The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott Edited by his Son Edwin Elliott ... A New and Revised Edition: Two Volumes |
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PROLOGUE TO WATT TYLER.
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 | The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott |  |
141
PROLOGUE TO WATT TYLER.
A PLAY, BY JOHN WATKINS.
While they whose sordid lusts oppress a state,Forestall, because they dread, the public hate,
Slow to resent are nations; man endures
The curse of bondage, better than he cures.
We tremble when the ocean, white with foam,
Hails the deep voice of rivers roaring home,
And the black sky, which fire's wild instinct rends,
Like a Niagara of clouds descends;
But calm succeeds, the mountain'd plain subsides,
In music soon the meeken'd river glides,
And when the wholesome hurricane is o'er,
Earth wears a look more lovely than before.
Not always thus, when nations, stung to rage,
On kings and priests a war of vengeance wage;
E'en though triumphant, oft with ruin fraught,
The human tempest strengthens what it smote;
O'er rout or victory, derision names
A Louis Philippe, or a second James;
A Cromwell or Napoleon, cursed with might,
Turns hope to darkness, with portentous light,
Plague from the enthusiast's sinless Eden brings,
And plumed by Freedom, tramples on her wings.
142
Rebellion boasts a Tell or Washington;
But if the champion of the People fail,
Foes only live to tell Misfortune's tale,
And meanness blots, while none to praise is nigh,
The hero's virtues, with a coward's lie.
To-night we bring, from his insulted grave,
A man too honest to become a slave:
How few admire him! few, perhaps, bewail'd!
He was a vulgar hero—for he fail'd:
Such glorious honours soothe the patriot's shade!
Of such materials History is made!
But had his followers triumph'd, where he fell
Fame would have hymn'd her village Hampden well,
And Watt the Tyler been a William Tell.
| The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott | |