When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs found
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequer'd fhade:
And young and old come forth to play
On a funthine holy-day,
'Till the live-long day-light fail;
Then to the fpicy nut-brown ale,
With ftories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets ate,
She was pinch'd and pull'd, the faid,
And he by friars lanthorn led;
Tells how the drudging goblin fweat,
To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night, ere glimpfe of morn,
His fhadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lies him down, the lubber fiend,
And stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Bafks at the fire his hairy ftrength,
And crop-full out of door he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whifp'ring winds foon lull'd afleep.
Towered cities pleafe us then,
And the bufy hum of men;
Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold
With ftore of ladies, whofe bright eyes,
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or arms, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear
In faffron robe, with taper clear,
Q?
And pomp, and feaft, and revelry,
With mafque, and antique pageantry;
Such fights as youthful poets dream
On fummer eves by haunted ftream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Johnfon's learned fock be on,
Or fweeteft Shakespear, fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever against eating carés,
Lap me in foft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verfe,
Such as the melting foul may pierce
In notes, with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed and giddy cunning,
The melting voice, through mazes running,
Untwifting all the chains that tie
The hidden foul of harmony;
That Orpheus' felf may heave his head
From golden flumber on a bed
Of heap'd Elyfian flowers, and hear
Such ftrains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite fet free
His half regain'd Eurydice.
Thefe delights if thou canft give,
Mirth, with thee I mean to live.
ENCE vain deluding joys,
The brood of folly without father bred,
How little you befted,
Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys?
Dwell in fome idle brain,
And fancies fond with gaudy fhapes poffefs,
As thick and numberless
As the gay-notes that people the fun-beams,
Or likeft hovering dreams,
The fickle penfioners of Morpheus' train.
But hail, thou goddess, fage and holy!
Hail, divineft Melancholy!
Whofe faintly vifage is too bright
To hit the fenfe of human fight,
And therefore weaker to our view
O'erlaid with black, ftaid wifdom's hue;
Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's fifter might befeem:
Or that ftarr'd Ethiop queen that strove
To fet her beauties' praife above,
The fea-nymphs, and their powers offended;
Yet thou art higher far defcended,
Thee bright hair'd Vefta long of
To folitary Saturn bore;
His daughter the (in Saturn's reign
Such mixture was not held a ftain.)
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in fecret fhades
Of woody Ida's inmoft grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, penfive nun, devout and pure,
Sober, ftedfaft, and demure,
All in a robe of darkeft grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And fable ftole of Cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step and mufing gait,
And looks commercing with the fkies,
Thy wrapt foul fitting in thine eyes;
There held in holy paffion ftill,
Forget thyfelf to marble, till
With a fad leaden downward casti
Thou fix them on the earth as faft;
And join with thee calni Peace and Quiet,
Spare Faft, that oft with gods doth diet,
And hears the Mufes in a ring
Aye round about Jove's altar fing:
And add to thefe retired Leifure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleafure;
But firft, and chiefeft, with thee bring
Him that yon foars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
Cherub Contemplation;
the mute Silence hist a
'Lefs Philomel will deign a fong, In her fweeteft, faddeft plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of Nights
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