Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

CHORUS I. OF ATHENIANS.

STROPHE I.

YE fhades, where facred truth is fought;

Groves, where immortal fages taught,
Where heav'nly visions Plato fir'd,
And Epicurus lay inspir'd!

In vain your guiltless laurels ftood
Unfpotted long with human blood:

War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invades,
And steel now glitters in the Muses' shades.

ANTISTROPHE I.

Oh! heav'n-born Sifters! fource of art!

Who charm the fenfe or mend the heart;
Who lead fair Virtue's train along,
Moral Truth and myftic Song!

To what new clime, what distant sky,
Forfaken, friendless, shall ye fly?

Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic fhore,
Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more?

STROPHE II.

When Athens finks by fates unjust,
When wild Barbarians fpurn her dust,
Perhaps ev❜n Britain's utmost shore
Shall cease to blush with strangers' gore:

M

See Arts her favage fons control,

And Athens rifing near the pole!

Till fome new tyrant lifts his purple hand,

And civil Madness tears them from the land.

ANTISTROPHE II.

Ye Gods! what justice rules the ball?

Freedom and arts together fall;

Fools grant whate'er Ambition craves,

25

And men, once ignorant, are flaves.

Oh! curs'd effects of civil hate,

In ev'ry age, in ev'ry state!

30

Still when the luft of tyrant Pow'r fucceeds
Some Athens perishes, fome Tully bleeds.

32

CHORUS II. OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS.

SEMICHORUS.

OH,

H, tyrant Love! haft thou poffeft

The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast?

Wifdom and wit in vain reclaim,

And arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, foft intruder, enters here,

But ent'ring learns to be fincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue! doft thou blame defire
Which Nature hath imprest?
Why, Nature! doft thou fooneft fire
The mild and gen'rous breast?

10

CHORUS.

Love's purer flames the gods approve;
The gods and Brutus bend to love:
Brutus for abfént Porcia fighs,

And fterner Caffius melts at Junia's eyes.

What is loose love? a tranfient gust
Spent in a fudden storm of luft,

A vapour fed from wild defire,
A wand'ring, felf-consuming, fire:
But Hymen's kinder flames unite,
And burn for ever one,

Chafte as cold Cynthia's virgin light,
Productive as the fun.

SEMICHORUS.

Oh! fource of ev'ry focial tye,

15

20

25

United with, and mutual joy!

What various joys on one attend,

As fon, as father, brother, husband, friend!

[blocks in formation]

What home-felt raptures move!

His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
With rev'rence, hope, and love.

35

CHORUS.

Hence guilty joys, distastes, furmises,
Hence falfe tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, furprises,
Fires that fcorch, yet dare not shine:
Pureft love's unwasting treasure,
Conftant faith, fair hope, long leifure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure,
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.

40

44

CHORUS III.

I.

DARK is the maze poor mortals tread;
Wisdom itself a guide will need:
We little thought when Cæfar bled
That a worse Cæfar would fucceed.
And are we under fuch a curfe

We cannot change but for the worse?

II.

With fair pretence of foreign force,
By which Rome must herself inthrall,
Thefe, without blushes or remorse,
Profcribe the best, impoverish all.

The Gauls themselves, our greatest foes,
Could act no mifchiefs worse than those.

5

ΤΟ

III.

That Julius, with ambitious thoughts,
Had virtues too his foes could find;
Thefe equal him in all his faults,
But never in his noble mind.

That free-born spirits fhould obey

Wretches who know not how to fway!

IV.

Late we repent our hafty choice,
In vain bemoan fo quick a turn.
Hark all to Rome's united voice!

Better that we a while had borne

Ev'n all thofe ills which most displease,

Than fought a cure far worse than the disease.

CHORUS IV.

OUR Vows thus cheerfully we fing,
While martial mufic fires our blood;
Let all the neighbouring echoes ring
With clamours for our country's good;
And for reward of the juft gods we claim
A life with freedom, or a death with fame.

May Rome be freed from war's alarms,

And taxes heavy to be borne;

May the beware of foreign arms,

And fend them back with noble fcorn.

[blocks in formation]

15

20

24

12

« ПредишнаНапред »