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That crown'd with tufted trees and fpringing corn,
Like verdant ifles the fable waste adorn.
Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber or the balmy tree,
While by our oaks the precious loads are born,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn.
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,
Tho' gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here, 35
Where, in their bleffings, all thofe Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving profpect stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand; 40
Rich Industry fits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary defert, and a gloomy waste,

NOTES.

VER. 33. Not proud Olympus, etc.] Sir J. Denham, in his Cooper's Hill, had faid,

Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only, which fupports the spheres.

The comparison is childish, as the taking it from fabulous history destroys the compliment. Our Poet has fhewn more judgment: he has made a manly use of as fabulous a circumftance by the artful application of the mythology.

To favage beasts and favage laws a prey,

45

And kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the skies, difpeopled air and floods,
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:
Cities laid wafte, they storm'd the dens and caves,
(For wiser brutes were backward to be flaves,) 50
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,
And ev❜n the elements a Tyrant fway'd?

In vain kind seasons fwell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain;
The fwain with tears his fruftrate labour yields, 55
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beast or subject slain
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign ?

VARIATIONS.

VER. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran
(For who first stoop'd to be a flave was man.)

VER. 57, etc.

No wonder favages or fubjects flain

But fubjects starv'd, while savages were fed.

It was originally thus, but the word favages is not properly applied to beafts but to men; which occafioned the alteration. P.

NOTES.

Where, in their bleffings, all thofe Gods appear, etc. Making the nobility of the hills of Windfor-forest to confift in fupporting the inhabitants in plenty.

VER. 45. favage laws.] The Foreft Laws.

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Both doom'd alike, for fportive Tyrants bled,
But while the subject starv'd, the beast was fed. 60
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man :
Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game.
The fields are ravish'd from th' induftrious fwains,
From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes :
The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er ;
The hollow winds thro' naked temples roar;
Round broken columns clasping ivy twin'd;
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind; 70
The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires,
And favage howlings fill the facred quires.
Aw'd by his Nobles, by his Commons curft,
Th' Oppreffor rul'd tyrannic where he durst,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 72. And wolves with howling fill, etc.] The author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror. P.

NOTES.

VER. 65. The fields are ravish'd, etc.] Alluding to the destruction made in the New Foreft, and the Tyrannies exercised there by William I. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 65. The fields are ravish'd from th' induftrious fwains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:] Tranflated from

Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis, an old monkish writer, I forget who. P.

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, whofe fpacious regions gave
A waste for beafts, himself deny'd a grave! 80
Stretch'd on the lawn his second hope survey,
At once the chafer, and at once the prey:
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the fubjects 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 conscious swain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddefs, rears
91
Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

NOTES.

VER. 80. himself 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.

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Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your blood,

And purer spirits fwell the sprightly flood,
Now range the hills, the gameful woods beset, 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 close he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they trust th' unfaithful field befet,
'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

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VER. 91.

VARIATIONS.

O may no more a foreign mafter'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 fprings.P.

VER. 97.

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When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And into wine the purple harveft bleeds ",

The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,

Both morning fports and ev'ning pleasures yields.

Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to describe the fea

fon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the vintage. P.

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