X.

"Did not thy owner, when we parted laft,

"Promise to keep thee fafe for me alone?

"Scarce of our absence three short months are past, "And thou already from thy poft art flown.

XI.

"Be not enrag'd, replied th' Apostle kind —

"Since that this maidenhead is thine by right, "Take it away; and, when thou haft a mind, Carry it thither whence it took its flight."

་་

XII.

Thanks, Holy Father!" quoth the joyous Knight, "The Moon fhall be no lofer by your grace:

"Let me but have the use on't for a night,

"And I'll reftore it to its prefent place.”

TO A YOUNG

LADY.

I'

WITH THE TRAGEDY OF

VENICE PRESERVED.

N tender Otway's moving scenes we find

What power the gods have to your fex affign'd: Venice was loft, if on the brink of fate

A woman had not propt her finking state:

In the dark danger of that dreadful hour,
Vain was her fenate's wisdom, vain its power;

But, fav'd by Belvidera's charming tears,
Still o'er the fubject main her towers the rears,
And ftands a great example to mankind,
With what a boundless fway you rule the mind,
Skillful the worst or nobleft ends to ferve,
And strong alike to ruin or preferve.

In wretched Jaffier, we with pity view
A mind, to Honour falfe, to Virtue true,
In the wild ftorm of ftruggling paffions toft,
Yet faving innocence, though fame was loft;
Greatly forgetting what he ow'd his friend-
His country, which had wrong'd him, to defend.
But the, who urg'd him to that pious deed,
Who knew fo well the patriot's caufe to plead,
Whofe conquering love her country's safety won,
Was, by that fatal love, herself undone.

*Hence may we learn, what paffion fain would "hide,.

"That Hymen's bands by prudence fhould be tied.
" Venus in vain the wedded pair would crown,
"If angry Fortune on their union frown:
"Soon will the flattering dreams of joys be o'er,
"And cloy'd imagination cheat no more;
"Then, waking to the sense of lasting pain,
"With mutual tears the bridal couch they stain ;

*The twelve following lines, with fome small variations, have been already printed in “Advice to a Lady,” p. 290; but, as Lord Lyttelton chofe to introduce them here, it was thought more eligible to repeat thefe few lines, than to fupprefs the rest of the

poem.

Z 3

And

"And that fond love, which should afford relief,
"Does but augment the anguish of their grief:
"While both could easier their own forrows bear,
"Than the fad knowledge of each other's care.”
May all the joys in Love and Fortune's power
Kindly combine to grace your nuptial hour!
On each glad day may plenty fhower delight,
And warmeft rapture bless each welcome night!
May Heaven, that gave you Belvidera's charms,
Deftine fome happier Jaffier to your arms,
Whose blifs misfortune never may allay,
Whose fondness never may through care decay.;
Whose wealth may place you in the fairest light,
And force each modest beauty into fight!
So fhall no anxious want your peace destroy,
No tempeft crush the tender buds of joy;
But all your hours in one gay circle move,
Nor reafon ever disagree with Love!

T

ELL me, my heart, fond flave of hopeless love,
And doom'd its woes, without its joys to prove

Canft thou endure thus calmly to erase

The dear, dear image of thy Delia's face?
Canft thou exclude that habitant divine,
To place fome meaner idol in her shrine ?
O task, for feeble Reason too severe !
O leffon, nought could teach me but despair!

Muft

Muft I forbid my eyes that heavenly fight,

They 've view'd fo oft with languishing delight?

Muft my ears fhun that voice, whofe charming found Seem'd to relieve, while it encreas'd, my wound?

O Waller! Petrarch! you who tun'd the lyre
To the foft notes of elegant defire;

Though Sidney to a rival gave her charms,
Though Laura dying left her lover's arms,
Yet were your pains less exquifite than mine,
Tis easier far to lose, than to refign!

INSCRIPTION for a BusT of Lady SUFFOLK; Defigned to be set up in a Wood at STOWE.

1732.

HER wit and beauty for a court were made:
But truth and goodness fit her for a shade.

SULPICIA TO CERINTHUS,

IN HER SICKNESS.

FROM TIBULLUS.

(Sent to a friend, in a Lady's Name.)

AY, my Cerinthus, does thy tender breast

SA

Feel the fame feverish heats that mine moleft?

Alas! I only wish for health again,

Because I think my lover fhares my pain :

For what would health avail to wretched me,
If you could, unconcern'd, my illness fee?

SULPI

SULPICIA TO CERINTHUS..

M weary of this tedious dull deceit;

I cheat:

Though prudence bids me ftrive to guard my fame,
Love fees the low hypocrify with shame ;

Love bids me all confess, and call thee mine,
Worthy my heart, as I am worthy thine:

Weakness for thee I will no longer hide;
Weaknefs for thee is woman's nobleft pride.

CATO'S SPEECH TO LABIENUS

IN THE NINTH BOOK OF LUCAN.

("Quid quæri, Labiene, jubes, &c.")

WHAT, Labienus, would thy fond defire,

Of horned Jove's prophetic fhrine enquire?

Whether to feek in arms a glorious doom,
Or bafely live, and be a king in Rome ?
If life be nothing more than death's delay;
If impious force can honeft minds difmay,
Or Probity may Fortune's frown difdain;
If well to mean is all that Virtue can;
And right, dependant on itself alone,
Gains no addition from fuccefs ?-'Tis known:
Fix'd in my heart these constant truths I bear,
And Ammon cannot write them deeper there.

Our