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For ftill they look on you with such kind eyes,
As thofe that fee the church's sovereign rife;
From their own order chofe, in whofe high state,
They think themfelves the fecond choice of fate.
When our great monarch into exile went,
Wit and religion fuffer'd banishment.

[Py you our monarch does that fame affure,
Which kings muft have, or canr ot live fecure:
For rofperous princes gain their subjects heart,
Who love that praife in which themselves have part.
By you he fits those subjects to obey,

As heaven's eternal monarch does convey

Thus once, when Troy was wrap'd in fire and His power unfeen, and man to his defigns,

firoke,

The helpless gols their burning fhrines forfook;
They with their vanquifh'd prince and party go,
And leave their temples empty to the foe.
At length the Mules ftand, reftord again
To that great charge which nature did ordain;
And their lov'd Druids feem'd revived by fate,
While you difpense the laws, and guide the state.
The nation's foul, our monarch, does difpenfe,
Through you, to us, his vital influence;
You are the channel, where thofe fpirits flow,
And work them higher, as to us they go.
In open profpect nothing bounds our eye,
Until the earth feems join'd unto the iky:
So in this hemifphere our utmost view
Is only bounded by our king and you :
Our fight is limited where you are jo n'd,
And beyond that no farther heaven can find.
So well your virtues do with his agree,

That, though your orbs of different greatness be,
Yet both are for each other's ufe difpos'd,
His to inclose, and yours to be inclos'd.
Nor could another in your room have been,
Except an emptinefs had come between.
Well may he then to you his cares impart,
And share his burden where he shares his heart.
In you his fleep ftill wakes; his pleasures find
Their fhare of bufinefs in your laboring mind.
So when the weary fun his place refigns,
He leaves his light, and by reflection shines.

Juftice, that fits and frowns where public laws
Exclude foft mercy from a private caufe,
In your tribunal moft herself does please;
There only fmiles because the lives at eafe;
And, like young David, finds her strength the more,
When difincumber'd from thofe arms the wore.
Heaven would our royal master should exceed
Moft in that virtue, which we most did need ;
And his mild father (who too late did find
All mercy vain but what with power was join'd)
His fatal goodness left to fitter times,
Not to increase, but to abfolve, our crimes:
But when the heir of this vaft treasure knew
How large a legacy was left to you
(Too great for any subject to retain),
He wifely ty'd it to the crown again:

Yet, paffing through your hands, it gathers more,
As ftreams, through mines, bear tincture of their

ore

While empiric politicians ute deceit,
Hide what they give, and cure but by a cheat;
You boldly fhew the fkill which they pretend,
And work by means as noble as your end:
Which should you veil, we might unwind the clue,
As men do nature, till we came to you.
And as the Indies were not found, before
Thofe rich perfumes, which, from the happy fhore,
The winds upon their balmy wings convey'd,
Who: guilty fweetnefs firft their world betray'd;
£o by your counfels we are brought to view
A rich and undiscover'd world in you.

By his bright minifters the stars, inclines.
Our fetting fun, from his declining feat,
Shot beams of kindness on you, not of heat:
And, when his love was Founded in a few,
That were unhappy that they might be true,
Made you the favourite of his last fad times,
That is a fufferer in his fubjects crimes:
Thus thofe firft favours you receiv'd, were fent,
Like heaven's r.wards in earthly punishment.
Yet fortune, confcious of your destiny,
Ev'n then took care to lay you softly by ;
And wrap'd your fate among her precious things,
Kept fresh to be unfolded with your king's.
Shewn all at once you dazzled fo our eyes,
As new-born Pallas did the gods furprize:
When, fpringing forth from Jove's new-cloung
wound,

She ftruck the warlike fpear into the ground;
Which sprouting leaves did fuddenly inclose,
And peaceful olives shaded as they rofe.

How strangely active are the arts of peace,
Whofe reftless motions lefs than wars do cease!
Peace is not freed from labour but from roife;
And war more force, but rot more pains employs :
Such is the mighty fwiftnefs of your mind,
Tha like the earth, it leaves our sense behind,
While you fo fmoothly turn and rowl our sphere,
That rapid motion does but reft appear.
For, as in nature's fwiftnefs, with the throng
Of flying orbs while ours is borne along,
All seems at reft to the deluded eye,
Mov'd by the foul of the fame harmony,
So, carried on by your unwearied care,
We reft in peace, and yet in motion fhare.
Let envy then thofe crimes within you fee,
From which the happy never must be free;
Envy, that does with mifery refide,
The joy and the revenge of ruin'd pride.
Think it rot hard, if at fo cheap a rate
You can fecure the conftancy of fate,
Whole kindness fent what does their malice feem,
By leffor ills the greater to redkem.

Nor can we this weak fhower a tempest call,
But drops of heat, that in the fun-fhine fall
You have already wearied fortune so,
She cannot farther be your friend or foe;
But fits all breathlefs, and admires to feel
A fate fo weighty, that it stops her wheel.
In all things elfe above our humble fate,
Your equal mind yet fwells not into state,
But, like fome mountain in those happy ifles,
Where in perpetual spring young nature fmiles,
Your greatnefs fhews: no horror to affright,
But trees for fhade, and flowers to court the fight:
Sometimes the hill submits itself a while
in fmall defcents, which do its height beguile;
And fometimes mounts, but fo as billows play,
Whofe rife not hinders, but makes short our way.
Your brow, which does no fear of thunder know,
Sees rowling tempests vainly beat below;

And, like Olympus' top, th' impreffion wears
Of love and friendship writ in former years.
Yet unimpair'd with lal ours, or with time,
Your age but feems to a new youth to climb.
Thus heavenly bodies do our time beget,

And measure change, but share ro part of it.
And still it fhall without a weight increase,
Like this new year, whofe motions never ceafe.
For fince the glorious courfe you have begun
Is led by Charles, as that is by the fun,
It muft both weightlefs and immortal prove,
Because the centre of it is above.

SATIRE ON

A

THE

WHEN for our fakes, your her you refign'd

To fwelling feas, and every faithlefs wind;
When you releas'd his courage, and fet free
A valour fatal to the enemy;

You lodg'd your country's cares within your breaft
(The manfon where folt love fl.ould only reft):
And, ere our foes abroad were overcome,
The nobleft conqueft you had gain'd at home.
Ah, what concerns did both your fouls divide!
DUTCH.Your hor our gave us what your love denied:

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1662.

S needy gallants, in the fcrivener's hands,

And 'twas for him much easier to fubdue
Thofe foes he fought with, than to part from you.
That glorious day, which two fuch navies saw,
As each unmatch'd, might to the world give law.
Neptune, yet doubtful whom he should obey,

To her Royal Highnefs the DUTCHESS of YORK, on the memorable Victory gained by the Duke over the HOLLANDERS, June the 3d, 1665, and on her Journey afterwards into the North.

MADAM,

Court the rich knaves that gripe their mort-Held to them both the trident of the fea:

gag'd lands;

The first fat buck of all the feafon's fent,
And keeper takes no fee in compliment;
The cotage of fome Englishmen is fuch,
To fawn on those who ruin them, the Dutch.
They fhall have all, rather than make a war
With thofe, who of the fame religion are.
The Straits, the Guinea-trade, the herrings too;
Nay, to keep friendship, they fhall pickle you.
Some are refolv'd not to find out the cheat,
But, cuckold-like, love them that do the feat.
What injuries foe'er upon us fall,

Yet fill the fame religion anfwers all.
Religion wheedled-us to civil war,

The winds were hufh'd, the waves in ranks were

caft,

As awfully as when Cod's people paft:
Thofe, yet uncertain on whofe fails to blow,
Thefe, where the wealth of nations ought to flow
Then with the duke your highnefs rul'd the day:
While all the brave did his command obey,
The fair and pious under you did pray.

How powerful are chafte vows! the wind and tida
You brib'd to combat on the English fide.
Thus to your much-lov'd lord you did convey
An unknwn fuccour, fent the nearest way.
New vigour to his wearied arms you brought,
(So Mofes was upheld while frack fought)

Drew English blood, and Dutchmen's row would While, from afar we heard the cannon play,

fpare.

Pe gull'd no longer; for you'll find it true,
They have no more religion, faith! than you.
Intereft's the god they worship in their state,
And we, I take it, have not much of that.
Well monarchies may own religion's name,
But ftates are atheifts in their very frame.
They thare a fin; and fuch proportions fall,
That, like a ftink, 'tis nothing to them all.
Think on their rapine, falfhood, cruelty,

And that what once they were, they still would be.
To one well-born th' affront is worse and more,
When he's abus'd and baffled by a boor.
With an ill grace the Dutch their mischiefs do;
They've both ill nature and ill manners too.
Well may they boaft themselves an ancient nation;
For they were bred ere manners were in fashion:
And their new commonwealth has fet them free
Only from honour and civility.
Venetians do not more uncouthly ride,
Than did their lubber ftate mankind beftride.
Their fway became them with as ill a mien,
As their own paunches fwell above their chin.
Yet is their empire no true growth but humour,
And only two kings' touch can cure the tumour.
As Cato, fruits of Afric did difplay;
Let us before our eyes their Indies lay:
All loyal English will like him conclude;
Let Cæfar live, and Carthage be subdued.

Like diftant thunder on a thiny day.
For abfent friends we were afham'd to fear,
When we confider'd what you ventur'd there.
Ships, mer, and arms, our country might restore;
But fuch a leader could fupply no more.
With generous thoughts of conquest he did burn,
Yet fought not more to varquifh than return.
Fortune and victory he did pu:fue,
To bring them as his faves to wait on you.
Thus beauty ravish'd the rewards of fame,
And the fair triumph'd when the brave o'ercame.
Then, as you meant to spread another way
By land your conquests, far as his by fea,
Leaving our fouthern clime, you march'd along
The ftubborn North, ten thousand Cupids ftrong,
Like commons the robility refort,

In crowding heaps, to fill your moving court:
To welcome your approach the vulgar run,
Like fome new envoy from the diftant fun,
And country beauties by their lovers go,
Bleffing themselves, and wondering at the flow.
So when the new-born Phoenix first is feen,
Her feather'd fubjects all adore their queen,
And while the makes her progr.fs through the Eaft,
From every grove her numerous train's increas'd:
Each Poet of the air her glory fings,

And round him the pleas'd audience clap their
wings.

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To the METROPOLIS of GREAT.Britain, the most renowned and late flourishing

CITY of LONDON, in its REPRESENTATIVES, the Lord-Mayor and Court of ALDERMEN, the SHERIFFS and COMMON.COuncil of it.

A

S perhaps I am the first who ever presented a work of this nature to the metro

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give the first example of such a dedication should begin it with that city, which has fet a pattern to all others of true loyalty, invincible courage, and unshaken constancy. Other cities have been praised for the same virtues, but I am much deceived if any have so dearly purchased their reputation ; their fame has been won them by cheaper trials than an expensive, though neceffary war, a consuming pestilence, and a more consuming fire. To submit yourselves with that humility to the judgments of heaven, and at the same time to raise yourselves with that vigour above all human enemies; to be combated at once from above and from below, to be struck down and to triumph: I know not whether such trials have been ever paralleled in any nation : the resolution and successes of them never can be. Never had prince or people more mutual reason to love each other, if suffering for each other can endear affection. You have come together a pair of matchless lovers, through many difficulties ; he, through a long exile, various traverses of fortune, and the interposition of many rivals, who violently ravished and with-held you from him : and certainly you have had your share in fufferings. But providence has calt upon you want of trade, that you might appear bountiful to your country's neceflities; and the rest of your afflictions are not more the effects of God's displeasure (frequent examples of them having been in the reign of the most excellent princes) than occasions for the manifesting of your christian and civil virtues. To you therefore this Year of wonders is justly dedicated, because you

have made it so. You, who are to stand a wonder to all years and ages; and who have built yourselves an immortal monument on your own ruins. You are now a Phenix in her ashes ; anst, as far as humanity can approach, a great emblem of the Suffering Deity : but heaven never made so much piety and virtue to leave it miserable. I have heard, indeed, of some virtuous persons who have ended unfortunately, but nerer of any virtuous nation : Providence is engaged too deeply when the cause becomes fo general; and I cannot imagine it has resolved the ruin of that people at home, which it has blessed abroad with successes I am therefore to conclude, that your sufferings are at an end; and that one part of my poem has not been more an history of your destruction, than the other a prophecy of your restoration. The accomplishment of which happiness, as it is the wish of all true Englishmen, so it is by done more pallionately desired, than by,

The greatest of your admirers,
And most humble of your servants,

JOHN DRY DEN.

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I

AM so many ways obliged to you, and so little able to return your favours,

that, like those who owe too much, I can only live by getting farther into your debt. You have not only been careful of my fortune, which was the effect of your nobleness, but you have been solicitous of my reputation, which is that of your

kindness. It is not long since I gave you the trouble of perusing a play for me, and now, instead of an acknowledgment, I have given you a greater, in the correction of a poem. But since you are to bear this persecution, I will at least give you the encouragement of a martyr ; you could never fuffer in a nobler cause. For I have chosen the most heroic subject, which any poet could desire: I have taken upon me to describe the motives, the beginning, progress, and successes, of a molt juft and necessary war; in it, the care, management, and prudence of our king; the conduct and valour of a royal admiral, and of two incomparable generals; the invincible courage of our captains and scamen; and three glorious victories, the result of all. After this, I have, in the Fire, the most deplorable, but withal the greatest, argument that can be imagined : the destruction being so swift, so sudden, so vaft and miserable, as nothing can parallel in story. The former part of this poem, relating to the war, is but a due expiation for my not having served my king and country in it. All gentlemen are almost obliged to it: and ì know no reason we should give that advantage to the commonalty of England, to be foremost in brave actions, which the nobles of France would never suffer in their peasants. I should not have written this but to a person who has been ever forward to appear in all employments whither his honour and generosity have called him. The latter part of my poem, which describes the Fire, I owe, first to the piety and fatherly affection of our monarch to his suffering subjects; and, in the second place, to the courage, loyalty, and magnanimity of the city; both which were so conspicuous, that I wanted words to celebrate them as they deserve. I bave called my poem Historical, not Epic, though both the actions and actors are as much heroic as any poem can contain, But since the action is not properly one, nor that accomplished in the last successes, I have judged it too bold a title for a few stanzas, which are little more in number than a single Iliad, or the longest of the Æneids. For this reason (I mean not of length, but broken action, tied too feverely to the laws of history) I am apt to agree with those, who rank Lucan, rather among hiltorians in verse, than Epic poets : in whose room, if I am not deceived, Silius Iralicus, though a worse writer, may more justly be admitted, I have chosen to write my poem in quatrains, or stanzas of four in alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble, and of greater dignity, both for the sound and number, than any other verse in use amongst us ; in which I am sure I have your approbation. The learned languages have certainly a great advantage of us, in not being tied to the slavery of any rhyme ; and were less contrained in the quantity of every Tyllable, which they might vary with fpondees or dactyls, besides so many other belps of grammatical figures, for the length

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ening or abbreviation of them, than the modern are in the clofe of that one fyllable, which often confines, and more often corrupts, the fenfe of all the reft. But in this neceflity of our rhymes, I have always found the couplet verfe more easy, though not fo proper for this occafion: for there the work is fooner at an end, every two lines concluding the labour of the poet; but in quatrains he is to carry it farther on, and not only fo, but to bear along in his head the troublesome fenfe of four lines together For thofe, who write correctly in this kind, muft needs acknowledge, that the last line of the flanza is to be confidered in the compofition of the firft. Neither can we give ourfelves the liberty of making any part of a verfe for the fake of rhyme, or concluding with a word which is not current English, or afing the variety of female rhymes all which our fathers practifed: and for the female rhymes, they are still in ufe amongst other nations; with the Italian in every line, with the Spaniard promifcuously, with the French alternately; as thofe who have read the Alarique, the Pucelle, or any of their later poems, will agree with me. And befides this, they write in Alexandrins or verfes of fix feet; fuch as amongst us is the old tranflation of Homer by Chapman: all which, by lengthning of their chain, makes the fphere of their activity the larger. I have dwelt too long upon the choice of my stanza, which you may remember is much better defended in the preface to Gondibert; and therefore I will haften to acquaint you with my endeavours in the writing. In general I will only fay, I have never yet feen the defcription of any naval fight in the proper terms which are used at fea: and if there be any fuch in another language, as that of Lucan in the third of his Pharfalia, yet I could not avail my felf of it in the English; the terms of art in every tongue bearing more the idiom of it than any other words. We hear indeed among our poets, of the thundering of guns, the fmoke, the disorder, and the flaughter; but all these are common notions. And certainly, as thofe who in a logical difpute keep in general terms, would hide a fallacy; fo those who do it in any poetical description, would veil their ignorance.

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Defcriptas fervare vices operumque colores,
"Cur ego, fi nequeo ignoroque, Poeta falutor?"

For my own part I had little knowledge of the fea, yet I have thought it no shame to Jearn: and if I have made fome few mistakes, it is only, as you can bear me witness, because I have wanted opportunity to correct them; the whole poem being firft written, and now fent you from a place where I have not fo much as the converfe of any feaman. Yet though the trouble I had in writing it was great, it was no more than recompenfed by the pleasure. I found myself fo warm in celebrating the praises of military men, two fuch especially as the prince and general, that it is no wonder if they infpired me with thoughts above my ordinary level. And I am well fatisfied, that, as they are incomparably the beft fubject I ever had, excepting only the royal family, fo alfo, that this I have written of them is much better than what I have performed on any other. I have been forced to help out other arguments; but this has been bountiful to me they have been low and barren of praife, and I have exalted them; and made them fruitful; but here" Omnia fponte fua reddit juftiffima tel"lus." I have had a large, a fair, and a pleasant field; fo fertile, that without my cultivating, it has given me two harvefts in a fummer, and in both oppreffed the reaper. All other greatnefs in fubjects is only counterfeit: it will not endure the test of danger; the greatnefs of arms is only real: other greatnefs burdens a nation with its weight; this fupports it with its ftrength. And as it is the happine fs of the age, fo it is the peculiar goodness of the best of kings, that we may praife his fubjects without offending him. Doubtlefs it proceeds from a juft confidence of his own virtue, which the luftre of no other can be fo great as to darken in him; for the good or the valiant are never fafely praifed under a bad or a degenerate prince.

But

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