Classic Poem

A POETICAL PLEADING .

The princes sat. Beauty and Law contend:
The queen of Love will her own cause desend.
Secure she looks, as certain none can see
Such Beauty plead and not her captive be.
What need of words with such commanding eyes?
" Must I then speak? O Heav'ns! " the charmer cries:
" O barbarous clime! where Beauty borrows aid
" From eloquence to charm or to persuade!
" Will Discord never leave, with envious Care,
" To raise debate? But Discord governs here.
" To Juno Pallas wisdom, fame, and pow'r,
" Long since preferr'd, what trial needs there more?
" Confess'd to sight, three goddesses descend
" On Ida's hill, and for a prize contend;
" Nobly they bid, and lavishly pursue
" A gift that only could be Beauty's due.
" Honours and wealth the gen'rous judge denies,
" And gives the triumph to the brightest eyes.
" Such precedents are numberless: we draw
" Our right from custom; custom is a law:
" As high as heav'n, as wide as seas or land,
" As ancient as the world, is our command.
" Mars and Alcides would this plea allow;
" Beauty was ever absolute till now.
" It is enough that I pronounce it mine,
" And, right or wrong, he should his claim resign.
" Not bears nor tigers sure so savage are
" As these ill-manner'd monsters of the bar.
" Loud Rumour has proclaim'd a nymph divine,
" Whose matchless form, to counterbalance mine,
" By dint of beauty shall extort your grace:
" Let her appear, this rival, face to face;
" Let eyes to eyes oppos'd this strife decide:
" Now when I lighten let her beams be try'd.
" Was't a vain promise and a gownman's lie?
" Or stands she here unmark'd when I am by?
" So Heav'n was mock'd, and once all Elis round
" Another Jupiter was said to sound;
" On brazen floors the royal actor tries
" To ape the thunder rattling in the skies;
" A brandish'd torch, with emulating blaze,
" Affects the forky lightning's pointed rays:
" Thus borne aloft, triumphantly he rode
" Thro' crowds of worshippers, and acts the god.
" The sire Omnipotent prepares the brand
" By Vulcan wrought, and arms his potent hand,
" Then flaming hurls it hissing from above,
" And in the vast abyss confounds the mimic Jove.
" Presumptuous Wretch! with mortal art to dare
" Immortal pow'r, and brave the Thunderer.
" Cassiope preferring, with disdain,
" Her daughter to the Nereids, they complain:
" The daughter, for the mother's guilty scorn,
" Is doom'd to be devour'd: the mother's borne
" Above the clouds, where, by immortal light
" Revers'd, she shines, expos'd to human sight,
" And to a shameful posture is confin'd,
" As an eternal terror to mankind.
" Did thus the gods such private nymphs respect,
" What vengeance might the queen of Love expect!
" But grant such arbitrary pleas are vain,
" Wav'd let them be; mere justice shall obtain.
" Who to a husband justlier can succeed
" Than the soft partner of his nuptial bed?
" Or to a father's right lay stronger claim
" Than the dear youth in whom survives his name?
" Behold that youth, consider whence he springs,
" And in his royal veins respect your kings;
" Immortal Jove upon a mortal she
" Begat his sire; second from Jove is he.
" Well did the father blindly fight your cause,
" Following the cry — of Liberty and Laws,
" If by those laws, for which he lost his life,
" You spoil ungratefully the son and wife.
" What need I more? 't is treason to dispute:
" The grant was royal; that decides the suit.
" Shall vulgar laws imperial pow'r constrain?
" Kings and the gods can never act in vain. "
She finish'd here, the queen of ev'ry grace!
Disdain vermilioning her heav'nly face:
Our hearts take fire, and all in tumult rise,
And one wish sparkles in a thousand eyes.
O might some champion finish these debates,
My sword should end what now my pen relates!
Up rose the Judge, on each side bending low,
A crafty smile accompanies his bow;
Ulysses-like, a gentle pause he makes,
Then, raising by degrees his voice, he speaks.
" In you, my Lords, who judge, and all who hear,
" Methinks I read your wishes for the fair:
" Nor can I wonder; even I contend
" With inward pain, unwilling to offend;
" Unhappy, thus oblig'd to a defence
" That may displease such heav'nly excellence.
" Might we the laws on any terms abuse,
" So bright an influence were the best excuse.
" Let Niobe's just fate, the vile disgrace
" Of the Propaetides' polluted race,
" Let death, or shame, or lunacy, surprise
" Who dare to match the lustre of those eyes.
" Aloud the fairest of the sex complain
" Of captives lost, and loves invok'd in vain;
" At her appearance all their glory ends,
" And not a star but sets when she ascends.
" Where Love presides still may she bear the prize,
" But rigid Law has neither ears nor eyes:
" Charms to which Mars and Hercules would bow,
" Minos and Rhadamanthus disavow:
" Justice, by nothing biass'd or inclin'd,
" Deaf to persuasion, to temptation blind,
" Determines without favour, and the laws
" O'erlook the parties to decide the cause.
" What then avails it that a beardless boy
" Took a rash fancy for a female toy?
" Th' insulted Argives, with a num'rous host,
" Pursue revenge, and seek the Dardan coast.
" Tho' the gods built, and tho' the gods defend,
" Those lofty towers, the hostile Greeks ascend,
" Nor leave they till the town in ashes lies,
" And all the race of royal Priam dies.
" The queen of Paphos, mixing in the fray,
" Rallies the troops, and urges on the day;
" In person in the foremost ranks she stands,
" Provokes the charge, directs, assists, commands:
" Stern Diomed, advancing high in air
" His lofty jav'lin, strikes the heav'nly fair;
" The vaulted skies with her loud shrieks resound,
" And high Olympus trembles at the wound.
" In causes just would all the gods oppose,
" 'Twere honest to dispute; so Cato chose.
" Dismiss that plea, and what shall blood avail?
" If Beauty is deny'd, shall Birth prevail?
" Blood and high deeds in distant ages done
" Are our forefathers' merit, not our own.
" Might none a just possession be allow'd
" But who could bring desert, or boast of blood,
" What numbers, ev'n here, might be condemn'd,
" Stripp'd and despoil'd of all, revil'd, contemn'd!
" Take a just view, how many may remark
" Who now's a peer his grandsire was a clerk.
" Some few remain ennobled by the sword
" In Gothic times; but now, to be My Lord,
" Study the law; nor do these robes despise;
" Honour the gown, from whence your honours rise.
" Those fam'd Dictators who subdu'd the globe
" Gave the precedence to the peaceful robe.
" The mighty Julius pleading at the bar
" Was greater than when, thund'ring in the war,
" He conquer'd nations. 'Tis of more renown
" To save a client than to storm a town.
" How dear to Britain are her darling laws!
" What blood has she not lavish'd in their cause!
" Kings are like common slaves to slaughter led,
" Or wander thro' the world to beg their bread.
" When regal pow'r aspires above the laws,
" A private wrong becomes a public cause. "
He spoke. The nobles differ, and divide;
Some join with Law, and some with Beauty side.
Mordaunt, tho' once her slave, insults the fair
Whose fetters 't was his pride in youth to wear.
So Lucifer revolted brav'd the Power
Whom he was wont to worship and implore:
Like impious is their rage who have in chase
A new omnipotence in Grafton's face.
But Rochester, undaunted, just, and wise,
Asserts the goddess with the charming eyes:
And, O! may Beauty never want reward
For thee, her noble champion, and her guard.
Beauty triumphs, and Law submitting lies;
The tyrant tam'd, aloud for mercy cries:
Conquest can never fail in radiant Grafton's eyes.