Then, like heaven's mild embaffador of love
To man repentant, bid the tumult ceafe,
Smooth'd the blue bofom of the realms above,
And hush'd the rebel elements to peace.
Unlike to this in spirit or in mien
Another form fucceeded to my view;
A two-legg'd brute, which Nature made in fpleen,
Or from the loathing womb unfinish'd drew.
Scarce could he fyllable the curfe he thought,
Prone were his eyes to earth, his mind to evil,
A carnal fiend to imperfection wrought,
The mongrel offspring of a witch and devil.
Next bloom'd, upon an ancient forest's bound,
The flow'ry margin of a filent ftream,
O'er-arch'd with oaks, with ivy mantled round,
And gilt by silver Cynthia's maiden beam.
On the green carpet of th' unbended grass,
A dapper train of female fairies play'd,
And ey'd their gambols in the wat'ry glass,
That Imoothly ftole along the shad'wy glade.
Through these the queen Titania pass'd ador'd,
Mounted aloft in her imperial car,
Journeying to fee great Oberon her lord
Wage the mock battles of a sportive war.
Arm'd cap-a-pee forth march'd the fairy king,
A ftouter warrior never took the field,
His threat'ning lance a hornet's horrid fting,
The fharded beetle's fcale his fable fhield.
Around their chief the elfin hoft appear'd;
Each little helmet fparkled like a far,
And their fharp fpears in pierceless phalanx rear'd,
A grove of thistles, glitter'd in the air.
The fcene then chang'd, from this romantic land,
To a bleak wafte by bound'ry unconfin'd,
Where three fwart fifters of the weird band
Were mutt'ring curfes to the troublous wind.
Pale Want had wither'd every furrow'd face,
Bow'd was each carcafe with the weight of years,
And each funk eye ball from its hollow cafe
Diftill'd cold rheum's involuntary tears.
Hors'd on three ftaves they pofted to the bourn
Of a drear ifland, where the pendant brow
Of a rough rock, fhagg'd horribly with thorn,
Frown'd on the boift'rous waves which rag'd below.
Deep in a gloomy grot remote from day,
Where finiling Comfort never fhew'd her face,
Where light ne'er enter'd, fave one rueful ray
Difcovering all the terrors of the place.
They held damn'd myst'ries with infernal state,
Whilft ghaftly spectres glided flowly by,
The fcreech-owl icream'd the dying call of fate,
And ravens croak'd their baleful augury.
No human footstep cheer'd the dread abode,
No fign of living creature could be seen,
Save where the reptile fnake, or fullen toad,
The murky floor had soil'd with venom green.
Sudden I heard the whirlwind's hollow found,
Each weird fifter vanifh'd into smoke,
Now a dire yell of spirits underground
Thro' troubled Earth's wide yawning furface broke;
When lo! each injur'd apparition rofe;
Aghast the murd’rer started from his bed;
Guilt's trembling breath his heart's red current froze, And Horror's dew-drops bath'd his frantic head, 128
More had I feen-but now the god of day
O'er earth's broad breaft his flood of light had spread,
When Morpheus call'd his fickle dreams away,
And on their wings each bright illufion fled.
Yet ftill the dear enchantrefs of the brain
My waking eyes with wifhful wand'rings fought,
Whofe magic will controls th' ideal train,
The ever-reftlefs progeny of Thought.
"Sweet power," I faid, “ for others gild the ray
"Of Wealth, or Honour's folly-feather'd crown,
"Or lead the madding multitude aftray,
"To grasp at air-blown bubbles of renown.
"Me (humbler lot!) let blameless blifs engage,
"Free from the noble mob's ambitious ftrife,
"Free from the muck-worm mifer's lucrous rage,
"In calm Contentment's cottage vale of life.
"If frailties there (for who from them is free?) Through Error's maze my devious footsteps lead, "Let them be frailties of humanity,
"And my heart plead the pardon of my head.
"Let not my reafon impioufly require
"What heav'n has plac'd beyond its narrow fpan, "But teach it to fubdue each fierce defire,
"Which wars within its own small empire, man. 152
"Teach me, what all believe, but few poffefs;
"That life's beft fcience is ourselves to know, "The first of human bleffings is to blefs,
"And happieft he who feels another's woe.
"Thus cheaply wife, and innocently great,
"While Time's fmooth fand fhall regularly pafs,
"Each deftin'd atom's quiet courte I'll wait,
"Nor rafhly break, nor wish to stop the glais.
"And when in death my peaceful ashes lie,
"If e'er fome tongue congenial fpeaks my name,
Friendship shall never blush to breathe a figh,
"And great ones envy fuch an honest fame."
vilia miretur vulgus, mihi flavus Apollo
Pocula Caftalia plena miniftret aqua.
Ovid. Amor. 1.1 El. 15.
HENRY WRIOTHESLY,
Earl of Southampton and Baron of Tichfield.
KNOW not how I fhall offend, in dedicating my unpolished lines to your Lordship; nor how the world will cenfure me, for choofing fo ftrong a prop to fupport fo weak a burden: Only if your honour seem but pleased, I can account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the firft heir of my invention prove deformed, I fhall be forry it had fo noble a godfather, and never after ear fo barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a har. veft. I leave it to your honourable furvey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish, and the world's hopeful expectation.
Your honour's in all duty,
W. SHAKSPEARE.
VEN as the fun, with purple colour'd face, Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn, Rofe-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chace : Hunting he lov'd, but love he laugh'd to scorn. Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him, And like a bold-fac'd fuitor 'gins to woo him. "Thrice fairer than myself!" thus fhe began, "The field's chief flow'r! fweet above compare! "Stain to all nymphs! more lovely than a man! "More white and red than doves and roles are.
Nature, that made thee, with herself at ftrife,
"Saith, that the world hath ending with thy life.
"Vouchsafe thou wonder! to alight thy steed,
"And rein his proud head to the faddle bow;
"If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meed,
“A thousand honey secrets shalt thou know.
"Here come and fit, where ferpent never hiffes,
"And being set, I'll fmother thee with kiffes.
"And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd fatiety,
"But rather famifh them amid their plenty;
"Making them red and pale with fresh variety;
"Ten kiffes fhort as one, one long as twenty.
"A fummer's day will feem an hour but short,
"Being wafted in fuch time-beguiling sport."
With this the feizeth on his fweating palm,
The prefident of pith and livelihood,
And trembling in her paffion calls its balm,
Earth's fovereign falve to do a goddess good.
Being fo enrag'd, defire doth lend her force,
Courageously to pluck him from his horfe.
Over one arm the lufty courfer's rein,
Under the other was the tender boy,
Who blufh'd and pouted in a dull disdain,
With leaden appetite, unapt to toy.
She red and hot, as coals of glowing fire;
He red for fhame, but frofty with defire.
|