ANDREW MARVELL. (1621-1678.) - XVI. NOSTRADAMUS'S PROPHECY - SATIRE

Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems range from the love-song "To His Coy Mistress", to evocations of an aristocratic country house and garden in "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden", the political address "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland", and the later personal and political satires "Flecknoe" and "The Character of Holland".

XVI. NOSTRADAMUS'S PROPHECY

From Political Satires and other Pieces. It is curious to note how much of the prophecy was actually fulfilled.

For faults and follies London's doom shall fix,

And she must sink in flames in "sixty-six";

Fire-balls shall fly, but few shall see the train,

As far as from Whitehall to Pudding-Lane;

To burn the city, which again shall rise,

Beyond all hopes aspiring to the skies,

Where vengeance dwells. But there is one thing more

(Tho' its walls stand) shall bring the city low'r;

When legislators shall their trust betray,

Saving their own, shall give the rest away;

And those false men by th' easy people sent,

Give taxes to the King by Parliament;

When barefaced villains shall not blush to cheat

And chequer doors shall shut up Lombard Street.

When players come to act the part of queens,

Within the curtains, and behind the scenes:

When no man knows in whom to put his trust,

And e'en to rob the chequer shall be just,

When declarations, lies and every oath

Shall be in use at court, but faith and troth.

When two good kings shall be at Brentford town,

And when in London there shall not be one:

When the seat's given to a talking fool,

Whom wise men laugh at, and whom women rule;

A minister able only in his tongue

To make harsh empty speeches two hours long

When an old Scots Covenanter shall be

The champion for the English hierarchy:

When bishops shall lay all religion by,

And strive by law to establish tyranny,

When a lean treasurer shall in one year

Make himself fat, his King and people bare:

When the English Prince shall Englishmen despise,

And think French only loyal, Irish wise;

When wooden shoon shall be the English wear

And Magna Charta shall no more appear:

Then the English shall a greater tyrant know,

Than either Greek or Latin story show:

Their wives to 's lust exposed, their wealth to 's spoil,

With groans to fill his treasury they toil;

But like the Bellides must sigh in vain

For that still fill'd flows out as fast again;

Then they with envious eyes shall Belgium see,

And wish in vain Venetian liberty.

The frogs too late grown weary of their pain,

Shall pray to Jove to take him back again.