When neither Speed, nor Art, nor Friends, nor Force
Could help him, towards the Stream he bends his
Hoping those leffer Beasts would not affay [Course,
An Element, more merciless than they.
But fearless they purfue, nor can the Flood
Quench their dire Thirst, (alas) they thirft for Blood.
As fome brave Hero, whom his bafer Foes
In Troops furround, now these affails, now thofe,
Though prodigal of Life, difdains to Die
By vulgar Hands, but if he can descry
Some Nobler Foe approach, to him he calls,
And begs his Fate, and then contented falls:
So the tall Stag, amidst the leffer Hounds
Repells their Force, and Wounds returns for Wounds,
'Till Charles from his unerring Hand lets flie
A mortal Shaft, then glad, and proud to Die
By fuch a Wound, he falls; the Crystal Flood
Dying he Dies, and Purples with his Blood.
This a more Innocent, and happy Chafe
Than when of Old, but in the self-fame Place,
Fair Liberty purfu'd, and meant a Prey
To Tyranny, here turn'd, and stood at Bay.
When in that Remedy all Hope was plac'd,
Which was, or should have been at least, the laft:
For armed Subjects can have no pretence
Against their Princes, but their just Defence;
And whether then, or no, I leave to them
To Juftifie, who elfe themselves Condemn:
Yet might the Fact be juft, if we may guess,
The juftness of an Action from Succefs.
Here was that t Charter feal'd, wherein the Crown
All marks of Arbitrary Power lays down:
Tyrant and Slave, thofe Names of hate and fear,
The happier Style of King and Subject bear:
* Runny Mead, where the great Charter was first Seal' d † Magna Charta.
Happy when both to the fame Center move,
When Kings give Liberty, and Subjects Love.
Therefore not long in force this Charter ftood,
Wanting that Seal, it must be feal'd in Blood.
The Subjects arm'd, the more their Princes gave,
But this Advantage took, the more to crave:
Till Kings by giving, give themselves away,
And even that Power, that should deny, betray.
"Who gives conftrain'd, but his own fear reviles;
"Not thank'd but fcorn'd, nor are they Gifts, but
And they, whom no denial can withstand, [Spoils.
Seem but to ask, while they indeed command.
Thus all to limit Royalty conspire,
While each forgets to limit his Defire;
Till Kings like Old Antaus by their Fall,
Being forc'd, their Courage from Defpair recall.
When a calm River rais'd with fudden Rains,
Or Snows diffolv'd, o'er-flows th' adjoyning Plains,
The Husbandmen with high-rais'd Banks fecure
Their greedy Hopes, and this he can endure;
But if with Bogs and Damms they ftrive to force
His Channel to a new or narrow Courfe,
No longer then within his Banks he dwells,
First to a Torrent, then a Deluge fwells:
Stronger and fiercer by Restraint he roars,
And knows no Bound, but makes his Powers his Shores.
Thus Kings by grasping more than they can hold,
Firft made their Subjects by Oppreffions bold;
And popular Sway, by forcing Kings to give
More than was fit for Subjects to receive,
Ran to the fame Extream, and one Excess
Made both, by striving to be greater, less.
Nor any way, but feeking to have more,
Makes either lofe what each poffefs'd before.
Wherefore their boundless Power till Princes draw
Within the Channel, and the Shores of Law,
And may: that Law, which teaches Kings to fway
Their Scepters, teach their Subjects to obey.
As it was Published after the RESTORATION.
By Sir John Denham, Knight of the Bath.
URE there are Poets which did never dream
Upon Parnaffus, nor did taste the Stream
Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose
Those made not Poets, but the Poets thole.
And as Courts make not Kings, but Kings the Court,
So where the Muses and their Train refort,
Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee
A Poet, thou Parnassus art to me.
Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my Flight,
By taking Wing from thy aufpicious Height)
Through untrac'd ways, and airy Paths I fly,
More boundlefs in my Fancy than my Eye:
My Eye, which swift as Thought contracts the Space
That lyes between, and firft falutes the place
Crown'd with that facred Pile, fo vast, so high,
That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or Sky,
Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud
Afpiring Mountain, or defcending Cloud:
Paul's, the late Theme of fuch a Mufe whofe flight
Has bravely reach'd and foar'd above thy height;
Now fhalt thou ftand, though Sword, or Time, or Fire,
Or Zeal, more fierce than they, thy Fall confpire,
Secure, whilft thee the best of Poets fings,
Preferv'd from Ruin by the best of Kings.
Under his proud Survey the City lyes,
And like a Mift beneath the Hill doth rife;
Whofe State and Wealth, the Business and the Crowd,
Seems at this Distance but a darker Cloud:
And is to him who rightly things efteems,
No other in Effect than what it feems:
Where, with like hafte, though feveral ways they run,
Some to undo, and fome to be undone;
While Luxury and Wealth, like War and Peace,
Are each the others Ruin, and Encrease;
As Rivers loft in Seas fome fecret Vein
Thence re-conveys, there to be loft again.
O Happiness of fweet retir'd Content!
To be at once fecure, and innocent.
Windfor the next (where Mars with Venus dwells,
Beauty with Strength) above the Valley fwells
Into my Eye, and doth it felf present
With fuch an eafie and unforc'd Afcent,
That no ftupendous Precipice denies
Accefs, no Horror turns away our Eyes:
But fuch a Rife as doth at once invite
A Pleasure and a Reverence from the Sight.
Thy mighty Mafter's Emblem, in whofe Face
Sate Meeknefs, heighten'd with Majeftick Grace;
Such feems thy gentle Height, made only proud
To be the Basis of that pompous Load,
Than which, a nobler Weight no Mountain bears,
But Atlas only that fupports the Sphears.
When Nature's Hand this Ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer Power than Chance;
Mark'd out for fuch a Ufe, as if 'twere meant
T'invite the Builder, and his Choice prevent.
Nor can we call it Choice, when what we chufe,
Folly, or Blindness only could refufe.
A Crown of fuch Majeftick Tow'rs doth grace
The Gods great Mother, when her heavenly Race
Do Homage to her; yet the cannot boaft,
Amongst that numerous, and Celestial Hoft,
More Hero's than can Windfor, nor doth Fame's
Immortal Book record more noble Names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this Isle
Owes the first Glory of fo brave a Pile,
Whether to Cafar, Albanact, or Brute,
The British Arthur, or the Danish Knute,
(Though this of old no lefs Contest did move,
Than when for Homer's Birth seven Cities ftrove)
(Like him in Birth, thou should't be like in Fame,
As thine his Fate, if mine had been his Flame)
But whofoe'er it was, Nature design'd
Firft a brave Place, and then as brave a Mind.
Not to recount those several Kings, to whom
It gave a Cradle, or to whom a Tomb,
But thee (great Edward) and thy greater Son,
(The Lilies which his Father wore, he won)
And thy † Bellona, who the Confort came
Not only to thy Bed, but to thy Fame,
She to thy Triumph led one ‡ Captive King,
And brought that Son, which did the second bring.
Then didst thou found that Order, (whether Love
Or Victory thy Royal Thoughts did move)
Each was a Noble Caufe, and nothing lefs
Than the Design, has been the great Success:
Which Foreign Kings and Emperors esteem
The fecond Honour to their Diadem,
Had thy great Deftiny but giv'n thee Skill
To know, as well as Power to act her Will,
That from thofe Kings, who then thy Captives were,
In after-times fhould fpring a Royal Pair,
Who should poffefs all that thy mighty Power,
Or thy Defires more mighty, did devour;
To whom their better Fate referves whate'er
The Victor hopes for, or the, Vanquish'd fear;
That Blood, which thou and thy great Grandfire fhed,
And all that fince these Sifter Nations bled,
Had been unfpilt, had happy Edward known
That all the Blood he fpilt had been his own.
When he that Patron chofe, in whom are joyn'd
Soldier and Martyr, and his Arms confin'd
Edward the Third, and the Black Prince.
↑ Queen Philippa. The Kings of France and Scotland.
|