| |
| OH, to what height will love of greatness drive | |
| Thy learned spirit, sesqui-superlative? | |
| Venice’ vast lake thou’st seen, and wouldst seek then | |
| Some vaster thing, and found’st a courtesan. | |
| That inland sea having discover’d well, | 5 |
| A cellar-gulf, where one might sail to hell | |
| From Heidelberg, thou longed’st to see; and thou | |
| This book, greater than all, producest now. | |
| Infinite work! which doth so far extend, | |
| That none can study it to any end. | 10 |
| ’Tis no one thing; it is not fruit nor root, | |
| Nor poorly limited with head or foot. | |
| If man be therefore man, because he can | |
| Reason and laugh, thy book doth half make man. | |
| One-half being made, thy modesty was such, | 15 |
| That thou on th’ other half wouldst never touch. | |
| When wilt thou be at full, great lunatic? | |
| Not till thou exceed the world? canst thou be like | |
| A prosperous nose-born wen, which sometimes grows | |
| To be far greater than the mother-nose? | 20 |
| Go then, and as to thee, when thou didst go, | |
| Münster did towns, and Gesner authors show, | |
| Mount now to Gallo-Belgicus; appear | |
| As deep a statesman, as a gazetteer. 1 | |
| Homely and familiarly, when thou comest back, | 25 |
| Talk of Will Conqueror, and Prester Jack. | |
| Go, bashful man, lest here thou blush to look | |
| Upon the progress of thy glorious book, | |
| To which both Indies sacrifices send. | |
| The West sent gold, which thou didst freely spend, | 30 |
| Meaning to see ’t no more, upon the press. | |
| The East sends hither her deliciousness, | |
| And thy leaves must embrace what comes from thence, 2 | |
| The myrrh, the pepper, and the frankincense. | |
| This magnifies thy leaves; but if they stoop | 35 |
| To neighbour wares, when merchants do unhoop | |
| Voluminous barrels; if thy leaves do then | |
| Convey these wares in parcels unto men; | |
| If for vast tons 3 of currants and of figs, | |
| Of medicinal and aromatic twigs, | 40 |
| Thy leaves a better method do provide, | |
| Divide to pounds, and ounces subdivide; | |
| If they stoop lower yet, and vent our wares, | |
| Home-manufactures, to thick popular fairs; | |
| If omni-pregnant there upon warm stalls | 45 |
| They hatch all wares for which the buyer calls; | |
| Then thus thy leaves we justly may commend, | |
| That they all kind of matter comprehend. | |
| Thus thou, by means which th’ ancients never took, | |
| A Pandect makest, and universal book. | 50 |
| The bravest heroës, for public good, | |
| Scattered in divers lands their limbs and blood; | |
| Worst malefactors, to whom men are prize, | |
| Do public good, cut in anatomies; | |
| So will thy book in pieces for a lord, | 55 |
| Which casts at Portescue’s, and all the board | |
| Provide whole books; each leaf enough will be | |
| For friends to pass time, and keep company. | |
| Can all carouse up thee? no, thou must fit | |
| Measures and fill out for the half-pint wit. | 60 |
| Some shall wrap pills, and save a friend’s life so; | |
| Some shall stop muskets, and so kill a foe. | |
| Thou shalt not ease the critics of next age | |
| So much, as once their hunger to assuage; | |
| Nor shall wit-pirates hope to find thee lie | 65 |
| All in one bottom, in one library. | |
| Some leaves may paste strings there in other books, | |
| And so one may, which on another looks, | |
| Pilfer, alas, a little wit from you; | |
| But hardly much; and yet I think this true; | 70 |
| As Sibyl’s was, your book is mystical, | |
| For every piece is as much worth as all. | |
| Therefore mine impotency I confess; | |
| The healths, which my brain bears, must be far less; | |
| Thy giant wit o’erthrows me; I am gone; | 75 |
| And rather than read all, I would read none. | |
