019:02,000['  ]| <Caesar's Ghost (1686)>
019:02,000['  ]| <This is a modernised text of Bodleian MS Firth c 15,>
019:02,000['  ]| <in Behn's hand and signed by her, but with the signature>
019:02,000['  ]| <crossed out.  The only other source is the 1703 POAS.>
019:02,000['  ]| <The poem is a satire on a vast military demonstration put>
019:02,000['  ]| <on by James II at Hounslow in the summer of 1686.  The>
019:02,000['  ]| <judgement on the army was to prove spot on in 1688.  But>
019:02,000['  ]| <the poet claims to be an admirer of James.  >
019:02,001[A  ]| 'Twas still low ebb of night, when not a star
019:02,002[A  ]| Was twinkling in the muffled hemisphere;
019:02,003[A  ]| When all around in horrid darkness mourned,
019:02,004[A  ]| As if old chaos were again returned;
019:02,005[A  ]| And not one gleam of the eternal light
019:02,006[A  ]| Shot through the solid darkness of the night;
019:02,007[A  ]| In dismal silence nature seemed to sleep,
019:02,008[A  ]| And all the winds were buried in the deep;
019:02,009[A  ]| No whispering Zephyrus aloft did blow
019:02,010[A  ]| Nor warring boughs were murmuring below;
019:02,011[A  ]| No falling waters dashed, no rivers purled;
019:02,012[A  ]| But all conspired to hush the drowsy world.
019:02,013[A  ]| When on my couch in thoughtless slumbers wrapt
019:02,014[A  ]| I lay reposed ~~ my very soul too slept
019:02,015[A  ]| In peaceful dullness, silent and serene
019:02,016[A  ]| Till 'twas debauched and wakened into dream.
019:02,017[A  ]| Methought I saw a dark and dismal vault,
019:02,018[A  ]| Whose horror cannot be conceived by thought,
019:02,019[A  ]| And seemed by some infernal magic wrought:
019:02,020[A  ]| So vast and so perplexing intricate,
019:02,021[A  ]| As if the dreadful court of death and fate;
019:02,022[A  ]| And yet of kings the great repositer,
019:02,023[A  ]| And only royal dust lies mouldering there.
019:02,024[A  ]| Amidst those monuments of sacred fame,
019:02,025[A  ]| Great Caesar's stood, Caesar, whose deathless name
019:02,026[A  ]| When shrines decay, triumphant shall remain,
019:02,027[A  ]| While sense, good nature, wit, and love shall reign.
019:02,028[A  ]| While I, with fear but awful trembling, paid
019:02,029[A  ]| Humble oblations to the mighty dead.
019:02,030[A  ]| Methought the sweating marble did unclose,
019:02,031[A  ]| And from death's mansion the dread monarch rose;
019:02,032[A  ]| His eyes o'er all scattered a sullen light,
019:02,033[A  ]| Such as divides the breaking day from night;
019:02,034[A  ]| By whose faint beams the object I discerned,
019:02,035[A  ]| All pale ~~ with ghastly majesty adorned.
019:02,036[A  ]| His stiffened loins a purple mantle bore,
019:02,037[A  ]| His brows a wreath of withered laurels wore,
019:02,038[A  ]| Such as had flourished there in life before.
019:02,039[A  ]| Now forth he stalks, silent as shadows glide,
019:02,040[A  ]| Or clouds that skim the air while they divide;
019:02,041[A  ]| As quick as thought the faithless town he passed,
019:02,042[A  ]| And towards the camp of wondrous fame did haste,
019:02,043[A  ]| While midnight fogs surround his awful head
019:02,044[A  ]| And down his locks their baneful poison shed.
019:02,045[A  ]| The wandering demons frighted at the view
019:02,046[A  ]| And all the ignes fatui withdrew;
019:02,047[A  ]| Hecate let fall her charm-preparing weeds,
019:02,048[A  ]| Wondering what unknown power earth's surface treads,
019:02,049[A  ]| Which more than that which she invokes she dreads.
019:02,050[A  ]| She flies all frighted with erected hair
019:02,051[A  ]| And scarce her broomstaff bears her through the air;
019:02,052[A  ]| From his dire presence every evil ran,
019:02,053[A  ]| Except that more exalted evil, man:
019:02,054[A  ]| Not the first race of less corrupted fiends,
019:02,055[A  ]| Till taught by man, knew half his new-coined sins.
019:02,056[A  ]| Thrice with majestic pace he walks the round,
019:02,057[A  ]| Surveying the pavilions' utmost bound,
019:02,058[A  ]| And useless grandeur every where he found.
019:02,059[A  ]| Philippi nor the famed Pharsalia's field,
019:02,060[A  ]| Did not more signs of glorious action yield;
019:02,061[A  ]| But this was all for show, not terror, made,
019:02,062[A  ]| 'Twas Hounslow farce: a siege in masquerade.
019:02,063[A  ]| More near he views it yet, and found within,
019:02,064[A  ]| All the degrees of luxury and sin.
019:02,065[A  ]| Alsatia's sink into this common shore,
019:02,066[A  ]| Did all its vile and nasty nuisance pour:
019:02,067[A  ]| Fat sharpers, broken cuckolds, gamesters, cheats,
019:02,068[A  ]| What Newgate disembogues, find here retreats;
019:02,069[A  ]| The groom and footman from their liveries stripped,
019:02,070[A  ]| With scarf, gay feather, and command equipped.
019:02,071[A  ]| Promotion gives to sauciness pretence,
019:02,072[A  ]| And greatness is mistook for insolence;
019:02,073[A  ]| And to evince their valour every hour,
019:02,074[A  ]| Bamboo the slaves that bow beneath their power.
019:02,075[A  ]| Yet to the country ladies these appear
019:02,076[A  ]| So novel, witty, beau, en cavalier,
019:02,077[A  ]| That scarce a tender heart is left behind:
019:02,078[A  ]| Pray heaven a maidenhead you chance to find!
019:02,079[A  ]| The phantom to that quarter first resorts,
019:02,080[A  ]| Where the illustrious generals keep their courts.
019:02,081[A  ]| Great Faversham, the foremost of the crew,
019:02,082[A  ]| Whose uncle, Turennne, well could fight we knew;
019:02,083[A  ]| He who so often does repeat the jest
019:02,084[A  ]| How he subdued the monarch of the West
019:02,085[A  ]| (Or would have don't had he not been undressed);
019:02,086[A  ]| This rough, stern hero of our British war
019:02,087[A  ]| To neighbouring tents is always borne in chair
019:02,088[A  ]| For fear of incommodement from de <sic> air.
019:02,089[A  ]| None wonders what did Churchill recommend,
019:02,090[A  ]| Who never did to deeds of arms pretend:
019:02,092[A  ]| Love, all his active youth, his business was,
019:02,093[A  ]| Love that best suits his handsome shape and face.
019:02,094[A  ]| But armies are like verse, whose jingling chimes
019:02,095[A  ]| Are here for sense, and there for doggerel rhymes.
019:02,096[A  ]| Here, where Bellona lays her armour by
019:02,097[A  ]| And learns to be more charming company,
019:02,098[A  ]| Where the ill-natured god has nought to do,
019:02,099[A  ]| Some few for fighting are, but most for show.
019:02,100[A  ]| Where rich embroidered cloak a la campagne
019:02,101[A  ]| So often shines, unless it chance to rain;
019:02,102[A  ]| Then, lord, how the Sir Nice will fret and fling!
019:02,103@w   | "Andon <i.e. undone>, 'tis spoiled, ere shown before the keeng<sic>".
019:02,104[A  ]| In perfumed beds adorned, they're basking laid,
019:02,105[A  ]| Gay as young brides, on Persian carpets tread
019:02,106[A  ]| That o'er the spacious floor in wanton pride are spread;
019:02,107[A  ]| Like feasting gods, luxurious, and, they say,
019:02,108[A  ]| As arrant fornicators, too, as they.
019:02,109[A  ]| None comes amiss when lust their fancies lead,
019:02,110[A  ]| Alcmena, nor the smooth-faced Ganymede;
019:02,111[A  ]| For, like those gods too, all are given to love,
019:02,112[A  ]| But none we hear e'er thundered but old Jove.
019:02,113[A  ]| P***r the hero acts in Loveit's arms,
019:02,114[A  ]| Tells of soft sieges, batteries and alarms,
019:02,115[A  ]| And cants his passions out in warlike terms;
019:02,116[A  ]| How the artillery of her eyes did wound,
019:02,117[A  ]| And how at the first onset he gave ground:
019:02,118[A  ]| He who ne'er yet did to a conqueror bow,
019:02,119[A  ]| Yet kisses and adores his fetters now;
019:02,120[A  ]| While all the batteries ever he essayed
019:02,121[A  ]| Have been against the female fortress made;
019:02,122[A  ]| While Loveit, who has less of love than pride,
019:02,123[A  ]| Being with gilt coach and country house supplied
019:02,124[A  ]| Makes that suffice for all defects beside.
019:02,125[A  ]| Here lay a youth of all his wits bereft,
019:02,126[A  ]| Who this campaign was by a mistress left,
019:02,127[A  ]| A nauseous strumpet, insolent and loud,
019:02,128[A  ]| False and destructive, basely born and proud.
019:02,129[A  ]| Oh baffled fool, thou that hadst seen the fate
019:02,130[A  ]| Of Cully Bash's quickly spent estate;
019:02,131[A  ]| Collier undone, and forty rakehells more
019:02,132[A  ]| For an old, common, o'ergrown flabby whore,
019:02,133[A  ]| Whose bastard son may vie with thee for age,
019:02,134[A  ]| A trader twenty year upon the stage:
019:02,135[A  ]| What from the expensive folly couldst thou see
019:02,136[A  ]| But shameful ruin, laughed at infamy?
019:02,137[A  ]| I know thy eyes were opened long before,
019:02,138[A  ]| But still the jilt betrayed thee to the whore;
019:02,139[A  ]| Debased thy noble spirit to her rule,
019:02,140[A  ]| And turned thy once fair fame to ridicule;
019:02,141[A  ]| Debauched thy sense with conversation base,
019:02,142[A  ]| Whores, eating pimps, players, a numerous race,
019:02,143[A  ]| While thou, the treating cully, wert despised,
019:02,144[A  ]| And cuckold by the slaves thou'dst gormandised.
019:02,145[A  ]| Return, thou prodigal, from husks and swine:
019:02,146[A  ]| The ruin of the first was cause of thine.
019:02,147[A  ]| They say thou art brave: give us this proof of it,
019:02,148[A  ]| And we'll believe thou canst be braver yet:
019:02,149[A  ]| Thou'st yet a nobler race of life to run:
019:02,150[A  ]| Leave Harwood to her next to be undone.
019:02,151[A  ]| But her kind keeper gone, his flame will fade;
019:02,152[A  ]| Love cools when 'tis an obligation made.
019:02,153[A  ]| There an old battered Tangieran behold,
019:02,154[A  ]| More mauled by love than e'er he was in field;
019:02,155[A  ]| Yet wondrous amorous still, and wondrous gay,
019:02,156[A  ]| Old January dizened up in May.
019:02,157[A  ]| His tents no trophies of his victories graces,
019:02,158[A  ]| But all adorned with mighty looking glasses,
019:02,159[A  ]| In which he practices bon mien and faces;
019:02,160[A  ]| How well to manage ogling, and what air
019:02,161[A  ]| He should maintain, when cock, when frisk his hair;
019:02,162[A  ]| What affectation best would youth express
019:02,163[A  ]| And least the ruins of his age confess;
019:02,164[A  ]| Half choked with monstrous cravat-string, disputes
019:02,165[A  ]| Which colour best with his complexion suits;
019:02,166[A  ]| And all in middle gallery to pore
019:02,167[A  ]| To charm and barter for some low-priced whore.
019:02,168[A  ]| Vain self-admiring fop, though every day
019:02,169[A  ]| Thou dost thy antiquated form survey,
019:02,170[A  ]| But to be well-deceived, cease playing the ass,
019:02,172[A  ]| Six hours each morn before thy looking glass,
019:02,173[A  ]| And trust thy wiser valet with thy dress;
019:02,174[A  ]| For, whilst thou dost not that aged face behold,
019:02,175[A  ]| Thy dress may flatter thee thou art not old.
019:02,176[A  ]| Ch***m, that scoundrel, he whom nature made
019:02,177[A  ]| An arrant blockhead, yet a rogue by trade,
019:02,178[A  ]| Which he industriously improved so well,
019:02,179[A  ]| He did in nicest villainies excel,
019:02,180[A  ]| And from the trumpet raised the colonel.
019:02,181[A  ]| Yet lives a double scandal to his race:
019:02,182[A  ]| His morals are as odious as his face.
019:02,183[A  ]| Though knave and coward in his front be writ,
019:02,184[A  ]| He has one virtue that supports him yet ~~
019:02,185[A  ]| A passive valour that can kicking bear,
019:02,186[A  ]| A caution that secured him in his fear
019:02,187[A  ]| Behind the cannons in the Western War;
019:02,188[A  ]| And farther to this honour has pretence,
019:02,189[A  ]| Can cheat his men with matchless impudence:
019:02,190[A  ]| But that's the common cry, while no bold tongue
019:02,191[A  ]| Is found to tell Augustus of their wrong.
019:02,192[A  ]| Next old Grabecious Su***d, who sat
019:02,193[A  ]| Like Bacchus on his tun in drunken state,
019:02,194[A  ]| With all his mellow gang encompassed round,
019:02,195[A  ]| In high debauch of wine and bawdry drowned.
019:02,196[A  ]| Ga***y that monster of prodigious size,
019:02,197[A  ]| A body fitted to his beastly vice;
019:02,198[A  ]| With fiery face more formidable far
019:02,199[A  ]| Than gorgon's head or, to that coward, war;
019:02,200[A  ]| In youth mean cheats and rooking was his trade.
019:02,201[A  ]| Now (starving) got command, for drink, not bread.
019:02,202[A  ]| V***n our new Troy's Hector, and our hope,
019:02,203[A  ]| Preferred from tail of coach to head of troop;
019:02,204[A  ]| 'Twas no true courage got him first a name;
019:02,205[A  ]| But some Welsh fury did his blood inflame.
019:02,206[A  ]| And sure he can not fight when he is ta'en.
019:02,207[A  ]| No brutal, coward, tyrant Algerine
019:02,208[A  ]| E'er treated slaves so ill as his have been;
019:02,209[A  ]| As if to him authority were new.
019:02,210[A  ]| It is but ~~ damn ye rascals ~~ and a blow;
019:02,211[A  ]| For this so oft false musters we observe,
019:02,212[A  ]| Rather than follow him the rogues will starve;
019:02,213[A  ]| He would, if e'er indeed there came a war,
019:02,214[A  ]| Be justly shot, like wry-necked chevalier,
019:02,215[A  ]| By some of his own soldiers in the rear.
019:02,216[A  ]| But V***n's not alone, more of his stamp,
019:02,217[A  ]| That better merit Tyburn, rule the camp.
019:02,218[A  ]| Among the rest Mic***l that fornicator,
019:02,219[A  ]| Encamped with grandam doxy and her daughter;
019:02,220[A  ]| The good old jade he loves because she's handy,
019:02,221[A  ]| Can smoke and joke and hold him tack with brandy.
019:02,222[A  ]| Full threescore years in wise experience bred,
019:02,223[A  ]| Preferred from filling ale to fill his bed;
019:02,224[A  ]| She's old enough to witch, and by her art
019:02,225[A  ]| Has thrust a crooked pin quite through his heart;
019:02,226[A  ]| Or he'as some damned infirmity unseen,
019:02,227[A  ]| That makes him dote on such a rivelled queen.
019:02,228[A  ]| To grace the drunken club was beau Sir Tom,
019:02,229[A  ]| Dubbed for his brother's merits not his own;
019:02,230[A  ]| From drudging city prig advanced to be
019:02,231[A  ]| Right-worshipful in place of high degree;
019:02,232[A  ]| But knows not how to manage quality,
019:02,233[A  ]| But thought the nearest way was to be lewd,
019:02,234[A  ]| And all degrees the debauchee pursued;
019:02,235[A  ]| And like true cit did always overdo,
019:02,236[A  ]| As well in lewdness as in fashions too;
019:02,237[A  ]| But drink's his leading vice, his darling sin,
019:02,238[A  ]| That pimps his duller inclination in;
019:02,239[A  ]| Then loud as storms, in count'nance for all evil,
019:02,240[A  ]| Swears and invokes by healths his guardian devil;
019:02,241[A  ]| Omits no crimes full glasses can maintain
019:02,242[A  ]| And rather than not leave behind a name
019:02,243[A  ]| For lewdness will achieve immortal fame.
019:02,244[A  ]| By chance the poet Elkanah was there,
019:02,245[A  ]| To make them sport, for 'twas not yet the fair,
019:02,246[A  ]| With many more, too scandalous to name,
019:02,247[A  ]| Whose talents are to whore, swear, drink and game.
019:02,248[A  ]| At a large table they were seated round,
019:02,249[A  ]| With bottles snush, foul pipes and glasses crowned,
019:02,250[A  ]| Boxes and dice ~~ but whether false or true
019:02,251[A  ]| I leave it to the fools that night shall rue.
019:02,252[A  ]| For there was country squire and city cully,
019:02,253[A  ]| That came to see the show, hooked in by bully,
019:02,254[A  ]| Where rooked of all their coin they treated are
019:02,255[A  ]| A la campagne ~~ that is with chere entire.
019:02,256@w   | Damme,
019:02,256[A  ]| cries Grab,
019:02,256@w   | each prig his buttock bring,
019:02,257@w   | And let us forthwith fall to managing.
019:02,258@w   | When I am boozing clear old dudgeon's drollish:
019:02,259@w   | Then, let my natural be or gimp or polish,
019:02,260@w   | I sink her down ~~
019:02,260[A  ]| then makes some nasty jest
019:02,261[A  ]| And crowns it with a bumper to the best;
019:02,262[A  ]| And calls for link-boy, swears his pego's nice,
019:02,263[A  ]| And scorns to fumble on in common vice.
019:02,264[A  ]| Then to the height of lewdness all retire
019:02,265[A  ]| And Venus must extinguish Bacchus' fire.
019:02,266[A  ]| Thus 'tis thus when men forsake an honest trade!
019:02,267[A  ]| How much a better pedant thou hadst made;
019:02,268[A  ]| Or, bilking sharp, hadst bullied up and down
019:02,269[A  ]| And awed the trembling mortals of the town?
019:02,270[A  ]| This was thy talent, this thy proper sphere;
019:02,271[A  ]| Yet still this part of thee remains while here:
019:02,272[A  ]| That thou canst cheat, oppress, and domineer.
019:02,273[A  ]| Yet this even by thy foes must be confessed,
019:02,274[A  ]| Of all the roaring tribe thou art the best.
019:02,275[A  ]| But numberless and endless 'twere to tell
019:02,276[A  ]| All the rank vices that fill this local Hell.
019:02,277[A  ]| Whose newer sins were ne'er to Sodom known;
019:02,278[A  ]| And if just heaven should send its vengeance down,
019:02,279[A  ]| There's not one Lot to save the burning town.
019:02,280[A  ]| All which the phantom does in haste survey,
019:02,281[A  ]| He scents the morning air and must away,
019:02,282[A  ]| And on the eastern hill he views the breaking day;
019:02,283[A  ]| Yet e'er he goes, with a remorse extreme,
019:02,284[A  ]| Looks back and sighs o'er new Jerusalem;
019:02,285[A  ]| Nor could depart till like the prophet too
019:02,286[A  ]| In whispering air pronounced thrice
019:02,286@b   | Woe, woe, woe.
019:02,287[A  ]| And then methought I heard a hollow sound,
019:02,288[A  ]| Like echoes which from caves and rocks rebound:
019:02,289[A  ]| And thus it spake:
019:02,289@b   | Full five and twenty years
019:02,290@b   | I reigned, without the noise or toils of war,
019:02,291@b   | Bore all indignities of rebel power,
019:02,292@b   | And saw my life in danger every hour;
019:02,293@b   | Yet rather had resigned it up in peace,
019:02,294@b   | Than owed my safety to such brutes as these;
019:02,295@b   | At best but scarecrows, rebels to affright:
019:02,296@b   | Put them to action and scarce one will fight.
019:02,297@b   | O, great Augustus, thou deservst an host
019:02,298@b   | Of heroes, such as ancient Rome did boast;
019:02,299@b   | Where each commander should like Scipio be
019:02,300@b   | Or rather like the yet more god-like thee:
019:02,301@b   | Brave temperate, prudent to the last degree;
019:02,302@b   | The common rout all Scaeva's in the field,
019:02,303@b   | Who bore a thousand arrows on his shield.
019:02,304@b   | At least they should have souls to be inspired
019:02,305@b   | And by thy great example to be fired;
019:02,306@b   | Thy valour and thy virtues imitate,
019:02,307@b   | And raise at once thy glory and the state.
019:02,308[A  ]| This said, and parting with a pitying look,
019:02,309[A  ]| Towards his eternal home his way he took,
019:02,310[A  ]| And blessed his fate he could again return
019:02,311[A  ]| To the dark confines of his peaceful urn.
019:02,000[A  ]| <This is the end (about 2500 words)>