151:00,000['  ]| <COTTON: Texts from Harold>
151:00,000['  ]| <Spellings modernised.>
151:00,000['  ]| <12,652 words 1/5/96>
151:00,000['  ]| <11 POEMS BY CHARLES COTTON>
151:00,000['  ]| <IN The Penguin Book of Restoration Verse.>
151:01,000['  ]| <Clepsydra>
151:01,001[A  ]| Why, let it run! who bids it stay?
151:01,002[A  ]| Let us the while be merry;
151:01,003[A  ]| Time there in water creeps away,
151:01,004[A  ]| With us it posts in sherry.
151:01,005[A  ]| Time not employed's an empty sound,
151:01,006[A  ]| Nor did kind Heaven lend it,
151:01,007[A  ]| But that the glass should quick go round
151:01,008[A  ]| And men in pleasure spend it.
151:01,009[A  ]| Then set thy foot, brave boy, to mine,
151:01,010[A  ]| Ply quick to cure our thinking;
151:01,011[A  ]| An hour-glass in an hour of wine
151:01,012[A  ]| Would be but lazy drinking.
151:01,013[A  ]| The man that snores the hour-glass out
151:01,014[A  ]| Is truly a time-waster;
151:01,015[A  ]| But we, who troll this glass about,
151:01,016[A  ]| Make him to post it faster.
151:01,017[A  ]| Yet though he flies so fast, some think
151:01,018[A  ]| ('Tis well known to the sages),
151:01,019[A  ]| He'll not refuse to stay and drink
151:01,020[A  ]| And yet perform his stages.
151:01,021[A  ]| Time waits us whilst we crown the hearth,
151:01,022[A  ]| And dotes on ruby faces,
151:01,023[A  ]| And knows that this career of mirth
151:01,024[A  ]| Will help to mend our paces.
151:01,025[A  ]| He stays with him that loves good time
151:01,026[A  ]| And never does refuse it;
151:01,027[A  ]| And only runs away from him
151:01,028[A  ]| That knows not how to use it.
151:01,029[A  ]| He only steals by without noise
151:01,030[A  ]| From those in grief that waste it,
151:01,031[A  ]| But lives with the mad roaring boys
151:01,032[A  ]| That husband it, and taste it.
151:01,033[A  ]| The moralist perhaps may prate
151:01,034[A  ]| Of virtue from his reading;
151:01,035[A  ]| 'Tis all but stale and foisted chat
151:01,036[A  ]| To men of better breeding.
151:01,037[A  ]| Time, to define it, is the space
151:01,038[A  ]| That men enjoy their being;
151:01,039[A  ]| 'Tis not the hour, but drinking glass,
151:01,040[A  ]| Makes time and life agreeing.
151:01,041[A  ]| He wisely does oblige his fate,
151:01,042[A  ]| Does cheerfully obey it,
151:01,043[A  ]| And is of fops the greatest, that
151:01,044[A  ]| By temperance thinks to stay it.
151:01,045[A  ]| Come, ply the glass then quick about
151:01,046[A  ]| To titillate the gullet;
151:01,047[A  ]| Sobriety's no charm, I doubt,
151:01,048[A  ]| Against a cannon-bullet.
151:02,000['  ]| <The Tempest>
151:02,001[A  ]| Standing upon the margent of the Main,
151:02,002[A  ]| Whilst the high boiling tide came tumbling in,
151:02,003[A  ]| I felt my fluctuating thoughts maintain
151:02,004[A  ]| As great an ocean, and as rude, within;
151:02,005[A  ]| As full of waves, of depths, and broken grounds
151:02,006[A  ]| As that which daily laves her chalky bounds.
151:02,007[A  ]| Soon could my sad imagination find
151:02,008[A  ]| A parallel to this half-world of flood:
151:02,009[A  ]| An ocean by my walls of earth confined,
151:02,010[A  ]| And rivers in the channels of my blood;
151:02,011[A  ]| Discovering man, unhappy man, to be
151:02,012[A  ]| Of this great frame Heaven's epitome.
151:02,013[A  ]| There pregnant Argosies with full sails ride
151:02,014[A  ]| To shoot the gulfs of sorrow and despair,
151:02,015[A  ]| Of which the love no pilot has to guide,
151:02,016[A  ]| But to her sea-born mother steers by prayer;
151:02,017[A  ]| When, oh! the hope her anchor lost, undone,
151:02,018[A  ]| Rolls at the mercy of the regent moon.
151:02,019[A  ]| 'Tis my adored Diana then must be
151:02,020[A  ]| The guideress to this beaten bark of mine;
151:02,021[A  ]| 'Tis she must calm and smooth this troubled sea
151:02,022[A  ]| And waft my hope over the vaulting brine:
151:02,023[A  ]| Call home thy venture Dian' then at last,
151:02,024[A  ]| And be as merciful as thou art chaste.
151:03,000['  ]| <Ode>
151:03,001[A  ]| Was ever man of Nature's framing
151:03,002[A  ]| So given o'er to roving,
151:03,003[A  ]| Who have been twenty years a-taming
151:03,004[A  ]| By ways that are not worth the naming,
151:03,005[A  ]| And now must die of loving?
151:03,006[A  ]| Hell take me if she been't so winning
151:03,007[A  ]| That now I love her mainly,
151:03,008[A  ]| And though in jest at the beginning,
151:03,009[A  ]| Yet now I'd wondrous fain be sinning,
151:03,010[A  ]| And so have told her plainly.
151:03,011[A  ]| At which she cries: I do not love her,
151:03,012[A  ]| And tells me of her honour;
151:03,013[A  ]| Then have I no way to disprove her
151:03,014[A  ]| And my true passion to discover
151:03,015[A  ]| But straight to fall upon her.
151:03,016[A  ]| Which done, forsooth, she talks of wedding,
151:03,017[A  ]| But what will that avail her?
151:03,018[A  ]| For though I am old dog at bedding,
151:03,019[A  ]| I'm yet a man of so much reading,
151:03,020[A  ]| That there I sure shall fail her.
151:03,021[A  ]| No, hang me if I ever marry
151:03,022[A  ]| Till womankind grow stancher;
151:03,023[A  ]| I do delight delights to vary,
151:03,024[A  ]| And love not in one hulk to tarry,
151:03,025[A  ]| But only trim and launch her.
151:04,000['  ]| <Sonnet>
151:04,001[A  ]| Chloris, whilst thou and I were free,
151:04,002[A  ]| Wedded to nought but liberty,
151:04,003[A  ]| How sweetly happy did we live,
151:04,004[A  ]| How free to promise, free to give?
151:04,005[A  ]| Then, monarchs of our selves, we might
151:04,006[A  ]| Love here, or there, to change delight,
151:04,007[A  ]| And tied to none, with all dispense,
151:04,008[A  ]| Paying each love its recompense.
151:04,009[A  ]| But in that happy freedom we
151:04,010[A  ]| Were so improvidently free
151:04,011[A  ]| To give away our liberties;
151:04,012[A  ]| And now in fruitless sorrow pine
151:04,013[A  ]| At what we are, what might have been,
151:04,014[A  ]| Had thou, or I, or both been wise.
151:05,000['  ]| <Forbidden Fruit>
151:05,001[A  ]| Pish! 'tis an idle fond excuse,
151:05,002[A  ]| And Love, enraged by this abuse,
151:05,003[A  ]| Is deaf to any longer truce.
151:05,004[A  ]| My zeal to lust you still impute,
151:05,005[A  ]| And when I justify my suit
151:05,006[A  ]| You tell me: 'Tis forbidden fruit.
151:05,007[A  ]| What? though your face be apple-round
151:05,008[A  ]| And with a rosy colour crowned,
151:05,009[A  ]| Yet, sweet, it is no apple found.
151:05,010[A  ]| Nor have you ought resembling more
151:05,011[A  ]| That fatal fruit the tree once bore,
151:05,012[A  ]| But that indeed your heart's a core.
151:05,013[A  ]| 'Tis true, the bliss that I would taste
151:05,014[A  ]| Is something lower than the waste,
151:05,015[A  ]| And in your garden's centre placed;
151:05,016[A  ]| A tree of life, too, I confess,
151:05,017[A  ]| Though but arbuscular in dress,
151:05,018[A  ]| Yet not forbidden ne'retheless.
151:05,019[A  ]| It is a tempting golden tree
151:05,020[A  ]| Which all men must desire that see
151:05,021[A  ]| Though it concerned eternity.
151:05,022[A  ]| Then, since those blessings are thine own,
151:05,023[A  ]| Not subject to contrition,
151:05,024[A  ]| Then, fairest, sweetest, grant me one.
151:05,025[A  ]| Thy dragon, wrapped in drowsiness,
151:05,026[A  ]| Ne'er thinks whose bed thy beauties bless,
151:05,027[A  ]| Nor dreams of his Hesperides.
151:06,000['  ]| <The Morning Quatrains>
151:06,001[A  ]| The cock has crowed an hour ago,
151:06,002[A  ]| 'Tis time we now dull sleep forgo;
151:06,003[A  ]| Tired Nature is by sleep redressed
151:06,004[A  ]| And labour's overcome by rest.
151:06,005[A  ]| We have outdone the work of Night,
151:06,006[A  ]| 'Tis time we rise to attend the light,
151:06,007[A  ]| And, ere he shall his beams display,
151:06,008[A  ]| To plot new business for the day.
151:06,009[A  ]| None but the slothful or unsound
151:06,010[A  ]| Are by the sun in feathers found;
151:06,011[A  ]| Nor, without rising with the sun,
151:06,012[A  ]| Can the world's business e'er be done.
151:06,013[A  ]| Hark! Hark! the watchful chanticleer
151:06,014[A  ]| Tells us the day's bright harbinger
151:06,015[A  ]| Peeps o'er the eastern hills to awe
151:06,016[A  ]| And warn night's sovereign to withdraw.
151:06,017[A  ]| The morning curtains now are drawn,
151:06,018[A  ]| And now appears the blushing dawn;
151:06,019[A  ]| Aurora has her roses shed
151:06,020[A  ]| To strew the way Sol's steeds must tread.
151:06,021[A  ]| Xanthus and Aethon harnessed are
151:06,022[A  ]| To roll away the burning car,
151:06,023[A  ]| And, snorting flame, impatient bear
151:06,024[A  ]| The dressing of the charioteer.
151:06,025[A  ]| The sable cheeks of sullen Night
151:06,026[A  ]| Are streaked with rosy streams of light,
151:06,027[A  ]| Whilst she retires away in fear
151:06,028[A  ]| To shade the other hemisphere.
151:06,029[A  ]| The merry lark now takes her wings
151:06,030[A  ]| And longed for day's loud welcome sings,
151:06,031[A  ]| Mounting her body out of sight
151:06,032[A  ]| As if she meant to meet the light.
151:06,033[A  ]| Now doors and windows are unbarred,
151:06,034[A  ]| Each where are cheerful voices heard,
151:06,035[A  ]| And round about good morrows fly
151:06,036[A  ]| As if Day taught humanity.
151:06,037[A  ]| The chimneys now to smoke begin
151:06,038[A  ]| And the old wife sits down to spin,
151:06,039[A  ]| Whilst Kate, taking her pail, does trip
151:06,040[A  ]| Mull's swollen and straddling paps to strip.
151:06,041[A  ]| Vulcan now makes his anvil ring,
151:06,042[A  ]| Dick whistles loud, and Maud doth sing,
151:06,043[A  ]| And Silvio with his bugle horn
151:06,044[A  ]| Winds an imprime unto the morn.
151:06,045[A  ]| Now through the morning doors behold
151:06,046[A  ]| Phobus arrayed in burning gold;
151:06,047[A  ]| Lashing his fiery steeds, displays
151:06,048[A  ]| His warm and all enlightening rays.
151:06,049[A  ]| Now each one to his work prepares:
151:06,050[A  ]| All that have hands are labourers,
151:06,051[A  ]| And manufactures of each trade
151:06,052[A  ]| By opening shops are open laid.
151:06,053[A  ]| Hob yokes his oxen to the team,
151:06,054[A  ]| The angler goes unto the stream,
151:06,055[A  ]| The woodman to the purlieus highs,
151:06,056[A  ]| And labouring bees to load their thighs.
151:06,057[A  ]| Fair Amarillis drives her flocks
151:06,058[A  ]| (All night safe folded from the fox)
151:06,059[A  ]| To flowery downs, where Collin stays
151:06,060[A  ]| To court her with his roundelays.
151:06,061[A  ]| The traveller now leaves his inn
151:06,062[A  ]| A new day's journey to begin,
151:06,063[A  ]| As he would post it with the day,
151:06,064[A  ]| And early rising makes good way.
151:06,065[A  ]| The slick faced schoolboy satchel takes
151:06,066[A  ]| And with slow pace small riddance makes;
151:06,067[A  ]| For why, the haste we make, you know,
151:06,068[A  ]| To knowledge and to virtue's slow.
151:06,069[A  ]| The fore-horse gingles on the road,
151:06,070[A  ]| The waggoner lugs on his load,
151:06,071[A  ]| The field with busy people snies,
151:06,072[A  ]| And city rings with various cries.
151:06,073[A  ]| The world is now a busy swarm,
151:06,074[A  ]| All doing good, or doing harm;
151:06,075[A  ]| But let's take heed our acts be true,
151:06,076[A  ]| For Heaven's eye sees all we do.
151:06,077[A  ]| None can that piercing sight evade:
151:06,078[A  ]| It penetrates the darkest shade;
151:06,079[A  ]| And sin, though it could 'scape the eye
151:06,080[A  ]| Would be discovered by the cry.
151:07,000['  ]| <New Prison>
151:07,001[A  ]| You squires of the shade that love to tread
151:07,002[A  ]| In gloomy night when Day's in bed,
151:07,003[A  ]| That court the Moon, supposing she
151:07,004[A  ]| Likes such a watchful industry:
151:07,005[A  ]| Read here a story, it will make
151:07,006[A  ]| Your eyelids droop when she's awake.
151:07,007[A  ]| 'Tis not the horrid noise of wars,
151:07,008[A  ]| Consequent chances, wounds and scars,
151:07,009[A  ]| The dangers of the foaming deep,
151:07,010[A  ]| Nor all the bugbear Fates that keep
151:07,011[A  ]| Fond men in awe, hobgoblins, sprites,
151:07,012[A  ]| Dire dreams in dark and tedious nights,
151:07,013[A  ]| A troubled conscience, nor the sense
151:07,014[A  ]| Of man's despairing diffidence,
151:07,015[A  ]| That can present so sad a face
151:07,016[A  ]| Of black affliction, as this place.
151:07,017[A  ]| The sneaking rascals, lousy whores,
151:07,018[A  ]| The creaking of the dismal doors,
151:07,019[A  ]| That stink of stinks that fumes within
151:07,020[A  ]| (Symptoms of beasts that dwell therein)
151:07,021[A  ]| So rot the air, Chameleons could
151:07,022[A  ]| Not live unpoisoned with such food.
151:07,023[A  ]| There's reason for it: no mortal can
151:07,024[A  ]| Step from the excrement of man.
151:07,025[A  ]| And that which should howe'er be sweet
151:07,026[A  ]| Is like the rest: I mean, their meat;
151:07,027[A  ]| The locusts of the wilderness
151:07,028[A  ]| Are sweetmeats to their nasty mess.
151:07,029[A  ]| I could say more; the place provokes me,
151:07,030[A  ]| But that the vile tobacco chokes me.
151:08,000['  ]| <From Epistle to John Bradshaw Esq.>
151:08,001[A  ]| Know then with horses twain, one sound, one lame,
151:08,002[A  ]| On Sunday's eve I to St. Alban's came,
151:08,003[A  ]| Where, finding by my body's lusty state
151:08,004[A  ]| I could not hold out home at that slow rate,
151:08,005[A  ]| I found a coachman who, my case bemoaning,
151:08,006[A  ]| With three stout geldings, and one able stoning,
151:08,007[A  ]| For eight good pounds did bravely undertake,
151:08,008[A  ]| Or for my own, or for my money's sake,
151:08,009[A  ]| Through thick and thin, fall out what could befall,
151:08,010[A  ]| To bring me safe and sound to Basford hall.
151:08,011[A  ]| Which having drank upon, he bid good night,
151:08,012[A  ]| And (Heaven forgive us), with the morning's light,
151:08,013[A  ]| Not fearing God, nor his vice gerent constable,
151:08,014[A  ]| We roundly rolling were the road to Dunstable,
151:08,015[A  ]| Which, as they chimed to prayers, we trotted through,
151:08,016[A  ]| And 'fore eleven ten minutes came unto
151:08,017[A  ]| The town that Brickhill height, where we did rest,
151:08,018[A  ]| And dined indifferent well both man and beast.
151:08,019[A  ]| 'Twixt two and four to Stratford 'twas well driven,
151:08,020[A  ]| And came to Tocester to lodge at even.
151:08,021[A  ]| Next day we dined at Dunchurch, and did lie
151:08,022[A  ]| That night four miles on our side Coventry.
151:08,023[A  ]| Tuesday at noon at Lichfeild town we baited,
151:08,024[A  ]| But there some friends, who long that hour had waited,
151:08,025[A  ]| So long detained me, that my charioteer
151:08,026[A  ]| Could drive that night but to Uttoxiter.
151:08,027[A  ]| And there the Wednesday, being market day,
151:08,028[A  ]| I was constrained with some kind lads to stay
151:08,029[A  ]| Tippling till afternoon, which made it night
151:08,030[A  ]| When from my hero's tower I saw the light
151:08,031[A  ]| Of her flambeaux, and fancied as we drave
151:08,032[A  ]| Each rising hillock was a swelling wave,
151:08,033[A  ]| And that I swimming was in Neptune's spite
151:08,034[A  ]| To my long longed for harbour of delight.
151:08,035[A  ]| And now I'm here set down again in peace
151:08,036[A  ]| After my troubles, business, voyages,
151:08,037[A  ]| The same dull northern clod I was before,
151:08,038[A  ]| Gravely enquiring how ewes are a score,
151:08,039[A  ]| How the hay harvest and the corn was got,
151:08,040[A  ]| And if or no there's like to be a rot;
151:08,041[A  ]| Just the same sot I was ere I removed,
151:08,042[A  ]| Nor by my travel, nor the court, improved;
151:08,043[A  ]| The same old-fashioned squire, no wit refined,
151:08,044[A  ]| And shall be wiser when the Devil's blind.
151:08,045[A  ]| But find all here too in the self same state,
151:08,046[A  ]| And now begin to live at the old rate,
151:08,047[A  ]| To bub old ale, which nonsense does create,
151:08,048[A  ]| Write lewd epistles, and sometimes translate
151:08,049[A  ]| Old tales of tubs, of Guyenne and Provence,
151:08,050[A  ]| And keep a clutter with the old blades of France,
151:08,051[A  ]| As D'Avenant did with those of Lombardy,
151:08,052[A  ]| Which any will receive, but none will buy, 
151:08,053[A  ]| And that has set H.B. and me awry.
151:08,054[A  ]| My river still through the same channel glides,
151:08,055[A  ]| Clear from the tumult, salt, and dirt of tides,
151:08,056[A  ]| And my poor fishing house, my seat's best grace,
151:08,057[A  ]| Stands firm and faithful in the self same place
151:08,058[A  ]| I left it four months since, and ten to one
151:08,059[A  ]| I go a-fishing ere two days are gone.
151:08,060[A  ]| So that (my friend) I nothing want but thee
151:08,062[A  ]| To make me happy as I'd wish to be;
151:08,063[A  ]| And sure a day will come I shall be blessed
151:08,064[A  ]| In his enjoyment whom my heart loves best;
151:08,065[A  ]| Which when it comes will raise me above men
151:08,066[A  ]| Greater than crowned monarchs are, and then
151:08,067[A  ]| I'll not exchange my cottage for Whitehall,
151:08,068[A  ]| Windsor, the Louvre, or the Escurial.
151:09,000['  ]| <To my Friend Mr. John Anderson>
151:09,000['  ]| < From the Country>
151:09,001[A  ]| You that the city life embrace,
151:09,002[A  ]| And in those tumults run your race
151:09,003[A  ]| Under the aspect of the celestial face
151:09,004[A  ]| Of your bright lady;
151:09,005[A  ]| You, that to masks and plays resort
151:09,006[A  ]| As if you would rebuild the court,
151:09,007[A  ]| We here can match you with our country sport,
151:09,008[A  ]| As near as may be.
151:09,009[A  ]| For, though 'tis good to be so nigh
151:09,010[A  ]| Rich wine and excellent company,
151:09,011[A  ]| Yet, John, those pleasures you full dear do buy
151:09,012[A  ]| Some times and seasons
151:09,013[A  ]| For you but tributaries are,
151:09,014[A  ]| Awed by the furious men of war;
151:09,015[A  ]| We country bumpkins then are happier far
151:09,016[A  ]| For many reasons.
151:09,017[A  ]| First, we have here no bawling duns,
151:09,018[A  ]| Nor those fierce things ycleped bums,
151:09,019[A  ]| No cuckold constable or watch here comes
151:09,020[A  ]| To apprehend us.
151:09,021[A  ]| And then we've no unwholesome dames
151:09,022[A  ]| To broil us in their bawdy flames,
151:09,023[A  ]| Nor need enquire after physician's names
151:09,024[A  ]| That may befriend us.
151:09,025[A  ]| And next, we have excelling ale,
151:09,026[A  ]| Most high and mighty, strong and stale;
151:09,027[A  ]| And, when we go, we need no other bail
151:09,028[A  ]| Than our own word, sir.
151:09,029[A  ]| When you all day are fain to sit,
151:09,030[A  ]| Send paper pellets of small wit,
151:09,031[A  ]| Your tickets; and, when none of them will hit,
151:09,032[A  ]| Pawn cloak or sword, sir.
151:09,033[A  ]| Then we outdo your beauties that
151:09,034[A  ]| You entertain with cost and chat,
151:09,035[A  ]| That make you spend your precious time and fat,
151:09,036[A  ]| And yet are steadfast.
151:09,037[A  ]| We here have homely willing Winn,
151:09,038[A  ]| With bucksome Bess, and granting Jinn,
151:09,039[A  ]| All full and plump without, and warm within,
151:09,040[A  ]| That cracked the bed fast.
151:09,041[A  ]| And then, for mirth, we have much more
151:09,042[A  ]| Than you, for all your various store,
151:09,043[A  ]| For we prefer bagpipes, so loud, before
151:09,044[A  ]| Lute, or Cremona.
151:09,045[A  ]| We caper with Tom Thump in the hall,
151:09,046[A  ]| Measures beyond courant or branle;
151:09,047[A  ]| And when we want a match, for Ciceley call,
151:09,048[A  ]| A roba bona.
151:09,049[A  ]| We have too errant knights so stout
151:09,050[A  ]| As honest Hobinol and Clout,
151:09,051[A  ]| With many another stiff and sturdy lout
151:09,052[A  ]| That play at wasters,
151:09,053[A  ]| Shoe the wild mare, and lick the board,
151:09,054[A  ]| That for stiff tuck or cutting sword,
151:09,055[A  ]| For man or woman care not of a turd,
151:09,056[A  ]| But their own masters.
151:09,057[A  ]| Thus every of our petty toys
151:09,058[A  ]| Outvies your greatest dear bought joys;
151:09,059[A  ]| Then to thy freedom from the city noise,
151:09,060[A  ]| I'll drink a beer jack.
151:09,061[A  ]| And now the spring comes on apace,
151:09,062[A  ]| Sweet flowers crown the earth's green face,
151:09,063[A  ]| Nor can I doubt, but thou wilt have the grace
151:09,064[A  ]| To wish thee here, Jack.
151:10,000['  ]| <Elden Hole>
151:10,000['  ]| <from The Wonders of the Peak>
151:10,001[A  ]| Hence two miles east does a fourth wonder lie,
151:10,002[A  ]| Worthy the greatest curiosity,
151:10,003[A  ]| Called Elden Hole; but such a dreadful place
151:10,004[A  ]| As will procure a tender Muse her grace
151:10,005[A  ]| In the description if she chance to fail,
151:10,006[A  ]| When my hand trembles, and my cheeks turn pale.
151:10,007[A  ]| Betwixt a verdant mountain's falling flanks,
151:10,008[A  ]| And within bounds of easy swelling banks
151:10,009[A  ]| That hem the wonder in on either side,
151:10,010[A  ]| A formidable scissure gapes so wide,
151:10,011[A  ]| Steep, black, and full of horror, that who dare
151:10,012[A  ]| Looks down into the chasm and keeps his hair
151:10,013[A  ]| From lifting off his hat, either has none,
151:10,014[A  ]| Or for more modish curls cashiers his own.
151:10,015[A  ]| It were injurious, I must confess,
151:10,016[A  ]| By mine to measure braver courages;
151:10,017[A  ]| But when I peep into it, I must declare
151:10,018[A  ]| My heart still beats and eyes with horror stare;
151:10,019[A  ]| And he that, standing on the brink of Hell,
151:10,020[A  ]| Can carry it so unconcerned, and well,
151:10,021[A  ]| As to betray no fear, is, certainly,
151:10,022[A  ]| A better Christian, or a worse, than I.
151:10,023[A  ]| This yawning mouth is thirty paces long,
151:10,024[A  ]| Scarce half so wide, within lined through with strong
151:10,025[A  ]| Continuous walls of solid perpend stone:
151:10,026[A  ]| A gulf wide, steep, black, and a dreadful one,
151:10,027[A  ]| Which few, that come to see it, dare come near,
151:10,028[A  ]| And the most daring still approach with fear.
151:10,029[A  ]| Having with terror here beheld a space
151:10,030[A  ]| The ghastly aspect of this dangerous place,
151:10,031[A  ]| Critical passengers usually sound
151:10,032[A  ]| How deep the threatening gulf goes underground
151:10,033[A  ]| By tumbling down stones sought throughout the field
151:10,034[A  ]| As great as the officious boors can wield,
151:10,035[A  ]| Of which such millions of tons are thrown
151:10,036[A  ]| That in a country, almost all of stone, 
151:10,037[A  ]| About the place they something scarce are grown.
151:10,038[A  ]| But, being brought, down they're condemned to go,
151:10,039[A  ]| When, silence being made, and ears laid low,
151:10,040[A  ]| The first's turned off, which, as it parts the air,
151:10,041[A  ]| A kind of sighing makes as if it were
151:10,042[A  ]| Capable of that useless passion, fear,
151:10,043[A  ]| Till the first hit strikes the astonished ear
151:10,044[A  ]| Like thunder underground; thence it invades,
151:10,045[A  ]| With louder thunders, those Tartarean shades,
151:10,046[A  ]| Which groan forth horror at each ponderous stroke
151:10,047[A  ]| The unnatural issue gives the parent rock;
151:10,048[A  ]| Whilst, as it strikes, the sound by turns we note
151:10,049[A  ]| When nearer flat, sharper when more remote,
151:10,050[A  ]| As the hard walls, on which it strikes, are found
151:10,051[A  ]| Fit to reverberate the bellowing sound;
151:10,052[A  ]| When, after falling long, it seems to hiss
151:10,053[A  ]| Like the old serpent in the dark abyss;
151:10,054[A  ]| Till Echo, tired with posting, does refuse
151:10,055[A  ]| To carry to the inquisitive perdues, 
151:10,056[A  ]| That couchant lie above, the trembling news.
151:10,057[A  ]| And there ends our intelligence, how far
151:10,058[A  ]| It travails further, no-one can declare;
151:10,059[A  ]| Though if it rested here the place might well
151:10,060[A  ]| Sure be accepted for a miracle.
151:10,061[A  ]| Your guide to all these wonders never fails
151:10,062[A  ]| To entertain you with ridiculous tales
151:10,063[A  ]| Of this strange place: one of a goose thrown in
151:10,064[A  ]| Which out of Peaks Arse two miles off was seen
151:10,065[A  ]| Shell naked sally, rifled of her plume,
151:10,066[A  ]| By which a man may lawfully presume
151:10,067[A  ]| The owner was a woman grave and wise,
151:10,068[A  ]| Could know her goose again in that disguise.
151:10,069[A  ]| Another lying tale the people tell,
151:10,070[A  ]| And without smiling, of a ponderous bell
151:10,071[A  ]| By a long rope let down the pit to sound:
151:10,072[A  ]| When many hundred fathoms underground
151:10,073[A  ]| It stopped; but though they made their sinews crack
151:10,074[A  ]| All the men there could not once move it back,
151:10,075[A  ]| Till, after some short space, the plundered line
151:10,076[A  ]| With scores of curious knots made wondrous fine
151:10,077[A  ]| Came up amain with easy motion:
151:10,078[A  ]| But for the jangling plummet, that was gone.
151:10,079[A  ]| But with these idle fables feigned of old,
151:10,080[A  ]| Some modern truths, and sad ones too are told:
151:10,081[A  ]| One of that mercenary fool exposed
151:10,082[A  ]| His life for gold to explore what lies enclosed
151:10,083[A  ]| In this obscure vacuity, and tell
151:10,084[A  ]| Of stranger sights than Theseus saw in Hell;
151:10,085[A  ]| But the poor wretch paid for his thirst of gain,
151:10,086[A  ]| For being craned up with a distempered brain,
151:10,087[A  ]| A faltering tongue, and a wild staring look
151:10,088[A  ]| (Whether by damps not known, or horror strook),
151:10,089[A  ]| He raving languished a few days, and then
151:10,090[A  ]| Died, peradventure to go down again.
151:10,091[A  ]| Now this man was confederate with mischance
151:10,092[A  ]| 'Gainst his own life, his whole inheritance,
151:10,093[A  ]| Which bates the pity human nature bears
151:10,094[A  ]| To poor involuntary sufferers:
151:10,095[A  ]| But the sad tale of his severer fate
151:10,096[A  ]| Whose story's next, compassion must create
151:10,097[A  ]| In savages and in the silent deep,
151:10,098[A  ]| Make the hard marble, that destroyed him, weep.
151:10,099[A  ]| A stranger, to this day from whence not known,
151:10,100[A  ]| Travelling this wild country all alone
151:10,101[A  ]| And by the night surprised, by destiny
151:10,102[A  ]| (If such a thing, and so unkind there be)
151:10,103[A  ]| Was guided to a village near this place,
151:10,104[A  ]| Where, asking at a house how far it was
151:10,105[A  ]| To such a town, and being told so far;
151:10,106[A  ]| Will you, my friend, to oblige a traveller,
151:10,107[A  ]| Says the benighted stranger, be so kind
151:10,108[A  ]| As to conduct me thither; you will bind
151:10,109[A  ]| My gratitude for ever, and in hand,
151:10,110[A  ]| Shall presently receive what you'll demand.
151:10,111[A  ]| The fellow hummed and hawed, and scratched his pate,
151:10,112[A  ]| And, to draw on good wages, said 'twas late,
151:10,113[A  ]| And grew so dark, that though he knew the way,
151:10,114[A  ]| He durst not be so confident to say
151:10,115[A  ]| He might not miss it in so dark a night;
151:10,116[A  ]| But if his worship would be pleased to alight,
151:10,117[A  ]| And let him call a friend, he made no doubt
151:10,118[A  ]| But one of them would surely find it out.
151:10,119[A  ]| The traveller, well pleased at any rate
151:10,120[A  ]| To have so expert guides, dismounted straight,
151:10,121[A  ]| Giving his horse up to the treacherous slave
151:10,122[A  ]| Who, having housed him, forthwith fell to heave
151:10,123[A  ]| And poise the portmanteau, which, finding freight
151:10,124[A  ]| At either end with lumps of tempting weight,
151:10,125[A  ]| The Devil and he made but a short dispute
151:10,126[A  ]| About the thing they soon did execute:
151:10,127[A  ]| For calling the other rogue, who long had been
151:10,128[A  ]| His 'complice in preceding acts of sin,
151:10,129[A  ]| He tells him of the prize, sets out the gain,
151:10,130[A  ]| Shows how secure and easy to obtain;
151:10,131[A  ]| Which pressed so home, where was so little need,
151:10,132[A  ]| The stranger's ruin quickly was decreed.
151:10,133[A  ]| Thus to the poor proscribed the villains go,
151:10,134[A  ]| And with joint confidence assure him so
151:10,135[A  ]| That with his hap to meet such friends content
151:10,136[A  ]| He put himself into their hands, and went.
151:10,137[A  ]| The guilty night as if she would express
151:10,138[A  ]| Confederacy with such black purposes,
151:10,139[A  ]| The sparkling hemisphere had overspread
151:10,140[A  ]| With darkest vapours from foul Lerna bred;
151:10,141[A  ]| The world was hushed, all save a sighing wind,
151:10,142[A  ]| That might have warned a more presaging mind,
151:10,143[A  ]| When these two sons of Satan, thus agreed,
151:10,144[A  ]| With seeming wariness, and care proceed,
151:10,145[A  ]| All the while mixing their amusing chat
151:10,146[A  ]| With frequent cautions of this step and that;
151:10,147[A  ]| Till, having some six hundred paces gone,
151:10,148[A  ]| Master, here's but a scurvy grip, says one
151:10,149[A  ]| Of the damned rogues (and he said very right).
151:10,150[A  ]| Pray for more safety, sir, be pleased to alight,
151:10,151[A  ]| And let him lead your horse a little space
151:10,152[A  ]| Till you are past this one uneven place.
151:10,153[A  ]| You'll need to light no more, I'll warrant you;
151:10,154[A  ]| And still this instrument of Hell said true.
151:10,155[A  ]| Forthwith alights the innocent trepanned;
151:10,156[A  ]| One leads his horse, the other takes his hand,
151:10,157[A  ]| And, with a show of care, conducts him thus
151:10,158[A  ]| To these steep thresholds of black Erebus.
151:10,159[A  ]| And there (O act of horror, which outvies
151:10,160[A  ]| The direst of inhumane cruelties!)
151:10,161[A  ]| Let me (my Muse) repeat it without sin:
151:10,162[A  ]| The barbarous villain pushed him headlong in.
151:10,163[A  ]| The frighted wretch, having no time to speak,
151:10,164[A  ]| Forced his distended throat in such a skriek
151:10,165[A  ]| As, by the shrillness of the doleful cry,
151:10,166[A  ]| Pierced through and through the immense inanity,
151:10,167[A  ]| Informing so the half dead faller's ear
151:10,168[A  ]| What he must suffer, what he had to fear,
151:10,169[A  ]| When, at the very first befriending knock,
151:10,170[A  ]| His trembling brains smeared the Tarpeian rock.
151:10,171[A  ]| The shattered carcass downward rattles fast,
151:10,172[A  ]| Whilst, thence dismissed, the soul with greater haste
151:10,173[A  ]| From those infernal mansions does remove
151:10,174[A  ]| And mounts to seek the happy seats above.
151:10,175[A  ]| What bloody Arab of the fellest breed,
151:10,176[A  ]| What but the yet more fell Iudaen seed 
151:10,177[A  ]| Could once have meditated such a deed?
151:10,178[A  ]| But one of these Heaven's vengeance did ere long
151:10,179[A  ]| Call to account for this poor creature's wrong,
151:10,180[A  ]| Who, hanged for other crimes, amongst the rest
151:10,181[A  ]| This horrid murder at his death confessed;
151:10,182[A  ]| Whilst the other rogue, to Justice's foul disgrace,
151:10,183[A  ]| Yet lives, 'tis said unquestioned, near the place.
151:10,184[A  ]| How deep this gulf does travel underground,
151:10,185[A  ]| Though there have been attempts, was never found;
151:10,186[A  ]| But I myself, with half the peak surrounded,
151:10,187[A  ]| Eight hundred, fourscore, and four yards have sounded,
151:10,188[A  ]| And, though of these fourscore returned back wet,
151:10,189[A  ]| The plummet drew, and found no bottom yet;
151:10,190[A  ]| Though when I went again another day
151:10,191[A  ]| To make a further, and a new essay, 
151:10,192[A  ]| I could not get the lead down half the way.
151:11,000['  ]| <An Epitaph on M. H.>
151:11,001[A  ]| In this cold monument lies one
151:11,002[A  ]| That I know who has lain upon
151:11,003[A  ]| The happier he: her sight would charm,
151:11,004[A  ]| And touch have kept King David warm.
151:11,005[A  ]| Lovely, as is the dawning east,
151:11,006[A  ]| Was this marble's frozen guest;
151:11,007[A  ]| As soft, and snowy, as that down
151:11,008[A  ]| Adorns the blow balls frizzled crown;
151:11,009[A  ]| As straight and slender as the crest
151:11,010[A  ]| Or antlet of the one beamed beast;
151:11,011[A  ]| Pleasant as the odorous month of May;
151:11,012[A  ]| As glorious, and as light as day.
151:11,013[A  ]| Whom I admired, as soon as knew,
151:11,014[A  ]| And now her memory pursue
151:11,015[A  ]| With such a superstitious lust
151:11,016[A  ]| That I could fumble with her dust.
151:11,017[A  ]| She all perfections had, and more,
151:11,018[A  ]| Tempting, as if designed a whore,
151:11,019[A  ]| For so she was; and since there are
151:11,020[A  ]| Such, I could wish them all as fair.
151:11,021[A  ]| Pretty she was, and young, and wise,
151:11,022[A  ]| And in her calling so precise
151:11,023[A  ]| That industry had made her prove
151:11,024[A  ]| The sucking school mistress of love;
151:11,025[A  ]| And Death, ambitious to become
151:11,026[A  ]| Her pupil, left his ghastly home
151:11,027[A  ]| And, seeing how we used her here,
151:11,028[A  ]| The raw boned rascal ravished her.
151:11,029[A  ]| Who, pretty soul, resigned her breath,
151:11,030[A  ]| To seek new lechery in death.
151:00,000['  ]| <COTTON: ADDITIONAL POEMS>
151:12,000['  ]| <An old man's gift to a fair lady>
151:12,001[A  ]| Pox of your doting coxcomb, was there ever
151:12,002[A  ]| So old a lover and so young a giver?
151:12,003[A  ]| A pair of spectacles! who the devil but thee
151:12,004[A  ]| Could have found out such a disparity?
151:12,005[A  ]| There were to oblige thy love far better ways:
151:12,006[A  ]| A lump of sugar, or her name in bays,
151:12,007[A  ]| A row of pins, a baby, or a purse,
151:12,008[A  ]| Or what as fit had been, a hobby horse,
151:12,009[A  ]| A valentine, hadst thou not wanted blood
151:12,010[A  ]| To paint it with, would have been full as good.
151:12,011[A  ]| Thy old seal ring, thy grandam's pleated gown,
151:12,012[A  ]| A boon-grace to preserve her from the sun;
151:12,013[A  ]| Or any thing rather than a dull pair
151:12,014[A  ]| Of second eyes, these must deform thy fair.
151:12,015[A  ]| I see thou fain wouldst blast her in her prime
151:12,016[A  ]| To parallel thy age before her time.
151:12,017[A  ]| What ~~ dost thou think thy mistress cannot see
151:12,018[A  ]| Without such helps thy full deformity?
151:12,019[A  ]| Thy shaking noddle and thy dropping nose
151:12,020[A  ]| Whence the moist philtre is salt rheum that flows?
151:12,021[A  ]| Thy stooping shoulders and thy trembling hands,
151:12,022[A  ]| Thy bursten belly and thy crinkling hams?
151:12,023[A  ]| Thy spider's legs and thy clubbed corny feet,
151:12,024[A  ]| That stink, though grown so dry they cannot sweat?
151:12,025[A  ]| Or wouldst thou have thy love a bugbear be
151:12,026[A  ]| To fright the boys in snavelling like thee?
151:12,027[A  ]| Or is it to stop her sense she may not smell
151:12,028[A  ]| The tainted winds that in thy bowels swell
151:12,029[A  ]| Until they burst in cracks, nor snuff the scent
151:12,030[A  ]| Thy nasty, suppurated issues vent?
151:12,031[A  ]| I am content to think this gift was brought
151:12,032[A  ]| In mirth and given her for a merry-thought.
151:12,033[A  ]| Are they to mend her sight or dim her eyes
151:12,034[A  ]| So to eclipse her sight from seeing these?
151:12,035[A  ]| 'Twas thy good nature made thee give such ware,
151:12,036[A  ]| And so in truth the present was most rare.
151:12,037[A  ]| For the great kindness of this gift implies
151:12,038[A  ]| Thou lovst thy mistress better than thine eyes.
151:12,039[A  ]| If to find out thou ever hadst design
151:12,040[A  ]| A present fit to offer at her shrine,
151:12,041[A  ]| Thou shouldst have bought the sun, that day of light,
151:12,042[A  ]| And all the twinkling beauties of the night;
151:12,043[A  ]| And yet those glories of that arched scene
151:12,044[A  ]| Had been for her an offering too mean.
151:12,045[A  ]| Embroidered waistcoats, Spanish gloves, or plate,
151:12,046[A  ]| Watches or jewels might become her state;
151:12,047[A  ]| But couldst thou find out no allurement else ~~ 
151:12,048[A  ]| A pair of nasty horn-set spectacles?
151:12,049[A  ]| Where were thy wits, old fool? She might have borne
151:12,050[A  ]| With them, if set in Amalthea's horn;
151:12,051[A  ]| And had those green-glass orbs been cut from some
151:12,052[A  ]| Of the crystal sphere, they might her eyes become.
151:12,053[A  ]| The case might have passed too if made it were
151:12,054[A  ]| Of the embroidered girdle of the next sphere:
151:12,055[A  ]| But such a wretched rogue, with such an itch,
151:12,056[A  ]| Never made love to any wrinkled witch.
151:12,057[A  ]| Sure thou has heard that love is blind and thou
151:12,058[A  ]| By this device wouldst be a Cupid too.
151:12,059[A  ]| A pleasant plot in faith! Thou wouldst be then
151:12,060[A  ]| A pretty boy of threescore years and ten.
151:12,061[A  ]| Or thou hadst laid them by, and wanting light
151:12,062[A  ]| Bestowdst them for some gem as well thou might.
151:12,063[A  ]| Or else amazed by the lustre of her face
151:12,064[A  ]| Mistaking gav'st them for a looking glass.
151:12,065[A  ]| However, whether thou didst, or didst not see,
151:12,066[A  ]| I wish instead of them thou hadst given her me.
151:13,000['  ]| <On the great eater of Gray's Inn>
151:13,001[A  ]| Oh for a lasting wind, that I may rail
151:13,002[A  ]| At this vile cormorant, this harpy-male,
151:13,003[A  ]| That can, with such an hungry haste, devour
151:13,004[A  ]| A year's provision in one short-lived hour.
151:13,005[A  ]| Prodigious calf of Pharaoh's lean-ribbed kine
151:13,006[A  ]| That swallowest beef, at every bit a chine,
151:13,007[A  ]| Yet are thy self so meagre men may see
151:13,008[A  ]| Approaching famine in thy physiognomy.
151:13,009[A  ]| The world may yet rejoice thou wert not one
151:13,010[A  ]| That shared Jove's mercy with Deucalion:
151:13,011[A  ]| Had he thy grinders trusted in that boat
151:13,012[A  ]| Where the whole world's epitome did float,
151:13,013[A  ]| Clean and unclean had died, the earth found a want
151:13,014[A  ]| Of her irrational inhabitant:
151:13,015[A  ]| 'Tis doubted there their fury had not ceased
151:13,016[A  ]| But of the human part too made a feast.
151:13,017[A  ]| How fruitless then had been heaven's charity?
151:13,018[A  ]| No man on earth had lived, nor beast but thee.
151:13,019[A  ]| Hadst thou been one to feed upon the fare
151:13,020[A  ]| Stored by old Priam for the Grecian war,
151:13,021[A  ]| He and his sons had soon been made a prey ~~
151:13,022[A  ]| Troy's ten years' siege had lasted but one day ~~
151:13,023[A  ]| Or thou mightst have preserved them, and at once
151:13,024[A  ]| Chopped up Achilles and his myrmidons.
151:13,025[A  ]| Hadst thou been Bell, sure thou hadst saved the lives
151:13,026[A  ]| Of the cheating priests, their children and their wives,
151:13,027[A  ]| But at this rate 'twould be a heavy tax
151:13,028[A  ]| For Hercules himself to clean thy jakes.
151:13,029[A  ]| Oh that kind heaven to give to thee would please
151:13,030[A  ]| An ostrich-maw for then we should have peace.
151:13,031[A  ]| Swords then or shining engines would be none:
151:13,032[A  ]| No guns, to thunder out destruction,
151:13,033[A  ]| No rugged shackles would be extant them,
151:13,034[A  ]| Nor tedious grates that limit free-born men,
151:13,035[A  ]| But thy gut-pregnant womb thy paws do fill
151:13,036[A  ]| With spoils of nature's good and not her ill.
151:13,037[A  ]| 'Twas the Inns of Court's improvidence to own
151:13,038[A  ]| Thy wolvish carcase for a son of the gown:
151:13,039[A  ]| The danger of thy jaws they ne'er foresaw
151:13,040[A  ]| For, faith! I think thou hast devoured the law.
151:13,041[A  ]| No wonder thou art complained of by the rout
151:13,042[A  ]| When very curs begin to smell thee out.
151:13,043[A  ]| The reasons Southwark rings with howlings are
151:13,044[A  ]| Because thou robbst the bull-dogs of their share.
151:13,045[A  ]| Beastly consumer, not content to eat
151:13,046[A  ]| Thy wholesome quarters destined for men's meat,
151:13,047[A  ]| But excrement and all; nor wilt thou bate
151:13,048[A  ]| One entrail to inform us of thy fate,
151:13,049[A  ]| Which will I hope be such an ugly death
151:13,050[A  ]| As hungry beggars can in cursings breath.
151:13,051[A  ]| But I have done ~~ my muse can scold no more:
151:13,052[A  ]| She to the bearward's sentence turns thee o'er,
151:13,053[A  ]| And since so great's thy stomach's tyranny,
151:13,054[A  ]| For writing this, pray God thou eat not me.
151:14,000['  ]| <The Storm. To the Earl of ****  p. 199>
151:14,001[A  ]| How with ill nature does this world abound,
151:14,002[A  ]| When I, who ever thought my self most sound
151:14,003[A  ]| And free from that infection, now must choose
151:14,004[A  ]| Out you (my Lord) whom least I should abuse
151:14,005[A  ]| To trouble with a tempest who have none
151:14,006[A  ]| In your firm breast to afflict you of your own.
151:14,007[A  ]| But since of friendship it the nature is
151:14,008[A  ]| In any accident that falls amiss,
151:14,009[A  ]| Whether of sorrow, terror, loss or pain,
151:14,010[A  ]| Caused or by men or fortune, to complain
151:14,011[A  ]| To those who of our ills have deepest sense
151:14,012[A  ]| And in whose favour we've most confidence,
151:14,013[A  ]| Pardon, if in a storm I here engage
151:14,014[A  ]| Your calmer thoughts, and on a sea whose rage,
151:14,015[A  ]| When but a little moved, as far outbraves
151:14,016[A  ]| The tamer mutinies of Adria's waves,
151:14,017[A  ]| As they when worst for Neptune to appease,
151:14,018[A  ]| The softest curls of most pacific seas;
151:14,019[A  ]| And though I'm vain enough half to believe
151:14,020[A  ]| My danger will some little trouble give
151:14,021[A  ]| I yet more vainly fancy 'twill advance
151:14,022[A  ]| Your pleasure too for my deliverance.
151:14,023[A  ]| 'Twas now that time of year of all the rest
151:14,024[A  ]| For slow but certain navigation best.
151:14,025[A  ]| The earth had dressed her self so fine and gay
151:14,026[A  ]| That all the world, our little world, was May.
151:14,027[A  ]| The sea too had put on his smoothest face ~~ 
151:14,028[A  ]| Clear, slick and even as a looking glass.
151:14,029[A  ]| The rugged winds were locked up in their gaols
151:14,030[A  ]| And were but zephyrs whispered in the sails.
151:14,031[A  ]| All nature seemed to court us to our woe
151:14,032[A  ]| (Good God! can elements dissemble too?)
151:14,033[A  ]| Whilst we, secure, considered not the whiles
151:14,034[A  ]| That greatest treasons lie concealed in smiles.
151:14,035[A  ]| Aboard we went and soon were under sail
151:14,036[A  ]| But with so small an over-modest gale
151:14,037[A  ]| And to our virgin canvas so unkind
151:14,038[A  ]| As not to swell their laps with so much wind
151:14,039[A  ]| As common courtship would in breeding pay
151:14,040[A  ]| To maids less buxom and less trim than they.
151:14,041[A  ]| But of this calm we could not long complain,
151:14,042[A  ]| For scarcely were we got out to the main
151:14,043[A  ]| From the still harbour but a league, no more,
151:14,044[A  ]| When the false wind (that seemed so chaste before)
151:14,045[A  ]| The ship's laced smock began to stretch and tear,
151:14,046[A  ]| Not like a suitor but a ravisher;
151:14,047[A  ]| As if delight were lessened by consent
151:14,048[A  ]| And tasted worse for being innocent.
151:14,049[A  ]| A sable curtain, in a little space,
151:14,050[A  ]| Of thick wove clouds was drawn o'er Phoebus face,
151:14,051[A  ]| He might not see the horror of the fight
151:14,052[A  ]| Nor we the comfort of his heavenly light.
151:14,053[A  ]| Then, as this darkness had the signal been
151:14,054[A  ]| At which the furious storm was to begin,
151:14,055[A  ]| Heaven's loud artillery began to play
151:14,056[A  ]| And with pale flashes made a dreadful day.
151:14,057[A  ]| The centre shook by these, the ocean
151:14,058[A  ]| In hills of brine to swell and heave began,
151:14,059[A  ]| Which growing mountains, as they rolling hit,
151:14,060[A  ]| To surge and foam each other broke and split,
151:14,061[A  ]| Like men, who, in intestine storms of state,
151:14,062[A  ]| Strike any they nor know, nor yet for what;
151:14,063[A  ]| But with the stream of fury headlong run
151:14,064[A  ]| To war, they know not how nor why begun.
151:14,065[A  ]| In this disorder straight the winds forlorn
151:14,066[A  ]| Which had lain ambushed all the flattering morn
151:14,067[A  ]| With unexpected fury rushes in
151:14,068[A  ]| The ruffling skirmish rudely to begin.
151:14,069[A  ]| The sea with thunder-claps alarmed before,
151:14,070[A  ]| Assaulted thus anew, began to roar
151:14,071[A  ]| In waves that, striving which should fastest run,
151:14,072[A  ]| Crowded themselves into confusion.
151:14,073[A  ]| At which advantage Aeolus brought on
151:14,074[A  ]| His large spread wings and main battalion,
151:14,075[A  ]| When by opposing shores the flying foe,
151:14,076[A  ]| Forced back against the enemy to flow,
151:14,077[A  ]| So great a conflict followed, as if here
151:14,078[A  ]| The enraged enemies embattled were;
151:14,079[A  ]| Not only one another to subdue
151:14,080[A  ]| But to destroy themselves and nature too.
151:14,081[A  ]| To paint this horror to the life, weak art
151:14,082[A  ]| Must want a hand, humanity a heart,
151:14,083[A  ]| And I, the bare relation whilst I make,
151:14,084[A  ]| Methinks am brave, my hand does still not shake;
151:14,085[A  ]| For surely since men first in planks of wood
151:14,086[A  ]| Themselves committed to the faithless flood,
151:14,087[A  ]| Men born and bred at sea, did ne'er behold
151:14,088[A  ]| Neptune in such prodigious furrows rolled.
151:14,089[A  ]| Those winds, which with the loudest terror roar,
151:14,090[A  ]| Never so stretched their lungs and cheeks before;
151:14,091[A  ]| Nor on this floating stage has ever been
151:14,092[A  ]| So black a scene of dreadful ruin seen.
151:14,093[A  ]| Poor yacht, in such a sea how canst thou live;
151:14,094[A  ]| What ransom would not thy pale tenants give
151:14,095[A  ]| To be set down on the most desperate shore,
151:14,096[A  ]| Where serpents hiss, tigers and lions roar,
151:14,097[A  ]| And where the men inhumane savages
151:14,098[A  ]| Are yet worst vermin, greater brutes than these?
151:14,099[A  ]| Who would not for a danger that may be
151:14,100[A  ]| Exchange a certain ruin that they see?
151:14,101[A  ]| For such unto our reason or our fear
151:14,102[A  ]| Ours did in truth most manifest appear;
151:14,103[A  ]| And how could we expect a better end
151:14,104[A  ]| When winds and seas seemed only to contend
151:14,105[A  ]| Not which should conquer other in this war
151:14,106[A  ]| But in our wreck which should have greatest share?
151:14,107[A  ]| The winds were all let loose upon the main
151:14,108[A  ]| And every wind that blew a hurricane;
151:14,109[A  ]| Nereus's whole power too mustered seemed to be,
151:14,110[A  ]| Wave upon wave, and every wave a sea.
151:14,111[A  ]| Of our small bark gusts rushed the trembling sides
151:14,112[A  ]| Against vast billows that contained whole tides,
151:14,113[A  ]| Which in disdainful fury beat her back
151:14,114[A  ]| With such a force as made her stout sides crack
151:14,115[A  ]| 'Gainst others that in crowds came rolling in
151:14,116[A  ]| As if they meant their liquid walls between
151:14,117[A  ]| To engage the wretched hulk and crunch her flat
151:14,118[A  ]| And make her squeeze to death her dying freight.
151:14,119[A  ]| Sometimes she on a mountain's ridge would ride
151:14,120[A  ]| And from that height her gliding keel then slide
151:14,121[A  ]| Into a gulf yawning and deep as hell
151:14,122[A  ]| Whilst we were swooning all the time we fell;
151:14,123[A  ]| Then by another billow raised so high
151:14,124[A  ]| As if the sea would dart her into the sky
151:14,125[A  ]| To be a pinnace to the argosy;
151:14,126[A  ]| Then down a precipice so low and steep
151:14,127[A  ]| As it had been the bottom of the deep:
151:14,128[A  ]| Thus whilst we up and down, and to and fro,
151:14,129[A  ]| Were miserably tossed and bandied so
151:14,130[A  ]| 'Twas strange our little pink, though ne'er so tight
151:14,131[A  ]| Could weather so, and keep herself upright;
151:14,132[A  ]| Or was not sunk with weight of our despair,
151:14,133[A  ]| For hope, alas, could find no anchoring there.
151:14,134[A  ]| Her prow and poop, starboard and larboard side
151:14,135[A  ]| Being with these elements so hotly plied,
151:14,136[A  ]| 'Twas no less than a miracle her seams
151:14,137[A  ]| Not ripped and opened, and her very beams
151:14,138[A  ]| Continued faithful in those loud extremes;
151:14,139[A  ]| That her tall masts, so often bowed and bent
151:14,140[A  ]| With gust on gust, were not already spent;
151:14,141[A  ]| That all or any thing indeed withstood
151:14,142[A  ]| A sea so hollow, such a high-wrought flood.
151:14,143[A  ]| Here, where no seaman's art nor strength avails,
151:14,144[A  ]| Where use of compass, rudder, or of sails
151:14,145[A  ]| There now was none, the mariners all stood
151:14,146[A  ]| Bloodless and cold as we; or, though they could
151:14,147[A  ]| Something, perhaps, have helped in such a stress,
151:14,148[A  ]| Were every one astonished ne'ertheless
151:14,149[A  ]| To that degree they either had no heart
151:14,150[A  ]| Their art to use, or had forgot their art.
151:14,151[A  ]| Meanwhile the miserable passengers
151:14,152[A  ]| With sighs the hardest, the more soft with tears,
151:14,153[A  ]| Mercy of Heaven in various accents craved,
151:14,154[A  ]| But after drowning hoping to be saved.
151:14,155[A  ]| How oft by fear of dying did we die,
151:14,156[A  ]| And every death a death of cruelty,
151:14,157[A  ]| Worse than worst cruelties provoked impose
151:14,158[A  ]| On the most hated, most offending foes?
151:14,159[A  ]| We fancied death riding on every wave,
151:14,160[A  ]| And every hollow seemed a gaping grave:
151:14,161[A  ]| All things we saw such horror did present,
151:14,162[A  ]| And of all dying too were so intent,
151:14,163[A  ]| Every one thought himself already dead
151:14,164[A  ]| And that for him the tears he saw were shed.
151:14,165[A  ]| Such as had not the courage to behold
151:14,166[A  ]| Their danger above deck, within the hold
151:14,167[A  ]| Uttered such groans in that their floating grave
151:14,168[A  ]| As even unto terror terror gave;
151:14,169[A  ]| Whilst those above pale, dead, and cold appear
151:14,170[A  ]| Like ghosts in Charon's boat that sailing were.
151:14,171[A  ]| The last day's dread which none can comprehend
151:14,172[A  ]| But to weak fancy only recommend
151:14,173[A  ]| To form the dreadful image from sick fear,
151:14,174[A  ]| That fear and fancy both were heightened here
151:14,175[A  ]| With such a face of horror, as alone
151:14,176[A  ]| Was fit to prompt imagination
151:14,177[A  ]| Or to create it where there had been none.
151:14,178[A  ]| Such, as from under hatches thrust a head
151:14,179[A  ]| To enquire what new, seemed rising from the dead,
151:14,180[A  ]| Whilst those who stayed above, bloodless with fear
151:14,181[A  ]| And ghastly look, as they new risen were.
151:14,182[A  ]| The bold and timorous, with like horror struck,
151:14,183[A  ]| Were not to be distinguished by their look;
151:14,184[A  ]| And he who could the greatest courage boast
151:14,185[A  ]| However within looked still as like a ghost.
151:14,186[A  ]| Ten hours in this rude tempest we were tossed
151:14,187[A  ]| And every moment gave ourselves for lost,
151:14,188[A  ]| Heaven knows how ill prepared for sudden death;
151:14,189[A  ]| When the rough winds as they'd been out of breath,
151:14,190[A  ]| Now seemed to pant, and panting to retreat;
151:14,191[A  ]| The waves with gentler force against us beat;
151:14,192[A  ]| The sky cleared up, the sun again shone bright,
151:14,193[A  ]| And gave us once again new life and light.
151:14,194[A  ]| We could again bear sail in those rough seas:
151:14,195[A  ]| The sea-men now resume their offices.
151:14,196[A  ]| Hope warms us now anew, anew the heart
151:14,197[A  ]| Did to our cheeks some streaks of blood impart;
151:14,198[A  ]| And in two hours, or very little more,
151:14,199[A  ]| We came to anchor faulcon-shot from shore,
151:14,200[A  ]| The very same we left the morn before;
151:14,201[A  ]| Where now in a yet working sea, and high,
151:14,202[A  ]| Until the wind shall veer, we rolling lie,
151:14,203[A  ]| Resting secure from present fear; but then
151:14,204[A  ]| The dangers we escaped must tempt again;
151:14,205[A  ]| Which if again I safely shall get through
151:14,206[A  ]| (And sure I know the worst the sea can do)
151:14,207[A  ]| So soon as I shall touch my native land,
151:14,208[A  ]| I'll thence ride post to kiss your lordship's hand.
151:15,000['  ]| <Sapphic Ode>
151:15,001[A  ]| How easy is his life and free
151:15,002[A  ]| Who urged by no necessity
151:15,003[A  ]| Eats cheerful bread and over night does pay
151:15,004[A  ]| For next day's crapula.
151:15,005[A  ]| No suitor such a mean estate
151:15,006[A  ]| Invites to be importunate,
151:15,007[A  ]| No supple flatterer robbing villain or
151:15,008[A  ]| Obstreperous creditor
151:15,009[A  ]| This man does need no bolts nor locks
151:15,010[A  ]| Nor needs he start when any knocks
151:15,011[A  ]| But may on careless pillow lie and snore
151:15,012[A  ]| With a wide open door.
151:15,013[A  ]| Trouble and danger wealth attend,
151:15,014[A  ]| An useful but a dangerous friend,
151:15,015[A  ]| Who makes us pay ere we can be released,
151:15,016[A  ]| Quadruple interest.
151:15,017[A  ]| Let's live to day then for tomorrow
151:15,018[A  ]| The fool's too provident will  borrow
151:15,019[A  ]| A thing, which through chance or infirmity,
151:15,020[A  ]| 'Tis odds he ne'er may see.
151:15,021[A  ]| Spend all then ere you go to heaven,
151:15,022[A  ]| So with the world you will make even;
151:15,023[A  ]| And men discharge by dying nature's score,
151:15,024[A  ]| Which done we owe no more.
151:16,000['  ]| <Noon Quatrains>
151:16,001[A  ]| The day grows hot and darts his rays
151:16,002[A  ]| From such a sure and killing place
151:16,003[A  ]| That this half world are fain to fly
151:16,004[A  ]| The danger of his burning eye.
151:16,005[A  ]| His early glories were benign,
151:16,006[A  ]| Warm to be felt, bright to be seen,
151:16,007[A  ]| And all was comfort, but who can
151:16,008[A  ]| Endure him when meridian.
151:16,009[A  ]| Of him we as of kings complain
151:16,010[A  ]| Who mildly do begin to reign
151:16,011[A  ]| But, to the zenith got of power,
151:16,012[A  ]| Those whom they should protect devour.
151:16,013[A  ]| Has not another Phaeton
151:16,014[A  ]| Mounted the chariot of the sun,
151:16,015[A  ]| And, wanting art to guide his horse,
151:16,016[A  ]| Is hurried from the sun's due course?
151:16,017[A  ]| If this hold on, our fertile lands
151:16,018[A  ]| Will soon be turned to parched sands
151:16,019[A  ]| And not an onion that will grow
151:16,020[A  ]| Without a Nile to overflow.
151:16,021[A  ]| The grazing herds now droop and pant,
151:16,022[A  ]| E'en without labour fit to faint,
151:16,023[A  ]| And willingly forsook their meat
151:16,024[A  ]| To seek out cover from the heat.
151:16,025[A  ]| The lagging ox is now unbound
151:16,026[A  ]| From larding the new turned up ground,
151:16,027[A  ]| Whilst Hobbinol, alike o'er-laid,
151:16,028[A  ]| Takes his coarse dinner to the shade.
151:16,029[A  ]| Cellars and grottos now are best
151:16,030[A  ]| To eat and drink in, or to rest,
151:16,031[A  ]| And not a soul above is found
151:16,032[A  ]| Can find a refuge under ground.
151:16,033[A  ]| When pagan tyranny grew hot
151:16,034[A  ]| Thus persecuted Christians got
151:16,035[A  ]| Into the dark but friendly womb
151:16,036[A  ]| Of unknown, subterranean Rome.
151:16,037[A  ]| And as that heat did cool at last,
151:16,038[A  ]| So, a few scorching hours o'erpassed,
151:16,039[A  ]| In a more mild and temperate ray
151:16,040[A  ]| We may again enjoy the day.
151:17,040['  ]| <Evening Quatrains>
151:17,001[A  ]| The day's grown old, the fainting sun
151:17,002[A  ]| Has but a little way to run,
151:17,003[A  ]| And yet his steeds, with all his skill,
151:17,004[A  ]| Scarce lug the chariot down the hill.
151:17,005[A  ]| With labour spent and thirst oppressed
151:17,006[A  ]| Whilst they strain hard to gain the West,
151:17,007[A  ]| From fetlocks hot drops melted light
151:17,008[A  ]| Which turn to meteors in the night.
151:17,009[A  ]| The shadows now so long do grow
151:17,010[A  ]| That brambles like tall cedars show,
151:17,011[A  ]| Molehills seem mountains, and the ant
151:17,012[A  ]| Appears a monstrous elephant.
151:17,013[A  ]| A very little little flock
151:17,014[A  ]| Shades thrice the ground that it would stock;
151:17,015[A  ]| Whilst the small stripling following them
151:17,016[A  ]| Appears a mighty Polypheme.
151:17,017[A  ]| These being brought into the fold
151:17,018[A  ]| And by the thrifty master told,
151:17,019[A  ]| He thinks his wages are well paid
151:17,020[A  ]| Since none are either lost or strayed.
151:17,021[A  ]| Now lowing herds are each-where heard,
151:17,022[A  ]| Chains rattle in the villains' yard;
151:17,023[A  ]| The cart's on tail set down to rest
151:17,024[A  ]| Bearing on high the cuckold's crest.
151:17,025[A  ]| The hedge is stripped, the clothes brought in;
151:17,026[A  ]| Nought's left without should be within;
151:17,027[A  ]| The bees are hived, and hum their charm,
151:17,028[A  ]| Whilst every house does seem a swarm.
151:17,029[A  ]| The cock now to the roost is pressed,
151:17,030[A  ]| For he must call up all the rest;
151:17,031[A  ]| The sow's fast pegged within the sty
151:17,032[A  ]| To still her squeaking progeny.
151:17,033[A  ]| Each one has had his supping mess;
151:17,034[A  ]| The cheese is put into the press;
151:17,035[A  ]| The pans and bowls, clean scalded all,
151:17,036[A  ]| Reared up against the milk-house wall.
151:17,037[A  ]| And now on benches all are sat
151:17,038[A  ]| In the cool air to sit and chat,
151:17,039[A  ]| Till Phoebus dipping in the west
151:17,040[A  ]| Shall lead the world the way to rest.
151:18,000['  ]| <Night Quatrains>
151:18,001[A  ]| The sun is set and gone to sleep
151:18,002[A  ]| With the fair princess of the deep,
151:18,003[A  ]| Whose bosom is his cool retreat
151:18,004[A  ]| When fainting with his proper heat.
151:18,005[A  ]| His steeds their flaming nostrils cool
151:18,006[A  ]| In spume of the Cerulan pool;
151:18,007[A  ]| Whilst the wheels dip their hissing naves
151:18,008[A  ]| Deep in Columbus's western waves;
151:18,009[A  ]| From whence great rolls of smoke arise
151:18,010[A  ]| To overshade the beauteous skies,
151:18,011[A  ]| Who bid the world's bright eye adieu
151:18,012[A  ]| In gelid tears of falling dew.
151:18,013[A  ]| And now, from the Iberian vales,
151:18,014[A  ]| Night's sable steeds her chariot hales,
151:18,015[A  ]| Where double cypress curtains screen
151:18,016[A  ]| The gloomy, melancholic queen.
151:18,017[A  ]| These, as the higher mount the sky,
151:18,018[A  ]| Ravish all colour from the eye
151:18,019[A  ]| And leave it but an useless glass,
151:18,020[A  ]| Which few, or no, reflections grace.
151:18,021[A  ]| The crystal arch o'er Pindus's crown
151:18,022[A  ]| Is on a sudden dusky grown,
151:18,023[A  ]| And all's with funeral black o'erspread,
151:18,024[A  ]| As if the day, which sleeps, were dead.
151:18,025[A  ]| No ray of light the heart to cheer
151:18,026[A  ]| But little twinkling stars appear,
151:18,027[A  ]| Which like faint dying embers lie,
151:18,028[A  ]| Fit nor to work nor travel by.
151:18,029[A  ]| Perhaps to him they torches are
151:18,030[A  ]| Who guide night's sovereign's drowsy car,
151:18,031[A  ]| And him they may befriend so near
151:18,032[A  ]| But as they neither light nor cheer.
151:18,033[A  ]| Or else those little sparks of light
151:18,034[A  ]| Are nails that tyre the wheels of night,
151:18,035[A  ]| Which to new stations still are brought
151:18,036[A  ]| As they roll o'er the gloomy vault.
151:18,037[A  ]| Or nails that arm the horses' hoof,
151:18,038[A  ]| Which, trampling o'er the marble roof
151:18,039[A  ]| And striking fire in the air,
151:18,040[A  ]| We mortals call a shooting star.
151:18,041[A  ]| That's all the light we now receive,
151:18,042[A  ]| Unless what belching vulcans give,
151:18,043[A  ]| And those yield such a kind of light
151:18,044[A  ]| As adds more horror to the night.
151:18,045[A  ]| Nyctimine, now freed from day,
151:18,046[A  ]| From sullen bush flies out to prey
151:18,047[A  ]| And does with ferret note proclaim
151:18,048[A  ]| The arrival of the usurping dame.
151:18,049[A  ]| The rail now crakes in fields and meads;
151:18,050[A  ]| Toads now forsake the nettle-beds;
151:18,051[A  ]| The timorous hare goes to relief;
151:18,052[A  ]| And wary men bolt out the thief.
151:18,053[A  ]| The fire's new raked, and heath swept clean
151:18,054[A  ]| By Madge, the dirty kitchen quean;
151:18,055[A  ]| The safe is locked, the mouse-trap set,
151:18,056[A  ]| The leaven laid, and bucking wet.
151:18,057[A  ]| Now, in false floors and roofs above,
151:18,058[A  ]| The lustful cats make ill-tuned love;
151:18,059[A  ]| The ban-dog on the dunghill lies,
151:18,060[A  ]| And watchful nurse sings lullabies.
151:18,061[A  ]| Philomel chants it whilst she bleeds;
151:18,062[A  ]| The bittern booms it in the reeds;
151:18,063[A  ]| And, reynard entering the back yard,
151:18,064[A  ]| The Capitolian cry is heard.
151:18,065[A  ]| The goblin now the fool alarms;
151:18,066[A  ]| Hags meet to mumble o'er their charms;
151:18,067[A  ]| The night-mare rides the dreaming ass;
151:18,068[A  ]| And fairies trip it on the grass.
151:18,069[A  ]| The drunkard now supinely snores;
151:18,070[A  ]| His load of ale sweats through his pores:
151:18,071[A  ]| Yet when he wakes the swine shall find
151:18,072[A  ]| A crapula remains behind.
151:18,073[A  ]| The sober now and chaste are blessed
151:18,074[A  ]| With sweet and with refreshing rest;
151:18,075[A  ]| And to sound sleeps they've best pretence
151:18,076[A  ]| Have greatest share of innocence.
151:18,077[A  ]| We should so live then that we may
151:18,078[A  ]| Fearless put off our clots and clay,
151:18,079[A  ]| And travel through death's shades to light;
151:18,080[A  ]| For every day must have its night.
151:19,000['  ]| <Contentation>
151:19,001[A  ]| Heaven, what an age is this! what race
151:19,002[A  ]| Of giants are sprung up, that dare
151:19,003[A  ]| Thus fly in the Almighty's face
151:19,004[A  ]| And with his providence make war!
151:19,005[A  ]| I can go nowhere but I meet
151:19,006[A  ]| With malcontents and mutineers,
151:19,007[A  ]| As if in life was nothing sweet
151:19,008[A  ]| And we must blessings reap in tears.
151:19,009[A  ]| O senseless man, that murmurs still
151:19,010[A  ]| For happiness and does not know
151:19,011[A  ]| Even though he might enjoy his will
151:19,012[A  ]| What he would have to make him so.
151:19,013[A  ]| Is it true happiness to be
151:19,014[A  ]| By undiscerning fortune placed
151:19,015[A  ]| In the most eminent degree
151:19,016[A  ]| Where few arrive and none stand fast?
151:19,017[A  ]| Titles and wealth are fortune's toils
151:19,018[A  ]| Wherewith the vain themselves ensnare:
151:19,019[A  ]| The great are proud of borrowed spoils,
151:19,020[A  ]| The miser's plenty breeds his care.
151:19,021[A  ]| The one supinely yawns at rest,
151:19,022[A  ]| The other eternally doth toil,
151:19,023[A  ]| Each of them equally a beast
151:19,024[A  ]| A pampered horse, or labouring moil.
151:19,025[A  ]| The titulado's oft disgraced
151:19,026[A  ]| By public hate or private frown,
151:19,027[A  ]| And he whose hand the creature raised
151:19,028[A  ]| Has yet a foot to kick him down.
151:19,029[A  ]| The drudge who would all get, all save,
151:19,030[A  ]| Like a brute beast both feeds and lies:
151:19,031[A  ]| Prone to the earth he digs his grave
151:19,032[A  ]| And in the very labour dies.
151:19,033[A  ]| Excess of ill got, ill kept pelf
151:19,034[A  ]| Does only death and danger breed,
151:19,035[A  ]| Whilst one rich worldling starves himself
151:19,036[A  ]| With what would thousand others feed.
151:19,037[A  ]| By which we see what wealth and power,
151:19,038[A  ]| Although they make men rich and great,
151:19,039[A  ]| The sweets of life do often sour
151:19,040[A  ]| And gull ambition with a cheat.
151:19,043[A  ]| Nor is he happier than these
151:19,044[A  ]| Who in a moderate estate,
151:19,045[A  ]| Where he might safely live at ease,
151:19,046[A  ]| Has lusts that are immoderate.
151:19,047[A  ]| For he, by those desires misled,
151:19,048[A  ]| Quits his own vine's securing shade
151:19,049[A  ]| To expose his naked, empty head
151:19,050[A  ]| To all the storms man's peace invade.
151:19,051[A  ]| Nor is he happy who is trim,
151:19,052[A  ]| Tricked up in favours of the fair,
151:19,053[A  ]| Mirrors, with every breath made dim,
151:19,054[A  ]| Birds caught in every wanton snare.
151:19,055[A  ]| Woman, man's greatest woe, or bliss,
151:19,056[A  ]| Does ofter far, than serve, enslave,
151:19,057[A  ]| And with the magic of a kiss,
151:19,058[A  ]| Destroys whom she was made to save.
151:19,059[A  ]| Oh fruitful grief, the world's disease!
151:19,060[A  ]| And vainer man to make it so,
151:19,061[A  ]| Who gives his miseries increase
151:19,062[A  ]| By cultivating his own woe.
151:19,063[A  ]| There are no ills but what we make,
151:19,064[A  ]| By giving shapes and names to things;
151:19,065[A  ]| Which is the dangerous mistake
151:19,066[A  ]| That causes all our sufferings.
151:19,067[A  ]| We call that sickness which is health,
151:19,068[A  ]| That persecution which is grace,
151:19,069[A  ]| That poverty which is true wealth,
151:19,070[A  ]| And that dishonour which is Praise.
151:19,071[A  ]| Providence watches over all
151:19,072[A  ]| And that with an impartial eye,
151:19,073[A  ]| And if to misery we fall
151:19,074[A  ]| 'Tis through our own infirmity.
151:19,075[A  ]| 'Tis want of foresight makes the bold
151:19,076[A  ]| Ambitious youth to danger climb,
151:19,077[A  ]| And want of virtue, when the old
151:19,078[A  ]| At persecution do repine.
151:19,079[A  ]| Alas our time is here so short
151:19,080[A  ]| That in what state soe'er 'tis spent
151:19,081[A  ]| Of joy or woe does not import,
151:19,082[A  ]| Provided it be innocent.
151:19,083[A  ]| But we may make it pleasant too
151:19,084[A  ]| If we will take our measures right,
151:19,085[A  ]| And not what heaven has done undo
151:19,086[A  ]| By an unruly appetite.
151:19,087[A  ]| 'Tis contentation that alone
151:19,088[A  ]| Can make us happy here below,
151:19,089[A  ]| And when this little life is gone
151:19,090[A  ]| Will lift us up to heaven too.
151:19,091[A  ]| A very little satisfies
151:19,092[A  ]| An honest and a grateful heart,
151:19,093[A  ]| And who would more than will suffice
151:19,094[A  ]| Does covet more than is his part.
151:19,095[A  ]| That man is happy in his share
151:19,096[A  ]| Who is warm clad and cleanly fed,
151:19,097[A  ]| Whose necessaries bound his care
151:19,098[A  ]| And honest labour makes his bed;
151:19,099[A  ]| Who free from debt and clear from crimes
151:19,100[A  ]| Honours those laws that others fear,
151:19,101[A  ]| Who ill of princes in worst times
151:19,102[A  ]| Will neither speak himself nor hear;
151:19,103[A  ]| Who from the busy world retires
151:19,104[A  ]| To be more useful to it still,
151:19,105[A  ]| And to no greater good aspires
151:19,106[A  ]| But only the eschewing ill.
151:19,107[A  ]| Who with his angle and his books
151:19,108[A  ]| Can think the longest day well spent,
151:19,109[A  ]| And praises God when back he looks
151:19,110[A  ]| And finds that all was innocent.
151:19,111[A  ]| Thus man is happier far than he
151:19,112[A  ]| Whom public business oft betrays
151:19,113[A  ]| Through labyrinths of policy
151:19,114[A  ]| To crooked and forbidden ways.
151:19,115[A  ]| The world is full of beaten roads
151:19,116[A  ]| But yet so slippery withal
151:19,117[A  ]| That where one walks secure, 'tis odds
151:19,118[A  ]| A hundred and a hundred fall.
151:19,119[A  ]| Untrodden paths are then the best
151:19,120[A  ]| Where the frequented are unsure
151:19,121[A  ]| And he comes soonest to his rest
151:19,122[A  ]| Whose journey has been most secure.
151:19,123[A  ]| It is content alone that makes
151:19,124[A  ]| Our pilgrimage a pleasure here,
151:19,125[A  ]| And who buys sorrow cheapest takes
151:19,126[A  ]| An ill commodity too dear.
151:19,127[A  ]| But he has fortune's worst withstood
151:19,128[A  ]| And happiness can never miss,
151:19,129[A  ]| Can covet nought but where he stood
151:19,130[A  ]| And thinks him happy where he is.
151:20,000['  ]| <A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque  (p. 168)>
151:20,001[A  ]| The lives of frail men are compared by the sages
151:20,002[A  ]| Or unto short journeys or pilgrimages,
151:20,003[A  ]| As men to their inns do come sooner or later,
151:20,004[A  ]| That is to their ends (to be plain in my matter),
151:20,005[A  ]| From whence, when one dead is, it currently follows
151:20,006[A  ]| He has run his race, though his goal be the gallows;
151:20,007[A  ]| And 'tis this, I fancy, sets folk so a madding
151:20,008[A  ]| And makes men and women so eager of gadding.
151:20,009[A  ]| Truth is,in my youth I was one of those people
151:20,010[A  ]| Would have gone a great way to have seen an high steeple,
151:20,011[A  ]| And though I was bred 'mongst the wonders of the Peak
151:20,012[A  ]| Would have thrown away money, and ventured my neck,
151:20,013[A  ]| To have seen a great hill, a rock or a cave,
151:20,014[A  ]| And thought there was nothing so pleasant and brave.
151:20,015[A  ]| But at forty years old you may (if you please)
151:20,016[A  ]| Think me wiser than run such errands as these;
151:20,017[A  ]| Or, had the same humour still ran in my toes,
151:20,018[A  ]| A voyage to Ireland I ne'er should have chose.
151:20,019[A  ]| But to tell you the truth on't, indeed it was neither
151:20,020[A  ]| Improvement nor pleasure for which I went thither.
151:20,021[A  ]| I know then you'll presently ask me 'For what?'.
151:20,022[A  ]| Why, faith, it was that makes the old woman trot:
151:20,023[A  ]| And therefore I think I'm not much to be blamed
151:20,024[A  ]| If I went to the place whereof Nick was ashamed.
151:20,025[A  ]| Oh Coriate, thou traveller famed as Ulysses,
151:20,026[A  ]| In such a stupendous labour as this is,
151:20,027[A  ]| Come lend me the aids of thy hands and thy feet,
151:20,028[A  ]| Though the first be pedantic, the other not sweet;
151:20,029[A  ]| Yet both are so restless in peregrination,
151:20,030[A  ]| They'll help both my journey and eke my relation.
151:20,031[A  ]| 'Twas now the most beautiful time of the year:
151:20,032[A  ]| The days were now long, and the sky was now clear;
151:20,033[A  ]| And May, that fair lady of splendid renown,
151:20,034[A  ]| Had dressed herself fine in her flowered tabby gown;
151:20,035[A  ]| When about some two hours and a half after noon,
151:20,036[A  ]| When it grew something late, though I thought it too soon,
151:20,037[A  ]| With a pitiful voice and a most heavy heart,
151:20,038[A  ]| I tuned up my pipes to sing 'Loath to depart'.
151:20,039[A  ]| The ditty concluded, I called for my horse,
151:20,040[A  ]| And with a good pack did the jument endorse,
151:20,041[A  ]| Till he groaned and he farted under the burden,
151:20,042[A  ]| For sorrow had made me a cumbersome lurden.
151:20,043[A  ]| And now farewell Dove, where I've caught such brave dishes
151:20,044[A  ]| Of overgrown, golden and silver-scaled fishes.
151:20,045[A  ]| Thy trout and thy grayling can now feed securely:
151:20,046[A  ]| I've left none behind me can take 'em so surely.
151:20,047[A  ]| Feed on then, and breed on, until the next year:
151:20,048[A  ]| But, if I return, I expect my arrear.
151:20,049[A  ]| By pacing and trotting, betimes in the even,
151:20,050[A  ]| E'er the sun had forsaken one half of the heaven,
151:20,051[A  ]| We all at fair Congerton took up our inn,
151:20,052[A  ]| Where the sign of a king kept a king and his queen.
151:20,053[A  ]| But who do you think came to welcome me there?
151:20,054[A  ]| No worse a man, marry, than good Master Mayor,
151:20,055[A  ]| With his staff of command, yet the man was not lame,
151:20,056[A  ]| But he needed it more when he went, than he came..
151:20,057[A  ]| After three or four hours of friendly potation
151:20,058[A  ]| We took leave of each other in courteous fashion,
151:20,059[A  ]| When each one, to keep his brains fast in his head,
151:20,060[A  ]| Put on a good nightcap, and straightway to bed.
151:20,061[A  ]| Next morn, having paid for boiled roasted and bacon,
151:20,062[A  ]| And of sovereign hostess our leaves kindly taken
151:20,063[A  ]| (For her king ~~ as 'twas rumoured ~~ by late pouring down,
151:20,064[A  ]| This morning had got a foul flaw in his crown),
151:20,065[A  ]| We mounted again, and full soberly riding,
151:20,065[A  ]| Three miles we had rid e'er we met with a biding,
151:20,066[A  ]| But there (having over night plied the tap well)
151:20,067[A  ]| We now must needs water at place called Holmes Chapel.
151:20,068[A  ]| 'A hay!' quoth the foremost, 'Ho! who keeps the house?'
151:20,069[A  ]| Which said, out an host comes as brisk as a louse,
151:20,070[A  ]| His hair combed as slick as a barber he'd been.
151:20,071[A  ]| A cravat with black ribbon tied under his chin,
151:20,072[A  ]| Though by what I saw in him I straight 'gan to fear
151:20,073[A  ]| That knot would be one day slipped under his ear.
151:20,074[A  ]| Quoth he (with low congee) 'What lack you my lord?'
151:20,075[A  ]| 'The best liquor', quoth I, 'that the house will afford'.
151:20,076[A  ]| 'You shall straight', quoth he, and then calls out 'Mary,
151:20,077[A  ]| Come quickly and bring us a quart of canary'.
151:20,078[A  ]| 'Hold, hold, my spruce host, for i'th' morning so early
151:20,079[A  ]| I never drink liquor but what's made of barley'.
151:20,080[A  ]| Which words were scarce out, but, which made me admire,
151:20,081[A  ]| My Lordship was presently turned into squire.
151:20,082[A  ]| Ale, squire, you mean', quoth he, nimbly again,
151:20,083[A  ]| 'What must it be purled?' 'No I love it best plain.'
151:20,084[A  ]| 'Why, if you'll drink ale, sir, pray take my advice:
151:20,085[A  ]| Here's the best in the land, if you'll go to the price.
151:20,086[A  ]| Better, I sure am, ne'er blew out a stopple,
151:20,087[A  ]| But then, in plain truth, it is six pence a bottle.'
151:20,088[A  ]| 'Why faith', quoth I, 'Friend, if your liquor be such,
151:20,089[A  ]| For the best ale in England, it is not too much.
151:20,090[A  ]| Let's have it, and quickly'. 'Oh,sir, you may stay.
151:20,091[A  ]| A pot in your pate is a mile in your way.
151:20,092[A  ]| Come, bring out a bottle here presently, wife,
151:20,093[A  ]| Of the best Cheshire hum he e'er drank in his life.'
151:20,094[A  ]| Straight out comes the mistress in waistcoat of silk,
151:20,095[A  ]| As clear as a milk-maid, and white as her milk,
151:20,096[A  ]| With visage as oval and slick as an egg,
151:20,097[A  ]| As straight as an arrow, as right as my leg.
151:20,098[A  ]| A curtsy she made, as demure as a sister,
151:20,099[A  ]| I could not forbear, but alighted and kissed her,
151:20,100[A  ]| Then, ducking another with most modest mien,
151:20,101[A  ]| The first word she said was 'Wilt please you walk in?'
151:20,102[A  ]| I thanked her; but told her I then could not stay,
151:20,103[A  ]| For the haste of my business did call me away.
151:20,104[A  ]| She said she was sorry it fell out so odd,
151:20,105[A  ]| But if, when again I should travel that road,
151:20,106[A  ]| I would stay there a night, she assured me the nation
151:20,107[A  ]| Should no where afford better accommodation.
151:20,108[A  ]| Meanwhile, my spruce landlord has broken the cork,
151:20,109[A  ]| And called for a bodkin, though he had a fork.
151:20,110[A  ]| But I show him a screw, which I told my brisk gull
151:20,111[A  ]| A trephine was for bottles had broken their skull;
151:20,112[A  ]| Which, as it was true, he believed without doubt;
151:20,113[A  ]| But 'twas I that applied it, and pulled the cork out.
151:20,114[A  ]| 'Bounce', quoth the bottle: the work being done,
151:20,115[A  ]| It roared and it smoked like a new fired gun;
151:20,116[A  ]| But the shot missed us all, or else we'd been routed,
151:20,117[A  ]| Which yet was a wonder, we were so about it.
151:20,118[A  ]| Mine host poured and filled till he could fill no fuller.
151:20,119[A  ]| 'Look here, sir', quoth he, 'both for nap and for colour,
151:20,120[A  ]| Sans bragging   I hate it   nor will I e'er do it,
151:20,121[A  ]| I defy Leek and Lambeth and Sandwich to boot'.
151:20,122[A  ]| By my troth he said truth, for I speak it with tears,
151:20,123[A  ]| Though I have been a toss-pot these twenty good years,
151:20,124[A  ]| And have drunk so much liquor has made me a debtor,
151:20,125[A  ]| In my days, that I know of, I never drank better.
151:20,126[A  ]| We found it so good, and we drank so profoundly,
151:20,127[A  ]| That four good round shillings were whipped away roundly;
151:20,128[A  ]| And then I conceived it was time to be jogging,
151:20,129[A  ]| For our work had been done, had we stayed th' other noggin.
151:20,130[A  ]| From thence we set forth with more mettle and spright.
151:20,131[A  ]| Our horses were empty, our coxcombs were light,
151:20,132[A  ]| O'er Delamore forest we tantivy posted,
151:20,133[A  ]| Till our horses were basted as if they were roasted.
151:20,134[A  ]| In truth, we pursued might have been by our host,
151:20,135[A  ]| And I think Sir George Booth did not gallop so fast;
151:20,136[A  ]| Till about two 'o clock after noon, God be blessed,
151:20,137[A  ]| We came safe and sound all to Chester i'th' West.
151:20,138[A  ]| And now in high time 'twas to call for some meat:
151:20,139[A  ]| Though drinking does well, yet some time we must eat;
151:20,140[A  ]| And i' faith we had victuals both plenty and good,
151:20,141[A  ]| Where we all laid about us as if we were wood.
151:20,142[A  ]| Go thy ways Mistress Anderton for a good woman,
151:20,143[A  ]| Thy guests shall by thee ne'er be turned to a common;
151:20,144[A  ]| And whoever of they entertainment complains,
151:20,145[A  ]| Let him lie with a drab and be poxed for his pains.
151:20,146[A  ]| And here I must stop the career of my muse:
151:20,147[A  ]| The poor jade is weary   alas, how should she choose?
151:20,148[A  ]| And if I should farther here spur on my course,
151:20,149[A  ]| I should, questionless, tire both my wits and my horse.
151:20,150[A  ]| Tonight let us rest, for 'tis good Sunday's even:
151:20,151[A  ]| Tomorrow to church and ask pardon of heaven.
151:20,152[A  ]| Thus far we our time spent, as here I have penned it:
151:20,153[A  ]| An odd kind of life, and 'tis well if we mend it.
151:20,154[A  ]| But tomorrow (God willing) we'll have t' other bout,
151:20,155[A  ]| And better or worse be't (for murder will out),
151:20,156[A  ]| Our future adventures we'll lay down before ye,
151:20,157[A  ]| For my muse is deep sworn to use truth of the story.
151:21,000['  ]| <Elegy>
151:21,001[A  ]| Gods! are you just, and can it be
151:21,002[A  ]| You should deal man his misery
151:21,003[A  ]| With such a liberal hand, yet spare
151:21,004[A  ]| So meanly when his joys you share?
151:21,005[A  ]| Durst timorous mortality
151:21,006[A  ]| Demand of this the reason why?
151:21,007[A  ]| The argument of all our ills
151:21,008[A  ]| Would end in this, that 'tis your wills.
151:21,009[A  ]| Be it so then, and since 'tis fit
151:21,010[A  ]| We to your harsh decrees submit,
151:21,011[A  ]| Farewell all durable content,
151:21,012[A  ]| Nothing but woe is permanent.
151:21,013[A  ]| How strangely, in a little space,
151:21,014[A  ]| Is my state changed from what it was,
151:21,015[A  ]| When my Clorinda with her rays
151:21,016[A  ]| Illustrated this happy place?
151:21,017[A  ]| When she was here, was here, alas!
151:21,018[A  ]| How sadly sounds that: when she was!
151:21,019[A  ]| That monarch ruled not under sky
151:21,020[A  ]| Who was so great a prince as I;
151:21,021[A  ]| And if who boasts most treasure be
151:21,022[A  ]| The greatest monarch, I was he;
151:21,023[A  ]| As seized of her, who from her birth
151:21,024[A  ]| Has been the treasure of the earth.
151:21,025[A  ]| But she is gone, and I no more
151:21,026[A  ]| That mighty sovereign, but as poor,
151:21,027[A  ]| Since stripped of that my glorious trust
151:21,028[A  ]| As he who grovels in the dust.
151:21,029[A  ]| Now I could quarrel Heaven, and be
151:21,030[A  ]| Ringleader to a mutiny,
151:21,031[A  ]| Like that of the Gigantic Wars
151:21,032[A  ]| And hector my malignant stars;
151:21,033[A  ]| Or, in a tamer method, sit
151:21,034[A  ]| Sighing, as though my heart would split,
151:21,035[A  ]| With looks dejected, arms across,
151:21,036[A  ]| Mourning and weeping for a loss
151:21,037[A  ]| My sweet (if kind as heretofore)
151:21,038[A  ]| Can in two short-lived hours restore.
151:21,039[A  ]| Some God then, (sure you are not all
151:21,040[A  ]| Deaf to poor lovers when they call)
151:21,041[A  ]| Commiserating my sad smart,
151:21,042[A  ]| Touch fair Clorinda's noble heart
151:21,043[A  ]| To pity a poor sufferer
151:21,044[A  ]| Disdains to sigh, unless for her!
151:21,045[A  ]| Some friendly Deity, possess
151:21,046[A  ]| Her generous breast with my distress!
151:21,047[A  ]| O! tell her how I sigh away
151:21,048[A  ]| The tedious hours of the day,
151:21,049[A  ]| Hating all light that does not rise
151:21,050[A  ]| From the gay morning of her eyes;
151:21,051[A  ]| Tell her that friends, which were to be
151:21,052[A  ]| Welcome to men in misery,
151:21,053[A  ]| To me, I know not how, of late
151:21,054[A  ]| Are grown to be importunate;
151:21,055[A  ]| My books, which once were wont to be
151:21,056[A  ]| My best beloved company,
151:21,057[A  ]| Are (save a prayer-book for form)
151:21,058[A  ]| Left to the canker or the worm:
151:21,059[A  ]| My study's grief, my pleasure care,
151:21,060[A  ]| My joys are woe, my hope despair,
151:21,061[A  ]| Fears are my drink, deep sighs my food,
151:21,062[A  ]| And my companions solitude.
151:21,063[A  ]| Night too, which Heaven ordained to be
151:21,064[A  ]| Man's chiefest friend's my enemy:
151:21,065[A  ]| When she her sable curtain spreads,
151:21,066[A  ]| The whole creation make their beds,
151:21,067[A  ]| And everything on earth is blessed
151:21,068[A  ]| With gentle and refreshing rest;
151:21,069[A  ]| But wretched I, more pensive made
151:21,070[A  ]| By the addition of that shade,
151:21,071[A  ]| Am left alone, with sorrow roar
151:21,072[A  ]| The grief I did but sigh before,
151:21,073[A  ]| And tears which, checked by shame and light,
151:21,074[A  ]| Do only drop by day, by night
151:21,075[A  ]| (No longer awed by nice respects)
151:21,076[A  ]| Gush out in floods and cataracts.
151:21,077[A  ]| Ill life, ~~ ah Love, why is it so? ~~
151:21,078[A  ]| To me is measured out by woe,
151:21,079[A  ]| Whilst she, who is that life's great light,
151:21,080[A  ]| Conceals her glories from my sight.
151:21,081[A  ]| Say, fair Clorinda, why should he
151:21,082[A  ]| Who is thy virtue's creature, be
151:21,083[A  ]| More wretched than the rest of men
151:21,084[A  ]| Who love and are beloved again?
151:21,085[A  ]| I know my passion, not desert,
151:21,086[A  ]| Has given me interest in a heart
151:21,087[A  ]| Truer than ever man possessed,
151:21,088[A  ]| And in that knowledge I am blessed;
151:21,089[A  ]| Yet even thence proceeds my care
151:21,090[A  ]| That makes your absence hard to bear,
151:21,091[A  ]| For were you cruel, I should be
151:21,092[A  ]| Glad to avoid your cruelty,
151:21,093[A  ]| But happy in an equal flame
151:21,094[A  ]| I, sweetest, thus impatient am.
151:21,095[A  ]| Then since your presence can restore
151:21,096[A  ]| My heart the joy it had before,
151:21,097[A  ]| Since liberal Heaven never gave
151:21,098[A  ]| To woman such a power to save,
151:21,099[A  ]| Practise that sovereign power on one
151:21,100[A  ]| Must live or die for you alone.
151:22,000['  ]| <To John Bradshaw, Esq.>
151:22,001[A  ]| Could you and I our lives renew,
151:22,002[A  ]| And be both young again,
151:22,003[A  ]| Retaining what we ever knew
151:22,004[A  ]| Of manners, times, and men,
151:22,005[A  ]| We could not frame so loose to live,
151:22,006[A  ]| But must be useful then
151:22,007[A  ]| Ere we could possibly arrive
151:22,008[A  ]| To the same age again.
151:22,009[A  ]| But youth's devoured in vanities
151:22,010[A  ]| Before we are aware,
151:22,011[A  ]| And so grown old before grown wise
151:22,012[A  ]| We good for nothing are;
151:22,013[A  ]| Or, if by that time knowing grown,
151:22,014[A  ]| By reading books and men,
151:22,015[A  ]| For others' service, or our own,
151:22,016[A  ]| 'Tis with the latest then.
151:22,017[A  ]| Happy's that man, in this estate,
151:22,018[A  ]| Whose conscience tells him still
151:22,019[A  ]| That though for good he comes too late,
151:22,020[A  ]| He ne'er did any ill:
151:22,021[A  ]| The satisfaction flowing thence
151:22,022[A  ]| All dolours would assuage,
151:22,023[A  ]| And be sufficient recompense
151:22,024[A  ]| For all the ills of age;
151:22,025[A  ]| But very few (my friend) I fear,
151:22,026[A  ]| Whom this ill age has bred,
151:22,027[A  ]| At need have such a comforter
151:22,028[A  ]| To make their dying bed.
151:22,029[A  ]| 'Tis then high time we should prepare
151:22,030[A  ]| In a new world to live,
151:22,031[A  ]| Since here we breathe but panting air,
151:22,032[A  ]| Alas! by short reprieve.
151:22,033[A  ]| Life then begins to be a pain,
151:22,034[A  ]| Infirmity prevails,
151:22,035[A  ]| Which, when it but begins to reign,
151:22,036[A  ]| The bravest courage quails.
151:22,037[A  ]| But could we, as I said, procure
151:22,038[A  ]| To live our lives again,
151:22,039[A  ]| We should be of the better sure
151:22,040[A  ]| Or the worst sort of men.
151:23,000['  ]| <On the death of the most noble Thomas Earl of Ossory>
151:23,000['  ]| <Carmen irregulare>
151:23,001[A  ]| Enough! enough! I'll hear no more,
151:23,002[A  ]| And would to Heaven I had been deaf before
151:23,003[A  ]| That fatal sound had struck my ear:
151:23,004[A  ]| Harsh Rumour has not left so sad a note
151:23,005[A  ]| In her hoarse trumpet's brazen throat
151:23,006[A  ]| To move Compassion, and enforce a tear.
151:23,007[A  ]| Methinks all Nature should relent, and droop,
151:23,008[A  ]| The centre shrink, and Heaven stoop,
151:23,009[A  ]| The day be turned to mourning night,
151:23,010[A  ]| The twinking stars weep out their light,
151:23,011[A  ]| And all things out of their distinction run
151:23,012[A  ]| Into their primitive confusion:
151:23,013[A  ]| A chaos, with cold darkness overspread,
151:23,014[A  ]| Since the illustrious Ossory is dead.
151:23,015[A  ]| When Death that fatal arrow drew,
151:23,016[A  ]| Ten thousand hearts he pierced through,
151:23,017[A  ]| Though one alone he outright slew;
151:23,018[A  ]| Never since Sin gave him his killing trade,
151:23,019[A  ]| He, at one shot, so great a slaughter made;
151:23,020[A  ]| He needs no more at those let fly:
151:23,021[A  ]| They of that wound alone will die.
151:23,022[A  ]| And who can now expect to live, when he
151:23,023[A  ]| Thus fell unprivileged we see!
151:23,024[A  ]| He met Death in his greatest triumph, war,
151:23,025[A  ]| And always thence came off a conqueror;
151:23,026[A  ]| Through rattling shot and pikes the slave he sought,
151:23,027[A  ]| Knocked at each cuirass for him as he fought,
151:23,028[A  ]| Beat him at sea, and baffled him on shore:
151:23,029[A  ]| War's utmost fury he out-braved before,
151:23,030[A  ]| But yet, it seems, a fever could do more.
151:23,031[A  ]| The English infantry are orphans now,
151:23,032[A  ]| Pale sorrow hangs on every soldier's brow.
151:23,033[A  ]| Who now in Honour's path shall lead you on
151:23,034[A  ]| Since your beloved general is gone?
151:23,035[A  ]| Furl up your ensigns, case the warlike drum,
151:23,036[A  ]| Pay your last honours to his tomb,
151:23,037[A  ]| Hang down your manly heads in sign of woe:
151:23,038[A  ]| That now is all that your poor loves can do,
151:23,039[A  ]| Unless by winter's fire, or summer's shade,
151:23,040[A  ]| To tell what a brave leader once you had.
151:23,041[A  ]| Hang your now useless arms up in the hall,
151:23,042[A  ]| There let them rust upon the sweating wall,
151:23,043[A  ]| Go, till the fields, and with inglorious sweat,
151:23,044[A  ]| An honest but a painful living get.
151:23,045[A  ]| Your old neglected callings now renew
151:23,046[A  ]| And bid to glorious war a long adieu.
151:23,047[A  ]| The Dutch may now have fishing free,
151:23,048[A  ]| And, whilst the consternation lasts,
151:23,049[A  ]| Like the proud rulers of the sea,
151:23,050[A  ]| Show the full stature of their masts.
151:23,051[A  ]| Our English Neptune, deaf to all alarms,
151:23,052[A  ]| Now soundly sleeps in Death's cold arms,
151:23,053[A  ]| And on his ebon altar has laid down
151:23,054[A  ]| His awful trident and his naval crown.
151:23,055[A  ]| No more shall the tall frigate dance
151:23,056[A  ]| For joy she carries this victorious lord,
151:23,057[A  ]| Who to the captain chained mischance,
151:23,058[A  ]| Commanding on her lofty board.
151:23,059[A  ]| The sea itself, that is all tears,
151:23,060[A  ]| Would weep her soundless channel dry,
151:23,061[A  ]| Had she unhappily but ears
151:23,062[A  ]| To hear that Ossory could die.
151:23,063[A  ]| Ah, cruel Fate, thou never struck'st a blow
151:23,064[A  ]| By all mankind regretted so,
151:23,065[A  ]| Nor can't be said who should lament him most:
151:23,066[A  ]| No country such a patriot e'er could boast,
151:23,067[A  ]| And never monarch such a subject lost.
151:23,068[A  ]| And yet we knew that he must one day die.
151:23,069[A  ]| That should our grief assuage;
151:23,070[A  ]| By sword, or shot, or by infirmity,
151:23,071[A  ]| Or, if these failed, by age;
151:23,072[A  ]| But he, alas! too soon gave place
151:23,073[A  ]| To the successors of his noble race.
151:23,074[A  ]| We wished, and coveted to have him long,
151:23,075[A  ]| He was not old enough to die so soon,
151:23,076[A  ]| And they to finish what he had begun,
151:23,077[A  ]| As much too young.
151:23,078[A  ]| But Time, that had no hand in his mischance,
151:23,079[A  ]| Is fitter to mature, and to advance
151:23,080[A  ]| Their early hopes to the inheritance
151:23,081[A  ]| Of titles, honours, riches, and command,
151:23,082[A  ]| Their glorious grandsire's merits have obtained,
151:23,083[A  ]| And which shines brighter than a ducal crown
151:23,084[A  ]| Of their illustrious family's renown.
151:23,085[A  ]| O! may there never fail of that brave race
151:23,086[A  ]| A man as great as the great Ossory was,
151:23,087[A  ]| To serve his prince, and as successful prove
151:23,088[A  ]| In the same valour, loyalty and love;
151:23,089[A  ]| Whilst his own virtues swell the cheeks of fame,
151:23,090[A  ]| And from his consecrated urn doth flame
151:23,091[A  ]| A glorious pyramid to Boteler's name.
151:24,000['  ]| <Resolution in Four Sonnets, of a Poetical Question put to me>
151:24,000['  ]| <by a Friend concerning Four Rural Sisters>
151:24,000['  ]| <I.>
151:24,001[A  ]| Alice is tall and upright as a pine,
151:24,002[A  ]| White as blanched almonds, or the falling snow,
151:24,003[A  ]| Sweet as are damask roses when they blow,
151:24,004[A  ]| And doubtless fruitful as the swelling vine.
151:24,005[A  ]| Ripe to be cut, and ready to be pressed,
151:24,006[A  ]| Her full-cheeked beauties very well appear,
151:24,007[A  ]| And a year's fruit she loses every year,
151:24,008[A  ]| Wanting a man to improve her to the best.
151:24,009[A  ]| Full fain she would be husbanded, and yet
151:24,010[A  ]| Alas! she cannot a fit labourer get
151:24,011[A  ]| To cultivate her to her own content.
151:24,012[A  ]| Fain would she be (God wot) about her task,
151:24,013[A  ]| And yet (forsooth) she is too proud to ask,
151:24,014[A  ]| And (which is worse) too modest to consent.
151:24,000['  ]| <II.>
151:24,001[A  ]| Margaret of humbler stature by the head
151:24,002[A  ]| Is (as it oft falls out with yellow hair)
151:24,003[A  ]| Than her fair sister, yet so much more fair,
151:24,004[A  ]| As her pure white is better mixed with red.
151:24,005[A  ]| This, hotter than the other, ten to one,
151:24,006[A  ]| Longs to be put unto her mother's trade,
151:24,007[A  ]| And loud proclaims she lives too long a maid,
151:24,008[A  ]| Wishing for one to untie her virgin zone.
151:24,009[A  ]| She finds virginity a kind of ware
151:24,010[A  ]| That's very very troublesome to bear,
151:24,011[A  ]| And being gone, she thinks will ne'er be missed.
151:24,012[A  ]| And yet withall the girl has so much grace,
151:24,013[A  ]| To call for help I know she wants the face,
151:24,014[A  ]| Though asked, I know not how she would resist.
151:24,000['  ]| <III.>
151:24,001[A  ]| Mary is black, and taller than the last,
151:24,002[A  ]| Yet equal in perfection and desire,
151:24,003[A  ]| To the one's melting snow, and the other's fire,
151:24,004[A  ]| As with whose black their fairness is defaced.
151:24,005[A  ]| She pants as much for love as the other two,
151:24,006[A  ]| But she so virtuous is, or else so wise,
151:24,007[A  ]| That she will win or will not love a prize,
151:24,008[A  ]| And but upon good terms will never do.
151:24,009[A  ]| Therefore who her will conquer ought to be
151:24,010[A  ]| At least as full of love and wit as she,
151:24,011[A  ]| Or he shall ne'er gain favour at her hands.
151:24,012[A  ]| Nay, though he have a pretty store of brains,
151:24,013[A  ]| Shall only have his labour for his pains
151:24,014[A  ]| Unless he offer more than she demands.
151:24,000['  ]| <IV.>
151:24,001[A  ]| Martha is not so tall, nor yet so fair
151:24,002[A  ]| As any of the other lovely three,
151:24,003[A  ]| Her chiefest grace is poor simplicity,
151:24,004[A  ]| Yet were the rest away, she were a star.
151:24,005[A  ]| She's fair enough, only she wants the art
151:24,006[A  ]| To set her beauties off as they can do,
151:24,007[A  ]| And that's the cause she ne'er heard any woo,
151:24,008[A  ]| Nor ever yet made conquest of a heart.
151:24,009[A  ]| And yet her blood's as boiling as the best,
151:24,010[A  ]| Which, pretty soul, does so disturb her rest,
151:24,011[A  ]| And makes her languish so, she's fit to die.
151:24,012[A  ]| Poor thing, I doubt she still must lie alone,
151:24,013[A  ]| For being like to be attacked by none,
151:24,014[A  ]| She has no more wit to ask than to deny.
151:25,000['  ]| <Anacreontic>
151:25,001[A  ]| Fill a bowl of lusty wine,
151:25,002[A  ]| Briskest daughter of the vine;
151:25,003[A  ]| Fill it until it sea-like flow,
151:25,004[A  ]| That my cheek may once more glow.
151:25,005[A  ]| I am fifty winters old,
151:25,006[A  ]| Blood then stagnates and grows cold,
151:25,007[A  ]| And when youthful heat decays,
151:25,008[A  ]| We must help it by these ways.
151:25,009[A  ]| Wine breeds mirth, and mirth imparts
151:25,010[A  ]| Heat and courage to our hearts,
151:25,011[A  ]| Which in old men else are lead,
151:25,012[A  ]| And not warmed would soon be dead.
151:25,013[A  ]| Now I'm sprightly, fill again,
151:25,014[A  ]| Stop not though they mount to ten;
151:25,015[A  ]| Though I stagger, do not spare,
151:25,016[A  ]| 'Tis to rock and still my ear;
151:25,017[A  ]| Though I stammer, 'tis no matter,
151:25,018[A  ]| I should do the same with water;
151:25,019[A  ]| When I belch, I am but trying
151:25,020[A  ]| How much better 'tis than sighing;
151:25,021[A  ]| If a tear spring in mine eye,
151:25,022[A  ]| 'Tis for joy not grief I cry:
151:25,023[A  ]| This is living without thinking,
151:25,024[A  ]| These are the effects of drinking.
151:25,025[A  ]| Fill a main, boy, fill a main,
151:25,026[A  ]| Whilst I drink I feel no pain;
151:25,027[A  ]| Gout or palsy I have none,
151:25,028[A  ]| Hang the cholic and the stone;
151:25,029[A  ]| I methinks grow young again,
151:25,030[A  ]| New blood springs in every vein,
151:25,031[A  ]| And supply it, sirrah, still,
151:25,032[A  ]| Whilst I drink you sure may fill;
151:25,033[A  ]| If I nod, boy, rouse me up
151:25,034[A  ]| With a bigger, fuller cup;
151:25,035[A  ]| But when that, boy, will not do,
151:25,036[A  ]| Faith, e'en let me then go to,
151:25,037[A  ]| For 'tis better far to lie
151:25,038[A  ]| Down to sleep than down to die.