on the death of Daphnis, in comparison of Milton on Lycidas, one of his juvenile, but one of his most exquisite pieces.

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas?
For neither were ye playing on the steep
Where your old bards, the famous Druids lie;
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.

LYCIDAS.

The mention of places remarkably romantic, the supposed habitations of Druids, Bards, and Wizards, is far more pleasing to the imagination, than the obvious introduction of Cam and Isis, as seats of the Muses.

SUMMER:

THE SECOND PASTORAL1.

OR,

ALEX I S.

TO DR. GARTH.

A SHEPHERD'S Boy (he seeks no better name) Led forth his flocks along the silver Thame, Where dancing sun-beams on the waters play'd, And verdant alders form'd a quiv'ring shade. Soft as he mourn'd, the streams forgot to flow, The flocks around a dumb compassion shew,

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, were thus printed in the first edition :
A faithful swain, whom love had taught to sing,
Bewail'd his fate beside a silver spring;
Where gentle Thames his winding waters leads
Thro' verdant forests, and thro' flow'ry meads.
Ver. 3. Originally thus in the MS.

There to the winds he plain'd his hapless love,
And Amaryllis fill'd the vocal grove.

REMARKS.

P.

W.

5

'It is unfortunate that this second pastoral, the worst of the four, should be inscribed to the best judge of all his four other friends to whom they were addressed.

Ver. 2. Thame,] An inaccurate word, instead of Thames.

Ver. 3. The Scene of this Pastoral by the river-side, suitable to the heat of the season; the Time, noon. P.

The Naïads wept in ev'ry wat'ry bow'r,
And Jove consented in a silent show'r.

Accept, O GARTH, the Muse's early lays,
That adds this wreath of ivy to thy bays;
Hear what from Love unpractis'd hearts endure,
From Love, the sole disease thou canst not cure.
Ye shady beeches, and ye cooling streams,
Defence from Phoebus', not from Cupid's beams,
To you I mourn, nor to the deaf I sing,

The woods shall answer, and their echo ring,
The hills and rocks attend my doleful lay,
Why art thou prouder and more hard than they?

10

15

REMARKS.

Ver. 9. Dr. Samuel Garth, Author of the Dispensary, was one of the first friends of our Poet, whose acquaintance with him began at fourteen or fifteen. Their friendship continued from the year 1703 to 1718, which was that of his death. P.

He was a man of the sweetest disposition, amiable manners, and universal benevolence. All parties, at a time when party violence was at a great height, joined in praising and loving him. I hope I may be pardoned from speaking of his character con amore, from my near connexion with one of his descendants; and yet I trust I shall not be accused of an improper partiality. One of the most exquisite pieces of wit ever written by Addison, is a defence of Garth against the Examiner, 1710.

Ver. 16. The woods shall answer, and their echo ring,] Is a line out of Spenser's Epithalamion. P.

Ver. 18. Why art thou prouder and more hard than they?] A line unworthy our Author, containing a false and trivial thought; as is also the 22d line.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 8. And Jove consented]

"Jupiter et læto descendet plurimus imbri." Virg.

Ver. 15. nor to the deaf I sing,]

P.

"Non canimus surdis: respondent omnia sylvæ." Virg. P.

The bleating sheep with my complaints agree,
They parch'd with heat, and I inflam'd by thee. 20
The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains,
While in thy heart eternal winter reigns.

Where stray ye, Muses, in what lawn or grove,
While your Alexis pines in hopeless love?
In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides,
Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?
As in the crystal spring I view my face,
Fresh rising blushes paint the wat’ry glass;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 27. Oft in the crystal spring I cast a view,
And equal'd Hylas, if the glass be true;

But since those graces meet my eyes no more,
I shun, &c.

REMARKS.

P.

25

Ver. 27. As in the] This is one of those passages in which Virgil, by too closely copying Theocritus, has violated propriety;. and not attended to the different characters of Cyclops and Corydon. The sea, which is a proper looking-glass for the gigantic son of Neptune, who also constantly dwelt on the shore, was certainly not equally adapted to the face of the little Land-shepherd. The same may be said of the cheese and milk, and numerous herds of Polypheme, exactly suited to his Sicilian situation, and the rude and savage state of the speaker, whose character is admirably supported through the whole eleventh Idyllium of Theocritus.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 23. Where stray ye, Muses, &c.]

"Quæ nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellæ
Naïdes, indigno quum Gallus amore periret?
Nam neque Parnasi vobis juga, nam neque Pindi
Ulla moram fecere, neque Aonie Aganippe."

Virg. out of Theocr.

P.

Ver. 27. Virgil again, from the Cyclops of Theocritus,

“nuper me in litore vidi,

Quum placidum ventis staret mare; non ego Daphnin,
Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallat imago."

P.

30

35

But since those graces please thy eyes no more,
I shun the fountains which I sought before.
Once I was skill'd in ev'ry herb that grew,
And ev'ry plant that drinks the morning dew;
Ah wretched shepherd, what avails thy art,
To cure thy lambs, but not to heal thy heart!
Let other swains attend the rural care,
Feed fairer flocks, or richer fleeces sheer:
But nigh yon' mountain let me tune my lays,
Embrace my Love, and bind my brows with bays.
That flute is mine which Colin's tuneful breath
Inspir'd when living, and bequeath'd in death: 40
He said; Alexis, take this pipe, the same

That taught the groves my Rosalinda's name:

REMARKS.

Ver. 35, 36. care,] The only faulty rhymes, care and sheer, perhaps in these poems, where versification is in general so exact and correct.

Ver. 39. Colin] The name taken by Spenser in his Eclogues, where his mistress is celebrated under that of Rosalinda.

P.

Ver. 42. Rosalinda's] This is the lady with whom Spenser fell violently in love, as soon as he left Cambridge and went into the north; it is uncertain into what family, and in what capacity. Her name is an Anagram, and the letters of which it is composed will make out her true name; for Spenser (says the learned and ingenious Mr. Upton, his best Editor) is an Anagrammatist in many of his names: thus Algrind transposed is Archbishop Grindal; and Morrel is Bishop Elmer. He is supposed to hint at the cruelty and coquetry of his Rosalind in B. 6. of the Fairy Queen, in the character of Mirabella.

༄

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 40. bequeath'd in death, &c.] Virg. Ecl. ii.
"Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis
Fistula, Damotas dono mihi quam dedit olim,

Et dixit moriens, Te nunc habet ista secundum." P.