HYRSIS, the music of that murmuring spring
Is not fo mournful as the strains you fing.
Nor rivers winding through the vales below,
So fweetly warble, or fo fmoothly flow.
Now fleeping flocks on their foft fleeces lie,
The moon, ferene in glory, mounts the sky,
While filent birds forget their tuneful lays,
O fing of Daphne's fate, and Daphne's praife!

THYRSIS.

Behold the
groves that fhine with filver froft,
Their beauty wither'd, and their verdure loft.
Here fhall I try the fweet Alexis' strain,
That call'd the listening Dryads to the plain?
Thames heard the numbers, as he flow'd along,
And bade his willows learn the moving song.

LYCIDAS.

5

10

So may kind rains their vital moisture yield,

15

And fwell the future harvest of the field.

Begin; this charge the dying Daphne gave,
And faid, "Ye fhepherds, fing around my grave!"
Sing, while befide the shaded tomb I mourn,
And with fresh bays her rural shrine adorn.

THYRSIS.

Ye gentle Mufes, leave your crystal spring, Let Nymphs and Sylvans cyprefs garlands bring; Ye weeping Loves, the ftream with myrtles hide, And break your bows as when Adonis dy’d; And with your golden darts, now useless grown, Infcribe a verfe on this relenting stone: "Let nature change, let heaven and earth deplore, "Fair Daphne's dead, and Love is now no more!" 'Tis done, and nature's various charms decay: See gloomy clouds obfcure the chearful day! Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours featter'd on her bier. See where, on earth, the flowery glories lie, With her they flourish'd, and with her they die. Ah, what avail the beauties nature wore? Fair Daphne's dead, and Beauty is no more!

20

25

30

35

For her the flocks refuse their verdant food,

The thirsty heifers fhun the gliding flood,

The filver fwans her haplefs fate bemoan,

In notes more fad than when they fing their own;

40

In hollow caves fweet Echo filent lies,

Silent, or only to her name replies;

VARIATION.

Ver. 29. Originally thus in the MS.

Her

'Tis done, and nature's chang'd fince you are gone; Behold the clouds have " put their mourning on."

Her name with pleasure once the taught the shore,
Now Daphne's dead, and Pleasure is no more!

No grateful dews descend from evening skies,
Nor morning odours from the flowers arise;
No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field,
Nor fragrant herbs their native incense yield.
The balmy Zephyrs, filent fince her death,
Lament the ceafing of a sweeter breath;
Th' industrious bees neglect their golden ftore!
Fair Daphne's dead, and Sweetness is no more!
No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings,
Shall, listening in mid air, suspend their wings;
No more the birds shall imitate her lays,

Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays :
No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear,
A fweeter mufic than their own to hear;

45

55

But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal fhore,
Fair Daphne's dead, and Music is no more!

66

Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in fighs to all the trembling trees;
The trembling trees, in every plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the filver flood:
The filver flood, fo lately calm, appears

Swell'd with new paffion, and o'erflows with tears;
The winds and trees and floods her death deplore,
Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more!

65

But fee! where Daphne wondering mounts on high
Above the clouds, above the starry sky!
Eternal beauties grace the fhining scene,
Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!

70

There

There while you reft in Amaranthine bowers,
Or from thofe meads felect unfading flowers,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore,
Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS,

How all things liften, while thy Mufe complains! Such filence waits on Philomela's strains,

75

80

In some still evening, when the whispering breeze
Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.
To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,
If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.
While plants their fhade, or flowers their odours give,
Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise, shall live!

THYRSIS.

But fee, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arife, the pines a noxious fhade diffuse ; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we muft Time obey. Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams, and groves, Adieu, ye shepherds' rural lays and loves; Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye fylvan crew; Daphne, farewell; and all the world adieu!

VARIATION.

Ver. 83. Originally thus in the MS.

85

90

MES

While vapours rife, and driving snows defcend,
Thy honour, name, and praise, shall never end.

NOTE.

Ver. 89, &c.] Thefe four laft lines allude to the feveral fubjects of the four Paftorals, and to the several fcenes of them particularized before in each.

When weary reapers quit the fultry field,

And crown'd with corn their thanks to Ceres yield.
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from bloffoms fip the rofy dew,
But Alexis knows no fweets but you,
your.

Oh deign to vifit our forfaken feats,

The moffy fountains, and the green retreats!

Where'er you walk, cool gales fhall fan the glade,
Trees, where you fit, fhall croud into a shade :
Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers fhall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes,
Oh! how I long with you to pass my days,
Invoke the Muses, and refound your praise !

Your praise the birds shall chant in every grove,
And winds shall waft it to the powers above.
But would you fing, and rival Orpheus' strain,
The wondering forests soon should dance again,
The moving mountains hear the powerful call,
And headlong streams hang listening in their fall!
But fee, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat,
The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat,
To closer fhades the panting flocks remove;
Ye gods! and is there no relief for Love?

Ver. 79, 80.

VARIATION.

Your praise the tuneful birds to heaven shall bear,
And liftening wolves grow milder as they hear.

65

70

75

80

85

But

So the verses were originally written: But the author, young as he was, foon found the abfurdity, which Spenfer himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England.