Rush down the dangerous steep; and o'er the lawn,
In fancy swallowing up the space between,
Pour all your speed into the rapid game,
For happy he! who tops the wheeling chace;
Has every maze evolv'd, and every guile
Disclos'd; who knows the merits of the pack;
Who faw the villain feiz'd, and dying hard,
Without complaint, though by an hundred mouths
Relentless torn: O glorious he, beyond
His daring peers! when the retreating horn
Calls them to ghostly halls of grey renown,
With woodland honours grac'd; the fox's fur,
Depending decent from the roof; and spread
Round the drear walls, with antick figures fierce,
The ftag's large front: he then is loudest heard,
When the night staggers with feverer toils,
With feats Theffalian Centaurs never knew,
And their repeated wonders shake the dome.
But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide;
The tankards foam; and the strong table groans
Beneath the smoking furloin, stretch'd immense
From fide to fide; in which, with defperate knife, 505
They deep incifion make, and talk the while
Of England's glory, ne'er to be defac'd
While hence they borrow vigour : or amain
Into the pafty plung'd, at intervals,
If ftomach keen can intervals allow,
Relating all the glories of the chace.
Then fated Hunger bids his brother Thirst
Produce the mighty bowl; the mighty bowl,
Swell'd high with fiery juice, fteams liberal round
A potent gale, delicious as the breath
Of Maia to the love-fick fhepherdess,
On violets diffus'd, while foft fhe hears
Her panting fhepherd ftealing to her arms.
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn,
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat
Of thirty years; and now his honeft front
Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid
Ev'n with the vineyard's best produce to vie.
To cheat the thirsty moments, Whift a while
Walks his dull round, beneath a cloud of smoke, 525 Wreath'd, fragrant, from the pipe; or the quick dice,
In thunder leaping from the box, awake
The founding gammon: while romp-loving miss
Is haul'd about, in gallantry robust.
At last these puling idlenesses laid
Afide, frequent and full, the dry divan
Close in firm circle; and fet, ardent, in
For ferious drinking. Nor evasion fly,
Nor fober fhift, is to the puking wretch
Indulg'd apart; but earnest, brimming bowls
Lave every foul, the table floating round,
And pavement, faithlefs to the fuddled foot.
Thus as they fwim in mutual swill, the talk,
Vociferous at once from twenty tongues,
Reels faft from theme to theme; from horfes, hounds, To church or mistress, politics or ghost,
In endless mazes, intricate, perplex'd.
Mean-time, with fudden interruption, loud,
Th' impatient catch bursts from the joyous heart;
That moment touch'd is every kindred foul;
And, opening in a full-mouth'd cry of joy,
The laugh, the flap, the jocund curse, go round;
While, from their flumbers fhook, the kennel'd hounds
Mix in the mufic of the day again.
As when the tempeft, that has vex'd the deep
The dark night long, with fainter murmurs falls :
So gradual finks their mirth. Their feeble tongues
Unable to take up the cumberous word,
Lie quite diffolv'd. Before their maudlin eyes,
Seen dim, and blue, the double tapers dance,
Like the fun wading through the misty sky.
Then fliding foft, they drop. Confus'd above,
Glaffes and bottles, pipes and gazetteers,
As if the table ev'n itself was drunk,
Lie a wet broken fcene; and wide, below,
Is heap'd the focial flaughter: where astride
The lubber Power in filthy triumph fits,
Slumberous, inclining ftill from fide to fide,
And steeps them drench'd in potent fleep till morn.
Perhaps fome doctor, of tremendous paunch,
Awful and deep, a black abyss of drink,
Out-lives them all; and from his bury'd flock
Retiring, full of rumination fad,
Laments the weaknefs of these latter times.
But if the rougher sex by this fierce fport
Is hurried wild, let not fuch horrid joy
E'er ftain the bofom of the British Fair.
Far be the spirit of the chace from them!
Uncomely courage, unbefeeming skill;
To fpring the fence, to rein the prancing steed;
The cap, the whip, the mafculine attire ;
In which they roughen to the sense, and all
The winning foftness of their fex is loft.
In them 'tis graceful to dissolve at woe;
Unequal, then the loveliest in their fears;
And by this filent adulation, soft,
To their protection more engaging man.
O may their eyes no miferable fight,
Save weeping lovers, fee! a nobler
Through Love's enchanting wiles pursued, yet fled,
In chace ambiguous. May their tender limbs
Float in the loofe fimplicity of drefs!
And, fashion'd all to harmony, alone
Know they to feize the captivated soul,
In rapture warbled from love-breathing lips;
To teach the lute to languish; with smooth step,
Difclofing motion in its every charm,
To swim along, and fwell the mazy dance;
To train the foliage o'er the fnowy lawn;
To guide the pencil, turn the tuneful page;
To lend new flavour to the fruitful year,
And heighten Nature's dainties: in their race
To rear their graces into fecond life;
To give fociety its highest tafte;
Well-order'd home man's best delight to make;
And by fubmiffive wisdom, modest skill,
With every gentle care-eluding art,
To raise the virtues, animate the bliss,
And fweeten all the toils of human life:
This be the female dignity, and praise.
Ye fwains, now haften to the hazel bank; Where, down yon dale, the wildly-winding brook 610 Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array, Fit for the thickets and the tangling fhrub, Ye virgins come. For you their latest fong The woodlands raife; the clustering nuts for you The lover finds amid the secret shade; And, where they burnish on the topmost bough, With active vigour crushes down the tree; Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk, A gloffy fhower, and of an ardent brown, As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair: Melinda! form'd with every grace complete, Yet these neglecting, above beauty wife, And far tranfcending such a vulgar praise. Hence from the busy joy-refounding fields, In chearful error, let us tread the maze Of Autumn, unconfin'd; and taste, reviv’d, The breath of orchard big with bending fruit. Obedient to the breeze and beating ray, From the deep-loaded bough a mellow shower Inceffant melts away. The juicy pear Lies, in a soft profusion, scatter'd round. A various sweetness fwells the gentle race; By Nature's all-refining hand prepar'd ;
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