But deeply skill'd in all the principles
That ufher to destruction:
Your fenate-house which us'd not to admit
A man, however popular, to ftand
At the helm of government, whofe youth was not
Made glorious by action; whofe experience
Crown'd with gray hairs, gave warrant to her counfels
Hand, and receiv'd with rev'rence; is now fill'd
With green heads that determine of the state
Over their cups, or when their fated lufts
Afford them leifure; or fupply'd by thofe
Who rifing from bafe arts and fordid thrift,
Are eminent for wealth, not for their wisdom:
Which is the reafon, that to hold a place
In council, which was once esteem'd an honour,
Andļa reward for virtue, hath quite loft
Luftre, and reputation, and is made
A mercenary purchase.
A ftatesman, that can fide with e'ery faction,
And yet most fubtly can untwift himself,
When he hath wrought the bufinefs up to danger:
He lives within a labyrinth, fome think
He deals with the devil, and he looks like one,
With a more holyday face.
Oh he that's active in a state, has more
Chain'd to him by the pow'r and ftrength of office,
Than genuine refpect; and 'tis not worth
Or perfon, but the fortunes of a statesman
That fometimes men adore.
Statefmen, like virgins, first should give denial;
Experience and opportunity make the trial.
Shirley's Bird in a Cage.
Let dull patricians boaft their airy titles,
And count me bafe, whilft I commend their lives,
And for the furtherance of my high intents,
Make noblest men my hated inftruments.
Wife counsellors shine nearest to the king,
Upon this lower orb; as in the sky,
Sol conftantly is nearest Mercury.
To have the flies remov'd, which suck'd him first ;
He knew that fresh ones would torment him worst.
And as the lower orbs are wheel'd about,
Wrapt by the motions of the orbs above;
So were inferior agents foon found out,
Which mov'd and turn'd, when he began to move : For 'tis obferv'd, that princes fooner get
Men for their humour, than their honour fit.
Men sweat at helm, as much as at the oar.
Randolph's Mufes Looking-glass.
Three tedious winters have I waited here,
Like patient chymifts blowing ftill the coals,
And ftill expecting, when the bleffed hour
Wou'd come, fhou'd make me mafter of
The court elixir pow'r; for that turns all.
He has inverted all the rule of state,
Confounded policy;
There is fome reason why a subject
Should fuffer for the errors of his prince;
But why a prince fhou'd bear
The faults of's minifters, none, none at all.
I am a rogue if I do not think
I was defign'd for the helm of ftate:
I am fo full of nimble ftratagems,
That I should have order'd affairs, and
Carry'd it againft the ftream of a faction,
With as much ease, as a skipper
Wou'd laver against the wind.
Who ferves his prince in what is judg'd unjust;
By his own law, ferves not his pow'r, but luft.
The lover's and the courtier's mafter-peice,
And the fatefman's, diffimulation is;
High favour and fure friendship to pretend
To him, whofe throat he'll cut, to gain his end:
This must he do, will rife; and then it's best
To fwear most love, when he intends it least.
The prince's favour turns to a disease
When our ambitious greedinefs he feeds,
Till it does furfeit with his love and ftill
The med'cine for that fickness we apply
Like weapon falve, not to ourselves but him,
Who was the fword, which made the wound: and this
State-med'cine is our feeming industry,
When with falfe cares resembling false alarms,
We him of dangers warn when none are near;
Whilft futors wake, we, with our undisturb'd
Authority, fleep fafely, and at eafe;
And, to content ourselves, the world displease.
Sir W. Davenant's Unfortunate Lovers.
The world would still
Run fwiftly round, but for you state-cripples,
Who make it halt with your politick stops
Of too much caution.
Sir W. Davenant's Law against Lovers.
Thou feeft not, whilft fo young and guiltless too,
That kings mean feldom what their statesmen do;
Who measure not the compass of a crown
To fit the head that wears it, but their own:
Still hindring peace, because they ftewards are,
Without account, to that wild fpender war.
Sir W. Davenant's Siege of Rhodes.
The righteous ftate-phyficians that attend
On fickly kings, prefcribing unto us,
As nature to the hungry disease of tygers
And of wolves; when to preferve their lives
They feed on all the weak fubmitting herd.
But how accurs'd would fubjects be, were we
Not born with far more virtue, than we're taught?
Sir W. Davenant's Fair Favourite.
He was her father's counfellor; a man
Created in the dark he walks invisibly,
He dwells in labyrinths, and loves filence:
But when he talks, his language carries more
Promifcuous fenfe, than ancient oracles:
So various in his shapes, that oft he is
Difguis'd from his own knowledge. An error
Much incident to human politicks,
Who strive to know others more than themselves.
Sir W. Davenant's Albovine, K. of Lombardy.
Th' ambitious statesman not himself admires
For what he hath, but what his pride defires;
Doth inwardly confefs, he covets fway,
Because he is too haughty to obey :
Who yield to him, do not their reason please,
But hope, their patience may procure them ease ;
How proudly glorious doth he then appear,
Whom even the proud envy, th' humble fear.
Sir W. Davenant to Henry Farmin. Thus the court wheel goes round like fortune's ball; One statesman rising on another's fall.
Richard Brome's Queen's Exchange.
He was not of that strain of counsellors,
That like a tuft of rushes in a brook,
Bends ev'ry way the current turns itself,
Yielding to ev'ry puff of appetite
That comes from majefty, but with true zeal
He faithfully declared all.
I. That name I must remember, and with horror;
But few have dy'd for doing,
What they had dy'd for, if they had not done :
It was the king's command, and I was only
Th' unhappy minister.
2. Ay, fuch a minister as wind to fire,
That adds an accidental fierceness to
1. If 'twere the king's command, 'twas firft thy malice Commanded that command, and then obey'd it.
2. Nay, if you have refolv'd it, truth and reafon
Are weak and idle arguments:
But let me pity thee the unhappy inftrument
Of prince's wills, whofe anger is our fate;
And yet their love's more fatal than their hate.
Denham's Sophy.
I'll leave you now to prey upon your felves:
He that devours the reft, in time may be
A monster, more o'ergrown than e'er I was.
When you are low and poor, you are all friends,
And in one fair pretence together join;
While ev'ry one conceals his own defign.
It is your country's caufe, until full grown
In long fought pow'r; then it proves your own.
When you feem good, your crimes are not the less;
Men have all new creations by fuccefs.
Sir Robert Howard's Great Favourite. My thoughts must not be judg'd by these base slaves,
Who hang upon my fortune, not on me ;
Such inftruments, like flatter'd princes,
Muft never hear but of profperity.
Virtue can fingly ftand on its own truft;
But paffions muft depend on truth of others:
Our hopes of victory on mean mens valours;
Ambition upon base and wretched Inftruments;
On womens love, more treacherous than all.
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