Hard was the lot those injur'd ftrains endur'd,
Unown'd by Science, and by years obscur'd:
Fair Fancy wept; and echoing fighs confefs'd
A fixt defpair in ev'ry tuneful breast.
Not with more grief th' afflicted swains appear,
When wintry winds deform the plenteous year;
When ling'ring frofts the ruin'd feats invade
Where Peace reforted, and the Graces play'd.
Each rifing art by just gradation moves,
Toil builds on toil, and age on age improves :
The Mufe alone unequal dealt her
rage,
And grac'd with nobleft pomp her earliest stage:
Preferv'd thro' time, the speaking scenes impart
Each changeful wish of Phædra's tortur'd heart :
Or paint the curse, that mark'd the d Theban's reign,
A bed incestuous, and a father flain.
With kind concern our pitying eyes o'erflow,
Trace the fad tale, and own another's woe.
To Rome remov'd, with wit fecure to please,
The Comic fifters kept their native ease.
With jealous fear declining Greece beheld
Her own Menander's art almoft excell'd!
But ev'ry Muse effay'd to raise in vain
Some labour'd rival of her Tragic firain;'
Ilyffus' laurels, tho' transferr'd with toil,
Droop'd their fair leaves, nor knew th' unfriendly foil.
a The Edipus of Sophocles.
As arts expir'd, refiftlefs Dulnefs rofe;
Goths, priests, or Vandals,—all were Learning's foes.
Tille Julius firft recall'd each exil'd maid,
And Cofmo own'd them in th' Etrurian fhade:
Then deeply skill'd in love's engaging theme,
The foft Provencial pass'd to Arno's ftream:
With graceful ease the wanton lyre he ftrung,
Sweet flow'd the lays-but love was all he fung.
The gay description could not fail to move;
For, led by nature, all are friends to love.
But heav'n, ftill various in its works, decreed
The perfect boaft of time fhould last succeed.
The beauteous union must appear at length,
Of Tuscan fancy, and Athenian strength:
One greater Muse Eliza's reign adorn,
And ev❜n a Shakespear to her fame be born!
Yet ah! fo bright her morning's op'ning ray,
In vain our Britain hop'd an equal day!
No fecond growth the western ifle could bear,
At once exhaufted with too rich a year.
Too nicely Johnson knew the critic's part;
Nature in him was almoft loft in art.
Of fofter mold the gentle Fletcher came,
The next in order, as the next in name.
With pleas'd attention 'midft his scenes we find
Each glowing thought, that warms the female mind;
e Julius II. the immediate predeceffor of Leo X.
Each melting figh, and ev'ry tender tear,
The lover's wishes and the virgin's fear.
His f ev'ry strain the Smiles and Graces own;
But stronger Shakespear felt for Man alone:
Drawn by his pen, our ruder paffions ftand
Th' unrival'd picture of his early hand.
8 With gradual steps, and flow, exacter France
Saw Art's fair empire o'er her shores advance :
By length of toil a bright perfection knew,
Correctly bold, and juft in all fhe drew.
Till late Corneille, with h Lucan's fpirit fir'd,
Breath'd the free ftrain, as Rome and He infpir'd:
And claffic judgment gain'd to sweet Racine
The temp❜rate strength of Maro's chaster line.
But wilder far the British laurel spread,
And wreaths lefs artful crown our poet's head.
Yet He alone to ev'ry scene could give
Th' hiftorian's truth, and bid the manners live.
Wak'd at his call I view, with glad furprize,
Majestic forms of mighty monarchs rife.
f Their characters are thus diftinguished by Mr. Dryden. About the time of Shakespear, the poet Hardy was in great repute in France. He wrote, according to Fontenelle, fix hundred plays. The French poets after him applied themfelves in general to the correct improvement of the stage, which was almost totally difregarded by thofe of our own country, Johnfon excepted.
The favourite author of the elder Corneille.
There Henry's trumpets spread their loud alarms,
And laurel'd Conquest waits her hero's arms.
Here gentler Edward claims a pitying figh,
Scarce born to honours, and fo foon to die!
Yet shall thy throne, unhappy infant, bring
No beam of comfort to the guilty king:
The i time fhall come, when Glo'fter's heart shall bleed
In life's laft hours, with horror of the deed:
When dreary vifions fhall at last prefent
Thy vengeful image in the midnight tent,
Thy hand unfeen the fecret death fhall bear,
Blunt the weak fword, and break th' oppreffive spear.
Where'er we turn, by Fancy charm'd, we find
Some fweet illufion of the cheated mind.
Oft, wild of wing, fhe calls the foul to rove
With humbler nature, in the rural grovė;
Where fwains contented own the quiet fcene,
And twilight fairies tread the circled green :
Drefs'd by her hand, the Woods and Vallies fmile,
And Spring diffufive decks th' inchanted ifle.
O more than all in pow'rful genius blest,
Come, take thine empire o'er the willing breast!
Whate'er the wounds this youthful heart shall feel,
Thy fongs fupport me, and thy morals heal!
iTempus erit Turno, magno cum optaverit emptum
Inta&tum pallanta, &c.
There ev'ry thought the poet's warmth may raise,
There native mufick dwells in all the lays.
O might fome verfe with happieft skill perfuade
Expreffive Picture to adopt thine aid!
What wond'rous draughts might rife from ev'ry page!
What other Raphaels charm a distant
age!
Methinks ev'n now I view fome free defign,
Where breathing Nature lives in ev'ry line:
Chaste and fubdu'd the modeft lights decay,
Steal into fhades, and mildly melt away.
-And fee, where k Anthony in tears approv'd,
Guards the pale relicks of the chief he lov❜d :
O'er the cold corfe the warrior feems to bend,
Deep funk in grief, and mourns his murder'd friend!
Still as they prefs, he calls on all around,
Lifts the torn robe, and points the bleeding wound.
But who is he, whofe brows exalted bear
A wrath impatient, and a fiercer air?
Awake to all that injur'd worth can feel,
On his own Rome he turns th' avenging steel,
Yet fhall not War's infatiate fury fall,
(So heav'n ordains it) on the deftin❜d wall.
See the fond mother 'midst the plaintive train
Hung on his knees, and proftrate on the plain!
k See the tragedy of Julius Cæfar.
1 Coriolanus. See Mr. Spence's dialogue on the Odyssey.
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