Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Simony and Sodomy in churchmen's lives,

As these things do in him; by these he thrives.
Shortly (as th' sea) he'll compass all the land,
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover Strand;
And spying heirs melting with luxury,

Satan will not joy at their sins as he :
For (as a thrifty wench scrapes kitching-stuff,
And barrelling the droppings, and the snuff
Of wasting candles, which in thirty year,
Reliquely kept, perchance buys wedding chear)
Piecemeal he gets lands, and spends as much time
Wringing each acre as maids pulling prime.
In parchment then, large as the fields, he draws
Assurances big as gloss'd Civil laws;

So huge, that men (in our time's forwardness)
Are fathers of the church for writing less.

These he writes not, nor for these written pays,
Therefore spares no length, (as in those first days,
When Luther was profest, he did desire
Short Pater-nosters, saying, as a friar,
Each day, his beads: but having left those laws,
Adds to Christ's prayer the power and glory clause)
But when he sells or changes land, h' impairs
His writings, and (unwatch'd) leaves out ses beires,
And slily, as any commenter, goes by
Hard words or sense; or in divinity

As controverters in vouch'd texts leave out

80

90

ICO

[doubt.

Shrewd words, which might against them clear the

Where are those spread woods which cloth'd heretofore
Those bought lands? not built, nor burnt within door.
Where the old landlord's troops and alms? In halls
Carthusian fasts and fulsome Bacchanals

Equally I hate. Mean's blest. In rich men's homes
I bid kill some beasts, but no hecatombs;
None starve, none surfeit so. But (oh!) w' allow
Good works as good, but out of fashion now,
Like old rich wardrobes. But my words none draws
Within the vast reach of th' huge statute-laws.

SATIRE III.

KIND pity checks my spleen; brave scorn forbids
Those tears to issue which swell my eye-lids.
I must not laugh nor weep sins, but be wise:
Can railing then cure these worn maladies?
Is not our mistress, fair Religion,
As worthy of our souls' devotion

As virtue was to the first blinded age?
Are not heaven's joys as valiant to asswage
Lusts as earth's honour was to them? Alas!
As we do them in means, shall they surpass
Us in the end? and shall thy father's spirit
Meet blind philosophers in heav'n, whose merit
Of strict life may b' imputed faith, and hear
Thee, whom he taught so easy ways and near.

110

112

10

To follow, damn'd? Oh! if thou dar'st, fear this:
This fear great courage and high valour is.

Dar'st thou aid mutinous Dutch? and dar'st thou lay
Thee in ships' wooden sepulchres, a prey

To leader's rage, to storms, to shot, to dearth?
Dar'st thou dive seas, and dungeons of the earth? 20
Hast thou courageous fire to thaw the ice

Of frozen north-discoveries, and thrice

Colder than salamanders? like divine

Children in th' oven, fires of Spain and the line,
Whose countries limbecks to our bodies be,
Canst thou for gain bear? and must every he
Which cries not Goddess! to thy mistress, draw
Or eat thy poisonous words? courage of straw!
O desperate coward! wilt thou seem bold, and
To thy foes and his (who made thee to stand
Centinel in this world's garrison) thus yield,
And for forbid wars leave th' appointed field?
Know thy foes: the foul devil (he whom thou
Striv'st to please) for hate, not love, would allow
Thee fain his whole realm to be quit; and as
The world's all parts wither away and pass,
So the world's self, thy other lov'd foe, is
In her decrepit wane, and thou loving this
Dost love a withered and worn strumpet last;

30

Flesh (itself's death) and joys, which flesh can taste, Thou lov'st; and thy fair goodly soul, which doth 41 Give this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loath.

Seek true religion. O! where? Mirreus,
Thinking her unhous'd here, and fled from us,
Seeks her at Rome; there, because he doth know
That she was there a thousand years ago.
He loves the rags so, as we here obey

The state-cloth where the prince sate yesterday.
Grants to such brave loves will not be inthrall'd,
But loves her only who at Geneva is call'd
Religion, plain, simple, sullen, young,
Contemptuous, yet unhandsome; as among
Lecherous humours there is one that judges
No wenches wholesome but coarse country drudges.
Grajus stays still at home here; and because
Some preachers, vile ambitious bawds, and laws
Still new like fashions, bid him think that she
Which dwells with us is only perfect, he
Imbraceth her whom his godfathers will
Tender to him, being tender; as wards still
Take such wives as their guardians offer, or
Pay values. Careless Phrygius doth abhor
All, because all cannot be good; as one
Knowing some women whores dares marry none.
Gracchus loves all as one, and thinks that so
As women do in diverse countries go

In diverse habits, yet are still one kind,
So doth, so is Religion; and this blind-

Ness too much light breeds. But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forc'd but one, allow,

60

70

And the right; ask thy father which is she;
Let him ask his. Tho' Truth and Falsehood be
Near twins, yet Truth a little elder is:
Be busy to seek her; believe me this,

He's not of none, nor worst, that seeks the best.
T'adore or scorn an image, or protest,
May all be bad. Doubt wisely. In strange way
To stand inquiring right is not to stray;
To sleep or run wrong is. On a huge hill,
Cragged and steep, Truth stands; and he that will 80
Reach her about must, and about it, go,
And what the hill's suddenness resists win so.
Yet strive so that before age, death's twilight,
Thy soul rest; for none can work in that night.
To will implies delay, therefore now do:
Hard deeds the body's pains; hard knowledge to
The mind's endeavours reach; and mysteries
Are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain t' all eyes.
Keep the truth which thou hast found; men do not
In so ill case, that God hath with his hand [stand
Sign'd kings' blank-charters to kill, whom they hate,
Nor are they vicars, but hangmen, to Fate.
Fool and wretch! wilt thou let thy soul be ty'd
To man's laws, by which she shall not be try'd
At the last day? or will it then boot thee
To say a Philip or a Gregory,

A Harry or a Martin, taught me this?
Is not this excuse for meer contraries

92

« AnteriorContinuar »