How he embellishes his Helen's loves,
Outdoes his foftness, and his fenfe improves ?
When these translate, and teach translators too,
Nor firstling kid, nor any vulgar vow,
Should at Apollo's grateful altar ftand:
Rofcommon writes: to that aufpicious hand,
Mufe, feed the bull that spurns the yellow
Rofcommon, whom both court and camps com
True to his prince, and faithful to his friend;
Rofcommon, first in fields of honour known,70)
Firft in the peaceful triumphs of the gown;
Who both Minervas juftly makes his own.
Now let the few belov'd by Jove, and they
Whom infus'd Titan form'd of better clay,
On equal terms with ancient wit engage,
Nor mighty Homer fear, nor facred Virgil's
Our English palace opens wide in state;
And without ftooping they may pass the gate.
Ver. 67. Mufe, feed the bull]
Jam cornu petat, et pedibus qui fpargat arenam.
Ver. 74. Whom infus'd Titan]
E meliore lutu finxit præcordia Titan.
RETURN FROM SCOTLAND IN THE YEAR 1682,
WHEN factious rage to cruel exile drove
The queen of beauty, and the court of love,
The Mufes droop'd, with their forfaken arts,
And the fad Cupids broke their useless darts :
Our fruitful plains to wilds and defarts turn'd, 5
Like Eden's face, when banish'd man it
mourn'd.
Love was no more, when loyalty was gone,
The great fupporter of his awful throne,
On the twenty-firft of November 1673, the duke of York was married to the princefs Mary d'Efte, then about fifteen years of age, and extremely handfome. The ceremony was performed at Dover by the bishop of Oxford. It was against the rules of policy for him at that time to wed a Roman Catho¬ lic; and the Parliament addreffed against it.
Love could no longer after beauty stay,
But wander'd northward to the verge of day,
As if the fun and he had loft their way.
But now the illuftrious nymph, return'd again,
Brings every grace triumphant in her train.
The wond'ring Nereids, though they rais'd no
Foreflow'd her paffage, to behold her form: 15 Some cry'd, A Venus; fome, A Thetis past ; But this was not fo fair, nor that fo chafte. Far from her fight flew Faction, Strife, and Pride;
And Envy did but look on her, and dy'd.
Whate'er we fuffer'd from our fullen fate,
Her fight is purchas'd at an easy rate,
Three gloomy years against this day were set ;
But this one mighty fum has clear'd the debt:
Like Jofeph's dream, but with a better doom,
The famine paft, the plenty still to come.
For her the weeping heavens become ferene;
For her the ground is clad in cheerful
green:
For her the nightingales are taught to fing,
And Nature has for her delay'd the spring.
The Muse resumes her long-forgotten lays, 30
And Love reftor'd his ancient realm furveys,
Recals our beauties, and revives our plays;
His wafte dominions peoples once again,
And from her prefence dates his fecond reign:
But awful charms on her fair forehead fit,
Difpenfing what she never will admit:
Pleafing, yet cold, like Cynthia's filver beam,
The people's wonder, and the poet's theme.
Diftemper'd Zeal, Sedition, canker'd Hate,
No more fhall vex the church, and tear the
No more fhall Faction civil difcords move,
Or only difcords of too tender love:
Difcord, like that of mufic's various parts;
Difcord, that makes the harmony of hearts;
Difcord, that only this difpute fhall bring, 45
Who beft fhall love the duke, and ferve the
king.
To who live in chill degree,
As map informs, of fifty-three,
And do not much for cold atone,
By bringing thither fifty-one,
Methinks all climes fhould be alike,
From tropic e'en to pole artique;
Since
you have fuch a conftitution
As no where fuffers diminution.
Ver. 1. To you who live] Sir George Etheredge gained great reputation by his three comedies, The Comical Revenge, 1664, She Would if She Could, 1668, The Man of Mode, 1676. The laft has been deemed one of our most elegant comedies, and contains a moft juft and lively picture of the manners of perfons in high life in the age of Charles II. Having dedicated this comedy to the Dutchess of York, the procured his being fent ambaffador to Ratifbon, where he refided when Dryden addrest this epiftle to him, and where, in a fit of intoxication, to which he was too much habituated, he tumbled down ftairs and broke his neck. He had a daughter by Mrs. Barry, to whom he left fix Dr. J. WARTON. thousand pounds.
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