Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

By the streams that ever flow,

By the fragrant winds that blow

O'er th' Elyfian flow'rs;

By those happy fouls who dwell
In yellow meads of Asphodel,
Or Amaranthine bow'rs;

By the hero's armed fhades,
Glitt'ring thro' the gloomy glades;
By the youths that dy'd for love,
Wand'ring in the myrtle grove,

Restore, restore Eurydice to life:

Oh take the husband, or return the wife!

He fung, and hell confented

To hear the Poet's prayer:

Stern Proferpine relented,

And

gave him back the fair.

Thus fong could prevail

O'er death, and o'er hell,

A conqueft how hard and how glorious?

Tho' fate had faft bound her

With Styx nine times round her,

༡༠

75

80

85

90

VI.

But foon, too foon, the lover turns his

Again the falls, again fhe dies, fhe dies!

eyes:

How wilt thou now the fatal fisters move?

No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. 95 Now under hanging mountains,

Befide the falls of fountains,

Or where Hebrus wanders,

Rolling in Mæanders,

[blocks in formation]

Amidst Rhodope's fnows:

See, wild as the winds, o'er the desert he flies;

Hark! Hamus refounds with the Bacchanals cries-

Ah fee, he dies!

III

Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he fung,

Eurydice ftill trembled on his

tongue,

Eurydice the woods,

Eurydice the floods,

115

Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung.

VII.

Mufic the fierceft grief can charm,

And fate's feverest rage

difarm:

Mufic can soften pain to ease,

And make despair and madness please:
Our joys below it can improve,

And antedate the blifs above.

This the divine Cecilia found,

120

And to her Maker's praise confin'd the found. 125
When the full organ joins the tuneful quire,
Th'immortal pow'rs incline their ear;
Borne on the swelling notes our fouls afpire,
While folemn airs improve the facred fire;

And Angels lean from heav'n to hear.
Of Orpheus now no more let Poets tell,
To bright Cecilia greater power is giv'n;
His numbers rais'd a fhade from hell,
Hers lift the foul to heav'n.

130

TWO

CHORUS'S

TO THE

Tragedy of BRUTUS".

YE

CHORUS of ATHENIANS.

STROPHE I.

E fhades, where facred truth is fought;
Groves, where immortal Sages taught:
Where heav'nly vifions Plato fir'd,
And Epicurus lay infpir'd!

In vain your guiltlefs laurels ftood
Unfpotted long with human blood.
War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invadeɛ,
And steel now glitters in the Mufes fhades.

REMARKS.

THESE two Chorus's were compofed to enrich a very poor Play; but they had the ufual effect of ill-adjufted Ornaments, only to make its meannefs the more confpicuous,

Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whofe defire thefe two Chorus's were compofed to fupply as many, wanting in his play. They were fet many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckinghamhoufe. P.

VER. 3. Where heavenly Vifions Plato fir'd, And Epicurus, lay infpir'd!] The propriety of thefe lines arifes from hence, that Brutus, one of the Heroes of this Play, was of the Old Academy; and Caffius, the other, was an Epicurean; but this had not been enough to juftify the Poet's choice, had not Plato's fyftem of Divinity, and Epicurus's fyftem of Morals, been the moft rational amongft the various fects of Greek Philofophy.

ANTISTROPHE I.

Oh heav'n-born fifters! fource of art!

Who charm the fenfe, or mend the heart;

Who lead fair Virtue's train along,
Moral Truth, and mystic Song!

To what new clime, what distant sky,
Forfaken, friendlefs, fhall ye fly?
Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore?
Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more?

STROPHE II.

When Athens finks by fates unjust,
When wild Barbarians fpurn her duft;
Perhaps ev❜n Britain's utmost shore

II

15

Shall cease to blush with ftranger's gore, 20
See Arts her favage fons controul,

And Athens rifing near the pole!

'Till fome new Tyrant lifts his purple hand, And civil madnefs tears them from the land.

REMARKS.

VER. 12. Moral truth AND myftic fong.] He had expreffed himself better had he faid,

"Moral truth IN myftic fong!

In the Antiftrophe he turns from Philofophy to Mythology ;

« AnteriorContinuar »