To be placed under the PCTURE of the Right Honourable WILLIAM GRANT, Efq; his Majesty's Advocate for SCOTLAND.
Ehold the man, whom humble merit rais'd,
Admir'd by statesmen, by his rivals prais❜d:
Untainted with the love of pow'r or gain,
Nor fwell'd by titles, nor of honours vain :
Whose easy eloquence and humour charm,
By judgment temper'd, and with fancy warm:
Whose liberal hands the widow's griefs beguile,
And bid the lonely, hapless orphan smile :
Whose great example fires our northern youth,
A race renown'd for virtue, honour, truth.
O born to dignify these latter days,
Be these thy glories, GRANT, be this thy praise;
That grateful Scotland, to thy merits juft,
Shall, next ARGYLE's, erect thy lawrel'd bust.
A PANEGYRICK on the LADIE S.
Being CHAUCER's Recantation for * The blind eat many a fly. As it is fung at the SPRING GARDENS VAUX HALL, with great applause.
RECITATIVE.
LD CHAUCER once to this re-ecchoing grove
"of the sweet bewitching tricks of love;" But foon he found, he'd fullied his renown,
And arm'd each charming hearer with a frown;
Then felf-condemn'd anew his lyre he ftrung,
And in repentant ftrains this recantation fung.
Afong moderniz'd from the old English of Chaucer.
Long fince unto her native sky
Fled heav'n-defcended Conftancy;
Nought now that's ftable's to be had,
The world's grown mutable and mad:
Save WOMEN-they, we must confefs,
Are miracles of ftedfaftnefs,
And every witty, pretty dame
Bears for her motto
The flow'rs that in the vale are seen,
The white, the yellow, blue and green,
In brief complexion idly gay
Still fet with every fetting day,
Difpers'd by wind, or chill'd by froft,
Their odours gone, their colour loft:
But what is true, tho' paffing ftrange,
The WOMEN never
The wife man faid that all was vain,
And folly's universal reign;
Wisdom its vot'ries oft enthralls,
Riches torment, and pleasure palls;
And 'tis, good lack, a general rule,
That each man foon or late's a fool:
In WOMEN 'tis th' exception lies,
For they are wond'rous, wond'rous wife.
This earthly ball with noise abounds,
And from its emptinefs it founds,
Fame's deaf'ning din, the hum of men,
The lawyer's plea, and poet's pen:
But WOMEN here no one fufpects,
Silence diftinguishes that fex;
For, poor dumb things! To meek's their mould,
You scarce can hear them-when they scold.
CHORU S.
An hundred mouths, an hundred tongues,
An hundred pair of iron lungs,
Five heralds, and five thousand cryers,
With throats whofe accent never tires,
Ten fpeaking trumpets of a fize
Would deafnefs with their din furprize,
Your praise, sweet nymphs, fhall fing and fay,
And those that will believe it
Gazing at KITTY's chamber window.
HAT dimly glimmering, diftant light
W Faintly repells the fhades of night?
What beauteous image, charms divine,
Behind yon waving curtain fhine?
Malicious curtains, which repell
My longing eyes, withdraw your veil ;
And to the eager, ardent lover
Nature's bright master-piece discover.
Bear me, ye Zephyrs, thro' the air
Into the chamber of the fair,
Where my impatient wishes rove,
Up-born upon the wings of love.
See, where the beauteous Kitty lyes,
And shuts her ever-conq'ring eyes :
Eyes! which, tho' clos'd, diffuse a ray
Bright as the op'ning dawn of day ;
And each fond lover waking keep,
While they lye bath'd in gentle fleep.
See, how her heaving bofom moves,
The parent of a thousand loves.
So waves the bofom of the deep,
Where only tides their motion keep.
See, where the wanton woodbine strays,
And round her window amorous plays;
Ambitious to falute the fair
With the first odours of the year:
That fair, whose breath is fweeter far
Than all the flow'rs that tree can beár;
Whofe face more beauteous colours fhews
Than lillies blended with the rofe.
Perch'd in this woodbine VENUS' doves
Shall murmur forth their tender loves,
And quit the goddess, pleas'd to prove
Th' attendants of this queen of love.
Each tuneful chorifter of th' air
Shall nightly fenerade the fair,
And in the covert of the tree
Make an harmonious aviary.
And thou, chief songstress of the vale,
Sweet, melancholy nightingale,
Who wakeful in melodious ftrain
Doft nightly of thy love complain,
By thy example let her know
The pains for her I undergo :
Tell her in fweeteft, faddeft air
How much I love, how much defpair;
Describe my wishes, fing my fears,
My doubtful hopes, my anxious cares:
Pleas'd with the melody from thee,
The maid perhaps may think of me.
And when the fleeps, may dreams impart
The tender anguifh of my heart:
Such dreams, as my fond fancy dead
Thro' many a painted, floy'ry mead,
When I, tranfported with the view,
The vifionary maid purfue.
Let HYMEN with his torch appear,
And gently whifper in her ear,
That beauty foon must fade away,
The fhort-liv'd glory of a day;
That if a paffion, which knows none
That's excellent but her alone,
And which will ever keep its flame
Tho' each fucceeding age the fame,
Deferves by beauty to be bleft,
That paffion burns within my breast.
May vifions prove the fair one's mind,
And KITTY wake to THYRSIS kind!
The AUTHOR confin'd to COLLEGE
NCE more the vernal fun's all-chearing beams The fields, as with a purple robe, adorn: Thy bloomy banks, O CAM, and glift'ring ftreams All laugh and fing at mild approach of morn; Thro' the deep groves I hear the chaunting birds, And thro' the clover'd vale the various-lowing herds..
Up mounts the mower from his lowly thatch, Well pleas'd the progress of the spring to mark, The fragrant breath of breezes pure to catch, And ftartle from her couch the early lark; More genuine pleasure fooths his tranquil breast, Than high-thron'd kings can boaft, in eastern glory dreft.
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