Tells us,

He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And sure such kind good creatures may be living
In days of old they pardon'd breach of vows;
Stern Cato's self was no relentless spouse :
Plu— Plutarch, what's his name, that writes his life?

that Cato dearly loved his wife :
Yet if a friend, a night or so, should need her,
He'd recommend her as a special breeder.
To lend a wife, few here would scruple make;
But, pray, which of you all would take her back?
Though with the stoic chief our stage may ring,
The stoic husband was the glorious thing.
The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,
And loved his country—but what's that to you?
Those strange examples ne'er were made to fit ye,
But the kind cuckold might instruct the city.
There many an honest man may copy Cato,
Who ne'er saw naked sword, or look'd in Plato.

If, after all, you think it a disgrace, That Edward's miss thus perks it in your face; To see a piece of failing flesh and blood, In all the rest so impudently good; Faith, let the modest matrons of the town Come here in crowds, and stare the strumpet down

SAPPHO TO PHAON.
From the fifteenth of Ovid's Epistles.

ARGUMENT.
Phaon, a youth of exquisite beauty, was deeply ena.

moured of Sappho, a lady of Lesbos, from whom he met with the tenderest returns of passion : but his affection afterwards decaying, he left her and sailed for Sicily. She, unable to bear the loss of her lover, hearkened to all the mad suggestions of despair; and seeing no other remedy for her present miseries, rc solved to throw herself into the sea, from Leucate, a proinontory of Epirus, which was thought a cure in

cases of obstinate love, and therefore had obtained the
name of the Lover's Leap. But before she ventured
upon this last step, entertaining still some fond hopes
that she might reclaim her inconstant, she wrote him
this epistle, in which she gives him a strong picture
of her distress and misery, occasioned by his absence:
and endeavours by all the artful insinuations and
moving expressions she is mistress of, to sooth him to
softness and mutual feeling. (Anon.)

Say, lovely youth, that dost my heart command,
Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand ?
Must then her name the wretched writer prove,
To thy remembrance lost, as to thy love?
Ask not the cause that I new numbers choose,
The lute neglected, and the Lyric Muse.
Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow,
And tuned my heart to elegies of woe.
I burn, I burn, as when through ripen'd corn
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne.
Phaon to Etna's scorching fields retires,
While I consume with more than Etna's fires !
No more my soul a charm in music finds,
Music has charms alone for peaceful minds:
Soft scenes of solitude no more can please,
Love enters there, and I'm my own disease.
No more the Lesbian dames my passion move,
Once the dear objects of my guilty love ;
All other loves are lost in only thine,
Ah, youth ungrateful to a flame like mine!
Whom would not all those blooming charms surpriso
Those heavenly looks, and dear deluding eyes ?
The harp and bow would you like Phæbus bear,
A brighter Phæbus Phaon might appear;
Would you with ivy wreathe your flowing nair,
Not Bacchus' self with Phaon could compare:
Yet Phæbus loved, and Bacchus felt the flame,
One Daphne warm’d, and one the Cretan dame;
Nymphs that in verse no more could rival me,
Than e'en those gods contend in charms with thee

l'he muses teach me all their softest lays, And the wide world resounds with Sappho's praise Though great Alcrus more sublimely sings, And strikes with bolder rage the sounding strings, No less renown attends the moving lyre, Which Venus tunes, and all her loves inspire; To me what nature has in charms denied, Is well by wit's more lasting flames supplied. Though short my stature, yet my name extends To heaven itself, and earth's remotest ends. Brown as I am, an Ethiopian dame Inspired young Perseus with a generous flame; Turtles and doves of different hues unite, And glossy jet is pair'd with shining white. If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resign, But such as merit, such as equal thine, By none, alas! by none thou canst be moved : Phaon alone by Phaon must be loved ! Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ; Once in her arms you centred all your joy: No time the dear remembrance can remove, For, oh ! how vast a memory has love! My music, then you could for ever hear, And all my words were music to your ear You stopp'd with kisses my enchanting tongue, And found my kisses sweeter than my song. In all I pleased, but most in what was best ; And the last joy was dearer than the rest. Then with each word, each glance, each motion fired You still enjoy’d, and yet you still desired, Till all dissolving in the trance we lay, And in tumultuous raptures died away. The fair Sicilians now thy soul inflame: Why was I born, ye gods! a Lesbian dame ? But ah, beware, Sicilian nymphs! nor boast That wandering heart which I so lately lost; Nor be with all those tempting words abused, Those tempting words were all to Sappho used

And

you that rule Sicilia's happy plains,
Have pity, Venus, on your poet's pains!
Shall fortune still in one sad tenor run,
And still increase the woes so soon begun ?
Inured to sorrow from my

tender

years, My parent's ashes drank my early tears : My brother next, neglecting wealth and fame, Ignobly burn'd in a destructive flame; An infant daughter late my griefs increased, And all a mother's cares distract my breast. Alas! what more could fate itself impose, But thee, the last and greatest of my woes ? No more my robes in waving purple flow, Nor on my hand the sparkling diamonds glow; No more my locks, in ringlets curl d, diffuse The costly sweetness of Arabian dews; Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind, That fly disorder'd with the wanton wind : For whom should Sappho use such arts as these 1 He's gone,

whom only she desired to please ! Cupid's light darts my tender bosom move, Still is there cause for Sappho still to love: So from my birth the Sisters fix'd my doom, And gave to Venus all my life to come ; Or, while my muse in melting notes complains, My yielding heart keeps measure to my strains. By charms like thine, which all my soul have won Who might not-ah! who would not be undone ? For those Aurora Cephalus might scorn, And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn : For those might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's sleep, And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep : Venus for those had rapt thee to the skies, But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyes. O scarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy! O useful time for lovers to employ! Pride of thy age and glory of thy race, Come to these arms, and melt in this embrace !

The vows you never will return, receive;
And take at least the love you will not give.
See, while I wrice, my words are lost in tears!
The less my sense, the more my love appears.
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu ;
(At least to feign was never hard to you !)

Farewell, my Lesbian love, you might have said ;
Or coldly thus, ' Farewell, oh Lesbian maid !
No tear did you, no parting kiss receive,
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve.
No lover's gift your Sappho could confer,
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her.
No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, 'Be mindful of our loves, and live.'
Now by the Nine, those powers adored by me,
And Love, the god that ever waits on thee,
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,
Like some sad statue, speechless, pale I stood,
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood
No sigh to rise, no tear had power to flow,
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of wo:
But when its way the impetuous passion founa,
I rend my tresses, and my breast I wound;
I rave; then weep;

I
curse,

and then complain ;
Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame,
Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame.
My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Insults my woes, and triumphs in my tears :
His hated image ever haunts my eyes ;
* And why this grief? thy daughter lives,' he cries.
Stung with my love, and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim:
Such inconsistent things are love and shame!
'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night