Then ENS is represented as father of the Predicaments his ten sons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance with his canons, which ENS, thus speaking, explains. 60 Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth Yet there is something that doth force my fear, A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age, 70 75 80 To find a foe it shall not be his hap, And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap; To harbour those that are at enmity. What pow'r, what force, what mighty spell, if not Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? The next QUANTITY and QUALITY spake in prose; then RELATION was called by his name. RIVERS arise; whether thou be the son Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee, Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, [The rest was prose.] 94 indented] Sylvester's Du Bartas, D. iii. W. 1. 'Our silver Medway which doth deepe indent The flowerie meadowes of my native Kent.' Warton. 95 100 98 hallow'd] 'holy Dee.' Randolph's Poems, p. 48, ed. 1640. Todd. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. I. THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, That he our deadly forfeit should release, II. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, 5 Wherewith he wont at heav'n's high council-table 10 To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid aside; and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. III. Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Now while the heav'n by the sun's team untrod, 15 19 sun's team] Henry IV. P. I. act iii. sc. 4. 'heavenly-harness'd team.' Todd. Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? IV. See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wisards haste with odours sweet: 0 run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel quire, From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. 25 While the heav'n-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature in awe to him Had dofft her gaudy trim, 23 30 star-led] 'The starre-led sages that would Christ behold.' Bancroft's Sec. B. of Epigrams, Ep. 228. Todd. Storer's Life of Wolsey, p. 21. 'When wise magicians wandered far awide To find the place of our Messiah's birth.' 23 wisards] Spenser's F. Q. iv. xii. 2. 'antique wisards.' i. iv. 12. 'and strong advizement of six wizards old. Warton. 'The Syracusan wizard did invent.' Storer's Life of Wolsey, p. 12. And Fitz-Geffrey's Holy Raptures, p. 37. 17. With her great Master so to sympathize: It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour. Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air II. To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, And on her naked shame, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw; Confounded that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. 365 40 But he her fears to cease, III. Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace; 45 She crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere His ready harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; 50 And waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. No war, or battle's sound IV. Was heard the world around: The idle spear and shield were high up hung, The hooked chariot stood Unstain'd with hostile blood, |