In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade
Imbrown'd the noontide bowers. Thus was this
A happy rural seat of various view:
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,
If true, here only, and of delicious taste.
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hillock, or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose.
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant: mean while murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
244 smote] Val. Flacc. I. 496. 'Percussaque sole scuta.' Orl. Fur. c. viii. st. xx. Percote il sol ardente il vicin colle.' And Psalm (Old Transl.) cxxi. 6. 'The sun shall not smite thee by day.' Todd. 250 fables] Apples. Bentl. MS.
255 irriguous] Hor. Sat. ii. 4. 16. Irriguo nihil est elutius horto. Hume.
262 fringed] See Carew's Poems, p. 204.
From your channels fring'd with flowers.'
'With various trees we fringe the waters' brink.'
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune⚫
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on th' eternal spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove
Of Daphne by Orontes and th' inspir'd
Castalian spring might with this paradise
Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle
Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,
Hid Amalthea and her florid son
Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea's eye;
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True paradise, under the Ethiop line
264 apply] Spens. F. Q. iii. 1. 40.
Sweet birds thereto applide
Their dainty layes,' &c. Bowle.
269 Proserpine] With the same accent in F. Queen, l. ii. 2. 'And sad Proserpine's wrath.' Newton.
273 Daphne] See Wernsdorf. Poet. Minor. vol. vii. p. 1105. v. Capitolini vitam M. Antonini Philos. c. viii. p. 44, ed. Putman.
281 Amara] See Bancroft's Epigrams (1639), 4to. p. 35. (200). 'Of the Ethiopian mountain Amara,' and Stradling's Divine Poems (1625), p. 27.
"The famous hill Amara to this clime
Is but a muddie moore of dirt and slime
By Nilus head, enclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden, where the fiend
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
Of living creatures new to sight and strange.
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honour clad
In naked majesty, seem'd lords of all,
And worthy seem'd for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,
(Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd,)
Whence true authority in men: though both
Not equal, as their sex not equal, seem'd;
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd
Absolute rule; and hyacinthin locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
For the man is not Neither was the man
299 He] See St. Paul, 1 Corinth. xi. 7. He is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. of the woman, but the woman of the man. created for the woman, but the woman for the man.' This passage seems to justify the old reading, 'God in him,' and rejects Bentley and Pearce's alteration, 'God and him.'
301 hyacinthin] See Dionysii Geograph. ver. 1112. Theocriti Idyll. xviii. 2. Longi Pastor. lib. iv. c. 13, and the note in Dyce's ed. of Collins, 'Like vernal hyacinths of sullen hue,' p. 180. To which add Nonni Dionysiaca, xvi. ver. 81.
Αθρήσας δ' Υακίνθου ἴδον κυανόχροα χαίτην.
She as a veil down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Disshevel'd, but in wanton ringlets way'd
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best receiv'd;
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet reluctant amorous delay.
Nor those mysterious parts were then conceal'd;
Then was not guilty shame; dishonest shame
Of nature's works, honour dishonourable,
Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind
With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure,
And banish'd from man's life his happiest life,
Simplicity and spotless innocence!
So pass'd they naked on, nor shunn'd the sight
Of God or angel, for they thought no ill:
So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair
304 as a veil] Carew's Poems, p. 143.
Fann'd with the breath of gentle air,
O'erspreads her shoulders like a tent,
And is her veil and ornament.'
Spenser's F. Queen, iv. 113.
'Which doft, her golden locks that were unbound
Still in a knot unto her heeles down traced,
And like a silken veil in compasse round
About her backe, and all her bodie wound.'
307 As the vine] See Merrick's Tryphiodorus, ver. 108.
'His flowing train depends with artful twine,
Like the long tendrils of the curling vine.'
315 ye] Should we not read 'you'? For what is he speaking to besides Shame ? Newton.
That ever since in love's embraces met;
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.
Under a tuft of shade, that on a green
Stood whisp'ring soft, by a fresh fountain side
They sat them down; and after no more toil
Of their sweet gard'ning labour than suffic'd
To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease
More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite
More grateful, to their supper fruits they fell,
Nectarine fruits, which the compliant boughs
Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline
On the soft downy bank damask'd with flowery.
The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind,
Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream;
Nor gentle purpose nor endearing smiles
Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems
Fair couple, link'd in happy nuptial league,
323 goodliest] On this idiom, borrowed from the Greek, refer to Vigerus de Idiotismis, p. 68, and Thucyd. lib. i. c. 50. Ναυμαχία γὰρ ἅυτη Ελλησι πρὸς Ἕλληνας νεῶν πλήθει μεγίστη δὴ τῶν пd tαviñs ɣεyévηtai. v. Herman ad Euripid. Med. ed. Elmsley, p. 67.
332 compliant boughs] Compare the Sarcotis of Masenius, lib. i. p. 94, ed. Barbou:
'Hic mensæ genialis opes, et dapsilis arbos
Fructibus inflexos, fœcundo palmite, ramos
Curvat ad obsequium, præbetque alimenta petenti.'
334 damask'd] P. Fletcher. P. Isl. c. xii. 1.
'Upon the flowrie banks
Where various flowers damaske the fragrant seat.' Todd.
337 gentle] Spens. F. Qu. iii. 8. 14.
'He gan make gentle purpose
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