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May one kind grave unite each hapless hame, And graft my love immortal on thy fame! Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er, When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; If ever chance two wandering lovers brings To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs, O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, And drink the falling tears each other sheds; Then sadly say, with mutual pity mov'd,

"O, may we never love as these have lov'd !" From the full choir, when loud hosannas rise, And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice,

Amid that scene if some relenting eye
Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie,
Devotion's self shall steal a thought from Heaven,
One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven.
And sure if Fate soine future bard shall join
In sad similitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such, if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell!
The well-sung woes will sooth my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them who shall feel them most!

TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Translations were selected from many others done by the author in his youth; for the most part indeed but a sort of exercises. while he was improving himself in the languages, and carried by his early bent to poetry to perform them rather in verse than prose. Mr. Dryden's Fables came out about that time, which occasioned the Translations from Chaucer. They were first separately printed in Miscellanics by J. Tenson and B. Lintot, and afterwards collected in the quarto edition of 1717. The Imitations of English authors, which follow, were done as early, some of them at fourteen or fifteen years old.

THE

TEMPLE OF FAME. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1711.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Tur hint of the following piece was taken from Chaucer's House of Fame. The design is in a manner entirely altered, the descriptions and most of the particular thoughts my own; yet I could not suffer it to be printed without this acknowledgment. The reader, who would compare this with Chaucer, may begin with his third book of Fame, there being nothing in the two first books that answers to their title: wherever any hint is taken from him, the passage itself is set down in the marginal notes. The poem is introduced in the manner of the Provençal poets, whose works were for the most part visions, or pieces of imagination, and constantly descriptive. From these, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrowed the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower and the Leaf, &c. of the latter. The author of this therefore chose the same sort of exordium.

THE TEMPLE OF FAME.

In that soft season, when descending showers
Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers;

When opening buds salute the welcome day,
And earth relenting feels the genial ray;
As balmy sleep had charm'd my cares to rest,
And love itself was banish'd from my breast,
(What time the morn mysterious visions brings,
While purer slumbers spread their golden wings)
A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And join'd, this intellectual scene compose.

I stood, methought, betwixt earth, seas and
The whole creation open to my eyes: [skies; 11.
In air self-balanc'd hung the globe below,
Where mountains rise, and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks, and empty wastes were seen
There towering cities, and the forests green:
Here sailing ships delight the wandering eyes;
There trees and intermingled temples rise:
The transient landscape now in clouds decays.
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays;

O'er the wide prospect as I gaz'd around, Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound, Like broken thunders that at distance roar, Or billows murmuring on the hollow shore:

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 11, &c.] These verses are hinted from the following of Chaucer, Book ii.

Though beheld I fields and plains
Now hills and now mountains,
Now valeis, and now forestes,
And now unneth great bestes,
Now rivers, now citees,
Now towns, now great trees,
Now shippes sayling in the sce.

[ceal'd.

Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,
Whose towering summit ambient clouds con-
High on a rock of ice the structure lay,
Steep its ascent, and slippery was the way;
The wonderous rock like Parian marble shone,
And seem'd, to distant sight, of solid stone.
Inscriptions here of various names I view'd,
The greater part by hostile time subdued;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And poets once had promis'd they should last..
Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of wits renown'd;
I look'd again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I saw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place :
Their own, like others, soon their place resign'd,
Or disappear'd, and left the first behind.
Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone,
But felt th' approaches of too warm a sun;
For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays
Not more by Envy, than excess of Praise.
Yet part no injuries of Heaven could feel,
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:
The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.

IMITATIONS,

27

31

Their names inscrib'd unnumber'd ages past
From Time's first birth, with Time itself shall last;
These ever new, nor subject to decays,
Spread and grow brighter with the length of days.
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of
frost)

Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast;
Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on th' impassive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows the growing mass supply,
Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky;
As Atlas fix'd, each hoary pile appears,
The gather'd winter of a thousand years.
On this foundation Fame's high temple stands;
Stupendous pile! not rear'd by mortal hands.
Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld,
Or elder Babylon, its frame excell'd.
Four faces had the dome, and every face,
Of various structure, but of equal grace!
Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
45 Salute the different quarters of the sky.
Here fabled chiefs in darker ages born,
Or worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn,
Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monstrous race,
The walls in venerable order grace:
Heroes ju animated marble frown,

41

Ver. 27. High on a rock of ice, &c.] Chaucer's And legislators seem to think in stone. third book of Fame.

It stood upon so high a rock,
Higher standeth none in Spayne→→→
What manner stone this rock was,
For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it shone full more clere;
But of what congeled matere
It was, I niste redily;
But at the last espied I,
And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ice, and not of stele.
Ver. 31. Inscriptions here, &c.]

Tho' saw I all the hill y-grave
With famous folkes names felé,
That had been in much wele
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know,
Any letters for to rede
Their names by, for out of drede
They weren almost off-thawen so,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So unfamous was woxe her fame;
But men said, what may ever last?
Ver. 41. Nor was the work impair'd, &c.
Tho' gan I in myne harte cast,

That they were molte away for heate,
And not away with stories beate,
Ver. 45. Yet part no injuries, &c.]

For on that other side I sey,
Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had before great fames,
Of old time, and yet they were

As fresh as men had written hem there
That self-day, or that houre
That I on hem gan to poure:
But well I wiste what it made;
It was conserved with the shade
(All the writing that I sye)

Of the castle that stoode on high,
And stood eke in so cold a place,
That heat might it not deface.

Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd, On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd, Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold, And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold. In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld, And Perseus dreadful with Minerva's shield: There great Alcides, stooping with his toil, Rests on his club, and holds th' Hesperian spoil: Here Orpheus sings; trees moving to the sound Start froin their roots, and form a shade around: Amphion there the loud creating lyre Strikes, and behold a sudden Thebes aspire! Cythæron's echoes answer to his call, And half the mountain rolls into a wall: There might you see the lengthening spires ascend, The domes swell up, the widening arches bend, The growing towers like exhalations rise, And the huge columns heave into the skies.

The easteru front was glorious to behold,
With diamond flaming, and Barbaric gold.
There Ninus shone, who spread th' Assyrian fame,
And the great founder of the Persian name:
There in long robes the royal Magi stand,
Grave Zoroaster waves the circling wand:
The sage Chaldæns rob'd in white appear'd,
And Brachmans, deep in desert woods rever'd.
These stopp'd the Moon, and call'd th' unbody'd
shades

To midnight banquets in the glimmering glades;
Made visionary fabrics round them rise,
And airy spectres skim before their eyes;
Of talismans and sigils knew the power,
And careful watch'd the planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius stood,
Who taught that useful science, to be good.
But on the south, a long majestic race
Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace,
Who measur'd Earth, describ'd the starry spheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sesostris struck my view
Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew:
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold;
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold,

Between the statues obelisks were plac'd,
And the learn'd walls with hieroglyphics grac'd.
Of Gothic structure was the northern side,
O'erwrought with ornaments of barbarous pride.
There huge Colosses rose, with trophies crown'd,
And Runic characters were grav'd around.
There sat Zamolxis with erected eyes,
And Odin here in mimic trances dies.
There on rude iron columns, smear'd with blood,
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood,
Druids and bards (their once loud harps unstrung)
And youths that died to be by poets sung.
These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lasting name,
In ranks adorn'd the temple's outward face;
The wall in lustre and effect like glass,
Which, o'er each object casting various dyes,
Enlarges some, and others multiplies:
Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall,
For thus romantic Fame increases all.

132

The temple shakes, the sounding gates unfold,
Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold:
Rais'd on a thousand pillars wreath'd around
With laurel-foliage, and with eagles crown'd:
Of bright transparent beryl were the walls,
The freezes gold, and gold the capitals:

As Heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,
And ever-living lamps depend in rows.
Full in the passage of each spacious gate,
The sage historians in white garments wait;

Grav'd o'er their seats the form of Time was found,

His scythe revers'd, and both his pinions bound.
Within stood heroes, who through loud alarms
In bloody fields pursued renown in arins.

High on a throne with trophies charg'd, I view'd
The youth that all things but himself subdued;
His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod,
And his horn'd head bely'd the Lybian god.
There Cæsar, grac'd with both Minervas, shone;
Casar, the world's great master, and his own;
Unmov'd, superior still in every state,
And scarce detested in his country's fate.
But chief were those, who not for empire fought,
But with their toils their people's safety bought:
High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood;
Timoleon, glorious in his brother's blood;
Bold Scipio, saviour of the Roman state;
Great in his triumphs, in retirement great;
And wise Aurelius, in whose well-taught mind
With boundless power unbounded virtue join'd,
His own strict judge, and patron of mankind.

Much suffering heroes next their honours
claim,

Those of less noisy, and less guilty fame,
Fair Virtue s silent train: supreme of these
Here ever shines the godlike Socrates;
He whom ungrateful Athens could expell
At all times just, but when he sign'd the shell:
Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims,
With Agis, not the last of Spartan names:
Unconquer'd Cato shows the wound he tore,
And Brutus his ill genius meets no more.

IMITATION.

Ver. 132. The wall in lustre, &c.]
It shone lighter than a glass,
And made well more than it was,
As kind of thing Fame is.

179

But in the centre of the hallow'd choir,
Six pompous columns o'er the rest aspire;
Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand,
Hold the chief honours, and the fane command.
High on the first, the mighty Homer shone; 182
Eternal adamant compos'd his throne;
Father of verse! in holy fillets drest,
His silver beard wav'd gently o'er his breast;
Though blind, a boldness in his looks appears;
In years he seem'd, but not impair'd by years.
The wars of Troy were round the pillar seen:
Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian queen;
Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall,
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall.
Motion and life did every part inspire,
Bold was the work, and prov'd the master's fire;
A strong expression most he seem'd t' affect,
And here and there disclos'd a brave neglect.

A golden column next in rank appear'd,
On which a shrine of purest gold was rear'd;
Finish'd the whole, and labour'd every part,
With patient touches of unwearied Art :
The Mantuan there in sober triumph sate,
Compos'd his posture, and his look sedate;
On Homer still he fix'd a reverent eye,
Great without pride, in modest majesty.
In living sculpture on the sides were spread
The Latian wars, and haughty Turnus dead;
Eliza stretch'd upon the funeral pyre,
Eneas bending with his aged sire:

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 179. Six pompous columns, &c.]
From the dees many a pillere,

Of metal that shone not full clere, &c.
Upou a pillere saw I stonde

That was of lede and iron fine,
Him of the sect Saturnine,

The Ebraicke Josephus the old, &c.

Upon an iron pillere strong,
That painted was all endlong,
With tigers' blood in every place,
The Tholosan that hight Stace,

That bear of Thebes up the name, &c. Ver. 182.]

Full wonder high on a pillere

Of iron, he the great Omer,

And with him Dares and Titus, &c.

Ver. 196, &c.]

There saw I stand on a pillere

That was of tinned iron cleere,
The Iatin poet Virgyle,
That hath bore up of a great while
The fame of pious Eneas:

And next him on a pillere was
Of copper, Venus' clerke Ovide,
That bath sowen wondrous wide
The great god of love's fame→→

Tho saw I on a pillere by
Of iron wrought full sternly,
The great poet Dan Lacan,
That on his shoulders bore up then
As hye as that I might see,
The fame of Julius and Pompce.

And next him on a pillerc stode
Of sulphure, like as he were wode,
Dan Claudian, sothe for to tell,
That bare up all the fame of Hell, &c.

196

Troy flam'd in burning gold, and o'er the throne ARMS AND THE MAN in golden cyphers shone.

Four swans sustain a car of silver bright, [flight: With heads advanc'd, and pinions stretch'd for Here, like some farious prophet, Pindar rode, And seem'd to labour with th' inspiring god. Across the harp a careless hand he flings, And boldly sinks into the sounding strings. The figur'd games of Greece the column grace, Neptune and Jove survey the rapid race, The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run; The fiery steeds seem starting from the stone; The champions in distorted postures threat; And all appear'd irregularly great.

Here happy Horace tun'd th' Ausonian lyre To sweeter sounds, and temper'd Pindar's fire: Pleas'd with Alcæus' manly rage t' infuse The softer spirit of the Sapphic Muse. The polish'd pillar different sculptures grace; A work outlasting monumental brass. Here smiling Loves and Bacchanals appear, The Julian star and great Augustus here. The doves that round the infant poet spread Myrtles and bays, hung hovering o'er his head. Here, in a shrine that cast a dazzling light, Sate fix'd in thought the mighty Stagirite; His sacred head a radiant zodiac crown'd, And various animals his sides surround; His piercing eyes, erect, appear to view Superior worlds, and look all Nature through. With equal rays immortal Tully shone, The Roman rostra deck'd the consul's throne: Gathering his flowing robe, he seem'd to stand In act to speak, and graceful stretch'd his hand. Behind, Rome's genius waits with civic crowns, And the great father of his country owns.

These massy columns in a circle rise, O'er which a pompous dome invades the skies: Scarce to the top I stretch'd my aching sight, So large it spread, and swell'd to such a height. Full in the midst proud Fame's imperial seat With jewels blaz'd, maguificently great; The vivid emeralds there revive the eye, The flaming rubies show their sanguine dye, Bright azure rays from lively sapphires stream, And lucid amber casts a golden gleam. With various-colour'd light the pavement shone, And all on fire appear'd the glowing throne; The dome's high arch reflects the mingled blaze, And forms a rainbow of alternate rays. When on the goddess first I cast my sight, Scarce scem'd her stature of a cubit's height; 259 But swell'd to larger size, the more I gaz'd, Till to the roof her towering front she rais'd. With her, the temple every moment grew, And ampler vistas open'd to my view: Upward the columns shoot, the roofs ascend, And arches widen, and long aisles extend. · Such was her form, as antient bards have told, Wings raise her arms, and wings her feet infold;

IMITATION.

Ver. 259. Scarce seem'd her stature, &c.]
Methought that she was so lite,
That the length of a cubite
Was longer than she seemned be;
But thus soone in a while she,
Herself tho wonderly straight,

That with her feet she the Earth right,
And with her head she touchyd Heaven-

A thousand busy tongues the goddess bears,
And thousand open eyes, and thousand listening

ears.

270

276

Beneath, in order rang'd, the tuneful Nine
(Her virgin bandmaids) still attend the shrine:
With eyes on Fame for ever fix'd, they sing;
For Fame they raise their voice, and tune the string;
With Time's first birth began the heavenly lays,
And last, eternal, through the length of days
Around these wonders as I cast a look,
The trumpet sounded, and the temple shook,
And all the nations, summon'd at the call,
From different quarters fill the crowded hall:
Of various tongues the mingled sounds were heard,
In various garbs promiscuous throngs appear'd;
Thick as the bees, that with the spring renew
Their flowery toils, and sip the fragrant dew,
When the wing'd colonies first tempt the sky,
O'er dusky fields and shaded waters fly,

Or, settling, seize the sweets the blossoms yield,
And a low murmur runs along the field.
Millions of suppliant crouds the shrine attend,
And all degrees before the goddess bend;
The poor, the rich, the valiant, and the sage,
And boasting youth, and narrative old-age.
Their pleas were different, their request the same;
For good and bad alike are fond of Fame.
Some she disgrac'd, and some with honours
Unlike successes equal merits found. [crown'd; 294
Thus her blind sister, tickle Fortune, reigns,
And undiscerning scatters crowns and chains.

First at the shrine the learned world appear, And to the goddess thus prefer their prayer. "Long have we sought t' instruct and please man❤ kind,

With studies pale, with midnight vigils blind;
But thank'd by few, rewarded yet by noue,
We here appeal to thy superior throue:
On wit and learning the just prize bestow,
For Fame is all we must expect below.”

The goddess heard, and bade the Muses raisę
The golden trumpet of eternal Praise :
From pole to pole the winds diffuse the sound,
That fills the circuit of the world around;

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 270. Beneath, in order rang'd, &c.]
I heard about her throne y sung
That all the palays walls rung,
So sung the mighty Muse, she
That cleped is Calliope,

And her seven sisters cke-
Ver. 276. Around these wonders, &c.]
I heard a noise approachen blive,
That far'd as bees done in a hive,
Against her time of out-flying,
Right such a manere murmuring,
For all the world it seemed me,
Tho gan I look about and see
That there came entering into th' hall,
A right great company withal;
And that of sundry regions,
Of all kind of conditions, &c.
Ver. 294, Some she disgrae'd, &c.]
And some of them she granted sone,
And some she warned well and fair,
And some she granted the contrair→
Right as her sister, daine Fortune,
Is wont to serve in commune.

Not all at once, as thunder breaks the cloud;
The notes at first were rather sweet than loud:
By just degrees they every moment rise,
Fill the wide Earth, and gain upon the skies.
At every breath were balmy odours shed,
Which still grew sweeter, as they wider spread:
Less fragrant scents th' unfolding rose exhales,
Or spices breathing in Arabian gales.

Next these the good and just, an awful train, 318 Thus on their knees address the sacred fane. "Since living virtue is with envy curs'd, And the best men are treated like the worst, Do thou, just goddess, call our merits forth, And give each deed th' exact intrinsic worth." "Not with bare justice shall your act be crown'd," (Said Fame)" but high above desert renown'd: Let fuller notes th' applauding world amaze, And the loud clarion labour in your praise."

328

This band dismiss'd, behold another crowd
Prefer'd the same request, and lowly bow'd;
The constant tenour of whose well-spent days
No less deserv'd a just return of praise.
But straight the direful trump of Slander sounds;
Through the big dome the doubling thunder
bounds;

Loud as the burst of cannon rends the skies,
The dire report through every region flies,
In every ear incessant rumours rung,
And gathering scandals grew on every tongue.
From the black trumpet's rusty concave broke 338
Sulphureous flames, and clouds of rolling smoke:
The poisonous vapour blots the purple skies,
And withers all before it as it flies.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 318. The good and just, &c.]
Tho came the third companye,
And gan up to the dees to hye,
And down on knees they fell anone,
And saiden: "We been everichone
Folke that han full truely
Deserved fame right-fully,
And prayen you it might be knowe
Right as it is, and forth blowe."

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I grant," quoth she, "for now we list
That your good works shall be wist.
And yet ye shall have better loos,
Right in despite of all your foos,
Than worthy is, and that anone.

Let now," quoth she, "thy trump gone➡"
And certes all the breath that went
Out of his trump's mouth smel'd
As men a pot of baume held
Among a basket full of roses.→→→

Ver. 328, 338. Behold another croud, &c.-.
From the black trumpet's rusty, &c.]
Therewithal there came anone
Another huge companye
Of good folke→

What did this Eolus, but he
Took out his-trump of brass,
That fouler than the Devil was:
And gan his trump for to blowe,
As all the world should overthrowe.
Throughout every regione
Went this foul trumpet's soune
Swift as a pellet out of a gunne,
When fire is in the powder runne.
And such a smoke gan out wende,
Out of the foul trumpet's ende-&c.

A troop came next, who crowns and armour worë, And proud defiance in their looks they bore: "For thee" (they cry'd) "amidst alarms and strife, We sail'd in tempests down the stream of life; For thee whole nations fill'd with flames and blood, And swam to empire through the purple flood. Those ills we dar'd, thy inspiration own; What virtue seem'd, was done for thee alone." "Ambitious fools!" (the queen reply'd, and frown'd) "Be all your acts in dark oblivion drown'd; There sleep forgot, with mighty tyrants gone, Your statues moulder'd, and your names unknown!" A sudden cloud straight snatch'd them from my sight,

And each majestic phantom sunk in night.

Then came the smallest tribe I yet had seen; 356 Plain was their dress, and modest was their mien, "Great idol of mankind! we neither claim The praise of merit, nor aspire to Fame! But, safe in deserts from th' applause of men, Would die unheard of, as we liv'd unseen. "Tis all we beg thee, to conceal from sight Those aots of goodness which themselves requite, O let us still the secret joys partake,

To follow Virtue ev'n for Virtue's sake."

"And live there men, who slight immortal Fame? Who then with incense shall adore our name? But, mortals! know, 'tis still our greatest pride, To blaze those virtues which the good would hide, Rise! Muses, rise! add all your tuneful breath; These must not sleep in darkness and in death." She said in air the trembling music floats, And on the winds triumphant swell the notes; So soft, though high, so loud, and yet so clear, Ev'n listening angels lean from Heaven to hear: To farthest shores th' ambrosial spirit flies, Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies.

:

Next these a youthful train their vows express'd, With feathers crown'd, with gay embroidery dress'd:

"Hither," they cry'd, "direct your eyes, and see The men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry;

IMITATION.

Ver. 356. Then came the smallest, &c.]
I saw anone the fifth route,
That to this lady gan loute,
And downe on knees anone to fall,
And to her they besoughten all,
To hiden their good works eke.
And said, they yeve not a leke
For no fame ne such renowne;
For they for contemplacyoune,
And Goddes love had it wrought,
Ne of fame would they ought.

"What," quoth she, "and be ye wood?
And ween ye for to do good,
And for to have it of no fame?
Have ye despite to have my name?
Nay ye shall lien everichone:
Blow thy trump, and that anone"
(Quoth she) "thou Eolus, I hote,
And ring these folks works by wrote,
That all the world may of it heare :"
And he gan blow their loos so cleare,
In his golden clarioune,
Through the world went the sonne,
All so kindly, and eke so soft,
That ther fame was blown aloft.

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