If gentle flumber on thy temples creep,
(But, naughty man, thou doft not mean to fleep)
Betake thee to thy bed, thou drowzy drone,
Sleep by thyfelf, and leave thy bride alone:
Go, leave her with her maiden mates to play,
At sports more harmless till the break of day:
Give us this evening; thou haft morn and night,
And all the year before thee, for delight.
O happy youth! to thee, among the crowd,
Of rival princes, Cupid fneez'd aloud;
And every lucky omen fent before,
To meet thee landing on the Spartan fhore.
Of all our heroes thou canft boast alone,
That Jove, whene'er he thunders, calls thee fon:
Betwixt two sheets thou fhalt enjoy her bare,
With whom no Grecian virgin can compare;
So foft, fo fweet, fo balmy, and fo fair.
A boy, like thee, would make a kingly line:
But oh, a girl like her must be divine.
Her equals, we, in years, but not in face,
Twelvefcore viragoes of the Spartan race,
While naked to Eurota's banks we bend,
And there in manly exercise contend,
When the appears, are all eclips'd and loft,
And hide the beauties that we made our boast.
So, when the night and winter disappear,
The purple morning, rifing with the year,
Salutes the fpring, as her celeftial eyes
Adorn the world, and brighten all the skies:
VOL. XXI,
So beauteous Helen fhines among the reft,
Tall, flender, ftraight, with all the Graces bleft.
As pines the mountains, or as fields the corn,
Or as Theffalian fteeds the race adorn;
So rofy-colour'd Helen is the pride
Of Lacedæmon, and of Greece befide.
Like her no nymph can willing ofiers bend
In basket-works, which painted ftreaks commend:
With Pallas in the loom she may contend.
But none, ah! none can animate the lyre,
And the mute ftrings with vocal fouls infpire;
Whether the learn'd Minerva be her theme,
Or chafte Diana bathing in the stream:
None can record their heavenly praise so well
As Helen, in whose eyes ten thousand Cupids dwell,
O fair, O graceful! yet with maids inroll❜d,
But whom to-morrow's fun a matron shall behold!
Yet ere to-morrow's fun fhall fhew his head,
The dewy paths of meadows we will tread,
For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy head.
Where all shall weep and wish for thy return,
As bleating lambs their absent mother mourn.
Our nobleft maids fhall to thy name bequeath
The boughs of Lotos, form'd into a wreath.
This monument, thy maiden beauty's due,
High on a plane-tree fhall be hung to view:
On the smooth rind the passenger shall fee
Thy name engrav'd, and worship Helen's tree:
Balm, from a filver-box diftill'd around,
Shall all bedew the roots, and fcent the facred ground.
The balm, 'tis true, can aged plants prolong,
But Helen's name will keep it ever young.
Hail bride, hail bridegroom, fon-in-law to Jove!
With fruitful joys Latona bless your love;
Let Venus furnish you with full defires,
Add vigour to your wills, and fuel to your fires:
Almighty Jove augment your wealthy store,
Give much to you, and to his grandfons more.
From generous loins a generous race will spring,
Each girl, like her, a queen; each boy, like you, a king.
Now fleep, if fleep you can; but while you reft,
Sleep clofe, with folded arms, and breaft to breaft:
Rife in the morn; but oh! before you rise,
Forget not to perform your morning facrifice.
We will be with you ere the crowing cock
Salutes the light, and struts before his feather'd flock.
Hymen, oh Hymen, to thy triumphs run,
And view the mighty spoils thou haft in battle won.
FROM THE 23d IDYLLIUM OF THEOCRITUS.
WITH inaufpicious love, a wretched swain
Purfued the faireft nymph of all the plain;
Fairest indeed, but prouder far than fair,
She plung'd him hopeless in a deep despair:
Her heavenly form too haughtily fhe priz'd,
His perfon hated, and his gifts defpis'd;
Nor knew the force of Cupid's cruel darts,
Nor fear'd his awful power on human hearts;
But either from her hopeless lover fled,
Or with difdainful glances fhot him dead.
No kifs, no look, to chear the drooping boy;
No word fhe spoke, fhe fcorn'd ev'n to deny.
But, as a hunted panther cafts about
Her glaring eyes and pricks her liftening ears to fcont,
So fhe, to fhun his toils, her cares employ'd,
And fiercely in her favage freedom joy'd.
Her mouth fhe writh'd, her forehead taught to frown,
Her eyes to fparkle fires to love unknown:
Her fallow cheeks her envious mind did fhew,
And every feature spoke aloud the curstness of a fhrew.
Yet could not he his obvious fate escape:
His love ftill drefs'd her in a pleafing fhape;
And every fallen frown, and bitter fcorn,
But fann'd the fuel that too fast did burn.
Long time, unequal to his mighty pain,
He ftrove to curb it, but he ftrove in vain:
At laft his woes broke out, and begg❜d relief
With tears, the dumb petitioners of grief:
With tears fo tender as adorn'd his love,
And any heart, but only hers, would move.
Trembling before her bolted doors he ftood,
And there pour'd out th' unprofitable flood:
Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look;
Then, kiffing firft the threshold, thus he spoke:
Ah nymph, more cruel than of human race!
Thy tigrefs heart belies thy angel face:
Too well thou fhew'dft thy pedigree from ftone:
Thy granddame's was the first by Pyrrha thrown:
Unworthy thou to be fo long defir'd;
But fo my love, and fo my fate requir'd.
I beg not now (for 'tis in vain) to live;
But take this gift, the last that I can give.
This friendly cord fhall foon decide the ftrife
Betwixt my lingering love and loathfome life:
This moment puts an end to all my pain;
I shall no more defpair, nor thou disdain.
Farewell, ungrateful and unkind! I go
Condemn'd by thee to those fad fhades below.
I go th' extremeft remedy to prove,
To drink oblivion, and to drench my
There happily to lose my long defires:
But ah! what draught fo deep to quench my fires?
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