The time shall come, when free as seas or wind, Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tide, Ard seas but join the regions they divide; Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold, And the new world launch forth to seek the old Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide, And feather'd people crowd my wealthy side, And naked youths and painted chiefs admire Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire!
Oh, stretch thy reign, fair peace! from shore to shore,
Till conquest cease, and slavery be no more; Till the freed Indians in their native groves Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves; Peru once more a race of kings behold, And other Mexicos be rooff'd with gold. Exiled by thee from earth to deepest hell, In brazen bonds shall barbarous discord dwell: Gigantic pride, pale terror, gloomy care, And mad ambition shall attend her there: There purple vengeance bathed in gore retires, Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires: There hateful envy her own snakes shall feel, And persecution mourn her broken wheel: There faction roar, rebellion bite her chain, And gasping furies thirst for blood in vain.'
Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days; The thoughts of gods let Granville's verse recite, And bring the scenes of opening fate to light; My humble muse, in unambitious strains, Paints the green forests and the flowery plains, Where peace descending, bids her olive spring, And scatters blessings from her dove-like wing. E'en I more sweetly pass my careless days, Pleased in the silent shade with empty praise; Enough for me, that to the listening swains First in these fields I sang the sylvan strains.
And other Pieces for Music.
DESCEND, ye Nine: descend and sing: The breathing instruments inspire; Wake into voice each silent string, And sweep the sounding lyre! In a sadly-pleasing strain Let the warbling lute complain; Let the loud trumpet sound,
Till the roofs all around
The shrill echoes rebound:
While, in more lengthen'd notes and slow The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow. Hark! the numbers soft and clear Gently steal upon the ear;
Now louder, and yet louder rise,
And fill with spreading sounds the skies; Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes La broken air trembling, the wild music floats, Till, by degrees, remote and small,
The strains decay,
And melt away,
In a dying, dying fall.
By music, minds an equal temper know, Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, Music her soft, assuasive voice applies;
Or, when the soul is press'd with cares, Exalts her in enlivening airs.
Warriors she fires with animated sounds; Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds Melancholy lifts her head,
Morpheus rouses from his bed,
Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes, Listening envy drops her snakes, Intestine war no more our passions wage, And giddy factions bear away their rage. But when our country's cause provokes to arm How martial music every bosom warms! So when the first bold vessel dared the seas, High on the stern the Thracian raised his strain While Argo saw her kindred trees Descend from Pelion to the main. Transported demi-gods stood round, And men grew heroes at the sound,
Inflamed with glory's charms: Each chief his sevenfold shield display'd And half unsheathed the shining blade: And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound To arms, to arms, to arms! But when through all the infernal bounds. Which flaming Plegethon surrounds,
Love, strong as death, the poet led To the pale nations of the dead, What sounds were heard, What scenes appear'd, O'er all the dreary coasts! Dreadful gleams, Dismal screams, Fires, that glow, Shrieks of woe, Sullen moans,
And cries of tortured ghosts: But, hark! he strikes the golden lyre: And see! the tortured ghosts respire.
See, shady forms advance! Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands stil, Ixion rests upon his wheel, And the pale spectres dance!
The Furies sink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurl'd hang listening round their heads By the streams that ever flow, By the fragrant winds that blow O'er the Elysian flowers;
By those happy souls, who dwell In yellow meads of asphodel, Or amaranthine bowers! By the hero's armed shades, Glittering through the gloomy glades; By the youths that died for love, Wandering in the myrtle grove, Restore, restore Eurydice to life: Oh take the husband, or return the wife!
He sung, and hell consented
To hear the poet's prayer; Stern Proserpine relented, And gave him back the fair. Thus song could prevail O'er death and o'er hell;
A conquest how hard and how glorious!
Though fate had fast bound her
With Styx nine times round her,
Yet music and love were victorious.
But soon, too soon the lover turns his eyes : Again she falls, again she dies, she dies! How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move? No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love.
Now under hanging mountains Beside the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, All alone,
Unheard, unknown, He makes his moan, And calls her ghost,
For ever, ever, ever, lost! Now with furies surrounded, Despairing, confounded, He trembles, he glows,
Amidst Rhodope's snows:
See, wild as the winds, o'er the desert he flies; Hark! Hæmus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries- Ah see, he dies!
Yet e'en in death Eurydice he sung: Eurydice still trembled on his tongue:
Eurydice the woods,
Eurydice the floods,
Eurydice the rocks and hollow mountains rung
Music the fiercest grief can charm, And Fate's severest rage disarm; Music can soften pain to ease,
And make despair and madness please: Our joys below it can improve,
And antedate the bliss above.
This the divine Cecilia found,
And to her Maker's praise confined the sound, When the full organ joins the tuneful quire,
The immortal powers incline their ear: Borne on the swelling notes our souls aspire, While solemn airs improve the sacred fire; And angels lean from heaven to hear. Of Orpheus now no more let poets tell: To bright Cecilia greater power is given: His numbers raised a shade from hell, Hers lift the soul to heaven.
TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS, Altered from Shakspeare by the Duke of Buckingham: at whose desire these two Chorusses were composed, to supply as many wanting in his Play. They were set many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini,| and performed at Buckingham house.
CHORUS OF ATHENIANS. Strophe 1.
YE shades, where sacred truth is sought; Groves, where immortal sages taught; Where heavenly visions Plato fired, And Epicurus lay inspired!
In vain your guiltless laurels stood Unspotted long with human blood.
War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invades, And steel now glitters in the muses' shades.
Oh heaven-born sisters! source of art' Who charm the sense, or mend the heart; Who lead fair virtue's train along, Moral truth and mystic song!
To what new clime, what distant sky, Forsaken, friendless, shall ye fly? Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore? Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more? Strophe 2.
When Athens sinks by fates unjust, When wild barbarians spurn her dust! Perhaps e'en Britain's utmost shore Shall cease to blush with stranger's gore: See arts her savage sons controul, And Athens rising near the pole ! Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand, And civil madness tears them from the land
Ye gods! what justice rules the ball? Freedom and arts together fall; Fools grant whate'er ambition craves, And men once ignorant are slaves. O cursed effects of civil hate, In every age, in every state!
Still, when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, Some Athens perishes, some Tully bleeds.
CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS Semichorus.
OH tyrant Love! hast thou possess'd The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast? Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,
And arts but soften us to feel thy flame. Love, soft intruder, enters here, But entering learns to be sincere. Marcus, with blushes owns he loves, And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, virtue, dost thou blame desire, Which nature hath impress'd? Why, nature, dost thou soonest fire The mild and generous breast? Chorus. Love's purer flames the gods approve; The gods and Brutus bend to love: Brutus for absent Porcia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia's eyes. What is loose love? a transient gust, Spent in a sudden storm of lust; A vapour fed from wild desire; A wandering, self-consuming fire. But Hymen's kinder flames unite, And burn for ever one; Chaste as cold Cynthia's virgin light, Productive as the sun.
Oh source of every social tie, United wish, and mutual joy! What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother, husband, friend. Whether his hoary sirc he spies, While thousand grateful thoughts arise; Or meets his spouse's fonder eye; Or views his smiling progeny;
What tender passions take their turns. What home-felt raptures move! His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns, With reverence, hope, and love.
Hence, guilty joys, distates, surmises; Hence, false tears, deceits, disguises, Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises,
Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine: Purest Love's unwasting treasure, Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure; Days of ease, and nights of pleasure,
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.
with some taste, but spoiled by false education, ver 19 to 25. The multitude of critics, and causes of them, ver. 26 to 45. That we are to study our own taste, and know the limits of it, ver. 46 to 67. Nature the best guide of judgment, ver. 68 to 87. Improved by art and rules, which are but methodized nature, ver. 88. Rules derived from the practice of ancient poets, ver. 88 to 110. That therefore the ancients are necessary to be studied by a critic, particularly Homer and Virgil, ver. 120 to 138. Of licenses, and the use of them by the ancients, ver. 140 to 180. Reverence due to the ancients, and praise of them, ver. 181, &c.
'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill
Written when the Author was about twelve Years old. Appear in writing, or in judging ill;
The dying Christian to his Soul. VITAL spark of heavenly flame! Quit, oh quit this mortal frame: Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying- Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life.
Hark! they whisper: angels say, Sister spirit, come away. What is this absorbs me quite, Steals my senses, shuts my sight, Drowns my spirits, draws my breath? Tell me, my soul, can this be death? The world recedes; it disappears! Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears With sounds seraphic ring: Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly ? Oh grave! where is thy victory? Oh death! where is thy sting?
But of the two, less dangerous is the offence To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. Some few in that, but numbers err in this; Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss; A fool might once himself alone expose; Now one in verse makes many more in prose. "Tis with our judgments as our watches; none Go just alike, yet each believes his own. In poets as true genius is but rare,
True taste as seldom is the critic's share; Both must alike from Heaven derive their light; These born to judge, as well as those to write. Let such teach others who themselves excel, And censure freely, who have written well : Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true; But are not critics to their judgment too?
Yet, if we look more closely, we shall find Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind: 20 Nature affords at least a glimmering light; The lines, though touch'd but faintly, are drawn right But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced, Is by ill-colouring but the more disgraced, So by false learning is good sense defaced: Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools. In search of wit these lose their common sense, And then turn critics in their own defence: Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, Or with a rival's or an eunuch's spite. All fools have still an itching to deride, And fain would be upon the laughing side. If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spite, There are who judge still worse than he can write. Some have at first for wits, then poets pass'd; Turn'd critics next, and proved plain fools at last. Some neither can for wits nor critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass. Those half-learn'd witlings, numerous in our isle, 40 As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile; Unfinish'd things, one knows not what to call, Their generation's so equivocal:
To tell them would a hundred tongues require, Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire.
But you, who seek to give and merit fame, And justly bear a critic's noble name, Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, How far your genius, taste, and learning, go;
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
Written in the Year 1709.
And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. Nature to all things fix'd the limits fit, And wisely curb'd proud man's pretending wit: ntroduction. That it is as great a fault to judge ill, as As on the land while here the ocean gains, to write ill, and a more dangerous one to the public, In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; ver. 1. That a true taste is as rare to be found as a Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
true genius, ver. 9 to 18. That most men are born The solid power of understanding fails;
Where beams of warm imagination play, The memory's soft figures melt away. One science only will one genius fit; So vast is art, so narrow human wit: Not only bounded to peculiar arts, But oft in those confined to single parts. Like kings, we lose the conquests gain'd before By vain ambition still to make them more: Each might his several province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand.
Be Homer's works your study and delight, Read them by day, and meditate by night: 60 Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring,
And trace the muses upward to their spring: Still with itself compared, his text peruse; And let your comment be the Mantuan Muse.
When first young Maro, in his boundless mind 130 A work t' outlast immortal Rome design'd, Perhaps he seem'd above the critic's law, And but from nature's fountains scorn'd to draw: But when to examine every part he came,
70 Nature and Homer were, he found, the same. Convinced, amazed, he checks the bold design, And rules as strict his labour'd work confine, As if the Stagyrite o'erlooked each line. Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem, To copy nature, is to copy them.
First follow nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same: Unerring nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchanged, and universal light, Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art; Art from that fund each just supply provides; Works without show, and without pomp presides : In some fair body thus the informing soul With spirit feeds, with vigour fills the whole, Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains; Itself unseen, but in the effects remains. Some, to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse, Want as much more, to turn it to its use; For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. 'Tis more to guide, than spur the muse's steed; Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed: The winged courser, like a generous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course. Those rules of old discover'd, not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodized: Nature, like liberty, is but restrain'd By the same laws which first herself ordain'd. Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, When to repress, and when indulge our flights: High on Parnassus' top her sons she show'd, And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; Held from afar, aloft, the immortal prize, And urged the rest by equal steps to rise. Just precepts thus from great examples given,
Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness as well as care. Music resembles poetry; in each
Are nameless graces which no methods teach, 80 And which a master-hand alone can reach. If, where the rules not far enough extend (Since rules were made but to promote their end,) Some lucky license answer to the full The intent proposed, that license is a rule. Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, May boldly deviate from the common track; From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art, Which, without passing through the judgment, gains 90 The heart, and all its ends at once attains.
In prospects thus, some objects please our eyes, Which out of nature's common order rise, The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice. Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, And rise to faults true critics dare not mend. But though the ancients thus their rules invade (As kings dispense with laws themselves have made,) Moderns, beware! or, if you must offend Against the precept, ne'er transgress its end Let it be seldom, and compell'd by need; 100 And have, at least, their precedent to plead The critic else proceeds without remorse, Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force.
She drew from them what they derived from Hea
The generous critic fann'd the poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire. Then criticism the muse's handmaid proved, To dress her charms, and make her more beloved: But following wits from that intention stray'd; Who could not win the mistress, woo'd the maid; Against the poets their own arms they turn'd, Sure to hate most the men from whom they learn'd. So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part, Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools. Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey, Nor time nor moths e'er spoil'd so much as they : Some drily plain, without invention's aid, Write dull receipts how poems may be made. These leave the sense, their learning to display,
And those explain the meaning quite away.
I know there are, to whose presumptuous thoughts Those freer beauties, e'en in them, seem faults, 170 Some figures monstrous and mis-shaped appear, Consider'd singly, or beheld too near, Which, but proportion'd to their light or place, Due distance reconciles to form and grace. A prudent chief not always must display 110 His powers in equal ranks, and fair array, But with the occasion, and the place comply, Conceal his force, nay seem sometimes to fly. Those oft are stratagems which errors seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.
Still green with bays each ancient altar stands, Above the reach of sacrilegious hands; Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage,
You then, whose judgment the right course would Destructive war, and all-involving age. steer,
Know well each ancient's proper character: His fable, subject, scope in every page: Religion, country, genius of his age: Without all these at once before your eyes, Cavil you may, but never criticise.
See from each clime the learn'd their incense bring! Hear, in all tongues consenting Pæans ring!
120 In praise so just let every voice be join'd, And fill the general chorus of mankind. Hail! bards triumphant! born in happier days; Immortal heirs of universal praise'
Whose honours with increase of ages grow, As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow; Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound, And worlds applaud that must not yet be found! O may some spark of your celestial fire, The last, the meanest of your sons inspire, (That, on weak wings, from far pursues your flights; Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,) To teach vain wits a science little known,
'Tis not the lip, or eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full result of all. Thus when we view some well-proportion'd dome, (The world's just wonder, and e'en thine, oh Rome! No single parts unequally surprise;
All comes united to the admiring eyes: No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear: The whole at once is bold, and regular. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
To admire superior sense, and doubt their own! 200 Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Causes hindering a true judgment. 1. Pride, ver. 201.
2. Imperfect learning, ver. 215. 3. Judging by parts, and not by the whole, ver. 233 to 288. Critics in wit, language, versification, only, 288, 305, 339, &c. 4. Being too hard to please, or too apt to admire, ver. 384. 5. Partiality-too much love to a sect-to the ancients or moderns, ver. 394. 6. Prejudice or prevention, ver. 408. 7. Singularity, ver. 424. 8. Inconstancy, ver. 430. 9. Party spirit, ver. 452, &c. 10. Envy, ver. 466. Against envy, and in praise of good-nature, ver. 508, &c. When severity is chiefly to be used by the critics, ver. 526, &c.
In every work regard the writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend; And if the means be just, the conduct true, Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, To avoid great errors, must the less commit; Neglect the rule each verbal critic lays; For not to know some trifles, is a praise. Most critics, fond of some subservient art, Still make the whole depend upon a part: They talk of principles, but notions prize, And all to one loved folly sacrifice.
Once on a time, La Mancha's knight, they say, A certain bard encountering on the way, Discoursed in terms as just, with looks as sage, As e'er could Dennis, of the Grecian stage; Concluding all were desperate sots and fools, Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules. Our author, happy in a judge so nice, Produced his play, and begg'd the knight's advice; Made him observe the subject, and the plot, The manners, passions, unities; what not? All which, exact to rule, were brought about, 210 Were but a combat in the lists left out.
Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride; the never-failing vice of fools. Whatever nature has in worth denied, She gives in large recruits of needful pride! For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind: Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, And fills up all the mighty void of sense. If once right reason drives that cloud away, Truth breaks upon us with resistless day. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, Make use of every friend-and every foe.
little learning is a dangerous thing! Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.) Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the height of arts, While from the bounded level of our mind, Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind; But more advanced, behold with strange surprise New distant scenes of endless science rise! So, pleased at first, the towering Alps we try, Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky! The eternal snows appear already pass'd, And the first clouds and mountains seem the last: But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey The growing labours of the lengthen'd way: The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes, Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!
What! leave the combat out?' exclaims the knight. 'Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite.'- *Not so, by heaven! (he answers in a rage) 'Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage.' 'So vast a throng the stage can ne'er contain.'— "Then build a new, or act it on a plain.'
Thus critics of less judgment than caprice, Curious, not knowing, not exact, but nice, Form short ideas; and offend in arts (As most in manners) by a love to parts.
Some to conceit alone their taste confine, And glittering thoughts struck out at every line; 290 Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit; One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. Poets, like painters, thus unskill'd to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With gold and jewels cover every part, And hide with ornaments their want of art. True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, 230 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; Something, whose truth convinced at sight we find; That gives us back the image of our mind. As shades more sweetly recommend the light, So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit; For works may have more wit than does them good, As bodies perish through excess of blood.
A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the same spirit that its author writ: Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find Where.nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, The generous pleasure to be charm'd with wit. But, in such lays as neither ebb nor flow, Correctly cold, and regularly low,
That, shunning faults, one quiet tenor keep; We cannot blame indeed-but we may sleep. In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts Is not the exactness of peculiar parts;
Others for language all their care express, And value books, as women men, for dress: Their praise is still,-the style is excellent; 240 The sense, they humbly take upon content. Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. 310 False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, Its gaudy colours spreads on every place;
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