SONG

FOR

ST. CECILIA'S DAY, 1687.

I.

FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony

This univerfal frame began :
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,

And cou'd not heave her head,

The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arife, ye more than dead.

Then cold, and hot, and moift, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,

And Mufic's power obey..

From harmony, from heavenly harmony
This univerfal frame began:

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapafon closing full in Man.

5

10

15

Ver. 1. From harmony,] The picture of Jubal in the fecond ftanza is finely imagined; but this Ode is loft in the luftre of the fubfequent one upon this fubject. Dr. J. WARTON.

II.

What paffion cannot Music raise and quell?
When Jubal ftruck the corded fhell,
His listening brethren ftood around,
And, wondering, on their faces fell
To worship that celeftial found.

20

Lefs than a God they thought there could not dwell

Within the hollow of that fhell,

That spoke so sweetly and fo well.

What paffion cannot Music raise and quell?

And mortal alarms.

The double double double beat

Of the thundering drum

Cries, hark! the foes come;

Charge, Charge, 'tis too late to retreat.

IV.

The foft complaining flute

In dying notes discovers

The woes of hopeless lovers,

Whofe dirge is whisper'd by the warbling lute.

V.

Sharp violins proclaim

Their jealous pangs, and defperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,

Depth of pains, and height of paffion,

For the fair, difdainful, dame.

VI.

But oh! what art can teach,

What human voice can reach,

The facred organ's praise?

Notes infpiring holy love,

Notes that wing their heavenly ways

To mend the choirs above.

VII.

Orpheus could lead the favage race;
And trees uprooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre:

But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder higher:
When to her organ vocal breath was given,
An angel heard, and straight appear'd
Miftaking earth for heaven.

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45

50

Ver. 37. Sharp violins] It is a judicious remark of Mr. Mafon, that Dryden with propriety gives this epithet to the inftrument; becaufe, 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 thofe of an inferior kind. See Effays on English Church Mufick, by the Rev. W. Mason, M. A. Precentor of York, 12mo. 1795, p. 218.

TODD.

GRAND CHORUS.

As from the power of facred lays
The fpheres began to move,
And fung the great Creator's praise
To all the bless'd above;
So when the laft and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead fhall live, the living die,
And Mufic fhall untune the sky.

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60

SONG.

FAREWELL, FAIR ARMIDA*.

FAREWELL, fair Armida, my joy and

grief,

my

In vain I have lov'd you, and hope no relief;

This fong, written on the death of Captain Digby, has been given by Mr. Malone in his Life of Dryden, on account, he fays, of its not having been preferv'd in Dryden's works, and being found entire only in a Scarce Mifcellany, viz. Covent Garden Drollery." I muft, however, obferve, that the Song is printed entire in New Court-Songs and Poems, by R. V. Gent. 8vo. 1672, p. 78. In this collection the fecond line runs thus :—

"In vain I have lov'd you, and find no relief,”

The fixth,

"A fate which in pity, &c."

The twelfth,

"My fate from your fight, &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 feen in MS. and which is a coeval parody on Dryden's Song to Armida, deferves to be cited :—

"Or if the king pleafe that I may, at his charge,
"Juft under your window be 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 faile to fhew my love fuller,
"I would be content to arrive in a sculler ;
"But if me thefe favours my fate hath deny'd,
"I hope to come floating up with a spring tyde.