TO THE MEMORY OF THE MOST RENOWNED DU-VALL: A Pindaric Ode.  
By the Author of Hudibras.  
LONDON: Printed for H. Brome, at the Gun in St. Paul's Churchyard, at the West-end. 1671.  
Where is to be had, The Memoires of Monsieur Du-Vall; containing the History of his Life and Death: with his last Speech and Epitaph.   

TO THE MEMORY Of the most Renowned DU-VALL: A Pindaric Ode.  

I.  
'TIS true, to compliment the dead,  
Is as impertinent and vain  
As 'twas of old to call them back again;  
Or like the Tartars give them Wives,  
With setlement for after-lives.  
For all that can be done, or said,  
Though e'er so noble, great, and good,  
By them is neither heard nor understood.  
All our fine sleights and tricks of Art,  
First to create, and then adore desert;  
And those Romances which we frame,  
To raise ourselves, not them a name;  
In vain are stuffed with ranting flatteries,  
And such as if they known they would despise.  
For as those times the golden Age we call,  
In which there was no Gold at all:  
So we plant glory and renown,  
Where it was ne'er deserved nor known;  
But to worse purpose many times  
To flourish o'er nefarious Crimes;  
And cheat the world that never seems to mind  
How good or bad men die, but what they leave behind.   

II.  
And yet the brave Du-Vall, whose name  
Can never be worn out by fame,  
That lived and died, to leave behind  
A great example to mankind;  
That fell a public Sacrifice  
From ruin to preserve those few,  
Who though born false, may be made true;  
And teach the world to be more just and wise;  
Ought not like vulgar ashes rest  
Unmentioned in his silent Chest;  
Not for his own but public interest.  
He like a pious man some years before  
Th' arrival of his fatal hour,  
Made every day he had to live,  
To his last minute a preparative.  
Taught the wild Arabs on the road  
To act in a more gentle mode;  
Take prizes more obligingly, than those  
Who never had been bred Filous:  
And how to hang in a more graceful fashion  
Than e'er was known before to the dull English Nation.   

III.  
In France the staple of new Modes  
Where Garbs and Meenes are current goods,  
That serves the ruder Northern Nations,  
With methods of address and treat,  
Prescribes new Garnitures and Fashions;  
And how to drink, and how to eat,  
No out-of-fashioned Wine or Meat;  
To understand Cravats and Plumes,  
And the most modish from the old Perfumes;  
To know the Age and Pedigrees  
Of Points of Flanders, or Venice:  
Cast their Nativities, and to a day,  
Foretell how long they'll hold, and when decay.  
T' affect the purest negligences,  
In Gestures, Gates, and Meenes,  
And speak by Repartee-Rotins,  
Out of the most authentic of Romances:  
And to demonstrate with substantial reason,  
What Ribbons all the year are in or out of season.   

IV.  

In this great Academy of mankind  
He had his Birth and Education,  
Where all men are s'ingeniously inclined  
They understand by imitation;  
Improve untaught before they are ware,  
As if they sucked their breeding from the Air.   
That naturally does dispense  
To all a deep and solid confidence:  
A virtue of that precious use,  
That he whom bounteous Heaven endues  
But with a moderate share of it,  
Can want no Worth, Abilities, or Wit.  
In all the deep Hermetick Arts,  
(For so of late the Learned call  
All tricks if strange and mystical)  
He had improved his natural parts;  
And with his Magic Rod could sound,  
Where hidden treasure may be found.  
He like a Lord o'th' Manor seized upon  
Whatever happened in his way,  
As lawful Weft and stray:  
And after by the custom kept it as his own.   

V.  
From the first Rudiments he grew  
To noble Feats, and tried his force,  
Upon whole Troops of Foot and Horse,  
Whom he as bravely did subdue:  
Declared all Caravans that go,  
Upon the King's Highway the foe:  
Made many desperate attaques  
Upon itinerant Brigades  
Of all Professions, Ranks, and Trades;  
On Carriers Loads, and Pedlars Packs:  
Made them lay down their Arms and yield;  
And to the smallest piece restore  
All that by cheating they had gained before;  
And after plundered all the baggage of the Field.  
In every bold affair of War,  
He had the chief command and led them on:  
For no man is judged fit to have the care  
Of others lives, until h'has made it known,  
How much he doth despise and scorn his own.   

VI  
Whole Provinces 'twixt Sun and Sun  
Have by his Conquering Sword been wone;  
And mighty sums of money laid  
For ransom upon every man;  
And Hostages delivered till ' 'ttwas paid.  
The Excise and Chimney-Publican,  
The Jew-forestaller and Inhancer,  
To him for all their Crimes did answer:  
He vanquished the most fierce, and fell  
Of all his foes, the Constable;  
That oft had beat his Quarters up,  
And routed him and all his Troop.  
He took the dreadful Lawyer's Fees,  
That in his own allowed Highway  
Does feats of Arms as great as his:  
And when th' encounter in it win the day,  
Safe in his Garrison the Court,  
Where meaner Criminals are sentenced for't:  
To this stern foe he oft gave quarter,  
But as the Scotchman did to a Tartar,  
That he in time to come  
Might in return from him receive his fatal doom.   

VII.  
He would have starved this mighty Town,  
And brought its haughty spirit down;  
Have cut it off from all Relief,  
And like a wise and valiant Thief,  
Made many a fierce assault  
Upon all Ammunition Carts;  
And those that bring up Cheese and Malt,  
Or Bacon from remoter parts:  
No Convoy ere so strong with food,  
Durst venture on the desperate Road;  
He made the undaunted Waggoners obey,  
And the fierce Higlers Contribution pay:  
The savage Butcher, and stout Drover,  
Durst not to him their feeble Troops discover.  
And if he had but kept the Field,  
In time had made the City yield;  
For great Towns (like to Crocodiles) are found  
I'th' belly aptest to receive a wound.   

VIII.  

But when the fatal hour arrived,  
In which his Stars began to frown,  
And had in close Cabals contrived  
To pull him from his height of glory down;  
And he by numerous foes oppressed,  
Was in the enchanted Dungeon cast;  
Secured with mighty Guards,  
Lest he by force or stratagem  
Might prove too cunning for their Chains and them,  
And break through all their Locks, and Bolts, and Wards;  
Had both his legs by Charms committed   
To one another's charge;  
That neither might be set at large,  
And all their fury and revenge out-witted.  
As Jewels of high value are  
Kept under lock with greater care,  
Then those of meaner rates:  
So he was in Stonewalls, and ponderous Chains, and iron Grates,   

IX.  
Thither came Ladies from all parts,  
To offer up close prisoners hearts;  
Which he received as tribute due,  
And made them yield up love and honour too:  
But in ●ore brave Heroic ways  
Than e'er were practised yet in Plays;  
For those two spiteful foes, who never meet  
But full of hot contests and piques  
About punctilios and mere tricks;  
Did all their quarrels to his doom submit  
And far more generous and free,  
In contemplation only of him agree,  
Both fully satisfied: the one  
With those fresh Laurels he had wone,  
And all the brave renowned feats  
He had performed in Arms;  
The other with his person and his Charms:  
For just as Larks are catched in Nets,  
By gazing on a piece of glass;  
So while the Ladies vievved his brighter eyes  
And smother polished face,  
Their gentle hearts, alas, were taken by surprise.   

X.  
Never did bold Knight to relieve  
Distressed Dames, such dreadful feats achieve,  
As feeble Damsels for his sake,  
Would have been proud to undertake,  
And bravely ambitious to redeem  
The world's loss and their own,  
Strove who should have the honour to lay down  
And change a life with him.  
But finding all their hopes in vain,  
To move his fixed determined fate  
They life itself began to hate;  
And all the world besides disdain  
Made loud appeals and moans  
To less hard-hearted Grates and Stones;  
Came svvelled in sighs and drovvned in tears,  
To yield themselves his fellow-sufferers:  
And followed him like Prisoners of War  
Chained to the lofty Wheels of his Triumphant Carr.   
FINIS.