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700

And not unthankful use the proffer'd grace :
If she reclaims the temporary boon,
And tries her pinions, fluttering to be gone;
Secure of mind, I'll obviate her intent,
And unconcern'd return the goods she lent.
Nor happiness can I, nor misery feel,
From any turn of her fantastic wheel:
Friendship's great laws, and love's superior powers,
Must mark the colour of my future hours.
From the events which thy commands create
I must my blessings or my sorrows date;
And Henry's will must dictate Emma's fate.

Yet while with close delight and inward pride
(Which from the world my careful soul shall hide)
I see thee, lord and end of my desire,
Exalted high, as virtue can require ;

With power invested, and with pleasure cheer'd;
Sought by the good, by the oppressor fear'd;
Loaded and blest with all the affluent store,
Which human vows at smoking shrines implore;
Grateful and humble grant me to employ
My life subservient only to thy joy;

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And at my death to bless thy kindness shown
To her, who of mankind could love but thee alone.

While thus the constant pair alternate said, 720 Joyful above them and around them play'd Angels and sportive loves, a numerous crowd; Smiling they clapp'd their wings, and low they bow'd:

They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,

To choose propitious shafts, a precious store;
That, when their god should take his future darts,

To strike (however rarely) constant hearts,
His happy skill might proper arms employ,
All tipp'd with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy:
And those, they vow'd, whose lives should imitate
These lovers' constancy, should share their fate. 731
The queen of beauty stopp'd her bridled doves;
Approv'd the little labour of the loves;
Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear;
And to the triumph call'd the god of war:
Soon as she calls, the god is always near.

Now, Mars, she said, let Fame exalt her voice:
Nor let thy conquests only be her choice:
But, when she sings great Edward from the field
Return'd, the hostile spear and captive shield
In Concord's temple hung, and Gallia taught to
yield:

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And when, as prudent Saturn shall complete
The years design'd to perfect Britain's state,
The swift-wing'd power shall take her trump again,
To sing her favourite Anna's wondrous reign;
To recollect unwearied Marlborough's toils,
Old Rufus' hall unequal to his spoils;
The British soldier from his high command
Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand :
Let her at least perform what I desire;
With second breath the vocal brass inspire;
And tell the nations, in no vulgar strain,

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What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain. And, when thy tumults and thy fights are past; And when thy laurels at my feet are cast; Faithful mayst thou, like British Henry, prove: And, Emma-like, let me return thy love.

Renown'd for truth, let all thy sons appear;

And constant beauty shall reward their care.

Mars smil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian deity 760 Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky;

And thou, she smiling said, great god of days
And verse, behold my deed, and sing my praise,
As on the British earth, my favourite isle,
Thy gentle rays and kindest influence smile,
Through all her laughing fields and verdant groves,
Proclaim with joy these memorable loves.
From every annual course let one great day
To celebrated sports and floral play
Be set aside; and, in the softest lays
Of thy poetic sons, be solemn praise
And everlasting marks of honour paid,
To the true lover, and the Nut-brown Maid.

770

VOL. 1.

AN ODE,

HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO THE QUEEN, ON THE GLO

RIOUS SUCCESS OF HER MAJESTY'S

ARMS, MDCCVI.

WRITTEN IN IMITATION OF SPENSER'S STYLE.

"Te non paventis funera Galliæ,
Duræque tellus audit Iberiæ:

Te cæde gaudentes Sicambri
Compositis venerantur armis." HOR.

PREFACE.

ZHEN I first thought of writing upon this occasion, I found the ideas so great and numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of an Ode, than for any other sort of poetry: I therefore set Horace before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,

"Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem," &c.

which he wrote in praise of Drusus after his expedition into Germany, and of Augustus upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though I have endeavoured to imitate all the great strokes of that ode, I have taken the liberty to go off from it, and to add variously, 88

the subject and my own imagination carried me. As to the style, the choice I made of following the ode in Latin determined me in English to the stanza; and herein it was impossible not to have a mind to follow our great countryman Spenser ; which I have done (as well at least as I could) in the manner of my expression, and the turn of my number: having only added one verse to his stanza, which I thought made the number more harmonious; and avoided such of his words as I found too obsolete. I have, however, retained some few of them, to make the colouring look more like Spenser's. Behest, command; band, army; prowess, strength; I weet, I know; I ween, I think; whilom, heretofore; and two or three more of that kind, which I hope the ladies will pardon me, and not judge my Muse less handsome, though for once she appears in a farthingale. I have also, in Spenser's manner, used Cæsar for the emperor, Boya for Bavaria, Bavar for that prince, Ister for Danube, Iberia for Spain, &c.

That noble part of the Ode which I just now mentioned,

"Gens, quæ cremato fortis ab Ilio
Jactata Tuscis æquoribus," &c.

where Horace praises the Romans as being descended from Æneas, I have turned to the honour of the British nation, descended from Brute, likewise a Trojan. That this Brute, fourth or fifth from Eneas, settled in England, and built London, which he called Troja Nova, or Troynovante, is a story which I think) owes its original, if not to

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