Then, that we should our sacrilege restore, new Some dance, some haul the rope; at last let It enters with a thundering noise the town, waste In feasts that day, which was (alas!) our last. Your vows to her, and her defence to you. Shall fall on Priam's state: but ifthe horse Thus by his fraud and our own faith o'er- Above the deep they raise their scaly crests, course, And 'gainst the shore the breaking billows force. Opprest, surprise, and then their forces join. pair Our bodies spent with toil, our minds with care, By his insulting foe, O how transform'd [fly A spacious breach we make, and Troy's proud With rolls and levers: thus our works it climbs, came, A dreadful hiss, and from their eyes a flame. The city in secure repose dissolv'd, Thy once fair looks, or why appearthose wounds?” pect, Which, tost on seas, thou shall at last erect:" Rouz'd from my bed, I speedily ascend From neighbouring hills th' amazed shepherd hears; Such my surprise, and such their rage appears. First fell thy house, Ucalegon, then thine Deiphobus, Sigæan seas did shine Bright with Troy's flames; the trumpets dreadful sound The louder groans of dying men confound; And thousands more than e'er from Argos came near At once suspends their courage and their fear." Where noises, tumults, outcries, and alarms, VOL. VIL Nor only on the Trojans fell this doom, Ill fate could save; my country's funeral flame R Now Iphitus with me, and Pelias cast Over their heads; some scaling ladders plac'd Now hopeless, for their last defence they seize. The gilded roofs, the marks of ancient state, They tumble down; and now against the gate Of th' inner court their growing force they bring: Now was our last effort to save the king, • Before the gate in gilded armour shone [grown, Young Pyrrhus, like a snake, his skin new Who fed on poisonous herbs, all winter lay Under the ground, and now reviews the day Fresh in his new apparel, proud and young, ⚫ Rolls up his back, and brandishes his tongue, And lifts his scaly breast against the Sun; With him his father's squire, Automedon, And Peripas, who drove his winged steeds, Enter the court; whom all the youth succeeds Of Scyros' isle; who flaming firebrands flung Up to the roof; Pyrrhus himself among The foremost with an axe an entrance hews Through beams of solid oak, then freely views The chambers, galleries, and rooms of state, Where Priam and the ancient monarchs sat. At the first gate an armed guard appears ; But th' inner court with horrour,noise, and tears, Confus'dly fill'd, the women's shrieks and cries The arch'd vaults re-echo to the skies; Sad matrons wandering through the spacious rooms Embrace and kiss the posts: then Pyrrhus comes And now between two sad extremes I stood, And Priam quenching from his wounds those flames Which his own hands had on the altar laid ; Then they the secret cabinets invade, Where stood the fifty nuptial beds, the hopes Of that great race; the golden posts, whose tops Old hostile spoils adorn'd, demolish'd lay, Or to the foe, or to the fire a prey. Now Priam's fate perhaps you may inquire: Seeing his empire lost, his Troy on fire, And his own palace by the Greeks possest, Arms long disus'd his trembling limbs invest ; Thus on his foes he throws himself alone, Not for their fate, but to provoke his own: There stood an altar open to the view Of Heaven, near which an aged laurel grew, Whose shady arms the household gods embrac'd, Before whose feet the queen herself had cast With all her daughters, and the Trojan wives, As doves whom an approaching tempest driveS And frights into one flock; but having spy'd Old Priam clad in youthful arm, she cried, "Alas, my wretched husband, what pretence To bear those arms, and in them what defence? Such aid such times require not, when again If Hector were alive, he liv'd in vain ; Or here we shall a sanctuary find, Or as in life we shall in death be join'd." Then weeping, with kind force held and embrac'd, And on the secret seat the king she plac'd. Meantime Polites, one of Priam's sons, Flying the rage of bloody Pyrrhus, runs Through foes and swords, and ranges all the court, And empty galleries, amaz'd and hurt; Pyrrhus pursues him, now o'ertakes, now kills, And his last blood in Priam's presence spills. The king (though him so many deaths enclose) Nor fear, nor grief, but indignation shows; "The gods requite thee, (if within the care Of those above th' affairs of mortals are) Whose fury on the son but lost had been, Had not his parents' eyes his murder seen: Not that Achilles (whom thou feign'st to be Thy father) so inhuman was to me; He blusht, when I the rights of arms implor'd; To me my Hector, me to Troy restor❜d:" This said, his feeble arm a javelin flung, Which on the sounding shield, searce entering | vorce, And where the way they cannot find, they force. rung. Then Pyrrhus; "Go a messenger to Hell To th' altar; in his hair one hand he wreaths; To whom the sceptres of all Asia bow'd, 1 ON THE EARL OF STRAFFORD...TO A PERSON OF HONOUR. 243 Since man to that perfection cannot rise, Therefore the patterns man should imitate Herein, if we consult with Greece and Rome, Great Strafford ! worthy of that name, though Greece (as in war) by Rome was overcome; all Though mighty raptures we in Homer find, Of thee could be forgotten, but thy fall, Yet, like himself, his characters were blind; Crush'd by imaginary treason's weight, Virgil's sublimed eyes not only gaz'd, Which too much merit did accumulate: But bis sublimed thoughts to Heaven were As chymists gold from brass by fire would draw, raiz'd. Pretexts are into treason forg'd by law. Who reads the honours which he paid the gods, His wisdom such, at once it did appear Would think he had beheld their blest abodes; Three kingdoms' wonder, and three kingdoms' And that his hero might accomplish'd be, fear; From divine blood he draws his pedigree. While single he stood forth, and seem'd, although From that great judge your judgment takes its Each had an army, as an equal foe. law, ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF HENRY LORD HASTINGS, 1650. When every line they add improves thy loss, Death from their fears, than safety from his Till having view'd the whole, they sum own, cross; Tnat his last action all the rest might crown. Such as derides thy passions' best relief, Of man and pious, read and mourn : the shame TO A PERSON OF HONOUR, Of an exemption, from just sense, doth show Irrational, beyond excess of woe. Since reason, then, can privilege a tear, Manbood, uncensur'd, pay that tribute here, So high above all vulgar eyes! so long? One single rapture scarce itself confines Dust far more precious than in India's veins : Within these cold embraces, ravish'd, lies Within the limits of four thousand lines : That which compleats the age's tyrannies : Who weak to such another ill appear, For what destroys our hope, secures our fear. And to the end of time its beams extend. What sin unexpiate!, in this land When Poesy joins profit with delight, Of groans, hath guided so severe a band ? Her images should be most exquisite, The late great victim 2 that your altars knew, Ye angry gods, might have excus'd this new 1 The honourable Edward Howard, by his oblation, and have spar’d one lofty light Of virtue, to inform our steps aright; poem called The British Princes, engaged the By whose example good, condemned, we attention of by far the most eminent of his con Might hare run on to kinder destiny. temporaries; who played upon his vanity, as But as the leader of the herd fell first the wits of half a century before had done on that of Thomas Coryat, by writing extravagant of inflam'd vengeance for past crimes ; soñone A sacrifice, to quench the raging thirst compliments on bis works. See Butler's, Wal-But this white-fatted youngling cou'd atone, ler's, Spçats, and Dorset's verses,jn their respec. By his untimely fate; that impious smoke, tive volumes; and in the Select Collection of That sullied Earth, and did Heaven's pity choke. Miscellaneous Poems, 1780, vol. III. p. 105, are other verses on the same subject, by Marton Clifford, and the lord Vaughan: n. ? King Charles the First. a SUBJECTS THERE Let it suffice for us, that we have lost Thus the constitution From the father to the son. But John (Our friend) Molleson Thought us to have out-gone With a quaint invention. He complain'd long before, Ay, and thrice as much more. And with that wicked lye, A letter they came by And tell those powers to whom thou now draw'st | From our king's majesty. near, [dead, That by our trembling sense, in HASTINGS Brought the letter too late, But Fate Their anger and our ugly faults are read; 'Twas of too old a date The short lines of whose life did to our eyes To relieve their damn'd state, Turn'd into good Latin. But he that gave the hint Must also pay his stint. That trick, But the messenger fell sick. Had it later been wrote, And sooner been brought, Of the pure ones in Pole, They had got what they sought, Which are damn'd in our scroul. But now it serves for nought. Who having felt a touch On Sandys they ran aground, Of Cockram's greedy clutch, And our return was crown'd With full ten thousand pound. ON MR. THO. KILLICREW'S RETURN FROM VENICE, AND MR. WILLIAM MURREY'S FROM SCOTLAND. Nor lend An ear to a friend, Our resident Tom, Nor an answer would send From Venice is come, To our letter so well penn'd. And hath left the statesman behind him: Talks at the same pitch, Nor assist our affairs Is as wise, is as rich ; With their monies nor their wares, And just where you left him, you find him. As their answer now declares, But only with their prayers. But who says he was not Thas they did persist A man of much plot, Did and said what they list, May repent that false accusations Till the diet was dismist; Having plotted and penn'd Six plays, to attend The farce of his negotiation. Before you were told How Satan 3 the old They should pay one in ten, Came here with a beard to his middle; The diet said, Amen. Though he chang'd face and names And because they are loth Old Will was the same, At the noise of a can and a fiddle. 3 Mr. W. Murrey. |