14
MEMNON, or a youth too forward.
THe Poets say, that Memnon was the sonne of Aurora, who (adorned with beautifull armour, and animated with popular ap∣plause) came to the Troiane warre:
The vvisedome of the ancients, written in Latine by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bacon Knight, Baron of Verulam, and Lord Chancelor or England. Done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Knight
About this Item
- Title
- The vvisedome of the ancients, written in Latine by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bacon Knight, Baron of Verulam, and Lord Chancelor or England. Done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Knight
- Author
- Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.
- Publication
- London :: Imprinted by Iohn Bill,
- 1619.
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To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
- Subject terms
- Mythology, Classical -- Early works to 1800.
- Cite this Item
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"The vvisedome of the ancients, written in Latine by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bacon Knight, Baron of Verulam, and Lord Chancelor or England. Done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Knight." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A01185.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 1, 2024.
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Page 71
where (in a rash boldnes, hasting vn∣to, and thristing after glory) he en∣ters into single combate with A∣chilles the valiantest of all the Gre∣cians, by whose powerfull hand he was there slaine. But Iupiter pitty∣ing his destruction, sent birds to modulate certaine lamentable and dolefull notes at the Solemnization of his funerall obsequies. Whose statue also (the Sunne reflecting on it with his morning beames) did vsually (as is reported) send forth a mournfull sound.
This Fable may be applied to the vnfortunate destinies of hopefull young men, who like the sonnes of Aurora (puft vp with the glittering shew of vanity and ostentation) at∣tempt actions aboue their strength, and prouoke and presse the most va∣liant Heroes to combate with them, so that (meeting with their ouer∣match) are vanquished and destroy∣ed, whose vntimely death is oft ac∣companied with much pitty and commiseration. For among all the
Page 72
disasters that can happen to mor∣tals, there is none so lamentable and so powrefull to moue com∣passion as the flower of vertue cropt with too sudden a mis∣chance. Neither hath it beene often knowne that men in their greene yeares become so loathsome and o∣dious, as that at their deathes either sorrow is stinted, or commi∣seration moderated: but that la∣mentation and mourning doe not onely flutter about their obsequies like those funerall birds; but this pittifull commiseration doth con∣tinue for a long space, and espe∣cially by occasions and new mo∣tions, and beginning of great mat∣ters, as it were by the morning raies of the Sunne, their passions and de∣sires are renued.