AN EPIGRAM,

ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, JUST AFTER MR. DRYDEN.

DRYDEN is dead: Dryden alone could sing
The full-grown glories of a future king.
Now Glo'ster dies. Thus lesser heroes live
By that immortal breath that poets give,
And scarce survive the muse ; but William stands,
Nor asks his honours from the poet's hands.
William shall shine without a Dryden's praise:
His laurels are not grafted on the bays.

1700.

AN EPIGRAM OF MARTIAL TO CIRINIUS

"Sic tua, Cirini, promas epigrammata vulgo
"Ut mecum possis," &c.

INSCRIBED TO MR. JOSIAH HORT, NOW (1694) LORD BISHOP OF KILMORE, IN IRELAND.

So smooth your numbers, friend, your verse so sweet,

So sharp the jest, and yet the turn so neat,
That with her Martial Rome would place Cirine :

1 Afterwards Archbishop of Tuam.

Rome would prefer your sense and thought to mine: Yet modest, you decline the public stage,

To fix your friend alone amidst the applauding age. So Maro did; the mighty Maro sings

In vast heroic notes, of vast heroic things,

And leaves the ode to dance upon his Flaccus'

strings.

He scorn'd to daunt the dear Horatian lyre,
Though his brave genius flash'd Pindaric fire,
And at his will could silence all the lyric choir.
So to his Varius he resign'd the praise
Of the proud buskin and the tragic bays,
When he could thunder with a loftier vein,
And sing of gods and heroes in a bolder strain.
A handsome treat, a piece of gold or so,
And compliments, will every friend bestow:
Rarely a Virgil, a Cirine, we meet,

Who lays his laurels at inferior feet,

And yields the tenderest point of honour,— wit.

EPISTOLA.

FRATRI SUO DILECTO R. W.

I. W. S. P. D.

RURSUM tuas, amande frater, accepi literas, eodem fortasse momento quo meæ ad te pervenerunt; idemque qui te scribentem vidit dies, meum ad epistolare munus excitavit cala

mum. Non inane est inter nos fraternum nomen, unicus enim spiritus nos intus animat agitque, et concordes in ambobus efficit motus. O utinam crescat in dies, et vigescat mutua charitas! Faxit Deus ut amor sui nostra incendat et defæcet pectora: tunc etenim et alternis puræ amicitiæ flammis erga nos invicem divinum in modum ardebimus. Contemplemur Jesum nostrum, cœleste illud et adorandum exemplar charitatis. Ille est

QUI quondam, æterno delapsus ab æthere, vultus
Induit humanos, ut posset corpore nostras
(Heu, miseras!) sufferre vices: sponsoris obivit
Munia, et in sese tabulæ maledicta minacis
Transtulit, et sceleris poenas hominisque reatum.

Ecce, jacet desertus humi, diffusus in herbam, Integer, innocuas versus sua sidera palmas Et placidum attollens vultum, nec ad oscula Patris

Amplexus solitos ve; artus nudatus amictu Sidereos, et sponte sinum patefactus ad iras Numinis armati. "Pater, hic infige1 sagittas; "Hæc,” ait, "iratum sorbebunt pectora ferrum ; Abluat æthereus mortalia crimina sanguis."

Dixit, et horrendum fremuere tonitrua cœli Infensusque Deus, quem jam posuisse paternum Musa queri vellet nomen, sed et ipsa fragores Ad tantos pavefacta silet. Jam dissilit æther, Pandunturque fores ubi duro carcere regnat

1.Job iv. 6. [?]

Ira, et pœnarum thesauros mille coercet.
Inde ruunt gravidi vesano sulphure nimbi,
Centuplicisque volant contorta volumina flammæ
In caput immeritum : diro hic sub pondere pres-

66

sus

Restat, compressos dumque ardens explicat artus
Purpureo1 vestes tinctæ sudore madescunt.
Nec tamen infando vindex regina labori
Segnius incumbit, sed lassos increpat ignes
Acriter, et somno languentem suscitat 2 ensem:
'Surge, age, divinum pete pectus, et imbue sacro
Flumine mucronem; vos hinc, mea spicula, late
Ferrea per totum dispergite tormina Christum ;
Immensum tolerare valet; ad pondera pœnæ
Sustentanda hominem suffulciet incola NUMEN.
Et tu, sacra Decas Legum, violata tabella,
Ebibe vindictam! vasta satiabere cæde;
Mortalis culpæ pensabit dedecus ingens
Permistus Deitate cruor."-

Sic fata, immiti contorquet vulnera dextra Dilaniatque sinus: sancti penetralia cordis Panduntur; sævis avidus dolor involat alis, Atque audax mentem scrutatur, et ilia mordet. Interea Servator ovat, victorque doloris Eminet, illustri perfusus membra cruore, Exultatque miser fieri; nam fortius illum

1 Luke xxii. 44.

2 Zech. xiii. 7.

3 Col. ii. 15.
4 Luke xxii. 44.

Urget patris honos, et non vincenda voluptas
Servandi miseros sontes. O nobilis ardor

Poenarum! O quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Durus Amor? Quid non cœlestia?

At subsidat phantasia, vanescant imagines; nescio quo me proripuit amens Musa. Volui quatuor lineas pedibus astringere, et ecce, numeri crescunt in immensum; dumque concitato genio laxavi fræna, vereor ne juvenilis impetus theologiam læserit, et audax nimis imaginatio. Heri adlata est ad me epistola indicans matrem meliuscule se habere, licet ignis febrilis non prorsus deseruit mortale ejus domicilium. Plura volui, sed turgidi et crescentes versus noluere plura, et coarctarunt scriptionis limites. Vale, amice frater, et in studio pietatis et artis medicæ strenuus decurre.

Datum a musœo meo, Londini, xvto Calend. Febr.,
Anno Salutis CIOCXCIII.

FRATRI E. W. OLIM NAVIGATURO.

I, FELIX, pede prospero,

I, frater, trabe pinea
Sulces æquora cœrula,
Pandas carbasa flatibus
Quæ tuto reditura sint.
Non te monstra natantia,
Ponti carnivoræ incolæ,
Prædentur rate naufraga.
Navis, tu tibi creditum
Fratrem, dimidium mei,