Blame then thyself, as reafon's laws requires,
(Since nature gave, and thou föment'st my fires ;}
If ftill thofe appetites continue ftrong,
Thou may'it confider I am yet but young:
Confider too that having been a wife,
I must have tafted of a better life,
And am not to be blam'd, if I renew

By lawful means the joys which then I knew.
Where was the crime, if pleafure I procur'd,
Young, and a woman, and to blifs inur'd!
That was my cafe, and this is my
defence:
I pleas'd myself, I fhunn'd incontinence,
And, urg'd by ftrong defires, indulg'd my fenfe.
Left to myself, I must avow, I ftrove,
From public fhame to screen my secret love,
And, well acquainted with thy native pride,
Endeavour'd what I could not help, to hide;
For which a woman's wit an easy way supply'd.
How this, fo well contriv'd, fo closely laid,
Was known to thee, or by what chance betray'd,
Is not my care; to please thy pride alone,
I could have wish'd it had been ftill unknown.
Nor took I Guifcard by blind fancy led,
Or hafty choice, as many women wed;
But with delib'rate care, and ripen'd thought,
At leifure first defign'd, before I wrought:
On him I refted, after long debate,

And not without confid'ring, fix'd my fate:
His flame was equal, tho' by nine infpir'd;
(For fo the diff'rence of our birth requir'd ;)
Had he been born like me, like me his love
Had first begun, what mine was forc'd to move:
But thus beginning, thus we perfevere;
Our paffions yet continue what they were,
Nor length of trial makes our joys the lefs fincere.
At this my choice, tho' not by thine allow'd,
(Thy judgment herding with the common crowd)

}

}

}

Thou tak'ft anjuft offence; and, led by them,
Doft lefs the merit, than the man efteem.
Too fharply, Tancred, by thy pride betray'd,
Haft thou againft the laws of kind inveigh'd:
For all th' offence is in opinion plac'd,

Which deems high birth by lowly choice debas'd.
This thought alone with fury fires thy breaft,
(For holy marriage juftifies the reft)

That I have funk the glories of the state,
And mix'd my blood with a plebeian mate;
In which I wonder thou should't overfee
Superior caufes, or impute to me

The fault of fortune, or the fates' decree.
Or call it heav'n's imperial pow'r alone,
Which moves on fprings of justice, tho' unknown.
Yet this we fee, tho' order'd for the best,
The bad exalted, and the good opprefs'd;
Permitted laurels grace the lawless brow,
Th' unworthy rais'd, the worthy caft below.
But leaving that: fearch we the fecret springs,
And backward trace the principles of things;
There shall we find, that when the world began,
One common maís compos'd the mould of man;
One pafte of flesh on all degrees bestow'd,
And kneaded up alike with moiftning blood.
The fame almighty pow'r infpir'd the frame
With kindled life, and form'd the fouls the fame:
The faculties of intellect and will
Difpens'd with equal hand, difpos'd with equal fkill,
Like liberty indulg'd with choice of good or ill:
Thus born alike, from virtue first began

The diff'rence that distinguish'd man from man:
He claim'd no title from defcent of blood,
But that which made him noble made him good:
Warm'd with more particles of heav'nly flame,
He wing'd his upward flight, and foar'd to fame;
The reft remain'd below, a tribe without a name.

}

}

}

This law, tho' cuftom now diverts the course,
As nature's inftitute, is yet in force;

Uncancell'd, tho' difus'd; and he, whofe mind
Is virtuous, is alone of noble kind;
Tho' poor in fortune, of celeftial race;
And he commits the crime who calls him bafe.
Now lay the line; and measure all thy court,
By inward virtue, not external port;

And find whom juftly to prefer above

The man on whom my judgment plac'd my love:
So fhalt thou fee his parts and perfon fhine;
And thus compar'd, the reft a bafe degen'rate line.
Nor took I, when I first survey'd thy court,
His valour, or his virtues, on report;
But trufted what I ought to truft alone,
Relying on thy eyes, and not my own;
Thy praise (and thine was then the public voice)
Firft recommended Guifcard to my choice:
Directed thus by thee, I look'd, and found
A man I thought deferving to be crown'd;
Firft by my father pointed to my fight,
Nor lefs confpicuous by his native light;
His mind, his mein, the features of his face,
Excelling all the reft of human race:

These were thy thoughts, and thou could't judge aright, "Till int'reft made a jaundice in thy fight;

Or fhould I grant thou didst not rightly fee;

Then thou wert first deceiv'd, and I deceiv'd by thee.
But if thou shalt alledge thro' pride of mind,
Thy blood with one of bafe condition join'd,
'Tis false; for 'tis not bafenefs to be

His

poor; poverty augments thy crime the more;' Upbraids thy juftice with the fcant regard

Of worth; whom princes praife, they fhould reward.
Are these the kings entrusted by the crowd
With wealth, to be difpens'd for common good?

The

The people fweat not for their king's delight,
T'enrich a pimp, or raise a parafite;

Theirs is the toil; and he who well has ferv'd
His country, has his country's wealth deferv'd.
Ev'n mighty monarchs oft are meanly born,
And kings by birth to lowest rank return;
All fubject to the pow'r of giddy chance,
For fortune can deprefs, or can advance:
But true nobility is of the mind,

Not giv'n by chance, and not to chance refign'd.
For the remaining doubt of thy decree,
What to refolve, and how dispose of me,
Be warn'd to caft that useless care afide,
Myself alone will for myself provide.
If in thy doting and decrepit age,

Thy foul, a ftranger in thy youth to rage,
Begins in cruel deeds to take delight,
Gorge with my blood thy barb'rous appetite;
For I fo little am difpos'd to pray
For life, I would not caft a wish away.
Such as it is, th' offence is all my own;
And what to Guifcard is already done,
Or to be done, is doom'd by thy decree,
That, if not executed firft by thee,
Shall on my person be perform'd by me.

Away, with women weep, and leave me here,
Fix'd like a man, to die without a tear;
Or fave, or flay us both this present hour,
"Tis all that fate has left within thy pow'r.
She faid; nor did her father fail to find,
In all the spoke, the greatnefs of her mind;
Yet thought she was not obftinate to die,
Nor deem'd the death the promis'd was so nigh:
Secure in this belief, he left the dame,

Refolv'd to fpare her life, and fave her fhame;

But that detefted object to remove,

To wreak his vengeance, and to cure her love.
Intent on this, a fecret order fign'd,

The death of Guifcard to his guards enjoin'd;
Strangling was chofen, and the night the time,
A mute revenge, and blind as was the crime:
His faithful heart, a bloody facrifice,

Torn from his breast, to glut the tyrant's eyes,
Clos'd the fevere command: (for flaves to pay)
What kings decree, the foldier must obey:
Wag'd against foes; and when the wars are o'er,
Fit only to maintain defpotic pow'r :
Dang'rous to freedom, and defir'd alone
By kings, who seek an arbitrary throne;
Such were these guards; as ready to have slain
The prince himself, allur'd with greater gain;
So was the charge perform'd with better will,
By men inur'd to blood, and exercis'd in ill.

Now, tho' the fullen fire had eas'd his mind,
The pomp of his revenge was yet behind,
A pomp prepar'd to grace the prefent he defign'd.
A goblet rich with gems, and rough with gold,
Of depth, and breadth, the precious pledge to hold,
With cruel care he chofe: the hollow part
Inclos'd, the lid conceal'd the lover's heart:
Then of his trufted mifchiefs one he fent,
And bade him with these words the gift prefent:
Thy father fends thee this to cheer thy breast,
And glad thy fight with what thou lov'ft the beft;
As thou haft pleas'd his eyes, and joy'd his mind,
With what he lov'd the most of human kind.

Ere this the royal dame, who well had weigh'd
The confequence of what her fire had faid,
Fix'd on her fate, against th' expected hour,
Procur'd the means to have it in her pow'r;

}

For