May this rude lay from age to age remain,

A true memorial of this lovely train.

Come, charming maid, and hear thy poet fing,
Thyfelf the rofe, and He the bird of spring:
Love bids him fing, and Love will be obey❜d.

Be gay too foon the flow'rs of Spring will fade.

Omerem buleh, Mefihi, bu merbai ifhtihar,

Ehlene ola bu charabru u giuzeller yadgar,
Bulbuli khofh gui fen gulyuzluler leh yuriwar.
Vh u nush it kim gicher kalmaz bu eiami behar.

By thefe ftrains I hoped to celebrate this delightful valley: may they be a memorial to its inhabitants, and remind them of this affembly, and these fair maids! Thou art a nightingale with a sweet voice, Q Mefibi, when thou walkeft with the damfels, whose cheeks are like rofes. Be cheerful; be full of mirth; for the Spring passes foon away: it will not laft.

P

:.

XXX

ARCADIA,

A PASTORAL POEM.

ADVERTISEMENT.

T

HE following paftoral was written in the year 1762; but the author, finding fome tolerable paffages in it, was induced to correct it afterwards, and to give it a place in this collection. He took the hint of it from an allegory of Mr. Addison in the thirty fecond paper of the Guardian; which is set down in the margin, that the reader may fee where he has copied the original, and where he has deviated from it. In this piece, as it now ftands, Menalcas, king of the shepherds, means Theocritus, the most ancient, and, perhaps, the best writer of paftorals; and by his two daughters, Daphne, and Hyla, must be understood the two forts of paftoral poetry, the one elegant and polished, the other P 2

fimple

fimple and unadorned, in both of which he excelled. Virgil, whom Pope chiefly followed, seems to have born away the palm in the higher fort; and Spenfer, whom Gay imitated with fuccefs, had equal merit in the more rustick ftyle: these two poets, therefore, may juftly be supposed in this allegory to have inherited his kingdom of Arcadia.

( 117 ).

ARCA DI A.

N those fair plains, where glitt'ring Ladon roll'd

IN

His wanton labyrinth o'er fands of gold,

Menalcas reign'd: from Pan his lineage came;
Rich were his vales, and deathless was his fame.

IMITATIONS.

Guardian. N°. 32.

In ancient times there dwelt in a pleasant vale of Arcadia a man of very ample poffeffions, named Menalcas, who, deriving his pedigree from the god Pan, kept very ftrictly up to the rules of the paftoral life, as it was in the golden age.

When

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