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P O EM S.

POEM IV.

Upon a day, as Love lay fweetly flumb'ring, &c. Compare this with Theocritus, Idyll. XIX. 1.

Τὸν κλέπτων πολ ̓ Ερωτα

PROTHALAMION.

From those high towers this noble Lord iffuing,
Like radiant Hesper, when his golden hair
In th' ocean billows he hath bathed fair, &c.

Fairy Queen, I. XII. 21.

As bright as doth the morning ftar appear
Out of the eaft, with flaming locks bedight,
To tell the dawning day is drawing near.

II. x11. 65.

As that fair ftar, the meffenger of morn,
His dewy face out of the fea doth rear.

Seneca, Hippol. 749.

Qualis eft primas referens tenebras
Nuncius noctis, modo lotus undis
Hefperus, pulfis iterum tenebris
Lucifer idem.

Virgil,

Virgil, Æn. VIII. 589.

Qualis ubi Oceani perfufus Lucifer unda,
Quem Venus ante alios aftrorum diligit ignis,
Extulit os facrum cælo, tenebrafque refolvit.

Homer, II. E. 5.

Ασέρ ̓ ὀπωρινῷ ἐναλίγκιον, ὅσε μάλισα
Λαμπρὶν παμφαίνησι λελεμεν @ Ωκεανοίο.

The poet Ion calls Lucifer,

Skie-ranging Morning star,

White-wing'd forerunner of the God of day.

Αοῖον ἀεροφοίταν αςέρα μείνομεν [I believe it fhould be μείναμεν] αελία λευκή πτέρυγι πρόδομον. A good inftance of the style of Dithyrambics. You may find it in the Scholiaft of Ariftophanes, Pac. 835.

See Bentley on Malela, p. 53. Méw is not, I think, to be found; but only μévw, and míμvw. Herodotus ufes μένω, ἀνέμενον. Ρ. 401. 1, 20.

EPITHALAMION.

Ah! when will this long weary day have end? -
Long tho' it be, at last I fee it gloom,

And the bright evening ftar, with golden creft,
Appear out of the east.

Fair child of beauty, glorious lamp of love
How cheerfully thou lookest from above!

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Catullus, LX. 1, 26.

Vefper Olympo

Exfpectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit.
Hefpere qui cælo lucet jucundior ignis?
Qui defponfa tua firmes connubia flammâ
Quæ pepigere viri, pepigerunt antè parentes,
Nec junxere prius quàm fe tuus extulit ardor.
Quid datur à divis felici optatius horâ?
Seneca, Medea. 71.

Et tu, quæ gemini prævia Temporis
Tarde ftella redis femper amantibus:
Te matres avida, te cupiunt nurus,
Quamprimùm radios fpargere lucidos.

IBID.

Speaking of Jupiter and Night:

Or like as when he with thyfelf did lie,
And begot Majefty.

According to Ovid, Majefty is the daughter of Honos and Reverentia.

AN HYMN IN HONOUR OF LOVE.

Begot of Plenty and of Penury.

Plato fays, that Cupid was born of Plenty and Poverty; Πόρο και Πενίας. Conviv.

IBID.

Witnefs Leander in the Euxine waves.

Not the Euxine waves, but the Hellefpont.

AN HYMN IN HONOUR OF BEAUTY.

But ye fair. Dames

Loath that foul blot, that hellish firebrand,
Difloyal Luft, fair beauty's fouleft blame,
That base affection, which your ears would bland,
Commend to you by Love's abused name;
But is indeed the bondflave of Defame,
Which will the girland of your glory mar,
And quench the fight of your bright-shining star.

Commend, for commended. So in his Muiopotmos :
Arachne by his means was vanquished

Of Pallas, and in her own skill confound.

Confound, for confounded. For fight, perhaps it fhould be light.

It

IBID.

Therefore, to make your beauty more appear,
you behoves to love, and forth to lay
That heavenly riches, which in

you ye

bear.

We should say now, Those heavenly riches: But

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Spenfer ufes riches in the fingular number, as richeffe in French. So again, in his Tears of the Mufes,

Melpom, St. vI.

Why then do foolish men fo much despise
The precious store of this celestial riches?

AN HYMN OF HEAVENLY LOVE,

Speaking of our Saviour:

Yet nought thou afk'ft in lieu of all this love,
But love of us, for guerdon of thy pain:
Aye me! what can us less than that behove?
Had he required life for us again,

Had it been wrong to ask his own with gain?
gave us life, he it restored loft;

He

Then life were leaft, that us fo little cost.

I think it should be, life from us; or, life of us.

IBID.

But He our life hath left unto us free,

Free, that was thrall, and bleffed, that was bann'd;
Ne ought demands, but that we loving be,
As he himself hath lov'd us afore-hand,
And bound thereto with an eternal band;
Him firft to love, that was fo dearly bought,
And next, our brethren to his image wrought.
Him firft, &c. To make sense of this, we must
fuppofe the fenfe and conftruction to be, Firft to
return him that Love, which was fo dearly bought by

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