By that same mildness which your father's crown Before did ravish shall secure your own. Not tied to rules of policy, you find Revenge less sweet than a forgiving mind. Thus, when the Almighty would to Moses give A sight of all he could behold and live, A voice before His entry did proclaim Long-suffering, goodness, mercy, in His name. Your power to justice doth submit your cause, Your goodness only is above the laws, Whose rigid letter, while pronounced by you, Is softer made. So winds that tempests brew,
When through Arabian groves they take their flight, Made wanton with rich odours, lose their spite. And as those lees that trouble it refine The agitated soul of generous wine, So tears of joy, for your returning spilt, Work out and expiate our former guilt. Methinks I see those crowds on Dover's strand, Who in their haste to welcome you to land Choked up the beach with their still growing store And made a wilder torrent on the shore:
While, spurred with eager thoughts of past delight, Those who had seen you court a second sight, Preventing still your steps and making haste To meet you often wheresoe'er you past. How shall I speak of that triumphant day, When you renewed the expiring pomp of May! A month that owns an interest in your name; You and the flowers are its peculiar claim.
That star, that at your birth shone out so bright It stained the duller sun's meridian light,
Did once again its potent fires renew,
Guiding our eyes to find and worship you.
And now Time's whiter series is begun, Which in soft centuries shall smoothly run;
Those clouds that overcast your morn shall fly, Dispelled to farthest corners of the sky.
Our nation, with united interest blest,
Not now content to poise, shall sway the rest. Abroad your empire shall no limits know, But, like the sea, in boundless circles flow; Your much-loved fleet shall with a wide command Besiege the petty monarchs of the land; And as old Time his offspring swallowed down, Our ocean in its depths all seas shall drown. Their wealthy trade from pirates' rapine free, Our merchants shall no more adventurers be; Nor in the farthest East those dangers fear Which humble Holland must dissemble here. Spain to your gift alone her Indies owes, For what the powerful takes not he bestows; And France that did an exile's presence fear May justly apprehend you still too near. At home the hateful names of parties cease, And factious souls are wearied into peace. The discontented now are only they
Whose crimes before did your just cause betray: Of those your edicts some reclaim from sins, But most your life and blest example wins.
Oh happy Prince, whom Heaven hath taught the way By paying vows to have more vows to pay! Oh happy age! Oh times like those alone By fate reserved for great Augustus' throne, When the joint growth of arms and hearts foreshew The world a Monarch, and that Monarch you!
THE YEAR OF WONDERS, 1666.
THE PROGRESS AND VARIOUS SUCCESSES OF OUR
UNDER THE CONDUCT OF HIS HIGHNESS PRINCE RUPERT AND
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ALBEMARLE,
AND DESCRIBING THE FIRE OF LONDON.
'Multum interest res poscat, an homines latius imperare velint.'
Trajan Imperator ad Plin. [PLIN. Epist. x. 33.]
'Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos.'-VIRG. [Æn. ii. 363.]
« 이전계속 » |