Lucan, very beautifully, IV. 519.

Victurofque Dei celant, ut vivere durent,
Felix effe mori.

DECEMBER.

And tried time yet taught me greater things:
The fudden rifing of the raging feas;

The footh of birds by beating of their wings;
The power of herbs, both which can hurt and ease:
And which be wont t' enrage the reftlefs fheep,
And which be wont to work eternal fleep.

But ah, unwife and witlefs Colin Clout!
That kydft the hidden kinds of many a weed;
Yet kydft not one to cure thy fore heart-root,
Whose rankling wound as yet does rifely bleed.
Ovid, Met. I. 521.

Inventum medicina meum eft; opiferque per orbem
Dicor; et herbarum eft fubje&ta potentia nobis.
Hei mihi, quod nullis amor eft medicabilis herbis:
Nec profunt domino, quæ profunt omnibus, artes!

IBID.

And thus, of all my harvest hope, I have
Nought reaped, but a weedy crop of care;

Which when I thought t' have thresh'd in fwelling

fheave,

Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley bare.

Virgil,

Virgil, Ecl. V. 36.

Grandia fæpe quibus mandavimus hordea fulcis,
Infelix lolium, et fteriles dominantur avena.

Job xxxi. 38. If my land cry against me, let thiftles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.

EPILOGUE.

In this Epilogue, in which he fings his Exegi, he fays,

Dare not to match thy pipe with Tityrus his ftile, Nor with the Pilgrim that the Plough-man plaid awhile:

But follow them far off, and their high fteps adore.
From Statius, Theb. XII. 816.

Vive, precor, nec tù divinam Æneida tenta,
Sed longe fequere, et veftigia femper adora.

COLIN CLOUT's COME HOME AGAIN.

Whilft thou waft hence, all dead in dole did lie;
The woods were heard to wail full many a figh,
And all the birds with filence to complain;
The fields with faded flowers did feem to mourn,
And all their flocks from feeding to refrain;
The running waters wept for thy return,
And all their fish with languor did lament:

But now both woods, and fields, and floods revive,
Sith thou art come, their cause of merriment.

Virgil,

Virgil, Ecl. I. 39.

1

Ipfæ te, Tityre, pinus,

Ipfi te fontes, ipfa hæc arbusta, vocabant.

Ecl. VII. 55.

57.

Omnia nunc rident. At fi formofus Alexis
Montibus his abeat, videas et flummina ficca.

Aret ager: vitio moriens fitit aëris herba: Liber pampineas invidit collibus umbras : Phyllidis adventu noftræ nemus omne virebit : Ariftophanes, Pac. 596. where the Chorus fings the Praises of Peace:

We have here a description of a ship, by a Shepherd who had never seen one before :

For as we stood there waiting on the ftrond,
Behold, an huge great veffel to us came,
Dancing upon the water's back to lond,
As if it fcorn'd the danger of the fame;

Yet

Yet was it but a wooden frame, and frail,
Glewed together with fome fubtile matter ;
Yet had it arms, and wings, and head, and tail,
And life to move itfelf upon the water.

Strange thing, how bold and fwift the monfter was!
That neither car'd for wind, nor hail, nor rain,
Nor fwelling waves, but thorough them did país
So proudly, that she made them roar again.

Cicero, De Nat. Deor. II. 35.

"Ille apud Attium paflor, qui navem numquam ante vidiffet, ut procul divinum et novum vehiculum Argonautarum e monte confpexit, primo admirans et perterritus, hoc modo loquitur :

Tanta moles labitur

Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti fonitu et ftrepitu:
Præ fe undas volvit, vortices vi fufcitat,
Ruit prolapfa: pelagus refpergit: profluit, &c."

See the notes of Dr. Davies. 'Tis likely Spenfer had these in his mind.

Dryden, Conqueft of Mexico:

Guy. At laft, as far as I could cast my eyes

Upon the fea, fomewhat methought did rife
Like bluish mifts, which still approaching more,
Took dreadful fhapes, and mov'd towards
the shore.-

The object I could firft diftinctly view,
Was tall ftreight trees, which on the waters flew.

Wings on their fides instead of leaves did grow, Which gather'd all the breath the winds could blow:

And at their roots grew floating palaces, Whofe out-blow'd bellies cut the yielding feas. Mont. What divine monfters, O ye Gods, were these, That float in air, and flie upon the feas!

Came they alive or dead upon the shore? Guy. Alas, they liv'd, too fure; I heard them roar : All turn'd their fides, and to each other spoke : I saw their words break out in fire and smoke. Sure 'tis their voice that thunders from on high, Or these the younger brothers of the fkie..

IBID.

So far that land, our mother, did us leave,
And nought but fea and heaven to us appear.
Virgil, Æn. III. 192.

Poftquam altum tenuere rates, nec jam amplius ulla
Apparent terræ, cælum undique, et undique pontus.

IBID.

Or like the circlet of a turtle true,

In which all colours of the rainbow be.

The Emperor Nero faid of the dove:

Colla Cytheriaca fplendent agitata columba.

Which verfe his tutor Seneca commends greatly, Nat. Quæft. I. 5. And indeed it is not a bad one.