Then wouldst thou, mortal, rife divine, • Let innocence of foul be thine,
With active goodness join'd:
Thy heart shall then confess thee bless'd;
And, ever lively, joyful taste
The pleasures of the mind."
So fpake the fage. My heart reply'd,
how blind is human pride!
All joy how falfe and vain,
But that from confcious Worth which flows, • Which gives the death-bed fweet repofe, And hopes an after reign.'
ANN BOLEYN TO HENRY VIII.
Ne quid inexpertum fruftra moritura relinquat.
F fighs could foften, or diftrefs could move
Obdurate hearts, and bosoms dead to love,
Already fure thefe tears had ceas'd to flow;
And Henry's fmiles reliev'd his Anna's woe.
Yet ftill I write, ftill breathe a fruitless pray'r,
The last fond effort of extreme despair:
As fome poor fhipwreck'd wretch, for ever loft,
In ftrong delufion grafps the lefs'ning coaft,
Thinks it ftill near, howe'er the billows drive,
And but with life refigns the hopes to live.
You bid me live; but, O how dire the means!
Virtue starts back, and conscious pride disdains.
Confefs my crime !-what crime fhall I confefs?
In what ftrange terms the hideous falfhood drefs?
A vile adultrefs! Heav'n defend my fame!
Condemn'd for acting what I fear'd to name.
Blaft the foul wretch, whofe impious tongue could dare
With founds like those to wound the royal ear!
To wound?alas! they only pleas'd too well,
And cruel Henry fmil'd when Anna fell.
Why was I rais'd, why bade to fhine on high
A pageant queen, an earthly deity?
This flow'r of beauty, fmall, and void of art,
Too weak to fix a mighty fov'reign's heart,
In life's low vale it's humbler charms had spread,
While ftorms roll'd harmlefs o'er it's fhelter'd head t
Had found, perhaps, a kinder gath'rer's hand,
Grown to his breaft; and, by his care fuftain'd,
Had bloom'd a while; then, gradual in decay,
Grac'd with a tear, had calmly pass'd away!
Yet, when thus rais'd, I taught my chafte defires
To know their lord, and burn with equal fires.
Why, then, these bonds? is this that regal ftate
The fair expects whom Henry bids be great?
Are these lone walls and never-varied fcenes
The envied manfion of Britannia's queens?
Where diftant founds in hollow murmurs die,
Where mofs-grown tow'rs obftruct the trav'ling eye;
Where o'er dim funs eternal damps prevail,
And health ne'er enters wafted by the gale.
How curs'd the wretch, to fuch fad fcenes confin'd,
If guilt's dread scorpions lash his tortur'd mind,
When injur'd innocence is taught to fear,
And coward virtue weeps and trembles here!
Nay, e'en when fleep fhould ev'ry care allay,
And foftly steal th' imprifon'd foul away,
Quick to my thoughts excurfive fancy brings
Long vifionary trains of martyr'd kings.
A a
There pious Henry, recent from the blow,
There ill-ftarr'd Edward lifts his infant brow
Unhappy prince! thy weak, defenceless age,
Might foften rocks, or foothe the tiger's rage:
But not on these thy harder fates depend;
Man, man pursues, and murder is his end.
Such may my child +, fuch dire protectors find,
Thro' av'rice cruel, thro' ambition blind:
No kind condolance in her utmost need,
Her friends all banish'd, and her parent dead!
O hear me, Henry! hufband, father, hear,
If e'er those names were gracious in thy ear:
Since I must die, (and fo thy eafe requires,
For love admits not of divided fires)
O to thy babe thy tend'rest cares extend !
As parent cherish, and as king defend!
Transferr'd to her, with tranfport I refign.
Thy faithless heart-if e'er that heart was mine.
Nor may remorse thy guilty cheek inflame,
When the fond prattler lifps her mother's name;
No tear start.confcious when fhe meets your eye,
No heart-felt pang extort th' unwilling figh;
Left fhe should find, (and ftrong is Nature's call)
I fell untimely, and lament my fall;
Forget that duty which high Heav'n commands,
And meet ftrict juftice from a father's hands..
No, rather fay what malice can invent,
My crimes enormous, fmall my punishment.
Pleas'd will I view from yon fecurer fhore,
Life, virtue, love too loft, and weep no more,
If in your breasts the bonds of union grow,
And, undisturb'd, the ftreams of duty flow.
-Yet can I tamely court the lifted fteel,
Nor honour's wounds with ftrong refentment feel?
*Henry VI. and Edward V. both murdered in the Tower.
Afterwards Queen Elizabeth.
Ye pow'rs! that thought improves e'en Terror's king,
Adds horrors to his brow, and torments to his fting.
No, try me, prince; each word, each action weigh,
My rage could dictate, or my fears betray;
Each figh, each fmile, each diftant hint that hung
On broken founds of an unmeaning tongue;
Recount each glance of thefe unguarded eyes,
The feats where paffion, void of reason, lies:
In those clear mirrors ev'ry thought appears;
Tell all their frailties-oh, explain their tears!
Yes, try me, prince; but, ah! let truth prevail,
And justice only hold the equal fcale.
Ah! let not those the fatal fentence give,
Whom brothels blush to own, yet courts receive;
Bafe, vulgar fouls-and fhall fuch wretches raise
A queen's concern? To fear them, were to praise.
Yet, oh! (dread thought!) oh, muft I, muft I fay,
Henry commands, and thefe conftrain'd obey?
Too well I know his faithlefs bofom pants
For charms, alas! which haplefs Anna wants:
Yet once those charms this faded face could boaft,
Too cheaply yielded, and too quickly loft.
Will the*, O think, whom now your fnares pursue,
Will fhe for ever please, be ever new?
Or muft fhe, meteor like, awhile be great,
Then weeping fall, and fhare thy Anna's fate?
Mifguided maid! who now perhaps has form'd,
In tranfport melting, with ambition warm'd,
Long future greatness in extatick schemes,
Loofe plans of wild delight, and golden dreams!
Alas! fhe knows not with how swift decay
Those visionary glories fleet away;
Alas! fhe knows not the fad time will come,
When Henry's eyes to other nymphs fhall roam;
When she shall vainly figh, plead, tremble, rave,
And drop, perhaps, a tear on Anna's grave:
Elfe would fhe fooner truft the wint❜ry fea,
Rocks, defarts, monfters-any thing than thee;
Thee, whom deceit infpires, whofe ev'ry breath
Soothes to defpair, and ev'ry fmile is death.
Fool that I was! I faw my rifing fame
Gild the fad ruins of a nobler name
For me the force of facred ties difown'd,
A realm infulted, and a queen dethron'd:
Yet, fondly wild, by love, by fortune led,
Excus'd the crime, and fhar'd the guilty bed;
With fpecious reason lull'd each rifing care,
And hugg'd deftruction in a form fo fair.
'Tis juft, ye pow'rs! no longer I complain;
Vain be my tears, my boasted virtues vain!
Let rage, let flames, this deftin'd wretch purfue,
Who begs to die-but begs that death from you.
Ah! why muft Henry the dread mandate feal?
Why must his hand, uninjur'd, point the fteel?
Say, for you fearch the images that roll
In deep receffes of the inmoft foul;
Say, did ye e'er, amid those number, find
One with difloyal, or one thought unkind?
Then fnatch me, blast me, let the lightning's wing
Avert this stroke, and fave the guilty king!
Let not my blood, by lawlefs paffion fhed,
Draw down Heav'n's vengeance on his facred head;
But Nature's pow'r prevent the dire decree,
And my hard lord, without a crime, be free.
Still, ftill I live; Heav'n hears not what I fay,
Or turns, like Henry, from my pray'rs away,
Rejected, loft, O whither fhall I fly!
Į fear not death, yet dread the means to die,
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