The joy let others have, and we the name, 390 And what we want in pleasure, grant in fame.

The Queen affents, the trumpet rends the fkies, And at each blast a Lady's honour dies.

Pleas'd with the ftrange fuccefs, vaft numbers preft

Around the shrine, and made the fame request: 395 What you (the cry'd) unlearn'd in arts to please, Slaves to yourselves, and ev'n fatigu'd with ease, Who lose a length of undeferving days, Would you ufurp the lover's dear-bought praise? To juft contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall, 400 The people's fable, and the fcorn of all. Straight the black clarion fends a horrid found, 'Loud laughs burst out, and bitter fcoffs fly round, Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud, And fcornful hiffes run thro' all the croud. 405 Laft, those who boaft of mighty mischiefs done, Enflave their country, or ufurp a throne; Or who their glory's dire foundation laid On Sov'reign's ruin'd, or on friends betray'd; Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, Of crooked counfels and dark politics; 411

IMITATIONS.

VER. 406. Last, those who boast of mighty, etc.]
Tho came another companye,

That had y done the treachery, etc. P.

Of these a gloomy tribe surround the throne, And beg to make th' immortal treasons known. The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire, With sparks, that seem'd to fet the world on fire. At the dread found, pale mortals ftood aghaft, And ftartled nature trembled with the blaft.

This having heard and feen, fome pow'runknown Strait chang'd the scene, and fnatch'd me from the throne.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 418. This having heard and feen, etc.] The Scene here changes from the temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almoft entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow.

Tho faw I ftonde in a valey,
Under the castle fast by
A house, that Domus Dedali
That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made fo wonderly, I wis,
Ne half fo queintly y-wrought;
And evermo as fwift as thought,
This queint house about went,
That never more it ftill ftent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees,
In fummer, when they ben grene;
And in the roof yet men may fene
A thousand hoels and well mo,
To letten the foune out go;
And by day in every tide
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unfhet;
No
porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace:
Ne never reft is in that place. P.

Before my view appear'd a ftructure fair,
Its fite uncertain, if in earth or air;

420

With rapid motion turn'd the manfion round;
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls refound
Not lefs in number were the spacious doors,
Than leaves on trees, or fands upon the shores; 425
Which still unfolded stand, by night, by day,
Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way.
As flames by nature to the skies afcend,
As weighty bodies to the centre tend,
As to the fea returning rivers roll,
And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole;
Hither, as to their proper place, arise

430

;

All various founds from earth, and feas, and skies,
Or fpoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;
Nor ever filence, reft, or peace is here.
As on the smooth expanfe of crystal lakes
The finking stone at first a circle makes;
The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd,
Spreads in a fecond circle, then a third;
439
Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance,
Fill all the wat❜ry plain, and to the margin dance:

435

IMITATIONS.

VER. 428. As flames by nature to the, etc.] This thought is tranferr'd hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus,

Geffray, thou wotteft well this, etc. P.

Thus ev'ry voice and found, when firft they break
On neighb'ring air a foft impreffion make;
Another ambient circle then they move;
That, in its turn, impels the next above; 445
Thro' undulating air the founds are fent,
And spread o'er all the fluid element.

There various news I heard of love and ftrife,
Of peace and war, health, fickness, death, and life,
Of lofs and gain, of famine and of store, 450
Of storms at fea, and travels on the fhore,
Of prodigies, and portents feen in air,

Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great, 455
Of old mismanagements, taxations new:

All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 448. There various news I heard, etc.]
Of werres, of peace, of marriages,
Of reft, of labour, of voyages,
Of abode, of dethe, and of life,
Of love and hate, accord and ftrife,
Of lofs, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of fickness, and leffings,
Of divers tranfmutations

Of eftates and eke of regions,
Of trust, of drede, of jealousy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good, or bad government,
Of fire, and of divers accident. P.

Above, below, without, within, around, Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found, Who pass, repass, advance, and glide away; 460 Hofts rais'd by fear, and phantoms of a day: Aftrologers, that future fates foreshew, Projectors, quacks, and lawyers not a few; And priests, and party-zealots, num'rous bands With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands; Each talk'd aloud, or in fome fecret place, 466 And wild impatience ftar'd in ev'ry face. They flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd, Scarce any tale was fooner heard than told;

IMITATIONS.

VER. 458. Above, below, without, within, etc.]

But fuch a grete congregation
Of folke as I saw roam about,
Some within, and fome without,
Was never feen, ne fhall be eft—

And every wight that I faw there
Rowned everich in others ear
A new tyding privily,
Or elfe he told it openly
Right thus, and faid, Knowft not thou
That is betide to night now?

No, quoth he, tell me what?

And then he told him this and that, etc.
Thus north and fouth

Went every tiding fro mouth to mouth,
And that encreafing evermo,
As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a fparkle fprong amifs,
Till all the citee brent up

is.