When first, my lord, I saw you back your horse, Provoke his mettle, and command his force To all the uses of the field, and race, Methought I read the ancient art of Thrace, And saw a centaur, past those tales of Greece, So seemed your horse and you, both of a piece! You showed like Perseus upon Pegasus; Or Castor mounted on his Cyllarus: Or what we hear our home-born legend tell, Of bold Sir Bevis, and his Arundel: Nay, so your seat his beauties did endorse, As I began to wish myself a horse: And surely had I but your stable seen Before, I think my wish absolved had been. For never saw I yet the muses dwell, Nor any of their household half so well. So well, as when I saw the floor, and room, I looked for Hercules to be the groom! And cried, away with the Caesarian bread, At these immortal mangers Virgil fed. |