PASTORAL VIII.* OR, PHARMACEUTRIA. ARGUMENT. This Pastoral contains the Songs of Damon and Alphesibaus. The first of them bewails the loss of his mistress, and repines at the suc cess of his rival Mopsus. The other repeats the charms of some enchantress, who endeavoured, by her spells and magic, to make Daph nis in love with her. THE mournful muse of two despairing swains, * This Eighth Pastoral is copied by our author from two Bucolics of Theocritus. Spenser has followed both Virgil and Theocritus in the charms which he employs for curing Britomartis of her love. But he had also our poet's Ceiris in his eye; for there not only the enchantments are to be found, but also the very name of Britomartis.-DRYDEN. The hungry herd the needful food refuse- Thine was my earliest muse; my latest shall be thine- Yet shall my dying breath to heaven complain. Begin with me, my flute, the sweet Mænalian strain. "The pines of Mænalus, the vocal grove, Are ever full of verse, and full of love: They hear the hinds, they hear their god complain, Who suffered not the reeds to rise in vain. 66 Begin with me, my flute, the sweet Mænalian strain. Promiscuous at the spring. Prepare the lights, Then scarce the bending branches I could win; I saw; I perished; yet indulged my pain. Alien of birth, usurper of the plains! Begin with me, my flute, the sweet Mænalian strains. "Relentless Love the cruel mother led The blood of her unhappy babes to shed: Alien of birth, usurper of the plains! Begin with me, my flute, the sweet Mænalian strains. "Old doting Nature, change thy course anew, And let the trembling lamb the wolf pursue; And hooting owls contend with swans in skill; Hoarse Tityrus strive with Orpheus in the woods, Farewell, ye secret woods, and shady groves, Now take your turns, ye Muses, to rehearse "Tis done: we want but verse.-Restore, my charms, My lingering Daphnis to my longing arms. "Pale Phoebe, drawn by verse, from heaven descends; And Circe changed with charms Ulysses' friends. "Around his waxen image first I wind "Knit with three knots the fillets; knit them strait; "As fire this figure hardens, made of clay, And this of wax with fire consumes away; Such let the soul of cruel Daphnis beHard to the rest of women, soft to me. Crumble the sacred mole of salt and corn: Next in the fire the bays with brimstone burn; And, while it crackles in the sulphur, say, 'This I for Daphnis burn; thus Daphnis burn away! This laurel is his fate.'-Restore, my charms, My lovely Daphnis to my longing arms. "As when the raging heifer, through the grove, Stung with desire, pursues her wandering love; Faint at the last, she seeks the weedy pools, To quench her thirst, and on the rushes rolls, Careless of night, unmindful to return; Such fruitless fires perfidious Daphnis burn, While I so scorn his love!-Restore, my charms, My lingering Daphnis to my longing arms. "These garments once were his, and left to me, The pledges of his promised loyalty, Which underneath my threshold I bestow: These pawns, O sacred earth! to me my Daphnis owe. As these were his, so mine is he.-My charms, Restore their lingering lord to my deluded arms. "These poisonous plants, for magic use designed, (The noblest and the best of all the baneful kind,) Old Moris brought me from the Pontic strand, And culled the mischief of a bounteous land. Smeared with these powerful juices, on the plain, He howls a wolf among the hungry train; And oft the mighty necromancer boasts, With these, to call from tombs the stalking ghosts, And from the roots to tear the standing corn, Which, whirled aloft, to distant fields is borne : Such is the strength of spells.-Restore, my charms, My lingering Daphnis to my longing arms. |