ALPHONSO OF CASTILE. I ALPHONSO live and learn, Seeing nature go astern. Things deteriorate in kind, Lemons run to leaves and rind, Meagre crop of figs and limes, Shorter days and harder times. Imps at high Midsummer blot "Twill not now avail to tan Orange cheek, or skin of man : Eyes of gods! ye must have seen, O'er your ramparts as ye lean, The general debility, Of genius the sterility, Mighty projects countermanded, Puny man and scentless rose Of vital force the wasted rill, Or, tumble all again in heap Say, Seigneurs, are the old Niles dry, Think nature barely serves for one; Masters, I'm in pain with you; In my palace of Castile, I, a king, for kings can feel; There my thoughts the matter roll, And solve and oft resolve the whole, And, for I'm styled Alphonse the Wise, Ye shall not fail for sound advice, Before ye want a drop of rain, Hear the sentiment of Spain. You have tried famine: no more try it; Ply us now with a full diet; Teach your pupils now with plenty, For one sun supply us twenty: I have thought it thoroughly over, State of hermit, state of lover ; We must have society, We cannot spare variety. Hear you, then, celestial fellows! Fits not to be over zealous ; Steads not to work on the clean jump, Nor wine nor brains perpetual pump; Men and gods are too extense, Your rank overgrowths reduce, Till your kinds abound with juice; Earth crowded cries, 'Too many men,'— My counsel is, Kill nine in ten, And bestow the shares of all On the remnant decimal. Add their nine lives to this cat; Stuff their nine brains in his hat ; Make his frame and forces square In schemes of broader scope engage : ye bave a man of the sphere, Fit to grace the solar year. MITHRIDATES. I CANNOT spare water or wine, Give me agates for my meat, Give me cantharids to eat, From air and ocean bring me foods, From all zones and altitudes. From all natures, sharp and slimy, Salt and basalt, wild and tame, Tree, and lichen, ape, sea-lion, Bird and reptile be my game. Ivy for my fillet band, Blinding dogwood in my hand, |