Page:The muses threnodie (Adamson, 1638).djvu/30
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10
The first muse
The Charterhouse of Perth, a mightie frame,[1]
Vallis virtutis by a mystick name,
Looking alongst that painted spatious field,
Which doth with pleasure profite sweetly yeeld,
The fair south Inch of Perth, and banks of Tay.
This abbayes, stiples, and it's turrets stay
While as they stood (but ah where sins abound
The loftiest pride lyes leveld with the ground!)
Were cunningly contriv'd with curious art,
And quintessence of skill in everie part;
My grandsire many times to me hath told it
He knew their names this mightie frame who moldit:
Italians some, and some were French men borne,
Whose matchlesse skill this great work did adorne.
And living were in Perth some of their race
When that, alace, demolish'd was this place,
For greatnesse, beautie, statlinesse so fair
In Britans Isle, was said, none might compare
Even as Apelles for to prove his skill
In limming Venus with a perfect quill,
Did not on some one beautie take inspection,
But of all beauties borrowed the perfection:
Even so this Prince to policie inclinde,
Did not on some one fabrick set his minde
To make the prototype of his designe,
But from all works did all perfections bring,
And rarest paterns brought from everie part,
Where any brave Vitruvius kyth'd his art,
So that this great and princelie enterprise
Perfections of all models did comprise.
Vallis virtutis by a mystick name,
Looking alongst that painted spatious field,
Which doth with pleasure profite sweetly yeeld,
The fair south Inch of Perth, and banks of Tay.
This abbayes, stiples, and it's turrets stay
While as they stood (but ah where sins abound
The loftiest pride lyes leveld with the ground!)
Were cunningly contriv'd with curious art,
And quintessence of skill in everie part;
My grandsire many times to me hath told it
He knew their names this mightie frame who moldit:
Italians some, and some were French men borne,
Whose matchlesse skill this great work did adorne.
And living were in Perth some of their race
When that, alace, demolish'd was this place,
For greatnesse, beautie, statlinesse so fair
In Britans Isle, was said, none might compare
Even as Apelles for to prove his skill
In limming Venus with a perfect quill,
Did not on some one beautie take inspection,
But of all beauties borrowed the perfection:
Even so this Prince to policie inclinde,
Did not on some one fabrick set his minde
To make the prototype of his designe,
But from all works did all perfections bring,
And rarest paterns brought from everie part,
Where any brave Vitruvius kyth'd his art,
So that this great and princelie enterprise
Perfections of all models did comprise.
And
- ↑ The Charter House, or Carthusian monastery, wher buried was King James the first, was built by him