IV.

The Medes I call to my affiftance here,

A people that delight in war;
A generous race of men, à nation free
From vicious ease and Perfian luxury.
Silver is defpicable in their eyes,
Contemn'd the useless metal lies:

Their conquering iron they prefer before
The finest gold, ev'n Ophir's tempting ore.
By these the land shall be subdued,
Abroad their bows fhall overcome,
Their fwords and flames deftroy at home;
For neither fex nor age fhall be exempt from blood.
The nobles and the princes of thy state

Shall on the victor's triumphs wait:

And thofe that from the battle fled

Shall be, with chains opprefs'd, in cruel bondage led.

V.

I'll visit their distress with plagues and miferies,
The throes that womens' labours wait,

Convulfive pangs, and bloody fweat,

Their beauty fhall confume, and vital fpirits feize.
The ravish'd virgins fhall be borne away,
And their dishonour'd wives be led

To the infulting victor's bed,

To brutal lufts expos'd, to fury left a prey.
Nor shall the teeming womb afford
Its forming births a refuge from the fword;

The fword, that fhall their pangs increase,
And all the throes of travail curfe with barrennefs,

The

The infants shall expire with their first breath,

And only live in pangs of death;

Live but with early cries to curse the light,

And, at the dawn of life, fet in eternal night.
VI.

Ev'n Babylon, adorn'd with every grace,
The beauty of the universe :

Glory of nations! the Chaldæans' pride,
And joy of all th' admiring world befide:
Thou, Babylon! before whose throne
The empires of the earth fall down ;
The proftrate nations homage pay,
And vaffal princes of the world obey :
Shalt in the duft be trampled low:
Abject and low upon the earth be laid,
And deep in ruins hide thy ignominious head.
Thy ftrong amazing walls, whofe impious height
The clouds conceal from human fight;
That proudly now their polifh'd turrets rear,
Which bright as neighbouring stars appear,
Diffufing glories round th' enlighten'd air,
In flames fhall downwards to their centre fly,
And deep within the earth, as their foundations, lie.
VII.

Thy beauteous palaces (though now thy pride!)
Shall be in heaps of ashes hid :

In vaft furprizing heaps fhall lie,

And ev'n their ruins bear the pomp of majesty.
No bold inhabitant fhall dare

Thy ras'd foundations to repair:

No

No pitying hand exalt thy abject state;
No! to fucceeding times thou must remain
An horrid exemplary fcene,

And lie from age to age ruin'd and defolate.
Thy fall's decreed (amazing turn of fate!)
Low as Gomorrah's wretched state:

Thou, Babylon, fhalt be like Sodom curst, Destroy'd by flames from heaven, and thy more burn

VIII.

[ing luft. The day's at hand, when in thy fruitful foil

No labourer fhall reap, no mower toil :
His tent the wandering Arab shall not spread,
Nor make thy curfed ground his bed;
Though faint with travel, though opprest with thirst,
He to his drooping herds fhall cry aloud,

Taste not of that embitter'd flood,

[curft.

Tafte not Euphrates' ftreams, they 're poisonous all, and The shepherd to his wandering flocks shall say, When o'er thy battlements they stray,

When in thy palaces they graze,

Ah, fly, unhappy flocks! fly this infectious place.
Whilft the fad traveller, that passes on,

Shall afk, Lo, where is Babylon?

And when he has thy fmall remainder found, Shall fay, I'll fly from hence, 'tis fure accurfed ground.

IX.

Then fhall the favages and beafts of

prey

From their deferted mountains hafte away;

Every obfcene and vulgar beaft
Shall be to Babylon a guest :

Her marble roofs, and every cedar room,

Shall dens and caves of ftate to nobler brutes become.
Thy courts of juftice, and tribunals too,
(O irony to call them fo!)

There, where the tyrant and oppreffor bore
The spoils of innocence and blood before;
There fhall the wolf and favage tiger meet,
And griping vulture fhall appear in state,

There birds of prey fhall rule, and ravenous beafts be great.
Thofe uncorrupted shall remain,

Thofe fhall alone their genuine ufe retain,

There Violence shall thrive, Rapine and Fraud fhall

X.

Then shall the melancholy Satyrs groan,

O'er their lamented Babylon;

[reign.

And ghofts that glide with horror by,
To view where their unbury'd bodies lie,
With doleful cries fhall fill the air,
And with amazement strike th' affrighted traveller.
There the obfcener birds of night,

Birds that in gloomy fhades delight,

Shall folitude enjoy, live undisturb'd by light.
All the ill omens of the air

Shall fcream their loud prefages there.

But let them all their dire predictions tell,

Secure in ills, and fortify'd with woe,

Heaven fhall in vain its future vengeance show :

For thou art happily infenfible,

Beneath the reach of miferies fell,

Thou need'ft no defolation dread, no greater curfes fear.

то

ΤΟ M R. CONGRE VE.

AN EPISTOLARY ODE, 1693.

OCCASIONED BY "THE OLD BACHELOR."

I.

AM'D wits and beauties fhare this common fate,

FAM'D

To ftand expos'd to public love and hate,
In every breast they different paffions raife,
At once our envy, and our praise.

For when, like you, fome noble youth appears,
For wit and humour fam'd above his years;

Each emulous Mufe, that views the laurel won,
Must praise the worth fo much transcends their own,、
And, while his fame they envy, add to his renown.
But fure, like you, no youth could pleafe,

Nor at his first attempt boaft fuch fuccefs:Where all mankind have fail'd, you glories won; Triumphant are in this alone,

In this, have all the bards of old out-done..

II.

Then may'st thou rule our ftage in triumph long!
May'st thou its injur'd fame revive,

And matchlefs proofs of wit and humour give, Reforming with thy fcenes, and charming with thy fong!

And though a curfe ill-fated wit pursues,

And waits the fatal dowry of a Muse;
Yet may thy rifing fortunes be
Secure from all the blafts of poetry;
Bb 2

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