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The Poetical Entertainer

Or, Tales, Satyrs, Dialogues, And Intrigues, &c. Serious and Comical. All digested into such Verse as most agreeable to the several Subjects. To be publish'd as often as occasion shall offer [by Edward Ward]

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7

Upon rooting up the Royal Oak in St. James's Park,

rais'd from an Acorn, set by the Hand of King Charles II. who brought the same from his old hiding-place at Boscobel.

An Epigram.

Whilst Zarah from the Royal Ground
Roots up the Royal Oak,
The Sapling, groaning at the Wound,
Thus to the Syren spoke,
Ah! may the Omen kindly fail,
For poor Britannia's Good!
Or else not only me you'll fell,
But her that owns the Wood.
H. C.

9

The seasonable Caution.

On the foregoing Subject.

Epigram II.

Be cautious, Madam, how you thus provoke
This sturdy Plant, the second Royal Oak;
For should you fell it, or remove it hence,
When dead, it may revenge the proud Offence,
And build a Scaffold in another place,
That may e'erlong prove fatal to Your G---;
Nay, furnish out a useful Gallows too
Sufficient for your Friends, tho' not for you:
Then let it stand a Monument of Fame,
To that forgiving Prince who set the same;
For should it fall by you, the World will pray
The Fate may be your own another Day.

10

The Murmurs of the Oak.

Epigram III.

Why dost thou root me up! ingrateful Hand!
My Father sav'd a King, who sav'd the Land:
That King to whom thy Mother ow'd her Fame,
When Whoring was no Crime, to Bawd no Shame.
But since the Malice of her Spawn, Your G---,
Presumes to rend me from my native Place,
Where by the Royal Hand I first was set,
And, from an Acorn, thriv'd to be thus Great,
May I be hew'd (now rooted up by thee)
Into some lofty famous Triple-Tree,
Where none may swing but such as have betray'd
Those gen'rous Pow'rs by whom themselves were made:
Then may I hope to gain as much Renown,
By trussing up my Foes, that cut me down,
As my tall Parent, when he bravely stood
The Monarch's safeguard in the trembling Wood;

11

For as the Matter stands, now War is o'er,
And restless Faction aims at Sov'reign Pow'r,
I know not which would prove the best good Thing
To hang up Traytors, or preserve a King.