Old Aeschylus (Emblem 31) | Elemental Edition

Old Aeschylus1
, being told that he should die
By the descent of something from on high,
Into the field he went and sat him down.
The sun shone bright upon his glist’ring crown2
,
For he to Erycine had sacrificed3
;
Pity4
 a poet thus was stigmatized5
.
A tow’ring eagle let her prey fall down
In hope to break th’escallop6
 on his crown.
She had her wish; it broke the fatal shell,
And struck the poet’s rhyming soul to Hell.
Then let none curiously pry in their fate,
For none can lengthen or make short their date.
For surely none their fortune can prevent,
Unless a messenger from Heaven be sent
With a reprieve; so Hezekiah’s tears7
A pardon did obtain for fifteen years.
This Jezebel8
 found true that fatal hour
When dogs her curséd carcass did devour.
Nor could Domitian9
 cross his prophet’s fate
Or add a minute to his own life’s date.
Though Caesar did the fatal Ides know10
,
At twenty and three wounds his blood did flow.
So Agrippina was her fate foretold,
Yet her dissection Nero did behold11
.
Then let me never know my destiny,
But every day so live that when I die
I may with comfort lay these ruins down
In dust12
; ’tis softer far than finest down13
.
Nor is that pillow stuffed with cares or fears,
Nor shall I wake as now to sighs and tears.
Yet O, my God, this comfort let me have:
Let me not here anticipate my grave;
Yet if I must alive thus buried be14
,
Let me yet live, my gracious God, to Thee.
Then so assist my soul in her sad story,
That though I fall, yet I may rise to glory.

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