AN
Ε Ρ Ι S T L E

TO
M RS. OLDFIELD

OF THE THEATRE ROYAL. WHILE to your charms unequal verse I raise,

Aw'd, I admire, and tremble as I praise : Here Art and Genius new refinement need, Listening, they gaze, and, as they gaze, recede!

5
Can Art or Genius, or their powers combin'd,
But from corporeal organs, sketch the mind?
When sound embody'd can with Mape surprize,
The Muse may emulate your voice and eyes.

Mark rival arts perfection's point pursue !
Each rivals each, but to excel in you!
The Bult and Medal bear the meaning face,
And the proud Statue adds the posture's grace !
Imag'd at length, the bury'd Heroine, known,
Still seems to wound, to smile, or frown in stone !
As art would art, or metal stone furpass,

15
Her soul strikes, gleaming, through Corinthian brass!
Serene, the faint in smiling silver fhines,
And cherubs weep in gold o'er sainted shrines !
If long-lost forms.from Raphael's pencil glow,
Wondrous in warmth the mimic colours flow !
Each look, each attitude, new grace displays ;
Your voice and motion life and music raise.

Thus Cleopatra in your charms refines; She lives, he speaks, with force improv'd the lines !

Fair,

10

20

30

Fair, and more fair, you every grace transmit; 25
Love, learning, beauty, elegance, and wit.
Cæfar, the world's unrival'd master, fir'd,
In her imperial soul, his own admir'd!
Philippi's victor wore her winning chain,
And felt not empire's loss in beauty's gain.
Could the pale heroes your bright influence know,
Or catch the filver accents as they flow,
Drawn from dark rest by your enchanting strain,
Each shade were lur'd to life and love again.

Say, sweet inspirer! were each annal known, 35
What living greatness shines there not your own!
If the griev'd Muse by some lov’d empress rose,
New strength, new grace, it to your influence owes !
If power by war distinguish'd height reveals,
Your nobler pride the wounds of fortune heals ! 40
Then could an empire's cause demand your care,
The soul, that justly thinks, would greatly dare.

Long has feign'd Venus mock'd the Muse's praise,
You dart, divine Ophelia ! genuine rays !
Warm through those eyes enlivening raptures roll! 45
Sweet through each striking feature streams your

foul ! The foul's bright meanings heighten beauty's fires : Your looks, your thoughts, your deeds, each grace

inspires ! Know, then, if rank'd with monarchs, here you stand, What Fate declines, you from the Muse demand !

50 Each grace that shone of old in each fam'd fair, Or may in modern dames refinement wear ;

Whate'er

Whate'er juft, emulative thoughts pursue,
Is all confirm'd, is all ador'd in you!
If godlike bosoms

pant

for

power to bless, If 'tis a monarch's glory to redress; In conscious majesty you fine ferene, do thought a heroine, and in act a queen.

55

MR. AARON HILI's PO E M,

called GIDEON.

The lines marked thus are taken from GIDEON.

I.
L
ET other poets poorly sing

Their Aatteries to the vulgar great!
Her airy flight let wandering fancy wing,

And rival nature's most luxuriant store, To swell some monster's pride, who Manes a state, 5

Or form a wreath to crown tyrannic power ! Thou, who inform d'it this clay with active fire!

Do thou, Supreme of Powers! my thoughts refine,
And with thy purest heat my soul inspire,
That with Hillarius' worth

my
verse
may

thine! 10 As thy lov'd Gideon once set ;Israel free,

So he with sweet, seraphic lays * Redeems the use of captive poetry,' Which first was form’d to speak thy glorious praise !

Il. Mofes,

20

II.
Moses, with an enchanting tongue,

15: Pharaoh's just overthrow fublimely fung!

When Saul and Jonathan in death were laid,
Surviving David felt the foftening fire !

And, by the Great Almighty's tuneful aid,
Wak'd into endless life his mournful lyre.
Their different thoughts, met in Hillarius' song,
Roll in one channel more divinely strong !

With Pindar's fire his verse's spirit flies,
• Wafted in charming music through the air !
Unstopt by clouds, it reaches to the skies,

25
And joins with angels' hallelujahs there,
Flows mix'd, and sweetly ftuikes th' Almighty's ear!

HII.
Rebels should blush when they his Gideon see!
That Gideon born to set his country free.

O that such heroes in each age might rise, 30%
Brightening through vapours like the morning-star,

Generous to triumph, and in council wise !
Gentle in peace, but terrible in war !

IV.
When Gideon, Oreb, Hyram, Shimron shine
Fierce in the blaze of war as they engage! 35

Great bard! what energy, but thine,
Could reach the valt description of their rage?

Or when, to cruel foes betray'd,
Sareph and Hamar call for aid,

Loit,

Loft, and be wilder'd in despair,

40 How piercing are the hapless lover's cries ! What tender strokes in melting accents rise !

Oh, what a master-piece of pity's there? · Nor goodly Joalh shows thy sweetness less, When, like kind heaven, he frees then; from diftress! 45

V.
Hail thou, whose verse, a living image, shines,
In Gideon's character your own you drew!

As there the graceful patriot Mines,
We in that image bright Hillarius view!

Let the low crowd, who love unwholesome fare, 50 When in thy words the breath of angels flows,

Like gross-fed fpirits, fick in purer air,
Their earthy souls by their dull tatte disclose !

Thy dazzling genius shines too bright!
And they, like spectres, shun the streams of light. 55
But while in Mades of ignorance they stray,
Round thee rays of knowledge play,
• And thew thee glittering in abstracted day.'

}

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

BESSY, COUNTESS OF ROCHFORD, DAUGHTER OF THE LATE EARL RIVERS,

WHEN WITH CHILD.

AS

S when the sun walks forth in flaming gold,
Mean plants may smile, and humbl: flowers un-

fold,
The low-laid lark the distant äther wings,
And, as the soars, her daring anthem fings;

So,