His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Close clapp’d for shame; but his rough crest he rears,
And pricks up his predestinating ears.
His wild disorder’d walk, his haggard eyes,
Did all the bestial citizens surprise.
Though fear’d and hated, yet he ruled awhile,
As captain or companion of the spoil.
Full many a year[100] his hateful head had been 170
For tribute paid, nor since in Cambria seen:
The last of all the litter ’scaped by chance,
And from Geneva first infested France.
Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upstart race:
Because of Wickliff’s brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to kings.
These last deduce him from th’ Helvetian kind,
Who near the Leman lake his consort lined:
That fiery Zuinglius first th’ affection bred, 180
And meagre Calvin bless’d the nuptial bed.
In Israel some believe him whelp’d long since,
When the proud Sanhedrim oppress’d the prince;
Or, since he will be Jew, derive him higher,
When Corah with his brethren did conspire
From Moses’ hand the sovereign sway to wrest,
And Aaron of his ephod to divest:
Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
And could not bear the burden of a class.
The Fox and he came shuffled in the dark, 190
If ever they were stow’d in Noah’s ark:
Perhaps not made; for all their barking train
The Dog (a common species) will contain.
And some wild curs, who from their masters ran,
Abhorring the supremacy of man,
In woods and caves the rebel race began.
O happy pair, how well have
you increased!
What ills in Church and State have you
redress’d!
With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws,
Your first essay was on your native laws:
200
Those having torn with ease, and trampled
down,
Your fangs you fasten’d on the mitred
crown,
And freed from God and monarchy your town.
What though your native kennel[101] still
be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle[102] and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are sent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quicken’d with fire below, your
monsters breed
In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed:
And, like the first, the last affects
to be 210
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
As, where in fields the fairy rounds are
seen,
A rank, sour herbage rises on the green;
So, springing where those midnight elves
advance,
Rebellion prints the footsteps of the
dance.
Such are their doctrines, such contempt
they show
To Heaven above and to their prince below,
As none but traitors and blasphemers know.
God, like the tyrant of the skies, is