ON HIS MAJESTY'S RESTORATION.
131
Did I not know my humble verse must be
But ill-proportion'd to the height of thee,
Thou and the world should see
How much my Muse, the foe of flattery,
Does make true praise her labour and design;
An Iliad or an Æneid should be thine.
But ill-proportion'd to the height of thee,
Thou and the world should see
How much my Muse, the foe of flattery,
Does make true praise her labour and design;
An Iliad or an Æneid should be thine.
And ill should we deserve this happy day,
If no acknowledgments we pay
To you, great patriots of the two
Most truly Other Houses now;
Who have redeem'd from hatred and from shame
A Parliament's once venerable name;
And now the title of a House restore,
To that which was but Slaughter-house before.
If my advice, ye worthies! might be ta'en,
Within those reverend places,
Which now your living presence graces,
Your marble-statues always should remain,
To keep alive your useful memory,
And to your successors th' example be
Of truth, religion, reason, loyalty:
For, though a firmly-settled peace
May shortly make your publick labours cease,
The grateful nation will with joy consent
That in this sense you should be said
(Though yet the name sounds with some dread)
To be the Long, the Endless, Parliament.
If no acknowledgments we pay
To you, great patriots of the two
Most truly Other Houses now;
Who have redeem'd from hatred and from shame
A Parliament's once venerable name;
And now the title of a House restore,
To that which was but Slaughter-house before.
If my advice, ye worthies! might be ta'en,
Within those reverend places,
Which now your living presence graces,
Your marble-statues always should remain,
To keep alive your useful memory,
And to your successors th' example be
Of truth, religion, reason, loyalty:
For, though a firmly-settled peace
May shortly make your publick labours cease,
The grateful nation will with joy consent
That in this sense you should be said
(Though yet the name sounds with some dread)
To be the Long, the Endless, Parliament.
