BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ, Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce ; And to our high-raised phantasy present That undisturbed song of pure concent, Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne To Him that sits thereon,
With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; Where the bright Seraphim in burning row Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, And the Cherubic host in thousand quires Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that weer victorious palms, Hymns devout and holy psalms
That we on Earth, with undiscording voice,
May rightly answer that melodious noise;
As once we did, till disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O, may we soon again renew that song,
And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long
To his celestial consort us unite,
To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light!
Now the bright morning-star, Day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire! Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
WHAT needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones The labour of an age in pilèd stones?
Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid ?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a livelong monument.
For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art, Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book Those Delphic lines with deep impression took, Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, Dost make us marble with too much conceiving, And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
ON THE UNIVERSITY CARRIER,
Who sickened in the time of his Vacancy, being forbid to go to London by reason of the Plague.
HERE lies old Hobson. Death hath broke his girt, And here, alas! hath laid him in the dirt; Or else, the ways being foul, twenty to one He's here stuck in a slough, and overthrown. 'Twas such a shifter that, if truth were known, Death was half glad when he had got him down; For he had any time this ten years full
Dodged with him betwixt Cambridge and The Bull. And surely Death could never have prevailed, Had not his weekly course of carriage failed; But lately, finding him so long at home,
And thinking now his journey's end was come, And that he had ta'en up his latest inn,
In the kind office of a chamberlin
Showed him his room where he must lodge that night, Pulled off his boots, and took away the light.
If any ask for him, it shall be said,
"Hobson has supped, and's newly gone to bed."
ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
HERE lieth one who did most truly prove That he could never die while he could move; So hung his destiny, never to rot
While he might still jog on and keep his trot; Made of sphere-metal, never to decay
Until his revolution was at stay.
Time numbers motion, yet (without a crime 'Gainst old truth) motion numbered out his time; And, like an engine moved with wheel and weight, His principles being ceased, he ended straight. Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death, And too much breathing put him out of breath; Nor were it contradiction to affirm
Too long vacation hastened on his term. Merely to drive the time away he sickened, Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quickened. "Nay," quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretched, "If I mayn't carry, sure I'll ne'er be fetched, But vow, though the cross doctors all stood hearers, For one carrier put down to make six bearers." Ease was his chief disease; and, to judge right, He died for heaviness that his cart went light. His leisure told him that his time was come, And lack of load made his life burdensome,
That even to his last breath (there be that say't),
As he were pressed to death, he cried, "More weight!" But, had his doings lasted as they were,
He had been an immortal carrier.
Linked to the mutual flowing of the seas;
Yet (strange to think) his wain was his increase. His letters are delivered all and gone;
Only remains this superscription.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER
THIS rich marble doth inter
The honoured wife of Winchester,
A Viscount's daughter, an Earl's heir, Besides what her virtues fair
Added to her noble birth,
More than she could own from Earth.
Summers three times eight save one She had told; alas! too soon,
After so short time of breath,
To house with darkness and with death!
Yet, had the number of her days
Been as complete as was her praise, Nature and Fate had had no strife In giving limit to her life.
Her high birth and her graces sweet Quickly found a lover meet; The virgin quire for her request The god that sits at marriage-feast; He at their invoking came, But with a scarce well-lighted flame; And in his garland, as he stood, Ye might discern a cypress-bud. Once had the early matrons run To greet her of a lovely son, And now with second hope she goes, And calls Lucina to her throes; But, whether by mischance or blame, Atropos for Lucina came, And with remorseless cruelty Spoiled at once both fruit and tree. The hapless babe before his birth Had burial, not yet laid in earth; And the languished mother's womb Was not long a living tomb. So have I seen some tender slip, Saved with care from winter's nip, The pride of her carnation train, Plucked up by some unheedy swain, Who only thought to crop the flower New shot up from vernal shower; But the fair blossom hangs the head Sideways, as on a dying bed, And those pearls of dew she wears Prove to be presaging tears Which the sad morn had let fall
On her hastening funeral.
Gentle Lady, may thy grave
That thy noble house doth bring, Here be tears of perfect moan Weept for thee in Helicon ;
And some flowers and some bays For thy hearse, to strew the ways,
Sent thee from the banks of Came,
Devoted to thy virtuous name;
Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sitt'st in glory,
Next her, much like to thee in story,
That fair Syrian shepherdess,
Who, after years of barrenness, The highly-favoured Joseph bore To him that served for her before,
And at her next birth, much like thee, Through pangs fled to felicity, Far within the bosom bright Of blazing Majesty and Light: There with thee, new-welcome Saint, Like fortunes may her soul acquaint, With thee there clad in radiant sheen, No Marchioness, but now a Queen.
HENCE, loathed Melancholy,
Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born
In Stygian cave forlorn
'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell,
Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night-raven sings;
There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,
In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
But come, thou Goddess fair and free, In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,
And by men heart-easing Mirth; Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crownèd Bacchus bore: Or whether (as some sager sing)
The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora playing, As he met her once a-Maying, There, on beds of violets blue,
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