Secure they trust th' unfaithful field befet,
'Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if small things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,
106
Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the closing lines invest;
Sudden they seize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,
And high in air Britannia's ftandard flies,
See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings: Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes, His purple creft, and fcarlet-circled eyes, The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold? Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny. 120 To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: (Beafts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beasts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.)
VER. 107. It flood thus in the first Editions,
Pleas'd, in the Gen'ral's fight, the hot lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;
The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize,
And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.
nec te tua plurima, Pantheu, Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit. Virg.
With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat❜ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye";
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen sky:
Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clam'rous Lapwings feel the leaden death:
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.
In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his filent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :
With looks unmov'd, he hopes the fcaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.
Our plenteous ftreams a various race fupply,
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,
The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll❜d,
The yellow carp, in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson stains,
And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.
Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car:
The youth rush eager to the fylvan war,
VER. 126. O'er ruftling leaves around the naked groves.
VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high. P.
VER. 134. Præcipites alta vitam fub nube relinquunt,
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound.
Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods appear already cross'd,
And e'er he starts, a thousand steps are loft.
See the bold youth ftrain up the threat'ning steep,
Rush thro' the thickets, down the valleys sweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying steed,
Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain,
Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin-train; 160
Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have seen
As bright a Goddess, and as chaste a QUEEN;
Whose care, like hers, protects the fylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Empress of the Main,
Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana ftray'd, 165
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windsor shade;
E 4
VER. 162. Queen ANNE.
IMITATIONS;
VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Translated from Statius,
Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille
Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum♪ These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Frefnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays they would coft him an hour, if be bad the leifure to tranflate them, there is so much of beauty in the original; which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them.
VER. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original,
terraque urbefque recedunt.
Here was she seen o'er airy wastes to rove,
Seek the clear fpring, or haunt the pathlefs grove;
Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn,
Her buskin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn.
Above the rest a rural nymph was fam'd, Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd; (Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast,
The Muse shall fing, and what the fings fhall laft.) Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be
But by the crescent and the golden zone.
She scorn'd the praife of beauty, and the care;
A belt her waift, a fillet binds her hair ;
A painted quiver on her fhoulder founds,
And with her dart the flying deer fhe wounds.
It chanc'd, as eager of the chace, the maid
Beyond the foreft's verdant limits stray'd,
Pan faw and lov'd, and burning with defire
Purfu'd her flight, her flight increas'd his fire.
Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky ;
Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves,
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves
As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,
Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace.
Nec pofitu variare comas; ubi fibula veftem,
Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos.
Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,
Ut folet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas.
Now fainting, finking, pale, the nymph appears;
Now close behind, his founding fteps fhe hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as fhe run,
His fhadow lengthen'd by the setting sun ;
And now his shorter breath, with fultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.
In vain on father Thames fhe calls for aid, 195
Nor could Diana help her injur'd maid.
Faint, breathless, thus she pray'd, nor pray'd in vain ;
"Ah Cynthia! ah—tho' banish'd from thy train,
"Let me, O let me, to the fhades repair,
"My native fhades -- there weep, and murmur there.
She faid, and melting as in tears the lay,
In a foft, filver ftream diffolv'd away.
The filver ftream her virgin coldness keeps,
For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps;
Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore,
And bathes the foreft where the rang'd before.
In her chafte current oft the Goddefs laves,
And with celeftial tears augments the waves.
Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies
The headlong mountains and the downward skies,
The watry landskip of the pendant woods,
And abfent trees that tremble in the floods;
VER. 205. Still bears the name] The River Loddon. VER. 209. Oft in her glass, etc.] The fe fix lines were added after the first writing of this poem. P.
Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam
Ante fedes umbram: nifi fi timor illa videbat.
Sed certe fonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens
Crinales vittas afflabat anbelitus oris.
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