Let thy own Gauls condemn thee, if they dare, 40
Contented to be thinly regular :

Born there, but not for them, our faithful soil
With more increase, rewards the happy toil.
Their tongue, enfeebled, is refin'd too much,
And, like pure gold, it bends at ev'ry touch:
Our sturdy Teuton yet will art obey,

More fit for manly thought, and strengthen'd with allay.

But whence art thou inspir'd, and thou alone,
To flourish in an idiom not thy own?

It moves our wonder that a foreign guest

50

Should overmatch-the most; and match-the best,

In under-praising, thy deserts I wrong;
Here find the first deficience of our tongue;
Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend
So great a poet, and so good a friend,

XIII.

Fo the DUCHESS of YORK, on her Return from Scotland, in the year 1682.

W

HEN factious rage to cruel exile drove The Queen of Beauty, and the Court of Love, The Muses droop'd, with their forsaken arts, And the sad Cupids broke their useless darts; Our fruitful plains to wilds and desarts turn'd, Like Eden's face when banish'd Man it mourn'd,

Love was no more when Loyalty was gone,
The great supporter of his awful throne.
Love could no longer after Beauty stay,
But wander'd northward to the verge of day, 10
As if the sun, and he, had lost their way.
But now th' illustrious Nymph, return'd again,
Brings ev'ry grace triumphant in her train.
The wond'ring Nereids, tho' they rais'd no storm,
Foreflow'd her passage to behold her form.

Some cry'd, a Venus; some, a Thetis past;
But this was not so fair, nor that so chaste.
Far from her sight flew Faction, Strife, and Pride,
And Envy did but look on her, and dy’d.
Whate'er we suffer'd from our sullen fate,
Her sight is purchas'd at an easy rate.
Three gloomy years against this day were set,
But this one mighty sum has clear'd the debt:
Like Joseph's dream, but with a better doom,
The famine past, the plenty still to come.
For her the weeping heav'ns become serene,
For her the cheerful ground is clad in green;
For her the nightingales are taught to sing;
And Nature has for her delay'd the spring.
The Muse resumes her long-forgotten lays, 30
And Love, restor'd, his ancient realms surveys,
Recalls our beauties, and revives our plays;
His waste dominions peoples once again;
And, from her presence, dates his second reign.
But awful charms on her fair forehead sit,
Dispensing what she never will admit;

20

Pleasing, yet cold, like Cynthia's silver beam,
The people's wonder and the poet's theme,
Distemper'd Zeal, Sedition, canker'd Hate,
No more shall vex the church, and tear the state; 40
No more shall Faction civil discords move,
Or, only, discords of too tender love;
Discord like that of music's various parts;
Discord that makes the harmony of hearts;
Discord that only this dispute shall bring—
Who best shall love the Duke, and serve the King.

XIV.

To my honoured Kinsman, JOHN DRYDEN, of
Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq.
How bless'd is he who leads a country life,
Unvex'd wish anxious cares, and void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age!
All who deserve his love-he makes his own;
And to be lov'd, himself, needs only to be known.
Just, good, and wise; contending neighbours'

come,

From your award to wait their final doom:
And, foes before, return in friendship home.
Without their cost you terminate the cause;
And save th' expence of long litigious laws:
Where suits are travers'd, and so little won,
That he who conquers-is but last undone.

10

Such are not your decrees; but so design'd,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;
Like your own soul serene; a pattern of

mind.

your

Promoting concord, and composing strife; Lord of yourself, uncumber'd with a wife; Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night, Long penitence succeeds a short delight; Minds are so hardly match'd, that e'en the first, Tho' pair'd by Heav'n, in Paradise were curst ; For man and woman, tho' in one they grow, Yet, first or last, return again to two.

20

He, to God's image; she to his, was made; So, farther from the fount, the stream at random stray'd.

How could he stand, when put to double pain, He must a weaker than himself sustain ?

Each might have stood perhaps; but each alone: Two wrestlers help to pull each other down.* 30 Not that my verse would blemish all the fair;" But yet, if some be bad, 'tis wisdom to beware. And better shun the bait than struggle in the snare. Thus, have you shunn'd; and, shun the marry'd

state;

Trusting as little as you can to Fate.

No porter guards the passage of your door, T' admit the wealthy and exclude the poor;

It is difficult to pass this illustration without noticing its fallacy: Wrestlers strive at mutual subversion; but the weakest objects disposed for mutual assistance, by reposing on each other, may be supported.

For God, who gave the riches, gave the heart
To sanctify the whole, by giving part;

Heav'n, who foresaw the will, the means has wrought,

And to the second son a blessing brought; 41 The first begotten had his father's share,

But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca's heir.

So may your stores and fruitful fields increase, And ever be you bless'd who live to bless. As Ceres sow'd where'er her chariot flew ; As Heav'n in deserts rain'd the bread of dew; So, free to many, to relations most,

You feed, with manna, your own Israel host,

With crowds attended of your ancient race, 50 You seek the champion sports or sylvan chase : With well breath'd beagles, you surround the wood, E'en then industrious of the common good; And, often have you brought the wily fox To suffer, for the firstlings of the flocks; Chas'd e'en amid the folds; and made to bleed, Like felons, where they did the murd❜rous deed. This fiery game your active youth maintain’d, Not yet by years extinguish'd, tho' restrain'd; You season still with sports your serious hours; 60 For age but tastes, of pleasures; youth devours. The hare in pasture; or in plains is found; Emblem of human life; who runs the round, And, after all his wand'ring ways are done, His cirele fills, and ends where he begun,Just as the setting meets the rising sun.