What eyes but hers, alas, have power to move! And is there magic but what dwells in love? Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful strains! I'll fly from thepherds, flocks, and flowery plains. From fhepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove, Forfake mankind, and all the world-but love! I know thee, Love on foreign mountains bred, Wolves gave thee fuck, and favage tigers fed. 90 Thou wert from Ætna's burning entrails torn, Got by fierce whirlinds, and in thunder born! Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful lay! Farewell, ye woods, adieu the light of day! One leap from yonder cliffs fhall end my pains; No more, ye hills, no more refound my strains! Thus fung the fhepherds till th' approach of night, The skies yet blushing with departing light, When falling dews with fpangles deck'd the glade, And the low fun had lengthen'd every shade. 100 WINTER. THE FOURTH PASTORAL, OR DAPHNE. TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. TEMPEST. 'Tis done, and nature's various charms decay: See gloomy clouds obfcure the cheerful day! 30 Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours fcatter'd on her bier. See where, on earth, the flowery glories lie! With her they flourish'd and with her they die. Ah, what avail the beauties nature wore? Fair Daphne's dead, and beauty is no more! For her the flocks refufe their verdant food, The thirsty heifers fhun the gliding flood; The filver fwans her haplefs fate bemoan, In notes more fad than when they fing their own; 40 In hollow caves fweet Echo filent lies, No grateful dews defcend from evening skies, VARIATIONS. ! 50 Ver. 29. Originally thus in the MS. 'Tis done, and nature's chang'd fince you are gone; MESSIAH. A SACRED ECLOGUE. IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO. ADVERTISEMENT. In reading several paffages of the prophet Isaiah, which foretel the coming of Chrift, and the felicities attending it, I could not but obferve a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the fame subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line for line; but felected fuch ideas as beft agreed with the nature of Paftoral Poetry, and difpofed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the fame in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; fince it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and defcriptions of the prophet are fuperior to those of the poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall fubjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the fame difadvantage of a literal translation. + Cb xiv. ver. 8. All crimes fhall ceafe, and ancient frauds shall fail, | A God, a God! the vocal hills reply, Returning Juftice lift aloft her scale; IMITATIONS. 30 Ifaiah, Ch. vii. ver. 14. "Behold a Virgin " fhall conceive and bear a Son-Chap. ix. ver. "6, 7. Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son " is given; the Prince of Peace: of the increase " of his government, and of his peace, there shall "be no end: Upon the throne of David, and up"on his kingdom, to order and to establish it, "with judgment and with justice, for ever and " ever." Ver. 23. See nature haftes, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 18. At tibi prima, puer, nullo munufcula cultu, "For thee, O Child, fhall the earth, without "being tilled, produce her early offerings; wind"ing ivy, mixed with Baccar, and Colocaffia with "fmiling Acanthus. Thy cradle fhail pour forth "pleafing flowers about thee." Ifaiah, Ch. xxxi. ver. 1. "The wilderness and "the folitary place fhall be glad, and the desert "fhall rejoice and bloffom as the rofe." Ch. Ix. ver. 13. The glory of Lebanon fhall come un"to thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the hox "together, to beautify the place of thy fanctu "ary." Ver. 29. Hark! a glad voice, &c. Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 46. 50 The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity. IMITATIONS. 60 "the very rocks fing in verfe; the very fhrubs cry out, A God, a God!" Ifaiah, Ch. xl. ver. 3. 4. " The voice of hina "that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord! make ftraight in the defert "a high-way for our God! Every valley fhall be "exalted, and every mountain and hill fhall be "made low, and the crooked fhall be made ftraight, and the rough places plain." Ch. iv, ver. 23. "Break forth into finging, ye mountains; "O foreft, and every tree therein, for the Lord "hath redeemed Ifeael." Ver. 67. The fwain in barren deferts] Virg. Ch. lxv. ver. 21, 22. tt Ch. xxxv, ver. 1. 7. Cb. xl. ver. II. 70 And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear The lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead: The fmiling infant in his hand fhall take Rife, crown'd with light, imperial * Salem, rife! And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 80 Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend; "of water: Ifaiah, Ch. xxxv. ver. 7. « The parched ground Ver. 77. The lambs with wolves, &c.] Virg. Ipfæ lacte domum referent diftenta capella "The goats fhall bear to the fold their udders "diftended with milk; nor shall the herds be "afraid of the greatest lions. The ferpent fhall "die, and the herb that conceals poifon fhall die." Ifaiah, Ch. xi. ver. 6, &c. "The wolf fhall "dwell with the lamb, and the leopard fhall lie "down with the kid, and the calf and the young "lion and the fatling together; and a little child "fhall lead them. And the lion fhall eat straw like "the ox. And the fucking child fhall play on "the hole of the afp, and the weaned child fhall "put his hand on the den of the cockatrice." 100 See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings, IMITATIONS. Ver. 85. Rife, crown'd with light, imperial Sa lem, rife!] The thoughts of Ifaiah, which compofe the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above thofe general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftieft part of his, Pollio. Magnis ab integro fæclorum nafcitur ordo! The reader needs only to turn to the paffages of Ifaiah, here cited. |