WRITTEN IN A WINDOW AT GREENHITHE. GREAT President of light, and Fye of day, Confess, that in your progress round the sphere, You've found the happiest youths and brightest beauties here. THE TOASTERS. WHILE circling healths inspire your sprightly wit, TOFTS AND MARGARETTA. Music has learn'd the discords of the state, And concerts jar with Whig and Tory hate. Here Somerset and Devonshire attend The British Tofts, and every note commend; To native Merit just, and pleas'd to see We've Roman arts, from Roman bondage free: There fam'd L'Epine does equal skill employ, While listening peers crowd to th' ecstatic joy: Bedford, to hear her song, his dice forsakes, And Nottingham is raptur'd when she shakes: Lull'd statesmen melt away their drowsy cares Of England's safety, in Italian airs. Who would not send each year blank passes o'er, Rather than keep such strangers from our shore? THE WANDERING BEAUTY. To chase the fawns, or, deep in groves, With their bright mistress there they stray, Who turns her careless eyes From daily triumphs; yet, each day, But see! implor'd by moving prayers, Venus her harness'd doves prepares, Proud mortals, who this maid pursue, DIALOGUE DE L'AMOUR ET DU POETE. L'AM. Contre moi, qui peut t' animer? LE P. Non, Iris est une infidelle; Amour, je ne veux plus aimer. L'AM. Pour toi, j'ai pris soin d'enflamer Le cœur d'une beauté nouvelle; Daphne. -LE P. Non, Daphné n'est que belle; La jeune, la brillante Flore.- DIALOGUE FROM THE FRENCH POET. No, Love-I ne'er will love again; My weary heart resolves to cure Its wounds, and ease the raging pain. LOVE. Fool! canst thou fly my happy reign? Iris recals thee to her arms. POET. She's false-I hate her perjur'd charms; No, Love-1 ne'er will love again. LOVE. But know, for thee I've tail'd to gain Daphné, the bright, the reigning toast. POET. Daphné but common eyes can boast; No, Love-I ne'er will love again. POET. No, charming god, prepare a chain Yet still know every fair but she, VENUS AND ADONIS A CANTATA. SET BY MR. HANDEL. RECITATIVE. BUHOLD where weeping Venus stands ! Thus, queen of beauty, as the poets feign, While thou didst call the lovely swain; Transform'd by heavenly power, The lovely swain arose a flower, And, smiling, grac'd the plain. And now he blooms, and now he fades; Venus and gloomy Proserpine Alternate claim his charms divine; RECITATIVE. Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy strain; A rising storm invades the main! Flora is fled; thou lov'st in vain: AIR. Hope beguiling, Like the Moon and Ocean smiling, Like the Moon and Ocean changing, BEAUTY, AN ODE. FAIR rival to the god of day, By turns restor'd to light, by turns he seeks the Beauty, to thy celestial ray shades. A thousand sprightly fruits we owe; 1 Just so, my heart-But see-Ah no! She smiles-I will not, cannot go, AIR. Love and the Graces smiling, In Myra's eyes beguiling, Again their charms recover, Would you secure your duty, Let kindness aid your beauty, Ye fair, to sooth the lover, ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC: AN ODE IN HONOUR OF ST. CECILIA'S DAY, ALTERED FOR MUSIC BY MR. HUGHES, "Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were plac'd around; Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound, AIR. Lovely Thais by his side Blooming sat in beauty's pride. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair! RECITATIVE. Timotheus plac'd on high, And heavenly joys inspire. And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. The listening crowd adore the lofty sound, A present deity, the echoing roofs rebound; With downcast looks the joyless victor sate The various turns of chance below; AIR. WITH FLUTES, RECITATIVE. The prince unable to conceal his pain, Who caus'd his care, And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd, At length, with Love and Wine at once oppress'd, DUETTO. 1. Phoebus, patron of the lyre, 2. Cupid, god of soft desire, 1. Cupid, god of soft desire, 2. Phoebus, patron of the lyre, 1, and 2. How victorious are your charms! 1. Crown'd with conquest, 2. Full of glory, 1, and 2. See a monarch fall'n before ye, Chain'd in Beauty's clasping arms! RECITATIVE. Now strike the golden lyre again; Has rais'd up his head, AIR. WITH SYMPHONIES. Revenge, revenge, Alecto cries, See the snakes that they rear, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! RECITATIVE. Behold a ghastly band, Each a torch in his hand! And thy bright eye is brighter far CONSTANTIA, see, thy faithful slave A wedded wife if thou would'st be, My hand and heart shall both be thine, THRICE lov'd Constantia, heavenly fair, For thee a servant's form I wear; Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,Though blest with wealth, and nobly born, And unbury'd remain, Inglorious on the plain. Give the vengeance due To the valiant crew. For thee, both wealth and birth I scorn: Trust me, fair maid, my constant flame For ever will remain the same; My love, that ne'er will cease, my love Shall equal to thy beauty prove. TRANSLATED FROM PERSIAN VERSES. ALLUDING TO THE CUSTOM OF WOMEN BEING BURIED WITH THEIR HUSBANDS, AND MEN WITH THEIR WIVES. ETERNAL are the chains which here The generous souls of lovers bind, When Hymen joins our hands, we swear To be for ever true and kind; And when, by Death, the fair are snatch'd away, In the same grave our living corpse we lay, ANOTHER, My dearest spouse, that thou and I May shun the fear which first shall die, Clasp'd in each other's arms we'll live, Alike consum'd in Love's soft fire, SONGS, THY origin's divine, I see, Of mortal race thou canst not be; Thy purple cheek outshines the rose, ON ARQUE NASSA OF COLOPHOS. ARQUEANASSA'S charms inspire But before old Time pursued her, ON FULVIA, THE WIFE OF ANTIIONY. FROM THE LATIN OF AUGUSTUS CÆSAR. WHILE from his consort false Antonius flics, 'Tis war," she says "if I refuse her charms :" Let's think she's ugly.-Trumpets,sound to arms! HUDIBRAS IMITATED. WRITTEN IN 1710. O BLESSED time of reformation, With zeal and noises formidable, They stretch their throats with hideous shout. The mouse-trap men lay save-alls by, To side with rebels 'gainst the church! And some, for " brooms, old boots, and shoes," Some cry aloud, THAT the praises of the Author of Nature, which is the fittest subject for the sublime way of writing, was the most ancient use of poetry, cannot be learned from a more proper instance (next to examples of holy writ) than from the Greek fragments of Orpheus; a relique of great antiquity: they contain several verses concerning God, and his making and governing the universe; which, though imperfect, have many noble hints and lofty expressions. Yet, whether these verses were indeed written by that celebrated father of poetry and music, who preceded Homer, or by Onomacritus, who lived about the time of Pisistratus, and only contain some of the doctrines of Orpheus, is a question of little use or importance. A large paraphrase of these in French verse has been prefixed to the translation of Phocylides, but in a flat style, much inferior to the design. The following ode, with many alterations and additions proper to a modern poem, is attempted upon the same model, in a language which, having stronger sinews than the French, is, by the confession of their best critic, Rapin, more capable of sustaining great subjects. AN ODE TO THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD. O MUSE unfeign'd! O true celestial fire, Brighter than that which rules the day, Descend! a mortal tongue inspire To sing some great immortal lay! Begin, and strike aloud the consecrated lyre! |