And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed. 140 145 Swarm o'er the lawns, the forest walks surround, Rouse the fleet hart, and cheer the opening hound. 150 See the bold youth strain up the threat'ning steep, 155 160 165 Seek the clear spring, or haunt the pathless grove; Her buskin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn. 170 Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd; The Muse shall sing, and what she sings shall last). Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be known, 175 But by the crescent and the golden zone. She scorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care; A belt her waist, a fillet binds her hair; A painted quiver on her shoulder sounds, 1Queen Anne. [A statue of this sovereign still standing at Windsor has an inscription conveying the same measured compliment: 180 185 Annæ vis similem sculpere? Sculpe Deam.] As from the god she flew with furious pace, 190 195 Faint, breathless, thus she pray'd, nor pray'd in vain; 200 My native shades-there weep, and murmur there." She said, and melting as in tears she lay, 205 210 215 And floating forests paint the waves with green, Then foaming pour along, and rush into the Thames. 220 Not Neptune's self from all her streams receives 225 230 Might change Olympus for a nobler hill. Happy the man whom this bright court approves, 235 Still bears the name] The river Loddon. Warburton. 2 Oft in her glass, etc.] These six lines were added after the first writing of this poem. P. Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet please, He gathers health from herbs the forest yields, 240 245 250 Or looks on heav'n with more than mortal eyes, Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies, Amid her kindred stars familiar roam, 255 Survey the region, and confess her home! Such was the life great Scipio once admir'd: Thus Atticus, and Trumbal thus retir'd1. Ye sacred Nine! that all my soul possess, 260 Or where ye Muses sport on Cooper's Hill. (On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow, 265 While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow.) I seem thro' consecrated walks to rove, I hear soft music die along the grove: Led by the sound, I roam from shade to shade, By god-like Poets venerable made: 270 Here his first lays majestic Denham sung2; There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley's tongue3. Oh early lost! what tears the river shed, [The parallel between Scipio and Sir William ley's tongue.] Mr Cowley died at Chertsey, on Trumball is complete; for the retirement of neither was voluntary.] 2 [Sir John Denham was born in 1615 and died in 1688; and was buried by the side of Cowley.] 3 There the last numbers flow'd from Cow the borders of the Forest, and was from thence conveyed to Westminster. P. [Born 1618, died 1667.] To crown the forests with immortal greens, Here noble Surrey felt the sacred rage, 290 In the same shades the Cupids tun'd his lyre2, 295 Oh wouldst thou sing what heroes Windsor bore, What Kings first breath'd upon her winding shore, Or raise old warriors, whose ador'd remains In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains! With Edward's acts adorn the shining page, Stretch his long triumphs down through every age, Draw monarchs chain'd, and Cressi's glorious field, The lilies blazing on the regal shield: Then, from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall, And leave inanimate the naked wall5; 300 305 Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear, And bleed for ever under Britain's spear. 310 Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn, And palms eternal flourish round his urn. 315 Her silver star] All the lines that follow were not added to the poem till the year 1710. What immediately followed this, and made the conclusion, were these, My humble muse in unambitious strains, &c. P. Here noble Surrey] Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, one of the first refiners of the English poetry; who flourished in the time of Henry VIII. P. [Born in 1517; died 1547. In the famous sonnet in 'Description and Praise of his love Geraldine' he sings that 'Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight. All the conjectures concerning the lady are based upon this sonnet.] 3 The Mira of Granville was the countess of Newburgh. Towards the end of her life Dr King, of Oxford, wrote a very severe satire against her, in three books, 4to., called The Toast. Warton. Edward's acts] Edward III. born here. P. [In the year 1312. It was in 1340 that he 320 first quartered the arms of France with his own.] I have sometimes wondered that Pope did not mention the building of Windsor Castle by Edward III. His architect was William of Wykeham. Warton. 5 [Verrio's ceilings, enumerated at length in Jesse's Eton and Windsor, pp. 51, 2, are severely criticised by Horace Walpole. See Bowles ad loc. They were painted temp. Carol. II.] 6 Henry mourn] Henry VI. P. 7 once fear'd Edward sleeps:] Edward IV. P. 9 [The grave of Charles I., of which, owing to the confusion which had attended his interment, the locality was unknown at the Restoration, though one of the witnesses, Mr Herbert, declared himself certain as to its precise situation, was discovered in the locality indicated in 1813. See Sir Henry Halford's account, quoted by Jesse u.s.] Oh fact accurst! what tears has Albion shed, Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have bled! Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars. At length great Anna said, "Let Discord cease!' 325 In that blest moment from his oozy bed 330 Grav'd on his urn appear'd the moon, that guides 335 340 Cole, whose dark streams his flowery islands lave; And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave: 345 And sullen Mole, that hides his diving flood"; 'He has copied, and equalled, the Rivers of Spenser, Drayton and Milton. Warton. [viz. in the Faerie Queen bk. iv. canto xi, the Polyolbion, and the Vacation exercise annoætatis xix.] 2 The Mole sinks through its sands, in dry summers, into an invisible channel under ground at Mickleham, near Dorking, Surrey. Bowles. 3 [Not Danish, but Saxon. The Britons under 350 355 360 365 Vortimer the son of Vortigern are said to have repulsed the Saxon invaders on the Darent.] 4 [The allusions are of course to the expected peace, for which the conferences were opened in January 1711 at Utrecht; to the previous campaigns in Spain and Germany; to the war between Peter the Great and Charles XII.; and to the early difficulties of our East India settlements.] |