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How well (blest Swan) did Fate contrive thy death, And made thee render up thy tuneful breath In thy great mistress's arms! Thou most divine, And richest off'ring of Loretto's shrine!
Where, like some holy sacrifice t' expire, A fever burns thee, and Love lights the fire.
Angels (they say) brought the fam'd chappel there, And bore the sacred load in triumph thro' the air: 'Tis surer much they brought thee there; and they, And thou, their charge, went singing all the way.
Pardon, my Mother-Church, if I consent That angels led him, when from thee he went; For ev'n in error, sure no danger is, When join'd with so much piety as his.
Ah! mighty G.o.d, with shame I speak't, and grief; Ah! that our greatest faults were in belief!
And our weak reason were ev'n weaker yet, Rather than thus, our wills too strong for it.
His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right: And I, myself, a Catholick will be; So far at least, great Saint! to pray to thee.
Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow On us, the Poets militant below: Oppos'd by our old enemy, adverse Chance, Attack'd by Envy and by Ignorance; Enchain'd by Beauty, tortur'd by desires, Expos'd by tyrant-love, to savage beasts and fires.
Thou from low Earth in n.o.bler flames didst rise, And like Elijah, mount alive the skies.
Elisha-like (but with a wish much less, More fit thy greatness and my littleness;) Lo here I beg (I whom thou once didst prove So humble to esteem, so good to love) Not that thy sp'rit might on me doubled be, I ask but half thy mighty sp'rit for me: And when my Muse soars with so strong a wing, 'Twill learn of things divine, and first of thee to sing.[10]
ALEXANDER B. GROSART.
THE
WORKS OF RICHARD CRASHAW.
VOL. I.
ENGLISH POETRY.
NOTE.
The t.i.tle-pages, with collation, of the original and early editions of 'Steps to the Temple' and 'The Delights of the Muses' (1646 to 1670) are here given successively:
_1st edition_, 1646. (1)
STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE.
Sacred Poems,
With other Delights of the MUSES.
By RICHARD CRASHAW, _sometimes of_ PEMBROKE _Hall, and late Fellow of_ S. Peters _Coll._ in Cambridge.
_Printed and Published according to Order._
LONDON, Printed by T.W. for _Humphrey Moseley_, and are to be sold at his shop at the Princes Armes in St _Pauls_ Church-yard.
1646.
(2)
THE
DELIGHTS
OF THE
MUSES.
OR,
Other Poems written on severall occasions.
By RICHARD CRASHAW, _sometimes of_ Pembroke _Hall, and late Fellow of_ St. Peters _Colledge in_ Cambridge.
Mart. Dic mihi quid melius desidiosus agas.
London,
Printed by T.W. for _H. Moseley_, at the Princes Armes in S. _Pauls_ Churchyard, 1646. [12o]
Collation: t.i.tle-page; the Preface to the Reader, pp. 6; the Author's Motto and short Note to Reader, pp. 2 [all unpaged]; 'Steps to the Temple,' pp. 99; t.i.tle-page of 'Delights,' as _supra_, and pp. 103-138; the Table, pp. 4.
_2d edition, 1648._
STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE,
Sacred Poems.
With
The Delights of the Muses.
