Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33848
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A collection of poems by several hands; most of them written by persons of eminent quality.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing C5174; ESTC R38820
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58,224
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301
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But cannot finish what he hath begun What is there more ridiculous than he For one or two good features in a Face Where all the rest are scandalously ill Make it but more remarkably deform'd Let Poets match their Subject to their strength And often try what weight they can support And what their Shoulders are too weak to bear After a serious and judicious choice Method and Eloquence will never fail As well the Force as Ornament of Verse Consist in choosing a fit time for things And knowing when a Muse should be indulg'd In her full flight and when she should be curb'd Words must be chosen and be plac'd with skill You gain your point if your industrious Art Can make unusual words easie and plain Buâ— if you write of things Abstruse or New Some of your own inventing may be us'd So it be seldom and discreetly done But he that hopes to have new Words allow'd Must so derive them from the Graecian Spring As they may seem to flow without constraint Can an Impartial Reader discommend In Varus or in Virgil what he likes In Plautus or Caecilius Why should I Be envy'd for the little I invent When Ennius and Cato's copious Style Have so enrich'd and so adorn'd our Tongue Men ever had and ever will have leave To coin new words well suited to the age Words are like Leaves some wither every year And every year a younger Race succeeds Death is a Tribute all things owe to Fate The Lucrine Mole Caesar's stupendous Work Protects our Navies from the raging North And since Cethegus drain'd the Pontin Lake We Plow and Reap where former Ages row'd See how the Tyber whose licentious Waves So often overflow'd the neighbouring Fields Now runs a smooth and inoffensive Course Confin'd by our great Emperor's Command Yet this and they and all will be forgot Why then should Words challenge Eternity When greatest Men and greatest Actions dye Use may revive the obsoletest Words And banish those that now are most in Vogue Use is the Judge the Law and rule of Speech Homer first taught the World in Epick Verse To write of great Commanders and of Kings Elegies were at first design'd for Grief Though now we use them to express our Joy But to whose Muse we owe that sort of Verse Is undecided by the Men of Skill Rage with Iambick's arm'd Archilochus Numbers for Dialogue and action fit And favourites of the Dramatick Muse Fierce Lofty Rapid whose commanding sound A wes the tumultuous noises of the Pit And whose peculiar Province is the Stage Gods Heroes Conquerors Olympick Crowns Loves pleasing Cares and the free joys of Wine Are proper subjects for the Lyrick Song Why is he honour'd with a Poet's Name Who neither knows nor would observe a Rule And chuses to be Ignorant and Proud Rather than own his Ignorance and Learn Let every thing have its due Place and Time A Comick Subject loves an humble Verse Thyestes scorns a low and Comick Stile Yet Comedy sometimes may raise her Voice And Chremes be allow'd to foam and rail Tragedians too lay by their State to grieve Peleus and Telephus exil'd and poor Forget their swelling and Gygantick Words He that would have Spectators share his Grief Must write not only well but movingly And raise Mens Passions to what height he will We Weep and Laugh as we see others do He only makes me sad who shews the way And first is said himself then Telephus I feel the weight of your Calamities And fancy all your miseries my Own But if you Act them ill I sleep or laugh Your looks must needs alter as your Subject does From kind to fierce from wanton to severe For Nature forms and softens us within And writes our fortunes changes in our face Pleasure enchants impetuous Rage transports And grief dejects and wrings the tortur'd Soul And these are all interpreted by Speech But he whose words and fortunes disagree Absurd unpitied grows a publick Jest Observe the Characters of those that speak Whether an honest Servant or a Cheat Or one whose blood boils in his youthful Veins Or a grave Matron or a busie Nurse Extorting Merchants careful Husbandmen Argives or Thebans Asians or Greeks Follow Report or feign coherent things Describe Achilles as Achilles was Impatient rash inexorable proud Scorning all Judges and all Law but Arms Medaea must be all Revenge and Blood Ino all Tears Ixion all Deceit Io must wander and Orestes mourn If your bold Muse dare tread unbeaten paths And bring new Characters upon the stage Be sure you keep them up to their first height New Subjects are not easily explain'd And you had better chuse a well known Theme Than trust to an Invention of your own For what originally others writ May be so well disguis'd and so improv'd That with some Justice it may pass for yours But then you must not Copy trivial things Nor word for word too faithfully Translate Nor as some servile Imitators do Prescribe at first such strict uneasie rules As they must ever slavishly observe Or all the Laws of decency renounce Begin not as the' old Poetaster did Troy's famous War and Priam's Fate I sing In what will all this Ostentation end The labouring Mountain scarce brings forth a Mouse How far is this from the Meonian Stile Muse speak the Man who since the Siege of Troy So many Towns such change of Manners saw One with a flash begins and ends in smoak The other out of smoak brings glorious light And without raising expectation high Surprizes us with darling Miracles The Bloody Lestrygons inhumane Feasts With all the Monsters of the Land and Sea How Scylla bark'd and Polyphemus roar'd He doth not trouble Us with Leda's Eggs When he begins to write the Trojan War Nor writing the return of Diomed Go back as far as Meleager's Death Nothing is idle each judicious Line Insensibly acquaints Us with the Plot He chooses only what he can improve And Truth and Fiction are so aptly mix'd That all seems Uniform and of a piece Now hear what every Auditor expects If you intend that he should stay to hear The Epilogue and see the Curtain fall Mind how our tempers alter with our years And by those Rules form all your Characters One that hath newly learn'd to speak and go Loves childishPlays is soon provok'd and pleas'd And changes every hour his wavering mind A Youth that first casts off his Tutor's Yoke Loves Horses Hounds and Sports and Exercise Prone to all Vice impatient of Reproof Proud careless fond inconstant and profuse Gain and Ambition rule our riper years And make us Slaves to interest and power Old Men are only walking Hospitals Where all Defects and all Diseases croud With restless pain and more tormenting fear Lazy morose full of delays and hopes Opprest with Riches which they dare not use Ill-natur'd Censors of the present Age And fond of all the follies of the past Thus all the treasure of our flowing Years
begun Love's Joys to taste Those full Rewards for Fears and Dangers past A Fever seiz'd her and to nothing brought The richest Work that ever Nature Wrought All things below alas uncertain stand The firmest Rocks are fix'd upon the Sand Under this Law both Kings and Kingdoms bend And no beginning is without an end A Sacrifice to Time Fate dooms us all And at the Tyrant's Feet we daily fall Time whose bold hand alike does bring to dust Mankind and all those Powers in which they trust Her wasted Spirits now begin to faint Yet Patience ties her Tongue from all Complaint And in her Heart as in a Fort remains But yields at last to her resistless pains Thus while the Fever am'rous of his Prey Through all her Veins makes his delightful way Her Fate 's like Semile's the Flames destroy That Beauty they too eagerly enjoy Her charming Face is in its Spring decay'd Pale grow the Roses and the Lilies fade Her Skin has lost that lustre which surpast The Sun's and did deserve as long to last Her Eyes which us'd to pierce the firmest hearts Are now disarm'd of all their Flames and Darts Those Stars now heavily and slowly move And Sickness triumphs in the Throne of Love The Fever every moment more prevails Its rage her Body feels and Tongue bewails She whose disdain so many Lovers prove Sighs now for Torment as they sigh for Love And with loud Crys which rend the neighb'ring Air Wounds my sad heart and wakens my Despair Both Gods and Men I charge now with my loss And wild with Grief my Thoughts each other cross My Heart and Tongue labour in both extreams That sends up slighted Prayers while this blasphemes I ask their help whose malice I defie And mingle Sacriledge with Piety But that which does yet more perplex my mind To Love her truly I must seem unkind So unconcern'd a Face my Sorrow wears I must restrain unruly floods of Tears My Eyes and Tongue put on dissembling forms I shew a Calmness in the midst of Storms I seem to hope when all my hopes are gone And almost dead with grief discover none But who can long deceive a Loving Eye Or with dry Eyes behold his Mistress die When Passion had with all its terrours brought Th' approaching danger nearer to my Thought Off on a sudden fell the forc'd disguise And shew'd a sighing heart in weeping Eyes My apprehensions now no more confin'd Expos'd my sorrows and betray'd my mind The Fair Afflicted Soon perceives my Tears Explains my Sighs and thence concludes my Fears With sad Presages of her hopeless Case She reads her Fate in my dejected Face Then feels my Torment and neglects her own While I am Sensible of hers alone Each does the others burden kindly bear I fear her Death and she bewails my Fear Though we thus suffer under Fortune's Darts 'T is only those of Love which reach our Hearts Mean-while the Fever mocks at all our Fears Grows by our Sighs and rages at our Tears Those vain effects of our as vain desire Like Wind and Oyl increase the fatal fire Almeria then feeling the Destinies About to shut her Lips and close her Eyes Weeping in mine fix'd her fair trembling Hand And with these words I scarce could understand Her Passion in a dying Voice express'd Half and her Sighs alas made out the rest 'T is past this pang Nature gives o'er the strife Thou must thy Mistress Lose and I my Life I die but dying thine the Fates may prove Their Conquest over me but not my Love Thy Memory my Glory and my Pain In spight of Death it self shall still remain Ah! Dear Orontes my hard Fate denys That hope is the last thing which in us dies From my griev'd Breast all those soft Thoughts are fled And Love survives although my Hope is dead I yield my Life but keep my Passion yet And can all thoughts but of Orontes quit My flame increases as my strength decays Death which puts out the light the heat does raise That still remains though I from hence remove I lose my Lover but I keep my Love The Sigh which sent forth that last tender word Up towards the Heav'ns like a bright Meteor soar'd And the Kind Nymph bereft of all her Charms Fell cold and breathless in her Lover's Arms Which shews since Death could deny him relief That 't is in vain we hope to die with grief Goddess who now my Fate has understood Spare but my Tears and freely take my Blood Here let me end the Story of my Cares My Dismal Grief enough the rest declares Judge thou by all this Misery display'd Whether I ought not to implore thy aid Thus to survive reproaches on me draws And my sad wishes have too Just a Cause Come then my only hope in every place Thou visitest Men tremble at thy Face And fear thy Name once let thy fatal hand Fall on a Swain that does the blow demand Vouchsafe thy Dart I need not one of those With which thou dost unwilling Kings depose Thy weakest my desir'd release can bring And free my Soul already on her wing But since all Prayers and Tears are vain I 'll try If spite of thee 't is possible to dy A PARAPHRASE On the CXLVIII PSALM By the Earl of Roscommon O Azure Vaults O Crystal Sky The World 's transparent Canopy Break your long silence and let Mortals know With what contempt you look on things below Wing'd Squadrons of the God of War Who Conquer wheresoe'er you are Let Echoing Anthems make his Praises known On Earth his Foot-stool as in Heaven his Throne Great Eye of All whose Glorious Ray Rules the bright Empire of the Day O praise his Name without whose purer Light Thou hadst been hid in an Abyss of Night Ye Moon and Planets who dispence By God's Command your Influence Resign to him as your Creatour due That Veneration which Men pay to you Fairest as well as first of things From whom all Joy all Beauty springs O praise the Almighty Ruler of the Globe Who useth thee for his Empyreal Robe Praise him ye loud harmonious Sphaeres Whose Sacred Stamp all Nature bears Who did all Forms from the rude Chaos draw And whose Command is th' universal Law Ye wat'ry Mountains of the Sky And you so far above our Eye Vast ever-moving Orbs Exalt his Name Who gave its being to your Glorious Frame Ye Dragons whose Contagious Breath Peoples the dark Retreats of Death Change your fierce hissing into joyful Song And praise your Maker with your forked Tongue Praise him ye Monsters of the Deep That in the Seas vast Bosoms sleep At whose Command the foaming Billows roar Yet know their Limits Tremble and Adore Ye Mists and Vapours Hail and Snow And you who through the Concave blow Swift Executors of his holy Word Whirlwinds and Tempest praise the Almighty Lord Mountains who to your Maker's View Seem less than Mole-Hills do to you Remember how when first Jehovah