Their fhips at anchor now,

boaft,

of which w' had heard them

With ill-furl'd fails and rattlings loofe, by every billow

toft,

Lay like neglected harps, untun'd, unftrung;

Till at the laft, provok'd with fhame, Forth from their dens the baited foxes came; Foxes in council, and in fight too grave;

Seldom true, and now not brave:

They blufter'd out the day with fhew of fight,
And ran away in the good-natur'd night.

XIX.

A bloody battle next was fought,
And then in triumph home a welcome fleet he brought,
With spoils of victory and glory fraught.
To him then every heart was open, down

From the great man to the clown:
In him rejoic'd, to him inclin'd;

And as his health round the glad board did pass,

Each honeft fellow cry'd, Fill full

my glass;

And fhew'd the fullnefs of his mind.

No difcontented vermin of ill times.

Durft then affront him but in fhow ;

Nor libel dash him with his dirty rhymes; he live in peace that does it now.

Nor

may

And whofe heart would not wish fo too,

That had but seen

When his tumultuous mifled foes

Against him rofe,

With what heroic grace

He chose the weight of wrong to undergo !
No tempeft on his brow, unalter'd in his face,
True witnefs of the innocence within.
But, when the meffengers did mandates bring
For his retreat to foreign land,

Since fent from the relenting hand
Of the most loving brother, kindest king;
If in his heart regret did rife,
It never fcap'd his tongue or eyes;
With steady virtue 'twas allay'd,
And like a mighty conqueror he obey'd.

XX.

It was a dark and gloomy day,
Sad as the bufinefs, fullen too,

As proud men, when in vain they woo,
Or foldiers cheated of their pay.

The Court, where pleasures us'd to flow, Became the fcene of mourning and of woe: Defolate was every room,

Where men for news and bufinefs us'd to come :
With folded arms and down-caft eyes men walk'd
In corners, and with caution talk'd.

All things prepar'd, the hour drew near When he must part: his last short time was spent In leaving bleffings on his children dear:

To them with eager haste and love he went;
The eldest first embrac'd,

As new-born day in beauty bright,
But fad in mind as deepest night:

What tendereft hearts could fay, betwixt them past, Till grief too clofe upon them crept;

So fighing he withdrew, fhe turn'd away and wept. Much of the father in his breaft did rise,

When on the next he fix'd his eyes,

A tender infant in the nurse's arms,

Full of kind play, and pretty charms : And as to give the farewel kifs he near it drew, About his manly neck two little arms it threw ; Smil'd in his eyes, as if it begg'd his stay,

And look'd kind things it could not fay.

XXI.

But the great pomp of grief was yet to come.
Th' appointed time was almost past,

Th' impatient tides knock'd at the shore, and bid him hafte
To feek a foreign home;

The fummons he refolv'd t' obey, Difdaining of his fufferings to complain,

Though every step seem'd trod with pain; So forth he came, attended on his way By a fad lamenting throng,

That bleft him, and about him hung.

A weight his generous heart could hardly bear;
But for the comfort that was near,
His beauteous Mate, the fountain of his joys,
That fed his foul with love;

The cordial that can mortal pains remove,
To which all worldly bleffings else are toys.
I faw them ready for departure ftand;

Juft when approach'd the Monarch of our land,
And took the charming Mourner by the hand :

}

T'express

T'exprefs all nobleft offices he ftrove,
Of royal goodness, and a brother's love.
Then down to the fhore fide,

Where to convey them did two royal barges ride,
With folemn pace they pafs'd,

And there fo tenderly embrac'd,

All griev'd by fympathy to see them part, And their kind pains touch'd each by-stander's heart. Then hand in hand the pity'd pair Turn'd round to face their fate; She ev'n amidst afflictions fair, He, though oppreft, ftill great.

Into th' expecting boat with hafte they went, Where, as the troubled Fair-one to the fhore fome withes

fent

For that dear pledge sh'ad left behind,
And as her paffion grew too mighty for her mind,
She of fome tears her eyes beguil'd,

Which, as upon her cheek they lay,
The happy hero kifs'd

away,

And, as fhe wept, blufh'd with difdain, and finil'd.
Straight forth they launch into the high-fwoln Thames;
The well-ftruck oars lave up the yielding ftreams.
All fix'd their longing eyes, and wishing stood,
Till they were got into the wider flood;
Till leffen'd out of fight, and feen no more,
Then figh'd, and turn'd into the hated shore.

PHEDRA TO HIPPOLYTUS.

TRANSLATED OUT OF OVID.

THE

ARGUMENT.

Thefeus, the son of Ægeus, having slain the Minotaur, promised to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pafiphae, for the affiftance which she gave him, to carry her home with him, and make her his wife; fo together with her fifter Phædra they went on board and failed to Chios, where being warned by Bacchus, he left Ariadne, and married her fifter Phædra, who afterwards, in Thefeus her husband's abfence, fell in love with Hippolytus her fon-in-law, who had vow'd celibacy, and was a hunter; wherefore, fince fhe could not conveniently otherwise, the chofe by this epiftle to give him an account of her paffion.

IF thou 'rt unkind, I ne'er shall health enjoy,
Yet much I wish to thee, my lovely boy :
Read this, and reading how my soul is seiz'd,
Rather than not, be with my ruin pleas'd:
Thus fecrets fafe to fartheft fhores may move;
By letters foes converfe, and learn to love.
Thrice my fad tale, as I to tell it try'd,
Upon my faultering tongue abortive dy'd ;

Long