The praise of the Gooses Quill.
ANd thus for Shooters hauing shew'd my skill,
I'le now say somewhat for the Gooses Quill.
Great Mars his Trayne of Millitary men
I leaue, and turne the Shaft into a Pen:
The Gooses feathers acteth sundry parts,
And is an Instrument both of Armes and Arts.
Many diuine and heauenly mysteries,
And many memorable Histories
Had with blinde Ignorance beene ouer-growne,
And (were't not for the Pen) had ne're beene knowne.
The Muses might in Pernass hill haue staide,
Their fames had ne're been through the world displaide,
But that the Gooses Quill with full consent,
Was found to be the fittest Instrument
To be their Nuntius, and to disperse
Their glory through the spacious Vniuerse.
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Grammar (that of all Science is the ground)
Without it, in forgetfulnesse were drownd,
And Rethorick (the sweet rule of eloquence)
Through the Goose Quill distils it's Quintessence:
Logick with difinitions (I am sure)
Were nothing, or else very much obscure:
Astronomie would lye, or lye forgot
And scarce remembred, or regarded not;
Arithmetick would erre exceedingly,
Forgetting to deuide and multiply:
Geometry would lose the Altitude,
The crassie Longitude and Latitude:
And Musick in poore case would be o're-throwne,
But that the Goose Quill pricks the Lessons downe.
Thus all the liberall Sciences are still
In generall beholding to the Quill.
Embassages to farre remoted Princes,
Bonds, Obligations, Bills and Euidences,
Letters 'twixt foe and foe, or friend and friend,
To gratulate, instruct, or reprehend,
Assurances, where faith and troath is scant,
To make the faithlesse to keepe couenant;
The Potent weapon of the reuerend Law,
That can giue life or death, saue, hang or draw,
That with a royall, or a noble dash,
Can from the Kings Exchequer fetch the Cash.
To most Shop-keepers it a reckoning makes,
What's got or lost, what he layes out, or takes:
Without the Goose a Scriuener were a foole,
Her Quill is all his onely working toole:
And sure a Goose is of a wondrous nature,
Contrary to each other liuing creature,
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Things that in water, earth, or ayre, hath growth,
And feede and liue, bite onely with the mouth:
But the Goose with sophisticated skill,
Doth bite most dangerously with her quill,
Yet is she free from prodigality,
And most of all bites partiality:
She oft with biting makes a Knight a detter,
And rankle to a begger, little better.
She oft hath bit a Gallant from his land
With quick conueyance, and by slight of hand
Sometimes her biting is as durable
As is a Gangren, most incureable,
And many that into her fangs doe fall,
Doe take the Counters for their Hospitall;
A Forger, or a Villaine that forsweares,
Or a false Witnesse, she bites off their eares:
On me her power she many times hath showne,
And made me pay more debts then were mine owne.
Thus doth her Quill bite more then doth her chaps,
To teach fooles to beware of after-claps.
They say in Latine that a Gooses name
Is ANSER, which made in an Annagram,
Is SNARE, in English, which doth plaine declare,
That she to fooles and knaues will be a snare.
Indeede she oft hath beene a snare to mee,
My selfe was in the fault, alas not shee.