ELEG. 37. Methought his royal person did foretel All men to love him, rather than to fear. And yet, though he were every good man's joy, His very name with terror did annoy His foreign foes, so far as he was known. Hell droop'd for fear, the Turkey Moon look'd pale; Spain trembled; and the most tempestuous Sea, (Where Behemoth, the Babylonish Whale, Keeps all his bloody and imperious plea) Was swoln with rage, for fear he'd stop the tide Of her o'er-daring and insulting pride. ELEG. 38. For amongst divers virtues rare to find, *"Violent reports," says Hume, "were propagated, as if Henry had been carried off by poison; but the physicians, on opening his body, found no symptoms to confirm such an opinion." A report was also prevalent that the Romanists had meditated his death. When therefore they shall hear of this ill-hap, Those mints of mischiefs will extremely glory, That he is caught by him whom none shall 'scape. Yet boast not, Babel! thou insult'st in vain ; Thou hast not yet obtain'd the victory: We have a Prince still, and our King doth reign; So shall his seed and their posterity. For know, God, that loves his and their good tenders, Will never leave his faith without defenders. ELEG. 44. From passion thus to passion could I run, My Muse, might she be heard,would ne'er have done; But there's a mean in all: with too much grieving And though he in our sight most worthy seem'd, ELEG. 45. Let us our trust alone in God repose, And our dear JAMES, if we herein persever, [The panegyric of Mr. Dalrymple, in his Extracts from Wither's Juvenilia 1785, that this poem "is so different from the common stile of Court Funeral Elegies, that it would be unpardonable to consign it to that oblivion which such pieces generally deserve," has induced the editor to select pretty copiously from it. Several of the elegies are certainly composed in a strain of dignified sorrow, and are creditable to the feelings of Wither, who seems to have looked up to the Prince and his Sister as the patrons and protectors of his future destinies. They are not discreditable also to his poetical abilities.] SATIRE, Written to the KING's most Excellent Majesty, BY GEORGE WITHER, When he was Prisoner in the Marshalsea, for his first Воок. LONDON: Printed by T. S. for John Budge, dwelling in Paul's Church-yard, at the Sign of the Green Dragon. 1622. |