380

385

Hither, they cried, direct your eyes, and see
The men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry;
Ours is the place at banquets, balls, and plays,
Sprightly our nights, polite are all our days;
Courts we frequent, where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due visits, and address the fair :
In fact, 'tis true, no nymph we could persuade,
But still in fancy vanquish'd ev'ry maid;
Of unknown Dutchesses lewd tales we tell,
Yet, would the world believe us, all were well.
The joy let others have, and we the name,
And what we want in pleasure, grant in fame.
The Queen assents, the trumpet rends the skies,
And at each blast a Lady's honour dies.

390

Pleas'd with the strange success, vast numbers prest Around the shrine, and made the same request: 395 What you (she cried), unlearn'd in arts to please, Slaves to yourselves, and ev'n fatigu'd with ease, Who lose a length of undeserving days, Would you usurp the lover's dear-bought praise? To just contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall, The people's fable, and the scorn of all. Straight the black clarion sends a horrid sound, Loud laughs burst out, and bitter scoffs fly round, Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud, And scornful hisses run through all the crowd. 405

NOTES.

400

the sublime to the ridiculous. Chaucer, in his Temple of Mars, amongst many pathetic pictures, has brought in a strange line:

"The coke is scalded for all his long ladell."-Ver. 417.

No writer has more religiously observed the decorum here recommended than Virgil.

Last, those who boast of mighty mischiefs done, Enslave their country, or usurp a throne;

Or who their glory's dire foundation laid
On Sov'reigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd;
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,
Of crooked counsels and dark politics;

Of these a gloomy tribe surround the throne,
And beg to make th' immortal treasons known.
The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire,
With sparks that seem'd to set the world on fire.
At the dread sound, pale mortals stood aghast,
And startled nature trembled with the blast.

411

This having heard and seen, some pow'r unknown Straight chang'd the scene, and snatch'd me from the throne.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 406. Last, those who boast of mighty, &c.]

"Tho came another companye

That had y done the treachery," etc.

P.

Ver. 418. This having heard and seen, &c.] The scene here changes from the Temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow:

"Tho saw I stonde in a valey,

Under the castle fast by

A house, that Domus Dedali
That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made so wonderly, I wis,
Ne half so queintly y-wrought;
And evermo as swift as thought,
This queint house about went,
That never more it still stent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees
In summer, when they ben grene;
And in the roof yet men may sene

Before my view appear'd a structure fair,
Its site uncertain, if in earth or air;
With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round;
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound;
Not less in number were the spacious doors,

420

Than leaves on trees, or sands upon the shores; 425 Which still unfolded stand, by night, by day,

Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way.

As flames by nature to the skies ascend,

As weighty bodies to the centre tend,

As to the sea returning rivers roll,

430

And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole;

Hither, as to their proper place, arise

All various sounds from earth, and seas, and skies,

Or spoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;

Nor ever silence, rest, or peace, is here.

435

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes

The sinking stone at first a circle makes;

The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd,
Spreads in a second circle, then a third;

439

Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance,

Fill all the wat'ry plain, and to the margin dance:

IMITATIONS.

A thousand hoels and well mo,

To letten the soune out go;
And by day in every tide
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unshet;
No porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace:

Ne never rest is in that place."

P.

Ver. 428. As flames by nature to the, &c.] This thought is transferred hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus:

Thus ev'ry voice and sound, when first they break,
On neighb'ring air a soft impression make;
Another ambient circle then they move;
That, in its turn, impels the next above;
Through undulating air the sounds are sent,
And spread o'er all the fluid element.

445

There various news I heard of love and strife, Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and life, Of loss and gain, of famine and of store, Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore,

Of prodigies and portents seen in air,

Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great,
Of old mismanagements, taxations new:
All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.
Above, below, without, within, around,
Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found,

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 448. There various news I heard, &c.]

"Of werres, of peace, of marriages,

Of rest, of labour, of voyages,

Of abode, of dethe, and of life,

Of love and hate, accord and strife,

Of loss, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of sickness, and lessings,

Of divers transmutations
Of estates and eke of regions,
Of trust, of drede, of jealousy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good, or bad government,
Of fire, and of divers accident."

Ver. 458. Above, below, without, within, &c.]
"But such a grete congregation

Of folke as I saw roam about
Some within, and some without,

450

455

P.

460

466

Who pass, repass, advance, and glide away;
Hosts raised by fear, and phantoms of a day:
Astrologers that future fates foreshew,
Projectors, quacks, and lawyers, not a few;
And priests, and party-zealots, num'rous bands
With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands!
Each talk'd aloud, or in some secret place,
And wild impatience star'd in ev'ry face.
They flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new,
And all who heard it, made enlargements too,
In ev'ry ear it spread, on ev'ry tongue it grew.
Thus flying east and west, and north and south,
News travell'd with increase from mouth to mouth;
So from a spark, that kindled first by chance, 475
With gath'ring force the quick'ning flames advance;
Till to the clouds their curling heads aspire,
And tow'rs and temples sink in floods of fire.

470

IMITATIONS.

Was never seen, ne shall be eft—
And every wight that I saw there
Rowned everich in others ear.

A new tyding privily,

Or else he told it openly

Right thus, and said, Knowst not thou

That is betide to night now?

No, quoth he, tell me what?

And then he told him this and that, etc.
Thus north and south

Went every tiding fro mouth to mouth,

And that encreasing evermo,
As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a sparkle sprong amiss,
Till all the citee brent up is."