The following lines were written in the character of Lorenzo de Medici on a blank leaf, with Roscoe’s Life of that eminent man, presented to a lady in 1796
With Pride in Roscoe’s radiant work I see,
That Art avows some pleasing debts to me;
But I behold where no clouds cross the view,
Still more, dear Anna, more it owes to you:
With generous zeal I gloried to sustain
Talents that gave a lustre to my reign:
The man your virtues bless, your love inspires
(Hymen to genius lends etherial fires.)
England now hastes to grow by Phidias grace
What Florence grew from Medici’an taste:
While grateful round me, in the distant skies
The Arts inform me how on Earth they rise,
Quick to perceive and eager to attest
What happy aid secures their glory best,
I own with pleasure, in the realms above
No princely favor equals Female Love.