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'Tis not a tale, 't is not a jest

Admir'd with laughter at a feast,

Nor florid talk, which can that title gain;
The proofs of Wit for ever must remain.

'Tis not to force some lifeless verses meet
With their five gouty feet.

All, every-where, like man's, must be the soul,
And Reason the inferior powers control.

Such were the numbers which could call
The stones into the Theban wall.

Such miracles are ceas'd; and now we see
No towns or houses rais'd by poetry.

Yet 't is not to adorn and gild each part;
That shows more cost than art.

Jewels at nose and lips but ill appear;
Rather than all things Wit, let none be there.
Several lights will not be seen,

If there be nothing else between.

Men doubt, because they stand so thick i' th' sky, If those be stars which paint the Galaxy.

'Tis not when two like words make up one noise (Jests for Dutch men and English boys); In which who finds out Wit, the same may see In an'grams and acrostick poetry:

Much less can that have any place

At which a virgin hides her face;

Sach dross the fire must purge away: 't is just
The author blush there, where the reader must.

"Tis not such lines as almost crack the stage
When Bajazet begins to rage;
Nor a tall metaphor in the bombast way;
Nor the dry chips of short-lung'd Seneca;
Nor upon all things to obtrude

And force some odd similitude.

What is it then, which, like the Power Divine,
We only can by negatives define?

In a true piece of Wit all things must be,

Yet all things there agree;

As in the ark, join'd without force or strife,
All creatures dwelt; all creatures that had life:
Or, as the primitive forms of all

(If we compare great things with small) Which, without discord or confusion, lie In that strange mirror of the Deity.

But Love, that moulds one man up out of two,
Makes me forget, and injure you :

I took you for myself, sure, when I thought
That you in any thing were to be taught.
Correct my error with thy pen;

And, if any ask me then

What thing right Wit and height of Genius is,
I'll only shew your lines, and say, 'T is this.

ON THE DEATH OF Mr. W. HERVEY.

"Immodicis brevis est atas, & rara senectus." Mart.

IT

was a dismal and a fearful night,

Scarce could the morn drive on th' unwilling light,

When sleep, death's image, left my troubled breast,
By something liker death possest.

My eyes with tears did uncommanded flow,
And on my soul hung the dull weight

Of some intolerable fate.

What bell was that? ah me! too much I know.

My sweet companion, and my gentle peer,
Why hast thou left me thus unkindly here,
Thy end for ever, and my life, to moan?
O, thou hast left me all alone!

Thy soul and body, when Death's agony
Besieg'd around thy noble heart,
Did not with more reluctance part,
Than I, my dearest friend! do part from thee.

My dearest friend, would I had dy'd for thee! Life and this world henceforth will tedious be. Nor shall I know hereafter what to do,

If once my griefs prove tedious too.
Silent and sad I walk about all day,

As sullen ghosts stalk speechless by
Where their hid treasures lie;

Alas! my treasure's gone! why do I stay?

He was my friend, the truest friend on earth;
A strong and mighty influence join'd our birth;
Nor did we envy the most sounding name
By friendship given of old to fame.
None but his brethren he and sisters knew,
Whom the kind youth preferr'd to me;
And ev'n in that we did agree,

For much above myself I lov'd them too.

Say, for you saw us, ye immortal lights,
How oft unweary'd have we spent the nights,
Till the Ledæan stars, so fam'd for love,
Wonder'd at us from above!

We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine;
But search of deep Philosophy,

Wit, Eloquence, and Poetry,

Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.

Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say
Have ye not seen us walking every day?
Was there a tree about which did not know
The love betwixt us two?

Henceforth, ye gentle trees, for ever fade;
Or your sad branches thicker join,
And into darkesome shades combine,
Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid!

Henceforth, no learned youths beneath you sing,
Till all the tuneful birds to' your boughs they bring;
No tuneful birds play with their wonted chear,
And call the learned youths to hear;

No whistling winds through the glad branches fly: But all, with sad solemnity,

Mute and unmoved be,

Mute as the grave wherein my friend does lie.

To him my Muse made haste with every strain, Whilst it was new and warm yet from the brain: He lov'd my worthless rhymes, and, like a friend, Would find out something to commend.

Hence now, my Muse! thou canst not me delight: Be this my latest verse,

With which I now adorn his hearse;

And this my grief, without thy help, shall write.

Had I a wreath of bays about my brow,
I should contemn that flourishing honour now;
Condemn it to the fire, and joy to hear

It rage and crackle there.

Instead of bays, crown with sad cypress me;
Cypress, which tombs does beautify:

Not Phœbus griev'd, so much as I,
For him who first was made that mournful tree.

Large was his soul; as large a soul as e'er
Submitted to inform a body here;

High as the place 't was shortly' in heaven to have,
But low and humble as his grave:

So high, that all the Virtues there did come,
As to their chiefest seat

Conspicuous and great;

So low, that for me too it made a room.

He scorn'd this busy world below, and all
That we, mistaken mortals! pleasure call;
Was fill'd with innocent gallantry and truth,
Triumphant o'er the sins of youth.

He, like the stars, to which he now is gone,
That shine with beams like flame,

Yet burn not with the same,

Had all the light of youth, of the fire none.

Knowledge he only sought, and so soon caught,
As if for him Knowledge had rather sought:
Nor did more Learning ever crowded lie
In such a short mortality.

Whene'er the skilful youth discours'd or writ,
Still did the notions throng

About his eloquent tongue,

Nor could his ink flow faster than his wit.

So strong a wit did Nature to him frame,
As all things but his judgment overcame;
His judgment like the heavenly moon did show,
Tempering that mighty sea below.

Oh! had he liv'd in Learning's world, what bound
Would have been able to control

His over-powering soul!

We 'ave lost in him arts that not yet are found.

His mirth was the pure spirits of various wit,
Yet never did his God or friends forget;
And, when deep talk and wisdom came in view,
Retir'd, and gave to them their due:

For the rich help of books he always took,
Though his own searching mind before
Was so with notions written o'er

As if wise Nature had made that her book.

So many virtues join'd in him, as we
Can scarce pick here and there in history;
More than old writers' practice e'er could reách;
As much as they could ever teach.
These did Religion, Queen of virtues! sway;
And all their sacred motions steer,

Just like the first and highest sphere,
Which wheels about, and turns all heaven one way.

With as much zeal, devotion, piety,

He always liv'd, as other saints do die.
Still with his soul severe account he kept,
Weeping all debts out ere he slept:

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