No sailor with the news swell Egypt's pride,
By what inglorious fate our valiant died!
Weep Arnon! Jordan, weep thy fountains dry,
While Sion's rock dissolves for a supply.
With David then was Israel's peace restor'd;
Crowds mourn'd their error, and obey'd their lord.
Key to Absalom and Achitophel.
Calm were the elements, night's silence deep,
The waves scarce murmuring, and the winds
Yet fate for ruin takes so still an hour, ['asleep;
And treach'rous sands the princely bark devour; Abethdin,
Then death unworthy seis'd a gen'rous race,
To virtue's scandal, and the stars disgrace!
Oh! had the indulgent pow'rs vouchsaf'd to Achitophel,
Instead of faithless shelves, a listed field; [yield,
A listed field of Heaven's and David's foes,
Fierce as the troops that did his youth oppose;
Each life had on his slaughter'd heap retir'd,
Not tamely and unconq'ring thus expir'd :
But destiny is now their only foe,
And dying e'en o'er that they triumph too; [plaud,
With loud last breaths their master's 'scape ap-Annabel,
Of whom kind force could scarce the fates defraud; Arod,
Who for such followers lost, O matchless mind!
At his own safety now almost repin'd!
Say, royal Sir, by all your fame in arms,
Your praise in peace, and by Urania's charms,
If all your sufferings past so nearly press'd,
Or pierc'd with half so painful grief, your breast?
Thus some diviner Muse her hero forms,
Not sooth'd in soft delights, but toss'd in storms;
Nor stretch'd on roses in the myrtle grove;
Nor crowns his days with mirth, his nights with
love;
But far remov'd in thund'ring camps is found,
His slumbers short, his bed the herbless ground:
In tasks of danger always seen the first,
Feeds from the hedge, and slakes with icehisthirst.
Balaam,
Balaak,
Barzillai,
Bathsheba,
Benaiah,
Ben Jochanan,
Bezaliel,
Caleb,
Long must his patience strive with fortune's rage, Eliab,
And long opposing gods themselves engage:
Must see his country flame, his friends destroy'd, Ethnic Plot,
Before the promis'd empire be enjoy'd:
Such toils of fate must build a man of fame,
And such to Israel's crown, the godlike David
What sudden beams dispel the clouds so fast,
Whose drenching rains laidall ourvineyardswaste!
The spring so far behind her course delay'd,
On th' instant is in all her bloom array'd';
"The winds breathe low, the elements serene;
Yet mark what motion in the waves is seen!
Thronging and busy as Hyblaen swarms,
Or straggled soldiers suminon'd to their arms.
See where the princely bark in loosest pride,
With all her guardian fleet, adorns the tide!
High on her deck the royal lovers stand,
Our crimes to pardon ere he touch'd our land.
Welcome to Israel and to David's breast!
Here all your toils, here all your suff'rings rest.
This year did Ziloah rule Jerusalem,
And boldly all Sedition's syrtes stem.
Howe'er encumber'd with a viler pair
Than Ziph or Shimei to assist the chair;
Yet Ziloah's loyal labors so prevail'd,
That faction at the next election fail'd;
When ev'n the common cry did justice sound,
And merit by the multitude was crown'd:
Hebron,
Hebrew Priests,
Helon,
Hushai,
At his approach they rais'd a rueful cry, [high,
And beat their breasts, and held their hands on
Saganof Jerusalem, Dr. Compton, Bp. of Lon.. Creeping and crying, till they seis'd at last
Parliament.
Oliver Cromwell.
Sheriff Bethel.
Sir Roger Lestrange.
Solymean Rout, London Rebels.
Sancroft, Archbishop of
Canterbury.
SA Member of the House
of Commons. Villiers, D. of Buckingham. Sir John Moor.
His courser's bridle, and his feet embrac'd.
Tell me, said Theseus, what and whence you
And why this fun'ral pageant you prepare:
Is this the welcome of my worthy deeds,
To meet my triumph in ill-omen'd weeds?
Or envy you my praise, and would destroy
With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy?
Or are you injur'd, and demand relief?
Name your request, and I will ease your grief.
The most in years of all the mourning train
Began (but swooned first away for pain);
Then scarce recover'd spoke: Nor envy we
Thy great renown, nor grudge thy victory:
'Tis thine, O king, th' afflicted to redress,
§ 28. Palamon and Areite: or, the Knight's And fame has filled the world with thy success:
In days of old, there liv'd of mighty fame,
A valiant prince, and Theseus was his name:
A chief who more in feats of arms excell'd
The rising nor the setting sun beheld.
We wretched women sue for that alone,
Which of thy goodness is refus'd to none;
Let fall some drops of pity on our grief,
If that we beg be just, and we deserve relief:
For none of us, who now thy grace implore,
But held the rank of sov'reign queen before;
Till, thanks to giddy chance, which never bears
That mortal bliss should last for length of years,
She cast us headlong from our high estate,
And here in hope of thy return we wait :
And long have waited in the temple nigh,
Built to the gracious goddess Clemency. [bears,
But rev'rence thou the pow'r whose name it
Relieve th' opprest, and wipe the widow's tears-
'SJ, wretched I, have other fortune seen,
Of Athens he was lord; much land he won,
And added foreign countries to his crown.
In Scythia with the warrior queen he strove,
Whom first by force he conquer'd, then by love;
He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame,
With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came.
With honor to his home let Theseus ride,
With love to friend, and fortune for his guide,
And his victorious army at his side.
I pass their warlike poinp, their proud array,
Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the
But, were it not too long, I would recite
The fear of Amazons, the fatal fight
Betwixt the hardy queen and hero knight;
The town besieg'd, and how much blood it cost
The female army and th' Athenian host;
The spousals of Hippolita the queen ;
What tilts and tourneys at the feast were seen;
The storm at their return, the ladies' fear:
But these and other things, I must forbear.
The field is spacious I design to sow,
With oxen far unfit to draw the plough;
The remnant of my tale is of a length
To tire your patience, and to waste iny strength;
And trivial accidents shall be forborne,
That others may have time to take their turn;
As was at first enjoin'd us by mine host,
That he whose tale is best, and pleases most,
Should win his supper at our cominon cost.
And therefore where I left I will pursue
This antient story, whether false or true,
In hope it inay be mended with a new.
The prince I mention'd, full of high renown,
In this array drew near the Athenian town;
When in his pomp and utmost of his pride,
Marching he chanc'd to cast his eye aside,
And saw a choir of mourning dames, who lay
By two and two across the common way :
The wife of Capancus, and once a queen :
At Thebes he fell; curst be the fatal day;
And all the rest thou seest in this array,
To make their moan, their lords in battle lost
Before that town besieg'd by our confed'rate host-
But Creon, old and impious, who commands
The Theban city, and usurps the lands,
Denies the rites of fun'ral fires to those
Whose breathless bodies yet he calls his foes.
Unburn'd, unburied, on a heap they lie;
Such is their fate, and such his tyranny;
No friend has leave to bear away the dead,
But with their lifeless limbs his hounds are fed.
At this she shriek'd aloud: the mournful train
Echoed her grief, and grov ling on the plain,
With groans, and hands upheld, to move his
Besought his pity to their helpless kind! [mind,
The prince was touch'd, his tears began to flow,
And, as his tender heart would break in two,
He sigh'd and could not but their fate deplore,
So wretched now, so fortunate before.
Then lightly from his lofty steed he flew,
And raising one by one the suppliant crew,
To comfort each, full solemnly he swore,
That by the faith which knights to knighthood
bore,
And whate'er else to chivalry belongs,
He would not cease, till he reveng'd their wrongs: That Greece should see perform'd what he deAnd cruel Creon find his just reward. [clar'd;
But in the tow'r, and never to be loos'd,
The woeful captive kinsmen are inclos'd.
Thus year by year they pass, and day by day,
Till once, 'twas on the morn of cheerful May,
The young Emilia, fairer to be seen
Than the fair lily on the flow'ry green,
More fresh than May herself in blossoms new,
For with the rosy color strove her hue,
Wak'd, as her custom was, before the day
To do th' observance due to sprightly May:
For sprightly May commands our youth to keep
The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard
sleep;
He said no more, but, shunning all delay,
Rode on, nor entered Athens on his way:
But left his sister and his queen behind,
And waved his royal banner in the wind:
Where in an argent field the god of war
Was drawn triumphant on his iron car :
Red was his sword, and shield, and whole attire;
And all the godhead seem'd to glow with fire;
F'en the ground glitter'dwhere the standard flew,
And the green grass was dy'd to sanguine hue.
High on his pointed lance his pennon bore
His Cretan fight, the conquer'd Minotaur ;
The soldiers shout around with gen'rous rage,
And in that victory their own presage.
He prais'd their ardor, inly pleas'd to see
His host the flow'r of Grecian chivalry.
All day he march'd, and all th' ensuing night;
And saw the city with returning light.
The process of the war I need not tell,
How Theseus conquer'd, and how Creon fell;
Or after, how by storm the walls were won,
Or how the victor sack'd and burn'd the town;
How to the ladies he restored again
The bodies of their lords in battle slain;
And with what antient rites they were interr'd:
All these to fitter times shall be deferr'd.
I spare the widows' tears, their woeful cries,
And howling at their husbands' obsequies;
How Theseus at these fun'rals did assist,
Andwithwhatgiftsthemourning dames dismiss'd.
Thus, when the victor chief had Creon slain,
And conquer'd Thebes, he pitch'dupon the plain
His mighty camp, and when the day return'd,This done, she sung and carol'd out so clear,
The country wasted, and the hamlets burn'd;
And left the pillagers to rapine bred,
Without control to strip and spoil the dead.
There, in a heap of slain, among the rest, Two youthful knights they found, beneath a load opprest
Of slauter'd foes, whom first to death they sent,
The trophies of the strength a bloody monument,
Both fair, and both of royal blood they seem'd,
Whom kinsmen to the crown the heraldsdeem'd:
That day in equal arms they fought for fame :
Their swords, their shields, their surcourts, were
the same.
Close by each other laid, they press'd the ground,
Their manly bosoms pierc'd with many a grissly
wound;
Nor well alive, nor wholly dead, they were,
But some faint signs of feeble life appear:
The wand'ring breath was on the wing to part,
Weak was the pulse, and hardly heav'd the heart,
These two were sister's sons, and Arcite one,
Much fam'd in fields, with valiant Palamon.
From these their costly arms the spoilers rent;
And softly both conveyed to Theseus' tent:
Whom known of Creon's line,and cur'dwithcare,
He to his city sent, as pris'ners of the war,
Hopeless of ransom, and condemn'd to lie
In durance, doom'd a lingering death to die.
This done, he march'd awaywithwarlike sound,
And to his Athens turn'dwith laurels crown'd,
Where happy long he liv'd, much lov'd, and
Each gentle breast with kindlywarmthshemoves;
Inspires new flames, revives extinguish'd loves.
In this remembrance Emily ere day
Arose, and dress'd herself in rich array;
Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair,
Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair:
A riband did the braided tresses bind,
The rest was lose, and wanton'd in the wind:
Aurora had but newly chas'd the night,
And purpled o'er the sky with blushing light,
When to the garden walk she took her way,
To sport and trip along in cool of day,
And offer maiden vows in honor of the May.
At ev'ry turn she made a little stand,
And thrust among the thorns her lily hand
To draw the rose; and ev'ry rose she drew,
She shook the stalk, and brush'd away the dew.
Then party-color'd flow'rs of white and red
She wove, to make a garland for her head:
That men and angels might rejoice to hear:
Ev'n wond'ring Philomel forgot to sing;
And learn'd from her to welcome in the spring.
The tow'r, of which before was mention made,
Within whose keep the captive knights were
laid,
Built of a large extent and strong withal,
Was one partition of the palace wall:
The garden was inclos'd within the square,
Where young Emilia took the inorning air.
It happen'd Palamon, the pris'ner knight,
Restless for woe, arose before the light,
And, with his jailor's leave, desir'd to breathe
An air morewholesome than the damps beneath.
This granted, to the tow'r he took his way,
Cheer'd with the promise of a glorious day:
Then cast a languishing regard around,
And saw with hateful eyes the temples crown'd
With golden spires, and all the hostile ground..
He sigh'd, and turn'd his eyes because he knew
'Twas but a larger goal he had in view:
Then look'd before, and from the castle's height
Beheld a nearer and more pleasing sight:
The garden which before he had not seen,
In spring's new liv'ry clad of white and green,
Fresh flow'rs in wide parterres and shady
walks between.
This view'd, but not enjoy'd, with arms across
He stood, reflecting on his country's loss;
Himself an object of the public scorn,
And often, wish'd he never had been born.
At last, for so his destiny requir'd,
With walking giddy, and with thinking tir'd, He through a little window cast his sight, Though thick of bars, that gave a scanty light: But ev'n that glimmin'ring serv'd him to descry Th' inevitable charms of Emily. [smart, Scarce had he seen, but seis'd with sudden Stung to the quick, he felt it at his heart; Struck blind with overpow'ring light he stood, Then started back amaz'd, and cried aloud. Young Arcite heard; and up he ran with haste, To help his friend, and in his arms embrac'd; And ask'd him why he look'd so deadly wan, And whence and how his change of cheer began? Or who had done th' offence? But if, said he, Your grief alone is hard captivity, For love of heaven, with patience undergo A cureless ill, since fate will have it so: So stood on horoscope in chains to lie And Saturn in the dungeon of the sky, Or other baleful aspect, rul'd our birth, When all the friendly stars were under earth; Whate'er betides, my destiny 'tis done; And better bear, like men, than vainly seek to Nor of my bonds, said Palamon again,[shun. Nor of unhappy planets, I complain: But when any mortal anguish caus'd my cry, That moment I was hurt through either Piere'd with a random shaft, I faint away, And perish with insensible decay: A glance of some new goddess gave the wound, Whom, like Acteon, unaware I found. Look how she walks along yon shady space, Not Juno moves with more majestic grace; And all the Cyprian queen is in her face. If thou art Venus (for thy charms confess That face was form'd in heaven, or art thou less; Disguis'd in habit, undisguis'd in shape) Ohelp us captives from our chains to 'scape; But if our doom be pass'd in bonds to lie For life, and in a loathsome dungeon die. Then be thy wrath appeas'd with our disgrace, And show compassion to the Theban race, Oppress'd by tyrant pow'r! While yet he spoke, Arcite on Emily had fix'd his look; The fatal dart a ready passage found, And deep within his heart infix'd the wound: So that if Palamon were wounded soar, Arcite was hurt as much as he, or more: Then from his inmost soul he sigh'd, and said, The beauty I beheld has struck me dead: Unknowingly she strikes, and kills by chance; Poison is in her eyes, and death in ev'ry glance. O, I must ask; nor ask alone, but move Her mind to mercy, or must die for love.
Thus Arcite: and thus Palamon replies (Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes): Speak'st thou in earnest, or in jesting vain? Jesting, said Arcite, suits but ill with pain. It suits far worse (said Palamon again, And bent his brows), with men who honor weigh, Their faith to break, their friendship to betray; But worst with thee of noble lineage born, My kinsman, and in arms my brother sworn.
Have we not plighted each our holy oath,
That one should be the common good of both:
One soul should both inspire, and neither prove
His fellow's hindrance in pursuit of love?"
To this before the gods we gave our hands,
And nothing but our death can break the bands.
This binds thee, then, to further my design,
As I am bound by vow to further thine:
Nor canst, nor dar'st thou, traitor, on the plain
Approach my honor, or thine own maintain,
Since thon art of my council, and the friend
Whose faith I trust, and on whose care depend:
And would'st thou court ny lady's love, which I
Much rather than rehearse would choose to die?
But thou, false Arcite, never shalt obtain
Thy bad pretence. I told thee first my pain :
For first my love began ere thine was born:
Thou, as my counsel and my brother sworu,
Art bound assist my eldership of right,
Or justly to be deem'd a perjur'd knight.
Thus Palamon; but Arcite with disdain,
In haughty language, thus replied again :
Forsworn thyself; the traitor's odious name
I first return, and then disprove thy claim.
If love be passion, and that
passion nurs'd
With strong desires, I lov'd the lady first.
Canst thou pretend desire, whom zeal inflam'd
To worship, and a pow'r celestial nam'd?
Thine was devotion to the blest above;
I saw the woman, and desir'd her love;
First own'd my passion, and to thee commend
Th' important secret, as my chosen friend.
Suppose (which yet I grant not) thy desire
A moment elder than my rival fire:
Can chance of secing first thy title prove?
And know'st thou not, no law is made for love?
Law is to things which to free choice relate;
Love is not in our choice, but in our fate;
Laws are but positive; love's pow'r we see
Is nature's sanction, and her first decree.
Each day we break the bond of human laws
For love, and vindicate the common cause.
Laws for defence of civil rights are plac'd;
Love throws the fences down, and makes a
gen'ral waste:
Maids,widows,wives, withoutdistinctionfall; [all.
The sweeping deluge, Love, comes on, and covers
If then the laws of friendship I transgress,
I keep the greater, while I break the less;
And both are mad alike,sinceneithercanpossess. -
Both hopeless to be ransom'd, never more
To see the sun, but as he passes o'er.
Like sop's hounds contending for the boue,
Each pleaded right, and would be lord alone;
The fruitless fight continued all the day;
A cur came by, and snatch'd the prize away.
As courtiers therefore justle for a grant, [want,
And when they break their friendship plead their
So thou, if fortune will thy suit advance,
Love on, nor envy me my equal chance:
For I must love, and am resolv'd to try
My fate, or, failing in th' adventure, die.
Great was their strife, which hourly was renew'd,
'Till each with mortal hate his rival view'd :
Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand,
But when they met they made a surly stand;
And glar'd like angry lions as they pass'd,
And wish'd that ev'ry look might be their last.
It chane'd at length, Pirithous came t' attend
This worthy Theseus, his familiar friend;
Their love in early infancy began,
And rose as childhood ripen'd into man.
Companions of the war; and lov'd so well,
That when one died, as antient stories tell,
His fellow to redeem him went to hell.
But to pursue my tale; to welcome home His warlike brother is Pirithous come: Arcite of Thebes was known in arms long since, And honor'd by this young Thessalian prince. Theseus, to gratify his friend and guest, Who made our Areite's freedom his request, Restor'd to liberty our captive knight, But on these hard conditions I recite: That if hereafter Arcite should be found Within the compass of Athenian ground, By day or night, or on whate'er pretence, His head should pay the forfeit of th' offence. To this Pirithous for his friend agreed, And on his promise was the pris'ner freed. Unpleas'd and pensive thus he takes his way, At his own peril; for his life must pay. Who now but Arcite mourns his bitter fate, Finds his dear purchase, and repents too late? What have I gain'd, he said, in prison pent, If I but change my bonds for banishment? And banish'd from her sight, I suffer more In freedom, than I felt in bon:ls before; Forc'd from her presence, and condemn'd to love; Unwelcome freedom, and unthank'd reprieve! Heaven is not but where Emily abides; And where she 's absent all is hell besides. Next to my day of birth was that accurs'd, Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first; Had I not known that prince, I still had been In bondage, and had still Emilia seen: For though I never can her grace descrve, "Tis recoinpence enough to see and serve.
Palamon, my kinsman and my friend, How much more happy fates y love attend! Thine is th' adventure, thine the victory Well as thy fortune turn'd the dice for thee: Thon on that angel's face mayst feed thine eyes, In prison Ino but blissful paradise! Thou daily seest that sun of beauty shine, And lor'st at least in love's extremest line. I mourn in absence, love's eternal night, And who can tell but, since thou hast her sight, And art a comely, young, and valiant knight,. Fortune (a various pow'r) may cease to frown, And by some ways unknown thy wishes crown? But I, the most forlorn of human kind, Not help can hope, nor remedy can find; But doon'd to drag my loathsome life in care, For my reward, must end it in despair. Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates That governs all, and Heaven that all creates, Nor art, nor nature's hand, can ease my grief; Nothing but death, the wreteh's last relief:
Then farewell youth, and all the joys that dwell
With youth and life, and life itself farewell.
But why, alas! do mortal men in vain
Of fortune, fate, or providence complain?
God gives us what he knows our wants require,
And better things than those which we desire.
Some pray for riches, riches they obtain;
But, watch'd byrobbers, for theirwealth are slain:
Some pray from prison to be freed; and come,
When guilty of their vows, to fall at home;
Murder'd by those they trusted with their life,
A favor'd servant, or a bosom wife.
Such dear-bought blessings happen ev'ry day,
Because we know not for what things to pray.
Like drunken sots about the street we roam:
Well knows the sot he has a certain home;
Yet knows not how to find th' uncertain place,
And blunders on, and staggers ev'ry pace.
Thus all seck happiness, but few can find:
For far the greater part of men are blind.
This is my case, who thought our utmost good
Was in one word of freedom understood:
The fatal blessing came: from prison free,
I starve abroad, and lose the sight of Emily.
Thus Arcite but if Arcite thus deplore
His suff'rings, Palamon yet suffers more.
For when he knew his rival freed and gone,
He swells withwrath, he makes outrageous mean:
He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground;
The hollow tow'r with clamors rings around :
With briny tears he bath'd his fetter'd feet,
And dropp'd all o'er with agony of sweat.
Alas! he cried, I wretch in prison pine,
Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine:
Thou liv'st at large, thou draw'st thy native air,
Pleas'd with thy freedom, proud of my despair:
Thou may'st, since thou hast youth and courage
A sweet behaviour, and a solid mind, [join'd,
Assemble ours and all the Theban race,
To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace ;
And after, by some treaty made, possess
Fair Emily, the pledge of lasting peace.
So thine shall be the beauteous prize, while I
Must languish in despair, in prison die.
Thus all th' advantage of the strife is thine;
Thy portion double joys, and doublesorrowsmine.
The rage of Jealousy then fir'd his soul, And his face kindled like a burning coal : Now cold Despair, succeeding in her stead, To livid paleness turns the glowing red. His blood, scarce liquid, creeps within his veins, Like water which the freezing wind constrains. Then thus he said: Eternal Deities, Who rule the world with absolute decrees, And write whatever time shall bring to pass, With pens of adamant, on plates of brass; What, is the race of human kind your care Beyond what all his fellow creatures are? He with the rest is liable to pain; And like the sheep, his brother-beast, is slain. Cold, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure, All these he must, and guiltless oft, endure; Or does your justice, pow'r, or prescience fail When the good suffer, and the bad prevail?
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