Divine poems Containing The History of Ionah. Ester. Iob. Sampson. Sions Sonets. Elegies. Written and newly augmented, by Fra: Quarles |
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 | Divine poems |  |
Now when as Faire (the daughter of the earth
Newly dis-burthen'd of her plumed birth)
From off her Turrets did her wings display,
And pearcht in the sad cares of Mordecai,
He rent his garments, wearing in their stead
Distressed sack-cloth: on his fainting head
He strowed Dust, and from his showring eyes
Ran floods of sorrow, and with bitter cryes
His griefe saluted heaven; his groanes did borrow
No Art to draw the true pourtraict of sorrow:
Nor yet within his troubled brest alone,
(Too small a stage for griefe to trample on)
Did Tyrant sorrow act her lively Sceane,
But did inlarge (such griefe admits no meane)
The lawlesse limits of her Theater
Ith' hearts of all the Iewish Nation, where
(With no dissembled Action) she exprest
The lively Passion of a pensive brest.
Forthwith he posteth to the Palace gate,
T'acquaint Queene Ester with his sad estate,
But found no entrance: for the Persian Court
Gave welcome to delights, and youthly sport,
To jolly mirth, and such delightfull things:
Soft rayment best befits the Courts of Kings:
There lyes no welcome for a whining face,
A mourning habit suits no Princely Place:
Which when the Maids, and Eunuchs or the Queen
(Vnable of themselves to helpe) had seene,
Their Royall Mistresse straight they did acquaint
With the dumb-shew of her sad Cousins plaint;
Whereat (till now a stranger to the cause)
Perplext, and forced by the tender Lawes
Of deare affection, her gentle heart
Did sympathize with his conceived smart:
She sent him change of rayment to put on,
To vaile his griefe; But he received none:
Then (sore dismai'd, impatient to forbeare
The knowledge of the thing she fear'd to heare)
She sent her servant to him, to importune,
What sudden Chance, or what disast'rous fortune
Had caus'd this strange and ill-apparell'd griefe,
That she (if in her lyes) may send reliefe:
To whom his sorrowes made this sad Relation,
And this, the tenor of his Declaration:
Newly dis-burthen'd of her plumed birth)
From off her Turrets did her wings display,
And pearcht in the sad cares of Mordecai,
He rent his garments, wearing in their stead
Distressed sack-cloth: on his fainting head
He strowed Dust, and from his showring eyes
Ran floods of sorrow, and with bitter cryes
His griefe saluted heaven; his groanes did borrow
No Art to draw the true pourtraict of sorrow:
Nor yet within his troubled brest alone,
(Too small a stage for griefe to trample on)
Did Tyrant sorrow act her lively Sceane,
But did inlarge (such griefe admits no meane)
The lawlesse limits of her Theater
Ith' hearts of all the Iewish Nation, where
130
The lively Passion of a pensive brest.
Forthwith he posteth to the Palace gate,
T'acquaint Queene Ester with his sad estate,
But found no entrance: for the Persian Court
Gave welcome to delights, and youthly sport,
To jolly mirth, and such delightfull things:
Soft rayment best befits the Courts of Kings:
There lyes no welcome for a whining face,
A mourning habit suits no Princely Place:
Which when the Maids, and Eunuchs or the Queen
(Vnable of themselves to helpe) had seene,
Their Royall Mistresse straight they did acquaint
With the dumb-shew of her sad Cousins plaint;
Whereat (till now a stranger to the cause)
Perplext, and forced by the tender Lawes
Of deare affection, her gentle heart
Did sympathize with his conceived smart:
She sent him change of rayment to put on,
To vaile his griefe; But he received none:
Then (sore dismai'd, impatient to forbeare
The knowledge of the thing she fear'd to heare)
She sent her servant to him, to importune,
What sudden Chance, or what disast'rous fortune
Had caus'd this strange and ill-apparell'd griefe,
That she (if in her lyes) may send reliefe:
To whom his sorrowes made this sad Relation,
And this, the tenor of his Declaration:
Hamans (that cursed Hamans) haughty pride
(Because my knee deservedly denyde
To make an Idoll of his greatnesse) hath
Incenst the fury of his jealous wrath,
And profer'd lavish bribes to buy the blood
Of me, and all the faithfull Iewish brood:
Let, here the copy, granted by the King,
Stil'd in his name, confirmed with his King,
By vertue of the which, into his hands,
Curst Haman hath ingrost our lives, our lands:
Goe tell the Queene, it refresh in her powers
To helpe; the case is hers as well as Ours:
Goe tell my cousin Queene, it is her charge,
To use the meanes, whereby she may inlarge
Her aged kinsmans life, and all her Nation;
Preferring to the King her supplication.
(Because my knee deservedly denyde
To make an Idoll of his greatnesse) hath
Incenst the fury of his jealous wrath,
And profer'd lavish bribes to buy the blood
Of me, and all the faithfull Iewish brood:
131
Stil'd in his name, confirmed with his King,
By vertue of the which, into his hands,
Curst Haman hath ingrost our lives, our lands:
Goe tell the Queene, it refresh in her powers
To helpe; the case is hers as well as Ours:
Goe tell my cousin Queene, it is her charge,
To use the meanes, whereby she may inlarge
Her aged kinsmans life, and all her Nation;
Preferring to the King her supplication.
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