D R.

TO THE REVEREND

WILKINS,

WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE IN OXFORD,

SIR,

SEEING you are pleased to think fit that these

papers should come into the public, which were at first designed to live only in a desk, or some private friend's hands; I humbly take the boldness to commit them to the fecurity which your name and protection will give them with the most knowing part of the world. There are two things especially in which they stand in need of your defence: one is, that they fall fo infinitely below the full and lofty genius of that excellent poet, who made this way.of writing free of our nation: the other, that they are fo little proportioned and equal to the renown of that prince, on whom they were written. Such great actions and lives deferving rather to be the fubjects of the noblest pens and divine fancies, than of fuch small beginners and weak effayers in poetry as myself. Against these dangerous prejudices, there remains no other fhield, than the univerfal esteem and authority which your judgment and approbation carries with it. The right you have to them, Sir, is not only on the account of the relation you had to this great perfon, nor of the general favour which all arts receive from you; but more particu

L 2

larly

Not only those I nam'd I there fhall greet,
But my own gallant, virtuous Cato meet.
Nor did I weep, when I to ashes turn'd
His belov'd body, who should mine have burn'd.
I in my thoughts beheld his foul afcend,
Where his fixt hopes our interview attend:
Then cease to wonder that I feel no grief
From age, which is of my delights the chief.
My hopes, if this affurance hath deceiv'd,
(That I man's soul immortal have believ'd)
And if I err, no power
fhall difpoffefs

My thoughts of that expected happiness.
Though fome minute philofophers pretend,
That with our days our pains and pleasures end.
If it be fo, I hold the fafer fide,

For none of them my error fhall deride.
And if hereafter no rewards appear,

Yet virtue hath itself rewarded here,

If those, who this opinion have despis'd,
And their whole life to pleature facrific'd,
Should feel their error, they, when undeceiv'd,
Too late will with, that me they had believ'd.
If fouls no immortality obtain,

'Tis fit our bodies should be out of pain.
The fame uneafinefs which every thing

Gives to our nature, life must also bring.
Good acts, if long, feem tedious; fo is age,
Acting too long upon this earth her stage.
Thus much for age, to which when you arrive,
That joy to you, which it gives me, 'twill give.

CON

CONTENTS

O F

DENHAM'S POE M S.

COOPER's Hill

Page 7

The Destruction of Troy, an Effay on the fecond Book of Virgil's Æneis

On the Earl of Strafford's Trial and Death

20

39

On my Lord Crofts and my Journey into Poland, from whence we brought 10,000l. for his Majesty, by the Decimation of his Scottish Subjects there

.40

On Mr. Thomas Killigrew's Return from his Embaffy from Venice, and Mr. William Murray's from Scotland

43

To Sir John Mennis, being invited from Calais to

Bologne to eat a Pig

Natura Naturata

44

46

Sarpedon's Speech to Glaucus in the 12th of Homer 47 Epigram from Martial

49

Friendship and fingle Life, against Love and Mar

riage

On Mr. Abraham Cowley's Death and Burial amongst the Ancient Poets

50

54

58

A Speech against Peace at the Close Committee
To the five Members of the Honourable House of
Commons. The humble Petition of the Poets 62
A Western Wonder

64 A Se

A Second Western Wonder

News from Colchester; or, a proper new Ballad

A Song

On Mr. John Fletcher's Works

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, upon his Translation of Paftor Fido

72

74

A Dialogue between Sir John Pooley and Mr. Thomas Killigrew

An occafional Imitation of a modern Author upon the Game of Chefs

The Paffion of Dido for Æneas

Of Prudence

77

78

87