O mighty triumph! high renown!
Two gods have brought one mortal down ;
Have club'd their forces in a storm,
To strip one helpless female form!
Strip her stark naked; yet confess,
Such charms are Beauty's fairest dress!
But, all-insensible to blame,
The sky-born ravishers on flame
Enchanted at the prospect stood,
And kiss'd with rapture what they view’d.
Sleek S ** r too had done no less;
Would parsons here the truth confess :
Nay, one brisk peer, yet all-alive,
Would do the same, at eighty-five *.
But how, in colours softly-bright,
Where strength and harmony unite,
To paint the limbs, that fairer show
Than Massalina's borrow'd snow;
To paint the rose, that, through its made,
With theirs, one human eye survey'd ;
Would gracious Phæbus tell me how,
Would he the genuine draught avow,
The Muse, a second Titian then,
To Fame might consecrate her pen!
That Titian, Nature gave of old
The Queen of Beauty to behold,
Y
* We believe there is a mistake in this reading; for the person best informed and most concerned wifiures, that it should be only seventy-five. MALLET.
Like Mira unadorn'd by dress,
But all compleat in nakedness:
Then bade his emulating art
Those wonders to the world impart.
Around the ready Graces ftand,
Each heightening stroke, each happy line,
Awakes to life the form divine;
Till, rais'd and rounded every charm,
And all with youth immortal warm,
He sees, scarcc crediting his eyes,
He sees a brighter Venus rise !
But, to the gentle Reader's cost,
His pencil, with his life, was lost:
And Mira must contented be,
To live by Ramsay and by me.
EDWIN AND E M M A.
Α Ν Ε Μ Μ Α
** Mark it, Cesario, it is true and plain.
“ The spinsters and the knitters in the fun,
A
the freemaids that weave their thread with bones, " Do use to chant it. It is filly Sooth, " And dallies with the innocence of love, *** Like the old age.”
SHAKESP. TWELFTH NIGHT.
F4 R in the windings of a vale,
I.
R a ,
Fast by a sheltering wood,
The safe retreat of healih and
peace,
An humble cottage stood.
II.
There beauteous Emma Aourishid fair,
Beneath a mother's eye ;
Whose only with on earth was now
To see her bleft, and die.
III.
The softest blush that Nature spreads
Gave colour to her cheek :
"Such orient colour smiles through heavcila
When vernal mornings break,
IV.
Nor let the pride of great-ones fcorn
This charmer of the plains ;
That fun, who bids their diamond blaze,
To paint our lily deigns.
Y
V.
Long had fhe fill'd each youth with love,
Each maiden with despair ;
And though by all a wonder own'd,
Yet knew not she was fair.
VI.
Till Edwin came, the pride of swains,
A soul devoid of art;
And from whose eye, serenely mild,
Shone forth the feeling heart.
VII.
A mutual flame was quickly caught:
Was quickly too reveal'd:
For neither bosom lodg’d a wish,
That virtue keeps conceal’d.
VIII.
What happy hours of home-felt bliss
Did love on both beftow!
But bliss too mighty long to laft,
Where fortune proves a foe.
IX.
His Sister, who, like Envy, form’d,
Like her in mischief joy’d,
To work them harm, with wicked skills
Each darker art employ’d.
X.
The Father too, a fordid man,
Who love nor pity knew, Was all-unfeeling as the clod,
From whence his riches grew.
XI.
Long had he seen their secret flame,
And seen it long unmov'd :
Tlien with a father's frown at last
Had fternly disapprov'd.
XII.
In Edwin's gentle heart, a war
Of differing passions strove :
His heart, that durst not disobey,
Yet could not cease to love.
XIII.
Deny'd her fight, he oft behind
The spreading hawthorn crept,
To snatch a glance, to mark the spot
Where Emma walk'd and wept.
XIV.
Oft too on Stanemore's wintery waste,
Beneath the moonlight-shade,
In fighs to pour his soften’d soul,
The midnight-mourner stray'd..
XV.
His cheek, where health with beauty glow'd,
A deadly pale o'ercast :
So fades the fresh rose in its prime,
Before the northern blast.
XVI.
The
parents now, with late remorse,
Hung o'er his dying bed ;
And weary'd heaven with fruitless vows,
And fruitless forrow shed,
XVII. Tis
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