The Rolliad Part 34

ANTISTROPHE I.

In Trojan PRIAM's court a laurel grew; So VIRGIL sings. But I will sing the laurel, Which at St. JAMES's blooms.

O may I bend my brows from that blest tree, Not flouris.h.i.+ng in native green, Refreshed with dews from AGANIPPE's spring: But, [1]like the precious plant of DIS, Glitt'ring with gold, with royal sack irriguous.

EPODE I.

So shall my aukward grat.i.tude, With fond presumption to the Laureat's duty Attune my rugged numbers blank.

Little I reck the meed of such a song; Yet will I stretch aloof, And tell of Tory principles, The right Divine of Kings; And Power Supreme that brooks not bold contention: Till all the zeal monarchial That fired the Preacher, in the Bard shall blaze, And what my Sermons were, my Odes once more shall be.

STROPHE II.

[2]Good PRICE, to Kings and me a foe no more, By LANSDOWN won, shall pay with friendly censure His past hostility.

Nor shall not He a.s.sist, my pupil once, Of stature small, but doughty tongue, Bold ABINGDON, whose rhetoric unrestrain'd, Rashes, more lyrically wild, [3]Than GREENE's mad lays, when he out-pindar'd PINDAR.

ANTISTROPHE II.

With him too, EFFINGHAM his aid shall join, [4] Who, erst by GORDON led, with bonfires usher'd His Sov'reign's natal month.

Secure in such allies, to princely themes, To HENRY's and to EDWARD's young.

Dear names, I'll meditate the faithful song; How oft beneath my birch severe, Like EFFINGHAM and ABINGDON, they tingled:

EPODE II.

Or to the YOUTH IMMACULATE Ascending thence, I'll sing the strain celestial, By PITT, to bless our isle restor'd.

_Trim_ plenty, _not luxuriant_ as of old, Peace, laurel-crown'd no more; [5] Justice, that smites by scores, unmov'd; And her of verdant locks, Commerce, like Harlequin, in motley vesture, [6]Whose magic sword with sudden sleight, Wav'd o'er the HIBERNIAN treaty, turns to bonds, The dreams of airy wealth, that play'd round PATRICK's[7] eyes.

STROPHE III.

But lo! yon bark, that rich with India spoils, O'er the wide-swilling ocean rides triumphant, Oh! to BRITANNIA's sh.o.r.e In safety waft, ye winds, the precious freight!

'Tis HASTINGS; of the prostrate EAST Despotic arbiter; whose [8] bounty gave My MARKHAM's delegated rule To riot in the plunder of BENARES.

ANTISTROPHE III.

How yet affrighted GANGES, oft distain'd With GENTOO carnage, quakes thro' all his branches!

Soon may I greet the morn, When, HASTINGS screen'd, DUNDAS and GEORGE's name.

Thro' BISHOPTHORP's[9] glad roofs shall sound, Familiar in domestic merriment; Or in thy chosen PLACE, ST. JAMES, Be carol'd loud amid th' applauding IMHOFFS!

EPODE III.

When wealthy Innocence, pursued By Factious Envy, courts a Monarch's succour, Mean gifts of vulgar cost, alike Dishonour him, who gives, and him, who takes.

Not thus shall HASTINGS sav'd, Thee, BRUNSWICK, and himself disgrace.

[10]O may thy blooming Heir, In virtues equal, be like thee prolific!

Till a new race of little GUELPS, Beneath the rod of future MARKHAMS train'd, Lisp on their Grandsire's knee his mitred Laureat's lays.

[1] See Virgil's aeneid, b. vi.

[2] During the Administration of Lord SHELBURNE, I was told by a friend of mine, that Dr. PRICE took occasion, in his presence, to declare the most lively abhorrence of the d.a.m.nable heresies, which he had formerly advanced against the _Jure divino_ doctrines, contained in some of my Sermons.

[3] See a translation of PINDAR, by EDWARD BURNABY GKEENE.

[4] This alludes wholly to a private anecdote, and in no degree to certain malicious reports of the n.o.ble Earl's conduct during the riots of June, 1780.

[5] The present Ministry have twice gratified the public, with the awfully sublime spectacle of twenty hanged at one time.

[6] These three lines, I must confess, have been interpolated since the introduction of the fourth Proposition in the new _Irish_ Resolutions. They arose, however, quite naturally out of my preceding personification of commerce.

[7] I have taken the liberty of employing _Patrick_ in the same sense as _Paddy_, to personify the people of _Ireland_. The latter name was too colloquial for the dignity of my blank verse.

[8] One of the many frivolous charges brought against Mr. Hastings by factious men, is the removal of a Mr. FOWKE, contrary to the orders of the Directors, that he might make room for his own appointment of my so to the Residents.h.i.+p of BENARES. I have ever thought it my duty to support the late Governor-General, both at Leadenhall and in the House of Peers, against all such vexatious accusations.

[9] As many of my Compet.i.tors have complained of Signer Delpini's ignorance, I cannot help remarking here, that he did not know BISHOPTHORP to be the name of my palace, in Yorks.h.i.+re; he did not know Mr. Hastings's house to be in St. James's-place; he did not know Mrs. Hastings to have two sons by Mynheer _Imhoff_, her former husband, still living. And what is more shameful than all in a Critical a.s.sessor, he had never heard of the poetical figure, by which I elegantly say, _thy place, St. James's,_ instead of _St. James's-place_.

[10] Signor Delpini wanted to strike out all that follows, because truly it had no connection with the rest. The transition, like some others in this and my former Ode to Arthur Onslow, Esq. may be too fine for vulgar apprehensions, but it is therefore the more Pindaric.

IMITATIONS OF MYSELF.

_Strophe_ I.

This goodly frame what virtue so approves, And testifies the pure aetherial spirit, As mild benevolence?

_My Ode to Arthur Onslow, Esq._

_Epode_ I.

How shall my aukward grat.i.tude, And the presumption of untutor'd duty Attune thy numbers all too rude?

Little he recks the meed of such a song; Yet will I stretch aloof, &c.

_Ibid_.

_Antistrophe_ II.

To HENRYS and to EDWARDS old, Dread names, I'll meditate the faithful song, &c.

_Ibid_.

_Epode_ II.

Justice with steady brow, _Trim_ plenty, _Laureat_ peace, and _green-hair'd_ commerce, In flowing robe of _thousand hues_, &c.

On this imitation of myself, I cannot help remarking, how happily I have now applied some of these epithets, which, it must be confessed, had not half the propriety before.

_Strophe_ III.

Or trace her navy, where in towering pride O'er the wide-swelling waste it rolls avengeful.

_Ibid_.

_Antistrophe_ III.

How headlong Rhone and Ebro, erst distain'd With Moorish carnage, quakes thro' all her branches!

Soon shall I greet the morn, When, Europe saved, BRITAIN and GEORGE's name Shall soon o'er FLANDRIA's level field, Familiar in domestic merriment; Or by the jolly mariner Be carol'd loud adown the echoing Danube.

_Ibid_.

_Epode_ III.

O may your rising hope, Well-principled in every virtue, bloom, 'Till a fresh-springing flock implore, With infant hands, a Grandsire's powerful prayer, Or round your honour'd couch their pratling sports pursue.

_NUMBER XXII._

ODE,

_By the_ REV. THOMAS WARTON, B.D.

Fellow of the Trinity College, in Oxford, late Professor of Poetry in that University, and now Poet Laureat to his Majesty.