To crown the forests with immortal greens, 290 In the same shades the Cupids tun'd his lyre3, 295 Oh wouldst thou sing what heroes Windsor bore, What Kings first breath'd upon her winding shore, Or raise old warriors, whose ador'd remains In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains! With Edward's acts adorn the shining page, Stretch his long triumphs down through every age, Draw monarchs chain'd, and Cressi's glorious field, The lilies blazing on the regal shield: Then, from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall, And leave inanimate the naked wall"; 300 305 Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear, And bleed for ever under Britain's spear. 310 Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn, And palms eternal flourish round his urn. Here o'er the martyr-king the marble weeps, And, fast beside him, once-fear'd Edward sleeps?: Whom not th' extended Albion could contain, From old Belerium to the northern main, The grave unites; where e'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' opprest! Make sacred Charles's tomb for ever known9 (Obscure the place, and uninscrib'd the stone), 315 Her silver star] All the lines that follow were not added to the poem till the year 1710. What immediately followed this, and made the conclusion, were these, My humble muse in unambitious strains, &c. P. Here noble Surrey] Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, one of the first refiners of the English poetry; who flourished in the time of Henry VIII. P. [Born in 1517: died 1547. In the famous sonnet in 'Description and Praise of his love Geraldine' he sings that 'Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight.' All the conjectures concerning the lady are based upon this sonnet.] 3 The Mira of Granville was the countess of Newburgh. Towards the end of her life Dr King, of Oxford, wrote a very severe satire against her, in three books, 4to., called 'The Toast. Warton. 4 Edward's acts] Edward III. born here. P. [In the year 1312. It was in 1340 that he 320 first quartered the arms of France with his own.] I have sometimes wondered that Pope did not mention the building of Windsor Castle by Edward III. His architect was William of Wykeham: Warton. [Verrio's ceilings, enumerated at length in Jesse's Eton and Windsor, pp. 51, 2, are severely criticised by Horace Walpole. See Bowles ad loc. They were painted temp. Carol. II.] 6 Henry mourn] Henry VI. P. 7 once fear'd Edward sleeps:] Edward IV. P. [The grave of Charles I., of which, owing to the confusion which had attended his interment, the locality was unknown at the Restoration, though one of the witnesses, Mr Herbert, declared himself certain as to its precise situation, was discovered in the locality indicated in 1813. See Sir Henry Halford's account, quoted by Jessen.s.] 'Oh fact accurst! what tears has Albion shed, Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have bled! Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars. At length great Anna said, "Let Discord cease!" 325 In that blest moment from his oozy bed 330 Grav'd on his urn appear'd the moon, that guides 335 340 The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crown'd; Cole, whose dark streams his flowery islands lave; And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave: 345 And sullen Mole, that hides his diving flood"; 'He has copied, and equalled, the Rivers of Spenser, Drayton and Milton. Warton. [viz. in the Faerie Queen bk. iv. canto xi, the Polyolbion, and the Vacation exercise annoætatis xix.] 2 The Mole sinks through its sands, in dry summers, into an invisible channel under ground at Mickleham, near Dorking, Surrey. Bowles. 3 [Not Danish, but Saxon. The Britons under 350 355 360 365 Vortimer the son of Vortigern are said to have repulsed the Saxon invaders on the Darent.] 4 [The allusions are of course to the expected peace, for which the conferences were opened in January 1711 at Utrecht; to the previous campaigns in Spain and Germany; to the war between Peter the Great and Charles XII.; and to the early difficulties of our East India settlements.] Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign. Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain; 370 The trumpet sleep, while cheerful horns are blown, And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone. 375 Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide. And Temples rise', the beauteous works of Peace. Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend2! 380 There Kings shall sue, and suppliant States be seen Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods, 385 Bear Britain's thunder, and her Cross display, Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole: 390 For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow, The pearly shell its lucid globe infold, 395 And Phoebus warm the ripening ore to gold. The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tide, 400 And the new world launch forth to seek the old. 405 O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore, Till Conquest cease, and Slav'ry be no more; Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves, 410 Peru once more a race of kings behold, In brazen bonds shall barbarous Discord dwell; And temples rise,] The fifty new churches. P. 2 [Designs for a new palace of Whitehall had been commenced by Inigo Jones.] 3 Unbounded Thames, etc.] A wish that London may be made a free port. P. Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care, 415 420 425 430 IMITATIONS. Ver. 6. 'neget quis carmina Gallo?' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 65. The fields were ravish'd from th' industrious swains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:] Translated from, 'Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,' an old monkish writer, I forget who. P. Ver. 89. Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.' Virg. Warburton. Ver. 134. 'Præcipites alta vitam sub nube relinquunt.' Virg. Warburton. 'Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam Ver. 151. Th' impatient courser, etc.] Trans- Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.' lated from Statius, 'Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille Ante fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.' These lines Mr Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original; which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr P. tried his strength with them. Warburton. Most of the circumstances in this tale are taken from Ovid. Warton. Ver. 249, 50. 'Servare modum finemque tenere. Ver. 259. 'O qui me gelidis, etc.' Ver. 421. Virg. Warburton. 'Quo, Musa, tendis? desine pervicax Magna modis tenuare parvis.' Hor. Warburton. ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY, MDCCVIII. AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC. ODE FOR MUSIC ON ST. CECILIA's Day. [This famous Ode, written by Pope in the year 1708 at Steele's desire, in praise of an art of the principles of which he was ignorant, while to its effects he was insensible,' has been naturally compared by successive generations of critics to Dryden's masterpiece on the same subject. A superiority which few will be disposed to deny has been generally claimed for Alexander's Feast; but it may be questioned whether in this class of poetry either the choice of historical instead of mythological illustrations, or the unity of the action represented, is to be regarded as an absolute merit. A more tenable objection to Pope's Ode is the circumstance that in his endeavour to vary expressively the versification, he has in Stanza IV. and in the second part of Stanza V. permitted himself the use of metres which mar the dignity of the poem. This Ode was set to music as an exercise for his degree of doct. mus. by Maurice Greene, and performed at the Public Commencement at Cambridge, on July 6th, 1730. The text of the Ode as sung on this occasion contains in the first four stanzas many variations introduced by Pope; and the following stanza is inserted as the third of the Ode: |