LOVE. But should I give thee charms t'obtain
Flora, the young, the bright, the gay!
I fee thee blush-now, rebel, fay,
No, Love-I ne'er will love again.

POET. No, charming God, prepare a chain
Eternal for that fair and me!

Yet ftill know every fair but fhe,
I've vow'd I ne'er will love again,

VENUS AND ADONIS,

B

A

CAN TAT TA.

SET BY MR. HANDE L.

RECITATIVE.

EHOLD where weeping Venus stands !
What more than mortal grief can move
The bright, th' immortal Queen of Love?
She beats her breaft, the wrings her hands;
And hark, the mourns, but mourns in vain,
Her beauteous, lov'd Adonis, flain.
The hills and woods her lofs deplore;
The Naiads hear, and flock around;

And Echo fighs, with mimick found,
Adonis is no more!

Again the goddess raves, and tears her hair;
Then vents her grief, her love, and her despair.

AIR.

Dear Adonis, beauty's treasure,

Now my forrow, once my pleasure ;

O return to Venus' arms!

Venus never will forfake thee;
Let the voice of Love o'ertake thee,
And revive thy drooping charms.

RE

RECITATIVE.

Thus, Queen of Beauty, as thy Poets feign,
While thou didst call the lovely fwain;

Transform'd by heavenly power,

The lovely fwain arose a flower,
And, fmiling, grac'd the plain.

And now he blooms, and now he fades ;
Venus and gloomy Proferpine

Alternate claim his charms divine;

20

25

By turns reftor'd to light, by turns he feeks the fhades.

AIR.

Transporting joy,

Tormenting fears,

Reviving fimiles,

Succeeding tears,

Are Cupid's various train.

The tyrant boy

Prepares his darts,

With foothing wiles,

With cruel arts,

And pleasure blends with pain.

30

35

CN.
N-

CAN TATA.

PASTORA L.

SET BY DR. PEPUSCH.

RECITATIVE.

COUNG Strephon, by his folded sheep,

YOUN

Sat wakeful on the plains:

Love held his weary eyes from fleep,

While, filent in the vale,

The liftening nightingale

Forgot her own, to hear his strains.

And now the beauteous Queen of Night,

Unclouded and ferene,

Sheds on the neighbouring sea her filver light; The neighbouring sea was calm and bright; The shepherd fung inspir'd, and bless'd the lovely scene.

AIR.

While the sky and feas are fhining,

See, my Flora's charms they wear ;

Secret night, my joys divining,
Pleas'd my amorous tale to hear;
Smiles, and foftly turns her fphere.
While the sky and feas are shining,
See, my Flora's charms they wear.

RE

RECITATIVE.

Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy ftrain;
The lovely scene false joy inspires:
For look, thou fond, deluded swain,

A rifing ftorm invades the main !
The Planet of the night,
Inconftant, from thy fight

Behind a cloud retires.

Flora is fled; thou lov'ft in vain :

Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy strain.

AIR.

Hope beguiling,

Like the moon and ocean smiling,
Does thy easy faith betray,
Flora ranging,

Like the moon and ocean changing,
More inconftant proves than they.

FAIR rival to the god of day,

Beauty, to thy cœleftial ray

A thousand sprightly fruits we owe ;
Gay wit, and moving eloquence,
And every art t' improve the sense,
And every grace that shines below.

I

Y,

II. Not