And now his shadow reach'd her as she run, 195 200 Faint, breathless, thus she pray'd, nor pray'd in vain; "Ah Cynthia! ah-tho' banish'd from thy train, "Let me, O let me, to the shades repair, 66 205 210 My native shades-there weep, and murmur there." She said, and melting as in tears she lay, In a soft, silver stream dissolv'd away. The silver stream her virgin coldness keeps, For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps; Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore, And bathes the forest where she rang'd before. In her chaste current oft the Goddess laves, And with celestial tears augments the waves. Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies The headlong mountains and the downward skies. The wat❜ry landskip of the pendant woods, And absent trees that tremble in the floods; In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen, And floating forests paint the waves with green, Through the fair scene roll slow the ling'ring streams, Then foaming pour along, and rush into the Thames. Thou, too, great father of the British floods! With joyful pride survey'st our lofty woods; Ver. 207. Still bears the name] Ver. 211. Oft in her glass, &c.] writing of this poem.-P. Ver. 193. 196. NOTES. The river Lodon. 215 220 These six lines were added after the first IMITATIONS. "Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam Most of the circumstances in this tale are from Ovid. Where tow'ring oaks their growing honours rear, Not Neptune's self from all her streams receives No seas so rich, so gay no banks appear, Like the bright beauties on thy banks below; 225 230 Happy the man whom this bright Court approves, 235 His Sov'reign favours, and his country loves: Happy next him, who to these shades retires, Whom Nature charms, and whom the Muse inspires: Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet please, Successive study, exercise, and ease. 240 He gathers health from herbs the forest yields, And of their fragrant physic spoils the fields: And draws the aromatic souls of flow'rs: Now marks the course of rolling orbs on high; VARIATIONS. Ver. 233. It stood thus in the MS. And force great Jove, if Jove's a lover still, Ver. 235. Happy the man, who to these shades retires, 245 250 T'observe a mean, be to himself a friend, To follow nature, and regard his end; Or looks on heav'n with more than mortal eyes, 255 Ye sacred Nine! that all my soul possess, Whose raptures fire me, and whose visions bless, 260 Bear me, oh bear me to sequester'd scenes, The bow'ry mazes, and surrounding greens: To Thames's banks which fragrant breezes fill, Or where ye Muses sport on CoOPER'S HILL. (On COOPER'S HILL eternal wreaths shall grow While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow) I seem through consecrated walks to rove, I hear soft music die along the grove: Led by the sound, I roam from shade to shade, 265 270 NOTES. Ver. 251. T" observe a mean,] This is marked as an imitation of Lucretius in the first, and all editions of Warburton; but erroneously: the passage is in the second book of Lucan, v. 381.-Warton. The passage alluded to is: 66 Servare modum, finemque tenere, Ver. 263.] Denham, says Dr. Johnson, seems to have been, at least among us, the author of a species of composition that may be denominated Local Poetry, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental meditation. Cooper's Hill, if it be maliciously inspected, will not be found without its faults; the digressions are too long, the morality too frequent, and the sentiments such as will not bear a rigorous inquiry. It was first printed at Oxford, in 1633.-Warton. VARIATIONS. Ver. 267. It stood thus in the MS. Methinks around your holy scenes I rove, And hear your music echoing through the grove : By god-like Poets venerable made. Here his first lays majestic DENHAM sung; There the last numbers flow'd from COWLEY'S tongue. O early lost! what tears the river shed, When the sad pomp along his banks was led! And on his willows hung each Muse's lyre. 275 Since fate relentless stopp'd their heav'nly voice, No more the forests ring, or groves rejoice; Who now shall charm the shades, where CoWLEY strung His living harp, and lofty DENHAM sung? 280 But hark! the groves rejoice, the forest rings! 285 NOTES. Ver. 271. majestic Denham] Pope, by the expression of " majestic," has justly characterized the flow of Denham's couplets. It is extraordinary that Pope, who by this expression seems to have appreciated the general cast of harmony in Cooper's Hill, should have made his own cadences so regular and almost unvaried. Denham's couplets are often irregular, but the effect of the pauses in the following lines was obviously the result of a fine ear. The language truly suits the subject. But his proud head the airy mountain hides A shady mantle clothes; his curled brows Frown on the gentle stream, which calmly flows, Whilst winds and storms his lofty forehead beat!-Bowles. Ver. 272. There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley's tongue.] Mr. Cowley died at Chertsey, on the borders of the Forest, and was from thence conveyed to Westminster.-P. Disgusted with the business and bustle of the world, and the intrigues of courts, Cowley thought to have found an exemption of all cares in retiring to Chertsey. Dr. Johnson wrote a Rambler to ridicule his wish to retire to America, and has published a Letter, vol. i. of his Lives, p. 29, which he recommends to the perusal of all who pant for solitude. His house at Chertsey now belongs to Mr. Alderman Clarke.-Warton. Ver. 282.] The Mira of Granville was the Countess of Newburgh. Towards the end of her life Dr. King, of Oxford, wrote a very severe satire against her, in three books, 4to, called The Toast.-Warton. Ver. 275. VARIATIONS. What sighs, what murmurs, fill'd the vocal shore! Make Windsor-hills in lofty numbers rise, Here noble SURREY felt the sacred rage, 290 295 Oh would'st thou sing what heroes Windsor bore, What kings first breath'd upon her winding shore, 300 Or raise old warriors, whose ador'd remains In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains! NOTES. Ver. 291. Here noble Surrey] Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, one of the first refiners of the English poetry; who flourished in the time of Henry VIII.-P. Ver. 297. Fair Geraldine,] "The Fair Geraldine, (says Mr. Warton in his Hist. of English Poetry, vol. iii.) the general object of Lord Surrey's passionate sonnets, is commonly said to have lived at Florence, and to have been of the family of the Geraldi of that city. This is a misapprehension of an expression in one of our poet's odes, and a passage in Drayton's Heroic Epistles. She was, undoubtedly, one of the daughters of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare. In the History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 12, is a poem of the elegiac kind, in which he laments his imprisonment in Windsor Castle.Warton. Ver. 303. Edward's acts] Edward III. born here.-P. VARIATIONS. Ver. 290. her silver star.] All the lines that follow were not added to the poem till the year 1710. What immediately followed this, and made the conclusion, were these: My humble Muse in unambitious strains Paints the green forests and the flow'ry plains; First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains.-P. Ver. 300. What kings first breath'd, &c.] Not to recount those several kings, to whom It gave a cradle, and to whom a tomb."-Denham. |