Ode performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge July 1, 1749: At the installation of His Grace Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle Chancellor of the University. By Mr. Mason ... Set to music by Mr. Boyce.

Table of contents

- [halftitle]

- [titlepage]

ODE FOR MUSIC.

I. Recitative.

HERE all thy active fires diffuse,

Thou genuin British Muse;

Hither descend from yonder orient sky,

Cloth'd in thy heav'n-wove robe of harmony.

Air I.

Come, imperial queen of song;

Come with all that free-born grace,

Which lifts thee from the servile throng,

Who meanly mimic thy majestic pace;

That glance of dignity divine,

Which speaks thee of celestial line;

Proclaims thee inmate of the sky,

Daughter of Jove and Liberty.

II. Recitative.

The elevated soul, who feels

Thy awful impulse, walks the fragrant ways

Of honest unpolluted praise:

He with impartial justice deals

The blooming chaplets of immortal lays:

He flys above ambition's low carreer;

And nobly thron'd in Truth's meridian sphere,

Thence, with a bold and heav'n-directed aim,

Full on fair Virtue's shrine he pours the rays of Fame.

III. Air II.

Goddess! thy piercing eye explores

The radiant range of Beauty's stores,

The steep ascent of pine-clad hills,

The silver slope of falling rills;

Catches each lively-colour'd grace,

The crimson of the Wood-nymphs face,

The verdure of the velvet lawn,

The purple in the eastern dawn,

Or all those tints, which rang'd in vivid glow

Mark the bold sweep of the celestial bow.

IV. Recitative.

But chief she lists her tuneful transports high,

When to her intellectual eye

The mental beauties rise in moral dignity:

The sacred zeal for Freedom's cause,

That fires the glowing Patriot's breast;

The honest pride, that plumes the Hero's crest,

When for his country's aid the steel he draws;

Or that, the calm yet active heat,

With which mild Genius warms the Sages heart,

To lift fair Science to a loftier seat,

Or stretch to ampler bounds the wide domain of art.

Air III.

These, the best blossoms of the virtuous mind,

She culls with taste refin'd;

From their ambrosial bloom

With bee-like skill she draws the rich perfume,

And blends the sweets they all convey

In the soft balm of her mellifluous lay.

V. Recitative.

Is there a clime, where all these beauties rise

In one collected radiance to her Eyes?

Is there a plain, whose genial soil inhales

Glory's invigorating gales,

Her brightest beams where Emulation spreads,

Her kindliest dews where Science sheds,

Where ev'ry stream of Genius flows,

Where ev'ry flower of Virtue glows?

Thither the Muse exulting flies,

There she loudly cries—

Chorus I.

All Hail, All hail,

Majestic GRANTA! hail thy awful name

Dear to the Muse, to Liberty, to Fame.

VI. Recitative.

You too illustrious Train, she greets

Who first in these inspiring seats

Caught the bright beams of that aetherial fire,

Which now sublimely prompts you to aspire

To deeds of noblest note: whether to sheild

Your country's liberties, your country's laws;

Or in Religion's hallow'd cause

To hurl the shafts of reason, and to weild

Those heav'nly-temper'd arms whose rapid force

Arrests base Falshood in her impious course,

And drives rebellious Vice indignant from the field.

VII. Air IV.

And now she tunes her plausive song

To you her sage domestic throng;

Who here, at Learning's richest shrine,

Dispence to each ingenuous youth

The treasures of immortal truth,

And open Wisdom's golden mine.

Recitative.

Each youth inspir'd by your persuasive art,

Clasps the dear form of virtue to his heart;

And feels in his transported soul

Enthusiastic raptures roll,

Gen'rous as those the Sons of Cecrops caught

In hoar Lycaeum's shades from Plato's fire-clad thought.

VIII. Air V.

O GRANTA! on thy happy plain

Still may these Attic glories reign:

Still mayst thou keep thy wonted state

In unaffected grandeur great;

Recitative.

Great as at this illustrious hour,

When HE, whom GEORGE's well-weigh'd choice

And ALBION's gen'ral voice

Have lifted to the fairest heights of pow'r,

When He appears, and deigns to shine

The leader of thy learned line;

And bids the verdure of thy olive bough

Mid all his civic chaplets twine,

And add fresh glories to his honor'd brow.

IX. Air VI.

Haste then, and amply o'er his head

The gracefull foliage spread;

Meanwhile the Muse shall snatch the trump of Fame,

And lift her swelling accents high,

To tell the World that PELHAM's name

Is dear to Learning as to Liberty.

Full Chorus.

The Muse shall snatch the trump of Fame,

And lift her swelling accents high,

To tell the world that PELHAM's name

Is dear to Learning as to Liberty.

FINIS.

ODE FOR MUSIC. Performed in the SENATE-HOUSE at CAMBRIDGE July 1, 1749.

ODE Performed in the SENATE-HOUSE at CAMBRIDGE July 1, 1749. AT THE Installation of His GRACE Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle CHANCELLOR of the University.

—canit errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum

Aonas in Montes ut duxerit una sororum

Utque viro Phoebi chorus assurrexerit omnis.

VIRGIL.

By Mr. MASON, FELLOW of PEMBROKE-HALL.

Set to Music by Mr. BOYCE, Composer to His MAJESTY.

CAMBRIDGE, Printed by J. BENTHAM, Printer to the University; Sold by W. THURLBOURN, Bookseller in Cambridge; and R. DODSLEY, in Pall-Mall, London. M. DCC. XLIX.

Information about this book

Title statement

Ode performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge July 1, 1749: At the installation of His Grace Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle Chancellor of the University. By Mr. Mason ... Set to music by Mr. Boyce.

Mason, William, 1725-1797.

Publication

Distributor

University of Oxford Text Archive
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road
Oxford
OX2 6NN
ota@oucs.ox.ac.uk

ID [ota]

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4080

ID [isbn10]

1106010795

ID [isbn13]

9781106010797

ID [TCP]

K041179.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3309792766

ID [ECLL]

0122701500

Availability

Distributed by the University of Oxford under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Source

— Ode performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge July 1, 1749: At the installation of His Grace Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle Chancellor of the University. By Mr. Mason ... Set to music by Mr. Boyce., Mason, William, 1725-1797.. [2],8p. ; 4⁰. Cambridge :: printed by J. Bentham; sold by W. Thurlbourn; and R. Dodsley. London,. 1749.. [With a half-title.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [Foxon, M130] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT41972.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2p5.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

This electronic text file was keyed from page images and partially proofread for accuracy. Character capture and encoding have been done following the guidelines of the ECCO Text Creation Partnership, which correspond roughly to the recommendations found in Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file.