 | Small poems of Divers sorts |  |
170
68. To my Brother in Law Colonel Will. Nevil.
[illeg.] old luxurious Romans vaunts did makeOf gustful Oysters took in Lucrine Lake:
Your Essex better hath, and such perchance
As tempted Cæsar first to pass from France.
How did those ancient Worthies captive all
The humbled world unto their Capitol!
Yet from it's highest Towers could not survey
So rich a Countrey as (from Holt) you may.
The noble Brutus, vertuous Portia,
Luckless Antonius, chast Octavia,
Soul-fix'd Paulina to her murther'd Lord
(The learned Seneca) such worthes afford
As have astonish'd Ages; yet your best
Of wives may justly with them all contest.
You then enjoying a full Fortune, and
The delicacies may eat of Sea and land;
Your dayes spend at a house of so fair site,
And (with a so deserving wife) each night:
Consider (since that you possess all this)
If y'are not happy, who the Devil is?
| Small poems of Divers sorts | |