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Stretch'd o'er the Poor and Church his iron rod,75
And ferv'd alike his Vaffals and his God.
Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd, and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his fport remain.
But fee, the man, whose spacious regions gave
A wafte for beafts, himself deny'd a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope furvey,
At once the chafer, and at once the prey:
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,

80

Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects cries, 85
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rise ;
Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forest wonder'd at th' unusual grain,
And fecret transports touch'd the confcious fwain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears
91
Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

NOTES.

VER. 80. himfelf 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.

Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments

blood,

your

And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood,
Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95
Wind the fhrill horn, or spread the waving net.
When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds,
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds;
But when the tainted gales the game betray, 101
Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they trust th' unfaithful field beset,
"Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,

106.

VER. 91.

VARIATIONS.

O may no more a foreign master's rage,

With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age! Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heavenly wings, Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.P. VER. 97.

a

When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,

And into wine the purple harvest bleeds 2,

The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,

Both morning fports and ev'ning pleasures yields.

Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumstance not proper to our climate, the vintage. P.

ΙΙΟ

Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the clofing lines invest;
Sudden they seize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,
And high in air Britannia's standard flies.
See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings :
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.
Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes,
His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes,
The vivid
green his shining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny. 120
To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair,
And trace the mazes of the circling hare:

VARIATIONS.

VER. 107. It stood thus in the firft Editions:
Pleas'd in the Gen'ral's fight, the host lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;

115

The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize,
And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 115.
nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,
Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit.

Virg.

125

Beasts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beasts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.) With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves, When frosts have whiten'd all the naked groves; Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade, And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade. He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye; Strait a short thunder breaks the frozen sky: 130 Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath, The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death : Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare, They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade, Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead, The patient fisher takes his filent ftand,

137

Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :
With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed,
And
eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed. 140
Our plenteous ftreams a various race supply,
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 126. O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves. VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 134. Præcipites alta vitam fub nube relinquunt, Virg.

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The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd,
The yellow carp, in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson stains, 145
And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.

Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car :
The youth rush eager to the fylvan war,
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound.
Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,

151

And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain
Hills, vales, and floods appear already cross'd,

And ere he starts, a thousand steps are loft. 154 See the bold youth strain up the threat'ning steep, Rush thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep, Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed, And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius,

66

Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille

Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. Thefe lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his tranflation of Frefnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays, they would coft him an hour, if he had the leisure, to trans"late them, there is fo much of beauty in the original;" which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them.

VER. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original,

terræque urbefque recedunt.

Virg.

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