Thus as their pleafing journey they purfued,
With chearful argument beguiling pain;
Ere long defcending from an hill they view'd
Beneath their eyes out-ftretch'd a fpacious plain,
That fruitful fhew'd, and apt for every grain,
For paftures, vines and flow'rs; while Nature fair
Sweet-fmiling all around with count'nance o fain
Seem'd to demand the tiller's art and care,
Her wildness to correct, her lavish waste repair.
Right good, I ween, and bounteous was the foil,
Aye wont in happy feason to repay
With tenfold ufury the peasant's toil.
But now 'twas ruin all, and wild decay;
Untill'd the garden and the fallow lay,
The sheep-fhorne down with barren P brakes o'ergrown
The whiles the merry peasants sport and play,
All as the publick evil were unknown,
Or every publick care from every breast was flown.
Aftonifh'd at a fcene at once fo fair
And fo deform'd; with wonder and delight
At man's neglect, and Nature's bounty rare,
In ftudious thought a-while the Fairy Knight,
Bent on that goodly a lond his eager fight:
Then forward rush'd, impatient to descry
What towns and castles there-in were b empight;
For towns him feem'd, and castles he did spy,
As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.
Nor long way had they travell'd, ere they came
To a wide stream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding courfe did frame.
Black was the wave and fordid, cover'd o'er
With angry foam, and ftain'd with infants' gore.
Thereto along th' unlovely margin stood
A birchen grove that waving from the shore,
Aye caft upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoifon'd all the flood.
XV.
Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not diftant far a forked mountain rose;
In outward form presenting to the fight
That fam'd Parnafian hill, on whose fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sifters wont repose ;
Lift'ning to sweet Caftalia's founding stream,
Which through the plains of Cirrha murm'ring flows, But This to That compar'd mote juftly seem
Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's esteem.
For this nor founded deep, nor fpredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compil'd with studious pain,
Was erft up-thrown; if fo it mote attain,
Like that poetick mountain, to bed hight
The noble feat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously was e dight.
XVII.
In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos'd,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With fymmetry fo regular difpos'd,
That plot to plot ftill answer'd, shade to shade;
Each correfpondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of ftatues, vafes, fpouting founts, that play'd
Through fhells of Tritons their ascending show'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.
There likewife mote be seen on every fide
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And shapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhorne, and with prepofterous skill
Erft, formerly. Hight, called, named. e Dight, dreft.
To various beafts and birds of fundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monftrous fize;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain f emprize,
Despight of thund'ring Jove, to fcale the steepy skies.
XIX.
Alfe other wonders of the sportive shears
Fair Nature mif-adorning there were found;
Globes, fpiral columns, pyramids and piers
With sprouting urns and budding ftatues crown'd;
And horizontal dials on the ground
In living box by cunning artifts trac'd;
And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,
But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast,
All were their bellying fails out-fpread to every blast.
XX.
O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows
With terraffes on terraffes up-thrown ;
And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And vifto's broad, the velvet flopes adown
The ever-verdant trees of Daphne fhone.
But aliens to the clime, and brought of old
From Latian plains, and Grecian Helicon,
They shrunk and languifh'd in a foreign mold,
By changeful fummers ftarv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.
f Emprize, enterprize, attempt.
All, ufed frequently by the old English poets for all-though
On golden thrones of antique form reclin'd,
In mimick majesty Nine Virgins fate,
In features various, as unlike in mind:
Alfe boafted they themselves of heav'nly kind,
And to the fweet Parnafian Nymphs allied;
Thence round their brows the Delphick bay they twin'd ̧
And matching with high names their apish pride,
O'er every learned School aye claim'd they to prefide.
XXII.
In antique garbs, for modern they disdain'd,
By Greek and Roman artists h whilom made,
Of various woofs, and variously distain'd
With tints of ev'ry hue, were they array'd;
And here and there ambitiously display'd
A purple fhred of fome rich robe, prepared
Erft by the Mufes or th' Aonian Maid,
To deck great Tullius or the Mantuan Bard;
Which o'er each motley veft with uncouth splendor glared.
XXIII.
And well their outward vesture did express
The bent and habit of their inward mind,
Affecting Wisdom's antiquated dress,
And usages by Time cast far behind.
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