XII.
LOYALTY CONFINED.

This excellent old song is preserved in David Lloyd'! “ Memoires of those that suffered in the cause of Charles I." Lond. 1668, fol. p. 96. He speaks of it as the compositioni of a wortly personage, who suffered deeply in those times; and was still living with no other reward than the conscience of having suffered. The author's name he has not mentioned, but, if tradition may be credited, this fong was written by Sir Roger L'ESTRANGE.--Some mistakes in Lloyd's copy are corrected by trvo others, one in MS. the other in the “Westminster Drollery, or a choice Collection of Songs and " Poems, 1671," 12mò.

B

EAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow;

Swell, curled waves, high as Jove's roof; Your incivility doth show,

That innocence is tempest proof; Though surly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm ; & Then strike, Afiction, for thy wounds are balm.

That which the world miscalls a jail,

A private closet is to me:
Whilst a good conscience is my bail,

And innocence my liberty :
Locks, bars, and solitude, together met,
Make me no prisoner, but an anchoret.

10"

I, whilft

I, whilst I wilht to be retird,

Into this private room was turn'd;
As if their wisdoms had conspir'd

The salamander should be burn'd;
Or like those fophifts, that would drown a fish,
I am constrain'd to suffer what I wish.

15

The cynick loves his poverty ;

The pelican her wilderness; And 'tis the Indian's pride to be

Naked on frozen Caucasus: Contentment cannot sinart, Stoicks we fee Make torments easie to their apathy.

These manacles upon my arm

I, as my mistress' favours, wear;
And for to keep my ancies warm,

I have some iron shackles there :
These walls are but my garrison ; this cell,
Which men call jail, doth prove my citadel.

I'm in the cabinet lockt

up,
Like some high-prized margarite,
Or, like the great mogul or pope,

Am cloyster'd up from publick fight:
Retiredness is a piece of majesty,
And thus, proud sultan, I'm as great as thee.

35

Here

336 A N C IÉ N T F ô E M S. Here fin for want of food must starve,

Where tempting objects are not seen; And these strong walls do only serve

To keep vice out, and keep me in : Malice of late's grown charitable suré, I'm not committed, but am kept secure.

40

45

So he that struck at Jason's life *,

Thinking t' have made his purpose sure,
By a malicious friendly knife

Did only wound him to a cure:
Malice, I fee, wants wit ; for what is meant
Mischief, oft-times

proves favour by th’event.

50

When once my prince afiliation hath,

Prosperity doth treason seem ;
And to make smooth fo rough a path,

I can learn patience from him :
Now not to suffer shews no loyal heart,
When kings want ease subjects must bear a part.

55

What though I cannot see my king

Neither in person or in coin; Yet contemplation is a thing

That renders what I have not, mine:

* See this remarkable story in Cicero de Nat. Deorum, Lib. 3 Cic, de offic. Lib. 1, 6, 30; see also Val. Max. 1. 8.

3, c. 28.

My

My king from me what adamant can part,
Whom I do wear engraven on my heart?

Have you not seen the nightingale,

A prisoner like, coopt in a cage,
How doth the chaunt her wonted tale

In that her narrow hermitage?
Even then her charming melody doth prove,
That all her bars are trees, her cage a grove.

65

I am that bird, whom they combine

Thus to deprive of liberty ;
But though they do my corps confine,

Yet maugre hate, my soul is free:
And though immur'd, yet can I chirp, and sing
Disgrace to rebels, glory to my king.

70

75

My soul is free, as ambient air,

Although my baser part's immew'd, Whilst loyal thoughts do ftill repair

T'accompany my folitude: Although rebellion do my body binde, My king alone can captivate my minde.

U The potency and power of kings,

XIII. VERSES BY K, CHARLES 1. "Ilis prince, like his father, did not confine himself to "prole: Billop Burret has given us a pathetic elegy, Jaid

to be quitten by Cherles in Carisbrook castle [in 1648.] “ The topiry is molt umouth and 117/urmonious, but there are “fireng thoughts in it, fome good sense, and a strain of ma“ je/'ie piety.” dir. IV alpole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. 1.

It is in his " Memoirs of the Duke of Hamilton," p. 379, that Burrei hath preferred this elegy, which he tells us he had from a genileman, who waited on the king at the time when it cos critten, and copied it out from the original, It is thure intitkıl, “ MÁFESTY IN MISERY: OR " AN IMPLORATION TO THE KING OF KINGS."

Hune hath remarked of these fianzas, " that the truth of * the sentiment, rather than the elegance of the expresion, " renders them very fathetic." See bis hift. 1763, 4to. Vol. V. pp. 437. 442. quhich is no bad comment upon then. --- These are almost the only verses known of Charles's conposition. Indeed a little Poem ON A QUIET CONSCIENCF, printed in the I vetical Calendar, 1763, vol VIII. is attributed to K. CHARLES I; being reprinted from a thin dvo. published by Nahum Tate, called “ Miscellanea Sacra, or “ Poems on Divine and Moral Subjiets.”

Reat monarch of the world, from whose power springs Record the royal woe my suffering Gngs;

G