The Pastime of Pleasure: An Allegorical PoemHawes, Stephen
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The Pastime of Pleasure: An Allegorical Poem
Hawes, Stephen
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
And forasmuche that he made nature
Fyrst of all to have domynacyon,
The power of her I shall anone dyscure,
How that she taketh her operacyon,
And whereupon is her fundacyon,
In symple and rude, opprest wyth neclygence,
Shall discryve the myght of her preemynence.
For though that aungell be invysyble,
Inpalpable, and also celestiall,
Wythouten substaunce as incencyble,
Yet have they nature whych is angelycall;
For nature naturynge nature made all,
Heven and earth and the bodyes above,
By cours of nature for to werke and move.
On man or beest, wythouten ony mys,
She werketh directly after the aspecte
Of the mater, be it more or lesse, ywys,
And doth therof the hole fourme dyrecte,
After the qualyte it doth take effecte;
Yf there be more than may one suffyse,
A bye membre she wyll than more devyse.
As that in ure ye may it dayly se,
Upon one hande some hath thombes twayne;
And other also somtyme armes thre;
The superfluite is cause therof certayne;
Whyche that dame Nature dooth constrayne
So for to do, for she lesed noughte
Of the mater, but hath it hooly wroughte.
And in like wyse, where is not suffycyent
Of the mater for the hole reformacion,
There lacketh a membre by great impediment,
So that there can be no perfyte facyon;
As may be judged by perfyte reason,
After the qualyte of thy matter lackynge,
So lacketh the of natures fourmynge.
Some lacketh a legge, some an arme also,
Some a fynger, and some more or lesse;
All these causes, wyth many other mo,
Nature werketh so dyrectly doutles
Upon the mater, as I do expresse,
After the qualyte in many a sundry wyse,
The kynde of her we ought nothyng to despyse.
Some be fayre and replete with grace;
Some be fayre and yet right unhappy;
Some be foule and can sone purchace
Landes and possessyons to them shortely;
Some be fooles and some be ryght wytty;
Whereupon I shall shewe a dyfference
Of the v. wyttes by good experyence.
CAP. XXIV.
OF THE FIVE INTERNALL WITTES.
The eyen, the eres, and also the nose,
The mouth, and handes, inwarde wyttes are none;
But outwarde offyces, as ye may suppose,
To the inwarde wyttes, whiche do judge alone;
For unto them all thinges have gone,
But these outwarde gates to have the knowledginge,
By the inwarde wyttes to have decernynge.
These are the v. wyttes remeuing inwardly:
Fyrst, commyn wytte, and than ymaginacyon,
Fantasy, and estymacyon truely,
And memory, as I make narracyon;
Eche upon other hath occupacyon.
Fyrst, the comyn wytte unto the front aplyde,
Doth thynke, decerne, it may not be denyde.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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