Five fleeces for feven drachms he bought,
Coarfe as dog's hair; not worth a great.
But take your cloak, and garment grac'd
With clafps, that lightly binds your waift;
Adonis feftival invites,

And Fielemy's gay court delights:
Befides our matchlefs queen, they fay,
Exhibits fome grand fight to-day.

Praxince.

No wonder---every body knows
Great felks can always make fine fhows:
But tell me what you went to fee,
And what you heard---'tis new to me.
Corgo

The feat now calls us hence away,
And we shall oft keep holiday.
Praxinee.

Maid water quickly---fut it down---
Lord! how undelicate you're grown!
Difperfe thele cats that love their cafe---
But firft the water, if you pleafe---
Quick! how the creeps; pour, huffey, pour;
You've fpeil'd my gown---fo, fo---no more.
Well, now I'm wafh'd---ye gods be bleft !---
Here--bring the key of my large cheft.
Gorgo.
This robe becomes you mighty well;
What might it coft you? can you tell?

Praxince.

Three pounds or mere; I'd not have done it, But that I'd fet my heart upon it.

Gorgo.

50

60

'Tis wonderous cheap Prax. You think fo?--Maid,
Fetch my umbrella and my fhade;
So, put it on---fy, Zophy fy!

Stay within doors and don't you cry:
The here will kick you in the dirt---
Roar as you pleafe, you fhan't get hurt.
Pray, maid, divert him---come, 'tis late:
Call in the dog, and fhut the gate.

Lord! here's a buftle and a throng---
How fhall we ever get along?
Such numbers cover all the way,
Like emmets on a fummer's day.
O Ptolemy! thy fame cxceeds
Thy godlike fire's in noble deeds:
No rebber now with Pharian wiles
The ftranger of his purfe beguiles;

Gone, like a riddle in the dark;
Thele crores, if we their tales remark,
Know better far than I or you know
How Jupiter was join'd to Juno.
Lo! at the gate what crowds are there!
Fraxince.

Immenfe, indeed! Your hand, my dear;
And lit the maids join hands, and close us,
Left in the bule they fhould lofe us.
Let's crowd together through the door---
Heav'ns bleis me: how my gown is tore!
By Jove, but this is patt a joke---
Pray, good sir, don't you rend my cloak.

ICO

ΠΙΟ

Adonis hes; O charming fhow!
Lov'd by the table pow'rs below.
Stranger.

Hift your Sicilian prate forbear:

Your mouths extend from ear to ear, Like turtles that forever moan;

You fun us with your ruftic tone.

Gorgo.

Sure! we may speak what fellow's this?
And do you take it Sir, amifs?
Go, keep Egyptian flaves in awe :
Think not to give Sicilians law :
Befides, we're of Corinthian mold,
As was Bellerophon of old:
Our language is entirely Greek-
The Dorians may the Doric fpeak.
Praxinoe.

O fweet Proferpina, fure none
Prefumes to give us law but one!
To us there is no fear you should
Do harm, who cannot do us good.
Gergo.
Hark! the Greek girl's about to raise
Her voice in fair Adonis' praise;
She's a fwett pipe for funeral airs:

She's just beginning, the prepares:

She'll Sperchis, and the world excel,
That by her prelude you may tell.

The Greek Girl fings.

135

14

150

"O chief of Golgos, and the Idalian grove,
And breezy Eryx, beauteous queen of Love!
Once more the foft-foot hours approaching flow,
Reftore Adonis from the realms below;
Welcome to man they come with filent pace,
Diffuling benifons to human race.

O Venus, daughter of Dione fair,
You gave to Berenice's lot to fhare

Immortal joys in heavenly regions bleft,

160

And with divine ambrofia fill'd her breast.
And now in due return, O heavenly born!
Whofe honour'd name a thoufand fanes adorn,
Arfinoe pays the pompous rites divine,
Rival of Helen, at Adonis' fhrine;
All fruits the offers that ripe autumn yields,
The produce of the gardens, and the fields;
All herbs and plants which filver baskets hold;
And Syrian unguents flow from fhells of gold. 170
With fineft meal fweet pafte the women make,
Oil, flowers and honey mingling in the cake:
Earth and the air afford a large fupply

Of animals that creep, and birds that fly.
Green bow'rs are built with dill fweet-fmelling
crown'd,

And little Cupids hover all around;

And as young nightingales their wings effay,
Skip here and there, and hep from spray to spray.
What heaps of golden veffels glittering bright!
What itores of ebon black, and ivory white! 183
In ivory carv'd large eagles feem to move,
And through the clouds bear Ganymede to Jove.
Lo. purple tapeftry arrang'd on high
Charms the fpectators with the Tyrian dye,
The Samian and Milefian fwains, who keep
Large flocks, acknowledge 'tis more foft than fleep:
Of this Adonis claims a downy bed,

And lo! another for fair Venus fpread!

190

Her bridegroom fearce attains to nineteen years,
Rofy his lips, and no rough beard appears.
Let raptur'd Venus now enjoy her mate,
While we, defcending to the city gate,
Array'd in decent robes that fweep the ground,
With naked bofoms, and with hair unbound,
Bring forth Adonis, flain in youthful years,
Ere Phoebus drinks the morning's early tears.
And while to yonder flood we march along,
With tuneful voices raife the funeral fong.

Adonis, you alone of demigods,

Now vifit earth, and now hell's dire abodes: 200
Not fam'd Atrides could this favour boaft,
Nor furious Ajax, though himself an hott;
Nor Hector, long his mother's grace and joy
Of twenty fons, not Pyrrhus safe from Troy,

Not brave Patroclus of immortal fame,
Nor the fierce Lapithæ, a deathless name;
Nor fons of Pelops, nor Deucalion's race,
Nor ftout Pelafgians, Argos' honour' 'd grace.

As now, divine Adonis, you appear
Kind to our prayers, O blefs the future year! 210
As now propitious to our vows you prove,
Return with meek benevolence and love.

Gorge.

O, fam'd for knowledge in myfterious things! How fweet, Praxinoë, the damfel fings! Time calls me home to keep my husband kind, He's prone to anger if he has not din'd. Farewell, Adonis, lov'd and honour'd boy; O come propitious, and augment our joy.

-Flaventem prima lanugine malas.

F. F.

Hn. B. 16. 324.

Ver. 134. A citizen of Alexandria finds fault with the Syracufian goffips for opening their mouths fo wide when they fpeak; the good women are affronted, and tell him, that as they are Dorians, they will make use of the Doric dialect: hence we may obferve, that the pronunciation of the Dorians was very coarfe and broad, and founded harsh in the ears of the politer Grecians. Martyn's Pref. to Virgil. Ver. 145. Here I entirely follow the ingenious interpretation of Heinfius.

Ver. 151. A celebrated finger.

Ver. 153. Golgos was a small but very ancient town in Cyprus, where Venus was worshipped. Catullus has tranflated this verfe of Theocritus.

Ver. 169, The Greeek is azados zax, soft gardeas: Archbishop Potter obferves, that at the feaft of Adonis, there were carried fhells filled with earth, in which grew feveral forts of herbs, efpecially lettuces, in memory that Adonis was laid cut by Venus on a bed of lettuces: thefe were called eras, gardens; whence Admvidos xnres are proverbially applied to things unfruitful, or fading, because those herbs were only fown fo long before the festival, as to fprout forth, and be green at that time, and afterwards caft in the water. Se Antiquit, vol. I.

Ver. 181. Virgil has an image of this fort, Intextufque puer―――quem præpes ab Idâ, &c. En. B. 5.

There royal Ganymede, inwrought with art,
O'er hills and forefts hunts the bounding hart;
The beauteous youth, all wondrous to behold:
Pants in the moving threads, and lives in gold:
From towering Ida fhoots the bird of Jove,
And bears him ftruggling through the clouds
above;

With out-ftretch'd hands his hoary guardians cry,
And the loud hounds fpring furious at the sky.
Pitt.

I transcribed this fine paffage from Mr. Pitt's translation of Virgil, that I might lay before the reader Mr. Warton's note upon it. "The defcription of this beautiful piece of tapestry is extremely picturefque: the circumftances of the boy's panting, the old men lifting up their hands, and above all, the dogs locking up and barking after him, are painted in the livelieft manner imaginable. There is a very fine painting by Michael Angelo on this fubject, who has exactly copied Virgil's defcription, except that he has omitted the circumftance of the dogs, which Spenfer has likewife, in defcribing this ftory, as part of the

Montibus ora creat. Catull. & de Pel. Thet.

Ver. 176. Thus Bion, Appi de μiv x. 8. 2. Epit. Adon. Surrounding Cupids heave their breasts with fighs.

And Mofchus,

The little loves, lamenting at his doom,
Strike their fair breasts, and weep around his tomb.

F. F.

But as Longepierre obferves, images of Cupids

were never omitted at this feftival. Ovid feems to have had this in view when he wrote,

Ecce puer Veneris fert everfamque pharetram,
Et fractos arcus, et fine luce facem.
Afpice demiflis ut eat miferabilis alis,

Pectoraque infeftâ tundit aperta manu,
Excipiunt lacrymas fparfi per colla capilli,
Oraque fingultu concutiente fonant.

Amor. B. 3 El. 9.
See Venus' fon his torch extinguish'd brings,
His quiver all revers'd, and breke his bow!
See, penfive how he droops with flagging
wings,

And strikes his bared bofom many a blow! Loofe and neglected, scatter'd o'er his neck,

His golden locks drink many a falling tear; What piteous fobs, as if his heart would break, Shake his fwol'n cheek? Ah, forrow too fevere !

adorned."

When as the Trojan boy fo faire He fnatch'd from Ida hill, and with him bare, Wondrous delight it was, there to behold, How the rude thepherds after him did stare, Trembling through fear left he down fallen fhould, And often to him calling to take furer holde. F. Q. B. 3. c. II.

Ver. 185. Thus Virgil, Quamvis Milefia magno Vellera mutentur Tyrios incocta rubores. Geor. B. 3. 306. Ver. 186. See Idyl. v. ver. 58, and the note,

Ver. 212. This fuperftitious mystery, of lamenting for Adonis, may be thus explained: Adonis was the fun; the upper hemifphere of the earth, or that which we think fo, was anciently called Venus, the under Proferpine, therefore; when the fun was in the fix inferior figns, they faid, he was with Proferpine; when he was in the fix fuperior, with Venus. By the boar that flew Adonis, they understood Winter; for they made the boar, not unaptly, the emblem of that rigid feafon. Or, by Adonis, they meant the fruits of the earth, which are for one while buried, but at

τα και τα τον Ερωτα μεταλμένον,

How here and there he skipt, and hopt from tree

to tree.

therefore, the feed was thrown into the ground, they faid, Adonis was gone to Proferpine; but when it sprouted up, they faid, he had revisited the light and Venus. Hence probably it was