Page images
PDF
EPUB

With which he pleads his Brother's caufe fo well,
He shakes the throne to which he does appeal.
The fea with spoils his angry bullets ftrow,
Widows and orphans making as they go:
Before his ship, fragments of vessels torn,
Flags, arms, and Belgian carcases, are borne:
And his despairing foes, to flight inclin❜d,
Spread all their canvas to invite the wind.
So the rude Boreas, where he lifts to blow,
Makes clouds above, and billows fly below,
Beating the fhore; and with a boisterous rage,
Does heaven at once, and earth, and fea, engage.
The Dutch, elsewhere, did through the watery field
Perform enough to have made others yield;
But English courage, growing as they fight,
In danger, noise, and flaughter takes delight:
Their bloody task, unweary'd ftill, they ply,
Only restrain'd by death or victory.

Iron and lead, from earth's dark entrails torn,
Like showers of hail, from either fide are borne:
So high the rage of wretched mortals goes,
Hurling their mother's bowels at their foes!
Ingenious to their ruin, every age

Improves the arts and inftruments of rage:
Death-haftening ills nature enough has fent,
And yet men ftill a thousand more invent!

But Bacchus now, which led the Belgians on
So fierce at firft, to favour us begun:
Brandy and wine (their wonted friends) at length
Render them ufelcfs, and betray their strength.

So

So corn in fields, and in the garden flowers,
Revive, and raise themselves, with moderate showers
But, over-charg'd with never-ceafing rain,

Become too moift, and bend their heads again.

Their reeling fhips on one another fall,
Without a fee, enough to ruin all.

Of this diforder, and the favouring wind,
The watchful English fuch advantage find;
Ships fraught with fire among the heap they throw,
And up the fo-intangled Belgians blow.

The flame invades the powder-rooms; and then
Their guns fhoot bullets, and their veffels men.
The scorch'd Batavians on the billows float;
Sent from their own, to pass in Charon's, boat.
And now our Royal Admiral fuccefs

(With all the marks of victory) does biefs :
The burning fhips, the taken, and the flain,
Proclaim his triumph o'er the conquer'd Main.
Nearer to Holland as their hafty flight
Carries the noise and tumult of the fight;

His cannons' roar, fore-runner of his fame,
Makes their Hague tremble, and their Amsterdam:
The British thunder does their houses rock,
And the Duke feems at every door to knock.
His dreadful Streamer (like a comet's hair,
Threatening deftruction) haftens their despair:
Makes them deplore their scatter'd fleet as loft;
And fear our present landing on their coast,
The trembling Dutch th' approaching Prince behold,
As fheep a lion, leaping tow'rds their fold;

Thofe

Those piles, which serve them to repel the Main,
They think too weak his fury to restrain.
"What wonders may not English valour work,
"Led by th' example of victorious York?
"Or, what defence against him can they make,
"Who, at fuch diftance, does their country fhake?
"His fatal hand their bulwarks will o'erthrow;
"And let in both the ocean and the foe."
Thus cry the people :-and, their land to keep,
Allow our title to command the Deep :

Blaming their States' ill conduct, to provoke
Those arms, which freed them from the Spanish yoke.
Painter excufe me, if I have a-while

Forgot thy art, and us'd another style:

For, though you draw arm'd Heroes as they fit;
The task in battle does the Mufes fit:

They, in the dark confusion of a fight,
Discover all; inftru&t us how to write;

And light and honour to brave actions yield;
Hid in the fmoke and tumult of the field.
Ages to come shall know that Leader's toil,
And his great name, on whom the Mufes fmile :
Their dictates here let thy fam'd pencil trace;
And this relation with thy colours grace.

Then draw the Parliament, the Nobles met;

And our * Great Monarch high above them fet:
Like young Auguftus let his image be,

Triumphing for that victory at fea;

* King Charles II.

Q 2

Where

Where* Egypt's Queen, and Eastern Kings, o'erthrown,
Made the poffeffion of the world his own.
Laft draw the Commons at his royal feet,
Pouring out treasure to fupply his fleet:
They vow with lives and fortunes to maintain
Their King's eternal title to the Main :
And, with a present to the Duke, approve
His valour, conduct, and his country's love.

TO THE KING.

REAT Sir! disdain not in this piece to stand,

GR

Supreme commander both of fea and land:
Those which inhabit the celestial bower,
Painters exprefs with emblems of their power;
His club Alcides, Phoebus has his bow,
Jove has his thunder, and your navy You.
But your great providence no colours here
Can reprefent; nor pencil draw that care,
Which keeps you waking, to fecure our peace,
The nation's glory, and our trade's increase:
You, for these ends, whole days in council fit;
And the diverfions of your youth forget.

Small were the worth of valour and of force,
If your high wisdom govern'd not their courfe
You as the foul, as the First Mover you
Vigour and life on every part bestow:

How to build fhips, and dreadful ordnance cast,
Inftruct the artists; and reward their haste.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

So, Jove himself, when Typhon heaven does brave, Defcends to vifit Vulcan's fmoky cave:

Teaching the brawny Cyclops how to frame
His thunder, mix'd with terror, wrath, and flame.
Had the old Greeks discover'd your abode,
Crete had not been the cradle of their God:

On that small island they had look'd with scorn ;
And in Great Britain thought the Thunderer born.

A Prefage of the RUIN of the TURKISH EMPIRE: Prefented to his Majefty King JAMES II. on his Birth-Day.

INCE James the Second grac'd the British throne,

SINCE

Truce, well-obferv'd, has been infring'd by none: Christians to him their prefent union owe,

And late fuccefs against the common foe :

While neighbouring princes, loth to urge their fate,
Court his affiftance, and fufpend their hate.
So angry bulls the combat do forbear,
When from the wood a lion does appear.
This happy day peace, to our Inland fent;
As now he gives it to the Continent.
A Prince more fit for fuch a glorious task,
Than England's King, from Heaven we cannot ask:
He (great and good !) proportion'd to the work,
Their ill-drawn fwords fhall turn against the Turk..
Such Kings, like stars with influence unconfin'd,
Shine with aspect propitious to mankind;

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »