And
henceforth
Charles only to Charles shall sit ;
His master-hand the ancients shall outdo.
His master-hand the ancients shall outdo.
Marvell - Poems
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.
And rising straight, on Hyde^s disgrace resolves.
At his first step he Castiemain does find,
Bennet and Coventry as 'twas designed ;
And they not knowing, the same thing propose
Wliich his hid mind did in its depths inclose.
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OF MARVELL. 243
Through their feigned speech their secret hearts
he knew,
To her own husband Castlemain untrue ;
False to his master Bristol, Arlington ;
And Coventry falser than any one,
Who to his brother, brother would betray ;
Nor therefore trusts himself to such as they.
His father's ghost too whispered him one note.
That who does cut his purse will cut his throat ;
But he in wise anger does their crimes forbear,
As thieves reprieved from executioner,
While Hyde, provoked> his foaming tusk does
whet,
To prove them traitors, and himself the Pett.
Painter adjourn. How well our arts agree !
Poetic picture, painted poetry !
But this great work is for our monarch fit.
And henceforth Charles only to Charles shall sit ;
His master-hand the ancients shall outdo.
Himself the Painter, and the Poet too.
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244 THB P0KM8
TO THE KING.
So hi8 bold tabe man to the 8un applied,
And spots unknown in the bright star descried,
Showed thej obscure liim, while too near thej
please.
And seem his courtiers, are but his disease ;
Through optic trunk the planet seemed to hear.
And hurls them off e'er since in his career.
And you, great Sir, that with him empire
share,
Sun of our world, as he the Charles is there,
Blame not the Muse that brought those spots to
sight.
Which, in your splendour hid, corrode your
light;
(Kings in the country oft have gone astray,
Nor of a peasant scorned to learn the way. )
Would she the unattended throne reduce,
Banishing love, trust, ornament, and use ;
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OF HARVELL. 245
Better it were to live in cloister's lock,
Or in fair fields to rule the easy flock :
She blames them only who the court restrain,
And where all England serves, themselves would
reign.
Bold and accursed are they who all this while
Have strove to isle this monarch from this isle,
And to improve themselves by false pretence.
About the common prince have raised a fence ;
The kingdom from the crown distinct would see,
And peel the bark to bum at last the tree.
As Ceres corn, and Flora is the spring,
As Bacchus wine, the Country is the King.
Not so does rust insinuating wear,
Nor powder so the vaulted bastion tear.
Nor earthquakes so an hollow isle o'erwhelm,
As scratching courtiers undermine a realm.
And through the palace's foundations bore.