The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser

When thou art called into public pow'r,
And when a crowd of suitors throng thy door,
Be sure no great offenders 'scape their dooms;
Small praise from len’ty and remissness comes :
Crimes pardon'd, others to those crimes invite;
Whilst lookers-on severe examples fright.
When by a pardon'd murd'rer blood is spilt,
The judge that pardon'd hath the greatest guilt.
Who accuse rigour make a gross mistake;
One criminal pardon’d may an hundred make.
When justice on offenders is not done,
Law, government, and commerce, are o'erthrown.
As besiegt traitors with the foe conspire
T' unlock the gates and set the town on fire.
Yet let the punishinent th' offence exceed,
Justice with weight and measure must proceed:
Yet when pronouncing sentence seem not glad,
Such spectacles, tho' they are just, are sad;
Tho' what thou dost thou ought'st not to repent,
Yet human bowels cannot but relent. -
Rather than all must suffer some must die;
Yet Nature must condole their misery:
And yet, if many equal guilt involve,
Thou may’st not these condemu and those absolve.
Justice when equal scales she holds, is blind;
Nor cruelty nor mercy change her mind.
When some escape for that which others die,
Mercy to those, to these is cruelty.
A and der get the spider weaves,
Which little and liglet animals receives;

And if she catch a common bee or fly,
They with a piteous groan and murmur die:
But if a wasp or hornet'she entrap,
They tear her,cords, like Sampson, and escape;-
So, like a fly the poor offender dies;
But like the wasp the rich escapes and flies.
Do not, if one but lightly thee offend,
The puuishment beyond the crime extend;
Qr, after warning, the offence forget ;
So God himself our failings doth remit.
Expect not more from servants than is just;
Reward them well if they observe their trust :
Nor them with cruelty or pride invade,
Since God and Nature them our brothers made:
If his offence be great, let that suffice;
If light, forgire ; for ny man's always wise.

AN OCCASIONAL IMITATION

OF A MODERN AUTHOR

UPON THE GAME OF CHESS.

TABLET stood of that abstersive tree Where !Ethiop's swarthy bird did build her nest; Inlaid it was with Libyan ivory, Drawn from the jaws of Afric's prudent beast. Two kings like Saul, much taller than the rest,

Their equal armies draw into the field;
Till one take th' other pris’ner they contest,
Courage and fortune must to conduct yield. .
This game the Persian Magi did invent,
The force of Eastern wisdom to express;
From thence to busy Europeans sent,
And styld by modern Lombards . Pensive Chess,
Yet some that fled from Troy to Rome report,
Penthesilia Priam did oblige;
Her Amazons his Trojans taught this sport,
Το
pass

the tedious hours of ten years' siege.
There she presents herself, whilst kings and peers
Look gravely on whilst fierce Bellona fights;
Yet maiden modesty her motions steers,
Nor rudely skips o'er bishops' heads like knights,