Few eyes fall'n light adore: yet fame fhall keep Her name alive, when others filent sleep; While men have ears to hear, eyes to look back, and weep.

XXXIII.

And tho' the curs (which whelpt and nurs'd in Spain,
Learn of fell Geryon & to fnarl and brawl)

Have vow'd and ftrove her virgin tomb to ftain;
And grin, and foam, and rage, and yelp, and bawl:
Yet fhall our Cynthia's high triumphing light
Deride their howling throats, and toothlefs fpite;
And fail thro' heav'n, whilft they fink down in endless night.
XXXIV.

So is this ISLAND's lower region:

Yet, ah! much better is it fure than fo.

But my poor reeds, like my condition,
(Low is the fhepherd's ftate, my song as low)

Mar what they make :-but now in yonder shade
Reft we, while funs have longer fhadows made:
See how, our panting flocks run to the cooler glade.

• In heathen mythology, a fabulous giant with three heads.

CANTO IV.

TH

I.

HE fhepherds in the fhade their hunger feafted,
With fimple cates, fuch as the country yields;
And while from fcorching beams fecure they rested,
The nymphs, difpers'd along the woody fields,

Pull'd from their stalks the blushing ftrawberries,
Which lurk clofe fhrouded from high looking eyes;
Shewing that fweetness, oft both low, and hidden lies.
II.

But when the day had his meridian run

Between his highest throne and low declining;

Thirfil again his wonted task begun,

Th' attentive audience his fides entwining.

The middle province next this lower ftands,

Where th' ISLE's heart-city spreads his large commands, Leagu'd to the neighbour towns with fure and friendly bands.

III.

Such as that ftar, which fets his glorious chair

In midft of heaven, and to dead darknefs, here
Gives light, and life; fuch is this city fair:
Their ends, place, office, state, so very near,

That those wife ancients, from their nature's fight,
And likeness, turn'd their names, and call'd aright

The fun the great world's heart, the heart the lefs world's

light.

IV.

This middle coaft, to all the ISLE extends
All heat, and life: hence it another guard
(Befide these common to the first) defends;
Built whole of maffy ftone, cold, dry, and hard:
Which ftretching round about his circling arms,
Warrants these parts from all external harms;
Repelling angry force, fecuring all alarms.

b

V.

But in the front two fair twin-bulwarks rife ;
In th' Arren built for ftrength and ornament;
In Thelu of more use, and larger size;

For hence the young ISLE draws its nourishment:
Here lurking Cupid hides his bended bow;

Here milky fprings in fweeten'd rivers flow;
Which first

с

gave th' INFANT ISLE to be, and then to grow.

VI.

For when the leffer ISLAND (ftill increasing
In Venus' temple) to fome greatness grows,
Now larger rooms, and wider spaces feizing,
It stops the Hepar rivers;-backward flows

The ftream, and to thefe hills bears up his flight,
And in these founts (by some strange hidden might)

Dyes his fair rofy waves into a lily white.

The heart is the feat of heat and life; therefore walled about with the ribs, for more safety.

The breafts, or paps, are given to men for ftrength and ornament; to women for milk.

• When the infant grows large, the blood veffels are fo oppreffed, that partly through the readiness of the passage, but especially by the providence of God, the blood turns back to the breaft, and there by a wonderful faculty is turned into milk.

n

Here firft the purple fountain making vent,

By thousand rivers thro' the ISLE is fent, d Gives every part fit growth, and daily nourishment.

In this fair town the ISLE's great fteward dwells; ...

His porphry house glitters in purple dye;
In purple clad himfelf: from hence he deals
His ftore, to all the ISLE'S neceffity:
And tho' the rent he daily, duly pay,
Yet doth his flowing fubftance ne'er decay; od
All day he rent receives, returns it all the day.

IX.

And like that golden ftar, which cuts his way
Through Saturn's ice, and Mars his fiery ball ;
Temp'ring their ftrife with his more kindly ray:
So 'twixt the Splenion's froft, and th' angry gall,
The jovial Hepar fits; with great expence

Cheering the ISLE by his fweet influence;
So flakes their envious rage, and endless difference.

X.

Within, fome fay, Plove hath his habitation,
Not Cupid's felf, but Cupid's better brother:
For Cupid's felf dwells with a lower nation,
But this, more fure, much chafter than the ot
By whose command, we either love our ki
Or with most perfect love, affect the mind;
With fuch a diamond knot, he often fouls can bi

From it rife all the springs of

The fteward of the whole ! brought in) is here fitted and d

Here Plato difpofes th

that runs in the ve.

efitly placed, be:

hence returned