THE LOYAL PRISONER.
From the Loyal Garland.
How happy’s that pris’ner that conquers his fate
With silence, and ne’er on bad fortune complains,
But carelessly plays with keys on his grate,
And he makes a sweet concert with them and his chains!
He drowns care in sack, while his thoughts are opprest,
And he makes his heart float like a cork in his breast.
Then since we are slaves, and all islanders be,
And our land a large prison enclosed by the sea,
We’ll drink off the ocean, and set ourselves free,
For man is the world’s epitomy.
Let tyrants wear purple, deep-dy’d in the blood
Of those they have slain, their scepters to sway,
If our conscience be clear, and our title be good,
With the rags that hang on us we are richer than they;
We’ll drink down at night what we beg or can borrow,
And sleep without plotting for more the next morrow.
Then since, etc.
Let the usurer watch o’er his bags and his house,
To keep that from robbers he rak’d from his debtors,
Which at midnight cries thieves at the noise of a mouse,
And he looks if his trunks are fast bound to their fetters;
When once he’s grown rich enough for a State’s plot,
But in one hour plunders what threescore years got.
Then since, etc.
Come, drawer, fill each man a peck of old sherry,
This brimmer shall bid all our senses good-night;
When old Aristotle was frolic and merry,
By the juice of the grape, he stagger’d out-right;
Copernicus once, in a drunken fit, found
By the course of’s brains that the world did turn round.
Then since, etc.
’Tis sack makes our faces like comets to shine,
And gives tincture beyond a complexion mask.
Diogenes fell so in love with his wine,
That when ’twas all out he dwelt in the cask,
And being shut up within a close room,
He, dying, requested a tub for his tomb.
Then since, etc.
Let him never so privately muster his gold,
His angels will their intelligence be;
How closely they’re prest in their canvas hold,
And they want the State-souldier to set them all free:
Let them pine and be hanged, we’ll merrily sing,
Who hath nothing to lose, may cry, God bless the King.
Then since, etc.