No More Learning

No dial more could with the sun agree ;
The speaker, summoned to the Lords, repairs.
Nor gave the Commons leave to say their

prayei-s,
But like his prisoners to the bar them led,
Where mute they stand to hear their sentence

read :
Trembling with joy and fear, Hyde them pro-
rogues,
And had almost mistook, and called them rogues.

Dear Painter, draw this Speaker to the foot :
Where pencil cannot, there my pen shall do*t ;
That may his body, this his mind explain ;
Paint him in golden gown with mace's train ;
Bright hair, fair face, obscure and dull of head,
Like knife with ivory hatl, and edge of U. u\ :
At prayers his eyes turn up the pious white,
But all the while his private bill *s in sight :
In chair he smoking sits like master c(K)k,
And a poll-bill does like his apron look.
Well was he skilled to season any question.
And make a sauce fit for Whitehall's dig<'-h«>n,
Whence every day, the prelate more to tuUh. *,
Court-mushrooms ready are sent in to pi<kle.



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OF MAKYELL. 241

When grievances urged, he swells like squatted

toad,
Frisks like a frog to croak a tax's load:
His patient piss he could hold longer than:
An urinal, and sit like any hen ;
At table jolly as a country host,
And soaks his sack with Norfolk like a toast ;
At night than Chanticleer more brisk and hot,.
And sergeant's wife serves him for Partelot.

Paint last the King, and a dead shade of night,.
Only dispersed by a weak taper's light.
And those bright gleams which dart along and

glare
From his clear eyes, (yet these too dart with care ;).
There, as in the calm horror all alone,
He wakes and muses of the uneasy throne,
Raise up a sudden shape with virgin's face,
Though ill agree her posture, hour or place ;.
Naked as born, and her round arms behind.
With her own tresses interwove and twined :
Her mouth locked up, a blind before her eyes,.
Yet from beneath her veil her blushes rise,
And silent tears her secret anguish speak.
Her heart throbs, and with very shame would

break.
The object strange in him no terror moved.
He wondered first, then pitied, then he loved :
And with kind hand does the coy vision press.
Whose beauty greater seemed by her distress i.
16



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:242 THE POEMS

Bat soon shrunk back, chilled with a touch so

cold,
And the airj picture vanished from his hold.
In his deep thoughts the wonder did increase.
And he divined 'twas England, or the peace.
Express him startling next, with listening ear,
As one that some unusual noise doth hear ;
With cannons, trumpets, drums, his door sur-
round.
But let some other Painter draw the sound.
Thrice he did rise, thrice the vain tumult fled,
But again thunders when he lies in bed.
Hid mind secure does the vain stroke repeat,
And finds the drums Lewis's march did beat
Shake then the room, and all his curtains tear,
And with blue streaks infect the taper clear.
While the pale ghost his eyes doth fixed admire
Of grandsire Harry, and of Charles his sire.
Hariy sits down, and in his open side
The grisly wound reveals of which he died ;
And ghostly Charles, turning his collar low,
The purple thread about his neck doth show ;
Then whispering to his son in words unheard,
Through the locked door both of them disappeared.
The wondrous night the pensive King revolves.