Which from all coasts thy fleet supplies, When first in walls he did thee close, Dispersed in some field or hill, Though barbarous, untame, and rude, Than by their numbers thus to be subdu'd, To be by their own swarms annoy'd, And to be civiliz'd only to be destroy'd. Minerva started when she heard the noise, From Heaven in haste she came, to see Nor midst so many deaths to trust her very deity. Death and Destruction wait; She wrung her hands, and call'd on Jove, The Heavens refus'd, and turn'd their ear away. Herself of an immortal race, Was angry that her Gorgon's head Could not strike her as well as others dead: She sat and wept a while, and then away she fled. Now Death began her sword to whet, No weapons large enough, but all the age And hop'd the air would it assuage, The air no more was vital now, But did a mortal poison grow; The lungs, which us'd to fan the heart, Only now serv'd to fire each part; What should refresh, increas'd the smart: And now their very breath, The chiefest sign of life, was turn'd the cause of death. Upon the head first the disease, As a bold conqueror, doth seize, It could at pleasure weaker parts subdue. The tongue did flow all o'er With clotted filth and gore; As doth a lion's when some innocent prey Hoarseness and sores the throat did fill, With tyrannous and dreadful pain, Then down it went into the breast, There all the seats and shops of life possess'd. Such noisome smells from thence did come, As if the stomach were a tomb; No food would there abide, Or if it did, turn'd to the enemy's side, The heart did wonder what usurping flame, On its more natural heat intrude; Straight call'd its spirits up, but found too well, The tainted blood its course began, That which before was Nature's noblest art, Was most destructful now, Th' infectious blood to every distant part. The belly felt at last its share, And oftner kill'd, because it death so long delay'd. The plague departed as the Devil doth, Their minds were but one darker blot; Those various pictures in the head, And all the numerous shapes were fled; Languish'd in naked poverty, Had lost its mighty treasury; They pass'd the Lethe lake, although they did not die. Whatever lesser maladies men had, They all gave place and vanished; And at this mighty conqueror shrunk their head. Fevers, agues, palsies, stone, And all the milder generation, By which mankind is by degrees undone, Men saw themselves freed from the pain, 'Twas an unhappy remedy, Which cur'd them that they might both worse and sooner die. Physicians now could nought prevail, They the first spoils to the proud victor fall; But help'd the Plague the speedier to devour, [too. In form of serpent, brought new poisons with him The streams did wonder that, so soon As they were from their native mountains gone, They saw themselves drunk up, and fear Another Xerxes' army near. Some cast into the pit the urn, And drink it dry at its return: Again they drew, again they drank; At first the coolness of the stream did thank, did burn; And, drunk with water, in their drinking sank: [use, With faint and wondering eyes did look, Saw what a ghastly shape themselves had took, Away they would have fled, but them their legs forsook. Some snatch the waters up, Their hands, their mouths the cup; They drunk, and found they flam'd the more, And only added to the burning store. So have I seen on lime cold water thrown, Straight all was to a ferment grown, And hidden seeds of fire together run: The heap was calm and temperate before, Such as the finger could endure; But, when the moistures it provoke, Did rage, did swell, did smoke, [ashes broke. Did move, and flame, and burn, and straight to So strong the heat, so strong the torments were, All sexes and all ages do invade The bounds which Nature laid, The laws of modesty which Nature made: The virgins blush not, yet uncloath'd appear, Undress'd to run about, yet never fear. The pain and the disease did now Unwillingly reduce men to That nakedness once more, Upon their souls and eyes Dark pictures and resemblances Of things to come, and of the world below, O'er their distemper'd fancies go: Sometimes they curse, sometimes they pray unto The gods above, the gods beneath; Sometimes they cruelties and fury breathe, Not sleep, but waking now was sister unto Death. Scatter'd in fields the bodies lay, [away. The Earth call'd to the fowls to take their flesh In vain she call'd, they come not nigh, Nor would their food with their own ruin buy: Along came mighty droves, They were destroy'd by their own prey. Did to the woods and mountains haste: Rather than in infected ivy more to stay. Mountains of bones and carcases, The infant suck'd as yet and smil'd, Here others, poison'd by the scent And death to others give; The friend doth hear his friend's last cries, Speaks his son heir with an infectious breath; Which perfect health and innocence caus'd before. To serve his master in the other world again; No sleep, no peace, no rest, Their wandering and affrighted minds possess'd; They languishing together lie, Their souls away together fly; The husband gaspeth, and his wife lies by, The husband and the wife Too truly now are one, and live one life. No fates in death could them divide, They must without their privilege together both have dy'd. There was no number now of death, The sisters scarce stood still themselves to breathe: The sisters now quite wearied In cutting single thread, Began at once to part whole looms, One stroke did give whole houses dooms: The aged and decrepid years; Some few months more, but 'twas, alas, too late. Cut off the young and lusty too: What happy days, what joys, they had in store: But Fate, ere they had finish'd their account, them slew. The wretched usurer died, And had no time to tell where he his treasures hid; The merchant did behold His ships return with spice and gold; He saw't, and turn'd aside his head, [dead. Nor thank'd the gods, but fell amidst his riches The meetings and assemblies cease; no more No course of justice did appear, The robe of honour, and obey Death's more resistless sway, Doth all the great and lesser officers devour. No purple aw'd the rout: A purple of their own did show: Laws that, like his, in blood are writ. For the advantage of the state, Up starts the soldier from his bed, He that ne'er knew before to yield, "How have I, Death, so ill deserv'd of thee, Send, gods, the Persian troops again: Must on my Athens shortly come! My thoughts inspir'd presage Slaughters and battles to the coming age: Oh! might I die upon that glorious stage: Oh! that!" but then he grasp'd his sword, and death concludes bis rage. Draw back, draw back thy sword, O Fate! What men wilt thou reserve in store, [air, There rage, there spread, and there infect the Murder whole towns and families there, Thy worst against those savage nations dare, Those whom mankind can spare, Those whom mankind itself doth fear; Amidst that dreadful night and fatal cold, There thou may'st walk unseen, and bold, There let thy flames their empire hold. Unto the farthest seas, and nature's ends, Where never summer's Sun its beams extends, Carry thy plagues, thy pains, thy heats, Thy raging fires, thy torturing sweats, Where never ray or heat did come,« They will rejoice at such a doom, They'll bless thy pestilential fire, Though by it they expire, They'll thank the very flames with which they do consume. Then if that banquet will not thee suffice, Seek out new lands where thou may'st tyrannize; Search every forest, every hill, And all that in the hollow mountains dwell; Let all those human beasts be slain, Thyself with that ignoble slaughter fill, "Twill be permitted thee that blood to spill. Measure the ruder world throughout, Go, and unpeople all those mighty lands, That when the European armies shall appear They may find all a wilderness, So when the elephants did first affright The Romans with unusual sight, They many battles lose, Before they knew their foes, Before they understood such dreadful troops t' op pose. Now every different sect agrees Against their common adversary, the disease, The Pythagoreans from their precepts swerve, They now desir'd their metempsychosis; That they might turn to beasts, or fowls, or fish. They would have curs'd their master's year, When all things shall be as they were, When they again the same disease shall bear: All the philosophers would now, What the great Stagyrite shall do, And without blood the gold and silver there possess. Themselves into the waters headlong throw. Nor is this all which we thee grant; Rather than thou should'st full employment want, (We do permit) in Greece thy kingdom plant. Ransack Lycurgus' streets throughout, They've no defence of walls to keep thee out. On wanton and proud Corinth seize, Nor let her double waves thy flames appease. Let Cyprus feel more fires than those of love: Let Delos, which at first did give the Sun, See unknown flames in her begun, Now let her wish she might unconstant prove, And from her place might truly move: Let Lemnos all thy anger feel, And think that a new Vulcan fell, And brought with him new anvils, and new Hell. Nay, at Athens too we give thee up, All that thou find'st in field, or camp, or shop: Of every ignorant and common soul. Let arts, and let the learned, there escape, And let Apollo's priests be, like him, young, The learned too, as fast as others, round me die; Are mortal, though they give an immortality. They turn'd their authors o'er, to try What help, what cure, what remedy, All Nature's stores against this plague supply; And though besides they shunn'd it every where, They search'd it in their books, and fain would meet it there; They turn'd the records of the ancient times, And chiefly those that were made famous by their crimes, To find if men were punish'd so before; Before she was bow to resist advis'd. The Stoics felt the deadly stroke, At first assault their courage was not broke, Of rules and precepts, which in store they had; They bid their hearts stand out, But all the strength of precept will not do't. A sacrifice not seen before; That Heaven, only us'd unto the gore Loaded with priests see its own altars too! The woods gave funeral piles no more, So much their Athens' danger did then move. But now, alas! were quite dismay'd, sent. But what, great gods! was worst of all, Hell forth its magazines of lust did call, Nor would it be content With the thick troops of souls were thither sent; That the few good which did survive Were angry with the Plague for suffering them to live: More for the living than the dead did grieve. Though sure to be infected ere they fled, Nor gods nor heavens fear'd, For, having past those torturing flames before, They thought the punishment already o'er, Thought Heaven no worse torments had in store; [no more. Here having felt one Hell, they thought there was UPON THE POEMS OF THE English Ovid, Anacreon, Pindar, and Virgil, ABRAHAM COWLEY, IN IMITATION OF HIS OWN PINDARIC ODES. LET all this meaner rout of books stand by, The common people of our library; Let them make way for Cowley's leaves to come, Let no prophane hands break the chain, With the same religious care Which its original from divine hands took," And brings as much good too, to those that on it look. But yet in this they differ. That could be Eleven times liken'd by a mortal hand; But this which here doth stand Will never any of its own sort see, In the two learned ages which time left behind, What holy vestal hearth, Did give so pure poetic flame its birth? Of such an unmix'd glorious shine, Was Prometheus's flame, Which from no less than Heaven came. And as he hasten'd down With the robb'd flames his hands still shone, And seem'd as if they were burnt for the theit. Thy poetry's compounded of the same, Such a bright immortal flame; Just so temper'd is thy rage, Thy fires as light and pure as they, And go as high as his did, if not higher, That thou may'st seem to us A true Prometheus, [fire. hung. So were his words, so plac'd his sounds, Which forc'd the marbles rise from out their grounds, Which cut and carved, made them shine, A work which can be outdone by none but thine Th' amazed poet saw the building rise, And knew not how to trust his eyes: The willing mortar came, and all the trees Leap into beams he sees. He saw the streets appear, Streets, that must needs be harmonious there: |