Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Stanzas from “Troia Brittanica, or Great Britaine’s Troy”

LXXXI. Thomas Heywood

THIS vniverse, with all therein conteined,

Was not at first of water fashioned,

Nor of the fire, as others oft haue feyned,

Nor of the ayre, as some have vainly spred,

Nor the foure elements in order train’d,

Nor of vacuitie and atoms bred;

Nor hath it been eternall, as is thought

By naturall men, that haue no further sought.

Neither hath man in perpetuity bin,

And shall on earth eternally perseuer

By endlesse generation, running in

One circuit, in corruption lasting euer:

Nor did that nation first on earth begin

Vnder the mid equator: some indeauour

So to perswade, that man was first begunne

In the place next to the life-giuing sunne.

Neither was he of earth and water framed,

Tempered with liuely heat, as others write;

Nor were we in a former world first named,

As in their curious problems some recite.

Others, more ripe in iudgement, haue proclaimed

Man fram’d of clay, in fashion exquisite,

In whom were breathed sparkes of celestiall fire,

Whence he still keepes his nature, to aspire.

But this most glorious vniuerse was made

Of nothing,—by the great Creator’s will:

The ocean bounded in, not to inuade

Or swallow vp the land; so resteth still

The azure firmament, to ouershade

Both continent and waters, which fulfill

The Maker’s word: one God doth sole extend,

Without beginning, and shall see no end.

That powerfull Trinity created man,

Adam, of earth, in the faire field Damaske;

And of his rib he Euah formed than,

Supplying them with all things they can aske.

In these first two humanity began,

In whom confined Jehovah’s six daies’ taske.

From Adam, then, and Euah’s first creation,

It follows we deriue our British nation.

Inspire me in this task, Ihoue’s seede, I pray;

With Hippocrenes’ drops besprinke my head,

To comfort me vpon this tedious way,

And quicken my cold braine, nigh dull and dead;

Direct my wandering spirits when they stray,

Least foreen and forbidden paths they tread:

My iourney’s tedious, blame not then my feares;

My voyage dymes at many thousand yeares.

Oh, giue me leaue from the world’s first creation

The ancient names of Britons to deriue,

From Adam to the world’s first invndation,

And so from Noah to us that yet suruiue;

And hauing of Troye’s worthies made relation,

Your spurs the chariot of my Muse must driue

Through all past ages and precedent times,

To fill this new world with my worthless rymes.

Oh, may these artlesse numbers in your eares,

Renowmed James, seem musically strung,—

Your fame, oh Ioue’s-star’d Prince, spread euerywhere,

First giue my still and speechlesse Muse a tung;

From your maiestike vertues, prised deare,

The infant life of these harsh meeters sprung.

Oh take not then their industrie in skorne,

Who, but to emblaze you, had yet been vnborne.

Nor let your princely peeres cold in disdaine

To haue their auncestry stilde and inrolde

In this poore register: a higher straine

Their merits aske, since brazen leaues vnfold

Their neuer-dying fame; yet thus much daine,

Not to despise to heare your vertues told

In a plaine style, by one whose wish and heart

Supplies in zeale his want both of skill and art.

Times faithfully conferd the first inuention

Of most thinges now in vse: heare you shall finde,

Annex’t with these, the vse and comprehention

Of poesie, once to the goddes desceind.

Suffer our bluntnesse then, since our intention

Is to good vse, sent from a zealous mind:

If stones, in lead set, keep their vertues, then

Your works the same, though blazde by a rude pen.