Immenfe to name their lands, to mark their bounds,
And paint the thousand families of hounds:
First count the fands, the drops where oceans flow,
Or Gauls by Marlborough fent to fhades below.
The task be mine, to teach Britannia's fwains,
My much-lov'd country, and my native plains.
Such be the dog, I charge, thou mean'st to train,
His back is crooked, and his belly plain,
Of fillet ftretch'd, and huge of haunch behind,
A tapering tail, that nimbly cuts the wind;
Trufs-thigh'd, ftraight-ham'd, and fox-like form'd hi
paw,
Large-leg'd, dry fold, and of protended claw.
His flat, wide noftrils fnuff the favory fteam,
And from his eyes he shoots pernicious gleam;
Middling his head, and prone to earth his view,
With ears and cheft that dash the morning dew:
He beft to ftem the flood, to leap the bound,
And charm the Dryads with his voice profound;
To pay large tribute to his weary lord,
And crown the fylvan hero's plenteous board.
The matron bitch whose womb shall beft produce
The hopes and fortune of th' illustrious house,
Deriv'd from noble, but from foreign feed,
For various nature loaths inceftuous breed,
Is like the fire throughout. Nor yet displease
Large flanks, and ribs, to give the teemer eafe.
In Spring let loofe thy pairs.
The ftings of pleasure, and the
Then all things prove pangs of love :
Æthereal Jove then glads, with genial fhowers,
Earth's mighty womb, and ftrews her lap with flowers.
Hence juices mount, and buds, embolden'd, try
More kindly breezes, and a fofter sky:
Kind Venus revels. Hark! on every bough,
In lulling ftrains the feather'd warblers woo.
Fell tigers foften in th' infectious flames,
And lions, fawning, court their brinded dames :
Great Love pervades the deep; to please his mate,
The whale, in gambols, moves his monstrous weight,
Heav'd by his wayward mirth old Ocean roars,
And fcatter'd navies bulge on distant shores.
All Nature smiles; come now, nor fear, my love,
To taste the odours of the woodbine grove,
To pass the evening glooms in harmless play,
And, fweetly fwearing, languish life away.
An altar, bound with recent flowers, I rear
To thee, beft feafon of the various year;
All hail fuch days in beauteous order ran,
So fwift, fo fweet, when firft the world began,
In Eden's bowers, when man's great fire affign'd
The names and natures of the brutal kind.
Then lamb and lion friendly walk'd their round,
And hares, undaunted, lick'd the fondling hound;
Wondrous to tell! but when, with lucklefs hand,
Our daring mother broke the fole command,
Then want and envy brought their meagre train,
Then wrath came down, and death had leave to reign:
Hence foxes earth'd, and wolves abhor'd the day,
And hungry churls enfnar'd the nightly prey;
Rude arts at firft; but witty want refin'd
The huntfman's wiles, and famine form'd the mind.
Bold Nimrod firft the lion's trophies wore, The panther bound, and lanc'd the bristling boar; He taught to turn the hare, to bay the deer, And wheel the courfer in his mid career: Ah! had he there restrain'd his tyrant hand! Let me, ye powers, an humbler wreath demand. No pomps I ask, which crowns and fceptres yield, Nor dangerous laurels in the dufty field; Faft by the foreft, and the limpid spring, Give me the warfare of the woods to fing, To breed my whelps, and healthful prefs the game, A mean, inglorious, but a guiltless name.
And now thy female bears in ample womb
The bane of hares, and triumphs yet to come.
No fport, I ween, nor blast of sprightly horn,
Should tempt me then to hurt the whelps unborn.
Unlock'd, in covers let her freely run,
To range thy courts, and bask before the fun;
Near thy full table let the favourite ftand,
Strok'd by thy fon's, or blooming daughter's hand.
Carefs, indulge, by arts the matron bribe,
T improve her breed, and teem a vigorous tribe.
So, if fmall things may be compar'd with great,
And Nature's works the Mufe's imitate,
So, ftretch'd in fhades, and lull'd by murmuring ftreams,
Great Maro's breast receiv'd the heavenly dreams.
Reclufe, ferene, the mufing prophet lay,
Till thoughts in embryo, ripening, burst their way.
Hence bees in ftate, and foaming courfers come,
Heroes, and gods, and walls of lofty Rome.
FROM MONSIEUR FONTENELLE.
AM, cry'd Apollo, when Daphne he woo'd, And panting for breath, the coy virgin pursued, When his wisdom, in manner most ample, expreft The long lift of the graces his godship poffeft:
I'm the god of fweet fong, and inspirer of lays ;
Nor for lays, nor fweet fong, the fair fugitive stays;
I'm the god of the harp-stop my fairest-in vain;
Nor the harp, nor the harper, could fetch her again.
Every plant, every flower, and their virtues I know, God of light I'm above, and of physic below:
At the dreadful word phyfic, the nymph fled more fast; At the fatal word phyfic fhe doubled her hafte.
Thou fond god of wisdom, then, alter thy phrase,
Bid her view the young bloom, and thy ravishing rays,
Tell her lefs of thy knowledge, and more of thy charms,
And, my life for 't, the damfel will fly to thy arms.
THE FATAL CURIOSITY.
UCH had I heard of fair Francelia's name,
The lavish praises of the babler, Fame:
I thought them fuch, and went prepar'd to pry,
And trace the charmer, with a critic's eye,
Refolv'd to find fome fault, before unspy'd,
And difappointed, if but fatisfy'd.
Love pierc'd the vassal heart, that durst rebel,
And, where a judge was meant, a victim fell:
On thofe dear eyes, with sweet perdition gay,
I gaz'd, at once, my pride and foul away;
All o'er I felt the lufcious poison run,
And, in a look, the hafty conqueft won.
Thus the fond moth around the taper plays,
And sports and flutters near the treacherous blaze;
Ravish'd with joy, he wings his eager flight,
Nor dreams of ruin in fo clear a light;
He tempts his fate, and courts a glorious doom,
A bright deftruction, and a fhining tomb.
WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOENIX.
LAVISH of wit, and bold, appear the lines,
Where Claudian's genius in the Phoenix fhines; A thousand ways each brilliant point is turn'd, And the gay poem, like its theme, adorn'd: A tale more ftrange ne'er grac'd the poet's art, Nor e'er did fiction play fo wild a part.
|