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Comedies, Tragi-comedies, With other Poems

by Mr William Cartwright ... The Ayres and Songs set by Mr Henry Lawes

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To the Queen on the same; being the Preface before the English Verses sent then from Oxford.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To the Queen on the same; being the Preface before the English Verses sent then from Oxford.

Blest Lady, You, whose Mantle doth divide
The Flouds of Time swelling on either side,
Your Birth so clos'd the Past, yet came so true
A Ciment to that year that did ensue,

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That Janus did suspect Lucina, lest
She might entrench, and His become Her Feast;
Whiles You may Challenge One Day, and we do
Make Time have now two Daughters, Truth and You.
You bring forth now, Great Queen, as you foresaw
An'Antiquation of the Salique Law;
Y' have shewn once more a Child, whose ev'ry part
May gain unto our Realm a severall Heart,
So given unto Your King, so fitly sent,
As we may Justly Call't your Complement.
O for an Angell here to Sing, we do
Want such a Voice, nay such a Ditty too:
This Cradle too's an Altar, whiles that one
Birth-time Combines the Manger and the Throne:
The very Nurse turns Priestess, and we fear
Will better sing than some grave Poets here.
For now that Royall Births do Come so fast,
That we may fear they'l Commons be at last,
And yet no Plague to Cease, no Star to rise,
But those two Twin-fires only of her Eyes:
Wits will no more Compose, but just Rehearse,
And turn the Pray'r of Thanks into a Verse;
Some, their own Plagiaries, will be read

Marcellus was accused for taking off Augustus his head, and putting the Head of Tiberius upon the same Statue.

In th' Elder Statue with a younger Head;

Or, to bear up perhaps a yeelding Fame,
New torture old VVords into Chronogram:
And there may be much Concourse to this Quill,
For Silenc'd Preachers have most Hearers still.
But what dares now be barren, when our Queen
Transcrib'd is in her second Coppy seen?
Nor is the Father left out there; we may
Say those small Glasses snatch him ev'ry way;
VVhich too do mutually represent
Themselves, as Element doth Element;

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VVhiles here, there, yonder, All in All are shewn,
Casting each others Beauties, and their own.
Your Sons, Great Sir, may fix your Scepter here,
But 'tis this Sex must make you raign elsewhere;
And though they All be Shafts, 'twill yet be found
These, though the VVeaker, make the deeper VVound.
Come Shee-Munition then, and thus appease
All Claim, and be the Venus of your Seas:
And henceforth look we not t' espy from far
A Guiding Light; This be your Navies Star.