Page:The muses threnodie (Adamson, 1638).djvu/14
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
I praise the worthie deedes of Martiall men,
And I do wish the whole world might them ken:
I praise their vertues: No, their Vertuous deeds
Do praise themselves, and as most lively seeds
Beget like children: so commemoration
Begets them native sons by imitation.
Native! more native than by blood descended,
Who with their fame their fortunes have mispened.
For what availes to point a noble race
By long descent of branches, if in face[1]
Like vertue doth not shine, and equall worth
Ignoble deeds belie a noble birth;
Maugre all contrare thoughts, this true shall trie
Vertue alone is true nobilitie.
If one most vitious in my line should be
Five hundred years ago, what is't to me,
Who vertuous am;? What? can it derogate
To my good name? or violate my state?
Or if antcestors brave shall me preceed,
And I do prove the knave, what shall proceed
By their Heroick vertues unto me,
Whose vitious life denies my progenie?
For linage and forebears, Naso said,
Are not cal'd ours, nor what our selves not made.[2]
To prove this paradoxe I durst be bold[3]
With judgement of the learned but I hold
My pen: for all do know of old what's said,
I rather that Thersites were my daid,
And I Achilles-like, most noble, rather[4]
Then I Thersites, he to be my father:
True generositie doth so esteeme,
Though ignorance the contrare would maintaine.
But Momus must needs carp, and Misanthrópos
Be Ariopagita-like Scythropos.
And I do wish the whole world might them ken:
I praise their vertues: No, their Vertuous deeds
Do praise themselves, and as most lively seeds
Beget like children: so commemoration
Begets them native sons by imitation.
Native! more native than by blood descended,
Who with their fame their fortunes have mispened.
For what availes to point a noble race
By long descent of branches, if in face[1]
Like vertue doth not shine, and equall worth
Ignoble deeds belie a noble birth;
Maugre all contrare thoughts, this true shall trie
Vertue alone is true nobilitie.
If one most vitious in my line should be
Five hundred years ago, what is't to me,
Who vertuous am;? What? can it derogate
To my good name? or violate my state?
Or if antcestors brave shall me preceed,
And I do prove the knave, what shall proceed
By their Heroick vertues unto me,
Whose vitious life denies my progenie?
For linage and forebears, Naso said,
Are not cal'd ours, nor what our selves not made.[2]
To prove this paradoxe I durst be bold[3]
With judgement of the learned but I hold
My pen: for all do know of old what's said,
I rather that Thersites were my daid,
And I Achilles-like, most noble, rather[4]
Then I Thersites, he to be my father:
True generositie doth so esteeme,
Though ignorance the contrare would maintaine.
But Momus must needs carp, and Misanthrópos
Be Ariopagita-like Scythropos.
Scarce