Thule, the period of cosmography

by Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623)

Thule, the period of cosmographie,
Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphurious fire
Doth melt the frozen clime, and thaw the skie,
Trinacrian Ætna's flames ascend not hier:
These things seeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry.

The Andelusian merchant, that returnes
Laden with cutchinele and china dishes,
Reports in Spaine, how strangely Fogo burnes
Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes:
These things seeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry.

Notes
__________________________________________________

This obscure poem appears in a footnote in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry (1767), a collection of popular songs and ballads from the past.

Thule - The ancient Greek and Latin name (first found in Polybius's account of the voyage of Pytheas) for a land six days' sail north of Britain, which he supposed to be the most northerly region in the world.

Hecla - a volcanic mountain in Iceland.

Triancrian - Sicilian (the phrase appears in Virgil several translations, including a slightly bizarre one by Stanyhurst in the 16th century, which Weelkes might have read).

Fogo - one of the islands of the Cape Verde, off the Western coast of Africa. It was a Portugese colony in the early 17th century (Fogo in Portugese means 'Fire'). The entire island is a volcano.

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