Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign.
No more my sons shall dye with British blood
Red Iber's sands, or Ister's foaming flood:
Safe on my shore each unmolested swain

Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain;
The shady empire shall retain no trace
Of war or blood, but in the sylvan chase;

370

The trumpet sleep, while cheerful horns are blown,

And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone.
Behold! th' ascending Villas on my side
Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide.
Behold! Augusta's glitt'ring spires increase,

375

And Temples rise1, the beauteous works of Peace.

I see, I see, where two fair cities bend
Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend2!
There mighty Nations shall inquire their doom,
The World's great Oracle in times to come;

380

There Kings shall sue, and suppliant States be seen
Once more to bend before a BRITISH QUEEN.

Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods,
And half thy forests rush into thy floods,
Bear Britain's thunder, and her Cross display,

385

Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole:
Or under southern skies exalt their sails,

390

Unbounded Thames3 shall flow for all mankind,
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide;
Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold,

400

And the new world launch forth to seek the old.
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide,
And feather'd people crowd my wealthy side,
And naked youths and painted chiefs admire
Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire!

405

O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore,

Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care,
And mad Ambition, shall attend her there:
There purple Vengeance bath'd in gore retires,
Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires :
There hateful Envy her own snakes shall feel,
And Persecution mourn her broken wheel:
There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain,
And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain.
Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays
Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days:
The thoughts of gods let Granville's verse recite,
And bring the scenes of op'ning fate to light.
My humble Muse, in unambitious strains,
Paints the green forests and the flow'ry plains,
Where Peace descending bids her olives spring,
And scatters blessings from her dovelike wing.
Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days,
Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise;
Enough for me, that to the list'ning swains
First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains.

415

420

425

430

'Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,' an old monkish writer, I forget who. P.

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.
'Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,
Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas.'
Ovid. Warburton.

Ver. 191, 194.

'Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam
Ante pedes umbram: nisi si timor illa videbat.
Sed certe sonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens

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.
Naturamque sequi.'
Luc.
Ver. 259. O qui me gelidis, etc.'

Ver. 421.

Virg. Warburton.

'Quo, Musa, tendis? desine pervicax
Referre sermones Deorum et

Magna modis tenuare parvis.'

Hor. Warburton.

ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY,

MDCCVIII.

AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC.

e

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:

Amphion thus bade wild dissension cease,

And softened mortals learn'd the Arts of Peace-
Amphion taught contending Kings

From various discords to create
The Musick of a well tun'd State,

Nor slack nor strain the tender Strings;
Those useful touches to impart

That strike the Subject's answ'ring heart;
And the soft silent Harmony, that springs
From sacred union and consent of Things.]

[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 Cæsar 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.]

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.