Hither, they cry'd, direct your eyes, and fee
The men of pleasure, drefs, and gallantry;
Ours is the place at banquets, balls, and plays,
Sprightly our nights, polite are all our days;
Courts we frequent, where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due vifits, and addrefs the fair:
In fact, 'tis true, no nymph we could perfuade,
But ftill in fancy vanquish'd ev'ry maid ;
Of unknown Ducheffes leud tales we tell,
Yet, would the world believe us, all were well.
The joy let others have, and we the name

And what we want in pleasure, grant in fame.
The Queen affents, the trumpet rends the fkies,
And at each blast a Lady's honour dies.

380

385

390

Pleas'd with the strange success, vaft numbers prest Around the fhrine, and made the same request: What you (fhe cry'd) unlearn'd in arts to please, Slaves to yourselves, and ev'n fatigu'd with ease, Who lose a length of undeferving days, Would you ufurp the lover's dear-bought praise ? To just contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall, The people's fable, and the scorn of all.

IMITATIONS.

400

might compare thefe twenty-eight lines following, which contain the fame matter, with eighty-four of Chaucer, beginning thus:

Tho came the fixth companye,

And gan fafte to Fame cry, etc. being too prolix to be here inferted. P.

Straight the black clarion sends a horrid found,
Loud laughs burst out, and bitter fcoffs fly round,
Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud,
And fcornful hiffes run thro' all the croud.

405

Laft, those who boast of mighty mischiefs done, Enslave their country, or ufurp a throne; Or who their glory's dire foundation lay'd On Sov'reigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd; Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,410 Of crooked counfels and dark politics; Of these a gloomy tribe furround the throne, And beg to make th'immortal treasons known. The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire, With fparks, that feem'd to set the world on fire.415 At the dread found, pale mortals stood aghaft, And ftartled nature trembled with the blast.

This having heard and seen, some pow'r unknown Strait chang'd the scene, and fnatch'd me from the

throne.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 406. Laft, those who boast of mighty etc.]
Tho came another companye,

That had y-done the treachery, etc. P.

VER.418. This having heard and feen, etc.] The Scene here changes from the temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow.

Tho faw I ftonde in a valey,

Under the caftle faft by
A house, that Domus Dedali

Before my view appear'd a structure fair,
Its fite uncertain, if in earth or air;

With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round;
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls refound;
Not lefs in number were the spacious doors,

420

Than leaves on trees, or fands upon the shores; 425 Which still unfolded ftand, by night, by day,

Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way.

As flames by nature to the skies afcend,

As weighty bodies to the centre tend,

IMITATIONS.

A

That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made fo wonderly, I wis,
Ne half fo queintly y-wrought;
And evermo as fwift as thought,
This queint house about went,
That never more it ftill ftent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees,
In fummer, when they ben grene
And in the roof yet men may fene
A thousand hoels and well mo,
To letten the foune out go;
And by day in every tide
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unfhet;
No porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace:
Ne never reft is in that place.

P.

VER. 428. As flames by nature to the etc.] This thought is transferred hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus,

Geffray, thou wotteft well this, etc. P.

As to the fea returning rivers roll,

And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole ;

Hither, as to their proper place, arife

All various founds from earth, and feas, and skies,
Or fpoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;

Nor ever filence, reft, or peace is here.

430

435

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes
The finking stone at first a circle makes ;
The trembling furface by the motion stir'd,
Spreads in a fecond circle, then a third;

Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, 440
Fill all the watʼry plain, and to the margin dance:
Thus ev'ry voice and found, when first they break,
On neighb'ring air a soft impreffion make;
Another ambient circle then they move;
That, in its turn, impels the next above;
Thro' undulating air the founds are sent,
And spread o'er all the fluid element,

There various news I heard of love and strife, Of peace and war, health, fickness, death, and life,

IMITATIONS.

VER. 448. There various news I heard etc.]
Of werres, of peace, of marriages,
Of reft, of labour, of voyages,
Of abode, of dethe, and of life,
Of love and hate, accord and ftrife,
Of lofs, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of fickness, and leffings,

445

Of lofs and gain, of famine and of store,
Of ftorms at fea, and travels on the fhore,
Of prodigies, and portents feen in air,

Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great,
Of old mismanagements, taxations new ;
All neither wholly falfe, nor wholly true.

Above, below, without, within, around,
Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found,
IMITATIONS.

Of divers tranfmutations

Of eftates and eke of regions,
Of truft, of drede, of jealousy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good, or bad government,
Of fire, and of divers accident. P.
VER. 458. Above, below, without, within, etc.]
But fuch a grete Congregation

Of folke as I faw roame about,
Some within, and fome without,
Was never seen, ne fhall be eft —
And every wight that I faw there
Rowned everich in others ear
A new tyding privily,

Or elfe he told it openly

Right thus, and faid, Knowft not thou

That is betide to night now?

No, quoth he, tell me what?

And then he told him this ynd that, etc,
Thus north and fouth

Went every tiding fro mouth to mouth,
And that encreasing evermo,

As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a sparkle fprong amifs,
Till all the citee brent up

is. P.

450

455