The procession a poem on Her Majesties funeral / by a gentleman of the army.

The procession a poem on Her Majesties funeral / by a gentleman of the army.

Table of contents

Title page

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Lord CUTTS.

The Procession. A POEM ON Her MAJESTIES FUNERAL.

The Procession. A POEM ON Her MAJESTIES FUNERAL.

[Page]

THE days of Man are doom'd to Pain and Strife,

Quiet and Ease are Foreign to our Life;

No satisfaction is, below, sincere

Pleasure itself has something that's severe:

But long the fickle wayward British Isle

Did with false Mirth and Joy it self beguile;

[Page]To wild Excess their Frantick Humours fly,

While WILLIAM's flowing Fortunes bouy 'em high:

But a chill Damp, and Faintness seize on all,

By Dread MARIA's Universal Fall:

Their usual Luxury all Orders leave,

With Joint-consent to be their Selves, and Grieve.

From distant homes the Pitying Nations come,

A Mourning World t' attend her to her Tomb:

The Poor, Her First and Deepest Mourner's are,

First in Her Thoughts, and Earliest in Her care;

All hand in hand with common Friendly Woe,

In Poverty, our Native State, they go:

Some whom unstable Errors did engage,

By Luxury in Youth, to need in Age:

Some who had Virgin Vows for Wedlock broke,

And where, they help expected, found a Yoke;

Others who labour with the double Weight

Of Want, and Mem'ry of a Plenteous State;

There Mothers Walk wh' have oft despairing stood,

Pierc'd with their Infants deafning sobs for Food;

Then to a Dagger ran, with threat'ning Eyes

To stab their Bosoms, and to hush their Cries;

But in the thought they stopp'd, their Looks they tore,

Threw down the Steel, and Cruelly forbore:

[Page]The Innocents their Parent's Love forgive,

Smile at their Fate, nor know they are to live:

These modest wants had ne'er been understood,

But by MARIA's Cunning to be good;

None on their State now cast a Pitying Eye,

Hear their Complaints, or will their Want supply;

They move as if they went, (so deep's their moan)

Not only to Her Grave, but to their own;

That were relief, but coming Days they mourn,

Oppress'd with Life, and fearful to return.

With Dread concern, the Awful Senate came,

Their Grief, as all their Passions, is the same.

The next Assembly dissipates our Fears,

The Stately Mourning Throng of British Peers;

There, is each Member skill'd, and able known

For ev'ry weighty Purpose of a Throne;

T' adorn, or to defend their Native Isle,

Or Jarring Neighbour States to reconcile;

But most from Ormond's Port our Souls we chear,

And Hecatombs expect for every Tear:

For to the Foe is certain Vengeance sent,

When Heroes suffer, and the Brave lament;

[Page]To one their every Character may fall,

Sommer's, th' implicit Man that speaks 'em all,

That comprehensive Man unskill'd in naught,

With all the Arts of Learn'd Assemblies fraught;

Ready his Wit, his Language Free and Pure,

His Judgment Quick and Sudden, yet mature;

He can their different Powers at once dispense,

So justly is he form'd to speak their Sense:

But now Dumb Sorrow represents 'em more,

Then e'er his Powerful Eloquence before,

Though when his Lips with their known Rhet'rick flow,

The World's as silent, as himself is now.

Now all are Past, yon' Wondrous Man appears,

We yield to Gay Distress and comely Tears:

Villars! a Name design'd by Nature Chief,

T' invite to Ioy, or reconcile to Grief.

The Gross of Men were to course Uses Born,

But Heav'n made them Creation to adorn,

With mix'd disturb'd Delight by all is seen,

His Moving Manner, and his Speaking meen;

Rage, Pity, and Disdain at once we trace,

In the distracted Beauties of his Face;

We measure his each Step, each Motion Scan,

The Grief of Woman! but the Strength of Man!

[Page]To such an Heigth his swoln Afflictions grow,

H' inspires the Steed he leads with Humane Woe;

The Generous Beast looks back to 's Purple side,

And now laments what was before his Pride:

No more at Voice of Warring Musick bounds,

He feels New Passion as the Trumpet sounds;

Nor knows what Power, his Courage stole away,

But heaves into big Sighs when he would Neigh.

Here at a stand our weary'd Sorrow seems

Rack'd with new Forms, and tortur'd with Extremes;

E'er this sad Triumph past we found relief,

Continu'd anguish lost the sense of Grief;

But still the Chariot fainting force supply'd,

Anew we all reviv'd, anew we dy'd;

Grief did all bounds ambitiously deny,

Swell'd every Breast, and melted every Eye.

Lo! Death himself! See him Triumphant ride!

Lo! the Grim Being moves with sullen Pride;

His Jaws are glutted for th' ensuing Year,

He'll shun our Cities, and our Armies spare:

The Ladies plac'd on high with looks deject,

With down intended looks our Souls direct.

Gold, Purple, Tissue, Crowns Enchant the sight,

And move our Grief, that us'd to give Delight:

[Page]There drowsie Gems, their Nature know no more,

But gather Darkness now, as Light before;

There all that's Bright i' th' Widow'd World is seen,

Too faint t' express, ev'n the Departed Queen.

No Mortal Beauty yet recalls an Eye,

The nearest Mourners pass neglected by;

But as the Ladies March, the lengthening row

Inspires a more familiar Kindly Woe:

Sure that's the Region of departed Loves,

Such Gloomy Day enlights th' Elysian Groves;

One Universal Face their Passion wears,

But Darby's smother'd Sighs and Gushing Tears,

In Her Affliction takes an abject State,

Something so humbly Low, yet very Great;

No single Cause so different Grief cou'd send,

She Weeps as Subject, Servant, and a Friend:

To close the Pomp the Fair Attendant Maids,

Appear true Angels dress'd like fancy'd Shades;

Their Grief imparts t' unpitied Lover's ease,

Sadly they Charm, and dismally they Please:

Their clouded Beauties speak Man's gawdy strife,

The glittering Miseries of Humane Life.

[Page]

Who that these passing Obsequies had seen,

Wou'd e'er believe this were that very Queen;

That very Queen, whom Heav'n so lately gave

A Crown, in the same Place where, now, a Grave!

I see Her yet, Nature and Fortune's Pride,

A Scepter Grac'd her Hand, a King her Side,

Coelestial Youth and Beauty did impart,

Prophetick Vision to the coldest Heart:

We saw her Children should succeed her sway,

And future Monarchs round her Table Play.

Her People's Acclamations rend the Skies,

The ecchoing Firmament returns their Cries.

She unconcern'd and careless all the while,

Rewards their loud applauses with a Smile,

With easie Majesty, and Humble State,

Smiles at the trifle Power, and knows its date.

What being prov'd so furiously enclin'd,

For that Sh' each Day assum'd, each Night resign'd?

So short a Period to Her Glories giv'n,

The Crime of Fate, and the reproach of Heav'n!

But now the Pomp to th' sacred Abbey's led,

The Wide Capacious Palace of the Dead;

The Glaring Lamps disturb their usual Night,

They half awaken'd with th' intruding Light.

[Page]Souls to a Slanber Wake, and move their Clay,

They think her Pile, their Resurrection Day.

What Hands commit the Beauteous Good and Just,

The Dearer Part of WILLIAM to the Dust?

In Her his Vital Heat, his Glory lies,

In Her the Monarch liv'd, in Her he Dies.

One was their Soul while he secur'd Her rest,

War's Hardships: seem'd Luxurious to his Breast:

And he Abroad, no Peace repose could yield;

She felt the distant Dangers of the Field.

No form of State makes the Great Man forego,

The task due to Her Love, and to His Woe;

Since his kind frame can't the large suffering bear,

In Pity to his People, he's not here:

For to the mighty loss we now receive,

The next Affliction were to see him Grieve.

There, MARY, undisturb'd in quiet Sleep,

None shall Profane the Urn thy Ashes keep,

Till, time's no more, by all thou shalt be read,

And be a Monument to thy Neighbour dead;

For British Bards thy Memory shall save,

And snatch thy Eternal Virtue from the Grave.

FINIS.

[Page]

§

[Page]

[Page]

The Procession.

A POEM ON Her Majesties FUNERAL.

By a Gentleman of the Army.

— Fungar inani

Munere —

Virg.

LONDON, Printed for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1695.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Lord CUTTS.

[Page]

[Page]

My Lord,

COmpassion which gives us a more sweet, and generous touch, than any other concern that attends our Nature, had at the Funeral-Procession so sensible an effect upon ev'n Me, that I could not forbear being guilty of the Paper with which I presume to trouble your Lordship. For what could be a more moving consideration, then that a Lady, who had all that Youth, Beauty, Virtue, and Power could bestow, should be so suddenly snatch'd from us? A Lady that was serv'd by the Sword, and celebrated by the Pen of my Lord Cutts. Though indeed, if we rightly esteem'd things, we should lament for our own sakes, not Hers; so Poor a thing it is to make an Evil of that, which is certainly the kindest Boon of Nature, our Dissolution. But the Men of Honour are not so ungratefull to their Friend Death, as to look at him in the ghastly dress the World gives him, of Rawbones, Shackles, Chains, Diseases, and Torments; they know that he is so far from bringing such Company, that he relieves us from 'em. So little is there in what Men make such Pother about, and so much is it an Irony to call it brave to expire calmly, and resolution to go to rest. This [Page] is no News to your Lordship, whom Death has so often allur'd with the Glory of Dangers, and with the Beauty of Wounds, I'll not be so Poetical to say, your Muse hover'd about you, and sav'd you inspight of the many you have receiv'd, but am sure, I may say, she'll preserve you, when you can receive no more: For Apollo is a Physician ev'n after Death: As to my Verses, all, methinks, on the Dead Queen ought to be address'd to your Lordship; who, in the Dedication of your own Works, best adorn'd her Living; if Good for your Entertainment, Bad for your Pardon; if, when these are thrown aside, an Eye cast upon 'em introduces the mention of so excellent a Princess, where otherwise She had not been spoken off, I have my full end; nor do I think I come late on a Subject, which all Good Men will Eternally dwell upon; I am sensible how short I have fall'n of expressing the gracefull concern of some Honourable Personages, whose Names I have presum'd with; I design'd 'em only an oblique Commendation, and nam'd 'em for the very Reason they walk'd at the Funeral, which was not to showe themselves, but to do Honour to the Queen. But should it prove any way offensive, I hope to shun their, and your Lordship's Resentment by the concealment of my name, and borrow the unknown Knight's device, in Sir Philip Sidney, of the Fish Sepia, which when catch'd in the Net, casts a black Ink about it, and so makes it's escape. This thought, my Lord, checks the fervent Ambition I have long had, of expressing my self, My Lord,

Your Lordship's Most Passionate Admirer And Most Devoted Humble Servant.

March 19. 1694/5.

Information about this book

Title statement

The procession a poem on Her Majesties funeral / by a gentleman of the army.

Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729.

Edition statement

1695

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A61384

ID [STC]

Wing S5381

ID [STC]

ESTC R3783

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12186757

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12186757

ID [VID]

55800

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Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61384)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55800)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 879:4)

Source

— The procession a poem on Her Majesties funeral / by a gentleman of the army., Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729..

Extent

[4], 8, [1] p.

Printed for Thomas Bennet ...,. London :: 1695.. (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.) (cf. Wise, T.J. The Ashley library. 1922-1936. v. 5, p. 199)

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