II.

French.

La Verge en main, mise au milieu des Branches, De l’Onde je moüille & le Limbe & le Pied, En peur j’escris fremissant par les manches; Splendeur Divine: le Divine prez s’assied.

English.

With Rod in hand, set in the middle of the Branches, With water I wet the Limb and the Foot, In fear I writ, quaking in my sleeves, Divine splendor! the Divine sitteth by.

ANNOT.

Amongst the customs, the Ancients observed, before they pronounced their Oracles; one was to take a Tuffie Branch of Laurel, and with it dipt in water, to sprinkle the edges and Columns of the Table, that was upon the Brazen Trevet, by which ceremonies they procured credit to their Oracles.

The Author willing to let us know, that his Verses were not only a simple writing, but also Prophetical and full of Oracles, doth represent them to us by this Metaphore of the Ancients, when they did amuse the people with their ambiguous, and many times fallacious Oracles.

Being then sitting and quiet in his solitariness; coming out of that great devotion of mind, animated by the virtue of his good _Genius_, he putteth first _the Rod into his hand_, that is the Pen, and putteth it _in the middle of the Branches_, putting it between his Fingers. Secondly he dippeth this Rod _into Water_, dipping his Pen in his Ink; with this Pen dipt in Ink, _he wetteth the Limb and the Foot_, writing upon his paper from one end to the other, and from the top to the bottom.

Which we must understand by this word _Lymbe_, which is a Latin word, signifying the long and narrow pieces of stuffe, which women wore at the bottom of their Petticoats, therefore the Latins called them _Lymbos_, from the Latin Verbe _Lambo_, which in matter of cloths signifieth, to leek or sweep; and because those pieces of cloath were in the bottom of their Garments, the word hath been afterwards employed to signifie the brims of some things, so that the Lymbs of a sheet of paper, are the two margines, and the top and the bottom, as if it were the four ends of a Quadrangular Figure.

The third Verse sheweth the internal disposition of the Author, after he hath described his external one; that disposition was a Sacred quaking, which putting his heart into a palpitation, caused his hands and arms to shake, as if he had been taken with some fit of an Ague. This quaking is the disposition which the good _Genius_ causeth in Prophets, that they may be humbled, and not be puffed up with pride, when they come near the Majesty of God, as we read in _Daniel_, St. _John_, and the _4th._ of _Esdras_. Therefore the Author saith:

_In fear I write, quaking in my sleeves._ And because the Divine Spirit after he hath cast down those, to whom he will impart himself, doth afterwards quiet them; the Author therefore addeth, that a _Divine splendor did sit by him_.