This Nymph, to the destruction of mankind, Nourish'd two Locks, which graceful hung behind In equal curls, and well conspir'd to deck With shining ringlets the smooth iv'ry neck. Love in these labyrinths his flaves detains, And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. With hairy springes we the birds betray, Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, Fair tresses man's imperial race infnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.

21

25

Th' advent'rous Baron the bright locks admir'd;

30

He saw, he wish'd, and to the prize afpir'd.
Resolv'd to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when fuccess a Lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.
For this, ere Phœbus rofe, he had implor'd
Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r ador'd,
But chiefly Love to Love an Altar built,
Of twelve vast French Romances, neatly gilt.

35

There

PARALLEL PASSAGES,

VER. 28. And beauty draws us, &c.] Steevens quotes Bu

chanan's Epigrams, Lib. I. xiv. p. 77.

" Et modo membra pilo vinctus miser abstrahor uno."

"One hair of thine in fetters ties."

NOTES.

SANDYS.

VER. 28. with a fingle hair. In allusion to those lines of Hu

dibras, applied to the same purpose:

"And tho' it be a two foot Trout,

" 'Tis with a single hair pull'd out." WARBURTON.

There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves;
With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three am'rous fighs to raise the fire.

40

Then proftrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long poffefs the prize :
The Pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,
The rest, the winds dispers'd in empty air.

46

But now secure the painted Vessel glides,
The fun-beams trembling on the floating tides:
While melting music steals upon the sky,
And foften'd founds along the waters die;
Smooth flow the waves, the Zephyrs gently play,
Belinda smil'd, and all the world was gay.
All but the Sylph-with careful thoughts oppreft,
Th' impending woe fat heavy on his breast.
He fummons straight his Denizens of air;
The lucid squadrons round the fails repair:
Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whifpers breathe,
That feem'd but Zephyrs to the train beneath.
Some to the fun their infect-wings unfold,
Waft on the breeze, or fink in clouds of gold;
Tranfparent forms, too fine for mortal fight,
Their fluid bodies half diffolv'd in light,

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

50

55

60

Loofe

VER. 50. And foften'd founds, &c.] Steevens quotes Milton : " And Music dying in remoter founds."

IMITATIONS.

VER 45. The Pow'rs gave ear,] VIRG. Eneid. xi. POPE.

Loofe to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,

65

Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;
While ev'ry beam new tranfient colours flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.

Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,

Superior by the head, was Ariel plac'd;

70

His purple pinions op'ning to the fun,

He rais'd his azure wand, and thus begun.

Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear,

Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Demons hear!
Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assign'd 75
By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.

Some in the fields of pureft Ether play,
And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Some

VER. 65. tincture of the skies,] "Sky-tinctur'd grain." MILTON.

NOTES.

VER. 75. Ye know] Those who are fond of tracing images and sentiments to their fource, may, perhaps, be inclined to think, that the hint of afcribing tasks and offices to such imaginary beings, is taken from the Fairies, and the Ariel of Shakespear; let the impartial critic determine, which has the superiority of fancy. The employment of Ariel in the Tempest, is said to be

"To tread the ooze

Of the falt deep;

To run upon the sharp wind of the north;
To do business in the veins of th' earth,
When it is bak'd with froft;

-To dive into the fire; to ride
On the curl'd clouds."

And

Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high, Or roll the planets through the boundless sky. Some less refin'd, beneath the moon's pale light

80

Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,

Or

And again,

NOTE9.

" In the deep nook, where ofice
Thou call'dft me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still vext Bermoothes."

Nor muft I omit that exquisite song, in which his favourite and peculiar pastime is expressed :

"Where the bee fucks, there fuck I,

In a cowflip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry,
On the bat's back I do fly,
After fun-fet, merrily;
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

With what wildness of imagination, but yet, with what propriety, are the amusements of the fairies pointed out in the Midfummer Night's Dream; amusements proper for none but fairies!

"For the third part of a minute, hence :

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds :
Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings
To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
The clamourous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our quaint spirits.".

Shakespear only could have thought of the following gratifications for Titania's lover; and they are fit only to be offered to her lover by a fairy-queen.

"Be kind and courteous to this gentleman,
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricots and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries,
The honey-bags steal from the humble bees,
And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs,

And

(

Or fuck the mists in grosser air below,
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
Or brew fierce tempefts on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain.
Others on earth o'er human race prefide,
Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:
Of these the chief the care of Nations own,

85

And guard with Arms divine the British Throne. ge
Our humbler province is to tend the Fair,
Not a less pleasing, tho' less glorious care;
To fave the powder from too rude a gale,
Nor let th' imprison'd essences exhale;

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs; 95
To steal from Rainbows ere they drop in show'rs

NOTES.

And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arife;

And pluck the wings from painted butter-flies,

A brighter

To fan the moon beams from his sleeping eyes." WARTON. Nothing can be more appropriate, and elegant, than the lines which defcribe the employment affigned to the Sylphs in this Poem. But how can Warton think, that in fancy they equal any thing of the kind? but there is no comparison between beings who

-

"pluck the wings from painted butterflies

To fan the moon beams," &c.

VER. 90. And guard with Arms] The Poet was too judicious to defire this should be understood as a compliment. He intended it for a meer piece of raillery; such as he more openly purfues on another occafion; when he says,

"Where's now the Star which lighted Charles to rife ?
With that which follow'd Julius to the skies.
Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak fo well,
How chane'd you slept when luckless Sorrel fell?"

WARBURTΟΝ.