ON A

BREDE OF DIVERS COLOURS,

WOVEN BY FOUR LADIES.

TWICE twenty slender virgin-fingers twine
This curious web, where all their fancies shine:
As Nature them, so they this shade have wrought,
Soft as their hands, and various as their thought.
Not Juno's bird, when, his fair train disspread,
He wooes the female to his painted bed;
No, not the bow, which so adorns the skies,
So glorious is, or boasts so many dyes.

A PANEGYRIC

TO MY LORD PROTECTOR,

OF THE PRESENT GREATNESS, AND JOINT INTEREST, OF
HIS HIGHNESS AND THIS NATION.

WHILE with a strong, and yet a gentle, hand,
You bridle faction, and our hearts command,
Protect us from ourselves, and from the foe,
Make us unite, and make us conquer too:
Let partial spirits still aloud complain,
Think themselves injur'd that they cannot reign,
And own no liberty, but where they may
Without control upon their fellows prey.
Above the waves as Neptune show'd his face,
To chide the winds, and save the Trojan race;
So has your highness, rais'd above the rest,
Storms of ambition, tossing us, represt.
Your drooping country, torn with civil hate,
Restor❜d by you, is made a glorious state;
The seat of empire, where the Irish come,
And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom.
The sea's our own: and now, all nations greet,
With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet?:
Your power extends as far as winds can blow,
Or swelling sails upon the globe may go.
Heaven (that hath plac'd this island to give law,
To balance Europe, and her states to awe)
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader, and the greatest isle!
Whether this portion of the world were rent,
By the rude ocean, from the continent,
Or thus created; it was sure design'd
To be the sacred refuge of mankind.
Hither th' oppressed shall henceforth resort,
Justice to crave, and succour, at your court;
And then your highness, not for ours alone,
But for the world's protector shall be known.

Fame, swifter than your winged navy, flies Through every land, that near the ocean lies; Sounding your name, and telling dreadful news To all that piracy and rapine use.

With such a chief the meanest nation blest,

Might hope to lift her head above the rest:
By us, embraced by the sea and you?
What may be thought impossible to do

Lords of the world's great waste, the ocean, we
Whole forests send to reign upon the sea;
And every coast may trouble, or relieve:
But none can visit us without your leave.
Angels and we have this prerogative,
That none can at our happy seats arrive:
While we descend at pleasure, to invade
The bad with vengeance, and the good to aid.
Our little world, the image of the great,
Like that, amidst the boundless ocean set,
Of her own growth hath all that nature craves,
And all that's rare, as tribute from the waves.
As Egypt does not on the clouds rely,

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But to the Nile owes more than to the sky;
So, what our Earth, and what our Heaven, denies,
Our ever-constant friend, the sea, supplies.

The taste of hot Arabia's spice we know,
Free from the scorching sun that makes it growe
Without the worm, in Persian silks we shine;
And, without planting, drink of every vine.
To dig for wealth, we weary not our limbs;
Gold, though the heaviest metal, hither swims.
Ours is the harvest where the Indians mow,
We plough the deep, and reap what others sow.
Things of the noblest kind our own soil breeds;
Stout are our men, and warlike are our steeds:
Rome, though her eagle through the world had
Could never make this island all her own. [flown,

Here the third Edward, and the Black Prince too,
France-conquering Henry flourish'd, and now you;
For whom we stay'd, as did the Grecian state,
Till Alexander came to urge their fate.
When for more worlds the Macedonian cry'd,
He wist not Thetis in her lap did hide
Another yet: a world reserv'd for you,
To make more great than that he did subdue.
He safely might old troops to battle lead,
Against th' unwarlike Persian and the Mede,
Whose hasty flight did, from a bloodless field,
More spoils than honour to the victor yield.
A race unconquer'd, by their clime made bold,
The Caledonians, arm'd with want and cold,
Have, by a fate indulgent to your fame,
Been from all ages kept for you to tame.
Whom the old Roman wall, so ill confin'd,
With a new chain of garrisons you bind :
Here foreign gold no more shall make them come;
Our English iron holds them fast at home.
They, that henceforth must be content to know
No warmer region than their hills of snow,
May blame the sun; but must extol your grace,
Which in our senate hath allow'd them place.
Prefer'd by conquest, happily o'erthrown,
Falling they rise, to be with us made one:
So kind dictators made, when they came home,
Their vanquish'd foes free citizens of Rome.

Like favour find the Irish, with like fate
Advanc'd to be a portion of our state;
While by your valour, and your bounteous mind,
Nations divided by the sea are join'd.
Holland, to gain your friendship, is content
To be our out guard on the continent:
She from her fellow-provinces would go,
Rather than hazard to have you her foe.
In our late fight, when cannons did diffuse,
Preventing posts, the terrour and the news,
Our neighbour princes trembled at their roar:
But our conjunction makes them tremble more.
Your never-failing sword made war to cease,
And now you heal us with the acts of peace;
Our minds with bounty and with awe engage,
Invite affection, and restrain our rage.

Less pleasure take brave minds in battles won,
Than in restoring such as are undone :
Tigers have courage, and the rugged bear,
But man alone can, whom he conquers, spare.
To pardon, willing, and to punish, loth,
You strike with one hand, but you heal with both;
Lifting up all that prostrate lie, you grieve
You cannot make the dead again to live.
When Fate or errour had our age misled,
And o'er this nation such confusion spread;
The only cure, which could from Heaven come down,
Was so much power and picty in one!
One! whose extraction from an ancient line
Gives hope again, that well-born men may shine:
The meanest in your nature, mild and good;
The noblest rest secured in your blood.
Oft have we wonder'd, how you hid in peace
A mind proportion'd to such things as these;
How such a ruling sp'rit you could restrain,
And practise first over yourself to reign.
Your private life did a just pattern give,
How fathers, husbands, pious sons, should live;
Born to command, your princely virtues slept,
Like humble David's, while the flock he kept.
But when your troubled country call'd you forth,
Your flaming courage and your matchless worth,
Dazzling the eyes of all that did pretend,
To fierce contention gave a prosperous end.
Still, as you rise, the state, exalted too,
Finds no distemper while 'tis chang'd by you;
Chang'd like the world's great scene! when without
noise,

The rising sun night's vulgar lights destroys.

Had you, some ages past, this race of glory
Run, with amazement we should read your story:
But living virtue, all achievements past,
Meets envy still, to grapple with at last.
This Cæsar found; and that ungrateful age,
With losing him, went back to blood and rage:
Mistaken Brutus thought to break their yoke,
But cut the bond of union with that stroke.
That sun once set, a thousand meaner stars
Gave a dim light to violence and wars;
To such a tempest as now threatens all,
Did not your mighty arm prevent the fall.

If Rome's great senate could not wield that sword,
Which of the conquer'd world had made them lord;
What hope had ours, while yet their power was new,
To rule victorious armies, but by you?

You! that had taught them to subdue their foes,
Could order teach, and their high spirits compose:
To every duty could their minds engage,
Provoke their courage, and command their rage.
So, when a lion shakes his dreadful mane,
And angry grows, if he that first took pain
To tame his youth, approach the haughty beast,
He bends to him, but frights away the rest.
As the vex'd world, to find repose, at last
Itself into Augustus' arms did cast;
So England now does, with like toil opprest,
Her weary head upon your bosom rest.
Then let the Muses, with such notes as these,
Instruct us what belongs unto our peace!
Your battles they hereafter shall indite,
And draw the image of our Mars in fight;
Tell of towns storm'd, of armies over-run,
And mighty kingdoms by your conduct won;
How, while you thunder'd, clouds of dust did choke
Contending troops, and seas lay hid in smoke.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a Muse:
Here in low strains your milder deeds we sing;
But there, my lord! we'll bays and olive bring
To crown your head, while you in triumph ride
O'er vanquish'd nations, and the sea beside;
While all your neighbour princes unto you,
Like Joseph's sheaves, pay reverence and bow.

OF OUR LATE

WAR WITH SPAIN,

AND FIRST VICTORY AT SEA NEAR ST. LUCAR, 1651.
Now, for some ages, had the pride of Spain
Made the sun shine on half the world in vain,
While she bid war to all, that durst supply
The place of those her cruelty made die.
Of Nature's bounty men forbore to taste,
And the best portion of the earth lay waste.
From the new world, her silver and her gold
Came, like a tempest, to confound the old.
Feeding with these the brib'd electors' hopes,
Alone she gives us emperors and popes:
With these accomplishing her vast designs,
Europe was shaken with her Indian mines.

When Britain, looking with a just disdain
Upon this gilded majesty of Spain,
And, knowing well that empire must decline,
Whose chief support and sinews are of coin,
Her native force and virtue did oppose,
To the rich troublers of the world's repose.

And now some months, incamping on the main,
Our naval army had besieged Spain:
They, that the whole world's monarchy design'd,
Are to their ports by our bold fleet confin'd,
From whence our Red Cross they triumphant see,
Riding without a rival on the sea.

Others may use the ocean as their road,
Only the English make it their abode,
Whose ready sails with every wind can fly,
And make a covenant with th' inconstant sky:
Our oaks secure, as if they there took root,
We tread on billows with a steady foot.

Meanwhile, the Spaniards in America
Near to the line the sun approaching saw,

All are obnoxious! and this faulty Land,
Like fainting Esther, does before you stand,
Watching your sceptre: the revolted Sea
Trembles, to think she did your foes obey.
Great Britain, like blind Polypheme, of late,
In a wild rage, became the scorn and hate
Of her proud neighbours, who began to think,
She with the weight of her own force would sink.
But you are come, and all their hopes are vain;
This Giant Isle has got her eye again.
Now, she might spare the ocean, and oppose
Your conduct to the fiercest of her foes.
Naked, the Graces guarded you from all
Dangers abroad; and now, your thunders shall.
Princes that saw you different passions prove,
For now they dread the object of their love,
Nor without envy can behold his height,
Whose conversation was their late delight.
So Semele, contented with the rape
Of Jove, disguised in a mortal shape,
When she beheld his hands with lightning fill'd,
And his bright rays, was with amazement kill'd.
And though it be our sorrow and our crime,
To have accepted life so long a time
Without you here; yet does this absence gain
No small advantage to your present reign:
For, having view'd the persons and the things,
The councils, state, and strength, of Europe's kings,
You know your work; ambition to restrain,
And set them bounds, as Heaven does to the main.
We have you now with ruling wisdom fraught,
Not such as books, but such as practice, taught.
So the lost Sun, while least by us enjoy'd,
Is the whole night for our concerns employ'd:
He ripens spices, fruit, and precious gums,
Which from remotest regions hither comes.
This seat of yours (from th' other world remov'd)
Had Archimedes known, he might have prov'd
His engine's force, fix'd here; your power and skill
Make the world's motion wait upon your will.

Much suffering monarch! the first English-born,
That has the crown of these three nations worn!
How has your patience with the barbarous rage
Of your own soil contended half an age?
Till (your try'd virtue and your sacred word
At last preventing your unwilling sword)
Armies and fleets, which kept you out so long,
Own'd their great sovereign, and redress'd his wrong.
When strait the people, by no force compell'd,
Nor longer from their inclination held,
Break forth at once, like powder set on fire,
And, with a noble rage their king require.
So th' injur'd Sea, which from her wonted course,
To gain some acres, avarice did force,
If the new banks, neglected once, decay,
No longer will from her old channel stay;
Raging, the late-got land she overflows,
And all that's built upon't to ruin goes.
Offenders now, the chiefest, do begin
To strive for grace, and expiate their sin:
All winds blow fair, that did the world embroil;
Your vipers treacle yield, and scorpions oil.
If then such praise the Macedonian got,
For having rudely cut the Gordian knot;
What glory's due to him, that could divide
Such ravell'd interests? has the knot unty'd,
And, without stroke, so smooth a passage made,
Where craft, and malice such impeachments laid?
■ Alexander.

1

But while we praise you, you ascribe it all
To his high hand, which threw the untouch'd wall
Of self-demolish'd Jericho so low:

His angel 'twas, that did before you go,
Tam'd savage hearts, and made affections yield,
Like ears of corn when wind salutes the field.
Thus, patience-crown'd, like Job's, your trouble
ends,

Having your foes to pardon, and your friends:
For, though your courage were so firm a rock,
What private virtue could endure the shock?
Like your great master, you the storm withstood,
And pity'd those who love with frailty show'd.

Rude Indians, torturing all the royal race,
Him with the throne and dear-bought sceptre grace
That suffers best: what region could be found,
Where your heroic head had not been crown'd?

The next experience of your mighty mind
Is, how you combat Fortune now she's kind:
And this way too you are victorious found;
She flatters with the same success she frown'd.
While, to yourself severe, to others kind,
With power unbounded, and a will confin'd,
Of this vast empire you possess the care,
The softer parts fall to the people's share.
Safety and equal government are things,
Which subjects make as happy, as their kings.

Faith, Law, and Piety (that banish'd train!)
Justice and Truth, with you return again :
The city's trade, and country's easy life,
Once more shall flourish, without fraud or strife.
Your reign no less assures the ploughman's peace,
Than the warm sun advances his increase;
And does the shepherds as securely keep,
From all their fears, as they preserve their sheep.
But above all, the muse-inspired train
Triumph, and raise their drooping heads again :
Kind Heaven at once has, in your person, sent
Their sacred judge, their guard, and argument.

Nec magis expressi vultus per ahenea signa, Quam per vatis opus mores animique virorum Clarorum apparent. Horat.

ON ST. JAMES'S PARK,

AS LATELY IMPROVED BY HIS MAJESTY 2.

Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,
Plants set by Heaven are vanish'd, and the ground;
Yet the description lasts: who knows the fate
Of lines that shall thris Paradise relate?
Instead of rivers rolling by the side
Of Eden's garden, here flows in the tide:
The sea, which always serv'd his empire, now.
Pays tribute to our prince's pleasure too.
Of famous cities we the founders know;
But rivers, old as seas to which they go,
Are Nature's bounty: 'tis of more renown
To make a river, than to build a town.

For future shade, young trees upon the banks
Of the new stream appear in even ranks:
The voice of Orpheus, or Amphion's hand,
In better order could not make them stand.
May they increase as fast, and spread their boughs,
As the high fame of their great owner grows!
May he live long enough to see them all
Dark shadows cast, and as his palace tall!

2 First printed in folio, 1661.

OF THE INVASION AND Methinks I see the love that shall be made, The lovers walking in that amorous shade : The gallants dancing by the river side; They bathe in summer, and in winter slide. Methinks I hear the music in the boats, And the loud Echo which returns the notes: While, overhead, a flock of newsprung fowl Hangs in the air, and does the Sun controul; Dark'ning the sky, they hover o'er 3, and shrowd The wanton sailors with a feather'd cloud. Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides, And plays about the gilded barges' sides: The ladies angling in the crystal lake, Feast on the waters with the prey they take: At once victorious with their lines and eyes, They make the fishes and the men their prize. A thousand Cupids on the billows ride, And sea-nymphs enter with the swelling tide: From Thetis sent as spies, to make report, And tell the wonders of her sov'reign's court. All that can, living, feed the greedy eye, Or dead, the palate, here you may descry; The choicest things that furnish'd Noah's ark, Or Peter's sheet, inhabiting this Park: All with a border of rich fruit-trees crown'd, Whose loaded branches hide the lofty mound. Such various ways the spacious alleys lead, My doubtful Muse knows not what path to tread. Yonder, the harvest of cold months laid up, Gives a fresh coolness to the royal cup: There ice, like crystal, firm, and never lost, Tempers hot July with December's frost ; Winter's dark prison, whence he cannot fly, Though the warm Spring, his enemy, draws nigh. Strange! that extremes should thus preserve the High on the Alps, and in deep caves below.

[snow,

Here a well-polish'd Mall gives us the joy,
To see our prince his matchless force employ;
His manly posture, and his graceful mien,
Vigour and youth in all his motions seen;
His shape so lovely, and his limbs so strong,
Confirm our hopes we shall obey him long.
No sooner has he touch'd the flying ball,
But 'tis already more than half the Mall:
And such a fury from his arm has got,
As from a smoking culverin 'twere shot.
May that ill fate his enemies befall,
To stand before his anger or his ball!

Near this my Muse, what most delights her, sees A living gallery of aged trees;

Bold sons of Earth, that thrust their arms so high,
As if once more they would invade the sky.
In such green palaces the first kings reign'd,
Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd;
With such old counsellors they did advise,
And, by frequenting sacred groves, grew wise.
Free from th' impediments of light and noise,
Man, thus retir'd, his nobler thoughts employs.
Here Charles contrives the ordering of his states,
Here he resolves his neighbouring princes' fates:
What nation shall have peace, where war be made,
Determin'd is in this oraculous shade;
The world, from India to the frozen North,
Concern'd in what this solitude brings forth.
His fancy objects from his view receives;
The prospect thought and contemplation gives.
That seat of empire here salutes his eye,
To which three kingdoms do themselves apply;

3 In fol. edit. the air they hoyer,' &c.
VOL VIIL

DEFEAT OF THE TURKS.

The structure by a prelate 4 rais'd, Whitehall,
Built with the fortune of Rome's capitol:
Both, disproportion'd to the present state

65

Of their proud founders, were approv'd by Fate.
From hence he does that antique piles behold,
Where royal heads receive the sacred gold:
It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep;
There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep:
Making the circle of their reign complete,
Those suns of empire! where they rise, they set.
When others fell, this, standing, did presage
The crown should triumph over pop'lar rage:
Hard by that house, where all our ills were shap'd,
Th' auspicious temple stood, and yet escap'd.
So, snow on Ætna does unmelted lie,
Whence rolling flames and scatter'd cinders fly;
The distant country in the ruin shares,
What falls from Heaven the burning mountain spares.
Next, that capacions hall 7 he sees, the room
Where the whole nation does for justice come;
Under whose large roof flourishes the gown,
And judges grave on high tribunals frown.
Here, like the people's pastor, he does go,
His flock subjected to his view below:
On which reflecting in his mighty mind,
No private passion does indulgence find:
The pleasures of his youth suspended are,
And made a sacrifice to public care.
Here, free from court compliances, he walks,
And with himself, his best adviser, talks:
How peaceful olive may his temples shade,
For mending laws, and for restoring trade:
Or, how his brows may be with laurel charg'd,
For nations conquer'd, and our bounds enlarg'd.
Of ancient prudence here he ruminates,
Of rising kingdoms, and of falling states:
What ruling arts gave great Augustus fame,
And how Alcides purchas'd such a name.
His eyes, upon his native palace 8 bent,
Close by, suggest a greater argument:
His thoughts rise higher, when he does reflect
On what the world may from that star expect,
Which at his birth appear'd; to let us see,
Day, for his sake, could with the night agree:
A prince, on whom such different lights did smile,
Born the divided world to reconcile !

Whatever Heaven, or high-extracted blood,
Could promise, or foretell, he will make good:
Reform these nations, and improve them more,
Than this fair Park, from what it was before.