Now with a general peace the world was blest
While ours a world divided from the rest
A dreadful quiet felt and worser far
Than arms a sullen interval of war
Thus when black clouds draw down the labouring skies
Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies
An horrid stillness first invades the ear
And in that silence we the tempest fear
The ambitious Swede like restless billows tost
On this hand gaining what on that he lost
Though in his life he blood and ruin breathed
To his now guideless kingdom peace bequeath' 
And Heaven that seem'd regardless of our fate
For France and Spain did miracles create
Such mortal quarrels to compose in peace
As nature bred and interest did increase
We sigh'd to hear the fair Iberian bride
Must grow a lily to the lily side
While our cross stars denied us Charles' bed
Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed
For his long absence Church and State did groan
Madness the pulpit faction seized the throne
Experienced age in deep despair was lost
To see the rebel thrive the loyal cross'd
Youth that with joys had unacquainted been
Envied gray hairs that once good days had seen
We thought our sires not with their own content
Had ere we came to age our portion spent
Nor could our nobles hope their bold attempt
Who ruin'd crowns would coronets exempt
For when by their designing leaders taught
To strike at power which for themselves they sought
The vulgar gull'd into rebellion arm'd
Their blood to action by the prize was warm'd
The sacred purple then and scarlet gown
Like sanguine dye to elephants was shown
Thus when the bold Typhoeus scaled the sky
And forced great Jove from his own Heaven to fly
What king what crown from treason reach is free
If Jove and Heaven can violated be
The lesser gods that shared his prosperous state
All suffer'd in the exiled Thunderer fate
The rabble now such freedom did enjoy
As winds at sea that use it to destroy
Blind as the Cyclop and as wild as he
They own'd a lawless savage liberty
Like that our painted ancestors so prized
Ere empire arts their breasts had civilized
How great were then our Charles' woes who thus
Was forced to suffer for himself and us
He tost by fate and hurried up and down
Heir to his father sorrows with his crown
Could taste no sweets of youth desired age
But found his life too true a pilgrimage
Unconquer'd yet in that forlorn estate
His manly courage overcame his fate
His wounds he took like Romans on his breast
Which by his virtue were with laurels drest
As souls reach Heaven while yet in bodies pent
So did he live above his banishment
That sun which we beheld with cozen'd eyes
Within the water moved along the skies
How easy 'tis when destiny proves kind
With full-spread sails to run before the wind
But those that 'gainst stiff gales laveering go
Must be at once resolved and skilful too
He would not like soft Otho hope prevent
But stay'd and suffer'd fortune to repent
These virtues Galba in a stranger sought
And Piso to adopted empire brought
How shall I then my doubtful thoughts express
That must his sufferings both regret and bless
For when his early valour Heaven had cross'd
And all at Worcester but the honour lost
Forced into exile from his rightful throne
He made all countries where he came his own
And viewing monarchs' secret arts of sway
A royal factor for his kingdoms lay
Thus banish'd David spent abroad his time
When to be God anointed was his crime
And when restored made his proud neighbours rue
Those choice remarks he from his travels drew
Nor is he only by afflictions shown
To conquer other realms but rule his own
Recovering hardly what he lost before
His right endears it much his purchase more
Inured to suffer ere he came to reign
No rash procedure will his actions stain
To business ripen'd by digestive thought
His future rule is into method brought
As they who first proportion understand
With easy practice reach a master hand
Well might the ancient poets then confer
On Night the honour'd name of Counsellor
Since struck with rays of prosperous fortune blind
We light alone in dark afflictions find
In such adversities to sceptre train'd
The name of Great his famous grandsire gain'd
Who yet a king alone in name and right
With hunger cold and angry Jove did fight
Shock'd by a covenanting league vast powers
As holy and as catholic as ours
Till fortune fruitless spite had made it known
Her blows not shook but riveted his throne
Some lazy ages lost in sleep and ease
No action leave to busy chronicles
Such whose supine felicity but makes
In story chasms in epoch mistakes
O'er whom Time gently shakes his wings of down
Till with his silent sickle they are mown
Such is not Charles' too too active age
Which govern'd by the wild distemper'd rage
Of some black star infecting all the skies
Made him at his own cost like Adam wise
Tremble ye nations which secure before
Laugh'd at those arms that 'gainst ourselves we bore
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail
Our lion now will foreign foes assail
With alga who the sacred altar strews
To all the sea-gods Charles an offering owes
A bull to thee Portumnus shall be slain
A lamb to you ye Tempests of the main
For those loud storms that did against him roar
Have cast his shipwreck'd vessel on the shore
Yet as wise artists mix their colours so
That by degrees they from each other go
Black steals unheeded from the neighbouring white
Without offending the well-cozen'd sight
So on us stole our blessed change while we
The effect did feel but scarce the manner see
Frosts that constrain the ground and birth deny
To flowers that in its womb expecting lie
Do seldom their usurping power withdraw
But raging floods pursue their hasty thaw
Our thaw was mild the cold not chased away
But lost in kindly heat of lengthen'd day
Heaven would no bargain for its blessings drive
But what we could not pay for freely give
The Prince of peace would like himself confer
A gift unhoped without the price of war
Yet as he knew his blessing worth took care
That we should know it by repeated prayer
Which storm'd the skies and ravish'd Charles from thence
As heaven itself is took by violence
Booth forward valour only served to show
He durst that duty pay we all did owe
The attempt was fair but Heaven prefixed hour
Not come so like the watchful traveller
That by the moon mistaken light did rise
Lay down again and closed his weary eyes
'Twas Monk whom Providence design'd to loose
Those real bonds false freedom did impose
The blessed saints that watch'd this turning scene
Did from their stars with joyful wonder lean
To see small clues draw vastest weights along
Not in their bulk but in their order strong
Thus pencils can by one slight touch restore
Smiles to that changed face that wept before
With ease such fond chimeras we pursue
As fancy frames for fancy to subdue
But when ourselves to action we betake
It shuns the mint like gold that chemists make
How hard was then his task at once to be
What in the body natural we see
Man Architect distinctly did ordain
The charge of muscles nerves and of the brain
Through viewless conduits spirits to dispense
The springs of motion from the seat of sense
'Twas not the hasty product of a day
But the well-ripen'd fruit of wise delay
He like a patient angler ere he strook
Would let him play a while upon the hook
Our healthful food the stomach labours thus
At first embracing what it straight doth crush
Wise leeches will not vain receipts obtrude
While growing pains pronounce the humours crude
Deaf to complaints they wait upon the ill
Till some safe crisis authorise their skill
Nor could his acts too close a vizard wear
To 'scape their eyes whom guilt had taught to fear
And guard with caution that polluted nest
Whence Legion twice before was dispossess'd
Once sacred house which when they enter'd in
They thought the place could sanctify a sin
Like those that vainly hoped kind Heaven would wink
While to excess on martyrs' tombs they drink
And as devouter Turks first warn their souls
To part before they taste forbidden bowls
So these when their black crimes they went about
First timely charm'd their useless conscience out
Religion name against itself was made
The shadow served the substance to invade
Like zealous missions they did care pretend
Of souls in show but made the gold their end
The incensed powers beheld with scorn from high
An heaven so far distant from the sky
Which durst with horses' hoofs that beat the ground
And martial brass belie the thunder sound
'Twas hence at length just vengeance thought it fit
To speed their ruin by their impious wit
Thus Sforza cursed with a too fertile brain
Lost by his wiles the power his wit did gain
Henceforth their fougue must spend at lesser rate
Than in its flames to wrap a nation fate
Suffer'd to live they are like helots set
A virtuous shame within us to beget
For by example most we sinn'd before
And glass-like clearness mix'd with frailty bore
But since reform'd by what we did amiss
We by our sufferings learn to prize our bliss
Like early lovers whose unpractised hearts
Were long the May-game of malicious arts
When once they find their jealousies were vain
With double heat renew their fires again
'Twas this produced the joy that hurried o'er
Such swarms of English to the neighbouring shore
To fetch that prize by which Batavia made
So rich amends for our impoverish'd trade
Oh had you seen from Schevelin barren shore
Crowded with troops and barren now no more
Afflicted Holland to his farewell bring
True sorrow Holland to regret a king
While waiting him his royal fleet did ride
And willing winds to their lower'd sails denied
The wavering streamers flags and standard out
The merry seamen rude but cheerful shout
And last the cannon voice that shook the skies
And as it fares in sudden ecstasies
At once bereft us both of ears and eyes
The Naseby now no longer England shame
But better to be lost in Charles' name
Like some unequal bride in nobler sheets
Receives her lord the joyful London meets
The princely York himself alone a freight
The Swiftsure groans beneath great Gloster weight
Secure as when the halcyon breeds with these
He that was born to drown might cross the seas
Heaven could not own a Providence and take
The wealth three nations ventured at a stake
The same indulgence Charles' voyage bless'd
Which in his right had miracles confess'd
The winds that never moderation knew
Afraid to blow too much too faintly blew
Or out of breath with joy could not enlarge
Their straighten'd lungs or conscious of their charge
The British Amphitrite smooth and clear
In richer azure never did appear
Proud her returning prince to entertain
With the submitted fasces of the main
And welcome now great monarch to your own
Behold the approaching cliffs of Albion
It is no longer motion cheats your view
As you meet it the land approacheth you
The land returns and in the white it wears
The marks of penitence and sorrow bears
But you whose goodness your descent doth show
Your heavenly parentage and earthly too
By that same mildness which your father 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 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 spurr'd 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 renew'd 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 stain'd the duller sun meridian light
Did once again its potent fires renew
Guiding our eyes to find and worship you
And now Time whiter series is begun
Which in soft centuries shall smoothly run
Those clouds that overcast your morn shall fly
Dispell'd 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 swallow'd 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 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 sin
But most your life and blest example win
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 arts foreshow
The world a monarch and that monarch you
In that wild deluge where the world was drown'd
When life and sin one common tomb had found
The first small prospect of a rising hill
With various notes of joy the ark did fill
Yet when that flood in its own depths was drown'd
It left behind it false and slippery ground
And the more solemn pomp was still deferr'd
Till new-born nature in fresh looks appear'd
Thus Royal Sir to see you landed here
Was cause enough of triumph for a year
Nor would your care those glorious joys repeat
Till they at once might be secure and great
Till your kind beams by their continued stay
Had warm'd the ground and call'd the damps away
Such vapours while your powerful influence dries
Then soonest vanish when they highest rise
Had greater haste these sacred rites prepared
Some guilty months had in your triumphs shared
But this untainted year is all your own
Your glories may without our crimes be shown
We had not yet exhausted all our store
When you refresh'd our joys by adding more
As Heaven of old dispensed celestial dew
You gave us manna and still give us new
Now our sad ruins are removed from sight
The season too comes fraught with new delight
Time seems not now beneath his years to stoop
Nor do his wings with sickly feathers droop
Soft western winds waft o'er the gaudy spring
And open'd scenes of flowers and blossoms bring
To grace this happy day while you appear
Not king of us alone but of the year
All eyes you draw and with the eyes the heart
Of your own pomp yourself the greatest part
Loud shouts the nation happiness proclaim
And Heaven this day is feasted with your name
Your cavalcade the fair spectators view
From their high standings yet look up to you
From your brave train each singles out a prey
And longs to date a conquest from your day
Now charged with blessings while you seek repose
Officious slumbers haste your eyes to close
And glorious dreams stand ready to restore
The pleasing shapes of all you saw before
Next to the sacred temple you are led
Where waits a crown for your more sacred head
How justly from the church that crown is due
Preserved from ruin and restored by you
The grateful choir their harmony employ
Not to make greater but more solemn joy
Wrapt soft and warm your name is sent on high
As flames do on the wings of incense fly
Music herself is lost in vain she brings
Her choicest notes to praise the best of kings
Her melting strains in you a tomb have found
And lie like bees in their own sweetness drown'd
He that brought peace all discord could atone
His name is music of itself alone
Now while the sacred oil anoints your head
And fragrant scents begun from you are spread
Through the large dome the people joyful sound
Sent back is still preserved in hallow'd ground
Which in one blessing mix'd descends on you
As heighten'd spirits fall in richer dew
Not that our wishes do increase your store
Full of yourself you can admit no more
We add not to your glory but employ
Our time like angels in expressing joy
Nor is it duty or our hopes alone
Create that joy but full fruition
We know those blessings which we must possess
And judge of future by past happiness
No promise can oblige a prince so much
Still to be good as long to have been such
A noble emulation heats your breast
And your own fame now robs you of your rest
Good actions still must be maintain'd with good
As bodies nourish'd with resembling food
You have already quench'd sedition brand
And zeal which burnt it only warms the land
The jealous sects that dare not trust their cause
So far from their own will as to the laws
You for their umpire and their synod take
And their appeal alone to Caesar make
Kind Heaven so rare a temper did provide
That guilt repenting might in it confide
Among our crimes oblivion may be set
But 'tis our king perfection to forget
Virtues unknown to these rough northern climes
From milder heavens you bring without their crimes
Your calmness does no after-storms provide
Nor seeming patience mortal anger hide
When empire first from families did spring
Then every father govern'd as a king
But you that are a sovereign prince allay
Imperial power with your paternal sway
From those great cares when ease your soul unbends
Your pleasures are design'd to noble ends
Born to command the mistress of the seas
Your thoughts themselves in that blue empire please
Hither in summer evenings you repair
To taste the fraicheur of the purer air
Undaunted here you ride when winter raves
With Caesar heart that rose above the waves
More I could sing but fear my numbers stays
No loyal subject dares that courage praise
In stately frigates most delight you find
Where well-drawn battles fire your martial mind
What to your cares we owe is learnt from hence
When even your pleasures serve for our defence
Beyond your court flows in th' admitted tide
Where in new depths the wondering fishes glide
Here in a royal bed the waters sleep
When tired at sea within this bay they creep
Here the mistrustful fowl no harm suspects
So safe are all things which our king protects
From your loved Thames a blessing yet is due
Second alone to that it brought in you
A queen near whose chaste womb ordain'd by fate
The souls of kings unborn for bodies wait
It was your love before made discord cease
Your love is destined to your country peace
Both Indies rivals in your bed provide
With gold or jewels to adorn your bride
This to a mighty king presents rich ore
While that with incense does a god implore
Two kingdoms wait your doom and as you choose
This must receive a crown or that must lose
Thus from your royal oak like Jove of old
Are answers sought and destinies foretold
Propitious oracles are begg'd with vows
And crowns that grow upon the sacred boughs
Your subjects while you weigh the nation fate
Suspend to both their doubtful love or hate
Choose only Sir that so they may possess
With their own peace their children happiness
While flattering crowds officiously appear
To give themselves not you a happy year
And by the greatness of their presents prove
How much they hope but not how well they love
The Muses who your early courtship boast
Though now your flames are with their beauty lost
Yet watch their time that if you have forgot
They were your mistresses the world may not
Decay'd by time and wars they only prove
Their former beauty by your former love
And now present as ancient ladies do
That courted long at length are forced to woo
For still they look on you with such kind eyes
As those that see the church sovereign rise
From their own order chose in whose high state
They think themselves the second choice of fate
When our great monarch into exile went
Wit and religion suffer'd banishment
Thus once when Troy was wrapp'd in fire and smoke
The helpless gods their burning shrines forsook
They with the vanquish'd prince and party go
And leave their temples empty to the foe
At length the Muses stand restored again
To that great charge which Nature did ordain
And their loved Druids seem revived by fate
While you dispense the laws and guide the state
The nation soul our monarch does dispense
Through you to us his vital influence
You are the channel where those spirits flow
And work them higher as to us they go
In open prospect nothing bounds our eye
Until the earth seems join'd unto the sky
So in this hemisphere our utmost view
Is only bounded by our king and you
Our sight is limited where you are join'd
And beyond that no farther heaven can find
So well your virtues do with his agree
That though your orbs of different greatness be
Yet both are for each other use disposed
His to enclose and yours to be enclosed
Nor could another in your room have been
Except an emptiness had come between
Well may he then to you his cares impart
And share his burden where he shares his heart
In you his sleep still wakes his pleasures find
Their share of business in your labouring mind
So when the weary sun his place resigns
He leaves his light and by reflection shines
Justice that sits and frowns where public laws
Exclude soft mercy from a private cause
In your tribunal most herself does please
There only smiles because she lives at ease
And like young David finds her strength the more
When disencumber'd from those arms she wore
Heaven would our royal master should exceed
Most in that virtue which we most did need
And his mild father who too late did find
All mercy vain but what with power was join'd
His fatal goodness left to fitter times
Not to increase but to absolve our crimes
But when the heir of this vast treasure knew
How large a legacy was left to you
Too great for any subject to retain
He wisely tied it to the crown again
Yet passing through your hands it gathers more
As streams through mines bear tincture of their ore
While empiric politicians use deceit
Hide what they give and cure but by a cheat
You boldly show that skill which they pretend
And work by means as noble as your end
Which should you veil we might unwind the clew
As men do nature till we came to you
And as the Indies were not found before
Those rich perfumes which from the happy shore
The winds upon their balmy wings convey'd
Whose guilty sweetness first their world betray'd
So by your counsels we are brought to view
A rich and undiscover'd world in you
By you our monarch does that fame assure
Which kings must have or cannot live secure
For prosperous princes gain their subjects' heart
Who love that praise in which themselves have part
By you he fits those subjects to obey
As heaven eternal Monarch does convey
His power unseen and man to his designs
By his bright ministers the stars inclines
Our setting sun from his declining seat
Shot beams of kindness on you not of heat
And when his love was bounded in a few
That were unhappy that they might be true
Made you the favourite of his last sad times
That is a sufferer in his subjects' crimes
Thus those first favours you received were sent
Like heaven rewards in earthly punishment
Yet fortune conscious of your destiny
Even then took care to lay you softly by
And wrapp'd your fate among her precious things
Kept fresh to be unfolded with your king's
Shown all at once you dazzled so our eyes
As new born Pallas did the gods surprise
When springing forth from Jove new-closing wound
She struck the warlike spear into the ground
Which sprouting leaves did suddenly enclose
And peaceful olives shaded as they rose
How strangely active are the arts of peace
Whose restless motions less than war do cease
Peace is not freed from labour but from noise
And war more force but not more pains employs
Such is the mighty swiftness of your mind
That like the earth it leaves our sense behind
While you so smoothly turn and roll our sphere
That rapid motion does but rest appear
For as in nature swiftness with the throng
Of flying orbs while ours is borne along
All seems at rest to the deluded eye
Moved by the soul of the same harmony 
So carried on by your unwearied care
We rest in peace and yet in motion share
Let envy then those crimes within you see
From which the happy never must be free
Envy that does with misery reside
The joy and the revenge of ruin'd pride
Think it not hard if at so cheap a rate
You can secure the constancy of fate
Whose kindness sent what does their malice seem
By lesser ills the greater to redeem
Nor can we this weak shower a tempest call
But drops of heat that in the sunshine fall
You have already wearied fortune so
She cannot further be your friend or foe
But sits all breathless and admires to feel
A fate so weighty that it stops her wheel
In all things else above our humble fate
Your equal mind yet swells not into state
But like some mountain in those happy isles
Where in perpetual spring young nature smiles
Your greatness shows no horror to affright
But trees for shade and flowers to court the sight
Sometimes the hill submits itself a while
In small descents which do its height beguile
And sometimes mounts but so as billows play
Whose rise not hinders but makes short our way
Your brow which does no fear of thunder know
Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below
And like Olympus' top the impression wears
Of love and friendship writ in former years
Yet unimpair'd with labours or with time
Your age but seems to a new youth to climb
Thus heavenly bodies do our time beget
And measure change but share no part of it
And still it shall without a weight increase
Like this new year whose motions never cease
For since the glorious course you have begun
Is led by Charles as that is by the sun
It must both weightless and immortal prove
Because the centre of it is above
In thriving arts long time had Holland grown
Crouching at home and cruel when abroad
Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own
Our King they courted and our merchants awed
Trade which like blood should circularly flow
Stopp'd in their channels found its freedom lost
Thither the wealth of all the world did go
And seem'd but shipwreck'd on so base a coast
For them alone the heavens had kindly heat
In eastern quarries ripening precious dew
For them the Idumaean balm did sweat
And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew
The sun but seem'd the labourer of the year
Each waxing moon supplied her watery store
To swell those tides which from the line did bear
Their brimful vessels to the Belgian shore
Thus mighty in her ships stood Carthage long
And swept the riches of the world from far
Yet stoop'd to Rome less wealthy but more strong
And this may prove our second Punic war
What peace can be where both to one pretend
But they more diligent and we more strong
Or if a peace it soon must have an end
For they would grow too powerful were it long
Behold two nations then engaged so far
That each seven years the fit must shake each land
Where France will side to weaken us by war
Who only can his vast designs withstand
See how he feeds the Iberian with delays
To render us his timely friendship vain
And while his secret soul on Flanders preys
He rocks the cradle of the babe of Spain
Such deep designs of empire does he lay
O'er them whose cause he seems to take in hand
And prudently would make them lords at sea
To whom with ease he can give laws by land
This saw our King and long within his breast
His pensive counsels balanced to and fro
He grieved the land he freed should be oppress'd
And he less for it than usurpers do
His generous mind the fair ideas drew
Of fame and honour which in dangers lay
Where wealth like fruit on precipices grew
Not to be gather'd but by birds of prey
The loss and gain each fatally were great
And still his subjects call'd aloud for war
But peaceful kings o'er martial people set
Each other poise and counterbalance are
He first survey'd the charge with careful eyes
Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain
Yet judged like vapours that from limbecks rise
It would in richer showers descend again
At length resolved to assert the watery ball
He in himself did whole Armadoes bring
Him aged seamen might their master call
And choose for general were he not their king
It seems as every ship their sovereign knows
His awful summons they so soon obey
So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows
And so to pasture follow through the sea
To see this fleet upon the ocean move
Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies
And heaven as if there wanted lights above
For tapers made two glaring comets rise
Whether they unctuous exhalations are
Fired by the sun or seeming so alone
Or each some more remote and slippery star
Which loses footing when to mortals shown
Or one that bright companion of the sun
Whose glorious aspect seal'd our new-born king
And now a round of greater years begun
New influence from his walks of light did bring
Victorious York did first with famed success
To his known valour make the Dutch give place
Thus Heaven our monarch fortune did confess
Beginning conquest from his royal race
But since it was decreed auspicious King
In Britain right that thou shouldst wed the main
Heaven as a gage would cast some precious thing
And therefore doom'd that Lawson should be slain
Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate
Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament
Thus as an offering for the Grecian state
He first was kill'd who first to battle went
Their chief blown up in air not waves expired
To which his pride presumed to give the law
The Dutch confess'd Heaven present and retired
And all was Britain the wide ocean saw
To nearest ports their shatter'd ships repair
Where by our dreadful cannon they lay awed
So reverently men quit the open air
When thunder speaks the angry gods abroad
And now approach'd their fleet from India fraught
With all the riches of the rising sun
And precious sand from southern climates brought
The fatal regions where the war begun
Like hunted castors conscious of their store
Their waylaid wealth to Norway coasts they bring
There first the north cold bosom spices bore
And winter brooded on the eastern spring
By the rich scent we found our perfumed prey
Which flank'd with rocks did close in covert lie
And round about their murdering cannon lay
At once to threaten and invite the eye
Fiercer than cannon and than rocks more hard
The English undertake the unequal war
Seven ships alone by which the port is barr'd
Besiege the Indies and all Denmark dare
These fight like husbands but like lovers those
These fain would keep and those more fain enjoy
And to such height their frantic passion grows
That what both love both hazard to destroy
Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball
And now their odours arm'd against them fly
Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall
And some by aromatic splinters die
And though by tempests of the prize bereft
In Heaven inclemency some ease we find
Our foes we vanquish'd by our valour left
And only yielded to the seas and wind
Nor wholly lost we so deserved a prey
For storms repenting part of it restored
Which as a tribute from the Baltic sea
The British ocean sent her mighty lord
Go mortals now and vex yourselves in vain
For wealth which so uncertainly must come
When what was brought so far and with such pain
Was only kept to lose it nearer home
The son who twice three months on th' ocean tost
Prepared to tell what he had pass'd before
Now sees in English ships the Holland coast
And parents' arms in vain stretch'd from the shore
This careful husband had been long away
Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn
Who on their fingers learn'd to tell the day
On which their father promised to return
Such are the proud designs of human kind
And so we suffer shipwreck every where
Alas what port can such a pilot find
Who in the night of fate must blindly steer
The undistinguish'd seeds of good and ill
Heaven in his bosom from our knowledge hides
And draws them in contempt of human skill
Which oft for friends mistaken foes provides
Let Munster prelate ever be accurst
In whom we seek the German faith in vain
Alas that he should teach the English first
That fraud and avarice in the Church could reign
Happy who never trust a stranger will
Whose friendship in his interest understood
Since money given but tempts him to be ill
When power is too remote to make him good
Till now alone the mighty nations strove
The rest at gaze without the lists did stand
And threatening France placed like a painted Jove
Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand
That eunuch guardian of rich Holland trade
Who envies us what he wants power to enjoy
Whose noiseful valour does no foe invade
And weak assistance will his friends destroy
Offended that we fought without his leave
He takes this time his secret hate to show
Which Charles does with a mind so calm receive
As one that neither seeks nor shuns his foe
With France to aid the Dutch the Danes unite
France as their tyrant Denmark as their slave
But when with one three nations join to fight
They silently confess that one more brave
Lewis had chased the English from his shore
But Charles the French as subjects does invite
Would Heaven for each some Solomon restore
Who by their mercy may decide their right
Were subjects so but only by their choice
And not from birth did forced dominion take
Our prince alone would have the public voice
And all his neighbours' realms would deserts make
He without fear a dangerous war pursues
Which without rashness he began before
As honour made him first the danger choose
So still he makes it good on virtue score
The doubled charge his subjects' love supplies
Who in that bounty to themselves are kind
So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise
And in his plenty their abundance find
With equal power he does two chiefs create
Two such as each seem'd worthiest when alone
Each able to sustain a nation fate
Since both had found a greater in their own
Both great in courage conduct and in fame
Yet neither envious of the other praise
Their duty faith and interest too the same
Like mighty partners equally they raise
The prince long time had courted fortune love
But once possess'd did absolutely reign
Thus with their Amazons the heroes strove
And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain
The Duke beheld like Scipio with disdain
That Carthage which he ruin'd rise once more
And shook aloft the fasces of the main
To fright those slaves with what they felt before
Together to the watery camp they haste
Whom matrons passing to their children show
Infants' first vows for them to heaven are cast
And future people bless them as they go
With them no riotous pomp nor Asian train
To infect a navy with their gaudy fears
To make slow fights and victories but vain
But war severely like itself appears
Diffusive of themselves where'er they pass
They make that warmth in others they expect
Their valour works like bodies on a glass
And does its image on their men project
Our fleet divides and straight the Dutch appear
In number and a famed commander bold
The narrow seas can scarce their navy bear
Or crowded vessels can their soldiers hold
The Duke less numerous but in courage more
On wings of all the winds to combat flies
His murdering guns a loud defiance roar
And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise
Both furl their sails and strip them for the fight
Their folded sheets dismiss the useless air
The Elean plains could boast no nobler sight
When struggling champions did their bodies bare
Borne each by other in a distant line
The sea-built forts in dreadful order move
So vast the noise as if not fleets did join
But lands unfix'd and floating nations strove
Now pass'd on either side they nimbly tack
Both strive to intercept and guide the wind
And in its eye more closely they come back
To finish all the deaths they left behind
On high-raised decks the haughty Belgians ride
Beneath whose shade our humble frigates go
Such port the elephant bears and so defied
By the rhinoceros her unequal foe
And as the build so different is the fight
Their mounting shot is on our sails design'd
Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light
And through the yielding planks a passage find
Our dreaded admiral from far they threat
Whose batter'd rigging their whole war receives
All bare like some old oak which tempests beat
He stands and sees below his scatter'd leaves
Heroes of old when wounded shelter sought
But he who meets all danger with disdain
Even in their face his ship to anchor brought
And steeple-high stood propt upon the main
At this excess of courage all amazed
The foremost of his foes awhile withdraw
With such respect in enter'd Rome they gazed
Who on high chairs the god-like fathers saw
And now as where Patroclus' body lay
Here Trojan chiefs advanced and there the Greek
Ours o'er the Duke their pious wings display
And theirs the noblest spoils of Britain seek
Meantime his busy mariners he hastes
His shatter'd sails with rigging to restore
And willing pines ascend his broken masts
Whose lofty heads rise higher than before
Straight to the Dutch he turns his dreadful prow
More fierce the important quarrel to decide
Like swans in long array his vessels show
Whose crests advancing do the waves divide
They charge recharge and all along the sea
They drive and squander the huge Belgian fleet
Berkeley alone who nearest danger lay
Did a like fate with lost Creusa meet
The night comes on we eager to pursue
The combat still and they ashamed to leave
Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew
And doubtful moonlight did our rage deceive
In the English fleet each ship resounds with joy
And loud applause of their great leader fame
In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy
And slumbering smile at the imagined flame
Not so the Holland fleet who tired and done
Stretch'd on their decks like weary oxen lie
Faint sweats all down their mighty members run
Vast bulks which little souls but ill supply
In dreams they fearful precipices tread
Or shipwreck'd labour to some distant shore
Or in dark churches walk among the dead
They wake with horror and dare sleep no more
The morn they look on with unwilling eyes
Till from their main-top joyful news they hear
Of ships which by their mould bring new supplies
And in their colours Belgian lions bear
Our watchful general had discern'd from far
This mighty succour which made glad the foe
He sigh'd but like a father of the war
His face spake hope while deep his sorrows flow
His wounded men he first sends off to shore
Never till now unwilling to obey
They not their wounds but want of strength deplore
And think them happy who with him can stay
Then to the rest Rejoice said he to-day
In you the fortune of Great Britain lies
Among so brave a people you are they
Whom Heaven has chose to fight for such a prize
If number English courages could quell
We should at first have shunn'd not met our foes
Whose numerous sails the fearful only tell
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows
He said nor needed more to say with haste
To their known stations cheerfully they go
And all at once disdaining to be last
Solicit every gale to meet the foe
Nor did the encouraged Belgians long delay
But bold in others not themselves they stood
So thick our navy scarce could steer their way
But seem'd to wander in a moving wood
Our little fleet was now engaged so far
That like the sword-fish in the whale they fought
The combat only seem'd a civil war
Till through their bowels we our passage wrought
Never had valour no not ours before
Done aught like this upon the land or main
Where not to be o'ercome was to do more
Than all the conquests former kings did gain
The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose
And armed Edwards look'd with anxious eyes
To see this fleet among unequal foes
By which fate promised them their Charles should rise
Meantime the Belgians tack upon our rear
And raking chase-guns through our sterns they send
Close by their fire ships like jackals appear
Who on their lions for the prey attend
Silent in smoke of cannon they come on
Such vapours once did fiery Cacus hide
In these the height of pleased revenge is shown
Who burn contented by another side
Sometimes from fighting squadrons of each fleet
Deceived themselves or to preserve some friend
Two grappling AEtnas on the ocean meet
And English fires with Belgian flames contend
Now at each tack our little fleet grows less
And like maim'd fowl swim lagging on the main
Their greater loss their numbers scarce confess
While they lose cheaper than the English gain
Have you not seen when whistled from the fist
Some falcon stoops at what her eye design'd
And with her eagerness the quarry miss'd
Straight flies at check and clips it down the wind
The dastard crow that to the wood made wing
And sees the groves no shelter can afford
With her loud caws her craven kind does bring
Who safe in numbers cuff the noble bird
Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare
He could not conquer and disdain'd to fly
Past hope of safety 'twas his latest care
Like falling Caesar decently to die
Yet pity did his manly spirit move
To see those perish who so well had fought
And generously with his despair he strove
Resolved to live till he their safety wrought
Let other muses write his prosperous fate
Of conquer'd nations tell and kings restored
But mine shall sing of his eclipsed estate
Which like the sun more wonders does afford
He drew his mighty frigates all before
On which the foe his fruitless force employs
His weak ones deep into his rear he bore
Remote from guns as sick men from the noise
His fiery cannon did their passage guide
And following smoke obscured them from the foe
Thus Israel safe from the Egyptian pride
By flaming pillars and by clouds did go
Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat
But here our courages did theirs subdue
So Xenophon once led that famed retreat
Which first the Asian empire overthrew
The foe approach'd and one for his bold sin
Was sunk as he that touch'd the ark was slain
The wild waves master'd him and suck'd him in
And smiling eddies dimpled on the main
This seen the rest at awful distance stood
As if they had been there as servants set
To stay or to go on as he thought good
And not pursue but wait on his retreat
So Lybian huntsmen on some sandy plain
From shady coverts roused the lion chase
The kingly beast roars out with loud disdain
And slowly moves unknowing to give place
But if some one approach to dare his force
He swings his tail and swiftly turns him round
With one paw seizes on his trembling horse
And with the other tears him to the ground
Amidst these toils succeeds the balmy night
Now hissing waters the quench'd guns restore
And weary waves withdrawing from the fight
Lie lull'd and panting on the silent shore
The moon shone clear on the becalmed flood
Where while her beams like glittering silver play
Upon the deck our careful general stood
And deeply mused on the succeeding day
That happy sun said he will rise again
Who twice victorious did our navy see
And I alone must view him rise in vain
Without one ray of all his star for me
Yet like an English general will I die
And all the ocean make my spacious grave
Women and cowards on the land may lie
The sea a tomb that proper for the brave
Restless he pass'd the remnant of the night
Till the fresh air proclaimed the morning nigh
And burning ships the martyrs of the fight
With paler fires beheld the eastern sky
But now his stores of ammunition spent
His naked valour is his only guard
Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent
And solitary guns are scarcely heard
Thus far had fortune power here forced to stay
Nor longer durst with virtue be at strife
This as a ransom Albemarle did pay
For all the glories of so great a life
For now brave Rupert from afar appears
Whose waving streamers the glad general knows
With full spread sails his eager navy steers
And every ship in swift proportion grows
The anxious prince had heard the cannon long
And from that length of time dire omens drew
Of English overmatch'd and Dutch too strong
Who never fought three days but to pursue
Then as an eagle who with pious care
Was beating widely on the wing for prey
To her now silent eyrie does repair
And finds her callow infants forced away
Stung with her love she stoops upon the plain
The broken air loud whistling as she flies
She stops and listens and shoots forth again
And guides her pinions by her young ones' cries
With such kind passion hastes the prince to fight
And spreads his flying canvas to the sound
Him whom no danger were he there could fright
Now absent every little noise can wound
As in a drought the thirsty creatures cry
And gape upon the gather'd clouds for rain
And first the martlet meets it in the sky
And with wet wings joys all the feather'd train
With such glad hearts did our despairing men
Salute the appearance of the prince fleet
And each ambitiously would claim the ken
That with first eyes did distant safety meet
The Dutch who came like greedy hinds before
To reap the harvest their ripe ears did yield
Now look like those when rolling thunders roar
And sheets of lightning blast the standing field
Full in the prince passage hills of sand
And dangerous flats in secret ambush lay
Where the false tides skim o'er the cover'd land
And seamen with dissembled depths betray
The wily Dutch who like fallen angels fear'd
This new Messiah coming there did wait
And round the verge their braving vessels steer'd
To tempt his courage with so fair a bait
But he unmoved contemns their idle threat
Secure of fame whene'er he please to fight
His cold experience tempers all his heat
And inbred worth doth boasting valour slight
Heroic virtue did his actions guide
And he the substance not the appearance chose
To rescue one such friend he took more pride
Than to destroy whole thousands of such foes
But when approach'd in strict embraces bound
Rupert and Albemarle together grow
He joys to have his friend in safety found
Which he to none but to that friend would owe
The cheerful soldiers with new stores supplied
Now long to execute their spleenful will
And in revenge for those three days they tried
Wish one like Joshua when the sun stood still
Thus reinforced against the adverse fleet
Still doubling ours brave Rupert leads the way
With the first blushes of the morn they meet
And bring night back upon the new-born day
His presence soon blows up the kindling fight
And his loud guns speak thick like angry men
It seem'd as slaughter had been breathed all night
And Death new pointed his dull dart again
The Dutch too well his mighty conduct knew
And matchless courage since the former fight
Whose navy like a stiff-stretch'd cord did show
Till he bore in and bent them into flight
The wind he shares while half their fleet offends
His open side and high above him shows
Upon the rest at pleasure he descends
And doubly harm'd he double harms bestows
Behind the general mends his weary pace
And sullenly to his revenge he sails
So glides some trodden serpent on the grass
And long behind his wounded volume trails
The increasing sound is borne to either shore
And for their stakes the throwing nations fear
Their passions double with the cannons' roar
And with warm wishes each man combats there
Plied thick and close as when the fight begun
Their huge unwieldy navy wastes away
So sicken waning moons too near the sun
And blunt their crescents on the edge of day
And now reduced on equal terms to fight
Their ships like wasted patrimonies show
Where the thin scattering trees admit the light
And shun each other shadows as they grow
The warlike prince had sever'd from the rest
Two giant ships the pride of all the main
Which with his one so vigorously he prest
And flew so home they could not rise again
Already batter'd by his lee they lay
In rain upon the passing winds they call
The passing winds through their torn canvas play
And flagging sails on heartless sailors fall
Their open'd sides receive a gloomy light
Dreadful as day let into shades below
Without grim Death rides barefaced in their sight
And urges entering billows as they flow
When one dire shot the last they could supply
Close by the board the prince mainmast bore
All three now helpless by each other lie
And this offends not and those fear no more
So have I seen some fearful hare maintain
A course till tired before the dog she lay
Who stretch'd behind her pants upon the plain
Past power to kill as she to get away
With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey
His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies
She trembling creeps upon the ground away
And looks back to him with beseeching eyes
The prince unjustly does his stars accuse
Which hinder'd him to push his fortune on
For what they to his courage did refuse
By mortal valour never must be done
This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes
And warns his tatter'd fleet to follow home
Proud to have so got off with equal stakes
Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome
The general force as kept alive by fight
Now not opposed no longer can pursue
Lasting till heaven had done his courage right
When he had conquer'd he his weakness knew
He casts a frown on the departing foe
And sighs to see him quit the watery field
His stern fix'd eyes no satisfaction show
For all the glories which the fight did yield
Though as when fiends did miracles avow
He stands confess'd e'en by the boastful Dutch
He only does his conquest disavow
And thinks too little what they found too much
Return'd he with the fleet resolved to stay
No tender thoughts of home his heart divide
Domestic joys and cares he puts away
For realms are households which the great must guide
As those who unripe veins in mines explore
On the rich bed again the warm turf lay
Till time digests the yet imperfect ore
And know it will be gold another day
So looks our monarch on this early fight
Th' essay and rudiments of great success
Which all-maturing time must bring to light
While he like Heaven does each day labour bless
Heaven ended not the first or second day
Yet each was perfect to the work design'd
God and king work when they their work survey
A passive aptness in all subjects find
In burden'd vessels first with speedy care
His plenteous stores do seasoned timber send
Thither the brawny carpenters repair
And as the surgeons of maim'd ships attend
With cord and canvas from rich Hamburgh sent
His navy molted wings he imps once more
Tall Norway fir their masts in battle spent
And English oak sprung leaks and planks restore
All hands employ'd the royal work grows warm
Like labouring bees on a long summer day
Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm
And some on bells of tasted lilies play
With gluey wax some new foundations lay
Of virgin-combs which from the roof are hung
Some arm'd within doors upon duty stay
Or tend the sick or educate the young
So here some pick out bullets from the sides
Some drive old oakum through each seam and rift
Their left hand does the calking-iron guide
The rattling mallet with the right they lift
With boiling pitch another near at hand
From friendly Sweden brought the seams instops
Which well paid o'er the salt sea waves withstand
And shakes them from the rising beak in drops
Some the gall'd ropes with dauby marline bind
Or sear-cloth masts with strong tarpaulin coats
To try new shrouds one mounts into the wind
And one below their ease or stiffness notes
Our careful monarch stands in person by
His new-cast cannons' firmness to explore
The strength of big-corn'd powder loves to try
And ball and cartridge sorts for every bore
Each day brings fresh supplies of arms and men
And ships which all last winter were abroad
And such as fitted since the fight had been
Or new from stocks were fallen into the road
The goodly London in her gallant trim
The Phoenix daughter of the vanish'd old
Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim
And on her shadow rides in floating gold
Her flag aloft spread ruffling to the wind
And sanguine streamers seem the flood to fire
The weaver charm'd with what his loom design'd
Goes on to sea and knows not to retire
With roomy decks her guns of mighty strength
Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves
Deep in her draught and warlike in her length
She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves
This martial present piously design'd
The loyal city give their best-loved King
And with a bounty ample as the wind
Built fitted and maintain'd to aid him bring
By viewing Nature Nature handmaid Art
Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow
Thus fishes first to shipping did impart
Their tail the rudder and their head the prow
Some log perhaps upon the waters swam
An useless drift which rudely cut within
And hollow'd first a floating trough became
And cross some rivulet passage did begin
In shipping such as this the Irish kern
And untaught Indian on the stream did glide
Ere sharp-keel'd boats to stem the flood did learn
Or fin-like oars did spread from either side
Add but a sail and Saturn so appear'd
When from lost empire he to exile went
And with the golden age to Tiber steer'd
Where coin and commerce first he did invent
Rude as their ships was navigation then
No useful compass or meridian known
Coasting they kept the land within their ken
And knew no North but when the Pole-star shone
Of all who since have used the open sea
Than the bold English none more fame have won
Beyond the year and out of heaven high way
They make discoveries where they see no sun
But what so long in vain and yet unknown
By poor mankind benighted wit is sought
Shall in this age to Britain first be shown
And hence be to admiring nations taught
The ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow
We as art elements shall understand
And as by line upon the ocean go
Whose paths shall be familiar as the land
Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce
By which remotest regions are allied
Which makes one city of the universe
Where some may gain and all may be supplied
Then we upon our globe last verge shall go
And view the ocean leaning on the sky
From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know
And on the lunar world securely pry
This I foretell from your auspicious care
Who great in search of God and nature grow
Who best your wise Creator praise declare
Since best to praise his works is best to know
O truly royal who behold the law
And rule of beings in your Maker mind
And thence like limbecks rich ideas draw
To fit the levell'd use of human-kind
But first the toils of war we must endure
And from the injurious Dutch redeem the seas
War makes the valiant of his right secure
And gives up fraud to be chastised with ease
Already were the Belgians on our coast
Whose fleet more mighty every day became
By late success which they did falsely boast
And now by first appearing seem'd to claim
Designing subtle diligent and close
They knew to manage war with wise delay
Yet all those arts their vanity did cross
And by their pride their prudence did betray
Nor stay'd the English long but well supplied
Appear as numerous as the insulting foe
The combat now by courage must be tried
And the success the braver nation show
There was the Plymouth squadron now come in
Which in the Straits last winter was abroad
Which twice on Biscay working bay had been
And on the midland sea the French had awed
Old expert Allen loyal all along
Famed for his action on the Smyrna fleet
And Holmes whose name shall live in epic song
While music numbers or while verse has feet
Holmes the Achates of the general fight
Who first bewitch'd our eyes with Guinea gold
As once old Cato in the Roman sight
The tempting fruits of Afric did unfold
With him went Spragge as bountiful as brave
Whom his high courage to command had brought
Harman who did the twice-fired Harry save
And in his burning ship undaunted fought
Young Hollis on a Muse by Mars begot
Born Caesar-like to write and act great deeds
Impatient to revenge his fatal shot
His right hand doubly to his left succeeds
Thousands were there in darker fame that dwell
Whose deeds some nobler poem shall adorn
And though to me unknown they sure fought well
Whom Rupert led and who were British born
Of every size an hundred fighting sail
So vast the navy now at anchor rides
That underneath it the press'd waters fail
And with its weight it shoulders off the tides
Now anchors weigh'd the seamen shout so shrill
That heaven and earth and the wide ocean rings
A breeze from westward waits their sails to fill
And rests in those high beds his downy wings
The wary Dutch this gathering storm foresaw
And durst not bide it on the English coast
Behind their treacherous shallows they withdraw
And there lay snares to catch the British host
So the false spider when her nets are spread
Deep ambush'd in her silent den does lie
And feels far off the trembling of her thread
Whose filmy cord should bind the struggling fly
Then if at last she find him fast beset
She issues forth and runs along her loom
She joys to touch the captive in her net
And drags the little wretch in triumph home
The Belgians hoped that with disorder'd haste
Our deep-cut keels upon the sands might run
Or if with caution leisurely were past
Their numerous gross might charge us one by one
But with a fore-wind pushing them above
And swelling tide that heaved them from below
O'er the blind flats our warlike squadrons move
And with spread sails to welcome battle go
It seem'd as there the British Neptune stood
With all his hosts of waters at command
Beneath them to submit the officious flood
And with his trident shoved them off the sand
To the pale foes they suddenly draw near
And summon them to unexpected fight
They start like murderers when ghosts appear
And draw their curtains in the dead of night
Now van to van the foremost squadrons meet
The midmost battles hastening up behind
Who view far off the storm of falling sleet
And hear their thunder rattling in the wind
At length the adverse admirals appear
The two bold champions of each country right
Their eyes describe the lists as they come near
And draw the lines of death before they fight
The distance judged for shot of every size
The linstocks touch the ponderous ball expires
The vigorous seaman every port-hole plies
And adds his heart to every gun he fires
Fierce was the fight on the proud Belgians' side
For honour which they seldom sought before
But now they by their own vain boasts were tied
And forced at least in show to prize it more
But sharp remembrance on the English part
And shame of being match'd by such a foe
Rouse conscious virtue up in every heart
And seeming to be stronger makes them so
Nor long the Belgians could that fleet sustain
Which did two generals' fates and Caesar bear
Each several ship a victory did gain
As Rupert or as Albemarle were there
Their batter'd admiral too soon withdrew
Unthank'd by ours for his unfinish'd fight
But he the minds of his Dutch masters knew
Who call'd that Providence which we call'd flight
Never did men more joyfully obey
Or sooner understood the sign to fly
With such alacrity they bore away
As if to praise them all the States stood by
O famous leader of the Belgian fleet
Thy monument inscribed such praise shall wear
As Varro timely flying once did meet
Because he did not of his Rome despair
Behold that navy which a while before
Provoked the tardy English close to fight
Now draw their beaten vessels close to shore
As larks lie dared to shun the hobby flight
Whoe'er would English monuments survey
In other records may our courage know
But let them hide the story of this day
Whose fame was blemish'd by too base a foe
Or if too busily they will inquire
Into a victory which we disdain
Then let them know the Belgians did retire
Before the patron saint of injured Spain
Repenting England this revengeful day
To Philip manes did an offering bring
England which first by leading them astray
Hatch'd up rebellion to destroy her King
Our fathers bent their baneful industry
To check a monarchy that slowly grew
But did not France or Holland fate foresee
Whose rising power to swift dominion flew
In fortune empire blindly thus we go
And wander after pathless destiny
Whose dark resorts since prudence cannot know
In vain it would provide for what shall be
But whate'er English to the bless'd shall go
And the fourth Harry or first Orange meet
Find him disowning of a Bourbon foe
And him detesting a Batavian fleet
Now on their coasts our conquering navy rides
Waylays their merchants and their land besets
Each day new wealth without their care provides
They lie asleep with prizes in their nets
So close behind some promontory lie
The huge leviathans to attend their prey
And give no chase but swallow in the fry
Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way
Nor was this all in ports and roads remote
Destructive fires among whole fleets we send
Triumphant flames upon the water float
And out-bound ships at home their voyage end
Those various squadrons variously design'd
Each vessel freighted with a several load
Each squadron waiting for a several wind
All find but one to burn them in the road
Some bound for Guinea golden sand to find
Bore all the gauds the simple natives wear
Some for the pride of Turkish courts design'd
For folded turbans finest Holland bear
Some English wool vex'd in a Belgian loom
And into cloth of spungy softness made
Did into France or colder Denmark doom
To ruin with worse ware our staple trade
Our greedy seamen rummage every hold
Smile on the booty of each wealthier chest
And as the priests who with their gods make bold
Take what they like and sacrifice the rest
But ah how insincere are all our joys
Which sent from heaven like lightning make no stay
Their palling taste the journey length destroys
Or grief sent post o'ertakes them on the way
Swell'd with our late successes on the foe
Which France and Holland wanted power to cross
We urge an unseen fate to lay us low
And feed their envious eyes with English loss
Each element His dread command obeys
Who makes or ruins with a smile or frown
Who as by one he did our nation raise
So now he with another pulls us down
Yet London empress of the northern clime
By an high fate thou greatly didst expire
Great as the world which at the death of time
Must fall and rise a nobler frame by fire
As when some dire usurper Heaven provides
To scourge his country with a lawless sway
His birth perhaps some petty village hides
And sets his cradle out of fortune way
Till fully ripe his swelling fate breaks out
And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on
His prince surprised at first no ill could doubt
And wants the power to meet it when 'tis known
Such was the rise of this prodigious fire
Which in mean buildings first obscurely bred
From thence did soon to open streets aspire
And straight to palaces and temples spread
The diligence of trades and noiseful gain
And luxury more late asleep were laid
All was the night and in her silent reign
No sound the rest of nature did invade
In this deep quiet from what source unknown
Those seeds of fire their fatal birth disclose
And first few scattering sparks about were blown
Big with the flames that to our ruin rose
Then in some close-pent room it crept along
And smouldering as it went in silence fed
Till the infant monster with devouring strong
Walk'd boldly upright with exalted head
Now like some rich or mighty murderer
Too great for prison which he breaks with gold
Who fresher for new mischiefs does appear
And dares the world to tax him with the old
So 'scapes the insulting fire his narrow jail
And makes small outlets into open air
There the fierce winds his tender force assail
And beat him downward to his first repair
The winds like crafty courtesans withheld
His flames from burning but to blow them more
And every fresh attempt he is repell'd
With faint denials weaker than before
And now no longer letted of his prey
He leaps up at it with enraged desire
O'erlooks the neighbours with a wide survey
And nods at every house his threatening fire
The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice
About the fire into a dance they bend
And sing their sabbath notes with feeble voice
Our guardian angel saw them where they sate
Above the palace of our slumbering king
He sigh'd abandoning his charge to fate
And drooping oft look'd back upon the wing
At length the crackling noise and dreadful blaze
Call'd up some waking lover to the sight
And long it was ere he the rest could raise
Whose heavy eyelids yet were full of night
The next to danger hot pursued by fate
Half-clothed half-naked hastily retire
And frighted mothers strike their breasts too late
For helpless infants left amidst the fire
Their cries soon waken all the dwellers near
Now murmuring noises rise in every street
The more remote run stumbling with their fear
And in the dark men jostle as they meet
So weary bees in little cells repose
But if night-robbers lift the well-stored hive
An humming through their waxen city grows
And out upon each other wings they drive
Now streets grow throng'd and busy as by day
Some run for buckets to the hallow'd quire
Some cut the pipes and some the engines play
And some more bold mount ladders to the fire
In vain for from the east a Belgian wind
His hostile breath through the dry rafters sent
The flames impell'd soon left their foes behind
And forward with a wanton fury went
A quay of fire ran all along the shore
And lighten'd all the river with a blaze
The waken'd tides began again to roar
And wondering fish in shining waters gaze
Old father Thames raised up his reverend head
But fear'd the fate of Simois would return
Deep in his ooze he sought his sedgy bed
And shrunk his waters back into his urn
The fire meantime walks in a broader gross
To either hand his wings he opens wide
He wades the streets and straight he reaches cross
And plays his longing flames on the other side
At first they warm then scorch and then they take
Now with long necks from side to side they feed
At length grown strong their mother-fire forsake
And a new colony of flames succeed
To every nobler portion of the town
The curling billows roll their restless tide
In parties now they straggle up and down
As armies unopposed for prey divide
One mighty squadron with a side-wind sped
Through narrow lanes his cumber'd fire does haste
By powerful charms of gold and silver led
The Lombard bankers and the 'Change to waste
Another backward to the Tower would go
And slowly eats his way against the wind
But the main body of the marching foe
Against the imperial palace is design'd
Now day appears and with the day the King
Whose early care had robb'd him of his rest
Far off the cracks of falling houses ring
And shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast
Near as he draws thick harbingers of smoke
With gloomy pillars cover all the place
Whose little intervals of night are broke
By sparks that drive against his sacred face
More than his guards his sorrows made him known
And pious tears which down his cheeks did shower
The wretched in his grief forgot their own
So much the pity of a king has power
He wept the flames of what he loved so well
And what so well had merited his love
For never prince in grace did more excel
Or royal city more in duty strove
Nor with an idle care did he behold
Subjects may grieve but monarchs must redress
He cheers the fearful and commends the bold
And makes despairers hope for good success
Himself directs what first is to be done
And orders all the succours which they bring
The helpful and the good about him run
And form an army worthy such a king
He sees the dire contagion spread so fast
That where it seizes all relief is vain
And therefore must unwillingly lay waste
That country which would else the foe maintain
The powder blows up all before the fire
The amazed flames stand gather'd on a heap
And from the precipice brink retire
Afraid to venture on so large a leap
Thus fighting fires a while themselves consume
But straight like Turks forced on to win or die
They first lay tender bridges of their fume
And o'er the breach in unctuous vapours fly
Part stay for passage till a gust of wind
Ships o'er their forces in a shining sheet
Part creeping under ground their journey blind
And climbing from below their fellows meet
Thus to some desert plain or old woodside
Dire night-hags come from far to dance their round
And o'er broad rivers on their fiends they ride
Or sweep in clouds above the blasted ground
No help avails for hydra-like the fire
Lifts up his hundred heads to aim his way
And scarce the wealthy can one half retire
Before he rushes in to share the prey
The rich grow suppliant and the poor grow proud
Those offer mighty gain and these ask more
So void of pity is the ignoble crowd
When others' ruin may increase their store
As those who live by shores with joy behold
Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh
And from the rocks leap down for shipwreck'd gold
And seek the tempests which the others fly
So these but wait the owners' last despair
And what permitted to the flames invade
Even from their jaws they hungry morsels tear
And on their backs the spoils of Vulcan lade
The days were all in this lost labour spent
And when the weary king gave place to night
His beams he to his royal brother lent
And so shone still in his reflective light
Night came but without darkness or repose 
A dismal picture of the general doom
Where souls distracted when the trumpet blows
And half unready with their bodies come
Those who have homes when home they do repair
To a last lodging call their wandering friends
Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care
To look how near their own destruction tends
Those who have none sit round where once it was
And with full eyes each wonted room require
Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place
As murder'd men walk where they did expire
Some stir up coals and watch the vestal fire
Others in vain from sight of ruin run
And while through burning labyrinths they retire
With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun
The most in fields like herded beasts lie down
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor
And while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown
Sad parents watch the remnants of their store
While by the motion of the flames they guess
What streets are burning now and what are near
An infant waking to the paps would press
And meets instead of milk a falling tear
No thought can ease them but their sovereign care
Whose praise the afflicted as their comfort sing
Even those whom want might drive to just despair
Think life a blessing under such a king
Meantime he sadly suffers in their grief
Out-weeps an hermit and out-prays a saint
All the long night he studies their relief
How they may be supplied and he may want
O God said he thou patron of my days
Guide of my youth in exile and distress
Who me unfriended brought'st by wondrous ways
The kingdom of my fathers to possess
Be thou my judge with what unwearied care
I since have labour'd for my people good
To bind the bruises of a civil war
And stop the issues of their wasting blood
Thou who hast taught me to forgive the ill
And recompense as friends the good misled
If mercy be a precept of thy will
Return that mercy on thy servant head
Or if my heedless youth has stepp'd astray
Too soon forgetful of thy gracious hand
On me alone thy just displeasure lay
But take thy judgments from this mourning land
We all have sinn'd and thou hast laid us low
As humble earth from whence at first we came
Like flying shades before the clouds we show
And shrink like parchment in consuming flame
O let it be enough what thou hast done
When spotted Deaths ran arm'd through every street
With poison'd darts which not the good could shun
The speedy could out-fly or valiant meet
The living few and frequent funerals then
Proclaim'd thy wrath on this forsaken place
And now those few who are return'd again
Thy searching judgments to their dwellings trace
O pass not Lord an absolute decree
Or bind thy sentence unconditional
But in thy sentence our remorse foresee
And in that foresight this thy doom recall
Thy threatenings Lord as thine thou mayst revoke
But if immutable and fix'd they stand
Continue still thyself to give the stroke
And let not foreign foes oppress thy land
The Eternal heard and from the heavenly quire
Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword
And bade him swiftly drive the approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stored
The blessed minister his wings display'd
And like a shooting star he cleft the night
He charged the flames and those that disobey'd
He lash'd to duty with his sword of light
The fugitive flames chastised went forth to prey
On pious structures by our fathers rear'd
By which to heaven they did affect the way
Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard
The wanting orphans saw with watery eyes
Their founder charity in dust laid low
And sent to God their ever-answered cries
For He protects the poor who made them so
Nor could thy fabric Paul defend thee long
Though thou wert sacred to thy Maker praise
Though made immortal by a poet song
And poets' songs the Theban walls could raise
The daring flames peep'd in and saw from far
The awful beauties of the sacred quire
But since it was profaned by civil war
Heaven thought it fit to have it purged by fire
Now down the narrow streets it swiftly came
And widely opening did on both sides prey
This benefit we sadly owe the flame
If only ruin must enlarge our way
And now four days the sun had seen our woes
Four nights the moon beheld the incessant fire
It seem'd as if the stars more sickly rose
And farther from the feverish north retire
In th' empyrean heaven the bless'd abode
The Thrones and the Dominions prostrate lie
Not daring to behold their angry God
And a hush'd silence damps the tuneful sky
At length the Almighty cast a pitying eye
And mercy softly touch'd his melting breast
He saw the town one half in rubbish lie
And eager flames drive on to storm the rest
An hollow crystal pyramid he takes
In firmamental waters dipt above
Of it a broad extinguisher he makes
And hoods the flames that to their quarry drove
The vanquish'd fires withdraw from every place
Or full with feeding sink into a sleep
Each household genius shows again his face
And from the hearths the little Lares creep
Our King this more than natural change beholds
With sober joy his heart and eyes abound
To the All-good his lifted hands he folds
And thanks him low on his redeemed ground
As when sharp frosts had long constrain'd the earth
A kindly thaw unlocks it with mild rain
And first the tender blade peeps up to birth
And straight the green fields laugh with promised grain
By such degrees the spreading gladness grew
In every heart which fear had froze before
The standing streets with so much joy they view
That with less grief the perish'd they deplore
The father of the people open'd wide
His stores and all the poor with plenty fed
Thus God anointed God own place supplied
And fill'd the empty with his daily bread
This royal bounty brought its own reward
And in their minds so deep did print the sense
That if their ruins sadly they regard
'Tis but with fear the sight might drive him thence
But so may he live long that town to sway
Which by his auspice they will nobler make
As he will hatch their ashes by his stay
And not their humble ruins now forsake
They have not lost their loyalty by fire
Nor is their courage or their wealth so low
That from his wars they poorly would retire
Or beg the pity of a vanquish'd foe
Not with more constancy the Jews of old
By Cyrus from rewarded exile sent
Their royal city did in dust behold
Or with more vigour to rebuild it went
The utmost malice of their stars is past
And two dire comets which have scourged the town
In their own plague and fire have breathed the last
Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown
Now frequent trines the happier lights among
And high-raised Jove from his dark prison freed
Those weights took off that on his planet hung
Will gloriously the new-laid work succeed
Methinks already from this chemic flame
I see a city of more precious mould
Rich as the town which gives the Indies name
With silver paved and all divine with gold
Already labouring with a mighty fate
She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow
And seems to have renew'd her charter date
Which Heaven will to the death of time allow
More great than human now and more august
Now deified she from her fires does rise
Her widening streets on new foundations trust
And opening into larger parts she flies
Before she like some shepherdess did show
Who sat to bathe her by a river side
Not answering to her fame but rude and low
Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride
Now like a maiden queen she will behold
From her high turrets hourly suitors come
The East with incense and the West with gold
Will stand like suppliants to receive her doom
The silver Thames her own domestic flood
Shall bear her vessels like a sweeping train
And often wind as of his mistress proud
With longing eyes to meet her face again
The wealthy Tagus and the wealthier Rhine
The glory of their towns no more shall boast
And Seine that would with Belgian rivers join
Shall find her lustre stain'd and traffic lost
The venturous merchant who design'd more far
And touches on our hospitable shore
Charm'd with the splendour of this northern star
Shall here unlade him and depart no more
Our powerful navy shall no longer meet
The wealth of France or Holland to invade
The beauty of this town without a fleet
From all the world shall vindicate her trade
And while this famed emporium we prepare
The British ocean shall such triumphs boast
That those who now disdain our trade to share
Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coast
Already we have conquer'd half the war
And the less dangerous part is left behind
Our trouble now is but to make them dare
And not so great to vanquish as to find
Thus to the Eastern wealth through storms we go
But now the Cape once doubled fear no more
A constant trade-wind will securely blow
And gently lay us on the spicy shore
How dull and how insensible a beast
Is man who yet would lord it o'er the rest
Philosophers and poets vainly strove
In every age the lumpish mass to move
But those were pedants when compared with these
Who know not only to instruct but please
Poets alone found the delightful way
Mysterious morals gently to convey
In charming numbers so that as men grew
Pleased with their poems they grew wiser too
Satire has always shone among the rest
And is the boldest way if not the best
To tell men freely of their foulest faults
To laugh at their vain deeds and vainer thoughts
In satire too the wise took different ways
To each deserving its peculiar praise
Some did all folly with just sharpness blame
Whilst others laugh'd and scorn'd them into shame
But of these two the last succeeded best
As men aim rightest when they shoot in jest
Yet if we may presume to blame our guides
And censure those who censure all besides
In other things they justly are preferr'd
In this alone methinks the ancients err'd 
Against the grossest follies they declaim
Hard they pursue but hunt ignoble game
Nothing is easier than such blots to hit
And 'tis the talent of each vulgar wit
Besides 'tis labour lost for who would preach
Morals to Armstrong or dull Aston teach
'Tis being devout at play wise at a ball
Or bringing wit and friendship to Whitehall
But with sharp eyes those nicer faults to find
Which lie obscurely in the wisest mind
That little speck which all the rest does spoil
To wash off that would be a noble toil
Beyond the loose writ libels of this age
Or the forced scenes of our declining stage
Above all censure too each little wit
Will be so glad to see the greater hit
Who judging better though concern'd the most
Of such correction will have cause to boast
In such a satire all would seek a share
And every fool will fancy he is there
Old story-tellers too must pine and die
To see their antiquated wit laid by
Like her who miss'd her name in a lampoon
And grieved to find herself decay'd so soon
No common coxcomb must be mentioned here
Not the dull train of dancing sparks appear
Nor fluttering officers who never fight
Of such a wretched rabble who would write
Much less half wits that more against our rules
For they are fops the other are but fools
Who would not be as silly as Dunbar
As dull as Monmouth rather than Sir Carr
The cunning courtier should be slighted too
Who with dull knavery makes so much ado
Till the shrewd fool by thriving too too fast
Like AEsop fox becomes a prey at last
Nor shall the royal mistresses be named
Too ugly or too easy to be blamed
With whom each rhyming fool keeps such a pother
They are as common that way as the other
Yet sauntering Charles between his beastly brace
Meets with dissembling still in either place
Affected humour or a painted face
In loyal libels we have often told him
How one has jilted him the other sold him
How that affects to laugh how this to weep
But who can rail so long as he can sleep
Was ever prince by two at once misled
False foolish old ill-natured and ill-bred
Earnely and Aylesbury with all that race
Of busy blockheads shall have here no place
At council set as foils on Danby score
To make that great false jewel shine the more
Who all that while was thought exceeding wise
Only for taking pains and telling lies
But there no meddling with such nauseous men
Their very names have tired my lazy pen
'Tis time to quit their company and choose
Some fitter subject for sharper muse
First let behold the merriest man alive
Against his careless genius vainly strive
Quit his dear ease some deep design to lay
'Gainst a set time and then forget the day
Yet he will laugh at his best friends and be
Just as good company as Nokes and Lee
But when he aims at reason or at rule
He turns himself the best to ridicule
Let him at business ne'er so earnest sit
Show him but mirth and bait that mirth with wit
That shadow of a jest shall be enjoy'd
Though he left all mankind to be destroy'd
So cat transform'd sat gravely and demure
Till mouse appear'd and thought himself secure
But soon the lady had him in her eye
And from her friend did just as oddly fly
Reaching above our nature does no good
We must fall back to our old flesh and blood
As by our little Machiavel we find
That nimblest creature of the busy kind
His limbs are crippled and his body shakes
Yet his hard mind which all this bustle makes
No pity of its poor companion takes
What gravity can hold from laughing out
To see him drag his feeble legs about
Like hounds ill-coupled Jowler lugs him still
Through hedges ditches and through all that ill
'Twere crime in any man but him alone
To use a body so though 'tis one own
Yet this false comfort never gives him o'er
That whilst he creeps his vigorous thoughts can soar
Alas that soaring to those few that know
Is but a busy grovelling here below
So men in rapture think they mount the sky
Whilst on the ground the entranced wretches lie
So modern fops have fancied they could fly
As the new earl with parts deserving praise
And wit enough to laugh at his own ways
Yet loses all soft days and sensual nights
Kind nature checks and kinder fortune slights
Striving against his quiet all he can
For the fine notion of a busy man
And what is that at best but one whose mind
Is made to tire himself and all mankind
For Ireland he would go faith let him reign
For if some odd fantastic lord would fain
Carry in trunks and all my drudgery do
I'll not only pay him but admire him too
But is there any other beast that lives
Who his own harm so wittingly contrives
Will any dog that has his teeth and stones
Refinedly leave his bitches and his bones
To turn a wheel and bark to be employ'd
While Venus is by rival dogs enjoy'd
Yet this fond man to get a statesman name
Forfeits his friends his freedom and his fame
Though satire nicely writ with humour stings
But those who merit praise in other things
Yet we must needs this one exception make
And break our rules for silly Tropos' sake
Who was too much despised to be accused
And therefore scarce deserves to be abused
Raised only by his mercenary tongue
For railing smoothly and for reasoning wrong
As boys on holidays let loose to play
Lay waggish traps for girls that pass that way
Then shout to see in dirt and deep distress
Some silly cit in her flower'd foolish dress
So have I mighty satisfaction found
To see his tinsel reason on the ground
To see the florid fool despised and know it
By some who scarce have words enough to show it
For sense sits silent and condemns for weaker
The finer nay sometimes the wittier speaker
But 'tis prodigious so much eloquence
Should be acquired by such little sense
For words and wit did anciently agree
And Tully was no fool though this man be
At bar abusive on the bench unable
Knave on the woolsack fop at council-table
These are the grievances of such fools as would
Be rather wise than honest great than good
Some other kind of wits must be made known
Whose harmless errors hurt themselves alone
Excess of luxury they think can please
And laziness call loving of their ease
To live dissolved in pleasures still they feign
Though their whole life but intermitting pain
So much of surfeits headaches claps are seen
We scarce perceive the little time between
Well-meaning men who make this gross mistake
And pleasure lose only for pleasure sake
Each pleasure has its price and when we pay
Too much of pain we squander life away
Thus Dorset purring like a thoughtful cat
Married but wiser puss ne'er thought of that
And first he worried her with railing rhyme
Like Pembroke mastives at his kindest time
Then for one night sold all his slavish life
A teeming widow but a barren wife
Swell'd by contact of such a fulsome toad
He lugg'd about the matrimonial load
Till fortune blindly kind as well as he
Has ill restored him to his liberty
Which he would use in his old sneaking way
Drinking all night and dozing all the day
Dull as Ned Howard whom his brisker times
Had famed for dulness in malicious rhymes
Mulgrave had much ado to 'scape the snare
Though learn'd in all those arts that cheat the fair
For after all his vulgar marriage mocks
With beauty dazzled Numps was in the stocks
Deluded parents dried their weeping eyes
To see him catch his Tartar for his prize
The impatient town waited the wish'd-for change
And cuckolds smiled in hopes of sweet revenge
Till Petworth plot made us with sorrow see
As his estate his person too was free
Him no soft thoughts no gratitude could move
To gold he fled from beauty and from love
Yet failing there he keeps his freedom still
Forced to live happily against his will
'Tis not his fault if too much wealth and power
Break not his boasted quiet every hour
And little Sid for simile renown'd
Pleasure has always sought but never found
Though all his thoughts on wine and women fall
His are so bad sure he ne'er thinks at all
The flesh he lives upon is rank and strong
His meat and mistresses are kept too long
But sure we all mistake this pious man
Who mortifies his person all he can
What we uncharitably take for sin
Are only rules of this odd capuchin
For never hermit under grave pretence
Has lived more contrary to common sense
And 'tis a miracle we may suppose
No nastiness offends his skilful nose
Which from all stink can with peculiar art
Extract perfume and essence from a f t
Expecting supper is his great delight
He toils all day but to be drunk at night
Then o'er his cups this night-bird chirping sits
Till he takes Hewet and Jack Hall for wits
Rochester I despise for want of wit
Though thought to have a tail and cloven feet
For while he mischief means to all mankind
Himself alone the ill effects does find
And so like witches justly suffer shame
Whose harmless malice is so much the same
False are his words affected is his wit
So often he does aim so seldom hit
To every face he cringes while he speaks
But when the back is turn'd the head he breaks
Mean in each action lewd in every limb
Manners themselves are mischievous in him
A proof that chance alone makes every creature
A very Killigrew without good nature
For what a Bessus has he always lived
And his own kickings notably contrived
For there the folly that still mix'd with fear
Cowards more blows than any hero bear
Of fighting sparks some may their pleasures say
But 'tis a bolder thing to run away
The world may well forgive him all his ill
For every fault does prove his penance still
Falsely he falls into some dangerous noose
And then as meanly labours to get loose
A life so infamous is better quitting
Spent in base injury and low submitting
I'd like to have left out his poetry
Forgot by all almost as well as me
Sometimes he has some humour never wit
And if it rarely very rarely hit
'Tis under so much nasty rubbish laid
To find it out the cinderwoman trade
Who for the wretched remnants of a fire
Must toil all day in ashes and in mire
So lewdly dull his idle works appear
The wretched texts deserve no comments here
Where one poor thought sometimes left all alone
For a whole page of dulness must atone
How vain a thing is man and how unwise
Even he who would himself the most despise
I who so wise and humble seem to be
Now my own vanity and pride can't see
While the world nonsense is so sharply shown
We pull down others' but to raise our own
That we may angels seem we paint them elves
And are but satires to set up ourselves
I who have all this while been finding fault
Even with my master who first satire taught
And did by that describe the task so hard
It seems stupendous and above reward
Now labour with unequal force to climb
That lofty hill unreach'd by former time
'Tis just that I should to the bottom fall
Learn to write well or not to write at all
In pious times ere priestcraft did begin
Before polygamy was made a sin
When man on many multiplied his kind
Ere one to one was cursedly confined
When nature prompted and no law denied
Promiscuous use of concubine and bride
Then Israel monarch after Heaven own heart
His vigorous warmth did variously impart
To wives and slaves and wide as his command
Scatter'd his Maker image through the land
Michal of royal blood the crown did wear
A soil ungrateful to the tiller care
Not so the rest for several mothers bore
To god-like David several sons before
But since like slaves his bed they did ascend
No true succession could their seed attend
Of all the numerous progeny was none
So beautiful so brave as Absalom
Whether inspired by some diviner lust
His father got him with a greater gust
Or that his conscious destiny made way
By manly beauty to imperial sway
Early in foreign fields he won renown
With kings and states allied to Israel crown
In peace the thoughts of war he could remove
And seem'd as he were only born for love
Whate'er he did was done with so much ease
In him alone 'twas natural to please
His motions all accompanied with grace
And Paradise was open'd in his face
With secret joy indulgent David view'd
His youthful image in his son renew'd
To all his wishes nothing he denied
And made the charming Annabell his bride
What faults he had for who from faults is free
His father could not or he would not see
Some warm excesses which the law forbore
Were construed youth that purged by boiling o'er
And Amnon murder by a specious name
Was call'd a just revenge for injured fame
Thus praised and loved the noble youth remain'd
While David undisturb'd in Sion reign'd
But life can never be sincerely blest
Heaven punishes the bad and proves the best
The Jews a headstrong moody murmuring race
As ever tried the extent and stretch of grace
God pamper'd people whom debauch'd with ease
No king could govern nor no god could please
Gods they had tried of every shape and size
That god-smiths could produce or priests devise
These Adam-wits too fortunately free
Began to dream they wanted liberty
And when no rule no precedent was found
Of men by laws less circumscribed and bound
They led their wild desires to woods and caves
And thought that all but savages were slaves
They who when Saul was dead without a blow
Made foolish Ishbosheth the crown forego
Who banish'd David did from Hebron bring
And with a general shout proclaim'd him king
Those very Jews who at their very best
Their humour more than loyalty express'd
Now wonder'd why so long they had obey'd
An idol monarch which their hands had made
Thought they might ruin him they could create
Or melt him to that golden calf a state
But these were random bolts no form'd design
Nor interest made the factious crowd to join
The sober part of Israel free from stain
Well knew the value of a peaceful reign
And looking backward with a wise affright
Saw seams of wounds dishonest to the sight
In contemplation of whose ugly scars
They cursed the memory of civil wars
The moderate sort of men thus qualified
Inclined the balance to the better side
And David mildness managed it so well
The bad found no occasion to rebel
But when to sin our biass'd nature leans
The careful devil is still at hand with means
And providently pimps for ill desires
The good old cause revived a plot requires
Plots true or false are necessary things
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings
The inhabitants of old Jerusalem
Were Jebusites the town so call'd from them
And theirs the native right 
But when the chosen people grew more strong
The rightful cause at length became the wrong
And every loss the men of Jebus bore
They still were thought God enemies the more
Thus worn or weaken'd well or ill content
Submit they must to David government
Impoverish'd and deprived of all command
Their taxes doubled as they lost their land
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood
Their gods disgraced and burnt like common wood
This set the heathen priesthood in a flame
For priests of all religions are the same
Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be
Stock stone or other homely pedigree
In his defence his servants are as bold
As if he had been born of beaten gold
The Jewish rabbins though their enemies
In this conclude them honest men and wise
For 'twas their duty all the learned think
To espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink
From hence began that Plot the nation curse
Bad in itself but represented worse
Raised in extremes and in extremes decried
With oaths affirm'd with dying vows denied
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude
But swallow'd in the mass unchew'd and crude
Some truth there was but dash'd and brew'd with lies
To please the fools and puzzle all the wise
Succeeding times did equal folly call
Believing nothing or believing all
The Egyptian rites the Jebusites embraced
Where gods were recommended by their taste
Such savoury deities must needs be good
As served at once for worship and for food
By force they could not introduce these gods
For ten to one in former days was odds
So fraud was used the sacrificer trade
Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade
Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews
And raked for converts even the court and stews
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took
Because the fleece accompanies the flock
Some thought they God anointed meant to slay
By guns invented since full many a day
Our author swears it not but who can know
How far the devil and Jebusites may go
This Plot which fail'd for want of common sense
Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence
For as when raging fevers boil the blood
The standing lake soon floats into a flood
And every hostile humour which before
Slept quiet in its channels bubbles o'er
So several factions from this first ferment
Work up to foam and threat the government
Some by their friends more by themselves thought wise
Opposed the power to which they could not rise
Some had in courts been great and thrown from thence
Like fiends were harden'd in impenitence
Some by their monarch fatal mercy grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne
Were raised in power and public office high
Strong bands if bands ungrateful men could tie
Of these the false Achitophel was first
A name to all succeeding ages cursed
For close designs and crooked counsels fit
Sagacious bold and turbulent of wit
Restless unfix'd in principles and place
In power unpleased impatient of disgrace
A fiery soul which working out its way
Fretted the pigmy body to decay
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay
A daring pilot in extremity
Pleased with the danger when the waves went high
He sought the storms but for a calm unfit
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit
Great wits are sure to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide
Else why should he with wealth and honour blest
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest
Punish a body which he could not please
Bankrupt of life yet prodigal of ease
And all to leave what with his toil he won
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing a son
Got while his soul did huddled notions try
And born a shapeless lump like anarchy
In friendship false implacable in hate
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state
To compass this the triple bond he broke
The pillars of the public safety shook
And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke
Then seized with fear yet still affecting fame
Usurp'd a patriot all-atoning name
So easy still it proves in factious times
With public zeal to cancel private crimes
How safe is treason and how sacred ill
Where none can sin against the people will
Where crowds can wink and no offence be known
Since in another guilt they find their own
Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge
The statesman we abhor but praise the judge
In Israel courts ne'er sat an Abethdin
With more discerning eyes or hands more clean
Unbribed unsought the wretched to redress
Swift of despatch and easy of access
Oh had he been content to serve the crown
With virtues only proper to the gown
Or had the rankness of the soil been freed
From cockle that oppress'd the noble seed
David for him his tuneful harp had strung
And Heaven had wanted one immortal song
But wild ambition loves to slide not stand
And fortune ice prefers to virtue land
Achitophel grown weary to possess
A lawful fame and lazy happiness
Disdain'd the golden fruit to gather free
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree
Now manifest of crimes contrived long since
He stood at bold defiance with his prince
Held up the buckler of the people cause
Against the crown and skulk'd behind the laws
The wish'd occasion of the plot he takes
Some circumstances finds but more he makes
By buzzing emissaries fills the ears
Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears
Of arbitrary counsels brought to light
And proves the king himself a Jebusite
Weak arguments which yet he knew full well
Were strong with people easy to rebel
For govern'd by the moon the giddy Jews
Tread the same track when she the prime renews
And once in twenty years their scribes record
By natural instinct they change their lord
Achitophel still wants a chief and none
Was found so fit as warlike Absalom
Not that he wish'd his greatness to create
For politicians neither love nor hate
But for he knew his title not allow'd
Would keep him still depending on the crowd
That kingly power thus ebbing out might be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy
Him he attempts with studied arts to please
And sheds his venom in such words as these
Auspicious prince at whose nativity
Some royal planet ruled the southern sky
Thy longing country darling and desire
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire
Their second Moses whose extended wand
Divides the seas and shows the promised land
Whose dawning day in every distant age
Has exercised the sacred prophet rage
The people prayer the glad diviner theme
The young men vision and the old men dream
Thee Saviour thee the nation vows confess
And never satisfied with seeing bless
Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim
And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name
How long wilt thou the general joy detain
Starve and defraud the people of thy reign
Content ingloriously to pass thy days
Like one of virtue fools that feed on praise
Till thy fresh glories which now shine so bright
Grow stale and tarnish with our daily sight
Believe me royal youth thy fruit must be
Or gather'd ripe or rot upon the tree
Heaven has to all allotted soon or late
Some lucky revolution of their fate
Whose motions if we watch and guide with skill
For human good depends on human will
Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent
And from the first impression takes the bent
But if unseized she glides away like wind
And leaves repenting folly far behind
Now now she meets you with a glorious prize
And spreads her locks before her as she flies
Had thus old David from whose loins you spring
Not dared when fortune called him to be king
At Gath an exile he might still remain
And Heaven anointing oil had been in vain
Let his successful youth your hopes engage
But shun the example of declining age
Behold him setting in his western skies
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise
He is not now as when on Jordan sand
The joyful people throng'd to see him land
Covering the beach and blackening all the strand
But like the prince of angels from his height
Comes tumbling downward with diminish'd light
Betray'd by one poor Plot to public scorn
Our only blessing since his cursed return
Those heaps of people which one sheaf did bind
Blown off and scatter'd by a puff of wind
What strength can he to your designs oppose
Naked of friends and round beset with foes
If Pharaoh doubtful succour he should use
A foreign aid would more incense the Jews
Proud Egypt would dissembled friendship bring
Foment the war but not support the king
Nor would the royal party e'er unite
With Pharaoh arms to assist the Jebusite
Or if they should their interest soon would break
And with such odious aid make David weak
All sorts of men by my successful arts
Abhorring kings estrange their alter'd hearts
From David rule and 'tis their general cry 
Religion commonwealth and liberty
If you as champion of the public good
Add to their arms a chief of royal blood
What may not Israel hope and what applause
Might such a general gain by such a cause
Not barren praise alone that gaudy flower
Fair only to the sight but solid power
And nobler is a limited command
Given by the love of all your native land
Than a successive title long and dark
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah ark
What cannot praise effect in mighty minds
When flattery soothes and when ambition blinds
Desire of power on earth a vicious weed
Yet sprung from high is of celestial seed
In God 'tis glory and when men aspire
'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire
The ambitious youth too covetous of fame
Too full of angels' metal in his frame
Unwarily was led from virtue ways
Made drunk with honour and debauch'd with praise
Half loath and half consenting to the ill
For royal blood within him struggled still
He thus replied And what pretence have I
To take up arms for public liberty
My father governs with unquestion'd right
The faith defender and mankind delight
Good gracious just observant of the laws
And Heaven by wonders has espoused his cause
Whom has he wrong'd in all his peaceful reign
Who sues for justice to his throne in vain
What millions has he pardon'd of his foes
Whom just revenge did to his wrath expose
Mild easy humble studious of our good
Inclined to mercy and averse from blood
If mildness ill with stubborn Israel suit
His crime is God beloved attribute
What could he gain his people to betray
Or change his right for arbitrary sway
Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign
His fruitful Nile and yoke a servile train
If David rule Jerusalem displease
The dog-star heats their brains to this disease
Why then should I encouraging the bad
Turn rebel and run popularly mad
Were he a tyrant who by lawless might
Oppress'd the Jews and raised the Jebusite
Well might I mourn but nature holy bands
Would curb my spirits and restrain my hands
The people might assert their liberty
But what was right in them were crime in me
His favour leaves me nothing to require
Prevents my wishes and outruns desire
What more can I expect while David lives
All but his kingly diadem he gives
And that But here he paused then sighing said 
Is justly destined for a worthier head
For when my father from his toils shall rest
And late augment the number of the blest
His lawful issue shall the throne ascend
Or the collateral line where that shall end
His brother though oppress'd with vulgar spite
Yet dauntless and secure of native right
Of every royal virtue stands possess'd
Still dear to all the bravest and the best
His courage foes his friends his truth proclaim
His loyalty the king the world his fame
His mercy even the offending crowd will find
For sure he comes of a forgiving kind
Why should I then repine at Heaven decree
Which gives me no pretence to royalty
Yet oh that fate propitiously inclined
Had raised my birth or had debased my mind
To my large soul not all her treasure lent
And then betray'd it to a mean descent
I find I find my mounting spirits bold
And David part disdains my mother mould
Why am I scanted by a niggard birth
My soul disclaims the kindred of her earth
And made for empire whispers me within
Desire of greatness is a god-like sin
Him staggering so when hell dire agent found
While fainting virtue scarce maintain'd her ground
He pours fresh forces in and thus replies
The eternal God supremely good and wise
Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain
What wonders are reserved to bless your reign
Against your will your arguments have shown
Such virtue only given to guide a throne
Not that your father mildness I contemn
But manly force becomes the diadem
'Tis true he grants the people all they crave
And more perhaps than subjects ought to have
For lavish grants suppose a monarch tame
And more his goodness than his wit proclaim
But when should people strive their bonds to break
If not when kings are negligent or weak
Let him give on till he can give no more
The thrifty Sanhedrim shall keep him poor
And every shekel which he can receive
Shall cost a limb of his prerogative
To ply him with new plots shall be my care
Or plunge him deep in some expensive war
Which when his treasure can no more supply
He must with the remains of kingship buy
His faithful friends our jealousies and fears
Call Jebusites and Pharaoh pensioners
Whom when our fury from his aid has torn
He shall be naked left to public scorn
The next successor whom I fear and hate
My arts have made obnoxious to the state
Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow
And gain'd our elders to pronounce a foe
His right for sums of necessary gold
Shall first be pawn'd and afterwards be sold
Till time shall ever-wanting David draw
To pass your doubtful title into law
If not the people have a right supreme
To make their kings for kings are made for them
All empire is no more than power in trust
Which when resumed can be no longer just
Succession for the general good design'd
In its own wrong a nation cannot bind
If altering that the people can relieve
Better one suffer than a nation grieve
The Jews well know their power ere Saul they chose
God was their king and God they durst depose
Urge now your piety your filial name
A father right and fear of future fame
The public good that universal call
To which even Heaven submitted answers all
Nor let his love enchant your generous mind
'Tis nature trick to propagate her kind
Our fond begetters who would never die
Love but themselves in their posterity
Or let his kindness by the effects be tried
Or let him lay his vain pretence aside
God said he loved your father could he bring
A better proof than to anoint him king
It surely show'd he loved the shepherd well
Who gave so fair a flock as Israel
Would David have you thought his darling son
What means he then to alienate the crown
The name of godly he may blush to bear
Is't after God own heart to cheat his heir
He to his brother gives supreme command
To you a legacy of barren land
Perhaps the old harp on which he thrums his lays
Or some dull Hebrew ballad in your praise
Then the next heir a prince severe and wise
Already looks on you with jealous eyes
Sees through the thin disguises of your arts
And marks your progress in the people hearts
Though now his mighty soul its grief contains
He meditates revenge who least complains
And like a lion slumbering in the way
Or sleep dissembling while he waits his prey
His fearless foes within his distance draws
Constrains his roaring and contracts his paws
Till at the last his time for fury found
He shoots with sudden vengeance from the ground
The prostrate vulgar passes o'er and spares
But with a lordly rage his hunters tears
Your case no tame expedients will afford
Resolve on death or conquest by the sword
Which for no less a stake than life you draw
And self-defence is nature eldest law
Leave the warm people no considering time
For then rebellion may be thought a crime
Avail yourself of what occasion gives
But try your title while your father lives
And that your arms may have a fair pretence
Proclaim you take them in the king defence
Whose sacred life each minute would expose
To plots from seeming friends and secret foes
And who can sound the depth of David soul
Perhaps his fear his kindness may control
He fears his brother though he loves his son
For plighted vows too late to be undone
If so by force he wishes to be gain'd
By women lechery to seem constrain'd
Doubt not but when he most affects the frown
Commit a pleasing rape upon the crown
Secure his person to secure your cause
They who possess the prince possess the laws
He said and this advice above the rest
With Absalom mild nature suited best
Unblamed of life ambition set aside
Not stain'd with cruelty nor puff'd with pride
How happy had he been if destiny
Had higher placed his birth or not so high
His kingly virtues might have claim'd a throne
And bless'd all other countries but his own
But charming greatness since so few refuse
'Tis juster to lament him than accuse
Strong were his hopes a rival to remove
With blandishments to gain the public love
To head the faction while their zeal was hot
And popularly prosecute the Plot
To further this Achitophel unites
The malcontents of all the Israelites
Whose differing parties he could wisely join
For several ends to serve the same design
The best and of the princes some were such 
Who thought the power of monarchy too much
Mistaken men and patriots in their hearts
Not wicked but seduced by impious arts
By these the springs of property were bent
And wound so high they crack'd the government
The next for interest sought to embroil the state
To sell their duty at a dearer rate
And make their Jewish markets of the throne
Pretending public good to serve their own
Others thought kings an useless heavy load
Who cost too much and did too little good
These were for laying honest David by
On principles of pure good husbandry
With them join'd all the haranguers of the throng
That thought to get preferment by the tongue
Who follow next a double danger bring
Not only hating David but the king
The Solyimaean rout well versed of old
In godly faction and in treason bold
Cowering and quaking at a conqueror sword
But lofty to a lawful prince restored
Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun
And scorn'd by Jebusites to be outdone
Hot Levites headed these who pull'd before
From the ark which in the Judges' days they bore
Resumed their cant and with a zealous cry
Pursued their old beloved theocracy
Where Sanhedrim and priest enslaved the nation
And justified their spoils by inspiration
For who so fit to reign as Aaron race
If once dominion they could found in grace
These led the pack though not of surest scent
Yet deepest mouth'  against the government
A numerous host of dreaming saints succeed
Of the true old enthusiastic breed
'Gainst form and order they their power employ
Nothing to build and all things to destroy
But far more numerous was the herd of such
Who think too little and who talk too much
These out of mere instinct they knew not why
Adored their fathers' God and property
And by the same blind benefit of fate
The Devil and the Jebusite did hate
Born to be saved even in their own despite
Because they could not help believing right
Such were the tools but a whole Hydra more
Remains of sprouting heads too long to score
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand
A man so various that he seem'd to be
Not one but all mankind epitome
Stiff in opinions always in the wrong
Was everything by starts and nothing long
But in the course of one revolving moon
Was chemist fiddler statesman and buffoon
Then all for women painting rhyming drinking
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking
Blest madman who could every hour employ
With something new to wish or to enjoy
Railing and praising were his usual themes
And both to show his judgment in extremes
So over violent or over civil
That every man with him was God or Devil
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art
Nothing went unrewarded but desert
Beggar'd by fools whom still he found too late
He had his jest and they had his estate
He laugh'd himself from court then sought relief
By forming parties but could ne'er be chief
For spite of him the weight of business fell
On Absalom and wise Achitophel
Thus wicked but in will of means bereft
He left not faction but of that was left
Titles and names 'twere tedious to rehearse
Of lords below the dignity of verse
Wits warriors commonwealth' -men were the best
Kind husbands and mere nobles all the rest
And therefore in the name of dulness be
The well-hung Balaam and cold Caleb free
And canting Nadab let oblivion damn
Who made new porridge for the paschal lamb
Let friendship holy band some names assure
Some their own worth and some let scorn secure
Nor shall the rascal rabble here have place
Whom kings no titles gave and God no grace
Not bull-faced Jonas who could statutes draw
To mean rebellion and make treason law
But he though bad is follow'd by a worse
The wretch who Heaven anointed dared to curse
Shimei whose youth did early promise bring
Of zeal to God and hatred to his king
Did wisely from expensive sins refrain
And never broke the Sabbath but for gain
Nor ever was he known an oath to vent
Or curse unless against the government
Thus heaping wealth by the most ready way
Among the Jews which was to cheat and pray
The city to reward his pious hate
Against his master chose him magistrate
His hand a vare of justice did uphold
His neck was loaded with a chain of gold
During his office treason was no crime
The sons of Belial had a glorious time
For Shimei though not prodigal of pelf
Yet loved his wicked neighbour as himself
When two or three were gather'd to declaim
Against the monarch of Jerusalem
Shimei was always in the midst of them
And if they cursed the king when he was by
Would rather curse than break good company
If any durst his factious friends accuse
He pack'd a jury of dissenting Jews
Whose fellow-feeling in the godly cause
Would free the suffering saint from human laws
For laws are only made to punish those
Who serve the king and to protect his foes
If any leisure time he had from power
Because 'tis sin to misemploy an hour
His business was by writing to persuade
That kings were useless and a clog to trade
And that his noble style he might refine
No Rechabite more shunn'd the fumes of wind
Chaste were his cellars and his shrivel board
The grossness of a city feast abhorr'd
His cooks with long disuse their trade forgot
Cool was his kitchen though his brains were hot
Such frugal virtue malice may accuse
But sure 'twas necessary to the Jews
For towns once burnt such magistrates require
As dare not tempt God providence by fire
With spiritual food he fed his servants well
But free from flesh that made the Jews rebel
And Moses' laws he held in more account
For forty days of fasting in the mount
To speak the rest who better are forgot
Would tire a well-breathed witness of the plot
Yet Corah thou shalt from oblivion pass
Erect thyself thou monumental brass
High as the serpent of thy metal made
While nations stand secure beneath thy shade
What though his birth were base yet comets rise
From earthly vapours ere they shine in skies
Prodigious actions may as well be done
By weaver issue as by prince son
This arch attestor for the public good
By that one deed ennobles all his blood
Who ever ask'd the witness high race
Whose oath with martyrdom did Stephen grace
Ours was a Levite and as times went then
His tribe were God Almighty gentlemen
Sunk were his eyes his voice was harsh and loud
Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud
His long chin proved his wit his saint-like grace
A church vermilion and a Moses' face
His memory miraculously great
Could plots exceeding man belief repeat
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 memory did excel
Which pieced his wondrous evidence so well
And suited to the temper of the times
Then groaning under Jebusitic crimes
Let Israel foes suspect his heavenly call
And rashly judge his wit apocryphal
Our laws for such affronts have forfeits made
He takes his life who takes away his trade
Were I myself in witness Corah place
The wretch who did me such a dire disgrace
Should whet my memory though once forgot
To make him an appendix of my plot
His zeal to heaven 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 murder call
In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul
What others in his evidence did join
The best that could be had for love or coin
In Corah own predicament will fall
For witness is a common name to all
Surrounded thus with friends of every sort
Deluded Absalom forsakes the court
Impatient of high hopes urged with renown
And fired with near possession of a crown
The 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
His looks his gestures and his words he frames
And with familiar ease repeats their names
Thus form'd by nature furnish'd out with arts
He glides unfelt into their secret hearts
Then with a kind compassionating look
And sighs bespeaking pity ere he spoke
Few words he said but easy those and fit
More slow than Hybla-drops and far more sweet
I mourn my countrymen your lost estate
Though far unable to prevent your fate
Behold a banish'd man for your dear cause
Exposed a prey to arbitrary laws
Yet oh that I alone could be undone
Cut off from empire and no more a son
Now all your liberties a spoil are made
Egypt and Tyrus intercept your trade
And Jebusites your sacred rites invade
My father whom with reverence yet I name
Charm'd into ease is careless of his fame
And bribed with petty sums of foreign gold
Is grown in Bathsheba embraces old
Exalts his enemies his friends destroys
And all his power against himself employs
He gives and let him give my right away
But why should he his own and yours betray
He only he can make the nation bleed
And he alone from my revenge is freed
Take then my tears with that he wiped his eyes
'Tis all the aid my present power supplies
No court-informer can these arms accuse
These arms may sons against their fathers use
And 'tis my wish the next successor reign
May make no other Israelite complain
Youth beauty graceful action seldom fail
But common interest always will prevail
And pity never ceases to be shown
To him who makes the people wrongs his own
The crowd that still believe their kings oppress
With lifted hands their young Messiah bless
Who now begins his progress to ordain
With chariots horsemen and a numerous train
From east to west his glories he displays
And like the sun the promised land surveys
Fame runs before him as the morning-star
And shouts of joy salute him from afar
Each house receives him as a guardian god
And consecrates the place of his abode
But hospitable treats did most commend
Wise Issachar his wealthy western friend
This moving court that caught the people eyes
And seem'd but pomp did other ends disguise
Achitophel had form'd it with intent
To sound the depths and fathom where it went
The people hearts distinguish friends from foes
And try their strength before they came to blows
Yet all was colour'd with a smooth pretence
Of specious love and duty to their prince
Religion and redress of grievances
Two names that always cheat and always please
Are often urged and good king David life
Endanger'd by a brother and a wife
Thus in a pageant show a plot is made
And peace itself is war in masquerade
O foolish Israel never warn'd by ill
Still the same bait and circumvented still
Did ever men forsake their present ease
In midst of health imagine a disease
Take pains contingent mischiefs to foresee
Make heirs for monarchs and for God decree
What shall we think Can people give away
Both for themselves and sons their native sway
Then they are left defenceless to the sword
Of each unbounded arbitrary lord
And laws are vain by which we right enjoy
If kings unquestion'd can those laws destroy
Yet if the crowd be judge of fit and just
And kings are only officers in trust
Then this resuming covenant was declared
When kings were made or is for ever barr'd
If those who gave the sceptre could not tie
By their own deed their own posterity
How then could Adam bind his future race
How could his forfeit on mankind take place
Or how could heavenly justice damn us all
Who ne'er consented to our father fall
Then kings are slaves to those whom they command
And tenants to their people pleasure stand
Add that the power for property allow'd
Is mischievously seated in the crowd
For who can be secure of private right
If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might
Nor is the people judgment always true
The most may err as grossly as the few
And faultless kings run down by common cry
For vice oppression and for tyranny
What standard is there in a fickle rout
Which flowing to the mark runs faster out
Nor only crowds but Sanhedrims may be
Infected with this public lunacy
And share the madness of rebellious times
To murder monarchs for imagined crimes
If they may give and take whene'er they please
Not kings alone the Godhead images
But government itself at length must fall
To nature state where all have right to all
Yet grant our lords the people kings can make
What prudent men a settled throne would shake
For whatsoe'er their sufferings were before
That change they covet makes them suffer more
All other errors but disturb a state
But innovation is the blow of fate
If ancient fabrics nod and threat to fall
To patch their flaws and buttress up the wall
Thus far 'tis duty but here fix the mark
For all beyond it is to touch the ark
To change foundations cast the frame anew
Is work for rebels who base ends pursue
At once divine and human laws control
And mend the parts by ruin of the whole
The tampering world is subject to this curse
To physic their disease into a worse
Now what relief can righteous David bring
How fatal 'tis to be too good a king
Friends he has few so high the madness grows
Who dare be such must be the people foes
Yet some there were even in the worst of days
Some let me name and naming is to praise
In this short file Barzillai first appears
Barzillai crown'd with honour and with years
Long since the rising rebels he withstood
In regions waste beyond the Jordan flood
Unfortunately brave to buoy the state
But sinking underneath his master fate
In exile with his godlike prince he mourn'd
For him he suffer'd and with him return'd
The court he practised not the courtier art
Large was his wealth but larger was his heart
Which well the noblest objects knew to choose
The fighting warrior and recording muse
His bed could once a fruitful issue boast
Now more than half a father name is lost
His eldest hope with every grace adorn'd
By me so Heaven will have it always mourn'd
And always honour'd snatch'd in manhood prime
By unequal fates and providence crime
Yet not before the goal of honour won
All parts fulfill'd of subject and of son
Swift was the race but short the time to run
O narrow circle but of power divine
Scanted in space but perfect in thy line
By sea by land thy matchless worth was known
Arms thy delight and war was all thy own
Thy force infused the fainting Tyrians propp'd
And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune stopp'd
O ancient honour O unconquer'd hand
Whom foes unpunish'd never could withstand
But Israel was unworthy of his name
Short is the date of all immoderate fame
It looks as Heaven our ruin had design'd
And durst not trust thy fortune and thy mind
Now free from earth thy disencumber'd soul
Mounts up and leaves behind the clouds and starry pole
From thence thy kindred legions mayst thou bring
To aid the guardian angel of thy king
Here stop my muse here cease thy painful flight
No pinions can pursue immortal height
Tell good Barzillai thou canst sing no more
And tell thy soul she should have fled before
Or fled she with his life and left this verse
To hang on her departed patron hearse
Now take thy steepy flight from heaven and see
If thou canst find on earth another he
Another he would be too hard to find
See then whom thou canst see not far behind
Zadoc the priest whom shunning power and place
His lowly mind advanced to David grace
With him the Sagan of Jerusalem
Of hospitable soul and noble stem
Him of the western dome whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence
The prophets' sons by such example led
To learning and to loyalty were bred
For colleges on bounteous kings depend
And never rebel was to arts a friend
To these succeed the pillars of the laws
Who best can plead and best can judge a cause
Next them a train of loyal peers ascend
Sharp-judging Adriel the Muses' friend
Himself a Muse in Sanhedrim debate
True to his prince but not a slave of state
Whom David love with honours did adorn
That from his disobedient son were torn
Jotham of piercing wit and pregnant thought
Endued by nature and by learning taught
To move assemblies who but only tried
The worse awhile then chose the better side
Nor chose alone but turn'd the balance too 
So much the weight of one brave man can do
Hushai the friend of David in distress
In public storms of manly steadfastness
By foreign treaties he inform'd his youth
And join'd experience to his native truth
His frugal care supplied the wanting throne 
Frugal for that but bounteous of his own
'Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow
But hard the task to manage well the low
For sovereign power is too depress'd or high
When kings are forced to sell or crowds to buy
Indulge one labour more my weary muse
For Amiel who can Amiel praise refuse
Of ancient race by birth but nobler yet
In his own worth and without title great
The Sanhedrim long time as chief he ruled
Their reason guided and their passion cool'd
So dexterous was he in the crown defence
So form'd to speak a loyal nation sense
That as their band was Israel 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 the unequal ruler of the day
Misguide the seasons and mistake the way
While he withdrawn at their mad labours smiles
And safe enjoys the sabbath of his toils
These were the chief a small but faithful band
Of worthies in the breach who dared to stand
And tempt the 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 Sanhedrims to plume the regal rights
The true successor from the court removed
The plot by hireling witnesses improved
These ills they saw and as their duty bound
They show'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 pernicious hate
Had turn'd the Plot to ruin church and state
The council violent the rabble worse
That Shimei taught Jerusalem to curse
With all these loads of injuries oppress'd
And long revolving in his careful breast
The event of things at last his patience tired
Thus from his royal throne by Heaven inspired
The god-like 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 delay'd
So willing to forgive the offending age
So much the father did the king assuage
But now so far my clemency they slight
The offenders question my forgiving right
That one was made for many they contend
But 'tis to rule for that a monarch end
They call my tenderness of blood my fear
Though manly tempers can the longest bear
Yet since they will divert my native course
'Tis time to show I am not good by force
Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects bring
Are burdens 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 oh that yet he would repent and live
How easy 'tis for parents to forgive
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From nature pleading for a darling son
Poor pitied youth by my paternal care
Raised up to all the height his frame could bear
Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born
He would have given his soul another turn
Gull'd with a patriot name whose modern sense
Is one that would by law supplant his prince
The people brave the politician tool
Never was patriot yet but was a fool
Whence comes it that religion and the laws
Should more be Absalom than David cause
His old instructor ere he lost his place
Was never thought endued with so much grace
Good heavens how faction can a patriot paint
My rebel ever proves my people saint
Would they impose an heir upon the throne
Let Sanhedrims be taught to give their own
A king at least a part of government
And mine as requisite as their consent
Without my leave a future king to choose
Infers a right the present to depose
True they petition me to approve their choice
But Esau hands suit ill with Jacob voice
My pious subjects for my safety pray
Which to secure they take my power away
From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years
But save me most from my petitioners
Insatiate as the barren womb or grave
God cannot grant so much as they can crave
What then is left but with a jealous eye
To guard the small remains of royalty
The law shall still direct my peaceful sway
And the same law teach rebels to obey
Votes shall no more establish'd power control
Such votes as make a part exceed the whole
No groundless clamours shall my friends remove
Nor crowds have power to punish ere they prove
For gods and god-like kings their care express
Still to defend their servants in distress
O that my power to saving were confined
Why am I forced like Heaven against my mind
To make examples of another kind
Must I at length the sword of justice draw
Oh cursed effects of necessary law
How ill my fear they by my mercy scan
Beware the fury of a patient man
Law they require let law then show her face
They could not be content to look on grace
Her hinder parts but with a daring eye
To tempt the terror of her front and die
By their own arts 'tis righteously decreed
Those dire artificers of death shall bleed
Against themselves their witnesses will swear
Till viper-like their mother-plot they tear
And suck for nutriment that bloody gore
Which was their principle of life before
Their Belial with their Beelzebub will fight
Thus on my foes my foes shall do me right
Nor doubt the event for factious crowds engage
In their first onset all their brutal rage
Then let them take an unresisted course
Retire and traverse and delude their force
But when they stand all breathless urge the fight
And rise upon them with redoubled might 
For lawful power is still superior found
When long driven back at length it stands the ground
He said The Almighty nodding gave consent
And peals of thunder shook the firmament
Henceforth a series of new time began
The mighty years in long procession ran
Once more the god-like David was restored
And willing nations knew their lawful lord
On a still silent night scarce could I number
One of the clock but that a golden slumber
Had locked my senses fast and carried me
Into a world of blest felicitie
I know not how First to a Garden where
The Apricock the Cherry and the Peare
The Strawberry and Plumb were fairer far
Than that eye-pleasing Fruit that caus'd the jar
Betwixt the Goddesses and tempted more
Than fair Atlanta Ball though gilded ore
I gaz'd a while on these and presently
A Silver-stream ran softly gliding by
Upon whose banks Lillies more white than snow
New faln from heaven with Violets mixt did grow
Whose scent so chaf'd the neighbor air that you
Would surely swear that Arabick spices grew
Not far from thence or that the place had been
With Musk prepar'd to entertain Loves Queen
Whilst I admir'd the River past away
And up a Grove did spring green as in May
When April had been moist upon whose bushes
The pretty Robins Nightingals and Thrushes
Warbled their Notes so sweetly that my ears
Did judge at least the musick of the Sphears
But here my gentle Dream conveyed me
Into the place where I most long'd to see
My Mistress bed who some few blushes past
And smiling frowns contented was at last
To let me touch her neck I not content
With that slippt to her breast thence lower went
One of her hands one of her cheeks lay under
Cozening the pillow of a lawful kisse
Which therefore swel'd and seem'd to part asunder
As angry to be rob'd of such a blisse
The one lookt pale and for revenge did long
While t'other blusht 'cause it had done the wrong
Out of the bed the other fair hand was
On a green sattin quilt whose perfect white
Lookt like a Dazie in a field of grasse
And shew'd like unmelt snow unto the sight
There lay this pretty perdue safe to keep
The rest oth' body that lay fast asleep
Her eyes and therefore it was night close laid
Strove to imprison beauty till the morn
But yet the doors were of such fine stuffe made
That it broke through and shew'd itself in scorn
Throwing a kind of light about the place
Which turn'd to smiles still as't came near her face
Her beams which some dull men call'd hair divided
Part with her cheeks part with her lips did sport
But these as rude her breath put by some guided
Wiselyer downwards sought but falling short
Curl'd back in rings and seem'd to turn agen
To bite the part so unkindly held them in
I wonder by my troth what thou and I
Did till we lov'd were we not wean'd till then
But suck'd on countrey pleasures childishly
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den
T'was so But this all pleasures fancies bee 
If ever any beauty I did see
Which I desir'd and got t'was but a dreame of thee
And now good morrow to our waking soules
Which watch not one another out of feare
For love all love of other sights controules 
And makes one little roome an every where
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone
Let Maps to other worlds on worlds have showne
Let us possesse one world each hath one and is one
My face in thine eye thine in mine appeares 
And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North without declining West
What ever dyes was not mixt equally
If our two loves be one or thou and I 
Love so alike that none doe slacken none can die
Fond woman which would'st have thy husband die
And yet complain'st of his great jealousie
If swolne with poyson hee lay in' his last bed
His body with a sere-barke covered
Drawing his breath as thick and short as can 
The nimblest crocheting Musitian
Ready with loathsome vomiting to spue
His Soule out of one hell into a new
Made deafe with his poore kindreds howling cries
Begging with few feign'd teares great legacies 
Thou would'st not weepe but jolly'and frolicke bee
As a slave which to morrow should be free
Yet weep'st thou when thou seest him hungerly
Swallow his owne death hearts-bane jealousie
O give him many thanks he'is courteous 
That in suspecting kindly warneth us
Wee must not as wee us'd flout openly
In scoffing ridles his deformitie
Nor at his boord together being fatt
With words nor touch scarce lookes adulterate 
Nor when he swolne and pamper'd with great fare
Sits downe and snorts cag'd in his basket chaire
Must wee usurpe his owne bed any more
Nor kisse and play in his house as before
Now I see many dangers for that is 
His realme his castle and his diocesse
But if as envious men which would revile
Their Prince or coyne his gold themselves exile
Into another countrie'and doe it there
Wee play'in another house what should we feare 
There we will scorne his houshold policies
His seely plots and pensionary spies
As the inhabitants of Thames right side
Do Londons Major or Germans the Popes pride
Marry and love thy Flavia for shee
Hath all things whereby others beautious bee
For though her eyes be small her mouth is great
Though they be Ivory yet her teeth be jeat
Though they be dimme yet she is light enough 
And though her harsh haire fall her skinne is rough
What though her cheeks be yellow her haire red
Give her thine and she hath a maydenhead
These things are beauties elements where these
Meet in one that one must as perfect please 
If red and white and each good quality
Be in thy wench ne'r aske where it doth lye
In buying things perfum'd we aske if there
Be muske and amber in it but not where
Though all her parts be not in th'  place 
She'hath yet an Anagram of a good face
If we might put the letters but one way
In the leane dearth of words what could wee say
When by the Gamut some Musitions make
A perfect song others will undertake 
By the same Gamut chang'd to equall it
Things simply good can never be unfit
She faire as any if all be like her
And if none bee then she is singular
All love is wonder if wee justly doe 
Account her wonderfull why not lovely too
Love built on beauty soone as beauty dies
Chuse this face chang'd by no deformities
Women are all like Angels the faire be
Like those which fell to worse but such as shee 
Like to good Angels nothing can impaire
'Tis lesse griefe to be foule then to have beene faire
For one nights revels silke and gold we chuse
But in long journeyes cloth and leather use
Beauty is barren oft best husbands say 
There is best land where there is foulest way
Oh what a soveraigne Plaister will shee bee
If thy past sinnes have taught thee jealousie
Here needs no spies nor eunuches her commit
Safe to thy foes yea to a Marmosit 
When Belgiaes citties the round countries drowne
That durty foulenesse guards and armes the towne
So doth her face guard her and so for thee
Which forc'd by businesse absent oft must bee
Shee whose face like clouds turnes the day to night 
Who mightier then the sea makes Moores seem white
Who though seaven yeares she in the Stews had laid
A Nunnery durst receive and thinke a maid
And though in childbeds labour she did lie
Midwifes would sweare 'twere but a tympanie 
Whom if shee accuse her selfe I credit lesse
Then witches which impossibles confesse
Whom Dildoes Bedstaves and her Velvet Glasse
Would be as loath to touch as Joseph was
One like none and lik'd of none fittest were 
For things in fashion every man will weare
Although thy hand and faith and good workes too
Have seal'd thy love which nothing should undoe
Yea though thou fall backe that apostasie
Confirme thy love yet much much I feare thee
Women are like the Arts forc'd unto none 
Open to'all searchers unpriz'd if unknowne
If I have caught a bird and let him flie
Another fouler using these meanes as I
May catch the same bird and as these things bee
Women are made for men not him nor mee 
Foxes and goats all beasts change when they please
Shall women more hot wily wild then these
Be bound to one man and did Nature then
Idly make them apter to'endure then men
They'are our clogges not their owne if a man bee 
Chain'd to a galley yet the galley'is free
Who hath a plow-land casts all his seed corne there
And yet allowes his ground more corne should beare
Though Danuby into the sea must flow
The sea receives the Rhene Volga and Po 
By nature which gave it this liberty
Thou lov'st but Oh canst thou love it and mee
Likenesse glues love and if that thou so doe
To make us like and love must I change too
More then thy hate I hate'it rather let mee 
Allow her change then change as oft as shee
And soe not teach but force my'opinion
To love not any one nor every one
To live in one land is captivitie
To runne all countries a wild roguery 
Waters stincke soone if in one place they bide
And in the vast sea are more putrifi'd
But when they kisse one banke and leaving this
Never looke backe but the next banke doe kisse
Then are they purest Change'is the nursery 
Of musicke joy life and eternity
Once and but once found in thy company
All thy suppos'd escapes are laid on mee
And as a thiefe at barre is question'd there
By all the men that have beene rob'd that yeare
So am I by this traiterous meanes surpriz'd 
By thy Hydroptique father catechiz'd
Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes
As though he came to kill a Cockatrice
Though hee hath oft sworne that hee would remove
Thy beauties beautie and food of our love 
Hope of his goods if I with thee were seene
Yet close and secret as our soules we'have beene
Though thy immortall mother which doth lye
Still buried in her bed yet will not dye
Takes this advantage to sleepe out day-light 
And watch thy entries and returnes all night
And when she takes thy hand and would seeme kind
Doth search what rings and armelets she can finde
And kissing notes the colour of thy face
And fearing least thou'art swolne doth thee embrace 
To trie if thou long doth name strange meates
And notes thy palenesse blushing sighs and sweats
And politiquely will to thee confesse
The sinnes of her owne youths ranke lustinesse
Yet love these Sorceries did remove and move 
Thee to gull thine owne mother for my love
Thy little brethren which like Faiery Sprights
Oft skipt into our chamber those sweet nights
And kist and ingled on thy fathers knee
Were brib'd next day to tell what they did see 
The grim eight-foot-high iron-bound serving-man
That oft names God in oathes and onely than
He that to barre the first gate doth as wide
As the great Rhodian Colossus stride
Which if in hell no other paines there were 
Makes mee feare hell because he must be there
Though by thy father he were hir'd to this
Could never witnesse any touch or kisse
But Oh too common ill I brought with mee
That which betray'd mee to my enemie 
A loud perfume which at my entrance cryed
Even at thy fathers nose so were wee spied
When like a tyran King that in his bed
Smelt gunpowder the pale wretch shivered
Had it beene some bad smell he would have thought 
That his owne feet or breath that smell had wrought
But as wee in our Ile emprisoned
Where cattell onely'and diverse dogs are bred
The pretious Vnicornes strange monsters call
So thought he good strange that had none at all 
I taught my silkes their whistling to forbeare
Even my opprest shoes dumbe and speechlesse were
Onely thou bitter sweet whom I had laid
Next mee mee traiterously hast betraid
And unsuspected hast invisibly 
At once fled unto him and staid with mee
Base excrement of earth which dost confound
Sense from distinguishing the sicke from sound
By thee the seely Amorous sucks his death
By drawing in a leprous harlots breath 
By thee the greatest staine to mans estate
Falls on us to be call'd effeminate
Though you be much lov'd in the Princes hall
There things that seeme exceed substantiall
Gods when yee fum'd on altars were pleas'd well 
Because you'were burnt not that they lik'd your smell
You'are loathsome all being taken simply alone
Shall wee love ill things joyn'd and hate each one
If you were good your good doth soone decay
And you are rare that takes the good away 
All my perfumes I give most willingly
To'embalme thy fathers corse What will hee die
Here take my Picture though I bid farewell
Thine in my heart where my soule dwels shall dwell
'Tis like me now but I dead 'twill be more
When wee are shadowes both then'twas before
When weather-beaten I come backe my hand 
Perhaps with rude oares torne or Sun beams tann'd
My face and brest of hairecloth and my head
With cares rash sodaine stormes being o'rspread
My body'a sack of bones broken within
And powders blew staines scatter'd on my skinne 
If rivall fooles taxe thee to'have lov'd a man
So foule and course as Oh I may seeme than
This shall say what I was and thou shalt say
Doe his hurts reach mee doth my worth decay
Or doe they reach his judging minde that hee 
Should now love lesse what hee did love to see
That which in him was faire and delicate
Was but the milke which in loves childish state
Did nurse it who now is growne strong enough
To feed on that which to disused tasts seemes tough
Oh let mee not serve so as those men serve
Whom honours smoakes at once fatten and sterve
Poorely enrich't with great mens words or lookes
Nor so write my name in thy loving bookes
As those Idolatrous flatterers which still 
Their Princes stiles with many Realmes fulfill
Whence they no tribute have and where no sway
Such services I offer as shall pay
Themselves I hate dead names Oh then let mee
Favorite in Ordinary or no favorite bee 
When my Soule was in her owne body sheath' 
Nor yet by oathes betroth'  nor kisses breath' 
Into my Purgatory faithlesse thee
Thy heart seem'd waxe and steele thy constancie
So carelesse flowers strow'd on the waters face 
The curled whirlepooles suck smack and embrace
Yet drowne them so the tapers beamie eye
Amorously twinkling beckens the giddie flie
Yet burnes his wings and such the devill is
Scarce visiting them who are intirely his 
When I behold a streame which from the spring
Doth with doubtfull melodious murmuring
Or in a speechlesse slumber calmely ride
Her wedded channels bosome and then chide
And bend her browes and swell if any bough 
Do but stoop downe or kisse her upmost brow
Yet if her often gnawing kisses winne
The traiterous banke to gape and let her in
She rusheth violently and doth divorce
Her from her native and her long-kept course 
And rores and braves it and in gallant scorne
In flattering eddies promising retorne
She flouts the channell who thenceforth is drie
Then say I that is shee and this am I
Yet let not thy deepe bitternesse beget 
Carelesse despaire in mee for that will whet
My minde to scorne and Oh love dull'd with paine
Was ne'r so wise nor well arm'd as disdaine
Then with new eyes I shall survay thee'and spie
Death in thy cheekes and darknesse in thine eye 
Though hope bred faith and love thus taught I shall
As nations do from Rome from thy love fall
My hate shall outgrow thine and utterly
I will renounce thy dalliance and when I
Am the Recusant in that resolute state 
What hurts it mee to be'excommunicate
Natures lay Ideot I taught thee to love
And in that sophistrie Oh thou dost prove
Too subtile Foole thou didst not understand
The mystique language of the eye nor hand
Nor couldst thou judge the difference of the aire 
Of sighes and say this lies this sounds despaire
Nor by the'eyes water call a maladie
Desperately hot or changing feaverously
I had not taught thee then the Alphabet
Of flowers how they devisefully being set 
And bound up might with speechlesse secrecie
Deliver arrands mutely and mutually
Remember since all thy words us'd to bee
To every suitor I if my friends agree
Since household charmes thy husbands name to teach 
Were all the love trickes that thy wit could reach
And since an houres discourse could scarce have made
One answer in thee and that ill arraid
In broken proverbs and torne sentences
Thou art not by so many duties his 
That from the worlds Common having sever'd thee
Inlaid thee neither to be seene nor see
As mine who have with amorous delicacies
Refin'd thee'into a blis-full Paradise
Thy graces and good words my creatures bee 
I planted knowledge and lifes tree in thee
Which Oh shall strangers taste Must I alas
Frame and enamell Plate and drinke in Glasse
Chafe waxe for others seales breake a colts force
And leave him then beeing made a ready horse
As the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still
As that which from chaf'd muskats pores doth trill
As the Almighty Balme of th'  East
Such are the sweat drops of my Mistris breast
And on her her skin such lustre sets 
They seeme no sweat drops but pearle coronets
Ranke sweaty froth thy Mistresse brow defiles
Like spermatique issue of ripe menstruous boiles
Or like the skumme which by needs lawlesse law
Enforc'd Sanserra starved men did draw 
From parboild shooes and bootes and all the rest
Which were with any soveraigne fatnes blest
And like vile lying stones in saffrond tinne
Or warts or wheales they hang upon her skinne
Round as the world her head on every side 
Like to the fatall Ball which fell on Ide
Or that whereof God had such jealousie
As for the ravishing thereof we die
Thy head is like a rough-hewne statue of jeat
Where marks for eyes nose mouth are yet scarce set 
Like the first Chaos or flat seeming face
Of Cynthia when th'  shadowes her embrace
Like Proserpines white beauty-keeping chest
Or Joues best fortunes urne is her faire brest
Thine like worme eaten trunkes cloth'  in seals skin 
Or grave that dust without and stinke within
And like that slender stalke at whose end stands
The wood-bine quivering are her armes and hands
Like rough bark'd elmboughes or the russet skin
Of men late scurg'd for madnes or for sinne 
Like Sun-parch'd quarters on the citie gate
Such is thy tann'd skins lamentable state
And like a bunch of ragged carrets stand
The short swolne fingers of thy gouty hand
Then like the Chymicks masculine equall fire 
Which in the Lymbecks warme wombe doth inspire
Into th'  worthlesse durt a soule of gold
Such cherishing heat her best lov'd part doth hold
Thine like the dread mouth of a fired gunne
Or like hot liquid metalls newly runne 
Into clay moulds or like to that AEtna
Where round about the grasse is burnt away
Are not your kisses then as filthy and more
As a worme sucking an invenom'd sore
Doth not thy fearefull hand in feeling quake 
As one which gath'  flowers still feares a snake
Is not your last act harsh and violent
As when a Plough a stony ground doth rent
So kisse good Turtles so devoutly nice
Are Priests in handling reverent sacrifice 
And such in searching wounds the Surgeon is
As wee when wee embrace or touch or kisse
Leave her and I will leave comparing thus
She and comparisons are odious
No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnall face
Yong Beauties force our love and that a Rape
This doth but counsaile yet you cannot scape
If t'were a shame to love here t'were no shame 
Affection here takes Reverences name
Were her first yeares the Golden Age That true
But now shee gold oft tried and ever new
That was her torrid and inflaming time
This is her tolerable Tropique clyme 
Faire eyes who askes more heate then comes from hence
He in a fever wishes pestilence
Call not these wrinkles graves If graves they were
They were Loves graves for else he is no where
Yet lies not Love dead here but here doth sit 
Vow'd to this trench like an Anachorit
And here till hers which must be his death come
He doth not digge a Grave but build a Tombe
Here dwells he though he sojourne ev'ry where
In Progresse yet his standing house is here 
Here where still Evening is not noone nor night
Where no voluptuousnesse yet all delight
In all her words unto all hearers fit
You may at Revels you at Counsaile sit
This is loves timber youth his under-wood 
There he as wine in Iune enrages blood
Which then comes seasonabliest when our tast
And appetite to other things is past
Xerxes strange Lydian love the Platane tree
Was lov'd for age none being so large as shee 
Or else because being yong nature did blesse
Her youth with ages glory Barrennesse
If we love things long sought Age is a thing
Which we are fifty yeares in compassing
If transitory things which soone decay 
Age must be lovelyest at the latest day
But name not Winter-faces whose skin slacke
Lanke as an unthrifts purse but a soules sacke
Whose Eyes seeke light within for all here shade
Whose mouthes are holes rather worne out then made 
Whose every tooth to a severall place is gone
To vexe their soules at Resurrection
Name not these living Deaths-heads unto mee
For these not Ancient but Antique be
I hate extreames yet I had rather stay 
With Tombs then Cradles to weare out a day
Since such loves naturall lation is may still
My love descend and journey downe the hill
Not panting after growing beauties so
I shall ebbe out with them who home-ward goe
Image of her whom I love more then she
Whose faire impression in my faithfull heart
Makes mee her Medall and makes her love mee
As Kings do coynes to which their stamps impart
The value goe and take my heart from hence 
Which now is growne too great and good for me
Honours oppresse weake spirits and our sense
Strong objects dull the more the lesse wee see
When you are gone and Reason gone with you
Then Fantasie is Queene and Soule and all 
She can present joyes meaner then you do
Convenient and more proportionall
So if I dreame I have you I have you
For all our joyes are but fantasticall
And so I scape the paine for paine is true 
And sleepe which locks up sense doth lock out all
After a such fruition I shall wake
And but the waking nothing shall repent
And shall to love more thankfull Sonnets make
Then if more honour teares and paines were spent 
But dearest heart and dearer image stay
Alas true joyes at best are dreame enough
Though you stay here you passe too fast away
For even at first lifes Taper is a snuffe
Fill'd with her love may I be rather grown 
Mad with much heart then ideott with none
Not that in colour it was like thy haire
For Armelets of that thou maist let me weare
Nor that thy hand it oft embrac'd and kist
For so it had that good which oft I mist
Nor for that silly old moralitie 
That as these linkes were knit our love should bee
Mourne I that I thy seavenfold chaine have lost
Nor for the luck sake but the bitter cost
O shall twelve righteous Angels which as yet
No leaven of vile soder did admit 
Nor yet by any way have straid or gone
From the first state of their Creation
Angels which heaven commanded to provide
All things to me and be my faithfull guide
To gaine new friends t'appease great enemies 
To comfort my soule when I lie or rise
Shall these twelve innocents by thy severe
Sentence dread judge my sins great burden beare
Shall they be damn'd and in the furnace throwne
And punisht for offences not their owne 
They save not me they doe not ease my paines
When in that hell they'are burnt and tyed in chains
Were they but Crownes of France I cared not
For most of these their naturall Countreys rot
I think possesseth they come here to us 
So pale so lame so leane so ruinous
And howsoe'r French Kings most Christian be
Their Crownes are circumcis'd most Iewishly
Or were they Spanish Stamps still travelling
That are become as Catholique as their King 
Those unlickt beare-whelps unfil'd pistolets
That more than Canon shot availes or lets
Which negligently left unrounded looke
Like many angled figures in the booke
Of some great Conjurer that would enforce 
Nature as these doe justice from her course
Which as the soule quickens head feet and heart
As streames like veines run through th'  every part
Visit all Countries and have slily made
Gorgeous France ruin'd ragged and decay'd 
Scotland which knew no State proud in one day
And mangled seventeen-headed Belgia
Or were it such gold as that wherewithall
Almighty Chymiques from each minerall
Having by subtle fire a soule out-pull'd 
Are dirtely and desperately gull'd
I would not spit to quench the fire they'are in
For they are guilty of much hainous Sin
But shall my harmlesse angels perish Shall
I lose my guard my ease my food my all 
Much hope which they should nourish will be dead
Much of my able youth and lustyhead
Will vanish if thou love let them alone
For thou wilt love me lesse when they are gone
And be content that some lowd squeaking Cryer 
Well-pleas'd with one leane thred-bare groat for hire
May like a devill roare through every street
And gall the finders conscience if they meet
Or let mee creepe to some dread Conjurer
That with phantastique scheames fils full much paper 
Which hath divided heaven in tenements
And with whores theeves and murderers stuft his rents
So full that though hee passe them all in sinne
He leaves himselfe no roome to enter in
But if when all his art and time is spent 
Hee say 'twill ne'r be found yet be content
Receive from him that doome ungrudgingly
Because he is the mouth of destiny
Thou say'st alas the gold doth still remaine
Though it be chang'd and put into a chaine 
So in the first falne angels resteth still
Wisdome and knowledge but'tis turn'd to ill
As these should doe good works and should provide
Necessities but now must nurse thy pride
And they are still bad angels Mine are none 
For forme gives being and their forme is gone
Pitty these Angels yet their dignities
Passe Vertues Powers and Principalities
But thou art resolute Thy will be done
Yet with such anguish as her onely sonne 
The Mother in the hungry grave doth lay
Vnto the fire these Martyrs I betray
Good soules for you give life to every thing
Good Angels for good messages you bring
Destin'd you might have beene to such an one 
As would have lov'd and worship'd you alone
One that would suffer hunger nakednesse
Yea death ere he would make your number lesse
But I am guilty of your sad decay
May your few fellowes longer with me stay 
But o thou wretched finder whom I hate
So that I almost pitty thy estate
Gold being the heaviest metal amongst all
May my most heavy curse upon thee fall
Here fetter'd manacled and hang'd in chains 
First mayst thou bee then chaind to hellish paines
Or be with forraine gold brib'd to betray
Thy Countrey and faile both of that and thy pay
May the next thing thou stoop'st to reach containe
Poyson whose nimble fume rot thy moist braine 
Or libels or some interdicted thing
Which negligently kept thy ruine bring
Lust-bred diseases rot thee and dwell with thee
Itching desire and no abilitie
May all the evils that gold ever wrought 
All mischiefes that all devils ever thought
Want after plenty poore and gouty age
The plagues of travellers love marriage
Afflict thee and at thy lives last moment
May thy swolne sinnes themselves to thee present 
But I forgive repent thee honest man
Gold is Restorative restore it then
But if from it thou beest loath to depart
Because 'tis cordiall would twere at thy heart
Since she must go and I must mourn come Night
Environ me with darkness whilst I write
Shadow that hell unto me which alone
I am to suffer when my Love is gone
Alas the darkest Magick cannot do it 
Thou and greate Hell to boot are shadows to it
Should Cinthia quit thee Venus and each starre
It would not forme one thought dark as mine are
I could lend thee obscureness now and say
Out of my self There should be no more Day 
Such is already my felt want of sight
Did not the fires within me force a light
Oh Love that fire and darkness should be mixt
Or to thy Triumphs soe strange torments fixt
Is't because thou thy self art blind that wee 
Thy Martyrs must no more each other see
Or tak'st thou pride to break us on the wheel
And view old Chaos in the Pains we feel
Or have we left undone some mutual Right
Through holy fear that merits thy despight 
No no The falt was mine impute it to me
Or rather to conspiring destinie
Which since I lov'd for forme before decreed
That I should suffer when I lov'd indeed
And therefore now sooner then I can say 
I saw the golden fruit 'tis rapt away
Or as I had watcht one drop in a vast stream
And I left wealthy only in a dream
Yet Love thou'rt blinder then thy self in this
To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss 
And where my own sad truth may expiate
Thy wrath to make her fortune run my fate
So blinded Justice doth when Favorites fall
Strike them their house their friends their followers all
Was't not enough that thou didst dart thy fires 
Into our blouds inflaming our desires
And made'st us sigh and glow and pant and burn
And then thy self into our flame did'st turn
Was't not enough that thou didst hazard us
To paths in love so dark so dangerous 
And those so ambush'd round with houshold spies
And over all thy husbands towring eyes
That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie
Yet went we not still on with Constancie
Have we not kept our guards like spie on spie 
Had correspondence whilst the foe stood by
Stoln more to sweeten them our many blisses
Of meetings conference embracements kisses
Shadow'd with negligence our most respects
Varied our language through all dialects 
Of becks winks looks and often under-boards
Spoak dialogues with our feet far from our words
Have we prov'd all these secrets of our Art
Yea thy pale inwards and thy panting heart
And after all this passed Purgatory 
Must sad divorce make us the vulgar story
First let our eyes be rivited quite through
Our turning brains and both our lips grow to
Let our armes clasp like Ivy and our fear
Freese us together that we may stick here 
Till Fortune that would rive us with the deed
Strain her eyes open and it make them bleed
For Love it cannot be whom hitherto
I have accus'd should such a mischief doe
Oh Fortune thou'rt not worth my least exclame 
And plague enough thou hast in thy own shame
Do thy great worst my friend and I have armes
Though not against thy strokes against thy harmes
Rend us in sunder thou canst not divide
Our bodies so but that our souls are ty'd 
And we can love by letters still and gifts
And thoughts and dreams Love never wanteth shifts
I will not look upon the quickning Sun
But straight her beauty to my sense shall run
The ayre shall note her soft the fire most pure 
Water suggest her clear and the earth sure
Time shall not lose our passages the Spring
How fresh our love was in the beginning
The Summer how it ripened in the eare
And Autumn what our golden harvests were 
The Winter I'll not think on to spite thee
But count it a lost season so shall shee
And dearest Friend since we must part drown night
With hope of Day burthens well born are light
Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere 
Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere
And what he cannot in like Portions pay
The world enjoyes in Mass and so we may
Be then ever your self and let no woe
Win on your health your youth your beauty so 
Declare your self base fortunes Enemy
No less by your contempt then constancy
That I may grow enamoured on your mind
When my own thoughts I there reflected find
For this to th'  of my Dear I vow 
My Deeds shall still be what my words are now
The Poles shall move to teach me ere I start
And when I change my Love I'll change my heart
Nay if I wax but cold in my desire
Think heaven hath motion lost and the world fire 
Much more I could but many words have made
That oft suspected which men would perswade
Take therefore all in this I love so true
As I will never look for less in you
Harke newes o envy thou shalt heare descry'd
My Iulia who as yet was ne'r envy'd
To vomit gall in slander swell her vaines
With calumny that hell it selfe disdaines
Is her continuall practice does her best 
To teare opinion even out of the brest
Of dearest friends and which is worse than vilde
Sticks jealousie in wedlock her owne childe
Scapes not the showres of envie To repeate
The monstrous fashions how were alive to eate 
Deare reputation Would to God she were
But halfe so loath to act vice as to heare
My milde reproofe Liv'd Mantuan now againe
That foemall Mastix to limme with his penne
This she Chymera that hath eyes of fire 
Burning with anger anger feeds desire
Tongued like the night-crow whose ill boding cries
Give out for nothing but new injuries
Her breath like to the juice in Tenarus
That blasts the springs though ne'r so prosperous 
Her hands I know not how us'd more to spill
The food of others then her selfe to fill
But oh her minde that Orcus which includes
Legions of mischiefs countlesse multitudes
Of formlesse curses projects unmade up 
Abuses yet unfashion'd thoughts corrupt
Mishapen Cavils palpable untroths
Inevitable errours self-accusing oaths
These like those Atoms swarming in the Sunne
Throng in her bosome for creation 
I blush to give her halfe her due yet say
No poyson halfe so bad as Iulia
I sing no harme good sooth to any wight
To Lord or foole Cuckold begger or knight
To peace-teaching Lawyer Proctor or brave
Reformed or reduced Captaine Knave
Officer Iugler or Iustice of peace 
Iuror or Iudge I touch no fat sowes grease
I am no Libeller nor will be any
But like a true man say there are too many
I feare not ore tenus for my tale
Nor Count nor Counsellour will redd or pale 
A Citizen and his wife the other day
Both riding on one horse upon the way
I overtooke the wench a pretty peate
And by her eye well fitting for the feate
I saw the lecherous Citizen turne backe 
His head and on his wifes lip steale a smacke
Whence apprehending that the man was kinde
Riding before to kisse his wife behinde
To get acquaintance with him I began
To sort discourse fit for so fine a man 
I ask'd the number of the Plaguy Bill
Ask'd if the Custome Farmers held out still
Of the Virginian plot and whether Ward
The traffique of the Iland seas had marr'd
Whether the Brittaine Burse did fill apace 
And likely were to give th'  disgrace
Of new-built Algate and the More-field crosses
Of store of Bankerouts and poore Merchants losses
I urged him to speake But he as mute
As an old Courtier worne to his last suite 
Replies with onely yeas and nayes At last
To fit his element my theame I cast
On Tradesmens gaines that set his tongue agoing
Alas good sir quoth he There is no doing
In Court nor City now she smil'd and I 
And in my conscience both gave him the lie
In one met thought but he went on apace
And at the present time with such a face
He rail'd as fray'd me for he gave no praise
To any but my Lord of Essex dayes 
Call'd those the age of action true quoth Hee
There now as great an itch of bravery
And heat of taking up but cold lay downe
For put to push of pay away they runne
Our onely City trades of hope now are 
Bawd Tavern-keeper Whore and Scrivener
The much of Privileg'd kingsmen and the store
Of fresh protections make the rest all poore
In the first state of their Creation
Though many stoutly stand yet proves not one 
A righteous pay-master Thus ranne he on
In a continued rage so void of reason
Seem'd his harsh talke I sweat for feare of treason
And troth how could I lesse when in the prayer
For the protection of the wise Lord Major 
And his wise brethrens worships when one prayeth
He swore that none could say Amen with faith
To get him off from what I glowed to heare
In happy time an Angel did appeare
The bright Signe of a lov'd and wel-try'd Inne 
Where many Citizens with their wives have bin
Well us'd and often here I pray'd him stay
To take some due refreshment by the way
Looke how hee look'd that hid the gold his hope
And at returne found nothing but a Rope 
So he on me refus'd and made away
Though willing she pleaded a weary day
I found my misse struck hands and praid him tell
To hold acquaintance still where he did dwell
He barely nam'd the street promis'd the Wine 
But his kinde wife gave me the very Signe
To make the doubt cleare that no woman true
Was it my fate to prove it strong in you
Thought I but one had breathed purest aire
And must she needs be false because she faire
Is it your beauties marke or of your youth 
Or your perfection not to study truth
Or thinke you heaven is deafe or hath no eyes
Or those it hath smile at your perjuries
Are vowes so cheape with women or the matter
Whereof they are made that they are writ in water 
And blowne away with winde Or doth their breath
Both hot and cold at once make life and death
Who could have thought so many accents sweet
Form'd into words so many sighs should meete
As from our hearts so many oathes and teares 
Sprinkled among all sweeter by our feares
And the divine impression of stolne kisses
That seal'd the rest should now prove empty blisses
Did you draw bonds to forfet signe to breake
Or must we reade you quite from what you speake 
And finde the truth out the wrong way or must
Hee first desire you false would wish you just
O I prophane though most of women be
This kinde of beast my thought shall except thee
My dearest love though froward jealousie 
With circumstance might urge thy'inconstancie
Sooner I'll thinke the Sunne will cease to cheare
The teeming earth and that forget to beare
Sooner that rivers will runne back or Thames
With ribs of Ice in June would bind his streames 
Or Nature by whose strength the world endures
Would change her course before you alter yours
But O that treacherous breast to whom weake you
Did trust our Counsells and wee both may rue
Having his falshood found too late 'twas hee 
That made me cast you guilty and you me
Whilst he black wretch betray'd each simple word
Wee spake unto the cunning of a third
Curst may hee be that so our love hath slaine
And wander on the earth wretched as Cain 
Wretched as hee and not deserve least pitty
In plaguing him let misery be witty
Let all eyes shunne him and hee shunne each eye
Till hee be noysome as his infamie
May he without remorse deny God thrice 
And not be trusted more on his Soules price
And after all selfe torment when hee dyes
May Wolves teare out his heart Vultures his eyes
Swine eate his bowels and his falser tongue
That utter'd all be to some Raven flung 
And let his carrion coarse be a longer feast
To the Kings dogges then any other beast
Now have I curst let us our love revive
In mee the flame was never more alive
I could beginne againe to court and praise 
And in that pleasure lengthen the short dayes
Of my lifes lease like Painters that do take
Delight not in made worke but whiles they make
I could renew those times when first I saw
Love in your eyes that gave my tongue the law 
To like what you lik'd and at maskes and playes
Commend the selfe same Actors the same wayes
Aske how you did and often with intent
Of being officious be impertinent
All which were such soft pastimes as in these 
Love was as subtilly catch'd as a disease
But being got it is a treasure sweet
Which to defend is harder then to get
And ought not be prophan'd on either part
For though'tis got by chance 'tis kept by art
By our first strange and fatall interview
By all desires which thereof did ensue
By our long starving hopes by that remorse
Which my words masculine perswasive force
Begot in thee and by the memory 
Of hurts which spies and rivals threatned me
I calmly beg But by thy fathers wrath
By all paines which want and divorcement hath
I conjure thee and all the oathes which I
And thou have sworne to seale joynt constancy 
Here I unsweare and overswear them thus
Thou shalt not love by wayes so dangerous
Temper o faire Love loves impetuous rage
Be my true Mistris still not my faign'd Page
I'll goe and by thy kinde leave leave behinde 
Thee onely worthy to nurse in my minde
Thirst to come backe o if thou die before
My soule from other lands to thee shall soare
Thy else Almighty beautie cannot move
Rage from the Seas nor thy love teach them love 
Nor tame wilde Boreas harshnesse Thou hast reade
How roughly hee in peeces shivered
Faire Orithea whom he swore he lov'd
Fall ill or good 'tis madnesse to have prov'd
Dangers unurg'd Feed on this flattery 
That absent Lovers one in th'  be
Dissemble nothing not a boy nor change
Thy bodies habite nor mindes bee not strange
To thy selfe onely All will spie in thy face
A blushing womanly discovering grace 
Richly cloath'  Apes are call'd Apes and as soone
Ecclips'd as bright we call the Moone the Moone
Men of France changeable Camelions
Spittles of diseases shops of fashions
Loves fuellers and the rightest company 
Of Players which upon the worlds stage be
Will quickly know thee and no lesse alas
Th'indifferent Italian as we passe
His warme land well content to thinke thee Page
Will hunt thee with such lust and hideous rage 
As Lots faire guests were vext But none of these
Nor spungy hydroptique Dutch shall thee displease
If thou stay here O stay here for for thee
England is onely a worthy Gallerie
To walke in expectation till from thence 
Our greatest King call thee to his presence
When I am gone dreame me some happinesse
Nor let thy lookes our long hid love confesse
Nor praise nor dispraise me nor blesse nor curse
Openly loves force nor in bed fright thy Nurse 
With midnights startings crying out oh oh
Nurse o my love is slaine I saw him goe
O'r the white Alpes alone I saw him I
Assail'd fight taken stabb'd bleed fall and die
Augure me better chance except dread Iove 
Thinke it enough for me to'have had thy love
The heavens rejoyce in motion why should I
Abjure my so much lov'd variety
And not with many youth and love divide
Pleasure is none if not diversifi'd
The sun that sitting in the chaire of light 
Sheds flame into what else so ever doth seem bright
Is not contented at one Signe to Inne
But ends his year and with a new beginnes
All things doe willingly in change delight
The fruitfull mother of our appetite 
Rivers the clearer and more pleasing are
Where their fair spreading streames run wide and farr
And a dead lake that no strange bark doth greet
Corrupts it self and what doth live in it
Let no man tell me such a one is faire 
And worthy all alone my love to share
Nature in her hath done the liberall part
Of a kinde Mistresse and imploy'd her art
To make her loveable and I aver
Him not humane that would turn back from her 
I love her well and would if need were dye
To doe her service But followes it that I
Must serve her onely when I may have choice
Of other beauties and in change rejoice
The law is hard and shall not have my voice 
The last I saw in all extreames is faire
And holds me in the Sun-beames of her haire
Her nymph-like features such agreements have
That I could venture with her to the grave
Another brown I like her not the worse 
Her tongue is soft and takes me with discourse
Others for that they well descended are
Do in my love obtain as large a share
And though they be not fair 'tis much with mee
To win their love onely for their degree 
And though I faile of my required ends
The attempt is glorious and it self commends
How happy were our Syres in ancient times
Who held plurality of loves no crime
With them it was accounted charity 
To stirre up race of all indifferently
Kindreds were not exempted from the bands
Which with the Persian still in usage stands
Women were then no sooner asked then won
And what they did was honest and well done 
But since this title honour hath been us'd
Our weake credulity hath been abus'd
The golden laws of nature are repeald
Which our first Fathers in such reverence held
Our liberty revers'd our Charter gone 
And we're made servants to opinion
A monster in no certain shape attir'd
And whose originall is much desir'd
Formlesse at first but goeing on it fashions
And doth prescribe manners and laws to nations 
Here love receiv'd immedicable harmes
And was dispoiled of his daring armes
A greater want then is his daring eyes
He lost those awfull wings with which he flies
His sinewy bow and those immortall darts 
Wherewith he'is wont to bruise resisting hearts
Onely some few strong in themselves and free
Retain the seeds of antient liberty
Following that part of Love although deprest
And make a throne for him within their brest 
In spight of modern censures him avowing
Their Soveraigne all service him allowing
Amongst which troop although I am the least
Yet equall in perfection with the best
I glory in subjection of his hand 
Nor ever did decline his least command
For in whatever forme the message came
My heart did open and receive the same
But time will in his course a point discry
When I this loved service must deny 
For our allegiance temporary is
With firmer age returnes our liberties
What time in years and judgement we repos'd
Shall not so easily be to change dispos'd
Nor to the art of severall eyes obeying 
But beauty with true worth securely weighing
Which being found assembled in some one
Wee'l love her ever and love her alone
Who ever loves if he do not propose
The right true end of love he one that goes
To sea for nothing but to make him sick
Love is a bear-whelp born if we o're lick
Our love and force it new strange shapes to take 
We erre and of a lump a monster make
Were not a Calf a monster that were grown
Face'd like a man though better then his own
Perfection is in unitie preferr
One woman first and then one thing in her 
I when I value gold may think upon
The ductilness the application
The wholsomness the ingenuitie
From rust from soil from fire ever free
But if I love it 'tis because 'tis made 
By our new nature Use the soul of trade
All these in women we might think upon
If women had them and yet love but one
Can men more injure women then to say
They love them for that by which they're not they 
Makes virtue woman must I cool my bloud
Till I both be and find one wise and good
May barren Angels love so But if we
Make love to woman virtue is not she
As beauty'is not nor wealth He that strayes thus 
From her to hers is more adulterous
Then if he took her maid Search every spheare
And firmament our Cupid is not there
He an infernal god and under ground
With Pluto dwells where gold and fire abound 
Men to such Gods their sacrificing Coles
Did not in Altars lay but pits and holes
Although we see Celestial bodies move
Above the earth the earth we Till and love
So we her ayres contemplate words and heart 
And virtues but we love the Centrique part
Nor is the soul more worthy or more fit
For love then this as infinite as it
But in attaining this desired place
How much they erre that set out at the face 
The hair a Forest is of Ambushes
Of springes snares fetters and manacles
The brow becalms us when 'tis smooth and plain
And when 'tis wrinckled shipwracks us again
Smooth 'tis a Paradice where we would have 
Immortal stay and wrinkled 'tis our grave
The Nose like to the first Meridian runs
Not 'twixt an East and West but 'twixt two suns
It leaves a Cheek a rosie Hemisphere
On either side and then directs us where 
Upon the Islands fortunate we fall
Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall
Her swelling lips To which when wee are come
We anchor there and think our selves at home
For they seem all there Syrens songs and there 
Wise Delphick Oracles do fill the ear
There in a Creek where chosen pearls do swell
The Remora her cleaving tongue doth dwell
These and the glorious Promontory her Chin
Ore past and the streight Hellespont betweene 
The Sestos and Abydos of her breasts
Not of two Lovers but two Loves the neasts
Succeeds a boundless sea but yet thine eye
Some Island moles may scattered there descry
And Sailing towards her India in that way 
Shall at her fair Atlantick Navell stay
Though thence the Current be thy Pilot made
Yet ere thou be where thou wouldst be embay'd
Thou shalt upon another Forest set
Where many Shipwrack and no further get 
When thou art there consider what this chace
Mispent by thy beginning at the face
Rather set out below practice my Art
Some Symetry the foot hath with that part
Which thou dost seek and is thy Map for that 
Lovely enough to stop but not stay at
Least subject to disguise and change it is
Men say the Devil never can change his
It is the Emblem that hath figured
Firmness 'tis the first part that comes to bed 
Civilitie we see refin'd the kiss
Which at the face began transplanted is
Since to the hand since to the Imperial knee
Now at the Papal foot delights to be
If Kings think that the nearer way and do 
Rise from the foot Lovers may do so too
For as free Spheres move faster far then can
Birds whom the air resists so may that man
Which goes this empty and AEtherial way
Then if at beauties elements he stay 
Rich Nature hath in women wisely made
Two purses and their mouths aversely laid
They then which to the lower tribute owe
That way which that Exchequer looks must go
He which doth not his error is as great 
As who by Clyster gave the Stomack meat
Come Madam come all rest my powers defie
Until I labour I in labour lie
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight
Is tir'd with standing though he never fight
Off with that girdle like heavens Zone glittering 
But a far fairer world incompassing
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear
That th'  of busie fooles may be stopt there
Unlace your self for that harmonious chyme
Tells me from you that now it is bed time 
Off with that happy busk which I envie
That still can be and still can stand so nigh
Your gown going off such beautious state reveals
As when from flowry meads th'  shadow steales
Off with that wyerie Coronet and shew 
The haiery Diademe which on you doth grow
Now off with those shooes and then safely tread
In this loves hallow'd temple this soft bed
In such white robes heaven Angels us'd to be
Receavd by men Thou Angel bringst with thee 
A heaven like Mahomets Paradise and though
Ill spirits walk in white we easly know
By this these Angels from an evil sprite
Those set our hairs but these our flesh uprigh
Licence my roaving hands and let them go 
Before behind between above below
O my America my new-found-land
My kingdome safliest when with one man man'd
My Myne of precious stones My Emperie
How blest am I in this discovering thee 
To enter in these bonds is to be free
Then where my hand is set my seal shall be
Full nakedness All joyes are due to thee
As souls unbodied bodies uncloth'  must be
To taste whole joyes Gems which you women use 
Are like Atlanta balls cast in mens views
That when a fools eye lighteth on a Gem
His earthly soul may covet theirs not them
Like pictures or like books gay coverings made
For lay-men are all women thus array'd 
Themselves are mystick books which only wee
Whom their imputed grace will dignifie
Must see reveal'd Then since that I may know
As liberally as to a Midwife shew
Thy self cast all yea this white lynnen hence 
There is no pennance due to innocence
To teach thee I am naked first why than
What needst thou have more covering then a man
Till I have peace with thee warr other men
And when I have peace can I leave thee then
All other Warrs are scrupulous Only thou
O fayr free Citty maist thyselfe allowe
To any one In Flanders who can tell 
Whether the Master presse or men rebell
Only we know that which all Ideots say
They beare most blows which come to part the fray
France in her lunatique giddines did hate
Ever our men yea and our God of late 
Yet she relyes upon our Angels well
Which nere returne no more then they which fell
Sick Ireland is with a strange warr possest
Like to an Ague now raging now at rest
Which time will cure yet it must doe her good 
If she were purg'd and her head vayne let blood
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeys give
We touch all gold but find no food to live
And I should be in the hott parching clyme
To dust and ashes turn'd before my time 
To mew me in a Ship is to inthrall
Mee in a prison that weare like to fall
Or in a Cloyster save that there men dwell
In a calme heaven here in a swaggering hell
Long voyages are long consumptions 
And ships are carts for executions
Yea they are Deaths Is't not all one to flye
Into an other World as t'is to dye
Here let mee warr in these armes lett mee lye
Here lett mee parlee batter bleede and dye 
Thyne armes imprison me and myne armes thee
Thy hart thy ransome is take myne for mee
Other men war that they their rest may gayne
But wee will rest that wee may fight agayne
Those warrs the ignorant these th' 'd love 
There wee are alwayes under here above
There Engins farr off breed a just true feare
Neere thrusts pikes stabs yea bullets hurt not here
There lyes are wrongs here safe uprightly lye
There men kill men we'will make one by and by 
Thou nothing I not halfe so much shall do
In these Warrs as they may which from us two
Shall spring Thousands wee see which travaile not
To warrs But stay swords armes and shott
To make at home And shall not I do then 
More glorious service staying to make men
Vnseasonable man statue of ice
What could to countries solitude entice
Thee in this yeares cold and decrepit time
Natures instinct drawes to the warmer clime
Even small birds who by that courage dare 
In numerous fleets saile through their Sea the aire
What delicacie can in fields appeare
Whil'st Flora'herselfe doth a freeze jerkin weare
Whil'st windes do all the trees and hedges strip
Of leafes to furnish roddes enough to whip 
Thy madnesse from thee and all springs by frost
Have taken cold and their sweet murmure lost
If thou thy faults or fortunes would'st lament
With just solemnity do it in Lent
At Court the spring already advanced is 
The Sunne stayes longer up and yet not his
The glory is farre other other fires
First zeale to Prince and State then loves desires
Burne in one brest and like heavens two great lights
The first doth governe dayes the other nights 
And then that early light which did appeare
Before the Sunne and Moone created were
The Princes favour is defus'd o'r all
From which all Fortunes Names and Natures fall
Then from those wombes of starres the Brides bright eyes 
At every glance a constellation flyes
And sowes the Court with starres and doth prevent
In light and power the all-ey'd firmament
First her eyes kindle other Ladies eyes
Then from their beames their jewels lusters rise 
And from their jewels torches do take fire
And all is warmth and light and good desire
Most other Courts alas are like to hell
Where in darke plotts fire without light doth dwell
Or but like Stoves for lust and envy get 
Continuall but artificiall heat
Here zeale and love growne one all clouds disgest
And make our Court an everlasting East
And can'st thou be from thence No I am there
As heaven to men dispos'd is every where 
So are those Courts whose Princes animate
Not onely all their house but all their State
Let no man thinke because he is full he hath all
Kings as their patterne God are liberall
Not onely in fulnesse but capacitie 
Enlarging narrow men to feele and see
And comprehend the blessings they bestow
So reclus'd hermits often times do know
More of heavens glory then a worldling can
As man is of the world the heart of man 
Is an epitome of Gods great booke
Of creatures and man need no farther looke
So is the Country of Courts where sweet peace doth
As their one common soule give life to both
I am not then from Court Dreamer thou art 
Think'st thou fantastique that thou hast a part
In the East-Indian fleet because thou hast
A little spice or Amber in thy taste
Because thou art not frozen art thou warme
Seest thou all good because thou seest no harme 
The earth doth in her inward bowels hold
Stuffe well dispos'd and which would faine be gold
But never shall except it chance to lye
So upward that heaven gild it with his eye
As for divine things faith comes from above 
So for best civill use all tinctures move
From higher powers From God religion springs
Wisdome and honour from the use of Kings
Then unbeguile thy selfe and know with mee
That Angels though on earth employd they bee 
Are still in heav'n so is hee still at home
That doth abroad to honest actions come
Chide thy selfe then O foole which yesterday
Might'st have read more then all thy books bewray
Hast thou a history which doth present 
A Court where all affections do assent
Unto the Kings and that that Kings are just
And where it is no levity to trust
Where there is no ambition but to'obey
Where men need whisper nothing and yet may 
Where the Kings favours are so plac'd that all
Finde that the King therein is liberall
To them in him because his favours bend
To vertue to the which they all pretend
Thou hast no such yet here was this and more 
An earnest lover wise then and before
Our little Cupid hath sued Livery
And is no more in his minority
Hee is admitted now into that brest
Where the Kings Counsells and his secrets rest 
What hast thou lost O ignorant man I knew
All this and onely therefore I withdrew
To know and feele all this and not to have
Words to expresse it makes a man a grave
Of his owne thoughts I would not therefore stay 
At a great feast having no Grace to say
And yet I scap'd not here for being come
Full of the common joy I utter'd some
Reade then this nuptiall song which was not made
Either the Court or mens hearts to invade 
But since I'am dead and buried I could frame
No Epitaph which might advance my fame
So much as this poore song which testifies
I did unto that day some sacrifice
Leave leave faire Bride your solitary bed
No more shall you returne to it alone
It nourseth sadnesse and your bodies print
Like to a grave the yielding downe doth dint 
You and your other you meet there anon
Put forth put forth that warme balme-breathing thigh
Which when next time you in these sheets wil smother
Which never was but must be oft more nigh 
Come glad from thence goe gladder then you came
To day put on perfection and a womans name
Our Golden Mines and furnish'd Treasurie
You which are Angels yet still bring with you 
Thousands of Angels on your mariage daies
Help with your presence and devise to praise
These rites which also unto you grow due
Conceitedly dresse her and be assign'd
By you fit place for every flower and jewell 
As gay as Flora and as rich as Inde
So may shee faire rich glad and in nothing lame
To day put on perfection and a womans name
Sonns of these Senators wealths deep oceans
Ye painted courtiers barrels of others wits
Yee country men who but your beasts love none
Yee of those fellowships whereof hee one
Of study and play made strange Hermaphrodits 
Here shine This Bridegroom to the Temple bring
Loe in yon path which store of straw'd flowers graceth
Except my sight faile 'tis no other thing
Weep not nor blush here is no griefe nor shame 
To day put on perfection and a womans name
Thy two-leav'd gates faire Temple unfold
And these two in thy sacred bosome hold
Till mystically joyn'd but one they bee
Then may thy leane and hunger-starved wombe 
Long time expect their bodies and their tombe
Long after their owne parents fatten thee
All elder claimes and all cold barrennesse
All yeelding to new loves bee far for ever
All wayes all th'  may each one possesse
For the best Bride best worthy of praise and fame
To day puts on perfection and a womans name
Not for themselves but for they soon bring night 
Other sweets wait thee then these diverse meats
Other disports then dancing jollities
Other love tricks then glancing with the eyes
But that the Sun still in our halfe Spheare sweates
Hee flies in winter but he now stands still 
Yet shadowes turne Noone point he hath attain'd
But gallop lively downe the Westerne hill
Thou shalt when he hath runne the worlds half frame
To night put on perfection and a womans name 
The amorous evening starre is rose
Why then should not our amorous starre inclose
Her selfe in her wish'd bed Release your strings
Musicians and dancers take some truce
With these your pleasing labours for great use 
As much wearinesse as perfection brings
You and not only you but all toyl'd beasts
Rest duly at night all their toyles are dispensed
Are other labours and more dainty feasts 
She goes a maid who least she turne the same
To night puts on perfection and a womans name
And in thy nuptiall bed loves altar lye
A pleasing sacrifice now dispossesse 
Thee of these chaines and robes which were put on
T'adorne the day not thee for thou alone
Like vertue'and truth art best in nakednesse
This bed is onely to virginitie
A grave but to a better state a cradle 
To be what now thou art then that by thee
No more be said I may bee but I am
To night put on perfection and a womans name
That this life for a better should be spent
So shee a mothers rich stile doth preferre
And at the Bridegroomes wish'd approach doth lye
Like an appointed lambe when tenderly
The priest comes on his knees t'embowell her 
Now sleep or watch with more joy and O light
Of heaven to morrow rise thou hot and early
Her rest that long long we shall want her sight
Wonders are wrought for shee which had no maime 
To night puts on perfection and a womans name
Away thou fondling motley humorist
Leave mee and in this standing woodden chest
Consorted with these few bookes let me lye
In prison and here be coffin'd when I dye
Here are Gods conduits grave Divines and here 
Natures Secretary the Philosopher
And jolly Statesmen which teach how to tie
The sinewes of a cities mistique bodie
Here gathering Chroniclers and by them stand
Giddie fantastique Poets of each land 
Shall I leave all this constant company
And follow headlong wild uncertaine thee
First sweare by thy best love in earnest
If thou which lov'st all canst love any best
Thou wilt not leave mee in the middle street 
Though some more spruce companion thou dost meet
Not though a Captaine do come in thy way
Bright parcell gilt with forty dead mens pay
Not though a briske perfum'd piert Courtier
Deigne with a nod thy courtesie to answer 
Nor come a velvet Justice with a long
Great traine of blew coats twelve or fourteen strong
Wilt thou grin or fawne on him or prepare
A speech to Court his beautious sonne and heire
For better or worse take mee or leave mee 
To take and leave mee is adultery
Oh monstrous superstitious puritan
Of refin'd manners yet ceremoniall man
That when thou meet'st one with enquiring eyes
Dost search and like a needy broker prize 
The silke and gold he weares and to that rate
So high or low dost raise thy formall hat
That wilt consort none untill thou have knowne
What lands hee hath in hope or of his owne
As though all thy companions should make thee 
Jointures and marry thy deare company
Why should'st thou that dost not onely approve
But in ranke itchie lust desire and love
The nakednesse and barenesse to enjoy
Of thy plumpe muddy whore or prostitute boy 
Hate vertue though shee be naked and bare
At birth and death our bodies naked are
And till our Soules be unapparrelled
Of bodies they from blisse are banished
Mans first blest state was naked when by sinne 
Hee lost that yet hee was cloath'  but in beasts skin
And in this course attire which I now weare
With God and with the Muses I conferre
But since thou like a contrite penitent
Charitably warn'd of thy sinnes dost repent 
These vanities and giddinesses loe
I shut my chamber doore and come lets goe
But sooner may a cheape whore who hath beene
Worne by as many severall men in sinne
As are black feathers or musk-colour hose 
Name her childs right true father 'mongst all those
Sooner may one guesse who shall beare away
The Infanta of London Heire to an India
And sooner may a gulling weather Spie
By drawing forth heavens Scheme tell certainly 
What fashioned hats or ruffes or suits next yeare
Our subtile-witted antique youths will weare
Then thou when thou depart'st from mee canst show
Whither why when or with whom thou wouldst go
But how shall I be pardon'd my offence 
That thus have sinn'd against my conscience
Now we are in the street He first of all
Improvidently proud creepes to the wall
And so imprisoned and hem'd in by mee
Sells for a little state his libertie 
Yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet
Every fine silken painted foole we meet
He them to him with amorous smiles allures
And grins smacks shrugs and such an itch endures
As prentises or schoole-boyes which doe know 
Of some gay sport abroad yet dare not goe
And as fidlers stop lowest at highest sound
So to the most brave stoops hee nigh'st the ground
But to a grave man he doth move no more
Then the wise politique horse would heretofore 
Or thou O Elephant or Ape wilt doe
When any names the King of Spaine to you
Now leaps he upright Joggs me cryes Do you see
Yonder well favoured youth Which Oh 'tis hee
That dances so divinely Oh said I 
Stand still must you dance here for company
Hee droopt wee went till one which did excell
Th'Indians in drinking his Tobacco well
Met us they talk'd I whispered let'us goe
'T may be you smell him not truely I doe 
He heares not mee but on the other side
A many-coloured Peacock having spide
Leaves him and mee I for my lost sheep stay
He followes overtakes goes on the way
Saying him whom I last left all repute 
For his device in hansoming a sute
To judge of lace pinke panes print cut and plight
Of all the Court to have the best conceit
Our dull Comedians want him let him goe
But Oh God strengthen thee why stoop'st thou so 
Why he hath travayld Long No but to me
Which understand none he doth seeme to be
Perfect French and Italian I replyed
So is the Poxe He answered not but spy'd
More men of fort of parts and qualities 
At last his Love he in a windowe spies
And like light dew exhal'd he flings from mee
Violently ravish'd to his lechery
Many were there he could command no more
Hee quarrell'd fought bled and turn'd out of dore 
Directly came to mee hanging the head
And constantly a while must keepe his bed
Sir though I thanke God for it I do hate
Perfectly all this towne yet there one state
In all ill things so excellently best
That hate toward them breeds pitty towards the rest
Though Poetry indeed be such a sinne 
As I thinke that brings dearths and Spaniards in
Though like the Pestilence and old fashion'd love
Ridlingly it catch men and doth remove
Never till it be sterv'd out yet their state
Is poore disarm'd like Papists not worth hate 
One like a wretch which at Barre judg'd as dead
Yet prompts him which stands next and cannot reade
And saves his life gives ideot actors meanes
Starving himselfe to live by his labor'd sceanes
As in some Organ Puppits dance above 
And bellows pant below which them do move
One would move Love by rithmes but witchcrafts charms
Bring not now their old feares nor their old harmes
Rammes and slings now are seely battery
Pistolets are the best Artillerie 
And they who write to Lords rewards to get
Are they not like singers at doores for meat
And they who write because all write have still
That excuse for writing and for writing ill
But hee is worst who beggarly doth chaw 
Others wits fruits and in his ravenous maw
Rankly digested doth those things out-spue
As his owne things and they are his owne 'tis true
For if one eate my meate though it be knowne
The meate was mine th'  is his owne 
But these do mee no harme nor they which use
To out-doe Dildoes and out-usure Jewes
To out-drinke the sea to out-sweare the Letanie
Who with sinnes all kindes as familiar bee
As Confessors and for whose sinfull sake 
Schoolemen new tenements in hell must make
Whose strange sinnes Canonists could hardly tell
In which Commandements large receit they dwell
But these punish themselves the insolence
Of Coscus onely breeds my just offence 
Whom time which rots all and makes botches poxe
And plodding on must make a calfe an oxe
Hath made a Lawyer which was alas of late
But a scarce Poet jollier of this state
Then are new benefic'd ministers he throwes 
Like nets or lime-twigs wheresoever he goes
His title of Barrister on every wench
And wooes in language of the Pleas and Bench
A motion Lady Speake Coscus I have beene
In love ever since tricesimo of the Queene 
Continuall claimes I have made injunctions got
To stay my rivals suit that hee should not
Proceed spare mee In Hillary terme I went
You said If I return'd next size in Lent
I should be in remitter of your grace 
In th'  my letters should take place
Of affidavits words words which would teare
The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare
More more then ten Sclavonians scolding more
Then when winds in our ruin'd Abbeyes rore 
When sicke with Poetrie and possest with muse
Thou wast and mad I hop'd but men which chuse
Law practise for meere gaine bold soule repute
Worse then imbrothel'd strumpets prostitute
Now like an owlelike watchman hee must walke 
His hand still at a bill now he must talke
Idly like prisoners which whole months will sweare
That onely suretiship hath brought them there
And to every suitor lye in every thing
Like a Kings favourite yea like a King 
Like a wedge in a blocke wring to the barre
Bearing-like Asses and more shamelesse farre
Then carted whores lye to the grave Judge for
Bastardy abounds not in Kings titles nor
Symonie and Sodomy in Churchmens lives 
As these things do in him by these he thrives
Shortly as the sea hee will compasse all our land
From Scots to Wight from Mount to Dover strand
And spying heires melting with luxurie
Satan will not joy at their sinnes as hee 
For as a thrifty wench scrapes kitching-stuffe
And barrelling the droppings and the snuffe
Of wasting candles which in thirty yeare
Relique-like kept perchance buyes wedding geare
Peecemeale he gets lands and spends as much time 
Wringing each Acre as men pulling prime
In parchments then large as his fields hee drawes
Assurances bigge as gloss'd civill lawes
So huge that men in our times forwardnesse
Are Fathers of the Church for writing lesse 
These hee writes not nor for these written payes
Therefore spares no length as in those first dayes
When Luther was profest He did desire
Short Pater nosters saying as a Fryer
Each day his beads but having left those lawes 
Addes to Christs prayer the Power and glory clause
But when he sells or changes land he'impaires
His writings and unwatch'd leaves out ses heires
As slily as any Commenter goes by
Hard words or sense or in Divinity 
As controverters in vouch'd Texts leave out
Shrewd words which might against them cleare the doubt
Where are those spred woods which cloth'  hertofore
Those bought lands not built nor burnt within dore
Where th'  landlords troops and almes In great hals 
Carthusian fasts and fulsome Bachanalls
Equally I hate meanes blesse in rich mens homes
I bid kill some beasts but no Hecatombs
None starve none surfet so But Oh we allow
Good workes as good but out of fashion now 
Like old rich wardrops but my words none drawes
Within the vast reach of th'  statute lawes
Kinde pitty chokes my spleene brave scorn forbids
Those teares to issue which swell my eye-lids
I must not laugh nor weepe sinnes and be wise
Can railing then cure these worne maladies
Is not our Mistresse faire Religion 
As worthy of all our Soules devotion
As vertue was to the first blinded age
Are not heavens joyes as valiant to asswage
Lusts as earths honour was to them Alas
As wee do them in meanes shall they surpasse 
Us in the end and shall thy fathers spirit
Meete blinde Philosophers in heaven whose merit
Of strict life may be imputed faith and heare
Thee whom hee taught so easie wayes and neare
To follow damn'd O if thou dar'st feare this 
This feare great courage and high valour is
Dar'st thou ayd mutinous Dutch and dar'st thou lay
Thee in ships woodden Sepulchers a prey
To leaders rage to stormes to shot to dearth
Dar'st thou dive seas and dungeons of the earth 
Hast thou couragious fire to thaw the ice
Of frozen North discoueries and thrise
Colder then Salamanders like divine
Children in th'  fires of Spaine and the line
Whose countries limbecks to our bodies bee 
Canst thou for gaine beare and must every hee
Which cryes not Goddesse to thy Mistresse draw
Or eate thy poysonous words courage of straw
O desperate coward wilt thou seeme bold and
To thy foes and his who made thee to stand 
Sentinell in his worlds garrison thus yeeld
And for forbidden warres leave th'  field
Know thy foes The foule Devill whom thou
Strivest to please for hate not love would allow
Thee faine his whole Realme to be quit and as 
The worlds all parts wither away and passe
So the worlds selfe thy other lov'd foe is
In her decrepit wayne and thou loving this
Dost love a withered and worne strumpet last
Flesh it selfes death and joyes which flesh can taste 
Thou loveft and thy faire goodly soule which doth
Give this flesh power to taste joy thou dost loath
Seeke true religion O where Mirreus
Thinking her unhous'd here and fled from us
Seekes her at Rome there because hee doth know 
That shee was there a thousand yeares agoe
He loves her ragges so as wee here obey
The statecloth where the Prince sate yesterday
Crantz to such brave Loves will not be inthrall'd
But loves her onely who at Geneva is call'd 
Religion plaine simple sullen yong
Contemptuous yet unhansome As among
Lecherous humors there is one that judges
No wenches wholsome but course country drudges
Graius stayes still at home here and because 
Some Preachers vile ambitious bauds and lawes
Still new like fashions bid him thinke that shee
Which dwels with us is onely perfect hee
Imbraceth her whom his Godfathers will
Tender to him being tender as Wards still 
Take such wives as their Guardians offer or
Pay valewes Carelesse Phrygius doth abhorre
All because all cannot be good as one
Knowing some women whores dares marry none
Graccus loves all as one and thinkes that so 
As women do in divers countries goe
In divers habits yet are still one kinde
So doth so is Religion and this blind-
nesse too much light breeds but unmoved thou
Of force must one and forc'd but one allow 
And the right aske thy father which is shee
Let him aske his though truth and falshood bee
Neare twins yet truth a little elder is
Be busie to seeke her beleeve mee this
Hee not of none nor worst that seekes the best 
To adore or scorne an image or protest
May all be bad doubt wisely in strange way
To stand inquiring right is not to stray
To sleepe or runne wrong is On a huge hill
Cragged and steep Truth stands and hee that will 
Reach her about must and about must goe
And what the hills suddennes resists winne so
Yet strive so that before age deaths twilight
Thy Soule rest for none can worke in that night
To will implyes delay therefore now doe 
Hard deeds the bodies paines hard knowledge too
The mindes indeavours reach and mysteries
Are like the Sunne dazling yet plaine to all eyes
Keepe the truth which thou hast found men do not stand
In so ill case here that God hath with his hand 
Sign'd Kings blanck-charters to kill whom they hate
Nor are they Vicars but hangmen to Fate
Foole and wretch wilt thou let thy Soule be tyed
To mans lawes by which she shall not be tryed
At the last day Oh will it then boot thee 
To say a Philip or a Gregory
A Harry or a Martin taught thee this
Is not this excuse for mere contraries
Equally strong cannot both sides say so
That thou mayest rightly obey power her bounds know 
Those past her nature and name is chang'd to be
Then humble to her is idolatrie
As streames are Power is those blest flowers that dwell
At the rough streames calme head thrive and do well
But having left their roots and themselves given 
To the streames tyrannous rage alas are driven
Through mills and rockes and woods and at last almost
Consum'd in going in the sea are lost
So perish Soules which more chuse mens unjust
Power from God claym'd then God himselfe to trust
Well I may now receive and die My sinne
Indeed is great but I have beene in
A Purgatorie such as fear'd hell is
A recreation to and scarse map of this
My minde neither with prides itch nor yet hath been 
Poyson'd with love to see or to bee seene
I had no suit there nor new suite to shew
Yet went to Court But as Glaze which did goe
To'a Masse in jest catch'd was faine to disburse
The hundred markes which is the Statutes curse 
Before he scapt So'it pleas'd my destinie
Guilty of my sin of going to thinke me
As prone to all ill and of good as forget-
full as proud as lustfull and as much in debt
As vaine as witlesse and as false as they 
Which dwell at Court for once going that way
Therefore I suffered this Towards me did runne
A thing more strange then on Niles slime the Sunne
E'r bred or all which into Noahs Arke came
A thing which would have pos'd Adam to name 
Stranger then seaven Antiquaries studies
Then Africks Monsters Guianaes rarities
Stranger then strangers One who for a Dane
In the Danes Massacre had sure beene slaine
If he had liv'd then And without helpe dies 
When next the Prentises'gainst Strangers rise
One whom the watch at noone lets scarce goe by
One to whom the examining Justice sure would cry
Sir by your priesthood tell me what you are
His cloths were strange though coarse and black though bare 
Sleevelesse his jerkin was and it had beene
Velvet but'twas now so much ground was seene
Become Tufftaffatie and our children shall
See it plaine Rashe awhile then nought at all
This thing hath travail'd and saith speakes all tongues 
And only knoweth what to all States belongs
Made of th'  and best phrase of all these
He speakes no language If strange meats displease
Art can deceive or hunger force my tast
But Pedants motley tongue souldiers bumbast 
Mountebankes drugtongue nor the termes of law
Are strong enough preparatives to draw
Me to beare this yet I must be content
With his tongue in his tongue call'd complement
In which he can win widdowes and pay scores 
Make men speake treason cosen subtlest whores
Out-flatter favorites or outlie either
Jovius or Surius or both together
He names mee and comes to mee I whisper God
How have I sinn'd that thy wraths furious rod 
This fellow chuseth me He saith Sir
I love your judgement Whom doe you prefer
For the best linguist And I seelily
Said that I thought Calepines Dictionarie
Nay but of men most sweet Sir Beza then 
Some other Jesuites and two reverend men
Of our two Academies I named There
He stopt mee and said Nay your Apostles were
Good pretty linguists and so Panurge was
Yet a poore gentleman all these may passe 
By travaile Then as if he would have sold
His tongue he prais'd it and such wonders told
That I was faine to say If you'had liv'd Sir
Time enough to have beene Interpreter
To Babells bricklayers sure the Tower had stood 
He adds If of court life you knew the good
You would leave lonenesse I said not alone
My lonenesse is but Spartanes fashion
To teach by painting drunkards doth not last
Now Aretines pictures have made few chast 
No more can Princes courts though there be few
Better pictures of vice teach me vertue
He like to a high stretcht lute string squeakt O Sir
'Tis sweet to talke of Kings At Westminster
Said I The man that keepes the Abbey tombes 
And for his price doth with who ever comes
Of all our Harries and our Edwards talke
From King to King and all their kin can walke
Your eares shall heare nought but Kings your eyes meet
Kings only The way to it is Kingstreet 
He smack'd and cry'd He base Mechanique coarse
So are all your Englishmen in their discourse
Are not your Frenchmen neate Mine as you see
I have but one Frenchman looke hee followes mee
Certes they are neatly cloth'  I of this minde am 
Your only wearing is your Grogaram
Not so Sir I have more Under this pitch
He would not flie I chaff'd him But as Itch
Scratch'd into smart and as blunt iron ground
Into an edge hurts worse So I foole found 
Crossing hurt mee To fit my sullennesse
He to another key his stile doth addresse
And askes what newes I tell him of new playes
He takes my hand and as a Still which staies
A Sembriefe 'twixt each drop he nigardly 
As loth to enrich mee so tells many a lye
More then ten Hollensheads or Halls or Stowes
Of triviall houshold trash he knowes He knowes
When the Queene frown'd or smil'd and he knowes what
A subtle States-man may gather of that 
He knowes who loves whom and who by poyson
Hasts to an Offices reversion
He knowes who'hath sold his land and now doth beg
A licence old iron bootes shooes and egge-
shels to transport Shortly boyes shall not play 
At span-counter or blow-point but they pay
Toll to some Courtier And wiser then all us
He knowes what Ladie is not painted Thus
He with home-meats tries me I belch spue spit
Looke pale and sickly like a Patient Yet 
He thrusts on more And as if he'd undertooke
To say Gallo-Belgicus without booke
Speakes of all States and deeds that have been since
The Spaniards came to the losse of Amyens
Like a bigge wife at sight of loathed meat 
Readie to travaile So I sigh and sweat
To heare this Makeron talke In vaine for yet
Either my humour or his owne to fit
He like a priviledg'd spie whom nothing can
Discredit Libells now'gainst each great man 
He names a price for every office paid
He saith our warres thrive ill because delai'd
That offices are entail'd and that there are
Perpetuities of them lasting as farre
As the last day And that great officers 
Doe with the Pirates share and Dunkirkers
Who wasts in meat in clothes in horse he notes
Who loves whores who boyes and who goats
I more amas'd then Circes prisoners when
They felt themselves turne beasts felt my selfe then 
Becomming Traytor and mee thought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope his jaw
To sucke me in for hearing him I found
That as burnt venome Leachers do grow sound
By giving others their soares I might growe 
Guilty and he free Therefore I did shew
All signes of loathing But since I am in
I must pay mine and my forefathers sinne
To the last farthing Therefore to my power
Toughly and stubbornly I beare this crosse But the'houre 
Of mercy now was come He tries to bring
Me to pay a fine to scape his torturing
And saies Sir can you spare me I said willingly
Nay Sir can you spare me a crowne Thankfully I
Gave it as Ransome But as fidlers still 
Though they be paid to be gone yet needs will
Thrust one more jigge upon you so did hee
With his long complementall thankes vexe me
But he is gone thankes to his needy want
And the prerogative of my Crowne Scant 
His thankes were ended when I which did see
All the court fill'd with more strange things then hee
Ran from thence with such or more hast then one
Who feares more actions doth make from prison
At home in wholesome solitarinesse 
My precious soule began the wretchednesse
Of suiters at court to mourne and a trance
Like his who dreamt he saw hell did advance
It selfe on mee Such men as he saw there
I saw at court and worse and more Low feare 
Becomes the guiltie not the accuser Then
Shall I nones slave of high borne or rais'd men
Feare frownes And my Mistresse Truth betray thee
To th'  braggart puft Nobility
No no Thou which since yesterday hast beene 
Almost about the whole world hast thou seene
O Sunne in all thy journey Vanitie
Such as swells the bladder of our court I
Thinke he which made your waxen garden and
Transported it from Italy to stand 
With us at London flouts our Presence for
Just such gay painted things which no sappe nor
Tast have in them ours are And naturall
Some of the stocks are their fruits bastard all
'Tis ten a clock and past All whom the Mues 
Baloune Tennis Dyet or the stewes
Had all the morning held now the second
Time made ready that day in flocks are found
In the Presence and I God pardon mee
As fresh and sweet their Apparrells be as bee 
The fields they sold to buy them For a King
Those hose are cry the flatterers And bring
Them next weeke to the Theatre to sell
Wants reach all states Me seemes they doe as well
At stage as court All are players who e'r lookes 
For themselves dare not goe o'r Cheapside books
Shall finde their wardrops Inventory Now
The Ladies come As Pirats which doe know
That there came weak ships fraught with Cutchannel
The men board them and praise as they thinke well 
Their beauties they the mens wits Both are bought
Why good wits ne'r weare scarlet gownes I thought
This cause These men mens wits for speeches buy
And women buy all reds which scarlets die
He call'd her beauty limetwigs her haire net 
She feares her drugs ill laid her haire loose set
Would not Heraclitus laugh to see Macrine
From hat to shooe himselfe at doore refine
As if the Presence were a Moschite and lift
His skirts and hose and call his clothes to shrift 
Making them confesse not only mortall
Great staines and holes in them but veniall
Feathers and dust wherewith they fornicate
And then by Durers rules survay the state
Of his each limbe and with strings the odds trye 
Of his neck to his legge and wast to thighe
So in immaculate clothes and Symetrie
Perfect as circles with such nicetie
As a young Preacher at his first time goes
To preach he enters and a Lady which owes 
Him not so much as good will he arrests
And unto her protests protests protests
So much as at Rome would serve to have throwne
Ten Cardinalls into the Inquisition
And whisperd by Jesu so often that A 
Pursevant would have ravish'd him away
For saying of our Ladies psalter But'tis fit
That they each other plague they merit it
But here comes Glorius that will plague them both
Who in the other extreme only doth 
Call a rough carelessenesse good fashion
Whose cloak his spurres teare whom he spits on
He cares not His ill words doe no harme
To him he rusheth in as if arme arme
He meant to crie And though his face be as ill 
As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ still
He strives to looke worse he keepes all in awe
Jeasts like a licenc'd foole commands like law
Tyr'd now I leave this place and but pleas'd so
As men which from gaoles to execution goe 
Goe through the great chamber why is it hung
With the seaven deadly sinnes Being among
Those Askaparts men big enough to throw
Charing Crosse for a barre men that doe know
No token of worth but Queenes man and fine 
Living barrells of beefe flaggons of wine
I shooke like a spyed Spie Preachers which are
Seas of Wit and Arts you can then dare
Drowne the sinnes of this place for for mee
Which am but a scarce brooke it enough shall bee 
To wash the staines away Although I yet
With Macchabees modestie the knowne merit
Of my worke lessen yet some wise man shall
I hope esteeme my writs Canonicall
Thou shalt not laugh in this leafe Muse nor they
Whom any pitty warmes He which did lay
Rules to make Courtiers hee being understood
May make good Courtiers but who Courtiers good
Frees from the sting of jests all who in extreme 
Are wreched or wicked of these two a theame
Charity and liberty give me What is hee
Who Officers rage and Suiters misery
Can write and jest If all things be in all
As I thinke since all which were are and shall 
Bee be made of the same elements
Each thing each thing implyes or represents
Then man is a world in which Officers
Are the vast ravishing seas and Suiters
Springs now full now shallow now drye which to 
That which drownes them run These selfe reasons do
Prove the world a man in which officers
Are the devouring stomacke and Suiters
The excrements which they voyd All men are dust
How much worse are Suiters who to mens lust 
Are made preyes O worse then dust or wormes meat
For they do eate you now whose selves wormes shall eate
They are the mills which grinde you yet you are
The winde which drives them and a wastfull warre
Is fought against you and you fight it they 
Adulterate lawe and you prepare their way
Like wittals th'  your owne ruine is
Greatest and fairest Empresse know you this
Alas no more then Thames calme head doth know
Whose meades her armes drowne or whose corne o'rflow 
You Sir whose righteousnes she loves whom I
By having leave to serve am most richly
For service paid authoriz'd now beginne
To know and weed out this enormous sinne
O Age of rusty iron Some better wit 
Call it some worse name if ought equall it
The iron Age that was when justice was sold now
Injustice is sold dearer farre Allow
All demands fees and duties gamsters anon
The mony which you sweat and sweare for is gon 
Into other hands So controverted lands
Scape like Angelica the strivers hands
If Law be in the Judges heart and hee
Have no heart to resist letter or fee
Where wilt thou appeale powre of the Courts below 
Flow from the first maine head and these can throw
Thee if they sucke thee in to misery
To fetters halters But if the injury
Steele thee to dare complaine Alas thou go'st
Against the stream when upwards when thou art most 
Heavy and most faint and in these labours they
'Gainst whom thou should'st complaine will in the way
Become great seas o'r which when thou shalt bee
Forc'd to make golden bridges thou shalt see
That all thy gold was drown'd in them before 
All things follow their like only who have may have more
Judges are Gods he who made and said them so
Meant not that men should be forc'd to them to goe
By meanes of Angels When supplications
We send to God to Dominations 
Powers Cherubins and all heavens Courts if wee
Should pay fees as here Daily bread would be
Scarce to Kings so 'tis Would it not anger
A Stoicke a coward yea a Martyr
To see a Pursivant come in and call 
All his cloathes Copes Bookes Primers and all
His Plate Challices and mistake them away
And aske a fee for comming Oh ne'r may
Faire lawes white reverend name be strumpeted
To warrant thefts she is established 
Recorder to Destiny on earth and shee
Speakes Fates words and but tells us who must bee
Rich who poore who in chaires who in jayles
Shee is all faire but yet hath foule long nailes
With which she scracheth Suiters In bodies 
Of men so in law nailes are th' 
So Officers stretch to more then Law can doe
As our nailes reach what no else part comes to
Why barest thou to yon Officer Foole Hath hee
Got those goods for which erst men bar'd to thee 
Foole twice thrice thou hast bought wrong and now hungerly
Beg'st right But that dole comes not till these dye
Thou had'st much and lawes Urim and Thummim trie
Thou wouldst for more and for all hast paper
Enough to cloath all the great Carricks Pepper 
Sell that and by that thou much more shalt leese
Then Haman when he sold his Antiquities
O wretch that thy fortunes should moralize
Esops fables and make tales prophesies
Thou'art the swimming dog whom shadows cosened 
And div'st neare drowning for what vanished
Thou which art I 'tis nothing to be soe
Thou which art still thy selfe by these shalt know
Part of our passage And a hand or eye
By Hilliard drawne is worth an history
By a worse painter made and without pride 
When by thy judgment they are dignifi'd
My lines are such 'Tis the preheminence
Of friendship onely to'impute excellence
England to whom we'owe what we be and have
Sad that her sonnes did seeke a forraine grave 
For Fates or Fortunes drifts none can soothsay
Honour and misery have one face and way
From out her pregnant intrailes sigh'd a winde
Which at th'  middle marble roome did finde
Such strong resistance that it selfe it threw 
Downeward againe and so when it did view
How in the port our fleet deare time did leese
Withering like prisoners which lye but for fees
Mildly it kist our sailes and fresh and sweet
As to a stomack sterv'd whose insides meete 
Meate comes it came and swole our sailes when wee
So joyd as Sara'her swelling joy'd to see
But 'twas but so kinde as our countrimen
Which bring friends one dayes way and leave them then
Then like two mighty Kings which dwelling farre 
Asunder meet against a third to warre
The South and West winds joyn'd and as they blew
Waves like a rowling trench before them threw
Sooner then you read this line did the gale
Like shot not fear'd till felt our sailes assaile 
And what at first was call'd a gust the same
Hath now a stormes anon a tempests name
Ionas I pitty thee and curse those men
Who when the storm rag'd most did wake thee then
Sleepe is paines easiest salue and doth fullfill 
All offices of death except to kill
But when I wakt I saw that I saw not
I and the Sunne which should teach mee'had forgot
East West Day Night and I could onely say
If'the world had lasted now it had beene day 
Thousands our noyses were yet wee'mongst all
Could none by his right name but thunder call
Lightning was all our light and it rain'd more
Then if the Sunne had drunke the sea before
Some coffin'd in their cabbins lye'equally 
Griev'd that they are not dead and yet must dye
And as sin-burd'ned soules from graves will creepe
At the last day some forth their cabbins peepe
And tremblingly'aske what newes and doe heare so
Like jealous husbands what they would not know 
Some sitting on the hatches would seeme there
With hideous gazing to feare away feare
Then note they the ships sicknesses the Mast
Shak'd with this ague and the Hold and Wast
With a salt dropsie clog'd and all our tacklings 
Snapping like too-high-stretched treble strings
And from our totterd sailes ragges drop downe so
As from one hang'd in chaines a yeare agoe
Even our Ordinance plac'd for our defence
Strive to breake loose and scape away from thence 
Pumping hath tir'd our men and what the gaine
Seas into seas throwne we suck in againe
Hearing hath deaf'd our saylers and if they
Knew how to heare there none knowes what to say
Compar'd to these stormes death is but a qualme 
Hell somewhat lightsome and the'Bermuda calme
Darknesse lights elder brother his birth-right
Claims o'r this world and to heaven hath chas'd light
All things are one and that one none can be
Since all formes uniforme deformity 
Doth cover so that wee except God say
Another Fiat shall have no more day
So violent yet long these furies bee
That though thine absence sterve me'I wish not thee
Our storme is past and that storms tyrannous rage
A stupid calme but nothing it doth swage
The fable is inverted and farre more
A blocke afflicts now then a storke before
Stormes chafe and soone weare out themselves or us 
In calmes Heaven laughs to see us languish thus
As steady'as I can wish that my thoughts were
Smooth as thy mistresse glasse or what shines there
The sea is now And as the Iles which wee
Seeke when wee can move our ships rooted bee 
As water did in stormes now pitch runs out
As lead when a fir'd Church becomes one spout
And all our beauty and our trimme decayes
Like courts removing or like ended playes
The fighting place now seamens ragges supply 
And all the tackling is a frippery
No use of lanthornes and in one place lay
Feathers and dust to day and yesterday
Earths hollownesses which the worlds lungs are
Have no more winde then the upper valt of aire 
We can nor lost friends nor sought foes recover
But meteorlike save that wee move not hover
Onely the Calenture together drawes
Deare friends which meet dead in great fishes jawes
And on the hatches as on Altars lyes 
Each one his owne Priest and owne Sacrifice
Who live that miracle do multiply
Where walkers in hot Ovens doe not dye
If in despite of these wee swimme that hath
No more refreshing then our brimstone Bath 
But from the sea into the ship we turne
Like parboyl'd wretches on the coales to burne
Like Bajazet encag'd the shepheards scoffe
Or like slacke sinew'd Sampson his haire off
Languish our ships Now as a Miriade 
Of Ants durst th'  lov'd snake invade
The crawling Gallies Sea-goales finny chips
Might brave our Pinnaces now bed-ridde ships
Whether a rotten state and hope of gaine
Or to disuse mee from the queasie paine 
Of being belov'd and loving or the thirst
Of honour or faire death out pusht mee first
I lose my end for here as well as I
A desperate may live and a coward die
Stagge dogge and all which from or towards flies 
Is paid with life or pray or doing dyes
Fate grudges us all and doth subtly lay
A scourge'gainst which wee all forget to pray
He that at sea prayes for more winde as well
Under the poles may begge cold heat in hell 
What are wee then How little more alas
Is man now then before he was he was
Nothing for us wee are for nothing fit
Chance or our selves still disproportion it
Wee have no power no will no sense I lye 
I should not then thus feele this miserie
Sir more then kisses letters mingle Soules
For thus friends absent speake This ease controules
The tediousnesse of my life But for these
I could ideate nothing which could please
But I should wither in one day and passe 
To'a bottle'of Hay that am a locke of Grasse
Life is a voyage and in our lifes wayes
Countries Courts Towns are Rockes or Remoraes
They breake or stop all ships yet our state such
That though then pitch they staine worse wee must touch 
If in the furnace of the even line
Or under th'  icy poles thou pine
Thou know'st two temperate Regions girded in
Dwell there But Oh what refuge canst thou winne
Parch'd in the Court and in the country frozen 
Shall cities built of both extremes be chosen
Can dung and garlike be'a perfume or can
A Scorpion and Torpedo cure a man
Cities are worst of all three of all three
O knottie riddle each is worst equally 
Cities are Sepulchers they who dwell there
Are carcases as if no such there were
And Courts are Theaters where some men play
Princes some slaves all to one end and of one clay
The Country is a desert where no good 
Gain'd as habits not borne is understood
There men become beasts and prone to more evils
In cities blockes and in a lewd court devills
As in the first Chaos confusedly
Each elements qualities were in the'other three 
So pride lust covetize being feverall
To these three places yet all are in all
And mingled thus their issue incestuous
Falshood is denizon'd Virtue is barbarous
Let no man say there Virtues flintie wall 
Shall locke vice in mee I'll do none but know all
Men are spunges which to poure out receive
Who know false play rather then lose deceive
For in best understandings sinne beganne
Angels sinn'd first then Devills and then man 
Onely perchance beast sinne not wretched wee
Are beasts in all but white integritie
I thinke if men which in these places live
Durst looke for themselves and themselves retrive
They would like strangers greet themselves seeing than 
Utopian youth growne old Italian
Be thou thine owne home and in thy selfe dwell
Inne any where continuance maketh hell
And seeing the snaile which every where doth rome
Carrying his owne house still still is at home 
Follow for he is easie pac'd this snaile
Bee thine owne Palace or the world thy gaile
And in the worlds sea do not like corke sleepe
Upon the waters face nor in the deepe
Sinke like a lead without a line but as 
Fishes glide leaving no print where they passe
Nor making sound so closely thy course goe
let men dispute whether thou breathe or no
Onely'in this one thing be no Galenist To make
Courts hot ambitions wholesome do not take 
A dramme of Countries dulnesse do not adde
Correctives but as chymiques purge the bad
But Sir I advise not you I rather doe
Say o'er those lessons which I learn'd of you
Whom free from German schismes and lightness 
Of France and faire Italies faithlesnesse
Having from these suck'd all they had of worth
And brought home that faith which you carried forth
I throughly love But if my selfe I'have wonne
To know my rules I have and you have Donne
You have refin'd mee and to worthyest things
Vertue Art Beauty Fortune now I see
Rarenesse or use not nature value brings
And such as they are circumstanc'd they bee
Two ills can ne're perplexe us sinne to'excuse 
But of two good things we may leave and chuse
Therefore at Court which is not vertues clime
Where a transcendent height as lownesse mee
Makes her not be or not show all my rime
Your vertues challenge which there rarest bee 
For as darke texts need notes there some must bee
To usher vertue and say This is shee
So in the country'is beauty to this place
You are the season Madame you the day
'Tis but a grave of spices till your face 
Exhale them and a thick close bud display
Widow'd and reclus'd else her sweets she'enshrines
As China when the Sunne at Brasill dines
Out from your chariot morning breaks at night
And falsifies both computations so 
Since a new world doth rise here from your light
We your new creatures by new recknings goe
This showes that you from nature lothly stray
That suffer not an artificiall day
In this you'have made the Court the Antipodes 
And will'd your Delegate the vulgar Sunne
To doe profane autumnall offices
Whilst here to you wee sacrificers runne
And whether Priests or Organs you wee'obey
We sound your influence and your Dictates say 
Yet to that Deity which dwels in you
Your vertuous Soule I now not sacrifice
These are Petitions and not Hymnes they sue
But that I may survay the edifice
In all Religions as much care hath bin 
Of Temples frames and beauty'as Rites within
As all which goe to Rome doe not thereby
Esteeme religions and hold fast the best
But serve discourse and curiosity
With that which doth religion but invest 
And shunne th'  laborinths of Schooles
And make it wit to thinke the wiser fooles
So in this pilgrimage I would behold
You as you'are vertues temple not as shee
What walls of tender christall her enfold 
What eyes hands bosome her pure Altars bee
And after this survay oppose to all
Bablers of Chappels you th' 
Yet not as consecrate but merely'as faire
On these I cast a lay and country eye 
Of past and future stories which are rare
I finde you all record and prophecie
Purge but the booke of Fate that it admit
No sad nor guilty legends you are it
If good and lovely were not one of both 
You were the transcript and originall
The Elements the Parent and the Growth
And every peece of you is both their All
So'intire are all your deeds and you that you
Must do the same thinge still you cannot two 
But these as nice thinne Schoole divinity
Serves heresie to furder or represse
Tast of Poetique rage or flattery
And need not where all hearts one truth professe
Oft from new proofes and new phrase new doubts grow 
As strange attire aliens the men wee know
Leaving then busie praise and all appeale
To higher Courts senses decree is true
The Mine the Magazine the Commonweale
The story of beauty'in Twicknam is and you 
Who hath seene one would both As who had bin
In Paradise would seeke the Cherubin
Man is a lumpe where all beasts kneaded bee
Wisdome makes him an Arke where all agree
The foole in whom these beasts do live at jarre
Is sport to others and a Theater
Nor scapes hee so but is himselfe their prey 
All which was man in him is eate away
And now his beasts on one another feed
Yet couple'in anger and new monsters breed
How happy'is hee which hath due place assign'd
To'his beasts and disaforested his minde 
Empail'd himselfe to keepe them out not in
Can sow and dares trust corne where they have bin
Can use his horse goate wolfe and every beast
And is not Asse himselfe to all the rest
Else man not onely is the heard of swine 
But he those devills too which did incline
Them to a headlong rage and made them worse
For man can adde weight to heavens heaviest curse
As Soules they say by our first touch take in
The poysonous tincture of Originall sinne 
So to the punishments which God doth fling
Our apprehension contributes the sting
To us as to his chickins he doth cast
Hemlocke and wee as men his hemlocke taste
We do infuse to what he meant for meat 
Corrosivenesse or intense cold or heat
For God no such specifique poyson hath
As kills we know not how his fiercest wrath
Hath no antipathy but may be good
At lest for physicke if not for our food 
Thus man that might be'his pleasure is his rod
And is his devill that might be his God
Since then our businesse is to rectifie
Nature to what she was wee'are led awry
By them who man to us in little show 
Greater then due no forme we can bestow
On him for Man into himselfe can draw
All All his faith can swallow'or reason chaw
All that is fill'd and all that which doth fill
All the round world to man is but a pill 
In all it workes not but it is in all
Poysonous or purgative or cordiall
For knowledge kindles Calentures in some
And is to others icy Opium
As brave as true is that profession than 
Which you doe use to make that you know man
This makes it credible you have dwelt upon
All worthy bookes and now are such an one
Actions are authors and of those in you
Your friends finde every day a mart of new
T'have written then when you writ seem'd to mee
Worst of spirituall vices Simony
And not t'have written then seemes little lesse
Then worst of civill vices thanklessenesse
In this my debt I seem'd loath to confesse 
In that I seem'd to shunne beholdingnesse
But 'tis not soe nothings as I am may
Pay all they have and yet have all to pay
Such borrow in their payments and owe more
By having leave to write so then before 
Yet since rich mines in barren grounds are showne
May not I yeeld not gold but coale or stone
Temples were not demolish'd though prophane
Here Peter Ioves there Paul hath Dian Fane
So whether my hymnes you admit or chuse 
In me you'have hallowed a Pagan Muse
And denizend a stranger who mistaught
By blamers of the times they mard hath sought
Vertues in corners which now bravely doe
Shine in the worlds best part or all It You 
I have beene told that vertue in Courtiers hearts
Suffers an Ostracisme and departs
Profit ease fitnesse plenty bid it goe
But whither only knowing you I know
Your or you vertue two vast uses serves 
It ransomes one sex and one Court preserves
There nothing but your worth which being true
Is knowne to any other not to you
And you can never know it To admit
No knowledge of your worth is some of it 
But since to you your praises discords bee
Stoop others ills to meditate with mee
Oh to confesse wee know not what we should
Is halfe excuse wee know not what we would
Lightnesse depresseth us emptinesse fills 
We sweat and faint yet still goe downe the hills
As new Philosophy arrests the Sunne
And bids the passive earth about it runne
So wee have dull'd our minde it hath no ends
Onely the bodie busie and pretends 
As dead low earth ecclipses and controules
The quick high Moone so doth the body Soules
In none but us are such mixt engines found
As hands of double office For the ground
We till with them and them to heav'n wee raise 
Who prayer-lesse labours or without this prayes
Doth but one halfe that none He which said Plough
And looke not back to looke up doth allow
Good seed degenerates and oft obeyes
The soyles disease and into cockle strayes 
Let the minds thoughts be but transplanted so
Into the body'and bastardly they grow
What hate could hurt our bodies like our love
Wee but no forraine tyrants could remove
These not ingrav'd but inborne dignities 
Caskets of soules Temples and Palaces
For bodies shall from death redeemed bee
Soules but preserv'd not naturally free
As men to'our prisons new soules to us are sent
Which learne vice there and come in innocent 
First seeds of every creature are in us
What ere the world hath bad or pretious
Mans body can produce hence hath it beene
That stones wormes frogges and snakes in man are seene
But who ere saw though nature can worke soe 
That pearle or gold or corne in man did grow
We'have added to the world Virginia'and sent
Two new starres lately to the firmament
Why grudge wee us not heaven the dignity
T'increase with ours those faire soules company 
But I must end this letter though it doe
Stand on two truths neither is true to you
Vertue hath some perversenesse For she will
Neither beleeve her good nor others ill
Even in you vertues best paradise 
Vertue hath some but wise degrees of vice
Too many vertues or too much of one
Begets in you unjust suspition
And ignorance of vice makes vertue lesse
Quenching compassion of our wrechednesse 
But these are riddles Some aspersion
Of vice becomes well some complexion
Statesmen purge vice with vice and may corrode
The bad with bad a spider with a toad
For so ill thralls not them but they tame ill 
And make her do much good against her will
But in your Commonwealth or world in you
Vice hath no office or good worke to doe
Take then no vitious purge but be content
With cordiall vertue your knowne nourishment
This twilight of two yeares not past nor next
Some embleme is of mee or I of this
Who Meteor-like of stuffe and forme perplext
Whose what and where in disputation is
If I should call mee any thing should misse 
I summe the yeares and mee and finde mee not
Debtor to th'  nor Creditor to th' 
That cannot say My thankes I have forgot
Nor trust I this with hopes and yet scarce true
This bravery is since these times shew'd mee you 
In recompence I would show future times
What you were and teach them to'urge towards such
Verse embalmes vertue'and Tombs or Thrones of rimes
Preserve fraile transitory fame as much
As spice doth bodies from corrupt aires touch 
Mine are short-liv'd the tincture of your name
Creates in them but dissipates as fast
New spirits for strong agents with the same
Force that doth warme and cherish us doe wast
Kept hot with strong extracts no bodies last 
So my verse built of your just praise might want
Reason and likelihood the firmest Base
And made of miracle now faith is scant
Will vanish soone and so possesse no place
And you and it too much grace might disgrace 
When all as truth commands assent confesse
All truth of you yet they will doubt how I
One corne of one low anthills dust and lesse
Should name know or expresse a thing so high
And not an inch measure infinity 
I cannot tell them nor my selfe nor you
But leave lest truth b'endanger'd by my praise
And turne to God who knowes I thinke this true
And useth oft when such a heart mis-sayes
To make it good for such a praiser prayes 
Hee will best teach you how you should lay out
His stock of beauty learning favour blood
He will perplex security with doubt
And cleare those doubts hide from you'and shew you good
And so increase your appetite and food 
Hee will teach you that good and bad have not
One latitude in cloysters and in Court
Indifferent there the greatest space hath got
Some pitty'is not good there some vaine disport
On this side sinne with that place may comport 
Yet he as hee bounds seas will fixe your houres
Which pleasure and delight may not ingresse
And though what none else lost be truliest yours
Hee will make you what you did not possesse
By using others not vice but weakenesse 
He will make you speake truths and credibly
And make you doubt that others doe not so
Hee will provide you keyes and locks to spie
And scape spies to good ends and hee will show
What you may not acknowledge what not know 
For your owne conscience he gives innocence
But for your fame a discreet warinesse
And though to scape then to revenge offence
Be better he showes both and to represse
Ioy when your state swells sadnesse when'tis lesse 
From need of teares he will defend your soule
Or make a rebaptizing of one teare
Hee cannot that he will not dis-inroule
Your name and when with active joy we heare
This private Ghospell then'tis our New Yeare
Man to Gods image Eve to mans was made
Nor finde wee that God breath'  a soule in her
Canons will not Church functions you invade
Nor lawes to civill office you preferre
Who vagrant transitory Comets sees 
Wonders because they'are rare But a new starre
Whose motion with the firmament agrees
Is miracle for there no new things are
In woman so perchance milde innocence
A seldome comet is but active good 
A miracle which reason scapes and sense
For Art and Nature this in them withstood
As such a starre the Magi led to view
The manger-cradled infant God below
By vertues beames by fame deriv'd from you 
May apt soules and the worst may vertue know
If the worlds age and death be argued well
By the Sunnes fall which now towards earth doth bend
Then we might feare that vertue since she fell
So low as woman should be neare her end 
But she not stoop'd but rais'd exil'd by men
She fled to heaven that heavenly things that you
She was in all men thinly scatter'd then
But now amass'd contracted in a few
She guilded us But you are gold and Shee 
Us she inform'd but transubstantiates you
Soft dispositions which ductile bee
Elixarlike she makes not cleane but new
Though you a wifes and mothers name retaine
'Tis not as woman for all are not soe 
But vertue having made you vertue'is faine
T'adhere in these names her and you to show
Else being alike pure wee should neither see
As water being into ayre rarify'd
Neither appeare till in one cloud they bee 
So for our sakes you do low names abide
Taught by great constellations which being fram'd
Of the most starres take low names Crab and Bull
When single planets by the Gods are nam'd
You covet not great names of great things full 
So you as woman one doth comprehend
And in the vaile of kindred others see
To some ye are reveal'd as in a friend
And as a vertuous Prince farre off to mee
To whom because from you all vertues flow 
And 'tis not none to dare contemplate you
I which doe so as your true subject owe
Some tribute for that so these lines are due
If you can thinke these flatteries they are
For then your judgement is below my praise 
If they were so oft flatteries worke as farre
As Counsels and as farre th'  raise
So my ill reaching you might there grow good
But I remaine a poyson'd fountaine still
But not your beauty vertue knowledge blood 
Are more above all flattery then my will
And if I flatter any'tis not you
But my owne judgement who did long agoe
Pronounce that all these praises should be true
And vertue should your beauty'and birth outgrow 
Now that my prophesies are all fulfill'd
Rather then God should not be honour'd too
And all these gifts confess'd which hee instill'd
Your selfe were bound to say that which I doe
So I but your Recorder am in this 
Or mouth or Speaker of the universe
A ministeriall Notary for'tis
Not I but you and fame that make this verse
I was your Prophet in your yonger dayes
And now your Chaplaine God in you to praise
At once from hence my lines and I depart
I to my soft still walks they to my Heart
I to the Nurse they to the child of Art
Yet as a firme house though the Carpenter
Perish doth stand As an Embassadour 
Lyes safe how e'r his king be in danger
So though I languish prest with Melancholy
My verse the strict Map of my misery
Shall live to see that for whose want I dye
Therefore I envie them and doe repent 
That from unhappy mee things happy'are sent
Yet as a Picture or bare Sacrament
Accept these lines and if in them there be
Merit of love bestow that love on mee
Even as lame things thirst their perfection so
The slimy rimes bred in our vale below
Bearing with them much of my love and hart
Fly unto that Parnassus where thou art
There thou oreseest London Here I have beene 
By staying in London too much overseene
Now pleasures dearth our City doth posses
Our Theaters are fill'd with emptines
As lancke and thin is every street and way
As a woman deliver'd yesterday 
Nothing whereat to laugh my spleen espyes
But bearbaitings or Law exercise
Therefore I'le leave it and in the Country strive
Pleasure now fled from London to retrive
Do thou so too and fill not like a Bee 
Thy thighs with hony but as plenteously
As Russian Marchants thy selfes whole vessell load
And then at Winter retaile it here abroad
Blesse us with Suffolks sweets and as it is
Thy garden make thy hive and warehouse this
If as mine is thy life a slumber be
Seeme when thou read'st these lines to dreame of me
Never did Morpheus nor his brother weare
Shapes soe like those Shapes whom they would appeare
As this my letter is like me for it 
Hath my name words hand feet heart minde and wit
It is my deed of gift of mee to thee
It is my Will my selfe the Legacie
So thy retyrings I love yea envie
Bred in thee by a wise melancholy 
That I rejoyce that unto where thou art
Though I stay here I can thus send my heart
As kindly'as any enamored Patient
His Picture to his absent Love hath sent
All newes I thinke sooner reach thee then mee 
Havens are Heavens and Ships wing'd Angels be
The which both Gospell and sterne threatnings bring
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring
I feare And with us me thinkes Fate deales so
As with the Jewes guide God did he did show 
Him the rich land but bar'd his entry in
Oh slownes is our punishment and sinne
Perchance these Spanish businesse being done
Which as the Earth betweene the Moone and Sun
Eclipse the light which Guyana would give 
Our discontinued hopes we shall retrive
But if as all th'  must hopes smoake away
Is not Almightie Vertue'an India
If men be worlds there is in every one
Some thing to answere in some proportion 
All the worlds riches And in good men this
Vertue our formes forme and our soules soule is
Blest are your North parts for all this long time
My Sun is with you cold and darke'is our Clime
Heavens Sun which staid so long from us this yeare
Staid in your North I thinke for she was there
And hether by kinde nature drawne from thence 
Here rages chafes and threatens pestilence
Yet I as long as shee from hence doth staie
Thinke this no South no Sommer nor no day
With thee my kinde and unkinde heart is run
There sacrifice it to that beauteous Sun 
And since thou art in Paradise and need'st crave
No joyes addition helpe thy friend to save
So may thy pastures with their flowery feasts
As suddenly as Lard fat thy leane beasts
So may thy woods oft poll'd yet ever weare 
A greene and when thee list a golden haire
So may all thy sheepe bring forth Twins and so
In chace and race may thy horse all out goe
So may thy love and courage ne'r be cold
Thy Sonne ne'r Ward Thy lov'd wife ne'r seem old
But maist thou wish great things and them attaine 
As thou telst her and none but her my paine
In all the parts of earth from farthest West
And the Atlantic Isles unto the East
And famous Ganges few there be that know
What truly good and what is good in show
Without mistake for what is't we desire
Or fear discreetly to whate'er aspire
So throughly bless'd but ever as we speed
Repentance seals the very act and deed
The easy gods mov'd by no other fate
Than our own pray'rs whole kingdoms ruinate
And undo families thus strife and war
Are the sword prize and a litigious bar
The gown prime wish Vain confidence to share
In empty honours and a bloody care
To be the first in mischief makes him die
Fool'd 'twixt ambition and credulity
An oily tongue with fatal cunning sense
And that sad virtue ever eloquence
Are th' other ruin but the common curse
And each day ill waits on the rich man purse
He whose large acres and imprison'd gold
So far exceeds his father store of old
As British whales the dolphins do surpass
In sadder times therefore and when the laws
Of Nero fiat reign'd an armed band
Seiz'd on Longinus and the spacious land
Of wealthy Seneca besieg'd the gates
Of Lateranus and his fair estate
Divided as a spoil in such sad feasts
Soldiers though not invited are the guests
Though thou small pieces of the blessed mine
Hast lodg'd about thee travelling in the shine
Of a pale moon if but a reed doth shake
Mov'd by the wind the shadow makes thee quake
Wealth hath its cares and want has this relief
It neither fears the soldier nor the thief
Thy first choice vows and to the gods best known
Are for thy stores' increase that in all town
Thy stock be greatest but no poison lies
I' th' poor man dish he tastes of no such spice
Be that thy care when with a kingly gust
Thou suck'st whole bowls clad in the gilded dust
Of some rich mineral whilst the false wine
Sparkles aloft and makes the draught divine
Blam'st thou the sages then because the one
Would still be laughing when he would be gone
From his own door the other cried to see
His times addicted to such vanity
Smiles are an easy purchase but to weep
Is a hard act for tears are fetch'd more deep
Democritus his nimble lungs would tire
With constant laughter and yet keep entire
His stock of mirth for ev'ry object was
Addition to his store though then alas 
Sedans and litters and our Senate gowns
With robes of honour fasces and the frowns
Of unbrib'd tribunes were not seen but had
He liv'd to see our Roman praetor clad
In Jove own mantle seated on his high
Embroider'd chariot 'midst the dust and cry
Of the large theatre loaden with a crown
Which scarce he could support for it would down
But that his servant props it and close by
His page a witness to his vanity
To these his sceptre and his eagle add
His trumpets officers and servants clad
In white and purple with the rest that day
He hir'd to triumph for his bread and pay
Had he these studied sumptuous follies seen
'Tis thought his wanton and effusive spleen
Had kill'd the Abderite though in that age
 When pride and greatness had not swell'd the stage
So high as ours his harmless and just mirth
From ev'ry object had a sudden birth
Nor was't alone their avarice or pride
Their triumphs or their cares he did deride
Their vain contentions or ridiculous fears
But even their very poverty and tears
He would at Fortune threats as freely smile
As others mourn nor was it to beguile
His crafty passions but this habit he
By nature had and grave philosophy
He knew their idle and superfluous vows
And sacrifice which such wrong zeal bestows
Were mere incendiaries and that the gods
Not pleas'd therewith would ever be at odds
Yet to no other air nor better place
Ow'd he his birth than the cold homely Thrace
Which shows a man may be both wise and good
Without the brags of fortune or his blood
But envy ruins all what mighty names
Of fortune spirit action blood and fame
Hath this destroy'd yea for no other cause
Than being such their honour worth and place
Was crime enough their statues arms and crowns
Their ornaments of triumph chariots gowns
And what the herald with a learned care
Had long preserv'd this madness will not spare
So once Sejanus' statue Rome allow'd
Her demi-god and ev'ry Roman bow'd
To pay his safety vows but when that face
Had lost Tiberius once its former grace
Was soon eclips'd no diff'rence made alas 
Betwixt his statue then and common brass
They melt alike and in the workman hand
For equal servile use like others stand
Go now fetch home fresh bays and pay new vows
To thy dumb Capitol gods thy life thy house
And state are now secur'd Sejanus lies
I' th' lictors' hands Ye gods what hearts and eyes
Can one day fortune change the solemn cry
Of all the world is Let Sejanus die
They never lov'd the man they swear they know
Nothing of all the matter when or how
By what accuser for what cause or why
By whose command or sentence he must die
But what needs this the least pretence will hit
When princes fear or hate a favourite
A large epistle stuff'd with idle fear
Vain dreams and jealousies directed here
From Caprea does it and thus ever die
Subjects when once they grow prodigious high
'Tis well I seek no more but tell me how
This took his friends no private murmurs now
No tears no solemn mourner seen must all
His glory perish in one funeral
O still true Romans State-wit bids them praise
The moon by night but court the warmer rays
O' th' sun by day they follow fortune still
And hate or love discreetly as their will
And the time leads them This tumultuous fate
Puts all their painted favours out of date
And yet this people that now spurn and tread
This mighty favourite once honour'd head
Had but the Tuscan goddess or his stars
Destin'd him for an empire or had wars
Treason or policy or some higher pow'r
Oppress'd secure Tiberius that same hour
That he receiv'd the sad Gemonian doom
Had crown'd him emp'ror of the world and Rome
But Rome is now grown wise and since that she
Her suffrages and ancient liberty
Lost in a monarch name she takes no care
For favourite or prince nor will she share
Their fickle glories though in Cato days
She rul'd whole States and armies with her voice
Of all the honours now within her walls
She only dotes on plays and festivals
Nor is it strange for when these meteors fall
They draw an ample ruin with them all
Share in the storm each beam sets with the sun
And equal hazard friends and flatt'rers run
This makes that circled with distractive fear
The lifeless pale Sejanus' limbs they tear
And lest the action might a witness need
They bring their servants to confirm the deed
Nor is it done for any other end
Than to avoid the title of his friend
So falls ambitious man and such are still
All floating States built on the people will
Hearken all you whom this bewitching lust
Of an hour glory and a little dust
Swells to such dear repentance you that can
Measure whole kingdoms with a thought or span
Would you be as Sejanus would you have
So you might sway as he did such a grave
Would you be rich as he command dispose
All acts and offices all friends and foes
Be generals of armies and colleague
Unto an emperor break or make a league
No doubt you would for both the good and bad
An equal itch of honour ever had
But O what state can be so great or good
As to be bought with so much shame and blood
Alas Sejanus will too late confess
'Twas only pride and greatness made him less
For he that moveth with the lofty wind
Of Fortune and Ambition unconfin'd
In act or thought doth but increase his height
That he may loose it with more force and weight
Scorning a base low ruin as if he
Would of misfortune make a prodigy
Tell mighty Pompey Crassus and O thou
That mad'st Rome kneel to thy victorious brow
What but the weight of honours and large fame
After your worthy acts and height of name
Destroy'd you in the end The envious Fates
Easy to further your aspiring States
Us'd them to quell you too pride and excess
In ev'ry act did make you thrive the less
Few kings are guilty of grey hairs or die
Without a stab a draught or treachery
And yet to see him that but yesterday
Saw letters first how he will scrape and pray
And all her feast-time tire Minerva ears
For fame for eloquence and store of years
To thrive and live in and then lest he dotes
His boy assists him with his box and notes
Fool that thou art not to discern the ill
These vows include what did Rome consul kill
Her Cicero what him whose very dust
Greece celebrates as yet whose cause though just
Scarce banishment could end nor poison save
His free-born person from a foreign grave
All this from eloquence both head and hand
The tongue doth forfeit petty wits may stand
Secure from danger but the nobler vein
With loss of blood the bar doth often stain
Had all been thus thou might'st have scorn'd the sword
Of fierce Antonius here is not one word
Doth pinch I like such stuff 'tis safer far
Than thy Philippics or Pharsalia war
What sadder end than his whom Athens saw
At once her patriot oracle and law
Unhappy then is he and curs'd in stars
Whom his poor father blind with soot and scars
Sends from the anvil harmless chine to wear
The factious gown and tire his client ear
And purse with endless noise Trophies of war
Old rusty armour with an honour'd scar
And wheels of captiv'd chariots with a piece
Of some torn British galley and to these
The ensign too and last of all the train
The pensive pris'ner loaden with his chain
Are thought true Roman honours these the Greek
And rude barbarians equally do seek
Thus air and empty fame are held a prize
Beyond fair virtue for all virtue dies
Without reward and yet by this fierce lust
Of fame and titles to outlive our dust
And monuments though all these things must die
And perish like ourselves whole kingdoms lie
Ruin'd and spoil'd put Hannibal i' th' scale
What weight affords the mighty general
This is the man whom Afric spacious land
Bounded by th' Indian Sea and Nile hot sand
Could not contain Ye gods that give to men
Such boundless appetites why state you them
So short a time either the one deny
Or give their acts and them eternity
All AEthiopia to the utmost bound
Of Titan course than which no land is found
Less distant from the sun with him that ploughs
That fertile soil where fam'd Iberus flows
Are not enough to conquer pass'd now o'er
The Pyrrhene hills the Alps with all its store
Of ice and rocks clad in eternal snow
 As if that Nature meant to give the blow 
Denies him passage straight on ev'ry side
He wounds the hill and by strong hand divides
The monstrous pile nought can ambition stay
The world and Nature yield to give him way
And now pass'd o'er the Alps that mighty bar
'Twixt France and Rome fear of the future war
Strikes Italy success and hope doth fire
His lofty spirits with a fresh desire
All is undone as yet saith he unless
Our Paenish forces we advance and press
Upon Rome self break down her gates and wall
And plant our colours in Suburra vale
O the rare sight if this great soldier we
Arm'd on his Getick elephant might see
But what the event O glory how the itch
Of thy short wonders doth mankind bewitch
He that but now all Italy and Spain
Had conquer'd o'er is beaten out again
And in the heart of Afric and the sight
Of his own Carthage forc'd to open flight
Banish'd from thence a fugitive he posts
To Syria first then to Bithynia coasts
Both places by his sword secur'd though he
In this distress must not acknowledg'd be
Where once a general he triumphed now
To show what Fortune can he begs as low
And thus that soul which through all nations hurl'd
Conquest and war and did amaze the world
Of all those glories robb'd at his last breath
Fortune would not vouchsafe a soldier death
For all that blood the field of Cannae boasts
And sad Apulia fill'd with Roman ghosts
No other end freed from the pile and sword 
Than a poor ring would Fortune him afford
Go now ambitious man new plots design
March o'er the snowy Alps and Apennine
That after all at best thou may'st but be
A pleasing story to posterity
The Macedon one world could not contain
We hear him of the narrow earth complain
And sweat for room as if Seriphus Isle
Or Gyara had held him in exile
But Babylon this madness can allay
And give the great man but his length of clay
The highest thoughts and actions under heaven
Death only with the lowest dust lays even
It is believed if what Greece writes be true 
That Xerxes with his Persian fleet did hew
Their ways through mountains that their sails full blown
Like clouds hung over Athos and did drown
The spacious continent and by plain force
Betwixt the mount and it made a divorce
That seas exhausted were and made firm land
And Sestos joined unto Abydos strand
That on their march his Medes but passing by
Drank thee Scamander and Melenus dry
With whatsoe'er incredible design
Sostratus sings inspir'd with pregnant wine
But what the end He that the other day
Divided Hellespont and forc'd his way
Through all her angry billows that assign'd
New punishments unto the waves and wind
No sooner saw the Salaminian seas
But he was driven out by Themistocles
And of that fleet supposed to be so great
That all mankind shar'd in the sad defeat 
Not one sail sav'd in a poor fisher boat
Chas'd o'er the working surge was glad to float
Cutting his desp'rate course through the tir'd flood
And fought again with carcases and blood
O foolish mad Ambition these are still
The famous dangers that attend thy will
Give store of days good Jove give length of years
Are the next vows these with religious fears
And constancy we pay but what so bad
As a long sinful age what cross more sad
Than misery of years how great an ill
Is that which doth but nurse more sorrow still
It blacks the face corrupt and dulls the blood
Benights the quickest eye distastes the food
And such deep furrows cuts i' th' checker'd skin
As in th' old oaks of Tabraca are seen
Youth varies in most things strength beauty wit
Are several graces but where age doth hit
It makes no difference the same weak voice
And trembling ague in each member lies
A general hateful baldness with a curs'd
Perpetual pettishness and which is worst
A foul strong flux of humours and more pain
To feed than if he were to nurse again
So tedious to himself his wife and friends
That his own sons and servants wish his end
His taste and feeling dies and of that fire
The am'rous lover burns in no desire
Or if there were what pleasure could it be
Where lust doth reign without ability
Nor is this all what matters it where he
Sits in the spacious stage who can nor see
Nor hear what acted whom the stiller voice
Of spirited wanton airs or the loud noise
Of trumpets cannot pierce whom thunder can
But scarce inform who enters or what man
He personates what 'tis they act or say
How many scenes are done what time of day
Besides that little blood his carcase holds
Hath lost its native warmth and fraught with colds
Catarrhs and rheums to thick black jelly turns
And never but in fits and fevers burns
Such vast infirmities so huge a stock
Of sickness and diseases to him flock
That Hyppia ne'er so many lovers knew
Nor wanton Maura physic never slew
So many patients nor rich lawyers spoil
More wards and widows it were lesser toil
To number out what manors and domains
Licinius' razor purchas'd one complains
Of weakness in the back another pants
For lack of breath the third his eyesight wants
Nay some so feeble are and full of pain
That infant-like they must be fed again
These faint too at their meals their wine they spill
And like young birds that wait the mother bill
They gape for meat but sadder far than this
Their senseless ignorance and dotage is
For neither they their friends nor servants know
Nay those themselves begot and bred up too
No longer now they'll own for madly they
Proscribe them all and what on the last day
The misers cannot carry to the grave
For their past sins their prostitutes must have
But grant age lack'd these plagues yet must they see
As great as many frail mortality
In such a length of years hath many falls
And deads a life with frequent funerals
The nimblest hour in all the span can steal
A friend or brother from there no repeal
In death or time this day a wife we mourn
To-morrow tears a son and the next urn
A sister fills Long-livers have assign'd
These curses still that with a restless mind
An age of fresh renewing cares they buy
And in a tide of tears grow old and die
Nestor if we great Homer may believe 
In his full strength three hundred years did live
Happy thou'lt say that for so long a time
Enjoy'd free nature with the grape and wine
Of many autumns but I prithee thee hear
What Nestor says himself when he his dear
Antilochus had lost how he complains
Of life too large extent and copious pains
Of all he meets he asks what is the cause
He liv'd thus long for what breach of their laws
The gods thus punish'd him what sin had he
Done worthy of a long life misery
Thus Peleus his Achilles mourned and he
Thus wept that his Ulysses lost at sea
Had Priam died before Phereclus' fleet
Was built or Paris stole the fatal Greek
Troy had yet stood and he perhaps had gone
In peace unto the lower shades his son
Sav'd with his plenteous offspring and the rest
In solemn pomp bearing his fun'ral chest
But long life hinder'd this unhappy he
Kept for a public ruin liv'd to see
All Asia lost and ere he could aspire
In his own house saw both the sword and fire
All white with age and cares his feeble arm
Had now forgot the war but this alarm
Gathers his dying spirits and as we
An aged ox worn out with labour see
By his ungrateful master after all
His years of toil a thankless victim fall
So he by Jove own altar which shows we
Are nowhere safe from heaven and destiny
Yet died a man but his surviving queen
Freed from the Greekish sword was barking seen
I haste to Rome and Pontus' king let pass
With Lydian Croesus whom in vain alas 
Just Solon grave advice bad to attend
That happiness came not before the end
What man more bless'd in any age to come
Or past could Nature show the world or Rome
Than Marius was if amidst the pomp of war
And triumphs fetch'd with Roman blood from far
His soul had fled exile and fetters then
He ne'er had seen nor known Minturna fen
Nor had it after Carthage got been said
A Roman general had begg'd his bread
Thus Pompey th' envious gods and Rome ill stars
 Freed from Campania fevers and the wars 
Doom'd to Achilles' sword our public vows
Made Caesar guiltless but sent him to lose
His head at Nile this curse Cethegus miss'd
This Lentulus and this made him resist
That mangled by no lictor axe fell dead
Entirely Catiline and sav'd his head
The anxious matrons with their foolish zeal
Are the last votaries and their appeal
Is all for beauty with soft speech and slow
They pray for sons but with a louder vow
Commend a female feature all that can
Make woman pleasing now they shift and scan
And when reprov'd they say Latona pair
The mother never thinks can be too fair
But sad Lucretia warns to wish no face
Like hers Virginia would bequeath her grace
To crook-back Rutila in exchange for still
The fairest children do their parents fill
With greatest cares so seldom chastity
Is found with beauty though some few there be
That with a strict religious care contend
Th' old modest Sabine customs to defend
Besides wise Nature to some faces grants
An easy blush and where she freely plants
A less instruction serves but both these join'd
At Rome would both be forc'd or else purloin'd
So steel'd a forehead Vice hath that dares win
And bribe the father to the children sin
But whom have gifts defiled not what good face
Did ever want these tempters pleasing grace
Betrays itself what time did Nero mind
A coarse maim'd shape what blemish'd youth confin'd
His goatish pathic whence then flow these joys
Of a fair issue whom these sad annoys
Wait and grow up with whom perhaps thou'lt see
Public adulterers and must be
Subject to all the curses plagues and awe
Of jealous madmen and the Julian law
Nor canst thou hope they'll find a milder star
Or more escapes than did the god of war
But worse than all a jealous brain confines
His fury to no law what rage assigns
Is present justice thus the rash sword spills
This lecher blood the scourge another kills
But thy spruce boy must touch no other face
Than a patrician is of any race
So they be rich Servilia is as good
With wealth as she that boasts Iulus' blood
To please a servant all is cheap what thing
In all their stock to the last suit and king
But lust exacts the poorest whore in this
As generous as the patrician is
But thou wilt say what hurt a beauteous skin
With a chaste soul Ask Theseus' son and him
That Stenoboea murder'd for both these
Can tell how fatal 'twas in them to please
A woman spleen then carries most of fate
When shame and sorrow aggravate her hate
Resolve me now had Silius been thy son
In such a hazard what should he have done
Of all Rome youth this was the only best
In whom alone beauty and worth did rest
This Messalina saw and needs he must
Be ruin'd by the emp'ror or her lust
All in the face of Rome and the world eye
Though Caesar wife a public bigamy
She dares attempt and that the act might bear
More prodigy the notaries appear
And augurs to't and to complete the sin
In solemn form a dowry is brought in
All this thou'lt say in private might have pass'd
But she'll not have it so what course at last
What should he do If Messaline be cross'd
Without redress thy Silius will be lost
If not some two days' length is all he can
Keep from the grave just so much as will span
This news to Hostia to whose fate he owes
That Claudius last his own dishonour knows
But he obeys and for a few hours' lust
Forfeits that glory should outlive his dust
Nor was it much a fault for whether he
Obey'd or not 'twas equal destiny
So fatal beauty is and full of waste
That neither wanton can be safe nor chaste
What then should man pray for what is't that he
Can beg of Heaven without impiety
Take my advice first to the gods commit
All cares for they things competent and fit
For us foresee besides man is more dear
To them than to himself we blindly here
Led by the world and lust in vain assay
To get us portions wives and sons but they
Already know all that we can intend
And of our children children see the end
Yet that thou may'st have something to commend
With thanks unto the gods for what they send
Pray for a wise and knowing soul a sad
Discreet true valour that will scorn to add
A needless horror to thy death that knows
'Tis but a debt which man to nature owes
That starts not at misfortunes that can sway
And keep all passions under lock and key
That covets nothing wrongs none and prefers
An honest want before rich injurers
All this thou hast within thyself and may
Be made thy own if thou wilt take the way
What boots the world wild loose applause what can
Frail perilous honours add unto a man
What length of years wealth or a rich fair wife
Virtue alone can make a happy life
To a wise man nought comes amiss but we
Fortune adore and make our deity
Bless me what damps are here how stiff an air
Kelder of mists a second fiat care
Front'spiece o' th' grave and darkness a display
Of ruin'd man and the disease of day
Lean bloodless shamble where I can descry
Fragments of men rags of anatomy
Corruption wardrobe the transplantive bed
Of mankind and th' exchequer of the dead
How thou arrests my sense how with the sight
My winter'd blood grows stiff to all delight
Torpedo to the eye whose least glance can
Freeze our wild lusts and rescue headlong man
Eloquent silence able to immure
An atheist thoughts and blast an epicure
Were I a Lucian Nature in this dress
Would make me wish a Saviour and confess
Where are you shoreless thoughts vast tenter'd hope
Ambitious dreams aims of an endless scope
Whose stretch'd excess runs on a string too high
And on the rack of self-extension die
Chameleons of state air-monging band
Whose breath like gunpowder blows up a land
Come see your dissolution and weigh
What a loath'  nothing you shall be one day
As th' elements by circulation pass
From one to th' other and that which first was
I so again so 'tis with you the grave
And Nature but complot what the one gave
The other takes think then that in this bed
There sleep the relics of as proud a head
As stern and subtle as your own that hath
Perform'd or forc'd as much whose tempest-wrath
Hath levell'd kings with slaves and wisely then
Calm these high furies and descend to men
Thus Cyrus tam'd the Macedon a tomb
Check'd him who thought the world too straight a room
Have I obey'd the powers of face
A beauty able to undo the race
Of easy man I look but here and straight
I am inform'd the lovely counterfeit
Was but a smoother clay That famish'd slave
Beggar'd by wealth who starves that he may save
Brings hither but his sheet nay th' ostrich-man
That feeds on steel and bullet he that can
Outswear his lordship and reply as tough
To a kind word as if his tongue were buff
Is chap-fall'n here worms without wit or fear
Defy him now Death hath disarm'd the bear
Thus could I run o'er all the piteous score
Of erring men and having done meet more
Their shuffled wills abortive vain intents
Fantastic humours perilous ascents
False empty honours traitorous delights
And whatsoe'er a blind conceit invites
But these and more which the weak vermins swell
Are couch'd in this accumulative cell
Which I could scatter but the grudging sun
Calls home his beams and warns me to be gone
Day leaves me in a double night and I
Must bid farewell to my sad library
Yet with these notes Henceforth with thought of thee
I'll season all succeeding jollity
Yet damn not mirth nor think too much is fit
Excess hath no religion nor wit
But should wild blood swell to a lawless strain
One check from thee shall channel it again
Since last we met thou and thy horse my dear 
Have not so much as drunk or litter'd here
I wonder though thyself be thus deceas'd
Thou hast the spite to coffin up thy beast
Or is the palfrey sick and his rough hide
With the penance of one spur mortified
Or taught by thee like Pythagoras ox 
Is then his master grown more orthodox
Whatever 'tis a sober cause't must be
That thus long bars us of thy company
The town believes thee lost and didst thou see
But half her suff'rings now distress'd for thee
Thou'ldst swear like Rome her foul polluted walls
Were sack'd by Brennus and the savage Gauls
Abominable face of things here noise
Of banged mortars blue aprons and boys
Pigs dogs and drums with the hoarse hellish notes
Of politicly-deaf usurers' throats
With new fine Worships and the old cast team
Of Justices vex'd with the cough and phlegm
'Midst these the Cross looks sad and in the Shire-
Hall furs of an old Saxon fox appear
With brotherly ruffs and beards and a strange sight
Of high monumental hats ta'en at the fight
Of 'Eighty-eight while ev'ry burgess foots
The mortal pavement in eternal boots
Hadst thou been bach'lor I had soon divin'd
Thy close retirements and monastic mind
Perhaps some nymph had been to visit or
The beauteous churl was to be waited for
And like the Greek ere you the sport would miss
You stay'd and strok'd the distaff for a kiss
But in this age when thy cool settled blood
Is ti'd t'one flesh and thou almost grown good
I know not how to reach the strange device
Except Domitian-like thou murder'st flies
Or is't thy piety for who can tell
But thou may'st prove devout and love a cell
And like a badger with attentive looks
In the dark hole sit rooting up of books
Quick hermit what a peaceful change hadst thou
Without the noise of haircloth whip or vow
But there is no redemption must there be
No other penance but of liberty
Why two months hence if thou continue thus
Thy memory will scarce remain with us
The drawers have forgot thee and exclaim
They have not seen thee here since Charles his reign
Or if they mention thee like some old man
That at each word inserts Sir as I can
Remember so the cyph'rers puzzle me
With a dark cloudy character of thee
That certs I fear thou wilt be lost and we
Must ask the fathers ere't be long for thee
Come leave this sullen state and let not wine
And precious wit lie dead for want of thine
Shall the dull market-landlord with his rout
Of sneaking tenants dirtily swill out
This harmless liquor shall they knock and beat
For sack only to talk of rye and wheat
O let not such prepost'rous tippling be
In our metropolis may I ne'er see
Such tavern-sacrilege nor lend a line
To weep the rapes and tragedy of wine
Here lives that chymic quick fire which betrays
Fresh spirits to the blood and warms our lays
I have reserv'd 'gainst thy approach a cup
That were thy Muse stark dead shall raise her up
And teach her yet more charming words and skill
Than ever Coelia Chloris Astrophil
Or any of the threadbare names inspir'd
Poor rhyming lovers with a mistress fir'd
Come then and while the slow icicle hangs
At the stiff thatch and Winter frosty pangs
Benumb the year blithe as of old let us
'Midst noise and war of peace and mirth discuss
This portion thou wert born for why should we
Vex at the time ridiculous misery
An age that thus hath fool'd itself and will
 Spite of thy teeth and mine persist so still
Let sit then at this fire and while we steal
A revel in the town let others seal
Purchase or cheat and who can let them pay
Till those black deeds bring on the darksome day
Innocent spenders we a better use
Shall wear out our short lease and leave th' obtuse
Rout to their husks they and their bags at best
Have cares in earnest we care for a jest
I've read thy soul fair nightpiece and have seen
Th' amours and courtship of the silent Queen
Her stoln descents to Earth and what did move her
To juggle first with Heav'n then with a lover
With Latmos' louder rescue and alas 
To find her out a hue and cry in brass
Thy journal of deep mysteries and sad
Nocturnal pilgrimage with thy dreams clad
In fancies darker than thy cave thy glass
Of sleepy draughts and as thy soul did pass
In her calm voyage what discourse she heard
Of spirits what dark groves and ill-shap'd guard
Ismena led thee through with thy proud flight
O'er Periardes and deep musing night
Near fair Eurotas' banks what solemn green
The neighbour shades wear and what forms are seen
In their large bowers with that sad path and seat
Which none but light-heel'd nymphs and fairies beat
Their solitary life and how exempt
From common frailty the severe contempt
They have of man their privilege to live
A tree or fountain and in that reprieve
What ages they consume with the sad vale
Of Diophania and the mournful tale
Of th' bleeding vocal myrtle these and more
Thy richer thoughts we are upon the score
To thy rare fancy for nor dost thou fall
From thy first majesty or ought at all
Betray consumption thy full vig'rous bays
Wear the same green and scorn the lean decays
Of style or matter Just so have I known
Some crystal spring that from the neighbour down
Deriv'd her birth in gentle murmurs steal
To their next vale and proudly there reveal
Her streams in louder accents adding still
More noise and waters to her channel till
At last swoln with increase she glides along
The lawns and meadows in a wanton throng
Of frothy billows and in one great name
Swallows the tributary brooks' drown'd fame
Nor are they mere inventions for we
In th' same piece find scatter'd philosophy
And hidden dispers'd truths that folded lie
In the dark shades of deep allegory
So neatly weav'd like arras they descry
Fables with truth fancy with history
So that thou hast in this thy curious mould
Cast that commended mixture wish'd of old
Which shall these contemplations render far
Less mutable and lasting as their star
And while there is a people or a sun
Endymion story with the moon shall run
I am confirmed and so much wing is given
To my wild thoughts that they dare strike at heav'n
A full year grief I struggled with and stood
Still on my sandy hopes' uncertain good
So loth was I to yield to all those fears
I still oppos'd thee and denied my tears
But thou art gone and the untimely loss
Like that one day hath made all others cross
Have you seen on some river flow'ry brow
A well-built elm or stately cedar grow
Whose curled tops gilt with the morning-ray
Beckon'd the sun and whisper'd to the day
When unexpected from the angry North
A fatal sullen whirlwind sallies forth
And with a full-mouth'  blast rends from the ground
The shady twins which rushing scatter round
Their sighing leaves whilst overborn with strength
Their trembling heads bow to a prostrate length
So forc'd fell he so immaturely Death
Stifled his able heart and active breath
The world scarce knew him yet his early soul
Had but new-broke her day and rather stole
A sight than gave one as if subtly she
Would learn our stock but hide his treasury
His years should Time lay both his wings and glass
Unto his charge could not be summ'd alas 
To a full score though in so short a span
His riper thoughts had purchas'd more of man
Than all those worthless livers which yet quick
Have quite outgone their own arithmetic
He seiz'd perfections and without a dull
And mossy grey possess'd a solid skull
No crooked knowledge neither nor did he
Wear the friend name for ends and policy
And then lay't by as those lost youths of th' stage
Who only flourish'd for the Play short age
And then retir'd like jewels in each part
He wore his friends but chiefly at his heart
Nor was it only in this he did excel
His equal valour could as much as well
He knew no fear but of his God yet durst
No injury nor as some have e'er purs'd
The sweat and tears of others yet would be
More forward in a royal gallantry
Than all those vast pretenders which of late
Swell'd in the ruins of their king and State
He weav'd not self-ends and the public good
Into one piece nor with the people blood
Fill'd his own veins in all the doubtful way
Conscience and honour rul'd him O that day
When like the fathers in the fire and cloud
I miss'd thy face I might in ev'ry crowd
See arms like thine and men advance but none
So near to lightning mov'd nor so fell on
Have you observ'd how soon the nimble eye
Brings th' object to conceit and doth so vie
Performance with the soul that you would swear
The act and apprehension both lodg'd there
Just so mov'd he like shot his active hand
Drew blood ere well the foe could understand
But here I lost him Whether the last turn
Of thy few sands call'd on thy hasty urn
Or some fierce rapid fate hid from the eye 
Hath hurl'd thee pris'ner to some distant sky
I cannot tell but that I do believe
Thy courage such as scorn'd a base reprieve
Whatever 'twas whether that day thy breath
Suffer'd a civil or the common death
Which I do most suspect and that I have
Fail'd in the glories of so known a grave
Though thy lov'd ashes miss me and mine eyes
Had no acquaintance with thy exequies
Nor at the last farewell torn from thy sight
On the cold sheet have fix'd a sad delight
Yet whate'er pious hand instead of mine 
Hath done this office to that dust of thine
And till thou rise again from thy low bed
Lent a cheap pillow to thy quiet head
Though but a private turf it can do more
To keep thy name and memory in store
Than all those lordly fools which lock their bones
In the dumb piles of chested brass and stones
Th'art rich in thy own fame and needest not
These marble-frailties nor the gilded blot
Of posthume honours there is not one sand
Sleeps o'er thy grave but can outbid that hand
And pencil too so that of force we must
Confess their heaps show lesser than thy dust
And blessed soul though this my sorrow can
Add nought to thy perfections yet as man
Subject to envy and the common fate
It may redeem thee to a fairer date
As some blind dial when the day is done
Can tell us at midnight there was a sun
So these perhaps though much beneath thy fame
May keep some weak remembrance of thy name
And to the faith of better times commend
Thy loyal upright life and gallant end
Here take again thy sackcloth and thank heav'n
Thy courtship hath not kill'd me Is't not even
Whether we die by piecemeal or at once
Since both but ruin why then for the nonce
Didst husband my afflictions and cast o'er
Me this forc'd hurdle to inflame the score
Had I near London in this rug been seen
Without doubt I had executed been
For some bold Irish spy and 'cross a sledge
Had lain mess'd up for their four gates and bridge
When first I bore it my oppressed feet
Would needs persuade me 'twas some leaden sheet
Such deep impressions and such dangerous holes
Were made that I began to doubt my soles
And ev'ry step so near necessity 
Devoutly wish'd some honest cobbler by
Besides it was so short the Jewish rag
Seem'd circumcis'd but had a Gentile shag
Hadst thou been with me on that day when we
Left craggy Biston and the fatal Dee
When beaten with fresh storms and late mishap
It shar'd the office of a cloak and cap
To see how 'bout my clouded head it stood
Like a thick turban or some lawyer hood
While the stiff hollow pleats on ev'ry side
Like conduit-pipes rain'd from the bearded hide
I know thou wouldst in spite of that day fate
Let loose thy mirth at my new shape and state
And with a shallow smile or two profess
Some Saracen had lost the clouted dress
Didst ever see the good wife as they say 
March in her short cloak on the christ'ning day
With what soft motions she salutes the church
And leaves the bedrid mother in the lurch
Just so jogg'd I while my dull horse did trudge
Like a circuit-beast plagu'd with a gouty judge
But this was civil I have since known more
And worser pranks one night as heretofore
Th' hast known for want of change a thing which I
And Bias us'd before me I did lie
Pure Adamite and simply for that end
Resolv'd and made this for my bosom-friend
O that thou hadst been there next morn that I
Might teach thee new Micro-cosmo-graphy
Thou wouldst have ta'en me as I naked stood
For one of the seven pillars before the flood
Such characters and hieroglyphics were
In one night worn that thou mightst justly swear
I'd slept in cere-cloth or at Bedlam where
The madmen lodge in straw I'll not forbear
To tell thee all his wild impress and tricks
Like Speed old Britons made me look or Picts
His villanous biting wire-embraces
Had seal'd in me more strange forms and faces
Than children see in dreams or thou hast read
In arras puppet-plays and gingerbread
With angled schemes and crosses that bred fear
Of being handled by some conjurer
And nearer thou wouldst think such strokes were drawn 
I'd been some rough statue of Fetter-lane
Nay I believe had I that instant been
By surgeons or apothecaries seen
They had condemned my raz'd skin to be
Some walking herbal or anatomy
But thanks to th' day 'tis off I'd now advise
Thee friend to put this piece to merchandise
The pedlars of our age have business yet
And gladly would against the Fair-day fit
Themselves with such a roof that can secure
Their wares from dogs and cats rained in shower
It shall perform or if this will not do
'Twill take the ale-wives sure 'twill make them two
Fine rooms of one and spread upon a stick
Is a partition without lime or brick
Horn'd obstinacy how my heart doth fret
To think what mouths and elbows it would set
In a wet day have you for twopence ere
Seen King Harry chapel at Westminster
Where in their dusty gowns of brass and stone
The judges lie and mark'd you how each one
In sturdy marble-pleats about the knee
Bears up to show his legs and symmetry
Just so would this that I think't weav'd upon
Some stiffneck'd Brownist exercising loom
O that thou hadst it when this juggling fate
Of soldiery first seiz'd me at what rate
Would I have bought it then what was there but
I would have giv'n for the compendious hut
I do not doubt but if the weight could please 
'Twould guard me better than a Lapland-lease
Or a German shirt with enchanted lint
Stuff'd through and th' devil beard and face weav'd in't
But I have done And think not friend that I
This freedom took to jeer thy courtesy
I thank thee for't and I believe my Muse
So known to thee thou'lt not suspect abuse
She did this 'cause perhaps thy love paid thus
Might with my thanks outlive thy cloak and us
I knew thee not nor durst attendance strive
Label to wit verser remonstrative
And in some suburb-page scandal to thine 
Like Lent before a Christmas scatter mine
This speaks thee not since at the utmost rate
Such remnants from thy piece entreat their date
Nor can I dub the copy or afford
Titles to swell the rear of verse with lord
Nor politicly big to inch low fame
Stretch in the glories of a stranger name
And clip those bays I court weak striver I
But a faint echo unto poetry
I have not clothes t'adopt me nor must sit
For plush and velvet sake esquire of wit
Yet modesty these crosses would improve
And rags near thee some reverence may move
I did believe great Beaumont being dead 
Thy widow'd Muse slept on his flow'ry bed
But I am richly cozen'd and can see
Wit transmigrates his spirit stay'd with thee
Which doubly advantag'd by thy single pen
In life and death now treads the stage again
And thus are we freed from that dearth of wit
Which starv'd the land since into schisms split
Wherein th' hast done so much we must needs guess
Wit last edition is now i' th' press
For thou hast drain'd invention and he
That writes hereafter doth but pillage thee
But thou hast plots and will not the Kirk strain
At the designs of such a tragic brain
Will they themselves think safe when they shall see
Thy most abominable policy
Will not the Ears assemble and think't fit
Their Synod fast and pray against thy wit
But they'll not tire in such an idle quest
Thou dost but kill and circumvent in jest
And when thy anger'd Muse swells to a blow
'Tis but for Field or Swansted overthrow
Yet shall these conquests of thy bays outlive
Their Scottish zeal and compacts made to grieve
The peace of spirits and when such deeds fail
Of their foul ends a fair name is thy bail
But happy thou ne'er saw'st these storms our air
Teem'd with even in thy time though seeming fair
Thy gentle soul meant for the shade and ease
Withdrew betimes into the Land of Peace
So nested in some hospitable shore
The hermit-angler when the mid-seas roar
Packs up his lines and ere the tempest raves 
Retires and leaves his station to the waves
Thus thou died'st almost with our peace and we
This breathing time thy last fair issue see
Which I think such if needless ink not soil
So choice a Muse others are but thy foil
This or that age may write but never see
A wit that dares run parallel with thee
True Ben must live but bate him and thou hast
Undone all future wits and match'd the past
I knew it would be thus and my just fears
Of thy great spirit are improv'd to tears
Yet flow these not from any base distrust
Of a fair name or that thy honour must
Confin'd to those cold relics sadly sit
In the same cell an obscure anchorite
Such low distempers murder they that must
Abuse thee so weep not but wound thy dust
But I past such dim mourners can descry
Thy fame above all clouds of obloquy
And like the sun with his victorious rays
Charge through that darkness to the last of days
'Tis true fair manhood hath a female eye
And tears are beauteous in a victory
Nor are we so high-proof but grief will find
Through all our guards a way to wound the mind
But in thy fall what adds the brackish sum
More than a blot unto thy martyrdom
Which scorns such wretched suffrages and stands
More by thy single worth than our whole bands
Yet could the puling tribute rescue ought
In this sad loss or wert thou to be brought
Back here by tears I would in any wise
Pay down the sum or quite consume my eyes
Thou fell'st our double ruin and this rent
Forc'd in thy life shak'd both the Church and tent
Learning in others steals them from the van
And basely wise emasculates the man
But lodg'd in thy brave soul the bookish feat
Serv'd only as the light unto thy heat
Thus when some quitted action to their shame
And only got a discreet coward name
Thou with thy blood mad'st purchase of renown
And died'st the glory of the sword and gown
Thy blood hath hallow'd Pomfret and this blow
 Profan'd before hath church'd the Castle now
Nor is't a common valour we deplore
But such as with fifteen a hundred bore
And lightning-like not coop'd within a wall 
In storms of fire and steel fell on them all
Thou wert no woolsack soldier nor of those
Whose courage lies in winking at their foes
That live at loopholes and consume their breath
On match or pipes and sometimes peep at death
No it were sin to number these with thee
But that thus pois'd our loss we better see
The fair and open valour was thy shield
And thy known station the defying field
Yet these in thee I would not virtues call
But that this age must know that thou hadst all
Those richer graces that adorn'd thy mind
Like stars of the first magnitude so shin'd
That if oppos'd unto these lesser lights
All we can say is this they were fair nights
Thy piety and learning did unite
And though with sev'ral beams made up one light
And such thy judgment was that I dare swear
Whole councils might as soon and synods err
But all these now are out and as some star
Hurl'd in diurnal motions from far
And seen to droop at night is vainly said
To fall and find an occidental bed
Though in that other world what we judge West
Proves elevation and a new fresh East
So though our weaker sense denies us sight
And bodies cannot trace the spirit flight
We know those graces to be still in thee
But wing'd above us to eternity
Since then thus flown thou art so much refin'd
That we can only reach thee with the mind
I will not in this dark and narrow glass
Let thy scant shadow for perfections pass
But leave thee to be read more high more quaint
In thy own blood a soldier and a saint
This is the day blithe god of sack which we
If I mistake not consecrate to thee
When the soft rose we marry to the bays
And warm'd with thy own wine rehearse thy praise
'Mongst whom while to thy poet fate gave way 
I have been held no small part of the day
But now dull'd with the cold Bear frozen seat
Sarmatia holds me and the warlike Gete
My former life unlike to this my last
With Rome best wits of thy full cup did taste
Who since have seen the savage Pontic band
And all the choler of the sea and land
Whether sad chance or Heav'n hath this design'd
And at my birth some fatal planet shin'd
Of right thou shouldst the sisters' knots undo
And free thy votary and poet too
Or are you gods like us in such a state
As cannot alter the decrees of fate
I know with much ado thou didst obtain
Thy jovial godhead and on earth thy pain
Was no whit less for wand'ring thou didst run
To the Getes too and snow-weeping Strymon
With Persia Ganges and whatever streams
The thirsty Moor drinks in the mid-day beams
But thou wert twice-born and the Fates to thee
 To make all sure doubled thy misery
My sufferings too are many if it be
Held safe for me to boast adversity 
Nor was't a common blow but from above
Like his that died for imitating Jove
Which when thou heardst a ruin so divine
And mother-like should make thee pity mine
And on this day which poets unto thee
Crown with full bowls ask what become of me
Help buxom god then so may thy lov'd vine
Swarm with the num'rous grape and big with wine
Load the kind elm and so thy orgies be
With priests' loud shouts and satyrs' kept to thee
So may in death Lycurgus ne'er be blest
Nor Pentheus' wand'ring ghost find any rest
And so for ever bright thy chief desires 
May thy wife crown outshine the lesser fires
If but now mindful of my love to thee
Thou wilt in what thou canst my helper be
You gods have commerce with yourselves try then
If Caesar will restore me Rome again
And you my trusty friends the jolly crew
Of careless poets when without me you
Perform this day glad myst'ries let it be
Your first appeal unto his deity
And let one of you touch'd with my sad name 
Mixing his wine with tears lay down the same
And sighing to the rest this thought commend
O where is Ovid now our banish'd friend
This do if in your breasts I e'er deserv'd
So large a share nor spitefully reserv'd
Nor basely sold applause or with a brow
Condemning others did myself allow
And may your happier wits grow loud with fame
As you my best of friends preserve my name
Of Man first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World and all our woe
With loss of Eden till one greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat
Sing Heavenly Muse that on the secret top
Of Oreb or of Sinai didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos or if Sion hill
Delight thee more and Siloa brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme
And chiefly thou O Spirit that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure
Instruct me for thou know'st thou from the first
Wast present and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant what in me is dark
Illumine what is low raise and support
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men
Say first for Heaven hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep tract of Hell say first what cause
Moved our grand parents in that happy state
Favoured of Heaven so highly to fall off
From their Creator and transgress his will
For one restraint lords of the World besides
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt
Th' infernal Serpent he it was whose guile
Stirred up with envy and revenge deceived
The mother of mankind what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven with all his host
Of rebel Angels by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers
He trusted to have equalled the Most High
If he opposed and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud
With vain attempt Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquished rolling in the fiery gulf
Confounded though immortal But his doom
Reserved him to more wrath for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
Torments him round he throws his baleful eyes
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate
At once as far as Angels ken he views
The dismal situation waste and wild
A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed yet from those flames
No light but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe
Regions of sorrow doleful shades where peace
And rest can never dwell hope never comes
That comes to all but torture without end
Still urges and a fiery deluge fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed
Such place Eternal Justice has prepared
For those rebellious here their prison ordained
In utter darkness and their portion set
As far removed from God and light of Heaven
As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole
Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell
There the companions of his fall o'erwhelmed
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire
He soon discerns and weltering by his side
One next himself in power and next in crime
Long after known in Palestine and named
Beelzebub To whom th' Arch-Enemy
And thence in Heaven called Satan with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began 
If thou beest he but O how fallen how changed
From him who in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine
Myriads though bright if he whom mutual league
United thoughts and counsels equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise
Joined with me once now misery hath joined
In equal ruin into what pit thou seest
From what height fallen so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms Yet not for those
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
Can else inflict do I repent or change
Though changed in outward lustre that fixed mind
And high disdain from sense of injured merit
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend
And to the fierce contentions brought along
Innumerable force of Spirits armed
That durst dislike his reign and me preferring
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven
And shook his throne What though the field be lost
All is not lost the unconquerable will
And study of revenge immortal hate
And courage never to submit or yield
And what is else not to be overcome
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee and deify his power
Who from the terror of this arm so late
Doubted his empire that were low indeed
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall since by fate the strength of Gods
And this empyreal substance cannot fail
Since through experience of this great event
In arms not worse in foresight much advanced
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe
Who now triumphs and in th' excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven
So spake th' apostate Angel though in pain
Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer 
O Prince O Chief of many throned Powers
That led th' embattled Seraphim to war
Under thy conduct and in dreadful deeds
Fearless endangered Heaven perpetual King
And put to proof his high supremacy
Whether upheld by strength or chance or fate
Too well I see and rue the dire event
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat
Hath lost us Heaven and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low
As far as Gods and heavenly Essences
Can perish for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible and vigour soon returns
Though all our glory extinct and happy state
Here swallowed up in endless misery
But what if he our Conqueror whom I now
Of force believe almighty since no less
Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire
Strongly to suffer and support our pains
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of war whate'er his business be
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire
Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep
What can it the avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminished or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment
Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied 
Fallen Cherub to be weak is miserable
Doing or suffering but of this be sure 
To do aught good never will be our task
But ever to do ill our sole delight
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good
Our labour must be to pervert that end
And out of good still to find means of evil
Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps
Shall grieve him if I fail not and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim
But see the angry Victor hath recalled
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the gates of Heaven the sulphurous hail
Shot after us in storm o'erblown hath laid
The fiery surge that from the precipice
Of Heaven received us falling and the thunder
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage
Perhaps hath spent his shafts and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep
Let us not slip th' occasion whether scorn
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe
Seest thou yon dreary plain forlorn and wild
The seat of desolation void of light
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves
There rest if any rest can harbour there
And re-assembling our afflicted powers
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our enemy our own loss how repair
How overcome this dire calamity
What reinforcement we may gain from hope
If not what resolution from despair
Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head uplift above the wave and eyes
That sparkling blazed his other parts besides
Prone on the flood extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size
Titanian or Earth-born that warred on Jove
Briareos or Typhon whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held or that sea-beast
Leviathan which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th' ocean-stream
Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff
Deeming some island oft as seamen tell
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under the lee while night
Invests the sea and wished morn delays
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chained on the burning lake nor ever thence
Had risen or heaved his head but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation while he sought
Evil to others and enraged might see
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness grace and mercy shewn
On Man by him seduced but on himself
Treble confusion wrath and vengeance poured
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature on each hand the flames
Driven backward slope their pointing spires and rolled
In billows leave i' th' midst a horrid vale
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight till on dry land
He lights if it were land that ever burned
With solid as the lake with liquid fire
And such appeared in hue as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus or the shattered side
Of thundering Etna whose combustible
And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire
Sublimed with mineral fury aid the winds
And leave a singed bottom all involved
With stench and smoke Such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet Him followed his next mate
Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood
As gods and by their own recovered strength
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power
Is this the region this the soil the clime
Said then the lost Archangel this the seat
That we must change for Heaven this mournful gloom
For that celestial light Be it so since he
Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equalled force hath made supreme
Above his equals Farewell happy fields
Where joy for ever dwells Hail horrors hail
Infernal world and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell a Hell of Heaven
What matter where if I be still the same
And what I should be all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater Here at least
We shall be free th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy will not drive us hence
Here we may reign secure and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends
Th' associates and co-partners of our loss
Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regained in Heaven or what more lost in Hell
So Satan spake and him Beelzebub
Thus answered Leader of those armies bright
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foiled
If once they hear that voice their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers heard so oft
In worst extremes and on the perilous edge
Of battle when it raged in all assaults
Their surest signal they will soon resume
New courage and revive though now they lie
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire
As we erewhile astounded and amazed
No wonder fallen such a pernicious height
He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend
Was moving toward the shore his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper massy large and round
Behind him cast The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fesole
Or in Valdarno to descry new lands
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe
His spear to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great ammiral were but a wand 
He walked with to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marl not like those steps
On Heaven azure and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides vaulted with fire
Nathless he so endured till on the beach
Of that inflamed sea he stood and called
His legions Angel Forms who lay entranced
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arched embower or scattered sedge
Afloat when with fierce winds Orion armed
Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry
While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The sojourners of Goshen who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carcases
And broken chariot-wheels So thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these covering the flood
Under amazement of their hideous change
He called so loud that all the hollow deep
Of Hell resounded Princes Potentates
Warriors the Flower of Heaven once yours now lost
If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal Spirits Or have ye chosen this place
After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue for the ease you find
To slumber here as in the vales of Heaven
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conqueror who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scattered arms and ensigns till anon
His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern
Th' advantage and descending tread us down
Thus drooping or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf
Awake arise or be for ever fallen
They heard and were abashed and up they sprung
Upon the wing as when men wont to watch
On duty sleeping found by whom they dread
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
In which they were or the fierce pains not feel
Yet to their General voice they soon obeyed
Innumerable As when the potent rod
Of Amram son in Egypt evil day
Waved round the coast up-called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts warping on the eastern wind
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like Night and darkened all the land of Nile
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell
'Twixt upper nether and surrounding fires
Till as a signal given th' uplifted spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course in even balance down they light
On the firm brimstone and fill all the plain
A multitude like which the populous North
Poured never from her frozen loins to pass
Rhene or the Danaw when her barbarous sons
Came like a deluge on the South and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands
Forthwith form every squadron and each band
The heads and leaders thither haste where stood
Their great Commander godlike Shapes and Forms
Excelling human princely Dignities
And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones
Though on their names in Heavenly records now
Be no memorial blotted out and rased
By their rebellion from the Books of Life
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names till wandering o'er the earth
Through God high sufferance for the trial of man
By falsities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator and th' invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute adorned
With gay religions full of pomp and gold
And devils to adore for deities
Then were they known to men by various names
And various idols through the heathen world
Say Muse their names then known who first who last
Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch
At their great Emperor call as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand
While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof
The chief were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek their prey on Earth durst fix
Their seats long after next the seat of God
Their altars by his altar gods adored
Among the nations round and durst abide
Jehovah thundering out of Sion throned
Between the Cherubim yea often placed
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines
Abominations and with cursed things
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned
And with their darkness durst affront his light
First Moloch horrid king besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice and parents' tears
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain
In Argob and in Basan to the stream
Of utmost Arnon Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that opprobrious hill and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called the type of Hell
Next Chemos th' obscene dread of Moab sons
From Aroar to Nebo and the wild
Of southmost Abarim in Hesebon
And Horonaim Seon real beyond
The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines
And Eleale to th' Asphaltic Pool
Peor his other name when he enticed
Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile
To do him wanton rites which cost them woe
Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged
Even to that hill of scandal by the grove
Of Moloch homicide lust hard by hate
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell
With these came they who from the bordering flood
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground had general names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth those male
These feminine For Spirits when they please
Can either sex assume or both so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure
Not tried or manacled with joint or limb
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones
Like cumbrous flesh but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condensed bright or obscure
Can execute their airy purposes
And works of love or enmity fulfil
For those the race of Israel oft forsook
Their Living Strength and unfrequented left
His righteous altar bowing lowly down
To bestial gods for which their heads as low
Bowed down in battle sunk before the spear
Of despicable foes With these in troop
Came Astoreth whom the Phoenicians called
Astarte queen of heaven with crescent horns
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs
In Sion also not unsung where stood
Her temple on th' offensive mountain built
By that uxorious king whose heart though large
Beguiled by fair idolatresses fell
To idols foul Thammuz came next behind
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer day
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded the love-tale
Infected Sion daughters with like heat
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw when by the vision led
His eye surveyed the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah Next came one
Who mourned in earnest when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image head and hands lopt off
In his own temple on the grunsel-edge
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers
Dagon his name sea-monster upward man
And downward fish yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine in Gath and Ascalon
And Accaron and Gaza frontier bounds
Him followed Rimmon whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus on the fertile banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar lucid streams
He also against the house of God was bold
A leper once he lost and gained a king 
Ahaz his sottish conqueror whom he drew
God altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode whereon to burn
His odious offerings and adore the gods
Whom he had vanquished After these appeared
A crew who under names of old renown 
Osiris Isis Orus and their train 
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek
Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human Nor did Israel scape
Th' infection when their borrowed gold composed
The calf in Oreb and the rebel king
Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox 
Jehovah who in one night when he passed
From Egypt marching equalled with one stroke
Both her first-born and all her bleating gods
Belial came last than whom a Spirit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven or more gross to love
Vice for itself To him no temple stood
Or altar smoked yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars when the priest
Turns atheist as did Eli sons who filled
With lust and violence the house of God
In courts and palaces he also reigns
And in luxurious cities where the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers
And injury and outrage and when night
Darkens the streets then wander forth the sons
Of Belial flown with insolence and wine
Witness the streets of Sodom and that night
In Gibeah when the hospitable door
Exposed a matron to avoid worse rape
These were the prime in order and in might
The rest were long to tell though far renowned
Th' Ionian gods of Javan issue held
Gods yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth
Their boasted parents Titan Heaven first-born
With his enormous brood and birthright seized
By younger Saturn he from mightier Jove
His own and Rhea son like measure found
So Jove usurping reigned These first in Crete
And Ida known thence on the snowy top
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air
Their highest heaven or on the Delphian cliff
Or in Dodona and through all the bounds
Of Doric land or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to th' Hesperian fields
And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles
All these and more came flocking but with looks
Downcast and damp yet such wherein appeared
Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their Chief
Not in despair to have found themselves not lost
In loss itself which on his countenance cast
Like doubtful hue But he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting with high words that bore
Semblance of worth not substance gently raised
Their fainting courage and dispelled their fears
Then straight commands that at the warlike sound
Of trumpets loud and clarions be upreared
His mighty standard That proud honour claimed
Azazel as his right a Cherub tall
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled
Th' imperial ensign which full high advanced
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed
Seraphic arms and trophies all the while
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds
At which the universal host up-sent
A shout that tore Hell concave and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air
With orient colours waving with them rose
A forest huge of spears and thronging helms
Appeared and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable Anon they move
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of flutes and soft recorders such as raised
To height of noblest temper heroes old
Arming to battle and instead of rage
Deliberate valour breathed firm and unmoved
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches troubled thoughts and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought
Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed
Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil And now
Advanced in view they stand a horrid front
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms in guise
Of warriors old with ordered spear and shield
Awaiting what command their mighty Chief
Had to impose He through the armed files
Darts his experienced eye and soon traverse
The whole battalion views their order due
Their visages and stature as of gods
Their number last he sums And now his heart
Distends with pride and hardening in his strength
Glories for never since created Man
Met such embodied force as named with these
Could merit more than that small infantry
Warred on by cranes though all the giant brood
Of Phlegra with th' heroic race were joined
That fought at Thebes and Ilium on each side
Mixed with auxiliar gods and what resounds
In fable or romance of Uther son
Begirt with British and Armoric knights
And all who since baptized or infidel
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban
Damasco or Marocco or Trebisond
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabbia Thus far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess yet observed
Their dread Commander He above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tower His form had yet not lost
All her original brightness nor appeared
Less than Archangel ruined and th' excess
Of glory obscured as when the sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs Darkened so yet shone
Above them all th' Archangel but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched and care
Sat on his faded cheek but under brows
Of dauntless courage and considerate pride
Waiting revenge Cruel his eye but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold
The fellows of his crime the followers rather
Far other once beheld in bliss condemned
For ever now to have their lot in pain 
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced
Of Heaven and from eternal splendours flung
For his revolt yet faithful how they stood
Their glory withered as when heaven fire
Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines
With singed top their stately growth though bare
Stands on the blasted heath He now prepared
To speak whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing and half enclose him round
With all his peers attention held them mute
Thrice he assayed and thrice in spite of scorn
Tears such as Angels weep burst forth at last
Words interwove with sighs found out their way 
O myriads of immortal Spirits O Powers
Matchless but with th' Almighty and that strife
Was not inglorious though th' event was dire
As this place testifies and this dire change
Hateful to utter But what power of mind
Forseeing or presaging from the depth
Of knowledge past or present could have feared
How such united force of gods how such
As stood like these could ever know repulse
For who can yet believe though after loss
That all these puissant legions whose exile
Hath emptied Heaven shall fail to re-ascend
Self-raised and repossess their native seat
For me be witness all the host of Heaven
If counsels different or danger shunned
By me have lost our hopes But he who reigns
Monarch in Heaven till then as one secure
Sat on his throne upheld by old repute
Consent or custom and his regal state
Put forth at full but still his strength concealed 
Which tempted our attempt and wrought our fall
Henceforth his might we know and know our own
So as not either to provoke or dread
New war provoked our better part remains
To work in close design by fraud or guile
What force effected not that he no less
At length from us may find who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe
Space may produce new Worlds whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long
Intended to create and therein plant
A generation whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven
Thither if but to pry shall be perhaps
Our first eruption thither or elsewhere
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial Spirits in bondage nor th' Abyss
Long under darkness cover But these thoughts
Full counsel must mature Peace is despaired
For who can think submission War then war
Open or understood must be resolved
He spake and to confirm his words outflew
Millions of flaming swords drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell Highly they raged
Against the Highest and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven
There stood a hill not far whose grisly top
Belched fire and rolling smoke the rest entire
Shone with a glossy scurf undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic ore
The work of sulphur Thither winged with speed
A numerous brigade hastened as when bands
Of pioneers with spade and pickaxe armed
Forerun the royal camp to trench a field
Or cast a rampart Mammon led them on 
Mammon the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heaven for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent admiring more
The riches of heaven pavement trodden gold
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific By him first
Men also and by his suggestion taught
Ransacked the centre and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth
For treasures better hid Soon had his crew
Opened into the hill a spacious wound
And digged out ribs of gold Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane And here let those
Who boast in mortal things and wondering tell
Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame
And strength and art are easily outdone
By Spirits reprobate and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepared
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake a second multitude
With wondrous art founded the massy ore
Severing each kind and scummed the bullion-dross
A third as soon had formed within the ground
A various mould and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook
As in an organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet 
Built like a temple where pilasters round
Were set and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave nor did there want
Cornice or frieze with bossy sculptures graven
The roof was fretted gold Not Babylon
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equalled in all their glories to enshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods or seat
Their kings when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury Th' ascending pile
Stood fixed her stately height and straight the doors
Opening their brazen folds discover wide
Within her ample spaces o'er the smooth
And level pavement from the arched roof
Pendent by subtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets fed
With naptha and asphaltus yielded light
As from a sky The hasty multitude
Admiring entered and the work some praise
And some the architect His hand was known
In Heaven by many a towered structure high
Where sceptred Angels held their residence
And sat as Princes whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power and gave to rule
Each in his Hierarchy the Orders bright
Nor was his name unheard or unadored
In ancient Greece and in Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber and how he fell
From Heaven they fabled thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements from morn
To noon he fell from noon to dewy eve
A summer day and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star
On Lemnos th' Aegaean isle Thus they relate
Erring for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before nor aught availed him now
To have built in Heaven high towers nor did he scape
By all his engines but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in Hell
Meanwhile the winged Heralds by command
Of sovereign power with awful ceremony
And trumpet sound throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium the high capital
Of Satan and his peers Their summons called
From every band and squared regiment
By place or choice the worthiest they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
Attended All access was thronged the gates
And porches wide but chief the spacious hall
Though like a covered field where champions bold
Wont ride in armed and at the Soldan chair
Defied the best of Paynim chivalry
To mortal combat or career with lance
Thick swarmed both on the ground and in the air
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings As bees
In spring-time when the Sun with Taurus rides
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro or on the smoothed plank
The suburb of their straw-built citadel
New rubbed with balm expatiate and confer
Their state-affairs so thick the airy crowd
Swarmed and were straitened till the signal given
Behold a wonder They but now who seemed
In bigness to surpass Earth giant sons
Now less than smallest dwarfs in narrow room
Throng numberless like that pygmean race
Beyond the Indian mount or faery elves
Whose midnight revels by a forest-side
Or fountain some belated peasant sees
Or dreams he sees while overhead the Moon
Sits arbitress and nearer to the Earth
Wheels her pale course they on their mirth and dance
Intent with jocund music charm his ear
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms
Reduced their shapes immense and were at large
Though without number still amidst the hall
Of that infernal court But far within
And in their own dimensions like themselves
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat
A thousand demi-gods on golden seats
Frequent and full After short silence then
And summons read the great consult began
High on a throne of royal state which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold
Satan exalted sat by merit raised
To that bad eminence and from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope aspires
Beyond thus high insatiate to pursue
Vain war with Heaven and by success untaught
His proud imaginations thus displayed 
Powers and Dominions Deities of Heaven 
For since no deep within her gulf can hold
Immortal vigour though oppressed and fallen
I give not Heaven for lost from this descent
Celestial Virtues rising will appear
More glorious and more dread than from no fall
And trust themselves to fear no second fate 
Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven
Did first create your leader next free choice
With what besides in council or in fight
Hath been achieved of merit yet this loss
Thus far at least recovered hath much more
Established in a safe unenvied throne
Yielded with full consent The happier state
In Heaven which follows dignity might draw
Envy from each inferior but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer aim
Your bulwark and condemns to greatest share
Of endless pain Where there is then no good
For which to strive no strife can grow up there
From faction for none sure will claim in Hell
Precedence none whose portion is so small
Of present pain that with ambitious mind
Will covet more With this advantage then
To union and firm faith and firm accord
More than can be in Heaven we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old
Surer to prosper than prosperity
Could have assured us and by what best way
Whether of open war or covert guile
We now debate Who can advise may speak
He ceased and next him Moloch sceptred king
Stood up the strongest and the fiercest Spirit
That fought in Heaven now fiercer by despair
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength and rather than be less
Cared not to be at all with that care lost
Went all his fear of God or Hell or worse
He recked not and these words thereafter spake 
My sentence is for open war Of wiles
More unexpert I boast not them let those
Contrive who need or when they need not now
For while they sit contriving shall the rest 
Millions that stand in arms and longing wait
The signal to ascend sit lingering here
Heaven fugitives and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame
The prison of his tyranny who reigns
By our delay No let us rather choose
Armed with Hell-flames and fury all at once
O'er Heaven high towers to force resistless way
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the Torturer when to meet the noise
Of his almighty engine he shall hear
Infernal thunder and for lightning see
Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
Among his Angels and his throne itself
Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire
His own invented torments But perhaps
The way seems difficult and steep to scale
With upright wing against a higher foe
Let such bethink them if the sleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumb not still
That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native seat descent and fall
To us is adverse Who but felt of late
When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Insulting and pursued us through the Deep
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We sunk thus low Th' ascent is easy then
Th' event is feared Should we again provoke
Our stronger some worse way his wrath may find
To our destruction if there be in Hell
Fear to be worse destroyed What can be worse
Than to dwell here driven out from bliss condemned
In this abhorred deep to utter woe
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Must exercise us without hope of end
The vassals of his anger when the scourge
Inexorably and the torturing hour
Calls us to penance More destroyed than thus
We should be quite abolished and expire
What fear we then what doubt we to incense
His utmost ire which to the height enraged
Will either quite consume us and reduce
To nothing this essential happier far
Than miserable to have eternal being 
Or if our substance be indeed divine
And cannot cease to be we are at worst
On this side nothing and by proof we feel
Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven
And with perpetual inroads to alarm
Though inaccessible his fatal throne
Which if not victory is yet revenge
He ended frowning and his look denounced
Desperate revenge and battle dangerous
To less than gods On th' other side up rose
Belial in act more graceful and humane
A fairer person lost not Heaven he seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit
But all was false and hollow though his tongue
Dropped manna and could make the worse appear
The better reason to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels for his thoughts were low 
To vice industrious but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful Yet he pleased the ear
And with persuasive accent thus began 
I should be much for open war O Peers
As not behind in hate if what was urged
Main reason to persuade immediate war
Did not dissuade me most and seem to cast
Ominous conjecture on the whole success
When he who most excels in fact of arms
In what he counsels and in what excels
Mistrustful grounds his courage on despair
And utter dissolution as the scope
Of all his aim after some dire revenge
First what revenge The towers of Heaven are filled
With armed watch that render all access
Impregnable oft on the bordering Deep
Encamp their legions or with obscure wing
Scout far and wide into the realm of Night
Scorning surprise Or could we break our way
By force and at our heels all Hell should rise
With blackest insurrection to confound
Heaven purest light yet our great Enemy
All incorruptible would on his throne
Sit unpolluted and th' ethereal mould
Incapable of stain would soon expel
Her mischief and purge off the baser fire
Victorious Thus repulsed our final hope
Is flat despair we must exasperate
Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage
And that must end us that must be our cure 
To be no more Sad cure for who would lose
Though full of pain this intellectual being
Those thoughts that wander through eternity
To perish rather swallowed up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated Night
Devoid of sense and motion And who knows
Let this be good whether our angry Foe
Can give it or will ever How he can
Is doubtful that he never will is sure
Will he so wise let loose at once his ire
Belike through impotence or unaware
To give his enemies their wish and end
Them in his anger whom his anger saves
To punish endless Wherefore cease we then
Say they who counsel war we are decreed
Reserved and destined to eternal woe
Whatever doing what can we suffer more
What can we suffer worse Is this then worst 
Thus sitting thus consulting thus in arms
What when we fled amain pursued and struck
With Heaven afflicting thunder and besought
The Deep to shelter us This Hell then seemed
A refuge from those wounds Or when we lay
Chained on the burning lake That sure was worse
What if the breath that kindled those grim fires
Awaked should blow them into sevenfold rage
And plunge us in the flames or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again
His red right hand to plague us What if all
Her stores were opened and this firmament
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire
Impendent horrors threatening hideous fall
One day upon our heads while we perhaps
Designing or exhorting glorious war
Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurled
Each on his rock transfixed the sport and prey
Or racking whirlwinds or for ever sunk
Under yon boiling ocean wrapt in chains
There to converse with everlasting groans
Unrespited unpitied unreprieved
Ages of hopeless end This would be worse
War therefore open or concealed alike
My voice dissuades for what can force or guile
With him or who deceive his mind whose eye
Views all things at one view He from Heaven height
All these our motions vain sees and derides
Not more almighty to resist our might
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles
Shall we then live thus vile the race of Heaven
Thus trampled thus expelled to suffer here
Chains and these torments Better these than worse
By my advice since fate inevitable
Subdues us and omnipotent decree
The Victor will To suffer as to do
Our strength is equal nor the law unjust
That so ordains This was at first resolved
If we were wise against so great a foe
Contending and so doubtful what might fall
I laugh when those who at the spear are bold
And venturous if that fail them shrink and fear
What yet they know must follow to endure
Exile or ignominy or bonds or pain
The sentence of their Conqueror This is now
Our doom which if we can sustain and bear
Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit
His anger and perhaps thus far removed
Not mind us not offending satisfied
With what is punished whence these raging fires
Will slacken if his breath stir not their flames
Our purer essence then will overcome
Their noxious vapour or inured not feel
Or changed at length and to the place conformed
In temper and in nature will receive
Familiar the fierce heat and void of pain
This horror will grow mild this darkness light
Besides what hope the never-ending flight
Of future days may bring what chance what change
Worth waiting since our present lot appears
For happy though but ill for ill not worst
If we procure not to ourselves more woe
Thus Belial with words clothed in reason garb
Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth
Not peace and after him thus Mammon spake 
Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven
We war if war be best or to regain
Our own right lost Him to unthrone we then
May hope when everlasting Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance and Chaos judge the strife
The former vain to hope argues as vain
The latter for what place can be for us
Within Heaven bound unless Heaven Lord supreme
We overpower Suppose he should relent
And publish grace to all on promise made
Of new subjection with what eyes could we
Stand in his presence humble and receive
Strict laws imposed to celebrate his throne
With warbled hymns and to his Godhead sing
Forced hallelujahs while he lordly sits
Our envied sovereign and his altar breathes
Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers
Our servile offerings This must be our task
In Heaven this our delight How wearisome
Eternity so spent in worship paid
To whom we hate Let us not then pursue
By force impossible by leave obtained
Unacceptable though in Heaven our state
Of splendid vassalage but rather seek
Our own good from ourselves and from our own
Live to ourselves though in this vast recess
Free and to none accountable preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp Our greatness will appear
Then most conspicuous when great things of small
Useful of hurtful prosperous of adverse
We can create and in what place soe'er
Thrive under evil and work ease out of pain
Through labour and endurance This deep world
Of darkness do we dread How oft amidst
Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven all-ruling Sire
Choose to reside his glory unobscured
And with the majesty of darkness round
Covers his throne from whence deep thunders roar
Mustering their rage and Heaven resembles Hell
As he our darkness cannot we his light
Imitate when we please This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre gems and gold
Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise
Magnificence and what can Heaven show more
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements these piercing fires
As soft as now severe our temper changed
Into their temper which must needs remove
The sensible of pain All things invite
To peaceful counsels and the settled state
Of order how in safety best we may
Compose our present evils with regard
Of what we are and where dismissing quite
All thoughts of war Ye have what I advise
He scarce had finished when such murmur filled
Th' assembly as when hollow rocks retain
The sound of blustering winds which all night long
Had roused the sea now with hoarse cadence lull
Seafaring men o'erwatched whose bark by chance
Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay
After the tempest Such applause was heard
As Mammon ended and his sentence pleased
Advising peace for such another field
They dreaded worse than Hell so much the fear
Of thunder and the sword of Michael
Wrought still within them and no less desire
To found this nether empire which might rise
By policy and long process of time
In emulation opposite to Heaven
Which when Beelzebub perceived than whom
Satan except none higher sat with grave
Aspect he rose and in his rising seemed
A pillar of state Deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat and public care
And princely counsel in his face yet shone
Majestic though in ruin Sage he stood
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies his look
Drew audience and attention still as night
Or summer noontide air while thus he spake 
Thrones and Imperial Powers Offspring of Heaven
Ethereal Virtues or these titles now
Must we renounce and changing style be called
Princes of Hell for so the popular vote
Inclines here to continue and build up here
A growing empire doubtless while we dream
And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed
This place our dungeon not our safe retreat
Beyond his potent arm to live exempt
From Heaven high jurisdiction in new league
Banded against his throne but to remain
In strictest bondage though thus far removed
Under th' inevitable curb reserved
His captive multitude For he to be sure
In height or depth still first and last will reign
Sole king and of his kingdom lose no part
By our revolt but over Hell extend
His empire and with iron sceptre rule
Us here as with his golden those in Heaven
What sit we then projecting peace and war
War hath determined us and foiled with loss
Irreparable terms of peace yet none
Vouchsafed or sought for what peace will be given
To us enslaved but custody severe
And stripes and arbitrary punishment
Inflicted and what peace can we return
But to our power hostility and hate
Untamed reluctance and revenge though slow
Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least
May reap his conquest and may least rejoice
In doing what we most in suffering feel
Nor will occasion want nor shall we need
With dangerous expedition to invade
Heaven whose high walls fear no assault or siege
Or ambush from the Deep What if we find
Some easier enterprise There is a place
If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven
Err not another World the happy seat
Of some new race called Man about this time
To be created like to us though less
In power and excellence but favoured more
Of him who rules above so was his will
Pronounced among the Gods and by an oath
That shook Heaven whole circumference confirmed
Thither let us bend all our thoughts to learn
What creatures there inhabit of what mould
Or substance how endued and what their power
And where their weakness how attempted best
By force of subtlety Though Heaven be shut
And Heaven high Arbitrator sit secure
In his own strength this place may lie exposed
The utmost border of his kingdom left
To their defence who hold it here perhaps
Some advantageous act may be achieved
By sudden onset either with Hell-fire
To waste his whole creation or possess
All as our own and drive as we were driven
The puny habitants or if not drive
Seduce them to our party that their God
May prove their foe and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works This would surpass
Common revenge and interrupt his joy
In our confusion and our joy upraise
In his disturbance when his darling sons
Hurled headlong to partake with us shall curse
Their frail original and faded bliss 
Faded so soon Advise if this be worth
Attempting or to sit in darkness here
Hatching vain empires Thus Beelzebub
Pleaded his devilish counsel first devised
By Satan and in part proposed for whence
But from the author of all ill could spring
So deep a malice to confound the race
Of mankind in one root and Earth with Hell
To mingle and involve done all to spite
The great Creator But their spite still serves
His glory to augment The bold design
Pleased highly those infernal States and joy
Sparkled in all their eyes with full assent
They vote whereat his speech he thus renews 
Well have ye judged well ended long debate
Synod of Gods and like to what ye are
Great things resolved which from the lowest deep
Will once more lift us up in spite of fate
Nearer our ancient seat perhaps in view
Of those bright confines whence with neighbouring arms
And opportune excursion we may chance
Re-enter Heaven or else in some mild zone
Dwell not unvisited of Heaven fair light
Secure and at the brightening orient beam
Purge off this gloom the soft delicious air
To heal the scar of these corrosive fires
Shall breathe her balm But first whom shall we send
In search of this new World whom shall we find
Sufficient who shall tempt with wandering feet
The dark unbottomed infinite Abyss
And through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way or spread his airy flight
Upborne with indefatigable wings
Over the vast abrupt ere he arrive
The happy Isle What strength what art can then
Suffice or what evasion bear him safe
Through the strict senteries and stations thick
Of Angels watching round Here he had need
All circumspection and we now no less
Choice in our suffrage for on whom we send
The weight of all and our last hope relies
This said he sat and expectation held
His look suspense awaiting who appeared
To second or oppose or undertake
The perilous attempt But all sat mute
Pondering the danger with deep thoughts and each
In other countenance read his own dismay
Astonished None among the choice and prime
Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found
So hardy as to proffer or accept
Alone the dreadful voyage till at last
Satan whom now transcendent glory raised
Above his fellows with monarchal pride
Conscious of highest worth unmoved thus spake 
O Progeny of Heaven Empyreal Thrones
With reason hath deep silence and demur
Seized us though undismayed Long is the way
And hard that out of Hell leads up to light
Our prison strong this huge convex of fire
Outrageous to devour immures us round
Ninefold and gates of burning adamant
Barred over us prohibit all egress
These passed if any pass the void profound
Of unessential Night receives him next
Wide-gaping and with utter loss of being
Threatens him plunged in that abortive gulf
If thence he scape into whatever world
Or unknown region what remains him less
Than unknown dangers and as hard escape
But I should ill become this throne O Peers
And this imperial sovereignty adorned
With splendour armed with power if aught proposed
And judged of public moment in the shape
Of difficulty or danger could deter
Me from attempting Wherefore do I assume
These royalties and not refuse to reign
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honour due alike
To him who reigns and so much to him due
Of hazard more as he above the rest
High honoured sits Go therefore mighty Powers
Terror of Heaven though fallen intend at home
While here shall be our home what best may ease
The present misery and render Hell
More tolerable if there be cure or charm
To respite or deceive or slack the pain
Of this ill mansion intermit no watch
Against a wakeful foe while I abroad
Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek
Deliverance for us all This enterprise
None shall partake with me Thus saying rose
The Monarch and prevented all reply
Prudent lest from his resolution raised
Others among the chief might offer now
Certain to be refused what erst they feared
And so refused might in opinion stand
His rivals winning cheap the high repute
Which he through hazard huge must earn But they
Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice
Forbidding and at once with him they rose
Their rising all at once was as the sound
Of thunder heard remote Towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone and as a God
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven
Nor failed they to express how much they praised
That for the general safety he despised
His own for neither do the Spirits damned
Lose all their virtue lest bad men should boast
Their specious deeds on earth which glory excites
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal
Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended rejoicing in their matchless Chief
As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
Ascending while the north wind sleeps o'erspread
Heaven cheerful face the louring element
Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet
Extend his evening beam the fields revive
The birds their notes renew and bleating herds
Attest their joy that hill and valley rings
O shame to men Devil with devil damned
Firm concord holds men only disagree
Of creatures rational though under hope
Of heavenly grace and God proclaiming peace
Yet live in hatred enmity and strife
Among themselves and levy cruel wars
Wasting the earth each other to destroy
As if which might induce us to accord
Man had not hellish foes enow besides
That day and night for his destruction wait
The Stygian council thus dissolved and forth
In order came the grand infernal Peers
Midst came their mighty Paramount and seemed
Alone th' antagonist of Heaven nor less
Than Hell dread Emperor with pomp supreme
And god-like imitated state him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed
With bright emblazonry and horrent arms
Then of their session ended they bid cry
With trumpet regal sound the great result
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy
By herald voice explained the hollow Abyss
Heard far and wide and all the host of Hell
With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim
Thence more at ease their minds and somewhat raised
By false presumptuous hope the ranged Powers
Disband and wandering each his several way
Pursues as inclination or sad choice
Leads him perplexed where he may likeliest find
Truce to his restless thoughts and entertain
The irksome hours till his great Chief return
Part on the plain or in the air sublime
Upon the wing or in swift race contend
As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields
Part curb their fiery steeds or shun the goal
With rapid wheels or fronted brigades form
As when to warn proud cities war appears
Waged in the troubled sky and armies rush
To battle in the clouds before each van
Prick forth the airy knights and couch their spears
Till thickest legions close with feats of arms
From either end of heaven the welkin burns
Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell
Rend up both rocks and hills and ride the air
In whirlwind Hell scarce holds the wild uproar 
As when Alcides from Oechalia crowned
With conquest felt th' envenomed robe and tore
Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic sea Others more mild
Retreated in a silent valley sing
With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall
By doom of battle and complain that Fate
Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance
Their song was partial but the harmony
What could it less when Spirits immortal sing
Suspended Hell and took with ravishment
The thronging audience In discourse more sweet
For Eloquence the Soul Song charms the Sense
Others apart sat on a hill retired
In thoughts more elevate and reasoned high
Of Providence Foreknowledge Will and Fate 
Fixed fate free will foreknowledge absolute
And found no end in wandering mazes lost
Of good and evil much they argued then
Of happiness and final misery
Passion and apathy and glory and shame
Vain wisdom all and false philosophy 
Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm
Pain for a while or anguish and excite
Fallacious hope or arm th' obdured breast
With stubborn patience as with triple steel
Another part in squadrons and gross bands
On bold adventure to discover wide
That dismal world if any clime perhaps
Might yield them easier habitation bend
Four ways their flying march along the banks
Of four infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams 
Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate
Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep
Cocytus named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream fierce Phlegeton
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage
Far off from these a slow and silent stream
Lethe the river of oblivion rolls
Her watery labyrinth whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets 
Forgets both joy and grief pleasure and pain
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail which on firm land
Thaws not but gathers heap and ruin seems
Of ancient pile all else deep snow and ice
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old
Where armies whole have sunk the parching air
Burns frore and cold performs th' effect of fire
Thither by harpy-footed Furies haled
At certain revolutions all the damned
Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes extremes by change more fierce
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth and there to pine
Immovable infixed and frozen round
Periods of time thence hurried back to fire
They ferry over this Lethean sound
Both to and fro their sorrow to augment
And wish and struggle as they pass to reach
The tempting stream with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe
All in one moment and so near the brink
But Fate withstands and to oppose th' attempt
Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus Thus roving on
In confused march forlorn th' adventurous bands
With shuddering horror pale and eyes aghast
Viewed first their lamentable lot and found
No rest Through many a dark and dreary vale
They passed and many a region dolorous
O'er many a frozen many a fiery alp
Rocks caves lakes fens bogs dens and shades of death 
A universe of death which God by curse
Created evil for evil only good
Where all life dies death lives and Nature breeds
Perverse all monstrous all prodigious things
Obominable inutterable and worse
Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived
Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire
Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man
Satan with thoughts inflamed of highest design
Puts on swift wings and toward the gates of Hell
Explores his solitary flight sometimes
He scours the right hand coast sometimes the left
Now shaves with level wing the deep then soars
Up to the fiery concave towering high
As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs they on the trading flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole so seemed
Far off the flying Fiend At last appear
Hell-bounds high reaching to the horrid roof
And thrice threefold the gates three folds were brass
Three iron three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable impaled with circling fire
Yet unconsumed Before the gates there sat
On either side a formidable Shape
The one seemed woman to the waist and fair
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast a serpent armed
With mortal sting About her middle round
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud and rung
A hideous peal yet when they list would creep
If aught disturbed their noise into her womb
And kennel there yet there still barked and howled
Within unseen Far less abhorred than these
Vexed Scylla bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore
Nor uglier follow the night-hag when called
In secret riding through the air she comes
Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance
With Lapland witches while the labouring moon
Eclipses at their charms The other Shape 
If shape it might be called that shape had none
Distinguishable in member joint or limb
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed
For each seemed either black it stood as Night
Fierce as ten Furies terrible as Hell
And shook a dreadful dart what seemed his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on
Satan was now at hand and from his seat
The monster moving onward came as fast
With horrid strides Hell trembled as he strode
Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admired 
Admired not feared God and his Son except
Created thing naught valued he nor shunned
And with disdainful look thus first began 
Whence and what art thou execrable Shape
That dar'st though grim and terrible advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates Through them I mean to pass
That be assured without leave asked of thee
Retire or taste thy folly and learn by proof
Hell-born not to contend with Spirits of Heaven
To whom the Goblin full of wrath replied 
Art thou that traitor Angel art thou he
Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith till then
Unbroken and in proud rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of Heaven sons
Conjured against the Highest for which both thou
And they outcast from God are here condemned
To waste eternal days in woe and pain
And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven
Hell-doomed and breath'  defiance here and scorn
Where I reign king and to enrage thee more
Thy king and lord Back to thy punishment
False fugitive and to thy speed add wings
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
Thy lingering or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror seize thee and pangs unfelt before
So spake the grisly Terror and in shape
So speaking and so threatening grew tenfold
More dreadful and deform On th' other side
Incensed with indignation Satan stood
Unterrified and like a comet burned
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war Each at the head
Levelled his deadly aim their fatal hands
No second stroke intend and such a frown
Each cast at th' other as when two black clouds
With heaven artillery fraught came rattling on
Over the Caspian then stand front to front
Hovering a space till winds the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid-air
So frowned the mighty combatants that Hell
Grew darker at their frown so matched they stood
For never but once more was wither like
To meet so great a foe And now great deeds
Had been achieved whereof all Hell had rung
Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat
Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key
Risen and with hideous outcry rushed between
O father what intends thy hand she cried
Against thy only son What fury O son
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy father head And know'st for whom
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordained his drudge to execute
Whate'er his wrath which he calls justice bids 
His wrath which one day will destroy ye both
She spake and at her words the hellish Pest
Forbore then these to her Satan returned 
So strange thy outcry and thy words so strange
Thou interposest that my sudden hand
Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends till first I know of thee
What thing thou art thus double-formed and why
In this infernal vale first met thou call'st
Me father and that phantasm call'st my son
I know thee not nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee
T' whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied 
Hast thou forgot me then and do I seem
Now in thine eye so foul once deemed so fair
In Heaven when at th' assembly and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
In bold conspiracy against Heaven King
All on a sudden miserable pain
Surprised thee dim thine eyes and dizzy swum
In darkness while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth till on the left side opening wide
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright
Then shining heavenly fair a goddess armed
Out of thy head I sprung Amazement seized
All th' host of Heaven back they recoiled afraid
At first and called me Sin and for a sign
Portentous held me but familiar grown
I pleased and with attractive graces won
The most averse thee chiefly who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing
Becam'st enamoured and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret that my womb conceived
A growing burden Meanwhile war arose
And fields were fought in Heaven wherein remained
For what could else to our Almighty Foe
Clear victory to our part loss and rout
Through all the Empyrean Down they fell
Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven down
Into this Deep and in the general fall
I also at which time this powerful key
Into my hands was given with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut which none can pass
Without my opening Pensive here I sat
Alone but long I sat not till my womb
Pregnant by thee and now excessive grown
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest
Thine own begotten breaking violent way
Tore through my entrails that with fear and pain
Distorted all my nether shape thus grew
Transformed but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued brandishing his fatal dart
Made to destroy I fled and cried out Death
Hell trembled at the hideous name and sighed
From all her caves and back resounded Death
I fled but he pursued though more it seems
Inflamed with lust than rage and swifter far
Me overtook his mother all dismayed
And in embraces forcible and foul
Engendering with me of that rape begot
These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry
Surround me as thou saw'st hourly conceived
And hourly born with sorrow infinite
To me for when they list into the womb
That bred them they return and howl and gnaw
My bowels their repast then bursting forth
Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round
That rest or intermission none I find
Before mine eyes in opposition sits
Grim Death my son and foe who set them on
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey but that he knows
His end with mine involved and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel and his bane
Whenever that shall be so Fate pronounced
But thou O father I forewarn thee shun
His deadly arrow neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms
Through tempered heavenly for that mortal dint
Save he who reigns above none can resist
She finished and the subtle Fiend his lore
Soon learned now milder and thus answered smooth 
Dear daughter since thou claim'st me for thy sire
And my fair son here show'st me the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven and joys
Then sweet now sad to mention through dire change
Befallen us unforeseen unthought-of know
I come no enemy but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee and all the heavenly host
Of Spirits that in our just pretences armed
Fell with us from on high From them I go
This uncouth errand sole and one for all
Myself expose with lonely steps to tread
Th' unfounded Deep and through the void immense
To search with wandering quest a place foretold
Should be and by concurring signs ere now
Created vast and round a place of bliss
In the purlieus of Heaven and therein placed
A race of upstart creatures to supply
Perhaps our vacant room though more removed
Lest Heaven surcharged with potent multitude
Might hap to move new broils Be this or aught
Than this more secret now designed I haste
To know and this once known shall soon return
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air embalmed
With odours There ye shall be fed and filled
Immeasurably all things shall be your prey
He ceased for both seemed highly pleased and Death
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile to hear
His famine should be filled and blessed his maw
Destined to that good hour No less rejoiced
His mother bad and thus bespake her sire 
The key of this infernal Pit by due
And by command of Heaven all-powerful King
I keep by him forbidden to unlock
These adamantine gates against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might
But what owe I to his commands above
Who hates me and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound
To sit in hateful office here confined
Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly born 
Here in perpetual agony and pain
With terrors and with clamours compassed round
Of mine own brood that on my bowels feed
Thou art my father thou my author thou
My being gav'st me whom should I obey
But thee whom follow Thou wilt bring me soon
To that new world of light and bliss among
The gods who live at ease where I shall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous as beseems
Thy daughter and thy darling without end
Thus saying from her side the fatal key
Sad instrument of all our woe she took
And towards the gate rolling her bestial train
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew
Which but herself not all the Stygian Powers
Could once have moved then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards and every bolt and bar
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease
Unfastens On a sudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
Th' infernal doors and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus She opened but to shut
Excelled her power the gates wide open stood
That with extended wings a bannered host
Under spread ensigns marching might pass through
With horse and chariots ranked in loose array
So wide they stood and like a furnace-mouth
Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame
Before their eyes in sudden view appear
The secrets of the hoary Deep a dark
Illimitable ocean without bound
Without dimension where length breadth and height
And time and place are lost where eldest Night
And Chaos ancestors of Nature hold
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise
Of endless wars and by confusion stand
For Hot Cold Moist and Dry four champions fierce
Strive here for mastery and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms they around the flag
Of each his faction in their several clans
Light-armed or heavy sharp smooth swift or slow
Swarm populous unnumbered as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene torrid soil
Levied to side with warring winds and poise
Their lighter wings To whom these most adhere
He rules a moment Chaos umpire sits
And by decision more embroils the fray
By which he reigns next him high arbiter
Chance governs all Into this wild Abyss
The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave
Of neither sea nor shore nor air nor fire
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly and which thus must ever fight
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds 
Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while
Pondering his voyage for no narrow frith
He had to cross Nor was his ear less pealed
With noises loud and ruinous to compare
Great things with small than when Bellona storms
With all her battering engines bent to rase
Some capital city or less than if this frame
Of Heaven were falling and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn
The steadfast Earth At last his sail-broad vans
He spread for flight and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground thence many a league
As in a cloudy chair ascending rides
Audacious but that seat soon failing meets
A vast vacuity All unawares
Fluttering his pennons vain plumb-down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep and to this hour
Down had been falling had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud
Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft That fury stayed 
Quenched in a boggy Syrtis neither sea
Nor good dry land nigh foundered on he fares
Treading the crude consistence half on foot
Half flying behoves him now both oar and sail
As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course o'er hill or moory dale
Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold so eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog or steep through strait rough dense or rare
With head hands wings or feet pursues his way
And swims or sinks or wades or creeps or flies
At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds and voices all confused
Borne through the hollow dark assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence Thither he plies
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss
Might in that noise reside of whom to ask
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bordering on light when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful Deep With him enthroned
Sat sable-vested Night eldest of things
The consort of his reign and by them stood
Orcus and Ades and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon Rumour next and Chance
And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled
And Discord with a thousand various mouths
T' whom Satan turning boldly thus Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss
Chaos and ancient Night I come no spy
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of your realm but by constraint
Wandering this darksome desert as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light
Alone and without guide half lost I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heaven or if some other place
From your dominion won th' Ethereal King
Possesses lately thither to arrive
I travel this profound Direct my course
Directed no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof if I that region lost
All usurpation thence expelled reduce
To her original darkness and your sway
Which is my present journey and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night
Yours be th' advantage all mine the revenge
Thus Satan and him thus the Anarch old
With faltering speech and visage incomposed
Answered I know thee stranger who thou art 
That mighty leading Angel who of late
Made head against Heaven King though overthrown
I saw and heard for such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep
With ruin upon ruin rout on rout
Confusion worse confounded and Heaven-gates
Poured out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing I upon my frontiers here
Keep residence if all I can will serve
That little which is left so to defend
Encroached on still through our intestine broils
Weakening the sceptre of old Night first Hell
Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath
Now lately Heaven and Earth another world
Hung o'er my realm linked in a golden chain
To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell
If that way be your walk you have not far
So much the nearer danger Go and speed
Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain
He ceased and Satan stayed not to reply
But glad that now his sea should find a shore
With fresh alacrity and force renewed
Springs upward like a pyramid of fire
Into the wild expanse and through the shock
Of fighting elements on all sides round
Environed wins his way harder beset
And more endangered than when Argo passed
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned
Charybdis and by th' other whirlpool steered
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on with difficulty and labour he
But he once passed soon after when Man fell
Strange alteration Sin and Death amain
Following his track such was the will of Heaven
Paved after him a broad and beaten way
Over the dark Abyss whose boiling gulf
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continued reaching th' utmost orb
Of this frail World by which the Spirits perverse
With easy intercourse pass to and fro
To tempt or punish mortals except whom
God and good Angels guard by special grace
But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears and from the walls of Heaven
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn Here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a broken foe
With tumult less and with less hostile din
That Satan with less toil and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light
And like a weather-beaten vessel holds
Gladly the port though shrouds and tackle torn
Or in the emptier waste resembling air
Weighs his spread wings at leisure to behold
Far off th' empyreal Heaven extended wide
In circuit undetermined square or round
With opal towers and battlements adorned
Of living sapphire once his native seat
And fast by hanging in a golden chain
This pendent World in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge
Accursed and in a cursed hour he hies
Hail holy Light offspring of Heaven firstborn
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam
May I express thee unblam'd since God is light
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity dwelt then in thee
Bright effluence of bright essence increate
Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream
Whose fountain who shall tell before the sun
Before the Heavens thou wert and at the voice
Of God as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep
Won from the void and formless infinite
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing
Escap'd the Stygian pool though long detain'd
In that obscure sojourn while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes than to the Orphean lyre
I sung of Chaos and eternal Night
Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down
The dark descent and up to re-ascend
Though hard and rare Thee I revisit safe
And feel thy sovran vital lamp but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray and find no dawn
So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs
Or dim suffusion veil'd Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
Clear spring or shady grove or sunny hill
Smit with the love of sacred song but chief
Thee Sion and the flowery brooks beneath
That wash thy hallow'd feet and warbling flow
Nightly I visit nor sometimes forget
So were I equall'd with them in renown
Thy sovran command that Man should find grace
Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides
And Tiresias and Phineus prophets old
Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note Thus with the year
Seasons return but not to me returns
Day or the sweet approach of even or morn
Or sight of vernal bloom or summer rose
Or flocks or herds or human face divine
But cloud instead and ever-during dark
Surrounds me from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature works to me expung'd and ras'd
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out
So much the rather thou celestial Light
Shine inward and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate there plant eyes all mist from thence
Purge and disperse that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight
Now had the Almighty Father from above
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High thron'd above all highth bent down his eye
His own works and their works at once to view
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars and from his sight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance on his right
The radiant image of his glory sat
His only son on earth he first beheld
Our two first parents yet the only two
Of mankind in the happy garden plac'd
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love
Uninterrupted joy unrivall'd love
In blissful solitude he then survey'd
Hell and the gulf between and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night
In the dun air sublime and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet
On the bare outside of this world that seem'd
Firm land imbosom'd without firmament
Uncertain which in ocean or in air
Him God beholding from his prospect high
Wherein past present future he beholds
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake
Only begotten Son seest thou what rage
Transports our Adversary whom no bounds
Prescrib'd no bars of Hell nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there nor yet the main abyss
Wide interrupt can hold so bent he seems
On desperate revenge that shall redound
Upon his own rebellious head And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way
Not far off Heaven in the precincts of light
Directly towards the new created world
And man there plac'd with purpose to assay
If him by force he can destroy or worse
By some false guile pervert and shall pervert
For man will hearken to his glozing lies
And easily transgress the sole command
Sole pledge of his obedience So will fall
He and his faithless progeny Whose fault
Whose but his own ingrate he had of me
All he could have I made him just and right
Sufficient to have stood though free to fall
Such I created all the ethereal Powers
And Spirits both them who stood and them who fail'd
Freely they stood who stood and fell who fell
Not free what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance constant faith or love
Where only what they needs must do appear'd
Not what they would what praise could they receive
What pleasure I from such obedience paid
When will and reason reason also is choice
Useless and vain of freedom both despoil'd
Made passive both had serv'd necessity
Not me They therefore as to right belong'd
So were created nor can justly accuse
Their Maker or their making or their fate
As if predestination over-rul'd
Their will dispos'd by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge they themselves decreed
Their own revolt not I if I foreknew
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault
Which had no less proved certain unforeknown
So without least impulse or shadow of fate
Or aught by me immutably foreseen
They trespass authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge and what they choose for so
I form'd them free and free they must remain
Till they enthrall themselves I else must change
Their nature and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable eternal which ordain'd
Their freedom they themselves ordain'd their fall
The first sort by their own suggestion fell
Self-tempted self-deprav'd Man falls deceiv'd
By the other first Man therefore shall find grace
The other none In mercy and justice both
Through Heaven and Earth so shall my glory excel
But Mercy first and last shall brightest shine
Thus while God spake ambrosial fragrance fill'd
All Heaven and in the blessed Spirits elect
Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd
Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
Most glorious in him all his Father shone
Substantially express'd and in his face
Divine compassion visibly appear'd
Love without end and without measure grace
Which uttering thus he to his Father spake
O Father gracious was that word which clos'd
Thy sovran command that Man should find grace
For which both Heaven and earth shall high extol
Thy praises with the innumerable sound
Of hymns and sacred songs wherewith thy throne
Encompass'd shall resound thee ever blest
For should Man finally be lost should Man
Thy creature late so lov'd thy youngest son
Fall circumvented thus by fraud though join'd
With his own folly that be from thee far
That far be from thee Father who art judge
Of all things made and judgest only right
Or shall the Adversary thus obtain
His end and frustrate thine shall he fulfill
His malice and thy goodness bring to nought
Or proud return though to his heavier doom
Yet with revenge accomplish'd and to Hell
Draw after him the whole race of mankind
By him corrupted or wilt thou thyself
Abolish thy creation and unmake
For him what for thy glory thou hast made
So should thy goodness and thy greatness both
Be question'd and blasphem'd without defence
To whom the great Creator thus replied
O son in whom my soul hath chief delight
Son of my bosom Son who art alone
My word my wisdom and effectual might
All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are all
As my eternal purpose hath decreed
Man shall not quite be lost but sav'd who will
Yet not of will in him but grace in me
Freely vouchsaf'd once more I will renew
His lapsed powers though forfeit and enthrall'd
By sin to foul exorbitant desires
Upheld by me yet once more he shall stand
On even ground against his mortal foe
By me upheld that he may know how frail
His fallen condition is and to me owe
All his deliverance and to none but me
Some I have chosen of peculiar grace
Elect above the rest so is my will
The rest shall hear me call and oft be warn'd
Their sinful state and to appease betimes
The incensed Deity while offer'd grace
Invites for I will clear their senses dark
What may suffice and soften stony hearts
To pray repent and bring obedience due
To prayer repentance and obedience due
Though but endeavour'd with sincere intent
Mine ear shall not be slow mine eye not shut
And I will place within them as a guide
My umpire Conscience whom if they will hear
Light after light well us'd they shall attain
And to the end persisting safe arrive
This my long sufferance and my day of grace
They who neglect and scorn shall never taste
But hard be harden'd blind be blinded more
That they may stumble on and deeper fall
And none but such from mercy I exclude
But yet all is not done Man disobeying
Disloyal breaks his fealty and sins
Against the high supremacy of Heaven
Affecting God-head and so losing all
To expiate his treason hath nought left
But to destruction sacred and devote
He with his whole posterity must die
Die he or justice must unless for him
Some other able and as willing pay
The rigid satisfaction death for death
Say heavenly Powers where shall we find such love
Which of you will be mortal to redeem
Man mortal crime and just the unjust to save
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear
He ask'd but all the heavenly quire stood mute
And silence was in Heaven on Man behalf
Patron or intercessour none appear'd
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture and ransom set
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost adjudg'd to Death and Hell
By doom severe had not the Son of God
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine
His dearest mediation thus renew'd
Father thy word is past Man shall find grace
And shall grace not find means that finds her way
The speediest of thy winged messengers
To visit all thy creatures and to all
Comes unprevented unimplor'd unsought
Happy for Man so coming he her aid
Can never seek once dead in sins and lost
Atonement for himself or offering meet
Indebted and undone hath none to bring
Behold me then me for him life for life
I offer on me let thine anger fall
Account me Man I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom and this glory next to thee
Freely put off and for him lastly die
Well pleased on me let Death wreak all his rage
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished Thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever by thee I live
Though now to Death I yield and am his due
All that of me can die yet that debt paid
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey nor suffer my unspotted soul
For ever with corruption there to dwell
But I shall rise victorious and subdue
My vanquisher spoiled of his vaunted spoil
Death his death wound shall then receive and stoop
Inglorious of his mortal sting disarmed
I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell and show
The powers of darkness bound Thou at the sight
Pleased out of Heaven shalt look down and smile
While by thee raised I ruin all my foes
Death last and with his carcase glut the grave
Then with the multitude of my redeemed
Shall enter Heaven long absent and return
Father to see thy face wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain but peace assured
And reconcilement wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth but in thy presence joy entire
His words here ended but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake and breathed immortal love
To mortal men above which only shone
Filial obedience as a sacrifice
Glad to be offered he attends the will
Of his great Father Admiration seized
All Heaven what this might mean and whither tend
Wondering but soon th' Almighty thus replied
O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace
Found out for mankind under wrath O thou
My sole complacence Well thou know'st how dear
To me are all my works nor Man the least
Though last created that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand to save
By losing thee a while the whole race lost
Thou therefore whom thou only canst redeem
Their nature also to thy nature join
And be thyself Man among men on Earth
Made flesh when time shall be of virgin seed
By wondrous birth be thou in Adam room
The head of all mankind though Adam son
As in him perish all men so in thee
As from a second root shall be restored
As many as are restored without thee none
His crime makes guilty all his sons thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds
And live in thee transplanted and from thee
Receive new life So Man as is most just
Shall satisfy for Man be judged and die
And dying rise and rising with him raise
His brethren ransomed with his own dear life
So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate
Giving to death and dying to redeem
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily destroyed and still destroys
In those who when they may accept not grace
Nor shalt thou by descending to assume
Man nature lessen or degrade thine own
Because thou hast though throned in highest bliss
Equal to God and equally enjoying
God-like fruition quitted all to save
A world from utter loss and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God
Found worthiest to be so by being good
Far more than great or high because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne
Here shalt thou sit incarnate here shalt reign
Both God and Man Son both of God and Man
Anointed universal King all power
I give thee reign for ever and assume
Thy merits under thee as head supreme
Thrones Princedoms Powers Dominions I reduce
All knees to thee shall bow of them that bide
In Heaven or Earth or under Earth in Hell
When thou attended gloriously from Heaven
Shalt in the sky appear and from thee send
The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal forthwith from all winds
The living and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages to the general doom
Shall hasten such a peal shall rouse their sleep
Then all thy saints assembled thou shalt judge
Bad Men and Angels they arraigned shall sink
Beneath thy sentence Hell her numbers full
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut Mean while
The world shall burn and from her ashes spring
New Heaven and Earth wherein the just shall dwell
And after all their tribulations long
See golden days fruitful of golden deeds
With joy and peace triumphing and fair truth
Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by
For regal scepter then no more shall need
God shall be all in all But all ye Gods
Adore him who to compass all this dies
Adore the Son and honour him as me
No sooner had the Almighty ceased but all
The multitude of Angels with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number sweet
As from blest voices uttering joy Heaven rung
With jubilee and loud Hosannas filled
The eternal regions Lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold
Immortal amarant a flower which once
In Paradise fast by the tree of life
Began to bloom but soon for man offence
To Heaven removed where first it grew there grows
And flowers aloft shading the fount of life
And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream
With these that never fade the Spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off the bright
Pavement that like a sea of jasper shone
Impurpled with celestial roses smiled
Then crowned again their golden harps they took
Harps ever tuned that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce
Their sacred song and waken raptures high
No voice exempt no voice but well could join
Melodious part such concord is in Heaven
Thee Father first they sung Omnipotent
Immutable Immortal Infinite
Eternal King the Author of all being
Fountain of light thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st
Throned inaccessible but when thou shadest
The full blaze of thy beams and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear
Yet dazzle Heaven that brightest Seraphim
Approach not but with both wings veil their eyes
Thee next they sang of all creation first
Begotten Son Divine Similitude
In whose conspicuous countenance without cloud
Made visible the Almighty Father shines
Whom else no creature can behold on thee
Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides
Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests
He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein
By thee created and by thee threw down
The aspiring Dominations Thou that day
Thy Father dreadful thunder didst not spare
Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels that shook
Heaven everlasting frame while o'er the necks
Thou drovest of warring Angels disarrayed
Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaim
Thee only extolled Son of thy Father might
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes
Not so on Man Him through their malice fallen
Father of mercy and grace thou didst not doom
So strictly but much more to pity incline
No sooner did thy dear and only Son
Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man
So strictly but much more to pity inclined
He to appease thy wrath and end the strife
Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned
Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat
Second to thee offered himself to die
For Man offence O unexampled love
Love no where to be found less than Divine
Hail Son of God Saviour of Men Thy name
Shall be the copious matter of my song
Henceforth and never shall my heart thy praise
Forget nor from thy Father praise disjoin
Thus they in Heaven above the starry sphere
Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent
Mean while upon the firm opacous globe
Of this round world whose first convex divides
The luminous inferiour orbs enclosed
From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old
Satan alighted walks A globe far off
It seemed now seems a boundless continent
Dark waste and wild under the frown of Night
Starless exposed and ever-threatening storms
Of Chaos blustering round inclement sky
Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven
Though distant far some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud
Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field
As when a vultur on Imaus bred
Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids
On hills where flocks are fed flies toward the springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes Indian streams
But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana where Chineses drive
With sails and wind their cany waggons light
So on this windy sea of land the Fiend
Walked up and down alone bent on his prey
Alone for other creature in this place
Living or lifeless to be found was none
None yet but store hereafter from the earth
Up hither like aereal vapours flew
Of all things transitory and vain when sin
With vanity had filled the works of men
Both all things vain and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame
Or happiness in this or the other life
All who have their reward on earth the fruits
Of painful superstition and blind zeal
Nought seeking but the praise of men here find
Fit retribution empty as their deeds
All the unaccomplished works of Nature hand
Abortive monstrous or unkindly mixed
Dissolved on earth fleet hither and in vain
Till final dissolution wander here
Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed
Those argent fields more likely habitants
Translated Saints or middle Spirits hold
Betwixt the angelical and human kind
Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants came
With many a vain exploit though then renowned
The builders next of Babel on the plain
Of Sennaar and still with vain design
New Babels had they wherewithal would build
Others came single he who to be deemed
A God leaped fondly into Aetna flames
Empedocles and he who to enjoy
Plato Elysium leaped into the sea
Cleombrotus and many more too long
Embryos and idiots eremites and friars
White black and gray with all their trumpery
Here pilgrims roam that strayed so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven
And they who to be sure of Paradise
Dying put on the weeds of Dominick
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised
They pass the planets seven and pass the fixed
And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talked and that first moved
And now Saint Peter at Heaven wicket seems
To wait them with his keys and now at foot
Of Heaven ascent they lift their feet when lo
A violent cross wind from either coast
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious air Then might ye see
Cowls hoods and habits with their wearers tost
And fluttered into rags then reliques beads
Indulgences dispenses pardons bulls
The sport of winds All these upwhirled aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
Into a Limbo large and broad since called
The Paradise of Fools to few unknown
Long after now unpeopled and untrod
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed
And long he wandered till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste
His travelled steps far distant he descries
Ascending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high
At top whereof but far more rich appeared
The work as of a kingly palace-gate
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellished thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone inimitable on earth
By model or by shading pencil drawn
These stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending bands
Of guardians bright when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky
And waking cried This is the gate of Heaven
Each stair mysteriously was meant nor stood
There always but drawn up to Heaven sometimes
Viewless and underneath a bright sea flowed
Of jasper or of liquid pearl whereon
Who after came from earth failing arrived
Wafted by Angels or flew o'er the lake
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds
The stairs were then let down whether to dare
The Fiend by easy ascent or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss
Direct against which opened from beneath
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise
A passage down to the Earth a passage wide
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over mount Sion and though that were large
Over the Promised Land to God so dear
By which to visit oft those happy tribes
On high behests his angels to and fro
Passed frequent and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas the fount of Jordan flood
To Beersaba where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore
So wide the opening seemed where bounds were set
To darkness such as bound the ocean wave
Satan from hence now on the lower stair
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world at once As when a scout
Through dark and desert ways with peril gone
All night at last by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill
Which to his eye discovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen or some renowned metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams
Such wonder seised though after Heaven seen
The Spirit malign but much more envy seised
At sight of all this world beheld so fair
Round he surveys and well might where he stood
So high above the circling canopy
Of night extended shade from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantick seas
Beyond the horizon then from pole to pole
He views in breadth and without longer pause
Down right into the world first region throws
His flight precipitant and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars that shone
Stars distant but nigh hand seemed other worlds
Or other worlds they seemed or happy isles
Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old
Fortunate fields and groves and flowery vales
Thrice happy isles but who dwelt happy there
He staid not to inquire Above them all
The golden sun in splendour likest Heaven
Allured his eye thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament but up or down
By center or eccentrick hard to tell
Or longitude where the great luminary
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick
That from his lordly eye keep distance due
Dispenses light from far they as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days months and years towards his all-cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions or are turned
By his magnetick beam that gently warms
The universe and to each inward part
With gentle penetration though unseen
Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep
So wonderously was set his station bright
There lands the Fiend a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the sun lucent orb
Through his glazed optick tube yet never saw
The place he found beyond expression bright
Compared with aught on earth metal or stone
Not all parts like but all alike informed
With radiant light as glowing iron with fire
If metal part seemed gold part silver clear
If stone carbuncle most or chrysolite
Ruby or topaz to the twelve that shone
In Aaron breast-plate and a stone besides
Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen
That stone or like to that which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought
In vain though by their powerful art they bind
Volatile Hermes and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea
Drained through a limbeck to his native form
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth Elixir pure and rivers run
Potable gold when with one virtuous touch
The arch-chemick sun so far from us remote
Produces with terrestrial humour mixed
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of colour glorious and effect so rare
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazzled far and wide his eye commands
For sight no obstacle found here nor shade
But all sun-shine as when his beams at noon
Culminate from the equator as they now
Shot upward still direct whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall and the air
No where so clear sharpened his visual ray
To objects distant far whereby he soon
Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand
The same whom John saw also in the sun
His back was turned but not his brightness hid
Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings
Lay waving round on some great charge employed
He seemed or fixed in cogitation deep
Glad was the Spirit impure as now in hope
To find who might direct his wandering flight
To Paradise the happy seat of Man
His journey end and our beginning woe
But first he casts to change his proper shape
Which else might work him danger or delay
And now a stripling Cherub he appears
Not of the prime yet such as in his face
Youth smiled celestial and to every limb
Suitable grace diffused so well he feigned
Under a coronet his flowing hair
In curls on either cheek played wings he wore
Of many a coloured plume sprinkled with gold
His habit fit for speed succinct and held
Before his decent steps a silver wand
He drew not nigh unheard the Angel bright
Ere he drew nigh his radiant visage turned
Admonished by his ear and straight was known
The Arch-Angel Uriel one of the seven
Who in God presence nearest to his throne
Stand ready at command and are his eyes
That run through all the Heavens or down to the Earth
Bear his swift errands over moist and dry
O'er sea and land him Satan thus accosts
Uriel for thou of those seven Spirits that stand
In sight of God high throne gloriously bright
The first art wont his great authentick will
Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring
Where all his sons thy embassy attend
And here art likeliest by supreme decree
Like honour to obtain and as his eye
To visit oft this new creation round
Unspeakable desire to see and know
All these his wonderous works but chiefly Man
His chief delight and favour him for whom
All these his works so wonderous he ordained
Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
Alone thus wandering Brightest Seraph tell
In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
His fixed seat or fixed seat hath none
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell
That I may find him and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold
On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
Worlds and on whom hath all these graces poured
That both in him and all things as is meet
The universal Maker we may praise
Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of Men
To serve him better Wise are all his ways
So spake the false dissembler unperceived
For neither Man nor Angel can discern
Hypocrisy the only evil that walks
Invisible except to God alone
By his permissive will through Heaven and Earth
And oft though wisdom wake suspicion sleeps
At wisdom gate and to simplicity
Resigns her charge while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems Which now for once beguiled
Uriel though regent of the sun and held
The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul
In his uprightness answer thus returned
Fair Angel thy desire which tends to know
The works of God thereby to glorify
The great Work-master leads to no excess
That reaches blame but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone
To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps
Contented with report hear only in Heaven
For wonderful indeed are all his works
Pleasant to know and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth but hid their causes deep
I saw when at his word the formless mass
This world material mould came to a heap
Confusion heard his voice and wild uproar
Stood ruled stood vast infinitude confined
Till at his second bidding Darkness fled
Light shone and order from disorder sprung
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements earth flood air fire
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward spirited with various forms
That rolled orbicular and turned to stars
Numberless as thou seest and how they move
Each had his place appointed each his course
The rest in circuit walls this universe
Look downward on that globe whose hither side
With light from hence though but reflected shines
That place is Earth the seat of Man that light
His day which else as the other hemisphere
Night would invade but there the neighbouring moon
So call that opposite fair star her aid
Timely interposes and her monthly round
Still ending still renewing through mid Heaven
With borrowed light her countenance triform
Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth
And in her pale dominion checks the night
That spot to which I point is Paradise
Adam abode those lofty shades his bower
Thy way thou canst not miss me mine requires
Thus said he turned and Satan bowing low
As to superiour Spirits is wont in Heaven
Where honour due and reverence none neglects
Took leave and toward the coast of earth beneath
Down from the ecliptick sped with hoped success
Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel
Nor staid till on Niphates' top he lights
O for that warning voice which he who saw
The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud
Then when the Dragon put to second rout
Came furious down to be revenged on men
Woe to the inhabitants on earth that now
While time was our first parents had been warned
The coming of their secret foe and 'scaped
Haply so 'scaped his mortal snare For now
Satan now first inflamed with rage came down
The tempter ere the accuser of mankind
To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss
Of that first battle and his flight to Hell
Yet not rejoicing in his speed though bold
Far off and fearless nor with cause to boast
Begins his dire attempt which nigh the birth
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast
And like a devilish engine back recoils
Upon himself horrour and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts and from the bottom stir
The Hell within him for within him Hell
He brings and round about him nor from Hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place Now conscience wakes despair
That slumbered wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was what is and what must be
Worse of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue
Sometimes towards Eden which now in his view
Lay pleasant his grieved look he fixes sad
Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing sun
Which now sat high in his meridian tower
Then much revolving thus in sighs began
O thou that with surpassing glory crowned
Lookest from thy sole dominion like the God
Of this new world at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads to thee I call
But with no friendly voice and add thy name
Of Sun to tell thee how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell how glorious once above thy sphere
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down
Warring in Heaven against Heaven matchless King
Ah wherefore he deserved no such return
From me whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence and with his good
Upbraided none nor was his service hard
What could be less than to afford him praise
The easiest recompence and pay him thanks
How due yet all his good proved ill in me
And wrought but malice lifted up so high
I 'sdeined subjection and thought one step higher
Would set me highest and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude
So burdensome still paying still to owe
Forgetful what from him I still received
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not but still pays at once
Indebted and discharged what burden then
O had his powerful destiny ordained
Me some inferiour Angel I had stood
Then happy no unbounded hope had raised
Ambition Yet why not some other Power
As great might have aspired and me though mean
Drawn to his part but other Powers as great
Fell not but stand unshaken from within
Or from without to all temptations armed
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand
Thou hadst whom hast thou then or what to accuse
But Heaven free love dealt equally to all
Be then his love accursed since love or hate
To me alike it deals eternal woe
Nay cursed be thou since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues
Me miserable which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair
Which way I fly is Hell myself am Hell
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me opens wide
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven
O then at last relent Is there no place
Left for repentance none for pardon left
None left but by submission and that word
Disdain forbids me and my dread of shame
Among the Spirits beneath whom I seduced
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit boasting I could subdue
The Omnipotent Ay me they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain
Under what torments inwardly I groan
While they adore me on the throne of Hell
With diadem and scepter high advanced
The lower still I fall only supreme
In misery Such joy ambition finds
But say I could repent and could obtain
By act of grace my former state how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore Ease would recant
Vows made in pain as violent and void
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall so should I purchase dear
Short intermission bought with double smart
This knows my Punisher therefore as far
From granting he as I from begging peace
All hope excluded thus behold instead
Of us out-cast exil'd his new delight
Mankind created and for him this world
So farewell hope and with hope farewell fear
Farewell remorse all good to me is lost
Evil be thou my good by thee at least
Divided empire with Heaven King I hold
By thee and more than half perhaps will reign
As Man ere long and this new world shall know
Thus while he spake each passion dimmed his face
Thrice changed with pale ire envy and despair
Which marred his borrowed visage and betrayed
Him counterfeit if any eye beheld
For heavenly minds from such distempers foul
Are ever clear Whereof he soon aware
Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm
Artificer of fraud and was the first
That practised falsehood under saintly show
Deep malice to conceal couched with revenge
Yet not enough had practised to deceive
Uriel once warned whose eye pursued him down
The way he went and on the Assyrian mount
Saw him disfigured more than could befall
Spirit of happy sort his gestures fierce
He marked and mad demeanour then alone
As he supposed all unobserved unseen
So on he fares and to the border comes
Of Eden where delicious Paradise
Now nearer crowns with her enclosure green
As with a rural mound the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown grotesque and wild
Access denied and overhead upgrew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade
Cedar and pine and fir and branching palm
A sylvan scene and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade a woody theatre
Of stateliest view Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise upsprung
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighbouring round
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue
Appeared with gay enamelled colours mixed
On which the sun more glad impressed his beams
Than in fair evening cloud or humid bow
When God hath showered the earth so lovely seemed
That landskip And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy able to drive
All sadness but despair Now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope and now are past
Mozambick off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest with such delay
Well pleased they slack their course and many a league
Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles
So entertained those odorous sweets the Fiend
Who came their bane though with them better pleased
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume
That drove him though enamoured from the spouse
Of Tobit son and with a vengeance sent
From Media post to Egypt there fast bound
Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill
Satan had journeyed on pensive and slow
But further way found none so thick entwined
As one continued brake the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed
All path of man or beast that passed that way
One gate there only was and that looked east
On the other side which when the arch-felon saw
Due entrance he disdained and in contempt
At one flight bound high over-leaped all bound
Of hill or highest wall and sheer within
Lights on his feet As when a prowling wolf
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve
In hurdled cotes amid the field secure
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold
Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash
Of some rich burgher whose substantial doors
Cross-barred and bolted fast fear no assault
In at the window climbs or o'er the tiles
So clomb this first grand thief into God fold
So since into his church lewd hirelings climb
Thence up he flew and on the tree of life
The middle tree and highest there that grew
Sat like a cormorant yet not true life
Thereby regained but sat devising death
To them who lived nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant but only used
For prospect what well used had been the pledge
Of immortality So little knows
Any but God alone to value right
The good before him but perverts best things
To worst abuse or to their meanest use
Beneath him with new wonder now he views
To all delight of human sense exposed
In narrow room Nature whole wealth yea more
A Heaven on Earth For blissful Paradise
Of God the garden was by him in the east
Of Eden planted Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia built by Grecian kings
Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordained
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight smell taste
And all amid them stood the tree of life
High eminent blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold and next to life
Our death the tree of knowledge grew fast by
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill
Southward through Eden went a river large
Nor changed his course but through the shaggy hill
Passed underneath ingulfed for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden-mould high raised
Upon the rapid current which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn
Rose a fresh fountain and with many a rill
Watered the garden thence united fell
Down the steep glade and met the nether flood
Which from his darksome passage now appears
And now divided into four main streams
Runs diverse wandering many a famous realm
And country whereof here needs no account
But rather to tell how if Art could tell
How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold
With mazy errour under pendant shades
Ran nectar visiting each plant and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots but Nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field and where the unpierced shade
Imbrowned the noontide bowers Thus was this place
A happy rural seat of various view
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm
Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind
Hung amiable Hesperian fables true
If true here only and of delicious taste
Betwixt them lawns or level downs and flocks
Grazing the tender herb were interposed
Or palmy hillock or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store
Flowers of all hue and without thorn the rose
Another side umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape and gently creeps
Luxuriant mean while murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills dispersed or in a lake
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirrour holds unite their streams
The birds their quire apply airs vernal airs
Breathing the smell of field and grove attune
The trembling leaves while universal Pan
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance
Led on the eternal Spring Not that fair field
Of Enna where Proserpine gathering flowers
Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis
Was gathered which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world nor that sweet grove
Of Daphne by Orontes and the inspired
Castalian spring might with this Paradise
Of Eden strive nor that Nyseian isle
Girt with the river Triton where old Cham
Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove
Hid Amalthea and her florid son
Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea eye
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard
Mount Amara though this by some supposed
True Paradise under the Ethiop line
By Nilus' head enclosed with shining rock
A whole day journey high but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden where the Fiend
Saw undelighted all delight all kind
Of living creatures new to sight and strange
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall
Godlike erect with native honour clad
In naked majesty seemed lords of all
And worthy seemed for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone
Truth wisdom sanctitude severe and pure
Severe but in true filial freedom placed
Whence true authority in men though both
Not equal as their sex not equal seemed
For contemplation he and valour formed
For softness she and sweet attractive grace
He for God only she for God in him
His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule and hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering but not beneath his shoulders broad
She as a veil down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled but in wanton ringlets waved
As the vine curls her tendrils which implied
Subjection but required with gentle sway
And by her yielded by him best received
Yielded with coy submission modest pride
And sweet reluctant amorous delay
Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed
Then was not guilty shame dishonest shame
Of nature works honour dishonourable
Sin-bred how have ye troubled all mankind
With shows instead mere shows of seeming pure
And banished from man life his happiest life
Simplicity and spotless innocence
So passed they naked on nor shunned the sight
Of God or Angel for they thought no ill
So hand in hand they passed the loveliest pair
That ever since in love embraces met
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons the fairest of her daughters Eve
Under a tuft of shade that on a green
Stood whispering soft by a fresh fountain side
They sat them down and after no more toil
Of their sweet gardening labour than sufficed
To recommend cool Zephyr and made ease
More easy wholesome thirst and appetite
More grateful to their supper-fruits they fell
Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs
Yielded them side-long as they sat recline
On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers
The savoury pulp they chew and in the rind
Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream
Nor gentle purpose nor endearing smiles
Wanted nor youthful dalliance as beseems
Fair couple linked in happy nuptial league
Alone as they About them frisking played
All beasts of the earth since wild and of all chase
In wood or wilderness forest or den
Sporting the lion ramped and in his paw
Dandled the kid bears tigers ounces pards
Gambolled before them the unwieldy elephant
To make them mirth used all his might and wreathed
His lithe proboscis close the serpent sly
Insinuating wove with Gordian twine
His braided train and of his fatal guile
Gave proof unheeded others on the grass
Couched and now filled with pasture gazing sat
Or bedward ruminating for the sun
Declined was hasting now with prone career
To the ocean isles and in the ascending scale
Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose
When Satan still in gaze as first he stood
Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad
O Hell what do mine eyes with grief behold
Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
Creatures of other mould earth-born perhaps
Not Spirits yet to heavenly Spirits bright
Little inferiour whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder and could love so lively shines
In them divine resemblance and such grace
The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured
Ah gentle pair ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches when all these delights
Will vanish and deliver ye to woe
More woe the more your taste is now of joy
Happy but for so happy ill secured
Long to continue and this high seat your Heaven
Ill fenced for Heaven to keep out such a foe
As now is entered yet no purposed foe
To you whom I could pity thus forlorn
Though I unpitied League with you I seek
And mutual amity so strait so close
That I with you must dwell or you with me
Henceforth my dwelling haply may not please
Like this fair Paradise your sense yet such
Accept your Maker work he gave it me
Which I as freely give Hell shall unfold
To entertain you two her widest gates
And send forth all her kings there will be room
Not like these narrow limits to receive
Your numerous offspring if no better place
Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge
On you who wrong me not for him who wronged
And should I at your harmless innocence
Melt as I do yet publick reason just
Honour and empire with revenge enlarged
By conquering this new world compels me now
To do what else though damned I should abhor
So spake the Fiend and with necessity
The tyrant plea excused his devilish deeds
Then from his lofty stand on that high tree
Down he alights among the sportful herd
Of those four-footed kinds himself now one
Now other as their shape served best his end
Nearer to view his prey and unespied
To mark what of their state he more might learn
By word or action marked About them round
A lion now he stalks with fiery glare
Then as a tiger who by chance hath spied
In some purlieu two gentle fawns at play
Straight couches close then rising changes oft
His couchant watch as one who chose his ground
Whence rushing he might surest seize them both
Griped in each paw when Adam first of men
To first of women Eve thus moving speech
Turned him all ear to hear new utterance flow
Sole partner and sole part of all these joys
Dearer thyself than all needs must the Power
That made us and for us this ample world
Be infinitely good and of his good
As liberal and free as infinite
That raised us from the dust and placed us here
In all this happiness who at his hand
Have nothing merited nor can perform
Aught whereof he hath need he who requires
From us no other service than to keep
This one this easy charge of all the trees
In Paradise that bear delicious fruit
So various not to taste that only tree
Of knowledge planted by the tree of life
So near grows death to life whate'er death is
Some dreadful thing no doubt for well thou knowest
God hath pronounced it death to taste that tree
The only sign of our obedience left
Among so many signs of power and rule
Conferred upon us and dominion given
Over all other creatures that possess
Earth air and sea Then let us not think hard
One easy prohibition who enjoy
Free leave so large to all things else and choice
Unlimited of manifold delights
But let us ever praise him and extol
His bounty following our delightful task
To prune these growing plants and tend these flowers
Which were it toilsome yet with thee were sweet
To whom thus Eve replied O thou for whom
And from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh
And without whom am to no end my guide
And head what thou hast said is just and right
For we to him indeed all praises owe
And daily thanks I chiefly who enjoy
So far the happier lot enjoying thee
Pre-eminent by so much odds while thou
Like consort to thyself canst no where find
That day I oft remember when from sleep
I first awaked and found myself reposed
Under a shade on flowers much wondering where
And what I was whence thither brought and how
Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
Of waters issued from a cave and spread
Into a liquid plain then stood unmoved
Pure as the expanse of Heaven I thither went
With unexperienced thought and laid me down
On the green bank to look into the clear
Smooth lake that to me seemed another sky
As I bent down to look just opposite
A shape within the watery gleam appeared
Bending to look on me I started back
It started back but pleased I soon returned
Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
Of sympathy and love There I had fixed
Mine eyes till now and pined with vain desire
Had not a voice thus warned me What thou seest
What there thou seest fair Creature is thyself
With thee it came and goes but follow me
And I will bring thee where no shadow stays
Thy coming and thy soft embraces he
Whose image thou art him thou shalt enjoy
Inseparably thine to him shalt bear
Multitudes like thyself and thence be called
Mother of human race What could I do
But follow straight invisibly thus led
Till I espied thee fair indeed and tall
Under a platane yet methought less fair
Less winning soft less amiably mild
Than that smooth watery image Back I turned
Thou following cryedst aloud Return fair Eve
Whom flyest thou whom thou flyest of him thou art
His flesh his bone to give thee being I lent
Out of my side to thee nearest my heart
Substantial life to have thee by my side
Henceforth an individual solace dear
Part of my soul I seek thee and thee claim
My other half With that thy gentle hand
Seised mine I yielded and from that time see
How beauty is excelled by manly grace
And wisdom which alone is truly fair
So spake our general mother and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreproved
And meek surrender half-embracing leaned
On our first father half her swelling breast
Naked met his under the flowing gold
Of her loose tresses hid he in delight
Both of her beauty and submissive charms
Smiled with superiour love as Jupiter
On Juno smiles when he impregns the clouds
That shed Mayflowers and pressed her matron lip
With kisses pure Aside the Devil turned
For envy yet with jealous leer malign
Eyed them askance and to himself thus plained
Sight hateful sight tormenting thus these two
Imparadised in one another arms
The happier Eden shall enjoy their fill
Of bliss on bliss while I to Hell am thrust
Where neither joy nor love but fierce desire
Among our other torments not the least
Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines
Yet let me not forget what I have gained
From their own mouths All is not theirs it seems
One fatal tree there stands of knowledge called
Forbidden them to taste Knowledge forbidden
Suspicious reasonless Why should their Lord
Envy them that Can it be sin to know
Can it be death And do they only stand
By ignorance Is that their happy state
The proof of their obedience and their faith
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Their ruin hence I will excite their minds
With more desire to know and to reject
Envious commands invented with design
To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt
Equal with Gods aspiring to be such
They taste and die What likelier can ensue
But first with narrow search I must walk round
This garden and no corner leave unspied
A chance but chance may lead where I may meet
Some wandering Spirit of Heaven by fountain side
Or in thick shade retired from him to draw
What further would be learned Live while ye may
Yet happy pair enjoy till I return
Short pleasures for long woes are to succeed
So saying his proud step he scornful turned
But with sly circumspection and began
Through wood through waste o'er hill o'er dale his roam
Mean while in utmost longitude where Heaven
With earth and ocean meets the setting sun
Slowly descended and with right aspect
Against the eastern gate of Paradise
Levelled his evening rays It was a rock
Of alabaster piled up to the clouds
Conspicuous far winding with one ascent
Accessible from earth one entrance high
The rest was craggy cliff that overhung
Still as it rose impossible to climb
Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat
Chief of the angelick guards awaiting night
About him exercised heroick games
The unarmed youth of Heaven but nigh at hand
Celestial armoury shields helms and spears
Hung high with diamond flaming and with gold
Thither came Uriel gliding through the even
On a sun-beam swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night when vapours fired
Impress the air and shows the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds He thus began in haste
Gabriel to thee thy course by lot hath given
Charge and strict watch that to this happy place
No evil thing approach or enter in
This day at highth of noon came to my sphere
A Spirit zealous as he seemed to know
More of the Almighty works and chiefly Man
God latest image I described his way
Bent all on speed and marked his aery gait
But in the mount that lies from Eden north
Where he first lighted soon discerned his looks
Alien from Heaven with passions foul obscured
Mine eye pursued him still but under shade
Lost sight of him One of the banished crew
I fear hath ventured from the deep to raise
New troubles him thy care must be to find
To whom the winged warriour thus returned
Uriel no wonder if thy perfect sight
Amid the sun bright circle where thou sitst
See far and wide In at this gate none pass
The vigilance here placed but such as come
Well known from Heaven and since meridian hour
No creature thence If Spirit of other sort
So minded have o'er-leaped these earthly bounds
On purpose hard thou knowest it to exclude
Spiritual substance with corporeal bar
But if within the circuit of these walks
In whatsoever shape he lurk of whom
Thou tellest by morrow dawning I shall know
So promised he and Uriel to his charge
Returned on that bright beam whose point now raised
Bore him slope downward to the sun now fallen
Beneath the Azores whether the prime orb
Incredible how swift had thither rolled
Diurnal or this less volubil earth
By shorter flight to the east had left him there
Arraying with reflected purple and gold
The clouds that on his western throne attend
Now came still Evening on and Twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad
Silence accompanied for beast and bird
They to their grassy couch these to their nests
Were slunk all but the wakeful nightingale
She all night long her amorous descant sung
Silence was pleased Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires Hesperus that led
The starry host rode brightest till the moon
Rising in clouded majesty at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw
When Adam thus to Eve Fair Consort the hour
Of night and all things now retired to rest
Mind us of like repose since God hath set
Labour and rest as day and night to men
Successive and the timely dew of sleep
Now falling with soft slumbrous weight inclines
Our eye-lids Other creatures all day long
Rove idle unemployed and less need rest
Man hath his daily work of body or mind
Appointed which declares his dignity
And the regard of Heaven on all his ways
While other animals unactive range
And of their doings God takes no account
To-morrow ere fresh morning streak the east
With first approach of light we must be risen
And at our pleasant labour to reform
Yon flowery arbours yonder alleys green
Our walk at noon with branches overgrown
That mock our scant manuring and require
More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth
Those blossoms also and those dropping gums
That lie bestrown unsightly and unsmooth
Ask riddance if we mean to tread with ease
Mean while as Nature wills night bids us rest
To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorned
My Author and Disposer what thou bidst
Unargued I obey So God ordains
God is thy law thou mine To know no more
Is woman happiest knowledge and her praise
With thee conversing I forget all time
All seasons and their change all please alike
Sweet is the breath of Morn her rising sweet
With charm of earliest birds pleasant the sun
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams on herb tree fruit and flower
Glistering with dew fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers and sweet the coming on
Of grateful Evening mild then silent Night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon
And these the gems of Heaven her starry train
But neither breath of Morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds nor rising sun
On this delightful land nor herb fruit flower
Glistering with dew nor fragrance after showers
Nor grateful Evening mild nor silent Night
With this her solemn bird nor walk by moon
Or glittering star-light without thee is sweet
But wherefore all night long shine these for whom
This glorious sight when sleep hath shut all eyes
To whom our general ancestor replied
Daughter of God and Man accomplished Eve
These have their course to finish round the earth
By morrow evening and from land to land
In order though to nations yet unborn
Ministring light prepared they set and rise
Lest total Darkness should by night regain
Her old possession and extinguish life
In Nature and all things which these soft fires
Not only enlighten but with kindly heat
Of various influence foment and warm
Temper or nourish or in part shed down
Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow
On earth made hereby apter to receive
Perfection from the sun more potent ray
These then though unbeheld in deep of night
Shine not in vain nor think though men were none
That Heaven would want spectators God want praise
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen both when we wake and when we sleep
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
Both day and night How often from the steep
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air
Sole or responsive each to others note
Singing their great Creator oft in bands
While they keep watch or nightly rounding walk
With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds
In full harmonick number joined their songs
Divide the night and lift our thoughts to Heaven
Thus talking hand in hand alone they passed
On to their blissful bower it was a place
Chosen by the sovran Planter when he framed
All things to Man delightful use the roof
Of thickest covert was inwoven shade
Laurel and myrtle and what higher grew
Of firm and fragrant leaf on either side
Acanthus and each odorous bushy shrub
Fenced up the verdant wall each beauteous flower
Iris all hues roses and jessamin
Reared high their flourished heads between and wrought
Mosaick underfoot the violet
Crocus and hyacinth with rich inlay
Broidered the ground more coloured than with stone
Of costliest emblem Other creature here
Bird beast insect or worm durst enter none
Such was their awe of Man In shadier bower
More sacred and sequestered though but feigned
Pan or Sylvanus never slept nor Nymph
Nor Faunus haunted Here in close recess
With flowers garlands and sweet-smelling herbs
Espoused Eve decked first her nuptial bed
And heavenly quires the hymenaean sung
What day the genial Angel to our sire
Brought her in naked beauty more adorned
More lovely than Pandora whom the Gods
Endowed with all their gifts and O too like
In sad event when to the unwiser son
Of Japhet brought by Hermes she ensnared
Mankind with her fair looks to be avenged
On him who had stole Jove authentick fire
Thus at their shady lodge arrived both stood
Both turned and under open sky adored
The God that made both sky air earth and heaven
Which they beheld the moon resplendent globe
And starry pole Thou also madest the night
Maker Omnipotent and thou the day
Which we in our appointed work employed
Have finished happy in our mutual help
And mutual love the crown of all our bliss
Ordained by thee and this delicious place
For us too large where thy abundance wants
Partakers and uncropt falls to the ground
But thou hast promised from us two a race
To fill the earth who shall with us extol
Thy goodness infinite both when we wake
And when we seek as now thy gift of sleep
This said unanimous and other rites
Observing none but adoration pure
Which God likes best into their inmost bower
Handed they went and eased the putting off
These troublesome disguises which we wear
Straight side by side were laid nor turned I ween
Adam from his fair spouse nor Eve the rites
Mysterious of connubial love refused
Whatever hypocrites austerely talk
Of purity and place and innocence
Defaming as impure what God declares
Pure and commands to some leaves free to all
Our Maker bids encrease who bids abstain
But our Destroyer foe to God and Man
Hail wedded Love mysterious law true source
Of human offspring sole propriety
In Paradise of all things common else
By thee adulterous Lust was driven from men
Among the bestial herds to range by thee
Founded in reason loyal just and pure
Relations dear and all the charities
Of father son and brother first were known
Far be it that I should write thee sin or blame
Or think thee unbefitting holiest place
Perpetual fountain of domestick sweets
Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced
Present or past as saints and patriarchs used
Here Love his golden shafts employs here lights
His constant lamp and waves his purple wings
Reigns here and revels not in the bought smile
Of harlots loveless joyless unendeared
Casual fruition nor in court-amours
Mixed dance or wanton mask or midnight ball
Or serenate which the starved lover sings
To his proud fair best quitted with disdain
These lulled by nightingales embracing slept
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof
Showered roses which the morn repaired Sleep on
Blest pair and O yet happiest if ye seek
No happier state and know to know no more
Now had night measured with her shadowy cone
Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault
And from their ivory port the Cherubim
Forth issuing at the accustomed hour stood armed
To their night watches in warlike parade
When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake
Uzziel half these draw off and coast the south
With strictest watch these other wheel the north
Our circuit meets full west As flame they part
Half wheeling to the shield half to the spear
From these two strong and subtle Spirits he called
That near him stood and gave them thus in charge
Ithuriel and Zephon with winged speed
Search through this garden leave unsearched no nook
But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge
Now laid perhaps asleep secure of harm
This evening from the sun decline arrived
Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen
Hitherward bent who could have thought escaped
The bars of Hell on errand bad no doubt
Such where ye find seise fast and hither bring
So saying on he led his radiant files
Dazzling the moon these to the bower direct
In search of whom they sought Him there they found
Squat like a toad close at the ear of Eve
Assaying by his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy and with them forge
Illusions as he list phantasms and dreams
Or if inspiring venom he might taint
The animal spirits that from pure blood arise
Like gentle breaths from rivers pure thence raise
At least distempered discontented thoughts
Vain hopes vain aims inordinate desires
Blown up with high conceits ingendering pride
Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear
Touched lightly for no falshood can endure
Touch of celestial temper but returns
Of force to its own likeness Up he starts
Discovered and surprised As when a spark
Lights on a heap of nitrous powder laid
Fit for the tun some magazine to store
Against a rumoured war the smutty grain
With sudden blaze diffused inflames the air
So started up in his own shape the Fiend
Back stept those two fair Angels half amazed
So sudden to behold the grisly king
Yet thus unmoved with fear accost him soon
Which of those rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell
Comest thou escaped thy prison and transformed
Why sat'st thou like an enemy in wait
Here watching at the head of these that sleep
Know ye not then said Satan filled with scorn
Know ye not me ye knew me once no mate
For you there sitting where ye durst not soar
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown
The lowest of your throng or if ye know
Why ask ye and superfluous begin
Your message like to end as much in vain
To whom thus Zephon answering scorn with scorn
Think not revolted Spirit thy shape the same
Or undiminished brightness to be known
As when thou stoodest in Heaven upright and pure
That glory then when thou no more wast good
Departed from thee and thou resemblest now
Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul
But come for thou be sure shalt give account
To him who sent us whose charge is to keep
This place inviolable and these from harm
So spake the Cherub and his grave rebuke
Severe in youthful beauty added grace
Invincible Abashed the Devil stood
And felt how awful goodness is and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely saw and pined
His loss but chiefly to find here observed
His lustre visibly impaired yet seemed
Undaunted If I must contend said he
Best with the best the sender not the sent
Or all at once more glory will be won
Or less be lost Thy fear said Zephon bold
Will save us trial what the least can do
Single against thee wicked and thence weak
The Fiend replied not overcome with rage
But like a proud steed reined went haughty on
Champing his iron curb To strive or fly
He held it vain awe from above had quelled
His heart not else dismayed Now drew they nigh
The western point where those half-rounding guards
Just met and closing stood in squadron joined
A waiting next command To whom their Chief
Gabriel from the front thus called aloud
O friends I hear the tread of nimble feet
Hasting this way and now by glimpse discern
Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade
And with them comes a third of regal port
But faded splendour wan who by his gait
And fierce demeanour seems the Prince of Hell
Not likely to part hence without contest
Stand firm for in his look defiance lours
He scarce had ended when those two approached
And brief related whom they brought where found
How busied in what form and posture couched
To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake
Why hast thou Satan broke the bounds prescribed
To thy transgressions and disturbed the charge
Of others who approve not to transgress
By thy example but have power and right
To question thy bold entrance on this place
Employed it seems to violate sleep and those
Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss
To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow
Gabriel thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise
And such I held thee but this question asked
Puts me in doubt Lives there who loves his pain
Who would not finding way break loose from Hell
Though thither doomed Thou wouldst thyself no doubt
And boldly venture to whatever place
Farthest from pain where thou mightst hope to change
Torment with ease and soonest recompense
Dole with delight which in this place I sought
To thee no reason who knowest only good
But evil hast not tried and wilt object
His will who bounds us Let him surer bar
His iron gates if he intends our stay
In that dark durance Thus much what was asked
The rest is true they found me where they say
But that implies not violence or harm
Thus he in scorn The warlike Angel moved
Disdainfully half smiling thus replied
O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise
Since Satan fell whom folly overthrew
And now returns him from his prison 'scaped
Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise
Or not who ask what boldness brought him hither
Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed
So wise he judges it to fly from pain
However and to 'scape his punishment
So judge thou still presumptuous till the wrath
Which thou incurrest by flying meet thy flight
Sevenfold and scourge that wisdom back to Hell
Which taught thee yet no better that no pain
Can equal anger infinite provoked
But wherefore thou alone wherefore with thee
Came not all hell broke loose or thou than they
Less hardy to endure Courageous Chief
The first in flight from pain hadst thou alleged
To thy deserted host this cause of flight
Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive
To which the Fiend thus answered frowning stern
Not that I less endure or shrink from pain
Insulting Angel well thou knowest I stood
Thy fiercest when in battle to thy aid
The blasting vollied thunder made all speed
And seconded thy else not dreaded spear
But still thy words at random as before
Argue thy inexperience what behoves
From hard assays and ill successes past
A faithful leader not to hazard all
Through ways of danger by himself untried
I therefore I alone first undertook
To wing the desolate abyss and spy
This new created world whereof in Hell
Fame is not silent here in hope to find
Better abode and my afflicted Powers
To settle here on earth or in mid air
Though for possession put to try once more
What thou and thy gay legions dare against
Whose easier business were to serve their Lord
High up in Heaven with songs to hymn his throne
And practised distances to cringe not fight
To whom the warriour Angel soon replied
To say and straight unsay pretending first
Wise to fly pain professing next the spy
Argues no leader but a liar traced
Satan and couldst thou faithful add O name
O sacred name of faithfulness profaned
Faithful to whom to thy rebellious crew
Army of Fiends fit body to fit head
Was this your discipline and faith engaged
Your military obedience to dissolve
Allegiance to the acknowledged Power supreme
And thou sly hypocrite who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty who more than thou
Once fawned and cringed and servilely adored
Heaven awful Monarch wherefore but in hope
To dispossess him and thyself to reign
But mark what I arreed thee now Avant
Fly neither whence thou fledst If from this hour
Within these hallowed limits thou appear
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained
And seal thee so as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred
So threatened he but Satan to no threats
Gave heed but waxing more in rage replied
Then when I am thy captive talk of chains
Proud limitary Cherub but ere then
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel
From my prevailing arm though Heaven King
Ride on thy wings and thou with thy compeers
Us'd to the yoke drawest his triumphant wheels
In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved
While thus he spake the angelick squadron bright
Turned fiery red sharpening in mooned horns
Their phalanx and began to hem him round
With ported spears as thick as when a field
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends
Her bearded grove of ears which way the wind
Sways them the careful plowman doubting stands
Left on the threshing floor his hopeless sheaves
Prove chaff On the other side Satan alarmed
Collecting all his might dilated stood
Like Teneriff or Atlas unremoved
His stature reached the sky and on his crest
Sat Horrour plumed nor wanted in his grasp
What seemed both spear and shield Now dreadful deeds
Might have ensued nor only Paradise
In this commotion but the starry cope
Of Heaven perhaps or all the elements
At least had gone to wrack disturbed and torn
With violence of this conflict had not soon
The Eternal to prevent such horrid fray
Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales yet seen
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign
Wherein all things created first he weighed
The pendulous round earth with balanced air
In counterpoise now ponders all events
Battles and realms In these he put two weights
The sequel each of parting and of fight
The latter quick up flew and kicked the beam
Which Gabriel spying thus bespake the Fiend
Satan I know thy strength and thou knowest mine
Neither our own but given What folly then
To boast what arms can do since thine no more
Than Heaven permits nor mine though doubled now
To trample thee as mire For proof look up
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign
Where thou art weighed and shown how light how weak
If thou resist The Fiend looked up and knew
His mounted scale aloft Nor more but fled
Murmuring and with him fled the shades of night
Now Morn her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing sowed the earth with orient pearl
When Adam waked so customed for his sleep
Was aery-light from pure digestion bred
And temperate vapours bland which the only sound
Of leaves and fuming rills Aurora fan
Lightly dispersed and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough so much the more
His wonder was to find unwakened Eve
With tresses discomposed and glowing cheek
As through unquiet rest He on his side
Leaning half raised with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamoured and beheld
Beauty which whether waking or asleep
Shot forth peculiar graces then with voice
Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes
Her hand soft touching whispered thus Awake
My fairest my espoused my latest found
Heaven last best gift my ever new delight
Awake The morning shines and the fresh field
Calls us we lose the prime to mark how spring
Our tender plants how blows the citron grove
What drops the myrrh and what the balmy reed
How nature paints her colours how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet
Such whispering waked her but with startled eye
On Adam whom embracing thus she spake
O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose
My glory my perfection glad I see
Thy face and morn returned for I this night
Such night till this I never passed have dreamed
If dreamed not as I oft am wont of thee
Works of day past or morrow next design
But of offence and trouble which my mind
Knew never till this irksome night Methought
Close at mine ear one called me forth to walk
With gentle voice I thought it thine It said
Why sleepest thou Eve now is the pleasant time
The cool the silent save where silence yields
To the night-warbling bird that now awake
Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song now reigns
Full-orbed the moon and with more pleasing light
Shadowy sets off the face of things in vain
If none regard Heaven wakes with all his eyes
Whom to behold but thee Nature desire
In whose sight all things joy with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze
I rose as at thy call but found thee not
To find thee I directed then my walk
And on methought alone I passed through ways
That brought me on a sudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge fair it seemed
Much fairer to my fancy than by day
And as I wondering looked beside it stood
One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven
By us oft seen his dewy locks distilled
Ambrosia on that tree he also gazed
And O fair plant said he with fruit surcharged
Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet
Nor God nor Man Is knowledge so despised
Or envy or what reserve forbids to taste
Forbid who will none shall from me withhold
Longer thy offered good why else set here
This said he paused not but with venturous arm
He plucked he tasted me damp horrour chilled
At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold
But he thus overjoyed O fruit divine
Sweet of thyself but much more sweet thus cropt
Forbidden here it seems as only fit
For Gods yet able to make Gods of Men
And why not Gods of Men since good the more
Communicated more abundant grows
The author not impaired but honoured more
Here happy creature fair angelick Eve
Partake thou also happy though thou art
Happier thou mayest be worthier canst not be
Taste this and be henceforth among the Gods
Thyself a Goddess not to earth confined
But sometimes in the air as we sometimes
Ascend to Heaven by merit thine and see
What life the Gods live there and such live thou
So saying he drew nigh and to me held
Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
Which he had plucked the pleasant savoury smell
So quickened appetite that I methought
Could not but taste Forthwith up to the clouds
With him I flew and underneath beheld
The earth outstretched immense a prospect wide
And various Wondering at my flight and change
To this high exaltation suddenly
My guide was gone and I methought sunk down
And fell asleep but O how glad I waked
To find this but a dream Thus Eve her night
Related and thus Adam answered sad
Best image of myself and dearer half
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep
Affects me equally nor can I like
This uncouth dream of evil sprung I fear
Yet evil whence in thee can harbour none
Created pure But know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief among these Fancy next
Her office holds of all external things
Which the five watchful senses represent
She forms imaginations aery shapes
Which Reason joining or disjoining frames
All what we affirm or what deny and call
Our knowledge or opinion then retires
Into her private cell when nature rests
Oft in her absence mimick Fancy wakes
To imitate her but misjoining shapes
Wild work produces oft and most in dreams
Ill matching words and deeds long past or late
Some such resemblances methinks I find
Of our last evening talk in this thy dream
But with addition strange yet be not sad
Evil into the mind of God or Man
May come and go so unreproved and leave
No spot or blame behind Which gives me hope
That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream
Waking thou never will consent to do
Be not disheartened then nor cloud those looks
That wont to be more cheerful and serene
Than when fair morning first smiles on the world
And let us to our fresh employments rise
Among the groves the fountains and the flowers
That open now their choisest bosomed smells
Reserved from night and kept for thee in store
So cheered he his fair spouse and she was cheered
But silently a gentle tear let fall
From either eye and wiped them with her hair
Two other precious drops that ready stood
Each in their crystal sluice he ere they fell
Kissed as the gracious signs of sweet remorse
And pious awe that feared to have offended
So all was cleared and to the field they haste
But first from under shady arborous roof
Soon as they forth were come to open sight
Of day-spring and the sun who scarce up-risen
With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-brim
Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray
Discovering in wide landskip all the east
Of Paradise and Eden happy plains
Lowly they bowed adoring and began
Their orisons each morning duly paid
In various style for neither various style
Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise
Their Maker in fit strains pronounced or sung
Unmeditated such prompt eloquence
Flowed from their lips in prose or numerous verse
More tuneable than needed lute or harp
To add more sweetness and they thus began
These are thy glorious works Parent of good
Almighty Thine this universal frame
Thus wonderous fair Thyself how wonderous then
Unspeakable who sitst above these heavens
To us invisible or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought and power divine
Speak ye who best can tell ye sons of light
Angels for ye behold him and with songs
And choral symphonies day without night
Circle his throne rejoicing ye in Heaven
On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol
Him first him last him midst and without end
Fairest of stars last in the train of night
If better thou belong not to the dawn
Sure pledge of day that crownest the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet praise him in thy sphere
While day arises that sweet hour of prime
Thou Sun of this great world both eye and soul
Acknowledge him thy greater sound his praise
In thy eternal course both when thou climbest
And when high noon hast gained and when thou fallest
Moon that now meetest the orient sun now flyest
With the fixed Stars fixed in their orb that flies
And ye five other wandering Fires that move
In mystick dance not without song resound
His praise who out of darkness called up light
Air and ye Elements the eldest birth
Of Nature womb that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle multiform and mix
And nourish all things let your ceaseless change
Vary to our great Maker still new praise
Ye Mists and Exhalations that now rise
From hill or steaming lake dusky or gray
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold
In honour to the world great Author rise
Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers
Rising or falling still advance his praise
His praise ye Winds that from four quarters blow
Breathe soft or loud and wave your tops ye Pines
With every plant in sign of worship wave
Fountains and ye that warble as ye flow
Melodious murmurs warbling tune his praise
Join voices all ye living Souls Ye Birds
That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise
Ye that in waters glide and ye that walk
The earth and stately tread or lowly creep
Witness if I be silent morn or even
To hill or valley fountain or fresh shade
Made vocal by my song and taught his praise
Hail universal Lord be bounteous still
To give us only good and if the night
Have gathered aught of evil or concealed
Disperse it as now light dispels the dark
So prayed they innocent and to their thoughts
Firm peace recovered soon and wonted calm
On to their morning rural work they haste
Among sweet dews and flowers where any row
Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far
Their pampered boughs and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces or they led the vine
To wed her elm she spoused about him twines
Her marriageable arms and with him brings
Her dower the adopted clusters to adorn
His barren leaves Them thus employed beheld
With pity Heaven high King and to him called
Raphael the sociable Spirit that deigned
To travel with Tobias and secured
His marriage with the seventimes-wedded maid
Raphael said he thou hearest what stir on Earth
Satan from Hell 'scaped through the darksome gulf
Hath raised in Paradise and how disturbed
This night the human pair how he designs
In them at once to ruin all mankind
Go therefore half this day as friend with friend
Converse with Adam in what bower or shade
Thou findest him from the heat of noon retired
To respite his day-labour with repast
Or with repose and such discourse bring on
As may advise him of his happy state
Happiness in his power left free to will
Left to his own free will his will though free
Yet mutable whence warn him to beware
He swerve not too secure Tell him withal
His danger and from whom what enemy
Late fallen himself from Heaven is plotting now
The fall of others from like state of bliss
By violence no for that shall be withstood
But by deceit and lies This let him know
Lest wilfully transgressing he pretend
Surprisal unadmonished unforewarned
So spake the Eternal Father and fulfilled
All justice Nor delayed the winged Saint
After his charge received but from among
Thousand celestial Ardours where he stood
Veiled with his gorgeous wings up springing light
Flew through the midst of Heaven the angelick quires
On each hand parting to his speed gave way
Through all the empyreal road till at the gate
Of Heaven arrived the gate self-opened wide
On golden hinges turning as by work
Divine the sovran Architect had framed
From hence no cloud or to obstruct his sight
Star interposed however small he sees
Not unconformed to other shining globes
Earth and the garden of God with cedars crowned
Above all hills As when by night the glass
Of Galileo less assured observes
Imagined lands and regions in the moon
Or pilot from amidst the Cyclades
Delos or Samos first appearing kens
A cloudy spot Down thither prone in flight
He speeds and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds with steady wing
Now on the polar winds then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air till within soar
Of towering eagles to all the fowls he seems
A phoenix gazed by all as that sole bird
When to enshrine his reliques in the Sun's
Bright temple to Egyptian Thebes he flies
At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights and to his proper shape returns
A Seraph winged Six wings he wore to shade
His lineaments divine the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament the middle pair
Girt like a starry zone his waist and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
And colours dipt in Heaven the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail
Sky-tinctured grain Like Maia son he stood
And shook his plumes that heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide Straight knew him all the bands
Of Angels under watch and to his state
And to his message high in honour rise
For on some message high they guessed him bound
Their glittering tents he passed and now is come
Into the blissful field through groves of myrrh
And flowering odours cassia nard and balm
A wilderness of sweets for Nature here
Wantoned as in her prime and played at will
Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet
Wild above rule or art enormous bliss
Him through the spicy forest onward come
Adam discerned as in the door he sat
Of his cool bower while now the mounted sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm
Earth inmost womb more warmth than Adam needs
And Eve within due at her hour prepared
For dinner savoury fruits of taste to please
True appetite and not disrelish thirst
Of nectarous draughts between from milky stream
Berry or grape To whom thus Adam called
Haste hither Eve and worth thy sight behold
Eastward among those trees what glorious shape
Comes this way moving seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon some great behest from Heaven
To us perhaps he brings and will vouchsafe
This day to be our guest But go with speed
And what thy stores contain bring forth and pour
Abundance fit to honour and receive
Our heavenly stranger Well we may afford
Our givers their own gifts and large bestow
From large bestowed where Nature multiplies
Her fertile growth and by disburthening grows
More fruitful which instructs us not to spare
To whom thus Eve Adam earth hallowed mould
Of God inspired small store will serve where store
All seasons ripe for use hangs on the stalk
Save what by frugal storing firmness gains
To nourish and superfluous moist consumes
But I will haste and from each bough and brake
Each plant and juciest gourd will pluck such choice
To entertain our Angel-guest as he
Beholding shall confess that here on Earth
God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven
So saying with dispatchful looks in haste
She turns on hospitable thoughts intent
What choice to choose for delicacy best
What order so contrived as not to mix
Tastes not well joined inelegant but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change
Bestirs her then and from each tender stalk
Whatever Earth all-bearing mother yields
In India East or West or middle shore
In Pontus or the Punick coast or where
Alcinous reigned fruit of all kinds in coat
Rough or smooth rind or bearded husk or shell
She gathers tribute large and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand for drink the grape
She crushes inoffensive must and meaths
From many a berry and from sweet kernels pressed
She tempers dulcet creams nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure then strows the ground
With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed
Mean while our primitive great sire to meet
His God-like guest walks forth without more train
Accompanied than with his own complete
Perfections in himself was all his state
More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
On princes when their rich retinue long
Of horses led and grooms besmeared with gold
Dazzles the croud and sets them all agape
Nearer his presence Adam though not awed
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek
As to a superiour nature bowing low
Thus said Native of Heaven for other place
None can than Heaven such glorious shape contain
Since by descending from the thrones above
Those happy places thou hast deigned a while
To want and honour these vouchsafe with us
Two only who yet by sovran gift possess
This spacious ground in yonder shady bower
To rest and what the garden choicest bears
To sit and taste till this meridian heat
Be over and the sun more cool decline
Whom thus the angelick Virtue answered mild
Adam I therefore came nor art thou such
Created or such place hast here to dwell
As may not oft invite though Spirits of Heaven
To visit thee lead on then where thy bower
O'ershades for these mid-hours till evening rise
I have at will So to the sylvan lodge
They came that like Pomona arbour smiled
With flowerets decked and fragrant smells but Eve
Undecked save with herself more lovely fair
Than Wood-Nymph or the fairest Goddess feigned
Of three that in mount Ida naked strove
Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven no veil
She needed virtue-proof no thought infirm
Altered her cheek On whom the Angel Hail
Bestowed the holy salutation used
Long after to blest Mary second Eve
Hail Mother of Mankind whose fruitful womb
Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons
Than with these various fruits the trees of God
Have heaped this table Raised of grassy turf
Their table was and mossy seats had round
And on her ample square from side to side
All autumn piled though spring and autumn here
Danced hand in hand A while discourse they hold
No fear lest dinner cool when thus began
Our author Heavenly stranger please to taste
These bounties which our Nourisher from whom
All perfect good unmeasured out descends
To us for food and for delight hath caused
The earth to yield unsavoury food perhaps
To spiritual natures only this I know
That one celestial Father gives to all
To whom the Angel Therefore what he gives
Whose praise be ever sung to Man in part
Spiritual may of purest Spirits be found
No ingrateful food And food alike those pure
Intelligential substances require
As doth your rational and both contain
Within them every lower faculty
Of sense whereby they hear see smell touch taste
Tasting concoct digest assimilate
And corporeal to incorporeal turn
For know whatever was created needs
To be sustained and fed Of elements
The grosser feeds the purer earth the sea
Earth and the sea feed air the air those fires
Ethereal and as lowest first the moon
Whence in her visage round those spots unpurged
Vapours not yet into her substance turned
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
From her moist continent to higher orbs
The sun that light imparts to all receives
From all his alimental recompence
In humid exhalations and at even
Sups with the ocean Though in Heaven the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear and vines
Yield nectar though from off the boughs each morn
We brush mellifluous dews and find the ground
Covered with pearly grain Yet God hath here
Varied his bounty so with new delights
As may compare with Heaven and to taste
Think not I shall be nice So down they sat
And to their viands fell nor seemingly
The Angel nor in mist the common gloss
Of Theologians but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger and concoctive heat
To transubstantiate What redounds transpires
Through Spirits with ease nor wonder if by fire
Of sooty coal the empirick alchemist
Can turn or holds it possible to turn
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold
As from the mine Mean while at table Eve
Ministered naked and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquours crowned O innocence
Deserving Paradise if ever then
Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
Enamoured at that sight but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reigned nor jealousy
Was understood the injured lover hell
Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed
Not burdened nature sudden mind arose
In Adam not to let the occasion pass
Given him by this great conference to know
Of things above his world and of their being
Who dwell in Heaven whose excellence he saw
Transcend his own so far whose radiant forms
Divine effulgence whose high power so far
Exceeded human and his wary speech
Thus to the empyreal minister he framed
Inhabitant with God now know I well
Thy favour in this honour done to Man
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed
To enter and these earthly fruits to taste
Food not of Angels yet accepted so
As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
At Heaven high feasts to have fed yet what compare
To whom the winged Hierarch replied
O Adam One Almighty is from whom
All things proceed and up to him return
If not depraved from good created all
Such to perfection one first matter all
Endued with various forms various degrees
Of substance and in things that live of life
But more refined more spiritous and pure
As nearer to him placed or nearer tending
Each in their several active spheres assigned
Till body up to spirit work in bounds
Proportioned to each kind So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk from thence the leaves
More aery last the bright consummate flower
Spirits odorous breathes flowers and their fruit
Man nourishment by gradual scale sublimed
To vital spirits aspire to animal
To intellectual give both life and sense
Fancy and understanding whence the soul
Reason receives and reason is her being
Discursive or intuitive discourse
Is oftest yours the latter most is ours
Differing but in degree of kind the same
Wonder not then what God for you saw good
If I refuse not but convert as you
To proper substance Time may come when Men
With Angels may participate and find
No inconvenient diet nor too light fare
And from these corporal nutriments perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit
Improved by tract of time and winged ascend
Ethereal as we or may at choice
Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell
If ye be found obedient and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire
Whose progeny you are Mean while enjoy
Your fill what happiness this happy state
Can comprehend incapable of more
To whom the patriarch of mankind replied
O favourable Spirit propitious guest
Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
Our knowledge and the scale of nature set
From center to circumference whereon
In contemplation of created things
By steps we may ascend to God But say
What meant that caution joined If ye be found
Obedient Can we want obedience then
To him or possibly his love desert
Who formed us from the dust and placed us here
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desires can seek or apprehend
To whom the Angel Son of Heaven and Earth
Attend That thou art happy owe to God
That thou continuest such owe to thyself
That is to thy obedience therein stand
This was that caution given thee be advised
God made thee perfect not immutable
And good he made thee but to persevere
He left it in thy power ordained thy will
By nature free not over-ruled by fate
Inextricable or strict necessity
Our voluntary service he requires
Not our necessitated such with him
Finds no acceptance nor can find for how
Can hearts not free be tried whether they serve
Willing or no who will but what they must
By destiny and can no other choose
Myself and all the angelick host that stand
In sight of God enthroned our happy state
Hold as you yours while our obedience holds
On other surety none Freely we serve
Because we freely love as in our will
To love or not in this we stand or fall
And some are fallen to disobedience fallen
And so from Heaven to deepest Hell O fall
From what high state of bliss into what woe
To whom our great progenitor Thy words
Attentive and with more delighted ear
Divine instructer I have heard than when
Cherubick songs by night from neighbouring hills
Aereal musick send Nor knew I not
To be both will and deed created free
Yet that we never shall forget to love
Our Maker and obey him whose command
Single is yet so just my constant thoughts
Assured me and still assure Though what thou tellest
Hath passed in Heaven some doubt within me move
But more desire to hear if thou consent
The full relation which must needs be strange
Worthy of sacred silence to be heard
And we have yet large day for scarce the sun
Hath finished half his journey and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of Heaven
Thus Adam made request and Raphael
After short pause assenting thus began
High matter thou enjoinest me O prime of men
Sad task and hard For how shall I relate
To human sense the invisible exploits
Of warring Spirits how without remorse
The ruin of so many glorious once
And perfect while they stood how last unfold
The secrets of another world perhaps
Not lawful to reveal yet for thy good
This is dispensed and what surmounts the reach
Of human sense I shall delineate so
By likening spiritual to corporal forms
As may express them best though what if Earth
Be but a shadow of Heaven and things therein
Each to other like more than on earth is thought
As yet this world was not and Chaos wild
Reigned where these Heavens now roll where Earth now rests
Upon her center poised when on a day
For time though in eternity applied
To motion measures all things durable
By present past and future on such day
As Heaven great year brings forth the empyreal host
Of Angels by imperial summons called
Innumerable before the Almighty throne
Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appeared
Under their Hierarchs in orders bright
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies of orders and degrees
Or in their glittering tissues bear imblazed
Holy memorials acts of zeal and love
Recorded eminent Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood
Orb within orb the Father Infinite
By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son
Amidst as from a flaming mount whose top
Brightness had made invisible thus spake
Hear all ye Angels progeny of light
Thrones Dominations Princedoms Virtues Powers
Hear my decree which unrevoked shall stand
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son and on this holy hill
Him have anointed whom ye now behold
At my right hand your head I him appoint
And by myself have sworn to him shall bow
All knees in Heaven and shall confess him Lord
Under his great vice-gerent reign abide
United as one individual soul
For ever happy Him who disobeys
Me disobeys breaks union and that day
Cast out from God and blessed vision falls
Into utter darkness deep ingulfed his place
Ordained without redemption without end
So spake the Omnipotent and with his words
All seemed well pleased all seemed but were not all
That day as other solemn days they spent
In song and dance about the sacred hill
Mystical dance which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels
Resembles nearest mazes intricate
Eccentrick intervolved yet regular
Then most when most irregular they seem
And in their motions harmony divine
So smooths her charming tones that God own ear
Listens delighted Evening now approached
For we have also our evening and our morn
We ours for change delectable not need
Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn
Desirous all in circles as they stood
Tables are set and on a sudden piled
With Angels food and rubied nectar flows
In pearl in diamond and massy gold
Fruit of delicious vines the growth of Heaven
On flowers reposed and with fresh flowerets crowned
They eat they drink and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy secure
Of surfeit where full measure only bounds
Excess before the all-bounteous King who showered
With copious hand rejoicing in their joy
Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled
From that high mount of God whence light and shade
Spring both the face of brightest Heaven had changed
To grateful twilight for night comes not there
In darker veil and roseate dews disposed
All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest
Wide over all the plain and wider far
Than all this globous earth in plain outspread
Such are the courts of God the angelick throng
Dispersed in bands and files their camp extend
By living streams among the trees of life
Pavilions numberless and sudden reared
Celestial tabernacles where they slept
Fanned with cool winds save those who in their course
Melodious hymns about the sovran throne
Alternate all night long but not so waked
Satan so call him now his former name
Is heard no more in Heaven he of the first
If not the first Arch-Angel great in power
In favour and pre-eminence yet fraught
With envy against the Son of God that day
Honoured by his great Father and proclaimed
Messiah King anointed could not bear
Through pride that sight and thought himself impaired
Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain
Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence he resolved
With all his legions to dislodge and leave
Unworshipt unobeyed the throne supreme
Contemptuous and his next subordinate
Awakening thus to him in secret spake
Sleepest thou Companion dear What sleep can close
Thy eye-lids and rememberest what decree
Of yesterday so late hath passed the lips
Of Heaven Almighty Thou to me thy thoughts
Wast wont I mine to thee was wont to impart
Both waking we were one how then can now
Thy sleep dissent New laws thou seest imposed
New laws from him who reigns new minds may raise
In us who serve new counsels to debate
What doubtful may ensue More in this place
To utter is not safe Assemble thou
Of all those myriads which we lead the chief
Tell them that by command ere yet dim night
Her shadowy cloud withdraws I am to haste
And all who under me their banners wave
Homeward with flying march where we possess
The quarters of the north there to prepare
Fit entertainment to receive our King
The great Messiah and his new commands
Who speedily through all the hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant and give laws
So spake the false Arch-Angel and infused
Bad influence into the unwary breast
Of his associate He together calls
Or several one by one the regent Powers
Under him Regent tells as he was taught
That the Most High commanding now ere night
Now ere dim night had disincumbered Heaven
The great hierarchal standard was to move
Tells the suggested cause and casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies to sound
Or taint integrity But all obeyed
The wonted signal and superiour voice
Of their great Potentate for great indeed
His name and high was his degree in Heaven
His countenance as the morning-star that guides
The starry flock allured them and with lies
Drew after him the third part of Heaven host
Mean while the Eternal eye whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts from forth his holy mount
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before him saw without their light
Rebellion rising saw in whom how spread
Among the sons of morn what multitudes
Were banded to oppose his high decree
And smiling to his only Son thus said
Son thou in whom my glory I behold
In full resplendence Heir of all my might
Nearly it now concerns us to be sure
Of our Omnipotence and with what arms
We mean to hold what anciently we claim
Of deity or empire Such a foe
Is rising who intends to erect his throne
Equal to ours throughout the spacious north
Nor so content hath in his thought to try
In battle what our power is or our right
Let us advise and to this hazard draw
With speed what force is left and all employ
In our defence lest unawares we lose
This our high place our sanctuary our hill
To whom the Son with calm aspect and clear
Lightning divine ineffable serene
Made answer Mighty Father thou thy foes
Justly hast in derision and secure
Laughest at their vain designs and tumults vain
Matter to me of glory whom their hate
Illustrates when they see all regal power
Given me to quell their pride and in event
Know whether I be dextrous to subdue
Thy rebels or be found the worst in Heaven
So spake the Son but Satan with his Powers
Far was advanced on winged speed an host
Innumerable as the stars of night
Or stars of morning dew-drops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower
Regions they passed the mighty regencies
Of Seraphim and Potentates and Thrones
In their triple degrees regions to which
All thy dominion Adam is no more
Than what this garden is to all the earth
And all the sea from one entire globose
Stretched into longitude which having passed
At length into the limits of the north
They came and Satan to his royal seat
High on a hill far blazing as a mount
Raised on a mount with pyramids and towers
From diamond quarries hewn and rocks of gold
The palace of great Lucifer so call
That structure in the dialect of men
Interpreted which not long after he
Affecting all equality with God
In imitation of that mount whereon
Messiah was declared in sight of Heaven
The Mountain of the Congregation called
For thither he assembled all his train
Pretending so commanded to consult
About the great reception of their King
Thither to come and with calumnious art
Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears
Thrones Dominations Princedoms Virtues Powers
If these magnifick titles yet remain
Not merely titular since by decree
Another now hath to himself engrossed
All power and us eclipsed under the name
Of King anointed for whom all this haste
Of midnight-march and hurried meeting here
This only to consult how we may best
With what may be devised of honours new
Receive him coming to receive from us
Knee-tribute yet unpaid prostration vile
Too much to one but double how endured
To one and to his image now proclaimed
But what if better counsels might erect
Our minds and teach us to cast off this yoke
Will ye submit your necks and choose to bend
The supple knee Ye will not if I trust
To know ye right or if ye know yourselves
Natives and sons of Heaven possessed before
By none and if not equal all yet free
Equally free for orders and degrees
Jar not with liberty but well consist
Who can in reason then or right assume
Monarchy over such as live by right
His equals if in power and splendour less
In freedom equal or can introduce
Law and edict on us who without law
Err not much less for this to be our Lord
And look for adoration to the abuse
Of those imperial titles which assert
Our being ordained to govern not to serve
Thus far his bold discourse without controul
Had audience when among the Seraphim
Abdiel than whom none with more zeal adored
The Deity and divine commands obeyed
Stood up and in a flame of zeal severe
The current of his fury thus opposed
O argument blasphemous false and proud
Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven
Expected least of all from thee Ingrate
In place thyself so high above thy peers
Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn
The just decree of God pronounced and sworn
That to his only Son by right endued
With regal scepter every soul in Heaven
Shall bend the knee and in that honour due
Confess him rightful King unjust thou sayest
Flatly unjust to bind with laws the free
And equal over equals to let reign
One over all with unsucceeded power
Shalt thou give law to God shalt thou dispute
With him the points of liberty who made
Thee what thou art and formed the Powers of Heaven
Such as he pleased and circumscribed their being
Yet by experience taught we know how good
And of our good and of our dignity
How provident he is how far from thought
To make us less bent rather to exalt
Our happy state under one head more near
United But to grant it thee unjust
That equal over equals monarch reign
Thyself though great and glorious dost thou count
Or all angelick nature joined in one
Equal to him begotten Son by whom
As by his Word the Mighty Father made
All things even thee and all the Spirits of Heaven
By him created in their bright degrees
Crowned them with glory and to their glory named
Thrones Dominations Princedoms Virtues Powers
Essential Powers nor by his reign obscured
But more illustrious made since he the head
One of our number thus reduced becomes
His laws our laws all honour to him done
Returns our own Cease then this impious rage
And tempt not these but hasten to appease
The incensed Father and the incensed Son
While pardon may be found in time besought
So spake the fervent Angel but his zeal
None seconded as out of season judged
Or singular and rash Whereat rejoiced
The Apostate and more haughty thus replied
That we were formed then sayest thou and the work
Of secondary hands by task transferred
From Father to his Son strange point and new
Doctrine which we would know whence learned who saw
When this creation was rememberest thou
Thy making while the Maker gave thee being
We know no time when we were not as now
Know none before us self-begot self-raised
By our own quickening power when fatal course
Had circled his full orb the birth mature
Of this our native Heaven ethereal sons
Our puissance is our own our own right hand
Shall teach us highest deeds by proof to try
Who is our equal Then thou shalt behold
Whether by supplication we intend
Address and to begirt the almighty throne
Beseeching or besieging This report
These tidings carry to the anointed King
And fly ere evil intercept thy flight
He said and as the sound of waters deep
Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause
Through the infinite host nor less for that
The flaming Seraph fearless though alone
Encompassed round with foes thus answered bold
O alienate from God O Spirit accursed
Forsaken of all good I see thy fall
Determined and thy hapless crew involved
In this perfidious fraud contagion spread
Both of thy crime and punishment Henceforth
No more be troubled how to quit the yoke
Of God Messiah those indulgent laws
Will not be now vouchsafed other decrees
Against thee are gone forth without recall
That golden scepter which thou didst reject
Is now an iron rod to bruise and break
Thy disobedience Well thou didst advise
Yet not for thy advice or threats I fly
These wicked tents devoted lest the wrath
Impendent raging into sudden flame
Distinguish not For soon expect to feel
His thunder on thy head devouring fire
Then who created thee lamenting learn
When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know
So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found
Among the faithless faithful only he
Among innumerable false unmoved
Unshaken unseduced unterrified
His loyalty he kept his love his zeal
Nor number nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth or change his constant mind
Though single From amidst them forth he passed
Long way through hostile scorn which he sustained
Superiour nor of violence feared aught
And with retorted scorn his back he turned
On those proud towers to swift destruction doomed
All night the dreadless Angel unpursued
Through Heaven wide champain held his way till Morn
Waked by the circling Hours with rosy hand
Unbarred the gates of light There is a cave
Within the mount of God fast by his throne
Where light and darkness in perpetual round
Lodge and dislodge by turns which makes through Heaven
Grateful vicissitude like day and night
Light issues forth and at the other door
Obsequious darkness enters till her hour
To veil the Heaven though darkness there might well
Seem twilight here And now went forth the Morn
Such as in highest Heaven arrayed in gold
Empyreal from before her vanished Night
Shot through with orient beams when all the plain
Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright
Chariots and flaming arms and fiery steeds
Reflecting blaze on blaze first met his view
War he perceived war in procinct and found
Already known what he for news had thought
To have reported Gladly then he mixed
Among those friendly Powers who him received
With joy and acclamations loud that one
That of so many myriads fallen yet one
Returned not lost On to the sacred hill
They led him high applauded and present
Before the seat supreme from whence a voice
From midst a golden cloud thus mild was heard
Servant of God Well done well hast thou fought
The better fight who single hast maintained
Against revolted multitudes the cause
Of truth in word mightier than they in arms
And for the testimony of truth hast borne
Universal reproach far worse to bear
Than violence for this was all thy care
To stand approved in sight of God though worlds
Judged thee perverse The easier conquest now
Remains thee aided by this host of friends
Back on thy foes more glorious to return
Than scorned thou didst depart and to subdue
By force who reason for their law refuse
Right reason for their law and for their King
Messiah who by right of merit reigns
Go Michael of celestial armies prince
And thou in military prowess next
Gabriel lead forth to battle these my sons
Invincible lead forth my armed Saints
By thousands and by millions ranged for fight
Equal in number to that Godless crew
Rebellious Them with fire and hostile arms
Fearless assault and to the brow of Heaven
Pursuing drive them out from God and bliss
Into their place of punishment the gulf
Of Tartarus which ready opens wide
His fiery Chaos to receive their fall
So spake the Sovran Voice and clouds began
To darken all the hill and smoke to roll
In dusky wreaths reluctant flames the sign
Of wrath awaked nor with less dread the loud
Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow
At which command the Powers militant
That stood for Heaven in mighty quadrate joined
Of union irresistible moved on
In silence their bright legions to the sound
Of instrumental harmony that breathed
Heroick ardour to adventurous deeds
Under their God-like leaders in the cause
Of God and his Messiah On they move
Indissolubly firm nor obvious hill
Nor straitening vale nor wood nor stream divides
Their perfect ranks for high above the ground
Their march was and the passive air upbore
Their nimble tread as when the total kind
Of birds in orderly array on wing
Came summoned over Eden to receive
Their names of thee so over many a tract
Of Heaven they marched and many a province wide
Tenfold the length of this terrene At last
Far in the horizon to the north appeared
From skirt to skirt a fiery region stretched
In battailous aspect and nearer view
Bristled with upright beams innumerable
Of rigid spears and helmets thronged and shields
Various with boastful argument portrayed
The banded Powers of Satan hasting on
With furious expedition for they weened
That self-same day by fight or by surprise
To win the mount of God and on his throne
To set the Envier of his state the proud
Aspirer but their thoughts proved fond and vain
In the mid way Though strange to us it seemed
At first that Angel should with Angel war
And in fierce hosting meet who wont to meet
So oft in festivals of joy and love
Unanimous as sons of one great Sire
Hymning the Eternal Father But the shout
Of battle now began and rushing sound
Of onset ended soon each milder thought
High in the midst exalted as a God
The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat
Idol of majesty divine enclosed
With flaming Cherubim and golden shields
Then lighted from his gorgeous throne for now
'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left
A dreadful interval and front to front
Presented stood in terrible array
Of hideous length Before the cloudy van
On the rough edge of battle ere it joined
Satan with vast and haughty strides advanced
Came towering armed in adamant and gold
Abdiel that sight endured not where he stood
Among the mightiest bent on highest deeds
And thus his own undaunted heart explores
O Heaven that such resemblance of the Highest
Should yet remain where faith and realty
Remain not Wherefore should not strength and might
There fail where virtue fails or weakest prove
Where boldest though to fight unconquerable
His puissance trusting in the Almighty aid
I mean to try whose reason I have tried
Unsound and false nor is it aught but just
That he who in debate of truth hath won
Should win in arms in both disputes alike
Victor though brutish that contest and foul
When reason hath to deal with force yet so
Most reason is that reason overcome
So pondering and from his armed peers
Forth stepping opposite half-way he met
His daring foe at this prevention more
Incensed and thus securely him defied
Proud art thou met thy hope was to have reached
The highth of thy aspiring unopposed
The throne of God unguarded and his side
Abandoned at the terrour of thy power
Or potent tongue Fool not to think how vain
Against the Omnipotent to rise in arms
Who out of smallest things could without end
Have raised incessant armies to defeat
Thy folly or with solitary hand
Reaching beyond all limit at one blow
Unaided could have finished thee and whelmed
Thy legions under darkness But thou seest
All are not of thy train there be who faith
Prefer and piety to God though then
To thee not visible when I alone
Seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent
From all My sect thou seest now learn too late
How few sometimes may know when thousands err
Whom the grand foe with scornful eye askance
Thus answered Ill for thee but in wished hour
Of my revenge first sought for thou returnest
From flight seditious Angel to receive
Thy merited reward the first assay
Of this right hand provoked since first that tongue
Inspired with contradiction durst oppose
A third part of the Gods in synod met
Their deities to assert who while they feel
Vigour divine within them can allow
Omnipotence to none But well thou comest
Before thy fellows ambitious to win
From me some plume that thy success may show
Destruction to the rest This pause between
Unanswered lest thou boast to let thee know
At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven
To heavenly souls had been all one but now
I see that most through sloth had rather serve
Ministring Spirits trained up in feast and song
Such hast thou armed the minstrelsy of Heaven
Servility with freedom to contend
As both their deeds compared this day shall prove
To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern replied
Apostate still thou errest nor end wilt find
Of erring from the path of truth remote
Unjustly thou depravest it with the name
Of servitude to serve whom God ordains
Or Nature God and Nature bid the same
When he who rules is worthiest and excels
Them whom he governs This is servitude
To serve the unwise or him who hath rebelled
Against his worthier as thine now serve thee
Thyself not free but to thyself enthralled
Yet lewdly darest our ministring upbraid
Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom let me serve
In Heaven God ever blest and his divine
Behests obey worthiest to be obeyed
Yet chains in Hell not realms expect Mean while
From me returned as erst thou saidst from flight
This greeting on thy impious crest receive
So saying a noble stroke he lifted high
Which hung not but so swift with tempest fell
On the proud crest of Satan that no sight
Nor motion of swift thought less could his shield
Such ruin intercept Ten paces huge
He back recoiled the tenth on bended knee
His massy spear upstaid as if on earth
Winds under ground or waters forcing way
Sidelong had pushed a mountain from his seat
Half sunk with all his pines Amazement seised
The rebel Thrones but greater rage to see
Thus foiled their mightiest ours joy filled and shout
Presage of victory and fierce desire
Of battle Whereat Michael bid sound
The Arch-Angel trumpet through the vast of Heaven
It sounded and the faithful armies rung
Hosanna to the Highest Nor stood at gaze
The adverse legions nor less hideous joined
The horrid shock Now storming fury rose
And clamour such as heard in Heaven till now
Was never arms on armour clashing brayed
Horrible discord and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots raged dire was the noise
Of conflict over head the dismal hiss
Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew
And flying vaulted either host with fire
So under fiery cope together rushed
Both battles main with ruinous assault
And inextinguishable rage All Heaven
Resounded and had Earth been then all Earth
Had to her center shook What wonder when
Millions of fierce encountering Angels fought
On either side the least of whom could wield
These elements and arm him with the force
Of all their regions How much more of power
Army against army numberless to raise
Dreadful combustion warring and disturb
Though not destroy their happy native seat
Had not the Eternal King Omnipotent
From his strong hold of Heaven high over-ruled
And limited their might though numbered such
As each divided legion might have seemed
A numerous host in strength each armed hand
A legion led in fight yet leader seemed
Each warriour single as in chief expert
When to advance or stand or turn the sway
Of battle open when and when to close
The ridges of grim war No thought of flight
None of retreat no unbecoming deed
That argued fear each on himself relied
As only in his arm the moment lay
Of victory Deeds of eternal fame
Were done but infinite for wide was spread
That war and various sometimes on firm ground
A standing fight then soaring on main wing
Tormented all the air all air seemed then
Conflicting fire Long time in even scale
The battle hung till Satan who that day
Prodigious power had shown and met in arms
No equal ranging through the dire attack
Of fighting Seraphim confused at length
Saw where the sword of Michael smote and felled
Squadrons at once with huge two-handed sway
Brandished aloft the horrid edge came down
Wide-wasting such destruction to withstand
He hasted and opposed the rocky orb
Of tenfold adamant his ample shield
A vast circumference At his approach
The great Arch-Angel from his warlike toil
Surceased and glad as hoping here to end
Intestine war in Heaven the arch-foe subdued
Or captive dragged in chains with hostile frown
And visage all inflamed first thus began
Author of evil unknown till thy revolt
Unnamed in Heaven now plenteous as thou seest
These acts of hateful strife hateful to all
Though heaviest by just measure on thyself
And thy adherents How hast thou disturbed
Heaven blessed peace and into nature brought
Misery uncreated till the crime
Of thy rebellion how hast thou instilled
Thy malice into thousands once upright
And faithful now proved false But think not here
To trouble holy rest Heaven casts thee out
From all her confines Heaven the seat of bliss
Brooks not the works of violence and war
Hence then and evil go with thee along
Thy offspring to the place of evil Hell
Thou and thy wicked crew there mingle broils
Ere this avenging sword begin thy doom
Or some more sudden vengeance winged from God
Precipitate thee with augmented pain
So spake the Prince of Angels to whom thus
The Adversary Nor think thou with wind
Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds
Thou canst not Hast thou turned the least of these
To flight or if to fall but that they rise
Unvanquished easier to transact with me
That thou shouldst hope imperious and with threats
To chase me hence err not that so shall end
The strife which thou callest evil but we style
The strife of glory which we mean to win
Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell
Thou fablest here however to dwell free
If not to reign Mean while thy utmost force
And join him named Almighty to thy aid
I fly not but have sought thee far and nigh
They ended parle and both addressed for fight
Unspeakable for who though with the tongue
Of Angels can relate or to what things
Liken on earth conspicuous that may lift
Human imagination to such highth
Of Godlike power for likest Gods they seemed
Stood they or moved in stature motion arms
Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven
Now waved their fiery swords and in the air
Made horrid circles two broad suns their shields
Blazed opposite while Expectation stood
In horrour From each hand with speed retired
Where erst was thickest fight the angelick throng
And left large field unsafe within the wind
Of such commotion such as to set forth
Great things by small if nature concord broke
Among the constellations war were sprung
Two planets rushing from aspect malign
Of fiercest opposition in mid sky
Should combat and their jarring spheres confound
Together both with next to almighty arm
Up-lifted imminent one stroke they aimed
That might determine and not need repeat
As not of power at once nor odds appeared
In might or swift prevention But the sword
Of Michael from the armoury of God
Was given him tempered so that neither keen
Nor solid might resist that edge it met
The sword of Satan with steep force to smite
Descending and in half cut sheer nor staid
But with swift wheel reverse deep entering shared
All his right side Then Satan first knew pain
And writhed him to and fro convolved so sore
The griding sword with discontinuous wound
Passed through him But the ethereal substance closed
Not long divisible and from the gash
A stream of necturous humour issuing flowed
Sanguine such as celestial Spirits may bleed
And all his armour stained ere while so bright
Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
By Angels many and strong who interposed
Defence while others bore him on their shields
Back to his chariot where it stood retired
From off the files of war There they him laid
Gnashing for anguish and despite and shame
To find himself not matchless and his pride
Humbled by such rebuke so far beneath
His confidence to equal God in power
Yet soon he healed for Spirits that live throughout
Vital in every part not as frail man
In entrails heart of head liver or reins
Cannot but by annihilating die
Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound
Receive no more than can the fluid air
All heart they live all head all eye all ear
All intellect all sense and as they please
They limb themselves and colour shape or size
Assume as likes them best condense or rare
Mean while in other parts like deeds deserved
Memorial where the might of Gabriel fought
And with fierce ensigns pierced the deep array
Of Moloch furious king who him defied
And at his chariot-wheels to drag him bound
Threatened nor from the Holy One of Heaven
Refrained his tongue blasphemous but anon
Down cloven to the waist with shattered arms
And uncouth pain fled bellowing On each wing
Uriel and Raphael his vaunting foe
Though huge and in a rock of diamond armed
Vanquished Adramelech and Asmadai
Two potent Thrones that to be less than Gods
Disdained but meaner thoughts learned in their flight
Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail
Nor stood unmindful Abdiel to annoy
The atheist crew but with redoubled blow
Ariel and Arioch and the violence
Of Ramiel scorched and blasted overthrew
I might relate of thousands and their names
Eternize here on earth but those elect
Angels contented with their fame in Heaven
Seek not the praise of men The other sort
In might though wonderous and in acts of war
Nor of renown less eager yet by doom
Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory
Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell
For strength from truth divided and from just
Illaudable nought merits but dispraise
And ignominy yet to glory aspires
Vain-glorious and through infamy seeks fame
Therefore eternal silence be their doom
And now their mightiest quelled the battle swerved
With many an inroad gored deformed rout
Entered and foul disorder all the ground
With shivered armour strown and on a heap
Chariot and charioteer lay overturned
And fiery-foaming steeds what stood recoiled
O'er-wearied through the faint Satanick host
Defensive scarce or with pale fear surprised
Then first with fear surprised and sense of pain
Fled ignominious to such evil brought
By sin of disobedience till that hour
Not liable to fear or flight or pain
Far otherwise the inviolable Saints
In cubick phalanx firm advanced entire
Invulnerable impenetrably armed
Such high advantages their innocence
Gave them above their foes not to have sinned
Not to have disobeyed in fight they stood
Unwearied unobnoxious to be pained
By wound though from their place by violence moved
Now Night her course began and over Heaven
Inducing darkness grateful truce imposed
And silence on the odious din of war
Under her cloudy covert both retired
Victor and vanquished On the foughten field
Michael and his Angels prevalent
Encamping placed in guard their watches round
Cherubick waving fires On the other part
Satan with his rebellious disappeared
Far in the dark dislodged and void of rest
His potentates to council called by night
And in the midst thus undismayed began
O now in danger tried now known in arms
Not to be overpowered Companions dear
Found worthy not of liberty alone
Too mean pretence but what we more affect
Honour dominion glory and renown
Who have sustained one day in doubtful fight
And if one day why not eternal days
What Heaven Lord had powerfullest to send
Against us from about his throne and judged
Sufficient to subdue us to his will
But proves not so Then fallible it seems
Of future we may deem him though till now
Omniscient thought True is less firmly armed
Some disadvantage we endured and pain
Till now not known but known as soon contemned
Since now we find this our empyreal form
Incapable of mortal injury
Imperishable and though pierced with wound
Soon closing and by native vigour healed
Of evil then so small as easy think
The remedy perhaps more valid arms
Weapons more violent when next we meet
May serve to better us and worse our foes
Or equal what between us made the odds
In nature none If other hidden cause
Left them superiour while we can preserve
Unhurt our minds and understanding sound
Due search and consultation will disclose
He sat and in the assembly next upstood
Nisroch of Principalities the prime
As one he stood escaped from cruel fight
Sore toiled his riven arms to havock hewn
And cloudy in aspect thus answering spake
Deliverer from new Lords leader to free
Enjoyment of our right as Gods yet hard
For Gods and too unequal work we find
Against unequal arms to fight in pain
Against unpained impassive from which evil
Ruin must needs ensue for what avails
Valour or strength though matchless quelled with pain
Which all subdues and makes remiss the hands
Of mightiest Sense of pleasure we may well
Spare out of life perhaps and not repine
But live content which is the calmest life
But pain is perfect misery the worst
Of evils and excessive overturns
All patience He who therefore can invent
With what more forcible we may offend
Our yet unwounded enemies or arm
Ourselves with like defence to me deserves
No less than for deliverance what we owe
Whereto with look composed Satan replied
Not uninvented that which thou aright
Believest so main to our success I bring
Which of us who beholds the bright surface
Of this ethereous mould whereon we stand
This continent of spacious Heaven adorned
With plant fruit flower ambrosial gems and gold
Whose eye so superficially surveys
These things as not to mind from whence they grow
Deep under ground materials dark and crude
Of spiritous and fiery spume till touched
With Heaven ray and tempered they shoot forth
So beauteous opening to the ambient light
These in their dark nativity the deep
Shall yield us pregnant with infernal flame
Which into hollow engines long and round
Thick rammed at the other bore with touch of fire
Dilated and infuriate shall send forth
From far with thundering noise among our foes
Such implements of mischief as shall dash
To pieces and o'erwhelm whatever stands
Adverse that they shall fear we have disarmed
The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt
Nor long shall be our labour yet ere dawn
Effect shall end our wish Mean while revive
Abandon fear to strength and counsel joined
Think nothing hard much less to be despaired
He ended and his words their drooping cheer
Enlightened and their languished hope revived
The invention all admired and each how he
To be the inventer missed so easy it seemed
Once found which yet unfound most would have thought
Impossible Yet haply of thy race
In future days if malice should abound
Some one intent on mischief or inspired
With devilish machination might devise
Like instrument to plague the sons of men
For sin on war and mutual slaughter bent
Forthwith from council to the work they flew
None arguing stood innumerable hands
Were ready in a moment up they turned
Wide the celestial soil and saw beneath
The originals of nature in their crude
Conception sulphurous and nitrous foam
They found they mingled and with subtle art
Concocted and adusted they reduced
To blackest grain and into store conveyed
Part hidden veins digged up nor hath this earth
Entrails unlike of mineral and stone
Whereof to found their engines and their balls
Of missive ruin part incentive reed
Provide pernicious with one touch to fire
So all ere day-spring under conscious night
Secret they finished and in order set
With silent circumspection unespied
Now when fair morn orient in Heaven appeared
Up rose the victor-Angels and to arms
The matin trumpet sung In arms they stood
Of golden panoply refulgent host
Soon banded others from the dawning hills
Look round and scouts each coast light-armed scour
Each quarter to descry the distant foe
Where lodged or whither fled or if for fight
In motion or in halt Him soon they met
Under spread ensigns moving nigh in slow
But firm battalion back with speediest sail
Zophiel of Cherubim the swiftest wing
Came flying and in mid air aloud thus cried
Arm Warriours arm for fight the foe at hand
Whom fled we thought will save us long pursuit
This day fear not his flight so thick a cloud
He comes and settled in his face I see
Sad resolution and secure Let each
His adamantine coat gird well and each
Fit well his helm gripe fast his orbed shield
Borne even or high for this day will pour down
If I conjecture aught no drizzling shower
But rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire
So warned he them aware themselves and soon
In order quit of all impediment
Instant without disturb they took alarm
And onward moved embattled When behold
Not distant far with heavy pace the foe
Approaching gross and huge in hollow cube
Training his devilish enginery impaled
On every side with shadowing squadrons deep
To hide the fraud At interview both stood
A while but suddenly at head appeared
Satan and thus was heard commanding loud
Vanguard to right and left the front unfold
That all may see who hate us how we seek
Peace and composure and with open breast
Stand ready to receive them if they like
Our overture and turn not back perverse
But that I doubt however witness Heaven
Heaven witness thou anon while we discharge
Freely our part ye who appointed stand
Do as you have in charge and briefly touch
What we propound and loud that all may hear
So scoffing in ambiguous words he scarce
Had ended when to right and left the front
Divided and to either flank retired
Which to our eyes discovered new and strange
A triple mounted row of pillars laid
On wheels for like to pillars most they seemed
Or hollowed bodies made of oak or fir
With branches lopt in wood or mountain felled
Brass iron stony mould had not their mouths
With hideous orifice gaped on us wide
Portending hollow truce At each behind
A Seraph stood and in his hand a reed
Stood waving tipt with fire while we suspense
Collected stood within our thoughts amused
Not long for sudden all at once their reeds
Put forth and to a narrow vent applied
With nicest touch Immediate in a flame
But soon obscured with smoke all Heaven appeared
From those deep-throated engines belched whose roar
Embowelled with outrageous noise the air
And all her entrails tore disgorging foul
Their devilish glut chained thunderbolts and hail
Of iron globes which on the victor host
Levelled with such impetuous fury smote
That whom they hit none on their feet might stand
Though standing else as rocks but down they fell
By thousands Angel on Arch-Angel rolled
The sooner for their arms unarmed they might
Have easily as Spirits evaded swift
By quick contraction or remove but now
Foul dissipation followed and forced rout
Nor served it to relax their serried files
What should they do if on they rushed repulse
Repeated and indecent overthrow
Doubled would render them yet more despised
And to their foes a laughter for in view
Stood ranked of Seraphim another row
In posture to displode their second tire
Of thunder Back defeated to return
They worse abhorred Satan beheld their plight
And to his mates thus in derision called
O Friends why come not on these victors proud
Ere while they fierce were coming and when we
To entertain them fair with open front
And breast what could we more propounded terms
Of composition straight they changed their minds
Flew off and into strange vagaries fell
As they would dance yet for a dance they seemed
Somewhat extravagant and wild perhaps
For joy of offered peace But I suppose
If our proposals once again were heard
We should compel them to a quick result
To whom thus Belial in like gamesome mood
Leader the terms we sent were terms of weight
Of hard contents and full of force urged home
Such as we might perceive amused them all
And stumbled many Who receives them right
Had need from head to foot well understand
Not understood this gift they have besides
They show us when our foes walk not upright
So they among themselves in pleasant vein
Stood scoffing hightened in their thoughts beyond
All doubt of victory Eternal Might
To match with their inventions they presumed
So easy and of his thunder made a scorn
And all his host derided while they stood
A while in trouble But they stood not long
Rage prompted them at length and found them arms
Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose
Forthwith behold the excellence the power
Which God hath in his mighty Angels placed
Their arms away they threw and to the hills
For Earth hath this variety from Heaven
Of pleasure situate in hill and dale
Light as the lightning glimpse they ran they flew
From their foundations loosening to and fro
They plucked the seated hills with all their load
Rocks waters woods and by the shaggy tops
Up-lifting bore them in their hands Amaze
Be sure and terrour seized the rebel host
When coming towards them so dread they saw
The bottom of the mountains upward turned
Till on those cursed engines' triple-row
They saw them whelmed and all their confidence
Under the weight of mountains buried deep
Themselves invaded next and on their heads
Main promontories flung which in the air
Came shadowing and oppressed whole legions armed
Their armour helped their harm crushed in and bruised
Into their substance pent which wrought them pain
Implacable and many a dolorous groan
Long struggling underneath ere they could wind
Out of such prison though Spirits of purest light
Purest at first now gross by sinning grown
The rest in imitation to like arms
Betook them and the neighbouring hills uptore
So hills amid the air encountered hills
Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire
That under ground they fought in dismal shade
Infernal noise war seemed a civil game
To this uproar horrid confusion heaped
Upon confusion rose And now all Heaven
Had gone to wrack with ruin overspread
Had not the Almighty Father where he sits
Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure
Consulting on the sum of things foreseen
This tumult and permitted all advised
That his great purpose he might so fulfil
To honour his anointed Son avenged
Upon his enemies and to declare
All power on him transferred Whence to his Son
The Assessour of his throne he thus began
Effulgence of my glory Son beloved
Son in whose face invisible is beheld
Visibly what by Deity I am
And in whose hand what by decree I do
Second Omnipotence two days are past
Two days as we compute the days of Heaven
Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame
These disobedient Sore hath been their fight
As likeliest was when two such foes met armed
For to themselves I left them and thou knowest
Equal in their creation they were formed
Save what sin hath impaired which yet hath wrought
Insensibly for I suspend their doom
Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last
Endless and no solution will be found
War wearied hath performed what war can do
And to disordered rage let loose the reins
With mountains as with weapons armed which makes
Wild work in Heaven and dangerous to the main
Two days are therefore past the third is thine
For thee I have ordained it and thus far
Have suffered that the glory may be thine
Of ending this great war since none but Thou
Can end it Into thee such virtue and grace
Immense I have transfused that all may know
In Heaven and Hell thy power above compare
And this perverse commotion governed thus
To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir
Of all things to be Heir and to be King
By sacred unction thy deserved right
Go then Thou Mightiest in thy Father might
Ascend my chariot guide the rapid wheels
That shake Heaven basis bring forth all my war
My bow and thunder my almighty arms
Gird on and sword upon thy puissant thigh
Pursue these sons of darkness drive them out
From all Heaven bounds into the utter deep
There let them learn as likes them to despise
God and Messiah his anointed King
He said and on his Son with rays direct
Shone full he all his Father full expressed
Ineffably into his face received
And thus the Filial Godhead answering spake
O Father O Supreme of heavenly Thrones
First Highest Holiest Best thou always seek'st
To glorify thy Son I always thee
As is most just This I my glory account
My exaltation and my whole delight
That thou in me well pleased declarest thy will
Fulfilled which to fulfil is all my bliss
Scepter and power thy giving I assume
And gladlier shall resign when in the end
Thou shalt be all in all and I in thee
For ever and in me all whom thou lovest
But whom thou hatest I hate and can put on
Thy terrours as I put thy mildness on
Image of thee in all things and shall soon
Armed with thy might rid Heaven of these rebelled
To their prepared ill mansion driven down
To chains of darkness and the undying worm
That from thy just obedience could revolt
Whom to obey is happiness entire
Then shall thy Saints unmixed and from the impure
Far separate circling thy holy mount
Unfeigned Halleluiahs to thee sing
Hymns of high praise and I among them Chief
So said he o'er his scepter bowing rose
From the right hand of Glory where he sat
And the third sacred morn began to shine
Dawning through Heaven Forth rushed with whirlwind sound
The chariot of Paternal Deity
Flashing thick flames wheel within wheel undrawn
Itself instinct with Spirit but convoyed
By four Cherubick shapes four faces each
Had wonderous as with stars their bodies all
And wings were set with eyes with eyes the wheels
Of beryl and careering fires between
Over their heads a crystal firmament
Whereon a sapphire throne inlaid with pure
Amber and colours of the showery arch
He in celestial panoply all armed
Of radiant Urim work divinely wrought
Ascended at his right hand Victory
Sat eagle-winged beside him hung his bow
And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored
And from about him fierce effusion rolled
Of smoke and bickering flame and sparkles dire
Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints
He onward came far off his coming shone
And twenty thousand I their number heard
Chariots of God half on each hand were seen
He on the wings of Cherub rode sublime
On the crystalline sky in sapphire throned
Illustrious far and wide but by his own
First seen Them unexpected joy surprised
When the great ensign of Messiah blazed
Aloft by Angels borne his sign in Heaven
Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced
His army circumfused on either wing
Under their Head imbodied all in one
Before him Power Divine his way prepared
At his command the uprooted hills retired
Each to his place they heard his voice and went
Obsequious Heaven his wonted face renewed
And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled
This saw his hapless foes but stood obdured
And to rebellious fight rallied their Powers
Insensate hope conceiving from despair
In heavenly Spirits could such perverseness dwell
But to convince the proud what signs avail
Or wonders move the obdurate to relent
They hardened more by what might most reclaim
Grieving to see his glory at the sight
Took envy and aspiring to his highth
Stood re-embattled fierce by force or fraud
Weening to prosper and at length prevail
Against God and Messiah or to fall
In universal ruin last and now
To final battle drew disdaining flight
Or faint retreat when the great Son of God
To all his host on either hand thus spake
Stand still in bright array ye Saints here stand
Ye Angels armed this day from battle rest
Faithful hath been your warfare and of God
Accepted fearless in his righteous cause
And as ye have received so have ye done
Invincibly But of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs
Vengeance is his or whose he sole appoints
Number to this day work is not ordained
Nor multitude stand only and behold
God indignation on these godless poured
By me not you but me they have despised
Yet envied against me is all their rage
Because the Father to whom in Heaven s'preme
Kingdom and power and glory appertains
Hath honoured me according to his will
Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned
That they may have their wish to try with me
In battle which the stronger proves they all
Or I alone against them since by strength
They measure all of other excellence
Not emulous nor care who them excels
Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe
So spake the Son and into terrour changed
His countenance too severe to be beheld
And full of wrath bent on his enemies
At once the Four spread out their starry wings
With dreadful shade contiguous and the orbs
Of his fierce chariot rolled as with the sound
Of torrent floods or of a numerous host
He on his impious foes right onward drove
Gloomy as night under his burning wheels
The stedfast empyrean shook throughout
All but the throne itself of God Full soon
Among them he arrived in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand thunders which he sent
Before him such as in their souls infixed
Plagues They astonished all resistance lost
All courage down their idle weapons dropt
O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate
That wished the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
His arrows from the fourfold-visaged Four
Distinct with eyes and from the living wheels
Distinct alike with multitude of eyes
One Spirit in them ruled and every eye
Glared lightning and shot forth pernicious fire
Among the accursed that withered all their strength
And of their wonted vigour left them drained
Exhausted spiritless afflicted fallen
Yet half his strength he put not forth but checked
His thunder in mid volley for he meant
Not to destroy but root them out of Heaven
The overthrown he raised and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together thronged
Drove them before him thunder-struck pursued
With terrours and with furies to the bounds
And crystal wall of Heaven which opening wide
Rolled inward and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful deep The monstrous sight
Struck them with horrour backward but far worse
Urged them behind Headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of Heaven eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit
Hell heard the unsufferable noise Hell saw
Heaven ruining from Heaven and would have fled
Affrighted but strict Fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations and too fast had bound
Nine days they fell Confounded Chaos roared
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy so huge a rout
Incumbered him with ruin Hell at last
Yawning received them whole and on them closed
Hell their fit habitation fraught with fire
Unquenchable the house of woe and pain
Disburdened Heaven rejoiced and soon repaired
Her mural breach returning whence it rolled
Sole victor from the expulsion of his foes
Messiah his triumphal chariot turned
To meet him all his Saints who silent stood
Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts
With jubilee advanced and as they went
Shaded with branching palm each Order bright
Sung triumph and him sung victorious King
Son Heir and Lord to him dominion given
Worthiest to reign He celebrated rode
Triumphant through mid Heaven into the courts
And temple of his Mighty Father throned
On high who into glory him received
Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss
Thus measuring things in Heaven by things on Earth
At thy request and that thou mayest beware
By what is past to thee I have revealed
What might have else to human race been hid
The discord which befel and war in Heaven
Among the angelick Powers and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring who rebelled
With Satan he who envies now thy state
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience that with him
Bereaved of happiness thou mayest partake
His punishment eternal misery
Which would be all his solace and revenge
As a despite done against the Most High
Thee once to gain companion of his woe
But listen not to his temptations warn
Thy weaker let it profit thee to have heard
By terrible example the reward
Of disobedience firm they might have stood
Yet fell remember and fear to transgress
Descend from Heaven Urania by that name
If rightly thou art called whose voice divine
Following above the Olympian hill I soar
Above the flight of Pegasean wing
The meaning not the name I call for thou
Nor of the Muses nine nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwellest but heavenly-born
Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse
Wisdom thy sister and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father pleased
With thy celestial song Up led by thee
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed
An earthly guest and drawn empyreal air
Thy tempering with like safety guided down
Return me to my native element
Lest from this flying steed unreined as once
Bellerophon though from a lower clime
Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn
Half yet remains unsung but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere
Standing on earth not rapt above the pole
More safe I sing with mortal voice unchanged
To hoarse or mute though fallen on evil days
On evil days though fallen and evil tongues
In darkness and with dangers compassed round
And solitude yet not alone while thou
Visitest my slumbers nightly or when morn
Purples the east still govern thou my song
Urania and fit audience find though few
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance
Of Bacchus and his revellers the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture till the savage clamour drowned
Both harp and voice nor could the Muse defend
Her son So fail not thou who thee implores
For thou art heavenly she an empty dream
Say Goddess what ensued when Raphael
The affable Arch-Angel had forewarned
Adam by dire example to beware
Apostasy by what befel in Heaven
To those apostates lest the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race
Charged not to touch the interdicted tree
If they transgress and slight that sole command
So easily obeyed amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite
Though wandering He with his consorted Eve
The story heard attentive and was filled
With admiration and deep muse to hear
Of things so high and strange things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heaven
And war so near the peace of God in bliss
With such confusion but the evil soon
Driven back redounded as a flood on those
From whom it sprung impossible to mix
With blessedness Whence Adam soon repealed
The doubts that in his heart arose and now
Led on yet sinless with desire to know
What nearer might concern him how this world
Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began
When and whereof created for what cause
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites
Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest
Great things and full of wonder in our ears
Far differing from this world thou hast revealed
Divine interpreter by favour sent
Down from the empyrean to forewarn
Us timely of what might else have been our loss
Unknown which human knowledge could not reach
For which to the infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovran will the end
Of what we are But since thou hast vouchsafed
Gently for our instruction to impart
Things above earthly thought which yet concerned
Our knowing as to highest wisdom seemed
Deign to descend now lower and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known
How first began this Heaven which we behold
Distant so high with moving fires adorned
Innumerable and this which yields or fills
All space the ambient air wide interfused
Embracing round this floried Earth what cause
Moved the Creator in his holy rest
Through all eternity so late to build
In Chaos and the work begun how soon
Absolved if unforbid thou mayest unfold
What we not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire but the more
To magnify his works the more we know
And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race though steep suspense in Heaven
Held by thy voice thy potent voice he hears
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation and the rising birth
Of Nature from the unapparent Deep
Or if the star of evening and the moon
Haste to thy audience Night with her will bring
Silence and Sleep listening to thee will watch
Or we can bid his absence till thy song
End and dismiss thee ere the morning shine
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought
And thus the Godlike Angel answered mild
This also thy request with caution asked
Obtain though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend
Yet what thou canst attain which best may serve
To glorify the Maker and infer
Thee also happier shall not be withheld
Thy hearing such commission from above
I have received to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds beyond abstain
To ask nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not revealed which the invisible King
Only Omniscient hath suppressed in night
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven
Enough is left besides to search and know
But knowledge is as food and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite to know
In measure what the mind may well contain
Oppresses else with surfeit and soon turns
Wisdom to folly as nourishment to wind
Know then that after Lucifer from Heaven
So call him brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels than that star the stars among
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place and the great Son returned
Victorious with his Saints the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude and to his Son thus spake
At least our envious Foe hath failed who thought
All like himself rebellious by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength the seat
Of Deity supreme us dispossessed
He trusted to have seised and into fraud
Drew many whom their place knows here no more
Yet far the greater part have kept I see
Their station Heaven yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites
But lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done to have dispeopled Heaven
My damage fondly deemed I can repair
That detriment if such it be to lose
Self-lost and in a moment will create
Another world out of one man a race
Of men innumerable there to dwell
Not here till by degrees of merit raised
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither under long obedience tried
And Earth be changed to Heaven and Heaven to Earth
One kingdom joy and union without end
Mean while inhabit lax ye Powers of Heaven
And thou my Word begotten Son by thee
This I perform speak thou and be it done
My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee
I send along ride forth and bid the Deep
Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth
Boundless the Deep because I Am who fill
Infinitude nor vacuous the space
Though I uncircumscribed myself retire
And put not forth my goodness which is free
To act or not Necessity and Chance
Approach not me and what I will is Fate
So spake the Almighty and to what he spake
His Word the Filial Godhead gave effect
Immediate are the acts of God more swift
Than time or motion but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told
So told as earthly notion can receive
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven
When such was heard declared the Almighty will
Glory they sung to the Most High good will
To future men and in their dwellings peace
Glory to Him whose just avenging ire
Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
And the habitations of the just to Him
Glory and praise whose wisdom had ordained
Good out of evil to create instead
Of Spirits malign a better race to bring
Into their vacant room and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite
So sang the Hierarchies Mean while the Son
On his great expedition now appeared
Girt with Omnipotence with radiance crowned
Of Majesty Divine sapience and love
Immense and all his Father in him shone
About his chariot numberless were poured
Cherub and Seraph Potentates and Thrones
And Virtues winged Spirits and chariots winged
From the armoury of God where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodged
Against a solemn day harnessed at hand
Celestial equipage and now came forth
Spontaneous for within them Spirit lived
Attendant on their Lord Heaven opened wide
Her ever-during gates harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving to let forth
The King of Glory in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds
On heavenly ground they stood and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea dark wasteful wild
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves as mountains to assault
Heaven highth and with the center mix the pole
Silence ye troubled Waves and thou Deep peace
Said then the Omnifick Word your discord end
Nor staid but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos and the world unborn
For Chaos heard his voice Him all his train
Followed in bright procession to behold
Creation and the wonders of his might
Then staid the fervid wheels and in his hand
He took the golden compasses prepared
In God eternal store to circumscribe
This universe and all created things
One foot he centered and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure
And said Thus far extend thus far thy bounds
This be thy just circumference O World
Thus God the Heaven created thus the Earth
Matter unformed and void Darkness profound
Covered the abyss but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread
And vital virtue infused and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass but downward purged
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life then founded then conglobed
Like things to like the rest to several place
Disparted and between spun out the air
And Earth self-balanced on her center hung
Let there be light said God and forthwith Light
Ethereal first of things quintessence pure
Sprung from the deep and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began
Sphered in a radiant cloud for yet the sun
Was not she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourned the while God saw the light was good
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided light the Day and darkness Night
He named Thus was the first day even and morn
Nor past uncelebrated nor unsung
By the celestial quires when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld
Birth-day of Heaven and Earth with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they filled
And touched their golden harps and hymning praised
God and his works Creator him they sung
Both when first evening was and when first morn
Again God said Let there be firmament
Amid the waters and let it divide
The waters from the waters and God made
The firmament expanse of liquid pure
Transparent elemental air diffused
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round partition firm and sure
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm in wide
Crystalline ocean and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame
And Heaven he named the Firmament So even
And morning chorus sung the second day
The Earth was formed but in the womb as yet
Of waters embryon immature involved
Appeared not over all the face of Earth
Main ocean flowed not idle but with warm
Prolifick humour softening all her globe
Fermented the great mother to conceive
Satiate with genial moisture when God said
Be gathered now ye waters under Heaven
Into one place and let dry land appear
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds their tops ascend the sky
So high as heaved the tumid hills so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep
Capacious bed of waters Thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance uprolled
As drops on dust conglobing from the dry
Part rise in crystal wall or ridge direct
For haste such flight the great command impressed
On the swift floods As armies at the call
Of trumpet for of armies thou hast heard
Troop to their standard so the watery throng
Wave rolling after wave where way they found
If steep with torrent rapture if through plain
Soft-ebbing nor withstood them rock or hill
But they or under ground or circuit wide
With serpent errour wandering found their way
And on the washy oose deep channels wore
Easy ere God had bid the ground be dry
All but within those banks where rivers now
Stream and perpetual draw their humid train
The dry land Earth and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he called Seas
And saw that it was good and said Let the Earth
Put forth the verdant grass herb yielding seed
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind
Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth
He scarce had said when the bare Earth till then
Desart and bare unsightly unadorned
Brought forth the tender grass whose verdure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green
Then herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered
Opening their various colours and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet and these scarce blown
Forth flourished thick the clustering vine forth crept
The swelling gourd up stood the corny reed
Embattled in her field and the humble shrub
And bush with frizzled hair implicit Last
Rose as in dance the stately trees and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit or gemmed
Their blossoms With high woods the hills were crowned
With tufts the valleys and each fountain side
With borders long the rivers that Earth now
Seemed like to Heaven a seat where Gods might dwell
Or wander with delight and love to haunt
Her sacred shades though God had yet not rained
Upon the Earth and man to till the ground
None was but from the Earth a dewy mist
Went up and watered all the ground and each
Plant of the field which ere it was in the Earth
God made and every herb before it grew
On the green stem God saw that it was good
So even and morn recorded the third day
Again the Almighty spake Let there be lights
High in the expanse of Heaven to divide
The day from night and let them be for signs
For seasons and for days and circling years
And let them be for lights as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of Heaven
To give light on the Earth and it was so
And God made two great lights great for their use
To Man the greater to have rule by day
The less by night altern and made the stars
And set them in the firmament of Heaven
To illuminate the Earth and rule the day
In their vicissitude and rule the night
And light from darkness to divide God saw
Surveying his great work that it was good
For of celestial bodies first the sun
A mighty sphere he framed unlightsome first
Though of ethereal mould then formed the moon
Globose and every magnitude of stars
And sowed with stars the Heaven thick as a field
Of light by far the greater part he took
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine and placed
In the sun orb made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light firm to retain
Her gathered beams great palace now of light
Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing in their golden urns draw light
And hence the morning-planet gilds her horns
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their small peculiar though from human sight
So far remote with diminution seen
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen
Regent of day and all the horizon round
Invested with bright rays jocund to run
His longitude through Heaven high road the gray
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced
Shedding sweet influence Less bright the moon
But opposite in levelled west was set
His mirrour with full face borrowing her light
From him for other light she needed none
In that aspect and still that distance keeps
Till night then in the east her turn she shines
Revolved on Heaven great axle and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds
With thousand thousand stars that then appeared
Spangling the hemisphere Then first adorned
With their bright luminaries that set and rose
Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day
And God said Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant living soul
And let fowl fly above the Earth with wings
Displayed on the open firmament of Heaven
And God created the great whales and each
Soul living each that crept which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds
And every bird of wing after his kind
And saw that it was good and blessed them saying
Be fruitful multiply and in the seas
And lakes and running streams the waters fill
And let the fowl be multiplied on the Earth
Forthwith the sounds and seas each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm and shoals
Of fish that with their fins and shining scales
Glide under the green wave in sculls that oft
Bank the mid sea part single or with mate
Graze the sea-weed their pasture and through groves
Of coral stray or sporting with quick glance
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold
Or in their pearly shells at ease attend
Moist nutriment or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch on smooth the seal
And bended dolphins play part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy enormous in their gait
Tempest the ocean there leviathan
Hugest of living creatures on the deep
Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims
And seems a moving land and at his gills
Draws in and at his trunk spouts out a sea
Mean while the tepid caves and fens and shores
Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg that soon
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed
Their callow young but feathered soon and fledge
They summed their pens and soaring the air sublime
With clang despised the ground under a cloud
In prospect there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build
Part loosely wing the region part more wise
In common ranged in figure wedge their way
Intelligent of seasons and set forth
Their aery caravan high over seas
Flying and over lands with mutual wing
Easing their flight so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage borne on winds the air
Floats as they pass fanned with unnumbered plumes
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solaced the woods and spread their painted wings
Till even nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceased warbling but all night tun'd her soft lays
Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed
Their downy breast the swan with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly rows
Her state with oary feet yet oft they quit
The dank and rising on stiff pennons tower
The mid aereal sky Others on ground
Walked firm the crested cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours and the other whose gay train
Adorns him coloured with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes The waters thus
With fish replenished and the air with fowl
Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day
The sixth and of creation last arose
With evening harps and matin when God said
Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind
Cattle and creeping things and beast of the Earth
Each in their kind The Earth obeyed and straight
Opening her fertile womb teemed at a birth
Innumerous living creatures perfect forms
Limbed and full grown Out of the ground up rose
As from his lair the wild beast where he wons
In forest wild in thicket brake or den
Among the trees in pairs they rose they walked
The cattle in the fields and meadows green
Those rare and solitary these in flocks
Pasturing at once and in broad herds upsprung
The grassy clods now calved now half appeared
The tawny lion pawing to get free
His hinder parts then springs as broke from bonds
And rampant shakes his brinded mane the ounce
The libbard and the tiger as the mole
Rising the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocks The swift stag from under ground
Bore up his branching head Scarce from his mould
Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved
His vastness Fleeced the flocks and bleating rose
As plants Ambiguous between sea and land
The river-horse and scaly crocodile
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground
Insect or worm those waved their limber fans
For wings and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer pride
With spots of gold and purple azure and green
These as a line their long dimension drew
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace not all
Minims of nature some of serpent-kind
Wonderous in length and corpulence involved
Their snaky folds and added wings First crept
The parsimonious emmet provident
Of future in small room large heart enclosed
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty Swarming next appeared
The female bee that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored The rest are numberless
And thou their natures knowest and gavest them names
Needless to thee repeated nor unknown
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field
Of huge extent sometimes with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrifick though to thee
Not noxious but obedient at thy call
Now Heaven in all her glory shone and rolled
Her motions as the great first Mover hand
First wheeled their course Earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled air water earth
By fowl fish beast was flown was swum was walked
Frequent and of the sixth day yet remained
There wanted yet the master-work the end
Of all yet done a creature who not prone
And brute as other creatures but endued
With sanctity of reason might erect
His stature and upright with front serene
Govern the rest self-knowing and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends thither with heart and voice and eyes
Directed in devotion to adore
And worship God Supreme who made him chief
Of all his works therefore the Omnipotent
Eternal Father for where is not he
Present thus to his Son audibly spake
Let us make now Man in our image Man
In our similitude and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air
Beast of the field and over all the Earth
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground
This said he formed thee Adam thee O Man
Dust of the ground and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life in his own image he
Created thee in the image of God
Express and thou becamest a living soul
Male he created thee but thy consort
Female for race then blessed mankind and said
Be fruitful multiply and fill the Earth
Subdue it and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea and fowl of the air
And every living thing that moves on the Earth
Wherever thus created for no place
Is yet distinct by name thence as thou knowest
He brought thee into this delicious grove
This garden planted with the trees of God
Delectable both to behold and taste
And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee all sorts are here that all the Earth yields
Variety without end but of the tree
Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil
Thou mayest not in the day thou eatest thou diest
Death is the penalty imposed beware
And govern well thy appetite lest Sin
Surprise thee and her black attendant Death
Here finished he and all that he had made
Viewed and behold all was entirely good
So even and morn accomplished the sixth day
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting though unwearied up returned
Up to the Heaven of Heavens his high abode
Thence to behold this new created world
The addition of his empire how it showed
In prospect from his throne how good how fair
Answering his great idea Up he rode
Followed with acclamation and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tuned
Angelick harmonies The earth the air
Resounded thou rememberest for thou heardst
The heavens and all the constellations rung
The planets in their station listening stood
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant
Open ye everlasting gates they sung
Open ye Heavens your living doors let in
The great Creator from his work returned
Magnificent his six days work a World
Open and henceforth oft for God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace So sung
The glorious train ascending He through Heaven
That opened wide her blazing portals led
To God eternal house direct the way
A broad and ample road whose dust is gold
And pavement stars as stars to thee appear
Seen in the galaxy that milky way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powdered with stars And now on Earth the seventh
Evening arose in Eden for the sun
Was set and twilight from the east came on
Forerunning night when at the holy mount
Of Heaven high-seated top the imperial throne
Of Godhead fixed for ever firm and sure
The Filial Power arrived and sat him down
With his great Father for he also went
Invisible yet staid such privilege
Hath Omnipresence and the work ordained
Author and End of all things and from work
Now resting blessed and hallowed the seventh day
As resting on that day from all his work
But not in silence holy kept the harp
Had work and rested not the solemn pipe
And dulcimer all organs of sweet stop
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire
Tempered soft tunings intermixed with voice
Choral or unison of incense clouds
Fuming from golden censers hid the mount
Creation and the six days acts they sung
Great are thy works Jehovah infinite
Thy power what thought can measure thee or tongue
Relate thee Greater now in thy return
Than from the giant Angels Thee that day
Thy thunders magnified but to create
Is greater than created to destroy
Who can impair thee Mighty King or bound
Thy empire Easily the proud attempt
Of Spirits apostate and their counsels vain
Thou hast repelled while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers Who seeks
To lessen thee against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might his evil
Thou usest and from thence createst more good
Witness this new-made world another Heaven
From Heaven-gate not far founded in view
On the clear hyaline the glassy sea
Of amplitude almost immense with stars
Numerous and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation but thou knowest
Their seasons among these the seat of Men
Earth with her nether ocean circumfused
Their pleasant dwelling-place Thrice happy Men
And sons of Men whom God hath thus advanced
Created in his image there to dwell
And worship him and in reward to rule
Over his works on earth in sea or air
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just Thrice happy if they know
Their happiness and persevere upright
So sung they and the empyrean rung
With halleluiahs Thus was sabbath kept
And thy request think now fulfilled that asked
How first this world and face of things began
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning that posterity
Informed by thee might know If else thou seekest
Aught not surpassing human measure say
The Angel ended and in Adam ear
So charming left his voice that he a while
Thought him still speaking still stood fixed to hear
Then as new waked thus gratefully replied
What thanks sufficient or what recompence
Equal have I to render thee divine
Historian who thus largely hast allayed
The thirst I had of knowledge and vouchsafed
This friendly condescension to relate
Things else by me unsearchable now heard
With wonder but delight and as is due
With glory attributed to the high
Creator Something yet of doubt remains
Which only thy solution can resolve
When I behold this goodly frame this world
Of Heaven and Earth consisting and compute
Their magnitudes this Earth a spot a grain
An atom with the firmament compared
And all her numbered stars that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible for such
Their distance argues and their swift return
Diurnal merely to officiate light
Round this opacous Earth this punctual spot
One day and night in all her vast survey
Useless besides reasoning I oft admire
How Nature wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions with superfluous hand
So many nobler bodies to create
Greater so manifold to this one use
For aught appears and on their orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated while the sedentary Earth
That better might with far less compass move
Served by more noble than herself attains
Her end without least motion and receives
As tribute such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed her warmth and light
Speed to describe whose swiftness number fails
So spake our sire and by his countenance seemed
Entering on studious thoughts abstruse which Eve
Perceiving where she sat retired in sight
With lowliness majestick from her seat
And grace that won who saw to wish her stay
Rose and went forth among her fruits and flowers
To visit how they prospered bud and bloom
Her nursery they at her coming sprung
And touched by her fair tendance gladlier grew
Yet went she not as not with such discourse
Delighted or not capable her ear
Of what was high such pleasure she reserved
Adam relating she sole auditress
Her husband the relater she preferred
Before the Angel and of him to ask
Chose rather he she knew would intermix
Grateful digressions and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses from his lip
Not words alone pleased her O when meet now
Such pairs in love and mutual honour joined
With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went
Not unattended for on her as Queen
A pomp of winning Graces waited still
And from about her shot darts of desire
Into all eyes to wish her still in sight
And Raphael now to Adam doubt proposed
Benevolent and facile thus replied
To ask or search I blame thee not for Heaven
Is as the book of God before thee set
Wherein to read his wonderous works and learn
His seasons hours or days or months or years
This to attain whether Heaven move or Earth
Imports not if thou reckon right the rest
From Man or Angel the great Architect
Did wisely to conceal and not divulge
His secrets to be scanned by them who ought
Rather admire or if they list to try
Conjecture he his fabrick of the Heavens
Hath left to their disputes perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter when they come to model Heaven
And calculate the stars how they will wield
The mighty frame how build unbuild contrive
To save appearances how gird the sphere
With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er
Cycle and epicycle orb in orb
Already by thy reasoning this I guess
Who art to lead thy offspring and supposest
That bodies bright and greater should not serve
The less not bright nor Heaven such journeys run
Earth sitting still when she alone receives
Foe not informidable exempt from wound
I not so much hath Hell debased and pain
Enfeebled me to what I was in Heaven
She fair divinely fair fit love for Gods
Not terrible though terrour be in love
And beauty not approached by stronger hate
Hate stronger under show of love well feigned
The way which to her ruin now I tend
So spake the enemy of mankind enclosed
In serpent inmate bad and toward Eve
Addressed his way not with indented wave
Prone on the ground as since but on his rear
Circular base of rising folds that towered
Fold above fold a surging maze his head
Crested aloft and carbuncle his eyes
With burnished neck of verdant gold erect
Amidst his circling spires that on the grass
Floated redundant pleasing was his shape
And lovely never since of serpent-kind
Lovelier not those that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus or the god
In Epidaurus nor to which transformed
Ammonian Jove or Capitoline was seen
He with Olympias this with her who bore
Scipio the highth of Rome With tract oblique
At first as one who sought access but feared
To interrupt side-long he works his way
As when a ship by skilful steersmen wrought
Nigh river mouth or foreland where the wind
Veers oft as oft so steers and shifts her sail
So varied he and of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve
To lure her eye she busied heard the sound
Of rusling leaves but minded not as used
To such disport before her through the field
From every beast more duteous at her call
Than at Circean call the herd disguised
He bolder now uncalled before her stood
But as in gaze admiring oft he bowed
His turret crest and sleek enamelled neck
Fawning and licked the ground whereon she trod
His gentle dumb expression turned at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play he glad
Of her attention gained with serpent-tongue
Organick or impulse of vocal air
His fraudulent temptation thus began
Wonder not sovran Mistress if perhaps
Thou canst who art sole wonder much less arm
Thy looks the Heaven of mildness with disdain
Displeased that I approach thee thus and gaze
Insatiate I thus single nor have feared
Thy awful brow more awful thus retired
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair
Thee all things living gaze on all things thine
By gift and thy celestial beauty adore
With ravishment beheld there best beheld
Where universally admired but here
In this enclosure wild these beasts among
Beholders rude and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair one man except
Who sees thee and what is one who should be seen
A Goddess among Gods adored and served
By Angels numberless thy daily train
So glozed the Tempter and his proem tuned
Into the heart of Eve his words made way
Though at the voice much marvelling at length
Not unamazed she thus in answer spake
What may this mean language of man pronounced
By tongue of brute and human sense expressed
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound
The latter I demur for in their looks
Much reason and in their actions oft appears
Thee Serpent subtlest beast of all the field
I knew but not with human voice endued
Redouble then this miracle and say
How camest thou speakable of mute and how
To me so friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind that daily are in sight
Say for such wonder claims attention due
To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied
Empress of this fair world resplendent Eve
Easy to me it is to tell thee all
What thou commandest and right thou shouldst be obeyed
I was at first as other beasts that graze
The trodden herb of abject thoughts and low
As was my food nor aught but food discerned
Or sex and apprehended nothing high
Till on a day roving the field I chanced
A goodly tree far distant to behold
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed
Ruddy and gold I nearer drew to gaze
When from the boughs a savoury odour blown
Grateful to appetite more pleased my sense
Than smell of sweetest fennel or the teats
Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even
Unsucked of lamb or kid that tend their play
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
Of tasting those fair apples I resolved
Not to defer hunger and thirst at once
Powerful persuaders quickened at the scent
Of that alluring fruit urged me so keen
About the mossy trunk I wound me soon
For high from ground the branches would require
Thy utmost reach or Adam Round the tree
All other beasts that saw with like desire
Longing and envying stood but could not reach
Amid the tree now got where plenty hung
Tempting so nigh to pluck and eat my fill
I spared not for such pleasure till that hour
At feed or fountain never had I found
Sated at length ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me to degree
Of reason in my inward powers and speech
Wanted not long though to this shape retained
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
I turned my thoughts and with capacious mind
Considered all things visible in Heaven
Or Earth or Middle all things fair and good
But all that fair and good in thy divine
Semblance and in thy beauty heavenly ray
United I beheld no fair to thine
Equivalent or second which compelled
Me thus though importune perhaps to come
And gaze and worship thee of right declared
Sovran of creatures universal Dame
So talked the spirited sly Snake and Eve
Yet more amazed unwary thus replied
Serpent thy overpraising leaves in doubt
The virtue of that fruit in thee first proved
But say where grows the tree from hence how far
For many are the trees of God that grow
In Paradise and various yet unknown
To us in such abundance lies our choice
As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched
Still hanging incorruptible till men
Grow up to their provision and more hands
Help to disburden Nature of her birth
To whom the wily Adder blithe and glad
Empress the way is ready and not long
Beyond a row of myrtles on a flat
Fast by a fountain one small thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm if thou accept
My conduct I can bring thee thither soon
Lead then said Eve He leading swiftly rolled
In tangles and made intricate seem straight
To mischief swift Hope elevates and joy
Brightens his crest as when a wandering fire
Compact of unctuous vapour which the night
Condenses and the cold environs round
Kindled through agitation to a flame
Which oft they say some evil Spirit attends
Hovering and blazing with delusive light
Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way
To bogs and mires and oft through pond or pool
There swallowed up and lost from succour far
So glistered the dire Snake and into fraud
Led Eve our credulous mother to the tree
Of prohibition root of all our woe
Which when she saw thus to her guide she spake
Serpent we might have spared our coming hither
Fruitless to me though fruit be here to excess
The credit of whose virtue rest with thee
Wonderous indeed if cause of such effects
But of this tree we may not taste nor touch
God so commanded and left that command
Sole daughter of his voice the rest we live
Law to ourselves our reason is our law
To whom the Tempter guilefully replied
Indeed hath God then said that of the fruit
Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat
Yet Lords declared of all in earth or air
To whom thus Eve yet sinless Of the fruit
Of each tree in the garden we may eat
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
The garden God hath said Ye shall not eat
Thereof nor shall ye touch it lest ye die
She scarce had said though brief when now more bold
The Tempter but with show of zeal and love
To Man and indignation at his wrong
New part puts on and as to passion moved
Fluctuates disturbed yet comely and in act
Raised as of some great matter to begin
As when of old some orator renowned
In Athens or free Rome where eloquence
Flourished since mute to some great cause addressed
Stood in himself collected while each part
Motion each act won audience ere the tongue
Sometimes in highth began as no delay
Of preface brooking through his zeal of right
So standing moving or to highth up grown
The Tempter all impassioned thus began
O sacred wise and wisdom-giving Plant
Mother of science now I feel thy power
Within me clear not only to discern
Things in their causes but to trace the ways
Of highest agents deemed however wise
Queen of this universe do not believe
Those rigid threats of death ye shall not die
How should you by the fruit it gives you life
To knowledge by the threatener look on me
Me who have touched and tasted yet both live
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
Meant me by venturing higher than my lot
Shall that be shut to Man which to the Beast
Is open or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue whom the pain
Of death denounced whatever thing death be
Deterred not from achieving what might lead
To happier life knowledge of good and evil
Of good how just of evil if what is evil
Be real why not known since easier shunned
God therefore cannot hurt ye and be just
Not just not God not feared then nor obeyed
Your fear itself of death removes the fear
Why then was this forbid Why but to awe
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant
His worshippers He knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof your eyes that seem so clear
Yet are but dim shall perfectly be then
Opened and cleared and ye shall be as Gods
Knowing both good and evil as they know
That ye shall be as Gods since I as Man
Internal Man is but proportion meet
I of brute human ye of human Gods
So ye shall die perhaps by putting off
Human to put on Gods death to be wished
Though threatened which no worse than this can bring
And what are Gods that Man may not become
As they participating God-like food
The Gods are first and that advantage use
On our belief that all from them proceeds
I question it for this fair earth I see
Warmed by the sun producing every kind
Them nothing if they all things who enclosed
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree
That whoso eats thereof forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave and wherein lies
The offence that Man should thus attain to know
What can your knowledge hurt him or this tree
Impart against his will if all be his
Or is it envy and can envy dwell
In heavenly breasts These these and many more
Causes import your need of this fair fruit
Goddess humane reach then and freely taste
He ended and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won
Fixed on the fruit she gazed which to behold
Might tempt alone and in her ears the sound
Yet rung of his persuasive words impregned
With reason to her seeming and with truth
Mean while the hour of noon drew on and waked
An eager appetite raised by the smell
So savoury of that fruit which with desire
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste
Solicited her longing eye yet first
Pausing a while thus to herself she mused
Great are thy virtues doubtless best of fruits
Though kept from man and worthy to be admired
Whose taste too long forborn at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute and taught
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise
Thy praise he also who forbids thy use
Conceals not from us naming thee the tree
Of knowledge knowledge both of good and evil
Forbids us then to taste but his forbidding
Commends thee more while it infers the good
By thee communicated and our want
For good unknown sure is not had or had
And yet unknown is as not had at all
In plain then what forbids he but to know
Forbids us good forbids us to be wise
Such prohibitions bind not But if death
Bind us with after-bands what profits then
Our inward freedom In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit our doom is we shall die
How dies the Serpent he hath eaten and lives
And knows and speaks and reasons and discerns
Irrational till then For us alone
Was death invented or to us denied
This intellectual food for beasts reserved
For beasts it seems yet that one beast which first
Hath tasted envies not but brings with joy
The good befallen him author unsuspect
Friendly to man far from deceit or guile
What fear I then rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil
Of God or death of law or penalty
Here grows the cure of all this fruit divine
Fair to the eye inviting to the taste
Of virtue to make wise What hinders then
To reach and feed at once both body and mind
So saying her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit she plucked she eat
Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe
That all was lost Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty Serpent and well might for Eve
Intent now wholly on her taste nought else
Regarded such delight till then as seemed
In fruit she never tasted whether true
Or fancied so through expectation high
Of knowledge not was Godhead from her thought
Greedily she ingorged without restraint
And knew not eating death Satiate at length
And hightened as with wine jocund and boon
Thus to herself she pleasingly began
O sovran virtuous precious of all trees
In Paradise of operation blest
To sapience hitherto obscured infamed
And thy fair fruit let hang as to no end
Created but henceforth my early care
Not without song each morning and due praise
Shall tend thee and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offered free to all
Till dieted by thee I grow mature
In knowledge as the Gods who all things know
Though others envy what they cannot give
For had the gift been theirs it had not here
Thus grown Experience next to thee I owe
Best guide not following thee I had remained
In ignorance thou openest wisdom way
And givest access though secret she retire
And I perhaps am secret Heaven is high
High and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on Earth and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder safe with all his spies
About him But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear shall I to him make known
As yet my change and give him to partake
Full happiness with me or rather not
But keeps the odds of knowledge in my power
Without copartner so to add what wants
In female sex the more to draw his love
And render me more equal and perhaps
A thing not undesirable sometime
Superiour for inferiour who is free
This may be well But what if God have seen
And death ensue then I shall be no more
And Adam wedded to another Eve
Shall live with her enjoying I extinct
A death to think Confirmed then I resolve
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe
So dear I love him that with him all deaths
I could endure without him live no life
So saying from the tree her step she turned
But first low reverence done as to the Power
That dwelt within whose presence had infused
Into the plant sciential sap derived
From nectar drink of Gods Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return had wove
Of choicest flowers a garland to adorn
Her tresses and her rural labours crown
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen
Great joy he promised to his thoughts and new
Solace in her return so long delayed
Yet oft his heart divine of something ill
Misgave him he the faltering measure felt
And forth to meet her went the way she took
That morn when first they parted by the tree
Of knowledge he must pass there he her met
Scarce from the tree returning in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit that downy smiled
New gathered and ambrosial smell diffused
To him she hasted in her face excuse
Came prologue and apology too prompt
Which with bland words at will she thus addressed
Hast thou not wondered Adam at my stay
Thee I have missed and thought it long deprived
Thy presence agony of love till now
Not felt nor shall be twice for never more
Mean I to try what rash untried I sought
The pain of absence from thy sight But strange
Hath been the cause and wonderful to hear
This tree is not as we are told a tree
Of danger tasted nor to evil unknown
Opening the way but of divine effect
To open eyes and make them Gods who taste
And hath been tasted such The serpent wise
Or not restrained as we or not obeying
Hath eaten of the fruit and is become
Not dead as we are threatened but thenceforth
Endued with human voice and human sense
Reasoning to admiration and with me
Persuasively hath so prevailed that I
Have also tasted and have also found
The effects to correspond opener mine eyes
Dim erst dilated spirits ampler heart
And growing up to Godhead which for thee
Chiefly I sought without thee can despise
For bliss as thou hast part to me is bliss
Tedious unshared with thee and odious soon
Thou therefore also taste that equal lot
May join us equal joy as equal love
Lest thou not tasting different degree
Disjoin us and I then too late renounce
Deity for thee when Fate will not permit
Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told
But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed
On the other side Adam soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve amazed
Astonied stood and blank while horrour chill
Ran through his veins and all his joints relaxed
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
Down dropt and all the faded roses shed
Speechless he stood and pale till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke
O fairest of Creation last and best
Of all God works Creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed
Holy divine good amiable or sweet
How art thou lost how on a sudden lost
Defaced deflowered and now to death devote
Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance how to violate
The sacred fruit forbidden Some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee yet unknown
And me with thee hath ruined for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die
How can I live without thee how forego
Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined
To live again in these wild woods forlorn
Should God create another Eve and I
Another rib afford yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart no no I feel
The link of Nature draw me flesh of flesh
Bone of my bone thou art and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted bliss or woe
So having said as one from sad dismay
Recomforted and after thoughts disturbed
Submitting to what seemed remediless
Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned
Bold deed thou hast presumed adventurous Eve
And peril great provoked who thus hast dared
Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit sacred to abstinence
Much more to taste it under ban to touch
But past who can recall or done undo
Not God Omnipotent nor Fate yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die perhaps the fact
Is not so heinous now foretasted fruit
Profaned first by the serpent by him first
Made common and unhallowed ere our taste
Nor yet on him found deadly yet he lives
Lives as thou saidst and gains to live as Man
Higher degree of life inducement strong
To us as likely tasting to attain
Proportional ascent which cannot be
But to be Gods or Angels demi-Gods
Nor can I think that God Creator wise
Though threatening will in earnest so destroy
Us his prime creatures dignified so high
Set over all his works which in our fall
For us created needs with us must fail
Dependant made so God shall uncreate
Be frustrate do undo and labour lose
Not well conceived of God who though his power
Creation could repeat yet would be loth
Us to abolish lest the Adversary
Triumph and say Fickle their state whom God
Most favours who can please him long Me first
He ruined now Mankind whom will he next
Matter of scorn not to be given the Foe
However I with thee have fixed my lot
Certain to undergo like doom If death
Consort with thee death is to me as life
So forcible within my heart I feel
The bond of Nature draw me to my own
My own in thee for what thou art is mine
Our state cannot be severed we are one
One flesh to lose thee were to lose myself
So Adam and thus Eve to him replied
O glorious trial of exceeding love
Illustrious evidence example high
Engaging me to emulate but short
Of thy perfection how shall I attain
Adam from whose dear side I boast me sprung
And gladly of our union hear thee speak
One heart one soul in both whereof good proof
This day affords declaring thee resolved
Rather than death or aught than death more dread
Shall separate us linked in love so dear
To undergo with me one guilt one crime
If any be of tasting this fair fruit
Whose virtue for of good still good proceeds
Direct or by occasion hath presented
This happy trial of thy love which else
So eminently never had been known
Were it I thought death menaced would ensue
This my attempt I would sustain alone
The worst and not persuade thee rather die
Deserted than oblige thee with a fact
Pernicious to thy peace chiefly assured
Remarkably so late of thy so true
So faithful love unequalled but I feel
Far otherwise the event not death but life
Augmented opened eyes new hopes new joys
Taste so divine that what of sweet before
Hath touched my sense flat seems to this and harsh
On my experience Adam freely taste
And fear of death deliver to the winds
So saying she embraced him and for joy
Tenderly wept much won that he his love
Had so ennobled as of choice to incur
Divine displeasure for her sake or death
In recompence for such compliance bad
Such recompence best merits from the bough
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand he scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge not deceived
But fondly overcome with female charm
Earth trembled from her entrails as again
In pangs and Nature gave a second groan
Sky loured and muttering thunder some sad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal sin
Original while Adam took no thought
Eating his fill nor Eve to iterate
Her former trespass feared the more to sooth
Him with her loved society that now
As with new wine intoxicated both
They swim in mirth and fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings
Wherewith to scorn the earth But that false fruit
Far other operation first displayed
Carnal desire inflaming he on Eve
Began to cast lascivious eyes she him
As wantonly repaid in lust they burn
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move
Eve now I see thou art exact of taste
And elegant of sapience no small part
Since to each meaning savour we apply
And palate call judicious I the praise
Yield thee so well this day thou hast purveyed
Much pleasure we have lost while we abstained
From this delightful fruit nor known till now
True relish tasting if such pleasure be
In things to us forbidden it might be wished
For this one tree had been forbidden ten
But come so well refreshed now let us play
As meet is after such delicious fare
For never did thy beauty since the day
I saw thee first and wedded thee adorned
With all perfections so inflame my sense
With ardour to enjoy thee fairer now
Than ever bounty of this virtuous tree
So said he and forbore not glance or toy
Of amorous intent well understood
Of Eve whose eye darted contagious fire
Her hand he seised and to a shady bank
Thick over-head with verdant roof imbowered
He led her nothing loth flowers were the couch
Pansies and violets and asphodel
And hyacinth Earth freshest softest lap
There they their fill of love and love disport
Took largely of their mutual guilt the seal
The solace of their sin till dewy sleep
Oppressed them wearied with their amorous play
Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit
That with exhilarating vapour bland
About their spirits had played and inmost powers
Made err was now exhaled and grosser sleep
Bred of unkindly fumes with conscious dreams
Incumbered now had left them up they rose
As from unrest and each the other viewing
Soon found their eyes how opened and their minds
How darkened innocence that as a veil
Had shadowed them from knowing ill was gone
Just confidence and native righteousness
And honour from about them naked left
To guilty Shame he covered but his robe
Uncovered more So rose the Danite strong
Herculean Samson from the harlot-lap
Of Philistean Dalilah and waked
Shorn of his strength They destitute and bare
Of all their virtue Silent and in face
Confounded long they sat as strucken mute
Till Adam though not less than Eve abashed
At length gave utterance to these words constrained
O Eve in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false worm of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit Man voice true in our fall
False in our promised rising since our eyes
Opened we find indeed and find we know
Both good and evil good lost and evil got
Bad fruit of knowledge if this be to know
Which leaves us naked thus of honour void
Of innocence of faith of purity
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained
And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence whence evil store
Even shame the last of evils of the first
Be sure then How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or Angel erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld Those heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
Insufferably bright O might I here
In solitude live savage in some glade
Obscured where highest woods impenetrable
To star or sun-light spread their umbrage broad
And brown as evening Cover me ye Pines
Ye Cedars with innumerable boughs
Hide me where I may never see them more 
But let us now as in bad plight devise
What best may for the present serve to hide
The parts of each from other that seem most
To shame obnoxious and unseemliest seen
Some tree whose broad smooth leaves together sewed
And girded on our loins may cover round
Those middle parts that this new comer Shame
There sit not and reproach us as unclean
So counselled he and both together went
Into the thickest wood there soon they chose
The fig-tree not that kind for fruit renowned
But such as at this day to Indians known
In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms
Branching so broad and long that in the ground
The bended twigs take root and daughters grow
About the mother tree a pillared shade
High over-arched and echoing walks between
There oft the Indian herdsman shunning heat
Shelters in cool and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade Those leaves
They gathered broad as Amazonian targe
And with what skill they had together sewed
To gird their waist vain covering if to hide
Their guilt and dreaded shame O how unlike
To that first naked glory Such of late
Columbus found the American so girt
With feathered cincture naked else and wild
Among the trees on isles and woody shores
Thus fenced and as they thought their shame in part
Covered but not at rest or ease of mind
They sat them down to weep nor only tears
Rained at their eyes but high winds worse within
Began to rise high passions anger hate
Mistrust suspicion discord and shook sore
Their inward state of mind calm region once
And full of peace now tost and turbulent
For Understanding ruled not and the Will
Heard not her lore both in subjection now
To sensual Appetite who from beneath
Usurping over sovran Reason claimed
Superiour sway From thus distempered breast
Adam estranged in look and altered style
Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed
Would thou hadst hearkened to my words and staid
With me as I besought thee when that strange
Desire of wandering this unhappy morn
I know not whence possessed thee we had then
Remained still happy not as now despoiled
Of all our good shamed naked miserable
Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve
The faith they owe when earnestly they seek
Such proof conclude they then begin to fail
To whom soon moved with touch of blame thus Eve
What words have passed thy lips Adam severe
Imputest thou that to my default or will
Of wandering as thou callest it which who knows
But might as ill have happened thou being by
Or to thyself perhaps Hadst thou been there
Or here the attempt thou couldst not have discerned
Fraud in the Serpent speaking as he spake
No ground of enmity between us known
Why he should mean me ill or seek to harm
Was I to have never parted from thy side
As good have grown there still a lifeless rib
Being as I am why didst not thou the head
Command me absolutely not to go
Going into such danger as thou saidst
Too facile then thou didst not much gainsay
Nay didst permit approve and fair dismiss
Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent
Neither had I transgressed nor thou with me
To whom then first incensed Adam replied
Is this the love is this the recompence
Of mine to thee ingrateful Eve expressed
Immutable when thou wert lost not I
Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss
Yet willingly chose rather death with thee
And am I now upbraided as the cause
Of thy transgressing Not enough severe
It seems in thy restraint What could I more
I warned thee I admonished thee foretold
The danger and the lurking enemy
That lay in wait beyond this had been force
And force upon free will hath here no place
But confidence then bore thee on secure
Either to meet no danger or to find
Matter of glorious trial and perhaps
I also erred in overmuch admiring
What seemed in thee so perfect that I thought
No evil durst attempt thee but I rue
The errour now which is become my crime
And thou the accuser Thus it shall befall
Him who to worth in women overtrusting
Lets her will rule restraint she will not brook
Watering the ground and with our sighs the air
Frequenting sent from hearts contrite in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn
From his displeasure in whose look serene
When angry most he seemed and most severe
What else but favour grace and mercy shone
So spake our father penitent nor Eve
Felt less remorse they forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judged them prostrate fell
Before him reverent and both confessed
Humbly their faults and pardon begged with tears
Watering the ground and with their sighs the air
Frequenting sent from hearts contrite in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek
Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Praying for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace descending had removed
The stony from their hearts and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead that sighs now breathed
Unutterable which the Spirit of prayer
Inspired and winged for Heaven with speedier flight
Than loudest oratory Yet their port
Not of mean suitors nor important less
Seemed their petition than when the ancient pair
In fables old less ancient yet than these
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha to restore
The race of mankind drowned before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout To Heaven their prayers
Flew up nor missed the way by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate in they passed
Dimensionless through heavenly doors then clad
With incense where the golden altar fumed
By their great intercessour came in sight
Before the Father throne them the glad Son
Presenting thus to intercede began
See Father what first-fruits on earth are sprung
From thy implanted grace in Man these sighs
And prayers which in this golden censer mixed
With incense I thy priest before thee bring
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed
Sown with contrition in his heart than those
Which his own hand manuring all the trees
Of Paradise could have produced ere fallen
From innocence Now therefore bend thine ear
To supplication hear his sighs though mute
Unskilful with what words to pray let me
Interpret for him me his advocate
And propitiation all his works on me
Good or not good ingraft my merit those
Shall perfect and for these my death shall pay
Accept me and in me from these receive
The smell of peace toward mankind let him live
Before thee reconciled at least his days
Numbered though sad till death his doom which I
To mitigate thus plead not to reverse
To better life shall yield him where with me
All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss
Made one with me as I with thee am one
To whom the Father without cloud serene
All thy request for Man accepted Son
Obtain all thy request was my decree
But longer in that Paradise to dwell
The law I gave to Nature him forbids
Those pure immortal elements that know
No gross no unharmonious mixture foul
Eject him tainted now and purge him off
As a distemper gross to air as gross
And mortal food as may dispose him best
For dissolution wrought by sin that first
Distempered all things and of incorrupt
Corrupted I at first with two fair gifts
Created him endowed with happiness
And immortality that fondly lost
This other served but to eternize woe
Till I provided death so death becomes
His final remedy and after life
Tried in sharp tribulation and refined
By faith and faithful works to second life
Waked in the renovation of the just
Resigns him up with Heaven and Earth renewed
But let us call to synod all the Blest
Through Heaven wide bounds from them I will not hide
My judgements how with mankind I proceed
As how with peccant Angels late they saw
And in their state though firm stood more confirmed
He ended and the Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watched he blew
His trumpet heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom The angelick blast
Filled all the regions from their blisful bowers
Of amarantine shade fountain or spring
By the waters of life where'er they sat
In fellowships of joy the sons of light
Hasted resorting to the summons high
And took their seats till from his throne supreme
The Almighty thus pronounced his sovran will
O Sons like one of us Man is become
To know both good and evil since his taste
Of that defended fruit but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost and evil got
Happier had it sufficed him to have known
Good by itself and evil not at all
He sorrows now repents and prays contrite
My motions in him longer than they move
His heart I know how variable and vain
Self-left Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach also of the tree of life and eat
And live for ever dream at least to live
For ever to remove him I decree
And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken fitter soil
Michael this my behest have thou in charge
Take to thee from among the Cherubim
Thy choice of flaming warriours lest the Fiend
Or in behalf of Man or to invade
Vacant possession some new trouble raise
Haste thee and from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair
From hallowed ground the unholy and denounce
To them and to their progeny from thence
Perpetual banishment Yet lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urged
For I behold them softened and with tears
Bewailing their excess all terrour hide
If patiently thy bidding they obey
Dismiss them not disconsolate reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days
As I shall thee enlighten intermix
My covenant in the Woman seed renewed
So send them forth though sorrowing yet in peace
And on the east side of the garden place
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs
Cherubick watch and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving all approach far off to fright
And guard all passage to the tree of life
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove
To Spirits foul and all my trees their prey
With whose stolen fruit Man once more to delude
He ceased and the arch-angelick Power prepared
For swift descent with him the cohort bright
Of watchful Cherubim four faces each
Had like a double Janus all their shape
Spangled with eyes more numerous than those
Of Argus and more wakeful than to drouse
Charmed with Arcadian pipe the pastoral reed
Of Hermes or his opiate rod Mean while
To re-salute the world with sacred light
Leucothea waked and with fresh dews imbalmed
The earth when Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons and found
Strength added from above new hope to spring
Out of despair joy but with fear yet linked
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed
Eve easily my faith admit that all
The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends
But that from us aught should ascend to Heaven
So prevalent as to concern the mind
Of God high-blest or to incline his will
Hard to belief may seem yet this will prayer
Or one short sigh of human breath upborne
Even to the seat of God For since I sought
By prayer the offended Deity to appease
Kneeled and before him humbled all my heart
Methought I saw him placable and mild
Bending his ear persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour peace returned
Home to my breast and to my memory
His promise that thy seed shall bruise our foe
Which then not minded in dismay yet now
Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is past and we shall live Whence hail to thee
Eve rightly called mother of all mankind
Mother of all things living since by thee
Man is to live and all things live for Man
To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek
Ill-worthy I such title should belong
To me transgressour who for thee ordained
A help became thy snare to me reproach
Rather belongs distrust and all dispraise
But infinite in pardon was my Judge
That I who first brought death on all am graced
The source of life next favourable thou
Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st
Far other name deserving But the field
To labour calls us now with sweat imposed
Though after sleepless night for see the morn
All unconcerned with our unrest begins
Her rosy progress smiling let us forth
I never from thy side henceforth to stray
Where'er our day work lies though now enjoined
Laborious till day droop while here we dwell
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks
Here let us live though in fallen state content
So spake so wished much humbled Eve but Fate
Subscribed not Nature first gave signs impressed
On bird beast air air suddenly eclipsed
After short blush of morn nigh in her sight
The bird of Jove stooped from his aery tour
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods
First hunter then pursued a gentle brace
Goodliest of all the forest hart and hind
Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight
Adam observed and with his eye the chase
Pursuing not unmoved to Eve thus spake
O Eve some further change awaits us nigh
Which Heaven by these mute signs in Nature shows
Forerunners of his purpose or to warn
Us haply too secure of our discharge
From penalty because from death released
Some days how long and what till then our life
Who knows or more than this that we are dust
And thither must return and be no more
Why else this double object in our sight
Of flight pursued in the air and o'er the ground
One way the self-same hour why in the east
Darkness ere day mid-course and morning-light
More orient in yon western cloud that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white
And slow descends with something heavenly fraught
He erred not for by this the heavenly bands
Down from a sky of jasper lighted now
In Paradise and on a hill made halt
A glorious apparition had not doubt
And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam eye
Not that more glorious when the Angels met
Jacob in Mahanaim where he saw
The field pavilioned with his guardians bright
Nor that which on the flaming mount appeared
In Dothan covered with a camp of fire
Against the Syrian king who to surprise
One man assassin-like had levied war
War unproclaimed The princely Hierarch
In their bright stand there left his Powers to seise
Possession of the garden he alone
To find where Adam sheltered took his way
Not unperceived of Adam who to Eve
While the great visitant approached thus spake
Eve now expect great tidings which perhaps
Of us will soon determine or impose
New laws to be observed for I descry
From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill
One of the heavenly host and by his gait
None of the meanest some great Potentate
Or of the Thrones above such majesty
Invests him coming yet not terrible
That I should fear nor sociably mild
As Raphael that I should much confide
But solemn and sublime whom not to offend
With reverence I must meet and thou retire
He ended and the Arch-Angel soon drew nigh
Not in his shape celestial but as man
Clad to meet man over his lucid arms
A military vest of purple flowed
Livelier than Meliboean or the grain
Of Sarra worn by kings and heroes old
In time of truce Iris had dipt the woof
His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime
In manhood where youth ended by his side
As in a glistering zodiack hung the sword
Satan dire dread and in his hand the spear
Adam bowed low he kingly from his state
Inclined not but his coming thus declared
Adam Heaven high behest no preface needs
Sufficient that thy prayers are heard and Death
Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress
Defeated of his seisure many days
Given thee of grace wherein thou mayest repent
And one bad act with many deeds well done
Mayest cover Well may then thy Lord appeased
Redeem thee quite from Death rapacious claim
But longer in this Paradise to dwell
Permits not to remove thee I am come
And send thee from the garden forth to till
The ground whence thou wast taken fitter soil
He added not for Adam at the news
Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood
That all his senses bound Eve who unseen
Yet all had heard with audible lament
Discovered soon the place of her retire
O unexpected stroke worse than of Death
Must I thus leave thee Paradise thus leave
Thee native soil these happy walks and shades
Fit haunt of Gods where I had hope to spend
Quiet though sad the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both O flowers
That never will in other climate grow
My early visitation and my last
At even which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud and gave ye names
Who now shall rear ye to the sun or rank
Your tribes and water from the ambrosial fount
Thee lastly nuptial bower by me adorned
With what to sight or smell was sweet from thee
How shall I part and whither wander down
Into a lower world to this obscure
And wild how shall we breathe in other air
Less pure accustomed to immortal fruits
Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild
Lament not Eve but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost nor set thy heart
Thus over-fond on that which is not thine
Thy going is not lonely with thee goes
Thy husband whom to follow thou art bound
Where he abides think there thy native soil
Adam by this from the cold sudden damp
Recovering and his scattered spirits returned
To Michael thus his humble words addressed
Celestial whether among the Thrones or named
Of them the highest for such of shape may seem
Prince above princes gently hast thou told
Thy message which might else in telling wound
And in performing end us what besides
Of sorrow and dejection and despair
Our frailty can sustain thy tidings bring
Departure from this happy place our sweet
Recess and only consolation left
Familiar to our eyes all places else
Inhospitable appear and desolate
Nor knowing us nor known And if by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of Him who all things can I would not cease
To weary him with my assiduous cries
But prayer against his absolute decree
No more avails than breath against the wind
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth
Therefore to his great bidding I submit
This most afflicts me that departing hence
As from his face I shall be hid deprived
His blessed countenance Here I could frequent
With worship place by place where he vouchsafed
Presence Divine and to my sons relate
On this mount he appeared under this tree
Stood visible among these pines his voice
I heard here with him at this fountain talked
So many grateful altars I would rear
Of grassy turf and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook in memory
Or monument to ages and theron
Offer sweet-smelling gums and fruits and flowers
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances or foot-step trace
For though I fled him angry yet recalled
To life prolonged and promised race I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory and far off his steps adore
To whom thus Michael with regard benign
Adam thou knowest Heaven his and all the Earth
Not this rock only his Omnipresence fills
Land sea and air and every kind that lives
Fomented by his virtual power and warmed
All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule
No despicable gift surmise not then
His presence to these narrow bounds confined
Of Paradise or Eden this had been
Perhaps thy capital seat from whence had spread
All generations and had hither come
From all the ends of the earth to celebrate
And reverence thee their great progenitor
But this pre-eminence thou hast lost brought down
To dwell on even ground now with thy sons
Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain
God is as here and will be found alike
Present and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love his face
Express and of his steps the track divine
Which that thou mayest believe and be confirmed
Ere thou from hence depart know I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee and to thy offspring good with bad
Expect to hear supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men thereby to learn
True patience and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow equally inured
By moderation either state to bear
Prosperous or adverse so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life and best prepared endure
Thy mortal passage when it comes Ascend
This hill let Eve for I have drenched her eyes
Here sleep below while thou to foresight wakest
As once thou sleptst while she to life was formed
To whom thus Adam gratefully replied
Ascend I follow thee safe Guide the path
Thou leadest me and to the hand of Heaven submit
However chastening to the evil turn
My obvious breast arming to overcome
By suffering and earn rest from labour won
If so I may attain So both ascend
In the visions of God It was a hill
Of Paradise the highest from whose top
The hemisphere of earth in clearest ken
Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay
Not higher that hill nor wider looking round
Whereon for different cause the Tempter set
Our second Adam in the wilderness
To show him all Earth kingdoms and their glory
His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame the seat
Of mightiest empire from the destined walls
Of Cambalu seat of Cathaian Can
And Samarchand by Oxus Temir throne
To Paquin of Sinaean kings and thence
To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul
Down to the golden Chersonese or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat or since
In Hispahan or where the Russian Ksar
In Mosco or the Sultan in Bizance
Turchestan-born nor could his eye not ken
The empire of Negus to his utmost port
Ercoco and the less maritim kings
Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind
And Sofala thought Ophir to the realm
Of Congo and Angola farthest south
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount
The kingdoms of Almansor Fez and Sus
Morocco and Algiers and Tremisen
On Europe thence and where Rome was to sway
The world in spirit perhaps he also saw
Rich Mexico the seat of Montezume
And Cusco in Peru the richer seat
Of Atabalipa and yet unspoiled
Guiana whose great city Geryon sons
Call El Dorado But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam eyes the film removed
Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight
Had bred then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve for he had much to see
And from the well of life three drops instilled
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight
That Adam now enforced to close his eyes
Sunk down and all his spirits became entranced
But him the gentle Angel by the hand
Soon raised and his attention thus recalled
Adam now ope thine eyes and first behold
The effects which thy original crime hath wrought
In some to spring from thee who never touched
The excepted tree nor with the snake conspired
Nor sinned thy sin yet from that sin derive
Corruption to bring forth more violent deeds
His eyes he opened and beheld a field
Part arable and tilth whereon were sheaves
New reaped the other part sheep-walks and folds
I' the midst an altar as the land-mark stood
Rustick of grassy sord thither anon
A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought
First fruits the green ear and the yellow sheaf
Unculled as came to hand a shepherd next
More meek came with the firstlings of his flock
Choicest and best then sacrificing laid
The inwards and their fat with incense strowed
On the cleft wood and all due rights performed
His offering soon propitious fire from Heaven
Consumed with nimble glance and grateful steam
The other not for his was not sincere
Whereat he inly raged and as they talked
Smote him into the midriff with a stone
That beat out life he fell and deadly pale
Groaned out his soul with gushing blood effused
Much at that sight was Adam in his heart
Dismayed and thus in haste to the Angel cried
O Teacher some great mischief hath befallen
To that meek man who well had sacrificed
Is piety thus and pure devotion paid
To whom Michael thus he also moved replied
These two are brethren Adam and to come
Out of thy loins the unjust the just hath slain
For envy that his brother offering found
From Heaven acceptance but the bloody fact
Will be avenged and the other faith approved
Lose no reward though here thou see him die
Rolling in dust and gore To which our sire
Alas both for the deed and for the cause
But have I now seen Death Is this the way
I must return to native dust O sight
Of terrour foul and ugly to behold
Horrid to think how horrible to feel
To whom thus Michael Death thou hast seen
In his first shape on Man but many shapes
Of Death and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave all dismal yet to sense
More terrible at the entrance than within
Some as thou sawest by violent stroke shall die
By fire flood famine by intemperance more
In meats and drinks which on the earth shall bring
Diseases dire of which a monstrous crew
Before thee shall appear that thou mayest know
What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Shall bring on Men Immediately a place
Before his eyes appeared sad noisome dark
A lazar-house it seemed wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased all maladies
Of ghastly spasm or racking torture qualms
Of heart-sick agony all feverous kinds
Convulsions epilepsies fierce catarrhs
Intestine stone and ulcer colick-pangs
Demoniack phrenzy moaping melancholy
And moon-struck madness pining atrophy
Marasmus and wide-wasting pestilence
Dropsies and asthmas and joint-racking rheums
Dire was the tossing deep the groans Despair
Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook but delayed to strike though oft invoked
With vows as their chief good and final hope
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold Adam could not but wept
Though not of woman born compassion quelled
His best of man and gave him up to tears
A space till firmer thoughts restrained excess
And scarce recovering words his plaint renewed
O miserable mankind to what fall
Degraded to what wretched state reserved
Better end here unborn Why is life given
To be thus wrested from us rather why
Obtruded on us thus who if we knew
What we receive would either no accept
Life offered or soon beg to lay it down
Glad to be so dismissed in peace Can thus
The image of God in Man created once
So goodly and erect though faulty since
To such unsightly sufferings be debased
Under inhuman pains Why should not Man
Retaining still divine similitude
In part from such deformities be free
And for his Maker image sake exempt
Their Maker image answered Michael then
Forsook them when themselves they vilified
To serve ungoverned Appetite and took
His image whom they served a brutish vice
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve
Therefore so abject is their punishment
Disfiguring not God likeness but their own
Or if his likeness by themselves defaced
While they pervert pure Nature healthful rules
To loathsome sickness worthily since they
God image did not reverence in themselves
I yield it just said Adam and submit
But is there yet no other way besides
These painful passages how we may come
To death and mix with our connatural dust
There is said Michael if thou well observe
The rule of Not too much by temperance taught
In what thou eatest and drinkest seeking from thence
Due nourishment not gluttonous delight
Till many years over thy head return
So mayest thou live till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother lap or be with ease
Gathered nor harshly plucked for death mature
This is Old Age but then thou must outlive
Thy youth thy strength thy beauty which will change
To withered weak and gray thy senses then
Obtuse all taste of pleasure must forego
To what thou hast and for the air of youth
Hopeful and cheerful in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down and last consume
The balm of life To whom our ancestor
Henceforth I fly not death nor would prolong
Life much bent rather how I may be quit
Fairest and easiest of this cumbrous charge
Which I must keep till my appointed day
Of rendering up and patiently attend
My dissolution Michael replied
Nor love thy life nor hate but what thou livest
Live well how long or short permit to Heaven
And now prepare thee for another sight
He looked and saw a spacious plain whereon
Were tents of various hue by some were herds
Of cattle grazing others whence the sound
Of instruments that made melodious chime
Was heard of harp and organ and who moved
Their stops and chords was seen his volant touch
Instinct through all proportions low and high
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue
In other part stood one who at the forge
Labouring two massy clods of iron and brass
Had melted whether found where casual fire
Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale
Down to the veins of earth thence gliding hot
To some cave mouth or whether washed by stream
From underground the liquid ore he drained
Into fit moulds prepared from which he formed
First his own tools then what might else be wrought
Fusil or graven in metal After these
But on the hither side a different sort
From the high neighbouring hills which was their seat
Down to the plain descended by their guise
Just men they seemed and all their study bent
To worship God aright and know his works
Not hid nor those things last which might preserve
Freedom and peace to Men they on the plain
Long had not walked when from the tents behold
A bevy of fair women richly gay
In gems and wanton dress to the harp they sung
Soft amorous ditties and in dance came on
The men though grave eyed them and let their eyes
Rove without rein till in the amorous net
Fast caught they liked and each his liking chose
And now of love they treat till the evening-star
Love harbinger appeared then all in heat
They light the nuptial torch and bid invoke
Hymen then first to marriage rites invoked
With feast and musick all the tents resound
Such happy interview and fair event
Of love and youth not lost songs garlands flowers
And charming symphonies attached the heart
Of Adam soon inclined to admit delight
The bent of nature which he thus expressed
True opener of mine eyes prime Angel blest
Much better seems this vision and more hope
Of peaceful days portends than those two past
Those were of hate and death or pain much worse
Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends
To whom thus Michael Judge not what is best
By pleasure though to nature seeming meet
Created as thou art to nobler end
Holy and pure conformity divine
Those tents thou sawest so pleasant were the tents
Of wickedness wherein shall dwell his race
Who slew his brother studious they appear
Of arts that polish life inventers rare
Unmindful of their Maker though his Spirit
Taught them but they his gifts acknowledged none
Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget
For that fair female troop thou sawest that seemed
Of Goddesses so blithe so smooth so gay
Yet empty of all good wherein consists
Woman domestick honour and chief praise
Bred only and completed to the taste
Of lustful appetence to sing to dance
To dress and troll the tongue and roll the eye
To these that sober race of men whose lives
Religious titled them the sons of God
Shall yield up all their virtue all their fame
Ignobly to the trains and to the smiles
Of these fair atheists and now swim in joy
Erelong to swim at large and laugh for which
The world erelong a world of tears must weep
To whom thus Adam of short joy bereft
O pity and shame that they who to live well
Entered so fair should turn aside to tread
Paths indirect or in the mid way faint
But still I see the tenour of Man woe
Holds on the same from Woman to begin
From Man effeminate slackness it begins
Said the Angel who should better hold his place
By wisdom and superiour gifts received
But now prepare thee for another scene
He looked and saw wide territory spread
Before him towns and rural works between
Cities of men with lofty gates and towers
Concourse in arms fierce faces threatening war
Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise
Part wield their arms part curb the foaming steed
Single or in array of battle ranged
Both horse and foot nor idly mustering stood
One way a band select from forage drives
A herd of beeves fair oxen and fair kine
From a fat meadow ground or fleecy flock
Ewes and their bleating lambs over the plain
Their booty scarce with life the shepherds fly
But call in aid which makes a bloody fray
With cruel tournament the squadrons join
Where cattle pastured late now scattered lies
With carcasses and arms the ensanguined field
Deserted Others to a city strong
Lay siege encamped by battery scale and mine
Assaulting others from the wall defend
With dart and javelin stones and sulphurous fire
On each hand slaughter and gigantick deeds
In other part the sceptered heralds call
To council in the city-gates anon
Gray-headed men and grave with warriours mixed
Assemble and harangues are heard but soon
In factious opposition till at last
Of middle age one rising eminent
In wise deport spake much of right and wrong
Of justice or religion truth and peace
And judgement from above him old and young
Exploded and had seized with violent hands
Had not a cloud descending snatched him thence
Unseen amid the throng so violence
Proceeded and oppression and sword-law
Through all the plain and refuge none was found
Adam was all in tears and to his guide
Lamenting turned full sad O what are these
Death ministers not men who thus deal death
Inhumanly to men and multiply
Ten thousandfold the sin of him who slew
His brother for of whom such massacre
Make they but of their brethren men of men
But who was that just man whom had not Heaven
Rescued had in his righteousness been lost
To whom thus Michael These are the product
Of those ill-mated marriages thou sawest
Where good with bad were matched who of themselves
Abhor to join and by imprudence mixed
Produce prodigious births of body or mind
Such were these giants men of high renown
For in those days might only shall be admired
And valour and heroick virtue called
To overcome in battle and subdue
Nations and bring home spoils with infinite
Man-slaughter shall be held the highest pitch
Of human glory and for glory done
Of triumph to be styled great conquerours
Patrons of mankind Gods and sons of Gods
Destroyers rightlier called and plagues of men
Thus fame shall be achieved renown on earth
And what most merits fame in silence hid
But he the seventh from thee whom thou beheldst
The only righteous in a world preverse
And therefore hated therefore so beset
With foes for daring single to be just
And utter odious truth that God would come
To judge them with his Saints him the Most High
Rapt in a balmy cloud with winged steeds
Did as thou sawest receive to walk with God
High in salvation and the climes of bliss
Exempt from death to show thee what reward
Awaits the good the rest what punishment
Which now direct thine eyes and soon behold
He looked and saw the face of things quite changed
The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar
All now was turned to jollity and game
To luxury and riot feast and dance
Marrying or prostituting as befel
Rape or adultery where passing fair
Allured them thence from cups to civil broils
At length a reverend sire among them came
And of their doings great dislike declared
And testified against their ways he oft
Frequented their assemblies whereso met
Triumphs or festivals and to them preached
Conversion and repentance as to souls
In prison under judgements imminent
But all in vain which when he saw he ceased
Contending and removed his tents far off
Then from the mountain hewing timber tall
Began to build a vessel of huge bulk
Measured by cubit length and breadth and highth
Smeared round with pitch and in the side a door
Contrived and of provisions laid in large
For man and beast when lo a wonder strange
Of every beast and bird and insect small
Came sevens and pairs and entered in as taught
Their order last the sire and his three sons
With their four wives and God made fast the door
Mean while the south-wind rose and with black wings
Wide-hovering all the clouds together drove
From under Heaven the hills to their supply
Vapour and exhalation dusk and moist
Sent up amain and now the thickened sky
Like a dark ceiling stood down rushed the rain
Impetuous and continued till the earth
No more was seen the floating vessel swum
Uplifted and secure with beaked prow
Rode tilting o'er the waves all dwellings else
Flood overwhelmed and them with all their pomp
Deep under water rolled sea covered sea
Sea without shore and in their palaces
Where luxury late reigned sea-monsters whelped
And stabled of mankind so numerous late
All left in one small bottom swum imbarked
How didst thou grieve then Adam to behold
The end of all thy offspring end so sad
Depopulation Thee another flood
Of tears and sorrow a flood thee also drowned
And sunk thee as thy sons till gently reared
By the Angel on thy feet thou stoodest at last
Though comfortless as when a father mourns
His children all in view destroyed at once
And scarce to the Angel utter'dst thus thy plaint
O visions ill foreseen Better had I
Lived ignorant of future so had borne
My part of evil only each day lot
Enough to bear those now that were dispensed
The burden of many ages on me light
At once by my foreknowledge gaining birth
Abortive to torment me ere their being
With thought that they must be Let no man seek
Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall
Him or his children evil he may be sure
Which neither his foreknowing can prevent
And he the future evil shall no less
In apprehension than in substance feel
Grievous to bear but that care now is past
Man is not whom to warn those few escaped
Famine and anguish will at last consume
Wandering that watery desart I had hope
When violence was ceased and war on earth
All would have then gone well peace would have crowned
With length of happy days the race of Man
But I was far deceived for now I see
Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste
How comes it thus unfold celestial Guide
And whether here the race of Man will end
To whom thus Michael Those whom last thou sawest
In triumph and luxurious wealth are they
First seen in acts of prowess eminent
And great exploits but of true virtue void
Who having spilt much blood and done much wast
Subduing nations and achieved thereby
Fame in the world high titles and rich prey
Shall change their course to pleasure ease and sloth
Surfeit and lust till wantonness and pride
Raise out of friendship hostile deeds in peace
The conquered also and enslaved by war
Shall with their freedom lost all virtue lose
And fear of God from whom their piety feigned
In sharp contest of battle found no aid
Against invaders therefore cooled in zeal
Thenceforth shall practice how to live secure
Worldly or dissolute on what their lords
Shall leave them to enjoy for the earth shall bear
More than enough that temperance may be tried
So all shall turn degenerate all depraved
Justice and temperance truth and faith forgot
One man except the only son of light
In a dark age against example good
Against allurement custom and a world
Offended fearless of reproach and scorn
Or violence he of their wicked ways
Shall them admonish and before them set
The paths of righteousness how much more safe
And full of peace denouncing wrath to come
On their impenitence and shall return
Of them derided but of God observed
The one just man alive by his command
Shall build a wonderous ark as thou beheldst
To save himself and houshold from amidst
A world devote to universal wrack
No sooner he with them of man and beast
Select for life shall in the ark be lodged
And sheltered round but all the cataracts
Of Heaven set open on the Earth shall pour
Rain day and night all fountains of the deep
Broke up shall heave the ocean to usurp
Beyond all bounds till inundation rise
Above the highest hills Then shall this mount
Of Paradise by might of waves be moved
Out of his place pushed by the horned flood
With all his verdure spoiled and trees adrift
Down the great river to the opening gulf
And there take root an island salt and bare
The haunt of seals and orcs and sea-mews' clang
To teach thee that God attributes to place
No sanctity if none be thither brought
By men who there frequent or therein dwell
And now what further shall ensue behold
He looked and saw the ark hull on the flood
Which now abated for the clouds were fled
Driven by a keen north-wind that blowing dry
Wrinkled the face of deluge as decayed
And the clear sun on his wide watery glass
Gazed hot and of the fresh wave largely drew
As after thirst which made their flowing shrink
From standing lake to tripping ebb that stole
With soft foot towards the deep who now had stopt
His sluces as the Heaven his windows shut
The ark no more now floats but seems on ground
Fast on the top of some high mountain fixed
And now the tops of hills as rocks appear
With clamour thence the rapid currents drive
Towards the retreating sea their furious tide
Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies
And after him the surer messenger
A dove sent forth once and again to spy
Green tree or ground whereon his foot may light
The second time returning in his bill
An olive-leaf he brings pacifick sign
Anon dry ground appears and from his ark
The ancient sire descends with all his train
Then with uplifted hands and eyes devout
Grateful to Heaven over his head beholds
A dewy cloud and in the cloud a bow
Conspicuous with three lifted colours gay
Betokening peace from God and covenant new
Whereat the heart of Adam erst so sad
Greatly rejoiced and thus his joy broke forth
O thou who future things canst represent
As present heavenly Instructer I revive
At this last sight assured that Man shall live
With all the creatures and their seed preserve
Far less I now lament for one whole world
Of wicked sons destroyed than I rejoice
For one man found so perfect and so just
That God vouchsafes to raise another world
From him and all his anger to forget
But say what mean those coloured streaks in Heaven
Distended as the brow of God appeased
Or serve they as a flowery verge to bind
The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud
Lest it again dissolve and shower the earth
To whom the Arch-Angel Dextrously thou aimest
So willingly doth God remit his ire
Though late repenting him of Man depraved
Grieved at his heart when looking down he saw
The whole earth filled with violence and all flesh
Corrupting each their way yet those removed
Such grace shall one just man find in his sight
That he relents not to blot out mankind
And makes a covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood nor let the sea
Surpass his bounds nor rain to drown the world
With man therein or beast but when he brings
Over the earth a cloud will therein set
His triple-coloured bow whereon to look
And call to mind his covenant Day and night
Seed-time and harvest heat and hoary frost
Shall hold their course till fire purge all things new
Both Heaven and Earth wherein the just shall dwell
As one who in his journey bates at noon
Though bent on speed so here the Arch-Angel paused
Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose
Then with transition sweet new speech resumes
Thus thou hast seen one world begin and end
And Man as from a second stock proceed
Much thou hast yet to see but I perceive
Thy mortal sight to fail objects divine
Must needs impair and weary human sense
Henceforth what is to come I will relate
Thou therefore give due audience and attend
This second source of Men while yet but few
And while the dread of judgement past remains
Fresh in their minds fearing the Deity
With some regard to what is just and right
Shall lead their lives and multiply apace
Labouring the soil and reaping plenteous crop
Corn wine and oil and from the herd or flock
Oft sacrificing bullock lamb or kid
With large wine-offerings poured and sacred feast
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed and dwell
Long time in peace by families and tribes
Under paternal rule till one shall rise
Of proud ambitious heart who not content
With fair equality fraternal state
Will arrogate dominion undeserved
Over his brethren and quite dispossess
Concord and law of nature from the earth
Hunting and men not beasts shall be his game
With war and hostile snare such as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous
A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled
Before the Lord as in despite of Heaven
Or from Heaven claiming second sovranty
And from rebellion shall derive his name
Though of rebellion others he accuse
He with a crew whom like ambition joins
With him or under him to tyrannize
Marching from Eden towards the west shall find
The plain wherein a black bituminous gurge
Boils out from under ground the mouth of Hell
Of brick and of that stuff they cast to build
A city and tower whose top may reach to Heaven
And get themselves a name lest far dispersed
In foreign lands their memory be lost
Regardless whether good or evil fame
But God who oft descends to visit men
Unseen and through their habitations walks
To mark their doings them beholding soon
Comes down to see their city ere the tower
Obstruct Heaven-towers and in derision sets
Upon their tongues a various spirit to rase
Quite out their native language and instead
To sow a jangling noise of words unknown
Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud
Among the builders each to other calls
Not understood till hoarse and all in rage
As mocked they storm great laughter was in Heaven
And looking down to see the hubbub strange
And hear the din Thus was the building left
Ridiculous and the work Confusion named
Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeased
O execrable son so to aspire
Above his brethren to himself assuming
Authority usurped from God not given
He gave us only over beast fish fowl
Dominion absolute that right we hold
By his donation but man over men
He made not lord such title to himself
Reserving human left from human free
But this usurper his encroachment proud
Stays not on Man to God his tower intends
Siege and defiance Wretched man what food
Will he convey up thither to sustain
Himself and his rash army where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross
And famish him of breath if not of bread
To whom thus Michael Justly thou abhorrest
That son who on the quiet state of men
Such trouble brought affecting to subdue
Rational liberty yet know withal
Since thy original lapse true liberty
Is lost which always with right reason dwells
Twinned and from her hath no dividual being
Reason in man obscured or not obeyed
Immediately inordinate desires
And upstart passions catch the government
From reason and to servitude reduce
Man till then free Therefore since he permits
Within himself unworthy powers to reign
Over free reason God in judgement just
Subjects him from without to violent lords
Who oft as undeservedly enthrall
His outward freedom Tyranny must be
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From virtue which is reason that no wrong
But justice and some fatal curse annexed
Deprives them of their outward liberty
Their inward lost Witness the irreverent son
Of him who built the ark who for the shame
Done to his father heard this heavy curse
Servant of servants on his vicious race
Thus will this latter as the former world
Still tend from bad to worse till God at last
Wearied with their iniquities withdraw
His presence from among them and avert
His holy eyes resolving from thenceforth
To leave them to their own polluted ways
And one peculiar nation to select
From all the rest of whom to be invoked
A nation from one faithful man to spring
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing
Bred up in idol-worship O that men
Canst thou believe should be so stupid grown
While yet the patriarch lived who 'scaped the flood
As to forsake the living God and fall
To worship their own work in wood and stone
For Gods Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes
To call by vision from his father house
His kindred and false Gods into a land
Which he will show him and from him will raise
A mighty nation and upon him shower
His benediction so that in his seed
All nations shall be blest he straight obeys
Not knowing to what land yet firm believes
I see him but thou canst not with what faith
He leaves his Gods his friends and native soil
Ur of Chaldaea passing now the ford
To Haran after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks and numerous servitude
Not wandering poor but trusting all his wealth
With God who called him in a land unknown
Canaan he now attains I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem and the neighbouring plain
Of Moreh there by promise he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land
From Hameth northward to the Desart south
Things by their names I call though yet unnamed
From Hermon east to the great western Sea
Mount Hermon yonder sea each place behold
In prospect as I point them on the shore
Mount Carmel here the double-founted stream
Jordan true limit eastward but his sons
Shall dwell to Senir that long ridge of hills
This ponder that all nations of the earth
Shall in his seed be blessed By that seed
Is meant thy great Deliverer who shall bruise
The Serpent head whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be revealed This patriarch blest
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call
A son and of his son a grand-child leaves
Like him in faith in wisdom and renown
The grandchild with twelve sons increased departs
From Canaan to a land hereafter called
Egypt divided by the river Nile
See where it flows disgorging at seven mouths
Into the sea To sojourn in that land
He comes invited by a younger son
In time of dearth a son whose worthy deeds
Raise him to be the second in that realm
Of Pharaoh There he dies and leaves his race
Growing into a nation and now grown
Suspected to a sequent king who seeks
To stop their overgrowth as inmate guests
Too numerous whence of guests he makes them slaves
Inhospitably and kills their infant males
Till by two brethren these two brethren call
Moses and Aaron sent from God to claim
His people from enthralment they return
With glory and spoil back to their promised land
But first the lawless tyrant who denies
To know their God or message to regard
Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire
To blood unshed the rivers must be turned
Frogs lice and flies must all his palace fill
With loathed intrusion and fill all the land
His cattle must of rot and murren die
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss
And all his people thunder mixed with hail
Hail mixed with fire must rend the Egyptians sky
And wheel on the earth devouring where it rolls
What it devours not herb or fruit or grain
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
Must eat and on the ground leave nothing green
Darkness must overshadow all his bounds
Palpable darkness and blot out three days
Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born
Of Egypt must lie dead Thus with ten wounds
The river-dragon tamed at length submits
To let his sojourners depart and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart but still as ice
More hardened after thaw till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late dismissed the sea
Swallows him with his host but them lets pass
As on dry land between two crystal walls
Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand
Divided till his rescued gain their shore
Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend
Though present in his Angel who shall go
Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire
By day a cloud by night a pillar of fire
To guide them in their journey and remove
Behind them while the obdurate king pursues
All night he will pursue but his approach
Darkness defends between till morning watch
Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud
God looking forth will trouble all his host
And craze their chariot-wheels when by command
Moses once more his potent rod extends
Over the sea the sea his rod obeys
On their embattled ranks the waves return
And overwhelm their war The race elect
Safe toward Canaan from the shore advance
Through the wild Desart not the readiest way
Lest entering on the Canaanite alarmed
War terrify them inexpert and fear
Return them back to Egypt choosing rather
Inglorious life with servitude for life
To noble and ignoble is more sweet
Untrained in arms where rashness leads not on
This also shall they gain by their delay
In the wide wilderness there they shall found
Their government and their great senate choose
Through the twelve tribes to rule by laws ordained
God from the mount of Sinai whose gray top
Shall tremble he descending will himself
In thunder lightning and loud trumpets' sound
Ordain them laws part such as appertain
To civil justice part religious rites
Of sacrifice informing them by types
And shadows of that destined Seed to bruise
The Serpent by what means he shall achieve
Mankind deliverance But the voice of God
To mortal ear is dreadful They beseech
That Moses might report to them his will
And terrour cease he grants what they besought
Instructed that to God is no access
Without Mediator whose high office now
Moses in figure bears to introduce
One greater of whose day he shall foretel
And all the Prophets in their age the times
Of great Messiah shall sing Thus laws and rites
Established such delight hath God in Men
Obedient to his will that he vouchsafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle
The Holy One with mortal Men to dwell
By his prescript a sanctuary is framed
Of cedar overlaid with gold therein
An ark and in the ark his testimony
The records of his covenant over these
A mercy-seat of gold between the wings
Of two bright Cherubim before him burn
Seven lamps as in a zodiack representing
The heavenly fires over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day a fiery gleam by night
Save when they journey and at length they come
Conducted by his Angel to the land
Promised to Abraham and his seed The rest
Were long to tell how many battles fought
How many kings destroyed and kingdoms won
Or how the sun shall in mid Heaven stand still
A day entire and night due course adjourn
Man voice commanding Sun in Gibeon stand
And thou moon in the vale of Aialon
Till Israel overcome so call the third
From Abraham son of Isaac and from him
His whole descent who thus shall Canaan win
Here Adam interposed O sent from Heaven
Enlightener of my darkness gracious things
Thou hast revealed those chiefly which concern
Just Abraham and his seed now first I find
Mine eyes true-opening and my heart much eased
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts what would become
Of me and all mankind But now I see
His day in whom all nations shall be blest
Favour unmerited by me who sought
Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means
This yet I apprehend not why to those
Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth
So many and so various laws are given
So many laws argue so many sins
Among them how can God with such reside
To whom thus Michael Doubt not but that sin
Will reign among them as of thee begot
And therefore was law given them to evince
Their natural pravity by stirring up
Sin against law to fight that when they see
Law can discover sin but not remove
Save by those shadowy expiations weak
The blood of bulls and goats they may conclude
Some blood more precious must be paid for Man
Just for unjust that in such righteousness
To them by faith imputed they may find
Justification towards God and peace
Of conscience which the law by ceremonies
Cannot appease nor Man the mortal part
Perform and not performing cannot live
So law appears imperfect and but given
With purpose to resign them in full time
Up to a better covenant disciplined
From shadowy types to truth from flesh to spirit
From imposition of strict laws to free
Acceptance of large grace from servile fear
To filial works of law to works of faith
And therefore shall not Moses though of God
Highly beloved being but the minister
Of law his people into Canaan lead
But Joshua whom the Gentiles Jesus call
His name and office bearing who shall quell
The adversary-Serpent and bring back
Through the world wilderness long-wandered Man
Safe to eternal Paradise of rest
Mean while they in their earthly Canaan placed
Long time shall dwell and prosper but when sins
National interrupt their publick peace
Provoking God to raise them enemies
From whom as oft he saves them penitent
By Judges first then under Kings of whom
The second both for piety renowned
And puissant deeds a promise shall receive
Irrevocable that his regal throne
For ever shall endure the like shall sing
All Prophecy that of the royal stock
Of David so I name this king shall rise
A Son the Woman seed to thee foretold
Foretold to Abraham as in whom shall trust
All nations and to kings foretold of kings
The last for of his reign shall be no end
But first a long succession must ensue
And his next son for wealth and wisdom famed
The clouded ark of God till then in tents
Wandering shall in a glorious temple enshrine
Such follow him as shall be registered
Part good part bad of bad the longer scroll
Whose foul idolatries and other faults
Heaped to the popular sum will so incense
God as to leave them and expose their land
Their city his temple and his holy ark
With all his sacred things a scorn and prey
To that proud city whose high walls thou sawest
Left in confusion Babylon thence called
There in captivity he lets them dwell
The space of seventy years then brings them back
Remembering mercy and his covenant sworn
To David stablished as the days of Heaven
Returned from Babylon by leave of kings
Their lords whom God disposed the house of God
They first re-edify and for a while
In mean estate live moderate till grown
In wealth and multitude factious they grow
But first among the priests dissention springs
Men who attend the altar and should most
Endeavour peace their strife pollution brings
Upon the temple itself at last they seise
The scepter and regard not David sons
Then lose it to a stranger that the true
Anointed King Messiah might be born
Barred of his right yet at his birth a star
Unseen before in Heaven proclaims him come
And guides the eastern sages who inquire
His place to offer incense myrrh and gold
His place of birth a solemn Angel tells
To simple shepherds keeping watch by night
They gladly thither haste and by a quire
Of squadroned Angels hear his carol sung
A virgin is his mother but his sire
The power of the Most High He shall ascend
The throne hereditary and bound his reign
With Earth wide bounds his glory with the Heavens
He ceased discerning Adam with such joy
Surcharged as had like grief been dewed in tears
Without the vent of words which these he breathed
O prophet of glad tidings finisher
Of utmost hope now clear I understand
What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain
Why our great Expectation should be called
The seed of Woman Virgin Mother hail
High in the love of Heaven yet from my loins
Thou shalt proceed and from thy womb the Son
Of God Most High so God with Man unites
Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise
Expect with mortal pain Say where and when
Their fight what stroke shall bruise the victor heel
To whom thus Michael Dream not of their fight
As of a duel or the local wounds
Of head or heel Not therefore joins the Son
Manhood to Godhead with more strength to foil
Thy enemy nor so is overcome
Satan whose fall from Heaven a deadlier bruise
Disabled not to give thee thy death wound
Which he who comes thy Saviour shall recure
Not by destroying Satan but his works
In thee and in thy seed Nor can this be
But by fulfilling that which thou didst want
Obedience to the law of God imposed
On penalty of death and suffering death
The penalty to thy transgression due
And due to theirs which out of thine will grow
So only can high Justice rest appaid
The law of God exact he shall fulfil
Both by obedience and by love though love
Alone fulfil the law thy punishment
He shall endure by coming in the flesh
To a reproachful life and cursed death
Proclaiming life to all who shall believe
In his redemption and that his obedience
Imputed becomes theirs by faith his merits
To save them not their own though legal works
For this he shall live hated be blasphemed
Seised on by force judged and to death condemned
A shameful and accursed nailed to the cross
By his own nation slain for bringing life
But to the cross he nails thy enemies
The law that is against thee and the sins
Of all mankind with him there crucified
Never to hurt them more who rightly trust
In this his satisfaction so he dies
But soon revives Death over him no power
Shall long usurp ere the third dawning light
Return the stars of morn shall see him rise
Out of his grave fresh as the dawning light
Thy ransom paid which Man from death redeems
His death for Man as many as offered life
Neglect not and the benefit embrace
By faith not void of works This God-like act
Annuls thy doom the death thou shouldest have died
In sin for ever lost from life this act
Shall bruise the head of Satan crush his strength
Defeating Sin and Death his two main arms
And fix far deeper in his head their stings
Than temporal death shall bruise the victor heel
Or theirs whom he redeems a death like sleep
A gentle wafting to immortal life
Nor after resurrection shall he stay
Longer on earth than certain times to appear
To his disciples men who in his life
Still followed him to them shall leave in charge
To teach all nations what of him they learned
And his salvation them who shall believe
Baptizing in the profluent stream the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
Pure and in mind prepared if so befall
For death like that which the Redeemer died
All nations they shall teach for from that day
Not only to the sons of Abraham loins
Salvation shall be preached but to the sons
Of Abraham faith wherever through the world
So in his seed all nations shall be blest
Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend
With victory triumphing through the air
Over his foes and thine there shall surprise
The Serpent prince of air and drag in chains
Through all his realm and there confounded leave
Then enter into glory and resume
His seat at God right hand exalted high
Above all names in Heaven and thence shall come
When this world dissolution shall be ripe
With glory and power to judge both quick and dead
To judge the unfaithful dead but to reward
His faithful and receive them into bliss
Whether in Heaven or Earth for then the Earth
Shall all be Paradise far happier place
Than this of Eden and far happier days
So spake the Arch-Angel Michael then paused
As at the world great period and our sire
Replete with joy and wonder thus replied
O Goodness infinite Goodness immense
That all this good of evil shall produce
And evil turn to good more wonderful
Than that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness Full of doubt I stand
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned or rejoice
Much more that much more good thereof shall spring
To God more glory more good-will to Men
From God and over wrath grace shall abound
But say if our Deliverer up to Heaven
Must re-ascend what will betide the few
His faithful left among the unfaithful herd
The enemies of truth Who then shall guide
His people who defend Will they not deal
Worse with his followers than with him they dealt
Be sure they will said the Angel but from Heaven
He to his own a Comforter will send
The promise of the Father who shall dwell
His Spirit within them and the law of faith
Working through love upon their hearts shall write
To guide them in all truth and also arm
With spiritual armour able to resist
Satan assaults and quench his fiery darts
What man can do against them not afraid
Though to the death against such cruelties
With inward consolations recompensed
And oft supported so as shall amaze
Their proudest persecutors For the Spirit
Poured first on his Apostles whom he sends
To evangelize the nations then on all
Baptized shall them with wonderous gifts endue
To speak all tongues and do all miracles
As did their Lord before them Thus they win
Great numbers of each nation to receive
With joy the tidings brought from Heaven At length
Their ministry performed and race well run
Their doctrine and their story written left
They die but in their room as they forewarn
Wolves shall succeed for teachers grievous wolves
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
To their own vile advantages shall turn
Of lucre and ambition and the truth
With superstitions and traditions taint
Left only in those written records pure
Though not but by the Spirit understood
Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names
Places and titles and with these to join
Secular power though feigning still to act
By spiritual to themselves appropriating
The Spirit of God promised alike and given
To all believers and from that pretence
Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force
On every conscience laws which none shall find
Left them inrolled or what the Spirit within
Shall on the heart engrave What will they then
But force the Spirit of Grace itself and bind
His consort Liberty what but unbuild
His living temples built by faith to stand
Their own faith not another for on earth
Who against faith and conscience can be heard
Infallible yet many will presume
Whence heavy persecution shall arise
On all who in the worship persevere
Of spirit and truth the rest far greater part
Will deem in outward rites and specious forms
Religion satisfied Truth shall retire
Bestuck with slanderous darts and works of faith
Rarely be found So shall the world go on
To good malignant to bad men benign
Under her own weight groaning till the day
Appear of respiration to the just
And vengeance to the wicked at return
Of him so lately promised to thy aid
The Woman Seed obscurely then foretold
Now ampler known thy Saviour and thy Lord
Last in the clouds from Heaven to be revealed
In glory of the Father to dissolve
Satan with his perverted world then raise
From the conflagrant mass purged and refined
New Heavens new Earth ages of endless date
Founded in righteousness and peace and love
To bring forth fruits joy and eternal bliss
He ended and thus Adam last replied
How soon hath thy prediction Seer blest
Measured this transient world the race of time
Till time stand fixed Beyond is all abyss
Eternity whose end no eye can reach
Greatly-instructed I shall hence depart
Greatly in peace of thought and have my fill
Of knowledge what this vessel can contain
Beyond which was my folly to aspire
Henceforth I learn that to obey is best
And love with fear the only God to walk
As in his presence ever to observe
His providence and on him sole depend
Merciful over all his works with good
Still overcoming evil and by small
Accomplishing great things by things deemed weak
Subverting worldly strong and worldly wise
By simply meek that suffering for truth sake
Is fortitude to highest victory
And to the faithful death the gate of life
Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest
To whom thus also the Angel last replied
This having learned thou hast attained the sum
Of wisdom hope no higher though all the stars
Thou knewest by name and all the ethereal powers
All secrets of the deep all Nature works
Or works of God in Heaven air earth or sea
And all the riches of this world enjoyedst
And all the rule one empire only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable add faith
Add virtue patience temperance add love
By name to come called charity the soul
Of all the rest then wilt thou not be loth
To leave this Paradise but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee happier far 
Let us descend now therefore from this top
Of speculation for the hour precise
Exacts our parting hence and see the guards
By me encamped on yonder hill expect
Their motion at whose front a flaming sword
In signal of remove waves fiercely round
We may no longer stay go waken Eve
Her also I with gentle dreams have calmed
Portending good and all her spirits composed
To meek submission thou at season fit
Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard
Chiefly what may concern her faith to know
The great deliverance by her seed to come
For by the Woman seed on all mankind
That ye may live which will be many days
Both in one faith unanimous though sad
With cause for evils past yet much more cheered
With meditation on the happy end
He ended and they both descend the hill
Descended Adam to the bower where Eve
Lay sleeping ran before but found her waked
And thus with words not sad she him received
Whence thou returnest and whither wentest I know
For God is also in sleep and dreams advise
Which he hath sent propitious some great good
Presaging since with sorrow and heart distress
Wearied I fell asleep But now lead on
In me is no delay with thee to go
Is to stay here without thee here to stay
Is to go hence unwilling thou to me
Art all things under Heaven all places thou
Who for my wilful crime art banished hence
This further consolation yet secure
I carry hence though all by me is lost
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed
By me the Promised Seed shall all restore
So spake our mother Eve and Adam heard
Well pleased but answered not For now too nigh
The Arch-Angel stood and from the other hill
To their fixed station all in bright array
The Cherubim descended on the ground
Gliding meteorous as evening-mist
Risen from a river o'er the marish glides
And gathers ground fast at the labourer heel
Homeward returning High in front advanced
The brandished sword of God before them blazed
Fierce as a comet which with torrid heat
And vapour as the Libyan air adust
Began to parch that temperate clime whereat
In either hand the hastening Angel caught
Our lingering parents and to the eastern gate
Led them direct and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain then disappeared
They looking back all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise so late their happy seat
Waved over by that flaming brand the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms
Some natural tears they dropt but wiped them soon
The world was all before them where to choose
Their place of rest and Providence their guide
They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way
Thou art not PENSHURST built to envious show
Of touch or marble nor canst boast a row
Of polish'd pillars or a roof of gold 
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told 
Or stair or courts but stand'st an ancient pile
And these grudg'd at art reverenced the while
Thou joy'st in better marks of soil of air
Of wood of water therein thou art fair
Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport 
Thy mount to which thy Dryads do resort 
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made
Beneath the broad beech and the chestnut shade 
That taller tree which of a nut was set
At his great birth where all the Muses met
There in the writhed bark are cut the names
Of many a sylvan taken with his flames 
And thence the ruddy satyrs oft provoke
The lighter fauns to reach thy lady oak
Thy copse too named of Gamage thou hast there
That never fails to serve thee season'd deer 
When thou wouldst feast or exercise thy friends
The lower land that to the river bends
Thy sheep thy bullocks kine and calves do feed 
The middle grounds thy mares and horses breed
Each bank doth yield thee conies and the tops
Fertile of wood Ashore and Sydneys copp's
To crown thy open table doth provide
The purpled pheasant with the speckled side 
The painted partridge lies in ev'ry field
And for thy mess is willing to be kill'd 
And if the high-swoln Medway fail thy dish
Thou hast thy ponds that pay thee tribute fish
Fat aged carps that run into thy net
And pikes now weary their own kind to eat
As loth the second draught or cast to stay
Officiously at first themselves betray
Bright eels that emulate them and leap on land
Before the fisher or into his hand
Then hath thy orchard fruit thy garden flowers
Fresh as the air and new as are the hours 
The early cherry with the later plum
Fig grape and quince each in his time doth come 
The blushing apricot and woolly peach
Hang on thy walls that every child may reach
And though thy walls be of the country stone
They're rear'd with no man ruin no man groan 
There none that dwell about them wish them down 
But all come in the farmer and the clown 
And no one empty-handed to salute
Thy lord and lady though they have no suit 
Some bring a capon some a rural cake
Some nuts some apples some that think they make
The better cheeses bring them or else send
By their ripe daughters whom they would commend
This way to husbands and whose baskets bear
An emblem of themselves in plum or pear
But what can this more than express their love
Add to thy free provisions far above
The need of such whose liberal board doth flow
With all that hospitality doth know 
Where comes no guest but is allow'd to eat
Without his fear and of thy lord own meat 
Where the same beer and bread and self-same wine
That is his lordship shall be also mine
And I not fain to sit as some this day
At great men tables and yet dine away
Here no man tells my cups nor standing by
A waiter doth my gluttony envy 
But gives me what I call and lets me eat
He knows below he shall find plenty of meat 
Thy tables hoard not up for the next day
Nor when I take my lodging need I pray
For fire or lights or livery all is there 
As if thou then wert mine or I reign'd here 
There nothing I can wish for which I stay
That found King JAMES when hunting late this way
With his brave son the prince they saw thy fires
Shine bright on every hearth as the desires
Of thy Penates had been set on flame
To entertain them or the country came 
With all their zeal to warm their welcome here
What great I will not say but sudden chear
Didst thou then make 'em and what praise was heap'd
On thy good lady then who therein reap'd
The just reward of her high huswifry 
To have her linen plate and all things nigh
When she was far and not a room but drest
As if it had expected such a guest 
These Penshurst are thy praise and yet not all
Thy lady noble fruitful chaste withal 
His children thy great lord may call his own 
A fortune in this age but rarely known
They are and have been taught religion thence
Their gentler spirits have suck'd innocence
Each morn and even they are taught to pray
With the whole household and may every day
Read in their virtuous parents' noble parts
The mysteries of manners arms and arts
Now Penshurst they that will proportion thee
With other edifices when they see 
Those proud ambitious heaps and nothing else
May say their lords have built but thy lord dwells
Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold
And almost every vice almighty gold
That which to boot with hell is thought worth heaven
And for it life conscience yea souls are given
Toils by grave custom up and down the court
To every squire or groom that will report
Well or ill only all the following year
Just to the weight their this day presents bear 
While it makes huishers serviceable men
And some one apteth to be trusted then
Though never after whiles it gains the voice
Of some grand peer whose air doth make rejoice
The fool that gave it who will want and weep
When his proud patron favors are asleep 
While thus it buys great grace and hunts poor fame 
Runs between man and man 'tween dame and dame 
Solders crack'd friendship makes love last a day 
Or perhaps less whilst gold bears all this sway
I that have none to send you send you verse	
A present which if elder writs rehearse
The truth of times was once of more esteem
Than this our gilt nor golden age can deem
When gold was made no weapon to cut throats
Or put to flight Astrea when her ingots
Were yet unfound and better placed in earth
Than here to give pride fame and peasants birth
But let this dross carry what price it will
With noble ignorants and let them still
Turn upon scorned verse their quarter-face 
With you I know my offering will find grace
For what a sin 'gainst your great father spirit
Were it to think that you should not inherit
His love unto the Muses when his skill
Almost you have or may have when you will 
Wherein wise nature you a dowry gave
Worth an estate treble to that you have
Beauty I know is good and blood is more 
Riches thought most but madam think what store
The world hath seen which all these had in trust	
And now lie lost in their forgotten dust
It is the Muse alone can raise to heaven
And at her strong arm end hold up and even
The souls she loves Those other glorious notes
Inscribed in touch or marble or the coats
Painted or carv'd upon our great men tombs
Or in their windows do but prove the wombs
That bred them graves when they were born they died
That had no muse to make their fame abide
How many equal with the Argive queen	
Have beauty known yet none so famous seen 
Achilles was not first that valiant was
Or in an army head that lock'd in brass
Gave killing strokes There were brave men before
Ajax or Idomen or all the store
That Homer brought to Troy yet none so live
Because they lack'd the sacred pen could give
Like life unto them Who heav'd Hercules
Unto the stars or the Tindarides 
Who placed Jason Argo in the sky	
Or set bright Ariadne crown so high 
Who made a lamp of Berenice hair
Or lifted Cassiopea in her chair
But only poets rapt with rage divine 
And such or my hopes fail shall make you shine
You and that other star that purest light
Of all Lucina train Lucy the bright 
Than which a nobler heaven itself knows not 
Who though she hath a better verser got
Or poet in the court-account than I	
And who doth me though I not him envy
Yet for the timely favors she hath done
To my less sanguine muse wherein she hath won
My grateful soul the subject of her powers
I have already used some happy hours
To her remembrance which when time shall bring
To curious light to notes I then shall sing
Will prove old Orpheus' act no tale to be 
For I shall move stocks stones no less than he
Then all that have but done my Muse least grace	
Shall thronging come and boast the happy place
They hold in my strange poems which as yet
Had not their form touch'd by an English wit
There like a rich and golden pyramed
Borne up by statues shall I rear your head
Above your under-carved ornaments
And shew how to the life my soul presents
Your form imprest there not with tickling rhymes
Or common-places filch'd that take these times
But high and noble matter such as flies	
From brains entranced and fill'd with extasies 
Moods which the godlike Sidney oft did prove
And your brave friend and mine so well did love
'Tis grown almost a danger to speak true
Of any good mind now there are so few
The bad by number are so fortified
As what they have lost t' expect they dare deride
So both the prais'd and praisers suffer yet
For others ill ought none their good forget
I therefore who profess myself in love
With every virtue wheresoe'er it move
And howsoever as I am at feud
With sin and vice though with a throne endued
And in this name am given out dangerous
By arts and practice of the vicious
Such as suspect themselves and think it fit
For their own capital crimes to indict my wit 
I that have suffer'd this and though forsook
Of fortune have not alter'd yet my look
Or so myself abandon'd as because
Men are not just or keep no holy laws
Of nature and society I should faint 
Or fear to draw true lines 'cause others paint 
I madam am become your praiser where
If it may stand with your soft blush to hear
Yourself but told unto yourself and see
In my character what your features be
You will not from the paper slightly pass 
No lady but at some time loves her glass
And this shall be no false one but as much
Remov'd as you from need to have it such
Look then and see your self   I will not say	
Your beauty for you see that every day 
And so do many more all which can call
It perfect proper pure and natural
Not taken up o' the doctors but as well
As I can say and see it doth excel 
That asks but to be censured by the eyes 
And in those outward forms all fools are wise
Nor that your beauty wanted not a dower
Do I reflect Some alderman has power
Or cozening farmer of the customs so	
To advance his doubtful issue and o'erflow
A prince fortune these are gifts of chance
And raise not virtue they may vice enhance
My mirror is more subtle clear refined
Andtakes and gives the beauties of the mind 
Though it reject not those of fortune such
As blood and match Wherein how more than much
Are you engaged to your happy fate
For such a lot that mixt you with a state
Of so great title birth but virtue most	
Without which all the rest were sounds or lost
'Tis only that can time and chance defeat 
For he that once is good is ever great
Wherewith then madam can you better pay
This blessing of your stars than by that way
Of virtue which you tread What if alone
Without companions 'tis safe to have none
In single paths dangers with ease are watch'd 
Contagion in the press is soonest catch'd
This makes that wisely you decline your life	
Far from the maze of custom error strife
And keep an even and unalter'd gait 
Not looking by or back like those that wait
Times and occasions to start forth and seem
Which though the turning world may disesteem
Because that studies spectacles and shows
And after varied as fresh objects goes
Giddy with change and therefore cannot see
Right the right way yet must your comfort be
Your conscience and not wonder if none asks	
For truth complexion where they all wear masks
Let who will follow fashions and attires
Maintain their liegers forth for foreign wires
Melt down their husbands land to pour away
On the close groom and page on new-year day
And almost all days after while they live 
They find it both so witty and safe to give
Let them on powders oils and paintings spend
Till that no usurer nor his bawds dare lend
Them or their officers and no man know	
Whether it be a face they wear or no
Let them waste body and state and after all
When their own parasites laugh at their fall
May they have nothing left whereof they can
Boast but how oft they have gone wrong to man
And call it their brave sin for such there be
That do sin only for the infamy 
And never think how vice doth every hour
Eat on her clients and some one devour
You madam young have learn'd to shun these shelves	
Whereon the most of mankind wreck themselves
And keeping a just course have early put
Into your harbor and all passage shut
'Gainst storms or pirates that might charge your peace 
For which you worthy are the glad increase
Of your blest womb made fruitful from above
To pay your lord the pledges of chaste love 
And raise a noble stem to give the fame
To Clifton blood that is denied their name
Grow grow fair tree and as thy branches shoot	
Hear what the Muses sing about thy root
By me their priest if they can aught divine 
Before the moons have fill'd their triple trine
To crown the burden which you go withal
It shall a ripe and timely issue fall
T' expect the honors of great AUBIGNY 
And greater rites yet writ in mystery
But which the fates forbid me to reveal
Only thus out of a ravish'd zeal
Unto your name and goodness of your life	
They speak since you are truly that rare wife
Other great wives may blush at when they see
What your tried manners are what theirs should be 
How you love one and him you should how still
You are depending on his word and will 
Not fashion'd for the court or strangers' eyes 
But to please him who is the dearer prize
Unto himself by being so dear to you
This makes that your affections still be new
And that your souls conspire as they were gone	
Each into other and had now made one
Live that one still and as long years do pass
Madam be bold to use this truest glass 
Wherein your form you still the same shall find 
Because nor it can change nor such a mind
Hail the world soul and mine more glad than is
The teeming earth to see the long'd-for sun
Peep through the horns of the celestial Ram
Am I to view thy splendour darkening his
That lying here amongst my other hoards
Shew'st like a flame by night or like the day
Struck out of chaos when all darkness fled
Unto the centre O thou son of Sol
But brighter than thy father let me kiss
With adoration thee and every relick
Of sacred treasure in this blessed room
Well did wise poets by thy glorious name
Title that age which they would have the best
Thou being the best of things and far transcending
All style of joy in children parents friends
Or any other waking dream on earth
Thy looks when they to Venus did ascribe
They should have given her twenty thousand Cupids
Such are thy beauties and our loves Dear saint
Riches the dumb God that giv'st all men tongues
That canst do nought and yet mak'st men do all things
The price of souls even hell with thee to boot
Is made worth heaven Thou art virtue fame
Honour and all things else Who can get thee
He shall be noble valiant honest wise 
And what he will sir Riches are in fortune
A greater good than wisdom is in nature
True my beloved Mosca Yet I glory
More in the cunning purchase of my wealth
Than in the glad possession since I gain
No common way I use no trade no venture
I wound no earth with plough-shares fat no beasts
To feed the shambles have no mills for iron
Oil corn or men to grind them into powder
I blow no subtle glass expose no ships
To threat'nings of the furrow-faced sea
I turn no monies in the public bank
Nor usure private No sir nor devour
Soft prodigals You shall have some will swallow
A melting heir as glibly as your Dutch
Will pills of butter and ne'er purge for it
Tear forth the fathers of poor families
Out of their beds and coffin them alive
In some kind clasping prison where their bones
May be forth-coming when the flesh is rotten
But your sweet nature doth abhor these courses
You lothe the widdow or the orphan tears
Should wash your pavements or their piteous cries
Ring in your roofs and beat the air for vengeance
You are not like a thresher that doth stand
With a huge flail watching a heap of corn
And hungry dares not taste the smallest grain
But feeds on mallows and such bitter herbs
Nor like the merchant who hath fill'd his vaults
With Romagnia and rich Candian wines
Yet drinks the lees of Lombard vinegar
You will not lie in straw whilst moths and worms
Feed on your sumptuous hangings and soft beds
You know the use of riches and dare give now
From that bright heap to me your poor observer
Or to your dwarf or your hermaphrodite
Your eunuch or what other household-trifle
But cocker up my genius and live free
To all delights my fortune calls me to
I have no wife no parent child ally
To give my substance to but whom I make
Must be my heir and this makes men observe me
This draws new clients daily to my house
Women and men of every sex and age
That bring me presents send me plate coin jewels
With hope that when I die which they expect
Each greedy minute it shall then return
Ten-fold upon them whilst some covetous
Above the rest seek to engross me whole
And counter-work the one unto the other
Contend in gifts as they would seem in love
All which I suffer playing with their hopes
And am content to coin them into profit
To look upon their kindness and take more
And look on that still bearing them in hand
Letting the cherry knock against their lips
And draw it by their mouths and back again 
I cannot choose sir when I apprehend
What thoughts he has without now as he walks
That this might be the last gift he should give
That this would fetch you if you died to-day
And gave him all what he should be to-morrow
What large return would come of all his ventures
How he should worship'd be and reverenced
Ride with his furs and foot-cloths waited on
By herds of fools and clients have clear way
Made for his mule as letter'd as himself
Be call'd the great and learned advocate
And then concludes there nought impossible
You still are what you were sir Only you
Of all the rest are he commands his love
And you do wisely to preserve it thus
With early visitation and kind notes
Of your good meaning to him which I know
Cannot but come most grate Patron sir
He ever liked your course sir that first took him
I oft have heard him say how he admired
Men of your large profession that could speak
To every cause and things mere contraries
Till they were hoarse again yet all be law
That with most quick agility could turn
And re- return could make knots and undo them
Give forked counsel take provoking gold
On either hand and put it up these men
He knew would thrive with their humility
And for his part he thought he should be blest
To have his heir of such a suffering spirit
So wise so grave of so perplex'd a tongue
And loud withal that would not wag nor scarce
Lie still without a fee when every word
Your worship but lets fall is a chequin 
Who that one knocks I would not have you seen sir
And yet pretend you came and went in haste
I'll fashion an excuse and gentle sir
When you do come to swim in golden lard
Up to the arms in honey that your chin
Is born up stiff with fatness of the flood
Think on your vassal but remember me
So many fears attending on old age
Yea death so often call'd on as no wish
Can be more frequent with them their limbs faint
Their senses dull their seeing hearing going
All dead before them yea their very teeth
Their instruments of eating failing them
Yet this is reckon'd life nay here was one
Is now gone home that wishes to live longer
Feels not his gout nor palsy feigns himself
Younger by scores of years flatters his age
With confident belying it hopes he may
With charms like Aeson have his youth restored
And with these thoughts so battens as if fate
Would be as easily cheated on as he
Sir I am sworn I may not shew the will
Till he be dead but here has been Corbaccio
Here has been Voltore here were others too
I cannot number 'em they were so many
All gaping here for legacies but I
Taking the vantage of his naming you
Signior Corvino Signior Corvino took
Paper and pen and ink and there I asked him
Whom he would have his heir Corvino Who
Should be executor Corvino And
To any question he was silent too
I still interpreted the nods he made
Through weakness for consent and sent home th' others
Nothing bequeath'  them but to cry and curse
Of the first year a beauty ripe as harvest
Whose skin is whiter than a swan all over
Than silver snow or lilies a soft lip
Would tempt you to eternity of kissing
And flesh that melteth in the touch to blood
Bright as your gold and lovely as your gold
Sir to a wise man all the world his soil
It is not Italy nor France nor Europe
That must bound me if my fates call me forth
Yet I protest it is no salt desire
Of seeing countries shifting a religion
Nor any disaffection to the state
Where I was bred and unto which I owe
My dearest plots hath brought me out less
That idle antique stale gray-headed project
Of knowing men minds and manners with Ulysses
But a peculiar humour of my wife's
Laid for this height of Venice to observe
To quote to learn the language and so forth 
Let me be sure that I put forth from London
There was a whale discover'd in the river
As high as Woolwich that had waited there
Few know how many months for the subversion
He has received weekly intelligence
Upon my knowledge out of the Low Countries
For all parts of the world in cabbages
And those dispensed again to ambassadors
In oranges musk-melons apricocks
Lemons pome-citrons and such-like sometimes
In Colchester oysters and your Selsey cockles
Ay ay your Mamuluchi Faith they had
Their hand in a French plot or two but they
Were so extremely given to women as
They made discovery of all yet I
Had my advices here on Wednesday last
From one of their own coat they were return'd
Made their relations as the fashion is
And now stand fair for fresh employment
I have some general notions I do love
To note and to observe though I live out
Free from the active torrent yet I'd mark
The currents and the passages of things
For mine own private use and know the ebbs
Trusting our hopeful gentry unto pedants
Fellows of outside and mere bark You seem
To be a gentleman of ingenuous race 
I not profess it but my fate hath been
To be where I have been consulted with
In this high kind touching some great men sons
Persons of blood and honour 
Death of mine honour with the city fool
A juggling tooth-drawing prating mountebank
And at a public window where whilst he
With his strain'd action and his dole of faces
To his drug-lecture draws your itching ears
A crew of old unmarried noted letchers
Stood leering up like satyrs and you smile
Most graciously and fan your favours forth
To give your hot spectators satisfaction
What was your mountebank their call their whistle
Or were you enamour'd on his copper rings
His saffron jewel with the toad-stone in't
Or his embroider'd suit with the cope-stitch
Made of a herse-cloth or his old tilt-feather
Or his starch'd beard Well you shall have him yes
He shall come home and minister unto you
The fricace for the mother Or let me see
I think you'd rather mount would you not mount
Why if you'll mount you may yes truly you may
And so you may be seen down to the foot
Get you a cittern lady Vanity
And be a dealer with the virtuous man
Make one I'll but protest myself a cuckold
And save your dowry I'm a Dutchman I
For if you thought me an Italian
You would be damn'd ere you did this you whore
Thou'dst tremble to imagine that the murder
Of father mother brother all thy race
Should follow as the subject of my justice
What couldst thou propose
Less to thyself than in this heat of wrath
And stung with my dishonour I should strike
This steel into thee with as many stabs
As thou wert gaz'd upon with goatish eyes
Alas sir be appeas'd I could not think
My being at the window should more now
Move your impatience than at other times
No not to seek and entertain a parley
With a known knave before a multitude
You were an actor with your handkerchief
Which he most sweetly kist in the receipt
And might no doubt return it with a letter
And point the place where you might meet your sister's
Your mother or your aunt might serve the turn
Why dear sir when do I make these excuses
Or ever stir abroad but to the church
And thy restraint before was liberty
To what I now decree and therefore me
First I will have this bawdy light damm'd up
And till't be done some two or three yards off
I'll chalk a line o'er which if thou but chance
To set thy desperate foot more hell more horror
More wild remorseless rage shall seize on thee
Than on a conjurer that had heedless left
His circle safety ere his devil was laid
Then here a lock which I will hang upon thee
And now I think on't I will keep thee backwards
Thy lodging shall be backwards thy walks backwards
Thy prospect all be backwards and no pleasure
That thou shalt know but backwards nay since you force
My honest nature know it is your own
Being too open makes me use you thus
Since you will not contain your subtle nostrils
And since to seem the more officious
And flatt'ring of his health there they have had
At extreme fees the college of physicians
Consulting on him how they might restore him
Where one would have a cataplasm of spices
Another a flay'd ape clapp'd to his breast
A third would have it a dog a fourth an oil
With wild cats' skins at last they all resolved
That to preserve him was no other means
But some young woman must be straight sought out
Lusty and full of juice to sleep by him
And to this service most unhappily
And most unwillingly am I now employ'd
Which here I thought to pre-acquaint you with
For your advice since it concerns you most
Because I would not do that thing might cross
Your ends on whom I have my whole dependance sir
Yet if I do it not they may delate
My slackness to my patron work me out
Of his opinion and there all your hopes
Ventures or whatsoever are all frustrate
I do but tell you sir Besides they are all
Now striving who shall first present him therefore 
I could entreat you briefly conclude somewhat
But I had had this luck The thing in't self
I know is nothing Wherefore should not I
As well command my blood and my affections
As this dull doctor In the point of honour
The cases are all one of wife and daughter
But that I would not seem to counsel you
I should have motion'd to you at the first
And make your count you have cut all their throats
Why 'tis directly taking a possession
And in his next fit we may let him go
'Tis but to pull the pillow from his head
And he is throttled it had been done before
It is a poor unprofitable humour
Do not I know if women have a will
They'll do 'gainst all the watches of the world
And that the feircest spies are tamed with gold
Tut I am confident in thee thou shalt see't
And see I'll give thee cause too to believe it
Come kiss me Go and make thee ready straight
In all thy best attire thy choicest jewels
Put them all on and with them thy best looks
We are invited to a solemn feast
At old Volpone where it shall appear
How far I am free from jealousy or fear
I fear I shall begin to grow in love
With my dear self and my most prosperous parts
They do so spring and burgeon I can feel
A whimsy in my blood I know not how
Success hath made me wanton I could skip
Out of my skin now like a subtle snake
I am so limber O your parasite
Is a most precious thing dropt from above
Not bred 'mongst clods and clodpoles here on earth
I muse the mystery was not made a science
It is so liberally profest almost
All the wise world is little else in nature
But parasites or sub-parasites And yet
I mean not those that have your bare town-art
To know who fit to feed them have no house
No family no care and therefore mould
Tales for men ears to bait that sense or get
Kitchen-invention and some stale receipts
To please the belly and the groin nor those
With their court dog-tricks that can fawn and fleer
Make their revenue out of legs and faces
Echo my lord and lick away a moth
But your fine elegant rascal that can rise
And stoop almost together like an arrow
Shoot through the air as nimbly as a star
Turn short as doth a swallow and be here
And there and here and yonder all at once
Present to any humour all occasion
And change a visor swifter than a thought
This is the creature had the art born with him
Toils not to learn it but doth practise it
Out of most excellent nature and such sparks
Are the true parasites others but their zanis
These imputations are too common sir
And easily son virtue when she poor
You are unequal to me and however
Your sentence may be righteous yet you are not
That ere you know me thus proceed in censure
St bear witness 'gainst you 'tis inhuman
'Tis true that sway'd by strong necessity
I am enforced to eat my careful bread
With too obsequy 'tis true beside
That I am fain to spin mine own poor raiment
Out of my mere observance being not born
To a free fortune but that I have done
Base offices in rending friends asunder
Dividing families betraying counsels
Whispering false lies or mining men with praises
Train'd their credulity with perjuries
Corrupted chastity or am in love
With mine own tender ease but would not rather
Prove the most rugged and laborious course
That might redeem my present estimation
Let me here perish in all hope of goodness
Sir it concerns you and though I may seem
At first to make a main offence in manners
And in my gratitude unto my master
Yet for the pure love which I bear all right
And hatred of the wrong I must reveal it
This very hour your father is in purpose
It is a confidence that well becomes
Your piety and form'd no doubt it is
From your own simple innocence which makes
Your wrong more monstrous and abhorr'd But sir
I now will tell you more This very minute
It is or will be doing and if you
Shall be but pleas'd to go with me I'll bring you
I dare not say where you shall see but where
Your ear shall be a witness of the deed
Hear yourself written bastard and profest
First for your dwarf he little and witty
And every thing as it is little is pretty
Else why do men say to a creature of my shape
So soon as they see him It a pretty little ape
And why a pretty ape but for pleasing imitation
Of greater men actions in a ridiculous fashion
Beside this feat body of mine doth not crave
Half the meat drink and cloth one of your bulks will have
Admit your fool face be the mother of laughter
Yet for his brain it must always come after
And though that do feed him 'tis a pitiful case
His body is beholding to such a bad face
Does't so forsooth and where was your dear sight
When it did so forsooth What now bird-eyed
And you too 'Pray you both approach and mend it
Now by that light I muse you are not ashamed
I that have preach'd these things so oft unto you
Read you the principles argued all the grounds
Disputed every fitness every grace
Call'd you to counsel of so frequent dressings 
Made you acquainted what an ample dowry
The knowledge of these things would be unto you
Able alone to get you noble husbands
At your return and you thus to neglect it
Besides you seeing what a curious nation
The Italians are what will they say of me
The English lady cannot dress herself
Here a fine imputation to our country
Well go your ways and stay in the next room
This fucus was too course too it no matter 
Good-sir you will give them entertainment
I have a little studied physic but now
I'm all for music save in the forenoons
An hour or two for painting I would have
A lady indeed to have all letters and arts
Be able to discourse to write to paint
But principal as Plato holds your music
And so does wise Pythagoras I take it
Is your true rapture when there is concent
In face in voice and clothes and is indeed
I mean such as are happy in the Italian
Will deign to steal out of this author mainly
Almost as much as from Montagnie
He has so modern and facile a vein
Fitting the time and catching the court-ear
Your Petrarch is more passionate yet he
In days of sonetting trusted them with much
Dante is hard and few can understand him
But for a desperate wit there Aretine
Only his pictures are a little obscene 
What the physicians have set down how much
It may concern me what my engagements are
My means and the necessity of those means
For my recovery wherefore if you be
Loyal and mine be won respect my venture
There no such thing in nature a mere term
Invented to awe fools What is my gold
The worse for touching clothes for being look'd on
Why this is no more An old decrepit wretch
That has no sense no sinew takes his meat
With others' fingers only knows to gape
When you do scald his gums a voice a shadow
And what can this man hurt you
That such a jig as if I would go tell it
Cry it on the Piazza who shall know it
But he that cannot speak it and this fellow
Whose lips are in my pocket save yourself
If you'll proclaim't you may I know no other
I grant you if I thought it were a sin
I would not urge you Should I offer this
To some young Frenchman or hot Tuscan blood
That had read Aretine conn'd all his prints
Knew every quirk within lust labyrinth
And were professed critic in lechery
And I would look upon him and applaud him
This were a sin but here 'tis contrary
A pious work mere charity for physic
And honest polity to assure mine own
Heart I'll drag thee hence home by the hair
Cry thee a strumpet through the streets rip up
Thy mouth unto thine ears and slit thy nose
Like a raw rotchet Do not tempt me come
Yield I am loth Death I will buy some slave
Whom I will kill and bind thee to him alive
And at my window hang you forth devising
Some monstrous crime which I in capital letters
Will eat into thy flesh with aquafortis
And burning corsives on this stubborn breast
Now by the blood thou hast incensed I'll do it
Be not thus obstinate I have not deserved it
Think who it is intreats you 'Prithee sweet 
Good faith thou shalt have jewels gowns attires
What thou wilt think and ask Do but go kiss him
Or touch him but for my sake At my suit 
This once No not I shall remember this
Will you disgrace me thus Do you thirst my undoing
Ay now you have put your fortune in her hands
Why i'faith it is her modesty I must quit her
If you were absent she would be more coming
I know it and dare undertake for her
What woman can before her husband 'pray you
O God and his good angels whither whither
Is shame fled human breasts that with such ease
Men dare put off your honours and their own
Is that which ever was a cause of life
Now placed beneath the basest circumstance
And modesty an exile made for money
That never tasted the true heaven of love
Assure thee Celia he that would sell thee
Only for hope of gain and that uncertain
He would have sold his part of Paradise
For ready money had he met a cope-man
Why art thou mazed to see me thus revived
Rather applaud thy beauty miracle
'Tis thy great work that hath not now alone
But sundry times raised me in several shapes
And but this morning like a mountebank
To see thee at thy window ay before
I would have left my practice for thy love
In varying figures I would have contended
With the blue Proteus or the horned flood
Thou hast in place of a base husband found
A worthy lover use thy fortune well
With secrecy and pleasure See behold
What thou art queen of not in expectation
As I feed others but possess'd and crown'd
See here a rope of pearl and each more orient
Than that the brave Egyptian queen caroused
Dissolve and drink them See a carbuncle
May put out both the eyes of our St Mark
A diamond would have bought Lollia Paulina
When she came in like star-light hid with jewels
That were the spoils of provinces take these
And wear and lose them yet remains an ear-ring
To purchase them again and this whole state
A gem but worth a private patrimony
Is nothing we will eat such at a meal
The heads of parrots tongues of nightingales
The brains of peacocks and of estriches
Shall be our food and could we get the phoenix
Though nature lost her kind she were our dish
Good sir these things might move a mind affected
With such delights but I whose innocence
Is all I can think wealthy or worth th' enjoying
And which once lost I have nought to lose beyond it
Cannot be taken with these sensual baits
If thou hast wisdom hear me Celia
Thy baths shall be the juice of July-flowers
Spirit of roses and of violets
The milk of unicorns and panthers' breath
Gather'd in bags and mixt with Cretan wines
Our drink shall be prepared gold and amber
Which we will take until my roof whirl round
With the vertigo and my dwarf shall dance
My eunuch sing my fool make up the antic
Whilst we in changed shapes act Ovid tales
Thou like Europa now and I like Jove
Then I like Mars and thou like Erycine
So of the rest till we have quite run through
And wearied all the fables of the gods
Then will I have thee in more modern forms
Attired like some sprightly dame of France
Brave Tuscan lady or proud Spanish beauty
Sometimes unto the Persian sophy wife
Or the grand signior mistress and for change
To one of our most artful courtezans
Or some quick Negro or cold Russian
And I will meet thee in as many shapes
Where we may so transfuse our wandering souls
Out at our lips and score up sums of pleasures
If you have ears that will be pierc'd or eyes
That can be open'd a heart that may be touch'd 
Or any part that yet sounds man about you 
If you have touch of holy saints or heaven 
Do me the grace to let me 'scape if not
Be bountiful and kill me You do know
I am a creature hither ill betray'd
By one whose shame I would forget it were
If you will deign me neither of these graces
Yet feed your wrath sir rather than your lust
It is a vice comes nearer manliness
And punish that unhappy crime of nature
Which you miscall my beauty flay my face
Or poison it with ointments for seducing
Your blood to this rebellion Rub these hands
With what may cause an eating leprosy
E'en to my bones and marrow any thing
That may disfavour me save in my honour 
And I will kneel to you pray for you pay down
A thousand hourly vows sir for your health
Free the forced lady or thou diest impostor
But that I'm loth to snatch thy punishment
Out of the hand of justice thou shouldst yet
Be made the timely sacrifice of vengeance
Before this altar and this dross thy idol 
Lady let quit the place it is the den
Of villany fear nought you have a guard
And he ere long shall meet his just reward
Nay more I told his son brought hid him here
Where he might hear his father pass the deed
Being persuaded to it by this thought sir
That the unnaturalness first of the act
And then his father oft disclaiming in him
Which I did mean t'help on would sure enrage him
To do some violence upon his parent
On which the law should take sufficient hold
And you be stated in a double hope
Truth be my comfort and my conscience
My only aim was to dig you a fortune
Out of these two old rotten sepulchres 
I told you sir it was a plot you see
What observation is You mention'd me
For some instructions I will tell you sir
Since we are met here in this height of Venice
Some few perticulars I have set down
Only for this meridian fit to be known
Of your crude traveller and they are these
I will not touch sir at your phrase or clothes
For those be they you must converse with most
Others I would not know sir but at distance
So as I still might be a saver in them
You shall have tricks else past upon you hourly
And then for your religion profess none
But wonder at the diversity of all
And for your part protest were there no other
But simply the laws o' the land you could content you
Machiavel and Monsieur Bodin both
Were of this mind Then must you learn the use
And handling of your silver fork at meals
The metal of your glass these are main matters
With your Italian and to know the hour
When you must eat your melons and your figs
I care not greatly who knows to serve the state
Of Venice with red herrings for three years
And at a certain rate from Rotterdam
Where I have correspendence There a letter
Sent me from one of the states and to that purpose
He cannot write his name but that his mark
I should be loth to draw the subtle air
Of such a place without my thousand aims
I'll not dissemble sir where'er I come
I love to be considerative and 'tis true
I have at my free hours thought upon
Some certain goods unto the state of Venice
Which I do call my Cautions and sir which
I mean in hope of pension to propound
To the Great Council then unto the Forty
So to the Ten My means are made already 
Beside my water-works for this I do sir
First I bring in your ship 'twixt two brick walls
But those the state shall venture On the one
I strain me a fair tarpauling and in that
I stick my onions cut in halves the other
Is full of loop-holes out at which I thrust
The noses of my bellows and those bellows
I keep with water-works in perpetual motion
Which is the easiest matter of a hundred
Now sir your onion which doth naturally
Attract the infection and your bellows blowing
The air upon him will show instantly
By his changed colour if there be contagion
Or else remain as fair as at the first
Why in this habit sir you apprehend me 
Well master Would-be this doth not become you
I had thought the odour sir of your good name
Had been more precious to you that you would not
Have done this dire massacre on your honour
One of your gravity and rank besides
But knights I see care little for the oath
They make to ladies chiefly their own ladies
Then know most honour'd fathers I must now
Discover to your strangely abused ears
The most prodigious and most frontless piece
Of solid impudence and treachery
That ever vicious nature yet brought forth
To shame the state of Venice This lewd woman
That wants no artificial looks or tears
To help the vizor she has now put on
Hath long been known a close adulteress
To that lascivious youth there not suspected
I say but known and taken in the act
With him and by this man the easy husband
Pardon'd whose timeless bounty makes him now
Stand here the most unhappy innocent person
That ever man own goodness made accused
For these not knowing how to owe a gift
Of that dear grace but with their shame being placed
So above all powers of their gratitude
Began to hate the benefit and in place
Of thanks devise to extirpe the memory
Of such an act wherein I pray your fatherhoods
To observe the malice yea the rage of creatures
Discover'd in their evils and what heart
Such take even from their crimes but that anon
Will more appear This gentleman the father
Hearing of this foul fact with many others
Which daily struck at his too tender ears
And grieved in nothing more than that he could not
Preserve himself a parent his son ills
Growing to that strange flood at last decreed
So more full of danger is his vice
That can beguile so under shade of virtue
But as I said my honour'd sires his father
Having this settled purpose by what means
To him betray'd we know not and this day
Appointed for the deed that parricide
I cannot style him better by confederacy
Preparing this his paramour to be there
Enter'd Volpone house who was the man
Your fatherhoods must understand design'd
For the inheritance there sought his father 
But with what purpose sought he him my lords
I tremble to pronounce it that a son
Unto a father and to such a father
Should have so foul felonious intent
It was to murder him when being prevented
By his more happy absence what then did he
Not check his wicked thoughts no now new deeds
Mischief doth ever end where it begins
An act of horror fathers he dragg'd forth
The aged gentleman that had there lain bed-rid
Three years and more out of his innocent couch
Naked upon the floor there left him wounded
His servant in the face and with this strumpet
The stale to his forged practice who was glad
To be so active I shall here desire
Your fatherhoods to note but my collections
As most remarkable  thought at once to stop
His father ends discredit his free choice
In the old gentleman redeem themselves
By laying infamy upon this man
Best try him then with goads or burning irons
Put him to the strappado I have heard
The rack hath cured the gout 'faith give it him
And help him of a malady be courteous
I'll undertake before these honour'd fathers
He shall have yet as many left diseases
As she has known adulterers or thou strumpets 
O my most equal hearers if these deeds
Acts of this bold and most exorbitant strain
May pass with sufferance what one citizen
But owes the forfeit of his life yea fame
To him that dares traduce him which of you
Are safe my honour'd fathers I would ask
With leave of your grave fatherhoods if their plot
Have any face or colour like to truth
Or if unto the dullest nostril here
It smell not rank and most abhorred slander
I crave your care of this good gentleman
Whose life is endanger'd by their fable
And as for them I will conclude with this
That vicious persons when they're hot and flesh'd
In impious acts their constancy abounds
Damn'd deeds are done with greatest confidence
What who did send for you O cry you mercy
Reverend sir Good faith I am grieved for you
That any chance of mine should thus defeat
Your I must needs say most deserving travails
But I protest sir it was cast upon me
And I could almost wish to be without it
But that the will o' the dead must be observ'd
Marry my joy is that you need it not
You have a gift sir thank your education
Will never let you want while there are men
And malice to breed causes Would I had
But half the like for all my fortune sir
If I have any suits as I do hope
Things being so easy and direct I shall not
I will make bold with your obstreperous aid
Conceive me for your fee sir In mean time
You that have so law I know have the conscience
Not to be covetous of what is mine
Good sir I thank you for my plate 'twill help
To set up a young man Good faith you look
As you were costive best go home and purge sir
Yet you that are so traded in the world
A witty merchant the fine bird Corvino
That have such moral emblems on your name
Should not have sung your shame and dropt your cheese
To let the Fox laugh at your emptiness
Sirrah you think the privilege of the place
And your red saucy cap that seems to me
Nail'd to your jolt-head with those two chequines
Can warrant your abuses come you hither
You shall perceive sir I dare beat you approach
To make a snare for mine own neck and run
My head into it wilfully with laughter
When I had newly 'scaped was free and clear
Out of mere wantonness O the dull devil
Was in this brain of mine when I devised it
And Mosca gave it second he must now
Help to sear up this vein or we bleed dead 
How now who let you loose whither go you now
What to buy gingerbread or to drown kitlings
By blood and rank a gentleman canst not fall
Under like censure but our judgment on thee
Is that thy substance all be straight confiscate
To the hospital of the Incurabili
And since the most was gotten by imposture
By feigning lame gout palsy and such diseases
Thou art to lie in prison cramp'd with irons
Till thou be'st sick and lame indeed Remove him
 Thou Voltore to take away the scandal
Thou hast given all worthy men of thy profession
Art banish'd from their fellowship and our state
Corbaccio bring him near We here possess
Thy son of all thy state and confine thee
To the monastery of San Spirito
Where since thou knewest not how to live well here
He that hath feasted you these forty yeares
And fitted Fables for your finer eares
Although at first he scarce could hit the bore
Yet you with patience harkning more and more
At length have growne up to him and made knowne
The Working of his Pen is now your owne
He pray you would vouchsafe for your owne sake
To heare him this once more but sit awake
And though hee now present you with such wooll
As from meere English Flocks his Muse can pull
He hopes when it is made up into Cloath
Not the most curious head here will be loath
To weare a Hood of it it being a Fleece
To match or those of Sicily or Greece
His Scene is Sherwood And his Play a Tale
Of Robin-hood inviting from the Vale
Of Be'voir all the Shep'ards to a Feast
Where by the casuall absence of one Guest
The Mirth is troubled much and in one Man
As of sadnesse showne as Passion can
The sad young Shep'ard whom wee here present
The sad Sheep'ard passeth silently over the Stage
Like his woes Figure darke and discontent
For his lost Love who in the Trent is said
To have miscarried 'lasse what knowes the head
Of a calme River whom the feet have drown'd 
Heare what his sorrowes are and if they wound
Your gentle brests so that the End crowne all
Which in the Scope of one dayes chance may fall
Old Trent will send you more such Tales as these
And shall grow young againe as one doth please
But here an Heresie of late let fall
That Mirth by no meanes fits a Pastorall
Such say so who can make none he presumes
Else there no Scene more properly assumes
The Sock For whence can sport in kind arise
But from the Rurall Routs and Families
Safe on this ground then wee not feare to day
To tempt your laughter by our rustick Play
Wherein if we distaste or be cry'd downe
Wee thinke wee therefore shall not leave the Towne
Nor that the Fore-wits that would draw the rest
Unto their liking alwayes like the best
The wise and knowing Critick will not say
This worst or better is before he weigh
Where every piece be perfect in the kind
And then though in themselves he difference find
Yet if the place require it where they stood
The equall fitting makes them equall good
You shall have Love and Hate and Jealousie
As well as Mirth and Rage and Melancholy
Or whatsoever else may either move
Or stirre affections and your likings prove
But that no stile for Pastorall should goe
Current but what is stamp'd with Ah and O
Who judgeth so may singularly erre
As if all Poesie had one Character
In which what were not written were not right
Or that the man who made such one poore flight
In his whole life had with his winged skill
Advanc'd him upmost on the Muses hill
When he like Poet yet remaines as those
Are Painters who can only make a Rose
From such your wits redeeme you or your chance
Lest to a greater height you doe advance
Of Folly to contemne those that are knowne
Artificers and trust such as are none
Here she was wont to goe and here and here
Just where those Daisies Pincks and Violets grow
The world may find the Spring by following her
For other print her aerie steps neere left
Her treading would not bend a blade of grasse
Or shake the downie Blow-ball from his stalke
But like the soft West-wind she shot along
And where she went the Flowers tooke thickest root
As she had sow'd 'hem with her odorous foot
Know you or can you guesse my merry men
What 'tis that keepes your Master Robin-hood
So long both from his Marian and the Wood
Forsooth Madam hee will be here by noone
And prayes it of your bounty as a boone
That you by then have kild him Venison some
To feast his jolly friends who hether come
In threaves to frolick with him and make cheare
Here Little John hath harbord you a Deere
I see by his tackling Jo And a Hart of ten
I trow hee be Madam or blame your men
For by his Slot his Entries and his Port
His Frayings Fewmets he doth promise sport
And standing 'fore the Dogs hee beares a head
Large and well beam'd with all rights somm'd and spred
Let rowse him quickly and lay on the Hounds
Jo Scathlock is ready with them on the grounds
So is his brother Scarlet now they'ave found
His Layre they have him sure within the pound
Away then when my Robin bids a Feast
'Twere sinne in Marian to defraud a Guest
And I the Chaplaine here am left to be
Steward to day and charge you all in fee
To d'on your Liveries see the Bower drest
And fit the fine devises for the Feast
You George must care to make the Baldrick trim
And Garland that must crowne or her or him
Whose Flock this yeare hath brought the earliest Lambe
Good Father Tuck at your Commands I am
To cut the Table out O the greene sword
Or any other service for my Lord
To carve the Guests large seats and these laid in
With turfe as soft and smooth as the Moles skin
And hang the bulled Nose-gaies 'bove their heads
The Pipers banck whereon to sit and play
And a faire Dyall to meete out the day
Our Masters Feast shall want no just delights
His entertainments must have all the rites
I and all choise that plenty can send in 
Bread Wine Acates Fowle Feather Fish or Fin
For which my Fathers Nets have swept the Trent
You'are goodly friends right charitable men
Nay keepe your way and leave me make your toyes
Your tales your poesies that you talk'd of all
Your entertainments you not injure me
Onely if I may enjoy my Cipresse wreath
And you will let me weepe 'tis all I aske
Till I be turn'd to water as was she
And troth what lesse suit can you grant a man
Tuck His Phantasie is hurt let us now leave him
The wound is yet too fresh to admit searching
Searching where should I search or on what track
Can my slow drop of teares or this darke shade
About my browes enough describe her losse
If I could knit whole clouds about my browes
And weepe like Swithen or those watry signes
The kids that rise then and drowne all the Flocks
Or those rich Shepherds dwelling in this Vale
Those careless Shepherds that did let here drowne
Then I did something or could make old Trent
Drunke with my sorrow to start out in breaches
To drowne their Herds their cattle and their corne
Breake downe their Mils their Dams ore-turne their weeres
And see their houses and whole lively-hood
Wrought into water with her all were good
I'ld kisse the torrent and those whirles of Trent
That suck'd her in my sweet Earine
When they have cast their body on the shore
And it comes up as tainted as themselves
All pale and bloodlesse I will love it still
For all that they can doe and make 'hem mad
To see how I will hugge it in mine armes
And hang upon the lookes dwell on her eyes
Feed round about her lips and eate her kisses
Suck of her drowned flesh and where their malice
Not all their envious sousing can change that
But I will study some revenge past this
I pray you give me leave for I will study
Though all the Bels Pipes Tabors Timburines ring
That you can plant about me I will study
Welcome bright Clarion and sweet Mellifleur
The courteous Lionel faire Amie all
My friends and neighbours to the Jolly Bower
Of Robin-hood and to the greene-wood Walkes
Now that the shearing of your sheepe is done
And the wash'd Flocks are lighted of their wooll
The smoother Ewes are ready to receive
The mounting Rams againe and both doe feed
As either promist to increase your breed
At eaning time and bring you lusty twins
Why should or you or wee so forget
The season in our selves as not to make
Use of our youth and spirits to awake
The nimble Horne-pipe and the Timburine
And mixe our Songs and Dances in the Wood
And each of us cut downe a Triumph-bough
Such were the Rites the youthfull June allow
They were gay Robin but the sowrer sort
Of Shepherds now disclaime in all such sport
And say our Flocks the while are poorely fed
When with such vanities the Swaines are led
Would they wise Clarion were not hurried more
With Covetise and Rage when to their store
They adde the poore mans Eaneling and dare sell
Both Fleece and Carkasse not gi'ing him the Fell
When to one Goat they reach that prickly weed
Which maketh all the rest forbeare to feed
Or strew Tods haires or with their tailes doe sweepe
The dewy grasse to d'off the simpler sheepe
Or digge deepe pits their Neighbours Neat to vexe
To drowne the Calves and crack the Heifers necks
Or with pretence of chasing thence the Brock
Send in a curre to worrie the whole Flock
O Friar those are faults that are not seene
Ours open and of worst example beene
They call ours Pagan pastimes that infect
Our blood with ease our youth with all neglect
Our tongues with wantonnnesse our thoughts with lust
And what they censure ill all others must
I doe not know what their sharpe sight may see
Of late but I should thinke it still might be
As 'twas a happy age when on the Plaines
The Wood-men met the Damsells and the Swaines
The Neat'ards Plow-men and the Pipers loud
And each did dance some to the Kit or Crowd
Some to the Bag-pipe some the Tabret-mov'd
And all did either love or were belov'd
The dextrous Shepherd then would try his sling
Then dart his Hooke at Daysies then would sing
Sometimes would wrastle I and with a Lasse
And give her a new garment on the grasse
After a course at Barley-breake or Base
And all these deeds were seene without offence
Or the least hazard o' their innocence
Those charitable times had no mistrust
Shepherds knew how to love and not to lust
Each minute that wee lose thus I confesse
Deserves a censure on us more or lesse
But that a sadder chance hath given allay
Both to the Mirth and Musicke of this day
Our fairest Shepherdesse wee had of late
Here upon Trent is drown'd for whom her mate
Young Aeglamour a Swaine who best could tread
Our countrey dances and our games did lead
Lives like the melancholy Turtle drown'd
Deeper in woe then she in water crown'd
With Yewgh and Cypressa and will scarce admit
The Physick of our presence to his fit
Sometimes he sits and thinkes all day then walkes
Then thinkes againe and sighes weeps laughs and talkes
And 'twixt his pleasing frenzie and sad griefe
Is so distracted as no sought reliefe
By all our studies can procure his peace
The passion finds in him that large increase
As wee doubt hourely wee shall lose him too
You should not crosse him then what ere you doe
For Phant'sie stop'd will soon take fire and burne
Into an anger or to a Phrensie turne
Nay so wee are advis'd by Alken here
A good sage Shepherd who all-tho' he weare
An old worne hat and cloake can tell us more
Then all the forward Fry that boast their Lore
See yonder comes the brother of the Maid
Young Karolin how curious and afraid
Hee is at once willing to find him out
And loath to'offend him Alken Sure hee here about
See where hee sits It will be rare rare rare
An exquisite revenge but peace no words
Not for the fairest fleece of all the Flock
If it be knowne afore 'tis all worth nothing
Ile carve it on the trees and in the turfe
On every greene sworth and in every path
Just to the Margin of the cruell Trent
There will I knock the story in the ground
In smooth great peble and mosse fill it round
Till the whole Countrey read how she was drown'd
And with the plenty of salt teares there shed
Quite alter the complexion of the Spring
Or I will get some old old Grandam thither
Whose rigid foot but dip'd into the water
Shall strike that sharpe and suddaine cold throughout
As it shall loose all vertue and those Nimphs
Those treacherous Nimphs pull'd in Earine
Shall stand curl'd up like Images of Ice
And never thaw marke never a sharpe Justice
Or stay a better when the yeares at hottest
And that the Dog-starre fomes and the streames boiles
And curles and workes and swells ready to sparkle
To fling a fellow with a Fever in
To set it all on fire till it burne
Blew as Scamander 'fore the walls of Troy
When Vulcan leap'd in to him to consume him
A spring now she is dead of what of thornes
Briars and Brambles Thistles Burs and Dorks
Cold Hemlock Yewgh the Mandrake or the Boxe
These may grow still but what can spring beside
Did not the whole Earth sicken when she died
As if there since did fall one drop of dew
But what was wept for her or any stalke
Did beare a Flower or any branch a bloome
After her wreath was made In faith in faith
You doe not faire to put these things upon me
Which can in no sort be Earine
Who had her very being and her name
With the first knots or buddings of the Spring
Borne with the Primrose and the Violet
Or earliest Roses blowne when Cupid smil'd
And Venus led the Graces out to dance
And all the Flowers and Sweets in Natures lap
Leap'd out and made their solemne Conjuration
To last but while shee liv'd Doe not I know
How the Vale wither'd the same Day How Dove
Deane Eye and Erwash Idell Snite and Soare
Each broke his Urne and twenty waters more
That swell'd proud Trent shrunke themsleves dry that since
No sun or Moone or other cheerfull Starre
Look'd out of heaven but all the Cope was darke
As it were hung so for her Exequies
And not a voice or sound to ring her knell
But of that dismall paire the scritching Owle
And buzzing Hornet harke harke harke the foule
Bird how shee flutters with her wicker wings
Doe you thinke so are you in that good heresie
I meane opinion If you be say nothing
I'll study it as a new Philosophy
But by my selfe alone Now you shall leave me
Some of these Nimphs here will reward you this
This pretty Maid although but with a kisse
Liv'd my Earine you should have twenty
For every line here one I would allow 'hem
From mine owne store the treasure I had in her
Hand off rude Ranger Sirrah get you in
And beare the Venison hence It is too good
For these course rustick mouthes that cannot open
Or spend a thanke for't A starv'd Muttons carkasse
Would better fit their palates See it carried
To Mother Maudlins whom you call the Witch Sir
Tell her I sent it to make merrie with
Shee'll turne us thanks at least why stand'st thou Groome
I wonder he can move that hee not fix'd
If that his feeling be the same with mine
I dare not trust the faith of mine owne senses
I feare mine eyes and eares this is not Marian
Nor am I Robin-hood I pray you aske her
Aske her good Shep'ards aske her all for me
Or rather aske your selves if shee be shee
Or I be I Yes and you are the spie
And the spi'd Spie that watch upon my walkes
To informe what Deere I kill or give away
Where when to whom but spie your worst good Spie
I will dispose of this where least you like
Fall to your cheese-cakes curdles clawted creame
Your fooles your flaunes and of ale a streame
To wash it from your livers straine ewes milke
Into your Cider sillabubs and be drunke
To him whose Fleece hath brought the earliest Lambe
This yeare and weares the Baudrick at your bord
Where you may all goe whistle and record
This i' your dance and foot it lustily
Have I not left 'em in a brave confusion
Amaz'd their expectation got their Venison
Troubled their mirth and meeting made them doubtfull
And jealous of each other all distracted
And 'i the close uncertaine of themselves
This can your Mother doe my daintie Douce
Take anie shape upon her and delude
The senses best acquainted with their Owners
The jolly Robin who' hath bid this feast
And made this solemne invitation
I ha' possessed so with syke dislikes
Of his owne Marian that all-bee' he know her
As doth the vauting hart his venting hind
As had shee seen me her sel' her sel'had doubted
Whether had been the liker off the twa
This can your Mother doe I tell you Daughter
I ha' but dight yee yet i' the out-dresse
And 'parraile of Earine but this raiment
These very weeds sall make yee as but comming
In view or ken of Aeglamour your forme
Shall show too slipperie to be look'd upon
And all the Forrest sweare you to be shee
They shall rin after yee and wage the odds
Upo' their owne deceived sights yee' are her
Whilst shee poore Lasse is stock'd up in a tree
Your brother Lorells prize For so my largesse
Hath lotted her to be your brothers Mistresse
Gif shee can be reclaim'd gif not his Prey
And here he comes new claithed like a Prince
Of Swine'ards sike he seems dight i'the spoiles
Of those he feedes A mightie Lord of Swine
He is command now to woo Lets step aside
And heare his love-craft See he opes the dore
And takes her by the hand and helpes her forth
This is true court-ship and becomes his ray
Yee kind to others but yee coy to mee
Deft Mistres whiter then the cheese new prest
Smoother then creame and softer then the curds
Why start yee from mee ere yee heare me tell
My wooing errand and what rents I have
Large heards and pastures Swine and Kie mine owne
And though my na'se be camus'd my lipps thick
And my chin bristled Pan great Pan was such
Who was the chiefe of Heards-men and our Sire
I am na' Fay na' Incubus na' Changlin
But a good man that lives o' my awne geere
This house these grounds this stock is all mine awne
How better 'twere to mee this were not knowne
Shee likes it not but it is boasted well
An hundred Udders for the payle I have
That gi' mee Milke and Curds that make mee Cheese
To cloy the Mercatts twentie swarme of Bees
Whilke all the Summer hum about the hive
And bring mee Waxe and Honey in by live
An aged Oake the King of all the field
With a broad Beech there growes afore my dur
That mickell Mast unto the ferme doth yeild
A Chestnut whilk hath larded money a Swine
Whose skins I weare to fend me fra the Cold
A Poplar greene and with a kerved Seat
Under whose shade I solace in the heat
And thence can see gang out and in my neat
Twa trilland brookes each from his spring doth meet
And make a river to refresh my feet
In which each morning ere the Sun doth rise
I look my selfe and cleare my pleasant eyes
Before I pipe For therein I have skill
'Bove other Swine'ards Bid mee and I will
Straight play to you and make you melodie
By no meanes Ah to me all minstrelsie
Is irksome as are you Why scorne you mee
He drawes out other presents
Because I am a Heards-man and feed Swine
I am a Lord of other geere this fine
Smooth Bawsons Cub the young Grice of a Gray
Twa tynie Urshins and this Ferret gay
Out on 'hem what are these I give 'hem yee
The Feind hath to doe that keepes a Schoole
Or is the Father of a familie
Or governes but a country Academie
His labours must be great as are his cares
To watch all turnes and cast how to prevent 'hem
This Dame of mine here Maud growes high in evill
And thinkes shee doe all when 'tis I her Divell
That both delude her and must yet protect her
Shee confident in mischiefe and presumes
The changing of her shape will still secure her
But that may faile and diverse hazards meete
Of other consequence which I must looke to
Not let her be surpriz'd on the first catch
I must goe daunce about the Forrest now
And firke it like a Goblin till I find her
Then will my service come worth acceptation
When not expected of her when the helpe
Meetes the necessity and both doe kisse
'Tis call'd the timing of a dutie this
Kar Sure you are very like her I conceiv'd
You had been shee seeing you run afore mee
For such a suite shee made her 'gainst this Feast
In all resemblance or the verie same
I saw her in it had shee liv'd t' enjoy it
Shee had been there an acceptable Guest
To Marian and the gentle Robin-hood
Who are the Crowne and Ghirland of the Wood
I not observed this thronged round till now 
Gracious and kind spectators you are welcome
Apollo and Muses feast your eyes
With graceful objects and may our Minerva
Answer your hopes unto their largest strain
Yet here mistake me not judicious friends
I do not this to beg your patience
Or servilely to fawn on your applause
Like some dry brain despairing in his merit
Let me be censured by the austerest brow
Where I want art or judgment tax me freely
Let envious censors with their broadest eyes
Look through and through me I pursue no favour
Only vouchsafe me your attentions
And I will give you music worth your ears
O how I hate the monstrousness of time
Where every servile imitating spirit
Plagued with an itching leprosy of wit
In a mere halting fury strives to fling
His ulcerous body in the Thespian spring
And straight leaps forth a poet but as lame
As Vulcan or the founder of Cripplegate
O I crave pardon I had lost my thoughts
Why humour as 'tis 'ens' we thus define it
To be a quality of air or water
And in itself holds these two properties
Moisture and fluxure as for demonstration
Pour water on this floor 'twill wet and run
Likewise the air forced through a horn or trumpet
Flows instantly away and leaves behind
A kind of dew and hence we do conclude
That whatsoe'er hath fluxure and humidity
As wanting power to contain itself
Is humour So in every human body
The choler melancholy phlegm and blood
By reason that they flow continually
In some one part and are not continent
Receive the name of humours Now thus far
It may by metaphor apply itself
Unto the general disposition
As when some one peculiar quality
Doth so possess a man that it doth draw
All his affects his spirits and his powers
In their confluctions all to run one way
This may be truly said to be a humour
But that a rook by wearing a pyed feather
The cable hat-band or the three-piled ruff
A yard of shoe-tye or the Switzer knot
On his French garters should affect a humour
O it is more than most ridiculous
Well I will scourge those apes
And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror
As large as is the stage whereon we act
Where they shall see the time deformity
Anatomised in every nerve and sinew
With constant courage and contempt of fear
You might as well have told me yond' is heaven
This earth these men and all had moved alike  
Do not I know the time condition
Yes Mitis and their souls and who they be
That either will or can except against me
None but a sort of fools so sick in taste
That they contemn all physic of the mind
And like gall'd camels kick at every touch
Good men and virtuous spirits that loath their vices
Will cherish my free labours love my lines
And with the fervour of their shining grace
Make my brain fruitful to bring forth more objects
Worthy their serious and intentive eyes
But why enforce I this as fainting no
If any here chance to behold himself
Let him not dare to challenge me of wrong
For if he shame to have his follies known
First he should shame to act 'em my strict hand
Was made to seize on vice and with a gripe
Squeeze out the humour of such spongy souls
What are you ready there Mitis sit down
And my Cordatus Sound ho and begin
I leave you two as censors to sit here
Observe what I present and liberally
Speak your opinions upon every scene
As it shall pass the view of these spectators
Nay now y'are tedious sirs for shame begin
And Mitis note me if in all this front
You can espy a gallant of this mark
Who to be thought one of the judicious
Sits with his arms thus wreath'  his hat pull'd here
Cries mew and nods then shakes his empty head
Will shew more several motions in his face
Than the new London Rome or Niniveh
And now and then breaks a dry biscuit jest
Which that it may more easily be chew'd
O I would know 'em for in such assemblies
They are more infectious than the pestilence
And therefore I would give them pills to purge
And make them fit for fair societies
How monstrous and detested is't to see
A fellow that has neither art nor brain
Sit like an Aristarchus or start ass
Taking men lines with a tobacco face
In snuff still spitting using his wry'd looks
In nature of a vice to wrest and turn
The good aspect of those that shall sit near him
From what they do behold O 'tis most vile
Peace Mitis I do know your thought
You'll say your guests here will except at this
Pish you are too timorous and full of doubt
Then he a patient shall reject all physic
'Cause the physician tells him you are sick
Or if I say that he is vicious
You will not hear of virtue Come you are fond
Shall I be so extravagant to think
That happy judgments and composed spirits
Will challenge me for taxing such as these
Why therein I commend your careful thoughts
And I will mix with you in industry
To please but whom attentive auditors
Such as will join their profit with their pleasure
And come to feed their understanding parts
For these I'll prodigally spread myself
And speak away my spirit into air
For these I'll melt my brain into invention
Coin new conceits and hang my richest words
As polish'd jewels in their bounteous ears
But stay I lose myself and wrong their patience
If I dwell here they'll not begin I see
Friends sit you still and entertain this troop
With some familiar and by-conference
I'll hast them sound Now gentlemen I go
To turn an actor and a humorist
Where ere I do resume my present person
We hope to make the circles of your eyes
Flow with distilled laughter if we fail
We must impute it to this only chance
'Tis true but Stoic where in the vast world
Doth that man breathe that can so command
His blood and his affection Well I see
I strive in vain to cure my wounded soul
For every cordial that my thoughts apply
Turns to a corsive and doth eat it farther
There is no taste in this philosophy
'Tis like a potion that a man should drink
But turns his stomach with the sight of it
I am no such pill'd Cynick to believe
That beggary is the only happiness
Or with a number of these patient fools
To sing My mind to me a kingdom is
When the lank hungry belly barks for food
I look into the world and there I meet
With objects that do strike my blood-shot eyes
Into my brain where when I view myself
Having before observ'd this man is great
Mighty and fear'd that lov'd and highly favour'd
A third thought wise and learn'd a fourth rich
And therefore honour'd a fifth rarely featur'd
A sixth admired for his nuptial fortunes
When I see these I say and view myself
I wish the organs of my sight were crack'd
And that the engine of my grief could cast
Mine eyeballs like two globes of wildfire forth
To melt this unproportion'd frame of nature
Oh they are thoughts that have transfix'd my heart
And often in the strength of apprehension
Made my cold passion stand upon my face
Like drops of dew on a stiff cake of ice
Drown the remembrance let not mischief cease
But while it is in punishing increase
Conscience and Care die in thee and be free
Not Heav'n it self from thy Impiety
Let Night grow blacker with thy Plots and Day
At shewing but thy Head forth start away
From this half-sphear and leave Rome blinded Walls
T' embrace Lusts Hatreds Slaughters Funerals
And not recover sight till their own flames
Do light them to their Ruines All the Names
Of thy Confederates too be no less great
In Hell than here that when we would repeat
Our strengths in muster we may name you all
And Furies upon you for Furies call
Whilst what you do may strike them into fears
Or make them grieve and wish your mischief theirs
IT is decree'd Nor shall thy Fate O Rome
Resist my vow Tho Hills were set on Hills
And Seas met Seas to guard thee I would through
I plough up Rocks steep as the Alpes in dust
And lave the Tyrrhene Waters into Clouds
But I would reach thy Head thy Head proud City
The Ills that I have done cannot be safe
But by attempting greater and I feel
A Spirit within me chides my sluggish hands
And says they have been innocent too long
Was I a man bred great as Rome her self
One form'd for all her Honours all her Glories
Equal to all her Titles that could stand
Close up with Atlas and sustain her Name
As strong as he doth Heaven And was I
Of all her Brood mark'd out for the repulse
By her no voice when I stood Candidate
To be Commander in the Pontick War
I will hereafter call her Step-dame ever
If she can lose her Nature I can lose
My Piety and in her stony Entrails
Dig me a Seat where I will live again
The labour of her Womb and be a burden
Weightier than all the Prodigies and Monsters
That she hath teem'd with since she first knew Mars
By this Ambrosiack Kiss and this of Nectar
Wouldst thou but hear as gladly as I speak
Could my Aurelia think I meant her less
When wooing her I first remov'd a Wife
And then a Son to make my Bed and House
Spatious and fit t' embrace her These were Deeds
Not t' have begun with but to end with more
And greater He that building stays at one
Floor or the second hath erected none
'Twas how to raise thee I was meditating
To make some act of mine answer thy Love
That Love that when my State was now quite sunk
Came with thy wealth and weigh'd it up again
And made my 'emergent Fortune once more look
Above the Main which now shall hit the Stars
And stick my Orestilla there amongst 'em
If any Tempest can but make the Billow
And any Billow can but lift her Greatness
But I must pray my Love she will put on
Like Habits with my self I have to do
With many Men and many Natures Some
That must be blown and sooth'  as Lentulus
Whom I have heav'd with magnifying his Blood
And a vain Dream out of the Sybill Books
That a third man of that great Family
Whereof he is descended the Cornelii
Should be a King in Rome which I have hir'd
The flattering Augures to interpret him
Cinna and Sylla dead Then bold Cethegus
Whose Valour I have turn'd into his Poyson
And prais'd so into daring as he would
Go on upon the Gods kiss Lightning wrest
The Engine from the Cyclops and give fire
At face of a full Cloud and stand his Ire
When I would bid him move Others there are
Whom Envy to the State draws and puts on
For Contumelies receiv'd and such are sure ones
As Curius and the fore-nam'd Lentulus
Both which have been degraded in the Senate
And must have their Disgraces still new rubb'd
To make 'em smart and labour of Revenge
Others whom meer Ambition fires and dole
Of Provinces abroad which they have feign'd
To their crude hopes and I as amply promis'd
These Lecca Vargunteius Bestia Autronius
Some whom their Wants oppress as th' idle Captains
Of Sylla Troops and divers Roman Knights
The profuse wasters of their Patrimonies
So threatned with their Debts as they will now
Run any desperate Fortune for a Change
These for a time we must relieve Aurelia
And make our House the Safe-guard like for those
That fear the Law or stand within her gripe
For any act past or to come Such will
From their own Crimes be factious as from ours
Some more there be slight Airlings will be won
With Dogs and Horses or perhaps a Whore
Which must be had and if they venture Lives
For us Aurelia we must hazard Honours
A little Get thee store and change of women
As I have boys and give 'em time and place
And all connivence be thy self too courtly
And entertain and feast sit up and revel
Call all the great the fair and spirited Dames
Of Rome about thee and begin a fashion
Of Freedom and Community Some will thank thee
Tho the sowr Senate frown whose heads must ake
In fear and feeling too We must not spare
Or cost or modesty It can but shew
Like one of Juno or of Jove disguises
In either thee or me and will as soon
When things succeed be thrown by or let fall
iT is methinks a morning full of fate
It riseth slowly as her sullen care
Had all the weights of sleep and death hung at it
She is not Rosie-finger'd but swoln black
Her Face is like a water turn'd to blood
And her sick Head is bound about with Clouds
As if she threatned Night e're Noon of Day
It does not look as it would have a Hail
Or Health wish'd in it as on other Morns
Them to a purpose they would just have come
With the same Tortoyse speed that are thus slow
To such an Action which the Gods will envy
As asking no less means than all their Powers
Conjoyn'd t' effect I would have seen Rome burnt
By this time and her Ashes in an Urn
The Kingdom of the Senate rent asunder
And the degenerate talking Gown run frighted
Are set and gone and we must turn our Eyes
On him that is and shines Noble Cethegus
But view him with me here He looks already
As if he shook a Scepter ore the Senate
And the aw'd Purple dropt their Rods and Axes
The Statues melt again and Houshold Gods
In Groans confess the Travels of the City
The very walls sweat Blood before the Change
And Stones start out to Ruin ere it comes
Lighted above the Capitol and now
It waves unto us Brave and ominous
Our Enterprise is seal'd In spite of Darkness
That would discountenance it Look no more
We lose time and our selves To what we came for
Speak Lucius we attend you Noblest Romans
If you were less or that your Faith and Vertue
Did not hold good that Title with your Blood
I should not now unprofitably spend
My self in Words or catch at empty Hopes
By airy ways for solid Certainties
But since in many and the greatest Dangers
I still have known you no less true than valiant
And that I taste in you the same Affections
To will or nill to think things good or bad
Alike with me which argues your firm Friendship
I dare the boldlier with you set on foot
Or lead unto this great and goodliest Action
What I have thought of it afore you all
Have heard a part I then express'd my Zeal
Unto the Glory now the Need enflames me
When I forethink the hard Conditions
Our States must undergo except in time
We do redeem our selves to Liberty
And break the Iron Yoke forg'd for our Necks
For what less can we call it when we see
The Commonwealth engross'd so by a few
The Giants of the State that do by turns
Enjoy her and defile her All the Earth
Her Kings and Tetrarchs are their Tributaries
People and Nations pay them hourly Stipends
The Riches of the world flows to their Coffers
And not to Romes while but those few the rest
However Great we are Honest and Valiant
Are herded with the Vulgar and so kept
As we were only bred to consume Corn
Or wear our wooll to drink the Cities water
Ungrac'd without Authority or Mark
Trembling beneath their Rods to whom if all
Were well in Rome we should come forth bright Axes
All Places Honours Offices are theirs
Or where they will confer 'em They leave us
The Dangers the Repulses Judgments wants
which how long will you bear most valiant Spirits
were we not better to fall once with Vertue
Than draw a wretched and dishonour'd Breath
To lose with Shame when these Mens Pride will laugh
I call the Faith of Gods and Men to question
The Power is in our Hands our Bodies able
Our Minds as strong o' th' contrary in them
All things grown aged with their wealth and Years
There wants but only to begin the Business
The Issue is certain On let us go on
Or but the smallest Air of Man within him
To see them swell with Treasure which they pour
Out i' their Riots eating drinking building
I i' the Sea plaining of Hills with Valleys
And raising Valleys above Hills Whilst we
Have not to give our Bodies Necessaries
They ha' their change of Houses Mannors Lordships
we scarce a Fire or a poor Houshold Lar
They buy rare Attick Statues Tyrian Hangings
Ephesian Pictures and Corinthian Plate
Attalick Garments and now new-found Gems
Since Pompey went for Asia which they purchase
At price of Provinces The River Phasis
Cannot afford 'em Fowl nor Lucrine Lake
Oysters enow Circes too is search'd
To please the witty Gluttony of a Meal
Their ancient Habitations they neglect
And set up new then if the Echo like not
In such a Room they pluck down those build newer
Alter them too and by all frantick ways
Vex their wild wealth as they molest the People
From whom they force it Yet they cannot tame
Or overcome their Riches not by making
Baths Orchards Fish-pools letting in of Seas
Here and then there forcing 'em out again
with mountainous Heaps for which the Earth hath lost
Most of her Ribs as Entrails being now
wounded no less for Marble than for Gold
we all this while like calm benumb'd Spectators
Sit till our Seats do crack and do not hear
The thundring Ruins whilst at home our wants
Abroad our Debts do urge us our States daily
Bending to bad our Hopes to worse and what
Is left but to be crush'd wake wake brave Friends
And meet the Liberty you oft have wish'd for
Behold Renown Riches and Glory court you
Fortune holds out these to you as Rewards
Me thinks though I were dumb th' Affair it self
The Opportunity your Needs and Dangers
with the brave Spoil the war brings should invite you
Use me your General or Soldier neither
My Mind nor Body shall be wanting to you
And being Consul I not doubt t' effect
All that you wish if trust not flatter me
And you'd not rather still be Slaves than Free
By wants than we and whom I've power to melt
And cast in any Mould Beside some others
That will not yet be nam'd both sure and great ones
Who when the time comes shall declare themselves
Strong for our Party so that no Resistance
In Nature can be thought For our Reward then
First all our Debts are paid dangers of Law
Actions Decrees Judgments against us quitted
The Rich men as in Sylla times proscrib'd
And Publication made of all their Goods
That House is yours that Land is his those Waters
Orchards and Walks a third he has that Honour
And he that Office Such a Province falls
To Vargunteius this t' Autronius that
To bold Cethegus Rome to Lentulus
You share the World her Magistracies Priesthoods
Wealth and Felicity amongst you Friends
And Catiline your Servant Would you Curius
Revenge the Contumely supon you
In being removed from the Senate Now
Now is your time Would Publius Lentulus
Strike for the like Disgrace Now is his time
Would stout Longinus walk the Streets of Rome
Facing the Praetor Now has he a time
To spurn and tread the Fasces into Dirt
Made of the Usurers and the Lictors Brains
Is there a Beauty here in Rome you love
An Enemy you would kill What Head not yours
Whose Wife which Boy whose Daughter of what Race
That th' Husband or glad Parents shall not bring you
And boasting of the Office Only spare
Your selves and you have all the Earth beside
A Field to exercise your Longings in
I see you rais'd and read your forward Minds
High in your Faces Bring the Wine and Blood
gReat Honours are great burdens but on whom
They'are cast with envy he doth bear two loads
His cares must still be double to his joys
In any Dignity where if he err
He finds no pardon and for doing well
A most small praise and that wrung out by force
I speak this Romans knowing what the weight
Of the high charge you' have trusted to me is
Not that thereby I would with art decline
The good or greatness of your benefit
For I ascribe it to your singular grace
And vow to owe it to no title else
Except the Gods that Cicero is your Consul
I have no Urns no dusty Monuments
No broken Images of Ancestors
Wanting an Ear or Nose no forged Tables
Of long descents to boast false honours from
Or be my undertakers to your trust
But a new Man as I am stil'd in Rome
Whom you have dignified and more in whom
Yo' have cut a way and left it ope for vertue
Hereafter to that place which our great Men
Held shut up with all ramparts for themselves
Nor have but few of them in time been made
Your Consuls so new Men before me none
At my first suit in my just year prefer'd
To all competitors and some the noblest  
iS there a Heaven and Gods and can it be
They should so slowly hear so slowly see
Hath Jove no Thunder or is Jove become
Stupid as thou art O neer-wretched Rome
When both thy Senate and thy Gods do sleep
And neither thine nor their own States do keep
What will awake thee Heaven what can excite
Thine anger if this practice be too light
His former drifts partake of former times
But this last Plot was only Catilines
O that it were his last But he before
Hath safely done so much he'll still dare more
Ambition like a torrent ne'er looks back
And is a swelling and the last affection
A high mind can put off being both a rebel
Unto the Soul and Reason and enforceth
All Laws all Conscience treads upon Religion
And offereth violence to Natures self
But here is that transcends it A black purpose
To confound Nature and to ruine that
Which never Age nor Mankind can repair
Sit down good Lady Cicero is lost
In this your Fable for to think it true
Tempteth my Reason It so far exceeds
All insolent Fictions of the Tragick Scene
The Commonwealth yet panting underneath
The stripes and wounds of a late civil War
Gasping for life and scarce restor'd to hope
To seek t'oppress her with new cruelty
And utterly extinguish her long name
With so prodigious and unheard-of fierceness
What sink of monsters wretches of lost minds
Mad after change and despeaatedesp'rate in their states
Wearied and gall'd with their necessities
For all this I allow them durst have thought it
Would not the barbarous deeds have been believ'd
Of Marius and Sylla by our Children
Without this fact had rise forth greater for them
All that they did was Piety to this
They yet but murdred Kinsfolk Brothers Parents
Ravish'd the Virgins and perhaps some Matrons
They left the City standing and the Temples
The Gods and Majesty of Rome were safe yet
These purpose to fire it to despoil them
Beyond the other evils and lay waste
The far-triumphed World for unto whom
Rome is too little what can be enough
'Tis true my Lord I had the same discourse
And then to take a horrid Sacrament
In human Blood for execution
Of this their dire design which might be call'd
The heighth of wickedness but that that was higher
For which they did it I assure your Lordship
The extreme horrour of it almost turn'd me
To Air when first I heard it I was all
A Vapour when 'twas told me and I long'd
To vent it any where 'Twas such a secret
I thought it would have burnt me up
It is my Duty O my noble Lord
I have to chide you i' faith Give me your Hand
Nay be not troubled 't shall be gently Curius
You look upon this Lady What do you guess
My Business yet Come if you frown I thunder
Therefore put on your better Looks and Thoughts
There nought but fair and good intended to you
And I would make those your Complexion
Would you of whom the Senate had that hope
As on my knowledge it was in their purpose
Next Sitting to restore you as they done
The stupid and ungratful Lentulus
Excuse me that I name you thus together
For yet you are not such Would you I say
A Person both of Blood and Honour stockt
In a long Race of vertuous Ancestors
Embark your self for such a hellish Action
With Parricides and Traitors Men turn'd Furies
Out of the Waste and Ruine of their Fortunes
For 'tis Despair that is the Mother of Madness
Such as want that which all Conspirators
But they have first meer Colour for their Mischief
O I must blush with you Come you shall not labour
T' extenuate your Guilt but quit it clean
Bad Men excuse their Faults good Men will leave 'em
He acts the third Crime that defends the first
Here is a Lady that hath got the start
In Piety of us all and for whose Vertue
I could almost turn Lover again but that
Terentia would be jealous What an Honour
Hath she atchieved to her self What Voices
Titles and loud Applauses will pursue her
Through every Street What Windows will be fill'd
To shoot Eyes at her What Envy and Grief in Matrons
They are not she When this her Act shall seem
Worthier a Chariot than if Pompey came
With Asia chain'd All this is while she lives
But dead her very Name will be a Statue
Not wrought for Time but rooted in the Minds
Of all Posterity when Brass and Marble
I and the Capitol it self is Dust
Your Honour thinks too highly of me No
I cannot think enough and I would have
Him emulate you 'Tis no shame to follow
The better Precedent She shews you Curius
What Claim your Country lays to you and what Duty
You owe to it Be not afraid to break
With Murderers and Traitors for the saving
A Life so near and necessary to you
As is your Countries Think but on her Right
No Child can be too natural to his Parent
She is our Common Mother and doth challenge
The prime part of us do not stop but give it
He that is void of Fear may soon be just
And no Religion binds Men to be Traitors
My Lord he understands it and will follow
Your saving Counsel but his Shame yet stays him
I know that he is coming Do you know it
Come do you think I'ld walk in any Plot
Where Madam Sempronia should take place of me
And Fulvia come i' the Rere or o' the by
That I would be her Second in a Business
Though it might vantage me all the Sun sees
It was a silly phant'sie of yours Apply
Your self to me and the Consul and be wise
Follow the Fortune I ha' put you into
You may be something this way and with safety
Nay I must tolerate no Whisperings Lady
Sir you may hI tell him in the way
Wherein he was how hazardous his Course was
How hazardous How certain to all ruin
Did he or do yet any of them imagine
The Gods would sleep to such a Stygian Practice
Against that Commonwealth which they have founded
With so Labour and like Care have kept
Now neer seven hundred Years It is a Madness
Wherewith Heaven blinds 'em when it would confound 'em
That they should think it Come my Curius
I see your Nature right you shall no more
Be mention'd with them I will call you mine
And trouble this good Shame no farther Stand
Firm for your Country and become a Man
Honour'd and lov'd It were a noble Life
To be found dead embracing her Know you
What Thanks what Titles what Rewards the Senate
Will heap upon you certain for your Service
Let not a desperate Action more engage you
Than Safety should and wicked Friendship force
What Honesty and Vertue cannot work
He tells you right sweet Friend 'tis saving Counsel
Most noble Consul I am yours and hers
I mean my Countries you have form'd me new
Inspiring me with what I should be truly
And I entreat my Faith may not seem cheaper
For springing out of Penitence Good Curius
It shall be dearer rather and because
I'ld make it such hear how I trust you more
Keep still youyour former Face and mix again
With these lost Spirits run all their Mazes with 'em
For such are Treasons Find their Windings out
And subtle Turnings watch their Snakie Ways
Through Brakes and Hedges into Woods of Darkness
Where they are fain to creep upon their Breasts
In Paths ne'er trod by Men but Wolves and Panthers
Learn beside Catiline Lentulus and those
Whose Names I have what new ones they draw in
Who else are likely what those Great ones are
They do not name what ways they mean to take
And whither their Hopes point to War or Ruine
By some Surprise Explore all their Intents
And what you find my profit the Republick
Acquaint me with it either by your self
Or this your vertuous Friend on whom I lay
The Care of urging you I'll see that Rome
Shall prove a thankful and a bounteous Mother
Be secret as the Night And constant Sir
I do not doubt it though the time cut off
All Vows The Dignity of Truth is lost
With protesting Who is there This way
Lest you be seen and met And when you come
Be this your Token to this Fellow Light 'em
Who wake for thee though thou snore for thy self
Is it not strange thou should'st be so diseas'd
And so secure But more that the first Symptoms
Of such a Malady should not rise out
From any worthy Member but a base
And common Strumpet worthless to be nam'd
A Hair or part of thee Think think hereafter
What thy needs were when thou must use such Means
And lay it to thy Breast how the Gods
Upbraid thy foul neglect of them by making
So vile a thing the Author of thy Safety
They could have wrought by nobler ways have struck
Thy Foes with forked Lightning or ramm'd Thunder
Thrown Hills upon 'em in the Act have sent
Death like a Damp to all their Families
Or caus'd their Consciences to burst 'em But
When they will shew thee what thou art and make
A scornful difference 'twixt their Power and thee
They help thee by such Aids as Geese and Harlots
How now What answer Is he come Your Brother
Will streight be here and your Colleague Antonius
Said coldly he would follow me I that
Troubles me somewhat and is worth my fear
He is a Man 'gainst whom I must provide
That as he'll do no good he do no harm
He though he be not of the Plot will like it
And wish it should proceed for unto Men
Prest with their Wants all Change is ever welcom
I must with Offices and Patience win him
Make him by Art that which he is not born
A Friend unto the Publick and bestow
The Province on him which is by the Senate
Decreed to me that Benefit will bind him
'Tis well if some Men will do well for Price
So few are vertuous when the Reward away
Nor must I be unmindful of my Private
For which I have call'd my Brother and the Tribunes
My Kinsfolk and my Clients to be near me
He that stands up 'gainst Traitors and their Ends
Shall need a double Guard of Law and Friends
Especially in such an envious State
That sooner will accuse the Magistrate
Than the Delinquent and will rather grieve
The Treason is not acted than believe
He Night grows on and you are for your Meeting
I'll therefore end in few Be resolute
And put your Enterprise in act The more
Actions of depth and danger are consider'd
The less assuredly they are perform'd
And thence it hapneth that the bravest Plots
Not executed streight have been discover'd
Say you are constant or another a third
Or more there may be yet one wretched Spirit
With whom the fear of Punishment shall work
'Bove all the thoughts of Honour and Revenge
You are not now to think what best to do
As in Beginnings but what must be done
Being thus entred and slip no advantage
That may secure you Let 'em call it Mischief
When it is past and prosper'd 'twill be Vertue
Th'are petty Crimes are punish'd great rewarded
Nor must you think of Peril since Attempts
Begun with Danger still do end with Glory
And when Need spurs Despair will be call'd Wisdom
Less ought the care of Men or Fame to fright you
For they that win do seldom receive shame
Of Victory how e'er it be atehiev'datchiev'd
And Vengeance least For who besieg'd with Wants
Would stop at Death or any thing beyond it
Come there was never any great thing yet
wHat Ministers Men must for practice use
The rash th' ambitious needy desperate
Foolish and wretched ev'n the Dregs of Mankind
To Whores and Women Still it must be so
Each have their proper place and in their Rooms
They are the best Grooms fittest kindle Fires
Slaves carry Burdens Butchers are for Slaughters
Apothecaries Butlers Cooks for Poysons
As these for me Dull stupid Lentulus
My Stale with whom I stalk the rash Cethegus
My Executioner and fat Longinus
Statilius Curius Ceparius Cimber
My Labourers Pioneers and Incendiaries
With these Domestick Traitors Bosom-thieves
Whom Custom hath call'd Wives the readiest Helps
To betray heady Husbands rob the easie
And lend the Moneys on Returns of Lust
Shall Catiline not do now with these Aids
So sought so sorted something shall be call'd
Their Labour but his Profit and make Caesar
Repent his vent'ring Counsels to a Spirit
So his Lord in Mischief when all these
Shall like the Brethren sprung of Dragons Teeth
Ruin each other and he fall amongst 'em
With Crassus Pompey or who else appears
But like or near a Great one May my Brain
Resolve to Water and my Blood turn Phlegm
My Hands drop off unworthy of my Sword
And that b' inspired of it self to rip
My Breast for my lost Entrails when I leave
A Soul that will not serve and who will are
The same with Slaves such I dare not fear
The Cruelty I mean to act I wish
Should be call'd mine and tarry in my Name
Whilst After-ages do toil out themselves
In thinking for the like but do it less
And were the Power of all the Fiends let loose
With Fate to boot it should be still Example
When what the Gaul or Moor could not effect
Nor emulous Carthage with their length of spite
Shall be the Work of one and that my Night
cAN these Men fear who are not only ours
But the World Masters Then I see the Gods
Upbraid our Suff'rings or would humble them
By sending these affrights while we are here
That we might laugh at their ridiculous Fear
Whose Names we trembled at beyond the Alpes
Of all that pass I do not see a Face
Worthy a Man that dares look up and stand
One Thunder out but downward all like Beasts
Running away from every flash is made
The falling world could not deserve such baseness
Are we imploy'd here by our Miseries
Like superstitious Fools or rather Slaves
To plain our Griefs Wrongs and Oppressions
To a meer clothed Senate whom our Folly
Hath made and still intends to keep our Tyrants
It is our base petitionary breath
That blows 'em to this Greatness which this prick
Would soon let out if we were bold and wretched
When they have taken all we have our Goods
Crop Lands and Houses they will leave us this
A Weapon and an Arm will still be found
Tho naked left and lower than the ground
What may be happy and auspicious still
To Rome and hers Honour'd and Conscript Fathers
If I were silent and that all the Dangers
Threatning the State any you were yet so hid
In Night or Darkness thicker in their Breasts
That are the black Contrivers so that no
Beam of the Light could pierce 'em yet the Voice
Of Heav'n this Morning hath spoke loud enough
T' instruct you with a feeling of the Horror
And wake you from a Sleep as stark as Death
I have of late spoke often in this Senate
Touching this Argument but still have wanted
Either your Ears or Faith So incredible
Their Plots have seem'd or I so vain to make
These things for mine own Glory and false Greatness
As hath been given out But be it so
When they break forth and shall declare themselves
By their too foul Effects then then the Envy
Of my just Cares will find another Name
For me I am but one and this poor Life
So lately aim'd at not an Hour yet since
They cannot with more eagerness pursue
Than I with gladness would lay down and lose
To buy Romes Peace if that would purchase it
But when I see they'ld make it but the step
To more and greater unto yours Romes all
So are the Furies Yes and Ate too
Dost thou not blush pernicious Catiline
Or hath the paleness of thy Guilt drunk up
Thy Blood and drawn thy Veins as dry of that
As is thy Heart of Truth thy Breast of Vertue
Whither at length wilt thou abuse our patience
Still shall thy Fury mock us To what licence
Dares thy unbridled boldness run it self
Do all the nightly Guards kept on the Palace
The Cities Watches with the Peoples Fears
The Concourse of all good men this so strong
And fortified Seat here of the Senate
The present looks upon thee strike thee nothing
Dost thou not feel thy Counsels all laid open
And see thy wild Conspiracy bound in
With each man knowledge which of all this Order
Canst thou think ignorant if they'll but utter
Their Conscience to the right of what thou didst
Last Night what on the former where thou wert
Whom thou didst call together what your Plots were
O Age and Manners This the Consul sees
The Senate understands yet this man lives
Lives I and comes here into Counsel with us
Partakes the Publick Cares and with his Eye
Marks and points out each Man of us to slaughter
And we good Men do satisfie the State
If we can shun but this Man Sword and Madness
There was that Vertue once in Rome when good men
Would with more sharp Coercion have restrain'd
A wicked Citizen than the deadliest Foe
We have that Law still Catiline for thee
An Act as grave as sharp The State not wanting
Nor the Authority of this Senate we
We that are Consuls only fail our selves
This twenty days the EdgEdge of that Decree
We have let dull and rust kept it shut up
As in a Sheath which drawn should take thy Head
Yet still thou liv'st and liv'st not to lay by
Thy wicked Confidence but to confirm it
I could desire grave Fathers to be found
Still merciful to seem in these main perils
Grasping the State a Man remiss and slack
But then I should condemn my self of Sloth
And Treachery Their Camp in Italy
Pitch'd in the Jaws here of Hetruria
Their Numbers daily increasing and their General
Within our Walls nay in our Counsel plotting
Hourly some fatal mischief to the Publick
If Catiline I should command thee now
Here to be taken kill'd I make just doubt
Whether all good men would not think it done
Rather too late than any man too cruel
I will and for good Reason yet forbear
Then will I take thee when no Man is found
So lost so wicked nay so like thy self
But shall profess 'tis done of need and right
While there is one that dares defend thee live
Thou shalt have leave but so as now thou liv'st
Watch'd at a hand besieged and opprest
From working least Commotion to the State
I have those Eyes and Ears shall still keep guard
And spial on thee as they have ever done
And thou not feel it What then canst thou hope
If neither Night can with her Darkness hide
Thy wicked Meetings nor a Private House
Can in her Walls contain the guilty whispers
Of thy Conspiracy If all break out
All be discover'd change thy mind at last
And lose thy thoughts of Ruine Flame and Slaughter
Remember how I told here to the Senate
That such a day thy Lictor Caius Manlius
Would be in Arms Was I deceived Catiline
Or in the Fact or in the Time the Hour
I told too in this Senate that thy purpose
Was on the Fifth the Kalends of November
T' have slaughter'd this whole Order which my caution
Made many leave the City Canst thou here
Deny but this thy black Design was hindred
That very day by me Thy self clos'd in
Within my strengths so that thou could'st not move
Against a publick Reed When thou wert heard
To say upon the parting of the rest
Thou would'st content thee with the Murder of us
That did remain Hadst thou no hope beside
By a surprize by Night to take Praenestae
Where when thou cam'st didst thou not find the place
Made good against thee with my Aids my Watches
My Garrisons fortified it Thou dost nothing Sergius
Thou canst endeavour nothing nay not think
But I both see and hear it and am with thee
By and before about and in thee too
Call but to mind thy last Nights business Come
I'le use no Circumstance at Lecca House
The Shop and Mint of your Conspiracy
Among your Sword-men where so many Associates
Both of thy Mischief and thy Madness met
Dar'st thou deny this Wherefore art thou silent
Speak and this shall convince thee Here they are
I see 'em in this Senate that were with thee
O you Immortal Gods in what Clime are we
What Region do we live in in what Air
What Commonwealth or State is this we have
Here here amongst us our own Number Fathers
In this most holy Council of the world
They are that seek the Spoil of me of you
Of ours of all what I can name too narrow
Follow the Sun and find not their Ambition
These I behold being Consul nay I ask
Their Counsels of the State as from good Patriots
Whom it were fit the Axe should hew in pieces
I not so as wound yet with my Voice
Thou wast last Night with Lecca Catiline
Your Shares of Italy you there divided
Appointed who and whither each should go
What Men should stay behind in Rome were chosen
Your Offices set down the parts mark'd out
And places of the City for the fire
Thy self thou affirm'dst wast ready to depart
Only a little let there was that stay'd thee
That I yet liv'd Upon the word stept forth
Three of thy Crew to rid thee of that Care
Two undertook this Morning before Day
To kill me in my Bed All this I knew
Go where thou mean'st The Ports are open forth
The Camp abroad wants thee their Chief too long
Lead with thee all thy Troops out Purge the City
Draw dry that noisom and pernicious Sink
Which left behind thee would infect the World
Thou wilt free me of all my Fears at once
To see a Wall between us Dost thou stop
To do that now commanded which before
Of thine own choice thou'art prone to Go The Consul
Bids thee an Enemy to depart the City
Whither thou'lt ask to Exile I not bid
Thee that But ask my Counsel I perswade it
What is there here in Rome that can delight thee
Where not a Soul without thine own foul knot
But fears and hates thee What Domestick Note
Of private filthiness but is burnt in
Into thy Life What close and secret shame
But is grown one with thine own Infamy
What Lust was ever absent from thine Eyes
What lewd Fact from thy Hands what wickedness
From thy whole Body where that Youth drawn in
Within thy Nets or catch'd up with thy baits
Before whose Rage thou hast not borne a Sword
And to whose Lusts thou hast not held a Torch
Thy latter Nuptials I let pass in silence
Where sins incredible on sins were heapt
Which I not name lest in a Civil State
So monstrous Facts should either appear to be
Or not to be reveng'd Thy Fortunes too
I glance not at which hang but still next Ides
I come to that which is more known more publick
The Life and Safety of us all by thee
Threatned and sought Stood'st thou not in the Field
When Lepidus and Tullus were our Consuls
Upon the day of Choice arm'd and with Forces
To take their Lives and our chief Citizens
When not thy Fear nor Conscience chang'd thy Mind
But the meer Fortune of the Commonwealth
Withstood thy active malice Speak but right
How often hast thou made attempt on me
How many of thy Assaults have I declin'd
With shifting but my Body as we'ld say
Wrested thy Dagger from thy Hand how oft
How often hath it faln or slipt by chance
Yet can thy side not want it which how vow'd
Or with what Rites 'tis sacred of thee I know not
That still thou mak'st it a Necessity
To fix it in the Body of a Consul
But let me lose this way and speak to thee
Not as one mov'd with hatred which I ought
But pity of which none is owing thee
No more than unto Tantalus or Tityus
Thou cam'st e're while into this Senate Who
Of such a frequency so many Friends
And Kindred thou hast here saluted thee
Were not the Seats made bare upon thy entrance
Riss' not the Consular Men and left their places
So soon as thou sat'st down and fled thy side
Like to a Plague or Ruine Knowing how oft
They had been by thee mark'd out for the Shambles
How dost thou hear this Surely if my Slaves
At home fear'd me with half th' affright and horror
That here thy Fellow-Citizens do thee
I should soon quit my House and think it need too
Yet thou dar'st tarry here Go forth at last
Condemn thy self to flight and solitude
Discharge the Commonwealth of her deep Fear
Go into banishment if thou wait'st the word
Why dost thou look They all consent unto it
Dost thou expect th' Authority of their Voices
Whose silent wills condemn thee While they sit
They approve it while they suffer it they decree it
And while they are silent to it they proclaim it
Prove thou there honest I'le endure the Envy
But there no thought thou shouldst be ever he
Whom either shame should call from filthiness
Terror from danger or discourse from Fury
Go I intreat thee yet why do I so
When I already know they're sent afore
That tarry for thee'in Arms and do expect thee
On th' Aurelian way I know the day
Set down 'twixt thee and Manlius unto whom
The Silver Eagle too is sent before
Which I do hope shall prove to thee as baneful
As thou conceiv'st it to the Commonwealth
But may this wise and sacred Senate say
What mean'st thou Marcus Tullius If thou know'st
That Catiline be look'd for to be chief
Of an intestine War that he 'is the Author
Of such a wickedness the caller out
Of men of in mischief to an action
Of so Horror Prince of such a Treason
Why dost thou send him forth why let him scape
This is to give him Liberty and Power
Rather thou should'st lay hold upon him send him
To deserv'd death and a just punishment
To these so holy Voices thus I answer
If I did think it timely Conscript Fathers
To punish him with death I would not give
The Fencer use of one short Hour to breathe
But when there are in this grave Order some
Who with soft Censures still do nurse his Hopes
Some that with not believing have confirm'd
His Designs more and whose Authority
The weaker as the worst Men too have follow'd
I would now send him where they all should see
Clear as the Light his Heart shine where no man
Could be so wickedly or fondly stupid
But should cry out he saw touch'd felt and graspt it
Then when he hath run out himself led forth
His desp'rate party with him blown together
Aids of all kinds both shipwrack'd Minds and Fortunes
Not only the grown Evil that now is sprung
And sprouted forth would be pluck'd up and weeded
But the Stock Root and Seed of all the Mischiefs
Choaking the Commonwealth Where should we take
Of such a swarm of Traitors only him
Our Cares and Fears might seem a while reliev'd
But the main peril would bide still inclos'd
Deep in the Veins and Bowels of the State
As Humane Bodies labouring with Fevers
while they are tost with heat if they do take
Cold water seem for that short space eas'd
But afterward are ten times more afflicted
wherefore I say let all this wicked Crew
Depart divide themselves from good Men gather
Their Forces to one Head as I said oft
Let 'em be sever'd from us with a wall
Let 'em leave off attempts upon the Consul
In his own House to circle in the Praetor
To girt the Court with weapons to prepare
Fire and Balls Swords Torches Sulphur Brands
In short let it be writ in each Man Forehead
what thoughts he bears the Publick I here promise
Fathers Conscript to you and to my self
That Diligence in us Consuls for my Honour'd
Colleague abroad and for my self at home
So great Authority in you so much
Vertue in these the Gentlemen of Rome
whom I could scarce restrain to day in Zeal
From seeking out the Parricide to slaughter
So consent in all good Men and Minds
As on the going out of this one Catiline
All shall be clear made plain oppress'd reveng'd
And with this Omen go pernicious Plague
Out of the City to the wish'd Destruction
Of thee and those that to the Ruine of her
Have tane that bloody and black Sacrament
Thou Jupiter whom we do call the Stayer
Both of this City and this Empire wilt
with the same Auspice thou didst raise it first
Drive from thy Altars and all other Temples
And Buildings of this City from our walls
Lives States and Fortunes of our Citizens
This Fiend this Fury with his Complices
And all th' offence of good Men these known Traytors
Unto their Countrey Thieves of Italy
Joyn'd in so damn'd a League of Mischief thou
wilt with perpetual Plagues alive and dead
Punish for Rome and save her innocent Head
All may begin a War but few can end it
The Senate have decreed that my Colleague
Shall lead their Army against Catiline
And have declar'd both him and Manlius Traytors
Metellus Celer hath already given
Part of their Troops defeat Honours are promis'd
To all will quit 'em and Rewards propos'd
Even to Slaves that can detect their Courses
Here in the City I have by the Praetors
And Tribunes plac'd my Guards and Watches so
That not a Foot can tread a Breath can whisper
But I have knowledge And be sure the Senate
And People of Rome of their accustom'd Greatness
Will sharply and severely vindicate
Not only any Fact but any Practice
Or Purpose 'gainst the State Therefore my Lords
Consult of your own ways and think which hand
Is best to take You now are present Suitors
For some redress of wrongs I'll undertake
Not only that shall be assur'd you but
What Grace or Priviledge else Senate or People
Can cast upouupon you worthy such a Service
As you have now the way and means to do 'em
If but your Wills consent with my Designs
All We covet nothing more most worthy Consul
And how so e're we have been tempted lately
To a defection that not makes us guilty
We are not yet so wretched in our Fortunes
Nor in our Wills so lost as to abandon
A friendship prodigally of that price
As is the Senate and the People of Romes
For hopes that do precipitate themselves
To exercise your Arms in We not now
Fight for how long how broad how great and large
Th' extent and bounds o' th' People of Rome shall be
But to retain what our great Ancestors
With all their Labours Counsels Arts and Actions
For us were purchasing so many years
The quarrel is not now of Fame or Tribute
Or of wrongs done unto Confederates
For which the Army of the People of Rome
Was wont to move but for your own Republick
For the rais'd Temples of th' immortal Gods
For all your Fortunes Altars and your Fires
For the dear Souls of your lov'd Wives and Children
Your Parents Tombs your Rites Laws Liberty
And briefly for the safety of the World
Against such Men as only by their Crimes
Are known thrust out by Riot Want or Rashness
One sort Sylla old Troops left here in Fesulae
Who suddenly made rich in those dire Times
Are since by their unbounded vast expence
Grown needy and poor and have but left t' expect
From Catiline new Bills and new Proscriptions
These Men they say are Valiant yet I think 'em
Not worth your pause For either their old Vertue
Is in their Sloth and Pleasures lost or if
It tarry with 'em so ill match for yours
As they are short in Number or in Cause
The second sort are of those City-beasts
Rather than Citizens who whilst they reach
After our Fortunes have let fly their own
These whelm'd in Wine swell'd up with Meats and weakned
With hourly whoredoms never left the side
Of Catiline in Rome nor here are loos'd
From his Embraces such as trust me never
In riding or in using well their Arms
watching or other Military Labour
Did exercise their Youth but learn'd to Love
Drink Dance and Sing make Feasts and be fine Gamsters
And these will wish more hurt to you than they bring you
The rest are a mixt kind all sorts of Furies
Adulterers Dicers Fencers Out-laws Thieves
The Murderers of their Parents all the Sink
And Plague of Italy met in one Torrent
To take to day from us the Punishment
Due to their mischiefs for so many years
And who in such a Cause 'gainst such Fiends
would not now wish himself all Arm and weapon
To cut such Poysons from the Earth and let
Their Blood out to be drawn away in Clouds
And pour'd on some inhabitable Place
Where the hot Sun and Slime breeds nought but Monsters
Chiefly when this sure joy shall crown our side
That the least Man that falls upon our Party
This day as some must give their happy Names
To Fate and that eternal Memory
Of the best Death writ with it for their Countrey
Shall walk at pleasure in the Tents of rest
And see far off beneath him all their Host
Tormented after Life and Catiline there
Walking a wretched and less Ghost than he
I'll urge no more Move forward with your Eagles
And trust the Senates and Romes Cause to Heaven
To thee great Father Mars and greater Jove
Hath often made my Faith small in this Senate
Yet since my casting Catiline out for now
I do not fear the envy of the Word
Unless the Deed be rather to be fear'd
That he went hence alive when those I meant
Should follow him did not I have spent both days
And nights in watching what their fury and rage
Was bent on that so staid against my thought
And that I might but take 'em in that light
Where when you met their Treason with your Eyes
Your minds at length would think for your own safety
And now 'tis done There are their Hands and Seals
Their Persons too are safe thanks to the Gods
Bring in Volturtius and the Allobroges
These be the Men were trusted with their Letters
Th' inquiring after good does not belong
Unto a wicked Person I but Cato
Does nothing but by Law Take him aside
There Proof enough though he confess not Stay
I will confess All true your Spies have told you
Make of 'em Yes and reward 'em well
For fear you get no more such See they do not
Dye in a Ditch and stink now you ha' done with 'em
Or beg o' the Bridges here in Rome whose Arches
Their active industry hath sav'd See Fathers
What Minds and Spirits these are that being convicted
Of such a Treason and by such a Cloud
Of Witnesses dare yet retain their boldness
What would their Rage have done if they had conquer'd
I thought when I had thrust out Catiline
Neither the State nor I should need t' have fear'd
Lentulus sleep here or Longinus fat
Or this Cethegus rashness it was he
I only watch'd while he was in our Walls
As one that had the Brain the Hand the Heart
But now we find the contrary Where was there
A People griev'd or a State discontent
Able to make or help a War 'gainst Rome
But these th' Allobroges and those they found
Whom had not the just Gods been pleas'd to make
More Friends unto our safety than their own
As it then seem'd neglecting these Mens offers
Where had we been or where the Commonwealth
When their great Chief had been call'd home this Man
Their absolute King whose noble Grand-father
Arm'd in pursuit of the seditious Gracchus
Took a brave wound for dear defence of that
Which he would spoil had gather'd all his Aids
Of Ruffians Slaves and other Slaughter-men
