How dare I then forsake my well-set bounds, Whose new-cut pipe as yet but harshly sounds; A narrow compass best my ungrown Muse empounds. V. Two shepherds most I love, with just adoring, That Mantuan swain, who chang'd his slender reed, To trumpet's martial voice, and war's loud roaring, From Corydon to Turnus' daring deed; And next our home-bred Colin, sweetest firing : Then you my peers, whose quiet expectation Our daily guests and natives, yet unknown; Our servants born, but now commanders grown; Our friends, and enemies; aliens, yet still our own. VII. Not like those heroes, who in better times This happy Island first inhabited In joy and peace ;-when no rebellious crimes, That godlike nation yet dispeopled: Those claim'd their birth from that eternal Light Held th' Isle, and rul'd it in their Father's right; And in their faces shone their parent's image bright. VILI. For when this Isle that main would fond forsake, In which at first it found a happy place, Back to their father fled this heav'nly race, And left the Isle forlorn and desolate ; That now with fear, and wishes all too late, How shall a worm, on dust that crawls and feeds, What here on Earth, in air, or Heav'n do dwell: Such never eye yet saw, such never tongue can tell. X. Soon as these saints the treach'rous Isle forsook, All to this rabble yield the sov'reignty: The goodly temples which those heroes plac'd, And all their fences strong, and all their bulwarks raz'd. So where the neatest badger most abides; Deep in the earth she frames her pretty cell, But when the crafty fox with loathsome smell But when those graces (at their Father's throne) How th' Earth much wax'd in ill, much wan'd in good; So full-ripe vice; how blasted virtue's bud : Forth stepp'd the just * Dicæa, full of rage; Soon as her voice, but Father' only, spake, The faultless Heav'ns, like leaves in autumn, shake; And all that glorious throng with horrid palsies quake! XIV. Heard you not +late, with what loud trumpets' sound, Her breath awak'd her Father's sleeping ire? The heav'nly armies flam'd, Earth shook, Heav'n frown'd, Hark! how the pow'rful words strike through the ear; And shakes the trembling soul with fright and shudd'ring fear. XV. So have I seen the earth, strong winds detaining And frighted world, fears Hell, breaks out upon the day. * According to heathen mythology, the daughter of Jupiter, the maiden goddess of justice and judgment. + See the poem called Christ's Victory, &c. part I. stanza 18. XVI. But see, how 'twixt her sister and her sire, Pleading for grace, and chains of death unloosing: So when the day, wrapp'd in a cloudy night, And fair his flaming beauties now unsteeps; Ah, fairest maid! best essence of thy Father, Equal unto thy never equall'd sire; When thy sweet eyes sparkle in cheerful light, Who then those sugared strains can understand, That unawares it dropt in melting tears ? Then thou dear #swain, thy heav'nly load unfraught; For she herself hath thee her speeches taught, So near her Heav'n they be, so far from human thought. * The author of Christ's Victory, &c. XX. But let my lighter skiff return again But sing that civil strife and home dissension "Twixt two strong factions with like fierce contention, Where never peace is heard, nor ever peace is mention. XXI. For that foul rout, which from the Stygian brook, Claim hence full conquest, and possession's right : The ashes of that first heroic crew,*, From their forefathers claim their right, and Island's due. In their fair looks their parents' grace appears, Yet their renowned sires were much more glorious; For what decays not with decaying years ? All night, and all the day, with toil laborious, (In loss and conquest angry) fresh they fight : While th' Isle is doubly rent with endless war and fright. As when the Britain and the Iberian fleet, The shore resounds with diverse acclamation; Till now at length Spain's fiery Dons 'gin shrink : Down with their ships, hope, life, and courage sink: Courage, life, hope, and ships, the gaping surges drink. * See the viith stanza of this canto. 1 |