any transactions dishonourable to the writer, is rested the whole support of the accusa
Multùm, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas
Pectus amans nostrî, tamque fidele caput;
Quodque mihi lepidum tellus longinqua sodalem
Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.
Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ,
Meque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.
Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.
Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles:
Quàm malè Phœbicolis convenit ille locus!
Nec duri libet usque minas perferre magistri,
Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meọ.
Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates,
Et vacuum curis otia grata sequi,
Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso,
Lætus et exilii conditione fruor.
O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset,
Ille Tomitano flebilis exul agro:
Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero,
Neve foret victo laus tibi prima, Maro.
Tempora nam licet hîc placidis dare libera Musis,
Et totum rapiunt me, mea vita, libri.
Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri,
Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos,
Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus hæres,
Seu procus, aut positâ casside miles adest:
Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus
Detonat inculto barbara verba foro.
Sæpe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti,
Et nasum rigidi fallit ubique patris:
Sæpe novos illic virgo mirata calores
Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat,
Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum
Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat.
Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectâsse dolendo,
Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest:
tion, preferred against our author's college life, from his own to the present times. The
Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit
Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit:
Seu ferus è tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor,
Conscia funereo pectora torre movens:
Seu mæret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ilì,
Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos.
Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe latemus;
Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.
Nos quoque lucus habet vicinâ consitus ulmo,
Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci.
Sæpius hîc, blandas spirantia sidera flammas,
Virgineos videas præteriisse choros.
Ah quoties dignæ stupui miracula formæ,
Quæ possit senium vel reparare Jovis!
Ah quoties vidi superantia lumina gemmas,
Atque faces quotquot volvit uterque polus!
Collaque bis vivi Pelopis quæ brachia vincant,
Quæque fluit puro nectare tincta via!
Et decus eximium frontis, tremulosque capillos,
Aurea quæ fallax retia tendit Amor!
Pellacesque genas, ad quas hyacinthina sordet
Purpura, et ipse tui floris. Adoni, rubor!
Cedite, laudatæ toties Heroides olim,
Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem.
Cedite, Achæmeniæ turritâ fronte puellæ,
Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon.
Vos etiam Danaæ fasces submittite nymphæ,
Et vos Iliacæ, Romuleæque nurus:
Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Musa columnas
Jactet, et Ausoniis plena theatra stolis.
Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis;
Extera, sat tibi sit, fœmina, posse sequi.
Tuque urbs Dardaniis, Londinum, structa colonis,
Turrigerum latè conspicienda caput,
author of the "Modest Confutation," (whom Milton believed to be the son of bishop Hall,)
Tu nimium felix intra tua moenia claudis
Quicquid formosi pendulus orbis habet.
Non tibi tot cœlo scintillant astra sereno,
Endymioneæ turba ministra deæ,
Quot tibi, conspicua formâque auroque, puellæ
Per medias radiant turba videnda vias.
Creditur huc geminis venisse invecta columbis
Alma pharetrigero milite cincta Venus;
Huic Cnidon, et riguas Simoentis flumine valles,
Huic Paphon, et roseam posthabitura Cypron.
Ast ego, dum pueri sinit indulgentia cæci,
Moenia quàm subitò linquere fausta paro;
Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes
Atria, divini molyos usus ope.
Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes,
Atque iterum raucæ murmur adire scholæ.
Interea fidi parvum cape munus amici,
Paucaque in alternos verba coacta modos.
ÉLEGY I. TO CHARLES DEODATI.
Ar length, my friend, the missive paper came,
Warm with your words, and hallow'd by your name:
Came from those fields which Cestrian Deva laves,
As prone he hurries to Iërne's waves.
I joy to find my friendship thus confest,
Though regions part us, foster'd in your breast:
I joy, believe me, that a distant shore
Owes me a comrade-and must soon restore.
Pleased with my native city, still I dwell
Where Thames's restless waters sink and swell.
Extinct my love of mansions, late denied,
No wish now leads me to Cam's reedy side:
Where genial shade the naked fields refuse;
(Ah most unfriendly to the courted Muse!)
confesses that he had no certain notice of his opponent, further than what he had gathered
And ill my soul a master's threats can bear,
With all the fretting of the pedant's war.
If this be banishment,—all cares aloof,
To live my own beneath a father's roof,
Still,-let an idle world condemn or not,-
Mine be a truant's name, an exile's lot.
O had no weightier ills oppress'd the doom
Of the sad bard in Tomi's wintry gloom;
Great Homer's self had seen a rival lay,
And Maro had resign'd his victor bay:
For here the Muses lead my hours along,
And all my day is study or is song.
Then tired, I hasten where the scene commands
The crowded theatre's applauding hands:
Whether it's fictions show, with mimic truth,
A cautious parent, or a spendthrift youth;
A lover, or a peaceful son of war ;
Or, bawling the base jargon of the bar,
Pompous, and pregnant with a ten-years' cause,→
The prating, puzzled pleader of the laws.
There oft a servant aids the doating boy
To elude his sire, and gain his promised joy :
There a new feeling oft the maiden proves;
Knows not 'tis love, but while she knows not, loves.
Or there high tragedy, in wild despair,
Lifts her red hand and rends her streaming hair.
I look and weep:-I weep-yet look again,
And snatch froni sorrow a delicious pain:
Whether the hapless youth, from love and life
Torn by strong fate, resign his virgin wife:
Or, hot from hell, the dire avenger stand,
Exerting o'er the wretch her Stygian brand:
Or heaven's dread wrath o'ertake, with tardy pace,
The crimes of Atreus in his bleeding race;
Or Creon's court atone the incestuous sire's embrace.
from the "Animadversions ;" and Milton
says, "He blunders at me for the rest, and
Nor always do I lose, 'mid walls and streets,
Spring's painted blossoms and refreshing sweets.
Sometimes beneath my suburb grove I stray,
Where blending elms dispense a chequer'd day:
Where passing beauties often strike my sight,
Diurnal stars that shoot a genial light.
With raptured gaze, ah! often have I hung
On forms of power to make old Saturn young:
Ah! often have I seen the radiant eye
Outblaze the gem, or Zembla's nightly sky;
The neck, more white than Pelops' ivory arm;
The nectar'd lip, with dewy rapture warm;
The front's resplendent grace; the playful hairs,
Compell'd by Love to weave his golden snares;
And the sweet power of cheek, where dimples wreathe,
And tints beyond the blush of Flora breathe.
Yield, famed Heroides! yield nymphs, who strove
With heaven's great empress for the heart of Jove!
Stoop, Persian dames! your structured foreheads low!
Ye Grecian, Dardan, Roman damsels, bow!
And thou, Tarpeian poet,* cease to boast
Thy Pompey's porch, and theatre's bright host.
Let foreign nymphs the fruitless strife forbear:
Beauty's first prize belongs to Britain's fair,
Imperial London! built by Trojan hands,
With towery head illustrious o'er the lands,
Happy-thrice happy!-what the sun beholds
Of female charms thy favour'd wall infolds.
Not more the stars, whose beams illume thy night,
(Gay homagers of Luna's regent light,)
Than lovely maids, of faultless form and face,
Who o'er thy crowded paths diffuse a golden grace.
Apol. for Smectymnuus, P. W. i. 213.
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