Another Edward lead the Britons on,
Or such an Ossory as you did moan;
While in such numbers you, in such a strain,
Inflame their courage, and reward their pain,
Let false Achithophel the rout engage,
Talk easy Absalom to rebel rage;
Let frugal Shimei curse in holy zeal,
Or modest Corah more new plots reveal;
Whilst constant to himself, secure of Fate,
Good David still maintains the royal state.
Though each in vain such various ills employs,
Firmly he stands, and e'en those ills enjoys;
Firm as fair Albion, 'midst the raging main,
Surveys encircling danger with disdain.
In vain the waves assault the unmov'd shore,
In vain the winds with mingled fury roar, [fore.
FairAlbion's beauteous cliffs shine whiter than be
Nor shalt thou move, tho' Hell thy fall conspire,
Tho' the worse rage of Zeal's fanatic fire;
Thou best, thou greatest, of the British race,
Thou only fit to fill great Charles's place.
Ah wretched Britons! ah too stubborn isle! Ah stiff-neck'd Israel on blest Canaan's soil! Are those dear proofs of Heav'n's indulgence vain, Restoring David and his gentle reign?
Is it in vain thou all the goods dost know, Auspicious stars on mortals shed below, [ney flow? While all thy streams with milk, thy lands with ho
No more, fond Isle! no more thyself engage
In civil fury and intestine rage:
No rebel zeal thy duteous land molest,
But a smooth calm sooth every peaceful breast.
While in such charming notes divinely sings
The best of Poets, of the best of Kings.
THOSE gods the pious Ancients did adore,
They learnt in verse devoutly to implore,
Thinking it rude to use the common way
Of talk, when they did to such beings pray.
Nay, they that taught religion first, thought fit
In verse its sacred precepts to transmit:
So Solon, too, did his first statutes draw,
And every little stanza was a law.
By these few precedents we plainly see
The primitive design of poetry;
Which, by restoring to its native use,
You generously have rescu'd from abuse.
Whilst your lov'd Muse does in sweet numbers sing,
She vindicates her God, and godlike king.
Atheist, and rebel too, she does oppose;
(God and the King have always the same foes.)
Legions of verse you raise in their defence,
And write the factious to obedience;
You the bold Arian to arms defy,
A conqu❜ring champion for the Deity,
Against the Whigs' first parents, who did dare
To disinherit God Almighty's Heir.
And what the hot-brain'd Arian first began,
Is carried on by the Socinian,
Who still associates to keep God a man.
But 'tis the Prince of poets' task alone
T'assert the rights of God's and Charles's throne.
Whilst vulgar poets purchase vulgar fame,
By chaunting Chloris' or fair Phillis' name;
Whose reputation shall last as long
As fops and ladies sing the amorous song.
A nobler subject wisely they refuse,
The mighty weight would crush their feeble muse.
So Story tells, a painter once would try
With his bold hand to limn a deity;
And he, by frequent practising that part,
Could draw a minor god with wondrous art;
But when great Jove did to the workman sit,
The Thunderer such horror did beget,
That put the frighted artist to a stand,
And made his pencil drop from's baffled hand.
A Poem on the happy restoration and return of his Sacred Majesty, Charles II, 1660.
"Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna."
The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes,
Renews its finish'd course; Saturnian times
Roll round again.
Now with a general peace the world was bless'd,
While ours, a world divided from the rest,
A dreadful quiet felt, and, worser far
Than arms, a sullen interval of war:
Thus when black clouds draw down the lab'ring skies,
Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies,
An horrid stilness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Th' ambitious Swede, like restless billows toss'd,
On this hand gaining what on that he lost,
Though in his life he blood and ruin breath'd,
To his now guideless kingdom peace bequeath'd:
And Heav'n, that seem'd regardless of our fate,
For France and Spain did miracles create;
Such mortal quarrels to compose in peace,
As Nature bred, and Int'rest did increase.
We sigh'd to hear the fair Iberian bride
Must grow a lily to the lily's side,
While our cross stars deny'd us Charles' bed,
Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed. 20
For his long absence Church and State did groan;
Madness the pulpit, faction seiz'd the throne;
Experienc'd age in deep despair was lost,
To see the rebel thrive, the loyal cross'd:
Youth, that with joys had unacquainted been,
Envy'd grey hairs that once good days had seen: 3
We thought our sires, not with their own content,
Had, cre we came to age, our portion spent.
Nor could our nobles hope their bold attempt,
Who ruin'd crowns, would coronets exempt:
For when, by their designing leaders taught
To strike at pow'r, which for themselves they sought,
The vulgar, gull'd into rebellion, arm'd,
Their blood to action by their prize was warm'd,
The sacred purple then, and scarlet gown,
Like sanguine dye, to elephants was shown.
Thus when the bold Typhoeus scal'd the sky,
And forc'd great Jove from his own heav'n to fly,
(What king, what crown, from Treason's reach is free,
If Jove and heav'n can violated be?)
The lesser gods, that shar'd his prosp❜rous state,
All suffer'd in the exil'd Thund'rers fate.
The rabble now such freedom did enjoy,
As winds at sea, that use it to destroy:
Blind as the Cyclop, and as wild as he,
They own'd a lawless savage liberty,
|