But wretched thou, whoe'er my rival art, That fondly boafts an empire o'er her heart; Thou that enjoy'ft the fair inconftant prize, And vainly triumph'ft with my victories; Unenvy'd now, o'er all her beauties rove, Enjoy thy ruin, and Neæra's love:
Though wealth and honours grace thy nobler birth,
To bribe her love, and fix a wandering faith;
Though every grace and every virtue join,
T'enrich thy mind, and make thy form divine:
Yet bleft, with endless charms, too foon you'll prove
The treacheries of falfe Neæra's love.
Loft and abandon'd by th' ungrateful fair,
Like me you'll love, be injur'd, and despair.
When left th' unhappy object of her scorn,
Then fhall I fimile to fee the victor mourn,
Laugh at thy fate, and triumph in my turn.
IMITATION OF HORACE. BOOK I. O DE XXII.
'HE man that 's uncorrupt, and free from guilt,
That the remorse of secret crimes ne'er felt :
Whofe breast was ne'er debauch'd with fin,
But finds all calm, and all at peace within :
In his integrity fecure,
He fears no danger, dreads no power:
Ufelefs are arms for his defence,
That keeps a faithful guard of innocence.
Secure the happy innocent may rove,
The care of every power above;
Although unarm'd he wanders o'er
The treacherous Libya's fands, and faithlefs fhore:
Though o'er th' inhospitable brows
Of favage Caucasus he goes;
Through Africk's flames, through Scythia's fnows
Or where Hydafpes, fam'd for monsters, flows..
III.
For as, within an unfrequented grove,
I tun'd my willing lyre to love,
With pleafing amorous thoughts betray'd,
Beyond my bounds infenfibly I ftray'd;
A wolf that view'd me fled away,
He fled from his defenceless prey?
When I invok'd Maria's aid,
Although unarm'd, the trembling monster fled.
Not Daunia's teeming fands, nor barbarous shore,.
E'er fuch a dreadful native bore,
Nor Africk's nurfing caves brought forth
So fierce a beaft, of fuch amazing growth:
Yet vain did all his fury prove
Against a breaft that 's arm'd with love;
Though abfent, fair Maria's name
Subdues the fierce, and makes the favage tame.
Commit me now to that abandon'd place
Where chearful light withdraws its rays;
No beams on barren nature smile,
Nor fruitful winds refresh th' intemperate foil;
But tempests, with eternal frosts,
around the gloomy coast:
Whilft angry Jove infefts the air,
And, `black with clouds, deforms the fullen year.
Or place me now beneath the torrid zone,
To live a borderer on the fun :
Send me to scorching fands, whose heat
Guards the destructive foil from human feet:
Yet there I'll fing Maria's name,
And fport, uninjur'd, midst the flame :
Maria's name! that will create, ev'n there,
A milder climate, and more temperate air.
PATROCLUS's Request to ACHILLES for his Arms.
Imitated from the Beginning of the Sixteenth
ILIAD of HOMER.
IVINE Achilles, with compaffion mov'd,
Thus to Patroclus fpake, his best-belov'd.
Why like a tender girl doft thou complain !
That ftrives to reach the mother's breaft in vain ;
Mouras by her fide, her knees embraces faft,
Hangs on her robes, and interrupts her hafte;
Yet, when with fondness to her arms fhe 's rais'd,
Still mourns and weeps, and will not be appeas'd!
Thus my Patroclus in his grief appears,
Thus like a froward girl profufe of tears.
From Phthia doft thou mournful tidings hear,
And to thy friend fome fatal meffage bear?
Thy valiant father (if we fame believe)
The good Menatius, he is yet alive :
And Peleus, though in his declining days,
Reigns o'er his Myrmidons in health and peace;
Yet, as their latest obfequies, we paid,
Thou mourn'ft them living, as already dead.
Or thus with tears the Grecian host deplore,
That with their navy perish on the shore;
And with compaffion their misfortunes view,
The juft reward to guilt and falfehood due?
Impartial heaven avenges thus my wrong,
Nor fuffers crimes to go unpunish'd long.
Reveal the cause fo much afflicts thy mind,
Nor thus conceal thy forrows from thy friend..
When, gently raifing up his drooping head,
Thus, with a figh, the fad Patroclus faid.
Godlike Achilles, Peleus' valiant fon!
Of all our chiefs, the greatest in renown;
Upbraid not thus th' afflicted with their woes,
Nor triumph now the Greeks fuftain fuch lofs !
To pity let thy generous breaft incline,
And show thy mind is like thy birth divine.
For all the valiant leaders of their hoft,
Or wounded lie, or are in battle loft.
Ulyffes great in arms, and Diomede,
Languifh with wounds, and in the navy bleed:
This common fate great Agamemnon fhares,
And stern Eurypylus, renown'd in wars.
Whilst powerful drugs th' experienc'd artists try,
And to their wounds apt remedies apply:
Eafing th' afflicted heroes with their skill,
Thy breast alone remains implacable!
What, will thy fury thus for ever laft!
Let prefent woes atone for injuries past :
How can thy foul retain fuch lafting hate!
Thy virtues are as useless as they 're great.
What injur'd friend from thee shall hope redress,
That will not aid the Greeks in fuch distress?
Ufelefs is all the valour that you boast,
Deform'd with rage, with fullen fury loft.
Could cruelty like thine from Peleus come,
Or be the offspring of fair Thetis' womb!
Thee raging feas, thee boisterous waves brought forth,
And to obdurate rocks thou ow'ft thy birth!
Thy stubborn nature ftill retains their kind,
So hard thy heart, fo favage is thy mind.
But, if thy boding breast admits of fear,
Or dreads what facred oracles declare !
What awful Thetis in the courts above
Receiv'd from the unerring mouth of Jove!
If fo----let me the threatening dangers face,
And head the warlike fquadrons in thy place:
Whilft me thy valiant Myrmidons obey,
We yet may turn the fortune of the day.
Let me in thy distinguish'd arms appear,
With all thy dreadful equipage of war;
That when the Trojans our approaches view,
Deceiv'd, they fhall retreat, and think 'tis you.
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