IHS   
URANIA, OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE PAINTING Of the TOP of the Theatre at OXON, As the ARTIST laid his Design.  
By RO. WHITEHALL, Fellow of Merton College.  
— Pictoribus atque poetis  
Quidlibet, etc.—  
Licenced and Entered according to Order.  
DIEV ET MON DROIT  
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE   royal blazon or coat of arms 
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Ratcliff and Thomas Daniel, and are to be sold by them at their House in Newstreet betwixt Shooe-lane and Fetter-lane. 1669.   

URANIA, OR A DESCRIPTION of the PAINTING Of the TOP of the THEATER at OXON, As the ARTIST laid his Design.  

THe day's our own! though some might seem to doubt▪  
Whether Augustus Caesar's days are out;  
Had not the Lion, Bull, and savage Bear  
Contended in his Amphitheatre  
With Boar, Rhinoceros and Elephant,  
That did at once Spectators please, and daunt.  
Or Creatures cruel and more fierce than these,  
When Man to Man became a Sacrifice;  
While acclamations with a grand applause  
Endangered all to crown the Victor's brows:  
And the defeated Champion took his death,  
Not from the Foe, but their unkinder breath:  
Bleeding afresh, and grovelling in his gore,  
More deeply wounded than he was before:  
And all this heat, and all this noise, to tell  
The World, This Day did Pylades prise well.   

NO ROMAN Foil here, nor Olympic Game,  
Nor Table hanged up to Nemaean fame:  
The Graces and the Muses more befit  
A Patron both to Reason and to Wit:  
Whose benefaction, whose munificence  
Might upon Earth immortalize a Prince.  
Immense as th' Ocean, rich as th' Indian Fleet,  
Were Tagus and Pactolus sands in it;  
Admired more than those Argonauts of Greece  
When they brought home their weighty golden fleece.  
None but a Noble and Heroic breast  
Bestow's Gifts outlive Bags condemned to th' Chest  
Deathbed Donations are but cold and faint,  
The Living only give without constraint.  
Such Actions when they shall be scanned and read  
Merit beyond th' Egyptian Pyramid.   

DRaw back the curtain then, and let's behold  
A sight more welcome than Ben's miser's gold▪  
Where first th' ingenious Artist makes it known  
He treads in no man's tract, his paths his own.  
For though Antiquity be venerable,  
Yet whereas anciently they had a cable  
Or cordage from this pilaster to that  
To knit together and keep tied the sheet,  
For 'tis presumed their theatre so large  
(Though sooner built perhaps and at less charge)  
That they knew not th' expense of tile or lead  
Against th' injuries of weather over head:  
So here a cord-mould gilded which doth reach  
In length and breadth cross to prevent a breach,  
Supports a red large drapery, supposed  
To cover all the roof where it is housed.  
But now 'tis furled up by the Genii round  
About the roof, by th' walls, that those o'th' ground  
May deem 'tis open air above, a way  
For th' Arts and Sciences ' i'th' clouds to stray.  
At whose solicitation Truth descend's  
To their assembly, as unto her Friends:  
And at this Festival observe eftsoons  
How th' other Genii sport with their festoones  
Of bays and laurel, out of which they make  
Ever green Garlands for their Lover's sake.  
Which hieroglyphically seems to say  
Rewards and Honour too attend this day.   

TO make this Convents happiness complete  
Their grand Disturbers must have a defeat:  
Envy with Rapine and Brutality  
By th' Genii opposing them are made to fly.  
Thrown headlong from the Clouds, and driven thence  
By Prudence, Fortitude, and Eloquence.  
This conquest to proclaim as Omen good  
The Trumpet sound's and they disperse abroad.   

THe day still ours, 'twill now be requisite  
(As 'tis with Muster-masters after fight)  
To rally up our force, and as by th' pole,  
Distinctly in order to run o'er the Role.  
Where, lest we should by th' Heathen be outdone  
And such as deify the Sun and Moon  
Theologie in reason must begin  
As Spur to Virtue, and as Curb to Sinne.   

SEe then a Book with seven seals in her hand,  
While she implores Truth on her part to stand.  
On one side is the Law Mosaical  
Veiled, and the Tables we the Decalogue call,  
Which lest we should neglect as slighting God  
Truth points out to us with her iron Rod.   

NExt (as inseparable) doth appear  
The Gospel with a Cross and Chalice, near  
Her, History is holding up her Pen,  
And dedicating it to truth, as men  
Old writings left, and fragments which respect  
Her Stories whence a Book she might collect.   

VIew Poesy divine at th' other end  
With Harp like david's tuned to what he penned.   

THen come the Mathematic Sciences,  
Grounded on Demonstration, not on guess.  
Astronomy with her Celestial globe  
Adorned (as are the rest) with decent Robe.  
With her terrestrial Orb Geography,  
With Square and Plumline stands Geometry.  
Arithmetic and Architecture pass  
Neighbours, and Perspective with Optic glass.   

ON th' other side Law seated like a Queen,  
With Sceptre and Records that long have been,  
Patents and Evidences sure and strong,  
With whom goes Rhetoric hand in hand along  
With an attending Genius to produce  
The scales of justice to prevent abuse:  
A palm branch as an Emblem of Reward  
For virtuous Actions, and as to regard  
Of power to punish vice, or to remit  
The Roman Fasces are the mark of it.   

Physic by Aesculapiu's staff is known,  
And Serpent twisted, ('tis a subtle one)  
By her an Herbarist doth Truth implore  
To teach her Plants for every grief and sore.  
A Chemist, with a bolt head, and before  
Is placed a Chirurgeon, with his store  
Of Instruments, all to dissect a brain,  
Laid open, (O Minerva don't disdain!)   

SOme more there are; see Logic taking hold  
On Argument; and if she's baffled, scold.   

MVsick, with a note-paper, and a Lute  
A little Boy playing upon a Flute.  
These two are Emblems (known t' Apollo more)  
Of the most antique Music heretofore.   

PRinting is with a Box of letters, and  
A Form that's ready set ' i'th' other hand:  
Where lest the Printing-presse should vacant lie  
Are several damp sheets hanging up to dry.   

ITh' middle, as descending from above  
Truth in a cloud sits; (harmless as a Dove)  
One hand a palm branch holds for Victory:  
In th' other is the Sun in's radiancy.  
So bright Truth seems obscured to us below,  
But every figure yield's the brighter show.  
And those three Prodigies we named before  
Now weary of the place, are got to th' door.   

ENvy with snaky hair, hags breasts, squint eyes,  
Pale venomous colour, strong, but ugly thighs:  
(Of which one disappear's, as if the beast  
Had fed upon herself, to make a Feast)  
With riveled skin, confounded at the sight  
Of Pallas shield with Gorgon's head t' affright.  
To which she would oppose her angry snakes  
But by precipitation downward makes.   

THe same Fate Ignorance attends Arts hater  
Best represented to us by a satire  
Scoffing at what she cannot understand,  
But quelled by Hermes Caducean wand.   

WIth grinning teeth, sharp fangs, and fiery eyes,  
Besmeared with blood of Friends and Enemies,  
Rapine appears: a flambeau and dagger are  
His weapons of delight, with arm stripped bare.  
Wolf-like devouring, lying still in wait,  
Unseen till now, (except in 48.)  
He Magistracy hate's, abhor's the Gown,  
But an Herculean Genius strikes him down.   

THese to the life are drawn so curiously  
That the Beholder would become all Eye:  
Or at the least an Argus; so sublime  
A fantasy makes essays to Heaven to climb.  
That future ages must confess they owe  
To STREETER more than Michael Angelo.    

To the Most Honourable JAMES Duke of ORMOND His Grace, our most Renowned Lord, and CHANCELLOR.  
ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,  

WHile Arms and Arts contend  
Which of them most stands poor Urania's friend,  
The Graces at a meeting all conclude  
They own, with thanks, this fair vicissitude;  
That what the Crosier and the Mitre deigned  
May by the sword and helmet be maintained.  
So we successively have our Commander,  
An Aristotle, and an Alexander.   

Our Theatre though 'tis beautiful, in you  
Alone it lies to make it vocal, now:  
And things inanimate so to inspire  
As Orhpeus did with his enchanting Lyre.  
Your various tongues may teach youth how to please  
More than Quintilian or Demosthenes.  
And when the Sophister is at a stand  
Your Genius brings fresh topics to his hand.   

TIme was when that same Antichristian word  
Maecenas sounded some outlandish Lord;  
When half a dram of learning at one time  
Was Language of the Beast (and no small crime)  
Who then expected Exile and restraint  
Should right the Muses when they made complaint?  
Indulgent Providence! thou for their good  
Hast one at home preserved, and one abroad.