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TH

HE hint of the following piece was taken from Chaucer's Houfe of Fame. The defign is in a manner entirely altered, the descriptions and most of the particular thoughts my own: yet I could not fuffer it to be printed without this acknowledgment. The reader who would compare this with Chaucer, may begin with his third Book of Fame, there being nothing in the two first books that anfwers to their title: wherever any hint is taken from him, the paffage itself is fet down in the marginal notes. P.

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Ant. Walker Inv. Del.et Sculp

Millions of suppliant Crouds the Shrine attend, And all degrees before the Goddess bend; The Poor, the Rich, the Valiant, and the Sage, And boasting Youth, and narrative Old-age.

Temple of Fame

THE

TEMPLE

O F

FAM E.

IN

N that soft season, when defcending show'rs
Call forth the greens, and wake the rifing flow'rs;
When op'ning buds falute the welcome day,
And earth relenting feels the genial ray;

As balmy sleep had charm'd my cares to reft, 5
And love itself was banish'd from my breast,
(What time the morn mysterious vifions brings,
While purer flumbers spread their golden wings)

NOTES.

VER. 1. In that foft feafon etc.] This Poem is introduced in the manner of the Provencial Poets, whofe works were for the most part Visions, or pieces of imagination, and conftantly defcriptive. From thefe, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower and the Leaf, etc. of the latter. The Author of this therefore chose the fame fort of Exordium.

P.

A train of phantoms in wild order rose,

And, join'd, this intellectual scene compose.

10

I ftood, methought, betwixt earth, feas, and skies; The whole creation open to my eyes:

In air felf-balanc'd hung the globe below,
Where mountains rife and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks, and empty waftes were seen, 15
There tow'ry cities, and the forefts green:
Here failing ships delight the wand'ring eyes :
There trees, and intermingled temples rife ;
Now a clear fun the shining scene displays,
The tranfient landscape now in clouds decays. 20
O'er the wide Profpect as I gaz'd around,
Sudden I heard a wild promifcuous found,

Like broken thunders that at distance roar,
Or billows murm'ring on the hollow fhore:
Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,
Whose tow'ring fummit ambient clouds conceal'd.

IMITATIONS.

25

VER. 11. etc.] These verses are hinted from the following of Chaucer, Book ii.

Tho beheld I fields and plains,
Now hills, and now mountains,
Now valeis, and now foreftes,
And now unneth great beftes,
Now rivers, now citees,
Now towns, now great trees,
Now fhippes fayling in the fee. P.