AN ELEGIE ON THE DEATH OF DUDLEY, LORD CARLETON by ABRAHAM COWLEY

THE infernall Sisters did a Counsell call
Of all the Feinds, to the blacke Stygian Hall;
The dire Tartarean Monsters, hating light;
Begat by dismal EREBUS, and night.
Wheresoe're dispers'd abroad, hearing the Fame
Of their accursed meeting, thither came.
REVENGE, whose greedy minde no Blood can fill,
And Envie, neuer satisfied with ill.
Thither blind BOLDNESSE, and impatient RAGE,
Resorted, with Death's neighbour, envious AGE:
And Messengers diseases, wheresoe're
Then wandring, at that Senate present were,
Whom to oppresse the Earth, the Furies sent
To spare the Guiltie, vex the Innocent.
The Counsell thus dissolv'd, an angry fever,
Whose quenchlesse thirst, by blood was sated never:
Envying the Riches, Honour, Greatnesse, Love,
And Vertue (Load-stone, which all these did move)
Of Noble CARLETON; him she tooke away,
And like a greedy Vultur seas'd her prey:
Weepe with mee each who eyther reads or heares,
And know his losse deserues his Countrie's teares:
The Muses lost a Patron by his Fate,
Virtue a Husband, and a Prop the State;
SOL'S Chorus weepes, and to adorne his Herse
CALLIOPE would sing a Tragicke verse.
And had there bin before no Spring of theirs,
They would have made a HELICON with their teares.

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