And some have drenched them with a deadly

potion;

409

All this he read, and read with great devotion. Long time I heard, and swelled, and blushed, and frowned:

But when no end of these vile tales I found, When still he read, and laughed, and read again,

And half the night was thus consumed in vain; Provoked to vengeance, three large leaves I

tore,

415

And with one buffet felled him on the floor. With that my husband in a fury rose, And down he settled me with hearty blows. I groaned, and lay extended on my side; "Oh! thou hast slain me for my wealth, (I cried,)

420

Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace". He wept, kind soul! and stooped to kiss my face;

I took him such a box as turned him blue, Then sighed, and cried, "Adieu, my dear, adieu!"

425

But after many a hearty struggle past, I condescended to be pleased at last. Soon as he said, "My mistress and my wife, Do what you list, the term of all your life," I took to heart the merits of the cause, And stood content to rule by wholesome laws; Received the reins of absolute command, With all the government of house and land, And empire o'er his tongue, and o'er his hand. As for the volume that reviled the dames, 'Twas torn to fragments, and condemned to

flames.

431

435

Now Heaven, on all my husbands gone, be

stow

H

Pleasures above, for tortures felt below:

That rest they wished for, grant them in the grave,

And bless those souls my conduct helped to save!

THE TEMPLE OF FAME.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1711.

ADVERTISEMENT.

"The hint of the following piece was taken from Chaucer's House of Fame. The design is in a manner entirely altered, the descriptions and most of the particular thoughts my own yet I could not suffer it to be printed without this acknowledgment. The reader who would compare this with Chaucer, may begin with his third Book of Fame, there being nothing in the two first books that answers to their title. Whenever any hint is taken from him, the passage itself is set down in the marginal notes."-P.

N that soft season,' when descending

showers

Call forth the greens, and wake the
rising flowers;

When opening buds salute the welcome day,
And earth relenting feels the genial ray;
As balmy sleep had charmed my cares to rest, 5
And love itself was banished from my breast,

1 This poem is introduced in the manner of the Provençal poets, whose works were for the most part visions, or pieces of imagination, and constantly descriptive. From these, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the

Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower, and the Leaf, &c., of the latter. The author of this therefore chose the same sort of exordium.-P.

(What time the morn mysterious visions brings, While purer slumbers spread their golden wings)

A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And joined, this intellectual scene compose.

IO

I stood, methought, betwixt earth, seas, and skies:

1

The whole creation open to my eyes:

In air self-balanced hung the globe below, Where mountains rise, and circling oceans flow; Here naked rocks, and empty wastes were

seen,

15

There towery cities, and the forests green;
Here sailing ships delight the wandering eyes;
There trees, and intermingled temples rise:
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays;
The transient landscape now in clouds decays. 20
O'er the wide prospect as I gazed around,
Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound,
Like broken thunders that at distance roar,
Or billows murmuring on the hollow shore :
Then, gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,
Whose towering summit ambient clouds con-
cealed,

High on a rock of ice the structure lay,2

25

These verses are hinted from the following of Chaucer, book ii. :

"Tho beheld I fields and plains,
And now hills, and now mountains,
Now valeys, and now forestes,
And now unnethes great bestes,

Now riveres, now citees,

Now townes, and now great trees,

Now shippes sayling in the see."-P.

2 Chaucer's third book of Fame :

"It stood upon so high a rock,
Higher standeth none in Spayne-

Steep its ascent, and slippery was the way:
The wondrous rock like Parian marble shone,
And seemed, to distant sight, of solid stone. 30
Inscriptions here of various names I viewed,'
The greater part by hostile time subdued;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And poets once had promised they should last.
Some fresh engraved appeared of wits re-
nowned;

35

I looked again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I saw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place :
Their own, like others, soon their place re-
signed,

Or disappeared, and left the first behind.

Nor was the work impaired by storms alone,2

What manner stone this rock was,
For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it shone full more clere ;
But what of congeled matere
It was, I niste redily;
But at the last espied I,

And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ice, and not of stele."-P.

1 "Tho saw I all the hill y-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had been in muchel wele,
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know,
Any letters for to rede

Their names by, for, out of drede
They weren almost off-thawen so,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So unfamous was wexe their fame;
But men said what may ever last."-P.

2 "Tho gan I in myne harte cast,
That they were molte away for heate
And not away with stormes beate."-P.

40

45

But felt the approaches of too warm a sun;
For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays
Not more by envy than excess of praise.
Yet part no injuries of heaven could feel,'
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:
The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.
Their names inscribed unnumbered ages past
From Time's first birth, with Time itself shall

last;

50

These ever new, nor subject to decays,
Spread, and grow brighter with the length of

days.

So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of

frost)

55

Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast;
Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on the impassive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows the growing mass supply,
Till the bright mountains prop the incumbent
sky:

60

As Atlas fixed, each hoary pile appears,
The gathered winter of a thousand years.
On this foundation Fame's high temple stands;
Stupendous pile! not reared by mortal hands.

"For on that other side I sey

Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had afore great fames
Of olde time, and yet they were

As fresh as men had written hem there
The self day, or that houre
That I upon hem gan to poure;
But well I wiste what it made;
It was conserved with the shade
(All the writing that I sye)
Of the castle that so stood on high,
And stood eke in so cold a place,
That heate might not it deface."-P.