Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

To a little wealth, and credit in the scene,

He takes up all, makes each man's wit his own : And, told of this, he slights it. Tut, such crimes The sluggish gaping auditor devours;

He marks not whose 'twas first: and after-times
May judge it to be his, as well as ours.
Fool! as if half eyes will not know a fleece
From locks of wool, or shreds from the whole piece.

LVII.

ON BAWDS AND USURERS.

F, as their ends, their fruits were so, the same,
Bawdry and Usury were one kind of game.

LVIII.

TO GROOM IDIOT.

DIOT, last night, I pray'd thee but forbear To read my verses; now I must to hear : For offering with thy smiles my wit to grace, Thy ignorance still laughs in the wrong place. And so my sharpness thou no less disjoints, Than thou didst late my sense, losing my points. So have I seen at Christmas-sports, one lost, And hood-wink'd, for a man embrace a post.

LIX.

ON SPIES.

PIES, you are lights in state, but of base stuff,
Who, when you've burnt your selves down to

the snuff,

Stink, and are thrown away.

End fair enough.

LX.

TO WILLIAM LORD MOUNTEAGLE."

O, what my country should have done (have raised

An obelisk, or column to thy name,
Or, if she would but modestly have praised
Thy fact, in brass or marble writ the same)
I, that am glad of thy great chance, here do!
And proud, my work shall out-last common
deeds,

Durst think it great, and worthy wonder too,
But thine, for which I do't, so much exceeds!
My country's parents I have many known;
But, saver of my country, THEE alone.

7 To William lord Mounteagle.] This was the nobleman who received the remarkable letter about the gun-powder plot, taken notice of by our historians, and which gave the first apprehensions of what was then contriving. WHAL.

Many angry attacks have been made on James for assuming to himself the merit of discovering the import of this letter; of which Cecil takes the credit in an excellent official paper to sir Charles Cornwallis, (Winwood Mem. vol. ii. p. 170,) but surely without much cause. The fact seems to be that Cecil allowed the king (who was always tenacious of his own sagacity) to imagine that he had detected the latent meaning of the letter. Cecil was the most shrewd, and James the most simple and unsuspicious of mortals :there is, therefore, not the smallest reason to believe that the king meant to mislead the parliament, or that he thought otherwise than he spoke. We deceive ourselves grossly, if we assume that all which is known now was known at the time when the event took place. Cecil's letter was a sealed letter to the parliament and the nation; and, after all, we have only the minister's word for his share in the discovery. The hint to lord Mounteagle, which was given to him by his sister, Mary Parker, wife of Thomas Habington, and mother of the amiable and virtuous author of Castora, was not the only one conveyed to the earl of Salisbury on this mysterious business.

LXI.

TO FOOL, OR KNAVE.

HY praise or dispraise is to me alike;
One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.

LXII.

TO FINE LADY WOULD-BE.

VINE madam Would-be, wherefore should you fear,

That love to make so well, a child to bear? The world reputes you barren: but I know Your pothecary, and his drug, says no. Is it the pain affrights? that's soon forgot. Or your complexion's loss? you have a pot, That can restore that. Will it hurt Will it hurt your feature? To make amends, you are thought a wholesome

creature.

What should the cause be? oh, you live at court ;
And there's both loss of time, and loss of sport,
In a great belly: Write then on thy womb,
"Of the not born, yet buried, here's the tomb."

LXIII.

TO ROBERT EARL OF SALISBURY.

HO can consider thy right courses run, With what thy virtue on the times hath won, And not thy fortune? who can clearly see The judgment of the king so shine in thee; And that thou seek'st reward of thy each act, Not from the public voice, but private fact?

Who can behold all envy so declined
By constant suffering of thy equal mind;
And can to these be silent, Salisbury,
Without his, thine, and all time's injury?
Curst be his Muse, that could lie dumb, or hid
To so true worth, though thou thy self forbid.

LXIV.

TO THE SAME.

Upon the Accession of the Treasurership to him.

OT glad, like those that have new hopes, or suits,
With thy new place, bring I these early fruits
Of love, and, what the golden age did hold
A treasure, art; contemn'd in the age of gold.
Nor glad as those, that old dependents be,
To see thy father's rites new laid on thee.
Nor glad for fashion; nor to shew a fit
Of flattery to thy titles; nor of wit.
But I am glad to see that time survive,
Where merit is not sepulcher'd alive;

Where good men's virtues them to honours bring,
And not to dangers: when so wise a king
Contends to have worth enjoy, from his regard,
As her own conscience, still, the same reward.

Enough has been said already of the character of this eminent statesman; but it may not be amiss, on the present occasion, to enumerate the periods of his successive honours. He was born June 1, 1563, knighted in 1591; sworn of the privy council in the following August, and in 1596 appointed principal secretary of state. In 1599 he was made master of the court of wards, and in the same year sent to France to negotiate a peace between that country and Spain. On the accession of king James, 1603, he was created baron Cecil, and viscount Cranborn, and in 1605, earl of Salisbury. In 1608, (which is therefore the date of this epigram,) he was created LORD HIGH TREASURER; and in this post he died May 24, 1612.

These, noblest Cecil, labour'd in my thought,
Wherein what wonder see thy name hath wrought!
That whilst I meant but thine to gratulate,
I have sung the greater fortunes of our state.

LXV.

TO MY MUSE.

WAY, and leave me, thou thing most abhorr'd,
That hast betray'd me to a worthless lord;
Made me commit most fierce idolatry

To a great image through thy luxury:

Be thy next master's more unlucky muse,

And, as thou'st mine, his hours and youth abuse, Get him the time's long grudge, the court's ill will; And reconcil'd, keep him suspected still.

Make him lose all his friends; and, which is worse,
Almost all ways to any better course.

With me thou leav'st an happier muse than thee,
And which thou brought'st me, welcome poverty:
She shall instruct my after-thoughts to write
Things manly, and not smelling parasite.
But I repent me: stay-Whoe'er is raised,
For worth he has not, he is tax'd not praised.

LXVI.

TO SIR HENRY CARY.9

HAT neither fame, nor love might wanting be To greatness, Cary, I sing that and thee; Whose house, if it no other honour had, In only thee, might be both great and glad :

9 Sir Henry Cary.] First lord Falkland, and father of the celebrated Lucius lord Falkland, who acted so conspicuous and noble

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »