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MISCELLANIES.

ON

Receiving from the Right Hon. the Lady

FRANCES SHIRLEY

A STANDISH AND TWO PENS.

ES, I beheld th' Athenian Queen

YE

Defcend in all her fober charms;
"And take (he faid, and fmil'd ferene)
"Take at this hand celeftial arms.

"Secure the radiant weapons wield;
"This golden lance shall guard Desert,
"And if a Vice dares keep the field,
"This fteel fhall ftab it to the heart."

Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell,
Receiv'd the weapons of the sky;

And dipt them in the sable Well,

The Fount of Fame or Infamy.

"What Well? what Weapon? (Flavia cries)
"A ftandish, steel and golden pen!
"It came from Bertrand's, not the skies;
" I gave it you to write again.

"But, Friend, take heed whom you attack;
"You'll bring a house (I mean of Peers)
"Red, Blue, and Green, nay white and black,
and all about your ears

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"You'd write as fmooth again on glass,

"And run, on ivory, fo glib, "As not to stick at fool or afs, "Nor ftop at Flattery or Fib.

"Athenian Queen! and sober charms !
"I tell you, fool, there's nothing in 't ;
""Tis Venus, Venus gives these arms;
"In Dryden's Virgil fee the print.

"Come, if you'll be a quiet foul,
"That dares tell neither Truth nor Lies,
"I'll lift you in the harmless roll

"Of those that sing of thefe poor eyes."

EPISTLE

E PIST LE

то

ROBERT EARL OF OXFORD,

AND EARL MORTIMER,.

SENT to the Earl of Oxford with Dr. Parnell's Poems published by our Author, after the faid Earl's Imprisonment in the Tower, and Retreat into the Country, in the year 1721.

S

UCH were the notes thy once-lov'd Poet fung,
Till Death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue.
Oh just beheld, and loft! admir'd, and mourn'd!
With fofteft manners, gentleft arts adorn'd!
Bleft in each fcience, bleft in every strain !
Dear to the Muse! to Harley dear—in vain!

For him, thou oft haft bid the World attend,
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend;
For Swift and him, despis'd the farce of state,
The fober follies of the wife and great;
Dextrous, the craving, fawning crowd to quit,
And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.

Abfent or dead, ftill let a friend be dear,
(A sigh the absent claims, the dead a tear)
Recall those nights that clos'd thy toilfome days,
Still hear thy Parnell in his living lays,
Who, careless now of Intereft, Fame, or Fate,
Perhaps forgets that Oxford e'er was great ;

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