She scratched, bit, and spar'd ne lace ne band,
And bitch and rogue her answer was to all;
Nay, e'en the parts of shame by name would call:
Yea, when the paffes by or lane or nook,
Would greet the man who turn'd him to the wall,
And by his hand obfcene the porter took,

Nor ever did afkance like modest Virgin look.

VI.

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Such place hath Deptford, navy-building town,
Woolwich and Wapping, fmelling strong of pitch;
Such Lambeth, envy of each band and gown,
And Twick'nam fuch, which fairer fcenes enrich,
Grots, ftatues, urns, and Jo-n's Dog and Bitch,
Ne village is without, on either fide,

All up the filver Thames, or all adown; Ne Richmond's felf, from whofe tall front are ey'd Vales, fpires, meand'ring ftreams, and Windfor's tow'ry pride.

III.

WALL E R.

POPE has imitated Waller with elegance, especially in the verfes on a Fan of his own defign; for he defigned with dexterity. and tafte.

The application of the ftory of Cephalus and Procris is as ingenious as Waller's Phoebus and Daphne. Waller abounds, perhaps to excefs, in allufions to mythology and the ancient claffics. The French, as may be imagined, complain that he is too learned for the ladies. The following twelve lines contain three allufions, delicate indeed; but fome may deem them to be too far-fetched, too much crouded, and not obvious to the lady to whom they were ad dreffed, on her finging a fong of his compofing:

"Chloris, yourself you fo excell,

When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought,
That like a spirit with this spell

Of my own teaching I am caught.

That eagle's fate and mine are one,

Which on the fhaft that made him die,

Efpy'd a feather of his own

Wherewith he wont to foar fo high.

Had Echo with so sweet a grace

Narciffus' loud complaints return'd,
Not for reflection of his face,

But of his voice, the boy had burn'd."

Here is matter enough compreffed together for Voiture to have pun out into fifty lines. If I was to name my favourite among Waller's smaller pieces, it fhould be his Apology for having loved before. He begins by faying, "That they who never had been used to the surprising juice of the grape, render up their reason to

the

the first delicious cup." This is fufficiently gallant; but what he adds has much of the fublime, and is like a thought of Milton's:

“To man that was i' th' evening made,

Stars gave the first delight;

Admiring in the gloomy shade

Those little drops of light.

Then at Aurora, whose fair hand
Remov'd them from the skies,

He gazing tow❜rds the East did ftand,
She entertain'd his eyes.

But when the bright Sun did appear,
All those he 'gan despise;

His wonder was determin'd there,

And could no higher rife."

Which of the French writers has produced any thing at once fo gallant and fo lofty?

The English verfification was much smoothed by Waller; who used to own, that he derived the harmony of his numbers from Fairfax's Taffo, who well-vowelled his lines, though Sandys was a melodious verfifier, and Spenfer has perhaps more variety of mufic than either of them. A poet who addreffes his pieces to living characters, and confines himself to the subjects and anecdotes of his own times, like this courtly author, bids fairer to become popular, than he that is employed in higher scenes of poetry and fiction, which are more remote from common manners. It may be remarked laftly of Waller, that there is no paffion in his love-verses; and that one elegy of Tibullus, fo well imitated by Hammond, and so un. juftly cenfured by Johnson, excels a volume of the most refined panegyric. It is remarkable that Waller never mentions Milton, whose Comus, and smaller poems, preceded his own; but were unfuitable to the French tafte, on which Waller was formed.

III.

WALLER.

ON A LADY SINGING TO HER LUTE.

FAIR

5

IR Charmer, cease, nor make your voice's prize A heart refign'd the conqueft of your eyes: Well might, alas! that threat'ned veffel fail, Which winds and light'ning both at once affail. We were too bleft with these inchanting lays, Which must be heav'nly when an Angel plays: But killing charms your lover's death contrive, Left heav'nly mufic fhould be heard alive. Orpheus could charm the trees: but thus a tree, Taught by your hand, can charm no less than he: A poet made the filent wood pursue,

This vocal wood had drawn the Poet too.

II

On a FAN of the Author's defign, in which was painted the ftory of CEPHALUS and PROCRIS, with the Motto, AURA VENI.

JOME, gentle Air! th' Aeolian fhepherd faid,

COME,

While Procris panted in the secret shade;
Come, gentle Air! the fairer Delia cries,
While at her feet her fwain expiring lies.
Lo the glad gales o'er all her beauties ftray,
Breathe on her lips, and in her bofom play!
In Delia's hand this toy is fatal found,
Nor could that fabled dart more furely wound:
Both gifts deftructive to the givers prove;
Alike both lovers fall by thofe they love.

Yet guiltless too this bright destroyer lives,

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At random wounds, nor knows the wound the gives: She views the story with attentive eyes,

And pities Procris, while her lover dies.

IN the following love-verfes is a train of fenfibility which the reader will be pleased, I fuppofe, to fee, being now first published from a manufcript of Mr. Gray:

"With beauty, with pleasure, furrounded, to languish,
To weep without knowing the cause of my anguish;
To ftart from fhort flumbers, and wifh for the morning,
To clofe my dull eyes when I fee it returning;
Sighs fudden and frequent, looks ever dejected,

Words that fteal from my tongue by no meaning connected;
Ah fay, fellow fwains, how these symptoms befell me?
They fmile, but reply not; fure Delia will tell me."