Law-giving Heroes, fam'd for taming brutes, And raising cities with their charming lutes. For rudeft minds with harmony were caught, And civil life was by the Muses taught. So, wandering bees would perish in the air, Did not a found, proportion'd to their ear, Appeafe their rage, invite them to the hive, Unite their force, and teach them how to thrive : To rob the flowers, and to forbear the spoil; Preferv'd in winter by their fummer's toil: They give us food, which may with nectar vie, And wax, that does the absent fun fupply.
AD COMITEM MONUMETENSEM De BENTIVOGLIO fuo.
FLORIBUS Angligenis non hanc tibi necto co
Cùm fatis indigenis te probet ipfe liber :: Per me Roma fciet tibi fe debere, quòd Anglo Romanus didicit cultiùs ore loqui.
Ultima quæ tellus Aquilas duce Cæfare vidit. Candida Romulidum te duce fcripta videt. Confilio ut quondam Patriam nil juveris efto! Sed ftudio cives ingenioque juvas.
Namque dolis liber hic inftru&tus, & arte Batava, A Belga nobis ut caveamus, ait.
Horremus per te civilis dira furoris
Vulnera; difcordes Flandria quassa monet.
Hic difcat miles pugnare, orare senator;
Qui regnant, leni sceptra tenere manu. Macte, Comes! virtute novâ; veftri ordinis ingens
Ornamentum, ævi deliciæque tui ! Dum ftertunt alii fomno vinoque fepulti, Nobilis antiquo ftemmate digna facis.
TO MR. KILLEGREW,
Upon his altering his Play PANDORA, from a Tragedy into a Comedy, because not approved on the Stage.
SIR, you fhould rather teach our age the way Of judging well, than thus have chang'd your Play: You had oblig'd us by employing wit,
Not to reform Pandora, but the Pit,
For, as the nightingale, without the throng
Of other birds, alone attends her fong;
While the loud daw, his throat displaying, draws The whole affembly of his fellow daws: So must the writer, whofe productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould: Whilft nobler fancies make a flight too high For common view, and leffen as they fly.
On the Duke of MONMOUTH's Expedition into SCOTLAND, in the Summer Solstice.
WIFT as Jove's meffenger (* the winged god)
With fword as potent as his charming rod,
He flew to execute the King's command: And, in a moment, reach'd that northern land; Where day, contending with approaching night, Affifts the Hero with continued light.
On foes furpriz'd, and by no night conceal'd, He might have rush'd; but noble pity held His hand a while, and to their choice gave space, Which they would prove, his valour or his grace. This not well heard, his cannon louder spoke, And then, like lightning, through that cloud he broke.
His fame, his conduct, and that martial look, The guilty Scots with fuch a terror strook; That to his courage they refign the field, Who to his bounty had refus'd to yield. Glad that fo little loyal blood it coft, He grieves fo many Britons should be loft: Taking more pains, when he beheld them yield,
To fave the flyers, than to win the field:
And at the Court his interest does employ
That none, who 'fcap'd his fatal sword, should die.
And now, these rash bold men their error find, Not trufting one, beyond his promise kind: One! whose great mind, fo bountiful and brave, Had learn'd the art to conquer and to fave.
In vulgar breasts no royal virtues dwell; Such deeds as these his high extraction tell: And give a fecret joy to him that reigns, To fee his blood triumph in Monmouth's veins : To fee a leader, whom he got and chose, Firm to his friends, and fatal to his foes.
But feeing envy, like the fun, does beat
With fcorching rays, on all that 's high and great: This, ill-requited Monmouth! is the bough The Mufes fend, to shade thy conquering brow. Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze; But time and thunder pay refpect to bays.. Achilles' arms dazzle our present view; Kept by the Muse as radiant, and as new, As from the forge of Vulcan first they came; Thousands of years are past, and they the fame. Such care she takes to pay defert with fame! Than which, no Monarch, for his crown's defence, Knows how to give a nobler recompence.
TO A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR,
Who lately writ a religious book, intituled, " Hiftorical Applications, and Occafional Meditations upon "feveral fubjects."
BOLD is the man that dares engage
For piety, in fuch an age!
Who can prefume to find a guard
From fcorn, when Heaven 's fo little spar'd? Divines are pardon'd; they defend
Altars on which their lives depend:
But the prophane impatient are, When nobler pens make this their care: For why should these let in a beam Of divine light, to trouble them;
And call in doubt their pleafing thought, That none believes what we are taught? High birth and fortune warrant give That fuch men write what they believe: And, feeling firft what they indite, New credit give to antient light. Amongst these few, our author brings His well-known pedigree from Kings. This book, the image of his mind, Will make his name not hard to find: I wish the throng of Great and Good Made it lefs easily understood!
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