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A QUIRE of bright beauties in spring did appear,

To choose a May-lady to govern the year;

All the nymphs were in white, and the shepherds in green,
The garland was given, and Phillis was queen;
But Phillis refused it, and sighing did say,

I'll not wear a garland while Pan is away.

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While Pan and fair Syrinx are fled from our shore,
The Graces are banished, and Love is no more:
The soft god of pleasure that warmed our desires
Has broken his bow, and extinguished his fires,
And vows that himself and his mother will mourn,
Till Pan and fair Syrinx in triumph return.

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Forbear your addresses, and court us no more,
For we will perform what the Deity swore :

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But, if you dare think of deserving our charms,

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Away with your sheephooks, and take to your arms;
Then laurels and myrtles your brows shall adorn,
When Pan and his son and fair Syrinx return.

* Unrooted is Dryden's word in this line, unnecessarily changed into uprooted by all editors following Broughton.

Printed in the fifth volume of the "Miscellany Poems," published after Dryden's death, in 1704, having there the title of "The Lady's Song." It is printed in the first volume of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham's Works, with the title here given, and it is there said to have been written by Dryden in 1691. The song refers to the exile of James II. and his Queen.

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*This song was printed in Dryden's third volume of "Miscellany Poems," published in 1693. "Invert the year :" a phrase from Horace, applied to winter,

"Simul inversum contristat Aquarius annum.”

See note on line 438 of "The Hind and the Panther," part 3.

↑ Chloris, a Greek name of Flora.

1 Sat. 1. 36.

"Chloris eram quæ Flora vocor."-OVID, Fast. v. 195.

ALEXANDER'S FEAST; 8
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OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC.* 2

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A SONG IN HONOUR OF ST. CECILIA'S DAY: 1697. yy

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* Very soon after the publication of the Translation of Virgil, Dryden was requested to furnish an Ode for the festival of St. Cecilia of 1697. He complied with the request, and this great Ode was the result. He is said to have been paid forty pounds for it. A story has been told, on the authority of Lord Bolingbroke, that Dryden sat up the whole of one night, and finished this Ode at a sitting (Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 20, cited by Malone in his "Life of Dryden," page 285.) Dr. Birch, a very accurate man, has published, on the authority of a gentleman whom he names, and who had seen the letter, that Dryden wrote to a friend that he was almost a fortnight in composing and correcting it. The latter story is the more probable, and yet there may have been some foundation for Bolingbroke's. In a letter to his sons at Rome, written from Sir William Bowyer's at Denham Court, Bucks, September 3, 1697, he says that he was then writing a song for St. Cecilia's Feast, and adds, "This is troublesome, and no way beneficial." But it does not follow that Dryden did not afterwards receive a handsome present.

Dryden had made the mistake of writing Lais instead of Thais, but he wrote to Tonson to correct the error: "Remember in the copy of verses for St. Cecilia to alter the name of Lais, which is given there, for Thais. Those two ladies were contemporaries, which caused that small mistake. December, 1697."

1 A musician of Boeotia, a favourite of Alexander the Great; not the great musician, Timotheus, who died before Alexander was born; unless Dryden has confused the two.

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The song began from Jove,
Who left his blissful seats above,
(Such is the power of mighty love.)
A dragon's fiery form belied the god :
Sublime on radiant spires* he rode,
When he to fair Olympia pressed:
And while he sought her snowy breast,
Then round her slender waist he curled,

And stamped an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound,

A present deity, they shout around;

A present deity, the vaulted roofs rebound:
With ravished ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres. +

CHORUS.

With ravished ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

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The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung,
Of Bacchus ever fair, and ever young.

The jolly god in triumph comes;

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums;
Flushed with a purple grace

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.

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Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain ;

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

CHORUS.

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

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* Scott has substituted spheres for spires; the change is perhaps a misprint. "Annuit et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum."—VIRG. Æn, x. 115.

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Soothed with the sound the king grew vain;

Fought all his battles o'er again;

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain. The master saw the madness rise,

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;

And while he heaven and earth defied,

(Changed his hand, and checked his pride.

He chose a mournful Muse,

Soft pity to infuse;

He sung Darius great and good,

By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.

With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,
Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.

CHORUS.

Revolving in his altered soul

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The various turns of chance below;

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And, now and then, a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.

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The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
"Twas but a kindred-sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying :
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying :
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee.

The many rend the skies with loud applause;

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So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause.
The prince, unable to conceal his pain,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

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