Bright as the stars, and fragrant as the flowers
Where Spring refides in foft Elyfian bowers;
While these the bowers adorn, and they the sphere,
Will Sachariffa's charms in fong appear.
Yet, in the prefent age, her radiant name
Muft take a dimmer interval of fame;
When you to full meridian luftre rife,
With Morton's shape, and Gloriana's eyes ;
With Carlifle's wit, her gefture, and her mien;
And, like feraphic Rich, with zeal ferene :
In fweet affemblage all their graces join'd
To language, mode, and manners more refin'd!
That angel-frame, with chafte attraction gay,
Mild as the dove-ey'd morn awakes the May,
Of nobleft youths will reign the public care,
Their joy, their wifh, their wonder, and despair.
Far-beaming thence what bright ideas flow!
The fifter-arts with fudden rapture glow:
Her Titian tints the painter-nymph refumes §.
The canvas warm with roseate beauty blooms:
Infpir'd with life by Sculpture's happy toil,
The marble breathes, and foftens with your fmile;
Proud to receive the form, by fate defign'd
The faireft model of the fairer kind.
But hear, O hear the Mufe's heavenly voice!
The waving woods and echoing vales rejoice:
Attend, ye gales! to Margaretta's praise;
And all ye listening Loves record the lays!
So, Philomela charms th' Idalian grove,
When Venus, in the glowing orb of love,
O'er ocean, earth, and air, extends her reign;
The firft, the brightest of the starry train.
What favourite youth affign the Fates to rife,
In bridal pomp to lead the blooming prize?
Whether his father's garter'd shield sustains
Trophies, atchiev'd on Gallia's viny plains:
Or, fmilling Peace a mingled wreath displays.
The Patriot's olive, and the Poet's bays :
Adorn, ye fates! the favourite youth affign'd,
With each ennobling grace of form, and mind:
In merit make him great, as great in blood;
Great without pride, and amiably good;
His breaft the guardian ark of heaven-born law,
To strike a faithlefs age with conscious awe.
In choice of friends by manly reafon fway'd;
Not fear'd, but honour'd; and with love obey'd.
In courts, and camps, in council, and retreat,
Wife, brave, and ftudious to fupport the state,
With candour firm; without ambition bold;
No deed difcolour'd with the guilt of gold.
That heaven may judge the choicest blefsigns due ;
And give the various good compriz'd in you.
SOUTHERNE'S SPARTAN DAME.
WHEN realms are ravag'd with invafive foes,
Each bofom with heroic ardour glows;
Old chiefs, reflecting on their former deeds,
Difdain to ruft with batter'd invalids;
But active in the foremost ranks appear,
And leave young fmock-fac'd beaux to guard the rear.
So, to repel the Vandals of the stage,
Our veteran bard refumes his tragic rage:
He throws the gauntlet Otway us'd to wield,
And calls for Englishmen to judge the field:
Thus arm'd, to rescue Nature from difgrace,
Meffieurs! lay down your minstrels and grimace :
The brawniest youths of Troy the combat fear'd,
When old Etellus in the lifts appear'd.
Yet what avails the champion's giant fize,
When pigmies are made umpires of the prize?
Your fathers (men of fenfe, and honeft bowlers)
Difdain'd the mummery of foreign ftrollers:
By their examples would you form your taste,
The prefent age might emulate the past.
We hop'd that art and genius had fecur'd you ;
But foon facetious Harlequin allur'd you :
The Muses blush'd, to fee their friends exalting
Those elegant delights of jig and vaulting:
So charm'd you were, you ceas'd awhile to dote
On nonfenfe, gargled in an eunuch's throat :
All pleas'd to hear the chattering monsters speak,
As old wives wonder at the parfon's Greek.
Such light ragoûts and mushrooms may be good,
To whet your appetites for wholfome food :
But the bold Briton ne'er in earnest dines
Without fubftantial haunches and furloins.
In wit, as well as war, they give us vigour;
Creffy was loft by kickshaws and foup-meagre.
Instead of light deferts and luscious froth,
Our poet treats to-night with Spartan broth
To which, as well as all his former feasts,
The ladies are the chief-invited guests.
Crown'd with a kind of Glaftonbury bays,
That bloom amid the winter of his days;
He comes, ambitious in his green decline,
To confecrate his wreath at beauty's fhrine.
His Oroonoko never fail'd t' engage
The radiant circles of the former age:
Each bofom heav'd, all eyes were seen to flow,
And fympathize with Isabella's woe:
But Fate referv'd, to crown his elder fame,
The brightest audience for the Spartan Dame.
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