Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears Her chearful head, and leads the golden years. Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer spirits fwell the sprightly flood, Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95 VER. 91. VARIATIONS. Oh may no more a foreign mafter's rage, Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly wings, ΙΟΙ Breath plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs. When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds, And into wine the purple harvest bleeds a, The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields, Both morning sports and ev'ning pleasures yields. a Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the vintage. 106 Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare) 115 See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings : Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes, His purple creft, and scarled-circled eyes, The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breaft that flames with gold? Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny. 120 To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: (Beafts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beafts purfue, And learn of man each other to undo.) VARIATIONS. VER. 107. It ftood thus in the first Editions: 'The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize, And o'er their captive heads Britannia's ftandard flies. VER. 115. IMITATIONS. nec te tua plurima, Pantheu, Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit. Virg. 124 With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves, 130 In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,1 3 5 With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed, VARIATIONS. VER, 126. O'er ruftling leaves around the naked groves. IMITATIONS. VER. 134. Præcipites altâ vitam fub nube relinquunt. 145 Virg. Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car: The youth rush eager to the fylvan war, Swarm o'er the lawns, the forest walks furround, Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound. 151 154 Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein, Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin-train; 160 165 NOTES. VER. 162. Queen ANNE. IMITATIONS. VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius, Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum, Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn, 170 Above the reft a rural nymph was fam'd, Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd; (Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast, The Mufe fhall fing, and what fhe fings fhall laft.) Scarce could the Goddefs from her nymph be known, But by the crefcent and the golden zone. 180 176 She fcorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care; A belt her waist, a fillet binds her hair; A painted quiver on her fhoulder founds, And with her dart the flying deer she wounds. It chanc'd, as eager of the chace, the maid Beyond the foreft's verdant limits ftray'd, Pan faw and lov'd, and burning with defire Purfu'd her flight, her flight increas'd his fire. Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky; Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves, When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves; As from the God fhe flew with furious pace, Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace. VER. 175. IMITATIONS. Nec pofitu variare comas; ubi fibula veftem, VER. 183, 185. Ovid. Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ, Ovid. 185 |