St. Lambert.

Au fein du plaifir il le chante.
Tandis que fes accens flateurs
Charmoient mon ame impatiente,
Echappée aux regards jaloux,
Lifette arrive au rendez-vous.

D'un feu plus doux fes yeux f'animent;
Les miens annoncent mes defirs;
Nos regards confondus expriment
L'efpoir et le goût des plaifirs.
Aimable fils de Cythérée,
De l'yvrefle de nos efprits
Tu ne peux augmenter le prix,
Qu'en ajoûtant à fa durée.
De ce délicieux moment
Fixe le paffage infenfible;
Que dans fa courfe imperceptible
Le tems vole plus lentement.
Dans les fougues du plaifir même,
Que fans ceffe le fentiment
Ajoute à mon bonheur fuprême,
Je paffe de l'emportement
A ce calme doux et charmant,
Où l'ame, après la jouiffance,
Dans un voluptueux filence
Se rend compte de fon bonheur.
Mais la molleffe où tu nous plonges,
Sommeil, fuspendra nos defirs:

Dans des tableaux vrais, que les fonges
Nous retracent tous nos plaifirs.
Puiffé-je encore dans ton empire,
Près de Lifette foupirer;
L'avoir dans mes bras, l'adorer,
Et m'éveiller pour le lui dire!

Denham.

Denham.

Sir John Denham, geb. 1615, geft. 1668, hat anerź Jannte Verdienste um die Verbesserung der englischen Poez fie. Den größten Ruhm erwarb er sich durch das, hier ganz eingerückte, Gedicht, Cooper's Hill, worin er eine reizende Anhdhe dieses Namens beschreibt, und wodurch er eine in der Folge von englischen Dichtern oft bearbeitete Dichtungsart einführte, die man, wie Dr. Johnson sagt, die Lokal poesie nennen könnte. Das Gedicht ist, nach dem Urtheile dieses Kunstrichters, freilich nicht ohne Mångel; es hat zu lange Abschweifungen, zu häufige Moral, und nicht durch; aus åchte Empfindung; iudeß gesteht er dem Dichter doch das Lob der Originalität, und das Verdienst zu, daß er zur Verbesserung des Geschmacks und der Sprache seines Va terlandes sehr viel beigetragen habe. Ueber die vier berühm testen, höchst glücklichen, und unzählig oft nachgeahmten Verse:

O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear; thọ gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full!

--

findet man eine scharfsinnige Kritik in Denhams Leben von Dr. Johnson. Die größte Schönheit dieses Gedichts sezt Dr. Warton (Essay on Pope, Vol. I. p. 31.) in der Kunst, mit welcher Denham seinen Beschreibungen und Bildern durchgängig eine moralische Tendenz zu geben, und ihnen überall lehrreiche Winke einzuweben gewußt hat; faft gauz so, wie der wirkliche Anblick selcher Scenen und Ausfichten der Seele eine gewisse ruhige Fassung mitzutheilen, und sie zu Gedanken und Betrachtungen, die mit den Ge genständen verwandt find, hinzuneigen pflegt.

COOPER'S HILL.

Sure there are Poets which did never dream
Upon Parnaffus, nor did taste the stream

Of

Denham.

Of Helicon; we therefore may fuppofe

Those made not Poets, but the Poets those.

And as Courts make not Kings,

Court,

but Kings the

So where the Muses and their Train refort,
Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee
A Poet, thou Parnaffus art to me.

Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight,
By taking wing from thy aufpicious height)
Through untrac'd Ways and airy Paths I flie,
More boundless in my Fancy than my Eye:
My Eye, which fwift as Thought contracts the
Space

That lies between, and firft falutes the Place-
Crown'd with that facred Pile, fo vaft, fo high,
That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or Sky,
Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud
Afpiring Mountain, or defcending Cloud,
Paul's, the late Theme of fuch a *) Muse whofe
flight

Has bravely reach'd and foar'd above thy height:
Now fhalt thou ftand, tho' Sword, or Time, or
Fire,

Or Zeal more fierce than they, thy Fall confpire,
Secure, whilft thee the best of Poets fings,
Preferv'd from Ruin by the best of Kings,

Under his proud furvey the City lies,
And like a Mift beneath a Hill doth rife;
Whole State and Wealth, the Bufinefs and the
Crow'd:

Seems at this diftance but a darker Cloud:
And is to him who rightly things esteems,
No other in effect than what it feems:

Where, with like hafte, tho' fev'ral ways they

run,

Some to undo, and fome to be undone;

While Luxury, and Wealth, like War and Peace,

P 5

*) Mr. Waller,

Are

Denham. Are each the others ruin, and increase;
As Rivers loft in Seas, fome fecret Vein
'Thence reconveys, there to be lost again.
Oh Happiness of fweet retir'd Content!
To be at once fecure, and innocent.

Windfor the next (where Mars with Venus dwells,
Beauty with Strength) above the Valley fwells
Into my Eye, and doth itself present
With fuch and eafie and inforc'd Afcent,
That no stupendous Precipice denies
Accefs, no horror turns away our Eyes:
But fuch a Rife, as doth at once invite

A pleasure, and a reverence from the fight.
Thy mighty Master's Emblem, in whofe Face
Sate Meckness, heighten'd with majeftick Grace;
Such feems thy gentle height, made only proud
To be the bafis of that pompous load,

Than which, a nobler weight no Mountain bears,
But Atlas only which fupports the Sphears.
When Nature's hand this ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer Pow'r than Chance;
Mark'd out for fuch an ufe, as if 'twere meant
T' invite the Builder, and his choice prevent.
Nor can we call it choice, when what we chuse,
Folly or Blindness only coud refufe.

A Crown of fuch majeftick Tow'rs does grace
The Gods great Mother, when her heav'nly Race
Do Homage to her, yet fhe cannot boast
Among that num'rous, and Celestial Hoft,
More Heroes than can Windfor, nor doth Fame's
Immortal Book record more noble Names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this Isle
Owes the first Glory of fo brave a Pile,
Whether to Caefar, Albanac, or Brute,
The British Arthur, or the Danish Krute,
(Tho' this of old no lefs Contest did move,
Than when for Homer's Birth fev'n Cities ftrove)
(Like him in Birth, thou fhouldft be like in Fame,
As thine his Fate, if mine had been his Flame)
But whofoe'er it was, Nature defign'd

1

First a brave Place, and then as brave a Mind.
Not to recount thofe fev'ral Kings, to whom
It gave a Cradle or to whom a Tomb;

But thee, great *) Edward, and thy greater fon,
(The Lillies which his Father wore, he won)
And thy **) Bellona, who the Confort came
Not only to thy Bed, but to thy Fame,
She to thy Triumph led one Captive ***) king,
And brought that Son, which did the second bring.
Then didst thou found that Order (whether Love
Or Victory thy Royal Thoughts did move)
Each was a noble caufe, and nothing lefs
Than the defign, has been the great fuccefs:
Which foreign Kings, and Emperors esteem
The fecond Honour to their Diadem.
Had thy great Destiny but giv'n thee skill
To know, as well as pow'r to act her will,
That from thofe Kings, who then thy Captives were,
In after-times fhould fpring a Royal Pair
Who fhould poffefs all that thy mighty Powr,
Or thy Defires more mighty, did devour:
To whom their better Fate referves what e'er
The Victor hopes for, or the Vanquisht fear;
That Blood, which thou and thy great Grandfire
fhed,

And all that fince thele fifter Nations bled,
Had been unfpilt, had happy Edward known
That all the Blood he fpilt, had been his own.
When he that Patron chofe, in whom are join'd
Soldier and Martyr, and his Arms confin'd
Within the azure Circle, he did feem
But to foretell, and prophefie of him

Who to his Realms that azure round hath join'd,
Which Nature for their bound at first defign'd.
That bound, which to the World's extreameft end,

*) Edward III. and the Black-Prince.

**) Queen Philippa.

***) The Kings of France and Scotland.

End