He Rhodes and Buda from the Christians tore, Which timely union might again restore.
But, sparing Turks, as if with rage possest, The Christians perish, by themselves opprest: Cities and provinces so dearly won,
That the victorious people are undone!
What angel shall descend to reconcile
The Christian states, and end their guilty toil?
A prince more fit from Heav'n we cannot ask
Than Britain's king, for such a glorious task;
His dreadful navy, and his lovely mind,
Gives him the fear and favour of mankind:
His warrant does the Christian faith defend;
On that relying, all their quarrels end.
The peace is sign'd, and Britain does obtain
What Rome had sought from her fierce sons in vain.
In battles won Fortune a part doth claim,
And soldiers have their portion in the fame:
In this successful union we find
Only the triumph of a worthy mind.
'Tis all accomplish'd by his royal word
Without unsheathing the destructive sword;
Without a tax upon his subjects laid,
Their peace disturb'd, their plenty, or their trade :
And what can they to such a Prince deny,
With whose desires the greatest kings comply?
The arts of peace are not to him unknown;
This happy way he march'd into the throne;
And we owe more to Heav'n than to the sword,
The wish'd return of so benign a lord.
Charles! by oldGreece with a new freedom grac'd,
Above her antique heroes shall be plac'd.
What Theseus did, or Theban Hercules,
Holds no compare with this victorious peace;
Which on the Turks shall greater honour gain,
Than all their giants and their monsters slain:
Those are bold tales, in fabulous ages told,
This glorious act the living do behold.
ON NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1683.
WHAT revolutions in the world have been!
How are we chang'd since we first saw the Queen!
She, like the sun, does still the same appear
Bright as she was at her arrival here!
Time has commission mortals to impair,
But things celestial is oblig'd to spare.
May every new year find her still the same
In health and beauty, as she hither came!
When Lords and Commons, with united voice,
The' Infanta nam'd, approv'd the royal choice:
First of our queens whom not the King alone,
But the whole nation, lifted to the throne.
With like consent, and like desert, was crown'd
The glorious Prince' that does the Turk confound.
Victorious both! his conduct wins the day,
And her example chases vice away:
Though louder fame attend the martial rage,
'Tis greater glory to reform the age.
1 John Sobieski, king of Poland.
COMMENDED BY HER MAJESTY.
VENUS her myrtle, Phoebus has his bays;
Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of queens, and best of herbs, we owe
To that bold nation which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun does rise,
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
The Muse's friend, tea does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapours which the head invade,
And keeps that palace of the soul serene,
Fit on her birth-day to salute the Queen.
OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, MOTHER TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE:
AND OF HER PORTRAIT WRITTEN BY THE LATE DUCHESS OF YORK WHILE SHE LIVED WITH HER.
HEROIC Nymph! in tempests the support,
In peace the glory of the British court!
Into whose arms the church, the state, and all
That precious is, or sacred here, did fall.
Ages to come, that shall your bounty hear,
Will think you mistress of the Indies were:
Though straiter bounds your fortune did confine,
In your large heart was found a wealthy mine:
Like the blest oil, the widow's lasting feast,
Your treasure, as you pour'd it out, increas'd.
While some your beauty, some your bounty sing,
Your native isle does with your praises ring:
But above all, a nymph' of your own train
Gives us your character in such a strain,
As none but she, who in that court did dwell,
Could know such worth, or worth describe so well.
So while we mortals here at Heav'n do guess,
And more our weakness than the place express,
Some angel, a domestic there, comes down,
And tells the wonders he hath seen and known.
UPON HER MAJESTY'S 2 NEW BUILDINGS AT SOMERSET-HOUSE.
GREAT Queen! that does our island bless
With princes and with palaces;
Treated so ill, chas'd from your throne,
Returning, you adorn the Town;
And with a brave revenge do show
Their glory went and came with you.
While Peace from hence and you were gone,
Your houses in that storm o'erthrown,
Those wounds which civil rage did give,
At once you pardon and relieve.
Constant to England in your love,
As birds are to their wonted grove,
Though by rude hands their nests are spoil'd, "There the next spring again they build.
Henrietta Maria, queen dowager of King Charles 1.
Accusing some malignant star, Not Britain, for that fatal war, Your kindness banishes your fear, Resolv'd to fix for ever here.
But what new mine this work supplies? Can such a pile from ruin rise?
This, like the first creation, shows,
As if at your command it rose.
Frugality and bounty too,
(Those differing virtues) meet in you:
From a confin'd, well-manag'd store,
You both employ and feed the poor.
Let foreign princes vainly boast
The rude effects of pride and cost;
Of vaster fabrics, to which they
Contribute nothing but the pay:
This, by the Queen herself design'd,
Gives us a pattern of her mind:
The state and order does proclaim
The genius of that Royal Dame.
Each part with just proportion grac'd,
And all to such advantage plac'd,
That the fair view her window yields,
The town, the river, and the fields,
Entering, beneath us we descry,
And wonder how we came so high.
She needs no weary steps ascend;
All seems before her feet to bend ;
And here, as she was born, she lies,
High, without taking pains to rise.
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