Defcend ye gentle nine! defcend, and spread Firit in thy fades (where filver Kennet glides, AROUND the pomp in mourning weeds array'd, So the pale failor, launching from the fhore, You You too, bright miftrefs of th' Aonian quire, Divine Calliope! refume the lyre: The lives and deaths of mighty chiefs recite, The wafte of nations, and the rage of fight. VOL. IX. A SIMILE, UPON A SET OF TEA-DRINKERS. So fairy elves their morning-table spread THE SAME, DIVERSIFIED IN ANCIENT METRE. So, yf deepe clerkes in tymes of yore faine trew, A SOLILOQUY, OCCASIONED BY THE CHIRPING OF A GRASS HOPPER. HAPPY infect! ever bleft In the burning fummer, thou Proud to gratify thy will, Yet alas! we both agree, daughter Proferpina, who was then loft. At laft Arethuía (a river of Sicily) informs the goddess that her daughter was stolen away by Pluto, and carried down into hell. Now it was ordained by fate, that Proferpine should return again, if the tafted not of any fruit in the other world. But temptations were strong, and the woman could not refift eating fix or feven kernels of a pomegranate. However, to mitigate the fentence, Jupiter decreed that the should refide but half the year with Pluto, and pafs the reft with her mother. Upon thefe terms Ceres is very well pacified, and in complaifance defires Arethufa to relate her life, and for what reafons he was changed into a river. HUSH'D in fufpenfe the gath'ring waters stood, When thus began the parent of the flood: What time emerging from the wave, she prest Her verdant treffes drooping on her breast. Of all the nymphs Achaia boafts (the faid), Was Arethufa once the fairest maid. None lov'd fo well, to spread in early dawn The trembling mefhes o'er the dewy lawn: Though drefs and beauty scarce deferv'd my care, Yet ev'ry tongue confefs'd me to be fair. The charms which others ftrive for, I refign, And think it ev'n a crime to find them mine! It chanc'd one morn, returning from the wood, Weary I wander'd by a filver flood: The gentle waters scarce were feen to glide, And a calm filence ftill'd the fleeping tide; High o'er the banks a grove of watery trees Spread its dark shade, that trembled to the breeze. (My veft fufpended on the boughs) I lave My chilly feet, then plunge beneath the wave; A ruddy light my blushing limbs difpread, And the clear ftream half glows with rofy-red. When from beneath in awful murmurs broke A hollow voice, and thus portentous spoke : My lovely nymph, my Arethusa itay, Alpheus calls; it faid, or feem'd to fay", Naked and fwift I flew (my clothes behind), Fear ftrung my nerves, and fhame enrag'd my mind. So wing'd with hunger the fierce eagle flies, To drive the trembling turtles through the skies: So wing'd with fear the trembling turtles fpring, When the fierce eagle fhoots upon the wing. 86 66 Swift bounding from the god, I now furvey Where breezy Piophis and Cyllene lay: Elis' fair ftructures open'd on my eyes; And waving Erymanthus cools the fkies, At length unequal for the rapid chafe Tremble my limbs, the god maintains the race: O'er hills and vales with furious hafte I flew ; O'er hills and vales the god behind me drew. Now hov'ring o'er, his lengthening fhadow bends, (His length'ning thadow the low fun extends) And fudden now, his founding fteps drew near; At least I feem'd his founding feps to hear. Now finking, in fhort fobs I gasp'd for breath, Juft in the jaws of violence and death. Ah, Cynthia help! ('twas thus in thought I pray'd) The virgin-pow'r confenting to my pray'r, in mifty steams th' impervious vapours rife, Perplex his gueffes, and deceive his eyes. What fears I felt as thus enclos'd I stood, What chilling horrors trembled through my blond So pants the fawn in filence and despair, When the grim wolf runs howling through the la So fits the lev'ret, when the hound purfues His trembling prey, and winds the tainted dews. Sudden my cheek with flashing colour barns, Pale fwoons, and fickly fears fucceed by turns: Cold creeps my blood, its pulfes beat no mare: Big drops of fweat afcend from every pore; Adown my locks the pearly dews diftill, And each full eye pours forth a guthing rill; Now all at once my melting limbs decay, In one clear itream diffolving faft away. The god foon faw me floating o'er the plain, And ftrait refum'd his watery form againInftant, Diana, fmote the trembling ground; Down rush my waters with a murm'ring found; Thence darkling through th' infernal regions ftra, And in the Delian plains review the day, ANGERIANUS DE CÆLIA, QUUM dormiret Amor, rapuit clam pulchra plz retram Celia, furreptâ flevit Amor pharetra. Noli (Cypris ait) fic flere Cupido; pharetram Pulchra tibi rapuit Cælia, reftituit. Non opus eft illi calamis, non ignibus: urit Voce, manu, greffu, pectore, fronte, oculis. CUPID MISTAKEN. FROM THE SPORTS OF CUPID, WRITTEN IT Imitated and enlarged. As faft befide a murmuring stream, Chloe, as the foftly came, Snatch'd his golden fhafts away. From place to place in fad furprise The little angry godhead flew : Trembling in his ruddy eyes Hung the pearly drops of dew. So on the rofe (in blooming May, When purple Phoebus rifes bright) Liquid gems of filver lay, Pierc'd with glitt'ring ftreams of light. As he murmur'd out his anguish Can Chloe eel the fhafts of love, Young blooming, witty, plump and fair? Charms and raptures round her move, Murmuring fighs, and deep despair. Millions for her unheeded die, Millions to her their bleffings owe; Ev'ry motion of her eye Murders more than Cupid's bow. TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH MR. FENTON'S MISCELLANY. THESE various ftrains, where ev'ry talent charms, Where humour pleases, or where paffion warms : Strains! where the tender and fublime confpire, Sappho's fweetnefs, and a Homer's fire) Attend their doom, and wait with glad furprise Th' impartial juftice of Cleora's eyes. 'Tis hard to fay, what myfteries of fate, What turns of fortune on good writers wait. The party-flave will wound 'em as he can, And damns the merit, if he hates the man. Nay, ev'n the bards with wit and laurels crown'd, Blefs'd in each strain, in ev'ry art renown'd: Mislead by pride, and taught to fin by pow'r, Still fearch around for thote they may devour : Like favage monarchs on a guilty throne, Who crush all might that can invade their own. Others who hate, yet want the foul to dare, So ruin bards—as beaux's deceive the fair: On the pleas'd ear their soft deceits employ; Smiling they wound, and praise but to destroy. Thefe are th' unhappy crimes of modern days, And can the beft of poets hope for praife? How fmall a part of human bleffings share The wife, the good, the noble, or the fair! Short is the date unhappy wit can boast, A blaze of glory in a moment loft. Fortune ftill envious of the great man's praise, Curfes the coxcomb with a length of days. So (Hector dead) amid the female quire, Unmanly Paris tun'd the filver lyre. Attend ye Britons! in so just a caufe Tis fure a fcandal, to with-hold applause; Nor let pofterity reviling fay, Thus anregarded Fenton país'd away! Yet if the mufe may faith or merit claim. (A mufe too juft to bribe with venal fame) Soon fhalt thou fhine" in majesty avow'd; As thy own goddess breaking through a cloud." Fame, like a nation debt, though long delay'd, With mighty int'reft must at laft be paid. Like Vinci's ftrokes, thy verfes we behold; Correctly graceful, and with labour bold. At Sappho's woes we breathe a tender figh, And the foft forrow steals from ev'ry eye. Here Spenfer's thoughts in folemn numbers roll, Here lofty Milton feems to lift the foul. There fprightly Chaucer charms our hours away With ftories quient, and gentle roundelay. Mufe at that name each thought of pride re- Ah, think how foon the wife and glorious fall! Epiftle to Southerne. What though your charms, my fair Cleora! fhine TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE, ON HIS PASSING THROUGH OXFORD, ON HIS RETURN FROM BATH. AT length, in pity to a nation's prayer, Some guardian power, who o'er thy fate prefides, Whofe eye unerring Albion's welfare guides, And fure that unbought praise which learning brings, Outweighs the vaft acclaim that deafens kings; Hail, and proceed! be arts like ours thy care, Power, beauty, virtue, dignify thy choice, Each public fuffrage, and each private voice. TO MR. POPE. To move the fprings of nature as we please, 'Tis yours, like thefe, with curious toil to trace Led by fome law, whofe pow'rful impulfe guides So feems fome picture, where exact defign, Soft without weakness, without labour fair; How bleft the man that from the world remov Nor deem this verse, though humbie, thy dif grace; All are not born the glory of their race: EDIPUS the fon of Laius, king of Thebes, was, in his infancy, exposed to wild beasts upon the m tains; but, by fome miraculous prefervation, he escaped this danger, and, afterwards, by miżar, flew his own father, as they contended for the way. He then married Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, whom he knew not to be his mother, and had by her two fons, Etheocles and Polynices; who, aft their father had put out his eyes, and banished himself from Thebes, agreed between themselves govern year by year interchangeably. But this agreement was ill obferved. Etheocles, when his date of government was expired, refused to refign it to Folynices; who, in his rage, fled to Adrafity King of Argos, to implore afliftance against his brother. Adraftus received the young prince with all imaginable tenderness, and gave him in marriage to his fair daughter Deipyle, as the oracles had appointed. He then, with the afliftance of his allies, undertakes to fettle Polynices on the throne, and to depofe Etheocles. Upon this, Thebes is befieged, and, after feveral encounters, the difference is at laft decided by the duel and death of the two brothers. This is the main action of the poem. Befides this, by way of an under action, the poet has interwoven another diftinct ftory. The godd Venus is refolved to revenge herself upon the Lemnians, because they neglected all facrifices to her. She first difgufts the men with their wives, and then, in return, spirits up the women into a refoistion of murdering their husbands. This horrible defign was executed by each of them, except Hyp fipyic, who faved her father Thoas. Some time afterward this alfo was difcovered. Hyppyi to avoid the fury of the women, fled to the fea-fhore, where he was taken by the pirates, and prefented by them to King Lycurgus, who made her nurse to his fon Archemorus. The dominions et this prince lay directly in the way from Argos to Thebes. As Adraftus and his Allies were marching thither, the troops were ready to perish for want of water. They chanced in a wood to meet Hypfipyle, who, pitying their misfortunes, lays down in hafte her young child, and fhows them a fpring that could never be drained. She receives the thanks of Adraftus; and having, at his request, recited her own adventures, returns back, and finds the young infant Archemorus juft killed by a ferpent. Her confufion and fears are defcribed in an excellent fpeech upon that occafion. The Grecians kill the ferpent; and, in honour of the dead prince, perform all the rites of burial; which is the fubject of this prefent book. First of all, it begins with an hiftorical account of the Nemezan games, then follows the funeral, with a more particular defcription of hewing the forefts, and offering their hair to the deceased. The anguifh of Adraftus, the lamentations of Eurydice, and the filence of Hypfipyle, are extremely well adapted to nature. A monument is erected to the memory of Archemorus, which is ornamented with the whole ftory in fculpture. After this fucceed the funeral games; the chariot-race, the footrace, the difcus, the fight with the cæftus, the wrestling, and hooting with arrows; which last ends with a prodigy, foreboding that none of the confederate princes should return from the war except Adraltus. SOON mournful fame through ev'ry town pro- * The pious games begin, with loud alarms, Here the young warriors first prelude in arms: Each blooming youth Aonia fends to fame, And each dear object to the Tyrian dame; Who once imbru'd in blood, fhall heap around High hills of flain, and deluge all the ground. 20 The youthful failors thus with early care Aurora now, fair daughter of the day, Th' unhappy father, father now no more, 4I To make him wretched, as they made him great. wound) Leucotboe. Which foon muft fade, and wither like the dead. 70 80 Inwoven on the pall, young Linus lay |