The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/The Plagues of Egypt
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
Is this thy bravery, Man, is this thy pride?Rebel to God, and slave to all beside!Captiv'd by every thing! and only freeTo fly from thine own liberty!All creatures, the Creator said, were thine;No creature but might since say, "Man is mine."In black Egyptian slavery we lie;And sweat and toil in the vile drudgeryOf tyrant Sin;To which we trophies raise, and wear out all our breathIn building up the monuments of Death;We, the choice race, to God and angels kin! In vain the prophets and apostles comeTo call us home,Home to the promis'd Canaan above,Which does with nourishing milk and pleasant honey flow;And even i' th' way to which we should be fedWith angels' tasteful bread:But we, alas! the flesh-pots love,We love the very leeks and sordid roots below.
In vain we judgments feel, and wonders see!In vain did God to descend hither deign;He was his own ambassador in vain,Our Moses and our guide himself to be!We will not let ourselves to go,And with worse harden'd hearts do our own Pharaohs grow.Ah! lest at last we perish so,Think, stubborn Man, think of th' Egyptian Prince(Hard of belief and will, but not so hard as thou);Think with what dreadful proofs God did convinceThe feeble arguments that human power could show;Think what plagues attend on thee,Who Moses' God dost now refuse, more oft than Moses he.
"If from some god you come" (said the proud kingWith half a smile and half a frown; "But what god can to Egypt be unknown?)"What sign, what powers, what credence, do you bring?""Behold his seal! behold his hand!"Cries Moses, and casts down th' all-mighty wand.Th' all-mighty wand scarce touch'd the earth,When, with an undiscerned birth,Th' all-mighty wand a serpent grew,And his long half in painted folds behind him drew:Upwards his threatening tail he threw;Upwards he cast his threatening head:He gap'd and hiss'd aloud,With flaming eyes survey'd the trembling crowd,And, like a basilisk, almost look'd th' assembly dead;Swift fled th' amazed king, the guards before him fled.
Jannes and Jambres stopp'd their flight,And with proud words allay'd th' affright."The God of slaves," said they, "how can he be"More powerful than their masters' deity?"And down they cast their rods,And mutter'd secret sounds that charm the servile gods.The evil spirits their charms obey,And in a subtle cloud they snatch the rods away,And serpents in their place the airy jugglers lay.Serpents in Egypt's monstrous landWere ready still at hand,And all at the Old Serpent's first command. And they too gap'd, and they too hiss'd,And they their threatening tails did twist;But straight on both the Hebrew-serpent flew,Broke both their active backs, and both it slew,And both almost at once devour'd;So much was over-power'd,By God's miraculous creation,His servant's, Nature's, slightly-wrought and feeble generation!
On the fam'd bank the prophets stood,Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood;Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid blood.The helpless fish were foundIn their strange current drown'd:The herbs and trees wash'd by the mortal tideAbout it blush'd and dy'd:Th' amazed crocodiles made haste to ground;From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied,Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried.Nor all thy priests, nor thou,Oh king! couldst ever showFrom whence thy wandering Nile begins his course—Of this new Nile thou seest the sacred source;And, as thy land that does o'erflow,Take heed lest this do so!What plague more just could on thy waters fall?The Hebrew infants' murder stains them all: The kind, instructing punishment enjoy;Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-sea shall destroy.
The river yet gave one instruction more;And, from the rotting fish and unconcocted gore(Which was but water just before),A loathsome host was quickly made,That scal'd the banks, and with loud noise did all the country' invade.As Nilus when he quits his sacred bed(But like a friend he visits all the landWith welcome presents in his hand)So did this Living Tide the fields o'erspread:In vain th' alarmed country triesTo kill, their noisome enemies;From th' unexhausted source still new recruits arise.Nor does the earth these greedy troops suffice,The towns and houses they possess,The temples and the palaces,Nor Pharaoh, nor his gods, they fear;Both their importune croakings hear.Unsatiate yet, they mount up higher,Where never sun-born Frog durst to aspire,And in the silken beds their slimy members place;A luxury unknown before to all the watery race!
The water thus her wonders did produce;But both were to no use;As yet the sorcerers' mimick power serv'd for excuse. Try what the earth will do," said God, and lo!They strook the earth a fertile blow,And all the dust did straight to stir begin;One would have thought some sudden wind't had been;But, lo! 't was nimble life was got within!And all the little springs did move,And every dust did an arm'd vermin prove,Of an unknown and new-created kind,Such as the magick-gods could neither make nor find.The wretched shameful Foe allow'd no restEither to man or beast.Not Pharaoh from th' unquiet plague could be,With all his change of raiments, free;The devils themselves confess'dThis was God's hand; and 't was but just,To punish thus man's pride, to punish dust with dust.
Lo! the third element does his plagues prepare,And swarming clouds of insects fill the air;With sullen noise they take their flight,And march in bodies infinite;In vain ’tis day above, ’tis still beneath them night.Of harmful Flies the nations numberlessCompos'd this mighty army's spacious boast;Of different manners, different languages;And different habits, too, they wore,And different arms they bore; And some, like Scythians, liv'd on blood,And some on green, and some on flowery food;And Accaron, the airy prince, led on this various host.Houses secure not men, the populous illDid all the houses fill:The country all aroundDid with the cries of tortur'd cattle sound;About the fields enrag'd they flew,And wish'd the plague that was t' ensue.
From poisonous stars a mortal influence came(The mingled malice of their flame);A skilful angel did th' ingredients take,And with just hands the sad composure make,And over all the land did the full vial shake.Thirst, giddiness, faintness, and putrid heats,And pining pains, and shivering sweats,On all the cattle, all the beasts, did fall;With deform'd death the country's cover'd all.The labouring ox drops down before the plow;The crowned victims to the altar ledSink, and prevent the lifted blow:The generous horse from the full manger turns his head,Does his lov'd floods and pastures scorn,Hates the shrill trumpet and the horn,Nor can his lifeless nostril pleaseWith the once-ravishing smell of all his dappled mistresses: The starving sheep refuse to feed,They bleat their innocent souls out into air;The faithful dogs lie gasping by them there;Th' astonish'd shepherd weeps, and breaks his tuneful reed.
Thus did the beasts for man's rebellion die;God did on man a gentler medicine try,And a Disease, for Physick, did apply.Warm ashes from the furnace Moses took;The sorcerers did with wonder on him look,And smil'd at th' unaccustom'd spell,Which no Egyptian rituals tell:He flings the pregnant ashes through the air,And speaks a mighty prayer;Both which the ministering winds around all Egypt bear.As gentle western blasts with downy wings,Hatching the tender springs,To th' unborn buds with vital whispers say,"Ye living buds, why do ye stay?"The passionate buds break through the bark their way:So, wheresoe'er this tainted wind but blew,Swelling pains and ulcers grew;It from the body call'd all sleeping poisons out,And to them added new;A noisome spring of sores, as thick as leaves, did sprout. Heaven itself is angry next;(Woe to man, when Heaven is vext!)With sullen brow it frown'd,And murmur'd first in an imperfect sound:Till Moses, lifting up his hand,Waves the expected signal of his wand;And all the full-charg'd clouds in ranged squadrons move,And fill the spacious plains above;Through which the rolling thunder first does play,And opens wide the tempest's noisy way.And straight a stony showerOf monstrous Hail does downwards pour,Such as ne'er winter yet brought forth,From all her stormy magazines of the north.It all the beasts and men abroad did slay,O'er the defaced corpse, like monuments, lay;The houses and strong-body'd trees it broke,Nor ask'd aid from the thunder's stroke;The thunder but for terror through it flew,The hail alone the work could do.The dismal lightnings all around,Some flying through the air, some running on the ground,Some swimming o'er the water's face,Fill'd with bright horror every place;One would have thought, their dreadful day to have seen,The very hail, and rain itself, had kindled been. The infant corn, which yet did scarce appear,Escap'd this general massacreOf every thing that grew,And the well-stor'd Egyptian yearBegan to clothe her fields and trees anew.When, lo! a scorching wind from the burnt countries blew,And endless legions with it drewOf greedy Locusts; who, where'erWith sounding wings they flew,Left all the earth depopulate and bare,As if Winter itself had march'd by there.Whate'er the Sun and NileGave with large bounty to the thankful soil,The wretched pillagers bore away,And the whole Summer was their prey;Till Moses with a prayerBreath'd forth a violent western wind,Which all these living clouds did headlong bear(No stragglers left behind)Into the purple sea, and there bestowOn the luxurious fish a feast they ne'er did know.With untaught joy Pharaoh the news does hear,And little thinks their fate attends on him and his so near.
What blindness or what darkness did there e'erLike this undocile king's appear!What, e'er, but that which now does representAnd paint the crime out in the punishment? From the deep baleful caves of hell below,Where the old mother Night does grow—Substantial Night, that does disclaimPrivation's empty name—Through secret conduits monstrous shapes arose,Such as the sun's whole force could not oppose:They with a solid cloudAll heaven's eclipsed face did shroud;Seem'd, with large wings spread o'er the sea and earth,To brood up a new Chaos's deformed birth.And every lamp, and every fire,Did at the dreadful sight wink and expire,To th' Empyrean source all streams of light seem'd to retire.The living men were in their standing houses buried;But the long Night no slumber knows,But the short Death finds no repose!Ten thousand terrors through the darkness fled,And ghosts complain'd, and spirits murmured;And Fancy's multiplying sightView'd all the scenes invisible of Night.
Of God's dreadful anger theseWere but the first light skirmishes;The shock and bloody battle now begins,The plenteous harvest of full-ripen'd sins.It was the time when the still moonWas mounted softly to her noon, And dewy Sleep, which from Night's secret springs arose,Gently as Nile the land o'erflows.When, lo! from the high countries of refined day,The golden heaven without allay—Whose dross, in the creation purg'd away,Made up the sun's adulterate ray—Michael, the warlike prince, does downwards fly,Swift as the journeys of the sight,Swift as the race of light,And with his winged will cuts through the yielding sky.He pass'd through many a star, and, as he pass'd,Shone (like a star in them) more brightly thereThan they did in their sphere.On a tall pyramid's pointed head he stopp'd at last,And a mild look of sacred pity castDown on the sinful land where he was sent,T'inflict the tardy punishment."Ah! yet," said he, "yet, stubborn king! repent,"Whilst thus unarm'd I stand,"Ere the keen sword of God fill my commanded hand;"Suffer but yet thyself, and thine to live:"Who would, alas! believe"That it for man," said he,"So hard to be forgiven should be,"And yet for God so easy to forgive!"
He spoke, and downwards flew,And o'er his shining form a well-cut cloud he threw, Made of the blackest fleece of Night,And close-wrought to keep in the powerful light,Yet wrought so fine it hinder'd not his flight;But through the key-holes and the chinks of doors,And through the narrow'st walks of crooked pores,He pass'd more swift and free,Than in wide air the wanton swallows flee.He took a pointed Pestilence in his hand;The spirits of thousand mortal poisons madeThe strongly-temper'd blade,The sharpest sword that e'er was laidUp in the magazines of God to scourge a wicked land.Through Egypt's wicked land his march he took,And as he march'd the sacred first-born strookOf every womb; none did he spare,None, from the meanest beast to Cenchre's purple heir.
The swift approach of endless nightBreaks ope the wounded sleepers' rolling eyes;They' awake the rest with dying cries,And darkness doubles the affright;The mixed sounds of scatter'd deaths they hear,And lose their parted souls 'twixt grief and fear.Louder than all the shrieking women's voicePierces this chaos of confused noise;As brighter lightning cuts a wayClear and distinguish'd through the day.With less complaints the Zoan temples sound,When the adored heifer's drown'd,And no true mark'd successor to be found. Whilst health and strength, and gladness does possessThe festal Hebrew cottages;The blest Destroyer comes not there,To interrupt the sacred cheerThat new begins their well-reformed year:Upon their doors he read, and understood,God's protection, writ in blood;Well was he skill'd i' th' character Divine;And, though he pass'd by it in haste,He bow'd, and worship'd, as he pass'd,The mighty mystery through its humble sign.
The sword strikes now too deep and near,Longer with its edge to play;No diligence or cost they spareTo haste the Hebrews now away:Pharaoh himself chides their delay;So kind and bountiful is Fear!But, oh the bounty which to fear we owe,Is but like fire struck out of stone;So hardly got, and quickly gone,That it scarce out-lives the blow.Sorrow and fear soon quit the tyrant's breast;Rage and revenge their place possess'd;With a vast host of chariots and of horse,And all his powerful kingdom's ready force,The travelling nation he pursues;Ten times o'ercome, he still th' unequal war renews. Fill'd with proud hopes, "At least," said he,"Th' Egyptian Gods, from Syrian magick free,"Will now revenge themselves and me;"Behold what passless rocks on either hand,"Like prison-walls, about them stand,"Whilst the sea bounds their flight before!"And in our injured justice they must find"A far worse stop than rocks and seas behind;"Which shall with crimson gore"New paint the water's name, and double dye the shore."
He spoke; and all his hostApprov'd with shouts th' unhappy boast;A bidden wind bore his vain words away,And drown'd them in the neighbouring sea.No means t' escape the faithless travellers spy,And, with degenerous fear to die,Curse their new-gotten liberty.But the great Guide well knew he led them right,And saw a path hid yet from human sight:He strikes the raging waves, the waves on either sideUnloose their close embraces, and divide;And backwards press, as in some solemn showThe crowding people do(Though just before no space was seen)To let the admired triumph pass between.The wondering army saw on either handThe no-less-wondering waves like rocks of crystal stand: They march'd betwixt, and boldly trodThe secret paths of God.And here and there all scatter'd in their wayThe sea's old spoils, and gaping fishes, layDeserted on the sandy plain:The sun did with astonishment beholdThe inmost chambers of the open'd main;For, whatsoe'er of oldBy his own priests the poets has been said,He never sunk till then into the ocean's bed.
Led cheerfully by a bright captain, Flame,To th' other shore at morning-dawn they came,And saw behind th' unguided foeMarch disorderly and slow.The prophet straight from th' Idumean strandShakes his imperious wand:The upper waves, that highest crowded lie,The beckoning wand espy;Straight their first right-hand files begin to move,And, with a murmuring wind,Give the word "March" to all behind.The left-hand squadrons no less ready prove,But, with a joyful, louder noise,Answer their distant fellows' voice,And haste to meet them make,As several troops do all at once a common signal take.What tongue th' amazement and th' affright can tellWhich on the Chamian army fell, When on both sides they saw the roaring mainBroke loose from his invisible chain!They saw the monstrous death and watery warCome rolling down loud ruin from afar!In vain some backward and some forwards flyWith helpless haste; in vain they cryTo their cœlestial Beasts for aid;In vain their guilty king they' upbraid;In vain on Moses he, and Moses' God, does call,With a repentance true too late;They're compass'd round with a devouring fate,That draws, like a strong net, the mighty sea upon them all.