JOHN PHILIPS. John Philips, an English poet, was the son of | His didactic poem on Cider, published in 1706, is Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop. He was considered as his principal performance, and is that born at Bampton, in Oxfordshire, in 1676, and re- with which his name is chiefly associated. It beceived his classical education at Winchester school. came popular, and raised him to eminence among He was removed to Christ-Church college, in Ox. the poets of his age and class. This, and his ford, in 1694, where he fully maintained the dis- "Splendid Shilling," are the pieces by which he tinction he had already acquired at school, and ob- will chiefly deserve to be remembered. Philips tained the esteem of several eminent literary char- died of a pulmonary affection, in February 1708, In 1703 he made himself known by his at his mother's house in Hereford, greatly regretted poem of “ The Splendid Shilling," a pleasant bur- by his friends, to whom he was endeared by the lesque, in which he happily imitated the style of modesty, kindness, and blamelessness of his characMilton. The reputation he acquired by this piece ter. Besides a tablet, with a Latin inscription, caused him to be selected by the leaders of the in Hereford cathedral, he was honored with a monuTory party to celebrate the victory of Blenheim, ment in Westminster Abbey, erected by Lord in competition with Addison, an attempt which, Chancellor Harcourt, with a long and classical however, seems to have added little to his fame. epitaph, composed by Atterbury. acters. THE SPLENDID SHILLING. Sing, heavenly Muse! Things unattempted yet, in prose or rhyme," A shilling, breeches, and chimeras dire. : Happy the man, who, void of cares and strife, Regale chill'd fingers: or from tube as black As winter-chimney, or well-polish'd jet, Not blacker tube, nor of a shorter size, Or Maridunum, or the ancient town Thus while my joyless minutes tedious flow, * Two noted alehouses in Oxford, 1700. My shuddering limbs, and (wonderful to tell !) Nor taste the fruits that the Sun's genial rays Mature, john-apple, nor the downy peach, Nor walnut in rough-furrow'd coat secure, My galligaskins, that have long withstood The winter's fury, and encroaching frosts, With characters and figures dire inscribid, By time subdued (what will not time subdue !) Grievous to mortal eyes ; (ye gods, avert An horrid chasm disclos'd with orifice Such plagues from righteous men!) Behind him stalks Wide, discontinuous; at which the winds Another monster, not unlike himself, Eurus and Auster, and the dreadful force Sullen of aspect, by the vulgar callid Of Boreas, that congeals the Cronian waves, A catchpole, whose polluted hands the gods, Tumultuous enter with dire chilling blasts, With force incredible, and magic charms, Portending agues. Thus a well-fraught ship, First have endued : if he his ample palm Long sail'd secure, or through th' Ægean deep, Should haply on ill-fated shoulder lay Or the Ionian, till cruising near Of debtor, straight his body, to the touch The Lilybean shore, with hideous crush Obsequious (as whilom knights were wont) On Scylla, or Charybdis (dangerous rocks!) To some enchanted castle is convey'd, She strikes rebounding; whence the shatter'd oak, Where gates impregnable, and coercive chains, So fierce a shock unable to withstand, In durance strict detain him, till, in form Admits the sea: in at the gaping side of money, Pallas seis the captive free. The crowding waves gush with impetuous rage, Beware, ye debtors! when ye walk, beware, Resistless, overwhelming; horrors seize Be circumspect; oft with insidious ken The mariners; Death in their eyes appears, The caitiff eyes your steps aloof, and oft They stare, they lave, they pump, they swear, they Lies perdue in a nook or gloomy cave, pray: The ship sinks foundering in the vast abyss. CIDER. A POEM, IN TWO BOOKS. Honos erit huic quoque Pomo? -Virg. Regardless of their fate, rush on the toils Book I. Thy gift, Pomona, in Miltonian verse Invites me, and the theme as yet unsung. Ye Ariconian knights, and fairest dames, Drinks of reluctant foes, and to her cave To whom propitious Heaven these blessings grants, Their bulky carcasses triumphant drags. Attend my lays, nor bence disdain to learn, So pass my days. But when nocturnal shades How Nature's gifts may be improv'd by art. This world envelop, and th’ inclement air And thou, O Mostyn, whose benevolence, Persuades men to repel benumbing frosts And candor, oft experienc'd, me vouchsaf'd With pleasant wines, and crackling blaze of wood; To knit in friendship, growing still with years, Me, lonely sitting, nor the glimmering light Accept this pledge of gratitude and love. Of make-weight candle, nor the joyous talk May it a lasting monument remain Of loving friend, delights : distress'd, forlorn, of dear respect; that when this body frail Amidst the horrors of the tedious night, Is moulder'd into dust, and I become Darkling I sigh, and feed with dismal thoughts As I had never been, late times may know My anxious mind: or sometimes mournful verse I once was bless'd in such a matchless friend! Indite, and sing of groves and myrtle shades, Whoe'er expects his laboring trees should bend Or desperate lady near a purling stream, With fruitage, and a kindly harvest yield, Or lover pendent on a willow-tree. Be this his first concern, to find a tract Meanwhile I labor with eternal drought, Impervious to the winds, begirt with hills And restless wish, and rave; my parched throat That intercept the Hyperborean blasts Finds no relief, nor heavy eyes repose : Tempestuous, and cold Eurus' nipping force, But if a slumber haply does invade Noxious to feeble buds : but to the west My weary limbs, my fancy's still awake, Let him free entrance grant, let zephyrs bland Thoughtful of drink, and eager, in a dream, Administer their tepid genial airs ; Tipples imaginary pots of ale, Nought fear he from the west, whose gentle warmth In vain ; awake I find the settled thirst Discloses well the Earth's all-teeming womb, Sull gnawing, and the pleasant phantom curse. Invigorating tender seeds; whose breath Thus do I live, from pleasure quite debarr'd, Nurtures the orange, and the citron groves, : Hesperian fruits, and wafts their odors sweet To deck this rise with fruits of various tastes, Thus piteous Heaven may fix the wandering glebs But, when the blackening clouds in sprinkling But if (for Nature doth not share alike showers Her gists) an happy soil should be withheld ; Nor to the cattle kind, with sandy stones Next let the planter, with discretion meet, Beneath thy toil; the sturdy pear-tree here The force and genius of each soil explore ; Will rise luxuriant, and with toughest root To what adapted, what it shuns averse : Pierce the obstructing grit, and restive marle. Without this necessary care, in vain Thus nought is useless made ; nor is there land, He hopes an apple-vintage, and invokes But what, or of itself, or else compellid, Pomona's aid in vain. The miry fields, Affords advantage. On the barren heath Rejoicing in rich mould, most ample fruit The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop or beauteous form produce; pleasing to sight, Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf, But to the tongue inelegant and flat. Sufficient; after them the cackling goose, So Nature has decreed; so oft we see Close-grazier, finds wherewith to ease her want. Men passing fair, in outward lineaments What should I more? Ev'n on the cliffy height Elaborate ; less, inwardly, exact. Of Penmenmaur, and that cloud-piercing hill, Nor from the sable ground expect success, Plinlimmon, from afar the traveller kens Nor from cretaceous, stubborn and jejune : Astonish'd, how the goats their shrubby browse The Must, of pallid hue, declares the soil Gnaw pendent; nor untrembling canst thou see, Devoid of spirit; wretched he, that quaffs How from a scraggy rock, whose prominence Such wheyish liquors; oft with colic pangs, Half overshades the ocean, hardy men, With pungent colic pangs distress'ü he'll roar, Fearless of rending winds, and dashing waves, And toss, and turn, and curse th' unwholesome Cut samphire, to excite the squeamish gust draught. of pamper'd luxury. Then, let thy ground But, farmer, look where full-ear'd sheaves of rye Not lie unlabor d ; if the richest stem Grow wavy on the tilth, that soil select Refuse to thrive, yet who would doubt to plant For apples : thence thy industry shall gain Somewhat, that may to human use redound, Ten-fold reward : thy garners, thence with store And penury, the worst of ills, remove? Surcharg'd, shall burst; thy press with purest juice There are, who, fondly studious of increase, Shall flow, which, in revolving years, may try Rich foreign mould on their ill-natur'd land Thy feeble feet, and bind thy faltering tongue. Induce laborious, and with fattening muck Such is the Kent-church, such Dantzeyan ground, Besmear the roots; in vain! the nursling grove Such thine, O learned Broome, and Capel such, Seems fair awhile, cherish'd with foster earth ; Willisian Burlton, much-lov'd Geers his Marsh, But when the alien compost is exhaust, And Sutton-acres, drench'd with regal blood Its native poverty again prevails. Of Ethelbert, when to th' unballow'd feast Though this art fails, despond not; little pains, Of Mercian Offa he invited came, In a due hour employ'd, great profit yield. To treat of spousals: long connubial joys Th'industrious, when the Sun in Leo rides, He promis'd to himself, allur'd by fair And daris his sultriest beams, portending drought, Elfrida's beauty: but, deluded, died Forgets not at the foot of every plant Exhausted sap recruiting; else false hopes He cherishes, nor will his fruit expect A kinder mould: yet'tis unsafe to trust Th'autumnal season, but, in summer's pride, To grots, and caves, and the cool umbrage seek Still streaming fresh revisit, to allay Or blast septentrional with brushing wings kept moving for three days together, carrying with it sheep in their cotes, hedgerows and trees, and in its pas. Sweep up the smoky mists, and vapors damp, sage overthrew Kinnaston Chapple, and turned two high. Then woe to mortals! Titan then exerts ways near an hundred yards from their former position. His heat intense, and on our vitals preys; The ground thus moved was about twenty-six acres. Then maladies of various kinds and naines which opened itself, and carried the earth before it for Unknown, malignant severs, and that foe four hundred yards' space, leaving that which was pasture To blooming beauty, which imprints the face in the place of the tillage, and the tillage overspread of fairest nymph, and checks our growing love, with pasture. See Speed's Account of Herefordshire, Reign far and near; grim Death in differeni shapes page 49, and Camden's Britannia. Depopulates the nations ; thousands fall His victims ; youths, and virgins, in their hower, Supplants their footsteps : to, and fro, they reel Reluctant die, and sighing leave their loves Astonish'd, as o'ercharg'd with wine ; when lo! Unfinish’d, by infectious Heaven destroy'd. The ground adust her riven mouth disparts, Such heats prevail'd, when fair Eliza, last Horrible chasm ; profound! with swift descent of Winchcomb's name (next thee in blood and Old Ariconium sinks, and all her tribes, worth, Heroes, and senators, down to the realms O fairest St. John!) left this toilsome world of endless night. Meanwhile, the loosen'd winds, In beanty's prime, and sadden'd all the year : Infuriate, molten rocks and flaming globes Nor could her virtues, nor repeated vows Hurl'd high above the clouds; till, all their force of thousand lovers, the relentless hand Consum'd, her ravenous jaws th’Earth satiate clos'd Of Death arrest : she with the vulgar fell, Thus this fair city fell, of which the name Only distinguish'd by this humble verse. Survives alone ; nor is there found a mark, But if it please the Sun's intemperate force Whereby the curious passenger may learn To know, attend ; whilst I of ancient fame Her ample site, save coins, and mouldering urns, The annals trace, and image to thy mind, And huge unwieldy bones, lasting remains How our forefathers, (luckless men!) ingulft Of that gigantic race; which, as he breaks By the wide-yawning Earth, to Stygian shades The clotted glebe, the plowman haply finds, , Went quick, in one sad sepulchre inclos'd. Appallid. Upon that treacherous tract of land, In elder days, ere yet the Roman bands She whilom stood ; now Ceres, in her prime, Victorious, this our other world subdued, Smiles fertile, and with ruddiest freight bedeck'd, A spacious city stood, with firmest walls The apple-tree, by our forefathers' blood Urging her destin'd labors to pursue. The prudent will observe, what passions reign Fam'd Ariconium: uncontrollid and free, In various plants (for not to Man alone, Till all-subduing Latian arms prevail'd. But all the wide creation, Nature gave Then also, though to foreign yoke submiss, Love, and aversion :) everlasting hate She undemolish'd stood, and ev'n till now The Vine to Ivy bears, nor less abhors Perhaps had stood, of ancient British art The Colewort's rankness; but with amorous twine A pleasing monument, not less admir'd Clasps the tall Elm : the Pæstan Rose unfolds Her bud more lovely, near the fetid Leek, Caresses freely the contiguous Peach, Hazel, and weight-resisting Palm, and likes The bastion of a well-built city, deem'd T'approach the Quince, and the Elder's pithy stem ; Impregnable : th' infernal winds, till now Uneasy, seated by funereal Yew, Closely imprison'd, by Titanian warmth Or Walnut, (whose malignant touch impairs Dilating, and with unctuous vapors fed, All generous fruits,) or near the bitter dews Disdain'd their narrow cells; and, their full strength Of Cherries. Therefore weigh the habits well Collecting, from beneath the solid mass Of plants, how they associate best, nor let Upheavöd, and all her castles rooted deep Ill neighborhood corrupt thy hopeful graffs. Shook from their lowest seat: old Vaga's stream, Wouldst thou thy vats with gen'rous juice should Forc'd by the sudden shock, her wonted track froth ? Forsook, and drew her humid train aslope, Respect thy orchats; think not, that the trees Crankling her banks: and now the lowering sky, Spontaneous will produce an wholesome draught. And baleful lightning, and the thunder, voice Let Art correct thy breed : from parent bough Of angry gods, that rattled solemn, dismay'd A cion meetly sever: after, force The sinking hearts of men. Where should they turn A way into the crabstock's close-wrought grain Distress'd? whence seek for aid ? when from below By wedges, and within the living wound Hell threatens, and ev’n Fate supreme gives signs Inclose the foster twig; nor over-nice Of wrath and desolation : vain were vows, Refuse with thy own hands around to spread And plaints, and suppliant hands to Heaven erect! The binding clay: ere-long their differing veins Yet some to fanes repair'd, and humble rites Unite, and kindly nourishment convey Perform'd to Thor, and Woden, fabled gods, To the new pupil ; now he shoots his arms Who with their votaries in one ruin shar'd, With quickest growth; now shake the teeming trunk, Crush'd, and o'erwhelm'd. Others in frantic mood Down rain th’empurpled balls, ambrosial fruit. Run howling through the streets; their hideous yells Whether the Wilding's fibres are contriv'd Rend the dark welkin; Horror stalks around, To draw th' earth's purest spirit, and resist Wild-staring, and, his sad concomitant, Its feculence, which in more porous stocks Despair, of abject look : at every gate Of cider-plants finds passage free, or else The thronging populace with hasty strides T'he native verjuice of the Crab, deriv'd Press furious, and, too eager of escape, Through th'infix'd graff, a grateful mixture forms Obstruct the easy way; the rocking town Of tart and sweet; whatever be the cause, This doubtful progeny by nicest tastes Be unassay'd ; prevent the morning-star Expected best acceptance finds, and pays Assiduous, nor with the western Sun Largest revenues to the orchat-lord. Surcease to work ; lo! thoughtful of thy gain, Consume in meditation deep, recluse Thee I may counsel right; and oft this care To lie supinely, hoping Heaven will bless Conjoin with others. So Silurian plants Thy slighied fruits, and give thee bread unearn'd ? Admit the Peach's odoriferous globe, "Twill profit, when the stork, sworn foe of snakes, And Pears of sundry forms; at different times Returns, to show compassion to thy plants, Adopted Plums will alien branches grace; Fatigu'd with breeding. Let the arched knife And men have gather'd from the Hawthorn's branch Well sharpen'd now assail the spreading shades Large Medlars, imitating regal crowns. Of vegetables, and their thirsty limbs Nor is it hard to beautify each month Dissever : for the genial moisture, due With files of party-color'd fruits, that please To apples, otherwise misspends itself The tongue, and view, at once. So Maro's Muse, In barren twigs, and for th' expected crop, Thrice-sacred Muse! commodious precepts gives Nought but vain shoots, and empty leaves, abound. Instructive to the swains, not wholly bent When swelling buds their odorous foliage shed, Redundant; but the thronging clusters thin A slender autumn ; which the niggard soul Let sage Experience teach thee all the arts of gardening, how to scare nocturnal thieves, Of grafting and in-eyeing; when to lop And how the little race of birds that hop The flowing branches; what trees answer best From spray to spray, scooping the costliest fruit From root, or kernel : she will best the hours Insatiate, undisturb'd. Priapus' form Of harvest, and seed-time, declare ; by her Avails but little ; rather guard each row The different qualities of things were found, With the false terrors of a breathless kite. And secret motions ; how with heavy bulk This done, the timorous flock with swiftest wing Volatile Hermes, fluid and unmoist, Scud through the air ; their fancy represents Besides, the filthy swine will oft invade Halloo thy furious mastiff, bid him vex A sad memorial of their past offence. Warble melodious their well-labor'd songs. The flagrant Procyon will not fail to bring She found the polish'd glass, whose small convex Large shoals of slow house-bearing snails, that creep Enlarges to ten millions of degrees O'er the ripe fruitage, paring slimy tracts In the sleek rinds, and unprest Cider drink. With morning and with evening hand to rid Decline this labor, which itself rewards Or Nature wouldst thou know? how first she frames With pleasing gain, whilst the warm limbec draws All things in miniature? Thy specular orb Salubrious waters from the nocent brood. Apply to well-dissected kernels; lo ! Myriads of wasps now also clustering hang, Strange forms arise, in each a little plant And drain a spurious honey from thy groves, Unfolds its boughs: observe the slender threads Their winter food ; though oft repuls'd, again Of first beginning trees, their roots, their leaves, They rally, undismay'd; but fraud with ease In narrow seeds describ'd; thou 'lt wondering say, Ensnares the noisome swarms ; let every bouglı An inmate orchat every apple boasts. Bear frequent viais, pregnant with the dregs Thus all things by experience are display'd, Of Moyle, or Mum, or Treacle's viscous juice; And most improv'd. Then sedulously think They, by th' alluring odor drawn, in haste To meliorate thy stock ; no way, or rule, Fly to the dulcet cates, and crowding sip Their palatable bane ; joyful thou'lt see • Tobacco. The clammy surface all o'erstrown with tribes |