spoke:

Some things like visionary flights appear; The spirit caught him up, the Lord knows where;

And gave him his rabbinical degree,
Unknown to foreign university.

His judgment yet his mem'ry did excel; 660 Which piec'd his wondrous evidence so well,

And suited to the temper of the times,
Then groaning under Jebusitic crimes.
Let Israel's foes suspect his heav'nly call,
And rashly judge his writ apocryphal;
Our laws for such affronts have forfeits
made:

He takes his life, who takes away his trade.

Were I myself in witness Corah's place, The wretch who did me such a dire disgrace,

Should whet my memory, tho' once forgot,

670

To make him an appendix of my plot.
His zeal to Heav'n made him his prince
despise,

And load his person with indignities;
But zeal peculiar privilege affords,
Indulging latitude to deeds and words;
And Corah might for Agag's murther call,
In terms as coarse as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
(The best that could be had for love or
coin,)

In Corah's own predicament will fall; 680
For witness is a common name to all.

Surrounded thus with friends of every

sort,

Deluded Absalom forsakes the court; Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with re

nown,

And fir'd with near possession of a crown. Th' admiring crowd are dazzled with surprise,

And on his goodly person feed their eyes. His joy conceal'd, he sets himself to show, On each side bowing popularly low;

Charm'd into ease, is careless of his fame; And, brib'd with petty sums of foreign gold,

Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old; 710 Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys; And all his pow'r against himself imploys. He gives, and let him give, my right away; But why should he his own and yours betray?

He, only he, can make the nation bleed, And he alone from my revenge is freed. Take then my tears, (with that he wip'd his eyes,)

'Tis all the aid my present pow'r supplies: No court-informer can these arms accuse; These arms may sons against their fathers

Both for themselves and sons, their native sway?

760

Then they are left defenseless to the sword Of each unbounded, arbitza ry lord:

And laws are vain, by which we right enjoy,

If kings unquestion'd can those laws destroy.

Yet if the crowd be judge of fit and just,
And kings are only officers in trust,
Then this resuming cov'nant was declar'd
When kings were made, or is for ever
barr'd.

If those who gave the scepter could not tie
By their own deed their own posterity, 770
How then could Ada'n bind his future race?

And join'd experience to his native truth. 891 His frugal care supplied the wanting throne;

Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own: 'Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow, But hard the task to manage well the low; For sovereign power is too depress'd or high,

When kings are forc'd to sell, or crowds to buy.

Indulge one labor more, my weary Muse, For Amiel: who can Amiel's praise refuse? Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet 900 In his own worth, and without title great: The Sanhedrin long time as chief he rul'd, Their reason guided, and their passion cool'd:

So dext'rous was he in the crown's defense, So form'd to speak a loyal nation's sense, That, as their band was Israel's tribes in small,

So fit was he to represent them all.

Now rasher charioteers the seat ascend, Whose loose careers his steady skill commend:

They, like th' unequal ruler of the day, 910 Misguide the seasons, and mistake the way; While he withdrawn at their mad labor

smiles,

And safe enjoys the sabbath of his toils. These were the chief, a small but faithful band

Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to stand,

And tempt th' united fury of the land.
With grief they view'd such powerful en-
gines bent,

To batter down the lawful government:
A numerous faction, with pretended frights,
In Sanhedrins to plume the regal rights; 920
The true successor from the court remov'd;
The Plot, by hireling witnesses, improv'd.
These ills they saw, and, as their duty
bound,

They shew'd the king the danger of the wound;

That no concessions from the throne would please,

But lenitives fomented the disease;
That Absalom, ambitious of the crown,
Was made the lure to draw the people
down;

That false Achitophel's pernicious hate
Had turn'd the Plot to ruin Church and
State;

930

My wrongs dissembled, my revenge delay'd:

940

So willing to forgive th' offending age;
So much the father did the king assuage.
But now so far my clemency they slight,
Th' offenders question my forgiving right.
That one was made for many, they con-
tend;

But 't is to rule; for that's a monarch's end.

They call my tenderness of blood, my fear; Tho' manly tempers can the longest bear. Yet, since they will divert my native course, 'Tis time to shew I am not good by force. Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects bring,

951

Are burthens for a camel, not a king.
Kings are the public pillars of the State,
Born to sustain and prop the nation's
weight;

If my young Samson will pretend a call
To shake the column, let him share the fall:
But O that yet he would repent and live!
How easy 't is for parents to forgive!
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From nature, pleading for a darling son! 960
Poor pitied youth, by my paternal care
Rais'd up to all the height his frame could
bear!

Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born,
He would have giv'n his soul another turn:
Gull'd with a patriot's name, whose modern

Good heav'ns, how faction can a patriot

paint!

My rebel ever proves my people's saint. Would they impose an heir upon the throne? Let Sanhedrins be taught to give their own. A king's at least a part of government, And mine as requisite as their consent; Without my leave a future king to choose, Infers a right the present to depose. 980 True, they petition me t' approve their choice;

But Esau's hands suit ill with Jacob's voice. My pious subjects for my safety pray; Which to secure, they take my pow'r away. From plots and treasons Heav'n preserve my years,

But save me most from my petitioners ! Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can

PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO THE LOYAL BROTHER

OR, THE PERSIAN PRINCE

[This tragedy, the first play of Thomas Southerne (1660-1746), was printed in 1682, being entered in the Term Catalogue for Easter Term (May). If we may judge from the description of the annual pope-burning on “Queen Bess's night," November 17 (see Prologue, line 18), it was probably acted late in the preceding year. The play had a political object: Tach

mas," the loyal brother," suggesting the Duke of York; and Ismael, " a villainous favorite," the Earl of Shaftesbury.

Pope, in his lines To Mr. Thomas Southerne, on his Birthday, 1742, alludes to him as : Tom, whom Heav'n sent down to raise The price of prologues and of plays. On this Warburton remarks:

"This alludes to a story Mr. Southerne told about the same time to Mr. P[ope] and Mr. W[arburton] of Dryden; who, when Southerne first wrote for the stage, was so famous for his prologues that the players would act