Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign. Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain; 370 The trumpet sleep, while cheerful horns are blown, And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone. 375 Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide. And Temples rise1, the beauteous works of Peace. 380 There Kings shall sue, and suppliant States be seen Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods, 385 And half thy forests rush into thy floods, Bear Britain's thunder, and her Cross display, To the bright regions of the rising day; Tempt icy seas, where scarce the waters roll, Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole: 390 Led by new stars, and borne by spicy gales ! For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow, The pearly shell its lucid globe infold, 395 And Phoebus warm the ripening ore to gold. The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tide, 400 And the new world launch forth to seek the old. 405 O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore, Till Conquest cease, and Slav'ry be no more; Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves, 410 Peru once more a race of kings behold, In brazen bonds shall barbarous Discord dwell; 1 And temples rise,] The fifty new churches. P. 2 [Designs for a new palace of Whitehall had been commenced by Inigo Jones.] 3 Unbounded Thames, etc.] A wish that London may be made a free port. P. Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care, 415 420 425 430 IMITATIONS. Ver. 6. 'neget quis carmina Gallo?' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 65. The fields were ravish'd from th' industrious swains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:] Translated from, 'Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,' an old monkish writer, I forget who. P. Ver. 89. 'Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 134. 'Præcipites alta vitam sub nube relinquunt.' Virg. Warburton. 'Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam Ver. 151. Th' impatient courser, etc.] Trans- Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.' lated from Statius, 'Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille Ante fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.' These lines Mr Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original; which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr P. tried his strength with them. Warburton. Most of the circumstances in this tale are taken from Ovid. Warton. Ver. 249, 50. 'Servare modum finemque tenere. Ver. 421. Virg. Warburton. 'Quo, Musa, tendis? desine pervicax Magna modis tenuare parvis.' Hor. Warburton. ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY, MDCCVIII. AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC. ODE FOR MUSIC ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY. [This famous Ode, written by Pope in the year 1708 at Steele's desire, in praise of an art of the principles of which he was ignorant, while to its effects he was insensible,' has been naturally compared by successive generations of critics to Dryden's masterpiece on the same subject. A superiority which few will be disposed to deny has been generally claimed for Alexander's Feast; but it may be questioned whether in this class of poetry either the choice of historical instead of mythological illustrations, or the unity of the action represented, is to be regarded as an absolute merit. A more tenable objection to Pope's Ode is the circumstance that in his endeavour to vary expressively the versification, he has in Stanza IV. and in the second part of Stanza V. permitted himself the use of metres which mar the dignity of the poem. This Ode was set to music as an exercise for his degree of doct. mus. by Maurice Greene, and performed at the Public Commencement at Cambridge, on July 6th, 1730. The text of the Ode as sung on this occasion contains in the first four stanzas many variations introduced by Pope; and the following stanza is inserted as the third of the Ode: How martial music ev'ry bosom warms! So when the first bold vessel dar'd the seas, High on the stern the Thracian rais'd his strain, While Argo saw her kindred trees Descend from Pelion to the main. Transported demi-gods stood round1, And men grew heroes at the sound, Enflam'd with glory's charms: Each chief his sev'nfold shield display'd, And half unsheath'd the shining blade: And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound, To arms, to arms, to arms! IV. 44 But when thro' all th' infernal bounds, 1 Few images in any poet, ancient or modern, are more striking than that in Apollonius, where he says, that when the Argo was sailing near the coast where the Centaur Chiron dwelt, he came down to the very margin of the sea, bringing his wife with the young Achilles in her arms, that he might shew the child to his father Peleus, who was on his voyage with the other Argonauts. Dismal screams, Fires that glow, Shrieks of woe, Sullen moans, Hollow groans, But hark! he strikes the golden lyre; 60 65 See, shady forms advance! Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still 2, Ixion rests upon his wheel, And the pale spectres dance! And snakes uncurl'd hang list'ning round The Furies sink upon their iron beds, their heads. V. By the streams that ever flow, By the fragrant winds that blow O'er th' Elysian flow'rs; By those happy souls who dwell In yellow meads of Asphodel, 70 75 80 Or Amaranthine bow'rs; By the hero's armed shades, Glitt'ring thro' the gloomy glades, By the youths that died for love, Restore, restore Eurydice to life: Wand'ring in the myrtle grove, Oh take the husband, or return the wife! He sung, and hell consented To hear the Poet's prayer: Stern Proserpine relented, And gave him back the fair. Thus song could prevail O'er death, and o'er hell, A conquest how hard and how glorious! Tho' fate had fast bound her 90 With Styx nine times round her3, Yet music and love were victorious. Apollon. Rhod. v. 553. Warton. 85 2 This line is taken from an ode of Cobb. Warton. 3 [Warton justly observes that these numbers are of so burlesque, so low, and ridiculous a kind, and have so much the air of a vulgar drinking song, that one is amazed and concerned to find them in a serious ode.] [Julius Cæsar, after undergoing a previous process of emasculation, was converted by the Duke of Buckinghamshire into two five act tragedies, entitled respectively Julius Cæsar and Marcus Brutus, each being supplied with a Prologue and choruses between the acts. They were published in 1722. Pope's choruses occur after the Ist and the IInd Act of Brutus respectively. The best excuse for Buckinghamshire's attempt lies in what is really a fault in Shakspere's work-its duality of heroes; but the manner in which he executed this task speaks ill for the judgment of one who himself avers that the hope of mending Shakspere is 'such a jest would make a stoic smile.' The concluding lines of his Casar may be quoted as a specimen of his additions: 'Ambition, when unbounded, brings a curse, But an assassinate deserves a worse. As to John Sheffield Duke of Buckinghamshire see note to Essay on Crit. v. 724.] 1 Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whose desire these two Chorus's were composed to supply as many wanting in his play. They were set many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckingham-house. P. |