amufement; and that with Milton and Gray, whom he resembled in various other points, he fhares alfo this moral commendation, that his laurels, like theirs, are untainted by impurity, and that he has uniformly written (to use the words of another unfullied bards)

Verse that a Virgin without blush may read.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Εις τον λειμώνα καθισας,
Εδρεπεν ἕτερον εφ ̓ ἑτερῳ
Αιρόμενος αγρευμ' ανθεων
Αδομενα ψυχα,

Grotii Excerpta ex Tragicis, p. 463. et Valckenarii
Diatriben in Euripidis relliq. p. 212.

YOL. I.

THE

TRIUMPH OF ISIS,

OCCASIONED BY

ISIS AN ELEGY.

(Written in 1749, the Author's 21ft year.)

Quid mibi nefcio quam, proprio cum TYBRIDE, Romam
Semper in ore geris? Referunt fi vera parentes,

Hanc urbem infano nullus qui marte petivit,
Lætatus violaffe redit. Nec numina fedem
Deflituunt.

CLAUDIAN.

ON clofing flowers when genial gales diffuse

The fragrant tribute of refreshing dews;
When chants the milk-maid at her balmy pail,
And weary reapers whistle o'er the vale;

The Triumph of Ifis &c.] For an account of the occafion, on which this Poem was written, and of the circumftances connected with it, fee the memoirs prefixed to this edition. There are feveral variations in the poem as it now stands, and as it first appeared in 4to. and in the Union but they are in general too trifling to require any particular notice.

V. 3. When chants the milk-maid at her balmy pail,

And weary reapers whistle o'er the vale ;]

See nearly the fame circumstances in a morning landscape, L'Allegro, ver. 63.

While the plowman near at hand

Wbilles o'er the furrow'd land,

And the milk-maid fingerb blithe.

6

Charm'd by the murmurs of the quivering shade,
O'er Isis' willow-fringed banks I ftray'd:
And calmly musing through the twilight way,
In pensive mood I fram'd the Doric lay.
When lo! from opening clouds a golden gleam
Pour'd fudden fplendors o'er the shadowy stream;
And from the wave arose it's guardian queen, 11
Known by her sweeping stole of gloffy green;
While in the coral crown, that bound her brow,
Was wove the Delphic laurel's verdant bough.

V. 6. O'er Isis'willow-fringed banks] For inftances of "fringed" ufed in this manner, both fimply and in compofition, see Warton's note on Comus, ver. 890.

By the rushy-fringed bank

Where grows the willow and the ofier dank,

The word from its frequent recurrence appears a favourite with our poet.

V. 12. Her fweeping ftole] Correfponding with Homer's ixxcomenλes (II. z. v. 442.) as "filver-flipper'd" below, v. 16. is Ελκεσιπεπλες altered from agyupowejα (11. A. 538.) Milton ufes "tinfel-flipper'd," Comus, 877. W. Browne, in Britannia's Paftorals, had retained with greater judgment "filver footed," (Book ii. Song 1. and in other places) which had been introduced into the language by Chapman in his tranflation of Homer.

V. 13. While in the coral crown, that bound her brow] In Drayton's Mufes Elyfium, a fhepherd thus compliments his mistress: With coral I will have thee crown'd, Whofe branches intricately wound

Shall girt thy temples every way.

Nymphal. 2. vol. iv. p. 1460. edit. 1753.

In the Ode for Mufic, ver. 52. Ifis has "coral-crowned tresses." Cherwell in Complaint of Cherwell, v. 15. wears a "coral-cinctur'd ftole."