No rabbin speaks like him their mystic sense, 1030 Than Sheva none more loyal zeal have shown, Wakeful as Judah's lion for the crown, Who for that cause still combats in his age, For which his youth with danger did engage. In vain our factious priests the cant revive; In vain seditious scribes with libel strive To enflame the crowd; while he with watchful eye Observes, and shoots their treasons as they fly; Their weekly frauds his keen replies detect; He undeceives more fast than they infect. So Moses, when the pest on legions prey'd, Advanc'd his signal, and the plague was stay'd. Once more, my fainting muse, thy pinions try, And strength's exhausted store let love supply. What tribute, Asaph, shall we render thee? We'll crown thee with a wreath from thy own tree! 1035 V. 1025. Than Sheva none] Meaning Sir Roger L'Estrange, who of all venal and sordid scribblers that ever defended any administration, in any country or time, seems to have gone the greatest length in striving to defend any grievance and injustice that a government can be guilty of. His style is the masterpiece of what may be called, the Pert-Dull, and was vitiated by cant and affected vulgar phrases, and coffee-house expressions. In this sort of diction he translated, or rather travestied, the Offices of Tully, the Morals of Seneca, the Visions of Quevedo, and the History of Josephus; and gave a nauseous caricatura of the simplicity of Æsop in his Fables. Dr. J. W. Thy laurel grove no envy's flash can blast; With wonder late posterity shall dwell Thy strains shall be our slumbering prophets' dream, How fierce his satire loos'd; restrain'd, how tame; No page of thine that fears the strictest view, 1055 What praise for such rich strains shall we allow? What just rewards the grateful crown bestow? While bees in flowers rejoice, and flowers in dew, While stars and fountains to their course are true; While Judah's throne and Sion's rock stand fast, The song of Asaph and the fame shall last. 1065 Still Hebron's honour'd happy soil retains Our royal hero's beauteous dear remains ; Who now sails off, with winds nor wishes slack, To bring his sufferings' bright companion back. But ere such transport can our sense employ, A bitter grief must poison half our joy ; 1070 Nor can our coasts restor❜d those blessings see Curs'd Sodom's doom for ever fix the tide 1075 Where by inglorious chance the valiant died. 1080 Calm were the elements, night's silence deep, And dying e'en o'er that they triumph too; Say, royal Sir, by all your fame in arms, Your praise in peace, and by Urania's charms; If all your sufferings past so nearly press'd, love, 1105 But far remov'd in thundering camps is found, Must see his country flame, his friends destroy'd, Such toil of fate must build a man of fame, 1115 And such, to Israel's crown, the godlike David came. 1120 What sudden beams dispel the clouds so fast, Whose drenching rains laid all our vineyards waste? The spring so far behind her course delay'd, On the instant is in all her bloom array'd; The winds breathe low, the element serene; Yet mark what motion in the waves is seen! Thronging and busy as Hyblæan swarms, Or straggled soldiers summon'd to their arms. See where the princely bark, in loosest pride, 1125 With all her guardian fleet, adorns the tide! High on her deck the royal lovers stand, Our crimes to pardon ere they touch'd our land. Welcome to Israel and to David's breast! 1135 V. 1129. Welcome to Israel] The Duke of Buckingham gave this character of the two royal brothers-that Charles could see things if he would, and James would see things if he could. The conduct of James, and his behaviour in his visit to Oxford, is marvellously weak, preposterous, and absurd. It is recorded in Anthony Wood's life - Charles II. used to say with respect to the mistresses of his brother, which were plain and homely, that his confessor had imposed such mistresses upon him as Mrs. Williams, Lady Bellasyse. Mrs. Sedley, and Mrs. Churchill, by way of penance. Charles II.'s favourite mistress retained her beauty till near seventy years of age. Sir Peter Lely, in a high strain of flattery, drew her portrait, and that of her son the Duke of Richmond, as a Madonna and Child, for a convent in France. Dr. J. W. V. 1131. This year did Ziloah rule Jerusalem, &c.] Sir John Moor, Lord Mayor of London in 1681, and one of the representatives of the city in parliament, was a most zealous and corrupt partisan of the court. He nominated two sheriffs whom he knew would be perfectly subservient to the ministry and the arbitrary measures of the king. Dr. J. W. In a congratulatory poem, addressed to Sir William Pritchard (the successor of Sir John Moor), published on a half sheet in 1682, the humble bard hurls his indignation, not withJut an allusion to Dryden's poem, against 'That long-ear'd rout, and their Achitophel, That think it sin to live and not rebel; Those pious elders, that Geneva rabble, That hope, once more, to make old Paul's a stable.' T. |