My _Lord_, Your Lordship's most obedient servant, JOHN DRYDEN.
[18] Lord Radcliffe was the eldest son of Francis, Earl of Derwentwater, by Catherine, daughter of Sir William Fenwick. He married Mary Tudor, a natural daughter of Charles II., by Mary Davies, an actress, who had the fortune to attract his majesty's attention, by singing in D'Avenant's "Rivals," the famous mad song,
Lord Radcliffe succeeded to his father in 1696-7, and died 29th April, 1705.
[19] These lines are quoted from Lord Dorset's address "to Mr Edward Howard, on his incomparable, incomprehensible poem, called, The British Princes:"
Wit, like tierce claret, when it 'gins to pall, Neglected lies, and's of no use at all; But, in its full perfection of decay, Turns vinegar, and comes again in play.
[20] The poet apparently speaks of Lady Radcliffe, who probably inherited those vocal powers, with which her mother, Moll Davies, charmed Charles II. The Grace might be her daughter.
Of bodies changed to various forms I sing:-- Ye gods, from whence these miracles did spring, Inspire my numbers with celestial heat, Till I my long laborious work complete; And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes, Deduced from nature's birth to Cæsar's times. Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, And heaven's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of nature, if a face; Rather a rude and indigested mass; A lifeless lump, unfashioned, and unframed, Of jarring seeds, and justly chaos named. No sun was lighted up the world to view; No moon did yet her blunted horns renew; Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky, Nor, poised, did on her own foundations lie; Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown; But earth, and air, and water, were in one. Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable, And water's dark abyss unnavigable. No certain form on any was imprest; All were confused, and each disturbed the rest: For hot and cold were in one body fixed; And soft with hard, and light with heavy, mixed. But God or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end. Then earth from air, and seas from earth, were driven, And grosser air sunk from ætherial heaven. Thus disembroiled, they take their proper place; } The next of kin contiguously embrace; } And foes are sundered by a larger space. } The force of fire ascended first on high, And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky. Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire, Whose atoms from unactive earth retire. Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng, Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along. About her coasts unruly waters roar, And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore. Thus when the God, whatever God was he, Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree, That no unequal portions might be found, He moulded earth into a spacious round; Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow, And bade the congregated waters flow: He adds the running springs, and standing lakes, And bounding banks for winding rivers makes. Some part in earth are swallowed up, the most In ample oceans, disembogued, are lost: He shades the woods, the values he restrains With rocky mountains, and extends the plains. And as five zones the ætherial regions bind, Five, correspondent, are to earth assigned; The sun, with rays directly darting down, Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone: The two beneath the distant poles complain Of endless winter, and perpetual rain. Betwixt the extremes, two happier climates hold The temper that partakes of hot and cold. The fields of liquid air, inclosing all, Surround the compass of this earthly ball: The lighter parts lie next the fires above; The grosser near the watery surface move: Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there, } And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear, } And winds that on their wings cold winter bear. } Nor were those blustering brethren left at large, On seas and shores their fury to discharge: Bound as they are, and circumscribed in place, They rend the world, resistless, where they pass, And mighty marks of mischief leave behind; Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind. First, Eurus to the rising morn is sent, (The regions of the balmy continent,) And eastern realms, where early Persians run, To greet the blest appearance of the sun. Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight, Pleased with the remnants of departing light; Fierce Boreas with his offspring issues forth, To invade the frozen waggon of the North; While frowning Auster seeks the southern sphere, And rots, with endless rain, the unwholesome year. High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind, The God a clearer space for heaven designed; Where fields of light and liquid æther flow, Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below.