Sr P. Sydnie The Speech of Rombus a school mastor
Now the thunder thumping Jove transfund his
dotes into yr excellent formositie, which have with
your resplendant beames thus segregated the enimity
of these rurall animalls: I am Potentissima domina, a
school master, that is to say a Pedagouge, one not
a little versed in disciplinating of ye Juvenal frie
wherein (to my laud I say it) I use such geometricall
proportion, as neither wanted mansuetude nor correction
for so it is described. Parcere subjectos & debellire superbos.
Yet hath not ye pulchritude of my virtues, protected
mee from ye contamminating hands of these Plebeians
for comeing solummodo to have parted their sanguinolent
fray, they yealded me no more Reverence Hien if
I had bin a Pecorius Asinus. I, even I, that am,
Who am I! Dixi verbus sapiento satum est. But what
sayd yt Trojan Eneas when he sojourned in ye surging
sulks of ye sandiferous seas, Haec olim memonasse
juvebit. Well well, ad propositos revertebo, the
puritie of yr verity is, that a certaine Pulchra
Puella profecto, elected and constituted, by ye integrated
determination of all this topographicall region, as
ye soveraigne Ladie of this Dame Maie 's month,
hath been quodammod hunted, as you would say pursued
by two, abrace, a couple, a cast of young men to
whome ye craftie coward cupid had inquam delivered his
dire dolourous dart.
O Tempori, O moribus. in profession a child, in dignity a
woman, in years a ladie in ceteris a maid, should thus
turpifie the reputation of my doctrine with the
superscriuon of a fool O Tempori, o moribus.
By Rombus,
in The Lady of May (95-134),
Sir Philip Sidney
in British Library Sloane MS 161, f. 29r
Heu, Ehem, hei, Insipidum, Inscitium, vulgorum &
populorum. Why ye brute Nebulons, have yu had my
corpusculum so long among you, and cannot yet tell how
to edifie an argument? addent and throw yr ears
to mee, for I am gravidated with child, till I have
doctrinated your blumbeous cerebrosities. First you
must divisionate your point, quasi you should cut a cheese into two particles; for thus must I informe
my speeche, to your obtruse conceptions. Exemplum
gratia. Either Therion must conquer this dame
Mydas 's Nymph, or Espilus must over-throw her & yt
secundum their dignitie, which must allsoe be
subdivisionated into three equall species. either
according to ye penetrancy of their singing, or the
meliority of their functions, or lastly the superencie
of their merits. De singing satis. Nunc are you
to argumente of the qualifieing of their estate
first, and then whether hath more Infernally, I
mean deeply deserved her.
By Rombus,
in The Lady of May (282-301),
Sir Philip Sidney
in British Library Sloane MS 161, f. 29v
O tace, tace or all ye fat will be ignified first let
me dilucidate ye very intrinsicall maribone of ye
matter. He doeth ye a certaine rhetoricall invasion
into ye point, as if indeed he had conferance with
his lambs, but ye troth is he doeth equitate yu in
yr mean time Mr Rixus. for thus he sayth who
sheep are good ergo ye sheepherd is good. an
enthymome a loco contingentibris as my finger &
my thumb are contingentes: Again he sayth who
liveth well are good but sheepherd lies well
Ergo they are good, a syllogism in Darius
King of Persia a conjugatus as you would say, a man coupled to his wife, two bodies but one soul. but doe
you but acquiescate to my exhortation and you shall
extinguish him: Tell him his major is a Knave, his
minor is a fool, and his conclusion both & ecce homo
blancatus quasi Lillium.
By Rombus,
in The Lady of May (343-359),
Sir Philip Sidney
in British Library Sloane MS 161, f. 29v