"My breast is warm'd with fuch unusual fire, 375

"I wish him absent whom I most defire.

"And now I faint with grief; my fate draws nigh; "In all the pride of blooming youth I die.

"Death will the forrows of my heart relieve:
"O might the visionary youth survive,

"I should with joy my latest breath resign!
"But, oh! I fee his fate involv'd in mine.”
This said, the weeping youth again return'd
To the clear fountain, where again he burn'd;
His tears defac'd the furface of the well,
With circle after circle as they fell:

And now the lovely face but half appears,
O'errun with wrinkles, and deform'd with tears:
"Ah! whither," cries Narciffus," doft thou fly?
"Let me ftill feed the flame by which I die;
"Let me, still fee, tho' I'm no further bleft;"
Then rends his garment off, and beats his breast;
His naked bofom reddens with the blow,

In fuch a blush as purple clusters show,

$80

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590

Ere yet the fun's autumnal heats refine

Their fprightly juice, and mellow it to wine.
The glowing beauties of his breaft he spies,
And with a new redoubled paffion dies:
As wax diffolves, as ice begins to run,
And trickle into drops before the sun,
So melts the youth, and languishes away,
His beauty withers, and his limbs decay,

593

6се

And none of thofe 'attractive charms remain
To which the flighted Echo fu'd in vain.

Whom, spite of all her wrongs, she griev'd to fee;
She anfwer'd fadly to the lover's moan,

Sigh'd back his fighs, and groan'd to ev'ry' groan :
"Ah! youth belov'd in vain,” Narciffus cries;
“Ah! youth belov'd in vain,'' the nymph replies. 610
“Farewell,” says he: the parting sound scarce fell
From his faint lips, but the reply'd, “ Farewell :"
Then on th' unwholsome earth he gafping lies,
Till Death shuts up those felf-admiring eyes;
To the cold fhades his flitting ghost retires,
And in the Stygian waves itself admires.

615

For him the Naïads and the Dryads mourn, Whom the fad Echo anfwers in her turn: And now the fifter-nymphs prepare his urn, When, looking for his corpfe, they only found 620 A rifing ftalk with yellow bloffoms crown'd.

The ftory of Pentheus.

THIS fad event gave blind Tirefias fame,
Thro' Greece establish'd in a prophet's name.

Th' unhallow'd Pentheus only durft deride
The cheated people and their eyelefs guide;
To whom the prophet in his fury said,
Shaking the hoary honours of his head,

625

“'Twere well, presumptuous man! 'twere well for thee "If thou wert eyelefs too, and blind, like me;

* For the time comes, nay, 'tis already here, 630 "When the young god's folemnities appear, "Which if thou dost not with just rites adorn, "Thy impious carcass, into pieces torn,

"Shall ftrew the woods, and hang on ev'ry thorn. "Then, then, remember what I now foretell, 635 "And own the blind Tirefias faw too well." Still Pentheus fcorns him and derides his skill, But time did all the prophet's threats fulfil : For now thro' prostrate Greece young Bacchus rode, Whilft howling matrons celebrate the god. All ranks and fexes to his orgies ran,

To mingle in the pomps and fill the train,

640

When Pentheus thus his wicked rage exprefs'd; "What madness, Thebans, has your fouls poffefs'd? "Can hollow timbrels, can a drunken shout, 645 "And the lewd clamours of a beastly rout, "Thus quell your courage? can the weak alarm "Of women's yells those stubborn souls difarm, "Whom nor the fword nor trumpet e'er could fright, "Nor the loud din and horror of a fight? "And you, our fires, who left your old abodes, "And fix'd in foreign earth your country gods, "Will you without a stroke your city yield,

"And poorly quit an undisputed field?

"But you,

650

whofe youth and vigour should infpire 655 "Heroic warmth, and kindle martial fire, "Whom burnish'd arms and crested helmets grace,

Not flow'ry garlands and a painted face,

"Remember him to whom you stand ally'd; "The ferpent for his well of waters dy'd : "He fought the strong; do you his courage show, "And gain a conqueft o'er a feeble foe.

660

"If Thebes must fall, oh might the Fates afford "A nobler doom from famine, fire, or fword! "Then might the Thebans perish with renown; 665 "But now a beardless victor facks the town, "Whom nor the prancing steed nor pond'rous shield, "Nor the hack'd helmet nor the dusty field, "But, the foft joys of luxury and ease,

"The purple vests and flow'ry garlands please. 670 "Stand then afide, I'll make the counterfeit "Renounce his godhead, and confess the cheat. "Acrifius from the Grecian walls repell'd

"This boafted pow'r; why then should Pentheus yield? "Go quickly; drag th' impoftor boy to me; 675 "I'll try the force of his divinity."

Thus did th' audacious wretch those rites profane, His friends diffuade the audacious wretch in vain; In vain his grandfire urg'd him to give o'er

His impious threats; the wretch but raves the more.
So have I seen a river gently glide,

In a smooth course, and inoffensive tide,
But if with dams its current we restrain,

It bears down all, and foams along the plain.

681

But now his fervants came befmear'd with blood, Sent by their haughty prince to seize the god; 686

The god they found not in the frantic throng,
But dragg'd'a zealous votary along.

The mariners transformed to Dolphins.

HIM Pentheus view'd with fury in his look, 689 And fcance withheld his hands, while thus he fpoke: "Vile Slave! whom speedy vengeance fhall purfud, "And terrify thy base feditious crew,

"Thy country and thy parentage reveal, "And why thou join'st in these mad orgies tell." The captive views him with undaunted eyes, 695 And, arm'd with inward innocence, replies.

"From high. Meonia's rocky fhores I came, "Of poor defcent, Acetes is my name: "My fire was meanly born; no oxen plow'd "His fruitful fields, nor in his paftore's low'd: 700 "His whole eftate within the water's lay; "With lines and hooks he caught the finny prey. "His art was all his livelihood, which he

"Thus with his dying lips bequeath'd to me'; 704 "In ftreams, my Boy, and rivers, take thy chance; "There swims," faid he," thy whole inheritance. "Long did I live on this poor legacy, "Till tir'd with rocks and my own native sky, "To arts of navigation I inclin'd,

"Obferv'd the turns and changes of the wind, 710

"Learn'd the fit havens, and began to note

"The ftormy Hyades, the rainy Goat,