The University of Oxford, under the Protectorate, professed as much loyalty to his Highness Oliver Cromwell, as it had ever done to his Majesty King Charles. No addresses could be more deeply charged with grateful expressions and ingenious compliments than those laid at the feet of the great warrior and prince of the Commonwealth. Some curious specimens of them are preserved in a little volume, entitled, "Musarum Oxoniensium ΕΛΑΙΟΦΟΡΙΑ"—written to celebrate the peace which Cromwell concluded with the Dutch in 1654. Owen takes the lead, and for once invokes the muse. Zouch, Harmer, Bathurst, Busby, Locke, Philip Henry, and others, dwell on the same subject in Greek, Latin, or English verse; but what is most remarkable, South figures among the most glowing eulogists—he who, thirty years afterwards, in the pulpit of Westminster Abbey, denounced Cromwell as a bankrupt, beggarly fellow, and ridiculed him as first entering the Parliament-house with a threadbare, torn cloak, and a greasy hat, perhaps neither of them paid for.[260]
We subjoin part of his eulogy, having first ventured to render it into English rhyme:—
"Great ruler of the land and sea profound,
Thy praise the elements conspire to sound;
Thy genius deeper than the mighty deep,
Thy fame spreads wider than the billows sweep.
If thou ascend thy chariot, either pole
Bears up the wheels which still triumphant roll.
Thy martial scabbard, hanging by thy side,
Ensheaths thy country's power, and life, and pride.