dots-menu
×

John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913.

Britannia Rediviva: a Poem on the Birth of the Prince

Born on the 10th of June, 1688.

OUR Vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care

To grant, before we can conclude the Pray’r:

Preventing angels met it half the way,

And sent us back to Praise, who came to Pray.

Just on the Day, when the high mounted Sun

Did farthest in his Northern Progress run,

He bended forward and ev’n stretched the Sphere

Beyond the limits of the lengthen’d year;

To view a Brighter Sun in Britaine Born;

That was the Bus’ness of his longest Morn,

The Glorious Object seen, t’was time to turn.

Departing Spring cou’d only stay to shed

Her bloomy beauties on the Genial Bed,

But left the manly Summer in her sted,

With timely Fruit the longing Land to chear

And to fulfill the promise of the year.

Betwixt two Seasons comes th’ Auspicious Heir,

This Age to blossom, and the next to bear.

Last solemn Sabbath saw the Church attend,

The Paraclete in fiery Pomp descend;

But when his wondrous Octave rowl’d again,

He brought a Royal Infant in his Train,

So great a Blessing to so good a King

None but th’ Eternal Comforter cou’d bring.

Or did the Mighty Trinity conspire,

As once, in Council to Create our Sire?

It seems as if they sent the New-Born Guest

To wait on the Procession of their feast;

And on their Sacred Anniverse decree’d

To stamp their Image on the promis’d Seed.

Three Realms united, and on One bestow’d

An Emblem of their Mystick Union show’d:

The Mighty Trine the Triple Empire shar’d,

As every Person wou’d have One to guard.

Hail, son of Pray’rs! by holy Violence

Drawn down from Heav’n; but long be banish’d thence,

And late to thy Paternal Skyes retire:

To mend our Crimes whole Ages wou’d require,

To change th’ inveterate habit of our Sins,

And finish what thy Godlike Sire begins.

Kind Heav’n, to make us English-Men again,

No less can give us than a Patriarchs Reign.

The Sacred Cradle to your Charge receive

Ye Seraphs, and by turns the Guard relieve;

Thy Father’s Angel and Thy Father joyn

To keep Possession, and secure the Line;

But long defer the Honours of thy Fate,

Great may they be like his, like his be late,

That James this running Century may view,

And give his Son an Auspice to the New.

Our wants exact at least that moderate stay:

For see the Dragon winged on his way,

To watch the Travail and devour the Prey.

Or, if Allusions may not rise so high,

Thus, when Alcides rais’d his Infant Cry,

The Snakes besieg’d his Young Divinity:

But vainly with their forked Tongues they threat;

For Opposition makes a Heroe Great.

To needful Succour all the good will run;

And Jove assert the Godhead of his Son.

O still repining at your present state,

Grudging your selves the Benefits of Fate,

Look up, and read in Characters of Light

A Blessing sent you in your own Despight.

The Manna falls, yet that Cœlestial Bread

Like Jews you munch, and murmure while you feed.

May not your Fortune be like theirs, Exil’d,

Yet forty Years to wander in the Wild:

Or if it be, may Moses live at least

To lead you to the Verge of promis’d Rest!

Tho’ Poets are not Prophets, to foreknow

What Plants will take the Blite, and what will grow,

By tracing Heav’n his Footsteps may be found;

Behold! how awfully He walks the round!

God is abroad, and, wondrous in his ways,

The Rise of Empires, and their Fall surveys;

More (might I say) than with an usual eye,

He sees his bleeding Church in Ruine lye,

And hears the Souls of Saints beneath his Altar cry.

Already has He lifted high, the Sign,

Which Crown’d the Conquering Arms of Constantine:

The Moon grows pale at that presaging sight,

And half her Train of Stars have lost their Light.

Behold another Sylvester, to bless

The Sacred Standard, and secure Success;

Large of his Treasures, of a Soul so great

As fills and crowds his Universal Seat.

Now view at home a second Constantine;

(The former too, was of the Brittish line)

Has not his healing Balm your Breaches clos’d,

Whose Exile many sought, and few oppos’d?

Or did not Heav’n by its Eternal Doom

Permit those Evils, that this Good might come?

So manifest, that ev’n the Moon-ey’d Sects

See Whom and What this Providence protects.

Methinks, had we within our Minds no more

Than that One Shipwrack on the Fatal Ore,

That only thought may make us think again,

What Wonders God reserves for such a Reign.

To dream that Chance his Preservation wrought,

Were to think Noah was preserv’d for nought;

Or the surviving Eight were not design’d

To people Earth, and to restore their Kind.

When humbly on the Royal Babe we gaze,

The Manly Lines of a Majestick face

Give awful joy: ’Tis Paradise to look

On the fair Frontispiece of Nature’s Book;

If the first opening Page so charms the sight,

Think how th’ unfolded Volume will delight!

See how the Venerable Infant lyes

In early Pomp; how through the Mother’s Eyes

The Father’s Soul with an undaunted view

Looks out, and takes our Homage as his due.

See on his future Subjects how He smiles,

Nor meanly flatters, nor with craft beguiles;

But with an open face, as on his Throne,

Assures our Birthrights and assumes his own.

Born in broad Day-light, that th’ ungrateful Rout

May find no room for a remaining doubt:

Truth, which it self is light, does darkness shun,

And the true Eaglet safely dares the Sun.

Fain wou’d the Fiends have made a dubious birth,

Loth to confess the Godhead cloathed in Earth.

But sickned after all their baffled lyes,

To find an Heir apparent of the Skyes:

Abandon’d to despair, still may they grudge,

And, owning not the Saviour, prove the Judge.

Not Great Æneas stood in plainer Day,

When, the dark mantling Mist dissolv’d away,

He to the Tyrians shew’d his sudden face,

Shining with all his Goddess Mother’s Grace:

For She her self had made his Count’nance bright,

Breath’d honour on his eyes, and her own Purple Light.

If our Victorious Edward, as they say,

Gave Wales a Prince on that Propitious Day,

Why may not Years revolving with his Fate

Produce his Like, but with a longer Date?

One who may carry to a distant shore

The Terrour that his Fam’d Forefather bore.

But why shou’d James or his Young Hero stay

For slight Presages of a Name or Day?

We need no Edward’s Fortune to adorn

That happy moment when our Prince was born:

Our Prince adorns his Day, and Ages hence

Shall wish his Birth-day for some future Prince.

Great Michael, Prince of all th’ Ætherial Hosts,

And what e’re In-born Saints our Britain boasts;

And thou, th’ adopted Patron of our Isle,

With chearful Aspects on this Infant smile:

The Pledge of Heav’n, which dropping from above

Secures our Bliss and reconciles his Love.

Enough of Ills our dire Rebellion wrought,

When, to the Dregs, we drank the bitter draught;

Then airy Atoms did in Plagues conspire,

Nor did th’ avenging Angel yet retire,

But purg’d our still encreasing Crimes with Fire.

Then perjur’d Plots, the still impending Test,

And worse; but Charity conceals the Rest:

Here stop the Current of the sanguine flood;

Require not, Gracious God, thy Martyrs Blood;

But let their dying pangs, their living toyl,

Spread a Rich harvest through their Native Soil:

A Harvest ripening for another Reign,

Of which this Royal Babe may reap the Grain.

Enough of Early Saints one womb has giv’n;

Enough encreas’d the Family of Heav’n:

Let them for his and our Attonement go;

And Reigning blest above, leave him to Rule below.

Enough already has the Year foreslow’d

His wonted Course, the Seas have overflow’d,

The Meads were floated with a weeping Spring,

And frighten’d birds in Woods forgot to sing;

The Strong-limb’d Steed beneath his harness faints,

And the same shiv’ring sweat his Lord attaints.

When will the Minister of Wrath give o’re?

Behold him; at Araunah’s threshing-floor.

He stops, and seems to sheathe his flaming brand;

Pleas’d with burnt Incense, from our David’s hand.

David has bought the Jebusites abode,

And rais’d an Altar to the Living God.

Heav’n, to reward him, make his Joys sincere;

No future Ills, nor Accidents appear

To sully and pollute the Sacred Infants Year.

Five Months to Discord and Debate were giv’n:

He sanctifies the yet remaining Sev’n.

Sabbath of Months! henceforth in Him be blest,

And prelude to the Realms perpetual Rest!

Let his Baptismal Drops for us attone;

Lustrations for Offences not his own.

Let Conscience, which is Int’rest ill disguis’d,

In the same Font be cleans’d, and all the Land Baptiz’d.

Un-nam’d as yet; at least unknown to Fame:

Is there a strife in Heav’n about his Name?

Where every Famous Predecessour vies,

And makes a Faction for it in the Skies?

Or must it be reserv’d to thought alone?

Such was the Sacred Tetragrammaton.

Things worthy silence must not be reveal’d:

Thus the true Name of Rome was kept conceal’d,

To shun the Spells, and Sorceries of those

Who durst her Infant Majesty oppose.

But when his tender strength in time shall rise

To dare ill Tongues, and fascinating eyes;

This Isle, which hides the little Thund’rer’s Fame,

Shall be too narrow to contain his Name:

Th’ Artillery of Heav’n shall make him known;

Crete could not hold the God, when Jove was grown.

As Joves Increase, who from his Brain was born,

Whom Arms and Arts did equally adorn,

Free of the Breast was bred, whose milky taste

Minerva’s Name to Venus had debas’d;

So this Imperial Babe rejects the Food

That mixes Monarchs with Plebeian blood:

Food that his inborn Courage might controul,

Extinguish all the Father in his Soul,

And for his Estian Race, and Saxon Strain,

Might re-produce some second Richard’s Reign.

Mildness he shares from both his Parents blood:

But Kings too tame are despicably good:

Be this the Mixture of this Regal Child,

By Nature Manly, but by Virtue Mild.

Thus far the Furious Transport of the News

Had to Prophetick Madness fir’d the Muse;

Madness ungovernable, uninspir’d,

Swift to foretel whatever she desir’d;

Was it for me the dark Abyss to tread,

And read the Book which Angels cannot read?

How was I punish’d when the sudden blast

The Face of Heav’n and our young Sun o’recast!

Fame, the swift Ill, encreasing as she rowl’d,

Disease, Despair, and Death at three reprises told:

At three insulting strides she stalk’d the Town,

And, like Contagion, struck the Loyal down.

Down fell the winnow’d Wheat; but mounted high,

The Whirl-wind bore the Chaff, and hid the Sky.

Here black Rebellion shooting from below,

(As Earth’s Gigantick brood by moments grow)

And here the Sons of God are petrify’d with Woe:

An Appoplex of Grief! so low were driv’n

The Saints, as hardly to defend their Heav’n.

As, when pent Vapours run their hollow round,

Earth-quakes, which are Convulsions of the ground,

Break bellowing forth, and no Confinement brook,

Till the Third settles what the Former shook;

Such heavings had our Souls; till, slow and late,

Our life with his return’d, and Faith prevail’d on Fate.

By Prayers the mighty Blessing was implor’d,

To Pray’rs was granted, and by Pray’rs restor’d.

So e’re the Shunamite a Son conceiv’d,

The Prophet promis’d, and the Wife believ’d;

A Son was sent, the Son so much desir’d,

But soon upon the Mother’s Knees expir’d.

The troubled Seer approach’d the mournful Door,

Ran, prayed, and sent his Past’ral-Staff before,

Then stretch’d his Limbs upon the Child, and mourn’d,

Till Warmth, and breath, and a new Soul return’d.

Thus Mercy stretches out her hand, and saves

Desponding Peter sinking in the Waves.

As when a sudden Storm of Hail and Rain

Beats to the ground the yet unbearded Grain.

Think not the hopes of Harvest are destroy’d

On the flat Field, and on the naked void;

The light unloaded stem, from tempest free’d,

Will raise the youthful honours of his head;

And, soon restor’d by native vigour, bear

The timely product of the bounteous Year.

Nor yet conclude all fiery Trials past,

For Heav’n will exercise us to the last;

Sometimes will check us in our full carreer,

With doubtful blessings, and with mingled fear;

That, still depending on his daily Grace,

His every mercy for an alms may pass;

With sparing hands will Dyet us to good;

Preventing Surfeits of our pampered blood.

So feeds the Mother-bird her craving young

With little Morsels, and delays ’em long.

True, this last blessing was a Royal Feast,

But where’s the Wedding Garment on the Guest?

Our Manners, as Religion were a Dream,

Are such as teach the Nations to Blaspheme.

In Lusts we wallow, and with Pride we swell,

And Injuries, with Injuries repell;

Prompt to Revenge, not daring to forgive,

Our Lives unteach the Doctrine we believe;

Thus Israel Sind, impenitently hard,

And vainly thought the present Ark their Guard;

But when the haughty Philistims appear,

They fled abandoned to their Foes and fear;

Their God was absent, though his Ark was there.

Ah! lest our Crimes shou’d snatch this Pledge away,

And make our Joys the blessing of a day!

For we have sin’d him hence, and that he lives.

God to his promise, not our practice, gives.

Our Crimes wou’d soon weigh down the guilty Scale,

But James, and Mary, and the Church prevail.

Nor Amaleck can rout the Chosen Bands,

While Hur and Aaron hold up Moses hands.

By living well, let us secure his days;

Mod’rate in hopes, and humble in our ways.

No force the Free-born Spirit can constrain,

But Charity, and great Examples gain.

Forgiveness is our thanks, for such a day;

’Tis Godlike God in his own Coyn to pay.

But you, Propitious Queen, translated here

From your mild Heav’n to rule our rugged Sphere,

Beyond the Sunny walks and circling Year.

You, who your Native Clymate have bereft

Of all the Virtues, and the Vices left;

Whom Piety, and Beauty make their boast,

Though Beautiful is well in Pious lost;

So lost as Star-light is dissolv’d away,

And melts into the brightness of the day,

Or Gold about the Regal Diadem,

Lost to improve the lustre of the Gem.

What can we add to your Triumphant Day?

Let the Great Gift the beautious Giver pay;

For shou’d our thanks awake the rising Sun,

And lengthen, as his latest shadows run,

That, tho’ the longest day, wou’d soon, too soon, be done.

Let Angels voices with their harps conspire,

But keep th’ auspicious Infant from the Quire;

Late let him sing above, and let us know

No sweeter Musick than his Cryes below.

Nor can I wish to you, Great Monarch, more

Than such an annual Income to your store;

The Day which gave this Unit, did not shine

For a less Omen, than to fill the Trine.

After a Prince, an Admiral beget,

The Royal Sov’raign wants an Anchor yet.

Our Isle has younger Titles still in store,

And when th’ exhausted Land can yield no more,

Your Line can force them from a Foreign shore.

The Name of Great your Martial mind will suit;

But Justice is your Darling Attribute:

Of all the Greeks, ’twas but one Hero’s due,

And, in him, Plutarch Prophecy’d of you.

A Prince’s favours but on few can fall,

But Justice is a Virtue shar’d by all.

Some Kings the name of Conq’rors have assum’d,

Some to be Great, some to be Gods presum’d;

But boundless pow’r and arbitrary Lust

Made Tyrants still abhor the Name of Just;

They shun’d the praise this Godlike Virtue gives,

And fear’d a Title that reproach’d their Lives.

The Pow’r from which all Kings derive their state,

Whom they pretend, at least, to imitate,

Is equal both to punish and reward;

For few wou’d love their God, unless they fear’d.

Resistless Force and Immortality

Make but a Lame, Imperfect Deity;

Tempests have force unbounded to destroy,

And Deathless Being ev’n the Damn’d enjoy,

And yet Heav’ns Attributes both last and first,

One without life, and one with life accurst;

But Justice is Heav’ns self, so strictly He

That cou’d it fail, the God-head cou’d not be.

This Virtue is your own; but Life and State

Are One to Fortune subject, One to Fate:

Equal to all, you justly frown or smile,

Nor Hopes, nor Fears your steady Hand beguile;

Your self our Ballance hold, the Worlds our Isle.