The works of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland. With prefaces, biographical and critical, by S. Johnson

XLV.

He without fear a dangerous war purfues,
Which without ranefs he began before:
As honour made him firft the danger chufe,
So till he makes it good on virtue's score.
XLVI.

The doubled charge his fubjects love fupplies,
Who in that bounty to themselves are kind :
So glad Egyptians fee their Nilus rife,

And in his plenty their abundance find.
XLVII.

With equal power he does two chiefs create,
Two fuch as each fec.m'd worthiest when alone;
Each able to fuftain a nation's fate,

Since both had found a greater in their own.

XLVIII.

Both great in courage, conduct, and in fame,
Yet neither envious of the other's praife;
Their duty, faith, and interest too the fame,
Like mighty partners equally they raife.
XLIX.

The prince long time had courted fortune's love,
But once poffefs'd did abfolutely reign:
Thus with their Amazons the heroes ftrove,

And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain.
L.

The duke beheld, like Scipio, with difdain,

That Carthage, which he ruin'd, rife once more;
And fhook aloft the fafces of the main,

To fright thofe flaves with what they felt before.
LI.

Together to the watery camp they hafte,
Whom matrons paffing to their children show:
Infants first vows for them to heaven are caft,
And future people blefs them as they go.
LII.

With them no riotous pomp or Afian train,
To infect a navy with their gaudy fears;
To make flow fights, and victories but vain:
But war, feverely like itself appears.

LIII.

Diffufive of themfelves, where'er they pass,
They make that warmth in others they expect:
Their valour works like bodies on a glass,

And does its image on their men project.

LIV.

Our fleet divides, and ftraight the Dutch appear,
In number, and a fam'd commander, bold:
The narrow feas can fcarce their navy bear,

Or crowded veffels can their foldiers hold.

LV.

The Duke, lefs numerous, but in courage more,
On wings of all the winds to combat flies:

His murdering guns a loud defiance roar,
And bloody croffes on his flag-ftaffs rife.
LVI.

Both furl their fails, and ftrip them for the fight;
Their folded sheets difinifs the useless air:
The Elean plains could boaft no nobler fight,
When fruggling champions did their bodies bare.
'LVII.

Borne each by other in a diftant line,

The fea-built forts in dreadful order move: So vaft the noife, as if rot fleets did join,

But lands unfix'd, and floating nations ftrove.

LVIII.

Now pafs'd, on either fide they nimbly tack;
Both ftrive to intercept and guide the wind:
And, in its eye, mere clofely they come back,
To finish all the deaths they left behind.
LIX.

On high-rais'd decks the haughty Belgians ride,
Beneath whofe flade our humble frigates go:
Such port the elephant bears and so defy'd
By the rhinoceros her unequal foe.

LX.

And as the built, fa different is the fight;
Their mounting fhot is on our fails defign'd:
Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light,
And through the yielding planks a paflage find

LXI.

Our dreaded admiral from far they threat,

Whofe batter'd rigging their whole war receives:
All bare, like fome old oak which tempefts beat,
He ftands and fees below his fcatter'd leaves.
LXII.
Heroes of old, when wounded, fhelter fought;
But he who meets all danger with disdain,
Ev'n in their face his fhip to anchor brought,
And steeple-high flood propt upon the main.
LXIII.

At this excefs of courage, all amaz'd,

The foremost of his foes a while withdraw: With fuch refpe&t in enter'd Rome they gaz'd, Who on high-chairs the god-like fathers faw. LXIV.

And now as where Patroclus' body lay,

Here Trojan chiefs advanc'd, and there the Greek;
Ours o'er the Duke their pious wings display,
And theirs the nobleft fpoils of Britain feek.
LXV.

Mean-time his bufy mariners he haftes,

His fhatter'd fails with rigging to restore;
And willing pines afcend his broken masts,
Whofe lofty heads rife higher than before.
LXVI.
Straight to the Dutch he turns his dreadful prow,
More fierce th' important quarrel to decide:
Like fwans, in long array his veffels thow,
Whofe crefts advancing do the waves divide.
LXVII.

They charge, recharge, and all along the sea
They drive, and fquander the huge Belgian fleet.
Berkely alone, who nearest danger lay

Did a like fate with loft Creufa meet.
LXVIII.

The night comes on, we cager to pursue

The combat ftill, and they afham`d to leave ::
Till the laft ftreaks of dying day withdrew,
And doubtful moon-light did our rage deceive.
LXIX. A

In th' English fleet each fhip refounds with joy,
And loud applause of their great leader's fame :
In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy, I
And flumbering smile at the imagin'd flame.
LXX

Not fo the Holland fleet, who, tir'd and done,
Stretch'd on their decks like weary oxen lie
Faint fweats all down their mighty members run;
Vaft bulks which little fouls but ill fupply.

LXXI.

In dreams they fearful precipices tread:

Or, fhipwreck'd, labour to some distant shore :
Or in dark churches walk among the dead:
They wake with horror and dare fleep no more.
LXXII.

The morn they look on with unwilling eyes,
Till from their main-top joyful news they hear
Of thips, which by their mould bring new fupplies,
And in their colours Belgian Lions bear.

LXXIII.

Our watchful general had difcern'd from far

This mighty fuccour, which made glad the foe: He figh'd, but like a father of the war,

His face fpake hope, while deep his forrows flow.
LXXIV.

His wounded men he first fends off to fhore,
Never till now unwilling to obey;
They, not their wounds, but want of strength, deplore,
And think them happy who with him can stay.
LXXV.

Then to the reít, Rejoice, faid he, to-day;
In you the fortune of Great-Britain lies:

Among fo brave a people, you are they

Whom heaven has chofe to fight for fuch a prize.

LXXVI.

If number English courages could quell,

LXXXIII.

Silent in fmoke of cannon they come on:
Such vapours once did fiery Cacus hide:
In the fe the height of pleas'd revenge is thewn,
Who burn contented by another's fide..

LXXXIV.

Sometimes from fighting fquadrons of each fleet,
Deceiv'd themfelves, or to preferve fome friend,
Two grapling Etnas on the ocean meet,

And English fires with Belgian flames contend.
LXXXV.

Now at each tack our little fleet grows lefs;

And, like maim'd fowl, fwim lagging on the main: Their greater lofs their numbers scarce confefs, While they lofe cheaper than the English gain.

LXXXVI.

Have you not feen when whistled from the fist,
Some falcon ftoops at what her eye defign'd,
And with her eagerness the quarry m.fs'd,
Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind?
LXXXVII.

The daftard crow that to the wood made wing,
And fees the groves no shelter can afford,
With her loud caws her craven kind does bring,
Who fafe in numbers cuff the noble bird.
LXXXVIII.

We should at first have fhunn'd, not met our foes: Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare:

Whofe numerous fails the fearful only tell :

Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.

LXXVIL

He faid, nor needed more to say: with hafte
To their known ftations chearfully they go;
And all at once difdaining to be last,
Solicit every gale to meet the foe.

LXXVIII.

Nor did th' encourag'd Belgians long delay,
But bold in others, not themselves, they flood:
So thick, our ravy carce could steer their way,
But feem'd to wander in a moving wood.

LXXIX.

Our little fleet was now engag'd fo fær,

That like the fword-fifth in the whale they fought: The combat only feem'd a civil war,

Till through their bowels we our paffage wrought. LXXX.

Never had valour, no not ours, before

Done aught like this upon the land or main, Where not to be o'ercome was to do more Than all the conquests former Kings did gain. LXXXI.

The mighty ghofts of our great Harries rose,

And armed Edwards look'd with anxious eyes, To fee this fleet among unequal foes,

By which fate promis'd them their Charles fhould rife.

LXXXII.

Mean-time the Belgians tack upon our rear,
And raking chase-guns through our fterns they
fend:

Chofe by their fire-fhips, like jackals, appear,
Who on their lions for the prey attend.

He could not conquer, and difdain'd to fly,
Paft hope of fafety, 'twas his latest care,
Like falling Cæfar, decently to die."
LXXXIX.

Yet pity did his manly fpirit move,

To fee thofe perifh who fo well had fought: And generously with his defpair he ftrove, Refolv'd to live till he their fafety wrought.

XC.

Let other Mufes write his profperous fate,
Of conquer'd nations tell, and kings reftor'd:
But mine fhall fing of his eclips'd estate,
Which, like the fun's, more wonders does afford.
XCI.

He drew his mighty frigates all before,
On which the foe his fruitlefs force employs:
¡is weak ones deep into his rear he bore
Remote from guns, as fick men from the rolfe.
XCII.

His fiery cannon did their paffage guide,

And following smoke obfcur'd them from the foe: Thus Ifrael fafe from the Egyptian's pride, By flaming pillars and by clouds did go.

XCIII.

Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat,
But here our courages did theirs fubdue:
So Xenophon once led that fam'd retreat,
Which first the Afian empire overthrew.
XCIV.

The foe approach'd; and one for his bold fin

Was funk; as he that touch'd the ark was flain: The wild waves mafter'd him and fuck'd him in, And smiling eddies dimpled on the main.

XCV,
This feen, the reft at awful distance stood:
As if they had been there as fervants fet
To stay, or to go on, as he thought good,
And not pursue but wait on his retreat.
XCVI.

So Libyan huntfmen, on fome fandy plain,

From fhady coverts rouz'd, the lion chace:
The kingly beast roars out with loud difdain,

And flowly moves unknowing to give place.
XCVII.

But if fome one approach to dare his force,

He fwings his tail, and swiftly turns him round; With one paw feizes on his trembling horfe,

And with the other tears him to the ground.
XCVIII.

Amidst thefe toils fucceeds the balmy night;
Now hiffing waters the quench'd guns restore;
And weary waves withdrawing from the fight,
Lie lull'd and panting on the filent shore.
XCIX. .

The moon fhone clear on the becalmed flood,
Where, while her beams like glittering filver play,
Upon the deck our careful general flood,

And deeply mus'd on the fucceeding day.

That happy fun, faid he, will rife again,

Who twice victorious did our navy fee: And I alone muft view him rife in vain, Without one ray of all his ftar for me. CI.

Yet like an English general will I die,

And all the ocean make my fpacious grave:
Women and cowards on the land may lie :

The fea's a tomb that's proper for the brave.
CII.

Reftlefs he pafs'd the remnant of the night,
Till the fresh air proclaim'd the morning nigh:
And burning fhips, the martyrs of the fight,

With paler fires beheld the eastern sky.

CIII.

But now his stores of ammunition spent,
His naked valour is his only guard:
Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon fent,
And folitary guns are fcarcely heard.

CIV.

Thus far had fortune power, he forc'd to stay,
Nor longer durft with virtue be at ftrife:

This as a ranfom Albemarle did pay,

For all the glories of fo great a life.
CV.

For now brave Rupert from afar appears,

Whose waving streamers the glad general knows: With full-fpread fails his eager navy steers, And every fhip in swift proportion grows. CVI.

The anxious prince had heard the cannon long,
And from that length of time dire omens drew
Of English overmatch'd, and Dutch too strong,
Who never fought three days but to pursue.
CVII.

Then, as an eagle, who with pious care
Was beating widely on the wing for prey,
To her now filent eiry does repair,

And finds her callow infants fore'd away:

CVIII.

Stung with her love, the ftoops upon the plain,
The broken air loud whistling as the flies:
She ftops and liftens, and shoots forth again,

And guides her pinions by her young ones cries.
CIX.

With fuch kind paffion haftes the prince to fight,
And spreads his flying canvafs to the found:
Him whom no danger were he there could fright,
Now abfent every little roife can wound.
CX.

As in a drought the thirty creatures cry,
And gape upon the gather'd clouds for rain;"
And first the martlet meets it in the sky,

And with wet wings joys all the feather'd train.
CXI.

With fuch glad hearts did our despairing men
Salute th' appearance of the prince's fleet;
And each ambitioufly would claim the ken,

That with firft eyes did diftant fafety meet.

CXII.

The Dutch, who came like greedy hinds before,
To reap the harveft their ripe ears did yield,
Now look like thofe, when rolling thunders roar,
And sheets of lightning blaft the standing field.
CXIII.

Full in the prince's paffage, hills of fand,
And dangerous flats in fecret ambush lay,
Where the falfe tides skim o'er the cover'd land,
And feamen with diffembled depths betray.
CXIV.

The wily Dutch, who like fall'n angels fear'd
This new Meffiah's coming, there did wait,
And round the verge their braving veffels steer'd,
To tempt his courage with fo fair a bait.
CXV.

But he unmov'd contemns their idle threat,
Secure of fame whene'er he please to fight:
His cold experience tempers all his heat,
And inbred worth doth hoafting valour flight.
CXVI.

Heroic virtue did his actions guide,

And he the fubftance not th' appearance chose: To refcue one fuch friend he took more pride, Than to destroy whole thousands of fuch foes.

CXVII.

But when approach'd, in ftri&t embraces bound,
Rupert and Albemarle together grow:

He joys to have his friend in fafety found,
Which he to none but to that friend would owe.
CXVIII.

The chearful foldiers, with new stores fupply'd,
Now long to execute their spleenful will;
And, in revenge for those three days they try'd,
With one, like Joshua's, when the fun stood still.
CXIX.

Thus reinforc'd, against the adverse fleet,

Still doubling ours, brave Rupert leads the way: With the first blushes of the morn they meet, And bring night back upon the new-born day. CXX.

His prefence foon blows up the kindling fight,

And his loud guns fpeak thick like angry men : It feem'd as flaughter had been breath'd all night, And death new pointed his dull dart again.

CXXI.

The Dutch too well his mighty conduct knew, And matchlefs courage, fince the former fight: Whofe navy like a stiff-stretch'd cord did fhew, Till he bore in and bent them into flight. CXXII.

The wind he shares, while half their fleet offends His open fide, and high above him thows : Upon the reft at pleasure he defcends,

And doubly harm'd he double harms bestows.

CXXIII.

Behind the general mends his weary pace,

And fullenly to his revenge he fails:
So glides fome trodden ferpent on the grafs,
And long behind his wounded volume trails.
CXXIV.

Th' increafing found is horne to either shore,
And for their stakes the throwing nations fear :
Their paffions double with the cannons roar,

And with warm wishes each man combats there.

CXXV.

Ply'd thick and close as when the fight begun,
Their huge unwieldy navy waftes away:
So ficken waneing moons too near the fun,
And blunt their crefcents on the edge of day.
CXXVI.

And now reduc'd on equal terms to fight,

Their fhips like wafted patrimonies show;
Where the thin fcattering trees admit the light,
And fhun each others fhadows as they grow.
CXXVII.

The warlike prince had fever'd from the rest
Two giant fhips, the pride of all the main;
Which with his one fo vigorously he prefs'd,
And flew fo home they could not rife again.
CXXVIII.

Already batter'd, by his lee they lay,

In vain upon the paffing winds they call: The paffing winds through their torn canvass play, And flagging fails on heartlefs failors fall.

CXXIX.

Their open'd fides receive a gloomy light, Dreadful as day let into fhades below: Without grim death rides barefac'd in their fight, And urges entering billows as they flow. CXXX.

When one dire fhot, the laft they could supply, Close by the board the prince's main-mast bore: All three now helpless by each other lie,

And this offends not, and thofe fear no more.

CXXXI.

So have I feen fome fearful hare maintain

A courfe, till tir'd be ore the dog fhe lay: Who ftretch'd behind her pants upon the plain, Paft power to kill, as the to get away. CXXXII.

With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey:
His warm breath blows her flix up as the lies;
She trembling creeps upon the ground away,

And looks back to him with befeeching eyes.
VOL. III.

CXXXIII.

The prince unjustly does his ftars accufe,
Which hinder'd him to puth his fortune on;
For what they to his courage did refufe,
By mortal valour never must be done.

CXXXIV.

This lucky hour the wife Batavian takes,

A d warns his tatter'd fleet to follow home: Proud to have fo got off with equal stakes, Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome. CXXXV.

The general's force as kept alive by fight,
Now not oppos'd ro longer can pursue:
Lafting till heaven had done his courage right;
When he had conquer'd he his weakness knew.
CXXXVI.

He cafts a frown on the departing foe,
And fighs to fee him quit the watery field:
His ftern fix'd eyes no fatisfaction show,
For all the glories which the fight did yield.
CXXX VII.

Though as when fiends did miracles avow,

He stands confefs'd ev'n by the boastful Dutch: He only docs his conqueft difavow,

And thinks too little what they found too much.
CXXXVIII.

Return'd, he with the fleet refolv'd to stay ;
No tender thoughts of home his heart divide;
Domestic joys and cares he puts away;

For realms are houtholds which the great must guide.

CXXXIX.

As thofe who unripe veins in nines explore,
On the rich bed a ain the warm turf lay,
Till time digefts the yet imperfect ore,

And know it will be gold another day:
CXL.

So looks our monarch on this early fight,
Th' effay and rudiments of great success:
Which all maturing time must bring to light,
While he like heaven does each day's labour bless.
CXLI.

Heaven ended not the firft or second day,

Yet each was perfect to the work defign'd: Cod and kings work, when they their work survey, A paffive aptnefs in all fubjects find.

CXLII.

In burden'd veffels first with speedy care,

His plenteous ftores do feafon'd timber fend: Thither the brawny carpenters repair,

And as the furgeons of maim'd fhips attend.

CXLIII.

With cord and canvas from rich Hamburgh sent,
His navy's molted wings he imps once more:
Tall Norway fir, their mafts in battle spent,
And English oak, fprung leaks and planks, restore.
CXLIV.

All hands employ'd, the royal work grows warm:
Like labouring bees on a long fummer's day,
Some found the trumpet for the rest to swarm,
And fome on bells of tafted lilies play.

CXLV.

With glewy wax fome new foundations lay
Of virgin-combs which from the roof are hung:
Sone arm'd within doors upon duty stay,

Or tend the fick, or educate the young.
CXLVI.

So here fome pick out bullets from the fides,

Some drive old okum through each feam and rift:
Their left hand does the calking iron guide,
The rattling mallet with the right they lift.
CXLVII.

With boiling pitch another near at hand,

From friendly Sweden brought, the feams inftops:
Which, well paid o'er, the falt fea waves withstand
And shakes them from the rifing beak in drops.
CXLVIII.

Some the gall'd ropes with dawby marline bind,
Or fear-cloth mafts with ftrong tarpawling coats;|
To try new throuds one mounts into the wind,
And one below their eafe or ftiftnefs notes.

CXLIX.

Our careful monarch ftands in perfon by,

His new-caft canons firmness to explore: The ftrength of big-corn'd powder loves to try, And ball and cartridge forts for every bore.

CL.

Each day brings fresh fupplies of arms and men,
And thips which all laft winter were abroid;
And fuch as fitted fince the fight had been,
Or new from ftocks, were fall'n into the road.
CLI.

The goodly London in her gallant trim,

The Phoenix, daughter of the vanill'd old,
Like a rich bride does to the ocean fwin,

And on her shadow rides in floating gold.
CLII.

Her flag aloft fpread ruffling to the wind,

And fanguine streamers feem the flood to fire: The weaver, charm'd with what his loom defign'd, Goes on to fea, and knows not to retire,

CLVII.

In fhipping fuch as this, the Irish kern,

And urtaught Indian on the ftream did glide:
Ere fharp-keel'd boats to ftem the flood did learn,
Or fin-like oars did spread from either fide.
CLVIII.

Add but a fail, and Saturn so appear'd,
When from loft campire he to exile went,
And with the golden age to Tyber steer'd,
Where con and commerce first he did invent.
CLIX.

Rude as their fhips was navigation then;
Coating, they kept the land within their ken,
No uffel compafs or meridian kno vn ;

And knew no North but when the Pole-ftar fhone.
CLX.

Of all who fince have us'd the open fea,

Than the bold English none more fame have won: Beyond the year, and out of heaven's high way, They make difcoveries where they fee no fun.

CLXV.

This I foretel from your aufpicious care,

Who great in search of God and nature grow; Who beft your wife Creator's praise declare, Since beft to praise his works is beft to know. CLXVI.

O truly royal! who behold the law

And rule of beings in your maker's mind:
And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw,
To fit the levell'd ufe of human-kind.
CLXVII.

But firft the toils of war we must endure,
And from th' injurious Dutch redeem the feas.
War makes the valiant of his right fecure,
And gives up fraud to be chaftis'd with ease.

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The works of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland. With prefaces ..., Volym 3