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Her towery front a fiery meteor bears,
An exhalation bred of blood and tears.

Around her Jove's lewd ravenous curs complain,
Pale death, lust, tortures fill her pompous train;
She from the easy King truth's mirror took,
And on the ground in spiteful fall it broke;
Then frowning thus, with proud disdain she spoke :
"Are threadbare virtues ornaments for Kings?
Such poor pedantic toys, teach underlings.
Do monarchs rise by virtue, or by sword?
Who e'er grew great by keeping of his word?
Virtue's a faint green-sickness to brave souls,
Dastards their hearts, their active heat controls.
The rival gods, monarchs of t'other world,
This mortal poison among princes hurl'd;
Fearing the mighty projects of the great
Should drive them from their proud celestial seat,
If not o'erawed by this new holy cheat.
Those pious frauds, too slight t'ensnare the brave,
Are proper arts the long-ear'd rout t'enslave.
Bribe hungry priests to deify your might,

To teach your will's your only rule to right,
And sound damnation to all dare deny't.

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Thus Heaven's designs against Heaven you shall turn, And make them feel those powers they once did scorn. When all the gobbling interest of mankind,

By hirelings sold, to you shall be resign'd:

And by impostures God and man betray'd,
The Church and State you safely may invade ;

So boundless Louis in full glory shines,
Whilst your starved power in legal fetters pines.
Shake off those baby-bands from your strong arms,
Henceforth be deaf to that old witch's charms.
Taste the delicious sweets of sovereign power,
'Tis royal game whole kingdoms to deflower.
Three spotless virgins to your bed I'll bring,
A sacrifice to you, their God, and King.
As these grow stale, we'll harass human kind,
Rack nature, till new pleasures you shall find,
Strong as your reign, and beauteous as your mind."
When she had spoke, a confused murmur rose,
Of French, Scotch, Irish, all my mortal foes;

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Some English too, O shame! disguised I spied,
Led all by the wise son-in-law of Hyde.
With fury drunk, like bacchanals they roar,
"Down with that common Magna Charta whore!”
With joint consent on helpless me they flew,
And from my Charles to a base goal me drew;
My reverend age, exposed to scorn and shame,
To prigs, bawds, whores was made the public game.
Frequent addresses to my Charles I send,
And my sad state did to his care commend;
But his fair soul, transform'd by that French dame,
Had lost all sense of honour, justice, fame.
He in's seraglio like a spinster sits,

Besieged by ws, buffoons, and bastard chits;
Lull'd in security, rolling in lust,

Resigns his crown to angel Carwell's trust;
Her creature, Osborne, the revenue steals;
False French knave Anglesey misguides the Seals,
Mac-James the Irish bigots do adore,

His French and Teague command on sea and shore.
The Scotch-scalado of our court two isles,
False Lauderdale, with ordure all defiles.

Thus the state's night-mared by this hellish rout,
And no one left these furies to cast out.

Ah! Vindex, come, and purge the poison'd state;
Descend, descend, e'er the cure's desperate.

RALEGH.

Once more, great Queen, thy darling strive to save, Snatch him again from scandal and the grave; Present to's thoughts his long-scorn'd parliament, The basis of his throne and government.

In his deaf ears sound his dead father's name;

Perhaps that spell may's erring soul reclaim:

Who knows what good effects from thence may spring? 'Tis godlike good to save a falling King.

BRITANNIA.

Ralegh, no more, for long in vain I've tried

The Stuart from the tyrant to divide ;

As easily learned virtuosos may

With the dog's blood his gentle kind convey
Into the wolf, and make him guardian turn
To th' bleating flock, by him so lately torn.
If this imperial juice once taint his blood,
'Tis by no potent antidote withstood,
Tyrants, like leprous Kings, for publick weal
Should be immured, lest the contagion steal
Over the whole. Th' elect of th' Jessan line
To this firm law their sceptre did resign:
And shall this base tyrannic brood invade
Eternal laws, by God for mankind made?
To the serene Venetian state I'll
From her sage mouth famed principles to know,
With her the prudence of the ancients read,
To teach my people in their steps to tread;
By their great pattern such a state I'll frame,
Shall eternise a glorious lasting name,

go,

Till then, my Ralegh, teach our noble youth
To love sobriety, and holy truth.

Watch and preside over their tender age,
Lest court-corruption should their souls engage,
Teach them how arts, and arms, in thy young days
Employ'd our youth; not taverns, stews, and plays.
Tell them the generous scorn their rise does owe
To flattery, pimping, and a gaudy show.
Teach them to scorn the Carwells, Portsmouths, Nells,
The Clevelands, Osbornes, Berties, Lauderdales :
Poppaa, Tegoline, and Arteria's name,

All yield to these in lewdness, lust, and fame.
Make them admire the Talbots, Sidneys, Veres,
Drake, Cav'ndish, Blake, men void of slavish fears;
True sons of glory, pillars of the state,

On whose famed deeds all tongues and writers wait.
When with fierce ardor their bright souls do burn,
Back to my dearest country I'll return.
Tarquin's just judge, and Cæsar's equal peers,
With them I'll bring to dry my people's tears:
Publicola with healing hands shall pour
Balm in their wounds, and shall their life restore;
Greek arts and Roman arms, in her conjoin'd,
Shall England raise, relieve oppress'd mankind.

As Jove's great son th' infested globe did free
From noxious monsters' hell-born tyranny,
So shall my England, in a'holy war,
In triumph lead chain'd tyrants from afar;
Her true Crusado shall at last pull down
The Turkish crescent, and the Persian sun.
Freed by thy labours, fortunate, bless'd Isle,

The earth shall rest, the heaven shall on thee smile;

And this kind secret for reward shall give,

NO POISON'D TYRANTS ON THY EARTH SHALL LIVE.'

Cuidam qui, legendo Scripturam, descripsit formam, sapientiam, sortemque Auctoris.

Illustrissimo Viro,

Domino Lanceloto Josepho de Maniban, Grammato-manti.

Quis posthac chartæ committat sensa loquaci,

Si sua crediderit fata subesse stylo;

Conscia si prodat scribentis litera sortem,
Quicquid et in vitâ plus latuisse velit?
Flexibus in calami tamen omnia sponte leguntur :
Quod non significant verba, figura notat.
Bellerophonteas signat sibi quisque tabellas ;
Ignaramque manum spiritus intus agit.
Nil præter solitum sapiebat epistola nostra,
Exemplumque mea simplicitatis erat:
Fabula jucundos qualis delectat amicos;

Urbe, lepore, novis, carmine tota scatens.
Hic tamen interpres, quo non securior alter
(Non res, non voces, non ego notus ei)
Rimatur fibras notularum cautus aruspex,
Scripturæque inhians consulit exta meæ.
Inde statim vitæ casus, animique recessus,
Explicat (haud Genio plura liquere putem);
Distribuit totum nostris eventibus orbem,
Et quo me rapiat cardine Sphæra docet.
Que Sol oppositus, quæ Mars adversa minetur,
Jupiter aut ubi me, Luna, Venusve juvet : &e.

124

SAMUEL BUTLER.*

[1612-1680.]

SAMUEL BUTLER, the son of a substantial farmer,† was born at Strensham in Worcestershire, and baptized February 14, 1612. His grammareducation he received at the free school of Worcester; and his father being informed by Mr. Henry Bright the master, that he possessed an acute genius and a ready disposition for learning, resolved to encourage it, and to bring him up to the profession of the law. With this view, he sent him (as it is most probably conjectured) to Cambridge, to pursue his studies: but though he resided six or seven years in that University, he was never matriculated; in consequence, it is said, of his narrow circumstances, which would not permit him to go through the regular gradations of degrees, and to support the other incidental expenses of the place. We are therefore

* AUTHORITIES. General Biographical Dictionary; Grey's Memoirs of Butler; Cibber's Lives of the Poets; and British Biography.

+ His father's property was a house and a little land (as Dr. Nash has discovered) worth about eight pounds a year, still called Butler's Tenement.'

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