bler, with which he treats me, when the fit of enthusiasm is strong upon him; by which wellmanner'd and charitable expressions I was certain of his sect before I knew his name. What would you have more of a man? He has damn'd me in your cause from Genesis to the Revelations; and has half the texts of both the Testaments against me, if you will be so civil to yourselves as to take him for your interpreter, and not to take them for Irish witnesses. After all, perhaps you will tell me that you retain'd him only for the opening of your cause, and that your main lawyer is yet behind. Now if it so happen he meet with no more reply than his predecessors, you may either conclude that I trust to the goodness of my cause, or fear my adversary, or disdain him, or what you please, for the short on 't is, 't is indifferent to your humble servant, whatever your party says or thinks of him.

THE MEDAL

Of all our antic sights and pageantry, Which English idiots run in crowds to

see,

The Polish Medal bears the prize alone:
A monster, more the favorite of the town
Than either fairs or theaters have shown.
Never did art so well with nature strive,
Nor ever idol seem'd so much alive:
So like the man; so golden to the sight,
So base within, so counterfeit and light.
One side is fill'd with title and with face; 10
And, lest the king should want a regal place,
On the reverse, a tow'r the town surveys;
O'er which our mounting sun his beams
displays.

The word, pronounc'd aloud by shrieval voice,

Lætamur, which, in Polish, is rejoice.
The day, month, year, to the great act are
join'd;

And a new canting holiday design'd.
Five days he sate for every cast and look;
Four more than God to finish Adam took.
But who can tell what essence angels are, 20
Or how long Heav'n was making Luci-

To his first bias longingly he leans,
And rather would be great by wicked

means.

Thus, fram'd for ill, he loos'd our triple hold;

(Advice unsafe, precipitous, and bold.) From hence those tears! that Ilium of our woe!

Who helps a pow'rful friend, forearms a

foe.

What wonder if the waves prevail so far,

And true, but for the time; 't is hard to

know

How long we please it shall continue so.
This side to-day, and that to-morrow burns;
So all are God-a'mighties in their turns. 110
A tempting doctrine, plausible and new:
What fools our fathers were, if this be
true!

Who, to destroy the seeds of civil war,
Inherent right in monarchs did declare;
And, that a lawful pow'r might never cease,
Secur'd succession, to secure our peace.
Thus property and sovereign sway, at last,
In equal balances were justly cast:
But this new Jehu spurs the hot-mouth'd
horse;

119

!

Instructs the beast to know his native force,
To take the bit between his teeth, and fly
To the next headlong steep of anarchy.
Too happy England, if our good we knew,
Would we possess the freedom we pursue
The lavish government can give no more;
Yet we repine, and plenty makes us poor.
God tried us once: our rebel fathers fought;
He glutted 'em with all the pow'r they
sought:

Till, master'd by their own usurping brave,
The freeborn subject sunk into a slave. 130
We loathe our manna, and we long for
quails;

Ah, what is man, when his own wish prevails!

How rash, how.swift to plunge himself in ill;

Proud of his pow'r, and boundless in his will!

That kings can do no wrong we must be

lieve;

But since our sects in prophecy grow higher,

The text inspires not them, but they the text inspire.

London, thou great emporium of our isle, O thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile! How shall I praise or curse to thy desert; Or separate thy sound from thy corrupted part!

170

I call'd thee Nile; the parallel will stand: Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fatten'd land;

Yet monsters from thy large increase we find,

Engender'd on the slime thou leav'st behind.

Sedition has not wholly seiz'd on thee,
Thy nobler parts are from infection free.
Of Israel's tribes thou hast a numerous
band,

But still the Canaanite is in the land.
Thy military chiefs are brave and true,
Nor are thy disinchanted burghers few. 180
The head is loyal which thy heart com-
mands,

But what's a head with two such gouty hands?

The wise and wealthy love the surest way,

And are content to thrive and to obey.
But wisdom is to sloth too great a slave;
None are so busy as the fool and knave.
Those let me curse; what vengeance will
they urge,

Whose ordures neither plague nor fire can purge;

Nor sharp experience can to duty bring, Nor angry Heaven, nor a forgiving king! 190 In gospel-phrase their chapmen they betray;

Their shops are dens, the buyer is their prey.
The knack of trades is living on the spoil;
They boast, ev'n when each other they be-
guile.

Customs to steal is such a trivial thing,
That 't is their charter to defraud their king.
All hands unite of every jarring sect;
They cheat the country first, and then in-
fect.

They for God's cause their monarchs dare dethrone,

And they'll be sure to make his cause their

"Tis working in th' immediate pow'r to be;
For from pretended grievances they rise,
First to dislike, and after to despise;
Then, Cyclop-like, in human flesh to deal,
Chop up a minister at every meal;
Perhaps not wholly to melt down the king,
But clip his regal rights within the ring;
From thence tassume the pow'r of peace
and war;

And ease him by degrees of public care.
Yet, to consult his dignity and fame,
He should have leave to exercise the
name,

And hold the cards, while commons play'd

the game.

230

For what can pow'r give more than food and drink,

To live at ease, and not be bound to think? These are the cooler methods of their crime, But their hot zealots think 't is loss of time; On utmost bounds of loyalty they stand, And grin and whet like a Croatian band, That waits impatient for the last command.

241

Thus outlaws open villainy maintain, They steal not, but in squadrons scour the plain;

And, if their pow'r the passengers subdue, The most have right, the wrong is in the few.

Such impious axioms foolishly they show, For in some soils republics will not grow: Our temp❜rate isle will no extremes sustain Of pop'lar sway or arbitrary reign,

But slides between them both into the best, Secure in freedom, in a monarch blest; 251 And tho' the climate, vex'd with various winds,

Works thro' our yielding bodies on our minds,

The wholesome tempest purges what it

breeds,

In March, 1682, the Duke of York was recalled from Scotland, where he had been living in honorable exile, as high commissioner, since October, 1680. His first visit to the theater called by his name was on April 21. Otway's Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd, a play of political tendency (first performed in the preceding February), in which Antonio, the villain, a fine speaker in the senate," is meant to suggest Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, was represented on this occasion. Date and play are known to us from the heading of the special epilogue, published as a broadside, which Otway wrote for this performance. The play was first published in 1682; the special prologue and epilogue were not printed with it.]

IN those cold regions which no summers cheer,

When brooding darkness covers half the

more.

Yet late repentance may, perhaps, be true; Kings can forgive, if rebels can but sue: A tyrant's pow'r in rigor is express'd;