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VER SE S,

SAID ΤΟ HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY LADY
BTLE, ON SEEING THE PADLOCK *
PERFORMED AT WESTON, THE SEAT OF SIR
HENRY BRIDGMAN, BART.

IN Albion's ifle, ere hoary Time grew old,
The fairies wifh'd a midnight feast to hold;
A council call'd of elves and fairy fprites,
The gliding revellers of ftar-light nights:
The fubject strange requires a nice debate
To folve new doubts, and ev'ry caution state;
Where they should hold their gaily fportive rites,
Their fears all calm'd, the fairy queen invites ;
To Wefton's woods the bidden guests repair,
Enchanting feat! of all that's wifely fair.
The rural fcene with wonder they revife,
Eclips'd by nought but fair Eliza's † eyes;
Her pleafing form, and gentle winning grace,
Breathe gay delight, ferene, o'er ev'ry place;
Redundant fmiles her dimpled cheeks difplay,
And steal e'en Envy's venom'd fhafts away.

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Fairies and jealous mortals jointly own,
The rofe not half fo fragrant, newly blown ;
That Hybla's fweets amidst her treffes play;
She fofter, milder, fweeter far than they.
The Fairy Queen reluctant feels her pow'r,
And steals to rest beneath a hawthorn flow'r
First bids her train the fair Eliza tend,

Guard o'er her charms, and to them awful bend.
Pleas'd with the charge, the blooming loves advance,
They fing, they play, they weave the twining dance;
They first relate Diego's ill starr'd fate,
In age lamenting for a youthful mate.
Next they rehearse the pangs of Henry's love,
In ftrains as smooth as Cytherea's dove;
Thou lovely boy, no future pain fhall own,
Love's pointed arrow thall by thee be thrown,
And Leonora love but thee alone.

Aid me, ye Nine, with fprightly lines to grace
The well ftole looks of Mungo's merry pace.
Nor let the careful Urfula bemoan,

My lays requite all merit fave her own.
You prov'd that Nature yet could rival Art,
For fenfe and judgment grac'd your perfect part.
O beauteous maid, receive my humble pray'r;
May Fate ftill mark you fortunate as fair:
May you in each new fcene of busy life,
Play well the part of daughter, mother, wife;

C 5.

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Reecive

Receive th' applause your merits justly claim,
And yield to none in virtue or in fame.
In that first page let Patfhull's fyren shine,
Her air prevailing, and her voice divine;
Her dulcet lays and warbling notes proclaim
Her blitheft Philomel of Weston's plain.

May Fairy pow'rs these pleasing strains requite,
Strew fragrant flow'rs, and tend your flocks by night;
Shed o'er your virgin hours content and rest,
And chace each aching forrow from your breast.

The mafque was ended and the busy crew,

Eager of praife, to fair Eliza flew.

With grace benign, to each fhe just decrees
That with the wish they gain'd the pow'r to please ;.
That each to Mab one acorn-cup fhould bear,

To prove their merit bore an equal fhare :
O'er the pale green they trip, and bounding stray,
No sportive fawn fo innocent and gay;

To the arch'd bow'r their acorn goblets bear,
And wake their Queen, new conquests to deelare..
Jocund the fprings, with joy their tribute views,
Fills them with æther and ambrofial dews;
Then leads the feftive dance by Cynthia's light,
And by approving does their toils requite
Quick o'er their eye-lids fheds their languid juice,
Diftill'd from cowflips for lov'd Oberon's ufe;
To balmy fleep they drop, by Mab infpir'd,
By all regretted, and by all admir'd.

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

TO ALL FOR LOVE, ACTED AT BLENHEIM-HOUSE, IN THE SUMMER 1718. WRITTEN BY BISHOP

HOADLEY, AND SPOKEN BY LADY BATEMAN,

WHO ACTED CLEOPATRA.

WHILE ancient dames and heroes in us live,

And scenes of Love and War we here revive;
Greater in each, in each more fortunate,
Than all that ever ages paft call'd great ;
O Marlbro'! think not wrong that I thee name,
And first do homage to thy brighter fame.
Beauty and Virtue with each other strove
To move and recompence thy early love ;
Beauty with Egypt's Queen could never boast,
And Virtue fhe ne'er knew, or quickly loft:
A foul fo form'd and cloath'd Heav'n must defign,
For fuch a foul, and fuch a form as thine.

But call'd from foft repofe, and Beauty's charms,
Thy louder fame is fpoke in feats of arms.
The fabled ftories of great Philip's fon,

By thy great deeds the world has feen outdone;
The Cæfars that Rome boafted yield their bays,,
And own, in juftice, thy fuperior praise :

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They fought the empire of the world to gain,
But thou to break the haughty tyrant's chain;
They fought t' enflave mankind, but thou to free
Whole nations from detefted flavery:

"Their guilty paths to grandeur taught to hate
"By Virtue, nor blush for being great."

This heap of ftones which Blenheim's palace frame, Rofe in this form, a monument to thy name; This heap of ftones must crumble into fand, But thy great name fhall thro' all ages stand. In Fate's dark book I fee thy fong-liv'd name, And thus the certain prophecy proclaim: "One fhall arife who fhall thy deeds rehearse, "Not in arch'd roofs, or in fufpected verse,

But in plain annals of each glorious year, "With pomp of Truth the story shall appear: "Long after Blenheim's walls ihall moulder'd lie, "Or, blown by winds, to diftant countries fly, "By him fhall thy great actions all furvive, "And by thy name fhall his be taught to live.”

Oh! cherish the remains of life; furvey Thofe years of glory which can ne'er decay; Enjoy the best reward below allow'd,

The mem'ry of past actions great and good.

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