Their fhips at anchor now, of which w' had heard them

boast,

With ill-furl'd fails and rattlings loose, by every billow toft,

Lay like neglected harps, untun'd, unftrung;

Till at the last, provok'd with shame,
Forth from their dens the baited foxes came;
Foxes in council, and in fight too grave;
Seldom true, and now not brave:

They blufter'd out the day with fhew of fight,
And ran away in the good-natur'd night.

XIX.

A bloody battle next was fought, And then in triumph home a welcome flect he brought, With fpoils of victory and glory fraught. To him then every heart was open, down

From the great man to the clown:

In him rejoic'd, to him inclin'd; And as his health round the glad board did pass, Each honeft fellow cry'd, Fill full my glass;

And fhew'd the fullness of his mind.

No difcontented vermin of ill times

Durft then affront him but in fhow;
Nor libel dash him with his dirty rhymes;
Nor
may he live in peace that does it now.

And whofe heart would not wifh fo too,

That had but feen

When his tumultuous mifled foes

Against him rofe,

With what heroic grace

He chofe the weight of wrong to undergo ! No tempeft on his brow, unalter'd in his face, True witness of the innocence within.

But, when the messengers did mandates bring
For his retreat to foreign land,

Since fent from the relenting hand

Of the most loving brother, kindest king;
If in his heart regret did rife,
It never fcap'd his tongue or eyes;
With steady virtue 'twas allay'd,

And like a mighty conqueror he obey'd,

XX.

It was a dark and gloomy day,
Sad as the bufinefs, fullen too,

As proud men, when in vain they woo,
Or foldiers cheated of their pay.

The Court, where pleasures us'd to flow, Became the scene of mourning and of woe: Defolate was every room,

Where men for news and bufinefs us'd to come :
With folded arms and down-caft eyes men walk'd
In corners, and with caution talk’d.

All things prepar'd, the hour drew near When he must part: his last short time was spent In leaving bleffings on his children dear :

To them with eager hafte and love he went;
The eldest first embrac'd,

As new-born day in beauty bright,
But fad in mind as deepest night :

What tenderest hearts could fay, betwixt them past,

Till grief too close upon them crept;

So fighing he withdrew, fhe turn'd away and wept. Much of the father in his breast did rife,

When on the next he fix'd his eyes,

A tender infant in the nurse's arms,

Full of kind play, and pretty charms : And as to give the farewel kifs he near it drew, About his manly neck two little arms it threw Smil'd in his eyes, as if it begg'd his stay,

And look'd kind things it could not fay.

XXI.

But the great pomp of grief was yet to come.
Th' appointed time was almost past,

Th' impatient tides knock'd at the shore, and bid him hafte
To feek a foreign home;
The fummons he refolv'd t' obey,
Difdaining of his fufferings to complain,

Though every step seem'd trod with pain ;
So forth he came, attended on his way
By a fad lamenting throng,

That bleft him, and about him hung.

A weight his generous heart could hardly bear;
But for the comfort that was near,
His beauteous Mate, the fountain of his joys,
That fed his foul with love;

The cordial that can mortal pains remove,
To which all worldly bleffings elfe are toys.
I faw them ready for departure ftand;

Juft when approach'd the Monarch of our land,
And took the charming Mourner by the hand :

}

T'exprefs

T'express all noblest offices he strove,
Of royal goodness, and a brother's love.
Then down to the fhore fide,

Where to convey them did two royal barges ride,
With folemn pace they pass'd,

And there fo tenderly embrac'd,

All griev'd by fympathy to fee them part, And their kind pains touch'd each by-stander's heart. Then hand in hand the pity'd pair Turn'd round to face their fate; She ev'n amidst afflictions fair, He, though opprest, still great.

Into th' expecting boat with hafte they went, Where, as the troubled Fair-one to the shore fome wishes

fent

For that dear pledge fh'ad left behind,
And as her paffion grew too mighty for her mind,
She of fome tears her eyes beguil❜d,

Which, as upon her cheek they lay,
The happy hero kiss'd away,

And, as she wept, blush'd with disdain, and smil’d.
Straight forth they launch into the high-fwoln Thames;
The well-ftruck oars lave up the yielding ftreams.
All fix'd their longing eyes, and wishing flood,
Till they were got into the wider flood;
Till leffen'd out of fight,, and feen no more,
Then figh'd, and turn'd into the hated shore.

PHEDRA TO HIPPOLYTUS.

TRANSLATED OUT OF OVID.

THE

ARGUMENT.

Thefeus, the fon of Ægeus, having flain the Minotaur, promised to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pafiphae, for the affiftance which she gave him, to carry her home with him, and make her his wife; fo together with her fifter Phædra they went on board and failed to Chios, where being warned by Bacchus, he left Ariadne, and married her fifter Phædra, who afterwards, in Thefeus her husband's abfence, fell in love with Hippolytus her fon-in-law, who had vow'd celibacy, and was a hunter; wherefore, fince fhe could not conveniently otherwife, fhe chofe by this epiftle to give him an account of her passion.

IF

F thou 'rt unkind, I ne'er fhall health enjoy,
Yet much I wish to thee, my lovely boy :
Read this, and reading how my foul is feiz'd,
Rather than not, be with my ruin pleas'd:
Thus fecrets fafe to fartheft fhores may move;
By letters foes converfe, and learn to love.
Thrice my fad tale, as I to tell it try'd,
Upon my faultering tongue abortive dy'd ;

Long