Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign. Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain; 370 The trumpet sleep, while cheerful horns are blown, And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone. 375 And Temples rise1, the beauteous works of Peace. I see, I see, where two fair cities bend 380 There Kings shall sue, and suppliant States be seen Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods, 385 Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole: 390 Led by new stars, and borne by spicy gales ! For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow, The pearly shell its lucid globe infold, 395 And Phoebus warm the ripening ore to gold. The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, 400 And the new world launch forth to seek the old. 405 O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore, Till Conquest cease, and Slav'ry be no more; Till the freed Indians in their native groves Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves, 410 Peru once more a race of kings behold, And other Mexico's be roof'd with gold. In brazen bonds shall barbarous Discord dwell; And temples rise,] The fifty new churches. P. 2 [Designs for a new palace of Whitehall had been commenced by Inigo Jones.] 3 Unbounded Thames, etc.] A wish that London may be made a free port. P. Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care, 415 420 425 430 Ver. 89. 'Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 134. 'Præcipites alta vitam sub nube relinquunt.' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original, 'terræque urbesque recedunt.' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 183, 186. Ver. 191, 194. 'Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam Ver. 151. Th' impatient courser, etc.] Trans- Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.' lated from Statius, 'Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille Ante fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.' These lines Mr Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original; which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr P. tried his strength with them. Warburton. Most of the circumstances in this tale are taken from Ovid. Warton. Ver. 249, 50. 'Servare modum finemque tenere. Ver. 259. Ver. 421. Luc. Virg. Warburton. 'Quo, Musa, tendis? desine pervicax Magna modis tenuare parvis.' Hor. Warburton. ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY, MDCCVIII. AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC. ODE FOR MUSIC ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY. [This famous Ode, written by Pope in the year 1708 at Steele's desire, in praise of an art of the principles of which he was ignorant, while to its effects he was insensible,' has been naturally compared by successive generations of critics to Dryden's masterpiece on the same subject. A superiority which few will be disposed to deny has been generally claimed for Alexander's Feast; but it may be questioned whether in this class of poetry either the choice of historical instead of mythological illustrations, or the unity of the action represented, is to be regarded as an absolute merit. A more tenable objection to Pope's Ode is the circumstance that in his endeavour to vary expressively the versification, he has in Stanza IV. and in the second part of Stanza V. permitted himself the use of metres which mar the dignity of the poem. This Ode was set to music as an exercise for his degree of doct. mus. by Maurice Greene, and performed at the Public Commencement at Cambridge, on July 6th, 1730. The text of the Ode as sung on this occasion contains in the first four stanzas many variations introduced by Pope; and the following stanza is inserted as the third of the Ode: But when our Country's cause provokes to Arms, 36 How martial music ev'ry bosom warrns! So when the first bold vessel dar'd the seas, High on the stern the Thracian rais'd his strain, While Argo saw her kindred trees Descend from Pelion to the main. Transported demi-gods stood round1, And men grew heroes at the sound, Enflam'd with glory's charms: Each chief his sev'nfold shield display'd, And half unsheath'd the shining blade: And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound, To arms, to arms, to arms! IV. 44 But when thro' all th' infernal bounds, 1 Few images in any poet, ancient or modern, are more striking than that in Apollonius, where he says, that when the Argo was sailing near the coast where the Centaur Chiron dwelt, he came down to the very margin of the sea, bringing his wife with the young Achilles in her arms, that he might shew the child to his father Peleus, who was on his voyage with the other Argonauts. Julius Cæsar, after undergoing a previous process of emasculation, was converted by the Duke of Buckinghamshire into two five act tragedies, entitled respectively Julius Cæsar and Marcus Brutus, each being supplied with a Prologue and choruses between the acts. They were published in 1722. Pope's choruses occur after the Ist and the IInd Act of Brutus respectively. The best excuse for Buckinghamshire's attempt lies in what is really a fault in Shakspere's work-its duality of heroes; but the manner in which he executed this task speaks ill for the judgment of one who himself avers that the hope of mending Shakspere is 'such a jest would make a stoic smile.' The concluding lines of his Casar may be quoted as a specimen of his additions: 'Ambition, when unbounded, brings a curse, But an assassinate deserves a worse. As to John Sheffield Duke of Buckinghamshire see note to Essay on Crit. v. 724.] 1 Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of his play. They were set many years afterwards Buckingham, at whose desire these two Chorus's by the famous Bononcini, and performed at were composed to supply as many wanting in Buckingham-house. P. |