Tixall Poetry/On the Marriage of the Fair and Vertuous Lady, Mrs Anastasia Stafford
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Miscellaneous Poems
On the Marriage of
the Fair and Vertuous Lady, Mrs Anastasia Stafford,
with That Truly Worthy and Pious Gent.
George Holman, Esq.
a Pindarique Ode.—by Mr Dryden.
I.
When nature, in our northern hemisphere,
Had shortned day-light, and deform'd the year;
When the departing sun
Was to our adverse tropique run;
And fair St Lucy, with the borrow'd light,
Of moon and stars, had lengthen'd night:
What more then summer's day slipt in by chance,
To beautify the calendar?
What made a spring, in midst of winter to advance,
And the cold seasons leap into a youthfull dance,
To rouse the drooping year?
Was this by miracle, or did they rise
By the bright beams of Anastasia's eyes?
To light our frozen clime,
And, happily for us, mistook their time?
'Twas so, and 'twas imported in her name;
From her, their glorious resurrection came,
And she renewed their perisht flame.
The God of nature did the same:
His birth the depth of winter did adorn,
And she, to marriage then, her second birth was born.
Her pious family, in every state,
Their great Redeemer well can imitate.
They have a right in heaven, an early place;
The beauteous bride is of a martyr's race:
And he above, with joy looks down,
I see, I see him blaze with his immortall crown.
He, on her nuptials, does his beams dispense,
Blessing the day with better influence;
He looks from heaven with joy, and gives her joy from thence.
Had shortned day-light, and deform'd the year;
When the departing sun
Was to our adverse tropique run;
And fair St Lucy, with the borrow'd light,
Of moon and stars, had lengthen'd night:
What more then summer's day slipt in by chance,
To beautify the calendar?
What made a spring, in midst of winter to advance,
And the cold seasons leap into a youthfull dance,
To rouse the drooping year?
Was this by miracle, or did they rise
By the bright beams of Anastasia's eyes?
To light our frozen clime,
And, happily for us, mistook their time?
'Twas so, and 'twas imported in her name;
From her, their glorious resurrection came,
And she renewed their perisht flame.
The God of nature did the same:
His birth the depth of winter did adorn,
And she, to marriage then, her second birth was born.
Her pious family, in every state,
Their great Redeemer well can imitate.
They have a right in heaven, an early place;
The beauteous bride is of a martyr's race:
And he above, with joy looks down,
I see, I see him blaze with his immortall crown.
He, on her nuptials, does his beams dispense,
Blessing the day with better influence;
He looks from heaven with joy, and gives her joy from thence.
II.
Now, let the reasonable beast, call'd man;
Let those, who never truly scan
The effects of sacred Providence,
But measure all by the grosse rules of sence;
Let those look up and steer their sight,
By the great Stafford's light.
The God that suffered him to suffer here,
Rewards his race, and blesses them below,
Their father's innocence and truth to show;
To show he holds the blood of martyrs dear:
He crowned the father with a deathless diadem;
And all the days from him he took,
He numbred out in his eternal book:
And said, let these be safely kept for them,
The long descendants of that hallow'd stem.
To drye the mournfull widow's tears,
Let all those dayes be turn'd to years,
And all those years be whiten'd too:
Still some new blessing let 'em bring,
To those who from my martyr spring;
Still let them bloom, and still bestow
Some new content upon his race below.
Let their first revolution
Bestow a bride upon his darling son,
And crown those nuptials with a swift increase,
Such as the emptied ark did blesse:
Then, as the storms are more allay'd,
And waves decay'd,
Send out the beauteous blooming maid:
And let that virgin dove bring to her house again,
An olive branch of peace, in triumph o'er the main.
For whom, ye heavens I have ye reserv'd this joy?
Let us behold the man you chose;
How well you can your cares employ,
And to what armes your maid dispose:
Your maid, whom you have chang'd, but cannot lose
Chang'd as the morn into the day,
As virgin snow that melts away,
And, by its kindly moisture, makes new flowers to grow
See then, a bridegroom worthy such a bride!
Never was happy pair so fitly tied;
Never were virtues more allied;
United in a most auspicious hour—
A martyr's daughter weds a confessor!
When innocence and truth became a crime,
By voluntary banishment,
He left our sacrilegious clime,
And to a forrain country went;
Or rather, there, by Providence was sent:
For Providence designed him to reside,
Where he, from his abundant stock,
Might nourish God's afflicted flock,
And, as his steward, for their wants provide.
A troop of exiles on his bounty fed,
They sought, and found with him their daily bread;
As the large troop increast, the larger table spread.
The cruse ne're emptied, nor the store
Decreas'd the more;
For God supplied him still to give, who gave in God's own stead.
Thus, when the raging dearth.
Afflicted all the Egyptian earth;
When scanty Nile no more his bounty dealt,
And Jacob, even in Canaan, famine felt;
God sent a Joseph out before;
His father and his brethren to restore:
Now, let the reasonable beast, call'd man;
Let those, who never truly scan
The effects of sacred Providence,
But measure all by the grosse rules of sence;
Let those look up and steer their sight,
By the great Stafford's light.
The God that suffered him to suffer here,
Rewards his race, and blesses them below,
Their father's innocence and truth to show;
To show he holds the blood of martyrs dear:
He crowned the father with a deathless diadem;
And all the days from him he took,
He numbred out in his eternal book:
And said, let these be safely kept for them,
The long descendants of that hallow'd stem.
To drye the mournfull widow's tears,
Let all those dayes be turn'd to years,
And all those years be whiten'd too:
Still some new blessing let 'em bring,
To those who from my martyr spring;
Still let them bloom, and still bestow
Some new content upon his race below.
Let their first revolution
Bestow a bride upon his darling son,
And crown those nuptials with a swift increase,
Such as the emptied ark did blesse:
Then, as the storms are more allay'd,
And waves decay'd,
Send out the beauteous blooming maid:
And let that virgin dove bring to her house again,
An olive branch of peace, in triumph o'er the main.
For whom, ye heavens I have ye reserv'd this joy?
Let us behold the man you chose;
How well you can your cares employ,
And to what armes your maid dispose:
Your maid, whom you have chang'd, but cannot lose
Chang'd as the morn into the day,
As virgin snow that melts away,
And, by its kindly moisture, makes new flowers to grow
See then, a bridegroom worthy such a bride!
Never was happy pair so fitly tied;
Never were virtues more allied;
United in a most auspicious hour—
A martyr's daughter weds a confessor!
When innocence and truth became a crime,
By voluntary banishment,
He left our sacrilegious clime,
And to a forrain country went;
Or rather, there, by Providence was sent:
For Providence designed him to reside,
Where he, from his abundant stock,
Might nourish God's afflicted flock,
And, as his steward, for their wants provide.
A troop of exiles on his bounty fed,
They sought, and found with him their daily bread;
As the large troop increast, the larger table spread.
The cruse ne're emptied, nor the store
Decreas'd the more;
For God supplied him still to give, who gave in God's own stead.
Thus, when the raging dearth.
Afflicted all the Egyptian earth;
When scanty Nile no more his bounty dealt,
And Jacob, even in Canaan, famine felt;
God sent a Joseph out before;
His father and his brethren to restore:
Their sacks were filled with corn, with generous wine
Their soules refresht, their ebbing store,
Still when they came, supply'd with more,
And doubl'd was their corn:
Joseph himself by giving, greater grew,
And from his loins a double tribe increast the chosen crew.
Their soules refresht, their ebbing store,
Still when they came, supply'd with more,
And doubl'd was their corn:
Joseph himself by giving, greater grew,
And from his loins a double tribe increast the chosen crew.