Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 046.djvu/785

Law was despised, and order overborne,
And the old roots of civic peace uptorn;
E'en the religion of their fathers came
To be accounted bigotry and shame.
The commonwealth by statists was deranged,
Who were not pleased till every thing was changed.
A realm so troubled the new Queen call'd hers,
And those mad statists were her ministers.

The first in favour and in place, not rank,
Was one whoso age play'd many a youthful prank;
Like the tall mountain, fruitful oft of woe,
Fire in his bosom, on his head was snow;
A young old man, of keen and subtle wit,
Whom the Court suited, and who suited it.
Affairs of state he treated as a jest,
Mismanaged some, and cared not for the rest.
Fourth in descent from vigorous rustic blood,
In his ripe years was a green lustihood,
That made him look the character he play'd,
The well-graced favourite of the Royal Maid.
He was prime minister and palace-mayor,
Of royal dinners, pleasures, jests, purveyor;
As if he had not quite enough to do,
He was her private secretary too.
There never was a courtlier man than he,
A pleasanter and merrier could not be.
He had been, and was still one apt to win
The soft sex to the approach of pleasant sin.
In every trick of court finesse at home,
Gay, humorous, quick-witted, frolicksome;
His toil of state was how to take his ease,
His way to keep in office was—to please.
With seeming carelessness and playful art
The lively elder play'd the courtier's part.
With pleasure's bait his Queen he did entice,
And never wearied her with good advice;
With his good-will she gave up heart, ear, eye,
And mind, to soul-dissolving luxury.
Pity for Argenis he had not been
Court-jester, not adviser of the Queen.
Nor on himself did he alone depend
For being minister and private friend;
A quickset hedge he planted round her throne
In her attendants, creatures of his own;
They were about her court, about her bed,
Ladies of whom no harm was ever said,
Till old Andrugio brought them into play,
To serve his interest, and maintain his sway.
Too soon their mistress thought their converse sweet,
While they wink'd with their eyes, spake with their feet,
And to her ears their whisper'd scandal brought,
Invented signs, and with their fingers taught.
How could a chamber cabinet like this
Fail to deceive the youthful Argenis?
Won by their flattery, by their wiles deceived,
She in her mother's love no more believed;
But trusted them who thus her heart assail'd,
And their bad influence for a time prevail'd.
But after darkest gloom the day-beams rise,
And spread their welcome light along the skies;