Part of Du Bartas English and French, and in his owne kinde of verse, so neare the French Englished, as may teach an English-man French, or a French-man English. With the commentary of S.G. S. By William L'Isle of Wilburgham, Esquier for the Kings body.

O superbe reuolte, ô traistre felonnie, Voy de quelle façon l'Eternel t' apuine Par cebigarrement! Las! se langage doux, Sainct lien des citez, puissant frein de courroux, Mastic de l'amitié, iadis vni, s'esgare Et cent ruisseaux taris. Cest or richement rare, Dompte-orgueil, charme-soin, traine-peuple, emble-coeur Meslé change de son, de poids, & de couleur. Ce don se sophistique, & du Nort insqu'au More La cheute de Babel confuse bruit encore.

Le Finlandois eust peu visiter l'Africain, L' Indien l'espagnol, l'Anglois l'Amiricain, Sans aucun interprete. Auiourd'huy le riuage, Qui borne nostre bourg, borne nostre langage: Et sortant quatre pas hors de nostre maison: Muets, las! nous perdons l'outil de la raison: Ou bien si nous parlons an peuple moins estranges, C'est par bouche empruntée, ou par gestes estranges.

Sans maistre & sans trauail, en suçant le laict dout, Nous apprenions la langue entendue de tous: Et les sept ans passez, sur la poudre de verre Nous commencions tirer la rondeur de la terre, Partir, multiplier: & montant d'art en art, Nous paruenions bien tost an sommet du rempart, Où l'Encyclopedie en signe de victoire Couronne ses mignons d'vne eternelle gloire.

Ore tousiours-enfans nous vieillissons apres La langue des Romains, de Hebrieux, & des Grocs. Nous n'auons que babil: & pour la cognoissance Des secrets de Nature, ou de l'Vnique essence, Qui donne essence à tout, nous vacquons sans repos Aplier bien vn Verbe, à trouuer de beaux mots: A mettre au trebuchet les syllabes & lettres: Et pendons, ia cheuus, de la bouche des maistres Qui nous monstrent à lire: & nous mettent en main Ʋn petit Alphabet, au lieu du droict Romain, Des oeuures d'Hipocrate, & du volume encore, Où Dieu se communique an lecteur qui l'adore.

Et que diray-ie plus? On disoit en tout lieu L'idiome sacré, le langage de Dieu: Langage qui parfait, n'a point de caractere, Qui ne soit enrichi de quelque grand mystere. M••is depuis cest orgueil chasque peuple vse à part D'vn iargon corrompu, effeminé, bastard, Qui chaque iour ce change: &, perdant salumiere, Ne retient presque rien de la langue premire.

Iadis les Phrygiens, & ceux-là que le Nil Paist, alme, d'vn desbord heureusement fertil, Desireux de sçuoir quel de leur deux langages Estoit plustost en estre: ils commirent, mal-sages, Le droit de l'eloquence au mol begayement, Et firent iuge ceux qui n'ont point iugement: Sçauoir deux enfançons, que leurs muettes meres Nourrirent dans l'effroy des lieux plus solitaires, Sans que d'aucun humain la charmeresse voix

8 O proud rebellion I ô traiterous impietie! In what a fearefull sort, by this thy tongues varietie, Hath God thee punished? alas that pleasant tongue, That holy bond of townes, of anger bridle strong, Strong glue of amitie, once one, now doth waifare A hundred narrow wayes: this gold so richly rare, Wrath-taming, charming-care, men-tysing, hart-entangling, Both color, weight, and sound hath lost by mingle-mangling. This gift corrupted is, and from the North to South Confused Babels fall sounds yet in euery mouth. The cold Finlanders once might visit Affricans, The Spanish Indians, th'English Americans, Without Interpreter; but now the compasse small That doth our Cities bound, our language bounds withall: And if we from our home but ne're so little went, Dumbe should we seeme, and reft of reasons instrument. Or if we speake to some that are but neighbour Nations, 'Tis by a borrow'd tongue, or by strange animations: Without or Schoole, or paine, and sucking mothers brest, We might haue learn'd the tongue that euery thought exprest, And after seuen yeeres old vpon the glistring sand Begun to draw with skill the shape of Sea and Land; To part and multiply; and so from skill to skill We might haue climbed soone the double pointed hill, Where Arts-perfection, in signe of their victorie, Her fauourites doth crowne with euerlasting glory.

Now, euer baby-like, we, ere we learne to sound The Latine, Hebrew, Greeke, are going to the ground. We learne but eu'n to prate, and for the deepe inseying Of Natures secresies, and of that onely Being Which makes all things to be, we labour, as in maze, To coniugate a verbe, and register a phrase. In age we learne to spell, like young Grammaticasters, And nought we know without authoritie of Masters; Who teach vs still to read, and put into our hands An A. B. C. for what the Ciuill Law commands: Instead of Physicke skill, and of that holy Writ, Where God's to them reueal'd, which godly readen it.

9 Nay, shall I tell you more? they spake in eu'ry place That holy tongue of God; so full of sence and grace, As not a letter it hath, no not a point so small, Without some ornament exceeding mysticall. But since the proud reuolt, in sundry sort they prate A bastard bibble-babble, impure, effeminate, And change it eu'ry day; so loosing all their light They vtter not a word of that first language right.

10 Once when th'Inhabitants of plenty-flowing Nile, With men of Ida stroue for eldership of stile,

The right of Eloquence they tri'd by stammering, And such as iudgement lackt they set to iudge the thing; To wit, two sucking babes, whom their two Mothers dumbe In hermitages kept, where no man else did come. No charmy voyce of man was heard sound neere the place,

8. O proud rebellion. A fine description of euils ensuing this confusion of speech. First, the acquaintance of all mankinde together, the knot and loue-bond of Nations, is so loosened and broke, that scarse is there found a∣ny remedy for it, some of them not thinking on, or not at all ca••••ng for o∣thers. Secondly, that onely one language which decked and imbellished the acquaintance and fellowship of men, that kept them in peace and tem∣per, such as it was, that made them all well appaid, that moued each one to his dutie, and was much regarded of all, hath lost all this by this change; and in a word, hath neither shew, nor grace of a language: insomuch, as euen at this day the fall of the Tower of Babel is heard from North to South, from East to West. That is to say, in the diuerse languages of so many Nations, we may obserue almost nothing else but a kinde of chattering and confused sound, neither fit, nor comely, nor expressing at all the nature of things: At least one people so iudgeth of anothers tongue. For I pray you what plea∣sure taketh a Frenchman to heare a Moscouite or a Mexican speake? And euen the tongues that we vnderstand, and speake (as we thinke) reasonable well, what are they vnto vs in respect of our mother tongue, or the princi∣pall tongues? Thirdly, whereas the Nations dwelling farthest asunder, might easily haue come together, beene acquainted, and trafficked one with ano∣ther: Now a man is no sooner gone out of his owne doores, but hee hath much ••dooe to vnderstand those that he meeteth withall; and if he set foot in any farre countrey, hee needeth interpretouts, or must haue spent a long time before to learne the tongue, or else must speake by signes, or alwayes

hold his peace, and liue like a dumbe creature. Fourthly, to amplifie further this miserie, the Poet sheweth that if this disorder had not happened, a man might haue learned in short time all the Liberall sciences, and gained the top of that hill where Encyclopaedia, (that is, the full compasse of all Arts) crow∣neth all such lawfull aspiring mindes: and in a word, obtained the perfect knowledge of all things; whereas now we spend our whole life in the lear∣ning words of the Hebrew, Greeke, and Latine tongues, and that is nothing else but babling: and in stead of being well seene in the heauenly Philoso∣phie, and that of this lower world, wee must take paines in syllables and words, circuits of speech, and other like exercises, vntill we be gray-headed and white-bearded, and so end our liues scarse hauing yet attained any suf∣ficient knowledge of Law, Physicke or Diuinitie, that are the chiefe profes∣sions. The learned know how hard a matter it is to haue a good stile, which is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the measure of learning; and that Aristotle, who hath so excellently well set it downe, in that wonderfull worke of his, com∣monly called the Organ, is vnderstood but of a few. What may a man say then of the most part of the discourses and speech of men now adayes liuing? It is nothing but babble, it is Babel it selfe. I speake not here of the substance of things, but of the fashion, order, and manner that is vsed to make them bee conceiued of those to whom wee speake, be they neuer so cunning in the tongue themselues. Then of Barbarisme and ignorance, what shall a man thinke?

9. What shall I tell you more? Moses saith, in the beginning of the eleuenth Chapter, that then (that is, many yeares after the Floud, and about the same time when Chams posteritie left the East parts to come and dwell in the plaine of Sennaar) the whole earth was one language and one speech, to wit, Noe and his children: and all the families from them issued, though they dwelt not together, yet spake they all the same language. All of them parted not from the East to the foresaid plaine of Sennaar: but likely e∣nough is their opinion, that hold that Noe and Sem parted not so soone so farre a sunder, and especially that they accompanied not these builders of Babel, who sought renowne, and set vp their rest in this world. A man

may aske now what was that only language they spoke in the world before the Floud, and after, vntill the building of Babel. The Poet answereth, it was the language of God himselfe. Hereupon ariseth two opinions: The first is, of those that to honour their countrey, after the example of some ancient Heathens, would make vs beleeue they are sprung of the earth, or fallen from the Moone, and thinke their speech the most excellent of all other. The Aegyptians and Phrygians haue long sithence debated this matter, as shall be said more at large in the next Section. A few yeares agoe a Physitian of Brabant named I. Goropius, set forth a great booke entituled Origines Antuerpiana, wherein he aimeth especially at this marke, to proue

the Cymbrike tongue (which in his opinion is the base Almaine) to be the first speech of the world. Since his death a certain writer of Liege, hath set forth many other books of his about the same matter: and in one of them, that is called Hermathena, this Cymbrike tongue or low Dutch, is preferred far aboue the Roman, Greek & Hebrue. It asketh a long discourse to answer his Reasons: for this time I will answer but in a word: Namely, that all that which he alledgeth for the preheminence of his owne tongue, is a meere cauill, that is called in the Schooles, Petitio principij: when a Sophister ta∣keth for granted that which is expresly denied him, and hee knowes not how to proue. Goropius groundeth all his discourse on this: that the Cym∣brike tongue hath borrowed nothing of any other, and that the Hebrue is comen of it, and euen borroweth of the Cymbricke. This a man will de∣nie Goropius and his disciples: and whereas they shew some Hebrue words or Phrases that resemble the words and termes of the base Almaine, and so conclude that Adam spake low Dutch, and that the language of Moses and the Prophets is hard, ambiguous, poore, and borrowed of the Cymbricke, which they were not well able to follow: I answer, that they are deceiued, and that on the contrary they ought to say, the Hebrue was before all other tongues; who were begun in Babel, and haue sithence brought forth infi∣nite others, as the high and low Dutch, and other like, now vsed in the world. I would the learned professors of principall tongues would find some time to refute the allegations of Goropius: Especially those that make against the Hebrue, which he hath too saucil••e disgraced in the second booke of his Hermath, Pag. 25.26. &c. The second opinion, which I hold with the Poet, is, that the Hebrue tongue, inclosed chiefly in the Canoni∣call bookes of the old Testament (which haue beene wonderfully preser∣ued vntill our time) is the first speech of the world, and the same that Mo∣ses meant, when he said, The whole earth had one mouth or language, before the building of Babel. The reasons therof are touched in a word by the Poet, who doth hereafter treat of them more at large, as wee haue also noted in the margent, and meane to speake somewhat thereof in the 12. Annotation. Now whereas this first language hath at this day no letter nor word, but is full of maimes and miseries, it may be said of euery tongue since the con∣fusion: that it is nothing but corrupt ••angling, weake, vncertaine, and changing euer from time to time, as many haue already shewed hereto∣fore. The Greeke and Latine tongues haue changed fiue or sixe times: and the learned know what wrangling there hath beene about the writing, pronouncing, and disposing of their termes and phrases. Then what is to be said of the Greekish and Latinish tongues, those that are but apes of the other? What of the barbarous, strange, and new tongues? Or of those whose foolish pronunciation only no man can abide, or of others that by vse, time, and force of people, are waxen current? But this I leaue to such as list to Comment hereupon at large.

10. Long since the Phrygians. The Egyptians, being euer great braggers, vaunted long agoe that they were the most ancient people of the world: a certaine King of theirs named Psammetichus, attempted to search out the

truth; and for that end thought meet by some meanes to discouer what was the first language of the world: Thus, he tooke two new-borne babes, and deliuered them vnto shepheards to be nourished, commanding they should be brought vp in a secret staule, there to sucke the milke of Goats, and straitly forbidding, that none should come there to pronounce any word before them: then after a certaine time when they were of age, they should be left alone, and made to fast a while. Now so soone as they were past three years old, their gouernour hauing in all points accomplished the Kings commandement, came to open the staule, and then the two children began to crie Bec, bec: the shepheard said not a word: they repeat still the words: and he let his Master vnderstand thereof, who caused the children to be brought secretly vnto him, and heard them speake. So when the meaning of the word was asked, and the Egyptians vnderstood it signified bread in the Phrygian tongue, they granted the preheminence of antiqui∣tie vnto the Phrygians. Herodotus writeth that the Priests of Vulcan, in the Citie of Memphis, told him the same tale. There are some others that thinke these Babes were brought vp of dumbe nurses: howsoeuer it be, sure it is that the pride of the Egyptians was by some such deuise daunted. Suidas, touching the very point, saith that babes nourished of a Goat, must needs crie somewhat like a Goat, and such was the sound of the word Bec; a meet reward for his wisdome that made such a triall. The Grecians in old time were wont to call an old dotard 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a word composed of Bec and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Moone: the same is turned into a prouerbe which E∣rasinus expoundeth. But Goropius in the fifth and ninth booke of his Origi∣nes playeth the subtill Sophister, as his manner is, and vseth his beake vp∣on the word Bec: concluding, since Bec in low Dutch signifies bread, and Psammetichus his babes called for Bec, that so long agoe they spoke low Dutch; whereupon it followeth, that his tongue was the most ancient of the world. He calleth also his discourses vpon the same Bocceselanea, offe∣ring the subiect of a Comedie to some new Aristophanes. But let vs consider the answers of the Poet to the Phrygians, and to Goropius.

Notes

• Detestation de l'audace de Nembrot & des siens, cause de la desunion & barbarie des peuples.
• Incommoditez causees par la confusion des langues aux ba∣stiment de Ba∣bel.
• Commoditez contraires.
• Misere des hō∣mes depuis la confusion des langues apres la cognoissance desquelles ils vieillessent, & le plus fouuent n'out cognois∣sance que des mots.
• La langue He∣braique en la bouche de tous anant la confu∣sion des lan∣gues.
• Les Phrygiens & Egyptiens de batent de l'an∣cienneté de leurs langages & ••'en ••appor∣tent 〈◊〉〈◊〉 deux en∣fans, qui ••ugēt à lauantage des Phrygiens.
• The harmes that men suffer by the confusion of speech.
• The Hebrew tongue generally spoken before the confusion of tongues.
• The Phrygians and Egyptians contend for anti∣quitie of tongue.