Come, virgins, ere in equal bands ye join, Come first, and offer at her sacred shrine; Pray but for half the virtues of this wife, Compound for all the rest, with longer life; And wish your vows, like hers, may be return'd, So lov'd when living, and when dead so mourn'd. EPITAPH ON SIR PALMES FAIRBONE'S TOMB IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Sacred to the immortal memory of Sir Palmes Fairbone, Knight, Governor of Tangier; in execution of which command, he was mortally wounded by a shot from the Moors, then besieging the town in the forty-sixth year of his age. October 24,1680. YE sacred relics, which your marble keep, From thence returning with deserv'd applause, Against the Moors his well flesh'd sword he draws; The same the courage, and the same the cause. Like rising flames expanding in their height; UNDER MR. MILTON'S PICTURE BEFORE HIS PARADISE LOST. THREE poets in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first, in loftiness of thought surpass'd; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of nature could no further go; ON THE MONUMENT OF A FAIR MAIDEN LADY, WHO DIED AT BATH, AND IS THERE IN TERRED.* BELOW this marble monument is laid The mould was made on purpose for the mind: So faultless was the frame, as if the whole seen. And heaven did this transparent veil provide, • This lady is interred in the Abbey-church. The epitaph is on a white marble stone fixed in the wall, together with this inscription: 'Here lies the body of Mary, third daughter of Richard Frampton, of Moreton in Dorsetshire, Esq; and of Jane his wife, sole daughter of Sir Francis Coffington, of Founthill in Wilts, who was born January 1, 1676, and died after seven weeks illness on the 6th of September, 1698. This monument was erected by Catharine Frampton, her second sister and executrix, in testimony of her grief, affection, and gratitude.' D. Confirm'd the cause for which he fought before, Rests here, rewarded by a heavenly prince; For what his earthly could not recompense. Pray, reader, that such times no more appear: Or, if they happen, learn true honour here. Ask of this age's faith and loyalty, [thee. Which, to preserve them, heaven confin'd in Few subjects could a king like thine deserve: And fewer, such a king so well could serve. Blest king, blest subject, whose exalted state By sufferings rose, and gave the law to fate. Such souls are rare, but mighty patterns given To earth, and meant for ornaments to heaven. SONGS, ODES, AND A MASQUE. THE FAIR STRANGER, A SONG.* HAPPY and free, securely blest, This song is a compliment to the Duchess of Portsmouth, on her first coming to England. D. ON THE YOUNG STATESMEN CLARENDON had law and sense, Clifford was fierce and brave; Bennet's grave look was a pretence, And Danby's matchless impudence Help'd to support the knave. But Sunderland,* Godolphin, Lory, Protect us, mighty Providence, What would these madmen have? First, they would bribe us without pence, Deceive us without common sense, And without power enslave. • But Sunderland] This nobleman had certainly great and various abilities, with a complete versatility of genius, and a most insinuating address; but he was totally void of all principles, moral or religious, and a much more abandoned character than Shaftesbury, whom it is so common to calumniate. He certainly urged James II. to pursue arbitrary and illegal measures, that he intended should be his ruin, and betrayed him to the Prince of Orange. The Abbé de Longuerue relates, that Dr. Massey, of Christ Church, assured him, he once received an order from King James to expel twentyfour students of that college in Oxford, if they did not embrace popery. Massey, astonished at the order, was advised by a friend to go to London, and show it to the king; who assured him he had never given him such an order, and commended Massey for not having obeyed it; yet still this infatuated monarch continued to trust Sunderland. Dr. J. W. Shall free born men, in humble awe, Submit to servile shame; Who from consent and custom draw The same right to be rul'd by law, Which kings pretend to reign? The duke shall wield his conquering sword, And then, come kiss my breech. (His rooks and knights withdrawn, His queen and bishops in distress) Shifting about, grow less and less, With here and there a pawn. A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY, 1687. I. FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony And could not heave her head, And Music's power obey. II. What passion cannot Music raise and quell? III. The trumpet's loud clangor Excites us to arms, And mortal alarms. The double double double beat Cries, hark! the foes come; Mason, that Dryden with propriety gives this epi • Sharp violins] It is a judicious remark of Mr. thet to the instrument; because, in the poet's time, they could not have arrived at that delicacy of tone, even in the hands of the best masters, which they now have in those of an inferior kind. See Essays on English Church Music, by the Rev. W. Mason, M.A. Precentor of York, 12mo. 1795, p. 218. T. + This song, written on the death of Captain Digby, has been given by Mr. Malone in his Life of Dryden, on account, he says,of its not having been preserved in Dryden's works, and being found entire only in a scarce Miscellany, viz. Covent Garden Drollery.' I must, however, observe, that the song is printed entire in New Court Songs and A CHOIR of bright beauties in spring did appear, The garland was given, and Phyllis was queen: While Pan and fair Syrinx are fled from our shore, The Graces are banish'd, and Love is no more: The soft god of pleasure, that warm'd our desires, Has broken his bow, and extinguish'd his fires: And vows that himself and his mother will mourn, Till Pan and fair Syrinx in triumph return. Poems, by R. V. Gent. 8vo. 672, p. 78. In this collection the second line runs thus: 'In vain I have lov'd you, and find no relief.' The sixth, A fate which in pity,' &c. The twelfth, 'My fate from your sight,' &c. An answer from Armida, as she is called, follows the Song in this collection; but it is not worth citing. The ridiculous parody on this Song in the Rehearsal is too well known to require copying here. But the following ludicrous stanza, which I have seen in MS. and which is a coeval parody on Dryden's Song to Armida, deserves to be cited: 'Or if the king please that I may, at his charge, Just under your window he brought in a barge; Nay 'twill be enough, as I died a brave fighter, If but to your window I come in a lighter; Or, rather than fail to shew my love fuller, I would be content to arrive in a sculler; But if me these favours my fate hath deny'd, I hope to come floating up with a spring tyde. Ar nida is said to have been the beautiful Frances Stuat, wife of Charles, Duke of Richmond. Captain Digby was killed at sea in the engagement between the English and Dutch fleet, off Southwold Bay, in 1672. T. Forbear your addresses, and court us no more, For we will perform what the deity swore : But if you dare think of deserving our charms, Away with your sheephooks, and take to your arms: Then laurels and myrtles your brows shall adorn, When Pan, and his son, and fair Syrinx return. SONG. FAIR, Sweet, and young, receive a prize SONG. HIGH state and honours to others impart, So gentle a love, so fervent a fire, Give me in possessing SONG. Go tell Amynta, gentle swain, I would not die, nor dare complain: Thy tuneful voice with numbers join, Thy words will more prevail than mine. To souls oppress'd, and dumb with grief, A sigh or tear, perhaps, she'll give, Tell her that hearts for hearts were made, SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY, GOING OUT OF THE TOWN IN THE SPRING. Ask not the cause why sullen Spring And winter storms invert the year: She cast not back a pitying eye; To sigh, to languish, and to die: A face that can all hearts command, And change the laws of every land? Where thou hadst plac'd such power before Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. When Chloris to the temple comes, Adoring crowds before her fall; I only am by love design'd His valiant peers were plac'd around; Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound: (So should desert in arms be crown'd.) The lovely Thais, by his side, Sate like a blooming Eastern bride In flower of youth and beauty's pride. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. CHORUS. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair, II Timotheus,* plac'd on high The song began from Jove When he to fair Olympia press'd: And while he sought her snowy breast: Then, round her slender waist he curl'd, And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. The listening crowd admire the lofty sound, A present deity, they shout around: A present deity, the vaulted roofs rebound: With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, And seems to shake the spheres. CHORUS. With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres. III. The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young; [sung Dr. Burney has given a learned, full, and en tertaining account of Timotheus, the musician, in his first volume of his History of Music, p. 405. Mr. Jackson, whose taste and feeling on the subject o music must be allowed to be just and exquisite, censures Dryden for extending the powers of music over the passions, and affirms that pleasure only can be excited. Dr. J. W. |