by Peter Anthony Motteux (1663 - 1718)
From this happy Day we date
Language: English
From this happy Day we date, [Great Anna's]1 Birth, and Britain's Joys. Planets [move and rule]2 by Fate, The Queen by Wisdom and by Choice. The Sun imparts us Light and Heat: Her Reign yields [Blessings greater]3 yet; For Light and Heat no Noble Soul can please, Without what she maintains, our Freedom, and our Ease. Yet both alike in this they live, That neither Share the rest they give. By Seasons, and by fleeting Hours, The Sun's warm Comforts we compute, [The Spring] 4 can boast but Leaves and Flow’rs Her Vertue still new Blessings pours, [And round the Year we taste the ripen'd Fruit.]5
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with ‘inspire us genius of the day’: rewriting the regent in the Birthday Ode for Queen Anne, 1703 Estelle Murphy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, Page 12
Text Authorship:
- by Peter Anthony Motteux (1663 - 1718), no title, written 1703 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by John Eccles (1668 - 1735), "From this happy Day we date", first performed 1703, from cantata Inspire us, Genius of the Day, no. 3, Verified with The songs and symphonys perform'd before Her Majesty at her Palace of St. Jame's on her birth day. 1703, John Walsh, London, c. 1730 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2024-01-06
Line count: 15
Word count: 110