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Covent-Garden has hitherto had an uncommonly productive season; Life, and the new pantomime, hold their attraction; and Cooke on each performance rises in public estimation. This gentleman has of late experienced a very severe indisposition, but, we are happy to add, that by the best medical assistance, he is now sufficiently recovered to resume his attendance at the theatre; the very great exertions necessary in the personification of some of his characters is said to have been the cause.

Miss Martyr, daughter of the actress of that name, is under the able tuition of Madame Mara at Bath, and bids fair to become a distinguished performer in the musical world. She is expected to make her appearance before a London audience at the ensuing Lent Oratorios.

A young lady of the name of Payne made her debut at the Norwich theatre lately, in Letitia Hardy, and met with the most flattering reception of any actress that has appeared on those boards for some years.

Mrs. MERRY is so great a favorite in America, that she is not in the least inclined to return to this Country, and has declined very liberal overtures from the Covent-garden Manager.

THE

PARNASSIAN GARLAND,

FOR JANUARY, 1801.

ODE

FOR THE

NEW YEAR, 1801.

BY HENRY JAMES PYE, ESQ. POET LAUREAT,

I.

ROM delug'd earth's usurp'd domain,
When ocean sought his native bed,

Emerging from the shrinking main

Rear'd many a mountain isle its head; Encircled with a billowy zone,

Fair freedom maik'd them for her own, "Let the vast continent obey

"A ruthless master's iron sway;

"Uncheck'd by aught from pole to pole, "Where swoln ambition's torrents roll,

"Those seats to tyrants I resign;

"Here be my blest abode, the island reign be mine."

II.

Hating the fane, where freedom sat enshrin'd,
Grasping at boundless empire o'er mankind;
Behold from Susa's distant towers

The eastern despot sends his mighty powers.
Grecia, thro' all her rocky coast,
Astonish'd views the giant host:

Not the fam'd Straight, by bleeding heroes barr'd,
Nor Cecrop's walls, her hallow'd altars guard;
While each bold inmate of the isles,
On inroads baffled effort smiles.
From every port, with cheering sound,
Swells the vindictive Pæan round;

And Salamis' proud, from her sea-girt shore,
Sees o'er the hostile fleet the indignant surges roar.

III.

Fiercer than Persia's scept'red lord;

More numerous than the embattled train,
Whose thirsty swarms the sea broad rivers drain,
Lo! Gallia's plains disgorge their maddening horde!
Wide o'er Europa's trembling lands,
Victorious speed the murderous bands;
Where'er they spread their powerful sway,
Fell desolation marks their way:
Unhurt, amid a warring world alone,
Britannia sits secure, firm on her island throne.

IV.

When thunders war, when light'nings fly,
When howling tempests shake the sky,
Is more endear'd the shelt'ring dome,
More sweet th' social joys of home;
Fondly her eye, lo! Albion throws
On the tried partner of her weal and woes:
Each tie to closer union draws,

By mingled rights and mingled laws;
Then turns averse from Gallia's guilty field,
And tears, with gen'rous pride, the lilies from her
shield.

V.

Albion and Erin's kindred race,

Long as your sister isles the seas embrace,

Long as the circling tides your shores that lave,
Waft your united banners o'er the wave;

Wide thro' the deep, commercial wealth to spread,
Or hurl destruction on the oppressor's head:
May Heav'n, on each unconquer'd nation, show's
Eternal concord, and encreasing pow'r!

And, as in history's awful page,
Immortal virtue shall proclaim
To every clime, thro' ev'ry age,
Imperial George's patriot fame;

That parent care shall win her warmest smiles,
Which rear'd, mid' ocean's reign, the Empire of the
Isles!

LINES

On seeing the Sun set December 31, 1800, the last Day of the 18th Century.

NEE where it sets! the glorious sun,

SEE

Which has another century run:

Mark, as his chariot sinks away

Bright in the west, what splendors play!
Thus, beaming glory as he flies,
Age after age, he sweeps the skies;
Thus, bright as when he first arose,
With undiminish'd heat he glows,
And bears aloft, as centuries turn,

Through heaven's wide arch his flaming urn!
To trace his path, on tip-toe stand
The minutes, an unresting band,

With viewless wings, and transient forms,
Onward they rush, in countless swarms,
Not one returns, a ceaseless throng,
A constant flood, they pour along;
Nor ought in heaven or earth impedes
The march, which undisturb'd proceeds:
No chasm breaks the shining chain,
And, plac'd in order, through the train,
Like chiefs of each successive band,
The hours and days all marshall'd stand;
With larger plumes the weeks appear,
And months more stately fill the year!

Thus, since at first JEHOVAH'S VOICE
Bid chaos with new light rejoice,

(And, while the sons of glory sung,
The balanc'd earth on nothing hung),
With speed unceasing, full of prime,
Have march'd the bands of hoary time;
And thus, till time itself is o'er,
And suns and planets blaze no more,
While years and centuries roll away,
The glorious march shall never stay.
Genius of light, celestial name!
Thron'd on thine orb of central flame!
Oft, as these hundred years have past,
Of which this day has been the last:
Hast thou, on thy high throne reclin❜d,
Survey'd the miseries of mankind.

Again, bright messenger of God!
Again, thy glories set in blood;
The madd'ning world is still in arms,
Still Europe shakes with loud alarms.
Still round her oft ensanguin'd shores,
The tumult of destruction roars;
Still pride and avarice, imps of hell,
The rulers of our race impel,

To arm their rude and wretched slaves,
And send whole nations to their graves.

The frowning heaven's oppose in vain, Not winter can their rage restain,

Not frozen hills abate that rage,

On fields of ice the troops engage;
The work of death no storm impedes,
'Midst showers of snow the battle bleeds.
Ah! how defil'd its fleecy white;
The pitying sun avoids the sight,
His mourning face he turns away,
And blots with gloomy clouds the day.
Almighty sov'reign of the sun!
Whose will in heaven and earth is done;
In pity stop the sanguine tide;
O let the wrath of man subside;

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