The temple, breathing a religious awe;
Even fram'd with elegance the plain retreat,
The private dwelling. Certain in his aim,
Taste, never idly working, saves expense.

"See Sylvan Scenes, where Art alone pretends
To dress her mistress, and disclose her charms!
Such as a Pope in miniature has shown;
A Bathurst o'er the widening forest1 spreads;
And such as form a Richmond, Chiswick, Stowe.
"August, around, what Public Works I see!
Lo! stately streets, lo! squares that court the breeze,
In spite of those to whom pertains the care:
Engulfing more than founded Roman ways,
Lo! ray'd from cities o'er the brighten'd land,
Connecting sea to sea, the solid road.
Lo! the proud arch (no vile exactor's stand)
With easy sweep bestrides the chafing flood.
See! long canals and deepen'd rivers join
Each part with each, and with the circling main
The whole enliven'd isle. Lo! ports expand,
Free as the winds and waves, their sheltering arms.
Lo streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep,
On every pointed coast the lighthouse tow'rs;
And, by the broad imperious mole repell'd,
Hark how the baffled storm indignant roars!"
As thick to view these varied Wonders rose,
Shook all my soul with transport, unassur'd,
The Vision broke; and on my waking eye
Rush'd the still Ruins of dejected Rome.

16

'Widening forest:' Okely Woods, near Cirencester.

692

700

710

720

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE:

An Allegorical Poem.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS poem being writ in the manner of Spenser, the obsolete words, and a simplicity of diction in some of the lines which borders on the ludicrous, were necessary to make the imitation more perfect. And the style of that admirable poet, as well as the measure in which he wrote, are, as it were, appropriated by custom to all allegorical poems writ in our language; just as in French the style of Marot, who lived under Francis I., has been used in tales and familiar epistles by the politest writers of the age of Louis XIV.

EXPLANATION OF THE OBSOLETE WORDS USED IN THIS POEM.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

CANTO I.

The Castle hight of Indolence,
And its false luxury;
Where for a little time, alas!
We liv'd right jollily.

I.

O MORTAL man, who livest here by toil,
Do not complain of this thy hard estate :
That like an emmet thou must ever moil,
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date;
And, certes, there is for it reason great;

For, though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail,
And curse thy star, and early drudge and late,
Withouten that would come an heavier bale,-
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale.

II.

In lowly dale, fast by a river's side,

With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round,

A most enchanting wizard did abide,

Than whom a fiend more fell is nowhere found.

It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground;

And there a season atween June and May,

Half prankt with Spring, with Summer half imbrown'd, A listless climate made, where, sooth to say,

No living wight could work, ne caréd ev'n for play.

III.

Was naught around but images of rest: Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between ; And flowery beds, that slumbrous influence kest, From poppies breath'd; and beds of pleasant green, Where never yet was creeping creature seen. Meantime unnumber'd glittering streamlets play'd, And hurled everywhere their waters sheen; That, as they bicker'd through the sunny glade, Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made.

IV.

Join'd to the prattle of the purling rills,
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale,
And flocks loud-bleating from the distant hills,
And vacant shepherds piping in the dale:
And now and then sweet Philomel would wail,
Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale ;
And still a coil the grasshopper did keep:
Yet all these sounds yblent inclinéd all to sleep.

V.

Full in the passage of the vale, above,

A sable, silent, solemn forest stood;

Where naught but shadowy forms were seen to move,

As Idless fancied in her dreaming mood:

And up the hills, on either side, a wood

Of blackening pines, aye waving to and fro,
Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood;

And where this valley winded out below,

The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow.