Legions of Cupids to the battle come,
For Little Britain thefe, and thofe for Rome.
Drefs'd to advantage, this illuftrious pair
Arriv'd, for combat in the list appear.
What may the fates defign! for never yet
From diftant regions two fuch beauties met.
Venus had been an equal friend to both,
And vict'ry to declare herself feems loath;
Over the camp, with doubtful wings fhe flies,
Till Chloris fhining in the field fhe fpies.
The lovely Chloris well-attended came,
A thousand graces waited on the dame :
Her matchlefs form made all the English glad,
And foreign beauties lefs affurance had :
Yet, like the Three on Ida's top, they all
Pretend alike, contefting for the ball:
Which to determine love himself declin'd,
Left the neglected fhould become less kind.
Such killing looks! fo thick the arrows fly!
That 'tis unfafe to be a stander-by.
Poets, approaching to defcribe the fight,
Are by their wounds inftructed how to write.
They with lefs hazard might look on, and draw
The ruder combats in Alfatia ;

And with that foil of violence and rage,
Set off the splendour of our Golden age :
Where Love gives law, beauty the fceptre fways,
And, uncompell'd, the happy world obeys.

LXIV.

OF AN

ELEGY MADE BY MRS. WHARTON

ON THE EARL OF ROCHESTER.

THUS mourn the mufes, on the hearse
Not ftrowing tears, but lafting verfe,
Which fo preferve the hero's name,
They make him live again in fame.

Chloris, in lines fo like his own,
Gives him fo just and high renown,
That he th' afflicted world relieves,
And fhews that ftill in her he lives:
Her wit as graceful, great, and good;
Ally'd in genius as in blood.

His lofs fupply'd, now all our fears Are, that the nymph fhould melt in tears, Then, fairest Chloris! comfort take, For his, your own, and for our fake, Left his fair foul, that lives in you, Should from the world for ever go.

LXV.

UPON OUR LATE LOSS

OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE,

THE failing bloffoms which a young plant bears,
Engage our hope for the fucceeding years;
And hope is all which Art or Nature brings,,',
At the first trial, to accomplish things,

After this combat, o'er the conquer'd main.
Make Heav'n concern'd, and an unusual star - Tr
Declare th' importance of th' approaching war.
Make the fea fhine with gallantry, and all
The English youth flock to the Admiral,
The valiant Duke! whofe early deeds abroad
Such rage in fight, and art in conduct fhew'd; W
His bright fword now a dearer int'reft draws,
His brother's glory, and his country's caufe.

Let thy bold pencil hope and courage spread
Through the whole navy, by that hero ledar
Make all appear where fuch a Prince is by,
Refolv'd to conquer, or refolv'd to die.
With his extraction and his glorious mind,
Make the proud fails fwell more than with the
wind:

Preventing cannon, make his louder fame
Check the Batavians, and their fury tame.
So hungry wolves, though greedy of their prey,
Stop when they find a lion in their way.
Make him beftride the ocean, and mankind
Afk his confent to use the fea and wind,
While his tall fhips in the barr'd Channol ftand,
He grafps the Indies in his armed hand.

Paint an eaft-wind, and make it blow away
Th' excufe of Holland for their navy's stay :
Make them look pale, and, the bold Prince to

Our first fuccefs in war make Bacchus crown,
And half the vintage of the year our own.
The Dutch their wine, and all their brandy lofe,
Difarm'd of that from which their courage grows;
While the glad English, to relieve their toil,
In healths to their great leader drink the spoil.

His high command to Afric's coaft extend,
And make the Moors before the English bend :
Thofe barb'rous pirates willingly receive
Conditions fuch as we are pleas'd to give.
Deferted by the Dutch, let nations know
We can our own and their great bus'nefs do;
Falfe friends chaftife, and common foes reftrain,
Which worse than tempefts did infeft the main.
Within thofe Straits make Holland's Smyrna fleet
With a fmail fquadron of the English meet;
Like Falcons thefe, thofe like a num'rous flock
Of fowl, which scatter to avoid the fhock.
There paint confufion in a various ape;
Some fink, fome yield; and, flying, fome escape.
Europe and Africa, from either shore,
Spectators are, and hear our cannon roar ;
"While the divided world in this agree,
Men that fight fo deferve to rule the sea.
But, nearer home, thy pencil use once more,
And place our navy by the Holland fhore;
The world they compafs'd while they fought
with Spain,

But here already they refign the main ;
Thofe greedy mariners, out of whose way
Diffusive Nature could no region lay,

At home, preferv'd from rocks and tempefts, lie,
Compell'd, like others, in their beds to die.
Their fingle towns th' Iberian armies preft;
We all their provinces at once invest;
And in a month ruin their traffic more
Than that long war could in an age before.

But who can always on the billows lie?
The wat'ry wilderness yields no fupply.
Spreading our fails, to Harwich we refort,
And meet the beauties of the British court.
Th' illuftrious Duchefs, and her glorious train,
(Like Thetis with her nymphs) adorn the main.
The gazing fea-gods, since the Paphian Queen¶
Sprung from among them, no fuch fight had feen.
Charni'd with the graces of a troop fo fair,
Thofe deathlefs pow'rs for us themselves declare,
Refolv'd the aid of Neptune's court to bring,
And help the nation where fuch beauties spring:
The foldier here his wafted flote fupplies,
And takes new valour from the ladies' eyes. [gone,
Meanwhile, like bees, when ftormy winter's
The Dutch (as if the fea were all their own)
Defert their ports, and, falling in their way,
Our Hamburg merchants are become their prey.
Thus flourish they, before th' approaching fight,
As dying tapers give a blazing light."

[goes,

To check their pride, our fleet half-victuall'd Enough to ferve us till we reach our foes; Who now appear fo numerous and bold, The action worthy of our arms we hold, A greater force than that which here we find Ne'er prefs'd the ocean, nor employ'd the wind.

1 Venuse

Restrain'd awhile by the unwelcome night, '
Th' impatient English scarce attend the light.
But now the morning (heav'n feverely clear :)
To the fierce work indulgent does appear;
And Phœbus lifts above the waves his light,
That he might fee, and thus record the fight.

As when loud winds from diff'rent quarters
Vaft clouds encount'ring one another crush; [rush,
With fwelling fails fo, from their fev'ral coafts,
Join the Batavian and the British hofts.
For a lefs prize, with lefs concern and rage,
The Roman fleets at A&tium did engage;
They for the empire of the world they knew,
Thefe for the Old contend, and for the New.
At the first fhock, with blood and powder ftain'd,
Nor heav'n nor fea their former face retain'd;
Fury and art produce effects fo ftrange,
They trouble Nature, and her visage change.
Where burning fhips the banish'd fun fupply,
And no light shines but that by which men die,
There York appears! so prodigal is he
Of royal blood as ancient as the fea!
Which down to him fo many ages told,

[threw.

Has through the veins of mighty monarchs roll'd!
The great Achillis march'd not to the field
Till Vulcan that impenetrable shield
And arms had wrought; yet there no bullets flew,
But fhafts and darts which the weak Phrygians
Our bolder hero on the deck does ftand
Expos'd, the bulwark of his native land;
Defenfive arms laid by as ufelefs here,
Where mafly balls the neighb'ring rocks do tear.
Some pow'r unfeen those princes does protect,
Who for their country thus themselves neglect.

Against him first Opdam his fquadron leads,
Proud of his late fuccefs against the Swedes,
Made by that action, and his high command,
Worthy to perish by a prince's hand.
The tall Batavian in a vaft fhip rides,
Bearing an army in her hollow fides;
Yet not inclin'd the English fhip to board,
More on his guns relies than on his fword;
From whence a fatal volley we receiv'd;
It miss'd the Duke, but his great heart it griev❜d;
Three worthy perfons (a) from his fide it tore,
And dy'd his garment with their scatter'd gore.
Happy! to whom this glorious death arrives,
More to be valu'd than a thousand lives!
On fuch a theatre as this to die,
For fuch a caufe, and fuch a witness by!
Who would not thus a facrifice be made,
To have his blood on fuch an altar laid?
The reft about him ftrook with horror ftood,
To fee their leader cover'd o'er with blood.
So trembled Jacob, when he thought the stains
Of his fon's coat had iffued from his veins.
He feels no wound bug in his troubled thought;
Before for honour, now revenge he fought :
His friends in pieces torn, (the bitter news
Not brought by fame) with his own eyes he views.
His mind at once reflecting on their youth,
Their worth, their love, their valour, and their

truth,

(a) Earl of Falmouth, Lord Muskerry, and Mr, Boyica

The joys of court, their mothers, and their wives,
To follow him abandon'd,-and their lives!
He ftorms and shoots; but flying bullets now,
To execute his rage, appear too flow:
They mifs, or fweep but common fouls away;
For fuch a lofs Opdam his life must pay.
Encouraging his men, he gives the word,
With fierce intent that hated ship to board,
And make the guilty Dutch, with his own arm,
Wait on his friends, while yet their blood is warm.
His winged veffel like an eagle shews,

When through the clouds to trufs a fwan fhe goes:
The Belgian fhip unmov'd, like fome huge rock
Inhabiting the fea, expects the fhock:

From both the fleets men's eyes are bent this way,
Neglecting all the bus'ness of the day :
Bullets their flight, and guns their noise suspend;
The filent ocean does th' event attend,
Which leader fhall the doubtful vict'ry bless,
And give an earnest of the war's fuccefs,
When Heav'n itself, for England to declare,
Turns fhip, and men, and tackle, into air.

Their new commander from his charge is toft,
Which that young prince ¶ had fo unjustly loft,
Whofe great progenitors, with better fate,
And better conduct, fway'd their infant ftate.
His flight tow'rds heav'n th' aspiring Belgian
took,

But fell, like Phaeton, with thunder ftrook,
From vafter hopes than his he seem'd to fall,
That durft attempt the British Admiral :
From her broad fides a ruder flame is thrown
Than from the fiery chariot of the fun;
That bears the radiant enfign of the day,
And the the flag that governs in the fea.

[vent

The Duke, (ill-pleas'd that fire fhould thus preThe work which for his brighter fword he meant, Anger ftill burning in his valiant breast, Goes to complete revenge upon the rest. So on the guardlefs herd, their keeper flain, Rushes a tyger in the Lybian plain, The Dutch accuftom'd to the raging fea, And in black ftorms the frowns of Heav'n to fee, Never met tempeft which more urg'd their fears, Than that which in the Prince's look appears. Fierce, goodly, young! Mars he resembles, when Jove fends him down to fcourge perfidious men; Such as with foul ingratitude have paid Both thofe that led, and thofe that gave them aid. Where he gives on difpofing of their fates, Terror and death on his loud cannon waits, With which he pleads his brother's caufe fo well, He shakes the throne to which he does appeal : The fea with spoils his angry bullets ftrow, Widows and orphans making as they go : Before his ship fragments of veffels torn, Flags, arms, and Belgian carcaffes, are borne, And his defpairing foes, to flight inclin'd, Spread all their canvafs to invite the wind. So the rude Boreas, where he lifts to blow, Makes clouds above, and billows fly below, Beating the fhore, and with a boift'rous rage Does heav'n at once, and earth, and fea engage.

Prince of Orange.

The Dutch, elsewhere, did through the wat'ry
field,

Perform enough to have made others yield.
But English courage, growing as they fight,
In danger, noife, and slaughter, takes delight :,
Their bloody task, unweary'd fill, they ply;
Only reftrain'd by death or victory.

Iron and lead, from earth's dark entrails torn,
Like fhow'rs of hail, from either fide are borne:
So high the rage of wretched mortals goes,
Hurling their mother's bowels at their foes!
Ingenious to their ruin, ev'ry age

Improves the arts and inftruments of rage.
Death-haft'ning ills Nature enough hath fent,
And yet men ftill a thousand more invent!

But Bacchus now, which led the Belgians on,
So fierce at firft, to favour us begun :
Brandy and wine (their wonted friends) at length
Render them ufclefs, and betray their strength.
So corn in fields, and in the garden flow'rs,
Revive and raise themselves with mod'rate fhow'r»;
But overcharg'd with never-ceasing rain,
Become too moist, and bend their heads again.
Their reeling fhips on one another fall,
Without a foe, enough to ruin all.
Of this disorder, and the fav'ring wind,
The watchful English such advantage find,
Ships fraught with fire among the heap they throw,
And up the fo-entangled Belgians blow.
The flame invades the powder-rooms, and then
Their guns fhoot bullets, and their veffels men.
The fcorch'd Batavians on the billows float,
Sent from their own, to pafs in Charon's boat.
And now our Royal Admiral fuccefs
(With all the marks of victory) does blefs:
The burning fhips, the taken, and the flain,
Proclaim his triumph o'er the conquer'd main.
Nearer to Holland as their hafty flight
Carries the noife and tumult of the fight,
His cannons roar, forerunner of his fame,
Makes their Hague tremble, and their Amsterdam:
The British thunder does their houfes rock,
And the Duke feems at ev'ry door to knock.
His dreadful ftreamer (like a comet's hair,
Threat'ning deftruction) haftens their despair;
Makes them deplore their scatter'd fleet as loft,
And fear our prefent landing on their coaft.

The trembling Dutch th' approaching Prince

behold

As fheep a lion leaping tow'rds their fold: Thofe piles which ferve them to repel the main, They think too weak his fury to restrain. "What wonders may not English valour work, "Led by th' example of victorious York? "Or what defence against him can they make, "Who at such distance does their country thake? "His fatal hand their bulwarks will o'erthrow, "And let in both the ocean and the foe." Thus cry the people ;-and their land to keep, Allow our title to command the deep; Blaming their States' ill conduct, to provoke Thofe arms which freed them from the Spanish yoke.

Painter excufe me, if I have awhile Forgot thy art, and us'd another stile;

Ggj

For though you draw arm'd heroes as they fit,
The task in battle does the Mufes fit:
They in the dark confufion of a fight
Difcover all, inftruct us how to write;
And light and honour to brave actions yield,
Hid in the fmoke and tumult of the field.
Ages to come fhall know that leader's toil,
And his great name on whom the Mufes fmile:
Their dictates here let thy fam'd pencil trace,
And this relation with thy colours grace.
Then draw the Parliament, the nobles met,
And our great Monarch (a) high above them set:
Like young Auguftus let his image be,
Triumphing for that victory at fea,

Where Egypt's Queen (b), and the Eastern Kings o'erthrown,

Made the poffeffion of the world his own.
Laft draw the Commons at his royal feet,
Pouring out treasure to fupply his fleet:
They vow with lives and fortunes to maintain
Their King's eternal title to the main :
And with a prefent to the Duke, approve
His valour, conduct, and his country's love.

LXVII.

A Prefage of the Ruin

OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE,

Prefented to

HIS MAJESTY KING JAMES II.

On bis Birth-Day.

SINCE James the Second grac'd the British throne,
Truce, well obferv'd, has been infring'd by none:
Chriftians to him their prefent union owe,
And late fuccefs against the common foe;
While neighb'ring princes, loth to urge their fate,
Court his affittance, and fufpend their hate.
So angry bulls the combat do forbear,
When from the wood a lion does appear.

This happy day peace to our island fent,
As now he gives it to the Continent.
A prince more fit for fuch a glorious task
Than England's King from Heav'n we cannot afk:
He (great and good!) proportion'd to the work,
Their ill-drawn fwords fhall turn against the Turk.
Such kings, like ftars with influence unconfin'd,
Shine with afpect propitious to mankind;
Favour the innocent, reprefs the bold,
And while they flourish, make an Age of Gold.
Bred in the camp, famed for his valour, young ;
At fea fuccefsful, vigorous, and frong;
His fleet, his army, and his mighty mind,
Efteem and rev'rence through the world do find.
A prince with fuch advantages as thefe,
Where he perfuades not, may command a peace.
Britain declaring for the juftcr fide,

The most ambitious will forget their pride: They that complain will their endeavours ccafe, Advis'd by him, inclin'd to prefent peace,

Join to the Turk's deftruction, and then bring
All their pretences to fo just a king.

If the fuccefsful troublers of mankind,
With laurel crown'd, fo great applause do find,
Shall the vex'd world lefs honour yield to thofe
That stop their progress, and their rage oppofe?
Next to that Pow'r which does the ocean awe,
Is to fet bounds, and give Ambition law.

The British Monarch fhall the glory have, That famous Greece remains no longer flave; That fource of art and cultivated thought! Which they to Rome, and Romans hither brought. The banish'd mufes fhall no longer mourn, But may with liberty to Greece return: Though flaves (like birds that fing not in a cage) They loft their genius and poetic rage; Homers again, and Pindars, may be found, And his great actions with their numbers crown'd. The Turk's vaft empire does united stand; Chriftians, divided under the command Of jarring princes would be foon undone, Did not this hero make their int'reft one; Peace to embrace, ruin the common foe, Exalt the Crofs, and lay the Crefcent low. Thus may the gofpel to the rifing fun Be fpread, and flourish where it first begun; And this great day, (fo juftly honour'd here!) Known to the Eaft, and celebrated there.

Beas fain'd with gore I fing, advent'rous toil!
And how thefe monfters did difarm an ifle.

Bermuda, wall'd with rocks who does not know?
That happy ifland where huge lemons grow,
And orange trees, which golden fruit do bear,
Th' Hefperian garden boasts of none so fair;
Where fhining pearl, and coral, many a pound,
On the rich shore, of ambergris is found.
'The lofty cedar, which to heav'n afpires,
The prince of trees! is fuel for their fires:
The Imoke by which their loaded spits do turn,
For incenfe might on facred altars burn:
Their private roofs on cd'rous timber borne,
Such as might palaces for kings adorn.
The sweet palmettos a new Bacchus yield,
With leaves as ample as the broadeft fhield,
Under the fhadow of whofe friendly boughs
They fit caroufing where their liquor grows.
Figs there unplanted through the fields do grow,
Such as fierce Cato did the Romans fhew,
With the rare fruit, inviting them to spoil
Carthage, the miftrefs of fo rich a foil.
The naked rocks are not unfruitful there,
But as fome conftant feafons, ev'ry year
Their barren tops with luscious food abound,
And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd,
Tobacco is the worft of things, which they
To English landlords, as their tribute, pay.
Such is the mould that the bleft tenant feeds
On precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds.
With candy'd plantains and the juicy pine,
On choiceft melons and fweet grapes they dine,
And with potatoes fat their wanton fwine.
Nature thefe cates with fuch a lavish hand
Pours out among them, that our coarfer land
Taftes of that bounty, and does cloth return,
Which not for warmth, but ornament, is worn:
For the kind fpring, which but falutes us here,
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year.
Ripe fruits and bloffoms on the fame trees live;
At once they promise what at once they give.
So fweet the air, fo moderate the clime,
None fickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heav'n fure has kept this fpot of earth uncurft,
To fhew how all things were created first.
The tardy plants in our cold orchards plac'd,
Referve their fruit for the next age's tafte:
There a small grain in fome few months will be
A firm, a lofty, and a spacious tree.
The palma chrifti, and the fair papà
Now but a feed, (preventing Nature's law)
In half the circle of the hafty year
Project a fhade, and lovely fruits do wear.
And as their trees, in our dull region fet,
But faintly grow, and no perfection get,
So in this northern track our hoarfer throats
Utter unripe and ill-constrained notes,
While the fupporter of the poets' ftyle,
Phoebus, on them eternally does fmile.
Oh! how I long my carelefs limbs to lay
Under the plantain's fhade, and all the day
With amorous airs my fancy entertain,
Invoke the Mufes, and improve my vein!
No paffion there in my free breast should move,
None but the sweet and best of paffions, love.

There while I fing, if gentle Love be by,
That tunes my lute, and winds the string fo high,
With the fweet found of Sacharifla's name
I'll make the lift'ning favages grow tame.--
But while I do thefe pleafing dreams indite,
I am diverted from the promis'd fight.

CANTO II.

Of their alarm, and how their foes Discover'd were, this Canto fhews.

Tuo' rocks fo high about this ifland rife,
That well they may the num'rous Turk defpife,
Yet is no human fate exempt from fear,
Which shakes their hearts, while through the ifle
they hear

A lafting noise, as horrid and as loud

As thunder makes before it breaks the cloud.
Three days they dread this murmur e'er they know
From what blind caufe th' unwonted found may
grow:

At length two monsters of unequal fize,
Hard by the fhore, a fisherman efpies;
Two mighty whales! which fwelling feas had toft,
And left them pris'ners on the rocky coaft;
One as a mountain vaft, and with her came
A cub, not much inferior to his dam.
Here in a pool, among the rocks engag'd,
They roar'd, like lions caught in toils, and rag'd.
The man knew what they were, who heretofore
Had feen the like lie murder'd on the fhore;
By the wild fury of fome tempest cast,
The fate of fhips, and fhipwreck'd men, to taste.
As carelefs dames, whom wine and fleep betray
To frantic dreams, their infants overlay ;
So there fometimes the raging ocean fails,
And her own broòd expofes; when the whales
Against sharp rocks, like reeling veffels quafh'd,
Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dafh'd:
Along the fhore their dreadful limbs lie fcatter'd,
Like hills with earthquakes fhaken, torn, and
fhatter'd.

Hearts, fure, of brafs they had who tempted first Rude feas, that spare not what themselves have nurft.

The welcome news through all the nations spread,
To fudden joy and hope converts their dread:
What lately was their public terror, they
Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey;
Difpofe already of th' untaken fpoil,
And, as the purchase of their future toil,
Thefe fhare the bones, and they divide the oil.
So was the huntsman by the bear oppreft,
Whose hide he fold-before he caught the beast!
They man their boats, and all their young men

arm

With whatsoever may the monsters harm;
Pikes, halberts, fpits, and darts that wound fo far,
The tools of peace, and inftruments ofwar.
Now was the time for vig'rous lads to fhew
What love or honour could invite them to:
A goodly theatre! where rocks are round
With rev'rend age and lovely laffcs crown'd