 | The Trivmph of Peace |  |
TO THE FOVRE Equall and Honourable Societies, THE JNNES of COVRT.
I want words to expresse Your cheerefull and active desires, to present Your duties to their royall Maiesties, in this Masque: to celebrate, by this humble tender of Your hearts, and services, the happinesse of our Kingdome, so blest in the present governement, and never so rich in the possession of so many, and great pledges of their Parents vertue, our Native Princes.
Your cleare devotions already offered, ond accepted, let not me want an Altar for my Oblation to You. This entertaynment which tooke life from your command, and wanted no motion, or growth, it could derive from my weake Phansie: I sacrifice againe to You, and vnder Your smile to the world, let it not repent you to looke vpon, what is the second time made Your owne, and with it, the Heart of the Sacrificer, infinitely bound to acknowledge your free, and Noble soules, that have left no way for a Poet to satisfie his ambition, how to thanke you, but with thinking, he shall never be able to satisfie it.
I dare not racke my preface to a length, proceede to be Your selues (the Ornament of our Nation,) and when You have leisure to converse with imaginations of this kinde, it shall be an addition to your many favours, to read these papers, and obliege beside, the seales of Your other encouragement,
| The Trivmph of Peace | |