Her Walsingham could dark
counsels
unriddle.
Marvell - Poems
One of the two tyrants must still be our case.
Under all who shall reign of the false Stuart's
race.
DeWitt and Cromwell had each a brave soul,
I freely declare it, I am for old Noll ;
Though his goverament did a tyrant resemble,
He made England great, and his enemies
tremble.
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OP MARVELL. 267
CHARING.
Thy rider puts no man to death in his wrath,
But is buried alive in lust and in sloth.
WOOL-CHURCH.
What is thy opinion of James, Duke of York ?
CHARING.
The same that the frogs had of Jupiter's stork.
With the Turk in his head, and the Pope in his
heart.
Father Patrick's disciples will make £lngland
smart
If e'er he be king, I know Bntain's doom,
We must all to a stake, or be converts to Rome.
Ah, Tudor ! ah, Tudor ! of Stuarts enough ;
None ever reigned like old Bess in the ruff.
Her Walsingham could dark counsels unriddle.
And our Sir Joseph write news, books, and fiddle.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Truth, brother, well said ; but that 's somewhat
bitter ;
His perfumed predecessor was never more
fitter :
Yet we have one secretary honest and wise ;
For that very reason, he 's never to rise.
But can'st thou devise when things will be
mended ?
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268 THE POEMS
CHARING.
When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended.
CONCLUSIOX.
If speeches from animals in Rome's first age,
Prodigious events did surely presage,
That should come to pass, all mankind may
swear
That which two inanimate horses declare.
But I should have told you before the jades
parted,
Both galloped to Whitehall, and there humbly
farted;
Which tyranny's downfall portended much more.
Than all that the beasts had spoken before.
If the Delphic Sibyl's oracular speeches
(As learned men say) came out of their breeches.
Why might not our hoi*ses, since words are but
wind.
Have the spirit of prophecy likewise behind ?
Though tymnts make laws, which they strictly
proclaim.
To conceal their own faults and to cover their
shame, [the wall,
Yet the beasts in the field, and the stones in
Will publish their faults and prophesy their fall ;
When they take from the people the freedom of
words.
