Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,
To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast

Thou fix them on the earth as fast:

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing :

35 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.

'Cyprus black as e'er was crow.'

Warton.

45

37 keep] State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth.

Rev. act v. s. 6. Warton.

And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;
But first, and chiefest, with thee bring,
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The Cherub Contemplation;
Ana the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,

Gently o'er th' accustom'd oak;

60

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among

I woo, to hear thy even-song;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound,

59 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets, 51.

59 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323.

σε Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 992. ἱππέουσι δι ̓ ὀρφναιας.

65

70

Over some wide-water'd shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar;
Or if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,

Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;
Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

Or the bellman's drowsy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm:
Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tow'r,
Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,
With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold

What worlds, or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind, that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook:
And of those Demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet, or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine,

75 wide-water'd] Constable's Son. Ellis's Spec. ii. p. 305.

'Or like the echo of a passing bell,

Which, sounding on the water, seems to howl.'

98 Sceptred] Miltoni Eleg. i. 37.

⚫ Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum

Quassat.'

Warton.

Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage.
But, O sad Virgin, that thy power
Might raise Musæus from his bower,
Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as warbled to the string.
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,

And made Hell grant what love did seek.
Or call up him that left half told

The story of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball, and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,

That own'd the virtuous ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride;
And if aught else great bards beside
In

sage and solemn tunes have sung,
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests, and inchantments drear,

105

110

115

Where more is meant than meets the ear.

120

Thus night oft see me in thy pale career,

Till civil-suited morn appear,

Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont

With the Attic boy to hunt,

But kerchef'd in a comely cloud,

125

110 Cambuscan] In the Squier's Tale of Chaucer, see

Tyrwhitt's notes, vol. ii. p. 466, ed. 1798. Todd.

122 civil] Rom. and Juliet, act iii. sc. 4.

come, civil night,

Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.'

Warton.

While rocking winds are piping loud,
Or usher'd with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves,
With minute drops from off the eaves.
And when the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring
To arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that Sylvan loves
Of pine, or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe with heaved stroke
Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.
There in close covert by some brook,
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from day's garish eye,
While the bee with honied thigh,
That at her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring

With such consort as they keep,
Entice the dewy-feather'd sleep;

And let some strange mysterious dream
Wave at his wings in airy stream

Of lively portraiture display'd,

141 eye] Son. i. 5.

130

135

140

145

Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day.' Warton. 146 dewy] Liquidique potentia somni.' Val. Flac. iv. 18. Irriguus somnus.' Plaut. Ep. i. ii. 18. 'Dewy sleep. Henry More's Poems, p. 263.

148 Wave] Consult Warton's note on the structure of these lines.