Atheist, and rebel too, fhe does oppofe

(God and the king have always the fame foes).
Legions of verfe you raise in their defence,
And write the factious to obedience;
You the bold Arian to arms defy,

A conquering champion for the Deity
Against the whigs firft parents, who did dare
To difinherit God-Almighty's heir.

And what the hot-brain'd Arian first began,
Is carried on by the Socinian,

Who ftill affociates to keep God a man.

But 'tis the prince of poets' task alone

T'affert the rights of God's and Charles's throne.
Whilft vulgar poets purchase vulgar fame

By chaunting Chloris' or fair Phyllis' name;

Whose reputation shall last as long,

As fops and ladies fing the amorous fong.

A nobler fubject wifely they refuse,

The mighty weight would crush their feeble Muse.
So, story tells, a painter once would try
With his bold hand to limn a deity :
And he, by frequent practising that part,

Could draw a minor-god with wondrous art:
But when great Jove did to the workman fit,
The thunderer fuch horror did beget,
That put the frighted artist to a stand,
And made his pencil drop from 's baffled hand.

To Mr. DRYDEN, upon his Tranflation of the Third Book of VIRGIL'S GEORGICKS.

A PINDARIC ODE.

By Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

WHILE mounting with expanded wings

The Mantuan fwan unbounded heaven explores,

While with feraphic founds he towering fings,
Till to divinity he foars:

Mankind ftands wondering at his flight,
Charm'd with his mufick, and his height:
Which both tranfcend our praife.
Nay Gods incline their ravish'd ears,
And tune their own harmonious fpheres,
To his melodious lays.

Thou, Dryden, canft his notes recite
In modern numbers, which exprefs
Their mufick, and their utmost might:
Thou, wondrous poet, with fuccefs
Canft emulate his flight.

II.

Sometimes of humble rural things,

Thy Mufe, which keeps great Maro ftill in fight,
In middle air with varied numbers fings;
And fometimes her fonorous flight
To heaven fublimely wings.

But first takes time with majesty to rife,
Then, without pride, divinely great,
She mounts her native skies;
And, Goddess like, retains her state
When down again the flies.

Com

Commands, which judgment gives, the still obeys,
Both to deprefs her flight, and raise.

Thus Mercury from heaven defcends,
And to this under world his journey bends,

When Jove his dread commands has given :
But, ftill, defcending, dignity maintains,
As much a God upon our humble plains,
As when he, towering, re-afcends to heaven.

III.

But when thy Goddess takes her flight, With fo much majefty, to fuch a height, As can alone fuffice to prove,

That the defcends from mighty Jove :

Gods! how thy thoughts then rise, and soar, and shine! Immortal spirit animates each line;

Each with bright flame that fires our fouls is crown'd, Each has magnificence of found,

And harmony divine.

Thus the first orbs, in their high rounds,

With fhining pomp advance;

And to their own coeleftial founds

Majestically dance.

On, with eternal fymphony, they roll,

Each turn'd in its harmonious course,

And each inform'd by the prodigious force
Of an empyreal foul.

CON

CONTENTS

OF THЕ

THE

SECOND VOLUME.

HE Hind and the Panther, in three Parts.

Part I.

Part II.

Part III.

Britannia Rediviva, a Poem on the Prince, born on

the 10th of June 1688

Page

27

52

Mac-Flecnoe

97

109

EPISTLE S.

Epifle I. To Sir Robert Howard

II. To Dr. Charleton

III. To the Lady Castlemain

IV. To Mr. Lee

117

121

123

125

Xill. To John Dryden, Efq; of Chesterton

144

XIV. To

XIV. Prologue to his Royal Highness, 1682

XV. Prologue to the Earl of Effex

XVI. An Epilogue for the King's Houfe

XVII. Prologue to the Loyal Brother

XVIII. Epilogue to the fame

XIX. Prologue to the University of Oxford, fpoken

244

246

247

249

251

by Mr. Hart, at the acting of the Silent Woman 252 XX. Epilogue, fpoken by the fame

254

XXI. Epilogue, spoken at Oxford by Mrs. Marshall 255 XXII. Prologue to the University of Oxford

XXIII. Another

XXIV. Epilogue to Conftantine the Great

257

258

259

XXV. Prologue to the Difappointment

XXVI. Prologue to the King and Queen, upon the

Union of the two Companies, 1666

261

264

XXXI. Prologue to Arviragus and Philicia, revived 271