DAMŒETAS. To the dear mistress of my love-sick mind, 105 MENALCAS. Ten ruddy wildings in the wood I found, And stood on tip-toes, reaching from the ground; I sent Amyntas all my present store; And will, to-morrow, send as many more. 110 DAMETAS. The lovely maid lay panting in my arms; Winds! on your wings to heav'n her accents bear; MENALCAS. Ah! what avails it me, my love's delight, DAMETAS. I keep my birthday: send my Phyllis home: MENALCAS. With Phyllis I am more in grace than you: DAMETAS. 115 120 The nightly wolf is baneful to the fold, 125 Than from the wolves, and storms, and winter-wind. MENALCAS. The kids with pleasure browse the bushy plain; DAMŒETAS. Pollio my rural verse vouchsafes to read: My Pollio writes himself:-a bull he bred, DAMETAS. Who Pollio loves, and who his Muse admires, MENALCAS. Who hates not living Bavius, let him be 130 135 140 (Dead Mævius!) damn'd to love thy works and thee' The same ill taste of sense would serve to join Dog-foes in the yoke, and shear the swine. DAMETAS. Ye boys, who pluck the flow'rs, and spoil the spring, Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting. MENALCAS. Graze not too near the banks, my jolly sheep: DAMETAS. From vers drive the kids, and sling your hook 145 150 MENALCAS. To fold, my flock!-when milk is dried with heat, DAMETAS. How lank my bulls from plenteous pasture come! 1 MENALCAS. My flocks are free from love, yet look so thin, DAMETAS. Say, where the round of heav'n, which all contains, 160 To three short ells on earth our sight restrains: Tell that, and raise a Phebus for thy pains. MENALCAS. Nay tell me first, in what new region springs A flow'r, that bears inscrib'd the names of kings; PALEMON. So nice a diff'rence in your singing lies, PASTORAL IV. OR, POLLIO ARGUMENT. The Poet celebrates the birthday of Saloninus, the son of Pollic, born in the consulship of his father, after the taking of Saloæn, a city in Dalmatia. Many of the verses are transla ted from one of the Sibyls, who prophesied of our Saviour's birth. SICILIAN Muse, begin a loftier strain! Tho' lowly shrubs, and trees that shade the plain, To make the vocal woods deserve à consul's care. And haste the glorious birth! thy own Apollo reigns! race. The father banish'd virtue shall restore; 15 And crimes shall threat the guilty world no more. By gods and heroes seen, and gods and heroes see. 5 10 The jarring nations he in peace shall bind, 20 The goats with strutting dugs shall homeward speed, 25 His cradle shall with rising flow'rs be crown'd: Unlabour'd harvests shall the fields adorn, 30 35 And sharpen'd shares shall vex the fruitful ground; 40 Another Argo land the chiefs upon th' Iberian shore; And great Achilles urge the Trojan fate. No keel shall cut the waves for foreign ware; No plough shall hurt the glebe, no pruning-hook the vine; Nor wool shall in dissembled colour shine; 50 45 But the luxurious father of the fold, With native purple, and unborrow'd gold, Beneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat; 55 |