And is there aught on Earth I would not suffer? Oh, were there vengeance equal to my crimes, Thou need'st not claim it, most unhappy youth, From any hands but mine: T' avenge thy fate, I'd court the fiercest pains, and sue for tortures; And Phædra's sufferings should atone for thine: Ev'n now I fall a victim to thy wrongs; Ev'n now a fatal draught works out my soul; Ev'n now it curdles in my shrinking veins The lazy blood, and freezes at my heart.

Lycon brought in.

THESEUS.

Hast thou escap'd my wrath? Yet, impious
Lycon,

On thee I'll empty all my hoard of vengeance,
And glut my boundless rage.

LYCON.

O! mercy, mercy!

THESEUS.

Such thou shalt find as thy best deeds deserve, Such as thy guilty soul can hope from Theseus; Such as thou show'dst to poor Hippolitus.

LYCON.

Oh chain me! whip me! Let me be the scorn Of sordid rabbles, and insulting crowds! Give me but life, and make that life most wretched.

PHÆDRA.

Art thou so base, so spiritless a slave? Not so the lovely youth thy arts have ruin'd, Not so he bore the fate to which you doom'd him.

THESEUS.

Oh abject villain! Yet it gives me joy
To see the fears that shake thy guilty soul,
Enhance thy crimes, and antedate thy woes.
Oh, how thou 'It howl thy fearful soul away;
While laughing crowds shall echo to thy cries,
And make thy pains their sport! Haste, hence,
away with him,

Drag him to all the torments Earth can furnish;
Let him be rack'd and gash'd, impal'd alive;
Then let the mangled monster, fix'd on high,
Grin o'er the shouting crowds, and glut their

And yet with joy I flew to his destruction, Boasted his fate, and triumph'd in his ruin. Not this I promis'd to his dying mother, When in her mortal pangs she sighing gave me The last cold kisses from her trembling lips, And reach'd her feeble wandering hands to mine; When her last breath, now quivering at her mouth, Implor'd my goodness to her lovely son; To her Hippolitus. He, alas! descends

An early victim to the lazy shades,

Thee through the dismal waste of gloomy death;
Thee through the glimmering dawn, and purerday,
Through all th' Elysian plains: O righteous Minos!
Elysian plains! There he and his Ismena

Shall sport for ever, shall for ever drink
Immortal love; while I far off shall howl
In lonely plains, while all the blackest ghosts
Shrink from the baleful sight of one more monstrous,
And more accurs'd than they.

THESEUS,

I too must go ; I too must once more see the burning shore Of livid Acheron and black Cocytus, Whence no Alcides will release me now.

PHÆDRA.

Then why this stay? Come on, let's plunge together:

See Hell sets wide its adamantine gates,
See through the sable gates the black Cocytus
In smoky circles rowls its fiery waves:
Hear, hear the stunning harmonies of woe,
The din of rattling chains, of clashing whips,
Of groans, of loud complaints, of piercing shrieks,
That wide through all its gloomy world resound.
How huge Mægara stalks! what streaming fires
Blaze from her glaring eyes! what serpents curl
In horrid wreaths, and hiss around her head!
Now, now she drags me to the bar of Minos.
See how the awful judges of the dead
Look stedfast hate, and horrible dismay!
See Minos turns away his loathing eyes,
Rage choaks his struggling words: the fatal urn
Drops from his trembling hand: O all ye gods!
What, Lycon here! Oh execrable villain!
Then am I still on Earth? By Hell I am,
A fury now, a scourge preserv'd for Lycon!
See, the just beings offer to my vengeance
That impious slave. Now, Lycon, for revenge;
Thanks, Heaven, 'tis here.- -I'll steal it to his

heart.

[Mistaking Theseus for Lycon, offers to stab him.

GUARDS.

Heavens! 'tis your lord.

PHÆDRA.

My lord! O equal Heaven!
Must each portentous moment rise in crimes,
And sallying life go off in parricide?
Then trust not thy slow drugs. Thus sure of death
[Stabs herself.
-And if this suffice not,

Complete thy horrors-
Thou, Minos, do the rest.

THESEUS.

At length she's quiet,

And Earth now bears not such a wretch as Theseus;
Yet I'll obey Hippolitus, and live:
Then to the wars; and as the Corybantines,

descends.

PHEDRA.

He's doom'd by Theseus, but accus'd by Phædra, By Phædra's madness, and by Lycon's hatred. Yet with my life I expiate my frenzy, And die for thee, my headlong rage destroy'd : Thee I pursue (oh great ill-fated youth!) Pursue thee still, but now with chaste desires;

drown'd

The cries of infant Jove-I'll stifle conscience,
And Nature's murmurs in the din of arms.
But what are arms to me? Is he not dead
For whom I fought? For whom my hoary age
Glow'd with the boiling heat of youth in battle?
How then to drag a wretched life beneath,
An endless round of still returning woes,

And all the gnawing pangs of vain remorse?
What torment's this?--Therefore, O greatly
thought,

Therefore do justice on thyself—and live;
Live above all most infinitely wretched.
Ismena too-Nay, then, avenging Heaven
Ismena enters.

Has vented all its rage.- -O wretched maid!
Why dost thou come to swell my raging grief!
Why add to sorrows, and embitter woes?
Why do thy mournful eyes upbraid my guilt?
Why thus recall to my afflicted soul
The sad remambrance of my god-like son,
Of that dear youth my cruelty has ruin'd?

ISMENA.

Ruin'd!O all ye powers! O awful Theseus! Say, where's my lord? say, where has Fate dispos'd him?

Oh speak! the fear distracts me.

THESEUS.

Gods! Can I speak?
Can I declare his fate to his Ismena ?
Oh lovely maid! Could'st thou admit of comfort,
Thou should'st for ever be my only care,
Work of my life, and labour of my soul.
For thee alone, my sorrows, lull'd, shall cease;
Cease for a while to mourn my murder'd son:
For thee alone my sword once more shal! rage,
Restore the crown of which it robbed your race:
Then let your grief give way to thoughts of em-
pire;

At thy own Athens reign. The happy crowd
Beneath thy easy yoke with pleasure bow,
And think in thee their own Minerva reigns.

Deep was her anguish; for the wrongs she did

you

She chose to die, and in her death deplor'd Your fate, and not her own.

HIPPOLITUS.

I've heard it all.

O! had not passion sully'd her renown,
None e'er on Earth had shone with equal lustre ;
So glorious liv'd, or so lamented dy'd.
Her faults were only faults of raging love,
Her virtues all her own.

ISMENA.

Unhappy Phædra! Was there no other way, ye pitying powers, No other way to crown Ismena's love? Then must I ever mourn her cruel fate, And in the midst of my triumphant joy, Ev'n in my hero's arms, confess some sorrow.

THESEUS.

O tender maid! forbear, with ill-tim'd grief, To damp our blessings, and incense the gods: But let's away, and pay kind Heav'n our thanks For all the wonders in our favour wrought; That Heaven, whose mercy rescued erring Theseus From execrable crimes, and endless woes. Then learn from me, ye kings that rule the world, With equal poize let steady justice sway, And flagrant crimes with certain vengeance pay, But, till the proofs are clear, the stroke delay.

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.1 JAM non vulgares, Isis, molire triumphos, Augustos Isis nunquam tacitura Stuartos. Tu quoties crebris cumulâsti altaria donis Multa rogans numen, cui vincta jugalia curæ ! At jam votivam Superis suspende tabellam; Sunt rata vota tibi, sævique oblita doloris Amplexu parvi gaudet Regina Jacobi. Languentes dudum priscus vigor afflat ocellos, Infans et caræ suspensus in oscula Matris Numine jam spirat blando, visumque tenellum Miscet parva quidem, sed vivida Patris imago. O etiam patrio vivat celebratus honore, Vivat canitie terris venerandus eâdem !

'From the Strenæ Natalitiæ Academiæ Oxoniensis in celsissimum Principem. Oxonii,è Theatro Sheldoniano. An. Dom. 1683,-The uncommon excellence of Edmund Smith's productions must ensure them a favourable reception; especially when it is considered, that at the time of their composition he was only one remove from a schoolboy. Had Dr. Johnson seen the first of these publications, he would not have been at a loss to determine, in the excellent life he has given the world of Smith, whether the latter was admitted in the university in the year 1689, as he would thence have been enabled to pronounce with certainty, that he was in 1688 a member of Christ Church. I take this to have been the year of Smith's admission; and that he was then just come off from Westminster, in time to signalize his abilities by writing on the Birth of the Prince of Wales, when a FRESHMAN (according to the university phrase) and before he was appointed to a studentship; for his name is subscribed to that copy of verses, with the addition of COMMONER. The great superiority of genius that is displayed in this first-school-boy's-production of Smith, beyond what Addison has discovered in his first performance-the Pastoral on the Inauguration of King William aud Queen Mary-sufficiently serves to account for Smith's being, as Dr. Johnson obone of the murmurers at fortune; and wondering, why he was suffered to be poor, when Addison was caressed and preferred." Smith could not but be conscious of the greater degree of literary merit he himself possessed even in the very department to which Addison owed the earlier part of his fame, THE WRITING OF LATIN VERSE; and on comparing their juvenile performances, it is evident that Smith had reason enough for that consciousness.Addison first recommended himself to notice by his dedication of the Muse Anglicane to Lord Ha ifax, and by the poems of his own therein inserted. But what are his poems in comparison of SMITH'S.

serves,

KYNASTON.

Omen habet certè superâ quod vescitur aurâ
Tum primum, lætos æstas cum pandat honores,
Omnia cum vireant, cum formosissimus annus.
Et Vos felices optatâ prole Parentes!

Quos nunc Parca piis respexit mota querelis:
En! vestræ valuêre preces; victrixque Deorum
Fata movet pietas, quamvis nolentia flecti:
Proles chara datur senio, inconcessa juventæ,
Si citiùs soboles nullo miranda daretur /
Prodigio, sanctis vix digna Parentibus esset:
O quæ vita dabit, cui dat miracula partus?

I, Princeps, olim patrios imitare triumphos,
Et semper magni vestigia Patris adora:
Hic primâ nondum indutus lanugine malas
Invictis orbem per totum inclaruit armis.
Illius ad tonitru Batavi tremuêre; Jacobum
Agnovit dominum summissis navita velis.
Te quoque Belga tremat, metuat rediviva Jacobi
Fulmina, cujus adhuc miserè conservat hiantes
Ore cicatrices, vastæ et monumenta ruinæ.
Subjectus famulas Nereus Tibi porrigat undas:
Ipse tuo da jura mari.

Cumque Pater tandem divis miscebitur ipse
Divus (at ô! tardè sacra ducite stamina, Parcæ,)
Assere tu nostri jus immortale Monarchæ ;
Tu rege subjectum patriis virtutibus orbem.

EDMUNDUS SMITH, Edis Christi Commensalis.

ON

THE INAUGURATION OF

KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY*.

MAURITII ingentis celso de sanguine natum,
Mauritioque parem, solenni dicere versu
Te, Gulielme, juvat: nunc ô! mihi pectora flammâ
Divinâ caleant, nunc me furor excitet idem,
Qui Te, ingens heros, bello tot adire labores
Instigat, mediosque ardentem impellit in hostes.
Te tenero latè jactabat fama sub ævo :
Capisti, quà finis erat; maturaque virtus
Edidit ante diem fructus, tardèque sequentes
Annos præcurrit longè, et post terga reliquit.
Jamı Te, jam videor flagrantes cernere vultus,
Dum primas ducis fervens in prælia turmas:
Jam cerno oppositas acies, quanto impete præceps
Tela per et gladios raperis; quo fulmine belli
Adversum frangis cuneum, et media agmina misces.
Num ferus invadit Belgas Turennius heros,
Invictis semper clarus Turennius armis,
Et, quacunque ruit, ferro bacchatur et igni ?
Tu primo vernans jucundæ flore juventæ
Congrederis, ducente Deo, Deus ipse Batavis.
Congrederis; non Te Gallorum immania terrent
Agmina, non magni Turennius agminis instar.
Heu quas tum ferro strages, quæ funera latè
Edideris, quantosque viros demiseris orco!
Sic cum congestos struxêre ad sidera montes
Terrigenæ fratres, superos detrudere cœlo
Aggressi, posito tum plectro intonsus Apollo
Armatâ sumpsit fatalia spicula dextrâ :
Tunc audax ruit in bellum, et furit acer in armis,
Et Martem, atque ipsas longè anteit fulminis alas.

2 From the Vota Oxoniensia pro serenissimis Guilhelmo Rege et Maria Regina M. Britanniæ, &c. nuncupata. Oxonii, è Theatro Sheldoniano. An. Dom. 1689.