1

Aristomenes1

, his strange ambiguous fate,

2Unto the noble reader I’ll relate.

3Thrice of his liberty he was restrained;

4Thrice by a miracle his freedom gained.

5Last in a dismal dungeon he was put

6From light and joy, to night and sorrow shut.

7No fellows but dead bodies ’bout him lay,

8On which–O, strange!–a jackal came to prey.

9He whose courageous heart did never fail

10

Start2

up and caught old

Reynard3

by the tail.

11The frighted fox returned the way she came;

12

He kept in’s4

hold, in hope to do the same.

13And when the hole too little was (alas!),

14He scraped it bigger till himself could pass.

15The

anchorite5

with’s6

nails so digs his grave;

16He scraped, his life and liberty to have.

17Then let my

royal friends that captive be7

,

18The

various8

fortune of this warrior see

19And rest in hope; for though no help be found

20Above, yet it may come from underground.

21Who would have thought one of

Ham’s cursed race9

22Should only pity

Jeremiah’s case10

?

23Or who that

Merodach11

should comfort bring

24To Judah’s sad, dejected, captive king?

25Or that the

swashing Swedes12

should hear the moan

26

Of Rhine’s elector, him to reinthrone13

?

27Then let

the royal branches14

trust in God:

28

The staff of comfort still succeeds the rod15

.