And why not I, as hee
That's greatest, if as free,
(In sundry strains that striue,
Since there so many be)
Th' old _Lyrick_ kind reuiue?

I will, yea, and I may;
Who shall oppose my way?
For what is he alone,
That of himselfe can say,
Hee's Heire of _Helicon_? 10

APOLLO, and the Nine,
Forbid no Man their Shrine,
That commeth with hands pure;
Else be they so diuine,
They will not him indure.

For they be such coy Things,
That they care not for Kings,
And dare let them know it;
Nor may he touch their Springs,
That is not borne a Poet. 20

Pyreneus, _King The _Phocean_ it did proue,
of_ Phocis, Whom when foule Lust did moue,
_attempting to Those Mayds vnchast to make,
rauish the Muses._ Fell, as with them he stroue,
His Neck and iustly brake.

That instrument ne'r heard,
Strooke by the skilfull Bard,
It strongly to awake;
But it th' infernalls skard,
And made Olympus quake. 30

Sam. lib. 1. As those Prophetike strings
cap. 16. Whose sounds with fiery Wings,
Draue Fiends from their abode,
Touch'd by the best of Kings,
That sang the holy Ode.

Orpheus _the_ So his, which Women slue,
Thracian _Poet_. And it int' Hebrus threw,
Caput, Hebre, Such sounds yet forth it sent,
lyramque Excipis. The Bankes to weepe that drue,
&c. Ouid. lib. 11. As downe the streame it went. 40
Metam.
Mercury _inuentor That by the Tortoyse shell,
of the Harpe, as_ To MAYAS Sonne it fell,
Horace Ode 10. The most thereof not doubt
lib. 1. _curuaq; But sure some Power did dwell,
lyra parente_. In Him who found it out.

Thebes _fayned The Wildest of the field,
to haue beene And Ayre, with Riuers t' yeeld,
raysed by Which mou'd; that sturdy Glebes,
Musicke._ And ma