As fome coy nymph her lover's warm address
Not quite indulges, nor can quite reprefs.

There, interfpers'd in lawns and opening glades,
Thin trees arife that fhun each other's fhades.
Here in full light the ruffet plains extend:
There, wrapt in clouds the bluish hills afcend.
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes,
And 'midft the defert, fruitful fields arife,

That, crown'd with tufted trees and fpringing corn,
Like verdant ifles the fable wafte adorn.

Let India boast her plants, nor envy we

The weeping amber, or the balmy tree,

20

25

30

While by our oaks the precious loads are born,

And realms commanded which thofe trees adorn.

Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,

Though Gods affembled grace his towering height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here,
Where, in their bleffings, all those Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving profpe&t stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand;
Rich Industry fits filing on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a Stuart reigns,

35

4.0

VARIATION.

Not

Ver. 25. Originally thus ;

Why fhould I fing our better funs or air,
Whofe vital draughts prevent the leach's care,
While thro' fresh fields th' enliv'ning odours breathe,
Or fpread with vernal blooms the purple keath?

Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary defert, and a gloomy waste,
To favage beafts and favage laws a prey,
And kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the skies, difpeopled air and floods,
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:
Cities laid wafte, they storm'd the dens and caves
(For wifer brutes were backward to be slaves).
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,
And ev❜n the elements a Tyrant sway'd?

45

50

In vain kind seasons fwell'd the teeming grain,

Soft fhowers diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain ;

The swain with tears his frustrate labour yields,

55

And famifh'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beast or fubject flain
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign?
Both doom'd alike for fportive Tyrants bled,
But, while the fubject starv'd, the beaft was fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man:
Our haughty Norman boasts that barbarous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran (For who firft ftoop'd to be a flave was man).

Ver. 57, &c.

No wonder favages or fubjects flain

But fubjects ftarv'd, while favages were fed.

60

The

It was originally thus, but the word Savages is not properly applied to beafts but to men; which occafioned the alteration.

70

75

The fields are ravish'd from th' industrious swains, 65
From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes :
The level'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er;
The hollow winds through naked temples roar;
Round broken columns clasping ivy twin'd;
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind;
The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires,
And favage howlings fill the sacred quires.
Aw'd by his Nobles, by his Commons curft,
Th' Oppreffor rul'd tyrannic where he durst,
Stretch'd o'er the Poor and Church his iron rod,
And ferv'd alike his Vaffals and his God.
Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd, and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his fport remain.
But fee, the man who fpacious regions gave
A wafte for beafts, himself deny'd a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope furvey,
At once the chacer, and at once the prey:
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rise.
Then gathering flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forests wonder'd at th' unusual grain,
And secret transport touch'd the confcious swain.

VARIATION.

80

85

90

Fair

Ver. 72. And wolves with howling fill, &c.] The Author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.

Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears

Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

Ye vigorous fwains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer spirits fwell the sprightly flood,

Now range the hills, the gameful woods beset,

Wind the shrill horn, or spread the waving net.
When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds,

95

Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds; 100
But when the tainted gales the game betray,
Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey:
Secure they truft th' unfaithful field beset,

Till hovering o'er them sweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare) 105
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,

VARIATIONS.

Some

Ver. 91.

Oh may no more a foreign master's rage,

With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age!
Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly wings,
Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the fprings,

Ver. 97.

When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,

And into wine the purple harveft bleeds,

The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,
Both morning sports and ev'ning pleasure yields.
Ver. 107. It food thus in the first edition :

Pleas'd, in the General's fight, the host lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;

The young, the old, one instant makes our prize,
And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies,

Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft,
Near and more near, the clofing lines invest;
Sudden they feize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,
And high in air Britannia's standard flies.

See! from the brake the whirring pheafant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings :
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground,
Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dies,

His purple creft, and fcarlet circled eyes,
The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold,

His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny.
To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair,
And trace the mazes of the circling hare
(Beafts, urg'd by us, their fellow beasts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo):

115

120

With flaughtering guns th' unweary'd fowler roves, 125
When frosts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the watery glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen fky:

130

Oft, as in airy rings they fkim the heath,
The clamorous lapwings feel the leaden death:

Oft,

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 126. O'er ruftling leaves around the naked groves. Ver. 129. The fowler lifts his level'd tube on high.