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EBBA 34442

Houghton Library - Bute
Ballad XSLT Template
THE
WONDERFUL TRANCE;
OR,
The French King in a DREAM.
ON
The Happy Arrival of King WILLIAM into ENGLAND.

GIVE Ear, give Ear, to what I do relate,
With dreadful Sighs; O sad and dreadful Fate!
That I so long have liv'd in Honour great,
And now at last with Shame forc'd to retreat;
Who made no thought (by War) but out of hand,
To Conquer all the Habitable Land;
Enlarge my Borders, yea, and King to be
O're the whole World, to all Eternity:
What rage, what madness, now I undergo,
That I should prove Frances final overthrow?
O how the thoughts of that suppress my Heart
With tortur'd grief, yea, with a darting smart!
My warlike Men, they lay their Honours down,
Which forces me to be of no Renown;
My Captains love the Runegado's Race,
And durst not look King WILLIAM in the Face;
My Centinels are drove from place to place,
Alas! I am quite ruin'd with disgrace;
Whatere I do, or take in hand, or see,
It still falls cross unto my Majesty;
My Foes turn'd Friends, my Friends turn'd Foes again,
Till I was quite forsaken on the Main:
With England great, a Peace I would fain make,
Which makes my Crown and Sceptre sore to shake;
My Subjects dread Men born in English Land,
For when they come, we cannot them withstand;
Who with Prosperiry do still abound,
My Royal Robes to level with the Ground;
Myself to Death commit: I plainly see,
Appear the day of my Mortality:
Yea, lest my Sorrows may example need,
They will the Trojan Miseries exceed;

For my Birth-day, lest Comfort I should see,
Was black with Clouds, and foul as foul may be:
I now am tortur'd with a Conscious Guilt,
For Blood by me too often hath been spilt,
That now for Vengeance cries; yea, Innocent,
By which God's Wrath to punish me is bent:
To many Souls have I an Object been
To leave this World, ere half their days were seen,
Which me disturbs; yea, in the silent Night,
With Ghostly Shades, they do my Sleep affright;
Do what I can, before my Face they flee
And shreek; in no place can I quiet be.
Smart Stripes do sound before me, Hell-brands smoak,
Twisted with Snakes, my wicked Soul to choak;
They witness unto me, yea, day by day,
When dead, I shall be snatched quite away
To Parts far distant, from th' Elyzian Coast,
With damned Shades, shall dwell my horrid Ghost:
I am Deceit, Deceitful is my Name;
When Bears their Natures change, then I my frame;
When Paris shall in England planted be,
When Fish build Nests on every Bough and Tree,
When raging Seas without a rowling Wave,
Then I'll enjoy what I shall never have:
Ere this will be, ere Ethiops to white turn,
My Body must resort toth' silent Urn,
My Bones shall rest nowhere, but secret Cries
Shall me torment, in endless Miseries;
Whilst Great King William triumphs here on Earth,
Will Crowned be with everlasting Mirth;
His Soul to Heaven, Angels safe will bring
To God; there Hallelujahs for to sing,
To him who was, who is, and 'ere will be,
The King of Kings to all Eternity.


Licens'd, Octob. 15. 1692.
Per M.H.

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