To many a youth and many a maid,

Dancing in the chequer'd shade:

And

young

and old come forth to play

On a fun-fhine holy-day,
Till the live-long day-light fail;
Then to the spicy nut-brown ále,
With ftories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets eat,
She was pincht, and pull'd she said,
And he by friers lanthorn led
Tells how the drudging Goblin fweat,
To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night, ere glimpfe of morn,
His fhadowy flale hath thresh'd the corn,
That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
And ftretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy ftrength,"

95

100

105

110

And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,

115

By whifp'ring winds foon lull'd asleep.
Towred cities please us then,

And the bufy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With ftore of ladies, whofe bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or arms, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear

In faffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pageantry,

120

125

Such fights as youthful poets dream
On fummer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Johnson's learned fock be on,
Or fweetest Shakespear, fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.

And ever against eating cares,

Lap me in foft Lydian airs,

Married to immortal verse,

Such as the meeting foul may pierce

130

135

In notes with many a winding bout

Of linked sweetness long drawn out,

140

With wanton heed, and giddy cunning,

The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that tye

136. Lap me in foft Lydian airs,] The Lydian mufick was remarkable for its softness, and sweetness.

15. Thefe delights if thou canft give,

Mirth, with thee 1 mean to live.

The concluding turn of this and the following poem is borrow'd from the conclufion of two beautiful little pieces of Shakespear, intitled, The Paffionate Shepherd to his Love, and the Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd;

If thefe delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.

These two poems are printed at length in the notes upon the third Act of the Merry Wives of Windfor in Mr. Warburton's edition,

"

H

XIV.

IL PENSEROSO *.

ENCE vain deluding joys,

The brood of folly without father bred, How little you bested,

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys? Dwell in fome idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes poffefs, As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the fun-beams, Or likeft hovering dreams

The fickle penfioners of Morpheus train. But hail thou Goddess, fage and holy, Hail divineft Melancholy,

5

10

*Il Penferofo is the thoughtful melancholy man; and this poem both in its model and principal circumstances, is taken from a fong in praise of melancholy in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy call'd The Nice Valour, or Paffionate Madman. The reader will not be difpleased to see it here, as it is well worth transcribing. Hence all you vain delights,

As fhort as are the nights

Wherein you spend your folly; There's nought in this life fweet, If man were wife to fee't,

But only Melancholy,

Oh sweetest Melancholy.

Welcome folded arms, and fix'd eyes,
A figh that piercing mortifies,

A look that's faften'd to the ground,
A tongue chain'd up without a found.
Fountain heads, and pathlefs groves,
Places which pale paffion loves;
Moon-light walks, when all the fowls
Are warmly hous'd, fave bats and owls;
A midnight bell, a parting groan,
These are the founds we feed upon;

Then ftretch our bones in a ftill gloomy valley,
Nothing's fo dainty fweet, as lovely Melancholy.