If we difcern but the leaft glimm'ring ray
Of that bright orb of fire which rules the day,
The chearfull fight our fainting courage warms;
Fix'd upon that, we fear no future harms.

W

On the Deity.

Retched mankind! void both offtrength & skill
Dextrous at nothing but at doing ill!

In merit humble, in pretenfion high;

Among them none, alas, more weak than I;

And none more blind: tho' ftill I worthless thought The beft I ever fpoke, or ever wrote.

But zealous heat exalts the humbleft mind; Within my foul such strong impulse I find The heav'nly tribute of due praife to pay: Perhaps 'tis facred, and I muft obey.

Yet fuch the fubjects, various, and fo high! Stupendous wonders of the Deity!

Miraculous effects of boundless pow'r!

And that as boundless goodness shining more!

6

ΙΟ

All thefe, fo numberless, my thoughts attend, 15 Oh where fhall I begin, or ever end?

But on that theme which ev'n the wife abufe,

So facred, fo fublime, and fo abftrufe,

Abruptly to break off, wants no excufe.

While others vainly strive to know thee more, 20

Let me in filent reverence adore;

Wishing that human pow'r were higher rais'd,
Only that thine might be more nobly prais'd!
Thrice happy Angels in their high degree;
Created worthy of extolling thee!

FINI S.

TRAGEDY

O F

JULIUS CESAR,

ALTERED:

With a Prologue & Chorus,
By his Grace

JOHN DUKE of BUCKINGHAM.

LONDON,

Printed for the Company.

1

GADOZ

PROLOGUE

To the Alteration of

JULIUS CAESAR.

Ope to mend Shakespear! or to match his flyle!
'Tis fuch ajeft, would make a Stoick/mile.
Too fond of fame, our Poet foars too high ;
Yet freely owns he wants the wings to fly:
So fenfible of his presumptuous thought,
That he confeffes while he do's the fault:
This to the Fair will no great wonder proves i
Who oft in blushes yield to what they love.

Of greatest actions, and of noblef men,
This flory moft deferves a Poet's pen.
For who can wish a scene more justly fam'd,
When Rome and mighty Julius are but nam'd?
That State of Heroes, who the world had brav'd!
That wondrous man, who fuch a State inflav'd!,
Yet loth he was to take fo rough a way,

And after govern'd with so mild a fway,
At diftance now of fev'nteen hundred years,
Methinks a lovely ravisher appears ;

Whom, tho' forbid by virtue to excufe,

A Nymph might pardon, and could scarce refuse.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

JULIUS CÆSAR, Dictator.

BRUTUS

CASSIUS

DEC. BRUTUS Confpirators,

TREBONIUS

CASCA

M. ANTONIUS, A friend of Cafar.

JUNIUS, one of Cafar's freed men.

PORTIA, Wife of Brutus.

LUCIUS, one of his Servants.

SPURINNA, a Soothfayer.

Senators, Priefts, Tradefmen & Citizens.

This Phy begins the day before Cafar's death, and ends within an hour after it.