HENRIETTA,
DUTCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. 1722
XCUSE me, madam, if amidst your tears
A Mufe intrudes, a Mufe who feels your cares;.
Numbers, like musick, can ev'n grief control,
And lull to peace the tumults of the foul.
If partners in our woes the mind relieve,
Confider for your lofs ten thousands grieve;
Th' affliction burthens not your heart alone;
When Marlborough died, a nation gave a groan.
Could I recite the dangerous toils he chofe,
To blefs his country with a fixt repofe;
Could I recount the labours he o'ercame,
To raise his country to the pitch of fame ;
His councils, fieges, his victorious fights,
To fave his country's laws and native rights;
No father (every generous heart must own):
Has ftronger fondness to his darling shown..
Britannia's fighs a double lofs deplore,
Her father and her hero is no more.
Does Britain only pay her debt of tears ?
Yes. Holland fighs and for her freedom fears.
When Gallia's monarch pour'd his wafteful bands,
Like a wide deluge,, o'er her level lands,
She faw her frontier towers in ruin lie,
Ev'n Liberty had prun'd her wings to fly :
Then Marlborough came, defeated Gallia fled;
And shatter'd Belgia rais'd her languid head;
In him fecure, as in her strongest mound
That keeps the raging fea within its bound.
O Germany! remember Hockstet's plain,
Where proftrate Gallia bled at every vein ;
Think on the rescue of th' imperial throne,
Then think of Marlborough's death without a groant
Apollo kindly whispers me: "Be wife:
"How to his glory fhall thy numbers rise?
"The force of verfe another theme might raife,
"But here the merit must tranfcend the praife.
"Haft thou, prefumptuous bard! that godlike flame
"Which with the fun fhall laft, and Marlborough's fame?
"Then fing the man.
But who can boaft this fire?
Refign the task, and filently admire."
Yet fhall he not in worthy lays be read?
Raife Homer, call up Virgil from the dead.
But he requires not the strong glare of verse ::
Let punctual hiftory his deeds rehearse;
Let truth in native purity appear,
You'll find Achilles and Eneas there.
Is this the comfort which the Mufe beftows
I but indulge and aggravate your woes.
A prudent friend, who feeks to give relief,
Ne'er touches on the fpring that mov'd the grief.
Is it not barbarous, to the fighing maid
To mention broken vows and nymphs betray'd?
Would you the ruin'd merchant's foul appease,
With talk of fands, and rocks, and ftormy feas!
Ev'n while I strive on Marlborough's fame to rife,
I call up forrow in a daughter's eyes.
Think on the laurels that his temples shade,
Laurels that (fpite of time) fhall never fade.
Immortal honour has enroll'd his name;
Detraction's dumb, and Envy put to shame.
Say, who can foar beyond his eagle flight;
Has he not reach'd to glory's utmost height?
What could he more, had Heaven prolong'd his date?
All human power is limited by fate.
Forbear. 'Tis cruel further to commend;
I wake your forrow, and again offend.
Yet fure your goodness must forgive a crime,
Which will be spread through every age and clime;
Though in your life ten thoufand fummers roll,
And though you compafs earth from pole to pole,
Where-e'er men talk of war and martial fame,
They'll mention Marlborough's and Cæfar's name.
But vain are all the counfels of the Muse;
A foul like yours could not a tear refuse :
Could you your birth and filial love forego,
Still fighs must rife, and generous forrow flow;
For, when from earth fuch matchlefs worth removes,
A great mind fuffers. Virtue virtue loves.
ONG haft thou, friend! been absent from my foil, Like patient Ithacus at fiege of Troy; I have been witness of thy fix years toil,
Thy daily labours, and thy night's annoy, Loft to thy native land, with great turmoil,
On the wide sea, oft' threatening to destroy: Methinks with thee I've trod Sigæan ground, And heard the fhores of Hellefpont resound.
Did I not fee thee when thou first fett'ft fail
To feek adventures fair in Homer's land?
Did I not fee thy finking fpirits fail,
And wish thy bark had never left the strand?
A clofe imitation of the beginning of the 46th Canto of the "Orlando Furiofo." Mr. Gay has even adopted the measure of his original, and has comprized his defign in almoft the fame number of lines, viz. in twenty-one octave ftanzas, instead of nineteen. S.
Ev'n in mid ocean often didst thou quail,
And oft' lift up thy holy eye and hand, Praying the Virgin dear, and faintly choir, Back to the port to bring thy bark entire.
Chear up, my friend! thy dangers now are o'er;
Methinks nay, fure the rifing coafts appear;
Hark! how the guns falute from either shore,
As thy trim veffel cuts the Thames so fair :
Shouts anfwering fhouts from Kent and Effex roar,
And bells break loud through every gust of air:
Bonfires do blaze, and bones and cleavers ring,
As at the coming of fome mighty king.
Now pass we Gravefend with a friendly wind,
And Tilbury's white fort, and long Blackwall;
Greenwich, where dwells the friend of human kind,
More vifited than or her park or hall,
Withers the good, and (with him ever join'd)
Facetious Disney, greet thee first of all:
I fee his chimney smoke, and hear him say,
Duke! that's the room for Pope, and that for Gay.
Come in, my friends' here shall ye dine and lie,
And here shall breakfast, and here dine again;
And fup, and breakfast on, (if ye comply)
For I have ftill fome dozens of champaign :
His voice ftill leffens as the fhip fails by ;
He waives his hand to bring us back in vain;
*He was ufually called "Duke Difney." N.
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