心 To the Right Hon. HENRY PELHAM, Esq; HE humble Petition of the worshipful company of TH SHEWETH, THAT your honour's petitioners (dealers in rhymes, And writers of fcandal, for mending the times) By loffes in bus'nefs, and England's well-doing, Are funk in their credit, and verging on ruin. That these, their misfortunes, they humbly conceive, Arife not from dulnefs, as fome folks believe, But from rubs in their way, that your honour has laid, And want of materials to carry on trade. That they always had form'd high conceits of their use, To heed what they say, or to read what they write ; That their country is fav'd, and the patriots undone. To To perplex 'em ftill more, and fure famine to bring (Now fatire has loft both its truth and its fting) If, in fpite of their natures, they bungle at praise, Your honour regards not, and nobody pays. YOUR Petitioners therefore moft humbly entreat (As the times will allow, and your honour thinks meet) That measures be chang'd, and fome caufe of complaint Be immediately furnish'd, to end their restraint; Their credit thereby, and their trade to retrieve, By which your petitioners, haply, might thrive, An ODE Performed in the Senate-Houfe at Cambridge July 1, 1749, At the Inftallation of his Grace THOMAS HOLLES Duke of NEWCASTLE, CHANCELLOR of the University. canit errantem Permeffi ad flumina Gallum Aonas in montes ut duxerit una fororum Utque viro Phabi chorus affurrexerit omnis. VIRGIL. By Mr. MASON, Fellow of Pembroke -Hall. Set to Mufick by Mr. Boyce, Composer to his Majesty. H Thou genuine British Mufe; Cloth'd in thy heav'n-wove robe of harmony. Air I. Air I. Come, imperial queen of fong; Recitative. Which fpeaks thee of celestial line; Daughter of Jove and Liberty. The elevated foul, who feels Thy aweful impulfe, walks the fragrant ways He with impartial justice deals The blooming chaplets of immortal lays : And nobly thron'd in Truth's meridian sphere, Full on fair Virtue's fhrine he Air II. III. the pours rays of fame. Goddess! thy piercing eye explores The purple in the eastern dawn, Or all those tints, which rang'd in vivid glow Mark the bold fweep of the celestial bow. R 4 IV. Recitative. IV. Recitative. But chief she lifts her tuneful transports high, When to her intellectual eye The mental beauties rife in moral dignity: That fires the glowing Patriot's breast; The honeft pride, that plumes the Hero's creft, With which mild Genius warms the Sage's heart, Or ftretch to ampler bounds the wide domain of art, Air I. Thefe, the best bloffoms of the virtuous mind, She culls with tafte refin'd; From their ambrofial bloom With bee-like skill she draws the rich perfume, In the foft balm of her mellifluous lay. Recitative. Is there a clime, where all these beauties rise Is there a plain, whofe genial foil enhales Her brightest beams where Emulation fpreads, Where ev'ry flower of Virtue glows? There the loudly cries Chorus I. |