Plate V.

Vol. II. facing p.45 ·

Ant. Walker Inv.Del.et Sculp.

Millions of suppliant Crouds the Shrine attend, And all degrees before the Goddess bend!;~~ The Poor, the Rich, the Valiant, and the Sage, And boasting Youth, and narrative Old-age.

Temple of Fame.

IN

Call forth the greens, and wake the rifing flow'rs; When op'ning buds falute the welcome day, And earth relenting feels the genial ray; As balmy fleep had charm'd my cares to rest, And love itself was banish'd from my breast, (What time the morn mysterious vifions brings, While purer flumbers spread their golden wings) A train of phantoms in wild order rose, And join'd, this intellectual scene compose.

NOTES.

ΤΟ

VER.1. In that foft feafon, etc.] This Poem is introduced in the manner of the Provencial Poets, whofe works were for the most part Vifions, or pieces of imagination, and conftantly defcriptive. From thefe, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower and the Leaf, etc. of the latter. The Author of this therefore chose the fame fort of Exordium. P.

I ftood, methought, betwixt earth, feas, and fkies; The whole creation open to my eyes:

In air self-balanc'd hung the globe below,
Where mountains rife and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks, and empty waftes were feen,
There tow'ry cities, and the forefts green :
Here failing fhips delight the wand'ring eyes:
There trees, and intermingled temples rife ;
Now a clear fun the fhining scene difplays,
The tranfient landscape now in clouds decays.
O'er the wide Profpect as I gaz'd around,
Sudden I heard a wild promifcuous found,
Like broken thunders that at diftance roar,
Or billows murm'ring on the hollow shore :
Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,

Whose tow'ring fummit ambient clouds conceal'd.
High on a rock of Ice the structure lay,

Steep its afcent, and flipp'ry was the way;

IMITATIONS.

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VER. II. etc.] Thefe verfes are hinted from the follow

ing of Chaucer, Book ii.

Tho beheld I fields and plains,
Now hills, and now mountains,
Now valeis, and now forestes,
And now unneth great bestes,
Now rivers, now citees,

Now towns, now great trees,

Now fhippes fayling in the fee. P.

VER. 27. High on a rock of Ice etc.] Chaucer's third book of Fame.

It stood upon fo high a rock,
Higher standeth none in Spayne-

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The wond'rous rock like Parian marble fhone,
And feem'd, to diftant fight, of solid stone.
Infcriptions here of various Names I view'd,
The greater part by hoftile time fubdu'd;
Yet wide was fpread their fame in ages past,
And Poets once had promis'd they should last.
Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of Wits renown'd; 35
I look'd again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I faw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place:
Their own, like others, foon their place refign'd,
Or disappear'd, and left the firft behind.

IMITATION S.

What manner ftone this rock was,
For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it fhone full more clere ;
But of what congeled matere
It was, I nifte redily;

But at the laft efpied I,

And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ife, and not of stele.
VER. 31. Infcriptions here etc.]

Tho faw I all the hill y-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had been in much wele
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know,
Any letters for to rede
Ther names by, for out of drede
They weren almoft off-thawen fo,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So unfamous was woxe her fame;
But men faid, what may ever laft? P.

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