Ecce baccata recentis guttulæ roris micant,
Per genam rofæ cadentes, perque mite lilium:
Auribus gratum, puellæ, fit meum veftris melos;
Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit,

abit!

Ut rofa in prato refulget, fic teres virgo nitet,
Hæc onufta margaritis, illa roris gemmulis :

Ne perenne vel puellæ vel rofæ fperes decus.

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit, abit!

Afpice, ut rofeta amictu difcolori fplendeant,

Prata dum fœcundat æther læta gratis imbribus,

Fervidos inter fodales da voluptati diem.

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit,

abit!

Jam fitu deformis ægro non jacet rofæ calyx;
Ver adeft, ver pingit hortos purpurantes floribus,
Perque faxa, perque colles, perque lucos emicat:
Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibenduin; floreum ver fugit,

abit !

Ecce

Ecce, per rofæ papillas fuavè rident guttulae,
Quas odorifer refolvit lenis aurae fpiritus ;

Hae pyropis, hae fmaragdis cariores Indicis.

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit,

abit!

Is tenellis per vireta fpirat è rofis odor,

Ut novum ftillans amomum ros in herbas decidat,
Suavè olentibus coronans lacrymis conopeum.

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit, abit!

Acris olim cum malignis faeviit ventis hyems;
Sed rofeto, folis inftar, regis affulfit nitor;

Floruit nemus repentè, dulce inanavit merum :

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit, abit!

His iners modis, Mefihi, melleam aptabas chelyn;

Veris ales eft poeta; verna cantat gaudia,

Et rofas carpit tepentes è puellarum genis.

Nunc amandum eft, nunc bibendum; floreum ver fugit,

abit!

ARCADIA,

ARC A DIA,

A PASTORAL

POEM.

ADVERTISEMENT.

HE following paftoral was written in the year

THE

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. Addifon, in the thirty-fecond paper of the Guardian; which is fet 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 stands, Menalcas, king of the fhepherds, means Theocritus, the moft ancient,

and perhaps the best, writer of pastorals: and by his two daughters, Daphne and Hyla, must be understood the two forts of paftoral poetry; the one elegant and polished, the other fimple and unadorned; in both of which he excelled. Virgil, whom Pope chiefly followed, feems to have borne away the palm in the higher fort; and Spenfer, whom Gay imitated with fuccefs, had equal merit in the more ruftick ftyle: these two poets, therefore, may justly be supposed in this allegory to have inherited his kingdom of Arcadia.

ARCADIA.

ARCA DI A.

N thofe fair plains, where glittering Ladon roll'd
His wanton labyrinth o'er fands of gold,
Menalcas reign'd: from Pan his lineage came;
Rich were his vales, and deathlefs was his fame:
When youth impell'd him, and when love infpir'd,
The liftening nymphs his Dorick lays adınir'd:

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 frictly up to the rules of the pastoral life, as it was in the golden age.