60

And after short abode fly back with speed,
As if to show what creatures Heav'n doth breed,

Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire
To scorn the fordid world, and unto Heav'n aspire ?

X.

65

But oh why didst thou not stay here below
To bless us with thy heav'n-lov’d innocence,
To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe,
To turn swift-rushing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence,

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart?
But thou canst best perform that office where thou art. 70

XI.

Then thou the Mother of so sweet a Child
Her false imagin'd loss cease to lament,
And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God haft fent,
And render him with patience what he lent;

68. Or drive away the Naughtering pestilence,] a great plague in London, which gives a peIt Ihould be noted that at this time there was culiar propriety to this whole stanza.

There

This if thou do, he will an ofspring give, That till the world's lastend shall make thy name to live.

II.

5

Anno Ætatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the col

lege, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began.

AIL native Language, that by sinews weak

Didst move my first endevoring tongue to speak, And mad'st imperfect words with childish trips, Half unpronounc’d, slide through my infant-lips, Driving dumb silence from the portal door, Where he had mutely fat two years before: Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask, That now I use thee in my latter task: Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee, I know my tongue but little grace can do thee: Thou need'st not be ambitious to be first, Believe me I have thither packt the worst:

And, These verses were made in 1627, that they were not in the edition of 1645, but being the 19th year of the author's age ; and were first added in the edition of 1673.

IO

20

And, if it happen as I did forecast,
The daintiest dishes shall be serv'd up last.
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid

15
For this same small neglect that I have made:
But haste thee strait to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure,
Not those new fangled toys, and trimming flight
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire
Which deepest spirits, and choicest wits desire:
I have some naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out ;
And weary of their place do only stay
Till thou hast deck'd them in thy best array;
That so they may without suspect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly's ears i

Yet

25

30

35

Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
Thy service in some graver subject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound:
Such where the deep transported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and see each blissful Deity
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Lift'ning to what unshorn Apollo sings
To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly sire:
Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of snow 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

i

37

- unporn Apollo] An epithet by which So Tasso describes the descent of Michael, he is distinguish'd in the Greek and Latin

poets.

Cant.

9.

St. 61. Pindar Pyth. III. 26. ακερσεκομα Φοιβω. Hor. Vien poi da campi lieti, e fiammeggianti Od. I. XXI. 2.

45

Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was;
And last of kings and queens and heroes old,
Such as the wise Demodocus once told
In folemn songs at king Alcinous feast,
While sad Ulysses soul and all the rest

50
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
To keep in compass of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos’d business come,
That to the next I may resign iny room.

55

Good ,

Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments

his ten sons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance with his canons, which Ens, thus speaking, explains. OOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;

Thy 48. Such as the wise Demodocus &c] Allud- Alcinous entertains Ulysses, and the celei.g to the eighth book of the Odyssey, where brated musician and poet Demodocus sings

thc