[Page 1]

The Vision, A POEM.

Being an ANSWER to the Lord Beilhaven's SPEECH.

1 COme hither ye Dreamers of Dreams,
2 Ye Soothsayers, Vizards and Witches,
3 That puzzle the World with hard Names,
4 And without any meaning make Speeches:
5 Here's a Lord in the North,
6 Near Edinburgh Frith;
7 Tho little has been said of his Name or his Worth;
8 He's seen such a Vision, no Mortal can reach it,
9 I challenge the Clan of Egyptians to match it.
10 And first, in the dark it was told him,
11 Which might very well appall us,
12 That the World was a fighting of old time,
13 From Nimrod to Sardanapalus;
14 That it's all Revelation,
15 You may pawn your Salvation,
16 For the Devil a History gives the relation,
17 But it's all in the Deeps, no Mortal can reach it,
18 We may challenge the Clan of Egyptians to match it,
[Page 2]
19 Then Scotland comes next on the Stage,
20 For in Visions you must not be nice,
21 And a skip of three thousand Years age,
22 Is nothing where Men are Concise;
23 I name it the rather
24 Because you may gather,
25 How that every Man is the Son of his Father,
26 A Truth for the future no Mortal can doubt,
27 Whatever they might, before he found it out.
28 But heark, now the Wonders begin,
29 And take care least the Vision should fright ye;
30 For if it should make you unclean,
31 He has not told how he would dight ye.
32 First the National Church,
33 Left quite in the Lurch,
34 Was a truckling down to the Steeple and Porch,
35 But what is still worse, she's afraid of her Friends,
36 So Fevers make frantick Men-hasten their Ends.
37 Was ever such Conjuring known,
38 Or the Church so claw'd by the Steeple,
39 Non-jurors are her Champions grown,
40 And the Prelatists vote for the People.
41 Protesters appear
42 And the Jacques they adhere,
43 And Anti-christ votes the true Church to secure,
44 O Scotland! Was ever such Conjuring known,
45 That the Mitre supports the same Church pull'd her down.
46 Then the Nation in Sack-cloth appear'd,
47 And the Visionest sadly bewail'd her,
48 For Mischiefs the like were ne'er heard,
49 Her Priv'lege of Slavery fail'd her.
50 For the Mob he complain'd
51 That being born Chain'd,
52 Blest Bondage was lost, and damn'd Freedom remain'd,
53 So with Liberty scar'd, and afraid to grow Rich;
54 They su'd for Repentance in a dolorous Speech.
55 And first our Amazement 'll increase.
56 The Souldiers disbanded appear,
[Page 3]
57 Poor Drudges put Prentices to Peace,
58 For want of the Blessings of War;
59 For tho it's in the Book,
60 Yet the Scripture mistook,
61 When it told us, our Swords should to Plow-shares be broke:
62 It might be long ago a Happiness there,
63 But it's plain by the Vision it's otherwise here.
64 The Merchants are next on the Stage;
65 The Enchantment has circl'd them in;
66 For fear they in Wealth should engage,
67 They resolve they'll never begin
68 The Burghs are afraid
69 They shall have too much Trade,
70 And the Nation to Plenty be safely betray'd,
71 So they gravely Address, that to keep them secure,
72 As you find them, you leave them, both Foolish and Poor.
73 The next is indeed a sad Sight,
74 The like on't has rarely been known,
75 'Twill ruin the Country quite,
76 It will never recover its own;
77 The Plow Man's undone,
78 From Father to Son;
79 For a terrible draw-back on Corn will come on,
80 In plenty they'll Ship it, be there never so much;
81 And to load us with Money, sell all to the Dutch.
82 O ye Virgins! (both Sexes) draw near,
83 And tho it's but in Spectrum showen,
84 In sympathy lend us a Tear,
85 As the Case may sometime be your own;
86 The Ladies Condition
87 Deserves your Compassion;
88 'Tis very severe to make Beauty petition:
89 Yet here his strange Tragedies turn'd to a Jigg,
90 That the Men want Employments, yet the Ladies shou'd Beg.
91 Then a Crew of old Sailers were brought,
92 At their true Benefactors to Rail;
93 Their Freight for strange Nations was bought,
94 And this will cut off the Entail;
[Page 4]
95 They thought it was hard
96 The Dutch Ships to discard,
97 And to force the poor Scots their own Trade to regard,
98 For Liberty claims a Freedom to ill,
99 And it's hard to get Money against a Man's Will.
100 And now the Exorcist in turn
101 Like a Ghost in a Circle arises,
102 Without any Tears he can mourn.
103 He is Extasies all and Surprises.
104 But what's wildest of all,
105 And does strangely appall,
106 Two hours he talk'd, and said nothing at all:
107 But let drop a few hypocritical Tears,
108 So the Crocodale weeps on the Carcase she tears;
109 Then in strange Hebrew words he bewail'd ye,
110 Tho the Jest was by few understood,
111 Tu quoque mi fili Squadrone,
112 Or in Scots, the Parliament's wood,
113 So Coesar they say,
114 Cry'd out in a fray,
115 When they kill'd him, because he'd his Country betray,
116 For Brutus his Country's Liberty sought,
117 Was a Simily e're-soon happily brought?
118 Thus he rummag'd the Histories old,
119 Like the Tale of the Bear, and the Fiddle;
120 For as 'twas unluckily told,
121 So the Story broke off in the middle.
122 Some said my Lord cry'd,
123 Tho others deny'd;
124 Which Matter of Moment it's hard to decide,
125 But here's a more difficult Matter remains,
126 To tell if he shew'd us less Manners or Brains.

Text

  • TEI/XML (XML - 338K / ZIP - 29K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 4.8K / ZIP - 2.6K)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The Vision, A POEM. Being an ANSWER to the Lord Beilhaven's SPEECH.
Author: Daniel Defoe
Themes: visions; Scotland
Genres: answer/reply

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. The vision, a poem: Being an answer to the Lord Beilhaven's speech. By a person of quality. [London]: Printed at Edinburgh; and reprinted at London for Benjamin Bragg, 1706, pp. 1-4. 4p.; 4⁰. (ESTC T6727; Foxon D188; OTA K023749.000)

Editorial principles

The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.