Or wert thou of the golden-winged hoft,
Who having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth from thy prefixed feat didst post,
And after short abode fly back with speed,
As if to fhow what creatures Heav'n doth breed,
Thereby to fet the hearts of men on fire
To fcorn the fordid world, and unto Heav'n afpire?
But oh why didst thou not stay here below
To bless us with thy heav'n-lov'd innocence,
To flake his wrath whom fin hath made our foe,
To turn swift-rushing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the flaughtering peftilence,
To ftand 'twixt us and our deferved fmart?
But thou canst best perform that office where thou art,
Then thou the Mother of fo fweet a Child
Her falfe imagin'd lofs cease to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild.
Think what a prefent thou to God haft fent,
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
Anno Ætatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the college, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began *.
AIL native Language, that by finews weak
Didft move my first endevoring tongue to speak,
And mad'ft imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounc'd, flide through my infant-lips,
Driving dumb filence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely fat two years before:
Here I falute thee, and thy pardon ask,
That now I use 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 first,
Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
And, if it happen as I did forecast,
The daintieft dishes shall be serv'd up last.
pray thee then deny me not thy aid
For this fame fmall neglect that I have made:
But hafte thee ftrait to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefeft treasure,
Not thofe new fangled toys, and trimming flight,
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
* Thefe verfes were made in 1627, that being the 19th year of the author's age; and they were not in the edition of 1645, but were first added in the edition of 1673.
But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire
Which deepest fpirits and choiceft wits defire:
I have fome naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And weary of their place do only stay
Till thou haft deck'd them in thy best array;
That fo they may without suspect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair affembly's cars;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,
Thy fervice in fome graver fubject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found:
Such where the deep transported 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,
Listening to what unfhorn Apollo fings
To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings.
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire :
Then paffing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40
And mifty 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 mustering 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 Alcinoüs' feast,
While fad Ulyffes' foul and all the reft.
Are held with his melodious harmony
In willing chains and fweet captivity.
But fie, my wandering Mufe, how thou doft ftray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
Thou know'ft it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compafs of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.
Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments
'his ten fons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance
with his canons, which Ens, thus speaking, ex-
plains.
GOOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy drousy nurse hath sworn she 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
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could prefage,
And in time's long and dark prospective 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,
And thofe that cannot live from him afunder
Ungratefully fhall ftrive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet, being above them, he fhall 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 shall not be his hap,
And peace shall lull him in her flowery 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 thofe that are at enmity.
What power, what force, what mighty spell, if not Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? 90
The next Quantity and Quality fpake in profe, then Relation was call'd by his name.
RIVERS arife; whether thou be the fon
Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun,
Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant spreads
His thirty arms along th indented meads,
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 towred Thame.
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