Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PHILOXIPES AND POLICRITE; AN ESSAY TO AN HEROIC POEM: CANTO 1, by CHARLES COTTON


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PHILOXIPES AND POLICRITE; AN ESSAY TO AN HEROIC POEM: CANTO 1, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: This canto serves first to relate
Last Line: She were his mistress, and no fair but she.


THIS Canto serves first to relate,
Philoxipes, his birth, and parts,
His Prince's friendship, wealth, and state,
His youth, his manners, arms, and arts;
His strange contempt of Love's dread dart:
Till a mere shadow takes his heart.

I

In Thetis' lap, and by her arms embrac't,
Betwixt the Syrian, and Cilician coasts;
The poet's Cyprus fortunately plac't,
Like Nature's casket, all her treasure boasts:
An isle, that once for her renowned loves;
Stood consecrate to Venus, and her doves.

II

From whose fair womb, once sprung as fair a seed
To shame the brood of the corrupted world,
The graceful sexes of her happy breed,
In one another's chaste embraces curled:
Nor other difference knew, than did arise
From em'lous virtue, for the virtue's prize.

III

And these were strifes, where envy had no place;
She was not known in such a virtuous war;
Nor had ambition, with her giant race,
In such contentions a malignant share:
Love was the cause, and virtue was the claim,
That could their honest, gentle hearts enflame.

IV

But none, amongst that never failing Race,
Could match Philoxipes, that noble youth,
In strength, and beauty, fortitude, and grace,
In gentle manners, and unblemish'd truth,
In all the virtues, and the arts that should
Embellish manhood; or ennoble blood.

V

A Prince descended from the royal lines
Of Greece and Troy united in one bed,
Where merit and reward did once combine
The seeds of AEacus, and Leomed,
And in a brave succession did agree
Bold Felamon, and fair Hesione.

VI

From this illustrious pair fam'd Teucer sprung,
Who, when return'd from Ilium's fun'ral fire,
Without due vengeance for his brother's wrong;
Was banish'd home by his griev'd father's ire:
And into Cyprus fortunately came
To build a city to his country's name.

VII

Great Salamis, whose polish'd turrets stood
For many ages in the course of time,
T' o'erlook the surface of the swelling flood,
The strength and glory of that fruitful clime,
Was his great work, from whose brave issue, since,
The world receiv'd this worthy, matchless Prince.

VIII

Worthy his ancestors, and that great name,
His own true merits, with the public voice,
Had won throughout the isle, as his just claim,
Above whatever passed a general choice:
A man so perfect, none could disapprove,
Save that he could not; or he did not love.

IX

Books were his business, his diversion arms,
His practice, honour, his achievements fame,
He had no time to love; nor could the charms
Of any Cyprian Nymph his blood enflame:
He thought the fairest print of womankind
Too small a volume to enrich his mind.

X

He lov'd the tawny lion's dang'rous chase,
The spotted leopard; or the tusked boar;
Their bloody steps would the young hunter trace,
And having lodg'd them, their tough entrails gore:
Love was too soft to feed his gen'rous fire,
And maids too weak to conquer his desire.

XI

In all his intervals of happy truce,
Knowledge, and arts which his high mind endow'd,
Were still his objects, and what they produce
Was the brave issue of his solitude:
He shunn'd dissembling courts, and thought less praise,
Adher'd to diadems, than wreaths of bays;

XII

Although betwixt him, and the youthful King,
Who, at this time, the Paphian sceptre sway'd;
A likeness in their manners, and their spring
Had such a true and lasting friendship made,
That, without him, the King did still esteem
His court a cottage, and her glories dim.

XIII

One was their country, one the happy earth,
That (to its glory) these young heroes bred;
One year produc'd either's auspicious birth,
One space matur'd them, and one counsel led:
All things in fine, wherein their virtues shone,
Youth, beauty, strength, studies, and arms were one.

XIV

This, so establish'd friendship, was the cause,
That when this modest Prince would fain retire,
From the fond world's importunate applause,
Oft cross'd the workings of his own desire;
And made him, with a fav'rite's love, and skill,
Devote his pleasures to his master's will.

XV

But once his presence, and assistance stood
In balance with this hopeful Monarch's bliss,
Love's golden shaft had fir'd his youthful blood;
Nor any ear must hear his sighs but his;
Artiphala his heart had overthrown,
Maugre his sword, his sceptre, and his crown.

XVI

From her bright eyes the wounding lightning flew,
Through the resistance of his manly breast,
By none, but his Philoxipes that knew
Each motion of his soul to be exprest:
He must his secrets keep, and courtships bear,
Conceal them from the world, but tell them her.

XVII

This held him most to shine in the Court's sphere,
And practise passion in another's name,
To dally with those arms that levell'd were
His high, and yet victorious heart t' enflame:
He sigh'd, and wept, expressing all the woe
Despairing lovers in their frenzy show.

XVIII

And, with so good success, that in some space
The magic of his eloquence, and art,
Had wrought the King into this Princess' grace,
And laid the passage open to her heart:
Such royal suitors could not be denied,
The whole world's wonder, and one Asia's pride.

XIX

The King thus fix'd a Monarch in his love,
And in his mistress's fair surrender crown'd,
Could sometimes now permit his Friend's remove,
As having other conversation found.
And now resign him to the peace he sought
To practise what the wise Athenian taught.

XX

Solon, that Oracle of famous Greece,
Could in the course of his experience find,
None to bequeath his knowledge to but this,
This glorious youth blest with so rich a mind,
So brave a soul, and such a shining spirit;
As virtue might, by lawful claim, inherit.

XXI

It was his precept, that did first distill
Virtue into this hopeful young man's breast;
That gave him reason to conduct his will,
That first his soul in sacred knowledge drest;
And taught him, that a wise man, when alone,
Is to himself the best companion.

XXII

He taught him first into himself retire,
Shunning the greatness, and those gaudy beams,
That often scorch their plumes who high aspire,
And wear the splendour of the world's extremes,
To drink that nectar, and to taste that food,
That to their greatness, make men truly good.

XXIII

And his unerring eye had aptly chose
A place so suited to his mind, and birth,
For the sweet scene of his belov'd repose:
As all the various beauties of the earth,
Contracted in one plot, could ne'er outvie
To nourish fancy; or delight the eye.

XXIV

From the far-fam'd Olympus' haughty crown,
Which, with curl'd cypress, periwigs his brows,
The crystal Lycus tumbles headlong down,
And thence unto a fruitful valley flows;
Twining with am'rous crooks her verdant waste
That smiles to see her borders so embrac't.

XXV

Upon whose flowery banks a stately pile,
Built from the marble quarry shining stood:
Like the proud Queen of that Elysian isle,
Viewing her front in that transparent flood:
Which, with a murm'ring sorrow, kissed her base,
As loth to leave so beautiful a place.

XXVI

Lovely indeed; if tall, and shady groves,
Enamell'd meads, and little purling springs,
Which from the grots, the temples of true Loves,
Creep out to trick the earth in wanton rings:
Can give the name of Lovely to that place,
Where Nature stands clad in her chiefest grace.

XXVII

This noble structure, in her site thus blest,
Was round adorn'd with many a curious piece;
By ev'ry cunning master's hand exprest,
Of famous Italy: or antique Greece:
As Art, and Nature both together strove,
Which should attract, and which should fix his love.

XXVIII

There whilst the statue and the picture vie
Their shape, and colour, their design, and life;
They value took from his judicious eye,
That could determine best the curious strife:
For naught, that should a Prince's virtues fill
Escap'd his knowledge, or amus'd his skill.

XXIX

But in that brave collection there was one,
That seem'd to lend her light unto the rest;
Wherein the mast'ry of the pencil shone
Above, whatever painter's art exprest;
A woman of so exquisite a frame;
As made all life deform'd, and Nature lame.

XXX

A piece so wrought, as might to ages stand
The work and likeness of some Deity;
To mock the labours of a human hand:
So round, so soft, so airy, and so free,
That it had been no less than to profane,
To dedicate that face t' a mortal name.

XXXI

For Venus therefore Goddess of that isle,
The cunning artist nam'd this brave design,
The critic eyes of wond'rers to beguile;
As if, inspired, had drawn a shape divine:
Venus Urania, parent of their bliss,
Could be express'd in nothing more than this.

XXXII

And such a power had the lovely shade,
Over this Prince's yet unconquer'd mind;
That his indiff'rent eye full oft it stay'd,
And by degrees his noble heart inclin'd
To say, that could this frame a woman be,
She were his Mistress, and no Fair but she.





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