And in his garland as he stood,

Ye might discern a cypress bud.

Once had the early matrons run
To greet her of a lovely fon,

And now with fecond hope fhe goes,
And calls Lucina to her throws;

But whether by mifchance or blame
Atropos for Lucina came;

25

And with remorfelefs cruelty

Spoil'd at once both fruit and tree;

3*

The hapless babe before his birth

Had burial, yet not laid in earth,

And the languish'd mother's womb
Was not long a living tomb.

35

So have I feen fome tender flip,
Sav'd with care from winter's nip,

The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck'd up by fome unheedy fwain,
Who only thought to crop the flow'r
New shot up from vernal show'r;

40

22.-a cyprefs bud] An emblem of a funeral: and it is called in Virgil feralis, En. VI. 216. and in

But

Horace funebris Epod. V. 18. and in Spenfer the cypress funeral. Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 1. St. 8.

28. Atropos.

28. Atropos for Lucina came;] One

49. After this thy travel fore] As

of the Fates inftead of the Goddefs he died in child-bed.

who brings the birth to light.

63. The

Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sitst in glory,
Next her much like to thee in ftory,

That fair Syrian shepherdess,

The highly favor'd Jofeph bore

To him that ferv'd for her before,

And at her next birth much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity,

Far within the bosom bright

Of blazing Majefty and Light:

There with thee, new welcome Saint,

Like fortunes

may her foul acquaint,

With thee there clad in radiant sheen,

No Marchioness, but now a Queen.

IX.

* SONG.

On MAY MORNING.

65

70

No

OW the bright morning ftar, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The

63. That fair Syrian Shepherdess, &c] Rachel, the daughter of Laban the Syrian, kept her father's fheep. Gen. XXIX. 9. and after her first fon, Jofeph, died in childbed of her fecond fon, Benjamin.

XXXV. 18.

*This beautiful little Song has

within these few years been fet to mufic by Mr. Feftin, and performed at Ranelagh gardens.

lap

3. who from her green throws &c] This image feems to be borrow'd from Shakespear. Richard II. A&t 5. Sc. 4.

who are the violets now

That

The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowflip, and the pale primrose.
Hail bounteous May that dost inspire

Mirth and youth and warm defire;
Woods and groves are of thy dreffing,
Hill and dale doth boaft thy bleffing.
Thus we falute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

WE

X.

+ On SHAKESPEAR. 1630.

10

Hat needs my Shakespear for his honor'd bones
The labor of an age in piled ftones,

Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a ftar-ypointing pyramid ?

Dear fon of memory, great heir of fame,

What need'ft thou fuch weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Haft built thyself a live-long monument.

That ftrow the green lap of the new-come spring?

+ This copy of verfes on Shakefpear being made in 1630, our poet was then in the 22d year of his age and it was printed with the poems of that author at London in 1640.

5

For

5. Dear Jon of memory,] He honors his favorite Shakespear with the fame relation as the Mufes themselves. For the Muses are called by the old poets the daughters of memory. See Hefiod Theog. ver. 53.

15. And

For whilft to th' fhame of flow-endevoring art
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impreffion took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
Doft make us marble with too much conceiving;
And fo fepulcher'd in fuch pomp doft lie,
That kings for fuch a tomb would wish to die.

XI.

10

15

* On the University Carrier, who ficken'd in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reafon of the plague.

ERE lies old Hobfon; Death hath broke his girt,

And here alas, hath laid him in the dirt,

15. And fo fepulcher'd] We have the word with the fame accent in Fairfax Cant. 1. St. 25.

As if his work fhould his fepúlcher be.

Milton has pronounced it otherwife, as in Samson ver. 103.

Myself, my fepulchre, a moving

grave.

Or

* We have the following account of this extraordinary man in the Spectator N° 509. "Mr. To"bias Hobfon was a carrier, and "the firft man in this iland who "let out hackney horses. He " lived in Cambridge, and obferv"ing that the scholars rid hard, "his manner was to keep a large "ftable of horses, with boots, "bridles, and whips, to furnish

"the