Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent Then quick about thy purposed business come, Then Ens is represented as father of the Predicaments 2 his ten sons, whereof Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst still Yet there is something that doth force my fear, A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age, And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap; 1 Ens, a term in metaphysics signi- 2 A Predicament is a category in logic; that is, a series of all the predicates or attributes contained under a genus. The logic of Aristotle comprised ten categories: Substance, Quantity, Quality, Relation, Action, Passion, Time, Place, Situation, and Habit. These were personified in the Mask. 3 A pun on the logical accidans.— WARTON. Yea it shall be his natural property To harbour those that are at enmity. What pow'r, what force, what mighty spell, if not The next Quantity and Quality spake in prose; then Relation was called RIVERS, arise; whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulphy Don, Or Trent, who like some earth-born giant spreads Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee, Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, The rest was prose. It is said that there were thirty sorts of fish in this river, and thirty religious houses on its banks. 2 At Mickleham, near Dorking, the River Mole, in hot summers, sinks through its sands, and finds a subterra nean channel. In winter, and when 4 Humber was a Scythian king, said to have been drowned in this river by Locrine, three hundred years before the Romans landed in Britain. Odes. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 1629 I. THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, That He our deadly forfeit should release, II. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, Wherewith He wont at heaven's high council-table He laid aside; and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. III. Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome Him to this His new abode, Now while the heav'n by the sun's team untrod, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? The Prophets. See how from far upon the eastern road Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel quire, From out His secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. THE HYMN. I. Ir was the winter wild, While the heaven-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Had dofft her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize: To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour. II. Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw, Should look so near upon her foul deformities. The Magi. The word "wisard" meant simply wise men, and is used in Sir John Cheke's translation of St. Matthew's Gospel. But He her fears to cease, Sent down the meek-eyed Peace; She, crown'd with olives green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere His ready harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; And waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. Nor war, or battle's sound IV. Was heard the world around: The idle spear and shield were high up hung, The hooked chariot stood Unstain'd with hostile blood, The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng, And kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sov'reign Lord was by. V. But peaceful was the night, Wherein the Prince of light His reign of peace upon the earth began: The winds with wonder whist1 Smoothly the waters kist, Whispering new joys to the mild ocean, Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmèd wave. VI. The stars with deep amaze Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence, And will not take their flight, For all the morning light, Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; But in their glimmering orbs did glow, Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. Silent, or hushed. |