'Th' Amnesian fount, or filver-ftreaming rills;
Nymphs of the vales, or Oreads of the hills!
The fawning beafts before the goddess play,
Or, trembling, favage adoration pay.
Thus on her car fublime the nymph appears,
The croud falls back, and as fhe moves reveres :
Swift to the fane aloft her course the bends;
The fane the reaches, and to earth defcends:
Then to her train---Ah me! I fear we stray,
Mifled by folly to this lonely way!
Alas! fhould Jafon with his Greeks appear,
Where should we fly? I fear, alas, I fear!
No more the Cholchian youths, and virgin train,
Haunt the cool fhade, or tread in dance the plain :
But fince alone ;---with fports beguile the hours,
Come chaunt the fong, or pluck the blooming flowers,
Pluck every fweet, to deck your virgin bowers!
Then warbling foft*, she lifts her heavenly voice,
But fick with mighty love, the fong is noife;
She hears from every note a difcord rife,
Till, paufing, on her tongue the mufic dies;
She hates each object, every face offends,
In every with, her foul to Jafon fends;
With fharpen'd eyes the diftant lawn explores,
To find the object whom her foul adores;
At every whisper of the paffing air,
She starts, fhe turns, and hopes her Jafon there;
Again the fondly looks, nor looks in vain,
He comes, her Jafon fhines along the plain :
As when, emerging from the watery way,
Refulgent Sirius lifts his golden ray,
He shines terrific! for his burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death;
Such to the nymph approaching Jason shows,
Bright author of unutterable woes;
Before her eyes a swimming darkness spread,
Her flufh'd cheek glow'd, her very heart was dead;
No more her knees their wonted office knew,
Fix'd, without motion, as to earth she grew;
Her train recedes: the meeting lovers gaze
In filent wonder, and in still amaze :
As two fair cedars on the mountain's brow,
Pride of the groves! with roots adjoining grow;
Erect and motionless the stately trees
Awhile remain, while fleeps each fanning breeze,
Till from th' Æolian caves a blast unbound
Bends their proud tops, and bids their boughs refound;
Thus gazing they: till by the breath of love
Strongly at length infpir'd, they speak, they move:
With fmiles the love-fick virgin he furvey'd,
And fondly thus addreft the blooming maid.
Difmifs, my fair, my love, thy virgin fear;
'Tis Jafon speaks, no enemy is here!
Man, haughty man, is of obdurate kind,
But Jafon bears no proud, inhuman mind,
By gentleft manners, fofteft arts refin’d.
Whom would't thou fly? Stay, lovely virgin, stay!
Speak every thought! far hence be fears away!
Speak and be truth in every accent found!
Dread to deceive! we tread on *hallow'd ground.
By the ftern power who guards this facred place,
By the illuftrious authors of thy race;
By Jove, to whom the ftranger's caufe belongs,
To whom the fuppliant, and who feels their wrongs;
O guard me, fave me, in the needful hour!
Without thy aid, thy Jafon is no more;
To thee a fuppliant, in diftress I bend,
To thee a stranger, and who wants a friend!
Then, when between us feas and mountains rife,
Medea's name shall found in distant skies;
All Greece to thee shall owe her heroes fates,
And bless Medea through her hundred states.
The mother and the wife, who now in vain
Roll their fad eyes fast-streaming o'er the main,
Shall stay their tears: The mother, and the wife,
Shall blefs thee for a fon's or husband's life!
Fair Ariadne, fprung from Minos' bed,
Sav'd the brave Thefeus, and with Thefeus fled,
Forfook her father, and her native plain,
And ftem'd the tumults of the furging main;
Yet the ftern fire relented, and forgave
The maid, whofe only crime it was to fave :
Ev'n the juft Gods forgave: and now on high
A ftar fhe fhines, and beautifies the sky:
What bleflings then shall righteous heaven decree
For all our heroes fav'd, and fav'd by thee?
Heaven gave thee not to kill, fo foft an air,
And cruelty fure never look'd fo fair!
He ceas'd, but left fo charming on her ear
His voice, that liftening ftill the feem'd to hear;
Her eye to earth fhe bends with modest grace,
And heaven in fimiles is open'd in her face.
A glance the fteals; but rofy blushes spread
O'er her fair cheek, and then fhe drops her head;
A thousand words at once to speak fhe tries;
In vain---but speaks a thousand with her eyes;
Trembling the fhining cafket fhe expands,
Then gives the magic virtue to his hands;
And had the power been granted to convey
Her heart---had given her very heart away:
EPISTOLA AD AMICUM RUSTICANTEM,
Scripta Vere ineunte Cantab. 1709.
ECQUID abfenti tibi cura Grantæ ?
Ecquid antiqui memor es fodalis !
Chare permultis, mihi præter omnes
Cernis! ut mulcet levis aura campos !
Ut rofâ dulci, violifque terram
Flora depingit, Zephyrufque blandis
Tarde, quid ceffas? Age Rozinantis
Terga confcendas eques * ingementis,
Tenè ruralis Galatea duris
Digne fuccendi meliore flammâ !---
Sive Clariffam, Juvenumvè curam
Philliden mavis, placeatvè, quondam
Tarde, quid ceffas? tibi multa virgo
Splendidos lædit lacrymis ocellos,
Et tibi fruftrà ad fpeculum comarum
Te frequens votis revocat fophiftes,
Dum Johannenfi madidus lyæo,
De tubis haurit, revomitque dulcem
Quin velis fcribam quid habet novorum
Granta? Marlburus fpoliis onuftus,
Gallicas fudit propè † Scaldis undam
O! triumphalen gladium recondas!
Ite vos laurus fanie rubentes !
Sis memor pacis, viridique cingas
Huc ades divûm atque hominum voluptas
Mollè fubridens, Venus! huc forores
Gratiæ longùm vale O! Minerva
* Tres elegantes apud Cantabrigiam Puellæ.
Juxtà Aldenardum.
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