To the Most Illustrious Prince CHRISTOPHER DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, ON HIS VOYAGE TO HIS GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA.  
A PINDARIC.  
By Mrs. A. BEHN.  
LONDON, Printed for John Newton over against the Inner Temple Gate in Fleetstreet. 1687.   

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE CHRISTOPHER DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, ON HIS VOYAGE TO HIS GOVERNMENT of JAMAICA.  

IT is resolved! His Word and Honour's past!  
We must submit, and let the Hero go:  
This Scanty Isle He long has Served and Graced,  
And distant Worlds expect Him now.  
No Grateful Laurels this allows,  
To Crown the Noble Victor's Brows:  
Supinely here His Generous Youth was lost,  
Which should more memorable Glories boast;  
Such as should more Renown His Name,  
And still maintain aloft His spreading Fame.  
His Soul by Nature Bravely Rough and Great,  
Scorns the Confinement of a Home-Retreat;  
But soft Repose, that Court-Disease,  
Infectious to the Great and Young,  
Subdued His Martial Mind to Ease,  
And Charmed Him with her Pleasures long.  
Born for Great Action, but compelled to Sloth,  
He yields to all the Splendid Baits for Youth.   

II.  
So the Young Victor did at Capua lie,  
Tamely unnerved in Luxury;  
While all his gilded Arms hung Useless by:  
In dazzling Riots wantoned with his Fair,  
Despising Conquests, and renouncing War,  
Till Glory waked him from th' Enchanting Dream,  
And pointing out his Youth a Nobler Theme.  
He rouses now, and puts his Armour on,  
Gives Order for his Warlike Steeds;  
In vain the Lovely Charmer Weeps and Pleads,  
He'll be no more by Idle Love undone;  
In vain the shining Goblets take their Round,  
And with Obliging Healths are Crowned,  
The Ivory Tables bending with the Weight  
Of Costly Fare, in O'ercharged Plate:  
He now for Fame Ignoble Ease disdains;  
Bravely Resolved, he breaks the Lazy Chains.   

III.  
Well did Great Caesar know,  
His Grandeur and Magnificence  
To Newfound Worlds He could not show  
So greatly to His Fame, as now,  
In so Renowned a Prince:  
Already to the utmost Bounds of Shore  
His Mighty Name is gone before.  
Great ALBEMARLE the Sea-born Nereids sung,  
Upon that Memorable Day,  
When all the Floods let lose their joyful Throng,  
And bore the MARTYR'S SONS in Triumph o'er the Sea:  
And still between the Monarches Praise  
The Fame of ALBEMARLE they raise;  
Crowns to the Royal Youths they brought, and to the Victor Bays.   

IV.  
How must that Wondering World rejoice to see  
Their Land so Honoured, and themselves so Blest,  
When on their Shores (Great Prince) they Welcome Thee,  
Whose Brave Hereditary Loyalty  
Has been so many generous ways expressed?  
What Homage must Your Ravished Subjects pay  
For the vast Condescension You have shown?  
What Treasures offer, how enough Obey,  
Their Humble Gratitude to own,  
When they behold a Prince so Great  
From an Illustrious Court retreat,  
To render all their Happiness complete?  
A Prince whom no Ignoble Interest sways  
To trust his Fortune with the Fickle Seas,  
Although its Tributary Waves before  
Allowed Him so immense a Store,  
As if the Wonders of the Deep till now,  
Of which we have so oft been told,  
Did never yet its meaning show,  
Till yielding up the Miracle in Gold:  
And 'tis Great ALBEMARLE alone  
Has found the Secret of the Philosophic Stone.   

V.  
With Him, His Princess, whose High Birth  
Must Adoration claim  
O'er all the Habitable Earth  
That ever heard the Great Newcastles Name.  
How justly is our Verse a Tribute due,  
Illustrious Patroness, to You!  
Descended from a Prince and Poet too!  
That Honour which no Mortal Power can give,  
And is alone the God's Prerogative;  
Like that bright Virtue which does in You shine,  
And, more than Mortal, renders You Divine.  
Prepare, ye Sun-scorched Natives of the Shore,  
Prepare another Rising Sun t'adore,  
Such as has never blest your Horizon before.  
And you the Brave Inhabitants of the Place,  
Who have by Conquest made it all your own,  
Whose Generous and Industrious Race  
Has paid such Useful Tribute to the Crown;  
See what your Grateful King for you has done!  
Behold a Prince high in His Favour placed,  
By Fortune Blest, and lavish Honour Graced,  
Loved by the Great, and Worshipped by the Crowd,  
Of whom the Nation has so long been proud,  
The Soldier's Honour, and the Brave Man's Friend,  
The Muse's best-loved Theme,  
To whom their Noblest Verse they Recommend,  
And to whose Virtues pay their Noblest Flame.   

VI  
This Prince, thus Loved, we do resign to you,  
Yet must but lend Him for a space:  
Fond Parents lose their Darling so,  
To Dangers thus they let him go,  
With tender Tears, and many a soft Embrace;  
Loath to forego the Treasure of their Heart,  
And yet would have him Honour share,  
With trembling Doubts and Fears at last they part,  
With Vows and Prayers commit Him to heavens Care.  
We lend Him to eternize you a Fame,  
That to the Coming Age your Land may boast,  
Of all that e'er Obeyed Great CAESAR'S Name,  
He Honoured yours the Most.  
Prepare your Triumphs, and your Songs of Joy,  
Let ALBEMARLE'S Great Name resound  
To all your Happy Shores, and let the Sea  
To the glad Echoes and the Nymphs convey  
The grateful Tidings all around,  
While the soft Breezes prune their Wings,  
And gather all their Gentlest Air,  
(In the Rich Groves, dressed with Perpetual Springs)  
To Fan and Entertain the Hero there.  
Let all your World be Glad and Gay,  
To make His Joys Complete,  
Eternal Zephyr's round Him play,  
And Flowers beneath His Feet.  
Thus for Our Honour, and for your Repose,  
We are content Our Happiness to lose:  
But, like the Souls to Bodies newly Born,  
He is but Lent, more Glorious to Return.   
FINIS.