The Third Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve ::

------ Quemvis media erue turba:
Aut ob avaritiam, aut misera ambitione laborat.
Hunc capit argenti splendor ------
Hic mutat merces surgente a sole, ad eum quo
Vespertina tepet regio: quin per mala præceps
Fertur ------
Omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poetas.
Hor. Sat. 4. L. 1.

I.

To hazardous Attempts and hardy Toils,
Ambition some excites;
And some, Desire of Martial Spoils
To bloody Fields invites;

1094

Others, insatiate Thirst of Gain,
Provokes to tempt the dangerous Main,
To pass the burning Line, and bear
Th'Inclemency of Winds, and Seas, and Air;
Pressing the doubtful Voy'ge 'till India's Shore
Her spicy Bosom bares, and spreads her shining Ore.

II.

Nor Widows Tears, nor tender Orphans Cries,
Can stop th'Invader's Force;
Nor swelling Seas, nor threatning Skies,
Prevent the Pirate's Course:
Their Lives to selfish Ends decreed,
Thro' Blood or Rapine they proceed;
No anxious Thoughts of ill Repute,
Suspend th'impetuous and unjust Pursuit:
But Pow'r and Wealth obtain'd, guilty and great,
Their Fellow-Creatures Fears they raise, or urge their Hate.

III.

But not for these, his Iv'ry Lyre
Will tuneful Phœbus string,

1095

Nor Polyhymnia crown'd amid the Choir,
Th'immortal Epode sing.
Thy Springs,

Commonly Castalius, but by Virg. Geor. 3. called Castalia, a Fountain at the Foot of Parnassus, sacred to the Muses.

Castalia, turn their Streams aside
From Rapine, Avarice, and Pride;
Nor do thy Greens, shady

Aonia, the hilly and woody Part of Bæotia, believ'd to have been much frequented by the Muses.

Aonia, grow,
To bind with Wreaths a Tyrant's Brow.

I.

How just, most mighty Jove, yet how severe
Is thy supreme Decree,

That impious Men shall joyless hear, &c. This Thought or Opinion is borrow'd from Pindar, Pyth. 1. where he says—But such Men whom Jupiter hates are confounded with Terror when they hear the sweet Harmony of the Muses. This Passage is often cited by Plutarch, and others, in favour of Musick and Poetry. Mr. Cowley in his Notes on his Davideis, Book 1. on David's dispossessing Saul of the Evil Spirit, collects a great number of surprizing Citations on this Subject.

That impious Men shall joyless hear
The Muses Harmony!
Their sacred Songs, (the Recompence
Of Virtue, and of Innocence)
Which pious Minds to Rapture raise,
And worthy Deeds, at once excite and praise,
To guilty Hearts afford no kind Relief;
But add inflaming Rage, and more afflicting Grief.

II.

Monstrous

Typhœus, one of the Giants who attempted to storm Heav'n; but Jupiter struck him with Thunder, and laid him under the Island of Sicily, with Ætna on his Breast. This Stanza is also copied from the same Ode of Pindar, where this Monster is said to have an hundred Heads, as also in Olymp. 4.

Typhœus, thus, new Terrors fill,
He, who assail'd the Skies,

1096

And now, beneath the burning Hill
Of dreadful Ætna lyes.
Hearing the Lyre's Celestial Sound,
He bellows in th'Abyss profound;
Sicilia trembles at his Roar,
Tremble the Seas, and far Campania's Shoar;
While all his hundred Mouths, at once expire
Volumes of curling Smoke, and Floods of liquid Fire.

III.

From Heav'n alone, all Good proceeds;
To heav'nly Minds belong
All Pow'r and Love, Godolphin, of good Deeds,
And Sense of Sacred Song!
And thus, most pleasing are the Muse's Lays
To them who merit most her Praise;
Wherefore, for thee, her Iv'ry Lyre she strings,
And soars with Rapture while she sings.

I.

Whether, Affairs of most important Weight
Require thy aiding Hand,

1097

And ANNA's Cause and Europe's Fate
Thy serious Thoughts demand;
Whether, thy Days and Nights are spent
In Cares, on Publick Good intent;
Or, whether, leisure Hours invite
To manly Sports, or to refin'd Delight;
In Courts residing, or to Plains retir'd,
Where gen'rous Steeds contest, with Emulation fir'd;

II.

Thee still she seeks, and tuneful sings thy Name,
As once she

Theron, a Prince of Agrigentum, to whom Pindar addresses his second and third Olympick.

Theron sung,
While with the deathless Worthy's Fame
Olympian

Pisa, a Town in Peloponnesus, near to which the Olympick Games were celebrated.

Pisa rung:
Nor less Sublime, is now, her Choice,
Nor less inspir'd by thee, her Voice.
And now, she loves aloft to sound
The Man for more than Mortal Deeds renown'd;
Vary'ing anon her Theme, she takes Delight
The swift-heel'd

So Horace, L. 4. Ode 2. speaks of Pindar— as singing sometimes the Hero, sometimes the Horse —Pugilemve Equumve dicit, &c.

Horse to praise, and sing his rapid Flight.

1098

III.

And see! the

Alluding to the Notion that Mares have conceiv'd by the Western Wind, without the Assistance of a Horse: See Virg. Geor. 3. ver. 273. from whence Tasso has borrow'd the Birth of Raymond's Horse Gierusalem, Canto 7.

Volta l'aperta bocca incontro l'ora
Raccoglie i semi del fecondo vento,
E de tepidi fiati (ô meraviglia!) &c.

Virg:

------ illæ
Ore omnes versæ in Zephyrum, stant rupibus altis,
Exceptantque Leves auras: & sæpe sine ullis
Conjugiis, vento gravidæ (mirabile dictu!)

&c.

Air-born Racers start,
Impatient of the Rein;
Faster they run, than flies the Scythian Dart,
Nor passing, print the Plain!
The Winds themselves who with their Swiftness vye,
In vain their airy Pinions ply;
So far in matchless Speed, thy Coursers pass
Th'Ætherial Authors of their Race.

I.

And now, a while, the well-strain'd Coursers breath;
And now, my Muse, prepare
Of

An Olive Garland was the Reward of Victory in the Olympick Games.

Olive Leaves a twisted Wreath
To bind the Victor's Hair.

The Fable on which this Digression is founded, is, that Neptune and Pallas had a Contention who should give the Name to Athens; and it was agreed, that which of 'em should confer the greatest Benefit on Mankind, should obtain the Victory. The Gods were assembled in Judgment, and Pallas struck the Earth with her Spear, whence up sprung the fruitful Olive-tree; then Neptune in his turn darted his Trident against the Earth, which opening was deliver'd of a Horse; but the Victory was adjudg'd to Pallas.

Pallas, in care of Human-kind,
The fruitful Olive first design'd;
Deep in the Glebe her Spear she lanc'd,
When all at once, the laden Boughs advanc'd:
The Gods with Wonder view'd the teeming Earth,
And all with one Consent, approv'd the beauteous Birth.

1099

II.

This done, Earth-shaking Neptune next essay'd,
In Bounty to the World,
To emulate the blue-ey'd Maid;
And his huge Trident hurl'd
Against the sounding Beach; the Stroke
Transfix'd the Globe, and open broke
The Central Earth, whence, swift as Light
Forth rush'd the first-born Horse. Stupendous Sight!
Neptune, for human Good the Beast ordains,
Whom soon he tam'd to Use, and taught to hear the

They who do not remember Virgil, may think this Metaphor too bold. He has ventur'd to apply it ev'n to the Chariot rather than the Horses, Georg. 1.
Fertur equis auriga, neq; audit currus habenas.

Reins.

III.

Thus Gods contended, (noble Strife!
Worthy the heav'nly Mind)
Who most should do to soften anxious Life,
And most endear Mankind.
Thus, thou Godolphin, dost with Marlbrô strive,
From whose joint Toils we Rest derive:
Triumph in Wars abroad his Arm assures,
Sweet Peace at home thy Care secures.

University of Virginia Library

To the Right Honourable the Earl of GODOLPHIN, Lord High-Treasurer of GREAT BRITAIN. PINDARIQUE ODE.

I.

II.

III.

I.

II.

III.

I.

II.

III.

I.

II.

III.