Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EPISTLE TO SIR THOMAS EGERTON, KNIGHT, LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL, by SAMUEL DANIEL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPISTLE TO SIR THOMAS EGERTON, KNIGHT, LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Well hath the powerful hand of majesty
Last Line: Power may have knees, but justice hath our hearts.
Subject(s): Egerton, Thomas. Baron Ellesmere; Upper Classes


Well hath the powerful hand of majesty,
Thy worthiness, and England's hap beside
Set thee in th' aidful'st room of dignity,
As th' isthmus these two oceans to divide
Of rigor and confused uncertainty,
To keep out th' intercourse of wrong and pride,
That they engulf not up unsuccored right
By th' extreme current of licentious might;

Now when we see the most combining band,
The strongest fast'ning of society,
Law, whereon all this frame of men doth stand,
Remain concussed with uncertainty,
And seem to foster rather than withstand
Contention, and embrace obscurity
Only t' afflict, and not to fashion us,
Making her cure far worse than the disease;

As if she had made covenant with wrong
To part the prey made on our weaknesses,
And suffered falsehood to be armed as strong
Unto the combat as is righteousness,
Or suited her as if she did belong
Unto our passions, and did ev'n profess
Contention as her only mystery,
Which she restrains not, but doth multiply.

Was she the same sh' is now in ages past?
Or was she less when she was used less,
And grows as malice grows, and so comes cast
Just to the form of our unquietness?
Or made more slow the more that strife runs fast,
Staying t' undo us ere she will redress,
That th' ill she checks seems suffered to be ill,
When it yields greater gain than goodness will?

Must there be still some discord mixed among
The harmony of men, whose mood accords
Best with contention, tuned t' a note of wrong,
That when war fails, peace must make war with words,
And be'armed unto destruction ev'n as strong
As were in ages past our civil swords,
Making as deep, although unbleeding wounds,
That whenas fury fails, wisdom confounds --

If it be wisdom and not cunning, this
Which so embroils the state of truth with brawls,
And wraps it up in strange confusedness,
As if it lived immured within the walls
Of hideous terms framed out of barb'rousness
And foreign customs, the memorials
Of our subjection, and could never be
Delivered but by wrangling subtlety.

Whereas it dwells free in the open plain,
Uncurious, gentle, easy of access,
Certain unto itself, of equal vein,
One face, one color, one assuredness.
It's falsehood that is intricate and vain,
And needs these labyrinths of subtleness;
For where the cunning cov'rings most appear
It argues still that all is not sincere.

Which thy clear-eyed experience well descries,
Great Keeper of the state of equity,
Refuge of mercy, upon whom relies
The succor of oppressed misery;
Altar of safeguard, whereto' affliction flies
From th' eager pursuit of severity;
Haven of peace, that labor'st to withdraw
Justice from out the tempests of the law,

And set her in a calm and even way,
Plain and directly leading to redress,
Barring these counter-courses of delay,
These wasting dilatory processes;
Ranging into their right and proper ray
Errors, demurs, essoins, and traverses,
The heads of Hydra springing out of death,
That gives this monster malice still new breath;

That what was made for the utility
And good of man might not be turned t' his hurt
To make him worser by his remedy,
And cast him down with what should him support;
Nor that the state of law might lose thereby
The due respect and rev'rence of her port,
And seem a trap to catch our ignorance
And to entangle our intemperance;

Since her interpretations and our deeds
Unto a like infinity arise,
As being a science that by nature breeds
Contention, strife, and ambiguities;
For altercation controversy feeds,
And in her agitation multiplies;
The field of cavil, lying all like wide,
Yields like advantage unto either side.

Which made the grave Castilian king devise
A prohibition that no advocate
Should be conveyed to th' Indian colonies,
Lest their new setting, shaken with debate,
Might take but slender root, and so not rise
To any perfect growth of firm estate,
For having not this skill, how to contend,
Th' unnourished strife would quickly make an end.

So likewise did th' Hungarian, when he saw
These great Italian Bartolists, who were
Called in of purpose to explain the law,
T' embroil it more, and make it much less clear,
Caused them from out his kingdom to withdraw
With this infestious skill some otherwhere;
Whose learning rather let men farther out,
And opened wider passages of doubt.

Seeing ev'n injustice may be regular,
And no proportion can there be betwixt
Our actions which in endless motion are
And th' ordinances which are always fixed,
Ten thousand laws more cannot reach so far
But malice goes beyond, or lives immixed
So close with goodness as it ever will
Corrupt, disguise, or counterfeit it still.

And therefore did those glorious monarchs who
Divide with God the style of majesty
For being good, and had a care to do
The world right and succor honesty,
Ordain this sanctuary, whereunto
Th' oppressed might fly, this seat of equity,
Whereon thy virtues sit with fair renown,
The greatest grace and glory of the Gown.

Which equity, being the soul of law,
The life of justice, and the spirit of right,
Dwells not in written laws, or lives in awe
Of books -- deaf powers that have nor ears nor sight --
But out of well-weighed circumstance doth draw
The essence of a judgment requisite,
And is that Lesbian square, that building fit,
Plies to the work, not forc'th the work to it;

Maintaining still an equal parallel
Just with th' occasions of humanity,
Making her judgments ever liable
To the respect of peace and amity;
When surly law, stern and unaffable,
Cares only but itself to satisfy,
And often innocency scarce defends,
As that which on no circumstance depends.

But equity, that bears an even rein
Upon the present courses, holds in awe
By giving hand a little, and doth gain
By'a gentle relaxation of the law;
And yet inviolable doth maintain
The end whereto all constitutions draw,
Which is the welfare of society,
Consisting of an upright policy.

Which first being by necessity composed,
Is by necessity maintained in best estate;
Where, whenas justice shall be ill-disposed,
It sickens the whole body of the state;
For if there be a passage once disclosed
That wrong may enter at the selfsame gate
Which serves for right, clad in a coat of law,
What violent distempers may it draw?

And therefore dost thou stand to keep the way,
And stop the course that malice seeks to run,
And by thy provident injunctions stay
This never-ending altercation;
Sending contention home, to th' end men may
There make their peace whereas their strife begun,
And free these pestered streets they vainly wear,
Whom both the state and theirs do need elsewhere;

Lest th' humor which doth thus predominate
Convert unto itself all that it takes,
And that the law grow larger than debate,
And come t' exceed th' affairs it undertakes;
As if the only science of the state,
That took up all our wits for gain it makes,
Not for the good that thereby may be wrought --
Which is not good if it be dearly bought.

What shall we think, whenas ill causes shall
Enrich men more, and shall be more desired
Than good, as far more beneficial?
Who then defends the good? Who will be hired
To entertain a right whose gain is small,
Unless the advocate that hath conspired
To plead a wrong be likewise made to run
His client's chance, and with him be undone?

So did the wisest nations ever strive
To bind the hands of justice up so hard,
That lest she falling to prove lucrative,
Might basely reach them out to take reward;
Ordaining her provisions fit to live
Out of the public, as a public guard
That all preserves and all doth entertain;
Whose end is only glory, and not gain.

That ev'n the scepter which might all command,
Seeing her so'unpartial, equal, regular,
Was pleased to put itself into her hand,
Whereby they both grew more admired far.
And this is that great blessing of this land,
That both the prince and people use one Bar --
The prince, whose cause, as not to be withstood,
Is never bad but where himself is good.

This is that balance which committed is
To thy most even and religious hand,
Great minister of justice, who by this
Shalt have thy name still gracious in this land.
This is that seal of power which doth impress
Thy acts of right, which shall forever stand;
This is that train of state that pompously
Attends upon thy rev'rend dignity.

All glory else besides ends with our breath,
And men's respects scarce brings us to our grave,
But this of doing good must outlive death,
And have a right out of the right it gave.
Though th' act but few, th' example profiteth
Thousands, that shall thereby a blessing have.
The world's respect grows not but on deserts;
Power may have knees, but justice hath our hearts.





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