The mist of error from his eyes dispelled,

Through all her fraudful arts, in clearest light, Sloth in her native form he now beheld:

Unveiled she stood confessed before his sight; False siren! All her vaunted charms, that shone So fresh erewhile and fair, now withered, pale, and gone.

XXV.

No more the rosy bloom in sweet disguise

Masks her dissembled looks: each borrowed grace Leaves her wan cheek; pale sickness clouds her eyes, Livid and sunk, and passions dim her face. As when fair Iris has awhile displayed

Her watery arch, with gaudy painture gay; While yet we gaze, the glorious colours fade, And from our wonder gently steal away : Where shone the beauteous phantom, erst so bright, Now lowers the low-hung cloud, all gloomy to the sight.

XXVI.

But Virtue, more engaging, all the while

Disclosed new charms; more lovely, more serene; Beaming sweet influence: a milder smile

Softened the terrors of her lofty mien.

"Lead, goddess, I am thine! (transported cried

66

Alcides,) "O propitious power, thy way

Teach me; possess my soul; be thou my guide:
From thee, O never, never let me stray !"
While ardent thus the youth his vows addressed,
With all the goddess filled, already glowed his breast.

XXVII.

The heavenly maid with strength divine endued
His daring soul, there all her powers combined;

Firm constancy, undaunted fortitude,

Enduring patience, armed his mighty mind.

Unmoved in toils, in dangers undismayed,

By many a hardy deed and bold emprise, From fiercest monsters, through her powerful aid, He freed the earth; through her he gained the skies. 'Twas Virtue placed him in the blest abode,

Crowned with eternal youth, among the gods a god!

PROLOGUE TO VENICE PRESERVED,

ACTED BY THE YOUNG GENTLEMEN OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE, IN 1755.

[Communicated by Dr. Warton to the Hampshire Repository, in 1799, and there said to have been first published in the Oxford Student, about forty years before.]

As some clean housewife's hospitable care

Serves to her guests good wholesome country fare,

Such as her own domestic stores afford;

With willing hand she spreads the homely board,
Where neatness and simplicity impart

A taste unknown to luxury and art:

Such is our aim to-night; by means like these
'Tis our ambition's humble care to please;
Το pomp and show we make no vain pretence,
We feast you here, with nature, and with sense;
With Otway's scenes: with early genius blest,
Here' first the muse the tender bard possessed;
And here, where first the powerful impulse came,
He learned to guide the heaven-descended flame.
Yet easy still, nor o'er-refined by art,
He speaks the native language of the heart.

Otway was a scholar of Winchester College.

Attend! these scenes your just regard demand;
See treason's sons, a dire infernal band,
Loose to the sacred ties of human kind,
In dark society of guilt combined!
Whom lawless lust of power, and brutal rage,
And black revenge, in horrid league engage,
T' invade their peaceful country's sacred rest,
To plunge their ruthless daggers in her breast,
To whelm in ruin the Venetian state,-
Attend! and tremble for Britannia's fate.

AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM'.

[The authorship of this ode has been claimed for Dr. Johnson, by Messrs. Bindley and Malone; though the Editor of the new edition of Boswell (vol. i. p. 134.) allows the prior title of Louth. The idea is evidently borrowed from the 2nd Elegy of the 1st book of Propertius.]

VANE sit arti, sit studio modus,
Formosa virgo, sit speculo quies;
Curamque quærendi decoris
Mitte, supervacuosque cultus.

Ut fortuitis verna coloribus

Distincta vulgo rura magis placent,
Nec invident horto nitenti

Divitias operosiores:

Blandoque fons cum murmure pulchrius
Obliquat ultro præcipitem fugam, et

Inter reluctantes lapillos

Ducit aquas temerè sequentes:

1 Miss Molyneux, of Winchester.

Ut fontium inter murmura et arborum,
Lenes susurros dulce sonant aves;
Et arte nullâ, gratiores

Ingeminant sine lege cantus:

Nativa sic te gratia, te nitor

Simplex decebit, te veneres tuæ :
Nudus Cupido suspicatur
Artifices nimis apparatus.

Ergo fluentem tu, malè sedula,
Ne sæva inuras semper acu comam;
Neu sparsa odorato nitentes
Pulvere dedecores capillos;

Quales nec olim vel Ptolemæia
Jactavit uxor; sidereo in choro
Utcunque devotæ refulgent
Verticis exuviæ decori;

Nec diva mater', cùm similem tuæ
Mentita formam, et pulchrior aspici
Permisit incomptas protervis
Fusa comas agitare ventis 2.

1 Vide Æn. I. 322, &c.

2 AD AUTHOREM CARMINIS "AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM." MYON, A PHYSICIAN, OF PULHAM, IN NORFOLK.

[From the Gentleman's Magazine for 1744.]

O cui non potuit, quia culta, placere puella,
Qui speras Musam posse placere tuam?

Translated by the Editor.

"If art in beauty so offends thy sight,

Thy muse, methinks, must yield thee small delight."

BY DR.

489

TO A YOUNG LADY, CURLING HER HAIR.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ABOVE ODE, BY THE REV. JOHN DUNCOMBE, AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.

[From Dodsley's Annual Register for 1771.]

No longer seek the needless aid

Of studious art, dear lovely maid!
Vainly from side to side forbear

To shift thy glass, and braid each straggling hair.

As the gay flowers, which nature yields
So various on the vernal fields,

Delight the fancy more than those
The garden gives to view in equal rows;

As the pure stream, whose mazy train
The prattling pebbles check in vain,
Gives native pleasure, while it leads
Its random waters swiftly through the meads;

As birds on boughs, in early spring,
Their woodnotes wild near rivers sing,
Grateful their warbling strains repeat,
And soothe the ear irregularly sweet:

So simple dress, and native grace,
Will best become thy lovely face;
For naked Cupid still suspects,
In artful ornaments, concealed defects.

Then cease with crisping tongs to tear
And torture thus thy flowing hair;
O cease, with tasteless toil, to shed
A cloud of scented dust around thy head.