Inclines her urn upon his fatten’d lands;
And fees his numerous herd imprint her fands.
And thou, my fair, my dove, fhalt raife thy thought To greatnefs next to empire; fhalt be brought With folemn pomp to my paternal seat ;
Where peace and plenty on thy word shall wait. Mufic and fong fhall wake the marriage-day : And, whilft the priests accufe the bride's delay, Myrtles and rofes shall obstruct her way.
Friendship shall still thy evening feasts adorn; And blooming Peace thall ever bless thy morn, Succeeding years their happy race shall run, And age unheeded by delight come on ; While yet fuperior Love fhall mock his And when old Time fhall turn the fated hour, Which only can our well-tied knot unfold; What reits of both, one fepulchre shall hold.
Hence then for ever from my Emma's breaft (That heaven of softness, and that feat of rest) Ye doubts and fears, and all that know to move Tormenting grief, and all that trouble love, Scatter'd by winds recede, and wild in forests rove. EMMA.
O day the faireft fure that ever rose ! Period and end of anxious Emma's woes! Sire of her joy, and fource of her delight; O! wing'd with pleafure take thy happy flight, And give each future morn a tincture of thy white. Yet tell thy votary, potent Queen of Love,
Henry, my Henry, will he never rove?
Will he be ever kind, and just, and good?
And is there yet no miftrefs in the wood? None, none there is; the thought was rafh and vain; A false idea, and a fancy'd pain.
Doubt fhall for ever quit my ftrengthen❜d heart, And anxious jealoufy's corroding fmart;
Nor other inmate fhall inhabit there,
But foft Belief, young Joy, and pleasing Care: Hence let the tides of plenty ebb and flow, And Fortune's various gale unheeded blow. If at my feet the fuppliant goddefs ftands, And fheds her treasure with unweary'd hands; Her prefent favour cautious I'll embrace, And not unthankful use the proffer'd grace: If the reclaims the temporary boon, And tries her pinions, fluttering to be gone; Secure of mind, I'll obviate her intent, And unconcern'd return the goods the lent. Nor happiness can I, nor mifery feel, From any turn of har fantastic wheel: Friendship's great laws, and Love's fuperior powers, Must mark the colour of my future hours. From the events which thy commands create I must my bleflings or my forrows date; And Henry's 'will muft dictate Emma's fate. Yet while with close delight and inward pride (Which from the world my careful foul fhall hide) I fee thee, lord and end of my defire,
Exalted high as virtue can require;
With power invested, and with pleasure chear'd; Sought by the good, by the oppreffor fear'd;
Loaded and bleft with all the affluent flore,
Which human vows at fmoaking fhrines implore; Grateful and humble grant me to employ My life fubfervient only to thy joy;
And at my death to blefs thy kindness shown To her, who of mankind could love but thee alone.
WHILE thus the conftant pair alternate faid, Joyful above them and around them play'd Angels and fportive Loves, a numerous crowd; Smiling they clapt their wings, and low they bow'd: They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,
To chufe propitious fhafts, a precious store; That, when their God fhould take his future darts, To ftrike (however rarely) conftant hearts, His happy fkill might proper arms employ, All tipt with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy : And thofe, they vow'd, whofe lives fhould imitate Thefe lovers' conftancy, fhould fhare their fate.
The Queen of Beauty ftopt her bridled doves; Approv'd the little labour of the Loves; Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear; And to the triumph call'd the God of War: Soon as the calls, the God is always near.
Now, Mars, the faid, let Fame exalt her voice:
Nor let thy conquefts only be her choice:
But, when the fings great Edward from the field Return'd, the hoftile fpear and captive fhield In Concord's temple hung, and Gallia taught to yields And when, as prudent Saturn shall compleat The years defign'd to perfect Britain's state,
The fwift-wing'd power fhall take her trump again, To fing her favourite Anna's wondrous reign; To recollect unweary'd Marlborough's toils, Old Rufus' hall unequal to his fpoils;
The British foldier from his high command Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand : Let her at least perform what I defire; With fecond breath the vocal brass inspire; And tell the nations, in no vulgar ftrain,
What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain. And, when thy tumults and thy fights are paft; And when thy laurels at my feet are caft; Faithful may'ft thou, like British Henry, prove: And, Emma-like, let me return thy love.
Renown'd for truth, let all thy fons appear; And conftant Beauty fhall reward their care. Mars fmil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian Deity Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky; And thou, the fmiling faid, great God of days And verfe, behold my deed, and fing my praife, As on the British earth, my favourite ifle,
Thy gentle rays and kindest influence fmile, Through all her laughing fields and verdant groves, Proclaim with joy these memorable loves. From every annual courfe let one great day To celebrated fports and floral play
Be fet afide; and, in the softest lays
Of thy poetic fons, be folemn praise And everlafting marks of honour paid,
To the true Lover, and the Nut-brown Maid.
AN O D E,
Humbly infcribed to the QUE E N,
PRE FAC E.
WHEN I first thought of writing upon this occa
fion, I found the ideas fo great and numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of an Ode, than for any other fort of poetry: I therefore set Horace before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,
"Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c."
which he wrote in praise of Drufus after his expedition into Germany, and of Auguftus upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though T'have endeavoured to imitate all the great ftrokes of
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