'Tis still the same, although their airy shape All but a quick poetic sight escape.
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts, And thither all the horned host resorts
To graze the ranker mead; that noble herd On whose sublime and shady fronts is rear'd Nature's great masterpiece, to show how soon Great things are made, but sooner are undone. Here have I seen the king, when great affairs Gave leave to slacken and unbend his cares, Attended to the chase by all the flow'r Of youth, whose hopes a nobler prey devour; Pleasure with praise and danger they would buy, And wish a foe that would not only fly. The stag now conscious of his fatal growth, At once indulgent to his fear and sloth, To some dark covert his retreat had made, Where nor man's eye, nor Heaven's, should invade His soft repose; when the' unexpected sound Of dogs and men his wakeful ear does wound. Rous'd with the noise, he scarce believes his ear, Willing to think the' illusions of his fear Had given this false alarm, but straight his view Confirms, that more than all he fears is true. Betray'd in all his strengths, the wood beset, All instruments, all arts of ruin met,
He calls to mind his strength, and then his speed, His winged heels, and then his armed head; With these to' avoid, with that his fate to meet, But fear prevails, and bids him trust his feet. So fast he flies, that his reviewing eye Has lost the chasers, and his ear the cry; Exulting, till he finds their nobler sense Their disproportion'd speed doth recompense : Then curses his conspiring feet, whose scent Betrays that safety which their swiftness lent: Then tries his friends; among the baser herd, Where he so lately was obey'd and fear'd, His safety seeks the herd, unkindly wise, Or chases him from thence or from him flies.
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn To his friends' pity, and pursuers' scorn, With shame remembers while himself was one Of the same herd, himself the same had done. Thence to the coverts and the conscious groves, The scenes of his past triumphs and his loves, Sadly surveying where he rang'd alone, Prince of the soil, and all the herd his own; And like a bold knight-errant did proclaim Combat to all, and bore away the dame, And taught the woods to echo to the stream His dreadful challenge and his clashing beam; Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife, So much his love was dearer than his life. Now every leaf, and every moving breath Presents a foe, and every foe a death. Wearied, forsaken, and pursued, at last All safety in despair of safety plac'd; Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear All their assaults, since 'tis in vain to fear. And now, too late, he wishes for the fight That strength he wasted in ignoble flight: But when he sees the eager chase renew'd, Himself by dogs, the dogs by men pursued, He straight revokes his bold resolve, and more Repents his courage than his fear before; Finds that uncertain ways unsafest are,
And doubt a greater mischief than despair. Then to the stream, when neither friends, nor force, Nor speed, nor art avail, he shapes his course; Thinks not their rage so desperate to' essay An element more merciless than they. But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood Quench their dire thirst: alas! they thirst for blood. So toward a ship the oar-finn'd gallies ply, Which, wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly, Stands but to fall reveng'd on those that dare Tempt the last fury of extreme despair. So fares the stag; among the enrag'd hounds Repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds:
And as a hero, whom his baser foes
In troops surround, now these assails, now those, Though prodigal of life, disdains to die
By common hands: but if he can descry Some nobler foe approach, to him he calls, And begs his fate, and then contented falls. So when the king a mortal shaft lets fly From his unerring hand, then glad to die, Proud of the wound, to it resigns his blood, And stains the crystal with a purple flood. This a more innocent and happy chase Than when of old, but in the self-same place, Fair Liberty pursued, and meant a prey
To lawless power, here turn'd, and stood at bay; When in that remedy all hope was plac'd
Which was, or should have been at least, the last. Here was that Charter scal'd, wherein the crown All marks of arbitrary power lays down: Tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear, The happier style of king and subject bear: Happy, when both to the same centre move, When kings give liberty, and subjects love. Therefore not long in force this Charter stood; Wanting that seal, it must be seal'd in blood. The subjects arm'd, the more their princes gave, The' advantage only took the more to crave: Till kings, by giving, gave themselves away, And ev'n that power that should deny betray. Who gives constrain'd, but his own fear reviles, Not thank'd, but scorn'd; nor are they gifts, but spoils.'
Thus kings, by grasping more than they could hold, First made their subjects by oppression bold; And popular sway, by forcing kings to give More than was fit for subjects to receive, Ran to the same extremes; and one excess Made both, by striving to be greater, less. When a calm river, rais'd with sudden rains, Or snows dissolv'd, o'erflows the' adjoining plains, Vol. I.
The husbandmen with high-rais'd banks secure Their greedy hopes, and this he can endure; But if with bays and dams they strive to force His channel to a new or narrow course,
No longer then within his banks he dwells, First a torrent, then a deluge, swells; Stronger and fiercer by restraint, he roars, And knows no bound, but makes his power his shores.
ON Mr. ABRAHAM COWLEY'S DEATH, And Burial amongst the ancient Poets.
OLD Chaucer, like the morning star,
To us discovers day from far; His light those mists and clouds dissolv'd, Which our dark nation long involv'd; But he descending to the shades, Darkness again the age invades. Next (like Aurora) Spenser rose, Whose purple blush the day foreshows; The other three with his own fires Phœbus, the poet's god, inspires; By Shakspeare's, Jonson's, Fletcher's lines Our stage's lustre Rome's outshines; These poets near our princes sleep, And in one grave their mansion keep. They liv'd to see so many days, Till time had blasted all their bays: But cursed be the fatal hour
That pluck'd the fairest, sweetest flower That in the Muses' garden grew,
And amongst wither'd laurels threw ! Time, which made them their fame outlive, To Cowley scarce did ripeness give. Old mother Wit, and Nature, gave Shakspeare and Fletcher, all they have; In Spenser, and in Jonson, Art
Of slower Nature got the start;
But both in him so equal are,
None knows which bears the happier share. To him no author was unknown,
Yet what he wrote was all his own:
He melted not the ancient gold, Nor, with Ben Jonson, did make bold To plunder all the Roman stores. Of poets and of orators.
Horace's wit and Virgil's state
He did not steal, but emulate;
And when he would like them appear, Their garb but not their clothes did wear. He not from Rome alone, but Greece, Like Jason, brought the Golden Fleece, To him that language (though to none Of the' others) as his own was known. On a stiff gale (as Flaccus sings) The Theban swan extends his wings, When through the' ethereal clouds he flies; To the same pitch our swan doth rise. Old Pindar's flights by him are reach'd, When on that gale his wings are stretch'd, His fancy and his judgment such, Each to the other seem'd too much;
His severe judgment (giving law)
His modest fancy kept in awe;
As rigid husbands jealous are,
When they believe their wives too fair. His English streams so pure did flow, As all, that saw and tasted, know: But for his Latin vein, so clear, Strong, full, and high, it doth appear, That were immortal Virgil here, Him for his judge he would not fear. Of that great portraiture so true A copy, pencil never drew.
My Muse her song had ended here, But both their genii straight appear: Joy and amazement her did strike; Two twins she never saw so like.
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