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And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild ;
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do, he will an offspring give
That till the world's last end shall make thy name

to live. *

75

ΑΝΝΟ ÆTATIS 19.

At a VACATION EXERCISE in the COLLEGE, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began.

HALL, native Language, that by sinews weak
Didst move my first endeavouring tongue to speak,
And mad'st imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounc'd, slide through my infant lips,
Driving dumb silence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely sat two years before :
Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask,
That now I use thee in my latter task:

5

5 dumb silence] Nonni Dionys. xv. 10. ἀφωνήτω σιωπή. Chapman's Homer's Il. p. 98, Dumb silence seiz'd them all.'

Daniel's Poems, ii. 236.

Wishart's Immanuel, p. 66. Syl

vester's Du Bartas, p. 5. Cotton's Poems, p. 239.

England's Helicon, p. 259. C. Buchanan. Sylv. p. 310, tacitæ

per muta silentia silvæ.'

Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee,
I know my tongue but little grace can do thee: 10
Thou need'st not be ambitious to be first,
Believe me I have thither pack'd the worst;
And, if it happen as I did forecast,
The daintiest dishes shall be serv'd up last.
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid
For this same small neglect that I have made:
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 spirits, 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 choose,

15

20

25

Thy service in some graver subject use,

30

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

35

30 graver] An anticipation of the subject of Par. Lost, if we substitute Christian for Pagan ideas. Warton.

[graphic]

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

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
The fairy ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And sweetly singing round about thy bed
Strow all their blessings on thy sleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:
Yet there is something that doth force my fear,
For once it was my dismal hap to hear

[still

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,
And those that cannot live from him asunder

70

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.

[blocks in formation]

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 harbour those that are at enmity.

85

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
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,

Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee,

Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,

95

Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, Or Medway smooth, or royal tower'd Thame. 100

[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.

93 hallow'd] holy Dee.' Randolph's Poems, p. 48, ed. 1640. Todd.

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