The Annotated Read Online

Coarse complexions 947

And cheeks of sorry948 grain 949 will serve to ply950

The sampler 951 or to tease 952 the housewife’s wool.

What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that?

Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?

There was another meaning in those gifts!

Think what, and be advised.953 You are but young yet.

LADY. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips

In this unhallowed air, but 954 that this juggler 955

Would think to charm my judgment as956 mine eyes,

Obtruding957 false rules pranked958 in reason’s garb!

I hate when vice can bolt 959 her arguments

And virtue has no tongue to check her 960 pride.

Impostor! Do not charge961 most innocent Nature,

As if she would962 her children should be riotous

With her abundance! She, good cateress,963

Means her provision only to the good

That live according to her sober laws

And holy dictate of spare temperance.

If every just man that now pines with want

Had but a moderate and beseeming964 share

Of that which lewdly-pampered luxury

Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,

Nature’s full blessings would be well dispensed

In unsuperfluous,965 ev’n proportion,966

And she no whit encumbered with her store.

And then the giver would be better thanked,

His praise due paid—for winish gluttony

N’er looks to Heav’n, amidst his gorgeous967 feast,

But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams, and blasphemes his feeder.

Shall I go on?

Or have I said enough? To him that dares

Arm his profuse tongue with contemptuous words

Against the sun-clad power of chastity

Fain would I something say—yet to what end?

Thou hast nor ear nor soul to apprehend

The sublime notion and high mystery 968

That must be uttered, to unfold the sage

And serious doctrine of virginity.

And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know

More happiness than this thy present lot.

Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence!969

Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.

Yet should I try, the uncontrollèd worth

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits

To such a flame of sacred vehemence

That dumb things would be moved to sympathize,

And the brute earth would lend her nerves,970 and shake

Till all thy magic structures reared so high

Were shattered into heaps o’er thy false head!

COMUS. She fables not. I feel that I do fear

Her words, set off by some superior power.

And, though not mortal, yet a cold shudd’ring dew

Dips me all o’er, as when the wrath of Jove

Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus971

To some of Saturn’s crew. I must dissemble

And try972 her yet more strongly.

Come, no more.

This is mere moral babble and direct

Against the canon laws of our foundation.973

I must not suffer this, yet ’tis but the lees974

And settlings of a melancholy blood.

But this will cure all straight!975 One sip of this

Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight

Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.

The brothers rush in, with swords drawn, wrest his glass

out of his hand, and break it against the ground. His rout

makes sign of resistance, but all are driven in. The

attendant spirit comes in.

SPIRIT. What? Have you let the false enchanter scape?

O ye mistook, ye should have snatched his wand

And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,

And backward mutters of dissevering976 power,

We cannot free the lady that sits here,

In stony fetters fixed and motionless.

Yet stay,977 be not disturbed. Now I bethink me:

Some other means I have which may be used,

Which once of Melibaeus978 old I learned—

The soothest979 shepherd that e’er piped980 on plains.

There is a gentle nymph, not far from hence,

That with moist curb981 sways982 the smooth Severn983 stream.

Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure.

Whilom984 she was the daughter of Locrine,985

That had the scepter from his father Brute.986

She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit

Of her enragèd stepdam, Gwendolen,

Commended her fair innocence to the flood987

That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.

The water nymphs that in the bottom988 played

Held up their pearlèd wrists, and took her in,

Bearing her straight to agèd Nereus989 hall,

Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank990 head

And gave her to his daughters to embathe

In nectared lavers,991 strewn with asphodil,

And through the porch992 and inlet of each sense

Dropped in ambrosial oils, till she revived

And underwent a quick immortal change,

Made goddess of the river. Still she retains

Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve

Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,

Helping all urchin993 blasts994 and ill luck signs

That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,

Which she with precious vialed liquors heals.

For which the shepherds at their festivals

Carol995 her goodness, loud in rustic lays,996

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream,

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.

And, as the old swain said, she can unlock

The clasping997 charm and thaw the numbing spell,

If she be right invoked in warbled song,

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift

To aid a virgin such as was herself,

In hard besetting998 need. This will I try

And add the power of some adjuring999 verse.

SONG

Sabrina, fair,

Listen where thou are sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of lillies knitting

The loose train of the amber-dropping hair.

Listen for dear honor’s sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save.

Listen and appear to us

In name of great Oceanus1000 —

By th’ earth-shaking Neptune’s mace,

And Tethys’ grave, majestic pace—

By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,

And the Carpathian wizard’s hook—

By scaly Triton’s winding1001 shell,

And old sooth-saying Glaucus’ spell—

By Leucothea’s1002 lovely hands,

And her son that rules the strands1003 —

By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet,

And the songs of Sirens’ sweet—

By dead Parthenope’s1004 dear tomb,

And fair Ligéa’s golden comb,

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,

Sleeking her soft, alluring locks—

By all the nymphs that nightly dance

Upon thy streams, with wily1005 glance!

Rise, rise, and heave1006 thy rosy head

From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle1007 in thy headlong wave

Till thou our summons answered have.

Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings:

By the rushy-fringèd bank,

Where grows the willow and the osier dank,

My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate and the azure sheen

Of turquoise blue, and emerald green

That in the channel strays,

Whilst from off the waters fleet 1008

Thus I set my printless feet

O’er the cowslips’ velvet head,

That bends not as I tread.

Gentle swain, at thy request

I am here.

SPIRIT. Goddess dear,

We implore thy powerful hand

To undo the charmèd band1009

Of true virgin, here distressed1010

Through the force and through the wile

Of unblessed enchanter vile.

SABRINA. Shepherd, it is my office1011 best

To help ensnarèd chastity.

Brightest lady, look on me!

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast

Drops that from my fountain pure

I have kept, of precious cure.1012

Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,

Thrice upon thy rubied lip!

Next, this marble-venomed seat

Smeared with gums1013 of glutinous 1014 heat

I touch with chaste palms, moist and cold.

Now the spell hath lost his hold—

And I must haste, ere morning hour,

To wait 1015 in Amphitrite’s 1016 bow’r.

Sabrina descends, and the lady rises out of her seat.

SPIRIT. Virgin, daughter of Locrine,

Sprung of old Anchises’1017 line,

May thy brimmèd waves, for this,

Their full tribute never miss

From a thousand petty1018 rills1019

That tumble down the snowy hills.

Summer drought or singèd air

Never scorch thy tresses fair,

Nor wet October’s torrent flood

Thy molten crystal fill1020 with mud.

May thy billows roll ashore

The beryl1021 and the golden ore.

May thy lofty head be crowned

With many a tow’r and terrace round,

And here and there thy banks upon

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.

Come lady, while Heav’n lends us grace

Let us fly this cursèd place,

Lest the sorcerer us entice

With some other new device.

Not a taste or needless sound

Till we come to holier ground.

I shall be your faithful guide

Through this gloomy covert 1022 wide,

And not many furlongs thence

Is your father’s residence,

Where this night are met in state

Many a friend to gratulate

His wishèd presence, and beside

All the swains that there abide,

With jigs and rural dance resort.1023

We shall catch them at their sport,

And our sudden coming there

Will double all their mirth and cheer.

Come, let us haste! The stars grow high—

But night sits monarch yet in the mid-sky.

The scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town and the [Lord] President’s castle. Then come in country dancers. After them, the attendant spirit, with the two brothers and the lady.

SONG

SPIRIT. Back, shepherds, back! Enough, your play,

Till next sunshine holiday.

Here be, without duck 1024 or nod,

Other trippings to be trod

Of lighter toes, and such court guise 1025

As Mercury did first devise 1026

With the mincing 1027 Dryades,1028

On the lawns and on the leas.1029

This second song presents them to their father and mother:

[SONG 2]

Noble lord, and lady bright,

I have brought ye new delight.

Here behold so goodly grown

Three fair branches of your own.

Heav’n hath timely tried their youth,

Their faith, their patience, and their truth,

And sent them here, through hard assays,1030

With a crown of deathless praise,

To triumph in victorious dance

O’er sensual folly and intemperance.

The dances ended, the spirit epiloguizes:

SPIRIT. To the ocean now I fly,

And those happy climes that lie

Where day never shuts his eye,

Up in the broad fields of the sky.

There I suck the liquid air

All amidst the gardens fair

Of Hesperus and his daughters three,

That sing about the golden tree.

Along the crispèd 1031 shades and bow’rs

Revels the spruce 1032 and jocund spring.

The Graces, and the rosy-bosomed Hours,

Thither all their bounties bring,

That 1033 there eternal summer dwells,

And west winds, with musky wing,

About the cedarn alleys 1034 fling

Nard,1035 and cassia’s balmy smells.

Iris 1036 there with humid bow

Waters the odorous banks that blow1037

Flowers of more mingled hue

Than her purflèd 1038 scarf can shew,

And drenches with Elysian dew

(List, mortals, if your ears be true)

Beds of hyacinth and roses,

Where young Adonis 1039 oft reposes,

Waxing 1040 well of his deep wound

In slumber soft, and on the ground

Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.1041

But far above, in spangled sheen,

Celestial Cupid, her fair son advanced,1042

Holds his dear Psyche,1043 sweet 1044 entranced

After her wand’ring labors long,

Till free consent the gods among

Make her his eternal bride

And from her fair, unspotted side

Two blissful twins are to be born,

Youth and Joy. So Jove hath sworn.

But now my task is smoothly 1045 done.

I can fly or I can run

Quickly to the green earth’s end,

Where the bowed welkin 1046 slow doth bend,

And from thence can soar as soon

To the corners 1047 of the moon.

Mortals that would follow me,

Love virtue: she alone is free.

She can teach ye how to climb

Higher than the sphery chime—1048

Or, if virtue feeble 1049 were,

Heav’n itself would stoop to her.

ON TIME1050

1633–37?

Fly, envious time, till thou run out thy race!

Call on the lazy leaden-stepping 1051 hours,

Whose speed is but the heavy plummet’s 1052 pace,

And glut thyself with what thy womb1053 devours—

Which is no more than what is false and vain

And merely mortal dross.1054

So little is our loss,

So little is thy gain.

For when as each thing bad thou hast entombed,

And last of all thy greedy self consumed,

Then long eternity shall greet our bliss

With an individual kiss.1055

And joy shall overtake us as a flood

When everything that is sincerely good

And perfectly divine

With truth, and peace, and love shall ever shine

About the supreme throne

Of Him t’ whose happy-making sight alone,

When once our Heav’nly-guided soul shall climb,

Then all this earthy grossness quit,1056

Attired with stars we shall forever sit,

Triumphing over death, and chance, and thee, O time!

UPON THE CIRCUMCISION

1633–37

Ye flaming powers 1057 and wingèd warriors bright

That erst with music and triumphant song

First heard by happy watchful shepherd’s ear,

So sweetly sung your joy the clouds along,

Through the soft silence of the list’ning night,

Now mourn, and if sad share with us to bear

Your fiery essence can distill no tear,

Burn in your sighs and borrow

Seas wept from our deep sorrow.

He who with all Heav’n’s heraldry 1058 whilere1059

Entered the world, now bleeds to give us ease.

Alas, how soon our sin

Sore1060 doth begin

His infancy to cease!1061

O more exceeding love or law more just?

Just law, indeed—but more exceeding love!

For we, by rightful doom1062 remediless,

Were lost in death till He that dwelt above,

High-throned in secret bliss, for us frail dust

Emptied His glory, ev’n to nakedness,

And that great cov’nant 1063 which we still transgress

Entirely satisfied,

And the full wrath beside

Of vengeful justice bore for our excess,

And seals obedience, first, with wounding smart

This day, but O, ere long

Huge pangs, and strong,

Will pierce more near His heart.

AT A SOLEMN MUSIC

1637

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav’n’s joy,

Sphere-born, harmonious sisters, voice and verse,

Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ,

Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce

And to our high-raised fantasy present

That undisturbèd song of pure content 1064

Aye1065 sung before the sapphire-colored throne

To Him that sits thereon,

With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,

Where the bright Seraphim in burning row

Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow

And the Cherubic host, in thousand choirs,

Touch their golden harps of immortal wires,

With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms

Hymns devout and holy psalms

Singing everlastingly,

That we on earth with undiscording 1066 voice

May rightly answer that melodious noise,

As once we did, till disproportioned sin

Jarred against Nature’s chime and with harsh din

Broke the fair music that all creatures made

To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed

In perfect diapason,1067 whilst they stood

In first1068 obedience and their state of good.

O may we soon again renew that song

And keep in tune with Heav’n, till God ere-long

To His celestial consort 1069 us unite

To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light.

LYCIDAS1070

1637

In this monody1071 the author bewails a learnèd friend,1072 unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester [in W. England] on the Irish seas, 1637. And by occasion1073 foretells the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their height.

Yet once more, O ye laurels,1074 and once more,

Ye myrtles 1075 brown, with ivy 1076 never sear,1077

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude1078

And with forced 1079 fingers rude 1080

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing 1081 year.

Bitter constraint,1082 and sad occasion dear,

Compels me to disturb your season due,

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.

Who would not sing for Lycidas? He well knew

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

He must not float upon his wat’ry bier

Unwept, and welter 1083 to the parching1084 wind,

Without the meed 1085 of some melodious tear.

Begin then, sisters of the sacred well,1086

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring,

Begin, and somewhat 1087 loudly sweep the string.

Hence with denial vain, and coy1088 excuse!

So may1089 some gentle1090 muse

With lucky1091 words favor 1092 my destined 1093 urn1094

And, as he passes, turn

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.1095

For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,

Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill.1096

Together both, ere the high lawns1097 appeared

Under the opening eye-lids of the morn,

We drove1098 afield, and both together heard

What time1099 the gray-fly 1100 winds1101 her sultry1102 horn,

Batt’ning1103 our flocks with the fresh dews of night,

Oft till the star1104 that rose at ev’ning bright

Toward Heav’n’s descent had sloped his westering wheel.1105

Meanwhile, the rural ditties were not mute,

Tempered 1106 to th’ oaten1107 flute.

Rough satyrs1108 danced, and fauns with clov’n heel

From the glad sound would not be absent long.

And old Damoetas1109 loved to hear our song.

But O the heavy change, now thou art gone,

Now thou art gone and never must return!

Thee, shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,

With wild thyme and the gadding 1110 vine o’er-grown,

And all their echoes mourn.

The willows, and the hazel copses green,

Shall now no more be seen

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.1111

As killing as the canker 1112 to the rose,

Or taint-worm1113 to the weanling 1114 herds that graze,

Or frost to flow’rs, that their gay wardrobe wear,

When first the white thorn blows—1115

Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd’s ear.

Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep

Closed o’er the head of your loved Lycidas?

For neither were ye playing on the steep,1116

Where your old bards,1117 the famous Druids lie,

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona1118 high,

Nor yet where Deva 1119 spreads her wizard 1120 stream:

Aye me, I fondly dream!

Had ye been there, for what could that have done?

What could the muse 1121 herself, that 1122 Orpheus bore,1123

The muse herself, for her enchanting 1124 son

Whom universal 1125 nature did lament,

When by the rout 1126 that made the hideous roar

His goary visage 1127 down the stream was sent,

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.

Alas! What boots 1128 it, with incessant care

To tend the homely 1129 slighted shepherd’s trade,

And strictly meditate the thankless muse?

Were it not better done, as others use,

To sport 1130 with Amaryllis 1131 in the shade,

Or with the tangles of Neaera’s 1132 hair?

Fame is the spur that the clear 1133 spirit doth raise 1134

(That last infirmity of noble mind!)

To scorn delights, and live laborious days.

But the fair guerdon,1135 when we hope to find,1136

And think to burst out into sudden blaze,

Comes the blind Fury 1137 with th’ abhorrèd shears

And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise,

Phoebus 1138 replied, and touched my trembling ears.

Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,

Nor in the glistering 1139 foil 1140

Set off to th’ world, nor in broad rumor 1141 lies,

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes

And perfect witness of all-judging Jove,

As he pronounces lastly 1142 on each deed.

Of so much fame in Heav’n expect thy meed.1143

O fountain Arethuse,1144 and thou honored flood,1145

Smooth-sliding Mincius,1146 crowned with vocal reeds,

That strain I heard was of a higher mood.

But now my oat 1147 proceeds

And listens to the herald of the sea 1148

That came in Neptune’s plea.

He asked the waves, and asked the felon 1149 winds,

What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?

And questioned every gust of rugged 1150 wings1151

That blows from off each beakèd 1152 promontory.

They knew not of his story,

And sage Hippotades 1153 their answer brings;

That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed,

The air was calm, and on the level brine

Sleek Panope 1154 with all her sisters played.

It was that fatal and perfidious bark,

Built in1155 th’ eclipse1156 and rigged with curses dark,1157

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

Next Camus,1158 reverend sire, went footing slow,

His mantle hairy, and his bonnet 1159 sedge,1160

Inwrought1161 with figures dim, and on the edge

Like to that sanguine flower 1162 inscribed with woe.

“Ah! Who hath reft 1163 (quoth he) my dearest pledge?”1164

Last came, and last did go,

The pilot of the Galilean lake.1165

Two massy keys he bore, of metals twain,

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).1166

He shook his mitered locks, and stern bespake:

“How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,

Anow1167 of such as for their belly’s sake

Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold?

Of other care they little reck’ning make

Than how to scramble at the shearers’ feast

And shove away the worthy bidden1168 guest.

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold

A sheep-hook, or have learned ought else the least

That to the faithfull herdsman’s art belongs!

What recks it them? What need they? They are 1169 sped,1170

And when they list,1171 their lean and flashy1172 songs

Grate on their scrannel 1173 pipes of wretched straw.

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,

But swoll’n with wind and the rank 1174 mist 1175 they draw,1176

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion1177 spread,

Besides what the grim1178 wolf with privy 1179 paw

Daily devours apace,1180 and nothing said!

But that two-handed engine1181 at the door

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.”

Return, Alpheus,1182 the dread1183 voice is past

That shrunk thy streams. Return, Sicilian muse,1184

And call the vales1185 and bid them hither cast

Their bells1186 and flowrets1187 of a thousand hues.

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use1188

Of shades and wanton1189 winds, and gushing brooks,

On whose fresh1190 lap1191 the swart star 1192 sparely 1193 looks,

Throw hither all your quaint1194 enamelled eyes1195

That on the green turf suck the honeyed show’rs

And purple all the ground with vernal 1196 flow’rs.

Bring the rath1197 primrose that forsaken dies,

The tufted crow-toe, and pale gessamine,

The white pink, and the pansy freaked1198 with jet,

The glowing violet,

The muskrose, and the well attired woodbine,

With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head

And every flower that sad 1199 embroidery wears:

Bid amaranthus all his beauties shed,

And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,

To strew the laureate 1200 hearse1201 where Lycid’ lies.

For so to interpose1202 a little ease

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.

Aye me! Whilst thee the shores and sounding seas

Wash far away, where’er thy bones are hurled,

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides1203

Where thou perhaps under the whelming1204 tide

Visit’st the bottom of the monstrous1205 world,

Or whether thou to our moist 1206 vows denied 1207

Sleep’st, by the fable of Bellerus1208 old,

Where the great vision of the guarded mount1209

Looks toward Namancos1210 and Bayona’s 1211 hold—

Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth,1212

And O, ye dolphins, waft 1213 the hapless youth.

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,

For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the wat’ry floor!

So sinks the day-star 1214 in the ocean bed

And yet anon1215 repairs 1216 his drooping head

And tricks1217 his beams, and with new spangled ore 1218

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves!

Where other groves and other streams along

With nectar pure his oozy 1219 locks he laves1220

And hears the unexpressive 1221 nuptial song

In the blest kingdoms meek, of joy and love.

There entertain him all the saints above,

In solemn 1222 troops,1223 and sweet societies 1224

That sing, and singing in their glory move,1225

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more!

Henceforth thou art the genius 1226 of the shore

In thy large 1227 recompense,1228 and shalt be good

To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus sang the uncouth 1229 swain to th’ oaks and rills,1230

While the still morn went out with sandals gray.

He touched the tender stops of various quills,1231

With eager thought warbling his Doric 1232 lay.

And now the sun had stretched out 1233 all the hills,

And now was dropped into the western bay.

At last he rose and twitched 1234 his mantle blue:

Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK ONE

1646–48?

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa, rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure,1235 as near as the [English] language will permit.

What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors,

Courts 1236 thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha? For whom bind’st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain 1237 in thy neatness? 1238 O how oft shall he

On faith and changèd gods complain, and seas

Rough with black winds and storms

Unwonted 1239 shall admire,1240

Who now enjoys thee credulous 1241 all gold?

Who always vacant,1242 always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful? Hapless 1243 they

To whom thou, untried,1244 seem’st fair. Me in my vowed 1245

Picture 1246 the sacred wall declares t’ have hung 1247

My dank and drooping weeds 1248

To the stern god of sea.

ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE, UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT

1647?

Because you have thrown off your prelate 1249 lord

And with stiff 1250 vows renounced his liturgy,1251

To seize the widowed whore, plurality 1252

From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,

Dare ye for this adjure1253 the civil sword

To force our consciences that Christ set free,

And ride us with a classic1254 hierarchy

Taught ye by mere A.S.1255 and Rutherford?1256

Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent

Would have been held in high esteem with Paul

Must now be named and printed heretics

By shallow Edwards1257 and Scotch what d’ye call.1258

But we do hope to find out all your tricks,

Your plots and packings, worse than those of Trent,1259

That so the Parliament

May with their wholesome and preventive shears

Clip your phylactries1260 (though bauk1261 your ears),

And succor our just fears

When they shall read this clearly in your charge:

New presbyter is but old priest writ large.

PSALMS 1–81262

August 1653

1

Blessed is the man who hath not walked astray

In counsel of the wicked, and i’ th’ way

Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat

Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great

Jehovah’s Law is ever his delight,

And in His Law he studies day and night.

He shall be as a tree which, planted, grows

By wat’ry streams, and in his season knows

To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,

And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.

Not so the wicked, but as chaff 1263 which fanned 1264

The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand 1265

In judgment, or abide 1266 their trial then,

Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.

For the Lord knows th’ upright way of the just,

And the way of bad men to ruin1267 must.

2

Why do the gentiles1268 tumult,1269 and the nations

Muse1270 a vain thing? The kings of the earth upstand 1271

With power, and princes in their congregations 1272

Lay deep their plots together, through each land,

Against the Lord and His Messiah dear.

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand,

Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear,

Their twisted cords. He who in Heav’n doth dwell

Shall laugh. The Lord shall scoff 1273 them, then, severe,1274

Speak to them in His wrath, and in His fell 1275

And fierce 1276 ire 1277 trouble 1278 them. But I saith He

Anointed hath my King (though ye rebel)

On Sion, my holy hill.