The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich: 4th edition — John Shaqi
The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich: 4th editionCorbet, Richard
General
The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich: 4th edition
Corbet, Richard
English poetry
Nor was this all: while his bones were perishing and his flesh was
rottenness, Dr. Daniel Price, his chaplain during his life, continued to
commemorate his dissolution by preaching an anniversary sermon. Neither
the practice nor its execution was agreeable to Corbet, who, after a
triennial repetition, thus attacked the anniversarist.
IN QUENDAM ANNIVERSARIORUM SCRIPTOREM.
Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros.
VIRG. Æn. 1. 483.
Even soe dead Hector thrice was triumph’d on
The walls of Troy, thrice slain when Fates had done:
So did the barbarous Greekes before their hoast
Torment his ashes and profane his ghost:
As Henryes vault, his peace, his sacred hearse,
Are torne and batter’d by thine Anniverse.
Was ’t not enough Nature and strength were foes,
But thou must yearly murther him in prose?
Or dost thou thinke thy raving phrase can make
A lowder eccho then the Almanake?
Trust mee, November doth more ghastly looke
In Dade and Hopton’s[59] pennyworth then thy booke;
And sadder record their fixt figure beares
Then thy false-printed and ambitious teares.
For were it not for Christmas, which is nigh,
When spice, fruit eaten, and digested pye
Call for waste paper; no man could make shift
How to employ thy writings to his thrift.
Wherefore forbear, for pity or for shame,
And let some richer penne redeeme his fame
From rottennesse. Thou leave him captive; since
So vile a PRICE ne’ere ransom’d such a Prince.
AN ANSWER, BY DR. PRICE[60].
So to dead Hector boys may do disgrace,
That durst not look upon his living face;
So worst of men behind their betters’ back
May stretch mens names and credit on the rack.
Good friend, our general tie to him that’s gone
Should love the man that yearlie doth him moane:
The author’s zeal and place he now doth hold,
His love and duty makes him be thus bold
To offer this poor mite, his anniverse
Unto his good great master’s sacred hearse;
The which he doth with privilege of name,
Whilst others, ’midst their ale, in corners blame.
A pennyworth in print they never made,
Yet think themselves as good as Pond or Dade.
One anniverse, when thou hast done thus twice,
Thy words among the best will be of PRICE.
IN POETAM EXAUCTORATUM ET EMERITUM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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