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From impious arms at length, O Louis ceafe
And leave at length the labouring world in peace,
Left heaven difclofe fome yet more fatal scene,
Fatal beyond Ramillia or Turin ;

Left from thy hand thou see thy fceptre torn,
And humbled in the duft thy loffes mourn:
Left urg'd at length thy own repining flave,
Though fond of burdens, and in bondage brave,
Pursue thy hoary head with curfes to the grave.

485

AN EPISTLE TO FLAVIA.

N THE SIGHT OF TWO PINDARIC ODES ON. THE SPLEEN AND VANITY.

*

WRITTEN BY A LADY HER FRIEND..

LAVIA, to you with fafety I commend

FL

This verfe, the fecret failing of your To your good-nature I fecurely trust,

Who know, that to conceal, is to be just.

friend.

The Mufe, like wretched maids by love undone,
From friends, acquaintance and the light would run ;
Conscious of folly, fears attending fhame,

Fears the cenforious world, and lofs of fame.
Some confident by chance fhe finds (though few
Pity the fools, whom love or verfe undo)
Whofe fond compaffion fooths her in the fin,
And fets her on to venture once again.

* Anne Countess of Winchelfea.

Sure,

Sure, in the better ages of old time, Nor poetry nor love was thought a crime;

From heaven they both the gods best gifts were sent, Divinely perfect both, and innocent.

Then were bad poets and loofe loves not known;
None felt a warmth which they might blush to own,
Beneath cool fhades our happy fathers lay,

And spent in pure untainted joys the day :
Artless their loves, artless their numbers were,
While Nature simply did in both appear,

Now could the cenfor or the critic fear.

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Pleas'd to be pleas'd, they took what heaven bestow'da
Nor were too curious of the given good.

At length, like Indians fond of fancy'd toys,
We loft being happy, to be thought more wife.
In one curs'd age, to punish verfe and fin,
Critics and hangmen, both at once, came in.
Wit and the laws had both the fame ill fate,
And partial tyrants fway'd in either state,
Ill-natur'd cenfure would be fure to damn
An alien-wit of independent fame,

While Bays grown old, and harden'd in offence,
Was fuffer'd to write on in fpite of feníe ;
Back'd by his friends, th' invader brought along
A crew of foreign words into our tongue,
To ruin and enflave the free-born English song;
Still the prevailing faction propt his throne,
And to four volumes let his Plays run on;
Then a lewd tide of verfe, with vicious rage,
Broke in upon the morals of the age.

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The Stage (whofe art was once the mind to move
To noble daring, and to virtuous love)
Precept, with pleasure mix'd, no more profest,
But dealt in double-meaning bawdy jest:
The fhocking founds offend the blushing fair,
And drive them from the guilty Theatre.

Ye wretched bards! from whom thefe ills have sprung,
Whom the avenging powers have spar'd too long,
Well may you fear the blow will surely come,
Your Sodom has no Ten to avert its doom;
Unless the fair Ardelia will alone

To heaven for all the guilty tribe atone;
Nor can Ten Saints do more than fuch a One.
Since the alone of the poetic crowd

To the false gods of wit has never bow'd,

The empire, which the faves, fhall own her sway,
And all Parnaffus her blefs'd laws obey.

}

Say, from what sacred fountain, nymph divine! The treasures flow, which in thy verfe do fhine ? With what strange inspiration art thou blest, What more than Delphic ardour warms thy breaft? Our fordid earth ne'er bred fo bright a flame, But from the skies, thy kindred skies, it came. To numbers great like thine, th' angelic quire In joyous concert tune the golden lyre; Viewing, with pitying eyes, our cares with thee, They wifely own, that "All is Vanity;" Ev'n all the joys which mortal minds can know, And find Ardelia's verse the least vain thing below. If Pindar's name to those blefs'd manfions reach, And mortal Muses may immortal teach,

In verfe like his, the heavenly nation raise
Their tuneful voices to their Maker's praise.
Nor shall celestial harmony disdain,

For once, to imitate an earthly ftrain,
Whofe fame fecure, no rival e'er can fear,
But those above, and fair Ardelia here.
She who undaunted could his raptures view,
And with bold wings his facred heights pursue;
Safe through the Dithyrambic stream she steer'd,
Nor the rough deep in all its dangers fear'd;
Not fo the reft, who with fuccefsless pain
Th' unnavigable torrent try'd in vain.

So Clelia leap'd into the rapid flood,
While the Etrufcans ftruck with wonder ftood:
Amidst the waves her rash pursuers dy'd,
The matchlefs dame could only stem the tide,
And gain the glory of the farther fide.

}

See with what pomp the antic mafque comes in ! The various forms of the fantastic spleen. Vain empty laughter, howling grief and tears, Falfe joy, bred by false hope, and falser fears ; Each vice, each paffion which pale nature wears,. In this odd monftrous medley mix'd appears. Like Bays 's dance, confufedly round they run, Statefman, Coquet, gay Fop, and penfive Nun, Spectres and Heroes, Hufbands and their Wives, With Monkish Drones that dream away their lives. Long have I labour'd with the dire disease, Nor found, but from Ardelia's numbers, ease: The dancing verfe runs through my fluggish veins, Where dull and cold the frozen blood remains.

Pale

Pale cares and anxious thoughts give way in hafte,
And to returning joy resign my breast;
Then free from every pain I did endure,
I bless the charming author of my cure.
So when to Saul the great musician play'd,
The fullen fiend unwillingly obey'd,

And left the monarch's breast, to seek some saferfhade.

5 0 N G.

WHILE Sappho with harmonious airs

Her dear Philenis charms,

With equal joy the nymph appears

Diffolving in his arms.

Thus to themselves alone they are
What all mankind can give ;
Alternately the happy pair

All grant, and all receive.

Like the Twin-ftars, fo fam'd for friends,
Who fet by turns, and rise;
When one to Thetis lap defcends,
His brother mounts the skies.

With happier fate, and kinder care,
These nymphs by turns do reign,
While ftill the falling does prepare
The rifing to fuftain.

The joys of either sex in love,

In each of them we read;
Succeffive each to each does prove,
Fierce youth and yielding maid.

EPIGRAM

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