VENUS AND ADONIS,

A

CANTATA.

SET BY M R. HANDEL.

RECITATIVE.

BEHOLD where weeping Venus ftands!

What more than mortal grief can move

The bright, th' immortal Queen of Love?
She beats her breaft, the wrings her hands;
And hark, the mourns, but mourns in vain,
Her beauteous, lov'd Adonis, flain.
The hills and woods her lofs deplore;
The Naiads hear, and flock around;

And Echo fighs, with mimick found,
Adonis is no more!

Again the goddess raves, and tears her hair;
Then vents her grief, her love, and her despair.

AIR.

Dear Adonis, beauty's treafure,
Now my forrow, once my pleasure ;

O return to Venus' arms!
Venus never will forfake thee;
Let the voice of Love o'ertake thee,
And revive thy drooping charms.

RE

RECITATIVE.

Thus, Queen of Beauty, as thy Poets feign,
While thou didst call the lovely swain;

Transform'd by heavenly power,

The lovely fwain arose a flower,
And, smiling, grac'd the plain.

And now he blooms, and now he fades ;
Venus and gloomy Proferpine

Alternate claim his charms divine;

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By turns reftor'd to light, by turns he seeks the fhades.

AIR.

Tranfporting joy,

Tornienting fears,

Reviving fmiles,

Succeeding tears,

Are Cupid's various train.

The tyrant boy

Prepares his darts,

With foothing wiles,

With cruel arts,

And pleasure blends with pain.

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35

CAN

CANTAT A.

PASTORA L.

SET BY DR. PEPUS CH.

RECITATIVE.

YOUNG Strephon, by his folded sheep,

Sat wakeful on the plains:

:

Love held his weary eyes from sleep,

While, filent in the vale,

The liftening nightingale

Forgot her own, to hear his ftrains.
And now the beauteous Queen of Night,

Unclouded and ferene,

Sheds on the neighbouring fea her filver light; The neighbouring fea was calm and bright; The fhepherd fung inspir'd, and blefs'd the lovely scene.

AIR.

While the sky and feas are shining,
See, my Flora's charms they wear;
Secret night, my joys divining,

Pleas'd my amorous tale to hear;
Smiles, and fofily turns her fphere.
While the sky and feas are shining,
See, my Flora's charms they wear.

RE

RECITATIVE.

Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy strain ;
The lovely scene falfe joy infpires:
For look, thou fond, deluded fwain,
A rifing ftorm invades the main !
The Planet of the night,
Inconftant, from thy fight

Behind a cloud retires.

Flora is fled; thou lov'ft in vain :
Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy ftrain.

AIR.

Hope beguiling,

Like the moon and ocean fmiling,
Does thy eafy faith betray,

Flora ranging,

Like the moon and ocean changing,
More inconftant proves than they.

FAIR rival to the god of day,

Beauty, to thy cœlestial ray
A thousand fprightly fruits we owe ;
Gay wit, and moving eloquence,
And every art t' improve the fenfe,
And
every grace that shines below.

1

II. Not

II.

Not Phœbus does our fongs infpire,
Nor did Cyllenius form the lyre,
'Tis thou art Mufick's living fpring;
To thee the Poet tunes his lays,
And, fweetly warbling Beauty's praise,
Describes the power that makes him fing.
III.

Painters from thee their skill derive,
By thee their works to ages live,
For ev'n thy fhadows give furprize,
As when we view in crystal streams
The morning fun, and rifing beams
That feem to fhoot from other skies.
IV.

Enchanting vifion! who can be
Unmov'd that turns his eyes on thee?
Yet brighter ftill thy glories fhine,
And double charms thy power improve,
When Beauty, dreft in fimiles of Love,
Grows, like its parent Heaven, divine!

MYRA.