Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your

blood,

And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood,
Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95
Wind the fhrill horn, or spread the waving net.
When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds,
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds;
But when the tainted gales the game betray, 101
Couch'd close he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they truft th' unfaithful field befet,
'Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the swelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,

106

VARIATIONS.

VER. 91.

Oh may no more a foreign master's rage,

With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!

Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly`wings,

Breath plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs. P.

VER. 97.

When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,

And into wine the purple harvest bleeds3,

The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,

Both morning sports and ev❜ning pleasures yields.

Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the vintage. P.

Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft, Near, and more near, the closing lines invest; Sudden they seize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize, And high in air Britannia's standard flies.

110

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings: Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes,

115

His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes,
The vivid
green his shining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny. 1 20
To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair,.
And trace the mazes of the circling hare:

VARIATIONS.

VER. 107. It flood thus in the first Editions:
Pleas'd, in the Gen'rals fight, the hoft lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;

The young, the old, one instant makes our prize,
And o'er their captive heads Britannia's ftandard flies.

VER. 115.

IMITATIONS.

nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,

Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit.

Virg.

124

(Beasts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beasts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo.)
With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Wheré doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wať'ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen fky: 130.
Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath,

The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death:
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial spring, 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:

137

With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed, And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed. Our plenteous ftreams a various race fupply, 141 The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 126. O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.
VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high. P.

IMITATIONS.

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

G 2

The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd,

The yellow carp, in scales bedrop'd with gold, Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson stains, 145 And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.

Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car: The youth rush eager to the fylvan war, Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround, Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound. Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,

And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain:

151

Hills, vales, and floods appear already crofs'd,

And e'er he starts, a thousand steps are loft. 154 See the bold youth strain up the threat'ning steep, Rush thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep, Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed, And earth rolls back beneath the flying steed.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius,

Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille

Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his tranflation of Frefnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says "they "would coft him an hour, if he had the leifure to tranflate them, "there is so much of beauty in the original;" which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them. VER. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original,

terræque urbefque recedunt,

Virg

Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain,
Th'immortal huntress, and her virgin-train; 160
Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have seen
As bright a Goddess, and as chaste a QUEEN;
Whose care, like hers, protects the sylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Empress of the Main.
Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana stray'd, 165
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windsor shade;
Here was she seen o'er airy waftes 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. 170
Above the rest a rural nymph was fam'd,
Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd;
(Lodona's fate, in long oblivion caft,

The Muse shall fing, and what she sings shall last.) Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be known,

But by the crefcent and the golden zone.

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

[blocks in formation]

VER. 175.

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

Ovid.

« EdellinenJatka »