Could bribe his choice; yourself alone can prove
A fit reward for fo refin'd a love.

Relent, fair nymph; and, with a kind regret,
Think 'tis Vertumnus weeping at your feet.
A tale attend, through Cyprus known, to prove
How Venus once reveng'd neglected love.

THE

STORY OF

IPHIS AND

ANAXARETE.

Iphis, of vulgar birth, by chance had view'd

Fair Anaxaretè of Teucer's blood.

Not long had he beheld the royal dame,
Ere the bright fparkle kindled into flame.
Oft' did he struggle with a just despair,
Unfix'd to afk, unable to forbear.

But Love, who flatters ftill his own disease,

Hopes all things will fucceed, he knows will please.
Where-e'er the fair-one haunts, he hovers there;
And feeks her confident with fighs, and prayer;
Or letters he conveys, that feldom prove
Succefslefs meffengers in fuits of love.

Now fhivering at her gates the wretch appears,
And myrtle garlands on the columns rears,

Wet with a deluge of unbidden tears.

}

The nymph, more hard than rocks, more deaf than feas,
Derides his prayers; infults his agonies;
Arraigns of infolence th' afpiring fwain;
And takes a cruel pleasure in his pain.

Refolv'd

Refolv'd at last to finish his despair,

He thus upbraids th' inexorable fair:

O Anaxaretè, at last forget

The licence of a paffion indifcreet.
Now triumph, fince a welcome facrifice
Your flave prepares, to offer to your eyes.
My life, without reluctance, I refign;
That present beft can please a pride like thine.
But, O! forbear to blaft a flame fo bright,
Doom'd never to expire, but with the light.
And you, great powers, do justice to my name;
The hours, you take from life, restore to fame.
Then o'er the pofts, once hung with wreaths, he throws.
The ready cord, and fits the fatal noose;

For Death prepares; and, bounding from above,
At once the wretch concludes his life, and love.
Erelong the people gather, and the dead
Is to his mourning mother's-arms convey'd.
First, like fome ghattly ftatue, the appears;
Then bathes the breathlefs corfe in feas of tears,
And gives it to the pile; now, as the throng
Proceed in fad folemnity along,

To view the paffing pomp, the cruel fair
Haftes, and beholds her breathlefs lover there.
Struck with the fight, inanimate she seems;
Set are her eyes, and motionlefs her limbs:
Her features without fire, her colour gone,
And, like her heart, the hardens into tone.
In Salamis the ftatue ftill is feen,
In the fam'd temple of the Cyprian queen.

Warn'd by this tale, no longer then disdain,
O Nymph belov'd, to ease a lover's pain.
So may the frofts in spring your bloffoms fpare,
And winds their rude autumnal rage forbear!
The story oft' Vertumnus urg'd in vain,
But then affum'd his heavenly form again.
Such looks and luftre the bright youth adorn,
As when with rays glad Phoebus paints the morn.
"The fight fo warms the fair admiring maid,
Like fnow the melts: fo foon can youth perfuade.
Confent, on eager winds, fucceeds defire ;
And both the lovers glow with mutual fire.

THE LATIAN LINE CONTINUED.

Now Procas yielding to the Fates, his fon
Mild Numitor fucceeded to the crown.
But falfe Amulius, with a lawless power,
At length depos'd his brother Numitor.
Then Ilia's valiant iffue, with the fword,
Her parent re-inthron'd, the rightful lord.
Next Romulus to people Rome contrives;
The joyous time of Pales' feaft arrives ;
He gives the word to feize the Sabine wives.
The fires enrag'd take arms, by Tatius led,
Bold to revenge their violated bed.

A fort there was, not yet unknown to fame,
Call'd the Tarpeian, its commander's name.
This by the falfe Tarpeia was betray'd;

But Death well recompens'd the treacherous maid.

The

The foe on this new-bought fuccess relies,
And filent march the city to furprize.
Saturnia's arts with Sabine arms combine;
But Venus countermines the vain defign;
Intreats the nymphs that o'er the fprings prefide,.
Which near the fane of hoary Janus glide,
To fend their fuccours; every urn they drain,.
To stop the Sabines progrefs, but in vain.
The Naiads now more ftratagems effay ;
And kindling fulphur to each source convey..
The floods ferment, hot exhalations rife,
Till from the fcalding ford the army flies.
Soon Romulus appears in fhining arms,
And to the war the Roman legions warms:
The battle rages, and the field is fpread
With nothing but the dying and the dead.
Both fides confent to treat without delay,
And their two chiefs at once the fceptre fway..]
But, Tatius by Lavinian fury flain,
Great Romulus continued long to reign..

THE ASSUMPTION OF ROMULUS.

Now Warrior Mars his burnish'd helm puts on,. And thus addreffes Heaven's imperial throne:

Since the inferior world is now become One vaffal globe, and colony to Rome,

This grace, O Jove, for Romulus I claim,

Admit him to the fkies, from whence he came.

Long haft thou promis'd an æthereal state
To Mars's lineage; and thy word is fate.
The Sire, that rules the thunder, with a nod
Declar'd the fiat, and difmifs'd the God.

Soon as the power armipotent furvey'd
The flashing skies, the fignal he obey'd;
And, leaning on his lance, he mounts his car,
His fiery courfers lafhing through the air.
Mount Palatine he gains, and finds his fon
Good laws enacting on a peaceful throne;
The fcales of heavenly justice holding high,
With fteady hand, and a difcerning eye.
Then vaults upon his car, and to the spheres,
Swift, as a flying fhaft, Rome's founder bears.
The parts more pure in rifing are refin'd,
The grofs and perishable lag behind.
His fhrine in purple vestments stands in view;
He looks a God, and is Quirinus now.

THE ASSUMPTION OF HERSILIA.

Erelong the Goddefs of the nuptial bed,
With pity mov'd, fends Iris in her stead
To fad Herfilia-Thus the Meteor Maid :
Chafte relict in bright truth to Heaven ally'd,
The Sabines' glory,' and the fex's pride;
Honour'd on earth, and worthy of the love
Of such a spouse, as now refides above ;
Some refpite to thy killing griefs afford;
And, if thou would'st once more behold thy lord,

}