ページの画像
PDF
ePub

XXX.

TO A FAIR LADY,

PLAYING WITH A SNAKE.

STRANGE! that fuch horrour and such grace
Should dwell together in one place;
A fury's arm, an angel's face!

'Tis innocence and youth which makes In Chloris' fancy fuch mistakes

To start at love, and play with Snakes.

By this and by her coldness barr'd,
Her fervants have a task too hard:
The tyrant has a double guard!

Thrice happy Snake! that in her fleeve
May boldly creep; we dare not give
Our thoughts fo unconfin'd a leave.

Contented in that neft of fnow
He lies, as he his blifs did know,
And to the wood no more would go.

Take heed, fair Eve! you do not make
Another tempter of this Snake:

ΙΟ

A marble one fo warm'd would fpeak.

18

XXXI.

A PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR,

Of the prefent greatness, and joint interest

OF HIS HIGHNESS, AND THIS NATION.

WHILE with a strong and yet a gentle hand,
You bridle faction, and our hearts command,
Protect us from ourselves, and from the foe,
Make us unite, and make us conquer too;

Let partial spirits still aloud complain,
Think themselves injur'd that they cannot reign:
And own no liberty but where they may
Without control upon their fellows prey.

Above the waves as Neptune fhew'd his face,
To chide the winds, and fave the Trojan race,
So has your Highness, rais'd above the rest,
Storms of ambition toffing us repreft.

Your drooping country, torn with Civil hate,
Reftor'd by you, is made a glorious state;
The feat of empire, where the Irish come,
And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom.

The fea's our own: and now all nations greet,
With bending fails, each vessel of our fleet.
Your pow'r extends as far as winds can blow,
Or fwelling fails upon the globe may go.

10

15

20

Heav'n, (that hath plac'd this ifland to give law,
To balance Europe, and its ftates to awe)
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader, and the greatest isle!

Whether this portion of the world were rent,
By the rude ocean, from the continent,
Or thus created, it was fure defign'd
To be the facred refuge of mankind.

25

Hither th' oppreffed fhall henceforth resort,
Juftice to crave, and fuccour at your court;
And then your Highness, not for ours alone,
But for the world's Protector, fhall be known.

30

Fame, fwifter than your winged navy, flies
Thro' ev'ry land that near the ocean lies.

Sounding your name, and telling dreadful news

35

To all that piracy and rapine ufe.

With fuch a chief the meanest nation bleft,
Might hope to lift her head above the reft.
What may be thought impoffible to do

By us embraced by the fea and you?

40

Lords of the world's great waste, the ocean, we
Whole forests fend to reign upon the sea.
And ev'ry coaft may trouble or relieve;
But none can visit us without your leave.

Angels and we have this prerogative,
That none can at our happy feats arrive;
While we defcend, at pleasure, to invade
The bad with vengeance, and the good to aid.

Our little world, the image of the great,
Like that amidst the boundless ocean fet,

Of her own growth hath all that Nature craves,
And all that's rare, as tribute from the waves.

As Egypt does not on the clouds rely,
But to the Nile owes more than to the fky;

45

50

So what our earth and what our heav'n denies 55 Our ever conftant friend, the fea, fupplies.

The taste of hot Arabia's fpice we know,
Free from the fcorching fun that makes it grow :
Without the worm, in Perfian filks we fhine;
And, without planting, drink of ev'ry vine.

To dig for wealth we weary not our limbs;
Gold, tho' the heavieft metal, hither swims.
Ours is the harvest where the Indians mow;
We plough the deep, and reap what others fow.

[blocks in formation]

Things of the noblest kind our own foil breeds; 65 Stout are our men, and warlike are our steeds. Rome, tho' her Eagle thro' the world had flown, Could never make thiş island all her own.

Here the Third Edward, and the Black Prince, too,
France-conqu❜ring Henry flourish'd, and now you; 70
For whom we ftay'd, as did the Grecian state,
Till Alexander came to urge their fate.

When for more worlds the Macedonian cry'd,
He wift not Thetis in her lap did hide
Another yet; a world referv'd for you,
To make more great than that he did fubdue.

He fafely might old troops to battle lead,
Against th' unwarlike Perfian and the Mede,
Whose hafty flight did, from a bloodless field,
More spoils than honour to the victor yield.

A race unconquer'd, by their clime made bold,
The Caledonians, arm'd with want and cold,
Have, by a fate indulgent to your fame,
Been from all ages kept for you to tame.

75

80

Whom the old Roman wall fo ill confin'd,

85

With a new chain of garrisons you bind:

Here foreign gold no more fhall make them come; Our English iron holds them fast at home.

They, that henceforth must be content to know
No warmer region than the hills of fnow,
May blame the fun, but must extol your grace,
Which in our fenate hath allow'd them place.

90

« 前へ次へ »