The Strings of the Harp
Back to the Harp, and its strings this time.
[p. 71] Before I sung the Harp's Commanding Powers,And taught the Influence of its fatal Hours;Back to the same my Muse doth now retire,Pleas'd with the sounding Vertues of the Lyre:For when its gay Harmonious Strings appear,Let Sin grow Pale, and Villains learn to fear:For subtle Judges, whose Demands shall drawPale sculking Guilt within the reach of Law,Shall then be born; or else the Births shall dareTo screw the Rack, and make the Wretch his Sin declare;Steel'd against Pity, and averse to spare.All Pains inflict, be Cruel without Hate,And make stern Justice wield the Sword of Fate:Or if soft Methods can prevail, the CauseThey gravely shall determine by the Laws:As Wisdom gave the Sentence, Strife shall cease,Both sides be pleas'd, at least consent to Peace.
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The text is Thomas Creech's 1697 verse translation, checked word by word between three scans of the same type (the 1697 printing, the 1700 printing and a third copy). The long s is printed as s; every other spelling is Creech's. Pages are cited as the 1697 printing numbers them. The portrait is William Marshall’s engraving of Lilly from the front of the 1659 printing (Wellcome Library, public domain).