Rough nature soften'd into grace and ease;
Senfe grew polite, and science fought to please.
Reliev'd from yon rude scene of party-din,
Where open Bafenefs vies with fecret Sin,
And fafe embower'd in * Woburn's airy groves,
Let us recall the times our taste approves ;
Awaken to our aid the mourning Mufe;
Through every bofom tender thought infuse;
Melt angry Faction into moral fenfe,
And to his guefts a Bedford's foul dispense.

And now, while Spring extends her smiling reign,
Green on the mountain, flowery in the plain;
While genial Nature breathes, from hill and dale,
Health, fragrance, gladness, in the living gale;
The various foftnefs, ftealing through the heart,
Impreffions, fweetly focial, will impart.
When fad Eudocia pours her hopelefs woe,
The tear of pity will unbidden flow!

When erring Phocyas, whom wild paffions blind,
Holds up himself, a mirror for mankind;
An equal eye on our own hearts we turn,
Where frailties lurk, where fond affections burn:
And, confcious, Nature is in all the fame,
We mourn the guilty, while the guilt we blame!

EP I

*The Siege of Damafcus was acted at Woburn, by the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Sandwich, and fome other perfons of diftin&tion, in the month of May, 1743.

EPILOGUE

TO

THE

BROTHERS,

A TRAGEDY, BY DR. YOUNG.

T

O woman, fure, the most severe affliction

Is, from these fellows, point-blank contradiction.
Our Bard, without-I wish he would appear-
Ud! I would give it him-but you shall hear -
Good Sir! quoth I- and curtfey'd as I fpoke-
Our pit, you know, expects and loves a joke—
'Twere fit to humour them: for, right or wrong,
True Britons never like the fame thing long.
To-day is fair-they ftrut, huff, fwear, harangue :-
To-morrow's foul-they sneak aside, and hang.
Is there a war-peace! peace! is all their cry:
The peace is made-then, blood! they 'll fight and die.
Gallants, in talking thus, meant no treafon :

I would have brought, you see, the man to reafon.
But with fome folks, 'tis labour loft to strive:

A reasoning mule will neither lead nor drive.

He hum'd, and haw'd; then, waking from his dream, Cry'd, I must preach to you his moral scheme.

2

A fcheme,

Some

*

A fcheme, forfooth! to benefit the nation! odd whim of pious propagation! queer, Lord talk fo, here-the man must be a widgeon: Drury may propagate-but not Religion.

Yet, after all, to give the Devil his due,

Our Author's fcheme, though ftrange, is wholly new:
Well, fhall the novelty then recommend it?
If not from liking, from caprice befriend it.

For drums and routs, make him a while your paffion,
A little while let Virtue be the fashion:

And, fpite of real or imagin'd blunders,

Ev'n let him live, nine days, like other wonders.

PROLOGU E.

TO

MR. THOMSON'S AGAMEMNON.

HEN this decifive night, at length, appears,

WH

The night of every author's hopes and fears, What shifts to bribe applause, poor poets try! In all the forms of wit they court and lye: Thefe meanly beg it, as an alms; and thofe, By boastful blufter dazzle and impofe.

Nor

*The profits arifing from this play were intended to be given, by the Author, to the Society for propagating Chriftian Knowledge.

Nor poorly fearful, nor fecurely vain,

Ours would, by honeft ways, that grace obtain ;
Would, as a free-born wit, be fairly try'd :

And then-let candor, fairly too, decide.

He courts no friend, who blindly comes to praise;
He dreads no foe-but whom his faults may raife.
Indulge a generous pride, that bids him own,
He aims to please, by noble means alone;
By what may win the judgment, wake the heart,
Infpiring natute, and directing art;

By fcenes, fo wrought, as may applaufe command More from the judging head, than thundering hand. Important is the moral we would teachOh may this island practise what we preachVice in its first approach with care to shun; The wretch, who once engages, is undone. Crimes lead to greater crimes, and link fo ftreight, What firft was accident, at last is fate : Guilt's hapless fervant finks into a flave ; And Virtue's laft fad ftrugglings cannot fave. "As fuch our fair attempt, we hope to fee "Our judges,-here at least-from influence free: "One place,-ubiafs'd yet by party-rage,"Where only honour votes-the British stage. "We ask for juftice, for indulgence fue : "Our last beft licence muft proceed from you.”

IMPROMP

TU,

On a LADY, who had paffed fome time in playing with a very young child.

W

HY, on this leaft of little Miffes,

Did Celia waste so many kiffes?

Quoth Love, who stood behind and fmil'd,

She kifs'd the father in the child.

EPIGRAM,

On feeing two perfons pafs by, in very different equipages.

IN modern, as in ancient days,

See what the Mufes have to brag on: The Player in his own poft-chaife;

The Poet in a carrier's waggon!

EPIGRAM,

On a certain LORD's paffion for a SINGER.

NERINA's angel-voice delights;

Nerina's devil-face affrights :

How whimsical her Strephon's fate,
Condemn'd at once to like and hate!

But be the cruel, be the kind,

Love! ftrike her dumb, or make him blind.