Base love, that to base earth so bafely clings!
Look, as the beams of that celeftial fire
Put out these earthly flames with purer ray;
So fhall that love this baser heat allay,
And quench these coals of earth with his more
heavenly day.

XXIV.

Raife then thy proftrate love withtow'ring thought; And clog it not in chains, and prison here: The god of fishers dear thy love hath bought; Most dear he loves: for fhame, love thou as dear.

Next, love thou there, where beft thy love is fought; Myfelf, or else some other fitting peer.

Ah, might thy love with me for ever dwell! Why should't thou hate thy heaven and love thy hell?

She shall not more deserve, nor cannot love fo well.

xxv.

Thus Tryphon once did wean my fond affection;
Then fits a falve unto th' infected place,
(A falve of fovereign and strange confection),
Nepenthe, mix'd with rue and herb-de-grace;
So did he quickly heal this ftrong infection,
And to myself reftor'd myself apace.
Yet did he not my love extinguish quite :
I love with fweeter love, and more delight:
But most I love that love, which to my love has
right.

ΧΧVΙ.

Thomalin.

Thrice happy thou that could't! my weaker mind Can never learn to climb fo lofty flight. Thirfil.

If from this love thy will thou canst unbind, To will is here to can: will gives thee might: 'Tis done if once thou wilt; 'tis done, I find.

Now let us home: for fee, the creeping night Steals from thofe further waves upon the land. To morrow fhall we feaft; then hand in hand, Free will we fing, and dance along the golden fand.

The morn faluting, up! quickly rife, And to the green I poft; for, on this day, =Shepherd and fifher-boys had fet a prize, Upon the fhore to meet in gentle fray, Which of the two fhould fing the choicest lay. Daphnis, the fhepherd-lad, whom Mira's eyes Had kill'd; yet with fuch wound he gladly dies:

Thomalin, the fisher, in whose heart did reign Stella, whofe love his life, and whose disdain Seems worse than angry kies, or never-quiet main.

Their boats and mafts with flow'rs and garlanda

dight;

[white:

And round the fwans guard them, with armies Their fkiffs by couples dance to sweetest sounds, Which running cornets breathe to full plain grounds,

That ftrikes the river's face, and thence more fweet rebounds.

V.

And now the nymphs and fwains had took their place;

First, thofe two boys; Thomalin the fisher's pride; Daphnis the fhepherds: Nymphs their right

hand grace;

And choiceft fwains fhut up the other fide:
So fit they down, in order fit apply'd:

Thirfil betwixt them both, in middle space;
Thirfil their judge, who now's a fhepherd bafe,
But late a fifher-fwain; till envious Chame
Had rent his nets, and funk his boat with shame;
So robb'd the boys of him, and him of all his
game.

VI.

So, as they fit, thus Thirfil 'gins the lay;
Thirfil.

You lovely boys, the woods' and ocean's pride,
Since I am judge of this fweet peaceful fray,
First tell us, where and when your loves you spy'd:
And when in long difcourfe you well are try'd,

Then in fhort verfe, by turns, we'll gently play: In love begin, in love we'll end the day. Daphnis, thou first ; to me you both are dear: Ah! if I might, I would not judge, but hear: Nought have I of a judge but an impartial car.

vil.

Daphnis.

Phœbus, if, as thy words, thy oaths are true, Give me that verfe which to the honour'd bay (That verfe which by thy promise now is due),

To honour'd Daphne, in a fweet tun'd lay,

(Daphne thy chang'd, thy love unchanged aye;) Thou fangest late, when fhe, now better staid, More humane when a tree than when a maid, Bending her head, thy love with gentle fign repaid.

If fleepy poppies yield to lilies white;

If black to fnowy lambs; if night to day; If western fhades to fair Aurora's light; Stella muft yield to Mira's fhining ray. In day we fport, in day we fhepherds toy;

tain you.

You fear no ftormy feas, nor tempests roaring.
Thomalin.

You fit not, rots or burning ftars deploring:
In calms, you fish; in roughs, use fongs and dances.
Darbnis.

More do you fear your love's fweet-bitter glances,
Than certain fate, or fortune ever changing.
Thomalin.

Ah! that the life in feas fo fafely ranging,
Should with love's weeping eye be funk and

drown'd!

Daphnis.

The shepherd's life Phoebus, a fhepherd, crown'd; His fnowy flocks by stately Peneus leading. Thomalin.

What herb was that, on which old Glaucus feeding
Grows never old, but now the gods augmenteth?
Daphnis.

Delia herself her rigour hard relenteth :
To play with shepherd's boy fhe's not ashamed.
Thomalin.

Venus, of frothy feas thou first was framed; [ed.
The waves thy cradle: now Love's Queen art nam-

Thou gentle boy, what prize may well reward So flender gift as this not half requites thee.