Page images
PDF
EPUB

Nay, such bold lyes to God himself ye vaunt,
As if you'd fain keep him too ignorant.

Limbus and Purgatory they believe,
For lesser sinners; that is, I conceive,
Malignants only: you this trick does please;
For the same cause ye 'ave made new Limbuses,
Where we may lie imprison'd long, ere we
A day of judgment in your courts shall see.
But Pym can, like the pópe, with this dispense,
And for a bribe deliver souls from thence.

Their councils claim infallibility:
Such must your conventicle-synod be;
And teachers from all parts of th' Earth ye call,
To make 't a council oecumenical.

They several times appoint from meats' t' abstain
You now for th' Irish wars a fast ordain;
And, that that kingdom might be sure to fast,
Ye take a course to starve them all at last :
Nay, though ye keep no eves, Fridays, nor Lent,
Not to dress meat on Sundays you're content;
Then you repeat, repeat, and pray, and pray,
Your teeth keep sabbath, and tongues working-
day.

They preserve relics: you have few or none,
Unless the clout sent to John Pym be one;
Or Holles's rich widow, she who carry'd
A relic in her womb before she marry'd.

They in succeeding Peter take a pride:

So do you; for your master ye 'ave deny'd.
But chiefly Peter's privilege ye choose,
At your own wills to bind and to unloose.
He was a fisherman; you'll be so too,
When nothing but your ships are left to you:
He went to Rome; to Rome you backward ride,
(Though both your goings are by some deny'd)
Nor is 't a contradiction, if we say,
You go to Rome the quite contrary way.
He dy'd o' th' cross; that death 's unusual now;
The gallows is most like 't, and that 's for you,

They love church-music; it offends your sense,
And therefore ye have sung it out from thence;
Which shows, if right your mind be understood,
You hate it not as music, but as good:
Your madness makes you sing as much as they
Dance who are bit with a tarantula.
But do not to yourselves, alas! appear
The most religious traitors that e'er were,
Because your troops singing of psalins do go;
There's many a traitor has march'd Holborn so.
Nor was't your wit this holy project bore ;
Tweed and the Tyne have seen those tricks before.
They of strange miracles and wonders tell:
You are yourselves a kind of miracle;
Ev'n such a miracle as in writ divine
We read o'-th' Devil's hurrying down the swine.
They have made images to speak: 'tis said,
You a dull image bave your speaker made;
And, that your bounty in offerings might abound,
Ye 'ave to that idol giv'n six thousand pound.
They drive-out devils, they say: here ye begin
To differ, I confess you let them in.

They maintain transubstantiation; You, by a contrary philosophers-stone, To transubstantiate metals have the skill, And turn the kingdom's gold to ir'n and steel. I' th' sacrament ye differ; but 'tis noted, Bread must be flesh, wine blood, if e'er 't be voted. They make the pope their head; y' exalt for him,

Primate and metropolitan, master Pym;

Nay, White, who sits i' th' infallible chair,
And most infallibly speaks nonsense there;
Nay, Cromwell, Pury, Whistler, sir John Wray,
He who does say, and say, ands ay, and say;
Nay, Lowry, who does new church-government
wish,

And prophesies, like Jonas, 'midst the fish ;
Who can such various business wisely sway,
Handling both herrings and bishops in one day:
Nay all your preachers, women, boys, and mer,
From master Calamy to mistress Ven,
Are perfect popes, in their own parish, grown;
For, to out-do the story of pope Joan,
Your women preach too, and are like to be
The whores of Babylon as much as she.

They depose kings by force: by force you'd do

it,

But first use fair means to persuade them to it. They dare kill kings: and 'twixt ye here's the

strife,

That you dare shoot at kings to save their life:
And what's the difference, pray, whether he fall
By the Pope's Bull or your Ox general?
Three kingdoms thus ye strive to make your own,
And, like the pope, usurp a triple crown.

Such is your faith, such your religion;
Let's view your manners now, and then I've done.
Your covetousness let gasping Ireland tell,
Where first the Irish lands, and next ye sell
The English blood, and raise rebellion here
With that which should suppress and quench it

there.

What mighty sums have ye squeez'd out o' th' city!
Enough to make them poor, and something witty.
Excise, loans, contributions, poll-monies,
Bribes, plunder, and such parliament priv❜leges,
Are words which you ne'er leamt in holy writ,
Till th' spirit, and your synod, mended it.
Where's all the twentieth part now, which hath
been

Paid you by some, to forfeit the nineteen?
Where's all the goods distrain'd, and plunders past?
For you're grown wretched pilferig knaves at
last;

Descend to brass and pewter, till of late,
Like Midas, all ye touch'd must needs be plate.
By what vast hopes is your ambition fed?
'Tis writ in blood, and may be plainly read:
You must have places, and the kingdom sway;
The king must be a ward to your lord Say.
Your innocent speaker to the Rolls must rise;
Six thousand pound hath made him proud and wise.
Kimbolton for his father's place doth call,
Would be like him;-would he were, face and all!
Isaack would always be lord-mayor; and so
May always be, as much as he is now.
For the five members, they so richly thrive,
That they would always be but members five.
Only Pym does his natural right enforce,
By th' mother's side he's master of the horse.
Most shall have places by these popular tricks,
The rest must be content with bishoprics.
For 'tis 'gainst superstition you're intent;
First to root out that great church-ornament,
Money and lands: your swords, alas! are drawn
Against the bishop, not his cap, or lawn.
O let not such lewd sacrilege begin,
Tempted by Henry's rich, successful sin!
Henry! the monster-king of all that age;
Wild in his lust, but wilder in his rage.

Expect not you his fate, though Hotham thrives In imitating Henry's tricks for wives; Nor fewer churches hopes, than wives, to see Buried, and then their lands his own to be. Ye boundless tyrants! how do you outvy Th' Athenians' Thirty, Rome's Decemviry! In rage, injustice, cruelty, as far Above those men, as you in number are. What mysteries of iniquity do we see! New prisons made to defend liberty! Our goods forc'd from us for property's sake; And all the real nonsense which ye make! Ship-money was unjustly ta'en, ye say; Unjustlier far, you take the ships away. The High Commission you call'd tyranny: Ye did! good God! what is the High Committee? Ye said that gifts and bribes preferments bought: By money and blood too they now are sought. To the king's will, the laws men strove to draw: The subjects' will is now become the law. 'Twas fear'd a new religion would begin : All new religions, now, are enter'd in. The king delinquents to protect did strive : What clubs, pikes, halberts, lighters, sav'd the Five! You think th' parl❜ment like your state of grace; Whatever sins men do, they keep their place. Invasions then were fear'd against the state; And Strode swore last year would be eighty-eight. You bring-in foreign aid to your designs, First those great foreign forces of divines, With which ships from America were fraught ; Rather may stinking tobacco still be brought From thence, I say; next, ye the Scots invite, Which you term brotherly-assistance, right; For England you intend with them to share: They, who, alas! but younger brothers are, Must have the monies for their portion; The houses and the lands will be your own. We thank you for the wounds which we endure, Whilst scratches and slight pricks ye seek to cure;

viz. 1642.

We thank you for true real fears, at last,
Which free us from so many false ones past;
We thank you for the blood which fats our coast,
As a just debt paid to great Strafford's ghost;
We thank you for the ills receiv'd, and all
Which yet by your good care in time we shall;
We thank you, and our gratitude's as great
As yours, when you thank'd God for being beat.

THE CHARACTER OF AN HOLY-SISTER.

SHE that can sit three sermons in a day,
And of those three scarce bear three words away;
She that can rob her husband, to repair
A budget-priest, that noses a long prayer;
She that with lamp-black purifies her shoes,
And with half-eyes and Bible softly goes;
She that her pockets with lay-gospel stuffs,
And edifies her looks with little ruffs;

She that loves sermons as she does the rest,
Still standing stiff that longest are the best;
She that will lye, yet swear she hates a lyar,
Except it be the man that will lie by her;
She that at christenings thirsteth for more sack,
And draws the broadest handkerchief for cake;
She that sings psalms devoutly next the street,
And beats her maid i' th' kitchen, where none
see 't;

She that will sit in shop for five hours space,
And register the sins of all that pass,
Damn at first sight, and proudly dares to say,
That none can possibly be sav'd but they
That hang religion in a naked ear,

And judge men's hearts according to their hair;
That could afford to doubt, who wrote best sense,
Moses, or Dod on the commandements;

She that can sigh, and cry "Queen Elizabeth,"
Rail at the pope, and scratch-out "sudden death :"
And for all this can give no reason why:
This is an holy-sister, verily.

[blocks in formation]

II. DRINKING.

THE thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again,
The plants suck-in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair;
The sea itself (which one would think
Should have but little need of drink)
Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up,
So fill'd that they o'erflow the cup.
The busy Sun (and one would guess
By's drunken fiery face no less)

Drinks up the sea, and, when he 'as done,
The Moon and stars drink up the Sun:
They drink and dance by their own light;
They drink and revel all the night.
Nothing in nature 's sober found,
But an eternal health go s round.
Fill up the bowl then, fill it high,
Fill all the glasses there; for why
Should every creature drink but I;
Why, man of morals, tell me why?

III. BEAUTY.

LIBERAL Nature did dispense
To all things arms for their defence;
And some she arms with sinewy force,
And some with swiftness in the course;
Some with hard hoofs or forked claws,.
And some with horns or tusked jaws :
And some with scales, and some with wings,
And some with teeth, and some with stings.
Wisdom to man she did afford,
Wisdom for shield, and wit for sword.
What to beauteous womankind,

What arms, what armour, has sh' assign'd?
Beauty is both; for with the fair
What arms, what armour, can compare?
What steel, what gold, or diamond,
More impassible is found?

And yet what flame, what lightning, e'er
So great an active force did bear?
They are all weapon, and they dart.
Like porcupines from every part.
Who can, alas! their strength express,
Arm'd, when they themselves undress,
Cap-a-pie with nakedness?

IV. THE DUEL.

YES, I will love then, I will love ;
I will not now Love's rebel prove,
Though I was once his enemy;
Though ill-advis'd and stubborn I,
Did to the combat him defy.
An helmet, spear, and mighty shield,
Like some new Ajax, Idid wield.
Love in one hand his bow did take,
In th' other hand a dart did shake;
But yet in vain the dart did throw,
In vain he often drew the bow;
So well my arincur did resist,
So oft by flight the blow I mist:
But when I thought all danger past,
His quiver empty'd quite at last,
Instead of arrow or of dart
He shot himself into my heart.

The living and the killing arrow

Ran through the skin, the flesh, the blood,
And broke the bones, and scorch'd the marrow,
No trench of work or life withstood.
In vain I now the walls maintain;
I set out guards and scouts in vain ;
Since th' enemy does within remain.
In vain a breast-plate now I wear,
Since in my breast the foe I bear;
In vain my feet their swiftness try ;
For from the body can they fly?

V. AGE.

OFT am I by the women toki,
Poor Anacreon! thou grow'st old:
Look how thy hairs are falling all;
Poor Anacreon, how they fall!
Whether I grow old or no,
By th' effects I do not know;
This, I know, without being told,
'Tis time to live, if I grow old;
"Tis time short pleasures now to take,
Of little life the best to make,
And manage wisely the last stake.

VI. THE ACCOUNT.
WHEN all the stars are by thee told
(The endless sums of heavenly gold);
Or when the hairs are reckon'd all,
From sickly Autumn's head that fall;
Or when the drops that make the sea,
Whilst all her sands thy counters be;
Thou then, and thou alone, mays't prove
Th' arithmetician of my love.

An hundred loves at Athens score,
At Corinth write an hundred more:
Fair Corinth does such beauties bear,
So few is an escaping there.
Write then at Chios seventy-three;
Write then at Lesbos (let me see)
Write me at Lesbos ninety down,
Full ninety loves, and half a one.
And, next to these, let me present
The fair Ionian regiment;
And next the Carian company;
Five hundred both effectively.

Three hundred more at Rhodes and Crete;
Three hundred 'tis, I'm sure, complete;
For arms at Crete each face does bear,
And every eye's an archer there.
Go on: this stop why dost thou make?
Thou think'st, perhaps that I mistake.
Seems this to thee too great a sum?
Why many thousands are to come;
The mighty Xerxes could not boast
Such different nations in his host.
On; for my love, if thou be'st weary,
Must find some better secretary.

I have not yet my Persian told,
Nor yet my Syrian loves enroll'd,
Nor Indian, nor Arabian;
Nor Cyprian loves, nor African ;
Nor Scythian nor Italian flames;
There's a whole map behind of names.
Of gentle loves i' th' temperate zone,
And cold ones in the frigid one,
Cold frozen loves, with which I pine,
And parched loves beneath the line.

VII. GOLD.

A MIGHTY pain to love it is,

And 'tis a pain that pain to miss ;
But, of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.
Virtue now, nor noble blood,
Nor wit by love is understood;
Gold alone does passion move,
Gold monopolizes love;

A curse on her, and on the man
Who this traffic first began!

A curse on him who found the ore!

A curse on him who digg'd the store!
A curse on him who did refine it!
A curse on him who first did coin it!
A curse, all curses else above,
On him who us'd it first in love!
Gold begets in brethren hate;
Gold in families debate ;
Gold does friendships seperate;
Gold does civil wars create.
These the smallest harms of it!
Gold, alas! does love beget.

VIII. THE EPICURE.

FILL the bowl with rosy wine!
Around our temples roses twine!
And let us cheerfully awhile,
Like the wine and roses, smile.
Crown'd with roses, we contemn
Gyges' wealthy diadem.

To day is ours, what do we fear?
To day is ours; we have it here:
Let's treat it kindly, that it may
Wish, at least, with us to stay.
Let's banish business, banish sorrow;
To the gods belongs to morrow,

IX. ANOTHER.

UNDERNEATH this myrtle shade,
On flowery beds supnely laid,

With odorous oils my head o'er-flowing,
And around it roses growing,

What should I do but drink away

The heat and troubles of the day?
In this more than kingly state
Love himself shall on me wait.
Fill to me, Love, nay fill it up;
And mingled cast into the cup
Wit, and mirth, and noble fires,
Vigorous health and gay desires.
The wheel of life no less will stay
In a smooth than rugged way:
Since it equally doth flee,
Let the motion pleasant be.

Why do we precious ointments show'r ?
Nobler wines why do we pour?
Beauteous flowers why do we spread,
Upon the monuments of the dead?
Nothing they but dust can show,
Or bones that hasten to be so.
Crown me with roses whilst I live,
Now your wines and ointments give;
After death I nothing crave,
Let me alive my pleasures have,
All are Stoics in the grave,

X. THE GRASSHOPPER. HAPPY Insect! what can be

In happiness compar'd to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy Morning's gentle winè !
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill;
'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread,
Nature's self's thy Ganymede.
Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing;
Happier than the happiest king!
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants, belong to thee;
All that summer-hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice.
Man for thee does sow and plow;
Farmer he, and landlord thou!
Thou dost innocently joy;
Nor does thy luxury destroy;
The shepherd gladly heareth thee,
More harmonious than he.

Thee country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripen'd year!
Thee Phoebus loves, and does inspire;
Thoebus is himself thy sire.

To thee, of all things upon Earth.
Life is no longer than thy mirth.
Happy insect, happy thon!

Dost neither age nor winter know;

But, when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung
Thy fill, the flowery leaves among
(Voluptuous, and wise withal,
Epicurean animal!)

Sated with thy summer feast,
Thou retir'st to endless rest.

FOOLISH

XI. THE SWALLOW.

OOLISH Prater, what dost thou So early at my window do,

With thy tuneless serenade?

Well't had been had Tereus made

Thee as dumb as Philomel;

There his knife had done but well.

In thy undiscovered nest
Thou dost all the winter rest,

And dreamest o'er thy summer joys,
Free from the stormy seasons' noise :
Free from th' ill thou'st done to me;
Who disturbs or seeks-out thee?
Hadst thou all the charming notes
Of the wood's poetic throats,
All thy art could never pay
What thou hast ta'en from me away.
Cruel bird! thou'st ta'en away
A dream out of my arms to-day;
A dream, that ne'er must equall'd be
By all that waking eyes may see.
Thou, this damage to repair,
Nothing half so sweet or fair,
Nothing half so good, canst bring,
Though men say thou bring'st the Spring.

ELEGY UPON ANACREON.

WHO WAS CHOAKED BY A GRAPE-STONE.
SPOKEN BY THE GOD OF LOVE.

How shall I lament thine end,
My best servant and my friend?

Nay, and, if from a deity

So much deified as I,

It sound not too profane and odd, Oh, my master and my god!

For 'tis true, most mighty poet!

(Though I like not men should know it)
I am in naked Nature less,
Less by much, than in thy dress.

All thy verse is softer far
Than the downy feathers are
Of my wings, or of my arrows,
Of my mother's doves or sparrows,
Sweet as lovers' freshest kisses,
Or their riper following blisses,
Graceful, cleanly, smooth, and round,
All with Venus' girdle bound;
And thy life was all the while
Kind and gentle as thy style,
The smooth-pac'd hours of every day
Glided numerously away.
Like thy verse each hour did pass;
Sweet and short, like that, it was.

Some do but their youth allow me,
Just what they by Nature owe me,
The time that's mine, and not their own,
The certain tribute of my crown:
When they grow old, they grow to be
Too busy, or too wise, for me.
Thou wert wiser, and didst know
None too wise for love can grow;
Love was with thy life entwin'd,
Close as heat with fire is join'd;
A powerful brand prescrib'd the date
Of thine, like Meleager's, fate.
Th' antiperistasis of age

More enflam'd thy amorous rage į
Thy silver hairs yielded me more
Than even golden curls before.

Had I the power of creation,
As I have of generation,
Where I the matter must obey,
And cannot work plate out of clay,
My creatures should be all like thee,
'Tis thou shouldst their idea be:
They, like thee, should thoroughly hate
Business, honour, title, state;
Other wealth they should not know,
But what my living mines bestow;
The pomp of kings, they should confess,
At their crownings, to be less
Than a lover's humblest guise,
When at his mistress' feet he lies.
Rumour they no more should mind
Than men safe landed do the wind;
Wisdom itself they should not hear,
When it presumes to be severe;
Beauty alone they should admire,
Nor look at Fortune's vain attire,

Nor ask what parents it can shew;
With dead or old 't has nought to do.
They should not love yet all, or any,
But very much and very many:
All their life should gilded be
With mirth, and wit, and gaiety;
Well remembering and applying
The necessity of dying.

Their chearful heads should always wear

All that crowns the flowery year :

They should always laugh, and sing,

And dance, and strike th' harmonious string; Verse should from their tongue so flow,

As ifit in the mouth did grow,

As swiftly answering their command,
As tunes obey the artful hand.
And whilst I do thus discover
Th' ingredients of a happy lover,
"Tis, my Anacreon! for thy sake
I of the Grape no mention make.

Till my Anacreon by thee fell,
Cursed Plant! I lov'd thee well;
And 'twas oft my wanton use
To dip my arrows in thy juice.
Cursed Plant! 'tis true, I see,
Th' old report that goes of thee
That with giants' blood the Earth
Stain'd and poison'd gave thee birth;
And now thou wreak'st thy ancient spite
On men in whom the gods delight.
Thy patron, Bacchus, 'tis no wonder,
Was brought forth in flames and thunder;
In rage, in quarrels, and in fights,
Worse than his tigers, he delights;
In all our Heaven I think there be
No such ill-natur'd god as he.
Thou pretendest, traiterous Wine!
To be the Muses' friend and mine:
With love and wit thou dost begin,
False fires, alas! to draw us in;
Which, if our course we by them keep,
Misguide to madness or to sleep:
Sleep were well; thou 'ast learnt a way
To death itself now to betray.

It grieves me when I see what fate
Does on the best of mankind wait.
Poets or lovers let them be,
'Tis neither love nor poesy

Can arm, against Death's smallest dart,
The poet's head or lover's heart;
But when their life, in its decline,
Touches th' inevitable line,

All the world's mortal to them then,
And wine is aconite to men;

Nay, in Death's hand, the grape-stone proves
As strong as thunder is in Jove's.

« PreviousContinue »