While others vainly strive to know Thee more,
Let me in filent reverence adore ;

Wishing that human power were higher rais'd,
Only that thine might be more nobly prais'd!
Thrice happy angels in their high degree,
Created worthy of extolling Thee!

PRO L

OGUE

то

THE

ALTERATION OF JULIUS CESAR.

HOPE

OPE to mend Shakespeare! or to match his ftyle!
'Tis fuch a jeft would make a Stoic fmile.

Too fond of fame, our poet foars too high,
Yet freely owns he wants the wings to fly:
So fenfible of his prefumptuous thought,
That he confeffes while he does the fault:
This to the fair will no great wonder prove,
Who oft' in blushes yield to what they love.

Of greatest actions, and of noblest men,
This story most deserves a poet's pen :
For who can with a fcene more justly fam'd,
When Rome and mighty Julius are but nam'd!
That ftate of heroes who the world had brav'd!
That wondrous man who such a state inflav'd!
Yet loth he was to take fo rough a way,
And after govern'd with fo mild a fway,

At

At diftance now of feventeen hundred years,
Methinks a lovely ravisher appears;

Whom, though forbid by virtue to excufe,

A nymph might pardon, and could fcarce refufe.

CHORUSES IN JULIUS CESAR.

C H

ORUS I.

I.

WHITHER is Roman honour gone?

Where is your ancient virtue now?

That valour, which fo bright has fhone,
And with the wings of conquest flown,
Muft to a haughty master bow :

Who, with our toil, our blood, and all we have befide,
Gorges his ill-got power, his humour, and his pride.

II.

Fearless he will his life expofe;

So does a lion or a bear.

His very virtues threaten those,

Who more his bold ambition fear.

How stupid wretches we appear,

Who round the world for wealth and empire roam,
Yet never, never think what flaves we are at home!
III.

Did men for this together join,

Quitting the free wild life of Nature?

: What other beast did e'er defign

The fetting up his fellow-creature,

And of two mifchiefs chufe the greater?

Oh!

Oh! rather than be flaves to bold imperious men,
Give us our wildness, and our woods, our huts, and

caves again.

IV.

There, fecure from lawless sway,
Out of Pride or Envy's way;

Living up to Nature's rules,

Not deprav'd by knaves and fools;

Happily we all should live, and harmless as our sheep, And at last as calmly die as infants fall asleep.

L

CHORUS

II.

O! to prevent this mighty empire's doom,
From bright unknown abodes of blifs I come,

The awful genius of majestic Rome.

Great is her danger: but I will engage
Some few, the mafter-fouls of all this age,
To do an act of just heroic rage.

'Tis hard, a man fo great should fall so low;
More hard to let fo brave a people bow

To one themselves have rais'd, who fcorns them now.

Yet, oh! I grieve that Brutus should be stain'd,
Whofe life, excepting this one act, remain'd
So pure, that future times will think it feign'd.

But only he can make the reft combine;
The very life and foul of their defign,
The centre, where thofe mighty fpirits join.
L

UA

Unthinking men no fort of fcruples make;
Others do ill, only for mischief's sake;
But ev'n the best are guilty by mistake.

Thus fome for envy, or revenge, intend
To bring the bold ufurper to his end :
But for his country Brutus ftabs his friend.

CHORUS

BY TWO AERIAL SPIRITS.

I.

ELL, oh! tell me, whence arife
Thefe diforders in our skies?
Rome's great genius wildly gaz'd,
And the gods feem all amaz'd.

II.

Know, in fight of this day's fun,
Such a deed is to be done,
Black enough to shroud the light
Of all this world in dismal night.

III.

II.

But will not goodness claim regard,
And does not worth deserve reward?

I.

Does not their country lie at ftake?
Can they do too much for her fake?

BOTH SPIRITS TOGETHER.

Though dreadful be this doom of fate,
Juft is that power which governs all:
Better this wondrous man fhould fall,
Than a moft glorious, virtuous state.

CHORUS

How great a curfe has Providence

IV.

Thought fit to caft on human-kind!

Learning, courage, eloquence,

The gentleft nature, nobleft mind,

Were intermixt in one alone;

Yet in one moment overthrown.

Could chance, or fenfelefs atoms, join
To form a foul fo great as his?
Or would thofe powers we hold divine,
Destroy their own chief mafter-piece?

Where fo much difficulty lies,

The doubtful are the only wife.

And, what must more perplex our thoughts,
Great Jove the best of Romans fends,

To do the very worst of faults,

And kill the kindeft of his friends.