This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from blossoms sip the rofy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you. 70
O deign to visit our forsaken seats,
The mofly fountains, and the green retreats!
Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall croud into a shade:
Where'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. 76
O! how I long with you to pass my days,
Invoke the Muses, and resound your praise!
Your praise the birds shall chant in ev'ry grove,
And winds shall waft it to the pow'rs above. 8.
But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain,
The wond'ring forests foon should dance again,
The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,
And headlong streams hang list’ning in their fall!

Ver. 67, 68.] I think these two lines would not have passed without animadversion in any of our great schools.

VARIATIONS. ; Ver. 79, 80.

Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n shall bear,

And liftning wolves grow milder as they hear. So the verses were originally written. But the Author, young as he was, foon found the absurdity which Spenser himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England.

P.

IMITATIONS, Ver. 80. And winds Mall waft, &c.] “ Partem aliquam, venti, divům referatis ad aures?"

Virg.

P.

But

But see, the shepherds fhun the noon-day heat, The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat, 86 To closer shades the panting flocks remove; Ye Gods! and is there no relief for Love? But soon the fun with milder rays descends To the cool ocean, where his journey ends : On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey, By night he scorches, as he burns by day.

90

VARIATIONS.
Ver.91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay.

P.

IMITATIONS, Ver. 88. re Gods, &c.] “ Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adfit amori?”

Idem. P. Virgil in his Epic, attempted to paint those manners which he had never seen; and in his Paitoral, those rustic manners which he was little acquainted with.

AU T U MN:

THE THIRD PASTORAL. *

OB,

HY LAS and A EGON.

TO MR. WYCHERLEY. +

B
ENEATH the shade a spreading Beech displays,

Hylas and Aegon sung their rural lays;
This mourn'd a faithless, that an absent Love,
And Delia's name and Doris’ fill'd the Grove.
Ye Mantuan nymphs, your facred succour bring; s
Hylas and Aegon's rural lays I sing.

P.

KE MARKS. a This Pastoral consists of two parts, like the viith of Virgil: The Scene, a Hill; the Time at Sun-fet.

+ His intrigues with the Dutchess of Cleveland, his marriage with the Countess of Drogheda, Charles the Second's displeasure on this marriage, his debts and distresses, and other particulars of his life, are well related by Dennis in a Letter to Major Pack, 1720. In Dennis's collection of Letters, published in two volumes, 1721, to which Mr. Pope fubfcribed, Lord Lansdown has drawn his character, as a Writer, in an elegant manner; chiefly with a view of fhewing the impropriety of an epithet given to him by Lord Rochester, who called him Slow Wycherley ; for that, notwithstanding his pointed wit, and forcible expression, ke composed with facility and halte.

Thou, Thou, whom the Nine, with Plautus' wit infpire, The art of Terence, and Menander's fire; Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms, Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms! Oh, skill'd in Nature ! see the hearts of Swains, Their artless passions, and their tender pains.

II

REMARKS. Ver. 7. Thou, whom the Nine,] Mr. Wycherley, a famous author of Comedies; of which the most celebrated were the Plain-Dealer and Country-wife. He was a writer of infinite spirit, satire, and wit. The only objection made to him was, that he had too much. However, he was followed in the same way by Mr. Congreve; tho’ with a little more correctness. P.

Surely with much more correctness, taste, and judgment.

VER. 8. The art of Terence, and Menander's fire ;] This line alludes to that famous character given of Terence, by Caesar:

“ Tu quoque, tu in summis, ô dimidiate Menander,

Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator :
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis

Comica." So that the judicious critic fees he should have faid--with Menander's fire. For what the Poet meant, was, that his friend kad joined to Terence's art, what Caesar thought wanting in Terence, namely, the vis comica of Menander. Besides,—and Menander's fire, is making that the Characteristic of Menander which was not. He was distinguished for having art and comic Spirit in conjunction, and Terence having only the first part, is called the half of Menander.

W. VER.9. Whose sense instructs us,] He was always very careful in his encomiums not to fall into ridicule, the deserved fate of weak and prostitute flatterers, and which they rarely escape. For sense, he would willingly have said moral; propriety required it. But this dramatic Poet's moral was remarkably faulty. His plays are all shamefully profligate both in the Dialogue and Action.

W. VER. 11. Oh, skilld] Few writers have less nature in them than Wycherley

Now

21

Now setting Phoebus shone serenely bright; And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light; When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan, 15 Taught rocks to weep, and made the mountains

groan. Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away! To Delia's ear the tender notes convey. As some sad turtle his lost love deplores, And with deep murmurs fills the founding shores; Thus, far from Delia, to the winds I mourn, Alike unheard, unpity'd, and forlorn.

Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along ! For her, the feather’d quires neglect their song: For her, the limes their pleasing shades deny; 25 For her, the lilies hang their heads and die. Ye flow'rs that droop, forsaken by the spring, Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing, Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove, Say, is not absence death to those who love?

30 Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away! Curs'd be the fields that cause

my

Delia's stay; Fade ev'ry blossom, wither ev'ry tree, Die ev'ry flow'r, and perish all, but she, What have I said? where'er my Delia flies, 35 Let spring attend, and sudden flow'rs arise;

REMARKS. VER. 25.] This rich assemblage of very pleasing pastoral images, is yet excelled by Shenstone's beautiful Pastoral Ballad

in four parts.

Let