Page images
PDF
EPUB

Whoe'er their Names can in thy Numbers fhow,
Have more than Empire, and immortal grow.
Ages to come fhall fcorn the Pow'rs of old
When in thy Verfe of greater Gods they're told.
Our beauteous Queen, and martial Monarch's Name,
For Jove and Juno fhall be plac'd by Fame :

Thy Charles for Neptune, fhall the Seas command,
And Sacharia fhall for Venus ftand.

Greece fhall no longer boast, nor haughty Rome, But think from Britain all the Gods did come.

XLVII.

SONG.

'N vain you tell your parting Lover,

IN

You with fair Winds may waft him over.
Alas, what Winds can happy prove,

That bear me far from what I Love?
Alas, what Dangers on the Main
Can equal thofe that I sustain,
From flighted Vows, and cold difdain?

Be gentle, and in Pity choofe
To with the wildeft Tempeft loofe;
That thrown again upon the Coast,
Where first my Shipwrack'd Heart was loft;
I may once more repeat my Pain ;
Once more in dying Notes complair,
Of flighted Vows, and cold Difdain.

Mr. Pricr.

XLVIII.

XLVIII.

The Spleen; a Pindarique Ode;

By a Lady.

I

WHat art thou Spleen, which every thing doft ape?

Thou Proteus to abus'd Mankind,

Who never yet thy hidden Caufe cou'd find,
Or fix thee to remain in one continu'd fhape;
Still varying thy perplexing Form,
Now a dead Sea thou'lt represent

A Calm of ftupid Difcontent,

Then clafhing on the Rocks, wil't rage into a Storm. Trembling fometimes thou doft appear,

Diffolv'd into a Panick Fear :

On Sleep intruding, doft thy Shadows spread
Thy gloomy Terrors round the filent Bed,
And crowd with boding Dreams the melancholy Head.
Or when the Midnight Hour is told,
And drooping Eyes thou ftill doft waking hold,
Thy fond Delufions cheat the Eyes;

Before 'em antick Spectres dance,
Unufual Fires their painted Heads advance,
And airy Phantoms arife,

Such was the monftrous Vifion feen,
When Brutus (now beneath his Cares opprefs'd,
And all Rome's Fortunes rolling in his Breaft,
Before Philippi's latest Field,

Before his Fate did to Octaviu's yield)
Was vanquish'd by the Spleen.

2.

Falfly the mortal Part we blame
Of our deprefs'd and pondrous Frame
Which till the first degrading Sin
Let thee, its dull Attendant, in;
Still with the other did comply,
Nor clogg'd the active, Soul, dispos'd to fly,
And range the Manfions of its native Sky;
Nor whilft in his own Heaven he dwelt,
Whilft Man his Paradife poffefs'd,
His fertile Garden in the fragrant East,
And all united Odours felt,

No pointed Sweets until thy Reign,
Cou'd fhock the Senfe, or in the Face
A flufh'd unhandfome Colour place.
Now the Jonquil o'ercomes the feeble Brain,
We faint beneath the Aromatick Pain,

'Till fome offenfive Scent thy Powers appeafe, And Pleasure we refign for fhort and naufeous Eafe.

3.

New are thy Motions and thy Drefs,
In every one thou doft poffefs:

Here fome attentive fecret Friend
Thy falfe Suggeftions must attend,

Thy whifper'd Griefs, thy fancy'd Sorrows hear,
Breath'd in a Sigh, and witnefs'd by a Tear.
Whilft in the light and vulgar Croud
Thy Slaves more clamorous and loud,
By Laughter unprovok'd, thy Influence too confefs.
In the imperious Wife thou Vapours art,
Which from o'erheated Paflions rife
In Crouds to the attractive Brain;
Until defcending thence again
Thro' the o'ercaft and fhow'ring Eyes,
Upon the Husban'ds foftned Heart,

He

He the difputed Point muft yield,
Something refign of the contefted Field;
Till Lordly Man, born to Imperial fway,
Compounds for Peace to make his Right away,
And Woman arm'd with Spleen does fervilely obey.
4.

The Fool to imitate the Wits,
Complains of thy pretended Fits
And dulnefs born with him, wou'd lay
Upon thy accidential fway;
Because thou doft fometimes prefume
Into the ableft Heads to come,
That often Men of Thoughts refin'd,
Impatient of unequal Senfe,

Such flow Returns, where they fo much difpenfe,
Retiring from the Croud, are to thy Shades

(confin'd In me, alas! thou doft too much prevail, I feel thy Force, while I against thee rail; I feel my Verfe decay, and my crampt Numbers

(fail Through thy black Jaundice I all Objects fee, As dark and terrible as thee;

My Lines decry'd, and my Employment thought
An ufelefs Folly, or prefumptuous Fault:
While in the Mufes Paths I ftray,

While in their Groves, and by their Springs,
My Hand delights to trace uncommon Things,
And deviates from the known and common way?
Nor will in fading Silks compofe

Faintly th' inimitable Rofe;

Fill up an ill-drawn Bird, or paint on Glafs The Sovereign's blurr'd and undiftinguifh'd Face, The threatning Angel, and the speaking Afs.

5.

Patron thou art of every grofs Abuse,

The fullen Husband's feign'd Excuse, When the ill Humour with his Wife he spends, And bears recruited Wit and Spirits to his Friends. The Son of Bacchus pleads thy Power, As to the Glafs he still repairs, Pretends but to remove thy Cares;

Snatch from thy Shades one gay and fmiling Hour,
And drown thy Kingdom with a purple Show'r.
When the Coquet, whom every Fool admires,
Wou'd in Variety be fair

And fhifting haftily the Scene,
From Light, impertinent, and vain,
Affumes a foft and melancholy Air,

And of her Eyes rebates the wand'ring Fires;
The careless Pofture, and the Head reclin'd,
The thoughtful and compofed Face
Proclaiming the withdrawn and absent Mind,
Allows the Fop more Liberty to gaze;
Who gently for the tender Caufe enquires:
The Cause indeed is a defect in Sense;

But ftill the Spleen's alledg'd, and ftill the dull

6.

But these are thy fantastick Harms,
The Tricks of thy pernicious Rage,
Which do the weaker Sort engage;

(Pretence.

Worfe are the dire Effects of thy more powerful

(Charms.

Is veil'd in darkness, and perplex'd

By thee, Religion, all we know
That fhould enlighten her below,

With anxious Doubts, with endlefs Scruples vex'd,
And fome Restraint imply'd from each perverted

(Text.

« PreviousContinue »