She faw her frontier towers in ruin lie,
Ev'n Liberty had prun'd her wings to fly :
Then Marlborough came, defeated Gallia fled;
And shatter'd Belgia rais'd her languid head;
In him fecure, as in her strongest mound
That keeps the raging fea within its bound.
O Germany! remember Hockstet's plain, Where proftrate Gallia bled at every vein : Think on the rescue of th' imperial throne, Then think of Marlborough's death without a groan! Apollo kindly whispers me: "Be wife: "How to his glory shall thy numbers rise? "The force of verse another theme might raise, "But here the merit must tranfcend the praise. "Haft thou, presumptuous bard! that godlike flame "Which with the fun fhall laft, and Marlborough's
"Then fing the man.
But who can boast this fire?
"Refign the task, and filently admire."
Yet shall he not in worthy lays be read?
Raise Homer, call up Virgil from the dead.
But he requires not the strong glare of verse :
Let punctual hiftory his deeds rehearse;
Let truth in native purity appear,
You'll find Achilles and Æneas there.
Is this the comfort which the Muse bestows?
I but indulge and aggravate your woes.
A prudent friend, who feeks to give relief,
Ne'er touches on the spring that mov'd the grief.
Is it not barbarous, to the fighing maid
To mention broken vows and nymphs betray'd
Would you the ruin'd merchant's foul appease,
With talk of fands, and rocks, and ftormy feas?
Ev'n while I ftrive on Marlborough's fame to rife,
I call up forrow in a daughter's eyes.
Think on the laurels that his temples fhade,
Laurels that (spite of time) fhall never fade..
Immortal honour has enroll'd his name ;
Detraction's dumb, and Envy put to fhame.
Say, who can foar beyond his eagle flight;
Has he not reach'd to glory's utmost height?
What could he more, had Heav'n prolong'd his date?
All human power is limited by fate.
Forbear. "Tis cruel further to commend ;:
I wake your forrow, and again offend.
Yet fure your goodness must forgive a crime,
Which will be spread through every age and clime;
Though in your life ten thousand fummers roll,
And though you compass earth from pole to pole,
Where'er men talk of war and martial fame,
They'll mention Marlborough's and Cæfar's name.
But vain are all the counfels of the Mufe;
A foul like yours could not a tear refuse :
Could you your birth and filial love forego,
Still fighs muft rife, and generous forrow flow;
For, when from earth such matchless worth removes,
mind fuffers. Virtue virtue loves.
ON HIS HAVING FINISHED HIS
TRANSLATION OF HOMER'S ILIAD,
LONG haft thou, friend! been abfent from my foil,
Like patient Ithacus at fiege of Troy;
I have been witness of thy fix years toil,
Thy daily labours, and thy night's annoy,
Loft to thy native land, with great turmoil,
On the wide fea, oft' threatening to destroy:
Methinks with thee I've trod Sigaan ground,
And heard the fshores of Hellefpont refound.
II.
Did I not fee thee when thou firft fett'ft fail
To feek adventures fair in Homer's land?
Did I not see thy finking spirits fail,
And wish thy bark had never left the strand?
A clofe imitation of the beginning of the 46th Canto of the "Orlando Furiofo." Mr. Gay has even adopted the measure of his original, and has comprifed his defign in almost the fame number of lines, viz. in twenty-one octave stanzas, instead of nineteen. S.
Ev'n in mid ocean often didft thou quail,
And oft' lift up thy holy eye and hand, Praying the Virgin dear, and faintly choir, Back to the port to bring thy bark entire.
Chear up, my friend! thy dangers now are o'er
Methinks-nay, fure the rifing coasts appear;
Hark! how the guns falute from either shore,
As thy trim veffel cuts the Thames fo fair: Shouts answering fhouts from Kent and Effex roar, And bells break loud through every guft of air: Bonfires do blaze, and bones and cleavers ring, As at the coming of fome mighty king.
Now pafs we Gravefend with a friendly wind,
And Tilbury's white fort, and long Blackwall;
Greenwich, where dwells the friend of human kind,
More vifited than or her park or hall,
Withers the good, and (with him ever join'd)
Facetious Disney, greet thee first of all:
I fee his chimney smoke, and hear him fay,
Duke*! that's the room for Pope, and that for Gay.
Come in, my friends! here fhall ye dine and lie,
And here fhall breakfast, and here dine again;
And fup and breakfast on (if ye comply),
For I have still fome dozens of champaign :
His voice ftill leffens as the fhip fails by;
He waves his hand to bring us back in vain ;
* He was usually called "Duke Disney." N.
For now I fee, I fee proud London's fpires;
'Greenwich is loft, and Deptford-dock retires.
VI.
Oh, what a concourse swarms on yonder quay!
The sky re-echoes with new shouts of joy:
By all this fhow, I ween, 'tis Lord Mayor's day;
I hear the voice of trumpet and hautboy.-
No, now I fee them near.-Oh, these are they
Who come in crowds to welcome thee from Troy.
Hail to the bard, whom long as loft we mourn'd;
From fiege, from battle, and from storm, return'd!
VII.
Of goodly dames, and courteous knights, I view
The filken petticoat, and broider'd veft;
Yea peers, and mighty dukes, with ribbands blue
(True blue, fair emblem of unftained breaft).
Others I fee, as noble, and more true,
By no court-badge diftinguifh'd from the reft:
First fee I Methuen, of fincereft mind,
As Arthur* grave, as foft as woman-kind.
What lady's that, to whom he gently bends?
Who knows not her? ah! thofe are Wortley's eyes: How art thou honour'd, number'd with her friends! For she distinguishes the good and wife.
*This perfon is mentioned in Pope's Epiftle to Arbuthnot, wer. 23.
"Arthur, whofe giddy fon neglects the laws,
"Imputes to me, and my damn'd works, the cause."
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