ページの画像
PDF
ePub

EPISTLE

T. O

ROBERT Earl of OXFORD and Earl MORTIMER.

S

5

UCH were the notes thy once-lov'd Poet fung,
'Till Death untimely ftop'd his tuneful tongues
Oh just beheld, and loft! admir'd and mourn'd!
With fofteft manners, gentleft arts adorn'd!
Bleft in each science, bleft in ev'ry strain !
Dear to the Mufe! to HARLEY dear-in vain!
For him, thou oft haft bid the World attend,
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend;
For SWIFT and him, defpis'd the farce of state,
The fober follies of the wife and great;
Dextrous, the craving, fawning croud to quit,
And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.
Absent or dead, ftill let a friend be dear,
(A figh the absent claims, the dead a tear)
Recall thofe nights that clos'd thy toilfome days, 15
Still hear thy Parnelle in his living lays,

Who, careless now of Int'reft, Fame, or Fate,
Perhaps forgets that OXFORD e'er was great;

NOTES.

Epift. to Robert Earl of Oxford.] This Epiftle was fent to the Earl of Oxford with Dr. Parnelle's Poems published by our Author, after the faid Earl's Imprisonment in the Tower, and Retreat into the Country, in the Year 1721. P.

Or deeming meaneft what we greatest call,
Beholds thee glorious only in thy Fall. -

And fure, if aught below the feats divine
Can touch Immortals, 'tis a Soul like thine:
A Soul fupreme, in each hard inftance try'd,
Above all Pain, all Paffion, and all Pride,

20

The rage of Pow'r, the blaft of public breath, 25 The luft of Lucre, and the dread of Death.

In vain to Deserts thy retreat is made;

The Muse attends thee to thy filent fhade:
'Tis hers, the brave man's latest steps to trace,
Rejudge his acts, and dignify disgrace.
When Int'reft calls off all her fneaking train,
And all th' oblig'd defert, and all the vain;

1

She waits, or to the scaffold, or the cell,

When the last ling'ring friend has bid farewel. Ev'n now, fhe fhades thy Ev'ning-walk with bays, (No hireling fhe, no proftitute to. praife)

Ev'n now, obfervant of the parting ray,
Eyes the calm Sun-fet of thy various Day,
Thro' Fortune's cloud one truly great can see,
Nor fears to tell, that MORTIMER is he.

30

36

40

EPIST LE

то

JAMES CRAGGS, Efq.

A

SECRETARY of STATE.

Soul as full of Worth, as void of Pride, Which nothing feeks to fhew, or needs to hide,

}

Which nor to Guilt nor Fear, its Caution owes,
And boasts a Warmth that from no Paffion flows.
A Face untaught to feign; a judging Eye,
That darts fevere upon a rifing Lye,
And strikes a blush thro' frontless Flattery.
All this thou wert; and being this before,
Know, Kings and Fortune cannot make thee more.
Then fcorn to gain à Friend by fervile ways,
Nor wifh to lofe a Foe these Virtues raise;
But candid, free, fincere, as you began,
Proceed-a Minister, but still a Man.
Be not (exalted to whate'er degree)
Afham'd of any Friend, not ev'n of Me:
The Patriot's plain, but untrod, path pursue;
If not, 'tis I must be afham'd of You.

Secretary of State.] In the Year 1720. P.

10

15

[blocks in formation]

EPISTLE

To Mr. JER VAS,

With Mr. DRYDEN'S Tranflation of FRESNOY'S Art of Painting.

HIS Verfe be thine, my friend, nor thou refufe

THI

5

This, from no venal or ungrateful Muse.
Whether thy hand strike out some free defign,
Where Life awakes, and dawns at ev'ry line;
Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mafs,
And from the canvas call the mimic face;
Read these instructive leaves, in which confpire
Frefnoy's clofe Art, and Dryden's native Fire:
And reading with, like theirs, our fate and fame,
So mix'd our ftudies, and fo join'd our name; IM
Like them to shine thro' long fucceeding age,
So just thy skill, fo regular my, rage.

Smit with the love of Sifter-Arts we came,
And met congenial, mingling flame with flame;
Like friendly, colours found them both unite, 15
And each from each contract new ftrength and light.

NOTES.

Epift. to Mr. Jervas.] This Epiftle, and the two following, were written fome years before the reft, and o̟riginally printed in 1717. P.

How

?

20

How oft in pleafing tasks we wear the day,
While fummer-funs roll unperceiv'd away
How oft our flowly growing works impart,
While Images reflect from art to art?
How oft review; each finding like a friend
Something to blame, and fomething to commend?
What flatt'ring fcenes our wand'ring fancy wrought,
Rome's pompous glories rifing to our thought!
Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly,
Fir'd with Ideas of fair Italy.

25

35

With thee, on Raphael's Monument I mourn,
Or wait inspiring Dreams at Maro's Urn :
With thee repofe, where Tully once was laid,
Or feek fome Ruin's formidable shade:
While fancy brings the vanish'd piles to view,
And builds imaginary Rome a new,
Here thy well-ftudy'd marbles fix our eye ;
A fading Frefco here demands a figh:
Each heav'nly piece unwearied we compare,
Match Raphael's grace with thy lov'd Guido's air,
Carracci's ftrength, Correggio's fofter line,
Paulo's free ftroke, and Titian's warmth divine.
How finifh'd with illuftrious toil appears
This small, well-polish'd Gem, the * work of years!
Yet ftill how faint by precept is exprest
The living image in the painter's breast?
Thence endless ftreams of fair Ideas flow,
Strike in the sketch, or in the picture glow;
Thence Beauty, waking all her forms, fupplies 45
An Angel's sweetness, or Bridgewater's eyes.

NOTES.

41

Frefnoy employed above twenty Years in finishing

his Poem. P.

+ D4

Mufe!

« 前へ次へ »