Must close the gates of Janus, and remove

Deftructive difcord. Now no more the drum

Provokes to arms, or trumpet's clangor fhrill 625 Affrights the wives, or chills the virgin's blood;

Edward IV., was therefore supposed to unite the Rofes, and accordingly healed the long breach between the two contending families. 623. Muft close the gates of Fanus-] -vacuum duellis

JANUM Quirini CLAUSIT

Horat. L. iv. Ode. 15.

The origin of the custom, referred to by all the Roman Poets, of opening the gates of Janus's temple in time of war, and shutting them again in time of peace, is accounted for by Macrobius from the circumftance of a miraculous flood that iffued from the temple of this Deity in a war between the Romans and Sabines, and overwhelmed the forces of the latter just as they were breaking into the city.-In times of war, therefore, the Gates of Janus were thrown open by the Romans, in hopes of their again benefiting by his affistance.

"Cum bello Sabino, quod virginum raptarum gratia commiffum eft, Romani portam quæ fub radicibus collis Viminalis erat, quæ poftea ex eventu Janualis vocata eft, claudere feftinarent, quia in ipfam hoftes ruebant: poftquam eft claufa, mox fponte patefacta eft; cumque iterum ac tertio idem contigiffet, armati plurimi pro limine, quia claudere nequibant, cuftodes fteterunt, cumque ex alia parte acerrimo prælio pugnaretur, fubito fama pertulit fufos a Tatio noftros: quam ob caufam Romani, qui aditum tuebantur, territi profugerunt. Cumque Sabini per portam patemtem irrupturi effent, fertur ex æde Jani per hanc portam magnam vim torrentium undis fcatentibus erupiffe; multafque perduellium catervas, devoratas rapida voragine, deperiiffe. Eâ re placitum, ut belli tempore, velut ad urbis auxilium profecto Deo, fores referarentur." SATURNAL. L. i. C. 9.

.9.

Virg. ÆN, ii. 313.

626. Affrights the wives, or chills the virgin's blood,] This line feems to have been suggested from Horace, L. iii. Ode z.

illum ex manibus hofticis

MATRONA bellantis Tyranni

Profpiciens, et ADULTA VIRGO

Sufpiret, eheu, ne rudis agminum
Sponfus laceffat regius afperum
Tactu leonem, quem cruenta
Per medias rapit ira cædes.

But

629. Thou to thine own uniteft Fergus' line By wife alliance-]

mes IV. of Scotland, Grandfather of James I. of England, marMargaret Daughter of Henry VII.

he early ages of Scottish hiftory are so dark and fabulous, that Dr. ertfon terms the firft period of it " the region of fable and conjec"But Hector Boethius, and Buchanan give a circumftantial account e establishment of that monarchy, 330 years before Chrift, under us, the fon of Ferquard; King of Ireland; from whom they trace regular descent the fucceffion of the Kings of Scotland.

630.

From thee James defcends,

Heaven's chofen favorite, first Britannic King—] mes VI. of Scotland fucceeded to the Crown of England on the of Queen Elizabeth, as heir of Henry VII., who was great-grandr to both his parents; for Margaret, Henry's eldest daughter, marirft James IV. of Scotland, by whom she had James V. father of Mary n of Scots; and, fecondly, the Earl of Angus, by whom she had a hter, Margaret, married to the Earl of Lenox, and by him mother enry Stewart Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary, and father of s I. in whom the Crowns of England and Scotland were united. is perfon alfo centered the fufpended rights of the Saxon Kings.garet, daughter of Edward the Outlaw, grand-daughter of Edmund ide, and fifter of Edgar Atheling, was the perfon in whom the hery right of the Saxon Kings refided after the Conqueft. She marMalcolm, King of Scotland, and from her defcended by that marthe Royal Family of Scotland, of which James was the direct lieir. He therefore united in his own perfon every poffible claim, by itary right, to the Crown; being the heir not only of Henry VII., hrough him both of the Old British Blood, and of the Norman Line, lfo of Edmund Ironfide, and the Saxon Line of Kings,

To

To him alone hereditary right

635

Gave power fupreme: yet ftill fome feeds remain'd
Of discontent; two nations under one,
In laws and interest diverse, still pursu'd
Peculiar ends, on each fide refolute
To fly conjunction. Neither fear, nor hope,
Nor the sweet profpect of a mutual gain,

Could aught avail, till prudent Anna faid,

[due

"LET THERE BE UNION !" Straight with rev'rence

To her command, they willingly unite,

641

One in affection, laws and government,

639

till prudent Anna faid,

"LET THERE BE UNION.".

Our Author finished his Poem just when the Act of Union was paffing. This then was a circumftance not to be paffed over by a Poet concluding his English Georgic with a panegyric on our national happinefs and profperity.

The manner in which Philips has here introduced his celebration of the Union, by that of the Rofes in the person of Henry VII., and of the Crowns in James I., moft probably fuggefted the infcriptions on fome Medals that were ftruck in the year 1708, after the projected invafion of Scotland by the Pretender. The Infcription upon one is fubjoined.

HENRICUS
ROSAS.

JACOBUS NOMINA.

ANNA REGNA.

UNIVIT 1707.
CONFIRMAVITQUE

FACTA IRRITA

LUD. 14. GALL. REG.

CONSPIRATIONE

PER PR. SUPP.

JACOB. DE WALLIS

1708.

Another begins in the fame manner; Quod Deus et Reges legitimi, Henricus Rofis, Jacobus Nominibus, Anna Regnis conjunxerunt.&c.

Indiffolubly

which are the Orcades, or Orkney Isles, is the greateft length rifland; being 620 miles.

545. And now, thus leagu'd by an eternal bond]

pacem hanc ÆTERNO FOEDERE jungas

Virg. ÆN. xi. 356.

we, who produced his Royal Convert in 1708, has clofed his Play

a prediction of the Union.

Of royal race a British queen fhall rife

Great, gracious, pious, fortunate and wife;
To diftant lands fhe fhall extend her fame,
And leave to latter times a mighty name,
Tyrants fhall fall, and faithlefs kings fhall bleed,
And groaning nations by her arms be freed.
But chief this happy land her care fhall prove,
And find from her a more than mother's love.
From hoftile rage fhe fhall preferve it free,
Safe in the compass of her ambient sea ;
Though fam'd her arms in many a cruel fight,
Yet moft in peaceful arts fhe shall delight,
And her chief glory shall be to unite.

Picts, Saxons, Angles fhall no more be known,
But Briton be the noble name alone.

With joy their ancient hate they shall forego,
While difcord hides her baleful head below:
Mercy, and truth, and right she shall maintain,
And every virtue croud to grace her reign:
Aufpicious heaven on all her days fhall smile,
And with eternal union blefs her British Ifle.

Sufficient to withstand the pow'rs combin'd
Of all this globe? At this important act
The Mauritanian and Cathaian Kings
Already tremble, and th' unbaptiz'd Turk
Dreads war from utmost Thule. Uncontrol'd

The British navy through the ocean vast

650

A fimilar fentiment occurs in the concluding fpeech of Shakespear's King John.

Now these her Princes are come home again,'

Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them.

650. The Mauritanian and Cathaian kings
Already tremble-]

This is Virgil's,

Hujus in adventum JAM NUNC et Cafpia regna
Refponfis HORRENT Divum, et Mæotica tellus.

At his forefeen approach already quake
The Cafpian kingdoms and Maotian lake.

EN. vi. 798.

DRYDEN.

Milton, in the eleventh Book of his Paradife Loft, where the Angel fhows Adam all the kingdoms of the world that were to be, opens the prospect with

651.

the deftin'd walls

Of Cambalu, feat of CATHAIAN Can

-th' unbaptiz'd Turk]

This Epithet was poffibly fuggefted from the following paffage of the PARADISE LOST, B. i. V. 582.

And all who fince, BAPTIZ'D, OR INFIDEL,
Joufted in Afpramont or Montalban

Virg. GEORGIC. i. 30.

The Romans confidered the Ifland of Thule, by which it is not agreed whether they meant Shetland or Iceland, as the utmoft part of the earth towards the North.

Shall