Û DL
= ee ES
Vix hostes tanti vel superasse fuit.
Jam tua plüs vivit pictura; at proxima fiet
Regis, et in methodo te peperisse juvat. * O bona conjugii concors discordia vestri !
O sancta hæc inter jurgia verus amor !
Non Caroli puro respirans vultus in auro
Tam populo (et notum est quàam placet ille) placet. Da veniam, hîc omnes nimium quod simus avari;
Da veniam, hîc animos quôd satiare nequis.
Cümaue (sed Ô nostris fiat lux serior annis)
In currum ascendas laeta per astra tuum, Natorum in facie tua viva et mollis imago
Non minüs in terris quàam tua sculpta, regat.
INT. In felicissimam Reginae Mariae fertilitatem (1640).
Naturae facies renovatur quolibet anno, Et sese mirum fertilis ipsa parit.
Sic quoque Naturae exemplar Regina, decusque, In foetu toties se videt ipsa novam.
Pene omnem signas tam saepe puerpera mensem, Et cupit à partu nomen habere tuo.
Quaeque tuos toties audit Lucina labores, Vix ipsa in proprio saepius orbe tumet.
Foecundam semper spectabis, Jane, Mariam, Sive hac sive illa fronte videre voles.
Discite, subjecti, officium : Regina Marito Annua jam toties ipsa Tributa dedit.
Dum redit a sanctis non fessus Carolus aris, Principis occurit nuntia Fama novi.
Non mirum, existat cum proximus ipse Tonanti, Vicinum attingunt quod vito vota Deum.
Non mirum, cum sit tam sancta mente precatus, Quod precibus merces tam properata venit.
Factura à longum nobis jejunia Festum !
O magnas Epulas exhibitura Fames !
En fundunt gemitum, et lacrymarum fluminam, turbam, Cum Regina ipsam parturiisse putes.
Credibile est Puerum populi sensisse dolores; Edidit hinc moestos flebilis ipse sonos.
IV. Ob paciferum Serenissimi Regis CAROL: è Scotia reditum (1641). |
Ergo redis, multa frontem redimitus Oliva, Captivaeque ingens laurea pacis adest.
Vicerunt alii bellis et Marte cruento:
Carole, Tu solus vincere bella potes.
Te sequitur volucri mitis victoria penna, Et Famae pennas praevenit ipsa suae.
Te voluere sequi convulsis Orcades undis, Sed retinent fixos frigora saeva pedes.
Te propè viderunt, Ô terris major Apollo, Nascentem, et Delo plus licuisse dolenx.
Tanta decent Carolum rerum miracula ? Tecum, Si pelago redeas, Insula navis eat,
Si terra, vestri comitentur plaustra Bootae; Sed rota tarda gelu, sed nimis ipse piger.
Compositam placidè jam laetus despicit Arcton, Horrentésque novo lumine adornat equos.
Ah ! nunquam rubeat civili sanguine Tueda, Nec petat attonitum decolor unda mare !
Callisto in vetitum potits descenderet aequor, Quàm vellet tantum moesta videre nefas.
Convenisse feris inter se noverat Ursis, Et generi ingenium mitius esse suo.
Nos gens una sumus; De Scoti nomine et Angli Grammatici soli praelia rauca gerant.
Tam bene cognatos compescit Carolus enses, Et pacem populis fundit ab ore suis.
Haec illi laudem virtus immensa minorem Eripuit; nunquam bella videre potest.
Sic gladios solvit vaginis fulgur in ipsis ; Effectuque potest vix priùs ire suo.
Sic vigil aeterno regnator Phoebus Olympo Circumfert subitam, quà volat ipse, diem.
Nil illi prodest stellarum exercitus ingens; Ut possit tenebras pellere, solus adest.
IT
Waller publie, au cours des notes de son second volume (p. 489), un poème qui avait paru dans l’édition de 1711, à la fin de Syloa, sous le titre : To a Lady who desired a Song of Mr. Cowley, he presented this following. Nous avons retrouvé ce poème parmi le recueil Poems by Several Hands, and on Several Occasions. Collected by N. Tate (London, 1685), avec cette fois pour titre : An Ode written by Mr. Abraham Cowley for her Majesty, Queen to King Charles I. En voici le texte :
Come Poetry, and with thee bring along À rich and painted throng
Of noblest words into my Song;
Into my Numbers let them gently flow,
Soft and smooth, and thick as Snow, »
And turn the Numbers till they prove Smooth as the smoothest Sphear above,
And like a Sphear harmoniously move.
Little dost thou, mean Song, the Fortune know That thou art destin’d to; Or what thy Stars intend to do.
Among a thousand Songs, but few can be Born to the Honour promis’ d Thee; Urania’s self shall thee rehearse, And a just Blessing to Thee give; Thou in her sweet and tuneful breath shall Live.
Her pleasing Tongue with Thee shall freely play, Thou on her Lips shalt stray, And dance upon that Rosvy Way; What Prince alive, that would not envy Thee ! And think Thee higher far than He !
And how wilt Thou Thy Author Crown, When fair Urania shall be known To sing my words, when She but speaks Her own.
Nous avons trouvé au British Museum une édition jusqu'ici inconnue du Discourse by way of Vision, concerning the government of Oliver Cromiwell. Elle se dissimule sous le titre curieux :
The Visions and Prophecies concerning England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Ezekiel Grebner, son of Obadiah Grebner, son of Paul Grebner, who presented the famous book of Prophecies to Queen Elizabeth. — Ezekiel 2-4. For they are imprudent children, and stiff-hearted; I do send thee unto them, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. —- 5. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are à rebellious House) yet shall know that there has been à prophet among them. — London. Printed for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Sign of the Anchor, in the Lower-Walk in the New Exchange. 1661.
Suit une préface qui ne manque pas d'intérêt; nous nous trouvons là en présence, évidemment, de la forme primitive sous laquelle Cowley se proposait de publier son pamphlet, l’enveloppant d’une fiction compliquée.
Advertisement concerning the Book and Author.
Paul Grebner came out of Germany in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and presented to her a book of Prophecies, which she gave to Dr. Nevill, Dean of her Chapel, and he to Trinity College in Cambridge, whereof he was Master, where it remains still in the Library, and has
of late years been made very famous by the fulfilling of many of the
predictions in it concerning our nation, and of mens hopes of the speedy accomplishment of some others concerning the re-establishment and exaltation of the afflicted Royal Family. This Paul Grebner married a wife with a considerable fortune in the North, and had by her a son called Obadiah Grebner, and two daughters (who both dyed young) after which he made a journey into his own country (leaving his family in England) and there deceased. His son about the middle of King James his time married too in the North, and had by his wife (who lost her own life in the childs birth) this Ezekiel Grebner, whom hee bred up very carefully in all manner of good literature, being himself a person of great piety and learning, and esteemed to have the gift of prophecie as well as his father, though nothing of that kind was published by him. From these two sprung our Son and Grandchild of Prophets who was first educated a while at the University of Cambridge, and after sent to several Academies beyond Seas, where he got great reputation for his extraordinary parts and virtues. At the beginning of the late troubles he returned into England, and engaged with the Parliament, not forsaking them, till they (as he was wont to say) revolting, had left their cause and Him to shift for themselves among the men whom he had fought against. After tne death of the King, not onely his detestation of the fact, but his indignation to be so abused and deluded, as to have his own innocency made instrumental towards the producing of such wicked Ends, drew him to such an open and avowed hatred of them, as occasioned the ruine of his estate, the danger of his life, and the losse twice of his liberty, first under the Protector, at the time of whose Funeral (as appeareth by the Book it self) this Vision happened to him, which that he might write and publish with lesse danger than he had formerly spoken, he made a journey into Germany, and had no sooner done the thing he went for, but he died at Strasburg last October. He left all his papers with a Dutch gentleman called Conrart Sluys (who had lived long in England, and spoke our language perfectly well). There were of them (as 1 understand) several little Treaties in English and Latin, a book of Verses upon different occasions, some English, some Latin and some Dutch (for it seems he was a great Lover and writer of Verse, as you will find by his frequent Excursions into it in this Discourse), and lastly three books of Visions and Prophecies concerning the Affairs of our three Nations; the first (which is but as it were a Preface to the others) is that which is here published; the second contains a Dis-
course with the Angel Guardian of England, concerning all the late confusions and misfortunes of it; the third denounces heavy judgements against the three Kingdoms, and several places and parties in them, unlesse they prevent them speedily by serious repentance, and that greatest and hardest work of it, Restitution. There is there upon this subject, the burden of England, the burden of Scotland, the burden of Ireland, the burden of London, the burden of the Army, the burden of the Divines, the burden of the Lawyers, and many others, after the manner of Prophetical threatnings in the Old Testament. Thus I am told by the gentleman who gave me this first book, and who had read the other two. This was left in his hands accidentally, the other were carried, as we believe, into Italy by Mr. Conrart Sluys, and we have used means to recover them from him if it be possible, hoping that they may be blessedly instrumental towards that repentance and conversion of our Nations, which is so evidently necessary for the diverting of all those calamities which are there foretold, and which hang already so apparently over our heads, that they may be seen even by Human Reason, as well as foreseen by Divine inspiration.
