THE

GHOST

OF THE OLD HOUSE OF COMMONS,

To the New One, appointed to meet at OXFORD.

FROM deepeft dungeons of eternal night,

The feats of horror, forrow, pains, and spite,
I have been fent to tell you, tender youth,
A feasonable and important truth.

I feel (but, oh! too late) that no disease
Is like a furfeit of luxurious eafe :

And of all others, the most tempting things
Are too much wealth, and too indulgent kings.
None ever was fuperlatively ill,

But by degrees, with industry and skill:

And fome, whose meaning hath at first been fair,
Grow knaves by use, and rebels by despair.
My time is past, and yours will foon begin,
Keep the first bloffoms from the blast of fin;
And by the fate of my tmultuous ways,
Preferve yourselves, and bring ferener days.
The bufy, fubtle ferpents of the law,
Did firft my mind from true obedience draw:
While I did limits to the king prescribe,
And took for oracles that canting tribe,

I chang'd true freedom for the name of free,
And grew feditious for variety:

All that oppos'd me were to be accus'd,
And by the laws illegally abus'd;

The robe was fummon'd, Maynard in the head,
In legal murder none fo deeply read;

I brought him to the bar, where once he ftood,
Stain'd with the (yet unexpiated) blood

Of the brave Strafford, when three kingdoms rung
With his accumulative hackney-tongue;

Prisoners and witnesses were waiting by,
These had been taught to fwear, and those to die,
And to expect their arbitrary fates,

Some for ill faces, fome for good estates.

To fright the people, and alarm the town,
Bedloe and Oates employ'd the reverend gown,
But while the triple mitre bore the blame,
The king's three crowns were their rebellious aim
I feem'd (and did but feem) to fear the guards,
And took for mine the Bethels and the Wards:
Anti-monarchic Heretics of state,

Immoral Atheists, rich and reprobate :
But above all I got a little guide,
Who every ford of villainy had try'd :
None knew fo well the old pernicious way,
To ruin fubjects, and make kings obey;
And my
fmall Jehu, at a furious rate,
Was driving Eighty back to Forty-eight.
This the king knew, and was refolv'd to bear,
But I miftook his patience for his fear.
All that this happy island could afford,
Was facrific'd to my voluptuous board.
In his whole paradife, one only tree
He had excepted by a strict decree;

A facred

A facred tree, which royal fruit did bear,
Yet it in pieces I confpir'd to tear;
Beware, my child! divinity is there.
This fo undid all I had done before,
I could attempt, and he endure no more;
My unprepar'd, and unrepenting breath,
Was fnatch'd away by the swift hand of death;
And I, with all my fins about me, hurl'd
To th' utter darkness of the lower world:
A dreadful place! which you too foon will fee,
If you believe feducers more than mc.

DEATH OF A LADY'S DOG.

HOU, happy creature, art fecure

TH

From all the torments we endure;
Defpair, ambition, jealousy,

Loft friends, nor love, difquiet thee;
A fullen prudence drew thee hence
From noife, fraud, and impertinence.
Though life effay'd the fureft wile,
Gilding itfelf with Laura's finile;
How didft thou fcorn life's mcaner charms,

Thou who could't break from Laura's arms!

Poor Cynick! ftill methinks I hear
Thy awful murmurs in my ear;
As when on Laura's lap you lay,
Chiding the worthless crowd away.
How fondly human paffions turn!
What we then envy'd, now we mourn!

E PI L O GUE

то

ALEXANDER THE GREAT,

WHEN ACTED AT THE THEATRE IN DUBLIN.

'OU 've seen to-night the glory of the East,

YOU

The man, who all the then known world poffeft,

That kings in chains did son of Ammon call,

And kingdoms thought divine, by treason fall.
Him Fortune only favour'd for her sport;
And when his conduct wanted her fupport,
His empire, courage, and his boasted line,
Were all prov'd mortal by a slave's design.

Great Charles, whofe birth has promis'd milder fway,
Whofe awful nod all nations must obey,
Secur'd by higher powers, exalted stands
Above the reach of facrilegious hands;

Those miracles that guard his crowns, declare
That heaven has form'd a monarch worth their care;
Born to advance the loyal, and depofe

His own, his brother's, and his father's foes.
Faction, that once made diadems her prey,
And stopt our prince in his triumphant way,
Fled like a mift before this radiant day.
So when, in heaven, the mighty rebels rofe,
Proud, and refolv'd that empire to depose,

}

Angels

Angels fought first, but unfuccefsful prov'd,
God kept the conquest for his best belov'd :
At fight of fuch omnipotence they fly,

Like leaves before autumnal winds, and die.
All who before him did afcend the throne,
Labour'd to draw three reftive nations on.
He boldly drives them forward without pain,
They hear his voice, and straight obey the rein.
Such terror speaks him deftin'd to command;
We worship Jove with thunder in his hand;
But when his mercy without power appears,
We flight his altars, and neglect our prayers.
How weak in arms did civil difcord fhew!
Like Saul, fhe struck with fury at her foe,
When an immortal hand did ward the blow.
Her offspring, made the royal hero's fcorn,
Like fons of earth, all fell as foon as born:
Yet let us boaft, for sure it is our pride,

}

When with their blood our neighbour lands were dy'd, Ireland's untainted loyalty remain'd,

Her people guiltlefs, and her fields unstain’d.

ON

THE

DAY OF

JUDGMENT.

I.

'HE day of wrath, that dreadful day,

THE

Shall the whole world in afhes lay, As David and the Sibyls fay.

II. What