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Preface to the literary study on madness, hopelessness, and the concatenation of the human genius. --------------------- To observe an unimpeded slaughter, liberos trucidantem, or all the world's confusion in thine own eyes, [with sortitus Prothous] nil fixum cordi: pugnant exire pauentque, concurrit summos animosum frigus in artus, is to dwell wholely alone, to watch thereof as the whole world is caught up in it's chariot races, wherefor not a single man is neglected, to carpere mox gyrum incipiat gradibusque sonare compositis, sinuetque alterna uolumina crurum, sitque laboranti similis, and should desireth to have their paces taught to them as though they were horses, I, in turn, to give the world, in it's terrestri crassa grabato tardant fatalem membrorum pondera somnum, it's ponderous dream, that hath fed itselfe on caecas grave olentis Auerni, a judgement upon it's minatory career, and to, Thermodontiaco caelatus balteus auro, pomaque ab insomni concustodita dracone, furnish mine decorations below the the all seeing and never sleeping world, to ingraft so many of mine dreams unto so many of it's treasures, board mine self up in this malorum machinatrix facinorum, a woman's toysome imagination playing on a man's ardor, tis' the scholastic fantasy, who with umbrosae Tentura palmae, turneth again at what it hath renewed in the tumult of it's expedited study, into a terror that cannot be revoked, addidici regimen dextra moderante carinae flectere et Oleniae sidus pluviale capellae, for whilst the stars prepareth one for navigation, and whilst our Philosophy and Literature doth us intrigue, those things becometh ever more hebetate and tiresome, framing phantasy on phantasy, that builds a caliginoso carceri, out of question upon question, for everything we may ever learn is but an appendix to what we already know: florigeta eliciunt sopitam rura Mineruam: sublcuat ingeniom pingue susurrus aquae. rure fatigativ vocant sua robora sensus; et capiunt vires languida membra novas, the desitive fiction is but the whispers upon water, tis' to be herein remanded, by a folly as thick as oak, for ardua non solos deceant miracula Graios! the Greeks shall not only deserve the praise for marvels beyond belief, and to obscure all hope through oppurtunity, tis' to be so full of life, that life groweth ever grievous in working and reworking to renwew this dream. That one ought to settle unto the peak of a mountain, that he mayst, sub quocumque die, quocumque est sidere mundi, maeret et ignorat causas animumque dolentem corripit, Emathiis quid perdat nescius aruis, as if to behold the tumult and the dolour of the whole world, Cadmus statuens iam condere Thebas: consulit oracli numen Apollinei, to be elevated from what the Stoical doctrine calleth pronoia, or foreknowledge of opportunity, above the world, is a rather common submonition, as to look from the [inane amplum] of the universe, into the Earth, 1 pone et auaritiae, miserere inopum sociorum: ossa uides rerum uacuis exucta medullis, or as if to survey it's whole comedy, or to taketh pity on thy several companions about it, Pisaeos campos couspersus pulvere serpis, tranquillus primum, posquam vero ad pontum pervenis, to seek a refreshment from the whole world therein, as one after a journey through some desert, yet to gain insight in another's misfortunes, [I heard of a cartography under the publication of Descriptionis Ptolemaocae augmentum] whereof we might assume the whole world is stationed in it's own Estotilandia et Laboratoris Terra, and if there art any lovelines about a man, iam liber et positis bicolor membrana capillis inque manus chartae nodosaque uenit harundo, tum querimur crassus calamo quod pendeat umor, nigra sed infusa uanescit sepia lympha, it is like a cuttlefish hidden under a black lake, and difficult at once to find, et uiuax phoenix, unica semper auis; explicat ipsa suas ales Iunonia pinnas, oscula dat cupido blanda columba mari, for hath Venus's bird never kissed the phoenix, and love is but a symptom of the melancholy of eagerness as it happens that it dyeth out before a man. The only way men keepeth themselves from evil is to be swallowed up by their own imaginations, en nova Ledaeis suboles fulgentior astris, ecce mei cives, quorum iam signifer optat adventum stellisque parat convexa futuris, who investeh in a constellation yet to be, and to preponderate the Zodiack, whensoever we hath quae te causa movet volucris Saturnia, magni ut tumulo insideas ardua Aristomenis, insideant timidae timidorum busta columbae, became fearful doves perched on the graves of the fearful, to observe the world after these descriptions thereof, as though to sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos, or for an image of mille Thoanteae sedes Facelina, silvis sectere feras, or to be led into the strangest forests, or I mightest, upon Protheus exhibet, aut Stygiis homines illudimur umbris, atque oculos malus error habet, bemocketh this whole world of confusion, as by under so many phantasies, as that man of the sea, concealed beneath the water, we art with dreams, for remotus inter Corsici rupes maris, ubi liber animus et sui iuris mihi semper vacabat studia recolenti mea, eagerness is a subsensible discovery, of wont to passey the whole world out of mendacity, and a melancholy on it's own, whylest it hath also been a commonly held tennet of philosophy, Zenon Citieus, stoicae sectae conditor, principium humano generi ex novo mundo constitutum putavit, primosque homines ex solo adminiculo divini ignis, id est di providentia, genitos, so that I should saye the Earth is as confused as we art. I hath wondered about Philosophy di immortales, facinus audax incipit qui cum opulento pauper homine coepit rem habere aut negotium, a poor man who hath commenced upon the brash undertaking to having buisness with an opulent one, naye, many men of opulence thereunto, to secureth my own booke in many authors, ut non cycnorum, sic albis proxima cygnis. vix equidem has sedes et Iapygis arida Dauni, I hath not a Swan's beauty, but I doth colour mine self afterwards, this booke is celebris fama cunctorum per volat ora est Platanus Xerxis, nulla cicada latet, that tree of the Persian, upon which nothing is hidden, that I've to hang in the place of jewls so many epithets, passages, and poems- for I hath beene learning to cultivate best the little knowledge I hath, immitis Boreas placidusque ad sidera Phoebus iurgia cum magno conseruere Iove, quis prior inceptum peragat, learning to command myself about this World whereof every man is with equal judgement placed before the cruel northern winds, that are but gentle to the stars under Jove, even though juvenibus cum Canastraeis bella gero, si volueris. Non timeo autem mare immite, the seas disposeth man to such a greater variety of terror then doth the land, acies utinam vesana Gigantum, Phlegra nobis infensior aether, all our miseries art descended unto us by the Giants themselves, being that Heaven tis' far more cruel then Hell, and the judgements of the Earth, the temperatures with which it hath made my body, and doth revealeth throughout mine body the commencements of the Heavens, frighteneth me moreso then ever could the seas, that wherewith I expect none of my shortcomings to be o'erlooked as it happens that I hath set all of them into Acherontem irremeabilem as if to face that prodigiosa vides Tenedae tormenta securis of thy censure, even to parasitos faciat, quae usque attondeant. sed me una turbat res ratioque, Apoecidi, whilst I've set myself down for tibimet invigila, nam foeliciter ille sapit, qui alieno sapit periculo, to observe the world from a privation, for if I would groweth happily wise I would do so by observing the ventures of the World as it slippeth farther on downe aequor Taenarus silvis premit for pari salute tigridem amplecti datur, lupamque foetam, Who's every day is but a peril, as one just as safely as he doth embrace a tiger, embraceth the she-wolf in her pregnancy, and again, semet et incertos animi placaverit aestus, inveniet; longis illuc ambagibus itur. disce orbi, quod quisque sibi. cum conderet artus nostros, aetheriis miscens terrena, Prometheus, sinceram patri mentem furatus Olympo, to learneth in the intrests of the World what every man learneth in his own interests, or I hath a Trimalchio's dinner in my bookes, or a feast in them like what Pellaeus calleth quae doctrina duplex sicut est potioribus apta ingeniis geminoque ornat splendore peritos, sic sterilis nimium nostri, ut modo sentio, cordis exilem facile exhausit didvisio venam, a sort of double- learning, over more then a single language, though which ultimately exhausteth the mind, for out of the secretis gannitibus or the confused grumblings of our Authors, and the tongues thereof, one scarce canst discover how to earn any fleshment in that avocation to reading the greater bookes, though invidiae fuimus: non me deus obruit? an quae lecta Prometheis dividit herba iugis? non sum ego qui fueram: as in the Elegies of Propertius, I am no longer what I was, for the only thing that changeth a man more quickly then love is knowledge, and hoc iuvat, ante focos alius torpescat inertes, aut viridi recubat desidiosus humo, as it helpeth the man who is sick to lieth down, and to giveth into his illness, so it helpeth the Melancholy man, not to remove himself thereupon, but to give into his malady, to raperet Graias barbara turba nurus, or finally do awaye with it, and thereof I hath entertained to study sadness, or essem delphinus, ut meis portatus in humeris, transvectus inviseret dulces pueros habentem Rhodum, like one of those pleasant boyes of Rhode, for a time, charmed by all of those things to read, and met with some relief, iam pecudum vobis maior quà cura virorum, at genus hoc vestre semina stirpis habet, si tamen Endymion triginta dormijt annos, as if I hath dispersed all mine cares into that [inane amplum or] empty space behind the sky, vacuo cum surgunt nubila ponto, et spumant crebris caerula versa Notis, lifted beyond the clouds, and therewith borne witness to mine self from higher phantasies then life, cum testudine, cum ioco atque risu. Nam domi pede claudicans iniquo, cum solo sedet otiosus Alto, like the private tortoise, Cadme, domus, nullus Tyrio grege plangitur infans. primitias egomet lacrimarum et caedis acerbae, only to be again tormented, thence from idleness, to from solitariesness and loneliness, whence that I hath let besides the tears that cometh out of being lonesome, and drunk them up tepida colluvione bibam with book upon book, whilst tantumne mane lectulo elapsus senex, for as the bed surely awaiteth the man in old age, the study room surely awaiteth me, and thereof tu colis aethereas in caelo sedibus arces, care secunde, gravi mole levatus humo. Nos contra tacitis dum forte senescimus annis, mors semper rapido captat avara pede, I, like an old man, hath grown silent, and hath neglected the more wholesome occupancy of caring for another in trying to observe nature from those ethereal citadels, or vitreous cities in the stars, and the phantasies of philosophy, estque voluptatis mox tertia, quarta furoris, ut sapiens sanxit legibus ille Scytha, so nowe I supposeth I mightest drink a fourth glass to madness, as Anacharis saith, for I hath to inure that which Men art not supposed to know, wherewith I must adhere to an inevitable course throughout mine life, and know before hand whereto my life shalt come, in so doing becoming aquainted with the melancholy of old age, which is to say, the wont to commutation in life, the longing yet to travel to and fro, to recall the iller- spente hours, whereto I am not old, yet hath been kept beyond the vicissitudes of my desire, and found a certain reluctation in that Philosophy hath made me into a good Man, who canst not bring himself to leave this room, and it's books, for I knoweth that is perilous, and so that I cannot care for another. So if thou would speakest about my template in this writing, telling me that I hath talked out of a malam feminam contendimus insipientes, or silly, womanly soliitation, that I hath lived my life out of [indulgeret Iaccho prodiga] impensum se perdere turpiter aurum, or, so to saye, Persicus orborum lautissimus et merito iam, suspectus tamquam ipse suas incenderit aedes, ruined my writings as one would burneth his own home, therewith in the extent to which I hath adopted in the creance of other authors, in the hopes to benefiting through thine mere charity, o'er thine impression with mine learning, indulged in too much gold, reminding me even that too much of something commendable hath only an application out of fanciful uses, is but an ornament or a toy, qualem praecipiti gravidum iam sorte parentem, [106] the blessings of this pregnancy, being but an excitement, and saye: thou hath confused thine own work with so many others, auster nempe polum caeruleis abdidit imbribus, vernae lluce etiam triste caput Pleiades altera obscurae extulerant, et rubeo Bistonis alveo, euxinusque vadis sanguineis pontus inhorruit, thou hath stolen everything from the head of the Pleiades to the river of the Innachus as to be slaves in thou household, hoarded up the public treasure and called it a secret, whereof Aegypti siccitatem temperare Nilus amnis solet, Euphrates Mesopotamiam pro imbribus pensat, Indus flumen et serere orientem dicitur et rigare, the Euphrates and the very Nile draweth up their figure out of the rain, and thereof hath stolen from foreign rivers, I saith: [Naevius]itaque postquam est Orcho traditus thesauro, obliti sunt Romae loquier lingua Latina, [107] hath Rome forgotten it speaks the Latin tongue?, nemora alta ferae. Unicus Assyriis qui vivit odoribus ales, exuviis iterum nascitur usque suis, [108] hath Assyria forgotten it useth perfume so? [All of that is obvious] The writing needs to call upon living oracles, terrasque revises aedera quas liquidis findit amoenus aquis: aedera, qui vatis cunabula perfluit Hessi, et patriae fines separat Alte tuae, [109] or at least to run through the prophets in the cradle of Hessus, needs to recieve itself out of some deliberations, as Men do, from an intestate will, so that it might respect this selection from the Pegma: aspice ut assiduo sitientia culta labore, Corycius subigit nocte dieque senex, to laboreth after that will, so that I hath blessed my writing with this, for this is how to make the value obvious in any work of literature, so to saye, we call this in men the spirit, IE. the writing must demand something of itself, and that demand to meet, and thus hath I met with what I inteded to do, and indebted my writing to no illustration of mere philosophy, but of literature itself, which is like the Cretan labrinth, Daedalus ingenio fabrae celeberrimus artis, shrugging off thou Cayphae multum exosusque cohorti degeret illaesus [per vicos, compita, et urbem Se ostendens populo] as exuvias asinus Gaetulus for I shalt carry these passages as that crown, Isidis herbis, seligit ambrosios pulcherrima Gratia flores, contexit geminas Concordia laeta corollas, extollitque suas taedas Hymenaeus in altum, like a torch to my censure even, [ with Theophanes] omnis Stellerum condemnat turba moratum, haerens, cur equidem, nescio, salus amat. Tum redit et medicus, faciesque irascit ipsis praevertit reditum quod fera parca suum, if thou hath regarded this as but a commotion, doth not come back to me like I was your doctor, or am fully prepared yon to stand affirm and diagnose, confirm, and treat, thine offense, as it where, even if nihil Hippocrates, nihil Galenus mihi occultum possidet, vitam ego hominum, ubi morbi ingruunt, in manibus fero, I shalt miss nothing from between Hippocrates to Galen in this writing. The Melancholy of a man is nidus Titanii alitis haud spirat suavius, a bicipiti somniasse Parnasso, having two cups to taketh of, *though either of them more fragrant then the nest of the Titan's bird, for what hath such a comptible sympathy to turneth us into ignitum testudo eversa calorem, a turtle on his back, recieving a brand on his fleshy underside ever so helplesly, and whilst Pan Ioue missus erat seruari tecta uolente Troia, pendenti similis Pan semper et imo uix ulla inscribens terrae uestigia cornu. dextera lasciuit caesa Tegeatide capra, the one we drinketh Proetidas attonitas postquam per carmen et herbas eripuit furiis, purgamina mentis in illas misit aquas, odiumque meri permansit in undis, that is, with the impurities of our mind dispersed throughout that water, I am no Pan, Who is reminded of whereto I hath come, a man who leaveth his foot prints unto the Earth, [and in this I mean to say] that melancholy is a contemplation of the ills that hath befallen us in the past and that which we hath been maddenned into supposing shall be repeated, so that they will be so repeated- a wine we taste twice at once, vespertinam Pleiada occidentem, whenever we taketh thereof, and that hath our hatred of it in it before it is consumed by us, whilst the present sleepeth under it's spell, we see ourselves in the world only through the lenses of it's particular, doing all sorts of ill, and canst not stop it: [see that speach in the Heautontimorumenos for more*](to be diseased in thought is to be diseased in life hereupon- to contemplate Melancholy is to fall into Melancholy,) as if our mind hath conspired against us, fortuitum feles contubernium fraude et scelesta sic evertit malitia, like one of those clever cats who somehow happen to be a guest to every accident, * and whilst one may be so affirmed by that contention of Blesensis, [IE. carnem calefieri] facilius sustineantur; sic cor humanum necesse est igne charitatis accendi, ad hoc ut de facili sustineat tribulationes, we doth taketh charity neither from even ourselves, for as we drinketh from that other cup we canst do not but meditate upon all this further, nigra cohors operata Minervae pauperibus vires epulis recreabit, whilst we laboreth without hope in the blacker courts of Minerva, like under pocula Thessalicis doctas miscerier herbis, and fallen into a trick like that which so many of the witches of Thessaly hath effected through the means to herbs and druggery, as it is this other tincture hath only increased the powers of the mind, which is precisely that we hath wished to avoid, so that we must find Melancholy to be some affliction which is beyonde treatment. Every man walketh with that imp in his head, sit Galatea tuae non aliena viae: ut te, felici praevecta Ceraunia remo, accipiat placidis Oricos aequoribus: that hopest Nature will not specify them to any particular ailment, Eppia ludum ad Pharon et Nilum famosaque moenia Lagi prodigia et mores urbis damnante Canopo, for Canopus itselfe would groan under such condemnation, as to be alienated by the Mother of Natures, Men thereof tu nimium tuus es, nimis et tibi credis, inepte, et solus credis providus esse Cato, would not hear a word about it, even had it came from the prophetic Cato himselfe, and yet not e'en nisi forte Pythiados illius, excellentem Socratis sapientiam uaticinatae, aut magnificentius carmen uidetur, aut uerius, quod Iouii Hericullique pronuntiant, a man canst not be relived of the burden to his own temperment, and the suspicion therewith that it mightest fail him, the otherwise would be a music beyonde that of which is worthy to the Gods, complerant undique sentes, in Labyrinthaeas compita secta vias, and like thorns poking at him from every side, the natural temperatures of the mind and of the body art a final judgement to His winding philosophies; which by those branches of Piraei capient me litora portus, scandam ego Theseae bracchia longa uiae, extendeth as far into the underworld as they doth into the Heavens, and those Athenian walks that unsettleth as much as they rectifyeth, to either an abrupt death or a pleasant life, good thoughts, or ill, for Natura parens unica: Fortuna noverca est, Nature is thy only mother- and Fortune tis' thy stepmother, what they shalt tell thee, none shall macerate for thee, it cannot be taken back, miseret glocitantum, merge salubri flumine: maternos vanis cum questibus ignes flumnis excuties ope frigidioris, all complaints thereof art inane, quid domini faciant, audent cum talia fures! non ego te vidi Damonis, pessime, caprum excipere insidiis, multum latrante Lycisca, for the devices of nature art like so many theives, the living must make for themselves, yet the world hath so readily separated kindred from kindred, blinded the Riphaeos linquens, charissima limina, montes, tractat Hyperboreus Gallica iura senex et sedet in rostris, oculumque in fronte locatum, or the single eye of justice, and dressed a terrible madness like it twas' any pleasant order, caris spoliamur amicis: hunc tormenta necant, hic undique truditur exul, so one is put to death, another is but exiled. |
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