The king on thy back is a
lamentable
tool.
Marvell - Poems
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.
Cease, cease, (O Charles) thus to pollute our
isle.
Return, return, to thy long-wished exile ;
There with thy court defile thy neighbour-
states.
And with their crimes precipitate their fates.
See where the Duke in damned divan does sit,
To *8 vast designs wracking his pigmy wit ;
Whilst a clioice senate of the Ignatian crew.
The ways to murder, treason, conquest show.
Dissenters they oppress with law severe,
That whilst to wound those innocents we fear.
Their cursed sect we may be forced to spare.
Twice the reformed must fight a bloody prize.
That Rome and France may on their ruin rise,
Old Bonner single heretics did burn.
These reformed cities into ashes turn.
And every year new fires do make us mourn.
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OP MARVELL. 273
■■}
Ireland stands ready for his cruel reign ;
Well-fattened once, she gapes for blood again,
For blood of English martyrs basely slain.
Our valiant youth abroad must learn the trade
Of unjust war, their country to invade,
Whilst others here do guard us, to^ prepare
Our galled necks his iron yoke to bear.
Lo ! how the Wight already is betrayed,
And Bashaw Holmes does the poor isle invade.
To ensure the plot, Prance must her legions
lend,
Rome to restore, and to enthrone Rome's friend. .
*Tis in return, James does our fleet betray,
(That fleet whose thunder made the world obey. )
Ships once our safety, and our glorious might,
Are doomed with worms and rottenness to fight,
Whilst France rides sovereign o'er the British
main,
Our merchants robbed, and our brave seamen>
ta'en.
Thus the rash Phaeton with fury hurled,
And rapid rage, consumes our British world-
Blast him, O heavens ! in his mad career,
And let this isle no more his frenzy fear.
Cursed James, 'tis he that all good men abhor.
False to thyself, and to thy friend much more ;
To him who did thy promised pardon hope,*
Whilst with pretended joy he kissed the rope :
* Coleman.
18
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ie, I
274 Tii:-: roKMS
O'erwhelmed with guilt, and gasping out a lie,
Deceived and unprepai*ed, thou \ei*d6t him die,
With equal gratitude and charity.
In spite of Jermin, and of black -mouthed
fame.
This Stuart's trick legitimates thy name.
With one consent we all her death desire,
Who durst her husband's and her king's
conspire. *
And now just Heaven 's prepared to set us free,
Heaven and our hopes are both opposed by
thee.
Thus fondly thou dost Hyde's old treason Qwn,
Thus make thy new-suspected treason known.
Bless me I What 's that at Westminster
I see?
That piece of legislative pageantry !
To our dear James has Rome her conclave
lent?
Or has Charles bought the Paris parliament ?
None else James would promote with §o much
zeal,
Who by proviso hopes the crown to steal.
Sec how in humble guise the slaves advance.
To tell a tale of army, and of France,
Whilst proud prerogative in scornful guise.
Their fear, love, duty, danger, does despise.
* Queen Catherine wus suspected to be in a plot against
the king's life.
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OF MARVELL. 275
There, in a bribed committee, they contrive
To give our birthrights to prerogative :
Give, did I say ? They sell, and sell so dear
That half each tax Danby distributes there.
Danby, 'tis fit the price so great shall be,
They sell religion, sell their liberty.
These vipers have their mother's entrails torn,
And would by force a second time be born.
They haunt the place to which you once were sent,
This ghost of a departed parliament.
Gibbets and haltei*s, countrymen, prepare,
Let none, let none their renegadoes spare.
When that day comes, we '11 part the sheep and
goats.
The spruce bribed monsieurs from the true gray
coats.
New parliaments, like manna, all tastes please,
But kept too long, our food turns our disease.
From that loathed sight, Hodge turned his weep-
ing eyes.
And London thus alarms with loyal cries :
** Though common danger does approach so nigh.
This stupid town sleeps in security.
Out of your golden dreams awake, awake,
Your all, though you see not, your all 's at
stake !
More dreadful fires approach your falling town ^
Than those which burned your stately struc- I
tures down, j
Such fatal fires as once in Smithfield shone. ''
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276 THE POEMS
If then je fftaj till Edwards orders give,*
No mortal arm your safety can retrieve.
See how with golden baits the crafly Gaul
Has bribed our geese to yield the capitoL
And will ye tamely see yourselves betrayed ?
Will none stand up in our dear country's aid ?
<' Self-preservation, nature's first great law,
All the creation, except man, does awe :
'Twas in him fixed, till lying priests defaced
His heaven-bom mind, and nature's tablets
rased.
Tell me, ye forging crew, what law revealed
By God, to kings iha jus dluinum sealed?
If to do good, yeju9 divtmcm call.
It is the grand pi^erogative of all :
If to do ill, unpunished^ be their right,
Such power's not granted that great king of
night.
Man's life moves on the poles of hope and fear,
Keward and pain all ordei*s do revere.
But if your dear lord sovereign you would spare,
Admonish him in his blood-thii*sty heir.
So when the royal lion does offend,
The beaten cur*s example makes him mend. *'
This said, poor Hodge, then in a broken tone.
Cried out, "Oh Charles! thy life, thy life, thy
crown !
♦ Edwards, then lorJ-mayor.
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OF MARVELL. 277
Ambitious James, and bloody priests conspire,
Plots, papists, murders, massacres, and fire ;
Poor Protestants ! " with that his eyes did roll,
His body fell, out fled his frighted soul.
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278 THE POEMS
CLARENDON'S HOUSE-WABMING.
When Clarendon had discerned beforehand
(As the cause can easily foretell the effect)
At once three deluges threatening our land,*
'Twas the season, he thought, to turn architect
Us Mars, and Apollo, and Vulcan consume ;
While he the betrayer of England and
Flanders,
Like the kingfisher chooseth to build in the
broom,
And nestles in flames like the salamander.
But observing that mortals run oflen behind,
(So unreasonable are the rates they buy at)
His omnipotence therefore much rather designed.
How he might create a house with a fiat
He had read of Rhodope, a lady of Thrace,
Who was digged up so often ere she did marry ;
* The Dutch war, the plague, and the fire of London.
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OP MARYELL. 279
And wished that his daughter had had as much
grace,
To erect him a pyramid out of her quarry.
But then recollecting how the harper Aniphion
Made Thebes dance aloft while he fiddled and
sung.
He thought, as an instrument he was most free on,
To build with the Jew's-trump of his own tongue.
Yet a precedent fitter in Virgil he found,
Of African Poultney, and Tyrian Dide ;
That he begged for a palace so much of his
ground,*
As might carry the measure and name of a
Hyde.
Thus daily his gouty inventions him pained,
And all for to save the expenses of brickbat ;
That engine so fatal which Denham had brained.
And too much resembled this wife's chocolate.
But while these devices he all doth compare.
None solid enough seemed for his strong castor ;
He himself would not dwell in a castle of air.
Though he had built full many a one for his
master.
* The Enii of Clarendon hud a grant from Khig Charles
the Second, for a piece of ground near St. James's, to build
% house on.
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280 THE POEMS
Already he had got all our money and cattle,
To buy us for slaves and purcliase our lands
What Joseph by famine, lie wrought by sea battle ;
Nay, scarce the priest's portion could 'scape
from his hands.
And hence like Pharaoh that Israel pressed
To make mortar and brick, yet allowed *em no
straw,
He cared not though Eg}'pt's ten plagues us
distressed,
So he could to build but make policy law.
The Scotch forts and Dunkirk, but that they
were sold,
He would have demolished to raise up his
walls ;
Nay e'en fi-om Tangier have sent back for the
mould,
But that he had nearer the stones of St.
Paul's. *
His woods would come in at the easier rate.
So long as the yards had a deal or a spar :
His friend in the navy would not be ingrate,
To grudge him some timber, who fi-amcd him
the war.
* There was then a design of repairing St. PauPs, which
was afterwards laid aside, and the stones intended for that,
were bought by the Lord Cl;irendon to build his house with.
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OF MARVELL. 281
To proceed in the model, he called in his Aliens,
The two Aliens when jovial, who ply him with
gallons ;
The two Aliens who served his blind justice for
balance,
The two Aliens who served his injustice for
talons.
Thej approve it thus far, and said it was fine ;
Yet his lordship to finish it would be unable,
Unless all abroad he divulged the design,
For his house then would grow like a vegetable.
His rent would no more in arrear run to Wor'ster ;
He should dwell more noble and cheap too at
home.
While into a fabric the presents would muster ;
As by hook and by crook the world clustered
of atom.
He liked the advice and then soon it essayed,
And presents crowd headlong to give good
example.
So the bribes overlaid her that Rome once be*
trayed ;
The tribes ne'er contributed so to the temple.
Straight judges, priests, bishops, true sons of the
seal.
Sinners, governors, farmers, bankers, patentees,
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282 THE FOEMS
Bring in the whole mite of a year at a meal.
As the Chedder club's dairy to the incorporate
cheese.
Bulteale's, BeaVn's,* Morley's, Wren's fingers
with telling
Were shrivelled, and Clatterbuck's, Eager*^,
and Kipps' ;
Since the act of oblivion was never such selling,
As at this benevolence out of the snips.
Twas then that the chimney-contractors he smoked,
Nor would take his beloved canary in kind :
But he swore that the patent should ne'er be
revoked,
No, would the whole parliament kiss him behind.
Like Jove under ^tna o'erwhelming the giant.
For foundation the Bristol sunk in the earth's
bowel ;
And St John must now for the leads be compliant,
Or his right hand shall be cut off with a trowel.
For surveying the building, 'twas Prat did the feat ;
But for the expense he relied on Woi'stenholm,
Who sat heretofore at the king's receipt.
But received now and paid the Chancellor's
custom.
* Perhaps Beachem, a jeweller mentioned by Pepys.
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OF MAKVKLL. 283
By subsidies thus both cleric and laic,
And with matter profane cemented with holy ;
He finished at last his palace mosaic,
By a model more excellent than Lesly*s folly.
And upon the terrace, to consummate all,
A lantern like Faux's, surveys the burnt
town,
And shows on the top by the regal gilt ball,
Where you are to expect the sceptre and
crown.
Fond city, its rubbish and ruins that builds,
Like vain chemists, a flower from its ashes
returning.
Your metropolis house is in St. James's fields,
And till there you remove, you shall never
leave burning.
This temple of war and of peace is the shrine.
Where this idol of state sits adored and
accursed ;
To handsel his altar and nostrils divine.
Great Buckingham's sacrifice must be the
first.
Now some (as all builders must censure abide)
Throw dust in its front, and blame situation :
And others as much reprehend his back-side.
As too narrow by far for his expatiation ;
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284 THE POEMS
But do not consider how in process of times,
That for namesake he may with Hyde-Park it
enhirge,
And with that convenience he soon, for his crimes,
At Tyburn may land and spare the Tower-
barge.
Or rather how wisely his stall was built near.
Lest with di'iving too far his tallow impair ;
When like the good ox, ft>r public good-cheer.
He comes to be roasted next St. James's fair.
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OF MARVELL. 285
UPON ins HOUSE.
Here lie the sacred bones
Of Paul beguiled of his stones :
Here lie golden briberies,
The price of ruined families ;
The cavalier's debenture wall,
Fixed on an eccentric basis :
Here 's Dunkirk-Town and Tangier- Hall,*
The Queen's marriage and all.
