Part 11 (1/2)

What frowns confuse his picture of the skies! 180

At first the creature Man was framed alone, Lord of himself, and all the world his own.

For him the Nymphs in green forsook the woods, For him the Nymphs in blue forsook the floods; In vain the Satyrs rage, the Tritons rave; They bore him heroes in the secret cave.

No care destroy'd, no sick disorder prey'd, No bending age his sprightly form decay'd, No wars were known, no females heard to rage, And poets tell us, 'twas a golden age. 190

When woman came, those ills the box confined Burst furious out, and poison'd all the wind,

From point to point, from pole to pole they flew, Spread as they went, and in the progress grew: The Nymphs, regretting, left the mortal race, And, altering Nature, wore a sickly face: New terms of folly rose, new states of care; New plagues to suffer, and to please, the fair!

The days of whining, and of wild intrigues, Commenced, or finish'd, with the breach of leagues; 200 The mean designs of well-dissembled love; The sordid matches never join'd above; Abroad, the labour, and at home the noise, (Man's double sufferings for domestic joys) The curse of jealousy; expense, and strife; Divorce, the public brand of shameful life; The rival's sword; the qualm that takes the fair; Disdain for pa.s.sion, pa.s.sion in despair-- These, and a thousand yet unnamed, we find; Ah, fear the thousand yet unnamed behind! 210

Thus on Parna.s.sus tuneful Hesiod sung, The mountain echoed, and the valley rung, The sacred groves a fix'd attention show, The crystal Helicon forbore to flow, The sky grew bright, and (if his verse be true) The Muses came to give the laurel too.

But what avail'd the verdant prize of wit, If Love swore vengeance for the tales he writ?

Ye fair offended, hear your friend relate What heavy judgment proved the writer's fate, 220 Though when it happen'd, no relation clears; 'Tis thought in five, or five and twenty years.

Where, dark and silent, with a twisted shade The neighbouring woods a native arbour made, There oft a tender pair for amorous play Retiring, toy'd the ravish'd hours away; A Locrian youth, the gentle Troilus he, A fair Milesian, kind Evanthe she: But swelling Nature, in a fatal hour, Betray'd the secrets of the conscious bower; 230 The dire disgrace her brothers count their own, And track her steps, to make its author known.

It chanced one evening, ('twas the lover's day) Conceal'd in brakes the jealous kindred lay; When Hesiod, wandering, mused along the plain, And fix'd his seat where Love had fix'd the scene: A strong suspicion straight possess'd their mind, (For poets ever were a gentle kind.) But when Evanthe near the pa.s.sage stood, Flung back a doubtful look, and shot the wood, 240 'Now take (at once they cry) thy due reward!'

And, urged with erring rage, a.s.sault the bard.

His corpse the sea received. The dolphins bore ('Twas all the G.o.ds would do) the corpse to sh.o.r.e.

Methinks I view the dead with pitying eyes, And see the dreams of ancient wisdom rise; I see the Muses round the body cry, But hear a Cupid loudly laughing by; He wheels his arrow with insulting hand, And thus inscribes the moral on the sand: 250 'Here Hesiod lies: ye future bards beware How far your moral tales incense the fair: Unloved, unloving, 'twas his fate to bleed; Without his quiver Cupid caused the deed: He judged this turn of malice justly due, And Hesiod died for joys he never knew.'

SONG.

1 When thy beauty appears, In its graces and airs, All bright as an angel new dropt from the sky; At distance I gaze, and am awed by my fears, So strangely you dazzle my eye!

2 But when without art, Your kind thoughts you impart, When your love runs in blushes through every vein; When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart, Then I know you're a woman again.

3 There's a pa.s.sion and pride In our s.e.x (she replied), And thus (might I gratify both) I would do: Still an angel appear to each lover beside, But still be a woman to you.

SONG.

1 Thyrsis, a young and amorous swain, Saw two, the beauties of the plain; Who both his heart subdue: Gay Caelia's eyes were dazzling fair, Sabina's easy shape and air With softer magic drew.

2 He haunts the stream, he haunts the grove, Lives in a fond romance of love, And seems for each to die; Till each, a little spiteful grown, Sabina Caelia's shape ran down, And she Sabina's eye.

3 Their envy made the shepherd find Those eyes, which love could only blind; So set the lover free: No more he haunts the grove or stream, Or with a true-love knot and name Engraves a wounded tree.

4 Ah, Caelia! (sly Sabina cried) Though neither love, we're both denied; Now, to support the s.e.x's pride, Let either fix the dart.

Poor girl! (says Caelia) say no more; For should the swain but one adore, That spite which broke his chains before, Would break the other's heart.