Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,
Tho' Gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here, 35
Where, in their bleffings, all thofe Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving profpect ftand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reapers hand;
Rich Industry fits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages paft,

40

A dreary defert, and a gloomy waste,
To favage beafts and favage laws a prey,

45

And kings more furious and severe than they; Who claim'd the skies, difpeopled air and floods, The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods : Cities laid wafte, they ftorm'd the dens and caves, (For wifer brutes were backward to be flaves.) What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd, And ev❜n the elements a Tyrant fway'd?

50

In

VER. 33. Not proud Olympus, etc.] Sir J. Denham, in his Cooper's Hill, had faid,

Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only, which supports the spheres.

The comparison is childish, for this flory of Atlas being fabulous, leaves no room for a compliment. OurPoet has been more artful (though he employs as fabulous a circumftance in his comparison) by fhewing in what the nobility of the hills of Windfor- Foreft confifts

Where, in their blessings, all thofe Gods appear, etc. not to speak of the beautiful turn of wit. VER. 45. Savage laws] The Forest Laws.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

VOL. I.

E

From

In vain kind feafons fwell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain;
The fwain with tears his fruftrate labour yields, 55
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beast or subject flain
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign?
Both doom'd alike, for fportive Tyrants bled,
But while the subject ftarv'd, the beast was fed. 60
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man :
Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game.
The fields are ravish'd from th' induftrious fwains,
From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes :
The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er ;
The hollow winds thro' naked temples roar;
Round broken columns clafping ivy twin'd;
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind;

70

The

VER. 65. The fields are ravishd, etc ] Alluding to the deftruction made in the New Foreft, and the tyrannies exercifed there by William I. P.

VARIATIONS.

From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran (For who first stoop'd to be a flave was man.)

VER. 57, etc.

No wonder favages or fubjects flain

But fubjects ftarv'd while favages were fed.

It was originally thus, but the word favages is not properly applied to beafts but to men; which occafioned the alteration.

P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 65. The fields were ravish'd from th' induftrious fwains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:]

Tran

The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires,
And favage howlings fill the facred quires.
Aw'd by his Nobles, by his Commons curst,
Th'Oppreffor rul'd tyrannic where he durft,
Stretch'd o'er the Poor and Church his iron rod, 75
And ferv'd alike his Vaffals and his God.
Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his fport remain.
But fee, the man who spacious regions gave
A wafte for beafts, himfelf deny'd a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope survey,
At once the chafer, and at once the
prey :
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rise.

E 2

80

85

Then

VER. 80 himself deny'd a grave !] The place of his interment at Caen in Normandy was claimed by a gentleman as his inheritance, the moment his fervants were going to put him in his tomb fo that they were obliged to compound with the owner before they could perform the King's obfequies.

VER. 81. fecond hope] Richard, fecond son of William the Conqueror.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 72. And wolves with howling fill, etc.

The Author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.

Tranflated from,

IMITATIONS.

Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva coloris, an old monkifh writer, I forget who. P.

P.

Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvefts fpread,
The forests wonder'd at th' unusual grain,
And fecret transport touch'd the conscious swain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddefs, rears

Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

L

Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your blood,

And purer spirits swell the fprightly flood,

Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95
Wind the fhrill horn, or fpread 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,
Couch'd close he lies, and meditates the prey:

VER.91.

VARKAT FON S.

101

Secure

Oh may no more a foreign master's rage,
With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age!
Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly wings,
Breath plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the
fprings. P.

VER. 97.

When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And into wine the purple harveft bleeds*,
The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,
Both morning fports and ev'ning pleasures yields.

* Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to describe the fezfon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the vintage. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 89. Miraturque novas frondes et non fua poma.

Virg

Secure they truft th' unfaithful field befet,

'Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,
106
Some thoughtlefs Town, with eafe and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the clofing lines invest;
Sudden they feize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,
And high in air Britannia's ftandard flies,

110

115

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, His purple creft, and scarlet-circled eyes, The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold? Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the fky, The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny. 120 To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: (Beafts, urg'd by us, their fellow beafsts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.)

E 3

VARIATIONS?

124

With

VER. 107. It food thus in the firft Editions,
Pleas'd, in the Gen'ral's 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.