O happy youth! to thee, among the crowd
Of rival princes, Cupid sneez'd aloud;
And every lucky omen sent before,
To meet thee landing on the Spartan fhore.
Of all our heroes thou canst boast alone,
That Jove, whene'er he thunders, calls thee fon :
Betwixt two sheets thou shalt enjoy her bare,
With whom no Grecian virgin can compare ;
So soft, so sweet, so balmy and so fair.
A boy, like thee, would make a kingly line :
But oh, a girl like her must be divine.
Her equals, we, in years, but not in face,
Twelvescore viragos of the Spartan race,
While naked to Eurota's banks we bend,
And there in manly exercise contend,
When the appears, are all eclips'd and loft,
And hides the beauties that we made our boaft.
So, when the night and winter disappear,
The purple morning rising with the year, ,
Salutes the spring, as her celestial eyes
Adorn the world, and brighten all the skies :
So beauteous Helen shines among the rest,
Tall, slender, ftraight, with all the Graces bleft.
As pines the mountains, or as fields the corn,
Or as Theffalian steeds the race adorn;
So rosy-colour'd Helen is the pride
OF Lacedæmon, and of Greece befide.
Like her no nymph can willing ofiers bend
In basket-works, which painted streaks commend :
With Pallas in the loom the
may
contend. But none, ah! none can animate the lyre. And the mute strings with vocal fouls inspire : Whether the learn's Minerva be her theme, Or chaste Diana bathing in the stream ; None can record their heavenly praise so well As Helen, in whose eyes ten thousand Cupids dwell,
O fair, O graceful! yet with maids inrolla,
But whom to-morrow's fun a matron shall behold!
Yet ere to-morrow's sun shall shew his head,
The dewy paths of meadows we will tread,
For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy head.
Where all fall weep, and wish for thy return,
As bleating lambs their absent mother mourn.
Our nobleit maids shall to thy name bequeath
The boughs of Lotos, form'd into a wreath.
This monument, thy maiden beauties due,
High on a plane-tree fall be hung to view :
On the smooth rind the passenger shall see
Thy name engrav’d, and worship Helen's tree :
Balm, from a silver-box diftillid around,
Shall all bedew the roots, and scent the sacred ground.
The balm, 'tis true, can aged plants prolong,
But Helen's name will keep it ever young.
Hail bride, hail bridegroom, son-in-law to Jove!
With fruitful joys Latona bless your love ;
Let Venus furnith you with full desires,
Add vigour to your wills, and fuel to your fires :
Almighty Jove augment your wealthy store,
Give much to you, and to his grandsons more.
From generous loins a generous race will spring,
Each girl, like her, a queen; each boy like you, a king,
Now sleep, if deep you can ; but while you rest,
Sleep close, with folded arms, and breast to breaft:
Rise in the morn ; but oh! before
you
rise, Forget not to perform your morning facrifice. We will be with you ere the crowing cock Salutes the light, and struts before his feather'd fcck. Hymen, oh Hymen, to thy triumphs run, And view the mighty (poils thou hast in batile won.
The DesPAIRING Lover, from the 2 3d Idyllium of TheocrITUS.
W THinauspicious love, a wretched fivain
Pursu'd the fairelt nymph of all the plain ;
Fairest indeed, but prouder far than fair,
Śhe plung'd him hopeless in a deep despair:
Her heav'nly form too haughtily the priz’d,
His person hated, and his gifts despis'd;
Nor knew the force of Cupid's cruel darts,
Nor fear’d his awful pow'r on human hearts;
But either from her hopeless lover fled,
Or with disdainful glances shot him dead.
No kiss, no look, to chéer the drooping boy ;
No word me spoke, the scorn'd ev'n to deny.
But, as a hunted panther casts about
Her glaring eyes and pricks her lift’ning ears to scout,
So she, to fhun his toils, her cares employ'd,
And fiercely in her favage freedom joy'd.
Her mouth the writh’d, her forehead taught to frown,
Her eyes to sparkle fires to love unknown :
Her sallow cheeks her envious mind did shew,
And ev'ry feature fpoke aloud the curstness of a shrew,
Yet could not he his obvious fate escape ;
His love still dress’d her in a pleasing shape;
And
every sullen frown, and bitter scorn
But fann'd the fuel that too fast did burn,
Long time, unequal to his mighty pain,
He ftrove to curb it, but he strove in vain :
At last his woes broke out, and begg'd relief
With tears, the dumb petitioners of grief:
With tears so tender, as adorn'd his love,
And any heart, but only hers, would move.
Trembling
'Trembling before her bolted doors he stood,
And there pour'd out th' unprofitable food :
Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look ;
Then, ķilling first the threshold, thus he spoke.
Ah nymph, more cruel than of human race !
Thy tigress heart belies thy angel face:
Too well thou shew'st thy pedigree from fone :
Thy grandame’s was the first by Pyrrha thrown;
Unworthy thou to be so long defird;
But so my love, and so my fate requii’d.
I beg not now (for 'tis in vain), to live ;
But take this gift, the last that I can give.
This friendly cord shall foon decide the strife
Betwixt my ling'ring love and loathsome life:
This moment puts an end to all my pain ;
I shall no more despair, nor thou disdain.
Farewel, ungrateful and unkind! I go
Condemn’d by thee to those sad thades below.
I I go th' extremeit remedy to prove,
To drink oblivion, and to drench my
love :
There happily to lose my long desires :
But ah! what draught to deep to quench my fires ?
Farewel ye never-opening gates, ye stones,
And threshold guilty of my midnight moans.
What I have suffer'a here ye know too well;
What I shall do the Gods and I can tell.
The role is fragrant, but it fades in time;
The violet sweet, but quickly past the prime ;
White lillies hang their heads and soon decay,
And whiter snow in minutes melts away :
Such is your blooming youth, and withering fo:
The time will come, it will, when you shall know
The rage of love ; your haughty heart fall burn
In fames like mine, and meet a like return.
Obdurate as you are, oh! hear at least
My dying prayers, and grant my last requeft.
VOL. II.
Y
When
When first you ope your doors, and passing by
The sad ill-omen'd objedi meets your eye,
Think it not loít, a moment if you
The breathless wretch, fo made by you, survey :
Some cruel pleasure will from thence arise,
To view the mighty ravage of your eyes.
I wish (but oh! my wish is vain, I fear)
The kind oblation of a failing tear :
Then loose the knot, and take me from the place,
And spread your mantle o'er my grizly face ;
Upon my livid lips bestow a kiss :
O envy not the dead, they feel not bliss !
Nor fear
your
kisses can restore
my
breath;
Even you are not more pityless than death,
Then for my corps a homely grave provide,
Which love and me from public scorn may
hide.
Thrice call upon my name, thrice beat
And hail me thrice to everlasting reft :
Lait let my tomb this sad inscription bear :
A wretch whom love has kill'd lies buried here ;
O passengers, Aminta's eyes beware.
,
. Thus having faid, and furious with his love, He heav'd with more than human force to move A weighty stone (the labor of a team) And rais'd from thence he reach'd the neighbouring beam: Around its bulk a sliding knot he throws, And fitted to his neck the fatal noose : Then spurning backward took a swing, till death Crept up, and stopt the paffage of his breath. The bounce burst ope the door; the scornful fair Relentless look’d,and faw him beat hisquivering feet in air; Nor wept his fate, nor cast a pitying eye, Nor took him down, but brush'd regardless by: And, as she past, her chance of fate was such, Her garments touch'd the dead, polluted by the touch : Next to the dance, thence to the bath did move; The bath was sacred to the God of love ;
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