[Page 126]

Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE.

I.
1 Whate'er thy Countrymen have done
2 By Law and Wit, by Sword and Gun,
3 In Thee is faithfully recited:
4 And all the Living World, that view
5 Thy Work, give Thee the Praises due,
6 At once Instructed and Delighted.
II.
7 Yet for the Fame of all these Deeds,
8 What Begger in the Invalides,
9 With Lameness broke, with Blindness smitten,
10 Wished ever decently to die,
11 To have been either Mezeray,
12 Or any Monarch He has written?
[Page 127]
III.
13 It strange, dear Author, yet it true is,
14 That down from Pharamond to Loüis,
15 All covet Life, yet call it Pain:
16 All feel the Ill, yet shun the Cure:
17 Can Sense this Paradox endure?
18 Resolve me, Cambray, or Fontaine.
IV.
19 The Man in graver Tragic known
20 (Tho' his best Part long since was done)
21 Still on the Stage desires to tarry:
22 And He who play'd the Harlequin,
23 After the Jest still loads the Scene,
24 Unwilling to retire, tho' Weary.

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Title (in Source Edition): Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE.
Author: Matthew Prior
Themes:
Genres: ode

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Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London: Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII., 1718, pp. 126-127. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°. (ESTC T075639) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [H 6.8 Art.].)

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