Whom the old Roman wall fo ill confin'd,
With a new chain of garrifons you bind :
Here foreign gold no more fhall make them come;
Our English iron holds them faft at home.

Then let the Mufes with fuch notes as thefe
Inftruct us what belongs unto our peace!
Your battles they hereafter fhall indite,
And draw the image of our Mars in fight;
Tell of towns ftorm'd, of armies over-run,
And mighty kingdoms by your conduct won:
How, while you thunder'd, clouds of duft did
choke

Contending troops, and feas lay hid in smoke.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And ev'ry conqueror creates a Mufe:
Here in low ftrains your milder deeds we fing;
But there, my Lord! we 'll bays and olive bring
To crown your head; while you in triumph ride
O'er vanquith'd nations, and the fea befide;
While all your neighbour-princes unto you,
Lie Jofeph's fheaves, pay reverence and bow."

$24. Cooper's Hill. DENHAM.
SURE there are poets which did never dream
Of Helicon; we therefore may fuppofe
Upon Parnaffus, nor did tafte the ftream
Thofe made not poets, but the poets thofe.
And as courts make not kings, but kings the court,
So where the Mufes and their train refort,
Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee
A poet, thou Parnaffus art to me,

(Like him in birth, thou shouldst be like in fame,
As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame)
But whofoe'er it was, Nature defign'd
First a brave place, and then as brave a mind.
Not to recount thofe fev'ral kings, to whom
It gave a cradle, or to whom a tomb;
But thee, great Edward, and thy greater fon †,
(The lilies which his father wore he won),
And thy Bellona ‡, who the confort came
Not only to thy bed, but to thy fame,
She to thy triumph led one captive king §,
And brought that fon which did the second brings.
Then didit thou found that order (whether love
Or victory thy royal thoughts did move,
Each was a noble caufe, and nothing lefs
Than the defign has been the great fuccefs),
Which foreign kings and emperors efteem
The fecond honour to their diadem.
Had thy great deftiny but given thee skill
To know, as well as pow'r to act, her will;
That from thofe kings, who then thy captives were,
In after-times should spring a royal pair,
Who fhould poffefs all that thy mighty pow'r,
Or thy detires more mighty, did devour;
To whom their better fate referves whate'er
The victor hopes for, or the vanquish'd fear;
That blood which thou and thy great grandfirefhed,
And all that fince thefe fifter nations bled,
Had been unfpilt, had happy Edward known
That all the blood he fpilt had been his own.
When he that patron chofe, in whom are join'd
Soldier and martyr, and his arms confin'd
Within the azure circle, he did feem
But to foretel and prophesy of him

Who to his realms that azure round hath join'd,
Which Nature for their bound at firft defign'd;
That bound which to the world's extremeft' ends,
Endlefs itfelf, its liquid arms extends.

Nor doth he need thofe emblems which we paint,
But is himself the foldier and the faint.
Here fhould my wonder dwell, and here my praise,
But my fix'd thoughts my wand'ring eye betrays,
Viewing a neighb'ring hill, whofe top of late
A chapel crown'd, till in the common fate
Th' adjoining abbey fell (may no fuch ftorm
Fall on our times, where ruin muft reform!).
Tell me, my Mufe, what monftrous dire offence,
What crime, could any Chriftian king incenfe
To fuch a rage? Was 't luxury, or luft
Was he fo temperate, so chafte, so just? [more:
Were thefe their crimes? They were his own much
But wealth is crime enough to him that's poor;
Who, having spent the treasures of his crown,
Condemns their luxury to feed his own.
And yet this act, to varnish o'er the fhame
Of facrilege, muft bear Devotion's name.
No crime fo bold but would be understood
A real, or at least a feeming, good: .
Who fears not to do ill yet fears the name,
And, free from confcience, is a flave to fame:
Thus he the church at once protects and spoils :
But princes' fwords are fharper than their styles.
Edward III. and the Black Prince.

Queen Philippa.

The kings of France and Scotland.

:

Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight
By taking wing from thy aufpicious height)
Through untrac'd ways and airy paths 1 fly,
More boundlefs in my fancy than my eye:
My eye, which fwift as thought contracts the space
That lies between, and firft falutes the place
Crown'd with that facred pile, fo vaft, fo high,
That whether 'tis a part of earth or sky
Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud
Afpiring mountain, or defcending cloud,
Paul's, the late theme of fuch a Mufe whofe flight
Has bravely reach'd and foar'd above thy height
Now fhalt thou ftand, tho' fword, or time, or fire,
Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall confpire;
Secure whilst thee the best of poets fings,
Preferv'd from ruin by the best of kings.
Under his proud furvey the city lies,
And, like a mift, beneath a hill doth rife;
Whofe ftate and wealth, the bufinefs and the crowd,
Seem at this distance but a darker cloud;
And is, to him who rightly things efteems,
No other in effect than what it feems:
Where, with like hafte, tho' feveral ways they run,
Some to undo, and fome to be undone;
While luxury and wealth, like war and peace,
Are each the other's ruin and increase ;
As rivers loft in feas fome secret vein
Thence reconveys, there to be loft again.
Oh happiness of fweet retir'd content!
To be at once fecure and innocent.
Windforthe next (where Mars with Venus dwells,
Beauty with ftrength) above the valley fwells
Into my eye, and doth itself prefent
With fuch an eafy and unforc'd afcent,
That no ftupendous precipice denies
Accefs, no horror turns away our eyes;
But fuch a rife as doth at once invite
A pleasure and a rev'rence from the fight.
Thy mighty mafter's emblem, in whole face
Sat meeknefs, heighten'd with majestic grace;
Such feems thy gentle height, made only proud
To be the bafis of that pompous load,
Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only which supports the spheres.
When Nature's hand this ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer pow'r than Chance;
Mark'd out for fuch an ufe, as if 'twere meant
T' invite the builder, and his choice prevent.
Nor can we call it choice, when what we choofe
Folly or blindnefs only could refufe.

A crown of fuch majeftic tow'rs doth grace
The gods' great mother, when her heav'nly race
Do homage to her; yet fhe cannot boast,
Among that numerous and celeftial hoft,
More heroes than can Windfor; nor deth Fame's
Immortal book record more noble names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this ifle
Owes the first glory of fo brave a pile,
Whether to Cæfar, Albanact, or Brute,
The British Arthur, or the Danish Cnute,
(Though this of old no lefs conteft did move,
Than when for Homer's birth feven cities ftrove),
* Mr. Waller.

And

Thy nobler ftreams fhall vifit Jove's abodes,
To fhine among the stars, and bathe the gods.
Here nature, whether more intent to pleate
Us for herself, with ftrange varieties
(For things of wonder give no lefs delight
To the wife Maker's than beholder's fight:
Tho' thefe delights from fev'ral caufes move;
For fo our children, thus our friends we love),
Wifely the knew, the harmony of things,
As well as that of founds, from difcord Springs,
Such was the difcord which did firft difperfe
Form, order, beauty, through the universe;
While drynefs moiffure, coldness heat refifts,
All that we have, and that we are, fubfifts.
While the steep horrid roughness of the wood
Strives with the gentle calmnefs of the flood.
Such huge extremes when nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence refults, from thence delight:
The ftream is fo tranfparent, pure, and clear,
That had the felf-enamour'd youth gaz'd here,
So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,
While he the bottom, not his face, had feen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides
Among the clouds; his fhoulders and his fides
A fhady mantle clothes; his curled brows
Frown on the gentle ftream, which calmly flows;
While winds and ftorms his lofty forehead beat,
The common fate of all that 's high or great.
Low at his foot a fpacious plain is plac'd,
Between the mountain and the ftream embrac'd;
Which thade and fhelter from the hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives;
And in the mixture of all these appears
Variety, which all the reft endears.
This fcene had fome bold Greek or British bard
Beheld of old, what ftories had we heard
Of fairies, fatyrs, and the nymphs their dames,
Their feafts, their revels, and their am'rous flames!
'Tis ftill the fame, although their airy thape
All but a quick poetic fight escape.
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned hoft reforts
To graze the ranker mead, that noble herd,
On whofe fublime and fhady fronts is rear'd
Nature's great mafter-piece; to fhew how foon
Great things are made, but fooner are undone.
Here have I feen the King, when great affairs
Gave leave to flacken and unbend his cares,
Attended to the chace by all the flow'r
Of youth, whofe hopes a nobler prey devour:
Pleasure with praife, and danger they would buy,
And with a foe that would not only fly.
The ftag, now confcious of his fatal growth,
At once indulgent to his fear and sloth,
To foine dark covert his retreat had made,
Where nor man's eye nor heaven's fhould invade
His foft repofe; when th' unexpected found
Of dogs, and men, his wakeful`ear does wound:
Rous'd with the noife, he scarce believes his ear,
Willing to think th' illufions of his fear

Had given this falfe alarm, but ftraight his view loft;]Confirms, that more than all his fears is true.

* The Forest.

And thus to th' ages paft he makes amends,
Their charity destroys, their faith defends.
Then did religion in a lazy cell,
In empty airy contemplations dwell;
And, like the block, unmoved lay: but ours,
As much too active, like the ftork devours.
Is there no temperate region can be known
Betwixt their frigid and our torrid zone?
Could we not wake from that lethargic dream,
But to be reftlefs in a worfe extreme?
And for that lethargy was there no cure,
But to be caft into a calenture?

Can knowledge have no bound, but muft advance
So far, to make us wifh for ignorance;
And rather in the dark to grope our way,
Than led by a falfe guide to crr by day?
Who fees these difinal heaps, but would demand
What barbarous invader fack'd the land?
But when he hears, no Goth, no Turk did bring
This defolation, but a Chriftian king;
When nothing but the name of zeal appears
"Twixt our beft actions and the worst of theirs;
What does he think our facrilege would spare,
When fuch th' effects of our devotions are ?
Parting from thence 'twixt anger, fhame, and fear,
Thofe for what 's paft, and this for what's too near,
My eye, defcending from the hill, furveys
Where Thames among the wanton valleys ftrays.
Thames, the most lov'd of all the Ocean's fons
By his old fire, to his embraces runs;
Hafting to pay his tribute to the fea,
Like mortal life to meet eternity.

Tho' with thofe ftreams he no refemblance hold,
Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold;
His genuine and lefs guilty wealth t'explore,
Search not his bottom, but furvey his fhore;
O'er which he kindly fpreads his fpacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th' enfuing fpring:
Nor then deftroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers who their infants overlay ;
Nor with a fudden and impetuous wave,
Like profufe kings, refumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations spoil
The mower's hopes, or mock the plowman's toil:
But godlike his unwearied bounty flows;
Firit loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his bleflings to his banks confin'd,
But free and common, as the fea or wind;
When he, to boaft or to difperfe his ftores,
Full of the tributes of his grateful thores,
Vifits the world, and in his flying tow'rs
Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, beftows it where it wants,
Cities in deferts, woods in cities, plants.
So that to us no thing, no place is strange,
While his fair bofom is the world's exchange.
O could I flow like thee, and make thy ftream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Tho deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
Heaven her Eridanus no more fhall boast,
Whose fame in thine, like leffer current, 's

Betray'd

"fpoils.

Thus kings,by grafping more than they could hold,
First made their fubjects by oppreffion bold;
And pop'lar fway, by forcing kings to give
More than was fit for fubjects to receive,
Ran to the fame extremes: and one excels
Made both, by ftriving to be greater, lefs.
When a calm river, rais'd with iudden rains,
Or fnows diffolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains,
The husbandmen with high-rais'd banks fecure
Their greedy hopes; and this he can endure.
But if with bays and dams they strive to force
His channel to a new or narrow courfe,
No longer then within his banks he dwells;
Firft to a torrent, then a deluge fwells:
Stronger and fiercer by restraint he roars, [fhores.
And knows no bound, but makes his pow'r his

* John Sheffield Duke of Buckingham.