Thefe, were my breaft infpir'd with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, fhould be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water feem to ftrive again;
Not Chaos-like together crufh'd and bruis'd'
But, as the world, harmonioufly confus'd:
Where order in variety we fee,

And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As fome coy nymph her lover's warm addrefs
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite reprefs.
There, interfpers'd in lawns and op'ninp glades,
Thin trees arife that fhun each other's fhades.
Here in full light the ruffet plains extend:
There wrapt in clouds the blueifh hills afcend.
Ev'n the wild heath difplays her purple dyes,
And 'midft the defert fruitful fields arife,
That crown'd with tufted trees and fpringing corn,
Like verdant ifles the fable wafte adorn.
Let India boaft her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber or the balmy tree,

15

20

1

25

30

While by our oaks the precious loads are born,

And realms commanded which thofe trees adorn.
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,
Tho' Gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 25. Originally thus;

Why fhould I fing our better funs or air,
Whofe vital draughts prevent the leach's care,
while thro' fresh fields th'enliv'ning odours breathe,
Or spread with vernal blooms the purple heath?

Than what more humble mountains offer here,
Where, in their bleflings, all thofe Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd;
Here blufhing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres gifts in waving profpect ftand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand;
Rich Induftry fits fmiling on the plains,

And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,

35

40

45

A dreary defert, and a gloomy wafte,
To favage beafts and favage laws a prey,
And kings more furious and fevere than they;
Who claim'd the fkies, difpeopled air and floods,
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:
Cities laid wafte, they ftorin'd the dens and caves,
(For wifer brutes were backward to be flaves,)
What could be free, when lawlefs beafts obey'd,
And ev'n the elements a Tyrant -fway'd?
In vain kind feafons fwell'd the teeming grain,
Soft fhow'rs diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain;
The fwain with tears his fruftrate labour yields, $5
And famifh'd dies amidft his ripen'd fields..
What wonder then, a beat or fubject flain

VARIATIONS.

VER. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

From towns laid wafte, to dens and caves they ran
(For who firft ftoop'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.

60

Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign?
Both doom'd alike, for sportive Tyrants bled,
But while the fubject starv'd the beast was fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A migthy hunter, and his prey was man:
Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game. 64
The fields are ravifh'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 ftalk'd the ftately hind;
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 durst,
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.

VARIATIONS.

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

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

NOTES.

VER. 65. The fields are ravish'd etc.)

Alluding to the de

ftruction made in the New Foreft, and the Tyrannies exercised there by William I.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 65. The fields are ravish'd from th' induftrions fwains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes :) Translated from

Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,

an old monkish writer, I forget who.

But fee, the man,
who fpacious regions gave
A wafte for beafts, himself deny'd a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope furvey,
At once the chafer, and at once the prey:
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rife,
Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forefts wonder'd at th' unusual grain.
And fecret tranfport touch'd the confcious fwain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddefs, rears
Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

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85

91

Ye'vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly 'flood, Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95 Wind the fhrill horn, or fpread the waving net.

VER. 91.

VARIATIONS.

Oh may no more a foreign master's rage,

With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age!

Still spread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly wings,

Breath plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the fprings
NOTES.

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 pur 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 fon of William the Conqueror.

IMITATIONS.

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

Virg.

101

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 betay,
Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they truft th' unfaithful field befet,
'Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her cager fons to war,
Some thoughts Town, with ease and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the closing lines inveft;
Sudden they feize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,

And high in air Britannia's ftandard flies.

106

110

See! from the brake the whirring pheafant fprings, 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,

VER. 97.

VARIATIONS.

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

a) Perlaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the

vintage.

VER. 107. It food thus in the firft Editions:

Pleas'd, in the Gen'tals fight, the hot lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;

The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize,
And o'er their captive heads Britannia's fandard Aies.

VER. IS.

IMITATIONS.

nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,

Virg.

Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit.