Skip to content

William Blake

Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?

Or wilt thou go ask the Mole:

Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?

Or Love in a golden bowl?

Read full poem →

noun

One who, or that which, accelerates.

Know more →

PLEBEIANS.

50 lines
John Dryden·1631–1700
ease, cease, thou Norfolk Cardinal,See yonder stands Queen Bess;Who sav'd our souls from Popish thrall:O Queen Bess, Queen Bess, Queen Bess! Your Popish plot, and Smithfield threat,We do not fear at all;For lo! beneath Queen Bess's feet,You fall, you fall, you fall. "'Tis true, our King's on t'other side,A looking tow'rds Whitehall:But could we bring him round about;He'd counterplot you all. "Then down with James, and set up Charles,On good Queen Bess's side;That all true Commons, Lords, and Earls,May wish him a fruitfull bride." Now God preserve great Charles our King,And eke all honest men;And traitors all to justice bring:Amen, Amen, Amen. "Then having entertained the thronging spectators for some time,with the ingenious fireworks, a vast bonfire being prepared, justover against the inner temple gate, his holiness, after somecompliments and reluctancies, was decently toppled from all hisgrandeur, into the impartial flames; the crafty devil leaving hisinfallibilityship in the lurch, and laughing as heartily at hisdeserved ignominious end, as subtle jesuits do at the ruin ofbigotted Lay Catholics, whom themselves have drawn in; or, ascredulous Coleman's abettors did, when, with pretences of areprieve at last gasp, they had made him vomit up his soul with alye, and sealed his dangerous chops with a halter. This justice wasattended with a prodigious shout, that might be heard far beyondSomerset-house; and 'twas believed the echo, by continuedreverberations, before it ceased, reached _Scotland_, (the Duke wasthen there;) France, and even Rome, itself, damping them all with adreadfull astonishment." From a very rare broadside, in the collection made by NarcissusLuttrell. Footnotes:a. Sir George Wakeman was physician to the queen, and a catholic.He was tried for the memorable Popish plot and acquitted, thecredit of the witnesses being now blasted, by the dyingdeclarations of those who suffered. b. Philip, the 3d son of Henry Earl of Arundel, and brother to theDuke of Norfolk, created a Cardinal in 1675. He was a secondcousin of Lady Elizabeth Howard, afterwards the wife of ourpoet. * * * * * TROILUS AND CRESSIDA: OR,