[Page 27]

The Installment.

I.
1 LOng have I Languisht in the Fire
2 Of an unquenchable Desire;
3 And will it not suffice thee Love,
4 That I thy patient Martyr am,
5 Unless thy Worship I promove,
6 And proselyte others to thy Flame?
7 If as a Laick-Lover ought I act,
8 What canst thou more from me expect,
9 Who am not gifted for a Teacher in the Sect?
II.
10 My Gifts of Nature are too small;
11 I own it, and pretend no Call!
12 Beside, I've found at last the Cheat;
13 The Flame that do's thy Priests inspire,
[Page 28]
14 (Pretended for Seraphick Heat)
15 Is meer Enthusiastick Fire.
16 When Heav'n inspires the mind no Trouble knows;
17 But Love's wild Extasics (like those
18 That Rag'd in Heathen Priests) torment and discompose.
III.
19 And 'tis no more than their Desert,
20 That these Impostors thus shou'd smart;
21 By whose false Wiles we are betray'd
22 To Loves curst Tyranny and Rage;
23 For they, when once Love's Captives made,
24 Their Griefs dissembling, Sing i'th' Cage:
25 Then from afar, the Credulous Flock repairs,
26 T'attend their soft and charming Aires;
27 And whil'st they listning sit, are caught in unseen Snares.
IV.
28 But why fond Love wilt thou make choice
29 Of my untaught and grating Voice?
[Page 29]
30 Fool, whil'st amidst thy Gins I sing,
31 I shall not only fright away
32 Such as already are on Wing,
33 But those that were inclin'd to stay!
34 Consult thy Reason first deluded Boy,
35 Ere my rude Verse thou dost employ;
36 Verse that will prove a Scare-Crow, rather than Ducoy.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 76K / ZIP - 8.8K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.4K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 2953].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 2.9M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The Installment.
Author: Nahum Tate
Themes:
Genres:

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Tate, Nahum, c. 1652-1715. Poems by N. Tate. London: Printed by T.M. for Benj. Tooke ..., 1677, pp. 27-29. [15],133p. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 2953].)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. 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.

Other works by Nahum Tate