DUTY TO TYRANTS.
by Robert Herrick


GOOD princes must be pray'd for ; for the bad
They must be borne with, and in rev'rence had.
Do they first pill thee, next pluck off thy skin?
Good children kiss the rods that punish sin.
Touch not the tyrant ; let the gods alone
To strike him dead that but usurps a throne.


Pill, plunder.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1660).
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1660)
Courtesy Dr. E.L. Skip Knox,
Boise State University


Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 37.


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Created by Anniina Jokinen on October 19, 1998.
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