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This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from blossoms fip the rofy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you.
O deign to visit our forfaken feats,

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The moffy fountains, and the green retreats!
Where'er you walk, cool gales fhall fan the glade,
Trees, where you fit, fhall croud into a fhade:
Where'er you tread, the blufhing flow'rs fhall rife,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. 76
O! how I long with you to pass my days,

Invoke the Muses, and refound your praise!
Your praise the birds fhall chant in ev'ry grove,
And winds fhall waft it to the pow'rs above.
But would you fing, and rival Orpheus' strain,
The wond'ring forests foon fhould dance again,
The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,
And headlong streams hang lift'ning in their fall!

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VER. 67, 68.] I think these two lines would not have paffed without animadverfion in any of our great schools.

VER. 79, 80.

VARIATIONS.

Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n fhall bear,
And lift'ning wolves grow milder as they hear.

So the verses were originally written. But the Author, young as he was, foon found the abfurdity which Spenser himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 80. And winds fhall waft, &c.]

"Partem aliquam, venti, divûm referatis ad aures ?"

Virg.

P.

P.

But

But fee, the fhepherds fhun the noon-day heat,
The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat,
To closer fhades the panting flocks remove;
Ye Gods! and is there no relief for Love?
But foon the fun with milder rays defcends
To the cool ocean, where his journey ends:
On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey,
By night he fcorches, as he burns by day.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay.

IMITATIONS,

VER. 88. Ye Gods, &c.]

P.

86

90

"Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adfit amori ?"

Idem. P.

Virgil in his Epic, attempted to paint those manners which he had never feen; and in his Pailoral, those rustic manners which he was little acquainted with.

AUTUM N:

THE THIRD PASTORAL."

B

OR,

HYLAS and AEGON.

TO MR. WYCHERLEY.+

ENEATH the fhade a spreading Beech displays,
Hylas and Aegon fung 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 facred fuccour bring; 5
Hylas and Aegon's rural lays I fing.

REMARK S.

2 This Paftoral confifts of two parts, like the viiith of Virgil: The Scene, a Hill; the Time at Sun-fet.

P.

His intrigues with the Dutchefs of Cleveland, his marriage with the Countess of Drogheda, Charles the Second's displeasure on this marriage, his debts and diftreffes, and other particulars of his life, are well related by Dennis in a Letter to Major Pack, 1720. In Dennis's collection of Letters, published in two volumes, 1721, to which Mr. Pope fubfcribed, Lord Lanfdown has drawn his character, as a Writer, in an elegant manner; chiefly with a view of fhewing the impropriety of an epithet given to him by Lord Rochefter, who called him Slow Wycherley; for that, notwithstanding his pointed wit, and forcible expreffion, be compofed with facility and hafte.

Thou,

Thou, whom the Nine, with Plautus' wit infpire, The art of Terence, and Menander's fire;

Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms, Whose judgment fways us, and whose spirit warms! Oh, skill'd in Nature! fee the hearts of Swains, Their artless paffions, and their tender pains.

REMARKS.

II

VER. 7. Thou, whom the Nine,] Mr. Wycherley, a famous author of Comedies; of which the most celebrated were the Plain-Dealer and Country-wife. He was a writer of infinite fpirit, fatire, and wit. The only objection made to him was, that he had too much. However, he was followed in the fame way by Mr. Congreve; tho' with a little more correctness.

P.

Surely with much more correctnefs, taste, and judgment. VER. 8. The art of Terence, and Menander's fire ;] This line alludes to that famous character given of Terence, by Caefar: "Tu quoque, tu in fummis, ô dimidiate Menander,

Poneris, et merito, puri fermonis amator:

Lenibus atque utinam fcriptis adjuncta foret vis

Comica."

So that the judicious critic fees he fhould have faid-with Menander's fire. For what the Poet meant, was, that his friend had joined to Terence's art, what Caefar 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 diftinguished for having art and comic Spirit in conjunction, and Terence having only the first part, is called the half of Menander.

W.

VER. 9. Whofe fenfe inftructs us,] He was always very careful in his encomiums not to fall into ridicule, the deferved fate of weak and prostitute flatterers, and which they rarely escape. For fenfe, he would willingly have faid moral; propriety required it. But this dramatic Poet's moral was remarkably faulty. His plays are all fhamefully profligate both in the Dialogue and Action.

W.

VER. 11. Oh, skill'd] Few writers have lefs nature in them than Wycherley.

Now

Now setting Phoebus fhone ferenely bright, And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light; When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan,

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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,
Alike unheard, unpity'd, and forlorn.

Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs along!
For her, the feather'd quires neglect their fong:
For her, the limes their pleasing fhades deny ;
For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.
Ye flow'rs that droop, forfaken by the fpring,
Ye birds that, left by fummer, cease to fing,
Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove,
Say, is not abfence death to those who love?

Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs away!
Curs'd be the fields that cause my Delia's ftay;
Fade ev'ry bloffom, wither ev'ry tree,

Die ev'ry flow'r, and perifh all, but fhe,

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25

30

What have I faid? where'er my Delia flies,

35

Let spring attend, and fudden flow'rs arise;

REMARKS.

VER. 25.] This rich affemblage of very pleafing pastoral images, is yet excelled by Shenftone's beautiful Paftoral Ballad

in four parts.

Let

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