The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 12

[106] _A stately_ Mausoleum _or sepulchral pyle built by_ Adria.n.u.s _in_ Rome, _where now standeth the Castle of_ St. Angelo.

Lucan

----_Tabesne cadavera solvat An rogus haud refert._----

THE GARDEN OF CYRUS OR, THE QUINCUNCIAL, LOZENGE OR NET-WORK PLANTATIONS OF THE ANCIENTS, ARTIFICIALLY NATURALLY, MYSTICALLY CONSIDERED

BY

THOMAS BROWN D. OF PHYSICK

Printed in the Year, 1658

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Quid Quincunce speciosius, qui, in quam cunq; partem spectaueris, rectus est. Quintilian;_//]

THE GARDEN OF CYRUS

Or, The Quincuncial, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically considered.

CHAPTER I

That _Vulcan_ gave arrows unto _Apollo_ and _Diana_ the fourth day after their Nativities, according to Gentile Theology, may pa.s.se for no blinde apprehension of the Creation of the Sunne and Moon, in the work of the fourth day; When the diffused light contracted into Orbes, and shooting rayes, of those Luminaries. Plainer Descriptions there are from Pagan pens, of the creatures of the fourth day; While the divine Philosopher[107] unhappily omitteth the n.o.blest part of the third; And _Ovid_ (whom many conceive to have borrowed his description from _Moses_) coldly deserting the remarkable account of the text, in three words,[108] describeth this work of the third day; the vegetable creation, and first ornamental Scene of nature; the primitive food of animals, and first story of Physick, in Dietetical conservation.

[107] Plato in Timaeo.

[108] fronde tegi silvas.

For though Physick may pleade high, from the medicall act of G.o.d, in casting so deep a sleep upon our first Parent; And Chirurgery[109] finde its whole art, in that one pa.s.sage concerning the Rib of _Adam_, yet is there no rivality with Garden contrivance and Herbery. For if Paradise were planted the third day of the Creation, as wiser Divinity concludeth, the Nativity thereof was too early for Horoscopie; Gardens were before Gardiners, and but some hours after the earth.

[109] d?a??es?? _in opening the flesh_. ??a??es??, _in taking out the rib_. s???es??, _in closing up the part again_.

Of deeper doubt is its Topography, and locall designation, yet being the primitive garden, and without much controversie[110] seated in the East; it is more then probable the first curiosity, and cultivation of plants, most nourished in those quarters. And since the Ark of _Noah_ first toucht upon some mountains of _Armenia,_ the planting art arose again in the East, and found its revolution not far from the place of its Nativity, about the Plains of those Regions. And if _Zoroaster_ were either _Cham_, _Chus_, or _Mizraim_, they were early proficients therein, who left (as _Pliny_ delivereth) a work of Agriculture.

[110] _For some there is from the ambiguity of the word_ Mikedem, _whether_ ab oriente _or_ a principio.

However the account of the Pensill or hanging gardens of _Babylon_, if made by _Semiramis_, the third or fourth from _Nimrod_, is of no slender antiquity; which being not framed upon ordinary level of ground, but raised upon pillars admitting under-pa.s.sages, we cannot accept as the first _Babylonian_ Gardens; But a more eminent progress and advancement in that art, then any that went before it: Somewhat answering or hinting the old Opinion concerning Paradise it self, with many conceptions elevated above the plane of the Earth.

_Nebuchodonosor_, whom some will have to be the famous _Syrian_ King of _Diodorus_, beautifully repaired that City; and so magnificently built his hanging gardens;[111] that from succeeding Writers he had the honour of the first. From whence over-looking _Babylon_, and all the Region about it, he found no circ.u.mscription to the eye of his ambition, till over-delighted with the bravery of this Paradise; in his melancholy metamorphosis, he found the folly of that delight, and a proper punishment, in the contrary habitation, in wilde plantations and wandrings of the fields.

[111] Josephus.

The _Persian_ Gallants who destroyed this Monarchy, maintained their Botanicall bravery. Unto whom we owe the very name of Paradise: wherewith we meet not in Scripture before the time of _Solomon_, and conceived originally _Persian_. The word for that disputed Garden, expressing in the Hebrew no more then a Field enclosed, which from the same Root is content to derive a garden and a Buckler.

_Cyrus_ the elder brought up in Woods and Mountains, when time and power enabled, pursued the dictate of his education, and brought the treasures of the field into rule and circ.u.mscription, So n.o.bly beautifying the hanging Gardens of _Babylon_, that he was also thought to be the authour thereof.

_Ahasuerus_ (whom many conceive to have been _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_) in the Countrey and City of Flowers,[112] and in an open Garden, entertained his Princes and people, while _Vasthi_ more modestly treated the Ladies within the Palace thereof.

[112] Sushan in Susiana.

But if (as some opinion) [SN: Plutarch _in the life of_ Artaxerxes.]

King _Ahasuerus_ were _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, that found a life and reign answerable unto his great memory, our magnified _Cyrus_ was his second brother: who gave the occasion of that memorable work, and almost miraculous retrait of _Xenophon_. A person of high spirit and honour, naturally a King, though fatally prevented by the harmlesse chance of _post_-geniture: Not only a Lord of Gardens, but a manuall planter thereof: disposing his trees like his armies in regular ordination. So that while old _Laertas_ hath found a name in _Homer_ for pruning hedges, and clearing away thorns and bryars; while King _Attalus_ lives for his poysonous plantations of _Aconites_, Henbane, h.e.l.lebore, and plants hardly admitted within the walls of Paradise; While many of the Ancients do poorly live in the single names of Vegetables; All stories do look upon _Cyrus_, as the splendid and regular planter.

According whereto _Xenophon_[113] describeth his gallant plantation at _Sardis_, thus rendered by _Stobaeus, Arbores pari intervallo sitas, rectos ordines, et omnia perpulchre in Quincuncem directa_.[114] Which we shall take for granted as being accordingly rendered by the most elegant of the Latines;[115] and by no made term, but in use before by _Varro_. That is, the rows and orders so handsomely disposed; or five trees so set together, that a regular angularity, and through prospect, was left on every side. Owing this name not only unto the Quintuple number of Trees, but the figure declaring that number, which being doubled at the angle, makes up the Letter ?, that is the Emphatical decussation, or fundamental figure.

[113] Xenophon in Oeconomico.

[114] ?a?? ?? t? d??d?a, d?' ?s?? d? t? pef?te???a, ????? d? ??

st???? t?? d??d???, e????ea d? p??ta ?a???

[115] Cicero iae Cat. Major.

Now though in some ancient and modern practice the _area_ or decussated plot, might be a perfect square, answerable to a _Tuscan Pedestal_, and the _Quinquernio_ or Cinque-point of a die; wherein by Diagonal lines the intersection was regular; accommodable unto Plantations of large growing Trees; and we must not denie our selves the advantage of this order; yet shall we chiefly insist upon that of _Curtius_[116] and _Porta_, in their brief description hereof. Wherein the _decussis_ is made within a longilateral square, with oposite angles, acute and obtuse at the intersection; and so upon progression making a _Rhombus_ or Lozenge figuration, which seemeth very agreeable unto the Original figure; Answerable whereunto we observe the decussated characters in many consulary coynes, and even in those of _Constantine_ and his Sons, which pretend their pattern in the Sky; the crucigerous Ensigne carried this figure, not transversly or rectangularly intersected, but in a decussation, after the form of an _Andrean_ or _Burgundian_ cross, which answereth this description.

[116] Benedict Curtius de Hortis. Bapt. Portainvilla.

Where by the way we shall decline the old Theme, so traced by antiquity of crosses and crucifixion: Whereof some being right, and of one single peece without traversion or transome, do little advantage our subject.

Nor shall we take in the mystical _Tau_, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an _Empedon_ or crossing foot-stay, made not one single transversion. And since the Learned _Lipsius_ hath made some doubt even of the crosse of St. _Andrew_, since some Martyrological Histories deliver his death by the general Name of a crosse, and _Hippolitus_ will have him suffer by the sword; we should have enough to make out the received Crosse of that Martyr. Nor shall we urge the _labarum_, and famous Standard of _Constantine_, or make further use thereof, then as the first letters in the Name of our Saviour Christ, in use among Christians, before the dayes of _Constantine_, to be observed in Sepulchral Monuments of Martyrs,[117]

in the Reign of _Adrian_, and _Antoninus_; and to be found in the Antiquities of the Gentiles, before the advent of Christ, as in the Medal of King _Ptolomy_, signed with the same characters, and might be the beginning of some word or name, which Antiquaries have not hit on.

[117] _Of_ Marius, Alexander, Roma Sotterranea.

We will not revive the mysterious crosses of _aegypt_, with circles on their heads, in the breast of _Serapis_, and the hands of their Geniall spirits, not unlike the character of _Venus_, and looked on by ancient Christians, with relation unto Christ. Since however they first began, the aegyptians thereby expressed the processe and motion of the spirit of the world, and the diffusion thereof upon the Celestiall and Elementall nature; implyed by a circle and right-lined intersection. A secret in their Telesmes and magicall Characters among them. Though he that considereth the plain crosse[118] upon the head of the Owl in the Laterane Obelisk, or the crosse[119] erected upon a pitcher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphicks of the brazen Table of _Bembus_: will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them.

[118] _Wherein the lower part is some what longer, as defined by_ Upton de studio militari, _and_ Johannes de Bado Aureo, c.u.m comment.

clariss. et doctiss. Bi saei.

[119] Casal. de Ritibus. Bosio nella Trionfante croce.

We shall not call in the Hebrew _Tenapha_, or ceremony of their Oblations, waved by the priest unto the four quarters of the world, after the form of a cross; as in the peace-offerings. And if it were clearly made out what is remarkably delivered from the Traditions of the Rabbins, that as the Oyle was powred coronally or circularly upon the head of Kings, so the High-Priest was anointed decussatively or in the form of a X; though it could not escape a typical thought of Christ, from mystical considerators; yet being the conceit is Hebrew, we should rather expect its verification from a.n.a.logy in that language, then to confine the same unto the unconcerned Letters of _Greece_, or make it out by the characters of _Cadmus_ or _Palamedes_.

Of this Quincuncial Ordination the Ancients practised, much discoursed little; and the Moderns have nothing enlarged; which he that more nearly considereth, in the form of its square _Rhombus_, and decussation, with the several commodities, mysteries, parallelismes, and resemblances, both in Art and Nature, shall easily discern the elegancy of this order.

That this was in some wayes of practice in diverse and distant Nations, hints or deliveries there are from no slender Antiquity. In the hanging Gardens of _Babylon_, from _Abydenus_, _Eusebius_, and others, _Curtius_[120] describeth this rule of decussation. In the memorable Garden of _Alcinous_ anciently conceived an original phancy, from Paradise, mention there is of well contrived order; For so hath _Didymus_ and _Eustachius_ expounded the emphatical word. _Diomedes_ describing the Rurall possions of his Father, gives account in the same Language of Trees orderly planted. And _Ulysses_ being a boy was promised by his father fourty Fig-trees, and fifty rows of vines,[121]

producing all kind of grapes.

[120] Decussatio ipsa jucundum ac peramaenum conspectum praebuit.

_Cart._ Hortar. _l._ 6.

[121] ?????, st???? ?pe???, f?t?? st????, ? ?at? t???? f?te?a.