Happy Nuptials

D APHNIES : G ERON G ER :

How comes it, Daphnis, that our nymphs and swains
With more than usual joy and gladsome strains
Thus wildly wanton frolick in excess,
Unknowing how their transports to express? D APH :

Can any Briton ask? … But thou art old,
And to life's gaieties entirely cold,
Or thou had'st known that from the Belgic shore
A royal stranger late is wafted o'er;
Never was Albion with a nobler grac'd,
In whom the gods have ev'ry virtue plac'd. G ER :

You speak his praises like the voice of fame;
But has this miracle of men no name? D APH :

Of ancestors heroic, race divine,
Illustrious branch of the Nassovian line;
William his name, from mighty William sprung,
Of whose immortal deeds great Prior sung. G ER :

No wonder, then, that universal bliss
Succeeds th'arrival of a prince like this;
Nassau, the very name does joy inspire,
And renovates my soul with youthful fire;
What instinct from the kindred god above
Induc'd his blest arrival? … D APH :

Powerful loe;
Fir'd with the fame of royal Anna's charms,
What could withhold her from his longing arms?
Seasons and seas in vain his way oppose,
For such a bride who would not life expose?
In whom all virtues, all perfections join,
A form angelic, and a soul divine,
To grace whose nuptials nature's self looks gay,
And night illumin'd brightens into day.
E'en winter now becomes another spring,
In honour to the daughter of our king.
Quite lost in joy behold the gladsome throng;
All haste to hail them in a rural song;
See in what pompous pleasures they advance,
And to Sicilian measures nimbly dance;
Young Lycidas, the chorist, tunes his lays
In joyful epithalmick to their praise;
The chorus aids him with exulting voice,
While Heav'n applauds our transports and their choice.

Air I. L YCIDAS

Thrice welcome royal stranger,
To greet thee see all nature smile,
Whom Neptune, free from danger,
Has wafted to our isle.

Air II

By Anna's charms invited,
Nassau defies the sea;
In Anna's charms delighted,
What god so bless'd as he!

Air III

May ev'ry joy attend 'em
No end their sweet endearments know,
And bounteous Heav'n befriend 'em
With all it can bestow.
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