MEMENTO MORI
AN ELEGY ON That Great Example of Heroick Valour The Right Honourable, Edvvard Earl of Sandvvich.
SHall Mercenary Pens
Prostitute Verse,
To
Guild with Flatteries each Trivial Hearse?
And strive in vain t'
Imbalme some
Silken Sot,
Whose
Name deserves, soon as his
Corps to Rot:
Shall
useless men, whom Age, or Surfeits Slay,
Or
just deserv'd Diseases sweep away,
Have
Gaudy Tombs, and
Epitaphs, that rise
In strange Impert'nent
Plaudit's to the skies,
And
Noble SANDWICH thus submit to
Fate[?]
Without a Muse, his
FAME to Celebrate;
Condoling in such Passionate
Strains, till we
In our own
Tears, be drown'd as well as
HE.
He that in
Honours Field, his Countries Cause
Did more, than
Fancy can reach when it draws
The Acts of
Hero's, and will henceforth shame
The
brightest Glories of the
Roman Name:
Who stood the
Shock of all the
Mogan Fleet,
And almost
Single durst their
numbers meet:
'Gainst whom he
long maintain'd a doubtful fight,
Dispatching
Hundreds to Eternal Night;
(Whose
base Lives yet no Recompence afford,
Their blood's so thick it
Blots a Noble Sword;)
Some
Sunk to Rights, not able to abide
The fierce salutes He gave them each
Broad-side:
Others
stood off, their
Hulks and
Tackle tore,
And Decks o'reflow'd with Brandy & with
Gore.
But
Fate, that sometimes makes
Vertue its slave,
And takes delight for to oppress the
Brave,
Seeming at length with the Foe to Conspire,
Spight of Resistance, set his Ship on
Fire:
Though he with Noble Resolution chose
Either to bring her
Off, or his Life lose:
VVhen thick as
Attoms Cannon Bullets flew
And all his men were
kill'd, or else
withdrew:
When stoutest
rocks, that Tempests did out-brave
Trembled for fear, and
duckt under a Wave:
When certain
ruine on all sides drew near,
And Death in several
Vizards did appear;
The cruel
Elements seeming at strife,
VVhich of them
first should rob him of his Life:
Had you but seen how
Ʋnconcern'd he stood,
Flames over's Head, his Feet dabling in Blood;
In what a
fearless and
compos'd Estate
He
brav'd the approach of the severest Fate;
And did at last
from Death
to Death Retire
Courting the
Water, to avoid the
Fire;
You would confess, such
Courage ne'r can be
Enough bewail'd in griefs
Hydrography.
And would you,
Cruel Seas! destroy Him there
Whom rageing Fire, & Cannon-shot did spare?
By this
Black deed henceforward you'l become
More odious for, than
Mare Mortuum.
Kind
Dolphines should methinks in Shoals appea
[...]
And on their Backs him above VVater bear;
Or some
new Island in his Rescue peep,
Rather than he should Perish in the Deep:
Could not the
Winds to Countermand his death
with their whole
Card of lungs, redeem his breath
No! 'tis decre'd, his
Soul must leave her
Clay,
And took at parting a contrary way
I'th Flames,
Elias-like, that up ascends,
And to it every blessed Center tends:
VVhilst
Sea-Nimphs ne'r Enamour'd so before
Doat on the Corps, and wast it to the Shore:
Knowing it ought, a Nobler Tomb to have,
Than the Imposthum'd Bubble of a VVave.
FINIS.
MEMENTO MORI[?]
London, Printed for Philip Brooksby.