TO THE ENGLISHMAN AT BOURDEAUX.
PERFORMED SINCE THE CONCLUSION OF THE PEACE, WITH UNIVERSAL APPLAUSE, AT PARIS.
OO long by fome fatality misled,
From pride resulting, or from folly bred;
Each clime to all the virtues lays a claim,
And foars, felf-flatter'd, to the top of fame :
Confines each merit to itfelf alone,
Or thinks no other equal to its own:
E'en the pale Ruffian fhiv'ring as he lies,
Beneath the horror of his bittereft fkies,
While the loud tempeft rattles o'er his head,
Or burfts all dreadful on his tott'ring fhed,
Hugs a foft fomething clofely to his foul,
That foothes the cutting sharpness of the pole,
Elates his bofom with a confcious pride,
And smiles contempt on all the world befide.
'Tis your's, O France, the earliest to unbind
This more than Gordian manacle of mind!
To-night we bid your juftice may be shewn
To foreign virtues equal with your own;
Think, nobly think, when nature first was born,
And fair creation kindled into morn,
The world was but one family, one band,
Which glow'd all grateful to the heavenly hand;
Thro' ev'ry breast a social impulse ran,
Link'd beaft to beaft, and faften'd man to man,
And the fole diff'rence which he heard, or had,
Dwelt in the fimple phrafes, "good or bad."
Then fcorn to give such partial feelings birth,
As claim but one poor competence of earth;
Be more than French; on ev'ry country call,
And rife, exalted, citizens of all.
HE anxious ftruggle happily o'erpaft,
And ev'ry party fatisfy'd at laft;
It now remains to make one fhort effay,
And urge the moral leffon in the play.
In arts long fince has Britain been renown'd,
In arms high honour'd, and in letters crown'd:
The fame great goddefs who fo nobly fung
In Shakespear's ftrains, and honey'd o'er his tongue,
Their deathlefs Marlbro' to the triumph led,
And wreath'd eternal laurels round his head;
Yet tho' the trump of never-dying fame
Strikes heav'n's high arches with the British name;
Tho' on the fands of Africa it glows,
Or cafts a day-light on the Zemblian snows;
Still there are faults in Britain to be found,
Which spring as freely as in common ground,
We are too gay,--they frequently too fad ;-
We run stark wild;-they melancholy mad;
Extremes of either reason will condemn,
Nor join with us, nor vindicate with them.
The human genius, like revolving suns,
An equal circuit in the bofom runs :
And thro' the various climates where 'tis plac'd,
Muft firike out new divertities of taste,
To ene grand pourt eternally it leans,
Howe'er it warps or differs in the means.
Hence on no nation let us turn our eyes,
And idly raise it spotlefs to the skies;
Nor still more idly let our censures fall,
Since knaves and madmen may be found in all.
Here then we reft, nor further can contend,
For since the best will find some fault to mend,
Let us, where'er the virtues shed their fire,
With fervor reverence, and with zeal admire;
Exert our care the gath’ring blaze to trace,
And mark the progress only, not the place:
Confefs alike the peasant’s and the king's,
Nor once consider in what foil it springs.
AN ODE ON ST. CECILIA's DAY,
Adapted to the ancient British mufic, viz. the falt-box, the Jew's harp, the marrow-bones and cleavers, the hum-ftrum or hurdy-gurdy, &c. as it was performed on June 10, 1763, at Ranelagh.
Cedite, Tibicines Itali, vos cedite, Galli;
Dico iterum vobis, cedite, Tibicines.
O Cedite, Tibicines, vobis ter dico; quaterque
Jam vobis dico, cedite, Tibicines.
Yield, yield ye fidlers, French, Italians;
Yield, yield, I fay again— Rascallions.
One, two, three times I fay, fidlers give o'er;
Yield ye, I now fay times 1, 2, 3, 4.
RECITATIVE Accompanied..
E dumb, be dumb, ye inharmonious founds,
And mufic, that the aftonish'd ear with difcord wounds. No more let common rhymes prophane the day.
Grac'd with divine Cæcilia's name;
Let folemn hymns this aweful feast proclaim,
And heavenly notes confpire to raise the heav'nly lay.
RECIT. Accompanied.
The meaner melody we fcorn,
Which vulgar instruments afford;
Shrill flute, fharp fiddle, bellowing horn, Rumbling baffoon, or tinkling harpsichord.
In ftrains more exalted the falt-box shall join,
And clattering, and battering, and clapping combine,
With a rap and a tap while the hollow fide founds,
Up and down leaps the flat, and with rattling rebounds.
RECITATIVE.
Strike, ftrike the foft Judaic harp,
Soft and fharp,
By teeth coercive in firm durance kept,
And lightly by the volant finger swept.
Buzzing twangs the iron lyre,
Shrilly thrilling,
Trembling, thrilling.
Whizzing with the wav'ring wire.
|