As careless dames, whom wine and fleep betray
To frantic dreams, their infants overlay :
So there fometimes the raging ocean fails,
And her own brood exposes; when the whales
Against fharp rocks, like reeling veffels, quash'd,
Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dash'd:
Along the shore their dreadful limbs lie fcatter'd ;
Like hills with earthquakes, fhaken, torn, and shatter'd.
Hearts fure of brafs they had, who tempted first
Rude feas, that spare not what themselves have nurst.
The welcome news, through all the nation spread,
To fudden joy, and hope, converts their dread:
What lately was their public terror, they
Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey:
Difpofe already of th' untaken fpoil;
And, as the purchase of their future toil,
These share the bones, and they divide the oil.
So was the huntsman by the bear opprest,
Whose hide he fold-before he caught the beast!
They man their boats, and all the young men arm With whatsoever may the monsters harm; Pikes, halberts, fpits, and darts that wound so far; The tools of peace, and inftruments of war. Now was the time for vigorous lads to show What love, or honour, could invite them to: A goodly theatre! where rocks are round With reverend age, and lovely laffes, crown'd. Such was the lake which held this dreadful pair, Within the bounds of noble Warwick's fhare :
Warwick's bold Earl! than which no title bears
A greater found among our British Peers.
And worthy he the memory to renew,
The fate and honour, to that title due;
Whose brave adventures have transfer'd his name, And through the new world spread his growing fame.➡ But how they fought, and what their valour gain'd, Shall in another Canto be contain'd.
The bloody fight, fuccefslefs toil,
And how the fifhes fack'd the ifle.
HE boat, which on the firft affault did
go,
Strook with a harping-ir'n the younger foe:
Who, when he felt his fide fo rudely goar'd,
Loud, as the fea that nourish'd him, he roar'd.
As a broad bream to please some curious taste,
While yet alive, in boiling water cast,
Vex'd with unwónted heat, he flings about
The fcorching brass, and hurls the liquor out:
So, with the barbed javelin ftung, he raves;
And scourges with his tail the suffering waves.
Like Spenfer's Talus with his iron flail,
He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail;
Diffolving at one ftroke the batter'd boat,
And down the men fall drenched in the moat:
With every fierce encounter they are forc'd
To quit their boats, and fare like men unhors`d,
The bigger whale like fome huge carrack lay, Which wanteth fea-room with her foes to play : Slowly she swims, and when provok'd she would Advance her tail, her head falutes the mud: The shallow water doth her force infringe, And renders vain her tail's impetuous swinge: The shining steel her tender sides receive, And there, like bees, they all their weapons leave. This fees the cub, and does himself oppose Betwixt his cumber'd mother and her foes: With defperate courage he receives her wounds, And men and boats his active tail confounds. Their forces join'd the seas with billows fill, And make a tempeft, though the winds be still. Now would the men with half their hoped prey Be well content; and wish this cub away: Their wish they have; he (to direct his dam Unto the gap through which they thither came) Before her swims, and quits the hostile lake; A prifoner there, but for his mother's fake. She, by the rocks compell'd to stay behind, Is by the vastnefs of her bulk confin'd. They fhout for joy! and now on her alone Their fury falls, and all their darts are thrown. Their lances spent, one, bolder than the rest, With his broad sword provok'd the sluggish beast: Her oily fide devours both blade and heft: And there his steel the bold Bermudan left. Courage the rest from his example take, And now they change the colour of the lake:
Blood flows in rivers from her wounded fide,
As if they would prevent the tardy tide,
And raise the flood to that propitious height,
As might convey her from this fatal ftreight:
She swims in blood, and blood does spouting throw
To heaven, that heaven men's cruelties might know.
Their fixed javelins in her fide she wears,
And on her back a grove of pikes appears :
You would have thought, had you the monster seen
Thus dreft, fhe had another island been.
Roaring the tears the air with fuch a noise,
As well resembled the conspiring voice
Of routed armies, when the field is won;
To reach the ears of her efcaped fon.
He, though a league removed from the foe,
Haftes to her aid: the pious* Trojan so,
Neglecting for Creüfa's life his own,
Repeats the danger of the burning town.
The men amazed blush to see the feed
Of monsters, human piety exceed.
Well proves this kindness what the Grecian fung,
That Love's bright mother from the ocean sprung.
Their courage droops, and hopeless now they wish
For compofition with th' unconquer'd fish:
So the their weapons would restore, again
Through rocks they'd hew her passage to the Main.
But how inftructed in each other's mind?
Or what commerce can men with monsters find?
Not daring to approach their wounded foe,
Whom her courageous fon protected so ;
They charge their mufquets, and with hot defire
Of fell revenge, renew the fight with fire:
Standing aloof, with lead they bruise the scales,
And tear the flesh, of the incenfed whales.
But no fuccefs their fierce endeavours found,
Nor this way could they give one fatal wound.
Now to their Fort they are about to fend,
For the loud engines which their ifle defend:
But what thofe Pieces, fram'd to batter walls,
Would have effected on those mighty whales.
Great Neptune will not have us know; who fends
A tide fo high, that it relieves his friends.
And thus they parted with exchange of harms;
Much blood the monsters loft, and they their arms.
SON G.
EACE, babbling Mufe!
I dare not fing what you indite;
Her eyes refufe
To read the paffion which they write:
She strikes my lute, but, if it found,
Threatens to hurl it on the ground:
And I no lefs her anger dread,
Than the poor wretch that feigns him dead,
While fome fierce lion do:: embrace
His breathlefs corpse, and lick his face :
Wrap'd up in filent fear he lies,
Torn all in pieces if he cries.
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