The S M A LL-Pox. A Town Eclogue. By the Right Hon. L. M. W. M. • How am I chang'd ? alas ! how am I grown? • Ah! faithless glass, my wonted bloom restore ; • Alas ! I rave, that bloom is now no more ! • The greatest good the gods on men bestow, « Ev'n youth itself to me is useless now. • There was a time (Oh! that I cou'd forget!). 5. When opera-tickets pour'd before my feet; • And at the ring, where brightest beauties shine, • The earliest cherries of the spring were mine. Witness, O Lilly; and thou, Motteux, tell • How much japan these eyes have made ye sell. • With what contempt ye saw me oft despise • The humble offer of the raffled prize ; • For at the raffle ftill each prize I bore, • With ícorn rejected, or with triumph wore ! • Now beauty's fed, and presents are no more ! • For me the patriot has the house forsook, • And left debates to catch a passing look : • For me the soldier has soft verses writ: « For me the beau has aim'd to be a wit. • For me the wit to nonsense was betray'd ; • The gamefter has for me his dun delay'd, • And over-seen the card he would have play'd. • The bold and haughty by success made vain, • Aw'd by my eyes, have trembled to complain : • The bashful'squire touch'd by a wilh unknown, Has dar'd to speak with spirit not his own; • Fird by one wish, all did alike adore ; • As round the room I turn my weeping eyes, • Ye meaner beauties, I permit ye shine ; • Go, triumph in the hearts that once were mine ; • But midst your triumphs with confusion know, · Tis to my ruin all your arms ye owe. • Wou'd pitying heav'n restore my wonted mein, • Ye still might move unthought of, and unseen: • But oh ! how vain, how wretched is the boast • Of beauty faded, and of empire loft! • What now is left but weeping, to deplore • My beauty fled, and empire now no more ! • Ye, cruel chymists, what with-held your aid ? • Could no pomatums save a trembling maid ? • How false and trifling is that art ye boast ; • No art can give me back my beauty loft ! • In tears, surrounded by my friends I lay, • Mask'd o'er, and trembled at the sight of day; • MIRMEL10 came my fortune to deplore, • (A golden-headed cane well carv'd he bore) • Cordials, he cry'd, my spirits must restore ! • Beauty is fied, and spirit is no more ! Galen, the grave ; officious Squirt, was there, • With fruitless grief, and unavailing care: • Machaon too, the great Machaon, known By his red cloak and his superior frown; • And why, he cry'd this grief and this despair You shall again be well, again be fair ; . • Believe my oath ; (with that an oath he swore) • False was this oath ; my beauty is no more ! Cease, hapless maid, no more thy tale pursue, s Forsake mankind, and bid the world adieu ! • Monarchs and beauties rule with equal sway ; .. All strive to serve, and glory to obey : • Alike unpitied when depos’d they grow, Men mock the idol of their former vow. • Adieu ! ye parks !-in some obscure recess, • Where gentle streams will weep at my distress, • Where no false friend will in my grief take part, • And mourn my ruin with a joyful heart ; • There let me live in some deserted place, There hide in shades this loft inglorious face. 5 Ye operas, circles, I no more must view! • My toilette, patches, all the world adieu ! We have given the rules usually laid down for pastoral writing, and exhibited some examples which were written on this plan; but we must beg leave to observe, that this poem may sometimes partake of more dignity, and aspire even to the sublime, without deviating from nature and right reason. The sublime which arises from tumults, wars, and what are (too often falsely called great actions, the Paftoral abhors ; but that which is blended with the tender and pathetic may be introduced with propriety and elegance. And, indeed, if we consider that the first shepherds were many of them princes (for that Abraham, Mofes, and David, were such, we have the testimony of the scriptures) it will seem somewhat extraordinary that such pains Tould have been taken to exclude the sublime from pastoral writing ; and we shall be inclined to admit Virgil's Pollio, the Song of Solomon, and Pope's Meliab, as Pastorals, 'till better reasons are offered to the contrary than have yet appeared ; for the true characteristic of Paftoral, and what distinguishes it from other writings, is its fole confinement to rural affairs, and and if this be observed it can lose nothing of its nature by any elevation of sentiment or di&ion. As an example of the more dignified and sublime sort of Paftoral, we shall give the young student Pepe's MESSIAH, which was written in imitation of Virgil's Pollio, together with the translations he has added from Isaiah, and Virgil, that the reader may see what use both poets have made of the sentiments and diction of the prophet. voice inspire MESSIAH. A sacred Eclogue. In Imitation of VIRGIL's. POLLIÓ; which is supposed to have been taken, in part, from a fibyltine prophecy that foretold the coming of Christ. Ye nymfhs of Solyma! begin the fong; To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong. The mofly fountains, and the fylvan fhades, The dreams of Pindus and th' konian maids, Delight no more - thou my Rapt into future times, the bard begun, ; 20 Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn! Oh spring to light, auspicious babe, be born! Ver. 8. A virgin Mall conceive- All crimes pall cease, &c.] Jam nova progenies cælo demittitur alto. Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. from perpetual fearsHe shall govern the earth in peace, witb tbe virtues of bis father. Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 14. Behold a virgin pall conceive, and bear a fon--Chap, ix. ver. 6, 7. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ; the prince of peace : of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there shall be no end: upon the throne of David, and upon bis kingdom, to order and to establish it, witb judgment, and with justice, for ever and ever. i Isaiah, chap. xi. ver. I. 2 Chi xlv. ver. 8. 3 Ch. XXV, ver. 4. 4 Ch. ix, ver. 7 25 See nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring, 30 35 Ver 23. Sce nature baftes, &c.] Errantes hederas paffim cum baccare tellus, Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores. Isaiah, chap. xxxv. ver, 1. Tbe wilderness and the folitary place paall be glad, and ibe defert fall rejoice and blossom as the rose: Chap. l. ver. 13. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto tbee, the fir-trec, tve pine-tree, and tbe box tog etber, to beautify the place of thy Sanctuary. Ver. 29. Hark! a glad voice, &c.] Cara deûm foboles, magnum jovis incrementum E. 5. ver. 62. O come and receive the mighty bonours : the time draws nigh, 0 beloved offspring of ibe Gods, O great encrease of Jove ! The uncultivated mountains send fouts of joy to the stars, tbe very rocks fing in verse, the very fhrubs cry out, A God, a God! Ifaiah, ch. xl. ver. 394. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord ! 'make frait in tbe desart a bigh way for our God! every valley fall be exalted, and every mountain and bill fall be made low, and tbe crooked fall be made frait, and the tbe rough places piain. Chap. iv. ver. 23. Break forth into fouging, ye mountains ! O forest, and every tree therein! for ibe Lord baih redeemed Israel. 5 Ch. xxxv. ver. 2. 6 Ch, xl. ver. 3, 4. Ź Ch. xlii, ver. 18. Ch. xxxv. ver. 5, 6. |