7

Shep. Our teeming ewes.

8 Shep.

And lusty mounting rams.

9 Shep. See where he walks, with Mira by his side. Cho. Sound, sound his praises loud, and with his hers divide.

Of PAN we sing, the best of hunters, Pan, That drives the hart to seek unused ways, Shep. And in the chase, more than Sylvanus can; Cho. Hear, O ye groves,, and, hills, resound his praise.

Of brightest MIRA do we raise our song, Sister of Pan, and glory of the spring; Nym. Who walks on earth, as May still went along. Cho. Rivers and valleys, echo what we sing.

Of Pan we sing, the chief of leaders, Pan, Cho. of Shep. That leads our flocks and us, and calls both forth

To better pastures than great Pales can: Hear, O ye groves, and, hills, resound his worth.

Of brightest Mira is our song; the grace Cho, of Nym. Of all that nature yet to life did

bring;

And were she lost, could best supply her place:

Rivers and valleys, echo what we sing.

1 Shep. Where'er they tread the enamour'd ground, The fairest flowers are always found:

2 Shep. As if the beauties of the year

Still waited on them where they were.

1 Shep. He is the father of our peace;

2 Shep. She to the crown hath brought increase. 1 Shep. We know no other power than his; Pan only our great shepherd is,

Cho.

Our great, our good. Where one's so drest

In truth of colours, both are best.

Rect. Cho. Haste, haste you hither, all you gentler swains,

That have a flock or herd upon these plains:
This is the great preserver of our bounds,
To whom you owe all duties of your grounds;
Your milks, your fells, your fleeces, and first lambs,
Your teeming ewes, as well as mounting rams.
Whose praises let's report unto the woods,
That they may take it echo'd by the floods.
Cho. 'Tis he, 'tis he; in singing he,

And hunting, Pan, exceedeth thee:
He gives all plenty and increase,
He is the author of our peace.

Rect. Cho. Where-e'er he goes, upon the ground
The better grass and flowers are found.
To sweeter pastures lead he can,
Than ever Pales could, or Pan:
He drives diseases from our folds,
The thief from spoil his presence holds:
Pan knows no other power than his,
This only the great shepherd is.

Cho. 'Tis he, 'tis he; &c.'

7 In the old copy, several love verses are ridiculously tacked to this chorus: they have already appeared, and the circumstance is only noted here, to mark the carelessness or ignorance of those who had the ransacking of the poet's study, after his death.

CVII.

ON THE KING'S BIRTH-DAY."

Rouse up thyself, my gentle Muse,
Though now our green conceits be gray,
And yet once more do not refuse
To take thy Phrygian harp, and play
In honour of this cheerful day:

Long may they both contend to prove,
That best of crowns is such a love.

Make first a song of joy and love,
Which chastly flames in royal eyes,
Then tune it to the spheres above,
When the benignest stars do rise,
And sweet conjunctions grace the skies.
Long may, &c.

To this let all good hearts resound,
Whilst diadems invest his head;

Long may he live, whose life doth bound
More than his laws, and better led
By high example, than by dread.
Long may, &c.

Long may he round about him see

His roses and his lilies blown:

Long may his only dear and he
Joy in ideas of their own,

And kingdom's hopes so timely sown.

Long may they both contend to prove,
That best of crowns is such a love.

:

This is probably Ben's last tribute of duty to his royal master it is not his worst; it was, perhaps, better as it came from the poet, for a stanza has apparently been lost, or confounded with the opening one.

CVIII.

TO MY LORD the King,

ON THE CHRISTENING

HIS SECOND SON JAMES."

That thou art lov'd of God, this work is done,
Great king, thy having of a second son:
And by thy blessing may thy people see
How much they are belov'd of God in thee.
Would they would understand it ! princes are
Great aids to empire, as they are great care
To pious parents, who would have their blood
Should take first seisin of the public good,
As hath thy James; cleans'd from original dross,
This day, by baptism, and his Saviour's cross.
Grow up, sweet babe, as blessed in thy name,
As in renewing thy good grandsire's fame:
Methought Great Britain in her sea, before
Sate safe enough, but now secured more.
At land she triumphs in the triple shade,
Her rose and lily inter-twined, have made.

Oceano secura meo, securior umbris.

9 James II. was born October 15, 1633, and the ceremony, here mentioned, took place in the succeeding month. In the Diary of Laud's Life, (fol. 1695, p. 49.) is the following memorandum by the Archbishop. " November 24, 1633. Sunday in the afternoon, I christened king Charles his second son, James duke of York, at St. James's."

CVIII.

AN ELEGY.

ON THE LADY JANE PAWLET,

MARCHIONESS OF WINTON.1

What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew,
Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew,
And beckoning woos me, from the fatal tree
To pluck a garland for herself or me?
I do obey you, beauty! for in death
You seem a fair one. O that you had breath
To give your shade a name! Stay, stay, I feel
A horror in me, all my blood is steel;

An Elegy on the lady Jane Pawlet, &c.] The folio reads lady Anne, though Jane, the true name, occurs, as Whalley observes, just below. This wretched copy is so full of errors, that the reader's attention would be too severely proved, if called to notice the tithe of them; in general, they have been corrected in silence.

This lady Jane was the first wife of that brave and loyal nobleman, John, fifth marquis of Winchester. He was one of the greatest sufferers by the Usurpation; bát he lived to see the restoration of the royal family, and died full of years and honour in 1674. The marchioness died in 1631, which is therefore the date of the Elegy.

2 What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,

Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?] Pope seems to have imitated the first lines of this elegy, in his poem to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady:

"What beck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade,

Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?" WHAL. Pope's imitation, however, falls far short of the picturesque and awful solemnity of the original.