 | The Poems of Ambrose Philips |  |
132
EPIGRAMS AND SHORT POEMS
On a Company of bad Dancers to good Musick.
How ill the motion with the musick suits!So Orpheus fidled, and so danc'd the brutes.
EPIGRAM.
[George came to the crown without striking a blow]
George came to the crown without striking a blow:Ah, quoth the Pretender, would I could do so!
In Answer to the Question, What is Thought?
The hermit's solace in his cell,The fire that warms the poet's brain,
The lover's heaven, or his hell,
The madman's sport, the wise man's pain.
Half Masking her Self when she Smil'd.
So, when the Sun, with his Meridian Light,Too fiercely darts upon our feeble Sight;
We thank th'officious Cloud, by whose kind Aid
We view his Glory, lessen'd in a Shade.
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In the YEAR 1714.
In this bright List may generous Passions reign;And every British Fair a slave disdain!
While, stung with Envy, servile Nations see
Our Nymphs so Beautiful; our Men so Free!
In vain the mock Saint-George would give Alarms
To English Valour, rais'd by English Charms.
How glorious is the Heat, how strong the Fire,
When Liberty and Love, at once, inspire!
To Mr. Addison on Cato.
The mind to virtue is by verse subdu'd,And the true poet is a publick good:
This Britain feels, while, by your lines inspir'd,
Her free-born sons to glorious thoughts are fir'd.
In Rome had you espous'd the vanquish'd cause,
Inflam'd her senate and upheld her laws,
Your manly scenes had liberty restor'd,
And giv'n the just success to Cato's sword,
O'er Cæsar's arms your genius had prevail'd,
And the muse triumph'd where the patriot fail'd.
On Wit and Wisdom. A FRAGMENT.
In search of wisdom far from wit I fly:Wit is a harlot, beauteous to the eye,
In whose bewitching arms our early time
We waste, and vigour of our youthful prime:
But when reflexion comes with riper years,
And manhood with a thoughtful brow appears,
We cast the mistress off to take a wife,
And, wed to wisdom, lead a happy life.
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The following Epitaph on the Monument of my Kinswoman was written at the Request of her Husband.
WITHIN the Burial-Vault near this Marble, lieth the Body of PENELOPE, youngest Daughter (and Coheir with her Sister ELIZABETH) to ROBERT PHILIPS of Newton-Regis, in the County of Warwick, Esquire. She died in her Six and Thirtieth Year, on the 25th Day of January, MDCCXXVI.
Let this Inscription
(Appealing yet to testimonies manifold)
Recall to every surviving witness,
And, for ensample, record to posterity,
Her endowments,
Whether owing to the indulgency of nature,
Or to the assiduous lessons of education,
Or to the silent admonitions of reflection.
To her parents, husband, children,
In no care, no duty, no affection,
Was she wanting,
Receiving, deserving, winning,
From them respectively,
Equal endearments.
Of countenance and of disposition,
Open, chearful, modest;
Of behaviour, humble, courteous, easy;
Of speech, affable, free, discreet;
In civilities, punctual, sincere, and elegant;
Prone to offices of kindness and good will;
To enmity a stranger;
Forward, earnest, impatient,
To succour the distress'd,
To comfort the afflicted;
Solicitous for the poor,
And rich in store of alms:
Whereby she became
The delight, the love, the blessing, of all.
(Appealing yet to testimonies manifold)
Recall to every surviving witness,
And, for ensample, record to posterity,
Her endowments,
Whether owing to the indulgency of nature,
Or to the assiduous lessons of education,
Or to the silent admonitions of reflection.
To her parents, husband, children,
In no care, no duty, no affection,
Was she wanting,
Receiving, deserving, winning,
From them respectively,
Equal endearments.
Of countenance and of disposition,
Open, chearful, modest;
Of behaviour, humble, courteous, easy;
Of speech, affable, free, discreet;
In civilities, punctual, sincere, and elegant;
Prone to offices of kindness and good will;
To enmity a stranger;
135
To succour the distress'd,
To comfort the afflicted;
Solicitous for the poor,
And rich in store of alms:
Whereby she became
The delight, the love, the blessing, of all.
In her houshold flourished
Chearfulness, due order, thrift, and plenty.
In the closet retired,
In the temple publick,
Morning and evening did she worship;
By instruction, by example,
Sedulous to nurture her children in godliness:
So prevalent her love to them
Visited with that sore disease,
Which too often kills or blites
The mother's fondest hopes,
That (regardless of self-preservation)
In piously watching over their lives
She, catching the infection, lost her own,
Triumphing, through resignation,
Over sickness, pain, anguish, agony,
And (encompassed with tears and lamentations)
Expiring in the fervour of prayer.
Chearfulness, due order, thrift, and plenty.
In the closet retired,
In the temple publick,
Morning and evening did she worship;
By instruction, by example,
Sedulous to nurture her children in godliness:
So prevalent her love to them
Visited with that sore disease,
Which too often kills or blites
The mother's fondest hopes,
That (regardless of self-preservation)
In piously watching over their lives
She, catching the infection, lost her own,
Triumphing, through resignation,
Over sickness, pain, anguish, agony,
And (encompassed with tears and lamentations)
Expiring in the fervour of prayer.
TO the Memory, ever dear and precious, of his most affectionate, most beloved, and most deserving, Wife, is this Monument raised by HENRY VERNON of Hilton, in the County of Stafford, Esquire: to him she bore five Sons and two daughters, all surviving, save Elizabeth; who dying, in her second Year, of the Small Pox, some few Days before, resteth by her Mother.
136
THE FABLE of THULE,
UNFINISHED.
Far northward as the Dane extends his sway,
Where the sun glances but a sloping ray,
Beneath the sharpest rigour of the skies,
Disdainful Thule's wintry island lies.
Unhappy maid! thy tale, forgotten long,
Shall virgins learn from my instructive song,
And every youth, who lingers in despair,
By thy example warn the cruel fair.
Where the sun glances but a sloping ray,
Beneath the sharpest rigour of the skies,
Disdainful Thule's wintry island lies.
Unhappy maid! thy tale, forgotten long,
Shall virgins learn from my instructive song,
And every youth, who lingers in despair,
By thy example warn the cruel fair.
In Cyprus, sacred to the queen of love,
(Where stands her temple, and her myrtle grove,)
Was Thule born, uncertain how: 'tis said
Once Venus won Adonis to her bed,
And pregnant grew, the birth to chance assign'd
In woods, and foster'd by the feather'd kind.
With flowers some strew the helpless orphan round,
With downy moss some spread the carpet ground,
Some ripened fruits, some fragrant honey, bring;
And some fetch water from the running spring;
While others warble from the boughs, to cheer
Their infant charge, and tune her tender ear.
Soon as the sun forsakes the evening skies,
And hid in shades the gloomy forest lies,
The nightingales their tuneful vigils keep,
And lull her, with their gentler strains, to sleep.
(Where stands her temple, and her myrtle grove,)
Was Thule born, uncertain how: 'tis said
Once Venus won Adonis to her bed,
And pregnant grew, the birth to chance assign'd
In woods, and foster'd by the feather'd kind.
With flowers some strew the helpless orphan round,
With downy moss some spread the carpet ground,
Some ripened fruits, some fragrant honey, bring;
And some fetch water from the running spring;
While others warble from the boughs, to cheer
Their infant charge, and tune her tender ear.
Soon as the sun forsakes the evening skies,
And hid in shades the gloomy forest lies,
The nightingales their tuneful vigils keep,
And lull her, with their gentler strains, to sleep.
This the prevailing rumour: as she grew,
No dubious tokens spoke the rumour true.
In every forming feature might be seen
Some bright resemblance of the Cyprian queen:
Nor was it hard the hunter youth to trace,
In all her early passion for the chace:
And when, on springing flowers reclin'd, she sung,
The birds upon the bending branches hung,
While, warbling, she express'd their various strains,
And, at a distance, charm'd the listening swains:
So sweet her voice resounded through the wood,
They thought the nymph some Siren from the flood.
No dubious tokens spoke the rumour true.
In every forming feature might be seen
Some bright resemblance of the Cyprian queen:
137
In all her early passion for the chace:
And when, on springing flowers reclin'd, she sung,
The birds upon the bending branches hung,
While, warbling, she express'd their various strains,
And, at a distance, charm'd the listening swains:
So sweet her voice resounded through the wood,
They thought the nymph some Siren from the flood.
Half human thus by lineage, half divine,
In forests did the lonely beauty shine,
Like wood-land flowers, which paint the desert glades,
And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades.
No human face she saw, and rarely seen
By human face: a solitary queen
She rul'd, and rang'd, her shady empire round.
No horn the silent huntress bears; no hound,
With noisy cry, disturbs her solemn chace,
Swift, as the bounding stag, she wings her pace;
And, bend when-e'er she will her ebon bow,
A speedy death arrests the flying foe.
The bow the hunting goddess first supply'd,
And ivory quiver cross her shoulders ty'd.
In forests did the lonely beauty shine,
Like wood-land flowers, which paint the desert glades,
And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades.
No human face she saw, and rarely seen
By human face: a solitary queen
She rul'd, and rang'd, her shady empire round.
No horn the silent huntress bears; no hound,
With noisy cry, disturbs her solemn chace,
Swift, as the bounding stag, she wings her pace;
And, bend when-e'er she will her ebon bow,
A speedy death arrests the flying foe.
The bow the hunting goddess first supply'd,
And ivory quiver cross her shoulders ty'd.
The imperious queen of heaven, with jealous eyes,
Beholds the blooming virgin from the skies,
At once admires, and dreads, her growing charms,
And sees the god already in her arms:
In vain, she finds, her bitter tongue reproves
His broken vows, and his clandestine loves:
Jove still continues frail: and all in vain
Does Thule in obscurest shades remain,
While Maja's son, the thunderer's winged spy,
Informs him where the lurking beauties ly.
What sure expedient then shall Juno find,
To calm her fears, and ease her boding mind?
Delays to jealous minds a torment prove;
And Thule ripens every day for love.
Beholds the blooming virgin from the skies,
At once admires, and dreads, her growing charms,
And sees the god already in her arms:
In vain, she finds, her bitter tongue reproves
His broken vows, and his clandestine loves:
Jove still continues frail: and all in vain
Does Thule in obscurest shades remain,
While Maja's son, the thunderer's winged spy,
Informs him where the lurking beauties ly.
138
To calm her fears, and ease her boding mind?
Delays to jealous minds a torment prove;
And Thule ripens every day for love.
She mounts her car, and shakes the silken reins;
The harness'd peacocks spread their painted trains,
And smooth their glossy necks against the sun:
The wheels along the level Azure run.
Eastward the goddess guides her gaudy team,
And perfects, as she rides, her forming scheme.
The harness'd peacocks spread their painted trains,
And smooth their glossy necks against the sun:
The wheels along the level Azure run.
Eastward the goddess guides her gaudy team,
And perfects, as she rides, her forming scheme.
The various orbs now pass'd, adown the steep
Of heaven the chariot whirls, and plunges deep
In fleecy clouds, which o'er the mid-land main
Hang pois'd in air, to bless the isles with rain:
And here the panting birds repose a-while:
Not so their queen; she gains the Cyprian isle,
By speedy Zephyrs borne in thickned air:
Unseen she seeks, unseen she finds, the fair.
Of heaven the chariot whirls, and plunges deep
In fleecy clouds, which o'er the mid-land main
Hang pois'd in air, to bless the isles with rain:
And here the panting birds repose a-while:
Not so their queen; she gains the Cyprian isle,
By speedy Zephyrs borne in thickned air:
Unseen she seeks, unseen she finds, the fair.
Now o'er the mountain tops the rising sun
Shot purple rays: now Thule had begun
Her morning chace, and printed in the dews
Her fleeting steps. The goddess now pursues,
Now over-takes her in the full career,
And flings a javelin at the flying deer.
Amaz'd, the virgin huntress turns her eyes;
When Juno, (now Diana in disguise,)
Let no vain terrours discompose thy mind;
My second visit, like my first, is kind.
Thy ivory quiver, and thy ebon bow,
Did not I give?—Here sudden blushes glow
On Thule's cheeks: her busy eyes survey
The dress, the crescent, and her doubts give way.
Shot purple rays: now Thule had begun
Her morning chace, and printed in the dews
Her fleeting steps. The goddess now pursues,
Now over-takes her in the full career,
And flings a javelin at the flying deer.
Amaz'd, the virgin huntress turns her eyes;
When Juno, (now Diana in disguise,)
Let no vain terrours discompose thy mind;
My second visit, like my first, is kind.
Thy ivory quiver, and thy ebon bow,
Did not I give?—Here sudden blushes glow
On Thule's cheeks: her busy eyes survey
The dress, the crescent, and her doubts give way.
139
I own thee, goddess bright, the nymph replies,
Goddess, I own thee, and thy favours prize:
Goddess of woods, and lawns, and level plains,
Fresh in my mind thine image still remains.
Goddess, I own thee, and thy favours prize:
Goddess of woods, and lawns, and level plains,
Fresh in my mind thine image still remains.
Then Juno, beauteous ranger of the grove,
My darling care, fair object of my love,
Hither I come, urg'd by no trivial fears,
To guard thy bloom, and warn thy tender years.
My darling care, fair object of my love,
Hither I come, urg'd by no trivial fears,
To guard thy bloom, and warn thy tender years.
| The Poems of Ambrose Philips | |