*The Rachel, for which twice feven years and more "Thou didst with faith and labour ferve, And didst (if faith and labour can) deserve, "Though the contracted was to thee, "Given to another, who had store Of fairer and of richer wives before, "And not a Leah left, thy recompence to be! "Go on; twice feven years more thy fortune try; ‹‹‹ Twice seven years more God in his bounty may "Give thee, to fling away "Into the court's deceitful lottery: "But think how likely 'tis that thou, "With the dull work of thy unwieldy plough, "Should't in a hard and barren feason thrive, "Should even able be to live; Thou, to whose share so little bread did fall, "In the miraculous year when manna rain'd on all." Thus fpake the Mufe, and fpake it with a smile, That seem'd at once to pity and revile. And to her thus, raising his thoughtful head, The melancholy Cowley faid "Ah, wanton foe! dost thou upbraid "The ills which thou thyself haft made ? "When in the cradle innocent I lay, "Thou, wicked spirit! stolest me away, "And my abused foul didft bear "Into thy new-found worlds, I know not where, "Thy golden Indies in the air; 66 "And "And ever fince I ftrive in vain "My ravish'd freedom to regain; "The foolish sports I did on thee bestow, grow. "When my new mind had no infusion known, "Thou gav'ft fo deep a tincture of thine own, "That ever fince I vainly try "To wash away th' inherent dye : "To all the ports of honour and of gain, } "Thy gale comes cross, and drives me back again. "The tinkling ftrings of thy loose minstrelfy. "This was my error, this my grofs mistake, "Myself a demy-votary to make. "Thus, with Sapphira and her husband's fate "(A fault which I, like them, am taught too late) "For all that I gave up I nothing gain, "And perish for the part which I retain. "Teach me not then, O thou fallacious Muse! "The court, and better king, t' accufe: "The heaven under which I live is fair, "The fertile foil will a full harvest bear : "Thine, thine is all the barrenness; if thou "Mak'ft me fit ftill and fing, when I should plough.. "When I but think how many a tedious year "Our patient fovereign did attend "His long misfortunes' fatal end; "How chearfully, and how exempt from fear, "On the Great Sovereign's will he did depend; "I ought to be accurft, if I refuse "To wait on his, O thou fallacious Mufe! "Kings have long hands, they fay; and, though I be "So diftant, they may reach at length to me. “However, of all princes, thou "Should'ft not reproach rewards for being small or flow Thou! who rewardest but with popular breath, "And that too after death." ON ON COLONEL TUKE'S TRAGI-COMEDY, THE ADVENTURES OF FIVE HOURS. A$ S when our kings (lords of the fpacious main) Take in just wars a rich plate-fleet of Spain, The rude unshapen ingots they reduce Into a form of beauty and of use; On which the conqueror's image now does shine, But, though we praise this voyage of your mind, ON MRS. ON THE DEATH OF KATHARINE PHILIP S.. CR RUEL Difeafe! ah, could not it fuffice. (Thy malice or thy luft) does on the fairest fall? Was 't not enough, like a wild zealot, there, Deface the innocent pride of beauteous images? On th' inward holieft holy of her wit? On her embalmed name it will abide An everlasting pyramid, As high as heaven the top, as earth the bafis wide. } |