VI.

But, oh! what art can teach,
What human voice can reach,
The sacred organ's praise?

Notes inspiring holy love,

Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To mend the choirs above.

VII.

Orpheus could lead the savage race;
And trees unrooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre:

But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher; When to her organ* vocal breath was given, An angel heard, and straight appeared, Mistaking earth for heaven.

GRAND CHORUS.

As from the power of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the blessed above;

So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And Music shall untune† the sky.

* St. Cecilia is said to have invented the organ, though it is not known when or how she came by this credit.

introduces her as performing upon that instrument

"And while that the organes maden melodie,
To God alone thus in her heart sung she."

Chaucer

The descent of the angel we have already mentioned. She thus announces this celestial attendant to her husband

"I have an angel which that loveth me;

That with great love, wher so I wake or slepe,

Is ready aye my body for to kepe."

† [I do not understand "untune."-ED.]

THE TEARS OF AMYNTA,

FOR THE

DEATH OF DAMON.

A SONG.

[This Song appeared in the First Miscellany, 1684: the next in the Second Miscellany, 1685. Both are admirable examples of the same mixed mode as the songs in the Plays.—ED.]

I.

ON a bank, beside a willow,

Heaven her covering, earth her pillow,
Sad Amynta sighed alone;

From the cheerless dawn of morning
Till the dews of night returning,
Singing thus, she made her moan:
Hope is banished,

Joys are vanished,

Damon, my beloved, is gone!

II.

Time, I dare thee to discover
Such a youth, and such a lover;

Oh, so true, so kind was he!
Damon was the pride of nature,
Charming in his every feature
Damon lived alone for me:
Melting kisses,

Murmuring blisses;

Who so lived and loved as we!

III.

Never shall we curse the morning,
Never bless the night returning,
Sweet embraces to restore:
Never shall we both lie dying,
Nature failing, love supplying
All the joys he drained before.
Death, come end me,
To befriend me;

Love and Damon are no more.

A NEW SONG.

I.

SYLVIA, the fair, in the bloom of fifteen,

Felt an innocent warmth as she lay on the green; She had heard of a pleasure, and something she guest

By the towzing, and tumbling, and touching her breast.

She saw the men eager, but was at a loss,
What they meant by their sighing, and kissing
so close;

By their praying and whining,
And clasping and twining,
And panting and wishing,
And sighing and kissing,

And sighing and kissing so close.

II.

Ah! she cried, ah, for a languishing maid,
In a country of Christians, to die without aid!
Not a Whig, or a Tory, or Trimmer at least,
Or a Protestant parson, or Catholic priest,
To instruct a young virgin, that is at a loss,
What they meant by their sighing, and kissing
so close!

By their praying and whining,
And clasping and twining,
And panting and wishing,
And sighing and kissing,

And sighing and kissing so close.

III.

Cupid, in shape of a swain, did appear,
He saw the sad wound, and in pity drew near;
Then showed her his arrow, and bid her not fear,
For the pain was no more than a maiden may bear
When the balm was infused, she was not at a loss,
What they meant by their sighing, and kissing
so close;

By their praying and whining,
And clasping and twining,
And panting and wishing,
And sighing and kissing,

And sighing and kissing so close.

VOL. XI.

M