Oft' on the rind I carv'd her am'rous vows, While the with garlands hung the bending boughs: 70 Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful strain! Now bright Arcturus glads the teeming grain, Now golden fruits on loaded branches shine, And grateful clusters fwell with floods of wine; Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove; 75 Juft Gods! fhall all things yield returns but love? Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful lay! The fhepherds cry, Thy flocks are left a prey”— Ah! what avails it me, the flocks to keep, Who loft my heart while I preferv'd my fheep. Pan came, and ask'd, what magic caus'd my smart Or what ill eyes malignant glances dart? What eyes but hers, alas, have pow'r to move! And is there magic but what dwells in love! 80 84 Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful ftrains! I'll fly from fhepherds, flocks, and flow'ry plains, From fhepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove, Forfake mankind, and all the world-but love! I know thee, Love! on foreign mountains bred, Wolves gave thee fuck, and favage tigers fed. REMARKS. 90 VER. 82. dart?] It should be darted; the prefent tense is used for the fake of the rhyme. IMITATIONS. VER. 82. Or what ill eyes] "Nefcio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." VOL. I. P. Thou 95 Thou wert from Aetna's burning entrails torn, REMARKS. 100 VER. 97. Thus fung] Among the multitude of English Poets who wrote paitorals, Fairfax, to whom our Verfification is thought to be fo much indebted, ought to be mentioned. He wrote ten or twelve Eclogues after the acceffion of James I. They were like those of Mantuan and Spenfer, allegorical, and alluded to the manners and characters of the times, and contained many fatyrical strokes against the King and his Court. They were loft in the fire that confumed the Banquetting House at Whitehall; but it is faid that Mr. W. Fairfax, his fon, recovered them from his father's papers; the fourth of them was published by Mrs. Cooper in the Mufes Library, 1737. VER. 98. 100.] There is a little inaccuracy here; the first line makes the time after fun-fet; the fecond, before. W. VER. 100. And the low fun] Mr. Gray's Evening, defcribed in the two firft ftanzas of his excellent Elegy, is far more picturesque and poetical. I would propofe to read the two first lines of his elegy with a new punctuation, as follows: The curfew tolls! the knell of parting day! VER. 89. IMITATIONS. "Nunc fcio quid fit Amor: duris in cotibus illum," &c. P. This from Virgil is much inferior to the paffage in Theocritus, from whence it is taken. WINTER: THE FOURTH PASTORAL, O R, DAPHN E. TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. TEMPEST. LYCID A S. T HYRSIS, the music of that murm'ring fpring Is not fo mournful as the strains REMARKS. WINTER.] This was the Poet's favourite Paftoral. Mrs. Tempeft.] This Lady was of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and particularly admired by the Author's friend Mr. Walsh*, who having celebrated her in a Paftoral Elegy, defired his friend to do the fame, as appears from one of his Letters, IMITATIONS. VER. 1. Thirfis, the mufic, &c.] Adú Ti, &c. Theocr. Id. i. * On lately reading Mr. Walfh's Preface to Dryden's tranflation of Virgil's Eclogues, I was convinced he had a greater share of learning than he is ufually allowed to poffefs. His ftrictures on the French language and manners, and on Fontenelle's affected and unnatural eclogues, as well as on his vain attempt to depreciate the Ancients, are very solid and judicious. To what he has faid of Virgil may be added, that one of the most natural strokes in all his eclogues, is the fhepherd's reckoning his years by the fucceffion of his loves; Poftquam nos Amaryllis habetThis paftoral chronology is much in character. G 2 Now Now fleeping flocks on their foft fleeces lie, THYRS I S. Behold the groves that shine with filver froft, That call'd the lift'ning Dryads to the plain? REMARKS. 5 ΙΟ Letters, dated Sept. 9, 1706. "Your laft Eclogue being on the fame fubject with mine, on Mrs. Tempeft's death, I should take it very kindly in you to give it a little turn, as if it were to the memory of the fame lady." Her death having happened on the night of the great storm in 1703, gave a propriety to this eclogue, which in its general turn alludes to it. The fcene of the Paftoral lies in a grove, the time at midnight. P. I do not find any lines that allude to the great form of which the Poet fpeaks. VER. 9. fine with filver froft,] The image is a fine one, but improperly placed. The idea he would raife is the deformity of Winter, as appears by the following line: but this imagery contradicts it. It fhould have been--glare with hoary froft, or fome fuch expreffion: the fame inaccuracy in ver. 31, where he ufes pearls, when he should have said tears. W. The alteration here propofed by Warburton, feems to be very injudicious and inelegant; and much resembles an alteration he wished to make in Love's Labour Loft; which was, to read-to paint the meadows much bedight, instead of the prefent reading, -to paint the meadows with delight. IMITATIONS. VER. 13. Thames heard, &c.] "Audiit Eurotas, juffitque edifcere lauros." Virg. P. So LYCIDA S. So may kind rains their vital moisture yield, And fwell the future harveft of the field. 15 Begin; this charge the dying Daphne gave, And with fresh bays her rural fhrine adorn. THYRS I S. 20 Ye gentle Mufes, leave your crystal spring, Let Nymphs and Sylvans cypress 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, 25 Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone: "Let nature change, let heav'n 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! 30 Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours scatter'd on her bier. VARIATIONS. VER 29. Originally thus in the MS. 'Tis done, and nature's chang'd fince you are gone; Which are very bad lines indeed. REMARKS. W. VER. 29. 'Tis done,] Thomson ufes thefe very words at the end of his Winter. VER. 23, 24, 25. 'Tis done! Sc. IMITATIONS. "Inducite fontibus umbras Et tumulum facite, et tumulo fuperaddite carmen." G 3 P. See, |