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List'ning to what unshorn Apollo sings
To th'touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire:
Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40

And mifty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves,
In Heav'n's defiance mustering all his waves;
Then fing of fecret things that came to pass

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When beldam Nature in her cradle was;
And laft of kings and queens and heroes old,
Such as the wife Demodocus once told

In folemn fongs at king Alcinous feast,
While fad Ulyffes foul and all the reft
Are held with his melodious harmony
In willing chains and sweet captivity.
But fie, my wand'ring Muse, how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent

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To keep in compass of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,

That to the next I may resign my room.

Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments his ten fons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance with his canons, which Ens, thus speaking, explains.

G

OOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;

60 Thy

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Thy drousy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And sweetly singing round about thy bed
Strow all their blessings on thy fleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst still
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:
Yet there is something that doth force my fear,
For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could prefage,
And in time's long and dark prospective glass
Foresaw what future days should bring to pafs;
Your fon, faid she, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him afunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them; 80
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,
And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap;
Yet shall he live in strife, and at his door
Devouring war shall never cease to roar:
Yea it shall be his natural property
To harbour those that are at enmity.

L4

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What

What pow'r, what force, what mighty spell, if not
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? go
The next Quantity and Quality spake in profe, then

R

Relation was call'd by his name.

IVERS arife; whether thou be the fon

Of utmoft Tweed, or Oose, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant spreads

His thirty arms along th'indented meads,

Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath,

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Or Severn fwift, guilty of maidens' death,

Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,

Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,

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Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name,
Or Medway smooth, or royal towred Thame.

(The rest was profe.)

III.

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On the Morning of CHRIST's NATIVITY.

T

HIS is

Compos'd 1629.

I.

the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,

Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did fing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unfufferable,

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And

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table 10
To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlafting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

III.

Say heav'nly Muse, shall not thy facred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Haft thou no verse, no hymn, or folemn ftrain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,

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Now while the Heav'n by the sun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 And all the spangled hoft keep watch in squadrons

IV.

See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led wisards hafte with odors fweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honor first, thy Lord to greet,

(bright?

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And join thy voice unto the Angel quire, From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.

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Nature in awe to him

Had dofft her gawdy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize:

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the fun her lufty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She woo's the gentle air

II.

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow,

And on her naked shame,

Pollute with finful blame,

The faintly veil of maiden white to throw, Confounded, that her Maker's eyes

Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

But he her fears to cease,

III.

Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace;

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She crown'd with olive green, came foftly fliding

Down through the turning sphere

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50

And waving wide her myrtle wand,

She strikes an universal peace through fea and land.

No war, or battel's found

IV.

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up hung;

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The

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