Let Fame aloud to future ages tell,
None e'er commanded, none obey'd fo well;
While this high courage, this undaunted mind,
So loyal, fo fubmiffively refign'd,
Proclaim that fuch a hero never fprings,
But from the uncorrupted blood of kings.
On a young Lady who fung finely, and was afraid of a Cold.
WINTER, thy cruelty extend,
Till fatal tempests swell the sea.
In vain let finking pilots pray;
Beneath thy yoke let Nature bend,
Let piercing froft, and lafting fnow,
Through woods and fields deftruction fow!
Yet we unmov'd will fit and fmile,
While you these leffer ills create,
These we can bear; but, gentle Fate,
And thou, bleft Genius of our ifle,
From Winter's rage defend her voice,
At which the liftening Gods rejoice.
May that celestial sound each day
With extafy transport our souls,
Whilft all our paffions it controls,
And kindly drives our cares away;
Let no ungentle cold deftroy,
All tafte we have of heavenly joy!
Two young fhepherds, Chromis and Mnafylus, having been often promised a song by Silenus, chance to catch him afleep in this Eclogue; where they bind him hand and foot, and then claim his promife. Silenus, finding they would be put off no longer, begins his fong, in which he defcribes the formation of the univerfe, and the original of animals, according to the Epicurean philosophy; and then runs through the most surprising transformations which have happened in Nature fince her birth. This Eclogue was defigned as a compliment to Syro the Epicurean, who instructed Virgil and Varus in the principles of that philofophy. Silenus acts as tutor, Chromis and Mnafylus as the two pupils.
First of Romans stoop'd to rural strains,
Nor blufh'd to dwell among Sicilian fwains,
When my
Thalia rais'd her bolder voice,
And kings and battles were her lofty choice,
Phoebus did kindly humbler thoughts infuse,
And with this whisper check th' afpiring Muse
A fhepherd, Tityrus, his flocks fhould feed,
And choose a fubject fuited to his reed.
Thus I (while each ambitious pen prepares
To write thy praises, Varus, and thy wars)
My paftoral tribute in low numbers pay,
And though I once prefum'd, I only now obey.
But yet (if any with indulgent eyes
Can look on this, and such a trifle prize)
Thee only, Varus, our glad fwains shall fing,
And every grove and every echo ring.
Phoebus delights in Varus' favourite name,
And none who under that protection came
Was ever ill receiv'd, or unfecure of fame.
Proceed my Mufe.
Young Chromis and Mnafylus chanc'd to stray
Where (fleeping in a cave) Silenus lay,
Whofe conftant cups fly fuming to his brain,
And always boil in each extended vein;
His trufty flaggon, full of potent juice,
Was hanging by, worn thin with age and ufe;
Drop'd from his head, a wreath lay on the ground;
In hafte they feiz'd him, and in hafte they bound
Eager, for both had been deluded long
With fruitless hope of his instructive fong :
But while with confcious fear they doubtful stood,
Ægle, the fairest Naïs of the flood,
With a vermilion dye his temples stain’d.
Waking, he fmil'd, and muft I then be chain'd?
Loofe me, he cry'd; 'twas boldly done, to find
And view a God, but 'tis too bold to bind.
The promis'd verfe no longer I'll delay
(She fhall be fatisfy'd another way).
With that he rais'd his tuneful voice aloud,
The knotty oaks their listening branches bow'd,
And favage beasts and Sylvan Gods did crowd;
For lo he fung the world's ftupendous birth,
How scatter'd feeds of fea, and air, and earth,
And purer fire, through universal night
And empty space, did fruitfully unite;
From whence th' innumerable race of things,
By circular fucceffive order springs.
By what degrees this earth's compacted sphere Was harden'd, woods and rocks and towns to bear; How finking waters (the firm land to drain) Fill'd the capacious deep, and form'd the main, While from above, adorn'd with radiant light, A new-born fun furpriz'd the dazzled fight; How vapours turn'd to clouds obfcure the sky, And clouds diffolv'd the thirsty ground supply; How the firft foreft rais'd its fhady head,
Till when, few wandering beafts on unknown mountains fed.
Then Pyrrha's ftony race rose from the ground,
Old Saturn reign'd with golden plenty crown'd,
And bold Prometheus (whofe untam'd defire
Rival'd the fun with his own heavenly fire)
Now doom'd the Scythian vulture's endless prey,
Severely pays for animating clay.
He nam'd the nymph (for who but Gods could tell :)
Into whofe arms the lovely Hylas fell;
Alcides wept in vain for Hylas loft,
Hylas in vain refounds through all the coaft.
He with compaffion told Pafiphaë's fault,
Ah! wretched queen! whence came that guilty thought? ¦
The maids of Argos, who with frantic cries
And imitated lowings fill'd the skies,
(Though metamorphos'd in their wild conceit)
Did never burn with fuch unnatural heat.
Ah! wretched queen! while you on mountains ftray,
He on foft flowers his fnowy fide does lay;
Or feeks in herds a more proportion'd love :
Surround, my nymphs, the cries, furround the grove;
Perhaps fome footsteps printed in the clay,
Will to my love direct your wandering way;
Perhaps, while thus in fearch of him I`roam,
My happier rivals have intic'd him home.
He fung how Atalanta was betray'd
By thofe Hefperian baits her lover laid,
And the fad fifters who to trees were turn'd,
While with the world th' ambitious brother burn'd.
All he defcrib'd was prefent to their eyes,
And as he rais'd his verfe, the poplars feem'd to rise.
He taught which Mufe did by Apollo's will
Guide wandering Gallus to th' Aonian hill :
(Which place the God for folemn meetings chofe)
With deep refpect the learned fenate rose,
And Linus thus (deputed by the reft)
The hero's welcome, and their thanks, exprefs'd:
This harp of old to Hefiod did belong,
To this, the Mufes' gift, join thy harmonious fong;
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