Votum pro principe a poem to Her Majesty / by G.S.

Votum pro Principe.

JUno (and if of Goddesses there be Those who preside at Births more kind than she) Attend the Happy Hour, and safely bring To our long Hopes, what they have form'd, a King. Malicious Saturn, hide thy fatal Light, And let auspicious Venus rule the Night, And cast the fortune of the Royal Child Fair as her self, and as its Parents mild; As great and glorious as we wish, their Reign, And constant as the Graces we obtain; That the Perfection of the Blessing may Attone for the Unkindness of the stay: Tho' Bliss, too hasty, does it self destroy, And Expectation doth enhance a Joy. When Providence designs some mighty thing, (To send a Saviour, or to form a King) The weighty Project doth require delay, And is not (like a Mushroom) of a day: Near twice two thousand rolling years were spent, E're a Messiah to the World was sent; And if the * 1.1 Faithful Patriarch bends with years, Before the Fruit of Promis'd Seed appears,

Yet then an Off-spring to the Sire was given As bright and numerous as the Stars of Heaven; Now, when kind Beauty, and soft Youth conspire To heighten vigour, and to charm desire, What long and lasting Progeny will prove The blest effect of such immortal Love? Tho' yet unhappy Albion (almost grown, With Niobe, for grief like hers, a Stone) With fleeting joy, and lasting tears hath seen A fruitful Parent, but a childless Queen, (When short-liv'd Blessings did delude the womb, Or hastned from the Cradle to the Tomb) Yet this new Birth may for the past attone, Crowding the lives of Many into One. At least could Poets future Truths relate, Or might we make our pleasing Wishes, Fate; A Prince should show, that a Diffusive Good, And Publick Prayers can never be withstood: And as three Monarchs did Obedience pay To the blest Babe who in the Manger lay, As many Kingdoms now should Incense bring, An humble Tribute, to their Infant King.

FINIS.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Abraham.