Of Sagittarius
Sagittarius in 15 AD: horse-breakers, chariot racers, elephant teachers.
[p. 14] The double Centaur different Tempers breeds,They break the Horse, and tame the fiery Steeds;They love the sounding Whip, the Race, the Rein,And whirl the Chariot o're the dusty Plain;Nor is their Humor to the Fields confin'd,They range the Woods, and tame the Savage Kind;Young Bears they break, and Tygers heats asswage;And hear Young Lions roaring without Rage.Discourse the ²³Elephant, and Teach the MassA mimick Action, and a decent GraceTo Act in Plays, or raise th' unweildly load,To Dance, and be the Darling of the Crowd.For in the Frame, in double forms exprest,The Man is uppermost, and rules the Beast;His Bow full drawn implies, his Rays impart;Strength to the Limbs, and Vigor to the Heart.Quick active Motions, full of warmth and heat,Still pressing on, unknowing to retreat;
The notes
²³ Of the Docility of Elephants, we meet with numerous Examples: Seneca mentions one, that play'd at Ball: Another, that would Dance on a Rope, &c. The Travellers in the East are full of strange Stories concerning those Animals; and Lipsius in his Epistles, will furnish any Man with more Stories than he will readily believe. (Creech’s note, 1697)
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The text is Thomas Creech's 1697 verse translation, checked word by word between three scans of the same type (the 1697 printing, the 1700 printing and a third copy). The long s is printed as s; every other spelling is Creech's. Pages are cited as the 1697 printing numbers them. The portrait is William Marshall’s engraving of Lilly from the front of the 1659 printing (Wellcome Library, public domain).