Stretch'd o'er the Poor and Church his iron rod,75 80 Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart. NOTES. VER. 80. himfelf deny'd a grave!] The place of his interment at Caen in Normandy was claimed by a Gentleman as his inheritance, the moment his fervants were going to put him in his tomb fo that they were obliged to compound with the owner before they could perform the King's obfequies. VER. 81. fecond hope] Richard, fecond fon of William the Conqueror. IMITATIONS. VER. 89. Miraturque novas frondes et non fua poma. Virg. Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments blood, your And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood, 106. VER. 91. VARIATIONS. O may no more a foreign master's rage, With wrongs yet legal, curfe a future age! Still fpread, fair Liberty! thy heavenly wings, Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.P. VER. 97. a When yellow autumn fummer's heat fucceeds, And into wine the purple harvest bleeds 2, The partridge feeding in the new-fhorn fields, Both morning fports and ev'ning pleasures yields. Perhaps the Author thought it not allowable to defcribe the feafon by a circumstance not proper to our climate, the vintage. P. ΙΙΟ Some thoughtless Town, with ease and plenty bleft, VARIATIONS. VER. 107. It stood thus in the firft Editions: 115 The young, the old, one inftant makes our prize, IMITATIONS. VER. 115. Virg. 125 Beasts, urg'd by us, their fellow-beasts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.) With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves, When frosts have whiten'd all the naked groves; Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade, And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade. He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye; Strait a short thunder breaks the frozen sky: 130 Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath, The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death : Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare, They fall, and leave their little lives in air. In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade, Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead, The patient fisher takes his filent ftand, 137 Intent, his angle trembling in his hand : VARIATIONS. VER. 126. O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves. VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high. P. IMITATIONS. VER. 134. Præcipites alta vitam fub nube relinquunt, Virg. The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd, Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car : 151 And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain And ere he starts, a thousand steps are loft. 154 See the bold youth strain up the threat'ning steep, Rush thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep, Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed, And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed. IMITATIONS. VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius, 66 Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. Thefe lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his tranflation of Frefnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays, they would coft him an hour, if he had the leisure, to trans"late them, there is fo much of beauty in the original;" which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them. VER. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original, terræque urbefque recedunt. Virg. |