XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX To the Right Hon. HENRY PELHAM, Efq. TH HE humble Petition of the worshipful company of Poets and News-writers, SHEWETH, THAT your honour's petitioners (dealers in rhymes, And writers of fcandal, for mending the times) By loffes in bus'ness, and England's well-doing, Are funk in their credit, and verging on ruin. That these their misfortunes, they humbly conceive, Arife not from dulnefs, as fome folks believe, But from rubs in their way, that your honour has laid, And want of materials to carry on trade. That they always had form'd high conceits of their use, And meant their last breath should go out in abuse; But now (and they speak it with forrow and tears) Since your honour has fate at the helm of affairs, No party will join 'em, no faction invite To heed what they say, or to read what they write; And Slander scarce ventures to lift VOL. IV. up her head In In fhort, public bus'ness is so carry'd on, That their country is fav'd, and the patriots undone. To perplex 'em ftill more, and fure famine to bring YOUR Petitioners therefore most humbly entreat In compaffion, good Sir! give 'em fomething to say,. Senate-Houfe at Cambridge July 1, 1749, At the Inftallation of his Grace THOMAS HOLLES Duke of NEWCASTLE, CHANCELLOR of the University. canit errantem Permeffi ad flumina Gallum Aonas in montes ut duxerit una fororum; Utque viro Phabi chorus affurrexerit omnis. VIRGIL. By Mr. MASON, Fellow of Pembroke-Hall. Set to Mufic by Mr. Boyce, Composer to his Majesty. Recitative. H ERE all thy active fires diffufe, Thou genuine British Muse; Hither defcend from yonder orient sky, Cloth'd in thy heav'n-wove robe of harmony. 1 Air I. Come, imperial queen of fong; Which lifts thee from the fervile throng, Daughter of Jove and Liberty. II. Recitative. The elevated foul, who feels Thy aweful impulfe, walks the fragrant ways He with impartial justice deals The blooming chaplets of immortal lays : And nobly thron'd in Truth's meridian sphere, III. Air II. Goddefs! thy piercing eye explores The radiant range of Beauty's ftores, The filver slope of falling rills, Catches each lively-colour'd grace, The crimson of the wood-nymph's face, The The verdure of the velvet lawn, The purple in the eastern dawn, Or all those tints, which rang'd in vivid glow Recitative. But chief she lifts her tuneful transports high, The mental beauties rife in moral dignity : That fires the glowing Patriot's breast; The honest pride that plumes the Hero's creft, Or that, the calm, yet active heat, With which mild Genius warms the Sage's heart, To lift fair Science to a loftier feat, Or ftretch to ampler bounds the wide domain of art. Air III. Thefe, the best blossoms of the virtuous mind, She culls with tafte refin'd; From their ambrofial bloom With bee-like skill she draws the rich perfume, And blends the sweets they all convey, In the foft balm of her mellifluous lay. V. Recitative. Is there a clime, where all these beauties rife In one collected radiance to her eyes? |