650

A church vermilion, and a Moses' face.
His memory, miraculously great,
Could plots, exceeding man's belief, re-
peat;

Which therefore cannot be accounted lies,
For human wit could never such devise.
Some future truths are mingled in his
book;

But where the witness fail'd, the prophet spoke:

Some things like visionary flights appear; The spirit caught him up, the Lord knows where;

And gave him his rabbinical degree,
Unknown to foreign university.

His judgment yet his mem'ry did excel; 660 Which piec'd his wondrous evidence so well,

And suited to the temper of the times,
Then groaning under Jebusitic crimes.
Let Israel's foes suspect his heav'nly call,
And rashly judge his writ apocryphal;
Our laws for such affronts have forfeits
made:

He takes his life, who takes away his trade.

Were I myself in witness Corah's place, The wretch who did me such a dire dis

grace,

Should whet my memory, tho' once forgot,

670

To make him an appendix of my plot.
His zeal to Heav'n made him his prince
despise,

And load his person with indignities;
But zeal peculiar privilege affords,
Indulging latitude to deeds and words;
And Corah might for Agag's murther call,
In terms as coarse as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
(The best that could be had for love or
coin,)

In Corah's own predicament will fall; 680
For witness is a common name to all.

Surrounded thus with friends of every sort,

Deluded Absalom forsakes the court; Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with re

nown,

And fir'd with near possession of a crown. Th' admiring crowd are dazzled with surprise,

And on his goodly person feed their eyes. His joy conceal'd, he sets himself to show, On each side bowing popularly low;

nothing without price till then 1 when Southerne

in'd experience to his native truth. 891 he had bespoke, frugal care supplied the wanting six guineas for throne;

man, is out of il for that, but bounteous of his own: players have haeasy conduct when exchequers flow, Dr. Johnson hard the task to manage well the low; Life of Dryden sovereign power is too depress'd or of memory, alt high, and three.]

kings are forc'd to sell, or crowds to buy.

lge one labor more, my weary Muse, Amiel: who can Amiel's praise refuse? POETS, like ancient race by birth, but nobler yet 900 Till eritifn his own worth, and without title great: The Sanhedrin long time as chief he rul'd, Their reason guided, and their passion

Mark

Our th Both

The e The f But ( T'oth Thes

Crit

The

cool'd:

So dext'rous was he in the crown's defense, So form'd to speak a loyal nation's sense, That, as their band was Israel's tribes in small,

So fit was he to represent them all.

Now rasher charioteers the seat ascend, Whose loose careers his steady skill commend:

They, like th' unequal ruler of the day, 910 Misguide the seasons, and mistake the way; While he withdrawn at their mad labor smiles,

Just so tu

Guards As wate

nd safe enjoys the sabbath of his toils. These were the chief, a small but faith- Į ful band

Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to stand,

And tempt th' united fury of the land. With grief they view'd such powerful engines bent,

To batter down the lawful government:
A numerous faction, with pretended frights,
In Sanhedrins to plume the regal rights; 920
The true successor from the court remov'd;
The Plot, by hireling witnesses, improv'd.
These ills they saw, and, as their duty
bound,

They shew'd the king the danger of the wound;

That no concessions from the throne would please,

But lenitives fomented the disease;
That Absalom, ambitious of the crown,
Was made the lure to draw the people
down;

That false Achitophel's pernicious hate
Had turn'd the Plot to ruin Church and
State;

930

The council violent, the rabble worse;
That Shimei taught Jerusalem to curse.
With all these loads of injuries oppress'c
And long revolving in his careful breast
Th' event of things, at last, his patienc
tir'd,

Thus from his royal throne, by Heav'n i spir'd,

The godlike David spoke: with awful fear His train their Maker in their master hear "Thus long have I, by native mercy sway'd,

My wrongs dissembled, my revenge de lay'd:

9

So willing to forgive th' offending age;
So much the father did the king assuage.
But now so far my clemency they slight,
Th' offenders question my forgiving right.
That one was made for many, they con
tend;

But 't is to rule; for that's a monarch' end.

They call my tenderness of blood, my fear Tho' manly tempers can the longest bear. Yet, since they will divert my native course, 'Tis time to shew I am not good by force. Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects bring,

95

Are burthens for a camel, not a king.
Kings are the public pillars of the State,
Born to sustain and prop the nation
weight;

If my young Samson will pretend a call
To shake the column, let him share the fall-
But O that yet he would repent and live!3
How easy 't is for parents to forgive!
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From nature, pleading for a darling son! 96
Poor pitied youth, by my paternal care
Rais'd up to all the height his frame could
bear!

Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born,
He would have giv'n his soul another turn;
Gull'd with a patriot's name, whose moder

mas, "the loyal brother," suggesting the Duke of York; and Ismael, " a villainous favorite,'

the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Pope, in his lines To Mr. Thomas Southerne, on
his Birthday, 1742, alludes to him as:

Tom, whom Heav'n sent down to raise
The price of prologues and of plays.
On this Warburton remarks:

"This alludes to a story Mr. Southerse told about the same time to Mr. Pope] and Mr. W[arburton] of Dryden; who, when Southerne first wrote for the stage, was so famous. for his prologues that the players would act