Poems on Affairs of State

Under this Stone does lye
One, born for Victory,
Fairfax the Valiant, and the only He,
Who e'r, for that alone a Conqueror wou'd be,
Both Sexes Virtues were in him combin'd:
He had the Fierceness of the Manliest Mind,
And eke the Meekness too of Woman kind.
He never knew what Envy was, or Hate:
His Soul was fill'd with Worth and Honesty;
And with another thing quite out, of date,
Call'd Modesty.

II.

He ne're seem'd Impudent, but in the Field; a Place
Where Impudence it self dares seldom shew her Face:
Had any stranger spy'd him in the Room
With some of those whom he had overcome,

133

And had not heard their Talk, but only seen,
Their gesture and their meen,
They wou'd have sworn he had the Vanquish'd been;
For as they brag'd, and dreadful wou'd appear,
While they their own ill lucks in War repeated,
His Modesty still made him blush, to hear
How often he had them Defeated.

III.

Through his whole Life, the Part he bore
Was wonderful, and Great,
And yet, it so appear'd in nothing more,
Than in his private last retreat:
For it's a stranger thing, to find
One Man of such a Glorious mind,
As can dismiss the Pow'r h' has got,
Than Millions of the Polls, and Braves,
Those despicable Fools and Knaves,
Who such a Pother make,
Through dulness and mistake,
In seeking after Pow'r, but get it not.

IV.

When all the Nation he had won,
And with expence of Blood had bought,
Store great enough he thought,
Of Fame and of Renown;
He then his Arms laid down,
With full as little Pride
As if he had been of his Enemies side,
Or one of them cou'd do that were undone:
He neither Wealth, nor Places sought;
For others, not himself, he Fought.
He was content to know,
For he had found it so,
That, when he pleas'd, to Conquer, he was able
And left the Spoil and plunder to the Rabble:

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He might have been a King,
But that he understood
How much it is a meaner thing
To be unjustly Great, than honourably Good.

V.

This from the World, did admiration draw.
And from his Friends, both Love and Awe,
Remembring what in Fight he did before:
And his Foes lov'd him too,
As they were bound to do,
Because he was resolv'd to fight no more.
So bless'd of all, he Dy'd; but far more bless'd were we,
If we were sure to live, till we could see
A Man as great in VVar, in Peace, as just as he.

University of Virginia Library

An Epitaph on the Lord Fairfax.

[I.]

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V.