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II.

Anno Ætatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the col lege, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ́ended, the English thus began

HAIL native Language, that by finews weak

Didft move my first endevoring tongue to speak, And mad'ft imperfect words with childish trips, Half unpronounc'd, flide through my infant-lips, Driving dumb filence from the portal door, Where he had mutely fat two years before : Here I falute thee, and thy pardon ask, That now I use thee in my latter task : Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee, I know my tongue but little grace can do thee : Thou need'ft not be ambitious to be first, Believe me I have thither packt the worst : And, if it happen as I did forecast,

up

The daintieft difhes fhall be ferv'd
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid

laft.

For this fame small neglect that I have made:
But hafte thee ftrait to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefeft treafure,
Not thofe new fangled toys, and trimming flight,
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,

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*Thefe verfes were made in 1627, that being the 19th year of the author's age; and they were not in the edition of 1645, but were first added in the edition of 1673.

But

But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire
Which deepest spirits and choiceft wits defire ::
I have some naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And weary of their place do only stay

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Till thou haft deck'd them in thy beft array ;.
That fo they may without fufpect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly's cars ;,
Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,
Thy fervice in fome graver subject use,

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Such as may make thee fearch thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found:
Such where the deep transported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'n's door
Look in, and fee each blissful Deity

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How he before the thunderous throne.doth lie,
Listening to what unfhorn Apollo fings

To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly fire :

Then paffing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40
And misty regions of wide air next under
And hills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves,
In Heav'n's defiance mustering all his waves;
Then fing of fecret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was ;
And laft of kings and queens and heroes old,.
Such as the wife Demodocus once told
In folemn fongs at king Alcinoüs' feaft,
While fad Ulyffes' foul and all the reft

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Are

Are held with his melodious harmony

In willing chains and sweet captivity.

But fie, my wandering Mufe, how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,

Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compafs of thy predicament :
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.

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Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments his ten fons, whereof the eldest stood for Substance with his canons, which Ens, thus speaking, explains.

GOOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy droufy nurse hath fworn she did them spie
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And sweetly finging round about thy bed

Strow all their blessings on thy fleeping head.

my fear,

She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst fill
From eyes
of mortals walk invifible:
Yet there is fomething that doth force
For once it was my difmal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could presage,
And in time's long and dark prospective glass
Forefaw what future days fhould bring to pass;
Your son, said fhe, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall fubject be to many an Accident.

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O'er

O'er all his brethren he fhall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And thofe that cannot live from him afun ler
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet, being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,
And peace fhall lull him in her flowery lap;
Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his door
Devouring war fhall never cease to roar :
Yea it fhall be his natural property

To harbour thofe that are at enmity.

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What power, what force, what mighty spell, if not Your learned hands, can loofe this Gordian knot? ga

The next Quantity and Quality spake in profe, then Relation was call'd by his name.

RIVERS arife; whether thou be the fon

Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun,
Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant fpreads
His thirty arms along th' indented meads,
Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death,
Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,
Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name,
Or Medway fmooth, or royal towred Thame.

[The reft was profe.]

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III. On

T

III.

On the MORNING of CHRIST'S NATIVITY.
Compos'd 1629.

I.

HIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,

Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did fing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unfufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

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Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table 10 To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,

Forfook the courts of everlasting day,

And chofe with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

III.

Say heav'nly Mufe, fhall not thy facred vein
Afford a prefent to the Infant God?

Haft thou no verfe, no hymn, or folemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,

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Now while the Heav'n by the fun's team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And all the fpangled host keep watch in fquadrons
bright?

IV. See

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