bler, with which he treats me, when the fit of enthusiasm is strong upon him; by which wellmanner'd and charitable expressions I was certain of his sect before I knew his name. What would you have more of a man? He has damn'd me in your cause from Genesis to the Revelations; and has half the texts of both the Testaments against me, if you will be so civil to yourselves as to take him for your interpreter, and not to take them for Irish witnesses. After all, perhaps you will tell me that you retain'd him only for the opening of your cause, and that your main lawyer is yet behind. Now if it so happen he meet with no more reply than his predecessors, you may either conclude that I trust to the goodness of my cause, or fear my adversary, or disdain him, or what you please, for the short on 't is, 't is indifferent to your humble servant, whatever your party says or thinks of him. THE MEDAL Of all our antic sights and pageantry, Which English idiots run in crowds to see, The Polish Medal bears the prize alone: The word, pronounc'd aloud by shrieval voice, Lætamur, which, in Polish, is rejoice. And a new canting holiday design'd. To his first bias longingly he leans, means. Thus, fram'd for ill, he loos'd our triple hold; (Advice unsafe, precipitous, and bold.) From hence those tears! that Ilium of our woe! Who helps a pow'rful friend, forearms a foe. What wonder if the waves prevail so far, And true, but for the time; 't is hard to know How long we please it shall continue so. Who, to destroy the seeds of civil war, 119 ! Instructs the beast to know his native force, Till, master'd by their own usurping brave, Ah, what is man, when his own wish prevails! How rash, how.swift to plunge himself in ill; Proud of his pow'r, and boundless in his will! That kings can do no wrong we must be lieve; But since our sects in prophecy grow higher, The text inspires not them, but they the text inspire. London, thou great emporium of our isle, O thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile! How shall I praise or curse to thy desert; Or separate thy sound from thy corrupted part! 170 I call'd thee Nile; the parallel will stand: Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fatten'd land; Yet monsters from thy large increase we find, Engender'd on the slime thou leav'st behind. Sedition has not wholly seiz'd on thee, But still the Canaanite is in the land. But what's a head with two such gouty hands? The wise and wealthy love the surest way, And are content to thrive and to obey. Whose ordures neither plague nor fire can purge; Nor sharp experience can to duty bring, Nor angry Heaven, nor a forgiving king! 190 In gospel-phrase their chapmen they betray; Their shops are dens, the buyer is their prey. Customs to steal is such a trivial thing, They for God's cause their monarchs dare dethrone, And they'll be sure to make his cause their "Tis working in th' immediate pow'r to be; And ease him by degrees of public care. And hold the cards, while commons play'd the game. 230 For what can pow'r give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think? These are the cooler methods of their crime, But their hot zealots think 't is loss of time; On utmost bounds of loyalty they stand, And grin and whet like a Croatian band, That waits impatient for the last command. 241 Thus outlaws open villainy maintain, They steal not, but in squadrons scour the plain; And, if their pow'r the passengers subdue, The most have right, the wrong is in the few. Such impious axioms foolishly they show, For in some soils republics will not grow: Our temp❜rate isle will no extremes sustain Of pop'lar sway or arbitrary reign, But slides between them both into the best, Secure in freedom, in a monarch blest; 251 And tho' the climate, vex'd with various winds, Works thro' our yielding bodies on our minds, The wholesome tempest purges what it breeds, In March, 1682, the Duke of York was recalled from Scotland, where he had been living in honorable exile, as high commissioner, since October, 1680. His first visit to the theater called by his name was on April 21. Otway's Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd, a play of political tendency (first performed in the preceding February), in which Antonio, the villain, a fine speaker in the senate," is meant to suggest Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, was represented on this occasion. Date and play are known to us from the heading of the special epilogue, published as a broadside, which Otway wrote for this performance. The play was first published in 1682; the special prologue and epilogue were not printed with it.] IN those cold regions which no summers cheer, When brooding darkness covers half the more. Yet late repentance may, perhaps, be true; Kings can forgive, if rebels can but sue: A tyrant's pow'r in rigor is express'd; |