XVII.

DELIA alone can please and never tire,
Exceed the paint of thought in true delight,
With her, enjoyment wakens new defire,
And equal rapture glows thro' every night.
XVIII.

;

Beauty and worth, alone in her, contend,
To charm the fancy, and to fix the mind
In her, my wife, my mistress, and my friend,
I tafte the joys of fenfe, and reason join'd.

XIX.

On her I'll gaze when others loves are o'er,
And dying, prefs her with my clay-cold hand
Thou weep't already, as I were no more,

Nor can that gentle breast the thought withstand.
XX.

Oh! when I die, my latest moments fpare,

Nor let thy grief with fharper torments kill; Wound not thy cheeks, nor hurt that flowing hair, Tho' I am dead, my foul fhall love thee ftill. XXI.

Oh quit the room, oh quit the deathful bed,
Or thou wilt die, fo tender is thy heart!
Oh leave me, DELIA! ere thou fee me dead,
Thefe weeping friends will do thy mournful part.

XXII.

Let them, extended on the decent bier,
Convey the corfe in melancholy state,
Thro' all the village spread the tender tear,
While pitying maids our wond'rous loves relate.

But every species of poetry, however serious, may admit of humour and burlesque. Examples of which we have given in the Epigram, and Epitaph, and we shall conclude this chapter with a burlefque elegy, written by Dr. Savift.

An ELEGY on the fuppofed death of Mr. PARTRIDGE, the Almanack-maker.

Well; 'tis as Bickerftaff has guefs'd,
Tho' we all took it for a jeft;
Partridge is dead; nay more, he dy'd
E're he cou'd prove the good 'Squire ly'd.
Strange, an aftrologer fhou'd die
Without one wonder in the sky!
Not one of all his crony ftars
To pay their duty at his herfe!
No meteor, no eclipse appear'd!
No comet with a flaming beard!
The fun has rofe, and gone to bed,
Juft as if Partridge were not dead:
Nor hid himfelf behind the moon
To make a dreadful night at noon.
He at fit periods walks thro' Aries,
Howe'er our earthly motion varies :
And twice a year he'll cut th' Equator,
As if there had been no fuch matter.

Some Wits have wonder'd, what analogy,
There is 'twixt * cobling and aftrology:
How Partridge made his optics rise,
From a fhoe fole, to reach the skies.

A lift the coblers temples ties
To keep the hair out of their eyes;
From whence 'tis plain the diadem,
That princes wear, derives from them.
And therefore crowns are now-a-days
Adorn'd with galden flars and rays,
Which plainly fhews the near alliance
'Twixt cobling and the planets science.

Befides, that flow-pac'd fign Bootes,
(As 'tis mifcall'd) we know not who 'tis :
But Partridge ended all disputes;
He knew his trade, and call'd it † Bocts.
The horned moon, which heretofore,
Upon their fhoes the Romans wore,
Whofe wideness kept their toes from corns,
And whence we claim our hooing-horns,

*Partridge was a Cobler,

See his Almanack.

Shews how the art of cobling bears
A near resemblance to the Spheres.
A fcrap of parchment hung by geometry
(A great refinement in barometry)
Can, like the flars, foretell the weather;
And what is parchment else but leather,
Which an aftrologer might ufe,
Either for Almanacks or shoes?

Thus Partridge, by his wit and parts, At once did practice both these arts: And as the boading Owl (or rather The Bat, because her wings are leather,) Steals from her private cell by night, And flies about at candle-light; So learned Partridge could as well Creep in the dark from leathern cell, And, in his fancy, fly as far To peep upon a twinkling ftar.

Befides, he could confound the Spheres,
And fet the Planets by the ears;
To fhew his skill, he Mars could join
To Venus in afpect malign;
Then call in Mercury for aid,
And cure the wounds, that Venus made.
Great scholars have in Lucian read,
When Philip king of Greece was dead,
His foul and Spirit did divide,
And each part took a diff'rent fide
One rose a star, the other fell
Beneath, and mended fhoes in Hell.
Thus Partridge ftill fhines in each art,
The cobling and far-gazing part;
And is inftall'd as good a star
As any of the Cæfars are,

Triumphant ftar ! fome pity fhew
On Coblers militant below,
Whom roguish boys in stormy nights
Torment, by piffing out their lights;
Or thro' a chink convey their smoak
Inclos'd' Artificers to choak!

Thou, high exalted in thy fphere, May'ft follow ftill thy calling there.

To thee the Bull will lend his hide,
By Phabus newly tann'd and dry'd.
For thee they Argo's hulk will tax,
And scrape her pithy fides for wax.
Then Ariadne kindly lends

thing in the Paftoral or rural life; and the perfons, or interlocutors, introduced in it, either. fhepherds or other rufticks.

Her braided hair to make thee ends.
The point of Sagittarius' dart
Turns to an awl by heav'nly art;
And Vulcan, wheedled by his wife,.
Will forge for thee a paring-knife.
For want of room by Virgo's fide.
She'll ftrain a point, and fit *astride:
To take thee kindly in between ;
And then the Signs will be Thirteen.

Thefe poems are frequently called Eclogues, which fignifies felect or choice pieces; tho' fome account for this name. after a different manner. They are also called Bucolicks from Baxon, a Herdsman.

СНАР. XI.

Of the PASTORA L.

HIS poem takes its name from the Latin word.

Shepherd; the

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66

"The original of poetry, fays Mr. Pope, is afcribed to "that age which fucceeded the creation of the world: "and as the keeping of flocks feems to have been the first employment of mankind, the most ancient fort of poe"try was probably Pafioral. It is natural to imagine, that the leifure of thofe ancient fhepherds admitting and. inviting fome diverfion, none was fo proper to that foli"tary and fedentary life as finging; and that in their fongs they took occafion to celebrate their own felicity. "From hence a poem was invented, and afterwards improved to a perfect image of that happy time; which by giving us an efteem for the virtues of a former age,

45

Tibia brachia contrahet ingens
Scorpius, &c,

might recommend them to the prefent. And fince the life of fhepherds was attended with more tranquility than any other rural employment, the poets chose to "introduce their perfons, from whom it received the name ❝ of Pafloral."

1

Scaliger, and Fontenelle are of Mr. Pope's opinion, and fuppofe that Paftorals were the firft poems; but this conclufion feems not to be drawn from nature and reason. As man in the infant ftate of the world, was undoubtedly ftruck with an awful idea of God, arifing from a confideration of his works of creation, so must he be very early led to fupplicate and adore that divine Being on whom he perceived his existence depended; it is more natural, and more rational, therefore, to fuppofe that the firft poems where hymns or odes made in praise of the Deity. We may allow fhepherds indeed to have been the first poets, but we cannot fuppofe that Paftorals were the firft poems; fince it is more reasonable to conclude that the ancients would prefer the praise of the Creator to that of his creatures. But controverfies of this fort are befide our purpose.

This kind of poem, when happily executed, gives great delight; nor is it a wonder, fince innocence and fimplicity generally please: To which let me add, that the scenes of Paftorals are always laid in the country, where both poet and painter have abundant matter for the exercife of genius, fuch as inchanting profpects, purling ftreams, fhady groves, enamelled meads, flowery lawns, rural amuse ments, the bleating of flocks, and the mufick of birds; which is of all melody the most sweet and pleafing, and calls to my mind the wisdom and taste of Alexander, who on being importuned to hear a man that imitated the notes of the Nightingale, and was thought a great curiofity, replied, that he had had the happiness of hearing the Nightingale berfelf.

The character of the Paftoral confifts in fimplicity, brevity, and delicacy; the two firft render an eclogue natural, and the laft delightful. With refpect to nature, indeed, we are to confider, that as a pastoral is an image of the ancient times of innocence and undefigning plainnefs, we are not to defcribe fhepherds as they really are at this day, but as they may be conceiv'd then to have been, when the best of men, and even princes, followed the employment. For this reafon an air of piety fhould run through the whole poem, which is vifible in the writings of antiquity.