Thus do I live from pleafure quite debarr'd,
Nor tafte the fruits that the fun's genial rays
Mature, John-Apple, nor the downy Peach,
Nor Walnut in rough furrow'd coat fecure,
Nor Medlar, fruit delicious in decay:
Afflictions great! yet greater ftill remain:
My Galligafkins that have long withstood
The winter's fury, and encroaching frofts,
By time fubdu'd, (what will not time fubdue!)
An horrid chafm difclofe, with orifice
Wide, difcontinuous; at which the winds.
Eurus and Aufter, and the dreadful force
Of Boreas, that congeals the Cronian waves,
Tumultuous enter with dire chilling blafts,
Portending agues. Thus a well-fraught fhip
Long fail'd fecure, or thro' th' Ægean deep,
Or the Ionian, till cruifing near

The Lilybean fhore, with hideous crafh
On Scylla, or Charybdis (dang'rous rocks)
She ftrikes rebounding, whence the fhatter'd oak,
So fierce a fhock unable to withstand,
Admits the fea; in at the gaping fide

The crowding waves gufh with impetuous rage,
Refifilefs, overwhelming; horrors feize

The mariners, death in their eyes appears,

They ftare, they lave, they pump, they fwear, they pray (Vain efforts!) ftill the battering waves rufh in

Implacable, till delug'd by the foam,

The fhip finks found ring in the vaft abyfs. DESCRIPTION of the THAMES, and of STAG

HUNTING.

[DENHAM'S COOPER'S HILL.]

MYye, defcending from the hill, furveys

Thames, the moft lov'd of all the ocean's fons
By his old fire, to his embraces runs,
Hafting to pay his tribute to the fea,
Like mortal life to meet eternity.

the
among wanton vallies ftrays.

Tho' with thofe ftreams he no refemblance hold,
Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold;
His genuine and lefs guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom, but furvey his thore;
O'er which he kindly fpreads his fpacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th' enfuing fpring:

Nor

Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers which their infants overlay ;
Nor, with a fudden and impetuous wave,
Like profufe kings, refumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations fpoil

Steid

The mower's hopes, or mock the ploughman's toil :
But, god-like, his unwearied bounty flows;
First loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his bleffings to his banks confin'd,
But free and common as the fea or wind;
When he to boast, or to difperfe his stores,
Full of the tributes of his grateful fhores,
Vifits the world, and, in his flying towers,
Brings home to us and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, beftows it where it wants,
Cities in defarts, woods in cities plants.

So that to us no thing, no place is ftrange,
While his fair bofom is the world's exchange.
O could I flow like thee, and make thy ftream
My great example, as it is my theme!

Tho' deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull;
Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full.
Heav'n her Eridanus no more fhall boast,
Whose fame in thine, like leffer currents, loft,
Thy nobler ftreams fhall vifit Jove's abodes,
To fhine among the ftars, and bathe the gods:
Here nature, whether more intent to pleate
Us or herself, with ftrange varieties,
(For things of wonder give no lefs delight
To the wife maker's, than beholder's fight:
Tho' thefe delights from feveral caufes move;
For fo our children, thus our friends we love)
Wifely the knew the harmony of things,
As well as that of founds, from difcord fprings.
Such was the difcord, which did firft difperfe
Form, order, beauty, through the univerfe;
While drynefs moisture, coldness heat refifts,
All that we have, and that we are, fubfifts.
While the steep horrid roughness of the wood,
Strives with the gentle calmnefs of the flood,
Such huge extremes when nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence refults, from thence delight..
The ftream is fo tranfparent, pure and clear,
That, had the felf-enamour'd youth gaz'd here,

So

So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,
While he the bottom, not his face, had feen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides.
Among the clouds; his fhoulders, and his fides,
A fhady mantle clothes; his curled brows Ch
Frown on the gentle ftream, which calmly flows,
While winds and ftorms his lofty forehead beat:
The common fate of all that's high or great. of asy
Low at his foot a fpacious plain is plac'd,

Between the mountain and the ftream embrac'd:
Which fhade and fhelter from the hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives ;
And in the mixture of all thefe appears
Variety, which all the reft endears.

This fcene had fome bold Greek, or British bard,
Beheld of old, what stories had we heard,

dish ni esti Of fairies, fatyrs, and the nymphs their dames, one 02 Their feafts, their revels, and their am'rous flames&lid 'Tis ftill the fame, altho' their airy fhape volt (hinnɔ () All but a quick poetic fight escape,

diduka seong vi
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned hoft reforts,
To graze the ranker mead; that noble herd,
On whofe fublime and fhady fronts is rear'dis
Nature's great mafter-piece, to fhew how foon tulder
Great things are made, but fooner are undone.
Here have I feen the king, when great affairs/25/
Gave leave to flacken and unbend his cares, Aired to
Attended to the chafe by all the flow'r hot lo gaid
Of youth, whofe hopes a noble prey devour re
Pleafure, with praife and danger, they would buy,
And with a foe that would not only fly.

The ftag, now confcious of his fatal growth, it y
At once indulgent to his fear and floth, on
To fome dark covert his retreat had made, his
Where nor man's eye, nor Heaven's fhould invade
His foft repofe; when th' unexpected found
Of dogs, and men, his wakeful ear does wound:
Rouz'd with the noife, he fcarce believes his ear,
Willing to think th' illufions of his fear

Had giv'n this falfe alarm, but ftraight his view
Confirms,. that more than all he fears is true. man
Betray'd in all his ftrengths, the wood befet,gime
All inftruments, all arts of ruin met;

He

He calls to mind his ftrength, and then his speed,
His winged heels, and then his armed head;
With these t'avoid, with that his fate to meet:
But fear prevails, and bids him truft his feet.
So faft he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has loft the chafers, and his ear the cry;
Exulting, 'till he finds, their nobler fenfe
Their difproportion'd speed does recompenfe ;
Then curfes his confpiring feet, whofe fcent
Betrays that fafety which their fwiftnefs lent.
Then tries his friends among the bafer herd,
Where he fo lately was obey'd and fear'd,
His fafety feeks: the herd, unkindly wife,
Or chafes him from thence, or from him flies;
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn,
To his friends pity, and purfuers fcorn,

With fhame remembers, while himfelf was one
Of the fame herd, himself the fame had done.
Thence to the coverts, and the confcious groves,
The scenes of his paft triumphs, and his loves;
Sadly furveying where he rang'd alone

Prince of the foil, and all the herd his own
And, like a bold knight-errant, did proclaim.
Combat to all, and bore away the dame;
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge, and his clafhing beam:
Yet faintly now declines the fatal ftrife;
So much his love was dearer than his life.
Now ev'ry leaf, and every moving breath,,
Prefents a foe, and ev'ry foe a death.
Weary'd, forfaken, and purfu'd, at last,
All fafety in defpair of fafety plac'd:;
Courage he thence refumes, refolv'd to bear
All their affaults, fince 'tis in vain to fear.
And now, too late, he wishes, for the fight,
That ftrength he wafted in ignoble flight:
But, when he fees the eager chace renew'd,
Himself by dogs, the dogs by men purfu'd,
He ftrait revokes his bold refolve, and more:
Repents his courage, than his fear before;
Finds that uncertain ways unfafeft are,
And doubt a greater mischief than defpair.
Then to the stream, when neither friends, nor force,
Nor speed, nor art avail, he fhapes his course;.

P 6.

Thinks

Thinks not their rage fo defp'rate, to affay
An element more merciless than they.
But, fearless, they pursue, nor can the flood
Quench their dire thirft; alas, they thirft for blood.
So tow'rds a fhip the oar-finn'd gallies ply,
Which wanting fea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng'd on thofe that dare
Tempt the laft fury of extreme despair.

So fares the ftag among th' enraged hounds,

Repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds.
And as a hero, whom his bafer foes

In troops furround, now thefe affail, now thofe,
Though prodigal of life, difdains to die
By common hands; but, if he can defcry
Some nobler foe approach, to him he calls,
And begs his fate, and then contented falls.
So when the king a mortal fhaft lets fly
From his unerring hand, then, glad to die,
Proud of the wound, to it refigns his blood,
And ftains the cryftal with a purple flood.
This a more innocent, and happy chafe
Than when of old, but in the felf-fame place,
Fair Liberty, purfu'd, and meant a prey

*

To lawless power, here turn'd, and ftood at bay,,
When in that remedy all hope was plac'd,

Which was, or fhould have been at leaft, the laft.
Here was that charter feal'd, wherein the crown
All marks of arbitrary pow'r lays down:
Tyrant and flave, thofe names of hate and fear,
The happier ftile of king and fubject bear:
Happy, when both to the fame center move,
When kings give liberty, and fubjects love.
Therefore not long in force this charter ftood;
Wanting that feal, it must be feal'd in blood.
The fubjects arm'd, the more their princes gave,
Th' advantage only took, the more to crave:
'Till kings, by giving, give themfelves away, or
And ev'n that pow'r, that thou'd deny, betray.
Who gives conftrain'd, but his own fear reviles,
"Not thank'd, but fcorn'd; nor are they gifts, but fpoils."
Thus kings, by grafping more than they could hold,
Firft made their fubjects, by oppreffion, bold:

And

* Runnimede; where that great charter was firft fealed.