a Now lofty Calidon in Ruins lies; All Ages, all Degrees unfluice their Eyes; And Heav'n and Earth resound with Murmurs, Groans, and Cries. Matrons and Maidens beat their Breasts, and tear Their Habits, and root up their scatter'd Hair : The wretched Father, Father now no more; in With Sorrow sunk, lies prostrate on the Floor, Deforms his hoary Locks with Dust obscene, And curfes Age, and loaths a Life prolong'd with [Pain. By Steel her stubborn Soul his Mother freed, And punish'd on her felf her impious Deed. Had I a hundred Tongues, a Wit so large As could their hundred Offices discharge; Had Phæbus all his Helicon bestow'd In all the Streams inspiring all the God; Those Tongues, that Wit, those Streams, that God Would offer to describe his Sisters Pain: [in vain They beat their Breasts with many abruizing Blow, Till they turn'd livid, and corrupt the Snow. The Corps they cherish, while the Corps remains, And exercise and rub with fruitless Pains; And a And when to Fun'ral Flames 'tis born away, Ground, But Cynthia now had all her Fury spent, Not with less Ruin than a Race, content: Excepting Gorge, perish'd all the Seed, And * Her whom Heav'n for Hercules decreed. Satiate at last, no longer the pursu'd The weeping Sisters; but with Wings endu'd, And horny Beaks, and sent to flit in Air; Who yearly round the Tomb in feather'd Flocks [repair. * Dejanira. L HILE Norman Tancred in Salerno reign’d, The Title of a gracious Prince he gain'd; Till turn'd a Tyrant in his latter Days, He lost the Lustre of his former Praise; And from the bright Meridian where he stood, Descending, dipp'd his Hands in Lovers Blood. This Prince, of Fortune's Favour long possess’d, Yet was with one fair Daughter only blefs’d; And bless’d he might have been with her alone: But oh! how much more happy, had he none ! a She was his Care, his Hope, and his Delight, Short were her Marriage-Joys; for in the Prime a Did all her Sex in ev'ry Grace exceed, Mind, Resolv'd at last to lose no longer Time; And yet to please her self without a Crime, She cast her Eyes around the Court, to find A worthy Subject suiting to her Mind, To him in holy Nuptials to be tyd, A seeming Widow, and a secret Bride. Among the Train of Courtiers, one she found With all the Gifts of bounteous Nature crown'd, Of gentle Blood; but one whose niggard Fate Had set him far below her high Estate; Guiscard his Name was calld, of blooming Age, Now Squire to Tancred, and before his Page: а |