Her sparkling eyes
immortal
youth foretell.
Marvell - Poems
This mighty power heaven's equal balance swayed,
And in one scale, crowns, crosiers, sceptres, laid ;
* Sir Williftm Scroggs was a judge, of whom Bishop Bur-
net gives this account. ** In ail the trials he set himself,
even with indecent earnestness, to get the prisoners to be
always cast"
t One of the same principles with Scroggs. He was pre-
ferred when Jeffreys was made Lord Chief Justice.
J The fire of London.
^ In the time of the plague, in the year 1665, the court
resided at Oxford, where the parliament wns then held ; at
which time were several private cabals, formed against the
Protestants.
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192 THE POEMS
In ibe other a sweet smiling babe did lie.
Circled with glories, decked with majesty.
With steady hand he poised the golden pair ;
The gilded gewgaws mounted in the air.
The ponderous babe, descending in its scale,
Leaped on my shore
! Nature triumphed, joy echoed through the eai*th,
The heavens bow down to see the blessed birth.
What's that I hear? A new bom babe's soft
cries.
And joyful mother's tender lullabies.
'Tis so ; behold, my daughter's passed all harms,
Cradling an infant in her fruitful arms ;
The very same the angelic vision showed,
In mien, in majesty, how like a god !
What a firm health does on her visage dwell !
Her sparkling eyes immortal youth foretell.
Eome, Sparta, Venice, could not all bring forth
So strong, so temperate, such lasting worth.
Marpesia, from the north with speed advance,
Thy sister's birth brings thy deliverance.
Fergusian founders this just babe exceeds,
In tlie arts of peace, and mighty martial d(3eda.
Kneel, Panopeians, to your equal queen,
Safe from the foreign sword, and barbarous
skene.
Transports of joy divert my yearning heart,
For my dear child, my soul, my better part.
Heaven shower her choicest blessings on thy womb,
Our present help, our stay in time to come !
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OF MiRTELL. 193
Thou best of daughters, mothers, matrons, say
What forced thy birth, and got this glorious day ?
OCEANA.
'Scaped the slow jaws o' the grinding pensioners,
I fell i' the trap of Rome's dire murderers ;
Twice rescued by my loyal senate's power, "
Twice I expected my babe's happy hour.
Malignant force twice checked their pious aid,
And to my foes as oft my state betrayed.
Great, full of pain, in a dark winter's night.
Threatened, pursued, I 'scaped by sudden flight.
Pale fear gave speed to my weak trembling feet.
And far I fled ere day our world could greet.
