Rough Satyrs danc'd, and Fauns with cloven heel
From the glad sound would not be absent long,
And old Damætus lov'd to hear our song.

35

But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone, and never must return! Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 And all their echoes mourn.

The willows, and the hazel copses green,

Shall now no more be seen,

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.
As killing as the canker to the rose,

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
wardrobe wear,

Or frost to flow'rs, that their gay
When first the white-thorn blows;
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear.

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep

Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas?
For neither were ye playing on the steep,
Where your old Bards, the famous Druids, lie,
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,
Nor
yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream:
Ay me! I fondly dream!

45

50

55

6

37 thou art gone] Browne's Sheph. Pipe (ecl. 4). But he is gone.'

50 Where] Spenser's Astrophel, st. 22,

Ah, where were ye the while his shepheard peares, &c.

Warton.

55 wisard] On the wisard stream of Deva, consult Warton's note. 35

VOL. II.

Had ye been there, for what could that have done?
What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,
The Muse herself for her inchanting son,
Whom universal nature did lament,

When by the rout that made the hideous roar,
His goary visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?

Alas! what boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
Were it not better done as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)

To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears,

63 swift] Vir. Æn. 1. 321.

'Volucremque fuga prævertitur Hebrum.' Warton.

60

65

70

75

69 tangles] Benlowes's Theophila, p. 2.

"

'Entangled thoughts in the trammels of their ambush hair.' Greene's never too late, Entangle men in their tresses,' p. 58. Shirley's Doubtful Heir, p. 36. G. Peele's Works, ed. Dyce, 1829, i. p. 17. ii. p. 11.

70 Fame] "Quasi hic subesset ingens Cupido gloriæ quæ etiam sapientibus novissima exuitur." Strada Prelu. p. 161. ed. Ox.

74 blaze] So P. Reg. iii. 47.

'For what is glory but the blaze of fame.' Warton.

75 blind] Spenser's R. of Rome. st. xxiv. 'If the blind Furie which warres breedeth oft.' Warton.

And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise,
Phoebus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears;
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glist'ring foil

Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumour lies;
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,

Of so much fame in heav'n expect thy meed.
O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, 85
Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds!
That strain I heard was of a higher mood:

But now my oat proceeds,

And listens to the herald of the sea

That came in Neptune's plea;

He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds,
What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain?
And question'd every gust of rugged wings
That blows from off each beaked promontory:

They knew not of his story,

And sage Hippotades their answer brings,

77 touch'd] Virg. Ecl. vi. 3.

80

90

95

-Cynthius aurem
Vellit, et admonuit.

Peck.

79 foil] See Shakes. Henry IV. act i. s. 2. Warton.

85 fountain] Hom. Od. xiii. 408. Kohn Ageloton. Virg. Ecl. x. 4. En. iii. 694. Warton.

87 higher] 'I'll tune my reed unto a higher key.' Browne's Brit. Past. iv. 41.

93 question'd] And question'd each wind that came that way.' Beaumont's Psyche, C. xviii. st. 56.

96 Hippotades] olus, the son of Hippotas, Hom. Od. x. 2. Ap. Rh. iv. 819. Ovid. Ep. ex Ponto, iv. x. 15, and elsewhere. Warton.

That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd;
The air was calm, and on the level brine
Sleek Panope with all her sisters play'd.
It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge Like to that sanguine flow'r inscrib'd with woe. Ah! Who hath reft (quoth he) my dearest pledge? Last came, and last did go,

The pilot of the Galilean lake;

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain)
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake;

How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain, Enow of such as for their bellies' sake

'In either hand she held a massie key,
The one of beaten burnish'd gold,
That in her left of swarthy iron is.'

99 Panope] Alciphron Ep. lib. i. xix. 74. ed. Bergler.

103 reverend] 'One brought a reverend syre! Whiting's Albino and Bellama, p. 5.

6

109 Galilean] Who on the troubled Galilean Lake.'

110 Two]

Hen. More's Poems, p. 322.

110 keys] Fletcher's Purple Island, c. vii. 62.

100

Beaumont's Psyche, c. xvi. st. 140, and 141.

....

and Dante Paradiso, v. 57. "E della chiave.'

105

'Not in his lips, but hands two keys he bore,
Heaven's doors and Hell's to shut and open wide.'

110

[hold

121

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold?
Of other care they little reckoning make,
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest;
Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to
A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least
That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

125

115

115 climb] Crept into the fold.' Prose Works, ii. 381, ed. Symmons.

solebus

130

121 herdman's] Milton writes it 'herdsman,' in his MS. 'Herdman,' is used in our transl. of the Bible, Amos i. 1. Todd.

124 Grate] Virg. Ecl. iii. 26.

Stridenti miserum stipula dispendere carmen.' Newton. 125 sheep] See Past. Egl. by L. B. ver. 130, on Sir P. Sidney's death.

'Unhappie flock! that wander scattred now,

What marvell if through grief ye woxen leane,
Forsake your food, and hang your heads adowne!
For such a shepheard never shall you guide,
Whose parting hath of weale bereft you cleane.'

130 two-handed] Yet, maie the ax stande next the dore.' Sir T. Smith's Psalms. Restituta. iv. 189.