Page:Batrachomyomachia, or, the wonderfull and bloudy Battell betweene Frogs and Mice.djvu/71

Too lofty subject for my simple worth,
Nor can I easly reach so high a strayne,
Which never tasted that immortall vayne,
Flowing with Nectar downe the sacred hill,
Where those nine virgin-Muses aye remaine,
Which learned heads with heavenly fury fill,
⟨And⟩ drop arts drearyment into their quill.

Nethlesse, although so many tongues I had,
As ^[1]Briareus had hands great Homer sayes,
In habit of sweet eloquence yclad,
To blazon to the world his vertuous dayes,
I should but give an Eccho to his praise,
And much abridge the volume of his story:
Vertue is best to crowne her selfe with Bayes,
And Hargreves worth to register his glory,
Which still survives, though life be transitorie.

In spite of envy, slander, death and hell.
Hargreve revives from prison of the grave;
Above the bankes of Fame his praises swell,
Since hissing Serpents sought him to deprave:
When Vertue most is spurn'd, he growes most brave.
Yet he which in his life was unrevil'd,
In whom vile Malice could no vantage have,
After his death by slander is defil'd:
But Vertues meed hath infamy beguild:

1. A Giant with a hundred hands.