Nor all his ftars above a luftre fhow,
Like the bright beauties on thy banks below;
Where Jove, fubdu'd by mortal paffion ftill,
Might change Olympus for a nobler hill.

Happy the man whom this bright Court approves,
His Sov'reign favours, and his country loves: 236
Happy next him, who to these fhades retires,
Whom Nature charms, and whom the Muse inspires:
Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet please,
Succeffive study, exercise, and ease.

He gathers health from herbs the forest yields,
And of their fragrant phyfic spoils the fields:
With chemic art exalts the min❜ral pow'rs,
And draws the aromatic fouls of flow'rs:

240

Now marks the courfe of rolling orbs on high; 245
O'er figur'd worlds now travels with his eye;
Of ancient writ unlocks the learned store,
Confults the dead, and lives paft ages o'er:
Or wand'ring thoughtful in the filent wood,
Attends the duties of the wife and good,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 233. It flood thus in the MS.

And force great Jove, if Jove's a lover still,
To change Olympus, &c.

VER. 235.

250

Happy the man, who to these fhades retires,

But doubly happy, if the Muse inspires!

Bleft whom the fweets of home-felt quiet please ;

But far more bleft, who ftudy joins with ease,

NOTES.

VER. 236. All this paffage clearly refembles one in Philips's

Cyder, Book i. towards the end,

T'obferve

T' obferve a mean, be to himself a friend,
To follow nature, and regard his end;

Or looks on heav'n with more than mortal eyes,
Bids his free foul expatiate in the skies,

Amid her kindred ftars familiar roam,
Survey the region, and confefs her home!
Such was the life great Scipio once admir'd,
Thus Atticus, and TRUMBAL thus retir'd.
Ye facred Nine! that all my
foul poffefs,
Whose raptures fire me, and whofe vifions bless,
Bear me, oh bear me to fequefter'd scenes,
The bow'ry mazes, and furrounding greens ;
To Thames's banks which fragrant breezes fill,
Or where ye Muses sport on COOPER'S HILL.

NOTES.

255

261

(On

VER. 251. T obferve a mean] This is marked as an imitation of Lucretius in the firft, and all editions of Warburton; but erroneously; the paffage is in the fecond book of Lucan, v. 381.

VER. 259.]" Here, you cannot but be fenfible (fays the ingenious Mr. Webb) how the enthusiasm is tamed by the precifion of the couplet, and the confequent littleness of the fcenery. How different from Milton ?

Cease I to wander," &c. Par. Loft. 3d B.

The following four lines, v. 267, are far more poetical, but these again muft yield to an enchanting paffage in Thomfon's Summer, p. 39, of the first edition, and which is altered for the worfe in the later editions.

VER. 263.] Denham, fays Dr. Johnson, feems to have been, at least among us, the author of a fpecies of compofition that may be denominated Local Poetry, of which the fundamental fubject is fome particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of fuch embellishments as may be supplied by hiftorical retrospection, or incidental meditation. Cooper's Hill,

(On COOPER'S HILL eternal wreathes fhall grow

While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow) I seem through confecrated walks to rove,

I hear foft mufic die along the grove:

Led by the found, I roam from fhade to fhade,
By god-like Poets venerable made:

Here his first lays majestic DENHAM fung;

267

270

There the last numbers flow'd from COWLEY's tongue.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 267. It stood thus in the MS.

Methinks around your holy scenes I rove,

And hear your mufic echoing through the grove:
With transport vifit each infpiring fhade,

By God-like Poets venerable made.

NOTES.

if it be maliciously inspected, will not be found without its faults; the digreffions are too long, the morality too frequent, and the fentiments fuch as will not bear a rigorous enquiry. It was first printed at Oxford, in 1633.

VER. 271. majeflic Denham] In the Memoirs of Count Grammont, 4to edition, p. 200, Sir John Denham is charged with the atrocious crime of poifoning his young and beautiful wife. The populace in his neighbourhood faid they would tear him in pieces for this abominable act, as soon as he should come abroad. In the year 1667 he appeared to have been disordered in his intellects. And in Temple's Works a very depretiating account of his behaviour is given, vol. i. p. 484. In Butler's Pofthumous Works is a fatire, entitled, A Panegyric on Denham's Recovery from Madness.

VER. 272. There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley's tongue.] Mr. Cowley died at Chertfey on the borders of the Foreft, and was from thence convey'd to Westminster.

P.

Difgufted with the bufinefs and buftle of the world, and the intrigues of courts, Cowley thought to have found an exemption of all cares in retiring to Chertfey. Dr. Johnson wrote a Rambler to ridicule his wifh to retire to America, and has published a Letter, vol. i. of his Lives, p. 29, which he recommends to the perufal of all who pant for folitude. His House at Chertfey now belongs to Mr. Alderman Clarke.

O early

O early loft! what tears the river shed,

When the fad pomp along his banks was led?
His drooping fwans on every note expire,

And on his willows hung each Mufe's lyre.

275

Since fate relentless stop'd their heav'nly voice,

No more the forefts ring, or groves rejoice;

Who now fhall charm the fhades, where COWLEY

ftrung

His living harp, and lofty DENHAM fung?
But hark! the groves rejoice, the forest rings!
Are these reviv'd? or is it GRANVILLE fings!
'Tis yours, my Lord, to bless our soft retreats,
And call the Mufes to their ancient feats;
To paint anew the flow'ry sylvan scenes,
To crown the forests with immortal greens,
Make Windfor-hills in lofty numbers rife,

280

285

And lift her turrets nearer to the fkies!

To fing those honours you deserve to wear,
And add new luftre to her filver ftar.

VER. 275.

VARIATIONS.

What fighs, what murmurs, fill'd the vocal fhore!
His tuneful fwans were heard to fing no more.

290

P.

VER. 290. Her filver ftar.] All the lines that follow were not added to the poem till the year 1710. What immediately followed this, and made the conclufion, were thefe,

My humble Mufe in unambitious strains

Paints the green forests and the flow'ry plains;

NOTES.

VER. 280.] Living is from Cowley.

Where

VER. 282.] The Mira of Granville was the Countess of Newburgh. Towards the end of her life Dr. King, of Oxford, wrote a very fevere fatire against her, in three books, 4to, called

The Toaft.

Here

Here noble SURREY felt the facred rage, SURREY, the GRANVILLE of a former age: Matchlefs his pen, victorious was his lance, Bold in the lifts, and graceful in the dance: In the fame shades the Cupids tun'd his lyre, To the fame notes, of love, and soft desire: Fair Geraldine, bright object of his vow, Then fill'd the groves, as heav'nly Mira now.

VARIATIONS.

Where I obfcurely pass my careless days,
Pleas'd in the filent fhade with empty praise,
Enough for me that to the lift'ning fwains
Firft in these fields I fung the fylvan ftrains.

NOTES.

295

O would'st

P.

VER. 291. Here noble Surrey] Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, one of the first refiners of the English poetry; who flourish'd in the time of Henry VIII.

P.

VER. 297. Fair Geraldine] "The Fair Geraldine, (fays Mr. Warton in his Hift. of English Poetry, vol. iii.) the general object of Lord Surrey's paffionate fonnets, is commonly faid to have lived at Florence, and to have been of the family of the Geraldi of that city. This is a misapprehension of an expreffion in one of our poet's odes, and a paffage in Drayton's Heroic Epiftles. She was, undoubtedly, one of the daughters of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare.

"It is not precifely known at what period the Earl of Surrey began his travels. They have the air of a romance. He made the tour of Europe in the true spirit of chivalry, and with the ideas of an Amadis; proclaiming the unparalleled charms of his mistress, and prepared to defend the cause of her beauty with the weapons of knight-errantry; nor was this adventurous journey performed without the intervention of an enchanter. The first city in Italy which he proposed to vifit was Florence, the capital of Tuscany, and the original feat of the ancestors of his Geraldine. In his way thither, he passed a few days at the Emperor's court; where he became acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, a celebrated adept