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The works of John Dryden

Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author, by Sir Walter Scott
Dryden, John (1631-1700)

expand sectionIX. 
VOL. IX. POEMS, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
expand sectionX. 
VOL. X.
expand sectionXI. 
VOL. XI.
expand sectionXII. 
VOL. XII.
collapse sectionXIII. 
VOL. XIII.
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TRANSLATIONS FROM JUVENAL.
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TRANSLATIONS FROM PERSIUS.
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THE WORKS OF VIRGIL,
expand sectionXIV, XV. 
VOL. XIV., VOL. XV.

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V.

The mighty master smiled, to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred-sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures:
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour, but an empty bubble;
190

Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying;
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee—
The many rend the skies with loud applause;
So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause.
The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair,
Who caused his care,
And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again;
At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

CHORUS.

The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair,
Who caused his care,
And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again;
At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.
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