To Juniper's Magpye, or Town Hall, repairs;
Where, mindful of the nymph whofe wanton eye
Transfix'd his foul, and kindled amorous flames,
Chloe or Phillis, he each circling glafs
Witheth her health, and joy, and equal love.
Meanwhile he finokes, and laughs at merry tale,
Or pun ambiguous, or conundrum quaint.
But I, whom griping penury furrounds,
And hunger, fure attendant upon want,
With fcanty offals, and small acid tiff,
(Wretched repaft!) my meagre corfe sustain :
Then folitary walk, or doze at home
In garret vile, and with a warming puff
Regale chill'd fingers; or, from tube as black
As winter chimney, or well-polifh'd jet,
Exhale mundungus, ill-perfuming fcent.
Not blacker tube, nor of a fhorter fize,
Smokes Cambro-Briton (vers'd in pedigree,
Sprung from Cadwallader and Arthur, kings
Full famous in romantic tale) when he
O'er many a craggy hill and barren cliff,
Upon a cargo of fam'd Ceftrian cheefe,
High overthadowing rides, with a design
To verd his wares, or at th' Arvonian mart,
Or Maridunum, or the ancient town
Yclep'd Brechinia, or where Vaga's stream
Encircles Ariconium, fruitful foil!
Whence flow nectareous wines, that well may vie
With Maffic, Setin, or renown'd Falern.

;

.

Thus, while my joylefs minutes tedious flow,
With looks demure, and filent pace, a Dun,
Horrible monfter! hated by gods and men,
To my aerial citadel afcends?

With vocal heel thrice thund'ring at my gate,
With hideous accent thrice he calls; I know
The voice ill-boding, and the folemn found.
What fhould I do? or whither turn? Amaz'd,
Confounded, to the dark recefs 1 fy
Of wood-hole; ftraight my bristling hairs erect
Thro' fudden fear; a chilly fweat bedews
My fhudd'ring limbs, and (wonderful to tell!)
My tongue forgets her faculty of speech;
So horrible he feems! His faded brow
Entrench'd with many a frown, and conick beard,
And spreading band, admir'd by modern faints,
Disastrous acts forebode; in his right hand
Long ferolls of paper folemnly he waves,
With characters and figures dire infcrib'ċ,
Grievous to mortal eyes (ye gods, avert
Such plagues from righteous men!). Behind him
Another monster, not unlike himself,
Sullen of afpe&t, by the vulgar call'd
A Catchpole, whofe polluted hands the gods
With force incredible, and magic charms,
Erft have endued; if he his ample palm
Should haply on ill-fated fhoulder lay
Of debtor, ftraight his body, to the touch
Obfequious (as whilom knights were wont),
To fome enchanted castle is convey'd,
Where gates impregnable, and coercive chains,
In durance ftrict detain him; till, in form
Of money, Pallas fets the captive free.

[ftalks

Beware, ye debtors! when ye walk beware, Be circumfpect: oft with infidious ken

This caitiff eyes your fteps aloof; and oft
Lies perdue in a nook or gloomy cave,
Prompt to enchant fome inadvertent wretch
With his unhallow'd touch. So (poets fing)
Grimalkin, to domeftic vermin fworn
An everlafting foe, with watchful eye
Lies nightly brooding o'er a chinky gap,
Protending her fell claws, to thoughtless mice
Sure ruin. So her difembowell'd web
Arachne in a hall or kitchen spreads,
Obvious to vagrant flies: fhe fecret stands
Within her woven cell; the humming prey,
Regardless of their fate, rush on the toils
Inextricable, nor will aught avail

Their arts, or arms, or fhapes of lovely hue;
The wafp infidious, and the buzzing drone,
And butterfly, proud of expanded wings
Diftinct with gold, entangled in her fnares,
Ufelefs refiftance make: with eager ftrides,
She tow'ring flies to her expected fpoils;
Then with envenom'd jaws the vital blood
Drinks of reluctant foes, and to her cave
Their bulky carcafes triumphant drags.

So pafs my days. But when nocturnal shades
This world envelop, and th' inclement air
Perfuades men to repel benumbing frosts
With pleasant wines, and crackling blaze of wood;
Me, lonely fitting, nor the glimmering light
Of make-weight candle, nor the joyous talk
Of loving friends, delights; diftrefs'd, forlorn,
Amidft the horrors of the tedious night,
Darkling I figh, and feed with difmal thoughts
My anxious mind; or fometimes mournful verfe
Indite, and fing of groves and myrtle fhades,
Or defp'rate lady near a purling stream,
Or lover pendent on a willow-tree.
Meanwhile I labour with eternal drought,
And reftlefs with, and rave; my parched throat
Finds no relief, nor heavy eyes repofe :
But if a flumber haply does invade
My weary limbs, my fancy 's ftill awake,
Thoughtful of drink, and eager, in a dream,
Tipples imaginary pots of ale,

In vain: awake, I find the fettled thirst
Still gnawing, and the pleasant phan om curfer
Thus do I live, from pleasure 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 still remain :
My galligafkins, that have long with flood
The winter's fury, and encroaching frofts,
By time fubdued (what will not time fubdue
A horrid chafm difclofe, with orifice
Vide, difcontinuous; at which the winds,
Eurus and Aufter, and the dreadful force
Of Borcas, that congeals the Cronian waves,
Tumultuous enter with dire chilling blaft,
Portending agues. Thus a well-fraught ship,
Long fail'd fecure, or thro' th' gean deep,
Or the Ionian, till cruising near
The Lilybean fhore, with hideous crush
On Scylla or Charybdis (dang 'rous rocks)
Two noted alehoufes in Oxford, 1700.

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She

She ftrikes rebounding; whence the fhatter'd oak |The troubled mind's fantaftic drefs,
So fierce a fhock unable to withstand,
Which madness titles Happiness;
Admits the fea; in at the gaping fide
While the gay wretch to revels bears
The crewding waves guth with impetuous rage, The pale remains of fighs and tears;
Refiftlefs, overwhelming! Horrors feize
And leeks in crowds, like her undone,
The mariners; death in their eyes appears; What only can be found in one.
They ftare, they rave, they pump, they fwear,
they pray:

Ere yet the clouds let fall the treafur'd snow,
Or winds begun thro' hazy kies to blow,
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arote;
And the defcending rain unfullied froze.
Soon as the filent fhades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn difelos'd at once to view
The face of nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes:
For ev'ry fhrub, and ev'ry blade of grafs,
And ev'ry pointed thorn, feem'd wrought in glafs,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns fhow,
While thro' the ice the crimfon berries glow.
The thick-fprung reeds the wat'ry marthes yield
Seem polish'd lances in a hofule field.
The flag, in limpid currents, with surprise
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rife.
The fpreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther fhine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches thun,
That wave and glitter in the diftant fun.
When, if a fudden guft of wind arife,
The brittle foreft into atoms flies:
The crackling wood beneath the tempeft bends,
And in a fpangled show'r the prospect ends;
Or, if a fouthern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wint'ry charm,
The traveller a miry country fees,
And journeys fad beneath the dropping trees.
Like fome deluded peafant Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and thro' delicious meads;
While here enchanting gardens to him ife,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wand'ring feet the magic paths purfue;
And, while he thinks the fair illufion true,
The tracklefs fcenes difperfe in fluid air,
And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear:
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And, as he goes, the tranfient vifion mourns.

She vifits oft the hamlet cot,
When Want and Sorrow are the lot
Of Avarice and me.

But fee or is it Fancy's dream?
Methought a bright celeftial gleam
Shot fudden thro' the groves;
Behold, behold, in loofe array,
Euphrofyne, more bright than day,
More mild than Paphian doves!
Welcome, oh welcome, Pleafure's queen!
And fee, along the velvet green

The jocund train advance:
With fcatter'd flow'rs they fill the air;
The wood-nymph's dew-befpangled hair
Plays in the fportive dance.
of
angry Heaven,
Ah! baneful grant
When to the feeling wretch is given
A foul alive to joy!

Joys fly with every hour away,
And leave th' unguarded heart a prey
To cares that peace deftroy.

And fee, with vifionary hafte
(Too foon) the gay delufion paft,
Reality remains!

Despair has feiz'd my captive foul;
And horror drives without controul,

And flackens ftill the reins.

Ten thoufand beauties round me throng;
What beauties, fay, ye nymphs, belong

To the diftemper'd foul?
I fee the lawn of hideous dye;
The towering elm nods mifery;
the waters rolí.
With groans
Ye gilded roofs, Palladian domes,
Ye vivid tints of Perfia's looms,

Ye were for mifery made.-
'Twas thus the Man of Sorrow spoke;
His wayward step then penfive took
Along th' unhallow'd shade.

§104. Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady..

SHAW.

YET do I live? Oh how fhall I fuftain
This vaft unutterable weight of woe?
This worse than hunger, poverty, or pain,
Or all the complicated ills below?
She, in whofe life my hopes were treafur'd all,
Is gone-for ever fled-
My dearest Emma's dead;
Thefe eyes, thefe tear-fwoln eyes beheld her fall.
Ah no-the lives on fome far happier fhore,
She lives-but (cruel thought!) the lives for me

no more.

I, who the tedious absence of a day

[fight;

Remov'd, would languish for my charmer's
Would chide the lingering moments for delay,
And fondly blame the flow return of night;
How, how fhall I endure
(O mifery paft a cure!)
Hours, days, and years, fucceffively to roll,
Nor ever ingre behold the comfort of my foul?
Wa
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