AN ELEGY ON THE GLORIOUS DEATH OF Col. John Okey; Who Suffered at TYBURN, the 19th. of April, 1662.
TIs best seen at Sun-set, whose the Day was.
Though sev'ral Acts of thy Life (John) might pass
Musters for good and brave; yet, who could tell
That thou wouldst carry't thorow half so well?
Thou were retreated, and (forc'd to rally)
Didst out-do all thy former Chivalry.
Thy Friends then have more cause to sing, than groan;
For, sure, as when thou wert wont to go on,
GOD was with thee; so, art thou now with Him,
In being thus brought off, though Limb by Limb.
But why are not thy Quarters perch'd, like theirs,
Who prov'd i'th'close thy Fellow-Souldiers?
The Cabbs would seem kind; but were wise, and did
Know they were safest, when OKEY was hid.
Nor did
Sir Georg Downing.
thy Lay-Chaplain bewray poor DelfFor the discov'ry of thee, but himself
To be
The Hangman.
Squire Duns small factor, & the HighAnd Mighty Lords o'th Low Lands to be nigh
The honour of making their Countrey free,
By giving't up (like ours) to Monarchie.
Next, how came thy last Harangue to disown
The Horridness, though not the Action?
The sence of that Guilt, which once made thee fly,
Did ill to leave thee, when thou wert to dye.
Methinks I see thee busling up to say,
In spight of both the Sh'riffes (where, by the way,
VVhen any Malefactor comes to bleed
For Theft, or what else is a Crime indeed,
Shall we reade of an Executioner
Capitulating with the Thief, for fear
He should perswade the People that he dy'd
For that, which Reason would have justify'd?)
If to have fled, be a Confession
Of Guilt, the Regicide (that now is grown
The only right) heretofore many a time
To Fields, Brooks, Walls, and Woods confest a crime.
Methinks I hear thee again say, If to be
Condemn'd, make a man guilty, What was he
Whom we condemn'd? Or, if be unjustly
Did suffer, though condemn'd, why might not I?
He had (I'm sure) fairer play for's Life, then
Any of us three, being heard, and heard agen:
While all that I was try'd upon, amounted
To this, Whether the twelve pickt men, accounted
Me the same Okey, which was of that Gang,
Such an Act meant, without hearing, to hang.
Well, let 'um hang (John) such as are fast ty'd,
And mangle such, as are first mortify'd:
Let 'um persume the Roads with Garbage broil'd,
And feast the Fowls with Flesh they never foyl'd;
Shewing by their moderated Greatness,
How nobly they obtain'd what they possess.
Bless'd (mean-while) be those early Buds, that met
By thousands to attend thy Body; yet
Were fain to be mockt, lest, i'th' very Grave
Thy Mock-attainder should true Honour have.
England shall want Trees for Gibbets, before
Those Trees shall want the Fruit they lately bore,
Or, that Fruit Kernels, or those Kernels Earth
Wherein to roar, and whence to take new birth:
Till our Posterity arrive to th' Fame
Of be'ng born in an Orchyard of the same.
From such Beginnings GOD was pleas'd to bring
That Gospel, which now through the World doth ring
‘In Sanguine Semen.’
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1662. 45.