Classic Poem

Parrot
My name is Parrot, a bird of paradise,
By nature devised of a wonderous kinde,
Dientely dieted with divers dilicate spice,
Til Euphrates, that flode, driveth me into Inde;
Where men of that countrey by fortune me find,
And send me to greate ladies of estate:
Than Parot must have an almon or a date;

A cage curiously carven; with silver pin,
Properly painted, to be my covertoure;
A mirrour of glasse, that I may toote therin;
These maidens ful mekely with many a divers flowre
Freshly they dresse and make swete my bowre,
With, Speke, Parrot, I pray you, full curtesly they say;
Parrot is a goodly bird, a prety popagey:

With my becke bent, my littil wanton eye,
My fedders freshe as is the emraude grene,
About my neck a circulet like the riche rubye,
My littill leggis, my feet both fete and clene,
I am a minion to wait uppon a quene;
My proper Parrot, my littil prety foole;
With ladies I lerne, and go with them to scole.

Hagh, ha, ha, Parrot, ye can laugh pretily!
Parrot hath not dined of al this long day:
Like your pus cate, Parrot can mute and cry
In Lattin, in Ebrew, Araby, and Caldey;
In Greke tong Parrot can bothe speke and say,
As Percius, that poet, doth reporte of me,
Quis expedivit psittaco suum chaire?

Douse French of Parrise Parrot can lerne,
Pronounsinge my purpose after my properte,
With, Perliez bien, Parrot, ou perlez rien;
With Douch, with Spanish, my tonge can agre;
In English to God Parrot can supple,
Crist save King Henry the VIII, our royall king,
The red rose in honour to florish and springe!

With Katerine incomparable, our riall quene also,
That pereles pomegarnet, Christ save her noble grace!
Parrot, saves hablar Castiliano,
With fidasso de cosso in Turkey and in Trace;
Vis consilii expers, as techith me Horace,
Mole ruit sua, whose dictes ar pregnaunte,
Soventez fois, Parrot, en sovenaunte.

My lady maistres, dame Philology,
Gave me a gifte in my nest whan I laye,
To lerne all language, and it to spake aptely:
Now pandez mory, wax franticke, some men saye;
Phroneses for Freneses may not holde her way.
An almon now for Parrot, dilicatly drest;
In Salve festa dies, toto their doth best.

Moderata iuvant, but toto doth excede;
Discression is moder of noble vertues all;
Miden agan in Greke tonge we rede;
But reason and wit wantith their provinciall
When wilfulnes is vicar generall.
Haec res acu tangitur, Parrot, par ma foy:
Ticez vous, Parrot, tenez vous coye.

Besy, besy, besy, and besines againe!
Que pensez voz, Parrot? what meneth this besiness?
Vitulus in Oreb troubled Arons braine,
Melchisedeck mercifull made Moloc merciles;
To wise is no vertue, to medling, to restles;
In mesure is tresure, cum sensu maturato;
Ne tropo sanno, ne tropo mato.

Aram was fired with Caldies fier called Ur;
Jobab was brought up in the lande of Hus;
The linage of Lot toke supporte of Assur;
Jereboseth is Ebrue, who list the cause discus.
Peace, Parrot, ye prate, as ye were ebrius:
Houst thee, Liver God van Hemrick, ic seg;
In Popering grew peres, whan Parrot was an eg.

What is this to purpose? Over in a whinny Meg!
Hop Lobin of Loudeon wald have e bit of bred;
The jebet of Baldock was made for Jack Leg;
An arrow unfethered and without an hed,
A bagpipe without blowinge standeth in so sted:
Some run to far before, some run to far behinde,
Some be to churlisshe, and some be to kinde.

Ic dien serveth for the erstrich fether,
Ic dien is the language of the land of Beme;
In Affric tongue byrsa is a thonge of lether;
In Palestina there is Jerusalem.
Colostrum now for Parot, white bred and swete creme!
Our Thomasen she doth trip, our Jenet she doth shaile:
Parrot hath a blacke beard and a faire grene taile.

Morishe mine owne shelfe, the costermonger saith;
Fate, fate, fate, ye Irish waterlag;
In flattring fables men finde but littil faith:
But moveatur terra, let the world wag;
Let sir Wrigwrag wrastell with sir Delarag;
Every man after his maner of wayes,
Paube une arver, so the Welche man sayes.

Suche shredis of sentence, strowed in the shop
Of auncient Aristippus and such other mo,
I gader togither and close in my crop,
Of my wanton conseit, unde depromo
Dilemmata docta in paedagogio
Sacro vatum, whereof to you I breke:
I pray you, let Parot have liberte to speke.

But ware the cat, Parot, ware the fals cat!
With, Who is there? a maid? nay, nay, I trow:
Ware riat, Parrot, ware riot, ware that!
Mete, mete for Parrot, mete, I say, how!
Thus divers of language by lerning I grow:
With, Bas me, swete Parrot, bas me, swete swete;
To dwell among ladies Parrot is mete.

Parrot, Parrot, Parrot, praty popigay!
With my beke I can pike my littel praty too;
My delight is solas, pleasure, disporte, and pley;
Like a wanton, whan I will, I rele to and froo:
Parot can say, Caesar, ave, also;
But Parrot hath no favour to Esebon:
Above all other birdis, set Parrot alone.

Ulula, Esebon, for Jeromy doth wepe!
Sion is in sadnes, Rachell ruly doth loke;
Madionita Jetro, our Moises kepith his shepe;
Gedeon is gon, that Zalmane undertoke,

Oreb et Zeb, of Judicum rede the boke;
Now Geball, Amon, and Amaloch,--harke, harke!
Parrot pretendith to be a bibill clarke.

O Esebon, Esebon! to thee is cum againe
Seon, the regent Amorraeorum,
And Og, that fat hog of Basan, doth retaine,
The crafty coistronus Cananaeorum;
And asylum, whilom refugium miserorum,
Non fanum, sed profanum, standith in littill sted:
Ulula, Esebon, for Jepte is starke ded!

Esebon, Marybon, Wheston next Barnet;
A trim tram for an horse-mill it were a nise thing;
Deintes for dammoisels, chaffer far fet:
Bo-ho doth bark wel, but Hough-ho he rulith the ring;
From Scarpary to Tartary renown therin doth spring,
With, He said, and we said, ich wot now what ich wot,
Quod magnus est dominus Judas Scariot.

Tholomye and Haly were cunning and wise
In the volvell, in the quadrant, and in the astroloby,
To pronosticate truly the chaunce of fortunis dise;
Som trete of their tirikis, som of astrology,
Som pseudo-propheta with chiromancy:
If fortune be frendly, and grace be the guide,
Honoure with renowne will ren on that side.

Monon calon agaton
Quod Parato
In Graeco.

Let Parrot, I pray you, have liberte to prate,
For aurea lingua Graeca ought to be magnified,
If it were cond perfitely, and after the rate
As lingua Latina in scole matter occupied;
But our Grekis their Greke so well have applied,
That they cannot say in Greke, ridinge by the way,
How, hosteler, fetche my hors a botell of hay!

Neither frame a sylogisme in phrisesomorum,
Formaliter et Graece, cum medio termino:
Our Grekis ye walow in the washbol Argolicorum;
For though ye can tell in Greke what is phormio,
Yet ye seke out your Greke in Capricornio;
For they scrape out good scripture, and set in a gall,
Ye go about to amende, and ye mare all.

Some argue secundum quid ad simpliciter,
And yet he wolde be rekenid pro Areopagita;
And some make distinctions multipliciter,
Whether ita were before non, or non before ita,
Nether wise nor wel lernid, but like hermaphrodita:
Set sophia aside, for every Jack Raker
And every mad medler must now be a maker.

In Academia Parrot dare no probleme kepe;
For Graece fari so occupieth the chaire,
That Latinum fari may fall to rest and slepe,
And syllogisari was drowned at Sturbridge faire;
Trivials and quatrivials so sore now they appaire,
That Parrot the popagay hath pitye to beholde
How the rest of good lerning is roufled up and trold.

Albertus de modo significandi,
And Donatus be driven out of scole;
Prisians had broken now handy dandy,
And Inter didascolos is rekened for a fole;
Alexander, a gander of Menanders pole,
With Da Conciles, is cast out of the gate,
And Da Rationales dare not shew his pate.

Plauti in his comedies a child shall now reherse,
And medill with Quintilian in his Declamacions,
That Pety Caton can scantly construe a verse,
With Aveto in Graeco, and such solempne salutacions,
Can scantly the tensis of his conjugacions;
Settinge their mindis so moche of eloquens,
That of their scole maters lost is the hole sentens.

Now a nutmeg, a nutmeg, cum garyophyllo,
For Parrot to pike upon, his braine for to stable,
Swete sinamum stickis and pleris cum musco!
In Paradice, that place of pleasure perdurable,
The progeny of Parrottis were faire and favorable;
Now in valle Ebron Parrot is faine to fede:
Cristecrosse and saint Nicholas, Parrot, be your good spede!

The mirrour that I tote in, quasi diaphanum,
Vel quasi speculum, in aenigmate,
Elencticum, or elss enthymematicum,
For logicions to loke on, somewhat sophistice:
Retoricions and oratours in freshe humanite,
Support Parrot, I pray you, with your suffrage ornate,
Of confuse tantum avoidinge the chekmate.

But of that supposicion that callid is arte
Confuse distributive, as Parrot hath devised,
Let every man after his merit take his parte,
For in this processe Parrot nothing hath surmised,
No matter pretendid, nor nothing enterprised,
But that metaphora, allegoria with all,
Shall be his protection, his pavis, and his wall.

For Parot is no churlish chough, nor no flekid pye,
Parrot is no pendugum, that men call a carling,
Parrot is no woodecocke, nor no butterfly,
Parrot is no stammering stare, that men call a starling;
But Parot is my owne dere harte and my dere derling;
Melpomene, that faire maide, she burneshed his beke;
I pray you, let Parrot have liberte to speke.

Parrot is a faire bird for a lady;
God of his goodnes him framed and wrought;
When Parrot is ded, she dothe not putrefy:
Ye, all thing mortall shall torne unto nought,
Except mannes soule, that Christ so dere bought;
That never may die, nor never die shall:
Make moche of Parrot, the popegay riall.

For that pereles prince that Parrot did create,
He made you of nothinge by his magistye:
Point well this probleme that Parrot doth prate,
And remembre amonge how Parrot and ye
Shall lepe from this life, as mery as we be;
Pompe, pride, honour, riches, and worldly lust,
Parrot saith plainly, shall tourne all to dust.

Thus Parrot dothe pray you
With hert most tender,
To rekin with this recule now,
And it to remember.

Psittacus, ecce, cano, nec sunt mea carmina Phoebo
Digna scio, tamen est plena camena deo.

Secundum Skeltonida famigeratum,
In Piereorum catalogo numeratum.

Itaque consolamini invicem in verbis istis, etc.
Candidi lectores, callide callete; vestrum fovet Psittacum, etc.