A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 2

Wherefore in this work declared shall ye see, First of the elements the situation, And of their effects the cause and generation; And though some men think this matter too high, And not meet for an audience unlearned, Methink for man nothing more necessary Than this to know, though it be not used, Nor a matter more low cannot be argued; For though the elements G.o.d's creatures be, Yet they be most gross and lowest in degree.

How dare men presume to be called clerks, Disputing of high creatures celestial, As things invisible and G.o.d's high warks, And know not these visible things inferial?

So they would know high things, and know nothing at all: Of the earth here whereon they daily be, Neither the nature, form, nor quant.i.ty.

Wherefore it seemeth nothing convenient A man to study, and his time to bestow, First for the knowledge of high things excellent, And of light matters beneath nothing to know, As of these four elements here below, Whose effects daily appear here at eye, Such things to know first were most meet study; Which matter before your presence shortly In this interlude here shall be declared Without great eloquence in rhyme rudely, Because the compiler is but small learned.

This work with rhetoric is not adorned, For perhaps in this matter much eloquence Should make it tedious or hurt the sentence.

But because some folk be little disposed To sadness, but more to mirth and sport, This philosophical work is mixed With merry conceits, to give men comfort, And occasion to cause them to resort To hear this matter, whereto if they take heed, Some learning to them thereof may proceed.

But they that shall now this matter declare Openly here unto this audience, Behold, I pray you, see where they are.

The players begin to appear in presence; I see well it is time for me go hence, And so I will do; therefore now shortly To G.o.d I commit all this whole company.

_Hic intrat_ NATURA NATURATA, HUMANITY, _and_ STUDIOUS DESIRE, _portans figuram_.

NATURA NATURATA.

The high, mighty, most excellent of all, The Fountain of goodness, virtue, and cunning, Which is eterne[11] of power most potential, The Perfection and First Cause of everything, I mean that only high Nature naturing.

Lo, He by His goodness hath ordained and created Me here His minister, called Nature Naturate.

Wherefore I am the very naturate nature, The immediate minister for the preservation Of everything in His kind to endure, And cause of generation and corruption Of that thing that is brought to destruction.

Another thing still I bring forth again, Thus wondersly I work, and never in vain.

The great world behold, lo, divided wondersly Into two regions, whereof one I call The ethereal region with the heavens high, Containing the planets, stars, and spheres all; The lower region, called the elemental, Containing these four elements below, The fire, the air, the water, and earth also.

But yet the elements and other bodies all Beneath take their effects and operations Of the bodies in the region ethereal.

By their influence and constellations, They cause here corruptions and generations; For if the movings above should once cease, Beneath should be neither increase nor decrease.

These elements of themselves so single be Unto divers forms cannot be divided, Yet they commix together daily, you see, Whereof divers kinds of things be engendered, Which things eftsones, when they be corrupted, Each element I reduce to his first estate, So that nothing can be utterly annihilate; For though the form and fas.h.i.+on of anything That is a corporal body be destroyed, Yet every matter remaineth in his being, Whereof it was first made and formed; For corruption of a body commixed Is but the resolution by time and s.p.a.ce Of every element to his own place.

For who that will take any body corporal, And do what he can it to destroy, To break it or grind it into powder small, To wash, to drown, to bren it, or to dry, Yet the air and fire thereof naturally To their own proper places will ascend, The water to the water, the earth to the earth tend; For if heat or moisture of anything certain By fire or by water be consumed, Yet earth or ashes on earth will remain, So the elements can never be destroyed.

For essentially there is now at this tide As much fire, air, water, earth, as was Ever before this time, neither more nor less; Wherefore thou, man--now I speak to thee-- Remember that thou art compound and create Of these elements, as other creatures be, Yet they have not all like n.o.ble estate, For plants and herbs grow and be insensate.

Brute beasts have memory and their wits five, But thou hast all those and soul intellective; So by reason of thine understanding, Thou hast dominion of other beasts all, And naturally thou shouldst desire cunning To know strange effects and causes natural; For he that studieth for the life b.e.s.t.i.a.l,[12]

As voluptuous pleasure and bodily rest, I account him never better than a beast.

HUMANITY.

O excellent prince, and great lord Nature, I am thine own child and formed instrument!

I beseech thy grace, take me to thy cure, And teach me such science thou thinkest expedient.

NATURE.

Then sith thou art so humble and benevolent, That thing that is meet for thy capacity And good for thy knowledge I shall instruct thee.

First of all, thou must consider and see These elements, which do each other penetrate, And by continual alteration they be Of themselves daily corrupted and generate.

The earth as a point or centre is situate In the midst of the world, with the water joined, With the air and fire round, and whole environed.

The earth of itself is ponderous and heavy, Cold and dry of his own nature proper; Some part lieth dry continually, And part thereof covered over with water, Some with the salt sea, some with fresh river, Which earth and the water together withal So joined make a round figure spherical; So the water which is cold and moist is found In and upon the earth filling the hollowness, In divers parts, lying with the earth round, Yet the hills and mountains of the earth excess Take nothing of it away the roundness, In comparison because they be so small, No more than the p.r.i.c.ks do that be on a gall.

The air which is hot and moist also, And the fire which is ever hot and dry, About the earth and water jointly they go, And compa.s.s them everywhere orbicularly, As the white about the yoke of an egg doth lie.

But the air in the lower part most remaineth; The fire naturally to the higher tendeth.

The ethereal region which containeth The stars and planets, and every sphere, About the elements daily moveth, And covereth them round about everywhere.

Every star and sphere in strange manner Upon his own poles moveth diversely, Which now to declare were too long to tarry.

The fire and the air of their natures be light, Therefore they move by natural providence; The water, because it is ponderous in weight, Moveth not naturally, but by violence Of the stars and planets, by whose influence The sea is compelled to ebb and flow daily, And fresh waters to spring continually.

And though that the water be gross and heavy, Yet nothing so gross as the earth, I wiss; Therefore by heat it is vapoured up lightly, And in the air maketh clouds and mists; But as soon as ever that it grossly is Gathered together, it descendeth again, And causeth upon the earth hail, snow, and rain.

The earth, because of his ponderosity, Avoideth equally the movings great Of all extremities and spheres that be, And tendeth to the place that is most quiet; So in the midst of all the spheres is set Foremost object from all manner moving, Where naturally he resteth and moveth nothing.

Mark well now, how I have thee showed and told Of every element the very situation And quality, wherefore this figure behold For a more manifest demonstration.

And because thou shouldst not put to oblivion My doctrine, this man, called Studious Desire, With thee shall have continual habitation, Thee still to exhort more science to acquire.

For the more that thou desirest to know anything, Therein thou seemest the more a man to be; For that man that desireth no manner cunning, All that while no better than a beast is he.

Why been the eyes made, but only to see, The legs, to bear the body of a creature?

So everything is made to do his nature; So likewise reason, wit, and understanding, Is given to thee, man, for that thou shouldst indeed Know thy Maker and cause of thine own being, And what the world is, and whereof thou dost proceed; Wherefore, it behoveth thee of very need The cause of things first for to learn, And then to know and laud the high G.o.d eterne.

HUMANITY.

O glorious Lord and Prince most pleasant!

Greatly am I now holden unto thee, So to illumine my mind, that was ignorant, With such n.o.ble doctrine as thou hast here shown me; Wherefore I promise, upon my fidelity, My diligence to do to keep in memory, And thee for to honour still perpetually.

STUDIOUS DESIRE.

And sith it hath pleased thy grace to admit Me upon this man to give attendance, With thy doctrine here shown I shall quicken his wit, And daily put him in remembrance; His courage and desire I shall also enhance, So that his felicity shall be most of all To study and to search for causes natural.

NATURE.

Well, then, for a season I will depart, Leaving you together here both twain; What I have shown, man, print well in thine heart,[13]

And mark well this figure that here shall remain, Whereby thou mayest perceive many things more plain Concerning the matter I spoke of before; And when that I shall resort here again, Of high points of cunning I shall show thee more.

STUDIOUS DESIRE.

Now, Humanity, call to your memory The cunning points that Nature hath declared; And though he has shown divers points and many Of the elements so wondersly[14] formed Yet many other causes there are would be learned, As to know the generation of things all Here in the earth, how they be engendered, As herbs, plants, well-springs, stone, and metal.

HUMANITY.

Those things to know for me be full expedient, But yet in those points which Nature late showed me, My mind in them as yet is not content, For I can no manner wise perceive nor see, Nor prove by reason why the earth should be In the middes of the firmament hanging so small, And the earth with the water to be round withal.

STUDIOUS DESIRE.

Me thinketh myself, as to some of those points I could give a sufficient solution; For, first of all, thou must needs grant this, That the earth is so deep, and bottom hath none, Or else there is some gross thing it standeth upon, Or else that it hangeth, thou must needs consent, Even in the middes of the firmament.

HUMANITY.

What then? go forth with thine argument.

STUDIOUS DESIRE.

Then mark well, in the day or in a winter's night, The sun and moon, and stars celestial, In the east first they do appear to thy sight, And after in the west they do down fall, And again in the morrow next of all, Within twenty-four hours they be come just To the east point again, where thou sawest them first.

Then if the earth should be of endless deepness, Or should stand upon any other gross thing, It should be an impediment, doubtless, To the sun, moon, and stars in their moving; Therefore, in reason, it seemeth most convenient The earth to hang in the middes of the firmament.

HUMANITY.

Thine argument in that point doth me confound, That thou hast made, but yet it proveth not right That the earth by reason should be round; For though the firmament, with his stars bright, Compa.s.s about the earth each day and night, Yet the earth may be plane, peradventure, Quadrant, triangle, or some other figure.