IRST in these fields I try the fylvan strains,

FIR

Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains:
Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred spring,
While on thy banks Sicilian Muses fing;
Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play,
And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay.
You that, too wife for pride, too good for power,
Enjoy the glory to be great no more,

And, carrying with you all the world can boast,
To all the world illuftriously are loft!

O let my Mufe her flender reed infpire,
Till in your native fhades you tune the lyre:
So when the Nightingale to reft removes,
The Thrush may chant to the forfaken groves,
But charm'd to filence, liftens while fhe fings,
And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.
Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews,
Two Swains, whom Lovę kept wakeful, and the Muse,
Pour'd

Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care,
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:

The dawn now blushing on the mountain's fide,
Thus Daphnis fpoke, and Strephon thus reply'd.

DAPHNI S..

Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day! Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing, When warbling Philomel falutes the fpring? Why fit we fad, when Phosphor shines so clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year?

STREP HON.

Sing then, and Damon shall attend the ftrain,
While yon' flow oxen turn the furrow'd plain.
Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow;
Here western winds on breathing roses blow.
I'll stake yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing fhade furveys.

DAPHNIS.

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,
And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines :
Four figures rifing from the work appear,
The various feafons of the rolling year;

And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?

20

25

30

35

40

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 34. The first reading was,

And his own image from the bank furveys.
Ver. 36. And clusters lurk beneath the curling vines.

DA

DAMON.

Then fing by turns, by turns the Mufes fing, Now hawthorns bloffom, now the daifies fpring, Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the ground; Begin, the vales shall every note rebound.

STREPHON.

Infpire me, Phœbus, in my Delia's praife,
With Waller's ftrains, or Granville's moving lays!
A milk-white bull shall at your altars ftand,
That threats a fight, and spurns the rising fand.

DAPHNIS.

45

O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes;

50

No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart,
Thy victim, Love, shall be the fhepherd's heart.

STREPHON.

Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in fhades, eludes her eager fwain; But feigns a laugh, to fee me fearch around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found.

DAPHNI S.

The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green,
She runs, but hopes fhe does not run unfeen;
While a kind glance at her purfuer flies,
How much at variance are her feet and eyes!

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

Pan, let my numbers equal Strephon's lays,
Of Parian stone thy ftatue will I raise;
But if I conquer and augment my fold,
Thy Parian ftatue fhall be chang'd to gold.

55

60

STRE

STREP HON.

O'er golden fands let rich Pactolus flow,
And trees weep amber on the banks of Po;
Bleft Thames's fhores the brightest beauties yield,
Feed here my lambs, I'll feek no distant field.

DAPHNIS.

Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves;
Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves :

If Windfor fhades delight the matchless maid,
Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windfor-fhade.

STREP HON.

All nature mourns, the skies relent in fhowers, Hush'd are the birds, and clos'd the drooping flowers; If Delia fmile, the flowers begin to fpring, The skies to brighten, and the birds to fing.

65

71

VARIATIONS.

DAPH

Ver. 61. It ftood thus at first :

Let rich Iberia golden fleeces boast,
Her purple wool the proud Affyrian coast,
Bleft Thames's fhores, &c.

Ver. 61. Originally thus in the MS.

Go, flowery wreath, and let my Sylvia know,
Compar'd to thine how bright her beauties fhow:
Then die; and dying, teach the lovely maid
How foon the brightest beauties are decay'd.

DAPHNI S.

Go, tuneful bird, that pleas'd the woods fo long,
Of Amaryllis learn a fweeter fong:

To Heav'n arifing then her notes convey,
For Heav'n alone is worthy fuch a lay.