Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears

Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

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

And purer spirits fwell the sprightly flood,

Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet, 95
Wind the fhrill horn, or fpread the waving net.
When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,
And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready fpaniel bounds,
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds;
But when the tainted gales the game betray,
Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they truft th' unfaithful field befet,
"Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.

VER. 91.

VARIATIONS.

Oh may no more a foreign mafter's rage,
With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age!

Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heav'nly wings,

ΙΟΙ

Breath plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.

When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds,

And into wine the purple harvest bleeds a,

The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields,

Both morning sports and ev'ning pleasures yields.

a Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumftance not proper to our climate, the vintage.

106

Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,
Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the closing lines inveft;
Sudden they feize th' amaz'd, defenceless prize,
And high in air Britannia's standard flies.

115

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings : Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes, His purple creft, and scarled-circled eyes, The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breaft that flames with gold? Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny. 120 To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: (Beafts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beafts purfue, And learn of man each other to undo.)

VARIATIONS.

VER. 107. It ftood thus in the first Editions:
Pleas'd, in the Gen'rals fight, the hoft lie down
Sudden before fome unfufpecting town;

'The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize,

And o'er their captive heads Britannia's ftandard flies.

VER. 115.

IMITATIONS.

nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,

Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis infula texit.

Virg.

124

With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'ershade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen sky:
Oft, as in airy rings they fkim the heath,
The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death :
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

130

In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,1 3 5
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his filent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :

With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed. 140
Our plenteous ftreams a various race supply,
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,
The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd,
The yellow carp, in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson ftains,
And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.

VARIATIONS.

VER, 126. O'er ruftling leaves around the naked groves.
VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 134. Præcipites altâ vitam fub nube relinquunt.

145

Virg.

Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car: The youth rush eager to the fylvan war,

Swarm o'er the lawns, the forest walks furround,

Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound.

151

154

Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods appear already crofs'd,
And e'er he ftarts, a thousand steps are loft.
See the bold youth ftrain up the threat'ning fteep,
Rufh thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed.
Let old Arcadia boaft her ample plain,

Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin-train; 160
Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have seen
As bright a Goddess, and as chaste a QUEEN;
Whofe care, like hers, protects the fylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Emprefs of the Main.
Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana stray'd,
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windfor fhade;
Here was the feen o'er airy waftes to rove,
Seek the clear spring, or haunt the pathless grove;

165

NOTES.

VER. 162. Queen ANNE.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius,

Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille

Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum,

Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn,
Her bufkin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn.

170

Above the reft a rural nymph was fam'd, Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd; (Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast,

The Mufe fhall fing, and what fhe fings fhall laft.) Scarce could the Goddefs from her nymph be known, But by the crefcent and the golden zone.

180

176 She fcorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care; A belt her waist, a fillet binds her hair; A painted quiver on her fhoulder founds, And with her dart the flying deer she wounds. It chanc'd, as eager of the chace, the maid Beyond the foreft's verdant limits ftray'd, Pan faw and lov'd, and burning with defire Purfu'd her flight, her flight increas'd his fire. Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky; Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves, When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves; As from the God fhe flew with furious pace, Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace.

VER. 175.

IMITATIONS.

Nec pofitu variare comas; ubi fibula veftem,
Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos.

VER. 183, 185.

Ovid.

Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,
Ut folet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas,

Ovid.

185