75

Of all our youth the ambition and the praise !)
Then to my quiet urn awhile draw near,
And say, while o'er that place you drop the tear,
Love and the fair were of his youth the pride;
He lived, while she was kind; and when she
frown'd, he died.

April, 1742. Et. 26.

TASSO GERUS. LIB. CANT. XIV. ST. 32.

"Preser commiato, e sì 'l desio gli sprona," &c.

3

DISMISS'D at length, they break through all delay
To tempt the dangers of the doubtful way;
And first to Ascalon their steps they bend,
Whose walls along the neighbouring sea extend,
Nor yet in prospect rose the distant shore;
Scarce the hoarse waves from far were heard to roar,
When thwart the road a river roll'd its flood
Tempestuous, and all further course withstood;
The torrent stream his ancient bounds disdains,
Swoll'n with new force, and late-descending rains.
Irresolute they stand; when lo, appears

years,

The wondrous Sage: vigorous he seem'd in
Awful his mien, low as his feet there flows
A vestment unadorn'd, though white as new-fall'n

snows;

Against the stream the waves secure he trod, 15 His head a chaplet bore, his hand a rod.

As on the Rhine, when Boreas' fury reigns,

And winter binds the floods in icy chains,
Swift shoots the village-maid in rustic play
Smooth, without step, adown the shining way, so
Fearless in long excursion loves to glide,
And sports and wantons o'er the frozen tide.

So mov'd the Seer, but on no harden'd plain; The river boil'd beneath, and rush'd toward the main.

Where fix'd in wonder stood the warlike pair, 25
His course he turn'd, and thus relieved their care:
Vast, oh my friends, and difficult the toil
To seek your hero in a distant soil!

66

No common helps, no common guide ye need,
Art it requires, and more than winged speed.
What length of sea remains, what various lands,
Oceans unknown, inhospitable sands!
For adverse fate the captive chief has hurl'd
Beyond the confines of our narrow world:
Great things and full of wonder in your ears
I shall unfold; but first dismiss your fears;
Nor doubt with me to tread the downward road
That to the grotto leads, my dark abode."

30

35

Scarce had he said, before the warriors' eyes When mountain-high the waves disparted rise; 10 The flood on either hand its billows rears, And in the midst a spacious arch appears. Their hands he seized, and down the steep he led Beneath the obedient river's inmost bed; The watery glimmerings of a fainter day Discover'd half, and half conceal'd their way; As when athwart the dusky woods by night

45

The uncertain crescent gleams a sickly light.
Through subterraneous passages they went,
Earth's inmost cells, and caves of deep descent ; 50
Of many a flood they view'd the secret source,
The birth of rivers rising to their course,
Whate'er with copious train its channel fills,
Floats into lakes, and bubbles into rills ;
The Po was there to see, Danubius' bed,
Euphrates' fount, and Nile's mysterious head.
Further they pass, where ripening minerals flow,
And embryon metals undigested glow,
Sulphureous veins and living silver shine,
Which soon the parent sun's warm powers refine,
In one rich mass unite the precious store,

The parts combine and harden into ore :

55

Here gems break through the night with glittering beam,

And paint the margin of the costly stream,
All stones of lustre shoot their vivid ray,
And mix attemper'd in a various day;
Here the soft emerald smiles of verdant hue,
And rubies flame, with sapphire's heavenly blue,
The diamond there attracts the wondrous sight,
Proud of its thousand dies and luxury of light.

1738. Et. 22.

65

POEMATA.

HYMENEAL

ON THE MARRIAGE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

IGNARE nostrum mentes, et inertia corda,
Dum curas regum, et sortem miseramur iniquam,
Quæ solio affixit, vetuitque calescere flammâ
Dulci, quæ dono divûm, gratissima serpit
Viscera per, mollesque animis lene implicat æstus;
Nec teneros sensus, Veneris nec præmia nôrunt,
Eloquiumve oculi, aut facunda silentia linguæ :

Scilicet ignorant lacrymas, sævosque dolores, Dura rudimenta, et violentæ exordia flammæ ;

* Printed in the Cambridge Collection, 1736, fol. In this Collection is also a Latin Copy of Hendecasyllables, by Horace Walpole; a short Copy by Thomas Ashton, the friend of Walpole, &c.; and there are some Greek Verses by Richard Dawes, the author of Miscellanea Critica.' V. 1. "Heu, vatum ignaræ mentes !" Virg. Æn. iv. 65. "Teucrûm mirantur inertia corda," Æn. ix. 55.

V. 2. Sortemque animo miseratus iniquam," Æn. vi.

332.

V. 4. " Dono divûm gratissima serpit," Æn. ii. 269. V. 6. "Nec dulces natos, Veneris nec præmia noris ?" Æn. iv. 33.

V. 7. Vide Hor. Od. iv. i. 35. And Pope. Homer, b. xiv. ver. 252:

"Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes."

And Fairfax. Tasso, iv. 85 :

• Dumb eloquence, persuading more than speech."

Scilicet ignorant, quæ flumine tinxit amaro 10 Tela Venus, cæcique armamentaria Divi,

15

Irasque, insidiasque, et tacitum sub pectore vulnus ;
Namque sub ingressu, primoque in limine Amoris
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curæ ;
Intus habent dulces Risus, et Gratia sedem,
Et roseis resupina toris, roseo ore Voluptas:
Regibus huc faciles aditus; communia spernunt
Ostia, jamque expers duris custodibus istis
Panditur accessus, penetraliaque intima Templi.

Tuque Oh! Angliacis, Princeps, spes optima

regnis,

20

Ne tantum, ne finge metum : quid imagine captus
Hæres, et mentem pictura pascis inani?

Umbram miraris: nec longum tempus, et ipsa
Ibit in amplexus, thalamosque ornabit ovantes.
Ille tamen tabulis inhians longum haurit amorem, 25
Affatu fruitur tacito, auscultatque tacentem

V. 10. 66

413.

'Bis flumine corpora tinguat," Ovid. Met. xii.

V. 11. " Quidquid habent telorum armamentaria cœli," Juv. Sat. xiii. 83.

V. 12. This line, which is unmetrical, is so printed in the Cambridge Collection; and in Park's edition, without remark. The fault is probably in the author, and not in the printer; as the line is composed of two hemistichs of Virgil; Æn. xii. 336, "Iræque, Insidiæque, Dei comitatus, aguntur;" and Æn. iv. 67, Tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus." Or perhaps a line is omitted, which should in

tervene.

V. 14. This line is from Virgil, Æn. vi. 274 :

"Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curæ.” V. 18. "Quos dura premit custodia matrum," Hor. Ep. i. i. 22.