Reliques of Ancient English Poetry consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our earlier Poets, (Chiefly of the Lyric kind.) Together with some few of later Date |
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| XIII. | XIII. VERSES BY K. CHARLES I. |
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 | Reliques of Ancient English Poetry |  |
XIII. VERSES BY K. CHARLES I.
“This prince, like his father, did not confine himself to prose: Bishop Burnet has given as a pathetic elegy said to be written by Charles in Carisbrook castle [in 1648.] The poetry is most uncouth and unharmonious, but there are strong thoughts in it, some good sense, and a strain of majestic piety.”
It is in his “Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton,” p. 379. that Burnet hath preserved this elegy, which he tells us he had from a gentleman, who waited on the king at the time when it was written, and copied it out from the original. It is there intitled “MAJESTY IN MISERY: OR AN IMPLORATION TO THE KING OF KINGS.”
Hume hath remarked of these stanzas, “that the truth of the sentiment, rather than the elegance of the expression, renders them very pathetic.” See his hist. 1763. 4to. vol. 5. p. 437. 442. which is no bad comment upon them. —These are almost the only verses known of Charles's composure. Indeed a little Poem On a quiet Conscience, printed in the Poetical Calendar, 1763. vol. 8th. is attributed to K. Charles I; but I know not upon what authority.
The potency and power of kings,
Record the royal woe my suffering sings;
Its faculties in truth's seraphick line,
To track the treasons of thy foes and mine.
(The only root of righteous royaltie)
With this dim diadem invested me:
The holy unction, and the royal globe:
Yet am I levell'd with the life of Job.
Upon my grief, my gray discrowned head,
Are those that owe my bounty for their bread.
While sacrilegious hands have best applause,
Plunder and murder are the kingdom's laws;
Revenge and robbery are reformation,
Oppression gains the name of sequestration.
Attend me (by the law of God and reason),
They dare impeach, and punish for high treason.
Pious episcopacy must go down,
They will destroy the crosier and the crown.
Mechanicks preach, and holy fathers bleed,
The crown is crucified with the creed.
The pulpit is usurpt by each impostor,
Extempore excludes the Pater-noster.
Springs with broad blades. To make the religion bleed
Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed.
With such a bloody method and behaviour
Their ancestors did crucifie our Saviour.
So many princes legally have come,
Is forc'd in pilgrimage to seek a tomb.
Whilst on his father's head his foes advance:
Poor child! he weeps out his inheritance.
In the king's name the king himself's uncrown'd:
So doth the dust destroy the diamond.
My people's ears, such as do reason daunt,
And the Almighty will not let me grant.
To make me great, t'advance my diadem,
If I will first fall down, and worship them!
Distress my children, and destroy my bones;
I fear they'll force me to make bread of stones.
That in my absence they draw bills of hate,
To prove the king a traytor to the state.
They are allow'd to answer ere they die;
'Tis death for me to ask the reason, why.
Thee to forgive, and not be bitter to
Such, as thou know'st do not know what they do.
As to contemn those edicts he appointed,
How can they prize the power of his anointed?
Preserve my issue, and inspire my mate,
Yet though we perish, bless this church and state.
| Reliques of Ancient English Poetry | |