Where'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rife, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. Oh! how I long with you to pass my days, Invoke the Muses, and refound your praise ! Your praise the birds shall chant in ev'ry grove, And winds shall waft it to the pow'rs above. 80 But would you fing, and rival Orpheus' strain, The wond'ring forests foon should dance again, The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call, And headlong streams hang list'ning in their fall! But fee, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat, 85 The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove; Ye Gods! and is there no relief for Love? VER. 79, 80. VARIATIONS. Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n fhall bear, So the verses were originally written. But the author, young as he was, soon found the absurdity which Spenser himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. P. IMITATIONS. VER. 80. And winds shall waft, etc.] VER 88. Ye Gods, etc.] Virg. P. Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adfit amori ? Idem. P. But foon the fun with milder rays descends On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey, By night he scorches, as he burns by day. VARIATIONS. VER, 91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay. P (76) AUTUMN: THE THIRD PASTORAL, OR, HYLAS and ÆGON. B To Mr. WYCHERLEY. Eneath theshade aspreading Beech displays, Hylas and Ægon sung their rural lays; This mourn'd a faithless, that an absent Love, And Delia's name and Doris' fill'd the Grove. Ye Mantuan nymphs, your sacred succour bring; 5 Hylas and Ægon's rural lays I sing. Thou, whom the Nine, with Plautus' wit' inspire, The art of Terence, and Menander's fire; REMARKS. This Paftoral consists of two parts, like the viiith of Vir gil: The Scene, a Hill; the Time at Sun-set. P. VER. 7. Thou, whom the Nine,] Mr. Wycherley, a famous Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms, Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms! REMARKS. author of Comedies; of which the most celebrated were the Plain-Dealer and Country-Wife. He was a writer of infinite spirit, satire, and wit. The only objection made to him was that he had too much. However, he was followed in the same way by Mr. Congreve; tho' with a little more correctness. P. VER. 8. The art of Terence, and Menander's fire ;] This line alludes to that famous character given of Terence, by Cæfar : Tu quoque, tu in summis, o dimidiate Menander, Comica. So that the judicious critic sees he should have faid-with Menander's fire. For what the Poet meant, was, that his friend had join'd to Terence's art, what Cæfar thought wanting in Terence, namely, the vis comica of Menander. Befides, - and Menander's fire, is making that the Characteristic of Menander which was not. He was distinguished for having art and comic spirit in conjunction, and Terence having only the first part, is called the half of Menander. For VER. 9. Whose sense instructs us, He was always very careful in his encomiums not to fall into ridicule, the trap which weak and prostitute flatterers rarely escape. fense, he would willingly have said, moral; propriety required it. But this dramatic poet's moral was remarkably faulty. His plays are all shamefully profligate both in the Dialogue and Action. When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan, i5 Taught rocks to weep and made the mountains groan. Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs away! To Delia's ear the tender notes convey. As fome fad Turtle his loft love deplores, And with deep murmurs fills the founding shores; Thus, far from Delia, to the winds I mourn, 20 Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along! For her, the feather'd quires neglect their fong : For her, the limes their pleasing shades deny; 25 For her the lilies hang their heads and die. Ye flow'rs that droop, forsaken by the spring, Ye birds that, left by fummer, cease to fing, Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove, Say, is not absence death to those who love? 30 Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs away! What have I faid? where'er my Delia flies, 35 And liquid amber drop from ev'ry thorn. 4 |