wise Let him avoid great Talkers I advise By this time we were got to Westminster Where he by chance a Trial had to hear And if he were not there his Cause must fall Sir if you love me step into the Hall For one half hour The Devil take me now Said I if I know any thing of Law Besides I told you whither I 'm to go Hereat he made a stand pull'd down his Hat Over his eyes and mus'd in deep debate I 'm in a straight said he what I shall do Whether forsake my business Sir or you Me by all means say I No says my Sot I fear you 'l take it ill If I should do 't I 'm sure you will Not I by all that 's good But I 've more breeding than to be so rude Pray don't neglect your own concerns for me Your Cause good Sir My Cause be damn'd says he ' I value 't less than your dear Company With this he came up to me and would lead The way I sneaking after hung my head Next he begins to plague me with the Plot Asks whether I were known to Oats or not Not I ' thank Heaven I no Priest have been Have never Doway nor St. Omers seen What think you Sir will they Fitz-Harris try Will he die think you Yes most certainly I mean be hang'd Would thou wert so wish'd I. Religion came in next tho he 'd no more Than the French King his Punk or Confessor Oh! the sad times if once the King should die Sir are you not afraid of Popery No more than my Superiors why should I I 've no Estate in abby-Abby-Lands to lose But Fire and Faggot Sir how like you those Come Inquisition any thing thought I So Heav'n would bless me to get rid of thee But 't is some comfort that my Hell is here I need no punishment hereafter fear Scarce had I thought but he falls on anew How stands it Sir betwixt his Grace and you Sir he 's a man of sense above the Crowd And shuns the Converse of a Multitude Ay Sir Says he you 're happy who are near His Grace and have the favour of his ear But let me tell you if you 'l recommend This person here your point will soon be gain'd Gad Sir I 'll die if my own single Wit Don't Fob his Minions and displace'em quite And make your self his only Favourite No you are out abundantly said I We live not as you think no Family Throughout the whole three Kingdoms is more free From those ill Customs which are us'd to swarm In great mens houses none e're does me harm Because more Learned or more Rich than I But each man keeps his Place and his Degree 'T is mighty strange says he what you relate But nothing truer take my word for that You make me long to be admitted too Amongst his Creatures Sir I beg that you Will stand my Friend Your Interest is such You may prevail I 'm sure you can do much He 's one that may be won upon I 've heard Tho at the first approach access be hard I 'll spare no trouble of my own or Friends No cost in Fees and Bribes to gain my ends I 'll seek all opportunities to meet With him accost him in the very street Hang on his Coach and wait upon him home Fawn Scrape and Cringe to him nay to his Groom Faith Sir this must be done If we 'll be great Preferment comes not at a cheaper rate While at this Savage rate he worried me By chance a Doctor my dear Friend came by That knew the Fellow's humour passing well Glad of the sight I joyn him we stand still Whence came you Sir and whither go you now And such like questions pass'd betwixt us two Strait I begin to pull him by the sleeve Nod wink upon him touch my Nose and give A thousand hints to let him know that I Needed his help for my delivery He naughty Wag with an Arch fleering smile Seems ignorant of what I mean the while I grow stark wild with rage Sir said not you You 'd somewhat to discourse not long ago With me in private I remember 't well Some other time be sure I will not fail Now I am in great haste upon my word A Messenger came for me from a Lord That 's in a bad condition like to die Oh! Sir he can't be in a worse than I Therefore for God's sake do not stir from hence Sweet Sir your pardon 't is of consequence I hope you 're kinder than to press mystay Which may be Heav'n knows what out of my way This said he left me to my murderer Seeing no hopes of my relief appear Confounded be the Stars said I that sway'd This fatal day would I had kept my Bed With sickness rather than been visited With this worse Plague what ill have I e're done To pull this curse this heavy Iudgment down While I was thus lamenting my ill hap Comes aid at length a brace of Bailiffs clap The Rascal on the back Here take your Fees Kind Gentlemen said I for my release He would have had me Bail Excuse me Sir I've made a Vow ne're to be Surety more My Father was undone by 't heretofore Thus I got off and bless'd the Fates that he Was Pris'ner made I set at liberty Paraphrase upon HORACE BOOK I. ODE XXXI Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem Vatea c. 1. WHat does the Poet 's modest Wish require What Boon does he of gracious Heav'n desire Not the large Corps of Esham's goodly Soil Which tire the Mower's and the Reaper's toil Not the soft Flocks on hilly Cotswold fed Nor Lemster Fields with living Fleeces clad He does not ask the Grounds where gentle Thames Or Severn spread their fat'ning Streams Where they with wanton windings play And eat their widen'd Banks insensibly away He does not ask the Wealth of Lombard-street Which Consciences and Souls are pawn'd to got Nor those exhaustless Mines of Gold Which Guinny and Peru in their rich bosoms hold 2. Let those that live in the Canary Isles On which indulgent Nature ever smiles Take pleasure in their plenteous Vintages And from the juicy Grape its racy Liquor press Let wealthy Merchants when they Dine Run o're their costly names of Wine Their Chests of Florence and their Mont-Alchine Their Mants Champagns Chablees Frontiniacks tell Their Aums of Hock of Backrag and Moselle He envies not their Luxury Which they with so much pains and danger buy For which so many Storms and Wrecks they bear For which they pass the Streights so oft each year And scape so narrowly the Bondage of Argier 3. He wants no Cyprus Birds nor Ortolans Nor Dainties fetch'd from far to please his Sense Cheap wholsom Herbs content his frugal Board The food of unsaln Innocence Which the mean'st Village Garden does afford Grant him kind Heav'n the sum of his desires What Nature not what Luxury requires He only does a Competency claim And
know no difference Nor hopes nor fears at all affect our sense But those who are of pleasure once bereft And must survive are most unhappy left To ravenous sorrow they are left a prey Nor can they ever drive despair away Take cruel Proserpine take my lov'd Boy Rich with my spoils do thou my loss enjoy Take him relentless Goddess for thy own Never till now wast thou my envy grown Hard Fate that thus the best of things must be Always the plunder of the Grave and thee The Grave and thou now all my hopes engross And I for ever must Adonis lose Thou' rt dead alas alas my Youth thou' rt dead And with thee all my pleasures too are fled They 're all like sleeting vanish'd dreams pass'd o're And nought but the remembrance left in store Of tasted joys ne're to be tasted more With thee my Cestos all my charms are gone Thy Venus must thy absence ever moan And spend the tedious live-long nights alone Ah! heedless Boy why would'st thou rashly choose Thy self to dang'rous pleasures to expose Why would'st thou hunt why would'st thou any more Venture with Dogs to chase the foaming Boar Thou wast all fair to mine to humane eyes But not alas to those wild Savages One would have thought thy sweetness might have charm'd The roughest kind the fiercest rage disarm'd Mine I am sure it could but wo is thee All wear not eyes all wear not breasts like me In such sad words the Dame her grief did vent While the Wing'd Loves kept time with her complaint As many drops of Bloud as from the wound Of slain Adonis fell upon the ground So many tears and more you might have told That down the cheeks of weeping Venus roul'd Both tears and bloud to new born flow'rs give rise Hence Roses spring and thence Anemonies Cease Venus in the Woods to mourn thy Love Thou 'st vented sighs thou 'st lavish'd tears enough See! Goddess where a glorious bed of State Does ready for thy dear Adonis wait This bed was once the Scene of Love and Joy But now must bear the wretched murder'd Boy There lies he like a pale and wither'd Flower Which some rude hand had cropt before its hour Yet smiles and beauties still live in his face Which death can never frighten from their place There let him lie upon that conscious bed Where you loves mysteries so oft have tried When you 've enjoy'd so many an happy night Each lengthen'd into ages of delight There let him lie there heaps of Flowers strow Roses and Lillies store upon him throw And myrtle Garlands lavishly bestow Pour Myrrh and Balm and costliest Ointments on Flowers are faded Ointments worthless grown Now thy Adonis now thy Youth is gone Who was all sweetnesses compriz'd in one In Purple wrapt Adonis lies in state A Troop of mourning Loves about him wait Each does some mark of their kind sorrow show One breaks his Shafts t'other unstrings his Bow A third upon his Quiver wreaks his hate As the sad causes of his hasty fate This plucks his bloudy garments off that brings Water in Vessels from the neighb'ring Springs Some wash his Wound some fan him with their Wings All equally their Mothers loss bemoan All moan for poor Adonis dead and gone Sad Hymen too the fatal loss does mourn His Tapers all to Funeral Tapers turn And all his wither'd Nuptial Garlands burn His gay and airy Songs are heard no more But mournful Strains that hopeless love deplore Nor do the Graces fail to bear a part With wretched Venus in her pain and smart The poor Adonis dead by turns they cry And strive in grief the Goddess to out-vie The Muses too in softest Lays bewail The hapless Youth and his fled Soul recal But all in vain ah numbers are too weak To call the lost the dead Adonis back Not all the pow'rs of Verse or charms of Love The deaf remorsless Proserpine can move Cease then sad Queen of Love thy plaints give o're Till the next year reserve thy grief in store Reserve thy Sighs and tears in store till then Then thou must sigh then thou must weep agen Paraphrase upon the 137. Psalm 1. Ver. 1. FAr from our pleasant native Palestine Where great Euphrates with a mighty current flows And does in watry limits Babylon confine Curss'd Babylon the cause and author of our woes There on the Rivers side Sate wretched Captive we And in sad Tears bewail'd our misery Tears whose vast store increas'd the neighb'ring Tide We wept and strait our grief before us brought A thousand distant Objects to our thought As oft as we survey'd the gliding Stream Lov'd Iordan did our sad remembrance claim As oft as we th' adjoyning City view'd Dear Sions razed Walls our Grief renew'd We thought on all the Pleasures of our happy Land Late ravish'd by a cruel Conqu'rour's hand We thought on every piteous every mournful thing That might access to our enlarged sorrows bring Deep silence told the greatness of our Grief Of grief too great by Vent to find relief Our Harps as mute and dumb as we Hung useless and neglected by And now and then a broken String would lend a sigh As if with us they felt a sympathy And mourn'd their own and our Captivity The gentle River too as if compassionate grown As 't would its Natives cruelty attone As it pass'd by in murmurs gave a pitying Groan 2. There the proud Conquerors who gave us Chains Who all our suff'rings and misfortunes gave Did with rude Insolence our Sorrows brave And with insulting Raillery thus mock'd our Pains Play us said they some brisk and airy strain Such as your Ancestors were wont to hear On Shilo ' s pleasant Plain Where all the Virgins met in Dances once a year Or one of those Which your illustrious David did compose While he fill'd Israel ' s happy Throne Great Soldier Poet and Musician all in one Oft have we heard he went with Harp in hand Captain of all th' harmonious Band And vanquish'd all the Quire with 's single skill alone Forbid it Heav'n forbid thou great thrice-hallow'd Name We should thy Sacred Hymns defame Or them with impious ears profane No no inhumane slaves is this a time Oh cruel and preposterous demand When every Joy and every Smile 's a crime A Treason to our poor unhappy native Land Is this a time for sprightly Airs When every look the Badg of sorrow wears And Livery of our Miseries Sad miseries that call for all our Breath in sighs And all the Tribute of our eyes And moisture of our Veins our very bloud in tears When nought can claim our Thoughts Ierusalem but thou Nought but thy sad Destruction Fall and Overthrow 3. Oh dearest City late our Nations justest Pride Envy of all the wond'ring world beside Oh sacred Temple once th' Almighty's bless'd abode Now quite forsaken by our angry God! Shall ever distant time or Place Your firm Ideas from my Soul deface Shall they
Who didst attone us with thy Bloud Thy self the Offering Altar Priest and God Thy self didst die to be our glorious Bail From Death's Arrests and the eternal Flaming Jail Thy self thou gav'st th' inestimable Price To Purchase and Redeem our morgag'd Heav'n and Happiness Thither when thy great Work on Earth had end When Death it self was slain and dead And Hell with all its Powers captive led Thou didst again triumphantly Ascend There do'st Thou now by Thy great Father sit on high With equal Glory equal Majesty Joynt-Ruler of the everlasting Monarchy 6. Again from thence thou shalt with greater triumph come When the last Trumpet sounds the general Doom And lo thou com'st and lo the direful sound does make Through Deaths wide Realm Mortality awake And lo they all appear At Thy Dread Bar And all receive th' unalterable Sentence there Affrighted Nature trembles at the dismal Day And shrinks for fear and vanishes away Both that and Time breath out their last and now they die And now are swallow'd up and lost in vast Eternity Mercy O mercy angry God! Stop stop thy flaming Wrath too fierce to be withstood And quench it with the Deluge of thy Bloud Thy precious Bloud which was so freely spilt To wash us from the stains of Sin and Guilt O write us with it in the Book of Fate Amongst thy Chosen and Predestinate Free Denizens of Heav'n of the Immortal State 7. Guide us O Saviour guide thy Church below Both Way and Star Compass and Pilot Thou Do thou this frail and tott'ring Vessel steer Through Life's tempestuous Ocean here Through all the tossing Waves of Fear And dang'rous Rocks of black Despair Safe under Thee we shall to the wish'd Haven move And reach the undiscover'd Lands of Bliss above Thus low behold to thy great Name we bow And thus we ever wish to grow Constant as Time does thy fix'd Laws obey To Thee our Worship and our Thanks we pay With these we wake the chearful Light With these we Sleep and Rest invite Anâ—… thus we spend our Breath and thus we spend our Days And never cease to Sing and never cease to Praise 8. While thus each Breast and Mouth and Ear Are filled with thy Praise and Love and Fear Let never Sin get room or entrance there Vouchsafe O Lord through this and all our days To guard us with Thy pow'rful Grace Within our hearts let no usurping Lust be found No rebel Passion tumult raise To break thy Laws or break our Peace But set thy Watch of Angels on the Place And keep the Tempter still from that forbidden ground Ever O Lord to us thy mercies grant Never O Lord let us thy mercies want Ne're want Thy Favour Bounty Liberality But let them ever on us be Constant as our own Hope and Trust on Thee On Thee we all our Hope and Trust repose O never leave us to our Foes Never O Lord desert our Cause Thus aided and upheld by Thee We 'll fear no Danger Death nor Misery Fearless we thus will stand a falling world With crushing Ruins all about us hurl'd And face wide gaping Hell all its slighted Pow'rs desie A Letter from the Country to a Friend in Town giving an Account of the Author's Inclinations to Poetry Written in July 1678. AS to that Poet if so great a one as he May suffer in comparison with me When heretosore in Scythian exile pent To which he to ungrateful Rome was sent If a kind Paper from his Country came And wore subscrib'd some known and faithful Name That like a pow'rful Cordial did infuse New life into his speechless gasping Muse And strait his Genius which before did seem Bound up in Ice and frozen as the Clime By its warm force and friendly influence thaw'd Dissolv'd apace and in soft numbers flow'd Such welcome here dear Sir your Letter had With me shut up in close constraint as bad Not eager Lovers held in long suspence With warmer Joy and a more tender sense Meet those kind Lines which all their wishes bless And Sign and Seal deliver'd Happiness My grateful Thoughts so throng to get abroad They over-run each other in the crowd To you with hasty flight they take their way And hardly for the dress of words will stay Yet pardon if this only fault I find That while you praise too much you are less kind Consider Sir 't is ill and dang'rous thus To over-lay a young and tender Muse Praise the fine Diet which we 're apt to love If given to excess does hurtful prove Where it does weak distemper'd Stomachs meet That surfeits which should nourishment create Your rich Perfumes such fragrancy dispense Their sweetness overcomes and palls my sense On my weak head you heap so many Bays I sink beneath 'em quite oppress'd with Praise And a resembling fate with him receive Who in too kind a triumph found his Grave Smother'd with Garlands which Applauders gave To you these Praises justlier all belong By alienating which your self you wrong Whom better can such commendations fit Than you who so well teach and practise Wit Verse the great boast of drudging Fools from some May most of Scriblers with much straining come They void 'em dribling and in pain they write As if they had a Strangury of Wit Your Pen uncall'd they readily obey And scorn your Ink should flow so fast as they Each strain of yours so easie does appear Each such a graceful negligence does wear As shews you have none and yet want no care None of your serious pains or time they cost But what thrown by you can afford for lost If such the fruits of your loose leisure be Your careless minutes yield such Poetry We guess what proofs your Genius would impart Did it employ you as it does divert But happy you more prudent and more wise With better aims have fix'd your noble choice While silly I all thriving Arts refuse And all my hopes and all my vigour lose In service on that worst of Jilts a Muse For gainful business court ignoble ease And in gay Trifles wast my ill-spent days Little I thought my dearest Friend that you Would thus contribute to my Ruine too O're-run with filthy Poetry and Rhyme The present reigning evil of the time I lack'd and well I did my self assure From your kind hand I should receive a cure When lo instead of healing Remedies You cherish and encourage the Disease Inhumane you help the Distemper on Which was before but too inveterate grown As a kind looker on who int'rest shares Tho not in 's stake yet in his hopes and fears Would to his Friend a pushing Gamester do Recall his Elbow when he hastes to throw Such a wise course you should have took with me A rash and vent'ring fool in Poetry Poets are Cullies whom Rook Fame draws in And wheadles with deluding hopes to win But when they hit and most successful are They scarce come off with a bare saving share Oft