And easy Absalon, by gentleness drawn,

(Though he has courage paralleled by none,)

The loss of crowns to come he now does dread,

Can heaven place them on a nobler head?

So great a soul as his 'twill never own

Should rule on any thing beneath a throne;

Or ere see Judah plagued or robbed of health,

By that unbounded thing a Commonwealth.

[Note XIV.]

The next successor, whom I fear and hate,