Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher 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.
Our plenteous ftreams a various race fupply,
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,

NOTES.

134

140

Swift

VER. 137. The patient fiber, &c.] Let me take this opportu. nity of recommending the amiable and venerable Ifaac Walton's Complete Angler, a work the most fingular of its kind, breathing the very spirit of contentment, of quiet and unaffected philan thropy, and interfperfed with fome beautiful relics of poetry, old fongs and ballads.

There is fomething very melodious and natural in his own little pastoral:

"I in thefe pleasant meads would be,
These crystal streams fhould folace me,
To whofe harmonious bubbling noise,
I with my angle would rejoice," &c.

"Sit here, and see the turtle dove,

Court his chafte mate to deeds of love," &c.

Complete Angler, p. 110.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 134. Præcipites alta vitam fub nube relinquunt."

VER. 140.

Satyrs.

PARALLEL PASSAGES,

Virg.

“And watch a finking cork upon the shore." Hall's

STEVENS.

Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson ftains,

And pikes, the tyrants of the watry plains.

Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car: The youth rush eager to the fylvan war,

145

Swarm o'er the lawns, the forest walks furround,

Rouze the fleet hart, and cheer the opening hound. Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,

151

And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods appear already crofs'd,
And ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost.

154

See the bold youth ftrain up the threat'ning steep,
Rufh through the thickets, down the valleys sweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying steed.
Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain,

Th' immortal huntrefs, and her virgin-train;

160

Nor

IMITATIONS.

VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, &c.] Tranflated from Statius, "Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille

Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.” Thefe lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his tranflation of Frefnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays, "they would coft him an hour, if he had the leifure, to tranflate them, there is fo much of beauty in the original;" which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them.

WARBURTON.

The fecond line in Statius, fays Jortin, is bombaftic.

WARTON.

VER. 158. And earth rolls back] He has improved his original,

"terræque unbefque recedunt." Virg.

But no imitation of Virgil was here intended.

WARBURTON.

WARTON.

165

Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have seen
As bright a Goddefs, and as chafte a Queen;
Whofe care, like hers, protects the fylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Empress of the Main.
Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana ftray'd,
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windsor shade;
Here was fhe feen 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 rest a rural nymph was fam'd,
Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd
(Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast,

170

The Mufe fhall fing, and what she sings fhall last.) Scarce could the Goddefs from her nymph be known,

But by the crescent and the golden zone.

She scorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care;
A belt her waist, a fillet binds her hair;

175

A painted

NOTES.

VER. 162. Queen ANNE.

VER. 171. Dr. Warton fays, " that Johnfon feems to have paffed too fevere a cenfure on this epifode of Lodona, and that a tale in a defcriptive poem has a good effect." Johnson does not object to a tale in a defcriptive poem, he objects only to the trite nefs of fuch a tale as this.

VER. 175.

IMITATIONS.

"Nec pofitu variare comas; ubi fibula veftem,
Vitta coërcuerat neglectos alba capillos."

Ovid.

A painted quiver on her fhoulder founds,
And with her dart the flying deer fhe wounds.
It chanc'd, as eager of the chace, the maid
Beyond the foreft's verdant limits stray'd,
Pan faw and lov'd, and burning with defire
Purfu'd her flight, her flight increas'd his fire.
Not half fo fwift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky;
Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves,

180

185

When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves;

As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,

Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace. 190
Now fainting, finking, pale, the nymph appears;
Now close behind, his founding steps she hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as fhe run,
His fhadow lengthen'd by the setting fun;

And

NOTES.

VER.179.] From the fourth book of Virgil, who copied it from Homer's beautiful figure of Apollo, Iliad, b. i. ver. 46. But, as Dr. Clark finely and acutely observes, even Virgil has loft the

IMITATIONS.

VER. 185, 188.

"Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,
Ut folet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas."

VER. 193, 196.

"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."

Moft of the circumftances in this tale are from Ovid.

beauty

Ovid.

And now his shorter 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.

195

Faint, breathlefs, thus fhe pray'd, nor pray'd in vain; "Ah Cynthia! ah-tho' banish'd from thy train,

"Let me, O let me, to the fhades repair,

201

205

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 fhe rang'd before. In her chafte current oft the Goddefs laves, And with celestial tears augments the waves.

210

Oft

NOTES.

beauty and the propriety of the original. Homer fays, the arrows founded in the quiver because the step of the God was hasty and irregular, as of an angry perfon. Irati describitur inceffus, paulo utique inæquabilior. WARTON.

VER. 207. Still bears the name] The River Lodon.

VER. 210. And with celeftial tears, &c.] The idea of augmenting the waves with tears," was very common among the carlieft English Poets; but perhaps the most ridiculous ufe ever made of this combination, was by Shakespeare. Speaking of the drowned Ophelia, Laertes fays:

"Too much of water hadft thou, poor Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears!"