Samuel Pordage

“ B2 Unwearied still, they deep Designs pursue;
What can’t a Chemarim, and Belzeebub do?
For cunning Plot, Trepan, for Oaths and Sham,
The Devil must give place to Chemarim.
These subtil Priests, in Habit black and grave;
Each man a Saint in shew, in Heart a Knave,
Did in Judea swarm, grew great withall,
And like th’ Egyptian Frogs to Court they crawl:
Where, like them too, they never are at rest;
But Bed and Board of Kings, with Filth infest.
To every Shape they could themselves transform,
Angels could seem, but still their Aim was Harm. ”

“ You, and your Priests, they would turn out to Graze,
Nor would they let you smell a Sacrifize,
Those pious Offerings which Priests lasie made,
To Rebels, should, instead of God be paid.
How to the Prey these factious Jews do run!
From you by art they have debauch’d your Son;
That little subtle Instrument of Hell,
Worse than to David was Achitophel,
The young Man tutors, sends him through the Land,
That he the peoples minds may understand ”

“ So Rehoboam caus’d them to rebell,
And lost at once ten Tribes of Israel.
No people were more ready to obey
Their Kings, who rul’d them by a gentle Sway,
Who never sought their Consciences to curb,
Their Freedom or Religion to disturb.
To such they always open-hearted were,
For them, they neither Coin, nor Blood would spare.
Such Kings might their Prerogatives improve,
And rule the Jews, ev’n as they pleas’d with Love ”

“ But however, I shall say, in the words of the Author of the incomparable Absalom and Achitophel, That I am sure the Design is honest. If Wit and Fool be the Consequence of Whig and Tory, no doubt, but Knave and Ass may be Epithets plentifully bestowed upon me by the one party, whilst the other may grant me more favourable ones, than perhaps I do deserve. But as very few are Judges of Wit, so I think, much fewer of honesty; since Interest and Faction on either side, prejudices and blinds the Judgment; and the violence of Passion makes neither discernible in an Adversary. ”

“ Hushai in Silence heard the Prince, and weigh’d
Each word he spake, then to him thus reply’d;
We shall not search into Fates Secret Womb,
God alone knows the things that are to come;
But should you never sit on David’s Throne,
’Tis better to deserve than wear a Crown. ”

“ Which from offending Heirs their Heads can take;
And a First-born can forfeit Life and Throne,
And all by Law: why not a Crown alone?
Strange-bounded Law-makers! whose pow’r can throw
The deadlier Bolt, can’t give the weaker Blow.
A Treasonous Act; nay, but a Treasonous Breath
Against offended Majesty is Death.
But, oh! the wondrous Church-distinction given
Between the Majesty of Kings and Heav’n!
The venial sinner here, he that intreagues
With Egypt, Babylon; Cabals, Plots, Leagues
With Israels Foes her Altars to destroy,
A Hair untouch’d, shall Health, Peace, Crowns enjoy. ”

“ As that of the profound Achitophel.
How, great Achitophel! his Hand, his Tongue!
Babylons Mortal Foe; he who so long
With haughty Sullenness, and scornful Lowr,
Had loath’d false Gods, and Arbitrary pow’r.
’Gainst Baal no Combatant more fierce than he;
For Israels asserted Liberty,
No Man more bold; with generous Rage enflam’d,
Against the old ensnaring Test declaim’d.
Beside, he bore a most peculiar Hate
To sleeping Pilots, all Earth-clods of State.
None more abhorr’d the Sycophant Buffoon,
And Parasite, th’excrescence of a Throne ”

“ Is rendred, by your Foes, a Crime in you.
Leave for a while the Citie and the Court,
Go and divert your self with Country-sport;
Perhaps your Foes may then abate their spight,
And you may be forgot, when out of sight.
By your Retirement, you will let them see
You’d take away all cause of Jealousie.
That you, like Absalom, will never prove,
To court the head-strong Peoples factious Love.
96 [22] Nor will I ever prove Achitophel,
To give you wicked Counsel to rebel. ”

“ But hold! is this the Plots last Murd’ring Blow,
The dire divorce of Soul and Body? No.
The mangled Snake, yet warm, to Life they’ll bring,
And each disjoynted Limb together cling.
Then thus Baals wise consulting Prophets cheer’d
Their pensive Sons, and call’d the scatter’d Herd.
Are we quite ruin’d! No, mistaken Doom,
Still the great Day, yes that great Day shall come,
(Oh, rouse our fainting Sons, and droop no more.)
A Day, whose Luster, our long Clouds blown o’re,
Not all the Rage of Israel shall annoy,
No, nor denouncing Sanedrims destroy. ”

“ Achitophel charm’d with kind Fortunes Smiles,
Flusht with Success, now glows for bolder Toyls.
Great Wits perverted greatest Mischiefs hold,
As poysonous Vapors spring from Mines of Gold.
And proud to see himself with Triumph blest,
Thus to great Absolom himself addrest.
Illustrious Terrour of the World, all hayle:
For ever like your Conquering Self prevaile.
In spight of Malice in full Luster shine;
Be your each Action, Word, and Look Divine,
Nay, though our Altars you’ve so long forborne ”

“ O’er whom Baal’s Priests had absolute Command,
Were bound with Oaths, the Priests Religious Charms,
To Secresie, and furnished with Arms.
Heads they had got, as well as Hands to fight,
Some zealous Princes of the Canaanites,
Who ready were to guide the Common Rout,
So soon as their Conspiracy broke out.
Thus on a firm Foundation they had wrought
Their great Design, well built to Humane thought:
Tho’ nothing that weak Mortals e’er design’d,
But Folly seems to the Eternal Mind,
Who blasting man’s vain Projects, lets him know,
He sits above, sees and rules all below. ”

“ A native Right unto the Throne, by Heav’n:
Who may not be run down by common Cry,
For Vice, Oppression, and for Tyranny.
But if that Kings the tyes of Laws do break,
The People, without fault, have leave to speak;
To shew their Grievances, and seek redress
By lawful means, when Kings and Lords oppress.
Tho they can’t give and take, whene’r they please,
And Kings allow’d to be God’s Images.
The Government you Tyranny must call,
Where Subjects have no Right, and Kings have all. ”

“ To whom the Traytors for Advice resort;
Who like a zealous, trayt’rous Baalite dy’d,
And at the Fatal Tree the Plot deny’d.
Tho’ Amazia did at first believe,
And to the Hellish Plot did Credit give;
Tho’ the Great Council of the Sanhedrim,
Among the Jews always of great Esteem,
Declar’d to all the World this Plot to be,
An Hellish, and a curs’d Conspiracy,
To kill the King, Religion to o’rethrow,
And cause the Jews their Righteous Laws forgoe;
To make the People to dumb Idols fall,
And in the place of God, to set up Baal:
Tho’ all the People saw it, and believ’d ”

“ Free their Estates, and free their Consciences;
’Gainst Israel those confederate Swords they drew,
Which with that vast Assassination flew
Two hundred thousand Butcher’d Victims shar’d
One common doom: No Sex nor Age was spar’d:
Not kneeling Beauties Tears, not Virgins Cries,
Nor Infants Smiles: No prey so small but dies.
Alas, the hard-mouth’d Blood-hound, Zeal, bites through;
Religion hunts, and hungry Jaws pursue.
To what strange Rage is Superstition driven,
That Man can outdo Hell to fight for Heav’n! ”

“ Here Baals Cabal Achitophel survey’d,
And dasht with wonder, half despairing said,
Is this the Hand that Absolon must Crown,
The Founder of his Temples, Palace, Throne?
This, This the mighty Convert we must make?
Gods, h’has a Soul not all our Arts can shake. ”

“ I shall never envy what I desire not, nor am I altogether so doting, as to believe the Issues of my own Brain to exceed all others, and to be so very fond of them, (as most Authors, especially Poets, are) as to think them without fault, or be so blinded as not to see their blemishes, and that they are excelled by others; yet since Poems are like Children, it may be allowed me to be naturally inclined to have some good Opinion of my own, and not to believe this Poem altogether despicable or ridiculous. ”

“ Tho it appears her highest Act of State,
When Human Conducts she does most compleat,
And place them so, for Mankinds good, that they
Are fit to Guide, where others miss their Way;
It being in Worldly Politiques less Great
To be a Law-maker, than Preserve a State.
In Publick Dangers Laws are unsecure,
As strongest Anchors can’t all Winds endure;
Though ’tis in Exigents the wisest Ease
To know who best can ply when Storms encrease;
Whilst other Prospects, by mistaking Fate,
Through wrong Preventions, more its Bad dilate. ”

“ Imprest on’s Soul, seal’d with his Father’s Bloud.
In the Jews Laws, and strict Religion bred,
And Baal’s curst Rites did much abhor and dread.
His Son Eliab, in the Sanhedrim,
With courage had oppos’d Eliakim:
A man whose many Vertues, and his Parts,
Had won upon the sober Peoples Hearts. ”

“ But variously his knowing Muse could sing,
Could Doeg praise, and could blaspheme the King:
The bad make good, good bad, and bad make worse,
Bless in Heroicks, and in Satyrs curse.
Shimei to Zabed’s praise could tune his Muse,
And Princely Azaria could abuse.
Zimri we know he had no cause to praise,
Because he dub’d him with the name of Bays.
Revenge on him did bitter Venome shed,
Because he tore the Lawrel from his head;
Because he durst with his proud Wit engage,
And brought his Follies on the publick Stage. ”

“ If that to Azaria were a Blot,
His Father made it when he him begot:
But Heav’n such Virtue moulded with his Soul,
That his aspiring Lust it did controul.
Thus to wise Hushai he repli’d: I finde
Your Counsel is agreeing with my Minde.
And tho my Foes me an ill man do make,
My Loyalty I never will forsake:
Oh, would to Heav’n I ne’er had been begot!
Or never had been born a Royal Blot!
In Glory, Fame, Crowns, Empire, they delight,
And to all these they would assert my Right.
And my great Thoughts do whisper there is none
Can be more neer a Father, than his Son. ”

“ If ever anything, call’d a Poem, deserv’d a severe Reflection, that of Absalom and Achitophel may justly contract it. For tho’ Lines can never be purg’d from the dross and filth they would throw on others (there being no retraction that can expiate the conveying of persons to an unjust and publick reproach) ; yet the cleansing of their fames from a design’d pollution, may well become a more ingenious Pen than the Author of these few reflections will presume to challenge. ”

“ That all Judea might submit to Baal.
79 [5] Great were their Hopes, and deep was their Design.
The Train already laid to spring their Mine;
Not dreaming Heav’n could their Plots betray,
They only waited an auspicious day.
Nor fail’d their Plot for want of Common Sence,
As some endeavor’d to persuade the Prince:
For with much Art, great Industry and Care,
They all things for their black Design prepare.
Not hatch’d by Common Brains, or men of Earth,
Nor was’t the Issue of a suddain Birth;
But long designing, and well laid it seems,
By Baal’s Arch-priests, and subtil Chemarins. ”

“ With Hell they Joyn their secret Plots to bring
Destruction to Judea and its King.
The Chemerarims, the learnedst Priests, of all
The numerous Swarms which did belong to Baal,
Bred up in subtil Arts, to Jews well known,
And fear’d for Bloody Morals of their own ”

“ Giving his Glories no more fast Renown,
Than with more Honour to be taken down:
Like Victimes by some Sacrificers drest,
Must fall adorn’d, which then they pity least.
But fear not Monmouth, if a Libel’s quill,
Would dregs of Venom on thy Vertue spill ”

“ So bad no man can represent it worse:
Want only Amazia to destroy,
But that they might the Rites of Baal enjoy:
For the good Amazia being gone,
They had design’d a Baalite for the Throne.
Of all their Hopes and Plots, here lay the Store:
For what Encouragement could they have more,
When they beheld the King’s own Brother fall,
From his Religion, and to worship Baal?
80 [6] The Priest well knew what Pow’r, and what Controul
He had usurp’d o’re ev’ry Baalite’s Soul,
That such a Prince must their God’s Cause pursue,
And do whatever they would have him do ”

“ Where I have been satyrical, ’tis without Malice or Revenge; and though I brag not of my Talent therein, I could have said much worse, of some Enemies to our Jewish Heroe. He that will lash others, ought not to be angry if the like be returned to himself: Lex talionis is a general and natural Law. I call not this an Answer to Absalom, I have nothing to do with him, he was a Rebel to his Father ”

“ Poetical Reflections ON A LATE POEM CALLED, Absalom and Achitophel. When late Protectorship was Canon-Proof,
And Cap-a-pe had seiz’d on Whitehall-Roof,
And next, on Israelites durst look so big,
That Tory-like, it lov’d not much the Whigg:
A Poet there starts up, of wondrous Fame;
Whether Scribe or Pharisee, his Race doth name,
Or more t’intrigue the Metaphor of Man,
A Committee-Man. Got on a Muse by Father-Publican:
For ’tis not harder much, if we tax Nature,
That Lines should give a Poet such a Feature ”

“ Whence some their Counter-Politicks extend,
To ruine such can Evils best amend.
A Thwarting Genius, which our Nation more
Than all its head-strong Evils does deplore;
And shews what violent Movements such inform,
That where a Calm should be, they force a Storm;
As if their Safety chiefly they must prize
In being rid of Men esteem’d more Wise.
To this Great, Little Man, we’ll T’other joyn,
Held Sufferers by one Tripartite Design.
As from a Cubick Power, or Three-fold Might,
Roots much expand, as Authors prove aright ”