TO THE PIOUS MEMORIE OF C. W. ESQUIRE, WHO FINISHED HIS COURSE HERE, AND MADE HIS ENTRANCE INTO IMMORTALITY UPON THE 13th OF SEPTEMBER, IN THE YEAR OF REDEMPTION, 1653.1

OW that the publick sorrow doth subside, And those slight tears which Custom springs, are dried;

While all the rich and out-side-mourners pass
Home from thy dust, to empty their own glass;
I—who the throng affect not, nor their state :-
Steal to thy grave undress'd, to meditate

On our sad loss, accompanied by none,
An obscure mourner that would weep alone.
So when the world's great luminary setts,
Some scarce known star into the zenith gets,
Twinkles and curls, a weak but willing spark;
As glow-worms here do glitter in the dark.
Yet, since the dimnest flame that kindles there,

'A Search among the Wills of the Period, by Colonel Chester, as well as of the Parish-Registers, has failed to discover who Charles W. was. A C. W.' contributed a short poem to the many prefixed to Cartwright's Comedies, &c. (1651). There also are two Wareings, one Robert and one William: there is also a Richard Watkins. G.

208

An humble love unto the light doth bear,
And true devotion from an hermit's cell

Will Heav'n's kind King as soon reach and as well,
As that which from such shrines and altars flyes,
Lead by ascending incense to the skies:

'Tis no malicious rudeness, if the might

Of love makes dark things wait upon the bright,
And from my sad retirements calls me forth
The just Recorder of thy death and worth.
Long did'st thou live-if wealth be measured by
The tedious reign of our calamity :—
And counter to all storms and changes still
Kept'st the same temper, and the self same will.
Though trials came as duly as the day,

And in such mists, that none could see his way:
Yet thee I found still virtuous, and saw

The sun give clouds: and Charles give both the

law :

When private interest did all hearts bend,

And wild dissents the public peace did rend,
Thou neither won, nor worn, wer't still thy self,
Not aw'd by force, nor basely brib'd with pelf.
What the insuperable stream of times
Did dash thee with, those suff'rings were not
crimes.

So the bright sun eclipses bears; and we

Because then passive, blame him not, should he

For inforc'd shades, and the moon's ruder veile Much nearer us, than him, be judg'd to fail? Who traduce thee so, erre. As poisons by Correction are made antidotes, so thy

Just soul did turn ev'n hurtful things to good;
Us'd bad laws so they drew not tears, nor blood.
Heav'n was thy aime, and thy great, rare design
Was not to lord it here, but there to shine.
Earth nothing had, could tempt thee. All that

e're

Thou prayd'st for here, was peace, and glory there.

For though thy course in Time's long progress

fell

On a sad age, when Warr and open'd Hell
Licens'd all artes and sects, and made it free
To thrive by fraud and blood and blasphemy:
Yet thou thy just inheritance did'st by
No sacrilege, nor pillage multiply;

No rapine swell'd thy state: no bribes, nor fees:

Our new oppressors' best annuities.

Such clean pure hands had'st thou ! and for thy

heart,

Man's secret region, and his noblest part;

Since I was privy to't, and had the key

Of that faire room, where thy bright spirit lay: I must affirm, it did as much surpass

Most I have known, as the clear sky doth glass.
Constant and kind, and plain and meek and mild
It was, and with no new conceits defil'd.
Busie, but sacred thoughts-like bees-did still
Within it stirre, and strive unto that Hill,
Where redeem'd spirits evermore alive,
After their work is done, ascend and hive.
No outward tumults reach'd this inward place,
'Twas holy ground: where peace and love and

grace

Kept house where the immortal restles life

:

In a most dutiful and pious strife

Like a fix'd watch, mov'd all in order, still;
The will serv'd God, and ev'ry sence the will!
In this safe state Death mett thee: Death

which is

But a kind usher of the good to bliss:

Therefore to weep because thy course is run,
Or droop like flow'rs, which lately lost the sun :
I cannot yield, since Faith will not permitt,
A tenure got by conquest to the pitt.

For the great Victour fought for us, and Hee
Counts ev'ry dust that is lay'd up of thee.
Besides, Death now grows decrepit, and hath
Spent the most part both of its time and wrath.
That thick, black night which mankind fear'd, is

torn

By troops of stars, and the bright day's forlorn. The next glad news-most glad unto the just !Will he the trumpet's summons from the dust. Then I'le not grieve; nay more, I'le not allow My soul should think thee absent from me now. Some bid their dead 'good night'! but I will say 'Good morrow to dear Charles'! for it is day.

IN ZODIACUM MARCELLI PALENGENII,'
T is perform'd! and thy great name doth

run

Through ev'ry sign, an everlasting sun.

Not planet-like, but fix'd; and we can see
Thy genius stand still in his apogie.
For how can'st thou an Aux2 eternal miss,
Where ev'ry house thy exaltation is?
Here's no ecclyptic threatens thee with night,
Although the wiser few take in thy light.

1 BARNABEE GOOGE in 1560 translated "the firste thre" and in 1561"the first sixe books of the most Christian Poet Marcellus Palingenus, called the Zodiake of Life" in 1565 appeared the (complete) "twelve bookes: and the whole passed through several editions-all now rare and I fear deemed unworthy either in Googe or the original, of Vaughan's high praise. G.

2 Query = encrease. G.