Nocturnis te ego somniis

Te

Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem sequor per gramina Martii

Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles.

And swiftly shoot along the Mall,
Or softly glide by the canal,

Now shown by Cynthia's silver ray,

And now on rolling waters snatch'd away.

55

NE fortè credas interitura, quæ
Longè sonantem`natus ad Aufidum
Non antè vulgatas per artes

Verba loquor socianda chordis.
Non, si priores Mæonius tenet
Sedes Homerus, Pindaricæ latent,
Ceæque, et Alcæi minaces,
Stesichorique graves Camœnæ :
Nec, si quid olim lusit Anacreon,
Delevit ætas: spirat adhuc amor,
Vivuntque commissi calores
Æoliæ fidibus puellæ.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi; sed omnes illacrymabiles
Urgentur ignotique longâ

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

NOTES.

Ver. 8. Original--Stesichorique graves] The loss of the works of no two writers is perhaps more to be lamented than of Stesichorus and Menander. The former is thus characterized by Quintilian, 1. 10. "Stesichorus quam sit ingenio validus, materiæ quoque ostendunt, maxima bella et clarissimos duces canentem, et epici carminis onera Lyra sustinentem. Reddit enim personis in agendo simul loquendoque debitam dignitatem; ac si tenuisset modum, videtur æmulari proximus Homerum potuisse." Of the fragments of Menander, see a paper in the Adventurer, vol. iv. Warton.

PART OF THE NINTH ODE OF THE FOURTH

BOOK.

A FRAGMENT.

LEST you should think that verse shall die,
Which sounds the silver Thames along,

Taught on the wings of truth to fly
Above the reach of vulgar song;

Though daring Milton sits sublime,
In Spenser native Muses play;
Nor yet shall Waller yield to time,
Nor pensive Cowley's moral lay-

Sages and chiefs long since had birth

5

Ere Cæsar was, or Newton named ;

10

Those raised new empires o'er the earth,

And these, new heavens and systems framed.

Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride!
They had no poet, and they died.

In vain they schemed, in vain they bled!
They had no poet, and are dead.

NOTES.

15

Ver. 6. In Spenser] How much this author was his favourite from his early to his latter years, will appear from what he said to Mr. Spence, from whose Anecdotes I transcribe literally this passage: "There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the Fairy Queen, when I was about twelve, with a vast deal of delight; and I think, it gave me as much when I read it over about a year or two ago." Warton.

ON RECEIVING FROM

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY,

A STANDISH AND TWO PENS.

YES, I beheld the Athenian queen
Descend in all her sober charms;
And take (she said, and smiled serene)
Take at this hand celestial arms:

"Secure the radiant weapons wield; This golden lance shall guard desert,

And if a vice dares keep the field,

This steel shall stab it to the heart."

NOTES.

The Lady Frances Shirley] A lady whose great merit Mr. Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating. Warburton.

Ver. 1. Yes, I beheld, &c.] To enter into the spirit of this address, it is necessary to premise, that the Poet was threatened with a prosecution in the House of Lords, for the two foregoing Poems, the Epilogue to the Satires. On which, with great resentment against his enemies, for not being willing to distinguish be

tween

Grave epistles bringing vice to light,

and licentious libels, he began a third Dialogue, more severe and sublime than the first and second; which being no secret, matters were soon compromised. His enemies agreed to drop the cution, and he promised to leave the third Dialogue unfinished

prose

and