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XIII.

Britannia's veffel, which in ANNA's reign;
And prudent pilotry, enjoys

The tempeft which the world destroys,
And rides triumphant o'er the fubje&t main.
O may she soon a quiet harbour gain!
And fure the promis'd hour is come,
When in foft notes the peaceful lyre
Shall ftill the trumpet and the drum,
Shall play what gods and men defire,
And ftrike Bellona's mufick dumb:

When War, by parents curs'd, shall quit the field,
Unbuckle his bright helmet, and, to rest
His weary'd limbs, fit on his idle shield,
With scars of honour plow'd upon his breast.

But if the Gallic Pharaoh's ftubborn heart
Grows fresh for punishment, and hardens still;
Prepar'd for th' irrecoverable ill,

And forc'd th'unwilling skies to act the laft ungrateful part :
Thy forces, ANNA, like a flood, shall whelm
(If heav'n does scepter'd innocence maintain)
His famifh'd defolated realm;

And all the fons of Pharamond in vain

(Who with dishonest envy fee

The fweet forbidden fruits of distant liberty)

Shall curfe their Salic law, and wifh a female reign.

XIV. A female

XIV.

Å female reign like thine,
O ANNA, British heroine!

To thee afflicted empires fly for aid,
Where'er tyrannick standards are display'd,
From the wrong'd Iber to the threaten'd Rhine.
Thee, where the golden-fanded Tagus flows
Beneath fair Ulyffippo's walls,

The frighted Lufitanian calls;

Thee they who drink the Seine, with those
Who plow Iberian fields, implore,

To give the lab'ring world repose,
And univerfal peace restore:

Thee, Gallia; mournful to furvive the fate
Of her fall'n grandeur and departed state;
By fad experience taught to own,
That virtue is a noble way to rise,
A furer paffage to the skies,
Than Pelion upon Offa thrown :
For they, who impiously prefume
To grafp at heav'n, by Jove's eternal doom,
A prey to thunder fhall become;

Or, fent in k Ætna's fiery caves to groan,
Gain but an higher fall, a mountain for their tomb.

i The old name of Lisbon, faid to be built by Ulyffes. * One of the mountains where Jupiter lodged the giants.

VOL. I.

F

SIX

SIX

TOWN ECLOGUES,

By the Right Hon. L. M. W. M.

MONDA Y.

R

ROXANA, or, the Drawing-Room.
OXANA from the court retiring late,

Sigh'd her foft forrows at St. JAMES's gate.
Such heavy thoughts lay brooding in her breast,
Not her own chairmen with more weight opprefs'd;
They groan the cruel load they doom'd to bear;
She in these gentle founds exprefs'd her care.

"Was it for this, that I thefe roses wear, "For this new-fet the jewels for my hair? "Ah! princess! with what zeal have I pursu'd! "Almost forgot the daty of a prude.

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Thinking I never cou'd attend too foon,

< I've miss'd my prayers, to get me drefs'd by noon.

"For thee, ah! what for thee did I refign?
My pleasures, paffions, all that e'er was mine.
"I facrific'd both modesty and ease,

"Left operas, and went to filthy plays;
"Double entendres shock'd my tender ear,
"Yet even this for thee I chose to bear.
"In glowing youth, when nature bids be gay,
"And every joy of life before me lay,
"By honour prompted, and by pride restrain'd,
"The pleasures of the young my foul disdain'd :
"Sermons I fought, and with a mein severe
"Cenfur'd my neighbours, and said daily pray❜r.
"Alas! how chang'd!—with the fame sermon-mein
"That once I pray'd, the What-d'ye-call't I've seen.
"Ah! cruel princefs, for thy fake I've loft
"That reputation which so dear had cost :
"I, who avoided every publick place,

"When bloom and beauty bade me fhow my face; "Now near thee constant ev'ry night abide "With never-failing duty by thy fide,

66

Myfelf and daughters ftanding on a row,

"To all the foreigners a goodly fhow!

"Oft had your drawing-room been fadly thin,

"And merchants' wives close by the chair been seen ;

"Had not I amply fill'd the empty space,

"And fav'd your highness from the dire difgrace. "Yet COQUETILLA's artifice prevails,

"When all my merit and my duty fails:

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"That COQUETILLA, whose deluding airs
"Corrupts our virgins, and our youth enfnares ;
"So funk her character, so loft her fame,
"Scarce vifited before your highness came :
"Yet for the bed-chamber 'tis her you chufe,
"When Zeal and Fame and Virtue you refufe.
"Ah! worthy choice! not one of all your train
Whom cenfure blasts not, and dishonours stain.
"Let the nice hind now fuckle dirty pigs,

"And the proud pea-hen hatch the cuckoo's eggs!
"Let IRIS leave her paint and own her age,
"And grave SUFFOLKA wed a giddy page!
"A greater miracle is daily view'd,

"A virtuous princess with a court fo lewd.

"I know thee, Court! with all thy treach'rous wiles, "Thy falfe careffes and undoing smiles!

"Ah! princefs, learn'd in all the courtly arts "To cheat our hopes, and yet to gain our hearts !

..

Large lovely bribes are the great statesman's aim;

"And the neglected patriot follows fame.

"The prince is ogled; fome the king pursue;
" But your ROXANA only follows You.
"Defpis'd ROXANA, cease, and try to find
"Some other, fince the princess proves unkind;

66

Perhaps it is not hard to find at court,

"If not a greates, a móre firm support.”

TUESDAY.

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