George Granville

“ Mira herself, touch’d with the moving song,
Would needs be told to whom those plaints belong;
My tim’rous tongue, not daring to confess,
Trembling to name, would fain have had her guess:
Impatient of excuse she urges still,15
Persists in her demand; she must, she will:
If silent, I am threaten’d with her hate;
If I obey—ah! what may be my fate?
Uncertain to conceal or to unfold,
She smiles—the goddess smiles!—and I grow bold.20
My vows to Mira all were meant to thee,
The praise, the love, the matchless constancy. ”

“ The conscious husband, whom like symptoms seize,
Charges on her the guilt of their disease,
Affecting fury, acts a madman’s part;
He ’ll rip the fatal secret from her heart!⁠40
Bids her confess, calls her ten thousand names;
In vain she kneels, she weeps, protests, exclaims:
Scarce with her life she ’scapes, expos’d to shame,
In body tortur’d, murder’d in her fame,
Rots with a vile adulteress’s name;⁠45
Abandon’d by her friends, without defence,
And happy only in her innocence.
Such is the vengeance the just gods provide
For those who barter liberty for pride ”

“ PROM. From Jupiter spring all our woes;
Thetis is Jove’s, who once was thine:
’T is vain, O Peleus! to oppose
Thy torturer and mine.
Contented with despair,⁠15
Resign the fair,
Resign, resign!
Or, wretched Man! prepare
For change of torments great as mine.
PEL. In change of torment would be ease;⁠20
Could you divine what lovers bear,
Ev’n you, Prometheus! would confess
There is no vulture like despair.
PROM. Cease, cruel Vulture! to devour.
PEL. Cease, cruel Thetis! to disdain.⁠25
THETIS entering, they repeat together,
Cease, cruel Vulture! ”

“ The genuine mark of a tyrant is cruelty; and it is with concern we can produce an instance of the most inhuman barbarity in that prince which ever stained the annals of any reign. Cruelty should be the badge of no party; it ought to be equally the abhorrence of all; and whoever is tainted with it should be set up to view as a terror to the world, as a monster, whom it is the interest of mankind to destroy.
After the suppression of Monmouth’s rebellion, many of the unfortunate persons engaged in it fled to London, and took shelter there, till the Act of Indemnity should be published. ”

“ Thus, if the splendour of the French opera, and the harmony of the Italian, were so skilfully interwoven with the charms of poetry, upon a regular dramatic bottom, as to introduce as well as delight, to improve the mind, as well as ravish the sense, there can be no doubt but such an addition would entitle our English opera to the preference of all others. The third part of the encouragement, of which we have been so liberal to foreigners for a concert of music only, miscalled an opera, would more than effect it. ”

“ A happier man possess’d whom I adore:
O! I should ne’er have seen, or seen before.
Tell, for you know the burthen of my heart,⁠95
Its killing anguish, and its secret smart.
What shall I do? shall I in silence bear?
Destroy myself, or kill the ravisher?
Die, wretched lover! die: but, O! beware,
Hurt not the man who is belov’d by her:⁠100
Wait for a better hour, and trust thy fate:
Thou seek’st her love, beget not then her hate. ”

“ Descend from heav’n to this new heav’n on earth.
Thy wit, O Mercury! is no defence from love;
Nor, Mars! thy target; nor thy thunder, Jove!
The mad immortals, in a thousand shapes,
Range the wide globe: some yield, some suffer rapes;⁠40
Invaded or deceiv’d, not one escapes:
The wise, tho’ a bright goddess, thus gives place
To mortal concubines of fresh embrace. ”

“ Would you command, have Fortune in your pow’r?
Hug when you stab, and smile when you devour;
Be bloody, false, flatter, forswear, and lie;25
Turn pander, pathic, parasite, or spy;
Such thriving arts may your wish’d purpose bring,
A minister at least, perhaps a king.
Fortune we most unjustly partial call,
A mistress free, who bids alike to all;30
But on such terms as only suit the base;
Honour denies, and shuns the soul embrace.
The honest man, who starves and is undone,
Not Fortune, but his virtue, keeps him down. ”

“ Whoe’er their names can in thy numbers show
Have more than empire, and immortal grow;
Ages to come shall scorn the pow’rs of old,
When in thy verse of greater gods they ’re told;10
Our beauteous queen and royal James’s name
For Jove and Juno shall be plac’d by Fame;
Thy Charles sor Neptune shall the seas command,
And Sacharissa shall for Venus stand ”

“ On whom depend Great Britain’s hopes and fate.
So Jason, with his Argonauts, from Greece
To Colchos sail’d, to seek the Golden Fleece.⁠30
As when the goddesses came down of old
On Ida’s hill, so many ages told,
With gifts their young Dardanian judge they try’d,
And each bade high to win him to her side;
So tempt they him, and emulously vie⁠35
To bribe a voice that empires would not buy:
With balls and banquets his pleas’d sense they bait,
And queens and kings upon his pleasures wait. ”

“ Glory, and arms, and love, is all the sound.35
His Eden with no serpent is defil’d,
But all is gay, delicious all, and mild.
Mistaken men his Muse of flatt’ry blame,
Adorning twice an impious tyrant’s name.
We raise our own by giving fame to foes:40
The valour that he prais’d he did oppose. ”

“ Whose speech is tuneful as another’s song!
Such harmony, such wit, a face so fair,
So many pointed arrows, who can bear?⁠10
Who from her wit or from her beauty flies,
Is with her voice she overtakes him dies. ”

“ Seeing we love, and hearing we grow wise:
So Rome, for wisdom as for conquest fam’d,
Improv’d with arts whom she by arms had tam’d.⁠10
Above the clouds is plac’d this glorious light,
Nothing lies hid from her inquiring sight;
Athens and Rome for arts restor’d rejoice,
Their language takes new music from her voice. ”

“ TO THE KING.
Tho’ train’d in arms, and learn’d in martial arts,
Thou chusest not to conquer men, but hearts;
Expecting nations for thy triumphs wait,
But thou preferr’st the name of Just to Great. ”

“ What is this fame, thus crowded round with slaves?
The breath of fools, the bait of flatt’ring knaves.
An honest heart, a conscience free from blame,⁠35
Not of great acts, but good, give me the name.
In vain we plant, we build, our stores increase,
Is conscience roots up all our inward peace. ”

“ I cannot bear to live under the reproach of lying obscure and idle, in a country retirement, when every man who has the least sense of honour should be preparing for the field. You may remember, Sir, with what reluctance I submitted to your commands upon Monmouth’s rebellion, when no importunity could prevail with you to permit me to leave the academy: I was too young to be hazarded; but, give me leave to say, it is glorious, at any age, to die for one’s country ”

“ Heal wounds with wounds, and love with death repel.20
Straight up I rose, and to my aching breast,
My bosom bare, the ready point I prest,
When, lo! astonish’d, an unusual light
Pierc’d the thick shade, and all around grew bright;
My dazzled eyes a radiant form [1] behold,25
Splendid with light like beams of burning gold;
Eternal rays his shining temples grace,
Eternal youth sat blooming on his face ”

“ And taught the world that Beauty should be kind.
Learn by this pattern, all ye fair! to charm;
Bright be your beams, but without scorching warm.⁠10
Helen was next from Greece to Phrygia brought,
With much expense of blood and empire sought.
Beauty and love the noblest cause afford
That can try valour or employ the sword:
Not men alone incited by her charms,⁠15
But Heav’n ’s concern’d, and all the gods take arms. ”

“ She fans the fire without one gale of hope:⁠20
Like the chaste moon she shines to all mankind,
But to Endymion is her love confin’d.
What cruel destiny on beauty waits,
When on one face depend so many fates! ”

“ Unseasonably surprised in the embraces of her Lord.
Fairest Zelinda! cease to chide or grieve,
Nor blush at joys that only you can give;
Who with bold eyes survey’d those matchless charms
Is punish’d, seeing in another’s arms:
With greedy looks he views each naked part,5
Joy feeds his eyes, but envy tears his heart. ”

“ In this new paradise the goddess reigns
In sovereign state, and mocks the lover’s pains:
Beneath those beams that scorch us from her eyes⁠15
Her snowy bosom still unmelted lies:
Love from her lips spreads all his odours round,
But bears on ice, and springs from frozen ground. ”

“ Rhyme, which I would by no means admit into the dialogue of graver tragedy, seems to me the most proper style for representations of this heroic romantic kind, and best adapted to accompany music. The solemn language of a haughty tyrant will by no means become a passionate lover, and tender sentiments require the softest colouring. ”

“ And fancy reason over-rules,⁠20
Or why should virtue ever miss
Reward, so often giv’n to fools?
’T is not the valiant nor the witty,
But who alone is born to please:
Love does predestinate our pity ”

“ As toughest trees in storms are bred,
And grow in spite of winds, and spread,
The more the tempest tears and shakes
My love, the deeper root it takes.20
VI.
Despair, that aconite does prove,
And certain death, to others’ love ”

“ And everlasting day direct thy lofty flight.⁠195
Thou who has never yet put on disguise
To flatter faction, or descend to vice,
Let no vain fear thy generous ardour tame,
But stand erect, and sound as loud as Fame. ”

“ It did but glitter, and the rebels fled.
Thy sword, the safeguard of thy brother’s throne,5
Is now as much the bulwark of thy own.
Aw’d by thy fame, the trembling nations send
Throughout the world to court so firm a friend ”

“ Dread King! might’st thou the universe oppress;
But Christian laws constrain thy martial pride;
Peace is thy choice, and piety thy guide:
By thy example kings are taught to sway,
Heroes to fight, and saints may learn to pray.10 ”

“ Our love suspended, we neglect the fair
For whom we burn’d, to gaze adoring here.
So sang the Syrens, with enchanting sound,⁠65
Enticing all to listen and be drown’d,
Till Orpheus ravish’d in a nobler strain;
They ceas’d to sing, or singing charm’d in vain. ”

“ Begotten at his entrance in his teens:
Some childish fancies may approve the toy,
Some like the Muse the more for being a boy;25
And ladies should be pleas’d, is not content,
To find so young a thing not wholly impotent. ”

“ For drunken feasts, a relish for the cup.⁠10
We lengthen not our meals; but you must feast,
Gorge till your bellies burst—Pray, who ’s the beast?
With your humanity you keep a fuss,
But are in truth worse brutes than all of us. ”

“ Which, thro’ the world by living monarchs worn,
Adds grace to sceptres, and does crowns adorn.
Is such their fame who gave these rights divine⁠155
To sacred Love, O what dishonour ’s thine,
Forgetful Queen! who sever’d that bright head [5]
Which charm’d two mighty monarchs to her bed?
Hadst thou been born a man, thou hadst not err’d;
Thy fame had liv’d, and Beauty been preferr’d.⁠160
But, O! what mighty magic can asswage
A woman’s envy and a bigot’s rage? ”

“ In a word, all extremes are to be avoided. To be a French Puritan in the drama, or an English Latitudinarian, is taking different paths to be both out of the road. If the British Muse is too unruly, the French is too tame: one wants a curb, the other a spur. ”

“ Great god of Sleep, since it must be
That we must give some hours to thee,
Invade me not while the free bowl
Glows in my cheeks, and warms my soul;
That be my only time to snore5
When I can laugh and drink no more. ”

“ Ev’n life, and death, and fate, are there;20
For in the rolls of ancient Destiny,
Th’ inevitable book, ’t was noted down
The dying should revive, the living die,
As Hamilton shall smile, as Hamilton shall frown. ”

“ Was coy to ev’ry lover;
Regardless of the tend’rest truth,
No soft complaint could move her.
Mankind was hers: all at her feet5
Lay prostrate and adoring;
The witty, handsome, rich, and great,
In vain alike imploring. ”

“ Mix, mix the philtres—Quick—she flies, she flies,
Deaf to my call, regardless of my cries.
Are vows so vain? could oaths so feeble prove?
Ah! with what ease she breaks those chains of love!
Whom Love with all his force had bound in vain,⁠5
Let charms compel, and magic rites regain. ”

“ Whither whither art thou flying,
O my Soul!⁠160
CHORUS of all voices and instruments, singing and dancing.
When the storm is blown over
How bless’d is the swain
Who begins to discover
An end of his pain! ”

“ Had Hyde thus sat by proxy too,
As Venus then was said to do,
Venus herself, and all the train
Os goddesses, had summon’d been;⁠10
The painter must have search’d the skies
To match the lustre of her eyes. ”

“ The unities are religiously observed; the place is the same, varied only into different prospects by the power of enchantment; all the incidents fall naturally within the very time of representation; the plot is one principal action, and of that kind which introduces variety of turns and changes, all tending to the same point; the ornaments and decorations are of a piece with it, so that one could not well subsist without the other; every act concludes with some unexpected revolution; and, in the end, vice is punished, virtue rewarded, and the moral is instructive. ”

“ The favourite of Heav’n than of mankind:
The gods, like rivals, imitate our care,
And vie with mortals to oblige the fair.⁠10
These favours, thus bestow’d on her alone,
Are but the homage which they send her down. ”

“ The nature of this entertainment requires the plot to be formed upon some story in which Enchanters and Magicians have a principal part. In our modern heroic poems they supply the place of the gods with the Ancients, and make a much more natural appearance by being mortals, with the difference only of being endowed with supernatural power.
The characters should be great and illustrious; the figure the actor makes upon the stage is one part of the ornament; by consequence the sentiments must be suitable to the characters in which love and honour will have the principal share. ”