NOr could
Prometheus, when he would have stole
From jealous
Iupiter a living cole
To animate his well dissembled clay,
Either prevail, or go unplagu'd away.
Nor when proud Nature to recruit the earth
And brave Heaven, brought forth
Giants at each birth,
(Those stalking
Mountains, sons of slime and mud
The Reliques of the universal Floud)
Setting them all to work, as soon as born
Then when their
Highnesses, did not think scorn
To tread the
Mortar, and were
Masons made
And
Brick layers—the only thriving Trade,
Though they design'd, with high & pointed Towers
To pierce & stab those clouds, whose mighty showers
Had drown'd their Fathers, and to climb so high,
Till they pickt Stars (like Cowslips) from the sky,
Could they prevent their foolish
Babels fall,
But were turn'd
canting, wandring Gypsies all.
Nor shalt thou better speed (proud
Rome) not thou,
Though thou hast carried Empire on thy brow,
And with thy
Cannons made all Monarchs quake
As thunder doth the trembling Mountains shake:
No, though thy head, thy lofty head thou raise
To try thy horned strength with
Cynthia's.
No, though thy Father be the Prince of th'Air
And with thee doth his vast Dominion share;
No, though thy Eagles wings thou stretch as wide
As
Sol his beams, or
Neptnne doth his Tyde;
No, though thy greedy cruel breed be nurst
With the same milk thy Founder suckt at first;
And though thy zeal (Ah, cursed zeal!) aspire
To raise thy
Pope▪ great
Pyramids of fire,
[Page]From burned Cities; yet thy self (proud Dame)
Who burnt with
Sodoms lust, shalt with her flame.
Where are thy
Fauxes in their dark disguise,
Incendiary Priests, and subtile spies,
Who when our
Londons fiery tryal came,
Like
Salamanders feasted in the flame,
And curst the hands that first should lay a Brick
Tow'rds the rebuilding that grand
Heretick;
Who when great
Greshams spicy nest consum'd
(Though the immortal founder stood perfum'd
In the rich Incense) hug'd themselves to see
Our Monarchs martyr'd in
Effigie.
Now let them stare and startle at the fight,
And bark as Curs do at the Moons fair light:
Let them not boast their
Charles la grand, la Boon
Great Brittain can outshine them both in
One,
A Prince of far more gracious intents
Than all thy
Urbans, Clements, Innocents,
Upon whose head shall stand a
Triple Crown,
When thy grand Tyrants shall be tumbled down.
Still on our
Thames shall noble Barges ride,
When
Tyber to a Ditch shall shrink her pride.
Our
Lions still are
Rampant, and our
Rose
Yields her friends sweetness, prickles to our foes:
Our Citizens shall feast in their
Guild-hall,
And eat
Geese—Patrons of thy
Capital.
Justice and Mercy now shall guard her store,
And her
Mock-Giants she shall need no more,
Th'
Exchange that Royal Infant, shortly will
Her own and forreign Language speak with skill;
And on that
Acre the Noon Sun shall see
[...]
Ready to serve their
Turns who
turn to you.
Kind heaven and all the Elements conspire
(And such conspiracy's we may desire)
To make our City fairer, stronger, higher,
The Sun gets up each morn at peep of day
To oversee the Work, and late doth stay
Before he lets the Labourers retreat,
As if he undertook the work by th'
Great.
The earth gives clay, the water moistens it;
The gentle Air tempers and makes it fit,
And then the fire, as if it meant to make
Full satisfaction, and revenges take
Upon it self, (though in a smother'd way
As modest Thieves their injuries repay)
VVorks in the
Brick kilne, works till it grow sick,
And fainting dyes, leaving on every
Brick
And every
tyle a lasting
blush—as who
VVould say, for former
Mischiefs this I do.
Nor doth the Sun alone the VVork o're see,
But there is
One as vigilant as he,
A
Pious, Loyal, Wise, Iust M
[...]y'r, a Lord
VVho like
Zerubbabel with awful sword
Defends the
trowel, whose sweet voice hath powers
(As
Orpheus had to raise his
Theban Towers)
To make the teeming bowels of the earth
Shoot up new
buildings by an easie
birth.
He guards the
Sabbaths with an holy care,
And blesseth all the week by that
days pray'r
His
Magistracy lies not in his Train,
His stately Steed, his Scarlet, or his Chain;
He and his sword in Velvet fast asleep▪
[Page]But watchful, God's peace and the Kings to keep;
VVith a strict hand the Ballance he doth hold,
Trying the
Cause how weighty, not the Gold:
As he with virtue meets, or with offence,
So do his looks, or smiles, or frowns dispence;
His smoother Chin carrying as grave a grace,
As the
Diocesans well bearded face.
Boast on (
old Beldame Rome) and brag—Thou hast
Thousands of Sons and Daughters pure and chast,
Yet thou shalt find for all their single Lives,
But little
Virgin Honey in their
Hives:
Those thievish
Drones thy
Fryars without wings,
Creep to thy
Nuns, and leave behind their
stings.
Thou hast thy
Ioan's as well as
Popes—Fame says,
Thy
Innocents have their
Olympia's.
But
London which the Nuptial Band allows,
And hates to lock her Virgins up in Vows,
Can glory in her
Batchelor Lord May'r,
Chast as the
Dove, though of the
Ravens Hair:
The
Widow City is his
Spouse—and He
Cares for her
Children and great
Family;
Not doth he stand (although he lyes) alone
(He were a
Phenix if he were but
One)
But as the
Moon, when she her progress goes,
The
Court of Stars, as her Attendants shows:
So when
Beloved Turner please to call,
Great troops of
Batchelors adorn his Hall;
None
male content, and yet
male Virgins all)
On
May's fifth day (Oh, 'twas a wondrous sight!)
Three hundred
Virgins, Virgins day and night;
Virgins in
Breeches, Virgins all as true,
Some hoary old, some young, but all were chast
Either above, or underneath the wast;
None of them had they been in
Scottish School,
Had
grunted in the
Penitential stool;
None, had they liv'd in times of
Commutation,
Had pay'd a stone to
Pauls for
Fornication.
None from an
Ordeal Tryal need to fly
That
Purgatory fire, of Chastity;
None free of
Creswel Colledge, not a Man
Need fear to meet a
Nurse or some
Trappan;
None of them all, (for ought the Poet knows)
Wears (though anothers Hair) anothers Nose.
My
Lord himself, and all his Guests, I think
In the same Cup, might without danger drink▪
Yet none (if called lawfully) but can
Beget a Son, may prove an
Alderman.
These Sons of Peace, and Sons of
Mars, if
Charls
Please to take notice of his
Neighbours snarls
Came not to shew their Valour in his Hall,
To combate
Custard, batter
Pasty Wall:
To try the Issue of an equal
Bet,
Whether their
Teeth, or
Knives were sharper set,
To take the
Red-coat Lobsters by the back
And with bold hands, their clattering
Armour crack
But their chief errand was, to pray he would
Command their persons, and accept their
Gold.
And if their Votes and mine were current, He
Should their
Perpetual Dictator be.
But if the scarlet
Sphere must turn about
[Page]
[...] turning round makes giddy heads I doubt
[...] his
Exemplar Government shall stand,
And teach Successors how they should command.
A
Virgin Queen, and
Batchelor Lord Mayor,
To
England are as prosperous as rare,
She made the
City love the
Court, and He
The
Court the
city by his Loyalty.
He a wise Imitator of his King,
Finds Moderation is a healing thing.
Oh, if our
churches Overseers would yield▪
And let poor Labourers come forth and build,
Such as
untempered Mortar dare not use,
Nor for Foundations,
straw and
stubble chuse;
Though every stone
across they do not lay,
But some work one, and some another way,
Our
New Ierusalem should soon behold
Sion in glory, though it wanted
Gold.
Hard upon Hard, no lasting work will make,
Nor can one
Flint another kindly break:
But Moderation is a
cement sure,
'Tis that which makes the
universe endure
That makes our
climate prove a
temperate Zone
Betwixt the
Torrid, and the
Frigid One.
If we all build up
Pater-noster-Row,
We may let
Ave Maria corner go;
Black and
White Fryar did together stand,
And may again, if Wisdom might command,
If not, I'le say no more, but this will swear,
Bedlam and
Bishopsgate neer Neighbours are.
FINIS.