A Metrical History of England Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin |
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 | A Metrical History of England |  |
83
“Yet all was colour'd with a smooth pretence
“Of specious love, and duty to their Prince,
“Religion, and redress of grievances,
“Two names that always cheat, and always please.”
“Of specious love, and duty to their Prince,
“Religion, and redress of grievances,
“Two names that always cheat, and always please.”
“The next successor whom I fear and hate,
“My arts have made obnoxious to the state;
“Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
“And gained our elders to pronounce a foe.”
Dryden
“My arts have made obnoxious to the state;
“Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
“And gained our elders to pronounce a foe.”
EDWY.
So Dunstan thought, and so he wou'd have said,
But Dryden wrote not 'till the Monk was dead.
Edwy who knew his predecessor's mind,
(Warp'd by the Priest, infatuated! blind!)
To insignificance had sunk the Throne,
Boldly resolv'd at first to “hold his own,”
But Edwy was, alas! too young by far,
With such a wolf, and fox combined, to war,
Fell Dunstan's wiles revengeful, made him feel
Where vulnerable most: what breast of steel,
What fiend, embodied in a mortal mould,
Cou'd have perform'd what—scarce can it be told—
But Dryden wrote not 'till the Monk was dead.
Edwy who knew his predecessor's mind,
(Warp'd by the Priest, infatuated! blind!)
To insignificance had sunk the Throne,
Boldly resolv'd at first to “hold his own,”
But Edwy was, alas! too young by far,
With such a wolf, and fox combined, to war,
Fell Dunstan's wiles revengeful, made him feel
Where vulnerable most: what breast of steel,
What fiend, embodied in a mortal mould,
Cou'd have perform'd what—scarce can it be told—
84
Elgiva, fair, the youthful Monarch's wife,
Lovely in form, and dear to him as life,
A virtuous, blooming, young and new-made bride,
Torn from her husband, and her mother's side;
By ruffians, whom no human ties cou'd bind,
Tortur'd; her frame to ling'ring death consign'd;
Her sex insulted, and her charms defaced,
By wretches who the forms of men disgraced!
Lovely in form, and dear to him as life,
A virtuous, blooming, young and new-made bride,
Torn from her husband, and her mother's side;
By ruffians, whom no human ties cou'd bind,
Tortur'd; her frame to ling'ring death consign'd;
Her sex insulted, and her charms defaced,
By wretches who the forms of men disgraced!
The people too, deluded by the priest,
And Odo, less a bishop than a beast,
Rebel against the crown; Rome too conspires,
And launches all St. Peter's fiercest fires.
With mournful indignation next I sing,
The hapless, widow'd, persecuted King!
His earthly crown he quits, on Heav'n relies,
Invokes the spirit of his wife—and dies.
And Odo, less a bishop than a beast,
Rebel against the crown; Rome too conspires,
And launches all St. Peter's fiercest fires.
With mournful indignation next I sing,
The hapless, widow'd, persecuted King!
His earthly crown he quits, on Heav'n relies,
Invokes the spirit of his wife—and dies.
Many of the earliest Missionaries were hostile to, and dreaded the company of, the fair sex. The unpolished St. Columba prohibited his catechumens the comforts of milch kine, because, “Where there is a cow,” said the brute, “there must be a woman, and where there is a woman there must be mischief.” Vide Pennant.
| A Metrical History of England | |