This faid, he disappear'd. Then hear my will;
Be bold, ye lovers, and exert your skill;

Be they my fons, who fing the fofteft ftrains,
And tune to sweetest notes their pleasing pains:
But mark! whoe'er fhall by too harsh a lay
Offend our ears, and from our manners ftray,
He, for our favour, and our throne unfit,
To fome difgraceful pennance must submit.

He ends; the shepherds at his words rejoice,

And praise their fov'reign with a grateful voice.

IMITATIONS.

When the time that he defigned to give her in marriage was near at hand, he published a decree, whereby he invited the neighbouring youths to make trial of this mufical initrument, with promife that the victor fhould poffefs his daughter, on condition that the vanquished should fubmit to what punishment he thought fit to inflict. Thofe, who were not yet difcouraged, and had high conceits of their own worth, appeared on the appointed day, in a drefs and equipage fuitable to their

respective

Each fwain believes the lovely prize his own,

And fits triumphant on th' ideal throne;

Kind Vanity their want of art fupplies,
And gives indulgent what the mufe denies ;
Gay vefts, and flow'ry garlands each prepares,
And each the dress, that suits his fancy, wears.

Now deeper blushes ting'd the glowing sky, And ev❜ning rais'd her filver lamp on high, When in a bow'r, by Ladon's lucid stream, Where not a star could dart his piercing beam,

IMITATIONS.

refpective fancies. The place of meeting was a flowery meadow, through which a clear ftream murmured in many irregu lar meanders. The fhepherds made a fpacious ring for the contending lovers; and in one part of it there fat upon a little throne of turf under an arch of eglantine and woodbines, the father of the maid, and at his right hand the damfel crowned. with rofes, and lilies. She wore a flying robe of a flight green, ftuff; he had her fheephook in one hand, and the fatal pipe

So thick the curling eglantines difplay'd,

With woodbines join'd, an aromatick shade,
The father of the blooming nymphs reclin'd,
His hoary locks with facred laurel twin'd:
The royal damfels, feated by his fide,
Shone like two flow'rs in fummer's faireft pride:
The fwains before them crouded in a ring,
Prepar'd to blow the flute, or sweetly fing.

First in the midst a graceful youth arose,

Born in thofe fields where cryftal Mele flows:

IMITATION S.

in the other. The firft who approached her was a youth of a graceful prefence and a courtly air, but dreffed in a richer habit than had ever been seen in Arcadia. He wore a crimson veft, cut, indeed, after the fhepherd's fashion, but so enriched with embroidery, and fparkling with jewels, that the eyes of the spectators were diverted from confidering the mode of the garment by the dazzling of the ornaments. His head was co, vered with a plume of feathers, and his fheephook glittered

with

His air was courtly, his complexion fair;

And rich perfumes fhed fweetness from his hair,
That o'er his shoulder wav'd in flowing curls,
With roses braided, and inwreath'd with pearls:

A wand of cedar for his crook he bore;
His flender foot th' Arcadian fandal wore,

Yet that so rich, it feem'd to fear the ground,

With beaming gems and filken ribands bound :

The plumage of an oftrich grac'd his head,

And with embroider'd flow'rs his mantle was o'erfpread.

IMITATIONS.

with gold and enamel, &c. He applied the pipe to his lips, and began a tune, which he fet off with so many graces and quavers, that the fhepherds and fhepherdeffes, who had paired themselves in order to dance, could not follow it; as Indeed it required great skill and regularity of steps, which they had never been bred to. Menalcas ordered him to be stripped of his coftly robes, and to be clad in a ruffet weed, and to tend the flocks in the valleys for a year and a day.

He

*He fung the darling of th' Idalian queen,

Fall'n in his prime on fad Cythera's green;

When weeping graces left the faded plains,
And tun'd their strings to elegiack strains;
While mourning loves the tender burden bore,
"Adonis, fair Adonis, charms no more :"

The theme difpleas'd the nymph, whose ruder ear

The tales of fimple shepherds lov'd to hear.

The maids and youths, who saw the swain advance,

And take the fatal pipe, prepar'd to dance:

So wildly, so affectedly he play'd,

A tune fo various and uncouth he made,

That not a dancer could in cadence move,

And not a nymph the quaver'd notes approve :

They broke their ranks, and join'd the circling train,

While bursts of laughter founded o'er the plain.

Menalcas rais'd his hand, and bade retire