Page:The muses threnodie (Adamson, 1638).djvu/48
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The third muse
Why so, said he? Heere is there no Narcissus.
To this her old loves Name did answer, kisse us.
Kisse us, said he, with all my heart, againe.
This is the thing I would: she answered, Gaine:
Gaine! such a gaine, said he, I crave alway;
No countenance she shews, yet answers ay;
And bashfuly obscures her blushing face,
Lest from Cephisus son she finde disgrace.
But if that she had known Gals tender minde,
She had not prov'd so bashfull and unkinde.
When ended were our songs with perfite close,
We thought it best to merrie be in prose;
Then seriously and truely to discourse,
Of diverse maters grave, we fell by course,
But chiefly of this blinde worlds practice bad,[1]
Preferring unto learning any trade.
For these evill times hold not in such account
Men learned, as the former ages wont:
But if the worth of learning well they knew,
Good Gall (quoth I) they would make much of you,
In Poetrie so skild, and so well red[2]
In all antiquitie, what can be said
Whereof you fluently can not discourse,
Even like the current of this rivers course?
Things absent you can present make appear,
And things far distant; as if they were near,
Things senselesse unto them give sense can yee,
And make them touch, taste, smell, and heare, and see:
What can not Poets do? They life can give
And after fatall stroke can make men live;
To this her old loves Name did answer, kisse us.
Kisse us, said he, with all my heart, againe.
This is the thing I would: she answered, Gaine:
Gaine! such a gaine, said he, I crave alway;
No countenance she shews, yet answers ay;
And bashfuly obscures her blushing face,
Lest from Cephisus son she finde disgrace.
But if that she had known Gals tender minde,
She had not prov'd so bashfull and unkinde.
When ended were our songs with perfite close,
We thought it best to merrie be in prose;
Then seriously and truely to discourse,
Of diverse maters grave, we fell by course,
But chiefly of this blinde worlds practice bad,[1]
Preferring unto learning any trade.
For these evill times hold not in such account
Men learned, as the former ages wont:
But if the worth of learning well they knew,
Good Gall (quoth I) they would make much of you,
In Poetrie so skild, and so well red[2]
In all antiquitie, what can be said
Whereof you fluently can not discourse,
Even like the current of this rivers course?
Things absent you can present make appear,
And things far distant; as if they were near,
Things senselesse unto them give sense can yee,
And make them touch, taste, smell, and heare, and see:
What can not Poets do? They life can give
And after fatall stroke can make men live;
And