Delia to Phraartes on his Playing Cæsar Borgia. Sarah Fyge Egerton Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T125148 Egerton, Sarah Fyge, 1668-1723. Poems on Several Occasions, Together with a Pastoral. By Mrs. S. F. [poems only] London printed, and are to be sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers-Hall 1703 pp. 86-88. [20],117,[3],15,[1]p.; 8⁰.

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Delia to Phraartes on his Playing Cæsar Borgia . If Cæsar from his Stygian Coast could come , To see you Play , he'd bless his former Doom ; Pleas'd with the promis'd Glories which he lost , And in your Form , confess the greater Boast . Had he been bless'd but with your soft Address , His Love had never known such ill Success ; That Godlike Mein and that seraphick Voice , Would have compell'd nice Bellamira's choice . Had half your Charms in the true Borgia been , We ne'er his mourning Tragedy had seen . You'r so Divine , that Heavens peculiar care , Would so much Gallantry and Sweetness spare . In vain Historians and Poets too , To such brave Men celestial Honous do , They ne'er seem Gods , till personated by you . A rugged Virtue and the chance of War , Did bless their Hero's with that Character ; The Antiquated Shade the Poets seize , And tune the Soul to what a pitch they please : With artful Notes they grace each noble Line , But your soft touch gives it an air Divine . What pains they take for Praise while you with ease , Transport with that which they scarce hop'd could please ? Th' Imperial Cæsars when with Fortune bless'd , In all their gay triumphant splendor drest , And more than Royal State thro' Rome they rode , ( Both prais'd and fear'd and thought almost a God , When fetter'd Kings did grace the Victory , ) Mid'st all their dazling Pomp look'd less than thee . If Gods their Glories would expose to view , To joy Mankind they'd look and speak like you .