Thee, then a boy, within my arms I laid,
When for my sins I lov'd this haughty maid;
Not less ador'd in life, nor serv'd by me,
Than proud Honoria now is lov'd by thee
What did I not her stubborn heart to gain?
But al my vows were answer'd with disdain;
She scorn'd my sorrows, and despis'd my
pain.

Long time I dragg'd my days in fruitless care,
Then loathing life, and plung'd in deep despair,
To finish my unhappy life, I fell

On this sharp sword, and now am damn'd in hell. Short was her joy; for soon the insulting maid By heaven's decree in the cold grave was laid. And, as in unrepented sin she died,

Doom'd to the same bad place,is punish'd for her pride:

Because she deem'd I well deserv'd to die,
And made a merit of her cruelty.

There, then, we met; both tried and both were cast,

And this irrevocable sentence pass'd;
That she, whom I so long pursu'd in vain,
Should suffer from my hands a lingering pain:
Renew'd to life that she might daily die,
I daily doom'd to follow, she to fly;
No more a lover, but a mortal foe,

I seek her life (for love is none below :)
As often as my dogs with better speed
Arrest her flight, is she to death decreed:
Then with this fatal sword, on which I died,
I pierce her open back, or tender side,
And tear that harden'd heart from out her
breast,

Which, with her entrails, makes my hungry hounds a feast.

Nor lies she long, but as her fates ordain
Springs up to life, and fresh to second pain,
Is sav'd to-day, to-morrow to be slain.

This, vers'd in death, the infernal knight re-
lates,

And then for proof fulfill'd the common fates;
Her heart and bowels through her back he drew,
And fed the hounds that heip'd him to pursue.
Stern look'd the fiend, as frustrate of his will,
Not half suffic'd, and greedy yet to kill.
And now the soul, expiring through the wound,
Had left the body breathless on the ground,
When thus the grisly spectre spoke again:
Behold the fruit of ill-rewarded pain:
As many months as I sustain'd her hate,
So many years is she condemn'd by fate
To daily death; and every several place
Conscious of her disdain, and my disgrace,
Must witness her just punishment; and be
A scene of triumph and revenge to me,
As in this grove I took my last farewell,
As on this very spot of earth I fell

As Friday saw me die, so she my prey
Becomes e'en here, on this revolving day
Thus while he spoke, the virgin from the
ground
Upstarted fresh, already clos'd the wound,
And unconcern'd for all she felt before,
Precipitates her flight along the shore:
The hell-hounds, as ungorg'd with flesh and
blood,

Pursue their prey, and seek their wonted food:
The fiend remounts his courser, mends his pace,
And all the vision vanish'd from the place.

Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with

awe,

And stupid at the wondrous things he saw, Surpassing common faith, transgressing nature's law:

[cree,

He would have been asleep,and wish'd to wake,
But dreams, he knew, no long impression make,
Though strong at first; if vision, to what end,
But such as must his future state portend?
His love the damsel, and himself the fiend.
But yet reflecting that it could not be
From Heaven, which cannot impious acts de-
Resolv'd within himself to shun the snare,
Which hell for his destruction did prepare;
And as his better genius should direct,
From an ill cause to draw a good effect. [way,
Inspir'd from heaven, he homeward took his
Nor pall'd his new design with long delay:
But of his train a trusty servant sent,
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and usual salutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he said:
What you have often counsell'd, to remove
My vain pursuit of unregarded love,
By thrift my sinking fortune to repair,
Though late, yet is at last become my care:
My heart shall be my own; my vast expense
Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence;
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her father's family,

Her friends, and mine, the cause I shall display,

On Friday next; for that's the appointed day. Well pleas'd were all his friends, the task was

light,

The father, mother, daughter, they invite :
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repast
But yet resolv'd, because it was the last.
The day was come, the guests invited came,
And, with the rest, the inexorable dame :
A feast prepar'd with riotous expense,
Much cost, more care, and most magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in that haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghost pursu'd his love,
The tables in a proud pavilion spread,
With flowers below, and tissue over head:

The rest in rank, Honoria, chief in place,
Was artfully contriv'd to set her face
To front the thicket, and behold the chase.
The feast was serv'd, the time so well forecast
That just when the dessert and fruits were
plac'd,

The fiend's alarm began; the hollow sound
Sung in the leaves, the forest shook around,
Air blacken'd, roll'd the thunder, groan'd the
ground.

Nor long before the loud laments arise Of one distress'd, and mastiffs' mingled cries; And first the dame came rushing through the wood,

And next the famish'd hounds that sought their food,

And grip'd her flanks, and oft essay'd their jaws

in blood.

Last came the felon, on his sable steed, Arm'd with his naked sword, and urg'd his dogs to speed.

She ran, and cried, her flight directly bent (A guest unbidden) to the fatal tent.

The scene of death, and place ordain'd for punishment.

Loud was the noise, aghast was every guest, The women shriek'd, the men forsook the feast; The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bay'd; The hunter close pursu'd the visionary maid, She rent the heaven with loud laments, imploring aid.

The gallants, to protect the lady's right, Their falchions brandish'd at the grisly spright High on his stirrups he provok'd the fight. Then on the crowd he cast a furious look, And wither'd all their strength before he strook : Back, on your lives, let be, said he, my prey, And let my vengeance take the destin'd way: Vain are your arms, and vainer your defence, Against the eternal doom of Providence : Mine is the ungrateful maid by heaven design'd: Mercy she would not give, nor mercy shall she find.

At this the former tale again he told

With thundering tone, and dreadful to behold: Sunk were their hearts with horror of the crime,

Nor needed to be warn'd a second time,
But bore each other back: some knew the face,
And all had heard the much lamented case
Of him who fell for love, and this the fatal place.
And now the infernal minister advanc'd,
Seiz'd the due victim, and with fury lane'd
Her back, and piercing through her inmost
heart,

Drew backward as before the offending part.
The reeking entrails next he tore away,
And to his meager mastiffs made a prey.

The pale assistants on each other star'd,
With gaping mouths for issuing words prepar'd,
The still-born sounds upon the palate hung,
And died imperfect on the faltering tongue.
The fright was general; but the female band
(A helpless train) in more confusion stand:
With horror shuddering, on a heap they run
Sick at the sight of hateful justice done;
For conscience rung the alarm, and made the
case their own.

So spread upon a lake, with upward eye,
A plump of fowl behold their foe on high
They close their trembling troop; and all attend
On whom the sousing eagle will descend.

But most the proud Honoria fear'd the event, And thought to her alone the vision sent. Her guilt presents to her distracted mind Heaven's justice, Theodore's revengeful kind, And the same fate to the same sin assign'd. Already sees herself the monster's prey, And feels her heart and entrails torn away 'T was a mute scene of sorrow, mix'd with fear; Still on the table lay the unfinish'd cheer: The knight and hungry mastiffs stood around, The mangled dame lay breathless on the ground; When on a sudden, reinspir'd with breath, Again she rose, again to suffer death; Nor staid the hell-hounds,nor the hunter stay'd But follow'd, as before, the flying maid; The avenger took from earth the avenging sword, [spurr'd; And mounting light as air, his sable steed he The clouds dispell'd, the sky resum'd her light, And Nature stood recover'd of her fright. But fear, the last of ills, remain'd behind, And horror heavy sat on every mind. Nor Theodore encourag'd more the feast, But sternly look'd, as hatching in his breast Some deep designs: which when Honoria

view'd,

The fresh impulse her former fright renew'd: She thought herself the trembling dame who fled And him the grisly ghost that spurr'd the infernal steed: [drew,

The more dismay'd, for when the guests with-
Their courteous host saluting all the crew
Regardless pass'd her o'er, nor grac'd with kind.
adicu.

That sting infix'd within her haughty mind,
The downfall of her empire she divin'd;
And her proud heart with secret sorrow pin'd.
Home as they went, the sad discourse renew'd
Of the relentless dame to death pursu'd,
And of the sight obscene so lately view'd.
None durst arraign the righteous doom she bore,
E'en they who pitied most, yet blam'd her more:
The parallel they needed not to name,
But in the dead they damn'd the living dame.

Nor can we write without it, nor would you
A tale of only dry instruction view.
Nor love is always of a vicious kind,
But oft to virtuous acts inflames the mind,
Awakes the sleepy vigour of the soul,
And, brushing o'er, adds motion to the pool.
Love, studious how to please, improves our
parts

With polish'd manners, and adorns with arts.
Love first invented verse, and form'd the rhyme,
The motion measur'd, harmoniz'd the chime;
To liberal acts enlarg'd the narrow-soul'd,
Soften'd the fierce, and made the coward bold:
The world, when waste, he peopled with in-

crease,

And warring nations reconcil'd in peace.
Ormond, the first, and all the fair may find,
In this one legend, to their fame design'd,
When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the
mind.

In that sweet isle where Venus keeps her court,
And every grace, and all the loves, resort;
Where either sex is form'd of softer earth,
And takes the bent of pleasure from their birth;
There liv'd a Cyprian lord above the rest,
Wise, wealthy, with a numerous issue bless'd;
But as no gift of fortune is sincere,
Was only wanting in a worthy heir:
His eldest born, a goodly youth to view,
Excell'd the rest in shape, and outward show,
Fair, tall, his limbs with due proportion join'd,
But of a heavy, dull, degenerate mind.
His soul belied the features of his face:
Beauty was there, but beauty in disgrace.
A clownish mien, a voice with rustic sound,
And stupid eyes that ever lov'd the ground.
He look'd like nature's error, as the mind
And body were not of a piece design'd,
But made for two, and by mistake in one were
join'd.

The ruling rod, the father's forming care,
Were exercis'd in vain on wit's despair;
The more inform'd, the less he understood,
And deeper sunk by floundering in the mud.
Now scorn'd of all, and grown the public shame
The people from Galesus chang'd his name,
And Cymon call'd, which signifies a brute;
So well his name did with his nature suit.

His father, when he found his labour lost, And care employ'd that answer'd not the cost, Chose an ungrateful object to remove, And loath'd to see what nature made him love; So to his country farm the fool confin'd; Rude work well suited with a rustic mind. Thus to the wilds the sturdy Cymon went, A squire among the swains, and pleas'd with

banishment.

His corn and cattle were his only care,
And his supreme delight, a country fair.
It happen'd, on a summer's holyday,
That to the green-wood shade he took his way;
For Cymon shunn'd the church, and us'd not

much to pray.

His quarter-staff, which he could ne'er forsake,
Hung half before, and half behind his back.
He trudg'd along, unknowing what he sought,
And whistled as he went, for want of thought.

By chance conducted, or by thirst constrain'd,
The deep recesses of the grove he gain'd;
Where in a plain defended by the wood,
Crept through the matted grass a crystal flood,
By which an alabaster fountain stood:
And on the margin of the fount was laid
(Attended by her slaves) a sleeping maid.
Like Dian and her nyinphs, when, tir'd with
sport,

To rest by cool Eurotas they resort:
The dame herself the goddess well express'd,
Not more distinguish'd by her purple vest,
Than by the charming features of her face,
And, e'en in slumber, a superior grace:
Her comely limbs compos'd with decent care,
Her body shaded with a slight cymar;
Her bosom to the view was only bare:
Where two beginning paps were scarcely spied,
For yet their places were but signified:
The fanning wind upon her bosom blows,
To meet the fanning wind the bosom rose;
The fanning wind, and purling streams, con-
tinue her repose.

The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes,
And gaping mouth, that testified surprise,
Fix'd on her face, nor could remove his sight,
New as he was to love, and novice to delight:
Long mute he stood, and leaning on his staff,
His wonder witness'd with an idiot laugh
Then would have spoke, but by his glimmering
[fence:

sense

First found his want of words, and fear'd ofDoubted for what he was he should be known, By his clown accent, and his country tone. Through the rude chaos thus the running light Shot the first ray that pierc'd the native night: Then day and darkness in the mass were mix'd, Till gather'd in a globe the beams were fix'd: Last shone the sun, who, radiant in his sphere, Illumin'd heaven and earth, and roll'd around

the year.

So reason in this brutal soul began,
Love made him first suspect he was a man ;
Love made him doubt his broad barbarian

sound;

By love his want of words, and wit, he found.
That sense of want prepar'd the future way
To knowledge, and disclos'd the promise of a day.

What not his father's care, nor tutor's art,
Could plant with pains in his unpolish'd heart,
The best instructor, Love, at once inspir'd,
As barren grounds to fruitfulness are fir'd:
Love taught him shame, and shame, with love
at strife,

Soon taught the sweet civilities of life;
His

gross material soul at once could find
Somewhat in her excelling all her kind :
Exciting a desire till then unknown,
Somewhat unfound, or found in her alone.
This made the first impression on his mind,
Above, but just above, the brutal kind.
For beasts can like, but not distinguish too,
Nor their own liking by reflection know ;
Nor why they like or this, or t' other face,
Or judge of this, or that peculiar grace;
But love in gross, and stupidly admire :
As flies, allur'd by light, approach the fire.
Thus our man-beast, advancing by degrees,
First likes the whole, then separates what he

sees;

On several parts a several praise bestows,
The ruby lips, the well-proportion'd nose.
The snowy skin, and raven-glossy hair,
The dimpled cheek, and forehead rising fair,
And e'en in sleep itself, a smiling air.
From thence his eyes descending view'd the
rest,
[breast.

Her plump round arms, white hands, and heaving
Long on the last he dwelt, though every part
A pointed arrow sped to pierce his heart.

Thus in a trice a judge of beauty grown, (A judge erected from a country clown) He long'd to see her eyes, in slumber hid, And wish'd his own could pierce within the lid: He would have wak'd her, but restrain'd his thought,

And love new-born the first good manners taught,
An awful fear his ardent wish withstood,
Nor durst disturb the goddess of the wood.
For such she seem'd by her celestial face,
Excelling all the rest of human race :
And things divine, by common sense he knew,
Must be devoutly seen, at distant view;
So checking his desire, with trembling heart
Gazing he stood, nor would, nor could depart;
Fix'd as a pilgrim wilder'd in his way,
Who dares not stir by night, for fear to stray,
But stands with awful eyes to watch the dawn
of day.

Atlenth awaking, Iphigene the fair, (So was the beauty call'd, who caus'd his care,) Unclos'd her eyes, and double day reveal'd, While those of all her slaves in sleep were seal'd.

The slavering cudden, propp'd upon his staff,
Stood ready gaping with a grinning laugh.

To welcome her awake, nor durst begin To speak, but wisely kept the fool within. Then she; What makes you, Cymon, here alone? [known, (For Cymon's name was round the country Because descended of a noble race, And for a soul ill sorted with his face.)

But still the sot stood silent with surprise, With fix'd regard on her new-open'd eyes, And in his breast receiv'd the envenom'd dart A tickling pain that pleas'd amid the smart. But conscious of her form, with quick distrust She saw his sparkling eyes, and fear'd his bru tal lust.

This to prevent, she wak'd her sleepy crew,
And rising hasty, took a short adieu.

Then Cymon first his rustic voice essay'd,
With proffer'd service to the parting maid,
To see her safe; his hand she long denied,
But took at length, asham'd of such a guide.
So Cymon led her home, and leaving there,
No more would to his country clowns repair,
But sought his father's house, with better mind,
Refusing in the farm to be confin'd.

The father wonder'd at the son's return, And knew not whether to rejoice or mourn But doubtfully receiv'd, expecting still To learn the secret causes of his alter'd will. Nor was he long delay'd: the first request He made, was like his brothers to be dress'd, And, as his birth requir'd, above the rest.

With ease his suit was granted by his sire,
Distinguishing his heir by rich attire:
His body thus adorn'd, he next design'd
With liberal arts to cultivate his mind:
He sought a tutor of his own accord,
And studied lessons he before abhorr'd.
Thus the man-child advanc'd, and learn'd so
fast,

That in short time his equals he surpass'd:
His brutal manners from his breast exil'd,
His mien he fashion'd, and his tongue he fil'd;
every exercise of all admir'd,

In

He seem'd, nor only seem'd, but was inspir'd: Inspir'd by love, whose business is to please; He rode, he fenc'd, he mov'd with graceful