TO

THE

RIGHT

JEROME LORD

HONORABLE
WESTON.

AN ODE GRATULATORY, FOR HIS RETURN FROM HIS EMBASSY,

1632.

Such pleasure as the teeming earth
Doth take in easy Nature's birth,

When she puts forth the life of everything;
And in a dew of sweetest rain,
She lies delivered without pain,

Of the prime beauty of the year, the Spring:

The rivers in their shores do run,
The clouds rack clear before the sun,

The rudest winds obey the calmest air;
Rare plants from every bank do rise,
And every plant the sense surprise,

Because the order of the whole is fair!

The very verdure of her nest,
Wherein she sits so richly dressed,

As all the wealth of season there was spread,
Doth show the Graces and the Hours
Have multiplied their arts and powers,

In making soft her aromatic bed :

Such joys, such sweets, doth your return
Bring all your friends, fair lord, that burn

With love, to hear your modesty relate,
The business of your blooming wit,
With all the fruit shall follow it,

Both to the honor of the king and state.

Oh, how will then our court be pleased,
To see great Charles of travail eased,

When he beholds a graft of his own hand,
Shoot up an olive, fruitful, fair,
To be a shadow to his heir,

And both a strength and beauty to his land !

EPITHALAMION; OR, A SONG Celebrating the Nuptials of that Noble Gentleman, MR. JEROME WESTON, son and heir of the LORD WESTON, Lord High Treasurer of England, with the LADY FRANCES STUART, Daughter of Esme, Duke of Lenox, deceased, and sister of the surviving duke of the same name. 109 Though thou hast passed thy summer-standing,

stay Awhile with us, bright sun, and help our

light; Thou canst not meet more glory on the

way, Between thy tropics, to arrest thy sight,

Than thou shalt see to-day:

We woo thee stay,

And see what can be seen, The bounty of a king, and beauty of his queen.

a

See the procession ! what a holy-day,

Bearing the promise of some better fate, 109 Sir Richard Weston, the father of Jerome, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and raised to the peerage as Baron Weston, in 1620. In 1633, he was created Earl of Portland, and was succeeded in the title in the following year by his son. The marriage probably took place about 1628.- B.

Hath filed, with caroches, all the way,
From Greenwich hither to Roehampton gate!

When looked the year, at best,

So like a feast?

Or were affairs in tune, By all the sphere's consent, so in the heart of

June ?

What beauty of beauties, and bright youths at

charge Of summer's liveries, and gladding green, Do boast their loves and braveries so at large, As they came all to see, and to be seen n!

When looked the earth so fine,

Or so did shine,

In all her bloom and flower, To welcome home a pair, and deck the nuptial

bower ?

It is the kindly season of the time,
The month of youth, which calls all creatures

forth
To do their offices in Nature's chime,
And celebrate, perfection at the worth,

Marriage, the end of life,

That holy strife,

And the allowed war, Through which not only we, but all our species are.

Hark how the bells upon the waters play

Their sister-tunes from Thames his either side,

1

110

As they had learned new changes for the day, And all did ring th' approaches of the bride;

The lady Frances dressed,

Above the rest

Of all the maidens fair, In graceful ornament of garland, gems, and hair. See how she paceth forth in virgin white,

Like what she is, the daughter of a duke, And sister; darting forth a dazzling light On all that come her simplesse to rebuke!

Her tresses trim her back,"

As she did lack

Naught of a maiden queen, With modesty so crowned, and adoration seen. Stay, thou wilt see what rites the virgins do,

The choicest virgin-troop of all the land !
Porting 111 the ensigns of united two,
Both crowns and kingdoms in their either

hand;
Whose majesties appear,

To make more clear

This feast, than can the day, Although that thou, O sun, at our entreaty stay!

See how with roses and with lilies shine,

Lilies and roses, flowers of either sex,

The bright bride's paths, embellished more than

thine, With light of love this pair doth intertex ! 112

Stay, see the virgins sow,

Where she shall go,

The emblems of their way. – Oh, now thou smil'st, fair sun, and shin'st, as

thou wouldst stay!

With what full hands, and in how plenteous

showers Have they bedewed the earth, where she doth

tread, As if her airy steps did spring the flowers, And all the ground were garden where she led !

See, at another door,

On the same floor,

The bridegroom meets the bride With all the pomp of youth, and all our court

beside!

Our court, and all the grandees ! now, sun, look,

And looking with thy best inquiry, tell, In all thy age of journals thou hast took, Saw'st thou that pair became these rites so well,

Save the preceding two ? 113

Who, in all they do,

Search, sun, and thou wilt find They are th' exampled pair, and mirror of their