Inclines her urn upon his fatten'd lands;
And fees his numerous herd imprint her fands.
And thou, my fair, my dove, fhalt raise thy thought
To greatness next to empire; fhalt be brought
With folemn pomp to my paternal feat ;
Where peace and plenty on thy word fhall wait.
Mufic and song shall wake the marriage-day :
And, whilft the priests accuse the bride's delay,
Myrtles and rofes fhall obftruct her way.
Friendship shall still thy evening feasts adorn;
And blooming Peace fhall ever bless thy morn.
Succeeding years their happy race shall run,
And age unheeded by delight come on;
While yet fuperior Love fhall mock his power:
And when old Time fhall turn the fated hour,
Which only can our well-tied knot unfold;
What reits of both, one fepulchre shall hold.
Hence then for ever from my Emma's breaft
(That heaven of softness, and that feat of reft)
Ye doubts and fears, and all that know to move
Tormenting grief, and all that trouble love,
Scatter'd by winds recede, and wild in forests rove.
EMMA.
O day the fairest sure that ever rose !
Period and end of anxious Emma's woes!
Sire of her joy, and fource of her delight;
O! wing'd with pleasure take thy happy flight,
And give each future morn a tincture of thy white.
Yet tell thy votary, potent Queen of Love,
Henry, my Henry, will he never rove ?
Will he be ever kind, and just, and good?
And is there yet no mistress in the wood?
None, none there is; the thought was rash and vaing
A false idea, and a fancy'd pain.
Doubt fhall for ever quit my ftrengthen'd heart,
And anxious jealoufy's corroding fmart;
Nor other inmate fhall inhabit there,
But foft Belief, young Joy, and pleasing Care:
Hence let the tides of plenty ebb and flow,
And Fortune's various gale unheeded blow.
If at my feet the fuppliant goddess stands,
And sheds her treasure with unweary'd hands;
Her present favour cautious I'll embrace,
And not unthankful ufe the proffer'd grace:
If she reclaims the temporary boon,
And tries her pinions, fluttering to be gone;
Secure of mind, I'll obviate her intent,
And unconcern'd return the goods the lent.
Nor happiness can I, nor mifery feel,
From any turn of har fantastic wheel:
Friendship's great laws, and Love's fuperior powers,
Muft mark the colour of my future hours.
From the events which thy commands create
I must my bleffings or my forrows date;
And Henry's will muft dictate Emma's fate.
Yet while with clofe delight and inward pride
(Which from the world my careful foul fhall hide)
I fee thee, lord and end of my defire,
Exalted high as virtue can require;
With power invefted, and with pleasure chear'd;
Sought by the good, by the oppreffor fear'd.;
Loaded and bleft with all the affluent store,
Which human vows at fmoaking fhrines implore;
Grateful and humble grant me to employ
My life fubfervient only to thy joy;
And at my death to bless thy kindness shown
To her, who of mankind could love but thee alone
WHILE thus the conftant pair alternate faid,
Joyful above them and around them play'd
Angels and fportive Loves, a numerous crowd;
Smiling they clapt their wings, and low they bow'de
They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,
To chufe propitious fhafts, a precious store;
That, when their God should take his future darts,
To ftrike (however rarely) conftant hearts,
His happy fkill might proper arms employ,
All tipt with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy
And thofe, they vow'd, whofe lives fhould imitate
Thefe lovers' conftancy, fhould fhare their fate.
The Queen of Beauty ftopt her bridled doves;
Approv'd the little labour of the Loves;
Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear;
And to the triumph call'd the God of War:
Soon as the calls, the God is always near.
Now, Mars, she said, let Fame exalt her voice :
Nor let thy conquests only be her choice:
But, when the fings great Edward from the field
Return'd, the hoftile fpear and captive shield
And when, as prudent Saturn fhall compleat
The years defign'd to perfect Britain's state,
The fwift-wing'd power shall take her trump again,
To fing her favourite Anna's wondrous reign.;
To recollect unweary'd Marlborough's toils,
Old Rufus' hall unequal to his spoils;
The British foldier from his high command
Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand :
Let her at least perform what I defire;
With fecond breath the vocal brass inspire;
And tell the nations, in no vulgar strain,
What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain.
And, when thy tumults and thy fights are past,
And when thy laurels at my feet are caft;
Faithful may'ft thou, like British Henry, prove:
And, Emma-like, let me return thy love.
Renown'd for truth, let all thy fons appear;
And conftant Beauty fhall reward their care.
Mars fmil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian Deity
Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky;
And thou, the fmiling faid, great God of days
And verfe, behold my deed, and fing my praise,
As on the British earth, my favourite ifle,
Thy gentle rays and kindest influence fmile,
Through all her laughing fields and verdant groves,
Proclaim with joy these memorable loves.
From every annual courfe let one great day
To celebrated sports and floral play
Be fet afide; and, in the fofteft lays
Of thy poetic fons, be folemn praise
And everlasting marks of honour paid,
To the true Lover, and the Nut-brown Maid.
AN OD E,
Humbly infcribed to the QUEEN,
WHEN I first thought of writing upon this occafion, I found the ideas fo great and numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of an Ode, than for any other fort of poetry: I therefore fet Horace before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,
"Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c."
which he wrote in praife of Drufus after his expedition into Germany, and of Auguftus upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though I have endeavoured to imitate all the great ftrokes of
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