Classic Poem

Long mourn'd the Youth, with secret woe opprest;
The latent vulture prey'd within his breast:
Constrain'd at length, nor able to sustain
The wasting malady, and mental pain;
The sage the bearded pillars of his state
He calls, and privily unfolds his fate:
" No mean, " he cries, " my cruel stars assign;
" Swift death, or else C ONSTANTIA must be mine! "

Alternate, each their hopes, or fears disclose,
Invent, reject, and now again propose;
While some with mystic rites of wondrous art,
Engage to gain the sympathetic heart;
By philter'd science, and infernal charms,
To win the Bright Perfection to his arms:
The abhorrent scheme his generous thoughts disdain,
Resolved to die, or justly to obtain;
And all their arguments, howe'er renew'd,
In rites of nuptial sanctitude conclude.
But here again new obstacles appear'd,
And much for this their latest hope they fear'd;
Fear'd, that diversity of faith, might prove
Alike diversity, and breach in love;
Nor the Fair Christian e'er consent to wed
A prince in Macon's sacred precepts bred.
The monarch then, " Ah! wherefore doubt, my friends;
" Why yet dispute where love and life depends?
" That faith must sure have most prevailing charms,
" That gives C ONSTANTIA to my circling arms:
" No obstacles shall bar, no doubts deter;
" Nor will I think, that she was form'd to err. "

The voice determined, and imperial eye,
Leave no pretence for courtiers to reply:
With the fond speed of Love's impatience warm'd,
Now embassies are sent, and treaties form'd.
All zealous to promote the cause divine,
The pope, the church, and christian powers combine;
The royal long reluctant parents yield,
And contracts are by mutual proxy seal'd.

High was the trust the regal writings bore,
And solemn the attesting parties swore,
That the young Syrian, and his barons bold,
Each sex and state, the infant and the old,
Should all M ESSIAH 's hallow'd faith embrace,
And bright C ONSTANTIA be the bond of grace.