But when thy country (then almost enthrall'd) "Twas time for thee to bring forth all our light. The frong and certain remedy Thou didst not draw the fword, and lo As if thy country fhou'd Be the inheritance of Mars and blood: 'Twas but till thou our fun didft in full light appear. VIII. When Ajax dy'd, the purple blood, So from that crimson flood, Unwillingly to shed, Letters and learning rofe, and arts renew'éThou fought'ft, not out of envy, hope, or hate, But to refine the church and state; And like the Romans, whate'er thou In the field of Mars didft mow, Was, that a holy ifland hence might grow. Thy wars, as rivers raised by a shower, Which welcome clouds de pour, Though they at first may feem To carry all away with an enraged stream; But all the filth and mud to fcour, IX. In fields unconquer'd, and fo well Thou didfl in battles and in arms excel; That ficely arms themselves might be Worn out in war as foon as thee; Succefs fo close upon thy troops did wait, As if thou first hadft conquer'd fate; As if uncertain victory Had been first o'ercome by thee; Before thou hadst what first thou didst defer, And mighty troops coutain'd in one. dife. X, Thou fought'ft not to be high or great, Thy fire was kindled from above alone; Brought thee victorious to the field. Thy arms, like those which ancient heroes wore, Of rule or empire, did thy mind inspire : Which did before the Perfian armies go, What was deferv'd by heaven and those blest feats, And makes the church triumphant here below. XI. Though fortune did hang on thy fword, Nor did thy battles make thee proud or high, XII. England, till thou didst come, Confin'd her valour home; As to our enemies unpaffable: The British lion hung his mane, and droop'd, To flavery and burden stoop'd, A trembling echo ran through every shore, Iis mighty thunder founds through all the woods; Till thou command'st, that azure chain of waves, Which nature round about us fent, Made us to every pirate flaves, Was rather burden than an ornament; Were plow'd and reap'd by other hands than ours: Which doth about us run, As it is to the fun, Only a bed to fleep on was: And not as now a powerful throne, To shake and fway the world thereon. Our princes in their hand a globe did fhew, Compos'd of earth, and water too. Not make her equal, but a flave to thee. He that ruled all the main, Acknowledg'd thee his fovereign: And now the conquer'd fea doth pay More tribute to thy Thames than that unto the fea, XIV. Till now our valour did ourselves more hurt; Our wounds to other nations were a sport: And as the earth, our land produc'd [us'd: Iron and fteel, which fhould to tear ourselves be Our ftrength within itself did break, Like thundering cannons crack, And kill'd thofe that were near, While th' enemies fecure and untouch'd were. But now our trumpets thou haft made to found Against their enemies walls in foreign ground; And yet no echo back to us returning found. England is now the happy peaceful isle, And all the world the while Is exercising arms and wars The torch extinguifh'd here, we lent to others oil Through every corner of the world; When they their ropes and helms had left, And floods came roaring in with mighty found, A work which none but heaven and thou could do, To praise the Welsh the world muft now com bine, Since to their leeks you do your laurel join: Such lofty trains your country's fstory fit, Whose mountain nothing equals but your wit. Bonduca, were the fuch as here we fee (In British paint), none could more dreadful be: With naked armies the encounter'd Rome, Whofe ftrength with naked nature you o' come. Nor let fmall critics blame this mighty queen, A fubje&t new, writ in the newest way, Go forth, great author, for the world's delight; Teach it, what none e'er taught you, how to write; They talk ftrange things that ancient poets did, ON HIS MISTRESS DROWN'D. SWEET ftream, that doft with equal pace Both thyself fly and thyself chace, Then For bear awhile to flow, go and tell the fea that all its brine Has pafs'd the fatal flood, THE PLAGUE OF ATHENS, WHICH HAPPENED IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE Firft deferibed in Greek by Thucydides, then in Latin by Lucretius. Sia, DR. To my worthy and learned Friend, WALTER PO PE, Late Proctor of the University of Oxford. I KNOW not what pleasure you could take in be- that I should come near equalling him, in whom ftowing your commands fo unprofitably, unless it none of the contrary advantages were wanting. be that for which nature fometimes cherishes and Thus then, Sir, by emboldening me to this rath allows monfters, the love of variety. This only attempt, you have given opportunity to the Greck delight you will receive by turning over this rude and Latin to triumph over our mother tongue. and unpolished copy, and comparing it with my Yet I would not have the honour of the countries excellent patterns, the Greek and Latin. By this or languages engaged in the comparison, but that you will fee how much a noble subject is changed the inequality fhould reach no farther than the and disfigured by an ill hand, and what reafon authors. But I have much reafon to fear the just Alexander had to forbid his picture to be drawn indignation of that excellent perfon (the preient but by fo me celebrated pencil. In Greek, Thu-ornament and honour of our nation) whofe way cydides fo well and fo livelily expreffes it, that I of writing I imitate: for he may think himself as know not which is more a poem, his description | much injured by my following him, as were the or that of Lucretius. Though it must be faid, heavens by that bold man's counterfeiting the fathat the hiftoman had a vast advantage over the cred and unimitable noife of thunder, by the found poet he, having been prefent on the place, and of brafs and horfes hoofs. I fhall only fay for myaffaulted by the difcafe himself, had the horror felf, that I took Cicero's advice, who bids us, in familiar to his eyes, and all the fhapes of the mi-imitation, propofe the nobleft pattern to our fery id remaining on his mind, which must needs thoughts; for fo we may be fure to be raised as make a great impreffion on his pen and fancy; bove the common level, though we come infinites whereas the poet was forced to follow his foot-ly fhort of what we aim at. Yet I hope that refteps, and only work on that matter he allowed nowned poet will have none of my crimes any him. This 1 fpeak, because it may in fome mea- way reflect on himself; for it was not any fault fure too excufe my own defects: for being fo far in the excellent musician, that the weak bird, enremoved from the place whereon the difeafe acted deavouring by ftraining its throat to follow his his tragedy, and time having denied us many of notes, deftroyed itfelf in the attempt. Well, Sir, the circumstances, cuftoms of the country, and by this, that I have chofen rather to expose myfelt other fmall things which would be of great ufe to than to be disobedient, you may guefs with what any one who did intend to be perfect on the fub- zeal and hazard I ftrive to approve myself, ject; befides only writing by an idea of that which I never yet faw, nor care to feel (being not of the humour of the painter in Sir Philip Sidney, who thrutt himself into the midit of a fight, that he might the better delineate it). Having, I lay, all thefe difadvantages, and many more for which I must only blame myfelf, it cannot be expected | SIR, Your most humble and affectionate fervant, THO. SPRAT. 3 A iiij THUCYDIDE S. LIB. II. AS IT IS EXCELLENTLY TRANSLATED BY MR. HOBBES. In the very beginning of summer, the Pelopon- | If any man were fick before, his disease turned to nefians, and their confederates, with two-thirds of their forces, as before, invaded Attica, under the conduct of Archidamus, the for of Zeuxida mas, king of Lacedemon; and, after they had encamped themselves, wafted the country about them. this if not, yet fuddenly, without any apparent caufe preceding, and being in perfect health, they were taken first with an extreme ache in their heads, reduefs and inflammation in the eyes; and then inwardly their throats and tongues grew prefently bloody, and their breath noisome and unfe voury. Upon this followed a sneezing and boarlenefs; and not long after, the pain, together with a mighty cough, came down into the breaft: and when once it was settled in the stomach, it caufed vomit, and with great torment came up all masner of bilious purgation that phyficians ever named. Moft of them had alfo the hickyexe, which brought with it a strong convulfion, and in fome cealed quickly, but in others was long before it gave over. Their bodies outwardly to the touch were neither very hot ner pale, but reddish, livid, and beflowered with little pimples and whelks; but fo burned inwardly, as not to endure any the lightest clothes or linen garment to be upon them, not any thing but mere nakedness, but rather mol willingly to have caft themselves into the cold water. And many of them that were not looked to, poffeffed with infatiate thirst, ran unto the wells; and to drink much or little was indifferent, being ftill from eafe and power to fleep as far as ever. They had not been many days in Attica, when the plague first began amongst the Athenians, faid allo to have feized formerly on divers other parts, as about Lemnos, and elsewhere; but fo great a plague, and mortality of men, was never remembered to have happened in any place before: for at first neither were the physicians able to cure it, through ignorance of what it was, but died fasteft themselves, as being the men that most approached the fick, nor any other art of man availed whatsoever. All fupplications to the gods; and inquiries of oracles, and whatsoever other means they used of that kind, proved all unprofitable, infomuch as, fubdued with the greatness of the evil, they gave them all over.. It began (by report) firft in that part of Ethiopia that lieth upon Ægypt, and thence fell down into Egypt and Afric, and into the greatest part of the territories of the king. It invaded Athens on a fudden; and touched first upon those that dwelt in Pyræus, infomuch as they reported that the Peloponnefians had caft poifon into their wells; for fprings there As long as the difeafe was at the height, their were not any in that place. But afterwards it bodies wafted not, but refifted the torment beyond came up into the high city, and then they died a all expectation, infomuch as the moft of them eigreat deal fafter. Now let every man, phyficianther died of their inward burning in nine or feven or other, concerning the ground of this ficknefs, whence it sprung, and what caufes he thinks able to produce fo great an alteration, fpeak according to his own knowledge: for my own part, I will deliver but the manner of it, and lay open only fuch things as one may take his mark by to difco ver the fame if it come again, having been both fick of it myself, and feen others fick of the fame This year, by confeffion of all men, was of all other, for other difeafes, moft free and healthful. days, whilft they had yet ftrength; or if they efcaped that, then, the difeafe falling down in their bellies, and caufing there great exulcerations and immoderate looseness, they died many of them afterwards through weakness; for the difeafe (which first took the head) began above, and came down, and passed through the whole body: and he that overcame the worst of it was yet marked with the lofs of his extreme parts; ft, breaking out both at their privy members, and at |