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TO THAT WORTHY
and generous Gentleman,
my verie good friend,
Captaine Smith.
MAy Fate thy Project prosper, that thy name
May be eternised with living fame:
Though foule Detraction Honour would pervert,
And Envie ever waits upon desert:
In spight of Pelias, when his hate lies colde,
Returne as Jason with a fleece of Golde.
Then after-ages shall record thy praise,
That a New England to this Ile didst raise:
And when thou dy'st (as all that live must die)
Thy fame live heere; thou, with Eternitie.
May be eternised with living fame:
Though foule Detraction Honour would pervert,
And Envie ever waits upon desert:
In spight of Pelias, when his hate lies colde,
Returne as Jason with a fleece of Golde.
Then after-ages shall record thy praise,
That a New England to this Ile didst raise:
And when thou dy'st (as all that live must die)
Thy fame live heere; thou, with Eternitie.
R: Gunnell.
[_]
4. Pelias was the half-brother of Jason's father. He sent Jason to Colchis, at the
eastern end of the Black Sea, in quest of the Golden Fleece. The reference seems to be to
John Smith's slavery in "Colchis" -- i.e., Tatary.
[_]
5. Undoubtedly Richard Gunnell, manager of the new Fortune Theatre in London,
and an actor and dramatist as well. For his friendship with Smith, see Philip L. Barbour,
"Captain John Smith and the London Theatre," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXXXIII (1975), 277-279; and the Biographical Directory. The verse is reprinted
in the Generall Historie, 201-202.
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