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125

But ficken'd, after all their baffled lies,
To find an heir apparent of the skies:
Abandon'd to despair, ftill may they grudge,
And, owning not the Saviour, prove the judge.
*Not great Æneas ftood in plainer day,
When, the dark mantling mist diffolv'd away,
He to the Tyrians fhew'd his fudden face,
Shining with all his goddefs mother's grace:
For the herself had made his countenance bright,
Breath'd honour on his eyes, and her own pur-
ple light.

130

If our victorious Edward †, as they fay, Gave Wales a prince on that propitious day, 135 Why may not years revolving with his fate Produce his like, but with a longer date? One, who may carry to a diftant shore The terror that his fam'd forefather bore. But why should James or his young hero stay For flight prefages of a name or day? We need no Edward's fortune to adorn

141

That happy moment when our prince was born:

Our prince adorns his day, and ages hence Shall with his birth-day for fome future prince.

Virg. Æneid, 1. Original edition.

Edward, the Black Prince, born on Trinity Sunday, Original edition.

Ver. 144. Our prince adorns his day,] Original edition.

TODD.

* Great Michael, prince of all the ætherial

146

hofts, And whate'er inborn faints our Britain boasts; And thou, the adopted patron of our ifle, With chearful afpects on this infant smile: The pledge of Heaven, which, dropping from

above,

Secures our blifs, and reconciles his love.

150

Enough of ills our dire rebellion wrought, When, to the dregs, we drank the bitter draught; Then airy atoms did in plagues confpire, Nor did the avenging angel yet retire, 155 But purg'd our still increafing crimes with fire.) Then perjur'd Plots, the ftill impending Teft, And worfe-but charity conceals the reft: Here stop the current of the fanguine flood; 159 Require not, gracious God, thy martyrs' blood; But let their dying pangs, their living toil, Spread a rich harvest through their native foil: A harvest ripening for another reign, Of which this royal babe may reap the grain. Enough of early faints one womb has given ; Enough increas'd the family of heaven : Let them for his and our atonement go;

166

And reigning bleft above, leave him to rule below.

• The motto of the poem explained. Original edition. + St. George. Original edition.

170

Enough already has the year foreflow'd His wonted courfe, the fea has overflow'd, The meads were floated with a weeping fpring, And frighten'd birds in woods forgot to fing: The ftrong-limb'd fteed beneath his harness faints,

175

And the same shivering sweat his lord attaints. When will the minister of wrath give o'er? Behold him, at Araunah's* threshing-floor : He ftops, and feems to sheath his flaming brand, Pleas'd with burnt incenfe from our David's hand.

David has bought the Jebufite's abode,

And rais'd an altar to the living God. Heaven, to reward him, makes his joys fin

cere ;

No future ills nor accidents appear,

180

To fully and pollute the facred infant's year.
Five months to discord and debate were given:
He fanctifies the yet remaining seven.
Sabbath of months! henceforth in him be bleft,
And prelude to the realms perpetual reft!

Let his baptifmal drops for us atone;
Luftrations for offences † not his own.

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185

TODD.

Alluding to the paffage in 1 Kings xxiv. 20. Orig. edit.

+ Original fin. Orig. edit.

Let Confcience, which is Intereft ill disguis'd, In the fame font be cleans'd, and all the land

baptiz'd.

191

195

* Unnam'd as yet; at least unknown to fame: Is there a ftrife in heaven about his name? Where every famous predeceffor vies, And makes a faction for it in the fkies? Or muft it be referv'd to thought alone? Such was the facred Tetragrammaton. Things worthy filence must not be reveal'd : Thus the true name of Rome was kept conceal'd,

200

To fhun the spells and forceries of those
Who durft her infant Majefty oppose.
But when his tender ftrength in time shall rise
To dare ill tongues, and fascinating eyes;
This ifle, which hides the little thunderer's fame,
Shall be too narrow to contain his name:
The artillery of heaven fhall make him known;
+ Crete could not hold the god, when Jove was

grown.

205

The prince chriften'd, but not named. Original edition. Ver. 197. the facred Tetragrammaton.] Jehovah, or the name of God, unlawful to be pronounced by the Jews.Original edition.

Ver. 199. Thus the true name of Rome was kept conceal'd.] Some authors fay, That the true name of Rome was kept a fecret: Ne hoftes incantamentis deos elicerent. Original edition.

+ Candie, where Jupiter was born and bred fecretly. Orig. edition.

As Jove's increafe *, who from his brain was

born,

211

Whom arms and arts did equally adorn,
Free of the breaft was bred, whofe milky tafte
Minerva's name to Venus had debas'd;
So this imperial babe rejects the food
That mixes monarch's with plebeian blood:
Food that his inborn courage might controul,
Extinguish all the father in his foul,

215

And, for his Eftian race, and Saxon ftrain,
Might reproduce fome fecond Richard's reign.
Mildness he shares from both his parents' blood:
But kings too tame are despicably good:
Be this the mixture of this regal child,
By nature manly, but by virtue mild.

Thus far the furious tranfport of the news
Had to prophetic madness fir'd the Muse;
Madness ungovernable, uninspir'd,
Swift to foretel whatever fhe defir'd.
Was it for me the dark abyss to tread,

220

225

And read the book which angels cannot read?
How was I punish'd, when the fudden blast †,
The face of heaven, and our young fun o'ercaft!
Fame, the swift ill, increasing as the roll'd, 230
Disease, defpair, and death, at three reprises
told:

*Pallas, or Minerva, faid by the poets to have been bred up by hand. Original edition.

The fudden falfe report of the prince's death. Orig. edit.

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