Lyrical Poems
64. A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON

Robert Her

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Till I shall come again, let this suffice,

I send my salt, my sacrifice

To thee, thy lady, younglings, and as far

As to thy Genius and thy Lar;

To the worn threshold, porch, hall, parlour, kitchen,

The fat-fed smoking temple, which in

The wholesome savour of thy mighty chines,

Invites to supper him who dines:

Where laden spits, warp'd with large ribs of beef,

Not represent, but give relief

To the lank stranger and the sour swain,

Where both may feed and come again;

For no black-bearded Vigil from thy door

Beats with a button'd-staff the poor;

But from thy warm love-hatching gates, each may

Take friendly morsels, and there stay

To sun his thin-clad members, if he likes;

For thou no porter keep'st who strikes.

No comer to thy roof his guest-rite wants;

Or, staying there, is scourged with taunts

Of some rough groom, who, yirk'd with corns, says, 'Sir,

'You've dipp'd too long i' th' vinegar;

'And with our broth and bread and bits, Sir friend,

'You've fared well; pray make an end;

'Two days you've larded here; a third, ye know,

'Makes guests and fish smell strong; pray go

'You to some other chimney, and there take

'Essay of other giblets; make

'Merry at another's hearth; you're here

'Welcome as thunder to our beer;

'Manners knows distance, and a man unrude

'Would soon recoil, and not intrude

'His stomach to a second meal.'—No, no,

Thy house, well fed and taught, can show

No such crabb'd vizard: Thou hast learnt thy train

With heart and hand to entertain;

And by the arms-full, with a breast unhid,

As the old race of mankind did,

When either's heart, and either's hand did strive

To be the nearer relative;

Thou dost redeem those times: and what was lost

Of ancient honesty, may boast

It keeps a growth in thee, and so will run

A course in thy fame's pledge, thy son.

Thus, like a Roman Tribune, thou thy gate

Early sets ope to feast, and late;

Keeping no currish waiter to affright,

With blasting eye, the appetite,

Which fain would waste upon thy cates, but that

The trencher creature marketh what

Best and more suppling piece he cuts, and by

Some private pinch tells dangers nigh,

A hand too desp'rate, or a knife that bites

Skin-deep into the pork, or lights

Upon some part of kid, as if mistook,

When checked by the butler's look.

No, no, thy bread, thy wine, thy jocund beer

Is not reserved for Trebius here,

But all who at thy table seated are,

Find equal freedom, equal fare;

And thou, like to that hospitable god,

Jove, joy'st when guests make their abode

To eat thy bullocks thighs, thy veals, thy fat

Wethers, and never grudged at.

The pheasant, partridge, gotwit, reeve, ruff, rail,

The cock, the curlew, and the quail,

These, and thy choicest viands, do extend

Their tastes unto the lower end

Of thy glad table; not a dish more known

To thee, than unto any one:

But as thy meat, so thy immortal wine

Makes the smirk face of each to shine,

And spring fresh rose-buds, while the salt, the wit,

Flows from the wine, and graces it;

While Reverence, waiting at the bashful board,

Honours my lady and my lord.

No scurril jest, no open scene is laid

Here, for to make the face afraid;

But temp'rate mirth dealt forth, and so discreet-

Ly, that it makes the meat more sweet,

And adds perfumes unto the wine, which thou

Dost rather pour forth, than allow

By cruse and measure; thus devoting wine,

As the Canary isles were thine;

But with that wisdom and that method, as

No one that's there his guilty glass

Drinks of distemper, or has cause to cry

Repentance to his liberty.

No, thou know'st orders, ethics, and hast read

All oeconomics, know'st to lead

A house-dance neatly, and canst truly show

How far a figure ought to go,

Forward or backward, side-ward, and what pace

Can give, and what retract a grace;

What gesture, courtship, comeliness agrees,

With those thy primitive decrees,

To give subsistence to thy house, and proof

What Genii support thy roof,

Goodness and greatness, not the oaken piles;

For these, and marbles have their whiles

To last, but not their ever; virtue's hand

It is which builds 'gainst fate to stand.

Such is thy house, whose firm foundations trust

Is more in thee than in her dust,

Or depth; these last may yield, and yearly shrink,

When what is strongly built, no chink

Or yawning rupture can the same devour,

But fix'd it stands, by her own power

And well-laid bottom, on the iron and rock,

Which tries, and counter-stands the shock

And ram of time, and by vexation grows

The stronger. Virtue dies when foes

Are wanting to her exercise, but, great

And large she spreads by dust and sweat.

Safe stand thy walls, and thee, and so both will,

Since neither's height was raised by th'ill

Of others; since no stud, no stone, no piece

Was rear'd up by the poor-man's fleece;

No widow's tenement was rack'd to gild

Or fret thy cieling, or to build

A sweating-closet, to anoint the silk-

Soft skin, or bath[e] in asses' milk;

No orphan's pittance, left him, served to set

The pillars up of lasting jet,

For which their cries might beat against thine ears,

Or in the damp jet read their tears.

No plank from hallow'd altar does appeal

To yond' Star-chamber, or does seal

A curse to thee, or thine; but all things even

Make for thy peace, and pace to heaven.

—Go on directly so, as just men may

A thousand times more swear, than say

This is that princely Pemberton, who can

Teach men to keep a God in man;

And when wise poets shall search out to see

Good men, they find them all in thee.

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