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XI.

Then thou the Mother of fo fweet a Child
Her falfe imagin'd lofs cease to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild;
Think what a prefent thou to God haft fent,
And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do, he will an ofspring give, [live.
That till the world's laft end fhall make thy name to

II.

75

Anno Etatis 19. At a Vacation Exercife in the college, part Latin, part English. The Latin fpeeches ended, the English thus began.

H

AIL native Language, that by finews weak
Didft move my firft endevoring tongue to
fpcak,

And mad't imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounc'd, flide through my infant-lips,
Driving dumb filence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely fat two years before :
Here I falute thee, and thy pardon afk,
That now I use thee in latter task:

my

Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee,

5

I know my tongue but little grace can do thee : 10
Thou need'ft not be ambitious to be first,

Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
And, if it happen as I did forecast,

The daintieft dishes fhall be ferv'd up laft.

I pray thee then deny me not thy aid

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For this fame fmall neglect that I have made:
But hafte thee ftrait to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure,

Not

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Not those new fangled toys, and trimming flight
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
But cull thofe richest robes, and gay'st attire
Which deepest fpirits, and choiceft wits defire:
I have fome naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And weary of their place do only stay
Till thou haft deck'd them in thy belt array;
That fo they may without fufpect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair affembly's ears;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,
Thy fervice in fome graver fubject use,
Such as may make thee fearch thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found:
Such where the deep transported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and fee each blissful Deity

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Lift'ning to what unfhorn Apollo fings

To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire:

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35

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Then paffing through the spheres of watchful fire, 4a
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 muftering all his waves;
Then fing of fecret things that came to pafs
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 fweet captivity.

50

But fie, my wand'ring Mufe, how thou doft stray ! Expectance calls thee now another way,

Thou

Thou know'ft 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 refign my room.

55

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

G

OOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth; 60
Thy droufy nurse hath fworn fhe did them fpie
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And fweetly finging round about thy bed
Strow all their bleffings on thy fleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldft ftill
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:

Yet there is fomething 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 presage,
And in time's long and dark profpective glass
Forefaw what future days should bring to pass ;
Your fon, faid fhe, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall fubject be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he fhall reign as king,
Yet every one fhall make him underling,
And thofe that cannot live from him afunder
Ungratefully fhall ftrive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it fhall not be his hap,

And peace shall ļull him in her flow'ry lap ;

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70

75

8

Yet

85

Yet shall he live in ftrife, and at his door
Devouring war shall never cease to roar :
Yea it fhall be his natural property

To harbour those that are at enmity.

What pow'r, what force, what mighty fpell, if not Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? ga

The next Quantity and Quality spake in prose, then Relation was call'd by his name.

R

IVERS arife; whether thou be the fon

95

Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant fpreads His thirty arms along th' indented meads, Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath, Or Severn swift, guilty of maidens' death, Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee, Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,

Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, Or Medway fmooth, or royal towred Thame. 100 [The reft was profe.]

III.

On the MORNING of CHRIST'S NATIVITY, Compos'd 1629.

T

I..

HIS is 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 fo the holy fages once did fing,

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

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That

II.

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

He laid afide; and here with us to be,
Forfook the courts of everlasting day,

II

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
III.

Say heav'nly Mufe, fhall not thy facred vein
Afford a prefent to the Infant God?

Haft thou no verfe, no hymn, or folemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,

15

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

IV.

See how from far upon the eastern road
The ftar-led wifards hafte with odors fweet :
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his bleffed feet;
Have thou the honor first, thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the Angel quire,
From out his fecret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire,

The HY M N,

25

I.

I

T was the winter wild,

While the Heav'n-born child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;

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Nature

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