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University of Virginia Library

Matthew Prior. Poems on Several Occasions

The Text Edited by A. R. Waller

Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

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POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

On Exodus iii. 14. I am that I am.

TO THE COUNTESS of EXETER, Playing on the Lute.

Picture of Seneca dying in a Bath.

AN EPISTLE TO FLEETWOOD SHEPHARD, Esq

TO THE COUNTESS of DORSET.

TO THE LADY DURSLEY

TO My LORD BUCKHURST, Very Young, Playing with a CAT.

THE DESPAIRING SHEPHERD.

To the Honorable CHARLES MONTAGUE, Esq

HYMN to the SUN.

THE LADY's LOOKING-GLASS.

LOVE and FRIENDSHIP: A PASTORAL.

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL.

SEEING THE DUKE of ORMOND's PICTURE, AT Sir GODFREY KNELLER's.

CELIA TO DAMON.

IN IMITATION OF ANACREON.

An English BALLAD, On the Taking of NAMUR By the King of Great Britain, 1695.

Presented to the KING, AT HIS ARRIVAL in HOLLAND, AFTER THE Discovery of the Conspiracy 1696.

To CLOE Weeping.

CUPID and GANYMEDE.

CUPID Mistaken.

VENUS Mistaken.

A LOVER's ANGER.

MERCURY and CUPID.

The Question, to Lisetta.

Lisetta's Reply.

The Lady who offers her Looking-Glass to Venus.

Answer to CLOE Jealous, in the same Stile. The AUTHOR sick.

A Better Answer.

PALLAS and VENUS.

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TO A Young Gentleman in Love.

AN ENGLISH PADLOCK.

A Dutch Proverb.

PAULO PURGANTI AND His WIFE:

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Written at Paris, 1700. In the Beginning of ROBE's GEOGRAPHY.

Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE.

Written in the Nouveaux Interests des Princes de l'Europe.

A Passage in the MORIÆ ENCOMIUM of Erasmus Imitated.

TO Dr. SHERLOCK, ON HIS PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Concerning Death.

CARMEN SECULARE, For the Year 1700.

PROLOGUE, SPOKEN AT COURT before the QUEEN, On Her Majesty's Birth-Day, 1704.

A LETTER TO Monsieur Boileau Despreaux; Occasion'd by the VICTORY at BLENHEIM, 1704.

FOR The Plan of a Fountain,

From the Greek.

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To a Person who wrote Ill, and spake Worse against Me.

On the Same Person.

Quid sit futurum Cras fuge quærere.

HENRY and EMMA, A POEM, Upon the Model of The Nut-brown Maid.

AN ODE, Humbly Inscrib'd to the QUEEN. ON THE Glorious Success OF Her MAJESTY's Arms, 1706.

CANTATA.

Her Right Name.

Written in an OVID.

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A Reasonable Affliction.

Another Reasonable Affliction.

On the same Subject.

Forma Bonum Fragile.

A Critical Moment.

EPILOGUE TO PHÆDRA.

EPILOGUE TO LUCIUS.

The THIEF AND THE CORDELIER,

Horace Lib. I. Epist. IX. Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus, Quanti me facias: &c.

An Extempore Invitation TO THE EARL of OXFORD, Lord High Treasurer. 1712.

Erle ROBERT's MICE.

In the same Style.

In the same Style.

A FLOWER, Painted by SIMON VARELST.

TO THE Lady Elizabeth Harley, Since Marchioness of Carmarthen, On a Column of Her Drawing.

Protogenes and Apelles.

Democritus and Heraclitus.

For my own Tomb-stone.

GUALTERUS DANISTONUS. Ad Amicos.

THE FIRST HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS.

THE SECOND HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS.

Engraven on a COLUMN In the Church of Halstead in Essex,

Written in Montaigne's Essays,

An EPISTLE, Desiring the Queen's Picture.

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ALMA: OR, THE PROGRESS OF THE MIND.

1.

THE FIRST CANTO.

2.

THE SECOND CANTO.

3.

THE THIRD CANTO.

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SOLOMON ON THE VANITY OF THE WORLD.

1.

KNOWLEDGE; THE FIRST BOOK.

2.

PLEASURE: THE SECOND BOOK.

3.

POWER; THE THIRD BOOK.

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CANTATA.
[_]

Set by Monsieur Galliard.

RECIT.

Beneath a verdant Lawrel's ample Shade,
His Lyre to mournful Numbers strung,
Horace, immortal Bard, supinely laid,
To Venus thus address'd the Song:
Ten thousand little Loves around
List'ning, dwelt on ev'ry Sound.

ARIET.

Potent Venus, bid Thy Son
Sound no more His dire Alarms.
Youth on silent Wings is flown:
Graver Years come rolling on.
Spare my Age, unfit for Arms:
Safe and humble let Me rest,
From all am'rous Care releas'd.
Potent Venus, bid Thy Son
Sound no more His dire Alarms.

173

RECIT.

Yet, Venus, why do I each Morn prepare
The fragrant Wreath for Cloe's Hair?
Why, why do I all Day lament, and sigh,
Unless the beauteous Maid be nigh?
And why all Night pursue Her in my Dreams,
Thro' Flow'ry Meads, and Crystal Streams?

RECIT.

Thus sung the Bard; and thus the Goddess spoke:
Submissive bow to Love's imperious Yoke.
Ev'ry State, and ev'ry Age
Shall own My Rule, and fear My Rage:
Compell'd by Me Thy Muse shall prove,
That all the World was born to love.

ARIET.

Bid Thy destin'd Lyre discover
Soft Desire, and gentle Pain:
Often praise, and always love Her:
Thro' her Ear her Heart obtain.
Verse shall please, and Sighs shall move Her:
Cupid does with Phoebus reign.