TO MY FRIEND MR.' DRYDEN,
ON HIS EXCELLENT TRANSLATIONS.
As flowers tranfplanted from a fouthern sky
But hardly bear, or in the raising die,
Miffing their native fun, at best retain
But a faint odour, and furvive with pain :
Thus ancient wit, in modern numbers taught,
Wanting the warmth with which its author wrote,
Is a dead image, and a fenfelefs draught:
While we transfufe, the nimble fpirit flies,
Escapes unfeen, evaporates, and dies.
Who then to copy Roman wit defire,
Muft imitate with Roman force and fire;
In elegance of style and phrase the fame,
And in the sparkling genius and the flame :
Whence we conclude from thy translated song,
So juft, fo fmooth, so soft, and yet so strong,
Celestial charmer! foul of harmony!
That every genius was reviv'd in thee,
Thy trumpet founds, the dead are rais'd to light,
Never to die, and take to heaven their flight,
Deckt in thy verse, as clad with rays they shine,
All glorify'd, immortal, and divine,
As Britain in rich foil abounding wide,
Furnish'd for ufe, for luxury, and pride,
Yet fpreads her wanton fails on every shore
For forcing wealth, impatient still of more;
To her own wool the filk of Afia joins,
And to her plenteous harvefts, Indian mines:
So Dryden, not contented with the fame
Of his own works, though an immortal name,
To lands remote fends forth his learned Mufe,
The noblest seeds of foreign wit to chufe :
Feafting our fenfe fo many various ways,
Say, is 't thy bounty? or thy thirst of praise?
That, by comparing others, all might fee
Who most excel, are yet excell'd by thee.
Upon a Hearing, in the Houfe of Lords, of a Cause between her Grace the Dutchefs of GRAFTON and the Lord Chief Justice.
THE princes fate. Beauty and Law contend:
The Queen of Love will her own caufe defend.
Secure the looks, as certain none can fee
Such beauty plead, and not her captive be,
What need of words with fuch commanding eyes!
Muft I then fpeak? O heavens! the charmer cries;
O barbarous clime, where beauty borrows aid
From eloquence, to charm, or to perfuade!
Will Difcord never leave with envious Care
To raife debate? But Difcord governs here.
To Juno, Pallas, Wifdom, Fame, and Power,
Long fince preferr'd, what trial needs there more?
Confeft to fight, three goddeffes defcend
On Ida's Hill, and for a prize contend,
Nobly they bid, and lavishly pursue
A gift, that only could be Beauty's due:
Honours and wealth the generous judge denies,
And gives the triumph to the brightest eyes.
Such precedents are numberlefs: we draw
Our right from cuftom: cuftom is a law,
As high as heaven, as wide as feas and land,
As ancient as the world is our command.
It might fuffice that I pronounce it mine,
And right or wrong he should his claim refign,
Mars and Alcides would this plea allow,
Beauty was ever abfolute till now.
Not bears nor tigers fure fo favage are
As thefe ill-manner'd monfters of the bar.
Loud Rumour has proclaim'd a nymph divine,
Whofe matchlefs form, to counter balance mine,
By dint of beauty fhall extort your grace:
Let her appear, this rival, face to face,
Let eyes to eyes oppos'd this ftrife decide;
Now when I lighten let her beams be try'd.
Was 't a vain promife, and a gown-man's lie?
Or ftands the here, unmark'd, when I am by?
So heaven was mock'd, and once all Elis round
Another Jupiter was faid to found;
On brazen floors, the royal actor tries
To ape the thunder rattling in the skies;
A brandish'd torch, with emulating blaze,
Affects the forky lightning's pointed rays?
Thus borne aloft, triumphantly he rode
Through crowds of worshipers, and acts the god.
The Sire Omnipotent prepares the brand
By Vulcan wrought, and arms his potent hand,
Then flaming hurls it hiffing from above,
And in the vaft abyfs confounds the mimic Jove.
Prefumptuous wretch! with mortal art to dare
Immortal power, and brave the Thunderer.
Caffiope, preferring with difdain
Her daughter to the Nereids, they complain :
The daughter, for the mother's guilty fcorn,
Is doom'd to be devour'd; the mother's borne
Above the clouds, where by immortal light
Revers'd the fhines, expos'd to human fight,
And to a fhameful pofture is confin'd,
As an eternal terror to mankind.
Did thus the gods fuch private nymphs protect,
What vengeance might the Queen of Love expect!
fuch arbitrary pleas are vain,
Wav'd let them be; mere juftice fhall obtain :
Who to a husband better can fucceed,
Than his lov'd wife, the partner of his bed?
Or to a father's right lay ftronger claim,
Than the dear youth in whom furvives his name?
Behold that youth, confider whence he springs,
And in his royal veins refpect your kings ;
Immortal Jove upon a mortal fhe
Begat his fire fecond from Jove is he.
Well did the father blindly fight your cause,
Following the cry of liberty and laws,
If by thofe laws, for which he loft his life,
You fpoil ungratefully the fon and wife.
What need I more? 'twere treafon to difpute?
The grant was royal: that decides the fuit :
Shall vulgar laws imperial power constrain?
Kings and the gods can never act in vain.
She finish'd here, the queen of every grace,
Difdain vermilioning her heavenly face;
Our hearts take fire, and all in tumult rife,
And one with sparkles in a thousand eyes.
O might fome champion finish these debates,
My sword should end what now my Muse relates.
Up rofe the judge, on each fide bending low,
A crafty fmile accompanies his bow;
Ulyffes-like, a gentle paufe he makes,
Then, raifing by degrees his voice, he speaks :
In you, my lords, who judge, and all that hear,
Methinks I read your wishes for the fair;
Nor can I wonder; even I contend
With fecret pain, unwilling to offend;
Unhappy, thus oblig❜d to a defence
That may displease fuch heavenly excellence.
Might we the laws on any terms abuse,
So bright an influence were the best excufe.
Let Niobe's juft doom, the vile difgrace
Of the Propetides polluted race,
Let death, or fhame, or lunacy, furprize,
Who dare to match the luftre of her eyes:
Aloud the fairest of the fex complain
Of captives loft, and loves invok'd in vain :
At her appearance all their brightness ends,
Those stars of beauty fet when the afcends.
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