Loaded and bleft with all the affluent ftore,

Which human vows at fmoaking shrines implore;
Grateful and huinble grant me to employ

My life fubfervient only to thy joy ;

And at my death to bless thy kindness shown

To her, who of mankind could love but thee alone.

WHILE thus the conftant pair alternate faid,
Joyful above them and around them play'd
Angels and fportive Loves, a númerous crowd;
Smiling they clapt their wings, and low they bow'd÷
They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,
To chufe propitious fhafts, a precious store;
That, when their God fhould take his future darts,
To strike (however rarely) constant hearts,
His happy fkill might proper arms employ,
All tipt with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy :
And thofe, they vow'd, whofe lives fhould imitate
'These lovers' conftancy, should share their fate.

The Queen of Beauty ftopt her bridled doves;
Approv'd the little labour of the Loves;
Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear;
And to the triumph call'd the God of War:
Soon as the calls, the God is always near.

Now, Mars, fe faid, let Fame exalt her voice:
Nor let thy conquefts only be her choice:
But, when the fings great Edward from the field
Return'd, the hoftile fpear and captive fhield
In Concord's temple hung, and Gallia taught to yield;
And when, as prudent Saturn fhall compleat
The years defign'd to perfect Britain's state,

The fwift-wing'd power fhall take her trump again,
To fing her favourite Anna's wondrous reign;
To recollect unweary'd Marlborough's toils,
Old Rufus' hall unequal to his spoils;

The British foldier from his high command
Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand.:
Let her at least perform what I defire;
With fecond breath the vocal brass inspire;
And tell the nations, in no vulgar strain,
What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain.
And, when thy tumults and thy fights are paft;
And when thy laurels at my feet are caft;
Faithful may'st thou, like British Henry, prove:
And, Emma-like, let me return thy love.

Renown'd for truth, let all thy fons appear;
And conftant Beauty shall reward their care.
Mars fmil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian Deity
Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky;
And thou, fhe fmiling faid, great God of days
And verfe, behold my deed, and fing my praise,
As on the British earth, my favourite ifle,

Thy gentle rays and kindest influence smile,
Through all her laughing fields and verdant groves,
Proclaim with joy these memorable loves.
From every annual courfe let one great day
To celebrated fports and floral play

Be fet afide; and, in the fofteft lays

Of thy poetic fons, be folemn praise
And everlasting marks of honour paid,

To the true Lover, and the Nut-brown Maid.

AN

A N O D E,

Humbly infcribed to the QUEEN,

ON THE

Glorious Succefs of her MAJESTY's Arms, 1706..

Written in Imitation of SPENSER'S Style.

"Te non paventis funera Galliæ,
"Duræque tellus audit Iberiæ : .

"Te cæde gaudentes Sicambri
"Compofitis venerantur armis.”

W

PRE FAC E.

HOR

HEN I first thought of writing upon this occa fion, I found the ideas fo great and numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of anOde, than for any other fort of poetry: I therefore fet Horace before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,

"Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c."

which he wrote in praise of Drufus after his expedition into Germany, and of Auguftus upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though I have endeavoured to imitate all the great ftrokes of

that ode, I have taken the liberty to go off from it, and to add variously, as the fubject and my own imagination carried me. As to the style, the choice I made of following the ode in Latin determined me in English to the ftanza; and herein it was impoffible not to have a mind to follow our great countryman Spenfer; which I have done (as well at leaft as I could) in the manner of my expreffion, and the turn of my number : having only added one verfe to his ftanza, which I thought made the number more harmonious; and avoided fuch of his words as I found too obfolete. I have however retained fome few of them, to make the colouring look more like Spenfer's. Beheft, command; band, army; prowess, ftrength; I weet, I know; I ween, I think; whilom, heretofore; and two or three more of that kind, which I hope the ladies will pardon me, and not judge my Mufe lefs handfome, though for once the appears in a farthingale. I have alfo, in Spenfer's manner, ufed Cæfar for the emperor, Boya for Bavaria, Bavar for that prince, Ifter for Danube, Iberia for Spain, &c.

That noble part of the Ode which I just now mentioned,

"Gens, quæ cremato fortis ab Ilio

66

Jactata Tufcis æquoribus, &c."

where Horace praifes the Romans as being defcended from Æneas, I have turned to the honour of the British nation, defcended from Brute, likewise a Trojan. That this Brute, fourth or fifth from Æneas, fettled in

England,

England, and built London, which is called Troja Nova, or Troynovante, is a story which (I think) owes its original, if not to Geoffry of Monmouth, at leaft to the Monkish writers; yet is not rejected by our great Camden; and is told by Milton, as if (at least) he was pleased with it, though poffibly he does not believe it however it carries a poetical authority, which is fufficient for our purpose. It is as certain that Brute came into England, as that Æneas went into Italy; and upon the fuppofition of these facts, Virgil wrote the best poem that the world ever read, and Spenfer paid queen Elizabeth the greatest compliment. I need not obviate one piece of criticism, that I bring my hero

"From burning Troy, and Xanthus red with blood :"whereas he was not born, when that city was deftroyed. Virgil, in the cafe of his own Æneas relating to Dido, will ftand as a fufficient proof, that a man in his poetical capacity is not accountable for a little fault in chronology.

My two great examples, Horace and Spenfer, in many things refemble each other: both have a height of imagination, and a majefty of expreffion in defcribing the fublime; and both know to temper those talents, and sweeten the defcription, fo as to make it lovely as well as pompous: both have equally that agreeable manner of mixing morality with their story, and that Curiofa Felicitas in the choice of their diction, which every writer aims at, and fo very few have reached ::

R

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