FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  
icture of fair Venus (that For which men say the goddess sat) Was lost, till Lely from your book Again that glorious image took. If Virtue's self were lost, we might From your fair mind new copies write. All things but one you can restore; The heart you get returns no more. TO THE QUEEN, UPON HER MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY, AFTER HER HAPPY RECOVERY FROM A DANGEROUS SICKNESS.[1] Farewell the year! which threaten'd so The fairest light the world can show. Welcome the new! whose every day, Restoring what was snatch'd away By pining sickness from the fair, That matchless beauty does repair So fast, that the approaching spring (Which does to flow'ry meadows bring What the rude winter from them tore) Shall give her all she had before. 10 But we recover not so fast The sense of such a danger past; We that esteem'd you sent from heaven, A pattern to this island given, To show us what the bless'd do there, And what alive they practised here, When that which we immortal thought, We saw so near destruction brought, Felt all which you did then endure, And tremble yet, as not secure. 20 So though the sun victorious be, And from a dark eclipse set free, The influence, which we fondly fear, Afflicts our thoughts the following year. But that which may relieve our care Is, that you have a help so near For all the evil you can prove, The kindness of your royal love; He that was never known to mourn, So many kingdoms from him torn, 30 His tears reserved for you, more dear, More prized, than all those kingdoms were! For when no healing art prevail'd, When cordials and elixirs fail'd, On your pale cheek he dropp'd the shower, Revived you like a dying flower. [1] 'Dangerous sickness': the Queen of Charles II. These verses belong to the year 1663. TO MR KILLIGREW,[1] UPON HIS ALTERING HIS PLAY, 'PANDORA,' FROM A TRAGEDY INTO A COMEDY, BECAUSE NOT APPROVED ON THE STAGE. Sir, you should rather teach our age the way Of judging well, than thus have changed your play; You had obliged us by employing wit, Not to reform Pandora, but the pit; For as the nightingale, without the throng Of other birds, alone attends her song, While the loud daw, his throat displaying, draws The whole assemblage of his fellow-daws; So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
sickness
 

kingdoms

 

vulgar

 

cordials

 

Revived

 
elixirs
 
shower
 

reserved

 
kindness
 

thoughts


relieve

 

prized

 
healing
 

flower

 
prevail
 

BECAUSE

 
throng
 
attends
 

nightingale

 

employing


Pandora

 

reform

 

writer

 

productions

 

fellow

 

assemblage

 

throat

 

displaying

 

obliged

 

ALTERING


KILLIGREW

 
PANDORA
 

TRAGEDY

 

Charles

 

belong

 
verses
 

COMEDY

 
judging
 

changed

 
APPROVED

Dangerous
 

thought

 
DANGEROUS
 
RECOVERY
 

SICKNESS

 

Farewell

 
fairest
 

threaten

 
returns
 

MAJESTY