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SONG, by a Person of Quality.

F

Written in the Year 1733.

I.

Lutt'ring fpread thy purple Pinions,
Gentle Cupid, o'er my Heart;

I a Slave in thy Dominions;

Nature must give Way to Art.

II.

Mild Arcadians, ever blooming,
Nightly nodding o'er your

Flocks,

See my weary Days consuming,
All beneath yon flow'ry Rocks.

III.

Thus the Cyprian Goddess weeping,
Mourn'd Adonis, darling Youth:
Him the Boar in Silence creeping,
Gor'd with unrelenting Tooth.

IV.

Cynthia, tune harmonious Numbers;
Fair Difcretion, ftring the Lyre;
Sooth my ever-waking Slumbers:
Bright Apollo, lend thy Choir.

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V.

Gloomy Pluto, King of Terrors,
Arm'd in adamantine Chains,
Lead me to the Crystal Mirrors,
Wat'ring foft Elyfian Plains.

VI.

Mournful Cypress, verdant Willow,
Gilding my Aurelia's Brows,
Morpheus hov'ring o'er my Pillow,
Hear me pay my dying Vows.

VII.

Melancholy smooth Maander,
Swiftly purling in a Round,
On thy Margin Lovers wander,

With thy flow'ry Chaplets crown'd.

VIII.

Thus when Philomela drooping,

Softly feeks her filent Mate, See the Bird of Juno stooping; Melody refigns to Fate

On

On a certain LADY at COURT.

I

Know the thing that's moft uncommon;
(Envy be filent, and attend!)

I know a reasonable Woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a Friend.

Not warp'd by Paffion, aw'd by Rumour,
Not grave thro' Pride, or gay thro' Folly,
An equal mixture of good Humour,
And fenfible foft Melancholy.

"Has the no faults then (Envy fays) Sir?"
Yes, fhe has one, I must aver;

When all the World confpires to praise her,
The Woman's deaf, and does not hear.

On

On his GROTTO at Twickenham,

COMPOSED OF

Marbles, Spars, Gemms, Ores, and Minerals.

HOU who fhalt ftop, where Thames' translu

THOU

cent wave

Shines a broad Mirrour thro' the fhadowy Cave;
Where ling'ring drops from min'ral Roofs diftill,
And pointed Crystals break the sparkling Rill,
Unpolish'd Gemms no ray on Pride bestow,
And latent Metals innocently glow:

VARIATIONS.

After V. 6. in the MS.

You fee that Ifland's wealth, where, only free,
Earth to her entrails feels not Tyranny.

5

i. e. Britain is the only place on the globe which feels not Tyranny even to its very entrails. Alluding to the condemnation of Criminals to the Mines, one of the inflictions of civil juftice in moft Countries. The thought was exceeding natural and proper in this place, where the Poet was defcribing a Grotto incrufted and adorned with all forts of Minerals collected from the four quarters of the Globe.

NOTES.

On his Grotto.] The improving and finishing this Grott was the favourite amufement of his declining Years; and the beauty of his poetic genius, in the difpofition and ornaments of this romantic recefs, appears to as much advantage as in his best contrived Poems.

6

Approach.

Approach. Great NATURE ftudiously behold!
And eye the Mine without a wifh for Gold.

Approach: But awful! Lo! th' Ægerian Grott, 9
Where, nobly-penfive, ST. JOHN fate and thought;
Where British fighs from dying WYNDHAM ftole,
And the bright flame was fhot thro' MARCHMONT'S
Soul.

Let fuch, fuch only, tread this facred Floor,
Who dare to love their Country, and be poor.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 11. Where British fighs from dying Wyndham ftale.] in his MS. it was thus,

To Wyndham's breaft the patriot-paffions stole, which made the whole allude to a certain Anecdote of not much confequence to any but the parties concerned.

NOTES.

VER. 9. Egerian Grott,] Alluding to Numa's projecting his fyftem of Politics in this Grott, affifted, as he gave out, by the Goddess Ægeria.

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