The ratling boughes, and leaues, their parts did beare;

Her eies vnclos'd beheld the groues along

Of fwaines and fhepherd groomes, that dwellings weare;

And that sweet noise, birds, winds, and waters fent,

Prouokte againe the virgin to lament.

6.

Her plaints were interrupted with a found, That feem'd from thickest bushes to proceed, Some iolly fhepherd fung a luftie round, And to his voice had tun'd his oaten reed; Thither she went, an old man there she found, (At whose right hand his little flocke did feed)

Sat making baskets, his three fonnes among, That learn'd their fathers art, and learn'd his fong.

7.

Beholding one in fhining armes appeare
The feelie man and his were fore difmaid;
But sweet Erminia comforted their feare,
Her ventall vp, her vifage open laid,
You happie folke, of heau'n beloued deare,
Worke on (quoth fhe) vpon your harmleffe
traid,

Thefe dreadfull armes I beare no warfare
bring

To your sweet toile, nor those sweet tunes you fing.

8.

But father, fince this land, these townes and

towres,

Deftroied are with fword, with fire and spoile,

How

How may it be unhurt, that you and yours In fafetie thus, applie your harmlesse toile? My fonne (quoth he) this poore eftate of ours Is euer fafe from ftorme of warlike broile; This wilderneffe doth vs in fafetie keepe, No thundring drum, no trumpet breakes our fleepe.

9.

Haply iuft heau'ns defence and shield of right,
Doth loue the innocence of fimple fwaines,
The thunderbolts on highest mountains light,
And feld or neuer ftrike the lower plaines;
So kings haue caufe to feare Bellonaes might,
Not they whofe fweat and toile their dinner
gaines,

Nor ever greedie foldier was entifed
By pouertie, neglected and despised.

10.

O pouertie, chefe of the heau'nly brood, Dearer to me than wealth or kingly crowne! No wish for honour, thirst of others good, Can moue my hart, contented with mine owne! We quench our thirft with water of this flood, Nor feare we poison should therein be throwne; These little flocks of fheepe and tender goates Giue milke for food, and wooll to make us

coates.

II.

We little wish, we need but little wealth, From cold and hunger vs to cloath and feed; These are my fonnes, their care preferues from ftealth

Their fathers flocks, nor feruants moe I need: Amid these groues I walke oft for my health, And to the fishes, birds and beaftes giue heed,

How

How they are fed, in forreft, fpring and lake,
And their contentment for enfample take.

12.

Time was (for each one hath his doting time)
Thefe filuer locks were golden treffes than)
That countrie life I hated as a crime,

And from the forrefts fweet contentment ran,
To Memphis stately pallace would I clime,
And there became the mightie Caliphes man,
And though I but a fimple gardner weare,
Yet could I marke abuses, fee and heare.
13.

Entifed on with hope of future gaine,
I fuffred long what did my foule displease;
But when my youth was spent, my hopes was
vaine,

I felt my natiue ftrength at laft decrease;
I gan my loffe of luftie yeeres complaine,
And wifht I had enjoy'd the countries peace;
I bod the court farewell, and with content
My later
age here haue I quiet spent.

14.

While thus he spake, Erminia husht and still
His wife difcourfes heard, with great attention,
His fpeeches graue thofe idle fancies kill,
Which in her troubled foule bred fuch diffen-
tion;

After much thought reformed was her will,
Within those woods to dwell was her intention,
Till fortune fhould occafion new afford,
To turne her home to her defired Lord.

15.

She said therefore, O fhepherd fortunate!
That troubles fome didft whilom feele and proue,
Yet liueft now in this contented state,
Let my mishap thy thoughts to pitie moue,

Το

ways at the laft gafp; he does not die of a frown, nor live upon a fimile. There is however too much love, and too many trifles. Little things are made too important; and the Empire of Beauty is represented as exerting its influence further than can be allowed by the multiplicity of human paffions, and the variety of human wants. Such books therefore may be confidered as fhewing the world under a falfe appearance, and fo far as they obtain credit from the young and unexperienced, as misleading expectation, and mifguiding prac

tice.

Of his nobler and more weighty performances, the greater part is panegyrical; for of praise he was very lavish, as is obferved by his imitator, Lord Lanfdown:

No fatyr ftalks within the hallow'd ground,

But queens and heroines, kings and gods abound;

Glory and arms and love are all the found.

In the first poem, on the danger of the Prince on the coaft of Spain, there is a puerile and ridiculous mention of Arion at the beginning; and the laft paragraph, on the Cable, is in part ridiculoufly mean, and in part ridiculoufly tumid. The poem, however, is fuch as may be justly praised, without much allowance for the state of our poetry and language at that time.

The two next poems are upon the King's behaviour at the death of Buckingham, and upon his Navy.

He

He has, in the firft, ufed the pagan deities with great propriety:

'Twas want of fuch a precedent as this Made the old heathen frame their gods amifs.

In the poem on the Navy, those lines are very noble, which fuppofe the King's power fecure against a fecond Deluge; fo noble, that it were almost criminal to remark the mistake

of centre for furface, or to fay that the empire of the fea would be worth little if it were not that the waters terminate in land.

The poem upon

poem upon Sallee has forcible fentiments; but the conclufion is feeble. That on the Repairs of St. Paul's has something vulgar and obvious; fuch as the mention of Amphion; and fomething violent and harsh,

as

So all our minds with his confpire to grace The Gentiles' great apostle, and deface Thofe ftate-obfcuring fheds, that like a

chain

Seem'd to confine, and fetter him again: Which the glad faint fhakes off at his command,

As once the viper from his facred hand.
So joys the aged oak, when we divide
The creeping ivy from his injur'd fide.

Of the two laft couplets, the first is extravagant, and the second mean.