Part 42

But if Alexis from our mountains fly, Ev'n running rivers leave their channels dry.

And ver. 81:

But, if returning Phyllis bless the plain, The grass revives, the woods are green again.

In Pope's next version, the four lines "While you, &c.," ran as follows:

Winds, where you walk, shall gently fan the glade,

Or,

Where'er you walk fresh gales shall fan the glade, Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade, Flow'rs where you tread in painted pride shall rise,

Or,

Where'er you tread the purple flow'rs shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes!

Walsh preferred the second form of the passage to the original draught; and of the variations in the second form he preferred the lines beginning "Where'er you walk," and "Where'er you tread."]

hic ipso tecum consumerer ævo.--WAKEFIELD.]

Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n shall bear, And list'ning wolves grow milder as they hear.

So the verses were originally written. But the author, young as he was, soon found the absurdity which Spenser himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England.--POPE.

There was no absurdity upon the principle of Pope, that the scene of pastorals was to be laid in the golden age, which could not be supposed to be subsequent to the reign of Edward I. when wolves still existed in this island. They lingered in Scotland in the reign of Charles II., and in Ireland in the reign of Queen Anne.]

Partem aliquam, venti, Divum referatis ad aures.--POPE.]

Such magic music dwells within your name, The voice of Orpheus no such pow'r could claim; Had you then lived, when he the forests drew, The trees and Orpheus both had followed you.]

Where Orpheus on his lyre laments his love, With beasts encompassed, and a dancing grove.--WAKEFIELD.]

de rupe pependit Abscissa fixus torrens; amnisque cucurrit Non qua pronus erat.

Streams have run back at murmurs of her tongue, And torrents from the rock suspended hung. Rowe.--STEEVENS.

"The line And headlong streams," says Ruffhead, "surely presents a new image and a bold one too." Bold indeed! Pope has carried the idea into extravagance when he makes the stream not only "listening," but "hang listening in its headlong fall." An idea of this sort will only bear just touching; the mind then does not perceive its violence; if it be brought before the eyes too minutely, it becomes almost ridiculous.--BOWLES.]

But see the southing sun displays his beams, See Tityrus leads his herd to silver streams.]

Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adsit amori?--POPE.

He had Dryden's translation of the passage in Virgil before him:

Cool breezes now the raging heats remove: Ah, cruel heav'n, that made no cure for love.--WAKEFIELD.]

Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay.--POPE.]

AUTUMN:

THE THIRD PASTORAL,

HYLAS AND ÆGON.