The Sophy - Results found: 33
'Tis the Fate of Princes, that no knowledge
Comes pure to them, but passing through the eyes
And ears of other men, it takes a tincture
From every channel; and still bears a relish
Of Flattery or private ends.
By Abdall,
in The Sophy (1.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r
Those Kings whom envy ,or the peoples murmur
Deters from their own purposes, deserve not,
Nor know not their own greatness;
The peoples murmur, 'tis a sulphurous vapour
Breathed from the bowels of the basest earth;
And it may soil & blast things near itself:
But e're it reach the region
we are placed in,
It vanishes to air.
By Abbas, King of Persia,
in The Sophy (3.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r
Poor Princes, how are they misled!
While they whose sacred office ‘tis to bring
Kings to obey their God, and men their King;
By these mysterious links to fix and tie
Them to the footstool of the Deity;
Even by these men, Religion, that should be
The curb, is made the spur to tyranny.
They with their double key of conscience bind
The Subjects souls, & leave Kings unconfined;
While their poor vassals sacrifice their bloods
To Ambition, and to Avarice, their goods:
Blind with Devotion. They themselves esteem.
Made for themselves, & all the world for them;
While heavens great Law, given for their guide appears
Just or unjust, but as it waits on theirs:
Used but to give the echo of their words,
Power
to their wills; & edges to their swords.
To varnish all their errors, & secure
The ills they act, and all the world endure.
Thus by their arts Kings are the world while they
Religion, as their Mistress, seem to obey;
Yet as their slave command her: while they seem
To rise to Heaven, they make Heaven stoop to them.
By Abdall,
in The Sophy (4.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r
Nor is this all, where feigned devotion bends
The highest things to serve the lowest ends:
For if the many headed beast hath broke
Or shaken from his neck the royal yoke,
With popular rage, Religion doth conspire,
Flows into that, and swells the torrent higher;
Then powers first pedigree from force derives,
And calls to mind the old prerogatives
Of free-born man; and with a fancy eye
Searches the heart and soul of Majesty:
Then to a strict account, & censure brings
The actions, errors, & the end of Kings;
Treads on authority, & sacred Laws;
Yet all for God & his pretended cause,
Acting such things for him, which he in them
And which themselves in others will condemn,
And thus engaged nor safely can retire,
Nor safely stand, but blindly bold aspire,
Forcing their hopes even through despair, to climb
To new attempts; disdain the present time, The Sophy. Denham.
Grow from disdain to threats,from threats to arms;
While they (though sons of peace) still sound th' Alarms:
Thus whether Kings or people seek extremes
Still conscience and religion are the Themes:
And whatsoever change the State invades
The pulpit either forces, or persuades,
Others may give the fuel, or the fire;
But they the breath, that makes the flame, inspire.
By Morat,
in The Sophy (4.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r
O happiness of poverty! That rests
Securely on a bed of living turf,
While we with waking cares, & restless thoughts,
Lye tumbling on our down, courting the blessing
Of a short minutes slumber, which the Plough-man
Shakes from him, as a ransomed slave his fetters
By Mirza, Prince of Persia,
in The Sophy (5.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r
Somnus the humble God, that dwells
In Cottages and smoky Cells
Hates gilded roofs, and beds of down
And though he fears no Princes frown
Flies from the circle of the crown
Come, I say, thou powerful God,
And thy
leaden charming rod
Dipt the Lethean Lake,
O're his wakeful temples shake,
Lest he should sleep & never wake.
Nature (alas) why art thou so
Obliged to thy greatest Foe?
Sleep that is thy best repast,
Yet of death it bears a taste,
And both are the same thing at last.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia,
in The Sophy (5.1),
John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r