Might know a poetess was born on earth. Had heard the music of the spheres. On thy sweet mouth distill'd their golden dew, For all thy blest fraternity of love Solemniz'd there thy birth, and kept thy holy-day above. IV. O gracious God! how far have we (Nay added fat pollutions of our own) Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child. V. And she had none, yet wanted none; For nature did that want supply: She might our boasted stores defy: Such noble vigour, did her verse adorn, That it seem'd borrow'd, where 'twas only born. Her morals too were in her bosom bred, By great examples daily fed, What in the best of books, her father's life, she read. And to be read herself she need not fear; Each test, and every light, her Muse will bear, Though Epictetus with his lamp were there. Ev'n love (for love sometimes her Muse exprest) Was but a lambent flame which play'd about her breast: Light as the vapours of a morning dream, VI, Born to the spacious empire of the Nine One would have thought, she should have been content But what can young ambitious souls confine? To the next realm she stretch'd her sway, A Chambre of Dependencies was fram'd. (As conquerors will never want pretence, When arm'd, to justify th' offence) And the whole fief, in right of Poetry, she claim'd. For poets frequent inroads there had made, And perfectly could represent The shape, the face, with every lineament; And all the large domains which the Dumb Sister sway'd. All bow'd beneath her government, Receiv'd in triumph wheresoe'er she went. Her pencil drew, whate'er her soul design'd, And oft the happy draught surpass'd the image in her mind. So strange a concourse ne'er was seen before, But when the peopled ark the whole creation bore. VII. The scene then chang'd, with bold erected look Our martial king the sight with reverence strook: his outward part, express For, } Our phoenix queen was pourtray'd too so bright, Beauty alone could beauty take so right: As in that day she took the crown from sacred hands: In beauty foremost, as in rank, the queen. VIII. Now all those charms, that blooming grace, The well-proportion'd shape, and beauteous face, Shall never more be seen by, mortal eyes; In earth the much - lamented virgin lies. Not wit, nor piety, could Fate prevent; To work more mischievously slow, O double sacrilege on things divine, } Heaven, by the same disease, did both translate; As equal were their souls, so equal was their fate. IX. Meantime her warlike brother on the seas The winds too soon will waft thee here! Slack all thy sails, and fear to come, Alas, thou know'st not, thou art wreck'd at home! X. When in mid-air the golden trump shall sound, The judging God shall close the book of fate; For those who wake, and those who sleep: From the four corners of the sky; When sinews o'er the skeletons are spread. Those cloth'd with flesh, and life inspires the dead; The sacred poets first shall hear the sound, And foremost from the tomb shall bound, } For they are cover'd with the lightest ground; 2) ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC *). An Ode in honour of St. Cecilias' Day **). I. 'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won By Philip's warlike son: Aloft in awful state The godlike hero sate On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were plac'd around; Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound. (So should desert in arms be crown'd:) The lovely Thais, by his side Sate like a blooming Eastern bride In flower of youth and beauty's pride: None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. Chorus. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. II. Timotheus ***), plac'd on high Amid the tuneful quire, With flying fingers touch'd the lyre: *) Die hier mitgetheilte Ode von Dryden wurde von unserm berühmten Landsmann Georg Friedrich Händel (geb. zu Halle 1684, gest. 1754) im Jahre 1756 in Musik gesetzt. Schöne Nachbildungen derselben haben Weifse und Ramler geliefert. (Man sehe Weifsen's kleine lyrische Gedichte, Theil III. S. 159 und Ramber's Werke, Ausg. von 1801, Theil II. S. 45.) Die hier befindlichen Anmerkungen sind von dem zu letzt genannten Dichter entlehnt. **) Cäcilia, die im Anfang des 3ten Jahrhunderts lebte, wird für eine heilige Jungfrau und für die Erfinderin der Orgel gehalten. Sie soll nebst dem Valerianus, ihrem Verlobten, den sie zum christlichen Glauben bekehrt hatte, den Märtyrertod erlitten haben. Ihr Andenken wird in London jährlich den 22sten November gefeiert. ***) Timotheus, der vortreffliche Tonkünstler in Griechen |