My eyes, with tears moist'ning her snowy arms, 105
Render'd the tribute owing to her charms;
But as I fooneft of all mortals paid
My vows, and to her beauty altars made,

So among all those flaves that figh'd in vain
She thought me only worthy of my chain:
Love's heavy burden my fubmiffive heart
Endur'd not long before she bore her part:
My violent flame melted her frozen breaft,
And in foft fighs her pity fhe expreft:
Her gentle voice allay'd my raging pains,

110

And her fair hands fuftain'd me in my chains;

Ev'n tears of pity waited on my moan,

And tender looks were caft on me alone:

My hopes and dangers were lefs mine than her's,
Those fill'd her foul with joys, and these with fears;
Our hearts, united, had the fame desires,
And both alike burn'd with impatient fires.

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Too faithful Memory! I give thee leave Thy wretched master kindly to deceive; Oh! make me not possessor of her charms, Let me not find her languish in my arms: Paft joys are now my fancy's mournful themes; Make all my happy nights appear but dreams: Let not fuch blifs before my eyes be brought, O hide thofe fcenes from my tormenting thought! 130 And in their place disdainful beauty show; If thou wouldst not be cruel make her fo;

And, fomething to abate my deep defpair,
O let her seem lefs gentle or lefs fair!
But I in vain flatter my wounded mind;
Never was nymph fo lovely or fo kind.
No cold repulfes niy defires fuppreft,
feldom figh'd but on Almeria's breast:
Of all the paffions which mankind destroy,
I only felt:excess of love and joy:

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Unnumber'd pleasures charm'd my sense, and they

Were, as my love, without the least allay ;

As pure, alas! but not fo fure to laft,

For, like a pleafing dream, they are all past.

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From heav'n her beauties like fierce lightnings came
Which break thro' darkness with a glorious flame;
A while they shine, a while our minds amaze,
Our wond'ring eyes are dazzled with the blaze;
But thunder follows, whose refiftless rage

None can withstand, and nothing can affwage; 150
And all that light which thofe bright flashes gave
Serves only to conduct us to our grave.

When I had juft begun love's joys to taste,
(Those full rewards for fears and dangers past)
A fever feiz'd' her, and to nothing brought
The richest work that ever Nature wrought.
All things below, alas! uncertain stand;
The firmeft rocks are fix'd upon the fand:

155

Under this law both kings and kingdoms bend,

And no beginning is without an end.

160

A facrifice to time Fate dooms us all,
And at the tyrant's feet we daily fall:

Time, whofe bold hand will bring alike to duft
Mankind, and temples too in which they trust.

Her wafted fpirits now begin to faint,
Yet patience ties her tongue from all complaint,
And in her heart as in a fort remains,
But yields at last to her resistless pains.
Thus while the Fever, am'rous of his prey,
Thro' all her veins makes his delightful way,
Her fate 's like Semele's; the flames destroy
That beauty they too eagerly enjoy,
Her charming face is in its spring decay'd,
Pale grow the rofes, and the lilies fade;
Her fkin has loft that luftre which furpast
The fun's, and well deferv'd as long to laft:

Her
eyes, which us'd to pierce the hardest hearts,
Are now difarm'd of all their flames and darts;
Thofe ftars now heavily and flowly move,
And Sickness triumphs in the throne of Love.
The fever ev'ry moment more prevails,
Its rage her body feels and tongue bewails;
She, whofe difdain fo many lovers prove,
Sighs now for torment as they sigh for love,

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And with loud cries, which rend the neighb'ring air,
Wounds my fad heart, and weakens my despair. 186
Both men and gods I charge now with my loss,
And wild with grief my thoughts each other cross;

N

My heart and tongue labour in both extremes;

This fends up humble pray'rs, while that blafphemes: I ask their help whofe malice I defy,

And mingle facrilege with piety:

But that which muft yet more perplex my mind,
To love her truly I must seem unkind :

So unconcern'd a face my forrow wears,
I must restrain unruly floods of tears.

My eyes and tongue put on diffembling forms,
fhew a calmness in the midst of storms;
I feem to hope when all my hopes are gone,
And, almost dead with grief, difcover none.
But who can long deceive a loving eye,
Or with dry eyes behold his mistress die?
When paffion had, with all its terrors, brought
Th' approaching danger nearer to my thought,
Off on a fudden fell the forc'd difguife,
And fhew'd a fighing heart in weeping eyes:
My apprehenfions, now no more confin'd,
Expos'd my forrows, and betray'd my mind.
The fair afflicted foon perceives my tears,

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200

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Explains my fighs, and thence concludes my fears:
With fad prefages of her hopelefs cafe,

She reads her fate in my dejected face,
'Then feels my torment, and neglects her own,
While I am fenfible of her's alone:

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Each does the other's burthen kindly bear,
I fear her death, and fhe bewails my fear.

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Tho' thus we fuffer under Fortune's darts,
"Tis only those of love which reach our hearts.
Mean-while the fever mocks at all our fears,
Grows by our fighs, and rages at our tears:
Those vain effects of our as vain defire,
Like wind and oil, increase the fatal fire.
Almeria then, feeling the Deftinies
About to fhut her lips and close her eyes,

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Weeping, in mine fix'd her fair trembling hand, 225 And with these words I fcarce could understand,

Her paffion in a dying voice exprest

Half, and her fighs, alas! made out the rest.

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""Tis paft; this pang-Nature gives o'er the ftrife; "Thou must thy mistress lofe, and I my life. "I die; but, dying thine, the Fates may prove "Their conquest over me, but not my love: "Thy memory, my glory and my pain, "In spite of Death itself shall still remain. "Dearest Orontes! my hard fate denies

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"That hope is the last thing which in us dies: "From my griev'd breast all those soft thoughts are "And love furvives it tho' my hope is dead: [fled, " I yield my life, but keep my paflion yet, "And can all thoughts but of Orontes quit.

"My flame increases as my strength decays;

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"Death, which puts out the light, the heat will raise : "That still remains, tho' I from hence remove;

"I lofe my lover, but I keep my love."