains, temples, triumphs of dead gods, a Venus of onyx and sardonyx, nursing a Cupid above the sepulchre of Adonis, these things and such as these are his sole delight. The book is, indeed, a dream, and the dream of a monk, insatiate of material loveliness, and the pride of life ; revelling in a fancied feast of know- ledge, art, language, and love. M. Popelin has shown how much Colonna owes to the Fiametta of Boccaccio, how, especially, Boccaccio and our author paint the beauty of women in similar terms, but these pictures were, in fact, the commonplace of the new age, touched by the classics, just as red lips, curled locks, and eyes of vair, are the commonplace in mediaeval romances, such as Aucassin et Nicolete. Indeed the Hypnerotomachia holds as much of the Middle Ages as of the Renaissance. There is the old machinery, the dream on May Day, the wandering in woods, the terrible monsters, the meetings with nymphs, xiii and with the beloved, the strain of allegory. All this was familiar to Chaucer, and before Chaucer. The mytho- logical allusions, too, had long been favourites, the real novelty is in the pell-mell of multifarious knowledge, the lack of humanity and knightly love, the odd mixed style, the superabundant details about works of art. It is as if the spirit of the Renaissance, pedantry and all, had entered violently into a monkish reader of the " Romance of the Rose," driving out a few affectations, and bringing with it many others and worse. It would not turn to the credit of human taste, had a work in which the wrong kind of learning is the inspira- tion, proved popular at any time. And at no time was the Hypnerotomachia popular. Like a French author of the last century, who was copiously illustrated, Dorat, Colonna has not been merged in the sea of time, but se sauve sur les planches. The number and beauty of the designs in his pages has caused many to turn them over, who dream of nothing less than reading him. The first edition, by Aldus, at Venice, in 1499, is a splendid folio. It was put forth at the expense of Leonardo Crasso, who says he was loath that so admirable a book should lie longer in darkness. Of this Crasso, except that he was master of arts, and a doctor in Canon Law, very little is known. He came of a Milanese house, and dwelt in Verona. The date of the book is given in a note at the end of the errata, which in most examples have been torn out, perhaps because the owners preferred the much earlier date (1466) of the Colophon. This edition did not sell well. In the years 1507-15 11, Leonardo Crasso, who paid the ex- penses of publication, asked for a ten years' extension of his privilege. The work had cost him hundreds of ducats, and the disturbed times had made it a drug in xiv the market. The unlucky Crasso found out (what is true though a hundred Mr. Besants deny it) that there is considerable risk in the business of publishing. Only rich people with splendid libraries could afford to buy such a costly and cumbrous volume, the taste of the day preferred the little Aldine octavoes. Probably Crasso was left with many examples of the Hypnerotomachia on his shelves. A second edition was published at the press of the Aldines in 1545, with woodcuts inferior, in a few instances, to the original illustrations. In the following year, 1546, Loys Cyaneus put forth, for Jacques Kerver, the first French translation, a folio of 326 pages. The translation is by Jean Martin, or was edited by him. The woodcuts have been characteristically reproduced by a French artist. They are more graceful and elegant than the older work. Many will agree with M. Popelin in preferring the French to the Italian designs. The artist is unknown, Jean Cousin, Geoffrey Tory, and Jean m Gonjon have been named. In France there have been six editions of the book between 1540 and 181 1. None of these versions was faithful to the original, though none perhaps deserts it so readily as our English paraphrase. Mr. Richard Copley Christie, author of the Life of Etienne Dolet, possesses a French MS. rendering of 1703, the author whereof, Elie Richard, has taken singular liberties with the text. As M. Popelin quotes the old proverb, Tradtcttore, travitore. Imperfect and reckless as is our English version, it is not likely that any one will find it worth while to translate into English the Hypnerotomachia once more. The style might have pleased Leigh Hunt, or the unripe youth of Keats. They would have enjoyed the florid quaintnesses, as when the sun " crysped up his irradient heyres," or where xv we read of " the christalline teares of the sweete morn- ing." " By reason of the milde and gentle ayre ther was a still quyet whisht," is another pretty phrase ; indeed, Keats, when at work on Endymion, might have ransacked this old book for Elizabethan dainties. The dictionary maker and word-hunter will find rare sport in such terms as " mustulent," " fertlesse," " quadranguled plaints," " gracilament," " terrible eyes cavernate," " a wrympled forehead" {wrymple is good), "silver crolley," " cleare appact," " incalcerate light," and " gulaterie," the "vypered caduce," " remigiall bones." There are pretty odd names of flowers, as " Venus Navill," " Ero- gennet," " mouse-ear," " Lady hayre," " Prickmad- dam," " goulden locks," and so forth, and wild spel- lings, as Pscyphes for Psyche, reminding one of Spsiche, in Lagrange's register of Moliere's theatre. There is now and then in the struggling and tormented style a little oasis, refreshed with " the sweet chirpings and quiet singing of Birds, and the temperate and healthful ayre," or where c< under this auncient, sure, and fair bridge did run a most cleare swift water, deviding itself into two currents, which ran most colde, making a soft continual still noyse in their freesed, broken, and nibbled channels." One is reminded of Horace and his rura, quae Liris quieta Mordet aqua taciturnus amnzs, or Lucretius with his ripas radentia flwnina rodunt. There are pleasing groups too in the old translations : the three damsels with an ewer of gold, a bason, and a towell of white silk, recall the nymphs in Circe's hall, or a singularly charming scene in the Mabinogion, or a beauti- xvi ful fresco of Botticelli's once in the Villa Lemmi. The white dress of the girls " leaving to be seen the pleasant valley between their fair breasts," proves the monkish author to have had a taste for other than architec- tural beauties ; evidence of this is more copious in the original text, though, in the translation too, the monk finds the maids " flamigerous." But on the whole, he prefers that modest nymph " whose sweet propor- tioned body needed no pinching in with French wastes," which he calls " unwholesome weare," but which have survived all preachings of moralists and re- monstrances of artists. Indeed Poliphile, for an eccle- siastic, has a very pretty taste in female attire, which he describes not less lovingly than his arches and tombs, fountains and altars. He has, as he says, " greedy eyes," " greedy eyes and unsatiable desire to look and overlook the exquisite perfection of ancient work." This is all his care, the delight of the eye, and all his book is a laborious revel of aesthetic enjoyment. He has a kind of gluttony of beauty, his work is the overladen banquet of an artistic Barmecide. Thus it is, in its way, a true example and illustration of the Italian Renaissance, a compendium of its pleasures and pedantries, a fantastic effort to satisfy its desire of things impossible. Impossibilium cupitor is the author, and one may blame or praise the change of mood which makes him almost impossible to read. However, Colonna had a theory of life, a vision of his own of what life should be, to be desirable. It is as im- possible, and almost as uninviting, as any other ideal, social or political. For life, as it is, may not be perfect, but it is more endurable than life as visionaries would remake it, and, at least, we can taste and moderately enjoy all ideals " in this world, the isle of dreams." xvii c HYPNEROTOMACHIA THE STRIFE OF LOUE IN A DREAME AT LONDON PRINTED FOR WILLIAM HOLME, AND ARE TO BE SOLD AT HIS SHOPPE, NEERE THE GREAT NORTH DOORE OF PAULES. MDXCII. TO THE THRISE HONOVRABLE AND EVER LYVING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP SYDNEY KNIGHT; AND TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHATSOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED HIM, AND BEING DEAD GIVE HIM HIS DVE. i To the Right Honourable ROBERT DEUORAX, Earle of Effex and Ewe, Vifcount Hereford, and Bourghchier, Lorde Ferrers of Chartley, Bourghchier and Louaine, Maifter of the Queenes Maiefties Horfe, and Knight of the moft noble order of the Garter, is wifhed, the perfection of all happineffe, and tryum- phant felicitie in his life, and in the worlde to come. Hen I had determined (Right hono- rable) to dedicate this Booke, to the euerlyuing vertues of that matchleffe Knight Syr Phillip Sydney; me thought that I could not finde out a more Noble perfonage then your felfe, and more fit, to patro- nize, fhield, and defende my dutie to the deade, then your Honour, whofe greatnes is fuch, and vertues of that power, as who fo commendeth them, deferueth not to be accounted a flatterer, but he that doth not the fame, may be thought an euill wilier. How your Honor will accept hereof, I make no doubt, becaufe that curtefie attendeth vpon true nobilitie ; but my humble requeft is, that your Honor may not thinke of me (by the tytle of the Booke, and fome part of the difcourfe) as if I were amorous, and did fpeake according to my ovvne paffions, for I beeing retrained of my liberty, and helde in the graue of obliuion, where I frill as yet remaine ; opprelfed with Melancholie, and wearied with deeper ftudies, I was glad to beguile the time with thefe conceits, anotho- mifing in them, the vanitie of this life, and vncer- taintie of the delights therof, in the Dreame of Poliphilus ; which if it mail pleafe your Honor at conuenient leyfure to looke ouer, pardoning what you finde amiffe, and weighing my good will, I mall thinke my felfe moft happy. And thus I humbly take my leaue, vntill that I may prefent your Honour, with a matter more fitting the fame. Your Honors deuoted, R. D. ANONYMI ELEGIA AD LECTOREM. ^^Andide Poliphilum narrentem /omnia Leclior aufcultus, fummo fomnia mefla polo, Non operam perdes ; non haec audiffe pigebit, Tarn variis mirum rebus abundant opus. Si grauis & tetricus contemnis erotica, rerum nofce precor feriem tarn bene difpofitam, Abnuis ? ac faltem ftylus & noua lingua novufq;. fermo grauis, fophia, fi rogat afpicias. Id quoq; renuis ; geometrica cerne vetufta plurima millicis difce referta notis. Hie {unt Pyramides, thermae, ingentifq; colofli, ac Obelifcorum forma vetusta patet. Hie diuerfa bafis fulget, variaeque columnar illarumq; arcus ; Zophora, epistilia, Et capita atq; trabes, et cum quadrante coronas fymmetriae, y quicquid tecla fuperba facit. Hie regnim cernes exculta palatia, cultus Nympharum, fontes, egregrafque epulus. Hinc bicolor chorea eft latronum, exprefTaque tota in Laberintheis vita hominem tenebris. Hinc lege de triplici quae maieftate tonantis Dicat ; y in portis egerit ipfe tribus. Polia qua fuerit forma quam culta ; tryumphos inde louis fpecta quatuor aetherios. Haec praeter uarios effectus narrut amoris, atque opera and giuing a tincture to the Spiders webbes, among the \ h e e sunne.° 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. Vppon whose vprising, euen at that instant, the vn- horned Moone dismounted hir selfe, losing from hir Chariot hir two horses, the one white and the other 1 B 1 Horison, a circle deuiding the halfe speare of the firmament from the other h;ilfe which we doe not see. 2 Hemispere is halfe the compasse of the visible heauen. 3 Hyperion the Sunne. 4 Halcyons are certaine byrds which building nere the shore vpon the waues, there will be no storme vntill the young be hatched. 5 Leander, a young man of Abydos, who in swimming ouer Helles- pont (a narow sea by Byzan- tium, which parteth Europ from Asia) to Sestus, was in the sight of his louer Ero of Sestus drowned, which she seeing, threw hir self down into the sea and died with him. browne, and drewe to the Horrison 1 different from the Hemisphere 2 from whence she came. 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 the tender sprigs, to disquiet the moouing reedes, the fenny Bulrush, and weake f. Cyprus; to torment the foulding Vines; to trouble the bending Willowe, and to breake downe the brittle Firre bowghes, vnder the homes of the lasciuious Bull, as they do in winter. At that very houre, as the diuers coulered flowers and greene meades at the comming of the sunne of Hypperion 3 feare not his burning heate, being bedued and sprinkled with the Christalline teares of the sweete morning, when as the Halcyons 4 vpon the leuell waues of the stil, calme, and quiet flowing seas, do build their nests in sight of the sandie shore, whereas the sorrowfull Ero with scalding sighes did behold the dolorous and vngrate departure of hir swimming Leander? I lying vpon my bed, an oportune and meet freend to a wearie body, no creature accompaning me in my chamber, besides the attender vppon my body, and vsuall night lights, who after that she had vsed diuers speeches, to the end shee might comfort me, hauing vnderstood before of me, the originall cause of my hollow and deepe sighes, she indeuored hir best to moderate, if at least she might, that, my perturbed and pittifull estate. But when she sawe that I was desirous of sleepe, she tooke leaue to depart. Then I being left alone to the high cogitations of loue, hauing passed ouer a long and tedious night without sleepe, through my barren fortune, and aduerse constella- tion, altogether vncomforted and sorrowfull, by means of 2 my vntimely and not prosperous loue, weeping, I re- counted from point to point, what a thing vnequall loue is : and how fitly one may loue that dooth not loue ; and what defence there may bee made against the vnaccustomed, yet dayly assaults of loue : for a naked soule altogether vn- armed, the seditious strife, especially being intestine : a fresh still sitting vpon with vnstable and new thoughts. In this sort brought to so miserable an estate, and for a long while plunged in a deepe poole of bitter sorrowes, at length my wandring sences being wearie to feede still vpon vnsauorie and fayned pleasure, but directly and without deceit, vppon the rare diuine obiect : whose re- uerende Idea is deeply imprinted within me, and liueth ingrauen in the secret of my heart, from which proceedeth this so great and vncessant a strife, continually renuing my cruell torments without intermission. I began the condi- tions of those miserable louers, who for their mistresses f. 2. pleasures desire their owne deaths, and in their best delights do think themselues most vnhappie, feeding their framed passions not otherwise then with fithfull imagina- tions, and then as a weary bodye after a sore labour, so I, somewhat in outward shew qualified, in the payne of my sorrowfull thoughts, and hauing incloystered and shut vp the course of my distilling teares ; whose drops had watered my pale cheekes, thorow amorous griefe, desired some needfull rest. At length my moyst eyes being closed within their bloudshotten and reddish liddes, presently betwixt a bitter life and a sweet death, I was in them inuaded and ouercome, with a heauie sleepe, who with my minde and watchfull spirits, were no pertakers of so high an operation. Methought that I was in a large, plaine, and champion 3 place, all greene and diuersly spotted with many sorted flowers, wherby it seemed passingly adorned. In which by reason of the milde and gentle ayre, there was a still quyet whisht : Insomuch that my attentiue eares did heare no noyse, neither did any framed speech peirce into them, but with the gratious beames of the sunne, the sliding time passed. In which place with a fearefull admiration, looking about me, I sayd thus to my selfe. Heere appeareth no humaine creature to my sight, nor sylua beast, flying bird, coutrey house, field tent, or shepheards cote : neyther vpon the gras could I perceiue feeding eyther flock of sheep, or heard of cattell, or rustike herdman with Oten pipe making pastorall melodie, but onely taking the benefit of the place, and quietnesse of the plaine, which assured mee to be without feare, I directed my course still for- ward, regarding on eyther side the tender leues and thick grasse which rested vnstirred, without the beholding of any motion. At length my ignorant steepes brought me into a thick wood, wherinto being a pritty way entred, I could not tell how to get out of it. Wherevpon a soddaine feare in- uaded my hart, and diffused itselfe into euery ioynt, so that my couler began to waxe pale, and the rather by reason that I was alone and vnarmed, and could not finde any track or path, eyther to direct me forward or lead me back againe. But a darke wood of thick bushes, sharpe thornes, tall ashes haled of the Viper, towgh Elmes beloued of the fruitfull vines, harde Ebony, strong Okes,soft Beeche and browne Hasils, who intertuining one anothers branches with a natural goodwill opposed themselues, to resist the entrance of the gratious sunne shine, with the greene couer- ture of their innumerable leaues. And in this sort I found myselfe in a fresh shadowe, a coole ayre, and a solytarie thicket. Wherevpon my reason perswaded me to beleeue, that this vast wood, was onely a receptacle for sauage and hurtfull beasts, as the tusked Bore, the furious and bloud- thirstie Beare, the hissing serpent, and inuading Woolfe, against which I was vnprouided to make resistance but rayther as a praye sent amongst them, miserablie to haue my flesh and bones rent and gnawne in peeces. And thus forecasting the woorst that might follow I was resolued not to abide there, but to seeke to get out, that I might the better eschew such suspected occurrents, and taking my selfe to my feete, I wandred now this way, now that way, sometime to the right hand, sometime to the left : nowe forwarde, then backe againe, not knowing how to goe among the thicke bowghes and tearing thornes, 5 1 Minotaurus, a monster in Creete, bom of Pasiphac, which being inclosed in the laborinth fed on mans flesh, whome Theseus slew and got out of the laborinth by a clew of thred giuen by Ariadne King Minoes daughter, after wife to The- seus, who did forsake hir, and left hir in a disinhabited He, notwith- standing that she had saued his life. bearing vpon my face : rending my clothes, and houlding me sometimes hanging in them, whereby my hast in getting foorth was much hyndered. In this vnaccustomed labour : and without any helpe but onely the keeping of the sunne still vpon one side, to direct mee streight forwarde : I grewe extreamely hoate and faynte, not knowing what to doe, but onely in a wearye body to conteine a minde distraught through troublesome thoughts, breathing out hollow and deepe sighes, desiring helpe of the pittifull Cretensian Ariadne, who for the destroying of hir monstrous brother the Mynotaur 1 : gaue vnto the deceitfull Theseus a clew of thred to conduct him foorth of the intricate laborinth, that I also by some such meanes might be deliuered out of this obscure wood. 6 THE SECOND CHAPTER. f 3. Poliphilus thus distempered in this daungerous and obscure wood, at length getteth foorth, and being come to a faire Riuer, indeuoring to rest himselfe and coole his heate, he heard a most delightful har- monie, which made him forget to drinke, and followe after the voice, whiche brought him to a woorse perplexitie. EARE AND DESIRE OF FREE- dome thus occupying my sences, my vnderstanding was blinded, neyther did I knowe whether it were better for mee eyther to wishe for hated death, or in so dreadfull a place to hope for desired life. Thus euery way discontent, I did indeuour, with all force and diligence to get foorth, wherin the more I f 3 b . did striue the more I found my selfe intangled, and so infeebled with wearinesse that euery side I feared, when some cruell beast should come and deuoure me, or els vnawares to tumble downe into some deepe pit or hollow place. Wherefore more trembling then in mustulent Autume be the yealow coulored leaues, hauing left their moisture, being thorowlye searched with the furious northwinde I lifted vp my hart to God, desiring as Achemenides being afraide of the horrible Cyclops rather to be slaine by the hands of Aeneas his enemie, rather then to suffer so odious a death. 7 And my deuoute prayer, sincerely vnited to a contrite heart, powring out a fountaine of teares with a stedfast beliefe to be deliuered I found myselfe in a short space gotten at libertie, like a new day crept out of a darke and tempestuous night. My eyes before vsed to such obum- brated darkenes could scarse abide to behould the light, thorow watery sadnes. Neuerthelesse glad I was to see the light : as one set at libertie, that had beene chayned vp in a deepe dungeon and obscure darkenesse. Verye thirstie I was, my clothes torne, my face and hands scratched and netteled, and withall so extreamely set on heate, as the fresh ayre seemed to doe me more hurt then good, neither did it any waye ease my body, desirous to keepe his new recouered scope and libertie. And after that I had a little rowsed vp my mynde, and sommoned together my sences in some better sort, I sought a meanes to quench my inordinate thyrst, procured and increased through innumerable sighes, and extreame labour of body. Thus casting my eyes with a diligent regarde about the plaine, to find some Fountaine whereat I might refresh myselfe : a pleasant spring or head of water did offer itselfe vnto me with a great vayne boyling vp, about the which did growe diuers sweet hearbes and water flowers, and from the same did flowe a cleare and chrystalline current streame, which deuided into diuers branches ran thorow the desart wood, with a turning and winding body, receyuing into it other little channels vnlading themselues. In whose courses the stones lift vp by nature, and trunkes of trees denyed any longer by their roots to be vpholden, did cause a stopping hinderance to their current and whuzing fall, which still augmented by other vn- dissonant torrents, from high and fertlesse mountaines in 8 the plaine, shewed a beautifull brightnes and soft passing f. 4 . course, to the which short windedly comming, by meanes of my fearefull flight, I did see a little obscure light, thorow the tops of the high trees, somewhat deuiding themselues ouer the water, and with the rest of their bodyes and branches, as it were seperating the heauens from my lifted vp eyes. A horrible place to be in, vnac- companyed of any creature. And suddainly hearing the fall of trees, through the force of a whyrle winde, & noise of the broken bowghes, with a redoubled and hoarse sound a farre of, and yet brought to the eccho of the water thorow the thick wood, I grew into a new astonishment. And at this instant thus terrified and afflycted, and yet without any receiued hurt, being vpon my knees bowed downe, and inclosing the hollownesse of my hand, there- with determined to make me a necessary drinking vessel : I had no sooner put the same into the water, offring to my mouth the long desired moysture thereby to refrygerate and coole the extreame heate of my burning heart, which at that time would haue beene more acceptable vnto me, then ey ther Hypanis and Ganges be to the Indians > Tygris or Euphrates to the Armenians, or Xeylus to the Aethio- pian nation, or to the Egyptians his innundation, inbybing theyr burnt and rosted mould, or yet the riuer Po to the Ligurians. Euen then also it fell so out, that I had no sooner taken into the palme of my hand, offering the same to my open mouth ready to receiue it : [then] I heard a doricall songe, wherewith I was as greatly delighted, as if I had heard the Thracian Tkamiras, which thorough my eares pre- sented it selfe to my vnquiet heart with so sweete and delectable a deliuerie, with a voyce not terrestriall, with 9 c so great a harmonie and incredible a fayning shrilnesse, and vnusuall proportion, as is possible to bee imagined by [by no man's minde, nor of] no tounge sufficiently to be commended. The sweetnes whereof so greatly delighted me, as thereby I was rauished of my remembrance, and my vnderstanding so taken from me, as I let fall my desired water thorough the loosned ioynts of my feeble hands. And then euen as a birde, which through the sweetnes of the call forgetteth to remember the Fowlers deceit, so I letting slip that which nature stood in need of, hastened my selfe back with all speed, towarde that attractiue melodie, which the more I coasted, the further it seemed still from me, sometime heere, sometimes there, and still as I shifted places, so the same also chaunged with a delectable voyce and heauenly consent. Thus vainly running vp and downe, I knew not after what, I grew f. 4 *>. wearie, faint, and drye, and so feeble, that my legges could but with great paine, vphould my distempered body. And my grieued spirits vnabled long to support the same, what with the feare that I had bin in, what with extreame thirst, what with long and wilesome trauell, and what with doubting the worst that might insue, Thus hote, faint, and drye : I knew not what to do but euen to procure rest for my weary member[s]. I marueled first at this straunge accedent, and was amazed at this in- humane harmonye, but most of all in that I was in a straunge contry, and vninhabited, being onelye fertill and beawtyfull to behould, besydes that I greatly sorrowed for the losse of the fayer ryuer which I had so greatly labored to finde out, and now so lightly carlesly to haue lost the benifit thereof. In this sort I was houlden in an intrycate minde of doubts, at length ouercome with all kinde of greefes, my whole bodye trembling and languish- 10 inge vnder a broade and mightye Oke full of Acornes, standing in the middest of a spatious and large green meade, extending forth in thicke and leauie armes to make a coole shadowe, vnder whose bodye breathing I rested my selfe vppon the deawye hearbes, and lying vppon my left syde I drewe my breath in the freshe ayre more shortly betwixt my drye and wrinckled lips, then the weary running heart, pinched in the haunche and struck in the brest, not able any longer to beare vp his weighty head, or sustaine his body vpon his bowing knees, but dying prostrates himselfe. And lying thus in such an agonie, I thought vpon the strifes of weake fortune, and the inchauntments of the malicious Cyrces, as if I had by hir charmes and quadranguled plaints, been bereaued of my sences. In these such so great & ex- ceeding doubts : O hi me when might I there among so 1 1 1 Moly an herb greatly commended of I Iomer, and thought to be souereigne against in- chauntments of moderne autliors alto- gether vn- knowne. - Hypsipile was daughter to Thaos king of Lemnos, who alone when all women of that Hand had slaine their husbands & kinsmen, saued hir father : she also shewed the Grecians the fountaine Langia in the wood of Ne- mea in Achaia where Her- cules slue a lion. 3 Dipsa a kind of snakes that Lucan mentioneth, whose byting procureth extreame dry- nes or thirste. many dyuerse and sundry sorts of hearbes finde the Mercurial Molt 1 with his blacke roote, for my helpe and remedie. Againe me thought that it was not so with me. What then ? euen a hard appoyntment to delay my desired death. And thus remayning in these pernitious thoughts, my strength debylitated : I looked for no other helpe, but to drawe and receiue fresh ayre into that brest, which panted with a small remainder of vytall warmnesse, taking into my hands halfe aliue, as my last refuge, the moyst and bedewed leaues, preserued in coole shadow of the greene Oke : putting the same to my pale and drye lippes, with a greedy desire in licking of them to satisfie f. 5. my distempred mouth with theyr moisture, wishing for such a wel as Hypsipyle 2 shewed the Grecians : Fearing least that vnawares as I had ruffled in the wood I were bitten with the serpent Dipsa 3 my thirst was so vnsupport- able. Then renuing my oulde cogitations : as I lay under this mightie Oke : I was oppressed with emynent sleepe ouer all my members : when againe I dreamed in this sorte. 1 2 THE THIRD CHAPTER. Poliphilus sheweth, that he thought he did sleep againe, and in his dreame that he was in a Vallie, inuironed with mountaines and hilles, the end whereof was shut vp in a maruellous sort, with a mightie pyramides worthie of admiration : vpon the top whereof was a high obeliske, which with great pleasure hee beheld, and diligently discribeth. OTTEN FOORTH OF THIS fearefull and thick wood, and forgetting the forementioned places by this sweete sleepe, occasioned by my wearie mem- bers, nowe layde along : mee thought that I was in a new more delectable place, far excelling the former, which consisted not of fertles mountaine and craggie winding rockes, contayning wide caues, but being a delicate valley, in the which did rise a small mounting of no great height, sprinkled heare and 1 Aescuius is there with young Okes, Ashes, Palme trees broad leaued, bothgreater 8 Aesctdtes, 1 Holme, Chestnut, Sugerchist, Poplars, wilde broder leaues Oliue, and Oppies disposed some hyer then other, ac- *q ke ' cording to the mounting or fall of the place, in the plaine ^^lJ^ whereof was an other kinde of thicket of medicinable flower > vines are bound simples like little young trees, as the flowering Genista 2 therewith. . Elaphium is enuironed with diuers green hearbs, Tetrifolie, Sheere like to An ge - grasse, hunnisuckle, the musked Angelica, Crowfoot, in smell, the Elapium and Rugwoort, with other profitable and vn- rubbethhis knowne hearbes and flowers heare and there diuerslie isveiuet. 13 disposed. A little beyond in the same valley, I founde a sandie or grauelly plaine, yet bespotted with greene tuffes, in which place grew a faire Palme tree with his leaues like the Culter of a plowe, and abounding with sweet and pleasant fruite, some set high, some lowe, some in a meane, some in the very top, an elect and f. 5 b - chosen signe of victorie. Neither in this place was there any habitation or creature whatsoeuer. Thus walking solitarily betwixt the trees, growing distantly one from another, I perswaded my selfe, that to this no earthly situation was comparable : in which thought, I soddainely espied vpon my left hand, an hungrie and carniuorous Woolfe, gaping vpon me with open mouthe. At the sight whereof immediatly, my hayre stood right vp, and I would haue cryed out, but could not : and presently the Woolfe ranne awaye : wherevpon returning to my selfe, and casting my eyes towards the wooddie mountaines, which seemed to ioyne themselues together, beeing looked vnto a farre off, I sawe the forme of a tower of an incredible heygth, with a spyre vnperfectlie appear- ing, all being of very auncient forme and workemanship. And drawing neare vnto this building, I beheld the gratious mountaines before a farre of seeming small, by comming neerer and neerer, by little and little, to lift vp themselues more and more, at the first seeming to mee that they had ioyned together with the building which was an inclosure or end of the valley betwixt mountaine and mountaine : which thing I thought worthy the noting, and without further delay I addressed my selfe more neerer therevnto. And by how much the more I approxi- mated the same, by so much the more the excellencie of the woorke shewed it selfe, increasing my desire to be- hould the same. For there appeared no longer a sub- H stance of vnknowne forme, but a rare Obelisk vpon a vast frame and stonie foundation, the heigth whereof without comparison did exceed the toppes of the sidelying moun- taynes, although I thought that they had beene the re- nowned Olympus, 1 the famous Caucasus? and not inferior 1 Olimpus a _ 7 . „ hil in Greece tO LyllenUS. between Mace- To this sollitarie place thus desiredlye comming, with salie, so high* vnspeakeable delight, at pleasure I behelde the straunge Poets iMs manner of the arte, the hugenesse of the frame, and the takenfor woonderfull excellencie of the woorkmanship. Maruell- he ^ uen * L 2 Caucasus ing and considering- the compasse and largenesse of this a mightie hill & . . in Asia which broken and decayed obiect, made of the pure glistering parteth India lt . \ . r , . , fromScythia. marble of Paros. The squared stones loyned togither 3 cnienus a without anye cement, and the pointed quadrangulate the^uplter' corner stones streightlye fitted and smoothlye pullished, vponMaia?" 6 the edges whereof were of an exquisite vermillion coulour, 4 Paros is •i i i'ii« • one of the 35. as is possible to bee deuised : and so mst set, as betwixt isles called the ioynts, euen the enemie to the woorke (if euer there Sporades^hf were anye) could not deuise to hide the point of the Aegeum which smallest Spanish needle vsed of the best workewomen. Europ from And there in this so noble a piece of worke, I found a Asm ' proportioned substance to euery shape and likenesse that can be thought vpon and called to remembrance, partly decayed, and some still whole remaining, with pillers small vpon great, with their excellent heads of an exact and most perfect closing, crowned battelments, embost earn- ings, bearing forth like embroderie, arched beames, mightie mettaline images, ouerthrowne and broken in sunder, the tronke of their exact and perfect members, appearing hollow of brasse. Skyffes, small boates and vessels of Numidian stone and Porphyr, and diuers couloured marble. Great lauers, condites, and other infinite fragments of notable woorkmanship, far different 15 and inferiour from that they were, in their perfection, but now brought back as it were to their first vnshapelines, being fallen and cast downe, some heere, some there, vpon the earth from the which they were taken. Among the broken and decayed places wherof great sundrie wall weeds and hearbes, especially the vnshaking Anagyre, the Lentise of both kindes, beares foote, Dogges head, Gladen greene, spotted Iuie, Centarie, and diuers such like. And in the myldered places of broken walles grew Howslike, and the hanging Cymbalaria, bryers, and pricking brambles, among the which crept Swifts and Lyzarts which I sawe crawling among the ouergrowne stones, which at the first sight in this silent and solitarie place, made me to be warily afraid of them. On euery side there lay fallen downe smoothe round pieces of serpent spotted Marble, purple and red Pangiyphic diuerse couloured. Fragments of strange histories, Pan- carued from glyphic and Hemygliphic compendiously caracterized, the foote in ail shewing the excellencie thereof, vndoubtedly accusing Hemigiiphic our age, that the perfection of such an art is forgotten. hai£ ebut Then comming to the myddle fronture of the great and excellent woorke, I sawe an sole large and maruey- lous porche worthy of great estimation, proportioned according to the huge quantitie of the rest of the whole work, which was placed betwixt and continued in building from the one and the other of the mountaines hare lipped, and aboue arched, whose space betwixt as I doe coniecture f. 6 b . was in measure sixe furlongs, and twelue paces. The top of which mountaines were perpendicularly equall eyther of them touching the azured skey. At the sight whereof I imagined with my selfe and deuised to thinke with what yron instruments, with what labour of mens hands, and number of workmen, such a piece of woorke could bee by great strength framed, with much paine layde together, 16 and a long time in finishing. There then this woonder full frame willingly as it were ioyned hands and vnited it selfe with the one and the other mightie mountaines, by meanes whereof the foresaid valley there had an end, that no man could go further forward or backe againe but to enter in by this broade, large, and wide open porche. Vpon this massie frame and mightie woorkmanship, which I take to be in heigth from the roofe or top to the foote, hue parts of a furlong, was placed a high and woonder- full Pyramides, after the fashion of a square poynted Diamond, and such incredible workemanship that could neuer be deuised and erected, without inestimable charge, great helpe, and long time. So that I thought the ex- cellencie thereof vnthought vpon, to bee a myrrour, the sight whereof was able to dasell any humaine eyes, and quaile the rest of the spirituall sences. What shall I say more ? for so far as the reache of my capacitie will afoorde me leaue, in this sort I briefely describe the same. Euery side or quarter of this foure squared frame, whervpon the foote of the Pyramides did stand, did extend themselues in length six furlongs, 1 which in COm- 1 A furlong is passe about euery side aequilatered of like bredth, dooth pole being 16 multiplie to 24 furlongs. Then lifting vp the lynes on high from the foure corners, so much as euerye corner is distant in length from an other, meeting in the top, so as the Perpendicular line may fall iust vpon the center of the Dyagon, stretching from both corners of the plynts or square foote, iust and conueniently ioyned together doe make a perfect pyramidall figure. Which immence and woonderfull forme, with a maruelous and exquise Sym- metric and due proportion mounting vp laboursomly foote 17 D by foote, conteyned 14 10 degrees or steppes, taking away 10 degrees to make vp the head and gracilament of the Pyramides in whose place was set a huge Cube or foure square stone of forme like a dye, sound and firme of a monstrous thicknesse and incredible weight to bee carryed so high. And of the same stone of Paros as f. 7. were the steps : which cube and square stone was the Basis and foote set under the Obilisk, which I haue in hand to describe. This mightie big stone sharpe topt, sliding downe the extream part from corner to corner, flat sided by the Diameter, was fower paces, at euery equall distant corner, whereof was the foote of a harpie of moulten mettall, their steales and clawes armed. Firmlye and stronglie set in with led, in euery corner of the Cube, or foure square head of the Pyramides, meeting together ouer the Dia- gonike line. Of proportioned thicknesse in heigth two paces. Which thus closing and mette together, made the socket of the great Obelisk : which Socket was beautified with leaues, fruites and flowers, of shining cast mettall, and of conuenient bignesse. Wherevpon the weight of the Obelisk was borne. The breadth whereof was two paces, and seauen in heigth, artificiously sharping of the stone of Thebais called Pyrus. Vpon the smooth plains whereof, pure and bright shining as a looking glasse, were moste excellently cut Aegiptian Hyerogliphs. Vpon the pointe of which Obelisk, with great arte and diligence, was fastned a copper base, in the which also there was a turning deuise infixed : whervpon did stand the shape of a beautifull nimph framed of the aforesayd matter, able to amaze the continuall diligent behoulder. Of such a proportion as the common stature might be considered and perfectly seene, notwithstanding the 18 exceeding heigth thereof in the ayre. Besides the great- nesse of the figure or image : it was a woonder to thinke how such a weight should bee carryed and set in such a place and so high. Couered with a habite blowne abroad with the winde, and shewing parte of the naked sub- stance of the legges and thighes : with two wings growing out from the shoulder blades, and spred abroad as if shee were readye to flye, turning hir fayre face and sweete regarding countenance towardes hir wings. The tresses of hir haire flying abroade the vpper part or crowne naked and bare. In hir right hand she held from hir sight a copie or home stuft full of many good things, stopped vp, and the mouth downewarde, hir left hand fastned and harde holden to hir naked brest. This Image and stature was with euery blast of wind turned, and mooued about with such a noyse and tinkling in the hollownes of the metaline deuise : as if the mynte of the Queene of Eng- land had bin going there. And when the foote of the f. 7 >'. phane or Image in turning about, did rub and grinde vpon the copper base, fixed vpon the pointe of the Obe- liske, it gaue such a sound, as if the tower bell of Saint Iohns Colledge in the famous Vniuersitie of Cambridge had beene rung : or that in the pompeous Batches of the mightie Hadrian: or that in the fift Pyramides stand- ing vpon foure. This Obeliske in my iudgement was such, as neyther that in the Vaticane in Alexandria or Babilon, may bee equally compared vnto it, but rather esteemed far inferiour. It conteined in it such a heape of woonders, as I could not without great astonishment looke vpon it. As also consider the hugenesse of the worke, the excessiue sumptuousnesse, the straunge inuention, the rare performance, and exquisite diligence of the woorke- man. With what art inuented ? with what power, humaine 19 force, and incredible meanes, enuying (if I may speake it) the workmanship of the heauens, such and so mightie weights should be transported and carryed into the skyes ? with what Cranes, winding beames, Trocles, round pullies, Capres bearing out deuices, and Poliplasies, and drawing frames, and roped tryces, therein being vnskilfull, I slip it ouer with silence. Let vs returne then to the huge Pyramides, standing f. 8 b . vpon a strong and sound plynth or foure square foote, fourteene paces in heigth, and in length sixe furlongs, which was the foundation and bottom of the weightie pyramides, which I perswaded my selfe was not brought from any other place, but euen with plaine labour and workemanship hewen out of the selfe same mountaines, and reduced to this figure and proportion in his owne proper place. Which great quadrant and square woorke, ioyned not fast to the collaterate and sidelying rockes, but was be- twixt spaced and seperated on eyther sides tenne paces. • Vpon the right hand as I went of the aforesaid plynth or square sheame, there was most perfectly carued the vyperous head of the fearefull Medusa, in a most furious and rigorous forme to looke vpon, and as it were yelling out : with terrible eyes cauernate and hollow skowling vnder ther ouerhanging browes with a wrympled and for- rowed forehead and gaping wide open mouth, which being hollowed with a dyrect waye from the Catill, and vppon stone by a mediane lyne perpendicular to the center of the far shewing Pyramides, made a large enterance and coming vnto it, at which opening mouth, compassed with fowlded haires of unrepartable curiousnes, artificiall cunning and costly woorkmanshyppe the assendingthe turning stayers shewed them selues, and in stead of tresses of haire 20 platted with laces I saw fearefull vypers and winding ser- pents growing out from the scalpe of the monstrous head confusedly twysting together and hissing, so liuely por- trayed and set foorth, that they made me afrayde to be- hould them, In their eyes were placed most shining stones, in such sort, as if I had not beene perswaded and knowne that they were stones indeed, I durst not haue drawne neere them. And the aforesayde entrie cut out of the firme stone, led to the scale and compassing passage in the center, with winding steps tending to the highest parte of the stately Pyramides, and opening vpon the out side of the catill or cube : vpon the which the shining obeliske was founded. And among the rest of such notable partes that I beheld, me thought that this deuise was woorth the noting, because the artifitious and most cunning archi- tect with an exquisite and perspicuous inuention, had made to the stayres certaine loopes or 'small windowes, imbracing the bountifull beames of the sunne corre- spondently on three parts, the lower, the middle, and supreame : The lower taking light from the higher, and the higher from the catabasse or lower with their opposite reflexions shewing a maruellous faire light, they were so fitly disposed by the calculate rule of the artificious Ma- thematrician, to the Orientall Meridionall and Occiden- tall partes of the ayre, that euery houre of the day the sunne shined in, and gaue light to the whole scale, the same loopes or windolets in diuerse places symmetrially and definitely dispersed and set. To the aforesaid entrance thorow the open mouth of Medusa, I came by a long gallorie to a salying scale or downe going staire opening at the foot and pauement of the building vpon my right hand against one of the colla- terall and side-lying mountaines, betwixt which there was out of the stone and open space cut out of tenne paces vp, into the which I ascended boldely without resistance, and being come to the beginning of the staire in the aforesaid mouth by innumerable steppes and degrees, not without great wearines and disinesse of head, by often turning about, I came to so incredible a height, that my eies would not suffer me to looke downe to the ground, insomuch, that me thought that euery thing below vpon the plaine had lost his shape, and seemed vnperfect. In the opening and comming out of this circulate and turn- ing assence many pillars of fused and molten mettall were aptly disposed and surely fixed : the inter-space betwixt euery one and other one foote, and in height halfe a pase, railed and ioyned togither aboue with a battelled coronet al along the said pillar and of the same metall compassing about the opening of the staire, lest that any comming foorth vnawares should fall downe headlong, For the im- mesurable height thereof woulde cause a giddines in the head, and bring a staggering to the feete : vpon the plaine of the obeliske there was infixed a table of brasse fas- tened and soldered in about the height of a man, with an ancient inscription in Latine, Greeke, and Arabike, by the which I plainely vnderstoode that the same was dedi- cated to the Sunne, and the measure of the work wholy set downe and described, the name of the Architector noted on the obeliske in Greek letters. AIXAI O AIBIKOI AI0OAOMOS X2P0O2EN ME. Lie has Libucus architectus me erexit. Lichas a Libian architector set me vp. Let vs returne and come backe to the consideration of f. the But and tessell or square, subiect and vphoulder of the Pyramides in the fronte and foreside whereof I beheld in- grauen a Gigantomachie and combate betwixt Giauntes, the onely enemie to vitall breath, surpassinglie well cut, with the quick motions and liuelie agilities of their large and tall bodyes, vnpossible to be rightlye described, the artificiall handling thereof, as it were enuying the woorke of nature it selfe, as if theyr eyes and feete had mooued together, and coasted from one part to an other, with an expedite passage and swift course. In such sorte seemed they vpon theyr strong and mightie horsses, some being cast downe, other stumbling and falling : many wounded and hurt, yeelding vp their desired Hues; some troden downe and mischieued vnder the feete of the fierce and vn- restrained horsses. Other casting off their armour wrast- ling and togging one with an other : some headlong with their heeles vpwarde, falling and not come to the ground from off their horsses. Other some lying vpon the earth, houlding vp their sheilds and Targets, offended with the one hand, and defended with the other. Many with their shimitaries and curtilaxes, some with long swordes two handed after the auncient Persian manner, others with diuers deadly and strange fashioned mortall weapons : some wearing habergions and helmets, with diuers de- uises vpon their crests : other naked and vnarmed, leap- ing and rushing in among the thickest, thereby shewing theyr haughtie, inuincible, and vndaunted courages, reso- lute for death. Some with fearefull countenances crying out, other shewing obstinate and furious visages, although they were assured to dye, strongly abiding the proofe of their paine, and the cutting in sunder of their fatall thread, others slaine before them, with diuers vncothe and straunge warlike and deadly instruments. Shewing their strong members, their swelling muskels standing out, offer- 23 ing to the sight and eyes of the behoulder, the dutie of theyr bones, and the hollownesse in the places, where theyr strong sinewes be strayned. Their conflict and combate seemed so fearefull, bloudie, deadly, cruell, and horrible : as if Mars himselfe had beene fighting with Porphirion and Alcion, who made a noyse lyke the braying of Asses. This catagliphic imagerie, did exceed a naturall and common stature and proportion of men, earned in priuie white marble, the ground thereof as black as iet, a perfect f. 10. foile to beautifie and set foorth with pale Christaline and siluer crolley of innumerable huge bodyes, their last in- deuours, their present actions, the fashion of their armor, the diuersitie of their deaths, & vncertaine & doubtful victorie. The discharge of my vndertaken discription whereof, prooueth maymed and lame, by reason that my vnderstanding is wearie, my memorie confused with varietie, and my sight dimmed with continuall gasing, that my senses will not aford me rightly, and as their dewe, fitly to manifest part, much lesse to describe at large the whole manner of their curious Lytkoglyftki. After this I became to cast with my selfe, what should mooue and cause such a pride & burning desire in any man, to fetch from far, and gather together so mightie stones with so great trauell : With what carriage, who were the conueyers and porters, with what manner of wheeles, and rowling deuises, and vpholding supporters, so great, large and innumerable a sort of stones should be brought thither, and of what matter theyr cement that ioyned and held them together, was made the heygth of the Obelisk and statelinesse of the Pyramides, exceeding the imagined conceit of Dimocrates proposed to Alexander the great, about a worke to be performed vpon the hill Athos. 24 For the strangenes of the Egiptian building might giue place to this. The famous laborinth were far inferior, Lemnos is not to be rehearsed, the Theaters of old time were in comparison but warriners lodges, neyther did the famous Mausoley come any thing neere. Which certainly maketh me absolutely perswaded, that he which wrote the seauen woonders of the world, neuer hard of this : neyther in any age hath there been seene or im- agined the like, no not the sepulcher of Ninus. Lastly I woondered what foundation and arches were able to vphold so monstrous a weight, whether the pyllars were hexagons or tetragons, and what varietie of columnes, and what number might serue, and after what sorte pro- portionately disposed and set. For the better vnder- standing and more perfect knowledge wherof, I con- ueyghed my selfe in at the open & spacious porche and enterance, within the which was an obscure and vast hol- lownes ; which porche, together with the proud and stately buylding (things worthy of memorie) shall in some sorte be descrybed as followeth. 2 5 E THE FOURTH CHAPTER. Poliphilus, after the discription of the huge Pyramides and Obeliske, f. io b . discourseth of maruelous woorkes in this chapter, namely of a horsse of Colos. of an Oliphant, but especially of a most rare and straunge Porche. IGHTLYE AND LAWFULLYE may I haue leaue to write, that in the whole world there was neuer such an other, so pompeous, glorious, and mag- nificent a peece of worke, by mans eyes seene or crediblie reported. The woon- derfull excellencie and rare straungenesse whereof, as I beheld what with delight, and what with admiration, my sences were so cuptiuated and tyed therevnto, that no other solace or pleasure, did eyther occurre or take place in my swift flying thought. But that when I applyed my sences to consider, and addressed my eyes with diligent obseruation, curiouslie to ouerlooke euerie perticular part of this sweete composed obiect, and most rare and goodly imagerie and virgin like bodyes, without cracke or flawe, with a long drawne breath, and somewhat opening my mouth, I set a deepe sighe. In so much as my amorous and sounding breathing, by reason of the thicknesse of the ayre in this solytarie and lone place, gaue an eccho and did 26 put me in minde of my Angelike and extreame desired Polia. hi me that so small or anye intermission should cause that hir louely and celestiall Idea and shape was not still imprinted in my minde, and continued a dayly companion, in whose brest my life is resolued to abide, and rest as vnder the protection of a most sure and approoued shield and safe defence. And by this way I was brought to a place where were diuers and sundrie excellent sorts of auncient deuises and woorkemanships : first of all, I beheld a most fayre porche, past all sence to describe (for the incredible curiousness thereof, as euer was built or deuised) and the rather for that our mother toung and vulgar speeche, may not affoord apt and peculiar words, for such a piece of artificiall worke. Before this gorgeous and glorious porche, you shall vnderstand that in the open ayre there was a fowre square court of thirtie paces by his Diameter, paued with pure fine marble, poynted foote square, wrought checkerwise of diuers fashions, and sundrie best fitting coulours : but in many places, by meanes of the ruine of the auncient walke, a coiumne 1 1 i mi i i • i consisteth of and olde pillers, broken in peeces and ouergrowne. his Capiteii And in the vtmost partes of the aforesaide court, to the n ead! S Astra- right hand, and the left, towards the mountaines, there was fh^subiect of two straight rowes of pillars, with a space betwixt for the nexuhe 611 interiect Areostile, as the quantities of both columnes re- HypotScheiie quired, the first course or order of setting the pyllars, coiumne ° fthe beginning on both sides equall to the Lymbus or extreame ^esis^hat is part of the fronte of the porche, the space betwixt pyllars hereon the and pillars xv. paces. Of which collumnes or great pillars, ^™ n £ ex some and the greatest parte or number were whole. With ceeding the ° 1 ( bignes of the their capitels or heads, wrought with a waued shell worke, coiumne. 27 and cyllerie or draperie, their corners bearing out and inanulated or turned in like a curled locke of hayre, or the vpper head of a base Viall aboue the pinnes, which straine the stringes of the instrument to a musicall con- cord ; with their subiect Astragals, writhing and hanging heere and there, making the capitall thrise so big as the bottom thereof of the columne, wherevpon was placed the Epistile or streight beame, the greatest part decayed and many columnes widowed and depriued of their Capitels, buryed in ruine both Astragals and shafts of the columnes and their bases or feete. Fast ioyning to which order or set rowes of pillars, there grew ould plaine trees, wylde Oliues, Pine apple, and pricking brambles. I coniectured that it was made for to ride horses in, to trot and gallop, the ring, to manage, carreie, and coruet in, or els some open gallerie, couered close ouer head, vnder propt with pillers, and of a large widenesse to walke drie in, and to take a temperate ayre in, not too subtile. Aboue in this great Court paued as aforesayd, in the passage towardes the Porche, somme tenne paces, I beheld a prodigious winged vaughting horse, of moulten brasse, of an exceeding bignesse, his wings fanning out. His hooues standing vpon a smooth plaine base or frame, fiue foote brode, and nine feete in length, in heigth pro- portionable to the bredth and length : with his head at libertie and vnbrideled : hauing his two small eares, the one standing forward, and the other drawne back, with a f. u*. long waued maine, falling from his crest on the contrarye side ; vpon whose backes diuers young youthes assayed to ride, but not one was able to sit stedfast by reason of his swiftnesse and high bounding, from whom some were fallen downe, lying wide open to the ayre, some groueling, 28 other falling headlong, betwixt the horsse and the earth, the rest in vaine houlding by the hayre of his maine, some forceing to get vp vpon him, and others indeuoring to recouer themselues from vnder his feete. Vpon the vpper part of the frame and base, there was infixed and fastned with lead, a footing or thick crust, of the same mettall that the horse was, and vpon the which he stoode, and those that were ouerthrowne did lye, somewhat shorter and narrower then the base or subiect frame ; the whole masse or composition cast of a peece and f. 12. of the same mettall, maruelouslie founded. Lastlye you could not perceiue that any were contented with his rowghnes, as appeared by their framed countenances, shewing a discontent which they could not vtter being sencelesse images, not differing otherwayes thorough the excellent conning of the craftisman from liuing creatures, suid by his surpassing imitation of nature. Peryllus there might go put vp his pypes, and blush with his deuised Bull, and Hiram the I ewe must heere giue place, or what founders els soeuer. The Pagma base or subiect for this metaline machine to stand vpon, was of one solyde peece of marble (of fit and conuenient breadth, heighth, and length, for that purpose accordinglye proportioned) full of streaming vaines, sondry coulered, and diuerslye spotted, maruelous pleasant to the eye, in infinite commixtures, confusedly disposed. Vpon the brest or formost part, and end of the marble base, that was opposite against the porch, there was a garland of greene marble, like the leaues of bitter Altsander, commixt with dead leaues of Maydenweede, of a hayre coulour, within the which there was a smoothe round, pure, white stone, wherein was ingrauen these capitall Romaine letters. 29 None Hue in this world in that plea- sure, but they haue also their sorowes in time. .D. AMBIG . D. D. EQVVS INFOELI CI TATIS Gift vainely bestowed, in time wantonlie spent, is a great losse, and breedeth re- pentance. At the hinder end in like sort was a garland of deadly f. i2 b . Woolfwoort, with this inscription, Equus infcelicitatis . And vpon the right side there was ingrauen certaine figures, shapes, and representments of men and women dauncing together, byformed or faced, the formost smiling, the hynmost weeping : and dauncing in a ring, with theyr armes spred abrode, and hanfasted, man with man and woman with woman. One arme of the man vnder that of the woman, and the other aboue, and thus closing together, and houlding by the hands, they floung about one after another, that alwayes still in one place, a smyling counten- ance incountered a foregoing sad. Their number was seauen and seauen, so perfectly and sweetely counterfeited with liuelie motions, their vestures whisking vp and flying abroad, that the workman could not be accused of any im- perfection, but that one had not a liuely voyce to expresse their mirth, and the other brinish teares to manifest their sorrow : the said daunce was in fashion of two Semicircles, with a seperating partition put betwixt. Vnder which Hemiall figure, there was inscript this f. 13. worde TEMPVS. On the contrary side I beheld many of greene adolestencie of like proportion to the former, and in such like compasse or space, the grounds of both beautified and set foorth with an exquisite foliature or woorke of leaues and flowers, this companie was plucking and gathering of the flowers of sundrye hearbes and tender bushing stalkes and braunches : and with them diuers 30 faire Nimphes pleasantly deuising, and sportinglie snatch- ing away their gathered flowers, and in such sort as abouesaid vnder the figure were ingrauen certaine capitall letters, to shew this one worde AMISSIO, conteyning the ninth part to the Diameter of the quad- rature. f . !3 b - At the first sight hereof I was amased and astonished, but with better regard & great delight curiously reouer- looking the huge founded Machine the shape and forme of a horse made by humane industry and skill most com- mendable, for that euery member without defect had his perfect harmonie,and euery limme his desired proportion, I straight called to remembrance the vnfortunate horse of Seian. And thus helde still to beholde the same artificiall mysterie another spectacle and obiect no lesse worthy to 3 1 be looked vpon than the former, offered it selfe to my sight, which was a mighty Elephant, whereunto with a desirous intent I speedely hyed me to approch and come neere. In which meane while on an other side I heard a mournefull noise and humane groaning, as proceeding from a sicke body euen vnto death : whereat I stoode still at the first, my haires standing right vp, but presently without further stay, I addressed my steppes towards the place from whence I heard this wofull noyse and dolefull lament, forcing my selfe vp vppon a heape of ruinated, broken and downe-fallen marbles. Thus wil- lingly-going forward, I came to a vast and wonderfull large Colose, the feete thereof bare, and their soles hol- lowe, and the legges as if their flesh had beene wasted, consumed and fallen way. From thence with horror I came to looke vpon the head, where / did coniecture and imagine that the ayre and winde getting in and comming foorth of his wide open mouth and the hollow pipes of his throat, by a diuine inuention did cause this moderated noise and timed groanes : it lay with the face vpward all of molten mettal, like a man of middle age, and his head lifted vp as with a pillowe, with a resemblance of one that were sicke, breathing out at his mouth, sighes and groanes gaping, his length was three score paces. By the haires of his beard you might mount vp to his breast, and by the rent and torne peeces of the same to his stil lamenting mouth, which groningly remained wide open and empty, by the which, prouoked by the spurre of curious desire, I went downe by diuers degrees into his throat, from thence to his stomacke, and so foorth by secret wayes, and by little and little to all the seuerall partes of his inward bowelles, Oh wonderfull conceit. And euery part of mans 3 2 body hauing vpon it written his proper appellation in f. 14. three ideomes Chaldee, Greeke and Latine, that you might know the intrailes, sinews, bones, veines, muscles and the inclosed flesh, and what disease is bred there : the cause thereof, the cure and remedy, Vnto which inglomerated and winding heape of bowelles, there was a conuenient comming vnto and entrance in : with small loope-holes and wickets in sundry places diuersly disposed, yeelding thorough them a sufficient light to beholde the seuerall partes of the artificiall anothomie, not wanting any member that is found in a naturall body. When I came to the heart, / did see and reade how Loue at his first entrance begetteth sorow, and in con- tinuaunce sendeth out sighes, and where Loue doth most greeuously offend : wherewithall / was mooued to renew my passion, sending out from the botome of my heart deepe set and groaning sighs inuocating and calling out vpon Polia, in such sort as that the whole Colose and Machine of brasse did resound, striking me into a horrible feare : an exquisite Arte beyond all capacity, for a man to frame his like not being an Anotomy indeede. Oh the excellency of passed wittes, and perfect golden age, when Vertue did striue with Fortune, leauing onely behind him for an heritage to this our world, blinde, ignorant, and grudging desire of worldly pelfe. Vpon the other side I perceiued of like bignes to the former Colose, the vpper part of a womans head some deale bare, and the rest buried with the decayed ruines, as I thought, of such like workmanship as the other, and being forbidden by incomposite and disordered heapes of decayed and fallen downe stones, to view the same I returned to another former obiect, which was (and not farre distant from the horse straight forward) a huge Elephant of more black stone than the Obsidium, pow- dered ouer with small spottes of golde and glimces of siluer, as thicke as dust glistering in the stone. The extreame hardnes whereof the better did shew his cleere shining brightnes, so as euery proper obiect therein did represent it selfe, excepte in that parte where the mettall did beare a contrary colour. Vpon his large backe was set a saddle or furniture of brasse, with two gyrthes going vnder his large belly, betwixt the which two being streight buckled vp with buckles of the same stone, there was inter-set a quadrangle corespondent to the breadth of the Obeliske placed vpon the saddle, and so iustly set, as no perpendicular line would fall on either side the diameter. Vpon three parts or sides of the foure square Obelisk, were ingrauen Egiptian caracters. The beast so exactly and cunningly proportioned, as inuention could deuise, and art performe. The aforesaid saddle and furniture set foorth and beautified with studdes hanging iewels, stories and deuises, and houlding vp as it were a mightie Obeliske of greene couloured stone of Lacedemonia, vpon the euen square, two paces broad, and seauen in height, to the sharpe pointe thereof, waxing smaller and smaller, vpon which pointe there was fixte a Trigon or rounde Ball of a shinyng and glystering substance. This huge beast stood streight vpon all foure, of an exquisite woorkmanship vpon the plaine leuell, and vpper part of the base, hewen and cunningly fashioned, beeing of Porphyr stone. With two large and long teeth, of puer white stone, and cleare appact, and fastned. And to the fore gyrth on eyther side was buckled a riche and gorgeous poiterell beautified with diuers ornaments and varietie of Iewels, the subiect whereof was of the same 34 substance of the saddle : vppon the middest whereof was grauen in Latine Cerebrum est in capite. And in like manner brought about the outsides of his neck to the foretop of his large and big head, it was there fastned together with an artificiall knot ; from the which a curious ornament and verie notable, of Gouldsmithes worke, hung downe, ouer spredding his spacious face : the same ornament being twise so long as broade, bordered about, in the table whereof I beheld certaine letters Ionic and Arabic, in this sorte. rON O 2 KA I ET (D T I A His deuouring trunke rested not vpon the leuel of the base, but some deale hanging downe, turned vppe againe towardes his face. His rigged large ears like a Fox- hounde flappingly pendent, whose vast stature was little lesse, then a verye naturall Olyphant. And in the about compasse, and long sides of the base, were ingrauen cer- taine H ieroglipks, or Egiptian caracters. Being decently and orderlye pullished, with a requisite rebatement. Lataster gule thore or bide, Astragals or Neptrules, with a turned down Syme at the foote of the base, and turned vp aloft with writhin trachils and denticles, agreeable and fit to the due proportion of so large a substance, in length 12. paces, in breadth flue, and in heigth three, the superficiall and outward part whereof was hewen in forme of a hemi- cycle. 35 In the hynder parte of which base and stone, wherevpon this mightie beast did stande, I founde an assending place of seauen steps, to mount vp to the plaine superficies of the base, wherevpon the Olyphant did stand. And in the reserued quadrangle perpendicularly streight vnder the aforesaid brasen saddle, there was cut out and made a little doore and hollowed entrance, a woonderfull woorke in so hard a substance, with certaine steppes of brasse, in manner of stayres, by the which a conuenient going vp into the body of the Olephant was offered me. At the sight whereof I extreamely desired to see the f. 16. whole deuise & so going in, I assended vp to the heigth of the base wherevppon the cauernate, hollow, vast, large and predigious monster did stand, except that same part of the Obelisk, which was conteyned within the voyde body of the beast, and so passing to the base. Leauing towards both sides of the Olyphant so much space as might serue for any man to passe, eyther towarde the head or hynder haunches. And within from the bending downe of the chine or backe of the beast, there hunge by chaynes of copper an euerlasting lampe, and incalcerate light, thorough the which in this hinder parte I sawe an auncient sepulcher of the same stone, with the perfect shape of a man naked, of all naturall parts. Hauing vpon his head a crowne of black stone as iet : his teeth eyes and nayles siluered and standing vpon a sepulcher couered like an arke, of scale woorke, and other exquisite lyneaments, poynting with a goulden scepter, and houlding forward his arme to giue direction to the former part. On his left side he held a shield in fashion like to the keele of a ship, or the bone of a horse head, wherevppon 36 was inscript in Hebrew, Attic, and Latine letters, this sentence that is placed on the other side with the figure. At which vncoth and straunge sight I stood not a little amased and somewhat doubtfull what to imagine, turning my eyes to the contrarie part, I sawe in like sorte an other, as before burning light, and passing thorough be- twixt the side of the beast, and the therein inclosed part of the Obelisk ; I came towards the forepart of the Olyphant, where in like manner I found such an other fashioned sepulcher as the former, with a stature or image standing therevpon as the other, sauing that it was a Queene, who, lyfting vp hir right arme with hir formost finger, poynted towards that part behinde hir shoulders, and with the other shee helde a little table fast in hir hand, in which was written in three languages this epygram. NVDVS ESSEM, BESTI ANIME TEXISSET,QV AEKE.ET IN VE NIES-MESJNITO. rYMNOS HN ,EI MH AN ON EMEKA A Yf EN.ZHTEJ.EY' PH£HAE.EA£ON ME. *Hpa nrioD rinnan *a tth ok wwn fUDjii can DViy WR *w 37 IfiWya^n Stn won non inw "Mtb bait omSEI.AABE EK TOYAE TOYOH£AYPOY,0£ON AN A PESKOIJIAPAINO AEO£ AA- BHiS THN KE4>AAHN . MH A riTOY £OMATO£. QYISQVIS ES, QVANTVN CVNQVE LIBVERJT HV/ IVS THESAVRJ SVME AT- MONEO . AVFER. CAPVT. COKPVS NE TANGITO. This noueltie worthie to be manifested, and secret riddle often to be read ouer, was not knowen to me, so as I rested doubtfull what the interpretation of this sophisme should signify, not daring to trie the conclusion. But stricken with feare in this dark vnlightsome place, notwithstanding the dimme burning lampe, I was more desirous to beholde and peruse that triumphant porch and gate as more lawfull to remaine there than other-where. Whereupon without more adoe, I determined to leaue this place vntill another time, that I might more quietly at lesure looke vpon the same, and to prepare my selfe to beholde the woonderfull worke of the gate : and thus descending downe I issued foorth of the vnbowelled monster, an inuention past imagination, and an excessiue labour and bolde attempt to euacuate such a hard sub- stance ouer that other stones be, the workemanship f. i7 b - within as curious as that without. Lastly, returned cleane 38 downe, I beheld in the Porphire laste along the sides notably insculpt and grauen these hierogliphies. First, the horned scalpe of an oxe, with two tooles of husbandry fastned to the homes. An altar standing vpon goates feete, with a burning fire aloft, on the foreside whereof there was also an eie, and a vulture. After that a bason and an ewre. A spindle ful of twind, an old vessel fashioned with the mouth stopped and tied fast. A sole and an eye in the bal[l]e thereof, and two branches trauersed one of Oliue, an other of Palme tree. An Anchor and a Goose. An olde lampe, and a hand holding of it. An ore of ancient forme with a fruitefull Oliue branch fastned to the handle- Two grapling yrons or hookes. A Dolphin and an Arke close shut. These hierogliphies were passing well cut on this manner. f. 18. Which ancient maner of writing, as I take it, is thus to be vnderstoode. EX LABORE DEO NATURE SACRIFICA LIBER ALITER PAULATIM REDUCES ANIMUM DEO SUBIECTUM. FlRMAM CUSTODIAM VIT.E TLLE, MISERICORDITER GUBERNANDO TENEBIT, INCO- LUMEMQUE SERUABIT. Letting passe this most excellent rare, strange, and secret deuise and worke : Let vs returne againe to the prodigious horse, whose head was leane and little, of a small proportion and yet fitting the body, which seemed continually staring, fieerce and impatient, the flesh in his muscles trembling and quaking, in such sort as that hee 39 seemed rather aliue than a fained imitation, with this Greeke worde in his face TENEA. There were also other great peeces and fragments of diuers and sundry lineaments among the broken and decayed ruines, which I looked not on, still running and sliding, time giuing me onely leaue to consider and peruse these foure rare wonders, the porch or gate, the horse, the Colose and the Elephant. Oh reuerend arthists of times past, what despite hath gotten the vpper hand of your cunning that the same is buried with you, and none left for vs to inherite in this age. At length being come to this ancient porch, a worke woorthie the looking vpon maruellously composed by exquisite rules, and by art notably beautified, with diuers and sundry sorts of cuttings, which did inflame a desire in me to vnderstand and finde out the lineaments and practise of the architect. I beganne after this maner, making a square from the two collumnes on either side in a perfect sort, in the which I tooke the due proportion of the whole porch. A tetragon figure A.B.C.D diuided by three lines straight, and three ouerthwart equally distant one from another will make sixeteene quadrats, then adde to the figure halfe as much more in like proportion, diuiding the adiunct you shall finde foure and twenty squares. This figure shall serue of credycels to make the inlepturgie and briefe demonstration that followeth. Draw then in the first fygure A.B.C.D. two diagons, make also in the same two lines, one straight downe, and the other ouerthwart, which make foure quadrats mutually intersect. Then in the voide ouer the Isopleures make foure 40 f. i8«\ mcdiane prickes, drawing lines from one to another, and they wil make the Rhombas. When I had drawne this figure after this manner I straightway mused with my selfe, what reason should mooue many of our woorkemen in these dayes eyther to thinke well of themselues, or take the art of building in hand, not knowing what it is ? Making such grosse faults in churches and great mens houses, defaming arte, and so ignorant, that they seeme as though they could not consider what nature hir selfe dooth teach vs in be- houlding of hir woorkes. And what parte soeuer is not agreeable with his prin- ciple, is foule and naught. For take away order and rule, and what thing can any man make, eyther beautifull to the eye, or of commendable proportion and durable : then it must needes follow, that the cause of such incon- uenient errors doth proceed from ignorance, and hath his beginning from illiterature. And this notwithstanding, that although the perfection of this arte dooth not varie, & fall from his rectitude, yet the discreet and cunning architect to grace the obiect, to the behoulders : may lawfullye eyther with adiection or deminution, beautifie his worke, keeping whole the sollid part, with his vniuersall composition. I call that solid which is the bodye of the frame, which is the principall intent, inuention, fore setting downe, and symmetrie, or dew proportion of the building without any additions, rightlye examined, and perfectly composed, which will manifest the skill of the workeman, and the same afterwardes to adorne and beautifie, which adiuncts is an easie matter. Wherein is also to be considered, the dew ordering and placing of euery thing, and not to set a crowne vpon the feete, but vpon the head, and so oualing 41 G and denticulating, and other cuttings of sundrye sorts in their seuerall and best fitting places, the chiefe inuention and disposing whereof, resteth in the rare and cunning architect, but the labour and woorking therof to the vulgar and common sort of manualifts and seruants to the architect, who if he will do well, he must in no wise be subiect to auarice. And besides his skil he must be honest, no pratler full of words, but courteous, gentle, bening, tractable, patient, mery & pleasant, full of new deuises, a curious searcher into all artes, and well aduised in his proceeding, least with rashnes he comit a fault or absurditie in his worke, and heereof f. 19. thus much shall suffice. 42 THE FIFTH CHAPTER. After that Poliphylus had at large made a demonstration of the dew pro- portion of the Gate, hee proceedeth to describe the ornaments thereof, and their excellencie. no whit displeasant, if with a lyttle patience they restraine to glutte themselues with the walowish sweetnes of deceyue- able delightes, and trye the taste of a contrarye vyand. And for as much as the affections of men are naturally variable and different one from an other: vpon this occasion I may bee excused. For although that bread sometime denyed and kept backe from the hungrie body, may cause a hard conceit, yet when it is eftsoones offered vnto him, the mallice is forgotten, and the gift very gratefully receyued. Nowe hauing in some sorte spoken of the right vse of architecturie, and the direct waye and meanes by order and rule, to finde out, the set downe deuise, and solyde bodye or grounde of the woorke, with facilitie that beeing found out, the architector may vse sundrye deuisions in diuerse perfections, not vnlike vnto a cunning Musition, who hauing deuised his plaine grounde in right measure, HAUING BEENE SOMEWHAT prolix and tedious in my former pur- pose, it may be that it hath bred some offence, to such as dayly indeuour to occupietheyr sences in the pleasaunt dis- courses of loue. But it wyll also prooue 43 with full strokes, afterwarde wyll proportion the same into deuisions, by cromatycall and delyghtfull minims crotchets, and quauers, curiously reporting vpon his plaine song. Euen so after inuention, the principall and speciall rule, for an Architector is a quadrature, the same deuided into smales the harmonie and sweete con- sent of the building, setteth foorth it selfe, and the con- uenient adiunctes, agreeable to theyr principall. In all which this porche was most excellent, both for the rare inuention and woonderfull composition thereof, and the strange additions to beautifie the same, in such sorte so exquysite, so fitly placed, and so curiouslie cut and f. i9 b - ingrauen, as the smallest part thereof could not bee accused of anye fault, but the woorkman commended for the per- fection of his skill. First vpon my right hande belowe, I beheld a stilypode or square stone, like an aulter vnder the bases of the columnes, which hauing vpon the vpper parte a con- uenient and meet coronice, and accordingly imbowed, the bottome and lowest part in like manner was fashioned, so as the quadrate and aforesayd stilypode, was no broder then long, but a right quadrangule. Which aulter (as I may tearme it) sidelong about, wrought with leaues, hollowed vnder with a gulaterie, and wrapt ouer with the same foliature and leafeworke, hemming in the smooth face or table of the Stilypode of shining white alliblaster, polished and plaine, the outward part of the quadrangule, equilaterally compassing about the same, wherevpon with a woonderfull curiousnes was ingrauen a man neere his myddle-age, of a churlish and swarffie countenance, with an vnshaply beard, thick, and turning into his chyn, by the towghnesse of the hard skinne, and vneasie growing out of the hayre. 44 He sat vpon a stone with an aporne of a Goates skinne, the hinder parts compassing his waste, and tyed behynde with a knotte, and the neck part, with the hayrie side next him, hung downe betwixt his legges. Before him in the interstice of these grose and tumorus calfes, there was an anuill fastned vpon a knottie peece of a tree, wherevpon he was fashoning of a bryganine or habergion of burning mettall, houlding vp his Hammer, and as it were striking vpon his worke. And there before him was a most noble woman, hauing two fethered wings set vpon hir delicate and tender shoulders, houlding hir sonne an infante naked, which sate with his little hyppes vpon the large and goodly proportioned thighes of the faire goddesse his mother, and playing with hir, as she held him vp, and putting his feete vpon a stone, as it had beene a little hill, with a fornace in a hollow hole, wherin was an extreame whote burning fire. This Ladye had hir fayre tresses curiouslie dressed vpon hyr broad and highe forhead, and in like sorte compassing about with abundance, hir head in so rare and delicate a sort, that I marueyled why the Black smithes that were there busie at theyr worke, left not all to looke still vpon so beautifull an obiect. f. 20. There was also fast by, of like excellent woorkemanship, a knight of fierce countenance, 1 hauing vpon hym an armour 1 Mars, of brasse, with the head of Medusa vpon the curate or brest plate, and all the rest exquisitely wrought and beautified, with a bandilier ouerthwart his broad and strong brest, houlding with hys brawny arme a halfe Pike, and raysing vp the poynte thereof, and bearing vpon his head a high crested helmet, the other arme shadowed and not seene by reason of the former figure : There was also 45 a young man in silke clothing, behynde the Smith, whome I could not perceiue but from the brest vpwarde, ouer the declyning head of the forenamed Smith. Thys rehearsed hystorie, for the better and sweeter pleasing to the eye, the workeman had graced in this sort. The playne grounde that was hollowe and smoothe in euery cutting out of a limme or body, vpon the table of the stylipode, was like vnto red coroll and shyning, which made such a reflection vpon the naked bodyes, and theyr members betwixt them, and compassing them about, that they seemed lyke a Carnation Rose couler. Vpon the left side of the doore in the like aulter or stylipode vpon the table thereof, there was ingrauen a Mercuric yoong man of seemly countenance, wherein appeared great celerity : he sate vpon a square seate adorned with an ancient manner of caruing, hauing vpon his legge a paire of half buskens, open from the calfe of the legge to the ancle, from whence grew out on either ancle a wing, and to whome the aforesaide goddes with a heauenlye shape, her brests touching together and growne out round and firme without shaking, with her large flankes conformable to the rest of hir proportion before mentioned with a sweet countenance offered [her] yoong and tender sonne ready to be taught : the yong man bowing himselfe curteously downe to the childe, who stoode before him vppon his pretty little feete, receiuing from his tutor three arrowes, which in such sort were deliuered as one might easelye coniec- ture and gather after what manner they were to be vsed : the goddesse his mother holding the empty quiuer and bowe vnbent, and at the feete of this instructor lay his vypered caduce. Amormitro- There also I saw a squier or armour-bearer and a dfsarmato? woman with a helmet vpon her head carying a trophae or 4 6 signe of victorie vpon a speare after this manner. An ancient coate-armor hung vp, and vpon the top thereof or f. 2o b . creast, a spheare vpon two wings, and betwixt both wings this note or saying, Nihil firmum, Nothing permanent : she was apparelled in a thin garment carried abroad with the wind, and her breasts bare. The two straight pillars of Porphyre of seuen dia- meters vpon either of the aforenamed stilipodes and square aultars did stretch vpward of a pumish or tawnie colour, the out sides shining cleere and smoothly pollished, chamfered, and chanelled with foure and twenty rebate- ments or channels in euery collumne betwixt the nextruls or cordels. Of these the third part was round, and the reason of their cutting in such sort (that is two parts chamfered, & the third round) as I thought was this : the frame or temple was dedicated to both sexes, that is, to a god and a goddesse, or to the mother and the son, or to the husband and the wife, or the father and the daughter, and such like. And therefore the expert and cunning workemen in elder time for the feminine sex, did vse more chamfer- ing and channelling and double varietie then for the masculine, because of their slippery and vnconstant nature. The cause of so much rebating was to shew that this was the temple of a goddesse, for chamfering dooth set foorth the plytes of feminine apparell, vpon the which they placed a chapter with prependent folding, like vnto plyted and curled haire, and feminine dressing, and some- times instead of a chapter a womans head with crisped haire. These notable and faire collumnes aforesaide did rise vp in length vpon their vnderset bases of brasse with 47 Thores and their Thores and Cymbies wrought with a foliature of oke Cymbies be . the outward leaues and acornes winding about their chapters standing parts of a # m chapter or vpon their subiect Plynths. piiW sticking The Chapters of the same substance of their bases, with out further . . . . . . than the pillar requisite meete and conuenient proportion aunswerable to turning ?n?" the harmonie of the wholeworke Such as Callimachus kauef, h thT th the chiefe caruer to Calathus the sonne of Iupiter did o7ca?uers & led neuer performe or come neere in the erected sepulcher of perie te and dra tne Corinthian Virgin, beautified with draperie of double celerie - Achanthis. The Plynthes whereon the chapters did stand wrought with winding and turning workes, and in the middest de- corated with a Lillie, the bowle garnished with two rowes of viii leaues of Achanthus, after the Romaine and Corin- thian maner, out of which leaues came little small stalkes, closing together in the middest of the boule, shewing foorth f. 21 a fayre and sweet composed Lyllie in the hollowing of the Abac or Plynth, from the which the tender stalkes did turne round together, vnder the compasse of the square Abac, much after the woorke that Agrippa caused to bee made, in the porche of his woonderfull Pantheon. Let vs come now to the lymet and lowest parte of the doore, for entrance, which was of a great large and harde stone, powdered with sundry sorted spottes, white, black, and of a clay couler, and diuers other mixtures : vppon this stood the streight cheekes and sides of the doore, with an interstitious aspect, inwardly carued with as great cunning as the rest. Without any signe of eyther hookes or hinges, below or aboue. The arche of which doore compassing like a halfe cyrcle, was wrought curiouslye and imbowed, and as it were bounde about with laces like beads of brasse, some round, and some like Eglantine berries of a reddish 48 couler, hanging downe after an auncient manner, and foulded and turned in among the tender stalkes. The closing together and bracing of which hemicycle or arch, worthie of admiration, of a rare and subtile deuise, and exquisite polyture, did thus obiect and present it selfe to my sight. Then I beheld in a hard and most black stone, an eagle displayed, and bearing out of the bignesse of a The Eagle of naturall eagle, which had louingly seazed and taken in hir canyeYoa- foote a sweete babe in the swadling cloutes, nicely, care- mme ' fully, and gently houlding the same, least that hir strong, sharpe, and hooking pounces, should by anye meanes pierce thorough the tender skynne of the young infant. Hir feete were fixed about the rising vp chist of the childe, whome she had made bare from the nauell vp- warde and downeward so as the naked hippes might be seene betwixt the fethered thighes of the Eagle. This little infant and most beautifull babe (worthie and meete for him that he was seazed for) by his countenance shewed as if he had beene afraide of his fortune. And thus lying in the foote of the Eagle, he stretched both his armes abroade, and with his little fat hands tooke fast hould vpon the remigiall bones of the Eagles pinions The bones next tliG bcick displayed, as aforesaid. And clasping his swelling prittie in the wing, legges and feete, about hir subvaging spreding traine, hawkeexcei- which laye behinde the rising vppe of the arche. portions^? This little childe was cut of the white vayne of Achates ° th ^ r birdes ' J Achates is a or Onix, and the Eagle of the other vaine of the same pretkms stone ° wherein are stone called Sardins which is of black couler of some represented the figures of called Cordeoll ioyning both in one selfe same stone, the nine . lr Muses ; of Ve- Whereat I stood musing and commending to myselfe the nus and such i r like beautiful ingenious and apt inuention of the Arthist, in the vse of personages, such a stone, which of his owne nature to contrarie pro- 49 H Zophor is a border wher- in diuers things are grauen. portions affoorded contrarie coulers, and in such sort as by the raysing vp of hir small plummage aboue hir seare, hir beack halfe open, and hir toung appearing in the middest thereof, as if she had beene resolutely intended, and eagerly bent to haue gorged hir selfe vpon it. The hemicicle or arche rising rownd from the vpper part of the streight cheeke of the entrance, according to the thicknes thereof, was disposed into losenges or squares, wherin were carued Roses, theyr leaues and branches hanging in a curious and delightfull order to behoulde, ouer the entry of the Gate. In the two Triangles occasioned by the bow of the arche there were two fayre Nymphes of excellent proportions and shapes, theyr clothes which couered theyr Virgins bodyes, giuing place for theyr legges, brests, and armes to be bare, theyr hayre loose and flying abroad, and towardes the brace, and knitting together of the arche aboue, they held a victorious trophae. The ground of which tryangle was of black stone, the better to shew the perfection and truthe of the mettals in the trophaes, and the beautifull bodyes of the delycate virgins. Aboue these mentioned partes, was the Zophor, in the myddest whereof, I beheld a table of goulde, wherein was this Epigram in Cappitall Greeke Letters of Syluer. In thys sorte reporting. 9E0IS AOPOAITHi KAI TQi YIQi EPQTI AI0NY202 KAI AHMHTPA EK TQN IAIQN MHTPI 2YMITA9E2TATHi. Diis veneri et filio amori, Bacchus,