Imitated from the Spanish of LOPEZ DE VEGA. Menagiana tom. iv. p. 176.

By the Same.

APRICIOUS W* a fonnet needs must have;

CAP

I ne'er was fo put to't before :-a Sonnet!

Why, fourteen verses must be spent upon it; 'Tis good howe'er t' have conquer'd the first stave.

Yet I shall ne'er find rhymes enough by half,

Said I, and found my self i'th' midst o'the second.
If twice four verses were but fairly reckon❜d,
I should turn back on th' hardest part and laugh.

Thus far with good fuccefs I think I've scribbled,

And of the twice feven lines have clean got o'er ten. Courage! another'll finish the first triplet.

Thanks to thee, Mufe, my work begins to shorten, There's thirteen lines got through driblet by driblet. 'Tis done! count how you will, I warr'nt there's fourteen.

VOL. II.

X

SONNETS.

0%

SONNET S.

By T. E.

SONNET I.

whom virtue makes the worthy heir
Of **'s titles, and of **s eftate,

Bleft in a wife, whofe beauty, though so rare,
Is the leaft grace of all that round her wait,

While other youths, fprung from the good and great,
In devious paths of pleasure seek their bane,
Recklefs of wisdom's lore, of birth, or state,
Meanly debauch'd, or insolently vain;

Through Virtue's facred gate to Honour's fane
You and your fair affociate ceafeless climb
With glorious emulation, fure to gain

A meed, shall last beyond the reign of Time :
From your example long may Britain fee,
Degenerate Britain, what the great should be.

SON

SONNET II.

Ifely, O C*, enjoy the prefent hour,

WLfely,

The present hour is all the time we have, High God the reft has plac'd beyond our pow'r,

Confign'd, perhaps, to grief-or to the grave.

Wretched the man, who toils ambition's flave;
Who pines for wealth, or fighs for empty fame;
Who rolls in pleasures which the mind deprave,
Bought with fevere remorfe, and guilty fhame.

Virtue and knowledge be our better aim;

These help us Ill to bear, or teach to fhun;
Let friendship chear us with her gen'rous flame,
Friendship, the fum of all our joys in one:
So fhall we live each moment fate has giv'n;
How long, or short, let us refign to heav'n.

SONNET III.

To F. K. Efq;

Sprung from worthies, who with counsels wife
Adorn'd and strengthen'd great Elifa's throne,
Who yet with virtuous pride, may'ft well defpife
To borrow praise from merits not thy own.

Oft as I view the monumental stone

Where our lov'd H***'s cold afshes reft, Mufing on joys with him long paft and gone, A pleafing fad remembrance fills my breast.

Did the sharp pang we feel for friends deceas'd
Unbated laft, we muft with anguish die ;

But nature bids its rigour should be eas'd
By lenient time, and ftrong neceffity:
These calm the paffions, and fubdue the mind
To bear th' appointed lot of human kind.

SON

C

SONNET IV.

** *s, I hop'd the little heaven shall spare

Of my short day, which flits away so fast, And fickness threats with clouds to overcast, In focial converse oft with thee to share.

Ill-luck for me, that wayward fate should tear
Thee from the haven thou had'ft gain'd at laft,
Again to try the toils and dangers past
In foreign climates, and an hoftile air;

Yet duteous to thy country's call attend,

Which claims her portion of thy useful years, And back with speed thy course to Britain bend. If, e'er again we meet, perchance should end

My dark'ning eve, thou'lt pay fome friendly tears, Grateful to him, who liv'd and dy'd thy friend.