These
Catilines
their conjured gods did eat.
Marvell - Poems
Nor was I longer to invite him scant,
Happy at once to make him Protestant
And silent. Nothing now dinner stayed.
But till he had himself a body made,
I mean till he were dressed ; for else so thin
He stands, as if he only fed had been
With consecmted wafers, and the host
Hath sure more flesh and blood than he can boast.
This basso-relievo of a man.
Who, as a camel tall, yet easily can
The needle's eye thread without any stitch,
(His only impossible is to be rich,)
Lest his too subtle body, growing rare,
Should leave his soul to wander in tlie air,
He therefore circumscribes himself in rliymes.
And swaddled in's own papers sewn times,
Wears a close jacket of poetic buff.
With which he doth his third dirnonsiun stuff.
Thus armed underneath, he over ail
Does make a primitive Sotana fail.
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OP MARVELL. 181
And above that yet casts an antique cloak,
Worn at the first council of Antioch,
Which by the Jews long hid, and disesteemed,
He heard of by tradition, and redeemed.
But were he not in this black habit decked,
This half transparent man would soon reflect
Each colour that he past by, and be seen.
As the chameleon, yellow, blue, or green.
He dressed, and ready to disfumish now
His chamber, whose compactness did allow
No empty place for complimenting doubt,
But who came last is forced first to go out ;
I meet one on the stairs who made me stand,
Stopping the passage, and did him demand ;
I answered, " he is here. Sir, but you see
You cannot pass to him but thorough me. '*
He thought himself affronted, and replied,
" I, whom the palace never has denied.
Will make the way here;" I said, "Sir,
you'll do
Me a great favour, for I seek to go. "
He, gathering fury, still made sign to draw.
But himself closed in a scabbard saw
As narrow as his sword's ; and I that was
Delighted, said, " there can no body pass
Except by penetration hither where
To make a crowd, nor can three persons here
Consist but in one substance. " Then, to fit
Our peace, the priest said 1 too had some wit ;
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182 THK POEMS
To prov% I said, ** the place doth us inrite.
By its own nairowDess, Sir, to unite. **
He atked me pardon ; and to make me waj
Went down, as I him foUowed to obey.
Bat the propitiatory priest had straight
Obliged OS, when below, to celebrate
Together oor atonement ; so increased
Betwixt OS two, the dinner to a feast.
Let it soffice that we could eat in peace,
And that both poems did, and quarrel cease
During the table, though my new made friend
Did, as he threatened, ere 'twere long intend
To be both witty and valiant ; I loath.
Said 'twas too late, he was already both.
But now, alas I my first tormentor came,
Who, satisfied with eating, but not tame,
Turns to recite : though judges most severe,
After the assizes' dinner, mild appear,
And on full stomach do condemn hut few.
Yet he more strict my sentence dotli renew,
And draws out of the black box of his breast
Ten quire of paper, in which he was dressed.
Yet that which was a greater cruelty,
Than Nero's poem, he calls charity :
And so the Pelican, at his door hung,
Picks out the tender bosom to its* young.
Of all his poems there he stain Is ungirt,
Save only two foul copies for his shirt ;
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OF MARVELL. 183
Yet these he promises as soon as clean :
But how I loathed to see my neighbour glean
Those papers, which he peeled from within
Like white flakes rising from a leper's skin !
More odious than those rags which the French
youth
At ordinaries after dinner show'th,
When they compare their chancres and poulains !
Yet he flrst kissed them, and after takes pains
To read, and then, because he understood
Not one word, thought and swore that they were
good.
But all his praises could not now appease
The proroked author, whom it did displease
To hear his verses, by so just a curse,
That were ill made, condemned to be read worse :
And how (impossible ! ) he made yet more
Absurdities in them than were before ;
For his untuned voice did fall or raise
As a deaf man upon a viol plays,
Making the half-points and the periods run
Confuseder than the atoms in the sun.
Thereat the poet swelled with anger full.
And roared out like Perillus in*s own bull ;
Sir, you read false. That any one, but you,
Should know the contrary. Whereat, I now
Made mediator in my room^ said why ?
To say that you read false^ Sir, is no lie.
Thereat the waxen youth relented straight.
But saw with sad despair that 'twas too late ;
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184 THE POEMS
For the disdainful poet was retired
Home, his most furious satire to have fired
Against the rebel, who, at tit is struck dead,
Wept bitterly as disinherited.
Who would commend his mistress now ? O who
Praise him ? both difficult indeed to do
With truth. I counselled him to go in time.
Ere the fierce poet's anger turned to rhyme.
He hasted ; and I, finding myself free.
As one 'scaped strangely from captivity,
Have made the chance be painted ; and go now
To hang it in Saint Peter's for a vow*
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OF MARVELL. 185
TOM MAY'S DEATH.
As one put drunk into the packet-boat,
Tom Mat was hurried hence, and did not
know't ;
But was amazed on the Elysian side,
And, with an eye uncertain gazing wide,
Could not determine in what place he was,
(For whence, in Steven's alley, trees or
grass? )
Nor where the Pofie's-Head, nor the Mitre lay,
Signs by which still he found and lost his way
At last, while doubtfully he all compares.
He saw near hand, as he imagined, Abes.
Such did he seem for corpulence and port.
But 'twas a man much of another sort ;
'Twas Ben, that in the dusky laurel shade.
Amongst the chorus of old poets, laid.
Sounding of ancient heroes, such as were
The subject's safety, and the rebel's fear,
And how a double-headed vulture eats
Brutus and CAi^sius, the people's cheats;
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186 THE POEMS
But, seeing Mat, he varied straight his song,
Gently to signify that he was wrong.
* Cups more than civil of Ematbian wine,
I 8ing (said he) and the Pharsalian sign,
Where the historian of the commonwealth.
In his own howels sheathed the conquering
health.
By this Mat to himself and them was come.
He found he was translated, and by whom.
Yet then with foot as stumbling as his tongue.
Pressed for his place among the learned throng ;
But Ben, who knew not either foe or friend.
Sworn enemy to all that do pretend.
Rose more than ever he was seen severe.
Shook his gray locks, and his own bays did tear
At this intrusion ; then, with laurel wand,
The awful sign of his supreme command.
At whose dread whisk Virgil himself does
quake.
And HoBACE patiently its strokes does take.
As he crowds in, he whipped him o'er the pate,
Like Pembroke at the miisque, and then did
rate:
Far from these blessed shades tread back
agen,
Most servile wit, and mercenary pen.
* AUnding to the beginning of May's tnuulation of Lu
CA2«*8 Phanalia.
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OP MARVELL. 187
Polydore, Lucan, Alan, Vandal, Gotb,
Malignant poet and historian both.
Go seek the novice statesmen, and obtrude
On them some Roman cast similitude ;
Tell them of liberty, the story's fine,
Until you all grow consuls in your wine,
Or thou, dictator of the glass, bestow
On him the Cato, this the Cickro,
Ti*ansferring old Rome hither in your talk,.
As Bethlem house did to Loretto walk.
Foul architect ! that hadst not eye to see
How ill the measures of these states agrees .
And who by Rome's example England lay.
Those but to Luc an do continue May ;
But thee, nor ignorance, nor seeming good
Misled, but malice fixed and undei'stood.
Because some one than thee more worthy wears
The sacred laurel, hence are all these tears.
Must therefore all the world be set on flame,
Because a Gazette-writer missed, his aim ?
And for a tankard-bearing muse must we,
As for the basket, Guelphs and Ghibelines be ?
When the sword glitters o'er the judge's head,
And fear has coward churchmen silenced,
Then is the poet's time, *tis then he draws,
And single fights forsaken virtue's cause.
He, when the wheel of empire whirleth back,
And though the world's disjointed axle crack,
Sings still of ancient rights and better times.
Seeks wretched good, arraigns successful crimes ;
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188 THE POBMS
But thou, base man, first prostituted hast.
Our spotless knowledge and the studies chaste,
Apostatizing from our arts and us,
To turn the chronicler to Spabtacus ;
Yet wast thou taken hence with equal fate,
Befgre thou couldst great Chablbs's death re-
late,
But what will deeper wound thy little mind,
Hast lefl surviving Dayenant still behind.
Who laughs to see in this thy death renewed.
Right Roman poverty and gratitude.
Poor poet thou, and grateful senate they.
Who thy last reckoning did so largely pay,
And with the public, gravity would come.
When thou hadst drunk thy last, to lead thee
home.
If that can be thy home where Spexseb lies,
And reverend Chauceb; but their dust does
xise
Against thee, and expels . thee from their side.
As the eagle's plumes from other birds divide :
Nor here thy shade must dwell, return, re-
turn.
Where sulphury Fulegethon does ever burn !
There Cerberus with all his jaws shall gnash,
Megj^ra thee with all her serpents lash ;
Thou, riveted unto Ixion's wheel,
Shalt break and the perpetual vulture feel !
'Tis just what torments poets e'er did feign,
Thou first historically shouldst sustain.
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OF BIARVELL. 189
Thus-, by irrevocable sentence cast,
Mat only master of these revels passed,
And straight he vanished in a cloud of pitch,
Such as unto the sabbath bears the witch.
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190 THE POEMS
OCEANA AND BRITANNIA.
Non ego sum votes, sed prisci conscius isvi.
OCEANA.
Whither, O whither, wander I forlorn,
Fatal to friends, and to my foes a scorn ?
My pregnant womb is laboring to bring forth
Thy offspring, Archon, heir to thy just worth.
Archon, O Archon, hear my groaning cries !
Lucina, help, assuage my miseries !
Saturnian spite pursues me thi-ough the earth.
No corner's left to hide my long wished birth.
Great queen of isles, yield me a safe retreat
From the crowned gods, who would my infants
eat ;
On me, O Delos, on my child-bed, smile.
My happy seed shall fix thy floating isle ;
I feel fierce pangs assault my teeming womb :
Xiucina, O Britannia, mother come !
BRITANNIA.
What doleful shrieks pierce my affrighted ear ?
Shall I ne*er rest for this lewd ravisher?
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OP MARVBLL. 191
Rapes, burnings, murders, are his royal sport,
These modish monsters haunt his peijured court.
No tumbling player so oft e'er changed his shape,
As tliis goat, fox, wolf, timorous French ape.
True Protestants, in Roman habits dressed.
With Scroggs* he baits, that rav'nous butcher's
beast;
Tresilian Jones,t that fair-faced crocodile.
Tearing their hearts, at once doth weep and
smile :
Neronian flames at London do him please,^
At Oxford plots,^ to act A^gathocles.
His plots revealed, his mirth is at an end,
And *6 fatal hour Bhall know no foe nor friend.
Last martyr's day I saw a cherub stand
Across my seas, one foot upon the land,
The other on the enthralled Gallic shore,
Proclaiming loud their time shall be no more.
This mighty power heaven's equal balance swayed,
And in one scale, crowns, crosiers, sceptres, laid ;
* Sir Williftm Scroggs was a judge, of whom Bishop Bur-
net gives this account. ** In ail the trials he set himself,
even with indecent earnestness, to get the prisoners to be
always cast"
t One of the same principles with Scroggs. He was pre-
ferred when Jeffreys was made Lord Chief Justice.
J The fire of London.
^ In the time of the plague, in the year 1665, the court
resided at Oxford, where the parliament wns then held ; at
which time were several private cabals, formed against the
Protestants.
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192 THE POEMS
In ibe other a sweet smiling babe did lie.
Circled with glories, decked with majesty.
With steady hand he poised the golden pair ;
The gilded gewgaws mounted in the air.
The ponderous babe, descending in its scale,
Leaped on my shore
! Nature triumphed, joy echoed through the eai*th,
The heavens bow down to see the blessed birth.
What's that I hear? A new bom babe's soft
cries.
And joyful mother's tender lullabies.
'Tis so ; behold, my daughter's passed all harms,
Cradling an infant in her fruitful arms ;
The very same the angelic vision showed,
In mien, in majesty, how like a god !
What a firm health does on her visage dwell !
Her sparkling eyes immortal youth foretell.
Eome, Sparta, Venice, could not all bring forth
So strong, so temperate, such lasting worth.
Marpesia, from the north with speed advance,
Thy sister's birth brings thy deliverance.
Fergusian founders this just babe exceeds,
In tlie arts of peace, and mighty martial d(3eda.
Kneel, Panopeians, to your equal queen,
Safe from the foreign sword, and barbarous
skene.
Transports of joy divert my yearning heart,
For my dear child, my soul, my better part.
Heaven shower her choicest blessings on thy womb,
Our present help, our stay in time to come !
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OF MiRTELL. 193
Thou best of daughters, mothers, matrons, say
What forced thy birth, and got this glorious day ?
OCEANA.
'Scaped the slow jaws o' the grinding pensioners,
I fell i' the trap of Rome's dire murderers ;
Twice rescued by my loyal senate's power, "
Twice I expected my babe's happy hour.
Malignant force twice checked their pious aid,
And to my foes as oft my state betrayed.
Great, full of pain, in a dark winter's night.
Threatened, pursued, I 'scaped by sudden flight.
Pale fear gave speed to my weak trembling feet.
And far I fled ere day our world could greet.
That dear loved light, which the whole globe
doth cheer,
Spurred on my flight, and ^ded to my fear ;.
Whilst black conspiracy, that child of night,
In royal purple clad, outdares the light ;
By day herself the faith's defender styles.
By night digs pits, and spreads her papal toils :
By day she to the pompous chapel goes.
By night, with York, adores Rome's idol-shows.
Witness, ye stars, and silent powers of night.
Her treacheries have forced my guiltless flight.
With the broad day my danger too drew near ;
Of help, of counsel void, how should I steer !
In pulpit damned, strumpet at court proclaimed,.
Where should I hide, where should I rest
defamed ?
13
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194 THE POEMS
Tortured in thought, I raised mj weeping eyes,
And sobbing voice, to the all-helping skies.
As by heaven sent, a reverend sire appears.
Charming my grief, stopping my flood of tears.
His busy circling orbs, two restless spies.
Glanced to and fro, outranging Argos' eyes ;
Like fleeting Time, on*s front one lock did grow,
From his glib tongue torrents of words did flow ;
Propose, resolve, Agrarian, forty-one,
Lycurgus, Brutus, Solon, Harrington.
He said he knew me in my swaddling bands,
Had often danced me in his careful hands.
He knew Lord Archon too, then wept, and swore,
Enshrined in me, his fame he did adore.
His name I asked ; he said, Politico,
Descended from the divine Nicolo.
My state he knew, my danger seemed to dread,
And to my safety vowed hand, heart, and head.
Grateful returns I up to heaven send.
That in distress Iiad sent me such a friend.
I asked him where I was ? Pointing he showed
Oxford's old towers, once the learned arts'
abode ;
Once great in fame, now a piratic port.
Where Romish priests, and elvish monks
resort.
He added ; near a new-built college stood.
Endowed by Plato, for the public good ;
Thither allured by learned honest men,
Plato vouchsafed once more to live njxaiii.
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OP MARVELL. 195
Securely there I might myself repose,
From ray fierce griefs, and my more cruel foes.
Tired with long flights, e'en hunted down with
fear,
The welcome news my drooping soul did cheer.
His pleasing words shortened the time and way.
And me beguiled at Plato's house to stay.
When we came in, he told me after rest,
He'd show me Plato, and's Venetian guest :
I scarce replied, with weariness oppressed ;
To my desired apartment I repaired,
Invoking sleep, and heaven's almighty guard.
My waking cares, and stabbing frights recede,
And nodding sleep dropped on my drowsy head.
At last the summons of a busy bell.
And glimmering lights did sleep's kind mists
dispel.
From bed I stole, and creeping by the wall.
Through a small chink I spied a spacious hall ;
Tapers, as thick as stai*s, did shed their light
Around the place, and made a day of night.
The curious art of some great master's hand
Adorned the room : Hyde, CliiFord, Danby, stand
In one large piece ; next them, the two Dutch
wars
In bloody colours paint our fatal jars ;
Here London flames in clouds of smoke aspire,
Done to tlie life, I'd almost cried out fire !
But living figures did my eyes divert
From these, and many more of wond'rous art.
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196 THE rOEMS
There entered in three mercenary bands :
The different captains had distinct commands.
The beggar's desperate troop did first appear,
Littleton led, proud S re had the rear.
The disguised papists under Garroway,
Talbot lieutenant, none had better pay.
Next greedy Lee led party-coloured slaves ;
Deaf fools i' the right, i* the wrong sagacious
knaves,
Brought up by M : then a nobler train,
In malice mighty, impotent in brain,
The Pope's solicitors brought into the hall,
Not guilty lay, much guilty spiritual.
I also spied behind a private screen,
Colbert and Portsmouth, York and Mazarine.
Immediately in close cabal they join,
And all applaud the glorious design.
'Gainst me, and my loved senate's free-bom
breath.
Dire threats I heard, the hall did echo death.
A curtain drawn, another scene appeared,
A tinkling bell, a mumbling priest I heard.
At elevation every knee adored
The baker's craft, infallible*s vain lord.
When Catiline with vipers did conspire
To murder Rome, and bury it in fire,
A sacramental bowl of human gore.
Each villain took, and as he drank he swore.
The cup denied, to make their plot complete.
These Catilines their conjured gods did eat.
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OP MARVELL. 197
Whilst to their breaden whimseys they did
kneel,
I crept away, and to the door did steaL
As I got out by providence, I flew
To this close wood ; too late they did pursue :
That dreadful night my childbed throes
brought on.
My cries moved your, and heaven's compassion.
BRITANNIA.
O happy day I a jubilee proclaim ;
Daughter adore the unutterable name I
With grateful heart breathe out thyself in
prayer ;
In the mean time the babe shall be my care.
There is a man, my island's hope and grace,
The chief delight, and joy, of human race,
Exposed himself to war in tender age,
To free his country from the Gallic rage ;
With all the graces blessed his riper years,
And full-blown virtue waked the tyrant's fears :
By *s sii*e rejected, but by heaven he*s called
To break my yoke, and rescue the enthralled.
This, this is he, who, with a stretched out hand,
And matchless might, shall free my groaning
land.
On earth's proud basilisks he'll justly fall,
Like Moses' rod, and prey upon them all.
He'll guide my people through the raging seas.
To holy wars, and certain victories ;
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198 THE POEMS
His spotless fame, and his immense desert,
Shall plead love's cause, and storm this virgin's
heart;
She, like JBgeria, shall his breast inspire
With justice, wisdom, and celestial fire ;
Like Numa, he her dictates shall obey.
And by her oracles the world shall sway.
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OP MARVELL. 199
BRITANNIA AND RALEIGH.
BRITANNIA.
Ah ! Raleighy when thou didst thy breath resign
To trembling James, would I had quitted mine.
Cubs didst thou call them ? Hadst thou seen
this brood
Of earls, and dukes, and princes of the blood,
No more of Scottish race thou would'st complain,
Those would be blessings in this spurious reign.
Awake, arise from thy long blessed repose,
Once more with me partake of mortal woes 1
RALEIGH.
What mighty power has forced me from my rest ?
Oh ! mighty queen, why so untimely dressed ?
BRITANNIA.
Favoured by night, concealed in this disguise,.
Whilst the lewd court in drunken slumber lies,
I stole away, and never will return,
Till England knows who did her city burn ;
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200 THE POEMS
Till cavaliers shall favourites be deemed,
And loj'al sufferers by the court esteemed ;
Till * Leigh and Galloway shall bribes nject ;
Thus O n's golden cheat I shall detect ;
Till atheist Lauderdale shall leave this land,
And Commons' votes shall cut-nose guards
disband :
Till Kate a happy mother shall become,
Till Charles loves parliaments, and James hates
Rome.
RALEIGH.
What fatal crimes make you for ever fly
Your once loved court, and martyr's progeny ?
BRITANNIA.
A colony of French possess the court ;
Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy-chamber sport.
Such slimy monsters ne*er approached a tluone,
Since Pharaoh's days, nor so defiled a crown.
In sacred ear tyrannic arts they croak,
Pi^rvert his mind, and good intentions choke,
Tell him of golden Indias, fairy lands,
Leviathan, and absolute commands.
Tims fairy-like, they steal the king away,
And in his room a changeling Lewis lay.
* L'. 'igh and Galloway were suspected to be hrlUed by
Lor. I Danby, to side with the court.
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OP MABVELL. 201
How oft have I him to himself restored,
In 's lefl the scale, in 's right hand placed the
sword?
Taught him their use, what dangers would ensue
To them who strive to separate these two ?
The bloody Scottish chronicle read o'er,
Showed him how manj kings, in purple
Were hurled to hell, by cruel tyrant lort
1
>\e gore, >
are ? J
The other day famed Spenser I did bring,
In lofty notes Tudor's blessed race to sing ;
How Spain's proud powers her virgin arms con-
trolled,
And golden days in peaceful order rolled ;
How like ripe fruit she dropped from off her
throne.
Full of gray hairs, good deeds, and great renown.
As the Jessean hero did appease
Saul's stormy rage, and stopped his black disease.
So the learned bard, with artful song, suppressed
The swelling passion of his cankered breast.
And in his heart kind influences shed
Of country's love, by truth and justice bred.
Then to perform the cure so well begun,
To him I showed this glonous setting sun ;
How, by her people's looks pursued from far,
She mounted on a bright celestial car, .
Outshining Virgo, or the Julian star.
Whilst in truth's mirror this good scene he spied.
Entered a dame, bedecked with spotted pride.
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202 THE POEMS
Fair flower-de-luce within an azure field,
Her left hand bears the ancient Gallic shield,
By her usurped ; her right a bloody sword,
Inscribed Leviathan, our sovereign Lord ;
Her towery front a fiery meteor bears,
An exhalation bred of blood and tears ;
Around her Jove's lewd ravenous curs com-
plain.
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:
f
"Are thread-bare 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 hurled,
Fearing the mighty projects of the great %
Should drive them from their proud celestial I
seat, [
If not o'erawed by this new holy cheat. ^
Those pious frauds, too slight to ensnare the
brave.
Are proper arts the long-eared rout to ( us lave.
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OP MARVELL. 203
Bribe hungry priests to deify your might, ^
To teach your will's your only rule to right, V
And sound damnation to all dare deny 't. J
Thus heaven's designs 'gainst 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 resigned.
And by impostures, God and man betrayed.
The church and state you safely may invade ;
So boundless Lewis in full glory shines,
Whilst your starved power in legal fetters pines.
Shake off those baby-bands from your strong
armSy
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
mind. "
find, I
your J
When she had spoke, a confused murmur
rose.
Of French, Scotch, Irish, all my mortal foes ;
Some English too, O shame ! disguised I spied.
Led all by the wise son-in-law of Hyde.
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204 THE POEMS
With fury drunk, like bacchanals, they roar,
Down with that common Magna Ciiarta whore !
With joint consent on helpless me they flew.
And fi*om my Charles to a base gaol me drew ;
My reverend age exposed to scorn and shame,
To pngs, 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, transformed by that French
dame.
Had lost all sense of honour, justice, fame,
lie in *s seraglio like a spinster sits.
Besieged by whores, buffoons, and bastard
chits;
Lulled in security, rolling in lust.
Resigns his crown to angel Carwell's trust ;
Her creature O n the revenue steals ;
False F — h, knave Ang — sey misguide the
seals.
Mac-James the Irish bigots does 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 nightmared by this hellish rout,
And no one left these furies to cast out.
Ah! Vindex come, and purge the poisoned
state ;
Descend, descend, ere the cure's desperate.
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OP MARVELL. 205
RALEIGH.
Once more, great queen, thy darling strive to
save,
Snatch him again from scandal and the grave ;
Present to's thoughts his long-scorned parlia-
ment,
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.
Raleigh, 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 the bleating flock, by him so lately torn :
If this imperial juice once taint )ii$ blood,
*Tis by no potent antidote withstood.
Tyrants, like lep'rous kings, for public weal
Should be immured, lest the contagion steal
Over the whole. The elect of* the Jessean
line
To this firm law their sceptre did resign ;
And shall this base tyrannic brood invade
Eternal laws, by God for mankind made?
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206 THE POEMS
To the serene Venetian state I'll go,
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 eternize a glorious lasting name.
Till then, my Raleigh, 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.
Employed our youth, — ^not taverns, stews, and
plays ;
Tell them the generous scorn their race does owe
To flattery, pimping, and a gaudy show ;
Teach them to scorn the Carwells, Portsmouths,
Nells,
The Clevelands, O ns, Berties, Lauderdales :
Poppasa, Tigelline, and Arteria's name.
All yield to these in lewdness, lust, and fame.
Make them admire the Talbots, Sydneys, Veres,
Drake, Cavendish, 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 ardour their bright souls do
bum,
Back to my dearest country I'll return.
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OF MARVELL. 207
Tarquin's just judge, and Caesar's equal peers,
With them Til 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 conjoined,
Shall England raise, relieve oppressed mankind.
As Jove's great son the infested globe did free
From noxious monsters, hell-born tyranny, . .
So shall my England, in a holy war.
In triumph lead chained tyrants from afar ;
Her true Crusada shall at last pull down
The Turkish crescent, and the Persian sun.
Freed by thy labours, fortunate, blest isle,
The earth shall rest, the heaven shall on thee
smile ;
And this kind secret for reward shall give.
No poisoned tyrants on thy earth shall live.
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208 THE POEMS
INSTRUCTIONS TO A PAINTER, ABOUT
THE DUTCH WARS, 16C7.
After two sittings,* now our Lady State,
To end her picture, does the third time wait ;
But ere thou fallest to work, first, Painter, see,
Is it too slight grown or too hard for thee ?
Canst thou paint without colours ? Then 'tis right :
For so we too without a fleet can fight.
Or canst thou daub a sign -post, and that ill ?
'Twill suit our great debauch, and little skill.
Or hast thou marked how antic masters limn
The alley-roof with snuff of candle dim.
Sketching in shady smoke prodigious tools ?
'Twill serve this race of drunkards, pimps, and
fools.
But if to match our crimes thy skill presumes,
As the Indians draw our luxury in plumes.
Or if to score out our compendious fame.
With Hooke then through your microscope take
aim,
♦ See Waller's, and Denham*? , poems.
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OP MARVELL. 209
Where like the new comptroller all men laugh^
To see a tall louse brandish a white staff,
Else shall thou ofl thy guiltless pencil curse,
Stamp on thy pallet, not perhaps the worse.
The painter having so long vexed his cloth,
Of his hound's mouth to feign the raging froth,
His desperate pencil at the work did dart ;
His anger reached that rage which passed-
his art ;
Chance finished that, which art could not begin,.
And he sat smiting as his dog did grin.
So mayest thou perfect by a lucky blow,
What all thy soflest touches cannot do.
Paint then St. Alban's full of soup and gold,.
The new court's pattern, stallion of the old,
Him neither wit nor courage did exalt,
But Fortune chose him for her pleasure's salt.
Paint him with drayman's shoulders, butcher's
mien,
Membered like mule, with elephantine chin.
Well he the title of St. Alban's bore.
For never Bacon studied nature more ;
But age, allaying now that youthful heat,
Fits him in France to play at cards, and cheat;
Draw no commission, lest the court should lie.
And, disavowing treaty, ask supply.
He needs no seal but to St. James's lease.
Whose breeches were the instruments of peace ;
14
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^0 THE POEMS
Who, if the French dispute his power, from
thence
Can straight produce them a plenipotence.
Nor fears he the Most Christian should trepan
Two saints at once, St German and Alban ;
But thought the golden age was now restored.
When men and women took each other's word.
Paint then again her highness to the life,
Philosopher beyond Newcastle's wife.
She naked can Archimedes' self put down.
For an experiment upon the crown.
She perfected that engine oft essayed,
How after child-birth to renew a maid ;
And found how royal heirs might be matured
In fewer months than mothers once endured.
Hence Crowder made the rare inventress free
Of *s Highness's Royal Society.
Happiest of women if she were but able
To make her glassen Duke once malleable !
Paint her with oyster-lip, and breath of fame,
Wide mouth, that sparagus may well proclaim ;
With chancellor's belly, and so large a rump.
Where (not behind the coach) h(-r pages jump.
Express her studying now, if Clnna clay
Can, without breaking, venomed juice convey :
Or how a mortal poison she may draw
Out of the cordial meal of the cocoa.
Witness ye stars oi' night, and thou the pale
Moon, thato'ercome with the su k steam, didst fail:
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OF MARVELL. 211
Ye neighbVing elms, which your green leaves
did slied,
And fawns which from the womb abortive fled.
Not unprovoked she tries forbidden arts,
But in her soft- breast love's hid cancer smarts,
While she resolves at once Sydney's disgrace.
And herself scorned for emulous Denham's
face ; *
And nightly hears the hated guard, away
Galloping with the Duke to other prey.
Paint Castlemain in colours which will hold
Her, not her picture, for she now grows old.
She through her lackey's drawers, as he ran,
Discerned love's cause, and a new flame began.
Her wonted joys thenceforth, and court, she
shuns,
And still within her mind the footman runs ;
His brazen calves, his brawny thighs, (the face
She slights) his feet shaped for a smoother race !
Then, poring with her glass, she re-adjusts ;
Her locks, and oft-tried beauty now distrusts ;
Feai*s lest he scorned a woman once assayed,
And now fii-st wished she e'er had been a maid.
Great love ! how dost thou triumph, and how
reign.
That to a groom couldst humble her disdain !
* The Duke of York was thought to have an intrigue with
Sir John Denham^s lady.
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212 THE POEMS
Stripped to her skin, see how she stooping
stands,
Nor scorns to rub him down with those fair
hands,
And washing (lest the scent her crime disclose)
His sweaty hoofs, tickles him betwixt the toes.
But envious fame too soon began to note
More gold in 's fob, more lace upon his coat ;
And he unweary, and of tongue too fleet*
No longer could conceal his fortune sweet.
Justly the rogue was whipped in Porter's den,
And Jei*main straight has leave to come again.
Ah Painter ! now could Alexander live.
And this Campaspe the Apelles give ! *
Draw next a pair of tables opening, then
The House of Commons clattering like the men.
Describe the court and country both set right
On opposite points, the black against the white.
Those having lost the nation at tick-tack,
These now adventuring how to win it back.
The dice betwixt them must the fate divide,
As chance does still in multitudes decide.
But here the court doth its advantage know.
For the cheat, Turner, for them both mui^t
throw ;
♦ Campfispe was Alexander's mistress, whom ApelN^s, by
Alexander's command, painted naked, and fell violently in
love with her. Alexander perceived it, and, for fear of any
fatal consequence to ApoUes, gave her to him.
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OF MARVELL. 213
As some from boxes, he so from the chair
Can strike the dice, and still with them have share.
Here, Painter, rest a little and survey
Witii what small ai*ts the public game they play :
For so too, Rubens, with afikirs of state.
His labouring pencil ofl would recreate.
The close Cabal marked how the navy eats,
And thought all lost that goes not to the cheats :
So therefore secretly for peace decrees.
Yet for a wai- the parliament would squeeze ;
And fix to the revenue such a sum
Should Goodrick silence, and make Paston dumb,
Should pay land armies, should dissolve the vain
Commons, and ever such a court maintain,
Hyde's avarice, Bennet's luxury, should suffice,
And what can these defray but the excise,
Excise, a monster worse than e'er before
Frighted tiie midwife, and the mother tore ?
A thousand hands she has, a thousand eyes,
Breaks into shops, and into cellars pries ;
With iiundred rows of teeth the shark exceeds,
And on ail trades, like Casawar, she feeds ;
Chops off the piece where'er she close the jaw,
Else swallows all down her indented maw.
She stalks all day in streets, concealed from sight,
And flies like bats with leathern wings by night ;
She wav^ii^s the country, and on cities preys.
Her, ot a female harpy in dog-days,
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214 THE POEMS
Black Birch, of all the earth-born race most hot,
And most rapacious, like himself begot ;
And of his brat enamoured, as she increased.
Buggered in inc<»st with the mongrel beast.
Say Muse, for nothing can escape thy sight.
And Painter, wanting other, draw this fight.
Who in an English senate fierce debate
Could raise so long, for this new whore of state.
Of early wittols first the troop marched in,
For diligence renowned, and discipline ;
In loyal haste they left your wives in bed.
And Denham these with one consent did head.
Of the old courtiers next a squadron came,
Who sold their master, led by Ashburnham.
To them succeeds a despicable rout,
But knew the word, and well could face about ;
Expectants pale, with hopes of spoil allured.
Though yet but pioneers, and led by Steward.
Then damning cowards ranged the vocal plain ;
Wood these commands, knight of the horn and
cane :
Still his hook-shoulder seems the blow to dread,
And under 's arm -pit he defends his head.
The posture strange men laugh at, of his poll
Hid with his elbow like the spice he stole :
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OF MARVKLL. 215
Headless St. Dennis so his head does bear,
And both of them alike French martyrs were.
Court officers, as used, the next place took,
And followed F x, but with disdainful
look:
His birth, his youth, his brokage all dispraise
In vain ; for always he commands that pays.
Then the procurers under Progers filed.
Gentlest of men, and his lieutenant mild ;
Bronkard, love's squire, through all the field
arrayed,
No troop was better clad, nor so well paid.
Then marched the troop of Clarendon, all full,
Haters of fowl, to teal preferring bull ;
Gross bodies, grosser minds, and grosser cheats,
And bloated Wren conducts them to their seats.
Charlton advances next (whose wife does awe
The mitred troop) and with his looks gives law.
