Elegies offer'd up to the memory of William Glover Esquire, late of Shalston, in Bukinghamshire. By Thomas Philipot |
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 | Elegies |  |
1
Elegie 1.
Is Glover dead? and could stern Death employNo Sicknesse but a Surfet to destroy
The structure of his Earth & make even meat
That should foment, stifle & choak that heat?
Which kindled in the Chambers of the Heart,
Is thence diffus'd to aire and warme each part.
We need not now I see the fatall knife
Of Atropos to cut the twist of life,
Nor shivering Agues to congeale the blood,
Nor Feavers to licke up that purple flood,
Or Rheums in brinie showers to distill
And drowne the lungs, when meat it selfe can kill.
Who then would in his earthly Fabrick trust,
Whose brittle Wals are moulded out of dust,
Which let good diet plaister nere so well,
Sicknesse may yet make them dissoluble:
For we're compact of miseries and feares,
Kneaded into a lumpe with our owne teares.
With our first milke our nurses do bequeath,
Diseases to us, and we bed with Death
2
Types and Ideas of our future Tombe.
Those eyes whose glances all did seeme t'implore,
And superstitiously did e'en adore
Th'effusion of their radiant beames may bee
Inforc'd to weepe vext with an Opthalmy.
A palsy dares disturbe and shake that hand,
That with its Scepter can the world command:
Those feete which proudly walkt on Kings may be,
Brought by the Gout into Captivity.
And Glover in whose lineaments appeard
Such Harmonie, that Nature seem'd t'have rear'd
An Altar to perfection which she meant
It selfe should farme his polish'd Tenement,
We see was but an Edifice of Earth,
Within whose Heart as on some oylie Hearth
A fire was fed, whose flame was blowne about
Each veine and nerve, which Death has now put out.
How much exposd toth Injuries of fate
Is all the glory then a humane state
Can but lye claime to, in accessable
To rest is swelling greatnesse, a briefe Cell
Can shelter and include more solid Peace,
Than the extended Roofes of Pallaces.
For those that pillage Nature to invite
And egge on a luxurious Appetite,
Doe so encumber all their faculties,
They onely hatch a tribe of Maladies,
Which like a progeny of Vipers will
Turne Parricides and their owne Parents kill.
| Elegies | |