Fenton. And with my partners fought a neighb'ring vale,
What time the rural nymphs repair'd to pay
Their floral honours to the queen of May.
At first their various charms my choice confufe;
For what is choice where each is fit to chule?
But Love or Fate at length my bosom fir'd
With a bright maid in myrtle green attir'd;
A fhepherdefs fhe was, and on the lawn
Sat to the setting fun from dewy dawn;
Yer fairer than the nymphs who guard the ftreams,
In pearly caves, and fhun the burning beams.
I whisper love; fhe flies; I ftill purfue,
To prefs her to the joy fhe never knew;
And while I fpeak, the virgin blushes spread
Her damafk beauty with a warmer red.
I vow'd unfhaken faith, invoking loud
Venus t'atteft the folemn faith I vow'd;
Invoking all the radiant lights above,

(But most the lamp that lights the realm of Love)
No more to guide me with their friendly rays,
But leave my fhip to perish on the feas,
If the dear charmer ever chanc'd to find
My heart difloyal, or my look unkind.

A maid will liften when a lover fwears,
And think his faith more real than her fears.
The careful fhepherdefs fecur'd her flocks
From the devouring wolf and wily fox,
Yet fell herself an undefended prey

To one more cruel and more falfe than they.
The nuptial joys we there confummate foon,
Safe in the friendly filence of the moon;
And till the birds proclaim'd the dawning day,
Beneath a fhade of flow'rs in transport lay.
I rofe, and, foftly fighing, view'd her o'er;
How chang'd, I thought, from what fhe was befo-
re!

Yet ftill repeated (eager to be gone)

My former pledges with a fainter tone,

And promis'd quick return. The penfive fair

Went

Went with reluctance to her fleecy care,
While I refolv'd to quit my native fhore,
Never to fee the late-lov'd Malea more.

Fresh on the waves the morning - breezes
play,

To bear my veffel and my vows away:
With profp'rous fpeed I fly before the wind,
And leave the length of Lefbos all behind.
Far diftant from my Malean love at last
(Secure with twenty leagues between us caft)
I furl my fails, and on the Sigrian fhore,
Adopting that my feat, the veffel moor;
Sigrium, from whofe serial height I fpy
The diftant fields that bore imperial Troy,
Which, ftill accurs'd for Helen's broken vow,
Produce thin crops, ungrateful to the plow.
I gaze, revolving in my guilty mind,
What future vengeance will my falfehood find,
When kings and empires no forgiveness gain'd
For violated rites and faith profan'd!

Sea-faring on that coaft I led my life,
A commoner of love, without a wife;
Content with cafual joys; and vainly thought
Venus forgave the perjur'd, or forgot.
And now my fixtieth year began to fhed
An undistinguish'd winter on my head,
When, bent for Tenedos, a country dame.
(I thought her fuch) for speedy paffage came:
A palfy fhook her limbs; a fhrivell'd skin
But ill conceal'd the skeleton within;
A monument of Time: with equal grace
Her garb had poverty to fuit her face.
Extorting first my price, I fpread my sail,
And fteer my courfe before a merry gale,
Which haply turn'd her tatter'd veil afide,
When in her lap a golden vafe I spy'd,
Around fo rich with orient gems enchas'd,
A flamy luftre o'er the gold they caft.

Fenton.

Fenton. With eager eyes I view the tempting bane,
And, failing now fecure amid the main,
With felon force I feize the feeming crone,
To plunge her in, and make the prize my own.
To Venus ftraight fhe chang'd, divine to view!
The laughing Loves around their mother flew,
Who, circled with a pomp of Graces, ftood,
Such, as the firft afcended from the flood.
I bow'd, ador'd With terror in her voice,
Thy violence (fhe cry'd) fhall win the prize:
Renew thy wrinkled form; be young and fair;
"But foon thy heart fhall own the purchafe dear.
,,Nor is revenge forgot, tho' long delay'd,

"

For vows attefted in the Malean fhade"

Wrapt in a purple cloud fhe cut the skies,

And looking down ftill threaten'd with her eyes.

My fear at length difpell'd (the fight of gold
Can make an avaricious coward bold)
I feiz'd the glitt'ring spoil, in hope to find
A cale fo rich with riches treasures lin'd.
The lid remov'd, the vacant space inclos'd
An effence with celestial art compos'd,

Which cures old age, and makes the fhrivell'd
cheek

Blufhy as Bacchus, and as Hebe fleek;

Strength to the nerves the nectar'd fweets fupply, ́
And eagle-radiance to the faded eye:

Nor fharp difeale, nor want, nor age, have pow'r
T' invade that vigour, and that bloom deflow'r.

Th' effect I found; for, when return'd to
land,

Some drops I fprinkled on my fun- burnt hand;
Where'er they fell, furprifing to the fight
The freckled brown imbib'd a milky white:
So look the panther's varied fides, and fo

The pheafant's wing, bedropp'd with flakes of
fnow.

I wet the whole, the fame celeftial hue

Tinctur'd the whole, meander'd o'er with blue.

Struck

Struck with amazement here, I paufe a space;
Next with the liquid fweets anoint my face;
My neck and hoary locks I then bedew,
And in the waves my changing visage view;
Straight with my charms the wat'ry mirror glows,
Thofe fatal charms that ruin'd your repofe!
Still doubting, up 1 ftart, and fear to find
Some young Adonis gazing o'er behind.
My waift, and all my limbs, I left befmear'd,
And foon a gloffy youth o'er all appear'd.

Long wrapt in filent wonder, on the ftrand
I like a ftatue of Apollo ftand:

Like his, with oval grace my front is spread,
Like his, my lips and cheeks are rofy red;
Like his, my limbs are fhap'd; in ev'ry part
So juft, they mock the fculptor's mimic art;
And golden curls adown my fhoulders flow;
Nor wants there ought except the lyre and bow.
Reftor'd to youth, triumphant I repair
To court, to captivate th admiring fair;
My faultlefs form the Lesbian nymphs adore,
Avow their flames, weep, figh, proteft, implore;
There feel I firft the penance of my fin,
All spring without, and winter all within!
From me the fenfe of gay defire is fled,
And all their charms are cordials to the dead.
Or if within my breaft there chance to rife
The sweet remembrance of the genial joys,
Sudden it leaves me, like a tranfient glean,
That gilds the furface of a freezing ftream.

Mean-time with various pangs my heart is

torn,

Hate ftrives with pity, fhame contends with fcorn.
Confus'd with grief, I quit the court, to range
In favage wilds, and curfe my penal change.
The phoenix fo, reftor'd with rich perfumes,
Difplays the florid pride of all his plumes,
Then flies to live amid th' Arabian grove,
In barren folitude, a foe to love.

But

Senton.

Fenton. But in the calm recefs of woods and plains
The viper Envy revell'd in my veins,

!

And ever when the male carefs'd his bride,
Sighing with rage, I turn'd my eyes afide..
In river, mead, and grove, fuch objects role,
T'avenge the goddefs and awake my woes;.
Fish, beaft, and bird, in river, mead, and grove,
Blefs'd and rever'd the blissful pow'rs of Love.

What can I do for eafe? O! whither fly?
Refume my fatal form, ye Gods! I cry;
Wither this beauteous bloom, io tempting gay,
And let me live transform'd to weak and gray !
By change of clime my forrows to beguile,
I leave for Sicily my native isle;

Vain hope! for who can leave himself behind,
And live a thoughtless exile from the mind?
Arriving there, amidst a flow'ry plain,
That join'd the fhore, I view'd a virgin- train,
Who in foft ditties fung of Acis' flame,

And strew'd with annual wreaths his amber stream.
Me foon they faw, and, fir'd with pious joy,
,,He comes, the godlike Acis comes!" they cry:
,,Fair pride of Neptune's court! indulge our pray'r,
Approach, you've now no Polypheme to fear.
Accept our rites: to bind thy brow we bring
Thefe earliest honours of the rofy Spring:

"

"

So may thy Galatea ftill be kind,

As we thy fmiling pow'r propitious find!

"But if (they read their error in my blufh,

"

"

For fhame, and rage, and fcorn, alternate flush)
But if of earthly race, yet kinder prove;

Refufe all other rites but those of Love."

That hated word new-ftabs my rankling wound;
Like a ftruck deer I ftartle at the found;
Thence to the woods with furious fpeed repair,
And leave them all abandon'd to defpair.

So, frighted by the fwains, to reach the brake,
Glides from a funny bank the glitt'ring fnåke;

And