Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Behold us kindly, who your name implore, 75 Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS.

How all things liften, while thy Mufe complains! Such filence waits on Philomela's ftrains, In some still ev'ning, when the whifp'ring breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. 80 To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed, If teeming ewes encrease my fleecy breed. While plants their fhade,or flow'rs their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live!

THYRSIS.

But fee, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; 85 Arife, the pines a noxious fhade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must Time obey.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 83. Originally thus in the MS.

While vapours rife, and driving fnows defcend,
Thy honour, name, and praife fhall never end.

IMITATIONS.

illius aram

Sæpe tener noftris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. Virg. P.

VER. 81.

[blocks in formation]

folet effe gravis cantantibus umbra,

VER. 88. Time conquers all, etc.

Virg. P.

Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori.
Vid. etiam Sannazarii Ecl. et Spencer's Calendar.

90

Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams and groves,
Adieu, ye fhepherd's rural lays and loves;
Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye fylvan crew;
Daphne, farewell; and all the world adieu!

REMARK S.

VER. 89, etc.] These four laft lines allude to the several' fubjects of the four Paftorals, and to the several scenes of them, particularized before in each. P.

MESSIA H.

A

Sacred Eclogue,

In Imitation of

VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

[ocr errors]

Advertisement.

N reading feveral paffages of the Prophet Ifaiah, which foretell the coming of Chrift and the felicities attending it, I could not but obferve a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and thofe in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not feem furprifing, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the fame fubject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but felected fuch ideas as beft agreed with the nature of paftoral poetry, and difpofed them in that manner which ferved most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the fame in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; fince it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might fee how far the images and deferiptions of the Prophet are fuperior to thofe of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall fubjoin the paffages of Ifaiah, and those of Virgil, under the fame difadvantage of a literal tranflation. P.

« ПредишнаНапред »