PUBLISHED BY THE MASTER OF THE SCHOOL HIMSELF, WHICH IS CALLED 'PRISCIANUS VERBERANS ET VAPULANS.'
On this vile theme thee we congratulate, O golden Muse, pleasing and delicate; This fair white vileness, Muse, which by its own Or name or face is now no longer known. For, charm'd by thy poetic sacred strain, It knows not, happily, itself again; But with new face wonders at its new splendour-- For splendid e'en a vile theme thou canst render: Congratulations for vile theme we tender. For had not _he_,[114] with headlong buttocks base, Gone flashing foully on with thunderous pace, From whence would this avenging plant have sprung, This solemn strain with polish'd music rung? And whence had gather'd these brave angers tender? O Muse, the vilest theme can bring thee splendour, For which congratulations now we render. Thy Hippocrenè comes with a fair face, Finely unworthy of its father base; Of a foul fountain so serene a daughter: From dunghill, who would dream such crystal water? Thus rise, O Muse, O rise, a milk-white queen, Out of the midst of vileness rise serene. Even as Venus rising from her spray, When she discover'd to the light of day Her golden limbs, the billowy waves surprising With the first glory of her purple rising; So rise, O Muse, thy milk-white grace unfold; Ennius' dunghill will be Virgil's gold! R. WI.
Dum vires refero vomitus et nobile munus, Da mini de vomitu, grandis Homere, tuo. Nempe olim, multi cum carminis anxia moles Vexabat stomachum, magne Poeta, tuum; Aegraque jejuno tenuebat pectora morsu, Jussit et in crudam semper hiare famem: Phoebus, ut est medicus, vomitoria pocula praebens, Morbum omnem longos expulit in vomitus. Protinus et centum incumbunt toto ore Poetae, Certantes sacras lambere relliquias. Quod vix fecissent, scio, si medicamen ineptum Venisset misere posteriore via. Quippe per anfractus caecique volumina ventris Sacra, putas, hostem vult medicina sequi? Tam turpes tenebras haec non dignatur, at ipsum Sedibus ex imis imperiosa trahit.
Per vomitum stomachus melius purgabitur, alvus Quam qua secretis exit opaca viis.
While we do not deem it expedient to translate this somewhat coarse _jeu d'esprit_, its sentiment and allusions will be found anticipated in the lines 'To the Reader, upon the Author his Kins-man,' prefixed to 'Follie's Anatomie; or Satyres and Satyricall Epigrams; with a compendious History of Ixion's Wheele. Compiled by Henry Hutton, Dunelmensis.' London, 1619 (pp. 3-4)--which we give here: