XXI.

VICTORIOUS MEN OF EARTH.

This little moral sonnet hath such a pointed application to the heroes of the foregoing and following ballads, that I cannot help placing it here, tho' the date of its composition is of a much later period. It is extracted from _Cupid and Death, a masque by J. S. (James Shirley) presented Mar._ 26, 1653. _London printed 1653, 4to._

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[Dr. Rimbault informs us that this masque was represented at the Military Ground in Leicester Fields, with music by Matthew Locke and Dr. Christopher Gibbons. (_Musical Illustrations_, p. 22.)]

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Victorious men of earth, no more Proclaim how wide your empires are; Though you binde in every shore, And your triumphs reach as far As night or day; 5 Yet you proud monarchs must obey, And mingle with forgotten ashes, when Death calls yee to the croud of common men.

Devouring famine, plague, and war, Each able to undo mankind, 10 Death's servile emissaries are; Nor to these alone confin'd, He hath at will More quaint and subtle wayes to kill; A smile or kiss, as he will use the art, 15 Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart.