The clamorous tumult softly to compose,
High in the midst the plaintive Colin' rose,
Born on the lilied banks of royal Thame,
Which oft had rung with Rosalinda's name;
Fair, yet neglected; neat, yet unadorn'd;
The pride of dress and flowers of art he scorn'd:
And, like the nymph who fired his youthful breast,
Green were his buskins, green his simple vest:
With careless ease his rustic lays he sung,
And melody flow'd smoothly from his tongue:
Of June's gay fruits and August's corn he told,
The bloom of April, and December's cold;
The loves of shepherds, and their harmless cheer,
In every month that decks the varied year.
Now on the flute with equal grace he play'd,
And his soft numbers died along the shade;
The skilful dancers to his accents moved,
And every voice his easy tune approved;
E'en Hyla, blooming maid, admired the strain,
While through her bosom shot a pleasing pain.

Now all were hush'd: no rival durst arise;
Pale were their cheeks, and full of tears their eyes.
Menalcas, rising from his flowery seat,
Thus, with a voice majestically sweet, [hear!
Address'd the' attentive throng- Arcadians,
The sky grows dark, and beamy stars appear:
Haste to the vale; the bridal bowers prepare:
And hail with joy Menalcas' tuneful heir.
Thou, Tityrus, of swains the pride and grace,
Shalt clasp soft Daphne in thy fond embrace:

7 Colin is the name that Spenser takes in his pastorals; and Rosalinda is that under which he celebrates his mistress.

See the Shepherd's Kalendar.

And thou, young Colin, in thy willing arms
Shalt fold my Hyla, fair in native charms.
O'er these sweet plains divided empire hold,
And to your latest race transmit an age of gold.
What splendid visions rise before my sight,
And fill my aged bosom with delight!
Henceforth of wars and conquest shall
you sing,
Arms and the Man in every clime shall ring':
Thy Muse, bold Maro, Tityrus no more,
Shall tell of chiefs that left the Phrygian shore,
Sad Dido's love, and Venus' wandering son,
The Latians vanquish'd, and Lavinia won.
And thou, O Colin! heaven-descended youth,
Shalt hide in fiction's veil the charms of truth;
Thy notes the sting of sorrow shall beguile,
And smooth the brow of anguish till it smile;
Notes that a sweet Elysian dream can raise,
And lead the' enchanted soul through fancy's

maze;

Thy verse shall shine with Gloriana's name, And fill the world with Britain's endless fame.'

To Tityrus* then he gave the sacred flute, And bade his sons their blushing brides salute; Whilst all the train a lay of triumph sung, Till mountains echoed, and till valleys rung. While thus +, with mirth, they tuned the nuptial strain,

A youth, too late, was hastening o'er the plain, This prophecy of Menalcas alludes to the Æneis of Virgil, and the Fairy Queen of Spenser.

IMITATIONS.

* The good old man leaped from his throne, and, after he had embraced him, presented him to his daughter, which caused a general acclamation.

+ While they were in the midst of their joy, they were sur

E

Clad in a flowing vest of azure hue;

Blue were his sandals, and his girdle blue 1o:
A slave, ill dress'd and mean, behind him bore
An osier-basket, fill'd with fishy store,-
The lobster with his sable armour bold;

The tasteful mullet, deck'd with scales of gold;
Bright perch, the tyrants of the finny breed ;
And greylings sweet, that crop the fragrant weed:
Among them shells of many a tint appear;
The heart of Venus, and her pearly ear11;
The nautilus, on curling billows borne;
And scallops, by the wandering pilgrim worn;
Some dropp'd with silver, some with purple dye;
With all the race that seas or streams supply:-
A net and angle o'er his shoulder hung:
Thus was the stranger clad;—and thus he sung-
Ah! lovely damsel, leave thy simple sheep;
"Tis sweeter in the seaworn rock to sleep;
There shall thy line the scaly shoals betray,
And sports, unknown before, beguile the day;

·

10 See Sannazaro, Ongaro, Phineas Fletcher, and other writers of piscatory eclogues.

11 Venus's heart and Venus's ear are the names of two very beautiful shells.

IMITATIONS.

prised with a very odd appearance. A person, in a blue mantle, crowned with sedges and rushes, stepped into the midst of the ring. He had an angling rod in his hand, a pannier upon his back; and a poor meagre wretch in wet clothes carried some oysters before him. Being asked whence he came, and what he was? he told them he was come to invite Amaryllis from the plains to the seashore; that his substance consisted in seacalves; and that he was acquainted with the Nereids and Naiads. 'Art thou acquainted with the Naiads? (said Menalcas) to them shalt thou return.' The shepherds immediately hoisted him up, as an enemy to Arcadia, and plunged him in the river, where he sunk, and was never heard of since.

To guide o'er rolling waves the dancing skiff,
Or pluck the samphire from the' impending cliff:
My rapturous notes the blue-eyed Nereids praise,
And silver-footed Naiads hear my lays.'—

To them (Menalcas said) thy numbers pour;
Insult our flocks and blissful vales no more.'
He spoke; the heralds knew their sovereign's will,
And hurl'd the fisher down the sloping hill:
Headlong he plunged beneath the liquid plain
(But not a nymph received the falling swain);
Then, dropping, rose; and, like the rushing wind,
Impetuous fled, nor cast a look behind;

He sought the poplar'd banks of winding Po", But shunn'd the meads where Ladon's waters flow.

Ere* through nine radiant signs the flaming sun
His course resplendent in the Zodiac run,
The royal damsels, bashful now no more,
Two lovely boys on one glad morning bore;
From blooming Daphne fair Alexis sprung,
And Colinet on Hyla's bosom hung;

Both o'er the vales of sweet Arcadia reign'd,
And both the manners of their sires retain'd:
Alevis, fairer than a morn of May 13,

In glades and forests tuned his rural lay,

12 This alludes to the Latin compositions of Sannazarius; which have great merit in their kind.

13 See Pope's Pastorals.

IMITATIONS.

* Amyntas and Amaryllis lived a long and happy life, and governed the vales of Arcadia. Their generation was very long lived, there having been but four descents in above two thousand years. His heir was called Theocritus, who left his dominions to Virgil. Virgil left his to his son Spenser, and Spenser was succeeded by his eldest born Philips.

More soft than rills that through the valley flow, Or vernal gales that o'er the violets blow;

He sung the tender woes of artless swains, Their tuneful contests, and their amorous pains; When early spring has waked the breathing flowers,

Or winter hangs with frost the silvery bowers:-
But Colinet in ruder numbers tells 14

The loves of rustics, and fair boding spells;
Sings how they simply pass the livelong day,
And softly mourn, or innocently play.

Since them, no shepherd rules the' Arcadian But silent hangs Menalcas' fatal reed.

[mead,

CAISSA;

OR, THE GAME OF CHESS.

1763.

Advertisement.

THE first idea of the following piece was taken from a Latin poem of Vida, entitled Scacchia Ludus, which was translated into Italian by Marino, and inserted in the fifteenth Canto of his Adonis the author thought it fair to make an acknowledgment, in the notes, for the passages which he borrowed from those two poets; but he must also do them the justice to declare, that most of the descriptions, and the whole story of Caissa, which is written in imitation of Ovid, are his own; and their faults must be imputed to him only. The characters in the poem are no less imaginary than those in the episode; in which the invention of Chess is poetically ascribed to Mars, though it is certain that the game was originally brought from India.

14 See the Shepherd's Week, of Gay.