The Groves of Eden vanish'd now fo long, Live in description, and look green in fong: Thefe, were my breaft infpir'd with equal flame, Like them in beauty, should be like in fame. 10 Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain, Here earth and water feem to ftrive again; Not Chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd, But, as the world, harmoniously confus'd: Where order in variety we fee, 15 20 And where, tho' all things differ, all agree. VARIATIONS. VER. 25. Originally thus; Why fhould I fing our better funs or air, That crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn, Like verdant ifles the fable waste adorn. Let India boast her plants, nor envy we The weeping amber or the balmy tree, 30 While by our oaks the precious loads are born, And realms commanded which thofe trees adorn." Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight, Tho' Gods affembled grace his tow'ring height, And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns. REMARKS. VER. 33. Not proud Olympus, etc.] Sir J. Denham, in his Cooper's Hill, had said, Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears, But Atlas only, which supports the spheres. The comparison is childish, as the taking it from fabulous hiftory destroys the compliment. Our Poet has fhewn more judgment: he has made a manly use of as fabulous a circumstance. by the artful application of the mythology. Where, in their bleffings, all thofe Gods appear. etc. Making the nobility of the hills of Windfor-forest to confift in 45 Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, A dreary defert, and a gloomy waste, To favage beasts and favage laws a prey, And kings more furious and severe than they; Who claim'd the fkies, difpeopled air and floods, The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods: Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves, (For wiser brutes were backward to be flaves,) 50 What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd, And ev❜n the elements a Tyrant sway'd? In vain kind seasons fwell'd the teeming grain, Soft show'rs diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain ; The swain with tears his fruftrate labour yields, 55 And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields. What wonder then, a beast or subject flain Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign? VARIATIONS. VER. 49. Originally thus in the MS. From towns laid wafte, to dens and caves they ran VER. 57, etc. No wonder favages or fubjects flain - But fubjects ftarv'd, while favages were fed. It was originally thus, but the word favages is not properly applied to beasts but to men; which occafioned the alteration. P. REMARKS. VER. 45. Savage laws.] The Foreft Laws. Both doom'd alike, for fportive Tyrants bled, VARIATIONS. VER. 72. And wolves with howling fill etc.] 70 The Author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror. P. REMARK S. VER. 65. The fields are ravib'd etc.] Alluding to the deftruction made in the New Foreft, and the Tyrannies exercised there by William I. P. IMITATIONS. VER. 65. The fields were ravish'd from th’industrious fwains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:] Tranflated from Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis, 80 Stretch'd o'er the Poor and Church his iron rod, REMARKS. 91 VER. 80. himself deny'd a grave! ] The place of his interment at Caen in Normandy was claimed by a Gentleman as his inheritance, the moment his fervants were going to put him in his tomb: fo that they were obliged to compound with the owner before they could perform the King's obfequies. VER 81. fecond hope] Richard, fecond fon of William the Conqueror. IMITATIONS. VER. 89. Miraturque novas frondes et non fua poma. Virg. |