Of Strong Tyrants. SECT. V:

NOw from the setting of this evening Star
Ascends that morning Planets influence,
Which both in Light and Glory passeth far;
These Comets of strong pow'r in feeble sence,
And who from inequality of state
Strive to make all, for one, unfortunate,

I mean such confident imperious Spirits,
As over act with restless Scepter-wit,
Thinking the world inferior to their merits;
And brook no other bounds or laws in it,
Then to make all their own thoughts, words, and deeds
Receiv'd of people not as Rules, but Creeds.

Which souls thus over-swoln with windy vice,
Must wisely be allay'd, and moulded be;
Lest Torrent-like, they with the prejudice
Of People, wast their own transcendency;
And thus by cutting real grounds too thin,
Have their ambitions ever to begin.

For though Throne-vice be publick, like her State
(And therefore must (of force) wound many ways)
Yet some move scorn, some faults men wonder at,
Others harm not so many as they please,
Ill chosen vices vanish in despair,
Well chosen still leave somthing after fair.

Vitellius vertueless in Life and Raign,
Yet by a gluttons familiarity,
The German Armies did so finely gain,
As against Otho, he had victory;
Brake the Praetorian forces; and in vain
Vespatian had aspir'd his Monarchy,
But that each vice fits not all times and states,
For what one age affects another hates.

Pertinax again, in whom predominant
Few vices were, yet narrowness of heart
Made him the fortune of great Armies want,
Where Caesar mixt with Vices, Worth, and Art,
Had with the people for his death such moan,
As if in him Rome had been overthrown.

In him that first did spoil her Treasury
Ravage her Provinces and Tyrannise,
While as bewitcht with prodigality,
They sell themselves for what in their pow'r lies:
Thus pleasing vices sometimes raise a Crown,
As austere vertues often pull it down.

Pow'r therefore must those womanish slight errors,
Which publish to the World self-love or fear,
Carefully shun, as crafty peoples mirroirs,
To shew both what the King and Crown can bear;
And teach Mankind on humors to take hold,
That otherwise with Thrones durst not be bold.

From hence the Macedonians did get heart
To dally with that tenderness they found
In their great King, and finely frame an Art
To keep the Monarch with his own thoughts bound;
For when Hephestion died he did aspire,
Through him to make a God of his desire.

Unto which God some straight did Altars build,
Some Sacrific'd, others sware by his name,
Some told their dreams, others were vision-fill'd;
All which inspirings from Hephestion's came:
As Grace or disgrace did in Nero's days,
To those that did his singing scorn or praise.

Aspires therefore on corruption founded,
Should use their vice as Merchants do their ware;
Not choak the Market, lest their vents be bounded,
But martial these things which excesses are,
So as by Vice made slaves they may not be,
But rather Vice made Arts of Tyranny.

For Majesty then sinks, when private vice
Is not kept servant to the publick State,
But rather crowns with common prejudice
Subjected basely to their Vices fate;
Because of consequence then power must
Serve them in all things that observe their Lust.

Wise Salomon was taken in this Net,
When those strange Women which bewitcht his mind,
By it a pow'rful government did get,
To wave his own faith, and seduce Mankind;
For which Vice if his heirs did loose the Throne,
It proves, disorder never goes alone.

Again, as Tyrants are Eclips'd by this,
So falls the Scepter when it bankrupt grows
In common Fame, which Natures Trumpet is:
Defect, for ever finding scorn below;
For Reputation airy though it be,
Yet is the Beauty of Authority.

Which to improve, strong Princes must despise
All Arts that blemish Birth, Place, Courage, Worth;
For Tyrants unto men then Sacrifice
Their Thrones, when inward errors they shew forth,
Which curiously the wise have ever us'd
To keep conceal'd, well ballanc'd, or excus'd.

Such are extortions, cruelty, oppression,
Covetousness, endless anger, or displeasure,
Neglect, or scorn of person, or profession,
Pride, baseness, rudeness, vain expence of treasure;
All which like number multiplied by place,
Do in the Man the Monarchy disgrace.

Dissolving due respect and reverence,
Which gentle raines in active Princes hands
Give such restraint or latitude to sence,
As with the end of government best stands,
And who lets fall these pleasing inward ties
Must either fall in State or Tyrannise.

Let Rehoboam then in all his ways
Avoid yong Council which enflame the hearts,
And so on ruine pow'rs foundation lays
In which light youth hath still the chiefest parts:
Their wit is force, the old mans force is wit,
And then for Thrones, let no man judge what's fit.

But above all, such actions as may bring
His Faith in doubt, a strong Prince must eschew,
Because it doth concern a boundless king
To keep his words, and contracts, steddy, true,
His Grants entire, Graces not undermin'd;
As if both Truth and Pow'r had but one mind.

What did it profit that great Charles the fist
To traffick with the proud simplicity
Of German Princes, by unprincely shift,
Misletterd writs, a Conclave subtilty?
Since ill fate then, and ever did befall
That broken faith aspirers work withal.

The precepts of Lysander to beguile
Children with toys, and men with perfidie,
Records himself by this infamous wile,
To be their Tutor in malignity,
Who since conclude that perjury no sin,
Which by equivocation enters in.

A vice so hateful never as when it
Borrows the veil of justice for deceit;
Hollow Tiberius plays not with his wit,
But to give his false practice better weight;
Hence sacred Virgins are to be defil'd
By hangmen first, to have the Law beguil'd.

The Poets shew what credit with these Gods
Truth had, by Sacred oath of Stygian lake,
The heavy dooms, and still tormenting rods,
Which they reserv'd sor them that sware and brake;
And freed from pain if these pow'rs could not be,
What shall we think of Tyrants blasphemie?

Did Tantalus, belov'd of Jupiter,
With his own Nectar, and Ambrosia nurst;
Or Battus painless in perjuring erre?
— — —
When Tantalus in hell sees store and starves,
Which senceless Battus for a Touchstone serves.

Thus see we how all times, all sorts of Faith,
Some by the Cloud of fained transformation,
Others by humane censure unto death,
And some by heavy doom of discreation,
To keep Truth sacred carefully have sought,
Without which no society is ought.

Therefore let pow'r in her deliberations,
Take time and care before she undertake,
That she an equal Princely calculation
Of wealth, strength, titles, fears, and hope may make,
Because if Tyrants there poize all things right,
To do, or to forbear, it gives them light.

The pain's no more, or rather not so much
To shun the sickness as to seek the cure,
And yet in gain, and honour far more rich,
It is within her strength to rest secure,
Then peece, veil, yield, when she hath done amiss,
Since great descent in Scepters fatal is.

Pow'r, make your leagues, gifts, contracts therefore just,
Since wrong prescribes not Crowns by time or deed;
Thrones never wanting means, occasion, Lust,
To try by hazard how their right shall speed,
In whose uncertain orb yet Princes shall
Oft find mischance, upon misdoing fall.

For howsoever to the partial Throne
Of mighty Pow'r, the acts of Truthless wit
May currant go, like Brass, amongst their own;
Yet when the World shall come to judge of it,
Nature that in her wisdom never lies,
Will shew deceit, and wrong are never wise,

But grant this honor unto faithlesness,
That sometimes it may prosper with occasion,
And make true wisdome in appearance less,
Yet what gains Pow'r by loss of reputation?
Since every blossome which ill-doing bears
Blasteth the fruit of good success with fears?

Again, as Tyrants ought to soar above
This reach of humours, so ought they to bear
A Rulers hand, and every Spirit move,
That under them shall govern hope or fear,
Since by whose wisdomes States are governed,
They of the same States, are reputed head.

Yet must not this supremacy descend
Of Sect or Faction to become a part,
Since all is theirs, all must on them depend,
And to make use of each side is their Art;
Else like Kings forc't for refuge to one Town,
They in that one, cast Dice for all their Crown.

Rather must they by providence unite
All parties so, as none may gage their state,
Or in their private ends withdraw from might,
But give their greatest, such a yielding rate,
As like the Earth plow'd up, they must not groan,
Though greedy pow'r exhaust more then their own.

For Faction else lurking in hopes and fears,
When it awakes by opportunity,
Straight Hydra-like, in many foreheads bears
Horror, division, multiplicity,
Nor safe unto it self, nor to those Kings
That unto mean birds will lend Eagles wings.

Therefore should this well masked Cockatrice
Be carefully even in the egg supprest,
Before the venome of her poisoning vice
Against the Prince and Kingdom be addrest;
It being not safe for strong-witted might
To give subjection any regal right.

For as we see in deep corrupted airs,,
Each petty sickness turns to pestilence,
And by infection common ruine bears,
So, in the Orb of Kings omnipotence,
Faction oft makes each private discontent
Swell above Law to plague the government.

For to make bodies strong, proves heads are weak,
And so two Sects prepared in one Realm,
Which doth the beauty of obedience break,
By tempting discontented minds to glean;
And so force Thrones to one side for protection
Whose being is to keep both in subjection.

Nor holds our rule alike with weak and strong,
Since weak Kings raigns do very seldom raise
Such spirits, as dare shuffle right aud wrong,
At least what breeds them, breeds their counterpeaze;
Corruptions weak birth therefore yielding many,
Lest Liberty should be ingrost by any.

Whereas this other Princely stirring stuff,
Oft by example gives new Laws to Kings,
With danger to Soveraignity enough
By those new fashions which they give to things:
Therefore are factions here to be supprest;
Which in mild times support weak Princes best.

Now how pow'r so should ballance things and minds,
As all dissentions may in her unite,
Or from what place Pow'r arguments should find,
To make the crooked undergo the right;
How it should pierce the skin of passion,
And yet in these wounds instantly give fashion,

Strong hearts learn out of Practick wisdom must,
Which knowing how to pay each with his own,
By mixing good and ill, with fear and Lust,
Reap among Thorns, Seeds by them never sown;
And make the people yield up their Estate,
To add more still to government they hate:

Which artificial steerage of affection,
Having but small affinity with good,
No Essence, but an Essence like reflection;
Will best by opposites be understood,
The soul excess of ill being only that
Which to avoid in Pow'r I level at.

Therefore as little Bridles to restrain
Mans climing mind in Princes boundless might,
Let Tyrants that think all their acts remain
Spread, like Apollo's beams, in each mans sight,
Which by the divers fate of good or ill
Either produce scorn, malice, or good will,

Lastly, this Tyrant-pow'r (veil of the Man)
In peoples eyes must not assiduous be;
What hath respect appears but now and then;
Reservedness, that Art of Tyranny,
Equally graceth both pain and reward;
Demission works remission, not regard,

Thus much in brief, to temper head-strong vice
Which thorow Princes often wounds the Crown;
To shun which dangerous racking precipice,
Tyrants should all signs of their selfness drown;
And yet by odds of place work every man
To serve them with the best, and worst they can.

But if Pow'r will exceed, then, then let Mankind
Receive oppression, as fruits of their error,
Let them, again, live in their duties shrin'd,
As their safe Haven from the winds of terror.
Till he that rais'd Pow'r to mow mans sins down,
Please for Pow'rs own sins, to pluck off her Crown.