AN OFFERTORY, Presented at the FƲNERALS of the Right Honourable, EDWARD POPHAM, Admirall, &c.
BE dumb, ye Brats of Poetry; and no more
Prophane those Orgies which you ought t'adore;
Tis not the
Sock or
Buskin can become
These
Tragick Rites, or Personate the Tombe
Of Noble
POPHAM, whose sublimer Hearse
Admits no Rivall with a slow-pac't Verse.
The Quire is too narrow, and th' whole
Nine
Too few, to warble
Anthem's at this Shrine:
Though they could out-weepe
Niobe, and Baptize
Fresh sorrowes in the Cisternes of their Eyes.
Should we designe
His Tomb? all Brittain must
Subscribe to be the
Exchequer of His Dust,[?]
Nor is it lesse then a due Debt which shee
Should pay to
Him, who
fought to make her Free.
Let those that trace the
Series, and the truth
Of
Navall Victories, define his
Youth,
Heithen'd with the Honours of
command, where Hee
Commenc't at Sea, and tooke his first
Degree.
Nor can succeeding times forget to cite,
And quote the story of that dismall
Fight.
Where those proud
Argosies with spreading
Shippes,
Shadow'd the
Maine, and menac't an Eclipse;
And frighted Nature, in a palsie stood,
To see whole Forrests floating on the
Flood.
The Slaughter-breathing-
Brasse grew hot and spoke
In flames of
Lightning, and in clouds of
Smoke,
Till the discoloured
Billowes died in graine
Blusht to behold such shambles of the slaine;
And the pale
Tritons stood like heartlesse Elves,
Trembling to see
Men doe more then
themselves.
These Tragick Triumphs did Great
POPHAM view,
And from their fatall observation drew
Such Warlike
Maximes as did thence translate
Life to His Honours, safety to the
STATE:
But who can write his Noble Acts, who stood
The grand Example of His Birth, and Blood?
And as some stately
Cedar, by His growth
And fruitfulnes, rependeth what she ow'th
To her first
Planter; so Great
POPHAMS Name,
Great in the
Cradle, greater in the
Fame
Of growing Acts, doth His
SIRES Trophies raise,
And interweave His
Lawrell with their
Bayes.
Survey His Zeale, and Faithfulnes, you'lim
And coppy Old
Themistocles by Him:
Those brave
Philaeni, who fell to restore,
And inlarge
Carthage Bonds, could not do more
Then
He, whose aimes in Peace and War were known
[...]
Survey His Noble temperance; you'l find
Fabricius, though before, an Age behind;
Who where He might command, prescrib'd a Law,
And taught His
govern'd Passions to
obey.
Survey His
Justice, Aristides shall
Henceforth be namelesse, and
Apocryphall:
So punctuall were His Actions, and betwixt
Candor, and Innocence, so poiz'd, so fixt,
That chaste, untoucht
Astraea may be sayd
In Him to have liv'd a
Nun, and dy'd a
Mayd.
But why do I contract? What can't be scan'd
In Characters, or taken in short hand?
Since in the transcript of His soule we read
All that for Worth or Honour can be sed:
Whilst His just Actions shall His Fame dilate,
Beyond the reach of Envy, or of Fate.
Thus liv'd, thus dy'd blest
POPHAM; to expresse,
Or speak Him larger, were to speak Him lesse:
For as choice Pictures, where Invention fades,
Are best portray'd in Umbrages and Shades:
So silence here best suits, since 'tis more meet
He should have rather Volumes, then a Sheet:
And 'twere a Crime to cram a copious Theame
In a poore
Schedule, which deserves a
Reame.