Could bribe his choice ; yourself alone can prove
A fit reward for fo refin'd a love.
Relent, fair nyinph ; and, with a kind regret,
Think 'tis Vertumnus weeping at your feet.
A tale attend, through Cyprus known, to prove
How Venus once reveng’d neglected love.
Iphis, of vulgar birth, by chance had view'd
Fair Anaxaretè of Teucer's blood.
Not long had he beheld the royal dame,
Ere the bright sparkle kindled into flame.
Oft' did he struggle with a just despair,
Unfix'd to ask, unable to forbear.
But Love, who flatters fill his own disease,
Hopes all things will succeed, he knows will please.
Where-e'er the fair-one haunts, he hovers there;
And seeks her confident with sighs, and prayer ;
Or letters he conveys, that seldom prove
Successless messengers in suits of love.
Now shivering at her gates the wretch
appears,
And myrtle garlands on the columns rears,
Wet with a deluge of unbidden tears.
The nymph, more hard than rocks, more deaf than seas,
Derides his prayers ; insults his agonies;
Arraigns of insolence th' aspiring fwain ;
And takes a cruel pleasure in his pain.
Refolu'd
Resolu'd at last to finish his despair,
He thus upbraids th' inexorable fair :
O Anaxarerè, at last forget
The licence of a pailion indiscreet.
Now triumph, fince a welcome sacrifice
Your slave prepares, to offer to your eyes.
My life, without reluctance, I refign;
That present best can please a pride like thine.
But, O! forbear to blast a flame so bright,
Doom'd never to expire, but with the light.
And you, great powers, do justice to my name;
The hours, you take from life, restore to fame.
Then o'er the polls, once hung with wreaths, he throws
The ready cord, and fits the fatal noose;
For Death prepares; and, bounding from above,
At once the wretch concludes his life, and love.
Ei elong the people gather, and the dead
Is to his mourning mother's arms convey’d.
First, like some ghaitly ftatue, the appears ;
Then bathes the breathless corse in seas of tears,
And gives it to the pile ; now, as the throng
Proceed in sad solemnity along,
To view the passing pomp, the cruel fair
Hastes, and beholds her breathless lover there.
Struck with the fight, inanimate the seems;
Set are her eyes, and motionless her limbs :
Her features without fire, her colour gone,
And, like her heart, the hardens into ftone.
In Salamis the statue full is seen,
In the fam'd temple of the Cyprian queen.
Warni
Warn’d by this tale, no longer then disdain,
O Nymph belov’d, to eafé a lover's pain.
the frosts in spring your blotToms spare, And winds their rude autumnal
rage
forbear!
The story oft' Vertumnus urg'd in vain,
But then assum'd his heavenly form again.
Such looks and lustre the bright youth adorn,
As when with rays glad Phæbus paints the morn.
The sight so warms the fair admiring maid,
Like snow she melts : so soon can youth persuade.
Confent, on eager winds, succeeds desire ;
And both the lovers glow with mutual fire.
THE LATIAN LINE CONTINUED.
Now Procas yielding to the Fates, his son
Mild Numitor succeeded to the crown.
But false Amulius, with a lawless power,
At length depos’d his brother Numitor.
Then llia's valiant issue, with the sword,
Her parent re-inthron'd, the rightful lord.
Next Romulus to people Rome contrives ;
The joyous time of Pales' feast arrives ;
He gives the word to seize the Sabine wives.
The fires enrag'd take arms, by Tatius led,
Bold to revenge their violated bed.
A fort there was, not yet unknown to fame,
Callid the Tarpeian, its commander's name.
This by the false Tarpeia was betray'd ;
But Death well recompens’d the treacherous maid.
The
The foe on this new-bought success relies,
And silent march the city to surprize.
Saturnia's arts with Sabine arms combine;
But Venus countermines the vain design;
Intreats the nymphs that o'er the springs preside,
Which near the fane of hoary Janus glide,
To send their succours; every urn they drain,
To stop the Sabines progress, but in vain.
The Naiads now more stratagems essay;
And kindling fulphur to each source convey.
The floods ferment, hot exhalations rise,
Till from the scalding ford the army
flies.
Soon Romulus appears in shining arms,
And to the war the Roman legions warms :
The battle rages, and the field is spread
With nothing but the dying and the dead.
Both sides consent to treat without delay,
And their two chiefs at once the sceptre fway.
But, Tatius by Lavinian fury slain,
Great Romulus continued long to reign.
THE ASSUMPTION OF ROMULUS.
Now Warrior Mars his burnish'd helm put's on,
And thus addresses Heaven's imperial throne:
Since the interior world is now become
One vassal globe, and colony to Rome,
This grace, O Jove, for Romulus I claim,
Admit him to the skies, from whence he came.
L3
Long haft thou promis'd an æthereal state
To Mars's lineage ; and thy word is fate.
The Sire, that rules the thunder, with a nod
Declar'd the fiat, and difmiss'd the God.
Soon as the power armipotent survey'd
The flashing skies, the signal he obey'd ;
And, leaning on his lance, he mounts his car,
His fiery coursers lashing through the air.
Mount Palatine he gains, and finds his son
Good laws enacting on a peaceful throne ;
'The fcales of heavenly justice holding high,
With steady hand, and a difcerning cye.
Then vaults upon his car, and to the spheres,
Swift, as a flying shaft, Rome's founder bears.
The parts more pure in rising are refin'd,
The grofs and perishable lag behind.
His shrine in purple vestments stands in view;
He looks a God, and is Quirinus now.
THE ASSUMPTION OF HERSILIA.
Erelong the Goddess of the nuptial bed,
With pity mov’d, sends Iris in her stead
To fad Hersilia-Thus the Meteor Maid :
Chafte reliet ! in bright truth to Heaven ally'd,
The Sabines' glory, and the sex's pride ;
Honour'd on earth, and worthy of the love
Of such a spouse, as now resides above;
Some respite to thy killing griefs afford;
And, if thou would'st once more behold thy lord,
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