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What stores my dairies and my folds contain;

A thousand lambs that wander on the plain:

New milk that all the winter never fails,

And all the summer overflows the pails:

See from afar the fields no longer smoke,
The sweating steers, unharness'd from the yoke,
Bring, as in triumph, back the crooked plough;
The shadows lengthen as the Sun goes low.

Amphion sung not sweeter to his herd,

Cool breezes now the raging heats remove;

When summon'd stones the Theban turrets rear'd. Ah, cruel Heaven! that made no cure for love!

Nor am I so deform'd; for late I stood

Upon the margin of the briny flood :

The winds were still, and if the glass be true,

With Daphnis I may vie, though judg'd by you.
O leave the noisy town, O come and see

I wish for balmy sleep, but wish in vain:
Love has no bounds in pleasure, or in pain.
What frenzy, shepherd, has thy soul possess'd,
Thy vineyard lies half prun'd, and half undress'd.
Quench, Corydon, thy long unanswer'd fire:
Mind what the common wants of life require :
On willow twigs employ thy weaving care;
And find an easier love, though not so fair."

Our country cots, and live content with me!
To wound the flying deer, and from their cotes
With me to drive a-field the browzing goats:
To pipe and sing, and in our country strain
To copy, or perhaps contend with Pan.
Pan taught to join, with wax, unequal reeds,
Pan loves the shepherds, and their flocks he feeds :
Nor scorn the pipe; Amyntas, to be taught,
With all his kisses would my skill have bought.
Of seven smooth joints a mellow pipe I have,
Which with his dying breath Damætas gave:
And said, 'This, Corydon, I leave to thee;
For only thou deserv'st it after me.'
His eyes Amyntas durst not upward lift,
For much he grudg'd the praise, but more the gift.
Besides two kids that in the valley stray'd,
I found by chance, and to my fold convey'd.
They drain two bagging udders every day;
And these shall be companions of thy play.
Both fleck'd with white, the true Arcadian strain,
Which Thestylis had often begg'd in vain:
And she shall have them, if again she sues,
Since you the giver and the gift refuse.

Come to my longing arms, my lovely care,

And take the presents which the nymphs prepare.

White lilies in full canisters they bring,

With all the glories of the purple spring.

The daughters of the flood have search'd the mead

For violets pale, and cropp'd the poppies' head;

The short narcissus, and fair daffodil,

Pansies to please the sight, and cassia sweet to

And set soft hyacinths with iron-blue,

[smell;

To shade marsh marigolds of shining hue.
Some bound in order, others loosely strow'd,
To dress thy bower, and trim thy new abode.
Myself will search our planted grounds at home,
For downy peaches and the glossy plum:
And thrash the chesnuts in the neighbouring grove,

Such as my Amaryllis us'd to love.
The laurel and the myrtle sweets agree;
And both in nosegays shall be bound for thee.
Ab, Corydon, ah poor unhappy swain,
Alexis will thy homely gifts disdain:
Nor, should'st thou offer all thy little store,
Will rich Iolus yield, but offer more.
What have I done to name that wealthy swain,
So powerful are his presents, mine so mean !
The boar amidst my crystal streams I bring;
And southern winds to blast my flowery spring.
Ah cruel creature, whom dost thou despise ?
The gods to live in woods have left the skies.
And godlike Paris in th' Idean grove,
To Priam's wealth preferr'd Enone's love.
In cities which she built, let Pallas reign;
Towers are for gods, but forests for the swain.
The greedy lioness the wolf pursues,
The wolf the kid, the wanton kid the browse :
Alexis, thou art chas'd by Corydon;
All follow several games, and each his own.

:

THE THIRD PASTORAL;

OR,
PALÆMON.

THE ARGUMENT.

DAMÆTAS and Menalcas, after some smart strokes of country raillery, resolve to try who has the most skill at a song, and accordingly make their neighbour Palæmon judge of their per formances: who, after a full hearing of both parties, declares himself unfit for the decision of so weighty a controversy, and leaves the victory undetermined.

MENALCAS, DAMÆTAS, PALEMON.

MENALCAS.

Ho, swain, what shepherd owns those ragged sheep?
DAM. Ægon's they are, he gave them me to keep.
MEN. Unhappy sheep of an unhappy swain!

While he Neæra courts, but courts in vain,
And fears that I the damsel shall obtain
Thou, varlet, dost thy master's gaius devour:
Thou milk'st his ewes, and often twice an hour;
Of grass and fodder thou defraud'st the dams;
And of their mother's dugs, the starving lambs.

DAM. Good words, young catamite, at least to

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When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!
Did I not see you, rascal, did I not?
When you lay snug to snap young Damon's goat?
His mongrel bark'd, I ran to his relief,
And cry'd, "There, there he goes, stop, stop the
Discover'd, and defeated of your prey,
[thief!"
You skulk'd behind the fence, and sneak'd away.
DAM. An honest man may freely take his own;
The goat was mine, by singing fairly won.

1

A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.
Ask Damon, ask if he the deht denies;
I think he dares not; if he does, he lies.

MEN. Thou sing with him, thou booby! never
pipe

Was so prophan'd to touch that blubber'd lip:
Dunce at the best; in streets but scarce allow'd
To tickle, on thy straw, the stupid crowd.

DAM. To bring it to the trial, will you dare
Our pipes, our skill, our voices, to compare?
My brinded heifer to the stake I lay;
Two thriving calves she suckles twice a day :
And twice besides her beastings never fail
To store the dairy with a brimming pail.

Now back your singing with an equal stake.

DAM. My Phyllis me with pelted apples plies,
Then tripping to the woods the wanton hies:
And wishes to be seen, before she flies.

MEN. But fair Amyntas comes umask'd to me,
And offers love; and sits upon my knee;
Not Delia to my dogs is known so well as he.

DAM. To the dear mistress of my lovesick mind,

Her swain a pretty present has design'd:
I saw two stockdov billing, and ere long
Will take the nest, and hers shall be the young.

MEN. Ten ruddy wildings in the wood I found,
And stood on tiptoes, reaching from the ground;
I sent Amyntas all my present store;
And will, to morrow, send as many more.

DAM. The lovely maid lay panting in my arms;

MEN. That should be seen, if I had one to make. And all she said and did was full of charms.

You know too well I feed my father's flock:
What can I wager from the common stock?
A stepdame too I have, a cursed she,
Who rules my henpecked sire, and orders me.
Both number twice a-day the milky dams,
At once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
But since you will be mad, and since you may
Suspect my courage, if I should not lay,
The pawn I proffer shall be full as good:

Winds, on your wings to Heaven her accents bear!
Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.

MEN. Ah! what avails it me, my love's delight,
To call you mine, when absent from my sight!
I hold the nets, while you pursue the prey;
And must not share the dangers of the day.

DAM. I keep my birth-day: send my Phillis
home;

Two bowls I have, well turn'd, of beechen wood;

Both by divine Alcimedon were made;
To neither of them yet the lip is laid;

The ivy's stem, its fruit, its foliage, lurk

In various shapes around the curious work.

Two figures on the sides emboss'd appear;

At shearing-time, Iolas, you may come.
MEN. With Phyllis I am more in grace than you:
Her sorrow did my parting steps pursue:
"Adieu, my dear," she said, a long adieu!
DAM. The nightly wolf is baneful to the fold,
Storms to the wheat, to buds the bitter cold;
But from my frowning fair, more ills I find

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And show'd the seasons of the sliding year,
Instructed in his trade the labouring swain,

wind.

[plain,

And when to reap, and when to sow the grain?

Conon, and, what's his name who made the sphere, Than from the wolves, and storms, and winter

DAM. And I have two, to match your pair, at

home;

The wood the same, from the same hand they come:
The kimbo handles seem with bearsfoot carv'd;
And never yet to table have been serv'd:
Where Orpheus on his lyre laments his love,
With beasts encompass'd, and a dancing grove:
But these, nor all the proffers you can make,
Are worth the heifer which I set to stake.

MEN. No more delays, vain boaster, but begin :
I prophesy beforehand I shall win.
Palæmon shall be judge how ill you rhyme:
I'll teach you how to brag another time.

DAM. Rhymer, come on, and do the worst you
I fear not you, nor yet a better man.
[can:
With silence, neighbour, and attention wait :
For 'tis a business of a high debate.

PAL. Sing then; the shade affords a proper place;
The trees are cloth'd with leaves, the fields with

grass;

The blossoms blow; the birds on bushes sing;
And nature has accomplish'd all the spring.
The challenge to Damætas shall belong.
Menalcas shall sustain his under-song:
Each in his turn your tuneful numbers bring;
By turns the tuneful Muses love to sing.

DAM. From the great father of the gods above
My Muse begins; for all is full of Jove;
To Jove the care of Heaven and Earth belongs;
My flocks he blesses, and he loves my songs.

MEN. Me Phœbus loves; for he my Muse in-
spires;

And in her songs, the warmth he gave, requires.
For him the god of shepherds and their sheep,
My blushing hyacinths and my bays I kecp.

MEN. The kids with pleasure browse the bushy
The showers are grateful to the swelling grain:
To teeming ewes the sallow's tender tree;
But more than all the world my love to me.

DAM. Pollio my rural verse vouchsafes to read:
A heifer, Muses, for your patron, breed.

MEN. My Pollio writes himself; a bull he bred With spurning heels, and with a butting head. DAM. Who Pollio loves, and who his Muse ad

mires,

Let Pollio's fortune crown his full desires.
Let myrrh instead of thorn his fences fill;
And showers of honey from his oaks distil.

MEN. Who hates not living Bavius, let him be
(Dead Mævius) damn'd to love thy works and thee:
The same ill taste of sense would serve to join
Dog-foxes in the yoke, and shear the swine.

DAM. Ye boys, who pluck the flowers, and spoil

the spring,

Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting.
MEN. Graze not too near the banks, my jolly
sheep,

The ground is false, the running streams are deep:
See, they have caught the father of the flock,
Who dries his fleece upon the neighbouring rock,
DAM. From rivers drive the kids, and sling your

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DAM. Say, where the round of Heaven, which all | The knotted paks shall showers of honey weep,

contains,

To three short ells on Earth our sight restrains: Tell that, and rise a Phœbus for thy pains.

MEN. Nay, tell me first, in what new region springs

A flower that bears inscrib'd the names of kings:
And thou shalt gain a present as divine
As Phœbus' self: for Phyllis shall be thine.

PAL. So nice a difference in your singing lies,
That both have won, or both desery'd, the prize.
Rest equal happy both; and all who prove
The bitter sweets and pleasing pains of love.
Now dam the ditches, and the floods restrain:
Their moisture has already drench'd the plain.

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SICILIAN Muse, begin a lostier strain !
Though lowly shrubs and trees, that shade the plain,
Delight not all; Sicilian Muse, prepare

To make the vocal woods deserve a consul's care.
The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes,
Renews its finish'd course; Saturnian times
Roll round again, and mighty years, begun
From their first orb, in radiant circles run.
The base degenerate iron offspring ends;
A golden progeny from Heaven descends:
O chaste Lucina, speed the mother's pains;
And haste the glorious birth: thy own Apollo reigns!
The lovely boy, with his auspicious face!
Shall Pollio's consulship and triumph grace;
Majestic months set out with him to their appoint-

ed race.

The father banish'd virtue shall restore,

And crimes shall threat the guilty world no more. The son shall lead the life of gods, and be

By gods and heroes seen, and gods and heroes see. The jarring nations he in peace shall bind, And with paternal virtues rule mankind. Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring, And fragrant herbs, (the promises of spring) As her first offerings to her infant king.

The goats, with strutting dugs, shall homeward

speed,

And lowing herds secure from lions feed.

His cradle shall with rising flowers be crown'd; The serpent's brood shall die: the sacred ground Shall weeds and poisonous plants refuse to bear, Each common bush shall Syrian roses wear. But when heroic verse his youth shall raise, And form it to hereditary praise; Unlabour'd harvests shall the fields adorn, And cluster'd grapes shall blush on every thorn.

creep.

And through the inatted grass the liquid gold shall
Yet of old fraud some footsteps shall remain,
The merchant still shall plough the deep for gain:
Great cities shall with walls be compass'd round;
And sharpen'd shares shall vex the fruitful ground,
Another Typhis shall new seas explore,
Another Argos land the chiefs upon th' Iberian
Another Helen other wars create,

[shore.

And great Achilles urge the Trojan fate.
But when to ripen'd manhood he shall grow,
The greedy sailor shall the seas forego;
No keel shall cut the waves for foreign ware;
For every soil shall every product bear.
The labouring hind his oxen shall disjoin,

No plough shall hurt the glebe, no pruninghook

the vine,

Nor wool shall in dissembled colours shine;
But the luxurious father of the fold,
With native purple, or unborrow'd gold,
Beneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat;
And under Tyrian robes the lamb shall bleat.
The Fates, when they this happy web have spun,
Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run.
Mature in years, to ready honours move,
O of celestial seed! O foster-son of Jove!

See, labouring Nature calls thee to sustain
The nodding frame of heaven, and earth, and main;
See, to their hase restor'd, earth, seas, and air,
And joyful ages from behind, in crowding ranks
To sing thy praise, would Heaven my breath pro-
[long,
Infusing spirits worthy such a song;
Nor Linus, crown'd with never-fading bays;
Not Thracian Orpheus should transcend my lays,

appear,

Though each his heavenly parent should inspire; The Muse instruct the voice, and Phœbus tune the

Should Pan contend in verse, and thou my theme,
Arcadian judges should their god condemn.
Begin, auspicious boy, to cast about
Thy infant eyes, and, with a smile, thy mother single
[out;
Thy mother well deserves that short delight,

The nauseous qualms of ten long months and travail

Then smile; the frowning infant's doom is read,

No god shall crown the board, nor goddess bless the

MOPSUS and Menalcas, two very expert shepherds at a song, begin one by consent to the memory of Daphnis; who is supposed, by the best critics, to represent Julius Cæsar. Mopsus laments his death, Menalcas proclaims his divinity: the whole eclogue consisting of an elegy and an apotheosis.

lyre.

to requite.

bed.

THE FIFTH PASTORAL;
OR,
DAPIINIS.

THE ARGUMENT.

MENALCAS.

SINCE on the downs our flocks together feed,
And since my voice can match your tuneful reed,

A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.
Ask Damon, ask if lie the debt denies,
I think he dares not; if he does, he lies.

MEN. Thou sing with him, thou booby! never

DAM. My Phyllis me with pelted apples plies,
Then tripping to the woods the wanton hies:
And wishes to be seen, before she flies.

MEN. But fair Amyntas comes unask'd to me,
And offers love; and sits upon my knee;
Not Delia to my dogs is known so well as he.

DAM. To the dear mistress of my lovesick mind
Her swain a pretty present has design'd:
I saw two stockdov billing, and ere long
Will take the nest, and hers shall be the your

MEN. Ten ruddy wildings in the wood I four
And stood on tiptoes, reaching from the grour.
I sent Amyntas all my present store;
And will, to morrow, send as many more.
DAM. The lovely maid lay panting in my a

[graphic]

MEN. That should be seen, if I had one to make. And all she said and did was full of charms.

You know too well I feed my father's flock:
What can I wager from the common stock?
A stepdame too I have, a cursed she,
Who rules my henpecked sire, and orders me.
Both number twice a-day the milky dams,
At once she takes the tale of all the lambs.

But since you will be mad, and since you may
Suspect my courage, if I should not lay,
The pawn I proffer shall be full as good:
Two bowls I have, well turn'd, of beechen wood;

Winds, on your wings to Heaven her accents
Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.

MEN. Ah! what avails it me, my love's
To call you mine, when absent from my si
I hold the nets, while you pursue the prey
And must not share the dangers of the day

DAM. I keep my birth-day: send my
home;

At shearing-time, Iolas, you may come
MEN. With Phyllis I am more in grace
Her sorrow did my parting steps pursu
Adieu, my dear," she said,
DAM. The nightly wolf is baneful to

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tupid eyes, aples, dyes. aile, demands

and his hands.

as impudence to find

to bind.

will pay;

d in her way."

on a numerous throng I to the song; vage beasts, advanced, numbers danced.

The Thracian bard, on Pindus heard, with more regard. 1, of Nature's frame; and air, and active flame, ity void, and in their fall d in this goodly ball. 1 stiffening by degrees, Hed earth, the bounding seas. cean various forms disclose; the new world arose.

ns'd to clouds, obscure the sky; solv'd, the thirsty ground supply. the lofty mountains grace: ntains feed the savage race, trangers, in th' unpeopled place. the birth of man the song pursued, → world was lost, and how renew'd. 1 Saturn, and the golden age;

theft, and Jove's avenging rage. of Argonauts for Hylas drown'd; se repeated name the shores resound. orns the madness of the Cretan queen : or her, if herds had never been. ry, wretched woman, seiz'd thy breast? nds of Argos (though with rage possess'd, mitated lowings fill'd the grove)

ann'd the guilt of thy preposterous love. ght the youthful husband of the herd, 1 labouring yokes on their own necks they fear'd; 't for budding horns on their smooth fore[heads rear'd. tched queen! you range the pathless wood, na flowery bank he chews the cud: sin shades, or through the forest roves; with anguish for his absent loves. hs, with toils his forest-walk surround, his wandering footsteps on the ground. perhaps my passion he disdains, s the milky mothers of the plains. 'th' ungrateful fugitive abroad; y at home sustain his happy load. he lover's fraud; the longing maid, ten fruit, like all the sex, betray'd : 's mourning for the brother's loss; ies hid in barks, and furr'd with moss. a rising alder now appears:

the Po distils her gummy tears. ag, how Gallus, by a Muse's hand, I and welcom'd to the sacred strand. enate, rising to salute their guest; Linus thus their gratitude express'd:

stor

Receive this present. the Muses the pipe on which t With which of ob And call'd the n Sing thou on th Where once his

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