The rooms with costly tapestry were hung, Where was inwoven many a gentle tale; Such as of old the rural poets sung, Or of Arcadian or Sicilian vale: Reclining lovers, in the lonely dale, Pour'd forth at large the sweetly-tortur'd heart; Or, sighing tender passion, swell'd the gale, And taught charm'd echo to resound their smart ; While flocks, woods, streams, around, repose and peace impart. Those pleas'd the most, where, by a cunning hand, Depainted was the patriarchal age; What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land, And pastur'd on from verdant stage to stage, Where fields and fountains fresh could best engage. Toil was not then. Of nothing took they heed, But with wild beasts the sylvan war to wage, And o'er vast plains their herds and flocks to feed: Blest sons of Nature they! true golden age indeed! Sometimes the pencil, in cool airy halls, Or savage Rosa dash'd, or learned Poussin drew. Each sound, too, here, to languishment inclin'd, Lull'd the weak bosom, and induced ease, Aërial music in the warbling wind, At distance rising oft by small degrees, Nearer and nearer came, till o'er the trees It hung, and breath'd such soul-dissolving airs, As did, alas! with soft perdition please : Entangled deep in its enchanting snares, The listening heart forgot all duties and all cares. A certain music, never known before, Here lull'd the pensive melancholy mind; Full easily obtain'd. Behoves no more, But sidelong, to the gently-waving wind, To lay the well-tun'd instrument reclin'd; From which, with airy flying fingers light, Beyond each mortal touch the most refin'd, The god of winds drew sounds of deep delight: Whence, with just cause, the harp of Æolus it hight. Ah me! what hand can touch the string so fine? Such sweet, such sad, such solemn airs divine, And now a graver sacred strain they stole, Such the gay splendour, the luxurious state, When sleep was coy, the bard in waiting there, Cheer'd the lone midnight with the Muse's love: Composing music bade his dreams be fair, And music lent new gladness to the morning air. Near the pavilions where we slept, still ran Soft-tinkling streams, and dashing waters fell, And sobbing breezes sigh'd, and oft began (So work'd the wizard) wintery storms to swell, As Heaven and Earth they would together mell: At doors and windows, threatening, seem'd to call The demons of the tempest, growling fell, Yet the least entrance found they none at all; Whence sweeter grew our sleep, secure in massy hall. And hither Morpheus sent his kindest dreams, And shed a roseate smile on Nature's face. So fierce with clouds the pure ethereal space; No, fair illusions! artful phantoms, no! Than these same guileful angel-seeming sprites, Who thus in dreams, voluptuous, soft, and bland, Pour'd all th' Arabian Heaven upon her nights, And bless'd them oft besides with more refin'd delights. They were in sooth a most enchanting train, Or hold him clambering all the fearful night Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear, Angels of fancy and of love, be near, And fill with pious awe and joy-mixt woe the heart. Or are you sportive - Bid the morn of youth Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days Of innocence, simplicity, and truth; To cares estrang'd, and manhood's thorny ways. What transport, to retrace our boyish plays, Through secret loop-holes, that had practis'd been Near to his bed, his dinner vile he took; Unkempt, and rough, of squalid face and mien, Our castle's shame! whence, from his filthy nook, We drove the villain out for fitter lair to look. One day there chaunc'd into these halls to rove A joyous youth, who took you at first sight; Him the wild wave of pleasure hither drove, Before the sprightly tempest-tossing light: Certes, he was a most engaging wight, Of social glee, and wit humane, though keen, Turning the night to day, and day to night: For him the merry bells had rung, I ween, If in this nook of quiet bells had ever been. But not ev'n pleasure to excess is good: What most elates then sinks the soul as low: When spring-tide joy pours in with copious flood, The higher still th' exulting billows flow, The farther back again they flagging go, And leave us grovelling on the dreary shore: Taught by this son of joy, we found it so: Who, whilst he staid, kept in a gay uproar Our madden'd castle all, th' abode of sleep no more. As when in prime of June a burnish'd fly, Sprung from the meads, o'er which he sweeps along, Cheer'd by the breathing bloom and vital sky, Then out again he flies, to wing his mazy round. Another guest there was, of sense refin'd, Who felt each worth, for every worth he had; Serene, yet warm, humane, yet firm his mind, As little touch'd as any man's with bad: Him through their inmost walks the Muses lad, To him the sacred love of Nature lent, And sometimes would he make our valley glad; When as we found he would not here be pent, To him the better sort this friendly message sent. "Come, dwell with us! true son of virtue, come! But if, alas! we cannot thee persuade, To lie content beneath our peaceful dome, Ne ever more to quit our quiet glade; Yet when at last thy toils but ill apaid Shall dead thy fire, and damp its heavenly spark, Thou wilt be glad to seek the rural shade, There to indulge the Muse, and Nature mark : We then a lodge for thee will rear in Hagley-Park." A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard beseems; Who, void of envy, guile, and lust of gain, On virtue still, and Nature's pleasing themes, Pour'd forth his unpremeditated strain: The world forsaking with a calm disdain, Here laugh'd he careless in his easy seat; Here quaff'd encircled with the joyous train, Oft moralizing sage; his ditty sweet He loathed much to write, ne cared to repeat. Full oft by holy feet our ground was trod, Nor be forgot a tribe, who minded nought Their oracles break forth mysterious, as of old. Alas! the change! from scenes of joy and rest, To this dark den, where Sickness toss'd alway. Here Lethargy, with deadly sleep opprest, Stretch'd on his back, a mighty lubbard, lay, Heaving his sides, and snored night and day; To stir him from his traunce it was not eath, And his half-open'd eyne he shut straightway: He led, I wot, the softest way to death, I care not, Fortune, what you me deny : And taught withouten pain and strife to yield the Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave. breath. Of limbs enormous, but withal unsound, Soft-swoln and pale, here lay the Hydropsy: Unwieldy man; with belly monstrous round, For ever fed with watery supply; For still he drank, and yet he still was dry. And moping here did Hypochondria sit, Mother of Spleen, in robes of various dye, Who vex'd was full oft with ugly fit; [a wit. And some her frantic deem'd, and some her deem'd A lady proud she was, of ancient blood, For sometimes she would laugh, and sometimes cry, Then sudden waxed wroth, and all she knew not why. Fast by her side a listless maiden pin'd, With aching head, and squeamish heart-burnings; Pale, bloated, cold, she seem'd to hate mankind, Yet lov'd in secret all forbidden things. And here the Tertian shakes his chilling wings; The sleepless Gout here counts the crowing cocks, A wolf now gnaws him, now a serpent stings; Whilst Apoplexy cramm'd Intemperance knocks Down to the ground at once, as butcher felleth ox. CANTO II. The knight of arts and industry, And his achievements fair; That by his castle's overthrow, Secur'd, and crowned were. ESCAP'D the castle of the sire of sin, Ah! where shall I so sweet a dwelling find? For all around, without, and all within, Nothing save what delightful was and kind, of goodness savouring and a tender mind, E'er rose to view. But now another strain, Of doleful note, alas! remains behind : I now must sing of pleasure turn'd to pain, And of the false enchanter, Indolence, complain. Is there no patron to protect the Muse, And they are sure of bread who swink and moil; Come then, my Muse, and raise a bolder song; In Fairy-land there liv'd a knight of old, He still in woods pursued the libbard and the boar. As he one morning, long before the dawn, There, up to earn the needments of the day, Amid the green-wood shade this boy was bred, And grew at last a knight of muchel fame, Of active mind and vigorous lustyhed, The Knight of Arts and Industry by name. Earth was his bed, the boughs his roof did frame; He knew no beverage but the flowing stream; His tasteful well-earn'd food the sylvan game, Or the brown fruit with which the woodlands teem: The same to him glad summer, or the winter breme. So pass'd his youthly morning, void of care, That teach to tame the soil and rule the crook; Ne did the sacred Nine disdain a gentle look. Of fertile genius him they nurtur'd well, That brace the nerves, or make the limbs alert, |