Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/224

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210
NAHUM TATE.

a subject; perhaps no funeral was ever so poetically attended." Tate is not mentioned by the Doctor as one of the tuneful mourners, but his strain is louder and loftier than usual. He apotheosizes her in these lines.

"With robes invested of celestial dyes,
She towr's, and treads the Empyrean Skies;
Angelick choirs, skill'd in triumphant song,
Heaven's battlements and crystal turrets throng.
The signal's given, the eternal gates unfold
Burning with jasper, wreath'd in burnish'd gold,
And myriads now of flaming minds I see—
Pow'rs, Potentates, Heaven's awfull Hierarchy
In gradual orbs enthron'd, but all divine
Ineffably those sons of glory shine."

By one of his official poems, written at a particular crisis in the reign of William III. he excited much bitter attack from opponents. Many of our readers will remember the history of the Kentish Petition. This bold document requested the Parliament then sitting to attend to public affairs and not their "own private heats," and besought them to turn their attention to the supplies, and enable the King to defend the country, and protect our allies. The gentlemen who presented it were Justinian Champneys, Sir Thomas Culpepper, William Culpepper, William Hamilton, and David Polhill. The House of Commons felt that so bold a measure must be as boldly resisted. They treated this document as a libel, and gave these five gentlemen into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms. On their remonstrating with him on the illegality of the arrest, that officer informed them in language highly indecorous, that he did not care for the law. They remained under his charge for five days, and were then lodged in Gate House Prison. This arbitrary act occasioned much discontent and disturbance. Many pamphlets were written on both sides of the question, De Foe being one of the ablest advocates of the petitioners. The popular feeling was against the Parliament, and they were at length libe-