MacLean, Gerald, editor. The Return of the King : An Anthology of English Poems Commemorating the Restoration of Charles II / edited by Gerald MacLean
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
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Samuel Holland To the Best of Monarchs
14 June

To the best of MONARCHS
HIS
MAIESTY
OF GREAT BRITTAIN, &c.
CHARLES
THE SECOND,
A GRATULATORY POEM
On the most happy Arrival of his most Excellent Majestie Charles the second, by the Grace of God, KING of
England, Scot-
-land, France, and Ireland, who landed at Dover Friday, May the 25. to the most unspeakable joy of his SUBJECTS

HEav'n at the Last hath heard my Prayers I stand
Full of fair Hopes to kiss my Princes hand,
And need no flames that may new Heats infuse
Zeal can create a Verse without a Muse,
5: The wounds I have receiv'd, the yeers I've spent,
The Months I've told in long Imprisonment,
I look on now with Joy, who would not be
One day in Chains to be for ever free,
My prayers are heard, the King himself is come
10: The Grace, and Glory of all Christendome,
'Tis he repairs our Breaches, and restores
The Land to safety, and doth heal our sores,
'Tis He that stroaks our Griefs, and wipes our Eyes,
Sets us in order, and doth make us wise,
15: For ne're was Nation so before misled
To court the Tayl, and make the Rump their Head,
Where are the Saints now that would fayn be known
To have no other Holydays but their own:
Where are our cruel Regicids, and all
20: The petulant Crew, we Anabaptists call,
Whose wild Religion, and whose zeal doth Border,
On Faction, Ruine, Falshood, and Disorder,
Whose Gospel speaks it is too hard a thing,
To honour God, and to obey the King,
25: And from their Bibles do expunge that Text
As too obliging, or too much perplext;
The day is now at hand that will declare
What men of Conscience, and what Saints they are,
Who still pursue (oh most inhumane wrongs)
30: The Lords anoynted with their threatning tongues,
As if the Father slain, they had not done
Enough, unless they Massacred the Son,
This to prevent, the King himself draws nigh
Full of his Cause, his Eye with Majesty,
35: His Brow with thunders arm'd, and on each hand
The Youth of Heav'n in files unnumberd stand,
His glorious Guard, for to the world be't known,
That Heaven is pleasd to make this Cause his own,
For who the King affront, the like would do
40: To th'King of Kings could they come at him too;
Now as the Sun when his absented light
Approacheth neerer Day doth smile out right¹
And the thick vapours of the night do fly
In guilty Tumults from his searching Eye;
45: So now the King in person hath begun
To show himself like the Meridian Sun
To shine in all his Glories, and dispence
Throughout the Land his powerfull Influence
The clouds of bold Rebellion, the false light
50: Of falser zeal, and Meteors of the Night,
The sullen Vapours, and the Mists that made
A great Confusion in so great a shade,
Shall wast before him, as he comes our States
Extreams to temper, for it pleas'd the Fates,
55: Though others travail'd in the work, yet none
Shall heal our Griefs but who our hearts did own,
Nor shall the North regain their antient worth
But by that Monarch whom the North brought forth:
And Fame no sooner to our ears did bring
60: The welcome story of our landed King,
But all the Lords and Gentry of the Land
Made haste to waite upon his high Command,
So full their trayn, so gallant their Array
As if their splendor would outshine the day,
65: Who all as soon as they the King displayd
Who can imagine what a shout was made,
The glittering of their cloaths outvy'd the Suns
Hats in the Ayr flew up, Guns roard to Guns,
And Trumpets deafned Trumpets, who would have thought
70: These ere in arms 'gainst each other fought,
Th'outlandish that did mark it, and stood by
In our behalf all out aloud did cry,
Was never Nation now more blest than we,
Nor ever Monarch more admir'd then He.
75: How great will be our growing Joys we may
Presume will Crown his Coronation Day,
For to his matchless merit twill be more
Then ever King of England had before,
At which since Heav'n and Earth with shouts do ring,
80: Let Heaven and Earth say both, God save the KING.

S. HOLLAND
Entred according to Order, and Printed by S. Griffin for Matthew Wallbancke, 1660.

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