But oh why didft thou not stay here below
To blefs us with thy heav'n-lov'd innocence,
To flake his wrath whom fin hath made our foe,
To turn fwift-rufhing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the flaughtering peftilence,
To ftand 'twixt us and our deferved finart? But thou cauft best perform that office where thou art.
Then thou the Mother of fo fweet a Child
Her falle imagin'd lofs ceafe to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild.
Think what a prefent thou to God haft fent,
Aid render him with patience what he lent! 75
This if thou do, he will an offspring give,
That till the world's laft end fhall make thy name to live.
Anno Atatis 19. At a Vacation Exercife in the college, part Latin, part English. The latin speeches ended, the English thus began *.
AIL native Language, that by finews weak Didt move my firft endevoring tongue to speak, And mad'ft imperfect words with childish trips, Half unpronounc'd, flide through any infant-lips,. Driving dumb filence from the portal door,
These verses were made in 1627, that being the
19th year of the author's age; and they were not in the edition of 1645, but were firit added in the edition of 1673.
Where he had mutely fat two years before:
Here I falute thee, and thy pardon afk,
That now I ufe thee in my latter task:
Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee,
I know my tongue but little grace can do thee: ΤΟ
Thou need'ft not be ambitious to be firft,
Believe me I have thither packt the worft;
And, if it happen as I did forecaft,
The daintieft dishes fhall be ferv'd up laft.
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid
For this fame fmall neglect that I have made:
But hafte thee ftrait to do ine once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefeft treafure,
Not thofe new fangled toys, and trimming flight,
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
But cull thofe richeft robes, and gay'ft attire
Which deepest spirits and choiceft wits defire:
I have fome naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their paffage out;
And weary of their place do only stay
Till thou haft deck'd them in thy best array;
That fo they may without fufpect or fears
Fly fwiftly to this fair affembly's ears;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,
Thy fervice in fome graver fubject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found:
Such where the deep tranfported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and fee each blifsful Deity
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Listening to what unfhorn Apollo fings
To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
VOL. II.
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire:
Then paffing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder;
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves,
In Heav'n's defiance muftering all his waves ;
Then fing of fecret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was j
And lait of kings and queens and heroes.old,
Such as the wife Demodocus once told
In folemn fongs at king Alcinoüs' feast,
While fad Ulyffes' foul and all the reft
Are held with his melodious harmony
In willing chains and fweet captivity.
But fie, my wandering Mufe, how thou doft ftray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
Thou know'ft it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compafs of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may refign my room.
Then Ens is reprefented as father of the Predicantents his ten fons, whereof the eldeft ftood for Subftance with his canons, which Ens, thus fpeaking, explains.
GOOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy droufy nurfe hath fworn fhe did them fpie
Come tripping to the room where thou didft lie,
And fweetly finging round about thy bed,
Strow all their bleffings on thy fleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou fhouldft ftill
From eyes of mortals walk invifible.
Yet there is fomething that doth force my fear,
For once it was my difmal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could presage,
And in time's long and dark profpective glafs
Forefaw what future days fhould bring to pass;
Your fon, faid fhe, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall fubje&t be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he fhall reign as king,
Yet every one fhall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him afunder
Ungratefully fhall strive to keep him under,-
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet, being above them, he shall be below them; 80
From others he fhall ftand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it fhall not be his hap,
shall full him in her flowery lap;
peace
Yet thall he live in ftrife, and at his door.
Devouring war fhall never ceafe to roar:
Yea it fhall be his natural property
To harbour thofe that are at eninity.
What power, what force, what mighty fpell, if not Your learned hands, can loofe this Gordian knot? go
The next Quantity and Quality fpake in profe, then' Relation was call'd by his name.
RIVERS arife; whether thou be the fon
Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun,
Or Trent, who like some earth born giant fpreads
His thirty arms along th' indented meads,
Or fullen Mole that ranneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death,
Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,
Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee, vo
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name,
Or Medway finooth, or royal towred Thame.
[The reft was profe.]y
On the MORNING of CHRIST'S NATIVITY.
Compos'd 1629.
HIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
There in the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For fo the holy fages once did fing, 503 th of
That he our deadly forfeit fhould release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
That glorious form, that light unfufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table ro
To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid afide; and here with us to be,
Forfook the courts of everlafting day,
And chofe with us a darkfome house of mortal clay.
Say heav'nly Mufe, fhall not thy facred vein
Afford a prefent to the Infant God?
Haft thou no verse, no hymn, or folemn ftrain,
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