V. By the streams that ever flow, O'er the Elysian flow'rs; He fung, and hell consented And gave him back the fair. A conquest how hard and how glorious! With Styx nine times round her, Yet music and love were victorious. VI. But foon, too foon, the lover turns his eyes: Again she falls, again the dies, she dies! How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move? 95 No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. See, wild as the winds, o'er the defert he flies; 110 Hark! Hæmus resounds with the Bacchanals cries- Ah fee, he dies! Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he sung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, 115 Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung. VII. Music the fiercest grief can charm, Music can foften pain to ease, 120 This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the found. When the full organ joins the tuneful quire, 126 Th' immortal pow'rs incline their ear; Borne on the fwelling notes our fouls afpire, While folemn airs improve the sacred fire; And Angels lean from heav'n to hear. Of Orpheus now no more let Poets tell, To bright Cecilia greater pow'r is giv'n; His numbers rais'd a fhade from hell, Her's lift the foul to heav'n. 130 TWO CHORUS's TO THE Tragedy of BRUTUS. Y CHORUS OF ATHENIANS. STROPHE I. E shades, where sacred truth is sought; Where heav'nly visions Plato fir'd, 5 In vain your guiltless laurels stood Unspotted long with human blood. War, horrid war, your thoughtful Walks invades, And steel now glitters in the Muses shades. NOTES. THESE two Chorus's were composed to enrich a very poor Play; but they had the usual effect of ill-adjusted Ornaments, only to make the meanness of the subject the more confpicuous. * Altered from Skakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whose defire these two Chorus's were composed to supply as many, wanting in his play. They were set many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckingham-house. P. VER. 3. Where heav'nly Visions Plato fir'd, And Epicurus lay inspir'd!] The propriety of these lines arises 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 justify the Poet's choice, had not Plato's system of Divinity, and Epicurus's system of Morals, been the most rational amongst the various sects of Greek Philosophy. ANTISTROPHE I. Oh heav'n-born sisters! fource of art! Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore? 15 STROPHE II. When Athens sinks by fates unjust, Till some new Tyrant lifts his purple hand, NOTES. VER. 12. Moral truth and mystic song!] He had expressed himself better had he said, " Moral truth IN mystic song!" In the Antiftrophe he turns from Philosophy to Mythology; and Mythology is nothing but moral truth in mystic song. |