To the QUEEN, occafioned upon fight of Her Majesty's

W

Picture.

ELL fare the hand! which to our humble fight
Prefents that beauty, which the dazzling light

Of Royal splendor hides from weaker eyes:.
And all accefs, fave by this art, denies.
Here only we have courage to behold
This beam of glory: here we dare unfold
In numbers thus the wonders we conceive :
The gracious image, feeming to give leave,
Propitious ftands, vouchfafing to be feen;
And by our Mufe faluted, Mighty Queen
In whom th' extremes of power and beauty move,
The Queen of Britain, and the Queen of Love!
As the bright fun (to which we owe no fight
Of equal glory to your beauty's light)

Is wifely plac'd in fo fublime a feat,

:

T'extend his light, and moderate his heat :
So, happy 'tis you move in fuch a sphere,
As your high Majefty with awful fear
In human breasts might qualify that fire,
Which kindled by thofe eyes had flamed higher,
Than when the fcorched world like hazard run,
By the approach of the ill-guided fun.

No other nymphs have title to men's hearts,
But as their meannefs larger hope imparts:
Your beauty more the fondest lover moves
With admiration, than his private loves;

With admiration! for a pitch fo high
(Save facred Charles's) never love durst fly.
Heaven, that prefer'd a scepter to your hand,
Favor'd our freedom more than your command:
Beauty had crown'd you, and you must have been
The whole world's mistress, other than a Queen.
All had been rivals, and you might have spar'd,
Or kill'd, and tyranniz'd, without a guard.
No power atchiev'd, either by arms or birth,
Equals Love's empire, both in heaven and earth:
Such eyes as yours, on Jove himself have thrown
As bright and fierce a lightning as his own:
Witness our Jove, prevented by their flame
In his swift paffage to th' Hefperian Dame :
When, like a lion, finding in his way
To fome intended spoil, a fairer prey;
The Royal Youth, purfuing the report
Of beauty, found it in the Gallic Court:
There public care with private paffion fought
A doubtful combat in his noble thought:
Should he confess his greatness and his love,
And the free faith of your + Great Brother prove
With his Achates, breaking through the cloud
Of that disguise which did their Graces fhroud;
And mixing with those Gallants at the Ball,
Dance with the Ladies, and outshine them all?
Or on his journey o'er the mountains ride?—
So, when the fair Leucothoë he efpy'd,

+ Lewis XIII. K. of France. D. of Buckingham.

To

To check his steeds impatient Phoebus yearn'd,
Though all the world was in his courfe concern'd.
What may hereafter her meridian do,

Whose dawning beauty warm'd his bosom so?
Not fo divine a flame, fince deathlefs Gods
Forbore to vifit the defil'd abodes

Of men, in any mortal breaft did burn;
Nor fhall, till Piety and They return.

T

OF THE QUEEN.

HE lark, that shuns on lofty boughs to build
Her humble neft, lies filent in the field:

But if (the promise of a cloudless Day)

Aurora smiling bids her rise and play;

Then ftrait the fhews, 'twas not for want of voice,
Or power to climb, she made fo low a choice :
Singing the mounts, her airy wings are stretch'd
Tow'rds heaven, as if from heaven her note the fetch'd.
So we, retiring from the busy throng,

Ufe to reftrain th' ambition of our fong;

But fince the light which now informs our age,
Breaks from the Court, indulgent to her rage;
Thither my Muse, like bold Prometheus, flies,
To light her torch at Gloriana's eyes.

Those sovereign beams, which heal the wounded foul, And all our cares, but once beheld, control!

There the poor lover that has long endur'd
Some proud nymph's fcorn, of his fond paffion cur'd,
Fares like the man who firft upon the ground
A glow-worm spy'd; fuppofing he had found

A moving

A moving diamond, a breathing stone;
For life it had, and like thofe jewels fhone:
He held it dear, till, by the fpringing day
Inform'd, he threw the worthlefs worm away.
She faves the lover, as we gangrenes stay,
By cutting hope, like a lopt limb, away:
This makes her bleeding patients to accuse
High Heaven, and these expoftulations use.
"Could nature then no private woman grace,
"Whom we might dare to love, with such a face,
"Such a complexion, and so radiant eyes,
"Such lovely motion, and fuch sharp replies?

Beyond our reach, and yet within our fight,
"What envious Power has plac'd this glorious light?"
Thus, in a starry night fond children cry
For the rich spangles that adorn the sky;
Which, though they shine for ever fixed there,
With light and influence relieve us here.
All her affections are to one inclin'd;

Her bounty and compaffion, to mankind :
To whom, while fhe fo far extends her grace,
She makes but good the promife of her face:
For mercy has, could mercy's self be seen,
No fweeter look than this propitious Queen.
Such guard, and comfort, the distressed find
From her large power, and from her larger mind,
That whom ill fate would ruin, it prefers;
For all the miferable are made her's.

So the fair tree, whereon the eagle builds,

Poor theep from tempests, and their fhepherds, fhields:

The

The royal bird poffeffes all the boughs,
But fhade and shelter to the flock allows.

Joy of our age, and safety of the next!
For which so oft thy fertile womb is vext:
Nobly contented, for the public good,

To waste thy spirits, and diffuse thy blood :
What vaft hopes may these islands entertain,
Where Monarchs, thus defcended, are to reign!
Led by commanders of so fair a line,

Our feas no longer shall our power confine.

A brave romance who would exactly frame
First brings his knight from fome immortal dame :
And then a weapon, and a flaming shield,
Bright as his mother's eyes, he makes him wield;
None might the mother of Achilles be,

But the fair pearl, and glory of the sea :

The man to whom great Maro gives fuch fame,
From the high bed of heavenly Venus came :
And our next Charles, whom all the stars defign
Like wonders to accomplish, spring from thine.

THE APOLOGY OF SLEEP, For not approaching the Lady, who can do any thing but fleep when she pleaseth.

Y charge it is those breaches to repair,

Which nature takes from forrow, toil, and care:

Reft to the limbs, and quiet, I confer

On troubled minds: but nought can add to her,

*Thetis.

† Enæas.

Whom