Patriots, in peace, assert the people's right;
With noble stubbornness resisting might:
No lawless mandates from the court receive,
Nor lend by force, but in a body give.
Such was your generous grandsire; free to grant
In parliaments, that weigh'd their prince's want:
But so tenacious of the common cause, 190
As not to lend the king against his laws;
And, in a loathsome dungeon doom'd to lie,
In bonds retain'd his birthright liberty,
And shamed oppression, till it set him free.
O true descendant of a patriot line,
Who, while thou shar'st their lustre, lend'st them thine!
Vouchsafe this picture of thy soul to see;
'Tis so far good, as it resembles thee:
The beauties to the original I owe;
Which when I miss, my own defects I show: 200
Nor think the kindred Muses thy disgrace:
A poet is not born in every race.
Two of a house few ages can afford;
One to perform, another to record.
Praiseworthy actions are by thee embraced;
And 'tis my praise, to make thy praises last.
For even when death dissolves our human frame,
The soul returns to heaven from whence it came;
Earth keeps the body—verse preserves the fame.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 24: 'John Dryden:' this poem was written in 1699; the person to whom it is addressed was cousin-german to the poet, and a younger brother of the baronet. He repaid this poem by a 'noble present' to his kinsman.]
[Footnote 25: 'Rebecca's heir:' he inherited his mother's fortune.]
[Footnote 26: 'Gibbons:' Dr Gibbons, physician.]
[Footnote 27: 'Maurus:' Sir Richard Blackmore.]
[Footnote 28: 'Milbourn:' the foe of Dryden's 'Virgil,' and a clergyman.]