Vain wretched creature, how art thou misled, And reason saw not till faith sprung the light. Or canst thou lower dive, or higher climb? Those giant wits in happier ages born, When arms and arts did Greece and Rome adorn, Nor did remorse to expiate sin prescribe: If sheep and oxen could atone for men, Ah! at how cheap a rate the rich might sin! And great oppressors might Heaven's wrath beguile, Dar'st thou, poor worm, offend Infinity ? And must the terms of peace be given by thee? And, like a king remote and weak, must take But if there be a power too just and strong, Had not Eternal Wisdom found the way, And with celestial wealth supply'd thy store: His justice makes the fine, his mercy quits the score. See God descending in thy human frame; Th' offended suffering in th' offender's name : All thy misdeeds to him imputed see, And all his righteousness devolv'd on thee. In his preface, Dryden alleges his belief that "the principles of natural worship are only faint remnants or dying flames of revealed religion in the posterity of Noah." FROM THE HIND AND THE PANTHER.1 CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION UNDER HUMAN REPROACH. Be vengeance wholly left to powers divine! If joys hereafter must be purchased here, And what thou didst, and dost, so dearly prize, That fame, that darling fame, make that thy sacrifice ;- 'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give: Then add those may be years thou hast to live; Thy Father will receive his unthrift home, And thy blest Saviour's blood discharge the mighty sum. ALEXANDER'S FEAST, AN ODE IN HONOUR OF ST CECILIA'S DAY.' 'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won By Philip's warlike son; Aloft in awful state The godlike hero sate On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were plac'd around; Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound, The lovely Thais, by his side, Sate, like a blooming eastern bride, In flower of youth and beauty's pride. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. 1 The subject of the Hind and the Panther being the controverted points between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, the poem is not adapted for extracts for our present purpose. The lines quoted refer to the charge of Atheism against Dryden by Stillingfleet, then Dean of St Paul's. For an account of the poet's controversy with Stillingfleet, see Scott's Dryden, vol. i. 323, and xvii. 187. 2 The festival of St Cecilia, the patroness of vocal music, is the 22d day of November. The traditions respecting her are too romantic to be authentic. Her saintship was acknowledged so carly as the fifth century. And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. A present deity! they shout around: A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound: And seems to shake the spheres. The praise of Bacchus then, the sweet musician sung: The jolly god in triumph comes; Sound the trumpets; beat the drums; He shows his honest face; Now give the hautboys breath: he comes! he comes! Drinking joys did first ordain; Sweet the pleasure; Sweet is pleasure after pain. Sooth'd 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; 1 A celebrated musician of Bœotia. In the first song, the poet makes him flatter Alexander with the mythus of his birth, which the king seemed to delight in believing. See note 7, p. 182-Plut. in Alex. Olympias, the mother of Alexander 2 Repeated allusions occur in the classics to the nod as the sign of Divine will. Hence the meaning of the Latin verbs annuo, inruo, renuo. Alexander's boasting tendencies in his cups are displayed in his language on the occasion of the murder of Clitus. See Curt. viii. 1; 23 et seq. He chose a mournful Muse, He sung Darius great and good,1 And welt'ring in his blood; With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, The various turns of Chance below; The mighty master smil'd, to see Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,2 Take the good the gods provide thee! Who caus'd his care, And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd, At length, with love and wine at once oppress'd, Now strike the golden lyre again: A louder yet, and yet a louder strain. Break his bands of sleep asunder, And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder. Hark, bark, the horrid sound Has rais'd up his head! As awak'd from the dead, And amaz'd, he stares around. This is the character always assigned to Darius Codomannus. For his fate, see Curt. v. 12 and 13. 2 See note 1, p. 186. Revenge! revenge! Timotheus cries, See the Furies arise: See the snakes that they rear, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! Each a torch in his hand! Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, Inglorious on the plain : Give the vengeance due To the valiant crew! Behold how they toss their torches on high, And glittering temples of their hostile gods! And the king seiz'd a flambeau with zeal to destroy; To light him to his prey, And, like another Helen, fir'd another Troy.1 Thus, long ago, Ere heaving bellows learn'd to blow, And sounding lyre, Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. Inventress of the vocal frame; The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, And added length to solemn sounds, With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. Or both divide the crown; He rais'd a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down." FROM "ALL FOR LOVE."S OMENS OF EVIL. Last night, between the hours of twelve and one, This scene of the firing of the palace of Persepolis is dramatised from the account of Curtius, v. 7, 1-8. See also Plutarch. 2 One of the traditions respecting the power of Cecilia's melody. In this tragedy Dryden has ventured a lance with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. For a comparative estimate of the two plays, see Scott's Dryden, vol. v. We have abstained from excerpts of his rhyming plays, as, in the maturity of his genius, he acknowledged the error of taste which had led him to become the champion of that species of composition. |