VERSES ON THE SUDDEN DRYING-UP OP

ST. PATRICK'S-WELL,

NEAR TRINITY-COLLEGE, DUBLIN, 1726.

By holy zeal infpir'd, and led by fame,

To thee, once favourite ifte, with joy I came ;
What time the Goth, the Vandal, and the Hun,
Had my own native Italy * o'er-ran.
lerne, to the world's remoteft parts,
Renown'd for valour, policy, and arts.

Hither from Colchos t, with the fleecy ore,
Jafon arriv'd two thousand years before.
Thee, happy island, Pallas call'd her own,
When haughty Britain was a land unknownt:

* Italy was not properly the native place of St. Pai trick, but the place of his education, and where he received his mission; and because he had his new birth there, hence, by poetical licence, and by scripture-figure, our author calls that country his native Italy. IRISHED:

+ Orpheus, or the antient author of the Greek poem on the Argonautic expedition, whoever he be, says, that Jason, who manned the ship Argos at Theffaly, failed to Ireland. IRISH ED.

I Tacitus, in the life of Julius Agricola, fays, that the harbours of freland, on account of their commerce, were better known to the world than those of Britain. IRISH ED.

B4

From

From thee, with pride, the Caledonians trace
The glorious founder of their kingly race :
Thy martial fons, whom now they dare despise,
Did once their land subdue and civilize :
Their dress, their language, and the Scottish name,
Confess the soil from whence the victors came *
Well may they boast that ancient blood, which runs.
Within their veins, who are thy younger sons to

A con* The argument here turns on, what the author of course took for granted, the present Scots being the descendants of Irish emigrants. This fact, however true, was not în Dr. Swift's time afcertained with any degree of precision. Ireland even to this day “remains fuperftitiously devoted to her antient history,” and “

"wraps “ herself in the gloom of her own legendary annals." Mr. Whitaker has displayed an uncommon fund of knowledge on this very curious subject, both in his

History of Manchester," and in “ The Genuine “ History of the Britons asserted.” N. * « The Scots (says Dr. Robertson) carry their

pre" tensions to antiquity as high as any of their neigh“.bours. Relying upon uncertain legends, and the tra“ ditions of their bards, still more uncertain, they rec“ kon up a series of kings several ages before the birth “ of Christ; and give a particular detail of occurrences, “ which happened in their reigns. In the beginning of " the sixteenth century, John Major and Hector “ Boëthius published their Histories of Scotland ; the “ former a succin&t and dry writer, the latter a copious

" and

66

a

A conquest and a colony from thee.
The mother-kingdom left her children free;
From thee no mark of slavery they felt :
Not so with thee thy bafe invaders dealt ;
Invited here to vengeful Morrough's aid *,
Those whom they could not conquer, they betray'd.

“ and florid one; and both equally credulous. Not

many years after, Buchanan undertook the same “ work; and if his accuracy and impartiality had been “ in any degree equal to the elegance of his taste, and " to the purity and vigour of his style, his hiftory might “ be placed on a level with the most admired compofi« tions of the ancients. But, instead of rejecting the “ improbable tales of Chronicle-writers, he was at the “ utmost pains to adorn them, and hath cloathed with “ all the beauties and graces of fi&tion those legends “ which formerly had only its wildness and extrava

gance."-On the authority of Buchanan and his predecessors the historical part of this poem seems founded, as well as the notes signed IRISH ED. some of which, I believe, were written by the Dean himself. N.

* In the reign of king Henry II, Dermot M.Morrough, king of Leinster, being deprived of his kingdom by Roderick O'Connor, king of Connaught, he invited the English over as auxiliaries, and promised Richard Strangbow earl of Pembroke his daughter and all his dominions as a portion. By this assistance, M‘Morrough recovered his crown, and Strangbow became poilelled of all Leinster. Irish Ed.

5

B.itain

Britain, by thee we fell, ungrateful ifle !
Not by thy valour, but superior guile :
Britain, with shame, confess this land of, mine
First taught thee human knowledge and divine *
My prelates and my students, fent from hence,
Made your fons converts both to God and fenfe :
Not like the pastors of thy ravenous breed,
Who come to fleece the flocks, and not to feed.

Wretched lerne! with what grief I see
The fatal changes Time hath made in thee !
The Christian rites I introduc'd in vain :
Lo! infidelity return'd again !
Freedom and virtue in thy fons I found,
Who now in vice and flavery are drown'd.

By faith and prayer, this crosier in my hand,
I drove the venom’d ferpent from thy land;
The shepherd in his bower might sleep or fing to
Nor dread the adder's tooth, nor scorpion's sting.

i St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in the year 431, and compleated the conversion of the natives, which had. been begun by Palladius and others. And, as bishop Nicholson observes, Ireland foon became the fountain of learning, to which all the Western Christians, as well as the English, had recourfe, not only for inftructions in the principles of religion, but in all sorts of literature, viz. Legendi et Scholaftice eruditionis gratiâ. Irish Ed.

+ There are no fnakes, vipers, or toads, in Freland; and even frogs were not known here until about the year 1700. The magpyes came a short time before ; and the Norway rats since, IRISH ED.

With omens oft' I ftrove to warn thy swains,
Omens, the types of thy impending chains.
I sent the

magpye

from the British foil, With restless beak thy blooming fruit to spoil';. To din thine ears with unharmonious clack, And haunt thy holy walls in white and black.. What else are those thou feest in bishops' geer, Who crop

the nurseries of learning here ; Aspiring, greedy, full of senfeless prate, Bevour the church, and chatter to the state ?

As you grew more degenerate and base,
I sent you millions of the croaking race ;
Emblems of infects vite, who spread their spawn.
Through all thy land, in armour, fur, and lawn ;
A nauseous brood, that fills your fenate walls,
And in the chambers of your viceroy crawls !

Sec, where that newedevouring vermin runs,
Sent in my anger froin the land of Huns !
With harpy-claws it undermines the ground,
And sudden fpreads a numerous offspring round.
Th' amphibious tyrant, with his ravenous band,
Drains all thy lakes of fish, of fruits thy land.

Where is the holy well that bore my name ?
Fled to the fountain back, from whence it came !'
Fair Freedom's emblem.once, which finoothly flows,
And blessings equally on all bestows.
Here, from the neighbouring * nursery of arts,
The students, drinking, rais'd their wit and parts ;

* The university of Dublin, called Trinity College, was founded by queen Elizabeth in 159.5. IRISH ED.

Hereg