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"Restore the lock!" she cries; and all around "Restore the lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound. Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain

Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain.
But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed,
And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost!
The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain,
In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain:
With such a prize no mortal must be blest,
So Heav'n decrees; with Heav'n who can contest?
Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere,
Since all things lost on earth are treasured there.1
There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases,
And beaux in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases.
There broken vows and death-bed alms are found,
And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound,
The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs,
Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
Dried butterflies, and tones of casuistry.

But trust the Muse-she saw it upward rise,
Though marked by none but quick, poetic eyes:
(So Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew,
To Proculus alone confessed in view)

A sudden star, it shot through liquid air,
And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.2
Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright,

The heav'ns bespangling with dishevelled light.
The sylphs behold it kindling as it flies,

And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.
This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey,
And hail with music its propitious ray;

This the blest lover shall for Venus take,

And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake.3

This Partridge' soon shall view in cloudless skies,

1 A celebrated fiction of Ariosto's.

"Ciò che in somma quà giù perdeste mai

Là, su saltendo ritrovar potrai."

See Ariosto. Canto xxxiv.-Fope.

2 "Flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite crimen,
Stella micat."-Ovid.-Pope.

In St. James' Park; filled in during the last century.

4 John Partridge was a ridiculous star-gazer, who in his almanacs every year never failed to predict the downfall of the Pope, and the King of France, then at war with the English.-Pope. In ridicule of these prophecies Swift published mock predictions, declaring that Par tridge would die on a certain day in the following March, and when the day came, his death (in accordance with the prophecy) was an

When next he looks through Galileo's eyes;
And hence the egregious wizard shall foredoom
The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome.

Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished
hair,

Which adds new glory to the shining sphere!
Not all the tresses that fair head can boast,
Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost.
For after all the murders of your eye,
When, after millions slain, yourself shall die:
When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,
This lock the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.

MESSIAH,

A SACRED ECLOGUE.

IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

was first published in the "Spectator" for May 14, 1712, No. 378.

Pope's "Messiah

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ADVERTISEMENT.

IN reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ, and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe 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 same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but made

nounced. The poor almanack maker loudly protested that he was still alive; but his assertion was met by the wits with a solemn assurance that he must be mistaken, that he was dead, or at least ought to be. The joke is immortalised in the " Tatler," and must have been intensely ludicrous at the time.

1 In the fourth Eclogue of Virgil he foretold the coming of a wondrous child who was to restore the fabled golden age. He professed to take the prediction from the Sibylline books which the Sibyl sold to Tarquin, and which were used as state oracles by the Romans; but it is believed they had been much altered before Virgil's time. See Prideaux's Connection," and also Trench's "Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom."

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use of such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting anything of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the prophet are superior to those of the poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation.-Pope.

YE nymphs of Solyma!' begin the song:
To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains, and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and Aonian maids,'
Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!3
Rapt into future times, the bard begun:
A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!"
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise,"
Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies;
Th' ethereal Spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic dove.
Ye heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly show'r!
The sick' and weak the healing plant shall aid,
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail;

1 Solyma-Jerusalem.

2 The Muses.

3 Isaiah vi. 6, 7.

4 Virg. Ecl. 4, vi.

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna:
Jam nova progenies cælo demittitur alto.

Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
Irrita perpetua solvent formadine terras.
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.

6

"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of Thee, whatever reliques of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the world in peace with the virtues of his father."

Dante says that Statius was made a Christian by reading this pas sage in Virgil. See L. Gyraldus.-Warton.

It is certainly one of the "unconscious prophecies of Heathendom." Imitations from Isaiah, chap. vii. 14: chap. ix. 6, 7.—Pope.

5 Isaiah xi. 1-And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jess, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.-Pope.

6 Isaiah xlv. 8.-Pope.

7 Isaiah xxv. 6.-Pope.

Returning Justice' lift aloft her scale;

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,

And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn!
Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born!
See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,"
With all the incense of the breathing spring:
See lofty Lebanon3 his head advance,
See nodding forests on the mountains dance:
See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise,
And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears:
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down ye mountains, and ye valleys rise,
With heads declined, ye cedars homage pay;
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear Him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!"
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day:
'Tis He th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,

6

Astrea, the Virgin goddess of Justice, was fabled to have fled from the earth at the close of the Golden Age.-Isaiah ix. 7.

* Virg. Ecl. iv. 18.

At tibi prima, puer! nullo munuscula cultu,
Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus,
Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.
Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores.

"For thee, O child, shall the earth without being tilled produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar and Colocasia with smiling Acanthus. Thy cradle shall pour forth pleasing flowers about thee.'

3 Isaiah xxxv. 2. and Isaiah lx. 13.-Pope.

4 Ecl. iv. 46.

Aggredere, ô magnos, adherit jam tempus, honores,
Cara deûm soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum.

Ecl. v. 62.

Ipsi lætitiâ voces ad sideram jactant

Intonsi montes: ipsæ jam carmina rupe

Ipsa sonant arbusta: Deus, Deus ille Menalca.

"Oh come and receive the mighty honours, the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the gods, O great increase of Jove! The uncultivated mountains send shouts of joy to the stars, the very rocks sing in verse, the very shrubs cry out, A God, a God." See Isaiah x1, 3, 4, chap. xliv. 23.-Pope.

Isaiah xlii. 8.-Pope.

• Isaiah xxxv, 5.-Pope,

And leap exulting like the bounding roe.'
No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.

In adamantine chains shall death be bound,2
And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wand'ring sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs He raises in His arms,

5

Feeds from His hand, and in His bosom warms;3
Thus shall mankind His guardian care engage,
The promised Father of the future age.*
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun:
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprise'
Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn:

1 Isaiah xxxv. 6.-Pope.

2 Isaiah xxv. 8.-Pope.

3 Isaiah xl. 11.-Pope.

Isaiah ix. 6.-Pope. In Isaiah it is "the Everlasting Father" which the Seventy render "The Father of the world to come," agreeably to the style of the New Testament, in which the kingdom of the Messiah is called the age of the world to come. Mr. Pope, therefore, has with great judgment adopted the sense of the LXX. Warton.

5 Isaiali ii. 4.-Pope.

6 Isaiah lxv. 21, 22.

7 Isaiah xxxv. 1.-Pope.

8 Virg. Ecl. iv. 28.

Molli paulatim, flavescet campus aristâ,
Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,
Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

"The fields shall grow yellow with ripened ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oak shall distil honey like dew. Isaiah xxxv. 7. and lv. 13.-Pope.

Isaiah xli. 19, and lvi. 13.-Pope.

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