The Works of Alexander Pope Part 49

[Footnote 48: These verses were thus at first:

All nature mourns, the birds their songs deny, Nor wasted brooks the thirsty flow'rs supply; If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring, The brooks to murmur, and the birds to sing.--POPE.

Wakefield remarks that the last couplet of the original version, which is but slightly modified in the text, was closely imitated from Addison's Epilogue to the British Enchanters:

The desert smiles, the woods begin to grow, The birds to warble, and the springs to flow.]

[Footnote 49: Dryden, Ecl. vii. 76:

And lavish nature laughs.]

[Footnote 50: Pope had at first written,

If Sylvia smiles she brightens all the sh.o.r.e, The sun's outs.h.i.+ned, and nature charms no more.

This he submitted to Walsh. Pope. "Quaere, whether to say the sun is outs.h.i.+ned be too bold and hyperbolical?" Walsh. "For pastoral it is."

Pope. "If it should be softened with _seems_? Do you approve any of these alterations?

If Sylvia smile, she brightens all the sh.o.r.e, { All nature seems outs.h.i.+ned, and charms no more.

{ Light seems outs.h.i.+ned, and nature charms no more.

{ And vanquished nature seems to s.h.i.+ne no more.

Quaere, which of these three?" Walsh. "The last of these three I like best."]

[Footnote 51: Cowley, Davideis, iii. 553:

Hot as ripe noon, sweet as the blooming day, Like July furious, but more fair than May.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 52: An allusion to the royal oak, in which Charles II. had been hid from the pursuit after the battle of Worcester.--POPE.

This wretched pun on the word "bears" is called "dextrous" by Wakefield, but Warton says that it is "one of the most trifling and puerile conceits" in all Pope's works, and is only exceeded in badness by the riddle "which follows of the thistle and the lily."]

[Footnote 53: The contraction "I'll," which often occurs in these pastorals, is familiar and undignified.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 54: It was thus in the ma.n.u.script:

Nay, tell me first what region canst thou find In which by thistles lilies are outs.h.i.+ned?

If all thy skill can make the meaning known, The prize, the victor's prize, shall be thy own.--WAKEFIELD.

Pope submitted the first two lines to Walsh in conjunction with the version in the text. "Quaere, which of these couplets is better expressed, and better numbers? and whether it is better here to use _thistle_ or _thistles_, _lily_ or _lilies_, singular or plural? The epithet _more happy_ refers to something going before." Walsh. "The second couplet [the text] is best; and singular, I think better than plural."]

[Footnote 55: Alludes to the device of the Scots' monarchs, the thistle, worn by Queen Anne; and to the arms of France, the _fleur de lys_. The two riddles are in imitation of those in Virg. Ecl. iii. 106:

Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum Nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto.--POPE.

Thus translated by Dryden;

Nay, tell me first in what new region springs A flow'r that bears inscribed the names of kings; And thou shalt gain a present as divine As Phoebus' self, for Phyllis shall be thine.

Either the commentators on Virgil have not hit upon the true solution of his riddles, or they are not at all superior to the parody of Pope.]

[Footnote 56: This is from Virg. Ecl. iii. 109:

Et vitula tu dignus, et hic.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 57: Originally:

The turf with country dainties shall be spread, And trees with twining branches shade your head.--POPE.]

[Footnote 58: The Pleiades rose with the sun in April, and the poet ascribes the April showers to their influence.]

SUMMER:

THE SECOND PASTORAL,

OR

ALEXIS.[1]

TO DR. GARTH.[2]

A shepherd's boy (he seeks no better name)[3]

Led forth his flocks[4] along the silver Thame,[5]

Where dancing sun-beams on the waters played,[6]

And verdant alders formed a quiv'ring[7] shade;[8]

Soft as he mourned, the streams forgot to flow,[9] 5 The flocks around a dumb compa.s.sion show,[10]

The Naads wept in ev'ry wat'ry bow'r, And Jove consented in a silent show'r.[11]

Accept, O GARTH! the muse's early lays, That adds this wreath of ivy to thy bays;[12] 10 Hear what from love unpractised hearts endure, From love, the sole disease thou canst not cure.

Ye shady beeches, and ye cooling streams, Defence from Phoebus', not from Cupid's beams,[13]

To you I mourn; nor to the deaf I sing,[14] 15 "The woods shall answer, and their echo ring."[15]

The hills and rocks attend my doleful lay, Why art thou prouder and more hard than they?[16]

The bleating sheep with my complaints agree, They parched with heat, and I inflamed by thee.[17] 20 The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains,[18]

While in thy heart eternal winter reigns.[19]

Where stray ye, muses, in what lawn or grove,[20]

While your Alexis pines in hopeless love?

In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides, 25 Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?[21]

As in the crystal stream I view my face,[22]

Fresh rising blushes paint the wat'ry gla.s.s; But since those graces please thy eyes no more, I shun the fountains which I sought before. 30 Once I was skilled in ev'ry herb that grew, And ev'ry plant that drinks the morning dew;[23]

Ah wretched shepherd, what avails thy art, To cure thy lambs, but not to heal thy heart![24]

Let other swains attend the rural care, 35 Feed fairer flocks, or richer fleeces shear:[25]

But nigh yon' mountain[26] let me tune my lays, Embrace my love, and bind my brows with bays.[27]

That flute is mine which Colin's[28] tuneful breath Inspired when living, and bequeathed in death:[29] 40 He said; Alexis, take this pipe,[30] the same That taught the groves my Rosalinda's name:[31]

But now the reeds shall hang on yonder tree,[32]

For ever silent, since despised by thee.

Oh! were I made by some transforming pow'r 45 The captive bird that sings within thy bow'r![33]