"Glad I for thee renounce my royal birth, "And all the giant daughters of the Earth. "Thou if thy breast with equal ardour burn "Renounce thy kind, and love for love return; "So from us two, combin'd by nuptial ties, "A race unknown of demigods fhall rife. “O speak, my Love! my vows with vows repay, "And sweetly fwear my rifing fears away." To whom (the fhining azure of her eyes

195

More brighten'd) thus th' enamour'd maid replies: "By all the stars, and first the glorious moon, 201 "I swear, and by the head of Oberon, "A dreadful oath! no prince of Fairy line

210

"Shall e'er in wedlock plight his vows with mine. "Where'er my footsteps in the dance are feen 205 May toadstools rife and mildews blast the green; May the keen east wind blight my fav'rite flow'rs, "And fnakes and spotted adders haunt my bow'rs; "Confin'd whole ages in an hemlock shade "There rather pine I a neglected maid, "Or worfe, exil'd from Cynthia's gentle rays "Parch in the fun a thousand fummer days, "Than any prince, a prince of Fairy line, "In facred wedlock plight his vows with mine." She ended, and with lips of rofy hue Dipp'd five times over in ambrofial dew Stifled his words, when from his covert rear'd The frowning brow of Oberon appear'd:

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A funflower's trunk was near, whence (killing fight!) The monarch iffu'd half an ell in height.

220

Full on the pair a furious look he caft,

Nor fpoke, but gave his buglehorn a blast
That thro' the woodland echo'd far and wide,
And drew a fwarm of fubjects to his fide.
A hundred chofen knights in war renown'd
Drive Albion banish'd from the facred ground,
And twice ten myriads guard the bright abodes
Where the proud king amidst his demigods
For Kenna's fudden bridal bids prepare,
And to Azuriel gives the weeping fair.

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230

If fame in arms, with ancient birth combin'd,

A faultlefs beauty and a fpatlefs mind,

235

To love and praise can gen'rous fouls incline,
That love, Azuriel! and that praife, was thine,
Blood only less than royal fill'd thy veins;
Proud was thy roof and large thy fair domains.
Where now the skies high Holland House invades,
And fhortliv'd Warwick fadden'd all the fhades,
Thy dwelling ftood, nor did in him afford
A nobler owner or a lovelier lord.

For thee a hundred fields produc'd their store,
And by thy name ten thoufand vaffals fwore,
So lov'd thy name, that at their monarch's choice
All Fairy fhouted with a gen'ral voice!

Oriel alone a fecret rage fuppreft

That from his bofom heav'd the golden vest.

240

245

F

Along the banks of Thame his empire ran,
Wide was his range and populous his clan.
When cleanly fervants, if we truft old tales,
Befide their wages had good Fairy veils,
Whole heaps of filver tokens nightly paid
The careful wife or the neat dairymaid

250

Sunk not his ftores. With fmiles and pow'rful bribes
He gain'd the leaders of his neighbour tribes,
And ere the night the face of heav'n had chang'd 255
Beneath his banners half the Fairies rang'd.

Mean-while driv'n back to earth, a lonely way
The cheerlefs Albion wander'd half the day;
Along, long journey! chok'd with brakes and thorns,
Ill measur'd by ten thousand barleycorns.

260

Tir'd out at length a spreading stream he spy'd
Fed by old Thame, a daughter of the tide.
'Twas then a spreading stream, tho' now its fame
Obfcur'd it bears The Creek's inglorious name,
And creeps as thro' contracted bounds it ftrays, 263
A leap for boys in these degen'rate days.

On the clear cryftal's verdant bank he stood,
And thrice look'd backward on the fatal wood,
And thrice he groan'd and thrice he beat his breast,
And thus in tears his kindred gods addreft: 279.

"If true, ye wat'ry Pow'rs! my lineage came "From Neptune mingling with a mortal dame, "Down to his court with coral garlands crown'd "Thro' all your grottoes waft my plaintive found,

280

"And urge the god whofe trident shakes the earth
"To grace his offspring and affert my birth." 276
He faid; a gentle Naiad heard his pray'r,
And touch'd with pity for a lover's care
Shoots to the fea, where low beneath the tides
Old Neptune in th' unfathom'd deep refides.
Rous'd at the news the fea's ftern fultan fwore
Revenge, and scarce from present arms forbore;
But first the nymph his harbinger he fends,..
And to her care the fav'rite boy commends.
As thro'the Thames her backward course she guides,
Driv'n up his current by the refluent tides,
Along his banks the pigmy legions spread
She spies, and haughty Oriel at their head:
Soon with wrong'd Albion's name the host the fires,
And counts the ocean's god among his fires;

286

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"The ocean's god, by whom shall be o'erthrown,

(Styx heard his oath) the tyrant Oberon.

66 See here beneath a toadstool's deadly gloom
"Lies Albion; him the Fates your leader doom.

'Hear and obey; it is Neptune's pow'rful call: 295 "By him Azuriel and his king shall fall.”

She faid; they bow'd, and on their shields upbore With fhouts their new faluted emperour. Ev'n Oriel fmil'd, at least to smile he ftrove, And hopes of vengeance triumph'd over love. See now the mourner of the lonely shade By gods protected and by hosts obey'd;

300

A flave, a chief, by fickle Fortune's play,`
In the fhort courfe of one revolving day.
What wonder if the youth fo ftrangely bleft
Felt his heart flutter in his little breaft!
His thick embattled troops with fecret pride
He views extended half an acre wide:
More light he treads, more tall he seems to rife,
And ftruts a ftrawbreadth nearer to the skies.

$305

310 O for thy Mufe, great Bard*! whose lofty strains In battle join'd the Pigmies and the Cranes; Each gaudy knight had I that warmth divine, Each colour'd legion, in my verse fhould fhine: But fimple I, and innocent of art,

The tale that footh'd my infant

years impart, 'The tale I heard whole winter-eves untir'd,

And fing the battles that my nurfe inspir'd.

315

Now the fhrill cornpipes echoing loud to arms
To rank and file reduce the fraggling fwarms: 320
Thick rows of fpears at once with fudden glare,
A grove of needles, glitter in the air:

Loofe in the winds fmall riband fireamers flow,"
Dipt in all colours of the heav'nly bow,

And the gay hoft that now its march purfues
Gleams o'er the meadows in a thoufand hues.

325

On Buda's plains thus formidably bright
Shone Afia's fons, a pleafing dreadful fight!
In various robes their filken troops were feen,
The blue, the red, and prophet's facred green,

330

*Mr. Addifon.