The Henriad A Poem Author:Voltaire General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1834 Original Publisher: S. Smith Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select... more » from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ARGUMENT. Henry Til'., re-united to Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre, against the league, baring already commenced the blockade of Paris, sends secretly Henry de Bourbon, to demand succours from Eiizabeth, Queen of England. The hero experiences a tempest. He puts into an Island, where a catholic old man predicts to him his change of religion, and his advancement to the throne. Detcrip tion of England and its government THE HENRIAD; A POEM. CANTO FIRST. I sing the hero who o'er Gallia reign'd (") By right of conquest, and by right of birth; Who, by long evils taught, had learned to rule ; Her factions calm'd, could conquer and forgive, Mayenne, Iberia, and the league o'erwhelm'd, And was his subjects' vanquisher and sire. From heav'n descend, O truth august! and spread O'er all my page, thy force, thy light; and let The ears of kings thee learn to hear and know ! 'Tis thine t' announce what they should understand : 'Tis thine t' th' eyes of nations to pourtray Of their divisions the dire state and end. Tell how our provinces hath discord vex'd; Tell of the people's woes, the princes' faults: Come, speak; and if of yore fair fiction knew How with thy strains her sweeter voice to mix; If her soft hand thy lofty brow hath deck'd; Or thy light strokes made lovlier by her shade, With me permit her in thy paths to tread, Thy charms to adorn, embellish, not conceal. 1 Valois yet reign'd; and his uncertain hands Of the rent state the reins had left afloat: The laws were forceless, rights confounded were ; Or rather Valois truly reign'd no more. No longer he that prince, with...« less