[Roxburghe Collection, IV. 75.] The Vanity of Vain Glory. With good Advice to those who chuse immediate pleasures here, That they no longer can refuse the thing which cost so dear. TUNE [ITS OWN], The Gloryes of our Birth and State. He Gloryes of our birth and state Death layes his Icy hands on Kings; With a poor crooked scithe and spade. Some men with swords do reap the field [orig. "our blood." and plant fresh Lawrels where they kill, and must yield up their murmouring breath, [misp. "sigh." [orig. "may," ["last." ["they stoop." ["creep." Shirley's "Death's Final Conquest." The garland withers on your brow, See how the Victor victored bleeds! Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. 579 ["Upon." ["v. victim." ["Your." [Thus far by James Shirley, circa 1620.] Ll things in this poor life are vain, Athen for a change let us prepare, We must swim through a sea of pain before we reach that Heaven, where There's joyes in store for evermore, and we shall be for ever blest, From toile and labour then to rest. Then never cease to run that race which leads to everlasting bliss, Amongst the saints to take a place, Oh! what encouragement is this! Who would refuse that way to choose which leads to blest eternity, From pains and sorrows to be free? While in this life, to some so sweet, all kinds of wickedness abound, And with such crosses we do meet as all our comforts do confound; There you shall be from passion free, and hear no mourning nor complaints, But praises sing amongst the Saints. Infinite Joys shall them attend who at that Haven to arrive Where God himself shall be their friend, Them of that bliss: which they must miss That path which to destruction leads, To many men more pleasure breeds, and they are more delighted in Than that which brings all blessed things, eternal joy and heavenly peace, Where bliss abounds and pains do cease. 28 42 [orig. "Then." 56 580 The Vanity of Vain Glory. But mortal men are always prone and thus by sin their soul abuse. Learn to be wise, fond man, in time, 70 Printed for F. Cole, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackery, (sic) and T. Passenger. [In Black-letter. Date of broadside about 1685: the original three verses only are by James Shirley, being a favourite song of Charles the Second. With music composed by Edward Coleman, it is in Playford's Select Ayres, of 1669, p. 74. It ended Shirley's "Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, for the armor of Achilles;" first edition 1659, but written earlier, probably in 1620, when we believe the song was given in the Golden Garland of Princely Delight.] [These two cuts belong to the ballad. One at beginning is introduced extra.] The Dutch Cave of Adullam. Boy.- -"Well, of all religions I do not like your Dutch." Boy.-"Because your Penance comes before Confession." INTRIGUES -Dryden's Amboyna; or, Cruelties of the Dutch, 1673. NTRIGUES and cabals of irreconcileable Nonconformists, who assumed to be moved by religious and moral impulses, but who were (to put it mildly) no better than their neighbours, were by this time developing into action, howsoever mad or foolish. "Envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness," were pretty things to be adopted as bosom-friends by the discontented Plotters who had stood in opposition to Charles II., so long as they remained in England, and combined with kindred spirits in their deeds of darkness. To harass and destroy, to spread disaffection, and pervert the simplest words or actions of antagonists, until the evil report were accepted as true, with a threatening of worse results to follow, needed very little genius and less honesty. Any knave sufficed as an ally. A common perjurer, like Bedloe or Dangerfield, was their favourite instrument, one who had been publicly whipped till he roared for mercy (which he seldom got), and whose neck had been often encircled by the wooden cravat called pillory, and his lower extremities knew "strange garters" for the minor peccadilloes of plundering hen-roosts. All this had been suitable to their humour, and prosperous for business, until Themis shifted the bandage from one eye, and took notice of their misdoings, after quietly remaining blind amid the feverish unrest of the sham Popish Plot. As weapons of offence they had handled missiles by no means cleanly. They had violated confidences, and profaned the most sacred mysteries. Occasional conformity had been used to secure admission into offices of trust, where they could enrich themselves and work mischief against private foes. There had been no pricking of conscience, while their existence had been a living lie. On the contrary, they had indulged in self-glorification and declared themselves to be the only righteous, the salt of the earth, the saving remnant, and the unmistakeably "True Blue Protestants who alone preserved the nation from extinction. Theirs had been the only holiness, wisdom, and uncompromising hostility. Admit a Popish Successor ?-N-e-v-e-r! Despite their boasting, the said Popish Successor had eventually triumphed. Instead of excluding him, his enemies were left in banishment. Very unpleasant and unexpected, no doubt! Quiet observers of their nefarious conduct, who had uttered mild forebodings, without more thanks than usually attend Cassandra's warnings, now spoke to unwilling ears the counsel to be patient 582 Creep into houses, and deceive silly Women." and await the coming of an inevitable reaction. There were doubtless other reasons than mere hatred of delay, causing the Scotch and English refugees in Holland to snatch the fruit before it had found time to ripen. They were nearly all impoverished, despised by their plodding and industrious hosts, who beheld their spiteful meetings with astonishment, and found little of morality or religion in their daily walk and conversation. All the borrowing without repayment, the dependence on Brownist conventicle "collections," or on alms extorted from impressionable widows, by Argyle and Burnet, could not lift the Adullamites into national repute. Among these were "Mistress Smith, of Amsterdam," formerly of Utrecht, who greatly assisted Argyle with money, and to whom he wrote a touching letter of regret for inability to repay her bounty, a few hours before his execution; and "Mistress Mary Scott, a Dutchwoman," whom, in March, 1683, Gilbert Burnet contrived to marry, after being naturalized for the purpose, the second of his three wives. Luttrell notes that an attempt having been "made in Holland by mistake upon Sir Robert Hamilton for Dr. Burnet, to seize or kill him," the States offered a thousand guilders for discovery of the alleged perpetrators; and also, that some soldiers |