 | A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes |  |
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An ODE Performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge July 1, 1749, At the Installation of his Grace Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle, Chancellor of the University.
By Mr. Mason, Fellow of Pembroke-Hall.
Set to Musick by Mr. Boyce, Composer to his Majesty.
------ canit errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum
Aonas in montes ut duxerit una sororum;
Utque viro Phœbi chorus assurrexerit omnis.
Virgil.
Aonas in montes ut duxerit una sororum;
Utque viro Phœbi chorus assurrexerit omnis.
Virgil.
[I.]
Recitative.
Here all thy active fires diffuse,Thou genuine British Muse;
Hither descend from yonder orient sky,
Cloth'd in thy heav'n-wove robe of harmony.
263
Air I.
Come, imperial queen of song;Come with all that free-born grace,
Which lifts thee from the servile throng,
Who meanly mimic thy majestic pace;
That glance of dignity divine,
Which speaks thee of celestial line;
Proclaims thee inmate of the sky,
Daughter of Jove and Liberty.
II.
Recitative.
The elevated soul, who feelsThy aweful impulse, walks the fragrant ways
Of honest unpolluted praise:
He with impartial justice deals
The blooming chaplets of immortal lays:
He flies above ambition's low career;
And nobly thron'd in Truth's meridian sphere,
Thence, with a bold and heav'n-directed aim,
Full on fair Virtue's shrine he pours the rays of fame.
III.
Air II.
Goddess! thy piercing eye exploresThe radiant range of Beauty's stores,
The steep ascent of pine-clad hills,
The silver slope of falling rills,
Catches each lively-colour'd grace,
The crimson of the wood-nymph's face,
The verdure of the velvet lawn,
The purple in the eastern dawn,
Or all those tints, which rang'd in vivid glow
Mark the bold sweep of the celestial bow.
264
IV.
Recitative.
But chief she lifts her tuneful transports high,When to her intellectual eye
The mental beauties rise in moral dignity:
The sacred zeal for Freedom's cause,
That fires the glowing Patriot's breast;
The honest pride that plumes the Hero's crest,
When for his country's aid the steel he draws;
Or that, the calm, yet active heat,
With which mild Genius warms the Sage's heart,
To lift fair Science to a loftier seat,
Or stretch to ampler bounds the wide domain of art.
Air III.
These, the best blossoms of the virtuous mind,She culls with taste refin'd;
From their ambrosial bloom
With bee-like skill she draws the rich perfume,
And blends the sweets they all convey,
In the soft balm of her mellifluous lay.
V.
Recitative.
Is there a clime, where all these beauties riseIn one collected radiance to her eyes?
Is there a plain, whose genial soil enhales
Glory's invigorating gales,
Her brightest beams where Emulation spreads,
Her kindliest dews where Science sheds,
Where every stream of Genius flows,
Where ev'ry flower of Virtue glows?
Thither the Muse exulting flies,
There she loudly cries—
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Chorus I.
All hail, all hail,Majestic Granta! hail thy aweful name,
Dear to the Muse, to Liberty, to Fame.
VI.
Recitative.
You too, illustrious Train, she greetsWho first in these inspiring seats
Caught the bright beams of that ætherial fire,
Which now sublimely prompts you to aspire
To deeds of noblest note: whether to shield
Your country's liberties, your country's laws;
Or in Religion's hallow'd cause
To hurl the shafts of reason, and to wield
Those heav'nly-temper'd arms, whose rapid force
Arrests base Falshood in her impious course,
And drives rebellious Vice indignant from the field.
VII.
Air IV.
And now she tunes her plausive songTo you her sage domestic throng;
Who here, at Learning's richest shrine,
Dispense to each ingenuous youth
The treasures of immortal Truth,
And open Wisdom's golden mine.
Recitative.
Each youth inspir'd by your persuasive art,Clasps the dear form of virtue to his heart;
And feels in his transported soul
Enthusiastic raptures roll,
Gen'rous as those the sons of Cecrops caught
In hoar Lycæum's shades from Plato's fire-clad thought.
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[VIII.]
Air V.
O Granta! on thy happy plainStill may these Attic glories reign:
Still mayst thou keep thy wonted state,
In unaffected grandeur great;
Recitative.
Great as this illustrious hour,When He, whom George's well-weigh'd choice
And Albion's general voice
Have lifted to the fairest heights of pow'r,
When He appears, and deigns to shine
The leader of thy learned line;
And bids the verdure of thy olive bough
'Mid all his civic chaplets twine,
And add fresh glories to his honour'd brow.
IX.
Air VI.
Haste then, and amply o'er his headThe graceful foliage spread;
Mean while the Muse shall snatch the trump of Fame,
And lift her swelling accents high,
To tell the world that Pelham's name
Is dear to Learning as to Liberty.
The Muse shall snatch the trump of Fame,
And lift her swelling accents high,
To tell the world that Pelham's name
Is dear to Learning as to Liberty.
| A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes | |