| |
| WHEN 1 factious Rage to cruel Exile drove | |
| The Queen of Beauty, and the Court of Love, | |
| The Muses droop’d with their forsaken Arts, | |
| And the sad Cupids broke their useless Darts. | |
| Our fruitful Plains to Wilds and Deserts turn’d, | 5 |
| Like Eden’s Face when banish’d Man it mourned: | |
| Love was no more when Loyalty was gone, | |
| The great Supporter of his awful Throne. | |
| Love could no longer after Beauty stay, | |
| But wander’d northward to the Verge of Day, | 10 |
| As if the Sun and he had lost their Way. | |
| But now the illustrious Nymph, return’d again, | |
| Brings every Grace triumphant in her Train: | |
| The wondering Nereids, though they rais’d no Storm, | |
| Foreslow’d her Passage to behold her Form; | 15 |
| Some cried a Venus, some a Thetis past, | |
| But this was not so fair nor that so chaste. | |
| Far from her Sight flew Faction, Strife, and Pride, | |
| And Envy did but look on her, and died. | |
| Whate’er we suffer’d from our sullen Fate, | 20 |
| Her Sight is purchased at an easy rate: | |
| Three gloomy Years against this Day were set, | |
| But this one mighty Sum has clear’d the debt. | |
| Like Joseph’s Dream, but with a better Doom; | |
| The Famine past, the Plenty still to come. | 25 |
| For her the weeping Heavens become serene, | |
| For her the Ground is clad in cheerful green, | |
| For her the Nightingales are taught to sing, | |
| And Nature has for her delay’d the Spring. | |
| The Muse resumes her long-forgotten Lays, | 30 |
| And Love, restor’d, his ancient Realm surveys, | |
| Recalls our Beauties and revives our Plays; | |
| His waste Dominions peoples once again, | |
| And from her Presence dates his second Reign. | |
| But awful Charms on her fair Forehead sit, | 35 |
| Dispensing what she never will admit; | |
| Pleasing yet cold, like Cynthia’s silver Beam, | |
| The People’s Wonder and the Poet’s Theme. | |
| Distemper’d Zeal, Sedition, canker’d Hate | |
| No more shall vex the Church and tear the State; | 40 |
| No more shall Faction civil Discords move, | |
| Or only Discords of too tender Love: | |
| Discord like that of Music’s various Parts, | |
| Discord that makes the Harmony of Hearts, | |
| Discord that only this Dispute shall bring, | 45 |
| Who best shall love the Duke and serve the King. | |
