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OF THE THEATRE ROYAL.

WHILE to your charms unequal verse I raise,

Aw'd, I admire, and tremble as I praise :

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Here Art and Genius new refinement need,
Liftening, they gaze, and, as they gaze, recede!
Can Art or Genius, or their powers combin'd,
But from corporeal organs, sketch the mind?
When found embody'd can with shape furprize,
The Mufe may emulate your voice and eyes.
Mark rival arts perfection's point pursue !
Each rivals each, but to excel in you!
The Buft and Medal bear the meaning face,
And the proud Statue adds the pofture's grace!
Imag'd at length, the bury'd Heroine, known,
Still feems to wound, to fmile, or frown in stone !
As art would art, or metal stone furpass,
Her foul ftrikes, gleaming, through Corinthian brass!
Serene, the faint in fmiling filver fhines,
And cherubs weep in gold o'er fainted shrines !
If long-loft forms.from Raphael's pencil glow,
Wondrous in warmth the mimic colours flow!
Each look, each attitude, new grace difplays;
Your voice and motion life and mufic raife.

Thus Cleopatra in your charms refines;
She lives, she speaks, with force improv'd she shines!

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Fair, and more fair, you every grace tranfmit;
Love, learning, beauty, elegance, and wit.
Cæfar, the world's unrival'd master, fir'd,
In her imperial foul, his own admir'd !
Philippi's victor wore her winning chain,
And felt not empire's lofs in beauty's gain.
Could the pale heroes your bright influence know,
Or catch the filver accents as they flow,
Drawn from dark reft by your enchanting ftrain,
Each shade were lur'd to life and love again.

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Say, fweet inspirer! were each annal known, What living greatness shines there not your own! If the griev'd Mufe by fome lov'd empress rofe, New strength, new grace, it to your influence owes ! If power by war diftinguish'd height reveals, Your nobler pride the wounds of fortune heals! Then could an empire's caufe demand your care, The foul, that juftly thinks, would greatly dare. Long has feign'd Venus mock'd the Mufe's praise, You dart, divine Ophelia ! genuine rays!

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Warm through thofe eyes enlivening raptures roll! 45 Sweet through each striking feature ftreams your foul! The foul's bright meanings heighten beauty's fires: Your looks, your thoughts, your deeds, each grace infpires!

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Know, then, if rank'd with monarchs, here you stand, What Fate declines, you from the Mufe demand! Each grace that fhone of old in each fam'd fair, in modern dames refinement wear;

Or may

Whate'er

Whateler juff, emulative thoughts pursue,
Is all confirm'd, is all ador'd in you!
If godlike bofoms pant for power to bless,
If 'tis a monarch's glory to redrefs;
In conscious majesty you fine ferene,
An thought a heroine, and in act a queen.

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V E R S E S

OCCASIONED BY READING

MR. AARON HILL's POEM,

L

called GIDEON.

The lines marked thus are taken from GIDEON.

I.

ET other poets poorly fing

Their flatteries to the vulgar great! Her airy flight let wandering fancy wing,

And rival nature's most luxuriant store,

To fwell fome monfter's pride, who fhames a state, 5
Or form a wreath to crown tyrannic power!
Thou, who inform'd'st this clay with active fire!
Do thou, Supreme of Powers! my thoughts refine,
And with thy pureft heat my foul infpire,.
That with Hillarius' worth my verfe may
As thy lov'd Gideon once fet Ifrael free,
So he with fweet, feraphic lays

Redeems the use of captive poetry,'

fhine! 10

Which firft was form'd to speak thy glorious praise !

11. Mofes,

II.

Mofes, with an enchanting tongue,
Pharaoh's juft overthrow fublimely fung!
When Saul and Jonathan in death were laid,
Surviving David felt the foftening fire !

And, by the Great Almighty's tuneful aid,
Wak'd into endlefs life his mournful lyre.
Their different thoughts, met in Hillarius' fong,
Roll in one channel more divinely strong!
With Pindar's fire his verfe's spirit flies,
Wafted in charming mufic through the air!
Unftopt by clouds, it reaches to the fkies,
And joins with angels' hallelujahs there,

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Flows mix'd, and sweetly strikes th' Almighty's ear!'

III.

Rebels should blush when they his Gideon fee!
That Gideon born to fet his country free.

O that fuch heroes in each age might rise, Brightening through vapours like the morning-ftar,,

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Generous to triumph, and in council wife! Gentle in peace, but terrible in war!

IV.

When Gideon, Oreb, Hyram, Shimron fhine Fierce in the blaze of war as they engage!

Great bard! what energy, but thine,

Could reach the vast description of their rage ?

Or when, to cruel foes betray'd,

Sareph and Hamar call for aid,.

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Loft,

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Loft, and bewilder'd in despair, How piercing are the hapless lover's cries! What tender ftrokes in melting accents rife ! Oh, what a master-piece of pity's there? Nor goodly Joafh fhows thy fweetness lefs, When, like kind heaven, he frees then from diftrefs! 45

ས .

Hail thou, whofe verfe, a living image, shines,
In Gideon's character your own you drew!
As there the graceful patriot fhines,

We in that image bright Hillarius view!

Let the low crowd, who love unwholesome fare, 50
When in thy words the breath of angels flows,
Like grofs-fed fpirits, fick in purer air,
Their earthy fouls by their dull tafte disclose!
Thy dazzling genius fhines too bright!

And they, like spectres, fhun the ftreams of light. 55
But while in fhades of ignorance they stray,
Round thee rays of knowledge play,

• And fhew thee glittering in abstracted day.'

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

BESSY, COUNTESS OF ROCHFORD,

DAUGHTER OF THE LATE EARL RIVERS,

WHEN WITH CHILD.

AS when the fun walks forth in flaming gold,

Mean plants may fmile, and humble flowers un-
fold,

The low-laid lark the diftant æther wings,
And, as he foars, her daring anthem fings;

So,

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