Hither, they cry'd, direct your eyes, and fee
The men of pleafure, drefs, and gallantry;
Ours is the place at banquets, balls, and plays,
Sprightly our nights, polite are all our days;
Courts we frequent, where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due vifits, and addrefs the fair:

380

385

In fact, 'tis true, no nymph we could perfuade,
But still in fancy vanquifh'd ev'ry maid;
Of unknown Ducheffes leud tales we tell,
Yet, would the world believe us, all were well.
The joy let others have, and we the name
And what we want in pleasure grant in fame.
The Queen affents, the trumpet rends the skies,
And at each blast a Lady's honour dies.

390

Pleas'd with the strange success, vaft numbers prest Around the fhrine, and made the fame requeft: 395 What you (fhe cry'd) unlearn'd in arts to please, Slaves to yourselves, and ev'n fatigu'd with ease, Who lose a length of undeferving days, Would you ufurp the lover's dear-bought praife? To just contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall, 'The people's fable, and the fcorn of all.

IMITATIONS.

400

might compare these twenty-eight lines following, which contain the fame matter, with eighty-four of Chaucer, beginning thus:

Tho came the fixth companye,

And gan

fafte to Fame cry, etc.

being too prolix to be here inferted. P.

Straight the black clarion sends a horrid found,
Loud laughs burst out, and bitter fcoffs fly round,
Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud,
And scornful hiffes run thro' all the croud.

405

Laft, those who boast of mighty mischiefs done, Enflave their country, or ufurp a throne;

Or who their glory's dire foundation laid

On Sov'reigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd;
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, 410
Of crooked counsels and dark politics;

Of these a gloomy tribe furround the throne,
And beg to make th' immortal treasons known.
The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire,
With sparks, that feem'd to fet the world on fire. 415
At the dread found, pale mortals stood aghaft,
And ftartled nature trembled with the blast.

This having heard and feen, fome pow'r unknown Strait chang'd the fcene, and fnatch'd me from the throne.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 406. Laft, those who boast of mighty, etc.]

Tho came another companye,

That had y-done the treachery, etc. P.

VER. 418. This having heard and feen, etc.] The Scene here changes from the temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow.

Tho faw I ftonde in a valey,

Under the castle fast by
A houfe, that Domus Dedali

Before my view appear'd a ftructure fair,
Its fite uncertain, if in earth or air;

With rapid motion turn'd the manfion round;
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls refound;
Not lefs in number were the spacious doors,

420

Than leaves on trees, or fands upon the fhores; 425 Which ftill unfolded stand, by night, by day,

Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way,

As flames by nature to the skies afcend,

As weighty bodies to the centre tend,

IMITATIONS.
That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made fo wonderly, I wis,
Ne half fo queintly y-wrought;
And evermo as swift as thought,
This queint house about went,
That never more it still ftent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees,
In fummer, when they ben grene ;
And in the roof yet men may fene
A thousand hoels and well mo,

To letten the foune out go;

every

tide

And by day in
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unfhet
No porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace;
Ne never reft is in that place,

P.

VER. 428. As flames by nature to the, etc.] This thought is transferr'd hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus,

Geffray, thou wotteft well this, etc.

P.

As to the fea returning rivers roll,

And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole;

Hither, as to their proper place, arise

430

All various founds from earth, and feas, and fkies,

Or fpoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;

Nor ever filence, reft, or peace is here.

435

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes

The finking ftone at first a circle makes;
The trembling furface by the motion stirr'd,
Spreads in a second circle, then a third;

Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, 440
Fill all the wat❜ry plain, and to the margin dance:
Thus ev'ry voice and found, when first they break,
On neighb'ring air a soft impreffion make ;
Another ambient circle then they move;
That, in its turn, impels the next above;
Thro' undulating air the sounds are sent,

And spread o'er all the fluid element.

445

There various news I heard of love and ftrife, Of peace and war, health, fickness, death, and life,

IMITATIONS.

VER. 448. There various news I heard, etc.]
Of werres, of peace, of marriages,
Of reft, of labour, of voyages,
Of abode, of dethe, and of life,
Of love and hate, accord and ftrife,
Of lofs, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of fickness, and leffings,

Of lofs and gain, of famine and of store,

Of ftorms at sea, and travels on the shore,
Of prodigies, and portents seen in air,

Of fires and plagues, and ftars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great,
Of old mifmanagements, taxations new:
All neither wholly falfe, nor wholly true.

Above, below, without, within, around,
Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found,
IMITATIONS,

Of divers tranfmutations

Of eftates and eke of regions,
Of truft, of drede, of jealoufy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good, or bad government,
Of fire, and of divers accident. P.
VER. 458. Above, below, without, within, etc.]
But fuch a grete congregation

Of folke as I faw roame about,
Some within, and fome without,
Was never feen, ne fhall be eft-
And every wight that I faw there
Rowned everich in others ear
A new tyding privily,

Or elfe he told it openly

Right thus, and faid, Knowft not thou

That is betide to night now?

No, quoth he, tell me what?

And then he told him this and that, etc.

-Thus north and fouth

Went every tiding fro mouth to mouth,

And that encreafing evermo,

As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a fparkle fprong amifs,

Till all the citee brent up is.

450

455