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XI.

Then thou the mother of fo fweet a child.
Her falfe imagin'd lofs ceafe to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild:
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
And render him with patience what he lent!
This if thou do, he will an offspring give,
That till the world's laft end fhall make thy name to

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[live.

II. Anno ætatis 19. At a vacation exercife in the college, part Latin, part English. The Latin fpeeches ended, the English thus began.

HALL native Language, that by finew's weak
Didft move my first endevoring tongue to speak,
And mad'ft imperfect words with childish trips,
Half-unpronounc'd. slide through my infant-lips,
Driving dumb Silence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely fat two years before :.
Here I falute thee, and thy pardon afk,
That now Lufe thee in my latter task :
Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee,
I know my tongue but little grace can do thee:
Thou need'ft not be ambitious to be firft,
Believe me I have thither packt the worst :
And, if it happen as I did forecast,

The daintieft dishes fhall be ferv'd up laft.

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ΤΟ

I pray thee then deny me not thy aid

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For this fame small neglect that I have made :

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But haste thee strait to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefeft treasure,
Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming flight,
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
But cull thofe richest robes, and gay'st attire,
Which deepest spirits, and choicest wits defire:
Í have fome naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their paffage out;
And weary of their place do only stay
Till thou haft deck'd them in thy best array;
That so they may without fufpect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair affembly's ears ;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,

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Thy service in fome graver fubject use, :

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Such as may make thee fearch thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found:
Such where the deep tranfported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and fee each blissful deity

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Lift'ning to what unfhorn Apollo fings

To the touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire:

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Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves
In Heav'n's defiance muft'ring all his waves;

Then fing of fecret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was;
And last of kings and queens and heroes old,
Such as the wife Demodocus once told
In folemn fongs at King Alcinous' feast,

While fad Ulyffes' foul and all the rest
Are held with his melodious harmony

In willing chains and sweet captivity.

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But fie, my wand'ring Muse, how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
Thou know'ft it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may refign my room.
Then Ens is reprefented as father of the Predicaments his
ten fons, whereof the eldest food for fubftance with his
canons, which Ens, thus fpeaking, explains.

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Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy droufy nurse hath fworn fhe did them spie
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And sweetly finging round about thy bed
Strow all their bleffings on thy fleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst still
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:

Yet there is fomething that doth force my fear,
For once it was my dismal hap to hear

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A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could presage,
And in Time's long and dark profpective glass
Forefaw what future days should bring to pass;
Your fon, faid fhe, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an accident.
O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,

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And those that cannot live from him afunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them ;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing..
To find a foe it fhall not be his hap,
And Peace fhall lull him in her flow'ry lap;
Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his door
Devouring War fhall never cease to roar :
Yea, it fhall be his natural property
To harbour those that are at enmity.
What power,
what force, what mighty fpell, if not
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? 90
The next Quantity and Quality fpake in profe, then Rela-
tion was call'd by his name.

Rivers arife; whether thou be the fon

of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or golphy Dun,

Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant fpreads His thirty arms along th' indented meads,

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Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death,
Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,

Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,

Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name,
Or Medway smooth, or royal towered Thame.
[The reft was profe.]

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III. On the morning of Chrift's nativity. Compos'd 1629.

I.

THIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For fo the holy Sages once did fing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unfufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

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Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table 10
To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,

Forfook the courts of everlasting day,

And chofe with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

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