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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=454976" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Virtuoso: In Imitation of Spenser's Style And Stanza</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">“--- Videmus<br>Nugari solitos.” <br>-Persius</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whilom by silver Thames's gentle stream,<br>In London town there dwelt a subtile wight;<br>A wight of mickle wealth, and mickle fame,<br>Book-learn'd and quaint: a Virtuoso hight.<br>Uncommon things, and rare, were his delight;<br>From musings deep his brain ne'er gotten ease,<br>Nor ceased he from study, day or night;<br>Until (advancing onward by degrees)<br>He knew whatever breeds on earth, or air, or seas.<br>He many a creature did anatomize,<br>Almost unpeopling water, air, and land;<br>Beasts, fishes, birds, snails, caterpillars, flies,<br>Were laid full low by his relentless hand,<br>That oft with gory crimson was distain'd:<br>He many a dog destroy'd, and many a cat;<br>Of fleas his bed, of frogs the marshes drain'd,<br>Could tellen if a mite were lean or fat,<br>And read a lecture o'er the entrails of a gnat.<br>He knew the various modes of ancient times,<br>Their arts and fashions of each different guise,<br>Their weddings, funerals, punishments for crimes,<br>Their strength, their learning eke, and rarities;<br>Of old habiliments, each sort and size,<br>Male, female, high and low, to him were known;<br>Each gladiator-dress, and stage disguise;<br>With learned, clerkly phrase he could have shown<br>How the Greek tunic differ'd from the Roman gown.<br>A curious medallist, I wot, he was,<br>And boasted many a course of ancient coin;<br>Well as his wife's he knewen every face,<br>From Julius Cæsar down to Constantine:<br>For some rare sculpture he would oft ypine,<br>(As green-sick damosels for husbands do <br>And when obtained, with enraptur'd eyne,<br>He'd run it o'er and o'er with greedy view,<br>And look, and look again, as he would look it thro'.<br>His rich museum, of dimensions fair,<br>With goods that spoke the owner's mind was fraught:<br>Things ancient, curious, value-worth, and rare,<br>From sea and land, from Greece and Rome were brought<br>Which he with mighty sums of gold had bought:<br>On these all tides with joyous eyes he por'd;<br>And, sooth to say, himself he greater thought,<br>When he beheld his cabinets thus stor'd,<br>Than if he'd been of Albion's wealthy cities lord.<br>Here in a corner stood a rich 'scrutoire,<br>With many a curiosity replete;<br>In seemly order furnished every drawer,<br>Products of art or nature as was meet;<br>Air-pumps and prisms were plac'd beneath his feet,<br>A Memphian mummy-king hung o'er his head;<br>Here phials with live insects small and great,<br>There stood a tripod of the Pythian maid;<br>Above, a crocodile diffus'd a grateful shade.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fast by the window did a table stand,<br>Where hodiern and antique rarities,<br>From Egypt, Greece, and Rome, from sea and land,<br>Were thick-besprent of every sort and size:<br>Here a Bahaman-spider's carcass lies,<br>There a dire serpent's golden skin doth shine:<br>Here Indian feathers, fruits, and glittering flies;<br>There gums and amber found beneath the line,<br>The beak of Ibis here, and there an Antonine.<br>Close at his back, or whispering in his ear,<br>There stood a spright ycleped Phantasy;<br>Which, wheresoe'er he went, was always near:<br>Her look was wild, and roving was her eye;<br>Her hair was clad with flowers of every dye;<br>Her glistering robes were of more various hue,<br>Than the fair bow that paints the clouded sky,<br>Or all the spangled drops of morning dew;<br>Their colour changing still at every different view.<br>Yet in this shape all tydes she did not stay,<br>Various as the chameleon that she bore:<br>Now a grand monarch with a crown of hay,<br>Now mendicant in silks and golden ore:<br>A statesman now, equipp'd to chase the boar,<br>Or cowled monk, lean, feeble, and unfed;<br>A clown-like lord, or swain of courtly lore;<br>Now scribbling dunce in sacred laurel clad,<br>Or papal father now, in homely weeds array'd.<br>The wight whose brain this phantom's power doth fill,<br>On whom she doth with constant care attend,<br>Will for a dreadful giant take a mill,<br>Or a grand palace in a hogsty find:<br>(From her dire influence me may Heaven defend!)<br>All things with vitiated sight he spies:<br>Neglects his family, forgets his friend,<br>Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys,<br>And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Mark+Akenside">Mark Akenside</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=454976" data-title="The Virtuoso: In Imitation of Spenser's Style And Stanza de Mark Akenside" data-description="“--- Videmus
Nugari solitos.” 
-Persius

Whilom by silver Thames's gentle stream,
In London town there dwelt a subtile wight;
A wight of mickle wealth, and mickle fame,
Book-learn'd and quaint: a Virtuoso hight.
Uncommon things, and rare, were..."></div>
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