* Sir Bobert Howard, and Sir William
Bucknell
the brewer.
Marvell - Poems
Or row a boat in thy unlucky hour !
Tliee, the year's monster, let thy dam devour,
And constant Time, to keep his course yet right,
Fill up thy space with a redoubled night.
When aged Thames was bound with fetters base,
And Midway chaste ravished before his face.
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236 THE POEMS
And their dear offspring mui*dered in their sight,
Thou and thy fellows saw the odious light.
Sad Chance, since first that happy pair was wed,
With all the rivers graced their nuptial bed ;
And father Neptune promised to resign
His empire old to their immortal line ;
Now with vain grief their vainer hopes they rue,
TJiemselves dishonoured, and the gods untrue ;
And to each other, helpless couple, moan.
As the sad tortoise for the sea does groan ;
But most they for their darling Charles complain,
And were it burned, yet less would be their
pain.
To sec that fatal pledge of sea-command,
Now in the ravisher De Ruyter's hand,
The Thames roared, swooning Medway turned
her tide.
And were they mortal, both for grief had died.
The court in flattering yet itself doth please,
(And female Stewart there rules the four seas. )
But fate does still accumulate our woes.
And Richmond her commands, as Huyter those.
After this loss, to relish discontent,
Some one must be accused by parliament.
All our miscarriages on Pett must fall.
His name alone seems fit to answer all.
Whose counsel first did this mad war beget?
Who all commands sold through the navy? Pett.
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OF MARVELL. 237
Who would not follow when the Dutch were
beat?
Who treated out the time at Bergen ? Pett.
Who the Dutch fleet with storms disabled met ?
And, rifling prizes,'lhem neglected? Pett.
Who with false news prevented the Gazette ?
The fleet divided ? writ for Rupert ? Pett.
Who all our seamen cheated of their debt,
And all our prizes who did swallow ? Pett.
Who did advise no navy out to set ?
And who the forts left unprepared ? Pett.
Who to supply with powder did forget
Languard, Sheerness, Gravesend, and Upnor ?
Pett.
Who all our ships exposed in Chatham net?
Who should it be but the fanatic Pett ?
Pett, the sea-architect in making ships,
Was the first cause of all these naval slips ;
Had he not built, none of these faults had been ;
1£ no creation, there had been no sin ;
But his great crime, one boat away he sent,
That lost our fleet and did our flight prevent.
Then, that reward might in its turn take place,
And march with punishinent in equal pace,
Southampton dead, much of the treasure's care,
And place in council, ft:ll to Duncombe's share.
All men admired he to that pitch could fly :
Powder ne'er blew tnun up so soon, so high ;
But sure his late good luisbaridry in petre.
Showed him to man:i;:i' tlie Exchequer meeter ;
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233 THE POEMS
And who the forts would not vouchsafe a com.
To lavish the king's money more would scorn ;
Who hath no chimneys, to give all, is best,
And ablest speaker, who of law hath least;
Who less esUitc, for treasurer most fit.
And for a chancellor he that has least wit ;
But tlie true cause was, that in 's brother May,
The Exchequer might the privy-purse obey.
And now draws near the parliament's return ;
Hyde and the court again begin to mourn ;
Frequent in council, earnest in debate,
All arts they try how to prolong its date.
GiTive Primate Sheldon (much in preaching
there)
. Blames the last session, and this more does fear:
With Boynton or with Middlcton 'twere sweet,
But with a parliament abhors to meet ;
And thinks 'twill ne'er be well within this nation,
Till it be governed by a Convocation.
But in the Thames' mouth still De Ruyter
laid ;
The peace not sure, new army must be paid.
Hyde saith he hourly waits for a despatch ;
Harry came post just as he showed his watch.
All to agree the articlc»^ were clear.
The Holland fleet and parliament so near,
Yet Harry must job back and all mature.
Binding, ere tlie houses meet, the treaty sure ;
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OP MARVELL. 239
And 'twixt necessity and spite, till then
Let them come up, so to go down again.
Up ambles country justice on his pad,
And vest bespeaks, to be more seemly clad.
Plain gentlemen are in stage-coach o'erthrown.
And deputy-lieutenants in their own ;
The portly burgess, through the weather hot,
Does for his corporation sweat and trot ;
And all with sun and choler come adust.
And threaten Hyde to raise a greater dust.
But fresh, as from the mint, the courtiers fine
Salute them, smiling at their vain design ;
And Turner gay up to his perch doth march.
With face new bleached, smoothed, and stiff with
starch ;
Tells them he at Whitehall had took a turn,
And for three days thence moves tliem to adjourn.
Not so, quoth Tomkins, and straight drew his
tongue,
Trusty as steel that always ready hung ;
And so proceeding in his motion warm,
The army soon raised, he doth as soon disarm.
True Trojan ! whilst this town can girls afford.
And long as cider lasts in Hereford,
The girls shall always kiss thee, though grown old.
And in eternal healths thy name be trolled.
Meanwhile the certain news of peace arrives
At court, and so reprieves their guilty lives.
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240 TlIK rOE3IS
Hyde orders Turner that he should come lato,
Lest some new Tomkins spring a fresh debate ;
The king, that early raised was from Iiis rest,
Expects, as at a play, till Turner *s dressed ;
At last, together Eaton came and he.
No dial more could with the sun agree ;
The speaker, summoned to the Lords, repairs.
Nor gave the Commons leave to say their
prayei-s,
But like his prisoners to the bar them led,
Where mute they stand to hear their sentence
read :
Trembling with joy and fear, Hyde them pro-
rogues,
And had almost mistook, and called them rogues.
Dear Painter, draw this Speaker to the foot :
Where pencil cannot, there my pen shall do*t ;
That may his body, this his mind explain ;
Paint him in golden gown with mace's train ;
Bright hair, fair face, obscure and dull of head,
Like knife with ivory hatl, and edge of U. u\ :
At prayers his eyes turn up the pious white,
But all the while his private bill *s in sight :
In chair he smoking sits like master c(K)k,
And a poll-bill does like his apron look.
Well was he skilled to season any question.
And make a sauce fit for Whitehall's dig<'-h«>n,
Whence every day, the prelate more to tuUh. *,
Court-mushrooms ready are sent in to pi<kle.
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OF MAKYELL. 241
When grievances urged, he swells like squatted
toad,
Frisks like a frog to croak a tax's load:
His patient piss he could hold longer than:
An urinal, and sit like any hen ;
At table jolly as a country host,
And soaks his sack with Norfolk like a toast ;
At night than Chanticleer more brisk and hot,.
And sergeant's wife serves him for Partelot.
Paint last the King, and a dead shade of night,.
Only dispersed by a weak taper's light.
And those bright gleams which dart along and
glare
From his clear eyes, (yet these too dart with care ;).
There, as in the calm horror all alone,
He wakes and muses of the uneasy throne,
Raise up a sudden shape with virgin's face,
Though ill agree her posture, hour or place ;.
Naked as born, and her round arms behind.
With her own tresses interwove and twined :
Her mouth locked up, a blind before her eyes,.
Yet from beneath her veil her blushes rise,
And silent tears her secret anguish speak.
Her heart throbs, and with very shame would
break.
The object strange in him no terror moved.
He wondered first, then pitied, then he loved :
And with kind hand does the coy vision press.
Whose beauty greater seemed by her distress i.
16
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:242 THE POEMS
Bat soon shrunk back, chilled with a touch so
cold,
And the airj picture vanished from his hold.
In his deep thoughts the wonder did increase.
And he divined 'twas England, or the peace.
Express him startling next, with listening ear,
As one that some unusual noise doth hear ;
With cannons, trumpets, drums, his door sur-
round.
But let some other Painter draw the sound.
Thrice he did rise, thrice the vain tumult fled,
But again thunders when he lies in bed.
Hid mind secure does the vain stroke repeat,
And finds the drums Lewis's march did beat
Shake then the room, and all his curtains tear,
And with blue streaks infect the taper clear.
While the pale ghost his eyes doth fixed admire
Of grandsire Harry, and of Charles his sire.
Hariy sits down, and in his open side
The grisly wound reveals of which he died ;
And ghostly Charles, turning his collar low,
The purple thread about his neck doth show ;
Then whispering to his son in words unheard,
Through the locked door both of them disappeared.
The wondrous night the pensive King revolves.
And rising straight, on Hyde^s disgrace resolves.
At his first step he Castiemain does find,
Bennet and Coventry as 'twas designed ;
And they not knowing, the same thing propose
Wliich his hid mind did in its depths inclose.
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OF MARVELL. 243
Through their feigned speech their secret hearts
he knew,
To her own husband Castlemain untrue ;
False to his master Bristol, Arlington ;
And Coventry falser than any one,
Who to his brother, brother would betray ;
Nor therefore trusts himself to such as they.
His father's ghost too whispered him one note.
That who does cut his purse will cut his throat ;
But he in wise anger does their crimes forbear,
As thieves reprieved from executioner,
While Hyde, provoked> his foaming tusk does
whet,
To prove them traitors, and himself the Pett.
Painter adjourn. How well our arts agree !
Poetic picture, painted poetry !
But this great work is for our monarch fit.
And henceforth Charles only to Charles shall sit ;
His master-hand the ancients shall outdo.
Himself the Painter, and the Poet too.
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244 THB P0KM8
TO THE KING.
So hi8 bold tabe man to the 8un applied,
And spots unknown in the bright star descried,
Showed thej obscure liim, while too near thej
please.
And seem his courtiers, are but his disease ;
Through optic trunk the planet seemed to hear.
And hurls them off e'er since in his career.
And you, great Sir, that with him empire
share,
Sun of our world, as he the Charles is there,
Blame not the Muse that brought those spots to
sight.
Which, in your splendour hid, corrode your
light;
(Kings in the country oft have gone astray,
Nor of a peasant scorned to learn the way. )
Would she the unattended throne reduce,
Banishing love, trust, ornament, and use ;
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OF HARVELL. 245
Better it were to live in cloister's lock,
Or in fair fields to rule the easy flock :
She blames them only who the court restrain,
And where all England serves, themselves would
reign.
Bold and accursed are they who all this while
Have strove to isle this monarch from this isle,
And to improve themselves by false pretence.
About the common prince have raised a fence ;
The kingdom from the crown distinct would see,
And peel the bark to bum at last the tree.
As Ceres corn, and Flora is the spring,
As Bacchus wine, the Country is the King.
Not so does rust insinuating wear,
Nor powder so the vaulted bastion tear.
Nor earthquakes so an hollow isle o'erwhelm,
As scratching courtiers undermine a realm.
And through the palace's foundations bore.
Burrowing themselves to hoard their guilty
store.
The smallest vermin make the greatest waste,
And a poor warren once a city rased.
But th'^ey whom bom to virtue and to wealth,
Nor guilt to flattery binds, nor want to stealth ;
Whose generous conscience, and whose courage
high.
Does with clear counsels their large souls
supply ;
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246 THE POEMS
Who serve the king with their estates and care,
And as in love on paiiiaments can stare ;
Where few the number, choice is there less
hard;
Give us this court, and rule without a guard.
MKD or m wan past.
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OF MARVELL. 247
INSTRUCTIONS TO A PAINTER.
PABT n.
Spread a large canvas, Painter, to contain
The great assembly, and the numerous train ;
Where all about him shall in triumph sit,
Abhorring wisdom, and despising wit ;
Hating all justice, and resolved to fight,
To rob their native country of their right.
First draw his Highness prostrate to the
. south,
Adoring Rome, this label in his mouth, —
'* Most holy father ! being joined in league
** With father Patrick, Danby, and with Teague,
" Thrown at your sacred feet, I humbly bow,
" I, and the wise associates of my vow,
** A vow, nor fire nor sword shall ever end,
^ Till all this nation to your footstool bend.
" Thus armed with zeal and blessing from your
hands,
**I'll raise my Papists, and my Irish bands,.
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248 THE POEK8
" And by a noble well-contrived plot,
" Managed by wise Fitz-Gerald, and by Scott,
^ Prove to the worid, I'll make old England
know,
^ That common sense is my eternal foe.
^ I ne'er can fight in a more glorious cause,
** Than to destroy their liberty and laws ;
*• Their House of Commons, and their House of
Lords,
<< Their parchment precedents, and dull records,
** Shall these e'er dare to contradict my will,
*' And think a prince o'the blood can
** It is our birthright to have power
*♦ Shall they e'er dare to think they shall decide
*<The way to heaven, and who shall be my
guide?
^ Shall they pretend to say, that bread is bread,
" If We affirm it is a God indeed ?
" Or there 's no Purgatory for the dead ?
" That extreme unction is but common oil?
^ And not infallible the Roman soil ?
<^ I '11 have those villains in our notions rest ;
"And I do say it, therefore 'it 's the best"
Next, Painter, draw his Mordaunt by his side,
Conveying his religion and his bride :
He, who long since abjured the royal line.
Does now in popery with his master join.
Then draw the princess with her golden locks,
. Hastening to be envenomed with the pox.
t my will, 1
1 e'er do ill? >
to kill J
}
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OF MAKVELL. 249
And in her youthful veins receive a wound,
Which sent N. H. before her under ground ;
The wound of which the tainted C ret fades^
Laid up in store for a new set of maids.
Poor princess, bom under a sullen star.
To find such welcome when jou came so far !
Better some jealous neighbour of your own
Had called you to a sound, though petty
throne ;
Where 'twixt a wholesome husband and a page,
Tou might have lingered out a lazy age,
Than on dull hopes of being here a Queen,
Ere twenty die, and rot before fifteen.
Now, Painter, show us in the blackest dye,
The counsellors of all this villany.
Clifford, who first appeared in humble guise,
Was always thought too gentle, meek, and
wise ;
But when he came to act upon the stage,
He proved the mad Cethegus of our age.
He and his Duke had both too great a mind,
To be by justice or by law confined :
Their broiling heads can bear no other sounds,
Than fleets and armies, battles, blood and
wounds :
And to destroy our liberty they hope,
By Irish fools, and an old doting Pope.
Next, Talbot must by his great master stand.
Laden with folly, flesh, and ill-got land ;
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250 THE POEMS
He 's of a size indeed to fill a porch.
But ne'er can make a pillar of the charch.
His sword is all bis argument, not his book ;
Although no scholar, he can act the cook.
And will cat throats again, if he be paid ;
In the Irish shambles he first learned the trade.
Then, Painter, show thy skill, and in fit place
Let 's see the nuncio Arundel's sweet face ;
Let the beholders bj thy art espy
His sense and soul, as squinting as his eye.
Let Bellasis' autumnal face be seen,
Rich with the spoils of a poor Algerine ;
Who, trusting in him, was by him betrayed.
And so shall we, be his advice obeyed.
The hero once got honour by his sword ;
He got his wealth by breaking of his word ;
And now his daughter he hath got with child.
And pimps to have his family defiled.
Next, Painter, draw the rabble of the plot ;
Jermain, Fitz-Gerald, Loftus, Porter, Scott :
These are fit heads indeed to turn a state.
And change the order of a nation's fate ;
Ten thousand such as these shall ne'er control
The smallest atom of an English soul.
Old England on its sti-ong foundation stands,
Defying all their heads and all their hands ;
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OF MARVELL. 251
Its Steady basis never could be shook,
When wiser men her ruin undertook ;
And can her guardian angel let her stoop
At last to madmen, fools, and to the Pope ?
No, Painter, no ! close up the piece, and see
This crowd of traitors hanged in effigy.
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252 THE POEMS
TO THE KING.
Gbeat Charles, who full of merc^ might'st coiu-
mandy
In peace and pleasure, this thj native land,
At last take pity of thy tottering throne,
Shook bj the faults of others, not thine own ;
Let not thy life and crown together end.
Destroyed by a false brother and false friend.
Observe the danger that appears so near.
That all your subjects do each minute fear :
One drop of poison, or a popish knife.
Ends all the joys of England with thy life.
Brothers, 'tis true, by nature should be kind ;
But a too zealous and ambitious mind,
Bribed with a crown on earth, and one above,
Harbours no friendship, tenderness, or love.
See in all ages what examples are
Of monarchs murdered by the impatient heir.
Hard fate of princes, who will ne'er believe.
Till the stroke's struck which they can ne'er
retrieve I
BND or THB SECOMD PABT.
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OP BLAHVELL. 253
INSTRUCTIONS TO A PAINTER
PART m.
Painter, once more tbj pencil reassume,
And draw me, in one scene, London and Rome:
Here holy Charles, there good Aurelius sat,
Weeping to see their sons degenerate ;
His Romans^ taking up the teemei*'s trade.
The Britons jigging it in masquerade ;
While the brave youths, tired with the toil of
state.
Their weary minds and limbs to recreate,
Do to their more beloved delights repair,
One to his — , the other to his player.
Then change the scene, and let the next
present
A landscape of our motley Parliament ;
And place, hard by the bar, on the left hand,
Circean Clifibrd with his charming wand j
Our pig-eyed on his — fashion.
Set by the worst attorney of our nation.
This great triumvirate that can divide
The spoils of England ; and along that side
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254 THE POKMS
Place Falstaff *3 regiment of threadbare coats.
All looking this way, how to give their votes ;
And of his dear reward let none despair,
For money comes when Sey r leaves the chair*
Change once again, and let the next afford
The figure of a motley council-board
At Arlington's, and round about it set
Our mighty masters in a warm debate.
Full bowls of lusty wine make them repeat,
To make the other council-board forget
That while the King of France with powerful
arms,
Gives all his fearful neighbours strange alarms,
We in our glorious bacchanals dispose
The humbled fate of a plebeian nose ; *
Which to effect, when thus it was decreed.
Draw me a champion mounted on a steed ;
And after him a brave brigade of horse,
Armed at all points, ready to reenforce
His ; this assault upon a single man.
# » • * *
'Tis this must make O'Brian great in story,
And add more beams to Sands's former glory.
Draw our Olympia next, in council set
With Cupid, S r, and the tool of state :
Two of the first recanters of the house.
That aim at mountains, and bring forth a mouse ;
* Alluding to the assault upon Sir John Coventry.
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OP mahvell. 255
Who make it, by their mean retreat, appear
Five members need not be demanded here.
These must assist her in her countermines,
To overthrow the Derby-House designs ;
Whilst Positive walks, like Woodcock in the park,
Contriving projects with a brewer's clerk ; ♦
Thus all employ themselves, and, without pity.
Leave Temple singly to be beat in the city.
* Sir Bobert Howard, and Sir William Bucknell the brewer.
BUD OF THS THIRD PART.
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256 THE FOEMS
A
DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO HORSES.
1674.
THE INTRODUCTION.
We read, in profane and sacred records.
Of beasts which have uttered articulate words :
When magpies and parrots cry, waUcy knaves,
walk!
It is a clear proof that birds too may talk ;
And statues, without either windpipes or lungs,
Have spoken as plainly as men do with tongues.
Jjtvy tells a strange story, can hardly be fellowed,
That a sacrificed ox, when his guts were out,
bellowed ;
Phalaris had a bull, which, as grave authoi*s
tell ye.
Would roar like a devil with a man in his belly ;
Friar Bacon had a head that spake, made of
brass ;
And Balaam the prophet was reproved by his ass ;
At Delphos and Rome stocks and stones, now
and then, sirs.
Have to questions returned articulate answers.
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OF MARYELL. 257
All Popish believers think something divine,
When images speak, possesseth the shrine ;
But they who faith catholic ne'er understood,
When shrines give an answer, a knave 's on the
rood.
Those idols ne'er spoke, but are miracles done
By the devil, a priest, a friar, or a nun.
If the Roman church, good Christians, oblige ye
To believe man and beast have spoke in effigy.
Why should we not credit the public discourses.
In a dialogue between two inanimate horses ?
The horses I mean of Wool-Church and Channg,
Who told many truths worth any man's hearing,
Since Viner and Osborn did buy and provide *em*
For the two mighty monarchs who now do
bestride 'em.
The stately brass stallion^ and the white marble
steed.
The night came together, by all 'tis agreed ;
When both kings were weary of sitting all day,
They stole off, incognito, each his own way ;
And then the two jades, after mutual salutes,
Not only discoursed, but fell to disputes.
* The statue at Charing-Cro»s was erected by the Lord
Danby; that at Wool-Church by Sir Robert Viner, thea
lord-mayor.
17
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2C>d TlIC POEMS
THE DIALOGUE.
Quoth the marble horse,
WOOL-CHURCH.
It would make a 8tone speak,
To see a lord-mayor and a Lombard-street break,*
Thy founder and mine to cheat one another,
When both knaves agreed to be e^ch other's
brother, —
Here Charing broke forth, and thus he went on :
CHARING.
My brass is provoked as much as thy stone.
To see church and state bow down to a whore,
And the king's chief-minister holding the door ;
The money of widows and orphans employed,
And the bankers quite broke to maintain the
whore's pride.
* Alluding to the failure of the bankers.
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OF MARVKLL. 259
WOOL-CHURCH.
To see Dei GrcUia writ on the throne,
And the king's wiclced. life saj, God there is
none.
CHARING.
That he should be styled Defender of the Faith,
Who believes not a word what the word of God
saith.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the Duke should turn papist, and that church
defy,
For which his own father a martyr did die.
CHARING.
Though he changed his religion, I hope he 's . so
civil
Not to think his own father is gone to the Devil.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That bondage and beggary should be in a nation
By a cursed House of Commons, and a blessed
Restoration.
CHARING.
To see a white staff make a beggar a lord.
And scarce a wise man at a long council-board.
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260 THE rOEMS
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the Bank should be seized, yet the 'Chequer
6o poor,
(Lord have mercy ! ) and a cross might be set on
the door.
CHARING.
That a million and half should be the revenue,
Yet the King of his debts pay no man a
penny.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the King should consume three kingdoms'
estates.
And yet all the court be as poor as church rats.
CHARING.
That of four seas dominion, and of all their
guarding,
No token should appear, but a poor copper
farthing.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Our worm-eaten ships to be laid up at Chatham,
Not our trade to secure, but for fools to come
at 'em. *
* Alluding to our ships being burned by the Dutch.
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OF MARVELL. 261
CHARING.
And our few ships abroad become Tripoli's scorn.
By pawning for victuals their guns at Leghorn.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That making us slaves by horse and foot guards.
For restoring the king, shall be all our rewards.
CHARING.
The basest ingratitude ever was heard I
But tyrants ungrateful ai*e always afeared.
WOOL-CHURCH.
On Harry the Seventh's head who placed the
crown,
Was after rewarded by losing his own.
CHARING.
That parliament-men should rail at the court,
And get good preferments immediately for 't ;
To see them who suffered for father and son.
And helped to bring the latter to his throne,
Who with lives and estates did loyally serve.
And yet for all this can nothing deserve ;
The king looks not on 'em, preferment 's denied 'em.
The roundheads insult, and the courtiers deride
'em,
And none get preferments, but who will ^betray
Their country to ruin ; 'tis that opes the way
Of the bold talking members.
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262 THE POEMS
WOOL-CHDRCH.
Of the bastards you add
What a number of rascally lords have been made.
CHARIXO.
That traitors to a country, in a bribed House of
Commons,
Should give away millions at every summons.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Yet some of those givers, such beggarly villains,
As not to be trusted for twice Mty shillings.
CHARING.
No wonder that beggars should still be for giving,
Who out of what 's given do get a good living.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Four knights and a knave, who were burgesses
made,
For selling their consciences were liberally paid.
CHARING.
How base are the souls of such low-prized sinners.
Who vote with the country for drink and for
dinners !
WOOL-CHURCH.
'Tis they who brought on us this scandalous yoke.
Of excising our cups, and taxing our smoke.
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OP MARVELL. 263
CHARING.
But thanks to the whores who made the king
For giving no more the rogues are prorogued.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That a king should endeavour to make a war
cease.
Which augments and secures his own profit and
peace.
CHARING.
And plenipotentiaries sent into France,
With an addle-headed knight, and a lord without
brains.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the king should send for another French
whore,
When one already had made him so poor»
CHARING.
The misses take place, each advanced to be
duchess.
With pomp great as queens in their coach and
six horses ;
Their bastards made dukes, earls, viscounts, and
lords,
And all the high titles that honour affords.
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264 THE POEMS
WOOL-CHUKCH.
While these brate and their mothers do live in
such plenty,
The nation's impoverished, and the 'Chequer
quite empty ;
And though war was pretended when the money
was lent,
More on whores, than in ships or in war, hath
been spent.
CHARING.
Enough, my dear brother, although we speak
reason.
Yet truth many times being punished for treason.
We ought to be wary, and bridle our tongue,
Bold speaking hath done both men and beasts
wrong.
When the ass so boldly rebuked the pi-ophet.
Thou knowest what danger had like to come of it ;
Though the beast gave his master ne'er an ill
word.
Instead of a cudgel, Balaam wished for a sword.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Truth 's as bold as a lion, I am not afraid ;
I '11 prove every tittle of what I have said.
Our riders are absent, who is 't that can hear ?
Let's be true to ourselves, whom then need we fear?
Where is thy king gone ?
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OF MARYELL. 265
CHARING.
To sec bishop Laud.
WOOL-CHURCH.
To cuckold a scrivener, mine is in masquerade ;
For on such occasions he oft steals away,
And returns to remount me about break of day.
In very dark nights sometimes you may find him,
With a harlot got up on my crupper behind him.
CHARING.
Pause brother awhile, and calmly consider
What thou hast to say against my royal rider.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Thy priest-ridden king turned desperate fighter
For the surplice, lawn-sleeves, the cross, and the
mitre ;
Till at last on the scaffold he was left in the
lurch.
By knaves, who cried up themselves for the
church,
Archbishops and bishops, archdeacons and deans.
CHARING.
Thy king will ne*er fight unless for his queans.
WOOL-CHURCH.
He that dies for ceremonies, dies like a fool.
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266 THE POEMS
CHARING.
The king on thy back is a lamentable tool.
WOOL-CHURCH.
The goat and the lion I equally hate,
And freemen alike value life and estate ;
Though the father and son be different rods,
Between the two scourgers we find little odds ;
Both infamous stand in three kingdoms' votes,
This for picking our pockets, that for cutting our
throats.
CHARINO.
More tolerable are the lion-king's slaughters.
Than the goat making whores of our wives and
our daughters :
The debauched and cruel since they equally
gall us,
I had rather bear Nero than Sardanapalus.
WOOL-CHURCH.
One of the two tyrants must still be our case.
Under all who shall reign of the false Stuart's
race.
DeWitt and Cromwell had each a brave soul,
I freely declare it, I am for old Noll ;
Though his goverament did a tyrant resemble,
He made England great, and his enemies
tremble.
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OP MARVELL. 267
CHARING.
Thy rider puts no man to death in his wrath,
But is buried alive in lust and in sloth.
WOOL-CHURCH.
What is thy opinion of James, Duke of York ?
CHARING.
The same that the frogs had of Jupiter's stork.
With the Turk in his head, and the Pope in his
heart.
Father Patrick's disciples will make £lngland
smart
If e'er he be king, I know Bntain's doom,
We must all to a stake, or be converts to Rome.
Ah, Tudor ! ah, Tudor ! of Stuarts enough ;
None ever reigned like old Bess in the ruff.
Her Walsingham could dark counsels unriddle.
And our Sir Joseph write news, books, and fiddle.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Truth, brother, well said ; but that 's somewhat
bitter ;
His perfumed predecessor was never more
fitter :
Yet we have one secretary honest and wise ;
For that very reason, he 's never to rise.
But can'st thou devise when things will be
mended ?
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268 THE POEMS
CHARING.
When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended.
CONCLUSIOX.
If speeches from animals in Rome's first age,
Prodigious events did surely presage,
That should come to pass, all mankind may
swear
That which two inanimate horses declare.
But I should have told you before the jades
parted,
Both galloped to Whitehall, and there humbly
farted;
Which tyranny's downfall portended much more.
Than all that the beasts had spoken before.
If the Delphic Sibyl's oracular speeches
(As learned men say) came out of their breeches.
Why might not our hoi*ses, since words are but
wind.
Have the spirit of prophecy likewise behind ?
Though tymnts make laws, which they strictly
proclaim.
To conceal their own faults and to cover their
shame, [the wall,
Yet the beasts in the field, and the stones in
Will publish their faults and prophesy their fall ;
When they take from the people the freedom of
words.
They teach them the sooner to fall to their swords.
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OP MAUVELL. 269
Let the city drink coffee and quietly groan, —
They who conquered the father won't be slaves
to the son.
For wine and strong drink make tumults increase,
Chocolate, tea, and coffee, are liquors of peace ;
No quarrels, or oaths are among those who drink
'em,
'Tis Bacchus and the brewer swear, damn *em /
and sink *em !
Then Charles thy edict against coffee recall,
There 's ten times more treason in brandy and ale.
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270 THE POEMS
HODGE'S VISION FROM THE MONUMENT,
DECEMBER 1675.
A conntiy clown called Hodoe, went up to yiew
The pjrramid; pray mark what did ensue.
1
When Hodge had numbered up how many score
The airy pyramid contained, he swore
No mortal wight e'er climbed so high before.
To the best vantage placed, he views around
The imperial town, with lofty turrets crowned ;
That wealthy storehouse of the bounteous flood.
Whose peaceful tides o'erflow our land with
good;
Confused forms flit by his wandering eyes,
And his rapped soul *s o'erwhelmed with extasies.
Some god it seems has entered his plain breast,
And with 's abode the rustic mansion blessed ;
A mighty change he feels in every part.
Light shines in 's eyes, and wisdom rules his
heart.
So when her pious son fair Venus showed
His flaming Troy, with slaughtered Dardans
strewed,
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OP MARYELL. 271
She purged his optics, filled with mortal night.
And Troy's sad doom he read by heaven's light.
Such light divine broke on the clouded eyes
Of humble Hodge.
Regions remote, courts, councils, policies,
The circling wiles of tyrants* treacheries
He views, discerns, unciphers, penetrates,
From Charles's Dukes, to Europe's armed
states.
First he beholds proud Rome and France com-
bined,
By double vassalage to enslave mankind ;
That would the soul, this would the body sway,
Their bulls and edicts none must disobey.
For these with war sad Europe they inflame,
Rome says for God, and France declares for
fame.
See, soni^ of Satan, how religion's force
Is gentleness, fame bought with blood a curse.
He whom all styled ^ Delight of human kind,"
Justice and mercy, truth with honour joined ;
His kindly rays cherished the teeming earth.
And struggling virtue blessed with prosperous
birth.
Like Chaos you the tottering globe invade,
Religion cheat, and war ye make a trade.
Next the lewd palace of the plotting King,
To 's eyes new scenes of frantic folly bring.
Behold (says he) the fountain of our woe.
From whence our vices and our ruin flow.
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272 THE POEII8
Here parents their own offspring prostitute.
By such vile arts to obtain some viler suit.
Here blooming youth adore Priapus' shrine,
And priests pronounce him sacred and divine.
The goatish god behold in his alcove,
(The secret scene of damned incestuous love)
Melting in lust, and drunk like Lot, he lies
Betwixt two bright daughter-divinities.
Oh ! that like Saturn he had eat his brood.
And had been thus stained with their impious
blood;
He had in that less ill, more manhood showed.
