His purple crest, and scarlet-circlet eyes,
The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleafing tails 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 pursue,
And, learn of man each other to undo)
With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat❜ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen fky:
Oft, as in airy rings they fkim the heath,
The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death:
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.
In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade, 135
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fifher takes his filent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand:
With looks unmov'd, he hopes the fcaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed. 140
VER. 126. O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.
VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high.
VER. 134. Præcipites altà vitam fub nube relinquunt.
Our plenteous ftreams a various race supply,
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,
The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd,
The yellow carp, in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diversify'd with crimson ftains,
And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.
Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car:
The youth rufh eager to the fylvan war,
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound.
Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain:
Hills, vales, and floods appear already crofs'd,
And e'er he starts, a thousand steps are loft.
See the bold youth ftrain up the treath'ning steep,
Rufh thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager fpeed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed.
Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain,
Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin-train;
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves;
VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.) Translated from Statius. Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille
Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit ungula gravis campum. These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his tranflation of Frefnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays they ,,would cost him an hour, if he had the leifure to tranflate them, ,,there is so much of beauty in the original;,, which was the reason, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them.
He has improved his original,
Virg.
VER. 158. and earth rolls back.) terræque urbesque recedunt.
Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have feen
As bright a Goddess, and as chafte a QUEEN;
Whose care, like hers, protects the fylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Emprefs of the Main.
Here too,
'tis fung, of old Diana stray'd,
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windfor fhade;
Hcre was she seen o'er airy wastes to rove,
Seek the clear fpring, or haunt the pathlefs grove;
Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn,
Her bufkin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn.
Above the reft a rural nymph was fam'd,
Thy offfpring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd;
(Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast,
The Muse shall fing, and what she fings shall last.)
Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be known,
But by the crefcent and the golden zone. 176
She fcorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care;
A belt her waift, 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
Pursu'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,
VER. 175.
Nec pofitu variare comas; ubi fibula vestem,
Vitta coercuerat negle&tos alba capillos.
Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columba,
Ut folet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas.
As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,
Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace.
Now fainting, finking, pale, the nymph appears;
Now close behind, his founding fteps fhe hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as fhe run,
His fhadow lengthen'd by the setting fun;
And now his fhorter breath, with fultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.
In vain on father Thames fhe calls for aid,
Nor could Diana help her injur'd maid.
Faint, breathlefs, thus fhe pray'd, nor pray'd in vain;
,,Ah Cynthia! ah tho' banifh'd from thy train,
„Let me, O let me, to the fhades repair,
,,My native fhades there weep, and murmur there.
She faid, and melting as in tears fhe lay,
In a foft, filver ftream diffolv'd away.
The filver ftream her virgin coldness keeps,
For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps;
Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore,
And bathes the foreft where the rang'd before,
In her chafte current oft the Goddefs laves,
And with celeftial tears augments the waves.
Oft in her glass the mufing fhepherd fpies
VER. 205. Stil bears the name) The River Loddon.
VER. 209. Oft in her glass, etc.) Thefe fix lines were added after the firft writing of this poem.
Sol erat a tergo.: vidi præcedere longam
Ante pedes umbram: nifi fi timor illa videbat.
Sed certe fonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens
Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.
The headlong mountains and the downward fkies,
The watʼry landskip of the pendant woods,
And abfent trees that tremble in the floods;
In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen,
And floating forefts paint the waves with green,
Thro' the fair scene roll flow the ling'ring ftreams.
Then foaming pour along, and rufh into the Thames.
Thou too, great father of the British floods!
With joyful pride furvey'ft our lofty woods;
Where tow'ring oaks their growing honours rear,
And future navies on thy fhores appear,
Not Neptune's felf from all her ftreams receives
A wealthier tribute, than to thine he gives.
No feas fo rich, fo gay no banks appear,
No lake fo gentle, and no fpring fo clear.
Nor Po fo fwells the fabling Poet's lays,
While led along the fkies his current strays,
As thine, which vifits Windfor's fam'd abodes,
To grace the manfion of our earthly Gods:
Nor all his ftars above a luftre fhow,
Like the bright beauties on thy banks below;
Where Jove, fubdu'd by mortal passion still,
Might change Olympus for a nobler hill.
Happy the man whom this bright Court approves, His Sov'reign favours, and his country loves:
Happy the man, who to the fhades retires,
But doubly happy, if the Mufe inspires!
Bleft whom the (weets of home- felt quiet please;
But far more bleft, who ftudy joins with eafe,
VER. 231. It food thus in the MS.
And force great Jove, if Jove's a lover still,
To change Olympus, etc.
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