and not of neceffity. Therefore, fir, I fhall only call it an humble petition, that your majesty will please to pardon this new amour to my old mistress, and my difobedience to his commands, to whofe memory I look
up with great reverence and devotion: and making a ferious reflection upon that wife advice, it carries much greater weight with it now, than when it was given; for when age and experience has fo ripened man's difcretion as to make it fit for ufe, either in private or public affairs, nothing blasts and corrupts the fruit of it fo much as the empty, airy reputation of being Nimis Poëta; and therefore I fhall take my leave of the Mufes, as two of my predeceffors did, faying,
"Splendidis longum valedico nugis.
"Hic verfus & cætera ludicra pono."
Your majefty's most faithful
and loyal fubject, and most
dutiful and devoted fervant,
URE there are poets which did never dream
Upon Parnaffus, nor did tafte the stream
Of Helicon; we therefore may fuppofe
Thofe made not poets, but the poets those.
And as courts make not kings, but kings the court,
So where the Mufes and their train refort,
Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee
A poet, thou Parnaffus art to me.
Nør wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight,
By taking wing from thy aufpicious height)
Through untrac'd ways and airy paths I fly,
More boundlefs in my fancy than my eye:
My eye, which swift as thought contracts the fpace
That lies between, and firft falutes the place
Crown'd with that facred pile, fo vaft, fo high,
That, whether 'tis a part of earth or sky,
Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud
Afpiring mountain, or descending cloud,
Paul's, the late theme of fuch a Mufe whose flight
Has bravely reach'd and soar'd above thy height :
Now fhalt thou ftand, though fword, or time, or fire,
Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall confpire,.
Secure, whilft thee the beft of poets fings,
Preferv'd from ruin by the best of kings.
Under his proud furvey the city lies,
And like a mift beneath a hill doth rife;
Whose state and wealth, the business and the crowd
Seems at this diftance but a darker cloud :
And is, to him who rightly things esteems,
No other in effect than what it seems :
Where, with like haste, though several ways, they rum
Some to undo, and fome to be undone ;
While luxury, and wealth, like war and peace,
Are each the other's ruin, and increase;
As rivers loft in feas, fome fecret vein
Thence reconveys, there to be lost again.
Oh happiness of fweet retir'd content!
To be at once fecure, and innocent.
Windfor the next (where Mars with Venus dwells,,
Beauty with ftrength) above the valley fwells
Into my eye, and doth itself present
With fuch an easy and unforc'd ascent,
That no ftupendous precipice denies
Accefs, no horror turns away our eyes
But fuch a rife as doth at once invite
A pleasure, and a reverence from the fight.
Thy mighty master's emblem, in whose face
Sate meekness, heighten'd with majestic grace;
Such feems thy gentle height, made only proud
To be the basis of that pompous load,
Than which, a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only which supports the spheres.
When Nature's hand this ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer power than Chance ;
Mark'd-out for fuch an ufe, as if 'twere meant
T'invite the builder, and his choice prevent.
Nor can we call it choice, when what we chufe,
Folly or blindness only could refuse.
A crown of fuch majestic towers doth grace
The gods great mother, when her heavenly race
Do homage to her, yet fhe cannot boast
Among that numerous, and celestial host,
More heroes than can Windsor, nor doth Fame's
Immortal book record more noble names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this ifle
Owes the first glory of fo brave a pile,
Whether to Cæfar, Albanact, or Brute,
The British Arthur, or the Danish Cnute,
(Though this of old no lefs contest did move,
Than when for Homer's birth feven cities ftrove)
(Like him in birth, thou fhould't be like in fame,
As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame)
But whofoe'er it was, Nature defign'd
First a brave place, and then as brave a mind.
Not to recount thofe feveral kings, to whom
It gave a cradle, or to whom a tomb ;
But thee, great * Edward, and thy greater Son,
(The lilies which his father wore, he won)
And thy + Bellona, who the confort came
Not only to thy bed, but to thy fame,
She to thy triumph led one captive king,
And brought that son, which did the second ‡ bring.
Then didft thou found that order (whether love
Or victory thy royal thoughts did move)
Each was a noble caufe, and nothing lefs
Than the defign, has been the great fuccefs:
Which foreign kings and emperors esteem
The fecond honour to their diadem.
Had thy great deftiny but given thee skill
To know, as well as power to act her will,
That from thofe kings, who then thy captives were,
In after-times fhould spring a royal pair,
Who fhould poffefs all that thy mighty power,
Or thy defires more mighty, did devour:
To whom their better fate referves whate'er
The victor hopes for, or the vanquish'd fear;
That blood, which thou and thy great grandfire fhed,
And all that fince thefe fifter nations bled,
Had been unfpilt, and happy Edward known
That all the blood he fpilt, had been his own.
* Edward III. and the Black Prince. + Queen Philippa.
The kings of France and Scotland.
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