No More Learning

The spruce bribed monsieurs from the true gray

coats.
New parliaments, like manna, all tastes please,
But kept too long, our food turns our disease.
From that loathed sight, Hodge turned his weep-
ing eyes.
And London thus alarms with loyal cries :
** Though common danger does approach so nigh.
This stupid town sleeps in security.
Out of your golden dreams awake, awake,
Your all, though you see not, your all 's at

stake !

More dreadful fires approach your falling town ^

Than those which burned your stately struc- I

tures down, j

Such fatal fires as once in Smithfield shone. ''



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276 THE POEMS

If then je fftaj till Edwards orders give,*
No mortal arm your safety can retrieve.
See how with golden baits the crafly Gaul
Has bribed our geese to yield the capitoL
And will ye tamely see yourselves betrayed ?
Will none stand up in our dear country's aid ?

<' Self-preservation, nature's first great law,
All the creation, except man, does awe :
'Twas in him fixed, till lying priests defaced
His heaven-bom mind, and nature's tablets

rased.
Tell me, ye forging crew, what law revealed
By God, to kings iha jus dluinum sealed?
If to do good, yeju9 divtmcm call.
It is the grand pi^erogative of all :
If to do ill, unpunished^ be their right,
Such power's not granted that great king of

night.
Man's life moves on the poles of hope and fear,
Keward and pain all ordei*s do revere.
But if your dear lord sovereign you would spare,
Admonish him in his blood-thii*sty heir.
So when the royal lion does offend,
The beaten cur*s example makes him mend. *'
This said, poor Hodge, then in a broken tone.
Cried out, "Oh Charles! thy life, thy life, thy
crown !

♦ Edwards, then lorJ-mayor.



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OF MARVELL. 277

Ambitious James, and bloody priests conspire,
Plots, papists, murders, massacres, and fire ;
Poor Protestants ! " with that his eyes did roll,
His body fell, out fled his frighted soul.



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278 THE POEMS



CLARENDON'S HOUSE-WABMING.

When Clarendon had discerned beforehand
(As the cause can easily foretell the effect)

At once three deluges threatening our land,*
'Twas the season, he thought, to turn architect

Us Mars, and Apollo, and Vulcan consume ;
While he the betrayer of England and
Flanders,
Like the kingfisher chooseth to build in the
broom,
And nestles in flames like the salamander.

But observing that mortals run oflen behind,
(So unreasonable are the rates they buy at)

His omnipotence therefore much rather designed.
How he might create a house with a fiat

He had read of Rhodope, a lady of Thrace,
Who was digged up so often ere she did marry ;

* The Dutch war, the plague, and the fire of London.



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OP MARYELL. 279

And wished that his daughter had had as much
grace,
To erect him a pyramid out of her quarry.

But then recollecting how the harper Aniphion
Made Thebes dance aloft while he fiddled and
sung.