'Th' Amnesian fount, or silver-streaming 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 sublime the nymph appears,
The croud falls back, and as the moves reveres :
Swift to the fane aloft her course she bends;
The fane the reaches, and to earth descends :
Then to her train---Ah me! I fear we stray,
Milled by folly to this lonely way!
Alas! should Jason with his Greeks appear,
Where should we fly? I fear, alas, I fear !
No more the Cholchian youths, and virgin train,
Haunt the cool shade, or tread in dance the plain :
But since alone ;--- with fports beguile the hours,
Come chaunt the song, or pluck the blooming flowers,
Pluck every sweet, to deck your virgin bowers !
Then warbling soft, the lifts her heavenly voice,
But fick with mighty love, the song is noise;
She hears from every note a discord rise,
Till, pausing, on her tongue the music dies;
She hates each object, every face offends,
In every wish, her soul to Jason sends;
With sharpen’d eyes the distant lawn explores,
To find the object whom her foul adores ;
At every whisper of the passing air,
She starts, she turns, and hopes her Jason there;
Again she fondly looks, nor looks in vain,
He comes, her Jason Mines along the plain :
As when, emerging from the watery way,
Refulgent Sirius lifts his golden ray,
He Mines 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 fiuin'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;
Ereet and motionless the stately trees
Awhile remain, while sleeps each fanning breeze,
Till from th’Æolian caves a blast unbound
Bends their proud tops, and bids their boughs resound;
Thus gazing they : till by the breath of love
Strongly at length inspir'd, they speak, they move:
With foiles the love-lick virgin he survey'd,
And fondly thus addrest the blooming maid.
Dismiss, my fair, my love, thy virgin fear;
'Tis Jafon speaks, no enemy is here !
Man, haughty man, is of obdurate kind,
But Jason bears no proud, inhuman mind,
By gentlest manners, softest arts refin'd.
Whom would's thou fly? Stay, lovely virgin, stay!
Speak every thought ! far hence be fears away!
Speak!
Speak ! and be truth in every accent found!
Dread to deceive ! we tread on * hallow'd ground.
By the stern power who guards this sacred place,
By the illustrious authors of thy race;
By Jove, to whom the stranger's cause belongs,
To whom the suppliant, and who feels their wrongs ;
O guard me, save me, in the needful hour!
Without thy aid, thy Jason is no more ;
To thee a suppliant, in distress I bend,
To thee a stranger, and who wants a friend !
Then, when between us feas and mountains rise,
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-ftreaming o'er the main,
Shall stay their tears : The mother, and the wife,
Shall bless thee for a fon's or husband's life!
Fair Ariadne, sprung from Minos' hed,
Sav'd the brave Theseus, and with Theseus fled,
Forsook her father, and her native plain,
And stem'd the tumults of the surging main ;
Yet the stern fire relented, and forgave
The maid, whose only crime it was to save :
Ev’n the just Gods forgave: and now on hig!ı
A star The shines, and beautifies the sky :
What bleslings then fall righteous heaven decree
For all our heroes fav’d, and sav'd by thee ?
Heaven gave thee not to kill, fo soft an air,
And cruelty sure never look'd fo fair !
Temple of Hecate.
He
He ceas’d, but left fo charming on her ear
His voice, that listening till the seem'd to hear;
Her eye to earth she bends with modest grace,
And heaven in ímiles is open'd in her face.
A glance she steals; but rosy blushes spread
O’er her fair cheek, and then she drops her head ;
A thousand words at once to speak she tries ;
In vairt---but speaks a thousand with her eyes ;
Trembling the shining casket she 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. E
CQUID absenti tibi cura Grantæ ?
Ecquid antiqui memor es sodalis !
Chare permultis, mihi præter omnes
Chare, Georgi.
Cernis ! ut mulcet levis aura campos !
Ut rofà dulci, violisque terram
Flora depingit, Zephyrusque blandis
Ventilat alis !
Tarde, quid cessas ? Age Rozinantis
Terga conscendas eques * ingementis,
Tenè ruralis Galatæa duris
Detinet Ulnis ?
* Obeso fuit corpore.
Digne succendi meliore flammâ !---
Sive * Clariffam, Juvenumyè curam
Philliden mayis, placeatvè, quondam
Pulchra, Lycoris.
Tarde, quid cessas? tibi multa virgo
Splendidos lædit lacrymis ocellos,
Et tibi frustrà ad fpeculum comarum
Circinat orbes !
Te frequens votis revocat sophistes,
Dum Johannensi madidus lyæo,
De tubis haurit, revomitque dulcem
Undique nubem.
Quin velis scribam quid habet novorum
Granta ? Marlburus fpoliis onustus,
Gallicas fudit propè † Scaldis undam
Strage Phalangas.
O! triumphalen gladium recondas!
Ite vos laurus sanie rubentes !
Sis memor pacis, viridique cingas
Tempora Myrto!
Huc ades divům atque hominum voluptas
Mollè subridens, Venus ! huc sorores
Gratiæ ! longùm vale O! Minerva
Aspera Virgo !
* Tres elegantes apud Cantabrigiam Puellæ.
+ Juxtà Aldenardum.
Barbaro
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