And while the maple dish is mine,
The beechen cup, unftain'd with wine;
I fcorn the gay licentious croud,
Nor heed the toys that deck the proud.

II.

Within my
The blackbird pipes in artlefs trill;
Faft by my couch, congenial guest,
The wren has wove her moffy neft;
From busy scenes, and brighter skies,
To lurk with innocence, fhe flies;
Here hopes in fafe repose to dwell,
Nor aught fufpects the fylvan cell.

limits lone and still

III.

At morn I take my cuftom'd round,
To mark how buds yon fhrubby mound;

V. 5. And while the maple dish is mine,] Comus, ver. 390:

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

And Milton's fixth Elegy, ver. 61:

Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,
Sobriaque e puro pocula fonte bibat.

V. 17. At morn I take my cuftom'd round,] Mr. Headley quotes the following from Milton's Arcades, where the Genius of the wood is introduced defcribing his daily occupation:

When evening gray doth rife, I fetch my round

Over the mount and all this hallow'd ground;

And

every opening primrose count,

That trimly paints my blooming mount :
Or o'er the sculptures, quaint and rude,
That grace my gloomy folitude,

I teach in winding wreaths to ftray
Fantastic ivy's gadding spray.

20

IV.

At eve,

within

yon

ftudious nook,

I

ope my brass-emboffed book,

Pourtray'd with many a holy deed

Of

martyrs, crown'd with heavenly meed: Then, as my taper waxes dim,

Chant, ere I fleep, my measur'd hymn;

And early, ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the flumb'ring leaves, or taffell'd horn
Shakes the high thicket, hafte I all about,
Number my ranks, and vifit every sprout,

With puillant words, and murmurs made to blefs, &c. A fimilar employment is given to our first parents, during their ftate of innocence:

On to their morning's rural work they hafte

Among sweet dews and flowers, &c. Par. Loft, v. 211 For the last part of this stanza fee, in particular, ix. 215:

whether to wind

The woodbine round this arbor, or direct

The clafping ivy where to climb.

V. 24. Fantastic ivy's gadding spray.] The epithet "gadding," as Mr. Headley notices, is applied by Milton in Lycidas, ver. 40. to the vine. Mafon in his English Garden has ivy's "gadding tendrils." B. ii. ver. 134.

And, at the close, the gleams behold
Of parting wings bedropt with gold.

V. 31. the gleams behold

Of parting wings-]

We have a similar idea in those exquifitely beautiful lines of Pope; Sill as the fea ere winds were taught to blow,

Or moving spirit bade the waters flow,

Soft as the flumbers of a faint forgiven,

And mild as op'ning gleams of promis'd heaven.

Eloif. ver. 253. He had before spoken of the happiness of the blameless Vestal, for

whom

-wings of Seraphs fhed divine perfumes. Ver. 218. This resemblance I fince find noticed by Dr. Warton. Pope's Works, ii. 40. By the way, the above four lines from Pope were perhaps fuggefted, as Headley has obferved, by Davenant :

Smooth, as the face of waters first appear'd,

Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;

Kind as the willing faints, and calmer farre,
Than in their fleeps forgiven hermits are.

And again :

Calm as forgiven faints at their last hour.

(See Headley's Beauties of Ancient Eng. Poetry, vol. ii p.75 and 158.) Pope has skill enough to difcern and to adapt to his own use the beauties of his predeceffors, but not enough ingenuousness to acknowledge his obligations to them.

V. 32.

wings bedropt with gold.] The fame beautiful image

occurs in Milton, Par. Loft, vii. 406:

Show to the fun their wav'd coats, dropt with gold.

`And in Pope's Windfor Foreft, ver. 144:

The yellow carp in fcales, bedropt with gold.

Virgil in a manner not altogether diffimilar describes the bees, Ardentes auro, et paribus lita corpora guttis. Georg. iv. 99. The following defcription of Zetes and Calais from Apollonius Rhodius, a poet not indeed in the first rank, but certainly worthy

V.

While fuch pure joys my blifs create,
Who but would smile at guilty state?
Who but would with his holy lot
In calm Oblivion's humble grot?
Who but would caft his pomp away,
To take my staff, and amice gray ;
And to the world's tumultuous ftage
Prefer the blameless hermitage?

of more regard than is ufually paid him, is full of picturesque

circumstances:

Τω μεν

επι ακροτατοισι ποδών έκατερθεν ερεμνας

Σειον αειρομένω πτερυγας (μεγα θαμβος ιδέσθαι)

ΧΡΥΣΕΙΑΙΣ ΦΟΛΙΔΕΣΣΙ ΔΙΑΥΓΕΑΣ αμφι δε νωτοις
Κραατος εξ ύπατοιο και αυχένος EV Sa

και

Κυανεαι δονεοντο μετα πνοιῃσιν εθείραι. Argon. i. 219.

Virgil did not confider Apollonius unworthy of his attention, and, fometimes, clofe imitation.

V. 38.

amice gray ;] Gray clothing, from the Latin verb amicio," to clothe. In Paradife Regained, iv. 427 :

-morning fair

Came forth with pilgrim fteps in amice gray.

The amice was one of the ancient ecclefiaftical habits. See Du Frefne Gloff. Med. Lat. in verb. amicus.

INSCRIBED

ON A

BEAUTIFUL GROTTO NEAR THE WATER.

(Published in 1753-)

I.

THE Graces fought in yonder stream
To cool the fervid day,
When Love's malicious godhead came,
And ftole their robes away.

II.

Proud of the theft, the little god

Their robes bade DELIA wear;

While they, afham'd to stir abroad,
Remain all naked here.

Inferibed, &c.] This infeription is founded on the following in the Autbologia:

De balneo in Smyrna :

Ενθαδε λεσαμένων Χαρίτων ποτε, Θέσκελα πεπλα

Βαιος Έρως έκλεψε και ᾤχετο" τας δ' ελιπ' αυτού

Γυμνας, αιδομένας θύρεων εκτοσθε φανηναι.

IV. xix. 11.

The idea is not uncommon with the Greek epigrammatifts; fee particularly Antbol. IV. xv. 5. and xix. 18.