 | Pharonnida |  |
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Its progress you may find where did begin
Your lifes first stage, thus take it. When the Court
Stifl'd with throngs of men, whose thick resort
Plenty and peace call'd thither, being grown
Sickly with ease, view'd as a thing unknown,
Dangers stern brow, which even in smiling fates
Proves a Quotidian unto wiser States;
Whilst pride grew big, and envy bigger, we
Sleeping i'th' bed of soft securitie,
Were with alarums wakened; Faction had,
To shew neglects deformities, unclad
That gawdy monster, whose first dress had bin
The night-peec'd works of their unriper sin,
And those that in contracted fortunes dwelt,
Calmly in favors shadow, having felt
The glorious burthen of their honor grown
Too large for all that fortune call'd their own,
Like fishes which the lesser frie devour,
Pride having join'd oppression to their power,
Prey'd on the subject, till their load outgrew
Their loyalty, and forc'd even those that knew
Once only to obey, in sullen rage
To mutter threats, whose horror did presage
That blood must in domestick jars be spilt,
To cure their envy, and the peoples guilt.
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