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Thrice bleft Latona! from thee, Goddess, sprung Diana chaste, and Phoebus ever-young:

* Her in Ortygia's ifle, and Him you

bore

At Cynthius' hill on Delos' sea-girt shore,
Where the tall palm uprears its lovely head,
And clear Inopus laves the flow'ry mead.

O Phœbus, where fhall I begin thy praise?
Well can'ft thou rule the poet's artless lays.
Oft on the craggy rock, or mountain hore,
By river-fide, or on the fea's hoarse shore,
Wand'ring well-pleas'd, with mufic's magic found,
And airs divine, thou charm'ft the region round.
Say, fhall I fing how firft on Delos' fhore
Thee, glorious progeny, Latona bore † ?
How first, from other ifles, befet with grief,
In vain thy tortur'd mother fought relief.
Each to her out-caft woe denied abode,
Nor durft one ifle receive the future god.

At

* Delos and Ortygia are mentioned as different Islands in the original.

+ Here several verses containing nothing but a mere lift of the names of islands are omitted.

At length to Delos came the lab'ring fair,
And fuppliant thus besought her needful care.

Delos! receive Apollo, and O! raise
A glorious temple to record his praise !
Then shall He govern thee with gentle sway,
And only Phœbus fhall thine ifle obey.

What though no flocks, nor herds, nor juicy vine,
Nor plants of thousand natures fhall be thine,
Swift to the temple of the Bowyer-king *,
Oblations rich shall ev'ry nation bring;
For ever from thy altars shall arise
The fragrant incenfe of burnt-facrifice.

No longer then regret thy barren foil,
Receive the God, and live by other's toil!

She fpake: with inward rapture Delos fmil'd, And footh'd the fuppliant pow'r with answer mild.

Latona! mighty Caus' daughter fair,

Full willingly wou'd Delos ease thy care,

Full

*Bowyer-king and Bowyer-god are expreffions frequently used by

Dryden, in his version of the first Iliad, to fignify Apollo.

Full willingly behold her barren earth
Witness the glories of Apollo's birth:
The mighty God wou'd raise my lowly name,
And confecrate his native ifle to fame.

One fear alone diftracts my beating heart;
That fear, O Goddess, lift while I impart.
Second to none amid th' æthereal skies,
Apollo foon all terrible shall rife:

All nations shall adore the mighty God,
And kings and kingdoms tremble at his nod.
Haply (for ah! dire fears my foul infest,
And fill with horror my tumultuous breast)
Soon as the glorious Godhead fhall be born,
My defert region will he view with scorn,
Indignant spurn me, curse my barren foil,
And plunge into the waves my hated isle.
Triumphant then to happier climes remove,
There fix his fhrine, plant there his facred grove.
Whelm'd in the briny main shall Delos lay,
To all the finny brood a wretched prey.
But, O Latona! if, to quell my fear,
You'll deign a folemn facred oath to swear,

That

That here the God his glorious feat shall hold,
And here his fapient oracles unfold,

Your facred burthen here, Latona, lay,
Here view the Godhead bursting into day.

Thus Delos pray'd, nor was her pray'r denied,
But foon with folemn vows thus ratified:
Witness O heaven and earth! O Stygian lake!
Dire adjuration, that no God may break!
In Delos fhall Apollo's fhrine be rear'd,

Delos, his best belov'd, most honour'd, most rever'd.

Thus vow'd Latona: Delos hail'd her earth

Bleft in the glories of Apollo's birth.

Nine hapless days and nights, with writhing throes,
And all the anguish of a mother's woes,
Latona tortur'd lay; in forrowing mood,
Around her many a sister-goddess stood.
Aloft in heaven imperial Juno fat,
And view'd relentless her unhappy fate.
Lucina too, the kind affuaging pow'r

That tends the lab'ring mother's child-bed hour,

And

And mitigates her woes, in golden clouds
High on Olympus' top the Goddess shrouds.
Her large full eyes with indignation roll,
And livid envy feiz'd her haughty foul,
That from Latona's loins was doom'd to spring
So great a son, the mighty Bowyer-king.

The milder pow'rs, that near the lab'ring fair
View'd all her pangs with unavailing care,
Fair Iris fent, the many colour'd maid,
To gain with goodly gifts Lucina's aid.
But charg'd her heed, left Juno fhou'd prevent
With prohibition dire their kind intent.
Fleet as the winged winds, the flying fair
With nimble pinion cut the liquid air.
Olympus gain'd, apart she call'd the maid,
Then fought with many a pray'r her needful aid,
And mov'd her foul: when foon with dove-like

Swiftly they measur'd back the viewless airy space.

Soon as to Delos' ifle Lucina came
The pangs of travail feiz'd Latona's frame.

pace

Her

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