Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

But haste thee straight to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure,
Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming slight
Which takes our late fantastics with delight;
But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire,
Which deepest spirit, and choicest wits desire.
I have some naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And weary of their place, do only stay
Till thou hast deck'd them in thy best array;
That so they may, without suspect or fears,
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly's ears;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
Thy service in some graver subject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound:
Such where the deep transported mind may soar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and see each blissful Deity

[blocks in formation]

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
List'ning to what unshorn Apollo sings

To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly sire :

Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire,
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of snow, and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves,
In Heav'n's defiance mustering all his waves;
Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was ;

40

45

And last of kings, and queens, and heroes old,

Such as the wise Demodocus once told

In solemn songs at king Alcinous' feast,

While sad Ulysses' soul, and all the rest,

Are held with his melodious harmony

In willing chains, and sweet captivity.

But fie, my wand'ring Muse, how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way;
Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent

To keep in compass of thy predicament:

Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.

50

55

Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments his two sons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance with his cannons, which Ens, thus speaking, explains.

GOOD luck befriend thee, Son; for, at thy birth,
The fairy ladies danc'd upon the hearth;

60

Thy drousy nurse hath sworn she did them spy

Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,

And, sweetly singing round about thy bed,

Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head.

She heard them give thee this that thou shouldst still

From eyes of mortals walk invisible :

66

Yet there is something that doth force my fear;

For once it was my dismal hap to hear

70

A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wisely could presage,

And in time's long and dark prospective glass
Foresaw what future days should bring to pass ;
"Your son," said she, (" nor can you it prevent,)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling;

nd those that cannot live from him asunder,

75

Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under;
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
Yet, being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap;

And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap ;
Yet shall he live in strife, and at his door
Devouring war shall never cease to roar;
Yea, it shall be his natural property
To harbor those that are at enmity.

What pow'r, what force, what mighty spell, if not
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot?"

80

85

90

The next Quantity and Quality spoke in prose, then Relation was called by his name,

RIVERS, arise; whether thou be the son

Of utmost Tweed, or Oose, or Gulphy Dun,

Or Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads
His thirty arms along th' indented meads;

Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath;

Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death 3

Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee,

Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee;

Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name ;
Or medway smooth, or royal-tow'red Thame.

(The rest was prose.]
46 *

95

100

III.

ON THE MORNING.

OF

CHRIST'S NATIVITY.

Composed 1629.

I.

THIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,

5

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

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

Afford a present to the infant God?

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,

Now while the heav'n, by the sun's team untrod,

15

Hath took no print of the approaching light,

20

And all the spangled hosts keep watch in squadrons bright?

IV.

See, how from far, upon the eastern road,

The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet:

O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first thy lord to greet,

Aud join thy voice unto the angel quire,

From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire,

THE HYMN.

25

I.

IT was the winter wild,

While the Heav'n-born child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature, in awe to him,

Had doff'd her gaudy trim

With her great Master so to sympathise ;

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She wooes 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.

30

35

« ZurückWeiter »