Eternal glory Him therefore betide!

Let every generous youth his praife proclaim!

Who, wand'ring through the world's rude foreft wide, By him hath been y-taught his course to frame

To Virtue's fweet abodes, and heav'n-afpiring Fame!

IX.

For this the FAIRY KNIGHT with anxious thought,
And fond paternal care his counsel pray'd;
And him of gentleft courtesy befought

His guidance to vouchfafe and friendly aid;
The while his tender offspring he convey'd,
Through devious paths to that secure retreat;
Where fage PÆDIA, with each tuneful maid,
On a wide mount had fix'd her rural feat,
'Mid flow'ry gardens plac'd, untrod by vulgar feet.
X.

And now forth-pacing with his blooming heir,
And that fame virtuous Palmer them to guide;
Arm'd all to point, and on a courfer fair
Y-mounted high, in military pride,

His little train before he flow did ride.

Him eke behind a gentle Squire enfues,

With his young lord aye marching fide by side, His counsellour and guard, in goodly m thews, Who well had been brought up, and nurs'd by every Mufe.

1 Enfues, follows.

m Thews, manners.

XI. Thus

XI.

Thus as their pleafing journey they pursued,
With chearful argument beguiling pain;
Ere long defcending from an hill they view'd
Beneath their eyes out-stretch'd a spacious plain,
That fruitful fhew'd, and apt for every grain,
For pastures, vines and flow'rs; while Nature fair
Sweet-fmiling all around with count'nance o fain
Seem'd to demand the tiller's art and care,
Her wildness to correct, her lavish waste repair.

XII.

Right good, I ween, and bounteous was the foil,
Aye wont in happy season to repay

With tenfold ufury the peasant's toil.
But now 'twas ruin all, and wild decay;

Untill'd the garden and the fallow lay,

The sheep-fhorne down with barren p brakes o'ergrown; The whiles the merry peasants sport and play,

All as the publick evil were unknown,

Or every publick care from every breast was flown.
XIII.

Aftonish'd at a scene at once fo fair

And fo deform'd; with wonder and delight
At man's neglect, and Nature's bounty rare,
In ftudious thought a-while the Fairy Knight,

。 Fain, earnest, eager.

P Brakes, briars.

Bent

Bent on that goodly a lond his eager fight :
Then forward rush'd, impatient to descry
What towns and castles there-in were b empight;
For towns him feem'd, and caftles he did spy,

As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.

Nor long way had they travell'd, ere they came
To a wide ftream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding courfe did frame.
Black was the wave and fordid, cover'd o'er
With angry foam, and ftain'd with infants' gore.
Thereto along th' unlovely margin stood

A birchen grove that waving from the shore,
Aye caft upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoifon'd all the flood.
XV.

Right in the centre of the vale empight,

Not distant far a forked mountain rose ;

In outward form presenting to the fight

That fam'd Parnaffian hill, on whose fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sifters wont repofe ;

Lift'ning to sweet Caftalia's founding ftream,

Which through the plains of Cirrha murm'ring flows. But This to That compar'd mote justly feem

Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's esteem.

a Lond, land.

b Empight, placed.

VOL. IV.

B

XVI. For

XVI.

For this nor founded deep, nor fpredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compil'd with ftudious pain,
Was erft up-thrown; if so it mote attain,
Like that poetick mountain, to be d hight
The noble feat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously was dight.
XVII.

In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos'd,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With symmetry fo regular dispos'd,

That plot to plot still answer'd, shade to shade;
Each correspondent twain alike array'd

With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of ftatues, vafes, fpouting founts, that play'd
Through fhells of Tritons their afcending fhow'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.

There likewife mote be seen on every fide
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And shapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhorne, and with prepofterous skill

Erft, formerly. Hight, called, named. e Dight, dreft.

To

To various beafts and birds of fundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monftrous fize;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain f emprize,
Defpight of thund'ring Jove, to scale the stéepy skies.
XIX.

Alfe other wonders of the sportive fhears
Fair Nature mif-adorning there were found;
Globes, fpiral columns, pyramids and piers
With sprouting urns and budding statues crown'd;
And horizontal dials on the ground

In living box by cunning artists trac'd;

And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,
But by their roots there ever anchor'd fäft,

* All were their bellying fails out-fpread to every blast. XX.

O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows
With terraffes on terraffes up-thrown;
And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And vifto's broad, the velvet flopes adown-
The ever-verdant trees of Daphne shone.
But aliens to the clime, and brought of old
From Latian plains, and Grecian Helicon,

They shrunk and languifh'd in a foreign mold,
By changeful fummers starv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.

f Emprize, enterprize, attempt.

All; ufed frequently by the old English poets for all-though.

B 2

XXI. Amid