The oak-crown'd Sifters, and their chafte-eyed

Satyrs and fylvan boys were feen,

Peeping from forth their alleys green;

Brown Exercise rejoic'd to hear,

(queen,

And Sport leapt up and feiz'd his beechen spear. Laft came Joy's ecstatic trial,

He with viny crown advancing,

First to the lively pipe his hand addrest,
But foon he faw the brisk awakening viol,
Whose sweet entrancing voice he lov'd the best.
They would have thought, who heard the strain,
They faw in Tempe's vale her native maids,
Amidst the feftal founding fhades,

To fome unwearied minstrel dancing,

While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the ftrings,
Love fram'd with Mirth, a gay fantastic round,
Loose were her traces feen, her zone unbound,
And he, amidst his frolic play,

As if he would the charming air repay,
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.
O Mufic! fphere-defcended maid,
Friend of pleasure, wisdom's aid,
Why, Goddess, why to us denied?
Lay'st thou thy antient lyre aside ?
As in that lov'd Athenian bower,
You learn'd an all commanding power,
Thy mimic foul, O nymph endear'd!
Can well recall what then it heard.

Where is thy native fimple heart,

Devote to virtue, fancy, art?

Arise, as in that elder time,
Warm, energic, chafte, fublime!
Thy wonders, in that god-like age,
Fill thy recording Sifter's page -
'Tis faid, and I believe the tale,
Thy humbleft reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
Even all at once together found
Cæcilia's mingled world of found-
O bid our vain endeavours cease,
Revive the just designs of Greece,
Return in all thy simple state!
Confirm the tales her fons relate!

AN EPISTLE

Addreffed to Sir THOMAS HANMER, on his Edition of SHAKESPEAR's Works.

WH

WHILE born to bring the Mufe's happier days,
A patriot's hand protects a poet's lays,

While nurs'd by you fhe fees her myrtles bloom,
Green and unwither'd o'er his honour'd tomb!
Excufe her doubts, if yet fhe fears to tell

What fecret tranfports in her bosom swell :
With confcious awe fhe hears the critic's fame,
And blushing hides her wreath at Shakespear's name,
Hard was the lot those injur'd strains endur'd,
Unknown by science, and by years obscur'd:
Fair Fancy wept; and echoing fighs confefs'd
A fixt defpair in every tuneful breast.

Not with more grief th' afflicted swains appear,
When wintry winds, deform the plenteous year;
When lingering frofts the ruin'd feats invade
Where Peace reforted, and the Graces play'd.

Each rifing art by just gradation moves, Toil builds on toil, and age on age improves: The Muse alone unequal dealt her rage,

And grac'd with nobleft pomp her earliest stage.

す

Preferv'd thro' time, the fpeaking scenes impart
Each changeful wish of Phædra's tortur'd heart :
Or paint the curfe, that mark'd the * Theban's reign,
A bed incestuous, and a father flain.

With kind concern our pitying eyes o'erflow,
Trace the fad tale, and one another's woe.

To Rome remov'd, with wit fecure to please, The comic fifters kept their native, ease. With jealous fear declining Greece beheld Her own Menander's art almost excell'd! But every Muse essay'd to raise in vain Some labour'd rival of her tragic strain; Ilyffus' laurels, tho' transferr'd with toil, Droop'd their fair leaves, nor knew th' unfriendly foil.

As arts expir'd, refiftlefs Dulness rofe; Goths, priests, or Vandals,—all were Learning's foes. Till † Julius first recall'd each exil'd maid, And Cofmo own'd them in th' Etrurian fhade: Then deeply skill'd in love's engaging theme, The foft Provencial pass'd to Arno's stream: With graceful ease the wanton lyre he ftrung, Sweet flow'd the lays-but love was all he fung. The gay defcription could not fail to move; For, led by nature, all are friends to love.

*The Oedipus of Sophocles.

↑ Julius II. the immediate predecessor of Leo X.

I

But heaven, ftill various in its works, decreed
The perfect boaft of time should last fucceed.
The beauteous union must appear at length,
Of Tuscan fancy and Athenian strength:
One greater Mufe Eliza's reign adorn,
And even a Shakespear to her fame be born!

Yet ah! fo bright her morning's opening ray,
In vain our Britain hop'd an equal day!
No fecond growth the western ifle could bear,
At once exhausted with too rich a year.
Too nicely Johnson knew the critic's part;
Nature in him was almoft loft in art.

Of fofter mold the gentle Fletcher came,
The next in order as the next in name.

With pleas'd attention 'midst his fcenes we find

Each glowing thought, that warms the female mind; Each melting figh, and every tender tear,

The lover's wifhes, and the virgin's fear.

*

His every strain the Smiles and Graces own;

But stronger Shakespear felt for man alone:
Drawn by his pen, our ruder paffions stand
Th' unrivall❜d picture of his early hand.

+ With gradual steps, and flow, exacter France Saw Art's fair empire o'er her fhores advance:

* Their charactars are thus distinguished by Mr. Dryden. + About the time of Shakespear, the poet Hardy was in great repute in France. He wrote, according to Fontenelle,