These from thy fource the bold contagion caught,
Their future fons the great example taught: 200
While in each youth th' hereditary flame
Still blazes, unextinguish'd and the fame!

Nor all the tasks of thoughtful peace engage, 'Tis thine to form the hero as the fage. I fee the fable-fuited Prince advance With lilies crown'd, the fpoils of bleeding France,

205

Oxfordshire, being the very place where he first mustered and drew up men in arms, to put in execution the rebellious ordinance for the militia."

V. 198. Somers] The celebrated Lord Chancellor was a native of Worcester, 1652, and educated at the college-fchool there; where he was foon diftinguished for the quickness and solidity of his parts, and became afterwards a Gentleman Commoner of Trinity Coll. See Verfes on Death of George II. 89. and note.

V. 205. the fable-suited Prince] Gray calls the Black Prince the fable warrior:

Is the fable warrior fled? Bard, ii.

But fee Shakspere, in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2. "Nay then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of fables." The epithet is compounded in the manner of Milton:

with him enthron'd

Sat fable-vefted Night. Par. Loft, ii. 961.

And again, in Ode on the Nativity,

The fable-ftoled forcerers. St. xxiv.

And in Il Penferofo,

Till civil-fuited morn appear. Ver. 122.

See note on Birth of Prince of Wales, ver. 36.

V. 206. With lilies crown'd, the fpoils of bleeding France,]

Edward. The Muses, in yon cloister'd fhade, Bound on his maiden thigh the martial blade; Bade him the fteel for British freedom draw, And Oxford taught the deeds that Creffy faw. 210

And fee, great father of the facred band, The Patriot King before me seems to stand. He by the bloom of this gay vale beguil'd, That cheer'd with lively green the fhaggy wild, Hither of yore, forlorn forgotten maid, The Mufe in prattling infancy convey'd;

Pope defcribes Edward III. as poetically, and perhaps with more propriety, by

The lilies blazing on the regal fhield. Winds. For. ver. 306. A circumstance of which Whitehead has happily availed himself, where he fays, in the true dramatic ftyle of lyric poetry, in the perfon of Britannia,

""Twas thus of old

My warlike fons, a gallant train,

"Call'd forth their genuine ftrength, and spread

"Their banners o'er the tented mead;

"'Twas thus they taught perfidious France to yield,"

She cries, and fhows the lilies on her fhield.

Ode for King's Birth-Day, 1778.

V. 207. The Muses, in yon cloifter'd fhade, &c.] Edward the Black Prince, as well as Henry V. whom, by the way, there was a good opportunity of mentioning in this place, was a member of Queen's College; perhaps out of compliment to the new foundation, which was denominated after his mother, Queen Philippa.

V. 212. The Patriot King] Alfred. The tradition respecting the foundation of the University of Oxford by him is well known.

From Vandal rage the helpless virgin bore,
And fix'd her cradle on my friendly fhore:
Soon grew the maid beneath his foftering hand,
Soon stream'd her bleffings o'er the enlighten'd

land.

220

Though fimple was the dome where firft to dwell
She deign'd, and rude her early Saxon cell,
Lo! now fhe holds her ftate in fculptur'd bowers,
And proudly lifts to heav'n her hundred towers.
'Twas Alfred first, with letters and with laws, 225
Adorn'd, as he advanc'd, his country's caufe:

V. 223. fculptur'd bowers,] This combination appears harsh, unless it is remembered that the word "bower" anciently fignified a chamber, perhaps an inner chamber, and that the appropriate sense, which it now bears, of a canopy of trees, is grafted on the old one. See Grave of Arthur, ver. 97. I subjoin here two or three ftriking inftances from our Poet, in which he ufes the word in its old fignification:

On the Birth of the Prince of Wales, ver. 13.

Yet future triumphs, Windfor, ftill remain,
Still may thy bowers receive as brave a train.

Sonnet V. ver. 1.

From Pembroke's princely dome, where mimic Art
Decks with a magic hand the dazzling bowers.

Ode on Summer, ver. 242.

Of that proud caftle's painted bowers.

Ode for New Year, 1788, ver. 52. Of Windfor Castle,
Proud Cafile, to thy banner'd bowers.

But inftances might readily be multiplied.

V. 224. And proudly lifts to heav'n her hundred towers.] The fame idea is repeated in Mons Catharina:

Et centum oftentet finuofo in margine turres.

He bade relent the Briton's stubborn foul,
And footh'd to foft fociety's controul

A rough untutor'd

age.

With raptur'd eye

Elate he views his laurel'd progeny :

230

Serene he fmiles to find, that not in vain
He form'd the rudiments of learning's reign:
Himself he marks in each ingenuous breast,
With all the founder in the race expreft:
Confcious he fees fair Freedom ftill furvive 235
In yon bright domes, ill-fated fugitive!
(Glorious, as when the goddess pour'd the beam
Unfullied on his ancient diadem ;)
Well-pleas'd, that at his own Pierian springs
She refts her weary feet, and plumes her wings; 240
That here at laft fhe takes her deftin'd stand,
Here deigns to linger, ere fhe leave the land.

V. 242. Here deigns to linger, ere fhe leave the land.] So Virgil defcribes the country as the laft refidence of Juftice upon earth: -extrema per illos

Juftitia excedens terris veftigia fecit. Georg. ii. 473.

It has been obferved to me, that the line is taken almoft word for word from Pope; but I cannot refer to the paffage.

ELEGY

ON THE DEATH OF THE LATE

FREDERIC PRINCE OF WALES.

(Written in 1751.)

I.

O FOR the warblings of the Doric ote, That wept the youth deep-whelm'd in ocean's tide!

ELEGY, &c.] Till within a few years paft, on great public occafions, collections of verfes, in the way of condolence, congratulation, &c. were usually made by the Universities. In the Oxford collection upon the death of the late Frederic Prince of Wales, Father of his prefent Majefty, in 1751, this Elegy appeared, with no very material variations, under the name of John Whetham, Fellow Commoner of Trinity College. This fpecies of delufion was not uncommon. The fame collection contains an Elegy, profeffedly written by James Clitherow, of All Souls College, but in reality by the late Judge Blackftone; and a very elegant copy of Latin Hendecafyllables, faid to be by George Brome, Gentleman Commoner of Christ-Church, the author of which was the present Archbishop of York. There is also a copy of Latin Hexameters by Warton, under his own name; for which fee the Latin Poems. V. I. O for the warblings of the Doric ote, &c.] Mr. Headley refers to Shakfpere's Prologue to Henry V.

O! for a Mufe of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention !