And as I ween this often bowing measure, Was chiefly framed for the womens pleasure. [ing. Though, like the rib, they crooked are and bendYet to the best of forms they aim their ending: Next in an (1) their measure made a rest, Shewing when love is plaineft it is best. Then in a (Y) which thus doth love commend, Making of two at first, one in the end. And, laftly, clofing in a round do enter, Placing the lufty fhepherds in the centre: About the fwains they dancing feem'd to roll, As other planets round the heavenly pole. Who, by their fweet afpect, or chiding frown, Could raise a fhepherd up, or cast him down. Thus were they circled, till a fwain came near, And fent this fong unto each fhepherd's ear: The note and voice fo fweet, that for fuch mirth, The gods would leave the heavens, and dwell on earth.

Happy are you so enclosed,
May the maids be still difpofed,

In their geftures and their dances,
So to grace you with entwining,
That envy with in such combining.
Fortune's fmile with happy chances.

Here it seems as if the graces
Measur'd out the plain in traces,
In a fhepherdefs disguifing.
Are the spheres fo nimbly turning,
Wand'ring lamps in heaven burning,
To the eye fo much enticing?

Yes, heaven means to take thefe thither,
And add one joy to fee both dance together.

Gentle nymphs, be not refusing,
Love's neglect is time's abufing,

They and beauty are but lent you;
Take the one, and keep the other;
Love keeps fresh what age doth smother,
Beauty gone you will repent you.

'Twill be faid, when ye have proved,
Never fwains more truly loved ;

O, then fly all nice behaviour!
Pity fain would (as her duty)
Be attending ftill on beauty,

Let her not be out of favour.

Difdain is now fo much rewarded,
That pity weeps fince the is unreguarded.

The measure and the fong here being ended : Each fwain his thoughts thus to his love commended:

MAIDEN AND MEN.

Maidens fhould be aiding men,
And for love give love again:
Learn this leffon from your mother,
One good with requires another.
They deserve their names beft, when
Maids moft willingly aid men.

The Fifth, a Ring, with a Picture in a Jewel on it. Nature hath fram'd a gem beyond compare, The world's the ring, but you the jewel are.

The Sixth, a Nofegay of Rofes, with a Nettle in it. Such is the pofy, love compofes; A ftinging nettle mixt with rafes.

HAPPY ye days of old, when every waste
Was like a fanctuary to the chaste;
When incefts, rapes, adulteries, were not known;
All pure as bloffoms, which are newly blown.
Maids were as free from spots, and foils within,
As most unblemish'd in the outward skin,
Men every plain and cottage did afford,

As smooth in deeds, as they were fair of word.
Maidens with men, as fifters with their brothers;
And men and maids convers'd as with their mo-
thers;

Free from fufpicion, or the rage of blood.
Strife only reign'd, for all striv'd to be good.

But then, as little wrens, but newly fledge,
First, by their nefts hop up and down the hedge;
Then one from bough to bough gets up a tree:
His fellow noting his agility,

Thinks he as well may venture as the other,
So flushing from one fpray unto another
Gets to the top, and then enbold'ned flies,
Unto an height paft ken of human eyes:
So time brought worse, men first defir'd to talk;
Then came fufpect; and then a private walk;
Then by confent appointed times of meeting,
Where moft fecurely each might kifs his fweeting:
Laftly, with lufts their panting breasts so swell,
They came to-But to what I blush to tell.
And ent'red thus, rapes used were of all,
laceft, adultery, held as venial :

2

The certainty in doubtful balance refts,
If beafts did learn of men, or men of beasts.
Had they not learn'd of man who was their king,
So to infult upon an underling,

They civilly had spent their lives gradation,
As meek and mild as in their first creation;
Nor had th' infections of infected minds
So alter'd nature, and disorder'd kinds.
Fida had been lefs wretched, I more glad,
That so true love so true a progrefs had.

When Remond left her, (Remond then unkind)
Fida went down the dale to feek the hind:
And found her taking foil within a flood:
Whom when she call'd, ftraight follow'd to the
wood.

Fida then wearied, fought the cooling fhade,
And found an arbour by the fhepherds made
To frolic in (when Sol did hottest shine)
With cates, which were far cleanlier than fine.
For in those days men never us'd to feed
So much for pleasure as they did for need.
Enriching then the arbour down she fat her;
Where many a busy bee came flying at her :
Thinking when the for air her breasts discloses,
That there had grown fome tuft of damask-rofes,
And that her azure veins which then did fwell,
Were conduit pipes brought from a living well,
Whofe liquor might the world enjoy for money,
Becs would be bankrupt, none would care for honey.

Siiij

The hind lay fill without, (poor filly creature, How like a woman art thou fram'd by nature? Timorous, apt to tears, wily in running,

Caught beft when force is intermix'd with canning)

Lying thus diftant, different chances meet them, And with a fearful object fate doth greet them. Something appear'd, which feem'd far off, a

man,

In ftature, habit, gait, proportion:

But when the eyes their objects masters were,
And it for fricter cenfure came more near,
By all his properties one well might grefs,
Than of a man, he fure had nothing lefs.
For verily fince old + Deucalion's flood
Earth's flime did ne'er produce a viler brood.
Upon the various earth's embroidered gown
There is a weed upon whofe head grows down;
Sow-thistle 'tis yclep'd, whofe downy wreath,
If any one can blow off at a breath,

We deem her for a maid: fuch was his hair,
Ready to shed at any ftirping air.

His ears were frucken deaf when he came nigh,
To hear the widow's or the orphan's cry.
His eyes encircled with a bloody chain,
With pouring in the blood of bodies flain.
His mouth exceeding wide, from whence did fly
Vollies of execrable blafphemy;

Banning the heavens, and he that rideth on them,
Dar'd vengeance to the teeth to fall upon him:
Like Seythian wolves, or ‡ men of wit bereav'n,
Which howl and shoot against the lights of heav'n.
His hands, (if hands they were), like fome dead
corfe,

With digging up his buried ancestors;
Making his father's tomb and facred fhrine
The trough wherein the hog-herd fed his fwine.
And as that beaft hath legs (which fhepherds fear,
Yclep'd a badger, which our lambs doth tear)
One long, the other short, that when he runs
Upon the plain, he halts; but when he wons
On craggy rocks, or fteepy hills, we fee
None runs more fwift, nor cafier than he;
Such legs the monster had, one finew fhrunk,
That in the plains he reel'd, as being drunk;
And halted in the paths to virtue tending:
And therefore never durft be that way bending:
But when he came on carved monuments,
Spiring Coloffus, and high raised rents,
He pafs'd them o'cr, quick as the eastern wind
Sweeps through a meadow; or a nimble hind;
Or fatyr on a lawn; or fkipping roe;
Or well-wing'd fhaft forth of a Parthian bow.
His body made (till in confumptions rife)
A miferable prison for a life.

[raife,

Riot he hight; whom feme curs'd fiend did When like a chaos were the nights and days; Got and brought up in the Cymerian clime, (time: Where fun nor moon, nor days, nor nights do As who should fay, they fcorn'd to fhew their faces, To fuch a fiend, fhould feck to spoil the graces.

Defcription of Riot.

Ovid's Metamorphofes, Book L Men of Scrum fect against the flars.

At fight whereof, Fida nigh drown'd in fear, Was clean difmay'd when he approached near; Nor durft the call the deer, nor whistling wind her, (her;

Fearing her noife might make the monster find
Who flyly came, for he had cunning learn'd him,
And feiz'd upon the hind, ere the difcern'd him.
Oh! how the triv'd and struggled; every nerve
Is preft at all effays a life to ferve;

Yet foon we lofe, what we might longer keep
Were not prevention commonly a fleep.
Maids, of this monster's brood be fearful all,
What to the hind mayhap to you befal.
Who with her feet held up instead of hands,
And tears which pity from the rock commands,
She fighs, and fhrieks, and weeps, and looks upon

him;

Alas! fhe fobs, and many a groan throws on him;
With plaints which might abate a tyrant's knife,
She begs for pardon, and entreats for life;
The hollow caves refound her moanings near it,
That heart was flint which did not grieve to hear

it :

The high topt firs which on that mountain keep,
Have ever fince that time been seen to weep.
The owl till then, 'tis thought full well could fing,
And tune her voice to every bubbling spring:
But when she heard those plaints, then forth the
yode

Out of the covert of an ivy rod,

And hollowing for aid, fo ftrain'd her throat,
That fince the clean forgot her former note.
A little robin fitting on a tree,

In doleful notes bewail'd her tragedy.

An afp, who thought him ftout, could not diffemble,
But fhew'd his fear, and yet is feen to tremble.
Yet cruelty was deaf, and had no fight
In ought which might gainsay the appetite :
But with his teeth rending her throat afunder,
Befprinkled with her blood the green grafs under.
And gormandizing on her flesh and blood,
He vomiting returned to the wood.

Riot but newly gone, as ftrange a vision
Though far more heavenly came in apparition.
As that || Arabian bird (whom all admire)
Her excquies prepar'd and funeral fire,
Burnt in a flame conceived from the fun,
And nourished with flips of cinnamon,
Out of her afhes hath a fecond birth,
And flies abroad a wonderment on earth:
So from the ruins of this mangled § creature
Arofe fo fair and fo divine a feature,

That Envy for her heart would doat upon her;
Heaven could not choose but be enamour'd on

Yet gladly now she would reverse her doom,
Weaving this hair within a spider's loom.
Upon her forehead, as in glory fat
Mercy and majesty, for wond'ring at,
As pure and fimple as Albania's fnow,

Or milk-white fwans which stem the ftreams of Po.
Like to fome goodly foreland, bearing out,
Her hair, the tufts which fring'd the shore about.
And least the man which fought thofe coafts might
flip,

Her eyes like ftars, did ferve to guide the ship.
Upon her front (heaven's faireft promontory)
Delineated was th' authentic story

Of thofe elect, whose sheep at first began
To nibble by the fprings of Canaan :

Out of whofe facred loins, (brought by the stem
Of that sweet finger of Jerufalem),
Came the best fhepherd ever flocks did keep,
Who yielded up his life to fave his fheep.

O thou Etern by whom all beings move,
Giving the fprings beneath and springs above:
Whole finger doth this universe sustain,
Bringing the former and the latter rain,
Who doft with plenty meads and paftures fill,
By drops diftill'd like dew on Hormon hill:
Pardon a filly fwain, who (far unable
In that which is fo rare, fo admirable)
Dares on an oaten pipe, thus meanly fing
Her praise immenfe, worthy a filver ftring.
And thou which through the defert and the deep
Didft lead thy chofen like a flock of sheep:
As fometimes by a ftar thou guided'ft them,
Which fed upon the plains of Bethlehem;
So by thy facred fpirit direct my quill,
When I fhall fing ought of thy holy hill,
That times to come, when they my rhymes rehearse,
May wonder at me, and admire my verfe:
For who but one rapt in celeftial fire,
Can by his mufe to fuch a pitch afpire?
That from aloft he might behold and tell
Her worth, whereon an iron pen might dwell.
When fhe was born, Nature in fport began,
To learn the cunning of an artizan,
And did vermillion with a white compose,
To mock herself, and paint a damask rofe.
But fcorning nature unto art should seek,
She fpilt her colours on this maidens cheek.
Her mouth the gate from whence all goodnefs

came,

Of power to give the dead a living name.
Her words embalined in fo fweet a breath,
That made them triumph both on time and
death,

Whofe fragrant fweets, fince the cameleon knew,
And tafted of, he to this humour grew:
Left other elements, held this fo rare.
That fince he never feeds on ought but air.
O had 1 Virgil's verfe, or Tully's tongue!
Or rapping numbers like the Thracian's fong,
I have a theme would make the rockets to dance,
And furly beafts that through the defert prance.
High from their caves, and every gloomy den,
To wonder at the excellence of men.

• Orpheur.

The feers fuck'd their hidden prophecies:
And told that for her love in time to come,
Many fhould feek the crown of martyrdom,
By fire, by fword, by tortures; dungeons, chains,
By ftripes, by famine, and a world of pains;
Yet conftant ftill remain (to her they lov'd)
Like Sion mount, that cannot be remov'd.
Proportions on her arms and hands recorded,
The world for her no fitter place afforded,
Praise her who lift, he still shall be her debtor :
For art ne'er feign'd, nor nature fram'd a better.
As when a holy father hath began
To offer facrifice to mighty Pan,
Doth the request of every fwain affume,
To fcale the welkin in a facred fume,
Made by a widow'd turtle's loving mate,
Or lambins, or fome kid immaculate,
Th' off'ring heaves aloft, with both his hands:
Which all adore, that near the altar ftands:
So was her heavenly body comely rais'd
On two fair columns; thofe that Ovid prais'd
In Julia's + borrow'd name, compar'd with thefe
Were crabs to apples of th' Hefperides;
Or ftump-foot Vulcan in comparison,
With all the height of true perfection.

Nature was here fo lavish of her flore,
That the bestow'd until she had no more.
Whofe treasure being weak'ned (by this dame)
She thrust into the world fo many lame.

The highest fynod of the glorious sky, (I heard a wood nymph fing) fent Mercury To take a furvey of the fairest faces, And to defcribe to them all womens graces; Who long time wand'ring in a ferious queft, Noting what parts by beauty were poffefs'd: At laft he faw this maid, then thinking fit To end his journey, here, NIL ULTRA Writ. Fida in adoration kifs'd her knee, And thus befpake; Hail, glorious deity! (If fuch thou art, and who can deem you lefs? Whether thou reign't queen of the wilderness, Or art that goddess ('tis unknown to me) Which from the ocean draws her pedegree: Or one of those who, by the moffy banks Of drifling Helicon, in airy ranks Tread roundelays upon the filver fands, While shaggy fatyrs tripping o'er the strands, Stand fill and gaze, and yield their fenfes thrals To the fweet cadence of your madrigals: Or of the fairy troop that nimbly play, And by the fprings dance out the fummer's day; Teach the little birds to build their nests, And in their finging how to keepen rests: Or one of thofe, who watching where a fpring Out of our grand-dame earth hath iffuing, With your attractive music woo the stream (As men by fairies led, fall'n in a dream) To follow you, which fweetly trilling wanders In many mazes, intricate meanders;

† Corinna. Ovid. Amor. Lib. I. El. 5.

Till at the last, to mock th' enamour'd rill,
Ye bend your traces up fome fhady hill;
And laugh to fee the wave no further tread
But in a chafe run foaming on his head,
Being enforc'd a channel new to frame,
Leaving the other deftitute of name.
If thou be one of thefe, or all, or more,
Succour a feely maid, that doth implore
Aid, on a bended heart, unfeign'd and meek,
As true as blushes of a maiden cheek.

Maiden, arife, reply'd the new-born maid :
"Pure innocence the ftones will aid.”
Nor of the fairer troop, nor mufes nine;
Nor am I Venus, nor of Proferpine:
But daughter to a lufty aged fwain,

That cuts the green turfs of th' enamel'd plain;
And with his fcythe hath many a fummer fhorn
The plow'd lands lab'ring with a crop of corn;
Who from the cold-clipt mountain, by his ftroke,
Fells down the lofty pine, the cedar, oak:
He opes the floodgates, as occafion is,
Sometimes on that man's land, fometimes on
this.

When Verolame, a stately nymph of yore,
Did ufe to deck herself on Ifis' fhore,

One morn (among the reft) as there she stood,
Saw the pure channel all befmear'd with blood;
Inquiring for the caufe, one did impart,
Thofe drops came from her holy Alban's heart;
Herewith in grief the gan entreat my fire,
That Ifis' ftream, which yearly did attire
Thofe gallant fields in changeable array,
Might turn her course and run fome other way.
Leaft that her waves might wash away the guilt
From off their hands, which Alban's blood had
fpilt:

He condefcended, and the nimble wave

Her fish no more within that channel drave:
But as a witnefs left the crimfon gore
To stain the carth, as they their hands before.
He had a being e'er there was a birth,
And fhall not ceafe until the fea and earth,
And what they both contain, fhall cease to be,
Nothing confines him but eternity.
By him the names of good men ever live,
Which short-liv'd men unto oblivion give:
And in forgetfulness he lets him fall,
'That is no other man than natural:
'Tis he alone that rightly can difcover,
Who is the true, and who the feigned lover.
In fummer's heat when any fwain to fleep
Doth more addi& himself than to his sheep;
And whilft the leaden gods fits on his eyes,
If any of his fold, or ftrays, or dies,
And to the waking swain it be unknown,
Whether his sheep be dead, or ftray'd, or stol'n;
To meet my fire he bends his course in pain,
Either where fome high hill furveys the plain;
Or takes his step toward the flow'ry valleys,
Where zephyrs with the cowflip hourly dallys;
Or to the groves, where birds from heat or wea-
ther,

Sit fweetly tuning of their notes together;
Or to a mead a wanton river dreffes

With richest collars of her turning effes;

Or where the shepherds fit old stories telling,
Chronos, my fire, hath no set place of dwelling;
But if the fhepherd meet the aged fwain,
He tells him of his fheep, or fhews them flain.
So great a gift the facred powers of heaven
(Above all others) to my fire hath given,
That the abhorred ftratagems of night,
Lurking in caverns from the glorious light,
By him (per force) are from their dungeons hurl'd,
And fhew'd as monsters to the wond'ring world.
What mariner is he failing upon?

The watry defert clipping Albion,
Hears not the billows in their dances roar
Answer'd by echoes from the neighb'ring fhore;
To whofe accord the maids trip from the downs,
And rivers dancing come, ycrowned with towns,
Ail finging forth the victories of time,
Upon the monsters of the western clime,
Whofe horrid, damned, bloody plots would bring
Confufion on the laureate poet's king.
Whofe hell-fed hearts devis'd how never more
A fwan might finging fit on Ifis' fhore:
But croaking ravens, and the fcreechowl cry,
The fit muficians for a tragedy,

Should evermore be heard about her strand,
To fright all paffengers from that fad land.
Long fummer's days I on his worth might
fpend,

And yet begin again when I would end.
All ages fince the first age first begun,
E'er they could know his worth their age was
done;

Whofe abfence all the treasury of earth
Cannot buy out. From far-fam'd Tagus' birth,
Not all the golden gravel he treads over,
One minute paft, that minute can recover.
I am his only child (he hath no other)
'Clep'd Aletheia, born without a mother.
Poor letheia long defpis'd of all,
Scarce charity would lend an hofpital
To give my month's cold watching one night's
reit,

But in my room took in the mifer's cheft.

In winter's time when hardly fed the flocks, And ificles hung dangling on the rocks; When Hyems bound the flood in filver chains, And hoary frofts had candied all the plains; When every barn rung with the threshing flails, And fhepherds boys for cold 'gan blow their

nails :

(Wearied with toil in seeking out fome one
That had a spark of true devotion ;)
It was my chance, (chance only helpeth need)
To find an houfe built for holy deed,
With goodly architect, and cloifters wide,
With groves and walks along a river's fide;
The place itself afforded admiration,
And every spray a theme of contemplation.
But (woe is me !) when knocking at the gate,
I 'gan entreat an entrance thereat:
The porter afk'd my name: I told; He fwell'd,
And bade me thence: wherewith in grief re

pell'd,

I fought for fhelter to a ruin'd house, Harb'ring the weafcl, and the duft-bred mouse;