Or fill the fixed mind with all your Dwell in some idle brain,
And fancies fond with gaudy shape As thick and numberless
gay motes that people the s
Or likest hovering dreams
The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy Hail divinest Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And therefore to our weaker view
O'erlaid with black, staid wisdom's hu
Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
Or that starr'd Ethiop queen that stro
To set her beauty's praise above
The Sea-Nymphs, and their pow'rs off
Yet thou art higher far descended ;
13 too bright] Hor. Od. i. xix. 5. Nimi spici.'
ee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,
› solitary Saturn bore;
is daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
uch mixture was not held a stain).
ft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast:
And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring
Aye round about Jove's altar sing:
35 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.
'Cyprus black as e'er was crow.'
37 keep] State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth.
Rev. act v. s. 6. Warton.
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night
While Cynthia checks her dragon yo
Gently o'er th' accustom'd oak;
Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise o
Most musical, most melancholy!
Thee, chauntress, oft the woods amo
I woo, to hear thy even-song;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless wa
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound,
5 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets, 51. 59 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323. 68 Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 992. iπTéovσi di' ¿
ricket on the hearth, Iman's drowsy charm,
ne doors from nightly harm:
lamp at midnight hour
some high lonely tow'r,
may oft out-watch the Bear,
e-great Hermes, or unsphere
of Plato, to unfold
lds, or what vast regions hold
rtal mind, that hath forsook
on in this fleshly nook:
ose Demons that are found
, flood, or under ground,
wer hath a true consent
et, or with element.
let gorgeous tragedy
d pall come sweeping by, y Thebes, or Pelops' line,
e of Troy divine,
ater'd] Constable's Son. Ellis's Spec. ii.
like the echo of a passing bell,
ch, sounding on the water, seems to howl.' d] Miltoni Eleg. i. 37.
ve cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum uassat.'
Or call up him that left half told
The story of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball, and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That own'd the virtuous ring and glas
And of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride;
And if aught else great bards beside
sage
and solemn tunes have sung,
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests, and inchantments drear,
Where more is meant than meets the
Thus night oft see me in thy pale care
Till civil-suited morn appear,
Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was w With the Attic boy to hunt,
But kerchef'd in a comely cloud,
110 Cambuscan] In the Squier's Tale of Tyrwhitt's notes, vol. ii. p. 466, ed. 1798. To 122 civil] Rom. and Juliet, act iii. sc. 4.
come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black
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