war,

The cornel; into Iturean bows

The yews are bent. Nor do the glossy limes, Or box that takes a polish in the lathe, 620 No shape receive, or by the sharpened tool Are grooved, Nor less, too, swims the seething wave

The buoyant alder, launched upon the Po; Nor less, too, do the bees their swarms

ensconce

As well within the vaulted [hives of] bark, As in the hollow of the cankered holm. What to be named alike have Bacchus' gifts Bestowed? E'en Bacchus hath for crime supplied

Occasions. He the Centaurs in their rage With death o'erpowered,-Rhœtus both, and Pholus, 630

Hylæus, too, with mighty wassail-bowl
Against the Lapithæ denouncing threats.
O happy, too, too [happy] if they knew
The blessings that are theirs, -the swains,
to whom,

Of her own self, afar from wrangling arms,
Most righteous earth unbosoms from the soil

621. See note on Geo. i. 115.

628. Spenser thus alludes to the fight: "And there the relicks of the drunken fray, The which amongst the Lapithees befell; And of the bloodie feast, which sent away So many Centaures drunken soules to hell, That under great Alcides furie fell." Faerie Queene, iv. 1, 23. "All now was turned to jollity and game, To luxury and riot, feast and dance; thence from cups to civil broils." Milton, P. L., b. xi.

Milton also makes Samson say:

"Nor envied them the grape, Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes." "Nor the Centaurs' tale

Be here repeated, how with lust and wine
Inflamed they fought, and spill'd their drunken souls
At feasting hour.' J. Philips, Cider, b. ii.

Gay, however, is rather jealous of the reputation of Bacchus :

"Drive hence the rude and barbarous dissonance
Of savage Thracians and Croatian boors:
The loud Centaurian broils with Lapithe
Sound harsh and grating to Lenæan god."
Poem on Wine.
It may be bad enough, even without hostilities:
"He that lives within a mile of this place
Had as good sleep in the perpetual
Noise of an iron mill. There's a dead sea
Of drink i' the cellar, in which goodly vessels
Lie wrecked; and in the middle of this deluge
Appear the tops of flaggons and black-jacks,
Like churches drowned i' the marshes."

Beaumont, The Scornful Lady, ii. 2. 633. Thomson finely imitates this whole passage, verses 458-540, in his Autumn, 1235-1373; but it is too long to quote.

doors,

A stately mansion forth from all its halls
Disgorges; neither do they stare agape 640
On gates enamelled with the lovely shell,
And garments made the sport of gold, and
forms

In Ephyr's bronze; nor is their snowy wool
Dyed in Assyria's poison, nor is marred
With casia service of the crystal oil :
Yet careless rest, and life that knows not
guile,

Rich in a varied wealth; yet hours of ease In fields extended, grots, and living meres; Yet Tempe cool, and lowings of the kine, And balmy slumbers underneath the tree,Keep not aloof. There woodlands and the lairs 651

Of savage beasts, and youth enduring toils, And used to scantness; holy rites of gods,

638. "Hast thou not seen my morning chambers

filled

With sceptred slaves, who waited to salute me?" Dryden, All for Love, iii. 1. 644. "Shall we seek Virtue in a satin gown,

Embroidered Virtue? Faith in a well-curled feather?"

646.

J. Fletcher, The Loyal Subject, iii. 2. "I want the trick of flattery, my lord; I cannot bow to scarlet and gold lace; Embroidery is not an idol for my worship." Shirley, The Duke's Mistress, i. 1. "But carelesse Quiet lyes." Spenser, F. Q., i. 1, 41. "There in close covert by some brook, Where no profaner eye may look, Hide me from day's gairish eye, While the bee with honied thigh, That at her flowery work doth sing, And the waters murmuring, With such consort as they keep, Entice the dewy-feathered sleep."

Milton, Il Penseroso.

See T. Warton's elegant poem, The Hamlet.

652. Shakespeare makes Henry the Sixth agree with the poet; the king says, 3 Hen. VI., ii. 5:

Ah, what a life were this; how sweet! how lovely!

Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy

To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?
O, yes, it doth; a thousandfold it doth.
And to conclude,-the shepherd's homely curds,
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
Is far beyond a prince's delicates,
His viands sparkling in a golden cup,
His body couched in a curious bed,

When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.” 653. "The use of things is all, and not the store: Surfeit and fullness have killed more than Famine."

Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, end. "Upon those lips, the sweet fresh buds of youth, The holy dew of prayer lies, like pearl

And worshipped sires: 'mong them her latest tracks

Did Justice, from the earth withdrawing, print.

But me the chiefest, may the Muses,

sweet

'Bove all [attractions], whose religious [gifts]

I bear, deep smitten with a mighty love, Embrace, and shew the pathways and the

stars

Of heav'n, the changeful fadings of the sun, And travails of the moon; whence [comes] the quake 661 To earth; beneath what pow'r deep seas upheave,

When burst their barriers, and again sink back

Themselves upon themselves; why speed so fast

To dip them in the ocean wintry suns,
Or what delay withstands the laggard nights.
But if, lest I be able to approach
These parts of Nature, chill around my heart
My blood have proved a hindrance, may
the fields

Charm me, and streamlets rilling in the dales; 670 The floods and forests may I love, unfamed! Oh! [could I live] where [lie] the plains,

Sperchæus too,

Who knows the rural deities, both Pan,
And old Silvanus, and the sister Nymphs!
Him have no fasces of the populace,
Nor monarchs' purple warped; nor civil
feud,

The traitor brothers goading, or the Dace, Down swooping from the Danube oathcolleagued;

Not Roman fortunes and expiring realms : Nor has he either, in compassion, mourned The destitute, or envied him that hath. What fruits the boughs, what willing fields themselves, 690

Of free accord, have yielded, he hath culled;
Nor laws of iron and the frantic bar,
Nor people's archive-halls, hath he beheld.
Some fret with oarage hidden seas, and rush
On steel; they pierce the courts and gates
of kings.

One with extermination makes assault
Upon his city, and Penates sad,
That he may from a jewel quaff, and sleep
683. "A wise man never goes the people's way:
But as the planets still move contrary
To the world's motion, so doth he to opinion."
Ben Jonson, The New Inn, iv. 3.
688. That is, in his happy neighborhood there
is no poverty to be seen; it does not mean to deny

that

"The poor man's cry he thought a holy knell :
No sooner gan their suits to pierce his ears,
But fair-eyed pity in his heart did dwell;
And like a father that affection bears
So tendered he the poor with inward tears,
And did redress their wrongs when they did call;
But, poor or rich, he still was just to all."

Robert Greene, A Maiden's Dream. 692. "To drown the tempest of a pleader's tongue." Massinger, The Fatal Dowry, i. 1. 695. The kings were courted because they lacked either the sense or honesty to say:

"Wherefore pay you

This adoration to a sinful creature?
I'm flesh and blood, as you are, sensible
Of heat and cold, as much a slave unto
The tyranny of my passions, as the meanest
Of my poor subjects. The proud attributes,
By oil-tongued flattery imposed upon us,
Coined to abuse our frailty, though compounded,
And by the breath of sycophants applied,
Cure not the least fit of an ague in us.

We may give poor men riches, confer honours
On undeservers, raise or ruin such

As are beneath us, and, with this puffed up,

Ambition would persuade us to forget

That we are men: but he that sits above us,
And to whom, at our utmost rate, we are
But pageant properties, derides our weakness."
Massinger, The Emperor of the East, v. 2.
"Instead of gold
And cups of hollowed pearl, in which I used
To quaff deep healths of rich pomegranate wine,
This scallop shall be now my drinking cup
To sip cold water."

698.

Webster, The Thracian Wonder, iii. 2.

701

Another, staring on with mouth agape, The clapping through the seats, yea doubly pealed,

Of commons both and sires hath held enchained.

They joy, bespattered with their brothers' blood,

For exile, too, their homes and thresholds dear

Do they exchange, and seek a land that lies Beneath another sun. The husbandman The earth hath sundered with his crooked plough :

Hence the year's travail; hence his native land 710 And children's infant children he supports; Hence droves of oxen and deserving steers. Nor is there rest; but either with its fruits The year o'erflows, or in the birth of flocks, Or sheaf of Cereal stalk, and with its yield The furrows lades, and vanquishes the barns.

"Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts On citron tables or Atlantic stone; Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne, Chios, and Crete; and how they quaff in gold, Crystal, and myrrhine cups, emboss'd with gems And studs of pearl." Milton, P. R., b. iv. "I, that forgot

I was made of flesh and blood, and thought the silk,

Spun by the diligent worms out of their entrails,
Too coarse to clothe me, and the softest down
Too hard to sleep on."

Massinger, The Bondman, iii. 3. 700. "You swear, forswear, and all to compass wealth: Your money is your god, your hoard your heaven." Robert Greene, James the Fourth, v. 4. "No! I'll not lessen my dear golden heap, Which, every hour increasing, does renew My youth and vigour; but, if lessened,-then, Then my poor heart-strings crack! Let me enjoy

it,

And brood o'er 't, while I live, it being my life, My soul, my all."

Massinger, The Roman Actor, ii. 1. "But the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods on his gold, and, griping still at more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he's poor."

Dryden, Wife of Bath's Tale, 468-70. "As some lone miser, visiting his store, Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er; Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill, Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still." Goldsmith, Traveller. "This applause, Confirmed in your allowance, joys me more Than if a thousand full-crammed theatres Should clap their eager hands, to witness that The scene I act did please, and they admire it." Massinger, The Renegade, iv. 3.

703.

720

And autumn in variety lays down
Its produce, and the mellow vintage high
Is ripened on the sunny rocks. Meanwhile
His darling boys around his kisses hang;
The taintless house its chastity preserves;
Their udders do the kine drop milky down,
And plump upon the merry green the kids
Between them struggle with confronted
horns.

Himself the days of feast observes, and, stretched

Along the turf, where in the midst the fire Is burning, and his comrades wreathe the bowl, 730

Thee, pouring, O Lenæan, he invokes ; And for the masters of the flock appoints The games of flying javelin on the elm ; And stalwart frames they strip for rural list. This life of yore the olden Sabines led; This Remus and his brother; thus in sooth Etruria brave hath waxed, and Rome become The loveliest of things, and for herself Seven heights hath singly girdled with a wall.

741

Ere, too, the sceptre of the Cretan king,
And ere a godless nation banqueted
On butchered steers, the golden Saturn led
This life on earth. Nor had they, too,

723. The cessation of such tendernesses is sadly described by Gray in his Elegy:

"No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share." Thomson has a tender touch of nature, taken, like this of Virgil, from home life. In a very successful description of a father lost in a snow-storm, he says:

"In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence."

Winter, 313-315.

That is a neighbour to the bordering down,
730.
"The woods, or some near town
Hath drawn them thither 'bout some lusty sport,
Or spiced wassail-bowl, to which resort
All the young men and maids of many a cote,
Whilst the trim minstrel strikes his
merry note.'
J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, v. 1.
743. So Milton describes mankind after the
Flood; P. L., b. xii. :

"With some regard to what is just and right
Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace,
Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,
Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,
With large wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed."

And Thomson, of the reign of Peace; Britannia, 113, &c.: "Pure is thy reign, when, unaccursed by blood, Nought save the sweetness of indulgent showers

20

I, foremost, to my native land with me,
(Let only life survive,) as I return
From Aon peak will lead the Muses down;
I, foremost, Mantua, to thee will bring
The palms of Idumea, and a fane
Upon the verdant plain will I uprear
Of marble, by the water, where, immense
With lazy windings, Mincius strays away,
And fringes o'er his banks with tender reed.
For me shall Cæsar in the centre stand,
And hold the fane. For him a conq'ror I,
In Tyrian purple, too, observed of all,

Line 15. Gray thus finely alludes to the decay of poetry in Greece, and its translation to Rome; Progress of Poesy:

"Where each old poetic mountain

Inspiration breath'd around;

Ev'ry shade and hallow'd fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:

Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour,

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains."

22. So Milton, in Lycidas:

"O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds."

26. Ophelia, mourning over Hamlet's insanity, speaks of him as

"The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, The observ'd of all observers." Hamlet, iii. 1.

III.

A hundred four-yoked chariots will impel Along the floods. The whole of Greece for me,

Alpheus leaving and Molorchus' groves,
In races and the cestus raw shall strive. 30
Myself, upon my head bedecked with leaves
Of shaven olive, will my gifts present.
E'en now the grave processions to the
shrines

It joys to lead, and view the butchered

steers ;

Or how the scene with shifted fronts withdraws,

And how the intertissued Britons raise
The purple curtains. On the folding-doors
The battle of the Gangarids will I
Of gold and massive ivory portray,
And conquering Quirinus' arms; and here,
Surging with war, and flushing huge, the
Nile,

4I

And pillars, tow'ring up with naval bronze.
I Asia's humbled cities will subjoin,
And chased Niphates, and the Parth, that

trusts

In flight, and in his rear-directed shafts ;
Twain trophies, also, from a severed foe
By prowess reft, and, triumphed over twice,
Nations from either shore. And there shall
stand

The stones of Paros, effigies that breathe,

44.

"Oh! let us gain a Parthian victory: The only way to conquer is to fly." Dryden, Love Triumphant, ii. 1. "I am but dead, stone looking upon stone: What was he that did make it? See, my lord, Would you not deem it breathed, and that those veins Did verily bear blood ?"

49.

Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, v. 3. "Some carve the trunks, and breathing shapes bestow,

Giving the trees more life than when they grow." Cowley, Davideis, b. ii.

"The fairest, softest, sweetest frame beneath, Now made to seem, and more than seem, to breathe." Parnell, Hesiod.

"And breathing forms from the rude marble start." T. Warton, Sonnet v. "Heroes in animated marble frown, And legislators seem to think in stone." Pope, Temple of Fame.