"On the 3. of September, 1651" Philips Katherine John O'Brien Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup Staff and Research Assistants at The University of Virginia John O'Brien Sara Brunstetter Rachel Retica National Endowment for the Humanities Literature in Context
University of Virginia Department of English P. O. Box 400121 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121 jobrien@virginia.edu lic.open.anthology@gmail.com
Published by Literature in Context under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License "On the 3. of September, 1651" Katherine Philips Poems by the most deservedly admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda to which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey & Horace, tragedies; with several other translations out of French London Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman 1667 This text is based on transcriptions created by the Early English Books Online Texts Creation Partnership, a library-based project directed by the University of Michigan and Oxford University. Their digital text was produced from the 1667 edition, published by Henry Herringman in London in 1667, three years after Philips's death, but with the collaboration of her late husband. We have also consulted The Collected Works of Katherine Philips, edited by Patrick Thomas (Essex: Stump Cross Books, 1990), which takes Philips's manuscript versions of her poems as its copytext. Annotations have been provided by faculty and students at the University of Virginia. For a full description of this object, see its ESTC entry. [36], 198, [8], 112, [2] p. : port. ; 2⁰. pp 13-14 English print London, England Dublin, Ireland

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 Unnumbered divs used. Library of Congress Name Authority File Library of Congress Classification Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Open Researcher and Contributor ID
On the 3. of September, 1651 On September 3rd, 1651, Oliver Cromwell and his men defeated Charles II and the Royalists in the battle of Worcester, the last major battle of the English Civil War. As when the glorious Magazine A storehouse or repository. In military use, a storeroom for arms and explosives (Oxford English Dictionary). of Light Approches to his Canopy of Night He with the new splendour clothes his dying Rays, And double brightness to his Beams conveys; And (as to brave To defy (Oxford English Dictionary). and check to stop sharply (Oxford English Dictionary) his ending fate) Puts on his highest look in's lowest state, Drest in such terrour as to make us all Be Anti-Persians Persians had the reputation of being sun-worshippers. Anti-Persians, therefore, would be anti-sun, depicted here as though they were rooting for it to set (Encyclopedia Britannica). and adore his Fall; Then quits the world depriving it of Day, While Every Herb and Plant does droop away: So when our gasping English Royalty Perceiv'd her Period An end, a conclusion; the point of completion of a process (OED). was now drawing nigh, She summons her whole strength to give one blow, To raise her self, or pull down others too. Big with revenge and hope she now spake more Of terror than in many months before; And musters her Attendants, or to save Her from, or else attend her to, the Grave: Yet but enjoy'd the miserable fate Of setting Majesty, to die in State. Unhappy Kings, who cannot keep a Throne, Nor be so fortunate to fall alone! Their weight sinks others: Pompey could not fly,Pompey, a Roman statesman and general, was a popular figure in literature for his spectacular fall from power. After Caesar defeated him in the Battle of Pharsalus, concluding the civil war, Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated by Lucius Septimius, his former colleague. But half the World must bear him company; And captiv'd Sampson In the Bible, Sampson ("man of the sun"), a Judge of the ancient Israelites and blessed with superhuman strength, was taken captive and tortured by the Philistines after Delilah betrayed him. He took his revenge during a well-attended sacrifice, when he was summoned to give a performance and instead destroyed the temple's columns, killing himself and all of the Philistines within. could not life conclude, Unless attended with a multitude. Who'd trust to greatness now, whose food is air,Who survives on nothing or who has false hope. Whose ruine sudden, and whose end despair? Who would presume upon his Glorious Birth, Or quarrel for a spacious share of Earth That sees such Diadems Crowns (Oxford English Dictionary). become so cheap, And Heros tumble in a common heap? Oh give me Vertue then, which sums up all, And firmly stands when Crowns and Scepters fall.