For this the ashes of a bard require,

Who touch'd the tend'rest notes of Pity's lyre; Who join'd pure faith to strong poetic powers, Who, in reviving Reason's lucid hours,

Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest, And rightly deem'd the book of God the best.

MISCELLANIES.

TO MISS AURELIA CR,

ON HER WEEPING AT HER SISTER'S WEDDING.*

CEASE, fair Aurelia! cease to mourn;

Lament not Hannah's happy state:

You

may

be happy in your turn, And seize the treasure you regret.

With Love united Hymen stands,
And softly whispers to your charms,
"Meet but your lover in my bands,
"You'll find your sister in his arms."

* This was Mr. Collins's first production.

B

AN EPISTLE

ADDRESSED TO SIR THOMAS HANMER,

On his Edition of Shakspeare's Works.*

WHILE born to bring the Muses happier days, A patriot's hand protects a poet's lays;

While, nurs'd by you, she sees her myrtles bloom
Green and unwither'd o'er his honour'd tomb;
Excuse her doubts if yet she fears to tell

What secret transports in her bosom swell:
With conscious awe she hears the critic's fame,
And blushing hides her wreath at Shakspeare's name.
Hard was the lot those injur'd strains endur'd,
Unown'd by Science, and by years obscur'd :
Fair Fancy wept; and echoing sighs confest
A fix'd despair in every tuneful breast.
Not with more grief th' afflicted swains appear
When wint❜ry winds deform the plenteous year;

*This poem was written by our author at the university about the time Sir Thomas Hanmer's pompous edition of Shakspeare was printed at Oxford. If it has not so much merit as the rest of his poems, it has still more than the subject deserves. The versification is easy and elegant, and the allusions always poetical. The character of the poet Fletcher, in particular, is very justly drawn in this Epistle.

When ling'ring frosts the ruin'd seats invade
Where Peace resorted and the Graces play'd.

Each rising art by just gradation moves;
Toil builds on toil, and age on age improves :
The Muse alone unequal dealt her rage,
And grac'd with noblest pomp her earliest stage:
Preserv'd through time the speaking scenes impart
Each changeful wish of Phædra's tortur'd heart;
Or paint the curse that mark'd the Theban's reign*,
A bed incestuous, and a father slain :

With kind concern our pitying eyes o'erflow,
Trace the sad tale, and own another's woe.

To Rome remov'd, with wit secure to please,
The Comic Sisters kept their native ease,
With jea ous fear declining Greece beheld
Her own Menander's art almost excell'd;
But every Muse essay'd to raise in vain
Some labour'd rival of her tragic strain:
Ilyssus' laurels tho' transferr'd with toil,

Droop'd their fair leaves, nor knew th' unfriendly soil.
As Arts expir'd resistless Dulness rose;

Goths, Priests, or Vandals-all were Learning's foes,
Till Julius* first recall'd each exil'd maid,
And Cosmo own'd them in th' Etrurian shade:

*The Oedipus of Sophocles.

Julius II. the immediate predecessor of Leo X.