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X.

On SHAKESPEAR. 1630.

HAT needs my Shakespear for his honor'd The labor of an age in piled ftones, [bones Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Under a ftar-ypointing pyramid ?

Dear fon of memory, great heir of fame,

ΤΟ

What need'st thou fuch weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Haft built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilft to th' fhame of flow-endevoring art
Thy eafy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Thofe Delphic lines with deep impreffion took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
Doft make us marble with too much conceiving;
And fo fepulcher'd in fuch pomp doft lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

XI.

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On the University Carrier, who ficken'd in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reafon of the plague.

H

ERE lies old Hobfon; Death hath broke his And here alas, hath laid him in the dirt, [girt, Or elfe the ways being foul, twenty to one, He's here stuck in a flough, and overthrown. 'Twas such a shifter, that if truth were known, 5 Death was half glad when he had got him down; For he had any time this ten years full,

Dodg`d with him, betwixt Cambridge and the Bull.

And

And furely Death could never have prevail'd,
Had not his weekly course of carriage fail'd;
But lately finding him fo long at home,
And thinking now his journey's end was come,
And that he had ta'en up his latest inn,
In the kind office of a chamberlin

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Show'd him his room where he must lodge that night,
Pull'd off his boots, and took away the light:
If any ask for him, it shall be said,
Hobfon has fupt, and's newly gone to bed.

H

XII.

Another on the fame.

ERE lieth one, who did most truly prove
That he could never die while he could move;

So hung his deftiny, never to rot

While he might still jogg on and keep his trot,
Made of fphere-metal, never to decay
Until his revolution was at ftay.

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Time numbers motion, yet (without a crime
'Gainft old truth) motion number'd out his time:
And like an engin mov'd with wheel and weight,
His principles being ceas'd, he ended strait.
Reft that gives all men life, gave him his death,
And too much breathing put him out of breath;
Nor were it contradiction to affirm
Too long vacation haften'd on his term.
Merely to drive the time away he ficken'd,
Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quicken'd;
Nay, quoth he, on his fwooning bed out-ftretch'd,
If I mayn't carry, fure I'll ne'er be fetch'd,
But vow, though the cross doctors all stood hearers,
For one carrier put down to make fix bearers. 20
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Eafe

Eafe was his chief difeafe, and to judge right,
He dy'd for heavinefs that his cart went light:
His leifure told him that his time was come,
And lack of load made his life burdenfome,
That even to his last breath (there be that fay't) 25
As he were prefs'd to death, he cry'd more weight;
But had his doings lafted as they were,

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He had been an immortal carrier.
Obedient to the moon he spent his date
In courfe reciprocal, and had his fate
Link'd to the mutual flowing of the feas,

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Yet (ftrange to think) his wain was his increase: His letters are deliver'd all and gone,

Only remains this fuperfcription.

H

XIII.

L'ALLEGRO.

ENCE loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn

[holy, 'Mongft horrid fhapes, and shrieks, and fights unFind out fome uncouth cell,

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Where brooding darknefs fpreads his jealous wings, And the night raven fings;

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks, As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian defert ever dwell.
But come thou Goddess fair and free,
In Heav'n ycleap'd Euphrofyne,
And by men, heart-eafing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth
With two fifter Graces more.
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore;

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Or

Or whether (as fome fager fing)

The frolic wind that breathes the fpring,
Zephyr with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a Maying,
There on beds of violets blue,
And fresh-blown rofes wash'd in dew,
Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

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Hafte thee Nymph, and bring with thee
Jeft and youthful Jollity,

Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,

Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple fleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his fides.
Come, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe,

And in thy right hand lead with thee,
The mountain nymph, fweet Liberty;
And if I give thee honor due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free;
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And finging startle the dull night,
From his watch-tow'r in the fkies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come in fpite of forrow,
And at my window bid good morrow,
the vine,
Through the fweet briar, or
Or the twisted eglantine:

While the cock with lively din
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn-door,
Stoutly struts his dames before :
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Oft

Oft lift'ning how the hounds and horn
Chearly roufe the flumb'ring morn,
From the fide of fome hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing fhrill:
Some time walking not unseen
By hedge-row elms, on hillocs green,
Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great fun begins his ftate,
Rob'd in flames, and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight,
While the plow-man near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkmaid fingeth blithe,
And the mower whets his fithe,
And every fhepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Strait mine eye hath caught new pleasures
Whilft the landskip round it measures,
Ruffet lawns, and fallows
gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do ftray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The lab'ring clouds do often reft,
Meadows trim with daifies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.
Towers and battlements it fees
Bofom'd high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps fome beauty lies,
The Cynofure of neighb'ring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney fmokes,
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrfis met,
Are at their favory dinner fet
Of herbs, and other country meffes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dreffes
And then in hafte her bow'r the leaves,
With Theftylis to bind the fheaves;

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