Poems By the most deservedly Admired Mrs Katherine Philips: The matchless Orinda. To which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey & Horace Tragedies. With several other Translations out of French |
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On the Death of the Illustrious DUKE of GLOUCESTER.
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On the Death of the Illustrious DUKE of GLOUCESTER.
Great Glou'ster's dead, and yet in this we mustConfess that angry Heaven is wise and just.
We have so long and yet so ill endur'd
The woes which our offences had procur'd,
That this new stroke would all our strength destroy,
Had we not known an interval of Joy.
And yet perhaps this stroke had been excus'd,
If we this interval had not abus'd.
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Deserv'd to know our mercies were but lent:
And those complaints Heaven in this rigid fate
Does first chastise, and then legitimate.
By this it our Divisions does reprove,
And makes us join in grief, if not in love.
For (Glorious Youth) all Parties do agree,
As in admiring, so lamenting thee;
The Sovereign's, Subject's, Foreiner's delight;
Thou wert the universal Favourite.
Not Rome's belov'd and brave Marcellus fell
So much a Darling or a Miracle.
Though built of richest bloud and finest earth,
Thou hadst a heart more noble than thy birth:
Which by th'afflictive changes thou didst know,
Thou hadst but too much cause and time to show.
For when Fate did thy Infancy expose
To the most barbarous and stupid Foes;
Yet thou didst then so much express the Prince,
As did even them amaze, if not convince.
Nay, that loose Tyrant whom no bound confin'd,
Whom neither laws, nor oaths, nor shame could bind,
Although his Soul was than his Look more grim,
Yet thy brave Innocence half softn'd him.
And he that Worth wherein thy Soul was drest
By his ill-favour'd clemency confest;
Lessening the ill which he could not repent,
He call'd that Travel which was Banishment.
Escap'd from him, thy Trials were encreas'd;
The scene was chang'd, but not the danger ceas'd.
Thou from rough Guardians to Seducers gone,
Those made thy Temper, these thy Judgm known;
Whilst thou the noblest Champion wert for Truth,
Whether we view thy Courage or thy Youth.
If to foil Nature and Ambition claims
Greater reward than to encounter Flames,
All that shall know the story must allow
A Martyr's Crown prepared for thy brow.
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Till thy Great Brother had regain'd his own:
Who though the bravest Suff'rer, yet even He
Could not at once have mist his Crown and Thee.
But as Commission'd Angels make no stay,
But having done their errand go their way:
So thy part done, not thy restored State,
The future splendour which did for thee wait,
Nor that thy Prince and Country must mourn for
Such a Support, and such a Counsellor,
Could longer keep thee from that bliss, whence thou
Look'st down with pity on Earth's Monarchs now;
Where thy capacious Soul may quench her thirst,
And younger Brothers may inherit first.
While on our King Heav'n does this care express,
To make his Comforts safe he makes them less.
For this successful Heathens use to say,
It is too much, (great Gods) send some allay.
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