HEN know, Alexis, from that very day
THEN know, the at that shepheard's coate,
where each, I thinke, of other tooke first noate,
I meane that pastor who by Tavie's springs
chaste shepheard's loves in sweetest numbers sings,
and with his musicke (to his greater fame)
hath late made proud the fairest nimphes of Thame.
E’ne then, me thought, I did espy in thee
some unperceived and hidden worth to be,
which in thy more apparent virtues shined,
and among many I in thought devined,
by something my conceit had understood,
that thou wert markt one of the Muses' brood,
that made me love thee: and that love I beare
begat a pity, and that pity care:
pity I had to see good parts concealed,
care I had how to have that good revealed,
since 'tis a fault admitteth no excuse
to possesse much, and yet put nought in use;
hereon I vowed (if we two ever met)
the first request that I would strive to get
should be but this, that thou would'st show thy skill,
how thou could'st tune thy verses to thy quill;
and teach thy Muse, in some well-framed song,
to show the art thou hast supprest so long:
which, if my new acquaintance may obtaine,
Thirsis will ever honour this daie's gaine.
TO WILLIAM CONGREVE ON HIS COMEDY
THE DOUBLE DEALER
WELL then, the promised hour is come at last,
the present age of wit obscures the past: strong were our sires, and as they fought they writ, conquering with force of arms and dint of wit: theirs was the giant race, before the flood: and thus, when Charles returned, our empire stood. Like Janus he the stubborn soil manured, with rules of husbandry the rankness cured; tamed us to manners, when the stage was rude; and boisterous English wit with art indued.
Our age was cultivated thus at length;
but what we gained in skill we lost in strength.
Our builders were with want of genius cursed;
the second temple was not like the first:
till you, the best Vitruvius, come at length;
our beauties equal, but excel our strength:
firm Doric pillars found your solid base,
the fair Corinthian crowns the higher space:
thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
In easy dialogue is Fletcher's praise;
he moved the mind, but had not power to raise:
great Jonson did by strength of judgment please;
yet, doubling Fletcher's force, he wants his ease:
in differing talents both adorned their age;
one for the study, t' other for the stage:
but both to Congreve justly shall submit,
one matched in judgment, both o'ermatched in wit.
R if desire of honour was the base
was raised up to this height: if, to inflame
the noble youth with an ambitious heat
ť endure the frosts of danger, nay of death,
to be thought worthy the triumphal wreath
by glorious undertakings, may deserve
reward or favour from the commonwealth;
actors may put in for as large a share
as all the sects of the philosophers;
they with cold precepts (perhaps seldom read)
deliver, what an honourable thing
the active virtue is: but does that fire
the blood, or swell the veins with emulation
to be both good and great, equal to that
which is presented on our theatres?
Let a good actor in a lofty scene
shew great Alcides honoured in the sweat
of his twelve labours; or a bold Camillus
forbidding Rome to be redeemed with gold
from the insulting Gauls; or Scipio
after his victories imposing tribute
on conquered Carthage :-if done to the life,
as if they saw their dangers and their glories,
and did partake with them in their rewards,
all that have any spark of Roman in them,
the slothful arts laid by, contend to be
like those they see presented.
THERE is a ny sways the smooth Severn
'HERE is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure.
Whilome she was the daughter of Locrine,
that had the sceptre from his father Brute:
she, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
of her enraged stepdame Guendolen,
commended her fair innocence to the flood,
that stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course:
the water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,
held up their pearled wrists and took her in,
bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;
who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,
and gave her to his daughters to imbathe
in nectared lavers strewed with asphodil,
and through the porch and inlet of each sense
dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived
and underwent a quick immortal change,
made goddess of the river. Still she retains
her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
visits the herds along the twilight meadows,
helping all urchin-blasts, and ill-luck signs
that the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,
which she with precious violed liquors heals;
for which the shepherds at their festivals
carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
and throw sweet garland-wreaths into her stream
of pansies pinks and gaudy daffodils.
OBLIVIOUS Sleep, calm virtue's tranquil guest.
who shunn'st, in every state, the guilty breast; who 'midst a world enslaved couldst free remain, and tyrants mock, who sighed for thee in vain!
Deaf to the flattery and the force of power
thou fledst the downy couch and guarded tower,
to smooth the o'erlaboured peasant's rugged bed,
and lightly shake thy poppies o'er his head;
or lull the ship-boy cradled in the shrouds,
while tempests howled and lightnings rent the clouds;
while o'er his head hoarse roaring burst the wave,
and deep beneath him gaped the watery grave.
By dangers compassed, and by ills oppressed,
thou soothest the wandering hero's tranquil breast;
enticed alone by virtue's simple lure,
a heart benignant and a conscience pure:
stretched on the couch, released from care, he lay
till shrilly sweet the lark proclaimed the day;
then sudden from the lowly mat he sprung,
again his harp he o'er his shoulders hung;
again 'midst woods and meads pursues his way,
while orient sun-beams through the foliage play;
while glittering dew-drops spangle every thorn,
and brighter shine, as brighter dawns the morn;
till, warmer as the verdant landscape glows
and richer fragrance scents the blushing rose,
absorbed in air they slowly waste away,
and vanish in the pearly haze of day.
bow their hoar heads; and, ere the languid sun
faint from the west emits his evening ray,
earth's universal face, deep hid and chill,
is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide
the works of man. Drooping, the labourer-ox
stands covered o'er with snow, and then demands
the fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven,
tamed by the cruel season, crowd around
the winnowing store, and claim the little boon
which Providence assigns them. One alone,
the red-breast, sacred to the household gods,
wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,
in joyless fields and thorny thickets, leaves
his shivering mates, and pays to trusted man
his annual visit. Half afraid, he first,
against the window beats; then brisk alights
on the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor,
eyes all the smiling family askance,
and pecks and starts and wonders where he is;
till more familiar grown, the table crumbs
attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds
pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare,
though timorous of heart, and hard beset
by death in various forms, dark snares and dogs
and more unpitying men, the garden seeks,
urged on by fearless want. The bleating kind
eye the bleak heaven, and next the glistening earth,
with looks of dumb despair; then, sad dispersed,
dig for the withered herbs through heaps of snow.
J. THOMSON
HE sun, when he hath spread his rays, and showed his face ten thousand ways, ten thousand things do then begin
to show the life that they are in:
the heaven shows lively art and hue
of sundry shapes and colours new,
and laughs upon the earth; anon
the earth, as cold as any stone,
wet in the tears of her own kind,
'gins then to take a joyful mind:
for well she feels that out and out
the sun doth warm her round about,
and dries her children tenderly,
and shows them forth full orderly.
The mountains high, and how they stand!
the valleys, and the great main land!
the trees, the herbs, the towers strong,
the castles, and the rivers long!
The hunter then sounds out his horn,
and rangeth straight through wood and corn.
On hills then show the ewe and lamb,
and every young one with his dam.
Then lovers walk and tell their tale
both of their bliss and of their bale.
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