XVII.

THE COMPLAINT [ƒ].

I.

N a deep vifion's intellectual scene,

IN

Beneath a bower for forrow made,
Th' uncomfortable fhade,

Of the black yew's unlucky green,
Mix'd with the mourning willow's careful grey,
Where reverend Cam cuts out his famous way,
Th' melancholy Cowley lay:

And lo! a Muse appear'd to his clos'd fight,
(The Muses oft in lands of vifion play)
Bodied, array'd, and feen by an internal light.
A golden harp, with filver strings, she bore,
A wondrous hieroglyphic robe she wore,
In which all colours and all figures were,
That nature or that fancy can create,
That art can never imitate;

And with loose pride it wanton'd in the air.
In fuch a dress, in fuch a well-cloath'd dream,
She us’d, of old, near fair Ismenus' stream,

[f] The plan of this poem is highly poetical: and, though the numbers be not the most pleasing, the expreffion is almoft every where natural and beautiful. But its principal charm is that air of melancholy, thrown over the whole, fo expreffive of the poet's character.

The addrefs of the writer is feen in conveying his juft reproaches on the court, under a pretended vindication of it against the Mufe.

Pindar

Pindar her Theban favourite to meet ;

A crown was on her head, and wings were on her feet.

2.

She touch'd him with her harp, and rais'd him from the ground;

The fhaken strings melodiously refound.
Art thou return'd at last, said she,
To this forfaken place and me?
Thou prodigal, who didft fo loosely waste
Of all thy youthful years, the good eftate;
Art thou return'd here, to repent too late?
And gather husks of learning up at laft,
Now the rich harveft-time of life is paft,
And winter marches on fo faft?

But, when I meant t'adopt thee for my fon,
And did as learn'd a portion affign,

As ever any of the mighty Nine

Had to their deareft children done;

When I refolv'd t'exalt thy' anointed name,

Among the fpiritual lords [g] of peaceful fame;

Thou changeling, thou, bewitch'd with noife and fhow,

Wouldft into courts and cities from me go;
Wouldft fee the world abroad, and have a share
In all the follies and the tumults there,

[g] -Spiritual Lords] Alluding to the ftile of the Houfe of Lords the Lords Spiritual and Temporal. The poet, on this and many other occafions, forgot his own definition of true wit by negatives

"Tis not, when two like words make up one noife." St. ii. 6.

Thou

Thou wouldft, forfooth, be fomething in a ftate,

And business thou wouldst find, and wouldft create:

Bufinefs! the frivolous pretence

Of human lufts, to shake off innocence ;

Bufinefs! the grave impertinence :

Bufinefs the thing which I of all things hate,
Business! the contradiction of thy fate.

3.

Go, renegado, caft up thy account,
And fee to what amount

Thy foolish gains by quitting me:
The fale of knowledge, fame, and liberty,
The fruits of thy unlearn'd apoftacy.

Thou thought'ft, if once the public ftorm were paft,

All thy remaining life should fun-fhine be
Behold, the public ftorm is fpent at last,
The fovereign is toft at fea no more,

And thou, with all the noble company,
Art
got at last to shore.

But, whilft thy fellow-voyagers I fee
All march'd up to poffefs the promis'd land,
Thou ftill alone (alas) dost gaping stand,
Upon the naked beach, upon the barren sand.

4.

As a fair morning of the bleffed fpring,

After a tedious ftormy night;

Such was the glorious entry of our king,
Enriching moisture drop'd on every thing:
Plenty he fow'd below, and cast about him light.

But

But then (alas) to thee alone,

One of old Gideon's miracles was fhewn,
For every tree, and every herb around,
With pearly dew was crown'd,
And upon all the quicken'd ground,

The fruitful feed of heaven did brooding lie,
And nothing but the Mufe's fleece was dry.

It did all other threats surpass,

When God to his own people faid,

(The men, whom through long wanderings he had led)

That he would give them ev'n a heav'n of brass: They look'd up to that heaven in vain,

That bounteous heaven, which God did not reftrain, Upon the most unjust to shine and rain.

5.

The Rachel [b], for which twice feven years and

more,

Thou didft with faith and labour ferve, And didft (if faith and labour can) deserve, Though the contracted was to thee,

Giv'n to another thou didst fee;

Giv'n to another, who had ftore

Of fairer, and of richer wives, before;
And not a Leah left, thy recompenfe to be.
Go on, twice feven years more, thy fortune try,
Twice feven years more, God in his bounty may
Give thee, to fling away.

Into the court's deceitful lottery.

[b] The Rachel] The mastership of the Savoy.

But

But think how likely 'tis, that thou, With the dull work of thy unwieldy plough, Shouldft in a hard and barren feason thrive,

Shouldft even able be to live;'

Thou, to whose share fo little bread did fall,

In the miraculous

year,

when manna rain'd

on all.

6.

Thus fpake the Mufe, and fpake it with a smile,
That feem'd at once to pity and revile.
And to her thus, raifing his thoughtful head,

The melancholy Cowley faid;

Ah wanton foe, doft thou upbraid

The ills, which thou thyself haft made ? When, in the cradle, innocent I lay,

Thou, wicked fpirit, stoleft me away,

And

my abused foul didft bear

Into thy new-found worlds, I know not where,
Thy golden Indies in the air;
And ever fince I ftrive in vain
My ravish'd freedom to regain ;

Still I rebel, ftill thou doft reign;
Lo, ftill in verfe against thee I complain.
There is a fort of ftubborn weeds,

Which, if the earth but once, it ever breeds.
No wholesome herb can near them thrive,
No useful plant can keep alive:

The