A

Or the

T

NOON-PIECE:

MOWERS at DINNER.

By Mr. SMART.

Jam paftor umbras cum grege languido

Rivumque feffus quærit, & horridi
Dumeta Silvani, caretque

Ripa vagis taciturna ventis.

HE Sun is now too radiant to behold,
And vehement he sheds his rays of liquid gold;
No cloud appears thro' all the wide expanse;
And fhort, but yet diftinct, and clear,
To the wanton whistling air

The mimic fhadows dance.

Fat Mirth and Gallantry the gay,
And romping Ecstasy 'gin play.
Now myriads of young Cupids rife,
And open all their joy-bright eyes,
Filling with infant prate the grove,
And lifp in fweetly-fault'ring love.
In the middle of the ring,
Mad with May, and wild of wing,
Fire-ey'd Wantonness shall sing.

By the rivulet on the rushes,
Beneath a canopy of bushes,
Where the ever-faithful Tray
Guards the dumplings and the whey,
COLIN CLOUT and Yorkshire WILL
From the leathern flasket fwill.

Numb. VIII.

૦.૧

HOR,

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Their

Their fcythes upon the adverle bank

Glitter 'mongst the entangled trees, Where the hazles form a rank,

And court'fy to the courting breeze.

Ah! HARRIOT, fovereign mistress of my heart,
Could I thee to these meads decoy,

New grace to each fair object thou'dft impart,
And heighten every scene to perfect joy.

On a bank of fragrant thyme,
Beneath yon fhapely, fhadowy pine,
We'll with the well-disguised hook
Cheat the tenants of the brook;
Or where coy Daphne's thickest shade
Drives amorous Phoebus from the glade,
There read SIDNEY's high-wrought stories
Of ladies charms, and heroes glories;
Thence fir'd, the fweet narration act,
And kifs the fiction into fact.

Or fatiate with Nature's random fcenes
Let's to the garden's regulated greens,
Where Tafte and Elegance command
Art to lend her dædal hand, .
Where Flora's flock, by nature wild,
To discipline are reconcil'd,
And laws and order cultivate,
Quite civiliz'd into a state.

From the fun and from the fhow'r,
Hafte we to yon boxen bow'r,
Secluded from the teizing pry

Of Argus Curiosity:

There while Phoebus' golden mean,
The gay meridian is feen,

E'er

TH

E'er decays the lamp of light,

And length'ning fhades ftretch out to night,

Seize, feize the hint

-each hour improve,

(This is morality in love)

Lend, lend thine hand-O let me view
Thy parting breafts, fweet avenue!
Then,- -then thy lips, the coral cell
Where all th' ambrofial kiffes dwell!
Let's every fultry noon employ
In day-dreams of ecstatic joy.

HORACE, Book III. Ode 3.

HE man, whom facred truth and justice sway,
With calm and conftant fteps purfues his way;
Not the mad rage of faction's daring fons

Can daunt his foul, or tyrant's awful frowns;
Not Adriatick, when the fouthern sky

Pours all its storms, and rears her billows high;
Nor vengeful bolts from Jove's dread thund'ring arm,
That flash destruction, and the world alarm.

If the great Globe, diffolving Nature's tie,
Should thro' the boundless Æther lawless fly;
Amidft o'erwhelming ruin, void of fear,
He'd view the wreck, the dire confufion hear.
Taught by this heav'nly art, two sons of Jove,
POLLUX and great ALCIDES bravely strove
With toils and dangers of enormous fize,
And deify'd by virtue, reach'd the fkies.

There too AUGUSTUS, on ætherial plains,
Amidst the throned pow'rs, immortal reigns;
Or foft reclin'd in ever-blooming bow'rs,
Thro' rofy lips the fpicy nectar pours..
LYNEUS, born amid celeftial flame,
When JOVE to SEMELE in thunder came,

With tygers fierce his rapid chariots drove
Among the stars, and gain'd the realms above.

Great ROMULUS, to whom the God of war
Lent his own fiery fteed and thund'ring car,
Refcu'd his martial fame from Lethe's wave,
And godlike perfon from a mortal grave.

FAR round OLYMPUS loud applaufes broke Amidst the gods, whom JUNO thus bespoke :

Ill omen'd Troy, that fatal PARIS bore,

And doubly curst, when HELEN reach'd thy shore !
That venal judge and that adult'rous dame

Thy walls have ras'd, and wrapt thy tow'rs in flame;
From that difaftrous, inaufpicious hour

When bafe LAOMEDON his vow forfwore,
By JUNO and chafte PALLAS both abhor'd,
Thy haughty people and perfidious lord.

No more shall MENELAUS' treach'rous guest,
With Spartan queen, in guilty fplendor feast,
Nor PRIAM's perjur'd house the Greeks alarm,
With all the boafted aid of HECTOR'S arm.
At length we see that furious war afwag'd,'
The ftrife of Gods, that ten long fummers rag'd:
My wrath appeas'd with blood of faithlefs Troy,
To thee, great MARS, resigns thy Phrygian boy;
Let him afcend to these our bright abodes
And quaff the sparkling nectar of the gods,
In heav'ns great fynod take his deftin'd place,
And with his prefence all our councils grace.
While raging feas fhall roll their distant tide,
And Rome from Troy with jealous waves divide,
Her exil'd offspring shall uninjur'd stray
Thro' various lands, and peaceful scepters fway.
While herds and flocks prophane old PRIAM's duft,
And, hated PARIS, graze around thy bust ;
Fierce monsters yell along thy dreary fhores,
And fearless whelp in thy forfaken tow'rs;

So

So long fhall Rome her conquests wide extend,
And Afia's lords beneath her yoke shall bend;
Her dreaded name to earth's remotest bound,
Fame fhall extend, and in her trump fhall found,
Where Afric's fragrant gales enrich the air,

And fwelling Nile prevents the plowman's care.
Her valiant heroes bravely shall despise
The guilty ore, that in dark embryo lies,
In gloomy cavern hatching human woe,
'Till lab'ring earth in pangs bring forth the foe.
No luft of spoil fhall rear her conq'ring arm,
Nor ravish'd fhrines th' avenging gods alarm.
The vanquish'd world her legions fhall o'erspread,
And frown revolt and oppofition dead;

Thro' fcorching climes ambitious urge their way,
And where eternal fogs obftruct the day.

To Rome these honours have the fates affign'd,
But let this needful caution guard her mind.
Should filial love or regal pride infpire,
To rear from out the duft her proftrate fire;
With inaufpicious fate and adverse skies,
If, phoenix-like, a fecond Troy fhould rise;
JUNO fhall head her conq'ring troops again,
And deep-enrag'd repeat the tragick scene.
Thrice let APOLLO build her walls of brafs,
Thrice o'er the ruins fhall my Grecians pass';
Her captive queen shall thrice in tears deplore
Old PRIAM flain, and HECTOR drag'd in gore.

Here cease, rafh muse, nor dare in wanton verse The folemn fpeeches of the Gods rehearse; Prophane not heav'nly themes with trifling fong; To words celeftial loftier notes belong.

July 31, 1750.

T. N.

The