Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland 1
The forward youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
________Nor in the shadows sing
________His numbers languishing:
'Tis time to leave the books in dust
And oil th' unus�d armor's rust,
________Removing from the wall
________The corselet of the hall. 2
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious arts of peace,
________But through adventurous war
________Urg�d his active star; 3
And, like the three-forked lightning, first
Breaking the clouds where it was nursed,
________Did thorough his own side
________His fiery way divide: 4
For 'tis all one to courage high,
The emulous, or enemy;
________And with such, to enclose
________Is more than to oppose.
Then burning through the air he went,
And palaces and temples rent;
________And Caesar's head at last
________Did through his laurels blast. 5
'Tis madness to resist or blame
The force of angry heaven's flame;
________And if we would speak true,
________Much to the man is due,
Who from his private gardens, where
He lived reserv�d and austere
________(As if his highest plot
________To plant the bergamot), 6
Could by industrious valor climb
To ruin the great work of Time,
________And cast the kingdom old
________Into another mold;
Though Justice against Fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain:
________But those do hold or break,
________As men are strong or weak.
Nature that hateth emptiness,
Allows of penetration 7 less,
________And therefore must make room
________Where greater spirits come.
What field of all the civil wars
Where his were not the deepest scars?
________And Hampton shows what part
________He had of wiser art; 8
Where, twining subtle fears with hope,
He wove a net of such a scope
________That Charles himself might chase
________To Caresbrooke's narrow case,
That thence the royal actor 9 borne,
The tragic scaffold might adorn;
________While round the arm�d bands
________Did clap their bloody hands.
He nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene,
________But with his keener eye
________The ax's edge did try; 10
Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right;
________But bowed his comely head
________Down, as upon a bed.
This was that memorable hour,
Which first assured the forc�d power;
________So when they did design
________The Capitol's first line,
A bleeding head where they begun
Did fright the architects to run;
________And yet in that the state
________Foresaw its happy fate. 11
And now the Irish are ashamed
To see themselves in one year tamed;
________So much one man can do,
________That does both act and know.
They can affirm his praises best,
And have, though overcome, confessed
________How good he is, how just,
________And fit for highest trust. 12
Nor yet grown stiffer with command,
But still in the republic's hand---
________How fit he is to sway,
________That can so well obey. 13
He to the Commons' feet presents
A kingdom for his first year's rents;
________And, what he may, forbears
________His fame to make it theirs; 14
And has his sword and spoils ungirt,
To lay them at the public's skirt:
________So, when the falcon high
________Falls heavy from the sky,
She, having killed, no more does search,
But on the next green bough to perch;
________Where, when he first does lure,
________The falconer has her sure.
What may not then our isle presume,
While victory his crest does plume!
________What may not others fear,
________If thus he crown each year!
A Caesar he here long to Gaul,
To Italy an Hannibal,
________And to all states not free,
________Shall climact�ric be. 15
The Pict no shelter now shall find
Within his party-colored mind,
________But from this valor sad,
________Shrink underneath the plaid; 16
Happy if in the tufted brake
The English hunter him mistake,
________Nor lay his hounds in near
________The Caledonian deer.
But thou, the war's and Fortune's son,
March indefatigably on;
________And for the last effect,
________Still keep thy sword erect;
Besides the force it has to fright
The spirits of the shady night, 17
________The same arts that did gain
________A power must it maintain. 18
2. Here as elsewhere there are allusions to Lucan's Pharsalia, a poem of civil war whose sympathies are with Pompey, Cato, and the Roman Republic against Caesar and the empire. The poem's allusions to Caesar are most often to Charles I, but sometimes to Cromwell.
3. Cromwell's brilliance as a military commander--he was primarily responsible for the victory of Parliament's forces in the Civil War--solidified his power.
4. The "three-forked lightning" identifies him with Zeus, suggesting the elemental force by which he surpassed all those in his own party ("side") of radical Independents; the imagery of giving birth to himself also suggests going Caesar (born by caesarian section) one better.
5. Royal crowns were made of laurel because they were supposed to protect from lightning.
6. A variety of pear (from the Turkish, "prince's pear")
7. Nature abhors a vacuum, but even more, the penetration of one body's space by another body.
8. Charles was confined at Hampton Court after his defeat, as Parliament attempted to negotiate terms for his restoration. Cromwell was rumored to have connived at his escape to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight in order to convince Parliament that he could not be trusted and must be executed. Cromwell has shown himself master of the two "arts" of rule defined by Machiavelli, namely, force and craft.
9. The theater metaphors used for Charles are even more powerful because the "tragic scaffold" was erected outside Whitehall, where so many royal masques were produced.
10. A play on the Latin acies, which means the edge of a sword or ax, a keen glance, and the vanguard of a battle.
11. Livy and Pliny record that the workmen digging the foundations for a temple of Jupiter at Rome uncovered a bloody head which they were persuaded to take as an omen that Rome would be head (caput) of a great empire; the temple and the hill took the name Capitoline from that event.
12. Cromwell conducted a particularly brutal campaign in Ireland, and the Irish had no such testimonials for him; the lines are deeply equivocal.
13. The maxim about obedience fitting one to rule is a commonplace. The implications of "yet" and "still," along with the next stanza, suggest a Caesar-figure who has not--but might--cross the Rubicon and defy the Republic, as Julius Caesar did.
14. Thus far, Cromwell gives the Republic credit for his victories.
15. It was thought that Cromwell's military acumen might subdue France and Italy (who threatened to attack the new republic to restore Charles II), just as did Caesar and Hannibal of old. "Climacteric": a period of crucial, epochal change--here, the expectation that the example of a successful English republic would topple absolute monarchs abroad.
16. Early Scots were called Picts (from the Latin pictus, painted), because the warriors painted themselves many colors; contemporary Scots are particolored (divided into many factions) like a scotch plaid. Cromwell was about to go to subdue Scotland, which had declared for Charles II.
17. A sword carried with the blade upright evokes the classical tradition that underworld spirits (here, the slain king and his followers) are frightened off by raised weapons.
18. The maxim alludes to Machiavelli's advice that a kingdom won by force must for some time be maintained by force.
