By the streams that ever flow, By the fragrant winds that blow O'er th' Elyfian flow'rs; By those happy fouls who dwell By the hero's armed fhades, Restore, restore Eurydice to life: Oh take the husband, or return the wife! He fung, and hell confented To hear the Poet's prayer: Stern Proferpine relented, And gave him back the fair. Thus fong could prevail O'er death, and o'er hell, A conqueft how hard and how glorious? Tho' fate had faft bound her With Styx nine times round her, ༡༠ 75 80 85 90 VI. But foon, too foon, the lover turns his Again the falls, again fhe dies, fhe dies! eyes: How wilt thou now the fatal fisters move? No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. 95 Now under hanging mountains, Befide the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in Mæanders, Amidst Rhodope's fnows: See, wild as the winds, o'er the desert he flies; Hark! Hamus refounds with the Bacchanals cries- Ah fee, he dies! III Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he fung, Eurydice ftill trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, 115 Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung. VII. Mufic the fierceft grief can charm, And fate's feverest rage difarm: Mufic can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please: And antedate the blifs above. This the divine Cecilia found, 120 And to her Maker's praise confin'd the found. 125 And Angels lean from heav'n to hear. 130 TWO CHORUS'S TO THE Tragedy of BRUTUS". YE CHORUS of ATHENIANS. STROPHE I. E fhades, where facred truth is fought; In vain your guiltlefs laurels ftood REMARKS. THESE two Chorus's were compofed to enrich a very poor Play; but they had the ufual effect of ill-adjufted Ornaments, only to make its meannefs the more confpicuous, Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whofe defire thefe two Chorus's were compofed to fupply as many, wanting in his play. They were fet many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckinghamhoufe. P. VER. 3. Where heavenly Vifions Plato fir'd, And Epicurus, lay infpir'd!] The propriety of thefe lines arifes from hence, that Brutus, one of the Heroes of this Play, was of the Old Academy; and Caffius, the other, was an Epicurean; but this had not been enough to juftify the Poet's choice, had not Plato's fyftem of Divinity, and Epicurus's fyftem of Morals, been the moft rational amongft the various fects of Greek Philofophy. ANTISTROPHE I. Oh heav'n-born fifters! fource of art! Who charm the fenfe, or mend the heart; Who lead fair Virtue's train along, To what new clime, what distant sky, STROPHE II. When Athens finks by fates unjust, II 15 Shall cease to blush with ftranger's gore, 20 And Athens rifing near the pole! 'Till fome new Tyrant lifts his purple hand, And civil madnefs tears them from the land. REMARKS. VER. 12. Moral truth AND myftic fong.] He had expreffed himself better had he faid, "Moral truth IN myftic fong! In the Antiftrophe he turns from Philofophy to Mythology ; |