Bred in the camp, fam'd for his valour young;
At fea fuccefsful, vigorous, and strong;
His fleet, his army, and his mighty mind,
Efteem and rev'rence thro' the world do find.
A prince with fuch advantages as thefe,
Where he perfuades not, may command a peace.
Britain declaring for the jufter fide,
The most ambitious will forget their pride:
They that complain will their endeavours ceafe,
Advis'd by him, inclin'd to prefent peace,
Join to the Turk's destruction, and then bring
All their pretences to so just a king.
If the fuccefsful troublers of mankind,
With laurel crown'd, so great applause do find,
Shall the vex'd world less honour yield to those
'That stop their progrefs, 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:
'Tho' flaves, (like birds that fing not in a cage)
They loft their genius and poetick 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 Cross, and lay the Crefcent low.
Thus may the Gospel to the rising fun
Be fpread, and flourish where it first begun;
And this great day, (se justly honour'd here!)
Known to the East, and celebrated there.
"Hæc ego longævus cecini tibi, maxime regum!
Aufus et ipfe manu juvenum tentare laborem."
TASSO OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS.
TASSO knew how the fairer fex to grace,
But in no one durft all perfection place.
In her alone that owns this book is feen
Clorinda's fpirit, and her lofty mien,
Sophronia's piety, Erminia's truth,
Armida's charms, her beauty, and her youth.
Our Princess here, as in a glass, does drefs
Her well taught mind, and ev'ry grace exprefs.
More to our wonder than Rinaldo fought,
The hero's race excels the poet's thought.
What fruits they have, and how Heat'n fmiles
Upon those late difcover'd ifles i
me, Bellona! while the dreadful fight
Betwixt a nation and two whales I write.
Seas flain'd with gore I fing, advent'rous toil!
And how thefe monsters did difarm an isle.
Bermuda, wall'd with rocks, who does not know?
That happy inland 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 aspires,
The prince of trees! is fuel for their fires;
The fmoke by which their loaded spits do turn,
For incenfe might on facred altars burn:
Their private roofs on od❜rous timber borne,
Such as might palaces for kings adorn.
The fweet palmettos a new Bacchus yield,
With leaves as ample as the broadest shield,
Under the fhadow of whofe friendly boughs
They fit caroufing where their liquor grows.
Figs there unplanted thro' the fields do grow,
Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show,
With the rare fruit, inviting them to spoil
Carthage, the mistress of fo rich a foil.
The naked rocks are not unfruitful there,
But as fome constant seasons, ev'ry year
Their barren tops with lufcious food abound,
And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd.
Tobacco is the worst 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 these 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 promife 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 spot 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 taste :
There a small grain in fome few months will be 50
A firm, a lofty, and a fpacious 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,
Phœbus on them eternally does fmile.
Oh! how 1 long my careless 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 fweet and best of paffions, love.
There while I fing, if gentle Love be by,
That tunes my lute, and winds the string so high,
With the fweet found of Sachariffa's name
I'll make the lift'ning favages grow tame.—
But while I do these pleafing dreams endite,
I am diverted from the promis'd fight.
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