Nor, Valgius, on th' Armenian fhores
Do the chain'd waters always freeze;
Not always furious Boreas roars,
Or bends with violent force the trees.
But you are ever drown'd in tears,
For Myftes dead you ever mourn;
No fetting Sol can ease your care,
But finds you fad at his return.
The wife experienc'd Grecian fage,
Mourn'd not Antilochus fo long;
Nor did King Priam's hoary age
So much lament his flaughter'd fon.
Leave off, at length, thefe woman's fighs,
Auguftus' numerous trophies fing;
Repeat that prince's victories,
To whom all nations tribute bring,
Niphates rolls an humbler wave,
At length the undaunted Scythian yields,
Content to live the Romans' flave,
And scarce forfakes his native fields.
Tranflation of part of the Dialogue between HECTOR and ANDROMACHE; from the fixth Book of HOMER'S ILIAD.
SHE ceas'd; then godlike Hector anfwer'd kind,
(His various plumage fporting in the wind)
That poft, and all the reft, fhall be my care;
But fhall I, then, forsake the unfinish'd war?
How would the Trojans brand great Hector's name!
And one base action fully all my fame,
Acquir'd by wounds, and battles bravely fought!
Oh! how my foul abhors fo mean a thought.
Long fince I learn'd to flight this fleeting breath,
And view with cheerful eyes approaching death.
The inexorable fifters have decreed
That Priam's houfe, and Priam's felf fhall bleed:
The day will come, in which proud Troy fhall yield,
And spread its smoking ruins o'er the field.
Yet Hecuba's, nor Priam's hoary age,
Whofe blood shall quench fome Grecian's thirsty rage,
Nor my brave brothers, that have bit the ground,
Their fouls difmifs'd through many a ghaftly wound,
Can in my bosom half that grief create,
As the fad thought of your impending fate :
When fome proud Grecian dame shall tasks impofe,
Mimick your tears, and ridicule your woes;
Beneath Hyperia's waters fhall you fweat,
And, fainting, fcarce fupport the liquid weight:
Then shall some Argive loud infulting cry,
Behold the wife of Hector, guard of Troy !
Tears, at my name, fhall drown those beauteous eyes,
And that fair bofom heave with rifing fighs!
Before that day, by fome brave hero's hand,
May I lie flain, and fpurn the bloody fand!
To a YOUNG LADY on her BIRTH-DAY.
THIS tributary verse receive, my fair,
Warm with an ardent lover's fondeft pray'r.
May this returning day for ever find
Thy form more lovely, more adorn'd thy mind;
All pains, all cares, may favouring heav'n remove,
All but the fweet folicitudes of love!
May powerful nature join with grateful art,
To point each glance, and force it to the heart!
then, when conquer'd crouds confefs thy fway,
When even proud wealth and prouder wit obey,
My fair, be mindful of the mighty trust,
Alas! 'tis hard for beauty to be just.
Those fovereign charms with strictest care employ;
Nor give the generous pain, the worthless joy:
With his own form acquaint the forward fool,
Shewn in the faithful glass of ridicule
• Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almost impromptu, in his prefence.
Teach mimick cenfure her own faults to find,
No more let coquets to themselves be blind,
So fhall Belinda's charms improve mankind.
WHEN first the peafant, long inclin'd to roam,
Forfakes his rural sports and peaceful home,
Pleas'd with the scene the fmiling ocean yields,
He scorns the verdant meads and flow'ry fields;
Then dances jocund o'er the watery way,
While the breeze whispers, and the streamers play:
Unbounded profpects in his bofom roll,
And future millions lift his rifing foul;
In blissful dreams he digs the golden mine,
And raptur'd fees the new-found ruby shine..
Joys infincere! thick clouds invade the skies,
Loud roar the billows, high the waves arife;
Sick'ning with fear, he longs to view the shore,.
And vows to truft the faithlefs deep no more.
So the young Authour, panting after fame,
And the long honours of a lasting name,
Entrufts his happiness to human kind,
More false, more cruel, than the feas or wind.
"Toil on, dull croud, in extacies he cries,
For wealth or title, perishable prize;
While I thofe tranfitory bleffings fcorn,
Secure of praise from ages yet unborn."
This thought once form'd, all counsel comes too late,
He flies to prefs, and hurries on his fate;
Swiftly he fees the imagin'd laurels spread,
And feels the unfading wreath furround his head.
Warn'd by another's fate, vain youth, be wise,
Thofe dreams were Settle's once, and Ogilby's:
The pamphlet spreads, inceffant hiffes rife,
To fome retreat the baffled writer flies;
← This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1743.
Where no four criticks fnarl, no fneers moleft,
Safe from the tart lampoon, and ftinging jeft;
There begs of heav'n a lefs diftinguifh'd lot,
Glad to be hid, and proud to be forgot.
EPILOGUE, intended to have been spoken by a LADY who was to perfonate the Ghost of HERMIONE.
YE blooming train, who give despair or joy,
Blefs with a fmile, or with a frown destroy;
In whose fair cheeks destructive Cupids wait,
And with unerring fhafts diftribute fate;
Whose fnowy breafts, whofe animated eyes,
Each youth admires, though each admirer dies;
Whilft deride their
you
in barb'rous play,
Unpitying fee them weep, and hear them pray,
And unrelenting fport ten thoufand lives away;
For you, ye fair, I quit the gloomy plains,
Where fable night in all her horrour reigns;
No fragrant bowers, no delightful glades,
Receive th' unhappy ghofts of fcornful maids.
For kind, for tender nymphs the myrtle blooms,
And weaves her bending boughs in pleafing glooms;
Perennial roses deck each purple vale,
And scents ambrofial breathe in every gale:
Far hence are banish'd vapours, fpleen, and tears,
Tea, scandal, ivory teeth, and languid airs;
No pug, nor favourite Cupid there enjoys
The balmy kifs, for which poor Thyrfis dies;
Form'd to delight, they use no foreign arms,
Nor torturing whalebones pinch them into charms;
No confcious blufhes there their cheeks inflame,
For those who feel no guilt can know no fhame;
Unfaded still their former charms they fhew,
Around them pleafures wait, and joys for ever new.
Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act" The Diftreffed Mother," Johnfon wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them.
But cruel virgins meet feverer fates
Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful seats,
To dismal realms, and regions void of peace,
Where furies ever howl, and ferpents hifs.
O'er the fad plains perpetual tempefts figh;
And pois'nous vapours, black'ning all the sky,
With livid hue the faireft face o'ercaft,
And every beauty withers at the blaft:
Where e'er they fly their lover's ghosts purfue,
Inflicting all thofe ills which once they knew;
Vexation, Fury, Jealoufy, Defpair,
Vex ev'ry eye, and every bosom tear;
Their foul deformities by all defcry'd,
No maid to flatter, and no paint to hide.
Then melt, ye fair, while crouds around you figh,
Nor let difdain fit low'ring in your eye;
With pity foften every awful grace,
And beauty fmile aufpicious in each face;
To ease their pains exert your milder power,
So fhall you guiltlefs reign, and all mankind adore.
The two years which he spent at home, after his return from Stourbridge, he paffed in what he thought idlenefs, and was fcolded by his father for his want of fteady application. He had no fettled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a defultory manner, without any scheme of ftudy, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious inftance of his cafual reading, when but a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid fome apples behind a large folio upon an upper fhelf in his father's fhop, he climbed up to fearch for them. There were no apples; but the large folio proved to be Petrarch, whom he had feen mentioned, in fome preface, as one of the restorers of learning. His curiofity having been thus excited, he fat down with avidity, and read a great part of the book. What he read during these two years, he told me, was not works of mere amusement, "not voyages and travels, but all literature, Sir, all ancient writers, all manly; though but little Greek, only fome of Anacreon and Hefiod; but in this irregular manner (added he) I had looked. into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Univerfities,
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