XIII. Verses by King Charles I. .................................................................................
"This prince, like his father, did not confine himself to prose. Bishop Burnet
has given us a pathetic elegy, said to be written by Charles in Carisbrook castle [in
1648]. The poetry is most uncouth and unharmonious, but there are strong thoughts in
it, some good sense, and a strain of majestic piety."--- Mr. Walpole'sRoyal and Noble
Authors, vol. i.
It is in hisMemoirs of the Duke of Hamilton, p. 379, that Burnet hath
preserved this elegy, which he tells us he had from a gentleman, who waited on the
king at the time when it was written, and copied it out from the original. It is there
intitled, MAJESTY IN MISERY: OR AN IMPLORATION TO THE KING OF
KINGS,"
Hume hath remarked of these stanzas, "that the truth of the sentiment, rather
than the elegance of the expression, renders them very pathetic." (See his History,
1763, 4to. vol. V. pp. 437. 442. which is no bad comment upon them.) These are
almost the only verses known of Charles's composition. Indeed a little poemOn a
quiet Conscience, printed in the "Poetical Calendar," 1763, vol. viii. is attributed to
King Charles I.; being reprinted from a thin 8vo, published by Nahum Tate, called
"Miscellanea Sacra, or Poems on Divine and Moral Subjects."
GREAT monarch of the world, from whose power springs
The potency and power of kings,
Record the royal woe my suffering sings;
And teach my tongue, that ever did confine
Its faculties in truth's seraphick line,
To track the treasons of thy foes and mine.
Nature and law, by thy divine decree,
(The only root of righteous royaltie)
With this dim diadem invested me:
With it, the sacred scepter, purple robe,
The holy unction, and the royal globe:
Yet am I levell'd with the life of Job.
The fiercest furies, that do daily tread
Upon my grief, my grey discrowned head,
Are those that owe my bounty for their bread.
They raise a war, and christen it THE CAUSE,
While sacrilegious hands have best applause,
Plunder and murder are the kingdom's laws;
Tyranny bears the title of taxation,
Revenge and robbery are reformation,
Oppression gains the name of sequestration.
My loyal subjects, who in this bad season
Attend me (by the law of God and reason),
They dare impeach, and punish for high treason.