herd, Anno 1664, are
inserted the following Poems of our author, viz. 1st, An Ode upon the
Occasion of his Majesty's Proclamation, 1630, commanding the Gentry to
reside upon their Estates in the Country. 2d, A Summary Discourse of
the Civil Wars of Rome, extracted from the best Latin Writers in Prose
and Verse. 3d, An English Translation of the Fourth Book of Virgil's
AEneid on the Loves of Dido and AEneas. 4th, Two Odes out of Horace,
relating to the Civil Wars of Rome, against covetous, rich Men.
4. He translated out of Portuguese into English, The Lusiad, or
Portugal's Historical Poem, written originally by Luis de Camoens,
London, 1655, &c. folio.
After his decease, namely, in 1671, were published these two
posthumous pieces of his in 4to, Querer per solo Querer, To Love only
for Love's sake, a Dramatic Romance, represented before the King and
Queen of Spain, and Fiestas de Aranjuez, Festivals at Aranjuez: both
written originally in Spanish, by Antonio de Mendoza, upon occasion of
celebrating the Birth-day of King Philip IV. in 1623, at Aranjuez;
they were translated by our author in 1654, during his confinement at
Taukerley-park in Yorkshire, which uneasy situation induced him to
write the following stanzas on this work, which are here inserted, as
a specimen of his versification.
Time was, when I, a pilgrim of the seas,
When I 'midst noise of camps, and courts disease,
Purloin'd some hours to charm rude cares with verse,
Which flame of faithful shepherd did rehearse.
But now restrain'd from sea, from camp, from court,
And by a tempest blown into a port;
I raise my thoughts to muse on higher things,
And eccho arms, and loves of Queens and Kings.
Which Queens (despising crowns and Hymen's band)
Would neither men obey, nor men command:
Great pleasure from rough seas to see the shore
Or from firm land to hear the billows roar.
We are told that he composed several other things remaining still in
manuscript, which he had not leisure to compleat; even some of the
printed pieces have not all the finishing so ingenious an author could
have bestowed upon them; for as the writer of his Life observes,
'being, for his loyalty and zeal to his Majesty's service, tossed from
place to place, and from country to country, during the unsettled
times of our anarchy, some of his Manuscripts falling into unskilful
hands, were printed and published without his knowledge, and before he
could give th
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