Then, Phyllis, since our paffions are
Govern'd by chance; and not the care,
But sport of Heaven, which takes delight
To look upon this Parthian fight
Of Love, fill flying, or in chaie,
Never encountering face to face;
No more to Love we'll facrifice,
But to the best of Deities:
And let our hearts, which Love disjoin'd,
By his kind mother be combin`d.
To my Lord of NORTHUMBERLAND, upon the Death of his Lady.
O this great lofs a fea of tears is due:
But the whole debt not to be paid by you.
Charge not your felf with all, nor render vain
Those showers, the eyes of us your fervants rain.
Shall grief contract the largenefs of that heart,
In which nor fear, nor anger, has a part?
Virtue would blush, if time should boaft (which dries,
Her fole child dead, the tender mother's eyes)
Your mind's relief; where reafon triumphs fo
Over all paffions, that they ne'er could grow
Beyond their limits in your noble breast,
To harm another, or impeach your rest.
This we obferv'd, delighting to obey
One, who did never from his great felf ftray:
Whofe mild example feemed to engage
Th' obfequious feas, and teach them not to rage.
The brave Æmilius, his great charge laid down, (The force of Rome, and fate of Macedon) In his loft fons did feel the cruel stroke
Of changing Fortune; and thus highly spoke
Before Rome's people; "We did oft implor,
"That if the heavens had any bad in ore
"For your Æmilius, they would pour that ill
"On his own houfe, and let you flourish still."
You on the barren feas, my Lord, have spent
Whole fprings; and fummers to the public lent:
Sufpended all the pleafures of your life,
And fhorten'd the fhort joy of fuch a wife:
For which your country's more obliged, than
For many lives of old, lefs happy, men.
You, that have facrific'd so great a part
Of youth, and private blifs, ought to impart
Your forrow too; and give your friends a right
As well in your affliction, as delight.
Then with Æmilian-courage bear this cross,
Since public perfons only public lofs
Ought to affect. And though her form, and youth,
Her application to your will, and truth;
That noble sweetness, and that humble state,
(All fnatch'd away by such a hafty fate!)
Might give excufe to any common breast,
With the huge weight of fo juft grief oppreft:
Yet let no portion of your life be stain’d
With paffion, but your character maintain'd
To the last act: it is enough her ftone
May honour'd be with fuperfcription
Of the fole Lady, who had power to move
The great Northumberland to grieve, and love.
To my LORD ADMIRAL, of his late Sickness and Recovery.
joy like ours, the Thracian youth invades Orpheus, returning from th' Elysian shades;
Embrace the Hero, and his ftay implore;
Make it their public fuit, he would no more
Defert them fo; and for his spouse's fake,
His vanish'd love, tempt the Lethean lake:
The Ladies too, the brightest of that time,
(Ambitious all his lofty bed to climb)
Their doubtful hopes with expectation feed,
Who fhall the fair Eurydice fucceed:
Eurydice for whom his numerous moan
Makes liftening trees and favage mountains groan :
Through all the air his founding strings dilate
Sorrow, like that which touch'd our hearts of late.
Your pining ficknefs, and your reftle's pain,
At once the land affecting, and the Main :
When the glad news that you were Admiral
Scarce through the nation spread, 'twas fear'd by all
That our great Charles, whose wisdom shines in you,
Would be perplexed how to chufe a new.
So more than private was the joy, and grief,
That at the worft it gave our fouls relief,
That in our age fuch fenfe of virtue liv'd;
They joy'd fo juftly, and fo juftly griev'd.
Nature (her faireft lights eclipsed) seems
Herfelf to fuffer in thofe fharp extremes :
While not from thine alone thy blood retires,
But from those cheeks which all the world admires.
The stem thus threaten'd, and the fap in thee,
Droop all the branches of that noble tree!
Their beauty they, and we our love suspend,
Nought can our wishes, fave thy health, intend.
As lilies over-charg'd with rain, they bend
Their beauteous heads, and with high Heaven contend
Fold thee within their fnowy arms, and cry
He is too faultlefs, and too young, to die.
So like Immortals round about thee they
Sit, that they fright approaching Death away.
Who would not languish, by fo fair a train
To be lamented, and reftor'd again?
Or thus with-held, what hafty foul would go,
Though to the Bleft? O'er her Adonis fo
Fair Venus mourn'd, and with the precious shower
Of her warm tears cherish'd the fpringing flower.
The next fupport, fair hope of your great name,
And fecond pillar of that noble frame,
By lofs of thee would no advantage have,
But step by step pursue thee to the grave.
And now, relentless Fate about to end
The line, which backwards does fo far extend
That antique ftock, which still the world fupplies
With bravest spirits, and with brightest eyes;
Kind Phoebus interpofing, bid me fay
Such ftorms no more shall shake that house; but they
Like Neptune, and his fea-born Niece, fhall be
The fhining glories of the land and sea :
With courage guard, and beauty warm, our age;
And lovers fill with like poetic rage.
The world to which you fly fo fast,
Conveying day
From us to them, can pay your hafte
With no fuch object, nor falute your rife
With no fuch wonder, as De Mornay's eyes.
Well does this prove
The error of thofe antique books,
Which made you move
About the world: her charming looks
Would fix your beams, and make it ever day,
Did not the rolling earth fnatch her away.
On my Lady DOROTHY SIDNEY'S Picture.
UCH was Philoclea, and fuch + Dorus' flame;
I
The matchlefs Sidney, that immortal frame
Of perfect beauty, on two pillars plac'd :
Not his high fancy could one pattern, grac'd
With fuch extremes of excellence, compofe;
Wonders fo diftant in one face difclofe !
|