The shepherds on the lawn, Or e'er the point of dawn, Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they then That the mighty Pan 85 Was kindly come to live with them below; 90 Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. When such music sweet Their hearts and ears did greet, As never was by mortal finger strook, Divinely-warbled voice Answering the stringed noise, As all their souls in blissful rapture took : The air such pleasure loath to lose, 95 [close. With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly x. Nature that heard such sound, Beneath the hollow round Pan] Spenser's July. • The flockes of mightie Pan.' Warton Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, Now was almost won To think her part was done, 105 And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; She knew such harmony alone Could hold all heav'n and earth in happier union. Such music (as 'tis said) Before was never made, But when of old the sons of morning sung, While the Creator great His constellations set, 120 And the well-balanc'd world on hinges hung, And cast the dark foundations deep, [keep. And bid the welt'ring waves their oozy channel 116 unexpressive] This word was, perhaps, coined by Shakespeare. As you like it, act iii. sc. 2, • The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she! Warton. XIII. Ring out, ye crystal spheres, If ye have pow'r to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the base of heav'n's deep organ blow; And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to th' angelic symphony. For if such holy song Inwrap our fancy long, XIV. 131 Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold, And speckled Vanity And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; And Hell itself will pass away, And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 110 123 crystal] Heaven's hard crystal.' Marlowe's Hero and Leander, p. 90. 128 silver] Machin's Dumbe Knight, 1608. It was as silver as the chime of spheres." Todd. 134 gold] ** See listening Time run back to fetch the age of gold.' Benlowes's Theophila, st. xcv. p. 248. 140 leave] Virg. Æn. viii. 245. Pallida, dîs invisa; superque immane barathrum Warton. XV Yea Truth and Justice then Will down return to men, Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing, Mercy will sit between, Thron'd in celestial sheen, 145 With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steer And heav'n, as at some festival, [ing: Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall. XVI. But wisest Fate says No, This must not yet be so, The babe yet lies in smiling infancy, That on the bitter cross Must redeem our loss; So both himself and us to glorify; 150 113 Orb'd] In ed. 1645. 'Th' enamell'd arras of the rainbow wearing; And Mercy set between,' &c. 160 But now begins; for from this happy day The old Dragon under ground In straiter limits bound, Not half so far casts his usurped sway, And wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. The oracles are dumb, ΧΙΧ. No voice or hideous hum 165 170 Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell. xx. The lonely mountains o'er. 172 Swinges] See Cowley's Davideis, p. 313 Pectora tum longe percellit verbere caudæ.' |